Clinton on Barak's generous offer

[Classical_Liberal]

One of the urban legends that have gained wide currency over the last few years is that the Syrians and Palestinians rebuffed Barak’s ‘generous’ peace overtures. Not according to Bill Clinton’s new book, ‘My Life’. His thousand-page diary, a day by day account of his two terms in office, sheds new light on how Barak and Netenyahu both deliberately sabotaged the peace process. On the Syrian front, Clinton’s book leaves the reader with no doubt that it was the Israelis who derailed the negotiations in Shepherdstown. The ex-president’s account is scattered all over his book. What follows is Clinton’s own version of how Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak aborted the peace negotiations with the Syrians.

Clinton’s first visit with President Assad of Syria in Geneva (January, 1994):

I was impressed by his intelligence and his almost total recall of detailed events going back more than twenty years. Our discussion produced the two things I wanted: Assad’s first explicit statement that he was willing to make peace and establish normal relations with Israel, and his commitment to withdraw all Syrian forces from Lebanon and respect its independence once a comprehensive Middle East was reached.

I knew the success of the meeting resulted from more than personal chemistry. Assad has received a lot of economic support from the Soviet Union: that was gone now, so he needed to reach out to the West. (My Life, page 574-575)

Clinton’s next meeting with Assad (October, 1994)

The next morning I flew to Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, to see President Assad. I wanted Assad to know that I was committed to a Syrian-Israeli peace based on UN Resolutions 242 and 338, and that, if an agreement was reached, I would work hard to improve relations with his country. My meeting with Assad produced no big breakthrough, but he did give me some encouraging hints about how we might move forward. (My Life, Page 626)......

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/8181/

[Joy Anne]

1. Thanks

All of these moves put together in one place in chronological order is fascinating. At the time, I suspected this was how things were going, but I had no way of knowing.

Bush's intermittent threats to push on into Syria look sorrier than ever in this light.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Thank you, as well. I'm bookmarking this

I was already aware that Barak walked away from Clinton's valiant effort to broker peace between Barak and Arafat at Camp David, but this was new to me.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Crickets. An owl hoots.

The silence in this thread is deafening.

[number6]

4. chirp chirp

:think:

[bemildred]

8. Fribbet, fribbet ...

[newyorican]

5. For reference....

Arafat made historic error at Camp David - Clinton

[Matilda]

6. I wasn't aware of the influence of the neo-cons on Israel at this time.

It's interesting - was there perhaps the promise of a better deal
if the Israelis could just wait until 2000?

This is how Nixon and Kissinger sabotaged the Paris peace talks with
Vietnam in 1968 - by secretly promising a better deal once Nixon reached the White House. If Johnson had been able to make peace in 1968, he would almost certainly have been re-elected instead of having to retire. In the end, after four more years of death and
disaster in Vietnam, Nixon was forced to make peace on the same
terms that had been offered by Johnson in 1968.

We might hope that Israel will find itself in the same position as
world opinion slowly changes in favour of the Palestinian cause.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Excuse me

LBJ did not run for re-election in 1968. He bowed out in order to pursue peace talks.

However, better progress in negotiations might have helped the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey.

The idea that Nixon would have given the North Vietnamese a better deal is incredulous in any case. The deal Nixon finally reached after four wasted years in office is one he could have gotten the day he took office.

[Gimel]

9. That's for Syria

There is other intelligence on the Syrian situation. Now back to the Camp David discussion, which is another matter entirely, and related on topic for I/P....

[Violet_Crumble]

10. What? We can't talk about Syria now??

This thread is entirely on topic, and unless I'm mistaken, talking about negotiations between Syria and Israel do belong in this forum...

Violet...