Grief And Glee Over Collapse

If the two sides at the Camp David peace talks were too far apart to cut a deal, divisions in the Middle East are even greater: Opinions there varied on whether the failure of the talks was a tragedy or a triumph.

Hundreds of Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza City calling for a violent uprising against Israel following the collapse of the peace talks, chanting "Yes to a new Intifada."
The Intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, raged throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip for seven years, fizzling out in 1993 when PLO President Yasser Arafat signed interim peace accords with Israel.

"The solution now is that Mr. Arafat and the negotiators declare the failure and futility of the entire peace process and return to the path of resistance and jihad (holy struggle)," said senior Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi.

There was also glee on the Israeli right, where some of the politicians who had broken with Barak over his decision to attend the summit applauded its failed ending.

A deal "would have been a disaster for the country," said Shaul Yahalom of the National Religious Party, one of three parties that deserted Barak's coalition on the eve of the summit, leaving him without a majority in parliament.

"It would have divided Jerusalem, would have let in refugees, would have dismantled dozens of settlements," Yahalom said. "We welcome what happened."

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a rare news conference broadcast live in prime time on both Israeli TV channels, said he wanted to prevent a "ripping apart" of Israeli society "that could happen in the next few days."

"What we hear from most of the reports out of Camp David does not answer our hopes," Netanyahu said, demanding that Barak reject any deal that would call for sharing sovereignty over Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

Even moderate Israelis and Palestinians disagreed sharply over what the deal-breaker was at Camp David.

"The Palestinians did not bend in their positions," said Gadi Baltiansky, a spokesman for Barak. "They maintained their extreme, unreasonable positions on our most basic, national issues," he said, including Jerusalem.

Hanan Ashrawi, a frequent Palestinian spokeswoman, accused the Israelis of "attempting to browbeat the Palestinians."

Other voices could only offer the two leaders simple advice: keep trying.

The Israeli Ha'aretz daily newspaper said in an editorial, "Hopefully, dark predictions of a fire-storm in the territories won't come true…Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat should use their public rhetoric to calm the storm."

On the streets of Jerusalem, Tzvi Lewis, a policeman who won a bet when the talks failed, and blamed Arafat, said, "I'm afraid there's going to be a big bang. They might start attacking buses again, attacks on the streets."

Indeed, Palestinians in the walled Old City, which sits at the very heart of the Mideast conflict with its potent symbols and holy shrines, predicted trouble ahead.

Souvenir shop owner Rani Yagmoor, 31, agreed. "I think there's going to be a war, and this time it's for real," he said. "Now there are guns, and not just kids with stones. Both sides will lose."

But there were glimmers of optimism. Sonia Rozen-Weiner called the current situation "very bad," but added: "Always we have to think that tomorrow is another day. We're a young country and we will go on hoping for peace."

President Clinton's presidency, however, is not young, and the failure of the talks hurts his efforts to shape a distinguished legacy.

While Mr. Clinton can chalk up successes as a peacemaker in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, he has made less progress or suffered failures in Africa and the Middle East.