Despite failure, talk of sharing Jerusalem breaks new ground

By Laura King

THURMONT, Maryland (AP): It always begins -- and ends -- with Jerusalem. The centuries-old quarrel over the ancient city scuttled an audacious, ambitious U.S. peace effort in the mountains of Maryland.

But despite recriminations and anger in the wake of the failed Camp David talks, the negotiations could presage a new era in Mideast peacemaking: one in which Israelis and Palestinians talk openly for the first time about ways of sharing the city they both claim as a capital.

Just by engaging in the discussions they did, the two sides shattered some longstanding taboos -- and helped set what could be a new tone for future discourse on their bitterest dispute.

Even before the talks ended Tuesday without an accord, participants acknowledged that Jerusalem was the most difficult of the summit's so-called "core issues" -- even more so than emotionally loaded topics such as the fate of several million Palestinian refugees, or how the boundaries of a future Palestinian state should be drawn.

When it comes to Jerusalem, the two sides have a long, long tradition of not actually talking to each other. Instead, they talked past one another.

The Israelis insist that Jerusalem will never be divided. The Palestinians reply that it will be the capital of their sovereign state.

Irreconcilable differences? Perhaps.

At Camp David, though, the two sides explored a radical notion, one being aired for the first time in an official forum: that the city both want so badly could somehow be shared.

"They were really coming to grips with things they had never come to grips with before," President Bill Clinton said in a somber post-mortem on the peace talks. "This is agonizing for them, both of them. And unless you have lived there and lived with them and talked to them or lived with this problem a long time, it is hard to appreciate it."

Sometimes, it takes political rhetoric a while to catch up with on-the-ground realities. Jerusalem is already a highly segregated city, with Palestinians rarely venturing into Jewish neighborhoods, and vice versa.

The point where the two peoples overlap is also the prime point of contention -- the crowded confines of the walled Old City, home to sites sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews.

During the summit, the Vatican renewed a longstanding proposal that the Old City's holy sites come under international stewardship to ensure full religious access for all. Christian leaders in Jerusalem, meanwhile, called for Palestinian sovereignty with a pact that all worshipers could have free access to holy sites.

As Arafat and Barak headed head home to their respective publics, neither leader said much about just what kind of a deal he might have been willing to make on Jerusalem. But it was clear that the notion of a shared city had been on the table at Camp David.

"We have considered some ideas ... to make Jerusalem wider and stronger," Barak told reporters afterward in the nearby Maryland city of Frederick. He spoke of the prospect of Israel annexing some large Jewish settlements in the West Bank that lie close to the city, and giving the Palestinians sovereignty over some predominantly Arab areas in exchange.

The Israeli leader hastened to add that the summit's collapse rendered those ideas null and void -- but still, they opened a door.

Unlike Barak, Arafat left town without making any public statement. But Hassan Abdel Rahman, the Washington envoy of Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization and a frequent spokesman during the summit, said Jerusalem was the cause of the collapse. "It was at the top of the list," he said.

Palestinian sources said the talks' breaking point came when Israel balked at the idea Palestinian sovereignty over the Old City, offering them only control of Arab neighborhoods elsewhere, coupled with a guarantee of access to the Old City's Al Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Arafat was infuriated by this, the sources said, and it was clear that the talks could go no farther.

Significantly, the Palestinian leader wasn't heading straight home. He was stopping en route to confer with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who throughout the summit has been conducting talks with Arab leaders on Jerusalem.

Arafat may make whatever deal he chooses about the borders of his future state, but Jerusalem's status is another matter entirely. Arab leaders have made it clear they consider it a pan- Arab issue, and Arafat must answer to them and other Muslims as well as his own people.