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Sunday Morning News

Middle East Peace Talks at Camp David Come at Time of Political Unrest in Israel

Aired July 9, 2000 - 9:13 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Also going on internationally, this week's peace talks at Camp David come at a time of political unrest in Israel. One day before Prime Minister Ehud Barak departs for the summit, his political coalition is in trouble at home.

More now from CNN's Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, trouble, that's an understatement. You can bet your bottom dollar that there'll be political turmoil in Israel when there's a dramatic moment, and that's exactly what's happening now on the eve of this -- what's being called a make-or-break peace summit at Camp David, where Ehud Barak, Israel's prime minister, is set to meet with Yasser Arafat under the auspices of President Clinton, are beginning on Tuesday.

But just less than 24 hours before Mr. Barak has (UNINTELLIGIBLE), he met with his cabinet this morning in Jerusalem, told them the talks will be fateful, they will be difficult. No guarantee of success, he said. He was mindful of the fact of the dangers if there would not be a deal, but he said he was determined to go and get a deal and bring it back to the Israeli people for their approval.

But at this time, his coalition is literally falling apart around Mr. Barak. The Shas, ultrareligious party, Mr. Barak has been assiduously courting them over the last few weeks to give them what they want on domestic issues, religious schools, draft for religious soldiers, and so forth, in the hope that they would underwrite his peace strategy at Camp David. But now the Shas religious party is set to resign and to walk out of his coalition, taking their 17 key seats out of that coalition.

And this is just the beginning, the end of a chain reaction you can see of a number of parties quitting Mr. Barak's coalition. And Nathan Sharansky of the Russian immigrants' party left this morning. The national religious party is set to leave, and perhaps also, very seriously for Mr. Barak, his own foreign minister, David Levy, is -- has announced that he will not attend the peace summit together with Mr. Barak.

The prime minister a few moments ago, we spoke to his office, he said -- they offer us a statement from Mr. Barak's office said, despite these defections, he will travel to Camp David to try to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians. He is determined to go, but he is facing a very, very difficult domestic political situation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jerrold Kessel live in Jerusalem, thank you.

What effect will that Israeli political turmoil at home have on the Mideast peace talks is set to open Tuesday at Camp David?

CNN's Kelly Wallace has the latest from the White House. Kelly, is there any follow (ph) at the White House right now from the turmoil going on in Jerusalem?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, no doubt White House officials have to be concerned about what is going on back home in Israel for Prime Minister Barak.

But we talked to one White House official who said that Prime Minister Barak knew that his interior minister and others in his coalition government could resign when he accepted President Clinton's invitation to attend the Camp David summit, this official saying the administration still believes that these developments will not alter Mr. Barak's determination to pursue a peace agreement, and that is why he is coming to Camp David, according to this official.

What this all does show is how difficult, though, these issues are, and how fragile this peace process is. The administration, when they announced this summit, said it had concluded that the negotiations had come to an impasse, and that the only way to move the process forward between the Israelis and the Palestinians was to bring the two leaders together.

But Mr. Clinton himself told us last week, and he reiterated in an op-ed in "Newsweek" magazine, that there is no guarantee of success, there are no easy answers, no painless ones. Of course, it's going to be up to the two leaders themselves to make these difficult decisions -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kelly, you mention Ehud Barak is excited and getting prepared for this. What (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Yasser Arafat? What's the sense there? Is he a little less excited?

WALLACE: Well, the read-out we had been getting from the Palestinians is that they were reluctant to attend any three-way summit until the -- more differences were narrowed between the two sides. They wanted to see more progress between the negotiators before bringing the leaders together.

But the White House telling us that Chairman Arafat basically felt that if President Clinton felt the time was right to bring the parties together, he certainly was going to accept the president's invitation, and so of course he will be coming to the summit.

But the Israelis seem to be the ones who wanted this more. The Palestinians felt there should be more progress on these key issues before the three leaders came together -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And we'll be following more on that. Kelly Wallace, live from the White House, thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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