Word: summited
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Handshakes, public and private, carried more symbolism than usual during the 36-hour Middle East summit at the White House last week. Each of the leaders taking part in the meeting and most of the millions watching it held in their mind an image of that awe-inspiring 1993 handshake on the South Lawn. Now, however, Yasser Arafat was face to face with Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of a very different Israeli government, and most onlookers hoped the magic of a handshake might cast another spell. In the closing moments outside the White House on Wednesday, Netanyahu grasped Arafat...
...summit on short notice. But the peace process was threatened by the worst fighting between Palestinians and Israelis in 30 years. Something had to be done immediately. As a State Department official put it, "We're not talking voluntary checkup here. We're talking emergency-room procedure." Stanching the bleeding proved to be perhaps no better than first aid. In public the principals mustered a modest bonhomie to mute the disappointment. But TIME's look behind the closed-door negotiations, from Jerusalem to Cairo to Washington, found that under the smiles and civility lies the old intransigence...
...first the summit was to be held in Cairo. But Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to be host unless Netanyahu agreed in advance to some substantive concessions, which he did not. Since speed was essential, Clinton accepted Secretary of State Warren Christopher's suggestion that the U.S. President convene the summit in Washington. The invitations went out. But Arafat delayed his response as long as he could, hoping for some sign of concessions from Netanyahu...
...much of Monday, Sept. 30, in the grand salon of Mubarak's summer residence near Alexandria. He said he felt he could go to Washington only if Mubarak joined him there. But Mubarak did not believe Netanyahu would agree to any concessions, and he declined an invitation to the summit. Mubarak, aides indicated, was no longer willing to take domestic political risks for a peace process stalled by Israel. But the Egyptian President insisted that Arafat go anyway. "Mubarak spent three hours convincing him he should," says an Egyptian official. "Mubarak told him, 'You have a cause to fight...
Netanyahu for his part had readily agreed to the summit--but not to concessions. He made it clear to reporters on his plane on the way over that he assumed Clinton would press hard for concessions. Presumably those would start with closing the archaeological tunnel that had touched off the violence and follow with a firm date for redeploying Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, a step already six months overdue. He was more than ready to resist...