Barak was willing to pay monetary tribute to "Palestine" indefinitely as reparations for Israel's crimes. And he was willing to turn over slices of pre-1967 Israel to the PLO as well, as "compensation" for the small slabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip Israel would retain, as if the full ownership of these were some sort of acknowledged PLO entitlement.

But most incredibly, Barak was willing to grant the PLO East Jerusalem. In the last election, the Labor Party had not only denounced the Right for its slogans claiming Barak would divide Jerusalem, but actually demanded daily throughout the campaign that anyone claiming such an absurd thing be indicted for "incitement," the catch-all crime Labor McCarthyists use to suppress free speech in Israel. But here was Barak not only proposing to do just that, but proudly patting his own back as a great statesman for doing so.

The Israeli Left has been repeating with its usual braindead monotony the refrain, echoed in the Left-controlled media, that "sharing" Jerusalem will bring peace and not sharing it will bring war. Barak proposed that Jerusalem be two cities, sort of an inverse of the fusion of Buda with Pesht or of Minneapolis with St. Paul. The Western Israeli enclave would be called Jerusalem, and the East would be called Al-Quds, the Arab name for Jerusalem, and would be under the control of the PLO's Reichlet. The PLO would control the Temple Mount, flying its flag there, and get a bridge or tunnel to the Mount from its "Capital" in Abu Dis. It would be off limits to Jews.

The entire world can see clearly what happens when Israel and the PLO "share" a city, because they have been "sharing" Hebron for some time now. Hebron is the perfect empirical proof and model of what awaits

My own suspicion is that Arafat did not want a negotiated statehood approved at Camp David.

But there was the problem of the Old City. No doubt Barak was willing even to hand that over to Arafat. Like the rest of the Israeli Left, Barak sees no reason for Israel to hold on to such obsolete symbols of Jewish history and sentiment when the really important task is the creating of a socialist society with a state-planned economy. Indeed, detaching Israel from its physical and non-physical Jewish roots might even be something secretly desirable.

But even Barak knew there was no chance such a deal would pass a national referendum. He would need at least a third of the Israeli Jewish vote to ram any deal through, together with the automatic support of Israel's Arabs, who will vote in favor of anything that endangers Israel's existence. But there were still too many Jews out there who think Jerusalem needs to stay Jewish, especially the Old City.

There was a huge danger that no deal would pass in a referendum that granted Arafat the Old City. So Barak was trying to find a "compromise" based on doubletalk and Peresian Newspeak. The Old City would be "governed by God Himself", with the day-to-day matters overseen by a mixed PLO-Israeli council. But Arafat refused even that, and Barak came home. Arafat demanded full sovereignty over the Old City and Barak, while no doubt willing to agree, could not deliver the appeasement.

My own private suspicion is that Arafat did not want a negotiated statehood approved at Camp David. He wants to create a great Palestinian myth, a romance of Independence. Israel arose in blood and fire. So did the United States and other nations. So must Palestine. By launching pogroms and atrocities this coming year, even if in the end it gets him only what Barak was now willing to grant, Arafat will have achieved his ends. He will have created his state by force of arms. He will fill the West Bank with museums and statues honoring Palestinian heroism, starting with "The Engineer" and working down. His forcing the talks to collapse was no doubt a part of a well-thought-through program.

Ironically, Barak came home in a sort of triumph. Israelis are still overwhelmingly possessed by cognitive dissonance, and the fact that Barak came home without any deal immediately boosted his popularity in the polls by several points. He now scores not only ahead of Arik Sharon but also ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier passed him in the polls.

But I think one of the most astounding stories is the one about the bone. While at Camp David, Ehud Barak almost choked to death. He was eating something and a bone got stuck in his throat (although the New York Times said it was a peanut, perhaps left over by Carter from the earlier Camp David). The Labor Party hacks patted his back gently as he choked. Then a young retired Navy officer named Gary Greenstein gave him the old Heimlich hug, and saved him.

I think there is a grand metaphor in this entire incident. It is the Oslo "peace process" lodged in Israel's throat, choking the country to death, while Labor Party hacks tap gently on its back, and everyone is waiting for someone to come along and do a Heimlich maneuver to send Arafat and his dislodged stormtroopers flying through the air back to Tunisia.

I do not know whether the hardening of the heart of the Palestinian mini-Pharaoh was part of a Divine master plan. I do know Israel cannot count indefinitely on such miracles to rescue itself from its own folly.

Steven Plaut teaches at the University of Haifa.

Outpost               - 8 -               August-September 2000