Negotiating Outside the Law

Raymond G. Helmick

Description

In the summer of 2000, President Clinton, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat came together to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine. It was a moment laden with hope, that ended in infamous failure. But why did it fail?



The Camp David negotiations made headlines around the world for many months, but the real debates took place behind closed doors. This book is his startling account of the arguments, the relationships and the strategies that played out over the summer of 2000. Based on personal correspondence and position papers with all three leaders, and a long personal association with Yasser Arafat and a whole series of Israeli Prime Ministers dating back to 1985, this book offers a unique account of the real reasons behind the failure of Camp David.
Foreword by the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Introduction

PART ONE Building Relationships

1. The Path to the US/PLO Dialogue, 1985-1988

2. The Madrid stage and Oslo, 1990-1993,

3. Disappointments and postponements, 1993-1995

PART TWO The Failed Negotiations

1. Sad Millennium: The Disintegration of Ehud Barak

May, 1999 to July, 2000

2. Camp David

3. Negotiations Continue, August 1-September 28, 2000

4. Through the blood of the intifadah to the Taba negotiations, September 29, 2000-February 8, 2001

PART THREE Aftermath

1. The Web of Civility Dissolves, Early February to September 11, 2001

2. America goes to war, September 11, 2001 to the indefinite future

3. So what really happened at Camp David and Taba?

References

Index

Sujets

• International Relations
• Political Science
• Diplomacy
• Peace
• Palestine
• Diplomatie (homonymie)

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 septembre 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849642392
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

00prelims.qxd 14/06/2004 15:47 Page iii
Negotiating Outside the Law
Why Camp David Failed
Raymond G. Helmick, S.J.
Pluto Press
London • Ann Arbor, MI00prelims.qxd 14/06/2004 15:47 Page iv
First published 2004 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Raymond G. Helmick 2004
The right of Raymond G. Helmick to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2219 0 hardback
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Helmick, Raymond G.
Negotiating outside the law: why Camp David failed / Raymond G. Helmick.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7453-2219-0
1. Arab-Israeli conflict--1993---Peace. I. Title.
DS119.76.H455 2004
956.9405'4--dc22
2004010077
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Curran Publishing Services, Norwich
Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental Printing00prelims.qxd 14/06/2004 15:47 Page v
Contents
Foreword by the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. vii
Introduction 1
Part I Building Relationships
1. The path to the US/PLO dialogue, 1985–88 11
2. The Madrid stage and Oslo, 1990–93 37
3. Disappointments and postponements, 1993–95 51
Part II The Failed Negotiations
4. Sad millennium: the disintegration of Ehud Barak,
May 1999 to July, 2000 81
5. Camp David 128
6. Negotiations continue, August 1–September 28, 2000 172
7. Through the blood of the intifada to the Taba
negotiations, September 29, 2000–February 8, 2001 202
Part III Aftermath
8. The web of civility dissolves: early February to
September 11, 2001 251
9. America goes to war: September 11, 2001 to the indefinite
future 275
10. So what really happened at Camp David and Taba? 289
Notes 303
Index 335
v00prelims.qxd 14/06/2004 15:47 Page vii
Foreword
Our quest in the Middle East remains what it has always been—to replace
violence with nonviolence; to promote reconciliation and reconstruction
over continued destruction and death; to choose coexistence over
coannihilation; to give future generations of Israelis and Palestinians a
chance to live as neighbors with shared hopes, and a shared peace.
For too long, Israel and its neighbors have been caught in a downward
spiral of destruction. One side is driven by fear of violence, and the other
side is driven by despair. Fear and despair together end up recycling
violence. We need to lift up a third way, to lift people beyond fear and
violence, all the way to hope.
As part of that third force, my friend, Father Raymond Helmick, S. J.,
has authored this book, Negotiating Outside the Law. My brother
Helmick makes the case that the whole negotiating process so far has
failed because it has been based on predominance of military force, and
has not been based on international law, and legal principles.
This is a book worth taking seriously, because Reverend Helmick is a
serious peacemaker. He traveled with me to the Middle East in the summer
of 2002, as part of a religious, peace-seeking delegation, guests of the
Middle East Conference of Churches. Prior to that, in the spring of 1999,
Reverend Helmick was part of the peace-seeking team that went with me
to Yugoslavia, and ended up successfully negotiating for the release of
three US soldiers from captivity.
Those three soldiers, Steven Gonzales, Andrew Ramirez, and
Christopher Stone, had been captured while on patrol. I decided to try to
negotiate their freedom, and put together Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith
leaders to go with me to Yugoslavia to try to win their freedom.
In early May of 1999, we succeeded. Father Helmick was the priest on
our successful negotiating team. Bringing those young men home alive was
a moment of great personal satisfaction for us, and an important
demonstration of the power of nonviolent persuasion. Even Slobodan Milosevic
could be appealed to; even Milosevic could respond to the power of faith
and freedom.
Father Helmick helped make those negotiations work. Now he is
making the case that applying the principles of international law will help
resolve the crisis between Israel and Palestine. He has earned the right for
his book to be taken seriously. He has earned the right for his ideas to be
treated with respect. Perhaps Father Helmick has found a key to unlock
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viii Foreword
the door to nonviolent progress in this volatile region of the world; that
would be a source of great joy to all of us!
The Middle East crisis has resisted solution for far too long now. I will
never forget going to Israel a quarter of a century ago, in 1979, and
meeting with Teddy Kolick and members of the Knesset. I remember going to
Lebanon to meet with Chairman Arafat, and then to Syria to meet with
President Assad. After that, on that same trip, I went to Egypt to meet with
President Sadat, who later gave his life in the cause of peace, to make an
appeal for peaceful coexistence.
At that time, the United States had a “no-talk” policy with the
Palestinians. I took a lot of public abuse for meeting with Chairman Arafat.
Even today some hostility lingers, though now most observers have
followed our lead towards a “two-state solution,” and the United States
has made public commitments to a Palestinian state.
In my campaigns for President during the 1980s, I forced the Middle
East question onto the public policy agenda, pointing out that Israeli
security and Palestinian justice are two sides of the same coin. In 1988, my
campaign suggested an alternative policy in the Middle East, to move the
process that began with President Carter at Camp David along to the next
progressive step. I suggested that such a policy be built on several
principles:
• The right of Israel to exist with security.
• The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including an
independent status.
• The right of Lebanon to sovereignty and freedom from imposed
partition.
• Normalized ties between the United States and all Middle East nations,
based upon mutual respect for the sovereignty and independence of all
countries.
• Demilitarization of the region and increased humanitarian aid that
could enhance the stability and prosperity of all nations.
• An end to the U.S. military build-up in the Persian Gulf. (If only this
platform plank had been given the proper respect…)
These principles were controversial at the time, but we kept marching
down the road to peace, insisting year after year that making new friends
did not require us to abandon an old friend. Now much of the world has
come around to our point of view. Now the points I made back in 1979,
and throughout the 1980s, do not seem so radical; they seem rational, and
reasonable, and overdue.00prelims.qxd 14/06/2004 15:47 Page ix
Foreword ix
The road was a long and rocky one to travel, but we have made it this
far. Some day, we will make it all the way home. Some day, the hope that
was unleashed at Camp David, not once but twice, will become reality.
Some day, swords will be beaten into plowshares, and lions will lie down
with lambs.
And when we get there, Father Helmick will know that he held a
lantern to light the way; lit a candle rather than curse the darkness; and
played a role in guiding an anxious world to Middle East peace and
nonviolence. This book is part of his legacy. Read it, learn from it, and then, as
he has done in his life, turn analysis into action.
Because the lands in question are home to three of our great religions,
and the time has come to move away from kill or be killed. An eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth leave us all blind and maimed. It’s time to live
and let live. It’s time to take a different way.
The violence in the Middle East has us all living behind checkpoints
now. We must pull down these walls and build bridges instead; we must
stop the violence and proceed with reconciliation and reconstruction; we
must pursue peace and shared existence. War is not an option. Through
nonviolence and rebuilding and law, we can move from pain and fear and
despair to joy and hope and growth.
That is our quest. That has always been our quest. This book is another
big step down that road to peace in the Middle East. I commend Reverend
Helmick for writing it, and I recommend it to you. Keep Hope Alive!
Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
June, 2004
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Introduction
This book, dealing principally with the period of intense negotiation at
Camp David and Taba in 2000 and 2001, comes out of close contact,
which I have maintained since 1985, with the Israel, Palestine, and United
States leadership. Meetings I had then with Yasser Arafat, urging
Palestinian acceptance of the preconditions that had been set for dialogue with
the others, were followed quickly by the Israeli government of Prime
Minister Shimon Peres and the US administration of Ronald Reagan.
All three leaderships have struggled through the last half-century and
more with the Middle Eastern conflict, and I have been writing and often
conversing with them in a concerted effort to help toward a peaceful
resolution of their tangled and often violent relations. That may be a curious
enough position for an American Jesuit priest, but one that was familiar
enough to me, as I had been doing the same in Northern Ireland, in
Lebanon, and many other places for many years before that. The period
of the Camp David and Taba negotiations saw some of the closest of these
contacts, and I had a clear sense that they had the attention of the parties.
Some public accounting of that activity is now due.
I had drawn several serious conclusions about the choices made by
Israel, Palestine, and the United States, particularly when it came to the
degree of respect they paid to one another, a p