One reason for the new foreboding is Israel’s recent withdrawal from Lebanon. The move “changed the landscape” and imposes “a greater sense of urgency,” Clinton said last week. He didn’t say why publicly, but the senior official explained that the president was worried that Prime Minister Ehud Barak, by unilaterally withdrawing in the face of attacks by the Hizbullah guerrillas, has set a troubling precedent: violence, rather than negotiation, works.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright heads back to Jerusalem this week for the first of several meetings with Barak and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat that could lead to another summit. But said one negotiator: “We’re seven years into this and we don’t have the kind of climate one would envision.”
