President Bill Clinton is leaving for Japan on Wednesday, say the Americans. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak came to Washington brimming with determined optimism, despite narrowly averting a no-confidence vote in Parliament. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who had tried to delay the summit to seek more progress in expert-level talks first, arrived in a mood of steadfast pessimism. On Friday, aides let it be known Arafat had threatened to walk out the previous evening, telling his team to pack their bags in anger at US bridging ideas which the Palestinians said were almost identical to the Israeli position. Clinton's looming departure is having the desired effect of a deadline, and both sides expect a US compromise paper soon on the toughest issues.
Diplomats tracking the talks offer a more positive interpretation.
Arafat, they say, may finally be starting to prepare Palestinian public opinion for a deal. Western and Israeli officials faulted the Palestinian leader before the summit for failing to do the groundwork to ease the idea of painful compromise into his followers' minds. Instead, he reasserted key demands such as a complete Israeli withdrawal from all territory occupied in the 1967 war and the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes in what is now Israel, which he must know he cannot achieve. Barak, on the other hand, needs to convince Israelis he is driving a hard bargain, especially on a day when tens of thousands of right-wing opponents were planning to rally against his peace policy in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. The Israeli leader curried favor with his hosts by announcing on the second day of the talks that he had canceled a signed sale of a hi-tech early warning radar plane to China, which had infuriated the US Congress.