Are Israelis ready for compromise on Jerusalem?
Strategic adviser Moshe Gaon claims that much like in the days of the 2000 Camp David summit, Israelis are ready for significant compromises on the condition that they bring an end to the conflict with the Palestinians.
“For the most part, the Israeli public is not extreme. It is smart, and it realizes that if we ever reach an agreement with the Palestinians, it will come at a cost, including in Jerusalem. Everything that [Prime Minister] Ehud Barak put on the table during the 2000 Camp David conference will come back to us at another time, in another place, under different leadership.” These were the conclusions that political strategist Moshe Gaon offered in an interview with Al-Monitor. The conversation took place on the backdrop of Israel commemorating the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and a renewed focus on the negotiations that took place between Israel and the Palestinians following the Oslo process headed by Rabin.
The conventional wisdom in politics and the press is that the Israeli public is, for the most part, increasingly extreme. It no longer believes that there is a partner on the other side. A major turning point that led to this situation was the failure of the summer 2000 Camp David summit between Barak and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, under the patronage of US President Bill Clinton. The summit failed resoundingly. Barak made the Palestinians a generous offer, including the partition of Jerusalem, but it was rejected by Arafat. The second intifada erupted just a few months later.
