Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak left Monday night for the United States, where he is to attend a peace summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the US presidential retreat at Camp David. Earlier, Barak narrowly survived a motion of no-confidence at the Israeli Knesset.
In brief remarks before he boarded his plane, the primier called on the Palestinians to end their threats against Israel.
"If there is to be an accord at the end of this summit, it can only happen if the Palestinians accept making painful compromises and cease their accusations and their threats," he said.
"Israel does not want to keep the Palestinian people under its power," he added. "We want to maintain relations of good neighborliness based on respect, freedom and separation that will permit you (the Palestinians), as well as us, to express an independent identity."
He said the "choice is between a peace of the brave and a violent conflict that will make new victims and that will not resolve any problem.
He admitted that any accord reached will carry "a painful, but indispensable, price for Israel."
But returning to his insistence that there are certain things on which he will not compromise, such as the future status of Jerusalem, Barak said: "Peace has a price, but there will not be peace at any price."
He said "Jerusalem will remain reunified under our sovereignty, the borders of 1967 (before the occupation of Palestinian territories) must be modified, the large majority of settlers in Judea-Samaria (the West Bank) and in the Gaza Strip will be in blocs ... under our sovereignty, there will be no foreign army on any of the land west of the Jordan (river) and the solution of the (Palestinian) refugee problems will not be found on sovereign Israeli territory," he said.
This was a repetition of the now-controversial five "red lines'" or non-negotiable points he said he will take with him to Camp David.
BARAK SURVIVES CONFIDENCE MOTION IN ISRAELI PARLIAMENT
Earlier Monday, the Israeli parliament Monday rejected a censure motion against Barak’s government.
The motion, which needed an absolute majority of 61 in the 120-seat parliament to bring the government down, received only 54 votes, with 52 voting against.
There were seven abstentions.
"The government has survived ... and I am leaving for Camp David to try to come to an accord guaranteeing the vital interests of Israel," Barak said on television just before boarding a helicopter that would take him to Ben Gurion airport, where his plane was waiting for him.
Although the government survived, it was the first time it had received fewer votes than the opposition in a censure vote.
Commenting on that, Barak pointed out that he was outdone by two votes only because of the absence of the interior security ministry, Shlomo Ben Ami, who is already in Washington preparing for the summit, and of one other deputy.
Likud leader Ariel Sharon was defiant in defeat, saying the result was the "first phase in the fall of the government.
"The prime minister no longer has a (parliamentary) majority, he no longer has a government and he does not have the support of the people. In fact, he is alone," Sharon said, adding that he rejected any suggestion of forming a government of national unity.
During the debate, Barak had told parliament he has a "clear mandate from the people" to negotiate peace with the Palestinians – (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
