[Daryn Kagan, Cnn Anchor:] Israelis and Palestinians met at Camp David for 15 days over the last two weeks, trying to work out a peace agreement. They went home empty-handed. So what happens now? Let's bring in Mike Hanna, our Jerusalem bureau chief, with the latest Mike.
[Mike Hanna, Cnn Jerusalem Bureau Chief:] Well, Daryn, the prime minister, Ehud Barak, has just returned back from the United States to be greeted at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport by a crowd of supporters, by a crowd of comrades, old war generals that he used to fight with, and by his acting prime minister, his foreign minister, who refused to accompany him to Camp David. A sign of what's going to await Mr. Barak, there are those who will support him and there are those who are opposed to him. And he is going to have to resolve these two contradictory things in the days ahead. Shortly after his arrival, he made a speech in which, once again, he said that the success did not happen, the talks failed because of what he said was the refusal of his Palestinian partners to make the vital concessions necessary. He said he could not compromise on three issues: the security of Israel, the sanctities of Israel, and what he called the unity of the people. But, Mr. Barak said, the hope of peace has not yet been extinguished Daryn.
[Kagan:] Mike, we just heard in the last hour here on MORNING NEWS, Sandy Berger said and President Clinton said yesterday that they felt Mr. Barak was willing to make more concessions than Mr. Arafat, and yet he comes home empty-handed. How is that going to hurt him politically now that he is home. Does that make him even weaker than before he left?
[Hanna:] It is going to create major problems for Mr. Barak from the parliament, or Knesset here, in which his government did not have a majority when he left. It's going hurt him politically from those on the right who were opposed to the Camp David peace process. Mr. Clinton did say that Mr. Barak had been prepared to move further in concessions than Mr. Arafat. And while President Clinton was praising Mr. Barak at this particular time, it will be interpreted by some in Israel that exactly what was happening was what they feared; that Mr. Barak was going to make concessions that they would regard as unacceptable. So this will be used as a tool against Mr. Barak. It will be used in the days ahead by those opposed to him. But, at the same time, those who support the peace process, and in particular the process that has been under way for the past few weeks, they will take encouragement from the fact that Mr. Barak, according to President Clinton, did show some flexibility, did produce at the talks a degree of willingness to make concessions that perhaps was absent in his public pronouncements before he went to the United States. The key for Mr. Barak is to prove to the Palestinians, to the Israeli people, and indeed to his divided parliament that he has got what it takes to push through a comprehensive peace settlement and he has to prove to the Palestinians too that he has a mandate to continue the negotiations if that is what is going to happen, Daryn.
[Kagan:] Mike Hanna, in Jerusalem, thank you very much. With more on this, here's Bill.
[Bill Hemmer, Cnn Anchor:] All right, Daryn, certainly the White House had a major role in those peace talks. Let's check in there now with our senior White House correspondent. John King with more. Hey, John.
[John King, Cnn Sr. White House Correspondent:] Hello, Bill. A sense of disappointment, but also some hope here at the White House. This, a time of reflection, according to the president and senior White House officials. They are watching closely the situation Mike Hanna just outlined. What can Prime Minister Ehud Barak do now with his domestic political situation, as he returns from the talks? They are also watching to get a sense of how the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, is greeted, not only back in Gaza, but by other Arab leaders, looking to see if, in the weeks ahead, he will show more flexibility on the issue of Jerusalem. As to what the president and the United States does next, everyone here says they need to wait and see first. There is some talk from the Israelis that a senior U.S. official will visit the region as quickly as perhaps two weeks from now. White House officials say that probably will happen, but it depends on a positive tone and developments in the region, especially they say again more evidence that the Palestinians are willing to be more flexible. The view here is that if they begin these talks again soon, and if they pick up where they left off at Camp David, that they could indeed reach an agreement by September 13th. White House officials saying, obviously, still a big sticking point over Jerusalem. But that major progress was made on all the other major core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The fear, however, is that now that the secret negotiations are over, now that the public positioning and posturing has begun, that there will be some finger-pointing and that Mr. Barak's domestic political situation, and perhaps Mr. Arafat's domestic political situation as well, could cause some back sliding Bill.
[Hemmer:] John, you've been in touch with a lot of folks over the past 15 days in these peace negotiations there. When we hear that phrase again, historic progress was made, is it your sense that it was truly legitimate progress, or is that a bit of a selling point at this point?
[King:] We are told genuinely by senior administration officials that on the issues of the borders of a Palestinian state, on the issue of Israel being able to keep eight percent or so of the West Bank, the most heavily-settled Jewish settlements, that major progress was made there. The sticking point, again, was Jerusalem. One senior official in the room for most of the talks describing this as a cave that no one had gone into for decade, talking about sharing power in Jerusalem. He said both sides, for the first time now, have gone into that cave. They quickly retreated out. The officials saying that it is pretty dark in there. The question now is whether they will be bold enough to go back in Bill.
[Hemmer:] We'll see if some light is shed as well. John King at the White House. Thanks, John.