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Morning News

Murphy: Camp David Middle East Peace Summit a 'No-Lose Situation'

Aired July 10, 2000 - 9:21 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're showing you a live picture from Jerusalem. That's where the Israeli Knesset is considering no confidence motions against Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Mr. Barak is expected to survive the no-confidence votes by a narrow margin. He's also faced, though, with the collapse of his coalition government on the eve of critical peace talks with Palestinians here in the U.S. due to start tomorrow.

Joining us now to talk about what's at stake in the Mideast peace summit is Ambassador Richard Murphy. He is now senior fellow for the Middle East and director of Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. And he's also a former assistant secretary of state.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks for joining us from our New York bureau this morning. Appreciate it. Good to have you.

AMB. RICHARD MURPHY, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Thank you.

KAGAN: No matter how this no-confidence vote turns out, as Mr. Barak arrives in the U.S., he's going to be battered and hurt politically. But could that actually help him in negotiating with the Palestinians, as if to say, I'd love to do this for you, guys, but I can't because you know what I face at home?

MURPHY: No, that's not going to help; that's not going to work. No favors will be extended by the Palestinians just because he may be weakened politically in the Knesset. But Barak's sales pitch is going to be, look, I'm not interested today in Knesset, I'm interested in what the Israeli people react -- how they react to what I can bring away from this negotiation. Let's see if we can make a deal.

KAGAN: He seems to be playing that card as he addressed the Israeli people, basically saying, the politicians are one people; I know you people want peace. Is that a smart move within Israel?

MURPHY: I think it's a fact. He's not just gilding the lilly there, there's some 80 percent have made it clear in their polling that they do want peace -- not at any price. Of course, it's the same situation for Arafat. The bulk of the Palestinian people want peace, but they've got to achieve some of the rights that they've been fighting for all these years. KAGAN: And what about the Palestinians? As we watch the Israeli's fight amongst themselves, the Palestinians have been relatively quiet.

MURPHY: Well, the pressure seems to be more on Barak than it is on Arafat right now. But let's remember that Arafat has announced he wants to have a state of Palestine -- the independent state of Palestine announced this year. If he can achieve through negotiations, that's preferable. If he cannot, he will have -- he seems to be saying, I'm going to move anyway for unilateral declaration for statehood. So, pressure...

KAGAN: I know there are -- go ahead.

MURPHY: Yes, there's some pressure there.

KAGAN: I know there are those deadlines out there. September 13, Yasser Arafat saying that he's going to declare the state. Also, President Clinton trying to create a legacy of peace before he leaves office. But in terms of timing, was this a mistake to call a summit right now?

MURPHY: I think the best reason for calling the summit is it's a no-lose situation. If there were not a summit, there could be a degeneration into violence. If there is a summit that fails, it could degenerate into violence. So it's worth the try and there is some reason for optimism.

KAGAN: You say it's no-lose, but could it be a lose situation for Ehud Barak in Israel?

MURPHY: He can go back to Israel if it doesn't work at all and say, I've tried my best, I've made these propositions well within what is acceptable from the point of view of Israeli security and it didn't work, it didn't sell so we will regroup for another day.

KAGAN: And we will see how it plays this week here in the U.S. Ambassador Murphy, thanks for joining us this morning.

MURPHY: Thank you.

KAGAN: Appreciate your time and insight.

As always, for more in-depth coverage of the Mideast summit, including a chronology of the long push for Mideast peace, you can just log onto our Web site at CNN.com.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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