[There were] negotiations to build up a coalition … [in terms of] the peace process. The first thing you do is go and seePresident Mubarak in Egypt.Why?
I thought it was important that, before even I go to the United States to try to shape together with President Clinton the coverage of the agenda for the next year and halfthat he was still to be in power, … [first] I have to have a dialogue with the immediate neighbors. I felt that it might avoid a feeling that we are somehow patronizing them or trying to conspire something with the Americans before we even talk to them. So I made a point of going to see both [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak and King Hussein [of Jordan], and Arafat, before I left for the United States.
The Egyptians told me they were very much impressed by what you said to them. Do you remember what you told President Mubarak?
… I told to him,"I am ready. I do understand that it won't be easy, but I am determined to leave no stone unturnedin the way to peace. I understand that it won't work without some kind of compromise from both sides." … I told him that there's no way to establish a state of equilibrium in the Middle East without the active backing of Egypt. I told him, "You were the first to break the circle of enmity, to make the decisions even when everyone else in the Arab world thought that President Sadat and he, Mubarak as his deputy, were going too far. But in retrospect it became clear that you did the right thing, both for the region and Egypt in a way." …
EHUD BARAK
A former army chief of staff and one of Israel's most decorated officers, the Labor Party's Ehud Barak became Israel's prime minister in 1999 after soundly defeating incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu.At the failed Camp David summit in July 2000, Barak came closer than any of his predecessors to making the tough compromises on sensitive "final status" issues.But his governing coalition collapsed with the Al Aqsa uprising of September 2000 and he announced his resignation in December 2000, just a year and a half after assuming office. Two months later, he was defeated by Likud Party leader and hard-liner Ariel Sharon. In this interview, Barak discusses his relationship with Arafat, the myths about the Camp David summit, and his own efforts to make peace with Palestinians and find a two-state solution.
(More to article, but had to delete due to length)
But at the same time,the Americans told the Palestinians that, first of all, it's part of the previous agreement that Israel is responsible to shape the size of the third further redeployment.But at the same time, it's written in the same agreement … that the ultimate result should be that … the West Bank and the Gaza Strip [should be considered] as a single territorial unit, except for settlements, specified military locations, and issues related to the permanent agreement. The Palestinians interpreted [it] as being 90 percent or 92 percent or 89 percent of the territory, I don't know. A gap was here, and was supposed to create a major problem. … It is a recipe for another eruption or collision. …
The iceberg was, for you, the Palestinian uprising?
No.The iceberg was not only the Palestinian uprising, the Palestinian terror.… We will be torn between right and left, where some of the Israelis might believe that our government is responsible. We had this kind of situation three times: at beginning just before [the Yom] Kippur War in the War of Attrition, second time during Lebanon, and the third time, during the first intifada.
It's a tragic situation for us. …Israel is much more effective when the Israelis are convinced that we are on the moral high ground, that we are acting not just out of might, but also out of right. The risk seems to me to be that we will be both colliding, erupting in violence, and having the lower hand in the world, and [especially] within ourselves.
Moar
Epsteins Buddy.
MOS Pickle
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oslo/interviews/barak.html