32

Ismail Ziad finally entered the room through a side door.

Marcus did his best to look not at him but at the eyes of the four Palestinian security men who entered with him. Still, it was impossible not to notice that Ziad, now in his mideighties, walked slowly, was hunched over slightly, and had never looked so frail. His shock of white hair was thinning, and he struck Marcus as gaunt and unusually pale.

“General Evans, President Petrovsky sends his greetings,” Ziad said with a thin smile as he settled into a large leather chair in the center of the room. “He looks forward to welcoming you at the Kremlin next week as you wrap up your journey.”

Ziad offered no kiss, no handshake, not even condolences for the recent murders of two senior American officials. The message was unmistakable. The man counted the Russians, certainly not the Americans, as his trusted friends and allies.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the new Russian leader,” the general replied, “and wishing him our condolences on the tragic loss of three great leaders.”

“Tragic, indeed,” Ziad said coolly. “Especially with the gunmen still at large.”

“Mr. Chairman, thank you for agreeing to see me,” Evans began.

Ziad merely nodded.

“President Clarke asked me to bring you his personal greetings,” Evans continued. “He recognizes there has been no small degree of tension between our two governments, particularly in the wake of our decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem. But he wants to begin a new chapter.”

This was a carefully constructed opening line, designed to suggest that Ziad and his team had no reason to be so angry that the U.S. Embassy was now located in a section of Jerusalem to which the Palestinians made no formal claim. It wasn’t East Jerusalem; it was West —close to the line, to be sure, but not over it. Again the chairman did not respond, so Evans moved on.

“The president wants you to know that after two years of meticulous work, his peace proposal is finally complete. He wants you to be the first to see it, and thus you’re the first leader in the region I have come to brief.”

Now Ziad nodded, almost imperceptibly.

“I can tell you that the president wholeheartedly believes you will welcome his proposal, which he hopes can serve as the starting point for robust negotiations and lead to a final, fair, and comprehensive settlement of the conflict between your people and the Israelis.”

The tension in the room was palpable and intensifying.

“Before I walk you through the particulars of the plan, the president wants you to know right up front that two of the central concepts in his proposal are ones that you and your government have insisted upon from the beginning,” the NSA continued. “First, the president is ready to help the Palestinian people establish a sovereign state —a real state with established borders, a flag, an anthem, a recognized government, passports, embassies, and so forth —based on the formula of land for peace, as stipulated in U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, so long as both parties negotiate in good faith and come to a conclusion satisfying to both sides. And second, as the president has stated repeatedly, he stands ready to help the Palestinian people establish the capital of the state in East Jerusalem. Furthermore, he would be happy to open an American Embassy in such a Palestinian capital as part of an overall effort to pursue strong U.S.-Palestinian relations.”

The general clearly expected a reaction to this, and he paused for it. Ziad, however, remained silent and stone-faced.

“Mr. Chairman, our internal polling shows that two out of three Palestinians believe their society is going in the wrong direction. Well over half say their financial situation is worse than last year. The same percentages fear their dream of having a sovereign Palestinian state is further away than ever. And yet there is a ray of hope. A solid majority of Palestinians say they support resuming negotiations with the Israelis, and President Clarke believes the time is now.”

Evans turned to his colleague Dr. Davis, who drew several items out of a large legal briefcase.

“On Tuesday, December 16, President Clarke will arrive in Jerusalem and address the American people and the world from the Haram al-Sharif,” the general continued, referring to what the Israelis called the Temple Mount. “He will lay out the core principles of his peace initiative. He will also call for the commencement of immediate bilateral negotiations at the Camp David presidential retreat center, beginning on Wednesday, the seventh of January. Simultaneously, the president’s 247-page plan will be posted on the White House and State Department websites in English, Arabic, Hebrew, French, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese so that anyone interested may study it carefully.”

Davis handed Evans three black three-ring binders, each with the presidential seal embossed in gold leaf on the front cover. Evans proceeded to give one to Ziad and one to the foreign minister while keeping the third for himself.

“For the purposes of our discussions, I have brought you both a still-classified copy of the president’s proposal,” the general explained. “When we finish today, I will need to take your copies with me. But I assure you that multiple copies will be delivered to you next month, a few hours before the president begins his address.”

Davis fished out of her briefcase two envelopes bearing the seal of the White House with each man’s name handwritten in calligraphy.

“I have also brought you both personal invitations from the president to attend the summit he is planning for January,” Evans added. “He would be grateful for your reply no later than December 1. Now, before I begin walking you both through the plan in detail, are there any initial questions I can answer?”