Many in the Israeli camp, as well as the Palestinian camp, undoubtedly will be happy with the lack of total success at the Camp David summit.
Right-wing Israelis feared that their prime minister was giving away the store. Left-wing Israelis feared that he might not do enough to win an accord.
Meanwhile, Palestinian hardliners made it clear to Yasser Arafat that he needn’t come home unless he won sovereignty over East Jerusalem. There also are those Palestinians who have opposed any deal with the Israelis, their sworn enemy.
What’s scary is the prediction that Jewish or Arab extremists might take advantage of the summit’s failure to launch violent attacks.
The Israeli military already has begun riot-control training and has even set up a mock Palestinian town for practice drills.
All Israeli settlements are on a state of alert in expectation of problems.
Meanwhile, Palestinian youth at various summer camps are undergoing military-type training.
The scenario of battles in the street only reinforces those who believe that Jew and Arab will never live in peace. Violence makes that view a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Hopefully, the majority of Israelis and Palestinians will view this summit as just a start of a difficult process. Agreements in the Middle East take years, not weeks or months.
It’s amazing how far the process has gone since the Oslo accords were signed. But the negotiations over the future of Jerusalem cannot be decided so easily.
Even the many Israelis who want a final agreement with the Palestinians don’t want Israel to give away even East Jerusalem, despite it being mostly an Arab enclave.
And the Palestinians won’t seal their fate without a piece of the eternal city. From their vantage point, there is no reason to settle for less.
We can only pray that talks in some form can continue and that violence remains an expectation but not a reality.