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ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now to discuss the prospects for the summit talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are Jonathan Paris with the Council on Foreign Relations, and Raghida Dergham, she is a senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based "Al Hayat" newspaper. Both join us from New York.

Mr. Paris, I'll start with you, as all leaders head into these delicate and sensitive talks, Ehud Barak's government is teetering. How can Mr. Barak negotiate from a position of strength and confidence when back home he's standing on shaky ground?

JONATHAN PARIS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Not a problem for Ehud Barak. Ehud Barak has a real sense of history. You know, he's a pianist, and he's coming to give a piano concerto. He is going to give the performance of his life at the Carnegie Hall of Arab-Israeli peacemaking, Camp David. He doesn't need David Levy with him. He doesn't need Natan Sharansky with him.

He needs a few good aides, a few good lawyers, maybe a bad cop to play off his being the good cop at the negotiation. But he's going to be very creative, imaginative, very aggressive and assertive for the next eight days or less.

HALL: Ms. Dergham, some believe that this summit at Camp David is simply a step in the process, and others say, as you heard in our Kelly Wallace piece, that this is really a last chance. How do you view it?

RAGHIDA DERGHAM, SR. DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, "AL-HAYAT": Well, if it's the last chance, then it should be a very fair conclusion of the summit, and both parties, the Israelis and the Palestinians should be able to arrive at the details that will make it final. I am not so sure I would agree that can be done in Camp David, or maybe there will be Camp David II, one in August maybe.

But the Palestinians are worried that if you say, this is the final chance, and Mr. Barak is coming -- looking as if he's coming with concessions from his point of view, but not so from the Palestinian point of view, they're afraid that they're going to be squeezed and therefore they'll go back home with a deal that might not be acceptable.

After all, there is a public opinion amongst the Palestinians and in the Arab world that Mr. Arafat has to go back with something to say, yes, this is a good final status agreement.

HALL: In fact, both Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat are dealing with their own pressures regarding these talks and certainly for different reasons. Can you spell out those reasons for us, Mr. Paris?

PARIS: The reasons for what again?

HALL: The pressure that each are feeling back at home.

PARIS: Well, look, I think Barak really understands that the time is now to make an agreement. His coalition is falling apart clearly. But more importantly, he recognizes that his counterpart, Arafat, is not going to be around forever. The man is -- was a leader back in the '60s. And Arafat is the one adversary who can deliver a peace agreement for the Palestinian people. So I think the time is right.

Also, both recognize that Clinton, who has invested enormous time and energy with them, is not going to be around beyond six more months. So they really need each other now. And I think they're going to try very hard to seriously engage each other so that they can come up with a framework agreement that will eventually lead to a conflict-ending agreement by, say, the end of the year.

HALL: And, Ms. Dergham, just a last question to you, how realistic is the September deadline? And if it is not reached, what will the response likely be not just of these two men, but of the Palestinian and the Israeli people?

DERGHAM: Well, President Clinton was right about warning that the possibilities -- God forbid, I would hope that this is a success -- but that if there is a collapse of such talks there would be turmoil, there would be violence.

The Palestinians probably are -- have less to lose because they've been living in a state of refugees, in a state of occupation, and they've been pinning lots of hopes on this process, the so-called Oslo process, that they would have hoped by September would have given them the final status, their own state, a fair deal.

I think it's, at the moment, causing both Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat, but most of all Mr. Barak to take the courageous lead and not be involved in the politicking. Jonathan Paris is right, that he can really go the distance should he choose to, and I think there is a lot of demand on the public opinion, particularly the Israeli public opinion, to support its leader in choosing to make peace with the Palestinians. After all, they live with each other, so they should live peacefully, hopefully.

PARIS: Absolutely, I agree.

HALL: Raghida Dergham and Jonathan Paris -- well, the two of you agree on something, let's hope that the two men can agree on Tuesday, at least beginning on Tuesday.

PARIS: I hope. HALL: We thank you for joining us, both of you.

DERGHAM: Thank you.

PARIS: Thank you, Andria.