Some veterans of the Middle East peace effort stressed that ultimately, Mr. Masri and Mrs. Clinton want the same thing: more rigorous United States involvement to help negotiate a peaceful two-state resolution in the Middle East.
“Hani is totally a man of peace,” said Uri Savir, who was Israel’s chief negotiator during the Oslo Accords and a close ally of Mr. Peres. “He was very close to Bill Clinton—I think Clinton did seek his advice in the past on Palestinian politics.”
Mr. Savir worked closely with Mr. Masri to invest $60 million of Israeli and Palestinian money in a fund organized by the Peres Peace Center to help promote peace through business relationships, a project that he says was destroyed by the coming of the intifada. They have worked closely together ever since.
Mr. Savir stressed that Mr. Masri’s main concern was American interests. He used his relationship with Arafat to try and persuade the late P.L.O. leader “to go for the Clinton plan,” Mr. Savir said, and since the years when Arafat would seek him out as a United States contact, he has largely stayed out of Palestinian domestic politics.
Nabil Abuznaid, deputy chief of the P.L.O. mission in Washington, said that Mr. Masri was “close to Arafat and his government and not connected to the religious groups�
�� and is “considered in the peace camp.” He also said that Mr. Masri has little if any influence within the Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas.
In an e-mail exchange with The Observer, Mr. Masri described his own role as an unofficial facilitator of negotiation with Israel.
“I was never an official with Yasir Arafat or the Palestinian Authority,” he wrote. “I tried to help with the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis and tried to help them approve the Clinton peace initiative.”
As for his latest mission—to get another Clinton elected to the White House—Mr. Masri explained it this way:
“Senator Clinton and I don’t always agree. But I know that the nation would be well served with someone with her experience and depth of knowledge.”
