Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Arab reaction to Rabin's move was mixed. Syria dismissed the policy change as a p.r. trick. But Palestinian delegates, following a meeting with Baker in Jerusalem, backed away from their threats to walk from the talks in the absence of a complete halt in settlement building. Egypt showed the most enthusiasm. After his tete-a-tete with Rabin, President Hosni Mubarak lauded Israel's "good step on the right track." While he cautioned that "we need much more," Mubarak expressed confidence in his Israeli counterpart. "The man is only one week in office," he said. "What do you expect...
Egypt, the only Arab country to recognize Israel, was upbeat about Rabin's speech -- so much so that President Hosni Mubarak invited the new Prime Minister to Egypt for a summit this week. The reaction of the rest of the Arab world, however, was markedly jaundiced. The cool response in part reflected a realization that the Arab side is on the spot. When Shamir was in power, the peace process was a bit of a joke. Now that Israel appears to be serious about it, the Arab parties are in the unaccustomed situation of having to get serious about peace...
...Israel's Arab neighbors are also struggling to respond. Although no Arab leader from a confrontation state has publicly praised Rabin's pledge to speed negotiations, or accepted his call to an immediate summit, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak invited the Prime Minister to Cairo this week to encourage and reward Israel's moderation. Deep political divisions in the Arab world, sharpened by Jordan's decision to side with Saddam Hussein in the gulf war, are responsible for the limp response; Arab leaders do not trust one another and need time to grope toward a common approach to the Rabin...
Syria faces a particularly delicate balancing act. Rabin's strategy of focusing first on a Palestinian settlement irritates President Hafez Assad, who is skeptical about ever achieving peace with Israel and is determined that no Arab party should conclude a separate deal. Even if Damascus-Jerusalem talks do proceed, Rabin has taken a very tough line on returning the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 war. Yet without Moscow as a patron, Assad has little choice but to renounce his traditional role of spoiler and board the peace train if he wants access to Western trade and investment...
...capital of what is now Catalunya was farther south, at Tarragona. But Barcelona began to gain significance after the Roman Empire collapsed and the invading Visigoths took over, and it became a capital in the 9th century A.D., when Charlemagne's heirs conquered the city port, threw out the Arabs who had taken charge of it as the northern extension of the Arab conquest of Spain, and then in effect turned it over to a Catalan strongman, Wilfred the Hairy, the semilegendary founder of the Catalan state...