Word: arabized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...situation in the former Soviet Union is the most dangerous in the world today, much more so than the one in the Middle East. In fact, it was precisely the late, unlamented U.S.-Soviet rivalry that invested the Arab-Israeli conflict with its greatest peril. As long as the two armed camps each had a glowering superpower at its back, a regional crisis could escalate to global conflagration. The end of the cold war has made progress toward a peaceful settlement more imaginable but also, in one sense, less crucial. While there is every reason to hope for success...
Syria: The most truculent -- wants Israel to cede "every inch of Arab land occupied by the Israelis by war and force," particularly the Golan Heights, in return for a state of nonbelligerency. Damascus refuses to participate in regional talks until Israel demonstrates a willingness to return occupied territory. Assad has vowed to strike no separate deals with Israel, and is exhorting other Arab delegations to take the same position...
Lebanon: Wants Israel to withdraw its forces from its self-proclaimed "security zone" in southern Lebanon, dissolve its proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, and release some 300 Arab prisoners...
Outside the conference hall there were a few grudging handshakes among advisers, but also shouted epithets like "terrorist!" and "murderer!" In formal sessions Arab, Palestinian and Israeli delegates would rarely even look one another in the eye as they denounced each other and laid their cases before the world, but nobody walked out. At the end of three days it was uncertain, in the most literal sense, where the talks were going: the delegates concluded the opening phase by quarreling bitterly about whether they should continue meeting in Madrid or move to some different venue...
...over a symbolic point. Last week's opening was supposed to be followed on Sunday by bilateral negotiations in Madrid between Israel and each of three enemies: Syria, a Palestinian-Jordanian delegation and Lebanon. But the Israelis demanded that the talks be moved to the Middle East. By bringing Arab negotiators to Jerusalem, and then sending its own diplomats to Arab capitals, Israel hopes to achieve undeniable acknowledgment that its neighbors recognize it in fact, if not officially, as a genuine nation. For exactly that reason, the Arabs are resisting. A possible compromise discussed at week...