Word: arafats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...directly helped negotiate). Clinton left it up to both sides to pick the representatives, and on Friday the Israelis planned to send Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the Palestinians P.L.O. Executive Committee member Abu Mazin. But at 7 p.m. Friday the Palestinians told State Department officials that Arafat would head their delegation. Dennis Ross, the State Department's special coordinator for the Middle East, immediately called Warren Christopher, who was having drinks with reporters at his house in Georgetown. Christopher ducked into a side room to take the call; after the reporters left, Christopher called Clinton...
...recounted a senior Israeli government official. The official emphasized that Rabin did not feel he had any choice. "If No. 1 is coming, then another No. 1 must come," he said. "But you can be sure ((Rabin)) is not satisfied with it. He doesn't like this personality, Mr. Arafat, his past and his career. It's very difficult for everyone here to see Mr. Rabin clutch hands with Mr. Arafat. For many Israelis, even Labor Party voters, it's unbearable...
...side that threatens to abort the whole process before a real peace is nailed down. But the odds seem to be that one will be achieved. Last week's breakthrough was the result less of altruism than of simple realism. Secret talks in Oslo built enough trust to impel Arafat and Rabin to take the first step: recognition...
...difficulty of that cannot be overstated. For decades, Arafat and other Arab leaders would not even utter the word Israel. When they absolutely had to name the enemy, they referred to "the Zionist entity." On the Israeli side, former Prime Minister Golda Meir denied there were any such people as Palestinians, and one of her successors, Yitzhak Shamir, implied that Palestinians are not quite human; he described them as "grasshoppers compared...
...Arafat and Rabin may find it more difficult to deal with rejectionists on their own side than to deal with each other. Arafat has to win approval from two-thirds of the Palestine National Council, a sort of P.L.O. parliament-in- exile, to repeal the provisions of the organization's charter that pledge destruction of Israel. He is likely to prevail, but only after some jockeying. Then there is a threat of violence from Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist organization that regards Arafat as a traitor for even talking to Israel. Hamas' current line is that it will not shed Palestinian...