Word: arafats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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More difficult to analyze is the Middle East. Yet the same first rule of containment is at issue. Last week's riots in Gaza underscore a powerful concern, for they make clear that Yassir Arafat cannot control the land he governs. If the peace process advances in such a way that an autonomous Palestinian state on the Israeli border is at issue, perhaps we should remember these events and their broader implications. A weak government is an invitation to chaos and its usual parasite in the Middle East, Islamic fundamentalism...
...shooting and it's getting worse. It is very widespread, and there are thousands of people involved on both sides. One commentator here said the violence has obliterated all gains of the peace process, and we're basically back to square one, before former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat signed the peace accord." Israel has sealed off Gaza and the West Bank in the wake of the new clashes and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is cutting short a trip to Germany to return to Israel. He reportedly will meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today. The violence follows Netanyahu...
...giant leap. For the peace process, not quite a small step. Before his election as Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu had sworn he would never deign to meet Yasser Arafat, a man he considered little more than a terrorist. Last week, however, Netanyahu was finally nudged into a handshake with the Palestinian leader. It was an enormous psychological hurdle for the Israeli leader. His Palestinian partners, though, felt as if they were beginning a relationship from scratch...
Denials notwithstanding, Netanyahu had plainly been pressured into the summit. In his first three months in office he had assiduously shunned Arafat and frozen plans to expand Palestinian self-rule, as promised in previously signed accords. Then Israeli intelligence agencies began warning that as a result, Arafat was fast losing standing among his people and that instability, perhaps violence, might follow. Finally, Israel's dovish President, Ezer Weizman, threatened publicly that if Netanyahu would not meet Arafat, he would. Netanyahu agreed to a summit...
...dismay, Netanyahu insisted on reopening the Hebron agreement already completed by the previous Labor government. And while Netanyahu said last week that he may eventually be prepared to start discussions on the final status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, those negotiations had already begun under Labor. Publicly, Arafat's aides praised last week's summit, but privately they expressed reservations. Said one: "We are not satisfied, and we are not hopeful...