Word: arafats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...amazing," Shaath says, "for decades, each Israeli Prime Minister was as bad for us as every other. But this time our whole future is on the line. This is our election too, so of course we're all anxious--and believe me, no one is more anxious than Arafat. Given where we are with the peace process--we're so close to a real resolution after so many decades of hate--and given how much we have invested in Peres' being able to continue it on the Israeli side, well, for us it's as if Arafat were running himself...
Eighteen minutes after the polls' closing, with Peres' slim lead still apparently holding, Shaath and Arafat get on the phone to congratulate each other. Shaath pulls his wife aside for a kiss and a loud high five, then adds lustily, "Now we can eat, but we can avoid the bowls of sour cream. They were here in case Netanyahu won." By 1 a.m. the guests have cleared out. Shaath goes...
There is nothing Shaath, Arafat or any Palestinian leader can do now except hope that everything Bibi Netanyahu said during his campaign was nothing more than electioneering rhetoric. Three years ago, though, Shaath predicted a Netanyahu government would mean the "end of the peace process." Nothing that has happened since has caused him to change that view. He will probably soon begin to sound the optimistic notes that are the only acceptable public reaction Arafat and his aides can offer at a time like this. But in the shock of the moment Shaath candidly characterized Netanyahu's election...
Netanyahu won because a majority of Israelis gradually stopped believing in Yasser Arafat as a peace partner. But a clear majority of voters--including many who backed Netanyahu--want negotiations to continue. And they remain prepared for painful territorial concessions, should Arafat finally prove himself a worthy partner. For Netanyahu to reclaim Israel's vanishing center, he will have to overcome the vehement opposition of many of his closest supporters. Should he succeed, he will rescue the country from its greatest danger: its suicidal divisiveness...
...YASSER ARAFAT Forget handshakes at White House. "Peace of the brave" meets post-Nobel realpolitik...