Word: barak
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...smarter, U.S. President Bill Clinton or Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak? James Carville, who has served both men, had to think a minute. "Barak is probably the most unique person I've met in terms of his range of skills," he explains. "Clinton is brilliant but nowhere near the mathematician or musician that Barak is." Then again, Carville notes, the President has astonishing people skills...
...charm and intellect was on vibrant display last week as the two men grinned their way from photo op to photo op, cementing what they clearly hope will become a fast friendship of mutual interest and political romance. Eager for breakthroughs in the Middle East peace process, Barak and Clinton orchestrated a public embrace meant to persuade Israelis that with a strong ally in Washington they can afford the concessions new treaties will demand...
...relations with Clinton, Barak hopes for what his mentor, assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, had achieved--direct, instant and frequent access to the President. In the weeks after his election, Barak resisted approaches of lesser U.S. officials, such as special envoy Dennis Ross, preferring to wait for a White House chat. Nor did Barak want his subordinates running relations. In a confidential memo, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright advised Clinton that the ex-general was secretive and didn't have a large circle of aides "who knew his mind." A one-on-one relationship with Barak, she said, would...
Clinton evidently took her words to heart. In their first session at the White House, he and Barak met for 2 1/2 hours with no aides present, not even a notetaker--a highly unusual format. Then the two men and their wives choppered to Camp David for a sleepover. After a chatty, getting-to-know-you fish dinner, the two leaders adjourned for a discussion on a range of issues including terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, while Hillary and Nava Barak discussed their own shared interests in women's health issues. Clinton took the couple on a stroll through...
Clinton dearly wants to achieve a lasting settlement in the region before he leaves office, and in Barak the U.S. has an ambassador to Arafat who is truly interested in peace. But the Israeli and the Palestinian have a bit of a love triangle to work through with Clinton ? Barak would prefer that Washington hang back a little and preserve Israel?s natural negotiating advantage, while Arafat finds himself fighting for U.S. attention now that Barak and Clinton have hit it off so well. If anyone can walk that line in the middle of a funeral, of course...