Word: barak
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Israeli hands. Sharon's aides explained his "occupation" remark as a reference to Israeli rule over Palestinian population centers, rather than to the lands conquered in 1967. In other words, whereas the Palestinians and most of the international community assume, in line with the final offer made by Ehud Barak shortly before Sharon's election, that the eventual borders of a Palestinian state will comprise most or all of the West Bank and Gaza, Sharon's vision of Palestine is considerably (in the cartographic sense) narrower. Not surprising, then, Israel's cabinet stopped short of endorsing the "roadmap" itself, instead...
...divide possibly even more profound than the standoff over security. The endpoint of the roadmap is a Palestinian state at peace with Israel. But the document provides no outline of the borders. For the Palestinians, a final peace agreement is based on the last one offered by Ehud Barak at the Taba talks in January 2001 - a Palestinian state in all, or almost all of the West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Although Sharon has never put all his cards on the table, he's given plenty of indicators that in his vision, a Palestinian state...
...supported by most of the Palestinian legislature and by the sponsors of the road map (although the Bush administration will likely be internally divided over just where Israeli-Palestinian borders should be drawn). But Ariel Sharon was not party to the Taba talks (they were conducted by the Barak government shortly before his election), and had vociferously rejected even Barak's more limited offer at Camp David the previous summer. Although Sharon has spoken recently of the need for "painful concessions" to achieve peace, few Israeli analysts believe he is willing to go nearly as far as his predecessor. Which...
...worst recession in 50 years. Sharon is campaigning on the basis of continuity of his tough policies against the Palestinian uprising and postponing political negotiations until after it has been suppressed. In many ways, it's a rerun of the contest between Sharon and his predecessor, Ehud Barak - and two years later, Sharon is once again the runaway favorite to carry the day despite (or, perhaps because of) the continuing security crisis and its social and economic costs...
...pressure on Sharon by committing publicly to the plan. U.S. positions typically play a major role in shaping the choices of the Israeli electorate - by pushing strongly for accommodation with the Palestinians, the first Bush administration helped elect Yitzhak Rabin and the Clinton administration actively campaigned to elect Barak. The current Bush administration, however, agreed to keep the "road map" off the table during Israel's election season. And that may explain why, as Israel went to the polls Tuesday for an election whose outcome is all but given, one bitter peacenik Israeli commentator observed that the only vote that...