Word: barak
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...unseemly haste with which Israel's Labor party has rushed to join Ariel Sharon's Likud in a unity coalition may indicate a paradigm shift in Israeli politics. After all, just two weeks ago Ehud Barak was warning Israeli voters that electing Sharon would be a national catastrophe; on Tuesday Barak was locked in negotiations over how to join Sharon in government. The outgoing prime minister also signed off on the overnight assassination of a Palestinian activist in Gaza by missiles fired from an Israeli helicopter, as a reminder that the two parties take a common view of how Israel...
...Whether or not Barak accepts Sharon's offer to stay on as defense minister, it now looks increasingly likely that the outgoing prime minister's party will join Sharon in a unity government designed to stabilize both Israel's fractious domestic politics and its relations with the Palestinians. The broad terms of that unity-government agreement will be an undertaking by Sharon to respect existing treaties with the Palestinians signed by his predecessors; concerted efforts to make peace with Israel's neighbors; and a moratorium on new Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. And there's no difficulty...
...Ehud Barak announced after his election defeat that he would quit the Labor party leadership. But right now he's negotiating a unity government with Ariel Sharon - does he plan to stay on as Labor leader...
Many of Israel's prime ministers have had such tarnished records, however. Barak has overseen Israel's response to the recent violence, which has led to the deaths of several hundred Palestinians, many of whom have been children. What separates Sharon from the herd, however, is that he does not even pretend that he is willing to come to an agreement with the Palestinians or the other Arabs. While Barak was willing to make concessions to the Arabs in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, Sharon is better known for calling Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, a "liar...
...Although Barak was far from sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, he continued to meet with Palestinian leaders in an attempt to reconcile major disagreements. His techniques differ greatly from those of Sharon, a man known for his brutality and his scorn for the peace process...