Word: baraker
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Further unrest developed deep in Palestinian territory at the site of the Israeli-controlled Joseph's Tomb at Nablus. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak pulled his soldiers out, supposedly with an agreement that the site would be guarded by Palestinian police. The next day those police joined with rioters in demolishing the old domed structure. A new front opened over the weekend, when Hizballah guerrillas darted over the Lebanese border and captured three Israelis. Barak responded with an ultimatum to the Palestinians to end the clashes within 48 hours...
...seeds of the violence were planted this summer. At Camp David, Barak proposed that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat get control over the mosques--but not sovereignty. Arafat wanted sovereignty to boost his status with Muslims, so he rejected the proposal. He warned left-wing Israeli supporters that if he compromised on Haram al-Sharif, fundamentalists might oust him. "You Israelis will lose me," Arafat said, according to senior aides. "The peace process will be buried...
That was supposed to shock Barak into helping Arafat. But the Israeli Prime Minister made no response. Angry and isolated, Arafat prepared to send a message Barak couldn't ignore. He held a series of midnight meetings in late September with local leaders of his Fatah party's Tanzim. The Tanzim, which means "organization," is an armed militia that answers to a network of local warlords. "Be ready. We will be facing difficult times," Arafat told the leaders. Officials close to Arafat say he was counting on a tough Israeli response to trouble, followed by international condemnation of Israel...
...Palestinian Tanzim militia--which Arafat bankrolls--was reveling in the chaos, using it to try out new tactics. A favored innovation: sneaking up on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the suburbs of Jerusalem to spray automatic-weapon fire. Barak sent Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh to the settlement of Psagot to placate angry settlers. Sneh was met by Ron Schechner. The two are veterans of the 1976 commando operation to rescue Israeli hostages at Entebbe airport in Uganda. As they greeted each other, shots rained from Palestinian buildings nearby. Sneh's bodyguard urged him to take cover. "Look...
...Barak's nastiest surprise last week may turn out to be the violence among Israel's Arab population. Though Israelis call them "our Arabs," the 1 million Arab citizens of Israel consider themselves Palestinians. The call to defend al-Aqsa brought them out in the thousands. And it highlighted the political problems Barak still faces at home. Without the help of Israeli Arabs, Barak may not be able to cement his power--and Arafat may find himself facing a hard-line Israeli government. U.S. and Israeli officials often talk about how difficult it is to understand what Arafat wants...