Word: baraker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...albatross as it lost hundreds of soldiers over the years and still failed to eliminate Hezbollah. Israel had hoped to negotiate its withdrawal as part of a wider peace agreement with Syria, which would then police southern Lebanon. But despite the breakdown of those talks, Prime Minister Ehud Barak was under strong domestic pressure to end a deeply unpopular occupation...
...Lebanon didn't turn off the lights, but he did lock the gate. He also symbolically opened a dangerous new chapter of Israel's troubled relations with its neighbors. The last Israelis departed before dawn Wednesday, as the collapse of their Lebanese Christian proxy army forced Prime Minister Ehud Barak to speed up the withdrawal plan. Even more worrying to the Israeli leader than the spectacle of his troops retreating under fire and Hezbollah guerrillas dancing triumphantly atop tanks abandoned by his Lebanese allies is the fact that the vacuum left by Israel has been filled by a guerrilla movement...
...absence of a peace deal with Syria - which Barak had hoped would rein in Hezbollah - Israel had hoped that its Lebanese allies would hold their own long enough to string a line of U.N. peacekeepers between the guerrillas and the Israeli border. But the instantaneous collapse of the South Lebanon Army has rendered that impossible, even in the unlikely event that the U.N. force, whose role in Lebanon has never been more than that of spectators, had been willing to insert itself between two armies who have reached no peace agreement. That leaves Israel's northernmost population centers vulnerable...
...situation that highlights the danger of a new escalation of regional conflict. But if Israel retaliates with massive force, that could potentially ratchet up the conflict to dangerous levels by prompting widespread rocket attacks across the border or even drawing in Syria. However, despite its desire to prove to Barak that peace on his northern border is impossible without Syria, Damascus has no desire to be drawn into a full-blown war with its militarily stronger neighbor. So, even as the security situation on the Lebanon border becomes increasingly volatile in the coming weeks, Israel and Syria may begin feeling...
...Almost a year after Barak?s election got most of the Middle East bullish on peace, Israel-Syria talks have come to nothing, the withdrawal from Lebanon shows little sign of stabilizing Israel?s northern border and prospects have dimmed considerably for an Israeli-Palestinian deal by their September deadline. "Both sides doubt their problems are surmountable this year," says Beyer. "Barak has been talking of a less-than-final agreement, and Arafat is torn between his great desire to be the leader who attains statehood for the Palestinians, and his equally fervent desire...