Word: baraker
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Madeleine Albright is finding Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak easier to deal with than his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who always had to be dragged into peace talks. Even so, Albright, headed for the Middle East again this week, is faced with the task of trying to untangle more of the same old squabbles...
...torpedo her campaign. Despite New York's large Jewish vote and the tabloid media's best efforts, Suha Arafat's remarks are hardly likely to turn into one of those "-gate" tropes that could doom her campaign (the Palestinians hate the Israelis - who knew?), especially after Prime Minister Ehud Barak gave her a ringing endorsement as a friend of Israel. But what the incident may have shown is that the trappings of First Ladyhood, which had given her campaign its original bounce, have now turned dysfunctional - the West Bank, after all, isn't exactly a traditional whistle stop...
Yitzhak Rabin risked - and lost - his life for the Oslo Accord, and President Clinton hopes his memory will inspire Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak to take the giant steps required to complete the peace process. But it may take more than even Rabin's inspirational example, commemorated by Arafat, Barak and Clinton in a ceremony in the Norwegian capital Tuesday, to spur progress in the troubled march to peace. After all, even at the height of the optimism and trust forged between Rabin and Arafat, the "final status" issues currently on the table were considered too contentious to tackle...
Arafat and Barak have given themselves until February 15 to conclude a framework agreement on the "Final Status" issues, but during overnight talks in Oslo Tuesday they didn't even discuss their substantive difference, only procedural matters. The absence of any sign of progress in bridging the immediate differences over Israeli settlers and Jerusalem has President Clinton worried, because the danger suddenly seems very real that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process - the centerpiece of his foreign policy legacy - could grind to a halt. Failure to agree on peace, of course, wouldn't necessarily result in a return to war. Arafat...
Both sides keep a wary eye on the other's construction efforts, and a massive outbreak of violence followed an Israel decision to open a new access tunnel in September 1996. But despite Jewish objections, the Labor government of newly elected prime minister Ehud Barak could see the logic of adding additional exits and worshiping space in a mosque that draws tens of thousands of Muslims to prayer. More important, Barak deemed any attempt to stop the construction as likely to inflame tensions at a point when the city least needs them. The Temple Mount "is the most sensitive place...