Word: baraker
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...only way forward for Ehud Barak was to go back - to the electorate, in search of a renewed peace mandate. Facing certain defeat in his efforts to stop Israel's parliament from adopting a motion to force new elections, the Israeli prime minister shocked his opponents Tuesday by simply calling a new election himself after serving only 18 months of his four-year term. Having failed to coax hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon into a national unity government, Barak found his minority government isolated in the legislature. By calling new elections, he's opted for a referendum on how Israel...
...Temple Mount two months ago, which set off the current wave of violence. Waiting in the wings is his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is more than ready to make a political comeback after being cleared of corruption allegations. The more charismatic Netanyahu is considered a far greater threat to Barak than Sharon, despite high negative ratings of his own. And that's likely to sway Likud into nominating the man Barak beat in 1999 to take back the government for the party of the right. Indeed, the prospect of being eclipsed by Netanyahu may have been weighing heavily on Sharon...
...renewed Palestinian uprising will create a dramatic backdrop to the election expected to be held late in the Spring at the earliest. Likud will play to Israeli fears arising out of the current violence, charging that Barak's peacemaking efforts had been naïve and that Israel needed an even harsher response to Palestinian actions. Barak will stand firm on the principle that Israel has no alternative but to make peace with the Palestinians, and will remind the electorate of the conspicuous failures of both Netanyahu and Sharon to make progress on this front...
...become a frustrating dilemma for the Palestinian leadership each time Israel goes to the polls - do they restrain Palestinians for fear of stampeding Israeli voters to the right, or do they press on regardless of whether the man they'll ultimately face across the negotiating table is Netanyahu or Barak. But the election also presents Arafat with an opportunity: After all, the Palestinian leader knows the intifada alone will not force Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, and a return to negotiations is inevitable - and Barak now needs a peace deal more than ever...
DIED. LEAH RABIN, 72, widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and blunt-spoken supporter of the Arab-Israeli peace process; of cancer; in Petach Tikva, Israel. Rabin's last public act was to ask Israeli leader Ehud Barak to send former Prime Minister Shimon Peres to negotiate with the Palestinians...