Word: baraker
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Once the current violence dies down, Israel must act decisively to remove most or all settlements from Palestinian occupied lands. At the same time, the Palestinians must accept Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer of a shared East Jerusalem--since neither side will ever trust the other to protect its holy places, sharing is the only solution. I fear both of these issues are incredibly touchy and will probably take years to resolve...
...established terms for a new cease-fire. Israel has agreed to withdraw its forces from the edge of Palestinian towns and reopen border crossings to coincide with the onset of Ramadan. In exchange, the Palestinian Authority has undertaken to stop shootings and other violent actions on the Palestinian side. Barak and Arafat reportedly also agreed in a phone conversation Friday to restore the Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation that Israel had suspended a day earlier...
...latest agreements reflect a growing sense that Arafat and Barak, each for his own reasons, need to avert an escalation of violence. On Arafat's side, there's the realization that no matter how intense the violence, he's unlikely to persuade the international community to send in a U.N. peacekeeping force. Solidifying the diplomatic gains he's made over the past two months may now require that he act more forcefully to tamp down violence and return to the negotiating table with greater international backing...
...Israeli side, there's the realization that the more forceful the military response, the weaker their political and diplomatic position becomes. And the current crisis is ratcheting up domestic political pressure on Barak's beleaguered government, no matter how forcefully he responds to Palestinian attacks. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party has indicated that it plans, on Monday, to support an opposition motion to dissolve the Knesset and call new elections. That would make Barak a lame duck prime minister, precluding any new agreements with the Palestinians...
...much as Barak and Arafat may want to calm the conflict now, it remains unclear to what extent they're able to control the situation. On the Palestinian side, Arafat's authority is increasingly challenged not only by the Islamist radicals of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but also by the rank and file of his own Fatah organization, whose militia have led the street confrontations with Israeli forces for the past two months. Barak, too, has to deal with some very angry generals and even angrier Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and there remains vast potential...