Word: baraker
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...sight. National television had already gone live last Thursday afternoon to the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, where a row of Israeli flags had been set up to flank Prime Minister Ehud Barak as he prepared to announce a cease-fire that would halt five weeks of bloodshed. But in Jerusalem people heard another voice ring out--a terrible, too familiar boom. Police rushed through the narrow alleys of the Mazkoret Moshe neighborhood, hammering on doors to evacuate shaken elderly residents. Thick smoke filled the alleys. Black-hatted yeshiva students ducked around corners, calling out in Yiddish for their friends...
...hope for this latest deal, it was conceived in an armored limousine zipping through an Indian summer night to Gaza City last Wednesday. Shimon Peres, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his founding role in the peace process, sat in the back of the limo with Gilead Sher, Barak's top peace negotiator. The Prime Minister had charged Peres and Sher with pulling Arafat back from the brink. The two men knew the urgency of their task. The previous night, gun battles had raged between the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo and the Palestinian town of Beit Jalla. Israel...
...calmed Arafat. After they ate a dessert of kunafeh, sweet semolina topped with shredded wheat and syrup, Peres and Arafat talked alone. By half past midnight, they had a deal. Arafat agreed to end the shooting--though not the stones and the Molotov cocktails. In return, Peres would persuade Barak to pull back some of Israel's tanks and troops from friction points in the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
...precarious situation. His Palestinian Authority issued a statement announcing an end "to violent and armed confrontation." But his officials said the "peaceful" confrontations would continue. The Israelis were worried that Arafat would try to avoid a clear call for peace. Just before 1 p.m. on Thursday, aides of Barak say, he called Arafat to coordinate the simultaneous broadcasts of the two leaders announcing the cease-fire. "In one hour, when we make our announcements, I want to be sure you won't omit anything," Barak said. Arafat responded, "I'm ready." Instead, the bomb on Shomron Street came. Though...
...same time, it's clear that neither Arafat nor Barak wants an escalation. The fact that the cease-fire brokered last week by Arafat and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres appears to be taking root despite the continued impetus toward violent clashes suggests both sides may be looking for a way out of their current impasse. But exploring ways to resume a dialogue will likely rewind back a lot further than Camp David. And the idea of Washington sharing the mediation duties with others may not be unappealing to the next U.S. president. After all, as Bill Clinton...