Word: gaza
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That Israelis and Palestinian are even talking about a "Gaza-first" cease-fire plan is a sign of growing despair on both sides. Moves to negotiate a new truce with the Palestinian Authority (PA) suggest Israel's recognition of the failure of its military actions to end terror attacks. And for Palestinian negotiators the idea of restoring security cooperation with Israel even while its troops maintain a stranglehold over the West Bank is an admission of how few cards they hold. But divisions in both camps - and in the Bush administration, whose active involvement the plan will require - suggest that...
...Palestinian Authority cabinet meeting convened on Wednesday by Yasser Arafat endorsed a proposal floated earlier this week by Israeli defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer for Israel to begin pulling out of Gaza if the PA undertakes to curb terrorism. If reformed PA security structures show themselves willing and able to stop attacks on Israelis, the Gaza would be emulated in other West Bank cities. The Palestinian leadership, in giving qualified support to the proposal, proclaimed it as a basis for realizing their demand that Israel withdraw to its September 2000 positions, before the outbreak of the current intifada...
...were killed in a 24-hour period over the weekend, despite Israel's reoccupation of most of the West Bank's urban areas. Although the Israeli military is looking to respond through measures punishing family members of suicide bombers, the Defense Minister's revival of the longstanding idea of Gaza as a test-bed for truces and peace agreements suggests that the dovish faction of the Israeli government (Ben-Eliezer heads the Labor Party) is signaling its desire to renew some form of peace process with the Palestinian Authority - notwithstanding the reservations of the hawkish faction of the Bush administration...
...Gaza-first may, however, be the most palatable starting point for an Israeli government sharply divided over the terms of a political solution with the Palestinians and whether to resume relations with the PA. The dusty strip of Mediterranean coastline populated mostly by Palestinian refugees holds little sentimental value to even the most ardent Zionists, and many of Sharon's supporters vehemently opposed to a Palestinian state in the West Bank tend to acknowledge that it might be an inevitability in Gaza. Unlike the West Bank, Gaza is separated from Israel by a border fence that has, for the most...
...Eliezer would also like to use a "Gaza-first" cease-fire as an opportunity to evacuate more isolated settlements there. Such a move has been advocated by the Israeli military for logistical reasons, and by the Labor Party as a means of showing ordinary Palestinians that Israel is willing to address their sharpest grievance in exchange for an end to violence. But Sharon has long been a champion of the settlement movement, and has until now sharply rejected the idea of retreat even from the most isolated settlements in Gaza...