Word: gaza
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Arafat's duplicitous messages--publicly he talks about making peace with Israel; privately he's militant--have helped bring the two strands of Palestinian politics together. The Authority, notes a security official in the Gaza Strip, "has played a double game throughout the intifadeh." What's more, says an Israeli security official in the West Bank, with central command in the Authority deteriorating in recent months, many local security and militia leaders are unclear whether they are supposed to be initiating terrorist attacks, closing their eyes to other people's terrorist attacks or trying to prevent terrorist attacks. In that...
...this the end to all hopes for diplomacy? Privately, Israeli officials said they would restore ties with Arafat if he would embark on a real crackdown. One of his security officials in Gaza argues that Arafat cannot do that without alienating his constituents. This source compares Arafat to the coach of a national soccer team. "How can you turn around halfway through the game and say the goaltender is Islamic Jihad, so he has to be arrested, and one of the players is Hamas, so we're going to arrest him too? How can you explain that to the spectators...
...announcement puts Arafat in a bind, not only because it makes it more difficult for him to arrest Hamas members, but also because of the distinction made between Israel-proper and the West Bank and Gaza. The Islamist organization has left the door open to continue attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, a position endorsed by the grassroots militants of Arafat's own Fatah organization and one that would find few critics in Palestinian civil society where the settlements are viewed as an illegal and intolerable presence. But Israel and the U.S. are unlikely...
...clashes have prompted the Europeans and other diplomats to commend Arafat for taking concrete steps against groups conducting terrorist operations, although the U.S. and Israel are holding out for more. But Arafat's prime political obstacle in delivering that is the widespread perception in the West Bank and Gaza that he's acting on Israel's behalf against fellow Palestinians without achieving any gains for his own people. Hence the growing concern among diplomats and Israeli leaders of the traditional "peace camp" such as Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to revive the prospect of political negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian...
...taking political risks to crack down on radicals is likely to raise pressure on the Israelis in the coming weeks for a resumption of political dialogue. Peres has reportedly been meeting with PA officials to discuss a plan under which Israel would withdraw from all over Gaza and allow Arafat to declare a state there and in the 40 percent of the West Bank he currently controls. That state would then negotiate with Israel over the remaining West Bank territories and Jerusalem. Arafat and most of his advisers are reportedly cool on accepting a state in three chunks...