Word: gaza
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...Party agreed to join Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon's governing coalition. It will hold eight of 30 cabinet posts. The party chose its elder statesman, Shimon Peres, as Foreign Minister and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former general who headed the Israeli military government in the West Bank and Gaza in the 1980s, as Defense Minister. Salah Tarif was named a Minister Without Portfolio; he is the first Arab ever appointed to an Israeli cabinet...
...Sharon is prepared to lift the closure of the West Bank and Gaza and allow Palestinians to return to jobs in Israel, but not until the violence stops. There are positive signs from the Palestinians that if Sharon takes a few confidence-building measures, that may help them climb down from the branch onto which they've hauled themselves. When Barak came to power, Arafat wanted tangible things, like the withdrawal of troops from some land and other small measures - he didn't want to have to go to Camp David and negotiate a final deal. And so with Sharon...
...Very few Israeli leaders think that the inevitable anarchy that could result in the West Bank and Gaza if the PA collapsed would be beneficial to Israel. The Israelis are clearly frustrated with Arafat, but they also know that right now there's no one else to negotiate with...
...around. But those trenches obviously also stop an ambulance from reaching those areas now, too. There's an awareness, though, on the Israeli side that Arafat might want them to do something really bad that would bring international condemnation, and possibly even international intervention in the West Bank and Gaza. So it's very unlikely that they'll go storming into Palestinian towns. But the situation remains very volatile and very unpredictable...
...Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which looks set to collapse. Israeli blockades have dramatically impacted on the PA's income, and its political legitimacy is already deeply corroded by rampant cronyism and corruption. But allowing the PA to collapse will create a dangerous power vacuum in the West Bank and Gaza, which many fear will ultimately be filled by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militants. And that may present Israel with a problem even greater than its frustrations with Arafat. Mindful of that scenario, U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell gently urged the Israelis, during his recent visit, to lift...