Word: ghassan
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...peace delegation. The World Bank last week outlined a $4.3 billion development plan covering the next eight to 10 years to rebuild the territories' primitive infrastructure. The Palestinians are counting heavily on outside investment from the European Community, Japan, the U.S. and the Persian Gulf states. In addition, says Ghassan Khatib, a member of the peace delegation, "there are a lot of rich Palestinians, and they are eager to invest in the territories for nationalistic reasons. They want a place to belong...
Many in the P.L.O. acknowledge their rivals' ascendancy. "The balance is shifting rapidly to Hamas and away from us," says Ghassan Khatib, a member of the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks. Some Israelis agree. "The fundamentalists," says Eli Rekhess, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University, "look to be Israel's biggest challenge today, not the P.L.O...
...only hope for a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle lies in defusing Hamas' power. For this reason, a growing number of Israeli politicians, including a significant faction within Rabin's Cabinet, now advocate recognizing and speaking directly with the P.L.O. leadership. Beyond that, nationalists like Ghassan Khatib believe that Israel must offer Palestinians concrete proof that negotiations can pay off. "If there is progress in the peace talks, then the P.L.O. will be in a position to absorb Hamas," he says. "Otherwise it will be the other way around...
...plenty of noise. The so-called rejectionists are better organized and more determined than ever to upset the talks. Their resurgence has put the Palestinian negotiators on edge and complicated their already tricky task of coming to acceptable terms with the Israelis. "We are a bit disturbed," allows delegate Ghassan Khatib, "to find the people falling into the hands of the opposition...
...Golan back. On the issue of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, there is a wide gap between the Israeli proposal for an "administrative" council and Palestinian demands for a "legislative" body, an embryo parliament for a Palestinian state. But gone are the days when, as Palestinian delegate Ghassan Khatib puts it, "proposals were prepared for confrontation, not agreement." Propaganda ideas are yielding to suggestions that might be negotiable. Someday. Maybe...