Word: haaretz
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...absence of non-violent channels of expressing political and national anger and aspirations creates a certain inevitability about terrorism. Ask the Israelis: During his successful 1999 campaign to become prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak shared this startling observation with the Israeli daily Haaretz: "I imagine that if I were a Palestinian of the right age, I would, at some stage, have joined one of the terror organizations...
Today, other developments on the ground, including the unilateral disengagement plan from 17 Israeli settlements in Gaza, also puts into question Israel’s real intentions. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s adviser Dov Weisglass declared in an interview with Haaretz a few weeks ago that, “The significance of our (unilateral) disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. It supplies the formaldehyde necessary so there is no political process with Palestinians...
...Just last week, Dov Weisglass, top political adviser and former chief of staff to the Israeli prime minister told the Israeli daily Haaretz that Sharon's intention in quitting Gaza is to freeze the peace process, not advance it. Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan, said Weisglass, "is the bottle of formaldehyde within which you place the president's [roadmap] formula so that it will be preserved for a very lengthy period. The disengagement is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians...
...arguments for restraint on Arafat are well known in Israel, all the way up to Sharon?s cabinet. Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky wrote in Haaretz on Tuesday that "We must face the simple truth: Arafat has unsurpassed stature in Palestinian society. Palestinians view him as a national hero. And since Arafat's strength is sustained by his opposition to Israel, his exile would only fortify his position." An exiled Arafat would retain the leadership of the Palestinian national movement, thereby rendering redundant the Palestinian Authority, which would be unlikely to survive his departure. Simply put, no one would be willing...
...Sharon seems determined to torpedo the road map before formal negotiations even get underway. In the interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Sharon offered to make “painful concessions” on settlements—but in the same interview, and in an Israeli cabinet meeting just over a week ago, he said settlement discussions would be left until the final status negotiations. Yet Sharon says that the Palestinians must compromise on the right of return for refugees “right from the outset...