Word: intifadas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lurched into its most dangerous crisis since the onset of the intifada last year. But the danger lies less in the escalation of what remains a familiar pattern of violence, than in the fact that the none of the key players - the government of Ariel Sharon, the Palestinian leadership and the Bush administration - appears to have a clear strategy, and all three are deeply divided over how to proceed...
...basic argument made by the new Israeli “left-right” has been the same since the beginning of the recent intifada: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former President Bill Clinton made Palestinian Authority (PA) Chair Yassir Arafat the most generous offer possible, but Arafat nevertheless turned it down. They offered him control over most of Arab East Jerusalem and over 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza. But Arafat was not willing to settle for all of this. Instead, just when the two sides were on the verge of a historic compromise...
...Monday speech on the peace process. Egypt's official Al Ahram was cautiously optimistic in an editorial, but it also carried a front page analysis predicting problems: "[The Palestinians'] ill-disguised discomfort was due to the concrete demands Powell made on them to bring about [an end to the intifada] compared to the vagueness he wanted from Israel to move to [end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza]." Israeli raids into Palestinian territories and new housing construction in settlements continued even after Powell's speech calling for an end to such practices. "Faced with these realities, Arafat...
...problem, both for Sharon and Washington, is that those tactics have not worked. A year into the intifada, it is showing no signs of being exhausted or contained by Israeli military action. More alarming for Washington, Sharon's actions have significantly weakened Arafat politically and strengthened his more radical challengers who hope to follow the Hezbollah model of guerrilla warfare, rather than negotiations, to get Israel out of the West Bank and Gaza...
...Sharon's tactics, of course, are by no means the only obstacle to restoring dialogue. The forces Arafat set in motion when the intifada began last year are now coming back to haunt him. As much as he wants a return to the negotiating table, Palestinian public opinion is firmly behind the militants against whom Arafat would have to act in order to restart the peace process. And the Palestinian street has little enthusiasm for new talks with Israel. Arafat has considerably less political authority and room for maneuver than he had a year...