Word: intifadas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Israeli law from returning to Israel suggests that both Arafat and his Arab backers have been forced by the anger on the Palestinian and Arab streets to retreat from compromises they may have been prepared to make at an earlier stage of the peace process. And the intifada of the past three months has woken Israeli leaders up to the vast gulf between their own and their neighbors' ideas of the shape of an acceptable final settlement, which has set the Jewish state on a political swing back to the right. All of which leaves the region no closer...
...independence. Under mounting domestic pressure, Barak had suggested he'd accept the deal with reservations but wouldn't sign over sovereignty over the Muslim sites. That issue alone, as Camp David showed, could be enough to scupper a deal. But after three months of a bitter intifada that has seen the Palestinian street increasingly willing to contradict Arafat, the Palestinian leader may now find himself unable to simply sign away the claims of the refugees, even if that had been his original intention. Right now, the followers of both Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Barak are simply not yet ready...
...Ground zero in the current intifada is a hill in Jerusalem known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. That precious piece of real estate contains the ruins of Judaism?s holiest temple, on top of which stands the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam?s third-holiest site. Last year's Camp David talks broke down over the issue of which side would have national sovereignty over the land on which the holy sites stand...
...Palestinian Reservations: While Arafat has been prepared to put the issue on the backburner over the past decade, the current intifada makes that more difficult. The issue cuts to the core of Palestinian national identity - the displacement of Palestinians that was integral to the creation of a Jewish state. Many of those refugees currently reside in Arab states who have no interest in bearing the burden of their absorption, which creates additional pressure on Arafat not to compromise on this issue. The growing challenge to the Palestinian leader's authority in the West Bank and Gaza also militates against compromise...
...conflict has proved at best deeply frustrating, and at worst may have exacerbated the conflict. Dick Cheney is on solid ground when he suggests President Clinton may have been pushing too hard at last August's Camp David talks, the failure of which set the fire of the current intifada...