Word: likud
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...waged, but it comes unstuck when there's a peace to be brokered. Nowhere is that more true than at the right-wing end of the country's political spectrum. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was dealt a cruel political blow by his own party early on Monday, when the Likud Central Committee rejected his pleas to consider the diplomatic consequences and voted almost unanimously to reject Palestinian statehood in the West Bank. Although the vote simply restated longstanding Likud policy, it was a calculated bid by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to unseat Sharon. Netanyahu's calculation: The vote will...
...need to head off the challenge from within Likud raises pressure on Sharon to mount a hard-hitting military operation in Gaza in response the Rishon Letzion bombing. But that pressure may be counterbalanced by concern that a new upsurge of fighting in Gaza could set off a chain reaction that once again tips the balance in the Bush administration towards a more forceful push for peace. Whatever course Israel chooses, the Gaza dilemma highlights the extent to which Washington's recent piecemeal efforts to stabilize the situation have not filled the security and political vacuum left in the wake...
...while Washington may be prepared to give Sharon breathing space on the political questions, his own party is proving less cooperative. The governing committee of Likud is scheduled to vote Sunday to adopt a policy resolution rejecting a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But if committing to a policy that essentially rules out any prospect of peace with the Palestinians leaves Sharon in a difficult position, that may partly be the intention - former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is running hard from the right to eclipse Sharon in the battle for the party's nomination for next year's general election...
...idea of a peace plan consists largely of ending violence and agreeing on a long-term truce, postponing the question of disentangling and demarcating Israel from Palestine for up to a decade. Sharon's own domestic concerns may be a factor. The governing body of his own Likud Party is due to vote in a little over a week to reject the principle of any Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, which would preclude the two-state solution being pursued by Washington. And while Secretary of State Colin Powell is calling for an end to settlement activities...
...dismissed out of hand by Palestinian and moderate Arab leaders, who have embraced a consensus for peace with Israel on the basis of some version of its 1967 borders. That's a prospect Sharon has ruled out, and Benjamin Netanyahu's challenge from the right for leadership of the Likud party gives him little room to even appear flexible. The Likud central committee is expected, two weeks from now, to reject any prospect of Palestinian sovereignty between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean - in other words, to essentially rule out a political settlement. At a moment when President Bush needs...