Word: livni
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Condoleezza Rice has a lot in common with her secret new soul mate, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Both are women with razor-sharp intellects, center-right convictions and an odd blend of rigid righteousness and pragmatism. Both work under men whose popularity has plummeted because of the bungled conduct of a war (Iraq for George Bush, Lebanon for Ehud Olmert). And both realize that this vulnerability, combined with the even greater weakness of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has made the timing ripe for a new strategy for an Israeli-Palestinian peace...
...Rice and Livni discussed their new approach in Washington in early December, and since then they have had frequent phone conversations. Their strategy is to put aside the step-by-step road map, which requires that the Palestinians dismantle their terrorist infrastructure before any new phase of negotiations begins, and instead leap right to final-status talks with moderate Palestinians about what a two-state solution would look like. If a suitable framework for a Palestinian state is reached, Abbas would then go to his people with a referendum: Do you want it or not? He is convinced that more...
...Bush would go along with that only if the affected Arab-Israelis agree. The issue of Jerusalem and the rights of refugees could be compromised along the lines almost agreed to in 2000, with an international fund providing incentives for Palestinian refugees to return to the new Palestinian state. Livni has quietly been meeting with Palestinian moderates, and they support this approach...
Both Rice and Livni face hard-liners in their governments who want to stick to the road map and make any movement on the peace process contingent on the Palestinians halting terrorism and cease-fire violations. But that gives Hamas veto power over all progress and could require Israel to occupy the West Bank indefinitely. "The principle of two nation-states is not only an Israeli gift to the Palestinians but a promotion of Israel's interests," Livni says...
...Palestinian-Israeli peace will not solve America's woes in Iraq, of course. But Rice and Livni believe it could serve a broader strategic goal. They see the primary divide in the Middle East as being between the forces of moderation and those of extremism. The rise of Iran and its extremist clients has created a potential alliance among moderate Palestinians, Israelis and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the gulf states. "There is a growing understanding among the Israelis, Palestinians and the moderate Arab nations that the real threat is Iran and the radicalism it supports...