Word: madrid
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...Fourteen years ago, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made Israelis believe that his attitude toward them had changed by flying to Jerusalem and shaking hands with Israelis, smiling all the time. In contrast, rumors now fly that Syrian President Hafez al-Assad will refuse to shake Shamir's hand, (in Madrid--forget Jerusalem) and such a refusal is unlikely to evoke sympathy from Shamir, who has promised his electorate that he will not cede real estate for promises of peace...
Whether the Palestinian delegation brings good will is harder to know. Assad is a dictator. Listen to him and hear the Syrian line. The Palestinians, however, bring a fragmented team to Madrid. Some, like newspaper editor Sari Nussiebah, say that the conference is less an opportunity to talk with the Israelis than a chance to rally the world against Israel. Other members of the Palestinian team declare in almost every public forum that they represent the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), knowing that Israel has promised to abandon the conference if the PLO participates...
Everyone, including Shamir, knows that the PLO will pull the Palestinian strings. Madrid just happens to host Europe's largest PLO offices. A special liaison has been established to keep the fax lines humming between the official negotiators and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat. But Israel has opted to pretend to believe the charade of PLO noninvolvement. That way, talks can have their chance. Whether or not Israel's refusal to deal with the PLO is reasonable, Palestianian negotiators who openly attempt to bury that charade jeopardize the chance for real talks...
...NEWS, however, is not all bad. Faisal al-Husseini, the real Palestinian mover in Madrid, earnestly tries to squash the PLO-yelping delegates, hoping to keep the conference on course. Arafat's announcement that he will abide by whatever the Palestinian negotiators agree to is equally encouraging. Arafat has nothing to worry about, of course, because he will be telling the Palestinian team what to say. But at long last, he has decided to play the game that might make peace possible instead of allowing ideology and extremism to snatch despair from the jaws of hope...
NEVERTHELESS, NO ONE should believe that Madrid will see enough good will to make friends of old enemies. Israel, Syria and the PLO--oops, I meant the Palestinians--are not going to sit down at a table and discover that they are really all nice people after...