Word: mazen
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...about them quite a bit. By the end of last week, some of the looters had repented and returned artifacts to the museum. Even in the middle of war, after decades of brutalization by Saddam Hussein's regime, ordinary Iraqis have a fierce pride in their nation's history. Mazen Ahmad, 64, who sells eggs a few blocks from the Iraq Museum, says he has never been inside, but he takes the loss very personally. "Our history was in that building. It was the soul of Iraq," he says. "If the museum doesn't recover the looted treasures, I will...
...Potholed Road To Peace MIDDLE EAST The long-awaited road map for Israeli-Palestinian peace may be published this week, if Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his cabinet are confirmed as expected. But the diplomatically arduous process of getting Yasser Arafat to accept Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, and his slate of ministers shows that, for the international plan to have any hope of success, another road map will be needed - for peace within the Palestinian camp. "The heavy pressure from European and Arab leaders on Arafat produced results," says Palestinian Legislative Council member Muawiya al-Masri...
...reason Arafat may yet prevail against these odds, however, may have less to do with any enthusiasm among Palestinian legislators for his autocratic rule than with some of the key political issues that divide Arafat from his challenger. Abu Mazen has made clear that he intends to put Palestinian security services to work disarming the various unofficial militias, such as the Fatah-based Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, and also to clamp down on the militant Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Arafat opposes the idea of confronting the militants, for fear that this could lead to a Palestinian civil...
...Unfortunately for Abu Mazen, his policy of suppressing militant groups and relying exclusively on the diplomatic route to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the West Bank and Gaza remains a tough sell even to many Palestinians willing to jettison Arafat. And while his longtime efforts as a peacemaker - he famously co-authored a plan for sharing Jerusalem with former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin - have earned Abu Mazen considerable respect in foreign capitals, he has no mass support base of his own among Palestinians. The latest opinion survey published by a respected Palestinian polling organization showed that while some...
...More importantly, perhaps, the infighting among the Palestinians is a reminder of the depths of the challenges that lie ahead. When the road map is eventually published, Israelis and Palestinians will be forced to contend with the question of its destination. And while Abu Mazen may oppose the violent strategy of the intifada, he is not prepared to accept a final settlement in which the Palestinians get less than what Israel offered at the doomed Taba talks in January of 2001 - Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza based on Israeli withdrawal to a modified version...