Word: netanyahu
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Wednesday 2:15 a.m. The phone rang. Outside, in the quiet Maryland fall night, the Wye River whispered. Benjamin Netanyahu had finally made it back to his bedroom after negotiating for a full day, the last three hours with President Bill Clinton, who had just helicoptered back to the White House. The night had been a long give-and-take over security issues; a give-and-take that seemed to be moving in the same circles the Israelis and Palestinians had traveled for months, even years. "Hello?" Netanyahu said. "Happy Birthday." It was Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, calling...
...threatened to declare a Palestinian state. But last week's accord, fought for and won over nine tumultuous days, created new momentum toward a permanent peace, the first such movement in 19 months. What Arafat called "a big step which came late" also opened the tantalizing possibility that Netanyahu, who previously seemed to shadowbox with the peace process, had now committed himself irretrievably to work toward a final settlement. It also provided a stage for Clinton, hobbled by problems at home, to play statesman instead of defendant...
After a White House send-off on Thursday, Oct. 15, Netanyahu and Arafat settled in at Wye. The two men actually didn't know each other well. Nor had Arafat ever met Ariel Sharon, the hard-liner Netanyahu recently named Foreign Minister. The hulking former general showed up two days late, sweeping into dinner, right past Arafat's gesture of welcome, refusing to shake hands or even look at the man he calls a terrorist and murderer. Instead Sharon focused on some Arafat aides with whom he has held talks this year. While he never did shake Arafat's hand...
...Benjamin Netanyahu may be under fire at home, but don't expect him to be toppled. As West Bank settlers barricaded roads, right-wingers in Israel's parliament failed on Monday to pass a no-confidence vote over the Wye agreement. "The opposition has promised to back Netanyahu over the agreement," says TIME Jerusalem bureau chief Lisa Beyer. "That doesn't mean they won't push for early election so that they can unseat him and take forward the peace process themselves...
...well have to face the electorate as early as next March, but the Israeli leader's reluctant signature at Wye could be a strategy to keep his job. "Netanyahu knew centrist voters would reject him if he didn't sign," says Beyer. "Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Israelis back this agreement. The right-wing opposition is very vocal, but it's a minority." That doesn't mean that Netanyahu has reversed his own ideological opposition to trading land for peace. Says Beyer, "Netanyahu can live with this deal because he knows...