Word: netanyahu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...achieve this week even more difficult. "Poor Madeleine is going out there, expected to put Humpty Dumpty back together again," admitted one of her aides, "but it's an almost impossible mission." This was already a major test of Albright's blunt and brassy diplomacy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are now so mutually distrustful, so hamstrung by extremist political constituents, that they cannot bear to talk to each other, much less negotiate in good faith. In a situation where toughness and the matching of wills are not always enough, even her most ardent admirers...
Perhaps the politician most damaged by the bombs is Arafat. He immediately condemned the attack, promised to cooperate in hunting terrorists and ordered the detention of 10 leaders of Hamas, which had quickly taken responsibility for the blast. But Netanyahu, while touring a Jerusalem hospital filled with the wounded, vowed to back away from peace talks if Arafat doesn't crack down on the radical Islamists. Israelis again locked down the West Bank and Gaza Strip, keeping 100,000 Palestinians who commute to Israel out of work, and rounded up suspected Islamist militants...
...next day Netanyahu's government announced it would cede no more territory to the Palestinians unless Arafat crushed Hamas. "We can't have a situation in which we are asked to hand over more land at a time when they are not fighting terror," the Prime Minister said. He also threatened to hunt down Hamas operatives in Arafat's jurisdiction, even if that violates the accords. After the bombing, military commanders shuttled to Netanyahu's office, stirring speculation that they were reviewing contingency plans for such raids...
...Middle East wouldn't wait. Netanyahu's hard-line stands on carrying out provisions of the 1993 agreement and decisions such as the building of a new Jewish settlement in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem enraged and frustrated the Palestinians. Arafat's failure to cooperate with Israeli agents in monitoring and arresting Islamic extremists or to silence the rhetoric of violence that lends their acts legitimacy enraged and stiffened Netanyahu. In the aftermath of the July 30 Jerusalem bombing that took the lives of 15 victims and provoked Israel's punitive response, relations slid down to the level of name calling...
...Palestinians as a reward for shutting down the Islamists. That didn't happen, and now, as far as the Israelis are concerned, that's the whole purpose of her trip. "I think she realized that waiting for a sufficient crackdown was not going to suffice," says David Bar-Illan, Netanyahu's director of communications and policy planning. "We want progress on this issue. If it can be effected by her presence, we want that. If it can't be, we sympathize with her efforts." As the week ended, Netanyahu made it plain that he is in no mood even...