Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Israel's national unity government is an apt reflection of the population it serves: argumentative, divisive and incapable of achieving consensus on how to deal with the Palestinian question. Now the latest attempt at unity is faltering after seven months, as the country's two major parties bump heads over the future course of a peace plan that calls for elections in the occupied territories. Bowing to pressures from hard-liners within his Likud bloc, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir two weeks ago saddled the proposal with conditions that are anathema to the Palestinians. Labor Party leaders responded last week...
Shamir's initiative was never more than a tentative move toward starting a dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It offered Arabs in the occupied territories the chance to elect representatives to negotiate with Israel a transitional period of self-rule -- a possible beginning if Palestinians were willing to take it. But under the terms of the initiative, the Palestinian representatives could have no overt connection with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Not surprisingly, no Palestinians rushed to embrace the scheme. Still, coaxed by the U.S., the P.L.O. was giving the plan serious consideration...
That won't be easy. Arab officials all but pronounced the plan dead in its tracks. In Tunis, P.L.O spokesman Ahmed Abdul-Rahman said Shamir's conditions represent a "complete rejection of American and Palestinian efforts to bring about peace." P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat did not comment publicly, but he was known to be concerned that Shamir's intransigence might trigger a fresh wave of violence in the occupied territories and cede the upper hand to radical elements within the P.L.O. who oppose Arafat's attempts to promote more moderate policies...
...Shamir to adopt the killer amendments, Sharon committed Likud to a position that leaves virtually no room for negotiation, just as he intended. He had denounced Shamir's proposal as "the most dangerous plan ever suggested by a government," warning that it would lead to the formation of a Palestinian state. Sharon's assault on the peace plan also served to boost his own leadership ambitions...
Hours after Israel scuttles its peace initiative, a Palestinian fanatic kills 14 in a bus disaster. -- Mexico's ruling party concedes a historic election...