Word: rabins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Immediately after hearing Rabin's message, the Bush Administration moved to reconstruct ties that were badly strained under Rabin's predecessor, Yitzhak Shamir of the right-wing Likud party. Bush dispatched Secretary of State James Baker to meet with the new Israeli administration and arrange for the next round of regional peace talks, scheduled to take place in Rome in a month or two. Given Rabin's pledge to slow construction of settlements in the occupied territories, Israeli and American officials expressed confidence that Washington would approve at least part of the $10 billion in loan guarantees Jerusalem is seeking...
Egypt, the only Arab country to recognize Israel, was upbeat about Rabin's speech -- so much so that President Hosni Mubarak invited the new Prime Minister to Egypt for a summit this week. The reaction of the rest of the Arab world, however, was markedly jaundiced. The cool response in part reflected a realization that the Arab side is on the spot. When Shamir was in power, the peace process was a bit of a joke. Now that Israel appears to be serious about it, the Arab parties are in the unaccustomed situation of having to get serious about peace...
...that the cold war is over, one can sometimes hear diplomats gently rue its passing: communism was terrible, but at least you knew where you stood. Yitzhak Rabin's first days as Israel's Prime Minister have put Arabs and Palestinians in a similar bind. He has yanked open the door to serious negotiations against which they had been pushing, only to find them in a tangled heap on the floor, their muscles stiff and unprepared for a vigorous pas de deux...
...parties figure out how to dance together now that Rabin has raised great expectations? Secretary of State James Baker, the master choreographer of the peace process, is traveling around the Middle East this week to see. His task is not easy. Even with an Israeli government genuinely committed to negotiating, the tactical challenges of bringing all the parties together are still complex. And if Baker decides to leave the State Department to run President Bush's re-election campaign, as officials widely forecast last week, he has less than a month before the Republican Convention to give the talks...
Each party has its own agenda and political constraints in approaching the others. Rabin has three immediate priorities, all linked: quick progress with the Palestinians; repairing the damage done to Israel's ties with Washington during the tenure of his predecessor, Yitzhak Shamir; rerouting Israeli shekels from building settlements in the occupied territories to creating jobs and absorbing immigrants...