Word: rabins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...peace is not what Shahak is bringing to Israeli politics. The left-center Labor party is worried that the Rabin prot?g? will split the ?peace camp? by siphoning off centrist Labor members. That could force Shahak, Benjamin Netanyahu or Labor leader Ehud Barak to stake out extreme positions in order to attract enough votes to form a majority -- just the sort of frenzied coalition-building that left Netanyahu beholden to hard-liners against the peace process. But nobody?s panicking yet. ?Shahak has run very well in the polls, but it's entirely as an unknown entity,? reminds TIME Jerusalem...
...When they do come off, Netanyahu will face a strong challenge from the Labor party, currently led by Ehud Barak, who is a consistent critic of what Labor calls Netanyahu's abandonment of the peace agreements set in place by Yitzhak Rabin. But there also may be a challenge from popular Lt. General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak. The early line is that Netanyahu will push for new elections just before May 4, the day Yasser Arafat says he will declare an independent Palestinian state. His gamble: that such an ominous deadline will give enough Israelis cold feet to create a majority...
...Netanyahu's tarrying reflects a philosophical reluctance to embrace the land-for-peace process started by Yitzhak Rabin. "Rabin saw peace as a win-win proposition for both sides," says Beyer. "But Netanyahu approaches the peace process on the basis that Israel loses when the Palestinians gain." In other words, for Bibi, peace is the continuation of war by other means. Which means we may hear some pretty creative excuses before he orders home any Israeli troops...
...other thing that's changed in four years is political will. Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat reached out to one another to forge a partnership as peacemakers -- an idea that Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed for the first time on Friday, but without much enthusiasm. "Netanyahu is ideologically opposed to Rabin's point of view," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. "He's tried to undo what Rabin tried to set up. He's now saying he's ready to trade land for peace, but that remains to be seen...
Perhaps more fateful, an actuarial deadline looms. As the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin has shown, personalities count in making peace. Today, many Middle East leaders are old or ailing. Arafat, 69, reportedly has Parkinson's disease; Jordan's King Hussein is ill with cancer; Saudi Arabia's King Fahd is enfeebled; and Syria's Hafez Assad, 68, has heart trouble. Princes are set to take over Saudi Arabia and Jordan, but Syria and the Palestinians have no successors. Whoever they are, the concern is that the next generation may not be nimble or strong enough to keep the peace...