Word: shamir
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir rounded up the usual expressions of ambiguity last week to deny reports that he had been talking to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Asserting for the umpteenth time that he never had and never would, Shamir did admit that he has been holding "get-acquainted" talks with a Palestinian from the West Bank identified with the P.L.O. But, he insisted, "there's absolutely no negotiation with the P.L.O., direct or indirect...
...politicians -- especially Middle Eastern politicians -- are wont to do, Shamir was fudging the facts. Jamil Tarifi, a West Bank lawyer associated with the P.L.O., confirmed the talks and implied that he would report on the meeting to P.L.O. chairman Yasser Arafat. By meeting with Tarifi, insisted Labor Party official Yossi Beilin, Shamir made the P.L.O. leader implicitly part of the bargaining process. Said Beilin: "That there is negotiation with the P.L.O. is quite clear...
That kind of double-talk is, unfortunately, the common coin of the Middle East dialogue. As principal exponents of the opposing sides, Shamir and Arafat have more than occasionally been guilty of talking out of both sides of their mouth. Each has proved a master at sounding comparatively moderate to international listeners, but appealing to ancient strains of chauvinism when addressing their constituents. A recent sampler...
...Pazner, spokesperson for Prime MinisterYitzhak Shamir, said yesterday Israel was awaitingclear evidence that Higgins was killed beforemaking official statements...
...salient points are at best ambiguous is dismissed as derisively as its earlier recognition of Israel's right to exist. The majority of Israeli Jews scorn as naive the possibility that the Palestinians may finally have decided to "settle" for something short of everything. How could they?, asks Yitzhak Shamir; the central problem has never changed: "We think the land is ours, and they think it is theirs...