Word: shamir
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...however, Yitzhak Shamir. Determined to resist any American effort to press him into major negotiations or concessions, the Israeli Prime Minister told journalists flying with him to the U.S., "I am immune to pressure." So he was. For the Israeli delegation, the absence of any public breach between the two nations during two days of talks was itself a victory. Shamir had feared that President Bush might push an international peace conference, which he had cautiously endorsed during earlier meetings last week with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. And Shamir was deeply aggrieved by another Bush pronouncement, urging Israel...
After the talks, Bush wound up lending qualified support to the one modestly promising part of Shamir's four-point proposal: allowing Palestinians in the occupied territories to elect representatives to negotiate with Israel for some limited "interim" self-rule, as promised more than a decade ago in the Camp David accords. While Shamir again repeated that Israel would never leave those areas, Bush did insist that the U.S. regards any such negotiations as just a first step toward a settlement. But Shamir felt his basic objectives were satisfied. "The Americans certainly don't agree with all of our policies...
...Shamir's proposed elections come heavily, perhaps fatally, encumbered. He said the Palestinians must first stop their violent 16-month-old uprising, the intifadeh. Shamir also refused to countenance international supervision of the balloting, despite gentle prodding from Secretary of State James Baker, and rejected direct participation by the Palestine Liberation Organization, which the Arabs in the occupied territories already consider their legitimate representative...
Still, Bush said the U.S. would now work with Israel and the Palestinians to reach "a mutually acceptable formula for elections." U.S. officials express hope that such steps can lead to a substantive dialogue between the two parties in the dispute. But they were disappointed that the stubborn Shamir had not displayed enough change "in nuance and tone" to spark some real peace momentum. Despite Administration prodding, Shamir refused to outline what steps he might take toward reducing Israeli brutality against Palestinian demonstrators, such as lifting economic sanctions, reopening schools and putting an end to the demolition of houses. Shamir...
...expected, P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat swiftly denounced Shamir's proposals, calling them "inappropriate, as usual," and many Palestinians in the occupied territories followed suit. In Jerusalem on Friday, the first day of the month-long Ramadan observance, hundreds of Palestinians pouring out of midday prayer services at the al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount launched an angry demonstration, throwing rocks and chanting anti-Israeli and anti- American slogans...