Word: shamir
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Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir is also dead set against conceding one square inch of the West Bank. Inaugurating a new settlement last week, he vowed that "all our territories that can be built on will be populated by Jews to the end of the horizon." But at least Shamir is motivated by a sense of what he believes to be the historical birthright of his people...
Several years ago, I asked Shamir about the Dayan and Kissinger observations. Both were correct, he said, admitting that his nation's obvious security needs and geography combined with an increasingly conservative politics to support his own heartfelt suspicion of the Arabs in Israel's midst. "But there is more," he added calmly. "You see, I just don't believe in trading land for peace. I mean I don't believe...
Since then, and despite his willingness to attend the peace conference that James Baker has been trying to arrange, Shamir has not changed his mind. "It is not a religious notion for him," explains the Israeli philosopher David Hartman, "but rather a deeper commitment to a historical consciousness that says a vital people has been too long denied its rightful place on all of the land of Israel." What is politically significant, says Hartman, is that "the people trust Shamir to stick to his guns. They know he is not out to win a Man of the Year award, that...
...Shamir, a territorial compromise that could realize the hope of most Israelis to live in peace is not a dream at all, but a nightmare. "Peace for peace" is what Shamir wants, a pledge of Israeli cooperation with her poorer Arab neighbors in exchange for an end to the Arab boycott of corporations that do business with Israel. Beyond that, Shamir is perfectly satisfied with the status quo. To him, Israel appears blessed: Saddam is defanged, Syria has been humbled because its longtime patron, the Soviet Union, is consumed with its own problems, and the Palestinian intifadeh, while a nuisance...
Understand Shamir's basic intransigence on the central question and you can appreciate why Israel precipitated the latest settlement dust-up. And make no mistake about it: it was Shamir, not Bush, who started it all -- intentionally. "At some point, the Issue -- we capitalize it -- will really be joined," says a Shamir adviser. "Whenever that time comes, the Prime Minister's 'no' could kill the chance of U.S. aid in the settling of Soviet Jews. So we decided to try and get the money first. Given our underlying position, we reasoned it would be harder later, not easier...