Word: shamir
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...tactically useful. Since the U.S. began discussions with the P.L.O. last December, Israel has heard little from the Administration's highest reaches. The result has been frantic maneuvering in Jerusalem, movement that may make the next step toward negotiations easier. Rather than react to an American agenda, Yitzhak Shamir's government is being forced to craft its own. "Sometimes," says Baker, "a pro-active policy is best advanced by doing nothing until the right time...
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has an image problem. Ever since Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat enticed the U.S. into a dialogue in December, Israel has been on the diplomatic defensive. With Shamir scheduled to visit Washington in March, he is eager to counter with some move of his own, and he has been signaling that he will arrive with an imaginative peace plan in his hip pocket. Meantime, he has been raising expectations by doling out hints about his forthcoming initiative...
Last week Shamir said that the Israeli army would withdraw from "several urban centers" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip once the 1.7 million Palestinians living there accepted limited autonomy. Then, Shamir said, Israel would pursue direct negotiations with Arab states and elected Palestinian "representatives...
...Shamir's sneak preview, however, offered nothing really new. Palestinian autonomy and negotiations on a final settlement five years later are ideas drawn from the 1978 Camp David accords, and Arab leaders, except Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, have adamantly rejected them all along. Nor are any leaders suddenly likely to embrace such a peace plan, especially now that the P.L.O. has launched its own diplomatic initiative...
...guidelines "very disturbing" and declared, "We don't believe that the use of lethal force in non-life-threatening situations should be necessary to preserve order." Such comments carry weight in Jerusalem at a time when the Israeli government feels considerable pressure to pursue a diplomatic solution. Prime Minister Shamir is drawing up a new peace plan to present to Washington in March that he hopes will cool the fire in the territories by offering a modicum of political autonomy...