Word: statehood
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...Bidya is once more a microcosm of what is being planned by the politicians. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's advisers are sketching out "unilateral separation," which they will impose on the Palestinians if Yasser Arafat declares statehood, something that could happen as soon as this month. That means choking off the Palestinian economy from Israeli oxygen. "Separation is economic war," says Helo. "It is a war of hunger, and it is very dangerous...
...time for Arafat to take risks as well, the Israeli leader argued. Barak spent last week at the Millennium Summit urging other heads of state among the 149 who attended the largely ceremonial event to be blunt with Arafat as well. If he bends, he gets statehood, an end to the conflict and a solution to his refugee problem, according to Barak's pitch...
...Israel. But Arafat's three-week world tour of the Middle East, Europe and Asia, which he began after the Camp David summit collapsed last month, hasn't been a fun trip. At each stop, foreign leaders have warned him not to count on their support if he declares statehood on his own. Behind the scenes, U.S. diplomats have been conferring with the governments on Arafat's itinerary, pleading with them to discourage a statehood declaration and to press the Palestinian leader to be more flexible on who controls Jerusalem, the hangup at Camp David...
...presumably from a nervous disorder--Parkinson's, some say--Arafat is desperate to preside over a newly born, independent Palestinian state. But he has also seized upon a competing priority--preserving his place in history as a steadfast nationalist hero. To reach agreement with Israel on the terms of statehood would require profound compromises on what have long been almost sacred Palestinian demands. Arafat's great fear--his "obsession," says an aide--is that if he makes these concessions, he will be pilloried as a traitor to his people instead of a hero. Says a senior Palestinian official: "Arafat...
Israeli and American negotiators hope Arafat will bend to their will on Jerusalem in the interest of a larger deal including statehood--and the financial perks that will make that statehood work. But these enticements may be insufficient considering that when Arafat thinks of Jerusalem, he ceases to see himself as a politician. Instead he envisions himself emblazoned across the pages of history with the only two Islamic leaders to stride victorious into Jerusalem, securing the holy city for the Muslim faithful. Caliph Omar bin Khattab won the city for Islam in the seventh century. Saladin liberated it from Christian...