Word: statehooder
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Bush administration's internal splits over Middle East policy have been out in the open over the past two weeks, with Secretary of State Colin Powell speaking in favor of immediate movement toward some provisional form of Palestinian statehood as a means of creating hope among ordinary Palestinians to counteract the despair on which the extremist organizations feed. But the White House has distanced itself from some of Powell's remarks, and more hawkish elements in the administration are adamantly opposed to any steps they would construe as "rewarding terrorism." The latest bombings may have exacerbated the internal conflict...
...Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak holds talks with the Bush administration later this week, and plans to present detailed recommendations on a plan for peace via Palestinian statehood. Prime Minister Sharon is expected in Washington for consultations on Sunday. But the fine points of various contending peace plans and ideas on reforming the PA may now be overshadowed, once again, by the security crisis in Israel and the West Bank and a new siege of Ramallah. So instead of the diplomatic and security progress Washington had hoped for, the White House finds itself confronting d?j? vu. Israelis are being terrorized...
...Palestinian leader accepts that and is prepared to ensure that PA security structures have a monopoly of force. But disarming the gunmen is a political challenge that Arafat is unlikely even to attempt as long Israeli forces remain in his domain and there's no prospect of imminent statehood...
...Israel, meanwhile, is facing its own internal struggle over how to follow up on its West Bank offensive. Sharon's own political base is trying to restrain him from entering any negotiations over Palestinian statehood. The prime minister is responding by telling supporters that statehood may be inevitable at some point, but that he won't negotiate on the subject until attacks on Israelis have ended and the PA has been reformed. His Labor Party coalition partners, sensing the possibility of an early election, have resurrected the Clinton proposals for Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank and Gaza...
...Washington lost no time in emphasizing that the Likud vote has not changed the fact that Palestinian statehood remains the endpoint of the diplomatic process. And despite his setback, Sharon appears to have won a measure of sympathy from Bush for his insistence that negotiations over Palestinian statehood have to be preceded by moves to end violence and by reforms inside Arafat's administration. His diplomatic standing will have been further enhanced by his acceptance of Washington's quiet pressure to show restraint on invading Gaza in response to last week's bombing at Rishon Letzion...