Word: westing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Wall was the primary division between East and West Germany, and its opening removes the main obstacle to reunification. Some well-stacked bricks with electrified wire (and a few well-placed sharpshooters) doesn't constitute a wide enough chasm to keep apart the two halves of a once-mighty European nation. The gulf which separated the Germanies--and still separates them--is membership in their respective economic and military alliances, treaties more permanent than a stack of bricks...
This gulf isn't the physical distance across the no-man's land behind the Wall, but the political distance between Comecon and the EEC, between the Warsaw Pact and NATO. For now, East Germany remains a vital part of the frontline forces of the Warsaw Pact, and West Germany provides the crux of NATO forces in Western Europe...
Germans have served their penance; now we should reward them for their contrition. We shouldn't flatter ourselves. If reunification ever comes, it won't be a "gift" from the West as much as a concession from the East. After years of presidential rhetoric decrying the artificial German division (from Kennedy through Reagan), U.S. officials have almost no choice but to support reunification. The people agree--a recent New York Times poll showed that over two-thirds of Americans think favorably of reunification. If it were only a matter of U.S. agreement, one Germany would be a done deal...
Judging by how eagerly East Germans flocked across the Wall when it was opened, they must be eager for a reunification. Yes, there are some things about life in West Berlin--and the West in general--that East Germans desire, like high-quality meat and vegetables, shelves full of wares, VCR's and watches. Forty years ago, East Germans might have leaped at the chance to give democracy another...
...favor of the occupation as a human rights activist, but I have to tell you--there has never been a freer press in any part of the Arab world than the all-too un-free press that today exists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. For the first time in Arab history there has been a relatively independent press, too censored by my standards, too censored by your standards, and most importantly--too censored by Israeli standards. Israel does not always comply with its own high standards of human rights in the West Bank...