After Prime Minister Ehud Barak gave his approval, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators launched an intense round of peace talks in Sinai on Sunday to try to reach a framework agreement before the February 6 election in Israel. Barak is playing down expectations and blaring his “red lines” to Israeli voters, but his negotiating team seemed a bit surprised by the Palestinian side’s sudden willingness to quickly ink an accord.
On his last full day in office, US President Bill Clinton gave the incoming Bush administration some unsolicited advice on how to handle foreign policy, but with the Middle East still sliding towards conflict, clearer heads are urging a complete reassessment of the Clinton approach to regional peace-making.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry was “shocked” to learn that members of the US-led Mitchell fact-finding committee had visited the Temple Mount on Sunday without Israeli knowledge and accompanied by Islamic Waqf officials.
Promoting Islamic apocalyptic themes, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein marked the Gulf War’s 10th anniversary on Wednesday by declaring the conflict a glorious moment in Iraqi history while ignoring the economic plight his brutal regime has imposed on his countrymen. In addition, Iraqi media is reporting that Saddam used the Gulf War anniversary to threaten Israel once again.
With just three days left of the Clinton presidency’s hand in Mideast diplomacy and an Israeli election only three weeks away, Prime Minister Ehud Barak has decided to finally put peace negotiations with the Palestinians on the back burner for now.
The special Israeli election for prime minister heated up on Tuesday when local air waves were opened to a steady diet of campaign ads for the Labor and Likud candidates, with both parties depicting the opponent as dangerous.
Israel reversed course and re-imposed a strict closure on the Gaza Strip on Monday, after the bullet-ridden body of a missing Israeli man was found this morning near his hothouse complex outside Kfar Yam, in the Gush Katif bloc.
Thumbing its nose at the international community, the Palestinian Authority summarily executed two alleged “collaborators” with Israel on Saturday in a desperate attempt to spread fear among Palestinians thinking of cooperating with Israeli security forces.
While recent reports of a sudden lapse in the health of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may be unfounded, Iraq’s decades of ailing relations with Syria appear on the mend under the new boss in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad.
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani hosted a gallery of guests from Israel at a gathering in New York City Hall on Thursday afternoon in a display of unity and support for undivided Jerusalem and Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
With a wide lead in the polls, Likud chairman Ariel Sharon confidently launched his official campaign for prime minister on Wednesday night at a packed party gathering in Jerusalem’s largest auditorium.
Many leaders in the international community are troubled with the increasing probability that Likud chairman Ariel Sharon will be elected prime minister of Israel in early February, but US President-elect George W. Bush may have a different opinion, describing him recently as a “great warrior and hero of freedom and democracy.”
With US President Bill Clinton headed for the sidelines, Israeli and Palestinians negotiators have engaged in direct talks again in recent days, but there is little progress to report on either security or political issues. Both sides admit the gaps are too wide to conclude a “declaration of principles” before Clinton leaves office, and the immediate goal may be simply to prevent a fresh flare-up in his last week out of respect for the out-going American president.
Early Sunday night, Israeli security forces discovered the bullet-ridden body of rabbi Hillel Lieberman, a dual US/Israeli citizen living in Elon Moreh, who was last seen heading for the scrorched Joseph’s Tomb in nearby Nablus (biblical Shechem) to salvage the synagogue’s Torah scroll.
In the first spot on an otherwise squeaky clean record, US Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell has run into a flap for recently accepting a large sum of money for delivering a university lecture subsidized by a senior Lebanese official with ties to Syrian intelligence.
The massive Jerusalem rally on Monday night left a big impression on the Israeli public, according to the nation’s leading Hebrew newspapers, but Shimon Peres on Wednesday declared that no single religion can have a “monopoly” on the holy city.
Falling further behind in successive polls, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is facing increasing calls to set aside in his bid for re-election in favor of the Labor’s party elder statesman and leading dove Shimon Peres, who appears to have a better chance at defeating Likud Chairman Ariel Sharon in balloting on February 6.
Outgoing US President Bill Clinton appears to have finally given up on his long quest to forge a landmark Israeli-Palestinian peace pact before leaving office, as his special Mideast envoy Dennis Ross on Wednesday postponed a planned trip to the region. The move is a setback to the electoral hopes of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who wanted Clinton to issue a “presidential declaration” on the status of negotiations to aid his waning chances for retaining office in early February balloting.
Though some detected a “lull” in the three-month-old intifada due to fatigue, Palestinians used gunfire and firebombs to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians throughout Judea/Samaria and Gaza in recent days, following pledges by militant groups to continue the armed struggle with Israel until their political goals are achieved.
Israel’s security services have captured the terrorist responsible for planting pipe bombs on a Tel Aviv bus two weeks ago, and it turns out he is a Fatah activist of Jordanian origin.