Word: ariel
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Pope's spring visit to the Holy Land seemed like ancient history, as did the unsuccessful mid-summer Camp David summit, when fighting erupted between Arabs and Israelis in the autumn. The spark: on Sept. 28 right-wing Israeli politician and former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, and Palestinians took great umbrage. Protests quickly led to violence, and in the next week rocks, firebombs and bullets claimed the lives of some 70 people and injured more than 1,800 others. It didn't stop there: in October this young Palestinian hurled...
...platform, something to take to the voters besides more negotiations and more violence, and peace - a peace solution from which both sides can take some finality - is it. At some point, Barak will have to bring a deal home to the Israeli parliament and face down the hawks (Ariel Sharon, for one, who is running against Barak). But until then he's got nothing to lose but his job, and without a deal he expects to lose that anyway...
...Bollings Air Force base in Washington must feel like an insulated bubble to the diplomats dispatched by both sides to search for a deal. Arch-hawk Ariel Sharon is somewhere between 11 and 18 percent ahead of prime minister Ehud Barak in the polls, which casts a very real shadow over the talks in Washington. After all, the very basis of Sharon's campaign is rejection of Barak's peacemaking efforts as naïve and dangerous, leaving the Palestinian negotiators with the realization that the chances of their Israeli counterparts' being able to deliver on any undertakings are slim...
Israelis don't vote for their leaders so much as against their opponents. And that makes an Ehud Barak-Ariel Sharon showdown for prime minister a tight contest, because both men have high negative ratings for their record in Israeli leadership. And with the likelihood of a much smaller turnout than in a full parliamentary election, the race may be too close to call despite Sharon's substantial lead in the polls...
...Netanyahu, of course, will still be a major feature in the campaign, urging voters to support the man he'd have challenged for the Likud leadership, Ariel Sharon. But Barak - who may face (and will almost certainly defeat) a primary challenge from former prime minister Shimon Peres - must fancy his chances of reeling in Sharon's lead over the incumbent. After all, Sharon is Israel's most notorious hawk, and even though Israelis have little confidence in the peace process right now, it may be more difficult for Likud to rally a majority behind a man many Israelis fear will...