The key to whether the Saudi plan becomes a serious option — even if adopted by the Palestinians — lies in Washington. The American goal remains a negotiated two-state solution based on Bush\’s \”vision\” that he outlined in June 2002.
After a visit to Moscow, Hamas leaders claim \”the wall\” of diplomatic isolation Israel is trying to build around the newly empowered organization is collapsing.
But Israeli government officials say they are still confident that the international community will cut off funds to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and back Israeli moves for a second unilateral pullback from Palestinian territory.
Had Ariel Sharon been able to continue as Israeli prime minister, his main strategic goal would have been establishing a new long-term border between Israel and the West Bank. That remains the primary aim of his Kadima Party, but last week\’s violent clashes between settlers and police at the tiny West Bank outpost of Amona show just how difficult achieving it might be.
Will Hamas in its power role moderate its radical positions or put Palestinian society on a collision course with Israel and the Western world?
This is the central question. There will be enormous pressure on Hamas to adopt a more pragmatic line. The European Union, which provides up to 90 percent of international aid to the Palestinians, is threatening to suspend its economic support unless Hamas recognizes Israel\’s right to exist and renounces violence, and the United States appears poised to do the same.
Olmert was one of the chief architects of Sharon\’s main foreign policy achievement — last summer\’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. When Sharon broke away last November from his ruling Likud Party to form a new centrist party, Kadima, Olmert was one of the first to follow him.
The extreme Islamist president of Iran has lobbed all sorts of verbal bombshells at Jews and Israel in recent weeks: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly reiterated his desire to wipe Israel off the map, and he implied that the Holocaust is a myth.
The election of Amir Peretz, a 53-year-old underdog, as leader of the Labor Party is almost certain to change the face of Israeli politics.
An Israeli assassin, a right-wing extremist, killed Rabin on Nov. 4, 1995. Had Rabin lived, would the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been resolved? Or would the peace process he started still have unraveled?
Benjamin Netanyahu\’s resignation from the Israeli Cabinet may have come too late to scuttle Israel\’s planned withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West Bank, but it seems almost certain to change the face of Israeli politics.
With the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza less than three weeks away, right-wing leaders say they haven\’t yet given up hope of preventing it.
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