Speculation about a possible observer force in Gaza and the West Bank reached a fever pitch this week, thanks to proposals by the G-8 and the European Union, and a confused response from a U.S. administration that is foundering in the whirlpool of Mideast politics.
As Israeli-Palestinian violence hits the six-month mark, Israeli military officials report that soldiers remain motivated to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
With images of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip flashing across television screens around the world, it did not take long for Israel\’s tourism industry to start feeling the pinch.
As the violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enters its second month, there is a growing fear that it will escalate and embroil the entire region.
So now what? Does Israel dig in and prepare itself for a state of escalating, interminable siege? Does it try to get back to the negotiating table with Yasser Arafat? Does it do both?
There is a sense at this moment that \”time has stopped.\” That all political voices have become silent, in Israel no less than in the United States, while Messrs. Arafat, Barak and Clinton struggle over language, issues and principles in an effort to reach a peace agreement.
When incoming Prime Minister Ehud Barak needs to talk things over with Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the military chief of staff, he won\’t have to go far: Mofaz lives 12 houses away from him in the town of Kochav Yair.
Israel\’s ratification of the Wye agreement, calling for another 13-percent West Bank withdrawal in return for Palestinian security measures, was completed on Tuesday night when the Knesset endorsed the American-brokered deal by a vote of 75 to 19, with nine abstentions.
It\’s remarkable: Palestinian terrorists set off three bomb attacks in as many weeks, yet Binyamin Netanyahu, of all people, goes ahead with his plans to relinquish 13 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
What the Israeli right likes to call \”the battle for the Land of Israel\” is in danger of turning into a war of the ultras, Arab extremists vs. Jewish extremists.
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