Neiman Marcus
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MICHAEL DAWKINS
TRUNK SHOW
Friday and Saturday, November 16 and 17
Designer Jewelry
LINDA BERGMAN
TRUNK SHOW
from page 27
In the first weeks after the Sept. 11
attacks in the United States, the White
House was seen to be courting Arab
states, and American Jewish leaders
feared any new initiative would favor
the Palestinians.
But in the past two weeks, the
administration has placed additional
sanctions on Palestinian terrorist
groups, and the White House has
publicly held Arafat's feet to the fire.
Jewish officials were heartened by
comments such as the one last week
by National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice.
"You cannot help us with Al Qaida
and hug Hezbollah," she told the
Palestinians. "That's not acceptable."
And despite Bush's use of the name
"Palestine" to describe an eventual
state during his address to the United
Nations on Saturday, Jewish leaders
were impressed by his tough com-
ments on Palestinian violence.
"No national aspiration, no
remembered wrong can ever justify
the deliberate murder of the inno-
cent," Bush said to the U.N. General
Assembly.
"Any government that rejects this
principle, trying to pick and choose
its terrorist friends, will know the
consequences. We must speak the
truth about terror."
❑
Friday and Saturday, November 16 and 17
Designer Jewelry
COALITION from page 27
BOB MACKIE
TRUNK SHOW
Monday and Tuesday, November 1
9
Couture Salon
STEPHEN DWECK
TRUNK SHOW
Thursday and Friday, November 29 and 30
Designer Jewelry
THE SOMERSET COLLECTION248.643.3300
NEIMANMARCUS.COM
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2001
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a snag over the suggestion that Israel
would have to dismantle some settle-
ments in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip — or at least say it is ready to
dismantle them — in order for its
peace plan to carry credibility.
Sharon, constantly criticized from
the right by former Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu, is opposed to
any such concession at this time.
He knows it would cost him support
from the Likud's more hawkish coali-
tion partners — and perhaps from
some members of the Likud itself
By the same token, Peres and the
Labor Party leadership are under
mounting pressure to end their coali-
tion alliance with Sharon if the
Americans step up their peace efforts
— and the prime minister of Israel
fails to respond in a positive and
forthcoming way.
Meanwhile, events on the ground
make the task of peacemaking seem
formidable indeed.
On Monday, the five permanent
members of the U.N. Security
Council — the United States, China,
Russia, France and England — called
on Israel to withdraw from two
Palestinian-controlled cities in the
West Bank and urged the Palestinian
Authority "to take all possible steps to
put an end to violence." On Tuesday,
both Israel and the Palestinian
Authority rejected the statement.
Israeli officials said they would with-
draw from Jenin and Tulkarm after the
Palestinians halt attacks against Israel.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Hassan
Asfour also condemned the statement,
saying it justified "Israel's terrorist acts
against the Palestinian people."
Sharon also has to contend with
domestic politics. On Monday, Yossi
Beilin, a leading Labor dove, accused
Sharon of resisting peace by standing
firm in his demand for a week of total
quiet on the ground before imple-
menting any of the proposals set forth
by the Mitchell Commission in April.
A U.S.-led international panel, the
commission set out a series of confi-
dence-building measures to help end
the Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Clinton Framework
Beilin said Sharon, for ideological rea-
sons, is determined to avoid making
such a commitment.
This, said Beilin, is because Sharon
believes that once the negotiations
resume, they will focus on the pro-
posed solution put forward by U.S.
President Bill Clinton a year ago.
At the time, Clinton proposed to
then-Premier Ehud Barak and to
Palestinian Authority President Yasser
Arafat a Palestinian state on some 95
percent of the West Bank and Gaza.
He also proposed that Israel give the
Palestinians territory within Israel that is
near the Gaza border in exchange for
three settlement blocs in the West Bank.
In addition, Jerusalem would be
divided, with each side holding sover-
eignty over the areas presently inhabit-
ed by its nationals.
Sharon and the Likud have rejected
these proposals, and if they resurface,
Likud and Labor would find them-
selves at odds over how to react.
Sharon, for his part, apparently
hopes the Bush administration will
realize that pushing its proposals too
hard could backfire.
For if the Sharon government falls,
the polls predict, its replacement may
well not be a more moderate coalition,
but quite possibly a more hawkish one
led by Netanyahu.
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