If Israel keeps spreading settlements on the West Bank it's going to be harder to get Middle East peace … You can't brand such positions as bigotry because former Israeli prime ministers Barak and Olmert adhere to the same position as I".
"Arafat," wrote Mr Barak, "has tried for 20 months now to dictate to Israel and the world, using suicide bombing as a diplomatic tool.
He survived, but in the long run this defeat augurs ill: though Mr Barak was directly elected, the prime minister still needs a stable parliamentary majority to govern.For now, Mr Barak, shrugging off his Knesset setback, is concentrating on the short run, and the dramatic changes it could hold in store.
In the approach to the peace conference, Mr Barak lost three coalition partners, and with them his majority in the Knesset (parliament).
Having promised Israelis peace and security, Mr Barak has delivered neither, and his government is being kept alive only by the grace of Shas, an ultra-orthodox party that might abandon him at any moment.The trouble is that, although Mr Arafat's negotiating hand may be stronger, his people's expectations are higher too.
Since the recent kidnapping by Hezbollah guerrillas of three Israeli soldiers, Israeli military aircraft and helicopters have once again started flying over Lebanon, and Mr Barak has hinted that he will respond to another cross-border raid by attacking Syrian forces there.
Ehud Barak, Israel's prime minister, will meet Mr Clinton on November 12th.
Two years ago, Iran's National Security Council declared Kurdistan "secure" from secessionist violence, and transferred responsibility for law and order from the Revolutionary Guard to the police.In this section Missing Having seen off Bibi, Barak faces Arik The lucky ones?
The hope, though, is that if the more concrete disputes over territory and sovereignty inside Palestine can be resolved, vague wording and international money could take care of the rest.Mr Barak went to Camp David having offered more far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians than any of his predecessors.
Mr Barak says he will never recognise the right of return, nor accept "legal or moral responsibility" for the diaspora.
He refuses to make do with Palestinian sovereignty over the Muslim holy sites and the adjacent Muslim Quarter of the walled Old City, and demands that the 200,000-odd Palestinian citizens beyond the walls live on their own sovereign soil.Mr Barak is committed to upholding Israel's claim to a "united Jerusalem".
