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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LV who wrote (2442)	7/20/2001 6:39:05 PM
From: ajs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

Barak: Arafat should be shunned as a rogue By Janine Zacharia WASHINGTON (July 20) - Likening Yasser Arafat to rogue leaders like Serbia's former president Slobodan Milosevic and repeatedly calling the Palestinian Authority chairman a liar, former prime minister Ehud Barak gave his first speech yesterday to an American audience since losing power. The event appeared aimed as much toward defending his own failed peacemaking efforts as paving the way for a possible political comeback. Barak, who met yesterday with Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, called on world leaders to boycott Arafat and to deal with him as a rogue. "He should be held accountable for his behavior. He shouldn't be able to talk to leaders," Barak told The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Arafat lies whenever it serves him, Barak continued. "Most world leaders experienced it personally. I'm strongly convinced that it is about time to tell the truth." While in the US, Barak, who has only recently re-emerged on the public stage, also gave a television interview with PBS's Charlie Rose and met privately with New York Times foreign affairs commentator Thomas Friedman, among others. Barak renewed his calls for unilateral separation from the Palestinians - while always leaving open the door for fresh negotiations should a Palestinian leader emerge who is ready to make tough decisions and negotiate honestly - and endorsed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policy of focusing on individuals who are directing terror. Barak criticized repeatedly what he described as a new revisionism post-Camp David, an apparent reference to articles published by former US negotiator Robert Malley. Malley has written and spoken since leaving office in defense of Arafat, who he believes has been erroneously blamed for the collapse of the peace process into violence. In his most recent piece, "Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors," published in the August 9 issue of The New York Review of Books, Malley criticizes Barak's negotiating style and explains Arafat's fears of being cornered and tricked by the Israeli leader. "We never tried to dictate to him. Not me. Not President Clinton," Barak said, adding that the Israelis and Americans at Camp David never expected Arafat to do more than accept the ideas presented at the peacemaking summit as a basis for further negotiations. Asked about what errors he believed he had made, Barak said they are "too few to mention." According to Malley's latest account of the Camp David summit, Clinton, who publicly and privately blamed Arafat for its failure, was also frustrated by Barak's demands and negotiating style. Malley says "Clinton was furious" around the time of the summit when Barak reneged on interim commitments, including the transfer of three Arab neighborhoods in the eastern part of Jerusalem to the PA. Clinton had conveyed the commitment to Arafat and felt Barak had made him out to be a "false prophet," Malley quoted the former president as saying. Malley describes an "extraordinary moment at Camp David when Barak retracted some of his positions" and Clinton confronted him saying: "I can't go see Arafat with a retrenchment! You can sell it; there is no way I can. This is not real. This is not serious." Malley says too that Clinton had extracted a commitment from Barak to carry out the agreed-to third redeployment from the West Bank, whether or not a final peace deal was secured at Camp David. The redeployment, however, was never carried out. jpost.com

To: LV who wrote (2442)	7/21/2001 5:32:49 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 23908

I'll get back to your post on Monday 23rd. In the meantime, I'd like to share the funny impression I've got about the current G8 upheaval in Genoa, Italy... G8 summit death shocks leaders July 21, 2001 Posted: 1:43 AM EDT (0543 GMT) GENOA, Italy (CNN) -- World leaders called for calm as streets stood empty Friday night outside the site of the Group of Eight summit, in marked contrast to the violent demonstrations during the day that left one man dead from gunfire and more than 100 other people wounded. Security forces have detained more than 50 people. Italian police sources identified the dead man as Carlo Giuliani, 23, a Genoa resident originally from Rome. The Italian Ministry of the Interior said judicial authorities were investigating and the ministry would report its findings to Italy's parliament Monday. [snip] cnn.com Now, I suggest you put the above dramatic event in perspective with the "Tiananmen incident": Thousands gather for Tiananmen Square anniversary June 4, 2001 Posted: 9:55 AM EDT (1355 GMT) cnn.com So, my point is that, somehow, both events have similar roots: Europe and China are fast-evolving societies --yet in different directions... European countries are basically scrambling to escape decadence and geopolitical irrelevance. Hence their frantic endeavour to enlarge their geographic clout (by co-opting Central Europe). However, unemployment, poor high-tech/IT achievements and a sluggish macroeconomic outlook won't be solved by the addition of Eastern European countries whose combined GDP is about 9% of the EU's... So, my prediction is that political riots such as Genoa's and Goteborg will likely gain momentum in the future as Europe's overall decline will worsen, whereas, at the same time, China will undergo similar unrests, yet for exactly opposite reasons: with its GDP growing 7-8% annually, China is set on a virtuous spiral. That is to say, the challenge for Chinese rulers is to better distribute an ever larger pie... Meanwhile, the challenge for European leaders will be to share a stagnant/shrinking portion of the world economy among their respective constituencies --quite a different ballgame... Although the previous "global jamborees" in Seattle, Montreal and Puerto Alegre showed us that the US, Canada, and other non-European countries also harbored anti-globalization activists, I've noticed that the bulk of them come from Europe, probably because of the socioeconomic backdrop I've just hinted at. Bottom line: the EU will likely have its own "Tiananmen" in the coming months... In 2008, the Chinese might question the participation of EU countries in the Olympics... on the grounds of human rights violation!! Such an irony --LOL! Gus.

To: LV who wrote (2442)	7/21/2001 2:05:02 PM
From: Yaacov	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

Perhaps the assimilation process in the US is accelerated by the nature of American society "" You bet! I guess that is the reason I only saw black and white couples during my last trip to the land of Hershy Bars! Wake up to the reality, the rift is not closing in the US, it is getting wider! ""I don’t know if one can do much to change Europeans’ attitude toward the immigrants. Certainly one thing to do is to promote tolerance untiringly"" There is too little space and to few jobs to go arround. We are a continent of immigrants ourselves, so how can we obsorb Turks, Slavs, Albanians, Asians and Africans in this litle space? Mayby we should send them to US? There is plenty of jobs and space to go arround for everybody there.

To: LV who wrote (2442)	7/22/2001 12:04:13 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 23908

"Here in the US there is much wistfulness, almost envy, about perceived European lifestyle – the stability, the rootedness, tranquil pace of life. I guess everything comes at a price." Really? I have zero wistfulness. The difference with American immigrants is they come to the US to be Americans and leave their roots behind. In Canada immigrants come here and finding no culture carry their own ways with them. I suspect the same is true for immigrants to European countries that find the culture closed to them. To ease the transition for immigrants to Europe, Europeans must set up as many McDonald Restaurants and Disney World parks as they can. I would appreciate a heads-up on this so I can top off my stock position.