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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK, Page 22WORLDTalking Up Middle East Miracles
A rash of diplomacy after Israel's elections raises hopes for
peace
It was a far cry from the usual trudging pace of the Middle
East peace process. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker whirled
through the region, soliciting conciliatory gestures at every
stop and obtaining at least more favorable rhetoric. The
leaders of Egypt and Israel met in Cairo in the first summit
between these only nominally friendly states in six years. The
intent was to signal to the world that with a new, left-leaning
Israeli government in place, the climate is ripe for
rapprochement. Baker seemed to think so. Said he: "There is a
new opportunity to move forward."
In its first concrete action to advance the peace
negotiations that began last fall, the government of Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made good its promise to slow down
settlement activity in the occupied territories by freezing
construction of 6,500 planned units (10,000 housing units
already under construction will be completed). Baker said that
Israel was embarked on a program of "severe and substantial
curtailments," greatly improving the chance that Washington will
now grant at least part of the $10 billion in loan guarantees
Israel has requested to help resettle Russian Jews. The U.S. had
pointedly withheld that aid from Rabin's predecessor, Yitzhak
Shamir, whose government in the past two years built or began
construction on 15,000 housing units.
Arab reaction to Rabin's move was mixed. Syria dismissed
the policy change as a p.r. trick. But Palestinian delegates,
following a meeting with Baker in Jerusalem, backed away from
their threats to walk from the talks in the absence of a
complete halt in settlement building. Egypt showed the most
enthusiasm. After his tete-a-tete with Rabin, President Hosni
Mubarak lauded Israel's "good step on the right track." While
he cautioned that "we need much more," Mubarak expressed
confidence in his Israeli counterpart. "The man is only one week
in office," he said. "What do you expect him to do, miracles?"
Baker was plainly eager to inspire a few miracles himself.
Revived prospects for peace could bolster the floundering Bush
re-election campaign. Baker has mentioned the idea of a
late-summer parley in Washington to steal a jump on the next
round of talks in Rome, expected no sooner than September. After
that, the sessions may well relocate to Cairo, which Mubarak has
offered as a future venue, if Syria will go along.