Arafat

Barak wanted me to come to the region, but I wanted Arafat to say yes to the Israelis on the big issues embodied in my parameters first.

Nearly a year after I left office, Arafat said he was ready to negotiate on the basis of the parameters I had presented.

When Arafat came to see me I tried to work through the next steps with him.

Then there was the question of whether Rabin and Arafat would shake hands.

Arafat didn't want to call the council into session because he thought he might not be able to control the outcome.

If he left, there was a real chance Arafat would not go forward.

He was the only member of the Israeli delegation who would not shake hands with Arafat.

Right before I left office, Arafat, in one of our last conversations, thanked me for all my efforts and told me what a great man I was.

When Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza in 1994 to set up the Palestinian Authority, he brought a sense of order, security and hope.

Arafat was famous for waiting until the very last minute to make a decision, or five minutes to midnight as we used to say.

He is about to arrest them when he realises it is Arafat and his wife Suha.

Everyone else walked out on cue, leaving Arafat, Rabin, and me alone for a moment.

But by then a new intifada had caught fire, Arafat could not bring himself to answer with a clear yes and the moment passed.

They were all impressed with Israel's acceptance and told me they believed Arafat should take the deal.

Arafat, as anyone who dealt with him knows well, moved only when compelled, preferring the ambiguity of deferral to the clarity of choice.

Arafat's rejection of my proposal after Barak accepted it was an error of historic proportions.

Pilgrims perform a series of rituals including walking around the Kaaba, standing vigil on Mount Arafat and a ritual Stoning of the Devil.

Arafat had been sick with an unknown illness that had been variously described as the flu, a stomach virus or gallstones.

He said they were historic and he could encourage Arafat to accept them.

Then Netanyahu and Arafat signed the agreement , just before the sun went down and Shabbat began . The Middle East peace was still alive.

When Arafat's time came, he took a different tack.

Proof, says Israel, that Yasser Arafat isn't doing enough to put extremists behind bars.

Arafat in an odd way won now as Israel is pressured into creating a Palestinian state and backing out of their settlement endeavors.

The court also ordered Khaleda Zia's younger son Arafat Rahman Koko to be in custody for seven days for interrogation.

Sharon would take a hard line toward Arafat and would be supported in doing so by Ehud Barak and the United States.

At the end of our talks, Arafat and Netanyahu asked me to field all the press questions.

The historic handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat marked the beginning of the peace process.

For decades Israel and America said they would not talk to the Palestine Liberation Organisation until Yasser Arafat renounced terrorism.

So it's been keeping up the pressure sending tanks onto Arafat's territory, killing four Palestinian policemen in a raid on the West Bank.

Prime Minister Arafat passed this year ending the long term polarity of struggle between Palestine and Prime Minister Sharon of Israel.

The United States has vetoed a draft United Nation resolution calling on Israel not to exile Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

Had he accepted, the larger-than-life Yasser Arafat might just have carried his people along with him.

On Christopher's advice, I invited Netanyahu and Arafat to the White House to talk things over.

HE has lived through countless dangers but time may be running out for the Palestinian leader , Yasser Arafat .

A couple of days before the signing, the press asked me if Arafat would be welcome at the White House.

She dwelled on Yasser Arafat's swollen belly and his red, fleshy lips; she thought Khomeini the most handsome old man she had ever seen.

Arafat and his men had to be rescued by the Americans and escorted to exile in faraway Tunis.

Arafat also said he needed two more weeks to develop his proposals.

Yasser Arafat made his first public demand for a Palestinian liberation movement when he was still a student in Cairo in the 1950s.

Mr. Arafat's transition was most evident in his approval and support for secret peace talks that led to the Oslo peace accords.

arafat ' s body will be taken from france to cairo , where the egyptian government will host a state funeral for him , erekat said.

But , just a cat with nine lives , Arafat escaped every time .

I knew Arafat was a great showman and might try to kiss Rabin after the handshake.

Sixteen years later, peace is still elusive in the Middle East (Rabin was assassinated and Arafat died of natural causes).

I told Yitzhak that if he was really committed to peace, he'd have to shake Arafat's hand to prove it.

When they saw the attackers coming, Arafat's bodyguards ignored his orders to stay still and carried him to safety underground.

Barak and Arafat were present, but might as well have been on opposite sides of the world from each other.

Warren Christopher and Andrei Kozyrev witnessed it while Rabin, Arafat, and I stood behind and to the right.

take advantage of The question now is how effectively Arafat will capitalize on these assets .

Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, his successor as president of the Palestinian Authority, signed solemn agreements with Israel saying so.

It followed a bigger blunder: Israel's failure after Yasser Arafat's death to work seriously with his moderate successor, Mahmoud Abbas.

Arafat said hello to Rabin and held out his hand.

Arafat rejected the "Clinton parameters, " but many Palestinians subsequently lamented the lost opportunity for statehood.

After the event I had a brief meeting with Arafat and a private lunch with Rabin.

It all began to change when by accepting the Jewish state's permanence Arafat made the dream of peace look real to Israelis.

Two days later, still not knowing who my successor would be, I saw Arafat in the Oval Office.

Most of the young people on Arafat's team wanted him to take the deal.

He understood the Middle East and the role each member of the Palestinian delegation played in their deliberations, and Arafat liked him.

Chairman Arafat is an outstanding leader and statesman of Palestine and the founder and active impellor of China-Palestine relations.

I warned Arafat that he was single-handedly electing Sharon and that he would reap the whirlwind.

She took Arafat to her farm and Barak to the famous Civil War battlefield at nearby Gettysburg.

The delicate manipulation needed to convince Rabin and Arafat to shake hands for the camera while keeping Arafat from kissing Rabin.

Yet a decade later, Arafat died without seeing his dream of a Palestinian homeland come true.

In his early years, Yasser Arafat gained a reputation as a ruthless terrorist.

Upon arriving at Ramallah, Tang visited and laid a wreath at the mausoleum of the late Palestinian leader Arafat.

On September 25, after weeks of efforts by our team to get peace talks back on track, Barak invited Arafat to his home for dinner.

Palestinians have always viewed Yasser Arafat as the father of their struggle for statehood.

The war's abject failure discredited pan-Arabism, allowing Arafat to bring the Palestinian cause itself to centre stage.

Arafat had chosen generous gestures to speak to the Israelis and tough words to reassure the doubters back home.

Arafat was a man who resorted to violence and tragically missed several opportunities.

Palestinian voters blame the corruption and ineptitude rampant in Fatah and the PA mostly on a small group of Arafat loyalists.

In Arafat's eyes, Barak's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon and his offer to withdraw from the Golan had weakened him.

Reformists are inclined to disapprove of the fundamentalist suicide bombers, and to support Yasser Arafat.

Dan immediately removed his Arafat hat and gave it to me and cracked a joke with the official about us being his four wives.

Mahmoud Abbas became Palestine's new prime minister after Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat was forced to agree to share his power.

When Arafat came to see me, he asked a lot of questions about my proposal.

After we left Arafat, we joined Prime Minister Netanyahu for a visit to Masada.

Arafat never said no; he just couldn't bring himself to say yes.

Barak wanted the violence stopped; Arafat wanted an inquiry into the alleged excessive use of force by the Israeli military and police.

When the signing was completed, all eyes shifted to the leaders; Arafat stood on my left and Rabin to my right.

When a Kurd showed the photo's of killed Kurds to the late Yasser Arafat, he didn't believe the Iraqi regime killed the Kurds.

By 1988, Mr. Arafat had begun to make the transition to diplomacy.

The Israeli troops occupied some cities of Palestine and destroyed the building of Arafat's 17th division of guards.

Arafat was afraid of being criticized by other Arab leaders; Barak was losing ground to Sharon at home.

The members of both delegations spoke English, but Arafat always conducted business in Arabic.

Note Ya'alon's icy warning to Yasser Arafat and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that "their turn is drawing near. "

While Arafat had patiently continued the peace process, Lebanon and Syria had benefited by taking a hard line.

In sporadic attempts to keep his promises on security to Israel during the 1990s, Arafat ordered vicious crackdowns on Hamas.

When he left, I still had no idea what Arafat was going to do.

Arafat balked at not having sovereignty over all of East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount. He turned the offer down.

Fatah, the Palestinian nationalist movement founded by Yasser Arafat, has just completed its first general congress in 20 years.

In 1985, Israel sent fighter planes to kill Arafat. The wild bombing destroyed his old headquarters in Tunis but Arafat himself was unhurt.

Arafat thanked Tang for calling him at this time of crisis.

I was calling other Arab leaders daily to urge them to pressure Arafat to say yes.

At the first dinner I urged Arafat and Netanyahu to think about how they could help each other cope with their domestic opposition.

One Nobel Committee member resigned in protest over Yasser Arafat's 1994 win, calling the Palestinian leader a "terrorist. "

Mr. Arafat had come a long way since his days as a teenager.

Arafat wanted a UN committee and immediate resumption of the talks.

That was a problem for Arafat, who wanted the release of people he considered freedom fighters.

Arafat's family had wanted him buried in Jerusalem, but the Israeli government forbade that.

The Israeli side is playing with fire by besieging Arafat and threatening to exile him.

While he fretted and Barak fumed, I called Arab leaders for support. Most wouldn't say much, for fear of undercutting Arafat.

Tang said that President Jiang calls Arafat the banner of the just cause of Palestine.

Rabin and Arafat showed both vision and guts in consenting to come and speak.

The first was a war to dismantle the corrupt Arafat regime.

Tang told Arafat that the Chinese government strongly denounces the aggressive activities of Israel.

So Mr Indyk thinks that Arafat arrived at Camp David determined to avoid being cornered.

Pilgrims pray on the side of Mount Arafat, near Mecca, Saudi Arabia on Monday, Nov.

On the seventh, Yasser Arafat suspended his peace talks with Israel.

Bibi was very statesman-like and Arafat renounced violence in unusually strong words.

george: yassir? you mean arafat is in chellona? i thought he was in the middle east.

While the chemistry between the teams was good, the same could not be said of Arafat and Barak.

I shook hands with Arafat, with the blocking maneuver I had practiced.

Arafat just smiled and nodded his understanding.

Palestinians will mark the first anniversary of Arafat's death on Friday.

Tang conveyed warm greetings and sympathy from President Jiang Zemin and the Chinese government to President Arafat.

Yasir Arafat bears much of the blame.

Arafat and company were allowed back after signing the Oslo peace accords with Israel in 1993.

Arafat lifted his hand toward a still reluctant Rabin.

Reluctantly, the policeman takes Arafat and Suha to the station where the Palestinian leader receives a 100 shekel fine.

Yasser Arafat should have accepted Israel's "generous offer" at Camp David in 2000.

I believe Abu Ala and Abu Mazen also would have agreed but didn't want to be at odds with Arafat.

The Hamas retort is that Yasser Arafat's Oslo talks achieved little for the Palestinians. Wars got them less.

Thus, the Arafat attains Nirvana but not Bodhi, thus still being subject to delusion, while the Buddha attains Bodhi.

I played Arafat and he played me, showing me what to do.

And now, after these painful days of President Arafat, he is dead.

I certainly hoped Arafat's watch kept good time.

A helicopter hovers over Namira Mosque at Mount Arafat, southeast of the Saudi holy city of Mecca, on November 26, 2009.

Abu Ala and Abu Mazen were Arafat's oldest and longest-serving advisors.

Arafat argued that he should have a few blocks of the Armenian quarter because of the Christian churches there.

It is reported that he will hold talks with President Bush and seek US support for Arafat's removal.

Pilgrims climb up Mount Arafat on the Plain of Arafat in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Nov.

I and others on our team had urged Arafat to prevent violence.

Arafat wouldn't even do that, because he didn't want to be seen conceding anything.

Bush: Yassir? You mean Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.

Yassir? You mean Arafat is in China ? I thought he was in the Middle East .

Mr. Arafat, born August 24, 1929, had devoted his life to establishing a Palestinian homeland.

Muslim pilgrim pray outside Namira mosque in Arafat near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on November 5, 2011.

On Wednesday, Israeli security officials saw Arafat's plane off, which was destined for Paris.

A Muslim pilgrim prays on Mount Mercy on the plains of Arafat outside the holy city of Mecca November 26, 2009.

23Muslim pilgrims pray atop Mount Arafat, southeast of Mecca, on November 15, 2010.

Gemal was usually the only other person in the room during my one-on-one meetings with Arafat.

I was sure that if Arafat didn't kiss me, he wouldn't try kissing Rabin.

Gaddafi visits Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat in hospital after Arafat was injured in an air crash

Arafat, on the other hand, didn't want to come to Camp David, at least not yet.

Arafat himself, having alienated many Arab leaders by supporting Saddam, was short of friends, cash and alternatives;

Israeli-Palestinian Relationship in Post-Arafat Era--An analysis of the three key factors in the Middle East peace process

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Palestinians elected the moderate Mahmoud Abbas after the death of Yasser Arafat;

Arafat's four turns and their influence on Palestine's future

effects of arafat ' s death to mid - eastern situation

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