Israel Why Is This Man So Glum?

Peres and Shamir part ways over a controversial peace plan

Israel's national unity government is an apt reflection of the population it serves: argumentative, divisive and incapable of achieving consensus on how to deal with the Palestinian question. Now the latest attempt at unity is faltering after seven months, as the country's two major parties bump heads over the future course of a peace plan that calls for elections in the occupied territories. Bowing to pressures from hard-liners within his Likud bloc, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir two weeks ago saddled the proposal with conditions that are anathema to the Palestinians. Labor Party leaders responded last week by voting to quit the...

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