The Political Interest: Getting Shamir's Attention

Getting Shamir's Attention

"Call us when you're serious about peace. Here's our number." Tough talk from the U.S. Secretary of State to the Israeli Prime Minister a few weeks back. But just talk. Yitzhak Shamir and his hard-line colleagues have shrugged off worse from Washington before. So they sat tight, and last Wednesday their arrogance was rewarded. Baker's studied pique was undermined by Washington's suspension of its dialogue with Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. It would now appear that the U.S. is talking to neither side in the Arab-Israeli dispute, a stance that at best is dangerous: history proves that the Middle East roils...

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