Class of 2000

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The Cuban Dismissal Crisis ELIAN GONZALEZ

He was El Nino Milagro, "the miracle child." He was plucked from the waters, like Moses from the bulrushes, by a fisherman. He became known to us by one name. To have any greater religious overtones, the tale would have to involve visits from the Virgin Mary--which some said it did. And the standoff over what to do with Elian (now 7) after the November 1999 Cuban-refugee-boat sinking that killed his mother, was as intractable as a religious schism. To his father Juan Miguel, in Cuba, the Miami relatives who took Elian in were kidnappers, buying the boy's love with chocolate milk and trips to Disney World. To the relatives and their vocal, anti-Castro, Cuban-American supporters, Juan Miguel was a dupe or worse who sought his son's return to hell. The father talked about strafing his adversaries with a rifle. The relatives dared the government to take Elian by force. Finally it came to that: a predawn raid that produced dueling images--a terrified Elian cornered in a closet, a happy boy with his father (at left, after their reunion, with crumbs around his mouth from a pre-cartoon-watching snack of toast). It is tempting but inaccurate to say politics simply overrode love in this case. Elian, it was clear, didn't lack for people who loved him. And love makes us do stupid things.

So Near, So Far Apart

EHUD BARAK

You might think they were in the same room. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his Palestinian counterpart actually sat for TIME in Jerusalem and Gaza City, respectively. Two men, just a few miles away, in fact separated by light-years of misunderstandings. So it was this summer when Barak came to Camp David resolved to settle the Palestinian question with an unprecedented concession: a Palestinian state. Later he considered having Jerusalem's holiest sites administered by a third party. It was a stunning, failed leap. Negotiations collapsed, the Holy Land exploded, and Barak resigned in an effort to stay in power. For this former general, the way to peace, if there was any, would be through war, both political and real.

YASSER ARAFAT

It came down to a choice. Yasser Arafat, 71 and ailing, could deliver a Palestinian state by conceding some of his people's most sacred desires. Or he could refuse and fight. When he realized an agreement with Israel would mean giving up the right of return for exiled Palestinians and receiving minimal control of East Jerusalem (and being called a traitor), he broke off talks without a counteroffer. Tensions rose, and Palestinians--angered by Israeli hard-liners and reputedly egged on by Arafat--launched attacks and drew blistering reprisals. The fighting killed hundreds. By December, Arafat, a 1994 Nobel Peace Prize winner who had publicly clasped the hand of Yitzhak Rabin, was appearing in public clasping a submachine gun.

Mexican Standout VICENTE FOX