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From: Eddie Chumney
To:  heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Israel in the News: December 20, 1999 - January 23, 1999


                                    Israel in the News
              December 20, 1999 to January 23, 2000


TEMPLE MOUNT

A-G: HALTING TEMPLE MOUNT CONSTRUCTION WILL LEAD TO BLOODSHED
By Nadav Shragai Ha'aretz 12/28/99

Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein says that any Israeli attempt to halt ongoing Muslim construction on the Temple Mount will likely lead to bloodshed that could consume the entire country.
Rubinstein's remarks came in a written affidavit he submitted to the Supreme Court at the end of last week in response to a petition from a Jewish group that wants the construction stopped.

In the affidavit, Rubinstein urged the court to reject a petition by the Temple Mount Faithful seeking to freeze all work at the site known as Solomon's Stables and to return the situation to
the way it was before recent construction began.  The Waqf (Islamic Religious Trusts Administration) insists that it needs to widen the entrance gate to the area to create an emergency exit for the many visitors to Al Aqsa mosque.  Rubinstein argued that halting the construction "is almost certain to bring about the shedding of blood and the inflaming of passions that could easily spread from the Temple Mount and Jerusalem to the territories and to all of Israel."

None of the affidavits mentions the harsh statements reportedly made by the three in a recent meeting on the matter held in the office of Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.  During the
meeting, Rubinstein reportedly said that the Waqf was destroying vestiges of Jewish history on the Temple Mount.  Drori referred to the Waqf's activities as an "archaeological crime" and
Yitzhaki accused the Waqf of refusing a police directive to halt all work at the site.

WAQF DIG SPARKS DEMO
By Nadav Shragai, Ha'aretz Correspondent - Ha'aretz 1/8/2000

Dozens of archaeologists held a demonstration in Jerusalem yesterday against construction work being carried out by the waqf (Islamic religious trust) on the Temple Mount.  The protest was
held on slope of the Kidron stream, where the waqf has dumped hundreds of tons of unsifted dirt from its unsupervised construction work.  The archaeologists leveled harsh criticism at
the Israeli government and Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein for not subjecting the waqf to supervision and forcing it to coordinate its activities with government authorities.  The demonstrators also indirectly criticized the Antiquities Authority for not protesting the waqf's activities more vociferously.

Dr. Gabi Barkai, an authority on Jerusalem, said that the waqf activities had caused "irreversible damage."  "It's lost, now that the dirt has been removed from its place.  This is a
terrible disaster for archaeology in Jerusalem."  Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University claimed that the digging had caused enormous damage to archaeological evidence stretching back from Crusader times to the First Temple period.

MUFTI OF PALESTINE: "AQSA MOSQUE IS NONE OF ISRAEL'S BUSINESS"
Hamas News Occupied Jerusalem 1/13/00

The Mufti of Palestine and Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, has warned the Zionist regime against "tampering with the issue of al Masjidul Aqsa (Aqsa Mosque)," saying "this issue is an exclusive Muslim affair and Israel has no right to have any say in it." Sabri described Islamic holy places in alquds (Jerusalem) as " absolute red lines." "Israeli extremists are advised to keep off
this issue because al Masjidul Aqsa is the ultimate red line for Muslims here and everywhere," the Palestinian daily al Ayyam today quoted Sabri as saying.

Sabri's remarks came after Israeli extremists petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to stop renovation works at al Masjidul Aqsa carried out by Wakf authorities.  Sabri said the Haram al
Sharif of al Qods was and would continue to be outside the confines of the jurisdiction of Israeli courts, adding that the "issue transcends legal and political calculations." The Wakf authorities last month reopened a gate to the Islamic shrine to be used in cases of an emergency, particularly during the month of Ramadan when hundreds of thousands of Muslims come to the Mosque for prayers.  Some Israeli circles would like to see the Aqsa Mosque erased in order to expedite the building of a Jewish temple on its site.

POLICE MAINTAIN A WATCHFUL EYE ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT
IsraelWire-1/10

Police announce that 60 closed-circuit television cameras are now operational, providing the Old City's situation room with an around-the-clock surveillance of all activities on or around the
Temple Mount area.  Police on Sunday inaugurated the new state-of-the-art situation room, which includes dozens of monitors and is manned by a 24-hour staff to provide a constant vigilance of events in the Old City and security officials hope to catch the perpetration of any crime of terrorist attack as it happens, hoping to minimize such incidents in the future.  The program calls for the installation of a total of 400 cameras and they hope to add 90 in the near future and have 300 operational by the middle of 2000.  Cameras in the future will also monitor critical motor vehicle routes, traffic congestion and other pertinent data that will assist police and other security agencies in maintaining order in and around the Old City. According to Police Commander Mickey Levy, cameras have been deployed as reported but none were actually installed on the Temple Mount.


JERUSALEM


2000 SET AS YEAR FOR JERUSALEM BY ARAB COMMITTEE
Weekend News Today By Andra Brack Source: Arabic News Jan 22,
2000

Concluding its 65th session, the permanent Arab information committee approved observing the year 2000 a year for Jerusalem and to back the city's steadfastness and preserve its Arab
identity with confronting a growing Israeli danger threatening the holy city.  Their plans include:

1) having the Arab media to carry out activities against the Israeli settlement and Judaization policy, 2) urging production of films demonstrating different aspects evidencing the national
charter of Arab Jerusalem, 3) protesting Israel's flagrant interference in the affairs of al-Aqsa mosque in the holy city.


ISRAEL

ISRAELI PROFESSORS SEEK COURSES ON JESUS
Weekend News Today By Weekend Staff Source: Washington Times Tue
Dec 28,1999

The time has come for Israeli students to learn about Jesus as a historical figure, say a growing number of Israeli academics.  He was the most famous Jew in the world, and as the Christian era enters its third millennium students must be taught who he was, says professor Michael Harsegor, who has recently discussed Jesus on his popular weekly radio program on history.  In the entire Israeli school curriculum, Jesus is mentioned only briefly in sixth-grade courses on early Christianity.  In school tours around the country, students are regularly taken past some of the
holiest sites in Christendom but are told virtually nothing about them.  A number of academics believe the country is now sufficiently mature for dispassionate inclusion of Jesus into the school curriculum.

The Education Ministry's chief supervisor for the teaching of history, Michael Yaron, said the limited number of hours available for history teaching made it impossible to expand Jesus' place in the curriculum.  Eyal Naveh, who wrote a recent textbook on 20th-century history used in Israeli schools, agrees that even Judaism is not taught very deeply in nonreligious public schools.  It was nevertheless important, he said, to expand Christianity's place in the curriculum.  "The connection between Judaism and Christianity is one of the issues that shapes our world.  It's important for our understanding of the 20th century, which was rife with conflicts between religious and humanist traditions.  "Ignoring Jesus is part of a tendency to concentrate only on ourselves, as if we had sprung up outside a universal context."


THURSDAY MORNING STORM WATCH
IsraelWire-1/6

According to meteorologists, the storm, which began beating down over Israel on Wednesday, is the strongest rain front that we have seen in the past fifteen years.  Weather officials have
recorded Wednesday's overall rainfall at 115 millimeters (4.52 inches), a most significant figure they explain, pointing out that average rainfall for the month of January is 125 millimeters
(4.92 inches).

Flooding was reported in many areas and on many roadways, the "system" has already come under harsh criticism over the need for tens of Tel Aviv residents to be evacuated from their homes, all from poorer sections of Tel Aviv and Jaffe, due to flood conditions.  The winter storm is expected to taper off a bit prior to the weekend but it appears it will gain strength once
again on Saturday and stay with us until Monday or Tuesday.

RUSSIAN EMIGRATION TO ISRAEL DOUBLES
January 8, 2000 Moscow (AP)

Russian emigration to Israel was more than twice as high in 1999 as in the previous year, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday.  According to the Moscow office of the Jewish Agency,
which brings Jews to Israel, 29,534 Russian citizens emigrated to Israel in 1999, up from 13,019 a year earlier, Interfax reported. The news agency quoted the executive vice president of the
Russian Jewish Congress, Alexander Osovtsov, as saying that the main factors behind the increase were Russia's 1998 economic crisis and "general political instability, (including) the fact
that last year's anti-Semitic component was far more in the center of attention in society."

Anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi groups, although small, have steadily grown bolder and more visible in Russia in recent years.  They have been accused of beating members of racial minorities,
desecrating Jewish cemeteries and bombing synagogues.  While Russian law bars "inciting interethnic strife," authorities have rarely tried to punish anti-Semitic statements frequently made by
various political groups.

'LOST TRIBE' MEMBERS SEEK A RETURN TO ISRAEL
By Alan Philps in Jerusalem London Telegraph 1/13/00

Members of a people who claim descent from one of the lost tribes of Israel have asked for permission to immigrate from India to the Jewish state, 2,700 years after their tradition says that
they were forced into exile.

The Israeli authorities fear it would open the floodgates for millions of people around the world who claim a perhaps mythical link to one of the 10 tribes which disappeared in the 8th century
BC.  The request comes from the Shinlung people, a collection of tribes who live in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, and across the border in Burma.

They were converted to Christianity in the 19th century but believe that they are descended from the lost tribe of Manasseh, one of 10 taken into exile by the Assyrians in 722 BC to what is
now Iraq.  Activists from the Shinlung people asked the Israeli parliament's immigration and absorption committee on Tuesday to allow 100 members a year to enter the country as immigrants and receive the subsidies and benefits that any Jewish person from the Diaspora would receive.


PEACE PROCESS - Israel and Syria

BARAK SAYS ISRAEL MUST PAY PAINFUL PRICE FOR PEACE WITH SYRIA
Jerusalem, Jan 2 (AFP) - Sunday, January 2

Prime Minister Ehud Barak left for a new round of pivotal negotiations with Syria on Sunday telling Israelis that they would have to pay a painful price for peace.  "Peace with Syria has a very painful and very hard price, but it is necessary," he told Israeli radio, referring to Damascus's demands that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau it seized in 1967.


U. S.: SPEED UP MIDEAST PEACE TALKS
January 20, 2000 By Anne Gearan, Associated Press Writer
Washington (AP)

With Mideast peacemaking in slow-motion, President Clinton says he is taking on the task of nudging Syria and Israel along, and that neither side is giving up despite the suspension of talks
this week.  "Neither side has decided to back away from the peace talks, call an end, call a freeze to them, that's not what's going on," Clinton said Wednesday.  "They are having a genuine
dispute," about which issues to tackle first, "that I'm trying to work through for both of them," Clinton said after a White House speech promoting a new health care proposal.  The president cast the dispute as fairly minor.  "We're in a little patch here where I've just got a little extra work to do, and I'm going to work at it," he said.

BARAK WON'T MAKE WRITTEN PROMISE TO WITHDRAW FROM GOLAN
Copyright   2000 Nando Media   2000 Associated Press By Jack
Katzenell Jerusalem January 23, 2000

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday he would not make any written promises to withdraw from the entire Golan Heights in order to resume peace negotiations with Syria.  The Syrian state-owned newspaper Al-Thawra said Saturday that Barak should promise in writing to withdraw from the border that existed before Israel captured the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.  Barak's office said the premier told his Cabinet that he had not been asked to make such a promise in writing, but that if a request was made, he would say no.

Al-Thawra said "a document indicating withdrawal to the June 4, 1967, border would open a new and real chance" prior to the start of the next round of peace negotiations between Syria and Israel. Barak said Israel will make a decision on a withdrawal after it receives satisfactory answers from Syria on security arrangements, on the degree of normalization which Syria is prepared to accept and on water resources which Israel does not want to lose as a result of the withdrawal.  "The border between us and the Syrians is a function of the security arrangements and the nature of the peace, and so long as we do not know what the security arrangements are, the border will not be determined," Cabinet minister Haim Ramon, a close confidant of Barak, told
Israel radio.


PEACE PROCESS - ISRAEL AND PALESTINIANS

PA OFFICIAL: ISRAELI, PALESTINIAN POSITIONS ON FINAL STATUS
ISSUES ABSOLUTELY INCOMPATIBLE
Hamas News Occupied Jerusalem 1/15/00

The speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmed Qrei has drawn a bleak outlook of the so-called final status talks between Israel and the Palestinian authority, describing the two
sides' respective positions as "incompatible and irreconcilable." "The gap between the two sides is till very wide so much that we can cite a single point of agreement," said Qrei in an interview
published Saturday in the Ramalla-based daily alAyyam.  However, Qrei said the Palestinians were not giving up, adding that PA negotiator would continue to attend the negotiations rounds in
the hope that the Israeli government would demonstrate a genuine desire to overcome the current impasse.  Qrei said Palestinian demands were "just and clear since they are based on and
supported by UN resolutions."

The continued virtual deadlock in the Israeli-PA talks is expect to dominate the upcoming meeting between PA President Yaser Arafat and US President Bill Clinton in Washington on 20 January. Palestinian sources had said the outcome of the meeting would determine if Arafat would call the PLO Central Council to convene to declare Palestinian statehood.  The activation of the Syrian-Israeli track and the increasing possibility of a peace treaty between the two erstwhile implacable enemies have disquieted Arafat and the Palestinians in general.  The Palestinian leadership apparently feels that a Syrian-Israeli peace treaty would place the Palestinians in a more inferior position vis-...-vis Israel.

BARAK, ARAFAT HOLD SECRET MEETING
January 17, 2000 By Dina Kraft, Associated Press Writer, Hadera, Israel (AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held a secret meeting Monday night just hours after a pipe bomb suspected of being aimed at derailing the peace process injured 22 Israelis, most of them only slightly.  The meeting came as Palestinians were accusing Israel of reneging on its commitments by postponing a West Bank troop withdrawal, due to have taken place Thursday.  Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel TV the meeting was aimed at pushing the peace process forward.  The two leaders were to have met later this week in Washington, but Barak canceled his trip following Monday's postponement of peace talks with Syria.

Israel Radio reported that Barak was asking Arafat for a two-month delay in reaching a framework agreement for a final peace treaty.  Barak's office would not confirm the report.  The
sides had agreed to develop a framework agreement by Feb. 13. Barak aide Gadi Baltiansky would not comment on the report but said that Israel hoped to meet the February deadline.  "If not," he said, "we'll reach an agreement with them (the Palestinians) for something else."

Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo responded angrily to the possibility of a delay, accusing Israel of neglecting the Palestinians in favor of peace talks with Syria.  He said the
Palestinians would ask Arab nations to "calm down" the process of normalization with Israel until it reaches a final peace treaty with the Palestinians.

BARAK ASKS ARAFAT FOR DELAY IN FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT DEADLINE
By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent 1/18/00

Prime Minister Ehud Barak has decided to ask Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to agree to a delay in the target date for the attainment of a framework agreement.  The original target date is February 15, but Barak says that this date "is not holy."  Barak and Foreign Minister David Levy met last night with Arafat - the meeting was held after it became clear that the prime minister will not depart for the U.S., so a three-way summit with Arafat and Clinton will not occur this week.

Israel will propose to the Palestinians that marathon talks be conducted through February, in an effort to complete the framework agreement in March.  Israel's request for a deferral of the target date is predicated on two arguments: Up to now, framework talks have been conducted at an inadequate pace and Barak reasons that if progress arises in talks with Syria, it will be impossible for negotiations with the Palestinians to progress rapidly in tandem.  Conversely, a political source in Jerusalem said yesterday that "if there is an impasse with Syria, it won't be a problem making progress with the Palestinians."

CLINTON URGES MIDEAST COMPROMISE
January 21, 2000 By Barry Schweid, Ap Diplomatic Writer
Washington (AP)

Again offering his help, President Clinton's advice to the Palestinians and Israel is to compromise and settle for less than 100 percent in order to reach a settlement.  "As in any process like this," Clinton said as he met Thursday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, "there must be inevitable and difficult compromises.  No one can get everything that either side wants."

Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak are faced with a Feb. 13 deadline for an outline of an accord, but all key issues separating them remain unresolved.  "I'm convinced we can get
there and I'm convinced that Chairman Arafat is proceeding in great good faith," Clinton said at a picture-taking session in the Oval Office.  White House officials made no statement after the hour-long meeting, and there was no indication what a frustrated Clinton administration may do to try to hasten a settlement.

Arafat concurred in Clinton's statement that the issues between him and Barak were difficult.  However, he ducked when asked if he was willing to compromise, as Clinton had suggested.  With evident satisfaction, meanwhile, Arafat said he had reached agreement with Barak for Israel to transfer another 6.1 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority.  "Within two
weeks, we will receive the 6 percent," Arafat said.  "This is something Prime Minister Barak and I agreed to 24 or 48 hours before arriving."  It was not clear from Arafat's remark whether
the two sides had resolved exactly what land Israel would surrender.  After the meeting with Clinton, the Palestinian leader said he had asked for Clinton's help to assure successful negotiations.  "It was a very fruitful and productive and important meeting," Arafat said.

PALESTINIAN JOURNALIST SAYS ARAFAT'S MEETING WITH CLINTON WAS A
FAILURE Hamas News 1/21/99 Occupied Jerusalem:

A noted Palestinian journalist has dismissed Palestinian Authority Chairman Yaser Arafat's meeting with US President Bill Clinton Thursday as a big failure.  "Arafat received from Clinton
this time the same nice words he had received during his previous visits to Washington," said Khalid Amayreh, a Hebron-based Palestinian journalist and writer.  Amayreh said Arafat's description of the meeting as "fruitful and positive" stemmed from the Palestinian leader's infatuation with symbols and lack of attention to substance.  "Arafat was accorded a presidential
treatment; he listened to nice diplomatic words about Clinton's commitment to the peace process and perhaps some words about the Palestinian right to self determination," "But that is all, which means Arafat came out with nothing, as usual," Amayreh said.  The Palestinian journalist said Clinton actually sought blackmail Arafat into making "fundamental concessions to Israel."  "When Clinton said he expected both sides (Israel and the PA) to make painful decisions and that neither side would everything, he was actually urging Arafat to accept the partition of the West Bank and come to terms with Israel's adamant refusal to give up East Jerusalem, in addition to settling refugees in host countries." "This means Clinton expects Arafat to surrender to Israel, otherwise the peace process will come to an end."

BARAK SAYS ATMOSPHERE WITH PALESTINIANS GETTING BETTER, QREI SAYS
CRISIS IS LOOMING
Hamas News 1/23/00 Occupied Jerusalem:

Israel and the Palestinian Authority today made conflicting assessments of the status of peace talks between the two sides. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said following the weekly cabinet session Sunday that the overall atmosphere with the Palestinians was getting better.  He said it was likely that the two sides would reach "equitable understandings" fairly soon. However, Barak added however, that such equitable understandings were hedging on reciprocity on the other side.  "The Palestinians," he said "will have to show some flexibility."  He didn't elaborate.  Meanwhile, Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qrei warned that there were "signs of a looming crisis with Israel."  He said the final-status talks were going no where, adding that the Palestinians would assess the overall state of the peace process with Israel by 15 February, the erstwhile designated date for reaching a framework agreement on the final status issues.


MIDDLE EAST

IRANIAN LEADER CALLS FOR END OF ISRAEL
Copyright   1999 Nando Media   1999 Agence France-Press Tehran
December 31, 1999

Calling for the dismantling of the Jewish state, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday categorically rejected any peace or compromise with arch-enemy Israel.  Khamenei said there was "only one solution" to the Middle East conflict and that was the "dissolution" of the state of Israel and the declaration of a Palestinian state.

HIZBOLLAH PROMISES ISRAEL A BLOOD-FILLED NEW YEAR
December 31 By Miral Fahmy Beirut (Reuters)

Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas warned Israel Friday that they would usher in the New Year with more suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon.  In a scathing speech to a rally of more than 1,000 supporters, Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said peace deals between Arabs and Israel would not bring stability to the Middle East or legitimacy to the Jewish state.  ``There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel,'' he told the crowd.  ``Peace settlements will not change reality, which is that Israel is the enemy and that it will never be a neighbor or a nation.  ``Peace will not wipe out the memory of the massacres it has committed ... And on this last day of the century, I promise Israel that it will see more suicide attacks, for we will write our history with blood,'' Nasrallah declared.


TERRORISM

SECURITY OFFICIALS WARNING OF MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACK
IsraelWire-1/23

Security forces operating throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza have been ordered on high alert, seeking to prevent terrorists from smuggling explosive devices into "Israel proper".  Security
officials relying on intelligence data report Islamic Jihad terrorists will continue efforts to carry out an attack as part of its efforts to bring the negotiations between Israel and its neighbors to a halt.

As reported earlier by ISRAELWIRE, security forces over the past weeks have arrested over 20 Islamic Jihad terrorists in Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin areas and are continuing efforts to thwart another terrorist attack.  On Jan. 17, a pipe bomb exploded in Hadera injuring over 20 persons, an attack believed to have been carried out by the Islamic Jihad.  Officials nevertheless believe that this was not the large attack expected and are continuing efforts to apprehend the persons planning additional attacks.

BARAK: ISLAMIC JIHAD IS PLANNING MASS ATTACKS
Weekend News Today By Andra Brack Source: Ha'aretz Jan 20, 2000

Prime Minister Ehud Barak interrupted last Sunday's Cabinet discussion on the governor of the Bank of Israel to present ministers with serious warnings of terror attacks that are currently being planned by the Islamic Jihad.  Barak asked for, and was granted the Cabinet's authorization to instruct military retaliation in case of terror attacks without having to convene the Cabinet for this purpose.  This authorization was important for Barak, who was expected to leave for the United States to continue talks with the Syrians.

Chief of the Shin Bet security service, Ami Ayalon, told the cabinet that the Islamic Jihad was intent on interrupting the peace process, and that the organization is planning a mass
bombing campaign in Israel as well as kidnapping soldiers or settlers.  The Islamic Jihad operates from Damascus and enjoys massive support from Iran, Ayalon told the ministers.  The day
after the meeting, a bomb exploded in Hadera and the defense establishment pointed to the Islamic Jihad and even published some of the estimates presented to the Cabinet.

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