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To:
arutz-7@arutzsheva.org
From: neteditor@a7.org
Subject: Arutz-7 News:
Thursday, March 16, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.arutzsheva.org>
Thursday, March 16, 2000 / Adar Bet 9, 5760
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. TERRORISTS TO BE FREED, IN HOLIDAY GESTURE
2. SHARON GIVES HISTORY LESSON
3. IN BRIEF
1. TERRORISTS TO BE FREED, IN HOLIDAY GESTURE
Israel will release 16 Arab terrorists within the next few days,
as a
holiday gesture to the Palestinian Authority. Murderers of
Arabs, and
terrorists who took part in attacks in which Jews were injured,
will be
freed. In addition, some 30 Palestinian criminals, who were
to be released
within three months, will also be released. The terrorists
to be freed do
not include members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but efforts to
obtain a list
of their names have so far not succeeded.
A condemnation by the Victims of Arab Terror Organization of a
Supreme
Court petition filed by Meretz MK Zahava Gal'on can better be
understood
against the above background. She filed last week a suit
against the early
release of Yoram Skolnik, who was convicted of killing a bound-up
Arab
terrorist seven years ago. Gal'on claimed that the release
"does severe
damage to the principle of equality before the law... and
gives the
message that Arab blood is worth less than Jewish blood, and that
the
murder of an Arab is not as grave as the murder of a
Jew." VAT President
Shifra Hoffman writes in response: "The blatant
hypocrisy of MK Gal'on in
remaining silent as countless Arab murderers of Jews [are]
released by the
Israeli government without completing their prison
sentences... clearly
shows that her petition is not motivated by principles, but
rather by
politics."
2. SHARON GIVES HISTORY LESSON
Opposition leader Ariel Sharon, touring Jerusalem yesterday, took
the
opportunity to attack the predecessors of his present political
opponents:
"The left was always good at inciting. They are trying
now to accuse us of
incitement, in connection with the assassination of Rabin.
There is no
connection between this very grave act and the nationalist
camp... The
incitement started in the 1930's when they falsely accused
right-wingers of
assassinating [left-wing leader] Chaim Arlozoroff. The left
was thus able
to continue to lead the Zionist movement - for if not for that
blood libel,
the leader of the Zionist movement would have been Ze'ev
Jabotinsky
[founder of Revisionist Zionism, forerunner of the Herut movement
and the
Likud party]. It may well have been that the fate of the
Jewish people
would have been very different, in that the Jews in Europe may
have heeded
Jabotinsky's warnings of an impending disaster there. All
of Jewish
history may have been very different."
A Labor party spokesman responded to Sharon's statements:
"Sharon and
friends have 'receipts' regarding unrestrained incitement that
led to the
assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. They should be the
last ones to
rebuke us on this issue."
Rabbi Benny Kalmanson, an Israeli historian, was asked by
Arutz-'s Haggai
Segal if Sharon's historical charges regarding a possible
pre-empting of
the Holocaust had any merit. He answered,
"We can't ever say what would have happened 'If,' because
everything is
dependent on much more than one factor. For instance, would
Jabotinsky
have succeeded in opening the gates of Israel [closed by the
British] to
large numbers of European Jews? This is uncertain.
It's true that
Jabotinsky warned extensively, more than the ruling left-wing
coalition [in
the Land of Israel] at the time, of the impending catastrophe
that he
foresaw in Europe... The coalition was thinking in a different
way - I
wouldn't say they were lackadaisical, but they were rather
thinking in a
more long-range manner. Granted, it's easy for us to judge
now after the
event, but the fact is that their idea was to place the needs of
the Jews
of the Land of Israel ahead of those of the Diaspora - and even
when the
situation changed drastically with the onset of the Holocaust,
the leaders
here did not change their conception. They did not accept
various
non-Zionist proposals that were raised, such as transferring the
Jews to
San Domingo. Jabotinsky, on the other hand, saw the
immediate mission as
that of saving Jews."
3. IN BRIEF
Yasser Arafat agreed yesterday to the map of the upcoming
withdrawal from
6.1% of Judea and Samaria, but said that he will demand areas
closer to
Jerusalem in the next withdrawals. The map will be ratified
by the
government on Sunday, after which it will be voted on in the
Knesset. The
withdrawal is scheduled to be carried out late next week...
**************************************************************************
To:
arutz-7@arutzsheva.org
From: neteditor@a7.org
Subject: Arutz-7 News
Brief: Friday, March 17, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.ArutzSheva.org>
Friday, March 17, 2000 / Adar Bet 10, 5760
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. ADDRESSING THE POPE
2. THE NEGOHOT STRUGGLE
3. SURPRISING OPPOSITION TO GOLAN-GIVEAWAY
4. PALESTINIAN POLICE DON'T COOPERATE
1. ADDRESSING THE POPE
Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau held a press conference yesterday,
in
English, presenting background and explaining the significance of
the
upcoming visit of Pope John Paul II to Israel next week.
Dvora Cain,
of the Bnei David Organization for the Unity of Jerusalem, was
there,
and a summary of her report follows:
Rabbi Lau began with a history of previous rabbinic-papal
relations in
this century. Pope Pius XII refused several requests by
Chief Rabbi
Isaac Herzog to meet with him before and during the Holocaust and
discuss how the Church could help save Jewish lives. After
the war,
too, Chief Rabbi Herzog asked for the Pope's assistance in
locating
Jewish orphans who were cared for by Catholic families, and
again, the
Pope refused. In 1964, when Pope Paul VI visited Israel, he
refused
to meet with the Rishon Letzion Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim in
Jerusalem,
and Rabbi Nissim therefore boycotted the visit altogether.
Rabbi Lau
noted favorably that the present Pope John Paul II had agreed to
come
to Heichal Shlomo and meet with the Chief Rabbis in their
offices.
Furthermore, the Pope has requested to visit Yad Vashem, where
Rabbi
Lau said he hopes to hear a more complete apology regarding the
silence of the Church during the Holocaust. Rabbi Lau
commented that
Pope John Paul II has asked forgiveness for 1492, but has not yet
addressed the sins of 1942.
Rabbi Lau noted that the Pope told him, in a previous meeting in
1993,
that he had refused to baptize a Jewish child whose parents had
died,
"because the parents had specifically requested that the
child be
brought up as a Jew." Rabbi Lau ended his long talk by
expressing his
belief that the State of Israel is the fulfillment of the
prophecies
of the dry bones coming to life (Ezekiel 37). "Israel
doesn't need
this visit," he said. "We don't need anyone's
acceptance. We know who
we are. It's all in here," he said, lifting up and
pointing to a
Torah.
In answer to a question afterwards, Rabbi Lau said that he would
address the Pope simply as "you," with no other
titles. Arutz-7
correspondents note that the Foreign Ministry and the Government
Press
Office refer to the Pope as "His Holiness." In
response to a query,
the GPO explained that this is "what he calls himself... as
such, [we]
will use it as diplomatic protocol and simple
courtesy." The GPO
Senior News Editor admitted, however, that "we do not refer
to PA
Chairman Arafat as 'President,' because the Israeli government
does
not recognize the PA as a sovereign
state."
MK Rabbi Avraham Ravitz (United Torah Judaism) said yesterday
that
Israel should receive the Pope with all due respect, "but at
the same
time the Jewish People has no right to forget what the Christian
world
did to us throughout history." He said that he would
not use the word
"holy" to refer to the Pontiff, but would rather refer
to him as the
head of the Vatican or head of the Catholic Church.
2. THE NEGOHOT STRUGGLE
The struggle for the Negohot road continues. The only
access road to
the 13-family South Har Hevron community is due to be placed
under
Palestinian military and administrative control in the course of
next
week's withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. Negohot residents
erected a
protest tent outside the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem
several
days ago, and today they arrived at Kokhav Ya'ir - the home of
Prime
Minister Barak - for Shabbat. They hope to demonstrate personally
to
the Prime Minister the severity of the decision to put the
approaches
to their homes under the control of the Palestinian para-military
police.
3. SURPRISING OPPOSITION TO GOLAN-GIVEAWAY
A group of famous left-wing personalities who share objections to
a
withdrawal from the Golan Heights will meet on Sunday to discuss
how
to prevent such a retreat. Among the organizers are former
Labor
ministers Shoshana Arbeli Almoznino and Arik Nechemkin, Meretz
secretariat member Gilad Natan, radio broadcaster Alex Ansky, and
others. Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman reports that Peace Now
plans to
demonstrate against the gathering, and a clash between the two
groups
is feared.
Syria has attacked Prime Minister Barak's demand for
"normalization
before a withdrawal." The official newspaper Tishrin
writes today
that this demand is "impossible... and proves that the
policy of
aggressiveness and expansionism has not changed in Tel Aviv since
the
days of Ben Gurion." Barak said today that he does not know
if a peace
agreement with Syria is possible.
A delegation of Jordan Valley leaders traveled to the Golan today
for
a "solidarity tour" of the area. Among those who
came to express
their opposition to the uprooting of the 18,000 residents were
Megillot Regional Council Head Mordechai Dahaman and Jordan
Valley
Regional Council Head David Levy.
4. PALESTINIAN POLICE DON'T COOPERATE
There is practically no cooperation between the Palestinian
para-military police and Israel, according to a memorandum
prepared by
Israel Police for the security cabinet. The document,
quoted in
Ma'ariv today, states that the Palestinians ignore the written
agreements between the sides, and act "on the ground"
as they please -
including arresting, detaining, interrogating, and even torturing
Israeli -Arabs in eastern Jerusalem and other places. The
Palestinian
police often either ignore stolen cars or demand bribes for their
recovery, claims the report, and some policemen even drive stolen
cars
themselves. Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami says
that the
situation is "intolerable." He recommends
cancelling the warrant for
the arrest of Palestinian Police Chief Razi Jabali - who
masterminded
a terrorist cell in the Shomron - in the hope of improving
communications between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
*************************************************************************
Sunday, March 19 2000 12 Adar II 5760
The Jerusalem Post: Internet Edition
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/03/19/News/News.4188.html
US: Talks with PA to aim for quick deal
By Janine Zacharia
WASHINGTON (March 19) - After a more than
six-week hiatus, Israeli-Palestinian final-status talks
will resume in Washington on Tuesday and are expected
to last between a week and 10 days.
"The primary focus of the negotiations will be to reach
a framework agreement as soon as possible so that all
permanent status issues can be resolved by September
13, 2000," a statement issued by State Department
spokesman James Rubin on Friday said. "The negotiations
will also address interim issues, including the third
phase of further redeployment," it added.
The talks, which officials and analysts here have been
saying are more important for their symbolic value than
the results they will produce, will take place at
Bolling Air Force Base in Washington and will be under
a total media blackout.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed earlier this month that a
framework agreement should be reached by May and the
size of a third interim redeployment should be decided
by June.
The delegations, led by Israeli negotiator Oded Eran
and Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo, will
consist of roughly half a dozen people.
The US is eager for breakthroughs on both the
Palestinian and the Syrian tracks, but it reaffirmed
that resolution of the Palestinian track is a
prerequisite for a comprehensive peace in the Middle
East.
"The US will be working with both sides to facilitate
progress. Indeed, the US has long believed that the
Palestinian issue represents the core of the
Arab-Israeli conflict. A solution that meets the needs
of both Israelis and Palestinians is essential if there
is to be a comprehensive peace," Rubin's statement
said.
President Bill Clinton, who via telephone diplomacy has
been focused on prodding the Syrians back to the
negotiating table, will not take part in the talks,
since they are not at the top level. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright could take part periodically if
necessary to help overcome stumbling blocks, officials
said.
The Syrians, who still have not agreed to rejoin the
talks with Israel, are concerned about several
outstanding issues, most prominently where the border
will run along the eastern shore of Lake Kinneret. It
is still not clear whether Clinton will meet Assad in a
bid to help soothe Assad's concerns and coax him to
allow talks to resume.
While the US is still quietly considering an Israeli
wish-list of military hardware and assistance that
could accompany a deal, Robert Satloff, executive
director of the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy think tank, citing senior US officials, said
Friday Syria had rebuffed US overtures to discuss
possible aid packages.
Syria's position as one of seven countries on the State
Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism
precludes it for the moment from receiving US aid. But
it is widely assumed that, should Israel and Syria
strike a peace deal, Syria will take the necessary
measures to have itself removed.
Meanwhile, the cabinet is expected today to approve
maps for a 6.1% West Bank withdrawal likely to take
place this week.
This would be the second pullback called for by the
Sharm e-Sheikh Memorandum, whose implementation has
been delayed due to disagreements with the Palestinian
Authority over which land should be handed over.
The plan includes two villages in the vicinity of
Jerusalem, Beituniya and Obadiya, but not Anata, as
initially proposed.
(Danna Harman contributed to this report.)
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