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From:        Eddie Chumney
To:            heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject:       News of Interest: March 1 - 12, 2000

                            News of Interest
                    March 1 to March 12, 2000


TEMPLE MOUNT

MODEL OF THE TABERNACLE
A small-scale model to be unveiled; a life-size restoration in
the works  By Baruch Kra Sunday, March 12, 2000 Ha'aretz

When retired Israel Aircraft engineer Yaakov Sharvit took on the
task of reconstructing the Tabernacle, the temporary temple
erected by Moses in the wilderness, he expected the job to be
emotional.  But he did not anticipate the euphoria that came with
realizing a vision of 22 years.  Now, night after night, the
manager of the Tel Shilo site of the Tabernacle lies awake with
excitement, on the brink of unveiling his vision to the public.
The Tabernacle in its original dimensions has yet to be rebuilt,
but Sharvit recently completed construction on a model with
modest dimensions of 1.5 meters by 2.5 meters.  "With God's help,
on the first day of the month of Nissan - on the day the original
Tabernacle was erected in the Sinai desert - we'll have a
dignified ceremony," says Sharvit, who plans to invite
dignitaries from chief rabbis to the minister of tourism to the
opening event at Tel Shilo in the Benjamin region.


JERUSALEM

GOVERNMENT PREPARING TO MAKE CONCESSIONS ON JERUSALEM
IsraelWire-3/12

Senior officials in the Barak administration have reported that
orders have already been given to redraw the municipal borders of
Jerusalem in preparedness for the start of the final status
egotiations in May.  The reality of the recent change represents
an erosion of the government's hard-line stance that it has
adopted in the talks with the PLO Authority (PA) vis-...-vis
Jerusalem, to date.  Until now, the government has stated it
supported the position that the capital's boundaries following
the 1967 Six Day War would remain the undivided Jewish capital
and land concessions in Jerusalem would not be considered.

According to a report in the daily Yediot Ahronot, the nation's
largest newspaper, the government is now preparing to permit the
PA "a foothold" in areas defined as the outskirts of the capital,
in an attempt to display certain flexibility at the negotiating
table, but remains firm vis-...-vis areas in the heart of the
capital and the Old City.  According to the new maps, certain
neighborhoods in the periphery of the capital would become areas
"B" undr Oslo, namely under PA civil and Israeli security
control.  The maps of the capital drawn up in 1967 reflected a
more concentrated Arab population and a different reality.  "We
must now prepare for 2000," Yediot quoted an unnamed government
official as saying.

The government's main focus is on areas in the northern capital,
bordering the autonomous city of Ramallah, as well as bordering
areas "B" such as Aram, western portions of the Kalandia Refugee
Camp, and the Arab neighborhood north of Kalandia bordering
Ramallah.  Also included are two southern Jerusalem villages
which already act and live as autonomous areas.  Officials are
pointing out that Arab northern neighborhoods in the capital are
densely populated and are an economic and social drain on the
municipality.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday morning denied
the accuracy of the front-page Yediot report, insisting the
current administration will not compromise Israel's sovereignty
over Jerusalem.


PEACE PROCESS

ARAFAT INSISTS THAT MEETINGS IN EASTERN JERUSALEM ARE A MUST
IsraelWire-3/2

In another move to create facts on the ground regarding PLO
Authority (PA) sovereignty in eastern Jerusalem, PA Chairman
Yassir Arafat has stated he would not meet with any European
leaders in Gaza who refuse to conduct meetings with PA officials
in eastern Jerusalem, in compliance with Israelis demands.

The statements come following a recent incident involving
European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine, who refused to
meet with the PA's Faisal Husseini in eastern Jerusalem, after
being requested to do so in a meeting with Foreign Minister David
Levy.  Angered at the move, senior PA officials filed a formal
complaint with the European community.  As a result, European
officials compelled Fontaine to meet with Husseini in eastern
Jerusalem later in the day.

According to Dr. Nabil Shaath, visiting dignitaries are not
required to meet in the PA's Orient House, but they will be
expected to meet with PA officials in the eastern capital which
is being claimed by the PA as the future of a Palestinian state.
Despite PA officials insisting the meetings are not in
contradiction to the law, the Oslo agreements signed between
Israel and the PA bar official PA activities in Jerusalem.


ARAFAT DETERMINED TO DECLARE STATE IN 2000
By Wafa Amr Ramallah, West Bank (Reuters) Tuesday March 7

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat gave his strongest indication
yet on Tuesday that he would declare an independent state this
year, with or without a peace agreement with Israel.

``I declare that there is no turning back on our decision to
declaring national independence within the time ceiling that was
set by the agreements and I declare that the year 2000 is the
year for the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,''
he said in a speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council.  ``We
are discussing with friends in the world what is the best day for
declaring our state,'' he told reporters later.


PM TO OFFER STATE-FOR-ANNEXATION DEAL
By Uzi Benziman and Ha'aretz Staff Ha'aretz 3/10/00

As negotiations with the Palestinians resume, Prime Minister Ehud
Barak is working toward a new plan for a limited agreement, in
which Israel would recognize a Palestinian state on part of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in return the Palestinians would
consent to Israeli annexation of some 10 percent of the West
Bank, areas where the majority of the settlers live.

Barak plans to propose to Palestinian Chair Yasser Arafat that
Israel and the PA agree on the new plan by September, which is
the current deadline for a permanent status agreement.  Barak
came up with this idea after concluding that it would be
impossible to resolve all the issues on the table by September.
The plan is intended to skirt a confrontation between Israel and
the PA, which is likely if the two sides fail to reach a
settlement by the deadline and then resort to unilateral steps.

The new plan allows both sides to agree in advance (whether
officially or implicitly) on moves that are already expected: the
declaration of a Palestinian state, and the Israeli reaction of
annexing parts of the West Bank.  The new proposal does not
address the future of some 40 percent of the West Bank, the
status of Jerusalem or the right of return for Palestinian
refugees.  Barak believes that negotiations over these issues is
less likely to be accompanied by violence if they are debated
between two sovereign states.

It is unclear whether Israel has already presented Arafat with
the plan, which was hatched in recent weeks.  However, according
to well-informed sources in Jerusalem, Arafat likely got at least
a hint of the proposal on Wednesday, when the two sides decided
to resume negotiations.


MIDDLE EAST

PREPARATION FOR WAR

MILITARY - ARROW ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILE SYSTEM NO ANSWER FOR
IRAN'S SHEHAB 3
By Amnon Barzilai - Ha'aretz Defense Correspondent Ha'aretz
3/12/2000

The Arrow anti-missile system Israel is currently producing
cannot protect against Iran's advanced Shehab 3 ballistic
missiles, according to internal deliberations at high levels of
the defense establishment.  The Shehab 3 missiles are the most
sophisticated and fastest of a series of ballistic missiles
developed by Iran.  The Arrow system, including missiles,
launchers, radar (Green Oren) and the control and command system
(Gold Etrog), cost $1.3 billion to develop.  By 2010, the total
investment in the project will reach $2.2 billion.

BARAK DROPS PLANS FOR EARLY-WARNING STATION
Weekend News Today By Kelly Pagatpatan Source: Middle East
Newsline Mar 12, 2000

Aides said Barak has told the United States that he no longer
insists on Israeli control of an international early-warning
station or to a permanent Israeli presence on Mount Hermon.  The
aides said Barak has been persuaded by President Bill Clinton
that U.S. satellites can provide greater surveillance of the
Golan Heights and Syria than any early-warning station that would
include Syrian and international observers.

The aides said Clinton has pledged to Barak that the United
States would allow Israel to have access to U.S. satellite
information on the Golan Heights and the Syrian military
deployment.  They said the prime minister wants to ensure Israeli
presence on Mount Hermon until after the completion of an Israeli
withdrawal from the Golan Heights and the installation of
alternative U.  S.-supplied reconnaissance.

ANTI-SEMITISM

VATICAN DOCUMENT ON HOLOCAUST REITERATES RESPONSIBILITY, DOESN'T
OFFER APOLOGY
Copyright   2000 Nando Media Copyright   2000 Associated Press
By Frances D'emilio Vatican City March 1, 2000

The latest Vatican document to examine past errors of its
faithful urges Christians to do more to preserve the memory of
the Holocaust but contains no apology for the Church's actions
during World War II, an apology demanded by some Jewish groups.
The 92-page document, entitled "Memory and Reconciliation: the
church and the errors of the past," is part of Pope John Paul
II's campaign for a collective examination of conscience as the
church begins its third millennium.

The Vatican had scheduled presentation of the document for March
7, but the Rev.  Jean-Louis Brugues, a French priest on the
commission in charge of the document, released it in Paris on
Wednesday.  The document breaks no new ground and largely sums up
previous Vatican works, including a long-awaited reflection on
the Holocaust presented in 1998.

In a preface to the 1998 document, John Paul, who has made
improving relations with Jews a cornerstone of his papacy,
expressed hope that wounds of past misunderstandings and
injustices would be on their way to healing.  But neither the
1998 document nor the one made public Wednesday mentioned what
many Jews say they are waiting to hear: an apology by the church
for its actions as an institution during the Nazi persecution of
the Jews during last century.

The latest document describes as "sorrowful historical fact" the
hostility expressed over the centuries by many Christians toward
Jews.  As for the Holocaust, the document says that "a lot of
Christians risked their life to save and lend assistance to the
Jews they knew."  But, quoting from the 1998 document, it adds
that "the spiritual resistance and the concrete action of other
Christians weren't what one could have expected from disciples of
Christ."

The new document says that "this constitutes an appeal to all
Christians of today; it requires an act of repentance and becomes
a spur to redouble efforts ... (so) that the moral and religious
memory of the wounds inflicted to the Jews are maintained."


PAPACY

POPE PLANS APOLOGY FOR CHURCH'S SINS
VATICAN CITY (AP) 3/7/00

Pope John Paul II plans to deliver a historic, sweeping apology
for the sins of Roman Catholics over the centuries, Vatican
officials said Tuesday.  It was unclear, however, how specific
the pope would be.  The pope's homily for the Day of Pardon Mass
in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday is apparently still being
written.  The officials, briefing reporters on the event, also
appeared to be setting limits on how such an apology should be
viewed.  The pope has campaigned for a collective examination of
conscience as the church begins its third millennium.  No pope
has ever gone to such lengths to seek forgiveness for past sins,
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

POPE IN HISTORIC PLEA TO PARDON CHURCH SINS
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) Sunday March 12

In one of the most significant acts of his papacy, Pope John Paul
asked forgiveness on Sunday for the many past sins of his Church,
including its treatment of Jews, heretics, women and native
peoples.  It was the first time in the history of the Catholic
Church that one of its leaders has sought such a sweeping pardon.

Wearing the purple vestments of Lenten mourning and speaking at
the heart of Catholicism in St Peter's Basilica, the Pope and his
top cardinals listed the many past sins of their Church, grouped
into seven categories.  ``We forgive and we ask for
forgiveness,'' the Pope said in his homily during the
unprecedented ceremony, held on the Catholic Church's ``Day of
Forgiveness'' for the 2000 Holy Year.

There was great curiosity before the ceremony about how specific
the Pope would be when speaking of the Jews.  The prayer for
forgiveness for sins against Jews, which was read by Cardinal
Edward Cassidy, said in part: ``Let us pray that, in recalling
the sufferings endured by the people of Israel throughout
history, Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by not a
few of their number against the people of the Covenant....''

The Pope then added in his own words: ``We are deeply saddened by
the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused
these children of yours (the Jews) to suffer, and asking your
forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood
with the people of the Covenant.'' There was no specific
reference to the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed some six
million Jews.

Last week Italian Jews called on the Pope, who visits Jerusalem
later this month, to be as specific as possible about the
Holocaust during Sunday's mass.  But Rabbi David Rosen, head of
the Jerusalem office of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith, said expectations that the Pope would say more were
perhaps ``a little unrealistic.'' Rosen, a prominent figure in
Catholic-Jewish relations, told Reuters the inclusion of a
request for forgiveness from Jews in a Roman Catholic liturgy in
St Peter's was ``a significant step.''

A Dirty Laundry List Of Sins

``We ask forgiveness for the divisions among Christians, for the
use of violence that some Christians used in the service of the
truth and for the behavior of diffidence and hostility sometimes
used toward followers of other religions,'' the Pope said in his
homily before the prayers.  The words ``violence in the service
of truth'' is a much-used reference to the treatment of heretics
during the Inquisition, the Crusades, and forced conversions of
native peoples.  ``For the role that each one of us has had, with
his behavior, in these evils, contributing to a disfigurement of
the face of the Church, we humbly ask forgiveness,'' he said.

The seven categories of forgiveness were general sins, sins in
the service of truth, sins against Christian unity, against the
Jews, against respect for love, peace and cultures, against the
dignity of women and minorities, and against human rights.  There
was no reference to homosexuals, who had asked to be included in
the list of those asked for forgiveness.

The prayer for forgiveness from women and minorities said
Christians had been ``guilty of attitudes of rejection and
exclusion, consenting to acts of discrimination on the basis of
racial and ethnic differences.''

The prayer for forgiveness for human rights abuses said
Christians had not recognized Christ in the poor, the persecuted
and imprisoned and had too often committed ``acts of injustice by
trusting in wealth and power.''

Referring to abortion, he said Christians had not defended the
defenseless ``especially in the first stages of life.''

The Pope said Christians had ``violated the rights of ethnic
groups and peoples and shown contempt for their cultures and
religious traditions.'' A prayer mentioned sins against gypsies.

The Pope has said often that Catholics should see the start of
the millennium as an ideal opportunity to seek forgiveness for
past sins, including those of the Church as a community.  He has
called this a necessary ``purification of memory'' in order for
the Church to move forward.  The Pope also said Christians were
ready to forgive others for the abuse suffered by Christians over
the centuries.

AILING POPE LOSES CONTROL OF VATICAN
Roland White London Times 3/12/00

The Pope has lost control of the Vatican because he is too frail
to manage its affairs, according to senior officials in the
Catholic church.  John Cornwell, an author and Cambridge
academic, says the Pope, who will be 80 in May and suffers from
Parkinson's disease, spends much of his day resting and is
invariably in bed by 6 pm.  "He is not capable of having the sort
of conversations he once had," said a Jesuit academic.  "He does
not listen and he does not communicate."

Increasingly isolated, the Pope has surrounded himself with an
inner clique of clerics from his native Poland, including his
secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz, and his wheelchair-bound friend
Cardinal Andrzej Deskur.  Dziwisz is a former skiing partner of
the Pope.  Deskur, had a stroke shortly after the Pope's election
and the Pontiff said of him: "He does my suffering for me."

The Pope faces further deterioration in his health with the
advance of Parkinson's disease, which is held in check by the
drug Levodopa.  He can expect further loss of control of his
speech and bodily movements.  Already stooped, he moves with an
unsteady shuffle.

Cornwell, author of a controversial study of the wartime Pope
Pius XII, who is accused of complicity with the Nazis, has
investigated the internecine struggle accompanying the Pope's
decline.

According to the sources, the breakdown in John Paul II's health
has left a power vacuum in the Vatican in which affairs are
dominated by Opus Dei, the hardline right-wing faction that has
seized control of at least three key Vatican departments: the
section responsible for making saints, the congregation that
appoints bishops, and the powerful press office.

Officials paint a bleak picture of life in the curia, the
administrative centre of the Catholic church, as a bureaucracy
turning rotten thanks to a culture of malevolent gossip and the
tensions of celibacy.  There are few women working in the
Vatican, but those who do are treated with contempt.  One former
secretary was locked in her office each day by her boss.  Another
found when she went to the cafeteria male colleagues would move
away if she sat close.

The church is facing a period of unprecedented danger as
reformers attempt to seize the initiative back from the
conservatives at the top of the Catholic hierarchy.  According to
top theologians, feuding rightwingers are manipulating the Pope
to the extent of putting statements into his mouth.

Even his grip on doctrine is being prised away.  One Jesuit
theologian has accused him of "rank heresy" after a previously
unreported public meeting last month at which the Pope announced
that the revelation of Christ was "definitive and complete", a
view that amazed theologians.  According to orthodox doctrine,
the revelation will not be complete until the second coming of
Christ.

Since 1870, popes have been considered infallible on matters of
doctrine.  But liberal Catholics believe that such statements by
John Paul II - including a view that Catholicism is the only true
faith - are being put into his mouth by the powerful Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith.  Formerly the Congregation for the
Inquisition, this department, headed by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, is the appointed guardian of church orthodoxy.  It is
waging a fierce doctrinal battle with a liberal Catholic
theologian, Father Jacques Dupuis, who acknowledges the
importance of other faiths.

"The statement was evidently written out for the Holy Father by
Cardinal Ratzinger's department," said the Jesuit source, who
refused to be identified.

The Pope was once a keen swimmer and skied until he was 73, but
he has since had several falls, including one that broke his
femur.  He has also had an operation to remove a benign tumour.
Recently, Karl Lehmann, a German bishop, became the first senior
churchman to raise the prospect of the Pope stepping down.

In the absence of strong leadership, factions in the church have
been allowed to struggle for supremacy.  Shortly after Christmas,
Conservative cardinals condemned the Pope for making an apology
for the church's past sins, including the Spanish Inquisition.

This power struggle comes at a difficult time for the church.
Young people are leaving the church in large numbers, driven away
by the pontiff's hard line on divorce and birth control.There has
been a similar fall in young men wishing to become priests.  "The
church has now entered a period of acute and unprecedented
danger," Cornwell said.


ONE-WORLD

IN BEIJING, THE SIGNS OF A NEW STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
STRATFOR.COM Global Intelligence Update 3 March 2000 Summary

In China on March 2, the state-run People's Daily ran several
articles touting the benefits of strategic partnership between
Russia and China.  The publication appears to endorse little
noticed negotiations between Moscow and Beijing, which are
exchanging top- ranking officials in preparation for a summit.
Details have been closely guarded, but the talks involve oil and
weapons.  The timing of the state press coverage suggests that
there has now been a breakthrough in the talks.  And it appears
that a more vigorous strategic partnership between Russia and
China - one that will worry the West - is beginning to take
shape.

CHINA AND NORTH KOREA COORDINATE
STRATFOR.COM Global Intelligence Update 7 March 2000 Summary

With Taiwan's elections less than two weeks away, China has not
only strengthened its warnings against independence but increased
diplomatic contacts with North Korea.  North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il recently paid an unusual visit to the Chinese embassy in
Pyongyang.  China appears to lack the political will to launch an
aggressive military operation - and a crisis - like the one that
took place in the Taiwan Strait in 1996.  Yet, Beijing appears to
be positioning itself to coordinate simultaneous challenges
alongside North Korea, sending a powerful warning to the United
States, with less risk of conflict.

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