HHMI Newsgroup Archives
To: arutz-7@ArutzSheva.org
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@ArutzSheva.org>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Sunday, April 16, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.ArutzSheva.org>
Sunday, April 16, 2000 / Nisan 11, 5760
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. BARAK WOULD RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE - ON CONDITION
2. AJC PUBLICIZES ARAB ANTI-SEMITISM
1. BARAK WOULD RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE - ON CONDITION
Prime Minister Barak briefed the Cabinet this morning on his conditions for
recognizing a Palestinian state. He said that Israel will grant
recognition to such a state only if the state is demilitarized; an absolute
majority of settlers remains in Israeli settlement blocs; Jerusalem
remains united in its present borders under Israeli sovereignty; and Arab
refugees do not enter Israel. Yasser Arafat said on Thursday that he
rejects Barak's conditions, and that he will declare a state in any event
on September 13. U.S. President Clinton, who will meet with Arafat in
Washington this Thursday, has said that he expects to hear "new ideas" from
Arafat.
Yoram Levy, diplomatic correspondent of Itim News Agency, summed up: "The
most important element of today's Cabinet meeting, from my point of view,
is that Barak said that he would be willing to give an 'advance' on the
third withdrawal even before any agreement is signed. He is most
definitely preparing the way for a Palestinian state, of undetermined size
and location... Barak told Clinton that he is willing to go that far, and
the ball is now in Arafat's court. We all await, therefore, Thursday's
meeting in Washington."
Likud MK Silvan Shalom told Arutz-7's today of his dismay with Barak's
stance:
"What kind of diplomatic thinking is this? He said last week - and it did
not receive the proper publicity - that he is willing to annex Ramot and
Pisgat Ze'ev - two Jerusalem neighborhoods that are already part of
Jerusalem and Israel-proper - and he goes and says that he is willing to
'annex' them? This will only cause damage to their status in the long run,
unfortunately... Why does he have to talk about recognizing a Palestinian
state now? Even if he is willing to do that at some point, why now, before
he knows what type of state it will be, or with what borders? And what
will he do with the refugees - put them on the border from where they will
'see the land but won't be allowed in'? This will only make the problem
even more serious. And what about Jerusalem? He must first struggle for
his own interests, and only afterwards grant Arafat this gift of
recognizing of his state."
When asked what he would recommend to Barak, MK Shalom said, "He must say
unambiguously that he is against the formation of a Palestinian state, just
as we did last year. When Arafat said that he would declare a state by May
1999, we informed him in the strongest terms that he had better not do so,
or else the entire process would be endangered - and in fact he did not
declare a state."
Shalom was asked about the differences now between the Likud and Labor, in
terms of their approach to the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.
Shalom answered, "Oh, the differences are very great. First of all, Labor
is in favor of a withdrawal from the entire Golan, which we are against.
In Yesha, we - and I hope this includes most of my colleagues - are against
a Palestinian state, and certainly against a return to the 1967 borders,
and certainly against any harm befalling Jerusalem. When Barak talks about
not wanting to annex Jerusalem-environ villages such as Anata and Abu Dis
with their 50,000 Arabs, it must be remembered that Abu Dis is only 1,000
steps away from the Western Wall and the Temple Mount! This will bring
them right up to the Temple Mount! I think that in these areas there is an
essential difference between us."
2. AJC PUBLICIZES ARAB ANTI-SEMITISM
The American Jewish Committee has placed full-page advertisements in the
New York Times and other newspapers, exposing the rampant anti-Semitism in
newspapers and textbooks sponsored by Syria, the Palestinian Authority, and
other Arab regimes. The AJC's ad in the New York Times noted that "hatred
of Jews seethes in the Arab government-controlled media," and concluded:
"Such virulent anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Arab world must no
longer be tolerated. The spreading of hatred and the pursuit of peace
cannot coexist. Which will it be?"
Some examples noted by the AJC:
* "The Palestinian Authority-appointed Islamic Mufti of Jerusalem last
month publicly trivialized the Holocaust";
* The PA's "official news outlets have asserted that Israel is spreading
deadly viruses throughout the Arab
world";
* "Arab media have depicted, in words and cartoons, Israeli Prime Minister
Barak and Foreign Minister David Levy as Nazis";
* The Syrian government newspaper Al Thawra declared that Israel "has
surpassed even the Nazis in its criminal acts";
* the Syrian government magazine Al-Usbu Al-Adabi wrote that "the Matzoh of
Israel is soaked with the blood of the Palestinians";
* a Syrian government schoolbook, Islamic Education for Tenth Grade,
1999-2000, teaches (p.116) that "the logic of justice obligates the
application of the single verdict on the Jews from which there is no escape
- namely, that their criminal intentions be turned against them and that
they be exterminated."
The Zionist Organization of America notes that a poll carried out earlier
this year on behalf of the Middle East Quarterly found that by nearly 4 to
1 (64.8% to 16.6%), Americans believe that Syria should be required to halt
all anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic incitement in the Syrian
government-controlled media before the U.S. should consider giving any
financial aid to Syria.
*******************************************************************
To: arutz-7@ArutzSheva.org
From: Arutz Sheva Editor <netnews@ArutzSheva.org>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Monday, April 17, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.ArutzSheva.org>
Monday, April 17, 2000 / Nissan 12, 5760
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. RUSSIAN OLIM AND THE GOLAN
2. PALESTINIAN ATTITUDES
1. RUSSIAN OLIM AND THE GOLAN
Israel's largest Russian-language newspaper, Vesti, has just published
the results of nation-wide survey of its readers on a possible Israeli
withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Speaking with Arutz-7 today,
Vesti's Roman Gurevich said that some 10,900 Vesti readers, mostly
immigrants from the former Soviet Union - cast votes on the topic in
11 polling stations around the country. In the south, slightly more
than 82% of Vesti readers opposed a withdrawal; in the north, 86.5%
were opposed, and in the center of the country - including the greater
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas - some 77% of readers voted "nay."
Gurevich added that responses to a related query indicated a general
disenchantment with Ehud Barak's negotiating tactics with Syria. Some
58% of readers were dissatisfied with his performance, while another
32% rated it as "fair." Fifty percent of Israel's Russian immigrant
voters supported Ehud Barak in last year's elections.
2. PALESTINIAN ARAB ATTITUDES
Palestinian approaches on a wide range of current issues are the
subject of a study just released by the Shechem-based Center for
Palestine Research and Studies. Of some 1,300 Yesha Arabs questioned,
only one-third felt that a final-status deal will be signed in the
near future. Over 58% of respondents, on the other hand, believed that
there "is no possibility to reach a solution acceptable" to the two
sides on issues such as Jerusalem, refugees, Yesha settlements, and
borders.
More of the study's findings: 70% of Yesha Arabs believe that there is
corruption in PA institutions; only 23% rated democracy and human
rights under the PA as "good" or "very good," and 65% of respondents
felt that they "could not criticize the PA leadership without fear."
The survey also found that Palestinians have not fully denounced
terrorism, with some 44% of respondents expressing support for "armed
attacks on Israeli targets."
************************************************************************
To: arutz-7@ArutzSheva.org
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@ArutzSheva.org>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Tuesday, April 18, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.ArutzSheva.org>
Tuesday, April 18, 2000 / Nissan 13, 5760
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. YESHA COUNCIL AGAINST BARAK'S "ALIBI" POLICY
2. SHARON TAKES POLITICAL POKE
1. YESHA COUNCIL AGAINST BARAK'S "ALIBI" POLICY
Conflicting reports have been issued regarding last night's meeting
between Yesha Council representatives and the Prime Minister. It was
"conducted in a pleasant atmosphere," according to Prime Minister's
Office staffers, while Yesha sources say that it was a "difficult"
meeting. Barak asked the Yesha leaders to be "realistic" and to
"consider the alternative" to the present direction of the
negotiations with the Palestinians. The Council representatives
warned the Prime Minister that the uprooting of settlements will lead
to a split in the nation, "the likes of which has not been seen since
the beginning of the state."
Yesha Council spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef summed up the meeting for
Arutz-7 today: "I would say that Barak was not angry, but rather
'perturbed' that we didn't buy his explanations as to the need for
tossing additional acres of Eretz Yisrael to Arafat merely in an
attempt to achieve quiet [as opposed to peace]... We came to discuss
with the Prime Minister not individual details, but the basic
principles of the government's policy. We said that a Palestinian
state endangers the entire State of Israel, and not only Judea and
Samaria - we know that a military exercise conducted 2-3 months ago
found that one battalion of the Palestinian para-military police can
block a much larger Israeli division from reaching the eastern front
- such that this is a matter of acute security concern."
Mor-Yosef quoted other points raised by the Yesha Council leaders:
"We told Barak that even if he doesn't want to divide Jerusalem, this
is what will happen when it's surrounded by the Palestinian entity on
three sides - north, east, and south. We also emphasized how
important it is that there be land around the various Yesha
communities for their development, security, and roads. We asked him
why he wants to give more in the third withdrawal than even Clinton
thinks is necessary [a reference to a letter he wrote Binyamin
Netanyahu in favor of a third withdrawal of 1%]?" The Yesha spokesman
said that he understands that the left-wing of Barak's government is
"giving him a hard time for not having conceded a bit more in the
talks with Syria - 'just a few more dozen meters on the Kinneret,'
they say... He feels, therefore, that the burden of proof has been
placed upon him by Clinton and Minister Yossi Sarid [of Meretz] to
show that he wants peace. For this reason, he is willing to give
Arafat an 'advance' of 2 or 3% of Yesha, even without any prior
agreement, and if there is an agreement, he'll give him another 10%.
The bottom line is that if there is an agreement on a final-status
framework alone, Barak is willing to give more than 10% of Yesha..."
One Barak statement quoted by the Yesha leaders has been denied by the
Prime Minister's Office: "I heard him clearly say," said Mor-Yosef,
"that 'the Palestinian state will not be more than 50% of Yesha if
Arafat doesn't first recognize our sovereignty over Ma'aleh Adumim.'"
Mor-Yosef said that he received the sincere impression that the issue
of "causing a split in the nation" - the Yesha Council theme of late
is "Uprooting Settlements will Tear the Nation Apart" - is of great
concern to the Prime Minister: "He said several times during our
meeting last night that he does not wish to accept this 'hot potato'
as his responsibility, and that he wishes to pass it back to us. We
explained to him that the foreseen split is not something over which
we have any control, but something spontaneous that will occur if he
proceeds with plans to isolate Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in
Yesha."
Mor-Yosef informed the listeners that a giant Yesha demonstration is
planned in Zion Square in Jerusalem next month, "where we will cry
out, 'No More Free Withdrawals!' Barak himself said it best: he knows
that these withdrawals are not designed to achieve peace, but are only
for his alibi - so that Clinton and Sarid will not be able to say to
him later that he did not do enough for the 'peace process.' For
this, parts of Eretz Yisrael do not have to be sacrificed."
2. SHARON TAKES POLITICAL POKE
Likud chairman Ariel Sharon said last night that the Likud will not
join the Barak government, but will rather replace it. He suggested
that the Likud, National Religious Party, Shas, and possibly Yisrael
B'Aliyah run jointly in the next elections. The rumors of a possible
National Unity government floated by the Prime Minister's Office are,
according to Sharon, merely meant to deter Shas from quitting the
coalition.
********************************************************************
To: arutz-7@ArutzSheva.org
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@ArutzSheva.org>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Sunday, April 23, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.ArutzSheva.org>
Sunday, April 23, 2000 / Nisan 18, 5760
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. ARAFAT "RIGID" GOING INTO TALKS
2. RAMON PROPHESIES, BARAK SILENT
3. A TRADITIONAL PASSOVER
1. ARAFAT "RIGID" GOING INTO TALKS
Final-status framework talks between Israel and the Palestinians are
slated to resume in Eilat next week, and are expected to last some
thirteen days. So declared head of the PA delegation to the talks,
Saeb Erekat. Yasser Arafat will report to Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak today on the former's talks with US President Clinton last
week. U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright called Prime Minister
Barak yesterday to update him on the contents of the Arafat-Clinton
meeting. She told Barak that Arafat's position remains "very rigid,"
and that he still demands that Israel withdraw to its pre-1967
borders. Arafat also insisted that Clinton pressure Barak to halt all
building in Yesha communities. Ha'aretz today quoted Saeb Erekat as
predicting the formation of a Palestinian state in the near future,
"with the June 4, 1967 borders, [and] with East Jerusalem as its
capital."
2. RAMON PROPHESIES, BARAK SILENT
A senior member of the Barak government would like to see most of
Judea and Samaria in Palestinian hands. Minister for Jerusalem
Affairs Chaim Ramon (Labor) says that he favors the transfer of some
70% of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians in the framework of a
final status deal. According to Ramon, only 130,000 of the 200,000
residents of Jewish Yesha communities will, in the end, live under
Israeli sovereignty. Ramon also recommends that Israel postpone
discussions over the status of Jerusalem for several years, as well as
other issues "that cannot currently be solved."
The Yesha Council responded to the Ramon declaration by calling upon
Prime Minister Barak to publicly condemn his minister's comments - but
no official statement has been forthcoming so far from Barak's office.
One reason for the silence may lie in a report by Arutz-7
correspondent Haggai Huberman on April second. Reviewing Israel-PA
talks in Washington in late March, Huberman explained that Barak -
anxious to secure an agreement with the PA in light of his failure to
do so with Syria - offered to turn over another 20% of Judea and
Samaria to full PA control in exchange for Israel's annexation of 10%
of Yesha. The offer was presented as an option for the third Oslo
withdrawal, even prior to a final-status agreement. "The 10% would be
the settlement blocs to which Barak has so often referred," Huberman
said, "and all told, 60% of Yesha would be firmly in Palestinian hands
before a permanent agreement." A key element of Barak's pre-election
promises - a pledge he has repeated on numerous occasions - is merely
that "the majority of Yesha residents will find themselves in a
final-status arrangement, within settlement blocs, under Israeli
sovereignty."
3. A TRADITIONAL PASSOVER
Israel's Jewish population exhibits largely traditional attitudes and
habits towards the Pesach (Passover) holiday, if a recent poll of 500
Israelis is any indication. In a Dahaf survey published in Yediot
Acharonot today, Pesach led the way as the "favorite Jewish holiday"
of one third of the respondents, with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New
Year) and Succot (the Festival of Booths) placing second and third,
respectively. Some 58% of those questioned said that they recite the
entire "Hagadah" on the night of the Seder, while 39% said they read
"part" of the text; some 77% of respondents say they spend an hour or
more on its recitation. The study also found that 76% of Israeli Jews
eat only matza as opposed to leavened bread during the festival.
Seventy percent of those questioned also said that they are careful to
clean their homes from "chametz" (leaven) before Pesach.
***********************************************************************
To: arutz-7@ArutzSheva.org
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@ArutzSheva.org>
Subject: Arutz-7 News Brief: Monday, April 24, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.ArutzSheva.org>
Monday, April 24, 2000 / Nissan 19, 5760
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. SYRIA STEPS UP DIPLOMACY
2. PERES REBUKED BY PEACE PARTNER
1. SYRIA STEPS UP DIPLOMACY
Syrian President Assad is likely to meet in the coming days with
Egyptian President Mubarak to discuss the regional diplomatic
processes, including especially the stalled negotiations between
Israel and Syria. Mubarak said today that the diplomatic process "is
bound to progress, and it would be unfortunate if mutual suspicions
steer it off course." Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk A-Shara began a
series of diplomatic consultations today in Europe and the Middle
East. He met in Beirut this afternoon with Lebanon's President and
Prime Minister Salim Al-Hoss, and will confer tomorrow with French
President Jacques Chirac in Paris.
2. PERES REBUKED BY PEACE PARTNER
Yasser Arafat's Fatah branch of the PLO has launched a harsh attack on
the Israeli political left - specifically at Minister for Regional
Development and Oslo architect Shimon Peres. The official Fatah
newspaper "Our View" blames Peres for "wiping out Palestinian
nationalism by promoting normalization, and a by creating a dependence
[of the Palestinians] on Israel." The article refers to left-wing
Israeli leaders as "the leaders of the Zionist entity" and "merchants
of peace." The paper notes that "the Palestinian people expects from
both the PA and the PLO to make good on their commitments to the
Palestinian people.Security, normalization, and the 'Peres Peace
Center' are traps intended to stifle Palestinian nationalism."
*********************************************************************
To: arutz-7@ArutzSheva.org
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@ArutzSheva.org>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Tuesday, April 25, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.ArutzSheva.org>
Tuesday, April 25, 2000 / Nissan 20, 5760
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. BARAK PLANS MAJOR CONCESSIONS
2. P.A. MAY VIOLATE EMBARGO ON IRAQ
1. BARAK PLANS MAJOR CONCESSIONS
The talks between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
will resume next week in Eilat, Israel's southern-tip port city. The
Yesha Council will conduct protest activities there throughout the
two-week round of talks, in light of reports of far-reaching
concessions being planned by Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The Council
claims that the government will discuss, at its meeting this coming
Thursday, a withdrawal from an additional 3% of Judea and Samaria -
mostly around Jerusalem - while in the long run, Barak appears ready
to agree to the uprooting or transfer of 40-50 Jewish settlements and
communities in Yesha. The government's response: "It is not our
custom to report in advance on the agenda of upcoming Cabinet
meetings."
Barak convened government ministers and top aides in his home
yesterday, and told them that an agreement with the Palestinians can
be expected within one or two months. Participants at the meeting
said that the Prime Minister has made up his mind to make "difficult
decisions" and do "whatever is possible" to reach a
framework-agreement. He conferred with them as to how to market the
agreement to the public.
2. P.A. MAY VIOLATE EMBARGO ON IRAQ
Iraqi-Palestinian ties are becoming tighter. A rally was held in
Ramallah two weeks ago in solidarity with Iraq, at which were sounded
calls for the cancellation of the international sanctions against the
latter. The Palestinians appear ready to put their intentions into
actions, and are negotiating with the Baghdad government a purchase of
$50 million of Iraqi oil - despite the international embargo.
Palestinian cabinet secretary Abdul Rahman said that Saddam Hussein
recently met with Palestinian representatives, and expressed his
willingness to market the oil to the Palestinian Authority.
************************************************************************
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