HHMI Newsgroup Archives
To:
arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com
From:
Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News:
Monday, November 6, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Monday, Nov. 6, 2000 / Cheshvan 8, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TO OUR READERS:
We are sorry that not all of the email addresses we provided for
government
offices, based on the Government Gateway website, were in working
order. The Prime Minister's Office website provides this
address for
e-mail to the Prime Minister: <barak@pmo.gov.il>
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. PRAYER AT RACHEL'S TOMB
2. WALLERSTEIN ACCUSES
3. BARAK ALMOST PUTS QUESTION MARK ON ARAFAT
4. IDF OFFICER RESIGNS IN PROTEST
5. INFLAMMATORY STATEMENTS
6. LIKUD REARS BACK
1. PRAYER AT RACHEL'S TOMB
For the first time in several weeks, Rachel's Tomb was open - if
not
officially - to Jewish worshippers today. A group of 30
women from Kiryat
Arba and Hevron arrived at the site this morning to pray and
recite Psalms,
even though they had not received an official army permit;
neither were
they stopped on their way in. After a short time, the
police arrived and
ordered them to leave the site, which is an Israeli enclave
within the
Palestinian Authority city of Bethlehem. Palestinians in
fact began
throwing rocks at soldiers at the site shortly afterwards.
The police and army agreed that the holy site would be open to
Jewish
worshippers this Thursday, the traditional anniversary of the
death of the
Matriarch Rachel. In previous years, tens of thousands of
worshippers have
arrived at Rachel's Tomb to mark the date. The decision,
which the army
said must be reviewed prior to Thursday "in accordance with
security
considerations in the field," came after an official request
by former MK
Chanan Porat and National Religious Party head Rabbi Yitzchak
Levy.
2. WALLERSTEIN ACCUSES
Pinchas Wallerstein, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, told
Arutz-7,
"The Yesha Council is doing all it can to fight the
government's
'low-strength policy' - a policy based on the idea that it's not
so
terrible if the current low-flame violence, involving injuries
only to
settlers and soldiers, continues... This policy includes
the totally
ridiculous idea that the communities can be defended from within,
a
situation that allows them to be attacked... Our feeling is
that we must
fight [not only to defend, but] to win this war."
Wallerstein accused the government of keeping roads in Judea and
Samaria
closed to Jewish traffic for political, and not military,
reasons: "I take
full responsibility for my words, and I say that the reason that
the Dolev
road [connecting Jerusalem/Beit El to Dolev/Talmon] is still
closed is
almost totally political. The army will tell you otherwise,
but I can say
with certainty that this road is no more dangerous than other
Yesha
roads. It's clear that the government wishes to cut off the
Yesha towns
one from another, and to create large Palestinian blocs that have
no Jewish
presence. This is the necessary conclusion from the fact
that many similar
roads, such as the Trans-Judea highway, continue to be closed,
and that
there is no access to northern Jerusalem and the Atarot airport,
etc."
Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shachak, Barak's successor as IDF Chief of
Staff,
denied Wallerstein's above claims.
A demonstration by residents is planned on the Dolev road - known
as the
Wallerstein Road, after the above-quoted man who originally
planned it and
convinced the authorities to allow it to be used - for tomorrow
afternoon. Because of the road's closure, school children
from Dolev,
whose usual bus ride to school in Beit El takes 15 minutes, must
now take a
roundabout route and meet up with army escorts, thus lengthening
the
one-way ride to an hour and a half.
3. BARAK ALMOST PUTS QUESTION MARK ON ARAFAT
Prime Minister Barak, appearing at the Knesset Foreign Affairs
and Defense
Committee, said today: "We see a certain measure of
effort on the part of
Arafat to reduce the hostilities, but in the field we see that
this is not
happening, and the Sharm understandings are not being
implemented. I am
sure that Arafat can control the fighting, but I would almost say
that if
he has absolutely no control over it, then this puts a question
mark over
the value of our negotiations with him as our partner."
The Prime Minister said also that the Israeli government is
totally against
the stationing of international observer forces in Judea and
Samaria, as
Arafat demands. Israeli officials said yesterday that not
only does the
U.S. support the Israeli position, but that even Russia
understands it, and
that UN regulations stipulate that such forces may be stationed
only if
both sides agree. Meretz MK Yossi Sarid told Israel Radio
this morning
that he supports an international observer presence in the
territories if
it meets certain conditions.
4. IDF OFFICER RESIGNS IN PROTEST
An IDF officer has asked to be relieved of his position, in light
of recent
cases in which, he claims, wounded Israelis have been abandoned
by the
army. Maj. Haggai Eldar, the commander of a special
reserves patrol
division, wrote to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Sha'ul Mofaz that
in the
course of his recent reserves duty, he has encountered several
cases - he
specified those of Madhat Yusuf at Joseph's Tomb and the hikers
at Mt. Eval
- in which the army and its officers behaved contrary to the
fundamental
values of not abandoning wounded on the battlefield. He
claims that they
acted out of political or diplomatic considerations. The
IDF spokesman
says that Mofaz plans to summon Eldar for a talk, in which he
will attempt
to convince him to remain in the army. He said that Eldar
does not know
the details of the Mt. Eval battle and that the wounded there
were not
abandoned.
Maj. Eldar, of Kfar Maimon, elaborated on his concerns for
Arutz-7's Kobi
Sela today:
"One of my soldiers, in front of 90 others, asked if anyone
would rescue
him in the event that he was wounded. There was total
quiet, and everyone
was waiting for the answer. I answered, 'In our unit, such
a thing
[abandonment] would not happen.' But, when we hear what's
going on in
other places, you ask yourself, what's going on? Who made
the decision not
to rescue the soldier in Joseph's Tomb? I can't live with
the fact that I
can't really promise him 100% that he'll be rescued. I
can't live with
that... I even see that this syndrome began with [missing
Israeli
navigator] Ron Arad, and then continued in Joseph's Tomb, where
an IDF
soldier was lying, bleeding to death, and the army asks other
elements
[Palestinians] to evacuate him! This is absolutely
terrible. And then a
week later, at Mt. Eval, citizens of Israel are lying in the
field wounded
- from that minute on, it doesn't matter who gave or didn't give
the permit
for the hike, at that minute the arguments end, and the
evacuation efforts
must begin, even at the expense of the lives of soldiers or of
officers or
of myself. If not, we can't look our soldiers in the
eye. They're not
stupid - if they can't believe us, then we have no further right
to be
their officers." Eldar admitted that it is easier for
him to resign than
for regular army officers, because he is only in the reserves and
the army
is not his career: "I can afford to say the truth...
But it could be that
other officers will come and say that what I wrote is what they
think, and
they may start making demands based on this..."
Lt.-Col. (res.) Nechemiah Perelman of Kedumim, who organized the
Oct. 19
trip to Mt. Eval, has asked for a military investigative
committee to probe
the events of that day. It will be recalled that the hikers
were shot at
by Palestinians, and took shelter behind rocks for five hours
before the
army was able to rescue them; five hikers were shot, including
Rabbi
Herling, who died of his wounds. "I asked Mofaz to
appoint such a
committee," recalled Perelman today, "and he said that
the committee which
was already investigating the Madhat Yusuf case [Yusuf was the
soldier who
bled to death at Joseph's Tomb], would be expanded to include
this case. I
in fact appeared before the committee last week, but I saw that
it does not
at all run according to rules of military investigations.
For instance,
they are not taking written and signed testimony, and they are
not allowing
witnesses to speak freely and say what happened."
Perelman explained that the committee chief, Maj.-Gen. Yoav
Ya'ir, "has
come with his own pre-drawn conclusions; every attempt of mine to
point out
different things [was not accepted]. For instance, the bus
driver told me
that there were army forces hanging around for two hours -
proving that
there were forces, but no attempt was made to use them
efficiently. But
Ya'ir would not accept this testimony, calling it 'not relevant
because it
wasn't from personal knowledge.' As a former army police
investigator and
prosecuting-team member, however, I know that such testimony is
used by the
committee to get to other witnesses - if the purpose is to get to
the truth."
"My basic request to Mofaz," he continued, "is
that the committee be run
according to the basic rules of military investigative
committees." Among
other things, Perelman wrote to Mofaz that "I don't believe
that the people
of Israel will accept a conclusion that states that the
'confusion' caused
by the group's guide - namely, me - was what led to the army's
failure to
reach wounded citizens for four hours." Perelman also
asked that Rabbi
Binyamin Herling, "who always walked around with an army
weapon, and who,
in the last moments of his life, acted as a soldier should and
helped
others find cover when the Palestinian attack started - be
recognized as an
IDF casualty."
5. INFLAMMATORY STATEMENTS
The Knesset Audit Committee convened today for a stormy session -
so much
so that it was called off in the middle - on the recent
inflammatory
statements by Arab MKs in favor of violence and against the State
of
Israel. The main issue was the appearance by MK Muhammad
Barakeh at Bir
Zeit University three days ago, together with Hamas
representatives, in
which he called on the participants to continue the
intifada. MK Avigdor
Lieberman (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu), who asked for the
meeting,
attempted to demand that MKs who make such statements not be
allowed to
address the Knesset during the entire months-long Knesset
session. Last
night, Lieberman told Israel Television that Barakeh, "who
grew up on
Communist ideology, ought to know that in Communist countries he
would have
been made to face a firing squad for making comments of that
sort."
Selected quotes from the interrupted session [as reported by the
Hebrew
news-site YNET]:
Barakeh, in response to Lieberman's demand to revoke his right to
address
the Knesset: "I refuse to be anyone's punching
bag. What, Lieberman will
set up a kangaroo court here?..."
Lieberman: "Why did you sit next to Hamas members in
Bir Zeit?"
Barakeh: "You are Israel's Hamas!"
Likud MK Ruby Rivlin, in response to an interruption by
Barakeh: "Why
doesn't he act the way he did in Bir Zeit? I didn't hear
him interrupting
anyone there!"
Labor MK Ophir Pines: "Barakeh, I just don't get
you. Here we are,
trying to save the peace process, and you go trying to get
Israeli-Arabs to
participate in the intifada!"
Barakeh: "The intifada is taking place in the occupied
territories."
Rivlin: "That *your* country conquered, in a defensive
war!"
Barakeh: "I want to liberate my country."
MK Yuli Edelstein, after Pines requested nicely that Barakeh
apologize: "What is this friendly request? Maybe
we should also ask him
to blur over the fact that he was photographed sitting next to
Hamas
members? If we treat Barakeh with friendship, it means that
we don't
understand what democracy is, and this deterioration must be
stopped. A
call to take part in the intifada is a call to murder!"
6. LIKUD REARS BACK
The Likud is back on the opposition warpath. Party leader
Ariel Sharon
announced at a press conference today why his party has decided
to resume
its efforts to topple the government: "Ehud Barak
himself is not treating
the emergency situation seriously, but is rather using it to
conduct
political negotiations that will determine the future of the
State." Likud
MK Silvan Shalom said that Amir Peretz told him that his two-MK
Knesset
faction would vote to topple the government, and that left-wing
Shinui -
six MKs - is not yet sure how it will vote.
The Likud decided today not to support the no-confidence motion
to be
raised by the Arab parties. The Arab proposal that the
Likud does not wish
to support is in protest of the killing of Israeli-Arab
protestors by the
police.
********************************************************************
To:
arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com
From:
Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News:
Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2000 / Cheshvan 9, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. INTIFADA NOTES
2. JABALI CONFIRMS
1. INTIFADA NOTES
Israel's defense establishment has "solid information,"
according to
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Sha'ul Mofaz, that Yasser Arafat
continues
to smuggle explosives and combat materials in his private
plane...
The Beit She'an police apprehended two Palestinians this
afternoon.
Found in their possession was a suitcase full of explosives and
much
ammunition. The two were caught in the vehicle of a Druze
resident of
the Golan; they and the driver were handed over to the GSS...
Tanzim head Marwan Bargouti announced today that any Palestinian
leader who calls for the cessation of the intifada must be
deposed...
Sheikh Taher Ali Jebarin, the Deputy Mayor of Um el-Fahm - an
Israeli-Arab city just south of the Galilee, between Hadera and
Afula
- encourages active participation in the riots against Israeli
civilians and soldiers. Palestinian Media Watch reports
that last
week's Al Ayam Palestinian newspaper wrote, "Jebarin
cited with pride
the stance of the Palestinian child in the face of armed
[Israeli]
occupation forces... He praised the courage of today's
Palestinian
woman, who encourages sons to battle the occupiers and fall as
martyrs
in the name of Allah, as he put it. [He said that] the
Palestinian
stone spreads fear and the atmosphere of defeat within Israeli
society, which is experiencing growing mental crisis."
2. JABALI CONFIRMS
Further confirmation of the reports that Hamas terrorists have
been
released from Palestinian Authority prisons came today from PA
para-military police commander Razi Jabali - who himself
organized
terrorist attacks against Israelis in the recent past.
Jabali said
that the prisoners who were released have not been re-arrested,
and
that only Abu Honod remains in prison - and this merely to
protect him
against Israeli attempts to capture or harm him. Three IDF
soldiers
were killed during a failed Israeli attempt to apprehend Abu
Honod
over two months ago.
***************************************************************
To:
arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com
From:
Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News:
Wednesday, November 8, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2000 / Cheshvan 10, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. NEXT BATTLEGROUND: RACHEL'S TOMB
2. KNESSET TAKES ACTION
3. LIKUD MOVES TO DISSOLVE KNESSET
1. NEXT BATTLEGROUND: RACHEL'S TOMB
The Ministry of Religious Affairs announced officially today that
Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem would be open to Jewish worship
beginning
tomorrow - but Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh is not so
sure.
Sneh cancelled his plans to visit the site today, in light of
specific
intelligence warnings of a shooting attack there. Further
complicating the matter was an announcement by Arafat's Fatah
movement
of its plan to hold violent protests tomorrow against the opening
of
the shrine.
The 11th of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan - tomorrow - is the
traditional anniversary of the Matriarch Rachel's
death. If the army
opens the site, as currently planned, visitors will gather at the
Gilo-Rachel's Tomb intersection, beginning at 9 AM, and will
taken on
bullet-proof buses to the holy site, about a kilometer
away. A rally
will be held at the intersection at noon, organized by former MK
Rabbi
Chanan Porat. Buses to the Gilo intersection are being
organized by
Women in Green.
The Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation will be sponsoring a
special event in New York this evening, in honor of the Matriarch
Rachel. The theme of the program will be efforts to ensure
that
Rachel's Tomb, only a few minutes' walk away from Gilo, remains
open
to Jewish worship. It will take place at the Manhattan
Beach Jewish
Center in Brooklyn, and will feature Rabbi Zvulun Lieberman -
father
of the late Hillel Lieberman, who was murdered by Palestinians
last
month - as Guest of Honor, as well as Rabbi Feivel and Tziporah
Rimler. A similar event, for women only, will be held at
Binyanei
Ha'uma in Jerusalem, at 7 PM tonight.
2. KNESSET TAKES ACTION
The Knesset voted today to accept a proposed bill to suspend any
Knesset Member who expresses himself or acts against the State of
Israel as the state of the Jewish People. The proposal,
raised by
Likud MK Tzippy Livny, passed by a 38-31 margin. Livny
explained that
she submitted the bill because Arab MKs had taken advantage of
the
Israeli democracy to "further their own goals."
MK Muhammad Barakeh
called upon Israeli-Arabs this week to take part in the intifada
against Israel.
Even Orsan Yassin, the mayor of the Israeli-Arab town of
Shfar'am,
criticized the Arab MKs yesterday. "Let us not listen
to the small
and extremist minority," he told an audience in the Jewish
town of
Kiryat Motzkin yesterday. "Whoever lives in the State
of Israel must
accept its laws. You can't take a salary from the state and
incite
against it..."
3. LIKUD MOVES TO DISSOLVE KNESSET
The Likud Knesset faction decided last night to submit its
proposal
for the dissolution of the Knesset for a Parliamentary vote next
week.
It had hesitated to do so because of the "safety
net" provided the
government by the Shas party - but when it was realized that for
the
bill's first reading, a simple majority will suffice, it was
decided
to ignore the threat by Shas not to support the bill. The
bill's
final reading, which would force new elections, will require the
support of 61 MKs. It is currently assumed that the first
reading
will pass by a vote of 44 to 39, assuming Shas abstains.
******************************************************************
To:
arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com
From:
Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News:
Thursday, November 9, 2000
Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 / Cheshvan 11, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. HUNDREDS ATTEMPT TO REACH RACHEL'S TOMB, CLOSED
"BECAUSE OF
THREATS"
2. DISCUSSING THE RACHEL'S TOMB CLOSURE
3. ENCOURAGING CHILDREN TO TAKE PART IN PALESTINIAN RIOTS
4. SHOVAL EULOGIZES "PEACE NOW"
1. HUNDREDS ATTEMPT TO REACH RACHEL'S TOMB, CLOSED "BECAUSE
OF
THREATS"
The IDF decision to open Rachel's Tomb to Jewish worshippers
today in honor of the 3,553rd anniversary of Matriarch Rachel's
death
was overturned late last night by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen.
Sha'ul
Mofaz. The reason: threats by PLO snipers to open fire at
the
worshippers. The area from Jerusalem's southern army
barrier up to
the holy site in northern Bethlehem was declared a "closed
military
zone." However, large forces of soldiers and police
did not even
allow would-be worshippers to reach the Gilo-Rosmarin junction, a
few
hundred meters further north. Traditionally, tens of
thousands of
worshippers visit Rachel's Tomb on this day.
Despite the closure, close to 1,000 people arrived at the
junction,
demanding to enter Rachel's Tomb; they made several attempts, but
were
forcefully turned away by police. A small group of Knesset
Members of
the National Religious Party and the National Union were allowed
to
enter the site.
MK Sha'ul Yahalom (NRP) described the decision to close the site
a
"disgrace." He said that such "threats"
should be dealt with by
informing the PA that there had better not be shooting, and
"that if
there is, the IDF will deal with it."
The Likud, too, was critical of the decision not to allow prayer
at
Rachel's Tomb today. MK Danny Naveh said, "After the
shameful way in
which we ran away from Joseph's Tomb in Shechem, Barak has now
surrendered to Palestinian violence at Rachel's Tomb as well.
This
policy simply encourages the Palestinians to carry out further
aggressions." The Fatah movement publicized an
announcement boasting
of its success in preventing Jewish prayer in Bethlehem.
2. DISCUSSING THE RACHEL'S TOMB CLOSURE
Voice of Israel commentator Chaim Zisovitch, in response to a
proposal
by Minister Ran Cohen (Labor) that the Rachel's Tomb prayers be
re-located to the Western Wall - a proposal later echoed by
leading
rabbis - asked, "We made such great efforts to ensure Friday
prayers
for the Moslems on the Temple Mount... What would be the
reaction if
we told the Moslems to re-locate their prayers from the Temple
Mount
to some mosque in Bethlehem?" Cohen said that he
personally has
strong ties to the site, but repeated that it was dangerous to
allow
worshippers to arrive today.
Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh was asked by Arutz-7's
Haggai
Segal, "First came Joseph's Tomb in Shechem, then the Shalom
al
Yisrael synagogue in Jericho, the Temple Mount is barely in our
hands
- Rachel's Tomb is next? " Sneh: "No, not at all,
the Israeli flag
still flies there, the IDF is in charge, and no one has any
intention
of changing this situation... I never made any guarantees about
Joseph's Tomb, and I tell you that we see Rachel's Tomb
differently
than Joseph's Tomb... Today, though, with the concrete
warnings, it's
a matter of 'pikuach nefesh' [danger to life], which overrides
the
obligation to pray there."
Segal: "So all the Palestinians have to do is threaten us,
and the
holy sites will be closed to us? Sneh: "At present, there
are special
circumstances, and it would be immature to ignore this.
There is no
question about our strong connection to this place, but it would
be
irresponsible to bring thousands there... This type of
clash is won
not by one 'smashing blow,' but rather with patience and
perseverance,
which includes many things. Our final goal in this
conflict is that
a solution should not be forced upon us from outside - but if we
make
mistakes, then this could happen. Therefore, even if I have
to show
restraint when I don't want to, then this is what we have to do.
Arafat is demanding the presence of a foreign force here, which
we are
totally against, and we have to be careful..."
Former MK Chanan Porat was among those who came to show his
solidarity
with the efforts to pray at Rachel's Tomb. Speaking with
Arutz-7
today, he scoffed at suggestions that there was "danger to
life"
involved in opening the site to Jewish prayer:
"Everyone knows that
if the IDF wanted, there wouldn't be such a problem, and we could
be
allowed in... Two weeks ago, I presented to the regional
commander an
entire program for ensuring Jewish worship here, involving
several
elements, including opening [the road that leads to Rachel's
Tomb]
exclusively to Jews, and for a change it will be Arabs who would
take
a bypass road. In addition, we would threaten that any home
in the
area from which a shot is fired on Rachel's Tomb would be totally
destroyed. The commander praised the proposal, but said
that
government decisions are required in matters of this
nature... The
government has clearly decided not to do this, [because] the
problem
is that there is no desire to win, no elementary desire to
preserve
the nation's honor..."
Porat expressed his "personal conclusion" that a Jewish
community
needs to be constructed at the site of Rachel's Tomb. This
might have
happened earlier had then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol gotten his
way
immediately after the Six-Day War. Eshkol instructed that
Rachel's
Tomb be included within the newly-redrawn municipal borders of
Jerusalem, but these orders were disregarded, and instead the
border
was demarcated less than 500 meters away from the site.
3. ENCOURAGING CHILDREN TO TAKE PART IN PALESTINIAN RIOTS
A recent editorial in the PA's official newspaper Al Hayat
al-Jadida
condemns parents who refuse to send their children to participate
in
the riots against Israeli soldiers. Referring even to those who
merely
criticize those who participate in the riots, editor Hafez
Bargouti
writes, "These destructive, abominable [individuals] harm us
more than
the bullets of the occupation, because they constitute a fifth
column.
Our nation must learn a lesson and take them to reckoning later
on."
The editorial, in the Oct. 27th edition of the paper, was
translated
by Palestinian Media Watch.
Journalist David Bedein, of Israel Resource News Agency, adds
that
Associated Press reported yesterday that "Palestinian
Information
Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo wrote to an Israeli human rights group
that
[Palestinian] children are being told 'to stay away from flash
points." However, Bedein notes, Palestinian radio and
television
mention no such call, but rather continue to feature songs and
poems
praising Palestinian children who "die as martyrs."
"The message that
Abed Rabbo communicated to the foreign and Israeli media was
simply
not communicated to his own people," concludes Bedein.
4. SHOVAL EULOGIZES "PEACE NOW"
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval has written a
scathing criticism of Peace Now. "Peace Now died last
month...," he
wrote in the Jerusalem Post this week. "Some have
pronounced it only
clinically dead, still being on financial life-support from its
friends in the US - but dead it is. The cause of death was
no mystery
either: The house of cards on which most of Peace Now's
blandishments
had been based crumbled under the impact of the violent events of
the
last few weeks."
Shoval, who served as Ambassador to the U.S. twice, further
wrote,
that after Ehud Barak made a more generous offer to the
Palestinians
than any of his predecessors had, "Yasser Arafat's
response... was
swift and brutal: He ordered his own security forces and the
Fatah
Tanzim to set off a wave of large-scale and carefully
synchronized
violence and terror." Peace Now, wrote Shoval,
"has a rather
primitive and simplistic view of history... They didn't
understand,
or at least didn't want to admit - as Barak didn't - that every
time
Israel made additional concessions, the other side saw this as a
sign
of weakness, encouraging it to raise its price. Nor did
they
understand, just as Shimon Peres didn't, that the 'New Middle
East'
existed only in the latter's imagination... Peace Now has a
long and
far-from-glorious history. During the period of the lengthy
and
difficult peace negotiations with Egypt, it sometimes served
(though
probably unwittingly) as an implement in the Egyptian effort to
weaken
Israel's resolve; over the years, whenever the Palestinians
radicalized their positions, so did Peace Now - to the point that
it
could often be mistaken for a semi-official mouthpiece of the PLO
-
while the American Friends of Peace Now at times went so far as
to
help Israel's enemies by attacking the positions of Israel's
democratically elected government... Israel - and peace -
have paid a
high price for Peace Now's mistakes. One can only hope that
its
leaders have learned their lesson."
******************************************************************
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