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To:            arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com
From:          Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject:       Arutz-7 News Brief:  Friday, January 5, 2001

Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Friday, Jan. 5, 2001 / Tevet 10, 5761, Fast of Tevet
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Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
   1. POLLS SHOW GROWING SUPPORT FOR SHARON OVER BARAK
   2. SENIOR BARAK AIDE CONTINUES TALKS IN WASHINGTON
   3. NETANYAHU: "OSLO IS DEAD"
   4. ARAB HOSTILITIES CONTINUE
   5. SHAS PARTY MAY ENDORSE SHARON
   6. GRASSROOTS PROTESTS AGAINST DIVIDING ISRAEL
   7. FBI RAIDS KAHANE NY OFFICE

1. POLLS SHOW GROWING SUPPORT FOR SHARON OVER BARAK
This week's polls, published in today's papers, show Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon ahead of incumbent Ehud Barak in the prime ministerial race by as much as 28 percentage points.  A comparison of today's Gallup poll with the previous two weeks, shows a clear increase in support for Sharon:
Dec 22, 2000: Barak 28% Sharon 46%
Dec 29, 2000: Barak 24% Sharon 45%
Jan 5, 2001: Barak 22% Sharon 50%

The above figures include the Arab vote.  Amongst the Jewish-only vote, the poll shows Barak with 22%, and Sharon with 55%.

A Dahaf poll published today indicated a smaller gap: Barak 32% Sharon 50%.  A third poll carried out by the Geocartographic Institute, which will be published tomorrow night, indicates a wide gap, closer to the Gallup poll.

2. SENIOR BARAK AIDE CONTINUES TALKS IN WASHINGTON
Prime Minister Barak's Bureau Chief Gilad Sher will meet this evening will US President Bill Clinton to hear what precisely was Yasser Arafat's answer to Clinton regarding his recent proposals for a final-status agreement between Israel and the PLO.  Sher said this morning that chances are slim that any agreement will be reached before Clinton leaves office on January 20.  However, CNN reports that Barak's aide brought with him a 6-page document which he will present to US National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.  According to reports, the document contains a detailed outline of a final-status agreement based on Clinton's proposals, incorporating some Israeli reservations.  The new proposal is the first written document from an Israeli government which relates to details of a final-status agreement.  At Camp David, no written summary was drafted which obligated the two sides.

Palestinian Authority official Nabil Sha'ath said today that he also believes that no agreement will be reached during US President Clinton's term in office.  Sha'ath maintained that Prime Minister Barak is "playing tough" in the talks in order to win votes from Israel's center and right in the upcoming elections.

3. NETANYAHU: "OSLO IS DEAD"
"The Oslo Process is dead."  So declared former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu yesterday while visiting hunger-strikers at Jerusalem's City Hall.  The hunger strike was launched to protest plans by the Barak government to cede Israeli sovereignty over Judaism's holiest site - the Temple mount in Jerusalem - to the Arabs.  Netanyahu also told the protestors at City Hall that all of the concessions made by the Barak government to the Arabs at Camp David are null and void and will not obligate the next government.

A giant non-partisan Jerusalem Solidarity rally entitled "Jerusalem, We Pledge to You" is scheduled for this Monday at 6:30 PM across from Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate.  To ensure attendance from a broad spectrum of the Israeli public, the vigil organizers are not inviting any Knesset Members or government ministers to speak from the podium.  Preceding the main event, a human chain will encircle the walls of the Old City at 5:00 PM and participants will "pledge loyalty to keep Jerusalem undivided, including the Temple Mount."  Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert will address the rally, as well as other public figures and World Jewish leaders.  The organizers of the rally, the National Forum for Jerusalem (+972-2) 627-7416, have learned that private flights are being organized from France, United States, Russia, and England.

4. SHAS PARTY MAY ENDORSE SHARON
A deal is in the making between prime ministerial front-runner Ariel Sharon and the religious Shas party.  In exchange for promises from Sharon, Shas will instruct its network of activists to work towards a Sharon victory.  Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef will meet with Sharon on Sunday to negotiate the final details of the agreement.  One Israel (Labor) Party faction whip Ophir Pines demanded today that the two parties publicize the details of the agreement between them.

5. GRASSROOTS PROTESTS AGAINST DIVIDING ISRAEL
For the past five days, residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, (Yesha) together with members of Professors for a Strong Israel, have been holding a hunger strike at City Hall in protest against the government's willingness to divide Jerusalem.  Other Jewish protestors are hitting the streets again today throughout Yesha in a series of marches under the slogan "Israel is fighting for her soul." Today's protests include:
*Residents of Kfar Adumim, located 7 minutes east of Jerusalem, came out in the hundreds to march to the capital this morning.
*Hundreds of Israeli civilians are now gathering at various intersections in the Southern Hevron Hills for protest and prayer vigils.
*Gush Katif residents marched from the northern tip of Gaza to the Ashkelon junction, where they are now demonstrating.
*On the new Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, some 200 people from Gimzo marched calling on the government to keep Jerusalem united and put an end to the wave of terrorist attacks.
*New civilian outposts established by several Yesha communities continue to be manned and maintained.

6. FBI RAIDS KAHANE NY OFFICE
After six hours of searching the Hatikva Jewish Identity Center in Brooklyn, New York, FBI agents confiscated some 90 crates of books, tapes and photos, along with six computers.  The FBI received a warrant to search the Hatikva Center, which is dedicated to the "legal and peaceful publishing of the Torah views and ideology of the late Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Kahane."

Mike Guzofsky, Director of the Center, said in response: "No government ever succeeded in silencing ideas.  We will continue to speak and write our truth.  This is about ideas, free speech and the right to speak Torah publicly.  How shameful that after the brutal murder of the Kahanes, the US government now pounces on those who do no more than distribute his writings and essays.  This is nothing more than an effort to hamper the operations and growth of law abiding Americans who wish to study and teach the authentic Jewish idea...."  Guzofsky also noted that the center's judo class was held uninterrupted following the search, "with the exception of the coach searching for his clothes which were taken by the FBI."

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To:            arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com
From:          Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject:       Arutz-7 News Brief:  Sunday, January 7, 2001

Arutz Sheva News Service
  <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Sunday, Jan. 7, 2001 / Tevet 12, 5761
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
   --- See below for subscription instructions ---


TODAY'S HEADLINES:
   1. BARAK DETERMINED TO RUN DESPITE INTERNAL PROTEST
   2. PROTEST AGAINST CLINTON'S PROPOSAL TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM

1. BARAK DETERMINED TO RUN DESPITE INTERNAL PROTEST
Ehud Barak says he won't quit the race for Prime Minister.  Members of his own party are calling for him to bow out, and let Minister Shimon Peres run in his place.  Labor MKs Avi Yehezkel and Yossi Katz are worried that Barak keeps plummeting in the polls.  According to Friday's Gallup poll, Barak's challenger Ariel Sharon is leading by a margin of 28 percent.  Most voters want Barak to drop out.  The Gallup poll shows 2 of 3 Israelis don't trust him, and they don't want him to cut a deal with Yasser Arafat before election day, February 6.  Labor Party Secretary-General Ra'anan Cohen says that there is no guarantee that Barak will be the final Labor candidate in the election.  Labor activists are collecting signatures in a Tel Aviv petition tent urging Barak to back out of the elections to enable Shimon Peres to run.

2. PROTEST AGAINST CLINTON'S PROPOSAL TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM
The leftist newspaper Ha'aretz says this morning that "a wave of mass protests" against Prime Minister Barak is swelling.  A huge non-partisan Jerusalem Solidarity rally and march around the walls of the old city is scheduled for tomorrow evening.  Due to security considerations, police announced today that they will not permit participants to march at certain Old City gates.  Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, who will speak at the rally, continues to operate from his new offices across from the Western Wall, which he moved into as an act of protest against government plans to divide Jerusalem.  Barak reportedly is poised to divide the Old City and hand over most of it, including the Temple Mount, to Yasser Arafat, as per proposals by US
President Bill Clinton.  Barak's cabinet has accepted the US proposals with certain reservations.

Labor Party MK Shalom Simhon announced his objection today to the cabinet's acceptance of the Clinton plan since it calls for giving the Arabs part of the Negev, which was never included under any Arab sovereignty.  Simhon has joined the struggle of the Committee of Communities and Farms in the Negev to prevent the Halutza region of the Negev from being transferred to the PLO.

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