HHMI Newsgroup Archives
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@israelnationalnews.com>
To: <arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com>;<arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Wednesday, January 24, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2000 / Tevet 29, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. P.A.: WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
2. TEMPLE MOUNT DAMAGE
1. P.A.: WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
PA sources say they don't understand what Israel is all excited
about: "The Israeli soldiers kill Palestinians all the time, and we
don't stop the talks because of it." The IDF spokesman dismissed the
comments with disdain: "The Palestinians kill out of pure hatred and
cruelty, while the Israeli soldiers act only from self-defense. Any
such equation is totally out of place."
2. TEMPLE MOUNT DAMAGE
The smokescreen around the Waqf activities on the Temple Mount
continues to cover the true extent of the desecration and damage done
there. Poet Chaim Guri and Prof. Amos Kloner were accompanied to the
Mount yesterday by the police, and said afterwards that they had seen
no clear evidence of recent excavations. However, Dr. Gabi Barkai, of
the Committee to Prevent Destruction of Temple Mount artifacts, told
Arutz-7 today that he has "unambiguous evidence that a new tunnel is
in the process of being dug on the Mount."
Barkai said that Guri and Kloner did not tour the area in which the
tunnel is located, "and apparently the police, who canceled meetings
with us and refused to hear our opinion, are trying to pull some kind
of trick... The story is quite clear: Under the Al Aksa mosque is an
area that is none other than the Hulda Gate entrances from the Second
Temple. It is now a new mosque called Al Aksa Kadima... There are
many pillars and domes and other important features from the Second
Temple there. At the southern end of this expanse, there is a steep
drop where we have photos and other evidence, and journalist Danny
Zaken was there and saw the tunnel that is going from there towards
the east. When Zaken wanted to join the 'tour' yesterday, he was
originally invited, but then the invitation was rescinded... This
whole tunnel is only a small part of the damage that has been done
there, and on the upper level as well... Policemen are not authorized
to judge whether archaeological damage has been done or not."
**********************************************************
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 / Rosh Chodesh Shvat 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. SUPREME COURT APPROVES TABA TALKS
2. TREASON TO GIVE UP TEMPLE MOUNT
3. SHARON REPRESENTATIVES MEET WITH ARAFAT
1. SUPREME COURT APPROVES TABA TALKS
Israel's Supreme Court rejected petitions today that would have
prevented the current minority government from continuing negotiations
with the Palestinians. Six of seven of the Supreme Court judges said
that the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Barak is not reason enough
to prevent him from pursuing the negotiations, and that the petition
should have been addressed to the Knesset. Supreme Court Justice
Aharon Barak wrote that the Knesset is empowered to legislatively
limit a minority government's ability to conduct diplomatic
negotiations.
Some Knesset Members said the ruling did not surprise them, and
National Religious Party MK Zevulun Orlev said that the Supreme
Court's decisions in matters of values and politics are always
predictable. Fellow NRP MK Sha'ul Yahalom also criticized the ruling,
and noted that the Supreme Court, on the eve of the previous
elections, prevented the Netanyahu government from closing Orient
House, the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem.
The talks between Israeli and Palestinian delegations resumed this
afternoon, and are officially scheduled to end next week "because of
the elections." The talks were interrupted by the double murder by
Palestinian terrorists of Moti Dayan and Etgar Zaituni, two cousins
and business partners from Tel Aviv. Many hundreds of mourners
attended their funeral in Haifa this afternoon. The Palestinian
Police Force claims it has apprehended their murderers, members of the
PLO's Fatah.
2. TREASON TO GIVE UP TEMPLE MOUNT
Handing over the Temple Mount would be an act of treason. So declared
none other than Ehud Barak in a letter to U.S. President George W.
Bush yesterday. "The Temple Mount is the cradle of Jewish history,"
wrote Barak, "and there is no way that I would sign a document
transferring sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the hands of the
Palestinians." Barak has consistently used exactly this phraseology
when referring to his intentions vis-a-vis the Temple Mount. "For
Israel this would constitute a betrayal of her Holy of Holies," he
concluded.
The Prime Minister, in his first official communication with Bush,
also wrote that acts of terrorism should not be rewarded with
diplomatic concessions. "It is understood that at least 80% of the
Jews living in the territories [Judea, Samaria, and Gaza] will remain
in their homes under Israeli sovereignty, in settlement blocs," Barak
wrote, adding that Israel is "absolutely against" a right of
Palestinian return to Israel.
3. SHARON REPRESENTATIVES MEET WITH ARAFAT
Ariel Sharon's son Omri met yesterday in Vienna with Mohammed Rashid,
a special envoy of Arafat. Sharon said that no diplomatic
negotiations took place, and that the meeting took place at Arafat's
request, in order to clarify the Likud leader's positions. "Maybe he
reads the polls," Sharon mused. He emphasized again today that it is
forbidden to conduct negotiations while Palestinian violence continues
to rage.
Barak's supporters, on the other hand, mock what they call Sharon's
hypocrisy: "Sharon says that we must not negotiate now, yet he sent
his son to conduct talks with Arafat's staff." They also charge that
the meeting touched upon not only political matters, but also the
casino in Jericho and Sharon's personal economic interests. Prime
Minister Ehud Barak said that the meeting in Vienna "is troubling from
a moral point of view." MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) retorted that
the Prime Minister is the last person entitled to cast aspersions of
this kind, "given his appointment of Yossi Ginossar as a political
emissary, who has major economic interests in the Palestinian
Authority." Sharon's fellow MK Uzi Landau, in an interview with
Arutz-7, said that he also was not happy with the meeting in Vienna.
Despite the fact that Sharon has passed what may be considered a
difficult week - attacks on his views as expressed in an interview
with the New Yorker magazine, mock-election losses in several high
schools, the accusations by the high school student whose father
suffers from shell-shock dating from the Peace for Galilee War, and
now the Vienna meeting - the Likud candidate has not suffered in the
polls. Surveys to be released tomorrow show that Sharon still leads
Ehud Barak by 16-20%.
***********************************************************
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@israelnationalnews.com>
To: <arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com>;<arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News Brief: Friday, January 26, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 / 2 Shvat, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. TALKS CONTINUE; GAPS EXIST
2. ISRAELI-ARAB BEHAVIOR, THEN AND NOW
3. MOSLEMS AGREED: TEMPLE STOOD ON TEMPLE MOUNT
1. TALKS CONTINUE; GAPS EXIST
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in explaining his decision to continue the
talks in Taba even after the murder of Akiva Pachkoz last night, said
that he is determined to continue the process until all possibilities
for an agreement have been exhausted. Tomorrow, Shimon Peres is
scheduled to meet with Yasser Arafat in Davos, Switzerland. National
Religious Party head Rabbi Yitzchak Levy decried the decision to
continue the talks even before the latest terrorism victim was buried.
He also said that it must be made clear to all that the delegation in
Taba has no authority to make concessions, and that negotiations with
the Palestinians must be resumed only by the next government, on a
different basis.
The Taba negotiators' intention is to reach a joint declaration by the
middle of next week. Meretz MK Yossi Sarid, a participant in the
talks, said that progress had been made on all fronts; Palestinian
sources were somewhat less certain on that score. Significant gaps
between the sides still exist on the issues of Jerusalem, settlement
blocs, refugees, and the Jordan Valley. The Palestinians have agreed
to the existence of three Israeli settlement blocs around Jerusalem,
Gush Etzion, and Ariel, but insist that the city of Ma'aleh Adumim and
the local council of Givat Ze'ev - east and north of Jerusalem,
respectively - be uprooted.
2. ISRAELI-ARAB BEHAVIOR, THEN AND NOW
The Arab party Hadash calls on its supporters to place a blank slip in
the ballot box in the upcoming election for Prime Minister of Israel.
Other Arab parties have called upon their supporters not to vote at
all, in protest against the behavior of the police during the High
Holiday riots. The Israeli-Arab community has not accepted the
apology by Minister Shimon Peres this week "on behalf of the entire
government [for] the pain and suffering caused to the mothers of the
thirteen young Arabs" who were killed in clashes with police last
October. Prime Minister Barak had a chance to similarly apologize at
a gathering with Israeli-Arabs in Nazareth this week, but limited
himself to expressing "sorrow" over the deaths.
The Israeli-Arab rioting in the first week of October featured
hundreds of violent incidents against Israeli police and civilians,
including dozens of attacks on Jewish towns and citizens, as well as
firebombs shooting, roadblocks and road-closings, arson, the hurling
of rocks and bricks, and more. Below are two sample incidents, as
reported by Arutz-7 at the time: "Gershon Adani, a 35-year-old father
of two, from the Galilee town of Oshrah near Acre, described what
happened to him yesterday: 'I was on my way home, when suddenly I
was stopped by a mob of Israeli-Arabs. They were stopping all the
drivers, and asking to see their papers. They let the Arab drivers
go, but not the Jewish ones. I started to tell them that I was their
neighbor, and have lived here among them for years, etc., but they
began pelting me with bricks, rocks, and anything else... I ran into
the car, locked the door shut, and somehow was able to get through the
roadblock. I was hurt very badly. I got to a police checkpoint, but
they couldn't help me because the ambulance was not able to get
through the Arab roadblock.'" "Yaakov Ben-Hamu, 35, of Kibbutz Beit
Alfa, was driving east along the Wadi Iron (Wadi Ara) highway
yesterday, between Um el-Fahm and Afula, when his way was blocked by
some 15 masked Arabs. They noticed that he was Jewish, dragged him
out of the car, and began kicking and punching him. The driver of a
passing bus saw what was happening and picked him up; there was
nothing left for Ben-Hamu to do but watch out the window as the Arabs
torched his car."
3. MOSLEMS AGREED: TEMPLE STOOD ON TEMPLE MOUNT
Although the most recent Moslem "spin" is that there is no Jewish
connection to the Temple Mount, the Supreme Moslem Council in
Jerusalem wrote in 1930 that the site's identification with the First
Temple is "beyond dispute." Etgar Lefkovits writes in The Jerusalem
Post today that the Council - the supreme Moslem body appointed by the
British to administer Moslem and Waqf affairs in mandatory Palestine -
published an English-language tourist guide that states, "The site is
one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest
times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond
dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on
which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings." A footnote refers the reader to
Samuel II 26, 25.
Lefkovits notes that PA Mufti Ikrima Sabri told the German Die Welt
this week, "There is not [even] the smallest indication of the
existence of a Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole
city, there is not even a single stone indicating Jewish history."
********************************************************
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@israelnationalnews.com>
To: <arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com>;<arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Sunday, January 28, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Sunday, Jan. 28, 2001 / Shvat 4, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. TABA TALKS END, ABU ALA THREATENS WAR
***SPECIAL INSERT: article by Mortimer B. Zuckerman
1. TABA TALKS END, ABU ALA THREATENS WAR
Six days of intensive talks between Israel and the Palestinians in
Taba came to an end last night with a short joint declaration by the
sides. At a press conference featuring Foreign Minister Shlomo
Ben-Ami and PA official Abu Ala (PA Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed
Qurei), Ben-Ami said that Israel and the PLO are now "closer than ever
before" to signing a final peace agreement, but that more could not be
done so soon before the Prime Ministerial election. Abu Ala said he
felt good about the talks, but that major gaps still exist on the
issue of pre-1948 Arab refugees and the question of their right to
return to homes they abandoned during the Arab-initiated War of
Independence. When asked how the Palestinians would take a victory by
Ariel Sharon, he said, "If Sharon wishes to continue the negotiations,
this will be fine, but if not, we will continue the struggle for our
goals using all means."
Yasser Arafat is scheduled to meet with Shimon Peres in Davos,
Switzerland, today, during the World Economic Conference
deliberations. Arafat may meet with Prime Minister Ehud Barak in
Stockholm this Tuesday or Wednesday.
Prime Minister Barak said yesterday that if he loses the upcoming
election, nine days from now, he would not join a national unity
government headed by Ariel Sharon. He said that he would not join a
"Teheran-Aswan" government - a reference to remarks by Yisrael
Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman said that in case of
war, Israel's new government - which, in Lieberman's hopeful opinion,
will be headed by Ariel Sharon - would launch rockets at Teheran and
the Aswan Dam in Egypt. Sources in the Sharon camp, however, said
that preliminary contacts with Labor have already begun for a unity
government.
Barak, meeting with his Cabinet today, underscored his government's
remaining red lines: "We cannot allow the return of the Palestinian
refugees to Israel, period. I will not sign any document that
transfers sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Palestinians. The
Western Wall, the Mt. of Olives, the City of David (to the east of the
Temple Mount), [the area newly known as] the Holy Crescent [around the
Old City to the north and east], and the Archaeological Park [adjacent
to the Western Wall] will all be under Israeli sovereignty."
Barak told the Cabinet this morning that the main achievement of the
Taba talks was that for the first time, the Palestinians had agreed to
allow Yesha settlement blocs to remain in place. He said that an
agreement could not be achieved because the PA agreed only that 50-60%
of the Jewish residents would remain, while Barak has always insisted
on at least 80%. Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman, however, said
that the Palestinians made a similar "concession" at Camp David last
July. "In any event," added Huberman, "the Palestinians do not agree
to settlement 'blocs,' as promised by Barak, but rather settlement
'enclaves,' connected to mainland Israel only by a strip as wide as
the highway leading to them."
SPECIAL INSERT:
Excerpts from article by Mortimer B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of
U.S. News and World Report, Jan. 29.
----A FAILED PEACE PROCESS----
Nothing enduring has come of President Clinton's midnight schemes for
a Mideast settlement. And nothing should - for they presume that
Yasser Arafat is a partner for peace and that his word on still
another agreement can be relied upon. Six times - from Oslo to Cairo,
through Wye to Camp David - Arafat has promised to renounce terrorism.
Six times he has met Israel's olive branches with gunfire, rocks, and
firebombs, not to mention the release of dozens of Hamas and Islamic
Jihad terrorists. Arafat has misled and incited the mass of
Palestinian people... No person in business, personal, or public
life would rely on a piece of paper whose signatory has demonstrated a
record of such mendacity. ...The Palestinian leader's true intentions
were exposed, finally, by Camp David. There Arafat was confronted
with an Israeli leader so dedicated to peace that he offered a package
whose generosity appalled even Leah Rabin... The Barak offer was
breathtaking. It included Israel's nearly total withdrawal from the
territories, the removal and destruction of dozens of Israeli
settlements, even the redivision of Jerusalem. And what was Prime
Minister Barak's reward? To be branded a Nazi in the Arab world, and
to return home to an orchestrated crescendo of violence... No weapon
was withheld. The Palestinians incorporated Hamas and the Islamic
Jihad into their new "Supreme Coordinating Committee of the Islamic
and National Forces." [According to] the Palestinian Authority's
police chief, "not even one" of the terrorists who killed Americans or
Israelis was still in a PA prison. Where were they? Out on the streets
facilitating some 100 bombings of Israelis... But... [most] horrible
is the Palestinian practice of exploiting children as human shields
for gunmen stationed at the rear of a mob... Their exploitation is so
outrageous that a Palestinian women's group, the Tulkarm Women's
Union, wrote to Arafat. "Our children are being sent into the streets
to face heavily armed Israeli soldiers," reads the letter. "The
Palestinian Authority must put an end to this phenomenon. We urge you
to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent
children to their death." ...What other country with such overwhelming
might would restrain itself to the degree Israel has? Alas, its major
ally, Washington, has pressured Israel to endure, to feed still more
of the meat of concession to the tiger on the absurd assumption that
this would transform the tiger into a vegetarian. The Clinton
administration invested too much in the man of whom we asked too
little. It refused to condemn Arafat for cynically starting this war
or for his failure publicly to renounce the violence, or for violating
his obligations under Oslo. Perversely, the Clinton administration
has taken the opposite tack with Israel: It failed to meet its
promises to enhance Israel's military edge and to make good on
long-term military commitments; instead it supported a fact-finding
mission to determine if Israel used excessive force. It failed to veto
a one-sided United Nations Security Council resolution against Israel,
but it consistently permitted Arafat to cover for his violations...
The Clinton administration offered Arafat sovereignty over the Temple
Mount, the holiest of Jewish holy places... [But for Arafat], even
sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa compound, atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount,
was not enough. The Palestinians wanted the area beneath the summit,
alongside Judaism's sacred Western Wall, where, they assert, Jews must
not be permitted even to blow the shofar on the high holy days... Put
plainly, the conditions for peace simply do not now exist. And that
will be so as long as most Palestinians dream of Israel's destruction;
as long as they view Israelis as foreign interlopers; as long as they
teach their children that Zionism is a passing imperialist event...
What must be done then? First, recognize the reality that Arafat has
not been a true partner for peace. Help the world understand that.
Meanwhile, pause in this madcap flight to revive a failed peace
process... Let us pursue American interests. These lie in preventing
radical Muslim forces from flourishing politically on the basis of
anti-Americanism or confrontations with the West. This will require
the belief by these radicals that the United States will stand
resolutely with its allies - and the United States has been identified
for decades with Israel. The weaker
Israel looks, and the more pliable America looks in response to
violence, the more radical Arab Muslims will press to fulfill their
ambitions to reject Western influence in the region. This can only
encourage the likes of Saddam Hussein and the Iranians, while giving
countries like France the sense that they can rush in and expand their
role in the Middle East at our expense. The Clinton administration's
desperate desire for a Mideast settlement, framed by its eagerness for
a legacy, threatens to erode America's standing in the region, while
doing great harm to an unshakable American ally. This, sadly, may well
be the real Clinton legacy on the hard ground of the Middle East.
**************************************************************
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@israelnationalnews.com>
To: <arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com>;<arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Monday, January 29, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Monday, Jan. 29, 2001 / Shvat 5, 5761
------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. SHARON MEETS WITH AMERICANS
2. LEFT LEANS TOWARD NO-UNITY
3. LEADING RABBIS CALL TO VOTE FOR SHARON
1. SHARON MEETS WITH AMERICANS
Ariel Sharon, if elected Prime Minister next week, will not allow the
Palestinian Authority to take over more territory in Judea and Samaria
than it now controls. In a meeting with the members of the U.S. House
Foreign Relations subcommittee yesterday, Sharon predicted that Arafat
intends to wage an extended war of attrition against Israel. "The
meeting was called by the Americans," Zalman Shoval - who also
participated - told Arutz-7 today. In a memorandum submitted by
Sharon outlining some of his positions, Sharon wrote, "In the event of
a unilateral declaration of a state by Arafat, we will view this as
the nullification of the Oslo, Wye, and Camp David understandings."
Sharon also emphasized that no Yesha settlements will be uprooted.
Shoval, a former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. and currently serving
as the manager of Sharon's international campaign, was asked how the
Americans reacted to this declaration, and answered, "I'll tell you
how they reacted when he told them that Jerusalem is the eternal and
undivided capital of the Jewish People, under Israeli sovereignty. The
Chairman [Rep. Benjamin Gilman] said, 'And it will be that way
forever.'"
Sharon met today with residential leaders of the Golan Heights,
promising them that he would preserve the Golan, and that he would
continue to make every effort to strengthen the area. He was not
asked, nor did he volunteer to say, whether he would agree to any sort
of compromise on the Golan with the Syrians. The residents expressed
satisfaction with the meeting and with Sharon's candidacy.
2. LEFT LEANS TOWARD NO-UNITY
A national-unity government is the talk of the political arena today:
Who will or will not establish or join such a government after the
upcoming election? Prime Minister Barak said today that he will
neither form nor join such a government, saying that such talk
"camouflages the extremist nature" of a government led by Ariel
Sharon. At least one of his party colleagues, however -
Communications Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer - said that if Barak
wins, he will invite the Likud to join the government. Knesset
Speaker Avraham Burg (Labor) also said today that no party can afford
to rule out a unity government in advance. Meretz leader MK Yossi
Sarid demands, however, that Barak make it patently clear that he will
neither form nor join a unity government after the election.
Talk from the Likud is more conciliatory; MKs Silvan Shalom, Limor
Livnat, and Meir Shetreet have all come out in favor of a
unity-government headed by Sharon after the election.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called off plans to meet with Yasser
Arafat later this week. The reason: Arafat's diatribe against Israel
in Davos yesterday, in which he accused Israel of grave crimes against
the Palestinians, including the use of uranium. Shimon Peres spoke
afterwards, and said, "I came here prepared for a wedding, not a
divorce." Arafat will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
today, in an attempt to find a way to reschedule his meeting with
Barak.
3. LEADING RABBIS CALL TO VOTE FOR SHARON
A second leading hareidi rabbi has called upon his followers to vote
for Ariel Sharon. In an ad in today's Hamodia, the Grand Rabbi of
Sadigura writes that abstention in the coming election "strengthens
the hand of the enemy fighting against the faith of Israel and
Sabbath... We must do what we can to ensure that Ariel Sharon is
elected." The Gerrer Rebbe also backed the ad; the Rebbe of Erloi had
previously made a similar call. Rabbi Yitzchak Levy of the National
Religious Party called on all hareidi leaders to actively endorse
Sharon. "Given the weighty issues at risk - Jerusalem, the Temple
Mount, the Jewish character of the State - it is inconceivable that
the rabbis should not call actively to vote for Sharon," Rabbi Levy
said.
On the other side of the political spectrum, Labor party activists
have also begun to wake up, and plan to set up eleven "education
tents" throughout the country. There, they will attempt to locate
former Barak supporters and possible abstainers and try to convince
them to vote for Barak once again.
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