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Poll: Most U.S. Jews back Palestinian state  
November 12, 2001

NEW YORK - Most American Jews support a Palestinian state and believe that
reducing Middle East violence will boost global support for the American war
on terrorism, according to an opinion poll released at the weekend. 

The poll of American Jews also found that 85 percent think it important for
Washington to take an active role in ending the violence between Israelis
and Palestinians. Nearly three-quarters of them said the role should be
adopted even if it led to disagreements with Israel. 

According to the survey, 57 percent of American Jews think reducing the
level of Middle East violence would help Washington's campaign against
terrorism. More than two-thirds back the deployment of a U.S.-led observer
force in the Middle East to control the violence. 

The Palestinians have repeatedly sought such an observer force in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, but America, Israel's closest ally, has
blocked action on the plan in the UN Security Council. Israel strongly
opposes international monitors. 

The survey of a representative sample of 602 people was the most extensive
national poll of American Jews since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
according to its sponsors, the Israel Policy Forum, the New York Jewish Week
and the Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies. The policy forum is a
left-leaning pro-Labor organization that lobbies for American involvement in
the Middle East peace process. 

The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, was
carried out last week and released hours after U.S. President George W. Bush
endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "We are
working toward the day when two states - Israel and Palestine - live
peacefully together within secure and recognized borders," Bush told the UN
General Assembly. 

At least 700 Palestinians and 187 Israelis have been killed since September
2000 when the al-Aqsa Intifada erupted after the peace process broke down. 

"The last time President Bush announced that in principle, he favored a
Palestinian state, there was a lot of opposition," said Jonathan Jacoby of
the New York-based Israel Policy Forum. "This poll shows not only that the
American Jewish community would now support the president but also that it
understands that after September 11, continued Israeli-Palestinian conflict
makes the campaign against global terror more difficult," Jacoby said.

****************************************************************

U.S. starts pushing for Tenet-Mitchell implementation
By Nitzan Horowitz and Nathan Guttman 

November 13, 2001

The United States is about to shift gears out of its relatively
detached attitude to the Middle East conflict and step up its
involvement. This follows Secretary of State Colin Powell's meetings
with Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres, a U.S. Administration source said yesterday. 

It appears Washington will begin trying to implement the moribund
Tenet cease-fire agreement and the Mitchell Report recommendations,
even before launching the next stage of its world campaign - against
more terrorist groups and possibly against the regimes that support
them. 

In the last two days, the Americans outlined the contours of the new
initiative on the Middle East, coming out in favor of a Palestinian
state on condition that violence ends. The timing coincides with
efforts by the administration to persuade Muslim and Arab states to
lend their support for a second stage of the American war on
terrorism, if the latest successes against the Taliban in Afghanistan
continue. 

Jerusalem sources say the Bush administration is adopting a "carrot
and stick" approach to Arafat - continuing to pressure him to enforce
a cease-fire and clamp down on violence, while holding out the
"diplomatic vision" of a Palestinian state. Arafat apparently promised
Powell at their Sunday meeting that he would move along the lines of
the Tenet plan and the Mitchell Report. 

In his nine months in office, Bush has refused to meet Arafat, but
Powell said on Sunday the president would meet the Palestinian leader
as progress is made. Powell also said Bush's use of "Palestine" in his
speech before the UN General Assembly - a forum which gave the
declaration special resonance - was deliberate. Powell described it as
"a powerful signal" and, he said, no other republican president has
gone so far. 

Meanwhile both Israel and Palestinian officials are doing their best
to obtain details of the political principles which Powell is planning
to flesh out in an upcoming speech. The Secretary of State is expected
to make the principles public next week. 

The administration is being guided by its desire to achieve
"industrial quiet" in the Middle East, and the Tenet and Mitchell
plans are the only bases from which to launch it, sources in Israel
say. The Americans are not planning to achieve a substantive peace at
this stage, but rather regional quiet, so their efforts against world
terror will not be hampered. Israeli observers interpret the
initiative as an effort to prevent cracks in the coalition and to
placate moderate Arab voices, particularly those of Egypt and Saudi
Arabia. 

However, the initiatives are basically being voiced by more moderate
elements in Washington, those of the State Department, and not
necessarily those that will hold sway - the Pentagon, the Bush inner
circle and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. In Jerusalem,
the prime minister's office and the foreign ministry are working in
tandem to ensure that Israeli interests are integrated into the
American initiative. 

At all events, sources believe, Washington is unlikely to come out
with a plan that will be a substantive change in Republican
administration thinking. The Americans have basically accepted
Israel's view that it cannot negotiate under fire, there can be no
permanent agreement at present, and no forced solutions. They do not
expect that American pressure will be brought to bear on Israel.
Instead the Americans are expected to draw an outline for "Palestine"
- as it is now known since Bush's speech - that is far more generous
than that envisaged by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. There would be
more land, more significant territorial contiguity, and all the
outward trappings of a state. This would be the quid pro quo for
Palestinian acquiescence in postponing the complicated issues of
Jerusalem and the refugees until a later date. 

Arafat yesterday held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman and
an official statement said he briefed the monarch on international
efforts to reactivate the peace process. Abdullah stressed the need to
leave violence behind and resume talks and said a settlement should
include a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem. 

If indeed the Americans succeed in getting the Palestinians to toe the
line, the latter will benefit from American economic aid and other
assistance. As the initiative progresses and the violence decreases,
Bush will meet Arafat, as Powell has promised. 

It is against this backdrop that Sharon and Peres will be holding
discussions, when Peres returns from the U.S., to crystalize
alternative proposals Israel will bring up when the American plan is
fleshed out. In this way, Israel will not appear to be recalcitrant or
to be putting an obstructive spanner in the works of the American
initiative at such a fateful time.

*******************************************************

AMERICAN JEWS ASSIMILATING AWAY

By Julie Wiener 
Jewish Telegraphic Agency 

NEW YORK -- An increasing number of Americans raised as Jews are
marrying non-Jews and identifying with other religions, according to a
new study. In addition, even Jews who identify Judaism as their
religion -- not simply their ethnic background -- are much less likely
to believe in God or describe themselves as religious than are other
Americans. The new study, which followed the methodology and many of
the questions of the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, aims to
provide a "second opinion" for that survey's official update, National
Jewish Population Survey 2000, which is being conducted under the
auspices of the federation system's United Jewish Communities. Among
the findings: 

 There are approximately 5.5 million American adults who are either
Jewish by religion or of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing, the same number
found in 1990. However, 2.8 million, or 51 percent, say their religion
is Jewish, compared with 58 percent in the 1990 survey. 

 Among adults of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing, nearly 1.4
million say they are members of a non-Jewish religion or profess a different
religion. That number has more than doubled since 1990, a change
researchers attribute to the "coming of age of the children of
intermarried families and the unfolding religious decisions of
interfaith couples." 

* Thirty-three percent of Jews -- defined as people either
raised Jewish or who say Judaism is their religion -- are married to
non-Jews, compared with 28 percent in 1990. The 1990 study is famous
for finding that 52 percent of Jews who married in the previous five
years had married a non-Jew; the new study has not yet determined
statistics for newlyweds, but researchers say logic dictates that the
intermarriage rate has increased for this group. 

 Forty-two percent of Jews who say Judaism is their religion, not
simply their ethnicity or heritage, describe their outlook as secular, while
14 percent say they do not believe in God. In contrast, just 15
percent of adults nationally describe their outlook as secular, and 4
percent of adults nationally say they do not believe in God. There is
no 1990 data on this question. 

The new study was conducted by Egon Mayer, director of the Center for
Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New
York, Ariela Keysar, also of the Center for Jewish Studies, and Barry
Kosmin, who oversaw the 1990 study and currently is director of the
Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London. All three were
involved in the 1990 study. 

The official update of the National Jewish Population Survey is larger
in scope than Mayer, Keysar and Kosmin's study, but has not yet been
released. 

Based on interviews with 4,500 Jews and originally slated to be
released early this year, the UJC study now will not be available
until summer of 2002. 

**********************************************************************

Wednesday, November 14, 2001 

Peres: Almost all parties support idea of Palestinian state 

By Reuters 

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told CNN on Wednesday that an
independent Palestinian state was "today almost an accepted solution
by all parties." 

"There are differences about the size, the connection, the security.
But the idea that two peoples, the Israelis and the Palestinians, must
have two separate states that will co-exist in a fair manner is
accepted by everybody," said Peres, who is in the New York for the
United Nations General Assembly. 

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has also expressed support for a state,
although his vision falls short of Palestinian aspirations for an
entity on all of the West Bank, Gaza and Arab East Jerusalem, captured
by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. 

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets Wednesday to renew calls
for an independent state 13 years after Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat made a symbolic declaration of statehood in Algiers. 

"The state is coming, the state is coming," chanted a crowd of 3,000
at a Gaza Strip rally on the eve of the November 15 anniversary of the
Algiers declaration, a national holiday for Palestinians. 

The 11 factions that make up the Palestine Liberation Organization,
including Arafat's Fatah, issued a statement calling on the
international community to make good on its verbal support of a
Palestinian state.

*********************************************************

Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Jerusalem rejects UN demand for withdrawal	

Israel yesterday rejected a demand by the five permanent members of
the United Nations Security Council for the Israel Defense Forces to
pull out of the last positions it still holds in Palestinian areas.
Meanwhile, evidence mounted that the U.S. and Europe are preparing a
concerted effort for a new initiative to get the two sides back to the
negotiating table.   The foreign ministers of the U.S., Britain,
France, Russia and China issued their unanimous call on Monday for an
Israeli pullout from Palestinian areas it occupied after the
assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi last month, and also
called on Palestinians to end more than 13 months of violence against
Israel.   Government sources said Israeli troops would not leave West
Bank areas around Jenin and Tul Karm until Palestinian security forces
agreed to restrain militants and prevent violence. "People are getting
killed," said one senior source, "and that's why we're there." He said
there is a withdrawal plan but it would not be implemented until local
Palestinian security forces take responsibility for security in the
Jenin and Tul Karm areas.   Government sources said the statement by
the five nations was relatively good for Israel because it called on
the Palestinians "in effect to end the intifada." And as proof of that
argument they noted the Palestinian side was not happy with the
statement.   Indeed, Palestinian cabinet minister Hassan Asfour
condemned the appeal by the Security Council's five major powers for
an end to the intifada, saying it justified "Israel's terrorist acts
against the Palestinian people."   Asfour said the five nations had
missed a chance to restart long-stalled Middle East peace talks. "I
was hoping that the foreign ministers would ... attempt to put an end
to the conflict, reiterating the need to end Israel's occupation," he
said.   A delegation of European Union leaders is scheduled to leave
for the Middle East on Friday to try to coax Israel and the
Palestinians back to peace talks and bolster relations with Arab
states concerned about Afghanistan, officials in Brussels said.
Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu al-Ragheb said Arab states and the EU
were actively seeking a Middle East peace plan. "Huge Arab and
European efforts are under way on the basis of (establishing) a
Palestinian state on the horizon and at the same time declaring an
initiative for peace negotiations," he was quoted as saying. He was
also quoted as saying that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who
is said to be preparing a major U.S. policy statement on the Middle
East for deliver on Monday at the University of Kentucky in
Louisville, would be visiting the region "within the next two weeks." 
 Administration officials have so far refrained from confirming that,
but U.S. sources said that the administration is considering sending a
Middle East envoy to the region immediately after the speech, to
maintain the momentum.   Powell's upcoming speech remains somewhat of
a mystery. He has promised Israel that it won't be surprised, and
expectations in Jerusalem are that it will be a general outline of the
U.S. vision for the Middle East - and that it won't include any
programmatic elements, particularly on the two issues most troublesome
to the parties, Jerusalem and the refugees. If so, it would be a step
backward from the previous administration's "Clinton Plan," issued in
the waning days of Bill Clinton's presidency.   The Jordanian prime
minister said he's hoping Powell's policy statement would be similar
to the ideas raised by Clinton. He said that the U.S. administration
would not advance its efforts until it believes it possible to make
"real progress," but he added that "we have heard about new American
ideas that will be made public soon."   Sari Nusseibeh, the PA's
minister for Jerusalem affairs, meanwhile said yesterday that "Israel
must come to terms" with an unbending Palestinian demand that in
exchange for a peace agreement, it will have to leave all of the West
Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, removing hundreds of thousands of
settlers from their homes.   But Nusseibeh said that the Palestinians
"for their part must understand that Israel will not accept a right of
return by some 4 million refugees and descendants into its territory."
  Speaking to the Foreign Press Association in Israel, Nusseibeh said
that the Palestinians "are simply not prepared to bargain over any of
the lands Israel occupied in 1967, and if Israel assumed ... it is
possible to reach a settlement with the Palestinians in which it will
be possible for Israel to retain its settlements ... the people will
not accept such a position."   Asked if that meant that all 200,000
Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza would have to be removed,
Nusseibeh replied that an equal number of Israelis living in the
disputed section of Jerusalem would have to be added to the number.
"There are 400,000 settlers throughout the West Bank, Gaza and East
Jerusalem. I think one of the greatest harms done to the peace process
has been the continued settlement ... This is true of the West Bank
but it is also true within East Jerusalem. The Israeli public has to
... come to terms with it."   He added that any Israeli claims on East
Jerusalem would bring on Palestinian counterclaims on abandoned homes
in the virtually all-Jewish western sector.   Nusseibeh said time was
running out for a two-state solution, since support was growing among
Palestinians for a return to the PLO's original goal of a single state
replacing Israel in all of historic Palestine.   Palestinian Cabinet
Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said Nusseibeh's statements reflected
"our legal and legitimate demand which has been approved by the
international community."   And PA Chairman Yasser Arafat told Powell
the same thing - that the Palestinian state must include all of the
West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erekat said yesterday.   He said U.S. President George W. Bush had "to
make good his vision" of Israeli and Palestinian states living
peacefully side-by-side, which he presented to the UN General Assembly
on Saturday. "It's very important for this to be transferred from a
vision to a political track," Erekat said.	

**********************************************************

Powell says Israel's demand for seven days of quiet was a mistake 

ByEllis Shuman November 14, 2001

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to deliver his
long-awaited Middle East policy speech next week. The Bush
administration's thinking on the peace process reportedly will not
surprise Israel. Even so, Powell says Israel's insistence on a period
of quiet before implementation of the Mitchell Report begins was a
mistake and that confidence building measures and negotiations should
begin immediately.

Powell's speech, to be delivered at the University of Louisville in
Kentucky on Monday, signals more intensive U.S. involvement to end
fighting between Israel and Palestinians, the Washington Post
reported. The change in American policy is due, in part, to Arab and
European pressure that the Bush administration gets more involved and
defuses the emotional Mideast conflict, the paper reported.

"Powell's speech will focus more on principles than on the specifics
of a program," Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres told Israel Radio
yesterday. Diplomatic sources believe that the United States will
avoid detailed suggestions in regard to problematic elements, such as
Jerusalem and the refugees.

Powell will reportedly call for an immediate implementation of the
Tenet plan for a cease-fire and the Mitchell Report recommendations.
According to media reports, Powell will call on Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon to back down from Israel's demand that "seven days of quiet"
precede the six-week cooling off period stipulated by the Mitchell
Commission.

Powell says the "quiet period" was a "mistake," Yediot Aharonot
reported. Powell reportedly told European foreign ministers this week
in New York that Sharon's demand created a situation where
implementation of the Mitchell and Tenet plans was all but impossible.

According to Yediot Aharonot, veteran State Department mediator Aaron
Miller was instrumental in preparing the focus of Powell's Middle East
speech. The speech, the paper reported, will raise the following main
points:

Palestinian State - The United States supports the establishment of a
Palestinian State alongside Israel. The two countries will have
negotiated borders based on UN Security Council decisions 242 and 338.
President Bush, for the first time, referred to Palestine by name in
his address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

Violence - The United States calls for an end of the violence and
incitement and for the arrest of wanted terrorists involved in terror
attacks.

Jerusalem - Resolution of the Jerusalem issue will be made in final
status negotiations. According to the paper, Powell will refrain from
mentioning solutions suggested by President Clinton.

Settlements - The United States will call on Israel to freeze all
settlement activity during the negotiations period.

Land for peace - The United States will again raise the slogan first
suggested at the Madrid conference ten years ago. Relating to the
expected call for a settlement freeze, Defense Minister Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio today, "There have been no new
settlements since this government came into existence." Ben-Eliezer
refused to renege on allowing "natural growth" in the settlements. "We
have to remember that there are people who live there. There are
200,000 people living there. You can't just stop their lives," he
said. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office expect Powell to inform
Israel within the coming days of the points to be raised in the
speech, Yediot Aharonot reported. Israeli sources also expect Powell
to appoint a special envoy to the Middle East, and quite possibly this
will again be Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern affairs William
Burns, originally appointed in May by Powell as his "special
assistant" to ensure Mitchell Report implementation. U.S., Russian
presidents step up Middle East peace efforts Meanwhile, President Bush
and Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a joint statement
yesterday that, acting in concert with other key parties, ''they were
stepping up efforts to bring peace to the Middle East." They urged
Israel and the Palestinian Authority "to take urgent steps to ease
tension, as well as refrain from actions that are harmful to the other
side and to resume the dialogue at a high political level." Bush and
Putin also called on the two sides to implement the Tenet truce plan
and the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission. Ahmed
Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat,
said, that while the Palestinians welcomed the American and Russian
concern, "security and stability'' would be achieved only when Israel
withdraws from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said, "Our prime minister has stated
very clearly that when there is a cease-fire as required by Tenet and
Mitchell, he himself will lead the negotiations. The problem is with
Arafat," he said.

**************************************************************

Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Powell said ready to drop seven-day quiet condition, as new U.S.
initiative takes shape 

By Peter Hirschberg, Ha'aretz Correspondent 

The contours of the Bush administration's new Mideast diplomatic
initiative began to take shape Wednesday, with the news that the U.S.
plans to demand a speedy freeze on Jewish settlements, and to pressure
Israel to forego the seven-day period of quiet it has demanded as a
precondition for the start of the six-week cooling-off period
stipulated in the Mitchell Report. 

In a joint meeting with senior U.S. officials in Washington, Oslo
architect Yossi Beilin and Palestinian Authority Minister Yasser Abed
Rabbo learned that the Americans will demand that Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon give up on his demand for a week of quiet in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Ha'aretz also reports Wednesday that the Americans do not
plan to focus on a final status agreement at present, but rather on
the implementation of the Tenet and Mitchell plans, in an effort to
calm the violence. 

Beilin, who is still in the U.S., told Israel Radio on Wednesday that,
"Our understanding from our talks is that there is definitely an
American intention in the coming days to increase their involvement in
the diplomatic process in the Middle East. Amongst other things," he
said, "this includes giving up on the seven days of quiet, that aren't
possible from a practical point of view, and to start as soon as
possible with implementing Tenet and Mitchell." 

Beilin added that Secretary of State Colin Powell had apparently
reached the conclusion that the seven days of calm was a major
obstacle to reaching the negotiating table. "For many months we have
been waiting for a few days of complete quiet and this means giving
extremists on both sides veto power [over the process]," Beilin said.
"This is likely to be the most practical change as far as the
Americans are concerned." 

While Powell accepted Sharon's demand earlier this year for a
violence-free week, American officials now hold the view that this was
a mistake, and that it turned out to be an impractical demand that has
forestalled any progress.

Responding to the reports that Powell may announce this demand during
his much-anticipated "Mideast" speech next week, Defense Minister
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer responded: "It is his right. But I haven't heard
this from any American official." 

Powell's upcoming speech remains something of a mystery. He has
promised Sharon he will not surprise him, and expectations in
Jerusalem have been that it will contain a general outline of the U.S.
vision for the Middle East, but won't include any programatic
elements, particularly on the two issues most vexing to the parties -
Jerusalem and the refugees. "Powell's speech will focus more on
principles than on the specifics of a program," Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres said. 

Beilin and Abed Rabbo were also told by their American hosts that
Powell does not plan to use his speech to outline a comprehensive
diplomatic plan. 

Ben-Eliezer was less sanguine about reports that the Americans also
plan to insist on a settlement freeze - a measure included in the
section of the Mitchell Report dealing with the confidence-building
measures that are to follow the six-week cooling off period also
stipulated in the report. "There are no new settlements, and there
haven't been any new settlements at least since this government came
into existence," Ben-Eliezer said. 

But if the Americans plan to demand a complete freeze on settlement
construction - including inside the settlements - then Ben-Eliezer
said "that is another story altogether. There is growth in the
settlements. There are people living there. If they want to add a
house here or an apartment there... There are 200,000 people living
there. You can't just stop their lives." 

Even if Powell does outline these two demands in his upcoming speech,
and the U.S. does insist on the speedy implementation of Mitchell and
Tenet, it is questionable whether this will be enough to resuscitate
the peace process. "Even if Israel agrees to implement the Tenet and
the Mitchell reports, that doesn't mean anything significant will
really happen," writes Gideon Samet on Wednesday. "The Sharon plan for
a Palestinian state can't be the basis for genuine negotiations given,
for example, its insistence on holding onto the Jordan Valley or the
evacuation of far fewer settlements than such an agreement would
certainly necessitate. 

"Thus, just when circumstances created an unprecedented opportunity
for fashioning an agreement, America's current impotence with regard
to our local conflict is evident for all to behold. And while America
goes about fashioning a determined profile in a battle truly important
for it, all it has to offer are clouds of speechwriters' words about
some 'vision' of the Middle East."

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