From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com To: "Arutz-7 List"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com> Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 01:48:51 +0000 Subject: Arutz-7 News: Tuesday, December 30, 1997
From: Arutz-7 Editor <editor7@virtual.co.il> To: arutz-7@ploni.virtual.co.il Subject: Arutz-7 News: Tuesday, December 30, 1997 Arutz Sheva News Service Tuesday, December 30, 1997 / Rosh Chodesh Tevet, 5758 ------------------------------------------------ Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday ---> See below for subscription instructions <--- TODAY'S HEADLINES: 1. COALITION PARTIES REGROUP 2. MOLEDET AND NRP GOODIES 3. GOVERNMENT MAY NOT LAST 4. DEFENSE MINISTER'S YESHA STANCE DEFENDED 5. GALILEE ARABS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIANS 1. COALITION PARTIES REGROUP The government finally won a budget vote today in the Knesset. The latest objections to the budget bill were overruled by 59 coalition MKs against 55 opposition members. The government's success was facilitated after all-night negotiations between the Prime Minister and MKs of Yisrael B'Aliyah, the National Religious Party, and even the two-MK opposition party Moledet. Health Minister Yehoshua Matza and Tsomet MK Modi Zandberg also returned to vote with the coalition. The Gesher party and two United Torah Judaism MKs remain dissatisfied, and did not vote with the government today. Opposition MKs demanded that the agreements with the parties be publicized in the Knesset. Although there is no legal obligation to do so, Likud faction leader Moshe Katzav said that the agreements would in fact be made public. The final votes on the budget will take place tomorrow morning. They were to have begun this evening, but both major parties agreed to a postponement so that the MKs could attend the Bar Mitzvah celebration of Katzav's son tonight. 2. MOLEDET AND NRP GOODIES The Moledet party has already released a copy of its agreement with the Prime Minister - reached at 4 AM this morning - to support of the national budget. The agreement includes the following elements: * the establishment of an educational seminar in the Yesha community of Rechelim, near Shilo; * the paving of a new highway to connect Jerusalem and Rachel's Tomb, via the Tunnels Highway; * the granting of 100,000-shekel mortgage loans to residents of Maaleh Ephraim, Kiryat Arba, Netzarim, Kfar Darom, and Morag; * the opening of Avner ben Ner's tomb in Hevron to Jewish worshippers; * the paving of a by-pass road from Talmon and Nachaliel to Kiryat Sefer; * the appointment of a Moledet representative to the Israel Broadcasting Authority board; * additional funding for the Environment Patrol; * 30 million shekels for neighborhood renewal and rural construction. In addition, the agreement with Moledet stipulates that the Prime Minister will act to attain a license for a regional radio station in Yesha within 90 days The National Religious Party's achievements in its budgetary negotiations: * more by-pass roads in Judea and northern Samaria; * additional construction in isolated Yesha communities; * separation of the Yesha communities' water networks from the Arab networks; * additional funding for rural construction; * 50,000 additional hours for the educational network. 3. GOVERNMENT MAY NOT LAST Despite the progress made between the Prime Minister and the coalition partners on budgetary issues, feeling is still strong that the government will not serve out its term. The next big hurdle - the second withdrawal from Yesha - will be its last, according to some. Senior NRP and Likud figures estimate that Netanyahu himself may initiate early elections on this issue. At a meeting yesterday with Knesset Members of Yisrael B'Aliyah, the Prime Minister said, "If you want to topple me, topple me on the withdrawal issue and not over the budget." Third Way leader Avigdor Kahalani, who appeared on various television shows last night to announce that he would act to disperse the Knesset and call for new elections, canceled these plans this morning. He explained that he learned this morning that the agreements made with the smaller coalition parties will not "overextend the original budget very much." Kahalani's party colleague Yehuda Harel said that he will continue to work for early elections, however. 4. DEFENSE MINISTER'S YESHA STANCE DEFENDED Defense Minister Yitzchak Mordechai will insist that the communities in Judea and Samaria remain under Israeli control in any future permanent arrangement with the Palestinians, and not merely as enclaves within Palestinian area. So said Eli Cohen, Assistant to the Defense Minister for Settlement Affairs, in an interview on Arutz-7 today. He explained that the map presented by Mordechai to the government several weeks ago does not delineate a permanent-status proposal, as does the map of Minister Ariel Sharon, but rather displays areas of national interest and areas of security importance. "Minister Mordechai feels that some of the Yesha communities, including the areas surrounding them, are of even greater importance than the areas delineated as security interests," Cohen said. He said, though, that Mordechai does not wish to arouse false hopes, and that for thi