Subject: Israel in the News: June 1-7, 1998 Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 00:49:52 +0000 To: "Parasha-Page List"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: Eddie Chumney To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com Subject: Israel in the News - June 1 - 7, 1998 Israel in the News June 1 - June 7, 1998 TEMPLE MOUNT THE TEMPLE MOUNT - BRIEF NOTES FROM THE EDITOR By Bernard J. Shapiro THE MACCABEAN ONLINE: URL: http://freeman.io.com/online.htm FREEMAN CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES P.O. Box 35661 * Houston, Texas 77235-5661 I believe that buildings of any kind constructed on Holy Jewish Sites, for the express purpose of humiliating the Jewish people, should be removed promptly. [Editor's Note: I am not calling for their destruction -- just moving them to a non-Jewish site] The decision should not be delayed on the political consideration of appeasing the very same people who chose to desecrate a Jewish site. I have discussed the issue of re-building the Temple with Gershon Solomon, head of the Temple Mount Faithful. He tells me that his purpose is to prepare for the re-building while not actually finishing the job. Removal of the pagan sites that desecrate the Jewish Temple Mount is just one thing that must be done to prepare for the day of building the Third Temple. Perhaps the actual re-building will need to wait for the Moshiach and perhaps the Temple will come down from heaven. I am not able to judge those things. I do have a feeling that the actual building will need to wait for the Moshiach. I believe that HaShem weeps at the sight of the desecration of the Temple Mount. I also believe that as Jews we should work toward the coming of the Moshiach. One step would be to cleanse the Temple Mount and make it ready for the Third Temple. That the Arabs would be unhappy, is a given. That I care about HaShem more than Arabs, is also a given. If you want to call me names like extremist/fanatic, so be it. My destiny lies with G-d, not with the petty insults of men. JERUSALEM OLD CITY VIOLENCE, PROTESTS, MAR SHAVUOT Int'l Christian Embassy Jerusalem 6/1/98 The Jewish holiday of Shavuot was marred in Jerusalem's Old City by stoning attacks on ultra-orthodox worshippers returning from prayers, and by Jew-versus-Jew protests at the Western Wall itself. At least 10 people were reportedly injured when Arabs began stoning ultra-orthodox Jews on their way home after Shavuot morning prayers. The Jews are said to have responded by stoning Arab and police vehicles and vandalising Arab-owned stalls. A number of the Jews and Arabs were placed under arrest. Earlier, police had to protect around 200 Conservative Jewish worshippers who conducted a mixed-gender worship service at the Wall. Hundreds of ultra-orthodox Jews gathered and loudly protested the "desecration" of a site normally partitioned to ensure men and women pray separately. CONSERVATIVE PRAYERS AT WALL CAUSE NEAR-RIOT By Haim Shapiro, Margot Dudkevitch and Mohammed Najib Jerusalem (June 1) A group of Conservative worshipers held Shavuot morning prayers yesterday in the Western Wall plaza. The service took place despite the hundreds of haredi protesters determined to disrupt the service, in which men and women prayed together, and initial police unwillingness to allow the service to occur. That the service took place had special significance for the worshipers, after a similar service last year was stopped when the police said they could not protect them. The failure to protect non-Orthodox worshipers at the Western Wall has been an issue raised by Reform and Conservative Jews abroad. PEACE PROCESS AIDE: ARAFAT SEVERELY DEPRESSED By Douglas Davis London (June 4) Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has "sunk into a black cloud of depression and lost hope," according to one of his closest aides, who says he is now "barely functioning." The aide, who was not named by the London-based newsletter Foreign Report, denied that Arafat, 69, is suffering from Parkinson's disease, causing his hands and lips to tremble, but said he might be suffering from a severe nervous disorder, noting: "It's a combination of age and deep depression." But while his memory is failing and he is no longer as sharp as he once was, Arafat retains a tight grip on the finances of both the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. The aide described him, with sadness, as being "over the hill, but unwilling to admit it." He is surrounded, says the aide, "by people who even hide from him important faxes." Arafat is no longer a workaholic, going to bed at midnight at the insistence of his doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and he has slowed down his once-frenetic pace. He does not consult with his close aides as he once did and often seems to be in a bad mood. Arafat, according to the newsletter, which will be published today, has also cooled to the idea of being succeeded by his deputy, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who spent most of his life abroad. He is now said to favor a Palestinian who stayed on in the territories serving as a leader of Fatah. YASSIN, A POSSIBLE REPLACEMENT FOR ARAFAT IsraelWire - 6/5/98 Israeli security and intelligence officials are concerned overthe continuing activities of Hamas spiritual leader, Sheik Achmed Yassin, who has been on a fundraising campaign in neighboring Arab nations to raise funds to ensure the continuation of Hamas terror activities against Israel. To date, it is being reported that Yassin has already amassed $5 million and he is picking up support. Some intelligence officials fear that Yassin and his Hamas terrorists will cease to function as an opposition party to Yassir Arafat's PLO Authority, but as the Moslem cleric's popularity continues to grow, so do his chances of becoming a successor to Arafat. According to a former director of the General Security Service (GSS/Shin-Bet) Karmi Gilon, Yassin is considered by his militant followers as, "the Theodore Herzl of the Hamas." Gilon stated that the Hamas leader's growing popularity may not be taken lightly, and he joined the many critics of the government's decision to release Yassin from an Israeli prison hospital in September, 1997. PRESIDENTIAL DETERMINATION: PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION President waives provisions of Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 Cleveland, Ohio President Clinton has determined and certified that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 1003 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987, regarding the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) through November 26, 1998. Following is the text of the Presidential Determination: THE WHITE HOUSE office of the Press Secretary June 3, 1998 Presidential Determination No. 98-29 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBJECT: Waiver and Certification of Statutory Provisions Regarding the Palestine Liberation Organization Pursuant to the authority vested in me under section 539(d) of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1998, Public Law 105-118, I hereby determine and certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 1003 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987, Public Law 100-204, through November 26, 1998. You are authorized and directed to transmit this determination to the Congress and to publish it in the Federal Register. WILLIAM J. CLINTON PREPARATIONS FOR WAR HUSSEINI: PALESTINIAN LEADERS MUST ENCOURAGE STREET PROTESTS June 3, 1998 By Samar Assad, Associated Press Jerusalem (AP) Palestinian leaders must encourage mass street protests in Jerusalem to try and block Jewish settlement in neighborhoods claimed by the Palestinians, said the top PLO official in the disputed city. "Political and diplomatic responses do not work and do not get the job done if there is no movement in the Palestinian street,'' the official, Faisal Husseini, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Husseini said the Palestinians must encourage confrontations. "Israeli police is escalating day by day and so is the Palestinian response with confrontations,'' he said. "What happened (last week) indicates a Palestinian readiness to confront, and this is something we must feed. We must make the public aware of the need for collective movement to confront these attacks.'' BIN-LADIN DECLARES JIHAD AGAINST U.S. TROOPS Kahl's I&G News 6/4/98 London Al-Quds al-'Arabi in Arabic 28 May 98 p 1 by Muhammad Dalbah: "United States Admits that Keeping Its Troops in the Gulf Is Causing Dissatisfaction; Bin-Ladin Threatens To Launch Attack Soon" Washington, Al-Quds al-'Arabi Meanwhile, Saudi oppositionist Usamah Bin-Ladin, who lives in Afghanistan, has declared a holy war against the U.S. troops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and said that the outcome will be known within a few weeks. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday [26 May] at his base in Khost in eastern Afghanistan, Bin-Ladin said: "All Muslims must declare jihad against them (the U.S. troops) and expel them from the holy land." Bin-Ladin, flanked by several Arab dissidents, said that "the jihad fatwa has indeed been issued." He added that "the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) ordered that Muslims devote themselves to expelling atheist troops," meaning the U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia since the 1991 Gulf war. Bin-Ladin, wearing white clothes and a white turban and holding a Kalashnikov rifle, was welcomed by Arab fighters with a burst of gunfire and huge explosions, the echoes of which reverberated along the Wadi Khost, which was surrounded by tight security. He told newsmen yesterday: "We face a very, very big problem today. A tragic problem. Arab land has either been occupied or there is a conspiracy to occupy it. For the first time since the Prophet's death atheists are occupying Mecca, Medina, and al-Aqsa Mosques. This is the most important issue at present. The land where the Holy Koran was revealed is now occupied by Jewish and Christian forces." NUCLEAR WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT INDIA WANTS ISRAEL TO JOIN NUCLEAR CLUB Ha'aretz Staff and Agencies 6/2/98 India has suggested that Israel be recognized as a nuclear state with nuclear weapons as part of an Indian effort to create a new international order for limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Israel is considered to be a nuclear power with dozens of nuclear weapons, despite the fact that it has never admitted to having nuclear capability. The Indian Foreign Ministry published a proposal Sunday for a new nuclear weapons convention that would include "all countries with nuclear weapons." Indian officials told the New York Times that this wording was meant to include "India, Pakistan and even Israel, alongside the five acknowledged nuclear powers: the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia and China." Until the recent nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan, those countries and Israel were known collectively as "unrecognized powers" that refused to confirm their nuclear capacity. After India and Pakistan exposed their nuclear capability in the tests, Israel was left alone in "nuclear ambiguity." For years, India has proposed dropping what it sees as discrimination by international nuclear nonproliferation monitors, who have traditionally distinguished between the five recognized nuclear powers and all other countries. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi the first official visitor to Pakistan since it exploded six nuclear devices said yesterday that Muslims worldwide welcomed the nuclear tests. "From all over the world, Muslims are happy that Pakistan has this capability," Kharrazi told reporters at a brief news conference upon his arrival in the Pakistani capital. "Until now they felt in... the Middle East that only Israel had the capability ... Now they feel confident," because a fellow-Islamic country also possesses the ability to make nuclear weapons, he said. NUCLEAR POLITICS: NEW TWIST IN ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN QUARREL June 2, 1998 By Laura King, Associated Press Jerusalem (AP) In the cavernous, carpeted interior of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, the tone of the sermon was angry. Muslims are humiliated by the West, the mosque preacher told the faithful but that could change. "The Pakistani nuclear bomb is the beginning of the resurgence of Islamic power,'' Sheik Hayyan Idrisi told the thousands of worshippers, who broke into a rhythmic chant of "Allahu Akbar!'' God is great. The scene last week at Al-Aqsa, the holiest Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, illustrates how the nuclear rivalry of India and Pakistan has become a troubling new factor in the already volatile Israeli-Palestinian equation. Among Palestinians, the popular response to Pakistan's nuclear tests has been a sense of pan-Islamic pride and renewed resentment over Israel's undeclared but widely assumed possession of a nuclear arsenal. Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority has refrained from either praising or criticizing Pakistan, the first Muslim nation to go nuclear openly. But senior Palestinian Cabinet minister Hanan Ashrawi said it was unfair for Pakistan to face international sanctions over its nuclear tests while Israel goes unscathed. "Israel is the one rogue country in our part of the world that is above accountability ... when it comes to its own nuclear weapons,'' Ashrawi, the minister of higher education, said over the weekend. "There is a very clear double standard.'' As in the Palestinian lands, there is widespread Arab distaste for what is viewed as Western hypocrisy on the nuclear issue. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates have accused the United States of fueling the arms race by ignoring Israel's nuclear arsenal. Pakistan's bomb does help feed a sense of Muslim solidarity at a time of eroding faith in the United States as a Mideast mediator. Both Arafat and Yassin have been trying though with very different agendas to promote the notion of Arab solutions to the Palestinian question. ARABS BLAME ISRAEL'S SECRETIVE ARSENAL FOR LATEST NUCLEAR TESTS June 2, 1998 By Vijay Joshi, Associated Press CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Some Arab nations are blaming the West for encouraging nuclear weapons testing in India and Pakistan by ignoring Israel's secretive nuclear arsenal. But some Arab nations were quick to point out that Israel, surrounded by hostile neighbors, has most likely possessed nuclear bombs for decades without facing any punishment from the rest of the world. "The double standards by the international community through excluding Israel from nuclear inspections have encouraged the nuclear arms race,'' the Saudi Arabian government said Monday. Similar statements were made earlier by the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. Successive Israeli governments have refused to either confirm that or allow the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, to inspect its facilities. The situation is galling to Muslim nations because the United States has imposed harsh sanctions on Libya, Iraq and Iran and now on India and Pakistan for trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction. SPREAD OF ISLAM HILLARY CLINTON - STUDENT OF ISLAM Via e-mail 6/1/98 - A copy of the remarks was sent to Reuters by the U.S. Embassy. First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, visiting the Middle East, says she has become an"eager student" of Islam. "I, myself, have become an eager student of Islam.in recent years, thanks in part to my daughter, who took a course on Islamic history," she said in videotaped remarks presented recently to a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia. "I thought of how Western society too often mischaracterizes Islam and those who adhere to its teachings. We have allowed a tiny minority to define an ugly stereotype," she said in the remarks presented at the function, held in late King Faisal's old home. ANTI-SEMITISM AND PERSECUTION SHARP RISE IN GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM RECORDED OVER PAST MONTH Cabinet Secretariat, June 1, 1998 via Bridges for Peace During the past month a noted increase in violent anti-Semitism has been recorded. The recent incidents have included: two terrorist attacks against Jewish sites in Greece and Latvia; a string of attacks on Jews on the street (primarily in Britain) and desecration of gravestones and memorial sites (in Latvia, Canada, and Argentina). A dramatic increase in the amount of threats against Jews and Jewish institutions has also been recorded. Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh, who heads the Anti-Semitism Monitoring Forum, has requested that Foreign Ministry representatives around the world raise the matter in their capitals and ask that the various governments take decisive action to stop the phenomenon. WICHITA SYNAGOGUE VANDALIZED WITH MESSAGES OF HATE: Anti-Semitic graffiti mars a building on the first day it was to house services of the Beth-El B'Y'shua Messianic Synagogue. By Joe Rodriguez The Wichita (KS) Eagle 6/7/98 Rabbi J'hudah ben Levi arrived at his Beth-El B'Y'shua Messianic Synagogue on Saturday morning, prepared for the first day of services there. His heart sank as soon as he saw the hate that was spray-painted on all sides of the building at 4611 S. Seneca. Swastikas. Sick phrases such as: "Jews will die" and "Burn dirty Jews." And the perpetrators left their mark with tags of "skins" and "white power," clear references to skinheads. But if the people responsible thought they accomplished anything, ben Levi wants them to know something. "This was the day we were to dedicate the synagogue and have a great glorious victory -- and we have," he said putting emphasis on the final three words. "He's not accomplished anything. Yeah, for a few moments it hurt, but he is not going to win." The scheduled services went on as planned Saturday with no mention of the crime. Today, members will begin the cleanup. "We're going to get good at painting," ben Levi said. Ben Levi moved to Wichita about three years ago and members of the Beth-El B'Y'shua Messianic Synagogue held worship services in their homes. About three weeks ago, ben Levi said, they began renting the South Seneca building, a storefront- type building that also houses two auction businesses. Since then, members had been cleaning and fixing up the building in preparation of the first service to be held there -- on Saturday at 10 a.m. Ben Levi said he's not sure if the criminals painted the graffiti to coincide with the first service. He had placed a sign in the front window that told when services would begin. He said he knew of the potential for hate crimes. It's something he's experienced his entire life -- first in New York, then in South Bend, Ind., where he and his wife moved to Wichita from. Still, he said, it's not something he could ever get used to. "It's not a matter of being used to it," he said. "But it's something that we know is going to happen. We're sad when it does happen, but we will never let the evil one have the victory over us. We're going to win. Nothing is going to change." >From Eddie: ************** Please pray for Rabbi J'hudah ben Levi and his congregation. He is a member of our newsgroup. ***********************************************************************