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.

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