Subject: Arutz-7 News: June 9-10, 1998 Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 00:19:30 +0000 To: "Arutz-7 List"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: Arutz-7 Editor <editor7@virtual.co.il> To: arutz-7@ploni.virtual.co.il, arutz7-b@ploni.virtual.co.il Subject: Arutz-7 News: Tuesday, June 9, 1998 Arutz Sheva News Service <http://www.a7.org> Tuesday, June 9, 1998 / Sivan 15, 5758 ------------------------------------------------ Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday --- See below for subscription instructions --- TODAY'S HEADLINES: 1. 13% NOW; UNDETERMINED AMOUNT LATER 2. IDF COMMANDER: THE PUSH FOR LEBANON RETREAT "THREATENS OUR LIVES" 3. ANTI-WITHDRAWAL FORCES GEAR UP 4. HENDEL, AND OTHERS, PLAN TO TOPPLE IF WITHDRAWAL GOES THROUGH 5. CLINTON WAIVES PLO AID PROHIBITIONS - AGAIN 1. 13% NOW; UNDETERMINED AMOUNT LATER Arutz-7 has learned that Israel has yielded on its demand to combine the second and third withdrawals. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has agreed to withdraw from 13% of Judea and Samaria, without a prior agreement on the extent of the third withdrawal. He is planning to suffice with an American guarantee that Israel will be allowed to determine the extent of the last withdrawal totally on its own. A similar guarantee was given in January 1997 regarding the second withdrawal, but sources close to Netanyahu say that this time Israel is demanding an unambiguous commitment that will not be able to be skirted. 2. IDF COMMANDER: THE PUSH FOR LEBANON RETREAT "THREATENS OUR LIVES" Commander of the Lebanon Formation Brig.-Gen. Erez Gerstein had harsh words to say about organizations such as Four Mothers last night on Channel One Television News: "The organizations that are pushing for a unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon have a very negative effect on the field here, and create a two-fold threat on IDF soldiers: first, it increases the local population's cooperation [with the terrorists] because they recognize that we are on our way out, and secondly from the terrorists who are encouraged when they hear that we are about to pack up and leave... I can say unambiguously that those who rally and demonstrate for us to retreat and do an about-face without an agreement - this is a threat on our lives." Outgoing-Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shachak, speaking today in his last appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, was critical of Gerstein's remarks. Shachak said that Gerstein was not authorized to express those sentiments under those circumstances, "although I assume he was speaking out of real pain." Rachel Ben-Dor, one of the founders of Four Mothers, told Arutz-7 today in response to Gen. Gerstein's remarks, "I think that what encourages the Hizbullah is when our soldiers die, and not when we [hold mourning vigils in front of the Defense Ministry] about them." She bemoaned the fact that soldiers who were killed recently in Lebanon did not remain in the news for long. This is in contrast to a counter-claim sounded by those against the push for a unilateral withdrawal, to the effect that news reports from Lebanon concentrate more on Israeli losses and less on our successes there, thus lowering the morale of the soldiers and the nation. 3. ANTI-WITHDRAWAL FORCES GEAR UP A critical meeting was held in the Binyamin community of Givon Hachadasha this past Sunday night, in which concrete and practical decisions were made for the future of what the participants call "the struggle for the Land of Israel." Taking part in the meeting were Land of Israel front chairman MK Michael Kleiner, Beit El Mayor Uri Ariel, Yaakov Katz (Katzeleh) of the new Tekumah movement, and representatives of the Religious Kibbutz movement, non-religious kibbutzim, Gamla Shall Not Fall Again, and others. Several significant decisions were made, based on the premise that the bodies that worked to bring Netanyahu to power will now work in the same framework to topple him if he attempts to withdraw from Yesha. Vigils and demonstrations will be held outside the government ministers' homes and offices; large ads will be published in the newspapers; banners will be hung at major intersections; posters will be distributed and displayed on home porches and on streets - all this by the end of this week. The posters will say, "If There's a Withdrawal, There's No Government," and the more familiar, "Netanyahu Has No Mandate to Withdraw from Yesha." Small films will be shown at theaters showing Netanyahu making promises regarding the Oslo talks - and breaking them. The Yesha Council is working on a similar project: a short film depicting Arafat and his advisor Ahmed Tibi discussing their future plans. Many of these projects will be carried out with the backing of Zo Artzeinu, Women in Green, and other groups. Another avenue of activity is the exertion of pressure on Third Way MK Yehuda Harel, who has emerged, in the eyes of the participants, as a leading advocate of a speedy withdrawal from Yesha. His supporters in the Golan [the Third Way is staunchly against a withdrawal from the Golan Heights] will be employed in this connection. A full-page ad in Haaretz this week, addressed to Netanyahu, will say, "We had thousands of people working on behalf of your election; if you withdraw from the Land, we will use them to topple your government." Another field of action will be to begin an information campaign directed at the Yesha residents themselves, explaining to them what they might not realize about the government's intentions for them. A letter containing this information will be sent to 50,000 families in Yesha. Tekumah leaders plan to meet intensively with government ministers, particularly Natan Sharansky, Ariel Sharon, and NRP Ministers Levy and Yahalom. Financing for all of these projects has been promised from many of those supporters from abroad who supported Netanyahu in the previous election. Col. Moshe Leshem, chairman of Gamla Shall Not Fall Again, who hosted the meeting, said, "The same forces that we used to help him win the election, can be used now to topple his government." 4. HENDEL, AND OTHERS, PLAN TO TOPPLE IF WITHDRAWAL GOES THROUGH NRP Knesset Member Tzvi Hendel, together with his party colleague Nisan Slomiansky, met with the Prime Minister in Netanyahu's home earlier this week for a long late-night meeting. Netanyahu attempted to convince them to withdraw their threat to vote to topple his government in case of a withdrawal from Yesha, but to no avail. "We had a very heart-to-heart talk," Hendel said to Arutz-7 today, "but with an politician who is as experienced as our Prime Minister, one can never be 100% sure if and to what extent we succeeded in convincing him... One thing he knows for sure, however: the position of the settler from Gush Katif, Knesset Member Tzvi Hendel." He said that a basic demand that should be made of the Palestinians is that instead of rewarding terrorists with top positions in the Palestinian police, they should be extradited to Israel, as the Oslo accords dictate. "But since the PA is not willing to agree to this, then it's a waste of time, and the talks should be stopped right now," said Hendel. 5. CLINTON WAIVES PLO AID PROHIBITIONS - AGAIN For the second time since November 1997, when the Middle East Peace Facilitation Act (MEPFA) expired, U.S. President Bill Clinton has waived sections of U.S. law that prohibit government assistance to the Palestinians. ********************************************************************** From: Arutz-7 Editor <editor7@virtual.co.il> To: arutz-7@ploni.virtual.co.il,arutz7-b@ploni.virtual.co.il Subject: Arutz-7 News: Wednesday, June 10, 1998 Arutz Sheva News Service <http://www.a7.org> Wednesday, June 10, 1998 / Sivan 16, 5758 ------------------------------------------------ Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday --- See below for subscription instructions --- TODAY'S HEADLINES: 1. MORE MKs THREATEN TO TOPPLE GOVERNMENT OVER WITHDRAWAL 2. RABBI SHAPIRA TO MKs AND RABBIS: ON ANY WITHDRAWAL - TOPPLE! 1. MORE MKs THREATEN TO TOPPLE GOVERNMENT OVER WITHDRAWAL The security mini-cabinet convened this morning for yet another discussion of an upcoming withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. Deputy Education Minister Moshe Peled, who met last night with Prime Minister Netanyahu, said today that Netanyahu had told him that a final agreement on the withdrawal was still far off. Peled told Netanyahu that he intends to act to topple the government if it decides on another extensive withdrawal. Similar announcements were made this morning by Knesset Members Eli Gabbai and Avner Shaki of the National Religious Party. They met last night with representatives of the new Tekumah movement on this issue. Peled, Gabbai, and Shaki thus join coalition MKs Porat, Begin, Kleiner, Hendel, Slomiansky and others who have come out publicly in favor of toppling the government in the event of a withdrawal. 2. RABBI SHAPIRA TO MKs AND RABBIS: ON ANY WITHDRAWAL - TOPPLE! Some 11 Knesset Members of the Land of Israel front met this afternoon with former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira in his home. The topic: stopping the impending withdrawal from Yesha. Also participating at the meeting were leading nationalist-Zionist rabbis such as Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, and Rabbi Shabtai Zelikovitz; Tekumah leaders Yaakov Katz (Katzeleh) and Rabbi Menachem Felix; and former Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir. Rabbi Shapira stated unequivocally that the Knesset Members of the Land of Israel front, including those of the NRP, must quit the government if even the smallest withdrawal is decided upon. Demonstrations against NRP Minister Shaul Yahalom's lackluster stance regarding the withdrawal will be held outside his home and opposite NRP offices in Jerusalem. Arutz-7 correspondent Yedidya Atlas reports that the list of MKs who are behind the initiative to vote the government out of office in the event of any withdrawal has grown, and is up to about eleven or twelve. ********************************************************************** From: imra@netvision.net.il To: imra@netvision.net.il Subject: PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU COMMENTS ON CURRENT POLITICAL SITUATION. PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU COMMENTS ON CURRENT POLITICAL SITUATION. (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Advisor) Jerusalem 9.6.98 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today (Tuesday), 9.6.98, with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the Near East and Africa Judith Barnett, who is leading a visiting delegation of senior representatives of American hi-tech and telecommunications firms. At the start of the meeting, the Prime Minister referred to the current political situation. He said: "There has been some progress in the process, but the road is still long. We expect to achieve an agreement which will ensure that the Palestinians carry out all of their commitments, as they undertook in the Hebron Accord, an agreement which must ensure the security needs of the State of Israel. As soon as we achieve this, there will be an agreement, and I hope that this will be soon, but I cannot give a more exact statement. The articles of the [Palestinian] Covenant must be completely changed. How can Israel be expected to make further concessions to the Palestinian Authority, when it refuses to say that the Covenant calling for Israel's destruction has been rescinded? This is not a legal question, but a logical one. If [Chairman] Arafat cannot convene the Palestine National Council in order to say that the [articles calling for the] destruction of Israel have been rescinded, then what kind of peace do we have? He must do this, it is a logical step, and it is also acceptable to the Israeli public and all those who seek peace. He must rescind the Covenant, period." *******************************************************************