From: Eddie Chumney
To:      heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Israel in the News (Jerusalem Post)


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Friday, July 3, 1998       9 Tammuz 5758
Jerusalem Post - Internet Edition


                    Report: PA security has recruited convicted Hamas,
                    Jihad terrorists

                    By STEVE RODAN

                    JERUSALEM (July 3) - The Palestinian Authority has
                    recruited 21 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad
                    into its intelligence services, including some
                    convicted by the PA of involvement in the 1996
                    spate of suicide bombings, according to an Israeli
                    report obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

                    The report, drafted by Israeli security officers,
                    lists 21 suspected and convicted terrorists
                    serving in several PA security agencies, including
                    the Palestinian Preventive Security, Military
                    Intelligence and a previously secret unit.

                    The US has been presented with the list of those
                    Israel wants transferred, which is believed to be
                    an element of the government's demands for
                    reciprocity in the negotiations for an agreement
                    for a second IDF withdrawal.

                    The report says six members on the list were
                    "central figures in the planning and operations"
                    of a string of suicide bombings in February and
                    March, 1996. Sixty Israelis were killed in these
                    attacks.

                    All six are reported to be serving in special
                    units of the PA intelligence services and
                    Palestinian police.

                    They were identified in the report as Abdul Ghol,
                    who received training in Syria and Iran and is
                    suspected of manufacturing the bomb that blew up
                    at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv.

                    Ghol fled a PA prison in June 1996 and in December
                    surrendered to the PA General Intelligence
                    Service, which later drafted him.

                    Kamal Khalifa, who is suspected of having helped
                    Hamas arch-terrorist Hassan Salame in the string
                    of attacks, is now serving in PPSA.

                    Others involved in the bombings are Yassir Hassin,
                    Bassam Issa and Mohammed Sanaar.

                    Three of the 21 terrorists drafted by PA security
                    services were identified as aides to Hamas
                    bombmaker Mohammed Deif, the engineer of numerous
                    suicide bombings.

                    They include Abed Fatah Sitri, Moussa Haleb and
                    Abed Quader Omar, all of them now with the PPSA.

                    The intelligence report says the PA has sentenced
                    four of those on the list to sentences of between
                    two and 12 years. But soon after their conviction
                    they were released and recruited to PA security
                    agencies.

                    They include Osama Abu Taha, sentenced by the PA
                    in September of 1995 to 12 years. He was drafted
                    into the PA police and later transferred to a
                    special unit led by Sammy Abu Samhabane.

                    Yusuf Malahi was also sentenced to 12 years by the
                    PA, while Raid Atar and Mohammed Abu Samallah were
                    sentenced in April 1995 to two years. .

                    All of them are in the special unit led by Abu Sam
                    Hadan.

                    Israel has submitted requests for the transfer of
                    five of those on the list now in PA security
                    agencies - Atef Hamaden, Malahi, Iyad Bashiti,
                    Bassam Issa and Imad Abbas.

                    The PA has refused the requests.


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Monday, July 6, 1998       12 Tammuz 5758
Jerusalem Post - Internet Edition


                    Mubarak: Impasse may erupt in violence


                    By HERB KEINON, STEVE RODAN, and news agencies

                    JERUSALEM (July 6) - Egyptian President Hosni
                    Mubarak warned yesterday, after a summit with
                    Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and
                    Jordan's King Hussein, that the deadlock in peace
                    talks and Israel's plan to expand Jerusalem could
                    ignite violence that may prove unstoppable.

                    A top PA official said, meanwhile, that the Oslo
                    Accords are dead and warned that last week's
                    confrontation in Gaza between Palestinians and the
                    IDF could lead to eruptions throughout the West
                    Bank.

                    Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu deflected the
                    criticism, placing the blame for the impasse in
                    the peace process squarely on the PA.

                    "The present situation is very difficult," Mubarak
                    told a news conference in Cairo, flanked by Arafat
                    and Hussein. "We're afraid that if the situation
                    continues in this manner, violence will erupt. The
                    Israeli government must understand that if the
                    danger begins, the situation will be very
                    difficult to control."

                    Netanyahu countered that, "The agreement on the
                    second redeployment is being held up by the
                    Palestinian side's failure to keep its
                    commitments."

                    The prime minister said that "Israel expects the
                    Palestinians to fulfill these obligations in
                    practice: by detaining terrorists, collecting
                    illegal arms, outlawing terrorist organizations,
                    stopping incitement against Israel, reducing the
                    Palestinian Police to the number prescribed by the
                    Oslo agreement, handing over murderers, and
                    canceling the Palestinian Covenant, which calls
                    for Israel's destruction.

                    "Threats and violence are not the way to make
                    progress in the peace negotiations," Netanyahu
                    added.

                    The prime minister also took a jab at the very
                    convening of the summit.

                    "Israel is working toward the achievement of a
                    peace agreement with the Palestinians," he said.
                    "There is no substitute for direct bilateral
                    negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians,
                    disrupted by the Palestinian Authority 15 months
                    ago."

                    Netanyahu called on Jordan and Egypt to influence
                    the PA to live up to its commitments under the
                    Oslo Accords.

                    The plan to extend Jerusalem's municipal services,
                    approved June 21 by the cabinet, also calls for
                    the annexation of Jewish suburbs inside Israel to
                    ensure a Jewish majority of 70 percent in
                    Jerusalem, where the PA hopes to set up the
                    capital of a future state.

                    The three leaders urged Israel to rescind the
                    decision, and Mubarak warned that the situation
                    "will hurt the Israeli people."

                    Netanyahu's communications director David
                    Bar-Illan, said that by convening the summit, "the
                    Palestinians are hoping to create pressure on
                    Israel. This will not work."

                    PA cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman told the
                    Voice of Palestine radio station that a full Arab
                    summit should be convened at which Arab countries
                    would take action against Israel.

                    Mubarak said such a summit would be convened only
                    at the "appropriate time" as a last resort.

                    "We say that [the peace process] is dead, that it
                    is dying and that the American side is planting in
                    us false hopes. Because of this, the sole outcome
                    in the territory is that Israel is stealing our
                    land, destroying our homes and changing our
                    history," Abdul Rahman said.

                    Gaza Preventive Security chief Mohammed Dahlan
                    warned of a "hot summer" of confrontations between
                    Palestinians and Jewish settlers. "I believe that
                    the situation could explode at any moment."

                    PA-aligned newspapers quoted similar warnings by
                    senior Palestinian officials, saying the standoff
                    between PA and Israeli forces in Gaza over the
                    weekend could signal the start of the breakdown of
                    relations.

                    Abdul Rahman also called on Arab countries to
                    freeze relations with Israel until it agrees to
                    implement the interim accords with the
                    Palestinians. He termed Netanyahu an "arrogant man
                    who is committed to the settlements, to raiding
                    and seizing land."

                    Palestinian Justice Minister Freih Abu Medein
                    warned of what he termed a "genocidal war" against
                    the Palestinian people.

                    Quoted by yesterday's Al Quds, Abu Medein said
                    that PA-Israeli tensions threaten to cause much
                    greater harm in the West Bank than in Gaza,
                    because of what he described as "the militancy of
                    the Jewish settlers and their armed militias."

                    The PA-aligned Al Hayat al-Jadida quoted Abu
                    Medein as saying that the PA accords with Israel
                    have ended and that the Netanyahu government wants
                    to eliminate any gains the Palestinians have
                    achieved.

                    He said he expects bloody confrontations in the
                    West Bank over the next few days, also saying this
                    would be the start of a "hot summer" in the
                    territories.

                    The justice minister said the Palestinians are
                    prepared to defend their rights, whatever the
                    price.

                    He maintained that Jewish settlers are preparing
                    to declare an independent state in the West Bank
                    and that a group of settlers are preparing to
                    annihilate the Palestinian people.

                    Abu Medein also compared the situation in the
                    territories to that of Kosovo.

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Wednesday, July 8, 1998       14 Tammuz 5758
Jerusalem Post - Internet Edition


                    13% pullback decision expected today

                    By JAY BUSHINSKY, HILLEL KUTTLER, and news
                    agencies

                    JERUSALEM (July 8) - The inner cabinet is expected
                    to give conditional approval today for a 13
                    percent withdrawal from the West Bank, despite the
                    acrimonious and politically charged atmosphere in
                    which its deliberations are taking place, a source