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To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>, Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup 2 <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Subject: Shimon Peres supports a PLO state
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 16:12:07 -0800
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From: Eddie Chumney
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Peres supports a PLO state

The Jerusalem Post - Internet Edition

Tuesday, January 12, 1999 24 Tevet 5759

Peres voices support for Palestinian state

By BEN LYNFIELD

RAMALLAH (January 12) - Seeking to
convince themselves and others that the peace
process can be resuscitated, the architects of the
Oslo agreement and an array of international
luminaries came together yesterday for a peace
gathering in Ramallah that rapidly became a show of
support for Palestinian statehood.

Labor MK Shimon Peres, in the first address by
an Israeli to the Palestinian Legislative Council,
told its members and more than a hundred
international figures affiliated with the Peres
Center for Peace that "it is our deep hope not only
that the Palestinian people will gain independence,
but it is our common interest to see a Palestinian
state take place as a result of an agreement - a
state that lives democratically and flourishes
economically."

The wording appeared to be a nudge to the
Palestinian Authority not to declare statehood
unilaterally on May 4, a step that would likely
boost Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu two
weeks before the elections.

Government officials said in response that it is
"customary in a democratic country that security and
foreign policy are discussed only at home." They
further said that it is "unthinkable for a member of
the opposition to criticize the standing government
outside the state."

In a coup for both Peres and the PA, former Soviet
premier Mikhail Gorbachev also made a speech. Former
South African president F.W. de Klerk and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu also attended.

PA Chairman Yasser Arafat met later with the
dignitaries, criticizing Israel for expanding West
Bank settlements and not proceeding with troop
redeployments as specified in the Wye agreements. He
shed little light on what would happen on May 4. "We
cannot let the day pass simply because one of the
partners wants to hold it hostage to its narrow,
internal calculations," he said.

Some Palestinian legislators predicted little would
come of yesterday's gathering and said that several
of the visitors, including Peres, became enthusiasts
of Palestinian statehood only after they left office.

"We have to negotiate to reach an agreement, and we
won't return to the ugly business of war and terror,"
Peres said.

His former Oslo colleague, Ahmed Qurei, now Speaker
of the legislative council, used almost identical
words, saying: "We declare before you our commitment
to peace as a strategy for which there is no
substitute and no return. This [is] a peace that is
just [and] lasting, and puts an end to the
occupation.... [It] guarantees self determination, an
independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and
security for both Palestinians and Israelis."

Qurei warned that expansion of settlements, holding
Palestinian prisoners, and maintaining what he termed
an "illegal siege" of Jerusalem by curbing
Palestinian access, are harming peace prospects.

"No doubt these negotiations cannot reach the peace
we are hoping for as long as the parties do not
believe in the importance of peace and as long as
there are no real commitments to the agreements," he
said.

Peres told the gathering later he did not agree with
some of Qurei's remarks.

The government counters that the PA is responsible
for the breakdown of the Wye agreement by stating
repeatedly it will declare a state, and charges it
with misrepresenting the prisoner issue, and not
collecting illegal arms or curbing incitement.

The packed hall and repeated words of tribute to
Peres showed the international esteem he still
commands, an asset that will no doubt stand him in
good stead if he gains another chance to be foreign
minister.

Gorbachev urged both Israelis and Palestinians to
adhere to the peace process.

"The one who persists will achieve. The losers are
those who stop on the way and don't try to go on," he
said.

Salah Tamari, a legislator from Bethlehem, said that
"every prominent figure in the world becomes
sympathetic with the Palestinians after they leave
office. When they are in office, they are hesitant,
depending on the reactions of lobbying groups,
whether in Israel or the US. When Peres was in
office, he could have sped up implementation [of
Oslo] but he didn't. Instead he bombed Kafr Kana
[Lebanon]."

US Congressman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat,
used his speech to urge Palestinians to refrain from
declaring independence on May 4:

"My plea to my Palestinian friends is just a simple
plea," he said. "Don't do anything on May 4, because
then all hell will break loose and all your gains
will go down the drain."

Hossam Khader, a legislator from Balata refugee camp
near Nablus, commented later: "The Americans want us
to be in line, and to keep the peace, but without
giving us our rights."

MK Ze'ev (Benny) Begin reacted swiftly to Peres's
speech. He said Peres's support for a Palestinian
state revealed what his intentions were when signing
the Oslo Accords.

(Danna Harman contributed to this report.)

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From: Voices United for Israel
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Israel News - Rep. Jim Saxton's Non-trip to Gaza

My Almost-Trip to Israel

By Congressman Jim Saxton
Chairman, Task Force on Terrorism and
Unconventional Warfare - U.S. House of Representatives

Considering that the President is aware that I strongly disagree with
his position toward Israel, it was a huge surprise when the President
invited me to accompany him on his coming trip to Israel and the Gaza
Strip. He knows that I have spoken out most critically of his
favoritism of the Palestinians in the current and ongoing
negotiations before, during, and after the Wye Agreement.

If I accepted and accompanied him, how would it look? How would my
presence be p erceived? Would it look to others who believe as I do
that the President has con sistently taken the Palestinian side that I
had sold out? Or, maybe, just maybe, was there a productive roll for
me to play? After all, it certainly would give me a forum to discuss
with the public my differences with the President's position.

For example, on the issue of the administration's proposal to provide
an additional $400 million in aid to the Palestinians, I could point
out that contrary to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's statement
that "every dollar of U.S. aid (to the Palestinians) is accounted for
and is completely transparent," the PA itself estimates that 40% of
the PA's annual budget had been stolen, wasted, or m isused. I could
have noted the Task Force's study of the 'PECDAR Papers' that proved
gross embezzlement and misuse of foreign aid on Arafat's own order.
And furtther that our General Accounting office said it was "unable
to independently verify the PA's financial
condition since that organization was unwilling to provide us with
requested accounting reports and supporting documentation."

And, on the issue of the removal of the lethal phrases concerning
Israel from th e Palestinian National Covenant, I could point out to
the President's press corp s that the PA has an unblemished track
record of organizing events with the decl ared intention to address
the covenant issue and always with the end result of l eaving the
covenant unchanged. Moreover, I could have raised other pertinent
questions such as the illegal size of the so-called "police" forces
Arafat had buil t; the types of weapons they have; their cooperation
with terrorist organizations; their dismal failure to suppress
Islamist terrorists even though the PA-controlled areas have one of
the world's largest ratios of police/security personnel per citizen.

I could have asked the President to rationalize his belief in the
"peace process " in view of the ongoing anti-Israeli legislation by
the PA such as the death penalty for holding/owning land the
intensifying, virulent, anti-Semitic incitemen t in the PA-controlled
media that makes genuine reconciliation with Israelis virtually
impossible. I would have sought explanations of how can anybody trust
an agreement compared to the Treaty of Hudaibiya enacted by the
Prophet Muhammad, in which a treaty lasts as long as political
expediency dictates, or trust Yassir Arafat after he repeatedly
reiterated the enduring validity of the "Phased Plan" of July 1974
the PLO's long-term plan to destroy Israel in the
context of accepting a Palestinian state in the territories.

And I could have asked the President when will the killers of the two
US diplomats Ambassador Cleo Noel Jr. and Curt Moore including Yassir
Arafat who personall y gave the order be finally brought to justice.
Oh, and of course, I could point out that for many reasons it is
clear for everyone that the real motivation for the administration's
interest in the Middle East has little to do with peace in the region
and a lot to do with the President's problems here at home.

And still the invitation had been extended and now, at 4:30 pm on
Friday, Decemb er 4, I had accepted. What an interesting few days I
will have next weekend. Wha t a great opportunity to tell what I
really believe to the American people, I thought.

Oh, but for short lived opportunities. By the next morning, Saturday
at 9:30 am, the President withdrew the invitation. I should have
known that you have to get up extremely early in the morning to beat
the spin of this President.

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