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Subject: Israel in the News: Jerusalem Post

ISRAEL IN THE NEWS
JERUSALEM POST - INTERNET EDITION

Sunday, March 21, 1999 4 Nisan 5759

Arafat, PM IN WAR OF WORDS

By DANNA HARMAN and news agencies

JERUSALEM (March 21) - Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said Friday he is not intimidated
by Israel's military might and would take up arms if Israel tried to
prevent the creation of a Palestinian state by force.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in response, said that
"Arafat is making a grave mistake if he thinks he will achieve
something by a unilateral declaration of statehood."

Netanyahu added that if Arafat were to make such a
declaration, "Israel would respond in the most serious of ways, and
would make sure that the PA did not gain anything by the move."

In a statement issued late Friday night after its
weekly meeting, the Palestinian Cabinet said Arafat was consulting
with world leaders in "a race against time" to come to a decision
before May 4. The statement said that Arafat has asked the
international community to save the peace process before things were
pushed "to the brink of explosion."

Arafat said he has already won assurances from the
non-aligned and Arab states that they will recognize a Palestinian
state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The IDF meanwhile, has developed a contingency plan
for May 4th, code-named "Field of Thorns," under which troops would
protect Jewish settlements and retake Palestinian cities in the event
of armed conflict between Israeli troops and Arafat's security forces.

Arafat further said that such preparations do not impress him.

"We are not intimidated or frightened by the Field of Thorns
operation. Not us, not us, not us," Arafat told 500 cheering
loyalists from his Fatah movement. "We started the best revolution
in recent history."

The Palestinian leader said his security forces would
fight back if Israel tried to reoccupy Palestinian cities.

The Palestinian Cabinet also condemned the US
congressional resolution passed earlier this week warning Arafat not
to declare a state unilaterally.

"These decisions ignore the Israeli government's...
systematic destruction of the peace process," the statement said.

Monday, March 22, 1999 5 Nisan 5759

Arafat to ask US to support statehood

By HILLEL KUTTLER and DANNA HARMAN

WASHINGTON (March 22) - On the eve of his
arrival here this afternoon, Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat indicated in Vienna he will
ask President Bill Clinton to support a declaration
of Palestinian statehood - though he did not say
when.

Asked whether a unilateral declaration would be
made on May 4, Arafat said: "We are in
discussions with all our friends in the Arab world,
the EU, the US, China... on this very important and
very sensitive matter."

Later, in Stockholm, Arafat declared: "Sooner or
later we will have an independent state. It is a
matter of time."

Arafat's talks in Washington could be Clinton's last
face-to-face discussion with Israeli or Palestinian
leaders prior to the expiration of the five-year
interim period in less than two months.

"President Arafat will ask Clinton to recognize the
Palestinians' right to self-determination," Arafat's
senior aide, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, said yesterday. "When
Clinton was in Gaza in December, he said that the
Palestinians have a right to exercise their political
rights on their free land. We want him to go a step
further now."

Clinton and other American officials, as well as
members of Congress, are expected to strongly urge
Arafat not to declare a Palestinian state outside the
negotiating process, on the grounds that the Oslo
peace process envisioned that all final-status issues
would be resolved bilaterally.

Palestinian and American officials here have said
that no understanding on delaying a Palestinian
statehood declaration has been worked out in advance
of the Clinton-Arafat discussion.

Arafat is to meet tonight with Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, then fly to New York to see UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan before returning to
Washington to meet with Clinton tomorrow afternoon.

He is also planning sessions with several members of
Congress, which could prove contentious. Less than a
week ago, the House overwhelmingly passed a
resolution opposing a unilateral Palestinian
declaration of independence and calling on Clinton to
oppose it, too. The Senate passed the measure the
week before with just one "No" vote.

Depending on the outcome of their meeting, Clinton
and Arafat may hold a follow-up discussion later
tomorrow, which could lead to a cancellation of
Arafat's appearances on Capitol Hill, said the PLO's
chief diplomat here, Hassan Abdel Rahman.

Asked whether Arafat is prepared to capitulate to
American pleas that he refrain from a statehood
declaration, Abdel Rahman said that "our expectations
are that May 4 is an important date - the end of the
interim period - and that on that date, the
Palestinians will exercise self-determination in a
way they deem in their national interests.

"We are consulting with the Americans on what needs
to be done on the fourth of May, and we will carry
the opinions of the Americans and Europeans to our
national institutions in the meetings in the next
month," Abdel Rahman said, adding, "I'm not talking
about trade-offs. There are obligations, there are
commitments."

Arafat yesterday reiterated his right to declare an
independent Palestinian state based on interim peace
deals with Israel, but said he is still discussing
when to make the unilateral move.

Arafat, touring European Union capitals to test
support for declaring a state in the West Bank and
Gaza, reiterated in Vienna that the Oslo peace accord
gave the Palestinians the right to declare statehood
on May 4.

"According to the Oslo agreement... we have the right
to declare it after the final five-year transition
period," he told reporters.

Arafat said later in Stockholm it is a question of
when, not if, there would be an independent
Palestinian state, but repeated he is still
discussing when.

"Sooner or later we will have an independent state.
It is a matter of time," he told reporters.

In Kiev yesterday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
said a declaration of statehood "would be incredibly
unwise. I think the PA and its leaders should not
dare declare unilateral statehood, for Israel will
respond with the upmost severity.

"In addition, I would like to take this opportunity
to suggest that the Palestinians also be very careful
and stop with their provocative behavior in
Jerusalem, for we have responded and will continue to
do so."

PLO officials said that, if Arafat cannot win
endorsement for a state, he hopes at least to return
home from Washington with guarantees the US will push
for a signed Israeli-PLO peace treaty within six
months, compared to the 12 months proposed by the
European Union.

Arafat hopes to strengthen his hand with his people
during the visit to Washington, the officials said.

"If Washington does not compensate him well for
delaying the declaration, Arafat would be in a weak
position to delay. It would not help him convince his
people that a delay was necessary," one said.

Tuesday's meeting will be Arafat's second with the US
president since Clinton's landmark trip to Gaza in
December.

Europeans and the US are opposed to any declarations
ahead of the May 17 elections, for fear of helping
Netanyahu's re-election campaign.

One Israel, meanwhile, called on Arafat and Netanyahu
to tone down their rhetoric and return to the
negotiating table.

"The only way to resolve the issues between the sides
is by restarting the stalled peace process and
rebuilding the trust between the parties that was
snuffed out in the last three years," the party said
in a statement.

Elli Wohlgelernter adds:

The government announced yesterday it has asked the
Palestinian Authority to extradite seven suspected
terrorists believed to have been involved in attacks
on Israelis.

It is the first such request since the signing of the
Wye Memorandum.

Three of the seven are wanted in connection with the
April 1995 bus bombing near Kfar Darom in Gaza, which
killed eight - including US citizen Alisa Flatow -
and wounded over 50.

The other four suspects are believed to have murdered
security guard Yizhar Mantzur while he was guarding
the Arka factory in Petah Tikva in February 1993, and
stealing NIS 400,000 worth of factory equipment.

Netanyahu's communications director David Bar-Illan
said the timing of the request had no connection with
hearings about to take place in the US Senate on
terrorists who killed American citizens.

"The hearings in the Senate are strictly about
American victims," said Bar-Illan.

"It's true that three of the ones we are asking for
are involved in the Flatow killings," he added,
acknowledging that the hearings are likely to lead to
the US requesting the extradition of the three.

He said it would make no difference whether they are
turned over to the US or to Israel: "Either way,
they'll be brought to justice. In the PA, we are
already witnessing quite clearly that there is no due
process, and there's no desire to bring them to
justice."

According to the Justice Ministry, 44 other requests
have been submitted to the PA, without any suspects
being handed over.

(News agencies contributed to this report.)

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 6 Nisan 5759

Arafat to meet Clinton today

By HILLEL KUTTLER

WASHINGTON (March 23) - Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat was scheduled to arrive in
Washington last night for today's meeting with
President Bill Clinton, their third in just three
months.

Shortly after landing, Arafat was to proceed to
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's Georgetown
home for preparatory talks.

Israel Radio reported that Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu sent a message yesterday to Albright
telling her if Arafat unilaterally declares a state
on May 4, Israel would immediately take far-reaching
steps.

The visit comes with the administration's foreign
policy apparatus consumed with a more immediate and
grave issue: how to secure a last-minute Serb
agreement to the Kosovo peace plan, and if that
fails, whether to carry out NATO air strikes that
Clinton again warned of yesterday.

Clinton, who will host Arafat at the White House in
the early afternoon, and Albright are expected to
urge Arafat to delay any declarations of a
Palestinian state.

While administration officials are reluctant to
discuss the matter prior to the talks, outside
analysts believe that the US will want to deliver to
Arafat at least some public assurances of support in
exchange for his refraining from declaring
independence prior to the conclusion of final-status
negotiations.

Among the reasonable options, they said, are: stating
its intention to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian talks
following the May 17 elections; speaking out on the
need for the parties to immediately tackle the
final-status agenda and to conclude an agreement
within a given time frame; and even announcing its
support for the parties' ultimately agreeing on
establishing or not establishing a Palestinian state
- a vague, but potentially landmark, endorsement of a
state that would be the product of negotiations.

Meanwhile, in his first national address since taking
the throne, Jordan's King Abdullah II yesterday
pledged his country's support for the Palestinians
until they "regain their rights and establish their
independent state on their national soil."

News agencies contributed to this report.

Wednesday, March 24, 1999 7 Nisan 5759

US pledges quicker final-status talks

By HILLEL KUTTLER

WASHINGTON (March 24) - Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat left yesterday's meeting with
US President Bill Clinton with an American pledge to
push for accelerated permanent status negotiations,
but without any commitments on recognizing a
Palestinian state down the road.

Clinton "made clear that we would like to see a
resumption of permanent status negotiations.
Realistically they are not going to resume until
after the Israeli elections, but [the talks]
shouldn't be on an open-ended basis," said a US
official, who briefed reporters after the meeting.

"We will look for ways to ensure that the process is
accelerated. We wouldn't exclude any target time
frame, but we haven't made any decisions yet," the
official added.

While the US does not want to set a deadline for
conclusion of final status talks, it is considering
establishing a target date to aim for, the official
added.

The official said that Clinton "basically said we are
against a unilateral declaration of independence or
[other] acts that will change the realities on the
ground," and that "the way to resolve conflicts is
through permanent status negotiations."

In their hour-long meeting in the Oval Office, Arafat
gave Clinton no commitments concerning May 4, and "we
didn't expect him to" prior to the completion of
Arafat's consultations with world leaders on the
matter, the official added.

In a slight departure from the usual protocol,
Clinton personally saw Arafat off at the West Wing
door of the White House and shook hands with the
entire Palestinian team before Arafat spoke to
reporters near his limousine.

Arafat called the talks "very constructive and
fruitful," and said that he "listened very carefully
to the advice of President Clinton."

Clinton did not speak to reporters.

Arafat did not suggest to Clinton that he was looking
for an inducement in exchange for not declaring
statehood on May 4, US officials said.

Arafat met on Monday night with Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright at her home. They reportedly
discussed the May 4 date. Arafat flies to Ottawa
today for his first official visit to Canada.

Asked if he too would soon be holding talks in
Washington, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
answered tersely at Ben-Gurion Airport, saying:
"What, do I have to stand in line at the White House?
We are not knocking on anyone's door and have not
asked for any meetings."

Netanyahu was speaking to journalists on his return
from a three-day trip to Russia, the Ukraine and
Georgia.

A senior official said efforts are being made to
arrange a lower level meeting - perhaps with
Albright, before the May 17th elections.

After meetings at the UN yesterday, Arafat said that
the Oslo Accords were not a bilateral agreement
between Israel and the Palestinians, but a
multilateral pact that concerned the US, Russia and
the European Union who were witnesses to the
agreement.

(Danna Harman, Marilyn Henry, and news agencies
contributed to this report.)

Sunday, March 28, 1999 11 Nisan 5759

PLO: Israel must explain annexation of 1948

By MARILYN HENRY

NEW YORK (March 28) - The PLO observer to the UN last
week appeared to increase the Palestinians'
territorial claims when he challenged Israel's
pre-1967 borders and called Israel's rejections of
the frontiers outlined in the 1947 UN partition plan
"pathetic statements involving illegal positions."

"We believe that Israel must still explain to the
international community the measures it took
illegally to extend its laws and regulations to the
territory it occupied in the war of 1948, beyond the
territory allocated to the Jewish State in Resolution
181," PLO Observer Nasser Kidwa said in a letter,
dated Thursday, to Secretary General Kofi Annan.

"Such a situation has not been accepted by the
international community," Kidwa said. He acknowledged
that although the Palestinians had rejected the
partition plan at the time they later accepted it as
part of peacemaking with Israel.

The PLO is saying for the first time that "even the
cease-fire lines of 1949 are not acceptable," Israeli
UN Ambassador Dore Gold said Friday.

The Palestinians are attempting to use Resolution
181, the UN partition plan, "to make territorial
gains inside what has unquestionably been sovereign
Israel, as well as to broaden Palestinian claims in
Jerusalem," Gold said.

The contretemps at the UN has been brewing in the
last week since Gold, citing prime minister David
Ben-Gurion, called the partition resolution "null and
void."

The Foreign Ministry also has objected to a provision
in Resolution 181 that says Jerusalem should be a
"corpus separatum," or separate entity, under a
special international regime.

Kidwa called the Israeli officials' remarks "pathetic
statements involving illegal positions with
far-reaching and serious consequences."

Sunday, March 28, 1999 11 Nisan 5759

Shaath: Beilin agreed on state in '95

By DANNA HARMAN

JERUSALEM (March 28) - In an interview appearing in
today's edition of Le Monde, Nabil Shaath says that,
in 1995 under the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
and with his permission, Shaath had reached
understandings with MK Yossi Beilin regarding a
future Palestinian state - and Israeli recognition of
that state.

Shaath also told Le Monde that the Palestinians had
agreed to allow a contiguous area of Jewish
settlement on 5 percent of the West Bank, in return
for an additional Israeli handover of 5 percent of
land in the Gaza Strip.

Beilin avoided comment about whether there had been
any agreement to recognize Palestinian statehood. But
he confirmed some of Shaath's remarks, adding that at
the time the Palestinians had also agreed to make
their capital outside Jerusalem.

"Shaath participated in some of the dicussions that
led to the Beilin-Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]
understandings, but not all of them," said Beilin.
"During those talks, the Palestinians accepted the
following principles: There will not be a return to
the 1967 borders; Jerusalem will remain united and
will be recognized by the Palestinians as Israel's
capital; the settlements will not be removed and
will, for the most part, remain within Israeli
territory; the IDF will continue to sit on the Jordan
River; and the refugees will not return."

He added that, "in exchange, the Palestinians would
be able to declare a state with a capital outside of
Jerusalem."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in turn, said that
Shaath's revelation shows the "true face" of both
Beilin and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak.

Friday, April 2, 1999 16 Nisan 5759

ISRAEL REJECTS PLO ACCEPTANCE OF PARTITION PLAN

By MARILYN HENRY

NEW YORK (April 2) - A week after the PLO observer to
the UN called Israel's rejection of the 1947 UN Palestine partition
plan "pathetic statements involving illegal positions," Israeli UN
Ambassador Dore Gold rebuked that stance as a "misdirected" political
ploy.

"The resurrection of Resolution 181 [the partition plan] by the PLO is
a transparent effort to belatedly derive benefit from a resolution
which the Palestinian leadership itself violently rejected 50 years
ago," Gold said Wednesday in a letter to Secretary General Kofi Annan.

"Those seeking to critique Israel's position on the status of
Resolution 181 are misdirected," he said in the letter, which was
intended to counter a letter to Annan from PLO observer Nasser Kidwa a
week earlier.

Like the PLO letter, Gold's message to Annan has no practical effect.
Each, however, was distributed to the 180 member nations of the UN on
UN stationery and thus became part of the official United Nations
record.

"Israel has to firmly halt this [Palestinian] effort
to change the terms of reference of the Arab-Israeli peace process,"
Gold said Wednesday in an interview. The Palestinians were attempting
to expand their territorial claims to include the western Galilee,
Beersheba and all of Jerusalem, he said.

In his letter, Kidwa said Israel must explain to the
international community "the measures it took illegally to extend its
laws and regulations to the territory it occupied in the war of 1948,
beyond the territory allocated to the Jewish State in Resolution 181.

"Such a situation has not been accepted by the
international community," he said.

For the Palestinians, Kidwa said, Resolution 181 "has become
acceptable" since they made "the strategic decision to forge peace on
the basis of coexistence."

Gold countered that the "fundamental act of international
illegality was the invasion of the nascent State of Israel and the
attempt to overturn a resolution of the General Assembly with armed
force."

The partition resolution, he said, was "made irrelevant by the
actions of the Arab states and the Palestinian leadership in 1948,
whose refusal to accept the resolution altered the circumstances in
the Middle East on which it was originally based."

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