From: Eddie Chumney
To:     heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Israel in the News: December 13-19, 1999


                                  Israel in the News
                 December 13 to December 19, 1999



TEMPLE MOUNT

ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES ON TEMPLE MOUNT
IsraelWire-12/13

Officials of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) report that
approximately thirty trucks have made their way to the Temple
Mount in Jerusalem's Old City late Sunday night as the Moslem
Wakf Authority continues to defy orders to cease illegal
construction in the Solomon's Stable area on the Mount.
According to IAA officials, the trucks seen on Sunday night
represent the continued defiance of by the Wakf, explaining that
all construction is to be coordinated with IAA officials to avoid
the permanent destruction of artifacts on the Mount.  National
Union MK Rabbi Binyamin Elon has called upon police to take
action, condemning the Wakf Authority's decision to work "under
the cover of darkness." Elon was also critical of Jerusalem
police who have not made any attempt to stop the illegal activity
on the Mount, the holiest site to the Jewish people.


POLICE INCREASE EFFORTS TO PREVENT ATTACKS ON TEMPLE MOUNT
IsraelWire-12/19

Israel Police are on increased alert status against doomsday cult
members expected to increase their attempts to commit suicide on
or around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City.  According to
senior police commanders, with the ushering of the new
millennium, the number of doomsday cult members who wish to make
their way to Jerusalem is on the rise.  Over recent months, many
persons associated with doomsday cults have been placed under
arrest by Israel police, and deported.  Israel has indicated it
would do its utmost to prevent such persons from actualizing
their beliefs that taking one's life in Jerusalem would hasten
the coming of the messiah.  As a result of the intelligence
information pertaining to the millennium and the observance of
the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, thousands of police
reinforcements will be deployed throughout the Old City of
Jerusalem in the coming days.


JERUSALEM

ISRAEL SAYS POPE TO VISIT IN MARCH
Copyright   1999 Nando Media Copyright   1999 Agence France-Press
JERUSALEM December 19, 1999

Israel announced Sunday that Pope John Paul II will visit the
Holy Land from March 21 to 26, the first papal trip to the region
in 36 years and the first visit by this pontiff.  The
announcement by the office of Prime Minister Ehud Barak gave the
dates after a preparatory visit by a two-member delegation from
the Vatican.  "The pope's visit will run from March 21 to 26,
when he will visit holy sites," a statement from the office said,
adding that he would also meet with religious and political
leaders.

Vatican envoy Father Roberto Tucci and his assistant, Alberto
Gasbarri, spent four days in the Holy Land to visit the sites
expected to be on the pope's tour and held talks with Israeli and
Palestinian officials, a source with the Latin Patriarchate in
Jerusalem said.

Church leaders here had warned that the pope's visit could be
jeopardized by the building of a controversial mosque in Nazareth
next to the Church of the Annunication, the site where Christians
believe the Virgin Mary was told she would give birth to Jesus.
But Sabbah said the pope would nevertheless visit the town of
Jesus's boyhood and "carry a message of peace and love to
Christians and Muslims in Nazareth."  The visit is also expected
to include the sites of Jesus's birth and death    the
Palestinian-controlled city of Bethlehem and the Old City of
Jerusalem.

MUSLIMS URGED ON CLAIM TO JERUSALEM
By Dana Budeiri Associated Press Writer Jerusalem (AP) 12/17/99

The top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem today told an overflow crowd
of 400,000 worshippers at the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third
holiest shrine, that the Palestinians cannot give up their claims
to the disputed city.  Relinquishing religious claims would mean
``giving up in the future Mecca and Medina,'' the first and
second holiest shrines of Islam, said Ikrema Sabri, the mufti of
Jerusalem, an appointee of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Sabri spoke on the second Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan,
a time of religious renewal for many Muslims.  Muslim officials
said about 400,000 worshippers attended, a crowd so large that
many spread their prayer carpets on the cobblestone streets
outside the walled compound.  Israeli police in bulletproof vests
patrolled the streets around the Old City that were closed to
cars to avoid traffic jams.  Worshippers were ferried to the
mosque in special buses.  Israel eased restrictions on travel to
Jerusalem from the West Bank, permitting Palestinians to enter
the city without the special permits that are required at other
times.

In his sermon, Sabri also said Israel had no right to intervene
in the renovation of an underground prayer hall at the compound,
the Marwani Mosque.

ISRAELI EMERGENCY SERVICES MOBILISED FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE
Jerusalem, Dec 15 (AFP) -

The Israeli police will have between 6,000 and 8,000 men on duty
for the night of December 31, and emergency services are ready to
deal with every possible disaster, a top police official said
Wednesday.  "On that sabbath evening (the Jewish weekly day of
rest) we shall have to deal simultaneously with the millennium
bug and problems that could arise because of the New Year and the
Muslim fasting month of Ramadan," Yaacov Borovski, head of the
police planning department, told journalists.  He showed them a
tiny room equipped with computers and two television screens in
the basement of the Jerusalem police headquarters.

"We have a system set up here that will enable us to monitor
anything that happens in Israel that evening," he said.  "The
plan of campaign drawn up 18 months ago has gone through dry runs
to be checked and re-checked, and shows that for the police the
evening of Friday December 31 should be just an ordinary evening
in Jerusalem," he said.

However, Jerusalem has trebled the normal number of policemen on
duty on the last evening of the millennium, bumping the number up
to 1,500.  The increase is to enable them to deal not only with
the influx of tourists and pilgrims, but also to thwart possible
provocations by extremist Christian millenarian sects.

"We are in contact with our colleagues abroad about this, and
have also set up a special unit to deal with the issue.  We will
have our men at sensitive spots, including the Christian holy
sites, some in uniform and some in plain clothes," he said.  "We
are completely ready.  Every possibility has been thought of,
including floods, mass poisonings, breakdowns in supply, and so
on," he added.  He said 500 to 600 police vans would be
criss-crossing the country, and that firement and emergency
services would be put on alert.

The command centre that the police have set up is linked by
computer to every police station in the country as well as all
the essential organisations, such as the electricity company, the
Bezek telephone company, the army, the Mekorot water company, the
interior ministry and the Magen David Adom -- the Israeli
equivalent of the Red Cross.  A team in an adjacent room will
analyse situations and take decisions in order to give adequate
answers in real time to any problems that may arise, in
coordination with a ministerial team headed by Haim Ramon,
Minister in charge of Relations with Parliament.

"The police has a back-up communication system in case of
problems with the millennium bug," Borovski said.  They will be
alerted immediately to the least problem that could affect any of
the country's infrastructure.  He added that the whole system
would remain up and running throughout the millennium year.

ISRAEL

ISRAELI NUCLEAR REACTOR TO SHUT DOWN FOR NEW YEAR
December 13, 1999 By Reuters Jerusalem

Israel's top secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert is
to shut down for two days over the New Year to avoid possible Y2K
glitches, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Monday.  It said
the reactor, which Israel has kept off limits to international
nuclear inspectors, would shut for two days starting on New
Year's Eve.  Israeli officials were unavailable for comment.  The
newspaper quoted an official from the country's Atomic Energy
Committee as saying: ``The citizens of Israel have nothing to
worry about.  The reactors in Dimona and Soreq have been made Y2K
compliant.'' Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, is
currently serving an 18-year sentence for espionage after he told
Britain's Sunday Times in 1986 that Israel had built more than
200 atomic bombs at the site.


PEACE PROCESS


CLINTON ASSURES ASSAD ON PEACE TALKS WITH ISRAEL
By Issam Hamza  Damascus, Syria (Reuters) 12/19/99

President Clinton has assured President Hafez al-Assad that he
will push forward Syria's peace talks with Israel until they
reach their final goal, officials said Sunday.  They said
Clinton's assurance was contained in a message he gave to Syrian
Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara for delivery to Assad following
Shara's historic peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak last week in the U.S. capital.  Shara returned home
Saturday night after his talks with Barak, the first between the
two nations for almost four years and the highest-level contact
between the hostile neighbors in 50 years.

Syria wants Israel to withdraw fully from the Golan Heights, a
strategic plateau that Israeli troops captured from Syria in the
1967 Mideast war.  Israel wants to establish full normal ties
with Damascus and lock in security arrangements for its border
with Syria after an Israeli withdrawal.  Shara and Barak agreed
to meet again in Washington on January 3 to continue discussion
under the auspices of the United States.

ARAFAT THREATENS INDEPENDENT STATE
Madrid, Spain (AP) 12/19/99

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat says he is unhappy with the
progress of talks with Israel and will declare an independent
state next year, possibly even before the Sept. 13 deadline for a
final peace agreement with Israel.

"I very much regret to say that the negotiations are not going
well at all from our viewpoint," Arafat was quoted as saying in
an interview published Sunday in the Spanish daily El Mundo.
"But there is no doubt whatsoever that we will declare our
independent state next year,'' Arafat insisted.  "At the latest
it will be Sept. 13, but I'm thinking it may even be before
that."

"Barak has made us many promises but to date he has fulfilled
none," Arafat said, but added that the Palestinians had not "lost
hope that he might do so soon."  Palestinians fear that the
recent renewal of talks between Israel and Syria may incline
Israel to put a lower priority on negotiations with the
Palestinians.

According to the 70-year-old leader, the main dispute with Israel
is still the issue of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, where the Palestinians hope to establish a state.
"There are many problems, many, but the most urgent ones are
those relating to the permanent colonization by the Israelis,"
Arafat was quoted as saying.  "They have just established a great
new settlement in front of Bethlehem.  ... It's one more
provocation, something thought out specially for this moment."


ISRAEL ASKS U.S. FOR GOLAN AID (Arutz-7, December 26, 1999)

According to a Jane's Defense Weekly report published last week,
Israel has asked the U.S. for $10 billion of financial aid to purchase
American arms in the event of a withdrawal from the Golan, as well as
billions of dollars more for the relocation of military bases to areas
behind the new borders. Speaking with Arutz-7 today, Jane's
correspondent Steve Rodan explained that Prime Minister Barak's list
of requests included U.S. fighter jets, advanced Arrow anti-missile
technology and equipment, electronic reconnaissance aircraft, and
money for Israel's own satellite programs. Barak would thus like to
determine how serious the U.S. is about Israel's security needs.  In
addition, Israel has asked the Americans what technology or funding
Syria is to receive as part of the deal.

Rodan added that Clinton administration officials asked Barak and
members of the Israeli delegation not to stress Israel's security
demands or Golan-related U.S. aid to Israel, "because Congress would
not appreciate demands for such aid.  Given the serious Congressional
opposition to the $1.2 billion Wye aid package, there will of course
be similar objections in this case, in which the cost is $10 to $20
billion.  Let's also not forget that many Congressmen are quite
skeptical of the value of any deal with Syria," he said. 


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