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Israel News Digest
Julie Stahl, Christian Friends of Israel, Jerusalem
Many Israelis breathed a colossal sigh of relief at 12:00 noon on Saturday, January 20 as former U.S. President Bill Clinton stepped down from his position as president and Middle East peacemaker, without clinching that final deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. But relief was short-lived as Israel announced that it would enter a period of intensive negotiations with the Palestinians to try to reach an agreement before Israeli elections on February 6. Oddly enough, probably a majority of Israelis were sad to see the departure of the man whom they regarded as the "best friend" the country had ever had in the White House. For eight years, Clinton was heavily involved in efforts to bring about "peace" in the region, giving the impression that he was a great friend and supporter of the Jewish State. However, because of his strong interest in the country he was able to encourage the Jewish nation to turn over some 40 percent of her Biblical inheritance to the control of arch terrorist PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, convince Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that dividing Jerusalem would bring peace and leave the country strategically weakened, fighting a "low-intensity" war, in a position of weakness that many say is worse than in 1948. Among Clinton’s broken pledges to Israel, was that of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In 1995, Congress enacted the Jerusalem Embassy Act requiring the U.S. Embassy to be moved to Jerusalem by spring 1998. Clinton successfully bypassed the law by signing special security waivers every six months to delay the move. He also failed to come through with $800 million pledged to Israel before it left Lebanon last May. Clinton, who worked with four Israeli prime ministers -- Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu and Barak -- and came to power before there was a Palestinian Authority, offered separate farewells to Israelis and Palestinians, published in their respective newspapers, the day before he left office. He encouraged them both not to waiver in their quest for peace, which he said they were closer than ever before to achieving. The overriding message was that the ONLY option for the sides was sooner or later to agree to a peace deal along the lines of the Oslo Accords. The former president told Israelis that of all the problems he had dealt with during his eight years in office, none had meant more to him "than the future of your region and of your country...The violence does not demonstrate that the quest for peace has gone too far -- but that it has not gone far enough," Clinton said. Whenever Israel and her Arab neighbors made peace, he said, the issues would be the same and that compromise is "often difficult and always painful." In a separate letter to the Palestinians, Clinton remembered his historic trip as the first U.S. President to visit Gaza. He said that it had taught him about Palestinian suffering, their "history of dispossession and dispersal," but also about their "resilience and courage...Never have you been as close to achieving your goals -- regaining your land, establishing a state, building a prosperous future for your children." During his Gaza trip in 1998, Clinton affirmed the "right" of the Palestinian people to achieve their statehood aspirations. The seven-year Oslo process marked a turning point for Israel. Never had an American president been so intimately concerned with the details of Israeli-Arab relations. Never had Israel been asked to divide its capital, give up territory vital to its security interests, sacrifice sovereign Israeli land for the privilege of keeping settlements and possibly allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to return to the Jewish State. Never had Israel so fully committed its security and strategic interests into the hands of another nation. As a parting gift to Israel, Clinton promised to recommend that the U.S. sell the Jewish state its most advanced fighter plane, the F-22 Raptor, which has not yet been produced. It will be up to the new administration, whether or not the radar-evading stealth aircraft will be sold to Israel, which could result in another broken Clinton promise. In one last good-bye, Clinton telephoned Barak and emphasized the "warm and close relations" between them. He praised the Israeli leader for his "political courage" which had led him to act to prevent war in the Middle East. Nevertheless in one of his final acts as president, Clinton pardoned more than 100 Americans, including his former Whitewater business partner, his brother and the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Absent from the pardons, was Jonathon Pollard, a former Navy analyst, who was convicted of spying for Israel. Clinton had secretly pledged to release Pollard as part of the 1998 Wye Accord between Israel and the Palestinians, but reneged on his promise. He reportedly refused to release Pollard now because current CIA chief George Tenet threatened to quit if he did. A DIFFERENT POLICY U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are expected to pursue a different Middle East policy, with far less concentration on Israeli-Arab relations. Exactly what that will mean for Israel is unclear but it is certain that Bush will not be as personally involved in negotiations as Clinton was. The new administration is likely to focus more on the broader Middle East picture and view Israel as America’s strategic ally, which could be very good for Israel. Israelis really hated to see Clinton go and are very wary that the new American leader will be a friend of Israel. But the Palestinians are hopeful that the Bush administration will not be, as they see it, as "pro-Israel" as Clinton was. They hope that Washington will now force Israel to make further concessions. Damascus has also expressed its hope that Washington will revive the Israeli-Syrian track with a more pro-Arab stance. BILL’S LEGACY However the specter of Oslo remains. What may turn out to be Clinton’s parting "legacy" is a set of proposals he placed on the table a month before he left office. In a last-ditch attempt to broker a deal or at least a framework agreement, he laid out a plan that he believed would bridge the remaining chasms and lead to a final Israeli-Palestinian peace pact. Among those proposals was the demand that Israel cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the PA as well as hand over eastern Jerusalem and more than 90 percent of Judea and Samaria and the entire Gaza Strip. In exchange the Palestinians would agree to give up the right of return for some four million so-called refugees and their descendants. Israel reluctantly accepted those proposals as a basis for future negotiations with the Palestinians. Arafat delayed his response to the proposals for 10 days. Although Clinton said that both sides had accepted them, the Palestinians actually had submitted some two dozen reservations, which effectively indicated a "no" to the proposals. Several PA officials also rejected the ideas out of hand, refusing to give up the "right of return" and demanding more details and maps. Clinton and his peace team said those ideas would leave the White House with him, but they must have known that once the proposals were on the table they would not be retractable. Despite their reservations both Israel and the PA adopted the plan as a starting point for further negotiations, which once again had the effect of extracting concessions from Israel prior to the bargaining. Later, Israel agreed to Arafat’s suggestion that the two sides meet for 10 days of intensive negotiations in Taba, Egypt, to be overseen by none other than Oslo architect Shimon Peres. Arafat suggested the sides return to the Red Sea resort because of what had been achieved there previously with Yitzhak Rabin and Peres. The two sides met in Taba for marathon talks in 1995, which resulted in an interim accord. Still analysts say that it’s highly unlikely that an agreement can be reached before Israeli elections. Arafat, some say, intends to continue to negotiate as long as Barak’s team is making concessions, which he hopes will be Israel’s opening position at future talks. Others say that Barak agreed to the negotiations as a last-minute election ploy. When the negotiations break off without an agreement, he will steer to the right, pick up undecided voters and try to sell a unilateral separation plan to the public. Opposition Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon, has already said that he will not honor any more agreements reached between Barak and the Palestinians. Many on all sides of the political spectrum have argued that it is not right for Barak to continue negotiations on such serious issues that affect the future of the state when he is merely a caretaker prime minister and has only a quarter of the Knesset behind him. But Barak won’t be stopped. Earlier he blasted Israel’s attorney general for issuing his legal opinion cautioning against the continuation of talks in the run up to elections. Legally, he said, Barak has every right to continue but he questioned whether or not the prime minister had the "moral authority" to do so. Barak also lost another member of his cabinet, Health Minister Ronni Milo, who resigned over the plan to divide Jerusalem. Milo, who attended the Camp David summit last summer, said he could not be part of a government, which would give up the Temple Mount and divide the city. PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO JERUSALEM As Barak moved to divide Jerusalem, at least 250,000 Israelis from all over the country and Jews from around the world gathered at a rally in Jerusalem to declare their support for a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. Much of American Jewry, which normally supports the Israeli government’s policies no matter what they are, voiced the opinion that Barak had gone too far. The non-partisan rally drew youngsters and adults, who waved flags and banners with the slogan "Jerusalem, We pledge to you." Images of Jerusalem were projected on the Old City walls as lively music played in the background, giving the feel of an Independence Day celebration. Natan Sharansky, who initiated but did not speak at the rally, said Jerusalem is not about security, borders or peace but about Jewish identity. "While our leaders need to make hard decisions and even sacrifices for peace, we cannot cut out our heart in the name of peace. If we do, we are likely to lose our soul in the process," he said. Just hours before the rally, the Mufti of Jerusalem issued a fatwa (religious edict) declaring that the entire Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, belonged to the Wakf (Islamic religious authorities). Included in that, he said was the Western Wall and the entire surrounding plaza. The Wakf has also continued to excavate under the Temple Mount, reportedly in an area where there are ruins from the second Temple period. In separate incidents, a fanatic American tourist threw red paint on the Western Wall, to symbolize Palestinian blood. The northern neighborhood of Neve Ya’akov came under gunfire for the first time; there were no casualties. And it was revealed that Arafat drove from Bethlehem through Jerusalem from south to north, past the Old City and on to the Jordanian border north of Jericho after Christmas Eve services in Bethlehem. Due to inclement weather, Israel had permitted the Palestinian leader to drive through Jerusalem because it was too windy for him to return to Jordan by helicopter. It makes one wonder what he was thinking about. PEACE AND ELECTIONEERING If there was ever a one-issue election campaign, this is it. Israeli campaign ads, shown each evening in a 20-25 minute bloc of prime time television, have focused almost entirely on peace and security -- understandably paramount on Israelis’ minds at this time. Barak let voters know exactly in which direction he is heading on the third night of election broadcasts. Facing the nation in a direct address, without music or jingles, Barak told Israelis that he knew the subject of "concessions" was not a popular topic. Nevertheless, he said, in order to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, whether now or in the future after another war, Israel would have to cede more than 90 percent of Judea and Samaria but 80 percent of settlers would stay under Israeli sovereignty. Israel, he pledged, would never agree to the right of return for some four million Palestinian refugees and their descendants. "I don’t intend to sign on any agreement that will give sovereignty of the Temple Mount to the Palestinians...The Western Wall, the Jewish quarter and the Mount of Olives will be under our sovereignty forever." Many remember Barak’s pledge less than two years ago, never to divide the city at all. The fact that he didn’t mention eastern Jerusalem indicated that it would be turned over to the Palestinians. Sharon, who has been presented by Barak to the public as warmonger, has refused to chant the Clinton-Barak mantra that the direction of the current diplomatic process and the proposed concessions are the ONLY path to peace, whether it’s now or later. Barak has continually warned the people that a massive war will occur if Israel does not make the concessions that the Palestinians are demanding. Sharon has spelled out a more conservative plan, which he promises will bring about peace and security, but of course has no way of knowing whether or not that will be the case. His approach, at least verbally, is very different from Barak’s: no division of Jerusalem, no evacuation of settlements (but no new ones either), no giving up the Jordan Valley and no giving away sovereign Israeli territory in the Negev desert, which Barak has proposed in exchange for the right to annex Israeli settlement blocs. Sharon would say, "Yes" to a Palestinian state, but only on 40 percent of Judea and Samaria as opposed to more than 90 percent. Sharon, a former major general, is having some trouble living the legacy of Lebanon. He was defense minister in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon, which led to its 18-year guerrilla war there. He is also hated in the Arab world for what it sees as his complicity in the massacres of Muslim Palestinians at the Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla by Christian Phalanges militiamen, allied with Israel. But some analysts believe that his "hawkish" image may act as a deterrent factor in the Middle East. "Look at how Arafat treats [Barak]," one analyst said. "He told him to ‘go to h____.’ I doubt he’d do that to Sharon." When Arafat met Sharon at Wye, he added, the Palestinian leader saluted Sharon, who wouldn’t even shake his hand. Public opinion polls show Sharon consistently maintaining a double-digit lead, as much as 20 percent, over Barak. There have been calls for Barak to step down and be replaced by Peres, whom polls show would run a much closer race with Sharon and could beat him by a few percentage points. But Barak, for whatever his word is worth, has pledged to stay in race. He can drop out in favor of Peres up until four days before the election. Both candidates are appealing to the Russian-speaking population, subtitling their television ads in Russian. Neither of them has gone out of their way to court the religious public. DEATH BY CELL PHONE AND INTERNET Barak was able to restart negotiations with the Palestinians and skirt the issue of ongoing violence and terrorism by resuming security cooperation with the Palestinians. Many Israelis have been very disappointed and angry that Barak broke his pledge not to negotiate under fire. Israeli intelligence also revealed that Arafat’s paramilitary Fatah faction itself was directly involved in a bus bombing inside Israel, in which 14 people were injured. A Jordanian national who worked in Tel Aviv from time to time was recruited by Fatah Tanzim and received the bomb from Palestinian Military Intelligence in Nablus, headed by Moussa Arafat, Yasser’s cousin. The revelation was made public on the same day that Israel and the PA resumed security cooperation at a meeting with the CIA chief Tenet. Present at the meeting, was PA’s Preventive Security Services Chief Mohammed Dahlan, who just a few weeks earlier had been accused by Israel of planning terrorist attacks. One analyst said that even now, those who participate in security meetings with Israel at night are those that give orders to carry out terror attacks during the day. Dahlan’s name has also been mentioned in connection with the use of cellular telephones as detonating devices for bombs. Two Israeli sappers from a bomb-disposal unit were killed in a Gaza Strip bombing by a bomb detonated by cellular phone near a second explosive charge, which they had just defused. One of the sappers was 29-year-old Dutch Christian, Yonatan Vermeulen, who had grown up in Israel. Although his parents had returned to Holland when he was 19, Vermeulen returned a short time later, enlisted in the army and joined the border police sapper’s unit. Hamas claimed responsibility for a car bomb explosion in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, which injured 34 and killed the bomber. But experts say this could have been one of the new "cocktail operations" in which terrorists from different factions work together to perpetrate an attack. In a bizarre terrorist attack, perpetrated and solved with the help of the Internet, Israeli authorities arrested a 25-year-old Palestinian woman in connection with the brutal murder of a 16-year-old Israeli. Ofir Rahum was shot to death by Palestinian terrorists after he was lured to PA-controlled Ramallah by the woman whom he had fallen in love with through an Internet chat room. According to testimony from his friends, Rahum, who was from Ashkelon, did not realize that the woman was an Arab and may not have known that she was taking him to Ramallah in her car. Witnesses said the teen was ambushed by Palestinians, who shot him some 15 times from behind and from the front. His body was so badly mutilated when found by the side of the road that it was believed to have been that of a Palestinian collaborator and turned over to the PA. The IDF became suspicious that the lad was actually an Israeli when it received a missing person’s report matching the "collaborator’s" description. His body was returned to Israel for burial. Shooting attacks also took the lives of three Israelis. The son of the late radical rightwing Meir Kahane, Benjamin Kahane, and his wife Talia were killed in a shooting attack on their vehicle, leaving their six children orphaned. An Israeli farmer, 32-year-old Roni Tsalah was also shot to death near his greenhouse, prompting a handful of Gaza settlers to go on a rampage, burning Palestinian crops and damaging their watering devices. It is believed that at least one of Tsalah’s Palestinian workers was involved in his murder. There was at least one miracle story. Moshe Bick, a 36-year-old Haredi Jew and father of five pulled out the wires that connected a cell phone to a huge bomb composed of two mortar shells, after his sister alerted him that a man had thrown a large bag in a dumpster and fled, in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood. Shortly after police sappers arrived on the scene, the cellular phone rang, which would presumably have detonated the device. WAR CRIMES OR A ‘PRO-ACTIVE’ POLICY Fatah pledged again and again to continue its bloody uprising until the PA gets what it wants and it seems to have public support for that position. In a recent survey, a full 70 percent of Palestinians polled said they believed that the uprising should continue. Some 66 percent said that they believed suicide bombings are appropriate. Israel came close to admitting that it had a policy of targeting Palestinian militants as a way of combating the continued violence and terrorism. Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz told lawmakers that "in principle" security forces are permitted to kill "those people who have been clearly identified" as those who plan or carry out terror attacks. He indicated that it was preferable to try to arrest the extremists but said if that was not possible and Israeli forces were in "real danger" they could "act to remove the danger while attacking the source of danger." PA officials charged that Barak and other officials should be charged with war crimes and tried in an international tribunal for this policy which they described as an "assassination policy." The PA has accused Israel of killing at least 12 and as many as 30 militant Palestinian leaders. PA spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said that the PA is "collecting data, collecting the evidence [and] documenting what is happening" as part of its campaign, and will coordinate its activities with Arab States and the United Nations. Israeli experts defended this measure as just one of many, which Israel employs to deal with terrorists and said it is not an "assassination policy." Israel has no "hit list" they argue and this measure is both effective and more moral. They point to previous cases where key men in terrorist organizations were eliminated, without endangering the general Palestinian population, while at the same time preventing the terrorists from killing innocent Israelis. EXECUTING COLLABORATORS Nevertheless, the PA blamed Israel’s "pro-active" policy for forcing it to execute so-called Palestinian collaborators. Two Palestinian men were executed before a firing squad, accused of passing information on to Israel that led to the slaying of top Palestinian militants. The men, blindfolded and bound, were shot before a cheering crowd after being tried by security courts, without defense or a chance to appeal the verdict. Forbidden in the Oslo Accords, the executions marked the first time that alleged traitors were officially executed by the PA. (Scores of Palestinians were gunned down during the first intifada from 1987-93 accused of collaborating with Israel and others were shot even after the Oslo accords for allegedly selling land to the Jewish State.) As one Palestinian human rights activist put it, the executions are a sign that Arafat is "acting completely independently of any agreement with Israel." According to an Israeli report, there is a list of some 20,000 so-called "collaborators." Allegedly, among those on the list are dissidents who oppose Arafat, human rights activists and journalists. Some say that outspoken Christians or converts to Christianity are also among those who could be targeted by the PA. International condemnation of the executions, particularly from the European Union, which is a major donor to the PA, prompted the Palestinian leaders to encourage the public to do away with the collaborators themselves, according to reports from the PA-controlled areas. Two more Palestinians were killed in gangland style murders, following the executions, allegedly for collaborating. The head of Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation was also gunned down in a mob-style killing, as he sat in a restaurant in a seaside hotel in Gaza. Initially blamed on Israel, a Palestinian group, calling itself the Brigade of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs claimed responsibility for the killing, accusing PBC head Hisham Mikki of corruption and sexual misconduct. Arafat has refused to take action against allegations of widespread corruption at the highest levels in the PA. Mikki, a close associate of Arafat’s, was rumored to have embezzled millions of dollars. His killing was seen as a warning to those in Arafat’s inner circle who are involved in corrupt activities. More than that, there is a growing concern that Arafat may be losing control over the street. Ten years ago during the first intifada most Palestinians didn’t have guns. Today, most are armed and more apt to use their weapons to take personal revenge or take the law into their own hands. 10 YEARS LATER Ten years after the Gulf War, many Palestinians are still backing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Hundreds of Palestinians rallied in favor of the Iraqi president on the10th anniversary of the start of the allied attack on his country. In his address, marking the day, Saddam touted his "victory" in the war and praised Palestinians for their uprising. In a newspaper interview published the same day he called for Arab support for a six-month artillery barrage against Israel to "liberate Palestine" from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel may very well be in for a rough ride in the coming weeks and months. But one thing is certain, no matter from which direction opposition comes or in what form, the plans of God for her will prevail over the plans of man. "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces...Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word and it shall not stand; for God is with us." Isaiah 8:9-10 Julie Stahl is the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for CNSNews.com
© 2001 Christian Friends of Israel. Used with permission. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
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