ISRAEL
- -----
- SHARON TELLS CABINET TO KEEP QUIET ON U.S. PLANS
Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, warned his cabinet ministers
on Sunday not to talk about American plans for
Iraq. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/07/international/middleeast/07ISRA.html?todaysheadlines
- -----
- MOSLEMS GIVEN FREE REIGN ON TEMPLE MOUNT; JEWS STILL NOT
ALLOWED
9 November 2002 - Some 150,000 Palestinian worshipers were at
prayers Friday, as Jerusalem police deployed large numbers of
officers throughout the capital. For the first time in months,
Palestinian worshipers were given free access to the Temple Mount,
with no limitations being placed on the age of those who are
allowed to enter the mosque compound. The prayers ended and the
crowd dispersed without incident. The Temple Mount, the holiest
Jewish site in the world, has been closed to Jewish worship for
over two years.
- -----
- U.S. JUSTIFIES 'TARGETED KILLING'
9 November 2002 - Bush Administration officials described the
missile strike on a car carrying six al Qaeda operatives in Yemen
on Sunday as a battlefield operation in the war on terrorism,
even though it occurred far from Afghanistan and in a country
where no conventional military conflict is underway. Other observers
called it a targeted assassination, or even an extrajudicial
killing -- terms usually reserved for violations of human rights
or international law. Such condemnation is not justified: The
Yemen operation did not target political or criminal figures,
but trained combatants of an organization that has declared war
against the United States, that itself has defined the battlefield
as global and that recently has landed its own military blows
in Yemen.
- So what exactly is the difference in what the U.S. did in
Yemen and what Israel does against "trained combatants of
an organization that has declared war against" Israel? The
Bush Administration has been dancing around this topic all week.
The United States has said it still opposes Israel's policy of
targeted assassinations, despite its apparent use of the same
tactic to kill six al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen on Sunday. "Our
policy on targeted killings in the Israeli-Palestinian context
has not changed," US State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said. Boucher refused to talk about the Yemen attack,
but said that Washington's reasons for opposing the targeted
killings of Palestinians might not apply in other circumstances.
A complex, convoluted press statement can be found at: [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/14920.htm]
- -----
- TEMPLE MOUNT FAITHFUL TO MARCH TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT
On Monday, 23 September 2002, the Temple Mount Faithful Movement
will march to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This is the third
day of Sukkot, 17 Tishrei 5763. The march will begin at 10:00
AM Jerusalem time. They will carry with them a large model of
the Temple. They swill also carry the holy vessels which have
been reconstructed for use in the Third Temple and the priestly
garments which the priests will wear on this exciting event.
Together with the Sukkot prayers and the Hallel Psalms, the sound
of the trumpets and the shofar will carry through the holy hill
of G­d to heaven. According to Gershon Salomon, leader of
the Temple Mount Faithful, "Because of the security situation
in Israel the authorities have asked us to delay our original
plans to lay the cornerstone for the Third Temple on this day.
- The two cornerstones which were anointed for the Third Temple
last Sukkot are laying not far from the Temple Mount overlooking
the location of the Holy of Holies. The Temple Mount Faithful
Movement is preparing to lay them soon. We know that time is
short and that this day is soon to come. All G­d’s endtime
plans, especially the rebuilding of the Temple, will soon come
to pass". Tzemach News Service (TNS) is a ministry of Tzemach
Institute for Biblical Studies http://www.tzemach.org
- See also http://www.templemountfaithful.org/Events/sukkot2002.htm
- -----
- QUARTET ROLLS OUT PLAN FOR 'PALESTINE':
21 September 2002 - Representatives of the self-styled Quartet
of nations - the United States, European Union, Russia and the
United Nations - agreed in a closed-door meeting this week on
a plan that would see the establishment of a Palestinian state
in 2003 followed by the putting in place of a permanent peace
plan two years later. The decision was announced Tuesday by US
Secretary of State Colin Powell, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
EU representative Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, and
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. According to reports, the
first phase of the plan would see a reforming, under US and "regional"
(Arab) supervision, of the Palestinian Authority's security forces,
Israel's withdrawal of its forces to positions held in September
2000, and support for "free, fair and credible elections"
for the Palestinian Arabs early in 2003. With the realization
of these aims, in the second half of next year a united effort
would be made to establish a Palestinian state with provisional
borders and based on an-as-yet-to-be drawn up Palestinian constitution.
Between 2004 and 2005 the final stage of the plan would be implemented,
involving permanent status talks that would culminate in a final
peace agreement.
-
- The members of the Security Council Friday urged wide support
for diplomatic initiatives to bring peace to the Middle East
being led by the Quartet. In a statement to the press following
closed-door consultations on the latest developments in the Middle
East, the President of the Council, Ambassador Stefan Tafrov
of Bulgaria, said the members supported the statement issued
by the Quartet earlier this week outlining a roadmap and timetable
to settle the region's conflict. The Council went into closed
consultations on the situation in the Middle East at 6 PM, announcing
afterwards that it will hold a formal meeting on that subject
on Monday morning.
-
- "I will gather all the nations, and bring them down
to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment
with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,
whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided
up My land." Joel 3:2
- -----
- LEBANON REJECTS U.S. INTERFERENCE ON WAZZANI PIPELINE:
21 September 2002 - The Lebanese government rejected at the weekend
a request by the United States to suspend work on a pipeline
to pump water from springs that flow into Israel. In turning
down the request, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri reiterated
his government's earlier statement that the decision to begin
pumping water from the Wazzani Springs was final and irreversible.
Israel has objected to the diversion, which aims to siphon off
water through 16 kilometers [10 miles] of piping in order to
provide 20 Lebanese villages with water.
US State Department envoy Charles Lawson arrived in Beirut last
Wednesday for talks with Lebanese officials aimed at diffusing
the tension. The Wazzani is a tributary of the Hatzbani River
that runs for 40 kilometers [25 miles] in Lebanon before crossing
the border and joining with the Banias and Dan rivers to become
the Jordan River. Israel's anger stems from the fact the Hatzbani
supplies between
20 and 25 per cent of Yom Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel's
main source of drinking water. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
warned that the project constitutes grounds for war.
- -----
- MORE ABOUT THE TEMPLE MOUNT..
How naive these Jewish conquerors were! Did they not even have
an inkling of the depths of the Arab-Muslim hatred toward all
infidels? The irony is that when Eshkol promised the religious
leaders free access to Holy Places, he could not have envisioned
that in the year 2002--only 35 years later--neither Jews nor
Christians are allowed to set foot on the Temple Mount.
- The situation has worsened year by year. The Muslims, in
order to achieve their goals, either threatened to riot, or actually
engaged in violence, such as throwing stones on the Jews praying
below at the Western Wall. The situation deteriorated even more
when Ehud Barak became Prime Minister. He permitted the Muslims
to build an additional Mosque in the so-called Solomon's Stables.
(By the way, I want to point out that Solomon's Stables is a
misnomer. This was actually a prayer hall at the time of the
Second Temple.)
- Ehud Barak completely ignored that the Muslims illegally
brought in bulldozers and heavy equipment on the Temple Mount.
In the past, I have interviewed prominent archaeologists in this
regard. A number of archaeologists tried to alert the public
to Barak's complete irresponsibility in ignoring the desecration
and destruction by the Arabs of all evidence of Jewish history.
- As these archaeologists predicted, we are now experiencing
the consequences of faulty political decisions. Many of us believe
that these are the consequences, as well, of our allowing the
desecration of G-d's Holy Mountain.
- After years of completely ignoring the Muslim Waqf's illegal
and unsupervised construction on the Jewish People's holiest
site, the Israeli government now finds itself in a quandary.
A ten-meter-wide bulge in the southern wall has emerged, and
archaeologists are warning that it could disintegrate into a
heap of rubble at any moment. Archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar says
that the question now is not if the wall will cave in, but "whether
the wall will collapse on thousands of Arab worshipers, or if
it will happen in a controlled manner."
- Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said: "There are serious
grounds for the concern that it could collapse."
- To quote the Jerusalem Post editorial of August 28, 2002,
entitled "Mounting Irresponsibility":
- "It is therefore nothing less than scandalous that Sharon
and Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau, who oversees the police,
would allow the Waqf to continue to thumb its nose at the law
in open defiance of the state and its institutions. Though this
studied indifference has typified successive Israeli governments
of both the Left and the Right, that is hardly a convincing excuse
to permit such lawlessness to continue.
- The Waqf needs to be held accountable for its actions on
the Temple Mount, and it is time for Israel to finally assert
its full sovereignty over the area. It can start doing so by
putting an immediate end to all Waqf construction on the site.
Teams of engineers and archaeologists should be dispatched immediately
to determine how best to prevent a catastrophic total collapse
of the southern wall of the Mount, and all measures necessary
to repair and refurbish it should be undertaken forthwith.
- Failure to do so will not only send a message of Israeli
weakness to the Palestinian Authority, which controls the Muslim
Waqf, but could very well imperil the structural integrity of
the site itself. Israel has thus far refrained from taking action
for fear of how the Muslim world would react. But should the
southern wall indeed collapse, it is not too difficult to imagine
just who the Arab states would decide to blame. The time to act,
therefore, is now, before it is too late." Our guest tonight
is journalist and commentator, Evelyn Gordon. She also writes
articles for the Jerusalem Post. (The complete interview with
Evelyn Gordon can be accessed at:
http://israelnationalnews.com/metafiles/asx/wig.asx
)
- -----
- ISRAELIS VOW NOT TO DANCE TO THEIR MUSIC
Today's news is that an Arab in the Israeli town of Uhm el Faham
blew himself up prematurely while trying to board an Egged bus.
Unfortunately, an Israeli policeman was killed and three people
were wounded.
- Also, in today's paper we learn that the Quartet agreed on
the formation of a Palestinian state within our homeland by the
year 2003. The Quartet is made up of US Secretary of State Colin
Powell, UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, European Union Representative
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, and Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov.
- The word "quartet" sounds like some kind of song
and dance routine, but we, the Israeli People, are not going
to dance to their music.
- As it is written in the Proverbs of King Solomon, chapter
19, verse 21: "Many designs are in man's heart, but the
council of G-d, only it will prevail."
[Sources: Jerusalem Post, Arutz-7, Ha'aretz, AP, MidEastWeb,
IMRA, MENL, IMB, WIG]
- -----
- EARTHQUAKE PREDICTIONS
14 September 2002 - Directors of Israel's Seismological Institute
met recently with Israel's Chief Rabbis and presented them with
some grim predictions of possible earthquakes in Israel in the
coming years. They told the rabbis that an earthquake on the
scale of the Jericho earthquake of 1927 - estimated to have hit
6.25 on the Richter scale - could be expected. (Another strong
earthquake hit the northern part of the country in 1837, devastating
the town of Tzfat and leaving thousands dead.) Seismological
Institute representatives have similarly met with the heads of
other public bodies. [The earthquake that hit San Francisco on
17 October 1989 registered 6.7 on the Richter scale--ed]
- "And it will come about on that day, when Gog comes
against the land of Israel," declares the L-rd G-d, "that
My fury will mount up in My anger. And in My zeal and in My blazing
wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great
earthquake in the land of Israel." Ezekiel 38:18-19
- -----
- LEBANON TO DIVERT WATER FROM ISRAEL
14 September 2002 - Despite Israeli military threats, Lebanon
will start pumping water from a shared border river for its southern
villages, President Emile Lahoud said Saturday of the project
to divert water from the Hasbani and Wazzani rivers, which flow
from Lebanon into Israel's Sea of Galilee. The sea is Israel's
main water reserve. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this
week met with senior army officers to discuss the Lebanese water
project. ISRAEL RADIO reported that Israel had sent a warning
to Lebanon to stop the project. Israeli officials have made pointed
reminders that Israel went to war in 1964 to stop Syria from
diverting the headwaters of the Jordan River. The Lebanese project
began several months ago and is expected to be completed in about
two months. Lebanon pumps about 245 million cubic feet [183,298,549
gallons] annually from the Hasbani and Wazzani rivers. That amount
is expected to increase to 315 million cubic feet [235,669,563
gallons] when the project is finished. The Sea of Galilee has
dropped almost 20 feet since 1998. The 64-square-mile lake supplies
27 percent of Israel's fresh water and a significant portion
of neighboring Jordan's. The crisis has forced Israel's water
commissioner to curtail water for Israeli agriculture by a third.
- -----
- US, PA/PLO DISAGREE ON CIA RECRUITMENT
14 September 2002 - A serious dispute has erupted between the
United States and the PA/PLO on the participation of PA/PLO security
staff in a course focused on battling terror due to open in Jericho
next week, ISRAEL RADIO quoted Palestinian officials as saying
Saturday. CIA officials are expected to arrive in Israel to help
train about 20 Palestinian Authority security officials. The
training will represent a "preliminary stage" in the
implementation of the Bush administration's plan for PA/PLO security
reforms.
- The CIA officials' arrival has been fully coordinated with
Israel. Arafat insists that members of Tawfik Tirawi's General
Intelligence in Judea and Samaria, and members of Rashid Abu-Shabak's
preventative security force in the Gaza Strip will participate
in the course. The US objects to this saying these two bodies
are terror organizations [if this is true, which it is, why hasn't
the US demanded that Arafat arrest the terrorists?--ed]. Israel
says that only new security officials should attend the course.
[IMRA: It remains unclear what background checks, if any, are
being done on the Palestinians who will receive the CIA training.
Thanks to previous CIA training programs, Palestinian sharpshooters
have succeeded in murdering Israelis under conditions beyond
the skills of an untrained gunman.]
- Responding specifically to Peres' rhetorical question about
weapons, Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA wrote Monday, "While there
were some Palestinians within the West Bank and Gaza Strip [Yesha]
who did indeed have hand guns and some assault rifles prior to
Oslo, the following is a list of just some of [the] weapons that
have reached the area thanks to Mr. Peres' Oslo [in addition
to a combined force of official PA/PLO forces and armed terrorists
that may exceed 100,000 armed men]: Commercial grade explosives
and explosive devices; sniper rifles manned by CIA trained snipers;
anti-tank missiles; mortars; ground-to-ground missiles; anti-aircraft
missiles."
- -----
- BUSH REITERATES COMMITMENT TO PALESTINIAN STATE
14 September 2002 - in his speech Thursday to the UN, US President
Bush restated his commitment to a Palestinian state "living
side by side with Israel in peace and security". The interesting
aspect of this statement is that it was just sort of stuck in
the middle of two different topics. Prior to the mention of the
establishment of a Palestinian state, he addressed the world
problems of poverty, "raging disease", human rights,
and tolerance. After speaking of the Palestinian state Bush spoke
of "outlaw groups and regimes that accept no law of morality".
The mention of the Palestinian state was a total of one short
paragraph in the midst of a speech that contained 67 paragraphs.
- On 24 June 2002, US President Bush set forth the conditions
that the PA/PLO must fulfill in order to merit US support for
the creation of a Palestinian state. Among the major obligations
are that the PA/PLO must "dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,"
"end incitement," "elect new leaders not compromised
by terror," and unequivocally embrace democracy and free
market economics. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has
issued a report analyzing PA/PLO actions during the tenth week
following President Bush's speech, 3-9 September 2002. A link
to the report can be found on our Web site.
- The Bush administration's reported plan to increase American
aid to the PA/PLO by another $20 million is raising some eyebrows.
The ZOA notes that these intentions are puzzling in light of
"the PA/PLO's ongoing terrorist war against Israel and the
widespread financial corruption and misuse of funds among PA/PLO
officials." The ZOA notes that the US has provided the PA/PLO
with $100 million each year since 1994, and that the Bush administration
has recently been pressing Congress to approve an additional
$50 million this year to repair damaged areas in PA/PLO-occupied
territories - damages resulting from a war the PA/PLO itself
started. In addition, the JERUSALEM TIMES reported Thursday that
"the US and the World Bank have agreed to pay $35 million
to start a new investment guarantee fund to support [PA/PLO]
investment projects [of which] the U.S. will pay $20 million."
Ironically, it was just this past Thursday that the official
PA/PLO newspaper AL-HAYAT AL-JADIDA published two cartoons harshly
ridiculing the United States on the anniversary of the 11 September
terrorist attacks. One of the cartoons showed Uncle Sam running
way from long legs representing the date 11 September, while
the other showed the World Trade Center towering over a pile
of dead bodies labeled "victims of American imperialism."
[Sources: Jerusalem Post, Arutz-7, Ha'aretz, AP, MidEastWeb,
IMRA, MENL, HonestReporting, ZOA] http://www.tzemach.org
- -----
- BLAIR COMPARES IRAQ WITH ISRAEL
05 October 2002 israeli leaders responded with concern Wednesday
to remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who declared
support Tuesday for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders
and stressed that UN resolutions were binding on all Middle East
nations, not only Iraq. Cabinet minister Danny Naveh of Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's ruling Likud said Wednesday that he was
"disturbed" by British Prime Minister Tony Blair's
statements on compliance, and by possible comparisons between
Iraq and Israel over the Jewish state's past resistance to certain
Security Council resolutions. [For an in-depth discussion on
the differences in the resolutions pertaining to Israel and Iraq
see: <http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief2-7.htm>.]
Blair, criticized by left-wingers in his Labor Party for threatening
war in Iraq instead of trying to end Israeli-Palestinian violence,
told his party's conference Tuesday that United Nations resolutions
must be implemented across the Middle East, not just in Baghdad.
- Note: Blair's speech calling for Israel to return to the
1967 boundaries is all the more ironic in light of the fact that
it was Lord Caradon, envoy of Mr. Blair's own Labor Party, who
drafted Security Council Resolution 242 which specifically did
not require such a move. Caradon explained later, "It would
have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions
of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and
artificial."
- Meanwhile, US officials assured Israeli diplomats on Thursday
that the US had not asked Blair to link UN resolutions on Iraq
to UN resolutions related to Israel. Israeli officials in Jerusalem
had speculated that the US had encouraged Blair to make the comment
Tuesday in order to curry favor with Arab states ahead of a potential
attack on Iraq. A White House official told The Jerusalem Post
yesterday: "It's a statement of fact that we think UN Security
Council Resolutions should be implemented." "In our
view, the implementation process (of Resolutions 242 and 338)
has already started. There is a political dialogue to resolve
the outstanding issues," the official said. Bush has rejected
Blair's initiative to push forward peace talks between Israel
and the Palestinians, the British newspaper THE GUARDIAN reported
Saturday.
- -----
- BUSH SUMMONS SHARON TO WHITE HOUSE
05 October 2002 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to
travel to Washington "in the middle of the month" at
the invitation of US President George W. Bush, Israeli government
sources said Saturday. In a meeting to be dominated by the planned
US attack to oust Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Sharon will
be told the Americans want Israel to keep a low profile and stay
out of the war. The Bush administration wants Israel to moderate
its statements before the American assault and to avoid retaliating
should Iraq attack it. American officials have already delivered
messages along these lines to an Israeli security delegation
that visited Washington late last week. Bush is likely to promise
Sharon that the US will do its utmost to prevent Iraq firing
missiles at Israel and the Americans have proposed deploying
Patriot missiles in Israel as a defensive measure. A senior Israeli
official says Sharon is likely to agree to the Patriot proposal.
- -----
- BUSH REJECTS JERUALEM CLAUSE
05 October 2002: US President Bush on 30 September signed the
Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal year 2003, and
then issued a statement in which he said the act contained provisions
that "impermissibly interfere with the constitutional functions
of the presidency in foreign affairs, including provisions that
purport to establish foreign policy that are of significant concern."
Noting that the section calling for US recognition of Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital interferes with his constitutional authority,
the President said he would consider such provisions to be "advisory,"
rather than "mandatory." "US policy on Jerusalem
has not changed," the President said. US policy regards
Jerusalem as a permanent status issue, which must be negotiated
by the Israelis and Palestinians. Following is the excerpt on
Jerusalem from President Bush’s September 30 statement.
- (begin excerpt)
I have today signed into law H.R. 1646, the "Foreign Relations
Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003." This Act authorizes
appropriations, and provides important new authorities, for diplomatic
and related activities of the US Government. Many provisions
in the Act will strengthen our ability to advance American interests
around the globe, including nonproliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, and to meet our international commitments, including
those to the United Nations.
- Regrettably, the Act contains a number of provisions that
impermissibly interfere with the constitutional functions of
the presidency in foreign affairs, including provisions that
purport to establish foreign policy that are of significant concern.
... Section 214, concerning Jerusalem, impermissibly interferes
with the President’s constitutional authority to conduct
the Nation’s foreign affairs and to supervise the unitary
executive branch. Moreover, the purported direction in section
214 would, if construed as mandatory rather than advisory, impermissibly
interfere with the President’s constitutional authority
to formulate the position of the United States, speak for the
Nation in international affairs, and determine the terms on which
recognition is given to foreign states. U.S. policy regarding
Jerusalem has not changed.
(end excerpt)
- -----
- MUSLIM WORSHIPERS STONE WESTERN WALL
05 October 2002 Jerusalem police entered the Temple Mount, after
dozens of Palestinian worshipers threw stones at the officers
stationed meters away from the Western Wall plaza, following
Friday prayers. Police used stun grenades and tear gas to disperse
the Palestinians. According to Palestinian sources, there were
some 5,000 worshipers on the Mount at the time. Police said about
30 Palestinian youths began throwing stones at police stationed
at the entrance of a pathway leading from the side of the plaza
up to the Temple Mount compound. "It was thought they were
intending to throw rocks into the plaza where [Jewish] worshipers
were, so police entered the [Temple Mount] compound and fired
a few stun grenades," a spokesman said. According to police
sources, no injuries were sustained and no damage was caused
during the incident.
- -----
- NO DECISION YET ON TEMPLE MOUNT
05 October 2002 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met this week with
officials to discuss the protruding bulge in the southern wall
of the Temple Mount. While no decision was reached in the meeting,
the urgency of the discussion was due to the fact that hundreds
of thousands of Muslim worshippers are expected to visit the
Temple Mount next month for the holiday of Ramadan, and the massive
crowds may lead to the wall's collapse. Due to unsupervised construction
on the Temple Mount by the Waqf (Muslim religious authorities),
an increasingly dangerous buckling of the southern wall now extends
a meter beyond the surface. "If Israel decides to repair
the wall without a prior agreement with the Waqf, this could
lead to riots and bloodshed. But if the Temple Mount collapses
on a crowd of Muslim worshipers, this would be ten times worse.
We'll be held responsible, whatever we do," said one Israeli
source.
- President Moshe Katsav said this week that due to the present
situation, and due to Moslem sensitivity, Jews should not be
allowed to visit the Temple Mount. Since the start of the Oslo
War two years ago, access to the Temple Mount has been forbidden
to Jews and Christians alike.
[Sources: Jerusalem Post, Arutz-7, Ha'aretz, AP, MidEastWeb,
IMRA, MENL, Koenig's International News, US Department of State,
Ma'ariv, Forward] http://www.tzemach.org
- -----
- THE U.S. "ROAD MAP" TO DISASTER
23 November 2002 The revised version of the "Road Map"
sponsored by the US administration and the Quartet [United States,
United Nations, European Union, and Russia] calls for the establishment
of an independent Palestinian state in 2003 with provisional
borders. (The original "Road Map" delayed the declaration
of a Palestinian state until 2005.) This Palestinian state will
have a seat at the UN. Israel would also be required to freeze
settlement activities while the Palestinians would unconditionally
cease all terror activities. The United States has not presented
Israel with a copy of the new document, but its main points were
leaked by a variety of sources and have reached the top political
echelon in Jerusalem. The US has
informed Israel that at issue is not a new draft version, but
a "rolling paper" in reference to which the parties
will be asked to voice their reservations. The Americans also
said that the document kept changing from one moment to the next.
- Officials in Israel were very critical of the US administration's
conduct on this issue. A high-ranking Foreign Ministry official
said: "while the Americans reached an understanding with
Sharon about freezing talks on the "Road Map" until
after the elections, behind Israel's back they continued to churn
out irreversible papers that have bearing on Israel's fate."
According to the new draft of the "Road Map", Israeli
leaders would be required to publish a declaration expressing
their commitment to Bush's "two-state vision"
and the establishment of an "independent, viable, sovereign"
Palestinian state that would live in peace and security beside
Israel, HA'ARETZ reported.
- The Israeli declaration, the new draft said, would also call
for "an immediate end to violence against Palestinians anywhere,"
and an end to "actions undermining trust" - expulsions,
harm to civilians, and "destruction of Palestinian property."
HA'ARETZ reported in its Hebrew edition on 22 November that the
United States has decided to consider the "verbal reply"
Israel already has given and will not wait for Israel's formal
written reply before developing a revised plan. Prime Minister
Sharon has declined to discuss a response to the "Road Map"
in his cabinet or to have a formal written response drafted before
the Likud primaries.
- "And I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the
sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River
Euphrates" Exodus 23:31a
- "Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, a people
in whose heart is My law; Do not fear the reproach of man, neither
be dismayed at their revilings." Isaiah 51:7
http://www.tzemach.org
- -----
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