|
|
|
|
|
|
Israel News Digest
Julie Stahl, Christian Friends of Israel, Jerusalem
LEBANON BURNING "Lebanese soil will burn," Foreign Minister David Levy threatened, if Hizbullah attacks against Israeli and South Lebanese Army (SLA) targets continued. Levy's warning to destroy Lebanese infrastructure came a day after Israel Air Force (IAF) jets bombed three power stations in Lebanon, plunging much of the country, including the capital, Beirut, into darkness. However, the precisely planned attack caused no casualties.The IAF bombing came in response to a ruthless wave of Hizbullah attacks against Israeli and SLA positions, which left seven Israeli soldiers and four SLA militiamen dead in less than three weeks. The Israeli casualties were the first since August. Residents of communities in northern Israel either headed for underground bunkers or drove south out of missile range as the army warned of likely Hizbullah retaliatory Katyusha rocket attacks. After three nights in community shelters, residents were allowed to return home, as it appeared that the Hizbullah would not launch reprisal attacks for the moment. Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed that his organization would continue its attacks on Israeli targets un-til Israel had left Lebanon and hinted that attacks on north-ern Israeli communities were still a possibility. However, Hizbullah has said in the past that even if Israel left south Lebanon, it would continue to fight all the way to Jerusalem. SOUR GRAPES In an attempt to calm the situation in south Lebanon, the U.S., France, Syria, Lebanon and Israel gathered for a meeting of the committee monitoring the 1996 U.S.-brokered Grapes of Wrath understanding. The understanding was designed to protect civilians by forbidding attacks to be launched from civilian areas, which could likely then draw retaliatory fire on civilian targets. Hizbullah is known for attacking from within villages, either in the hope that Israel will not retaliate for fear of hitting civilians or because if Israel does strike back it would likely wound or kill innocent people causing an international outcry against Israel.But the monitoring meeting ended abruptly when Israel walked out after receiving the news that an Israeli soldier had been killed by a Hizbullah missile fired from within a civilian area. Israel said it refused to be the only side bound by the agreement and would only abide by it if Hizbullah did, also. The Israeli security cabinet appointed a three-minister team invested with the power to approve reprisal air strikes against Hizbullah attacks launched from civilian areas. Troops on the ground were also given permission to return fire immediately at Hizbullah targets in villages without first obtaining approval. Initially, the U.S. stood behind Israel's attacks against Lebanese infrastructure, placing the blame for the attacks squarely on the shoulders of the Hizbullah. Later, after thousands of Lebanese students rioted near the U.S. embassy in Beirut, protesting against what they perceived as U.S. support for Israeli actions, U.S. officials backtracked somewhat warning Israel not to target Lebanese infrastructure. Jerusalem has chosen to remain silent on the matter of the U.S. warning. Condemnation of Israeli actions came from France, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made a surprise visit to Beirut to express his solidarity with the government there over the Israeli actions. It was the first-ever visit by an Egyptian head of state to Lebanon. EARLY EXIT? The deaths of Israeli soldiers renewed the debate in Israel about an IDF withdrawal from Lebanon. However, the argument is no longer about whether or not Israel should leave the so-called security zone, but over just how soon.One of Barak's campaign pledges last spring was to pull Israeli soldiers out of south Lebanon, within a year of taking office -- by July 2000 -- with or without an agreement with the Lebanese government. Many of even the most hawkish Knesset members are now ready to leave, though some are demanding an even harsher response in Lebanon. They want to make sure that it is understood that Israel is not running away from Lebanon in defeat nor will it tolerate cross-border terror attacks once it withdraws to the international border. Rare close-up television images of bloody Israeli soldiers being treated just minutes after one attack -- before their mothers had even been notified -- pushed the debate about the timing of a withdrawal from Lebanon out of the rational realm and into the emotional. The father of Tzahi Itah, the seventh soldier killed, pleaded with Prime Minister Ehud Barak, at his son's graveside, to pull out of Lebanon now and let his son's death be the last one there. The senior Itah had been instrumental in reviving the Givati Brigade in which his son had served. In a breach of army protocol, two Israeli soldiers serving in Lebanon were interviewed on the radio without permission and both expressed their desire to leave Lebanon NOW. Neither, they said, had any aspiration to be the last soldier killed in south Lebanon. Many of the soldiers -- and especially their parents -- are now asking, "Why wait until July?" Those critical of Barak say that he has made the Israeli soldiers serving in Lebanon into canon fodder by setting a date for withdrawal. Until recently, soldiers serving in south Lebanon were highly motivated to do so. They knew the enemy and dangers there. It was much more honorable to be fighting a war against guerrillas in Lebanon than manning posts in Palestinian villages where the enemy could be stone-throwing children. UPSETTING THE BALANCE For 18 years Israel has maintained the 10-mile wide so-called security zone in south Lebanon with the help of the allied SLA. For even longer, Israel has been involved helping the primarily Christian SLA defend its homes, villages and lands in south Lebanon from the PLO, Hizbullah and other terrorist groups.One of the questions gnawing at Israeli politicians and military personnel is how to ensure the safety of the SLA and their families, if Israel withdraws its troops to the international border, as it is planning to do. Militiamen and their families are seen as traitors by both the Hizbullah and the Lebanese government. Hizbullah has vowed to kill all SLA soldiers who do not defect and join them. They are vicious and will not hesitate to do so. Col. Akel Hashem, one of the SLA militiamen killed, was assassinated by a "well-placed" series of explosive charges at his family's farm. Hashem, second in command of the SLA, was well liked and highly respected by both his troops and the IDF. He was favored to replace the current SLA commander General Antoine Lahad, 71, when he retires. His death -- a blow to the SLA -- sent shock waves through the residents of south Lebanon. In a first-ever statement of its kind by a Lebanese leader, the Lebanese Defense Minister said his country's army could secure its southern border to ensure that Hizbullah and other organizations would not launch cross-border attacks. He also said that the government was not concerned about massacres. However, the largely Christian population is afraid of a kind of ethnic cleansing if Israel withdraws its troops. Even if an amnesty is granted by the government, there is no guarantee that the residents would be safe. Past amnesties have not necessarily been observed. Christians were often kidnapped and murdered. INTERPRETING THE SIGNS ... During the first six weeks of the year 2000 there were almost as many Hizbullah missile attacks as in all of 1999. There were 118 attacks in which Hizbullah fired hundreds of missiles since the beginning of the year. Iran reportedly stepped up weapons' shipments to Hizbullah -- which adheres to Iran's brand of radical Islam -- in an attempt to scuttle Israeli-Syrian talks. The part that has puzzled Israelis is that Damascus, which controls the Lebanese government and the flow of goods to Hizbullah, did nothing to curtail the organization's activities.Barak had hoped that Syrian President Hafez el-Assad would pressure Hizbullah to cease its activities while peace negotiations between Israel and Syria were in progress, especially in light of the promised date for departure. However, not only did the attacks not stop but they increased. Barak has indicated that a treaty with Syria is still one of Israel's highest priorities, although he has said it would be difficult to conduct negotiations in the current atmosphere of attack. U.S. officials, while having expressed their disappointment at the status of talks, are still pushing for the continuation of them. Prior to the fray in Lebanon, the Syrian daily Tishreen launched a classic anti-Semitic attack against Israel and the Jewish people. The state-run paper, which is known to express official opinion, accused Israel and Zionist organizations of perpetuating the "myth" of the Holocaust in order to get reparations money from the West. It also accused Israel of being worse than the Nazis by "committing against the Arabs crimes that are uglier than the ones committed by the old Nazis." Some analysts are pondering why Israel has not yet interpreted the message that Assad is sending that he is not really interested in any kind of an agreement with Israel. First Assad, himself, would not attend renewed Israeli-Syrian talks; Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara, who attended in his place, delivered a blistering opening comment at the first round of talks; by the second round Shara still wouldn't shake Barak's hand -- an important symbol for Israelis; Assad demanded land that was beyond the 1947 international border for openers; later he demanded a written guarantee prior to any agreement that Israel would leave the Golan; the Syrian press openly renewed its anti-Semitic attitudes; and finally Damascus has allowed Hizbullah to hit Israeli troops without restraint. Other analysts have said that all of these occurrences are part of Assad's negotiating tactics in order to obtain more concessions from Israel and more perks from the U.S. Earlier, the head of the Mossad -- Israel's intelligence agency -- was quoted by a Hebrew newspaper as having told a closed meeting of diplomats serving in Arab countries that Israel will always be regarded as an "alien presence" by its Arab neighbors. While the leak of the briefing to the newspaper angered the Mossad chief, he did not deny the accuracy of the article. According to the report, he also said that while treaties with Arab countries could prevent wars, they would never be considered as more than "cease-fire agreements" and that Israel should not expect to have warm relations with its neighbors. PA TALKS HIT BRICK WALL Israeli talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) ground to a halt for the umpteenth time, just days after the two parties entered into what they were calling a period of "intensive" negotiations. PA Chairman Yasser Arafat walked out of a summit meeting with Barak, which negotiators had hoped would put the talks back on track.Arafat was upset by the maps presented to him at the summit which detailed the land Israel intended to transfer to the PA. They accused Israel of not having taken their land requests into consideration in determining the maps and they were not being offered Arab neighborhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Although they claimed the land they were offered is insignificant, it is territory in which some 160,000 Palestinians live. Israel would like to hold on to the Jerusalem suburbs, which are already under PA civilian control and Israeli security control, until the negotiations on Jerusalem. The neighborhoods could then be used to Israel's advantage as part of what it bargains away on any agreement on Jerusalem. Israel seems set not to budge on this point for now, though the Prime Minister's office has said it is willing to make minor changes in the maps. By now, a three-way summit between Barak, Arafat and U.S. President Clinton was to have taken place to work out the final details of a framework agreement. But the February 13th deadline for reaching that understanding passed in an atmosphere of recrimination. The framework agreement was to have provided an outline for final status talks which include the thorny issues of the status of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, the return of hundreds of thousands of so-called Palestinian refugees, and final borders. Arafat has said he would now like talks to focus on a final peace treaty. Israel has said it would like to combine some interim issues that are still outstanding into the final status talks. Arafat and Barak set mid-September 2000 as a deadline for achieving a permanent arrangement. As the deadline for a framework agreement was passing, Arafat's Fatah Revolutionary Council was convening in Gaza. A summary statement at the end said that a Palestinian State would be declared unilaterally by September if a final arrangement between Israel and the PA had not been signed by then. One stipulation in previous agreements signed between Israel and the PA was that both sides would refrain from taking unilateral actions. BITTER PILL While Israeli-PA talks were deadlocked in the Middle East, Arafat was making substantial gains at the Vatican. Little more than a month before Pope John Paul II was due to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Arafat -- on behalf of the PLO -- signed a pact with the Pope, to protect the status of the Catholic Churches in PA areas.However, Israel was angered by the political nature of the agreement, which called for -- among other things -- an internationally guaranteed "special statute for Jerusalem." According to the document it would include freedom of religion; equality of the three monotheistic religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- under the law; and freedom of access to the Holy Places. Israel argued that it already guarantees those rights and that it has more judiciously monitored those rights than any regime in history. The Vatican denied that the agreement contained any political references and said that it was only concerned about the spiritual significance of the city. But the PLO considered the signing of the pact a major coup. One PA leader said that it acknowledged the fact that Israel does not have the exclusive right to rule over the city. Meanwhile, the political uproar did not affect Israel's preparations for the Papal pilgrimage. The Pontiff will visit Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority from March 21-26. Israel has been smoothing out the uneven stones of Jerusalem's Old City to accommodate a vehicle in which the Pope will ride, although he will have to abandon his "pope mobile" because it is too wide for the narrow alleys there. More than 17,000 policemen will provide security during his stay. SHADOWS FROM THE PAST The same week that the Syrian press was publishing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda, Joerg Haider's Freedom Party was sworn in as a coalition partner in the Austrian government. Haider, who once praised Adolph Hitler's economic policies and lauded veterans of Hitler's notorious SS as "men of character," has risen to power on an anti-foreigner and heavy social assistance platform.As it had pledged to do, Israel recalled its Ambassador from Vienna just minutes after the new Austrian government was installed. Vowing to lead the fight against xenophobia, the Foreign Ministry said Israel could not "remain silent in the face of extremist right-wing parties, in particular in those countries which played a role in the events which brought about the eradication of a third of the Jewish people in the Holocaust." It is not the first time Jerusalem recalled its ambassador from Vienna. From 1986-1992, Israel's Embassy was main-tained at the chargé d'affaires level during the term of President Kurt Waldheim, who had been a Nazi intelligence officer in the Balkans. Less than two weeks after Haider's party was included in the Austrian government, German President Johannes Rau became the first person ever to address the Israeli Knesset in the German language. Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg admitted that he had struggled with the decision as to whether or not to allow Rau to address the Knesset in German. Several Knesset members walked out or did not attend the session because of the language. Burg, whose parents fled from the Nazis in Berlin in 1939, said that German was a "double language" for the Jewish people. He noted that Heinrich Heine, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud had all spoken German as had Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. Rau, who has visited Israel more than 30 times in the past, asked for forgiveness from the Knesset. He was praised as one of Israel's greatest friends. Israeli analysts have said that the difference between Austria and Germany was that Austria tried to cover up its past, while Germany began dealing with the horrors of the Holocaust immediately after World War II. Austria succeed-ed in being classed as one of Hitler's victims and believed itself to be so, keeping the country from dealing with its own anti-Slavic and anti-Semitic tendencies. This gave rise to Hitler and signaled to Viennese Zionist pioneer Theodore Herzl, that the Jewish people needed their own homeland. Oddly enough, few Israelis dared to compare the anti-Sem-itism of Hitler to the anti-Semitic rhetoric in the Syrian press. DISGRACEFUL SCANDALS A campaign funding scandal has tarnished Barak's squeaky-clean image among his supporters. A routine audit on election financing showed that Barak's One Israel party was involved in soliciting and receiving campaign donations from abroad -- particularly the U.S. -- through bogus non-profit associations. A huge fine of more than $3.3 million was slapped on Barak's Labor Party -- One Israel's largest faction. Barak responded to the charges by saying that he had instructed his staff to run the campaign honestly and had been too busy campaigning to follow-up on his orders. Several other parties were also accused of wrongdoing and a criminal investigation was opened into the financing practices of all the various parties.The question, analysts say, is not whether Barak will be charged with criminal offenses, but whether or not he will be able to garner support for a referendum to cede the Golan Heights, in the event he reaches a "peace" deal with Syria. Barak promised his supporters he was different than other politicians but many of his followers now think that this case proves otherwise. Another question being asked is just how big a role U.S. sources played in getting Barak elected. It was already known that Barak retained the services of Clinton's political strategist James Carville to run his campaign for Prime Minister and was scheduled to advise him on how to win a referendum on giving up the Golan Heights. Many politicians are crying "Foul!" saying that the U.S. has no business interfering in internal Israeli affairs. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah may be in for a rough ride. Reports say that police will recommend that the Netanyahus be indicted on charges of bribery and breach of trust. Shortly after leaving office, the Netanyahus were accused of removing gifts from the official Prime Minister's residence that they had received in their official capacity while Netanyahu was in office -- forbidden by law without special permission. They were also accused of ordering that payment be made from state funds for work a contractor did on their private home. Good news for President Ezer Weizman. State Attorney Edna Arbel recommended that Weizman not be indicted for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash gifts from French businessman Edouard Seroussi. In the Israeli system, one is not required to pay taxes on gifts or any other income received for which he did not render a service. PLEADING FOR MERCY After nine years of living as Israeli citizens, three Ethiopian women are facing deportation because of a technicality. Both their mother and father were not Jewish, but their mother remarried a Jewish man, who adopted the girls and raised them as his own. When he brought them to Israel in 1991, they were aged 15, 16 and 18. They neglected to tell officials that they were adopted because, they say, it didn't seem important to them.The case would have gone undetected had the Interior Ministry not seen a videotape of an Ethiopian Messianic Jewish event. Interior Ministry officials meticulously investigated the identities of each person on the video and discovered the young women's story. Facing deportation they appealed to the High Court. But the appeal was rejected because they had not revealed that the man with whom they had arrived was not their real father. The only way citizenship can be revoked is by a falsification of records. The father died two years after they immigrated. The three women, who are now integrated into Israeli society, are pleading for mercy from Interior Minister Natan Sharansky. THE RAIN IN ITS SEASON ... Israelis throughout the country had a rare treat when snow fell, from Mt. Hermon in the north to the Negev Desert in the south. Jerusalemites, who normally see only a flurry every couple of years, spent a day snowed in under more than a foot of the white stuff. Israel has continued to receive the rain it so desperately needs. Tel Aviv has already received more than its annual average, the north has received 95-100 percent of what it requires, Jerusalem has received about 85 percent and the southern desert about 65 percent of its annual average.The first signs of spring -- the almond blossoms -- have appeared. As Israel is trying to interpret the political signs around them, God has given the almond blossom as a sign that He will watch over and fulfill all that He has spoken.
Julie Stahl is the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for CNSNews.com
© 2000 Christian Friends of Israel. Used with permission. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
|
|
