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MURDERED IN HOLIDAY HORROR

Murdered In Holiday Horror
By Uri Dan Mideast Correspondent
New York Post
September 27, 2003

A Palestinian gunman burst into a West Bank home last night - as settlers were celebrating a holiday dinner for the start of the Jewish new year - and killed a man and infant girl before he was slain.

Two others at the Negahot settlement near Hebron were wounded in the attack.

Israeli security had been raised to a high level because of 40 "hot alerts" of likely attacks during the high holy days, which began last night with Rosh Hashana.

Initial reports of the attack said a gunman penetrated the settlement and knocked on the door of one home.

Although terrorists have repeatedly struck at settlers in the Hebron area on Friday nights, a family member - who apparently relaxed his guard because of the holiday atmosphere - opened the door.

The gunman immediately opened fire, killing the family's 7-month-old girl and a 30-year-old man who was visiting.

The intruder was fatally shot - but not before wounding two others, authorities said.

Israeli officials hinted at retaliation. "This shows again the ugly face of Palestinian terrorists," said a government spokesman, Jonathan Peled.

"It shows they are totally oblivious to the sanctity of life, the sanctity of religion."

Meanwhile, the Mideast "quartet" yesterday appeared to blame the Palestinians for the breakdown of the peace process.

Representatives of the United States, Russia, United Nations and European Union issued a statement calling "on the Palestinians to take immediate and decisive steps against individuals and groups planning violent attacks."

The quartet's statement did not address Israel's controversial decision to "remove" Yasser Arafat at some point in the future.

 

GUNMAN KILLS TWO AS FAMILY CELEBRATES JEWISH NEW YEAR

Gunman Kills Two as Family Celebrates Jewish New Year
By Greg Myre
New York Times
September 27, 2003

A Palestinian gunman killed two people, one of them a baby girl, and wounded two more when he opened fire tonight on an Israeli family celebrating the Jewish New Year at their home in a settlement outside the West Bank town of Hebron. Israeli troops rushed to the scene and fatally shot the attacker.

Israeli authorities expressed outrage at the attack, which occurred as Jewish families were holding the traditional feast at the beginning of the new year's holiday, Rosh Hashana, which began at sundown tonight.

"This terrorist knew people would be sitting down to dinner at this time," Capt. Jacob Dallal, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said of the shooting, which occurred about 9 p.m.

In the West Bank, the gunman, who had an M-16 automatic rifle, knocked on the door of a home in the Israeli settlement of Negohot, Captain Dallal said. A man who was a guest at the home opened the door and was gunned down. The baby girl, who lived at the home, was also shot and killed, the captain said. The girl's parents were wounded before a nearby military unit shot the attacker.

The military said it did not have the girl's age, but Israeli news reports said she was less than a year old.

Palestinian gunmen in the Hebron area have carried out repeated attacks on Friday nights, when Israeli families gather for large family meals, Captain Dallal added.

No group immediately claimed responsibility. Israeli military forces, however, have carried out many raids in Hebron in recent weeks, killing several militants from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions, which vowed to strike back.

Tonight's attack immediately prompted comparisons to a Palestinian suicide bombing at the beginning of the Passover holiday in March last year. That attack killed 29 people at a hotel dining room in the coastal city of Netanya and was followed two days later by a major Israeli incursion into the West Bank.

Israel's security forces were out in large numbers today to guard against a possible attack as the holiday approached. In the hours before it began, Israel imposed a full closing of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which kept all Palestinians from those areas from entering Israel.

The measure was introduced to cover the holiday period, which lasts until sunset on Sunday.

It is more difficult, however, for the security forces to guard against attacks in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where more than three million Palestinians live. Israel has nearly 150 settlements in these areas, and Negohot is relatively small and remote.

In other developments today, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview that it would be difficult to seize Yasir Arafat without harming him, and that American objections to such action would have to be taken into account.

Mr. Sharon's government has faced strong international criticism for its decision in principle to oust the Palestinian leader. Israel has raised several possibilities, like exiling Mr. Arafat or even killing him. No action appears imminent.

"It is very hard to promise that if we seize and take him, that he won't be hurt," Mr. Sharon told Yediot Ahronot, a leading Israeli daily. "We must take the Americans into account. It could be that their assessment, that this would cause problems in the Middle East, is correct. Their main interest is Iraq."

Mr. Sharon has refused to deal with Mr. Arafat and has repeatedly accused the Palestinian leader of failing to stop suicide bombings and other attacks against Israeli civilians by Palestinian factions.

The Palestinian leader has been confined to his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem, for much of the past two years. Israel has besieged the compound on several occasions but has stopped short of moving directly against Mr. Arafat.

The Palestinian leader is calling for a cease-fire, but the Israeli leadership says such an arrangement would be meaningless unless the Palestinians broke up the factions responsible for the attacks against Israel.

The Palestinians have accused Mr. Sharon of undermining a recent summer truce by pressing ahead with Israeli military raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

They also charge that Mr. Sharon is not serious about peace negotiations to end the three years of fighting and resolve the Middle East conflict.

In the latest Israeli operation, troops arrested 25 suspected Hamas members overnight in a sweep in Ramallah, the military said.

On another matter, Mr. Sharon cited American objections as the reason Israel had agreed, at least temporarily, not to route the barrier it is building to include the Jewish settlement of Ariel. The barrier, a network of fences, walls, trenches and other obstacles, is aimed a preventing Palestinian attackers from entering Israel. But incorporating Ariel, one of the largest settlements, would have sent the barrier about 12 miles into the West Bank.

 

MUSLIM MILITANT KILLED MAKING BOMB; ISRAEL ON ALERT

Muslim militant killed making bomb; Israel on alert
By Mohammed Assadi
Reuters
September 27, 2003

A Palestinian militant was killed when a bomb he was making blew up on Saturday as Israel maintained a high alert over a New Year holiday weekend coinciding with the third anniversary of a Palestinian uprising.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops arrested four more alleged militants in overnight raids in the West Bank after a Palestinian gunman infiltrated a Jewish settlement and killed a seven-month-old girl and a man of 30 who opened the door to him.

The gunman, who was shot dead later, also wounded the baby's mother and father in the assault inside the enclave of Negohot near Hebron on Friday night as Israelis sat down to festive family dinners marking Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year.

Intractable violence has stymied a U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan and international mediators meeting in New York on Friday put the onus on Palestinians to revive the process by subduing militants hostile to co-existence with Israel.

But the settlement attack could provoke a harsh response.

Ahmed Hassan, a member of the militant Islamic Jihad, died in Saturday's blast in the Gaza town of Rafah when a bomb he was assembling or handling detonated prematurely, sources in the group told Reuters. One other militant was wounded.

Israel clamped a general ban on Palestinian travel within and out of the West Bank and Gaza, except for humanitarian reasons, until Rosh Hashanah ends at sunset on Sunday.

Hundreds of masked militants firing assault rifles in the air marched in the Gaza city of Khan Younis to mark the uprising anniversary, vowing to keep fighting Israel.

Some held up pictures of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, whose mainstream Fatah national movement includes one of the three leading militant groups.

Other demonstrators burnt effigies of Fatah leaders involved in creating a new reform-oriented government led by a prime minister as called for by the U.S.-led "Quartet" of mediators.

FAMILIAR RECRIMINATIONS OVER VIOLENCE

Israeli officials again blamed what they called the Palestinian Authority's failure to crack down on militants for the settlement attack and the latest breakdown in peacemaking.

Palestinian officials again blamed Israel's continued pursuit of militants despite a unilateral truce they declared in June -- and later cancelled amid vows of vengeance.

Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qurie discussed a proposed cabinet with Fatah's central committee in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday and was likely to submit the list to parliament for approval in the coming week, officials said.

Qurie's predecessor Mahmoud Abbas, who had pledged to rein in militants and democratise governance to advance the peace plan, resigned after what he called obstruction by Arafat and military operations by Israel's rightist government.

Israel accuses Arafat of inciting violence, a charge he denies, and its cabinet has decided in principle to "remove" the former guerrilla leader, without saying when or how.

Arafat has since renewed calls for a ceasefire. But Israel spurned this as a ploy for militants to regroup, and the leading Islamic faction Hamas ruled out reinstating a truce in any case.

The "road map" lays out steps toward a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and since settled by 220,000 Jews.

But the plan was imposed on each side and does not stipulate who should do what first or how it is to be enforced, yielding only deadlock so far.

 

ELTON JOHN PROMOTES DANIEL PEARL MUSIC DAY

Elton John promotes Daniel Pearl Music Day
The Associated Press
September 27, 2003

Elton John is appearing in a public service announcement on television and radio promoting next month's Daniel Pearl Music Day.

"Join me and thousands of music lovers around the world carrying on his mission of connecting people through words and music," the 56-year-old singer says. "Participate in Daniel Pearl Day promoting harmony for humanity."

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in February 2002. He also was a violinist, fiddler and mandolin player.

The second annual Daniel Pearl Music Day will be celebrated Oct. 10, on what would have been Pearl's 40th birthday, in countries throughout the world, according to the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

An honorary committee formed on behalf of the event includes John, Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Ravi Shankar, Barbra Streisand and John Williams.

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THE END OF 'ARAFAT'

The End of 'Arafat'
Even if he lives, the idea of him must die.
Editorial
The Wall Street Journal
September 17, 2003

Reflecting the views of Israel's Cabinet, Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said publicly over the weekend that "killing" Yasser Arafat was "one of the options." Secretary of State Colin Powell of course had to say that exiling or executing Arafat would incite Arab rage, that it would be most unhelpful to the peace process, etc., etc.

The truth is that Yasser Arafat's moment in history has ended. The world would do well to think hard about how it came to pass, after so many years and so much talk and blood, that the era of Arafat arrived at this endpoint--with Israel saying that it may be worth the trouble simply to kill him. How far we've come from the Rose Garden in 1993.

It is a fine irony that Mr. Powell spoke of the need to soldier on with Yasser Arafat while the Secretary himself was standing in Baghdad for the first time. Mr. Powell is in Baghdad because President Bush concluded after September 11, and after the political failure of the first Gulf War, that the years of Western self-delusion about the nature of global terror must be brought to an end. Similarly, the delusions about Arafat also must now end.

"Arafat" should enter history not merely as the name of one autocratic man, but as the name we assign to an entire Western phenomenon of false thinking. "Arafat," we now see, has come to represent the act of self-delusion on a massive, international scale. "Arafat" is about refusing to believe that an adversary is simply irredeemable. Most importantly at this particular moment, "Arafat" is about allowing barbarism, or its techniques, to challenge the political tenets of civilized life.

For years the Western nations that emerged from World War II and the Cold War have been playing with fire by pretending that their world and the alternative world of "Arafat" could somehow coexist. More than anything, this impossible notion reflected political and moral fatigue. Thus in the 1990s, the world came very close to letting "Arafat," this time in the person of Slobodan Milosevic, achieve its logical end on European soil, again. But the United States intervened and Milosevic is on trial for crimes against civilized humanity. George W. Bush's decision to go to war against the regime of Saddam Hussein was the opposite of "Arafat" thinking; it was a decision to refute "Arafat."

If you look at the Nobel Prizes' own biography of Yasser Arafat, you find this remarkable sentence toward the end: "Like other Arab regimes in the area, however, Arafat's governing style tended to be more dictatorial than democratic." That is to say, Arafat by his own choice of governance--dictatorship over democracy--bears individual responsibility for the legacy he leaves.

That legacy includes: the contemporary crime of hijacking and blowing up civilian-filled airliners; the attempted destabilization of Jordan and Israel and the successful destruction of Lebanon as a formerly sovereign nation; and decades of violated international agreements, culminating in the collapse of Oslo. Last year, in a perfect storm of bad faith, Arafat was caught paying for the shipment of arms from Iran to the Palestinian territories aboard the Karine A.

Across these years, the West, mainly the European nations, accomplished the post-World War II feat of pretending that crime is not crime, so long as the motives and politics for the crimes are moralized. The U.S. and Israel participated as well in the pretense, bringing Arafat out of exile in Tunis. The world has learned since that this apologetics (and much direct funding) has made possible any crime, culminating in the anti-moral act known as suicide bombers. Arafat most recently threw over Mahmoud Abbas, and the fatigued West barely sighed in complaint.

This past September 3, in an article published in the Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam, the Palestinian writer Tawfiq Abu Bakr wrote: "It is difficult to find a greater and more deeply rooted culture of self-deception than that in our Arab and Palestinian arena." But we in the West fomented that culture of self-deception, by perpetuating the conceit that Yasser Arafat--"Arafat"--was the singular vessel of peace for the Palestinians. He manifestly is not.

The Israelis are in the best position to know what to do at this point, though no option--seclusion, exile, trial or killing him--is particularly attractive. But Israel has to live (or die) with Arafat. The U.S. for its part, rather than sustain the Arafat conceit as it is doing now, should say it is no longer going to be associated with Arafat and what he stands for. As for the Palestinians and Arabs, the President of the United States has said many times that he supports a Palestinian state. Now they too have to decide whether the moment has arrived to get past "Arafat."

For those who will scream that this is more "unilateralism," we would say that for some 30 years there were crucial breakpoints, most recently the Oslo concessions and the Abbas opening, where credible pressure on Arafat from important players in the West and Middle East might have avoided arriving at where we are now. It never came. Not once.

Where Yasser Arafat spends the rest of his life is not important. What matters is for the world to recognize that it is time to get rid of "Arafat."

 

IMF: ARAFAT DIVERTED $900M TO ACCOUNT

IMF: Arafat diverted $900M to account
By Sam F. Ghattas
The Associated Press
September 20, 2003

An audit of the Palestinian Authority revealed that President Yasser Arafat diverted $900 million in public funds to a special bank account he controlled, an International Monetary Fund official said Saturday.

Most of the cash, which came from revenues in the budget, went into some 69 commercial activities located in Palestinian areas and abroad, said Karim Nashashibi, IMF resident representative in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hanan Ashwari, a Palestinian lawmaker and onetime Arafat spokeswoman, acknowledged there had been incidents of misuse of funds in the past but that the release of the information was an attempt to discredit the Palestinian leader.

"There is nothing innocent about the timing," she said. "This is a campaign against the president and the (Palestinian) Authority."

Nashashibi did not elaborate on the types of businesses the Palestinian Authority was involved in, but Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad has said its interests range from cement to telecommunications holdings in Algeria and Jordan.

Nashashibi disclosed the Arafat account and figures to reporters at a news conference on the economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza. He said the information provided by the Palestinians were an example of the openness and transparency in Palestinian finances under Fayad.

However, Nashashibi did not rule out the possibility that a portion of the funds were misused. He said he believes an accounting of the rest of the money will be conducted "at some point, but we're taking it all a step at a time."

"What we're trying to do is have a level of disclosure and transparency so that future or present misuse does not happen ... At least there is a followup, there is disclosure," Nashashibi said

Nashashibi did not say which public monies were involved.

There have been charges of corruption and mismanagement and money-skimming in the Palestinian Authority, including some complaints from ordinary Palestinians, which officials have denied.

In a special annual issue of Forbes Magazine earlier this year, Arafat was reported to control $300 million.

U.S. and European governments have complained for years that the Palestinian financial structure is not transparent and does not allow donors to follow their money to projects for the benefit of the people.

Official Palestinian figures show that investment in the Palestinian private sector amounts to about $300 million. The money was funneled in the past through a fund operated by Arafat's financial adviser, Khaled Salam.

Nashashibi said that authority was involved in commercial activities, both at home and abroad, worth an estimated $700 million in today's market prices, "which probably in '99 were $900 million."

Nashashibi said Fayad, the Palestinian finance minister who was the resident representative of the IMF in the Palestinian territories in 2000, told Arafat at that time that the account must be disclosed.

Finance ministers from the wealthy industrialized nations who met here Saturday and spoke with Fayad also praised his efforts "to improve transparency in the budget and the operations of the Palestinian Authority," according to a statement issued afterwards.

As part of restructuring the way the Palestinian Authority deals with money, Fayad last year announced the creation of the Palestinian Investment Fund and said that all Palestinian Authority funds would pass through the new holding company.

Nashashibi said he thinks the authority wants to "get out of all these commercial activities."

The Palestinian economy has contracted by 30 percent because of the Palestinian-Israeli violence over the last three years and IMF officials said it needs an injection of about $1.2 billion in assistance.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian finance minister won a promise of additional assistance Saturday with the finance ministers of major industrialized nations as a World Bank official urged donors to help the troubled Palestinian economy, according to a statement issued by the group.

No figure of assistance was given, but an IMF official said Saturday the Palestinians would need "in the neighborhood" of $1.2 billion.

 

IMF SAYS £560M WAS DIVERTED TO ARAFAT ACCOUNT

IMF says £560m was diverted to Arafat account
By David Blair in Jerusalem and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)
September 25, 2003

Yasser Arafat diverted £560 million from the Palestinian Authority budget into a special bank account under his personal control, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The disclosure infuriated Mr Arafat's Palestinian critics and prompted the European Commission, once a generous donor to his administration, to seek clarification last night from the IMF about which funds had been diverted.

Mr Arafat's chaotic handling of Palestinian finances has been widely condemned in the past but the IMF statement was the result of the first authoritative investigation.

Karim Nashashibi, the IMF's representative in the West Bank and Gaza, told journalists in Dubai that an audit had uncovered the "diversion of revenue from the budget to a special bank account controlled by President Arafat".

Mr Nashashibi said the sum involved was £560 million in a five-year period between 1995 and 2000.

Most of the money had been disclosed and was invested in 69 commercial enterprises linked to the Palestinian Authority.

Asked if there was a possibility of misuse of funds, Mr Nashashibi said: "In any system, you can always have a possibility of some misuse. What we are trying to do is raise the level of disclosure and transparency so that future or present misuse does not happen."

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the disclosure was an attempt to discredit Mr Arafat. "There is nothing innocent about the timing," she said. "This is a campaign against the president and the authority."

But Mr Arafat's Palestinian opponents believe that corruption is widespread inside his administration.

Abdul Jawad Saleh, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said: "At a time when the Palestinian people are starving and the universities are bankrupt, they transfer these sums."

The Palestinian Authority said the money diversion came to light because of financial reforms and rigorous auditing imposed by foreign donors.

Salam Fayad, the new finance minister who is widely respected abroad, said the money came from tax revenues collected by Israel and passed on to the Palestinian Authority. The EU stopped funding Mr Arafat's budget last December. A spokesman said the commission was in touch with the IMF.

"As far as we know, this money came from Israeli tax transfers but we're seeking clarification from the IMF. Our money never passed through the budget."

Encompassing everything from casinos to cement companies and Algerian telephones, the Palestinian Authority's tangled financial web is enough to baffle the most able accountant.

Yasser Arafat's chaotic administration boasts a 30 per cent stake in the Jericho Casino. Official monopolies of the supply of crude oil, tobacco and cement in Palestinian-run areas bring in a steady stream of revenue.

His administration may have a budget of only £750 million this year but it employs 120,000 people and still has difficultly accounting for the relatively modest sums at its disposal.

Mr Arafat can raise only £130 million from his own sources this year and his budget relies on outside donors and tax receipts transferred from Israel.

There is no suggestion that Mr Arafat profited personally from the funds transfer. He has always led a spartan life. But he clearly saw control of the purse strings as a crucial lever of power.

 

THE PRICE OF ARAFAT

The price of Arafat
Editorial
The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)
September 25, 2003

The agenda of a little-noticed press briefing in Dubai last Saturday was, first, the impact of the al-Aqsa intifada on the Palestinian economy, and, second, financial reforms undertaken during that period. The impact was severe but less than expected and the reforms were outstanding for that part of the world: those were the conclusions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), at whose annual conference the briefing took place.

An interesting but not particularly riveting story, one might conclude. However, the new fiscal openness revealed that, between 1995 and 2000, about £560 million of revenue was diverted from the budget to a special account controlled by Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority. Karim Nashashibi, the IMF's resident representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said most of the money had been invested in assets still owned by the authority, but did not rule out the possibility that the remaining funds could have been misused. Thus a press briefing called to praise the Palestinians for their economic resilience and commitment to reform inadvertently provided further confirmation of their leader's gross misrule.

In 1997, a Palestinian internal audit revealed that £200 million out of a budget of £490 million had disappeared. Two years later, a report funded by the European Union, a major aid donor, pointed to egregious venality, overstaffing, incompetence and misuse of funds. One member of the Palestinian Legislative Council said he was worried that if anything happened to Mr Arafat they would not know where the money was, so tight was his control over it. In this, Mr Arafat was acting in typically autocratic fashion, using cash for political leverage, dispensing personal patronage and tolerating corruption to ensure future loyalty.

Thanks largely to Salam Fayad, the Palestinian finance minister and Mr Nashashibi's predecessor in the IMF job, the authority has moved on. All revenues now come into the Single Treasury Fund; investments have been consolidated in the Palestinian Investment Fund. However, these changes, while welcome in themselves, underline the tragic anomaly of Mr Arafat's position. A man incapable of rising above the role of revolutionary and guiding his people to statehood remains their leader. He has completely forfeited the trust of the Israelis and Americans as an interlocutor. He is subjecting Palestinians to enormous economic and emotional strain. Progress, such as that achieved by Mr Fayad, has been made in spite of him. At bay in his headquarters in Ramallah, Mr Arafat is determined to keep the revolutionary cause alive. But in so doing he betrays his people.

 

ARAFAT'S PIGGYBANKS

Arafat's piggybanks
The Washington Times
September 18, 2003

Following the collapse of the U.S. road map for Middle East peace, the Bush administration, as it should be, seems more determined than ever to go after terrorist organizations like the Damascus-based Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Unfortunately, the administration has yet to demonstrate the same degree of energy in working to mobilize the international community (particularly the Arab world) to cut off funding for the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a shadowy terrorist group affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization.

Given the facts - A) over the past three years, the Al Aqsa group has carried out several dozen suicide bombings against Israel; B) captured financial records show that Mr. Arafat has authorized payments to its members to subsidize the violence; and C) the State Department lists it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization - one would think that the administration would be eager right now to defund the group. Instead, its public stance thus far has been lethargic. Repeated calls yesterday to the State and Treasury Departments, asking what they are doing to cut off the Al Aqsa group, were not returned. If early press reports are any indication, Treasury Secretary John Snow, who arrived in Israel yesterday, may spend more time discussing the Israeli budget deficit than talking about defunding the Al Aqsa Brigades.

It's long past time for Washington to challenge its allies to arrive at a plan for defunding Mr. Arafat's terror network. The challenge is immense. On the positive side, the PA's new finance minister, Salam Fayyad, was trying to clean up PA finances, cutting off much of Mr. Arafat's cash flow for terror and political graft in the process. Mr. Arafat is worth an estimated $300 million, Forbes Magazine wrote earlier this year, and much of that money is hidden in Swiss banks. But the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported yesterday that, despite Mr. Fayyad's efforts to reform the way the PA does business, little has changed. An Arafat loyalist - not Mr. Fayyad - controls every new appointment in the PA, including the security services, which have been implicated in scores of attacks on Israelis. Mr. Fayyad has been blocked from implementing a new civil service law, apparently by Mr. Arafat, who remains free to pack the bureaucracy with his henchmen.

For the sake of Mideast peace, the Bush administration needs to come up with a means to strip Mr. Arafat of the capability to finance his shadowy terrorist network.

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CELEBRITIES COME TO SALUTE PERES'S 80TH

Celebrities come to salute Peres's 80th
By Greer Fay Cashman
The Jerusalem Post (news section)
September 21, 2003

Israel started rolling out the red carpet on Friday for some 400 celebrities from around the world, who will on Sunday evening salute former prime minister Shimon Peres on his 80th birthday.

Many of the countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations are sending their foreign ministers. A more limited number of presidents, prime ministers, and former heads of state and government along with international captains of industry, world famous entertainers, and eminent figures from the spheres of science and culture will also attend.

All of this lends credence to the traditional Jewish belief that a prophet is not heard in his own city. Indeed, Peres was the subject of much criticism in local media reflections on the tenth anniversary of the Oslo Accords.

But if some Israelis will not tolerate his views and often heckle him when he talks of his vision of the new Middle East that will evolve in the aftermath of peace with the Palestinians, others outside Israel hang on to every word as if it were coming straight from Mount Sinai.

Most of the dignitaries will fly in Sunday, just in time to participate in the cornerstone-laying ceremony of the Peres Peace Center in Jaffa.

At the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, dignitaries will be greeted with a trumpet fanfare on arrival, and the flags of their countries will be displayed in the lobby in addition to those hoisted on the exterior flagpoles of the building.

The visitors will be bused to Jerusalem this afternoon, where they will be given a briefing by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, after which they will attend a reception at Beit Hanassi hosted by President Moshe Katsav.

From there, they will be driven to the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv for a diverse program of speeches, songs, and a "This is Your Life" production, highlighting the milestones in Peres's career of more than 60 years of public service.

Those who can stand the pace will continue on to Herzliya Pituah for an extended celebration hosted by business tycoon Yossi Maiman, who is a long-time supporter of a variety of projects in which Peres takes a keen interest.

There will be little time for sleep. The more intellectual aspect of the state-sponsored event will take place on Monday at Tel Aviv University, by way of a multi-track international conference.

Peres said he perceives the attendance of so many high-powered global personalities more as a tribute to Israel than a tribute to him.

More than 1,200 security personnel will be on duty to protect the safety of the participants.

Conspicuous by her absence will be Sonia Peres, the man of the hour's wife of well over half a century. While always ready to provide moral support on the home front, Sonia Peres had no desire to share her husband's public life.

Peres's actual birthday last month was celebrated in the bosom of his family.

 

A TEARFUL, BITTERSWEET EVENING

A tearful, bittersweet evening
By David Landau
Ha'aretz
September 22, 2003

It was Bill Clinton who stole the show last night at the Mann Auditorium. The waves of love that lapped around him were almost palpable. But it was his predecessor, George Bush Sr., who in his recorded message of congratulations to Shimon Peres encapsulated the significance of the evening.

"We do it," Bush said of himself and the dozens of other world figures who attended personally or sent greetings to Peres, "because we know what he stands for."

Peres, for those in the world that wish Israel well, and for the thousands of his own friends and well-wishers who thronged the hall last night, stands for peace. And the fact that he failed to attain it, and that it seems so far off now, added to the poignancy of the moment.

"You are a light unto the nations," Clinton told him, homing in to the heart of our national discomfort. "In hard times it's so easy to give in to despair - so hard to think about tomorrow."

Almost everyone seemed to cry at some point during the emotion-filled evening. The wide-eyed little Ethiopian boy sitting on Peres' lap in a huge photograph drew a smile and a sigh. When the same face - now atop the uniform of an IDF officer - smiled down from the stage and wished Peres happy birthday, people choked up. When a young Russian immigrant, badly wounded in the Dolphinarium bombing, urged Peres to keep on fighting for peace, the tears flowed freely.

But it wasn't just these scenes that brought on the sadness. Rather, it was the haunting sense that the celebration of Peres' longevity was also, inevitably, the marking of his inability, despite his now-waning years of trying, to make the longed-for breakthrough. It was almost an admission of Israel's inability to reach peace. After all, Mr. Peace himself, for all his indefatigable efforts, could not deliver it.

In this spirit, perhaps a bit maudlin but nonetheless authentic, Ariel Sharon won his warmest applause when he suggested, at the end of a warm and generous speech, that the two of them, old friends for half a century, could get together again to work for those two desperately elusive goals - peace and security.

Clinton, suddenly serious and focused in a speech full of humanity and humor, recalled that the new Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, and Shimon Peres had together crafted a peace plan before. That plan was still workable, Clinton urged. "A few miles from here there are Palestinians living who are not so different from you, who hate terror as you do, who are afraid too, who are exhausted too." A partnership between Israelis and Palestinians, he added, "could turn the whole world away from the wretched curse of terror."

It was a motley assortment of past and present statesmen - more past, in fact, than present - that took the trouble to come to Tel Aviv to pay Peres homage. Peres pointed to the special common denominator that bound together the most prominent among them. "These are world leaders who made history," he said. He was referring to Gorbachev, to de Klerk, to David Trimble - men who changed the flow of events in their own countries. Peres sees himself as one of them. His admirers, here and abroad, also see him as a rightful member of that select company. But those same admirers know - and hence the tinge of sadness in yesterday's proceedings - that the history Peres sought to make is yet unmade.

 

PERES TELLS GUESTS: PEACE - 'WE CAN DO IT'

Peres tells guests: Peace - 'we can do it'
By Yossi Verter
Ha'aretz
September 22, 2003

As he celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday with around 3,000 guests, including Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, former prime minister and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres said he still believed peace was possible with the Palestinians.

Peres's birthday wish for peace was shared by many of those invited to the celebrations, such as the former U.S. president who sang an impromptu duet of the John Lennon classic "Imagine" with an Israeli teenager.

"We can renew the hope for peace," Peres said in his speech during the evening of music and dance, parts of which were broadcast live on Israeli television. "It could be much closer than you think and even closer than I believe. We can do it."

Despite the current violence, Peres said in his address to his guests that he remained dedicated to his belief that Israelis and Palestinians could one day live in two separate states side-by-side in peace.

The evening was, without doubt, one of the most grandiose and successful productions ever seen on an Israeli stage. It was moving, funny, thrilling and sad all in one. It was schmaltz at its finest; and at the end of the night, the birthday boy appeared, for the first time in his life, truly emotional.

"I thank you for your vision of the new Middle East ... That we seem so far from that dream today does not lessen its power," Clinton said in his speech.

Peres, who currently serves as leader of the opposition Labor Party, sat next to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a long-time friend as well as political foe, during the ceremony.

At the end of his address, Peres directed his words to Sharon, "Don't despair," he called to the prime minister.

Security was tight at the gala concert, whose guests included former Soviet president Gorbachev, former South African president F.W. de Klerk, Hollywood actress Kathleen Turner, former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke and a bevy of Israeli cabinet ministers and glitterati. Leaders from around the world who could not make the ceremony sent messages congratulating Peres on his birthday.

But one leader who was absent from the celebrations was fellow Nobel laureate Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Organizers said the Palestinian leader, who has been confined by Israeli troops to his West Bank headquarters for over a year, was not invited to the party.

 

PERES, AT 80, IS PRAISED BY FRIENDS AND A FOE

Peres, at 80, Is Praised by Friends and a Foe
By Greg Myre
New York Times
September 22, 2003

For his 80th birthday celebration, the world came to Shimon Peres.

Bill Clinton serenaded him. Mikhail S. Gorbachev saluted him. And the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, in a video greeting from his home, suggested that Mr. Peres extend his peacemaking horizons beyond the Middle East, to include "the Far East, and here, in East Hampton."

The elder statesman of Israeli politics and the country's leading dove, Mr. Peres has a world-class set of friends. From Austria to Angola, they flew in to join several thousand Israelis for the birthday event.

Mr. Peres's friends even include his political enemies.

"We've always maintained our friendship, even when we were bitter enemies," said Ariel Sharon, the hard-line prime minister, who was seated between Mr. Peres and Mr. Clinton for the program. "We both envision the same thing: Israel living in peace and security."

While Mr. Peres was embraced by all inside the auditorium, some of his right-wing critics took to the streets outside, saying his peace efforts left Israel vulnerable to violence.

Members of one group drove through surrounding neighborhoods with a billboard showing Mr. Peres hugging Yasir Arafat during more optimistic times. One sign read, "1,384 victims of Peres's peace plan will never celebrate another birthday."

Mr. Peres, whose actual birthday was on Aug. 16, has always been more popular internationally than at home. He contested national elections five times and never won outright. His idealistic vision of a "new Middle East" is seen by many as hopelessly naïve amid the bloodshed.

The left-leaning Labor Party, which he heads, is the official opposition in Parliament, but is toothless at a time when many Israelis want tough military action against the Palestinians.

Tonight's slickly produced program resembled a show-business awards ceremony. Video testimonials came from Henry A. Kissinger, Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen.

Presentations included children singing peace songs, parodies of Mr. Peres and tearful testimonials from terror victims.

Mr. Clinton, who is wildly popular among many Israelis, received a standing ovation whenever he was introduced. He reviewed Mr. Peres's lengthy résumé, which includes two stints as prime minister, and almost every senior cabinet post. Mr. Peres was the architect of Israel's nuclear program in the 1950's, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role in the first Israeli-Palestinian peace deal a year earlier.

Later, a young man badly injured in a Palestinian suicide bombing two years ago walked on stage to commend Mr. Peres.

"I was so badly wounded my mother did not identify me when she passed by me," said the man, Faik Kolayev. "I came to tell Shimon Peres to keep struggling for peace."

The appreciative audience was in contrast to much of the Israeli news media.

"The gala event will show the yawning gap between the world we occupy and the world occupied by Peres," Caroline B. Glick wrote in The Jerusalem Post. "In the world we live in, every promise of peace and a New Middle East has not only been broken, but has blown up in our faces."

No prominent Palestinian or Arab figures were present, though Mr. Peres has many longstanding relationships in the Arab world. But 80 schoolchildren, half of them Jewish, half of them Arab, came on the stage to sing John Lennon's "Imagine."

When Mr. Peres finally took the stage at the end of the program, he sounded as optimistic, and idealistic, as ever.

"Together we can renew the hope for peace," he said. Then he turned to Mr. Sharon, and said, "It's closer than what you think and what I believe."

 

NAOMI, BONO, AND THE GLITTERATI

Naomi, Bono, and the glitterati,
By Sarah Honig
The Jerusalem Post (Opinion article)
September 18, 2003

Way back when I was a young cub reporter, Golda Meir took a shine to me and shared some reflections over a glass (not a fancy cup) of steaming hot tea.

Lighting yet another cigarette, she acknowledged that abroad her name is always accompanied by such adjectives as "intransigent," "inflexible" or "hard-line." Whenever a foreign correspondent got within shouting range of her, out would pop the penetrating question: "Why are you so uncompromising?"

She wasn't taken aback. "It's easy to win the world's love," she intoned. "Just do as they wish. If you don't, they'll hate you." She didn't, and was indeed harshly diagnosed as inexplicably and inexcusably afflicted with the Masada Complex.

"What can I do?" she shrugged, "The world out there isn't enamored with the Jewish national cause. The more you insist on Jewish interests, the less popular you'll be, and vice versa."

Over the years her nemesis Shimon Peres kept proving her point with a vengeance. His New Middle East earned him accolades from enlightened international circles. His Oslo project and concomitant Noble Peace Prize made him the darling of the world's trendiest and most beautiful people.

He might have been a political flop back home, but out in the warmth of European cosmopolitan broadmindedness Peres is a leading luminary, wined and dined and eagerly courted. Just a few weeks ago he broke bread in a sumptuous Lake Como villa with no less than the Austrian, Spanish and Turkish premiers and a host of assorted nabobs. While Peres reassured all present that his futuristic vision of a Mid-Eastern utopia is ever-vibrant, supermodel Naomi Campbell entered, clad in a baby-blue original Valentino gown.

To hear Peres groupies, she is one of them. By their account she gushingly revealed she'd heard Peres's birthday was coming up - his 80th - and said she'd "love to come." Upon being told that she was invited to the big September 21 bash - in the Mann Auditorium, no less - she hesitantly inquired if she could bring a friend along, U2 soloist Bono.

See how popular Peres is? It's not just venerated elder statesmen who crave his company. Affirmative RSVPs have already arrived from Ariel Sharon (the guest of honor), Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela, as well as from the presidents of Germany, Poland and the Ivory Coast, to name just a few. But Naomi and Bono will doubtless add glamor and glitz, showing all and sundry how cool and hip youthful Shimon is. That can be a real asset considering the furious Labor speculation that he hasn't quite given up on yet another prime-ministerial nomination.

What a long way this socialist has come from the humble wooden-hut lodgings of Israel's second president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, or the similar Sde Boker residence of Peres's purported idol David Ben-Gurion. On the other side of the political divide, Menachem Begin made do with two modest rooms in a ground floor walk-in.

It's hard to imagine any of them celebrating a birthday in the flashy and gaudy ambiance of the international in-crowd.

But pleasing world opinion has its perks. Peres's popularity is perhaps the only remaining fringe benefit still accrued from the Oslo process, whose 10th anniversary coincided with hectic preparations for its progenitor's festive shindig.

Oslo's unhappy birthday is more like a yahrzeit; it's hardly cause for celebration with the jet-set who's who. That's why recordings of Peres's optimistic rhetoric from his golden age of Israeli magnanimity and generous concessions aren't likely to be played back for his lofty birthday guests.

This would be no occasion to give the lie to the presumption, pretense and preposterous prophecies of September 1993. It's unlikely most celebrants would welcome reminders of the folly the birthday boy inspired.

Yitzhak Rabin's rosy prediction on the White House lawn comes to mind: "In the alleys of Khan Yunis and the streets of Ramat Gan, in Gaza, Hadera, Rafah and Afula, a new reality is born. The 100-year-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict is ending."

It's not like no one saw what was coming. Some of us cautioned and warned, only to be ridiculed and denigrated as Hamas collaborators. We were unadulterated anathema to Peres's swanky overseas set, due to assemble here and fete him in a couple of days.

Even less than an admission of egregious error would do in lieu of an apology. Mild soul-searching and an admission that Oslo is dead would suffice. But it's unrealistic - even now - to expect moral stocktaking and intellectual honesty from the bumbling bamboozlers who inflicted Oslo upon us.

At most they're willing to beat Binyamin Netanyahu's breast and blame his policy of "reciprocity" for their fabulous plan's breakdown. Additionally, they lay guilt on Sharon's doorstep for not having yet encircled Israel with Wall-of-China-like fortifications to protect it from bloodthirsty peace partners.

Likewise, they assert that things would have turned out brilliantly had settlers been removed and the IDF unilaterally pulled back to pre-1967 lines. More recently it's been owned up to that co-Nobel Peace laureate Arafat isn't a nice guy, but he's in charge. Everyone is at fault, though not the birthday boy's basic conception that creative solutions can be imposed on insoluble problems; that dangerous gambles are preferable to stalemate.

The Oslo high-rollers imported Yasser Arafat from Tunis, along with his lieutenants and 40,000 henchmen, whom they armed. They imparted to the citizenry a sense of a nothing-to-lose emergency. Peres waived no opportunity to remind Israelis that time was against them.

"What's the alternative?" he ceaselessly inquired whenever challenged, insisting repeatedly that, at worst, Oslo was the least of the evils menacing us.

That was patent misrepresentation, and not only in the light of hindsight. Israel wasn't beset by mortal existential perils in 1993. Nothing mandated surrender. The PLO leadership resided luxuriously abroad and world opinion had grown accustomed to the fact. Tampering with it was incomprehensibly rash.

We're still paying for Peres's devil-may-care adventurism. His "peace" harmed Israel incalculably more than the so-called occupation he bemoans with European sanctimoniousness, as if he had become a visiting stranger himself, a bit distant from our reality.

Nothing of the sort could ever be said of our last pre-Oslo prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir. International glitterati loved him even less than they loved Golda, and for precisely the same reasons. Like Golda, Shamir made no effort to curry their favor.

Nothing for him took precedence over Jewish national interests. He never glorified himself, never indulged in pipe dreams, he kept his feet solidly on the ground and cared diddley about popularity ratings. In his last year in office (1992), 25 Israelis were murdered by terrorists. The grim tally for 2002 was 450. Our economy is in the pits due to the Peres doctrine of any deal being better than no deal.

Israel's reputation among Peres's beloved Europeans is in equally dire straits. In pre-Oslo days there was less call for targeted killings, numerous roadblocks, security fences and similar image-tarnishing measures. Oslo turned everything sour, except for Peres's ever-sparkling celebrity.

When Shamir turned 80, eight years ago, no one made a fuss. There were no ostentatious gala affairs. Naomi and Bono didn't ask to be invited.

 

LETTER FROM NAOMIN RAGEN ON THE OCCASION OF PERES BIRTHDAY

Letter from Naomi Ragen, one of Israel's best-selling novelists, on the occasion of Shimon Peres' birthday:

I'd like to wish Mr. Peres a happy birthday, and to thank him for his continuing contributions to the people of Israel:

Thank you, Mr. Peres, for bringing back Yasir Arafat from Tunis, and for writing your book The New Middle East, to convince the Israeli public to put their lives into Arafat's hands.

Thank you, Mr. Peres, for again, and again, and again, backing up Yasir Arafat each time a terrorist attack killed our people, helping to convince Israelis, and the world, that Arafat wasn't responsible.

Thank you, for contributing more than any other person, to the ability of terrorist organizations to evade responsibility, to set up shop in Israel, causing the death of over eight hundred men, women and children, and the injury of thousands more.

Thank you, Mr. Peres, for paying Roed Larson, over $100,000, a prize from the Peres Center for Peace, for helping you to get a Nobel Prize. Before, during and after getting his prize, Mr. Larsen was notorious for his wonderful contributions to our area, including non-stop incitement against the Israeli people, government and armed forces.

Thank you, Mr. Peres, for being a true quisling, in a nation that has many; for never visiting a terror victim, for never taking responsibility for Oslo's disasters, for preening and congratulating yourself on your many achievements at the expense of our lives.

Because of you, thousands in Israel will never reach the age of eighty. Because of you many families will never be able to celebrate a loved one's birthday.

Those who would like to express their appreciation and good wishes to Mr. Peres, can join the demonstration opposite his party in Tel Aviv, on Sunday, September 18 organized by opposition groups who were right all along.

FULL ARTICLES

THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM

Ayoon wa Azan (The New Anti-Semitism)
By Jihad Al Khazen
Al-Hayat
October 8, 2003

www.english.daralhayat.com/column/08-2003/Article-20030810-eb8fb214-c0a8-01ed-0054-c054600bc4c1/story.html

Jews around the world complain about the rise of a new wave of anti-Semitism. While many attribute this campaign to what is going on in the Middle East, seldom do I ever read any Jewish person denouncing Israeli practices against the Palestinians - practices that reach the level of Nazism.

Ariel Sharon government's crimes, radicalism and racism do not justify this new anti-Semitism, which must be clearly denounced without any "ifs" and "buts." A government comprised of war criminals in Israel explains the rise of anti-Semitism in every country.

In France for example, which hosts six million Muslims and 600,000 Jews, the highest number of Muslims and Jews in any European country, anti-Semitic attacks have significantly increased since the second Intifada end of September 2000, thus confirming a relation.

According to Jewish sources, anti-Semitic incidents have increased six-fold between 2001 and 2002, and reached over 550 incidents since the second Intifada. French Jews claim that young North African people are responsible for the majority of these attacks, which also target Jews of North African origin.

The Arab Muslim immigrant from Algeria or Morocco knows what Israel is doing to the Palestinians and is trying to take revenge. At least, he has a reason, even though we are strictly against all aspects of anti-Semitism, no matter what the reason is. However, there are neo-Nazis, radical rightists and fools of every kind who attack Jews in a terrible way. They form the majority that stands behind such attacks, which have undermined the peace process in the Middle East. The war criminal Ariel Sharon came to kill, destroy and harm the reputation of Jews in all countries, in addition to exposing them to dangers they could have very well done without.

In parallel to the escalation of the wave of anti-Semitism, the memoirs of President Harry Truman, dated 1947, about the Jews, was published and raised a new controversy. The Arabs know Truman as an American president who facilitated the establishment of Israel and quickly recognized it. They suppose he supported Jews and admires them a lot. However, his sayings that were discovered after more than half a century give a totally different image of his opinion about them. He literally said that Jews are very selfish, and do not care about people from Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Poland, Yugoslavia and Greece who are being killed, mistreated and expatriated, as long as the Jews are being treated in a special manner. When they enjoy physical, financial or political strength, Hitler and Stalin don't come close to them in mistreating the weakest party. If the weak person becomes strong, it will not matter then if he is Russian, Jewish, black, a manager, a worker or a Baptist. Power will give him delusions, and rare are those who remember their past when their situation improves.

I wrote several times in this column that Israel is practicing on the Palestinians what the Nazis used to practice against the Jews. It seems that this was also the opinion of Harry Truman, kept secret since 1947, and that he expected Israel to treat the Palestinians the way they are doing, before anything happened.

Truman recounts how Henry Morgenthau, the former Secretary of Treasury, asked him to facilitate the entry of Jews into Palestine. Truman says Morgenthau had absolutely no right to call him. Truman says that the Jews do not know their limits and do not know how to assess international developments. Henry brought 1,000 Jews to New York in order to remain there temporarily, but all of them remained.

Every day, I find examples about selfishness and misevaluation. I was reading Truman and reading about Rachel Fisch, who graduated from Harvard and presented a research, accompanied with a petition to the university requesting it to return a 5.2-million-dollar donation by the Zayed International Institute, claiming that the center promotes advertisements hostile to the U.S. and the Jews.

This issue translates a double arrogance, for the Jews are trying to convince others that the U.S. and Jews are one, although Israel harmed U.S. interests as no other country in the world did, and turned 2.1 Muslims and Arabs into its enemies. Sheikh Zayed, which institute carries the name, is the president of UAE. He built a unit to foster peace in his region and took his country on a path to development jump starting from the 19th century to the 21st century. I refuse to compare him to the leaders of Israel, but I say that the Jewish researcher should examine Israel's crimes and reasons for anti-Jewish hatred in the world. Harvard is quasi-occupied due to the presence of Jews in its administration, academic body and students, who are hundreds of times more than the Americans themselves. However, Europeans are more free and far from this "occupation." I was reading that a professor at Oxford University rejected the application of an Israeli student because of his nationality. Professor Andrew Wilkie told the Israeli PhD student Amit Duvshani that he couldn't teach an Israeli student because of the "huge human rights abuses" Israel is inflicting on Palestinians.

Israel is a shame to the Jews everywhere. Everyone who supports it is a partner in the crime, for it has been transformed from a country for the survivors of the Nazism to a new Nazi state that is practicing what Truman predicted over half of century ago.

Anti-Semitism is refused for any reason whatsoever, even if the reason is Israel. However, it did not come out of a vacuum, but out of Israel's practices. Fighting it does not begin with denying the reason but in fighting the violations of the government of the war criminals in Israel, for most Jews in the world are liberal and moderate. Hence, Sharon's government does not represent them. If the Palestinians and Israelis were able to reach a peaceful compromise, despite Ariel Sharon and not thanks to him, the main reason for the return of anti-Semitism would disappear. Only the known radical organizations, from neo-Nazis and others would remain, and they would have no respect or credibility, just like university professors who boycotted Israel before Professor Wilkie, and denounced its behavior in a way that was never adopted before.

 

GIRL, 15, FACES LASHES

Girl, 15, faces lashes
Gulf Daily News
August 18, 2003

The UAE supreme federal court has rejected a 15-year-old expatriate girl's plea to reverse a Muslim court sentence of 90 lashes for adultery, reports said yesterday. The court also sentenced the man she had "illicit relations" with, but the reports gave no details. The court in Abu Dhabi said the girl, who also faces deportation, was not classified as a juvenile because, under Sharia law, a girl is deemed an adult when she reaches puberty.

 

TEENAGE GIRL TO GET 90 LASHES, TO BE DEPORTED

Teenage girl to get 90 lashes, to be deported
By Shireena Al Nowais, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi
August 18, 2003

www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=95354

A 15-year-old expatriate girl living in Abu Dhabi will be flogged 90 times before being deported from the UAE for committing adultery.

The sentence was handed down by the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court and supported by the Supreme Federal Court. The girl was charged by the criminal court with committing adultery at the age of 15.

The Prosecution claimed the girl was involved in an illicit relationship with a man and said she should be punished according to the Shariah Law. The court also sentenced the man involved with her.

The girl went to the Appeal Court which reconfirmed her sentence. She also appealed before the Supreme Federal Court on the grounds it was against the law to convict her since she is a teenager.

She said she was well below the legal permissible age of 18 when she committed the crime, implying the court should consider her case as a juvenile.

Her appeal was turned down by the federal court which supported the sentence and said the Shariah courts are solely responsible for applying Shariah laws for punitive crimes, blood money, drugs, juvenile delinquencies and others.

The court said according to the Shariah law, in contrast to the Civil Law, the girl has already reached adulthood by reaching puberty as confirmed by a medical doctor at Corniche Hospital.

Therefore she should be punished for adultery under the Shariah law which views that the girl deserves the punishment and should not be regarded a juvenile.

FULL ARTICLES

ISLAMISTS TARGET MOROCCO'S JEWS

Islamists target Morocco's Jews
By Giles Tremlett
The Guardian
September 15, 2003

Violent Islamists have murdered two members of Morocco's shrinking Jewish community in the past four days and look set to drive out most of the remaining members of a community whose history stretches back centuries.

The stabbing to death of 75-year-old Elie Afrat as he left his house in Meknes, 90 miles east of Rabat, to go to the synagogue on Saturday has finally shattered what the Moroccan authorities had always held up as a model of coexistence between Muslims and Jews.

The killing of Mr Afrat, one of just 120 Jews left in Meknes, came two days after a similar murder in Casablanca. On that occasion the victim was Albert Revivo, 55, a timber trader in the city's Lakria market.

The authorities and community leaders first claimed that Mr Revivo's murder was connected to the black market and smuggling trade that goes through Lakria. But the killing of Mr Afrat, whose unidentified assailant ran off, drove home the message Islamist militants first sent when they bombed a Jewish centre in Casablanca on May 16.

A series of suicide bombings that day, which killed 45 people in Morocco's first experience of Islamist terror, also targeted a restaurant in the city owned by a Moroccan Jew.

Serge Berdugo, general secretary of Morocco's Jewish association, said: "These are all acts of terrorism aimed against us, and through us against all Morocco."

A Jewish woman told the Spanish newspaper El Pais yesterday: "We must leave, not just for own security but for that of our children. What future do [Jews] have left if they must live in hiding?"

Although Morocco's monarchs, including the current king, have traditionally sworn to protect the country's Jews, the community has fallen from 350,000 to 3,500 in half a century. Most young Jews have emigrated either to Europe or to Israel, where some 700,000 people claim Moroccan origin.

Morocco held local elections last Friday, in which the country's main legal Islamic party, the Justice and Development party, made modest gains, despite a campaign against it by Moroccan authorities and the pro-government press, which have accused it of "moral responsibility" for the May 16 attacks.

Jews claim to have been present in the Maghreb since the synagogue at Djerba, Tunisia, was founded around 586BC. Their numbers were multiplied many times over when Spanish Jews were expelled from their country in 1492.

The Jewish community in Tunisia, reduced from 100,000 to 2,000 in 50 years, has also been attacked. The Djerba synagogue was attacked by a suicide bomber who killed 21 people in April 2002.

 

SECOND JEWISH MAN MURDERED IN MOROCCO SINCE THURSDAY

Second Jewish man murdered in Morocco since Thursday
The Jerusalem Post
September 13, 2003

An elderly member of Morocco's small Jewish community was stabbed to death Saturday, the second killing of a Jewish citizen in days, security officers said.

The 75-year-old man, Eli Afriat, was stabbed as he was leaving his home in Meknes, a northern city in the largely Muslim North African kingdom, the officials said.

Serge Berdugo, the secretary-general of a council for Morocco's Jewish community, said he had no further information.

The attack was not thought to be anti-Semitic.

However, there was still concern, as Moroccan Jews buried on Friday a member of their community shot dead by two unidentified gunmen and said the murder was a terrorist attack aimed at their community.

Wood merchant Albert Rebibo, 59, was killed by two men wearing balaclavas who sprayed him with automatic weapons fire at point-blank range in broad daylight in Casablanca on Thursday as he was closing his shop, the first attack of its kind against a Jewish citizen in the North African Muslim kingdom.

Witnesses said members of the public pursued the attackers, who ordered a passing driver out of his car and drove off in it, the Moroccan MAP news agency said.

Police said that their investigation early on could not determine "if it was carried out by an organization or was a settling of scores," the news agency reported.

Serge Berdugo, the head of the Moroccan Israelite Community association, said the timing of the shooting was no coincidence, and said it was an act of terrorism aimed at Morocco's Jewish community.

"The hour when this despicable murder was committed September 11 at 12:45 GMT or the exact time when the first of the Manhattan (World Trade Center) towers was hit point to several hypotheses and one signature," he said in a speech at Rebibo's burial ceremony, attended by hundreds of people.

Morocco's Jewish community was targeted by 12 Islamist suicide bombers last May in Casablanca in attacks that killed 33 other people.

No Jews were killed in the attacks, but a Jewish social club, empty at the time, a restaurant run by a Jew and a Jewish cemetery were among the targets.

Following the attack, Moroccan officials vowed to protect the country's Jewish community.

Until the 1950s, Morocco was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Muslim world.

Moroccan Jews now total less than 5,000, after a massive exodus to Israel. Some 700,000 Israelis are believed to be of Moroccan descent.

 

MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER JUSTIFIES ATTACKS ON ISRAELI CIVILIANS

Malaysian opposition leader justifies attacks on Israeli civilians
Albawaba.com
September 12, 2003

The leader of Malaysia's opposition Islamic party told his supporters Friday the United States was an enemy of Islam and voiced support for Palestinian suicide bombers.

Abdul Hadi Awang, president of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, called the United States and its allies "imperialist powers who are finding ways to be confrontational with Islam."

"The United States and its allies must stand trial before the conscience of the world for unilaterally destroying other nations, all under the rubric and pretext of war against terrorism," Abdul Hadi said, according to the AP.

Abdul Hadi claimed the United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan because "they hate Islam and they are after the oil and to protect the Zionist Israeli state."

Abdul Hadi described Israel as the "biggest terrorist and criminal" and declared his party would continue to support Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Later, Abdul Hadi told a news conference: "All Israeli civilians are soldiers and all of Israeli territory is a battlefield."

 

HAMAS SUICIDE BOMBERS MARTYRS - MALAYSIAN ISLAMIST

Hamas suicide bombers martyrs -Malaysian Islamist
Reuters
September 12, 2003

The leader of Malaysia's main Islamist opposition on Friday lauded Palestinian suicide bombers as martyrs, while condemning Southeast Asian Muslim militants behind last month's suicide bomb attack in Jakarta.

Abdul Hadi Awang, the president of Parti Islam se-Malaysia, voiced support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas in comments to journalists after opening the PAS annual assembly.

"We support Hamas because they are Palestinians who are being oppressed. Their houses are being destroyed, their women raped and their children murdered. They fight to defend their territory and the Holy Sites," said Hadi, who also laid into the United States.

"The U.S. and its allies must stand trial to the conscience of the world for unilaterally destroying other nations under all the rubric and pretext of a war against terrorism," Hadi said in his earlier speech to the assembly.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and his government on Friday sounded a warning that Israel's declaration of intent to expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would spark more violence.

Mahathir accuses Israel of state terrorism, but last year he declared suicide bombing, including by Palestinians, of civilian targets was also a terrorist act.

Hadi, who took over the PAS leadership in 2002 with a reputation as a fiery preacher, went a step further.

"If there is no other way to defend the public from Israeli attacks, if there is one person willing to be sacrificed to save a thousand others, then that is allowed in Islam.

"Those who die are considered martyrs."

Asked whether the same could be said of the suicide bomber belonging to Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian offshoot of al Qaeda, who killed 11 other people in an attack on Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel last month, Hadi described the act as unislamic.

"That's a different story, that is not allowed in Islam," he said. "In Palestine, Chechnya, it's a different story."

 

MUSLIMS THROW STONES AT JEWISH WORSHIPPERS

Muslims throw stones at Jewish worshippers
Police respond with tear gas and stun grenades
The Associated Press
September 12, 2003

Israeli police stormed a disputed Jerusalem shrine Friday, firing tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of Muslim worshippers who threw stones after noon prayers, police and witnesses said.

About 35,000 Muslims were up on the hilltop for prayers. After the service, hundreds of young men threw stones at the Western Wall below, where Jews were praying, police spokesman Gil Kleiman said. There were no injuries reported, Kleiman said.

Dozens of police ran up a walkway and stormed the site, firing tear gas and booming stun grenades, witnesses said. Kleiman said the crowd quickly dispersed.

The disputed hilltop shrine, home to two major mosques, is revered by Muslims and Jews. It was the site of the two biblical Jewish temples that were destroyed by invading armies. Muslims mark it as the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Recently, Israel reopened the Muslim-supervised site to Jewish and other visitors, angering many Muslims. The site had been closed to non-Muslim visitors since fighting broke out three years ago.

The current Israeli-Palestinian fighting grew out of riots that erupted after then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the site in a display of Israeli claims to Jerusalem. Israel and the Palestinians both want the city as a capital.

 

FOUR ACCUSED OF PLANNING JEWISH ATTACKS

Four accused of planning Jewish attacks
The Associated Press
September 11, 2003

German prosecutors on Thursday announced terrorism charges against four suspected members of a radical Palestinian network who are believed to have plotted attacks against Jewish targets in Germany.

The four are alleged to be members of a German cell of the Al Tawhid group. They were arrested in April 2002 along with Jordanian Shadi Abdellah, currently on trial on Duesseldorf for his part in the alleged plot.

The charges were filed on Aug. 27, but were not made public until Thursday.

Abdellah has testified that the cell planned to attack Jewish targets to emulate al-Qaida.

The four latest suspects include a 39-year-old Jordanian identified as Mohamed Abu D., who prosecutors believe headed the cell. German authorities typically identify suspects only by their first names.

Abu D. faces charges of membership in a terrorist organization, attempted instigation of offenses under arms control laws and document fraud.

Also charged with the same offenses are Ismail Abdallah Sbaitan S., 30, another Jordanian; and Ashraf Mohammad al D., a 34-year-old of Palestinian origin whose nationality is unclear.

The fourth man, Algerian national Djamel M., 30, was charged with supporting a terrorist organization, breaking firearms laws and with document fraud.

 

10 NEO-NAZIS DETAINED FOR MUNICH SYNAGOGUE BOMB PLOT

10 neo-Nazis detained for Munich synagogue bomb plot
By David Rising
The Associated Press
September 13, 2003

German authorities have arrested another three neo-Nazis suspected of being part of a plot to bomb a groundbreaking ceremony at a new synagogue in Munich, a prosecutors spokeswoman said Saturday.

With the new arrests Friday, at least 10 people across Germany have been taken into custody in the last week on suspicion that they were part of a terrorist plot to attack the ceremony.

The groundbreaking is planned for November 9, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues were vandalized, about 100 Jews murdered, and thousands more deported to concentration camps.

Among the several hundred guests expected at the ceremony are German President Johannes Rau, Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber, and the country's main Jewish leader, Paul Spiegel.

One of the three people arrested Friday is being investigated for membership of a terrorist organization, while the other two are accused of supporting a terrorist organization, said Frauke Scheuten, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors office.

The latter two were released after questioning because "for now they are exempt from detention," Scheuten said, declining to provide further details.

In the first raids on Tuesday, police seized 1.7 kilograms of TNT, 14 kilograms of suspected explosives, and two hand grenades, and arrested Martin Wiese, a well-known neo-Nazi, among others.

News magazines Der Spiegel and Focus on Saturday reported that in addition to the ceremony at the synagogue, police found a "hit list" at Wiese's apartment with the names of a Greek school in Munich and several Munich mosques. Scheuten said there are indications the group had several different targets in mind, but would not confirm the magazine reports.

 

SIX NEO-NAZIS ARE ARRESTED IN BOMB PLOT AGAINST JEWS

Six Neo-Nazis Are Arrested in Bomb Plot Against Jews
By Richard Bernstein
The New York Times
September 13, 2003

A group of German neo-Nazi extremists arrested in raids across the country this week are suspected of planning to bomb a new Jewish cultural center in Munich, prosecutors said today.

The neo-Nazis, who were found with more than 30 pounds of explosives, including nearly 4 pounds of TNT, may have intended to attack the center on Nov. 9, when the German president, Johannes Rau, was going to attend the cornerstone-laying ceremony.

Nov. 9 will be the 65th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom in 1938 in which 91 Jews were killed and thousands of Jewish-owned shops and synagogues were vandalized.

"My assessment has been confirmed that we have to take threats from the area of right-wing extremists very seriously," said Otto Schily, the German interior minister.

On Wednesday, the Munich police arrested six people, four of them suspected members of neo-Nazi groups, but an official in the prosecutor's office said that as many as nine people were involved in the planned attacks and that new arrest warrants were issued today.

In addition to the explosives, the police seized two hand grenades, ammunition, files and computer disks.

"There is evidence that the accused had several attack targets in their sights," including the planned Jewish cultural center in Munich, said the official, Frauke-Katrin Scheuten.

"A new dimension in terrorism was being planned," said Charlotte Knobloch, a leader among Munich's Jews. "Sixty-five years after the destruction of the main synagogue by the Nazis, neo-Nazis are again trying to destroy Jewish life in Munich."

The planned attacks were denounced by Munich's mayor, Christian Ude, and Edmund Stoiber, the premier of the state of Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital.

"The citizens of Bavaria are horrified by these acts of madness that were being planned," Mr. Stoiber said.

The bomb plan was reminiscent of right-wing firebombings of Turks and Turkish homes in Germany that took place in the early 1990's but have not been repeated in recent years.

According to the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which collects statistics of crimes carried out by extremist groups, there are about 2,800 neo-Nazis in Germany organized into political groups. In addition, there are some 10,000 skinheads, who make up a violent and racist subculture.

The office reported more than 600 cases of assaults that caused bodily harm last year, aimed against foreigners, Jews and other minorities, including left-wing activists. Few of these assaults have led to serious harm, but in the decade between 1990 and 2000, 37 people died in right-wing attacks, the office reported.

In an incident last November, three skinheads in Potzlow, north of Berlin, beat to death a 17-year-old boy after saying that his baggy pants and dyed hair made him "look like a Jew," according to court testimony.

 

UK JEWS WORRIED IRAQ DEMO WILL FEED ANTI-SEMITISM

UK Jews worried Iraq demo will feed anti-Semitism
By Douglas Davis
The Jerusalem Post
September 13, 2003

Representatives of the British Jewish community have expressed concern that a mass demonstration against the Iraq war in London on September 27 will focus primarily on the Palestinian issue and increase anti-Semitism.

In a letter to the Stop the War Coalition (SWC), which is organizing the demonstration, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said publicity for the event focuses on the Palestinian issue and appears to confuse the issues of Iraq and Israel.

In a letter to SWC chairman Andrew Murray, board director-general Neville Nagler wrote: "Our deep concern is the level of anti-Jewish and extremist language that we have witnessed at your past rallies.

"While we understand that the forthcoming rally is organized in conjunction with other organizations whose agendas may differ somewhat, we still expect SWC to honor the assurances we have received in the past.

"Our main concern remains to ensure that the conflicts of the Middle East do not spill over onto the streets of Britain or inflict any harm on Jewish people living here."

 

UC BERKELEY TO PROBE ANTI-SEMITISM CHARGE

UC Berkeley to probe anti-Semitism charge
The Jerusalem Post
August 11, 2003

The University of California at Berkeley is investigating a complaint that a graduate student instructor taught anti-Semitism by uncritically presenting material from the fraudulent "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in an Arabic language class.

The instructor, Near Eastern Studies graduate student instructor Abbas Kadhim, said in a recent letter published on the web site volokh.com the "Protocols" was raised to present "Iraqi conventional wisdom."

Kadhim said "this issue of authenticity and the identity of the author - or authors - of the Protocols has not been settled between the Middle Eastern disputants."

The so-called "Protocols" have been determined by many credible organizations to be a czarist-era forgery used as an anti-Semitic tool. The publication has been used many times in anti-Semitic contexts, including in Nazi Germany.

The student who raised the issue, Susanna Klein, wrote in a letter to university officials that Kadhim "assured me that he was 100 percent certain in his belief that Jews were behind the 'Protocols.' By making such a statement, Mr. Kadhim spreads potentially dangerous anti-Semitic propaganda."

Klein is active in a pro-Israel group that clashed earlier this year with pro-Palestinian demonstrators in a fracas that received international publicity.

The Daily Californian student newspaper reported that other students in Kadhim's class disputed Klein's allegations.

The university has begun to investigate the matter, an official told the student newspaper.

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PALESTINIAN LIBERAL COLUMNIST ON: THE PALESTINIAN 'ALL OR NOTHING' POLICY

Palestinian Liberal Columnist On: The Palestinian 'All or Nothing' Policy
Memri Dispatch
September 15, 2003

To mark the 106th anniversary of the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, the liberal Palestinian writer Tawfiq Abu Bakr published an article criticizing the years long Palestinian "all or nothing" policy. This policy, he said, had brought the Palestinians to their current situation. In the article, which appeared on September 3, 2003 in the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Ayyam, Abu Bakr argued that the Palestinian policy stands in sharp contrast to the pragmatic Zionist policy that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. According to Abu Bakr, the Palestinians should have followed the Zionist model instead of wasting time with misleading visions and should now seek a two-state solution as a prelude to one, unified, large democratic state. The following are excerpts from the article: (1)

The Zionists Never Demanded the Impossible

"August 29, 1897 is the date of the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. This congress signified the birth of political Zionism, which attained [its vision of] a state within 50 years from the day it was founded.

"At that congress, Herzl said: 'We will establish the state within the next five decades.' [These words] were no more than an optimistic prophecy that might have turned into a nightmare or might not have borne fruit had it not been for the right policy implemented by the [Zionists], and the wrong policy implemented by us. [The Zionists] exploited every possible chance to transform the history of the five decades prior to the establishment of the state into a series of opportunities from which they extracted everything possible. The Zionists never demanded the impossible, and never placed ideology at the head of their list of priorities, but rather adopted a pragmatic policy in all their alliances. The leading faction in the Zionist movement, headed by David Ben Gurion, decided to act to [establish] a Jewish state on any of the falsely claimed promised land they could plunder.

"Those who called themselves the revisionist faction, led by of Jabotinsky, and then by Menahem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, and others who inherited it, accused [Ben Gurion and his supporters] of being submissive, of walking with their heads low, settling for little and relinquishing the dream of 'the return to Zion,' according to which a state would be established on the entire [territory] of the promised land. This accusation is identical, down to the very words, to the one directed to this very day by Palestinian extremists at Palestinian moderates.

"Had this [revisionist Zionist] faction won out - I wish it did - the State of Israel would have never been established, because they would have insisted on an 'all or nothing' policy when it was impossible to realize all the goals at once. They sacrificed the impossible for the possible. As Ben Gurion said in 1937: 'I want a state, any state, even if it's the size of a tablecloth.'"

We Burnt Our Chances in Cold Blood

"Our leadership at that time enabled [the Zionists] to succeed at every opportunity through political means, with its 'all or nothing' policy, by rejecting every proposal for compromise, rejecting proposals to give it a state on most of the land of Palestine (since it was a period in which the Jews in Palestine were merely offered autonomy).

"[But] we kicked them in the shins. Our pure-minded leadership [kicked] the shins of the White Paper of 1939 that prohibited Jewish immigration to Palestine for five years. [It should be noted] that Jewish immigration was the source of the disease and the only human basis for the establishment of their state. We rejected everything. At that time, we destroyed all possible chances. The disaster was that we burned [our chances] in cold blood. Had [the Zionists] had a leadership like this, they would have never established a state, nor half a state.

"I write this now because I am optimistic about the current Palestinian leadership, since it decided in 1974 - at the 12th [Palestinian] National Council - to relinquish the 'all or nothing' policy, to struggle for what was possible and not sell it for the impossible. The Palestinian leadership has adhered to this policy for a long time, and arrived at many accomplishments: It got back part of the land, began the stage of building a national entity, and has made much progress."

When a State Became an Option in 2000, We Reverted to 'All or Nothing'

"[Yet] when a state became a definite option following the Clinton initiative in late 2000, and when the moment of truth arrived, we reverted to the 'all or nothing' policy. We kicked away all our words over the past three decades, and we went back to square one: the very beginning. This is the disaster that led to the [current] disaster, which is evident in every alleyway and every street of our land.

"I write these words now because I have heard Palestinian officials, some of them from the PLO, from among those who exploited their appearance on the satellite channels, crowing like roosters until the last star disappeared that Israel is an aging state and will live no longer than [only] 10 more years while we are still in the spring of our youth.

"It is difficult to find a greater and more deeply rooted culture of self-deception than that in our Arab and Palestinian arena; a culture of daydreams in the height of a burning summer. People cling stubbornly to rosy dreams and delude themselves that these are the facts because they have failed to realize all their dreams."

Schizophrenia is an Extremely Common Ailment in Our Land

"Schizophrenia is an extremely common ailment in our land that strikes our confused youth. [Its symptom] is that the individual has two images: one real and one imaginary. The nations and the peoples, like the individuals and to the same extent, escape at moments of weakness into daydreams. Instead of investing in serious and diligent work, they create new facts that tip the scales gradually, and sell false dreams about the imminent collapse of the enemy.

"In the days leading up to the war of June 1967, our media spoke of the 'cowards' [Israelis] who would run from the battlefield with the outbreak of fighting when faced with [our] heroic lions. When an Israeli officer caught me during the 'Tank-Trip War' or the 'Deluxe War,' as they called it, he asked me: 'Is it really proven that we are cowards?' Afterwards, I listened to our radio speaking about the flight of the cowards - of their success in grabbing an area three times bigger than the area of their state and with minimal means. This self-deception continues to this [very] day.

"I cannot, on the birthday of the Zionist policy, write that the plan of the Zionist Congress in Basel was fully realized, since two thirds of the Jews in the world live outside Israel while the main goal [of political Zionism] was and remains the ingathering of all the Jews of the world in Palestine. But this is not the whole story. In the heart of our land, [the Zionists] established a state armed from head to toe with all types of weaponry, and yet have not attained security for their people.

"This is the main point of my words: If this is so, there is no solution but to attain a balance of interests without clinging to a balance of power. There is no way around living together in two countries - a situation that will take decades and will be a prelude to shared life in one democratic state, in accordance with our motto in the PLO in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

"Everyone must arrive at this realization today rather than tomorrow. If not, blood will be spilled on the land of the prophets for decades to come - and in the end we will reach the same solution: living together when neither of the sides can neutralize the other.

"Why not stop the waterfalls of blood and bring hope to both our peoples? Why do we glorify death lovers and not the lovers of life? This is the big question. A great challenge faces us all."

Endnote:

(1) Al-Ayyam (PA), September 3, 2003.

 

TEACING ISRAELI ARABS TO LOVE ONLY "PALESTINE"

Teaching Israeli Arabs to Love only "Palestine"
by Itamar Marcus
Op-Ed in The Jerusalem Post
September 12, 2003

The following appeared last week in the Palestinian daily Al Hayat Al Jadida:

"The teacher wondered how any Geography teacher in the Arab schools could convince his students that Safad [in Arabic] was changed to Zefat[Hebrew] and that Sefuriya [Arabic] had suddenly become Zipori[Hebrew.] He expressed the opinion that the students would rip up these maps and the teacher who would accept them would be considered a traitor... He was reminded of [a recent] distribution of Israeli flags... the students ripped them to pieces and threw them in the garbage..."

These words wouldn't be surprising if they were said by any teacher in a Palestinian Authority [PA] school. However the person being quoted was an Israeli Arab teacher. The children ripping up Israeli flags were Israeli Arabs kids. The teacher who will not consider using a map showing Israeli cities in his classroom is an Israeli Arab on salary from the Israeli Ministry of Education.

With the media focus this week on the Or Committee's criticism of Israel's police during the Israeli Arab riots, it was virtually forgotten why the police were shooting. It was October 2000. The Palestinian Authority had started war against Israel. Two days into the war thousands of Israeli Arabs throughout the Galil joined the battle on the side of Israel's enemies, supported vocally by Arab leaders and passively it seemed by the general population. They threw stones, firebombs, burned tires, killed one Israeli Jew and injured many others, as they closed down the main roads of the North for days. Israel, it seemed, had lost the allegiance of 20% of its citizens, who in a time of war, had sided with the enemy. How did it happen?

While there certainly are many contributing factors, there is ample evidence that this transfer of allegiance was one of the prominent goals of the Palestinian Authority long before the start of the October 2000 War. The PA implemented a systematic and determined policy towards Israel's Arabs, especially the youth, targeting them continuously with the message that their identity and allegiance should be with the PA alone. At the PA initiative, there was a never ending agenda of PA - Israeli Arab meetings, contacts, educational programs, sporting events, conventions and cultural events that were being reported daily in the PA press and the message both explicit and implicit was always one of joint history, culture, and destiny.

When the PA decided to have a "Miss Palestine" contest in 1999, they included Israeli Arabs girls. Moreover, they made sure that 6 out of the 10 finalist and the winner, were all Israeli Arabs. When they set up a national soccer team, the Coach was an Israeli Arab from Nazareth. There were numerous organizations and programs in the PA whose sole purpose was to promote this involvement and identity, including "Committee for Relations with 1948", "Children without Borders", "Contacts between the members of a United People", "Relations without Borders" - all of which had ongoing activities whose purpose was, according to the PA daily: "to increase the contact and affinity between the members of the Palestinian people in the West Bank, the 'Inside' [Israel] and the 'Gaza Strip'. [Al Quds, May 24, 1999]. In Arafat's office there was a special wing, called 'the Committee for Contacts with the Residents of Occupied Palestine'.

Terms like 'Inside Arabs' and the 'Residents of Occupied Palestine' are all PA euphemisms for Israeli Arabs. The PA denied the possibility of the existence of an 'Israeli- Arab' writing in one 1999 editorial - "there can not be an Israeli Arab. How can the executioner and the victim be one?" [Al Hayat Al Jadida August 18, 1999]

The PA was careful to send representatives to events that were internal to Israeli Arabs. Numerous graduation ceremonies in Jerusalem and the Galil had no representative of Israel's Ministry of Education but did have a PA representative:

"A year end ceremony in a Jerusalem school was held in the presence of the PA Ministry of Education representative and the Palestinian national anthem was sounded." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 25, 1999]

The opening gestures by the PA were actively accepted by Israel's Arab leaders who joined in urging Israeli Arab youth to reject any Israeli identity they may have considered. MK Azami Bashara, for example when campaigning in Israel, marched with tens of Israeli Arab youth holding PA flags. He explained on television that were they to lose their Palestinian identity, all that would remain would be their family and tribal identity, but not an 'Israeli-Arab' identity, because 'there is no such identity.' Speaking to Arab youth he said "The blue card [Israeli ID card] you have in your pocket is not an identity card; it is a residence card."

In the election campaign of 1999, the Israeli Arab leadership fought for the votes of Israeli Arabs by competing in their denial of an Israeli identity. Rowya Habibi, the daughter of Emil Habibi who was so Israeli he had been awarded the Israel Prize, said in a TV broadcast of the Arab -BALAD political Party:

"They dressed us in blue and white clothes, the flag of Israel. I don't know, maybe they incarcerated my brain & they educated us to believe that we are Israeli Arabs. I had a confused identity, I knew it but I didn't understand: I am a Palestinian Arab."

And a similar message in the Arab Hadash Party broadcast:

"There are people who want to drive me crazy. On the one hand I am one of the Israeli Arabs and on the other hand I am one of the "1948 Arabs". What nonsense, why should you determine who I am? I am a person, a Palestinian Arab, and they will not succeed in confusing me."

The PA initiated the process of 'de-Israelizing' Israel's Arabs and found in them, willing partners. This happened openly, starting immediately after the establishment of the PA, under the eyes of the Israeli government who did nothing to try and preserve the allegiance of its citizens. Already in 1999 the PA had been so successful that Al Quds, a PA newspaper, summed up Israeli Arab attitudes in these words: "This state [Israel] is not their state, its interests are not their interests, its symbols are not their symbols, its policy is not their policy." [Al Quds, April 20, 1999]

Tragically, even if this did not reflect all Israeli Arab attitudes then, it may well be the case in the not too distant future.

FULL ARTICLES

AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM BALKS AT ISRAELI FLYOVER

Auschwitz Museum Balks at Israeli Flyover
The Associated Press
September 3, 2003

The museum at the former Auschwitz death camp today criticized a planned flyover by Israeli F-15 fighter jets during this week's ceremony in remembrance of victims.

"It's a cemetery, a place of silence and concentration," a museum spokesman, Jaroslaw Mensfelt, said. He called the planned flyover "a demonstration of military might which is an entirely inappropriate way to commemorate the victims."

The Israeli Embassy in Warsaw said three Israeli jets piloted by descendants of Holocaust survivors would fly over the former camp at noon on Thursday. They were to be joined by two Polish MIG-29 jets.

Israel defended the flyover, citing cooperation between Israel and Poland to remember those who perished at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.

"It's a joint Israeli-Polish initiative and for a noble cause," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jonathan Peled, said.

Mr. Mensfelt said the museum was not consulted about the flyover. He said the International Auschwitz Council, an advisory body to the museum, also "does not support such a way to commemorate the victims."

 

IAF JETS TO STAGE FLY-OVER AT AUSCHWITZ DESPITE MUSEUM IRE

IAF jets to stage fly-over at Auschwitz despite museum ire
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Corespondent and Agencies
Ha'aretz
September 4, 2003

Israeli Air Force pilots, descendents of Holocaust survivors, are to fly warplanes over the wartime Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz Thursday, despite criticism by the Polish museum located at the site.

In a step intended to honor the memory of the millions of Jews killed in the World War II Holocaust, three IAF F-15 jets are to fly over the site in southern Poland.

"The National Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau deplores the demonstration of Israeli military might in this place," the Polish museum said in a statement issued Wednesday.

"It's a cemetery, a place of silence and concentration," museum spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt said by telephone.

"Flying the [F-15s] is a demonstration of military might which is an entirely inappropriate way to commemorate the victims."

A statement from the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw said that the three jets - piloted by descendants of Holocaust survivors - will fly over the former death camp at noon Thursday. They will be joined by two Polish MiG-29 jets, Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman Sharon Feingold said.

During the fly-over, organizers planned to read off the names of victims who arrived at Auschwitz exactly 60 years ago, on September 4, 1943. Pages of testimony on the victims are to be carried by the pilots in their planes, Feingold said.

Israel's ambassador to Poland, Shevach Weiss, insisted that the overflight was not a demonstration of Israeli air power.

"They will fly over the camp for about a second to honor the ashes of their fathers and grandfathers. This will be a very emotional moment for them. They will probably be crying in the planes. This is not a demonstration of military power. Our army simply wants to honor the victims," the envoy told Reuters.

Both the IDF and Foreign Ministry defended the fly-over plans, citing cooperation between Israel and Poland to remember the more than one million people who perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the vast majority of them Jews, from 1940 until its liberation on January 27, 1945. A total of six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

Some 200 IDF soldiers also are to take part in a ceremony at Birkenau, the former death camp adjacent to Auschwitz, according to Israeli officials.

"It's a joint Israeli-Polish initiative and for a noble cause," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said. "We share a tragic history, and obviously it's being done in full cooperation."

Organizers said the idea of the overflight was prompted purely by the coincidence of the planes being in Poland for the air show.

Mensfelt said that the museum had not been consulted about the fly-over. He added that the International Auschwitz Council, an advisory body to the museum headed by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, an Auschwitz survivor and former Polish foreign minister, also "does not support such a way to commemorate the victims."

 

ISRAEL MAKES PLANS FOR BROAD SPACE CAPABILITIES

Israel Makes Plans for Broad Space Capabilities
By Barbara Opall in Rome
Space News, Business section
August 25, 2003

Israel's Ministry of Defense (MoD) is overseeing development and production of four separate satellites, all of which are planned for completion by 2008, along with technologies and subsystems for a constellation of small, modular spacecraft capable of working as a team to satisfy multiple mission requirements.

According to the MoD roadmap, an unclassified portion of which was provided to Space News, Israel will complete its Ofeq-6 imaging satellite -- a follow-on to the Ofeq-5 electro-optical system launched in May 2002 -- in late 2004 or early 2005.

By 2008, MoD expects to complete the Ofeq-7 satellite, which officials here described as an entirely new generation of optical remote sensing, with extremely high resolutions.

Although officials here refused as a matter of security to discuss emerging capabilities of the Ofeq-5 or planned follow-on satellites, a source from Israel's scientific community said Israel was getting closer to the so-called defraction limit where light is defracted to a point where pictures cannot be captured.

"The defraction limit for visual range is close to 10 centimeters resolution. We're getting better resolutions all the time and getting closer to the limit, but we don't disclose details," the source said.

In addition to electro-optical satellites, Israel plans to complete a technology demonstrator satellite equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sometime in 2005 or 2006. The estimated 250 kilogram SAR demonstrator, dubbed TechSAR, will expand Israel's imaging options in all weather conditions and at night.

Elta Systems Ltd., Israel's leading radar development house, is developing the SAR payload.

Although MoD officials refused to discuss planned imaging capabilities of the satellite-based SAR system, Elta has advertised similar airborne and ground-based payloads as "producing high resolution radar images which approach photographic quality and operate as true all-weather, day and night sensors capable of penetrating clouds, rain, smoke and a variety of man-made camouflage."

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Haim Eshed, head of space programs at Israel's MoD, said Israel's military users want the ability to image areas of interest in the day, at night and in all types of weather conditions. To satisfy this requirement, MoD aims to exploit the full spectrum of imaging capabilities, including increasingly high-resolution electro-optics, infrared, hyper-spectral, SAR and three-dimensional mapping.

"The idea is to create constellations of many satellites in a wide spectrum of wavelengths," Eshed said of the ministry's vision for future space programs.

A fourth satellite to fall under MoD's purview is a dedicated, secure military communications satellite; a larger and more capable version of the Amos-2 commercial communications satellite planned for launch later this year.

Eshed declined to provide additional details of the military communications satellite program. A uniformed officer from the Israel Defense Forces general staff said the satellite is planned for launch in 2007, provided that MoD continues to fully fund the program.

All four new satellites, as well as the commercial Amos-2, are being built by the MBT Division of Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., MoD's designated lead contractor for satellite systems.

In the realm of launchers, MoD has improved the reliability and lift capacity of its Shavit series, which Israel will use to loft the planned Ofeq satellites into low Earth orbit, officials here said.

However, Israel's planned military communications satellite -- which is expected to weigh more than two tons -- will have to be launched by a non-Israeli system capable of putting satellites of that size in geostationary orbit.

"We intend to keep improving our own indigenous ground-based launch capabilities for mini satellites," Eshed said, in reference to the class of satellites weighing from 100 kilograms to 500 kilograms.

For the larger satellites, such as Amos-2 and the planned military communications satellite, Eshed noted, "We will not launch geostationary. For this, we will have to go to outside providers."

Regarding Israel's vision for future military space, Eshed said MoD is pursuing multiple developments involving a low-cost satellite bus as well as myriad payloads and associated technologies aimed at deploying a constellation of small, modular satellites capable of satisfying a variety of military requirements.

In a July 30 interview, Eshed said he envisions a period not too long from now -- perhaps within five years -- when the Israel Air Force will be able to use fighter aircraft to launch on demand multiple satellites ranging in weight from tens of kilograms to no more than 100 kilograms.

According to this vision, MoD would hold in inventory a number of common satellite buses -- each costing $10 to $12 million -- whose modular payloads could be deployed for specific missions, depending on need. Ultimately, military users would have the capability to reprogram satellites for different missions through so-called smart software uplinked directly to satellites already in orbit.

"We're looking at multi-mission systems that essentially are plug and play, and we are really serious about this. We believe that in five or 10 years, we will be able to give a full, rapid and flexible response to the multiple needs of our users," Eshed told Space News.

Israel's emerging concept of operations for the constellation of modular, low Earth-orbiting satellites calls for dividing particular mission roles among two or three satellites, so that the sum of the cluster far exceeds the contribution of each individual spacecraft, according to specialists associated with Israel's Technion University in Haifa.

Dividing large payloads into separate pieces -- each of which flies together in clusters and maintains continuous communication and operational links with one another -- is known by professionals in the international aerospace community as formation flying. So far, this concept of operations remains largely theoretical, and has not been deployed for military purposes.

Nevertheless, Eshed said he believes Israel can deploy an effective operational cluster of satellites with shared communications, signals and other payloads within a decade.

In addition to modular, multimission satellites, MoD's ambitions for space include an anti-satellite capability to defend against potential jammers or space-based threats.

"Today, it is inconceivable to go to war without satellites. Therefore, there also is the need to address the future importance of a satellite protection system to defend against the possibility of attack or attempts to harm our own [space] capabilities," Eshed told a gathering of security and aerospace industry officials earlier this year, according to a transcript of Eshed's remarks provided by MoD.

To expedite implementation of MoD's roadmap for space, officials have identified several technologies earmarked for priority attention.

Technologies described by Eshed as "next generation building blocks of micro- and nanosatellites [aimed at] achieving a performance that today only bigger satellites possess" focus on miniaturization, data storage, wireless communications and new means of controlling the satellite in space.

FULL ARTICLES

SURVEY: 83% OF ISRAELIS SATISFIED WITH THEIR LIVES

Survey: 83% of Israelis satisfied with their lives
By Moti Bassok
Ha'aretz
September 3, 2003

A social survey made in 2002 showed that 83 percent of all adult Israelis are satisfied or very satisfied with their lives. The survey, commissioned by the Budgets Division of the Finance Ministry, and carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics, was conducted among 7,000 Israelis across the country, aged 20 years or older.

In terms of economic satisfaction, the survey showed that the older you are, the more likely you are to be satisfied with your lot - 64 percent of those 75 years old or older were satisfied with their economic status, while 56 percent of those 65-74 years old were satisfied, and only half of those in other age groups where satisfied.

However in households in which gross monthly income was less than NIS 2,000 per person, 77 percent were satisfied with their lives, with satisfaction declining with increasing age. In households in which gross monthly income per person was NIS 4,000 or more, 91 percent were satisfied or very satisfied with their lives and 38 percent of this group believed that their economic situation would improve.

Among those interviewed, 53 percent expressed optimism about the future, while 33 percent believed that their lives would not change, and 14 percent believed that their lives would change for the worse.

Among survey participants with academic education, 88 percent expressed satisfaction with their lives, compared to 66 percent of interviewees with no formal education.

The percentage of those expressing satisfaction with life was equal among married and non-married people, 85 percent, although the satisfaction rate was lower among divorced people (64 percent) and widows and widowers (64 percent).

In terms of health, the survey showed that 77 percent of the population defined its health as good or very good, although satisfaction with health declines with age and with lower income. Health problems, which were reported by 34 percent of those interviewed, were said to be more troublesome to people with lower incomes.

Among working adults, 82 percent reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their work. Among Jews, the rate of satisfaction was 82 percent as opposed to 73 percent among Arabs. Satisfaction with work was equal among those born in Israel and veteran immigrants. Among the immigrants, only 71 percent of those who arrived during the 1990s were satisfied, as opposed to 85 percent of immigrants who have lived in Israel for a longer period of time.

Satisfaction with work is greatest among people with higher education - 85 percent of those with academic education were reportedly satisfied with their professional lives, as opposed to 79 percent of those with a high school education or less.

Unemployment is a concern that was raised in the survey - 17 percent of the respondents worried that their jobs were in danger, 16 percent of Jews and 25 percent of Arabs. Among those who feared losing their jobs, 56 percent believed that they would have little or no chance of finding new work, at least not at their present income.

The survey revealed that 1 percent of adult Israelis do not have family, and that 0.5 percent do not meet family members or speak to them on the telephone. Among those who maintain family ties, 94 percent are satisfied with them. Of the adult population, 14 percent reported having no friends.

Among those who reported having friends, almost everyone expressed satisfaction with the relationship. However, 32 percent of interviewees reported feeling lonely often or sometimes. Women feel lonely more often than men, 38 percent against 26 percent, seniors more than younger people, and immigrants more than native-born Israelis. Thirteen percent of those interviewed said they had nowhere to turn in time of crisis.

Regarding housing, 80 percent of the population is satisfied with their housing; and 83 percent reported satisfactory relations with their neighbors. Among immigrants from the 1990s, 69 percent were satisfied with their housing as opposed to 86 percent of those born in Israel and 83 percent of veteran immigrants. On the matter of personal safety, 74 percent reported feeling secure walking at night around their neighborhood.

The survey revealed that 6 percent of the population defined itself as ultra-Orthodox, 10 percent as religious, 13 percent as religious-traditional, and 43 percent as non-religious.

Among Arab Israelis, 10 percent identified themselves as very religious, 49 percent as religious, 22 percent as not very religious, and 20 percent as non-religious.

 

"THE ECONOMIST": ISRAELI RECOVERY IN SECOND HALF OF 2004

"The Economist": Israeli recovery in second half of 2004
The "Economist Intelligence Unit" predicts 2.5% growth in 2004 and a 5.3% of GDP budget deficit in 2003.

By Zeev Klein
Published by Globes
August 31, 2003

The "Economist Intelligence Unit" predicts that Israel's economic growth will accelerate to 2.5% in 2004 as domestic demand and exports pick up slightly. The report is dated August 28. The "Economist Intelligence Unit" revised its growth forecast for 2004 to 2.5%, in line with the Ministry of Finance forecast, compared with weak growth of 0.8% in 2003.

The "Economist Intelligence Unit" states that renewed growth is contingent upon increased exports and domestic demand, but the signs of export growth are less than predicted. The "Economist Intelligence Unit" states that the recovery in tourism, and the export of services, due to the rise in demand for high-tech products, should offset the decline in government consumption.

The "Economist Intelligence Unit" estimates that the budget deficit will reach 5.3% of GDP, or NIS 27 billion, in 2004, almost double the official target. The "Economist Intelligence Unit" believes that the government will not meet its 3% deficit target for 2004, because the coalition structure will not permit deep cuts in government spending.

" The government has begun to implement reforms introduced in the May 2003 economic reform plan. However, further deep fiscal cuts will be required in the 2004 budget if the deficit target of 3% of GDP for that year is to be met," states the "Economist Intelligence Unit", adding that a budget cut of NIS 11.5 billion will be necessary to meet the 3% deficit target for 2004.

 

PROCTOR & GAMBLE MAY EXPAND INVESTMENT, PURCHASING IN ISRAEL

Procter & Gamble may expand investment, purchasing in Israel

Procter & Gamble Israel CEO Jose Carlos Gonzalez Hurtado: Proctor & Gamble is committed to Israel.

By Hadas Manor
Published by Globes
September 3, 2003

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) may expand its investment and broaden its activities in Israel, by increasing its purchases from Israeli companies. Proctor & Gamble vice president will consider the matter on an upcoming visit to Israel. Procter & Gamble Israel CEO Jose Carlos Gonzalez Hurtado made the comments at a meeting yesterday with Minister of Industry Trade and Labor Ehud Olmert. Olmert asked Proctor & Gamble to expand its investment in Israel, through cooperation with, and purchases from, Israeli companies.

Gonzalez Hurtado said Proctor & Gamble "is committed to Israel, despite the problems a multinational company faces when it wants to open business in Israel."

Gonzalez Hurtado told Olmert that the Israeli market was attractive for multinational companies, which considered Israel to be a dynamic, competitive, and knowledgeable market with promising growth potential. Nevertheless, multinational companies face certain obstacles, some of them bureaucratic.

Gonzalez Hurtado added that the immediate beneficiary of the improved situation would be the Israeli consumer, who will be exposed to a broader range of high quality products, as in other countries.

Proctor & Gamble opened its Israeli office in September 2001, subsequently expanding its market share and intensifying competition for a range of consumer products, such as disposable diapers. Proctor & Gamble sells the premium Pampers diaper brand.

 

TOURISM MINISTRY REPORTS RISE IN INCOMING TOURISM

Tourism Ministry reports rise in incoming tourism
519,900 tourists entered Israel in the first seven months of 2003.
Published by Globes
August 24, 2003

Recent statistics indicate that the trend of a recovery in the movement of tourists to Israel is continuing. 113,000 tourists entered Israel in July 2003, up 54% over July 2002 and slightly greater than the figure for July 2001.

The numbers of incoming tourists in April, May and June of this year were up 17%, 36% and 44%, respectively, over the same months last year.

519,900 tourists entered Israel in the first seven months of 2003, a 10% increase over the same period last year.

Minister of Tourism Benny Elon said that current data strengthens ministry estimates that approximately 1.2 million tourists will enter Israel this year.

 

TEL AVIV WORLD'S 30TH MOST EXPENSIVE CITY

"Yediot Ahronot": Tel Aviv world's 30th most expensive city - survey
The survey by UBS finds that Oslo is the most expensive city in the world.
Published by Globes
August 24, 2003

The Yediot Ahronot Hebrew daily reports that a new UBS survey ranks Oslo as the most expensive city in the world. Nothing there is free even a visit to the public restroom costs 10 kroner (NIS 5.50).

Oslo has now passed Tokyo, the leader in the preceding survey, as the most expensive city in the world. Tokyo was in third place in the current survey.

The survey placed Hong Kong in second place and New York in fourth, followed by Copenhagen and London. Tel Aviv came a respectable 30th. The cheapest cities in the survey were Buenas Aires and Bombay.

UBS's Prices and Earnings survey compares income and the cost of living , based on a basket of 111 products and services, including food, clothing, public transportation, and housing.

 

ISRAELIS SPENT $430M IN US IN 2002

"Yediot Ahronot": Israelis spent $430m in US in 2002
Published by Globes
August 19, 2003

According to figures sent to US President George W. Bush as part of the struggle against the administration's stricter visa policy.

Hebrew daily "Yediot Ahronot" cites figures sent to US President George W. Bush indicating that Israeli visitors to the US spent $430 million in 2002. The report was part of the struggle being waged by Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) against the administration's stricter visa policy.

TIA sent President Bush a list of 22 leading countries of origin of foreign visitors in 2002. Israel was ranked 18th, with 263,097 visitors, amounting to 9.8% of all Israelis traveling to distant destinations overseas.

FULL ARTICLES

GREEK ISLE HONOURS QUAKE RESCUERS

Greek isle honours Israeli quake rescuers
By Karolos Grohmann
Reuters
August 18, 2003

ATHENS - It was a regular training exercise for the then newly founded Israeli navy with three frigates and one corvette sailing south of the Greek island of Crete.

But on the evening of August 12, 1953, the squadron's commanding officer, Admiral Shlomo Erel, intercepted a distress signal from the western Greek island of Cephalonia which had been hit by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.

Erel and many of his sailors returned to Cephalonia on Sunday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the quake, which completely destroyed the island's capital Argostoli and damaged many villages. At least 500 people died, with some figures putting the death toll at more than 1,000.

"We immediately abandoned our exercise and rushed to their help, and when we arrived some hours later we saw an island that was completely flattened," Erel remembered.

"When we saw the situation on the island I dispatched one frigate to act as hospital ship and ferry the injured to the port city of Patras," Erel told Reuters in an telephone interview. "The other ships helped with the evacuation.

"It was a strange feeling when we approached the island," Erel said. The sea was calm, the sun was up and nothing hinted at the destruction that had occurred on the picturesque Ionian island, which sits on one of the world's most active faults.

"Nothing, apart from the fact that we could observe cliffs sliding down to the sea and huge gaps in the rocky coastline," Erel said.

Last Thursday, a tremor measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit the neighbouring island of Lefkada, damaging hundreds of houses and injuring at least 40 people.

FIRST ISRAELI HUMANITARIAN MISSION

Erel's ships managed to evacuate more than 300 injured islanders and the sailors treated more than 1,000 injured on the spot during their three-day stay on Cephalonia before Greek, British and American vessels arrived to help.

Gerasimos Pefanis, who at the time worked for the Greek telephone company, said the town had been turned into a mountain of rubble. "The sun was covered by the dust and it was like it was night-time," he told reporters. "I was covered by rubble for hours before being rescued."

Erel's rescue operation, which Greek officials on Sunday praised as heroic, was also the then infant state's first humanitarian mission.

"The injured on an open area at the port were shouting 'Israel, Israel' and to be honest this operation made a lot of people aware that we also had a navy," he said.

"Even (then Prime Minister) Ben Gurion came on board when we returned and he sat in my cabin for hours listening to our story," the retired admiral said.

"He then said we had proved that Israel was part of the area by the fact that we helped a nation with which we didn't have formal relations."

 

WOMEN SHINE IN ISRAELI ARMY

Women shine in Israeli army
By Margaret Coker
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
August 17, 2003

REHAV ARMY POST, Israel -- On a break from the searing midday heat along Israel's parched border with Jordan, soldiers of a special Israeli military unit debate who best exemplifies the machismo and bravery -- in army slang, "rabaak" -- for which Israel's fighters are legendary.

"Really tough. Can carry twice their weight up a mountain. Gives 120 percent for the platoon. Definitely more 'rabaak' than anyone," pronounce the warriors as they nominate their candidates for the squad's hardiest member.

These brothers-in-arms conversations are heard among soldiers worldwide. What's unusual is these objects of admiration are women.

Since a landmark 1995 Israeli court ruling struck down the "men-only" rule for combat units, the Israeli Defense Forces have begun integrating women into front-line platoons, opening up more challenging ways for them to serve their country.

The most prominent example of integration is the Karakal brigade, where women outnumber men in three infantry companies that protect Israeli's eastern frontier. Still, the unit's success has not ended debate about the proper role of women in the army, quieted worries about female prisoners of war or shattered the military establishment's glass ceiling.

"I grew up in a family of fighters, and I was raised to believe it's what I should dedicate my life to," said Haddas, a 20-year-old Karakal trooper whose American father, a Pittsburgh native, flew U.S. Navy planes before emigrating to Israel in 1968.

"We are working to prove ourselves," she said. "Some are hard to convince that women should be in combat."

Agreeing to extra military service is not all that sets apart the women from Karakal. The sisters-in-arms' heightened sense of duty and tenacity was apparent in a day on patrol with Haddas' squadron in the Jordan River valley south of the Dead Sea.

Those with afternoon patrol duty wince at the thought of enduring the summer's 110-degree heat in their body armor and helmets.

Haddas' squad and two others in her platoon were formed nearly 1 1/2 years ago during their four-month basic training -- where they showed themselves as well as their male commanders what kind of "rabaak" they could muster.

"I was always athletic, but this was tough. We didn't sleep, we were pushed and pushed. One day, it broke me, but my friends were there to help me out," Haddas said.

The mental and physical strains of the instruction bonded the soldiers as tightly as U.S. Marines and convinced once-skeptical commanders about their abilities.

"They are motivated, they are smart. They can do everything required, and then some," said Ari, the officer of Haddas' squad.

The Karakal company will be stationed at Rehav post, a ramshackle collection of prefabricated bunking quarters and trailers serving as a mess hall and briefing room, for the next year. Standing three-quarters the way up a craggy cliff located south of the major Israeli resort area along the sea, the base offers an unparalleled view of the barren frontier.

For Haddas and her sisters-in-arms, however, the spot is too sleepy to meet their ambitions as fighters. In the last year patrols have encountered only two men trying to sneak in from Jordan.

The sensitive issue of having women taken prisoner is a factor in keeping the Karakal soldiers out of the occupied territories. With almost daily combat between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, military casualties are a fact of life. So far, one female combat soldier, 19-year-old Keren Yakobi, has been killed while guarding a Jewish settlement in Hebron, a highly charged area where militant Jewish settlers and Palestinian residents frequently clash.

Haddas says getting a chance to serve in Hebron or Gaza, where more than 60 percent of skirmishes and military confrontations have occurred in the nearly three years of renewed fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, is the ultimate goal. Israeli brass say Karakal has not had enough training time to be assigned such a dangerous posting.

"In the U.S. Army you see the girls going everywhere and doing all things. I know it sounds bad, but one day I hope they'll transfer us to the hot places too. I want to have a chance to prove myself and show everyone what I've learned," Haddas said.

FULL STORIES

ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN JAPAN FOR FOOTBALL AND FRIENDSHIP

Israeli and Palestinian children in Japan for football and friendship
By Midoriko Morita and Elaine Lies in Tokyo
The Scotsman
August 23, 2003

Violence may be escalating in Israel and Palestine but children from both sides found friendship on a Japanese football field yesterday.

For 22 children - 11 from Israel and 11 from Palestine - sport won over politics as they and Japanese children struggled for control of footballs in the steamy summer heat. "It was fun and I feel very happy that we played together," said Tzah Ben-Menechem, an 11-year-old Israeli boy.

Others, such as his nine-year-old compatriot, Ryan Whbee, had more complicated feelings. "This is the first time that I meet them. I play with them, it's not easy," he said. "But when we play and meet each other, we began to feel more easy."

Four mixed teams of Israelis, Palestinians and Japanese played two games as part of a week-long programme to promote Middle East peace at the grassroots level.

The effort is the brainchild of Daitetsu Koike, a Buddhist monk and president of Takasaki University of Art and Music north of Tokyo, who, inspired by the universal nature of football, decided to bring the children over from their homelands.

"All children play soccer, and through this they could communicate," he said. "It's now become hard for both Israelis and Palestinians to think about peace at home."

The week-long programme of football matches, camping, concerts and stays with Japanese families was paid for by donations from Japanese individuals.

Against the background of renewed violence at home, it was clear that changing things might be difficult. But to those taking part, the troubles underscored the real importance of what they were trying to accomplish.

"It is very important today, what we are having here," said Waleed Siam, ambassador at the Mission of Palestine in Japan.

"They take back to their own societies how important [it is] that we have to shake hands and have peace."

 

ARGENTINE FA URGES FIFA TO REJECT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ISRAEL

[Simon Wiesenthal Center Press release]

Argentine Football Association President to Wiesenthal Centre: "I Urge FIFA to Reject and Repudiate All Forms of Discrimination of the State of Israel in International Football"

Buenos Aires
July 25, 2003

A Wiesenthal Centre Delegation composed of Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Director of International Liaison Dr. Shimon Samuels and Latin American Representative Sergio Widder, met with Argentine Football Association (AFA) President, Julio Grondona.

Grondona apologized for any antisemitic insinuation he had made in a Recent statement. The Centre had protested his claim that "there were no Jewish referees in Argentine football as Jews did not like difficult work."

Declaring remorse for any offence, Grondona agreed to invoke his Position as First Vice-President of FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) and Chairman of its Budget Committee, to ensure equal treatment for the Israeli Football Association (IFA) within the international federation.

Grondona proceeded to address a letter, in the name of AFA, to FIFA President Joseph Blatter, stating that, "in view of concern that the Sister State of Israel might suffer any form of discrimination, AFA, loyal to its unalterable tradition, repudiates and rejects the slightest such display or insinuation."

There was intense pressure last season from Arab Associations to expel Israel from FIFA.

Grondona's letter continued, "my position, and that of the entire AFA executive, has always backed an anti-discriminatory policy. Football promotes an unrestrictive and full union among people... without differences of race, skin colour, religion or flag."

In a separate letter, Grondona responded to Dr. Samuels' proposal that "Red Card Against Racism" campaigns in Europe to contain football-related violence be applied to Latin America. Grondona committed the AFA to "a programme promoting tolerance and coexistence in the football community to focus on youth," in cooperation with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

 

ISRAEL OK'S STATUS OF 'BLACK HEBREWS'

Israel OKs Status of 'Black Hebrews'
By Jill Lawless
The Associated Press
July 29, 2003

DIMONA, Israel - Israel's "Black Hebrews," a close-knit group of vegan polygamists who arrived in the country from the United States in 1969, are celebrating the government's announcement that they are finally eligible for citizenship in the Jewish state.

In the desert town of Dimona in southern Israel, home to about 1,500 Black Hebrews, there was a feeling Monday that a 34-year history of statelessness was coming to an end with news of their permanent resident status.

"There's going to be a lot of dancing, singing, shouting and eating," said former Chicagoan Adiv Ben-Yehuda. "It's the greatest day since the community arrived in Israel."

Other members of the 2,500-strong group live in Arad and Mitzpeh Ramon, other towns in Israel's south.

As permanent residents, members will be able to serve in the Israeli army and establish their own residential communities, an Interior Ministry statement said. Ministry spokeswoman Tova Ellinson said that under normal practice, permanent resident status would lead to full citizenship after an unspecified period of time.

"We're ready to take on responsibilities and obligations as permanent members of the community," said Ben-Yehuda, 50, a former college basketball player with two wives and 12 children. His American drawl is undimmed after 30 years in Israel.

The exodus from Chicago of the Black Hebrews - the self-styled African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem - is one of the stranger odysseys of the 1960s.

About 350 black Americans left the United States in 1967 as followers of Ben Carter, a Chicago bus driver who changed his name to Ben Ammi Ben-Israel after receiving, he said, a visitation from the angel Gabriel informing him he was God's representative on Earth.

Believing that African-Americans are one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, Ben Ammi and his followers set out - first for Liberia in West Africa; then, their numbers diminished, for Israel in 1969.

The group's members dress in colorful, self-made clothes, practice polygamy, shun birth control, and refrain from eating meat, dairy products, eggs and sugar.

The new arrivals met with skepticism and bafflement from many Israelis. A succession of Israeli interior ministers resisted upgrading the Black Hebrews' status as temporary residents, with limited legal and civil rights.

Arriving in Israel on tourist visas, they lived through the 1970s and 1980s unrecognized by the government as Jews and occasionally deported by the dozen after their visas expired.

Housed in a huddle of bungalows in a former immigrant reception center in Dimona - a poverty-stricken town in the Negev desert - the Black Hebrews persevered. They established businesses in crafts and tailoring, formed a respected gospel choir, started a factory producing tofu ice cream and set up several vegan restaurants.

Several members made headlines. Two Black Hebrew singers represented Israel in the annual Eurovision song festival in 1999. Another singer was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack at a Jewish family celebration in the Israeli city of Hadera on January 17, 2002.

"The original group is still here, and we've been able to teach the next generation how to govern themselves," said 64-year-old Prince Elkanann, one of the 1969 arrivals.

"I'm satisfied with the choices I've made," said Elkanann, who like other members of his community gave up his American name and his U.S. passport after joining the group. "Anything you want, you have to sacrifice for."

Over the years, the group has accumulated high-profile supporters - politician Jesse Jackson campaigned for them to receive Israeli citizenship, and singer Whitney Houston visited them this May.

In 1990, the group was given temporary resident status - allowing them to receive social benefits and government support for their 600-pupil school and other facilities - on condition no more members of the group came form the United States.

The group's members insist they want to play a full part in Israeli society. Their children grow up speaking Hebrew and American-accented English. Several are at Israeli universities.

The community has outgrown the cramped bungalows of their original home, and hopes to move next year to a newly built neighborhood on the outskirts of town. Their new status allows them to solve their housing crisis by building their own village if they choose.

FULL ARTICLE

HASIDIC SOAP OPERA

Hasidic Soap Opera
By Neil Bar-Or
The Associated Press
August 15, 2003

It's got the power struggles, intrigue, love triangles and plot twists of any soap opera. But in the world's first Hasidic "telenovella" -- as soaps are known in Israel -- there are no steamy love scenes and dialogue is peppered with "praise the Lord."

The first half-hour episode of "The Rebbe's Court" aired Thursday on Azure, a new Israeli cable channel focusing on Jewish issues. The show is set in a community of Hasidic Jews in Tel Aviv and portrays a world normally closed to outsiders.

Uri Orbach, the channel's program director, said the show's goal is to entertain, but narrowing Israel's religious-secular divide is a welcome byproduct. "You see the ultra-Orthodox as real people," he said.

Many Israelis believe the culture clash between Orthodox and secular Jews is one of the nation's most pressing problems. Each side feels its way of life is threatened by the other, and decades of animosity have left the two groups with little common language.

"The Rebbe's Court" opens to traditional music played to a rock beat. The main plot centers on Hanoch, the son-in-law of community leader Rabbi Azriel Rutenberg. Hanoch, who is married to the beautiful Zippora, is expelled from the community and reluctantly settles in the secular world after being falsely accused of gambling with $250,000 of the community's funds.

Zippora believes in Hanoch's innocence, and resists matchmakers' efforts to find her a new husband. Meanwhile, her younger sister Ruhi is plotting to snare Hanoch for herself -- and that's just in the first of 26 episodes.

The show also addresses the tensions between secular and religious Jews in Israel.

A police officer who arrests Hanoch at an illegal gambling club tells him contemptuously: "You Hasids, you don't serve in the army because you're too busy studying Torah. But you have time for gambling, huh? Your Torah allows that?"

Later, a detective demands to be allowed into the rabbi's seminary to investigate the burning of bus stops carrying immodest advertising and attacks by ultra-Orthodox Jews on archaeologists digging up ancient graves. Both are real-life issues in Israel.

Oded Menaster, who plays a young Hasidic man named Gedalia, said the show helps build bridges: "It shows that Hasidic Jews are real people and that we all have something to learn from the other."

Actress Ranana Raz, who plays Zippora, said the soap's steamy story lines are difficult to portray in the Hasidic setting, where men and women refrain even from casual touching. "It is challenging to show desire when you can't do things in the normal manner. The eyes talk a lot," she told Israel TV.

Menaster said the limitations make "The Rebbe's Court" more exciting than a run-of-the-mill soap.

"In a secular soap opera, a character like mine chases a girl, he gets her and that's it. In our show it's all about subtlety, slowness and respect. I try to make Zippora be with me, but it's in a very slow and respectful way. There's always a distance."

Orbach said that's the point. "There's no vulgarity on our channel," he said.

Azure -- named for a dye sacred in biblical tradition -- went on the air five months ago, with $5 million from private investors, including Israeli businessman Shlomo Ben-Tzvi and U.S. cosmetics tycoon Ron Lauder.

Orbach said Azure fills a niche. "There's a history channel and a sports channel. Judaism is very important and we didn't have a channel that gives a point of view. This (channel) says Judaism belongs to everyone," he said.

Azure broadcasts 18 hours a day, including several hours of original programming. Only about 5 percent of the 50,000 subscribers are ultra-Orthodox, the strictest level of observance in Judaism. The remainder are either secular or followers of other streams of Judaism who -- unlike the ultra-Orthodox -- take part in mainstream society.

Ironically, the subjects of the soap opera, Hasidic Jews, probably won't be watching: Their rabbis do not allow them to own television sets.

Orbach said he expects word-of-mouth to change that. "Maybe they'll find good neighbors to let them see the program," he said. "They will not be able to resist temptation."

FULL ARTICLES

FRANCE'S GUILT

France's guilt
Opinion
The Daily Telegraph
September 1, 2003

There can be few more inauspicious starts to an embassy abroad than that of Gerard Araud, the incoming French envoy to Israel.

M. Araud is reported as telling two colleagues that the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is a "lout'' and that the Israelis are "paranoid".

The Quai d'Orsay has vigorously denied these comments, but there is no doubt that such attitudes are not uncommon in the French diplomatic corps - exemplified by the description of Israel as a "shitty little country" by Daniel Bernard, the former French ambassador to London.

It is a measure of how deep-rooted these attitudes are that M Araud had been viewed as one of France's more pro-Israel officials, after serving in the cabinet of the pro-Zionist former defence minister, François Léotard.

How are such attitudes to be explained? There is certainly much "clientitis", in the sense that there are many Arab countries and only one Jewish state. Indeed, France's ambassador to Israel during the first Gulf war, Alain Pierret, wrote a book describing how difficult it was to obtain a hearing for the Israeli case within his own government.

The size of France's burgeoning Muslim population plays a part, too. Consequently, it is hard to imagine the incoming French ambassador to Damascus dismissing Bashar Assad of Syria, the head of totalitarian state, in the same fashion.

And then there is the ideological component. Many Europeans suffer from post-colonial guilt, France's elite particularly so because of Algeria. It is not so much influenced by Marx or Jesus, but rather by Frantz Fanon, the apostle of decolonisation. His book The Wretched of the Earth has conditioned several generations into accepting the notion that the natives must liberate themselves from white oppression through violence.

French politicians who deviate from this consensus are rapidly brought into line, as exemplified by the lack of support which prime minister Lionel Jospin received from French diplomats when he described Hizbollah as a terrorist organisation in February 2000.

Indeed, one of the reasons for the abjectness of British policy towards Iran and Syria is the feeling that we, too, need to compete with France for the affections of what is called the "Muslim world".

 

FRENCH AMBASSADOR CALLS ISRAEL "PARANOID"

French ambassador calls Israel 'paranoid' and Sharon 'a lout'
By Ohad Gozani in Tel Aviv
Daily Telegraph, U.K.
September 1, 2003

France's new ambassador to Israel caused a diplomatic row with his hosts yesterday after he was reported to have described the Jewish state as "paranoid" and called its prime minister, Ariel Sharon, "a lout".

Limor Livnat, Israel's education minister, said the remarks attributed to Gerard Araud were "very grave". If true, she said, Israel should refuse to accept his letter of accreditation.

The row is reminiscent of comments by Daniel Bernard, the former French ambassador to London. He caused a storm in December 2001 after being heard at a dinner party speaking of "that shitty little country, Israel".

M Araud's comments appear to have been made in a similarly unguarded moment. Boaz Bissmuth, a correspondent for the mass circulation Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, reported hearing M Araud talk disparagingly about Israel in conversation with two other French diplomats during a recent cocktail party in Paris.

The newspaper said M Araud did not know an Israeli journalist was there. When Mr Bissmuth introduced himself, he said M Araud tried to dissuade him from reporting what he heard because it was a private occasion.

The reporter said he decided to publish them because they reflected a possible bias on the part of an envoy of "a key European Union member state".

According to the Yediot report, M Araud also tried to explain that he meant Israel "has become paranoid because of what it has gone through".

In a statement, the French foreign ministry spokesman, Hervé Ladsous, said: "Gerard Araud denies in the most formal way all of the comments attributed to him by an Israeli journalist with respect to the state of Israel and its prime minister".

 

FRANCE: NO PROOF HAMAS ARE A TERROR GROUP

France: No proof Hamas and Islamic Jihad are terror groups
The Jerusalem Post
August 25, 2003

France voices objections to placing Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the European Union's list of terror organizations, ynet [ynet is the online news service of Yediot Ahronot, Israel's best-selling newspaper -- TG] reported Monday.

Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that these two organizations are terror groups. "If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand," said Gourdault-Montagne. "However, we mustn't limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position."

Over the weekend, Zvilli met with Gourdault-Montagne, said to be Chirac right hand man, as part of Israeli lobbying efforts to include the two Palestinian organizations in the EU terror list. Some two months ago, the EU added the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian and Izzadin al-Kassam - Hamas' military wing, to its list. This enables European countries to freeze these groups' assets, as well as impose other sanctions upon them.

France, which has consistently objected to placing Hizbullah on the European Union's list is also, according to Gourdault-Montagne, opposed to placing both Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the EU list, and believes Israel ought to deal with its terror threats through political, rather than military, channels.

Officials of the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed outrage at the French position. "Such an attitude is one of criminal negligence. It refuses to assume responsibility over the war against and thus legitimizes terrorism." They added that the EU's statement, issued in response to last Tuesday's deadly terror attack, does not mention Hamas by name, limiting its condemnation obscurely to "groups which have taken themselves outside the rule of law".

Officials of the French Embassy in Israel have retorted by claiming the French position remains unchanged. The military wing of Hamas, they say, is and ought to be on The EU terror list.

Conversely, Israel is demanding that all Hamas wings be included in the list, claiming there is no real difference between them.

 

THE PITY OF FRANCE

The pity of France
By Bret Stephens
The Jerusalem Post
August 28, 2003

"I'll tell you a big secret, mon cher. Don't wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day." - Albert Camus in The Fall

Toward France, as toward a spiteful uncle felled by stroke and partially paralyzed, one can be of two minds: contemptuous, or pitying. What France is getting in its summer of discontent, it had coming. What France is learning about itself, the rest of us have long known. After 9-11, there were those in Europe who said, "There were good reasons for that." It's time to say the same about France.

This is an angry column, and perhaps in a year or two I will regret some its language. But I will also make an effort to recall that in the month it was written, Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad vied for the credit of murdering 21 Orthodox Jews, and France refused to cut off the sources of funding to either group. I will recall, too, that at the French Cultural Center in east Jerusalem, which is affiliated with the French Consulate, student poems celebrate the "pure blood of the martyrs," and these are posted for everyone to see.

So my sympathy for France is not great, which is why I review some recent headlines with satisfaction. August 26: "French trade edge slips: central bank cites shorter workweek." August 21: "France joins 3 neighbors in an economic decline: Quarterly results worse than expected." July 11: "Events halted amid strikes in France." July 8: "France sinks deeper into state deficit."

Other headlines arouse different feelings. August 25: "Heat leaves Paris with many dead unclaimed." August 21: "Taking grim stock of heat's toll." August 19: "French health official quits, blaming politics."

Obviously there is no pleasure to be taken in the fact that between five and 10 thousand French men and women, most of them elderly, poor and living alone, succumbed this summer to the terrible heat. But here too one must also point a finger. Where were these people's children as they were suffocating in oven-like apartments? They were on holiday. And what happened when they got the awful news? "Informed of the death of relatives, some [vacationers] postponed funerals to avoid interrupting the Aug. 15 holiday weekend, and left the bodies in the refrigerated hall," went a report by John Tagliabue in The International Herald Tribune.

Such are the customs of France. We are talking about a country that insists on its "exception," which is only true in the sense that it actually conforms to every caricature about it: vain, cowardly, conniving, intellectually superficial, self-deceiving, politically and socially corrupt, with low moral standards (except when it comes to standing in judgment over the rest of the world), fundamentally anti-American and pervasively anti-Semitic.

But I understate.

This is country where last year one in five voters - that is, 5.8 million people - gave their ballot to a Holocaust denier. This is a country where the Council of State recently ruled that Maurice Papon, the Vichy official who deported Jews to Auschwitz by the thousands before going on to bigger and better things in the Fifth Republic, just had his pension reinstated after serving a two-year jail sentence. This is a country that earlier this year united as one to oppose the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and cheers at every American setback. This is a country that seeks the leadership of a European Union whose rules it routinely flouts. This is a country that aspires to an alliance with Russia, China and other semi- or full-fledged dictatorships so that it can stick it in the eye of Washington and its "simplistic" president. This is a country in which the president, the prime minister, the minister of health, and the director general of health all were on vacation when a public-health catastrophe occurred.

And, as I said earlier, this is a country that's getting what it asked for. Other places on earth are subject to the odd canicule, or heat wave. This summer, the mean temperature in Paris was about what it was in Chicago and Detroit. Nobody was dying from heat in those cities. What made for the French "exception" in this case wasn't mother nature. It was government policy and the national culture that supports it.

How do I mean? Let's see. For years, France and the rest of the EU, in self-righteous hysteria over global warming, imposed draconian energy taxes to limit consumption. It worked. Among other things, low-income households could not afford the luxury of climatisation - air conditioning - and made do with fans and open windows. So in order to avoid the theoretical possibility of a warmer world 100 years hence, people are dying in their bedrooms from the warmer climate now. "The summer health crisis has underlined a new schism in society - between those with air conditioning and those without," says Chantal de Singly, director of the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris.

Then there's the 35-hour work week. This Socialist Party inspiration to distribute jobs more evenly has only increased labor costs. As a result, hospitals are chronically shortstaffed. A story in theWashington Post tells of conditions at the Retirement Home of La Muette in Paris, where five caretakers tended to 88 residents. "Even on normal days we're already running on a daily miracle," says La Muette's assistant director.

Let's also not forget the paid summer holiday, that most sacrosanct of French entitlements. Apparently it occurs to no one that people working in certain professions - hospital managers, for instance - have an ethical obligation to ensure their institutions are adequately staffed throughout the year. Instead, doctors and nurses, like everyone else, take off for the month, and whole wings of hospitals are shut down.

So we have stories like that of 70-year-old Monique Taupin. Feeling ill, she took herself to the hospital on a recent Saturday, which according to the IHT report was both understaffed and overcrowded. She went home that evening to her air-conditionless apartment, and was found dead by the police the next day. Only on Monday was her body removed for refrigeration, the delay owing to shortstaffing of city crews.

Keeping wholly within character, the French response to the crisis has been one part self-flagellation, and 10 parts whining. "It's not for Father State to take care of our elderly. It's up to us," wrote Renaud Girard in Le Figaro. But more typical was the view of Paul Campvert, president of the nursing homes association. "The government presents the problem as if the solution were private," he said. But the answer needs to be "collective, by means of taxes and contributions."

Pity, that. In their addiction to state subsidies - from unemployment insurance to pension plans to government make-work to corporate bailouts - the French are peerless. But the well's gone dry. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is bravely attempting to pare spending. He will not succeed. Future national crises will ultimately push this government into doing what French governments always do: capitulate.

At some point, of course, successive capitulations will lead to a general collapse. France may be eternal, but it's not for nothing that the current constitutional arrangement is known as the Fifth Republic. Its problem is not political. Nor is it social or economic. Its problem is Frenchness itself. Other countries confronted by militant trade unions, for instance, have broken them. That's what Margaret Thatcher did in Britain. Other countries confronted by a broken welfare system have fixed it. That's what Bill Clinton did in the US. Other countries whose governments were heavily invested in their own economies have sold off state assets. That's what Ernesto Zedillo did in Mexico.

But not France. Trade unionism, indulgences for the indolent, a collusive relationship between industry and government - that is France. So is the endless summer vacance, the short working hours, the general attitude of entitlement. In France, as in places like Japan, what's lacking isn't economic or educational or technological resources. These they have in spades. What they lack is an ability to change. Yes, France is eternal: the nation of Napoleon III is the same as the nation of Henri Petain is the same as the nation of Jacques Chirac. Progress has not intervened. The mindset that brought France to its crises of the 1930s operates today.

Fortunately for the rest of us, upon France's fate the world's no longer hinges. It has become a country that can be ignored, which no doubt is why it screams the loudest. No longer dangerous, it has become merely obnoxious. The pity of France is, it deserves our pity.