Impeached Blackhawks?

HATZOFE 1/28/99: "Israel has rejected a US proposal to purchase Black Hawk assault helicopters with some of the aid it had been promised in the wake of the Wye agreement.

Defense Ministry Director General Ilan Biran discussed the transfer of the special $1.2 billion in US aid a few days ago.

The amount was approved after the Wye agreement was signed in order to facilitate the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] redeployment in Judaea and Samaria.

A few days ago, administration officials asked Israel to use some of the special aid money to purchase Black Hawk assault helicopters.

The purpose of this is to ensure that, in his Congress trial, the US President will receive the assistance of two Democratic senators from Connecticut, where the helicopters are manufactured.

An Israeli purchase would enable the plant to continue to manufacture the helicopters.

The Defense Ministry said in reaction that "the special aid is under joint discussion by the US and Israeli authorities.

The defense establishment has presented its requests and priorities. A question was put forward regarding the Black Hawks, and Israel explained that its priorities include the Longbow helicopters."

Beilin speaks

Ramallah's AL AYYAM 1/23/99: "...[Al-Ayyam] You said in your book "Touching Peace" that the 1992 election was an accidental victory for the peace camp. You explained this by saying that the rightwing camp got more votes than the peace camp.

This division was strengthened four years later when the rightwing camp won the elections and got a majority despite the death of Rabin which had made many believe that his death would not be in vain but would strengthen, unite, and even save the peace camp from its crisis.

Why are you confident today that the peace camp, which was once defeated, will win this time? What has changed in the equation that favors the rightwing?

[Beilin][Yossi Beilin, Labor MK] The two camps are still evenly balanced. Netanyahu's victory was coincidental despite Rabin's assassination.

But we should not forget the suicidal operations that made many Jews return to the "house" exactly as the Qana tragedy made many Arab voters place blank papers.

[Al-Ayyam] Almost 95 percent of the Arab electors voted for the peace camp candidate Shim'on Peres despite the Qana massacre. [Beilin] No one disputes this. The Arabs in Israel are a decisive factor in elections. But they were largely responsible for the result.

Had there been 150,000 blank papers of which 30 were placed by Israel's Arabs, then their responsibility would have been a minor one. The difference [in votes between Netanyahu and Peres] was not more than 22,000 votes.

[Al-Ayyam] There are voices and an inclination to nominate an Arab candidate for the prime minister's post in Israel, for example from 'Azmi Bisharah and the Islamic Movement.

[Beilin] I do not think this is serious. No one believes that an Arab candidate has a chance of winning. This is not a game. Yet there is a positive side in having an Arab candidate. He will ensure a second round for Baraq if no one among the candidates get 50 percent of the votes in the first round.

Our efforts in the peace camp are now concentrated on having one round only, preventing the nomination of Shahaq and an Arab candidate, and making sure that only Baraq is nominated on behalf of the peace camp.

If it ends in a race between Baraq, as the peace camp's candidate, and Netanyahu, who is suffering from Benny Begin who will take away some of his votes and therefore prevent him from getting 50 percent of the votes, then there is hope that Baraq will win in the first round.

I hope that Shahaq will realize this and stop competing. He is a wise person and understands the implications of the battle...

[Al-Ayyam] What about the eternal division over peace in Israel? You said in your book "we are not ready for peace." Maybe this is the reason why the peace camp lost by the number of votes one time and while in power at another, at least because it started to talk about moving in the direction of peace with the Palestinians.

[Beilin] I do not believe that we are not ready to sign a peace treaty. Maybe we as a society are not prepared for peace but for a peace agreement. You know that opinion polls show that a majority of Israelis support peace with the Palestinians.

I believe that we have not turned the key to peace. Take for example the question of Jews living in the Palestinian state. [If the communitis in Judea/Samaria/Gaza remain & Israeli troops withdraw.]

They will apparently be living among enemies.

But then you ask: Why enemies?

They do not have to keep looking behind their back in fear every time they walk if peace is achieved.

It is difficult to erase this feeling now because you are saying I am living here at present and have a problem with Palestinian terrorism.

Let us presume that this is a problem.

But, on the other hand, it is difficult for us to understand the meaning of releasing a "former terrorist" from prison as a freedom fighter.

It is difficult for us to look at a person we called terrorist as a freedom fighter to be released so that he can return to his family and embrace his wife and children.

It is the same in the Palestinian camp which finds it difficult to believe that it can live with Jews in permanent peace.

This is how some people are looking at the matter. Others are saying: We can never live with the Jews. They will always create something after we reach an agreement with them.

Maybe one or both sides have not clearly told their public that the intention is not an "historic solution" or "historic reconciliation" but a tragic situation that could only be overcome with a peace agreement that brings economic and other benefits.

[Al-Ayyam] The Palestinians have a feeling that they are the ones making concessions all the time. You are now preparing them for such an idea while you say you are searching for peace. How?

[Beilin] The situation is not easy. We are still suffering from the absence of a warm peace after 20 years of peace with Egypt. This is not an easy process. I compare the situation to a paralytic person who is cured and does not need to stay in a wheelchair but he does not know how to walk and keeps longing for that wheelchair.

People who get used to poverty become so accustomed to it that they are bored when their condition changes.

We must get used to better and worse situations. It is ridiculous to think that it is easier to get used to something better but find it difficult when it comes to the crunch.

Peace is like a lottery that in which people earn fortunes but cannot decide what to do with themselves once they win..."

No budget

HA'ARETZ 2/2/99: "The 14th Knesset dispersed yesterday evening without passing the 1999 budget or the accompanying legislation.

The major obstacles, which generated a furor in the Knesset's Finance Committee, were the demand of the members of the Knesset's Land of Israel Front to legitimize the settlers' Channel Seven (Arutz Sheva) pirate radio station and demands by the ultra-Orthodox parties to insert clauses into the budget that will assist yeshiva students to pay rent.

"I am sorry that this is the way it has to end, but that's the way it is," Knesset Speaker Dan Tichon said as he banged his gavel and closed the session.

Afterward, marathon meetings began in the Prime Minister's Office in an attempt to reach agreement within the coalition and enable the Knesset to be reconvened in special session, perhaps even today, to pass the budget.

If the budget is not approved by the time the Likud and Labor hold their primaries (February 8 and 15), the government may find it even more difficult to pass the budget because currently serving MKs who fail to be chosen for their parties' lists in the May elections may not want to come back to the Knesset to vote.

Another possibility is to carry on with the current situation - in which monthly amounts are apportioned based on the 1998 budget to prevent a government shutdown - until after the elections.

The issue that prevented the submission of the budget bill and the supplementary legislation bill to the full Knesset involved new demands that were put forward by the ultra-Orthodox parties in the hearings of the Finance Committee, which must finalize and approve the bills before they are voted on by the House.

The opposition parties objected to the insertion of the new clauses into the budget, arguing that they constituted a "new subject" and as such violated the rules of the discussion that had been previously agreed upon.

The matter was then referred to the House Committee for a decision, but then MKs Michael Kleiner (Gesher) and Benny Elon (Moledet) raised the issue of Channel Seven. The House Committee sent both issues back to the Finance Committee, having decided that they were not "new subjects."

This infuriated MKs Avraham Shochat (Labor) and Haim Oron (Meretz), who announced that all agreements were off.

In the meantime, Finance Committee Chairman Avraham Ravitz (United Torah Judaism) asked the approval of the Knesset to split the vote on the Economic Arrangements bill, prompting MK Oron to declare that all the agreements between the opposition and the coalition were null and void. Speaker Tichon then convened the "agreements committee" in an effort to find a way out of the crisis.

Following a stormy session it was decided to ask the House Committee to overturn its previous decision concerning the "new subject" issue. Kleiner, Elon and MK Avraham Leiserson (United Torah Judaism) announced that if the Finance Committee did not approve the clauses in which they were interested, they would not vote for the budget.

The discussion reverted to the House Committee, but shortly afterward the coalition chairman, MK Meir Sheetrit (Likud), asked for the floor and stated, apparently after consulting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,[:]

"In the light of the fact that we have no agreement on concluding this issue, we declare that there will be no meeting of the House Committee today. I will also ask the Speaker of the Knesset to postpone the session of the full Knesset until further notice."..

CIA challenge

THE JERUSALEM POST 2/2/99: "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu challenged the CIA yesterday to disprove his claim that the Palestinians recently released Islamic militants involved in the bombing deaths of five American citizens in Israel.

"I suggest we invite the representative of the CIA to a joint news conference and I'd like to hear what he has to say publicly," said Netanyahu at a press conference, responding to a report on Army Radio which claimed the CIA's representative in the region had adopted the Palestinian position that no suspected murderers had been released.

"In any case we have our own information, it is very solid," Netanyahu said. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Israel said that the CIA has not taken, and has no intention of taking, any public position on the matter, but admitted that the "US government has no firm information linking the individuals [named by the government] to the murders of the American citizens."

The spokesman added that the administration was " seeking to obtain clarifications from both sides." Palestinian officials have vehemently denied the charges leveled by the government to the effect that some 21 Palestinian murderers and murder accomplices were released last month.

Several Palestinian officials suggested that Israel was trying to discredit their compliance with the Wye River peace accord the same week that US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat are to meet and attend the National Prayer Breakfast together.

Israeli UN Ambassador Dori Gold, who was also invited to attend the Thursday breakfast, turned down the invitation because the "Arafat invitation has been exploited politically," Netanyahu's communications director David Bar-Illan said.

Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon's office confirmed reports that Meir Dagan, Netanyahu's adviser on terrorism, and Tomer Orni, a senior Sharon aide who heads the Palestinian-Israeli interim committee steering team, were dispatched to Washington last week to persuade the United States that the Palestinians, not the Israelis, are violating the Wye River peace accord.

However, Bar-Illan stressed that Orni and Dagan had planned the trip before the government came out with its findings on the released murder suspects, and that they were, in no way, trying to scuttle the Clinton-Arafat meeting.

"We are not trying to torpedo anything, only to induce the Palestinian Authority to fulfill its commitments," he said."

Strong slogan

THE JERUSALEM POST 2/2/99: "The Likud's latest campaign slogan: "Netanyahu, a strong leader for a strong people," which went up on billboards across the country yesterday, continued to get extra exposure in media debates in which opposition MKs accused it of being "fascist."

"In his struggle for political survival, [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu has raised the specter of fascism," said Labor's Shlomo Ben-Ami.

Jewish Agency Chairman Avraham Burg demanded the posters not be pasted up saying, "This slogan reminds many of the slogans of the Nazi Reich and hurts hundreds and thousands of Holocaust survivors and their families."

Meretz leader Yossi Sarid said it was reminiscent of Benito Mussolini's slogan: "It's a crime not to be strong."

"If that was what was favored by Mussolini, it is a crime to repeat it in the Jewish state of all places," Sarid said.

Justice Minister Tzahi Hanegbi, who is coordinating the Likud campaign, rejected the accusations and said the Left is "arguing over slogans instead of stating its policies in [an] attempt to bring the campaign down to the level of personal slurs."

He said the election campaigns will reflect the fateful decisions which Israel will face such as the final status negotiations; the future of Jerusalem; and the Palestinians' intentions to establish a state.

Hanegbi said he had not anticipated criticism of the use of the word "strong," which is also used in Jewish sources, like the phrase "Hazak, hazak v'nithazek," and does not attack anyone.

Labor MK Haim Ramon quipped, "I agree with 50 percent of the slogan. The people are strong and even survived Netanyahu's government."

There were however also Labor MKs who were prepared to say that the media play served the prime minister:

"I think the slogan says more about Netanyahu than anything else. A truly strong person need not endlessly talk about it," said Ophir Pines.

"And it does have nationalist and fascist associations; but I think the overkill is helping to make the slogan sink into public awareness. It would be better for us to criticize it but in more minor tones, rather than turning it in to the most-talked about topic of the day. Unfortunately, we have made an important contribution to marketing the slogan."...

Police violations

THE JERUSALEM POST 2/2/99: "Violations of the Oslo Accords by the Palestinian Police decreased by 50 percent last year, but the nature of the violations was far more serious, Judea and Samaria police chief Cmdr. Yitzhak Aharonovitch told reporters yesterday.

He noted that there were some 211 violations, compared with 394 in 1997.

The majority of violations related to detaining and beating Israeli citizens, whose property and documents were often confiscated, he said.

Summing up police activity for 1998, Aharonovitch noted that the number of weapons stolen from settlements had doubled, and attributed this to the tendency of residents to leave their homes unlocked.

Police, said Aharonovitch, are maintaining a high state of alert in anticipation of the possible declaration of Palestinian statehood in May.

He said specific measures undertaken include special training, plans to bullet-proof police vehicles, and a possible increase in manpower....

Police have invested heavily in efforts to curtail car theft. Between 500 and 700 cars are stolen every week, the majority of them stripped in Judea and Samaria.

During 1998, police carried out over 140 operations, with a total of 11,981 police, border policemen and IDF troops participating in them, concentrated mainly in Samaria.

During routine and special operations, police recovered 797 stolen cars, seven motorcycles, 12 tractors, 392 car computers, and 1321 engines and arrested 861 suspects. Aharonovitch said in many cases Palestinian security officials were found to be involved in organized car theft.

The Palestinian Police returned 681 stolen cars in 1998, and so far this year approximately 80 cars were returned from Ramallah and Jenin.

Cooperation with the Palestinian security officials regarding stolen cars is not productive, although Israel hands over information, including the whereabouts of chop shops, noted Aharonovitch.

The exception, he pointed out, is Palestinian Preventive Security chief Jibril Rajoub, who has provided valuable cooperation both in the recovery of stolen cars and in seeking fugitives and murder suspects..."

PA corruption

HA'ARETZ 1/31/99: "The European Union has recently warned Yasser Arafat that Europe would freeze the transfer of financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if the PA does not explain the disappearance of funds sent over the last two years.

Sources in the European Parliament in Strasbourg told Ha'aretz that the ambiguous financial statements that the PA has presented have raised serious suspicions of embezzlement by Arafat's close associates.

The sources disclosed that the freeze will be announced next week in Frankfort when the joint Palestinian-EU committee meets.

Representatives of the PA are supposed to submit a report explaining the missing funds at the meeting.

The EU's senior representative on the committee, Minister Manuel Marin, has received instructions not to be lenient this time and immediately announce a freeze in funding if suspicions of misappropriation persist.

Marin, who serves as the minister for the EU's relations with the Mediterranean region, is one of two ministers accused of wasteful budget management by the Parliament in Strasbourg.

The spokesmen for the EU's Mediterranean desk, Bosco Esteroulas, confirmed to Ha'aretz yesterday that the EU is considering freezing its aid to the PA, but denied that Manuel Marin promised to halt all flow of funds to the Palestinian territory:

"If someone contends that a decision has been made to cut off the European allocations, then he is confusing various budgets. What we are considering, and considering very seriously, is freezing assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

But we will not freeze allocations to designated projects in the autonomous area, such as the construction of hospitals, since there we know exactly where the money is going.

On the other hand, it is possible we will not continue to transfer salary payments for the police, for example, or for items described as 'administrative expenses of the Authority.'"

The spokesman refused to comment on the suspicion of embezzlement and denied that Marin is taking a new approach to Mediterranean area funding as a result of the investigation being conducted against him.

Ha'aretz has learned that the EU has transfered some 195 million euros (NIS 916 million) to the PA during the past three years, while its total budgetary commitment is considerably greater, as much as 320 million euros (NIS 1.5 billion).