Killers of Americans?

THE JERUSALEM POST 2/4/99: "Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat yesterday rejected Israel's claims that he had released several terrorists suspected of the murder of Americans and brandished as proof the administration's evaluation to the contrary.

In a luncheon meeting in Washington with about 40 members of the House of Representatives and one senator, Arafat responded to a question about the reported release by referring to State Department spokesman James Rubin's Tuesday statement that the US has no proof to support the charge, one person in attendance said.

The Justice and State departments have confirmed that neither those who directly killed nor were involved in the planning of the killings of Americans were released by the PA, according to a Capitol Hill source.

Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday he was surprised by the State Department's position. He questioned whether the US considers the crimes any less grave, just because it could not be proven that those killed had been American citizens.

"They say there is no doubt that they released other murderers [of Israelis]. For me, it is a hard thing to accept that there is even the slightest difference if the victims were American citizens or Israeli ones. What is the difference?" Sharon told reporters in Jerusalem.

In a briefing yesterday, Rubin reiterated that Washington has "no evidence of this claim that these individuals were responsible for attacks that killed Americans. We simply have no evidence for that assertion.

We do have concerns more broadly about the issue of security that we've been discussing with the Palestinians, but that particular charge we have no evidence for," Rubin said.

David Bar-Illan, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's communications director, maintained that the prisoners released by the PA "belonged to the gangs that mounted the attacks."

He added that evidence regarding them of men has not been submitted to the CIA, because "it is not readily available."

However, according to Bar-Illan, evidence about 15 other Palestinian terrorists, who among them were involved in the killing of 11 Americans since the signing of Oslo, has been carefully gathered and submitted to the Americans.

"We provided all this evidence and nothing has been done," he said. In general, Sharon indicated he was displeased with the positions and actions the US were taking regarding the implementation of the Wye Accords.

"We do not see the attempts to lay the blame [for the freeze in Wye] on Israel, as if it is us who are not fulfilling our obligations, in a positive light," said Sharon.

"What is happening with the continuation of Wye is that we are waiting for the PA to fulfill its commitments, as was agreed upon. It is only then that we will move forward with our part of the deal.

We have already said that although we are in the midst of an election campaign, we are ready to continue. But this depends on them." In their meeting yesterday morning, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Arafat "talked about some concerns that have been raised in recent days by the Israelis," said Rubin.

They also discussed US plans to deepen its relationship with the PA, including through an upcoming meeting of a bilateral economics commission at which the sides will seek "to improve the prospects for trade" and science and cultural exchanges, he said.

Rubin added that he would "be surprised" if Albright didn't reiterate to Arafat the US's continued objection to his announced plans to declare a state on May 4, because "that would undermine the ability to negotiate a permanent-status issue. We have made that point very clear to the Palestinians.

On the terrorist release controversy, Arafat told the congressional audience that Israel cannot be both the accuser and the judge, and that at Netanyahu's request the PA agreed during the Wye negotiations to allow Washington to judge the Palestinians' performance, the participant said.

The US made its conclusion known through its statement the day before, Arafat said. In the one-hour event, Arafat said the Palestinians have fulfilled their obligations under Wye, adding that the recent clash between PA police and Hamas proves that he is fighting terrorism, the participant said.

Arafat told the legislators that Palestinian intelligence has uncovered an Islamic Jihad plot to assassinate him. Arafat said he intends to stay out of the Israeli election campaign and indirectly appealed to Netanyahu to cease advertisements claiming that a vote against Netanyahu is a vote for Arafat.

One questioner asked Arafat about his threats to declare a state upon the expiration of the interim period, but Arafat sidestepped the question.

Later in the day, members of the House told reporters that they are introducing a resolution expressing Congress's opposition to Arafat's plans to unilaterally declare statehood.

More than 60 congressmen from both parties are cosponsoring the resolution. The Senate will also consider the item once legislative business resumes upon the conclusion of President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.

The resolution states that a unilateral declaration is liable to introduce a "dramatically destabilizing element" in the Middle East that would lead to Israeli countermeasures and "an end" to the peace process.

"Any attempt to establish Palestinian statehood outside the negotiating process will invoke the strongest congressional opposition. The president should unequivocally assert US opposition to the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, making clear that such a declaration would be a grievous violation of the Oslo Accords and that a declared state would not be recognized by the US," the resolution says."

UN trouble

HA'ARETZ 2/5/99: "Israel opposes convening a United Nations conference on the protection of Palestinians at Friday's U.N. General Assembly session, an Israeli spokesman said Thursday.

Jeff Helmreich, spokesman for the Israeli mission to the United Nations, sought to clarify a report from Jerusalem which quoted the Israeli foreign ministry as saying that Israel would boycott the General Assembly emergency special session.

"Israel will not cooperate with this initiative and will not take part in this emergency U.N. conference whose sole objective is to condemn the state of Israel and its government," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

However Helmreich made it clear that the ministry was referring to proposals in a draft U.N. resolution to convene a conference of the parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war.

More than 20 states are scheduled to speak at Friday's session before the vote on the non-binding resolution, which also issues a new condemnation of Israel's policy of building settlements on Israeli-occupied Arab land.

Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold is expected to make it clear in his speech to the 185-nation assembly on Friday that the treaty's parties had never convened such a conference on any conflict worldwide.

He would also point out that as more than 97 percent of the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, the proposal is a political measure."

Israeli pullout

HA'ARETZ 2/5/99: "A Foreign Ministry delegation stomped out of a multinational conference on aid to the Palestinians in Frankfurt yesterday, complaining that the Palestinian delegation was politicizing the conference.

A spokesman said Minister Ariel Sharon had ordered the delegation home after hearing a report from team leader Victor Harel on the goings on at the conference.

According to the ministry, in the course of presenting their development work plan for the next four years, the Palestinian delegation used the term, "Palestine," made use of maps which showed Jerusalem as part of the Palestinian area, and consistently blamed Israel for all the PA's economic woes.

"Sharon sees this behavior as a serious violation of the agreements between Israel and the PA, and instructed the delegation to come home immediately," said the spokesman.

Labor MK Yossi Beilin lashed out at Sharon's decision, saying it was an "irresponsible action which... hurt our national interests..."

WT accusations refuted

IMRA 2/3/99: "Defense ministry response to Washington Times article on technology transfer (Communicated by Defense Ministry Spokesman Wed, 03 Feb 1999)

The Defense Ministry wishes to clarify that the allegations published in the Washington Times on 27.1.99, according to which Israelis involved in the development of the Nautilus weapons system -- which employs lasers in the intercept of Katyusha missiles -- are transferring secret data to China, are completely baseless.

Israel has never shared classified American technology passed during joint US-Israeli efforts to develop a laser- based weapons system, and no Israeli personnel have tried to obtain restricted information from American contractors involved in the Nautilus project.

All Israeli activities have been conducted in precise conformity with the relevant agreements, including those governing project security and delineating the extent of cooperative efforts with the United States in the Nautilus program.

All inferences that Israel has circumvented the terms of its agreement with the United States are unfounded. Furthermore, in Israel's view, it would be appropriate for the American sources cited by the Washington Times to publicly refute the charges levelled against Israel by the newspaper."

Histadrut debt

HA'ARETZ 2/5/99: "The Histadrut labor federation, struggling under a crushing NIS 3.5 billion debt, failed yesterday to raise the NIS 28 million it needs to pay its workers their January salaries, prompting them to declare a strike for Sunday.

At the end of January, Histadrut Treasurer Shmuel Avital promised Bracha Siegelman, chief of the Histadrut workers committee, that salaries would be paid by February 1, or February 3 at the latest.

To meet its target the Histadrut planned to sell a number of buildings and land it owns in the center of the country. The buildings had mostly served as Histadrut clubs.

However, some of the transactions were never finalized, leaving the Histadrut with a cash flow gap roughly equal to the sums it needs to pay January salaries. Siegelman and Haim Haliwa, chair of the district councils workers committee, met on Wednesday with Histadrut Chairman Amir Peretz to demand that the labor federation fulfill its commitment to pay wages on time, by the 1st of the month.

Peretz, however, avoided promising anything. The result is that workers committees have ordered their members to strike beginning Sunday, unless their salaries are paid by today.

Sources within the committees said that because the Histadrut, the Israel Land Development Corporation, and Ofer Properties have officially stopped cooperating on real estate transactions, on top of the general real estate slump in Israel, it will be hard for the labor federation to sell assets at this stage at worthwhile prices.

They warned that the Histadrut's debt burden could therefore become even more serious than it is."

Histadrut fraud

HA'ARETZ 2/5/99: "Arthur Yisraelovitz, the former almighty Histadrut treasurer, was convicted earlier this week of a series of crimes concerning misuse of the labor federation's money.

The main thrust of the charges touched on funding for the election campaigns for former Histadrut chiefs Yisrael Kessar and Haim Haberfeld. In the end, Yisraelovitz was found guilty of fraud, breach of trust, falsifying documents, and executive theft.

After Yisraelovitz retired from the Histadrut in June 1994, the labor federation's new management under Haim Ramon decided the time had come to clean out the stable.

The Histadrut had become massively corrupt, mainly because of its centralized structure which made it impossible to keep track of the movements of money between branches, or to elucidate the exact purposes for which the annual budget of some NIS 700 million would be spent.

Since then, the labor federation has contracted and in today's prices, its budget halved. Nonetheless, it looks like many of the problems that confounded its former management still persist.

A month ago Histadrut auditor Alexander Cohen completed a report excoriating the way the labor federation is run. Although members of the Histadrut's House of Representatives have long since received copies of Cohen's audit, the forum has yet to convene in order to discuss his worrisome findings.

Perusal of Cohen's sharp criticism on how the Histadrut's assets are managed in the Tel Aviv area, or in respect to the functioning of the workers councils, or concerning the federation's fund for grants, shows that little has changed since the heyday of Yisraelovitz, Kessar and Haberfeld.

In his report, Cohen exposed a company named "Fund for Culture and Medical Assistance and Aid." Hardly anybody in the labor federation even knows it exists. The company runs a fund to give grants to students.

The company's balance sheet from December 1994, which is the last time it issued a financial statement (in itself incredible), shows that NIS 18 million have accumulated. Cohen found that the the Histadrut stopped handing out money three years ago.

The fund serves in practice as a pipeline to transfer money in and out of the Histadrut.

By the way, exactly what does the Fund for Culture and Medical Assistance and Aid do? anyway? After discovering that the company has no approved financial statements from 1995, Cohen determined that the strange company's activities "do not comply with the law."

Cohen's findings, which have yet to be discussed by the labor federation in any forum, raise the suspicion that the behavior of the "New Histadrut" in various areas is disgraceful, and more specific suspicions regarding the fate of several millions of shekels, apparently rerouted to goals other than those for which they were allocated, should be investigated.

Yisraelovitz has been convicted, but his spirit is alive and kicking in the new Histadrut."

Russians & Moledet

VESTI 2/2/99 [VESTI is a Russian language newspaper published in Tel Aviv]: Knesset Member Moshe Peled's announcement that he has left Tzomet to join Moledet was received with enthusiasm by the Moledet Central Committee convention on 31 January.

Moledet's Knesset slate will be decided by the 45-member party council in mid-February. The council's composition was decided by the central committee convention on 31 January.

Although the final results of the vote are still unavailable, initial data indicate that some 20 Russian-speaking party members were elected to the council. Such an impressive bloc will undoubtedly promote immigrant candidates' election to the Knesset.

As we have reported, Vesti journalist Sofia Ron occupies a realistic slot on the party slate. Her candidacy is supported by immigrants from former USSR, who constitute 52 percent of party members, according to recent data. Several other immigrants are running for the first 10 slots on the list."

Better economy

GLOBES 2/1/99: "Economic activity posted a recovery in November-December 1998, with an increase in investment, industrial output and export of goods. This emerges from data published today by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The positive trend is explained by a combination of two key factors: the accelerated devaluation of the shekel, which led to a surge in export and the bringing forward of the import dates of investment products, and the second Iraqi crisis, which lent domestic activity a fillip.

In November-December, there was a persistent trend of recovery in investment and in the import of investment products (machinery and equipment) by industrial enterprises, in furtherance of the trend that commenced in September.

Unemployment, however, remained high, with the unemployed rate settling at 8.5%. This represents more than 190,000 unemployed persons. Central Bureau of Statistics economists emphasize that it is still not possible, on the basis of monthly trend data, to determine whether the economy is emerging from the recession.