National Security Council is approved

ARUTZ7 3/8/99: "The Cabinet unanimously approved yesterday the Prime Minister's proposal to create a National Security Council.

The council will serve as a coordinating and supervisory body on matters of national policy, and will operate as an arm of the Prime Minister's Office. Maj.-Gen. (res.) David Ivry will chair the Council and serve as national security advisor; Netanyahu said that there is no one in Israel who is more qualified than Ivry to hold the position.

The Prime Minister told the Cabinet, "The need to create a National Security Council has been repeatedly raised by various parties - including commissions of inquiry, statesmen, military officials, academics and the Knesset - over the past 25 years...

We are moving into an economic world where national security strength is directly influenced by economic and technological power. These are two important dimensions which, in the past, have not been addressed in an organized and expanded fashion."...

Deri decision

ARUTZ7 3/8/99: "The verdict in the trial of Shas MK Aryeh Deri will be handed down on Wednesday of next week. The judges rejected Deri's request to postpone the verdict until after the Knesset elections."

No charges will be filed against former Netanyahu-aide Avigdor Lieberman. It had been claimed that Lieberman, who has started his own political party named Yisrael Beiteinu, borrowed funds from a non-profit association which he did not repay. The file was closed for lack of evidence.

Yisrael Bundak, who allegedly called for the murder of MK Yossi Sarid in the framework of a Purim skit over Kol HaMizrach radio last week, was charged today. He is accused of encouraging violence that could lead to murder, and similar charges.

Desalinating water

ISRAEL LINE 3/8/99: "Plans for desalinating sea water in Israel got their first green light on Sunday when the Cabinet instructed the ministries of National Infrastructure, Agriculture and Finance to begin laying the groundwork for the project, HA’ARETZ reported. The executive body voted down a proposal by Foreign and National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon and Agriculture Minister Rafael Eitan to provide funding this year for a plan that would have made desalination possible by the start of the millennium.

Instead, it voted in favor of a slower approach advocated by the Finance Ministry. Sharon and Eitan argued that Israel will be facing a shortage of fresh water within a few years and asked for approval of a plan that would have aimed to desalinate some 50 million cubic meters of water a year in the first five years of the next decade. But the Cabinet adopted the position of the Treasury, which argued that moving toward desalination now would cost taxpayers some $200 million."

Arens speaks on “peace” with Syria

THE JERUSALEM POST 3/9/99: "As the United States moves to revive the stalled Israeli-Syrian peace talks, Defense Minister Moshe Arens said yesterday that the only way Damascus will make peace is if Israel withdraws from the entire Golan Heights. He is against paying that price.

"This is my position. There is no chance of reaching agreement with Syria without totally conceding the Golan Heights. That is the price. There are those who are ready to pay it. I think that this is a price we should not pay. I don't think the Syrians should be allowed to come down to the water line," Arens told military reporters in his office yesterday.

US Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk is to meet with Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus on Sunday, reportedly to discuss the resumption of peace talks after the elections here.

Indyk's Middle East sweep will apparently not include Israel. Reiterating what he told The Jerusalem Post last week, Arens said that Israel is reexamining the Grapes of Wrath understandings and looking at alternatives that will allow the IDF to benefit from its might.

He noted that while Lebanon has the trappings of an independent state, it is controlled by Syria. "Nothing happens there if Syria doesn't want it to happen," Arens said...Indyk plans to hold meetings in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and perhaps Morocco.

Officially his trip is to focus on issues pertaining to Iraq and the Iraqi opposition, but US officials said it is expected he will take the opportunity to discuss Lebanon and the peace process..."

Arutz 7 and High Court drama

THE JERUSALEM POST 3/9/99: "Both sides claimed victory yesterday, as the High Court of Justice issued an injunction against implementation of the law legalizing Arutz 7, but declined to temporarily repeal the measure.

Justices Theodor Orr, Dorit Beinish, and Tova Strasbourg-Cohen gave the sides 14 days to prepare their arguments in writing regarding the petitioner's main demand - repeal of the Bezeq Law amendment which retroactively legalized Arutz 7 and all other pirate radio stations which have been broadcasting at least five years and reach most of the country.

The justices added that, because of its importance, they would ask Supreme Court President Aharon Barak to expand the panel of justices dealing with the case.

It is one of the few times the court has been asked to rule on the legality of a law passed by the Knesset. "The court prevented the implementation of the law," said MK Haim Oron (Meretz), one of the six petitioners.

"It said it wouldn't allow it to be carried out for the time being. The substantive issue, which is very problematic, very constitutional, will be aired during the hearings on the petition itself."

MK Zvi Hendel (National Religious Party), who initiated the amendment in the form of a personal addition to the Budgetary Arrangements Law, said the court "will discuss the law in two weeks, as we requested. It did not repeal it, as the petitioners had requested."...

Software buy-out big business

THE JERUSALEM POST 3/9/99: "BMC Software, a systems-management solutions provider based in Houston, Texas, has bought Tel Aviv-based New Dimension Software, a specialist in enterprise management, for more than $650 million in cash, making it the largest deal of its kind in Israel's history, New Dimension said yesterday.

New Dimension, which is traded on NASDAQ and saw sales of $93.6m. in 1998, signed a share purchase and tender agreement to be acquired by BMC, the world's 12th largest independent software vendor, at a price of $52.50 per share...

BMC, the industry leader in delivering application service assurance solutions, expects in the wake of its latest acquisition to gain a major center for software development and a significant presence in Israel.

The company also became a major player in the enterprise management industry...BMC would be joining a number of leading hi-tech companies, such as IBM, Intel and Microsoft, that have already established significant operations in Israel, added Watson. He said the company plans to maintain and expand New Dimension's Israeli operations..."

HA'ARETZ 3/9/99: "The phrase "for the first time in 20 years" is getting a lot of play among Iran-watchers, as President Mohammed Khatami chips away at the monolith of Islamic Orthodoxy built by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and fortified by his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khameni - Iran's supreme spiritual leader.

Today, Khatami begins the first visit to the West by an Iranian head of state since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Khatami first breached the ideological firewall his country had constructed to separate itself from the West in January 1998, when he spoke of a "peace between cultures" during a television interview with CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour.

Today, he begins implementing that peace, in Italy. Italy, and not France - because Khatami is due to become the first president of Iran to meet with Pope John Paul II, the leader of one billion Roman Catholics who has urged greater understanding between Christians and Moslems.

Khatami, a student of Western philosophy, is expected to use the visit to develop his idea of a "Dialogue of Civilizations," including a fresh discourse between Islam and Christianity.

But with all due respect to Khatami's cultural peace mission, he still has a country to run, and his country is strapped for cash.

And, last week, Rome did its part to help out Tehran - with Italian energy group ENI and French oil giant Elf-Aquitaine signing a $1 billion deal to develop Iran's offshore Doroud oilfield, expected to raise output of crude oil to 220,000 barrels a day.

Italy and France expect the United States to waive sanctions against the deal. American sanctions legislation requires Congress to fine any company which transacts serious business with Iran, but Congress has so far turned a blind eye to the deal.

U.S. President Bill Clinton led by example, after all, when he found a loophole to allow a $2 billion deal with Iran signed by the French company Total, Russia's Gazprom, and Malaysia's Petronas in 1997..."

PA violations on Palestinians

AP 3/8/99: "Human rights complaints from Palestinian citizens against Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority nearly doubled in 1998, a human rights group said Monday. The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights dealt with 825 cases in 1998, up 97 percent from 1997, according to its annual report released Monday.

Half the complaints were against Palestinian security forces, while others dealt with various government ministries and the attorney-general's office. Haidar Abdel Shafi, the human rights group's commissioner, blamed the increase on the absence of a constitutional system of checks and balances.

A basic law, or constitution, that would limit Arafat's authority was drafted by the Palestinian legislative council, but the Palestinian leader has not signed it. "Power is in the hands of one man, and if we want progress we have to set the laws and separate the powers," Abdel Shafi said...