Hamas & US politicos meet?

Abu Dhabi's AL ITTIHAD 4/30/99: "A high-level official in the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has revealed that a series of secret meetings was recently held in more than one Arab and Islamic capital between Hamas leaders and US politicians on the one hand, and between Hamas leaders and EU representatives on the other.

In statements to Al-Ittihad in Amman, Hamas official spokesman Ibrahim Ghawshah refused to disclose the content of these meetings, but said that they generally touched on Hamas's stand on developments in the peace process.

He said the meetings were held upon the recurrent requests of the EU states and took place away from public attention in Damascus, Beirut, Tehran, Sanaa, and Khartoum, adding that similar meetings were previously held in Amman.

Ghawshah said that he held a meeting with someone whose identity he refused to reveal at the US Embassy in Amman, during which he was asked to brief the other party on Hamas's position on the overall developments in the peace process starting with the Madrid Conference.

He said that he assured the US politician, who was assigned by his government to hold this meeting, that Hamas does not distinguish between those who occupied Palestine in 1948 and 1967 and that Hamas views Israel as a usurper state that has committed terrorism and hideous massacres against the Palestinian people, adding that Israel should be resisted according to the internationally acknowledged right of resisting aggression.

Ghawshah said that Hamas leaders who took part in meetings that were held with EU countries sensed a European understanding of the movement's stands, adding that EU leaders "do not want to understand our stands because they support the settlement process and cannot deviate from the path of the US policy."

Ghawshah gave an example of these meetings by citing a political argument between him and the British ambassador to Jordan during a meeting at the British Embassy in Amman, where the ambassador asked Hamas to accept international legitimacy resolutions.

Ghawshah informed him that Britain itself has not yet recognized international legitimacy resolutions regarding the Palestinian issue, including its rejection of Resolution 181, which stipulates the creation of an Arab and a Jewish state on Palestinian land.

Ghawshah denied that Hamas was recently advised by an international party to stop armed operations during the period preceding the Israeli elections. He also denied any connection between his movement and the recent explosion that took place in Tel Aviv in the middle of last week which killed one Israeli and injured four others.

He said that upon following up the issue, it turned out that the operation was part of an internal conflict in the criminal Israeli Mafia."

PA seeks improved relations with Syria

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE 5/2/99: "The Palestinian Authority has called on Syria to establish relations with the autonomy government of Yasser Arafat after years of tensions, officials said Sunday. Palestinians and Syrians should "establish new relations based on mutual respect and support for their common cause," Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Arafat's chief of staff, told AFP, calling for a summit between the two sides.

"We are convinced that a new page must be turned in inter-Arab relations, for the crucial situation will not affect only just one or other of the (Arab) sides, but all the (Arab) states," he said...

Arafat has long had tense relations with the regime of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, especially since the PLO leader signed the Oslo peace accords with Israel in 1993. Damascus is the home base for PLO factions opposed to Arafat and the peace accords, notably the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine headed by George Habash.

In comments quoted by the Palestinian news agency WAFA Sunday, Abdel Rahim also underscored the importance of strengthening ties with Iran -- another fierce opponent of peace accords with Israel -- "in order to protect holy sites (in Jerusalem) and support the Palestinian national struggle."

The gestures toward Syria and Iran coincided with an ongoing global campaign by Arafat to obtain support for the creation of a Palestinian state after his PLO decided last week not to proclaim independence on May 4, when the interim peace accords with Israel expire..."

PA/Syria summit?

HA'ARETZ 5/6/99: "The Palestinian Authority's Minister for Social Affairs, Intisar al Wazeer (Umm Jihad), arrived in Damascus yesterday for talks with senior Syrian officials that could pave the way for a summit meeting between Syrian President Hafez Assad and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Upon her arrival, al Wazeer emphasized that closer relations between the Palestinians and Syrians is important for negotiations with Israel. "We must adopt a unified Arab stance in considering final status negotiations, to be held after the Israeli elections," she said, noting that the PA has established a special office for promoting relations with Syria..."

One Israel prefers religious parties

MA'ARIV 5/2/99: "Senior One Israel officials have signaled to ultra-Orthodox elements that if they do not support Binyamin Netanyahu in the runoff and Ehud Baraq wins, he will prefer a coalition with them over one with Meretz and Shinuy, Ma'ariv has learned. The contacts with the ultra-Orthodox are conducted on Baraq's behalf by Knesset Members Yosi Beilin and Hayim Ramon, as well as by Avraham Burg and Attorney Yitzhaq Herzog.

The sides held several meetings last week. A meeting at Jerusalem's Laromme Hotel was attended by Beilin and Burg and by Agudat Yisra'el's "strongman" Ya'aqov Leizman.

Ultra-Orthodox elements yesterday told Ma'ariv that several messages had been communicated to them on Baraq's behalf in the course of the past week to the effect that if the ultra-Orthodox public does not vote en masse for Netanyahu in the runoff, Baraq will keep a senior portfolio for them in his cabinet.

According to these elements, One Israel people implied that the possibility of Baraq preferring Agudat Yisra'el to Shinuy and Meretz is quite plausible, if Baraq forms the government..."

US Embassy in Jerusalem?

HA'ARETZ 5/6/99: "The White House is holding talks with senior congressional leaders in an attempt to avert pressure to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Administration officials fear that progress on the embassy's planned move could heighten tensions over the Jerusalem issue in the election campaign, and postpone the beginning of permanent status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

U.S. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was expected to give Senator Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) a letter on the subject yesterday. Moynihan wrote President Bill Clinton a letter in March, demanding that the president declare his support for a Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty - and that he move the embassy.

The White House's official position is that the administration plans to comply fully with the bill to move the embassy, passed by both houses of Congress in 1995. Berger reportedly plans to convene a meeting soon to talk about "ways to implement that administration's policy," apparently with the intent of deferring the issue until after Israel's elections.

The embassy bill, which received strong majorities in both the House and Senate, requires the administration to begin the process of moving the embassy to Jerusalem no later than May 31 of this year.

Specifically, the law also requires the construction of the new building to begin during the 1999 fiscal year - otherwise, half of the State Department's budget for building and maintaining American diplomatic missions around the world will be frozen. Construction on the Jerusalem embassy has not begun.

Accordingly, Clinton is preparing to sign an order indemnifying the State Department against the sanctions. Clinton opposed the embassy bill when it came up in Congress on the grounds that it had the potential to blow the peace process out of the water.

At Clinton's request, legislators included an amendment in the bill granting the president the power to scrap the sanctions against the State Department, should they be imposed. The president already used his power to head off the sanctions last October, delaying them for six months, as the law allows.

The amendment also allows him to obtain a second stay, provided that he explain his reasoning in detail to the Congress and demonstrates that the delay is vital to U.S. security interests. Sources said they believed a document detailing such an explanation would be given to the Congress next month."

Center woes and election strategy

HA'ARETZ 5/6/99: "The Center Party is planning to focus the remainder of its campaign on promoting its slate of Knesset candidates, having thrown in the towel on its previous strategy of trying to convince Israelis that a vote for One Israel candidate Ehud Barak will pave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's way to a second term in office.

That strategy had aimed to establish the Center's Yitzhak Mordechai as the only candidate who could beat Netanyahu in a second round of voting to be held on June 1, if none of the prime ministerial candidates gets more than 50 percent of the votes cast on May 17.

Mordechai reiterated his intention yesterday to stay the course. But senior officials in his party said that if it can be shown in the next few days that Mordechai's pulling out of the race for the premiership would hurt neither his party's slate nor Barak's chances, a serious discussion of a withdrawal scenario would be inevitable.

Centrist officials yesterday denied rumors that the party is planning to hold a poll over the next few days to determine what effect a Mordechai withdrawal would have on the Knesset slate. The officials said the rumors had been fabricated out of whole cloth.

The party's top four Knesset candidates - Mordechai, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Dan Meridor and Roni Milo - sequestered themselves yesterday to discuss a poll conducted by the party, which shows Mordechai getting 10 percent of the prime ministerial vote and the slate winning seven Knesset seats. Both projections fall far short of the party's earlier predictions.

The polls also show the party's predicted outcome falling off sharply if Mordechai is no longer running for prime minister - which is why, officials said, Mordechai has been so steadfast both in his public utterances and in his statements to party officials..."

Clinton's letter to Arafat Letter

THE JERUSALEM POST 5/6/99: "The State Department vigorously denied yesterday that President Bill Clinton's letter last week to Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat stakes out a new American position on Palestinian statehood. James Foley, a spokesman, told reporters that the US continues to believe that the only acceptable outcome is one determined in final-status negotiations between the PA and Israel.

Clinton's letter does nothing to contradict that view, he said. Statehood, he said, is a matter to be determined in permanent status negotiations," and "there's been no change in our policy that the only way to resolve all final status issues is through direct negotiations beprejudge the outcome of those negotiations."

Clinton's "support for the aspirations of the Palestinian people to determine their own future on their own land" is "consistent" with his statement addressing the Palestinians in Gaza last December, Foley said...

"We are not going to oppose what the parties themselves agree to, but we're not going to prejudge what the parties may agree to, and therefore we're not going to take a position ourselves on permanent status issues."

Reuters obtained a copy of the letter yesterday. The letter says: "In the spirit of my remarks in Gaza, we support the aspirations of the Palestinian people to determine their own future on their own land.

"The United States knows how destructive settlement activities, land confiscations, and house demolitions are to the pursuit of Palestinian-Israeli peace. "In this regard, we will continue to exert maximum efforts to have both parties avoid unilateral steps or actions designed to change the status of the West Bank and Gaza or to prejudice or preempt issues reserved for permanent status negotiations," the president added.