Barak quotes forged?

HA'ARETZ 5/6/99: "The reference to East Jerusalem attributed to One Israel leader Ehud Barak in the Russian-language version of his biography "Ehud Barak: Israel's Number One Soldier," in which he is quoted as saying, in 1967, "this is not our land and one day we will have to give it back," is "not a forgery but a failure of the political censor to delete an embarrassing passage," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

Speaking at a Jerusalem press conference with Yisrael b'Aliyah ministers Natan Sharansky and Yuli Edelstein, Netanyahu said, "I believe that Ehud Barak did in fact say this in certain circumstances.

The text was simply corrected for the Russian version but not corrected enough, and this statement eluded the political censor there, though it was amended properly from their point of view for the Hebrew version."

A Likud spokeswoman said, "The Labor Party says different things to different groups among the Israeli public, so their 'facts' are never the same." The flap over the best selling 1998 biography, co-authored by two well-known journalists, Ben Caspit and Ilan Kfir, began Tuesday night when the Likud charged that in the book's Russian translation Barak says East Jerusalem is in Israeli hands only temporarily and will have to be returned.

The original Hebrew refers to a visit to East Jerusalem made by Barak and two of his friends from the army after the 1967 Six Day War when they were contemplating the idea of acquiring property in the city to commemorate a war-buddy who had fallen in battle. Barak was then in his mid-twenties.

According to the Hebrew version, Barak said he would be willing to buy property in East Jerusalem, only if it was considered "absentee property" and did not belong to Arab residents of the city.

Sources in Barak's campaign headquarters charged that "operational elements with connections to the Likud" were behind the forgery. The Labor Party has distributed thousands of free copies of the book in Hebrew and in Russian.

According to the book's publisher in both languages, Yehuda Schiff, there are six edition of the Russian version, which first appeared about eight months ago. "The same translator and the same editor worked on all the editions," he said yesterday. Corrections and emendations had been inserted "between one edition and the next, in both Hebrew and Russian, on the basis of readers' comments," he added.

Schiff, who was interviewed on several radio talk shows, said that revisions had been made on "at least 150" of the book's 400 or so pages. He added that he does not know Russian and receives a computer diskette on which the revisions have been entered.

"It could be that during the corrections a mistake was made either maliciously or accidentally," he said, adding that he has commissioned a private detective agency to investigate the episode..."

Begin in the race?

HA'ARETZ 5/6/99: "The six top Knesset candidates in the National Unity party are to meet this morning to discuss the continuing candidacy of the party's number one, MK Benny Begin, for prime minister. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked two top National Unity figures, MKs Hanan Porat and Zvi Hendel, to persuade Begin to say in the campaign and help force a runoff for prime minister, in which he thinks he can beat Ehud Barak. Begin, meanwhile, is furious that some of his supporters are working for Netanyahu."

Deri wins

HA'ARETZ 5/6/99: "In the wake of the Knesset House Committee's decision yesterday not to suspend Shas Chair Aryeh Deri from the Knesset despite his conviction for crimes of "moral turpitude," two Meretz MKs, Ran Cohen and Amnon Rubinstein, are contemplating petitioning the High Court of Justice to suspend Deri from the Knesset. Meanwhile, MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud) argued that the House Committee's decision not to suspend Deri at this time was, in effect, a postponement of the vote until the next Knesset.

According to Rivlin, the committee's decision did not contradict the opinions of Attorney General Eliyakim Rubinstein and State Prosecutor Edna Arbel to suspend Deri immediately.

The House Committee vote was a narrow 7-6 against suspending Deri, and was basically split along coalition-opposition lines, with the exception of representatives from Yisrael b'Aliya and the Third Way who voted for suspension. Four MKs on the committee, three of whom are from the opposition, did not attend the meeting.

Deri was sentenced last month to four years in prison for bribery; his attorney has stated that he will appeal the conviction to the Supreme Court. The House Committee can suspend an Knesset member convicted of a crime of "moral turpitude" even if the conviction is still under appeal. In Deri's case, Supreme Court deliberations could take up to one year..."

Mixed victory in conversions and immigration

HA'ARETZ 5/5/99: "The High Court of Justice ruled yesterday that the Law of Return does not apply to gentiles who marry Israeli Jews. In a precedent-setting ruling, Justices Mishael Cheshin, Dalia Dorner and Dorit Beinisch decided that the Law of Return's applicability to gentile spouses extends only to those who marry non-Israeli Jews abroad, and later immigrate to Israel.

At the same time, the court rejected as illegal an Interior Ministry policy of deporting gentiles married to Israeli Jews if they do not hold valid visas; the policy is reportedly aimed at ensuring that the marriage is "real."

The court also rejected the Interior Ministry's "graduated test" for non-Jews seeking permanent residency status and citizenship, calling it too harsh and too lengthy. The ruling came in response to 28 petitions submitted by 31 mixed couples - that is, 31 couples in which one partner is an Israeli Jew, and the other a gentile from another country.

The couples married abroad or via "Paraguayan" marriages by mail; mixed marriages are not legally available in Israel...

The court rejected another policy of the Interior Ministry's however, which was inaugurated in September 1996. According to the policy, gentiles who married Israeli Jews while staying in Israel without a legal visa were deported from Israel until the ministry could check to see that the marriage was real, not a ruse aimed at gaining citizenship benefits for the non-Jewish partner."

IDF changes for future threats

HA'ARETZ 5/5/99: "Discussions held by the General Staff of the IDF are leading toward a dramatic change in the military's approach to future threats, a change expected to impact the IDF's structure, its operational plans, the mobilization of its forces, and the allocation of defense resources.

According to the new conception, the principal threat to the Israel is posed by the outer rim of states - Iraq and Iran - that are equipped with weapons of mass destruction. They constitute an existential threat to Israel, and their considerable distance from Israel makes the threat difficult for the IDF to overcome.

Up until now, the main threat to Israel has been defined as a conventional attack by neighboring Arab states with tank and infantry forces. The model in this scenario is the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel was caught by surprise and forced to carry out a war on two fronts. But the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan have decreased the likelihood of that type of invasion.

A conventional attack is now ranked third among the threats facing Israel. Terrorism was previously regarded as a serious problem, but not as a threat endangering the state.

According to the IDF, however, acts of terror are seen as a dangerous threat to Israel, second only to the missiles and arsenals of mass destruction under development by Iraq and Iran since the 1980s."

Bill Clinton to pull for Vanunu [What about Jonathon Pollard?]

HA'ARETZ 5/5/99: "President Bill Clinton has reassured congressional supporters of Mordechai Vanunu, imprisoned since 1986 after being convicted of leaking information about Israel's nuclear facility in Dimona, that his administration will continue to raise Vanunu's case in discussions with the Israeli government.

A group of 36 congressmen wrote to the president to ask for his "intercession on behalf of a man who lingers in prison simply for his belief in global peace." The congressional letter says that "Mr. Vanunu told his story [to a British newspaper] as an act of conscience...not for personal financial gain" and asks Clinton to persuade Israel to release Vanunu from prison "on humanitarian grounds."...

The White House response to the letter surprised and pleased Vanunu's supporters, who regard it as significant and unprecedented. The letter says that "we have followed the matter of Mr. Vanunu's imprisonment closely" and expresses particular concern over "the conditions under which he is held."

Clinton's letter continues: "I also share your concerns about the Israeli nuclear program." [ZINC NOTE: And what about Jonathon Pollard? ]

Israeli Arabs polled

ARUTZ7 5/4/99: "Nearly 18% of Israeli Arabs feel that the State of Israel has no right to exist - up from 7% ten years ago and 13% just five years ago. So finds a new survey by the Institute for Peace Research in Givat Chaviva.

Head researcher Prof. Gabi Samucha says that the results mandate a new study of the relationship between Israeli Arabs and the State of Israel.