Congress on victims of PA terrorism
ARUTZ7 6/16/99: "New bipartisan legislation was introduced in the United States
Congress last week concerning American victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism in Israel.
The bill will require the State Department to provide Congress with regular, detailed
reports that will include updates on U.S. investigations and efforts regarding the
murderers, and information on Palestinian killers of Americans who are walking free within
the Palestinian autonomy or serving in the PA police force.
In addition, the State Department must explain why the U.S. has not offered rewards for
the capture of the killers, as well as detail its efforts to obtain compensation from the
PLO for families of the American victims. The new legislation is being co-sponsored by
Senators Gilman, Ashcroft, Schumer, Kyl, McGovern, Specter, Shelby, Fitzgerald, and Burns,
as well as by Reps.
Andrews, Salmon, and Saxton. Thirteen American citizens have been killed by Palestinian
Arab terrorists since the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993. The Zionist Organization of
American reports that of the 23 terrorists who were involved in the attacks, most of them
are free in PA territory, and at least five of them are serving in the PA para-military
police force."
Shas shockwaves
THE JERUSALEM POST 6/17/99: "Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak will ask the Knesset
to agree to expand the cabinet from 18 seats to 24, following the decision yesterday by
the Shas Council of Torah Sages to accept Aryeh Deri's resignation as party leader, senior
One Israel sources said. The result will be one minister for every three MKs in any party
joining the coalition, instead of one in four previously offered to One Israel's junior
partners in government.
Barak is convinced a broad coalition will be established, said One Israel sources
yesterday. They said there is no direct contact between Barak and acting Likud leader
Ariel Sharon, but there are indirect ones. The Likud will probably be busy with its own
leadership elections for the next two months and the high probability that Shas will now
join the government reduces the chances of the Likud joining it, the sources said.
Should Shas join it would receive five ministries, Meretz three, and Yisrael Ba'aliya
and the Center Party two each. The National Religious Party, which won five seats, is on
the borderline between one and two. If Barak can reach agreement with United Torah Judaism
over the drafting of yeshiva students into the IDF, then the haredi party would be in a
similar position to the NRP.
For the time being, though, United Torah Judaism will remain in opposition alongside
Shinui, which refuses to join a coalition with Shas. They may be joined by Am Ehad's two
MKs, who are still demanding the party be offered a ministry. Should this grouping of 70
MKs be the scenario when Barak presents his coalition during the next three weeks, at
least 13 ministries will be occupied by parties other than One Israel. If Barak succeeds
in bringing United Torah Judaism on board, that would take the tally up to at least 14.
The prime minister must then fulfill his commitments to One Israel's Shimon Peres, David
Levy, and a Meimad representative who will be appointed by the party on Monday.
He has further promised to appoint a woman minister - widely assumed to be Dalia Itzik.
Additionally, he intends making a special appointment, possibly the Center Party's Dan
Meridor as justice minister. This would bring the Center Party's representation in the
cabinet to three. Barak himself has already confirmed that he will hold the Defense
portfolio. This distribution leaves a probable five ministries for his own One Israel,
which is a far healthier situation than the one prior to Deri's resignation.
Until that point it seemed that only three posts would be available to a long line of
senior MKs including Shlomo Ben-Ami, Yossi Beilin, Haim Ramon, Avraham Burg, Avraham
Shohat, Matan Vilna'i, Uzi Baram, and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
Increasing the size of the cabinet to 24 will cost the country some NIS 15 million.
Barak believes it is "petty" to rule this out because of the expense, since he
says the benefits of a broad stable government to take the fateful political decisions
facing the country outweigh the cost.
The sources said Barak would build the government according to tasks it had decided on,
such as the diplomatic process, social issues, and reversing the growing rifts in society.
They said that for these purposes a broad coalition would be best. The sources said Barak
is not sure whether the conditions are right for the Arab parties to join the coalition,
but there will be a dialogue with them.
Talks with potential coalition partners are to resume today after a 36-hour break to
take in the implications of the Deri resignation. All the parties still in negotiations
with One Israel have outstanding demands to be met..."
Arens: US aid "may be detrimental"
THE JERUSALEM POST 6/17/99: "Outgoing Defense Minister Moshe Arens has suggested
that the $1.8 billion in annual US military grants to Israel may be detrimental to the
state, and has instructed his ministry to examine whether these should be dropped
altogether.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Arens said $1.4b. of the grants must be spent
in the US, and as a result "we are actually purchasing things in the United States
that we could be procuring here... So local industry gets hurt in the immediate sense that
orders that could be placed here are not."
"In the long run, we are not developing certain capabilities that we could be
developing and we are not developing certain systems that would not only give the IDF an
advantage in the battlefield, but could also serve as potential export items, such as the
Arrow." Arens said he has asked Defense Ministry Director-General Ilan Biran to
conduct a study examining if the US military aid is "in the best interest of the
Israeli economy."
"You have to remember that the US aid program was designed to aid US industry. It
was not just giving away presents. We are allies of the United States and we are all for
aiding US industry, but of course we have to weigh the question of [whether to] pursue a
policy that hurts Israeli industry," Arens said."
Israel accedes to US arms pressure
GLOBES 6/15/99: "The Israeli Government has acceded to a US demand not to sell
Merkavah 3 tanks to Turkey. Instead, the Ministry of Defense has decided to join forces
with the land systems division of General Dynamics, with which it will jointly bid in the
tender for the supply of campaign tanks to the Turkish military, in a deal valued at an
estimated $7 billion.
This is reported by "Defense News." The deal between the Ministry of Defense
and General Dynamics, manufacturer of the MI ABRAMS tank series, has yet to be signed, but
has been under discussion for the past six months. Other bidders in this tender are
companies from Britain, France, Germany and Russia. The successful bidder will sell the
Turkish Armored Corps 1,000 campaign tanks and will upgrade 1,300 outdated M60 tanks.
Under the proposed deal between the Ministry of Defense and General Dynamics, the US
company undertakes to include Israeli inputs in its bid to sell new tanks to Turkey.
Israel undertakes to include US inputs in its bid to upgrade the Turkish army's M60 tanks.
Ministry of Defense director-general Ilan Biran told "Defense News" that the
actual signatory of the agreement with General Dynamics will be a consortium headed by
Israel Military Industries, the principal contractor for the manufacture of the Merkavah
series."
Sharon wins as Likud chairman
ARUTZ7 6/17/99: "Ariel Sharon won a decisive victory in the Likud Central
Committee last night when it decided to hold two sets of elections for Party Chairman over
the next two years. Internal elections for party head will be held in September of this
year, and additional elections for chairman and Prime Ministerial candidate will be
conducted in the summer of 2001.
Sharon's challengers, Ehud Olmert and Meir Sheetrit, withdrew their proposal for only
one election when it became clear that it would not pass. Likud MK Uzi Landau told Arutz-7
today that the decision made by the Likud last night was "the only logical one to
make, since we cannot know today who will be the appropriate [Prime Ministerial] candidate
so far in advance."
Landau said that the two-year "breather" will give the Likud a chance to
"rediscover its lost ideological roots... Then we must learn how to bridge the gap
between this ideology and the current reality, so that the Likud can be a new ideological
and material home for the entire national camp, which punished us in the recent
elections."
CPI - Consumer Price Index
ISRAEL LINE 6/16/99: "The consumer price index (CPI) posted a gain of 0.5 percent
in May, lower than preliminary assessments which ranged from 0.6 to 0.9 percent, HA'ARETZ
reported. The main reason for the increase was the rise in housing and fruit and vegetable
prices, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The CPI contracted by a
cumulative 0.7 percent during the first five months of 1999. This figure is the lowest
ever posted in Israel for a consecutive five-month period since the CBS began measuring
the index in 1951..."
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