Turbine to rest on Sabbath?

HA'ARETZ 8/31/99: "A compromise proposal to move the massive turbine on weekdays, by preparing parking sites along the route, has been deemed possible. According to this solution, the turbine would be moved over three nights, resting during the day in special parking areas prepared along the route.

The Public Works Department will announce this morning at the second meeting of the directors' general committee convened to discuss the turbine, that from an engineering aspect, parking areas for the turbine can be prepared in one week. The police is expected to announce that from the point of view of traffic, this solution is possible, albeit less than ideal..."

     

Jordan ousts Hamas

THE JERUSALEM POST 8/31/99: "The Jordanian authorities yesterday stormed the Amman offices of Hamas and arrested several members in a sweeping crackdown aimed at restraining the fundamentalist Moslem group. Security officials said several people were rounded up in the mid-afternoon sweep, but there were no ranking members of the group whose political leadership is now believed to be based in Jordan.

Hamas's political strategist Khalid Mashaal, spokesman Ibrahim Ghosheh and political bureau member Mohammed Nazzal were believed to be in Syria, according to the security officials...A senior government official said the raids and arrests will continue and that offices that serve as a front for Hamas in Jordan will be closed.

A Jordanian official said the offices were closed because Hamas had no license. He declined to say if the action was taken under pressure from the United States and Israel, which have often urged Jordan to move against the group.

Hassan Youssef, a leader of Hamas in Ramallah, said there was "no justification" for the Jordanian decision. Hamas, he said, "does not interfere in the internal affairs of Jordan. The closures will not serve the interests of the Arab nation." "This will have some impact on leaders and political activists in Jordan, but the base of Hamas lies inside the homeland," Youssef said...

The crackdown comes amid close Jordanian security cooperation with the Palestine Authority and Israel as both sides are close to implementing peace accords signed between them. Hamas this week spurned PA offers to join it in unity talks today in Ramallah. The PA said that it invited Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but Zahar said no formal invitation was ever issued to Hamas, only to specific members and no one from Hamas planned to attend the gathering.

"The atmosphere is not one of dialogue," Zahar told AP, noting the recent sweep of arrests by the PA of Hamas activists. A Jordanian source said by telephone from Amman last night that the steps against Hamas mark "the end of their presence in Jordan for the time being."...

     

PA intelligence used vs. Israel

YEDIOT AHARONOT 8/27/99 via IMRA: "Today there is already a difference of opinion regarding the merit of advancing Palestinian intelligence capabilities. In the GSS (Shabak) it is said that the American training helps in the struggle against terror. In Military Intelligence they think otherwise. The Palestinians, Military Intelligence maintains, also use the intelligence and knowledge against Israel.

According to a senior member of the Israeli defense establishment, the American-Palestinian connection hurts Israel - and in a big way. 'Every course advances them, raises their level, helps them to become more professional. The CIA invests in them, gives them good courses.

They get fantastic equipment, not just from the USA, also from European countries. The problem is that they also use the equipment against us, instead of using it to trap terrorists. So, for example, in the area of surveillance, they have a surveillance unit that monitors Israeli targets. And if you have advanced equipment, there is no problem monitoring military communications networks, intelligence networks or cellular telephones.'

There is also criticism against the Americans and their view of the situation. 'The Americans see the Palestinians as partners who have to be strengthen to turn into an island of stability,' said the senior source in the defense establishment. 'According to the American thesis, the better Palestinian intelligence is, the more terrorists they capture and the stabler the peace. This is a naive assumption that ignores the conflict between us and the Palestinians. The Americans relate to this as if it were a conflict between the Israeli-Palestinian side against Hamas. They don't see that Arafat and Hamas are on the same side against Israel.'

     

Raviv trial postponed

ARUTZ7 8/30/99: "The trial of GSS agent-provocateur Avishai Raviv has been postponed once again. Originally set for July 6, proceedings were originally delayed until Sept. 1, and today it was learned that the case will only be heard next month, on Oct. 3.

Barry Chamish, a journalist who has written extensively on the Rabin assassination, expressed disappointment that the trial was postponed a second time. Attributing the change in date to the fact that "so many people planned to sit in the courtroom as witnesses," Chamish said that this will not prevent him and others from attending the trial "whenever it will be held."

     

Terror tunnels in Gaza

ISRAEL LINE 8/27/99: "Another tunnel running between the Palestinian and Egyptian sections of the Gazan border town of Rafiah was discovered recently, HA'ARETZ reported. Inside the three foot wide and 21.3 foot deep tunnel, ropes and other devices were found, used by terror organizations to bring arms and explosives into the autonomous areas."

     

Maccabiah Injured promised compensation

HA'ARETZ 8/31/99: "More than two years after the tragic bridge collapse at the Maccabiah Games, the Israeli government announced that it would compensate members of the Australian delegation injured in the incident. The announcement was sent yesterday to the Haifa District Court, which is deliberating a series of claims against the insurance companies, contractors and other sources. The claims were brought by the families of those killed and injured in the fiasco.

In July of 1997, 4 participants in the Maccabiah Games were killed when a specially constructed foot bridge leading to the stadium collapsed. The treasury is to determine soon the exact amount of compensation, and informed sources have mentioned the amount as tens of millions of shekels.

The decision was taken last week at a discussion in the office of Finance Minister Avraham Shochat which was attended by representatives from the foreign and justice ministries. The Foreign Ministry suggested taking the unusual step of offering state compensation in order to repair relations with the Australian Jewish community, which had complained of the disappearance of those involved in the affair and of evasion of responsibility by Israeli officials.

Ministry sources yesterday expressed the hope that the decision would put an end to the procrastinating in the bargaining over compensation, and would lead to an arrangement with the insurance companies and other non-judicial actors in the affair...."

     

King of Burger business?

New York City's THE NEW YORK POST 8/29/99--Editorial: "Here's the hottest trend in corporate America: food companies with their own Middle East policy. First, those '60s relics at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream forced their Israeli licensee to stop using mineral water from one of Israel's leading bottled-water firms - because the water comes from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. Now the folks at Burger King have ordered their Israeli franchisee to remove the company's name from its 3-month-old restaurant in Maale Adumim, a suburb of Jerusalem also captured by Israel in 1967, this time from Jordanian occupation.

In both instances, the corporate capitulation followed naked threats of a worldwide boycott initiated by Arab-American groups. In the case of Burger King, that threat was about to be endorsed by the Arab League, which for decades administered the illegal Arab boycott of Israel and of companies that did business with the Jewish state. Burger King officials insisted that they have "no interest in taking sides in the Arab-Israeli peace process." But by declaring that Israel has no rightful claim to Maale Adumim, Burger King has done precisely that.

It also sends a disturbing signal to anyone with an agenda that blatant economic threats will succeed. Burger King may still have 46 restaurants in Israel, but it also has 84 fast-food places in five Arab countries. And its British-based parent company, Diageo, no doubt feared that the Arab boycott would spread to such other subsidiaries as Pillsbury, Haagen Dazs, Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker and J&B whiskeys.

Indeed, the Burger King folks made no bones about why they knuckled under so quickly: "Burger King has made this decision purely on a commercial basis." In other words, the pressure groups and their friends have the numbers, so their political demands are accommodated. In an effort to blunt criticism of its action, Burger King says its Israeli franchisee "falsely" claimed that the restaurant was located inside Israel. The franchise owner denies that charge and is fighting the company's actions in court.

Burger King may pretend that this is a breach-of-contract issue, but there's no denying that Israel's foes are hailing this as a significant political triumph. "Corporations should not do business and investment on land that is occupied by force and whose original owners have been displaced into refugee camps," proclaimed one of the boycott organizers. By its shameful surrender, Burger King has emboldened those who would revive the use of economic boycotts to try and make Israel knuckle under. Score another one for the Israel-bashers."

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