Life saving clock change
ARUTZ7 9/10/99: "Several major terrorist attacks were thwarted by
the security services over the past several days. Jerusalem
Police Chief Ya'ir Yitzchaki said that one of them was to have
taken place in a major Israeli city; he would not name the city.
It was reported this week that the miraculous failure of two
separate car-bombs - this past Sunday, in Haifa and Tiberias - to
kill anyone other than the terrorists themselves has a very
simple "earthly" explanation:
Israel's return to winter time two
days earlier, which the Palestinian Authority - in principle -
refuses to follow. The PA bomb-setters didn't switch their
clocks back, while the watches of the Israeli-Arab car-bomb
drivers were set to Israeli time - such that when the drivers
were told that the bombs would go off at 6:30 PM, they assumed
they still had another hour.
Prime Minister Barak, while not
relating to the above story, did confirm today that the
Israeli-Arab terrorist cells received their orders from within
the autonomous areas, and cooperated with Hamas in Jordan as
well."
Prisoners with blood; terrorists return to work?
HA'ARETZ 9/10/99: "Nearly 70 percent of the 199 Palestinian
security prisoners who were released yesterday by Israel were
convicted of crimes in which death was involved, and 130 of the
freed prisoners were serving life terms. Nineteen of the
prisoners were convicted of murder, 89 were jailed for
intentionally causing death, 24 served manslaughter sentences and
5 caused death. The other 62 prisoners were serving prison terms
after being convicted of a variety of offenses, including
planting bombs, producing explosives, attempted murder, assault,
kidnapping, possession of a weapon, throwing a grenade,
undergoing military training and others. The majority of the
released prisoners, 130, belong to the Fatah organization, and
the other 69 are members of the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine.
The Organization of Victims of Terrorism yesterday
asked the Justice Ministry for a list of the prisoners who were
released and the details of the offenses of which they were
convicted, including the names of their victims.
A spokesman for
the group said that the ministry's refusal to convey the list
"convinces us that this stems from political motives, which are
aimed at hiding from the public the relevant information and thus
prevent a public scandal."
More agreements but hate unabated
HA'ARETZ 9/10/99--Commentary by Nadav Shragai: "For the sixth
time since the Oslo agreement, Yasser Arafat is selling the same
merchandise to an Israeli prime minister, the fourth since
Yitzhak Rabin. Just as he did in Oslo 1 and 2 and in the Cairo,
Hebron and Wye agreements, Arafat is committing to "full
implementation of the agreements reached with Israel since
September 1993," yet once again the anti-Israel incitement in the
Palestinian Authority (PA) media continues unabated: expressions
of hate, delegitimization and traditional anti-Semitic blood
libels, as well as denials - in terminology, maps and official
educational materials - of the very existence of the state of
Israel.
The latest innovation of this hate campaign involves specifically
calling on Israeli Arabs, "the Palestinians on the inside," to
renounce their Israeli nationality and replace it with an
independent Palestinian identity. In other words, a foreign
authority is encouraging approximately 20 percent of the
country's citizens to transfer their loyalty to it.This on-going
incitement is not the only thing that has not changed.
The buffer
zones which the Palestinians committed to establishing in Hebron,
a key part of the agreement there, never materialized.
Nevertheless, Israel agreed in the Sharm el Sheikh agreement to
open Hebron's Shuhada Street and wholesale market. The PA has
never extradited terrorists responsible for killings even though
it promised to on three occasions. Although Israel did agree in
the Wye accord to waive this demand, the Sharm agreements add
insult to injury.
Not only will murderers of Jews not be
extradited - and many of them were not even jailed in PA
territory, as they should have been under the Wye agreement - but
now Israel has agreed to release more terrorists with blood on
their hands, of the kind who tried to murder Jews, but only
managed to injure them, as well as murderers of Arabs.
There are numerous examples of released terrorists returning to
terrorism, be it terrorists Israel released under the Jibril deal
or terrorists the PA released from its jails after refusing to
extradite them to Israel. Halil Toufik Sharif, for example, who
murdered David Boim near Beit El and who the PA refused to
extradite to Israel, detonated a bomb attached to his body on the
Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem.
Subhi Issa, who took
part in the killing of three IDF soldiers in 1993, is suspected
of involvement in the attack on Yoel Moshe Salomon street in
Jerusalem, in which an Israeli woman soldier and an Israeli Arab
were killed. The possibility is now being considered of releasing
one of the six murderers who "only" assisted in the killing of
Efrat and Yaron Unger three years ago.
One member of this group
whom Israel did not manage to apprehend, blew himself up in March
1997 inside Cafe Apropo in Tel Aviv, an attack which killed three
women.
The latest agreement is a terrible deal. Barak so wanted to link
the third redeployment to the permanent settlement that he
offered Arafat an array of temptations and benefits to achieve
that goal. Arafat, as usual, took the benefits without giving
anything in return. The Sharm agreement contains nothing to make
the Palestinians link the third redeployment to the permanent
agreement.
Moreover, the letter of guarantees which U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave Arafat stresses the
absence of any such link. On the other hand, Arafat received a
bundle of gifts: an additional 2 percent of Area B from the first
redeployment, the release of terrorists "with blood on their
hands," a more "qualitative" withdrawal, "candies" in Hebron and
dates for the start of construction of a port in Gaza and the
opening of the first "safe passage."
Once again, the Palestinians are promising to collect illegal
weapons, reduce the size of the Palestinian police force that has
ballooned to the size of an army and arrest wanted suspects.
Well, so what?
The worst thing about the Sharm agreement is that
the PA's interest in thwarting terrorist attacks against us -
coming out of the additional territories we are now handing over
to them - is always conditional on the continued handing over of
territories.
Their final line, at least for now, is the 1947
Partition Plan line. This is PA-style reciprocity: a
self-destruction mechanism built into a process that is supposed
to be one of conciliation."
Iranian Jews
HA'ARETZ 9/13/99: "Iran is sure that 13 Jews accused of espionage
are guilty, and has documents to prove it, a senior judge said in
comments published in Tehran yesterday. "It is certain that these
individuals were spies. There is no doubt about this. The court
has enough strong evidence and documents proving this,"
Gholamhossein Rahbarpour, the head of Tehran's Revolutionary
Courts, told the hard-line Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily. He said the
trial is expected to begin shortly in the Revolutionary Court in
Shiraz. The Jews being held include at least one rabbi who were
arrested in March on charges of spying for Israel and the United
States. They could face the death penalty if convicted.
Seven
other Iranian citizens were also arrested. Both Israel and the
United States have dismissed the spy charges as unfounded, and
along with France, Germany and Amnesty International, have lodged
protests...
A Jewish member of Iran's Parliament, Manouchehr Eliyasi, said
yesterday that Iran's Jewish community fears the worst, but is
hoping for a "just outcome" in the trial. "By inflating the
facts, the foreign media are trying to harm national unity,"
Eliyasi said.
"I hope the judicial authorities will examine the
issue as quickly as possible, while respecting the legal rights
of the accused, and submit a just verdict in order to dispel the
fears of my constituents." Senior Iranian sources have recently
been quoted as saying that Israel is involved in the case and
that those arrested merely "carried out the instructions of the
mastermind of the spy ring," who has not been apprehended.
Last
month the conservative Tehran Times said those arrested passed
information to Israel using "advanced communication tools."...
Shas compromise?
HA'ARETZ 9/13/99: "The Shas party has decided to give Prime
Minister Ehud Barak more time to resolve the crisis over covering
the deficit in the party's educational system. The decision was a
reversal of declarations made by party members before Rosh
Hashanah, according to which Shas would bolt the coalition if the
sums to pay the overdue salaries of the school employees were not
immediately delivered. The party's Council of Torah Sages, which
had been scheduled to meet today in order to decide on the
departure from the coalition, are now not planning to convene,
although Shas has refrained from officially declaring the
time-extension so that Barak doesn't get the idea that he can
drag out the crisis.
According to sources in Shas, party leaders
had accepted the agreement of Finance Minister Avraham Shochat
and Minister Without Portfolio Haim Ramon to transfer NIS 6
million for the payment of the employees' salaries, and this
after the Shas school system agreed several weeks before to the
government's ratification of only minimum commitments.
But the
agreement was sabotaged by Education Minister Yossi Sarid, who
had not been party to it. Likewise, Shas personnel were also
demanding the sum of NIS 14-16 million for the payment of their
salaries, and were also not prepared to sign the agreement. Shas
members are still demanding of Barak that he carry out his
promise to strip Sarid of his authority in the matter and to take
it upon himself to transfer the money for the salaries separate
from the discussions on the long-term rehabilitation program for
Shas's educational network..."
Jordan threatens Hamas
HA'ARETZ 9/13/99: "Jordan said yesterday it would arrest three
Hamas leaders if they return to Jordan. "The judiciary have
issued arrest warrants and the security agencies will enforce
them once they [Hamas leaders] arrive at Jordanian borders,"
Prime Minister Abdul Raouf al-Rawabdeh told a meeting of
Amman-based foreign media reporters. Nearly two weeks ago
Jordanian authorities arrested about 15 Hamas activists and shut
down offices of the three leaders: Khalid Mashal, the chief
political strategist for Hamas, Musa Abu Marzook and Mohammed
Nazal. Three of the six senior political bureau members of Hamas
living in Jordan were in Tehran when the authorities sealed their
offices.
The wanted Hamas leaders were quoted by their supporters
in Amman as saying the three were determined to return even at
the risk of imprisonment, but were undecided on the timing of
their return. Rawabdeh said the leaders would stand trial.
"The
matter is being dealt with by the judicial authorities ... the
judiciary will handle their matter and the orders to interrogate
them ... It's not a decision by the government. Once they are
arrested, you will find they will go to court," he added..."
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