THE JERUSALEM POST - DECEMBER 10, 1999 - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators assume that the U.S. will pay the estimated $100 billion cost of a final peace agreement. But, as Janine Zacharia finds, Congress may have different ideas. .. The technocrats will add it all up and write down a sum - of up to $100 billion, according to some diplomats. They will then look to the U.S. government to bankroll the bulk of the agreement. But they might be in for a surprise. The winds of isolationism are blowing through Capitol Hill... Congressman Sonny Callahan: "We are happy to give Israel economic assistance, but for goodness sake! One hundred billion dollars so there will be an agreement to stop Israelis from killing Palestinians and Palestinians from killing Israelis?!

JERUSALEM ––(AP) (January 24, 2000) The United States will be asked to pay the multi billion dollar bill for peace between Israel and Syria, a Cabinet minister involved in the negotiations said Monday. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, chief of staff of the Israeli army before entering politics in 1998, said the bill could reach the $17 billion reported in the Israeli media, and said it would be a "reasonable price" for the United States to pay. Prime Minister Ehud Barak picked Lipkin-Shahak and Foreign Minister David Levy to join him in talks with the Syrians. Syria called off the most recent round, scheduled for last week. No new date has been set. "The (Israeli) army knows what it needs," Lipkin-Shahak told The Associated Press in an interview at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, spelling out the expensive security arrangements Israel would require as part of its peace deal.

Syria is demanding that Israel return the strategic Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Israel's north and providing Israel a clear view of Syrian military deployments. Israel captured the territory in 1967. Barak has indicated that he would be prepared to give up most or all of the highlands in return for security assurances from Syria. Washington is hoping a peace arrangement between Syria and Israel will help push the region to an overall peace. In return for cooperating with U.S. efforts in the region, Syria hopes for massive U.S. aid to revamp its economy. Despite some signs of shock from Washington at the thought of a multi billion dollar price tag, Lipkin-Shahak expected that the U.S. would pay the bill in the end, calling it an investment.

"How much did the (1991) Gulf war (against Iraq) cost?" he asked. "How much is it worth (to the United States) to have stability in oil prices? How much is it worth to develop a Middle East market to American products?" The ex-general said Israel must keep its listening post high atop Mt. Hermon at the northern edge of the Golan Heights, the highest elevation in the region, where Israeli soldiers keep an eye on Syrian troop movements all the way to the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Lipkin-Shahak confirmed media reports that Israel would ask for Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States. Israel would need cruise missiles in case of a war against faraway enemies like Iran or Iraq, said military analyst Shlomo Brom, a former director of military planning, "to hit distant targets without the need to overfly countries with which we are at peace, using manned aircraft." Much of the expense would be for relocating Israeli army bases on the Golan Heights, Lipkin-Shahak said. He said security arrangements would have to be in effect for ten to 15 years "to build credibility between the two sides."

Lipkin-Shahak rejected the contention by some military experts that Israel must recreate its entire array of offensive and defensive capabilities once it withdraws from the Golan Heights. "We are making peace, not war," he said.

WASHINGTON POST - February 3, 2000 - The Syrian-Israeli negotiations have faltered, with the talks indefinitely suspended. Still, should the Syrians relent and agree to return to the table, one great question hangs over the talks: What commitments of money and troops will the Clinton administration take on? The amount of money under discussion seems to grow with the telling. In the mid-1990s and as recently as last November, the bill to be presented to the American taxpayer was routinely said to be $10 billion. By December, the amount commonly bruited about had reached $17-18 billion. In January, the numbers leaped up to $65-70 billion, and some even talked about $100 billion. Although this sum of money would be paid out over many years, it still represents a staggeringly large sum of money. Americans don't like the prospect one bit, and they are very consistent in their opinion. By a nearly exact 3-to-1 margin, a national sample of 1,000 American voters replied to a poll commissioned by the Middle East Forum (and conducted on Jan... the percentage was 63.8 against, 21.2 in favor..

SHEPHERDS TOWN, W.VA - Cox News (Tampa Tribune January 9, 2000) [The meeting took place in Shepherds town, W.Va.]" .. If Clinton succeeds in his highest foreign policy ambition - the cementing of an overall peace accord between Israel and its Arab foes - U.S taxpayers will get hit with a huge bill. The tab could well top $20 billion, analysts say.. And that might be the easy part. U.S. military troupes, could be deployed to help police the peace, putting Americans at risk in a region where suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism have become a tragic part of the culture. Part of Clinton's challenge, even as he works to brings the conflicted parties together.. is to convince the Americans that the price of the Mideast peace is a cost worth bearing.. "

THE JERUSALEM REPORT, January 17, 2000 - ".. At least as important is $5.1 billion Berlin will pay to forced and slave laborers," says Stuart Eizenstat, who oversees Holocaust-era reparations talks on behalf of the Clinton administration. A Triple Handshake between Eizenstat, Schroeder and Lambsdorff after the mid-December signing ceremony in Berlin.

JERUSALEM - (AP) Tampa Tribune 1.28.2000 - A criminal inquiry launched Thursday into Prime Minister Ehud Barak's campaign finances threatened to erupt into a scandal that could hinder his efforts to secure a comprehensive peace by year's end.. An investigation led opposition lawmakers, opposed to Barak's revived peace efforts, to call on police to investigate the Prime Minister..

BEIRUT (AP)- Lebanon yesterday said it will not accept any attempt by Israel to alter the international border after it withdraws its army from southern Lebanon. "Lebanon's internationally recognized border is not subject to alteration or redrawing in any settlement that could be reached with Israel," Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss said.

Al-Hoss was reacting to comments made by Israeli Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz at a news conference on Wednesday. Mofaz said: "A peace agreement with Lebanon would include a new border, a better security situation, in my opinion, and flexibility for the Israeli army to respond to this or that violation."

Lebanese officials took the comments about a "new border" to signal an attempt to redraw the frontier after Israeli troops withdraw from the southern Lebanon border strip, occupied in order to guard northern Israel against cross-border guerrilla attacks. But the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman's office yesterday said that Mofaz was referring to the internationally recognized border rather than the de facto frontier, which is on the northern edge of the occupied zone inside Lebanon.

Mofaz does not rule out in principle, minor changes to the border that would be reached by agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the spokesmen added. Prime Minister Ehud Barak has promised to pull troops out of Lebanon by July, and is negotiating a peace deal with Syria that he says will include Syrian guarantees of quiet along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Lebanon's negotiations with Israel have not resumed, pending progress on the Syrian track. Mofaz is coordinating the Israeli army's preparations to withdraw from Lebanon. Residents of northern Israel have complained about the bunker-like fortifications that Israel is building along the border with Lebanon.

JERUSALEM POST, JANUARY 14, 2000 - Excerpts: ".. Designating the year as the Great Jubilee four years ago (based on the biblical concept regarding the 50th year, Leviticus 25:10), the Vatican released a document outlining the pope's expectations and instructions for the years leading up to and culminating in the millennial year.

"In this document (In Tertio Millenia Adveniente), John Paul II not only calls on the Catholic faithful to make a pilgrimage both to Rome and the Holy Land, he refers to his own plan to come to Israel as a pilgrim. In addition, he indicates his hope that the millennium and his visit will serve as an opportunity for reconciliation between Christians, Jews and Moslems. To this end, he has initiated a series of conferences and issued statements expressing Catholic remorse for violence done in the name of the Church, especially toward the Jewish people.

Pilgrims from Puerto Rico pray on the hilltop where Anmageddon is to take place

The Jerusalem Post sees the friendship between Israel and Pope John Paul II as the Church embracing Israel

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"Indeed, Pope John Paul II has played a remarkable role in the advancement of Catholic-Jewish relations, continuing the work of pope John XXIII. His visit to Israel will be, in addition to all else, a visible expression of the historic transformation of Catholic attitudes toward Jews, Judaism and Israel."

The writer reminds his readers of how the papacy felt about Jews in the past and how it has been transformed. "While the spirit of scholarly research in the earlier part of century had much to do with a review of Catholic teaching concerning the Jews, it was the impact of the Holocaust and the personal commitment of pope John XXII that led to the radical break with this past theology. As papal envoy in Turkey during WWII, John XXII helped save thousands of Jews from the clutches of the Nazis and their collaborators.. In convening the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, John XXIII sought, inter alia, the reappraisal of Catholic theological attitudes toward the Jewish people. As a result, the document promulgated in 1965, known as Nostra Aetate, categorically repudiated the teaching of contempt toward the Jewish people and ushered in the revolution in Church teaching that has continued over the past 35 years... The normalization of relations between the Holy See and Israel was the natural outcome of these changes in theology and attitude... The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Gulf war facilitated the ensuing Middle East peace process, and, as Vatican spokesman Joachim Navarro-Valls put it at the time, if the Palestinians were talking with the Israelis, why shouldn't the Vatican?

[Referring to the signing of a bilateral relations agreement between the Vatican and Israel in 1993] ".. Indeed, the very act of the Holy See signing an agreement and normalizing relations with the restored sovereign Jewish people in the land of its ancestors was the culmination of the revolution in Church teaching... The crosses at Auschwitz, Edith Stein's sainthood, and the Pope's reception of Waldheim, caused some distrust in the integrity of the Pope." After hashing that out, another document was released by the Vatican which was a disappointment to the Jews but they are looking forward to his visit.

TAMPA TRIBUNE, January 8, 2000 Editorial by Ray Locker - [Pope Pius XII received a whole page with his famous portrait , where he is carried in full gala on his throne with a collage of Jews behind barbed wire and pictures of Hitler's Pope]. It read "Pope Pius XII, top, was seen as a defender of Jews. However, "Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII" labels him an anti-Semite and condemns his complicity with Hitler. The book says that for political reasons, the pontiff ignored the murder of millions of Jews and their incarceration in concentration camps, left and right. PAPAL TIGER? Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. by John Cornwell Viking.

"Not many pages in "Hitler's Pope" go by before a reader understands author John Cornwell cares little for Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII. At virtually every opportunity, Cornwell ascribes the worst motives to Pacelli and his conduct. Given the choice between giving Pacelli a break or not, Cornwell ponders and decides: not to.

"That is this book's overwhelming flaw, and it obscures dogged research and cogent reasoning. Pacelli, throughout his tenure as a church bureaucrat, diplomat and pope, promoted policies that encouraged totalitarian regimes and squashed Roman Catholic political parties. Pacelli did so not much out of fascist tendencies but out of lifelong commitment to the church and the papacy. That doesn't necessarily mean to Catholicism but to the institution of the church itself, an institution Pacelli's family served for decades.

"The young Pacelli matured when secular institutions and influences besieged the church. Shortly before his birth, the unification of Italy had stripped away the papal states, forcing the church to retreat to the confines of Vatican City. That and the trend toward modernism rising from the United States, left the pope vulnerable and exposed as never before... During the war, Pacelli became the church's emissary to Germany. There he began to display signs of anti-Jewishness, rejecting a plea by Germany's Jewish community for help in obtaining palms from Italy for a religious celebration. After the war, he watched a defeated Germany grapple with communist insurgents, and that fear of communism and chaos led him to consider working with fascists, primarily Adolf Hitler's National Socialists.

"Catholic political parties, .. represented a rival to Rome's authority, not an ally. Pacelli, Cornwell shows, undercut the Center Party, the best bulwark against Hitler, by doing his best to encourage a relationship with the Nazis. At a time when Germany could have conceivably withstood the surge of Hitler, Pacelli's diplomacy pushed the nation into Hitler's arms. Most of us know the rest of the story. As the church's secretary of state and pope, Pacelli had many chances to repudiate Hitler and Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. He chose not to. His few public utterances skirted the Holocaust, although many knowledgeable sources inside Europe know Hitler was liquidating European Jews. But, as Cornwell writes, Pacelli never cared for Jews.

"His complicity in the Final Solution through failure to register appropriate condemnation was compounded by a retrospective attempt to portray himself an outspoken defender of the Jewish people," Cornwell writes. Instead of speaking out, using the moral authority of the church, Pacelli stumbled along as 6 million Jews went to their deaths. They died at the hands of Hitler, who had received a much-needed break from Pacelli. In his attempt to consolidate the power of the papacy, Pacelli led the church into the embrace of fascists. That provided short-term advantage but long-term shame the church is still trying to recognize. Eugenio Pacelli helped that to happen; in many ways, he was Hitler's pope.

"Pacelli," Cornwell writes, was "not a saintly exemplar for future generations, but a deeply flawed human being from whom Catholics and our relations with other religions, can best profit by expressing our sincere regret."

"These are tough words, and Cornwell allows his rhetoric to run past reality. But his excesses pale beside Pacelli's. This serrated account of Pacelli's tenure often cuts too deeply when a nick would have sufficed, but it also lays open part of Catholic history - Pacelli and his rigid conservatism - that led to where the church is today."

January 20, 2000 - A group of American rabbis, concerned that the Israel- Palestinian peace talks might collapse over the tangled issue of Jerusalem, called yesterday for the two sides to share the city. "The question is whether Jerusalem should be under the exclusive sovereignty of one nation," read a statement signed by more than 300 rabbis from the group, calling itself the Jewish Peace Lobby. "The question is whether the pursuit of both justice and peace requires that, in some form, Jerusalem be shared with the Palestinian people. We believe that it does."
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/us-rabbis-jerusalem.html)

President Clinton Urges Israelis, Palestinians to Compromise

By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) January 20, 2000- President Clinton, in a meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Thursday, urged Israelis and Palestinians to be flexible as they worked to hammer out a peace agreement. ``In any process like this there must be inevitable and difficult compromises,'' Clinton said as he began a meeting with Arafat in the Oval Office. "No one can get everything that either side wants but I am convinced we can get there.'' Arafat, who has shown frustration at the slow pace of ''final status'' talks with the Israelis, said he realized peace would not be easy.

"There is no doubt that there will be difficulties along the way,'' Arafat said through an interpreter as he sat with Clinton in front of a fireplace. "But there is also determination that we will have to reach the comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.'' Final status'' talks touch on the most difficult issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including Jerusalem, refugees and the borders and status of the Palestinian territories. After nearly an hour of talks with Clinton, Arafat expressed confidence in forging peace soon... U .S. officials had urged Israelis and Palestinians to be flexible on their toughest disputes so they can meet the "formidable challenge'' of reaching a framework agreement by a Feb. 13 deadline.

The framework deal is meant to pave the way for a full agreement by September. [Considering that Clinton is leaving office] Clinton said: "I am convinced it's possible for them to reach a comprehensive peace in a reasonably short period of time and I'm going to do whatever I can to facilitate it.'' Arafat, called his meeting with Clinton ``fruitful and productive.'' .. Arafat said Israel should withdraw from another 6.1 percent of the West Bank within the next two weeks.

Clinton had planned to meet Barak himself this week, along with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara. But the third round of revived Israeli-Syrian peace talks was put off because of differences over the fate of the Golan Heights... Arafat's talks at the State Department concentrated on bilateral matters, including disputes over Orthodox churches in Palestinian territories and the Palestinian Authority's attempt to make its economic operations more transparent.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert says he is considering leading the struggle for a united Jerusalem as he has done in recent years. The mayor said he is willing to cooperate with the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements but added that he does not want them officially recognized as the campaign's leader. "I stand at the forefront of this issue because of the responsibility I have as Jerusalem mayor," said Olmert. He added that he would confer with Yesha and other organizations about the steps that need to be taken to ensure a united Jerusalem and that they would adhere strictly to the law. "In the meantime, I have no reason to change what I said on the eve of the elections about [Prime Minister Ehud] Barak. I do not believe that he will divide Jerusalem. This does not mean, however, that I am not fearful of the steps that others in government ministries are taking," said Olmert.

The mayor argued that the transfer of civilian authority over Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinian Authority is actually a division of the city. He also said he is "disturbed by the government's helplessness in the face of the PA's future operations in the city." Meanwhile, the Yesha Council and other right-wing organizations have decided to base their campaign against the evacuation of settlements in the Golan Heights and the West Bank on the possibility that the move may cause an irreversible division in Israeli society. The decision comes in the wake of a Gallup survey which found that a majority believed that preventing a "rift in the nation" is more important than signing peace agreements with the Arabs. 47 percent felt this way, while 34 percent held the opposite view. Thirteen percent considered that a united nation and peace are equally important.

Yesha's campaign under the slogan, "Uprooting settlements divides the people," is already underway with billboards erected across the country. The organization recently distributed a circular to right-wing MKs which claims that: "A withdrawal to the 1967 borders, or to a position meters from those borders, will cause Arafat to demand that Israel pull back to the 1967 borders in both Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Gospel calls for the entire globe to be governed from Jerusalem by the Antichrist. "Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto the people.. (Zechariah 12:2) "Jerusalem will soon be crowned as the Great City of Peace, a shining example of love and harmony between Jews, Christians, Moslems, and people of all faiths. Jerusalem shall become the capital of Earth, the seat of world power, residence and headquarters for their Mighty One to come... Jewish Rabbi Menachem Froman, in a commentary for The Jerusalem Report, October 25, 1999, proposes that Jerusalem become the seat of the United Nations and the capital of the world. (Power of Prophecy, December 1999)

 

 

U.S. use of Iraqi Oil Soars Despite Overall Drop in Imports

By Jim Landers

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, WASHINGTON -01.20.2000-U.S. use of Iraqi oil soars despite drop in imports became a big part of U.S. energy supplies last year, according to industry figures released Wednesday.Nearly nine years after the end of the Persian Gulf War, Iraq remains under United Nations sanctions limiting its ability to make money from oil sales, and U.S. warplanes still patrol its airspace.But rising prices have made Iraq's crude oil so attractive on world markets that it has become the fifth-largest supplier of U.S. imports.

Crude oil imports from Iraq doubled last year, the American Petroleum Institute said. As recently as 1996, the United States imported no Iraqi oil. Some independent U.S. oil producers say Iraq's return as a major oil supplier gives Saddam Hussein a powerful foreign policy tool. When prices collapsed in 1998 to a low of $8 a barrel, Iraqi production soared and was blamed for deepening the economic anguish that bled $60 billion away from other oil producers, from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia down to Texas stripper-well owners.

Now that prices have rebounded to more than $29 a barrel, Iraq's production of 2.1 million to 2.5 million barrels a day gives it the ability to cause sudden price spikes. Mr. Hussein halted oil exports for more than three weeks at the end of last year in an unsuccessful attempt to overcome remaining U.N. Security Council sanctions. "Iraq is still a very unstable player in the world oil market,'' said Lee Fuller, a vice president with the Independent Petroleum Association of America. "And if you let a lot of investment into Iraq, particularly without a major change in the role it plays in the world, you give Saddam Hussein a large amount of influence over what happens to the world oil price. Those are fairly significant political decisions no one has tried to grapple with.''

An Energy Department spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity said the imports pose no ethical or political concerns for U.S. policy-makers because they are administered by the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. "There's nothing unusual or remarkable about these imports,'' he said. U.S. oil imports from Iraq climbed from nothing in 1996 to 336,000 barrels a day in 1998. Last year, imports through October averaged 712,000 barrels a day, said Ronald Planting, the petroleum institute's information and analysis manager.

Under the U.N. sanctions imposed after the Persian Gulf War, Iraq was permitted to sell oil to earn money for food and medicine under an arrangement in which the revenues would go through a U.N. administered escrow account.Sanctions still limit the ability of major oil companies to invest in Iraqi oil fields or sell production equipment. The money from its oil sales still goes into an escrow account, and 30 percent of that is used to pay off Iraq's war reparations. But Iraq is free to sell as much, or as little, oil as it likes, without heeding rules binding other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Larry Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation in New York, said traders in Russia, China and Europe are buying Iraqi oil at discounts averaging 10 to 15 cents a barrel.The traders resell the oil, much of it to U.S. companies, at prices below the cost of comparable grades of oil. "It's the last piece of crude a refiner would look at because of the uncertainty of supply, so it has to be competitively priced,'' Mr. Goldstein said.

Houston-based Coastal Corp. has been the only U.S. firm that Iraq will allow to make direct purchases of its oil. "Iraqi crude clearly is being priced competitively enough ... to become the fastest-growing source of U.S. imports,'' Mr. Goldstein said. "Much of it is going to the West Coast, to replace falling Alaskan oil production.'' Iraq became the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports in 1999, behind Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada and Mexico.

Iraqi production has swung wildly over the last two years. Mr. Hussein cut exports sharply in November to protest the remaining U.N. sanctions.Exports at the beginning of this month were about 1 million barrels a day and are now running near capacity at 2.1 million barrels a day, Mr. Goldstein said. Russia, China and France this week blocked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's efforts to restore the international body's weapons inspection program in Iraq by vetoing Mr. Annan's nominees to head the program.

All three nations would like to invest in Iraq's oil fields after the removal of U.N. sanctions aimed at destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Goldstein said.The three nations explained their rejection of Mr. Annan's nominees by saying they could not repair the agency's credibility in weapons inspections, which they say was compromised by U.S. spying. Independent producers have urged the Clinton administration and Congress to curb Iraqi oil sales under the oil-for-food program and to provide more incentives for domestic production.

U.S. oil production fell to an average daily output of 5.902 million barrels last year, down 5.6 percent from 1998 production. The petroleum institute's Mr. Planting said it was the largest annual decline in 10 years.Although oil imports fell 1.7 percent last year, they still accounted for 54 percent of U.S. oil consumption. Alaskan oil production fell 10.7 percent last year, to just over 1 million barrels a day, Mr. Planting said.Mr. Planting said average U.S. well head oil prices rose from $8 to $22 a barrel last year. Oil companies chose to use much of the oil in their inventories rather than pay higher prices, which is why overall imports declined, he said.

Israel Wire - January 19,2000 - Former Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Mordehai Eliyahu, stated on Tuesday in a Chabad gathering in Tel Aviv, "Syria should return Damascus to Israel, since they took it in the time of King David". Rabbi Eliyahu added that we should be in mourning over the government's desire to withdraw from territories in the Golan. He said this is a dark time for the Jews, and that we need to look for the light. Rabbi Yehuda Leib Groner, who served as the Lubavitcher Rebbe's secretary, stated that it is necessary to fight against a government that wants to give away territory, to rousing applause from the audience.

Iran Worried About Turkish - Israeli Ties

By Kelly Pagatpatan

Weekend News Today: Turkish Daily News: Wed Jan 19,2000 -- Two complicated issues dominated the diplomatic
agenda during Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi recent visit to Ankara: Iran's concerns about growing Turkish-Israeli ties and Turkey's security concerns about Iran sheltering Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists. Kharrazi indicated that he had conveyed Iran's concerns about growing Turkish-Israeli relations during the meetings. He added: "The existence of
Israel poses a threat to regional stability. I discussed all of these concerns with my colleague. We hope that by establishing a security mechanism, we will be able to solve the problems." Responding to Kharrazi's statement, Cem assured his Iranian counterpart that his government on principle would not allow military ally Israel to attack any of its neighbors from Turkish
soil.
"It is out of the question that any foreign power, I am referring to Israel, would use our territory to make a move against a neighbor." "If Iran has evidence detailing how Israel can threaten Iran through Turkey, they should bring all this evidence to the table and we can discuss the matter," he added. Iran insists that no Muslim country should have ties with the Jewish
state. Turkey, which is officially secular but whose people are predominantly Muslim, insists its ties with Israel do not pose a threat to any country.

Iran Wants Western Forces Out Of The Gulf

By Kelly Pagatpatan

Weekend News Today, Reuters: Wed Jan 19,2000 -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called Wednesday for an end to the presence of Western forces in the Gulf, saying Gulf countries could police the oil-rich region themselves. "The presence of
foreign forces is at odds with our interests and those of other nations in the region... It is in fact an insult, a source of tension," Khatami said. Iranian destroyers, submarines and hovercraft held exercises to "display part of their might" during Khatami's visit to Iran's Gulf coast. "Through their presence, these countries want to ensure their unjust domination of the world...They
are not here to avert crisis. Their presence in this sensitive region causes crisis and fans disputes under various pretexts," Khatami said. "We must show to the world we are capable of protecting the Persian Gulf's security and independence. We can protect it as well for foreigners and the world," he said. "We advocate peace based on justice in the world. Our armed forces
are not aggressive and have indeed withstood any act of aggression."

E.U. Defense Explained To U.S. By French Minister
By Kelly Pagatpatan

Weekend News Today - Reuters -Wed Jan 19,2000 -- French Defense Minister Alain Richard said on Wednesday he would go to the United States next month to head off possible misunderstandings over EU plans for a military task force. "We must strive for more harmonious and productive relations about the respective defense responsibilities of the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance," he told ambassadors and military attaches from NATO and EU states, many of whose members belong to both bodies. "The start of the year 2000 is the right time to strive for complete serenity in relations between the two groups. "That is one of the aims of a visit I will make to the United States and to Canada to further explain and shed light on the future to avoid misunderstandings between the Alliance and the Union," he said. "We (Europeans) showed we could play an influential, even a central role, in the political sphere and we want to do the same militarily," Richard said, adding that he expected new European command and evaluation structures to be in place by March. "The past year saw an acceleration in the construction of a European defense entity which will be a factor for world stability," he said.

 

Momentum In Mideast Peace Talks Seen By Britain

After Talks With Jordan's King

By Kelly Pagatpatan

 

Weekend News Today - Reuters - Wed Jan 19,2000 - British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said on Wednesday Middle East peacemaking had achieved a momentum strong enough to overcome recent setbacks in Israel's talks with Syria and the
Palestinians. Cook, speaking in Jordan after talks with King Abdullah, said he had discussed the shape of regional cooperation between Israel and the Arab world after the successful conclusion of current peace talks. "Both Britain and Jordan are hopeful that the current hiccups in talks will prove to be that, and not a crisis," Cook said of this week's postponement of a third
round of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara.

 

Israel's Government Stalling On Legitimizing Religious Radio

 

THE JERUSALEM POST 1.14.2000 - "Religious Knesset members attacked the government last week for what they said is a campaign to close pirate haredi radio stations and delay the establishment of special-interest stations. United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni said the political establishment is afraid haredi radio will attract people to religion and haredi parties will gain strength. "It is not reasonable that no solution has been found in 10 years. A million people don't have a communications outlet," he said in a meeting of the Knesset Economics Committee on closures of haredi pirate radio."

Witchcraft - Kabbalah Goes Mainstream

 

THE JERUSALEM REPORT, November 8, 1999." The modern world was expected to sound the death knell for Jewish mysticism. Far from it, Kabbalah is enjoying an extraordinary renaissance - among messianists, political extremists, scientists, seekers of insight from all walks of life. Is it a trend to embrace or to fear? Practical Kabbalah asserts that by manipulating names of God, invoking angels, and writing amulets, reality can be affected.. Only in the last decade has it become a force in Israel. It is an interesting, subversive backdoor to Judaism for Hindus and Buddhists and Orthodox students. Fascination with it has spread. It is reported that rock star Madonna was due in Safed this summer for a kabbalah festival after two years of well publicized study of it. Madonna didn't make the show but Roseanne Batt, Marla Trump and Elisabeth Taylor went to meetings. It is said to help you succeed in business. Kabbalah flourished and gained wide recognition and usage in the 13th century [during the days of the Templers]. It is also being publicized on Internet in eight languages. They had 300,000 hits in a month. "By transforming ourselves through the study of kabbalah until we, too develop the will to give, we begin to "see" the divine realm usually hidden from human beings.".. After four to five years of serious study of kabbalah you will begin to develop spiritual senses, says Laitman. THE LURE IS THE PROMISE TO ENTER PARADISE IN MYSTICAL CONTEMPLATION- claiming that the creature was created to experience God... Many believe it can stop the world's corruption. For Lubavitcher messianists, the message is that each of us can conjure the rebbe, on our own, any time. Revelation without hesitation.

"IT BRINGS BACK TO JUDAISM - WHICH WITHOUT KABBALAH, IS SO PATRIARCHAL - THE FEMININE ASPECT OF GOD, THE SHEKKINAH." Kabbalah and science compliment each other. "Kabbalah teaches us not to reject anything. We can integrate the insights not only of science but of Buddhism, Hinduism, all human knowledge... We need a Kabbalah that desires peace," says Ezrahi. "I'm looking for a kabbalah that can read the text of the modern world and understand its depths. The modern world is autonomy, democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, Biblical and kabbalistic criticism. True honor to God means listening to this world, seeing the processes involved in the development of the human spirit, not pushing it backwards."

JERUSALEM (AP) (January 29, 2000)- A city in Israel's Negev Desert woke up blanketed in snow today and Muslim clerics in Jordan told worshipers to say their prayers at home after a rare snowstorm dumped up to 3 feet of snow over the region. In Jerusalem, which was covered in at least 15 inches of snow, a house in the Arab eastern sector collapsed, killing one Palestinian man and trapping his grandfather in the wreckage. In neighboring Jordan, the storm dumped two feet of snow on the capital
Amman and nearly three feet in other regions, including the usually arid south and east. Ski operators at Mount Hermon, Israel's only ski resort, were happy about the storm.

U.S. Rabbis Fear Their Prayers Will Trigger Riots

WEEKEND NEWS TODAY (AP) Fri Jan 28,2000 -- North American Reform rabbis, who are protesting a bill to turn the Western Wall into an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, have canceled plans to pray there for fear of causing a riot. "We feared that if we prayed at the Wall, it would give rise to a mass protest by the ultra-Orthodox who were slated to demonstrate there that day, and then Prime Minister Ehud Barak would have to respond," said delegation head Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch. The rabbis visiting Israel said they were concerned about ruffling the prime minister's feathers in the face of the currently strained peace talks with the Syrians. "We didn't want to compromise Ehud Barak's position right now because we came to endorse his peace efforts," explained Hirsch. The leaders had planned to pray at the Wall as an expression of support for religious pluralism in Israel. The demonstration would have come in the wake of a bill presented by Shas two weeks ago, calling for the entire Western Wall complex to be declared an Orthodox area. "It is outrageous. The Western Wall is not an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, it's a central shrine of the Jewish people and the proposal should be opposed with vigor," Hirsch told Anglo File. "I would be surprised if it passes, but if it does it will cause a huge crisis with Diaspora Jewry."

Pope's Visit To Israel Is Security Nightmare

WEEKEND NEWS TODAY (AP) Mon Jan 31,2000 -- The impending visit to Israel by Pope John Paul II is "a nightmare for the General Security Service (GSS/Shin Bet) and health services." Security agencies are most concerned the visit will prompt extremist elements to attempt a terrorist attack or his age or health may require his hospitalization while in Israel, or even worse, he might die in Israel during the visit. The biggest fear is the head of the Catholic Church will go to his eternal rest while in Israel, perhaps in Nazareth, the birthplace of Christianity, which according to event organizers would be "the end of the world".

Israel Cuts off Talks With Syria

JERUSALEM - (AP) (The Tampa Tribune, January 31, 2000) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that talks with Syria would not resume until it reined in the Hezbollah guerilla army, shutting down recently revived peace talks just after three Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon... The decision to include a ban on attacks on the army as a condition for talks is rare - Israel's red line has traditionally been attacks on civilian settlements.. The tough tone underscored the pressure Barak faces at home, where he is under fire in a campaign finance scandal.

Austria's Right Wing Alarms EU Neighbors, US & Israel

Austria is not only the place where Adolf Hitler was born but it is also the seat of the powerful German dynasty Habsburg that reigned as German King and Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire including Spain, Sicily, Netherlands, Hungary, etc.. In the book "The Guardian of the Grail, J.R. Church wrote down the genealogy of the famous Merovingian Bloodline which is the bloodline of Kings of Jerusalem. It was traced as far back as 1099 A.D. Charles V de Lorraine (?-1765) married Eleonore-Marie van Habsburg, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III. The Habsburg dynasty became the heirs to the title, King of Jerusalem, from this point forward. Karl von Habsburg was born 1961 and will become heir to the title "King of Jerusalem" upon the death of his father Otto von Habsburg. Juan Carlos, present King of Spain, also claims the title, "King of Jerusalem." His royal lineage also extends back to Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Austria ceased to be a monarchy after the abdication of Charles I (1916-1918), Emperor of Austria, when Austria became a republic. Austria is full of memorials of the past. Below are two taken from the book: Auf den Spuren der Habsburger, by Gerhard Toetschinger.

To the left is a photo of the courthouse in Gmunden, Austria. Notice the Masonic Double Eagle and All-seeing eye which comes from the Egyptian Sun-god in the triangle in the center between the alcoves.

The All-seeing eye here is enlarged from the photo.

This Lion was sculptured as a memorial to Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria with the Masonic double eagle and official Rosae Crucis cross of the Ancient and Mystical Order.

BRUSSELS - (AP) (February 3, 2000) Austria's European Union partners voice their concern, but the nation has broken no EU rules. A worried and shaken Europe expressed outrage Wednesday at the probably rise of a far-right party to a share of power in Austria, but faced the dilemma of trying to isolate a democratically elected government. The European Union, always quick to denounce errant governments in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhhere, now has found the devil is within.

Austria's 14 European Union partners warned Austria on Tuesday that if Joerg Haider's Freedom Party enters the Austrian government, they will isolate the country diplomatically, cutting bilateral political contacts and withholding support for Austrian candidates for international posts... Under the EU's founding treaty, there is no provision for the withdrawal or expulsion of a member state - although suspension is possible. And as long as Austria has not violated any articles of the treaty, the EU cannot legally take action against it... EU Commission.. issued a .. statement: "When one of its members is in difficulty, the whole Union is in difficulty."..Commission President Romano Prodi told the European Parliament.. "It is the duty of a strong supranational institute not to isolate one of its members, but instead to keep it firmly in the fold," he said.

EDITORS NOTE: FOX NEWS reported that Barak is withdrawing Israel's ambassador from Austria and President Clinton called for isolation of Austria if they go ahead with their plans.

Haider Renounces Austria Nazi Past (AP) - Far-right leader Joerg Haider and his coalition partner renounced Austria's Nazi past today, hoping to ease threats of international ostracism and sanctions if the president approves their government. Haider and Wolfgang Schuessel, leader of the Austrian People's Party, signed the declaration before President Thomas Klestil, who demanded the move before he would approve their new coalition government.

Editor's Note: Joerg Haider according to reports made a number of pro Nazi statements in 1991 and as late as 1995. He admired various aspects of the Nazi regime. He stated the following in renouncing his past: "In the past, some remarks have been attributed to me in connection with Nazism which were certainly insensitive or open to misunderstanding." It's obvious he doesn't really admit to any guilt but blames the listener for misunderstanding.

 

Russia Denies Detained Tanker Had Iraqi Oil

MOSCOW — (AP) February 3, 2000 Russian officials denied today that a Russian tanker detained by the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf was carrying Iraqi oil in violation of a United Nations trade embargo, and demanded that the vessel be released. A U.S. Navy ship stopped the merchant vessel Volga-Neft-147 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday and took oil samples to determine whether it was carrying Iraqi oil, the Pentagon said... Sredin said Russia had "urged the American side not to take any hasty, forceful measures before we conduct our own investigation."

Iraq has been unable to sell its oil on the open market since sanctions were imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. In 1996, the U.N. Security Council launched the oil-for-food program to allow Iraq to export limited amounts of oil to buy humanitarian goods for its people.