"JERUSALEM - Acting in its final days, the government of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu connected the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement to Jerusalem, undercutting Palestinian hopes of setting up a capital in or near the disputed city. Enraged Palestinian officials asked the United States on Friday to intervene and told Israel's incoming prime minister, Ehud Barak, that he must rescind the decision if he wants to move forward with the peace talks." (The Tampa Tribune, May 30, 1999)

"The Palestinians wasted little time in sending the New Israeli Prime Minister Barak a warning in form of a "Day of rage" against settlement activity last week but failed to attract the masses or ignite the apssions that the Palestinian Authority had hoped for. According to the Hebrew press, the US administration sent a message to Arafat asking him to "cool it," to let Barak set his coalition and find his footing before starting to apply pressure.. (excerpts fromt the Jerusalem Post, June 11,1999)

"It is no secret that religious Jews in Israel did not vote for Ehud Barak.. Barak's One Israel party fared only marginally better than the Likud.. A lowered profile for the religious parties might dramatically reduce tensions between the secular and religious populations.. Barak wants to focus on the Oslo process before resolving divisions in Israel.

"Barak's platform promises to break the stalemate in the peace process and does not rule out the possibility that a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza might emergy, although e does not prefer that. He insists Jerusalem will not become the capital of a Palestinian state and that most Jewish settelments will remain in territory under Israeli control. He also wants to resume peace talks with Syria and has pledged to have Israeli soldiers out of southern Lebanon within one year...

"Prime Minister Ehud Barak's education includes a Master's Degree in engineering-economic systems at Stanford University in 1979.." (The Tampa Tribune 5.18.99) "Barak's religion and state: Meimad, the Orthodox party in the "One Israel" alliance, is committed to religious pluralism and opposes religious legislation of any kind. He wants to make army service obligatory for all but a handful of the most brialliant yeshiva scholars." (The Jerusalem Reprt May 24, 1999)

"There is deep trouble ahead in the peace process. A momentous shift has occurred that has almost completely eluded the radar screen of the western media and the attention of this administration. While Palestinians, Americans, Egyptians, other Arabs and many Israelis assiduously assailed Netanyahu for this or that alleged violation of the spirit of Oslo peace accords, Yasser Arafat went on a 60-nation diplomatic tour - hardly a stealth campaign - to kill the accords.

"Arafat has been going around the world demanding instead, implementation of U.N. Resolution 181.. Under 181, Israel would have to give up not just the '67 conquests (all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza), but large chunks of pre- '67 Israel proper in the Galilee and the Negev. Indeed, 181 would take not only east Jerusalem away from Israel, but west Jerusalem - entirely Jewish and always under Israeli control - as well.

"Before the Israeli elections, says Ehud Ya'ari (Middle East correspondent for Israel Television and an associate of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy), the Palestinians were preparing to go to the U.N. General Assembly to demand an explanation from Israel " on the measures it took illegally to extend its laws and regulations to the territory it occupied.. beyond the territory allocated to the Jewish state in resolution 181."

"This is a peace stopper. It sabotages any possible coming negotiations. Arafat is making demands on Israel that he neither Ehud Barak nor the sweetest Israel dove (say, the hapless Shimon Peres) could ever contemplate..

"Not relevant and not appropriate" said special Middle East coordinator Dennis Ross of 181. His reference was oblique - he didn't even dare mention 181.. Compared to the bluntness of the administration's soft pedaling of 181 revealed how far into Arafat's corner it has maneuvered itself.. (The Tampa Tribune, Charles Krauthammer, June 7, 1999 - Also discussed in the Jerusalem Report 5.24.99)

"JERUSALEM (AP) - Pope John Paul II has set tentative dates for visiting the Holy Land, a Vatican offical said Monday.. Israeli officials said the pope planned to arrive in Jerusalem on March 20.. The pope would visit Israel and Palestinian areas.. Until now, the pope has been reluctant to visit Jerusalem, apparently because of concern that his presence could be interpreted as support for Israeli rule over the entire city.

"PASSOVER 5759 - ORTHODOX OR ULTRA ORTHODOX - ARE GATHERED AROUND A TABLE RUBBING THE INSIDES OF THEIR MOUTHS WITH LONG SWABS.. THE SAMPLES COLLECTED IS TO DETECT PRIESTLY GENETIC MARKERS.. 70% HAVE COMMON SET OF MARKERS ON THEIR Y CHROMOSOME. NEW GENETIC RESEARCH SHOWS THE VAST MAJORITY OF `KOHANIM,' THE JEWISH PRIESTLY CLASS, TO BE DECENDED FROM A SINGLE ANCESTOR - SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMAITON OF AN ORAL TRADITION PASSED DOWN THROUGH 3,000 YEARS.

"REMARKABLY, THE PRIESTLY `GENE` HAS ALSO BEEN FOUND IN HIGH INCIDENCE AMONG THE LEMBA, A BLACK SOUTHERN AFRICAN TRIBE THAT HAS LONG CLAIMED A JEWISH HERITAGE.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the government to bring thousands of Jews left behind in Ethiopia to Israel quickly. Some 2,500-3,500 Jews in the Quara region of Ethiopia were left behind when some 21,500 others came to Israel years ago, and have been trying to reach the Jewish state ever since.

"JERUSALEM (AP) - In a city best known for its religious strife, the Dalai Lama walked along the cobblestone alleys Monday carrying a message of peace. Donning a skullcap at the Western Wall, posing for pictures with black-robed priests at Jesus' tomb and touring Islam's third holiest site, he said conflict is unavoidable, but that with the right attitude, problems are easier to overcome. The next millennium could hold a better future for humanity and the people of Tibet..

"JERUSALEM (AP) - Jerusalem Syndrome strikes with little warning.
After a few days in the holy city, seemingly normal pilgrims imagine they are biblical figures, sing psalms at the top of their lungs, preach to passers-by or dress up in hotel bedsheets. Jerusalem clergymen and officials came together Monday to discuss ways to spot and deal with the mental illness, which one psychiatrist says may strike as many as one in 100 pilgrims and disrupt Jesus' 2000th birthday celebrations. Protestants are more vulnerable, apparently because their beliefs are less structured than those of the Catholics, Monsignor Richard Mathes, the Vatican's cultural attache in Israel, said.