Israel in the News Oct/Nov 1994

Rabin: Jerusalem ‘capital forever’

Jerusalem will remain the capital of the Jewish people forever, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the conference of Jewish National Fund leaders recently. He was responding to a statement by PLO leader Yasser Arafat that Jerusalem was the capital of Palestine.

In response, local Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini declared that he would not let Israel push Palestinian political institutions out of east Jerusalem, the hoped-for capital of an independent Palestinian state.

Arafat again suggests agreement is ‘temporary’

PLO leader Yasser Arafat recently again suggested his agreement with Israel is only temporary, once again likening it to the seventh century truce Mohammed made with his enemies which fell apart after two years.

“What happened was not all that we wanted, but the best we could get at the worst time,” he said. “Prophet Mohammed reached [a similar] agreement with the infidels in Hudayybia and it was torn down two years later by the infidels.” He referred to Mohammed’s agreement with an Arabian tribe, the Kuraish. That agreement ended after two years with Mohammed’s conquest of the Kuraish.

“The agreement has recognized the Palestinian entity which will blossom into a Palestinian state,” Arafat said. “What is important is that we’ve achieved the birth of a new state in the area, and Palestinians and Arabs are bound to take it into their care and develop it.”

Bulletproof school buses in areas

School buses in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District will be equipped with bulletproof windows, deputy education minister Micha Goldman said recently during a tour of Samaria.

Kohl assures WJC of access to Nazi files

German chancellor Helmut Kohl has assured the World Jewish Congress of uninterrupted access to 75 million Nazi documents held in the Berlin Document Center. Jewish groups and historians had been concerned that access to these crucial materials might be limited when the center reverted to the control of the German government on July 1, after being in the hands of the US government since the end of World War II.

ADL leaders discuss anti-Semitism at Knesset panel

Anti-Semitism is still being used to serve certain needs in society, Anti-Defamation league national Director Abraham Foxman told a Knesset committee recently. “The thing that concerns us most is not primarily the appearance of a hatemonger … but how the hatemonger is received,” said Foxman. The Nation of Islam is of particular concern, he said, because of the large college crowds its speakers draw.

Nigeria offers to sell oil to Israel

Nigeria has offered to sell oil to Israel, the Energy Ministry announced recently. The offer was made to Energy Minister Moshe Shahal by Nigerian Oil Minister Don Etiabit during a meeting of the international oil conference in Norway. During the meeting, Shahal also spoke with the OPEC secretary-general suggesting that Persian Gulf oil could be transported via Israeli pipelines to European carriers. The Gulf countries, according to Shahal, could save $250m a year by transporting oil over land to Israeli ports.

Shamgar Highlights

[Results of the Shamgar Commission of Inquiry into the February massacre at the Machpela Cave in Hebron]

FINDINGS

• Baruch Goldstein acted alone, planning the massacre in advance and telling no one of his intentions, not even his wife.
• Palestinian testimony that the army or other Jewish settlers helped Goldstein was discounted as contradictory and inconsistent.
• No fragments were found in the mosque to support survivors’ testimony regarding a grenade.
• The political leadership and security forces could not have been expected to predict such an attack.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Ban Jewish settlers and off-duty soldiers from entering the Machpela Cave with weapons.
• Ban Jewish settlers and off-duty soldiers from entering the Machpela Cave with weapons.
• Separate Jewish and Arab worshipers with physical barriers, or separate entrances and different prayer schedules.
• Create a special guard unit to protect the site.
• Rewrite open-fire orders to clarify that deadly force could be used against Jewish settlers in extreme circumstances.
• Enforce the law equally for Arabs and Jews.

All articles are from The Jerusalem Post.