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The Week in Review
January 5 - 9, 2004
- SECURITY
- Jerusalem-Area Security Fence to Be Completed by End of 2004
- 28 Unauthorized Outposts Listed for Removal
- Terror Attacks Down 50 percent in 2003 Thanks to Security Services Efforts
- Iran Uses Aid Planes to Send Arms to Hezbollah
- DIPLOMACY
- Israel to Reject The Hague Court's Authority on Fence
- Libya and Israel Could Establish Relations in the Future
- Shalom Calls for Ethiopian Jews to Be Brought to Israel
- U.S. and Israel Discuss Possibility of Peace Talks with Syria
- ECONOMY & HI-TECH
- Technion Scientists Play Role in Mars Images
- Israeli Companies Strive to Expand Business Ties with Ethiopia
- SOCIETY
- Public Sector Strike Ends after 3 Months
SECURITY Jerusalem-Area Security Fence to Be Completed by End of 2004
Tuesday, January 6, 2004Minister of Internal Security Tzahi Hanegbi said on Monday that the security fence going up around the rim of northern and southern Jerusalem would be completed by the end of the year, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. "In another year we can expect that Jerusalem residents will have a much greater sense of security," Hanegbi said.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Monday that when completed, the security barrier around Jerusalem would run a total of around 47 miles. To date, one third of the Jerusalem-area barrier has been completed, he said. The Jerusalem security fence is aimed at preventing Palestinian bombers from entering the capital, and is part of the roughly 250 miles fence bordering the West Bank.
Israel Police Inspector Gen. Shlomo Aharonishky along with other security officials have repeatedly reiterated that its construction was "absolutely essential" to reduce the number of attacks by terrorists entering the city from Palestinian areas, just minutes away from Jerusalem by car. Over the last three years of violence, more than 100 Palestinian suicide bombers from the West Bank have struck in Israeli cities, killing hundreds of civilians.
28 Unauthorized Outposts Listed for Removal
Tuesday, January 6, 2004The defense establishment has drawn up a list of 28 unauthorized West Bank outposts it plans to remove, HA'ARETZ reported. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already signed orders in recent days to evacuate six of the outposts.
The 28 outposts on the list include 18 occupied outposts housing some 400 people. The 10 remaining consists of unoccupied structures. The largest of the outposts is Migron, home to 43 families.
The list was based on outposts that have been set up since March 2001, when Sharon took office.
Sharon reiterated on Monday his commitment to dismantle additional West Bank Jewish towns in a future peace deal or in a unilateral move should peace talks fail. Sharon's comments were the first the Prime Minister gave before the Likud's central committee since he began discussing relocating or evacuating settlements in a unilateral disengagement plan he unveiled last month.
Terror Attacks Down 50 percent in 2003 Thanks to Security Services Efforts
Thursday, January 8, 2004As a result of Israel's efforts to target the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, the number of terror attacks in 2003 dropped by 50 percent and the number of people killed in attacks dropped by 30 percent compared with the previous year, HA'ARETZ reported. According to statistics published today by the defense establishment, 213 Israelis were killed in terror attacks in 2003, 50 of them members of the security forces. In 2002, 451 Israelis were victims of Palestinian terrorism.
"One shouldn't get the mistaken impression that the Palestinians have abandoned their campaign of terror against Israel," David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister's Office, said. "Fortunately, the Israeli security services have been able to prevent the overwhelming number of terrorist attempts."
Security sources said the decline in the number of terrorist attacks in 2003 was the result of, among other things, Israeli success in thwarting them. The security sources pointed out that terrorist organizations were now using different methods to carry out their attacks such as enlisting people with foreign passports, or using animals. The sources said the security fence had succeeded in preventing Hamas from carrying out many attacks in Israeli territory.
Iran Uses Aid Planes to Send Arms to Hezbollah
Friday, January 9, 2004Syria has allowed Teheran to resume the supplies of weapons to Hezbollah through Damascus, taking advantage of the massive airlift of humanitarian aid to earthquake victims in Iran, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. According to Channel 1, the Syrians dispatched a number of cargo planes to Iran under the pretense of providing assistance in the wake of the earthquake that swept through Iranian city of Bam. The planes were then filled with weapons, returned to Syria, and loaded on to trucks before being ferried to Hezbollah.
Sources in the Ministry of Defense confirmed the report, calling the smuggling a "cynical manipulation of humanitarian aid". They said that the trickling of weapons and propaganda to the Hezbollah had always occurred in the past few months, but that the weapons transferred recently represented larger quantities than in the past. Until the war in Iraq and the related U.S. pressure on Syria to stop terror activities, the Iranians delivered weapons to Hezbollah through weekly flights into Damascus.
DIPLOMACY Israel to Reject The Hague Court's Authority on Fence
Monday, January 5, 2004Israel will inform the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that it rejects its authority to deliberate on the building of the security fence, HA'ARETZ reported. Senior political sources in Jerusalem said Sunday that Israel's statement to the ICJ would however present substantial arguments to justify the security need for the fence.
On December 8, the UN General Assembly entrusted the ICJ with the task of formulating an opinion on the security fence. The opinion has no binding validity, but could bears political consequences for Israel. The ICJ hearing on the fence will take place on February 23.
A special team of jurists has been set up to formulate Israel's statement to the ICJ. The team's work is being coordinated by Meir Rosen, a former legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry who also served as Israel's ambassador in Washington. The team's recommendations will be presented to the inner cabinet for approval. International jurist Prof. Daniel Bethlehem of Cambridge University will represent Israel at the ICJ in The Hague.
Libya and Israel Could Establish Relations in the Future
Wednesday, January 7, 2004Labor MK Ephraim Sneh, and Shinui legislator Ilan Shalgi met earlier this year with the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, and announced today Gadhafi might go as far as to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, HA'ARETZ reported. "My impression from this meeting was that Gadhafi has made a strategic decision, and he is not a man of small steps," Sneh said of the Libyan leader. "He will not stop halfway. He could go as far as relations with Israel, and beyond."
Sneh's remarks came as the Foreign Ministry launched a diplomatic initiative to develop ties with Libya. The initiative followed the announcement by Gadhafi that his country was scrapping its weapons of mass destruction.
Foreign Ministry official Ron Prosor departed for Paris ten days ago to meet with an Arab official and investigate the possibility of establishing ties with Tripoli. Prosor did not propose the establishment of formal ties or the formulation of a peace treaty; the goal was merely to open an initial channel of dialogue with Libya.
A week ago, Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom hinted about possible diplomatic overtures to Libya, saying, "should Libya return to the family of nations and disarm, Israel will not rule out dialogue with it."
Officials in the Prime Minister's Office expressed skepticism on Tuesday about the Libya initiative, saying that, "it doesn't appear serious."
Shalom Calls for Ethiopian Jews to Be Brought to Israel
Thursday, January 8, 2004The Government's decision to bring the Falash Mura to Israel from Ethiopia must be implemented, Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom said Wednesday while on an official visit to Ethiopia, HA'ARETZ reported. Shalom added that one could not ignore the fact that their immigration would be "complicated and complex, with economic ramifications for which the finance minister will have to find a response."
Shalom visited on Wednesday villages in the Gondar area where many Falash Mura live. He was due to meet Ethiopian government officials today.
The Falash Mura, many of whom were forced to convert to Christianity in the 19th century, now wish to reassert their Jewishness and emigrate to Israel. About 80,000 Ethiopian Jews already live in Israel, many of them taken there in massive airlifts during times of crisis in Ethiopia over the past 20 years. The last mass migration of Ethiopian Jews was in 1991, when Israel organized an airlift for 15,000 people who had fled fighting at the end of Ethiopia's civil war.
U.S. and Israel Discuss Possibility of Peace Talks with Syria
Friday, January 9, 2004The United States does not intend to push for or sponsor any resumption of Syrian-Israeli talks, but will not object should Israel choose to take up Syrian President Bashar Assad's offer to resume negotiations, senior American officials told the Israeli Government this week, HA'ARETZ reported. The U.S. officials expressed skepticism about Assad's intentions, arguing that had he been serious, he would have used diplomatic back channels rather than call for new talks in a newspaper interview. They also said that even if Assad wanted to sign a peace deal, they would be unconvinced whether he was strong enough to do so.
Government sources in Jerusalem said that the White House and the State Department appeared to agree on this matter.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who met on Thursday with Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer before Nelson flew to Damascus to meet Assad, told his guests: "Israel wants peace with all the Arab states, including Syria. There can be no preconditions for negotiations, nor can [talks] begin from the point at which they broke off [in 2000]. Obviously each party has demands of the other party, but the situation in which [the Syrians] export terror to Israel must end."
ECONOMY & HI-TECH Technion Scientists Play Role in Mars Images
Wednesday, January 7, 2004Research carried out by scientists at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa has enabled the transmission of pictures from the Mars Rover Spirit, according to Hewlett Packard Labs, which was responsible for the image transmissions, HA'ARETZ reported. The image-compression algorithm was developed by Gadi Sarousi, the director of the Information Theory Research group at HP Labs, along with Marcelo Weinberger and Guillermo Shapiro.
HP said that compression technology was very important for sending high-quality pictures in a short period. Weinberger and Sarousi's doctoral advisors were Technion Profs. Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv, developers of the Lempel-Ziv coding algorithm, the world standard for compressed information transmission.
Israeli Companies Strive to Expand Business Ties with Ethiopia
Wednesday, January 7, 2004In an effort to promote relations between Israeli businesses and their Ethiopian counterparts, and expand Israel's commercial relations with other African countries, a delegation of business people is accompanying Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom on his current trip to Ethiopia, GLOBES reported. Representatives of 30 Israeli companies have joined Shalom's entourage and will meet local business people. The companies include, ISI Veronica - a nursery developing new varieties of plants and flowers and planning to establish a nursery in Ethiopia for mangos, bananas, lichee nuts, and flowers; Leadcom Integrated Solutions - a participant, with Nokia, in a $30 million tender to build a wireless network in Ethiopia; Netafim - a company building an irrigation project in Ethiopia; Taha - a firm building a water supply project for Addis Ababa.
Israeli exports to Ethiopia rose six-fold in 2003 to $10 million. Imports from Ethiopia rose 5 percent in 2003 to $15.2 million, mostly agricultural products.
SOCIETY Public Sector Strike Ends after 3 Months
Monday, January 5, 2004Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu and Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) chairman Amir Perez signed this afternoon the agreement that ends the work sanctions of the past three months, GLOBES reported. All civil servants will return to normal work on Tuesday. A large number of people were expected to visit government offices on that reopening day.
The meeting and the signing were due to have taken place on Sunday, but were postponed because of remaining disagreements over certain sections dealing with pensions. The Histadrut and the Ministry of Finance have agreed that their respective pension teams would continue discussing investment rules for pension fund money for a further three months. The two sides are still far from an agreement on the issue. The two sides also agreed that the Histadrut would not conduct sanctions in the absence of an agreement on the issue.
