ISRAEL NEWS DIGEST - January 1993 A Monthly Report from Jerusalem By David Dolan "... lt was a true report that I heard in my own land ..." (1st Kings 10:6) Peace talks continued to go hand in hand with the increasingly war-like Palestinian uprising during December. While the rays of potential peace dimmed still further, more Jews and Arabs were killed. Moslem fundamentalists played a large role in violcnce aainst Israelis, ambushing an army patrol and killing three soldiers in Gaza, and kidnapping and murdering a border policeman in Israel. Car bombs were placed in Israel's three main cities. The government responded to the growing terrorism by ordering an unprecedented deportation of fundamentalist activists. In Washington, Israeli peace negotiators presented a plan to turn over much of the disputed territories to Palestinian control. Despite this, the eighth round of Arab/Israeli talks failed to make any discernible progress. Syria's leader and the PLO chief again demanded an Israeli withdrawal from east Jerusalem, along with all other areas captured in 1967. Concern was expressed over the apparent halting of the Jewish exodus from Syria, and over growing antisemitism in Europe. Although just barely into the winter season, the floodgates of the Sea of Galilee had to be opened due to heavy rains. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY As Palestinians marked the fifth anniversary of the start of their violent uprising, it was extremely difficult to tell that Israeli/Arab peace talks were taking place. Despite a year of discussions in Washington, nothing looked different in Israel and the disputed territories. Unrest in the Gaza Strip resembled that of earlier years, when the Palestinians were said by many to be trying to force Israel to the peace table. Moslem fundamentalists launched terror ambushes against Israeli forces, as they always have. Yasser Arafat accused Israel's Prime Minister - no longer the leader of the right-wing Likud party, but of the dovish left-wing camp - of intransigence, as he always does. In fact, a new level of violence has been reached in the Arab revolt. Palestinians are using arms to attack Israelis as never before. And Arab terrorism took a new turn when the Iranian-backed HAMAS movement kidnapped, and held for ransom, an Israeli military police officer. The man, 29 year old Nissim Toledano, a father of two, was not abducted while chasing unarmed Arab children in the Gaza Strip, but as he was going to his office in the Israeli town of Lod, just next to Israel's international airport. ISLAMIC TERROR The Gaza-based HAMAS Islamic fundamentalist group soon took "credit" for his kidnapping, and demanded that their jailed leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, be set free. Even though Israel said it was willing to negotiate with the kidnappers, they murdered Toledano soon after seizing him, and then dumped his blood-soaked body near the road to Jerico east of Jerusalem. The brutal kidnapping and murder shocked Israelis as few acts of terror have before. This was clearly not an isolated act by a few lone terrorists, but one openly supported by most Palestinians. HAMAS leaders in Beirut and Amman, praising the "skill of the resistance fighters", said other kidnappings would occur until Sheik Yassin is released. Prime Minister Rabin, who had expressed willingness to negotiate with the kidnappers if proof was given that Toledano was still alive, said the quick murder proved that the terrorists did not intend to negotiate, but were "revolting killers whose only goal is to murder in cold blood." Over 1000 Islamic activists were arrested following the abduction. The government then ordered the deportation of over 400 of them to Lebanon, which is far more than have been expelled during the entire uprising. The order led to an international outcry, and a threat by the PLO to pull out of the Washington peace talks. A SICK MAN A spokesman for HAMAS in Amman told reporters that his group, which is allowed to operate quite openly in Jordan, was forced to kidnap an Israeli to "draw attention to the plight" of 57 year old Sheik Yassin. He said the "Zionist entity has compelled us to use force, because it refused all previous peaceful appeals for the release of Sheik Yassin, who is paralyzed and incapable of harming anybody." Sheik Yassin may be crippled - the result of a sporting accident as a child - but he is far from harmless. He is the revered Ieader of a powerful, radical Arab movement which has killed scores of Jews - and many more Palestinians - since he founded it just after the uprising broke out in December, 1987. The Israelis did not arrest and try the quadriplegic because he had personally attacked someone, but because his directives - issued long after he became paralyzed - resulted in the violent murders of many people, most of them civilians. He was given a life sentence by an Israeli military court in October 1991. Yassin was not convicted for founding the violent HAMAS movement - whose charter calls for Israel's complete annihilation, the slaying of Jewish civilians as well as soldiers, and the establishment of an Islamic state - but for ordering the murder of fellow Arabs accused of "collaborating" with Israel (it is worth noting that the word HAMAS, an Arabic acronym for "Islamic Resistance Movement," means "violence" in Hebrew, as found in Proverbs 10, verses 6 and 11). Although Israeli authorities also had hard evidence that the Moslem sheik personally ordered the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 - both later killed in HAMAS captivity - he was not charged with the crimes as the result of a plea bargain arrangement. EXTREMIST FRINGE? Prime Minister Rabin and members of his coalition government were quick to point to the kidnapping as the work of an "extremist element" out to wreck the peace talks. This is the way they also characterize the Hizbullah movement in south Lebanon. Such "extremists" supposedly represent a small fringe in the Arab world. The chief Palestinian negotiator in Washington, Abdel Shafi, who represents Arafat's "moderate" PLO group, said such things as the kidnapping will "be there as long as Israel is in the occupied territories." It seems to me that such statements completely ignore the core teachings of lslam, along with the history of the Arab/lsraeli conflict and contemporary developments in other parts of the Moslem world. Rabin's statement also ignores the fact that mainstream Palestinian groups do not seriously distance themselves from such "extremists." Reacting to Rabin, delegation spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said it is "wrong to see a rift" between Arafat's wing of the PLO and more radical Palestinian groups: "We have chosen our means and tactics, and they have chosen their means and tactics, but we have not become two people." One of Arafat's senior deputies, Yasser Abed Rabbo, actually praised the abduction. TRADITIONAL ISLAM The HAMAS charter in fact reflects a very accurate, very valid reading of the Islamic holy book, the Koran. This is the main reason the group is fully supported by so many Palestinians, who are observant Muslims, and why Arafat and company are loathe to denounce them. Such a literal reading of the Koran's call for 'jihad against the infidel' is not new at all; and certainly not one which sprang up after Israel captured the territories during the Six Day War. A very literal interpretation of Allah's call for holy war formed the basis of Arab resistance to a Jewish state in the 1920s and 30s. It also was the ground on which the Arab world launched its armed attack on the new state of Israel in 1948, and again in 1967, when the territories Shafi is talking about were captured. The proposition that Muslims should not be subjected to Jewish rule, or that of Christians or Hindus for that matter, is clearly taught in the Koran. Muslims must rule in the areas they have conquered for Allah - which, of course, has included all of the Holy Land for many centuries. This is a theological matter more than a political one. Islamic rule helps to demonstrate the truthfulness of Islam. If that is so, then subjection to Jews or others in areas formally ruled by Muslims seems to demonstrate the opposite - that Islam is not the final revelation of divine truth. It is true, as Rabin and Shafi have noted, that fundamentalist Islam has enjoyed a resurgence in Israel and the territories since 1967. But it was always very much there, as a reading of Palestinian Ieader Amin Husseini's speeches before 1948 will show. It is undoubtedly strengthened by the struggle over the territories and Jerusalem, and by poverty and statelessness. But it also flourishes in other parts of the Moslem world, including in oil rich Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. To say that HAMAS is an "extremist element" that will disappear if regional leaders make peace with the Jewish state is to insult traditional Islam. ARAFAT AND ASSAD The Israeli Likud party said Rabin's statement showed that he is out of touch with reality and therefore unfit to rule. Yoseph Ben Aharon, a senior official in former Prime Minister Shamir's office, said Rabin should "know very well that the acts of violence, including the uprising and terror attacks, are supported by virtually all of the Palestinian Ieadership. They are not acts of an extremist fringe." Benjamin Netanyahu, expected to take over as head of the Likud, said that those who say they are interested in peace cannot be trusted if they initiate acts of war. There seems to be another major problem with the proposition that it is just an "extremist element" which is out to derail the peace talks. Rabin himself has said several times that Syrian leader Hafez Assad fully supports Hizbullah's attacks in Lebanon and northern Israel, and that Arafat is still sponsoring terror acts against Israeli civilians (a leader of one of Arafat's Fatah terror cells was injured in November when a bomb he was taking by taxi to plant at the Western Wall prematurely blew up). Are Assad and Arafat supporting random violence against Jews just to keep their more radical friends quiet while they pursue the holy grail of peace, as some maintain? Or do the two men still hope for the destruction of Israel ? The Prime Minister seems to have concluded that Arafat, at least, is sincerely standing in the way of peace. ln apparent frustration over the continuing stalemate in talks with the Palestinians, Rabin said in early December that Arafat is personally blocking progress, adding that Palestinians are once again missing an opportunity for real peace. He said the PLO Ieader is afraid that an Arab/lsraeli peace accord will Ieave him and his Tunis-based cronies out in the cold. Therefore, he is forbidding Palestinian negotiators - tightly controlled by PLO Ieaders in Tunis - from engaging in serious discussions. Hafez Assad doesn't have to worry about such things. He already rules an independent nation. Yet he seems just as determined to derail the peace process. The Syrian strongman continues to cling to the unrealistic proposition that Israel must agree to withdraw from "every inch of occupied Arab land, including east Jerusalem" before any progress can be made at the Washington talks. Assad repeated his demand several times in December, and then complained that the peace talks are "deadlocked." He said that "peace can never come at the expense of land," adding that "Arabs, and Syrians in particular, do not abandon their lands." Israeli negotiator Itamar Rabinovich, the new ambassador to Washington, said the Syrians have been broadly hinting that they will abandon the negotiations if the incoming Clinton administration does not intervene on behalf of the Arabs. He also noted that the Syrians have also been "extolling the uprising" at every opportunity. Meanwhile, Syria once again demonstrated its growing alliance with radical Iran - a country which minces no words in calling for Israel's destruction. Acting on Iran's behalf, Syria's Foreign minister flew to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials, who are angry over Iranian support for Moslem activists trying to overthrow the Mubarak regime. While Syria's Foreign minister mediated, Egypt launched a crackdown on Islamic fundamentalist groups around Cairo, arresting hundreds of activists. PALESTINIAN CONTROL Israeli negotiators revealed the outline of the Rabin government's Palestinian autonomy land proposal in early December. Israel is offering to turn over 62% of the territories, outside of Jerusalem, to complete Palestinian self-administration. Another 30%, mostly unused land, would be administered jointly by Israel and an elected Palestinian authority. In all, the Palestinians would have either complete or partial control over 90% of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The 8% currently owned by Jews would remain under Israeli administration. The allocation of control during the five-year interim autonomy phase would not dictate the final status of any of the areas. The proposal was rejected by the Palestinian delegation, which demanded 100% control over the territories. A delegation official said the PLO could not accept "a solution during the interim stage which does not recognize Palestinian control over all the territories." He added that if the Palestinians recognized Israeli authority over Jewish towns and settlements - comprising just 8% of the land - it would mean the PLO accepts their permanent existence. THE BIG LIE Several analysts found one aspect of the proposal especially fascinating. The PLO and other Palestinian groups, along with their supporters around the world, usually claim that Israel has confiscated up to 70% of the land in the territories. The claim of widescale "land theft" is repeated so often that it has long been accepted as established fact in most of the world . However the Israeli offer, which is still on the table despite the initial Palestinian rejection, supports official government surveys - usually dismissed by the Arabs - that 61% of the land outside of Jerusalem is owned and controlled by Palestinians, and only 8% by Jews. The other 31% is unpopulated and uncultivated "state land" that was controlled by the Jordanian government until 1967. Although the public lands are now officially under Israeli control, they have not been "confiscated" from any private owners, nor has any but a tiny amount been developed by Jews (and that often barren hilltop land). It is true that some of the Iess than 10% of the land developed by Jews has been purchased or confiscated from Arab owners (usually absentee ones), but it has been an extremely tiny amount. ACTION Although there was little movement to speak of at the peace talks in Washington, there was lots of action on the ground in Israel and the territones. Apart from the abduction and murder of the Israeli military-policeman, five Israeli soldiers were killed in the space of two weeks, along with 11 Palestinians. Three soldiers were ambushed in the Gaza Strip, and others shot dead in Hebron and Jenin. The Palestinians were mostly killed as rioting engulfed the Gaza Strip during "celebrations" of the beginning of the sixth year of the uprising. The fifth year of the revolt saw 11 Israeli civilians killed in the territories along with 7 soldiers - most by gunfire. This was a sharp increase from the previous year, when 6 civilians and 1 soldier were killed, which was itself higher than 1990, when just 1 civilian and 2 soldiers perished. The steep climb in Israeli deaths came as the Palestinian uprising turns ever increasingly into a regular war, with fewer civilian demonstrations but far more armed assaults. Around 250 shootings against Israeli soldiers and civilians were reported during the fifth year, compared to only 12 during the first year. The Palestinian death toll also shot up - but mainly from Arabs killing other Arabs. Over 215 Palestinians were killed by fellow Arabs during the fifth year of the uprising, most of them accused of collaborating with fsrael. Over 700 Palestinians have been murdered in this way since the uprising began, the majority in the last two years. Israeli security forces shot dead 90 Palestinians during the same period, many of them active members of underground cells. Jerusalem continues to be a major terrorist target. Nearly 400 private vehicles were burned by Arab arsonists during the uprising's fifth year, an increase of 100 over 1991. There were 24 stabbings in the city, compared to 18 the previous year. NARROW ESCAPES Three attempts were made to blow up car bombs in Israel's three main urban areas. All, thank God, were unsuccessful. Alert security personnel near Tel Aviv chased a suspicious van, which was later abandoned in a residential neighborhood. A search found that it contained 5 natural gas canisters wired to an explosive charge. Officials said the explosion would have been a powerful one had it occurred. Another car bomb was successfully defused in Haifa. In Jerusalem, a car was stolen at gunpoint by Palestinians from a Swedish couple working with disabled Arabs. Two gas canisters were placed in the car before it was parked and set on fire underneath an apartment building. Jerusalem police put our the fire before the canisters could explode. Officials said the averted blast probably would have collapsed the building, standing on pillars. A pipe bomb, wrapped in a package and placed in the luggage compartment of a bus traveling from Tel Aviv to Kiryat Shmona, was also discovered just before it was due to explode. GENERALS SPARED A disaster of a different kind was narrowly averted in early November. Although it took awhile for the facts to come out, it is now clear that a missile came extremely close to killing many of Israel's senior military commanders, including Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, his deputy, General Amnon Shahak, and Intelligence Chief Uri Saguy. The military brass were attending a top-secret training exercise in the Negev when a missile accidentally struck and killed six soldiers. Had it landed in a slightly different position, Israel's military leaders could have been wiped out. Details of the accident slowly leaked out over several weeks in both the local and foreign press. The military censor reprimanded several foreign journalists for reporting banned information about the exercise, leading to a heated debate in the press on the role of censorship in modern Israel. EXODUS HALTED? Israeli officials expressed concern over evidence that Syria had stopped allowing Jews to leave the country. Around 2,400 Syrian Jews had emigrated since last April, mostly to the United States. State Department officials confirmed in mid-December that Assad is now refusing to issue any more exit permits, trapping some 1,400 Jews in Damascus and Aleppo. The Syrian strongman began granting such permits to please US government leaders, who had repeatedly urged him to let his small Jewish community go. It now appears that he is waiting to see if Bill Clinton will be pro-Arab enough to warrant the resumption of this "concession" to the Americans. STAR WARS While the United States government occasionally does something nice for the Jews, it is always doing pleasant things for the Arabs, especially those loaded with petrodollars. The latest thing is the proposal to sell a spy satellite to an Arab Gulf country. The State Department said it is seriously considering a plan to sell a super-sophisticated spy satellite to the United Arab Emirates; a union of small, but rich, sheikdoms on the Gulf. Proponents of the sale believe the UAE needs the satellite to help ward off the Iranians. Opponents in the US government - thinking back to when the pro-American Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979 by Islamic militants, who then took control of his vast American-supplied arsenal - say the satellite could make the UAE an even more attractive target to the Iranians. Israeli officials were shocked and outraged by the proposal. For years, they have been trying to persuade the Americans to supply real-time satellite pictures in crisis periods, such as when Saddam was shooting Scuds at Tel Aviv. The US has usually refused to do so. Israeli leaders say the Americans also turned down an Israeli offer to buy a satellite and then obstructed Israel's program to build the its own, the Ofec. Although the United Arab Emirates is not a front-line confrontation state, it officially supports the Arab war against Israel, and could easily supply satellite photos to Syria or other nations in times of war. COALITION BLUES Prime Minister Rabin was once again singing the coalition blues during December, as internal struggles once more threatened his narrow government. The left-wing Meretz party presented a bill in the Knesset which greatly upset its religious coalition partner, Shas. The bill, which passed its preliminary vote, would legalize and regulate prostitution; an idea not terribly popular with those who believe it would encourage many "law-abiding" men to turn in where they otherwise would not. Meretz argues that the bill would take prostitutes off the streets and lead to a decrease in the spread of sex-related diseases. There has been a sharp increase in open solicitation in the past few years, with many financially needy Russian immigrant women turning to prostitution as a means of making a living. Prime Minister Rabin continued to worry that his government might fall apart if Interior Minister Aryeh Deri is indicted on criminal charges. The Shas party leader will soon be formally charged with several crimes, according to police and government sources. It was revealed in early December that the Attorney General is checking reports that Deri deposited bribe money in a Swiss bank account. Until now, the Interior Minister has refused to cooperate with the police investigation. NEW PRESIDENT A new Israeli president will be elected next Spring by the Knesset, as Chaim Herzog's two terms in office come to an end. The most likely person to succeed him in the largely ceremonial post appears to be Labor party member Ezer Weizman, who has already served in various government and military posts. But his candidacy is opposed by many who feel his left wing political views are too divisive. The Likud has yet to put forward a candidate. Herzog's ability to stay out of partisan debates and to strongly project Israel's case abroad will be greatly missed. Recently, he has spoken out against growing antisemitism in Europe, calling in particular for Christians to do more to fight the resurgent scourge. RAIN! As I write this month, I have had to take time out to bail water off of my outdoor patio. Heavy rains are again pouring down upon Israel, and snow has already fallen in Jerusalem. The semi-desert vegetation in my neighborhood is starting to appear lush as we experience the second wet winter in a row. Israel's underground water aquifers are nearly full and the floodgate at the south end of the Sea of Galilee has already been opened. May the Lord continue to bless His special land with rain!