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Newsletter : 8fax0720.txt
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>PD
>Israel Faxx
>July 20, 1998, Vol. 6, No. 127
IDF to Use Civilian Airlines
By IsraelWire
The IDF, in a cost-serving measure, started Sunday to use civilian
airliners to transport troops. IDF troops will be carried on
commercial airliners in place of air force planes. Officials
estimate this will save the military millions of shekels annually.
Jerusalem Car Bomb Catastrophe Averted
By Al Pessin (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israeli police say a known activist of the militant group Hamas was
responsible for an attempted bombing in central Jerusalem Sunday,
involving a truck bomb with enormous destructive potential.
The police say Jalal Rumaneh from a refugee camp north of Ramallah
was the driver of the small truck which caught fire on busy Jaffa
Road during the morning rush hour. He was the only person injured,
but the police say the three gas canisters, about 150 gallons of
gasoline and dozens of pounds of nails that he carried could have
wreaked heavy damage if they had detonated as planned.
Instead, due to a malfunction, and what Israel Radio called "pure
luck," a disaster was avoided.
The alleged would-be bomber is a 30-year-old father of three, who
spent nearly two years in Israeli jails in the early 1990s for
membership in Hamas. He did not have a permit to enter Israel.
He is in police custody in a Jerusalem hospital suffering from
severe burns.
A witness told Reuters the driver was on fire as he fled the
burning vehicle, and that when it was over the entire interior of
the truck was burned.
Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat condemned the attempted bombing.
Hamas opposes the peace process and has carried out a series of
bombings in recent years, including two in Jerusalem last July
and September which killed 26 people. The September bombing was
just a short walk from where Rumaneh's truck caught fire on
Sunday.
After the fire, the area was evacuated and closed to
traffic as police searched for more bombs and suspects. Huge
traffic jams resulted, but the area was re-opened later. Israel's
national police chief calls the delivery of such a truck bomb into
the heart of Jerusalem a serious breach of security.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the incident
strengthens his resolve to insist on strong security measures by
the Palestinian Authority as a condition for giving it more land
through further West Bank withdrawals. Netanyahu says one of his
goals is to make sure areas turned over the Palestinian authority
do not become launching points for such attacks. That has been
true in the past, but the Palestinians say the hard-to-control
militant groups also launch attacks from Israeli-controlled
territory.
Leah Rabin Calls Netanyahu's Actions "Blood Libel"
By IsraelWire
Following the lead of Shimon Peres, Leah Rabin, the widow of Prime
Minister Yitzchak Rabin, pointed a finger of blame at Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling his actions in the Manbar spy
case a "blood libel."
Rabin, who has repeatedly used opportunities to verbally attack the
prime minister since her husband's assassination, did so again last
week.
She lashed out at Labor opposition Ehud Barak, who was a close
associate of her late husband, for not responding properly to
allegations that the prime minister accused former prime ministers
Rabin and Peres of delaying legal proceedings against a convicted
spy because he was among the leading donors to the Labor Party.
The prime minister and members of his staff have issued numerous
statements in which they adamantly denied any such allegations, and
Netanyahu openly stated that he does not believe that was the case.
Despite the official denials, both Peres and Rabin used the
opportunity to raise the "blood libel" issue once again. Since the
assassination of Rabin, his widow has blamed the prime minister's
actions in his capacity as opposition leader, for inciting the
public and thereby setting the political climate for the
assassination.
Attempts by the prime minister to bridge the gap with Rabin's widow
were thwarted by her, as she continues to use the political arena
to spew her disdain for Netanyahu. Likud Party officials were
critical of Rabin's actions and called upon Rabin to contain her
remarks in the future.
Pollard Says He Was Abandoned
By IsraelWire
Convicted U.S. spy Jonathan Pollard, who was an agent of the
government of Israel, has said the Israeli government has abandoned
him, while his health continues to deteriorate in a US prison.
Pollard continues to serve his life sentence, despite promises from
visiting Israeli government ministers that they will act to attain
his release.
Pollard's wife Esther played a tape, for a Knesset committee last
week, in which Jonathan was quoted as saying, "Nobody gives a damn
that I am just dying inch by inch here."
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