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Newsletter : 8fax0810.txt
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>JN Aug. 10, 1998, Vol. 6, No. 141
Clinton Thanks Israel for Assistance
By IsraelWire
President Clinton thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on
behalf of the American people, for the assistance which Israel is
rendering to the victims of the attacks in Tanzania and Kenya.
Clinton added that the speed with which the aid was dispatched
was both impressive and heart-warming.
Kenya and U.S. Thank Israel
By Arutz-7 News Service and IsraelWire
Following Friday's terrorist explosions in Kenya and Tanzania that
killed 190 persons and injured some 4000, rescue units from the
Israel Defense Forces arrived in Nairobi and helped to remove three
survivors from under the wreckage. The second and third survivors
were a woman and her 12-year-old son, who were rescued after laying
under the wreckage for 50 hours.
The Kenyan media and public are full of praise for the Israeli
forces. A Red Cross worker told the Israeli team, "You have come to
us like angels from heaven," and added, "Watching you work, we
realize how much suffering you went through until you learned all
this." Another worker said, "Until you arrived, all the rescue work
went very slowly. But the minute you got here, we began to feel
hope."
150 members of the IDF Rescue Unit, the Medical Corps, and others
arrived in Kenya, together with the IDF Canine Unit and 30 tons of
state-of-the-art rescue equipment. This included, according to
Ma'ariv, sensors and sensitive microphones to insert inside the
wreckage, heavy-duty balloons, pneumatic jacks, and cutters capable
of cutting through a meter or more of concrete - equipment found
only in the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF force, which arrived in
Nairobi 30 hours after the explosion, is commanded by Brig.-Gen.
Ilan Harari.
President Clinton publicly thanked the Israelis for their help.
The Israeli team removed 21 bodies from the wreckage, including
those of at least nine Americans. Clinton said, "The Israeli
efforts were quick, impressive, and heart-warming."
The Kenyan police deny an Arab was arrested in connection with the bombing. The prime suspect in the case is a Saudi Arabian millionaire named Usama Bin-Ladan, head of an extremist Muslim organization from various countries. The president of Kenya says that the police now have a lead in the investigation of the terrorist bombings of the American Embassies.
Bin Laden, identified by the State Department as a major sponsor of
what it calls Islamic extremism, is the United States' prime
suspect in a 1995 car bombing in Riyadh that killed five Americans
as well as a June 1996 attack on a military housing complex near
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 US servicemen.
"He more or less predicted what would happen -- that there would be attacks against US targets in the next few weeks. And lo and behold it has happened," former CIA counter-terrorism specialist Stanley Bedlington said.
Bin Laden is believed to have links to Egypt's banned Jihad group
which, as recently as this week, said it would retaliate against
what it said was Washington's help in extraditing Islamists to
Cairo from Albania.
Frank McGuire, a Maryland-based consultant and writer, said no one
should be put off by the fact that the attacks took place in
Africa. "A lot of people think that Moslem extremists are only in
the Middle East and the fact is that there is a very heavy Moslem
presence down the entire east cost of Africa, including Kenya and
Tanzania," he said.
"We blamed Oklahoma City on the Arabs," agreed a senior staffer in
Congress who studies terrorism and asked not to be named. News
reports at first speculated that the April 1995 car bomb at a
federal building in Oklahoma City was carried out by Middle Eastern
extremists, until two Americans were arrested.
In a statement issued in Los Angeles the Muslim Public Affairs
Council said no one should assume any religious groups,
particularly Muslims, were behind the two blasts.
According to a report on Israel Radio, the group claiming
responsibility for the blasts has called upon the United States,
Israel and Saudi Arabia to release prisoners being held in their
jails.
Rabbis Still Deciding on Viagra
By IsraelWire
The Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Rabbi Shar Yashuv Cohen, has issued a
ruling that anyone using the anti-impotence pill Viagra for the
purposes of having children is fulfilling a positive commandment.
Despite the ruling, the Medicine in Halacha (Jewish law) organization along with other prominent Torah scholars, are meeting to decide if and where Viagra fits into the Orthodox Jewish community.
Pharmacies in ultra-Orthodox communities have begun carrying the
drug and report there is a demand there as well, just like other
communities. A forum of rabbinical authorities and senior
physicians will meet in an attempt to make a decision and issue a
ruling.
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