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Newsletter : 8fax0903.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Sept. 3, 1998, Vol. 6, No. 158,
Mubarak Justifies Terrorism
By IsraelWire
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak justified an Aug. 27 terrorist
bombing in Tel Aviv that injured 20 people. His comments were
reported in the official Egyptian newspaper Al-Gomhouriya on Aug.
28. "The bombings which took place in Tel-Aviv are the natural
result of the torpedoing of the peace process in the Middle East
since the coming to power of the Likud government headed by
Netanyahu. Such explosions will continue so long as the Tel-Aviv
government adopts a position which is opposed to peace and so long
as the land is not returned to its Palestinian owners."
Israel Calls North Korean launch 'Dangerous Development'
By Roger Wilkison (VOA-Beijing)
Israel has joined the list of countries expressing concern over
North Korea's test-firing of a ballistic missile earlier this week,
with Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai calling the launch "a
dangerous development."
Mordechai, who is on a visit to China, met for 90 minutes Wednesday
with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, a reflection of the close
military relationship between the two countries.
Emerging from his meeting with the Chinese leader, Mordechai said
North Korea's missile test is doubly dangerous, first because it
shows North Korea has such a capability and, second, because North
Korea has close ties to Iran and Syria, both of them staunch foes
of Israel.
Israeli officials say North Korea is helping Iran develop its
missile capability. One official says Mordechai discussed Iran's
close ties to China with Jiang and portrayed the Islamic republic
as a danger to stability in the Middle East.
Israel says it has received assurances from China that Beijing
will not help Iran build a nuclear reactor, but some Israeli
and American defense analysts say China is still transferring
weapons technology to Iran.
Mordechai, who has already visited defense plants in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an and a naval base in Shanghai, is travelling with the heads of nine of Israel's biggest weapons manufacturers. Although both Israel and China are notoriously secretive about their defense deals, reports from Israel suggest the arms manufacturers want to reverse a five-year decline in weapons sales to Beijing.
Mordechai said he hopes China's drive to modernize its army will
result in large arms contracts for Israel. Israeli officials
acknowledge that their country's arms sales to China began about
1980, long before formal diplomatic relations between the two
countries were established in 1992. Defense analysts say Israel
made billions of dollars from the deals during the 1980s, mainly on
tank and aircraft upgrades, but an Israeli diplomat says sales over
the past five years have dropped to less than $50 million a year.
Western experts in Beijing, however, say Israeli arms deals with
China are worth more than $100 million a year and that Israel is
China's biggest weapons supplier, after Russia.
Israel has consistently denied allegations that it transferred
U.S.technology to China for the development of the Chinese F-10
fighter plane. But it refuses to discuss the F-10 project or say
whether it is involved in it. The only defense deal with China
that Israeli officials are willing to talk about is a $250 million
project to equip a Russian-built transport plane with advanced
radar and warning systems, so the Chinese can use it as a
surveillance aircraft.
Two Italians Deported for Temple Mount Conspiracy
By IsraelWire
Israeli security officials arrested two Italians who identified
themselves as "Christians who love Israel" at Ben-Gurion
International Airport.
According to intelligence information forwarded by an unnamed
foreign security service, the two planned to engage in "inciteful"
activities on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem and
planned to eventually kill themselves on the Mount in an attempt to
derail the ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and the PLO
Authority.
Security officials report that due to their advanced ages, it was
decided to deport the two to Italy rather than incarcerate them
after it was determined they were not carrying any weapons.
An official close to the investigation said he believed this was a
case of persons afflicted with the "Jerusalem Syndrome" as the
Christian world prepares for the year 2000 pilgrimage.
The spokeswoman of the police central district adamantly refused to
comment on the story. The response from the Prime Minister's Office
was, "We do not make a habit of commenting on stories of this
nature."
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