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Newsletter : 8fax1008.txt
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>PD
>Israel Faxx
>JN Oct. 8, 1998, Vol. 6, No. 179
Shekel Continues Plunge
Israel Faxx Staff Report
The wild devaluation of the shekel continues. The dollar stands now
at 4.096 shekels, nine agorot higher than Tuesday, and 17 agorot
higher than the previous rate. Yaakov Frenkel, governor of the Bank
of Israel, admitted that the Israeli economy is going through some
gyrations, but said that they are "nothing" compared to what the
rest of the world is going through. He said that there is no need
for panic.
Egyptian General Predicts War
By Arutz-7 News Service
General Gemasi, Chief of Staff of Egypt's armed forces during the
Yom Kippur War, anticipates another war between Israel and Egypt.
Gemasi said as much at a Cairo symposium held this past week
marking the 25th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Gemasi feels
that another war between the two countries will break out mainly
due to the "stubborn refusal" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
not to withdraw from the Golan Heights and his unwillingness to
negotiate the status of Jerusalem.
France's Le Pen Says He Did Not Deny Holocaust
By IsraelWire
French far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, faced with losing the
parliamentary immunity which has shielded him from trial in Germany
for alleged anti-Jewish comments, said he had neither denied nor
trivialized the Holocaust.
"Why should a statement 'gas chambers are a detail of the history
of the Second World War'...be a criminal negation? I have never
denied the existence of the gas chambers nor have I minimized the
subject," Le Pen told the European Parliament. "The word 'detail,'
at least in French, is not minoritising," he said.
Bavarian state prosecutor Helmut Meyer-Staude made the request in
April to allow trial for anti-Jewish remarks allegedly made by Le
Pen in Munich, where he was reported to have referred to the murder
of 6 Million Jews by the Nazis as a "mere detail" of history.
It is illegal in Germany to trivialize or deny the Holocaust. The
maximum offence for the offence known as the "Auschwitz lie" is
five years in jail and a stiff fine. The alleged remarks sparked
investigations in France and Germany where Le Pen was convicted 11
years ago and fined 1.2 million francs for similar statements.
The Case for A New Deterrence System
By IsraelWire
In face of an Iranian threat taking shape and a possible Iraqi threat, Labor Knesset member Ephraim Sneh deduces that active defense systems are insufficient and he believes the existing deterrent is inadequate.
Israel's military preparations since the 1973 Yom Kippur war have taken the enemy's capability, not its intentions, into account. So says leading military strategist Sneh, who talks of an essential change in the Israeli defense doctrine since the "disaster" 25 years ago.
Writing Sunday in Ma'ariv, Sneh said that after Iran tested its
medium-range Shahab-3 missile in July, it became clear beyond any
doubt that by the end of 1999 Tehran would have ballistic missiles
whose 780 mile range could cover Israel. And Iran was working to
manufacture a nuclear warhead for that missile.
Last month, Sneh and other members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs
and Defense Committee, visited the U.S. Senate and Congress to
bolster joint Israeli-US development of anti-missile systems. These
concerned mainly the Arrow and the Nautilus project to intercept an
incoming missile just after it is launched.
The Arrow, Sneh said, hits the enemy missile when it is near its
target. A nuclear explosion close to, or over, Israeli territory
could be dangerous, but its interception meant it would blow up in
the enemy's area. "The traditional Israeli deterrence, of 'nuclear
ambiguity,' was good against Arab superiority in conventional
weapons and troops. It probably does not exist when a country
hostile to us has nuclear weapons.
"When it comes to Iran, no such deterrence exists, because at the basis of all deterrence there is symmetry between those who deter and the deterred. Iran is 70 times the size of Israel and it has 11 times the population. On the other hand, Israel is very vulnerable. Most of the population and its economic assets are packed into the coastal plane. The talk of a 'second strike' is meaningless: after a first strike Israel can never be what it was."
From his analysis Sneh deduces that active defense systems are
insufficient and he believes the existing deterrent is inadequate.
In face of an Iranian threat taking shape and a possible Iraqi threat he believes a new deterrence system is needed. He claims the need is urgent to build a preemptive, preventative system with all the long-term operational abilities involved.
"Many people level the charge at me: why are you scaring us with
the Iranian threat? Twenty-five years ago, on Yom Kippur 1973, an
essential change occurred in Israel's defense doctrine. Since that
disaster we do not make our preparations in terms of the enemy's
intention (as we interpret it) but according to his capability.
"Learning the lesson of Yom Kippur 1973 means not ignoring the
threat, not indulging ourselves with apathy, but doing everything
necessary to face up to it, to deter, and in the event of a clash
-- to win."
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