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Newsletter : 8fax1013.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Oct. 13, 1998, Vol. 6. No. 182
Arafat-Netanyahu-Clinton Summit Thursday
By David Gollust (VOA-The White House)
President Clinton has had separate telephone talks with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasir
Arafat as he prepares to host the two leaders at a peace-making
summit later this week near Washington.
White House officials say the president spent about 30 minutes on
the phone with each leader to try to isolate the problem issues
blocking the way to an interim accord for an Israeli pullback in
the West Bank.
The president is convening the summit Thursday -- at the Wye
Plantation Conference Center in Maryland -- in an effort to end a
year-and-a-half impasse over the troop withdrawal and Palestinian
security guarantees, and to move the parties on to the final status
issues of the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Officials here say the president and his advisers will be heavily
engaged in the summit and will propose ways to bridge the gaps. But
they say it is up to the leaders to make the hard decisions and
provide the statesmanship needed to advance the peace process.
Clinton canceled a planned trip to Connecticut next weekend to be
available to join the discussions, which are likely to extend
through Sunday. He will greet the two leaders at a ceremonial
opening at the White House, and the talks will then move to the
seclusion of the Wye Plantation, located across the Chesapeake Bay
about 42 miles east of Washington. It will be off-limits to
reporters.
Plans call for Secretary of State Albright and Middle
East envoy Dennis Ross to take part in all the discussions, while
the president would be available to fly in by helicopter when
appropriate.
The two sides have basically agreed on a US compromise under which
Israel would pull back from an additional 13 percent of the West
Bank on top of the 27 percent relinquished earlier.
But Netanyahu has said he will only withdraw if Arafat makes firm
commitments to contain anti-Israel radicals and it is unclear how
he intends to do it. Another unknown factor is the effect the
appointment of Israeli hardliner Ariel Sharon as foreign minister
will have on the negotiations.
The parties are under increasing time pressure to conclude the
interim deal. Under the Oslo framework, the entire peace process
including decisions on the final-status issues of Jerusalem and
Palestinian statehood is to be completed by May.
Lithuania World War II Survivors Home Opens
By IsraelWire
As part of a German-funded compensation program, the first in a
series of retirement homes for Holocaust survivors has opened
in Lithuania. The center, which has 30 two-room apartments, a
dining room and a doctor's office, was paid for by a German
government fund.
During Germany's 1941-44 occupation, over 90 percent of Lithuania's
240,000 Jews were killed one of the highest rates in Nazi-occupied
Europe. Today, fewer than 1,000 Holocaust survivors remain in
Lithuania. After Lithuania became independent in 1991, Jewish
groups began lobbying for compensation similar to that provided by
Germany to Jews living in the West and in Israel.
But while many Lithuanian Jews called for direct cash payments,
Bonn refused, opting instead to spend about $1.2 million building
health care facilities like the new retirement home.
Some Jewish leaders in Lithuania have criticized the program, saying many elderly Jews prefer living on their own or with their families and so would not benefit from the compensation package.
Netanyahu Advisor Asks to Nix Generali Award
By Arutz-7 News Service
The Prime Minister's Adviser for Diaspora Affairs, Bobby Brown, has
asked the Steering Committee organizing the Prime Minister's
Jubilee Business Summit not to present the Generali Insurance
Company with the Jubilee Award as planned.
In his letter to the Jubilee Business Summit organizers, Brown
notes that "Generali was one of the leading insurance companies in
the Jewish communities in Europe prior to the Second World War.
Most Holocaust survivors and many of the heirs of Holocaust victims
never received compensation for the insurance policies held by
European insurers. As a result, many victims who paid insurance
premiums and their heirs suffered injustice, pain and financial
distress. Generali, which enjoyed the trust of many people, still
holds lists of more than 330,000 insurance policy holders from this
period."
Brown explained that even after several appeals to Generali to
publicize the information, the company has been unhelpful. The
situation is rather urgent, "in light of the advanced age of
Holocaust survivors and the growing interest of Jews around the
world in the history of their family and of their people."
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