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Newsletter : 8fax1231.txt
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>JN Dec. 31, 1998, Vol. 6. No. 230
Circumcision Licensing a Reality
By IsraelWire
The Chief Rabbinate will now license persons who perform ritual circumcisions. The "mohel" (one who performs the circumcision) will wear an external tag attesting to his level of expertise. In stage one of the new program, 300 persons will be "licensed." Following the new "licensing" procedure, the Rabbinate is recommending that only certified persons be called upon for the ritual circumcision procedure.
Yearender: Israel/Palestinians '98
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
It was another difficult year of alternating progress and setbacks
in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It was climaxed in
December by an unprecedented visit by President Bill Clinton to
both Israel and the Palestinian-controlled Gaza areas -- and a
rebellion in the Israeli parliament against Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu.
It was a sight that no one would have predicted just a few years
ago -- an American president in Palestinian controlled Gaza
addressing Yasir Arafat and a gathering of hundreds of Palestinian
leaders.
With Clinton looking on, the audience at the unprecedented Dec. 14
meeting rose to reaffirm the nullification of language of the
Palestinian Charter calling for Israel's destruction. Arafat said
the act should end once and for all, Israeli doubts about the
Palestinians' desire for peaceful coexistence:
"As you see Mr. President, there is a strong support for our
decision and my letter to you. And I hope that this will close this
chapter forever. For we have carried out our commitments and
obligations and we are determined to continue our quest for peace,
peace of the brave, and co-existence on the basis of respecting
justice and international legitimacy."
The Clinton visit, the first ever by a U.S. president to both
Israel and Palestinian areas, had been intended as a celebration of
the Wye River agreement concluded Oct. 24. In an extraordinary
nine-day summit at a conference center near Washington, Clinton and
his advisers finally got Arafat and Netanyahu to agree to clear
the way to negotiations on the final status issues of the Oslo
peace process.
A definitive revocation of the anti-Israeli provision of the
Palestinian Charter was a key condition of the Wye deal. And in his
Gaza address Clinton said he hoped the gesture long demanded by
Israel would change the climate of the entire peace process:
"I thank you for your rejection, fully, finally and forever, of the
passages in the Palestinian Charter calling for the destruction of
Israel. For they were the ideological underpinnings of a struggle
renounced at Oslo. By revoking them once and for all you have sent,
I say again, a powerful message not to the government, but to the
people of Israel. You will touch people on the street there
(applause), you will reach their hearts there."
Israel handed over another 13 percent of the West Bank and released
250 Palestinian prisoners in the first phase of the Wye agreement.
But despite U.S. diplomacy, the process bogged down thereafter.
Palestinians accused Israel of violating the deal by releasing
mainly common criminals rather than political and security
detainees and there were days of violent protests by Palestinians
in the West Bank.
The Netanyahu government accused the Palestinians of inciting the
unrest, and froze implementation after the Clinton visit unless
the Palestinians met a list of conditions. Foremost among them,
for Netanyahu, was an end to talk of a unilateral declaration
of Palestinian statehood:
"They said again and again that regardless of what happens in the negotiations, on May 4th of 1999, they will unilaterally declare a state, divide Jerusalem and make its eastern half the Palestinian capital. This a gross violation of the Oslo and Wye accords, which commit the parties to negotiate a mutually agreed final settlement. Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must officially and unequivocally renounce this attempt. I think no one can seriously expect Israel to hand over another inch of territory unless and until such an unambiguous correction is made."
Israeli analysts give Netanyahu little chance of making a political
comeback in the elections, expected May 17. Several members of his
own Likud party are mounting challenges to his leadership. And the
widely respected former army chief of staff, Gen. Amnon
Lipkin-Shahak, retired from the military with the apparent aim of
leading a new centrist party in the elections. The peace process is
likely to remain on hold until the Israeli leadership question is
resolved.
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