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Newsletter : 9fax0212.txt
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>PD
>Israel Faxx
>JN Feb. 12, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 30
Party Insurance Against Katyushas
By IsraelWire
The owner of a Kiryat Shmona wedding hall has announced a special deal for couples planning weddings: in case of cancellations due to warnings about Katyusha shelling, he will not charge them any money. There have been many instances in the past of weddings and other celebrations being canceled due to Katyusha attacks.
Weizman Reportedly Wants to Meet with Assad
By Richard Engel (VOA-Cairo)
Syria says President Hafez al-Assad has overwhelmingly won another
term in office. The Syrian president was almost guaranteed to be
re-elected. The election victory gives Assad another seven-year
term in office. The 68-year-old former air force pilot has already
been Syria's president for 28 years.
Syria's interior minister announced that Assad won more than 99.9
percent of the votes cast Wednesday. His name was the only one on
the ballot. The interior ministry said more than 8.9 million people
voted for Assad. Only 219 people voted against his re-election.
The ministry also said more than 99 percent of Syria's nearly 9
million eligible voters took part in the referendum.
Members of Syria's armed forces and police, who had been barred
from voting in parliamentary elections last year, were allowed to
vote in the presidential referendum.
Assad's new term begins Saturday when he is expected to outline his
policies and possibly reshuffle his cabinet during a special
session of parliament.
Political commentators say Syria's presidential referendum and its
results are a mere show. Assad also won more than 99.9 percent of
the votes during the last referendum seven years ago.
The voting for Assad took place in a carnival-like atmosphere in
both Syria and Lebanon, where 35,000 Syrian troops are stationed.
Syrians sang and danced as Assad cast the first vote for himself.
Pictures of the Syrian president adorned nearly-every government
building in Damascus. Even the news announcers on Syrian
television have been wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with slogans
supporting the Syrian leader.
Hawatme: Weizman Asked to Meet Assad
By IsraelWire
The secretary-general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Na'if Hawatme, said President Ezer Weizman had asked him to arrange a meeting with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad during their brief encounter at the funeral of Jordan's King Hussein.
Hawatme told United Press International that he apologized and
informed Weizman that "in such moments, this is a difficult
operation that needs positive Israeli indications and to open the
file of the Israeli-Syrian negotiations one more time."
He said "and as long as this file is closed, arranging such a
meeting is an unlikely matter," and added that he did not tell
Assad about Weizman's wish to meet him.
Hawatme, whose handshaking with Weizman during King Hussein's
funeral in Amman Monday provoked criticism by some Israeli
officials, said he also shook hands with Israeli former Defense
Minister and Center Party head Yitzchak Mordechai.
He said: "After the Israeli president entered the room where we
were present at the Royal Palace and shook hands with me, Mordechai
came and extended his hand to salute everyone and asked me how
could peace be reached."
He added: "I told him, 'You and the (Jewish) settlers withdraw from
the Palestinian territories.' Mordechai asked, 'What about
security?' I told him, 'Security is a circle in the chain and comes
as a result of a comprehensive peace and without it security could
not be achieved and blood will continue to be spilled from the
Palestinian and Israeli people.'"
Hawatme explained that he met Weizman while Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu was in another room at the Jordanian Royal
Palace. He affirmed that Weizman was the one who took the
initiative to salute him and ask him about peace.
Hawatme, who has been based in Damascus for years and opposes the
1993 Oslo accord between Israel and the PLO Authority, said he also
met with Yasir Arafat at the funeral and asked him "to rebuild the
Palestinian national unity" and to announce the independent state
as planned on May 4.
He warned Arafat that the delay in announcing the Palestinian state
"will be a gain to Netanyahu and the extremist right...and a loss
to the Palestinian people."
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