 |
 |
|
|
||
Newsletter : 9fax0223.txt
Directory | Previous file | Next file
>PD
>Israel Faxx
>JN Feb. 23, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 37
Israelis Among the Biggest Consumers of Fruit
By IsraelWire
Israelis are among the biggest consumers of fruit according to a
Central Bureau of Statistics report. Last year, each Israeli ate
close to 154 lbs of citrus (this does not include fruit juice).
In addition, men, women, and children in this country consumed on
the average more than 154 lbs per head of all other fruit (and 2.2
lbs of dried fruit). This does not include melons and watermelons,
which were downed at the rate of 75 lbs per person.
Netanyahu will Meet with King Abdullah
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says he will go to Jordan
Sunday for talks on the Middle East efforts with King Abdullah.
Both sides have been pledging to maintain the good relationship
established over the years by the late King Hussein and Netanyahu's
predecessors.
Netanyahu, who attended King Hussein's funeral earlier this month,
say his upcoming meeting with King Abdullah will underscore what he
termed the "stability and fortitude" of the peaceful relationship
between two countries.
Peace with Jordan formalized by treaty in 1994 is a cornerstone
of Israeli foreign policy. But relations had been strained in
the months leading up to King Hussein's death by the breakdown of
implementation of the Wye River agreement, which the king left
his sickbed to help negotiate in October.
In an address to American-Jewish leaders Monday, Netanyahu said he
is confident of both implementation of the Wye Accord and a
final-status peace agreement with the Palestinians. But he said any
Palestinian entity that emerges in a final deal would be barred
from making treaties with Arab powers hostile to Israel, from
importing heavy weapons, and repatriating Palestinian refugees:
"An Arab state with an Arab army right here hovering above Tel Aviv
and the rest of our population centers is a prescription, I think,
for calamity, not for peace. So obviously we'll have to limit those
powers as well as the power to bring into millions of people,
demanding the right of return, or Iraqi troops or whatever."
Netanyahu again warned Palestinian Authority leader Yasir Arafat to
refrain from the unilateral declaration of statehood he has
threatened to make May 4 -- saying that to do so would be a mistake
that could end the peace process.
Peres Calls for Palestinian State
By Ed Warner (VOA-Washington)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres says the Mideast peace
process should be speeded up with an ultimate goal of creating a
Palestinian state. The former Israeli leader's remarks came Sunday
in a Washington address to the Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Peres told the Washington gathering that five wars between Israelis
and Arabs are more than enough: "Israel won all of them militarily,
none of them politically. The Arabs lost all of them militarily.
So they lost all of them politically as well a sixth war again to
sacrifice young people with more dangerous weapons?"
But Peres warned the price of peace is rising as it is delayed. He
said the gap between Israel and its neighbors is too wide. Israel's
GNP equals the combined GNP of the Arab nations.
Peres noted the million people in Gaza will double in 12 years:
and he said that unless an answer to Mideast peace is found,
Palestinian bitterness will continue to grow: "Living in poverty,
in bitterness, in resentment, cursing us, looking upon us as
occupiers, as masters, as people who are arrogant without
feelings."
The former prime minister said partition between Israelis and
Palestinians will solve nothing. Instead, he believes the
Palestinians should have a state of their own.
Hasidic New Yorker Arrested for Fraud
By IsraelWire
A member of a New York Hasidic Jewish community who has been charged with defrauding federal and state grant, loan and subsidy programs of tens of millions of dollars has been arrested in Israel.
Chaim Berger, who was indicted by a New York City federal grand jury in 1997, was arrested Thursday by Israeli police in response to a formal request submitted by the Department of Justice, which is seeking his extradition. Berger is being held in Israel without bail pending a further hearing Feb. 24.
Berger and six others are charged in a 64-count indictment accusing
them of defrauding the federal and state governments to benefit
themselves and other residents of the village of New Square in
Rockland County, northwest of New York City (just one-quarter mile
from this editor's former house).. New Square is a community of about 6,000 people, most
of whom are Hasidim.
The indictment charges that in one scheme, a Jewish school, or
yeshiva, in Brooklyn was financed almost entirely by federal Pell
grants awarded by the Department of Education to ineligible or
nonexistent students. The defendants also allegedly looted state
student aid programs, as well as Small Business Administration and
federal housing programs.
| Home My Account Search Contact Us |
by Electronic World Communications, Inc.)
