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Newsletter : 9fax0415.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN April 15, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 72
Round Trip Airfare to Israel for $180
By IsraelWire
Registered Israeli voters in the United States may take advantage of a $180 round-trip airfare to Tel Aviv for the May 17 election. Chartered Flights will depart Sunday, May 16 and return Tuesday, May 18 or Sunday, May 23 (after Shavuot). The organizers of the offer say space is limited and will be given on a first come first serve basis. For information, contact: (877)-868-3999. Fax: (718) 686-6214.
Sharon Declines to Support NATO
By Deborah Tate (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel's Knesset reviewed its response to the Kosovo crisis Wednesday -- a response that observers say can best be described as "ambivalent." Israel has sent planeloads of humanitarian aid to Kosovar refugees. But at the same time, it has been reluctant to condemn Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for alleged atrocities against the ethnic Albanian minority in Kosovo.
Television pictures of thousands of ethnic Albanians fleeing
Kosovo, women and children packed onto trucks, and crowded refugee
camps, have resonated here in Israel, which observed Holocaust
Remembrance Day this week. Israelis are actively donating blankets,
warm clothing and money to the relief effort. And earlier this
week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed more than 100
Kosovar refugees to Israel, saying they could stay as long as they
want.
But apart from the humanitarian efforts and expressions of concern
for the refugees, there has been a reluctance to back NATO
airstrikes against Yugoslavia and to condemn Milosevic for alleged
atrocities against ethnic Albanians.
Observers say the reason is a sense of historic solidarity with
the Serbs, who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis during World
War 2.
Yosef Lapid is a journalist and a Holocaust survivor who is running
for the Knesset in May. "We have a long, historical alliance with
the Serbs, who were one of the few peoples in Europe during the
Holocaust who tried to save the Jews. In a way, we feel like many
American Jews toward Israel when they disagree with Netanyahu's
policies, they disagree with Netanyahu's policies, but they still
support Israel. We disagree with the policies of Milosevic, but we
have a very soft spot for the Serbs and totally dislike the idea
that Americans are bombing Yugoslavia, and hitting civilians and
trains, behaving like a wild sheriff in a drunken town."
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon refused to support NATO's air
campaign, saying it poses a dangerous precedent. He told a private
meeting that NATO could one day use force to impose a solution to
the Arab-Israeli conflict. Later, Sharon expressed his opposition
to an independent Kosovo, saying it could become a center for
Muslim extremism that could threaten the rest of Europe.
Lapid says Sharon's point about a dangerous precedent being set by
NATO has struck a chord with Israelis. If NATO is pressing
Milosevic to give Kosovo to the ethnic Albanians, the argument
goes, why couldn't it also press Israel to give up land to the
Palestinians?
"Theoretically, there are Arabs in the Galilee who may try to gain
independence, theoretically they could be supported by someone who
wants to give them independence and who will start bombing us.
There is such a thought -- although no one thinks America will bomb
Israel. Yugoslavia did not attack a foreign country like Iraq did.
Yugoslavia may be misbehaving toward its minority, but it is acting
within its own sovereign right, and this is a dangerous precedent,
not only for Israel but for the entire world."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has distanced himself from Sharon's remarks --
expressing support for NATO and condemning what he calls "the mass
killing, whether it is done by the Serbs or anyone else," as he put
it. But he does not mention Milosevic by name.
Israel Has New Longer Range Ballistic Missile
By IsraelWire
Israel has developed a longer-range version of its Jericho
ballistic missile, believed capable of carrying nuclear warheads,
according to a report published in the Jordan Times.
The Times report quotes the Middle East Military Balance, published by
the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel-Aviv University,
as saying the third generation of the Jericho ground-to-ground
missile has a range of 900 miles.
According to international press reports, the Jericho is capable of
delivering nuclear warheads developed at the Dimona nuclear center
in southern Israel. Israel has never acknowledged it possesses
nuclear weapons. The report puts Israel's conscription army in 1997
at 187,000 plus 444,000 men serving reserve duty. Of the total,
141,000 are ground troops, 36,500 in the air force and 9,500 in
the navy.
Israel's air force had 613 combat aircraft in 1997. Israel obtained
25 F-15I fighter jets from the United States in 1998. The army has
3,900 tanks, 55 more than in 1996. The authors said 2,120 of the
tanks were classified as high quality, including 1,140 Israeli-made
Merkavas and 420 U.S.-made M-60 and M-60A1s.
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