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Newsletter : 9fax0526.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN May 26, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 99
Israel Students Build Candle Cars
By IsraelWire
Israeli university students found an alternative energy source to power their vehicles, two Sabbath candles. The winner of the Haifa Technion Techno-Brain Competition Monday was a 15-inch-long four-wheeled buggy that traveled a 45-foot course. This year's competition challenged students to design and build vehicles powered by a pair of white candles that Jews traditionally light every Friday at sundown to welcome the Sabbath. Amir Rubinstein's winning buggy was propelled when heat from the lit candles shot up into a high-expansion, fluid-filled cylinder attached to the buggy. It covered the course in two minutes and 15 seconds.
Will Barak Snuggle with Likud?
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Aides to Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak say the right-wing Likud
party would be Barak's preferred first partner in the broad
coalition government he hopes to set up.
Barak vanquished Likud Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in last
week's election. But with the controversial Netanyahu leaving
politics, the Labor party chief is reaching out to Likud as his
main partner in a new coalition.
The decision is not surprising since Likud -- despite its
election losses -- will be the second largest party behind Labor
in the new Knesset. And Barak has said he wants the right-wing to
participate in the grand coalition he intends to set up in order to
try to reach peace agreements with the Palestinians and the
Syrians.
But the invitation to a party known for its hardline stance in
negotiations underscores Barak's cautious approach to the peace
process. Joel Peters, a political scientist at Ben-Gurion
University, says Palestinian leaders know that Barak will be more
amenable to a final-status agreement than his predecessor -- but
will also be a tough negotiator.
"The Palestinian leadership are aware that they now have a leader who will have a greater imperative from a domestic mandate to move the peace process forward. But is not going to give them a Palestinian state tomorrow. I think one will see a restart of the peace process. But it's to be a long and tough set of negotiations."
Unlike Netanyahu, Barak does not rule out Palestinian statehood
resulting from peace talks. But since his election, he has
emphasized tough terms for an agreement -- including no return to
Israel's (pre-war) 1967 borders, no concessions over Israel's
control over Jerusalem, and the retention of most Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza under Israeli sovereignty.
Palestinian and other Arab leaders who initially welcomed Barak's
victory have expressed disappointment over his stress in recent
days on what he calls his "redlines" -- limiting Israeli
concessions in future bargaining.
Similarly, leaders of Israeli Arab parties who held coalition
meetings with Barak aides Tuesday said they objected to having
Likud in the next government. They said Israeli Arabs, who gave
Barak more than 90 percent of their votes last week, did not elect
him to continue the policies of Netanyahu.
AIPAC Says OK to Palestinian State
By IsraelWire
Indicating a significant policy change, the pro-Israel, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has dropped its opposition to the formation of a Palestinian state.
The move by the influential group's executive committee could
provide practical support for Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in
driving toward statehood. AIPAC lobbyists presumably would be
disinclined to urge members of Congress to oppose statehood.
"It is not an endorsement for a Palestinian state," AIPAC spokesman
Kenneth Bricker said. "It leaves open the possibility."
Instead, the committee gave its support to "a political solution in
the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians that would
permit the exercise of Palestinian self-government."
The Analyzer Trial
By IsraelWire
Barak Abutbul, a colleague of "The Analyzer," AKA Ehud Tanenbaum,
turned state witness in the trial of the young man who gained
infamy when he successfully penetrated computer systems of NASA,
the Pentagon and other institutions around the world. Tanenbaum was
apprehended following investigations involving agents of the FBI,
Israeli police and other law enforcement agencies.
The proceedings were held in the Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court,
where the now Golani Infantry Brigade soldier appeared represented by
legal counsel, to answer charges pertaining to the criminal
indictment filed against him. Tannenbaum's lawyer plans to question
the legitimacy of trying the case in an Israeli court, as well as
other technical legal issues. The next court date is scheduled for
June 24.
The IDF stated that it did not choose to use Tannenbaum's talents
in computers, adding his skills were not that much more impressive
than many other persons currently serving the military in the
computer field. As mentioned earlier, Tannenbaum is a member of the
Golani Infantry Brigade.
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