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Newsletter : 9fax0601.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN June 1, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 102
Cabinet Told that "Unofficial Contacts" Existed with Syria
By IsraelWire
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says that in the wake of press reports concerning negotiations with Syria during the tenure of the outgoing government, for a period of about one year, unofficial contacts with Syria were conducted along various channels. The statement follows a report by Haaretz that the prime minister was prepared to make sizable concessions on the Golan Heights but the deal fell through when Netanyahu backed out.
Barak Unsure About Coalition with Likud
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel's incoming prime minister, Ehud Barak, is having tough going
in his efforts to build a broad coalition government following his
May 17 election victory over Binyamin Netanyahu.
Barak says he wants to form as broad a government as possible to
pursue peace with the Palestinians and Syria. And his first
priority has been to reach a coalition deal with the main
right-wing Likud party now that Netanyahu has stepped down as its
leader.
But after a day of closed-door talks with Barak aides Monday, chief
Likud negotiator Silvan Shalom told reporters the differences
between the sides are wide and prospects for bridging them
uncertain.
"It looks that the gaps are large and if we will want to narrow
these gaps it will take us a lot of time and a lot of effort. But
right now, it looks like we have very big gaps between the
attitudes of Israel One and the Likud."
Shalom says talks are hung up over Jewish settlement growth in the
West Bank and Gaza, and that Likud cannot accept a freeze on
settlement activities.
Israeli press reports say Barak is proposing a compromise under
which no new settlements would be founded, but that existing ones
would be allowed to expand to accommodate natural population
growth.
With the apparent encouragement of the lame duck government, settlers since then have staked out numerous new building sites on West Bank hilltops. The provision would also allow Barak to overturn a Netanyahu decision to massively expand the biggest West Bank settlement -- Ma'ale Adumim -- so that it borders Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders are outraged by the action, which virtually
cuts the West Bank in two. They have called a day of
demonstrations Thursday to protest the settlement push and to
demand that Barak end his public silence over the issue.
Sunken Israeli Sub Found in Waters Near Cyprus
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
An American salvage team has discovered the remains of an Israeli
submarine that vanished 31 years ago with 69 sailors on board. The
Israeli navy confirmed the wreck has been positively identified
lying on the Mediterranean seabed between Crete and Cyprus.
Dakar served in the British navy and was 23 years old when Israel
purchased it and the crew set sail from Portsmouth to Haifa in
1968. A year later, its emergency buoy washed up on a beach in
Gaza, prompting various theories about its fate -- from mechanical
failure to torpedo attacks from Soviet and Egyptian navies.
Now, the Dakar has finally been located by the U.S. deep sea
research company Nautilus -- hired by the Israeli navy to make
the search. Photographs taken by Nautilus with sophisticated
underwater equipment, show a submarine with a broken hull lying on
the seabed at a depth of nearly three kilometers. The discovery has
brought relief to the families of the sailors, who had suffered for
decades not knowing the fate of the crew members.
Nurit Manor has been one of the leading members of the family
action team which had been pressuring the navy to keep up
the search for the Dakar. She had been married just four years
to Dan Manor -- one of the engineers on the Dakar -- when the
submarine was lost at sea.
"I think I will have a peace of mind, a quiet of peace mind.
Because I think all through the years I thought it was unfair to
leave the boys in the battlefield. And for me it was the
battlefield, because they went on a very difficult mission (in)
'68. Generally to be in the Mediterranean by themselves with at
least 40 different boats and submarines -- Russian, Syrian,
Egyptian etc. I think it was very brave, and they were left there
all these years."
Her son, Oded, was just one year old when the Dakar disappeared.
"The hardest part has been the not knowing, growing up, without
actually knowing where your father is, knowing that he was part of
the Israeli navy and at times, I had a feeling that he was left out
in the field."
Israeli navy experts say the submarine probably sank because of a
technical problem, but it was unclear whether the wreck would be
pulled from the sea to determine the cause of its demise.
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