 |
 |
|
|
||
Newsletter : 9fax1228.txt
Directory | Previous file | Next file
>PD
>Israel Faxx
>JN Dec. 28, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 237
Families Visit Iranian Jewish Prisoners
By IsraelWire
Israel Radio reports that the 13 Iranian Jews being detained since April of this year are now being permitted visits by family members. The detainees, rabbis and schoolteachers, are being detained under the guise that they spied for the governments of the United States and Israel. Both governments have issued statements on high diplomatic levels denying the allegations, calling for the immediate release of the group being detained under harsh physical conditions.
Israeli-Syrian Talks Resume Jan. 3
By David Gollust (VOA-White House)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara return to the United States early next week to continue negotiations on a peace agreement. The meetings -- at a secluded conference center in West Virginia - will build on a landmark December 16th agreement to re-start a negotiating process that had broken down in 1996. President Clinton has hailed the Israeli-Syrian talks as a "new beginning" in the effort for a comprehensive Middle East peace.
But administration officials and U-S Middle East experts are cautioning against expectations of an early breakthrough from the next round. The talks are to be held at a conference center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, about 120-kilometers northwest of Washington.
Clinton is expected to join Barak and Al-Shara for the start of the Shepherdstown meetings. Secretary of State Madaleine Albright and Middle East envoy Dennis Ross will be available on-site to mediate, as they did in the meetings at Washington's Blair House two-weeks ago.
The negotiating process is simple in concept. It centers on security and political guarantees Israel would get from Syria in return for a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.
But the two sides differ on what constitutes a full withdrawal. Syria is insisting on a roll-back to the lines of just before the 1967 conflict, and Israel prefers the more generous borders delineated between Palestine and Syria in 1923. There is also a lot of enmity to overcome, as underscored by the lack of a public handshake between Al-Shara and Barak in their Washington meetings.
Middle-East analyst Bruce Jentleson, a Duke University professor and senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, says it is still unclear whether Syrian President Hafez al-Assad has made up his mind on peace with Israel. Jentleson says the Shepherdstown talks may just be exploratory, but tells VOA - if the Syrian president has decided, a deal could be completed within a few months.
"Many people can tell you, right now, 80 to 90 percent of the terms of the deal, analytically. Then there is the bargaining and horse-trading, and back-and-forth. Then there is the 10 percent that remain difficult, like the final boundaries, like the final details of the security arrangements. But if the political will is there, and negotiations are run well, I think that this does not have to go on for a long time. We could have the makings of an agreement within three to six-months."
Another complicating factor in the process is Barak's promise to submit any peace accord reached with Syria to the Israeli people in a referendum. A Golan withdrawal would require Israel to uproot an estimated 17,000 Israeli settlers - many of whom are campaigning against an agreement.
Though Barak is having problems holding his coalition together even on domestic issues, Jentleson says the prime minister stands to win an up-or-down vote on peace with Syria.
Barak May Lose Knesset Majority
By Meredith Buel (VOA-Jerusalem)
Prime Minister Ehud Barak's largest coalition partner is threatening to quit the government because of a dispute over the budget. The move could leave Israel with a minority government at a critical time of peace negotiations in the Middle East.
The ultra-orthodox Jewish Shas Party has told Barak it will resign from the governing coalition later this week because of a disagreement over the budget. Shas Party Chief, Eli Yishai, says he informed the prime minister of the decision, but has given Barak 24-hours to respond to the party's financial demands.
Shas holds 17-seats in the Israeli Parliament and draws its support from Sephardic Jews with origins in Arab states. If Shas quits the coalition, the Prime Minister would be left with 51 seats - 10 short of a majority in the 120-seat Parliament. This would leave Barak with only a minority in parliament as he resumes crucial peace negotiations with Syria next week and continues to hold peace talks with the Palestinians.
Shas officials are in the midst of a battle with the Finance Ministry over millions of dollars the party wants to bail out its bankrupt school and welfare system -- a system that generates the party's political support.
The deadline for passing the budget is Dec. 31 and Shas has a history of last minute posturing to increase its share of the appropriations. If the budget does not pass in time, the government has up to three-months to win approval for the spending plan or be forced to call new elections.
| Home My Account Search Contact Us |
by Electronic World Communications, Inc.)
