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Newsletter : 0fax0330.txt
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>JN March 30, 2000, Vol. 8, No. 60
Bodies of F-16 Crew Identified
By IsraelWire
Pathology officials have identified the remains of Israel Air Force airmen Maj. Yonatan Begin, 30, and Lt. Lior Harare, 24. The service for Harare will take place today. Upon request of the Begin family, the details of the funeral for Begin are not being released to the public. Begin was the son of former Knesset member Binyamin Ze'ev Begin and grandson of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The two were killed when an air force F-16 went down off the coast of Atlit Monday night during a routine training exercise.
Clinton Challenges Assad
By David Gollust (VOA-White House)
President Clinton -- at his news conference Wednesday -- challenged Syrian President Hafez al-Assad to come up with a detailed response to the Israeli peace proposals he conveyed to the Syrian leader on Sunday in Geneva. Clinton has been saying since their meeting that the responsibility to advance the Syrian-Israeli track of the peace process now rests with Assad.
Clinton says it's not enough for the Syrians to merely reject the latest Israeli proposal, and he says if there is to be a negotiating process, Damascus will have to respond with a plan of its own.
Clinton spent much of Sunday in a meeting with Assad in Geneva that US officials said did not narrow any of the gaps barring the way to a peace accord. At his news conference, Clinton said Israel has been specific and comprehensive in its proposals, and Assad should be equally forthcoming in his reply.
"If we're going to have a negotiation, I don't think it's enough to say I don't like your position, come back and see me when I like your position. And I understand how strongly he feels about it. But if he disagrees with their territorial proposal, which is quite significant, then there should be some other proposal I think coming from the Syrians about how their concerns could be handled."
The Israelis and Syrians are understood to agree on most points of a proposed peace accord under which Israel would vacate the Golan Heights - which it has occupied since 1967 - in exchange for security measures and a normalization of relations with Damascus.
But they disagree over the precise delineation of a border, and particularly whether Syria would control any portion of the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, which is Israel's principal source of water.
Clinton said he thinks both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Assad want to conclude a peace accord, and the United States will keep working to help facilitate it. He has sent Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to the region to try to advance the dialogue and, at a meeting here Tuesday, asked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for his assistance.
Under questioning, the president said that none of the security options being discussed would involve the stationing of US troops in the Golan Heights after an Israeli pullback.
Palestinian Cave Dwellers will Return to West Bank
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel's Supreme Court ruled that about 700 Palestinians forcibly evacuated from caves in the West Bank should be allowed to return to their homes south of Hebron.
Since being expelled from their area for the second time in January, the Palestinians have been living in tents, their only shelter against the cold and rain of the winter season.
The Supreme Court decision to allow the displaced Palestinians to return to their former cave dwellings has been hailed as a major victory by Israeli human-rights activists championing their cause.
The Israeli army forced the Palestinian families to leave their cave homes in the Hebron hills in November and then again in January, when they returned. The army says they were expelled for their own protection because the area was a military firing zone.
But some human-rights activists dismiss such statements, saying the Israeli army's action was prompted by pressure from Jewish settlers in the West Bank, who were evicted from an illegally-built outpost in the same area.
Following the court's decision, Jewish settlers said that if the Palestinians are allowed to return to their caves, they too should be given permission to move back to the Havat Maon outpost, which was dismantled by Israeli soldiers.
There are also fears some Jewish settlers may try to block any move by the Palestinians to regain their area, forcing the Israeli security forces to intervene.
Iran OKs Hizbullah Attacks Inside Israel
By IsraelWire
The Iranian regime is directing Hizbullah to prepare for offensives inside the borders of Israel according to the director of the General Security Service (GSS/Shin Bet), Ami Ayalon.
In his final presentation to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee prior to his stepping down, Ayalon told committee members that Iran was working diligently to undermine any and all efforts to bring peace and stability to the region between Israel and its neighbors.
