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Newsletter : 1fax0208.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Feb. 8, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 23
Powell Plans Mideast Trip
By VOA News
Secretary of State Colin Powell says he will travel to the Middle East and Persian Gulf area at the end of February. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Powell said he hopes to visit Europe on the trip as well. He said that details of his travel have not been finalized.
Sharon Claims All of Jerusalem For Israel
By VOA News
Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon went Wednesday to Judaism's holiest site, Jerusalem's Western Wall, to claim the holy city as the indivisible and eternal capital of Israel.
Sharon also declared Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a site revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, as the center of the city. In a brief speech, Sharon also urged Palestinians to end their four-month uprising and negotiate what he called a realistic peace.
Sharon's comments come one day after his landslide victory over outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak in a special election. Late Tuesday, as his widely expected win became a certainty, Sharon called for a government of national unity. The Likud Party leader also appointed a negotiating team to establish the new government. He has until the end of March to assemble a coalition, or face new elections in mid-April.
Meanwhile, outgoing Israel Prime Minister Barak resigned Wednesday as leader of his Labor Party and said he would also give up his seat in parliament. Barak has not ruled out joining a government of national unity, saying he would consider such an offer if there is a genuine effort to promote peace.
Israelis, Palestinians Ponder Sharon Victory
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Beit Jala, West Bank)
The election of Ariel Sharon raises many questions about the future of the Mideast peace process, but one thing remains certain - Israelis and Palestinians will again have to face the prospect of talking peace or continuing their conflict.
Just hours before the last votes had been cast in Israel's elections, Palestinian Elias Larach, 57, was checking the sandbags in the windows of his house in the West Bank town of Beit Jala. The home has a commanding view across a narrow valley toward the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, an area annexed from the West Bank by Israel.
In recent months, Gilo residents have also been sheltering behind sandbags as well as a row of concrete barriers along the outer edge of the suburb that faces the West Bank.
Among the residents is Jerusalem schoolteacher Gordon Rose. Rose
voted for Ehud Barak in the 1999 elections, but on Tuesday he voted
for right-wing Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon to be Israel's next
prime minister.
Two months ago, Rose and Larach's homes came under fire after Palestinian snipers began shooting from Beit Jala at Gilo and Israeli soldiers fired back. Both men fear the bullets will start flying with even greater intensity and once again their families will be in the line of fire.
If so, Rose, wants Israel to react strongly. "I think that if it starts again, I am for strong deterrent action," he said. Rose realizes innocent people may be hurt by hitting back at Palestinian areas such as Beit Jala. But he says Israel really has no other choice.
"We felt sorry for the residents of Beit Jala because they are not the ones initiating this," he admitted. "They are more or less powerless to do anything, and on the other hand we have to retaliate."
Beit Jala resident Elias Larach and his family had been staying at a hotel in nearby Bethlehem to avoid the fighting. Even before the election, Larach became convinced that Israelis would chose Sharon over Barak. To him, this means Israelis have forsaken the path of peace for war against the Palestinians.
"We are really afraid that there will be shootings and clashes because this Sharon is a criminal and it seems these Israelis are not interested in peace; they are interested in war," he said.
Larach says he does not oppose a future Palestinian state being segregated from Israel, as long as its borders are open to the neighboring Arab states of Egypt and Jordan. But he says he will not accept separation if it means being completely surrounded by Israeli territory. It's not just that they will let us live in cages, we are not animals," he said.
Arabs Worried, Angry Over Sharon
By VOA News
Arab leaders are expressing a mixture of caution, hostility and gloom in the aftermath of Ariel Sharon's election as Israeli prime minister. Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat says he is prepared to work with any Israeli government. But other Palestinians greeted the Sharon win with calls to escalate the intifada, or uprising.
Syria called Sharon's election a "declaration of war against Arabs." Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he hopes the Middle East peace process can resume. But he said Sharon's often-repeated calls for Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem are "not encouraging."
In Washington, President Bush said the United States will work to promote stability in the region, and said he wants to give Sharon a chance to promote peace. Bush congratulated Sharon by telephone Tuesday, shortly after his election rival, Ehud Barak, conceded defeat.
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