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Newsletter : 1fax0308.txt
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>JN March 8, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 42
Sharon, Israel's New Prime Minister, Puts Security First
By VOA News, BBC News & Arutz-7 News
Ariel Sharon has become Israel's new prime minister after the country's parliament approved his broad-based coalition government. Lawmakers voted 72 to 21 in favor of the eight-party government led by Sharon's right-wing Likud party.
In a policy speech before Wednesday's vote, Sharon called on Israelis to unite and urged Palestinians to renounce violence. Sharon also said he would like to make peace with Syria and Lebanon. Syria responded immediately that Israel must withdraw fully from the captured Golan Heights.
Sharon overwhelmingly defeated his Labor predecessor Ehud Barak last month in a special general election seen as a referendum on how to handle months of ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The former general now becomes Israel's fifth prime minister in six years. The White House says Sharon will visit Washington for a meeting with President Bush on March 20.
In an outgoing speech, Sharon's predecessor, Ehud Barak, said borders must be established between Israel and Palestinians to ensure peace. Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli army tightened its closure of the West Bank, closing down a key road near the town of Ramallah. Sharon takes power amid angry threats of stepped up violence issued by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In the Israeli parliament Wednesday, legislators also voted to abolish the country's direct election of the prime minister, and revert to elections in which voters cast ballots for the party of the person they want to be prime minister.
Under the direct-election system, voters could split their ballots, voting for a major-party candidate for prime minister, but backing a special-interest party for parliament.
Changing to a system where voters can only choose a party may discourage people from voting for small factions that might not have enough support to win any seats.
Sharon presented his new government - the largest in the history of the nation - and was sworn in as the 11th person to hold the post of Prime Minister of Israel.
The government includes 26 ministers, including eight from the Likud - plus Sharon himself - as well as eight from Labor-Meimad, five from Shas, two from National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu, one from Am Echad, and one from Yisrael B'Aliyah. One new minister, Dalia Itzik, was not sworn in Wednesday because her father passed away Tuesday.
In Sharon's acceptance speech, he emphasized the need for true national unity, the outstretched Israeli hand for peace to the Palestinians, and the firmness of his commitment to protect the security of Israeli citizens.
In an address to parliament, Sharon said that Israel and the Palestinians were "fated to live side by side in this small part of the world...I believe we can, if there is a will on both sides, take a detour from the bitter path of blood in which we are marching. Our hand is extended in peace."
But the prime minister also warned Palestinians that Israel would not negotiate "under the pressure of terrorism and violence" and said that Israel had "to be prepared to use force as appropriate." He said that there would be no new Israeli settlements established in the West Bank or Gaza Strip during this parliament, which is scheduled to run until 2003.
Palestinian militants have vowed to oppose the new prime minister - whom they view as a "butcher" - with more suicide bombings. An advisor to Sharon, Zalman Shoval, told the BBC that the new government would take "a harder line" with the Palestinians. "That's what most Israelis expect us to do", he said.
Hamas Hit by Porn Attack
By BBC News
Another blow appears to have been struck in the hacking war that has broken out on the sidelines of the current conflict in the Middle East. This time the victim is the Muslim militant group Hamas, with visitors to its home page being diverted to a hard-core pornography site called Hot Motel Horny Sex Sluts.
The cyber attack comes after Hamas said it had carried out a deadly bomb attack in the Israeli town of Netanya, which killed three Israelis and the suicide bomber.
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, spiritual leader of the political wing of Hamas, accused Israeli intelligence of being behind the hack. "I'm telling them to die of their own fury," said the sheikh. "They are trying to disfigure the image of Islam and Muslims.
"These are the people who are shedding our blood and massacring our people every day, so it is not difficult for them to do something like this. As much as their anger and fire rises, they will try all and crazy ways to extinguish it."
It is not yet clear who hacked the Hamas website, which usually carries information about the group and its opposition to Israeli-Palestinian peace moves. Yassin said Hamas would seek advice from internet specialists to block any further hacking attempts.
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