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Newsletter : 1fax0312.txt
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>JN March 12, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 44
Sharon Holds Arafat Responsible for Mideast Violence
By Deborah Tate (VOA-Washington)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a U.S. television interview that it was up to Palestinian Authority leader Yasir Arafat to stop the violence in the region before peace talks can move forward. He said forces loyal to Arafat have been involved in "terrorist activities - that the Palestinian leader could prevent."
In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Sharon said Arafat bears the ultimate responsibility for the five-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. "I believe Chairman Arafat is in control of his forces.
"Most of the terrorist activities are carried out by Arafat's forces, or his security forces, or even the closest presidential guard. No doubt they could have been prevented, but Arafat never took any preventive steps against the infrastructure of the terrorist organizations."
Sharon reiterated that he would resume peace talks only after an end to the violence. "I would like to negotiate. We will be negotiating, but before that there should be a cessation of hostilities. It is impossible to conduct negotiations under pressure of fire and terror and non-stop violence."
The prime minister said that once the violence ended, he could work with Arafat. He even suggested he would be willing to shake Arafat's hand.
Sharon, a former army general, is reviled in much of the Arab world because of his role in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. But he argued that it is his military experience that makes him all the more committed to peace.
"As one who saw all the horrors of wars and all the fears of wars, and I participated in all the wars of Israel, I understand the importance of peace. I believe maybe better than many of the politicians who speak about peace, but never had the experience I had. I saw the wars myself and therefore understand the importance of peace."
In a separate interview on CNN's Late Edition, Sharon said he planned to ask President Bush to pardon Jonathan Pollard, a civilian naval intelligence analyst who was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for spying for Israel. The prime minister is scheduled to meet with Bush at the White House March 20. Former President Clinton, on the advice of U.S. intelligence officials, resisted Israeli pleas to free Pollard.
Israel Tightens West Bank Blockade
By VOA News
Israel has cut off dozens of villages in the West Bank, further tightening a blockade of Palestinian territories in place for more than five months. Israel Army Radio said Sunday that the army has erected new roadblocks near almost every settlement between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Eyewitnesses said the army is preventing cars from traveling between Ramallah and Jerusalem. The Palestinians denounced the latest Israeli moves as an attempt to turn their towns into prisons and detention camps and they called for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council and other measures to protect the people.
An Israeli army spokesman denied its actions constitute "collective punishment" of the Palestinians. The Israelis said they were obliged to take steps to protect Israeli citizens. The area has been the scene of frequent gunfights between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.
The blockade, imposed after the start of the Palestinian uprising, has severely restricted the movement of the 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel Calls Human Cloning Illegal
By VOA News
Israel says attempts to clone humans are illegal and it will not permit a cloning attempt in Israel by an Italian doctor. Mira Hibner, a legal adviser to Israel's Health Ministry, noted that the Knesset passed a law last year outlawing cloning experiments on human beings.
The German weekly Der Spiegel say Prof. Severino Antinori plans to join Israeli scientists already working on human cloning in the Mediterranean coastal town of Caeserea, north of Tel Aviv.
One of the Israeli scientists, Dr. Avi Ben-Abraham, told the magazine that human cloning is not against Jewish belief and that it is time to move beyond the laws of nature. He explained that the team's plans were neither immoral nor unethical.
"We are doing this in the name of all those infertile couples who dream of having children (and) in the name of those millions who are suffering from incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. We are doing it for those who need stem cells therapy and bone marrow and for those who died waiting for an organ for transplantation."
The fertility physicians plan to move ahead with their efforts to clone human beings, and they say hundreds of couples have volunteered to take part. Speaking in Rome, they said they would be ready to produce the first clone within 18 months and two years, and that the technology would resemble the one used to produce the cloned sheep, Dolly.
The doctors said they had unlimited private funding to carry out their plans, and that hundreds of couples were lining up to be considered for the project. But, they added, single women and couples whose child had died would be ruled out as candidates.
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