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Newsletter : 1fax0611.txt
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>JN June 11, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 96
Maccabiah Games In Danger
By IsraelNationalNews.com
The Maccabiah Games - world Jewry's Olympics - are in danger. The games are scheduled to begin on July 16, but many athletes have already pulled out because of fears for their safety.
The teams of the U.S. and Great Britain have implied that they may not come. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that the games should not be canceled, even if fewer athletes take part, while his deputy, Rabbi Michael Melchior, proposed that the Maccabiah be put off for a few months.
Israel, Palestinian Meeting with CIA Chief Postponed
By VOA News
A meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs with CIA Director George Tenet has been postponed. The action was taken to give U.S. officials time to review Israeli and Palestinian responses to U.S. proposals for strengthening the fragile Mideast ceasefire.
The security chiefs and Tenet apparently met briefly Sunday in the West Bank town of Ramallah before the U.S. intelligence chief decided to postpone further talks until Monday.
The U.S. plan calls for Israel to pull its troops back from Palestinian territories to positions before the violence began last September. It also requires the Israelis to stop attacks on Palestinian areas. The plan calls on the Palestinians to arrest anti-Israeli militants, confiscate weapons and end inflammatory broadcasts.
Meanwhile, funerals were held Sunday for three Palestinian women killed late Saturday by Israeli tank fire.
Israel said its tanks fired after two Palestinians shot at an army post near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials say the three women were killed and others wounded in their tent at a camp near the settlement.
The killings were the first reported on either side since Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat ordered a ceasefire earlier this month. Arafat called for the ceasefire just hours after the June 1 bombing of a night club in Tel Aviv that killed 23 young Israelis.
Terrorist Group Vows to Recapture Enclave from Israel
By Ed Yerenian (VOA-Beirut)
The leader of Lebanon's Hizbullah guerrilla group promised Sunday to "use blood" to recapture a disputed border enclave from Israel. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah made his remarks in the Syrian village of Cardaha at a gathering to mark the first anniversary of the death of former Syrian President Hafez al Assad.
The top leaders of both Lebanon and Syria, including the presidents of each country, were present at the ceremonies in Assad's home village.
He promised that Hizbullah would recapture the Sheba'a Farms "by blood, by holy war, and by resistance." The Sheba'a is an enclave on the Israeli-Lebanese border that is claimed by both countries. His remarks drew a wide round of applause from the audience during the ceremonies broadcast live by Lebanese television.
He drew the greatest applause when he told the audience Hizbullah would never abandon any of historical Palestine. Hizbullah leaders have said several times in recent weeks that they intended to support the Palestinian uprising in every way possible.
Nasrallah gained a certain mystique in the Arab world for waging a bloody war against Israel and its local army and finally forced the withdrawal of Israeli troops a year ago from southern Lebanon.
Israel had occupied the area since 1978, but when it withdrew it refused to abandon the tiny Sheba'a Farms enclave along the slopes of Mount Hermon. Israel claims it is territory taken not from Lebanon, but from Syria in the 1967 War.
Despite repeated demands from the United Nations to Lebanon to halt guerrilla attacks on Sheba'a, Hizbullah has struck several times during the past year at Israeli forces inside the Sheba'a Farms.
Palestinians Rhetorically Blast Israel
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
Palestinian officials have accused Israel of not being serious about promoting a cease-fire, after three Palestinian women were reportedly killed by Israeli shells late Saturday.
The Palestinians said that three Bedouin residents of the Gaza Strip were killed when Israeli shells exploded near their tent, close to the isolated Jewish settlement of Netzarim. Palestinian hospital officials say four others were injured.
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers had returned fire from two
armed Palestinians who had been shooting at an Israeli military
outpost near Netzarim. He said he knew nothing of the reported
civilian casualties.
The deaths were the first since Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat
called for a cease-fire on June 2. His call followed a cease-fire
announced by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on May 22.
In a separate development, Israel announced that it had arrested several Palestinians from Arafat's Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the West Bank.
Israel claimed that the group carried out six bomb attacks in Israeli cities and a Jewish settlement in the West Bank in April. One person was seriously injured in one of the blasts.
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