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Newsletter : 1fax0709.txt
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>JN July 9, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 114
School for Teaching English Rents in Beersheva
By Israel's Business Arena
The Wall Street chain of schools for teaching English has rented 220 sq.m. in the Negev shopping mall in the center of Beersheva. The chain will pay $40 per sq.m. for the fully finished space, index-linked, under a five-year lease, with a five-year option.
Assad: Israel Aims For Middle East War
By VOA News
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in an interview with the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, to be published Monday, said the Israeli government is trying to lead the entire Middle East into a new war. Assad told reporters that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is planning a "comprehensive conflict" for internal political reasons.
He insisted Sharon was looking for war to regain face with Israeli public opinion after being unable to fulfill his campaign pledge of shutting down the Palestinian uprising within 100 days.
Assad also said Syria was not giving any military aid to Lebanese Islamic guerrillas based in southern Lebanon. The Hizbullah guerrillas have repeatedly attacked Israeli troops in the disputed Shebaa farms region, on the border between the two countries.
Syria, Iraq Appear to be Engaged in War Preparations
By Gamla News Service
DEBKAfile 's intelligence sources are certain that Syria's decision to withdraw its troops from Beirut was unrelated to popular Lebanese demands, but rather aimed at streamlining Syrian military strength in readiness for war.
Scattered through Lebanon, Syrian units would have been easy targets for Israeli attack and a logistic burden. The operationally fit contingents have been added to the main Syrian force in the Bekaa Valley and the Golan front.
Intelligence observers noted that Syrian armed forces movements in readiness for their annual summer maneuvers, far from routine this year, appear to be drilling responses to a possible Israeli offensive. The Scud surface missile launched one week ago from Aleppo to Jebel Druze in southern Syria could fit into this scenario, given the current U.S. and Israel evaluation that Assad will not be amenable to any diplomatic initiatives until after a military clash with Israel. He knows his army will be beaten, but hopes Israel also will experience pain and numerous casualties. Israel's air force commander remarked in a weekend interview that Israel can tell when a Syrian missile is fired and is capable of intercepting it, implying it capable of destroying any Syria missile before it head out for its target.
Yet DEBKAfile notes that many Israeli and U.S. intelligence strategists are coming round to the latest Russian military intelligence evaluation that war looks imminent. Assad has a powerful domestic incentive for welcoming a beating on the battlefield. He will have an excuse for purging the Syrian army of the generals he inherited from his father whose loyalty he does not bank on, in favor of younger officers whom he trusts.
DEBKAfile's military sources added that the gradual advance of Iraqi units towards the Jordanian and Syrian frontier districts continues, with more units brought in. Iraqi and Syrian commands have begun joint practice maneuvers for the transfer of units into each other's territories. Five players are therefore getting set for a military round: Ariel Sharon, Bashar Assad, Saddam Hussein, Yasir Arafat and Hassan Nasrallah. Watched by many eyes, they also watch each other to see who makes the first move.
For Sharon, the dilemma is new and agonizing. He cannot afford to follow the Israeli tradition of pre-emptive strikes, lest he be accused of triggering a Middle East war. At the same time, while forfeiting first-strike advantage, he must make sure that Israel wins that war.
Wagner Music Causes Controversy in Israel
By Art Chimes (VOA-Jerusalem)
For perhaps the first time in Israel's 52-year history, the music of 19th century German composer Richard Wagner has been played at a major orchestra concert. Some Israeli classical music fans stormed out of the concert hall Saturday after Berlin-based conductor Daniel Barenboim led a German orchestra in music by Richard Wagner, Hitler's favorite composer.
Wagner died decades before Nazi Germany adopted him as a key element in its cultural propaganda. But because of the close association with the Nazis, Wagner has long been informally banned in Israel.
So when Barenboim proposed to lead the Berlin Statskappelle in a program including Wagner in a concert at the prestigious Israel Festival, festival organizers persuaded him to leave out the Wagner piece. But after playing the program as agreed, including Schumann's Fourth Symphony and The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, he then asked the audience if they wanted to hear the Wagner selection that was dropped from the program. Most applauded their approval, but a few angrily denounced the suggestion. After a half-hour of dialogue with the audience, the orchestra began the piece, from "Tristan and Isolde," and some members of the audience noisily stormed out.
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert described Barenboim as arrogant and insensitive. The local director of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, Ephraim Zuroff, charged the conductor with cultural rape.
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