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Newsletter : 2fax0605.txt
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Tisha B'av Law
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Israeli law now forbids the opening of cafes and restaurants on the national day of mourning, Tisha B'Av (the ninth day of Av). The date, which comes towards the end of the summer, commemorates the destruction of both Holy Temples and other national calamities in the past. The law was passed after Tel Aviv allowed the opening of these establishments last Tisha B'Av.
Mubarak Proposes Palestinian State Next Year
By VOA News
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak will present a Mideast peace plan that includes a rapid timetable for Palestinian statehood when he meets with President Bush Friday.
Egyptian officials told reporters Tuesday that the plan calls for a Palestinian state to be declared early next year. They said the declaration would take place before negotiations about boundaries, Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and the fate of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Under the plan, the Palestinian state would be formally admitted to the United Nations, followed by negotiations with Israel leading to a total Israeli withdrawal from lands it occupied in 1967. The withdrawal would be phased over three or four years and guaranteed by the United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union.
Mubarak has said his plan is much more detailed than a Saudi land-for-peace proposal adopted at a March Arab summit in Beirut. That plan was rejected by Israel because it insisted on the return of Palestinian refugees.
The officials said several steps would have to happen before the statehood declaration, including Palestinian elections and the restructuring of the Palestinian security forces. Bush told reporters Tuesday he would wait to hear Mubarak speak before making any comment. Bush has declared his support for a Palestinian state. But Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been stalled for more than a year amid Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis and Israeli raids into Palestinian self-ruled territory.
The Egyptian president is due to arrive in the United States Wednesday. He is expected to have two days of talks with Bush at Camp David outside Washington. He is also scheduled to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
A Mubarak adviser, Osama el Baz, said it should be clear by now that "using military might" is not the way to end the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. He said power cannot bring an end to the conflict. Power, he says, only creates temporary solutions. The real solution will have to come from the will of the international community.
Arafat, CIA Chief Discuss Palestinian Security Reforms
By VOA News
Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat outlined a plan to streamline his nine separate security forces in his meeting Tuesday with George Tenet, head of the Central Intelligence Agency. The U.S. wants Arafat to restructure the sometimes rival forces and have them do more to prevent terrorist attacks against Israel.
The plan would cut the number of forces to somewhere between three and six, each with a defined role. Arafat would remain the overall Palestinian security chief. A U.S. official said Washington would withhold judgement until it sees if the plan halts the terrorist attacks. Palestinian sources said Arafat also stressed the need for an end to Israeli raids into Palestinian self-rule territory.
As Tenet visited Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Israeli troops carried out a brief raid into the Palestinian town of Jenin. The army also entered the Palestinian-controlled zone of Hebron and shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a raid on a village near Hebron. Israel has been carrying out almost daily raids into Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps in recent weeks to root out suspects in anti-Israeli attacks.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian cabinet has decided to keep the leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) behind bars, despite a court order that he be released. The cabinet said Ahmed Saadat would remain in prison because of Israeli threats against him.
The PFLP leader is wanted by Israel in connection with last October's assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi. The Palestinian court ruled there is no evidence linking him to the killing. Saadat is being held in jail as part of an agreement that freed Arafat from virtual house arrest by Israeli forces early last month.
Sadat Autopsy Photo Stirs Controversy
By Greg LaMotte (VOA-Cairo)
An Egyptian newspaper has sparked controversy by publishing what it says is an autopsy photograph of the late President Anwar Sadat. It has been described as the first photograph ever published of the corpse of Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981 by Islamic fundamentalist soldiers. The color photo shows the naked torso and head of a man, identified as the late president, laid out on a white sheet.
When the photo appeared in the weekly Egyptian tabloid Al-Maydan last week the publisher fired an editor, calling the decision to run the picture "extraordinarily inappropriate." Now the editor-in-chief of the tabloid is speaking publicly about why the photo was published.
Said Abdel Khalil said the photo is "an important historical document that should send a message to everyone in the region" and that it "contains information about the most famous assassination-autopsy case in the history of Egypt."
He said the reason he agreed to publish the photo was to send a message telling everyone that Sadat was "killed by terrorists, that terrorism still exists, and everyone needs to be aware." The newspaper has not explained how it managed to get the photograph.
