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Newsletter : 2fax1030.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Oct. 30, 2002, Vol. 10, No. 191
TI Hizbullah Favors Aliyah of Jews
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah accused U.S. Christian supporters of Israel of hatching a "plot" to liquidate the Arabs and encourage Jews to move to Israel - but he is not worried.
"If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide," Nasrallah said, according to the Beirut Daily Star. Michael Freund reported in The Jerusalem Post that Nasrallah also told his audience that "Christian Zionists" are gaining strength in the U.S., have a powerful impact on U.S. foreign policy, are financed by oil companies and weapons firms, and seek to encourage Jews to move to Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Arafat: Palestinians Reject Israeli Occupation, Not Jewish State
By Larry James (VOA-Jerusalem)
The Palestinian parliament approved, by a vote of 56-to-18, Yasir Arafat's new 19-member cabinet in a strong show of support for the Palestinian leader.
The overwhelming support for Arafat's list came as no surprise. Since the Israeli siege of his compound in Ramallah that ended earlier this month, support for the Palestinian leader has grown. Until then, Arafat had been under intense pressure from the Palestinian legislature to introduce reforms.
Israel and the United States have also called for major democratic and security reforms in the Palestinian Authority and a new leadership, which President Bush has said must be "uncompromised by terror."
There are four new faces in the government and the number of positions has been reduced from 21 to 19. But the new cabinet is similar to the one that Palestinian legislators forced to resign last month. Arafat said he is committed to reforming his government, but he accused Israel of using reform demands as a pretext for trying to destroy the Palestinian Authority.
In a speech announcing his cabinet, Arafat said that the Palestinians' rejection of Israeli occupation did not mean they object to Israel's existence. "We extend our hand to you in reconciliation and we extend the olive branch to resume the path that we began in Madrid and Oslo." Peace talks that led to the historic 1993 interim peace agreement with Israel were held in both cities.
Meanwhile, a growing dispute over funding for Jewish settlements in the occupied territories is threatening to bring down Israel's coalition government. The Labor Party, led by Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said it would vote against the budget if money were not shifted from settlements to social needs. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has warned that such a vote would lead to the dismissal of the Labor Party ministers from his cabinet, a move that could force early elections.
Palestinian Court Gives Death Penalty to Accused Israeli Collaborator
By VOA News
A Palestinian security court has sentenced a Palestinian human rights worker to death by a firing squad for collaborating with Israel. The one-day trial ended late Monday with Haidar Ghanem's sentencing. He is accused of spying for Israel while he worked for B'tselem, an Israeli-run human rights group that documents abuses in the occupied territories.
The court said the information Ghanem supplied the Israelis led to the deaths of several Palestinians, including members of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement. Although the death sentence cannot be appealed, Arafat must ratify it before it can be carried out.
Finland Refuses To Sell Gas Kits To Israel
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Finland refuses to sell to Israel what are considered to be the best gas-detection kits in the world, despite widespread evaluations that Iraq may attack Israel with poison chemical weapons.
The computerized kits accurately identify chemical warfare materials, but Finland claims that the European Union forbids the export of dual-use equipment to countries in conflict.
A speech by Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuominioja provides some "background" to the decision, however. "I am appalled at the Israeli policy of suppression, humiliation, subordination and impoverishment towards the Palestinians," he said, revealing what could be Finland's true feelings about Israel. Tuominioja's e-mail address is "Erkki.Tuominioja@formin.fi".
Flyby of Annefrank Asteroid to Help Stardust Spacecraft
By Israel Faxx News Service
It will be a moment tinged with history when the Stardust spacecraft makes an encounter with Asteroid 5535 Annefrank this weekend. The flyby will test many of the systems and procedures to be used when Stardust makes its encounter with comet Wild 2 in little more than a year.
"It turns out to be a tremendous plus because you end up having a full dress rehearsal more than a year ahead of the encounter," said Donald Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomy professor who is the mission's chief scientist. "It's a little like a dress rehearsal for a wedding -- you expect things to be fine, but you practice just to make sure. If the unexpected does happen at the rehearsal, it's not a problem at the real ceremony."
Stardust, launched in February 1999, is designed to capture particles from Wild 2 and return them to Earth for analysis. The spacecraft already has collected grains of interstellar dust. It is the first U.S. sample-return mission since the last moon landing in 1972.
Brownlee described Annefrank as typical for asteroids found in the inner asteroid belt, just beyond the orbit of Mars. Stardust's main camera will capture images, but the asteroid's relatively small size (2 1/2 miles across) and the spacecraft's distance (about 1,900 miles) mean the images won't be very detailed, he said. The closest approach to the asteroid will be at 11:50 p.m. EST on Friday.
Asteroid 5535 was discovered by prolific German asteroid hunter Karl Reinmuth in March 1942 but was not named Annefrank until long after World War II.
The discovery came barely three months before Frank, a Jewish teenager, joined her parents, her sister and four others hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam, Holland. For two years the group remained in their hideaway, subsisting with help from a small circle of outsiders. Anne recorded their life and her thoughts in a diary that was to become one of the world's most famous books. The group was discovered in 1944 and sent to Nazi concentration camps. All except Anne's father perished. Otto Frank survived the war and returned to Amsterdam, where he published his daughter's diary.
Now Annefrank happens to be the asteroid that lies on the right course to help Stardust and its controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., prepare for the tasks they face come Jan. 2, 2004. On that day, Stardust will fly within 75 miles of Wild 2's main body, close enough to trap small particles from the coma, the gas-and-dust envelope surrounding the comet's nucleus.
