(Continued from p.2)
clared that the Wall is part of the Al Aqsa mosque and thus Wakf property and that even if Israelis were to be granted access to the wall, shofar blowing would be prohibited.
In what for the most part is a refreshing op-ed published in the Washington Post, Natan Sharansky denounces Clinton's last ditch effort to peace-paper over Arafat's go-for-broke campaign to eliminate Israel. Aghast at an Israeli government prepared to sacrifice Jerusalem under U.S. pressure, Sharansky recalls his words to the Soviet court before his sentencing over 20 years ago. "For 2,000 years the Jewish people, my people, have been dispersed all over the world and seemingly deprived of any hope of returning. But still, each year Jews have stubbornly and apparently without reason, said to each other 'Next Year in Jerusalem.' And today, when I am further than ever from my dream, from my people and from my Avital, and when many difficult years of prisons and camps lie ahead of me, I say to my wife and people, 'Next year in Jerusalem.'" Sharansky continues: "It is this same symbolic city that today connects our people to our past and to each other and gives us the strength to persevere."
Where Sharansky falters is in his praise of an allegedly "different" Clinton at the Wye negotiations, who, best of all the participants in the discussions, understood "the need for the Palestinian leadership to replace the message of hatred and incitement that was being broadcast to its people with a message of peace and reconciliation."
But the same Clinton presided at Wye, which marked an earlier territorial capitulation -- at Clinton's insistence -- under Arab fire, this time in the wake of the opening of the Hasmonean tunnel. Yes, at Netanyahu's insistence, there was talk of reciprocity but Clinton never showed the least interest in enforcing this and kept a relentless pressure on Netanyahu to keep to his part of the agreement despite Arafat's failure to comply with what he promised. Sharansky may have been blinded to the true Clinton at Wye, but it is his eyes that have been opened, not Clinton's behavior that has changed.
Our thanks to the newsletter of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,] JINSA Report, for the following:
"The New York Times, reporting on CIA involvement with the Palestinian Authority wrote [November 13, 2000]:
"[In 1996,] Mr. Clinton signed a presidential order creating a covert program to provide tens of millions of dollars to increase the professionalism of the Palestinian security services and help combat terrorism, the officials said. The CIA sent operatives to train the Palestinians in interrogation techniques and to organize their files. The Palestinians were showered with advanced radio communications and X-ray equipment, bomb detection scanners, computers, vehicles and other equipment."
JINSA Report continues: "Does Congress know where those 'tens of millions of [American tax] dollars' went? On whom do they use those 'interrogation techniques'? Israelis? Palestinians who are insufficiently enthusiastic about Arafat? Are the 'radio communications' used to direct rioters? 'Vehicles and computers' must be helpful in the guerrilla war, too....
"The New York Times says CIA Director George Tenet 'bonded' with Yasser Arafat, and describes how the President sent him to keep Arafat in the game at Camp David. We're more than a bit concerned about any American official who can bond with the sleazeball terrorist who masterminded the killing of Ambassador Cleo Noel and Charge d'Affaires George Moore in Sudan; the man whose operative threw Leon Klinghoffer off a boat; whose minions shot photographer Gail Rubin; who harbors the killers of a dozen Americans in Israel; and who encourages anti-American as well as anti-Israel violence as a matter of policy.
"This administration has been pounding on Israel for eight years to take 'risks for peace.' They shouldn't have been increasing those risks at the same time."
Benjamin Ze'ev Kahane, son of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and his wife Talia were murdered by Arab gangsters as they drove from Jerusalem to their home on December 31. Five of their six children were with them; all were hurt, one seriously. In his letter to attorney general Elyakim Rubenstein, Member of the Knesset Michael Kleiner suggested a fitting memorial: removing the unfair classification of Kahane Chai as a terrorist organization. Kleiner points out that the Supreme Court validated the list of Member of the Knesset Mohammed Miari, which openly acts to end the Jewish character of Israel. Kleiner observes that one can no longer accept the fact that those who act for the destruction of the Jewish state are acceptable while someone acting for the strengthening of the Jewishness of the state -- without ever having been caught organizing, instigating or carrying out a terrorist action -- should be barred from participating in the political game.
January 2001 - 9 - Outpost