To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Seven face death for letter to paper
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 1 Feb 2001 01:07:31 EST
Seven face death for letter to paper
Special report: Pakistan www.cpj.org/Briefings/Pakistan_
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,431153,00.html
Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Wednesday January 31, 2001
Seven journalists face the death penalty for blasphemy after Pakistan's
military regime closed down an English-language newspaper for publishing a
"highly sacrilegious" reader's letter.
Hundreds of protesters from a rightwing Islamic party set fire to the
printing presses of the Frontier Post in Peshawar yesterday and ransacked
the newspaper's offices.
Monday's edition of the paper carried a letter which accused the prophet
Mohammed of anti-semitism, "total dishonesty" and "unabashed male
chauvinism".
"His hatred for Jews was caused by their refusal to accept him as a prophet
because of his low moral character and his lack of knowledge of the
scripture and his murderous ways," the letter said.
The writer said Mohammed made revelations from God "in order to satisfy his
political or personal agenda or his libido". The letter, sent by email, was
signed only "BenDZac".
Police raided the building late on Monday, arrested five staff and issued
warrants for two senior editors. The staff are being held under Pakistan's
blasphemy law, which carries a death penalty for those who insult Mohammed.
Peshawar magistrates said the newspaper's offices would be sealed
indefinitely. "The contents of the letter were highly sacrilegious," the
court said in a statement.
General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in late 1999, said his government
would not allow the publication of "such objectionable material".
The Frontier Post, which was not printed yesterday, published a large
apology in rival newspapers. It said that it was the victim of a conspiracy
and that it had given a list of suspects' names to police.
"We bluntly claim that the conspiracy sought to close down The Frontier
Post, rendering the employees jobless, and to destabilise Pakistan," it
said. "The persons apparently involved have been suspended pending inquiry."
The Post has had a troubled history. There were riots outside its offices in
1988 over a supposedly blasphemous article. In 1999 its owner, Rehmat Shah
Afridi, whose papers had been critical of the then government of Nawaz
Sharif, was arrested for drug trafficking.
Mr Afridi has been in jail ever since as his case drags through the legal
system. His son, Mahmood Afridi, who now runs the paper, is one of the
editors wanted by police.
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Subject: [bprlist] Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 1 Feb 2001 01:08:52 EST
Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history
Wednesday, 31 January 2001 9:11 (ET)
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=156382
By MARTIN SIEFF, UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The death toll from the Gujarat earthquake in
India continues to climb, with fears that it may pass the 100,000 mark,
making it the worst natural disaster the world has seen in nearly 25 years.
The tragedy is a sobering reminder of the vulnerability of human society
against such cataclysmic events.
Throughout history, earthquakes and other natural disasters often have
been seen as the wrath of God or signs of divine displeasure on existing
governments. But they have been as good for religion as they have been
disruptive for the state.
Sandanista rule in Nicaragua in the late 1970s came a few years after a
devastating quake and rampant theft of aid money stolen by senior officials
of the Somoza regime.
The 1976 Tangshan quake in China, which killed 240,000 people, caused the
largest loss of life in more than 400 years of history. It was widely seen
at the time as an omen that the era of Mao Zedong was over after 28 years
and that a new epoch in Chinese history was about to begin. Sure enough,
within two years, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping would launch his
dramatically successful free-market reforms to enthusiastic popular support.
Some quakes have been so horrific, they shook the foundations of religious
faith.
Lisbon, Portugal, was flourishing in a sustained economic boom based on
the development of diamond and gold mines in Brazil when a massive
earthquake struck on the morning of Nov. 1, 1755. It was All Saints Day, and
the churches were packed with worshippers when the first of two shocks
brought the walls crashing down. The temblor killed at least 30,000 people.
The 18th century rationalist philosopher and skeptic Francoise-Marie Arouet
de Voltaire used the disaster to attack the concept of a kindly, beneficial
God watching over a world where everything worked out for the best in his
satirical novel "Candide."
The Richter scale, on which quakes are measured, is arranged
logarithmically so that an increase in magnitude of one unit represents a
tenfold increase in earthquake size. So, a quake of magnitude 8 is 10,000
times more powerful than one of magnitude 4. The Tanghsan quake registered
7.8 on the Richter scale. By contrast, the Gujarat quake had a magnitude of
7.9.
If current estimates prove accurate, then last week's quake was by far the
worst India has experienced this century in terms of the casualties it
inflicted.
The two most destructive earthquakes in human history are believed to have
been the 1556 quake in Shansi Province, China, which killed around 830,000
people, and a medieval quake in Upper Egypt in 1201 that is estimated by
chroniclers at the time to have killed 1 million people.
The French archaeologist Claude Schaeffer, excavator of the Bronze Age
city of Ugarit in Syria, believed that enormous quakes thousands of years
ago periodically wrecked cities throughout the Near East, bringing to an end
the Early Bronze Age and later disrupting civilization repeatedly.
Schaeffer, who held the chair of Western Asian archaeology at the College
de France, documented his evidence in his 1948 book, "Stratigraphee Comparee
et Chronologie de l'Asie Occidentale (IIIe et IIe Millenaires)" -
("Comparative Stratigraphy and Chronology of Western Asia in the 3rd and 2nd
Millennia.")
A massive earthquake in Crete -- still a seismically sensitive zone -- is
believed by many archaeologists to have destroyed the high civilization of
Middle Bronze Age Crete. Half a millennium later, the Minoan civilization of
Crete was devastated again, this time by a volcanic explosion on the island
of Santorini, thought by many to have been the inspiration for the legend of
Atlantis.
The city of Troy, immortalized by Homer in his Iliad, was found by
archaeologists to have been destroyed by earthquake many times and
repeatedly rebuilt.
One controversial scholar, the late Immanuel Velikovsky, even argued in
1950 in his book "Worlds in Collision" that the 10th Plague of the Exodus in
the Bible -- the death of the first born of Egypt - was in reality a massive
earthquake that ended the Middle Kingdom period. Mainstream scholars almost
universally rejected his theory. But he won the respect of geologist Harry
Hess and of Albert Einstein himself. And his book proved a bestseller for
decades.
The most physically powerful earthquakes recorded this century registered
8.6 on the Richter scale and occurred in Kashmir in India in 1905, killing
19,000 people, and Valparaiso, Chile, in 1906, killing 1,500 people. The
contrast in casualties reflected the thin population in the Chilean quake
zone.
However, the most powerful earthquake ever believed to have occurred in
documented history occurred in the continental United States. It was the
1811 New Madrid, Mo., quake, believed to have touched 8.7 on the Richter
scale. It was so powerful, it radically changed the course of the
Mississippi River.
In those days, the region was lightly populated and so the Indian tribes
there were not exposed to death from collapsing buildings. But if a quake of
that magnitude were to occur in that region today, near St. Louis, hundreds
of thousands would die.
The Book of Revelations predicted that a dramatic earthquake would shake
the earth before the Second Coming. Accordingly, Christian fundamentalist
groups have always been prone to see earthquakes as signs of divine judgment
or of the imminent return of Jesus.
In 1923, Tokyo was destroyed by an earthquake that registered 8.3 on the
Richter scale. It is believed to have been the most severe earthquake to
strike a major city in recorded history. Estimates of the death toll vary
from 99,000 to 150,000. It was at least as destructive as the U.S.
firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. Some psychologists and anthropologists have
even theorized that the immense popularity of Godzilla and other monster
movies in Japan in the 1950s and 1960s was in some way a reaction to the
1923 quake and the 1945 fire bombing.
Earthquakes are testimony not only to the wrath of God and the implacable
power of nature, they also bear witness to the sloppiness and stupidity of
humankind. The huge death tolls in most earthquakes are not caused by the
quakes themselves. They are the result of the collapse of thousands of
buildings in the quake zone.
In 1923, modern buildings in Tokyo, including a hotel designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright, rode out the shock.
If a major quake, against all odds, were ever to hit Manhattan, the safest
places to be would probably be the Empire State Building, the Chrysler
Building or the World Trade Center. That is because buildings with modern
stressed steel frameworks move as units when the ground shakes in an
earthquake and do not collapse.
By contrast, the heavy death toll -- possibly as high as 45,000 -- in last
year's Golkar quake in northwest Turkey was due to the casual abandon with
which so many construction companies had run up apartment buildings,
ignoring existing building codes.
The colossal death toll in Tangshan 25 years ago was in large part because
planners had allowed coal-mine managers to extend their tunnels beneath the
city. When the quake came, dozens of blocks of apartment buildings literally
collapsed into the tunnels and were swallowed up by the earth. Their
inhabitants were instantly buried alive and entombed hundreds of feet below
the ground.
A similar fate seems to have befallen Ancient Egypt at the end of the
Middle Kingdom. The Ipuwer Papyrus, now housed in the Heritage Museum in St.
Petersburg, Russia, lamented, "The (royal) residence is overturned in a
minute....The towns are destroyed. Upper Egypt has become waste....All is
ruin."
These are sentiments with which the people of India's Gujarat region
suddenly became all too familiar over the past week.
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] The Jesus reference
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 1 Feb 2001 01:09:38 EST
The Jesus reference
MICHAEL J. JORDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Published Wednesday, January 31, 2001, in the Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/content/today/news/jewish/digdocs/074218.htm
NEW YORK -- For those Jews taken aback by the invocation of ``Jesus the
Christ'' and ``the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit'' at President Bush's
inauguration, rest assured: This was nothing new. According to the
Anti-Defamation League -- which has fielded a number of inquiries since the
inauguration -- Jesus has been referred to in each inauguration of the past
60 years.
``That's the tradition. We would have liked it to be a bit more inclusive,''
said Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL, ``but the new president
is entitled to have his moment of personal faith.''
Consider the following, all of which were cited in the Congressional Record:
During the second Clinton inauguration in 1997, an invocation was given in
the name of ``Father and God'' and ended invoking ``the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit.''
On Jan. 20, 1989, the prayer for the first President Bush said ``in the
name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.''
At the first inauguration of President Reagan in 1981, the prayer called on
the ``lord of lords and king of kings, even Jesus Christ'' to help us
``stand proudly as American citizens.''
At the 1977 inauguration of Jimmy Carter, the prayer stated, we ``build a
nation here on Earth that in its manner of life anticipates Thine
everlasting kingdom in heaven . . . in the name of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and
our Savior.''
At the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy, two religious leaders recited,
``In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.''
And in 1937, a minister called on God to ``bless abundantly our Chief
Magistrate,'' Franklin Delano Roosevelt, ``through Christ, our Lord.''
Foxman attributed this year's inquiries to ``an anxiety in the community
about the future'' under the new Bush administration, ``about whether or not
there will be an effort to lower the wall of separation between church and
state, and an effort to push Christianity.''
However, Foxman added, `` If Joe Lieberman were elected, we would have heard
the Shehecheyanu and that would have balanced it.''
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [bprlist] The Jesus reference
From: tracy
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 10:47:47 -0500
Shophar_Sho_Good wrote:
>
> The Jesus reference
> MICHAEL J. JORDAN
> Jewish Telegraphic Agency
>
> Published Wednesday, January 31, 2001, in the Miami Herald
> http://www.miamiherald.com/content/today/news/jewish/digdocs/074218.htm
>
> NEW YORK -- For those Jews taken aback by the invocation of ``Jesus the
> Christ'' and ``the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit'' at President Bush's
> inauguration, rest assured: This was nothing new. According to the
> Anti-Defamation League -- which has fielded a number of inquiries since the
> inauguration -- Jesus has been referred to in each inauguration of the past
> 60 years.
For what it is worth the last 60 years America has not seen a major
economic setback, major food shortage or natural disaster. We did fight
WW II but the last 60 years also marks Americas rise to power.
Seems like a good tradition to me.
Tracy
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Worker loses blessing-case round
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 1 Feb 2001 01:11:03 EST
Worker loses blessing-case round
http://starnews.com/business/articles/bless0131.html
Federal judge denies injunction against employer, but allows lawsuit to go
forward.
By Gregory Weaver
Indianapolis Star
January 31, 2001
Tuesday wasn't exactly a blessed day for Liz Anderson.
The Indianapolis office worker was dealt a severe blow in an initial court
battle against a workplace policy that bars her from offering Christian
blessings to customers.
But Anderson remained upbeat and pledged to fight on. "This is just one
obstacle. I know God is working in this. I'm looking for a miracle, and I
know it's going to happen."
It didn't happen Tuesday, as U.S. District Court Judge John Tinder denied
Anderson's request for a preliminary injunction against the no-blessings
policy imposed by her Indianapolis employer, USF Logistics.
Anderson's religious discrimination lawsuit against the company will be
allowed to proceed. And while Tuesday's preliminary loss does not bode well
for her overall legal claims, it likely will provide more fodder for groups
who for years have been urging Congress to expand accommodations for
religion in the workplace.
Anderson has argued that her habit of wishing folks a "blessed day" is a
religious practice protected by the Civil Rights Act. Judge Tinder's ruling
suggests it might be a personal preference not subject to legal protection.
"Is it a good thing for a person to be allowed to say (or write) 'Have a
Blessed Day' in the workplace? The obvious answer in the minds of most
people would be that of course it is," Tinder wrote in his 33-page ruling.
But, ultimately, Tinder ruled that the issue comes down to whether federal
law requires a business to permit workers to include such a phrase in
business correspondence with customers.
In Anderson's case, he ruled that could be tough to prove because of the
difficulty she might have in establishing that her Christian blessings are a
religious practice protected by federal law. Anderson's employer issued a
statement applauding the decision but would not field questions.
"We believe the court decision is the right one, and it reflects our
position all along," said Samuel K. Skinner, chief executive officer of US
Freightways, the Illinois-based parent company of USF Logistics.
The judge noted that Anderson does not feel required to offer the "blessed
day" greeting to everyone she encounters and does so only sporadically.
Therefore, he ruled, the timing of the greeting could be a personal
preference and not a religious compunction in conflict with the requirements
of her job.
"It seems that if Ms. Anderson chose not to use the phrase at work that she
would not be acting in a manner at all inconsistent with her practice,"
Tinder wrote.
Even if the practice is covered by the Civil Rights Act, Tinder ruled that
USF Logistics already has made a reasonable accommodation for the practice
as required by law.
USF has stuck with its ban against workers using the "blessed" greeting or
other religious expressions with customers. However, the judge noted, the
company has allowed Anderson to use it with co-workers and supervisors even
though USF has a written policy that broadly bans all such activity.
The company issued that broad policy in mid-1999 after Anderson ignored a
supervisor's warning to stop using the "blessed" greeting in e-mail with a
Microsoft worker who had objected to its religious overtones. It was that
policy that prompted Anderson to take her grievances public 15 months ago.
The case also has caught the attention of religious groups that have been
fighting for five years to expand the circumstances under which employers
must accommodate religious expression. Current case law requires
accommodation unless the employer can prove that it would pose an "undue
hardship."
Groups as diverse as the National Council of Churches, the American Jewish
Committee and the National Sikh Center argue that the standard allows
businesses to deny religious expression even when it would cause only
minimal inconvenience. They support the proposed Workplace Religious Freedom
Act, which would require accommodations unless they posed significant
difficulty or expense for the employer.
"Hypothetically, the Liz Anderson case would seem to be one in which this
legislation might apply," said Crystal Roberts of the Family Research
Council.
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] ...a hostility to all forms of religion...
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 1 Feb 2001 01:13:04 EST
Funding faith-based charities a wise idea
by Joe Fitzgerald
Wednesday, January 31, 2001
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/fitz01312001.htm
The wisdom of President George W. Bush's plan to fuel faith-based charities
with infusions of federal funds is all the more apparent when you look at
the characters lining up against it, led, naturally, by the neurotically
secular American Civil Liberties Union.
``It's federal funding for religion gone amok,'' railed Laura Murphy, ACLU
director.
No, ma'am, what's gone amok in this country is a hostility to all forms of
religion that's been spreading like cancer through all levels of government,
to a point where schools can hand out condoms but cannot display the 10
Commandments, where public prayer is forbidden speech but burning the flag
is OK, where the vilest language is protected expression but a postal clerk
can risk his job by wishing patrons a Merry Christmas.
Religion has been reduced to a prop.
It's Bill Clinton, waving his Bible on the steps of a church an hour before
another Oval Office tryst with Monica Lewinsky.
It's Scott Harshbarger, banning Christmas decorations from the Attorney
General's Office, then turning the pulpit of Mattapan's New Covenant
Christian Church into a campaign stop, telling worshippers, 48 hours before
Election Day, ``a spiritual cleansing helps you keep perspective on what
counts in this world,'' adding, ``How we govern depends on who votes; I ask
for your prayers.''
Please.
Ever notice how the ACLU looks the other way whenever one of its disciples
goes fetching for votes at inner-city churches?
Church and state, it seems, are free to mix with impunity when it comes to
keeping liberals in office, but let someone like Bush make a suggestion like
this and the howls of indignation are predictable and piercing.
Mind you, the president's not espousing doctrines, or evangelizing, or
proselytizing; he's simply acknowledging that, if we are to be our brothers'
keeper, Washington's most effective role would be to assist those who do it
best, and those who do it best are often those who see it as a ministry
rather than those who view it as a career.
The Salvation Army, for example, is universally admired for the
unconditional way it dispenses love, but how many realize that's just a
reflection of its mission statement ``to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination?''
On that basis, should that wonderful work now be avoided?
Why should the widespread good quietly done in this town by Catholic
Charities be totally overshadowed by those who focus only on the Catholic
Church's embarrassments?
Since religious entities, unlike public agencies, don't take bows, they're
easy to take for granted, but it would be painful to picture this city
without them.
For many years, kids at the Shelburne Center in Roxbury gazed with
fascination at the ugly scars covering the arms of custodian Paul Benders,
who wore T-shirts to be sure they saw them. Formerly addicted to heroin and
cocaine, Benders was emaciated when the Nation of Islam entered his life.
``Minister Don (Muhammad) and Minister Rodney X came to see a group of us in
prison,'' he once recalled. ``They convinced me my life was special and that
I should feel special enough to do something about my condition. It's the
same message I now share with kids every day, that they're special, too.
``Through the grace of God my life was changed. Allah sent men with messages
that reached inside and let me know I could turn it all around. Soon I found
myself surrounded by the examples of other men who had gotten their lives
together, and today I'm one small example of what the Nation of Islam can do
for a life that appeared to be wasted.''
That was more than 20 years ago. Benders, 49, remains a visible figure in
his community, working now with AIDS victims, the embodiment of a life
redeemed.
If the president is suggesting successes like these should be encouraged and
supported by government, good for him.
He is absolutely right.
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Jesus: A myth to some, a miss to others
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 1 Feb 2001 01:17:35 EST
[Provided for contrast (as disturbing as it is), not support!]...SSG
**********************
Jesus: A myth to some, a miss to others
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/2001/01/21/FFXC7LY56IC.html
By ANDREW MASTERSON
Sunday 21 January 2001
Critics of the Midsumma Festival theatre production Corpus Christi claim
that the play's portrayal of Jesus as gay is an outrage. Jesus, they say,
was not homosexual.
They may well be correct, but that doesn't stop Terrence McNally's
ex-Broadway play being part of a tradition almost as old as Christianity
itself. Throughout history, the figure of Jesus has been cast and recast to
serve the will of the faithful.
Depending on the doctrine or theology concerned, he has been many things,
some of them very weird indeed.
Here is a random sampling of statements held to be true at one time or
another by passionate believers.
Jesus is a space man.
In his book God Drives A Flying Saucer, published in the 1970s, author R.L.
Dione used the Old and New Testaments to "prove" that God was an alien
buzzing around in a flying saucer above his son (who was, of course, the
product of other-worldly artificial insemination). Jesus was the front man
for the operation, shunning high-tech gadgetry in order not to scare the
locals.
"It seems doubtful," wrote Dione, "whether Jesus carried with him any
saucerian devices, such as paralysing ray guns or mind-reading and
brain-manipulating machines. It would have been far simpler, when the
occasion demanded, to have a nearby UFO perform these tasks."
Jesus lived.
Not in itself a theologically controversial assertion, except when applied
to the period immediately after the Crucifixion. In her 1995 book Jesus of
the Apocalypse, theologian Barbara Thiering makes the claim that the New
Testament proves that Jesus did not die on the cross.
"Above all," she wrote, "the Book of Revelation contains evidence...that
Jesus survived the crucifixion and remained active for many years
afterwards."
Jesus was a drunkard.
Terrible news for the Temperance League, but apparently true, according to
respected historian A.N. Wilson in his 1993 biography Jesus. Wilson's
research led him to conclude that the historical Jesus was a man of very
healthy appetites.
"He is described in the Gospels as a glutton and a wine-bibber," he noted,
"(and) certainly no ascetic."
Jesus lived in Britain.
The 19th century philosophy of British-Israelism held that the Poms were the
lost tribes of Israel. Believers claimed that Jesus visited England several
times in the company of Joseph of Arimathaea. He was said to be particularly
fond of the Somerset village of Glastonbury.
Oddly, this theory received a re-working in The Marian Conspiracy, a book
written last year by UK author and lecturer Graham Phillips. Phillips
attempts to prove that Jesus built a church on the island of Anglesey that
later provided a cosy retirement home for the elderly Virgin Mary.
Jesus is a woman.
In the 18th century, a Manchester Quaker, Ann Lee, was put in prison for
disturbing the peace. When she was released, she claimed that she had been
visited by Jesus, who had "become one with her in form and person". Some of
her Quaker colleagues pronounced her the female Christ. Ms Lee and her mates
later sailed to America, where they founded the Shaker movement. Later
generations of Shakers came to doubt their founder's claims of divinity -
mainly because she died.
Jesus is commander-in-chief.
Jesus as the bringer of peace was nowhere to be seen in 11th century Europe,
when warrior saints were venerated and the faithful crusaders set out to
massacre non-believers.
In her 1993 book, A History of God, theologian and former nun Karen
Armstrong noted that "Jesus was seen as the feudal lord of the crusaders
rather than the incarnate Logos: he had summoned his knights to recover his
patrimony - the Holy Land - from the infidels".
Clearly, the figure of Jesus can be all things to all people, and one
person's blasphemy is another's devotion. People often ask whether Jesus
will return to Earth. The more pertinent question is whether anyone would
recognise him if he did.
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) CRISIS UPDATE, January 31, 2001
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:16:58 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Send reply to: <news@cfijerusalem.org>
From: "Christian Friends of Israel" <news@cfijerusalem.org>
To: <news@cfijerusalem.org>
Subject: CRISIS UPDATE, January 31, 2001
Date sent: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 19:42:19 +0200
Prime Minister Ehud Barak has reportedly proposed transferring
sovereignty over the Temple Mount to Moslem control. According to the
Israeli newspaper "Ma'ariv," Israel proposed that sovereignty over the
Mount would be given to Islamic countries for a five-year trial
period. The proposal was made at the recent peace talks in Taba,
Egypt. The newspaper said that during the five-year period, the final
status of the site would be discussed, and that if no agreement was
reached, the two sides would follow former President Clinton's
proposal and hand it to Palestinian control. "Ma'ariv" also reported a
narrowing of the gaps on the thorny issue of Palestinian refugees. The
paper said the Palestinians agreed that most refugees would resettle
in the future Palestinian state and areas Israel would give to the
Palestinians as part of a land swap. One or more cities for refugees
would be built in such areas, including the Halutza Sands near the
Gaza Strip. Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia denied that the
Palestinians had softened their position, which calls for all refugees
to be allowed to return to their former homes in Israel. "We are still
facing a lot of problems. There is a need for more work to bridge
these gaps," Qureia said.
Barak's reported concessions and continuing Palestinian violence are
further hurting his chances for re-election, according to the latest
poll. The poll, published today in the English language "Jerusalem
Post," put Barak a record 22 percentage points behind Likud leader
Ariel Sharon. A poll in the same newspaper on Friday showed the gap at
16 points. Barak has dismissed the surveys, saying, "I don't believe
in polls. I've seen too many of them. I believe there is only one
relevant poll, and this is on the sixth of February," he told the
Foreign Press Association. "I believe that we will win." But the
widening gap has increased speculation that Barak will drop out of the
race at the last minute and allow former Prime Minister Shimon Peres
to run in his place. Barak faces a Friday deadline to decide, and the
daily "Ha'aretz" quoted senior officials close to Barak as saying he
might quit if polls remain unfavorable.
Meanwhile, Sharon's left-wing opponents are continuing the
mud-slinging. Yesterday, thousands of Israeli army reservists received
fake wartime call-up notices believed to have been sent by Barak
supporters to try to paint Sharon as a warmonger before the election
on February 6th. Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh denied Barak's
campaign was involved in the stunt, but said: "It showed a fear the
public has that if Ariel Sharon is elected they will receive real
wartime conscription notices." But many Israelis believe the war is
already happening, under the failed policies of Ehud Barak. In the
latest incidents, a roadside bomb exploded near an Israeli patrol in
the Gaza Strip, and an Israeli car came under fire near
Palestinian-ruled Ramallah. In both incidents, there were no
casualties. Yesterday, Palestinians fired a mortar shell at the
community of Netzarim in Gaza. It hit a house, but miraculously, no
one was injured.
Israel's labor strike that caused disruptions around the country for
the past ten days ended today, when the government and the powerful
Histadrut labor federation reached a compromise in a wage dispute. The
strike had effected air and seaports, government offices, hospitals
and the post office, among others. The workers received a 3.6 percent
wage increase, instead of the six percent demanded by the Histadrut.
The current agreement will, however, only last for six months, which
means that Israel will probably be in for a new round of labor unrest
in the summer.
This headline update is a service of CHRISTIAN FRIENDS OF ISRAEL. It
is normally written by David Dolan, who is currently out of Israel on
a speaking tour. In his absence, it is being provided by courtesy of
ISRAEL TODAY magazine. For more information about this monthly news
magazine, visit their web site at: www.israeltoday.co.il
David Dolan's new book, ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? may be
ordered in North America by phoning 888-890-6938 or by e mail at:
resources@yourisraelconnection.org
____________________________________________________
TO RECEIVE THESE FREE UPDATES DIRECTLY, SEND AN E-MAIL MESSAGE TO THE
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax threats - Canada (British Columbia),
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:16:58 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 13:55:52 -0500 (EST)
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promed.isid.harvard.edu>
To: promed-ahead-edr@promedmail.org
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax threats - Canada (British Columbia), USA
ANTHRAX THREATS - CANADA (BRITISH COLUMBIA), USA
******************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail, a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
[see also:
Anthrax threats - USA 19981101203619
Anthrax threats - USA (06) 19981231171703]
Date: 29 Jan 2001 16:58
From: Dr. Mark
Capital Regional District (Victoria) and British ColumbiaCentre for
Disease Control [BCCDC] responded today to an anthrax bioterrorist
threat in Victoria.
It appears that 25 or more similar incidents have been reported to
police authorities across the US over the past few days.
Although Victoria is the only known Canadian target to date, other
points in Canada may be targeted. The following summarizes the
Victoria incident and public health response.
A Wal-Mart store in Victoria BC received a letter post-marked from
Florida today [29 Jan 2001]. The envelope was opened by a clerk in the
store office. There were 2 others in the room, which is separately
ventilated from the rest of the store (vented to exterior). The
envelope contained a letter that may have had some oily material on it
and indicated in the letter that the letter was contaminated with
anthrax. There was no powder or other substance apparent in the letter
and no apparent dispersion of substance when the letter was opened.
Local police and public health were called in. The Assoc. MHO [Medical
Health Officer?], an EHO [environmental health officer?] and local
communicable disease consultant responded on behalf of public health.
BCCDC was consulted and activated its Bioterrorist Threat Response
Plan.
The office area in Wal-Mart was cordoned off and secured initially.
Local public health officials provided on-site advice and
consultation. They packaged the letter in several sealed plastic
pouches, wiping each pouch down with bleach. The public health
official handling the letter to seal it wore rubber gloves only, based
on assessment on-site of no risk of airborne or liquid exposure. The
package is being packaged and shipped as per TDG [Transport Canada's
Transport Dangerous Goods] regulations, to Kathy Bernard in the
national micro lab in Winnipeg.
This incident was assess ed by on-site staff and BCCDC as very low
risk for (inhalation) anthrax exposure, given description of the
letter vehicle and absence of apparent method of aerosol dispersion.
BCCDC is advised that investigation by US authorities of similar
recent incidents has not recovered any lab evidence of anthrax and all
similar episodes have been hoaxes to date.
Environmental decontamination was undertaken with regular 5%
bleach on those surfaces in direct contact with the letter. The
individual who handled the letter washed hands with soap and water.
Subsequently she was to be asked to wash hands with 0.5% bleach and
then rinse with water. She was sent home for shower and clothes to be
washed.
Local public health and BCCDC staff conferred about the need for
chemoprophylaxis and, despite low assessed risk, recommended
ciproprophylaxis for the person who opened letter, at least until the
Winnipeg lab could rule out the presence of anthrax. Cipro was
optional for the other persons in the room who didn't directly handle
the letter. It was acknowledged that there was no clear-cut medical
indication for offering prophylaxis, but that it was prudent for the
person in direct contact, as a precautionary measure.
Local Public Health will be following up with Wal-Mart and local
media. There will be a post-action report.
Contacts at BCCDC are:
Dr. Dave Patrick (604) 660-3199
or
Dr. Mark Bigham (604) 660-1944.
--
Dr. Mark Bigham
Communicable Disease Epidemiology
BC Centre for Disease Control
655 West 12th Ave.
Vancouver, BC
V5Z 4R4
Tel: 604-660-6061, Fax: 604-660-0197
<mark.bigham@bccdc.hnet.bc.ca>
[ProMED-mail does not normally circulate reports of these events.
However, others should use this excellent measured response by Canada
as a guide when in receipt of these letters, which seem to be
circulating widely at present. - MHJ]
..................................mhj/pg/jw
ProMED-mail makes every effort to verify the reports that are
posted, but the accuracy and completeness of the information,
and of any statements or opinions based thereon, are not
guaranteed. The reader assumes all risks in using information posted
or archived by ProMED-mail. ISID and its associated service
providers shall not be held responsible for errors or omissions or
held liable for any damages incurred as a result of use or reliance
upon posted or archived material.
************************************************************
Visit ProMED-mail's web site at <http://www.promedmail.org>. Send all
items for posting to: promed@promedmail.org (NOT to an
individual moderator). If you do not give your full name and
affiliation, it may not be posted. Send commands to
subscribe/unsubscribe, get archives, help, etc. to:
majordomo@promedmail.org. For assistance from a human being send
mail to: owner-promed@promedmail.org.
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] U.S. Must Prepare for 'Catastrophic' Attack-Study
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 13:22:17 -0000
Wednesday January 31
U.S. Must Prepare for 'Catastrophic' Attack-Study
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010131/ts/usa_security_dc_2.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan U.S. study group on Wednesday
proposed major government changes to meet the threat of a
``catastrophic attack'' in the United States because of the spread of
unconventional arms, international terrorism and cyber warfare.
Saying a direct strike against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil was likely
over the next 25 years, the group found that ``in the face of this
threat, our nation has no coherent or integrated government
structures'' to prevent such an incident or cope with one when it
occurs.
It also concluded that a dangerous decline in funding for scientific
research and the quality of American education poses a ''greater
threat to U.S. national security over the next quarter century than
any potential conventional war.''
The group -- the Commission on National Security/21st Century -- said
if the government fails to reform its structure and processes, the
United States ``will lose its capacity to shape history and will
instead be shaped by it.''
``We decided that the most serious problem this nation faces isn't
China or North Korea (news - web sites). It's right here at home,''
said retired Gen. Charles Boyd, executive director for the
congressionally-funded study.
The panel was co-chaired by two former senators, Republican Warren
Rudman of New Hampshire and Democrat Gary Hart of Colorado. Over two
years, it undertook the most comprehensive review of U.S. national
security in more than half a century.
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Software robot traces gossip across world
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 13:27:49 -0000
Thursday 1 February 2001
Software robot traces gossip across world
By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
A SOFTWARE robot that patrols the internet, tracing gossip and
rumours to their sources, has been developed by a Swiss company.
RumorBot, launched by Agence Virtuelle, could stop incidents such as
the intimate message between Claire Swire and Bradley Chait, a City
lawyer, which spread swiftly in December. Within hours of her
complimenting Mr Chait on an intimate aspect of their relationship,
her message was read by millions around the world.
RumorBot cannot trace precise movements of email, but scours
websites, newsgroups and email lists, which played as big a part in
spreading Miss Swire's message as person-to-person email. Detectives
could use the software to trace the source of paedophile photographs
traded on the internet, New Scientist reports today.
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Barak Government tells Mitchell:
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:52:24 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 01:15:30 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Barak Government tells
Mitchell: Outbreak of violence wasn't
Sharon's fault
Ha'aretz: Barak Government tells Mitchell: Outbreak of violence wasn't
Sharon's fault
By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz Correspondent Ha'aretz 1 February 2001
Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount did not cause the outbreak of
violence in the territories, says Israel's statement to the international
committee investigating the violence of the last four months. The
Palestinian leadership used it as an excuse to deploy violence in support of
improving its position in negotiations with Israel, the submission says.
The report was handed in on December 30 - as was a Palestinian report - to
the committee headed by George Mitchell, the former U.S. Senator and
Northern Ireland mediator. An interministerial committee, coordinated by
Moshe Kohanovsky, deputy director for special assignments, prepared the
document.
The report notes Sharon's visit was brief - 34 minutes - and Israeli laws,
including Knesset immunity and freedom of worship, left the authorities no
option to prevent it. The statement the Bible to show 3,000 years of Jewish
history connected to the sanctity of the Temple Mount. It also quotes a
telephone conversation between Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and
Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian Authority's head of preventive security on
the West Bank, on the eve of the Sharon visit. Jibril is quoted as saying
that if Sharon stayed away from the mosques on the plateau "there won't be a
problem."
The report lays all the blame for all the violence at the feet of the
Palestinians, and expresses Israel's sense of betrayal that the Palestinians
went to war even while permanent status negotiations "were proceeding with
seriousness" - albeit "slower than originally envisaged."
Israel claims the Al Aksa Intifada, as it has become popularly known, was
"not a demonstration, or a passing venting of grievances, but a sustained
and orchestrated campaign of attacks against Israeli civilians and armed
forces."
The opening statement begins with a description of the Ramallah lynching of
two reservists from a Palestinian police station, and the bloody Palestinian
hands raised to the TV cameras. This is "the enduring image" of the conflict
for Israelis, sending the message that the Palestinians had declared war on
them. "These are not demonstrations to convey a sense of urgency," said the
statement. "This is a war. If we catch you, this is the fate you can expect
to receive."
Attacking the Palestinians, the statement says "to seek the moral high
ground by deploying children to stand in front of men with machine guns who
fire at Israelis, inviting a response, is the essence of this conflict."
Israel "has been restrained in its response" to "an armed conflict," it says
in defending the soldiers use of weapons as "self-defense and defense of
others"
At the time of the report, some 93 days after the start of the conflict,
there had been 2,700 live fire attacks on Israelis throughout the West Bank
and Gaza, an average of 28 incidents a day, including bomb attacks inside
Israel in Jerusalem, Hadera and elsewhere.
Israel tells the committee it should limit the investigation to the
circumstances of the violence and not try to come up with a solution to the
deep conflict between the sides - and it should avoid any suggestions for
internationalizing the conflict.
On the list of Israeli recommendations for action are all the steps promised
at the Paris and Sharm el Sheikh understandings, including a public
Palestinian statement against violence, steps against incitement, a
reduction in the Palestinian police to the Oslo-agreed 30,000.
Mitchell last week met U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Israel has
heard the new administration wants the committee to go on with its work.
Israel has already had one run-in with the committee, forcing the
resignation of Larry Pope, head of the committee's technical team, for
visiting the Temple Mount without coordinating the trip with Israel. He was
replaced by Ambassador Undine Anfay, Turkey's representative on the team.
Israel is divided on whether to resume cooperation with the committee, which
it has ignored since Pope's visit to Temple Mount. Kohanovsky, the official
coordinating the Israeli interaction with the committee, believes it is best
to wait until contacts between Israel and the U.S. guarantee the limits
Israel wants to put on the investigation.
But Foreign Ministry Director General Alon Liel argues that after Pope's
removal, contacts can be resumed gradually to prepare for a full committee
visit. Meanwhile, Liel is scheduled to meet deputy U.S. Ambassador Paul
Simmons on Monday to continue talks about the work of the investigation.
--------------------------------------------
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Former Supreme Court president
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:54:58 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 01:16:56 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Former Supreme Court
president Meir Shamgar and former
mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek
joins outcry against Temple digs
Ha'aretz: Former Supreme Court president Meir Shamgar and former mayor of
Jerusalem Teddy Kollek joins outcry against Temple digs
By Nadav Shragai Ha'aretz Correspondent Ha'aretz 1 February 2001
Former Supreme Court president Meir Shamgar and former mayor of Jerusalem
Teddy Kollek yesterday became the latest public figures to join the outcry
against excavations by the Muslim Waqf religious trust on the Temple Mount.
The two informed the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Antiquities on
the Temple Mount that they would add their signatures to a sharp letter on
the subject sent to Prime Minister Ehud Barak last week.
The letter has been signed both by archaeologists and by public figures from
all parts of the political spectrum.
The letter demands that Barak immediately halt the excavation and
construction work being carried out by the Waqf, forbid the entry of heavy
machinery, trucks and building materials into the Temple Mount compound, and
forbid the exit of trucks laden with dirt that might contain archaeological
artifacts.
It also demands that any construction on the mount be coordinated with the
proper Israeli authorities - primarily the Antiquities Authority, whose
employees have been barred from the mount for months - and that the mount be
opened to journalists so that Israelis can keep abreast of what is happening
there.
Shamgar confirmed that he has signed the letter.
The committee, meanwhile, sent another letter to Barak yesterday, saying
that a new aerial photograph taken early this week clearly shows that
another large area, of close to 1,000 square meters, is being leveled in
preparation for being paved over. The leveling work involves mechanized
digging to depths of up to one meter, which could destroy archaeological
findings, the committee said.
"We are aware of the fact that we are at the height of an election
campaign," the letter said. "But despite our strong desire not to become a
tool on the political battlefield, we cannot keep silent at a time when we
are witnessing nonstop, daily work on the Temple Mount, and when you are not
preventing serious damage to the site. The impression created is that what
is done on the mount has completely escaped all control and supervision ...
History, and academic and archaeological research, will not forgive you if
you do not halt ... the terrible vandalism that is occurring before your
eyes, with your knowledge and consent.
--------------------------------------------
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Court rejects count for blank ballots
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:54:58 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 01:16:00 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Court rejects count for blank ballots
Ha'aretz: Court rejects count for blank ballots
By Moshe Reinfeld Ha'aretz February 2001
The High Court of Justice yesterday rejected three petitions demanding that
blank ballots be counted as valid votes in the election for prime minister.
This would make it harder for any candidate to win since a winning candidate
must get 50 percent of va lid votes cast. The justices accepted the states
argument that the petitions were filed too close to the election, and it
would be impossible to implement the change at this late stage, even if it
were justified in principle. But the state said that eve n ignoring the time
issue, the petitioners had no case, since the law unequivocally states blank
ballots are not valid.
--------------------------------------------
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] BNI.Priority News 1,2,3 (2/01/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 09:04:43 -0500
1. Histadrut strike continues=09
2. PA: We are willing to immediately resume talks=09
3. Gas prices go up on Thursday=09
4. Netzarim attacked on Wednesday night=09
5. Soldiers attacked in southern Gaza=09
6. Terrorist killed while placing bomb in Gaza=09
7. Soldiers protecting tomb attacked in Hebron=09
8. More on death of Arab resident of Gaza=09
*******************************************************
1-FEB-01 =96 08:11am - Wednesday night recap and more
*******************************************************
1. Histadrut strike continues
(BNI-FEB.1) Despite having signed an interim six-month agreement, striking
public sector employees for the most part are not returning to work.
Mayors of local municipalities insist they do not have the funds to pay
municipal employees the 3.6 percent wage increase as per the temporary
agreement signed by the treasury.
Haifa Mayor Amiram Mitzne stated that calls from Finance Minister Avraham
Shohat to mayors to increase annual "Arnona" tax were a blatant indicat
ion
that the minister was painfully unaware of the operations of local
municipalities and he called Shohat's suggestion foolish, discarding it.
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert told Israel Radio on Thursday morning that he
did not see any alternative to raising taxes in order to find the
necessary funds for the wage increase.
Talks between the Histadrut national labor union and treasury officials
are scheduled to resume on Thursday morning in the hope of reaching an
acceptable solution that would provide public sector employees with their
raise and bring the strike to an end.
As the result of restraining orders issued by the courts, some services,
such as trash collection in major cities has resumed and it is expected
that it will take as long as a week to clean up the streets. Nevertheless,
government offices will not receive the public on Thursday and other
essential services remain closed due to the lingering strike.
Services that remain on strike include but are not limited to: Fuel
delivery for commercial aircraft, water and sewage services, welfare
services, issuing of parking tickets, and disruptions in kindergarten
services.
In a related matter, striking Ben-Gurion International Airport employees
on Tuesday morning blocked El Al Junction heading into the nation's only
international commercial airport, burning tires and bringing the morning
rush hour in the area to a halt.
++++
2. PA: We are willing to immediately resume talks
(BNI-FEB.1) With opposition candidate MK Ariel Sharon maintaining his
commanding double-digit lead in the election campaign, PA officials have
announced they are anxious and willing to resume peace negotiations
immediately, providing the delegates attending the negotiations are
permitted to sign a deal.
Analysts explain that PA Chairman Yassir Arafat is well aware of the
pre-election polls and is now anxious to sign any agreement in advance of
Tuesday's election with the realization that it will be considerably more
difficult to obtain concessions from Sharon if he is elected as the
nation's next prime minister.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak is expected to make an announcement later
today
regarding his willingness to return to the negotiating table just days
ahead of the election. Most political observers predict that Barak will
give the green light for resumption of talks =96 explaining that the prime
minister desperately needs to show the nation an agreement before Election
Day.
PA officials have stated they are willing to sit at the negotiating table
with any government that will be elected to represent the State of Israel.
++++
3. Gas prices go up on Thursday
(BNI-FEB.1) Gasoline prices are on the rise once again, with the blame
being placed on reduced OPEC nation production. Liquid propane cooking
gas, diesel fuel and airplane fuel prices are being reduced.
96 octane gasoline prices were increased about five percent with a liter
of fuel now costing NIS 4.05 (About $3.95 per US gallon). 95 unleaded
gasoline was increased over five percent, not costing NIS 4.05 per liter.
LP gas prices dropped about 13 percent and airplane fuel prices were
reduced about 3 percent. Diesel heating fuel prices were lowered about 5
percent.
++++
4. Netzarim attacked on Wednesday night
(BNI-FEB.1) IDF soldiers engaged in a firefight with armed terrorists who
opened fire on their position in the community of Netzarim in Gaza late
Wednesday night. There were no reported injuries to Israeli forces.
++++
5. Soldiers attacked in southern Gaza
(BNI-FEB.1) IDF forces on Wednesday night were attacked in southern Gaza
with gunfire directed at Neve Dekalim. Soldiers returned fire. No
injuries.
++++
6. Terrorist killed while placing bomb in Gaza
(BNI-FEB.1) One terrorist was killed by IDF gunfire and a second injured
while the two were attempting to place an explosive device on the
Karnei/Netzarim road in northern Gaza late Wednesday night.
Gunfire was directed at the explosive device, detonating it without
incident.
++++
7. Soldiers protecting tomb attacked in Hebron
(BNI-FEB.1) Soldiers stationed in Hebron, at the Tomb of Jesse and Ruth,
were attacked by gunfire late Wednesday night. Soldiers returned fire.
There were no reported IDF casualties.
++++
8. More on death of Arab resident of Gaza
(BNI-FEB.1) IDF sources explain that 50-year-old Ismail Al Telbani, from
Gaza, appears to have been killed by a stray bullet on Wednesday.
It was explained that he failed to comply with protocol for entering an
intersection with a checkpoint in Gaza and his suspicious driving pattern
alerted soldiers that another attack may be taking place. Soldiers fired
in the air and then at the tires when Telbani failed to heed the warning.
It was then that one of the shots struck him in his chest, killing him.
Military officials explained that the soldiers were acting appropriately,
pointing out there were several attempted terror attacks in the same area
this week.
-----------------
1. 2 fatalities in MVA near P'sagot=09
2. Closure imposed on Hebron=09
3. Infant moderately burned from scalding soup=09
4. Shahak met in Gaza on Wednesday with Arafat=09
********************************
1-FEB-01 =96 11:22am
********************************
1. 2 fatalities in MVA near P'sagot
(BNI-FEB.1) Two persons, a father and daughter, were killed and several
injured in a Thursday morning motor vehicle accident on the approach road
to the community of P'sagot, in the Benjamin Regional Council district of
Samaria. The three persons were injured in the head-on collision. All
three were transported to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem where two are in
moderate and the third in light condition.
According to family members, the deceased, a resident of Tel Tzion, near
P'sagot, would drive quickly in the area of the fatal accident because he
was afraid of being hit by Arab stone-throwers.
++++
2. Closure imposed on Hebron
(BNI-FEB.1) A closure was implemented on the Arab residents of the Israeli
controlled portion of Hebron on Thursday morning following shooting
attacks that occurred at about midnight.
++++
3. Infant moderately burned from scalding soup
(BNI-FEB.1) An infant was transported to Schneider's Children's Hospita
l
after being burned with scalding soup. The infant is reported to have been
burned over 30 percent of his body. No additional information is available
at this time.
++++
4. Shahak met in Gaza on Wednesday with Arafat
(BNI-FEB.1) Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak met in Gaza on Wednesday with
PA
Chairman Yassir Arafat. The two discussed matters pertaining to security
as well as preparatory issues to lay the groundwork for a possible Arafat
Barak meeting on Sunday. No additional information regarding the meeting
was released.
----------------
1. Terror victim was shopping in Jenin when attacked by gunfire=09
2. Soldiers fired upon at Egyptian border=09
3. Atarot businesspersons demonstrate opposite PM's Office=09
4. MVA victims identified=09
**************************
1-FEB-01 =96 1:00pm
**************************
1. Terror victim was shopping in Jenin when attacked by gunfire
(BNI-FEB.1) The Afula resident who was shot in his chest and abdomen in
the PA autonomous city of Jenin was initially treated by Red Crescent
emergency medical personnel and transported to a PA hospital.
Arrangements
were then made via the IDF District Coordinating Office to have the
critically injured victim transported to HaEmek Hospital in Afula. Israel
Radio at 1:00pm reported the victim was shot in his chest and abdomen and
not in his head as reported earlier.
Israel Radio reports that the victim, accompanied by an Israeli Arab
resident, entered the PA autonomous city in violation of the IDF ban to go
shopping.
Last week, two Israelis accompanied by an Arab citizen who were shopping
in the PA autonomous city of Tul Qarem were shot in their heads and killed
by Fatah terrorists. The Arab citizen was permitted to flee the scene.
The current IDF ban prohibits Israeli citizens from entering into areas
under PA security control.
++++
2. Soldiers fired upon at Egyptian border
(BNI-FEB.1) IDF soldiers stationed at the Rafiah border to Egypt were
attacked with gunfire shortly before noon on Thursday. There were no
reports of casualties to IDF forces that returned fire.
++++
3. Atarot businesspersons demonstrate opposite PM's Office
(BNI-FEB.1) Tens of persons participated in a Thursday morning
demonstration outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem in protest
of the deteriorating security situation in the Atarot Industrial Park in
northern Jerusalem.
Participating in the demonstration were owners of businesses in the
industrial park, the scene of recent terrorist attacks. Two employees of
the park were killed in the past week and the approach roads to the
northern Jerusalem industrial park that employees 4,000 have been the
scenes of numerous recent shooting attacks. Some businesses have closed
their doors and employers are complaining that the lack of security is
resulting in many laborers failing to report for work because they are too
scared to drive on the area roads.
++++
4. MVA victims identified
(BNI-FEB.1) The names of the persons killed in the Thursday morning motor
vehicle accident near P'sagot are Avraham Koslovsky, 45, and a daughter,
Ila, 8.5-years-old. Three others were injured in the accident which
occurred on the road to P'sagot, a short distance from the Koslovsky home
in the ultra-Orthodox community of Tel Tzion.
As reported earlier by BNI, family members explained that Avraham, who
moved to the new home from Jerusalem only about two weeks ago, would
habitually drive quickly at the site of the accident to avoid Arab
stone-throwers.
++++
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) DOCUMENT SHARM EL-SHEIKH FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 09:19:31 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:43:12 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: DOCUMENT SHARM EL-SHEIKH
FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE - FIRST
STATEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL
DOCUMENT SHARM EL-SHEIKH FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE - FIRST STATEMENT OF THE
GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL
[IMRA: The Foreign Ministry released this report on their Internet site
after the PA put their report on their website]
[for complete 54 page text with pictures and tables -
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0jcb0 ]
28 December 2000
2 Tevet 5761
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem,
That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established
as the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow unto it.
And many peoples shall go and say:
Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
And He will teach us of His ways;
And we will walk in His paths.
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And He shall judge between the nations,
And shall decide for many peoples;
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning-hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:1-4
This First Statement of the Government of Israel is submitted to the Sharm
El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee on 3 Tevet 5761, 29 December 2000, the 8th
and last day of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, which commemorates
the re-lighting of the lamp in the First Jewish Temple almost 3,000 years
ago. It coincides, too, with the point at which the three great monotheistic
religions each celebrate holy days - Eid El-Fiter, Christmas and Hanukkah.
OPENING STATEMENT
There are many images of the present conflict. For Israelis, the enduring
image is of the brutal, barbaric lynching of two Israeli reserve soldiers
who took a wrong turn on 12 October 2000 and found themselves besieged by a
mob in a Palestinian police station in Ramallah. They ought to have received
protection in the police station. They did not. They died that day. The
manner of their deaths shocked even the hardened foreign journalists who
stumbled upon the scene.
The image, conveyed around the world, of one of the Palestinian attackers
coming to the window of the police station to show off his bloody hands,
sent a message to all Israelis. This is not a protest. This is not a riot.
These are not demonstrations to convey a sense of urgency in the peace
process. This is a war. If we catch you, this is the fate that you can
expect to receive.
There is another sense that Israelis, overwhelmingly, have of the present
conflict. It is a sense of betrayal. A sense that just as Israelis and
Palestinians seemed to be on the threshold of peace, this happened. Progress
in the peace negotiations since the signing of the Declaration of Principles
in September 1993 had been slower than originally envisaged. It has had its
difficulties along the way. But the permanent status negotiations
contemplated by that agreement were proceeding with a seriousness of intent
that suggested hope for the future. And then this. Not a demonstration or a
passing venting of grievance but a sustained and orchestrated campaign of
attacks against Israeli civilians and armed forces.
Speaking on 23 July 2000, even before the failure of the Camp David Summit,
a member of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Ali Mustafa, hinted at the coming
violence:
"The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees, and sovereignty will be decided on
the ground and not in negotiations. At this point it is important to prepare
Palestinian society for the next step because we will undoubtedly find
ourselves in confrontation with Israel in order to create new facts on the
ground. ... I believe that the situation in the future will be more violent
than the Intifada."
The current violence was not a spontaneous, uncontrolled outpouring in
response to the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount on 28 September
2000. The groundwork for the violence had been laid long before this. Stung
by the widespread appreciation in the international community that
Palestinian inflexibility was responsible for the failure of the Camp David
Summit, counselled not to declare a Palestinian state unilaterally on 13
September 2000 as had been planned, the Palestinian leadership looked to
violence to "create new facts on the ground", to regain, as one
distinguished American commentator put it, the "moral high ground".
To seek the moral high ground by deploying children to stand in front of men
with machine guns who fire at Israelis, inviting response, is the essence of
this conflict. It is an armed conflict. It is characterised by over 2,700
live-fire attacks against Israelis in the 93 days of conflict - around 28
such attacks every day, across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as
in Israel with bomb attacks in Jerusalem, Hadera and elsewhere. It is a
conflict in which Palestinians have targeted Israeli civilians for no other
reason than that they are Israelis. It is a conflict in which the
Palestinian modus operandi has invariably been large scale attacks,
including a live-fire dimension, against relatively small numbers of Israeli
civilians and troops. Typically, Israeli troops coming under attack have
numbered fewer than 20. Typically, their assailants have numbered in the
hundreds. Stones, molotov cocktails, pistols, assault rifles, machine guns,
hand grenades, explosives - these have been the Palestinians' weapons of
war. This is not a demonstration. This is not a riot. This has been a
calculated attempt to create new facts on the ground by the use of violence.
Israel has been restrained in its response. Israeli troops have acted in
self-defence and in the defence of others. Where this has been an option,
they have used non-lethal means - tear gas, rubber bullets - in an attempt
to contain the situation. This has not always been possible. Non-lethal
means are not effective against lethal attack. United States and Pakistani
troops deployed as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia
found themselves faced with a similar threat in October 1993. After a
particularly bloody incident in which hundreds of Somalis - civilians and
militia - had been killed in a confrontation with US troops, a US army
spokesman described the situation in the following terms:
"It has been our experience that the Somali gunmen who have opposed us have
frequently used women and children and, at times, have worn women's
clothing, to cover their movements and to protect them from attack. These
gunmen do not wear uniforms or distinctive insignia; they do not carry arms
openly; they are not led by accountable military leadership; they are not
subject to military discipline and they do not comply with international
law. It is they who initiated the firefight and who bear ultimate
responsibility for this tragic loss of life."
So it is the case here - save perhaps that the environment of competing
warlords in the Somalia of 1993 is not analogous to the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip in 2000. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian
Authority exercises significant governmental power. It has an organised
Police Force, often described by the Palestinian leadership as an army, of
more than 30,000 men. They are well armed. Fatah, the political-military
grouping within the PLO answerable directly to Yasser Arafat, has a sizeable
militia component of its own, the Tanzim. The Tanzim has been the mainstay
of this conflict, distributing molotov cocktails, organising attacks,
perpetrating violence. Fatah and the Tanzim have given the conflict its
political dimension.
Israel's Statement to the Committee addresses all of these issues in
detail - in the words of President Clinton at Sharm El-Sheikh on 17 October
2000, what happened, why it happened and how to prevent its recurrence. The
Committee's task is one of fact-finding. Its function is to facilitate
negotiations towards peace. Israel welcomes the establishment of the
Committee. It has an important task to perform.
--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) ISRAEL AND PA SIGN JOINT DECLARATION
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 09:20:15 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:58:22 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: ISRAEL AND PA SIGN
JOINT DECLARATION FOR
KEEPING THE WATER
INFRASTRUCTURE OUT
OF THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
ISRAEL AND PA SIGN JOINT DECLARATION FOR KEEPING THE WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
OUT OF THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Jerusalem Thursday, February 01, 2001
[IMRA note: During the course of the Oslo War, Palestinian forces have
attacked Israeli water infrastructure]
The Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee signed the following
"Joint Declaration for Keeping the Water Infrastructure out of the Cycle
of Violence" yesterday (Wednesday), 31.1.2001 at the Erez Crossing.
"The Israeli and Palestinian sides view the water and wastewater sphere
as a most important matter and strongly oppose any damage to water and
wastewater infrastructure.
The two sides are taking all possible measures to supply water and treat
wastewater in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even in the difficult
circumstances of the recent months.
The two sides wish to bring to public attention that the Palestinian and
Israeli water and wastewater infrastructure is mostly intertwined and
serves both populations. Any damage to such systems will harm both
Palestinians and Israelis.
A special effort is being made by the two sides to ensure the water
supply to the Palestinian and Israeli cities, towns and villages in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip. In order for this effort to succeed, we need
the cooperation and support of all the population, both Israeli and
Palestinian. We call on the general public not to damage in any way the
water infrastructure, including pipelines, pumping stations, drilling
equipment, electricity systems and any other related infrastructure.
The two sides also call on those involved in the current crisis not to
harm in any way the professional teams that conduct regular maintenance
or repair damage and malfunctions to the water and wastewater
infrastructure.
Both sides wish to take this opportunity to reiterate their commitment
to continued cooperation in the water and wastewater spheres."
Noah Kinarty signed for Israel. Nabil El-Sherif signed for the
Palestinian Authority.
--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Real World News - 02/01/01
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 17:40:51 -0000
Selected items from...
REAL WORLD NEWS 02/01/2001
Visit Real World News online at http://www.realworldnews.net
RUSSIA SENDS NEW MODEL ARMY INTO BATTLE NEAR MOSCOW
The Russian army staged a wintry mock skirmish outside Moscow on
Wednesday to show international military experts the Kremlin was
determined to set straight its troops' dismal human rights record.
Military attaches from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America joined
Russian top brass for an explosive staged clash at a snowy army base,
amid Kremlin plans to cut forces in rebel Chechnya and show alleged
rights abuses were on the decline.
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=276367
THREAT OF EPIDEMIC STALKS INDIAN QUAKE SURVIVORS
Fears grew Thursday of epidemics in India's quake-ravaged Gujarat
state, with medical officials warning that thousands of trapped,
decomposing bodies could contaminate water supplies. The issue of
removing the corpses with mechanical diggers has become highly
emotive, with local residents in many towns refusing to allow relief
workers to bulldoze the ruins. Even seven days after the quake hit
Gujarat, residents insist some people could still be found alive and
have stood in front of the bulldozers to prevent them getting at the
rubble. http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/article.html?
s=asia/headl
ines/010201/asia/afp/Threat_of_epidemic_stalks_Indian_quake_survivors.
ht ml
THOUSANDS FLEE AS PHILIPPINE VOLCANO SET TO ERUPT
Thousands of villagers living around Mayon volcano in the eastern
Philippines have been moved to safer areas ahead of a looming
eruption, officials said Thursday. Scientists at the Philippine
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology's (Phivolcs) observatory here
reported that Mayon's swollen crater glowed red overnight, indicating
a likely eruption soon. Manila's Office of Civil Defense (OCD)
estimated that 16,567 people living in five towns located inside a
six-kilometer (3.7 mile) radius permanent danger zone had been
instructed to move to safer areas.
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/article.html?
s=asia/headl
ines/010201/asia/afp/Thousands_flee_as_Philippine_volcano_set_to_erupt
.h tml
THOUSANDS FLEE IVORY COAST "RACISM"
Thousands of people have been fleeing Ivory Coast after a sharp
increase in the number of attacks on foreigners. Correspondents say
up to ten thousand West Africans from Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal
have been crossing the border each week in an attempt to escape
incidents of robbery and harassment. One part of south-east Ivory
Coast Bonoua has declared itself an autonomous republic with its own
laws against foreigners.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1147000/1147536.s
tm
PROBE READY FOR ASTEROID LANDING
Plans to soft-land the Near-Shoemaker probe on the asteroid Eros have
been detailed by the American space agency Nasa. The historic first
touchdown on the surface of a minor planetary body will take place on
Monday, 12 February. Nasa has no idea whether the landing will work,
but even if it does not the probe has more than fulfilled its mission
objectives. The touchdown attempt is "bonus science", said Near
mission director Dr Robert Farquhar.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1148000/1148071.stm
POPE REAFFIRMS CATHOLIC 'NO' TO GAY MARRIAGES
Pope John Paul (news - web sites) on Thursday reaffirmed the Catholic
Church's official opposition to homosexual marriages, saying they
were not natural. The 80-year-old Pope made his comments in an
address on the theme of marriage to a Vatican tribunal that reviews
annulment requests.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010201/ts/pope_gays_dc_1.html
CHRISTIAN FILM HOPES TO HIT NO. 1 AT BOX OFFICES
If the filmmakers at Christian-oriented Cloud Ten Pictures have their
way, their new movie, ``Left Behind,'' won't be lagging Hollywood's
major films at box offices this weekend thanks to a grass-roots
campaign aimed at churchgoers. In today's movie industry, most films
either open with a big audience their first week and continue to do
well, or they fail to land in a top spot and fade quickly. To compete
with major studios, Cloud Ten has undertaken a marketing campaign to
put the film on about 1,000 movie screens.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010131/re/leisure_leftbehind_dc_1.ht
ml
CHRISTIAN COMEDY AIMED AT YOUTH
Mob money and family ties form a strange mix in the first comedy from
the Rev. Billy Graham's movie production unit, a story aimed at
delivering a moral message to people who might not be tuning into
Graham otherwise. ``Road to Redemption,'' a $2.2 million film from
World Wide Pictures, part of the Minneapolis-based Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association, opens in test markets across the country
Feb. 16.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010131/en/wkd_road_to_redemption_1.h
tm l
CHRISTIANITY DOMINATES THE RELIGIONS
Christianity remains the dominant world religion and the number of
believers has quadrupled in the last century to nearly two billion,
according to a new encyclopedia. Despite the rapid growth of Islam,
Christianity is still followed by the majority in two thirds of the
world's 238 countries. The statistics have been gathered for World
Christian Encyclopedia, to be published in Britain in June. The last
edition was published by Oxford University Press in 1982.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?
ac=001669821461706&rtmo=3SquAY8M&atmo=HHHH
HH8L&pg=/et/01/1/30/nfait30.html
NO END TO CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM TENSION
Thousands of Muslim men gathered in Zamfara's capital Gusau to
celebrate the first anniversary of the introduction of an Islamic
legal code, or Sharia. It includes punishments such as stoning to
death, amputation and flogging. According to the Muslim's in Zamfara,
it is the fear of these punishments which have already made for a
better society. For the Christian community these are nervous days.
Christians were always a tiny minority, but the Anglican Bishop of
Gusau, Simon Bala, says their numbers have dwindled in the past 12
months, because of the fear of Sharia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1146000/1146346.s
tm
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Petition to the Israeli Supreme Court
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 13:59:12 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
To: tmf@topica.com
From: Gershon Salomon <gershon@templemountfaithful.org>
Subject: Petition to the Israeli Supreme Court
Date sent: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 07:09:34 -0800
Send reply to: gershon@templemountfaithful.org
The Arabs Continue to Dig, to Destroy the Remains of the Temple
and to Build Mosques
The Temple Mount Faithful Petitions the Israeli Supreme Court
The Arabs on the Temple Mount, who actually represent the PLO and the
terrorist, Yasser Arafat, continue to dig, to destroy the remains of the
temple and to build mosques on the Temple Mount, the most holy place of
G=96d and Israel and all the earth. They have not only started to do this
now but have been doing so for years. We have reported about these
activities on a number of occasions. We have previously petitioned the
Israeli Supreme Court as well as holding demonstrations in an attempt to
stop these criminal and evil activities.
The goal of the Arab in undertaking these activities is to destroy all
the remains and evidence of the First and Second Temples and the
historical godly fact that for thousands of years the Temple Mount was
the site of the Jewish temple and that the G=96d of Israel dedicated this
place to be for His holy house alone. At the same time their goal is to
make it completely an Islamic site and to change the character of the
Temple Mount and make it into one big mosque. As experts of historical
lies, the Moslems are trying in this way to say that the Temple Mount
was never the site of the temple and it is only the site of a mosque
over the last 1363 years since the Islamic occupation of Jerusalem, the
Temple Mount and the land of Israel when they built their pagan shrines
on the location of the First and Second Temples. There is no doubt that
they have illusions if they think that in this way they will succeed to
move the G=96d of Israel and the Universe from His holy site and to deny
His existence.
For hundreds of years they have used lies to change the history of the
world and to make it into an Islamic one. Throughout their historical
occupation of parts of the world when they occupied not only the land of
Israel but also the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe and
Asia, they destroyed holy places of the occupied nations and built
mosques in their place. An important example is the big church of Ayah
Sofia in Constantinople which was the centre of Eastern Christianity
like the Vatican was to the Western Church. Today this church is one of
the biggest mosques. This expresses their historical goal which has
never changed and continues today even more intensively which is to
occupy all the world and place it all under Islamic domination. It is
such a sad situation that all the Western world is today too blind to
see and understand this great danger because of materialistic and
political reasons. I hope that they will not wake up too late. We in
Israel feel the terrible and cruel pressure of the Islamic world. We are
in the front-line of the battle and all the Western world is immediately
behind us and they are beginning to feel this pressure in many ways.
Even the United States is coming under this pressure. According to some
demographic experts there are already been 12 and 20 million Moslems
living there and the figure is growing daily. The already feel strong
enough to threaten people, organisations and groups that do not agree
with their ideology. Many mosques are springing up all over the country.
Anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Israeli speeches can be heard in
many of them. Underground groups have started to use violence and have
even dared to bomb buildings like the Twin Towers in New York. Again we
warn the Western world to wake up before it is too late.
Now the Arabs, the PLO and the terrorist, Yasser Arafat, are using
violence against the hill of the G=96d of Israel, the centre of all the
earth, and the heart, the soul and the eternal focus of Israel. The y
are now trying to fight against the G=96d of Israel and the Universe like
many powers before them who had illusions that they could defeat the G=96d
of Israel but very soon they were judged by the Holy One of Israel and
disappeared from history. The same, and even more, will happen to them.
Soon they will be judged by the G=96d of Israel in the day of judgement
that G=96d spoke of in the Bible and they will disappear, not only from
the land of Israel, but from all the land of G=96d. G=96d now expects
Israel to be strong, to trust His covenant promises to them and to stop
these barbarians and their vandalism on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and
all over the land of Israel. The G=96d of Israel has tears in His eyes
when He sees the weakness of the Israeli Government under the pressure
of arab enemies, their allies and the Western powers and the government
shows its weakness under these pressures and allows them to continue
this anti-godly and barbaric destruction on the Temple Mount. G=96d
expects Israel to prevent these activities immediately and not to allow
the destruction of His holy site and the remains of His First and Second
Temples.
The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement decided at this
critical time, in the name of all the people of Israel, to do what G=96d
is expecting of them to do and to be faithful and trust His covenant and
promises to Israel. What especially broke our hearts with these
barbaric activities was that they are now digging on the very holy site
of the First and Second Temple, very close to the site of the Holy of
Holiest. Also the big tunnel that they are now digging in the southern
complex of the temple to connect the so-called "Solomon's Stables" to
the Hulda Halls, both of which were the main entrance of millions of
pilgrims which was built by King Herod who remodelled the Second Temple.
They also continue to dig in an area of 1200 square metres on the Temple
Mount along the eastern wall. They are digging down for at least 1
metre. In these diggings they have destroyed the remains from the First
and Second Temples using tractors and mechanical shovels and many
thousands of cubic metres of the holy remains and earth were removed and
dumped in a garbage dump in the Kidron Valley and other places. Other
diggings are occurring in other areas of the Temple Mount and in the
complex of the Mercy (Golden) Gate. The Arabs do not allow Israeli
archaeologists to go up onto the Temple Mount to check and control their
activities and the Israeli authorities, unfortunately, are too weak to
force the Arabs to allow entry to the archaeologists and to respect the
Israeli law and the feelings of the Israeli people and millions all over
the world towards the holy site of G=96d.
Israel is now in a great test from G=96d: to trust His covenant with them
and His promises to them. The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful
Movement decided to face this test and to do everything to bring these
anti-godly and barbaric activities to an end. This is not only a
terrible crime against G=96d and His holy site but it is against Israeli
and International law, against humanity and the deepest feelings of the
Israeli people and many millions all over the world. This is also a
crime against science and archaeology. When they destroy the most holy
remains on the Temple Mount, at the same time they destroy the most
important archaeological remains in all the world.
One of the steps of the Temple Mount Faithful Movement in the campaign
to stop these barbaric activities was to present a petition to the
Israeli Supreme Court and which was discussed today (1st February, 2001)
before a 3-judge panel. In this petition we asked the Supreme Court to
order the Israeli Government, the legal advisor of the government, the
Israeli Antiquities Authority, the commander of police in Jerusalem, the
mayor of Jerusalem and the Islamic Waqf on the Temple Mount to
immediately stop these digging, destructive and building activities: to
enforce the Israeli law which does not allow these activities and
considers them to be a crime against the laws of maintaining the holy
places, the antiquities laws and the planning and building laws. In the
petition we also asked that these crimes be investigated and that the
Arabs responsible should be brought to justice. We also asked that the
site should be returned to the state that it was in prior to the
commencement of these activities. In the petition we mentioned that in a
previous petition which we made in 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that
from that time on the authorities of Israel should exert very strong
control over what the Arabs do on the Temple Mount and to ensure that
they respect the law relating to the maintenance of the value of the
antiquities on the Temple Mount. We also wrote in the petition that
despite this previous ruling of the Supreme Court, the Arabs continue to
undertake their barbaric destruction and that the authorities are not
fulfilling their duties to prevent them. We asked that the activities be
urgently stopped all over the Temple Mount and especially, and more
urgently, in the area where Solomon's Temple ans the Second Temple
existed before it will be too late and the damage be irreparable. The
petition was presented in the name of the Jewish People, Jewish values
and people all over the world.
The interim decision of the judges was:
1. The committee set up by the Prime Minister of Israel today should
immediately make an urgent investigation into these Arab activities on
the Temple Mount and should present their conclusions to the Supreme
Court. This committee will include archaeologists from the Israeli
Antiquities Authority.
2. The committee will hear the complaints of The Temple Mount and Land
of Israel Faithful Movement concerning these activities.
3. The committee should physically check on the situation on the Temple
Mount and report back to the Supreme Court.
4. All the investigations and checks must be done within 10 days.
5. The Supreme Court will sit again after 10 days to discuss the
petition of The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement and
make a final decision.
The Temple Mount Faithful Movement is very concerned that in the 10-day
period the Arabs will intensively continue their criminal activities and
destruction and that it might be too late to stop them. Unfortunately
the Supreme Court was not ready to immediately order the cessation of
activities. They explained that they cannot do so before the committee
has presented all the facts. We know that the Arabs do not allow the
Israeli archaeologists to enter the Temple Mount and to check and
control what they are doing there. Because of the reasons which we
mentioned above, the Israeli authorities do not force the Arabs to allow
checks to be made.
The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement will continue this
campaign, as well as other campaigns of the Movement, very intensively
and urgently. We shall not be silent until the holy site of G=96d is
rescued, protected and liberated from the barbaric Arabs. We shall do
this with all our dedication and devotion from the bottom of our hearts
and G=96d will be with us. There is no doubt that this is a prophetic,
godly, end-time battle and very soon we shall see the light at the end
of the tunnel.
To the Arab enemies of the G=96d and people of Israel we say: Stop your
criminal, barbaric activities!! Who can fight against the G=96d of Israel?
You have lost the battle even before you started!! Learn the historical
lesson of those who tried to do so throughout history. Only the G=96d of
Israel and the Universe controls the destiny of His chosen people,
Israel, His holy site on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and the land of
Israel.
Nobody will prevent the intensive march of the G=96d and people of Israel
to redeem the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, the land and people of Israel, to
rebuild the temple and to open the door before the coming of Mashiach
ben David. All this is soon to come. Blessed and redeemed will be those
who join in this godly campaign of The Temple Mount and Land of Israel
Faithful Movement, the movement of G=96d in these exciting and critical
end-times.
We thank G=96d that He blessed the holy activities of the Temple Mount
Faithful Movement and the Temple Mount has become the focus of the daily
news and the centre of attention of the public in Israel and all over
the world. Individuals and groups have arisen to join in the fight of
the Temple Mount Faithful Movement. One of these important groups which
has been formed in Israel over the last few months is a group of leaders
,archaeologists, authors, poets, rabbis, ex-judges and others. One of
the members of the group is the ex-mayor of Jerusalem, teddy Kolleck.
Today we were informed that a previous President of the Supreme Court,
Meir Shamgar, has also joined the group and sent a letter to the Prime
Minister to immediately stop this barbaric destruction on the Temple
Mount of the most holy, dear and valuable remains of the Jewish temples
which are holy and important to the Jewish People and all mankind. We
always knew that we would not be alone in this battle for too long. The
day has come and we know that everything is going according to the
prophetic end-time plans of the G=96d of Israel and the Universe. Together
with Him we shall overcome all the difficulties and troubles. We call on
everyone who has still not joined us in this godly campaign to join us
now and to experience the highlight of their lives by being a part of
this holy fight and campaign. We advise everyone to lift their eyes and
hearts to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. More and more they are going
to be at the focus of G=96d's activities with His people, Israel, and all
the world. Expect great godly events in the life of Israel, the Temple
Mount, Jerusalem and all over the land of Israel that G=96d promised to
Abraham and his seed. We trust in G=96d and thank Him for all of this.
2001/02/01
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement
P.O. Box 18325
Yochanan Horkanos 4
Jerusalem 91182 Israel
gershon@templemountfaithful.org
http://www.templemountfaithful.org
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Israel reveals - Palestinians have anti-aircraft missiles and
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:04:48 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 09:58:00 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Israel reveals -
Palestinians have anti-aircraft missiles and cannons
Israel reveals - Palestinians have anti-aircraft missiles and cannons
Aaron Lerner Date: 1 February 2000
For the first time, the Government of Israel has officially stated
that the Palestinian arsenal includes anti-aircraft missiles and
cannons.
The following is paragraph 141 of " First Statement of the Government of
Israel
submitted to the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee" (also known as the
Mitchell Committee)
on 29 December 2000:
". . . In addition to excessive numbers of permitted weapons - such as
pistols, assault rifles and
sub-machine guns - in the hands of the Palestinian Police, illegal weapons
held by the Police,
militia and other groups and individuals include the following:
* machine guns,
* hand grenades,
* rocket propelled grenades,
* grenade launchers,
* anti-tank missiles,
* shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles, cannons and machine guns,
* mortars,
* mines, and
* high explosives."
The above report was not released to the Israeli public until this
morning when, in reaction to the placement of the Palestinian report
to the Committee on the PA's website, the Government of Israel also
placed their report on the Foreign Ministry website.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0jcb0
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-548-0092
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6750750 subscriber 4811
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] The New World Order That Splits the World
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:15:32 -0500
THE NEW ORDER THAT SPLITS THE WORLD
I cheered when I heard that a Chilean judge had ordered the arrest of
General Pinochet. I cheered not because I regard the general as a villain
(although I do). I cheered because the judge was Chilean, the court Chilean
and the crimes Chilean. A nation is never so mature as when it holds its
own past to account. Yet I fear I am losing friends.
A new political divide is opening, as wide as the Cold War polarity between
hawk and dove, Left and Right. The divide is between the champions of the
"new world order" and those who regard such global intervention as
dangerous and rarely justified. The dispute is ideological and deep. I cann
ot
pretend to be on the winning side.
Despite their defeat in the Pinochet affair, the champions of intervention
are on the march. They have taken up Kipling's white man's burden and
his demand that "a courthouse stands where the raw blood flowed". They
are abetted by a potent coalition of soldiers, aid donors, charity bosses,
lawyers and UN plutocrats. Under their banner, America and its proxies
(mostly Britain) are bombing Iraq, colonising the Balkans, and bloating
Africa with aid and the Middle East with arms. Since there is dictatorship
and killing everywhere, there is always work to be done. Kofi Annan, the
Innocent III of our age, blesses every soldier of philanthropic fortune. He
declares that, under globalisation, human rights are more important than
state sovereignty.
The International Herald Tribune, house journal of the new imperialism,
carries articles almost daily by think-tankers and lobbyists explaining "
what
we must do" in some benighted corner of the globe. The cast of hobgoblins
is devastating, from Saddam Hussein to North Korean communists, Latin
American drug barons and African mass murderers. Yesterday a vice-
president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace claimed
American credit for democratic advances in Mexico, Serbia, Ghana and
Peru. He asserted that US-funded "non-governmental groups" had a
"critical role" in these elections. He seemed blind to the irony that t
he same
euphemisms excused past American meddling in elections in Vietnam and
Lebanon, with disastrous results.
This movement is similar to the final decades of the British Empire, now
celebrated on the centenary of Queen Victoria's death. After the decades
of military and commercial supremacy came a last great burst of morality.
To Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Milner and the Round Table, "imperium"
brought with it ethical obligations. John Buchan wrote of nations that had
lost their nerve, and thus their sovereignty, as The New York Times talks
of "failed states". Imperial rule was "the endless adventure", as y
oung
people now regard a stint with a UN agency.
To Milner, foreign affairs was the one dignified pursuit of the political e
lite,
a phenomenon noticeable today in America. Pax Britannica did not last and
many of its wiser heads tried to foresee the endgame. Lord Lugard, one of
its great administrators, held that the goal of intervention should be a pe
ople
that "in due course of time . . . was robust enough to stand by itself"
.
Lugard's problem was that the "due course of time" was unspecified.
British imperialism developed a potent lobby for its everlasting extension.
It
ignored Lugard's concept of indirect rule and created permanent colonies:
colonies that required costly defence.
The new imperialism is no different. From Cyprus and Gaza to Bosnia,
Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leone the world is dotted with blue flags.
Since the new imperialism never colonises, it need never decolonise. Its
outposts are office blocks in every Third World capital. Its viziers live i
n
hotel registers, club-class lounges and conference centres. This is an
empire of virtue on which the sun never sets and in which any First World
graduate can find a tax-free job. If Lenin were alive today he would find h
is
"Imperialism as the Highest State of Capitalism" more pertinent than ev
er.
The British Empire gave way to the concept of national self-determination
that underpinned the new UN. Decolonisation and the integrity of sovereign
states was the ethos of the age. It was the ethos in which I was educated.
Never did an ethos pass so quickly. Last month the charge was revived
against former President Bush and his Gulf War commanders that winning
Kuwait's territorial integrity in 1991 was "only half the job". The o
ther was
to topple Saddam Hussein, which they unaccountably failed to do.
Seeking to topple foreign regimes, whether drug-supported in Latin
America, genocidal in Africa or merely "destabilising" in the Middle Ea
st, is
now considered a commonplace of foreign policy. Its morality is that of the
arch-imperialist, Bernard Kouchner, former lord of Kosovo, who asserts
that those who stay silent during a massacre are thereby its "accomplices
".
You will encounter few articles or speeches in Britain or America these
days espousing national self-determination. You will hear only the language
of "something must be done". It may involve the overthrow of a
government (Iraq), or intervention in a civil war (Colombia), or the captur
e
of a leader already declared guilty (Serbia), or merely the dislike of an
election result (Austria). But something must always be done.
In his 1999 Chicago speech Tony Blair made a brave attempt to
systematise this philosophy of interference. He spoke of wars not to defend
territory but to enforce "globalised values". He cited Kennedy's vacu
ous
maxim, "When one man is enslaved, who is free?" Mr Blair then listed 5
criteria for armed intervention, all of which ignored self-determination. T
he
truest was "Are we prepared for the long term?" With British military
action continuing in Iraq, the Balkans and Sierra Leone, the Prime Minister
was at least under none of the illusions of the new Bush regime.
This imperial age is for real. The new Washington may plead an aversion to
the short-term adventurism of Bill Clinton, but America has a huge military
-
industrial-NGO interest in its prosecution. Not since the 13th century has
the Christian North had so many fortresses bestriding the Balkans, and so
large a clergy back home arguing their necessity.
The other side of this Great Divide is harder to define. It has no good bat
tle
themes. It is not "non-interventionist", let alone isolationist. It sup
ported the
Falklands conflict and Gulf War as guarding the UN principle of border
sovereignty. But it subjects interference in the internal affairs of sovere
ign
states as requiring more than Mr Blair's "might is right". Relief for
the
victims of civil wars =97 in Ethiopia, Sudan and Croatia =97 was until rece
ntly
a matter for the Red Cross.
Military intervention "to avert a humanitarian disaster" must pass a fa
r
tougher test of effectiveness and legality. It rarely does. The bombing of
civil targets in Belgrade and Baghdad came near to being a war crime, as
might NATO's supervision of continued ethnic cleansingin Kosovo. But
nobody cares. The new imperialism answers to nobody but itself.
Chile's difficult struggle with its past was hijacked 3 years ago in Lond
on
by a group of international lawyers. They did not dare to confront anyone
from America, true architect of the Pinochet atrocities. America is too
powerful. Instead Chile was confronted and its sovereignty infringed.
Britain first abused the general's immunity and then refused to let his o
wn
Government try him before his own people.
For once the interventionists failed. General Pinochet will be tried, if he
lives long enough, by his own. In Lugard's terms, Chile has proved itself
robust. This has been a small victory for non-intervention, but one not lik
ely
to be repeated. Ranks of lawyers and soldiers are eager to become global
"untouchables".
At present they refuse to tolerate the democracy that toppled Serbia's
Slobodan Milosevic trying him or otherwise holding him to account at home.
He is their crook, not Belgrade's. Yugoslavia is therefore ordered to
surrender its past leader out of its jurisdiction to the absurdly partisan
war
crimes tribunal at The Hague. If doing so undermines Serb democracy,
nobody cares. In the new world order there is no accountability and no
doctrine of proportionality. Dislike its edicts and Nato can always drop
more bombs. That is the new divide. (The London Times - Opinion)
MICHAEL TURNER =0F
(mykelturner@airmail.net)
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=======
To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) BARAK PROPOSED
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:19:34 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 13:07:46 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: BARAK PROPOSED FULL
SCALE ATTACK AGAINST
SYRIAN ARMY IN 1982
BARAK PROPOSED FULL SCALE ATTACK AGAINST SYRIAN ARMY IN 1982
Excerpted from "Ehud Barak's war of choice"
Amir Oren - Haaretz Friday, January 8, 1999
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=17&datee=1/
8/99&id=37641
...
In the coming months, Barak will describe his security-related "red
lines" before every possible audience - "a united Jerusalem under
our sovereign rule, Israel's eternal capital," "no return to the
1967 borders" (in somewhat amended form), "no modern army west of
the Jordan" (i.e., Israel will accept the establishment of a
Palestinian state with its own armed security force, but no air
force or armored troops), and "a majority of settlers residing in
settlement clusters under Israeli rule" (i.e., as part of the
permanent status arrangement, a small number of settlements will be
removed).
Israel's other front - Syria - has been omitted from this security
platform. This raises the troubling question of whether, after the
elections, as part of some new alliance (such as a political pact
with Sharon), Barak might try to bring Israel's forces out of
Lebanon not by the short route and diplomatic means, but rather in
a long, eastern flanking movement, through Syria.
This concern is not without foundation: it is firmly grounded in
ideas raised by Barak himself shortly before the Lebanon War, while
he was serving as head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Planning
Division. Barak was then 40, the youngest of the IDF's
major-generals. He was also a favorite of Defense Minister Ariel
Sharon, whose protectiveness toward Barak outweighed the
animosity of then Chief-of-Staff Rafael Eitan. Since "truth" and
"credibility" are both key words for Barak, he must have meant what
he wrote then. He will now have to work very hard to explain his
attempts to accommodate Sharon's opinions back in 1982 as no
more than an effort to kowtow to "Big Arik," then perceived as a
tremendous force whose climb to the top was unstoppable.
A private memo Barak addressed to Sharon in March 1982, which
recently fell out of a faded military file on its way to the
archives, reveals a dangerous facet of Barak's character: his
willingness to take part in a scheme intended to mislead not only
the enemy, but also Israel's citizens, soldiers and elected
officials. Barak can now argue that David Ben Gurion, aided by
Dayan and Shimon Peres, embraced similar tactics in preparation for
the 1956 Sinai Campaign. Times, however, have changed. The failure
of Menachem Begin, Sharon and Rafael Eitan in the "war of choice"
in Lebanon occurred, among other reasons, because they failed to
acknowledge the differences between the 1950s and the 1980s.
Barak did not so much object to war in Lebanon as he advocated
war in Syria. "We may now be in a unique historical situation," he
urged Sharon. "The Syrians are isolated, and their potential allies
will join them considerably late, if at all." He claimed that
Operation Oranim, as the invasion of Lebanon was originally called,
would not succeed in achieving even its most minimal goal -
preventing the PLO from shelling Israeli territory - if Israel did
not overtake some territory controlled by the Syrians. The
operation's more far-reaching goals, Barak wrote, were "the
destruction of infrastructure throughout Lebanon, including in
Beirut, and an alliance with the Christians," and these, he argued,
made "a struggle with the Syrians in Lebanon" all but inevitable.
Even if there was "some lasting change in the structure of the
Lebanese regime" in the form of Christian rule, Barak claimed, this
change might easily be undone if "all of the forces operating
within Lebanon, including the Christians, as well as Syria" were
not made clearly aware of the IDF's superiority in "using force."
Since the Syrian surface-to-air missiles in the Lebanon Valley
posed a danger to Israel's aerial freedom and to the "credibility
of our deterrence," as Barak put it, these missiles also needed to
be attacked from the air. This, however, was not all; Barak further
proposed that the operation include an attack on the missiles
stationed within Syria itself, and that the outcome of this strike
serve as an opportunity for "massive use of our air and ground
forces against ground forces in Lebanon or in the Golan Heights."
Creatively gifted as ever, Barak hopped between verb tenses in an
effort to turn future into past. "Looking back from the moment when
our encounter with the Syrians is over, the decisive factor will
have been our success in beating them quickly, with minimal loss
and without becoming dependent on American weapons and stores as
soon as the fighting is over. The issue of terrorists in Lebanon
will then become a trivial episode that motivated the larger
maneuver." Swift IDF accomplishments, Barak wrote with a flourish,
would lead "the Americans to recognize quickly that a new reality
has been formed and to focus their efforts on 'postmortem
diplomacy' with a nearly vanquished Soviet client."
"At the moment," Barak admitted, "there is no national consensus
for an operation against the Syrians, except where the terrorists
are concerned - [an issue] which under certain circumstances, such
as a multi-casualty terrorist strike or a Katyusha rocket attack
on the Galilee, might lead to consensus." He further enumerated the
risks: an Israeli maneuver against Syria might bring the war
between Iran and Iraq to a halt, with Iraqi forces turning instead
to assist on the eastern front. It might also place the peace
process with Egypt in decline, causing the Egyptians to revert to
active hostility toward Israel. These, he summed up, were "vague
dangers," and did not equal the "political and economic straits"
which Israel would face if it did not go to war.
With this in mind, Major-General Barak ordered that the necessary
infrastructure and plans be prepared for "a swift operation,
1967-style, against Syria, [an operation] that will develop through
a rapid chain of events - a terrorist strike, an attack on
terrorists or on the surface-to-air missiles, and quick escalation,
surprising the Syrians and the Americans but not ourselves, into a
comprehensive strike against the Syrians." After the initial
accomplishments were achieved, there would be "further destruction
of Syrian forces by way of a very deep indirect approach through
the Lebanon Valley or by breaking through the southern Golan
Heights, if the opportunity presents itself due to the redeployment
of Syrian reserves toward Damascus or Lebanon."
Barak proposed deception on many levels, each directed at a
different audience. Washington would be dealt with through "highly
complex and delicate preliminary discussions, which will in no case
reveal the full extent of our intentions." As for the other
international powers and the Arab nations, Barak claimed that
"immediate accomplishments within 24 hours will allow us to create
a 'smokescreen,' preventing an effective response and impelling
[the different countries] to accept the new situation." The
internal Israeli sphere would best be handled by "patiently waiting
for the right time, at which there will be the maximal conditions
necessary for widespread consensus." Within four to six weeks,
Barak promised, "we can put together a plan [for preparing the
operation] which will keep the entire system - including the
internal Israeli one and the IDF - in the dark about the
possibility and intention of using it."
With typical diligence, Barak laid out a plan for those coming
weeks, one that would allow the necessary operational preparations
to be made under the guise of seemingly routine activity. Changes
would be introduced into old operational plans without actually
canceling them, leaving enough "camouflage" and "background noise"
to veil the main agenda. Initially, it would be "enough to have
five or six officers know the full extent of the plan," Barak
suggested. Later, various large-scale military exercises would be
announced as a veiled way of preparing both reservist and regular
units for the operation. All these preparations would be explained
as "changes in the work plan intended to improve our readiness for
summer."
The plan would be discussed with IDF officers as strictly a "drawer
plan" (with the exception of the select handful mentioned above).
Barak further recommended that the plan be concealed from various
political figures (the majority of ministers? the prime minister?),
since "the entire matter is very grave and requires comprehensive
consideration. Furthermore, in light of the problems inherent in
the use of mass force for the purpose of effecting change [in the
international situation], it may be difficult to discuss [the
operation] explicitly and while clearly identifying its goals even
within the political echelon."
All these preparations would come to nothing if the PLO held back:
The meal of which it was only the appetizer, with Syria the main
course, would not be served. In that event, Barak suggested, it
might be possible "in indirect ways to influence the forming of a
chain [of events] leading to an anti-terrorist strike."
When recently asked about the essence of what has been reported
here, Barak did not deny it. Do the ideas he raised in 1982 prove
that he is no better than Netanyahu? If a young major-general,
eager to become chief of staff, cooperates with the follies of a
defense minister, should he be considered unworthy of the state's
highest civil office 15 years later?
The answer is no, provided that Barak has been weaned of the
childish illusion that political goals of this sort can be achieved
through military means. The lessons he himself learned in Lebanon,
fighting the Syrian army, should have contributed to this
disillusionment. Like Sharon and Eitan, Barak - putting together a
clumsy plan intended to veil hidden motives - could not predict how
miserably the IDF land forces would fail, and how little the
civilian population would be willing to tolerate deception.
The Lebanon War was scheduled to begin on May 17 - now the
target date of Barak's coveted victory - and indeed involved duping
the Israeli government (which refused to authorize it in May and
was dragged into it in June), the IDF soldiers and the entire
Israeli people. It did not develop according to the outline
suggested by Barak. Barak was also not among those - Begin, Sharon,
Eitan, some of their government colleagues, other chief IDF and
Mossad officials - held most accountable for what later occurred.
Had Sharon remained in office, Barak might have climbed the ladder
faster; even without Sharon, however, he fared quite well, and
after filling three other positions as major general was promoted
to chief of staff.
--------------------------------------------
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] BNI.Priority News 4,5,6 (2/01/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:22:50 -0500
1. Terror victim dies of his wounds in Afula Hospital
(BNI-FEB.1) Lior Atiya, 23, from Afula, who arrived in the PA autonomous
city of Jenin on Thursday afternoon, died of his injuries. The reason for
Atiya traveling to Jenin, accompanied by his Israeli Arab friend, remains
unclear at present. It is believed he was trying to recover his car that
was stolen or seeking to repair his vehicle.
It is being reported that the attack occurred by the Salim IDF checkpoint,
an area under PA civil and Israeli security control, Oslo designtion "B
".
Atiya was shot three times in the chest and abdomen and was initially
treated on the scene by Red Crescent emergency medical personnel, then
taken to a PA hospital and with the intervention of the IDF District
Coordinating Office, transferred to HaEmek Hospital in Afula where he died
of his injuries on the operating table a short time after.
Lior's leaves behind his parents and three sisters.
****
2. Fatah gets tough on Israeli boycott
(BNI-FEB.1) Fatah activists in PA autonomous areas are beginning to
enforce the boycott of Israeli goods in stores. Any and all goods
manufactured in Israel are being boycotted. As the PA issues statements
indicating its willingness to resume peace negotiations, the efforts
towards achieving a total boycott of Israeli goods is underway.
****
3. Woman injured in Hebron stone-throwing attack
(BNI-FEB.1) A woman was injured lightly in a stone-throwing attack near
the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron early Thursday afternoon. She was
treated and released on the scene by military medical personnel.
****=09
4. President calls upon Egypt to return its ambassador
(BNI-FEB.1) President Moshe Katzav on Thursday, during a visit to the
Egyptian border area, issued a call to President Hosni Mubarak to return
Egypt's ambassador to Israel who was recalled in light of Cairo's
objection to Israeli forces using force against Arab rioters in the
Intifada.
Egyptian officials accused Israel of "using deadly force against innocent
Palestinians," condemning the IDF's use of gunfire which has led to the
injuring and deaths of many PA residents.
Katzav was quoted as saying that Israel's dispute is with the PA and not
with the Arab/Moslem world.
*****
5. MDA ambulance attacked by Arab stone-throwers
(BNI-FEB.1) A Magen David Adom ambulance was attacked by Arab
stone-throwers at the northern Jerusalem Aram Junction. There were no
reported injuries but the vehicle sustained damage.
Since the start of the PA-orchestrated violence on Sept. 29, 2000, over
fifty ambulances have been damaged partially or totally in Islamic
attacks. As a result of the increasing number of attacks against
ambulances, all MDA ambulances in the Jerusalem District have been
outfitted with shatterproof windows in place of the factory glass.
****
6. PA submits fatality report to UN
(BNI-FEB.1) The PA on Thursday submitted an official report to the United
Nations -- reporting that since the start of the =91Al Aqsa' Intifada on
Rosh Hashanah eve, on Sept. 29, 2000, 395 persons were killed, 213 in
Judea and Samaria, 182 in Gaza and 13 inside the "Green Line" inside
"Israel proper".
The PA also reported that 13,800 persons have been injured in ongoing
clashes with Israeli forces.
****
7. High school student stabbed in Bat Yam school
(BNI-FEB.1) A 17-year-old Bat Yam high school student was stabbed in his
school on Thursday afternoon by other students. He was transported to a
local hospital in moderate condition.
****
8. GSS completes interrogation of Israeli Arab who accompanied terror
victim
(BNI-FEB.1) The GSS (General Security Service/Shin Bet) has completed
interrogating Muhmad Zuabi, an Israeli Arab citizen who accompanied his
friend Lior Atiya to Jenin earlier in the day. Atiya was shot and killed
but Zuabi was permitted to leave the PA autonomous area unharmed.
Zuabi told GSS interrogators that Lior was killed several meters from the
checkpoint entering into the autonomous city, adding he came to the
location to take his car out of the repair shop.
Zuabi is employed as a driver in a local transportation firm.
****
9. Attacks continue in Gaza
(BNI-FEB.1) IDF soldiers operating near the Rafiah border crossing to
Egypt escaped injuries when an explosive device was detonated against
them. They returned fire in the direction of the terrorists.
Earlier in the day, soldiers operating in southern Gaza at the community
of Neve Dekalim, were attacked by gunfire. There were no reported
injuries. Soldiers returned fire.
****
10. Jewish residents of Yesha arrested by Israel Police
(BNI-FEB.1) Israel Police on Thursday afternoon arrested three Yesha
residents, two adults and a juvenile. They are suspected of overturning
stalls belonging to Arab merchants in the marketplace in Hebron adjacent
to the Jewish Quarter during the night.
****
11. Yesha residents protest at Ayosh Junction
(BNI-FEB.1) Three Yesha residents were detained by Israel Police during a
demonstration on Thursday afternoon at Ayosh Junction, on the northern
border of the PA autonomous city of Ramallah and south of the Jewish
community of Beit El.
Police report the three failed to comply with police orders and blocked
the flow of vehicular traffic.
Residents were protesting the continued deterioration in the security
situation, accompanied by daily shooting attacks against Israeli motorists.
----------------
1. PM Barak nixes renewed talks with PA
(BNI-FEB.1) The Prime Minister's Office on Thursday evening issued a
statement indicating that Prime Minister/Defense Minister Ehud Barak would
not be attending any peace negotiations with the PA prior to Election Day
on Tuesday, Feb.6.
There was speculation that a high level summit would take place in Cairo
on Sunday, attended by Mr. Barak and PA Chairman Yassir Arafat. Arafat
indicated a willingness to meet before Election Day providing the
participants were entrusted to sign any agreement reached at such a
summit.
Aides to the prime minister indicated that following the murder of another
Israeli on Thursday by terrorists, coupled by the uncertainty of the PA's
intentions vis-a-vis another pre-election meet, Mr. Barak has decided that
the two leaders would not sit down with one another prior to the elections.
Analysts explain that Arafat is increasingly anxious to meet in the hope
of reaching some type of agreement with Israel. It is being explained that
with the polls showing opposition leader Ariel Sharon maintaining a double
digit lead just days before the election, Arafat is well aware that it
would be easier to obtain last minute concessions from the outgoing
administration than from a right-wing Likud government led by Sharon.
****
2. Soldiers attacked by gunfire at Mount Eval
(BNI-FEB.1) IDF soldiers were attacked by gunfire at Mount Eval in
northern Samaria on Thursday evening. There were no reported casualties.
Soldiers returned fire.
****
3. Soldiers attacked by gunfire in Gaza on Thursday evening
(BNI-FEB.1) IDF soldiers on Thursday evening were attacked by gunfire on
the Karnei/Netzarim road in northern Gaza. There were no reported
injuries. Soldiers returned fire.
In a later incident, a 22-year-old Arab male was shot to death in clashes
with IDF forces in the same area. According to PA sources, the shooting
was unprovoked, adding there were no disturbances in the area.
****
4. Resident of Kana stabbed to death on Thursday evening
(BNI-FEB.1) A resident of the Israeli Arab municipality of Kana was
stabbed to death on Thursday night. He was pronounced dead in Afula's
HaEmek Hospital. Police report the attack was 'criminal' and not
'terrorist' in nature. No additional details are available at the time
of
this report.
-----------------
More on el-Aroub terrorist attack
(BNI-FEB.1) It is now being reported with certainty that an Israeli
motorist has been killed on the Jerusalem Hebron road near the el-Aroub
refugee camp, north of Hebron. The refugee camp is under Israeli security
control, Oslo designation "B".
Preliminary reports based on evidence on the scene and eyewitness reports
indicate the victim was traveling alone in his vehicle when he was fired
upon from a passing car which fled the scene. Motorists traveling behind
the victim's vehicle, a Peugeot, witnessed the incident and gunfire.
Ambulances were immediately summoned to the scene and they arrived
within
minutes. Emergency medical service personnel pronounced the victim dead
on
the scene. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the victim sustained a fatal
head wound but at this time, it is unknown if the wound was from the
gunfire, the car flipping over or both.
More information to follow as confirmed details of the second terrorist
attack in Israel on Thursday are released.
Following the latest attack, Yesha Council officials are demanding the
government and IDF take the necessary actions to =93remove the murderers
from the roadways, adding that daily shooting attacks are no longer an
unexpected phenomenon that cannot be eliminated or dealt with and the IDF
must be given the green light to act appropriately."
++++
IDF officer gravely wounded in training mishap
(BNI-FEB.1) An IDF officer has sustained grave injuries and two others,
another officer and a soldier, were moderately injured when a jeep
overturned in a training exercise near Yokneam on Thursday.
The driver of the jeep was trying to navigate a steep climb when the
vehicle lost control, fell several meters and flipped over.
The soldiers were transported from the scene in a military helicopter to
the trauma unit of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
****
News items published by BNI ("BreakingNews-Israel") and/or "BNI.Elect
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how to subscribe in plain view on the same page with the news.
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) NASA SCIENTISTS USE HANDS-OFF APPROACH TO LAND JET
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:24:24 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 12:10:14 -0500 (EST)
From: NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
Subject: NASA SCIENTISTS USE HANDS-OFF APPROACH TO LAND PASSENGER JET
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC February 1, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-1979)
John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
(Phone: 650/604-5026)
RELEASE: 01-12
NASA SCIENTISTS USE HANDS-OFF APPROACH TO LAND PASSENGER JET
Imagine being able to land a jumbo jet without ever
taking control of the stick. NASA scientists recently
demonstrated the ability to control a 757 passenger jet
simulation, using only human muscle-nerve signals linked to a
computer.
Scientists outfitted the pilot with an armband implanted with
eight electrodes. The sensors read muscle nerve signals as the
pilot made the gestures needed to land a computer-generated
aircraft at San Francisco International Airport in California.
The pilot also demonstrated the ability to land a damaged
aircraft during emergency landing drills. The work was
reported in the October 2000 proceedings of the World
Automation Congress.
"This is a fundamentally new way to communicate with machines
-- another way to talk with our mechanical world," said the
paper's principal author, Dr. Charles Jorgensen, head of the
neuroengineering laboratory at NASA's Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, CA. The other authors are fellow Ames
researchers Dr. Kevin Wheeler and Dr. Slawomir Stepniewski.
"This new technology is significant in that neuroelectric
control of computers can replace computer keyboards, mice and
joysticks for some uses," Jorgensen added.
"In the experiment, a pilot closes his fist in empty air,
makes movements and creates nerve signals that are captured by
a dry electrode array on his arm," said Jorgensen. "The nerve
signals are analyzed and then routed through a computer,
allowing the pilot to control the simulated airplane."
The pilot sees the aircraft and control panel projected on a
large, dome-shaped screen while flying the aircraft.
Engineers made the first prototype armband from exercise
tights, and used metallic dress-buttons as dry electrodes. "An
advantage of using neuroelectric machine control is that human
nerve signals can be linked directly with devices without the
aid of joysticks or mice, thereby providing rapid, intuitive
control," Jorgensen added. "This technology also is useful for
astronauts in spacesuits who need to control tools in space."
Neuroelectric control uses "neural net" software that "learns"
patterns that can slowly change and evolve with time, as well
as combining many patterns together to generate a response.
Nerve signal patterns, each of which is potentially as unique
as a fingerprint, are a perfect application for neural net
software. A particular nerve-signal pattern tells muscles to
move in a certain way. A computer can match each unique nerve-
signal pattern with a particular gesture, such as making a
fist or pointing. Scientists designed software that can adjust
for each pilot's nerve patterns, which can be affected by
caffeine use, biorhythms, performance stress and the amount of
fat under the skin.
To demonstrate bioelectric muscle control of the simulated 757
airplane during emergencies, researchers combined this
technology with two other NASA developments, the ability of
the neural net software to learn to fly damaged airplanes, and
propulsion-only landing of aircraft.
In about one-sixth of a second, a computer onboard a damaged
aircraft can "relearn" to fly a plane, giving the pilot better
control. Severe damage, such as partially destroyed wings,
fuselage holes or sensor failures greatly alter how an
airplane handles, and a pilot's controls may respond oddly or
might not work at all, according to Jorgensen.
"When we combined the three technologies, the
neuroelectrically wired pilot took the simulated aircraft into
landing scenarios with a cascading series of accidents, first
locking rudder controls and then progressing to full hydraulic
failure," said Jorgensen. "For each case, successful landings
were demonstrated for autopilot, damaged and propulsion-only
control."
Images to illustrate this release are available at:
http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2001/01images/bioelectri
c/bioelectric.html
-end-
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Voices from India
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 18:24:50 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 11:37:37 -0800
Subject: Voices from India
To: "Nightline Mailing List" <nightlinemail-l@alist0.starwave.com>
From: Nightline <listeditor@abcnews.go.com>
[ Double-click this line for list subscription options ]
TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: The India earthquake seen through the eyes of the
ABCNEWS team that covered the disaster.
It's a strange experience to go in somewhere to cover a disaster. To some
extent, journalists suffer from some of the same problems faced by the
survivors of an earthquake or hurricane or flood. No power. No food or
water available. Usually those disasters strike suddenly. We at least get
to prepare before we go in. We can usually take in water and food,
generators, all of that stuff. Even with all that, it can be uncomfortable
and unpleasant, you work around the clock, may not be able to bathe, or
get enough to eat. But what really sets us apart from the victims of a
quake, for instance, is that we know that we are going to leave
eventually. We will get to go home, take a hot shower, have a good meal,
at some point. You can get through just about anything in life if you know
that it's going to end soon.
It's different if it is your house that is destroyed. I lived in Miami
when Hurricane Andrew hit. Our house was okay, but the yard was wiped
pretty clean. I remember being out front, trying to clear enough trees out
of the way so that I could get out of my driveway and go cover the storm.
While I was working, a car drove by slowly with someone in the back
filming all of the damage, including me, on a home video camera. I was
furious. The irony, of course, is obvious. I have never forgotten that.
But as disasters go, the India quake is among the worst ever. As a
journalist, you also see things that will haunt you forever. The
destruction. The agony of the survivors trying to save a loved one when
everyone knows that it is futile. And the bodies of the dead. All of
that can become overwhelming too. In many cases, the survivors have
nothing left. No food, no power, no water, no place to sleep. Again, what
they have gone through is far worse than what the journalists covering the
quake will face. But on that front, it has been one of the most difficult
situations that our team there has ever had to go through. They have been
working out of an old bus. Sleeping outside, eating some biscuits and
water, no place to clean up, and working almost around the clock. They are
exhausted. All that, and trying to cope with the story itself. It doesn't
leave much opportunity to recharge your physical and emotional batteries.
You're all used to hearing from a correspondent. But tonight we're going
to hear from the entire ABCNEWS team that is in India covering the quake.
The producers, the cameramen, the editor. We're going to let them tell us
what they saw, what it was like to cover something like this, what effect
it has had on them. Their stories are very, very strong. They're on their
way out today to a city in India that was not damaged so that they can
rest and regroup. I don't know exactly how they feel about that, but I
imagine that they are thrilled. But when I have been in situations like
that, I have always felt a little guilt mixed in with the relief. We get
to leave. The victims don't. But then I would get in the shower and feel
like one of the luckiest people around.
Thursday, Feb. 1, 2001
Leroy Sievers
Executive Producer
Nightline Offices
Washington, D.C.
---
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] India quake crumbled monuments
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 18:26:25 -0500
*** India quake crumbled monuments
AHMEDABAD, India (AP) - India's massive earthquake struck a
history-rich region, collapsing ancient mosques and palaces,
cracking Hindu temples and burying priceless relics in museums.
Gujarat state, where Friday's magnitude-7.7 quake hit hardest, was a
center of India's tourism industry filled with monuments and
artifacts ranging from the ancient Indus Valley civilization to the
British colonial era. "Historical monuments have taken a sound
beating. The 15th and 16th century structures are the worst
affected," said architect and conservationist Ravindra Vasavada.
Officials said the quake badly hurt the area's tourism industry,
which attracts 70,000 foreign and 5 million domestic travelers each
year. A fortified section in the opulent former palace of 15th
century emperor Ahmed Shah collapsed in a heap of debris. Another
tower suffered deep cracks and seemed on the verge of collapse,
forcing authorities to close off the area. The earth's movement
collapsed domes in several royal sandstone tombs, knocked large
panels of ornate architecture askew and wrenched gaping cracks in
ancient mosques.
via: Infobeat News
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Weekend News Today items (2/1/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 18:38:06 -0500
Hezbollah: 'Quality operation' planned against Israel
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Ha'aretz
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- A senior source in Hezbollah said Thursday that the
organization was planning a "quality operation" against Israel, which will
stray from Hezbollah's usual strategy. In an article published in a Beirut
newspaper the source stated, "No one has called, neither Lebanon nor Syria,
to ask us to calm down our actions or to cease them in order to appease the
United Nations."
According to the source, Hezbollah "is convinced that any Israeli reaction to
our actions will be calculated, because Israel expects us to retaliate."
However, he hinted that the organization was worried that should Israel
attack Lebanon, Hezbollah would be accused of endangering UNIFIL's
mandate in Lebanon, which was renewed this week by the UN Security
Council, and that Lebanon would be subjected to political pressure.
Regarding Palestinian activity against Israel in southern Lebanon, the source
said, "We cannot condone the Palestinian activity south of the border, but
neither can we accept it completely." According to him, what is needed is an
"investigation and strategic synchronization according to joint interests."
Costa Rica urges US to open Jerusalem embassy
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Jerusalem Post
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Costa Rica, one of only two nations with an embassy in
Jerusalem, urged the US yesterday to follow suit and move its embassy from
Tel Aviv to the capital of Israel, Jerusalem. In an interview with The Jerusalem
Post, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Rojas said he was surprised the
US had not yet made good on its pronouncements to transfer its embassy.
Rojas said that Costa Rica's relations with several moderate Arab nations
are on the upswing, despite an Arab League call for members to ban the
import of Costa Rican goods and sever ties with the Central American
country after it moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 1982. Asked if he
believed the US should move its embassy to Jerusalem, Rojas said: "I think
it's about time they made that kind of statement." A White House
spokesman said last week that President George W. Bush - who throughout
the campaign vowed to immediately move at least the US ambassador to
Jerusalem once he took office - would direct officials to look into the matter.
"Every year the problem is less," Rojas said of the boycott. "They don't buy
officially from us, but what happens is I believe that they are not enforcing
(the embargo) because if you go into supermarkets in some of these
countries you'll find Costa Rican products that were bought from traders in
Europe." On the possibility of an Israel-Costa Rica free trade agreement,
Rojas said that the idea was only at a preliminary stage but that he hoped
the initiative would be welcomed by the Israeli government. An Israeli official
said the idea of a trade agreement with Costa Rica was something Israel
"should pay more attention to." Israel currently has full or partial free trade
agreements with - among others - the US, Canada, and the European Union.
Human genetic manipulation; the business of playing God
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: UPI
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- From a business point of view, human genetic
manipulation is more interesting than cloning, since there is likely to be a
somewhat larger market for it. Scientists say it is likely that in about 5-10
years, around the same time that human cloning becomes feasible, we will
be able to manipulate the genetic makeup of an embryo to eliminate genetic
diseases. Although such procedures are likely to be less controversial than
cloning itself, some disability groups are already working to oppose what
they see as eugenics.
We are probably about 10-15 years away from being able to manipulate the
genetic make-up of an embryo to increase the intelligence, athletic abilities
or beauty of a child. But however long it takes, by the time genetic
enhancement becomes possible, the cost of such techniques is likely to
have gone down. Compared to cloning, it will be available (more affordable) to
a much wider spectrum of the population. The political and religious
opposition to genetic enhancement may well be less than that to cloning.
And the demand to genetic manipulation is likely to be very considerable.
There would appear to be potential for maybe 200,000 genetic enhancements
per annum in the United States, 5 percent of total births. As with cloning,
there would probably also be an growing market for special schooling to
develop the child's enhanced skills. There is also a possibility of an
interesting economic effect from the enhanced children themselves, as they
grow up and enter the workforce. Thus genetic enhancement may cause a
secular increase in U.S. productivity that would put the country on a
permanently higher track of growth and prosperity. It is more than likely that
in the next generation these new businesses will appear, and will
dramatically alter the way we live and think.
Volcano Popocatepetl in Mexico remains at Alert Level 3
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Volcano World
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Several small-to-moderate sized eruptions occurred during
the past week. A pyroclastic flow halted just 8 km from the town of Santiago
Xalitzintla. The flows also caused some melting of the summit glacier. On 25
January, an ash plume, created by rockfall activity, rose to ~7 km a.s.l.
Eruptions also occured on the 27th, 28th, and 29th of January. Popocatepetl
remains at Alert Level Yellow Phase III with a 12 km-radius restricted area.
Mayon Volcano, Philippines in a high state of unrest
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Volcano World
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Location: 13.257N, 123.685E Last Updated: January 31,
2001. The Mayon volcano continues to be in a high state of unrest. 5 ash
ejections occurred on 28 January and coincided with earthquakes that
originated beneath the lava dome. Then, 2 more ash ejections were observed
on 29 January. The ash ash plumes rose up to 500 meters above the crater.
The lava dome is highly active, and tilt measurements support observations
of lava dome growth. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) readings indicate that magma is
very close to the crater.
New US Defense Secretary to attend defense forum in Germany
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: AFP
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- The new US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is
expected to try to reassure allies about US military plans, particularly the
national missile defense initiative, when he makes his first foray to Europe for
a defense forum in Germany this weekend. Rumsfeld is flying in from
Washington Saturday for the "Munich Conference on Security Policy," a two-
day gathering that is considered the military equivalent of the Davos
economic forum that is held annually in Switzerland.
Also attending are from Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer and Scharping, and as well British Defense
Secretary Geoff Hoon, French Defense Minister Alain Richard, top Russian
security advisor Ivanov, NATO Secretary General George Robertson and
former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Another major issue in Munich
should be European efforts to increase their military strength and develop a
European capacity for rapid deployment and humanitarian missions
independent of the United States.
Mudflow threat at Washington's Volcano Mt. Rainer
Weekend News Today
Lead: faith
Source: Weather.com
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Living near a volcano is playing with fire. But researchers
hope to lessen that risk with a new tool designed to help them identify areas
where volcanic eruptions could be most destructive. For example, people
living west of the still-active volcano, Washington's 14,410-foot Mount
Rainier, would face the danger of potentially deadly mudflows if an eruption
took place. Residents in the potential path of danger number 30,000 in the
Puyallup River Valley. No major cities would be directly affected. The area
hasn't been threatened like that for quite some time. The last eruption was
150 years ago, and the last mudflow was about 500 years ago.
Although USGS scientists can't predict when the volcano will erupt again,
they've found a new technique to identify sections of weakened rock that
could give way in an eruption. Their measurements pinpointed 400 million
tons of rock on the western side that have been weakened by heat and
steam. Big chunks of a mountain can give way in volcanic eruptions,
unleashing enormous mudflows, known as "lahars". The torrents can be
bolstered with lake water or flash floods caused by suddenly melted snow.
Lahars can race down a mountain at 45 mph, acting as a 100-foot-deep river
of concrete, plowing away, or burying just about anything in their paths.
Lahars killed more than 23,000 people when Colombia's Nevado del Ruiz
volcano erupted in 1985. About 5,600 years ago, mud flowed from Rainer all
the way to Puget Sound, located about 50 miles away.
In recent years, instruments have been placed on Rainier to measure the
shaking of the ground from a large mudflow, hoping to give an early warning
for evacuation. But Steve Bailey, who oversees emergency plans for Pierce
County to the west of Rainier, said, "I'm not certain I'm comfortable we can
successfully evacuate the entire valley."
Arabs call for end to Libya sanctions, but US and Britain hold firm
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: AFP
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- The Arab League led the call Thursday for a lifting of
sanctions on Libya following the verdict in the Lockerbie bombing trial, while
the United States and Britain continued to insist that Tripoli first pay
compensation to the victims' families. China, Egypt and Spain also voiced
support for an end to the sanctions, while France decided on a wait-and-see
approach. "The Security Council must take immediate steps to permanently
lift the sanctions imposed on Libya," said Esmat Abdel Meguid, secretary
general of the 22-member Arab League, which includes Libya.
EU attempt to ''lock in gains'' at Sweden summit
Weekend News Today
Source: AFP
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Sweden emerged Wednesday as the possible venue of a
snap Arab-Israeli summit that would try to lock in gains in the Middle East
peace process before next Tuesday's Israeli elections. EU foreign policy high
representative Javier Solana, speaking in the European Parliament, said
"very intensive" contacts were currently underway to get a summit off the
ground. Diplomatic sources in Brussels said a summit could be held either in
Stockholm -- capital of Sweden, which took over the rotating EU presidency
on January 1 -- or somewhere in Egypt. Solana was in Stockholm earlier
Wednesday where he met UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who among
other international figures has been working hard to set up a pre-election
summit.
Such a top-level meeting would attempt to lock in the gains already made in
the fitful peace process, to ensure that negotiations do not snap back to
square one after Tuesday's polls. "The aim is to put signatures on what's
been achieved so far," one source said on condition of anonymity. "This is
very high-level and proactive EU diplomacy, together with the United
Nations," the source said. The European Union, the biggest donor of financial
aid to the Palestinian Authority, and the major trading partner for most
countries in the region, is keen to play a bigger role in the peace process as
part of its emerging common foreign and security policy.
Swedish PM helping to arrange meeting with Barak and Arafat
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Jerusalem Post
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Swedish Prime Minister Goren Persson is helping to
arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Sunday. Goren called Arafat yesterday
to negotiate the details, Israel Radio reports. Although media reports have
said the meeting would likely take place in the Egyptian town of Sharm El
Sheikh, a change of venue is apparently being considered. According to the
report, a spokesman for the Stockholm Police said they were preparing for
the possibility that talks would take place in that city.
Israel Radio: PA ready to renew talks now, if Israel ready to sign an
agreement
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Ha'aretz
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- The Palestinian Authority announced Thursday that it is
willing to renew negotiations with Israel immediately on condition the Israeli
delegation has the authority to sign an agreement, Israel Radio reported. An
official statement released after a meeting of the Palestinian parliament in
Gaza said that the Palestinians were ready to negotiate with any Israeli
government - a reference to the upcoming elections for prime minister in
Israel. But the radio reported senior officials in the PA saying that the
election of Likud leader Ariel Sharon would be a disaster.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak is to decide Thursday whether to meet PA
Chairman Yasser Arafat at the beginning of next week, just 48 hours before
Israelis go to the polls on February 6, for a last-minute peace summit.
Official Israeli sources said the would-be summit organizers, UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan and the prime minister of Sweden, have not yet sent
Israel an official proposal detailing the summit agenda. Foreign Minister
Shlomo Ben-Ami on Wednesday told Javier Solana, the European Union's
foreign policy supremo, that Israel wants to know who will attend the summit
and what will be discussed.
Saudi Arabia set to sign security pact with Iran
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Reuters
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister Prince Nayef has said he
expects to sign a security pact with Iran this month, the latest step in
warming ties between the regional powers following years of mistrust. Iran
opposes the deployment of U.S. and Western forces in the region and is
keen to sign defence pacts with its Arab neighbours. But Gulf Arab states,
which look to the West for military support, have declined Iran's offer. Saudi
Arabia says the pact aims at fighting crime, terrorism and drug trafficking
and should not be seen as a regional defence pact. Iran is a major route for
drug trafficking from Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan to Gulf Arab
states and Europe.
12 U.S. allies to receive support for advanced medium range air-to-air
missiles
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Middle East Newsline
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Greece and Turkey will receive support for their U.S. air-to-
air missile programs. The two NATO members are part of 12 U.S. allies that
will receive the support for the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air
Missiles(AMRAAM). The missile is a key weapon for the F-16. Other
countries to receive the support are Belgium, Britain, Finland, Holland, Italy,
Korea, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain.
Iraq, Syria sign free trade accord
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Middle East Newsline
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Iraq and Syria have signed a free trade accord as part of
Baghdad's effort to break the sanctions imposed by the United Nations. The
agreement calls for an end to all customs or licenses for goods between the
two countries. The accord was signed on Wednesday by Syrian Prime
Minister Mustapha Miro and Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Egypt develops reconnaissance capability to monitor entire Middle East
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Middle East Newsline
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Egypt is developing reconnaissance capability to monitor
the entire Middle East. The capability is being developed with the United
States in what is described as a civilian effort. But Egyptian officials said
Cairo's contract with U.S. firms is the first step toward a full-scale space
reconnaissance program meant to compete with Israel. Officials said the
current space program allows Egypt to obtain satellite data in a 2,500
kilometer diameter of the southern city of Aswan. This would include most of
North Africa and the Levant.
Use of embryos and aborted baby tissues instead of stem cells proposed
Weekend News Today
Lead: Leo
Source: LifeSite.net
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- Trying to attract attention by putting forth a procedure for
genetic treatment of disorders not involving cloning human embryos,
scientists at Sheffield University believe they have a therapy that will "raise
no ethical issues". The project involves the destructive use of embryos and
tissue from aborted babies. However, rather than cloning and being forced to
manufacture huge numbers of embryos or procure tons of carnage from
abortion clinics, the project's need for human embryos and aborted babies is
decreased by a replication process. Using the method, the researchers have
developed a product for bone repair and assisting Parkinson's patients with
added brain tissue.
The cells are triggered to become "immortal" or continuously replicating and
the process has been tied to a temperature control so that when implanted
into humans, body temperature will turn off the immortal effect and thus avoid
tumors that would result with continued replication. The company set up to
profit from the research, CellFactors, announced that the bone material
called Skeletex will be ready for clinical trial within 12 to 18 months, with the
Parkinson's treatment a year or two later.
European Union may pay international abortion groups in lieu of U.S.
Weekend News Today
Lead: Leo
Source: LifeSite.net
Thu Feb 1,2001 -- The decision of US President Bush to reinstate the
Mexico City Policy, banning U.S. funding for abortion promoting groups, has
angered European Union Development Commissioner Paul Nielson. CNN
reports that Nielson suggested the EU may fund the abortion groups in lieu
of the United States. "We will if necessary fill the deficiency," he said. The
two groups hardest hit by the policy are the United Nation Population Fund
(UNFPA) and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
http://216.219.160.226/cgi-
bin/readnews.cgi?day=01_02_1&item=#981069819
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Haredi paper claims Barak will close Wall
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 18:39:16 -0500
Thursday, February 1, 2001
Haredi paper claims Barak will close Wall
By Shahar Ilan
Ha'aretz Correspondent
The Haredi campaign for Ariel Sharon as prime minister began last night with
the publication of a broadsheet newspaper that claims Prime Minister Ehud
Barak will cut short visiting hours at the Western Wall to please the
Palestinians.
Without a single quote from Sharon, nor a directive from the Council of Torah
Sages, the newspaper predicts that if Barak is elected prime minister,
Meretz leader Yossi Sarid will return to the Education Ministry and anti-
Haredi leader MK Yosef Lapid will be named interior minister.
The Palestinians would claim Deir Yassin, now known as Har Nof, home to
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and many of his supporters, says the paper, which
includes a full schedule of busing arrangements for Haredi yeshiva students
who need to get to the polls.
The paper, called Bekhi-ra, a Hebrew pun on the word "choice" to mean "a
disaster," was published by the ultra-Orthodox wing of the Sharon election
campaign. There are no quotes from Sharon himself making any promises to
the Haredim. "Go the way of the Torah to the ballot box and sanctify Heaven
and do the bidding of the sages," says the paper.
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=2/1/01&id
=108407
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Matthew: Ah-Haa!
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 21:18:52 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:48:34 -0800
From: "David
Subject: Matthew: Ah-Haa!
There appears to have been a breakthrough. Before I get to that I'll
just run through what has happened this week.
Matthew was put onto formula on Sunday night, 20mls every four hours.
Monday this was increased to 50mls and later that day to whatever he
wanted.
By Tuesday afternoon he was starting to have 'spills' after feeding
and I wondered if he was getting sick again. Wednesday afternoon he
looked pale and was becoming more difficult to 'wind' and his tummy
was becoming distended. The doctor (Simon) decided to keep his c-v
line in and to continue feeds.
Thursday evening (early Thursday morning US time) Deidre wanted
something done about the gas in his tummy before she would leave. The
nurses were unsure about this and looked for the on-duty consultant
but he was with a new-born and mother. More time ticked by and Deidre
wouldn't let up. When the consultant returned the nurse was told that
she should contact Simon James as Matthew was his baby. (Matthew is a
private patient so that he can just have the one specialist
controlling his case).*
Meanwhile Matthew was starting to use his bowels. Just as the nurse
was about to ring Simon he strolled in; he'd been elsewhere in the
hospital. Simon got excited and wanted his stool caught but Matthew
stopped. Simon then used his finger and water began to come out.
Ah haa! I think he may have an allergy to glucose. Which reminds me,
Moza: we intended to ask Simon about Matthew having honey but we kept
forgetting until we were home. Why did you suggest we ask the doctor?
So now tests will be carried out on his stool to look for glucose;
he'll have an endoscopy and then a biopsy on his tummy lining in order
to establish what type(s) of glucose he may have an allergy to; and
then, all going well, a treatment will be determined.
The coming together of Simon, Matthew, and Deidre, at that time, to
witness the water coming from Matthew, would be called serendipity by
an unbeliever. My daughter Amber (7) called it a miracle. We know that
God has responded to all of your prayers and that He has revealed this
information to Simon. If Simon had been a minute later, or if Deidre
hadn't demanded that something be done to relieve Matthew's tummy, or
if Matthew had had his nappy on, no-one would have seen the water and
I wouldn't be writing this now.
God bless you all for your prayers. Our faith is being rewarded.
Please pray that Simon's hunch is right.
God Bless,
David, Deidre, Amber and Matthew
* I thought it might be necessary to explain about private patients.
We in Australia have the health system that the US dreams about. All
health-care is free or nearly free. There are lists giving the amount
that the government will pay for each type of consultation and
treatment and if a doctor charges more then the patient pays it, but
it is not large (on a $30 fee it might be $2 or on a $2000 fee it
might be $20, that sort of thing).
Australia has also always have private health coverage. At the moment
a family is fully covered for hospital and dental etc. for $90 a
fortnight. By being in private cover you can choose your doctors and
your hospital (if it suits the doctor).
To fund our health scheme, the government takes, I think, about 3% of
our salary annually at tax time. This amount comes out of the tax
refund and is a worthwhile sacrifice to make if it means that all
people are able to have medical care as and when they need it without
huge bills hanging over their heads.
------- End of forwarded message -------
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To: <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [bprlist] (Fwd) Matthew: Ah-Haa!
From: "Beverly
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 23:52:37 -0500
Praise God for answered prayer , thanks for keeping us updated, continuing
prayer.
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Please be advised that this domain (Philologos.org) does not endorse 100 per cent any link contained herein. This forum is for the dissemination of pertinent information on an end-times biblical theme which includes many disturbing, unethical, immoral, etc. topics and should be viewed with a mature, discerning eye.