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Subject: [BPR] - (Fwd) TNS -- W/E: 8 April 2000 / 3 Nisan 5760
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 09:18:59 -0400

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From: "Lee Underwood" <fyi@tzemach.org>
Organization: Tzemach News Service
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Subject: TNS -- W/E: 8 April 2000 / 3 Nisan 5760
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Tzemach News Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A weekly update of news and events regarding the nation and people of
Israel

Week Ending: 8 April 2000 / 3 Nisan 5760

"My help comes from the L-rd, who made heaven and earth. He will not
allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He
who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." (Psalm 121.2-4)

SYRIAN TALKS BACK ON TRACK? Talks with Syria appear to be
heading toward resumption, after the US said Saturday it had received
answers from Syrian President Hafez Assad to Israeli peace proposals.
In another apparent sign of progress, the US also announced a surprise
meeting between President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak
in Washington on Tuesday.

"We have received orally a response from Assad through our embassy
in Damascus," White House spokesman Mike Hammer told THE
JERUSALEM POST. "But that is not what's driving this meeting with
Prime Minister Barak. It's fair to say the gaps have not been narrowed
on the Syrian track." He refused to comment on the content of Assad's
response.

In another surprise development that seemed to suggest a change in
the Syrian position, Foreign Minister Farouk Shara Saturday in Cairo
publicly welcomed for the first time Israel's decision to withdraw from
south Lebanon by July. Shara said that Israel had been deceiving the
world by saying Syria is opposed to an unconditional Israeli withdrawal
from Lebanon.

UN TO COORDINATE LEBANON WITHDRAWAL: Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak received a commitment on Tuesday from UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan that the United Nations will coordinate plans with
Israel in connection with an expected IDF withdrawal from Lebanon by
July under the provisions of Security Council Resolution 425 [the
Resolution can be found thru the "Suggested Links" page at our web
site. ed]. In a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy in
Geneva, Annan said the UN will use its "mandate" to implement
Resolution 425 to assist Israel in evacuating the Security Zone in south
Lebanon. The current contingent of UNIFIL troops in southern Lebanon
would work to maintain quiet when Israel redeploys to the international
border, Annan indicated, although it might be necessary to bolster the
strength of UN forces there. "I will have to discuss this matter with the
[Security] Council," he said.

Meanwhile, Lebanon on Wednesday announced conditions for its
cooperation with Israel's troop pullout from the country's south -
demands that could hamper efforts for a peaceful withdrawal by
summer. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Lebanese
President Emile Lahoud said UN troops would need to help in disarming
Palestinian terrorists and that the UN must guarantee his nation's
territorial sovereignty. Israel's deputy defense minister rejected the new
conditions and warned Thursday that without an understanding further
fighting could erupt.

BORDER WARS A POSSIBILITY: Continual Palestinian attacks are a
real possibility if Israel withdraws from Lebanon without a wider peace
agreement, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud warned Wednesday. "If
Palestinian groups tried to launch cross-border attacks in the framework
of their right to return home, do you think that the international forces
will be able to prevent daily little wars on the borders?" Lahoud's letter
asked. A group of Middle East analysts in Washington, meanwhile,
offered a sobering assessment of an increasingly likely unilateral Israeli
withdrawal from south Lebanon this summer. "Violence is possible if not
likely," said Michael Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy. While since the 1980's Lebanon has been
perceived by US policymakers as a "sideshow" to the Arab-Israeli
conflict, it is bound to move to center stage come this summer, he said.
Lahoud indicated Lebanon would not move quickly to deploy its own
forces in the area near the border vacated by Israel and take
responsibility for security.

BARAK BROKE PROMISES TO YESHA COUNCIL: The Council of
Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) has
concluded that Barak has breached the accord he negotiated with them
immediately after his election concerning his government's policies on
settlement growth. As a result, the Council decided on Monday to
establish new outposts and demonstrate at road junctions in protest of
the "drying up" of Yesha settlements, Barak's land concessions to the
Palestinian Authority and the PA/PLO's continued violation of signed
commitments. After the meeting, settlers organized teams in various
communities to recruit help for these activities in hopes of kick-starting
demonstrations within a few days. A statement issued by the Council
stated: "The council was ready to take responsibility for the dismantling
of [specific] encampments, which led to certain confrontation with the
settlers, only because it was understood that open dialogue with the
prime minister in favor of the settlement program would continue ...
Unfortunately we have seen in the past months that the government is
drying up and freezing anything to do with the settlements."

In their first high-profile action, Yesha leaders went to the Maon farm
site Wednesday to oversee the construction of a new outpost there.
They were evacuated Thursday morning by the IDF (Israel Defense
Force). Tzviki Bar-Chai, head of the South Har Hebron Regional Council,
calls for the renewal of the public struggle against the government's
intentions in Yesha. "We have no other choice," he told ARUTZ-7,
saying that the Maon episode may be just the opening shot of the
Yesha Council's new campaign. The settlers have vowed to return yet
again and will organize school field trips, tree-plantings and music
concerts over the Pesach holidays at Maon. But deputy Defense
Minister Sneh informed the Council that the Maon Farm would not be
rebuilt, and that construction in Judea and Samaria would not reconvene
as long as there are peace negotiations taking place with the
Palestinians.

HEBRON CELEBRATES NEW ARRIVALS: The Hebron Jewish
community is making last minute preparation for twelve new families
that will most likely arrive around Passover time, living in the new
structure known as Beit Nachum V'Yehuda and Beit HaShisha. Today,
there are approximately fifty families in the three main Hebron
complexes, Beit Hadassah, Avraham Avinu and Admat Yishai (Tel
Rumeida). The announcement coincides with a recent letter from Barak
to Hebron leaders, reiterating their right to live in safety and tranquility
the City of the Forefathers. The letter from Barak was sent to mark 32
years since the renewal of the Jewish presence in the city, which was
marked by a celebration on Monday in the Jerusalem Convention
Center.

THIRTY-TWO YEARS IN HEBRON! The day before Passover in 1968 a
group of families arrived at the Park Hotel in Hebron. The proprietor
rented them half of the kitchen, which they promptly koshered. The
women and children slept in the rooms; the men and boys slept in the
lobby and on the floor. It was the first Jewish Pesach in Hebron since
1936. Following the riots, massacre and exile in 1929, a small group of
Jews returned to Hebron in 1931. About thirty families lived in the city
until just after Passover, 1936, when they were expelled by the British.
Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews again had access to the first
Jewish city in Israel. In 1968 they officially came back home. Moshe
Dayan [the same person who gave the Temple Mount to the Arabs ed],
then Minister of Defense, arrived in Hebron shortly after Passover.
Following several weeks of discussions he offered the group two
choices: either be forcibly removed from the city, or go live in the Hebron
military compound, several kilometers outside the center of the city.
This building, originally a British police station, had been transformed
into the Israeli military Headquarters of Judea. It was not overly
conducive to a civilian lifestyle. Dayan must have expected that the
young families, including women and babies, would soon throw up their
arms in frustration at the poor living conditions and leave of their own
accord. Dayan was partially correct. The group did eventually leave. But
first they lived in the military headquarters for two and half years, until
the first neighborhood of the newly founded Hebron suburb, Kiryat Arba,
was completed. There was, however, a yearning to return to Hebron, to
Beit Hadassah, to the 450 year old Jewish Quarter, home of the ancient
Avraham Avinu Shul, to reside adjacent to Ma'arat HaMachpela (Cave of
the Patriarchs). Attempts were made, again and again, all leading to
failure. Only in 1979, when Menachem Begin was Prime Minister, did a
group of 10 women and 40 children succeed in setting up house in the
basement of the old medical center, Beit Hadassah, in the middle of the
city. Living in adverse conditions for close to a year, these women and
children became the nucleus of Hebron's renewed Jewish community. In
1980, following the murder of six young men outside Beit Hadassah, the
Israeli government finally gave official recognition and authorization of
Hebron's Jewish Community. The present Jewish Community of Hebron
numbers some six hundred people, including 60 families, over 300
children, and 150 post-high school yeshiva students studying at
Yeshivat Shavei Hevron in Beit Romano. The reason there aren't more
people living in Hebron is simply because of lack of space. A virtual tour
of Hebron on the Hebron web site: <http://www.hebron.org.il>

ISRAEL SEEKS UN EQUALITY: In a move to obtain the full rights of its
membership in the UN, Israel has formally asked to join a UN regional
grouping of mainly European and North American countries, diplomats
said Friday. After years of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Israeli
Ambassador Yehuda Lancry wrote to the chairman of the Western
European and Others Group asking it to consider Israel for full
membership on a temporary basis. Lancry's letter was received Friday
by the New Zealand mission, which currently chairs the group,
diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Israel isn't a
member of any regional group at the UN, which denies Israel's
membership on many UN committees, particularly the Security Council.
Israel is the only nation which has never served on the Security Council -
- the only body within the UN with any power. Far outnumbered by the
Arab states at the UN, Israel has spent years quietly trying to get into
the so-called WEOG group with the help of its main ally, the US. But it
had met resistance from some European countries. Earlier this year,
Spain reversed its opposition and decided to back Israel's membership.
Three working-level groups within the European Union followed suit,
diplomats said. But membership isn't a done deal yet and it's unclear if
European ministers as a whole, as well as the rest of the WEOG group,
are now ready to fully back membership.

US TO WITHHOLD FUNDS TO ISRAEL? The US administration thinks
it is premature to deprive Israel of aid because of its planned sale of an
advanced radar system to China, but has not ruled out such a penalty in
the future. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart's remarks to this
effect on Friday came a day after a prominent US congressman said he
would try to block financial assistance to Israel if it did not cancel the
sale, which the US fears could help give China a strategic advantage in
any future conflict with Taiwan. On Thursday, Republican representative
Sonny Callahan of Alabama, chairman of the powerful House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, said he would try
to withhold roughly $250 million out of some $3 billion in annual US
assistance to Israel.

ISRAEL RESISTED US PRESSURE IN 1960S: Former US President
Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, worried about a
threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, pressured Israel in the
mid-1960s to promise not to develop nuclear weapons. But the strategy
failed, with a White House emissary sent to Tel Aviv reporting back to
Washington that Israel is a tougher bargainer even then the Soviet
Union. Israel refused to make a commitment it considered dangerous to
its national security, according to classified documents released
Monday by the US State Department. At stake was a drive by Israel to
acquire US weapons. Johnson and his advisers agreed to sell US tanks
to Jordan while advising Israel that it should buy tanks it wanted from
Germany or Britain. The US, Israel was told, would not even consider a
weapons sale unless Israel accepted four conditions: 1) Tell its US
supporters that Israel accepted sale of tanks to Jordan; 2) Promise not
to develop nuclear weapons; 3) Agree to Atomic Energy Agency
inspection of its facilities; and 4) Agree not to take pre-emptive action
against Arab projects to divert Jordan River water. When Israel would
not budge, despite what was described as a Rusk presentation that was
"to the point of rudeness," Johnson decided to sell Israel military
equipment comparable to what the US was providing Jordan. In return,
Israel promised in March 1965 not to be the first nation to introduce
nuclear weapons in the Middle East, and the US promised to sell Israel
military equipment comparable to what Jordan was receiving if the
buckling German deal fell through.

CHILDREN SUFFER AT ARAFAT'S HANDS: The PA/PLO is denying
medical assistance to three Palestinian children suffering from
Gaucher's disease, a rare inherited illness, because the company
willing to provide the treatment is Israeli. Genzyme, the manufacturer of
the drug, said the company was offering the drugs free of charge and
requesting in return that the PA/PLO provide a formal letter saying that
it would meet in the future to discuss long-term treatment for the
children. Despite months of effort, the PA/PLO has failed to provide the
necessary letter.

UPDATES: Regarding the whitewashing of the ambulance for the Pop's
visit, Moshe Kempinski (JERUSALEM INSIGHTS: www.shorashim.net):
"The official explanation was that this was standard procedure and that
in fact it was done in every country. This was done, as it was felt to be
unsightly tohave an ambulance following the pope's entourage. I tended
to believe this report and then I watched the Pope's visit in Gaza. And
sure enough ... right after the Pope's car -- after two security cars -- was
an ambulance with a bright Red Crescent -- the Muslim Red Cross. On
the Net: Magen David Adom http://www.magendavidadom.org American
Red Cross http://www.redcross.org International Committee of the Red
Cross http://www.icrc.org International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Cross Societies http://www.ifrc.org

Reagarding the article last week about the PROTOCOLS OF THE
ELDERS OF ZION, a letter from AISH.COM states: "As you may have
heard, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com are selling THE PROTOCOLS
OF THE ELDERS OF ZION. This book is proven to be a total
fabrication, a libelous forgery purporting to be the discussions of Jewish
leaders plotting to take over the world and reduce non-Jews to slavery ...
PROTOCOLS is the forerunner of modern anti-Semitic literature and has
been a major weapon in the arsenals of hate groups around the world.
Hitler cited it prominently in MEIN KAMPF and made it an official
centerpiece of Nazi propaganda. Now PROTOCOLS is being sold by
credible companies like Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, lending
legitimacy to these lies and empowering hate mongers to continue their
evil ways. What can you do? Sign the petition at:
<http://aish.com/issues/protocols_petition.asp>, calling on these
companies to cease being a partner in this fraudulent venture that has
cost thousands of lives. The petition will be presented to the CEO's of
Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

THIS WEEK IN JEWISH HISTORY: This material has been adapted
from BEYOND TIME AND HISTORY by Eli Birnbaum

4 April 1909: Hashomer, the first Jewish self-defense organization is
founded to protect Jewish settlements in pre-state Israel. Many of its
members were recent arrivals from Russia who had organized self-
defense organizations in Russia during the progroms five years earlier. It
was eventually absorbed into the Haganah.

5 April 1533: Pope Clement VII, in an effort to stop the Inquisitions, acts
against new Christians in Portugal, and issues the "Bulla de Perdao",
essentially a pardon for all past offenses. Unfortunately the pope died a
few years later and the Inquisition was officially established.

5 April 1775: Pope Pious VI, partly in reaction to the reformation issues
the "Editto sopra gli ebrei". This proclamation of Pious VI reinstituted all
former anti-Jewish legislation. The forty-four clauses included prohibition
of possessing Talmudic writings, erection of gravestones, forbidding
Jews from passing the night outside the ghetto, under pain of death, and
more. The regulations were in effect until the arrival of Napoleon army 25
years later.

7 April 1933: The term "Nichtarier" ("non-Aryan") became a legal
classification in Germany. This made it "legal" to discharge Jews from
positions in many of the professions.

(Sources: JERUSALEM, POST, ICEJ, ARUTZ-7, ISRAELWIRE, H-PPF,
AP, HA'ARETZ)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tzemach News Service
"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest" Isaiah 62:1

Tzemach News Service is a ministry of Tzemach Institute for Biblical Studies <http://www.tzemach.or
g>

'TNS.' may be reproduced & distributed in any form. Please give proper credit.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - NASA-European effort sees significant arctic ozone loss
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 10:22:33 -0500

NASA-European effort sees significant arctic ozone loss

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER NEWS RELEASE
April 7, 2000

Ozone losses of over 60 percent have occurred in the
Arctic stratosphere near 60,000 feet (18 km) in one of the
coldest winters on record. This is one of the worst ozone
losses at this altitude in the Arctic. Investigations into
the Arctic stratosphere have provided better insights into
the processes that control polar ozone. These insights
considerably add to our ability to predict ozone levels in
the future as chlorine levels decline as a result of the
Montreal Protocol, and as greenhouse gases increase.
Climate change in the stratosphere will likely enhance
ozone losses in the Arctic winter in the coming decades as
chlorine levels decrease.

-- more --

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0004/07ozoneloss/

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