To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Europe warns PA against unilateral declaration
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 09:03:23 -0400

Sunday, August 13, 2000

Europe warns PA against unilateral declaration

                  By Amnon Barzilai
                  Ha'aretz Defense Correspondent

Meeting separately with acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and PA
Chairman Yasser Arafat, European leaders have indicated opposition to a
unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood. The lack of European
enthusiasm for such a declaration has compelled Arafat to abandon plans to
declare a Palestinian state on September 13, Israeli officials believe.

Responding to these developments, Prime Minister Barak has revised his
peace process timetable, targeting the end of September as the deadline for
completing talks with the Palestinians.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer voiced opposition to a unilateral
Palestinian statehood move in a phone conversation with Ben-Ami. Fischer
said that in light of the progress he believes was made at Camp David, such
a PA declaration would not be warranted. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin
told Arafat he should not issue a unilateral declaration.

In a discussion with Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, Ben-Ami asked
Spain to pressure other members of the European Union to avoid expressing
support for unilateral Palestinian action. Spain should tell EU members, Ben-
Ami said, that such a move would cause irreversible harm to the peace
process. Foreign Minister Pique promised Ben-Ami that Spain would work to
ensure that the EU coordinates its moves on the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process with the United States.

Diplomatic sources said yesterday that two conclusions can be drawn from
Ben-Ami's talks with European leaders. First, the Europeans are favorably
disposed to positions espoused by Barak at Camp David, and have praise for
the prime minister's courage. Second, in some European countries, leaders
express unease with Arafat's demand that the Palestinians be given control
of Christian holy places in Jerusalem.

In contrast to Ben-Ami's reported success in Europe, Arafat's demand that
the international community back the positions taken by the PA at Camp
David has stirred little response (see story, Page 2). While meeting with
European leaders to explain Israel's positions at the Camp David summit,
acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami has restarted talks with
Palestinians.

In secret conversations, Israel and the Palestinian Authority are reviewing
possible compromise formulas regarding control of holy sites in Jerusalem.
The talks are being held in Europe, as well as in the PA areas.

Sources say that Ben-Ami, who (unlike his predecessor David Levy) took
part in the Camp David summit, will involve Israeli diplomatic colleagues in
the new round of talks.

According to some reports, Ben-Ami met with senior PA official Nabil
Sha'ath in Barcelona. This has not been confirmed by his aides.

Meanwhile, a scheduled meeting in Oslo between Arafat and Minister
Shimon Peres was been canceled. At Barak's request, Peres has departed
for the Far East, to explain Israel's views on the peace process. He will start
in Indonesia, and then continue to Japan and China.

Diplomatic sources were skeptical this weekend about the prospect of a
breakthrough in the peace process, saying that there is no evidence that the
Palestinians have altered their positions in a manner conducive to renewed
negotiations.

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=08/13/00&
id=88908

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Tzemach News items (8/12/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 09:09:37 -0400

MOURNING FOR THE TEMPLE MOUNT: The Temple Mount and Land of
Israel Faithful Movement were turned back from the Temple Mount Thursday
as they tried to go up to pray. The Temple Mount was closed by Jerusalem
Police after dozens of Palestinian youths, led by PLO Jerusalem
representative Faisal Husseini and MK Ahmed Tibi (Arab Renewal), hurled
insults at members of the Temple Mount Faithful. As several Temple Mount
Faithful members, led by founder Gershon Salomon, reached the Mugrabi
Gate under police escort, the Palestinians met them with chants and of
"Allah Akbar" (god is great) and "With blood and sweat we'll redeem you,
Palestine." "Today the true battle on the Temple Mount begins," Salomon
said. "Enemies of the Temple Mount ... will disappear like dust in the wind."
The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled on several occasions that the Temple
Mount Faithful group must be allowed to go up on the Temple Mount.
However, Jerusalem police continually give in to the Waqf (Moslem authority
on the Temple Mount). To hear an interview with Gershon Salomon and
members of the Movement, go to:
<http://www.jpradio.com/asx/00810tem.asx>. You will need a Windows
Media Player. To obtain one, go to:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/download/Win32Otherx8
6.asp>.

Salomon was on the Temple Mount in 1967 when it was liberated. At that
time a mysterious "person" appeared to them. He encouraged them and gave
them detailed information about the Temple Mount. For further information,
go to: <http://www.templemountfaithful.org/s5760.htm#HEADER6>.

The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement is dedicated to
liberating the Temple Mount from Arab (Islamic) occupation and to cleanse
it from pagan shrines. They look forward to consecrating the Temple Mount
to the Name of G-d. They do NOT advocate doing this by violent means.

Gershon Salomon will be traveling throughout the United States and Canada
on a speaking tour August 14 - September 21 2000. For information
regarding a contact person in your area, call Laura O'Bryant at
407.678.1653. You may also send an email request to:
<jimobryant@aol.com>.
He will also be at our prophecy conference January 31-February 2, 2001.
Call 407.699.1011
for further information.

"There is a sound of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon, to
declare in Zion the vengeance of the L-rd our G- d, vengeance for His
Temple" (Jeremiah 50.28)

US DEMANDS CONTROL OF ISRAELI ARMS DEALS: An Israeli delegation
discussing US requests for limitations to Israeli military technology transfers
returned home from Washington without an agreement Saturday. The
delegation, headed by Defense Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron, also
failed to convince the Americans to agree to an Israeli demand that in return
for further US say on Israeli military exports, Israel would be consulted on
plans to export military hardware to Arab countries. Talks on the limitations
that the US would like to impose on the transfer of Israeli military technology
were described as extremely tough. The Pentagon is leading the most
extreme positions on the issue, apparently under the guidance of Secretary
of Defense William Cohen. According to the American demand, any deal
with a group of 27 countries, many of them in Asia, would not go through
until Washington had given the green light. Israel is arguing that its
sovereignty is being challenged by the unprecedented demand. The feeling in
the Israeli camp is that Clinton's promises at the end of Camp David are not
being translated favorably into deeds by administration officials.

CALLS FOR JIHAD: Yasir Abd_Rabbuh, PA/PLO culture and information
minister and member of the negotiation team, has warned against tampering with the
al-Aqsa Mosque. He said: "If Israel wants to go into war with the Arabs
and Muslims for a hundred more years, let it carry out what these
'extremists' are plotting against the holy al-Aqsa Mosque and build a
synagogue there." Abd-Rabbuh underscored that there is no alternative to
total Palestinian sovereignty over east Jerusalem, including all its
neighborhoods, the old town, and the Islamic and Christian sites there.

Seven hundred members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Action Front
marched in Zarqa, north of Amman, Friday and called for a "holy war
against the occupier" of Jerusalem and backing for Hamas, which opposes
the Arab_Israeli peace process. They also condemned as "a traitor" any
Arab who agrees to "yield one inch" of east Jerusalem.

A Gaza paper, AL-ISTIQLAL, opined the following last week: "when the
Palestinians express their misgivings over the US proposals, Washington
started threatening. To further insult us, the US Democratic presidential
candidate has chosen an extremist Jew as his running vice president. The
important thing is to gain time and to utilize all the resources for
uniting Arab ranks and unifying their position. In fact, there is nothing
that can create a cohesive rank and a unified position better than the
spark of the Jihad against the occupiers and invaders. We believe that all
the Palestinians are still capable of doing so."

THE YESHA COUNCIL CAMPAIGN: The Yesha Council - the unified
representative body of the 144 Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - began a
week-long campaign Monday of actively showing what were, or are, to be
"Barak's concessions" to the Palestinian Authority. The Yesha Council took
up key positions along the "Green Line," the pre-1967 border of Israel
that reduces Israel's width to nine miles in certain areas. The Council
placed signs at the following junctions: Kesem near Petach Tikva, Latrun
west of Jerusalem, Ayal near Kfar Saba, and Beit Lid near Netanya. The
signs read, "Little Israel," "Palestine," "Stop, Border Ahead," and
"Caution! You are driving on a road exposed to gunfire." Tuesday,
thousands of bottles of drinking water were distributed to residents of
the Tel Aviv area with the label reading; "Judea and Samaria - the
Kinneret of Tel Aviv." The label explains that while the Kinneret
supplies 500 million cubic meters of fresh drinking water annually, the
aquifers in Judea and Samaria supply 600 million of the same. Some 70% of
Israel's citizens drink water from Yesha. "This is not a gimmick- this is
real life!" stated Yehudit Tayar, head of the Yesha Council's foreign
desk. "The unprecedented concessions that Barak is willing to grant to
Arafat endangers all of the citizens of Israel."

Week Ending: 12 August 2000/11 Av 5760
http://www.tzemach.org/fyi

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Hungry Wolves Kill 20 Sheep After Forest Fire in Portugal
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 09:40:08 -0500

Aug 12, 2000 - 03:28 PM

Hungry Wolves Kill 20 Sheep After Forest Fire in Portugal

LISBON, Portugal (AP) - A pack of wolves apparently searching for
food after fires engulfed their forest killed a flock of 20 sheep
Saturday in a northern Portuguese village.

The attack occurred at dawn in the area of Lamego, about 185 miles
northeast of Lisbon. The wolves probably had come looking for food
because forests near the village were hit by blazes, 40-year-old
shepherd Manuel Porfirio told the national news agency Lusa.

"I don't remember ever seeing anything like this," Porfirio said.

Forest fires are a regular feature of Portugal's warm and windy
summers. Nearly 56,850 acres of Portuguese land have burned since
January, according to the national forest service.

via: hblondel@tampabay.rr.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Earthquakes, eruptions give Japan the jitters
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 09:40:54 -0500

Earthquakes, eruptions give Japan the jitters

TOKYO (August 11, 2000 12:05 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
Will Japan survive the summer? For more than a month, daily
earthquake bulletins have flashed across TV screens, sometimes every
half hour. Several quakes have been so strong that national
broadcaster NHK has thrown out normal programming and switched to
emergency warning mode.

Moreover, three volcanoes have belched large eruptions in the past
four months.

Although Japan is one of the world's most earthquake- and
eruption-prone countries, a flurry of extraordinary activity lately
is fraying the nation's nerves.

Japan's jitters continued Thursday, as a volcano on an island off
Tokyo erupted for the fourth time in a month, sending black ash into
the sky and forcing the evacuation of more than 600 residents.

The eruption of Mount Oyama on Miyakejima, a small resort island with
a population of 4,000, was its biggest since 1990.

It was not unexpected.

Over the past two months, seismographs on Miyakejima and other
islands in the Izu chain have recorded tens of thousands of
earthquakes believed to be the result of shifts in huge underground
pools of magma.

Nearly 12,000 of the quakes have been strong enough to be felt, and
some have even swayed buildings in Tokyo and neighboring Yokohama,
120 miles away.

The strong quakes automatically send Japan's emergency warning system
into motion, resulting in news flashes and cautions of possible
quake-caused tidal waves.

Scientists believe the activity in Izu will continue, but admit they
are having trouble predicting what will happen.

"We expect the same level of activity to continue," said Yoshifumi
Niide of the Central Meteorological Agency. "But prediction regarding
volcanoes is difficult."

To the legions of nervous Japanese seeking reassurance, that's not
much consolation.

"I get worried that an earthquake will hit Tokyo, too," said Yoshiko
Matsubara, a 65-year-old Tokyo housewife. "I will never get used to
those bulletins on the TV."

Though damage and casualties have so far been surprisingly light -
one person has died - the Izu activity is just the latest in what has
been a very seismic year for Japan.

When the Mount Usu volcano in northern Japan erupted in March and
April for the first time in 22 years, 13,000 people were ordered to
evacuate. Two months later, Sakurajima, a constantly sputtering
volcano in southern Japan, exploded with four large eruptions in one
day.

Last month, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit the central Japan province
of Ibaraki and a magnitude 7.3 offshore quake stopped bullet trains
southwest of Tokyo over the weekend.

According to experts, the current activity is not necessarily an omen
of some bigger disaster - which in Japan usually means a catastrophic
quake in Tokyo - in the immediate future.

"There is no correlation," said Kazuo Oike, a professor and
earthquake expert at Kyoto University.

But he added that doesn't mean there's nothing for the 20 million
people living in the greater Tokyo area to be worried about.

"That's an area where you always have to watch out," he said.
"Anything could happen there."

Japan's capital has repeatedly been devastated by earthquakes.

Quakes ravaged the city in 1703, 1782 and 1812. In 1855, 7,000 people
were killed. The latest disaster, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923
and the fires that it touched off, killed more than 100,000 people
and left an estimated 1.6 million people homeless.

Most experts agree that, based on historical cycles, Tokyo is now
overdue for another big quake. A government report released last year
estimated that about 7,100 people would likely die and 500,000 homes
be destroyed if a magnitude 7 quake hit the city today.

Amid all the jolts and jitters, memories of the quake that flattened
the port city of Kobe just five years ago remain vivid. More than
6,000 people were killed in the devastation.

"I worry what would happen to us if a quake hits here," said Yoko
Nagase, a housewife in a Tokyo suburb. "I worry about my insurance,
if I should increase my earthquake coverage."

via: hblondel@tampabay.rr.com

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