To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Tzemach News items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 08:55:23 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

TALKS RESUME MONDAY: Prime Minister Ehud Barak met last
Monday with the Israel negotiation steering committee and the heads of
the coalition parties in preparation for his departure to United States for
talks with Syria, HA'ARETZ reported. Barak told the groups that he
does not intend to reach an agreement or sign a joint document in the
upcoming round of talks, but instead hopes to elucidate the stance of
each side and identify gaps in the core issues. Barak has implied that
he is ready to hand back the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the
1967 Mideast war, in exchange for peace and normalization with Syria.
Currently, the Prime Minister's Office has not published the
comprehensive list of the Israeli delegation members. The Syrian
delegation will include Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara; former chief-of-
staff Yusuf Shakour; Dr. Riad Dawdi, the delegation's legal adviser;
retired General Ibrahim Omar, an expert in military geography; former
Syrian ambassador to Washington Walid Mualem; Syrian ambassador
to the United Nations Mikhail Wahaba; and Mahid Daoud, former
director of the Ministry of Water.

In a prelude to the talks, Syria's government newspaper, TISHRIN,
warned in an editorial on Saturday that failure of the talks could lead to
"severe tension in the region and to turbulence that would negatively
affect the world's peace."

ISRAEL HOLDS DEEDS TO GOLAN AND WESTERN SYRIA: In
January 1996, the business magazine section of the Tel Aviv-based
daily newspaper GLOBES published a four part series revealing a
profoundly important fact that was unexplainably ignored: Israel has
legal title over a large chunk of the Golan Heights and Western Syria. In
the 1890s, Baron Rothschild purchased 20,000 acres of Syrian land
owned by the Ottoman empire. In 1942, the Syrian government illegally
confiscated the land. The Baron transferred the deeds to the Jewish
National Fund (JNF) in 1957. In 1992, the deeds were moved to the
Prime Minister's Office where they are stored today.

POPULATION IS 6.2 MILLION: The Central Bureau of Statistics reports
that Israel's population on the eve of 2000 is 6.2 million, of which nearly
4.9 million are Jews and 1.3 million Muslims, Christians and Druze. At
the end of the century, the combined population of Israel and the
Palestinian Authority (PA/PLO) stands at approximately 9 million, the
highest population ever in the country according to historians.
Estimates of the area's population in history are disputed, but at the
time of King David-- approximately 1000 bce it is generally estimated
at under 2 million. By about 100 ce, the population numbered between 2-
3 million, and was at least half a million less by 1000 ce. Recent figures
are generally more reliable. In 1900, there were about 600,000 people in
the area, of which 50,000 were Jews. In 1950, the population was 2.3
million, of which the Jewish population in the State of Israel was about 1
million and the Arab population 160,000.

ARMY DISMANTLES GOLDSTEIN MEMORIAL PLAZA: The Israel
Defense Force (IDF) has destroyed the promenade around the Kiryat
Arba gravesite of Baruch Goldstein, in accordance with last month's
Supreme Court decision. Goldstein killed 29 Arabs in the Machpelah
Cave in 1994. HAKOL MEHASHETACH news agency reported that in
addition to those soldiers dismantling the site, a large security force
was on hand. Activist Noam Federman reported the presence of a
several hundred-strong force, including regular IDF soldiers, Border
Policemen, and members of the anti-terrorist squad. Federman
explained that most of those who visit the grave come on the
anniversary of Goldstein's death, on Purim, "when it is usually muddy
outside. The pavement around the grave, aimed at preventing people
from getting their shoes dirty, is being uprooted, as is a sink for ritual
hand washing."

PA/PLO HONORS TERRORIST: In honor of the Moslem festive month
of Ramadan, the official PA/PLO newspaper, AL-HAYAT AL--JADIDA,
has begun a new "Martyr of the Day" competition. Palestinian Media
Watch Director Itamar Marcus reports that Tuesday's "Martyr of the
Day" was arch-terrorist Yichye Ayash, alias "the Engineer." According
to the paper, Ayash "commanded the actions that shocked Israel at Tel
Aviv's Dizengoff Center and in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market.

ASSAD - THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL: Responsible for the death
of more than 20,000 Turks; violation of every treaty ever signed -- with
Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq; on the list of Terrorist States; home to at least
15 terrorist organizations; chief heroine dealer; Multi-billion dollar
counterfeiter of $100 bills; dealer in chemical, biological, and nuclear
weapons.

OPERATION "NEW HORIZON" APPROVED BY PM/DM: Prime
Minister/Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the military's plan for a
troop withdrawal from the Security Zone of southern Lebanon being
called "Operation New Horizon". Sources close to the ongoing talks feel
that if "significant progress" in seen in the near future, the troop
withdrawal may be moved up from July 2000 to April, in the area of
Passover. According to a Yediot Ahronot report, it has been decided
that the withdrawal, whenever it takes place, will be based on the New
Horizon plan.

IRAN ALSO CALLS FOR ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION: Iranian supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Friday for the destruction of Israel,
saying it was the only way to solve the problems of the Middle East.
Khamenei's remarks came as millions of Iranians held rallies across
Iran to protest Israel's control over Jerusalem. "The hands of the U.S.
are fully stained with the blood of the Palestinians," Khamenei told
hundreds of thousands of Iranians in his Friday prayer sermon at Tehran
University. He said there is only one possible solution to unrest in the
Middle East, "namely the annihilation and destruction of the Zionist
state." [Editor's note: The only difference between the US and Iran is
that Iran is willing to admit it wants to destroy Israel; the US merely
gives away her land in the name of "piece".]

Tzemach News Service
Week Ending: 1 January 2000 / 23 Tevet 5760

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - China/Russia items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 09:07:30 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

China Vows to Restore Lost Glory in New Millennium

BEIJING, Jan 1, 2000 -- (Reuters) President Jiang Zemin greeted
the new millennium by lighting an "eternal flame" and pledging
China would restore its lost glory.

http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=122203&text

----
PM Putin Says Russia Seeks International Respect

MOSCOW, Dec 31, 1999 -- (Reuters) Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
said on Thursday Russia was not fighting a war in its campaign
against Chechen separatists and all Moscow wanted was respect
from its international partners.

"Russia is not fighting a war against Chechnya. Russia is
conducting a counter-terrorist operation against international
terrorists," Putin told the U.S. Cable News Network, in an
interview monitored in Moscow.

"Quite often we hear that Russia has imperial ambitions, but
this is not true. Russia has only one ambition - to enjoy
respect from other nations. We will surely achieve that. I think
that everyone is interested in that, including our partners in
the West. Because the world has to be well balanced."

http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=122059

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - China sees UFOs and calls it science, not superstition
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 12:36:52 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

China sees UFOs and calls it science, not superstition

12:43 AM ET January 2, 2000

Associated Press

PUSALU VILLAGE, China (AP) - Poor farmers in Beijing's barren
hills saw it: an object swathed in colored light that some say
must have been a UFO.

They're not alone. People in 12 other Chinese cities reported
possible UFO sightings last month. UFO researchers, meanwhile,
were busy looking into claims of an alien abduction in Beijing.

At the cusp of the new millennium, China is astir with
sightings of otherworldly visitors. And for a country usually
straightjacketed by its communist rulers, alien sightings are
getting serious treatment.

China has a bimonthly magazine - circulation 400,000 - devoted
to UFO research. The conservative state-run media report UFO
sightings. UFO buffs claim support from eminent scientists and
liaisons with the secretive military, giving their work a
scientific sheen of respectability.

"Some of these sightings are real, some are fake and with
others it's unclear," said Shen Shituan, a rocket scientist,
president of Beijing Aerospace University and honorary director
of the China UFO Research Association. "All these phenomena are
worth researching."

For thousands of years, Chinese have looked to the skies for
portents of change on Earth. While China is passing through its
first millennium using the West's Gregorian calendar, the
traditional lunar calendar is ushering in the Year of the
Dragon, regarded as time of tumultuous change.

"All of that sort of millennial fear and trepidation fits in so
nicely with Chinese cosmology - and also the Hollywood
propaganda that everybody's been lapping up," said Geremie
Barme, a Chinese culture watcher at Australia National
University.

In Pusalu, a patch of struggling corn and bean farms 30 miles
(48 kilometers) from Beijing, villagers believe cosmic forces
were at play on Dec. 11. As they tell it, an object the size of
a person shimmering with golden light moved slowly up into the
sky from the surrounding arid mountains.

"Some say it was caused by an earthquake. Some say it was a
UFO. Some say it was a ray of Buddha. I'm telling everyone to
call it an auspicious sign," said Chen Jianwen, village
secretary for the officially atheistic Communist Party.

What "it" was remains a topic of debate. Many villagers are
fervent Buddhists. But local leaders want to play down any
religious overtones, fearing that government censure may spoil
plans to attract tourism to Pusalu.

"It was so beautiful, sort of yellow," villager Wang Cunqiao
said. "It was like someone flying up to heaven."

State media ignored religious interpretations and labeled the
celestial events in Pusalu, Beijing, Shanghai and 10 other
Chinese cities in December as possible UFOs. But UFO researchers
have largely dismissed the sightings as airplane trails catching
the low sun.

"If the military didn't chase it, it's because they knew it
wasn't a UFO. They were probably testing a new aircraft," said
Chen Yanchun, a shipping company executive who helps manage the
China UFO Research Resource Center.

Operating from a dingy three-room flat in a Beijing apartment
block, the Resource Center keeps a version of China's X-Files:
140 dictionary-sized boxes of fading newspaper clippings and
eyewitness accounts of sightings. The collection has, among
others items, accounts that the military scrambled planes in
1998 in unsuccessful pursuit of a UFO.

Chen said the center had 500 reported UFO sightings in 1999,
but after investigation confirmed cases will likely number 200
or so.

He's currently checking on a worker's claims that aliens
entered his Beijing home in early December and, with his wife
and child present, spirited him 165 miles (265 kilometers) east
and back in a few hours.

"The increase in flying saucer incidents is natural," said
Chen, a former Aerospace Ministry researcher with a Ph.D. in
aerodynamics. He cited more manmade aerospace activity and radio
signals from Earth penetrating farther into space.

via: hblondel@tampabay.rr.com

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