BPR Mailing List Digest: 10/16/00

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
October 16, 2000

Digest Home | 2000 | October, 2000

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - More on Mary...
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("David")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 13:38:13 +0930

The Berean Call website's October newsletter is an historical and present
times discussion about Mary titled 'Mary Who?'

http://www.thebereancall.org/newsletters/oct00.htm

It contains some interesting material, such as the Islamic position on Mary
and the apparitions that occur to them. For example:

"Surprisingly, apparitions of Mary even appear in Islamic countries, where
multitudes of Muslims turn out to honor her. For example, in the late 1960s
thousands witnessed "a lady composed of light" who was holding a baby as she
seemed to be moving across the roof of a Coptic Orthodox church on the
outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. "Several nights each week, thousands of Muslims
fell to their knees on prayer rugs spread wherever space permitted, and wept
before the `magnificent, wondrous, glorious form of Our Lady from Heaven.'"2
While such a reaction may seem puzzling to western Christians, there is a
substantial basis for it. An entire chapter (Maryam) in the Qur'an and
numerous other verses therein, as well as hundreds of hadiths, pay homage to
Mary, the mother of Jesus. Islamic scholar Aliah Schleifer writes in her
book Mary the Blessed Virgin of Islam that Mary is esteemed above the most
revered women of the Muslim faith, including Muhammad's two favorite wives
Khadija and Aisha, and his daughter Fatima. According to Schleifer, one
hadith quotes Muhammad as saying he would take Mary as one of his wives in
heaven: "The Messenger of God said, `God married me in Paradise to
Mary....'"3 Schleifer concludes,

From the perspective of the classical Muslim scholars, Mary, in the Qur'an
and Sunna, is a symbol that brings together all revelation. As a descendant
of the great Israelite prophets, the bearer of the word, the mother of
Jesus, and as traditional Sunni Islam's chosen woman of the worlds, Mary is
symbolic of the Qur'anic message that revelation has not been confined to
one particular people.4"

Cheers
David

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Treaties and Nightmares: Camp David, the Third Temple and The Summit
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Demetra")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 06:17:15 -0400

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Treaties and Nightmares: Camp David, the Third Temple and The Summit

Less than a year ago, we marveled at how the Middle East had become
a geopolitical backwater. Action shifted northward toward the
Balkans and the Caucasus, toward the strife of Yugoslavia and the
war in Chechnya.

Things were as quiet as things ever got in the region. Israelis
worried more about IPOs than infantry patrols. The Palestinians
were clawing out of their economic and political abyss. Then, as
if from nowhere, the region exploded.

It has not merely exploded, but entered a period of danger more
substantial than any since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. People worry
openly that the peace process is in trouble. Far worse, the
situation has undoubtedly stirred Israeli military thinkers to
worry that a nightmare scenario may unfold, inside Israel and on
its borders.

These worries place enormous pressure on Monday's summit and on the
Egyptian government, now the key to resolution. Signs indicate the
summit may succeed. But the price of failure is escalation. Unlike
previous crises, no superpower can simply turn this crisis off. And
no longer is peace between Israel and the Palestinians at stake;
lasting peace between Israel and its largest Arab neighbor now
hangs in the balance.
________________________________________________

For comprehensive analysis on the situation in the Middle East,
including the attack on USS Cole, be sure to see our Middle East
Hot Spot.
http://www.stratfor.com/hotspots/israel_palestine/default.htm

__________________________________________________

Camp David: The Cause

A casual observer might think the explosion came from nowhere.
Others might think this is simply another inevitable round in the
interminable violence between Jews and Arabs. Neither view is
correct.

The violence was neither inevitable nor unpredictable. Instead, it
flowed directly from a poorly conceived U.S. diplomatic initiative
last July, when President Bill Clinton invited Ehud Barak and Yasir
Arafat to Camp David. The goal was to move toward a final, formal
settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship. But the
outcome was disaster.

On July 10, 2000, in an analysis entitled Camp David, Good
Intentions and the Road to Hell, we wrote, the administration risks
hurting both Barak and Arafat, causing them severe if not fatal
political harm at home. The president's search for his legacy and
the reality of Israeli-Palestinian relations are on a collision
course. Both will likely be damaged at Camp David. We also wrote,
Clinton's good intentions may set the stage for a substantial
deterioration of the situation.

We knew it would be bad. But even we did not calculate fully how
bad the situation would become. By the time Barak arrived in
Washington, his government was barely hanging on to office,
battered inside and outside the coalition by those who were afraid
the Americans would force Barak to cede too much on too many core
issues. Arafat, with more room for maneuver, understood he could
not leave the meeting -- having made fundamental concessions -- and
survive. A prisoner of the politics of survival within the
Palestinian community, Arafat was intransigent. The Camp David
meetings never got off the ground.

But the meetings did succeed in stirring up the worst fears in both
camps about their respective leaderships. To move to a final,
formal settlement, they had to address core issues. Opponents of
the peace process in Israel were certain the creation of a
Palestinian state and a settlement on Jerusalem would lead to a
Palestinian army threatening the national security of Israel and
the partition of Jerusalem. They feared that Barak, under U.S.
pressure, would capitulate. For the Palestinians, the conviction
was that a formal peace would concede the loss of their homeland in
perpetuity and create an Israeli puppet state and permanent
domination.

The breakpoint occurred when the Barak government began floating
creative solutions to the Jerusalem question. This was the tripwire
that sent Israeli and Palestinian rejectionists to the wall.
Sharon's Temple Mount visit was the signal. But the underlying
reality was that Barak and the peace party in Israel lost
legitimacy as soon as they entertained the notion of a final
settlement, while Arafat retained legitimacy only by succumbing to
his own rejectionists.

Clinton's Camp David insisted on Jews and Arabs confronting, once
and for all, their incompatible fears and aspirations. Rather than
allowing quiet, informal arrangements on the ground to govern the
evolution on the relationship, Clinton tried to engineer a
comprehensive, formal, top-down solution. The result was that both
sides faced the abyss of peace and, in effect, chose war as the
lesser evil and safer course.

Had Camp David not occurred, the situation probably would not have
deteriorated this badly, if at all.

The Third Temple Scenario

Now, we are in what might be a nightmare scenario. The deepest
Israeli fear is that the Third Temple will fall and another
holocaust will ensue.

More than just a fear, the Israeli military has long feared such a
scenario and planned much of its doctrine around it. The scenario,
which dates back more than 25 years, goes like this. First, a
massive uprising occurs on the West Bank and the Gaza. Second,
this rising spreads to Arab citizens of Israel. Strained to its
limits by internal threats, the Israeli military may be unable to
deal with an external threat.

What makes events of the past few weeks fundamentally different
from anything that has happened before is the substantial violence
within Israel proper, involving the country's Arab citizenry. This
did not happen during the Intifada of the 1980s; in fact it has not
occurred on any similar scale since the 1948 war for independence.
Distributed throughout the country, Israeli Arabs live next to
major Israeli cities like Haifa while others reside in coastal
villages and in Galilee. An outright uprising of Israeli Arabs
would pose a nightmarish security concern like nothing in the West
Bank or Gaza.

This would only be the beginning. An uprising inside Israel would
make the movement of troops and supplies difficult and perhaps
impossible. It would immeasurably complicate mobilization and
movement toward the frontier. The difficulty of defending Israel
would rise by orders of magnitude. If bordering Arab states choose
to attack during such a rising, Israel could face defeat.

But here is the important caveat: The Arab states cannot defeat
Israel without the help of Egypt's military. In this crisis, Egypt
has emerged at the eye of the storm, with entreaties by all parties
for help. Egypt is the center of gravity of the Arab world. And
luckily for Israel, Egypt has a peace treaty with Jerusalem.

But a treaty is ultimately an expression of political will and the
nightmare in the Israeli military right now is that President Hosni
Mubarak -- heir to Anwar Sadat, the architect of the treaty --
might fall in a popular, anti-Israeli uprising or coup.
Alternatively, Mubarak, fearing such an evolution, might decide to
abrogate the treaty. If that happens, the geopolitics of the region
would revert to the same conditions as 1973.

Even while the Barak government attempts diplomacy, the Israeli
military problem is this: If Egypt shifts course for any reason,
Israeli forces would be in an impossible situation. Any attempt to
move troops into the Sinai's Mitla and Gidda passes, coupled with
an insurrection in Israel, poses an insurmountable problem, from a
standard conventional standpoint.

Therefore, Israeli doctrine holds that, under the nightmare
scenario, Israeli forces must move first to secure the passes.
Indeed, the full preemptive scenario would include a reoccupation
of Sinai up to the passes along with preemptive air strikes on Arab
air forces and, above all, missile capabilities.

Right now, the uprisings in Israel are not sufficient to constitute
the worst-case threat. But from the Israeli point of view, waiting
until things reach the worst case is unacceptable.

Egypt: The Key

For this reason the United States has done everything it can to
hold the Barak-Arafat summit in Egypt, at Sharm el-Sheikh, with
Egyptian participation.

First, the United States wants Mubarak to buy into the peace
process as a means of locking him into place. The fact he has
agreed to host the meeting serves as a confidence-building measure;
the Israelis can see that the nightmare scenario is not underway.

Second, this effort puts pressure on Barak to be flexible.
Terrified by the nightmare scenario, Barak is likely to behave in a
way that placates the Egyptians, who are observing events, and
calms the waters. Finally, by its deep involvement, the United
States is trying to show both sides limits are finally being placed
on their behavior.

One of the most dangerous elements of the current situation is the
lack of limits decidedly different from previous crises in the
Middle East. During the Cold War, Arabs and Israelis faced each
other as clients of the superpowers. The superpowers used the Arab-
Israeli conflict to their own ends, while not letting that conflict
degenerate into global war. Therefore, the two superpowers would
intervene to contain the conflict. The 1973 war effectively drew to
an end when National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger met Premier
Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow. The superpowers increased the safety
factor in confrontations.

Today, there is only one superpower, and it has shown a casualness
with regional risks. At this summit, the United States will attempt
to demonstrate it can contain the conflict just as effectively as
it could with Soviet involvement. This will not be easy. The
foundation of the Palestinian National Authority is its armed
police force. Israel's ability to tolerate, let alone cooperate
with them is gone. Palestinian quiescence over the past years
assumed the PNA was going to evolve into a state, and if not a
state, an entity that would protect Palestinians from Israelis.
That is now gone too. Much of the hard work pre-dating Oslo has
been swept away. Reconstructing it will be difficult.

In the meantime, forces on both sides are working hard -- to
prevent reconciliation. The decision to attack the USS Cole in
Yemen was not taken casually. Men willing to die in suicide
bombings are rare, wasting assets. The bombers used them up and
have exposed their network to counterattack. They are trying to
force the United States into a retaliation that will show the Arab
world that Americans and Israelis are the same. Hezbollah's
capture of three Israelis on an odd patrol similarly suggests a
desire to confront the Israelis. Finally, indications are that the
Iraqis are repositioning to, at the very least, divert U.S. forces
or, at most, to resume the 1991 conflict.

On the Israeli side, the apparent offer to bring Ariel Sharon into
the cabinet indicates the weakness of the Barak government. Sharon
triggered the Arab riots by his Temple Mount visit. He was hoping
for that response and he got it. For him, it proved his contention
that Oslo was a mistake. Now, whether he joins the cabinet is up to
him. He may decline, on the expectation that the Barak government
will fall anyway and he will join a Likud-dominated cabinet.

If The Summit Fails

Having shattered the Humpty Dumpty of the peace process, the United
States will now try to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Working in
favor of this is that Barak and Arafat want to step back from the
brink.

The problem is that Barak isn't strong enough anymore, while
Arafat's strength derives from the fact he has become the willing
ally of opponents of reconciliation. Both want to step back; it is
unclear that either can.

If no resolution tomorrow, eyes should be on two questions. First,
will Arab unrest inside Israel subside or intensify? Second, will
events in Israel topple the Mubarak government or force him to
alter his course? If the unrest in Israel spreads and if Mubarak
wavers in any serious way, pressure inside Israel for fairly
extreme measures would grow dramatically.

Everyone argues whether the Oslo accords are dead or can be
revived. Embedded in this situation is a much bleaker question:
Can the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt survive current
pressures? We are in a different place now, an extraordinarily new,
unfamiliar and dangerous place that we should not take at all
lightly.

____________________________________________

For more on the Middle East and Africa, see:
http://www.stratfor.com/MEAF/default.htm
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See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Temple Mount Faithful banned from Mount
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 08:31:06 -0400

Monday, October 16 2000 09:00 17 Tishri 5761

Temple Mount Faithful banned from Mount
By Etgar Lefkovits

               JERUSALEM (October 16) - In light of the tense
               security situation, Jerusalem police will not allow
               members of the Temple Mount Faithful to ascend the
               Temple Mount today on their annual Succot march.

The nationalistic group had scheduled a ceremony to
anoint a "cornerstone for the Third Temple."

Citing reasons of public safety, the police will allow the
group to hold a gathering only at the Western Wall plaza.

               In years past, police had also rejected the Faithful's
               requests to ascend the Mount as a group, and allowed
               them to go up to Judaism's holiest site only as individuals.
               This year, however, no member of the group will be
               allowed on the Temple Mount.

               Organizers had scheduled a march from the Western
               Wall to the Mount and on to the City of David, where
               they had planned on conducting a "pouring of the water"
               libation ceremony as was done in biblical times.

               The group also had planned to bring a
               four-and-a-half-ton marble "Temple cornerstone" on a
               flatbed truck, that was to be covered with Israeli flags. A
               "priest" dressed in biblical garments and "Levites" playing
               music were to accompany the marchers.

               The police said they will not allow the group to move the
               stone from its location at the American Consulate in east
               Jerusalem.

               PLO Jerusalem official Faisal Husseini had called on
               Palestinians to prevent the group from entering the
               Temple Mount, while the mufti of Jerusalem said that the
               group wanted to cause fresh bloodshed.

               The group's leader, Gershon Salomon, called the police's
               decision a "tragedy for the Jewish people, and a
               capitulation to the brutal Arab violence of the past two
               weeks."

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/10/16/News/News.13795.html

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel complains CNN has Palestinian bias
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 08:40:18 -0400

Monday, October 16 2000 09:00 17 Tishri 5761

Israel complains CNN has Palestinian bias
By Greer Fay Cashman

               JERUSALEM (October 16) - Israel has complained to
               CNN about the way the story of the waves of violence in
               the Palestinian Authority and Israel is being covered.

               In particular Israel has objected to the two Palestinian
               women reporting from the field using the word "we" "as if
               CNN had become an agent of the Palestinians," Gideon
               Meir, deputy director-general for public affairs in the
               Foreign Ministry, told Jerusalem Post Radio yesterday.

               Meir said that CNN's Jerusalem bureau chief Mike
               Hanna had agreed with some points made by the Foreign
               Ministry and disagreed with others. Hanna was
               unavailable for comment.

               "We're not asking that CNN become an agent of the
               Israeli government," said Meir. "What we are asking
               from this important media organization is to be honest
               and to be even-handed. Right now we don't see it."

               Footage of the lynching of three IDF soldiers in Ramallah
               last week did not receive sufficient coverage by the
               foreign media, Meir said. This was partially due to the
               confiscation by the Palestinians of video cassettes from
               most of the networks that were there.

               One of the networks which did succeed in transferring its
               footage to its home base was the Italian Cinque 5
               Channel. Through its contacts, the Israeli Embassy in
               Rome was able to secure the video and within six hours
               of the gruesome event, the images were received in
               Jerusalem. The Italians released it without charge, said
               Meir.

The murder of Rabbi Hillel Lieberman was also poorly
covered, said Meir.

               Hundreds of complaints about CNN's coverage and
               about antisemitic features in the coverage on the BBC
               World Service have also been received from Jews
               around the world.

               Israel's main goal is "to be credible, to give the right
               story, the correct story," said Meir. "We have no
               problem with the other side presenting its story. The
               problem is that the other side is presenting its story with a
               lot of lies, and the media often gives them an advantage
               by covering their side of the story."

The full interview with Meir can be heard on Jerusalem
Post Radio.

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/10/16/News/News.13798.html

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Re: More on Mary...
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Khazneh")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 09:05:04 -0400

The Messenger of God said, `God married me in Paradise to
Mary....

The 'messenger of god' sounds like a false prophet. Marium is Surah 19. Here
is Isa (Jesus) 'speaking' as a baby:

[19.30] He said: Surely I am a servant of Allah; He has given me the Book
and made me a prophet;

The name 'Abdullah' means 'servant of Allah' (cf. Hebrew 'to serve', abad).
You can see this in the transliteration of the above verse:

30. QAALA 'INNI -Y cABD 'ALLAAH 'AATAA -NE AL- KITAAB WA- JAcALA -NE
NABEY(AN)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/xlit/ql19_2.htm

The 'Mary' of particular emphasis in 2000 is Our Lady of Fatima.

The Hashemites, or "Bani Hashem," are descendants of the Arab chieftain
Quraysh, a descendant of the Prophet Ismail, himself the son of the Prophet
Ibrahim (Abraham). Quraysh first came to the holy city of Mecca during the
second century CE. The first generation of Quraysh to rule the city came six
generations later, when Qusayy bin Kilab ascended to the leadership of Mecca
in the year 480 CE.The name "Hashem" is actually that of Qusayy's grandson,
who was the great-grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The Hashemites
are thus the direct descendants of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima
and her husband Ali bin Abi Talib, who was also the Prophet's paternal first
cousin and the fourth caliph of Islam.

http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/hash_intro.html

[Cf. Hashem, 'The Name' of God]

King Abdullah of Jordan was five days old when we first met. He was tightly
swaddled in a blanket with only his head and arms free and, like all Arab
babies, had a collection of tiny gold good luck charms pinned to his chest.
The gold filigree hand of Fatima set with a turquoise head was to ward off
the evil eye, a prayer disc and miniature replica of the Koran were to guide
him as a good Moslem and a small bundle of olive wood in a golden box
represented his country.

http://www.saga.co.uk/publishing/aug99/muna.html

Try a search for 'Hand of Fatima' or 'Hamsa hand'.

Examples:

Medallions and religious amulets do exist and are from different religious
beliefs, but there are also particular henna designs that are reputed to
bring good luck and protect from harm. The most common symbols are the many
versions of the 'khamsa' (literally '5') or Hand of Fatima, and an eye,
symbolized in many ways which protects against 'djinn' (genies or malignant
desert spirits) and the curse of the evil eye. A man going off to battle
will have, depending on which region he comes from, *a plain dark henna
stain applied to one of his palms* to remind him of his wife's love and of their
wedding, both of which are purported to have strong powers of protection. A
man from a different region may instead bring a small container of henna
paste made by his female relatives and wife in prayer, and will paint some
on when he feels himself about to face peril.

http://henna.itgo.com/

Hamesh Hand
The hamesh hand or hamsa hand is a popular motif in Jewish jewelry. Go into
any Jewish gift shop and you will find necklaces and bracelets bearing this
inverted hand with thumb and pinky pointing outward. The design commonly has
an eye in the center of the hand or various Jewish letters in the middle.

There is nothing exclusively Jewish about the hamesh hand. Arab cultures
often refer to it as the Hand of Fatima, which represents the Hand of G-d.
Similar designs are common in many cultures. Why it has become such a
popular symbol among Jews? I haven't been able to find an adequate
explanation anywhere. My best guess: in many cultures, this hand pattern
represents a protection against the evil eye, and the evil eye has
historically been a popular superstition among Jews.

For more information about this hand symbol generally, see:
The Eye in the Hand

For some lovely illustrations of Jewish variations on this design, see:
Chaim Peretz Vitrage
http://israelvisit.co.il/ChaimP-SG/hamsa.htm

http://www.jewfaq.org/signs.htm

3137 Maria {mar-ee'-ah} or Mariam {mar-ee-am'}

of Hebrew origin 04813;; n pr f

AV - Mary the mother of Jesus 19, Mary Magdalene 13,
Mary the sister of Martha 11, Mary the mother of James 9,
Mary the mother of John Mark 1, Mary of Rome 1; 54

Mary or Miriam = "their rebellion"

Note: After seeing several variations of this eye-in-hand, it became
apparant that as typically oriented (upside-down), the image is not of a
hand, but a graphic symbol of procreation. The bottom two images from the
link above ( http://israelvisit.co.il/ChaimP-SG/hamsa.htm ) reveal this, as
does the third image on this page (second row of earrings):

http://www.artemisimports.com/jewel6.htm

Gee... any wonder the site is named after 'Artemis'.

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Chechen Guerrilla Group To Fight Against Israel
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 08:09:06 -0500

http://allnews.ru/english/2000/10/13/basaev/

Updated 13.10.2000 at 20:10:34

Basayev Sending Chechen Guerrilla Group To Fight Against Israel

Russia's Security Service FSB said on Friday it holds information
proving that Chechen guerrilla commander Shamil Basayev is planning
to send a Chechen guerrilla group to fight against the Israeli army
alongside Islamic extremist organizations, Interfax news agency
reported.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

Russian security sources told the agency that a secret meeting of
Chechen field commanders to discuss the issue was recently held in
the mountains of southern Chechnya.

According to the sources, Basayev said that, if Islamic organizations
will request the help, Chechen guerrilla groups could dispatch some
150 fighters to the Middle East.

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Do The Palestinians Have a Claim on Jerusalem?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 09:21:54 -0400

Do The Palestinians Have a Claim on Jerusalem?

YOWUSA.COM, October 16, 2000
Carol Hathaway-Knott

As the violence in the Middle East escalates, we're asking ourselves why is
it that the Jews and Palestinians fear and hate each other, and why is the
Palestinian claim on Jerusalem so derisive to the Middle East peace
process. With both sides pointing a finger at each other via the video news
snippets we see nightly, are we only seeing what the spinmeisters want us
to see?

http://www.yowusa.com/Archive/October2000/plo_6/plo_6.htm

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Fungus may save Australia from a very hungry army
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 12:02:35 -0500

Fungus may save Australia from a very hungry army
http://www.exn.ca/Stories/2000/10/13/52.cfm

A cloud of locusts has descended on the land down under. These small green
insects swarm in the millions, blocking sunlight and consuming cropland.
They already destroyed hundreds of hectares of farmland in Australia. But
now farmers may have a new weapon in their fight against them. Australia is
testing out a deadly fungus called metharhizum. It targets locusts and kills
them by growing in their bodies. The United Nations is keeping a keen eye on
the fungus' success. If it wins this battle. - which is Australia's largest
locust plague ever. It could be used around the world in other insect wars.

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Longevity meets match
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 12:10:44 -0500

Longevity meets match
October 16, 2000

BY JIM RITTER HEALTH REPORTER
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/age16.html

In 1997, the oldest person on record died in her native France at age 122.

Jeanne Calment will have plenty of company this century, according to
doctors, researchers and other "prolongevists" who predict life expectancy
will increase to 120 or higher.

"I don't think there is an absolute limit on life-span," said Dr. Ronald
Klatz, 44, president of Chicago-based American Academy of Anti-Aging
Medicine. "If I don't make it to 150, I'll be disappointed."

The prolongevity industry is selling billions of dollars of vitamins,
minerals, herbs, growth hormones, low-calorie diets and other products
promising longer life.

For years, Chicago scientists S. Jay Olshansky and Bruce Carnes have tried
to debunk the prolongevity movement but say they haven't gotten much
attention outside the scientific community.

So they have written a book for laymen, The Quest for Immortality, which
will hit bookstores next month.

"We were very frustrated about all the nonsense that's out there," Olshansky
said. "People are selling longevity with a vengeance, like never before."

Olshansky is a demographer at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Carnes
is a senior research scientist at the University of Chicago. They have
collaborated on aging studies for more than a decade.

"The life extension industry begins with a grain of truth but quickly gets
mixed with a tablespoon of bad science, a cup of greed, a pint of
exaggeration, and a gallon of human desire for a longer, healthier life,"
they write.

For most of the last 130,000 years, life expectancy was no higher than about
20 years. While some people lived longer, the average was brought down by
the high death rate of infants and children.

By 1900, life expectancy at birth still was only about 45 years in the
United States. But during the 20th century, it increased by more than 30
years--the largest and fastest increase in human history.

The "longevity revolution," as Olshansky and Carnes call it, was due mostly
to a sharp reduction in infant and child mortality. In 1900, as many as 15
percent of infants died before their first birthday. Now, fewer than than 1
percent die.

The gains were accomplished by improvements in nutrition, hygiene,
sanitation and medical advances such as antibiotics and vaccines.

But the gains are leveling off. It is easier to extend a child's life by,
for example, preventing diphtheria or tuberculosis, than to make an old
person live longer. "Survivors to old age have accumulated a lifetime's
worth of damage to genes, cells, and tissues," Olshansky and Carnes write.

Life expectancy now is about 74 for men and 79 for women. With present
medical technology, it would take an enormous effort to increase average
life expectancy to 85, including reductions in infant mortality, regular
exercise, safe sex and elimination of smoking, alcohol abuse and obesity.

Genetic engineering and other medical advances will extend life expectancy
beyond 85. "But I would be surprised if it got to 100 by the end of this
century," Olshansky said.

However, Klatz said the two naysayers aren't taking into account the
benefits expected from the explosive growth of biomedical knowledge. "They
are driving with their eyes in the rearview mirror."

Olshansky 46, and Carnes, 50, give the same answer when asked how long they
want to live: as long as they remain healthy.

"It's more important to improve the quality of life than extend the length
of life," Olshansky said.

They note that Calment was nearly blind, very hard of hearing and confined
to a wheelchair during her final years. Asked her secret for longevity, she
once said, "God must have forgotten me."

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - bc-prophecy-commentary
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 12:35:34 -0500

bc-prophecy-commentary
Friday, 13 October 2000 3:27 (ET)
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=127390

bc-prophecy-commentary
By UWE SIEMON-NETTO, UPI Religion Correspondent

WASHINGTON, OCT. 13 (UPI) -- Ray Brubaker is a veteran of prophesy. Back
in the 1940s, he founded a radio program called "God's News Behind the
News." More than 1,200 stations disseminated it throughout North America.

Today, with Israel in turmoil, Brubaker's views are as much in demand as
ever.

In a television commentary Thursday, Brubaker referred to Christ's
apocalyptical statement, "Then let them which be in Judea flee into the
mountains....For then shall be great tribulation; such as it was not since
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew
24-15-21).

"We see signs that Jesus is soon to come," he told United Press
International.

Predicting the end of time is en vogue at this troubled beginning of the
new millennium, especially among some evangelical and charismatic
Protestants. And it is easy to see why.

Not only does the tense situation in the Middle East make the eruption of
an apocalyptical war look plausible; Christianity itself seems to be in an
apocalyptic state.

"The Apostle Paul tells us in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians that
Christ's Second Coming will be preceded by apostasy and antinomianism in the
Church," says Jean-Marc Berthoud, a Biblical scholar in Switzerland.

Antinomianism is the theological term for opposing God's law.

Conservative Christians say that this is precisely what seems to be
happening. They point to the trend among some liberal denominations to
affirm homosexuality as a third order of creation while hesitating to
condemn the mass destruction of unborn life.

Yet the prophets of the imminence of end-time often keep unsavory company.
It is one thing to interpret current events as a possible "sign" that
Christ's Second Coming may be near, as Brubaker does; it is quite another to
insist that this will now occur.

Intelligence services around the world are anxiously watching hundreds of
religious groups that are firmly convinced of their calling to lend the
apocalypse a hand.

Quite a few of those have been unceremoniously ushered out of Israel prior
to the turn of the millennium, and they have been quiet since. But others
are still considered extremely dangerous.

Take Japan's Aum Shinrikyo sect. In 1995, its members tried to trigger the
Battle of Armageddon (Revelations 19, 11-21) by detonating poison gas
devices in Tokyo subway trains. Twelve people were killed in this attack and
6,000 wounded. Japanese police believe that it was by sheer luck that this
outrage has not claimed many more victims. There is no guarantee, however,
that something like this will not happen again.

By now we know what had transpired in the warped minds of the
perpetrators. They were all scientists, graduates of some of Japan's finest
universities.

And they were truly religious people, according to Hideto Tomabechi, a
cognitive scientist who is trying to deprogram former members of this sect.

"They were looking for spirituality without knowing what that means. Like
most young Japanese, they have no idea what that term means. They have not
been raised in any religion."

Tomabechi points out that the Aum Shinrikyo followers are anything but an
exclusively Japanese phenomenon: "They are the products of secularization.
Their religious realities are the computer and the internet. They know that
if something goes awry in their machines, they can press the reset button,
and then hopefully all problems will be solved automatically."

This, Tomabechi adds, is how they see the world: blow it up, and
everything will be alright.

Most of Aum Shinrikyo's leaders are in jail, and some have been sentenced
to death. This does not alter the fact that their demented theology is of
global importance, precisely because it sounds so crazy.

The sect considers itself Buddhist, however, it does not faze them that
there is no Buddhist god; they worship Shiva, the lord of destruction in the
Hindu trinity.

But where does Armageddon come into play, considering this final battle
between the forces of Christ and the princes of the world is prophesied in
the Bible?

"Well, we do believe in Christ," Minoru Sugiura, a political scientist and
member of the sect's governing "senate," once explained to this
correspondent.

"But who is Christ to you?"

"Not the Christ of Christianity, but the incarnation of Shiva."

"The destroyer?"

"Yes, and he will appear at the Battle of Armageddon."

This is of course taking apocalyptical thinking to the point of extreme
absurdity. It is, however, the result of a global problem, as Tomabechi, the
cognitive scientist, states: "If we do not instruct our children in religion
we will face a catastrophe."

Christian scripture is clear on the subject of the end of time: "We must
be prepared, but are not permitted to speculate," says the Burt Waggoner,
the new chairman of the Vineyard movement whose theology focuses much on the
coming Kingdom of God.

Christ will come "like a thief, and you will not know the hour," says the
Book of Revelations (3,3).

Until this happens, Christians might want to ponder Martin Luther's word
that in the secular realm natural reason is "the empress of all things."

Reason is a gift from God so that humanity finds a way around this world.
It is by virtue of reason (and not speculation) that politicians are called
to solve conflicts. The Church's task is to pray for them while they are
doing their job, not to interfere with their craft.

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - RWN: Digital Angel -- The New Eye in the Sky
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 12:40:09 -0500

Selected items from...

REAL WORLD NEWS 10/16/2000

Visit Real World News online at http://www.realworldnews.net

DIGITAL ANGEL: THE NEW EYE IN THE SKY
Here's a story that will do the bar code on the back of Dark Angel
star Jessica Alba's neck one better: A network of satellites sends a
positioning signal to a chip implanted beneath your skin. That chip,
powered solely by body heat, relays the signal and your body's vital
stats to a ground station. The folks manning that ground station, as
well as authorized Internet users, can use that information for
identifying you, tracking you and monitoring your health. Applied
Digital Solutions (ADS) will, on Oct. 26, unveil and demonstrate
Digital Angel which is being touted for a number of uses.
http://www.foxnews.com/vtech/101600/da.sml

U.S. SAYS IRAQ TROOP MOVEMENT DETECTED, WARNS SADDAM
Defense Secretary William Cohen said Sunday the movement of elite
Iraqi troops has been detected west of Baghdad and he warned Saddam
Hussein against trying to take advantage of current upheaval in the
region to attack his neighbors. Appearing on the CBS ``Face the
Nation'' program, Cohen reported that the United States was closely
monitoring the situation and was prepared to respond to any potential
attack. ``We should never underestimate Saddam Hussein from trying to
take advantage of any situation,'' Cohen said.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001016/ts/usa_iraq_dc_2.html

MOON AND STARS SUPPORT FAMILIES' BIG DAY OUT
The capital will grind to a halt today as the followers of a man who
has visions of being transported to a UFO and another who believes
that he is 12 times more powerful than Jesus Christ converge for a
rally that will feature a mass blessing of 10,000 married couples.
Five years after the Million Man March comes the Million Families
March and an unusual collaboration between Louis Farrakhan, leader of
the Nation of Islam, and the Rev Sun Myung Moon, head of the
Unification Church. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,19762,00.html

FBI'S CARNIVORE JUST THE FIRST STEP
The FBI says its controversial Carnivore system is just "the tip of
the iceberg" when it comes to Internet surveillance because an even
sharper-toothed information chomper is now in development. Amid all
the hubbub over whether the current system violates privacy rights,
the agency has been quietly working on both "Carnivore 2.0" and
"Carnivore 3.0," according to FBI documents released this month under
a Freedom of Information Act claim filed by the Electronic Privacy
Information Center. The current Carnivore is version 1.3.4, according
to the documents.
http://www.foxnews.com/national/101300/carnivoretwo_riley.sml

RUSSIA SET TO SNUB MIDDLE EAST PEACE CONFERENCE
Russia, co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process, was set to snub
the emergency summit in Sharm el-Sheikh Monday in apparent pique that
only its foreign minister, not its president, had been invited.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov declined to change his program and fly
to Egypt to join efforts to end more than two weeks of
Israeli-Palestinian violence that has claimed more than 100 lives.
But he insisted that Russia remained a "fully-fledged" participant in
the Middle East peace process.
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=209869

HUNDREDS EVACUATED AS EUROPE FLOODS LEAVE EIGHT DEAD
Eight people died, 17 were missing and thousands were evacuated
Sunday from floods and landslides in rain-lashed southern
Switzerland, France and northern Italy. A huge wave hit a group of
sailors in the western port of Savona killing one of them, a
Philipino, port authorities said Sunday. Two others were swept away
and four injured. But the worst single incident occured in
Switzerland, where a landslide measuring 40 meters (yards) across cut
the southwestern village of Gondo in two sweeping about 10 buildings
away, police said.
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=singa
po
re/headlines/001016/world/afp/Hundreds_evacuated_as_Europe_floods_leav
e_ eight_dead__17_missing.html

AT LEAST 50 DIE AFTER EBOLA OUTBREAK IN UGANDA
A team of doctors from the World Health Organisation is due to arrive
today in northern Uganda, where an outbreak of the rare Ebola fever
was confirmed over the weekend. It is understood to have killed at
least 50 people, including three medical staff. The highly contagious
haemorrhagic fever has emerged for the first time in Gulu, northern
Uganda, the health ministry said yesterday. The virus, which has not
been recorded in Africa for three years, causes 90 per cent of its
victims to bleed to death within two weeks, through the eyes, nose
and ears.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Africa/2000-10/uganda161000.sh
tm l

ZIMBABWE PRICE INCREASES SPARK FOOD RIOTS
Riot police in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, have fired tear-gas to
break up protests over price rises. Hundreds of demonstrators set
fire to vehicles and put up barricades in two townships - Mabvuku and
Tafara - east of the capital. The protests began as commuters
prepared to go to work and were continuing six hours later. Five
people died after similar food riots two years ago which started in
Mabvuku later spread nation-wide.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_974000/974883.stm

SHAMANISM UNDERGOES A SPIRITUAL REVIVAL ACROSS RUSSIA
Once considered enemies of the Soviet state, the shamans of southern
Siberia are now tourist attractions. They travel to exhibitions
across Russia, sometimes to explain their complex, pagan beliefs,
sometimes just to promote tourism to Lake Baikal. Shamans post their
pictures and philosophies on the Internet and draw up price lists for
services, from seances to healing rituals. In the land some consider
its birthplace, shamanism and its oral traditions and rituals are
undergoing a revival.
http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,SAV-00101500
73,FF.html

CHURCHES WARNED OVER VOTER GUIDES
Churches are receiving warnings in the mail against using Christian
Coalition voter guides. A letter from Barry Lynn of Americans United
for Separation of Church and State is warning 285,000 congregations
that the guides are partisan and political, not religious, and that
the churches could lose tax-exempt status by distributing them,
according to The Associated Press.
http://news.crosswalk.com/religion/item/0,1875,285140,00.htm

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arutz-7 News items (10/16/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 17:37:47 -0400

PALESTINIAN SHOOTINGS AND ATTACKS ESCALATE

Palestinian shootings on Israeli targets increased this afternoon, after
a short period of relative calm. Arabs shot at Israelis in two
locations near Shechem, at the Ayosh junction north of Ramallah, and
elsewhere. These incidents were generally accompanied by rock-throwings
and other violence. All in all, two Israeli soldiers were lightly
wounded, while two Palestinians were killed. Other Arab violence took
place in Beit Sahour, along the road to Beitar Illit, Bethlehem, and
other places.

Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem was specially opened for the Chief Rabbis to
pray there - the violence of the past two weeks has caused prevented its
opening - and Palestinian youths took advantage to throw rocks at the
soldiers there. The IDF regional commander in Shechem said today that
the army is continuing to act with "the restraint that comes from
strength, in order not to escalate the situation still further."

A Palestinian policeman fired, from a moving car, at a convoy of Israeli
cars near the Gush Katif junction late this morning. Near Shechem,
Palestinians opened fire several times on an Israeli tractor working on
a bypass road there. Palestinians fired on the Binyamin town of Psagot
early this afternoon; no one was hurt in the above incidents.

WORKING ON A SUMMIT SUMMARY No pre-conditions, low expectations.
This was Israel's position as it went into today's summit meeting in
Sharm a- Sheikh. Even a ceasefire agreement seemed this morning to be
beyond reach, according to a high-ranking source who accompanied Barak
today, because "Arafat is simply not interested in attaining quiet."
The official opening of the summit shortly after noon today was preceded
by various meetings between the various players, including Prime
Minister Barak, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, U.S. President Bill
Clinton, Yasser Arafat, Jordanian King Abdullah, and others. UN
Secretary-General Kofi Anan said that he had come up with a formula for
a ceasefire, and will present it to the parties today.

By late this afternoon, the prospects had not changed significantly, and
officials had not succeeded in coming up with an agreed-upon summary of
the summit and a ceasefire declaration. Clinton said he would remain in
Sharm a-Sheikh until tomorrow afternoon.

For Israel, the primary gain may be made on the media front. Government
Press Office staffers have supplied the dozens of media representatives
at Sharm a-Sheikh with video cassettes of the Ramallah lynch of two
soldiers, hate literature circulated by the PA, videos of PA children
being trained to use weapons, and a transcript of the call to murder
Jews - "Have no mercy on the Jews... Wherever you meet them, kill them"
- during the Moslem sermon this past Friday in Gaza.

PALESTINIAN MEDIA, POLICE HELPED IN LYNCH

The Palestinian media and police played important roles in the
double-lynch of two Israelis in Ramallah four days ago. The day before
the lynch, in which one soldier was tied to a car and dragged until he
was dead, an official Palestinian Authority Television broadcast a clip
demonstrating the tying of a mannequin - representing a body - to the
back of a car. This was confirmed the next day by Israeli Army
operations commander Maj.-Gen. Giora Eiland. Zionist Organization of
America President Morton A. Klein has compared this to the shocking case
in Texas where white racists tied a black man to the back of their car
and dragged him along until he was dead. In addition, a senior Israeli
Army officer told the Jerusalem Post that the events leading to the
murder were caused by the PA police, who stopped the two Israelis at a
roadblock, but instead of guiding them back in the right direction, they
brought them into Ramallah. Furthermore, contrary to a Ha'aretz report
today that "Israeli security sources confirmed over the weekend that the
Palestinian police had tried to save the soldiers and that no policemen
had been involved in the lynching," an Italian Television video of the
attack shows Palestinian policemen joining in the mob violence - as
reported by Ha'aretz itself a few days ago.

CHRISTIANS SUPPORT ISRAELI JERUSALEM

A unique petition calling for a united Jerusalem under Israeli
sovereignty, signed and endorsed by millions of Christians worldwide,
was presented on Saturday night by the International Christian Embassy
Jerusalem to Diaspora Affairs Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior. The
occasion was the ICEJ's 21st Annual Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem,
which, despite the violence that has rocked the region and caused many
tourists from canceling their trips to Israel, was attended by over
4,000 delegates - more than 90% of those who had signed up. The petition
was signed by over 100,000 Christians from 118 countries, and was
endorsed by Christian ministries representing another 15 million members
around the world. The petition supports "Israel's exclusive claim to
sovereignty over united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. We commend
Israel for its exemplary record in guaranteeing access to the biblical
sites in Jerusalem and throughout Israel, and support the continuation
of Israel in this role."

Patrick Goodenough, of the ICEJ, recently told Ruth Matar of Women in
Green on Arutz-7 that when he and a friend once went up to the Temple
Mount to pray, "we were prevented from doing so by Moslem Waqf officials
there." Ruth Matar then played, on air, a quote of Yasser Arafat
explaining his refusal to agree to Israeli sovereignty on the Mount with
the words, "I cannot betray the Christian people."

NEWSPAPER: CALLS FOR GENOCIDE ARE A DIFFERENT STORY

Israel's major daily Yediot Acharonot editorializes today:

"The Israeli public can take attacks � it has already taken many,
unfortunately � and it can take kidnappings, and it can take stones on
the roads, and UN Security Council condemnations. But it cannot, and
will not, take calls from mosques to slaughter the Jews. It cannot take
textbooks that brainwash Palestinian students with stories of martyrs
who sacrifice themselves in order to kill Jews in Tel Aviv and Haifa…
Genocide does not happen on its own; it springs forth from an
infrastructure of fanatical and extremist ideology, broadcast from
above... Those who want peace inculcate among their children a love for
peace, not blood and fire. They do not educate them to hate, but to be
tolerant. This is the essence of reconciliation between communities,
religions and peoples. Another 1,000 guns in the hands of this or that
Palestinian group, even though they violate the spirit of the
Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement, will not kill it. Another
inflammatory broadcast dripping with anti-Semitism on Palestinian radio
will kill the peace, at least in our eyes."

Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Monday, Oct. 16, 2000 / Tishrei 17, 5761

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - The Agenda of Ms. Amanpour
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 17:51:27 -0400

THE AGENDA OF MS. AMANPOUR
Sunday, October 15,2000

CHRISTIANE Amanpour thinks the press corps is giving George W. Bush
"an easy ride" - so the CNN superstar wasn't about to do the same to Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak. In a live interview last Thursday, she repeatedly
hectored the Israeli leader, demanding he "show leadership," accusing him of
"playing into the hands of extremists" by overreacting to Palestinian protests
and all but labeling him a liar on Palestinian casualty figures.

"Israel has never taken this extensive reaction against the Palestinians,"
Amanpour challenged Barak. "How do you expect them to react?" But she
wasn't satisfied with the Israel premier's response, which was that Israel is
"not creating the provocation, we are responding - and we will keep on
responding."

Nor did she accept Barak's insistence that the Israeli attack on PLO offices
in Ramallah was preceded by advance warning to the civilians there, who
were given ample time to evacuate - which explains why the casualty figures
were so low.

"Mr. Prime Minister," she challenged, "the Palestinian Authority president" -
for some reason, Amanpour did not want to mention the name Yasser Arafat -
"says in fact there were several people killed in the attack, and there were
dozens of people wounded."

Barak's response? "I beg to question the level of credibility that the
Palestinian Authority has in reporting effects."

But Amanpour wanted to make it clear that Barak is the one with the
credibility problem. "You keep saying that nobody has ever offered such a
great peace agreement as you have, [but] what have you offered them?" she
asked. "Nobody has said it publicly."

Barak, to his credit, replied that "You are not Palestinian, you are not the
negotiator. Arafat knows [what we have offered]." But that wasn't good
enough for Amanpour. "Why haven't you taken your offer to the people, the
Palestinian people?" she demanded.

As for the current violence, Amanpour made it clear that the blame lies
squarely with Israel. "The [Jewish] settlers are a threat to the Palestinian
people," she said. "Is it not your responsibility to rein them in? It is quite
scary seeing these people with guns walking around in the streets."

Never mind that the settlers in recent days have been victims, not
perpetrators. For Amanpour, there is only the Palestinians' "frustration,
anger, every single day going to funerals, every day being confronted with
these killings." At one point, she challenged Barak: "Even your friends
doubt the wisdom of this course of action."

When it comes to Israel, Amanpour is certainly no friend. The same can't be
said about her attitude toward the PLO. And in neither case can she fairly be
labeled an objective journalist.

(Truth be told, the tough nature of Amanpour's interview would be entirely
justified as appropriate aggressive journalism - if it didn't contrast so
drastically with the friendly, gentle-toned questioning immediately
afterward of PLO official Faisal Husseini by CNN's Jerusalem bureau chief,
Mike Hanna.)

Ehud Barak said it best in his interview. Although he was referring to
claims by Arafat, he could just as well have been talking about Christiane
Amanpour when he exclaimed: "That's nonsense, bull- - -t and propaganda."

http://www.nypostonline.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/13445.htm

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Former Israeli prime minister calls for a new Palestinian leader
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 17:58:08 -0400

Former Israeli prime minister calls for a
new Palestinian leader

Monday, 16 October 2000 15:54 (ET)

Former Israeli prime minister calls for a new Palestinian leader
By ELIZABETH BRYANT

PARIS, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of inciting Palestinian youths to
suicide in their ongoing battle with Israeli police, and said peace with
Israel demanded a new, bolder Palestinian leader.

"I want to see a Palestinian Sadat appear, I want there to be a
Palestinian Hussein," said Netanyahu during a Monday night interview on
France's Channel 1 television, referring to the former Egyptian and
Jordanian leaders who made peace with Israel.

Netanyahu's remarks come as Israelis and Palestinians continue to meet in
the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh, in a bid to end spiraling
violence that has killed nearly 100 people, most of them Palestinians, over
the last few weeks.

In combative tones, Israel's former, hawkish leader accused Arafat of
running a dictatorship bent on the ultimate destruction of Israel, rather
than a peace accord.

The former prime minister lost the 1999 elections to Barak, who promised
Israelis he would deliver peace with the country's Arab neighbors. Instead,
peace talk with Syria are frozen, and relations with the Palestinians at
their lowest point in years.

Speaking through an interpreter, Netanyahu said Arafat rejected
unprecedented concessions made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Those
concessions, he said, "even shocked the Americans."

"What do the Palestinians want?" asked Netanyahu, who implied the real
goal was the elimination of the Israeli state.

Talk of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and an East Jerusalem capital
was for media consumption, he said.
Arafat, he said, "doesn't want peace with Israel, he want peace without
Israel."

Netanyahu also indicated he was against forming a national emergency
government that might unite Israel's Labor and Likud parties. Although Barak
has floated the possibility with rightist political opponents, Netanyahu
said "there are other ways" of dealing with the current crisis.

At immediate issue, he said, was for Arafat to guarantee an unconditional
ceasefire. If that happens, there is still a change the two sides could
return to the negotiating table.

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=128235

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Egyptian mufti calls for boycott against Israel
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 18:51:40 -0400

Egyptian mufti calls for boycott against Israel

CAIRO, Oct 16 (AFP) - Egypt's mufti Sheikh Nasr Farid Wasel called
Monday on Arab and Muslim nations to boycott Israel, which "does not want
peace," the state news agency MENA said.

The mufti, who issues religious decrees, said a boycott was "the strongest
weapon" against the Jewish state.

"Israel does not want peace and its interests are only achieved through war,"
Sheikh Wasel said.

"The state of passivity Arabs and Muslims are living in has made the Jews
capable of these practices: killing innocents, displacing thousands of
Palestinians and treating Islam's holy sites with derision," the mufti told a
seminar organized at Al-Nur mosque in the north of Cairo.

Sheikh Wasel said that all countries that take Israel's side "hold inner evil
and are not beholden to any moral or legal rule -- just their own interests."

The mufti called not supporting the Palestinians "a crime against religion, the
fatherland and morality."

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Jordanian MPs demand scrapping of peace treaty with Israel
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 18:58:29 -0400

Jordanian MPs demand scrapping of peace treaty with Israel

AMMAN, Oct 16 (AFP) - Islamist and opposition MPs have filed a draft
motion in parliament calling for the scrapping of Jordan's October 1994 peace
treaty with Israel, one of the deputies told AFP on Monday.

Salameh Hiyari said the draft was presented Sunday by 12 deputies to the
president of the 80-member lower chamber of deputies, on the eve of the
Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt aimed at ending Israeli-Palestinian
clashes.

Jordan's King Abdullah II was taking part in the summit along with the Israeli,
Palestinian, US and Egyptian leaders.

The move in parliament was the lastest in a series of appeals by opposition
and Islamic leaders for Jordan to take punitive measures against Israel over
its military operations against the Palestinian people.

Massive street protests over the past two weeks have repeatedly urged the
government to cut links with Israel by closing its embassy in Amman and
expelling the ambassador.

Hiyari said he hoped the draft would be debated once parliament reconvenes
in November from a summer recess.

The MPs based their request on article 95 of the Jordanian constitution
which stipulates that 10 deputies or more are allowed to propose an
amendment or change of legislation, Hiyari said.

Jordan, which has a large Palestinian population, has strongly protested over
Israel's use of force against the Palestinians and has indefinitely delayed
sending a new ambassador to Tel Aviv.

The families of Israeli diplomats posted in Amman, meanwhile, have stayed
behind in Israel after last week's Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and do not
plan to return until the regional tension eases, an Israeli embassy source
said Sunday.

Some protesters have tried to march on the hill-top embassy but have been
blocked by Jordanian security forces.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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