Reported from Jerusalem
1. SHARON: WE’LL RECONSIDER FENCE ROUTE… Amid a flurry of semantics and spin, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he will consider altering the route of the controversial security barrier, “not as a result of Palestinian or United Nations demands…but only as a result of internal Israeli deliberations.” Sharon admitted for the first time that the buffer is “unsatisfactory in the harm it does to Palestinians’ daily lives,” but praised its success in preventing suicide bombers from reaching Israeli population centers. The Prime Minister’s comments followed an opinion by Israel’s acting Attorney General that the present route of the barrier will be impossible to defend – both in Israel’s High Court of Justice and in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The Sharon government is in the process of formulating its defense before the world body which has been asked by the United Nations to issue a declaratory ruling on the legality of what Sharon insists be called, “the terror prevention fence.”
2. ANOTHER PEACE PLAN ON THE WAY…FROM THE ARAB SIDE… It may be hard to tell one peace plan from another without a score card, but according to the Al-Jazeera television channel as reported by Israel Radio, a new one that is being formulated under the auspices of the Arab League will soon become the latest entry. The prime movers are Egypt and Saudi Arabia, whose foreign ministers met in Cairo over the weekend with Arab League Secretary ‘Amru Mousa to review elements submitted by their countries and Syria. The new plan would join the Road Map for Peace, the Geneva Initiative, the Elon Plan and the OneVoice proposal in the crowded field.
3. SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR INTENSIFIES CAMPAIGN TO REOPEN TALKS WITH ISRAEL… Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad is forging ahead with his campaign to reopen talks with Israel notwithstanding a cool reception from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The latest effort by the Syrian strongman comes in the form of a major interview in the London-based Arabic language A-Sharq Al-Awsat in which he describes as his goal “a clear peace, based on the principles of the Madrid conference and everything that has been achieved thereafter.” Al-Asad appears to be holding to his demand that a resumption of negotiations means from the point at which they were suspended when talks broke off in September 2000 – including the broad concessions offered by then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Ariel Sharon rejects anything but a resumption from scratch. Although the Israeli prime minister is under increasing domestic and international pressure to respond positively to Al-Asad’s overtures, the Bush Administration has told Israel that it will not push it on the issue.
4. STOCKHOLM AFTERMATH: ISRAEL EXPECTED TO ATTEND SYMPOSIUM, LANDLORD WANTS EMBASSY OUT… The governments of both Israel and Sweden appear to be trying to end the diplomatic row that began when Israel’s Ambassador disrupted an art exhibit that glorified a suicide bomber who killed 21 of its citizens. Ambassador Zvi Mazal pulled out wires and tore down a light fixture attached to a work by a pro-Palestinian Israeli expatriate that depicted the suicide bomber sailing serenely in a boat on a sea of blood. The exhibit was connected to a symposium on preventing genocide that is scheduled to be held on Monday. Sweden says it still wants Israel’s ambassador to participate in the event and is considering writing a “conciliatory note” to Israel in order to facilitate an end to the tiff. Meanwhile, the ownership of the building that houses Israel’s Stockholm Embassy has told its tenant to move out citing security concerns.
5. RABIN ASSASSIN WANTS TO WED; AUTHORITIES SAY NO… The man imprisoned for the murder of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin wants to wed, but prison authorities say they won’t permit it to happen. Yigal Amir’s family said on Sunday that the convicted assassin wants to marry a woman described as an “ultra-Orthodox divorcee.” Although Amir has not yet requested permission to do so, the head of Israel’s Prisons Authority called a news conference to say he will not allow the wedding to take place and ordered the authority’s legal staff to begin preparing arguments in the event Amir challenges the ruling in court. Experts say the Prisons Authority is on thin legal ice and will find it difficult to prevent a wedding from taking place.
6. ISRAEL MAKES UNPOPULAR CHOICE FOR AMBASSADOR TO LONDON… The Sharon government has ignored pleas from London’s Jewish community and objections from a domestic watchdog group in confirming media mogul Zvi Hefetz as Israel’s new ambassador to the United Kingdom. England’s Jews expressed their outrage at the appointment of an ambassador who does not speak English while domestic challenges to the appointment were launched over allegations that Hefetz took liberties with answers to his public service application. The ambassador-designate will resign as vice chairman of the board of Ma’ariv, one of Israel’s most influential mass circulation daily newspapers.