Reported from Jerusalem
1. QUREI’ ULTIMATUM: FENCE CONSTRUCTION OR TALKS… Ahmad Qurei’ has told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he will not join him for long-anticipated head-to-head talks if construction on Israel’s controversial security barrier is not halted. The Palestinian Authority’s prime minister will send his representatives to meet with Sharon’s on Sunday to set up the meeting and, in fact, decide whether it will take place at all. Both sides are under heavy pressure to demonstrate that the official ‘Road Map’ peace process is not dead while unauthorized and unofficial efforts gain momentum in the international community. The most significant of several being floated is the ‘Geneva Initiative’ which is being launched with great fanfare in that Swiss city on Monday. It has been lauded by world leaders including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, and is the subject of resolutions submitted to both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. While Prime Minister Sharon has been the recipient of American rebuke almost daily, Qurei’ met for two hours on Saturday in Amman with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns. Sharon is expected to use his turn with Burns to plead with the Americans to withhold further support – moral or otherwise – from the ‘Geneva Initiative’ amid reports that Powell will soon host the authors of the plan.
2. ISRAELI GESTURES TO PALESTINIANS FOLLOWS MISSILE ATTACK ON ISRAELI HOME IN GAZA… Less than 24-hours after a home in an Israeli community in the Gaza Strip was hit by an anti-tank missile, Israel is allowing an additional 15,000 Palestinian workers – men age 28 and above who are married – to enter Israel on Sunday. On Saturday night, four members of a family living in the Neve Dekalim community of the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza were treated for shock after an anti-tank missile struck their home causing heavy damage. A second missile was fired at Israeli troops in the same area but caused no injuries or damage.
3. ISRAELI ARMY KILLS PALESTINIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ACCIDENTALLY… On Friday, Israeli troops accidentally killed a Palestinian police intelligence officer while trying to disperse a crowd near a security fence surrounding an Israeli community in the Gaza Strip. Because of a number of attacks on communities that began with an infiltration through a fence, the areas near security fences have been declared to be off-limits to Palestinians. Israeli troops are under orders to shoot at those violating the order in specific circumstances. In this case, troops were told to fire in the air, but a bullet struck Sayad Abu Safra as he tried to remove a man described as “mentally disturbed.” The Israeli army, which says “open fire” orders may have been violated, has suspended the patrol leader and two soldiers while an investigation continues.
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4. SHARON FEUDS WITH ARMY OFFICERS OVER STANCE TO NEW PA GOVERNMENT… Israel’s leading army officers are openly disputing the prime minister’s stance toward the new Palestinian government, according to the newspaper Haaretz. Following hints by Prime Minister Sharon that he is willing to unilaterally evacuate the Israeli community of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, army Chief of Staff General Moshe Ya’alon expressed his belief that to do so would be to “support terror.” Ya’alon did, however, say that he would support such a move if it was part of an overall peace agreement with the Palestinians. According to the report, while Ya’alon wants Israel to support a “quiet, internal power-shift” within the PA, Prime Minister Sharon is believed to be formulating his own plan that will include unilateral steps that he assumes will not be met by reciprocal Palestinian gestures. When the plan collapses, the newspaper says, Sharon will turn to the United States to approve a unilateral solution that is centered around the separation fence, removal of isolated Israeli communities in post-1967 areas, and the consolidation into clusters of the remaining ones. It would also include a unilaterally declared border between Israel and the PA.
5. NEW YORK TIMES RECOUNTS PALESTINIAN ALLEGATIONS OF ISRAELI SEX TRAP TO RECRUIT INFORMERS… On Saturday, the New York Times published a detailed account of an alleged confession by a Palestinian accused of collaborating with Israel, who said he was entrapped by being lured into having sex with a female Israeli officer. Muhammad Hilal was murdered by Yassir Arafat’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade after filming the alleged confession. The article described in great detail the account of Hilal’s activities that he gave in his confession film, from the time he was recruited by being blackmailed with photos of himself with the Israeli officer, to his turning in a number of Palestinian terrorists. Hilal’s family claims that Muhammad was tortured by the Palestinians into making the confession, and displays photos of burn marks on his corpse to reinforce their argument. The subject of the Times article was Israel’s use of collaborators and their certain death at the hands of Palestinian groups.
6. ANNAN’S LATEST FENCE CONDEMNATION REJECTED BY ISRAEL… Israel wasted no time in unequivocally rejecting the latest condemnation of its security buffer by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. On Friday, Annan called the barrier a setback to peace and said it was harming Palestinians while undermining the ‘Road Map’ peace plan. He accused Israel of violating a U.N. resolution demanding that remaining construction stop and that the existing portions of the buffer be dismantled. On Saturday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement rejecting Annan’s criticism, saying that, “Israel’s security barrier is a way of guaranteeing the defense of Israeli citizens faced by a wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks by all the legal means at its disposal, which is not only its right but its duty.” The statement went on to say that, “Israel indignantly rejects false propaganda on the true meaning of the barrier,” rejecting what it called “the cynical exploitation” of the United Nations’ authority to condemn Israel. It referred to the often-heard accusations that the fence is meant to create de facto borders, to usurp land and to harm the Palestinian population.
7. ISRAEL WITHDRAWS ITS FIRST-EVEN U.N. RESOLUTION… When Israel submitted its first-ever U.N. resolution calling for the protection of Israeli children from Palestinian terror last October, a spokesman said that part of the intent of the measure was to gauge whether Israel could receive a fair hearing at the U.N. The subject selected seemed to Israeli diplomats to be relatively benign: a mirror-image of a similar resolution offered by Egypt to protect Palestinian children from Israel. Although the Egyptian version passed, last week Israel threw in the towel, citing the plethora of amendments offered by other nations that neutered the resolution’s intent: going so far as to remove the words “Israeli children” altogether.
8. ISRAEL EXPERIENCES DRAMATIC OCTOBER TOURISM BOOST… 46% more tourists visited Israel in October 2003 than in October 2002 according to the Ministry of Tourism. The upswing was led by an 80% increase from France and a 78% increase from the United States.
9. SWEDEN LIFTS ISRAEL TRAVEL WARNING… Sweden’s foreign ministry has lifted a travel warning about Israel that has been in place for the past 18 months. The ban was lifted in response to a request by an Israeli trade delegation that argued the measure had made it almost impossible for Swedish businessmen to travel to Israel due to high insurance costs. A delegation of members of the Israel Export Institute is visiting communications companies in Sweden and Finland.