April/May 1995, Pages 22-25

Issues in the News

Compiled by Greg Noakes

FROM THE ISRAELI AND U.S. JEWISH PRESS:

Rabin Wary of U.S. Budget Cuts:

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the annual fact-finding delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that budget cuts in Washington will endanger Middle East peace efforts, according to the Jerusalem Post. "I wish to have a balanced budget, too," Rabin told the visiting American Jewish leaders. "The U.S. cannot carry a real foreign policy without being strong militarily and without having a foreign aid bill." After hearing that a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee had voted to cut U.S. debt reduction for Jordan from $275 million to $50 million, Rabin said, "I started to realize the possibility to achieve peace in the region will be reduced." White House spokesman Mike McCurry confirmed that Rabin called President Bill Clinton to discuss the cut in Jordan's debt package. "The president told the prime minister in all candor that we face a very tough audience now on Capitol Hill," McCurry added.

Boycott Blues:

Although Gulf Cooperation Council countries have indicated they would no longer observe secondary and tertiary boycotts, blacklisting companies that do business in Israel and companies that do business with those companies, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members actually have stepped up their boycott activities in recent months, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports Commerce Department figures show Saudi companies filed a total of 399 boycott-related requests with American firms from October to December 1994, compared to only 365 requests from July to September.

Oil Found in Dead Sea:

The Israeli National Oil Company has begun limited production from a well in the Dead Sea, according to Ma'ariv. The oil well is producing between 50 and 80 barrels per day, according to company president Yaron Ran. Total oil deposits, which were found at a depth of 6,600 feet, at the site are unknown.

Peace Through Economics:

Moshe Sanbar, chairman of Israel's Bank Leumi, says jobs must be created for Palestinians in Gaza and Jericho and proposed the creation of a fund to enable small businessmen in Gaza to take out loans on preferential terms, according to Ha'aretz. "Peace will be determined by economics, not war. The region needs to create jobs as soon as possible," said the head of Israel's second-largest bank. The bank chairman said large-scale projects, like the proposed creation of a port in Gaza, would spark immediate job growth only overseas, where the project planning would take place, not in the occupied territories themselves. "We need simple, labor-intensive projects as soon as possible," Sanbar told a gathering of diplomats.

Islamic Movement Enters Schools:

Deputy Education Minister Micha Goldman told the Knesset that Israel's Islamic Movement has infiltrated Arab educational facilities in Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports. Goldman said the Education Ministry was trying to fill the gap through construction of more schools in Israeli Arab communities, but some Knesset members urged the ministry to step up its efforts. "Suicide killers are the result of education in the idea of jihad," said the National Religious Party's Yigal Bibi. Labor's Yoram Lass responded that Bibi should investigate the contrast between educational and leisure facilities available to Israel's Arab and Jewish communities. "Don't turn this into a religious war," Lass told Bibi. "Both sides have extremists."

Hebron Families Compensated:

Israel has paid some $1.6 million in compensation to families of Palestinians killed or wounded by Dr. Baruch Goldstein at Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque in February 1994, according to Israel army radio. Twenty of the families of the 29 killed received between $27,000 and $53,000, depending on whether or not the victim was married and had children, while families of 66 of the 125 wounded also have received payment. Israeli military authorities refused to compensate the families of five Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the wake of the mosque massacre, however.

SLA Has "Lost Confidence":

Members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), Israel's proxy militia in southern Lebanon, have lost confidence in Israel and even have begun defecting to the enemy Hezbollah militia. Military sources quoted in Ha'aretz say the "fall in morale" results from the widespread belief among the 2,600 SLA fighters that they will be abandoned by Israel when peace is signed with Lebanon and Syria.

Reform Jew Gains Religious Post:

Bruria Brash, a 60-year-old Reform Jew, won a seat on Tel Aviv's local religious council, ending Orthodox Judaism's monopoly over Israel's municipal religious councils. While Reform Judaism is the largest movement in organized American Judaism, accounting for half of the 3 million affiliated Jews in the U.S. (another 3 million American Jews are unaffiliated), it and Conservative Judaism both have been shunted aside in Israel, where Orthodox Judaism prevails in government and daily life.

Zucker: Settlements Can Stay:

Dedi Zucker, a leading figure in the leftist Meretz Party and a member of the Knesset, foresees Jewish settlements remaining in the West Bank and Gaza as "islands" within an autonomous Palestinian entity. Zucker said he thinks most settlers will leave rather than remain within a Palestinian entity, but that those who wish to stay should not be uprooted by force. Such settlers would be Israeli citizens bound under Israeli law while within their settlements, but would be under Palestinian jurisdiction outside the settlements' borders. Zucker's Meretz colleague, Communications Minister Shulamit Aloni, disagreed, saying the government should provide for the settlers only until the time comes to remove them, according to the Jerusalem Post. Meanwhile, the Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza has begun a campaign to sell apartments in settlements to Jews living abroad, who would then rent them to Israelis who are unable to buy their own apartments or do not want to risk their money in a settlement.

Ethiopian Soldiers Have Problems:

A report by Israel Defense Force psychologists concludes that the integration of Ethiopian soldiers in the military is problematic, with their motivation to serve decreasing. According to the Jerusalem Post, many of the soldiers' problems are similar to those encountered by Ethiopian immigrants to Israel as a whole, who are "profoundly disillusioned with their absorption in the country." One IDF researcher said Ethiopian recruits arrive at basic training and train under officers "who lack the knowledge or sensitivity to deal with their unique background." The report noted that Ethiopian soldiers tend to keep to themselves within the military. Ethiopians increasingly are joining the Border Police rather than infantry units, in part because of better long-term career opportunities.

Islamists Will Participate in Elections:

Israel's Islamic Movement announced it will advise its supporters to participate in upcoming Israeli elections, reversing the movement's previous boycott of Israeli balloting. Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish told Israel radio the group's leadership voted unanimously to mobilize its Israeli Arab supporters to vote, though a decision has not been made whether to field candidates on an independent Islamic Movement slate or support an existing party's list. Israel's General Security Service (GSS) told Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that the Islamic Movement could win five or six seats in the Knesset if it ran its own candidates.

Israeli Radio Cuts Controversial:

An Israel Broadcasting Authority decision to cut both its English- and French-language shortwave radio transmissions from 105 to 60 minutes daily to reduce costs provoked heated debate within the organization, the Jerusalem Post reports. Israel radio chief Amnon Nadav said the broadcasts were not cost-effective since few people listen to shortwave radio. IBA official Yosef Frankel disagreed, saying some seven million Diaspora Jews speak English and "for some small Jewish communities this is their connection with Israel."

FROM THE MIDDLE EASTERN PRESS:

Palestine

Sheikh Yassin Condemns Treaty:

Palestinian Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told the London-based Al-Hayat that peace with and recognition of the State of Israel are crimes under Islamic law, though a temporary truce which allows Muslims to marshal their strength is permissible. Sheikh Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamist group, is in an Israeli prison for suspected involvement in the killing of Israelis. "Peace with Jews is a crime by those who do it when it's intended to legitimize occupation and recognize the enemy's existence on our Palestinian land," Yassin told Al-Hayat via other prison inmates. "Palestine is the land of sanctities and it is an Islamic endowment which no ruler or president or king has the right to give up."

Palestinian Delegate Barred:

Afif Safieh, the PLO's general delegate to the United Kingdom, was denied permission to move to Jerusalem by the Israeli Interior Ministry. Safieh, who was born in Jerusalem and was studying abroad when the city fell during the 1967 war, applied for resident status under a family reunification program and had been planning to open an English-language weekly economics magazine. The PLO diplomat has visited Jerusalem four times since the signing of the Declaration of Principles in September 1993, but will not be allowed to move to the city permanently. "It looks as though some people consider the march of peace another means of pursuing the war," Safieh told the Jerusalem Times.

Anti-Arafat Coalition Convened:

A group of independent Palestinian nationalists and Islamists has formed a new coalition opposed to the peace process—the first of its kind publicly proclaimed in the West Bank, according to the Khaleej Times. Bassam Al-Shakaa, the former mayor of Nablus who lost his legs in a 1980 bombing by Jewish extremists, said the "Palestinian Coalition" is an attempt to "reunify the Palestinian people under one leadership and one institution after the PLO lost its title of representative of all Palestinians." Sources in the West Bank said the group does not include members of either Fatah or Hamas. Shakaa said one of the coalition's demands was the resignation of Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "This is the only logical thing to do after his complete failure," Shakaa argued.

Executive Order Backlash:

The recent executive order signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton targeting private American financial support for organizations opposed to the Middle East peace process may cause an anti-American backlash due to its effect on Palestinian schools, clinics and other welfare institutions. The Arab News quotes Sheikh Jamil Hamami, director of the Islamic Culture and Science Society, as saying, "It will increase hostility against the American government" and will have a "very negative impact" on U.S.-Arab relations. Hamami's organization operates a school, kindergarten, orphanage and a public health clinic in Jerusalem's Al-Ram neighborhood. The executive order prohibits the transfer of funds from the U.S. to a number of Islamist and nationalist groups, many of which operate extensive social service networks in the West Bank and Gaza.

Gazan Wins the Lottery:

A 24-year-old university student from Gaza won some $2 million in the Israeli national lottery with the first ticket he ever bought, according to the Jerusalem Times. He purchased the ticket in Tel Aviv just before Israel's closure of the occupied territories last January, then had to wait to collect his winnings until lottery officials convinced Israeli security forces to give him a special permit to travel to Israel. The winner wore a plastic bag over his head during a press conference at lottery headquarters in Tel Aviv to protect his anonymity. He said he would use the money to continue his studies in business management and to start a company with his brother, who lives in the United States.

Habash Claims Arafat "Finished":

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader George Habash rejected PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's call for dialogue, saying, "Arafat is finished, everyone should know that." Habash said a proposed committee to open dialogue between the Palestinian National Authority and Palestinian opposition groups was a non-starter. "The big problem is that Arafat and Abu Mazen had sought to settle the question on their own," Habash told Radio Monte Carlo, referring to the Oslo Agreement.

Lebanon/Syria

Fadlallah Says U.S. Menaces Islam

Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual guide of Lebanon's Shi'i Muslim Hezbollah organization, told reporters the United States is fighting a "world war against Islam under the pretext of fighting terrorism," according to the Khaleej Times. Sheikh Fadlallah was among some two dozen organizations and individuals named in a recent executive order signed by President Bill Clinton which prohibits the transfer of funds from the U.S. to groups opposed to the Middle East peace process. Fadlallah says neither he nor Hezbollah has any bank accounts in the United States, and warned Islamic groups around the world to "close ranks and defend themselves because the American enemy wants Islam's head." Fadlallah said efforts to reach a peace settlement between Israel and either Syria or Lebanon would be "frozen" until after the next American presidential election campaign. "This is because of the weakness of the current American president and the complications Israel is hatching," the sheikh claimed.

Lebanon Arrests Abu Nidal Hitman:

Mahmoud Khaled Eintour, a 48-year-old Palestinian with a Jordanian passport, was arrested in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon by Lebanese army intelligence on charges of hijacking, kidnaping and murder. Eintour, also known as Abu Ali Majed, is believed to head the wing of Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council responsible for carrying out assassinations. He is a leading suspect in the 1987 hijacking of a French yacht off Gaza and the subsequent three-year detention of its eight passengers, the 1988 abduction of a Belgian physician working in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and the 1994 assassination of a Jordanian diplomat in Beirut. Eintour is being held at the Lebanese Defense Ministry east of Beirut pending his trial.

Egypt/Sudan

Bosnian Decries Muslim Dependence:

Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic told a Cairo audience that continued dependence on the West for technology will end in the political submission of the Muslim world, and urged Muslims to develop their own technological and intellectual resources. Al-Ahram said Izetbegovic's comments came at a two-day conference on "Islam and Arab Culture in a New World" cosponsored by Cairo's Al-Azhar University and Saudi Arabia's King Faisal Foundation. "The West's might is not in its armies and economies but in its experimental mental approach," Izetbegovic said. "We must not reject Western science and technology but rather absorb them, without any inferiority complexes and while maintaining our Islamic dignity and values," he added.

WWII Truck Found at El-Alamein:

Egyptian soldiers on maneuvers in the Western Desert discovered a British truck loaded with live British and German ammunition which was abandoned during World War II. Al-Jumhouriyya reports the 50-year-old vehicle is perfectly preserved, and that the soldiers merely cleaned off the truck and changed a flat tire to get it operating. The eight-cylinder truck was found near El-Alamein, site of fierce fighting in 1942 between British troops under Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery and German commander Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Mubarak Blasts Media Portrayals:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak blasted Muslim extremist groups, saying that some are "hostile to others just because they have a different religion," while a radical fringe "attack those who are different in the belief that they are waging holy war. The result is that this deviant school of thought has helped create a counter-current in [non-Muslim] countries which has begun to view Islam as the new danger threatening others and as the oppressive ideology replacing ideologies which have collapsed." Mubarak also criticized Western media and academic coverage of Islam, according to the MENA news agency, saying writers and thinkers "have made statements portraying Islam as the religion which sheds the blood of non-Muslims and giving the impression Muslims are murderers and saboteurs. This unjust image, unfortunately, has helped deprive many Islamic causes of the support they deserve." The Egyptian leader argued for a moderate interpretation of Islam and the presentation of the true face of the religion.

These Boots are Made for Smuggling:

Customs officials at Cairo's airport arrested a 23-year-old Jordanian national on charges of smuggling after he disembarked from a Royal Jordanian flight from Amman, Al-Ahram reports. Airport personnel stopped the man after they noticed his strange gait and heavy footsteps, then found 16 pounds of 24-karat gold worth some $100,000 hidden in his boots.

North Africa

Qaddafi Threatens NATO:

Plans by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to open a dialogue with Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania have provoked a furious response by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who called the effort "the first steps for the progress of NATO's plan to dominate Arab Muslim North Africa." Mauritania was included in the group at the insistence of Spain, which said it would otherwise veto participation by Israel, a key U.S. demand. NATO Secretary-General Willy Claes stressed the effort was not a "crusade against Islam," but rather the first step in a Mediterranean "partnership for peace" similar to NATO's overtures to eastern Europe.

U.S.-Type University Opens in Ifrane:

The resort town of Ifrane, perched in the Middle Atlas mountains an hour from Fez, is the site of the first American-model university in Morocco, whose other institutions of higher education are based on the French university system. The Tunisia News reports the school's roots lie in the 1989 wreck of an Iranian oil tanker off the Moroccan coast. Saudi Arabia donated $50 million to help with the cleanup of Moroccan beaches and fishing grounds, but fortuitous winds blew the oil out to sea rather than against Morocco's Atlantic coast. King Hassan of Morocco asked Saudi Arabia's King Fahd if the money could be used instead to establish an English-language university in Morocco. The Saudi monarch agreed and plans were made for the Al-Akhawayn University of Ifrane (AUI), the title "Al-Akhawayn" ("Two Brothers") a reference to the close ties between Hassan and Fahd. AUI opened in January with some 300 students and 50 faculty and staff. The private university, modeled after the American Universities of Cairo and Beirut, eventually will accommodate some 3,600 students of Moroccan, Arab and American backgrounds.

Arabian Peninsula

Kuwaitis Say Too Soon for Summit:

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said talk of an Arab summit is premature given the lingering splits in the Arab world following the 1990-91 Gulf war, according to Al-Hayat. "First there must be frank talk and all the obstacles obstructing the summit must be removed," he added, pointing out that in addition to Kuwaiti concerns about Iraqi intentions, Egypt and Sudan are engaged in a border dispute and also oppose an Arab summit at present. The last Arab summit was held on the eve of the Gulf war in 1990. The Kuwaiti foreign minister also downplayed calls by the Palestine Liberation Organization to convene an Arab League meeting to discuss the stalled peace process. "May I ask why they have not contacted the Arab states when they agreed on peace?" Al-Sabah asked. Al-Sabah said that while Kuwait was under pressure to lift its boycott of Israel, it would take no such action without Arab League approval, and added that Kuwait would not receive Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the emirate.

Saudi-Yemeni Dispute Defused:

A month of negotiations led to an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Yemen to form a series of committees to resolve outstanding border issues between the two countries, according to the SPA news agency. The accord, signed in Mecca, follows clashes last December between Saudi and Yemeni forces. The joint committees are charged with demarcating land and sea borders, developing economic and cultural cooperation between the two nations and coordinating troop movements near their shared border. Ties between the two countries have been strained since the Gulf war, when newly unified Yemen threw its support behind Iraq.

Riyadh Considers Private University:

The Riyadh Chamber of Commerce is analyzing a feasibility study on the creation of a private university in the Saudi capital, Arab News reports. "We first want to see how it will function in Riyadh where you have both Saudi and expatriate students available to take up administrative, business-oriented and computer courses," said Saleh Al-Toaimi, the chamber's secretary-general. "If the experiment succeeds in Riyadh, it will be extended to Jeddah and the Eastern Province," Al-Toaimi added. The college would open with an initial student body of 500 and expand over a decade to four times that size. The chamber study finds the $20 million university could generate an annual income of some $15 million when it is operating at full capacity if annual tuition is set at $7,500.

Gulf War Gold Found:

Workers at a building site in Fahaheel, a coastal suburb south of Kuwait City, unearthed a ton of gold bullion believed to have been buried by Iraqi soldiers during the occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91. Arab Times reports the gold came from dozens of jewelry shops in the area which were looted by Iraqi forces, who then buried the bars of melted-down gold with the intention of recovering them later. The gold was handed over to Kuwaiti security forces.

Iran

Tehran Touts Local Tanks:

Iran's military took delivery of the first shipment of locally produced main battle tanks, an advanced design of the Russian T-72 tank, named Zulfikar-4 after Imam Ali's famous two-forked sword. Tehran Radio said the tank had been in development for three years, but did not specify whether the Zulfikar-4s were being manufactured under license from Russia or if Russian experts had taken part in the tank's planning. Apart from Israel, which manufactures the Merkava tank, no other country in the region produces its own main battle tanks, although Egypt assembles M1A1 Abrams tanks in a joint venture with the U.S. General Dynamics Corporation.

Beefed Up Border Interdiction:

Iran and Pakistan are increasing surveillance along their shared border and will share information on truck and camel caravans to fight drug trafficking under a plan supported by the United Nations. Pakistan will set up 15 watch towers along the border with some financing coming from the U.N., the Iranian daily Salam reported. Iranian officials told the paper that much of the 3,500 tons of drugs produced annually in Afghanistan crosses the Pakistan-Iran border on its way to markets in Europe, adding that Iranian police had seized over 100 tons of drugs in the last 10 months.

Central Asia

Iran Accuses U.S. in Azeri Oil Deal:

Iran's embassy in Baku says U.S. objections to Iranian involvement in an international oil consortium set up by Azerbaijan are "nothing more than interference in the internal affairs of another country," according to Azerbaijan's Assa-Irada news agency. The U.S. has "a desire to rule over the material resources of the region," the Iranian Embassy charged. Azerbaijan offered Iran a five percent share in the consortium, which includes British Petroleum, Norway's Statoil, and the U.S. firms Amoco, McDermott International, Pennzoil and Unocal. The U.S. Embassy in Baku said while the U.S. opposed Iranian participation in the $7.4 billion project, American companies involved in the plan would not be forced to withdraw if Iran takes part.

First Arabic Paper in Ukraine:

Al-Manar became the first Arabic-language newspaper published in Ukraine with a print run of 20,000 copies, according to the Arab News. The newspaper, published by Muslim leaders in Kiev, targets the country's one million Muslims, who are scattered among 200 communities across Ukraine.

The Subcontinent

Bhutto Boosts Defense Policy:

Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto told an audience at the Risalpur Air Force Academy that while Pakistan was a peaceful nation, "we have to safeguard against the expansionist and hegemonic designs of opportunistic states." The Nation reports Bhutto's remarks came as the Pakistani air force took delivery of the first shipment of Karakoram-8 training aircraft, which are produced under a joint Pakistani-Chinese venture. Bhutto said the K-8 is the first step toward an indigenously produced Pakistani jet fighter, and pledged to continue building the country's military deterrent force.

Students Strike Against "Sunset Law":

Female students at Dhaka University in Bangladesh staged a one-day strike against a 1922 law requiring female university students to be in their dormitories before dusk. "This law was made by male chauvinists during the British rule in the subcontinent which curtails our freedom and makes us unequal," protest leader Shahnaj Begum told reporters. The rally marked the first open protest of the "sunset law," which one teacher described as a shield to protect the women's chastity, according to Dhaka radio. "Keeping my character clean is my own responsibility, not that of others," responded one student. "We will no longer agree to remain confined within four walls at night, which is something like being in prison."

Madrasa Move Meets Resistance:

A plan by the Pakistani government to restrict the operation of madrasas (Islamic schools) which receive foreign funding or include military training in their curricula is meeting fierce resistance from the affected institutions. The Arab News quoted members of the Jamaat-i Islami and the Jamiat Ulama-i Islam, two conservative Islamist parties, as saying any attempt to curtail the power and influence of the madrasas would be met with force, while Interior Minister Naseerullah Khan Babar responded by saying that anyone violating the law "would not be spared." Maulana Fazlur Rahman, leader of one faction of the Jamiat Ulama-i Islam and normally a political ally of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said he would continue to give his students military training in Afghanistan.

Horn of Africa

Somalis Rally for Shariah:

Some 4,000 residents of southern Mogadishu, most of them supporters of Mohammed Farah Aidid, demanded imposition of the shariah, or Islamic law, during a rally at the city's October 21 Parade Grounds. Aidid's chief rival, Ali Mahdi Mohammed, already has introduced the shariah in areas of Mogadishu and of northern Somalia under his control. Residents say the harsh punishments of the shariah have ended street crime and made the areas safe for ordinary unarmed people.