Page 65: Some News Items Most US Newspapers Overlooked

(Mainstream US "newspapers of record" frequently put good news about Israel along with bad news about the Arabs on Page 1, and their opposites on Page 65. If you missed the items below, perhaps it's only because the newspapers you read had no Page 65.)

"The Decision to Annex East Jerusalem Was Taken on the Seventh Day of the Six-Day War"

". . . Almost as many Jews as Arabs now live in East Jerusalem—120,000 versus 150,000—and even Palestinian leaders speak only of including the Arab neighborhoods into a Palestinian state, not the Israeli ones. Nevertheless, no nation has yet recognized those neighborhoods as being on sovereign Israeli territory.

"The decision to annex East Jerusalem was taken on the seventh day of the Six-Day War—June 11, 1967 ... The new municipal boundaries of Jerusalem were drawn by an interministerial committee headed by a general, Rehavam Ze'evi, now a Knesset member and head of the Moledet party, which favors 'transfer.' Maximalists on the committee urged incorporation of a massive area, some 50,000 acres. In the end, 18,000 acres were annexed. The boundaries largely followed strategic lines, the emphasis being on including high ground and excluding as much of Arab-inhabited areas as possible to reduce the demographic impact ... Only 1,500 acres of the newly incorporated land had been part of the Jordanian municipality of Jerusalem, which was centered on the Old City. The rest was largely rural land that included parts of 28 different villages, many of which were split by the new boundary. The 14-square-mile territory of pre-June Israeli Jerusalem was tripled in size ...

"Leaving the lawyers to argue it out, the Israeli government set about creating facts on the ground ... Somewhat to its surprise, the government found the reaction to these steps abroad relatively restrained and decided to risk making another move to secure Israel's hold on the city. In 1970 it expropriated vast tracts in East Jerusalem for the construction of additional neighborhoods. About a third of East Jerusalem's land was expropriated ... Enormous new neighborhoods were designed on this land along the new periphery of Jerusalem to 'fortify' the city ...

"Pisgat Ze'ev, the city's newest neighborhood, which stretches between Neveh Ya'acov in the north and French Hill, has been the main focus of building activity in East Jerusalem in recent years. Its master plan calls for 12,000 units, of which 3,000 have already been built ... The passionate debates ... that once surrounded the new neighborhoods have long since receded. Although some persons on the political left refused to move into them in the early years because they were located across the former Green Line, it is doubtful if many make such a calculation today. . . "(Excerpts from report by Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem Post Service, reprinted in the March 16 Jewish Week, Queens, NY)

"Jewish Terrorist Defends Attack"

"Convicted Jewish terrorist Ira Rappaport, whose sentence for blowing the legs off former Nablus Mayor Bassam Shak'a with a car bomb in 1980 was reduced by President Chaim Herzog, hassaid ... he and his co-conspirators had no moral qualms about the bombing. 'The question of attacking him was brought to numerous rabbis of stature, and they said we had the right to attack him. The overwhelming majority said we had the right to kill him,' he claimed.

"Asked, then, whether he would have been morally justified to have killed Shak'a, Rappaport replied, 'In my opinion, yes."' (Excerpts from report by Larry Derfner, Jerusalem Post Service, reprinted in March 9 Jewish Week, Queens, NY)

"Top US Officials Shun Ethiopians"

"The Bush administration has rejected a meeting between Secretary of State James A. Baker III or other top-ranking US officials and members of an Ethiopian delegation visiting here, despite pressure from Israel for such a meeting ... The decision ... represented a rebuff for what one US official called 'strong pressures for a meeting at the highest level' from Israel, which has cultivated close ties with Ethiopia's rulers. The latest Israeli request was made earlier this week by Reuven Merhav, director general of the Israeli foreign ministry.

"In an interview, Merhav said Israel has a strong interest in close ties with Ethiopia both because of its concern for the welfare of an estimated 9,000 to 12,000 Ethiopian Jews, known as Falashas, and because of Ethiopia's 'important geopolitical position as a non-Arab, non-Muslim state' commanding the Red Sea approaches to the Middle East. Israeli officials hope the Falashas will be allowed to emigrate to Israel ...

"The differences over Ethiopia have been a source of strain in US-Israeli relations. The State Department has said it has no evidence to support reports that Israel has supplied cluster bombs to the Ethiopian armed forces but said that Israel has provided military advisers and some arms. Some members of Congress have expressed anger that Israel, the largest recipient of US aid, is assisting a regime that has waged war with a savagery that includes preventing food supplies from reaching thousands of starving Ethiopians. " (Excerpts from report by John M. Goshko in The Washington Post, March 3, 1990)

Ethiopian Jews a "Sensitive Subject"

" . . For both Ethiopia and Israel, the transfer of the Jews is a highly sensitive subject. Officials here refuse to release figures on the numbers arriving or the routes they are traveling. Nevertheless the outlines of cooperation between Israel and the beleaguered Marxist government in Addis Ababa have been extensively reported by Israeli and Western media. According to the reports, Israeli military advisers are assisting the Ethiopian army in fighting secessionist rebels and possibly supplying it with munitions over the objections of the United States.

"At the same time, substantial numbers of Ethiopian immigrants have recently appeared at the 'absorption centers' maintained by the Jewish Agency in several outlying Israeli towns, such as Maalot, in northern Galilee, or Kiryat Gat, in the Negev ...

"Hundreds of Ethiopian families have never managed to move out of the temporary housing of the absorption centers where they were quartered after arriving in Israel four and five years ago. Others have been moved en masse into apartment buildings in depressed 'development towns,' where they have been scorned by neighbors and employers alike. " (Excerpts from report by Jackson Diehl from Ashdod, Israel in The Washington Post, March 30, 1990)

"Peruvians Settled in West Bank"

"The latest Jews to join the controversial settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank came the long way—from the Peruvian Andes via Christianity. Some 50 Peruvian Indians arrived in Israel on Wednesday and were taken to the small Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh, on a West Bank hilltop near the Palestinian city of Nablus. The group was converted to Judaism six months ago in Peru by Rabbi Eliayahu Avihail, who told army radio yesterday the Indians were unperturbed by the political controversy over settlement. " (Reuters news item reprinted in the March 4 Saudi Gazette, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)