Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 14th

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January 14, 2001

Summary and Analysis

In its Sunday morning broadcasts, the VOP news coverage was fairly evenly divided between three subjects:

Continuing talks on final status issues, despite Palestinian views that nothing substantive is being accomplished;
Continuing coverage of and protest about Israel’s “aggression against the Palestinian people,” particularly Israel’s “assassination policy” and its refusal to remove all military and economic obstacles;
Detailed coverage and defense of yesterday’s two executions of Palestinian “traitors” and the planned executions today of two more men convicted of “cooperating with Israel.”

VOP featured Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry saying that Islam mandated the execution of traitors, and VOP narrators actually poked fun at “those who call themselves human rights activists,” such as Bassam Eid, for criticizing the death sentences.

Col. Tawfik Tirawi described the intelligence activities of those condemned to death: turning information over to Israel about key Fatah and Hamas activists later killed by Israeli forces. Tirawi (who has himself been accused by Israeli officers of planning terrorist acts) defended the trials and death sentences, saying, “Everything, the trial is over in a legal manner. There were judges. There were defense lawyers. Everything was according to the complete processes of law.”

In a morning interview, Yasser Abd-Rabbo said Israel was trying to insert the American initiative as a replacement text for UN resolutions-something that was unacceptable to the Palestinians. Similar sentiments were aired in an interview with nabil Abu-Irdeineh, Arafat’s spokesman and advisor.

Quotes of the Day

1.”The head of general intelligence in the West Bank, Col. Tawfik Tirawi, calls on all those who have deviated to the Devil’s path (Arabic: tariq al-Shaitan) to return to goodness and to turn themselves in to the security forces and to describe in details their crimes before it’s too late.” (Sunday morning news round-up headlines, 7:03 am, January 14)

2.”Pursuant to criminal law 113/111, sub paragraph 16 we decide the following: one, death for the criminal Muhammad al-Khatib [ten seconds of loud applause in background and cries of joy from crowd, described as being about 250 people in Bethlehem Court], death for the criminal Hussam al-Din Musa [five seconds of loud applause including shots of Allahu Akbar-God is Great].” (Judge Fathi Abu-Shuri, head of State Security Court, in report by Sayyid Ayyad, Bethlehem, morning report, 7:30 am)

3. “I think this is a victory for the Palestinian people, and a strenthening of the steadfastness and the protection for those who are struggling as fighters for the Palestinians….Really this is a blow for the supreme Palestinian interest and for stability of the homeland and the stable security of the Palestinian state… Their only chance to save themselves is to turn themselves in. There will be no mercy for any spy or any agent who spills Palestinian blood (who gets caught without turning himself in) (Kamil Hmeid, Fatah secretary in Bethlehem, interviewed about death sentences in Bethlehem court, 7:50 am)

4. “I say to those who have sold themselves to Israel, or to the Devil, they will not find anyone who will pray for them just as those who were who were rightly sentenced to death, and they will not find any place to be buried, because even their families refused to pray for them….Therefore they should step forward and turn themselves in to the security services.” (Col Tawfik Tirawi, head of General Intellegence for the West Bank in the Palestinian Authority, 7:58 am)

Sunday Morning Headlines 7 a.m.

“The Palestinian-Israeli meeting with the participation of his excellency President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Regional Development Minister Shimon Peres ends without any concrete results;
A continuation of meetings in coming days;
The Palestinian side asserts that the American ideas form a new basis (or source authority) for the peace process, and the Palestinian side clings to the basis of international legitimacy (i.e. UN resolutions) on whose authority the peace process was launched;
The Palestinian side declares at the talks that began yesterday THE COMPLETE PALESTINIAN REFUSAL for a new basis…demanding assurances for execution (of the agreement) on the ground;
The arbitrary (also tyrannical) Israeli measures, aggression and siege and the evil assassinations lingered in the (discussion) meeting as President Arafat demanded their immediate cessation and an investigation of the crimes;
The state security court hands down death sentences for two agents in Bethlehem and lie imprisonment for another two, and (other) death sentences are carried out yesterday in Nablus and Gaza;
Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry, the Jerusalem Mufti and the Palestinian sage, says that he who does not firmly against traitors undermines the legitimacy of God’s law;
The head of general intelligence in the West Bank, Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, calls on all those who have deviated to the Devil’s path (Arabic: tariq al-Shaitan) to return to goodness and to turn themselves in to the security forces and to describe in details their crimes before it’s too late;
Finance Minister Muhamad Zu’di Nashashibi describes the difficulties resulting from the failure of the Arab countries to fulfill their obligations quickly to turn financial sums over to the Palestinian National Authority in the face of tyrannical Israeli measures.”

8 a.m. Sunday Morning Headlines

” His Excellency President Yasser Arafat receives Regional Development Minister Shimon Peres in Gaza last night along with the Israeli delegation headed by Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami;
Nabil Abu-Irdeineh says the meeting dealt with final status issues and the need to reach agreement on these issues;
State Security court hands down yesterday death sentences by firing squad to the two agents Muhammad al-Khatib and Hussam al-Din Musa for high treason. In addition it sentenced Hanna Mansour Hanna Salameh and Muhammad Awadallah to life imprisonment for treason and assaults against the Fatah Movement. And Mr. Freih Abu-Medein, the Justice Minister, called on all agents to turn themselves in security officials;
Dr. Nabil Sha’ath, Minister of Economic Development, reviews with the Norwegian foreign minister the most recent developments taking place in Palestinian lands;
Advisor on National Security to the American President, Sandy Berger, says much work is needed to achieve agreement before President Clinton leaves office on the 20th of this month;
One youth wounded by occupation forces at southern approaches to Qalqilya;
Israeli occupation forces arrest Engineer Jamil Nurawri, head of engineering for Palestinian Broadcasting
His Holiness Pope John Paul II calls for executing the principles of international legitimacy in the Palestinian lands….”

10 a.m. Sunday Morning Headlines
(repetition of top headlines from 7/8 am) and…

“Minister of Information Yasser Abd-Rabbo says the Palestinian side will NOT accept another declaration of principles…demands a full and complete settlement based on international legitimacy.”

Quotes from Interview with PA Information Minister, Yasser Abd Rabbo

“We will not accept that these new (American) thoughts or initaitives become the new basis for the peace process. The source authority for the process remain what it was. We accept clear differences, but there was no progress achieved.

The discussion was a serious one, perhaps, but there was nothing that was executed or carried out in terms of progress at the meeting. It was agreed that discussions would continue in the coming days to continue discussions on these subjects.” (Abd Rabbo was asked about Israeli attempts to take the talks from the basis of UN resolutions to a basis of the American ideas, and he said…)

“There’s no doubt from what was said that that’s the new intention.hey said they wanted to reach an agreement. We said we wanted to reach an agreement, but such an agreement cannot be a declaration of general principles because such a declaration would not help the peace process at all. It would just a collection of headlines and slogans. What’s needed is a comprehensive and detailed agreement which deals with all matters, which deals with the costs of implementations and international guarantees on the obligations for implementation so that there will not be any evasion for implementation…as there was in the past. That’s the basic thing, and we believe that the Israeli side understood that a declaration of principles or general remarks…is not something that can be realized, and the Palestinian side cannot accept it. What is needed is a serious agreement, really an agreement whose implementation can begin the following day and not an agreement whose negotiation or the negotiation of whose central points begins the following day.”

“I want to say there’s no escaping (our need) to express our readiness to continue with the peace process, unless we’re convinced that there’s progress or not (because), it is impossible to close the door to negotiations and the peace process because of the comprehension of the world, of public opinion, of public opinion in Israel for our positions. (We have no choice but) We have to continue on our part, in our policy, and there is nothing that has been found that can prevent us from attempting negotiations until there are no results.”

Asked about security considerations, Abd-Rabbo said

“I don’t like talk about implementing security. We have just and clear demands such as lifting the encirclement and the closure and the violations being practiced against the Palestinian people on a daily basis. We have indicated that, and the evil actions such as the evil transfer of (the body) and the mutilation of exalted martyr in Hebron in front of world television cameras. All these actions show that these sort of actions must stop…for the sake of the peace process, if we really want a peace process.”

Quotes from report by Nizar al-Ghul, concerning executions:

“In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful…(reads verse from Quran regarding treatment of those who have evil spirits, then continues)…Indeed these agents cast evil on themselves and on those around them, and this week was a week characterized by settling accounts with those who made blood cheap, as witness what happened to the agent Bani-Odeh before the sentence of God and the people was carried out, who stood head bowed, falling quickly and quietly in the street as the bullets of holiness and justice brought him to the ground.”

(Report went on the describe trial verdict of Bethlehem court where two more death sentences were handed down-as per report by Sayyid Ayyad. Note: lead-in to Al-Ghul’s report was anchorman again reading parts of yesterday’s interview with Freih Abu-Medein, Justice Minister, calling for all enemy agents to turn themselves in]

Islamic Defense of Death Penalty

“When someone sinks to treason and serving as an agent, then Islamic law permits him to be condemned to death. We are in favor of executing anyone who sinks to serving as an agent against the Muslim collective.” (Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry, Jerusalem Mufti, 7:53 am)

Understanding Arafat as a Media Strategist

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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January 14, 2001

There are many ways to describe Yasser Arafat, but whether one tends to call him a “politician,” “statesman” or “terrorist,” any fair estimation of Arafat would have to call him an “Egyptian intellectual.”

Arafat studied in Egypt (some say he was born in Egypt), and to this day his Arabic is inflected with Egyptian intonation and phrases. More importantly, during his formative years-the 1950’s and early 1960’s-he watched admiringly as Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser projected power across the Middle East (from Morocco to Iran) through powerful propaganda broadcasts on broadband radio.

Today, Arafat is using his broadcast media as he builds his own state of Palestine in his own image.

When Israel signed Israeli-Palestinian “Declaration of Principles” in September 1993 (as well as later sub-treaties under the “Oslo Accords”), it agreed to turn over radio and television frequencies to Arafat’s control as part of three processes: Peace, state-building and mutual cooperation.

In the seven years since, Arafat has NOT used his broadcast outlets in the peace process or in the process of building mutual cooperation. Indeed, the term “cooperation” or “ta’awun” in Arabic is NEVER USED IN THE CONTEXT OF ISRAEL.

However, Arafat unstintingly employs the broadcast media in the state-building process, largely to preserve his own leadership but also to advance Palestinian goals, particularly in the current Palestinian-Israeli war that Palestinians have called by two names: the Al-Aqsa Intifada or the Independence Intifada.

Arafat and his top ministers make no attempt to hide from their own people that the “Intifada” is really a war with strategic goals, and what are their strategic goals?

Removal of all settlements, all soldiers and all things Israeli
Establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem its capital
“Return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes in 1948”
“We salute you, O fighters for Jerusalem with zeal and steadfastness, spilling your pure blood in your blessed struggle for victory and Arabness….It is now three weeks into our blessed Intifada against the failed attempts of the Enemy….Today we as Palestinians to remain coiled for use by our struggle and our Leadership and our Palestinian National Authority which has defended and which will to defend the freedom of our land and the freedom of mankind…to mold the blood of our martyrs and our wounded into national unity…to follow the leadership of our leader, the brother, Abu Amar (nickname for Yasser Arafat) on the path to sacred Jerusalem.” (From “Mishwar al-Sabah” [The Morning Dialogue], 8:30 am, Friday, Oct27

Another theme is that even though the Palestinians instigated the Intifada (and they admit it) Israel is the aggressor. Therefore, any military measures Israel takes are by definition aggression, and any military actions taken against Israel CANNOT be terrorism. That is why anyone who dies fighting Israel-even if he blows up a bomb in Netanya (which was NOT conquered in 1967)-is called a “martyr” or “shahid” in Arabic.

For the last three months, Palestinian radio and television broadcasts open with salutes to the “exalted martyrs” of that day’s fighting who are called “stars of the Intifada.”

Another favorite theme on the Palestinian broadcast media is that Israeli claims to Jerusalem are a forgery.

“There never was Heikal Suleiman (Solomon’s Temple) in Jerusalem.(From broadcasts of November 13-14). And the Palestinians and the Canaanites were both in Jerusalem many years before the Jews.”

Arafat’s media strategy is an integral-if not THE central-element in his war-making strategy, according to senior Palestinian officials such as cabinet secretary Ahmad Abdul-Rahman and PBC broadcast chief Radwan Abu-Ayyash.

“We have to use all means-from broadcasting to newspapers to foreign correspondents to the internet-to use all these means to defeat Israel.” (Interview with Ahmad Abdul-Rahman, 7:30 am, November 12)

Another ironic insight into Arafat’s strategic view is that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have contempt for the Israeli peace movement.

That is why Yasser Arafat in his address to the Islamic Summit in October frequently used the term “Jihad” or holy war while explicitly making fun of “Peace Now” when he said “There will be no peace now and no peace that sanctifies Israeli occupation.”

Arafat and his top ministers might easily come out of the pages of George Orwell’s “1984”: “peace” becomes “war.” The rocks, gasoline bombs, suicide bombers, Palestinian policemen-turned-snipers are all part of what the Palestinian broadcast media call “al-intifada al-silmiyya”-the “peaceful intifada.” Or as General Tawfiq Tirawi, the head Paelstinian military intelligence, said in a New Year’s Interview: “Dialogue can be by words or by bullets and fire.”

Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen)he secretary of the PLO Executive was quoted at 2:10pm on September 25 saying, “The peaceful intifada of the Palestinian people will continue until the Palestinian people have secured their rights completely.”

One of these “rights” is “hawq al-‘awda”: the right of return-meaning the return to pre-1967 Israel of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Many intellectuals in Israel fooled themselves into thinking that Arafat had retreated from this demand and that he “didn’t really mean it” when he kept talking about this issue on the Palestinian media.

If more Israeli and Western “intellectuals” paid attention to what the “Egyptian intellectual,” Yasser Arafat, broadcasts to his people, they would have been less surprised by his recent actions. They would also have a better idea of what Arafat means when he uses the word “peace.”

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 10th

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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January 11, 2001

Summary and Analysis

The Palestinian Authority is signaling the end of the Clinton era in the Middle East.

The PA has said thank you to Clinton, and now it will shop elsewhere.

“There is no escaping putting international pressure on Israel and the United States to stop these acts of terrorism and aggression against the Palestinian people,” asserted Farouk Qaddoumi, the director of the PLO’s political department in the main morning interview Wednesday. (Anyone who thinks the PA is going to roll back its demands for the Bush Administration should pay attention to the morning interview with Farouk Qaddoumi: the longest and the main item on the morning news.)

All the talk of Camp David, Sharm al-Sheikh and Presidential understandings is now being glossed with pronouncements about the failure or irrelevancy of various diplomatic/security efforts.

Instead, the PA is stressing activities in the inter-Arab and European arenas( in part, to collect on some of the promises of financial aid).

VOP was at great pains this morning to stress that no serious security cooperation is under way between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In its 7 am, 8am and 9 am broadcasts, VOP opened with a denial that any security personnel were present at the meeting yesterday between Yasser Arafat and Amnon Lipkin Shahak, the Israeli Minister of Tourism and former IDF Chief of staff and negotiator in talks with the PLO.

VOP is also covering the stepped-up efforts of the PA and the PLO in European capitals ( e.g. coverage of Feisal Husseini and Salim Za’anun), inter-Arab meetings (Arafat and Qaddoumi), at the UN and perhaps with the incoming Bush Administration.

Quotes of the Day

1.”There is no escaping putting international pressure on Israel and the United States to stop these acts of terrorism and aggression against the Palestinian people.” (Farouk Qaddoumi in morning interview, 7:15 am, see below for fuller text)

2. “These reservations are not going to change with respect to their core… on the subject of Jerusalem, the land, the settlements, refugees, borders and security. We will not cooperate with any initiative which hurts our rights. And I think it would be difficult to speak of a new initiative.” (Yasser Abd-Rabbo, PA Information Minister, in morning interview, 7:30)

Morning Headlines 7:00 a.m.

“Two martyrs from Dir al-Balah and Silat al-Zahar due to the continuing Israeli aggression and artillery attacks yesterday;
The two presidents-President Arafat and President Clinton-discuss events in a telephone conversation last night covering proposals and ideas;
Official sources tell the Voice of Palestine that the American peace coordinator Dennis Ross has cancelled his visit to the region and will not (merely) delay it as previously announced;
His Excellency President Yasser Arafat heads to the Moroccan capital Rabat for discussion with the Moroccan monarch Muhammad VI and from there to Tunis for talks with Tunisian president Zaid Abdeen Ibn Ali in connection with the decisions of the Arab summit… ;
Official sources say that what Israeli Broadcasting reported regarding the meeting of President Yasser Arafat with Israeli Tourism Minister Amnon Shahak, with security officials attending, last night is inexact. The meeting included only President Arafat and Shahak;
PLO Executive member Feisal Husseini, responsible for the Jerusalem portfolio (in the PLO) is visiting the Swedish capital Stockholm to discuss with officials there the most recent regional developments;
Moscow calls on Washinton and London to stop bombing Iraq because it prevents any solution to the Iraqi crisis;
Linda Chavez, who appointed by President-elect George Bush as Secretary of Labor, has disengaged from the new administration.”

Headlines: Eight a.m. (additional or changed)

The martyring of the citizen Muhammad Abu Mreir Sid, 70 years old, from Dir al-Balah, yesterday… when fire was opened on him as he worked in the field farming;
His excellency President Yasser Arafat called President Clinton, sending him a detailed message early this morning on political developments since the meeting between the two presidents in the White House, and Nabil Abu-Irdeineh, the President’s spokesman, said the two presidents agreed on contacts that would take place in coming days;
On the other hand, an official source announced that the visit of the American peace coordinator Dennis Ross, that was supposed to take place tomorrow, has been cancelled, for keeps (Arabic: b’shaklin tam: in a final way);
Official sources say that what Israeli Broadcasting reported regarding the meeting of President Yasser Arafat with Israeli Tourism Minister Amnon Shahak, with security officials attending, last night is inexact. The meeting included only President Arafat and Shahak;
Artillery shellings and heavy weapons by occupation forces in Bab al-Zibabdeh in Jenin and Silwad near Ramallah and in southern Gaza;
Four wounded in Israeli shelling on Beit Hanoun in Gaza.”

Quotes from Interview with Farouk al Qaddoumi, director of PLO Political Department

“What we have in essence are meetings that continue (inside the context of the Arab summit) in Cairo and with the brother, the President Abu-Amar (Arafat) explaining to those assembled the political context and Palestinian perspective and the reservations we placed-the Palestinian delegation– on the proposals and ideas broached by President Clinton. And here there is no escaping the fact that we are starting to return to the decisions we took in the past to carry out the main decisions of the Arab summit conference, in the economic and fiscal, and public relations and political spheres.

And in relation to that, there is also no escaping demands for those assembled to (defray) high expenditures… there’s no question that Arab and Islamic cooperation is necessary for the carrying out of these political decisions in the international arena.

And especially in the Security Council, getting international protection for the Palestinian people….in stopping the siege (Israeli closure)… and the mass sanctions on the Palestinian people, and the sectioning-off of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These are the continuing attacks (on the Palestinians. And therefore, there is no escaping putting international pressure on Israel and the United States to stop these acts of terrorism and aggression against the Palestinian people-and to bring to justice these criminals on the Israeli side who carry out criminal operations and assassinations against persons within the Palestinian leadership….

Question: “What about the question of the refugees?”

Answer: “First of all if we go to a commission (to judge war criminals) that the source authority for such a question, the Palestinian question is international legitimacy (i.e. UN resolutions). We refuse any restraints or limitations the operations of any such authority that would give Israel the opportunity to maneuver in such a forum. The source as we have said is the United Nations in all its decisions in the General Assembly and the Security Council, resolution 194 that talks about the right of return for the refugees….There’s no getting away from it. Public and world opinion in this matter (realizes) that the question of Palestine is fundamentally, and before anything else, about the return of the refugees to their homes. Secondly, the carrying out of resolution 181 that calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state according to the Partition decision (i.e. a return to an Arab and a Jewish Palestine according to the 1947 partition decision). Also, there is no escaping that there be an assertion of the necessity that the Palestinian people have an independent Palestinian state possessing a sovereignty that has no other conditions placed upon it by Israel or by American proposals.

The American proposals now want to be called a declaration of principles. Well, that is refused. It would deal with things in a general way… That is why we refuse such a declaration of principles. We need specific details, clearly. We would prefer the initiative of the first President Bush (i.e. the guidelines to the Madrid Talks in 1991 to which the PLO was not invited but which did not state any specific limitations on UN resolutions) on not on a new declaration of principles.”

(In the remainder of the interview, Qaddoumi called for carrying out the establishment of a regular financial support fund for a continuing Intifada)

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 11th

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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January 11, 2001

Summary and Analysis

The Voice of Palestine denied Israeli reports of progress in security talks held Wednesday night, and it reported extensively on Palestinian diplomatic efforts and public demonstrations to have Israeli leaders and officers “tried as war criminals.”

VOP specifically denied reports that Israel had agreed to allow a free flow of workers and goods by the end of the week. The VOP report said the Palestinian side-represented by negotiator and PA Home Rule Minister Saeb Erikat-demanded that Israel end its hostilities against the Palestinian people as well as withdrawing forces. VOP made no mention of Israel’s security demands, nor did it mention any Palestinian concessions.

Various Palestinian sources denied that there had been any overtures by the PA to Canada or vice versa regarding the settlement of Palestinian refugees in Canada.

In its morning news shows as well as its afternoon news panorama show, VOP said Israel had agreed only to a partial lifting of a small bit of the closure of Palestinian territories

The Palestinian Authority continues to hint-very broadly-that it is badly in need of donations from the Arab states.

The PA’s short honeymoon with Ariel Sharon is over. Once again this morning, in several news items, VOP called the Likud leader “the extremist Ariel Sharon,” and Arafat’s spokesman, Abu-Irdeineh criticized Sharon’s campaign speech comment that the Oslo process “is dead.”

It appears that Palestinian officials are also troubled by Sharon’s comments to the Habad newspaper (in which he noted his concessions were not trying to re-conquer Nablus and Jericho), and PA Minister Nabil Amr indicated that the PA might take an active voice in the Israeli elections. (see interview below)

VOP also had a feature this morning on an Arab-American-run “Intifada radio network” in the United States, with stations in Detroit, Chicago and Washington, among others. The network’s organizer, Hikmat al-‘Aini, said the network was trying to balance the pro-Israeli tilt in the American media, in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

9 a.m. Thursday Morning Headlines

“The newspaper Al Hayat al-Jadida (the official PLO newspaper in the Palestinian territories) reports according to a Palestinian source that the Palestinian-Israeli meeting held last night was devoted to security, and the Israeli side refused to lift the closure on the Palestinian territories, but it agreed to open the transit crossings at Rafah, Karni and Karameh as well as the airport, along with opening the closure on Qalqilya, only.
Ten citizens were wounded in a variety of ways in clashes yesterday with occupation forces throughout the homeland;
His Excellency President Yasser Arafat will participate in the (Intifada) oversight committee of the Arab summit in the Tunisian capital, which began its deliberations yesterday;
The President’s advisor, Nabil Abu-Irdeineh, said in a press statement in Marakesh (Morocco) that the National (Palestinian) Authority holds a dialogue with the Israeli government and not with political parties in Israel;
Ariel Sharon, the candidate of the Right for the Prime Ministry in Israel, officially launched his election campaign last night with an assembly in occupied Jerusalem; [note: the Likud assembly took place in Western Jerusalem in Binyanei Ha-Ooma]. He said there would not be peace without concessions…”

7:00 a.m. / 8:00 a.m. Headlines

“A ruling tomorrow in the case of five men accused of cooperation with the Occupation;
The American Administration announces the delay -rather than the cancellation-of the Ross Visit;
Abd-Rabbo calls for judging Barak and his ministers as war criminals;
The Israeli response to the Clinton initiative demands complete control over bordcer crossings and Palestinian weapons;
His Excellency President Yasser Arafat meets with King Muhammad VI in Marakesh and heads to Tunis and meets Ben-Ali and the members of the Arab summit oversight committee today;
Nablus starts a campagin against illegal cars.
Tens of citizens wounded in confrontations with occupation across homeland;
Meeting last night in Beit Hanoun check post to discuss putting an end to Israeli aggression against our Palestinian people, involving Dr. Saeb Erikat, General Amin al-Hindi, Col. Muhammad Dahlan and Col. Jibril Rajoub and Col. Tawfik Tirawi, and on the Israeli side, Tourism Minister Amnon Shahak and Avi Dichter, the head of the Gneral Security Service, the Shabak.” (some of the 9AM headlines also appeared in 7am and 8am headlines, as well)

Quotes from Interview with Dr. Nabil Sha’ath, PA Minister of Economic Development and Cooperation

Question: “Can you tell us about the discussions in the oversight committee (of the Arab summit)?”

Answer: “Last night, the committee discussed recent developments, the nine states and the General Secretary of the Arab League, Dr. Esmat Abdel-Mejid (also Meguid) under the leadership of Egypt… listening to the report of

President Abu Amar (Arafat) the subjects that were discussed at the Arab summit only a small portion of which were executed…. Unfortunately, only a small part has been carried out, sponsorship, the call in Switzerland for international protection, for international observers. The billion dollars that have been promised of which only seven million dollars has arrived. All of that was discussed in a serious way…

Question: “What is the reason that these monies have not yet reached the (Palestinian) National Authority?”

Answer: “It has to do with the instructions that the sponsoring nations have given to the banks. It has to do with liquid cash funds available in these banks.

Question: “The Foreign Minister of Canada… says there are contacts to settle the refugees in Canada?”

Answer: “Absolutely not. The Canadian Prime Minister Chretien raised it during his last visit. This is not the time or the place. We are not studying any such initiatives unless Israel recognizes the right of return as a complete solution to the refugee problem. The question of the refugees rest on international legitimacy, resolution 194.”

Quotes from Interview with Nabil ‘Amr, PA Parliamentary Afairs Minister

Question: “Where are the negotiations (with Israel) standing now?”

Answer: “The negotiations are not going anywhere. The negotiations deal with political fluctuations. They are concentrating on the results of confrontations. They are being struck by the change in administrations in the United States. They are being struck by the election fever in Israel, and the election fever makes the political stance unstable because Israel is in this election fever….Also we see a linkage between the political situation and he security situation, and all of that is linked to the internal political situation inside Israel….

Question: “Ariel Sharon began his campaign yesterday and said Oslo cannot serve as the basis for peace. What in your opinion is Sharon’s idea of peace?”

Answer: “Sharon is trying to apply talking about peace. Sharon is trying to use the language of peace for a few days, and he is trying to demonstrate that he will concretize peace. He is sending various messages to the Arabs, speaking in several voices….All that, the strange thing about it is that it has no substantive connection to peace. The substance is that he says he will not return to Ramallah again, which for him is a concession and that he will not dismantle any settlements under any circumstances. And he says NO concessions in the Jordan (Ghor) Valley and Jerusalem and all these matters. In my view, this is illogical and even immoral….This will lead after a while to war and not to peace….

We will not stand still for something like that…. We remember that he brought us Sabra and Chatilla. We have to have a clear agenda….We are gathering information on Sharon and others beside Sharon, and it has to be clear, and (then) we will build a policy based on that.”

Listening to Palestinian Authority Radio: An Assessment

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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January 11, 2001

Yasser Arafat is not Adolf Hitler, and Ehud Barak is certainly not Winston Churchill or Charles De Gaulle, but Arafat is a dictator whose strategic goals-like Hitler’s-are no secret, if we will only pay attention to what the dictator says.

The British and the French might easily have defeated Hitler-even as late as 1940–by focusing on what he said to his people, rather than what he said to British and French negotiators, according to “Strange Victory,” a new book by Professor Ernest R. May of Harvard University.

“Except in cases where he had pledged his word, Hitler always meant what he said,” says Professor May, quoting another historian, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett. (“Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France,” By Ernest R. May, Hill and Wang, 2000, p. 453)

The same is true of Arafat.

Over the last half year, Arafat has met Barak and President Clinton several times, promising them many things, including a televised denunciation of terror and a clear call for an end to attacks on Israeli civilians. But Yasser Arafat really did not want to call off attacks on Israel, and he really does not like lying to his people about his strategic goals.

So, when Arafat returned from the Sharm al-Sheikh summit on November 2, 2000, Barak, Clinton, CNN, Sky News and the Israeli press all waited with baited breath for Arafat to speak up for peace. At the time, the newest so-called “Intifada” was only five weeks old, and it might have been possible to stop it before it totally destroyed any remnants of the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Everyone waited. BBC waited. CBC waited. Israel’s Channel One waited. They all waited and then waited some more. But the first thing Arafat did when he came home from the Sharm al-Sheikh summit was cancelling any televised address to his people. Then, his advisors promised that Arafat would give a live radio address.

After two hours he cancelled that, too, allowing release of a very problematic statement, which, ironically, was broadcast only two hours after a Palestinian car bomb exploded in a crowded Jerusalem market area, murdering several civilians.

The Palestinian communique, which called for Palestinians to use “peaceful means” to achieve national aims, did not condemn the car bombing. Indeed, there was no mention of the bomb blast on VOP Radio (for several hours), nor any clear condemnation of this attack or any earlier violence (except by Israeli forces) at any time during broadcasting today.

“The Palestinian National Authority and the government of Israel reached an understanding for the two sides to implement the understandings of Sharm al-Sheikh as set forth in the statement of President Clinton and the speech of President Mubarrak,” the radio statement began.

It was clear that the communique was both more and less than what many Western diplomats and Israeli officials wanted. The PA statement did not speak directly about the need for Palestinian restraint, but it made many demands on Israel, thus leaving potential “escape clauses” for itself if Israel failed to meet all Palestinian conditions.

But what Arafat does tell his people is critically important, because Palestine State Television and the Voice of Palestine Radio are not like the CBC or BBC. They are government organs controlled solely by “the leader, the symbol, his excellency, President Yasser Arafat” (as the official Palestinian broadcast media call him).

Major violence against Israeli civilians and Israeli soldiers (even in joint patrols with Palestinian soldiers) actually began several days before Ariel Sharon’s much-discussed visit to the Temple Mount area on September 28.

A September 8 mosque speech broadcast on Palestinian tv (Sheikh Abu-Sneina) said, among other nuanced niceties: “slaughter the Jews.”

For days-even weeks–before the Sharon visit, Arafat’s official radio and television outlets were mobilizing Palestinians to violence.

On September 26, VOP called for “the defense of Al Aqsa” even as one Israeli was murdered and other injured in an attack on an Israeli civilian convoy in Gaza. VOP radio, keeping to its own standard of “fairness,” reported “Israeli atrocities.”

The next day, September 27, there were even more calls to violence against Israel, and a Palestinian “policeman” shot his fellow joint-patrol mate, Israeli soldier David Biri. Subsequently Israel State Radio wanted to believe that Arafat really opposes terror and violence. and it broadcast reports that Arafat condemned the attack. In fact, the “condemnation” was really an Arafat phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. VOP radio and Palestinian television broadcast NO report, no quote, no live-voice insert of anything remotely resembling a Palestinian attack on Israelis of any kind-not even attacks on Israeli civilians or Israeli soldiers patrolling together with their Palestinian colleagues.

I have been listening, monitoring and recording Palestinian broadcasts for more than five years, and I am still waiting to hear a clear condemnation of any violence aimed at Israelis. But like those tv crews from CBC, CNN and BBC who waited for Arafat to speak up for peace after returning from Sharm al-Sheikh, I think Arafat will just keep me waiting. [first of two articles)

Michael Widlanski, who holds a certificate in Arabic with distinction from American University of Cairo, holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations at Columia University and is now completing his PhD on the subject of the PA media at Bar U Ilan University in Israel.

Official PA Radio news – the PBC radio January 5

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 8, 2001

Summary and Analysis

One has to pay attention to the unusual first item of the morning news-which was also the first item last night: unusual both in tone, style and content.

The reliance of Yasser Arafat on the Egyptian interpretation of the Arab summit and the state of talks with the United States/Israel (see also Thursday night update) shows clearly that Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are closely coordinating their positions (and not Egypt working as an independent facilitator between Israel and the PA, as some have believed).

It indicates, too, that while the Egyptians may be maintaining a continued hard line on the Jerusalem and the refugee issues, they are also coaching Arafat to signal some kind of flexibility and willingness to continue towards agreement: his positive response to a question about hope for achieving an agreement. In other words, be tough substantively while appearing moderate for media consumption.

At the beginning of its Friday morning news( comments by narrator at 7:04), VOP gave unusually favorable coverage to Ariel Sharon’s courting of the Israeli Arab sector, particularly his remarks that he “respected the Palestinian struggle.” Although this was not repeated in subsequent broadcasts, it marks a sea change from the treatment Sharon used to receive at the hands of VOP-i.e. “the extremist Ariel Sharon” or “the leader of the extremist Right.”

The use of martial music or strongly militant patriotic songs has returned to VOP after the end of the Festival of the Feast ending Ramadan, and the harsh anti-Israeli tone is seen in occasional use of the terms “zionist enemy” “the enemy” and “the Jews” on regular VOP broadcasts, including a Friday morning call-in show with quiz questions for children (Friday, 11:00-11:40 a.m.)

Friday
Morning Headlines–7 am/ 8am:

“His Excellency President Yasser Arafat says that what was recently expressed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa reflects the opinion of the Arab summit and the Palestinian leadership regarding the American thoughts and opinions (i.e. the American initiative);
Musa says that Palestinian interlocutor (i.e. the Palestinian side or Palestinian Authority) alone has the power of decision according to international legitimacy;
Gilead Sher, Barak’s bureau chief, estimates that the chances for achieving an agreement in the twilight of the presidency of President Clinton are slim;
The military court in Beirut handed down 48 sentences on Lebanese accused of cooperating with Israel;
President Clinton sends Congress his decision to continue sanctions against Libya begun in 1986;
American investigators will arrive tomorrow Saturday in Yemen to participate in interrogation (examination) of the attack on the American destroyer Cole this Tishreen al-Awal (Islamic month: September ) resulting in the deaths of 17 American sailors.”

NINE AM HEADINES

“His Excellency President Yasser Arafat says he hopes that an agreement will be achieved by the end of the Clinton Presidency; (rest of 9 am headlines-including Musa-related items-were essnetially duplication of 7 am and 8 am news programs);
Resigning Prime Minister Ehud Barak reiterated Israel’s complete refusal of the right of return of refugees to it (Israel) and repeated earlier threats that if no agreement is achieved that he would implement unilateral separation on the land.”

Official PA Radio News The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio January 5

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 8, 2001

Summary and Analysis

One has to pay attention to the unusual first item of the morning news-which was also the first item last night: unusual both in tone, style and content.

The reliance of Yasser Arafat on the Egyptian interpretation of the Arab summit and the state of talks with the United States/Israel (see also Thursday night update) shows clearly that Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are closely coordinating their positions (and not Egypt working as an independent facilitator between Israel and the PA, as some have believed).

It indicates, too, that while the Egyptians may be maintaining a continued hard line on the Jerusalem and the refugee issues, they are also coaching Arafat to signal some kind of flexibility and willingness to continue towards agreement: his positive response to a question about hope for achieving an agreement. In other words, be tough substantively while appearing moderate for media consumption.

At the beginning of its Friday morning news( comments by narrator at 7:04), VOP gave unusually favorable coverage to Ariel Sharon’s courting of the Israeli Arab sector, particularly his remarks that he “respected the Palestinian struggle.” Although this was not repeated in subsequent broadcasts, it marks a sea change from the treatment Sharon used to receive at the hands of VOP-i.e. “the extremist Ariel Sharon” or “the leader of the extremist Right.”

The use of martial music or strongly militant patriotic songs has returned to VOP after the end of the Festival of the Feast ending Ramadan, and the harsh anti-Israeli tone is seen in occasional use of the terms “zionist enemy”, “the enemy” and “the Jews” on regular VOP broadcasts, including a Friday morning call-in show with quiz questions for children (Friday, 11:00-11:40 a.m.)

Friday
Morning Headlines–7 am/ 8am:

“His Excellency President Yasser Arafat says that what was recently expressed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa reflects the opinion of the Arab summit and the Palestinian leadership regarding the American thoughts and opinions (i.e. the American initiative);
Musa says that Palestinian interlocutor (i.e. the Palestinian side or Palestinian Authority) alone has the power of decision according to international legitimacy;
Gilead Sher, Barak’s bureau chief, estimates that the chances for achieving an agreement in the twilight of the presidency of President Clinton are slim;
The military court in Beirut handed down 48 sentences on Lebanese accused of cooperating with Israel;
President Clinton sends Congress his decision to continue sanctions against Libya begun in 1986;
American investigators will arrive tomorrow Saturday in Yemen to participate in interrogation (examination) of the attack on the American destroyer Cole this Tishreen al-Awal (Islamic month: September ) resulting in the deaths of 17 American sailors.”

NINE AM HEADINES

“His Excellency President Yasser Arafat says he hopes that an agreement will be achieved by the end of the Clinton Presidency; (rest of 9 am headlines-including Musa-related items-were essnetially duplication of 7 am and 8 am news programs);
Resigning Prime Minister Ehud Barak reiterated Israel’s complete refusal of the right of return of refugees to it (Israel) and repeated earlier threats that if no agreement is achieved that he would implement unilateral separation on the land.”

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 6th

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 8, 2001

Summary and Analysis

Reports on VOP once gain turned a bit more pessimistic Saturday.Openning Paragraph

VOP featured comments by Saeb Erikat that Yasser Arafat had demanded of President Bill Clinton, during their Washington talks, to push Israel to stop its attacks on the Palestinians, especially the policy of assassinations and economic closures.

Erikat, the PA Home Rule Minister and a senior negotiator, also said that the Palestinian people clung to its legitimate rights first of which were the right of return and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem its capital.

Erikat said he did not believe an agreement was possible, and he cited a variety of assruances and guarantees that the PA demanded of Israel.

In its Saturday night broadcast, VOP said it was expected President Clinton would announce a decision within the next two days on how to continue with the peace process.

VOP featured the greetings of Saddam Hussein to the Palestinian people-comments he made during an anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi army. VOP noted that it was Hussein’s third public appearance in a week, following reports from the Iraqi opposition that Hussein was seriously ill.

Both on Saturday and Friday, VOP gave strong coverage to opinion polls in Israel which show Barak trailing badly.

SATURDAY
Morning Headlines-JANUARY 6: (7:00 AM/8:00 AM)

*”The martyring of Arid Sabr al Jabali, 19 years old, in Hebron, from occupation forces’ artillery shelling, and in Gaza, the martyring Muhammad Abu Hassirer, 35 years old… 70 people were wounded;

His Excellency President Yasser Arafat holds talks in Muscat…, and his advisor Nabil Abu-Irdeinhe says the talks center on the difficulties in the negotiations (with Israel/United States), and Home Minister Saeb Erikat says it is too early say whether the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations will continue;
Dr. Nabil Sha’ath, Economic Development Minister, stresses that the talks continue on the basis of the Arab summit decision and international legitimacy;
The high committees of Fatah throughout the homeland stand by President Yasser Arafat in resisting American and Israeli pressure to accept their proposals;
Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami says that a Palestinian capital can be set up in East Jerusalem;
Israeli negotiator Gilead Sher suggests sovereignty to the Haram being turned over to a third party, neither Palestinian nor Israeli;
Syria says ordinary citizens will be allowed to travel to Iraq after a long period in which such travel was not allowed.”

SATURDAY
Evening Headlines-9:00 pm:

Confrontations following two martyrings in the homeland;
Shelling on neighborhoods in the cities and security forces’ installations;
His Excellency the president participates in the Orthodox Christmas celebrations;
His Excellency holds talks in Muscat and Oman and signals readiness to continue in negotiations with American Administration;
Saddam Hussein salutes the steadfastness of our people in facing vicious Israeli attacks.”

Quotes from Saturday Morning Interview with Saeb Erikat:

“It is understood that there is Palestinian commitment to the peace process based on international legitimacy, resolutions 242, 338 and 194. President Arafat stressed these foundations (in talks with Clinton)….We are for a continuation of the peace process, but a return to the peace process cannot come without reliance on international legitimacy-that means a return based on #242, #338 and #194, the return of Israel to borders of June 4, 1967, including holy Jerusalem, and a solution of the refugee problem based on resolution #194. We expect now for the American Administration to respond in a complete way with a response (also) to these matters from Israel, and its (Israel’s) readiness to execute resolutions of international legitimacy. And what are the obligations of Israel to execute these international commitments and what are the international assurances for the execution of these matters according to international legitimacy. My belief is that it is very difficult to get to agreement in these matters.

These are fateful matters: Jerusalem, the borders, the refugees, the prisoners,… and these matters require details. They require complete clarity. These matters require detailed maps. And general talk without detail, only about principles, that’s completely unacceptable to us.”

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 7th

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 8, 2001

Summary and Analysis

The last few days of VOP news and commentary have seen a kind of return to the pre-Intifada coverage at the Voice of Palestine: the news is built around Yasser Arafat, his trips and his statements.

This is in marked contrast to the news/commentary formula in use over the last three months: graphic reporting of martyrs, wounded, Israeli atrocities and calls for international intervention voiced by Arafat’s top ministers and advisors.

There are probably several reasons for the switch in tone and formula:

*-Lack of any significant diplomatic developments in the last few days;

A general drop in mass rioting and consequent casualties on the Palestinian side;
A general drop in Israeli military activity.

There may also be a reticence on the part of Arafat’s ministers to “carry the ball” for him in explaining his position to the Palestinian audience. That is perhaps why ministers/negotiators such as Saeb Erikat and Yasser Abd-Rabbo have been offering declarative positions that lack operative details, while ministers outside the actual talks, such as Nabil Sha’ath and PA Speaker Ahmad Qreia (Abu Ala) as well as PLO Executive Secretary Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) have staked out hard-line ideological stands or preferred not to be quoted prominently.

VOP quoted Arafat during his Oman (Muscat) trip, referring to remarks of Egyptian president Husni Mubarak that the question of Jerusalem was not just of importance to the Palestinians but also to all Arabs, Muslims and Christians-a sign that the Egyptians were supporting the firm Palestinian position on sovereignty over all of East Jerusalem, not just parts of it.

Despite speculation in the Israeli press concerning Clinton’s desire to convene an international conference on the Palestinian-Israeli talks in the last days of his Administration, VOP is reporting (though not as its lead item) that Clinton will issue a presidential statement instead.

VOP gave great prominence to the statements of Ra’id Salah, the Mayor of Um al-Fahem in Israel, and the leader of the extreme northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel (SEE
Quote of the Day). Mayor Salah, who has spearheaded the Islamic building programs on the Temple Mount, warned of Jewish extremists who would try to destroy Islamic holy places, particularly a plot to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

THIS USE OF THE EXTREMELY INCENDIARY ISLAMIC CHARGES ABOUT PLOTS TO DESTROY THE AL AQSA MOSQUE-AS WELL AS THE PROMINENT ATTENTION GIVEN TO SADDAM HUSSEIN’S CALLS TO CONTINUE TO CONFRONT ISRAEL MILITARILY DO NOT BESPEAK ANY ATTEMPT ON THE PART OF THE PA TO DAMPEN VIOLENCE.

MUHAMMAD DAHLAN AND THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Gaza Security chief Muhammad Dahlan, said in an interview that if Israel hoped to return the security situation to what it was before September 28, it was, in effect trying “to dream the impossible dream.”

(SEE INTERVIEW BELOW)

SUNDAY
Morning Headlines-JAN. 7 7:00 AM/8:00 AM

“His Excellency President Yasser Arafat participates in midnight mass at Church of the Nativity marking Orthodox Christmas;
His Excellency will meet in Amman today with the Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah….
His Excellency said on his departure yesterday from Muscat that he hoped Clinton would achieve his promise of agreement before his term ended but that he was ready to meet President-elect George Bush Junior, God-willing (note: VOP does not get into the genealogy of George W. vs. George P. etc)
President Bill Clinton will deliver a statement in two days on the Palestinian-Israeli matter, detailing the efforts and the initiatives taken recently
Palestinian-Egyptian-Israeli meeting in Cairo today, and the Palestinian side says its demand will concentrate on an end to Israeli aggression immediately
Occupation forces shell a military camp (Palestinian) and the Presidential security forces near Salfit…
Col. Muhammad Dahlan, head of security in Gaza prefect, says that a Palestinian security delegation will participate in talks today with the Israeli side in Cairo along with the attendance of American and Egyptian officials, and he said the purpose of going to such meetings was putting an end to Israeli practices and attacks carried out by Israel
The National and Islamic forces call on the masses of our people tlo commemorate today “The Day of the Martyr” by visits to their graves and to their families, and they (the forces) announce that tomorrow, Monday, is “The Day of the Right of Return” on which our masses are urged to express our complete national consensus with the right of return of the refugees to their homes from which they were expelled in 1948
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein salutes the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, in a speech marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi armed forces, saluting their Palestinian steadfastness in confronting the Israeli war machine until they (the Palestinians) realize their national goals.”

Quote of the Day

“The leader of the Islamic movement inside the Green Line and the Mayor of Um al-Fahem (Ra’id Salah) warned of dangers from Israeli sources to introduce archtectural pressures that would threaten the foundations of the Al Aqsa Mosque….He said there were 25 Jewish groups specializing in operations to destroy the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, from among 120 Jewish groups that strive to return the alleged Temple to the place of Al Aqsa.” (Morning news report, January 7, 7:35 AM)

Quotes from Morning Interview with Muhammad Dahlan, PA Gaza Security Chief:

Question: “There’s a meeting of Palestinian and Israeli security officials today in Cairo…who called for the meeting?”

Answer: “First of all, Israel always says the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people-they are the ones who besiege Tel Aviv and who use violence against the Israeli people, and, first of all, that’s not true. The aggression is being aimed against the Palestinian people or three months. They have used a variety of (military)means against us, not skipping even one means of aggression against our Palestinian people-children, women, old men and even trees and rocks, and even attacking helpless animals….Well, according to President Clinton’s statement in Sharm al-Sheikh, the Israelis are required first of all to lift the siege on the Palestinian people, on the villages and the cities, the roads and the international terminals. And the (Palestinian) Authority has other obligations. But since that date, Israel has only increased its siege, increased its violence, increased the assassinations and policy of aggression against the Palestinian people.

The purpose of these meetings is to carry out what President Clinton, but if Israel thinks the purpose of going to Cairo, under the cover of this siege, is to impose the conditions of Israel, then it is mistaken.

We have an agenda. We have demands-many demands, and they have to carry out their obligations to the Palestinian Authority.”

Question: “There are some who think the purpose of the meeting is to return to the situation that existed on September 28?”

Answer: “If the Israeli translation of such an expression is to return to what existed before, then that’s an unobtainable dream.”

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 8th

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

January 8, 2001

Summary and Analysis

In its Monday afternoon coverage, VOP reported that Yasser Arafat’s spokesman, Nabil Abu-Irdeineh said the PA expected the incoming Bush Administration to respond to Palestinian reservations on the Clinton proposals.

It was clear from the Abu-Irdeineh comments and an interview with Ahmad Qreia (and yesterday’s interview with Muhammad Dahlan) that the PA has already computed the Clinton ideas as something from which Israel cannot retreat, but it is not standing pat or congratulating itself on the achievement of Presidential recognition-in a formal speech-of the need to establish an independent Palestinian state.

Strangely, the PA is not building on a Clinton statement as a jumping off point for talks with Israel but rather for negotiating with the Bush Administration for a new and improved set of American proposals.

Palestinian officials are already hinting to the Palestinian audience, however, that these ideas will not be immediately accepted because are not likely to fulfill completely Palestinian demands which still include total withdrawal from the West Bank, total sovereignty over East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the homes “from which they were expelled in 1948.”

Earlier,VOP returned Monday to its Intifada-formula coverage: less attention to Arafat and more attention to Israeli atrocities, with an emphasis on Israeli war crimes and plots to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

In a somewhat unusual move, VOP devoted part of its morning news round-up to reading a commentary from WAFA (Wikalat al-Anba al-Filistiniyya), the PLO news agency which excoriated Israel’s policy of premeditated murdered combined with indiscriminate mayhem. The commentary said the Israelis appeared to be interested in killing anything that was Palestinian, including trees (echoing remarks yesterday of Muhammad Dahlan, and earlier of other officials).

“As in the past, the Israeli army will apologize or premeditated killing and indiscriminate killing, and as in the past, the Israeli government will apologize, and as in the past, the Israeli masses will apologize to the Palestinian people or all this crazy killing and all this destruction,” the WAFA commentary said. The commentary compared Israel’s policies to those of the Nazis.

Also, Monday afternoon, VOP gave detailed coverage to a press conference by the Jerusalem Mufti, Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry, warning that digging by rabbis was undermining the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as terrorist acts by Jews, including what a VOP narrator called “the provocative march by extremist Jews” on Monday evening around Old Jerusalem.

Quote of the Day

“The Al Aqsa Mosque is for Muslims only. The land on which the mosque is built is Islamic property (Arabic: Waqf). Its upper part and its underside are also Islamic property.” (Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry in 2:15 pm afternoon interview, reading part of Fatwa, or religious edit, concerning the Al Aqsa Mosque)

Morning Headlines 7:00 AM/8:00 AM:

American President Bill Clinton will announce what were the results of his efforts between the two sides, the Palestinian and Israeli…;
The American president is sending his envoy Dennis Ross to the region in the coming days;
An Israeli report speaks of an extremist Jewish group planning to build the third Temple…;
Parliamentary deputies in the (Israeli) labor Party speak clearly of the need to replace Ehud Barak as candidate for prime minister with Shimon Peres;
The martyring of the youth Abdul-Hamid Kurati, 34 years old,…near the settlement of Netzarim, which was built on lands on citizens’ lands (i.e. land taken from citizens);
And yesterday, the martyring of the young woman, Fatima Abu-Jeish, 20 years old from Beit Dajin near Nablus, who was shot through the heart by occupation soldiers who opened fire on a car they had stopped;
And in other crimes against the rights of our people committed by occupation forces and the colonists lead to seven major injuries to our citizens in Gaza, Ramallah and Bethlehem;
General Musa Arafat, commander of military intelligence, categorically denies any connection to the recent explosive operation in Tel Aviv;
His Excellency President Yasser Arafat asserts that the Paelstinian Leadership awaits American explanations concerning the proposal of President Bill Clinton dealing with a Palestinian-Israeli agreement;
His Excellency received at the presidential headquarters Lord Michael Levy, the special emissary of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, briefing him on recent developments in the Palestinian lands, especially the continuation of Israeli aggression, as well as the American ideas and opinions and the Palestinian reservations concerning them;
His Excellency President Yasser Arafat receives a special message from the Italian prime minister, Guiliano Amatto….
The Iraqi leadership said today that the uranium shells used in Yugoslavia are similar to those used in the Gulf War in 1991 by American forces against the Iraqi people;
Deputy Iraqi Prime Minister Taher Yassin Ramadan will make a visit soon to Cairo to execute an economic cooperation agreement with Egypt.”

(Note: This Israeli report was prepared by the far-Left organization, Keshev)

MONDAY
Afternoon Headlines 2:00 PM/3:00 PM:

“Masses of our people accompany two exalted martyrs (to burial) in Ramallah and Nablus;
Several of our citizens wounded by occupation forces during a parade in support of the right of return;
Curfew in village of Sinjil;
The National Authority demands that the coming American Administration respond to its reservations about the proposals of President Clinton.”
The Palestinian and Israeli security delegations let Cairo after holding a meeting without results;

Quotes from Interview with Ahmad Qreia, PA Speaker of Legislature:

Question: “The one operative thing one understands from President Clinton’s speech is the dispatch of special envoy Dennis Ross. What do you think can come of this step?”

Answer: “There is nothing new in what President Clinton has set out to do. As for Mr. Dennis Ross he has always failed in his visits….He has always showed preference for the Israeli side, and the expectations from this visit do not differ from his earlier visits.”

Question: “Clinton’s speech talks about a Palestinian state and a capital in east Jerusalem. That’s in east Jerusalem but not all East Jerusalem.”

Answer: “He is still saying that the Jewish neighborhoods will be for Israel, and the Palestinian neighborhoods will be for the Palestinians. That’s the heart of the complications: where are the roads, where do you go out, where do you go in, where do you up and down and where’s the bridge….And where do you put the police? These are complications (whose solutions) no one can see. I cannot see an agreement in the shortest possible would be three or four months, a year, with patience, two years for any final agreement.

A Palestinian state would be first of all a Palestinian state because it’s our decision and not as just one of many items in an agreement. So it is with East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine because it is part of the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967, and it has to return in its entirety to the Palestinians….”

Question: “It is clear from his commentary on his ideas that the return of the refugees is to the Palestinian state and there’s no talk of a return to the lands from which they were expelled….Can we say that these thoughts are enough for us? Or do we finalize these thoughts with the new Administration?”

Answer: “My opinion for more than a year that we cannot reach an agreement in such a short time. Not in ten days. Not in a month. After Camp David, we immediately knew the Israeli position. And the American position which leaned on the Israeli position….I said it was too soon to reach an agreement with this American Administration, although it was the only intermediary in this (peace) process. But the prejudice (i.e. pro-Israeli tendency or tilting) was clear. At Camp David, the American Administration-and the president– presented us with an initiative which…was the Israeli position that we opposed. I don’t see any change in what was presented in Camp David and the most recent ideas except certain attempts at certain linguistic twists only….

On land they spoke about 95 percent and they spoke about 90 percent, and they said 91 percent before Camp David before they put it down (on the table) at Camp David. They spoke of settlements, of settlement belts….They spoke of Jewish neighborhoods to Israel…As for refugees, their position was perhaps more favorable before Camp David than after Camp David…But when the American president speaks of the right of return to a Palestinian state, that’s not for us (i.e. we don’t accept it). And there’s no chance whatsoever, absolutely, to build a Palestinian agreement on he who wants to return to a Palestinian state. That’s a sovereign Palestinian decision. Law of return. Law of Immigration. That will decide who will enter and who will not enter. The Right of return is Palestinian legitimacy, not for any other party….No one else in the world. Not the United States. Not Israel. There will be no one else participating on the agreement on the subject of the return to the lands of a Palestinian state. We are talking about the return of the refugees to their homes from which they were expelled by force of arms.”

Quotes from Interview with Jerusalem Mufti, Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry:

The Al Aqsa Mosque is for Muslims only. The land on which the mosque is built is Islamic property (Arabic: Waqf). Its upper part and its underside are also Islamic property.

We sense that there is an ugly attack, a vicious attack, aimed at the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque on the part of Israeli politicians and the rabbis of the Jews. They talk and explain as if the matter is in their hands. As if they own this Al Aqsa. We say they have no right to talk about this matter, because they have no ownership…. Israel is an occupying authority in Jerusalem, and by what right do they talk about Al Aqsa?

We refuse all these statements, all these proposals, the American and the Israeli….In practice, the excavations (under and around Al Aqsa) continue, and we have said in tens of statements our refusal to the excavations surrounding Al Aqsa….And the martyrings in 1996 were because of the excavations. We are against these excavations.”

(Note: 1996 is a reference to the opening of a very old Hasmonean tunnel which had been filled with refuse. The opening touched off rioting and shooting in which at least 15 Israelis and 50 Palestinians were killed.)

Israel Behind the News

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 14th

Understanding Arafat as a Media Strategist

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 10th

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 11th

Listening to Palestinian Authority Radio: An Assessment

Official PA Radio news – the PBC radio January 5

Official PA Radio News The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio January 5

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 6th

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 7th

Official PA radio news – the P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 8th

Column from the Director