Peres turns 80

Monday, September 22, 2003

The IDF announced it killed the latest of Hamas military leaders in Hebron this morning after an all night siege of a house where Qawasmeh had holed up in the town. According to the army, Qawasmeh was responsible for dozens of Israeli deaths in terror incidents. The army besieged the house, removing its occupants and then calling on Qawasmeh to come out. Instead, said the army, he fired at the troops. By morning, the army decided to take more direct action, bringing in a bulldozer that toppled the building on the man. He was found in the rubble, with a Carl Gustav submachine gun and a pistol. According to the army he was the third Hamas military leader killed in Hebron this year.

In Lebanon, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah issued a surprisingly moderate statement -- to Israeli ears -- about Hezbollah making every effort it can to find out what happened to air force navigator Ron Arad, insisting that the Lebanese political party cum guerrilla group has no direct knowledge of his whereabouts. Hezbollah does have good ties with Iran, however, and as they try to explain why Arad is not part of the brewing prisoner exchanged deal with Hezbollah, Israeli officials have been indicating in recent days that the Iranians are holding Arad. According to Amnon Zichorni, a Tel Aviv lawyer who has been involved in prisoner releases in the past, the Hezbollah statement was a signal that the negotiations for the prisoner exchange are in their final stages. Al Quds, in East Jerusalem, carried a report quoting Israeli officials, saying that the negotiations were now at the stage of drawing up the final list of names of prisoners held by Israel to be traded for the bodies of three kidnapped soldiers and businessman Ehanan Tannenbaum. According to the Palestinian newspaper, Marwan Barghouti might indeed be one of the freed Palestinians. Israeli government officials refuse to comment on the negotiations, being mediated by Germany. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger meanwhile announced today that he is on his way to 'a Muslim country near Iran' for a meeting of Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders to discuss the issue of prisoners and their redemption, 'and to show the world that bin Laden is the the only face of Islam.' Metzger told Israel Radio one of the Muslim leaders will be 'an Ayatollah Khomeini, related to the famous ayatollah.' An educated guess, said Israel Radio, is that Metzger was referring to an Iraq-based son of the late ayatollah, who is in opposition to the current regime in Tehran. In any case, Metzger said he would bring up the Ron Arad case at the interfaith meeting.

In another negotiation, Ahmed Qurei' was still working on forming his government and now doesn't seem likely to form a broad coalition with representatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Leftist groups like the Democratic and the Popular fronts. But Qurei, said Israel Radio, is working out a Palestinian truce and he has hopes to bring in the Israelis after he wins Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreement for a cease-fire. Israeli Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishki said this morning to Israel Radio that there has been a decline in the number of terror alerts, with no specific alerts on call right now for the upcoming holidays. According to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Palestinians are making efforts to end terror because of the Israeli threat to 'remove' Arafat. The PA leader meanwhile met yesterday with three out of the four members of the Quartet (the Americans are still boycotting him), calling on them to organize an international force to monitor a cease-fire.

Speaking of Arafat, Shimon Peres, whose 80th birthday celebration has brought former presidents Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others, to Israel, told a conference held in his honor at Tel Aviv University that it was not a mistake to give Arafat the Nobel peace prize in 1995, because Arafat recognized Israel and agreed that negotiations with Israel should be on the basis of the 1967 borders and not the 1948 borders. Peres said Arafat's subsequent mistake was not to disarm the terror organizations. The Peres gala was drawing snide criticism from the usual suspects -- anti-Oslo groups demonstrated outside the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv last night while Israel's political, financial, and economic elite mingled with foreign dignitaries and then settled in for an evening of speeches and performances celebrating Peres. Sharon sparked a flurry of interest by saying he expected that he and Peres would yet work together in the future, with speculation about it being a hint of a national unity government.

But by morning, the speculation was squashed. Peres said he'd only comment on it after the celebrations were over, while Sharon deputy Ehud Olmert said the prime minister was just being friendly to the Israeli politician who has been active since Harry Truman was president. On the Left, MK Yossi Sarid said last night that since the Prime Minister's Office was partially involved in the organization of the extravaganza, Peres was unable to fulfill the role of opposition leader to the fullest. In any case, Peres was nowhere to be seen Saturday night, when some 6,000 peace marchers walked from Rabin Plaza to the defense ministry a few blocks away, for an anti-war rally. But his party Secretary General, Ophir Pines-Paz, did attend, delivering one of the most passionate of the speeches heard at the rally.

On another political front, Likud MK Naomi Blumenthal kept silent to avoid self-incrimination when she was summoned by police for a confrontation with her former chauffeur. The driver has recanted his previous statements to police and now says she told him to lie during the last round of questioning about bribes Blumenthal allegedly gave to Likud Central Committee delegates during the party’s nomination process. Sharon fired Blumenthal as a deputy minister when she refused to answer police questions the last time. But since then, his sons, like Blumenthal, have kept silent during police interrogations.

And in Washington, Sharon bureau chief Dov Weisglass was trying to persuade American administration officials to drop their oposition to the planned route of the separation fence.

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The Other Israel edited by Tom Segev, and published in September 2002, is a selection of essays, articles, and other jouranlist writings by a range of Israeli voices articulating practical, legal, and moral dissent to the Israeli government. The book questions popular assumptions about Israel's true supporters: are they those who support occupation, settlement and reprisal, or those calling for reconciliation and a just settlement? The book challenges the narrow perception that Zionism means taking over 'Judea, Samaria and the Gaza dsitrict.' Contributing writers include: David Grossman * Amira Hass * Avi Shlaim * Ilan Pappe * Gideon Levy * Meron Benvenisti * Neve Gordon * Shulamit Aloni * Baruch Kimmerling * Ami Ayalon * Ze'ev Sternhell * Gila Svirsky * Uri Avnery

[an error occurred while processing this directive] in Frosties, the anthology of quotations

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