Factiva

Source: Voice of Israel, Jerusalem, in English 0400 gmt 9 May 99

Text of report by Israel radio on 9th May

Jewish settlers have set up a new settlement on the hilltop just to the south of Ma'ale Mikhmash near Wadi al-Qilt. A Voice of Israel reporter says that three mobile homes were brought to the site, which is called Mitzpe Eretz, and families have moved in. The reporter adds that 15 mobile homes are to be brought in today to a site west of the settlement of Aley Zahav in Samaria. A military school is to be set up at that site.

[Voice of Israel (in Hebrew, 0500 gmt) later reported that "since early this morning, Civil Administration inspectors have been evacuating an illegal outpost set up by settlers south of Shvut Rahel in Samaria. The inspectors removed a bus used as living quarters and dismantled makeshift structures. Our correspondent Gay Qotev reports that three settlers were detained for questioning on suspicion of trespassing on state lands." ].

(c) BBC Monitoring Summary of World Broadcasts.

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Text of report by Israel radio on 9th May

Jewish settlers have set up a new settlement on the hilltop just to the south of Ma'ale Mikhmash near Wadi al-Qilt. A Voice of Israel reporter says that three mobile homes were brought to the site, which is called Mitzpe Eretz, and families have moved in. The reporter adds that 15 mobile homes are to be brought in today to a site west of the settlement of Aley Zahav in Samaria. A military school is to be set up at that site.

[Voice of Israel (in Hebrew, 0500 gmt) later reported that "since early this morning, Civil Administration inspectors have been evacuating an illegal outpost set up by settlers south of Shvut Rahel in Samaria. The inspectors removed a bus used as living quarters and dismantled makeshift structures. Our correspondent Gay Qotev reports that three settlers were detained for questioning on suspicion of trespassing on state lands."]

Source: Voice of Israel, Jerusalem, in English 0400 gmt 9 May 99.

BBC Worldwide Monitoring/ (c) BBC 1999.

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Mideast Peace Not Yet Won

Regarding the editorial "Passion for Peace" {Oct. 24}: I think one should keep this passion on hold as bigger and more difficult hurdles are ahead of us when the decisions are made regarding Jerusalem's status, the Palestinian state and illegal settlements. Since the late 1960s, when Israel occupied the West Bank, it has made this area like a slice of Swiss cheese by strategically establishing almost 200 illegal settlements and encouraging Jews from all over the world to become occupiers of this land by offering them subsidized housing and other amenities. (Those beautiful settlements in the midst of the indigenous poor Palestinian population is also a reality because of billions of U.S. dollars in aid.)

I am not sure these agreements will bring a lasting and just peace to the area in the final analysis. One should remember what Pope Paul VI said decades ago: "If you want peace, work for justice." To put the present situation in perspective, consider the two pictures printed on page 3 on Oct. 22. These two pictures are worth more than a thousand words. The first is of a Palestinian woman sitting near a road with a picture of an imprisoned relative. Her face tells the whole story of occupation, subjugation, despair and hopelessness - and on top of that, how can one ignore the two rifle butts in front of this unarmed older lady? Whereas in the other picture the Israeli soldiers are guarding a Jewish settler who is praying on the illegally occupied land. It is ironic that this Palestinian woman and this Jewish settler pray to the same God of Abraham (Ibrahim) - and these two are the progeny of Abraham. Siraj Begum. Searingtown

Pollard Put Others at Risk

Why are former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Central Intelligence Director George Tenet and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), intelligence committee chairman, so adamantly opposed to clemency for Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard {"How Jailed Spy Gained Value," Oct. 24}? Pollard says this is how high officials express anti-Semitism.

A more promising insight comes from former Rep. Paul Findley, who wrote that the information transmitted by Pollard included "analyses of Soviet missile systems that revealed how the United States collects information, including clues to the identity of U.S. agents or agents working for the United States. The documents also revealed the identity of the American authors of the studies, leaving them vulnerable targets of other intelligence services." If some of those agents have been assassinated, that information would need to be kept secret.

Yossi Alpher, director of the American Jewish Committee's Jerusalem office, said that Pollard's release would be "a coup among all Israelis if Netanyahu can pull it off." But for Americans, Jewish or otherwise, Israel's attempt to make Pollard's release a condition of the peace process is as outrageous and insulting as it would be for Yasser Arafat to demand the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian who assassinated Sen. Robert Kennedy because of his support for Israel. John Hartung. Atlantic Beach

Making Bethpage Park Better

Regarding the letter from Thomas C. Marinace {"Parks: Public vs. Private," Oct. 14}: Contrary to Marinace's assertions, the renovations at the Bethpage State Park clubhouse are the result of extensive planning and are being properly executed. With approximately 300,000 rounds of golf played annually, the space needed to provide service to golfers is being significantly improved.

The new air-conditioned pro shop will be about three times larger. Tee-time registration facilities are being expanded and relocated to a climate-controlled area adjacent to the shop. A new staging area will include historic golf displays. The first-aid room is being renovated. Golfers will have an expanded driving range and golf-education facilities.

As you may be aware, the Black Course at Bethpage has been selected as the site for the U.S. Open in 2002. The United States Golf Association recently completed a $2.7-million restoration of the Black Course, which was opened to the public on June 10.

We publicly advertised requests for proposals for the golf professional and food-service contracts. Global Golf was awarded a contract for a minimum of $1.75 million in capital improvements. Former Professional Golfers' Association president Richard Smith was brought in as the new head pro. The food service contract awarded to Steve Carl, with Arthur Waldbaum of the Waldbaum's supermarket family as an active partner, will provide another $2.5 million in clubhouse improvements with larger dining facilities and a new elevated patio.

Once the renovations are completed, Bethpage will continue to be the most outstanding public golf facility in the country as well as an inviting location for family and business gatherings. Bernadette Castro. Albany. Editor's Note: The writer is New York State commissioner of parks, recreation and historic preservation.

Truth in Campaigning?

In the senatorial race, the electorate is being subjected to one of the more asinine contests anyone can remember.

Rep. Charles Schumer puts on an ad with a sick-looking image of Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, declaring that D'Amato raised taxes. D'Amato's ad comes on, claiming that he lowered taxes, and it was Schumer who raised taxes; in the ad, Schumer looks undernourished.

Both politicians are playing games with the serious business of electing the best qualified candidate. Maybe a congressional clerk should be on hand to read to us what the record actually shows! Ben Calderone. Levittown

Memories Are Made of This

It was a sad time for all Long Island families when the Westbury Drive-In finally closed and the screens went forever dark {"The Last Picture Show," Oct. 26}. Long Island is slowly losing that recreational atmosphere it had when I moved here in 1965 from Queens. No longer can a family enjoy or afford a night out. The suburbs have little that families who are not working two jobs can do. This is one more branch of the "family tree of entertainment" that has died.

Change will leave the past as only a memory, but some day the old will be new again, as nothing is truly old. It's just reinvented for the next generation to rediscover. James Goddard. Central Islip

Dangerous Drivers

Thank you for an excellent editorial on motorcycle-safety training {"Advice for Motorcyclists: Get Safety Training," Oct. 22}. I have taken both the beginner and the advanced course and I highly recommend them for all cyclists. The knowledge that I gained will help me in most situations I may encounter on the road.

The only problem I have is the careless or reckless automobile driver. Have you ever approached an intersection and had a car make a left turn in front of you or a car change lanes right in front of you without signaling? Well, it has happened to me while I am on my motorcycle.

The phrase "loud pipes saves lives" is true. It's not just so we can make our bikes sound great that we have noisy exhausts; it's so you can hear us and know we are there. Many times I hear drivers say, "I didn't see you." With the little extra noise coming from my exhaust, I sure hope they can hear me. Al Fabiano. Oceanside

Telling Berenson's Story

The article "Peru Transfers Berenson to Jail Hospital" {Oct. 14} does not mention that Lori Berenson was found guilty by hooded judges so their identities would be concealed. She did not even know where she was tried, she was not allowed to present evidence or witnesses in order to prove her innocence, nor was she allowed to consult a lawyer.

It was also not mentioned that more than three months ago the International Red Cross urged Peru to give Berenson medical tests. That she is finally being transferred to a hospital now after all this time and inhumane treatment in prison isn't exactly happy news. Indeed, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States has heard her case and will confront the circumstances of this tragic, wrongful incarceration. Amnesty International also has declared her a political prisoner. President Bill Clinton has a duty to aid any American citizen wrongfully held in a foreign country; he should do so immediately.

Berenson is not a terrorist. She was working as a journalist on an assignment for two magazines at the time of her arrest. She was writing about the condition of women and children in Peru under poverty. To put Berenson's name in the same sentence with the word terrorist, or any hint thereof, is to malign a deeply sensitive, caring person, whose commitment is in making people aware of the conditions that some people live under, in an attempt to right the injustices of poverty and starvation. This is what Lori Berenson's life is about, a far cry from terrorism. Priscilla Felia. Locust Valley

Censorship on the Other Foot

The article "Battling Against Censorship" {Oct. 20} on the New York Civil Liberties Union devoted several paragraphs to my Freedom of Information lawsuit victory over the NYCLU and Nassau Community College. The article failed to point out the irony of this case as it pertains to the NYCLU. In my lawsuit I fought for the basic right of any citizen to view any film owned and shown at taxpayer-supported Nassau Community College or any public educational institution. The irony is obvious - the NYCLU was, in this case, defending government censorship, not battling against censorship.

The article also incorrectly implied we were trying to ban the film. We were simply asking the college to remove the requirement that, unlike students at any other Long Island college, Nassau Community students must take a "health" course. We believe most NCC students are there for serious educational purposes, and if they truly wanted to see porn films, they would simply visit their local adult video store. Censorship today, surprisingly, is far more likely to come from the left (e.g., NYCLU and militant gay groups) than from the right, as the NCC lawsuit and the many attempts to censor our weekly public access cable program and our annual library program would attest. Frank J. Russo Jr. Port Washington. Editor's Note: The writer is the state director of the American Family Association of New York.

Photo-(Lori) Berenson

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Your Oct. 6 editorial regarding the Middle East peace process is misleading ("Awaiting an October surprise"). It described Arafat as the "real winner," with 40 percent control of Israeli-occupied West Bank. It didn't mention, however, that the 40 percent - of which Arafat fully controls only one-tenth - is a bunch of apartheid-style disconnected and overcrowded islands, barricaded by Israeli army checkpoints, sliced up by settler-exclusive highways.

Furthermore, Israel controls all Palestinian water resources, channeling a major part to its illegal settlements and Israel, perhaps to make its desert bloom. All this while letting Palestinians thirst, denied even a permit to dig a well. Your editorial also mocked Arafat's anti-terrorism efforts, perhaps relying on Netanyahu's rhetoric for facts. Overseeing Arafat's efforts, the CIA attested that he's "moving in the right direction against terrorism."

Even Hamas (reluctantly) conceded so. But don't look for this type of news in the American media. No one can stop a determined terrorist. Clinton, with massive resources at his disposal, couldn't stop the Oklahoma or Trade Center bombings, nor could Rabin stop Baruch Goldstein from slaughtering 29 praying Palestinians. No one asserts he isn't fighting terrorism. Besides, all the terrorist acts blamed on Arafat took place inside Israel, where he has no control. Meanwhile, Netanyahu could demolish fewer houses, torture fewer Palestinians and confiscate less of their land, as his part of alleviating, rather than provoking, terrorism.

SAMUEL BACH

Middletown

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The Aug. 26 headline, Israel, Arafat give ground on West Bank, is not borne out by the article; not only is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not "giving ground," but he supports further illegal settlements that violate the agreements. When only one side has "given ground," why can't that fact be reported?

Karin Brothers Toronto

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UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (Reuters) - The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) called on the Security Council on Tuesday to order the rescinding of an Israeli plan that it said aimed at "strengthening the illegal hold of Israel on Jerusalem."

"The plan would expand the municipal boundaries of the city and would establish an 'umbrella authority' to include a number of illegal settlements in the West Bank," the PLO's U.N. observer, Nasser al-Kidwa, said at the start of a debate on a plan announced earlier this month.

A large number of speakers were taking part in the debate. Virtually all, including the United States, were critical of Israel's action in varying degrees.

Although Arab delegates have privately circulated a draft condemning Israel's action and demanding that it be rescinded, no resolution has yet been formally presented and no vote was expected Tuesday. Some diplomats said a presidential statement, rather than a resolution, was possible at a later date.

The PLO observer said Israel's plan for Jerusalem represented a "concrete step towards the illegal annexation of more occupied Palestinian lands to the already illegally expanded Jerusalem municipality" and aimed at "furthering the process of the judaization of the city."

He hoped the council would have "sufficient will to finally undertake the necessary measures to guarantee the rescinding of this plan and to prevent Israel ... from undertaking any further illegal actions in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied territories."

Kidwa said this and other Israeli policies violated agreements between the two sides in the framework of the Middle East peace process, although there was "not much left of this peace process anyway, thanks to Mr. (Benjamin) Netanyahu and his government," he added, referring to Israel's prime minister.

Israeli actions were creating a situation that "might lead to the explosion of the whole region at any moment," he said.

Israeli U.N. representative Dore Gold said the shift in Jerusalem's boundaries would apply strictly to areas west of the city within the pre-1967 war lines.

A similar westward adjustment of Jerusalem's municipal border occurred in May 1993 without being the subject of U.N. debate since it was a municipal, not an international, matter, he said.

It was "simply not true" that the "umbrella municipality" was a step toward illegal annexation. It was a coordinating mechanism between Jerusalem and surrounding communities already in effect in relation to several Palestinian cities under the complete jurisdiction of the Palestinian authority.

Gold said Ramallah supplied water to the northern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab while part of the sewage of Bethlehem and Beit Jalla flowed into Jerusalem's waste treatment plants.

The greatest problem for Jerusalem did not come from Israel's efforts "to preserve and protect this city" but from "massive Palestinian non-compliance in fighting terrorism and preventing violence," he said.

Ambassador Bill Richardson of the United States, which has previously criticised the Israeli plan, expressed "regret" at the announcement of the Israeli plan, which was "unhelpful at this delicate stage of negotiations."

"We reiterate that all parties should refrain from any unilateral action that could prejudge the outcome of the permanent status negotiations."

Referring to the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace process, stalled for more than a year, Richardson said Washington had offered "a fair and balanced set of ideas to break the stalemate."

"The Palestinians have said 'yes' in principle to our ideas. We are now working with the Israelis to determine whether they can also accept what we have outlined so that both sides can begin the challenging task of negotiating the core issue of permanent status."

He also said the Security Council "cannot and should not interject itself into issues that the parties themselves" had decided would be dealt with in face-to-face negotiations."

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Britain's Sir John Weston said it was "deeply concerned at the Israeli government's endorsement" of a plan that would "alter the demographic balance in the Jerusalem area and tends to pre-empt the final status of occupied land."

"That concern is heightened by statements attributed by the media to senior Israeli government spokesmen that the new arrangements are 'a basic change in Jerusalem's status, which will be remembered as a turning point," Weston added, quoting remarks by the Israeli prime minister.

(C) Reuters Limited 1998.

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U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., should stay out of foreign matters he doesn't understand. His desire to visit a proposed U.S. embassy site in Jerusalem, coupled with his speech to Israel's parliament completely siding with the Tel Aviv government against Palestinian Authority grievances, were grenades thrown into a complicated, evolving peace process.

Why do all nations of the world except two (El Salvador and Costa Rica) refuse to maintain an embassy in Jerusalem? International law, United Nations resolutions and official U.S. and European Union policy declare east Jerusalem to be occupied territory (seized by the Israeli army from Jordan in 1967). Thus, housing projects built there by Israel are illegal settlements.

Newt should crack an international law book (the Fourth Geneva Convention) to find that transfer of the population of the occupying power to occupied territory is illegal.

U.S. foreign policy -- in place since the Carter administration -- remains correct in referring to Jewish settlements in occupied Arab territory as a serious breach of international law. The final status of Jerusalem, a city holy to several religions, must be negotiated, not demagogued.

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I was listening to the news from the Middle East on a recent morning. It can be summed up in a few words. When Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that Israel has to stop expanding new settlements and changing the rules of the Oslo agreement, the Israeli response was swift:

Mind your own business, we will keep building new and illegal settlements on Arab lands. Forget Oslo. Just keep the money ($5 billion a year) coming and shut up. Keep sending troops to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to defend the Oil from Islamic religious fanatics, while our Jewish religious fanatics do their ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

Don't we as Americans have better things to do with our money? That is the question you have to ask our leaders.

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Sir, - On the day that two suicide bombers perpetrated horrific carnage in Jerusalem, Mr Zvi Gabay, the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, was given space in The Irish Times to reply to a John V. Whitbeck. Almost everything that Mr Gabay asserts is questionable. The provocation which Israel gives the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese by the illegal occupation of their lands and the illegal settlements which they construct on them are in direct contravention of UN resolutions. But Mr Gabay still states that "Israel is irreversibly committed to peace".

The festering sore of the thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes by Israel is unlikely to convince Irish people that Mr Gabay is sincere. Ethnic cleansing is what has happened and whenever one hears on the news programmes any Israeli commentator speaking of Palestinians, then apartheid is the other word that comes to mind.

In response to the attack by two frustrated and angry young men who were prepared to sacrifice their own lives in a most horrible atrocity to bring the attention of the rest of the world to the continuing injustice being endured by thousands of innocent Palestinians, Israel adds to the provocation by witholding taxes from the Palestinian Authority that are legally theirs.

This behaviour feeds the frustrations of extremists. President Clinton said that he could not see the link between the illegal settlements and the bombing. How depressing. - Yours, etc.

John A. Cullinane, Ballincollig, Cork.

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Action on Draft Resolution

THOMAS SAMODRA SRIWIDJAJA (Indonesia) introduced the revised draft resolution on behalf of its co-sponsors and read out some of its contents. The current version would reiterate the General Assembly's demand for immediate cessation of the construction of a new settlement at Jebel Abu Ghneim and that Israel immediately cease and reverse all actions taken illegally under international law against Palestinian Jerusalemites. The text would also demand that Israel, the occupying Power, make available to Member States the necessary information about goods produced or made in the illegal settlements in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem.

He said the draft resolution would also have the Assembly recommend that the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilian persons in time of war convene a meeting on measures to enforce that text in the occupied Palestinian territories and to ensure respect for it. The Secretary-General would be asked to submit a report on the matter in three months.

He then announced an oral draft revision to the revised text, by which the following words would be added at the end of operative paragraph 6: "as these activities contravene international law". The text would thus read: "Recommends to Member States that they actively discourage activities which directly contribute to any construction or development of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, as these activities contravened international law;".

The co-sponsors of the revised draft resolution are: Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam and Yemen.

HISASHI OWADA (Japan), speaking on a point of order, asked for clarification as to how the proposed changes to the revised text would be handled.

RAZALI ISMAIL (Malaysia), Assembly President, said that since the representative of Indonesia had explained the changes, the Assembly would proceed to a vote on the text.

Mr. OWADA (Japan) asked for a clarification of the changes that had been proposed to the revised text.

Mr. SRIWIDJAJA (Indonesia) added that operative paragraph 6 would be extended by the addition of the phrase: "as these activities contravened international law".

Mr. RAZALI (Malaysia) said an editorial revision had also been orally made, adding the word "and" to operative paragraph 10, before the phrase "requests the Secretary-General to present a report on the matter within three months".

DAVID PELEG (Israel), speaking in explanation of vote before the voting, said the draft resolution would lead nowhere. It was taking a road that had been taken in vain by Israel's Arab neighbours. Calls for economic measures, threats to ostracize Israel in the United Nations, and the endless ritual of submitting one-sided reports would not help the peace process. The draft resolution was an invitation to step back into the dark ages of the past. Member States should join the efforts for peace by voting against it.

MANUEL TELLO (Mexico) said dialogue was the way to avoid violence and end conflict. Various United Nations bodies had formulated resolutions whose implementation could have led to peace. Contrary to international law and resolutions, Israeli actions were holding up the peace process. At the same time, Mexico condemned terrorism, which could in no way be justified.

The Assembly was adopting a resolution which should be considered elsewhere, he said. His country acknowledged the political validity of the principle of land for peace, but would have preferred greater linguistic precision when it was being formulated as a judicial principle. Rights inherent to Member States could not be modified by the draft resolution. Mexico would vote in favour of the text.

Mr. GORELIK (Russian Federation) said his country favoured an immediate cessation of settlement activities. As for the draft under consideration, the revisions to it had made the text more balanced. Work to make the resolution more realistic could have continued. There was a lack of clarity in its provisions on the convening of a conference relating to the Fourth Geneva Convention, a matter that needed further refinement.

He said the Russian Federation had been prepared to cooperate in negotiations on the text. However, the hasty move to vote on it left him no alternative but to abstain.

JORGE PEREZ-OTERMIN (Uruguay) said his country opposed the Israeli activities, which were contrary to the peace process. Uruguay would support the draft resolution, since the construction of settlements had not been discontinued, despite the international community's expression of its will through several resolutions.

DAG WERNO HOLTER (Norway) said it was the obligation of the parties themselves to solve the present crisis in the Middle East peace process, through direct negotiations based on the Oslo agreements. However, Norway deeply regretted that Israel had not heeded the calls from its partners in peace and the international community to halt its settlement activities in the Palestinian areas, including East Jerusalem. Those activities were contrary to international law and to the spirit of agreements reached between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Despite its reservations, Norway would vote in favour of the draft resolution.

ROBERT R. FOWLER (Canada) said he would vote in favour of the draft resolution, owing to the absence of encouraging advances since the Assembly's previous resolution. Canada was deeply concerned about the absence of negotiations and did not recognize permanent Israeli control over the occupied territories. It was Canada's view that the Fourth Geneva Convention did apply to the occupied territories. As a High Contracting Party, Canada would consider the convening of a conference after further review and consultation with other High Contracting Parties.

FAMATTA ROSE OSODE (Liberia) said she would support the resolution, with certain reservations. Israel's actions were illegal and should be condemned, and it must desist from all such illegal actions. It was hoped that the Palestinian people's legitimate longing for freedom would become reality in the near future.

The General Assembly and the Security Council must exhibit impartiality on controversial subjects, she said. Israel and her Arab neighbours must exhibit good faith in their efforts for peace.

Mr. TANC (Turkey) said he would vote in favour of the draft resolution, since he supported its main thrust. However, the language of some of its paragraphs could have been improved.

The draft resolution was then adopted by 131 votes in favour to 3 against (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States), with 14 abstentions. (For voting details, see Annex.)

Mr. AL-ATTAR (Syria), speaking in explanation of vote after the vote, said Israel was responsible for the impasse in the Middle East, as had been stated by various delegations.

Mr. OWADA (Japan) said the unfortunate situation in the Middle East had its roots in the conditions that followed the death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the construction of settlements at Jebel Abu Ghneim. Japan had voted for today's resolution after carefully considering the effect it would have on the Middle East peace process. However, the oral revision added to the end of operative paragraph 6 might lead to some imprecision, from the juridical point of view.

GIDEON KAYINAMURA (Rwanda) expressed regret that the Middle East peace process was not moving forward. Attempts to change the demography of East Jerusalem would not enhance that process. He would have liked to vote in favour of a resolution that would have inspired both parties to take action in the direction of peace. In the absence of such a resolution, he had no alternative but to abstain.

NASSER AL-KIDWA, Observer for Palestine, expressed appreciation to the resolution's sponsors, as well as to those who had supported it. Such support had not been an easy position for some States. The international community had pronounced its will clearly today. He reaffirmed the necessity of implementing the Assembly's resolutions.

ANNEX

Vote on Illegal Israeli Actions

The draft resolution on illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem (document A/ES-10/L.2/Rev.1) was adopted by a recorded vote of 131 in favour to 3 against, with 14 abstentions, as follows:

In favour: Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Against: Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States.

Abstaining: Andorra, Australia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Marshall Islands, Nicaragua, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Slovak Republic, Uzbekistan.

Absent: Afghanistan, Angola, Belize, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, Madagascar, Mongolia, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Tajikistan, Vanuatu, Zambia.

*M2 COMMUNICATIONS DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY FOR INFORMATION PROVIDED WITHIN M2 PRESSWIRE. DATA SUPPLIED BY NAMED PARTY/PARTIES.*

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The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat sought to embarrass Israel last night in front of an audience of global leaders when he said land confiscations, illegal settlements and an economic blockade had left 65% of his people living below the poverty line, writes Larry Elliott in Davos.

Brushing aside overtures from Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum, Mr Arafat said the peace process was being jeopardised by the dire condition of the Palestinian economy.

After a bilateral meeting between the two, Mr Netanyahu anounced he would meet Mr Arafat on Thursday in Erez, on the Gaza border with Israel, to discuss ways of implementing the next phase of the peace agreement following the withdrawal from Hebron.

However, in a later speech to more than 1,000 politicians and businessmen, Mr Arafat accused Israel of breaking the terms of the Oslo accord, of being dilatory in enforcing agreements and of crippling the economy.

He said national income fell by 35% last year, and inward investment had dropped by two thirds.

"Is this a just peace? Is this the peace expected by the world?" he said. "The land confiscations have continued. The policy of illegal settlements have been pursued. There have been other violations of the peace accord."

Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, later warned Mr Netanyahu that it was vital for Israel to push ahead with a port and airport for Gaza, because the extent of economic deprivation could lead to a political backlash.

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TEL AVIV, Nov 4 (Reuter) - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin died late on Saturday after being shot during a mass peace rally in Tel Aviv, government officials said.

Israeli television said police arrested a 23-year-old Jewish suspect after the shooting. Israel Radio reported that the assassin was a 27-year-old Jewish university student who had been involved in illegal settlements in the West Bank.

"The government of Israel announces with astonishment and deep sorrow the death of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who was murdered by an assassin tonight in Tel Aviv," Rabin's spokesman Eytan Haber said outside Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital.

The cabinet was summoned to an emergency session. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres would be acting prime minister, environment minister Yossi Sarid said.

The 73-year-old prime minister was shot shortly after addressing a peace rally in Tel Aviv attended by more than 100,000 Israelis. It was the biggest rally in the city in years.

"This gathering must broadcast to the Israeli public, to the Jewish public throughout the world and to many in the Western world and elsewhere that the people of Israel want peace and support peace," Rabin told the crowd.

"I always believed that most of the people want peace and are ready to take a risk for it," he said.

It was at the end of the rally that the young man fired several shots. Israel Radio said Rabin was hit in the spine, back and chest.

"Rabin came down to the car, all of a sudden there were like four shots, five shots," witness Noam Kedem told Reuters. "I saw him collapsing," Kedem said.

"They took Rabin out on a stretcher. He was lying on his side with a bloodstain on his chest and abdomen. His eyes were closed," said Yevgeny Furman, who was in Ichilov hospital's emergency room when the prime minister arrived.

On a street near the rally a small group of right-wing Israelis held a sign saying "A rope for the traitors".

Rabin forged a framework peace deal with the PLO in 1993 followed by a West Bank self-rule accord last September and a peace treaty with Jordan.

Rabin is the main Israeli architect of peace and his disappearance would put a question mark over the whole U.S.-driven Midde East peace process.

U.S. President Bill Clinton, speaking just before news of Rabin's death emerged, spoke of his "outrage" at the attack.

Rabin's main peace partner, PLO chief Yasser Arafat, was reported to be deeply disturbed by the shooting.

"The president has been deeply disturbed and wished the prime minister a speedy recover so that he can continue the peace process," Arafat's spokesman Marwan Kanafani said in PLO-ruled Gaza -- before it was announced that Rabin had died of his injuries.

Jewish settlers in the West Bank and PLO-ruled Gaza Strip oppose Rabin's peace agreement with the PLO.

Acting prime minister Peres is a co-architect of peace with Rabin and is committed to transfering self-rule to Palestinians and concluding a peace deal with Syria and Lebanon.

Israeli media reports said recently that security around Rabin had been beefed up over fears right-wing Jewish militants might try to attack him. Rabin himself said last month he was not concerned about his personal safety.

One of Rabin's bodyguards was also hit and wounded by bullets, witnesses said. No Israeli leader has ever been assassinated and Israeli politicians have traditionally been accessible.

Rabin, a former general, told the meeting: "I was a military man for 27 years. I fought as long as there was no chance for peace. I believe there is a chance for peace, a big chance and we must take advantage of it for those standing here, for those who are not here -- and there are many of them. I always believed that the majority of the people want peace and is ready to take a chance for peace."

People held their hands in disbelief at the news of Rabin's death and lit candles.

(c) Reuters Limited 1995

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Your Oct. 13 front-page photo of the Israeli family grieving for its hostage son made me wonder: Where are your pictures of the many Palestinian families grieving for their 8- and 10- and 13-year-old children who have been jailed and tortured without charge, or who have been shot or beaten by the Israeli military or settlers?

And how can the PLO control militant groups, when it has no funds? The new Palestinian police are sleeping on the ground and being fed by the neighboring populace. Meanwhile, we taxpayers give about $4 billion each year to Israel, to continue its nuclear weapons program, its illegal settlements in the occupied territories and its widespread abuse of human rights.

Now Begin, who used to proudly call himself a terrorist, shares the Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. Their pasts are all equally bloody, but Begin has never stopped.

Our annual donations to Israel (almost one-third of the total foreign aid budget) should be contingent upon cessation of human-rights abuses. Anita Ross Seattle

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MANY times God arranges for Israel's salvation through unforeseen means, extracting the sweet from the bitter, the light from the darkness," the Rabbinical Forum in Judea, Samaria and Gaza declared in a circular distributed soon after the Labor party came to power in June. "We are not the ones to decide whether the political changes are necessarily bad, even though it may appear this way."

In this first circular, the rabbis - representing most of the chief rabbis in the settlements - wrote that settlers should not view the government as a disaster, set up illegal settlements, or organize demonstrations. Calling upon their followers to work with the new government in strengthening settlements in the Jordan Valley, Gush Etzion and around Jerusalem - areas where the government said building should continue - the rabbis took a decidedly wait-and-see, the-cup-is-half-full attitude.

Now this has all changed.

The forum came out with a statement this week that demonstrates just what a difference 100 days makes. "The political situation today is worse than in the past because of the weakness of Israel's government," the rabbis wrote. "All weakness invites pressure, and so we now witness an increase of terror, which is spreading all over.

"Everyone who holds Israel's honor dear is called upon to protest in every town and city, and let it be known that the government has no mandate for concessions on our national properties. This declaration flows from the Jewish halachic tradition that has at its center the existence and honor of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel."

THERE WERE two angry demonstrations in Jerusalem this week. Although they were more likely the result of the week's violence than of a rabbinical call, there is no doubt that when a group of rabbis well respected in their own communities comes out with declarative statements, these statements have impact.

Which is exactly what has critics scared. Earlier in the month the forum issued a statement declaring that no government has the right to negotiate over Eretz Yisrael because these are lands that were given by God to the Jewish people in perpetuity. This statement drew fire from critics who read it as little less than a call for rebellion against the government. If the authority of the government is questioned, they argued, then all means are valid in the fight against the government.

"Nonsense," said Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, the rabbi of Eilon Moreh and one of the driving forces behind the creation of the forum about 10 months ago. He said that the rabbis' stand against violence and the establishment of a new underground, is well known and is oft-repeated in the settlements.

"An underground undermines the whole state, and the whole country, and that is not our intention," Levanon said in an interview in Eilon Moreh this week. He said he was not concerned that the forum's statements will be misread since the settlement rabbis consistently speak against taking the law into one's own hands, or of trying to do the work of the army.

Settlers' questions about how to react, about how to respond to violence, was the impetus for the establishment of the forum 10 months ago. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the rabbi of the settlement of Bracha on the outskirts of Nablus, said that at that time the settlement rabbis were inundated by questions about how to respond. "And the person who asked the question usually came with his own suggestion," Melamed said. Among the suggestions: "burn the villages."

Melamed said the forum emerged amid a real leadership void in the settlements. Residents were looking for guidance, when they were looking for real advice about how to act and react in the wake of growing violence. So the forum, a loose confederation of settlement rabbis led by Zalman Melamed (Eliezer's father), the head of the Beit El yeshiva; Shlomo Aviner, head of the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City; and Levanon, sprouted up to try and fill the void.

The rabbis, after a spate of terror attacks last year, issued a statement calling upon settlers to demonstrate after each violent incident, at the location of the attack. This led to some 80 protests, ranging from the nightly praying of evening services in an Arab village near Nablus, to the 24-hour tailing of former defense minister Moshe Arens's car by settlers demanding that he do more to stop the violence.

Eliezer Melamed, the forum's secretary, credited these demonstrations and constant pressure with forcing the IDF to ease its shooting orders in the territories, and to step up the hunt for wanted intifada activists. As a result, he said, the violence waned. Now it is on the rise again.

"At that time we felt we had a government that was sensitive, but that the army wasn't doing everything it could," Melamed said this week in Bracha, a seemingly treeless settlement of 43 families commanding a view that reaches from Jordan to Tel Aviv. "Now we feel the army is doing what it can, but that the government is not sensitive. At least under Shamir the cabinet ministers would meet with us, show us that they cared. This isn't the case today."

THE FORUM has dual goals: give the settlers direction on how to look at the situation, and answer day-to-day questions on how to act, according to Levanon.

"I was asked recently by a mother whether she should take her child to a dentist in Tel Aviv to look at a toothache, since it would mean traveling on the roads. The toothache wasn't critical, and she wondered whether she should just wait a month and a half until the next doctor's appointment, rather than risk the drive."

Levanon answered that the woman should go to the dentist, and that life should continue as normally as possible. "But the situation is bad," he said. "People think twice before leaving the settlement, asking themselves whether the trip is really necessary. They joke and say before leaving, 'I hope to come back.' "

The other purpose of the forum, he said, is to provide an interpretation of current events. "There are two ways of looking at the present situation," he said from his settlement, where the trees, the chirping of birds, and pine-scented mountain air give the town an almost summer-camp easy feeling that contrasts mightily with the trepidation one feels when driving to get there.

"You can look at the current situation in completely dark colors. Fear on the roads, a government that isn't doing enough to stop it, autonomy lurking around the corner. People can get the feeling that they can't live here, or build their future here."

Or, Levanon said, you can put things in proportion: present the real dangers, but also remind people that things have been a lot worse, and that sacrifices are needed to attain any goal.

The monthly sheets the forum distributes in synagogues in some of the settlements tries to put things in proportion, Levanon said. Part of the reason is to strengthen the ideological base so the settlers can continue to put up with the hardships, and so they won't some time in the future throw up their hands, say "enough," and leave their settlements.

Although the forum presents itself as the representative body of settlement rabbis, not all the chief rabbis of the settlements agree with what the organization does. One rabbi, who was speaking off th record, said it isn't seemly for rabbis to get involved in politics. "Every time a rabbi enters into politics, be it Rabbi Schach or Rabbi Ovadia {Yosef}, their status in the eyes of the public diminishes. I have my political beliefs, and if someone asks me what I think I will tell them. But it is not the position of rabbis to issue statements on political matters."

Another rabbi, Menahem Froman of Tekoa, who has been involved in the forum, said he wants the organization to concentrate more on bringing across the philosophical underpinnings of settlement in the territories, and less in trying to do the work of a right-wing political party.

Levanon answered the criticism by saying that the organization is not political in the sense that it is trying to bring down the government, or openly favoring one political party over the other. But in a country where every issue has political significance, he said, it is absurd to expect rabbis - especially rabbis living in the eye of the storm - to remain quiet.

The recent violence in the territories has made the Rabbinical Forum in Judea, Samaria and Gaza change course, Herb Keinon reports

2 photos; Caption: 1. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed. 2. Rabbi Elyakim Levanon.; Credit: 1-2. Herb Keinon

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Your statements in a June 25 editorial, "The U.S. was doing the Arabs' bargaining," and, "The resettlement of the Soviet Jews is unrelated to the peace process," are nonsense.

I must also take exception to your assertion that it was wrong for the Bush administration to link the $10 billion loan guarantees to a halt in Israel's illegal settlements.

By linking the guarantees, the United States was not doing the Arabs' bargaining for them. The settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which states that "an occupying power shall not move its population into occupied territory." President Bush correctly recognized the settlements as an obstacle to peace.

Your statement that the resettlement of Soviet Jews is "unrelated" to the peace process is nonsense. Soviet Jews are being settled in the occupied territories in contravention of international law.

You are parroting the exact same disinformation that the Israel lobby and its biased supporters would have the U.S. public believe.

GLADYS FISHEL

Arlington

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To the Editor: There should be no compromise with Israel. It has arrogantly ignored U.N. resolutions and U.S. policy for years. It should withdraw from the occupied territories and forfeit all illegal settlements. We forced Iraq out of Kuwait, yet we continue to aid and abet Israel in its aggression. Shame on us.

Not one cent more. Not with my tax dollars.

BEVERLY BARANOVICH Northwest Portland

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I am writing about the Jewish settlers who recently seized the homes of Palestinians in Arab East Jerusalem. This is very disturbing to me as an American whose tax dollars have been used to subsidize this type of naked aggression. When will the American people wake up to this injustice and apply the same pressure on Israel and South Africa as was applied to Iraq?

More Americans should visit the West Bank and see the illegal settlements strategically placed on hilltops overlooking Arab villages. The settlers carry automatic weapons and do not hesitate to use them. With American military and political hegemony in the region, where is our leadership for peace and democracy? I think the Israelis have learned their behavior from us. After all, isn't it the same treatment we gave our native Americans?

STANLEY L. HOLDING

Durham

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Your July 22 editorial "The settlements and the boycott" complains that the Bush administration's peace efforts, which call on Arab nations to suspend their boycott of firms doing business with Israel in exchange for a freeze on Israeli settlement construction, make more of a demand on Israel than anyone else.

When one considers what Israel has done to its neighbors and the Palestinians over the past 40 years - occupying land, engineering daily air raids, cutting off water supplies and committing every human-rights abuse imaginable - stopping internationally recognized illegal settlements on occupied land in exchange for an end to a largely unenforced boycott would indicate that it is Israel that is holding the cards in your poker game analogy.

Furthermore, Israel's hand is made even stronger because, despite U.S. concerns about the settlements, Israel still receives billions of dollars in military and economic aid from American taxpayers. And let's not forget that the Israelis have the strongest military in the region and a probable nuclear capability.

You also claim that the United States should not pressure the Israelis into making this one concession because U.S. policy has long considered the boycott illegal. What hypocrisy! The United States has considered the construction of settlements on the West Bank and Gaza illegal since they first began. Moreover, the land upon which these illegal settlements are being built is considered illegally occupied by the international community.

The Washington Times should not object to a U.S. policy of encouraging each side of the Arab-Israeli conflict to trade off practices that detract from an equitable resolution to the present situation, especially since the United States considers the actions of both sides illegal.

Instead of undermining Bush administration efforts, you should be supporting the president's initiatives for peace at least as vigorously as you supported his efforts to liberate Kuwait through war.

JAMAL KHEIRY

Washington

Photo, NO CAPTION

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Regarding the opinion-page column "Will US Stand By and Let Israel Colonize West Bank and Gaza?," May 22: When will the US Congress wake up to realize that our Israeli friends will never cease to scuttle Middle East peace initiatives until we turn off the millions in subsidies we send them monthly?

We have already initiated the arms destruction of their worst enemy (Saddam Hussein's Iraq) and protected them with our men and materiel from the Scud missiles which their arrogance inspired. Then they have the gall to ask us to finance the repair of their illegal settlements which somehow were hit.

Shamir will never negotiate with the Arabs until we threaten to stop subsidizing the present Israeli regime, and the illegal building on the West Bank and Gaza will never stop until we "just say no" through Congress.

The Israelis are building up hate and malice for their own cause and it is imperative that we in the United States not be swept up in their self-inflicted whirlwind. Betty S. Sands, San Francisco

Letters are welcome. Only a selection can be published, subject to condensation, and none acknowledged. Please address them to "Readers Write," One Norway St., Boston, MA 02115.

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THE ISRAELI government owes an explanation to American taxpayers. Israel is so strapped for cash that it wants US loan guarantees of $400 million for housing for immigrants from the Soviet Union. Yet, it is squandering nearly $2 million on a provocative, secret, illegal settlement in Jerusalem. And it has begun

other illegal settlements in Israeli-occupied Arab areas. What gives?

The Jerusalem episode was so shocking that Christian leaders there and in two other cities closed their shrines Friday in protest. The Israeli land grab in Jerusalem was particularly jolting because of its timing and the cynical deception accompanying it.

A few days before the major Christian holiday of Easter, Jewish settlers occupied a complex of buildings owned by the Greek Orthodox Church in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City a takeover that has since been held illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court. Jerusalem's mayor, Teddy Kollek surely one of the fairest and most beleaguered mayors in the world characterized the incident correctly: He asked other Jews to consider how they would feel "if singing and dancing Christians or Muslims moved into the Jewish Quarter on Passover."

At first, Israel's government denied any connection with the episode. That was proved to be a lie when officials admitted later that they had provided $1.8 million to help establish the settlement. It was also disclosed that the caretaker government of Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir, free of the restraining influence of the Labor Party, has been proceeding with at least two other settlements, in the occupied territories. Such actions violate international law and are a serious impediment to achieving the peace Israel deserves.

Israel officially has sharply rejected criticism of the Jerusalem takeover, claiming: "It is the right of Jews to live everywhere, and to purchase or rent property in all parts of the Land of Israel, and especially in Jerusalem." That is a sleazy evasion. Jews and others have an obvious right to live in Jerusalem, but no one has the right to illegally seize another's property.

MOREOVER, only a zealot needlessly offends the religious sensibilities of others.

One of the sad byproducts of the Jerusalem incident is the serious damage it has inflicted on interfaith understanding. Even the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby that almost never challenges the Israeli government publicly, has criticized its secret sponsorship of the Jerusalem settlement.

Mayor Kollek recently remarked that "false messianism has never brought the Jewish people anything other than trouble." He meant the kind of trouble created by those responsible for the episode in Jerusalem's Old City. In the name of helping Israel, they are tearing it apart.

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2, Reuter - The Arab group at the United Nations decided on Friday to set up a committee to recommend action to counter any settlement of Soviet Jewish immigrants in the Israeli-occupied territories, the Arab League's U.N. observer said.

Ambassador Clovis Maksoud said the settlement of Soviet Jews in areas captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war "not only tends to beef up the existing illegal settlements, but also constitutes a potential for the pre-empting of the right of the Palestinians to their independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem."

Although Israel said it did not encourage the immigrants to settle in the occupied territories, it did not exclude that option, he told a news conference.

Israel expects 50,000 to 100,000 Soviet Jews to arrive this year as a result of Moscow's removal of most barriers to emigration.

Maksoud said the committee being set up by Arab U.N. envoys would have an open-ended membership and would follow guidelines to be set by a seven-member Arab League foreign ministers' group on the question of Palestine.

He urged the United States, which provides Israel with extensive aid, to toughen its position on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and to declare them illegal, not just an obstacle to peace.

In a related development, the Soviet Union on Friday circulated as a U.N. document a note it recently sent to Israel warning against settlement of Soviet Jewish immigrants in the occupied territories.

The note, whose contents have previously been made public, was given by Soviet First Deputy Foreign Minister Yuli Vorontsov to the head of Israel's consular mission in Moscow, Arye Levin, on January 29.

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The Middle East is certain to figure prominently in Sunday's foreign policy debate between President Reagan and Walter F. Mondale. Given the increasingly pro-Israeli temper of this year's election politics, it is doubtful, however, that the hundred million or so Americans expected to hear the debate will get the facts as they really are. That, at least, is what we Arabs fear.

Throughout the campaign, discussion of the Middle East has centered not on such threats to peace as Israel's two-year occupation of southern Lebanon or the proliferation of illegal settlements in occupied Arab territories but simply on whether the Republicans or the Democrats can do more for Israel. This veritable auction of favors for Israel has prevented an objective debate of the region's serious problems and, worse, has excluded the Arab point of view almost entirely.

The Arabs not only deserve but want a hearing, even during an election year when they traditionally are supposed to keep a low profile and make few demands - expected to bow, that is, to what have come to be known euphemistically as ''domestic political considerations.'' The deepening American commitment to Israel, unprecedented in the history of American foreign relations, has hobbled the Reagan Administration and prevented it from moving forward with Mr. Reagan's peace plan. All the Arabs ask for is objective airing of the issues on their own merit, including recognition of the fact that the Arab-Israeli problem is a regional conflict that should not be viewed as part of the global superpower confrontation.

Particularly disturbing has been the unquestioning acceptance by the principals in the Presidential race of Israel's claim that it alone is preventing disaster - in the form of ''terrorist anarchy'' or ''Soviet inroads'' - from overtaking United States interests in the Middle East. Another cause for concern among Arabs has been the United States' official adoption of the Israeli view of the Palestinians, and especially of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

During his debate with Geraldine

A. Ferraro, Vice President Bush spoke of ousting ''13,000 terrorists'' from Lebanon - a reference to the P.L.O. He was oblivious of any larger dimension of the Palestinian problem and deliberately ignored the fact that the P.L.O. is universally recognized and represented at the United Nations and the League of Arab States.

The Arabs get even shorter shrift from the Democrats. Mr. Mondale has been so outspokenly partisan where Israel is concerned, favoring recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and pledging unlimited support, that one wonders how, as President, he would be able to deal with any Arab country. Arabs were also distressed by the assurances that both parties gave to the Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, during his recent visit to the United States. Mr. Peres was assured by both Mr. Reagan and Mr. Mondale of strong American economic, political and military support. The two candidates thus not only refused to contemplate applying any brakes to Israel's policies in the region but failed even to caution Mr. Peres about the consequences of continued aggression in Lebanon and intransigence on the future of the occupied Arab territories. The result was that Mr. Peres was emboldened to offer America what can only be described as outrageous advice. In an interview with Washington Post and Newsweek editors, he said, in effect, that the United States should give Israel a free hand in the Middle East, even when Israel is ''undisciplined.'' He asked: ''Do you want a disciplined Israel, with the participation of an American force, or a free Israel, an independent Israel, though occasionally she may be undisciplined in the way you want?''

Are the Arabs to understand that, were the United States to accept this kind of sophistry, Israel would be the sole judge of what constitutes a threat to peace in the Middle East? The Arabs know from bitter experience that Israeli ''undiscipline'' is constant, not occasional. They also know that whenever terrorism - a worldwide scourge not limited to the Middle East - occurs, Israel joins loudly in the outrage, as if this could alleviate the impact of its own aggression.

It is for these reasons that we would like the facts - not as presented by Israel - to emerge when Mr. Reagan and Mr. Mondale debate on Sunday. No one, least of all the United States, would benefit from a discussion of the issues tailored to fit transient election-year considerations. We take seriously, as we should, the statements of American leaders, even during election campaigns. They still will have to deal with the Arab world when this race is over. B

drawing

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JERUSALEM (Reuter) - The Israeli Army moved swiftly yesterday to dismantle two illegal Jewish settlements set up during the night on Arab land overlooking Jerusalem.

The settlement attempt, carried out by the ultra-nationalist Gush Emunim movement, was regarded as a test of the intentions of Premier Menachem Begin at a time when delicate efforts are being made to revive the Middle East peace process.

The settlers clambered in darkness and pouring rain up the slopes of Nebi Samuel and Tel Hadasha, two hilltops just north of Jerusalem.

They set up tents, with a corrugated iron kitchen on each site, dragged up some camp beds and proclaimed themselves founders of two new Israeli outposts.

The Israeli area commander, Brig.-Gen. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, appealed to the 75 families, most of them new Soviet immigrants, to leave the sites voluntarily.

When they refused, he sent up two busloads of soldiers to bring the settlers down.

The settlers offered no resistance by force, but some lay down on the site and had to be carried down the hill.

By mid-afternoon, the removal was complete and settlers were taken to a police station on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Nationalist groups have been urging the Government to resume Jewish settlement on the West Bank of the River Jordan and in the Gaza Strip now that the three-month freeze period agreed to at the Camp David summit has expired.

Mr. Begin and his ministers have said repeatedly that they would feel free to resume settlement after the freeze ended. But, so far, they have refrained from officially approving any new settler activity.

Gush Emunim leaders were believed to be eager to test the Government's attitude.

With efforts being made to restart peace negotiations between Egypt and Israel, the Begin Government is torn between a desire to placate nationalist opinion and a concern over the effect settlement has on foreign opinion, especially in the United States.

The Gush Emunim movement, fired by religious zeal to establish a Jewish presence in all parts of what it regards as the biblical promised land, accused the Government of lacking real enthusiasm for settlement.

''Each day for the 18 months since the Begin Government came to power, we have been hearing promises,'' Gush Emunim official Yosef Arzieli said. ''But it is all talk and nothing is being done. We plan to put Begin to the test.'

When the army order came to move, Mr. Arzieli refused, saying: ''The area is important strategically and from here we will defend Jerusalem from the north as it is written in the Book of Jeremiah.'

Soldiers carried him down the hill.

Other Gush Emunim supporters lay down on main roads leading to the area in an effort to hamper army transport. Soldiers picked them up as well.

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Special to The Globe and Mail

JERUSALEM - By sending in soldiers to haul hundreds of Israeli nationalists from two West Bank settlement sites on Thursday, the Government of Premier Menachem Begin passed the first test of its determination to leave open the path of peace negotiations on the future of the occupied territories by barring illegal settlements in these areas.

At a third site, an army cordon was thrown around an existing Israeli settlement the same day to prevent its members from carrying out plans to establish an illegal settlement nearby.

The strong Government action marked the severest setback yet for the fervent nationalists of the Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) group whose pressures have forced Israeli governments over the years into activist settlement policies in areas of Arab habitation on the West Bank. The nationalists' humbling came ironically at the hands of a right-wing Government whose election last year they had cheered.

The crackdown was directed by Defence Minister Ezer Weizman after Mr. Begin informed the Cabinet by phone that he would abide by any decision taken in his absence regarding illegal settlements.

Settlement pressure

Nationalist settlement pressure on the Jerusalem Government began immediately after the Six-Day War when young veterans settled without permission in the ruins of Gush Etzion, a West Bank village near Hebron which had been occupied by Jews until its capture by the Arab Legion in 1948 during Israel's war of independence. The settlers were the children of the original settlers and the Government soon gave them permission to establish permanent residence.

In 1968, a group of Orthodox Jews rented an Arab hotel on the outskirts of Hebron itself for the Passover, ostensibly to spend the week-long holiday in the city containing the tombs of the patriarchs. At the end of the holiday, however, they refused to leave and announced their intention of establishing permanent residence in Hebron. The Government found it difficult to withstand pressure against evicting Jews from the city where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lay buried. An entirely new community, Kiryat Arba, was eventually built for Jewish residents.

Heart of Biblical Israel

Leaders from Gush Etzion and Kiryat Arba were among the founders of Gush Emunim whose object was to force the then Labor government to establish settlements in the hilly heartland of the West Bank, which is also the heart of Biblical Israel.

The Government's policy was to concentrate settlements along the Jordan River to the east where they exercise a strategic function and where there is virtually no Arab settlement. The Government wanted to leave the option of returning the hills to an Arab sovereignty within the context of a peace treaty but Gush Emunim, for religious and nationalist reasons, was determined to foreclose that option.

The group, containing many religious students, established a series of illegal settlements to the Government's embarrassment. Some were moved to alternate sites and some were eventually given official sanction.

With the election of a right-wing Likud Government a year ago, the Gush Emunim leaders said they would no longer carry out illegal settlement since they were confident that Mr. Begin's Government would carry out West Bank settlement as official policy. Two days after his election, Mr. Begin made a demonstrative visit to one of the Gush Emunim's most controversial settlements, Elon Moreh, and declared that there will soon be many more Elon Morehs.

However, the visit by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem last November and the peace process that visit launched stayed the Government's hand. Gush Emunim demanded large-scale settlement activity but, except for one illegal settlement established earlier this year, refrained from provocative action.

The Camp David accord last Sunday, however, changed the picture entirely. Within hours of its signing in Washington, Gush Emunim dispatched a convoy of vehicles deep into the West Bank to establish a camp atop Mount Harawa two miles south of Nablus. The camp, they said, was the beginning of a large urban settlement.

The Government waited two days for the return of Mr. Weizman and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan from Camp David. It then issued a terse announcement - the illegal settlement on Mount Harawa would be dismantled and no further illegal settlements would be permitted.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan, in an attempt to reach a peaceful solution, offered to permit the 200 settlers on the hill to set up a camp inside a nearby army base if they would come down from the hilltop willingly.

Tough new policy

In an unusual move indicative of the Government's tough new policy, Mr. Weizman publicly overruled Gen. Eitan and said there would be no deal. Unless the settlers descended from the hill before noon Thursday, they would be forcibly removed. When they failed to come down, Mr. Weizman sent hundreds of soldiers up the mountain to break up the camp.

It became evident early in the week that Gush Emunim would react to the limitations placed by Camp David on Israeli settlement in the West Bank by a series of wildcat settlement attempts. By the end of the week it was evident that the Government would deal with such attempts, for the first time, with a firm hand.

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