WEEKLY FROM MID-EAST REALITIES: "QUOTE, UNQUOTE"

     By appearing to agree to terms over Hebron -- a site with more spiritual than strategic significance -- they [Israel's religious right] feel that the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is continuing the policy of abandoning integral parts of Eretz Israel.     

     So ideological a viewpoint is rarely congenial to western liberal sensibilities. After all, Mr. Netanyahu is seen either as obtuse, and even as a warmonger: anyone who criticizes him for going too far too fast is, by definition, beyond the pale. But one does not need to share the Israeli Right's world views to recognize that its critique of Mr. Netanyahu is more accurate than that of mainstream observers. The truth is that beneath Mr. Netanyahu's bluster -- exemplified by an initial reluctance to meet Yasser Arafat, which was followed by climb-down -- he differs less from his Labour predecessors than has been acknowledged.

Editorial The Daily Telegraph (London), 2 January 1997

It was events at the Lebanese border eight months ago which revealed to Arab leaders the extent of Ms. Albright's commitment to the Israeli cause. She argued vehemently against a UN decision to publish a human-rights report heavily critical of the Israeli artillery bombardment of Qana, in southern Lebanon, which killed more than 100 Palestinian refugees. Ms. Albright said publication of the report would damage American peace efforts.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali said in an interview in November that colleagues at the UN had warned him at the time that his decision to overrule Ms. Albright's request not to publish the report would cost him his job as UN Secretary-General.

John Carlin The Independent (London), 2 January 1997

Hebron is a dump, a holy dump, and there is nothing like a few hours on its mean streets to feed gnawing doubts about whether the Oslo process can ever work.

Just getting here tells half the story: the 160 Egged bus from Jerusalem, with heavy anti-stone grilles on the windows, uses new bypass roads and tunnels, built so the settlers can commute to their homes and wish the Arabs out of the stony landscape.

Ian Black The Guardian (London), 8 January 1997

The leader of the [Israeli] cabinet rebels is a retired general and former Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, who says the Palestinians are Israel's sworn enemies and can never be trusted. He has his own plan, under which Hebron will be formally split between Jews and Arabs. He has even drawn a map in which a ‘Berlin Wall" hives off the Jewish areas and creates a safe ghetto for settlers.

Inside the Cabinet, Sharon has renewed a historic alliance with his former Chief of Staff, General Rafael ‘Raful' Eitan, notable for his description of Arabs as ‘cockroaches'. The two generals were the joint architects of Israel's ill-advised invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Were they given their head today, they would immediately authorize the Israeli army to reoccupy the six West Bank cities handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

As for Arafat, Arik and Raful want him tried for war crimes. Privately, the two pot-bellied retired generals would like him simply to disappear.

Shyam Bhatia the Observer (London), January 1997

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"Quote/Unquote" Is A Special Weekly Feature about the Realities
facing Palestinians and Israelis prepared by Shifra Stern - ShifraS@aol.com

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