Speech Pleases Israelis

Powells comments play well in Israel, despite calls for settlement freeze.

DAVID LANDAU

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem
sraeli officials generally are pleased with U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell's long-awaited
address on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
which appeared to come down harder on the
Palestinians than on Israel.
Israeli government sources reacted with some gratifi-
cation to the fact that Powell's demands of the
Palestinians were concrete and immediate, whereas the
concessions he demanded of Israel were more vague.
That vagueness troubled Palestinian officials,
though they chose to highlight Powell's sympathetic
treatment for Palestinian suffering and grievances.
To that extent, the speech can be said to have passed
its first test: Each side both smiled and grumbled.
In an astute piece of parsing, Israeli Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres noted Powell's demand that
the Palestinians "accept the legitimacy of Israel as a
Jewish state," code for a rejection of the "right" of
millions of Palestinian refugees and their descen-
dants to return to homes they fled in Israel's 1948
War of Independence.
The more practical test of the speech's effective-
ness remains to be confronted. The new American
envoy, ex-Marine General Anthony Zinni, will arrive
in the region soon after Thanksgiving, together with
William Burns, the U.S. assistant secretary of state
for Near Eastern affairs. Powell noted that Zinni will
"stay and work" until a cease-fire is secured.

I

Week Of Quiet

The secretary avoided a potential stumbling block
by making no direct reference to Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's insistence on seven days without vio-
lence before implementation begins of the Mitchell
Committee report, which recommended a series of
confidence-building measures by each side.
Some Israelis felt Powell obliquely sided with the
European Union — which flatly rejects Israel's
seven-day condition — when he described Zinni's

task as an "immediate mission." In other words, the
general is to get started on his talks without refer-
ence to the situation on the ground.
Yet Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Sharon, said Powell
understands Israel's position that the week of quiet is
an important test of Arafat's commitment to peace.
"I think the Americans know that if Arafat can't
bring about a week of quiet, he can't be depended
on to bring a lifetime of peace," Shoval said.
Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said
Monday that the level of Palestinian violence had
dropped markedly over the past two weeks. He
attributed much of this to operations by the Israel
Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security service and
police rather than to Palestinian Authority efforts,
which Israel continues to regard as inadequate and
ineffective.

SPEECH PLEASES ISRAELIS on page 19

European Union
President and
Belgian Prime
Minister Guy
Verhofitadt makes a
point to Israeli
Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon
during a meeting
in Jerusalem
on Nov. 18.

Bibi Coming To Town

Federation hosts Netanyahu at fitnd-raiser held at Shaarey Zedek.

B

inyamin Netanyahu, former Israeli prime
minister, will address the Detroit Jewish
community at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4, at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek. He will speak
about the situation in Israel and the Middle East crisis.
His appearance is in conjunction with Federation's
Annual Campaign and the Israel Solidarity Initiative.
Event co-sponsors are the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee Michigan Chapter and the Jewish
Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
"Our community is honored to. have such an
insightful and powerful figure in Israeli politics
address us during this time in history," said
Federation President Larry Jackier. "Our ties to Israel
have never been stronger and Netanyahu's appear-
ance in Detroit speaks to that feeling of solidarity."
Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in

Jerusalem. He spent his high school years in the
U.S. and returned to Israel in 1967. He served as a
soldier in an elite antiterror unit of the Israel
Defense Forces, where he participated in various
missions during the War of Attrition. He was dis-
charged from the IDF in 1972 and reached the rank
of captain following the Yom Kippur War.
He was appointed Israel's ambassador to the
United Nations in 1984 and remained in this post
for four years. Returning to Israel, he was elected to
the 12th Knesset as a Likud member and was
appointed deputy foreign minister.
During the Gulf War, Netanyahu served as Israel's
principal representative and was a senior member of
the Israel delegation to the Madrid Peace
Conference. Following the war, he was elected Likud
Party chairman and became the party's nominee for
prime minister.

Binyamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu was
elected on May
29, 1996, as
Israel's ninth prime
minister. He lost
re-election in 1999
and was succeeded
by Ehud Barak.
He earned a
bachelor's degree
in architecture and
a master's -degree
in management
studies from
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology. He
studied political

science at Harvard.
A minimum individual gift of $250 to
Federation's Annual Campaign 2002 is required for
attendance.
To make reservations, call (248) 205-2550 or visit
www.thisisfederation.org before Nov. 30. 111

11/23

2001

