News Digest 180 Degrees Israeli hopes for peace and Arafat's aspirations have turned around. DAVID LANDAU Jewish Telegraphic Agency Jerusalem hat a difference a year makes. A little more than a year ago, U.S. President Bill Clinton detailed a Mideast peace plan that included deep Israeli concessions and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. This week, as Clinton visited Israel for the first time since leaving office, the vision of a "New Middle East" that developed under his watch appeared little more than a pipe dream. During the past 12 months, Prime Minister Ehud Barak was tossed out of office in Israel and has retired from politics. Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat remains in power but is under virtual house arrest in Ramallah, his office ringed by Israeli tanks. Lately, Israelis see signs that the U.S. administra- tion that succeeded Clinton's is moving toward the conclusion that Arafat is indeed "irrelevant," as the Israeli government recently declared. If so, it's unclear -what that would mean for a future Palestinian leadership, and for that regime's relations with America and Israel. The evidence of a policy shift by the Bush admin- istration toward Arafat still is largely circumstantial and not definitive. The signals of an American shift include: • Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported Tuesday that the Bush administration's envoy to the Middle East, retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, has asked to end his mission brokering a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians. The information came from Western sources, the sta- tion reported, adding that Zinni asked U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to- be relieved of his mission because he cannot trust Arafat and does not feel his return to the region will result in any progress. - ANALYSIS Tourism Plummets Tel Aviv/JTA — Tourism to Israel dropped 54 percent last year compared to 2000. Of the 1.2 million people who visited Israel despite the ongoing violence last year, the largest group of visitors was the Americans, followed by the British. Czech Jews u 1/25 2002 18 Prague/JTA — The Czech Federation of Jewish Communities voted to rec- ognize the Conservative stream of Judaism in its constitution. Last week's move by the Federation's incursions into the West Bank cities of Tulkarm on Monday and Nablus on Tuesday. While the Nablus action was based on pinpoint intelligence and aimed at ranking Hamas terrorists — four were shot dead and a bomb factory destroyed — the incursion into Tulkarm seemed as much a demonstration of Israel's dominance as a specific policing measure. The Tulkarm raid was bound to further weaken Arafat's prestige in the Palestinian Authority, possi- bly hastening his fall from power. There was a spate of reports over the weekend — vigorously denied on the Palestinian side — that Arafat was considering resigning or voluntarily going into exile in Tunisia. • When Israel retaliated for last week's terror attack on a bat mitzvah party in Hadera by bombing a Palestinian police station in Tulkarm, President Bush did not criticize Israel but restated his support for the Jewish state's right of self defense. The Bush adminis- tration appears to remain unmoved by the spectacle of Israeli tanks outside Arafat's office in Ramallah, and by the sight of them storming into Tulkarm and Nablus. • The Israel Defense Forces' destruction of the Voice of Palestine radio in Ramallah was another step to weaken Arafat by smashing the symbols of his rule. Despite outspoken reservations in Europe, the Bush administration again looked on in silence. For many key figures in the Israeli government and army, this silence is interpreted as a "green light" to chip away at Arafat until he topples. • Even Clinton, the president who invested so much in bolstering Arafat, added to the veteran Palestinian leader's alienation this week. In an emo- tion-laden two-day visit to Israel, Clinton did not schedule any meeting with Arafat, and reportedly even declined to speak with him by telephone. Accepting an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University, Clinton accused Arafat of "missing a golden opportunity" for peace at the Camp David summit in July 2000, and dismissed the subsequent intifada violence as "a terrible mistake." If Arafat eventually does succumb to mounting Israeli military pressure and declining American support, what then? Optimists in Israel and Washington believe power in the Palestinian Authority could pass relatively smoothly to another member of the present leadership. But many experts call this scenario wishful think- ing. More likely, they say, is that power would frag- ment in the Palestinian territories, strengthening the radical and fundamentalist factions. El Bill Clinton with Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin Pelosoff at the grave of her parents, Yitzhak and Leah Rabin, in the Herzl cemetery. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the report was completely unfounded, but added no new date was set for Zinni's return to the region. Even before Tuesday's Al Jazeera report, the word in Washington was that senior members of the Bush team believed the chances to reduce violence were so slim that it was not worth sending Zinni back to the region for a third round of shuttle diplomacy. Even if it's not accompanied by explicit criticism, declining to send Zinni would essentially confirm that the Bush administration "has had it with Arafat," as Sharon confidants say. The Palestinians have demanded that Zinni return to the region as soon as possible. In contrast, Sharon told visiting American Israel Public Affairs Committee leaders last weekend that sending Zinni would show Arafat that he can avoid moving force- fully against terrorist groups yet still court the United States as Israel's putative negotiating partner. • The United States conspicuously avoided criti- cizing recent Israeli military moves, including deep governing council will allow Conservative rabbis to work under the auspices of the Federation. The Federation will discuss re-wording its constitution, which at the moment recognizes only the Orthodox stream, at its next council meeting in March. Gays Served San Francisco/JTA — San Francisco's federation has established a gay and lesbian division. The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco's Gay and Lesbian Alliance will be an affinity group like the young adult and women's divisions, according to the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. The new department will pro- vide outreach, programming and leader- ship training to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews living in the Bay Area. Believed to be the first of its kind, the division comes several months after Chicago's federation created the country's first foundation focusing on funding Jewish gay and lesbian needs. Church And Messiah New York/JTA — The Vatican says the Old Testament validates the Jewish waiting for the Messiah. In a document that appears to show a shift in Catholic thinking, the Vatican declared, "The Jewish wait for the Messiah is not in vain." Jews and Christians both are waiting for the Messiah — though Christians are awaiting the second coming of Jesus, while Jews believe in a first corning, the pope's theologian wrote. Now part of official church doc- trine, the document also calls on Catholics to recognize the moral value of the Old Testament. The document reportedly was released last month with little fanfare.