News Digest

Israeli Design
For Memorial

New York/JTA — The son of a former
Israeli ambassador to the United States
created the winning design for the
World Trade Center memorial.
The Lower Manhattan Development
Corp. chose Michael Arad's "Reflecting
Absence" to be built on the World Trade
Center site as a memorial to the victims
of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
The memorial has two pools below
street level, with pine trees and a paved
stone field. Arad's father, Moshe, served
as the Israeli ambassador in Washington
from 1987 to 1990.

High Hopes
For Gadhafi

Jerusalem/JTA — An Israel lawmaker
who held contacts with Muammar
Gadhafi's son said Libya could make
peace with Israel.
"My impression is that Gadhafi has
made a strategic decision and he is not a
man to take small steps," Labor Party
lawmaker Ephraim Sneh said.
Sneh met Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, who
is widely expected to succeed his father,
in Europe last summer. "He will not
stop midway and could even go as far as
forging ties with Israel," Sneh said.
The media revealed that Israel and
Libya have been holding secret talks on
normalizing ties, but a Libyan official
denied that any meetings took place.

.

Israel Insight

Goering's Boat
To Be Sold

Muslim Football
Names Changed

Berlin/JTA — The former yacht of Nazi
Hermann Goering is up for sale in
Egypt.
German boat dealer Christopher
Brunner-Schwer told der Spiegel maga-
zine that he hopes to make a fortune
selling the boat, posted for sale by the
American widow of an Egyptian oil
agent.
"Arabs like the boat's history," he said,
"and that is raising the price."
Anchored today in El Gouna, the
Carin .11 was built in 1937 and reported-
ly was a favorite place for secret meet-
ings involving top Nazis, including
Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann
and Hider.
Years after the war, it was purchased
by former Stern magazine journalist
Gerd Heidemann, who later became
notorious as the middleman in the 1983
fake Hider diaries scam. Heidemann
turned the boat into a floating shrine to
the Nazis.
After he was charged in the Hider
diary case, he was forced to sell the boat
at auction in 1988, at which point it
was purchased by Egyptian oil agent
Mustafa Karim.
According to Brunner-Schwer,
wealthy Arabs have inquired about the
boat.

Los Angeles/JTA — Muslim teams in a
California football league changed most
of their names after they were found to
be offensive.
Among the teams that switched
names were squads called Soldiers of
Allah and Mujahadeen, or Holy
Warrior. The Intifada team, however,
retained its name.

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U.S. Opposes
Golan Towns

Washington/JTA — The United States
opposes the expansion of Jewish villages
in the Golan Heights.
State Department spokesman Adam
Ereli said that U.S. opposition to "settle-
ment" activity extends to the Golan,
which Israel captured from Syria in the
1967 Six-Day War and annexed in
1981. "It's been our long-standing poli-
cy that there should not be settlement
activity in land that is subject — the
final status of which has not been deter-
mined through negotiation," Ereli said.
Israeli Agriculture Minister Yisrael
Katz announced a plan to attract new
families to the Golan Heights, where the
current population is 17,000.

THE ISSUE
The government of Syria has been
getting "good press" in the last
couple of weeks, for its peace over-
ture to Israel, seeking to restart
negotiations with the Jewish state.
But simple words should not be
enough to improve Syria's stand-
ing among the nations.

BEHINIVTBE ISSUE
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon recently charged the
Syrians with continuing to pro-
vide patronage to Palestinian ter-
rorists and terror organizations,
allowing terrorist training camps
to exist on Syrian soil and giving
the Hezbollah terrorists in
Lebanon a "green light" to attack
Israel. Syria also hosts the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard, blocks the
Lebanese army from deploying
along Israel's border with
Lebanon, maintains a missile sys
tem along Israel's border and
withholds information on Israeli
MIAs and hostages.

— Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit

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Israeli Volunteers
Lend Aid to India

New Delhi/JTA — Israel is sending 14
volunteers to India to teach emergency
medical care in poor villages.
The volunteers being sent this month
are the third group to visit India.

Osama Blasts
Peace Plans?

Jerusalem/JTA — An audiotape pur-
portedly of terrorist leader Osama bin
Laden blasted new Israeli-Palestinian
peace initiatives.
In a tape broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the
voice urged followers to oppose "con-
spiracies," including the "deceptions of
the 'road map' and the Geneva initia-
tive." Experts have not determined
whether the voice on the tape really is
bin Laden's.

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