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ISRAEL IS BEGGING US AGAIN
A delegation of top Israeli officials set off Saturday night for talks with their counterparts in Washington. The discussions will focus on Israel's request for $4 billion to cover security expenses related to Palestinian terror and the anticipated war in Iraq, and another $8
billion in loan guarantees over a three to five-year period to help Israel recover from
economic stagnation.
billion in loan guarantees over a three to five-year period to help Israel recover from
economic stagnation.
Israeli team in Washington to discuss request for $4 billion plus $8 billion on loan guarantees
By Aluf Benn and Moti Bassok, Ha'aretz Correspondents
January 5, 2002
Israeli officials hope to wrap up an
assistance package prior to a U.S.
offensive in Iraq. Officials in Jerusalem are
keeping close tabs on talks between the
U.S. and Turkey about an agreement for a
similar aid package, which apparently will
be finalized within a few days.
Dov Weisglass, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, heads Israel's
delegation for the talks in Washington. He is accompanied by the
directors-general of the finance and defense ministries respectively, Ohad
Marani and Amos Yaron. The Israelis will meet Monday with an American
team headed by Gary Edson, deputy national security adviser for
international economic affairs. The Israeli team will detail economic
hardship faced by Israel as a result of Palestinian terror, and the anticipated
war in Iraq.
Connections between American aid and Jewish settlements in the
territories will also come up in the talks. During previous contacts, officials
discussed the renewal of linkage between loan guarantees and Israeli
settlement policy which was advocated by the White House in 1992. In the
1992 loan guarantee arrangement, the Americans insisted on reducing the
guarantees by sums equivalent to investments made by Israel in Jewish
settlements, and on imposing a ban on the use of U.S. aid beyond the
Green Line.
Israel could agree to deduct from current American aid packages sums
equivalent to its investments in the territories due to a desire to forestall still
more onerous American pressure. For example, Israel is concerned that
the Americans might demand a total freeze on construction beyond the
Green Line as a precondition for the conferral of aid.
On Capitol Hill, the two houses of the U.S. Congress will convene this week
for the first since the congressional elections in November. Israel's requests
for civil and security assistance and loan guarantees will require approval by
the new Congress. Israeli officials expect that Congress will approve the
various assistance requests, with a number of preconditions. In addition to
anticipated attempts in Washington to link the aid to an Israeli commitment
not to use the money in the territories, Washington could also demand that
economic assistance not be used by Israel to reduce its deficit.
U.S. officials could demand that Israel take additional steps to decrease its
deficit via steps such as the reduction of spending and services in its public
sphere.
By Aluf Benn and Moti Bassok, Ha'aretz Correspondents
January 5, 2002
Israeli officials hope to wrap up an
assistance package prior to a U.S.
offensive in Iraq. Officials in Jerusalem are
keeping close tabs on talks between the
U.S. and Turkey about an agreement for a
similar aid package, which apparently will
be finalized within a few days.
Dov Weisglass, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, heads Israel's
delegation for the talks in Washington. He is accompanied by the
directors-general of the finance and defense ministries respectively, Ohad
Marani and Amos Yaron. The Israelis will meet Monday with an American
team headed by Gary Edson, deputy national security adviser for
international economic affairs. The Israeli team will detail economic
hardship faced by Israel as a result of Palestinian terror, and the anticipated
war in Iraq.
Connections between American aid and Jewish settlements in the
territories will also come up in the talks. During previous contacts, officials
discussed the renewal of linkage between loan guarantees and Israeli
settlement policy which was advocated by the White House in 1992. In the
1992 loan guarantee arrangement, the Americans insisted on reducing the
guarantees by sums equivalent to investments made by Israel in Jewish
settlements, and on imposing a ban on the use of U.S. aid beyond the
Green Line.
Israel could agree to deduct from current American aid packages sums
equivalent to its investments in the territories due to a desire to forestall still
more onerous American pressure. For example, Israel is concerned that
the Americans might demand a total freeze on construction beyond the
Green Line as a precondition for the conferral of aid.
On Capitol Hill, the two houses of the U.S. Congress will convene this week
for the first since the congressional elections in November. Israel's requests
for civil and security assistance and loan guarantees will require approval by
the new Congress. Israeli officials expect that Congress will approve the
various assistance requests, with a number of preconditions. In addition to
anticipated attempts in Washington to link the aid to an Israeli commitment
not to use the money in the territories, Washington could also demand that
economic assistance not be used by Israel to reduce its deficit.
U.S. officials could demand that Israel take additional steps to decrease its
deficit via steps such as the reduction of spending and services in its public
sphere.
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When: Jan. 15 (Martin Luther Kings' REAL birthday (get the connection?)
Time: 4 to 5 :30 pm
Where: 1301 Clay Street @ 12 th St. in Oakland in front of the twin towers (get the significance?)
No more U.S. tax payers' dollars going to racist, apartheid Israel which is guilty of ethnic cleansing and slow genocide of the Palestinian people to steal even more of their land for a Jewish supremacist, racist country!!!
NOT IN OUR NAME AND NOT WITH OUR MONEY!!!!!!
Tell everyone you know about this rally! Make leaflets and give them out! Bring literature of your own to give out! This is also a teach-in for confused Americans who have been LIED to by the corporate media!!!
The Truth will prevail! Justice will prevail!!!!!!
By now, many many more Americans are aware of FAR more details about Oslo (they know why it was rejected and they've not seen the maps either, and wonder why) and the concentration camp situtation for the Palestinians. Every day that the situation goes on is worse.
Maybe the solution lies in Israel pulling out of the occupied territories and allowing an international peace force to come in. Why is Israel willing to sacrifice it's population for the occupied territories? If a peace force came in, then it's the whole world' s issue, and not just Israel looking worse and worse as it continues to demean the Palestinians and then attack them when they fight back.
More and more of the world will be living in worse and worse conditions as the governments try to militarize the globe - and they will identify with the oppressed people, the ones with little water, with bulldozers knocking down homes, the ones with missles coming in through the windows. Like the US, the rich few trying to hide behind fortress walls and massive militaries will become the endless targets for the world's anger as more and more become oppressed, and so few have so much of the wealth.
Payback is not the answer. Treating every last one of us as equally and fairly, if the answer.