• Suha Arafat gives an interview to a Saudi paper by Smadar Peri
• PA Military Commander in Gaza Warns Israel by Hagai Huberman
• Mohammad A-Dura Recruiting Martyrs From Heaven and Calling: "FOLLOW ME" by Eli Kamir
• Citibank Offers Ehud Barak a Top Position by Navit Zomer
• Arafat, The PA and Hamas: The Continuing Cooperative Relationship by David Bedein
• Glimmers of Independent Thinking: A Moslem Condemns the Use of Children

After long months of media abstention, Suha Arafat has opened her mouth.

She does this in the Saudi women's magazine Saidati, and the comprehensive interview is accompanied by a variety of personal photographs of the chairman's wife and her family. The pretext for the project is a festive one: Suha set out, for the first time in her life, to undertake the Haj - the pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia.

Suha, for her part, takes advantage of the opportunity to attack the Israelis verbally; to emphasize her unique status as the wife of Yasser Arafat, while also calling attention to the price she has to pay for this status; and also to make clear she is against the peace process. "I was never happy with the way negotiations with the Israelis were conducted," she discloses. "The way things are now, I do not believe we will ever achieve true peace.

"Peace is a lie. I have always had the inner conviction that this matter will not succeed. Therefore I rejected any proposal to cooperate. In response, whenever I traveled between Gaza and the West Bank, the Israelis would stop my car and force me to wait along with the ordinary people."

Arafat also has something to say about the IDF: "Despite the fact that Israeli soldiers shot at our house in Gaza, and my daughter and I were the target, they only hit the top floor. I know my daughter and I are a political target, and for that reason we travel from place to place. But I am not afraid, because my lengthy experience of life under the occupation has made me strong. However, I am not trying to endanger myself needlessly, just so that people will say I am heroic."

Since the embarrassing incident with Hillary Clinton, which occurred a year and a half ago, Suha Arafat has kept silent. During a meeting in Ramallah with the former U.S. President's wife, the chairman's wife said accusingly that "Israel has poisoned the Palestinian air and water in the Gaza Strip and caused thousands of cases of cancer." Her comments caused a big stir in the United States and the Middle East. Suha for her part, decided to lower her profile. She is now in Paris for longer periods of time and in Gaza less, and takes care to stay away from journalists. "I decided to stay away because the light of the cameras does not only dazzle, it also burns. The further away I stay, the better it is for me," she says.

Now she is giving a glimpse into her life - it is unclear what is just image and what is really true - during a visit to Saudi Arabia, at the invitation of Princess Jawahara, wife of King Fahd. Aside from the attack on the Israelis, she also refers to the circumstances surrounding her decision - as the daughter of a wealthy and distinguished Christian family from Ramallah, educated in Nablus - to convert to Islam.

"My husband, Abu Amar, convinced me to take this step," she says. "The Islamic religion is familiar to me from my days at school in Nablus. I would remain in class during religion classes and studied the Koran, like everyone else. When my family discovered that I had converted to Islam, they reacted logically. For all of us the most important issue is the Arab national interest. It is a struggle I have signed up for."

This enlistment led to sharp disagreements, Suha disclosed, between herself and her husband. In the end she asked for his permission to move to Paris. "Of course there are differences of opinion between us," she says. "No one wins in arguments, but I am more aggressive. I argue only when I know what I want. It is hard to influence Arab men. The Arab male is not influenced by a woman. It goes in one ear and out the other."

The differences of opinion and arguments between the couple also dealt with Suha's criticism of senior PA officials. "I am frank, and when I encounter a phenomenon that seems to me unhealthy, I can't remain silent," she says, 'especially when I encounter corruption. I expose the issue, and sign up to stop the corruption.

"For example, I strongly criticized the opening of the casino in Jericho. I am not pleased with this place, where people drink alcohol and play cards. And when I discover senior Palestinian Authority officials making a fortune in the casino, I oppose them with all my might. Naturally, these arguments create a lot of problems and tension. But my conscience is clear."

Suha Arafat provides diplomatic replies to questions regarding her relationship with her husband, which has already been at the center of quite a few rumors. During the interview she says: "The disagreements between us have not had an adverse effect on our strong relationship. He knows that the purpose of my criticism is positive." On the other hand, she declares that "He loves me more, because it was he who proposed marriage." Another time she smiles: "I am not afraid Arafat will marry another wife at the same time he is married to me. He doesn't have the time."

In response to the question what kind of husband Arafat is, Suha replies: "Arafat is well-bred and knows how to respect women. He loves his home and daughter very much, despite the fact that he does not have enough time for her. He is a quiet man. When I become angry, he remains calm. He is very emotional, despite the fact that when he appears in public he seems tough."

Suha tries to evade questions abut her lengthy stay in Paris with her daughter Zahawa, who is now in first grade. A portrait of the two of them was intended to refute rumors that the wife and daughter were forced to move to Paris due to a malignant disease that little Zahawa had. She defined the relationship between father and daughter as "a good relationship". But she admits Zahawa sees her father mainly on television. "She admires Arafat," she concludes.

According to her, Zahawa fills her day. "Since she is Arafat's daughter, and we are fearful for her, she is protected. I wanted to give her a brother or sister, but the great responsibility I have for her has given me pause. I am with her all the time, take her to school, accompany her everywhere. I try hard not to spoil her, and teach her that she must make efforts to achieve things and not rely on the fact that she is Abu Amar's daughter."

Suha defines Arafat's health as "good". Regarding the tremors in his lips, she explains that "this is the result of air pressure on airplanes. Arafat flies a lot from place to place, he is under pressure, and it is no wonder that this situation has had an affect on him. But he is not ill. The Israelis spread rumors about this, and we ignore them."

It seems Suha has a great deal to say about rumors. "My unique status also has a price," she complains. "Every move you make brings a wave of rumors and criticism, mainly rumors spread by Israelis, because of their continuing hostility.

Suha takes advantage of the interview to refute another rumor, that she used her position as the chairman's wife to make financial profit for herself and her family. "I have never been in trade," she announces, "and I never thought about doing business. I knew that any business transactions I would be involved in would lead to rumors that I was taking advantage of my husband's status.

"In place of business, I decided to ease the plight of the Palestinian woman. I succeeded, for example, in raising awareness against inter-marriage in Palestinian society, to prevent cases of handicapped children. I put pressure on Arafat to help us legislate a law that would oblige couples to undergo pre-marital medical testing. Despite his many occupations, he found the time to handle this issue."

In conclusion, Suha discloses that her best friends are Queen Rania of Jordan and the wife of the president of Tunisia, "because we lived there many years and she was very close to us."

In response to the question whether she suffered in exile in Tunisia, she says: "We suffered a great deal, but we are also suffering in Gaza, we feel here too that we are living in exile. There is nothing that can be done, because we are still under the occupation."

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This is not the first blood libel the Palestinians have made against Israel. The use of "depleted uranium" has not been dropped. The PA newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida quoted a report in the Dubai newspaper Albian on Sunday that it had managed to obtain samples of bomb fragments "which hit Palestinians in clashes with the occupation forces, which proved after analysis that Israel makes use of depleted uranium and six radioactive substances that do not appear in international scientific tables and which have never been published in any scientific research in the world."

Since the fighting began, during which there were innumerable exchanges of fire between Gilo and Beit Jalla, the tranquil Christian village has become a ghost town. Many of the Christian residents have abandoned it, some have emigrated overseas, and all because the Fatah Tanzim have taken over the town.

A leaflet was circulated in Beit Jalla on Tuesday relating to the "inhuman deeds of some senior PA officials and national forces in the Beit Jalla area." The Itim news agency reported that the leaflet, which was unsigned, was very harsh about the acts of several senior PA officials "interested in expelling the Christians from Beit Jalla at any price in order to seize their homes, which they believe will be destroyed by Israel as a response to Palestinian shooting on Gilo."

Palestinian sources reported that in response to this anonymous leaflet, the PA forced several leaders of the Palestinian and Christian leadership of Beit Jalla and Bethlehem to publish a condemnation of it on the grounds that the leaflet was meant to "intensify the ethnic dispute between Christians and Moslems." They accused Israel of being behind the leaflet.

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This comes from new research into "Palestinian Culture and Society". The research director, Itamar Marcus, presents a number of official Palestinian film clips for children and discloses that despite its denials, the Palestinian Authority encourages its children in violent operations against Israel, and in return promises them the delights of heaven.

The official clip about a-Dura shows how immediately after his death, the boy went to heaven, a tranquil place with lots of green vegetation, fountains, beaches, and even a Ferris wheel. Little a-Dura, according to the clip, skips joyously in the sunlight, flying a kite, while in the background a song is playing: "How delightful the scent of the shahids, how delightful the scent of the earth, slaked by the flow of blood flowing from a fresh body."

Another clip mentioned by Marcus shows the famous handshake between Rabin and Arafat at the White House, and above it says "The promise of peace is over, the time for talk is over." In the clip, also intended for Palestinian children, and broadcast on the official Palestinian Authority television network, a boy and a girl can be seen. The boy throws aside the little car he was holding and picks up a stone, while the girls leaves her doll and also takes a stone in order to set out for the conflict.

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It is customary in the U.S. to hire former senior officials as consultants for financial groups.

The assumption is that their status canhelp business. Thus for example, Merrill-Lynch hired former Bank of Israel Governor Ya'akov Frenkel.

Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that Barak received the initial offer on Independence Day, at a social event where he met with the president of CitiBank in Israel.

Last week, Barak met with top bank executives in Israel.

The bank spokesman did not deny there were initial contacts but said nothing had been decided.

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Almost eight years ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yassir Arafat on the White House lawn, most people in Israel and abroad expected that Arafat would form a new Arab entity to restrain the violent Moslem movements known as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

That was the rationale behind what later became known as the Oslo Peace Process, wherein Israel was expected to cede land for a new Palestinian Arab entity, while Arafat's PLO was expected to fight Hamas/Islamic Jihad and other Arab terror groups that continued to threaten the lives of Jews in Israel.

Yet, from day one, the opposite has occurred: instead of cracking down on Hamas, Arafat has created an alliance with them. When I asked him about Hamas at his press conference in Oslo where he was about to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in December, 1994, Arafat answered, "Hamas are my brothers. I will handle them in my own way".

And when the PLO celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in January, 1995, Arafat delivered a series of lectures to his own people in Gaza and in Jericho, praising suicide bombers and refusing to condemn the spate of Hamas terror attacks which had taken place at the time Arafat's speeches of praise for Hamas were televised by the new Palestinian TV network, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, that is owned, controlled and operated by Arafat himself. Video cassettes of Arafat?s harangues became popular in the Palestinian Arab open market.

Arafat?s strategy was best summed up by U.S. Ambassador to Israel and presidential confidante Martin Indyk, who told the Los Angeles Times on March 1, 1996, that Arafat had decided to co-opt, rather than to fight, the Hamas. Arafat's co-option of the Hamas was not only in words but in deeds.

On May 9, 1995, our news agency dispatched a Palestinian correspondent to cover the Gaza press conference held by Arafat?s local Palestine Liberation army police chief Ghazzi Jabali, in which the representatives of Arafat?s Palestine Authority officially announced that they would license weapons for the Hamas - this, only one month after Hamas had carried out an attack on an Israeli civilian bus near Gaza, killing six young Israelis and one American student, Aliza Flatow. Two days after that attack, the Voice of Israel carried a news item that the PA would indeed licence weapons for the Hamas. That news item was soon changed from "license" to "confiscate".

At Jabali's packed press conference, carried live on PBC radio, Jabali announced that Hamas leaders such as Dr. Muhammed Zahar - who was present at the meeting - would be allowed and even encouraged to own weapons under the protection of the Palestine Authority. On the same day, our Palestinian TV crew filmed an armed Zahar, standing in front of a skull and crossbones imposed on a map of Israel, as he addressed an angry mob in Gaza and called for the bloody overthrow of the State of Israel. PA police chief Jabali would later assure the Associated Press on May 14, 1995 that he was expecting Hamas and Islamic Jihad to "keep their licensed weapons at home".

In late October, 1995, shortly before Prime Minister Rabin's assassination, I asked him at a public forum about Arafat?s decision to provide weapons to the Hamas. Rabin acknowledged that this practice existed and quipped, "Maybe they're for peace, too".

For the past six years both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have openly operated with weapons licensed by the P.A. Meanwhile all levels of Arafat?s miliary forces acknowledge that they have recruited radical Islamics to join forces with them.

Arafat?s alliance with Hamas was exposed when the semi-official Egyptian newspaper Al Aharam broke the story of the formal PLO-Hamas accord, signed between the two organizations on December 15, 1995, in Cairo. That accord allowed Hamas to carry out attacks in "areas of Palestine that had not yet been liberated". PLO General Secretary Marwan Bargouti, justifying a Hamas attack at a bus stop on the outskirts of Netanya, appeared on Saudi Arabia's MBC TV and explained that the PLO could not condemn such an act since the territory "was not yet liberated" by the PLO.

And on each occasion when Arafat was asked to "crack down" on these Islamic groups that took credit for fatal terror bombs against Israel, he ordered the mass roundups that resulted in mass confessions followed by mass release of prisoners.

In thirty-seven documented instances since 1994, the Palestine Authority has offered asylum to Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who murdered Israelis and took refuge in the new safe havens of Palestinian Arab cities that were protected by Arafat's armed forces.

Under pressure from Israel and Western countries, Arafat eventually did arrest twenty-two Hamas members who had been involved in bus bombings throughout Israel between 1994 and 1996 - all of whom were released at the latest round of riots that broke out in September, 2000.

A case in point. Muhammad Deif roams Gaza freely, armed and at liberty. Deif is the admitted Hamas mastermind of the October, 1994 kidnapping and killing of Nachshon Wachsman, the nineteen-year-old American Israeli. When I asked Arafat?s commander of the Palestine Liberation Army about Deif, he told me that he was under direct orders from Yassir Arafat not to touch Deif.

This, despite the fact that U.S. President Bill Clinton declared at Nachshon Wachsman?s grave in March, 1996, that Israel should not continue any negotiating process with Arafat and the Palestine Authority until and unless Arafat hands over Deif to stand trial.

Many close followers of the Middle East situation wrongly assume that the two entities - the PLO and the Hamas - are in conflict when, in fact, they closely coordinate every move under the administrative framework of the Palestinian National Authority, which represents the Palestinian state-in-the-making.

Our news agency has obtained a copy of the PNA-approved constitution of the new Palestinian state, jointly agreed upon by the PLO and the Hamas. That document, whose cover page thanks UNESCO and the Italian government for funding its law committee, declares that Islam will be the state religion of Palestine, that its borders will encompass all of Palestine - not just the west bank and Gaza - and that no other religion will have any status in the future Palestinian state.

And yet an unwritten rule seems to exist in the media - even in the Israeli press - to downplay any reportage of the PLO-Hamas alliance and their confluence of objectives.

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That was the rationale behind what later became known as the Oslo Peace Process, wherein Israel was expected to cede land for a new Palestinian Arab entity, while Arafat's PLO was expected to fight Hamas/Islamic Jihad and other Arab terror groups that continued to threaten the lives of Jews in Israel.

Yet, from day one, the opposite has occurred: instead of cracking down on Hamas, Arafat has created an alliance with them. When I asked him about Hamas at his press conference in Oslo where he was about to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in December, 1994, Arafat answered, "Hamas are my brothers. I will handle them in my own way".

And when the PLO celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in January, 1995, Arafat delivered a series of lectures to his own people in Gaza and in Jericho, praising suicide bombers and refusing to condemn the spate of Hamas terror attacks which had taken place at the time Arafat's speeches of praise for Hamas were televised by the new Palestinian TV network, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, that is owned, controlled and operated by Arafat himself. Video cassettes of Arafat?s harangues became popular in the Palestinian Arab open market.

Arafat's strategy was best summed up by U.S. Ambassador to Israel and presidential confidante Martin Indyk, who told the Los Angeles Times on March 1, 1996, that Arafat had decided to co-opt, rather than to fight, the Hamas. Arafat's co-option of the Hamas was not only in words but in deeds.

On May 9, 1995, our news agency dispatched a Palestinian correspondent to cover the Gaza press conference held by Arafat?s local Palestine Liberation army police chief Ghazzi Jabali, in which the representatives of Arafat?s Palestine Authority officially announced that they would license weapons for the Hamas - this, only one month after Hamas had carried out an attack on an Israeli civilian bus near Gaza, killing six young Israelis and one American student, Aliza Flatow. Two days after that attack, the Voice of Israel carried a news item that the PA would indeed licence weapons for the Hamas. That news item was soon changed from "license" to "confiscate".

At Jabali's packed press conference, carried live on PBC radio, Jabali announced that Hamas leaders such as Dr. Muhammed Zahar - who was present at the meeting - would be allowed and even encouraged to own weapons under the protection of the Palestine Authority. On the same day, our Palestinian TV crew filmed an armed Zahar, standing in front of a skull and crossbones imposed on a map of Israel, as he addressed an angry mob in Gaza and called for the bloody overthrow of the State of Israel. PA police chief Jabali would later assure the Associated Press on May 14, 1995 that he was expecting Hamas and Islamic Jihad to "keep their licensed weapons at home".

In late October, 1995, shortly before Prime Minister Rabin's assassination, I asked him at a public forum about Arafat?s decision to provide weapons to the Hamas. Rabin acknowledged that this practice existed and quipped, "Maybe they're for peace, too".

For the past six years both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have openly operated with weapons licensed by the P.A. Meanwhile all levels of Arafat?s miliary forces acknowledge that they have recruited radical Islamics to join forces with them.

Arafat?s alliance with Hamas was exposed when the semi-official Egyptian newspaper Al Aharam broke the story of the formal PLO-Hamas accord, signed between the two organizations on December 15, 1995, in Cairo. That accord allowed Hamas to carry out attacks in "areas of Palestine that had not yet been liberated". PLO General Secretary Marwan Bargouti, justifying a Hamas attack at a bus stop on the outskirts of Netanya, appeared on Saudi Arabia's MBC TV and explained that the PLO could not condemn such an act since the territory "was not yet liberated" by the PLO.

And on each occasion when Arafat was asked to "crack down" on these Islamic groups that took credit for fatal terror bombs against Israel, he ordered the mass roundups that resulted in mass confessions followed by mass release of prisoners.

In thirty-seven documented instances since 1994, the Palestine Authority has offered asylum to Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who murdered Israelis and took refuge in the new safe havens of Palestinian Arab cities that were protected by Arafat?s armed forces.

Under pressure from Israel and Western countries, Arafat eventually did arrest twenty-two Hamas members who had been involved in bus bombings throughout Israel between 1994 and 1996 - all of whom were released at the latest round of riots that broke out in September, 2000.

A case in point. Muhammad Deif roams Gaza freely, armed and at liberty. Deif is the admitted Hamas mastermind of the October, 1994 kidnapping and killing of Nachshon Wachsman, the nineteen-year-old American Israeli. When I asked Arafat's commander of the Palestine Liberation Army about Deif, he told me that he was under direct orders from Yassir Arafat not to touch Deif.

This, despite the fact that U.S. President Bill Clinton declared at Nachshon Wachsman's grave in March, 1996, that Israel should not continue any negotiating process with Arafat and the Palestine Authority until and unless Arafat hands over Deif to stand trial.

Many close followers of the Middle East situation wrongly assume that the two entities - the PLO and the Hamas - are in conflict when, in fact, they closely coordinate every move under the administrative framework of the Palestinian National Authority, which represents the Palestinian state-in-the-making.

Our news agency has obtained a copy of the PNA-approved constitution of the new Palestinian state, jointly agreed upon by the PLO and the Hamas. That document, whose cover page thanks UNESCO and the Italian government for funding its law committee, declares that Islam will be the state religion of Palestine, that its borders will encompass all of Palestine - not just the west bank and Gaza - and that no other religion will have any status in the future Palestinian state.

And yet an unwritten rule seems to exist in the media - even in the Israeli press - to downplay any reportage of the PLO-Hamas alliance and their confluence of objectives.

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