NINE AM HEADINES

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The reliance of Yasser Arafat on the Egyptian interpretation of the Arab summit and the state of talks with the United States/Israel (see also Thursday night update) shows clearly that Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are closely coordinating their positions (and not Egypt working as an independent facilitator between Israel and the PA, as some have believed).

It indicates, too, that while the Egyptians may be maintaining a continued hard line on the Jerusalem and the refugee issues, they are also coaching Arafat to signal some kind of flexibility and willingness to continue towards agreement: his positive response to a question about hope for achieving an agreement. In other words, be tough substantively while appearing moderate for media consumption.

At the beginning of its Friday morning news( comments by narrator at 7:04), VOP gave unusually favorable coverage to Ariel Sharon's courting of the Israeli Arab sector, particularly his remarks that he "respected the Palestinian struggle." Although this was not repeated in subsequent broadcasts, it marks a sea change from the treatment Sharon used to receive at the hands of VOP-i.e. "the extremist Ariel Sharon" or "the leader of the extremist Right."

The use of martial music or strongly militant patriotic songs has returned to VOP after the end of the Festival of the Feast ending Ramadan, and the harsh anti-Israeli tone is seen in occasional use of the terms "zionist enemy", "the enemy" and "the Jews" on regular VOP broadcasts, including a Friday morning call-in show with quiz questions for children (Friday, 11:00-11:40 a.m.)

Friday
Morning Headlines--7 am/ 8am:

NINE AM HEADINES

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VOP featured comments by Saeb Erikat that Yasser Arafat had demanded of President Bill Clinton, during their Washington talks, to push Israel to stop its attacks on the Palestinians, especially the policy of assassinations and economic closures.

Erikat, the PA Home Rule Minister and a senior negotiator, also said that the Palestinian people clung to its legitimate rights first of which were the right of return and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem its capital.

Erikat said he did not believe an agreement was possible, and he cited a variety of assruances and guarantees that the PA demanded of Israel.

In its Saturday night broadcast, VOP said it was expected President Clinton would announce a decision within the next two days on how to continue with the peace process.

VOP featured the greetings of Saddam Hussein to the Palestinian people-comments he made during an anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi army. VOP noted that it was Hussein's third public appearance in a week, following reports from the Iraqi opposition that Hussein was seriously ill.

Both on Saturday and Friday, VOP gave strong coverage to opinion polls in Israel which show Barak trailing badly.

SATURDAY
Morning Headlines-JANUARY 6: (7:00 AM/8:00 AM)

*"The martyring of Arid Sabr al Jabali, 19 years old, in Hebron, from occupation forces' artillery shelling, and in Gaza, the martyring Muhammad Abu Hassirer, 35 years old… 70 people were wounded;

SATURDAY
Evening Headlines-9:00 pm:

Quotes from Saturday Morning Interview with Saeb Erikat:

"It is understood that there is Palestinian commitment to the peace process based on international legitimacy, resolutions 242, 338 and 194. President Arafat stressed these foundations (in talks with Clinton)….We are for a continuation of the peace process, but a return to the peace process cannot come without reliance on international legitimacy-that means a return based on #242, #338 and #194, the return of Israel to borders of June 4, 1967, including holy Jerusalem, and a solution of the refugee problem based on resolution #194. We expect now for the American Administration to respond in a complete way with a response (also) to these matters from Israel, and its (Israel's) readiness to execute resolutions of international legitimacy. And what are the obligations of Israel to execute these international commitments and what are the international assurances for the execution of these matters according to international legitimacy. My belief is that it is very difficult to get to agreement in these matters.

These are fateful matters: Jerusalem, the borders, the refugees, the prisoners,… and these matters require details. They require complete clarity. These matters require detailed maps. And general talk without detail , only about principles, that's completely unacceptable to us."

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This is in marked contrast to the news/commentary formula in use over the last three months: graphic reporting of martyrs, wounded, Israeli atrocities and calls for international intervention voiced by Arafat's top ministers and advisors.

There are probably several reasons for the switch in tone and formula:

*-Lack of any significant diplomatic developments in the last few days;

There may also be a reticence on the part of Arafat's ministers to "carry the ball" for him in explaining his position to the Palestinian audience. That is perhaps why ministers/negotiators such as Saeb Erikat and Yasser Abd-Rabbo have been offering declarative positions that lack operative details, while ministers outside the actual talks, such as Nabil Sha'ath and PA Speaker Ahmad Qreia (Abu Ala) as well as PLO Executive Secretary Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) have staked out hard-line ideological stands or preferred not to be quoted prominently.

VOP quoted Arafat during his Oman (Muscat) trip, referring to remarks of Egyptian president Husni Mubarak that the question of Jerusalem was not just of importance to the Palestinians but also to all Arabs, Muslims and Christians-a sign that the Egyptians were supporting the firm Palestinian position on sovereignty over all of East Jerusalem, not just parts of it.

Despite speculation in the Israeli press concerning Clinton's desire to convene an international conference on the Palestinian-Israeli talks in the last days of his Administration, VOP is reporting (though not as its lead item) that Clinton will issue a presidential statement instead.

VOP gave great prominence to the statements of Ra'id Salah, the Mayor of Um al-Fahem in Israel, and the leader of the extreme northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel (SEE
Quote of the Day). Mayor Salah, who has spearheaded the Islamic building programs on the Temple Mount, warned of Jewish extremists who would try to destroy Islamic holy places, particularly a plot to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

THIS USE OF THE EXTREMELY INCENDIARY ISLAMIC CHARGES ABOUT PLOTS TO DESTROY THE AL AQSA MOSQUE-AS WELL AS THE PROMINENT ATTENTION GIVEN TO SADDAM HUSSEIN'S CALLS TO CONTINUE TO CONFRONT ISRAEL MILITARILY DO NOT BESPEAK ANY ATTEMPT ON THE PART OF THE PA TO DAMPEN VIOLENCE.

MUHAMMAD DAHLAN AND THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Gaza Security chief Muhammad Dahlan, said in an interview that if Israel hoped to return the security situation to what it was before September 28, it was, in effect trying "to dream the impossible dream."

(SEE INTERVIEW BELOW)

SUNDAY
Morning Headlines-JAN. 7 7:00 AM/8:00 AM

Quote of the Day

"The leader of the Islamic movement inside the Green Line and the Mayor of Um al-Fahem (Ra'id Salah) warned of dangers from Israeli sources to introduce archtectural pressures that would threaten the foundations of the Al Aqsa Mosque….He said there were 25 Jewish groups specializing in operations to destroy the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, from among 120 Jewish groups that strive to return the alleged Temple to the place of Al Aqsa." (Morning news report, January 7, 7:35 AM)

Quotes from Morning Interview with Muhammad Dahlan, PA Gaza Security Chief :

Question: "There's a meeting of Palestinian and Israeli security officials today in Cairo…who called for the meeting?"

Answer: "First of all, Israel always says the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people-they are the ones who besiege Tel Aviv and who use violence against the Israeli people, and, first of all, that's not true. The aggression is being aimed against the Palestinian people or three months. They have used a variety of (military)means against us, not skipping even one means of aggression against our Palestinian people-children, women, old men and even trees and rocks, and even attacking helpless animals….Well, according to President Clinton's statement in Sharm al-Sheikh, the Israelis are required first of all to lift the siege on the Palestinian people, on the villages and the cities, the roads and the international terminals. And the (Palestinian) Authority has other obligations. But since that date, Israel has only increased its siege, increased its violence, increased the assassinations and policy of aggression against the Palestinian people.

The purpose of these meetings is to carry out what President Clinton, but if Israel thinks the purpose of going to Cairo, under the cover of this siege, is to impose the conditions of Israel, then it is mistaken.

We have an agenda. We have demands-many demands, and they have to carry out their obligations to the Palestinian Authority."

Question: "There are some who think the purpose of the meeting is to return to the situation that existed on September 28?"

Answer: "If the Israeli translation of such an expression is to return to what existed before, then that's an unobtainable dream."

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It was clear from the Abu-Irdeineh comments and an interview with Ahmad Qreia (and yesterday's interview with Muhammad Dahlan) that the PA has already computed the Clinton ideas as something from which Israel cannot retreat, but it is not standing pat or congratulating itself on the achievement of Presidential recognition-in a formal speech-of the need to establish an independent Palestinian state.

Strangely, the PA is not building on a Clinton statement as a jumping off point for talks with Israel but rather for negotiating with the Bush Administration for a new and improved set of American proposals.

Palestinian officials are already hinting to the Palestinian audience, however, that these ideas will not be immediately accepted because are not likely to fulfill completely Palestinian demands which still include total withdrawal from the West Bank, total sovereignty over East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the homes "from which they were expelled in 1948."

Earlier,VOP returned Monday to its Intifada-formula coverage: less attention to Arafat and more attention to Israeli atrocities, with an emphasis on Israeli war crimes and plots to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

In a somewhat unusual move, VOP devoted part of its morning news round-up to reading a commentary from WAFA (Wikalat al-Anba al-Filistiniyya), the PLO news agency which excoriated Israel's policy of premeditated murdered combined with indiscriminate mayhem. The commentary said the Israelis appeared to be interested in killing anything that was Palestinian, including trees (echoing remarks yesterday of Muhammad Dahlan, and earlier of other officials).

"As in the past, the Israeli army will apologize or premeditated killing and indiscriminate killing, and as in the past, the Israeli government will apologize, and as in the past, the Israeli masses will apologize to the Palestinian people or all this crazy killing and all this destruction," the WAFA commentary said. The commentary compared Israel's policies to those of the Nazis.

Also, Monday afternoon, VOP gave detailed coverage to a press conference by the Jerusalem Mufti, Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry, warning that digging by rabbis was undermining the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as terrorist acts by Jews, including what a VOP narrator called "the provocative march by extremist Jews" on Monday evening around Old Jerusalem.

Quote of the Day

"The Al Aqsa Mosque is for Muslims only. The land on which the mosque is built is Islamic property (Arabic: Waqf). Its upper part and its underside are also Islamic property." (Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry in 2:15 pm afternoon interview, reading part of Fatwa, or religious edit, concerning the Al Aqsa Mosque)

Morning Headlines 7:00 AM/8:00 AM:

(Note: This Israeli report was prepared by the far-Left organization, Keshev)

MONDAY
Afternoon Headlines 2:00 PM/3:00 PM:

Quotes from Interview with Ahmad Qreia, PA Speaker of Legislature :

Question: "The one operative thing one understands from President Clinton's speech is the dispatch of special envoy Dennis Ross. What do you think can come of this step?"

Answer: "There is nothing new in what President Clinton has set out to do. As for Mr. Dennis Ross he has always failed in his visits….He has always showed preference for the Israeli side, and the expectations from this visit do not differ from his earlier visits."

Question: "Clinton's speech talks about a Palestinian state and a capital in east Jerusalem. That's in east Jerusalem but not all East Jerusalem."

Answer: "He is still saying that the Jewish neighborhoods will be for Israel, and the Palestinian neighborhoods will be for the Palestinians. That's the heart of the complications: where are the roads, where do you go out, where do you go in, where do you up and down and where's the bridge….And where do you put the police? These are complications (whose solutions) no one can see. I cannot see an agreement in the shortest possible would be three or four months, a year, with patience, two years for any final agreement.

A Palestinian state would be first of all a Palestinian state because it's our decision and not as just one of many items in an agreement. So it is with East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine because it is part of the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967, and it has to return in its entirety to the Palestinians. …"

Question: "It is clear from his commentary on his ideas that the return of the refugees is to the Palestinian state and there's no talk of a return to the lands from which they were expelled….Can we say that these thoughts are enough for us? Or do we finalize these thoughts with the new Administration?"

Answer: "My opinion for more than a year that we cannot reach an agreement in such a short time. Not in ten days. Not in a month. After Camp David, we immediately knew the Israeli position. And the American position which leaned on the Israeli position….I said it was too soon to reach an agreement with this American Administration, although it was the only intermediary in this (peace) process. But the prejudice (i.e. pro-Israeli tendency or tilting) was clear. At Camp David, the American Administration-and the president-- presented us with an initiative which …was the Israeli position that we opposed. I don't see any change in what was presented in Camp David and the most recent ideas except certain attempts at certain linguistic twists only….

On land they spoke about 95 percent and they spoke about 90 percent, and they said 91 percent before Camp David before they put it down (on the table) at Camp David. They spoke of settlements, of settlement belts….They spoke of Jewish neighborhoods to Israel…As for refugees, their position was perhaps more favorable before Camp David than after Camp David…But when the American president speaks of the right of return to a Palestinian state, that's not for us (i.e. we don't accept it). And there's no chance whatsoever, absolutely, to build a Palestinian agreement on he who wants to return to a Palestinian state. That's a sovereign Palestinian decision. Law of return. Law of Immigration. That will decide who will enter and who will not enter. The Right of return is Palestinian legitimacy, not for any other party….No one else in the world. Not the United States. Not Israel. There will be no one else participating on the agreement on the subject of the return to the lands of a Palestinian state. We are talking about the return of the refugees to their homes from which they were expelled by force of arms."

Quotes from Interview with Jerusalem Mufti, Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry:

The Al Aqsa Mosque is for Muslims only. The land on which the mosque is built is Islamic property (Arabic: Waqf). Its upper part and its underside are also Islamic property.

We sense that there is an ugly attack, a vicious attack, aimed at the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque on the part of Israeli politicians and the rabbis of the Jews. They talk and explain as if the matter is in their hands. As if they own this Al Aqsa. We say they have no right to talk about this matter, because they have no ownership. … Israel is an occupying authority in Jerusalem, and by what right do they talk about Al Aqsa?

We refuse all these statements, all these proposals, the American and the Israeli….In practice, the excavations (under and around Al Aqsa) continue, and we have said in tens of statements our refusal to the excavations surrounding Al Aqsa….And the martyrings in 1996 were because of the excavations. We are against these excavations."

(Note: 1996 is a reference to the opening of a very old Hasmonean tunnel which had been filled with refuse. The opening touched off rioting and shooting in which at least 15 Israelis and 50 Palestinians were killed.)

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