My question from the quote: "The meeting was reportedly arranged by Daniel Abraham, chairman of Slim-Fast Foods, who has good contacts with Barak, Arafat, and President Bill Clinton." Who is Daniel Abraham and how does this CEO fit - is he NWO? - Rick
http://x63.deja.com/=yahoo/getdoc.xp?AN=674099625&CONTEXT=970670191.2060058641&hitnum=0
Subject: Covenant Update
From: momofplato@aol.com ( Momma of Plato)
Date: 2000/09/26
Message-ID: <20000925203924.02700.00000194@ng-me1.aol.com>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.christian.last-days
[More Headers]
From Jerusalem Post:
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/09/26/News/News.12852.html
Tuesday, September 26 2000 01:58 26 Elul 5760
Barak, Arafat meet to 'clear the air'
By Herb Keinon and Lamia Lahoud
JERUSALEM (September 26) - Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat met in Barak's Kochav Yair home late last night, in what Israeli officials were calling an attempt to "clear the air" and "create a positive environment."
Although the two spoke briefly in the UN corridors UN earlier this month, this was their first working meeting since the Camp David talks broke down in July. An Israel Radio report at press time said the meeting was proceeding in a "very good" atmosphere.
US President Bill Clinton called during the meeting and spoke to both Barak and Arafat, Israel Radio reported. The two told Clinton they are determined to make every effort to reach an agreement.
The meeting came on the eve of high-level negotiations scheduled to begin in Washington today. The Israeli team will include Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and Gilad Sher, with the Palestinians represented by Saeb Erekat and Mohammed Dahlan.
Among the ideas the negotiating teams are expected to discuss is, reportedly, an American proposal that would place the Temple Mount under the supervision of the UN Security Council and some Arab states, like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Jordan, while giving custodianship to the Palestinians, a senior PA official said.
This is a variation on a proposal discussed for weeks: Transferring supervision over the Temple Mount to the five permanent members of the Security Council, who would then give custodianship to the Palestinians.
The Palestinians rejected that idea, saying that the site needs to come under full Palestinian or Islamic sovereignty, while Barak flatly rejected transferring sovereignty to either the Palestinians or an Islamic body. The new idea seems to bridge those two positions.
Palestinian officials said they do not know whether Arafat will agree to the new idea, adding that it will be easier for him to accept such a compromise if he gets Egypt's backing.
Arafat rejected the original Security Council proposal, a senior PA official explained, because "the Security Council is made up of Christian countries only, and two of Islam's most sacred mosques are located on the Haram
a-Sharif." Moslem countries like Saudi Arabia would not accept the idea, he added.
He said Arafat also rejected the idea because he considers it unfair that the arrangement would apply to Al-Aksa and the Dome of the Rock, but not to the Western Wall. If Israel would agree to place the Western Wall under UN
supervision, giving up Israel custodianship, Arafat might accept international sovereignty over the Temple Mount, the source added.
Arafat agreed to last night's meeting at the prodding of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Barak agreed after encouragement from Ben-Ami. Also attending were Ben-Ami, Sher, Transportation Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, National Security Adviser Danny Yatom, and former deputy General Security Service head Yisrael Hason.
Alongside Arafat were his deputy Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei, Erekat, and senior Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudaineh.
The meeting was reportedly arranged by Daniel Abraham, chairman of Slim-Fast Foods, who has good contacts with Barak, Arafat, and President Bill Clinton.
The Prime Minister's Office said the meeting was part of a series the two men held in the past and was intended as an exchange of ideas, not as the beginning of negotiations on any specific issue.
Palestinian sources said Arafat agreed to the meeting, which he first rejected as an attempt by Israel to win PR points, to explain to Barak why he is opposed to another idea gaining currency in official Israeli circles: A partial agreement whereby an accord would be signed, but Jerusalem, and possibly the refugee issue, would be dealt with later.
Palestinian officials have rejected this idea, saying they want a package deal on all issues, since they feel it is the only way to reach a compromise over Jerusalem. Only in a package deal, they claim, can both sides give on some
issues, while gaining on others. According to this argument, isolating Jerusalem will only lead to a deadlock.
A Palestinian official said before the meeting that Arafat wanted to explain to Barak that postponing the Jerusalem issue would create a "time bomb" and provoke religiously motivated violence that might lead to the collapse of the
entire process.
Barak, speaking to Mossad staff at a ceremony celebrating the upcoming new year, hinted earlier that he will not hesitate to consider "every idea" and, as was the case with the Lebanon withdrawal, will not hesitate to take what at first seem like unpopular positions.
"We at the leadership of the state intend to continue moving forward with consistency and determination, in the same directions, and to leave no stone unturned to determine whether it is possible to make peace with our neighbors, even when there is no assurance that it is indeed possible to conclude this with a peace agreement," he said.
The Likud last night criticized the Arafat-Barak meeting, calling it "superfluous and worthless." Likud reaction team chief MK Dan Naveh argued that "this is a meeting between a prime minister on his way out of office, who has lost the confidence of the Knesset, the public, and even members of his party, and any agreement that is signed with him cannot be honored."
Naveh's comments seemed to allude to a point made by MK Limor Livnat and Zalman Shoval, head of the Likud foreign affairs department, that a Likud government would not honor agreements reached by a prime minister who carries only a minority of MKs in his coalition.
David Franklin contributed to this report.
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