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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Lacelle who wrote (7651)	5/10/1999 5:49:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

John, as might be expected Clinton administration is preoccupied with "humanistic" high-profile mission in the Balkans that is clearly badly mishandled (also as might be expected) However Kosovo is utterly unimportant in this rapidly changing world....Little attention is paid to the dangerous changes that are about to occur in Russia (President Yeltsin is unlikely to live till election and more likely 1-3 months), Israeli-Palestian confrontation is perhaps weeks away and meltdown of the market buble is probably on the radar....Clinton would have a lot of legacy never mind Monica.. Israel's 24 hour deadline for PLO Palestinians in Jerusalem say they will resist closure Israel has given the Palestinian Liberation Organisation 24 hours to close its unofficial headquarters in Jerusalem, or it says, it will close them by force. The decision comes after negotiations on Monday afternoon failed to find a compromise. The Israeli Government has been warned by Palestinians and its own security officials the closure of Orient House by force could spark an outbreak of violence in the already tense city. The decision to close Orient House was taken "after all the necessary legal procedures, including a prolonged hearing with the Orient House representatives," said a statement from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office. The Israelis say the offices in Israeli-occupied East Jersusalem are being used for political purposes and are illegal. Lawyer for Orient House Jawad Boulos condemned the closure orders as illegitimate. "We refuse any effort to impose Israeli law on the activities of Orient House, which is legally governed only by accords between Israel and the PLO," he said. Threats and warnings On Sunday Israel's Internal Security Minister, Avigdor Kahalani, and the Palestinian representative in Jerusalem, Faisal Husseini, failed to find a solution when they met to discuss the impasse. The BBC's Paul Adams, reporting from Jerusalem, says that with Mr Netanyahu trailing in the polls for next week's elections, he clearly wants to project a tough image to voters on the issue of Jerusalem. A protest rally was being planned in front of Orient House by Palestinian groups for Tuesday evening. Palestinian officials have warned of a possible violent confrontation if the authorities try to enforce the closure of the offices. Faisal Husseini said "the security situation will be very, very dangerous". US advice Last week, a tense stand-off developed after hundreds of Palestinians staged a sit-in at the building to prevent any attempt by Israeli police to evict PLO officials. At the time, Israel said it would not move to close down the Palestinian offices until further negotiations had taken place, apparently on the advice of US Ambassador Edward Walker. Israel was offering a compromise whereby the PLO would transfer its international relations office and the office to monitor Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip to buildings outside Jerusalem. A third office, that of Faisal Husseini himself, could remain open, Mr Kahalani said, "as long as he respects the law". This appeared to be a warning about the PLO practice of receiving foreign dignitaries visiting Jerusalem at Orient House. No country or international body recognises Israel's sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem, whose east side it occupied in 1967. Some, like Europe Union countries, make a point of visiting Mr Husseini when they visit Jerusalem, despite strong Israeli objections. A delegation of Western diplomats visited Orient House shortly before Israel's deadline for closing the offices was due to expire. Conflicting demands Mr Netanyahu's government has frequently criticised the PLO presence in Jerusalem. He promised to close Orient House in his 1996 election manifesto and he has moved against other Palestinian institutions in the city since being elected. The government argues that Palestinians agreed in the Oslo Accords to refrain from political activity in Jerusalem until its status was settled in final status negotiations. Palestinians want East Jerusalem eventually to become the capital of a future Palestinian state. And they argue that the ban in Oslo applies to Yasser Arafat's self-rule Palestinian Authority not the PLO. news.bbc.co.uk