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New era of peace
By Matthew Dorf — Moments after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein signed a declaration ending the 46-year state of war between their two countries, the leaders stepped off the stage on the South Lawn of the White House to greet a handful of guests at the ceremony. Indicative of the new era of peace, Rabin pulled Steve Grossman, president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, close to his side and introduced Hussein to the Jewish lobby's leader. "In my wildest imagination I never imagined 1, as president of AIPAC, would be introduced to the King of Jordan by the prime minister of Israel with the president of the United States watching," Grossman said later, still beaming from the encounter. Although Monday's White House ceremonies lacked the drama of the signing of the declaration of principles between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization ten months ago, the public meeting was deemed a significant breakthrough by most Jewish leaders. "This is a different kind of enthusiasm," Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said after the White House ceremonies, echoing the sentiment expressed by many Jewish leaders in town for the ceremonies surrounding the summit. "People were very moved, but this coming together is less dramatic and more substantive," Hoenlein said. SHINGTON (JTA)
Rabin and Hussein signed what they termed the "Washington Declaration," pledging to settle all disputes peacefully. Although what they signed was shy of a full peace treaty, both leaders said full normalized relations are only months away. . The White House ceremonies under a sweltering Washington sun-splashed summer day also lacked the careful choreography of the Rabin meeting with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at the same site last September. Senior White House officials reportedly rehearsed the Rabin- Arafat handshake, carefully planning where the participants would stand, and giving the media the best possible vantage point for the historic moment. In sharp contrast this week, a White House aide scurried to lay name cards on the podium only minutes before President Clinton, Hussein and Rabin took the stage in a Rose Garden introduction ceremony. "The two leaders shook hands the moment they took to the stage in the Rose Garden. And Rabin, in his introductory remarks, said he anxiously awaits the day when greeting Hussein becomes so routine that "no one will want to take pictures of us shaking hands." The only minor glitch in the production came when Jordanian officials protested the plan to fly the Jordanian flag behind the Israeli flag, hoisted in alphabetical order, according to an official involved in planning the ceremony this week. Members of the Jordanian delegation reportedly reminded administration officials of the country's
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official name, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The order was reversed and a Marine band played the Jordanian national anthem before Israel's Hatikvah. The signed document strikes at the heart of what has proven to be one of the thorniest issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict: the question of Jerusalem. The agreement affords Jordan "high priority" and pledges respect in maintaining Jordan's "historic role" in administering Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. The declaration also giiarantees Hussein a role in final- status negotiations for Israel's capital scheduled to begin within two years from now. Officials hero have confirmed that Israeli negotiators insisted on adding the language concerning Jerusalem late last week following emotionally charged remarks by Arafat. Arafat, with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher at his side at a news conference in Gaza, lambasted the Israeli government for inviting Hussein to pray in Jerusalem. "They have no right to issue any invitations," Arafat said. "It is my duty and my responsibility tr> invite my brothers and friends to come visit the holy Muslim and Christian sites, which arc under Palestinian jurisdiction." Jordan has administered control of the Al Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock through its Religious Affairs Ministry since Israel captured Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. Hussein has spent over $8 million of his personal wealth to fund the restoration of the sites. Israel gave him photos detailing the progress of the work.
British Jews react with outrage to bombing London Jewish Chronicle LONDON (JTA) — British Jewry's leadership has reacted with outrage to Tuesday's bombing of the Israeli Embassy here, the latest attack against Jewish targets around the world. The explosion, which left 13 people injured, came eight days after a bomb tore through the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing close to 100 people, and six days after a bomb killed 21 people, including 12 Jews, on board a Panamanian plane. One leading British Jewish organization said this week that it had warned the police and the government that Muslim fundamentalists opposed to the Middle East peace process were likely to use London as a target. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said in a Statement, "We warned the police and the Home Office that this could happen.
But they did nothing to crack down on the extremists, and this is the result." After the explosion in Buenos Aires last week, the Board of Deputies requested that London police set up extra security measures at Jewish communal buildings in London, particularly those housing the board and the country's chief rabbi. As part of their request, they sought police restrictions on parking near Jewish communal buildings. The police did not immediately act upon the request, but after Tuesday's bombing they indicated that parking would be blocked off near Jewish communal sites. In both the Buenos Aires and this incident, the explosion was caused by car bombs parked near the targeted buildings. In this week's explosion, a welldressed middle-aged woman described by police as being of Middle East appearance, was seen leaving a cur shortly before the bomb exploded at around noon.
The explosion ripped through the consular offices which front a different street than the heavily guarded one fronting the main building. Some 30 pounds of explosives were used in the attack, which caused most of the consular building to collapse. The blast was said to be so powerful that witnesses half-a- mile away reported seeing debris shoot up hundreds of feet in the air. Windows in nearby buildings were shattered, including those in nearby Kensington Palace, home of Princess Diana. "It was such a huge, huge explosion. Parts of the building just collapsed," said Rachel Gordon, who works in the embassy's press office. It was perhaps just a matter of luck that there were no fatalities in Tuesday's bombing, which occurred when many embassy staffers were out of the building for lunch. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building at the lime of the explosion.
American Jews reach out to beleaguered Argentinians ^B By Susan Birnbaum N^ YORK 26 (JTA) — Among many American Jews who flew down to Buenos Aires last week to express solidarity and offer immediate help to the Jewish community were the leaders of B'nai B'rith and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Each group promised assistance to the community, which was devastated by the July 18 terrorist bombing of the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires that killed close to 100 people. And in Los Angeles, the Simon Wiesenthal Center responded to the anguish of local Jews from Argentina by sstabtishing a liaison ofTice with the Argentine authorities and Jewish community and providing daily updates of the casualty list.
B'nai B'rith organized a soup kitchen for the rescue workers at the bomb site. JDC Executive Vice President Michael Schneider, who went to Buenos Aires lost Friday with JDC's Latin America director, Alberto Bendery, said the bombing had only compounded already existing economic problems in Argentina. "Even before the blast, the community was in need because of the economic crisis in the country, which did severe damage to the middle classes. People were dropping out of schools, clubs, all these things, because they could not pay the feea," he said. Among the help JDC would be providing would be financial, "until the community gets back on its feet," Schneider said.
"The profcssional.s at the different institutions have begun to work out n short-term crisis plan as to how to manage the community's immediate needs, and JDC has joined this effort," he said. "We want to sit down and find out what are the community's immediate cash needs," he said. JDC might "subsidize some programs for some time until they get on their feet. JDC will sec how it can best bo of assistance, possibly to the fomilies of the victims," he said. Schneider said the JDC was also loaning its consultants in Argentina to the Jewish community, to fill joba that had been held by personnel killed in the bonnhing. "Wo may also have to finance additional trauma counseling for relatives of victims and for those who help children."