MIDEAST REPORT

Three Israelis called billionaires by Forbes

JERUSALEM (JPS) - Three Israelis, including Bank Hapoalim majority shareholder Ted Arison, and the Israel Corporation's Sammy and Yuli Ofer, are among the world's "working rich" billionaires, according to the 1999 ranking by Forbes Global magazine. This year Forbes reported that the total worth of the top 200 billionaires topped $1 trillion.

The Ofer brothers are listed with $1.9 billion in assets. Arison's fortune is put at $5.6 billion. His son Micky also is on the list, as an American billionaire whose net worth is $5 billion from his Carnival Cruise Lines and Miami Heat basketball team.

Among the prominent Jews on the list are the Bronfmans, Edgar with $4.3 billion and Charles with $3.7 billion; Ronald Perelman, whose net worth dropped to $4.2 billion; Leonard A. and Ronald S. Lauder with $4.4 billion each; George Soros, with $4 billion; and Edmund Safra, with $2.5 billion.

Other Mideast billionairesinclude: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's fortune is listed at $6 billion, while the Syrian president Hafez Assad has a mere $2 billion. The former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, is listed among the "working rich" with $4 billion. There were three billionaires from Turkey, but none from Jordan or Egypt.

Signs point to new Israel and Syria talks

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Published comments by the leaders of Israel and Syria are giving political observers new evidence that peace negotiations between the two countries are poised to resume.

Syrian President Hafez Assad and Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak made favorable comments about each other in separate interviews published in the London-based, Arab-language newspaper Al Hayat.

In his first public comments on Israel's new leadership, Assad described Barak as "strong and honest."

"As the election results show, he obviously has wide support, and it is clear that he wants to achieve peace with Syria," Assad added in the interview.

For his part, Barak said of Assad, "his legacy is a strong, independent, self-confident Syria."

Netanyahu expects $60,000 per lecture

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Outgoing Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has retained a U.S.-based company to represent him on the lecture circuit.

The Washington Speakers Bureau did not state what Netanyahu would earn for each speech, but the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot estimated he will command $60,000 per lecture. In one speech, "The Role of Leadership in the Modern State," Netanyahu plans to discuss how to deal with solitude.

Netanyahu reportedly offered Golan to Syria

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially agreed in secret talks with Syria to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the Israeli-Syrian border that existed prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, according to an article in last week's issue of The New Republic magazine.

Syria agreed in turn to a single 6-mile demilitarized zone and to an international monitoring station on the Golan, Middle East specialist Daniel Pipes reported, citing "several sources with firsthand knowledge" of the 1998 talks. Netanyahu, who denied the report, ultimately balked at signing the accord after his defense and foreign ministers refused to endorse the agreement.

Christians finally get key to Holy Sepulcher

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- For the first time since 1289, Christians are to hold the key to an entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, one of the holiest sites in Christianity.

The key will unlock an exit, which will be opened to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims expected in Jerusalem's Old City during the year 2000.

Following the conquest of Jerusalem by Salah a-Din in 1178, all the doors but one were sealed and the key entrusted to the Moslem Nusseibeh family, which holds it to this day.

Representatives of the churches decided that the exit would be in the direction of St. Helena's Church, belonging to the Ethiopian Church, and that the keys to the new entry would be held by the churches themselves and no one else.

Israel faces severe water crisis

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel is facing a water crisis that officials describe as worse than that experienced during the 1990-1991 drought, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz said in an editorial Sunday. "For the first time, there is an imminent threat to the supply of drinking water, which is liable to be realized as early as next year," the newspaper said, adding that the shortage also will have a "severe effect" on the ecology of Israel.