Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to send Israel $200 million in additional aid this year.

The president is seeking the money after rejecting an emergency spending package last month that included the aid. The package was rejected because of other programs it contained.

Bush also has called for an additional $50 million in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to be distributed through the United States Agency for International Development. The total spending package is estimated at close to $1 billion.

Palestinian official: Arafat caused 'chaos'

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Former Palestinian Authority Cabinet minister Nabil Amer published a letter Tuesday addressed to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, holding him responsible for the state of chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and accusing him of missing an opportunity to reach a deal at Camp David.

"Didn't we dance for joy at the failure of Camp David?" the letter asked rhetorically. "Didn't we throw dirt in the face of [U.S.] President Bill Clinton, who dared to propose a state with some amendments?

The letter was originally published in an Arab newspaper that appears in London. Yesterday, in a surprising move, the article was reprinted in the Palestinian Authority's mouthpiece, Al-Hayat al-Jadeedah, published in Ramallah, which has a very limited readership. Criticism of Arafat is forbidden in the Palestinian media.

Dead Sea to get water from Red Sea

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel and Jordan agreed to lay a pipeline to refill the Dead Sea.

Under the plan, agreed to Sunday at the U.N. conference on development in Johannesburg, water could be sent from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, which has been shrinking.

Funding for the plan, which could cost up to $1 billion, would come from the World Bank.

Israel shuts consulate in Alexandria, Egypt

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel closed its consulate in Alexandria, Egypt, citing budget constraints.

Israeli officials described the move as temporary, but some political sources warned that it could be misinterpreted by the Egyptian government, the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot reported.

Egypt recalled its ambassador from Israel shortly after the intifada began two years ago and never replaced him.

Jewish population growing more slowly

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- The country's Jewish population continued to grow at a slower pace than that of the Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities, according to the 53rd annual Central Bureau of Statistics abstract released Tuesday.

The Jewish population grew by only 1.4 percent in 2001, compared with 1.8 percent from 1997-2000, and 3.4 percent from 1990-1995.

The figure does not include immigrants arriving under the Law of Return, but classified as non-Jews. A 28 percent plunge in immigration last year, compared to 2000, was the main reason for the drop. Only 43,600 immigrants arrived, the least since 1989, before the massive wave of Russian immigrants. Meanwhile, some 20,000 people left the country for a prolonged stay.

Saudis intensify boycott of Israel

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- The Saudi government last week took a number of steps aimed at tightening its boycott of Israel, an English-language Saudi daily reported on Friday.

According to Arab News, Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf declared that customs officials at the kingdom's seaports, airports, and borders had been instructed to ensure that no "forbidden goods" make their way into the country. Any goods found to have passed through Israel will be immediately confiscated, the minister said.

Spinoza stamp takes a licking

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel will issue a stamp honoring Baruch Spinoza, the 17th-century Jewish thinker excommunicated as a heretic.

Considered by many to have been the "first modern Jew," but rejected in his time for his beliefs, Spinoza will have his likeness made part of the "Contribution of Jews to the Culture of the World" stamp series, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Some fervently Orthodox Jews view Spinoza as a traitor because he was an atheist who declared that the Bible was written by humans.

Militants kill teen 'collaborator'

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Palestinian militants shot a teenaged girl in the head on suspicion that she collaborated with Israel.

Rajah Ibrahim, 18, was the second woman killed this week by members of the Al-Aksa Brigade, a terrorist group affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, according to Israel Radio.

Ibrahim allegedly provided information that allowed Israeli troops to track down and kill the Al-Aksa Brigade's Tulkarm area commander in January. Palestinians have killed dozens of suspected "collaborators" in recent months.

New apple to hit for Rosh Hashanah

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Farmers are marketing a new variety of apple for the Rosh Hashanah holiday. The new apple, called the Gala, is native to New Zealand and has been specially grown in the north on an experimental farm.

Itim reported that the Gala -- which has been available in the United States -- is one of a new type of apples called "bicolored" because of their bright red and green colors.

New names that should be on the Israeli market soon are the Fuji and the Pink Lady.

They will be marketed in special packages under the label Havaya (Experience).

Vets sue grad student for massacre charges

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An Israeli graduate student who was sued for accusing Israeli soldiers of massacring Arabs during Israel's War of Independence received money from the Palestinian Liberation Organization during his trial.

The PLO's top official in Jerusalem, Faisal Husseini, provided $10,000 for the defense of Meretz Party activist Theodore Katz, who "revealed" in his University of Haifa master's thesis that members of the Alexandroni Brigade massacred up to 200 Arabs in the village of Tantura.

Brigade veterans sued, charging that the event never took place. Tapes of Katz's interviews with Tantura residents showed that their testimony did not support his accusations, and after numerous discrepancies were found in the work the thesis was ordered off library shelves.