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22 November, 2000 ............................................................................................................................................................. Ha'aretz (and IMRA note on the importance of the white paper and its distribution): U.S. slams 'white paper' against PA By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz 22 November 2000 [IMRA note: A small number of copies of the 'white paper' were made available to the press. There is no indication on the document as to who produced it or that it is a government publication. The document was NOT distributed electronically by the regular channels of the government nor does it appear on the website of the Foreign Ministry or Prime Minister's Office. Yesterday IMRA asked the Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister's Office, Press Office and Nachman Shai's office to make available the Word file version of the document for distribution. IMRA learned that Danny Yatom of the Prime Minister's Office had the file. IMRA advised Yatom through the Prime Minister's Spokesman's Office that IMRA already had a hard copy of the report and was going to distribute it via Internet by the end of the day. IMRA asked that Yatom save it the expense of converting the document and provide the computer file. Two hours later the Prime Minister's Office replied that Yatom would not make the file available. Six hours after that IMRA distributed the complete text via Internet and placed it on the IMRA website www.imra.org.il. While the document certainly raises serious questions regarding the failure of the various Israeli Governments to come to grips with Palestinian violations, it also has the potential to seriously damage the US State Department for providing a series of false reports to the Senate regarding Palestinian compliance. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will certainly be interested in finding out how the U.S. Government lied to the Senate (the compliance reports were required by law).] ++++++ Senior U.S. officials yesterday sharply criticized a "white paper" released by the Israeli government on Monday, which contains a series of accusations against the Palestinian Authority and its chairman, Yasser Arafat. In private discussions with Israeli counterparts, the U.S. officials said that the document's main message is highly problematic. After perusing the White Paper, "it's hard to be persuaded that Israel remains interested in engaging the peace process with the Palestinians," they said.Meeting yesterday with U.S. businessman and peace activist Danny Abrams, Barak indicated that while it would be good to return to peace negotiations when Bill Clinton remains in the Oval Office, the current level of violence must first subside.
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