The Israeli Cabinet, where it was approved by only eight ( that's less than half, folks ) of the 17 Cabinet ministers, with four opposed, added some new conditions to the Wye accords. Even with these new conditions, five ministers, all members of the ( Netanyahu's ) Likud Party, refrained from casting a vote. The accord has wide bipartisan support in the main body ( the Knesset ). The land for peace surrender accord, now includes some conditions beneficial to Israel's interests, some obvious and some implied. It now seems much more like a comprise and not a complete sell out. Hopefully, adding these conditions to the accord, will make it much less surrender-like to the hard liners!

First, the Cabinet vowed to annex parts of the West Bank, if Arafat carries out a plan to declare a Palestinian State on May 4, the end of the five-year autonomy period from the original Oslo accord. I like it! Arafat seemed to ignore it, but Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, " We will not accept any post-agreement negotiations. '' Too bad, sucker; after Hamas and the Islamic Jihad stepped up cowardly terrorist attacks designed to derail the peace process, Israel is now negotiating from a position of strength!

Another condition was that the clauses of the PLO founding charter that call for Israel's destruction could only be revoked by a formal vote of the PNC. The Palestinians have maintained that their April 1996 voice vote was sufficient, but the Israelis know just how ' good ' the word of these arabs actually is. Through half-hearted protests, Arafat agreed saying, " If it is necessary, we will do it ". It is necessary, man!

Lastly, just to make sure the Palestinians understand that this is ' no more mister nice guy ', Israel announced the construction of homes in Har Homa, in what the Palestinians call ' arab ' east Jerusalem. The Palestinians went ballistic in March 1997 when Israel began to clear this building site and they whined about it again this time. They pleaded that the United States should intervene. I got news for you pal, Jerusalem is not going to be the future capital of any Palestinian state, but possibly for Israel!

The first stage of the Israeli withdrawl ( 2 of 12 percent ) was supposed to start Monday, but obviously will be delayed a few days, until the Wye accord is finally accepted by a parlimentary vote. If the Palestinians pull any more terrorist tricks, this may be delayed even longer; so they better live up to their ' crack down on militants ' part of the agreement!

As Israelis brace for possible attacks by Iraq, if ( or more likely when ) the US and it's allies move against Saddam, they make preparations to increase their presence in Jerusalem. Netanyahu may find a good place in the Israeli history books, yet!

- Bongo ( Capitalize this... )