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Jerusalem to Send New Ambassador to Washington

In other news from the Middle East, the Israeli government announced on Wednesday the appointment of Sallai Meridor as Israel`s next ambassador to the United States of America. Meridor, 51, is a former director of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a position he held for six years before stepping down last year. Meridor has been over the years an outspoken advocate of Jewish settlement in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip, which Israel evacuated with much international attention last fall.

Meridor supported last year`s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in office, and he has expressed his willingness to accept territorial compromise with the Palestinians in the West Bank, pending a peace agreement and a commitment to non-violence and terrorism by the Palestinians. The Hamas terrorist group, which currently holds a majority in the Palestinian Authority parliament, rejects disarmament and Israel`s right to exist.

Dan Meridor, brother of the new ambassador, is a senior figure in the opposition Likud Party (headed by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu) in the Israeli parliament - known as the Knesset - and is himself a former cabinet minister. Meridor will replace Danny Ayalon, a former senior advisor to the bed-ridden Ariel Sharon. Ayalon is concluding a four-year term as ambassador in Washington, and Meridor will replace him in January.