Israel laments Mideast politics crept into millennium bug meeting

Wednesday, June 23, 1999

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/06/23/international0323EDT0478.DTL

(06-23) 00:23 PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Israel's U.N. ambassador says Mideast politics have crept into the second global conference on the Year 2000 computer bug.

Regional groups were scheduled to meet Monday in advance of the conference to discuss problems and solutions, but the meeting for Middle East and North African countries never took place because Arab countries wouldn't sit down with Israeli delegates.

Instead, Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold told the conference Tuesday that Arab countries held their own meeting.

``The Y2K problem should break down boundaries and barriers, and not create them,'' he said. ``Israel is prepared to share its expertise with its neighbors, rather than engage in political exchanges that do nothing to advance the interests of our region.''

Pakistan's U.N. Ambassador Ahmad Kamal, who chairs the U.N. working group dealing with Y2K problems, said the regional groups were defined as countries with ``shared problems.''

In this case, he said, Morocco, which chaired the Middle East and North African region, decided it ``did not have shared problems with Israel.''

Israeli diplomat Ronnie Adam, who sat for four hours waiting for the meeting to begin, said Syria's U.N. ambassador spoke to the representative from Cyprus, who left, and no Arab delegates entered.

``We were very frustrated. We were very discouraged,'' she said, adding that the World Bank had placed Israel in the regional grouping of the Middle East and North Africa.

``Y2K is a problem with no borders,'' she added.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 23, 1999

Answers

Sheesh!

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 23, 1999.

See also...

United Nations Contingency Planning Meeting Articles, Etc.--June 1999

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000zDG

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 23, 1999.

I bet the last thing the Arabs would take would be help from Isreal. Does anyone know when Isreal is going to have that national y2k day?

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), June 23, 1999.

That's partly why I think we're in for more problems that *some* of us think we are... the Politics of Y2K... again.

Computers don't care who's elected. Or not.

Diane

And...

Global Y2K Experts: It's not over till it's over

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000zRE

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 23, 1999.