Gleanings on Global News at the Time of the End

“Israel and the Middle East”

By Robert Mock MD

Isaiah 2:3 - And many peoples shall go and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the L-rd, to the house of the G-d of Jacob; He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of Hashem from Jerusalem.

Topics

The Sanhedrin and the New Nassi

Archeological and Historical News

Sabbatean Jews and Globalist Israel

Globalist Jews Attack on the Chief Rabbis

The Jews and The Land

Gaza Disengagement – Giving up the Land

Palestinian State, Terrorists and the Enemies of Israel

Lebanon and Israel

International Security Threats Against Israel

The Liberation of Jerusalem – June 5, 1967

Israel in International Sports

The Sanhedrin and the New Nassi

Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz Elected to Head Sanhedrin – June 7, 2005

The current format of the Sanhedrin is an attempt to renew the historic Sanhedrin, Judaism's highest legal-religious tribunal during Holy Temple times. The 71-man assembly convened in one of the Holy Temple chambers, and existed from several decades before the Common Era until roughly 425 C.E. The renewed body was launched last year in Tiberias, now convenes in Jerusalem, and is still struggling to gain wide acceptance and legitimacy in the Torah world.

As parades filled the streets of Jerusalem Monday - Jerusalem Day - the reestablished Sanhedrin convened in the city to elect a Nassi and representatives to lead it.

Since its launching last October in Tiberias, where it last convened 1,600 years ago, it has met in Jerusalem on a monthly basis. In addition, various committees have met more often to discuss issues such as determining the exact location of the Holy Temple, the establishment of courts of non-Jews who accept the Seven Laws of Noah, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to uproot the Jewish communities of Gaza and northern Samaria, and many more.

Semicha - original rabbinic ordination as handed down from Moses - was reintroduced by the Sanhedrin recently when hundreds of Israel's greatest rabbis agreed on the worthiness of a particular rabbi to receive it. The committee who oversaw the process made every effort to fulfill the Jewish legal requirements as outlined by Maimonides, as closely as possible.

Leading Sephardic and Ashkenazic spiritual leaders Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv also agreed that this rabbi was "fitting to serve." That rabbi eventually backed down from serving as Nassi of the Sanhedrin due to pressure from a leading Hassidic rabbi, but not before granting semicha to Rabbi Dov Levanoni. At the age of 83, he is above the age limit to head the Sanhedrin. He therefore accepted the semikha only in order to ordain one who is fitting to renew the Sanhedrin. It is he who ordained Rabbi Tzvi Idan, and Rabbi Idan, as its first temporary Nassi, ordained the members of the Sanhedrin in Tiberias on October 13, 2004.

Since the current Sanhedrin's launch, it has been in a transitional stage as it gathered support and sought to rebuild the institution in accordance with Jewish law. A temporary Nassi had been appointed, but the mandated period came to an end, and so it was decided at the court's last meeting that as the Sanhedrin moves into its next stage, it must become autonomous from the original founding committee and elect permanent officials. Rabbi Even-Israel Steinzaltz was chosen as Nassi. Due to concerns that external pressure would be brought to bear upon individuals not to take part in the establishment of a Sanhedrin, the names of most participants have been withheld up to this point, upon the request of the Sanhedrin's spokesmen. The court of 71 rabbis has now decided to select of a group of seven individuals within the Sanhedrin to represent the institution in dealings with the public and with Gedolei Yisrael - recognized spiritual leaders of Israel.

Arutz-7's Ezra HaLevi was at Monday's Sanhedrin meeting, where it was decided to release the names for purposes of transparency as well. It was concluded that the Sanhedrin has become strong enough for its members to be able to withstand criticism, particularly of the "what makes you think you are worthy of sitting on it?" nature. In that vein, it is hoped that the release of the seven names will encourage those who believe that their own rabbis or teachers can contribute to the endeavor, to propose that they also be included in the supreme judicial body. A minimum quorum of 23 Sanhedrin members is necessary for a vote to take place.
At Monday's meeting, those present chose seven names from a list of nominees to represent the Sanhedrin to the Jewish world and to spiritual leaders.

Rabbi Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz) received the most votes of confidence in his ability to lead the Sanhedrin through the next stage of its development. The six others who were chosen by the Sanhedrin were:

Rabbi Nachman Kahane - Rabbi of the Young Israel of Jerusalem's Old City and head of the Institute for Talmudic Commentaries, which is involved in the study of the Temple rituals and ceremonies, as well as cataloging of all known kohanim (priests) in Israel. He is the brother of murdered JDL leader and ex-Knesset Member Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel - a former Yeshiva head and founder of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, which has produced many of the vessels to be used in the Third Temple. He was one of the paratroopers who took part in the 1967 liberation of the Temple Mount.

Rabbi Yoel Shwartz - Founder and rabbi of the "Nachal Hareidi" IDF unit specifically designed to enable the hareidi-religious public to join the IDF. He is a teacher at Yeshivat Dvar Yerushalayim and author of approximately 200 books on Jewish law and theology, including influential guides for gentiles seeking to serve G-d and observe the Seven Laws of Noah.

Rabbi Dov Stein - A pioneer in the Sanhedrin's renewal for the last 20 years, he has been secretary of the Sanhedrin since its inception, dealing with logistical aspects as well as interacting with recognized Torah scholars and inviting rabbis to join the body. He manages the beith-din.com web site.

Rabbi Yehuda Edri - A prime initiator of the re-establishment of the Sanhedrin, an accomplished author and leader of the Movement for the Rebuilding of the Temple.

Rabbi Dov Levanoni - An elder Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and expert on the Holy Temple.

Rabbi Steinsaltz was reluctant to accept the position of Nassi, saying there are much wiser and more capable people among the group and among the Jewish people. "The purpose of the Sanhedrin is to bring unity to the nation," Steinsaltz said, as he emphasized the unique ability of Jerusalem to bring the Jewish people together. "The fact that he is not chasing after the honor of the position is exactly what makes him the best one for the job," another Sanhedrin member told those present. "We are not offering honor, though," said Rabbi Yisrael Ariel. "We are offering the ability to fulfill a mitzvah (Divine commandment) that for 2,000 years was unavailable." Steinsaltz then said that the position of Nassi was not something that could simply be accepted on the spot, hinting that it was only fitting for the head of the Sanhedrin to shun the title repeatedly until coerced. "If someone is supposed to refuse three times when asked to lead public prayers, then how much more should he be reluctant to take the mantle of Nassi," Steinsaltz said.

Rabbi Steinsaltz is regarded as one of the world's leading scholars and rabbis. He holds a degree in mathematics from the Hebrew University, in addition to his extensive Torah study. At the age of 23, he became Israel's youngest high school principal and went on to found the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications. He has published 58 books to date on the Talmud, Jewish mysticism, religious thought, sociology, historical biography, and philosophy. These books have been translated into Russian, English, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, and Dutch. His commentary on Pirkei Avot, "Ethics of the Fathers," was translated into Chinese and published in 1996. Rabbi Steinsaltz is best known for his interpretation and basic commentary of the Babylonian Talmud, a 30-volume task he began some 25 years ago. In Israel, Rabbi Steinsaltz is the Dean of the "Mekor Chaim" network of schools, which encompasses kindergarten through high school. In 1988, Rabbi Steinsaltz received the Israel Prize, the country's highest cultural honor. Rabbi Steinsaltz is also very involved in the future of the Jews in the former Soviet Union, having set up various educational institution for Jews still living there. He still travels there once a month.

Newsweek magazine said of the Nassi-elect: "Jewish lore is filled with tales of formidable rabbis. Probably none living today can compare in genius and influence to Adin Steinsaltz, whose extraordinary gifts as scholar, teacher, scientist, writer, mystic and social critic have attracted disciples from all factions of Israeli society." Also present at the meeting on Monday, though not seated in the 71-seat semi-circular row of chairs, was famed archaeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones. He is working with the Sanhedrin to establish a system of courts for non-Jews adhering to the Seven Laws of Noah, which the Torah obligates all of humanity to follow. One of those laws is to establish courts of justice. A high court has been established by the Sanhedrin for such purposes, and a subsidiary of that court will soon be established in the United States as well.

Among the many topics the Sanhedrin intends to address are the bridging of the divisions between various communities of Jewish exiles who have returned to Israel; the establishment of authentic techelet, the biblical blue thread Jews are commanded to wear amongst the fringes attached to four-cornered garments; the definition of the measurement of the "ammah" (the biblical cubit); the determination of the exact point of human death, so as to deal with the Jewish ethics of euthanasia; and the issue of agunot - women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce.Those currently sitting on the Sanhedrin stress that they have all assumed their seats on condition that they give them up to anyone greater in wisdom who joins. Those interested in becoming involved with the Sanhedrin should contact the Sanhedrin secretariat at: 02-566-1962 (972-2-566-1962 from outside Israel).

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz Elected to Head Sanhedrin – June 7, 2005

In a gathering less publicized than the Jerusalem Day Parade, another historic event happened in the Holy City yesterday. The reestablished Sanhedrin convened in Jerusalem to choose a Nassi (leader). The court of 71 rabbis decided to select of a group of seven individuals within the Sanhedrin to represent the institution in dealings with the public and with Gedolei Yisrael, recognized spiritual leaders of Israel.

The Sanhedrin was reestablished last October in Tiberias, the place of its last meeting 1,600 years ago. Since then, it has met in Jerusalem on a monthly basis, various committees meeting more often to discuss issues ranging from determining the exact location of the Holy Temple, to the establishment of courts of non-Jews who accept the Seven Laws of Noah and to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to uproot the Jewish communities of Gaza and northern Samaria.

Rabbi Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz) received the most votes of confidence in his ability to lead the Sanhedrin through the next stage of its development. Rabbi Steinsaltz is regarded as one of the world's leading scholars and rabbis. Newsweek magazine said of the Nassi-elect: "Jewish lore is filled with tales of formidable rabbis. Probably none living today can compare in genius and influence to Adin Steinsaltz, whose extraordinary gifts as scholar, teacher, scientist, writer, mystic and social critic have attracted disciples from all factions of Israeli society."

Rabbi Steinsaltz was reluctant to accept the position of Nassi, saying there are much wiser and more capable people among the group and among the Jewish people. "The purpose of the Sanhedrin is to bring unity to the nation." Steinsaltz said, speaking about the unique nature of Jerusalem to bring the Jewish people together. Another Sanhedrin member said, "The fact that he is not chasing after the honor of the position is exactly what makes him the best one for the job."

Those currently sitting on the Sanhedrin stress that each one of them assumed their seats on condition that they be prepared to give them up to anyone greater in wisdom who joins. Though the secular world pays little if any attention to the re- establishment of the Sanhedrin, it is of major importance from a biblical and prophetic perspective.

Tabbi Steinsaltz is a prolific writer and his books are available on Amazon.com. For anyone interested, I can readily recommend "Simple Words - Thinking About What Really Matters in Life", "A Guide to Jewish Prayer", "On Being Free", and "Tshuvah - A Guide for the Newly Observant Jew." His writings are clear, easily understood and very practical in their outlook.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz – June 6, 2005

Institute of Jewish Studies - Born in 1937 to a secular family, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is internationally regarded as one of the leading scholars and rabbis of this century. According to Newsweek: Jewish lore is filled with tales of formidable rabbis. Probably none living today can compare in genius and influence to Adin Steinsaltz, whose extraordinary gifts as scholar, teacher, scientist, writer, mystic and social critic have attracted disciples from all factions of Israeli society.

Rabbi Steinsaltz's formal education includes a degree in mathematics from the Hebrew University, in addition to his rabbinic studies. At the age of 23, he became Israel's youngest high school principal. Rabbi Steinsaltz then went on to found the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications. Under its aegis, he has published to date 58 books on the Talmud, Jewish mysticism, religious thought, sociology, historical biography, and philosophy. These books have been translated into Russian, English, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, and Dutch.

His commentary on Pirkei Avot, the Chapters of the Fathers, was translated into Chinese and published in 1996. Deeply involved in the future of the Jews in the former Soviet Union, Rabbi Steinsaltz serves as the region's Duchovny Ravin, an historic Russian title which indicates that he is the spiritual mentor of Russian Jewry. In this capacity, Rabbi Steinsaltz travels to Russia and the Republics once each month from his home in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Steinsaltz is best known for his interpretation, commentaries, and translations of the Babylonian Talmud, a monumental task which he began some 25 years ago. Thirty volumes of Rabbi Steinsaltz's Hebrew edition of the Talmud have been published; two million books are in print. The Rabbi expects to complete the project over the next decade, with a total of 42 volumes in Hebrew.Fifteen volumes of the Rabbi's Talmudic translation and commentaries have been translated into English and published by Random House, to great critical acclaim. Two volumes will appear in Fall, 1997, with additional volumes to be published yearly until the initial set of 21 volumes is completed.

The first two volumes of a new edition of the Talmud have also been published in Russian, under the sponsorship of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This is an historic event: the first Russian Talmud ever produced. In addition, the first four volumes of the French translation have also been published. Rabbi Steinsaltz's other pioneering efforts in Russia include the founding of the Jewish University of Moscow and the Jewish University of St. Petersburg. These educational centers provide Hebrew language instruction and classes on Jewish life, history, and philosophy to thousands of Russian Jews each year. The Jewish University is the first degree-granting institution of Jewish studies ever established in the former Soviet Union. He has also established a publishing house in Moscow and Lamed, the national Jewish teachers' organization of the former Soviet Union.

In Israel, Rabbi Steinsaltz is the Dean of the Mekor Chaim of Jerusalem network of schools, which encompasses kindergarten through high school. In 1988, Rabbi Steinsaltz received the Israel Prize, the country's highest honor. He has been a resident scholar at major academic institutions in Europe and the United States, among them Yale University and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1991, Rabbi Steinsaltz served as Senior Scholar at a Xerox Dialogue at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. Last year, he received the French Order of Arts and Letters; he has also been nominated to become a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Rabbi Steinsaltz's activities in the United States are supported by the Aleph Society (Aleph Society, 25 West 45th Street, New York, New York 10036), headquartered in New York City.

New 'Sanhedrin' plans rebuilding of Temple Israeli rabbinical body calls for architectural blueprint – June 8, 2005
WorldNetDaily - The Israeli rabbinical council involved with re-establishing the Sanhedrin, is calling upon all groups involved in Temple Mount research to prepare detailed architectural plans for the reconstruction of the Jewish Holy Temple. The Sanhedrin was a 71-man assembly of rabbis that convened adjacent to the Holy Temple before its destruction in 70 AD and outside Jerusalem until about 400 AD.

The move followed the election earlier this week of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz as temporary president of a group aspiring to become Judaism's highest-ranking legal-religious tribunal. However, although Steinsaltz's involvement with the endeavor adds important rabbinic legitimacy, other major halachic authorities, including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the leading haredi Ashkenazi spiritual leader, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the premier Sephardi halachic opinion, have refused repeated requests to offer their support.

Nevertheless, the group will establish a forum of architects and engineers to begin plans for rebuilding the Temple – a move fraught with religious and political volatility. The group, which calls itself the Sanhedrin, is calling on the Jewish people to contribute toward the acquisition of materials for the purpose of rebuilding the Temple – including the gathering and preparation of prefabricated, disassembled portions to be stored and ready for rapid assembly, "in the manner of King David."

Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the burgeoning Sanhedrin, said in an official statement that because of "concerns that external pressure would be brought to bear upon individuals not to take part in the establishment of a Sanhedrin, the names of most participants have been withheld up to this point." "The increasingly anti-Jewish decisions handed down by the Supreme Court prove the need for an alternative legal system based on Jewish sources," said Weiss. "More and more people, including Torah scholars, are beginning to understand this."

In addition to the election of Steinsaltz, the rabbis present also chose a seven-man committee, headed by him, to campaign for the acceptance of the idea of a Sanhedrin. Those chosen include Rabbi Nachman Kahane, brother of murdered Jewish Defense League and Kach leader Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane is the rabbi of the Young Israel of Jerusalem's Old City and heads an organized study of Temple rituals and ceremonies, as well as cataloging all known kohanim (priests) in Israel.

Others on the committee are Rabbi Dov Levanoni, an 83-year-old Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and expert on the Holy Temple; Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem; and Rabbi Yoel Shwartz, founder and rabbi of the "Nahal Haredi" Israeli Defense Forces unit specifically designed to enable the haredi public to join the IDF, and teacher at Yeshivat Dvar Yerushalayim who has authored about 200 books on a wide variety of subjects in Jewish law and theology.

Steinsaltz is best known for his translation and commentary on the Talmud, but he has also served as resident scholar at Princeton and Yale Universities. He heads a network of Israeli educational institutions called Mekor Chaim and outreach programs in the U.S., the former Soviet Union, Great Britain and Australia. He is also a past recipient of the Israel Prize. The Sanhedrin was reestablished last October in Tiberias, the place of its last meeting 1,600 years ago. Since then, it has met in Jerusalem on a monthly basis.

Archeological and Historical News

After 2,000 Years, a Seed From Ancient Judea Sprouts - June 12, 2005

JERUSALEM, June 11 – Israel National News - Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed nearly 2,000 years old.

The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by their own hand, rather than surrender to a Roman assault. The point is to find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders. "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree," says Psalm 92. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing."

Well, we'll see. Dr. Sarah Sallon, who runs a project on medicinal plants of the Middle East, notes that the date palm in ancient times symbolized the tree of life. But Dr. Elaine Solowey, who germinated the seed and is growing it in quarantine, says plants grown from ancient seeds "usually keel over and die soon," having used most of their nutrients in remaining alive. The plant is now 11.8 inches tall and has produced seven leaves, one of which was removed for DNA testing. Radiocarbon dating in Switzerland on a snip of the seed showed it to be 1,990 years old, plus or minus 50 years. So the date seed dates from 35 B.C. to A.D. 65, just before the famed Roman siege. Three date seeds were taken from Level 34 of the Masada dig. They were found in a storeroom, and are presumably from dates eaten by the defenders, Dr. Sallon says.

Mordechai Kislef, director of botanical archeology at Bar-Ilan University, had some date seeds from Ehud Netzer, who excavated Masada in the 1970's. "They were sitting in a drawer, and when I asked for one, he said, 'You're mad,' but finally gave me three," Dr. Sallon said. "Then I gave them to Elaine, who's an expert on arid agriculture and dates." Dr. Solowey said: "Well, I didn't have much hope that any would come up, but you know how Sarah is." Dr. Sallon, who is a pediatric gastroenterologist trained at University College, London, came to Israel 20 years ago. She is the director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization, which she set up 10 years ago to study natural products and therapies, from Tibetan and Chinese medicine to the indigenous medicinal plants of the Middle East. The idea is to preserve these plants and their oral histories in a modernizing region, but also to domesticate them, evaluate them scientifically and then try to integrate them into conventional medicine.

Dr. Solowey, who teaches agriculture and sustainable farming at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, based at Kibbutz Ketura in the southern Negev, works on finding new crops for arid and saline areas like Jordan, Gaza and Morocco. She also works with Dr. Sallon to domesticate indigenous plants that appear to have medicinal uses. Dr. Solowey grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in California and studied horticulture, then turned away from commercial agriculture in disgust, coming here in 1971. "I don't come to organic agriculture from the hippie side, but as a frustrated agricultural scientist," she said. "We've bred for yield and taste, but not hardiness, so we have a lot of plants as hardy as French poodles, so we have to spray to protect them, and then we pay the price," she said. "There isn't a cubic centimeter of water in the San Joaquin Valley that isn't polluted with something."

She planted the date seeds at the end of January after trying to draw them out of their deep dormancy. She first soaked the seeds in hot water to soften the coat, then in an acid rich in hormones, then in an enzymatic fertilizer made of seaweed and other nutrients. "I've done other recalcitrant seeds," she said. "It wasn't a project with a high priority. I had no idea if the food in the seed was still good, but I put them in new pots in new potting soil and plugged them into drip irrigation and kind of forgot about them." About six weeks later, she said, "I saw the earth cracked in a pot and much to my astonishment, one of these came up." The first two leaves looked odd, she said, very flat and pale. "But the third looked like a date leaf with lines, and every one since has looked more and more normal - like it had a hard time getting out of the seed."

Lotus seeds of about 1,200 years of age have been sprouted in China, and after the Nazis bombed London's Natural History Museum in World War II and a lot of water was used to put out the fire, seeds of 500 years of age also germinated. "But no one had done it from 2,000 years old," Dr. Sallon said.

In the time of Pliny, forests of date palms covered the area from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea and made Jericho famous; a date palm features on ancient coinage, as it does on the current Israeli 10-shekel coin.

The date palm symbolized ancient Israel; the honey of "the land of milk and honey" came from the date. It is praised as a tonic to increase longevity, as a laxative, as a cure for infections and as an aphrodisiac, Dr. Sallon said. But the dates of Judea were destroyed before the Middle Ages, and what dates Israel grows now were imported in the 1950's and 60's from California and originated elsewhere in the Middle East. The Prophet Muhammad considered the date of great importance for medicine, food, construction and income, and it is described in the Koran as a "symbol of goodness" associated with heaven. Dates need to grow 30 years to reach maturity and can live as long as 200 years. But it is the female date that is considered holy, and that bears fruit. "Men are rather superfluous in the date industry," Dr. Sallon said. "O.K, I have a date plant," Dr. Solowey said. "If it lives, it will be years before we eat any dates. And that's if it's female. There's a 50-50 chance. And if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."

Hundreds of Jewish worshippers escorted by the IDF entered the city of Shechem, east of Raanana, to pray at the tomb of the biblical Joseph (son of Jacob) Wednesday night - June 3, 2005

Israel National News - Hyman took part in the visit and will be reporting on it during his weekly program on IsraelNationalRadio.com. Hyman’s “The Activist Hour” broadcasts Sundays at 5 PM Israel time, 10 AM New York time and is archived for a week. Although Shechem was handed over to Arab military control under the Oslo Accords, the agreements maintained the right of Jewish access to Joseph’s Tomb. The Od Yosef Chai yeshiva was housed at the tomb until the outbreak of the Oslo War, when it was overrun by local Arabs who set it on fire and smashed the shrine to rubble as Israelis watched on television.

Hyman reports that the destruction to the Jewish holy site was extensive and deliberate: “We were standing in a pile of rubble and soot. The actual grave of Joseph looked like someone had had a go at it with a pick axe. Last time I was there, five years ago, it was all built up, and Rabbi Hillel Lieberman [murdered by Arab terrorists shortly after Joseph’s Tomb was overrun –ed.] was showing us around.” “It was an overwhelming shock to see it now,” Hyman said. “But I thought to myself, ‘it is not what the Arabs have done there that is so outrageous - it is that we allowed them to do it and are considering handing Shechem over to them once again.’ I mean you let a bull loose in a china shop and he’ll break the china.”

The visit, which lasted several hours, filled the ancient burial plot with intense prayer and song. “It felt very much like the first time I went on the Temple Mount,” Hyman said. “The destruction and desecration overwhelm you, and it is hard to tune in to the place itself. I hope not to have to experience it that way a second time - that it will be rebuilt.” The prayers focused on seeking Heavenly intervention to thwart the government’s plan to expel the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria from their homes and hand them over to the Palestinian Authority. According to Hyman, the IDF personnel present seemed quite pleased with the visit. “Most of the soldiers were wearing kippot,” Hyman said. “High ranking religious officers were also there – some of whom came into the main room to pray.”

New Olive Press Seeks Revival of "Jewish Labor" in Israel - May 31, 2005

Israel National News - A new olive press in the hills of Samaria seeks to revive Jewish labor (Avoda Ivrit) and agriculture while producing some of Israel’s finest olive oil.

The biblical term for an olive press is a Beit Bad. Yigal Naveh of Meshek Achiya (Achiya Farm) spoke with Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz & Yishai Fleisher about the origins of the term, as well as how he and his friends seek to return to the Biblical roots of Israelite olive pressing - and make a living in the process.

You can listen to the interview on Israel National Radio.

“In ancient days," Naveh said, "a large piece of wood, called a bad, was used to press down on baskets filled with olives to produce oil." Meshek Achiya’s oil press, however, is a modern facility, built in the community of Achiya, between Eli and Shilo, north of Jerusalem. “It was built by Ronit and Yossi Shuker,” Naveh recalled, with a tinge of sadness. “Almost five years ago, Yossi was injured in the Beit Bad he built and has been in a coma since then. He fell into one of the machines and was seriously injured.”

About a year ago, young people from the neighboring town of Eli decided to continue Yossi’s dream, picking up where he left off. They started a company, creating a partnership with investors from Israel and the United States. They called the company Eretz Zeit Shemen, a reference to Deuteronomy 8:8-9 (“A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; A land where you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack anything in it…”). “We started to rebuild the whole place, which had fallen into disrepair,” Naveh said. “It is now the only Jewish olive press in Judea and Samaria.” Aside from being the only olive press in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza), Meshek Achiya is one of only 20 Jewish-owned presses out of the 100 across Israel. “We also grow 300 dunams (75 acres) of olive groves,” Naveh said, “and have managed to produce five times as much olive oil each year as adjacent Arab-owned trees, due to our supplying the trees with water and compost.”

Another standard which Meshek Achiya upholds is that of “cold pressing” the olives. “Cold press is the issue in olive oil,” he said. “When you take vegetables and make them into a soup, you kill most of the vitamins. So even though I can raise the temperature on the olives and get more and more oil, we are committed to not doing that.” Naveh said that almost all other olive presses use various methods to raise the temperature above the acceptable 35 degrees Centigrade, but “we truly don’t.”

Meshek Achiya also adheres to the various aspects of Jewish law that govern agriculture performed by Jews in the Land of Israel. This includes letting the land lay unworked every seventh year, called shemittah. But the greatest aspect of the endeavor, in the eyes of Naveh and his partners, is the return to Jewish agriculture in the Biblical heartland. “The best part of it is giving young Jewish people work within Judea and Samaria,” he said. “Most people have to drive to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and our aim is to create agriculture here in Yesha. The settlement of the land is only the beginning. We were able to build houses, but now we must create jobs here. Going back to working the land is a much higher level of settling the land than merely living here.” Naveh invited the public to visit the olive press during olive season, “between the holidays of Sukkot and Chanukah." The number for the visitors' center, as well as for home-delivered orders (within Israel), is 1-800-242-999.

Sabbatean Jews and Globalist Israel

Pope Benedictus XVI to meet Jewish leaders in the Vatican - June 6, 2005

Haaretz - In the new pontiff's first meeting with heads of international Jewish organizations since he was elected two months ago, Pope Benedictus XVI will hold talks with the president of the World Jewish Congress, billionaire Edgar Bronfman, and other senior representatives of Jewish organizations in the Vatican on Thursday. Bronfman will be accompanied by a large delegation of representatives of the United States' three main Jewish denominations as well as senior members of large Jewish organizations.

The focus of the meeting will be a new joint initiative established by the Jewish Congress and the Holy See for the struggle against AIDS in Africa. The participants will also ask the pope to give his patronage to a series of interfaith meetings between Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders. In the first part of the meeting, Benedictus will meet with Bronfman and the chairman of the Congress, Israel Singer, with whom he is acquainted from previous meetings. This part of the meeting will involve planning joint projects by the Congress and the Holy See, including an aid program for the needy in South America. A number of ranking Jewish leaders, including Rabbi David Rosen from the American Jewish Committee, former Israeli ambassador to the Vatican Shmuel Hadas, director general of the Chief Rabbinate Oded Wiener and leaders from the three largest American Jewish denominations, orthodox, reform and conservative, will then join the meeting.

In the second part of the meeting the pope will be presented with a new initiative in the struggle against AIDS in Africa, which sources from the Jewish Congress say seeks to take the struggle "up a notch" from previous projects. The Congress attaches great importance to the fact that, as a Jewish organization, they also take part in projects to benefit humanity in general, as opposed to restricting themselves to "Jewish" topics only, such as the battle against anti-Semitism. The involvement of the Congress in the project will manifest itself primarily through administrative means, although it is possible that the Congress will also participate in its funding.

In the third portion of the meeting, the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation will present the pope with its activities. Singer, chairman of the Congress, will request the pope's patronage in establishing meetings between Jewish and Muslim religious leaders. Israel's ambassador to the Vatican, Oded Ben-Hur, noted that this is the first time that the pope is privately receiving a delegation of senior members of international Jewish organizations. He said that the meeting is "an additional step in the construction of relations being formed between the Vatican and Israel and the Jewish nation." The delegation of Jewish representatives will land in Rome Wednesday and is to be hosted at a festive meal in the Vatican. Cardinal Casper, in charge of the Holy See's relations with Judaism, and additional cardinals are set to take part in the meal. Ben-Hur noted that since the pope's election, Benedictus XVI has made encouraging and positive comments regarding maintaining the positive policy towards Israel and the Jewish nation that prevailed during the papacy of his predecessor, John Paul II.

Israel Court Rules Withdrawal Plan Constitutional – June 9, 2005

JERUSALEM (Fox News) — Israel's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan is constitutional, removing the last legal obstacle to this summer's watershed pullout. Also Thursday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was meeting militant groups in Gaza to try to resolve domestic political disputes and keep a shaky truce with Israel alive. Israel and the Palestinians are trying to keep the cease-fire intact to allow them to coordinate the Gaza pullout, scheduled to begin in mid-August.

The 11-judge Supreme Court rejected 12 petitions by opponents of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements, ruling the pullout does not violate the settlers' human rights. In their 320-page ruling, the judges upheld four technical challenges dealing with financial compensation for settlers to be evicted, but stressed that the withdrawal itself is constitutional. One judge dissented, arguing that a law governing the pullout is unsound and should be repealed. Yoram Sheftel, an attorney for the settlers, said his expectations were low because the Supreme Court has a tendency of backing the government against Jewish settlers. Since Sharon already has won parliamentary approval for the withdrawal, the court decision exhausted the settlers' legal options for halting the withdrawal. The plan would uproot 9,000 settlers from their homes.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni praised the court's decision, and expressed hope the ruling would defuse potentially violent settler resistance to the evacuation.

In recent weeks, opponents of the plan have blocked rush-hour traffic on major highways and sabotaged public buildings. Security officials have warned that a small number of hard-liners will likely resist the pullout by force. "I hope this ruling makes it absolutely clear to the individual settler that the plan is going ahead," Livni told Army Radio. The ruling comes as opinion polls show that the public's support for the plan — which was initially around 70 percent — is dropping. Recent polls show support for the plan at around 50 percent.

Despite the judgment, Gaza settler leader Avnr Shimoni said he still hoped that public opinion would l derail the plan. "The polls show that the public is opposed," he told Army Radio. "In the end this is what will pressure our parliament to decide against this." Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to coordinate the Gaza pullout to prevent violence or chaos during the operation. But the two sides have made little concrete progress. Late Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef held talks in what was described as a "positive atmosphere." They agreed to step up cooperation ahead of the withdrawal, officials said.

But Palestinian Cabinet Minister Mohammed Dahlan, a top official in charge of preparing for the withdrawal, said Israeli coordination efforts have been poor. He accused Israel of failing to turn over key information about the settlements and failing to address Palestinian concerns about movement in and out of Gaza after the pullout. "We are in a race against time. The Israelis are wasting this opportunity," Dahlan told journalists in the West Bank. A new round of violence has increased Israeli fears that the cease-fire could collapse and militants will fire on settlers and security forces during the evacuation.

Abbas arrived in Gaza on Wednesday night against a background of violence — an Israeli air strike on a mortar launcher and empty vehicle; and rocket fire at Israeli targets by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. On Tuesday, six people were killed in a series of clashes. Abbas hoped to shore up the truce during his visit. He also was seeking to resolve an election dispute with Hamas. Abbas recently postponed legislative elections, angering the Islamic group. Israel has said it would like to reopen peace talks after the Gaza pullout, but is demanding that Abbas crack down on militants before returning to the negotiating table. In Gaza, an explosion rocked a refugee camp Thursday, witnesses said. There were no reports of injuries. The Israeli army said the blast appeared to have been an accident.

Ante Pavelic, the Frankists and the Jewish Extermination during the Independence of the State of Croatia – The Promised Land
Barry Chamish - The Party of Right was doomed to remain on the fringe of Croatian national politics within the Empire. But it was an attractive ideology when it was discovered by a young lawyer from Bradina, a small village in present-day Bosnia-Hercegovina, named Ante Pavelic. Ante Pavelic rose through the ranks of the Party of Right after the incorporation of Croatia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later to be renamed Yugoslavia. He led the far right-wing of what was already a right-wing party - the "Frankist" faction, so named after Josip Frank, a singularly intolerant man despite his ethnic background as an assimilated Jew.

On January 6, 1929, King Alexander Karadjordjevic declared his personal dictatorship. Among those who sought refuge abroad was Ante Pavelic. After drifting rather aimlessly through Vienna, he established a relationship with Ivan "Vancia" Mihailov's faction of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), a terrorist organization founded more than thirty years before aimed at establishing Bulgarian hegemony in Macedonia. It is believed that Mihailov recommended Pavelic to Italian duce Benito Mussolini, who soon became patron, providing funds and training at a camp near Siena to what Pavelic christened his ustase.

From the beginning, Pavelic had quite naturally adopted Starcevic and Frank's ideology for his own movement. As with the Italian Fascists, the Ustase was at its origins xenophobic, and author Stella Alexander's description of some articles in the Croatian Catholic press from this time as "unpleasantly anti-Semitic but in a traditional, pre-Hitlerian way" fits the Ustase as well. Ante Pavelic's own wife, Mara Lovrencic, came from a family of assimilated Viennese Jews, and his chief aide in exile, Dido Kvaternik, was related to Josip Frank. Nevertheless, the movement became both overtly and violently anti-Semitic when the center of gravity for the militant right shifted from Rome to Berlin and Hitler's Nazi Party.

Four days later, Slavko Kvaternik - Dido Kvaternik's father and the elder statesman of the Ustase movement - declared the Independent State of Croatia in the name of the poglavnik (a Croatian equivalent of duce or fuehrer) Ante Pavelic. Consolidated by Italian and German troops, Pavelic established himself in Zagreb and immediately unleashed a column of fire on the Serbian population. Aspiring to form an ethnically pure paradise out of a state in which Croats were, in fact, a minority, he was advised by Hitler not to show too much pity. "If the Croat state wishes to be strong," he told his pupil, "a fifty year policy of intolerance must be pursued, because too much tolerance on such issues can only do harm."

Within weeks, Pavelic's bloodiest henchman, Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburic, began laying the groundwork for Jasenovac, the largest concentration camp in Southern Europe. Peasant Party leader Vladko Macek, who had originally welcomed the Ustase's formation of the Independent State of Croatia, found himself among the first internees at Jasenovac and watched as Croatia's Jewish population along with untold numbers of Serbs, Roma, and political dissidents passed through the gates on their way to extermination. Macek was later released to serve under house arrest.

All told, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has estimated that at least 30,000 Jews (75% of the pre-war population), 29,000 Roma (97%) and 600,000 Serbs - or about one-third of the pre-war population - were murdered in the four years of the Independent State of Croatia's existence. Yet there was no equivalent of Nuremburg for the Ustase.

Pavelic made his way from Austria to Italy, where he and many other high-ranking Ustase sought shelter in the Monastery of San Girolamo degli Illrici under the protection of a former Ustase official and priest, Father Krunoslav Draganovic. Agents at American Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) tracked Pavelic's movements and prepared for his arrest before they were, inexplicably at the time, ordered to cease and desist by their superiors. It is clear from reading their reports today, particularly those written by the only surviving member of the Rome CIC team, William Gowen, that the Americans had taken over what was termed the "Ratline" (after the highest point on a mast where sailors would seek shelter on a sinking ship) from the Vatican. Draganovic became a precious American asset and most of the Ustase who made it as far as Italy were able to escape to South America, Spain and, in Artukovic's case, to the United States. In one of his final reports before being transferred from the Rome branch of the CIC, Gowen wrote that "Pavelic's contacts are so high and his present position is so compromising to the Vatican, that any extradition of Subject would deal a staggering blow to the Roman Catholic Church."

There you have it. Frankist anti-Jews took control of Croatia and slaughtered 75% of the country's Jews. But not only were the Jews murdered, they were robbed at death by Pavelic and his thugs, of at least $100 million in cash, gold, jewels and valuables. There are people trying to recover the loot.

Link

The Pavelic Papers

The Vatican Bank Claims
From the Ratline to the Firing Line

An Especially Bad Day for the Vatican Bank – April 18, 2005

San Francisco - While the world breathlessly awaits the election of the next Pope, the Vatican’s financial arm, the scandal-plagued Vatican Bank was dealt two blows today by American and Italian courts.

Alperin vs. Vatican Bank

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled today that a Second World War restitution lawsuit filed in 1999 against the Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order could proceed. The lawsuit restitution for Serbs, Jews, and former Soviet citizens for looting of property by the Nazi allied Croatian government during World War II. The court ruled that claims for conversion of property laundered after the end of the war by the Vatican Bank and Franciscans could proceed. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, perhaps sensing the case was going poorly had recently requested US Secretary of State Rice intervene on the Vatican’s behalf however the US State Department has chosen to abstain. The amount at issue could exceed $100 million dollars; a copy of the Ninth Circuit decision is available here. PDF

Nazi Holocaust Reparations by the Frankists and the Vatican – The Promised Land
Unfortunately, none of them will be Israeli anymore. On June 5, 2005, the Knesset committee responsible for compensating Holocaust victims, headed by Reuven Rivlin, was disbanded. A week before, Haaretz estimated the number of Israelis who suffered under Nazi Occupation to be a surprisingly high 435,000. Their government would no longer seek justice for their losses. Incredibly, Rivlin explained the reason for breaking up the committee was because it was complicating negotiations with the Palestinians.

So where is the Jewish money stolen by the Nazis? On April 18/05, the National Post of Canada provided a most disturbing explanation. It appeared in a review of the British Channel Four program called The Final Insult, by George Jonas. The contention made is that in 1998-99, Charles Bronfman, on behalf of his World Jewish Congress won $6.25 billion from Swiss banks in a series of legal actions. However: Disbursements are made to agencies and institutions of the organizers' choice, while some survivors receive little or nothing...

Scholars like Dr. Brian King of Oxford have raised similar questions. "On the face of it, a small number of scholars are deciding, on behalf of all Jewry, who gets what. Where is the accountability?" The answer is, there is none. The Frankist Bronfman can pick the pockets of the millions dead and the Israeli government will make sure no one asks for their fair share. Lest you believe that the Croatian Holocaust created by the Frankists in alliance with the Vatican is inapplicable to our times, think again. The Philadelphia Trumpet is a quirky but interesting Christian publication. In their June 2005 issue, they published a quite masterful expose of the Vatican's real manipulations in Europe. I briefly quote from it:

Germany and Vatican give Croatia and Slovenia official political recognition in 1991 – The Trumpet
In June 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared independence. By December of that year, against overwhelming opposition from the rest of the world, Germany moved to give Croatia and Slovenia its full backing as separate nations...The Vatican speedily followed Germany with public recognition...A horrible illegal war ensued sanctioned by the UN, EU and Vatican, which readily stood by while NATO won...

But such German/Vatican bloodletting is a mere prelude, remaining "high on the Vatican agenda, with, above all, the retaking of Jerusalem remaining the plum." Shall we recall that against all sentiments in the country, the Israeli government supported Croatia over the Serbs? It even sent Yossi Sarid to Sarajevo to assess the scene. He ran home crying when he found out that he could get hurt there. By supporting Croatia, the Israeli secret leadership was paying homage to their fellow Frankists, Pavelic and the Kvaterniks. And the trickery goes on. One of my central claims is that the Vatican agent currently in charge of blinding the Jews into submission is King Juan Carlos of Spain, who actually believes he is the true Guardian Of The Holy Sites Of Jerusalem. He's throwing a little wingding with all the folks conspiring with Israel's powerbrokers to put an end to the Jewish state: (See next News Item)

Pataki to lead US delegates to anti-Semitism conference – June 2, 2005
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chose George E. Pataki, Governor of the State of New York, on Wednesday to lead the United States delegation to the June 8-9, 2005 conference on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of Intolerance, sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Cordoba, Spain. Governor Pataki was asked to represent the United States in recognition of his leadership role as governor of ethnically-diverse New York.

In addition to Governor Pataki, the United State s delegation will include:

· Honorable Jennette Bradley, Ohio State Treasurer

· Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver and Commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom

· Mr. Sander Gerber, Member of the National Board of Directors of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee

· Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center

· Ambassador Stephan M. Minikes, the US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

· Mr. Kamal Nawash, President of the Free Muslim Coalition against Terrorism

· Ambassador Edward O'Donnell, the US Special Envoy on Holocaust Issues

· Rabbi David Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs at Agudath Israel of America.

His Majesty Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, will open this year's event, which will focus on practical steps to combat intolerance, building upon last year's Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Conference on Anti-Semitism in Berlin and Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination in Brussels. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe comprises 55 nations, including the United States, Canada and the countries of Europe and Eurasia.

Peres Promises 'Gaza is Just the Beginning' – June 1, 2005

Lekerev Report - In an address to Labor Party members in the south of Israel, Deputy Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, said, "If somebody thinks that it's possible to withdraw from Gaza and it's over, he is mistaken. If we will stop after Gaza, everything will go into reverse - all the process. We will find that the whole world is against us, again, and we will lose the momentum of peace, and the situation will get worse."

Present at the meeting were mayors and leaders of southern Jewish cities and representatives from Bedouin towns. He went on to say, "It hurts me about the 200,000 settlers who in my opinion are good people but with the wrong task." 200,000??? Obviously, he is including in his speech, all the residents of Jewish cities and towns that are located on lands duly taken in the 1967 war. In his mind, they also, like the residents of Jewish Gaza, are already "evacuees." No doubt he is strengthened in his opinion and his openness in declaring it by the political/diplomatic events of the past few days. G-d help us

Peres: 100,000 Gaza Palestinian families to get $100 a month - June 2, 2005

Haaretz - Some 100,000 Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip will each receive $100 a month from a fund aimed at helping Palestinian families in distress, Vice Premier Shimon Peres announced Thursday. Peres said the disbursement begins Thursday, Israel Radio reported.

On Wednesday the Indian ambassador to Israel said his country would contribute $15 million to the fund, according to the report. It said Israel has helped the Palestinians raise funds from Arab countries and other international donors.During a meeting with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad on Thursday, Peres said the greenhouses in Gaza Strip settlements should not be demolished because they could allow tens of thousands of Palestinian families to earn a living, according to the report.During the meeting, Peres also suggested opening a second border crossing in the south Gaza area of Rafah to allow for merchandise to be moved from the Gaza Strip to Israel and Egypt, the radio said. According to the report, the vice premier also offered the Palestinians help in developing the tourism industry along the Gaza coast.

Sharansky Makes Bid for Top Jewish Agency Post – June 9, 2005

Lekerev Report - Former Diaspora affairs minister Natan Sharansky, who resigned from Sharon's government a few weeks ago in protest to the Disengagement Plan, will compete for the position of chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization against the prime minister's candidate, Ra'anana Mayor Zeev Bielski. The WZO's executive committee will convene on June 21 to decide on the replacement.

Sharansky, who headed several ministries in the past and was responsible for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, opposes the government's disengagement plan. Sharon is said to have turned down Sharansky's candidacy for chairman of the Agency because of this.

Until yesterday, Bielski was considered a sure candidate for both positions. But in the past few days, Sharansky received numerous appeals from World Likud members to run against him. The World Likud movement is headed by Jacques Kupfer, who is considered extremely right wing and an opponent of Sharon.

Industrial Espionage Scandal Rocks Israel – May 30, 2005

Lekerev Report - Israeli Police believe they have sufficient evidence indicating that leading private investigators planted "Trojan Horse" spy software in the computers of high-profile Israeli companies in a bid to sell privileged information to competitors. A publication ban imposed on details pertaining to the disturbing findings was lifted Sunday. The affair reportedly encompasses some of Israel's leading companies, including satellite television and cellular phone providers, and a number of senior executives have already been arrested. The scandal has sent shock waves throughout Israel's business community, as well as the general population.

The scandal marks the largest ever investigation involving computer crime in the history of the country. The investigation lasted for about six months and was code-named "Horserace."

During the investigation, police detectives were stunned to discover business espionage has largely become a norm in the local business world. Among the companies suspected in the affair are satellite TV provider "YES," cell phone providers "Cellcom " and "Pelephone ," and the importer of Honda and Volvo vehicles. Both YES and Pelephone are subsidiaries of the telecommunications giant Bezeq, which claimed that it too was subject to industrial espionage by competitors. Bezeq insinuated that in- house documents were in the possession of rival cable companies.

The affair first came to light after local writer Amnon Jackont and his wife filed a complained with police. The couple told investigators parts of Jackont's new book made their way to the Internet, even before the book was published. The couple told police they suspect their former son-in-law, a computer expert, may be behind the affair. Subsequently, police discovered that a "Trojan horse" software was planted in the computer and sent out documents and photos stored on it.

The developer of the software offered it to the police several years before, but negotiations with him were terminated once investigators discovered he also sold the program to criminals. Further examination revealed the software was produced for three leading private investigation agencies, which used it to penetrate the computers of leading companies.

Police were later able to locate the software's creator, Michael Ha'efrati, who is indeed Jackont's former son-in-law. The suspect did not have a criminal record and spent most of his time outside Israel, mostly in Britain and Germany. About two weeks ago, Ha'efrati relocated to London, where he was arrested last Tuesday along with his wife Ruthie, suspected to be the contact person with the private investigators.

Two Suspected Israeli Computer Hackers Face Extradition from London – May 29, 2005

DEBKAfile Special Update - Nine of Israel’s top business executives and 11 heads of three leading inquiry companies – including Modiin Ezrahi - are in custody suspected of complicity in a massive computerized commercial espionage conspiracy.

Sunday, May 29, the Tel Aviv magistrate lifted a gag order on the case code-named Horse Race. The prosecution is reported to have located a state witness.

Michael Haephrati, who was arrested with his wife in London Thursday, May 26, is suspected of designing the illegal raider software called Trojan Horse for the three inquiry firms, They offered clients business intelligence on their rivals, some of whom trade on the stock exchange, by illegally planting spy software in the targeted computers and downloading their classified data. Clients under suspicion of accepting the offer include Volvo Motors importers, Yes satellite TV, Pelephone and Cellcom cell phone license- holders. Their senior officers are in custody. Their victims included Orange (Partner) cell phones, Hot cable TV, Strauss-Elite, Champion Motors, Mei Eden mineral water, Ace DIY, and Zoglobek sausages.

Earlier, DEBKAfile reported:

Michael Haephrati, 41, and Ruth Brier-Haephrati, 28, were arrested by Scotland Yard in London on an Israeli extradition warrant and remanded in custody in Brixton and Holloway prisons until a further hearing on June 3. Apart from “unauthorized modification of the contents of a computer” between December 12, 2004 and February 28 this year, the charges against the couple are subject to an all-inclusive Israeli court gag order. In professional intelligence literature, this locution usually refers to industrial espionage by the illegal invasion of computers. The offense most often takes the form of an unauthorized “mirror” planted in a target’s computer to download its contents to another computer. The kind of software used is not new; it derives from the PROMIS program developed in the United States in the 1980s to help the US Justice Department and the FBI crack financial crime cases. The targets of PROMIS and its offspring never know they are raided, their firewalls penetrated and their passwords cracked.

Over the years, many intelligence agencies, including Israel’s, upgraded the earlier PROMIS, and developed better protective software against these silent invaders. Some of their experts ended up on the world market, notably in the US, India, Russia, and probably Israel too. They can be found selling their expertise to security and financial companies - or even to organized crime. The illegal practitioners are known in professional parlance as “black hat hackers.” Corporate America has suffered vast losses, estimated in many billions of dollars, from such hackers who are contracted by rival businesses to lift their customer lists, the contents of their contracts, their marketing strategy and financial situation. It is believed that most victims decide not to complain to the police for fear of publicity that would ruin their business and undermine their stocks. The soundless black hat hackers often as not get away with their crime. Indeed, many are hired by victimized business to trace the intruders and strengthen its security. The underground hacker will then come in from the cold and become a “white hat hacker.”

The Scotsman reports that before he was arrested on the Israeli extradition warrant, Michael Haephrati, who also has German nationality, was questioned by detectives from the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit on a “separate matter.” He was released by the unit on police bail Wednesday, May 25, pending further inquiries into allegations of “offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.” Later, he was detained by Scotland Yard on the extradition matter. British legal experts told DEBKAfile that the UK National Hi-Tech Crime Unit’s inquiry indicates Haephrati is also suspected of computer offenses in Britain as well as Israel. The British can be expected to insist on precedence for their inquiry and legal proceedings before handing him over to Israel. This could hold up the Israeli process for many months.

The suspect’s sister Shifra Hephrati, a playwright who lives in Tel Aviv, is in London to look after the couple’s six-year old child, Emma. Asked after the Bow Street hearing about her brother, she said, “We didn’t know anything about what he was doing except that it was something important. “

The mystery deepens.

How Will the Hi-Tech Espionage Inquiry Affect the Bezeq Sale? – May 30, 2005

DEBKAfile Special Report - In the second shockwave from the discovery of the large-scale computerized espionage ring targeting Israel and foreign companies, the big question is this: how will it affect the recent sale to private purchasers of Bezeq, the Israel Communications Corporation, for a reported $900? DEBKAfile’s business sources report the sale was completed after the police fraud squad’s inquiry into the case was well underway. Bezeq’s spokesmen are acting as though the company was itself a victim of the Trojan Horse virus used to upload competitors’ computers. However, its two subsidiaries which are included the sale - mobile phone operator Pele-Phone and TV satellite YES - are leading subjects of investigation. They are also likely to face multimillion suits by the victimized companies, some of the biggest in Israel, including Partner Ltd., the second largest mobile phone company, and HOT cable TV.

The new owners of Bezeq, Haim Saban of Los Angeles and Ronald Cohen from London, have so far made no comment on the grave charges brought against their new acquisitions. Israel’s finance ministry and central bank are bracing for a demand to reopen the sale or at least reduce the price and its terms. They must also expect some hard questions about why they allowed the signing of the transaction to go through when a criminal investigation against Bezeq or its subsidiaries had been going on for months.

Some informed sources told DEBKAfile that Saban and Cohen are standing by to see if top-ranking Bezeq executives are brought into the inquiry as suspects.

Nine of the detectives in custody are employed by inquiry agencies suspected of selling Trojan Horse espionage services to YES, Pele-Phone and Cellphone, Israel’s biggest mobile phone operator; another five are accused of providing the service to Mayer Cars and Trucks, importer of Volvo and Honda, against competing Champion Motors, importers of Volkswagen, Seat and Audi. Another targeted company was Strauss-Elite, Israel’s second biggest food manufacturers. If the inquiry establishes that stolen business data included a rival’s subscribers’ or customers’ lists accumulated over a long period, claims by the injured parties, Israel’s largest companies, could run into hundreds of millions of shekels. They would demand compensation for extensive damage to their business operations and share value on the Tel Aviv and New York stock exchanges. The victim-companies have lost no time in seeking high-flying legal counsel to prepare large-scale lawsuits. Israeli business circles are now anxiously waiting for the New York Stock Exchange to open for trading Tuesday, May 31, after the long Memorial Day weekend

Police Discover Ring of Neo-Nazi Immigrants from CIS - June 2, 2005

Israel National News - Israel Police have uncovered a group of at least 20 neo-Nazis who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union under the Law of Return. Police are not yet certain how to proceed, due to the lack of legal basis for prosecuting Israelis espousing anti-Semitic ideology.

The neo-Nazi group was discovered following the arrest on drug charges of a 20-year-old IDF soldier. A swastika tattooed on his arm aroused police suspicions, and neo-Nazi material was later discovered in his home. In the course of the investigation of the arrested neo-Nazi and his mother, who also professed hatred for Jews and Israel, other members of the group were revealed. Police detective Chaim Fadlon told the Maariv newspaper that the suspects are believed to have met each other in anti-Semitic internet chat rooms. Their contacts soon took the form of meetings and ceremonies with swastika banners and other Nazi paraphernalia. "We cannot disclose details of the inquiry, but it's chilling," Fadlon said. "It appears these are people living in this country who are talking among themselves about extermination of the Jews."

Under the 'Law of Return,' anyone with a Jewish grandparent - even it is only his father's father - can immigrate to Israel and receive citizenship and benefits. (Only those born to a Jewish mother or who have properly converted to Judaism are considered Jewish.) Immigrant groups representing Jews from the former Soviet Union have long called for reform in the law because of immigrants who move to Israel not because they are Jewish but for financial reasons. Often, they bring their enmity for Jews and Israel along with them. Interior Minister Ofir Pines-Paz (Labor) has asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to examine the legal procedure under which a new immigrant’s status can be revoked.

Nobel Laureates Meet in Jordan to Tackle World's Problems- May 18, 2005

PoliticoInfo - More than two dozen Nobel laureates and other international figures are in the Jordanian city of Petra for a conference focusing on the world's major problems, such as poverty, disease, environment, peace and terrorism.Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama, and Israel's Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres are among the group of eminent thinkers, economists, scientists, writers and actors participating in the meeting. The two-day conference is jointly sponsored by Jordan's King Abdullah and Nobel prize-winning writer Elie Weisel's New York-based Foundation for Humanity. Organizers say they plan to present recommendations from the conference to political and business leaders meeting Friday at the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea.

Globalist Jews Attack on the Chief Rabbis

Behind her back - Rabbi's wife said knew nothing of attack because she was in the kitchen; daughter says brother threatened her with knife – May 18, 2005
Ynet News - Mazal Amar, wife of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, said she had no knowledge of events that took place in her living room because she was in the kitchen with her back turned. Along with her son Meir, Mrs. Amar was charged Wednesday of involvement in the kidnapping and beating her daughter's boyfriend. According to police testimony, Rabbi Amar denied hearing about the incident from his children until several hours after the boyfriend had been released from hospital. Rabbi Amar stuck to his initial testimony that he first heard of the incident in the newspaper during a visit to Thailand. He also expressed concern for the young man.

Rabbi's wife indicted Photo: Avi Cohen

In the kitchen

Mrs. Amar told investigators that she had been in the kitchen of her apartment at the time the alleged events took place. She said she only heard what happened the next day from another daughter, who in turn had been told by Ayala. Mrs. Amar said she failed to tell her husband what happened because she did not want to get him involved. But it would appear she did know about the incident. Despite her claim to investigators to have only had passing contact with Meir, her son visited her a second time just two days later together with Labor Party leader Shimon Peres. According to Ayala, her brother threatened her with a knife, saying he could kill her "with one stab."

Plea bargain predicted

It also turns out the incident was reported by a security officer at Wolfson Hospital in Holon, where the victim came for treatment but refused to reveal what had happened. Legal authorities predict the story will end in a plea bargain, as family members are expected to try and prevent the Chief Rabbi from being forced to take the witness stand. Knesset member Chemi Doron (Shinui) responded to the rebbitzen's testimony, saying "Mrs. Amar seems to suffer from serious hearing problems. If she would attend to it, she certainly would be able to hear what takes place just behind her back." http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3087363,00.html

Case against chief rabbi closed

Shimon Peres behind the Framing of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar – The Promise Land

Barry Chamish - Somebody must be gasping, "My Lord in Heaven! This can't be true!" But it wasn't me. I've long told you that Peres was nothing but a thug. Two days after beating the star-crossed lover, Meir arrives with Shimon Peres to the Amar home, FOR THE SECOND TIME, and watches with glee as the brother threatens to murder his sister. You can be sure that Peres' first visit was even scarier. NOW GET THIS STRAIGHT: SHIMON PERES ORGANIZED THE FRAMING OF RABBI SHLOMO AMAR JUST LIKE HE PLANNED THE RABIN MURDER!!! After threatening an 18 year old girl at knifepoint, where does Shimon go? To make peace and money expelling the Jews of Gush Katif.

Prosecutors say no evidence found of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar’s connection to kidnapping scandal involving his daughter’s suitor - Meanwhile, rabbi’s wife and son indicted at Tel Aviv court Wednesday - May 18, 2005

Photo: Gil Yohanan TEL AVIV - The case against Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has been closed after no evidence was found to indicate he was connected to a kidnapping scandal involving his daughter’s suitor, the Tel Aviv Prosecutor’s Office announced Wednesday. However, the rabbi’s wife, Mazal, his son, Meir, and two Arab brothers involved in the affair were indicted at the Tel Aviv District Court Wednesday morning.

Case against Amar closed Photo: Gil Yohanan

On Tuesday, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz convened a long meeting with legal officials to discuss the question of Rabbi Amar’s possible indictment. State Prosecutor Eran Shendar also attended the session, which lasted for about five hours. ‘I don’t know what’s Internet’

Last week, Mazuz gave police the go-ahead to question the chief rabbi over the affair upon his return from Thailand. Amar was subsequently interrogated for five hours. During his questioning, police found contradictions between his version of events and the details provided by his son, Meir, who is the chief suspect in the scandal. Police detained Amar’s daughter, son, and wife several weeks ago on suspicion of abducting a 17-year-old religious youngster who dated the chief rabbi’s daughter after the two met on the Internet. However, Amar later denied having Internet access at his home and said his family’s good name was being compromised by the false reports. “I don’t know what’s Internet, I never saw what it is, it was never at my home,” he said.

The Jews and The Land

News Analysis: Bush Policy Pushes Israel Back to 1949 Armistice - May 29, 2005

Israel National News - Sharon argues that the disengagement plan cemented US support for retaining large blocks of Israeli towns in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. For example, on April 18th, 2004 Sharon declared in the Knesset:

"…whoever wants to maintain large settlement blocs under our control forever; whoever wants to guarantee that for as long as the Palestinians don't act against terrorism, diplomatic pressures will not be exerted upon us... must support the disengagement plan."

Sharon further said: "The diplomatic support we received during my visit to the U.S. is an unprecedented achievement. Never since the establishment of the State have we received such support with such strength and comprehension. The Palestinians see the Bush letter as the strongest blow they have received since [our] War of Independence."

In light of the May 26th Bush-Abbas summit and the subsequent statements, Arutz Sheva presents the following analysis of what is left of Sharon's unprecedented gains: U.S. President George W. Bush’s statement welcoming PA leader Mahmoud Abbas into the White House Rose Garden on May 26, provided a highly transparent view of the administration’s policy toward Israel and an unsettling perspective on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s claims that Bush has agreed to allow Israel to retain large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.

The most unsettling, if not shocking remark by the president was a direct reference to the 1949 “Armistice lines” agreed to by Israel and Jordan at the end of the War of Independence. Those lines, the famous “Auschwitz borders” as they were called by the late Israeli Labor-party statesman Abba Eban, leaves Israel’s heavily populated coastal plain, just 9-11 miles from the border of what would be Palestine. Not only are none of the major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria, such as Ma’ale Adumim included in those borders, but neither are the Western Wall, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Ramot, Gilo, Neve Yaakov, East Talpiot, Pisgat Ze’ev (to name a few), nor the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway (Route 1) as it crosses into the Latrun area.

Yet President Bush, standing next to the man whom he would like to become the first president of Palestine, told Abbas and the rest of the world, that the reference point for negotiating the future boundary between the two states was the 1949 lines, and that any change to that border “must be mutually agreed to” between Israel and the Arabs. In other words, as far as Bush is concerned, Abbas must approve Israel's annexing the Western Wall or even part of the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem highway to the Jewish State. Conversely, without his agreement, those areas are slated to be part of an independent State of Palestine.

Where then, is the great quid-pro-quo for the Gaza withdrawal, the highly-touted and heavily-marketed Bush promises to Sharon that the U.S. recognizes the facts on the ground in Judea and Samaria, the settlement blocs that preclude a withdrawal to the 1949 Armistice lines? According to Yoram Ettinger, a consultant on U.S. Israel relations and former liaison for Congressional affairs in the Israel Washington embassy, Bush’s April, 2004 letter supposedly guaranteeing U.S. support for retaining major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria “was grossly misrepresented by the Prime Minister and his spokesman. Bush has not committed the United States to recognizing anything beyond the 1949 cease-fire lines. Bush doesn’t recognize any single settlement or blocs of settlements.”

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak concurs with this analysis of Bush’s view of the future border between Israel and a Palestinian state. In a recent interview for Haaretz, Barak said: “A campaign is under way here whose gist is to mislead the nation about substantive issues in order to prevent it from asking what the quid pro quo for the disengagement is. Sharon’s claim that he made painful decisions in Gaza and in return obtained an unprecedented achievement in Judea and Samaria is not correct…“After all, it is obvious that the U.S. administration is against the Ariel-Kedumim bloc and against Ma’ale Adumim and is even against Efrat [locataed in the Gush Etzion bloc]…Sharon is not telling the people the truth. He is treating us all as though we are infantile and incapable of debating our own fate.”

It is not surprising therefore, that Bush, instead of emphasizing the importance of Abbas fighting terror and keeping his obligations under the road map, focused mostly on Israel’s roadmap obligations, primarily to halt all settlement construction in Judea and Samaria and remove what he called, “unauthorized outposts.” George W. Bush is a president who means what he says. After mentioning the 1949 lines, Bush said the following: “A viable two-state solution must ensure contiguity of the West Bank, and a state of scattered territories will not work. There must also be meaningful linkages between the West Bank and Gaza. This is the position of the United States today, it will be the position of the United States at the time of final status negotiations.” Territorial contiguity in Judea and Samaria for a viable Palestinian State is not a prescription for accepting settlement blocs anywhere. It’s about time the Israeli public recognizes that the “Bush vision” as expressed repeatedly by the President and his Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, does not include any territory east of the 1949 lines. Rather, it holds the disengagement plan as the first phase of an ongoing process of Israeli withdrawals back to what the Labor party leader termed "the Auschwitz borders."

"Bush Totally Mooted Sharon´s Plan to Retain Settlement Blocs" – May 29, 2005

Israel National News - The head of ex-PM Y. Shamir's Bureau says that Bush has voided of all significance Ariel Sharon's promise of U.S. recognition of Israel's right to keep large population centers in Judea and Samaria.

The spokesman is Yossi Ben-Aharon - a long-time Foreign Service official and currently a writer and commentator on current events. Ben-Aharon told Arutz-7 that Israel has nothing to be happy about following Abu Mazen's visit to Washington this past Thursday: "Bush said that no change in the 1949 armistice lines could be considered for the final status without the agreement of the Palestinian Authority. This emptied of all content that which Sharon has bragged about the U.S. recognizing, for the first time, Israel's right to annex settlement blocs." Ben-Aharon said that Bush's remarks at his press conference with Abu Mazen shows that the disengagement from Gaza has been incorporated into the Road Map, "and it is no longer what the prime minister said it was, namely, a process that will delay the implementation of the Road Map."

Bush promised Abu Mazen a $50 million gift following the disengagement - "a gift that is not conditional on anything," Ben Aharon said. He noted yet another PA achievement during Abu Mazen's visit: "Increased American involvement in the process in general, and in security arrangements in particular. This is unprecedented, because up to now, Israel has zealously guarded its exclusivity in contacts and security coordination with the Palestinians. This could lead Israel to pay a large price in its relations with the U.S." "Bush very gently reminded Abu Mazen of his commitments to rein in the terrorist organizations," Ben Aharon said, "but essentially set him up as one who stands opposite the 'Hamas extremists.' Sharon, too, said at today's Cabinet meeting that we must support the 'centrist' and 'moderate' movement of Abu Mazen - this is the same Oslo trap that Yitzchak Rabin and [Shimon] Peres fell into when they said that we must strengthen and support Arafat. But the fact is that over the years, we have seen that it is the Palestinian Authority that is constantly funding and encouraging terrorism against Israel." "We see that not only has a great question mark been placed on the entire process of the disengagement, but the entire government policy is shown in its nakedness. In short, the emperor has no clothes." "The United States is our friend," Ben-Aharon said, "but if it is dealing with a country that stupidly decides to make concessions, why should it argue with us? It presents the U.S. in a good light vis-a-vis with the Arabs... so why should the U.S. be more Catholic than the Pope?"

"Israel's public relations campaign is most strange," Ben-Aharon lamented. "Every time an Arab or Palestinian leader arrives in the U.S., his emphasis is on criticism of Israel: Israel's conquest, the arrests, demolition of houses, everything. But when an Israeli leader arrives, what does he have to say? 'We offer our hand in peace, the Palestinians are suffering, we have done so much for them, we ask the Administration to provide them with aid, etc.' - and he barely says anything about the PA's violations, the terrorism, the incitement, etc. So it's no wonder that the impression is created throughout the world, and especially in Washington, that Israel is the bad guy and that the conquest must be stopped to allow the poor Palestinians their freedom. If we don't change our tune, we will continue to pay a heavy price." Israeli leaders seem to think it's "beneath their dignity" to directly quote PA leaders and their incitement against Israel, Ben-Aharon feels. "If they would show the true picture of how the PA covers up for and encourages terrorism, and shows how the democratization process in the PA is a fraud, this might lead the Congress not to approve the President's $50 million grant to the PA - but rather to demand that the PA really take genuine steps to become democratic."

Asserting Rights of Former Jewish Refugees From Arab Countries – June 8, 2005

Israel National News - The Advocacy Campaign will record and publicize the mass violations of human rights suffered by Jews under Arab regimes (e.g. murder; arbitrary arrest and detention; torture; stripping of citizenship; seizure of property; etc.); and document the loss of extensive communal and individual assets. Once collected, the documentation will be catalogued and preserved by a special unit in Israel's Ministry of Justice, established to compile the legal and factual basis necessary to assert the rights of Jews displaced from Arab countries.

In a manifestation of communal unity and mobilization, Jewish leadership from 9 counties began planning an Int'l Advocacy Campaign to assert the rights of former Jewish refugees from Arab states.

Delegates from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and Israel came to Paris for the June 6, 2005 meeting, with those from Mexico and Australia participating via teleconference. At the meeting, consensus was reached on important elements of the proposed campaign including; the dual goals of public education and collection of testimonies, and the coordination of programs that would target governments, the media, Jewish organizations, synagogues and Jewish day schools in fourteen different countries. The campaign will be launched in March 2006. "Time is running out," said Staley A. Urman, Executive Director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries. "This may be our last, best chance to collect this information. Without the facts, no one will be able, in the future, to credibly, and effectively assert the legitimate rights of former Jewish refugees from Arab countries."

Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said "this is a milestone in the effort to address the historic injustice to the Jewish communities in Arab countries. We hope that this renewed unified campaign will not only succeed in creating a comprehensive data bank, but will also put this issue on the agenda of the international community, which has neglected it for so long." The Paris meeting was convened by the World Association of Jews from Arab Countries in association with Justice for Jews from Arab Countries.

Occult and Esoteric Influences Spreading in Israel – Messianic Leader: Christians Should Confront "Spiritual Darkness" - June 8, 2005
LEINFELDEN (ANS) -- Esoteric, occult and Far Eastern religious influences are spreading throughout Israel, according to a Messianic Jewish leader. Rev Samuel Aweida, Haifa, Chairman of the Caspari Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, addressed this problem at the annual meeting of the German "Evangeliumsdienst fuer Israel" (Gospel for Israel) in Leinfelden near Stuttgart, June 5.

In his opinion people should not only marvel at Israel as the country where Jesus lived but also consider the growing "spiritual darkness". Haifa, for example, had become a center for Satanists. The police are said to be concerned about plans of child sacrifices. On Jewish religious festivals a number of young Israelis celebrate New Age Festivals with Buddhist and Hindu ceremonies, according to Aweida. After their military service tens of thousands travel to South East Asia in search of spiritual fulfillment. Schools invite fortunetellers, who show pupils how to use a pendulum and tarot cards.

There are no protests from Jewish leaders, says Aweida. He is the head of a congregation where Jewish members believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Aweida claims that the Israeli public seems to accept representatives of occult movements more readily than Jewish believers in Jesus. Reportedly there is no chance for Messianic Jews to present their faith in schools. According to Israeli experts there are more than 100 Messianic congregations with over 6,000 members in the Holy Land. Aiming at a better comprehension of Judaism, the Caspari Center makes study documents available to volunteers and full-time employees.

US Christian drills for oil in Israel – June 7, 2005

Jerusalem Post - An American Christian named John Brown believes God promised Israel a wealth of oil, so he's drilling for it north of Tel Aviv.

Brown bases his quest on a Bible verse - Genesis 49:25 - where Jacob tells his son Joseph that God will give him "blessings of the deep that lie beneath."

Brown's Zion Oil and Gas Company has raised seven million dollars - mainly from evangelical Christians - and is now drilling in the area that belonged to the tribes descended from Joseph.

Brown says he "prayed and asked God for oil for Israel," and believes, "the answer was yes." Israel has struggled with little success to find oil for more than 50 years. And large oil companies have been reluctant to join the search for fear of angering major Arab oil producers.

Gaza Disengagement – Giving up the Land

Former Chief Rabbi Says Soldiers Must Obey Orders – June 10, 2005

Lekerev Report - Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu is considered the highest Jewish legal authority in the national- religious community in Israel and among the residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Speaking to Channel Two TV in an interview recorded several days ago and broadcast last evening, Rabbi Eliyahu said: "I told the soldiers and police [who asked me] You should approach there with tears. What can we do? We are soldiers who get orders, what can we do? Forgive us."

The interviewer asked the Rabbi: "That means, honorable Rabbi, that from your words, I understand that you are first of all saying that there is no such thing as refusing orders."

Rabbi Eliyahu: "Correct."

Channel Two: "They must carry out the order."

Rabbi Eliyahu: "Correct. But with tears, with pain, slowly, slowly."

His words carry a great deal of authority and will definitely have an impact. It remains to be seen how deeply.

The Sanhedrin´s Declaration Concerning the Disengagement - May 23, 2005

Israel National News - The reestablished Sanhedrin has concluded extensive deliberations on the disengagement plan, rejecting it as a contradiction to the Torah of Israel. The current format of the Sanhedrin is the renewal of the historic Sanhedrin, Judaism's highest legal-religious tribunal during Holy Temple times. The 71-man assembly convened in one of the Holy Temple chambers, and existed from several decades before the Common Era until roughly 425 C.E. The renewed body was launched last year in Tiberias, and convenes in Jerusalem. Following an intensive study and debate on the issue and its halakhic [Jewish legal] implications, the Sanhedrin drafted a declaration Monday, stating inter alia:

· The disengagement plan, involving the uprooting of Jewish communities in Gaza and Samaria and the abandonment of these areas to a foreign entity, is in direct contradiction to the Torah of Israel, and is null and void. Future governments of Israel will have to re-conquer the areas in question.

· The decision to implement the uprooting will cause large numbers of Jews to transgress many of the Torah's commandments.

· The Government of Israel and the Knesset, in their present form and power structure, are institutions that have no authority according to Jewish Law to render decisions that contradict the Torah of Israel.

· No Jew is permitted to cooperate with the program of uprooting, in any way whatsoever.

· Any Jew - including a soldier or policeman - who supports the uprooting, whether directly or indirectly, whether by voting in its favor, or by giving counsel, or by supplying vehicles or materials, and certainly anyone who actively participates in the uprooting, thus transgresses a large number of Torah commandments, such as not standing idly by one's neighbor's blood (Lev. 19,17).

· The uprooting of the residents of the Gaza Strip and Samaria is a crime and an injustice to the residents, and places many other communities - in fact, all citizens of the State of Israel - in mortal danger.

By this declaration, the Sanhedrin, as the link of continuity of the Torah received by Moses at Sinai, hereby expresses the stance of Israel's Torah... The Sanhedrin, as the representative of the Jewish people throughout history, hereby affirms that the Jewish people -- regardless of this or that government -- does not relinquish, and is not entitled to relinquish, so much as the span of a solitary man's foot of the Land of Israel according to its Biblical boundaries, for it is God's land.

Rabbi Levinger May Be Imprisoned For Civil Disobedience - May 9, 2005

Israel National News - The rabbi, in his seventies, may be jailed for refusing to agree to being placed under house arrest after taking part in the massive coordinated country-wide civil disobedience three weeks ago. Rabbi Levinger was arrested, along with more than 500 other protesters across Israel on the May 16th "test run" protests, in which 40 major intersections across the country were brought to a halt by anti-expulsion protesters. Though most of those arrested were released within 24 hours, Rabbi Levinger was kept in jail for several days at the prosecution's request.

Last week, Rabbi Levinger received an order to report to the Be'er Sheva court for another hearing, which took place Wednesday. According to Rabbi Levinger, the prosecution is demanding that he either be placed under house arrest or be incarcerated, until conclusion of the proceedings against him. "The reason is that Rabbi Levinger's acts are not criminally motivated; rather, they are ideologically motivated, thereby making him 'dangerous to the public,'" Hevron spokesman David Wilder said.

Rabbi Levinger's attorney requested that the next hearing be delayed for a week, allowing him time to study the case and prepare a response. However, the judge refused and scheduled another hearing for Thursday at 1:00 PM. Rabbi Levinger declared that he will not agree to being placed under "house arrest" under any circumstances, meaning that should the judge accept the prosecution's demands, he will be incarcerated.

Scores of Hevron and Kiryat Arba residents showed up at the court, declaring that if the rabbi goes to jail, they will go with him. The court officials conducted a selection, barring bearded men and outwardly observant women from entering the courtroom. The judge decided to postpone the hearing for another week. The protesters attribute the move to the large numbers of those present. "When a man like Rabbi Levinger is being jailed just because people look to him for truth and guidance, you know that prison has become the refuge of the honest man," said a resident of Kiryat Arba. "We will fill the jails and stay there as long as it takes to bring the concept of justice back into the Land of Israel."

New Poll Shows Support for Disengagement Rapidly Declining – June 3, 2005

Lekerev Report - A new poll shows rapid decline in the last two weeks in popular support for the Disengagement from Gaza. Two weeks ago, some 60% of Israelis polled said they supported the withdrawal. Yesterday that figure had dropped to 50% and analysts believe the drop is due to increased terrorism and terrorist attack attempts, such as the one we reported on yesterday where two suicide bombers were arrested who planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Jerusalem.

It is also conjectured that the new Bush policy has caused Israelis to realize that the promise of 'quid pro quo' which Sharon insisted we had with the US administration is simply not valid. Israeli confidence that the Bush Administration would unequivocally back Israel's retaining of large areas in the West Bank evaporated when the president said that all 'settlements' in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, would be up for discussion in final status talks.

This is definitely an encouraging sign that more and more Israelis are coming to grips with the realization that, essentially at this point, Israel is getting absolutely nothing in return for giving up Gaza - not to mention the biblical issue of not giving away the Land.

Other comments by Prime Minister Sharon himself and Shimon Peres, indicating that Gaza is 'just the beginning' have also contributed to the change in attitude reflected in the polls. May this trend continue!

What Does Gush Katif Actually Look Like? A Must See - Ganei Tal – June 3, 2005

Lekerev Report - World leaders believe that peace in the Middle East is dependent upon the forceful evacuation of the local Jewish civilians living there. But, how many observers have taken the trouble to see what these Jewish villages and towns actually look like? Are they tent cities? Do the Jews there rough it in trailer homes? Are all the locals angry militants?

World media attention is becoming more focused on the small plot of disputed land known as Gush Katif, along Israel's southern Mediterranean coast. Arutz-7 TV Correspondent David Miller is touring Gush Katif town by town to see what all the fuss is about. Join him on this three-and-a-half minute episode as he uncovers the sights, sounds, and people in the Gush Katf village of Ganei Tal.

Click for Ganei Tal - 100k version
Click for Ganei Tal - 300k broadband version

Half of Gaza Farmers Agree to Deal – June 5, 2005

Lekerev Report - A preliminary deal for alternative farmland has been reached between half of the Gaza farmers and the Disengagement Authority. Agriculture Ministry Director-General Yossi Ishay downplayed the significance of the deal, explaining that it still needs approval from Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz. Until then, it's only a draft, he told The Jerusalem Post yesterday.

"As of now, the Disengagement Authority and the Agriculture Ministry have located 1,600 dunams (400 acres) belonging to Kibbutz Zikim for approximately 60 farmers," said the bulletin. It added that some 500 dunams are available from Moshav Mavki'im for 20 farmers. The two agencies are also looking for 700 dunams for organic farmers. There are 166 farmers in the Gaza Strip who work on 4,000 dunams of land.

What does Gush Katif Actually Look Like? – June 5, 2005

Lekerev Report - World media attention is becoming more focused on the small plot of disputed land known as Gush Katif, along Israel's southern Mediterranean coast. World leaders believe that peace in the Middle East is dependent upon the forceful evacuation of the local Jewish civilians living there.

But, asks Arutz Sheva today, how many observers have taken the trouble to see what these Jewish villages and towns actually look like? Are they tent cities? Do the Jews there rough it in trailer homes? Are all the locals angry militants?

Arutz-7 TV Correspondent David Miller is touring Gush Katif town by town to see what all the fuss is about. You can join him on a super three-and-a-half minute episode as he uncovers the sights, sounds, and people in the Gush Katif village of Ganei Tal, one of the villages I visited just three weeks ago.

The video is available for both high speed connections and dial-up.

Virtual Visit to Ganei Tal

Half of Neve Dekalim Votes to Move to Tent City in Negev – May 27, 2005

Lekerev Report - The residents of Neveh Dekalim, one of the largest communities in Gush Katif, decided in a dramatic meeting this week that half of them will move to a tent city so as not to split up the community and as a means of protesting disengagement. Out of the approximately 490 families in Neveh Dekalim, the largest settlement in Gush Katif, 250 confirmed at the meeting that they were interested in moving to the tents, a proposal that was met with rousing applause. "We are very serious about this since the government has no proper solution for us. We are preparing this operation down to its smallest detail, like a `tower and stockade' operation," said settlement chair Sarita Maoz, referring to rural settlements thrown up overnight by Jews in defiance of British law in the 1940s.

The plan calls for the purchase of tents that can house 12 people, and other tents for kitchens, storage, a school, etc. The original plan was to put up the tents in the Nitzanim area, to pressure the government into establishing new communities there for the evacuees. But fear that families would have to spend the winter there caused a change in location to the northern Negev, which has more moderate weather.

US Visitors To Gaza Protest Disengagement – June 8, 2005

Lekerev Report - More than 100 Americans, led by New York state lawmaker Sen. John Sampson, finished their three- day mission to Gush Katif settlements Netzarim, Neve Dkalim, to show solidarity with Gaza's Jewish residents and to protest Israel's planned withdrawal this summer from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. The mission, which includes New York State Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), Jews and Zionist Christians, arrived here from New York Monday to live and work with residents of Gush Katif, the largest block of Jewish communities slated for evacuation.

"It's an amazing experience bringing people of all faiths to Gush Katif, and standing with the residents here who have done nothing wrong and are being forced from their homes," the group leader, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), told reporters. In March, Hikind led a mission of 40 Americans on a similar tour and vowed to bring hundreds more throughout the summer.

35,000 Rally in New York on Behalf of Gush Katif – June 6, 2005

Lekerev Report - Hundreds of thousands of people marched down New York City's Fifth Avenue in the annual Salute to Israel parade. "It's like a village," says Brigitte Dayan, a Jewish communal worker, adding,"You walk in the street and you see many people you know." Some onlookers at Sunday"s parade wore orange shirts, signifying their opposition to Israel's upcoming Gaza withdrawal.

Meanwhile,back here in Beit El in Samaria last night at the Jerusalem Day celebrations, Brig-Gen. Yair Golan expressed his wish that following the difficult weeks and months ahead, "we will remain brothers." He was referring to the period during which the IDF will be called upon to forcibly expel Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria.

Brig.-Gen Golan, who is the commander of the entirety of Judea and Samaria (Yesha), said that he will fight for the right of the Yesha residents to protest. He said that in his 25 years of army service, he spent much of it in Judea and Samaria alongside the local Jewish residents. "The army was embraced by the Jews here as brothers, and the feeling was mutual."

Prison Commander: "I Want Children Like These ´Law-Breakers" – June 6, 2005

One yeshiva high school junior who spent eight days in prison after passively participating in a road-blocking wrote on the Ynet Hebrew news site yesterday as follows: "I'll tell you frankly: I wasn't supposed to be [arrested]. I was arrested for nothing. Really. But I'm not sorry for one second that I was there! To me, those 'law-breakers' gave so much... How fortunate I was to be there... to be arrested for the struggle for the Land of Israel...

Police appear to be at a loss to deal with the ideals and motivation of the anti-disengagement protestors.

"The Sabbath that I had there in prison - I don't remember such a Shabbat in my life. Such righteous boys and girls! What an amazing and uplifting Kabbalat Shabbat [Friday evening prayer service]! ... I don't think there was one person there [in jail] who hasn't gone on the face-to-face campaign [of meeting people in their homes and explaining to them about Gush Katif, Judaism, etc. - ed.] at least five times. So whoever thinks that these road-blockers don't care about the People of Israel, should sit on the side and learn from them about true love of their fellow Jew. Even in jail they tried to do the face-to-face campaign. We did it with the jailers, with other prisoners, with police officers, etc.

"The commander of the Maasiyahu Prison told MK Effie Eitam, who came to visit us, that he hopes his own children will be like us! Did you ever see such a conflict? The jailer wants his children to be 'law-breakers' like us!"

MK Amir Peretz, running for chairman of the left-wing Labor Party, has warm - and jealous - words of praise for the anti-disengagement protestors: "Look at how those 15- and 16-year-old settlers go around and knock on every door. It creates identification, it creates closeness... [They] come with sparks in their eyes." He made these remarks last night at a parlor meeting in Ramat HaSharon in the framework of his campaign, criticizing the laid-back attitude of the left-wing camp. "They're good at sitting on the grass and singing songs of brotherhood," Peretz said, "but that's not enough."

The latest anti-disengagement protest act took place last night, at Zikim in the western Negev. Unknown persons, apparently not youths, vandalized several bulldozers that were to be used in breaking ground for a caravan site for the Gush Katif refugees, and for preparing new army bases for those that will be removed from Katif. A Bedouin guard at the site was the only witness. He said that a group of some 15 people arrived during the night by car, warned him not to try to stop them, and proceeded to pour sugar and sand inside the fuel tanks of the heavy equipment. The vehicles will be out of commission for at least a few days, disrupting the already tight disengagement schedule. The vehicles were also spray-painted in orange, the color of the struggle against the expulsion, as well as phrases such as, "No destruction of Katif."

An army commander at the site said that those disengagement opponents who perpetrated the act said the butt of their objections should not be the army, but rather the "political echelons." The army and police will be charged with the actual expulsion of citizens from their homes, and oppressing citizens' protests and efforts to prevent the disengagement. A yarmulke-clad police officer named David Bitan, from the southern development town of Ofakim, has been charged with putting out the fires of civil disobedience. He plans to visit all the yeshiva high schools in the south and attempt to convince the youth to abandon their ways. He says he will explain the importance of keeping the law in general, as well as the personal price that each student is liable to pay, such as jail and a criminal record, for his actions.

Bitan said that one yeshiva high school principal said that he personally is not in favor of road-blockings and the like, but that he cannot stop students from engaging in these activities. "To me, as the representative of the police," Bitan said, "this response is not acceptable." By warning of the personal price the youth might have to pay, the police might be missing the point, as evidenced by the above-quoted student's article. "We are perfectly willing to pay this personal price," many of them have said in recent weeks and months. Over 500 of them were arrested three weeks ago when highways were blocked all over the country, and several of them remain in prison even now.

"Road-Blocking Youth Will Save Israel" – June 1- 2005

Israel National News - It is no secret that the massive civil disobedience campaign was coordinated by the Young Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) movement. Moshe Feiglin says the new generation is unstoppable. Feiglin, who started out founding the anti-Oslo Accords civil disobedience movement Zo Artzeinu (‘This is Our Land’), and went on to found a faction within the Likud party aimed at keeping the party loyal to its Land of Israel ideals, spoke with Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz and Yishai Fleisher about the difference between today’s civil disobedience and that of ten years ago.

Click to hear the complete interview with Moshe Feiglin

The ideological father of Israeli civil disobedience calls today’s young generation the “silver platter” by which the Jewish State will be saved. The term “silver platter” refers to a poem by the famous Israeli poet Nathan Alterman about the role of the young soldiers in fighting for Israel’s independence in 1948. “He was speaking about the 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds from the Palmach,” Feiglin said. “If you were 20 years old then, you were already an alte-cocker… But suddenly today, all the media attack the youth who were willing to sacrifice to save Israel.”

Feiglin said the large number of youth that came out to the streets during the mass road-blocking of two weeks ago was astounding. "Even though I felt it coming, I was still surprised,” he said. “When we blocked roads across the country with Zo Artzeinu ten years ago, we did it only with adults. The average age was 40. Today it is mostly the youngsters.” The road-blocking campaign was coordinated by an organization called Bayit Leumi (National Home), headed by Young Manhigut Yehudit leaders Shai Malka and Ariel Vangrover. Malka and Vangrover were arrested the day before the road-blockings, and are facing charges of sedition for their role. Feiglin was not arrested during the road-blockings of two weeks ago, but his 15-year-old son was.

IsraelNationalRadio show-host Yishai Fleisher asked Feiglin whether the youth who come out and block the streets to stop the disengagement, will later be able to turn around and once again love and respect the State, once the struggle against the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and the Shomron is won.

Feiglin's response:
“These youngsters took responsibility for their brothers and sisters in Gush Katif and for the very existence of the Jewish State... To see their brothers and sisters expelled and destroyed, to witness their brethren becoming enslaved to the negative aspects of society, and to respond with passivity – that is a much worse way for children to be raised. “We must teach them that we are stopping the destruction in order to build something based on our most basic values. This is something very different than the youth of Israel who you hear about every week having knife-fights at night-clubs. You can be sure those youngsters were not the ones that went out to block the roads. “What is going on today with the youngsters is much more important and wide-scale than the struggle for Gush Katif. We are talking here about the direction, the future, of the entire Jewish people. Let me explain. “When I blocked the roads ten years ago, my son who was arrested this week was five years old. He grew up in the last ten years of Oslo, with no concept of victory – no Entebbe, no Six Day War. The State of Israel did not once give him the feeling that justice was being done. The State of Israel crumbled, gave away the feeling of justice, the will to fight for something and the desire to win. When his parents’ car was attacked by Arabs with rocks, he never felt that the State of Israel was willing to fight for his own basic rights, for his own justice. We are talking about a whole generation who grew up with this. They did not get it from outside like when I was his age. I had the Six Day War – we were right and we won, the State gave that to me. This generation had to develop a sense of justice and right and wrong from within.”

This is not to discount the parents of this new generation, Feiglin stresses. “The strength of the parents of these youngsters – to go to court and see their children being held and refrain from talking to them so as not to go against their refusal to identify themselves to the government – is amazing,” he said. “It is also they who provided the education that has strengthened this generation.” So it is thanks to the elder generation – the generation that witnessed the Six Day War and the heroism of the IDF – that the younger generation is full of a steely idealism that is simply unstoppable, Feiglin says. “That is how these youngsters can go straight up to the police and say, ‘arrest me.’ How they go to prison with smiles and singing songs. The Sharon regime is tearing out their hair – they simply don’t know what to do.”

“Government Warns: ´We’ll Take Jailed Kids Away from Parents - June 8, 2005

Israel National News - Government prosecutors have met with welfare officials to discuss asking the courts to allow them to apply the Juvenile Law to declare the children "abandoned." The children would be removed from their parents' legal jurisdiction and placed under the authority of welfare officials. The parents could be sentenced to jail and fined up to 100,000 shekels ($22,500) for not having prevented their children from breaking the law.

The government stepped up pressure against the growing anti-evacuation movement Wednesday by threatening to take away several jailed children from parents who have not visited them.

Deputy Welfare Minister Avraham Ravitz and a spokesman for the Child Services department objected to the move, denouncing both the government and the childrens' families for using them as tools in a political argument. Israel Radio reported Wednesday that one 12-year-old girl has been in jail three weeks for blocking roads, has not identified herself, and that her parents have not visited.

However, prison officials have refused any personal visits because they have no way of knowing if the visitors are family members. Lawyers from the volunteer Honenu organization have been allowed to meet with the teenagers. A Honenu spokesman said about 14 minors still have not identified themselves. Several revealed their names two days ago in expectation of being released, but a district judge rejected their appeal because they refused to agree to the conditions of release, such as not leaving the communities where they live.

Israel radio also interviewed a prison supervisor who said the children are receiving good treatment, but Honenu alleged that in the past week the children have not been permitted to leave their cells except for one hour a day."Two children, ages 17 and 18, have been put in solitary confinement because they did not stand up when a supervisor came for inspection and their friends made noise about it," he said. The children also have been denied the opportunity to pray together and have been denied privileges to make telephone calls.

A rabbi from Gush Katif told Israel radio that none of the parents sent their children to block roads, but they did so on their own initiative. He added that many were arrested "for standing next to a traffic light." All of the children still in jail have been charged with blocking roads, but they could remain there for weeks or months until the courts get around to trying them. "They are part of a campaign against" anti-evacuation forces, Honenu said. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Wednesday blamed parents for not "taking responsibility" for children who block roads in anti-evacuation protests.

Pullout objectors hit again – June 5, 2005

Ynet News - Right-wing activists use superglue to lock government offices across country, including Interior Ministry, Income Tax Authority, National Insurance Institute and Postal Authority. Tel Aviv police say guards managed to foil most attempts

TEL AVIV - Right-wing activists locked government offices across the country early Sunday using superglue to protest the upcoming Gaza and northern West Bank pullout. The activists apparently hit offices in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Herzliya, Bat Yam, and other cities across Israel. The offices hit include the Interior Ministry, Income Tax Authority, National Insurance Institute, and the Postal Authority. Tel Aviv police said guards were able to foil the protest at most locations, including a government office complex in central Tel Aviv. However, some damage was done to several locks at several locations, police said.

Meanwhile, five youngsters of about 15 were detained in Jerusalem on suspicion of planning to lock government offices. The boys were apparently able to lock Education Ministry and Stock Exchange facilities. Three of the youngsters were caught in possession of superglue and pliers.

‘Entire country will be paralyzed’

Posters posted by activists on government office doors read: “The expulsion won’t pass. If access roads to Gush Katif will be closed – all other roads in the country will be closed with them. If schools in Gush Katif are locked out – all other schools in the country will be locked with them. If the various government offices will continue cooperating with the corrupt regime – their branches across the country will be paralyzed. If residents of the State of Israel don’t wake up from the nightmare, the entire country will be closed down, locked out, paralyzed!” The protesters also left letters to branch managers requesting that the “non-violent protest move” be met with understanding. “In the face of a normal regime it is possible to express the voice of the people in demonstrations and protests…but in the face of a dictatorial, anti-democratic and wholly anti-moral regime, citizens who are concerned with the state’s welfare have only one path left: non-violent civil disobedience until the violent and corrupt regime is toppled,” the letters read.

Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway blocked

Protest organizers tried to downplay the inconvenience, saying that “if someone waits an hour in the queue at the Interior Ministry or post office, or is stuck at a traffic jam for two hours, it’s not that bad…but if all of us pay the terrible price of the plan’s (pullout) implementation – it will be terrible.” Organizers also noted the latest protest was another step in a series of moves aimed at “throwing this terrible plan to history’s garbage bin.” “The dictatorial regime is pushing us to the corner and with an uncontrollable urge to act against all security predictions in a non-democratic and immoral way,” one organizer said. Saturday evening, dozens of right-wing activists blocked the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway in both directions. Large police forces were subsequently dispatched to the scene and detained dozens of protesters. However, other activists remained in the area and managed to block the road several more times, despite the police presence.

Further Drop in Support for Withdrawal Plan: Down to 48 % - June 8, 2005

A major independent polling service reported today that support for the proposed Withdrawal Plan has dropped to 48 per cent. The survey will be telecast on Israel's Channel Two news tonight.

Israel National News - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced the poll as a result of "incitement" by anti-evacuation groups. The poll was conducted by the Maagar Mohot Survey Institute. Sharon and Ministers Ophir Pines and Yitzchak Herzog accused the residents slated for forcible removal from their homes with not cooperating and spreading misinformation.

An Israel Radio poll Wednesday revealed that opposition to the plan has grown to 40 percent from one-third a year ago. Opponents to the plan have pointed out that many of the supporters for the evacuation have conditioned their approval on cessation of terror and fair compensation for the residents. Herzog blamed the residents to be evacuated for using a strategy to discourage security forces from fulfilling orders to expel the Jews from their homes. He said the government has "attractive offers" for the 9,000 soon-to-be misplaced civilians from northern Samaria and Gaza. Sharon's aides said today's meeting, with press coverage, on the planned evacuation was aimed at shoring up support amid an escalation of Arab terror and more warnings from army officers that terror will escalate and threaten all of Israel after the planned withdrawal. Meanwhile, housing statistics released today showed that communities in Gaza and northern Samaria have led the country in building starts.

Study: Gov´t Basing Decisions on Flawed Demographic Data – June 8, 2005

A report that exposes the fallacy of the "demographic threat" of an Arab majority between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is being presented by Israel's Government Press Office.

Israel National News - The new data raises doubts about one of the central arguments advanced by PM Ariel Sharon on behalf of the withdrawal plan. "Unfortunately, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet as a whole are basing critical policy decisions on grossly flawed demographic assumptions and data," says former Knesset consultant and analyst Yoram Ettinger. "That is why it is so important that this report be increasingly recognized at this time."

The study, carried out by a Washington D.C.-based think tank and scrutinized by the leading American demographer, Dr. Nick Eberstadt, undermines the assumption that Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza pose a demographic threat to Israel. The researchers reported that the 2004 Arab population of Judea, Samaria and Gaza was closer to 2.4 million than to the 3.8 million reported by the Palestinian Authority (PA). "These findings," the report states, "should have a significant impact on politicians, policy makers and international aid agencies." The million-and-a-half person gap occurred because the PA numbers are based on Palestine Bureau of Statistics (PBS) projections made in 1997, not on actual population counts. The PBS used their official 1997 census as a base population and assumed the population would grow at 4 to 5% a year, one of the highest growth rates in the world. When the research team reviewed PA Ministry of Health birth data and actual border entry/exit data, they found that the PBS projected growth rate was not met in any year between 1997 and 2004.

The American-based project was led by Bennett Zimmerman, a former Strategy Consultant with Bain & Company. On the research team were historian Dr. Roberta Seid and Dr. Michael Wise, a physicist and expert in mathematic modeling techniques. Yoram Ettinger, a former minister at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC and an expert in Middle East politics, led the Israel research team with members Brig. Gen. (Ret.) David Shahaf, former Head of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria; Prof. Ezra Sohar who has published several research papers on demographics in Israel; Dr. David Passig, an expert in forecasting, Avraham Shvout, who has tracked both Jewish and Arab population in Judea and Samaria, and Yakov Faitelson, who has researched demography of the Arab population of Judea and Samaria since 1975. The most extraordinary aspect of the meticulous study is that it undercuts the claim that Jews will become a minority between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea if Israel retains, or even annexes Gaza, Judea and Samaria - the areas liberated in the 1967 Six Day War. "There is now a 60% Jewish majority between the Jordan and the Mediterranean," Ettinger said. "This has been the case, more or less, since 1967. "The difference is that in 1967 we were at the beginning of a huge increase in Palestinian natural growth rate - but today we stand at a time when the Palestinian population is going through a drastic decline in natural increase."

Ettinger insists that not only will a Jewish majority be maintained, it will only increase from now on. "The 60% of today is by far a drastic improvement over 1967," he said, "and the long-term trends dictate that the Jewish majority will increase as Palestinian natural growth rate continues to decrease, and negative migration [Ed: Arabs leaving Judea and Samaria] continues to be very high." In addition to the drop in Arab birth-rates, Ettinger points out that – more Arabs have moved out of Judea and Samaria than have moved in. He says that this trend of Arabs moving away has intensified in the recent years since Israel transferred sovereignty over Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority. On the average since 1950, Palestinian net emigration has been 10,000 annually." These figures stand in sharp contrast to the steady flow of net Jewish increase due to Jews making Aliyah (immigrating to Israel) since 1882.

Other facts presented in the report are:
Fewer births: PA Ministry of Health birth reports were substantially lower than the number predicted by the PBS.
Lower Fertility Rates: PA Arab fertility rates declined from the mid-90's through 2003, according to PA Ministry of Health, consistent with the trend occurring in other Middle Eastern Arab societies.
Double Counting: 210,000 Jerusalem Arabs who are already counted in Israel's population survey were included in the PA survey.
Inclusion of non-residents: PA Arabs with ID's living abroad for over one year were included in the PA Census & Projection.
Internal migration: 150,000 PA Arabs who have legally relocated to Israel since 1993 are still counted by the PA.
Retrospective Alterations of Recorded Birth data.

"The most convincing evidence again came from the Palestinians themselves," explained researcher Roberta Seid, Ph.D. "The PA Central Election Commission press release of October 14, 2004 acknowledged that 200,000 of Palestinians were living abroad and that the number of eligible voters living in the Territories was only 1.3 million. These figures corroborate our lowest population calculations."

Since its original publication in January, the leaders of the study have presented their finding to President Moshe Katzav, National Security Advisor General (res.) Giora Eiland, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Knesset Government Operations Committee, the State Comptroller, the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Foreign Ministry and in private meetings with Cabinet Members and Knesset members. They have now been invited to present their findings at Israel's National Security Council, the Haifa Technion, Knesset Committees, and the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. Though the report debuted in January, it is being presented at Israel's Government Press Office Thursday. "Since January, it has become part of the Israeli public debate," Ettinger said. "There is one team of the 'demographers of doom,' who have been feeding the public data based on gross misinterpretations. Now that we have documented this and presented the facts, they are gradually being accepted." Despite the new revelations, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continues to present demographics as the central reason for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria. "We are not allowed to ignore the demographic reality in the land of Israel, and even within the borders of the State of Israel," Sharon said Tuesday in an address at Bar Ilan University. "This reality entails sober decisions now. Any postponement in making the necessary decisions will not relieve us of the need to tackle the difficult questions."

The entire study can be viewed at PAdemographics.com or by clicking here.

Agriculture Minister: Gov´t Has No Solution For Katif Farmers – June 8, 2005

Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz says that the government has no solution to compensate Gaza farmers for their expulsion and is instead seeking to shift blame to the residents themselves.

Israel National News - The Ministerial Committee on the Implementation of the Disengagement Plan held a meeting with the media Wednesday Morning with the sole aim being to squelch rumors that the government was not prepared to implement the withdrawal from Gaza and the northern Samaria and provide the 9,000 evicted residents with homes and compensation. "I have invited the media this morning in order to refute the disinformation being disseminated on these issues by bodies that want to prevent the disengagement," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the start of the meeting. "The Government is energetically preparing to provide solutions for each evacuee. I emphasize that each evacuee has a solution and we will present them during the discussion."

Katz, whose Ministry is in charge of allotting agricultural land to farmers who are slated to be expelled from Gush Katif, said that PM Sharon was not being honest. "If there was an actual conversation on the matter, I would have attended the meeting, but it was simply a staged media event for everyone to make a statement about how they are ready - which they are not." Katz was told by the Prime Minister's staff that the issue of allotted lands for Gush Katif farmers would not be raised at the meeting. He was told there was no reason for him to attend. "The government is trying to blame the residents for not cooperating, but this matter is not related to them at all. Before the things are able to arrive at my office for approval, they need to be moved by other parts of the government, setting aside land - this was simply not done. Any solutions brought forward by our office have been completely struck down by the legal system, without any alternatives offered. There are simply no options for the Agricultural Ministry to even approve." The Agriculture Minister said that the government is fully aware of the situation, and therefore chose to avoid it at the meeting. "The matter of agricultural land was omitted from the meeting. The written invitation even said 'the matter of agriculture will not be discussed.' I intended to present a factual presentation that there is simply no solution prepared by the government for the farmers of Gush Katif."

Meanwhile, Gush Katif's farmers have decided to plant next season's crops regardless of the looming plan to expel them from their homes. Although the bank loans that usually enable planting are being denied them, a campaign has been launched to collect funds from private citizens to provide the loans. Under the slogan "Those who believe are planting," full page ads have been taken out in Israeli papers. It is widely assumed, and confirmed to MK Effie Eitam (Engagement Party) by Sharon confidant Atty. Dov Weisglass, that the implementation of the withdrawal plan hinges upon the assumption that the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria can be induced to leave voluntarily. "Even a farmer in Gush Katif who is actually interested in moving," Katz said, "the government is simply not prepared or willing to offer any solutions. We are talking about some of the finest farmers in the country - they will face extreme damages and financial trauma in addition to the personal price of being evacuated."

Palestinian Farmers: Don't Leave Gaza – June 1, 2005

Lekerev Report - Jewish settlers are not the only Gaza residents concerned about the upcoming Israeli withdrawal. Palestinian farmers employed in Gush Katif are telling Israeli newspapers that they are worried about what may lie ahead. Currently, some 3,000 Palestinians are employed in the Gaza settlement bloc, most of them in agriculture. Some agreed to speak to Ynet about their feelings ahead of the disengagement, provided they could use false names for themselves out of fear of retribution.

Mahmoud, 33, a Khan Younis resident, said he is concerned about providing for his family once the pullout is complete. "We hear in the news that in August they will leave Gush Katif, and we pray to G-d it won't happen," he said. "I ask G-d for them not to leave. If they do leave, there will be no food for my children." Mahmoud has been working at the settlement of Ganei Tal for more than 18 years and said he is happy with the work and earns as much as three Gaza laborers. "There's no work in Gaza," he said, slamming the Palestinian Authority for its corruption. "Only PLO members, those who work for the government, will get everything (following the pullout)," he said. "We won't get anything." Mahmoud also said Gaza residents are very upset about the Palestinian government's conduct, adding that international aid money earmarked for Gaza farmers never reached its destination.

Just like Mahmoud, 35-year-old Imad said he is also in despair over the upcoming withdrawal and is counting on a miracle to change the turn of events. Imad said he has been working in Gush Katif for 17 years, adding that "agriculture is the only thing I know how to do. After the disengagement, my children and I will have to eat gravel," he said. "This entire disengagement is a big problem. I don't want this soil. Take it and give me a way to make a living. In any case I'm not going to benefit from this land. " Imad said he agrees with Mahmoud in that the PA is essentially corrupt, and said he believes former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made a mistake by initiating peace with the Palestinians. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is continuing this today, something that has "robbed us of being able to make a living," he said. "Your Rabin, before his death, brought us cancer along with peace," he said. "Now Sharon also wants to say he is making peace, and he will give us more disease than calm. If you hand over Gush Katif, do you think there'll be peace and everything will be OK? No. It hurts me to see my children and to know that in a little while there will be nothing for them to eat.'

Palestinian State, Terrorists and the Enemies of Israel

Washington, Jerusalem and Amman Prepare for Abbas’ Exit – June 12, 2005

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report - Israeli and Palestinian officials are still bent on going through the motions to keep up an appearance of normal diplomatic momentum, the former egged on from Washington. Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Qidwa said Saturday, June 11, that disarming armed organizations is not on the table because they are legal as long as “the occupation” exists. Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz met Palestinian minister for civilian affairs Mohammed Dahlan Friday afternoon, June 10, to discuss Palestinian coordination for Israel’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip which is just over two months away. Earlier this week, he held talks with the Palestinian interior minister Nasser Yousef. He then phoned Palestinian authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas to place both meetings on the record.

Abbas would like to fade

This chronology will be put before US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, when she arrives on June 18, as evidence Israel has done all it can to secure active Palestinian assent for its withdrawal. But none of this motion is any longer pertinent. Rice’s overriding interest in Israel is to keep the Sharon government moving along its assigned track of disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank and make sure it takes place on schedule. But on the Palestinian scene, her role is more like a fire extinguisher. In his daily reports, US coordinator General William Ward, backed up by Middle East Quartet coordinator James Wolfenson, will have informed her that that Abbas is in big trouble, and in no shape to coordinate anything at all.

Hence the latest notice from Jerusalem to Ramallah asserting that Israel will go ahead and evacuate 21 communities with or without Palestinian coordination.

DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources offer an eyehole into Abu Mazen’s world to explain why he is on the point of washing his hands of a thankless job.

1. As head of the Palestinian Authority, he and his ministers have lost active control of the Gaza Strip or West Bank to lawless armed gangs who respect no authority.

2. Gunmen use the homes of Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank for target practice to make sure they remain non-functioning and understand who rules the Palestinian roost.

3. His attempt in Gaza Wednesday and Thursday, June 8 and 9, to halt the Hamas-Jihad Islami missile and mortar barrage on Israeli targets exposed him to extreme mortification. His appeal was met by more shooting – and not only at Israeli locations and military. Now they are gunning for Rashid Abu Shbak, whom Abbas would like to name director of the national security apparatus in the Gaza Strip to shore up his authority there. For the time being, the would-be troubleshooter is staying under cover in Ramallah.

4. In Gaza, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reveal Abu Mazen was informed that his negotiations with terrorist chiefs had been upstaged by a synchronized summit in Beirut between Hamas and Hizballah leaders Mousa Abu Marzuk and Hassan Nasrallah. Hamas was goading him by holding up its cordial relations with its Lebanese ally in preference to working with Palestinian Authority chairman, Abbas.

Before he got away, Abu Mazen had to promise the Gaza Council of the Heads of National and Islamic Organizations – a powerful umbrella of the main terrorist leaders – a seat on future Palestinian leadership counsels and a virtual veto on decisions for the Gaza Strip. This knocks on the head any chance of a deal to coordinate Israel’s August withdrawal.

5. In any case, a Palestinian Central Security blueprint drafted jointly by the CIA, the Palestinians and the Israelis for this very purpose was blown out of the water. It had hinged on the formation of a new national security force manned by 5,000 young Palestinians to take over West Bank and Gaza Strip locations vacated by Israel, before Hamas and the Fatah al Aqsa Brigades made a grab.

With Rice due on June 18, Abbas had hoped to present her with this force as an accomplished fact. What happened was that no sooner had the recruiting offices opened for business last week, when they were overrun by a horde of some 100,000 Palestinian applicants. Most were desperate job-seekers, but at least 30,000 were terror activists under orders to stampede the recruiting offices and shut them down. The entire plan therefore fell through - and with it the last chance of Israel-Palestinian security coordination.

6. While Abu Mazen and the Sharon government weave back and forth hoping ambivalence will disguise the crisis, Hamas freely states that the de facto ceasefire it accepted is a one-way street, there to be breached unilaterally whenever its leaders see fit. Hamas’ overseas, political and military Izz e-din al Qassam arms have pulled together to exploit the partial truce for building a new 10,000-strong army, replacing the force the IDF broke up with the most powerful military contingent the Palestinians can field. Its troops are sent home from training with new weapons and passwords for their call-up. Their commander-in-chief is Sheikh Hashem Jaabari.

Saturday, June 11, two days after Abu Mazen’s left Gaza City, a firefight erupted outside the various Palestinian command centers in Gaza City.

With the Americans sitting on his tail and his authority breaking down, DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources quote Abbas as confiding to his close advisers that he has had enough. This does not mean he will formally resign – he never has, any more than prime minister Ahmed Qureia. But, like him, the chairman will fade from the scene, become unavailable to pressure and protest. He may absent himself for months in Jordan or the Gulf emirates. The Bush administration sees the Palestinian crisis in the context of its troubles in Iraq, where the situation is worse, and setbacks in Lebanon, where the far-from-democratic electoral process has yet to produce stable government. Rice will still be in the Middle East on June 19, when the last round of the Lebanese election takes place. It is still not clear if Damascus will hang on to a measure of clout in Beirut or whether the Hizballah can be disarmed.

Two days earlier, June 17, Iranians vote for a president. In a single week therefore, US officials will be preoccupied with studying Tehran’s likely actions under a new Iranian president – Hashemi Rafsanjani is the most widely tipped to win in a second round, contemplating Bashar Assad’s continued rule as Syrian president, and deciding how to handle the defiant Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Abbas’ future and the launching of a few Qassam missiles which mostly misfire will not be at the forefront of American concerns at this time. But they would prefer that he stay in office to provide, with Ariel Sharon playing along, a show of business as usual on the Palestinian-Israel front.

To make the show convincing, preparations have begun in Washington, Jerusalem and Amman to proceed with the Israeli evacuation as though the Palestinian Authority were still a working administration and Abbas functioning normally. This week, Sharon dispatched senior defense ministry official Maj-Gen (Res.) to the Jordanian capital to confer on ways the Israeli and Jordanian armies and intelligence services can work together in the face of a takeover bid of the West Bank by a Hamas-Jihad Islami-al Aqsa Brigades coalition for terror, which already dominates the Gaza Strip. This consultation followed an initiative from Washington.

The Israeli public is being prepared for the prospect of evacuation under Palestinian fire. The media have begun receiving tips from anonymous officials who are saying that in order to bring the pull-backs to fruition, Israeli troops may have to re-occupy large sections of the Gaza Strip. Israeli is also preparing the ground for Palestinian shooting attacks from Gaza spreading to the West Bank and targeting central Israel.

Abbas to Bush: 'Time is Our Greatest Enemy' – May 27, 2005

Lekerev Report - President George W. Bush praised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' steps toward democracy and promised USD 50 million in housing aid for Palestinians in Gaza. "You have made a new start on a difficult journey, requiring courage and leadership each day. And we will take that journey together," Bush told Abbas.

The USD 50 million in new direct aid is part of a USD 150 million package Bush is seeking for the Palestinians from Congress. Bush said the money would help Palestinians settle into Gaza once the Israel withdrawal set for this summer is complete.

For his part, Abbas vowed to adhere to the U.S.- supported peace process but said, "Time is becoming our greatest enemy. We must end the Palestinian- Israeli conflict before it is too late." In two statements that many Israelis find naive at best, the President suggested that Palestinian voters would reject candidates who advocate violence. (That certainly did NOT happen in local elections recently.) Secondly, Bush said,"Palestinian moms want their children to grow up in peace just like American moms want their kids to grow up in peace." The sad truth is that too many Palestinian mothers give great value, as we have often seen, to their children becoming "shahids" (martyrs) and 'growing up in peace' for many would mean that their children grow up in a world where Israel no longer exists. These are the tragic realities on the ground here in the Middle East and no amount of political or diplomatic rhetoric can alter the facts.

I am NOT saying that every Palestinian feels this way. There are some lovely Palestinian families that I know personally, who want nothing to do with Hamas, violence, etc. But it is a proven fact that a significant majority do indeed support the elimination of Israel. Bush said that both the Palestinians and Israel must live up to their obligations under the so-called "road map" peace process that calls for creation of an independent Palestinian state on lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. "Israel must continue to take steps toward a peaceful future" and not take steps that contravene road map obligations, Bush said. He said Israel must "remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansions." At the same time, the Palestinians must end violence against Israelis. "You cannot have a democracy based upon rule of law if you have armed bands of people who will use their weapons to try to achieve a political outcome," Bush said. "We must not lose sight of the path ahead," he added.

In yet another very troubling remark by the US President, Bush said that any final-status agreement must be reached between the two parties, and changes to the 1949 Armistice lines must be mutually agreed to. A viable two-state solution must ensure contiguity of the West Bank, and a state of scattered territories will not work, he stressed. You cannot have territorial contiguity of BOTH Israel and Palestine. Several weeks ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for territorial contiguity for the Palestinians, a move which would cut Israel in half. Why? Why must it be Israel that has to forfeit territorial contiguity? Needless to say, the reports out of Washington yesterday are deeply disturbing to us here. Our only comfort, particularly for those who are dual citizens of Israel and America, is that ultimately all of these events hasten us toward Ultimate Redemption. But at the cost of how much pain along the way?

A Blow to US - Israel Relations – May 27, 2005

Lekerev Report - The Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee says Thursday's Bush-Abu Mazen meeting is a great blow to Israeli-U.S. relations, and proves that Sharon is deceiving the public. The committee chairman, Likud MK Yuval Shteinitz (pictured), said today that everything Sharon has long said he was promised by U.S. President George Bush amounts to zero, because "Bush said yesterday that the basis for everything is the pre-1967 borders."

Prime Minister Sharon has long boasted that Bush has promised him that he would support Israel's right to retain large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria in any final-status arrangement. However, Shteinitz said, Bush's remarks on Thursday represent "a regression even from previous American positions in favor of UN Resolution 242, which talked about 'defensible borders.'" In fact, Bush referred not to the 1967 borders, but rather to the 1949 Armistice Lines, which are even less generous to Israel in some areas. "It is deception and misleading of the public," Shteinitz said, "when Prime Minister Sharon claimed that the United States and Bush would support the Israeli position in talks after the disengagement." Shteinitz further said, "Abu Mazen is doing nothing against terrorism, as the Shabak (GSS), and even Sharon himself, have said. The opposite: he is allowing Hamas and the terrorist organizations to get stronger, and even to run in the elections. And this same Abu Mazen receives compliments in Washington for his opposition to terrorism."

Associate Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Friday morning that the Bush "promise" regarding Israel's right to retain large settlement blocs no longer exists, for all intents and purposes. Peres explained that this is because Bush made sure to say in the press conference with Abu Mazen on Thursday that the future of the areas requires Palestinian Authority agreement.

In summary, these are the issues that cause deep concern to Israel and should cause equal concern to American supporters of Israel: 1) Explicit reference to Jerusalem in the phrase "Israel should not undertake any activity that prejudice final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem." 2) Acceptance of validity of a "terror" party running in the elections. 3) Implicit acceptance of the PA position that the "punishment" for murdering Israelis is a day job in the PA security forces. I can only hope that the email inboxes at the White House are being jammed beyond belief by those of you who support Israel on a biblical and moral basis

Washington Sees Gaza Withdrawal as Stage One of Rapid Israeli Rollback – May 26, 2005

DEBKAfile Special Report from Washington - The Bush administration has always shied from getting confrontational with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Eager to see the Gaza and northern Samaria "disengagement" get underway, Washington backed the pullouts with all the diplomatic means and media spin at its disposal. This fitted in with Sharon’s strategy of presenting disengagement to the Israeli public as a finite plan that would not lead to additional withdrawals afterward. US officials also had no problem with Sharon describing his three-day visit to New York and Washington this week as nothing more than an opportunity to touch base with American Jewish leaders.

But on the quiet, administration officials took the opportunity of a word in the Israeli prime minister’s ear to dictate his next steps in the wake of the evacuation of 21 Gaza Strip communities and four out of the 120 in the West Bank.

Washington to Abbas: Don`t run before you can walk.

In an exclusive report from Washington, DEBKAfile's sources can reveal that US officials, including national security adviser Stephen Hadley, made a point of seeing Sharon during his visits to New York and Washington in the first part of the week. Tuesday, May 24, he pledged to the AIPAC convention – to loud cheers - that major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria would remain an integral part of Israel and be contiguous to the state of Israel in any final-status agreement. That same day, those US officials informed him that the forces assigned to execute the pullout from Gaza must be assigned directly to their next task: the dismantling of each and every "illegal settlement-outpost” in the West Bank. The evacuations would not end there either. Sharon was also told that further steps would be demanded, to be discussed at a later date.

Hadley had a simple "suggestion" for Sharon: Since the large forces he deployed for the Gaza withdrawal in mid-August will have been relocated in mid-September to northern Samaria to evacuate four settlements, the prime minister should take advantage of the pullout momentum and the resources dedicated to the disengagement and clear out the “illegal outposts” as well. As to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and his White House talks Thursday, May 26, the US officials assured Sharon that he would be made to promise steps suggesting Palestinian cooperation in several disengagement-related issues. The US tactic presented to the Israeli leader was clear: President Bush, by forcing Sharon to remove the disputed West Bank outposts without delay, is entitled to demand that Palestinian reciprocity by cooperating with Sharon across the disengagement board – starting from the evacuation of Gush Katif and northern Samaria and continuing through further Israeli withdrawals from large tracts of the West Bank.

According to DEBKAfile’s Washington sources, the US president was also prepared to warn Abu Mazen to stop trying to jump to the last stage of the roadmap for final status talks. He will be told to stop attempting to put the horse before the cart. Either drop the roadmap or follow through on all its performance-related clauses including uprooting terrorism and reforms. In short, the Palestinians cannot hope to achieve a permanent state with permanent borders in one leap. The US, the Palestinians and Israel, in the Bush administration’s view, share an interest in achieving a provisional Palestinian state with temporary borders before the end of Bush’s term in office.

As for the Palestinian elections on July 17, DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources report that Abu Mazen can now afford to stick to the date without delay and present this as a concession to the US president. In fact, the delay could be abandoned after Hamas reached a strategic decision not to challenge Abbas’ Fatah for the dominant role in the Palestinian government. Its leaders decided that they had more leverage for manipulating Abu Mazen from outside government while letting him face the music from Washington and Jerusalem. The Hamas would be better placed to build up its popularity in the Palestinian street as an opposition group.

As for Sharon, the administration purposely left Sharon no maneuvering room or a chance to explain the new move to the Israeli public. As one senior US source put it, "We did not want to give Sharon leeway for delaying action in the West Bank."

The best the Americans could offer Sharon was a vague promise to help him "overcome the domestic difficulties he will face in implementing" the outposts' removal.

A startled US official, in Washington for the AIPAC conference and aware of the American maneuver, asked the administration why it had decided to sandbag the prime minister. "There has been no change in the US position” - came the reply. “This has always been Washington's position."

But what about the repeated assertion by Sharon and his chief political adviser, Dov Weisglass, that there would be no additional pullouts after the Gaza and northern Samaria disengagement. "Sorry, but you can't rely on what Weisglass says," the US official replied. "He does not understand the way secretary of state Condoleezza Rice thinks. Nor does he understand her diplomatic vocabulary. During his meetings with Rice, he misinterpreted her naturally courteous demeanor as a nod to everything he said."

Straw: EU, G8 will do whatever possible to foster Gaza pullout - June 9, 2005

Haaretz - Major industrialized states will do whatever possible to foster a smooth Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday.Straw said he was impressed by Israel's resolve to carry out the withdrawal on time despite internal rightist resistance and by a start to Palestinian security reforms to rein in militants since Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas took office in January. "We will do everything we can as the United Kingdom and with the presidencies [of the EU and G8 industrialized powers] to back the joint efforts of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli government to make a success out of disengagement," he said. "[That is because] it is crucial to your people in Gaza and crucial to the future of the whole area," he told Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia after talks with him and Abbas.

Straw had a second and last day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, trying to assess both sides' preparedness for Israel's scheduled August pullout. Straw said he believed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's commitment to go ahead with the withdrawal, despite fierce opposition from the settlers and their backers. "I'm struck by the determination of the Israeli government to proceed with this, and proceed with it by the date set in mid-August," he said.

Straw said the pullout presents a "great opportunity" for progress toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but also sets challenges, requiring that the Palestinian leadership keep a lid on militants and deliver economic reform. "I think there's great recognition on both sides of the scale of the opportunities and the scale of the difficulties," he said. "If this is a success, people will see that the Palestinians are capable of running the beginnings of their own state ... they have the future in their hands."

An aide to Sharon, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that at his meeting with Straw, Sharon reaffirmed his intention to go ahead with the pullout, but told the visitor that continued Palestinian violence would block progress on any broader peace moves. Earlier Wednesday, Straw met Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah. At a news conference with Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al Kidwa, Straw warned that incidents such as Tuesday's mortar and rocket attacks on Gaza Strip settlements and the western Negev town of Sderot, claimed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would hinder progress. "If the terror and the killing of the destructive kind we saw yesterday, perpetrated by Hamas and other rejectionist groups goes on, it undermines the position of the Palestinian Authority as well as making those pursuing peace in Israel more difficult," he said.

Mofaz, Yusef to discuss coordination of disengagement with PA
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz meet Wednesday night with Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yusef to discuss coordination of the disengagement plan. Under the terms of the plan, Israel will this summer evacuate all settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank. Sharon accused political figures opposed to the disengagement of "reckless incitement" against the government, as a poll released Wednesday showed support for the pullout plan slipping. Sharon spoke at an open meeting of ministers concerned with the disengagment. As the meeting began, Sharon alluded to criticism that the government is insufficiently prepared for the pullout, calling it politically motivated."There is no doubt the reckless offensive against the government is conducted by bodies acting against the disengagement. My decision to invite the press was meant to refute the disinformation spread about this matter," Sharon said. The prime minister added that arrangements would be made for every evacuee: "The Disengagement Law makes full arrangements for every resident," he said.

An opinion survey released Wednesday showed support for the disengagement plan has declined of late, while opposition has grown. Analysts said the figures may in part reflect pessimistic assessments of the disengagement and the accompanying security outlook as expressed in by former military chief Moshe Ya'alon. The poll, commissioned by Israel Radio, showed that popular support for the disengagment, which a year ago was running at 60 percent and higher, had declined to 50 percent.At the same time, opposition to the plan rose to 40 percent, from a low of 33 percent last year, the radio said.

Interior Minister: Settlers avoiding dialogue
Interior Minister Ofer Pines-Paz told the meeting that his office is prepared to answer the evacuees' needs, and that no group in Israel has ever received such close attention. The problem, he said, is that there is no-one to talk to on the settlers' side, and that those who are speaking are gripped by fear. Housing Minister Yitzhak Herzog attacked those calling for evacuees to build a tent city, accusing them of relaying mistaken information. Enough housing exists to absorb the relocated settlers, he said, but the Gaza settlers' leaders have prevented them from registering for it. Asked why Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz was not present, Sharon said - to the ministers' amusement - that he must be busy milking a cow or planting a tree. Katz is under investigation for allegedly making political appointments. The director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Ilan Cohen, was to meet Gush Katif residents later Wednesday, in what settlers are calling a "decisive" meeting. Cohen, who heads the PMO's committee on the pullout, was to meet with representatives of the 430 Gush Katif residents who have signed up for the Nitzanim relocation plan as well as the Agricultural Forum, a new organization representing farmers set to be evacuated.

Steps before All-out War – May 20, 2005

DEBKAfile Special Report - Palestinian missile, mortar, rocket and shooting attacks on Israeli targets on both sides of the Gaza Strip border went into their third day Friday, May 20, placing the already leaky partial truce in terminal jeopardy. Instead of dying down, the violence is building up as the August date nears for Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. It brings to mind the solemn pledge offered by prime minister Ariel Sharon that the withdrawal would not take place under fire. If the violence persists therefore it will bankrupt the political and security concepts actuating the unilateral withdrawal.

Neither Sharon nor defense minister Shaul Mofaz appears to know how to proceed in the light of this turn of events.

Palestinian security forces are sitting on their hands. Their police officers watch the violations from afar, ignoring complaints by Israeli officers on the spot. No dialogue with the Palestinians is possible. Ramallah has emptied out. Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has made himself scarce junketing in the Far East and making sure the Israeli prime minister’s office cannot reach him. Furthermore, he has taken with him his entire team of close aides. Not a single competent official was left in Ramallah for contingencies.

When Sharon’s adviser Dov Weisglass demanded a meeting with a competent Palestinian official to complain about the truce violations, no one was willing to meet him but Said Erekat, whose relevance is nil since the death of Yasser Arafat. Mohammed Dahlan, civic affairs minister and Jibril Rajoub, national security adviser, decided to be unavailable so as not to reveal how little standing they and their boss, Abu Mazen, have with the Gaza Strip’s gunmen. To avoid what the US state department spokesman this week called “escalatory action,” Sharon declares Israel will not stand for any more attacks. But in the same breath, he and his spokesmen insist the IDF will continue to uphold the tattered ceasefire. That is why Israel’s single significant military action in the current crisis failed to deter further Palestinian attacks.

Early Wednesday, May 18, a Hamas operative taking part in the string of shooting and rocket attacks on Israeli positions on the Philadelphi border, was killed when some explosive device detonated in his hands. The Palestinians responded with a heavy mortar and missile barrage across the Gaza Strip. They explained it was necessary to avenge the Hamas operative’s death by striking Israeli targets regardless of who was responsible. In other words, Israel is held guilty for any Palestinian death – even if self-inflicted in the course of a truce violation. Fighting back would count as an Israel violation of the ceasefire. This logic is familiar from classical anti-Semitic scapegoat ideology. The Palestinian version attaches blanket guilt to the Jewish state per se.

Later that day, as the shooting escalated, Israel finally reacted with its first aerial strike in many months. An IDF drone pinpointed a Hamas crew preparing to launch a Qassam missile against Neve Dekalim from the Khan Younes cemetery in the southern Gaza Strip. The drone operator asked for permission to activate the drone and foil the launch. To his surprise, he received an okay. He immediately pushed the button and blew up the launcher, the missile and the firing mechanism. One Palestinian crewman was critically injured.

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that in this single counter-attack, Israel revealed for the first time an unmanned aerial drone equipped not just for surveillance but as a precision weapon capable of knocking out stationary and moving targets with minimal collateral damage. Similar armed drones, Predators, are known to have been fired three times before by the Americans in Afghanistan, Yemen and, on May 8, to kill the wanted al Qaeda operative Haitham al-Yemeni in near the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali. The Israeli government decided to expose the deadly drone hoping it would serve as a deterrent to more Palestinian attacks. The deterrence did not work because the Sharon government made it clear that there would be no follow-up since Israel was committed to a policy of restraint.

This left the Palestinians free to strike again.

Friday morning, May 20, a band of Hamas, Fatah-al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Popular Committees gunmen perched on an UNWRA school building in Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip and opened up on Kfar Darom and the attached military camp with mortars, shells and anti-tank weapons. Their plan was to emulate Iraqi al Qaeda terror tactics and follow up with an invasion of the village for a bloodbath. Miraculously, no one was hurt although village buildings were damaged. The IDF made do with firing a single tank shell to stop the attack, killing one cell member and injuring a second. The cell’s composition most tellingly refuted Mofaz’s assertion that the Hamas driven by its difficulties with the Palestinian Authority is responsible for the three days of attacks.

In the last two months, DEBKAfile has reported the failure of Abbas and his government to wrest control of the Gaza Strip and the main cities of the West Bank from a defiant coalition of Fatah factions, the al Aqsa Brigades, Hamas, Jihad Islami and the Palestinian Fronts. The most urgent question now is this: Is the revolt genuine? Or has Abbas cut an underhand deal with Palestinian terrorist chiefs permitting them to wage war against Israel at will while allowing him to conduct Palestinian “foreign policy” in a way that brings them international sympathy, plentiful funds for their war chest, and world backing for extorting from Israel one concession after another with nothing in return. Such a deal would strongly reflect the late Arafat’s strategy in more subtle form.

Abu Mazen’s White House talks next week should provide some clues to this vital question. Presumption of a common strategy would be unavoidable if the Palestinians held their fire during the three days leading up to the visit. It would indicate that the terrorists had been given an interest in Abbas’ success in Washington. His backing for Hamas is in any case a giveaway. Less than three months before the scheduled withdrawals, the persistence of Palestinian violence leaves the Israeli prime minister clutching at thin air. He knows that Israel military action to halt the Palestinian fire will be frowned on in Washington – or worse. Yet he sees those withdrawals being sucked into a maelstrom he cannot control. To cover their predicament Sharon and Mofaz maintain that there are two Palestinian Authorities, the second governed by Hamas.

Abbas has demonstrated that this distinction is fictitious. He takes every chance to stress the importance of bringing the radical Islamists into Palestinian mainstream politics, meaning running for election and power-sharing in the next government. He refuses adamantly to dismantle the terrorist frameworks or collect the arms stockpiled by Hamas or any other Palestinian terrorists. He hints that one day Hamas will transform itself from a terrorist organization to a political movement.

Abu Mazen’s statements might be convincing were it not for a small fact that he is at pains to conceal. Israeli military intelligence – AMAN, and the Shin Beit have solid evidence that armed Palestinian groups are in a hectic race to achieve a goal quite difference from a peaceful entry into politics; they are working flat out to prepare a fresh terror offensive against Israel, eager to apply the guerilla tactics they are studying in Iraq. They showed their paces and intent in Friday’s attempted raid of Kfar Darom. But since he is only days away from his and Abu Mazen’s trips to Washington, Sharon has let his hands be tied.

Bush Policy Switch: Hamas Need Not Dismantle to Gain Recognition – June 6, 2005

DEBKAfile Special Washington-Middle East Report - The bolt from the blue from Crawford, Texas, hit a slumbering Middle East overnight Sunday, June 5. The news agencies took down every careful word dictated by “senior administration officials.”

The Bush administration, they were told, is showing signs of easing its hard-line approach towards Hamas… It has acceded to the (terror group) running candidates in the Palestinian elections, even while they refuse to disarm and are still listed by Washington as a major terrorist organization.

The “senior US officials” said they may be open to contacts with some Hamas political “affiliates” and left open the possibility of dealing with the group if it gave up weapons and ended violence. This was in contrast to past calls for its total dismantlement.

The sources spoke of responding to a push for flexibility from European allies Britain and France, who are warning that complete dismantlement would be a “disaster” for Palestinians who benefit from Hamas aid. “There is now a realization that they (Hamas) do have a role to play …that if you can bring them into the political fold, then you’ll be marginalizing the military elements of those groups,” said a European diplomat. A senior administration official said: “We are not acquiescing. We do not deal with …terrorists.” But he added: “How do you pursue this without limiting democratic choices?”

Middle East leaders woke up Monday, June 6, to find that the Bush administration had hit on a way of leapfrogging over the standoff between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ declining clout and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s losing battle for a crackdown and total dismantlement of Palestinian terror. Both were now confronted with the compulsion to address a third party, the fully armed Hamas as is. To gain US recognition, the jihadist group is no longer required to dismantle its terrorist structures, foreswear violence, renounce its goal to destroy the Jewish state – or even to stop shooting Qassam missiles into Israel. This shift also implies a curtailment of the Middle East road map by omitting the dismantlement of terrorist organizations as a pre-condition for peace talks.

This policy U-turn has major applications far outside the Israel-Palestinian arena. It is a portmanteau concept that allows for legitimizing (the already ongoing) US contacts with Sunni Baathist guerilla leaders in Iraq, while they continue to wreak carnage; Lebanon’s Shiite extremist Hizballah (which claims electoral victory in South Lebanon’s elections Sunday, June 4) despite its refusal to lay down its weapons, including 12,000 Katyusha rockets on Lebanon’s border with Israel; and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which is likewise bidding for a role in the democratic process without relinquishing the use of arms. If the Bush administration can dredge up moderate Hamas “affiliates” with whom to maintain contacts, similar “moderates” can no doubt be dug out in Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ (suicides) Brigades, Gaza’s violent Popular Committees and the various rejectionist Palestinian Fronts. Washington will argue that it is leading the way to a breakthrough and Israeli will have little choice but to follow suit.

For Washington, the shift is a pragmatic acceptance of the real situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which DEBKAfile has repeatedly exposed in earlier reports. Abbas’s authority is confined to the small Ramallah pocket of the West Bank – and even then not every corner of this hub of Palestinian government. The northern and central West Bank are ruled by his opponents, an armed and violent coalition of Hamas, al Aqsa Brigades, Jihad Islami and Palestinian Fronts. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas, the Popular Committees and the al Aqsa Brigades hold sway. Bush heaped plenty of verbal praise on Abu Mazen when he visited Washington last month but was under no illusion about his real clout among his people. Left to stand alone own as sole buttress of Washington’s peace policy, he could come crashing down at any time amid the chaotic collapse of the Palestinian Authority.

Washington is no less worried by Sharon’s situation. Israel is undergoing social and political disintegration under his rule, the damage aggravated by his government’s fixed priority on the approaching pull-backs from the Gaza Strip and West Bank in August - albeit in the face of declining public approval (which has dropped below 50%). Seen from Washington, there is no point in waiting for improvements: Abbas’ collapse and Sharon’s further popular decline will only expose the Bush administrations’ entire Middle East stake to bankruptcy. The new US tolerance for Hamas will be welcomed by Abbas as the vindication of his own policy of refusing to tackle terrorist groups head-on to dismantle or disarm them, but rather integrating them into the political process. That is for the short term. But for later, neither the Americans nor Abu Mazen are yet asking who will lead a Palestinian negotiating team for talks with Israel: will he retain the primacy or have to accept a coalition of terrorist groups led by Hamas?

This awkward question will be brushed under the same carpet that has concealed the real state of affairs in the Palestinian community with regard to Abbas. Until now, he has served as a useful front man for disguising realities and there is no reason why he cannot carry on as before. Sharon and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will be left grinding their teeth over the Bush policy departure but will have to swallow the pill. The Israeli prime minister will not only be dragged into facing Hamas as an acceptable negotiating partner which has embraced democracy, but find the Islamist radicals are present and ready to take charge of evacuated territory in the northern West Bank and Gaza Strip. Mubarak will be made to re-define the hitherto banned Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian offshoot, as a respectable part of Egypt’s political system and entitled to run a candidate against him in the coming presidential election. By the device of postponing the Palestinian parliamentary vote from August to November, Abu Mazen had hoped to escape Hamas’ electoral threat to his own Fatah. Sharon, for his part, toyed with the notion of a general election after the pull-back was completed and before Israelis woke up to the prize he had awarded the most extremist Palestinian Islamic terrorist group. Mubarak had played with the notion of winning a fifth term unchallenged by the Muslim Brotherhood. George Bush has smashed the failing hopes of all three leaders with a surprise blow by the Hamas bludgeon.

Analysis: Bush Ban on Hamas Holds, Though Some Mull Shift - June 8, 2005

Israel National News - Bush administration officials are trying to formulate U.S. policy in the event of a likely victory by the Hamas terrorist group in elections for the Palestinian Authority governing council.

The Bush administration is in a quandry over how to deal with Hamas as a political force. Some officials say democracy means Arabs are free to choose Hamas. Can democracy and terror coexist?

The rising popularity of Hamas in PA-administered areas in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza has prompted PA chief Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah party to postpone those elections, originally scheduled for July 17. Abbas believes that the planned Israeli expulsion of its residents from Gaza and northern Samaria will boost his ratings before the electoral bout. The Hamas leadership has strongly objected to postponing the elections, which are being showcased by the United States as another victory for democracy, a dividend of seemingly endless war in Iraq.

As democracy purportedly comes to the Palestinian Authority, the Bush administration has been in a quandary over what to do if Hamas, one of the world’s most notorious terror organizations, comes to power democratically. A victim of his own propaganda, which justifies the Iraq war as a means to spread democracy to the Moslem Middle East in the absence of finding WMD, Bush’s policy on Hamas participation in the PA election has, so far, been a variation of “bring ‘em on”. Ironically, in order to provide some consistency to his war policy, Bush has acquiesced to having a terror organization run for office in the PA, without ever demanding that the organization renounce terror or lay down its arms.

Quoting from economist Milton Friedman’s book, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, insisting that Bush has not changed his policy on Hamas, said it’s all about freedom to choose. “We have great confidence in democracy and elections,” he said. "When people are given the chance to express themselves they tend to choose those who seek peace and those who seek to improve their quality of life, not terrorists." Another administration official echoed that view. "We're not acquiescing. We do not deal with ... terrorists." But he added: "How do you pursue this without limiting democratic choices?"

Other administration officials are dressing the administration’s apparent shift of policy in pragmatic terms. With tens of millions of dollars of U.S. aid about to start pouring into projects in PA municipalities already controlled by democratically-elected Hamas officials, some say they have no choice but to deal with Hamas representatives. "It's a very complicated problem. What do you do about these groups when they are both terrorist groups and entering into politics?" a senior administration official said. Up until now, the U.S. administration has been adamantly opposed to dealing with groups that do not forswear using terror as a means of attaining political objectives. For example, in contrast to the European view, the U.S. has refused to recognize Hezbollah as a legitimate political force in Lebanon, despite the fact that is has a very popular political wing that plays a role in Lebanese electoral politics.

Not all administration officials agree with the White House’s softened attitude toward Hamas as a political force in the PA. A report in Tuesday’s New York Times suggested that the administration will refuse all contact with Hamas even if it wins in the upcoming PA elections. "The president has said that Hamas is on the terrorism list, and it's there for a reason," said an anonymous administration official. "We don't recognize that you have changed your behavior just because a group is running candidates as well as suicide bombers."

That particular official may be worried about what effect a “bring -‘em – on, free to chose” precedent may have on elections in Iraq, once U.S. forces withdraw. Saddam’s Ba’ath party or even Shiite terror groups could run a campaign based on how many U.S. troops they succeeded in killing before the U.S. pulled out. The direction U.S. policy ultimately takes may have a lot to do with how strongly Israel maintains its opposition to dealing with Hamas. Unfortunately, the Civil Administration, perhaps without considering the wider ramifications of its move, has already begun dealing with Hamas municipal officials as a means of easing conditions in PA administered areas. If Israel is interested in strengthening administration officials opposed to softening the U.S. approach to Hamas, the Defense Ministry (which oversees the Civil Administration) should make sure Israeli officials stay out of harm’s way regarding any dealings with Hamas representatives.

Large Terrorist Tunnel Discovered Under Gush Katif – May 31, 2005

Lekerev Report - A long terrorist tunnel was discovered leading from the Arab Gaza city of Khan Yunis towards Gush Katif. It was to be used for an attack either during or after Israel's scheduled withdrawal. The tunnel was ten meters (11 yards) deep and 50 meters long, headed for the veteran Gush Katif communities of either Netzer Hazani or Katif. Cooperation between the Palestinian Authority security forces and the IDF led to the tunnel's discovery.

IDF analysts assume that the tunnel was planned to smuggle terrorists into a community and/or to blow it up under Israel's retreating/evacuating forces. In either event, it is seen as yet another worrisome sign that the terrorists are preparing for a major clash with Israel during and after the planned disengagement.

Abbas: Return to Terror if PA Demands Not Met – May 31, 2005

Lekerev Report - Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) threatened Sunday, in an English language interview program, to renew terrorism if the PLO's demands are not met. The official PA website, wrote, "[Abu Mazen] warned that if progress toward a peace agreement was not achieved in meetings with Sharon next month, 'despair and loss of hope will come back and a return to the old ideas' of armed resistance." Despite the period of recent "calm," terror attacks are thwarted almost daily and rockets and mortar shells continue to be fired at Jewish communities on both sides of the Green Line.

Critics of Abu Mazen have warned that he has never fundamentally abandoned terror - only saying that at the present point in time he thinks he can get more by talking than by shooting. His statements Sunday prove their point.

Hizbollah Wins So. Lebanese Elections with a Landslide – June 6, 2005

Lekerev Report - Syria's staunchest allies, Hizbollah and Amal, swept south Lebanon's general elections on Sunday, in a crushing victory, a clear vote for anti-Israeli guerrillas to keep their weapons, despite international pressure for them to disarm. Hizbullah, labeled a terrorist organization by Washington, teamed up with its rival, the Amal movement, for parliamentary elections in the largely Shiite Muslim south and easily swept up some 23 seats in that region, which borders Israel.

Outside a polling station in the port city of Tyre, a picture of Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah with a 'Yes' written on it was hung near a portrait of U.S. President George W. Bush wearing a cowboy hat and the word 'No' written on the bottom.

Lebanon's first general elections since Syrian troops left are being held region by region over four weekends until June 19.

Chaos in Gaza City Already; What will it be later? – June 3, 2005

For the second day running, Palestinian Authority security officers demonstrated in the Gaza Strip in protest against PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas's decision to reconstruct the dozen or so Palestinian security services. Thursday's protest turned violent when hundreds of officers belonging to the PA's Military Intelligence Force went on the rampage inside the Palestinian Legislative Council building, virtually destroying much of the building and exchanged gunfire with policemen in Gaza City. I would remind you that these are the "Palestinian Police" and we're supposed to believe that they will enforce law and order??????

The day before, some 50 members of the same force blocked main roads and raided PA institutions in some parts of the Gaza Strip. PA officials in Ramallah accused the ousted commander of Military Intelligence, Gen. Musa Arafat, of standing behind the unrest. Gen. Arafat, a cousin of Yasser Arafat, was dismissed from his post two months ago. According to one official, Gen. Arafat has since been inciting his followers against the PA leadership. "He still hasn't come to terms with the fact that he was sacked," he added. Eyewitnesses said at least 600 officers and masked gunmen belonging to the ruling Fatah party marched in the streets of Gaza City, chanting slogans against Abbas and his interior minister, Gen. Nasser Youssef.

Lebanon and Israel

Lebanese Poll Results Preset by US-French-Endorsed Deals – May 30, 2005

DEBKA-Net-Weekly - The stunning election victory in the Beirut region attributed to Saad Hariri, son of the assassinated former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, is no more than hyperbole. Nine of the 12 seats his camp carried Sunday, May 29, were sewn up in advance.

Beirut’s electorate knew it was being fed a done deal and many therefore did not bother to turn out for the first round of the first parliamentary election to be held in post-Syrian Lebanon.

Lebanon`s lethal politics: Saad, son of murdered Hariri, takes Solang Jemayel, widow of assassinated president, aboard.

The only stunning development was the hectic pace at which Lebanon’s political factions made and broke alliances with an astonishing array of partners in the days leading up to the poll.

Round two of the four stages held on successive Sundays will take place next week in the predominantly Shiite south. All four ballots to elect a 128-seat parliament are the products of Lebanese-style prearrangements endorsed by Washington and Paris.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly 206 opened a window on these deals ahead of the vote:

It was only a matter of time before the United States and France got sucked into Lebanon’s political quagmire and ethnic animosities. The catalyst was the arranged return to Beirut earlier this month of Maronite Catholic ex-general Michel Aoun from 15 years of Syrian-imposed exile in Paris. They had tagged him originally as frontrunner for displacing pro-Syrian Emil Lahoud as president. Hence the hero’s welcome staged in his honor in Beirut by 100,000 supporters. But in a twinkling, the favorite slumped from the Lebanese equivalent of Viktor Yushchenko to a fringe figure, who complained bitterly that his erstwhile American and French sponsors had dumped him.

The Maronites took this to mean that the entire community had dropped out of favor too - after spearheading the national resistance movement that helped the United States and France push the Syrians out of Lebanon. Sensing betrayal, Maronite leaders moved fast to grab the first allies that came to hand and set themselves up for the poll that was only days away. The result was a crazy Levantine quilt and four new political blocs in the Beirut power center. Lebanese politicians were soon touting the new camps as the basic building blocks of The Third Lebanese Republic. However, given the Lebanese experience, these undying pacts are unlikely to endure long. In the meantime, an improbable constellation of parties is running in the national election, round one of which has already taken place. Most strikingly, the Maronites went their different ways, each faction anchoring itself to a partner with more solid backers and prospects.

Solang Jemayel, widow of the Maronite president assassinated by Syrian agents in 1982, threw in her lot with Saad Hariri for a foothold in the new parliament. She thereby acquired another partner. The Hariri list had earlier struck a secret deal with the Hizballah to run together in the Beirut district and southern Lebanon. It paid off in Beirut. The staunchly Catholic Jemayel had no qualms about joining up with the largest armed Shiite militia in Lebanon.

The Maronites’ second strongwoman, Astride Geagea, wife of imprisoned Phalange commander Samir Geagea, headed for the Chouf Mountains and Deir al-Kamur, stronghold of her husband’s historic enemy, Druze leader Walild Jumblatt. They struck a deal there for Geagea to join the Druze list These turnabouts left the returning Maronite prodigal Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement high and dry with no support structure on the ground. After 15 years away, he too embraced the unthinkable, a deal with the Syrian stooge, President Emile Lahoud, whom he was meant to depose.

Finally, Hizballah’s Hassan Nastrallah and his sworn Shiite foe, Nabil Berri’s Amal agreed to join forces for the poll and sweep the south.

Why did Washington and Paris suddenly abandon Aoun? Their overriding objective is a strong and independent Lebanese government that can withstand the pressures Syria is certain to exert for a renewed stake in the country. The United States and France realize that Aoun and the Maronites are too narrow a base to stand on their own. In order to eradicate Damascus’s influence in Beirut once and for all, they must turn the Lebanese political groups still under Syria’s thumb inside out.

Another radical change in the US and French position is their decision to back away from their former insistence on the Hizballah being disarmed forthwith. They are leaving the task to the new Lebanese government and will demand that the Palestinian militias be disarmed first. The Shiite terrorist group can therefore run for election to parliament free of US pressure to give up its weapons. Neutralizing armed Palestinian groups in the refugee camps of southern Lebanon, the Americans and French believe, will weaken Hizballah and its ties with terrorist elements within the Palestinian Authority.

DEBKAfile adds: The shape of the new Lebanese regime is more or less a foregone conclusion, barring last minute betrayals endemic to this country. But one of its first challenges will be the release of Hizballah’s grip on the south and forcing its retirement to the Beirut region. Israel is therefore casting an interested eye on the next chapter of Lebanon’s post-Syrian history, in the hope that the terrorist Shiite group and its bristling array of 12,000 pointing missiles will be finally removed from its northern border.

Anti-Syrian Candidates Concede in Lebanon – June 12, 2005

SOUK EL-GHARB, Lebanon (AP) -- Anti-Syrian candidates apparently suffered major losses in a third round of elections Sunday to fill nearly half the seats in parliament, a senior opposition leader conceded after a campaign that led to some surprising alliances. Walid Jumblatt said former army commander Michel Aoun, who broke opposition ranks and joined pro-Syrian groups on an anti-corruption slate, was winning in contested constituencies. Aoun's success could hurt the opposition's drive to gain a majority in the 128-seat legislature and leave him a key player in the fight over Syrian control. An empowered Aoun could put the brakes on the opposition's campaign to remove the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

Preliminary results and campaign estimates showed Aoun and his allies leading in several districts in Mount Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley. In some areas, his allies were already celebrating with fireworks. Official results were expected Monday. Jumblatt accused Aoun, who returned from 14 years' exile in May, of being brought in by Damascus to undermine the opposition. "Michel Aoun is a small (Syrian) tool," he told Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television. "True he succeeded, I concede that." Aoun says his feud with Syria is over now that Damascus has withdrawn its army from the country and he campaigned on a platform to fight the corruption he blames for Lebanon's economic ills, including a national debt of over $30 billion. The Christian leader said he was willing to talk with other factions in the new parliament and the priorities of his Free Patriotic Movement would be to work for a new election law, shorten the mandate of parliament's four-year term and demand the government carry out a financial audit.

Anti-Syrian forces need at least 45 more seats to win a firm grasp on Parliament and wean it of Damascus' control. The four-stage elections end next Sunday when voters cast their ballots in northern Lebanon. The withdrawal of Syria's army from Lebanon in April, and subsequent jockeying for power, fractured some of the longstanding pro- and anti-Syrian political alliances. Aoun, who fought and lost a war against Syria in 1989, broke with the opposition after his return from exile, pitting himself against Jumblatt. Jumblatt was allied with Saad Hariri, son of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, who led a ticket to sweep the Beirut elections. But the Druse leader also has forged ties with right-wing Christian politicians and the pro-Syrian militant group Hezbollah in the effort to defeat Aoun's slate.

Turnout among the 1.2 million eligible voters was high Sunday. No official figures were available, but media estimated it was about 54 percent in Mount Lebanon and 49 percent in the Bekaa Valley. By contrast, turnout was 27 percent in the May 29 voting in Beirut that kicked off the staggered voting. Many city dwellers drove to their hometowns in Mount Lebanon, the country's most populous province, and the eastern Bekaa Valley to cast their ballots. They brought along their children, party flags and pictures of favored candidates, Christians and Muslims mingled in a festive atmosphere.

The vote, the first since Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon after 29 years, was largely peaceful despite some minor scuffles. The government sent army and police reinforcements to Mount Lebanon, the historic heart of the country, after political tensions sparked violence last week. In Souk el-Gharb, where Christian forces fought bloody battles with the Druse in the 1980s, residents were delighted by the peaceful competition. "For me, ballot box battles are for sure much better than gunbattles," said Shahine Salibi, a 65-year-old Christian grocer. "We want change and we want people who will fight corruption," he said, adding that he voted for a ticket backed by Aoun.

Some 100 candidates competed in Mount Lebanon for 35 seats, allocated to different sects according to Lebanon's power-sharing political system. In the eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, 119 people were running for 23 seats. Aoun was among the first to vote, arriving under heavy guard at a polling station in his hometown of Haret Hreik, a Shiite southern suburb of Beirut and Hezbollah stronghold. Dozens of supporters broke into cheers and applause. Although former enemies banded together in electoral alliances, bitter reminders of the 1975-1990 civil war remained. In the village of Kfar Matta, where Christian militiamen killed 107 Druse in 1983 before they were driven out of the area, Druse inhabitants cast their ballots while displaced Christians voted at makeshift polling stations on another mountain ridge to avoid friction. "This is a sad day. It's humiliating to have to vote here, but what can I do? One has to keep hope alive," Michel Haddad said after casting his ballot in Mechref, nine miles away. "Our leaders have reconciled, but we're still unable to go to our village." Lahoud voted in his Christian mountain hometown of Baabdat. He vowed to fight opposition attempts to force his resignation.

Syria withdrew its military forces from Lebanon under international pressure and mass protests that followed Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination. But anti-Syrian Lebanese — and the United States — accuse Damascus of not fully withdrawing its intelligence operatives and perhaps even organizing political assassinations. Syria has denied the allegations. The Lebanese opposition blames Syria and its Lebanese allies for the murders of Hariri and the anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir. Both parties deny the allegations.

International Security Threats Against Israel

Terror Threat Causes Evacuation of Israeli Embassy in Tashkent – June 5, 2005

Lekerev Report - Staff at the Israeli embassy in Uzbekistan and their families have been instructed to leave the country owing to heightened security concerns, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. Israeli daily Haaretz said only ambassador Ami Mel and security guards were left on station in the capital, Tashkent.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday warned of potential terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan and also gave permission for some if its embassy staff and their families to leave the country.

Last month security guards at the Israeli embassy in Tashkent shot a man carrying fake explosives, as he approached the building. The suspected bomber was an Uzbeki who appeared to be wearing an explosives belt, which later turned out to have been a dummy device, and ignored orders to halt.

Violence that the authoritarian government of President Islam Karimov blames on Muslim extremists has plagued the former Soviet republic since 2004. It came to a head this year when terrorists stormed a jail, released prisoners and became embroiled in a battle with government security personnel.

The Liberation of Jerusalem – June 5, 1967

Liberation of the Temple Mount and Western Wall by the IDF – June 6, 2005

This is Mordechai Twersky reporting from Jerusalem:
Lekerev Report - What you are now about to hear is perhaps one of the most riveting recordings in the modern-day history of Israel. I refer to the dramatic sounds of Israeli Defense Forces entering and liberating Jerusalem's Old City and the Western Wall on June 7th, 1967. You hear the sounds of gunfire. You hear the footsteps of Israeli soldiers, as they draw closer and closer and as General Uzi Narkiss instructs them and asks to be shown where the Western Wall stands. We hear a triumphant Brigadier General Shlomo Goren, later to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel, as he recites the memorial prayer and sound the shofar, as Israeli soldiers weep with sorrow over their comrades killed in combat.

Listen closely to this piece of history, which is housed in the archives of the Avi Yaffe Recording Studio in Jerusalem.

Liberation of the Temple Mount and Western Wall by the IDF (audio) - (Hebrew Original)
Voice of Israel (transcription) - (ISRACAST)

Jerusalem Day Begins Sunday Night – June 5, 2005

Israel National News - As Israel prepares to celebrate Jerusalem Reunification Day tonight and tomorrow, the Central Bureau of Statistics announces that Jerusalem is Israel's largest city.

At the end of the year 2004, the number of residents in the capital city was 706,000 - more than 10% of Israel's total population, estimated at about 6.9 million residents. Jerusalem is also one of Israel's youngest, with 32% of the Jewish population under the age of 15 and 11% over the age of 65. In Tel Aviv and in Haifa, 17-18% are under 15, while about 15% are over age 65.

Jerusalem is also Israel's largest city in terms of area, measuring 126,300 dunams, or close to 50 square miles. Both Haifa and Tel Aviv are each less than half this size. Israel's capital city was only its western half - until 1967, when a Jewish country regained control of the Holy City for the first time in 1,850 years. This occurred in the Six Day War, when Jordan - which had controlled eastern Jerusalem since 1948 - joined the hostile Egyptian-Syrian alliance against Israel, and promptly lost Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

Click here for a moving INN "Israeli Salad" TV production in honor of Jerusalem Day.

Half-a-million people took part in Jerusalem Day celebrations last year, according to city officials. Most of them took part in festive activities, but some participated in memorial ceremonies. These included the official ceremonies for the 776 fallen Six Day War soldiers, and, for the first time, an official memorial for the 4,000 Ethiopian Jews who died en-route to Israel. The main feature of Jerusalem Day festivities is the "Rikudgalim" - the now-traditional dance/march to the Old City by tens of thousands of people waving Israeli flags.

JERUSALEM DAY 5765/2005 – June 5, 2005

Lekerev Report - 20,000 marchers, and tens of thousands of onlookers, took part in a gala parade through central Jerusalem last night, as the capital began celebrations to mark the return of the Old City and the Western Wall to Israeli sovereignty during the Six Day War. Shimon Peres, deputy Prime Minister, said in his address to the assembled Jerusalemites, "Anyone who thinks Israel can absorb 240,000 Arab residents of the city and retain Jerusalem as a Jewish capital is mistaken: and anyone who thinks that we must re-divide the city with borders and walls is equally mistaken. Without the Negev (desert), Galilee, and Jerusalem, there is no Israel."

Come to Jerusalem, to the Kotel (Western Wall), on Monday evening. Join the dancing, the music, the celebrations of Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. If you can't be here, join the festivities from home by watching live broadcasts from the Western Wall Plaza on the site linked below. Grab an Israeli flag and dance in front of your computer screen! For on this day, 38 years ago, the Jewish people regained their national treasure.

An integral element of the story of the liberation of the Kotel is the sound of the shofar (ram's horn) that shook the air on the 7th of June 1967. The man who blew that historic shofar blast which caused peoples' hearts to tremble was Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the first Chief Rabbi of the IDF. You can learn more about him also when you visit the site below.

Israel in International Sports

Israeli Soccer Team in World Cup Finals – June 3, 2005

Lekerev Report - The Israel national soccer team arrived yesterday in Dublin prior to its World Cup Group Four qualifier against Ireland at Landsdowne Road Stadium tomorrow evening. The team will hold its final practice session before Shabbat, in keeping with Coach Avraham Grant's custom in this campaign of not training on the Sabbath.

Prior to heading for Dublin from Colchester, England yesterday, Grant and his professional staff decided to show the players a video of Ireland's recent game against Portugal. "I didn't want to show the players the force of the stadium, of the crowd, and of the Irish national team. But I opted for them to see exactly what they are going into, and what awaits them at one of the fieriest stadiums in Europe, where the [Irish] national team receives incredible support," Grant said. "I saw that the players were somewhat taken aback, and that's good," Grant continued. "They know exactly what awaits them. We will all know exactly what has to be done on that field. This is a mature team that understands that we can come away from there with a good result."

The game is also a "crucial" one for Ireland, coach Brian Kerr said yesterday. Ireland, which has not lost a World Cup qualifier at home since a 3-1 loss to Spain in October 1993, can go to the top of the tightly-contested group if it beats Israel tomorrow and then wins in the Faroe Islands Wednesday.

Israelis will be glued to their televisions tomorrow night after Shabbat, even those who are not necessarily frequent sport watchers. After all, given the present tensions in the country, a good soccer game, a chance to cheer for the Israeli team, will provide a much needed distraction.

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