June 14 - 18, 2004

• DISENGAGEMENT PLAN
  • Israel Proposes Construction of High-Rises for Palestinians in Gaza
  • Mubarak and Qurei Talks Cancelled
  • "Philadelphi Tunnel" Tender Published
  • Disengagement Slated to Begin in August
  • Palestinians Drafting Agreement on Gaza Rule After Disengagement
• SECURITY
  • Attack on Prime Minister Sharon's Bureau Foiled
  • IDF Foils Car Bomb Attack at Netzarim Junction
  • Three Terror Leaders Killed in Nablus
  • Restrictions on Palestinians in West Bank Eased
  • Mega-Attack by Hamas Thwarted
• SOCIETY
• High Court: Municipalities Not Allowed to Restrict Sale of Pork
• Attorney General Closes Case Against Sharon
• Israel Simulates Earthquake in Negev
• Amid Debate over Non-Indictment Decision, AG Expresses Trust in State Prosecution
• First “Christian Birthright” Group Visits Israel
• Israeli Arabs Credit Fence for Newfound Prosperity
• ECONOMY & HIGH-TECH
  • IBM, Cisco Systems' SPP Chip Designed in Israel
  • Dubai to Copy Israeli Hi-Tech Model

 

DISENGAGEMENT PLAN

Israel Proposes Construction of High-Rises for Palestinians in Gaza
Monday, June 14, 2004
Israel is pushing for the construction of multistory residences for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip to replace houses in Jewish settlements that are to be dismantled, HA’ARETZ reported. Officials close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon explain that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza should trigger a process of rehabilitation for the Palestinian refugees at the end of which the issue of a right of return for refugees would disappear from the public agenda. "Israel will set terms to the international community, which wants to take part in this rebuilding process,” one official said. “Israel will make the flow of funds [to Palestinians in Gaza] conditional upon their proper, monitored use. Settlers' houses are to be demolished; but the houses' foundations will remain on the ground, and they will be transferred, with certain conditions attached, to the international community,"
he added.
The officials clarified that money received from international organizations would not be used to compensate settlers who evacuate their homes; instead, the money will be used to rebuild the Gaza Strip, and perhaps go towards development projects in the Negev.

Mubarak and Qurei Talks Cancelled
Thursday, June 17, 2004
A meeting between Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak scheduled take place in Cairo today has been cancelled, HA’ARETZ reported. No explanation was given for the cancellation. Qurei will hold a meeting with the chief of Egyptian intelligence Omar Suleiman.
Talks between Qurei and Mubarak were to focus on the preparation of the upcoming round of talks among Palestinian factions, scheduled for early next month. The Egyptians have tried to convince Palestinian factions in Gaza, notably Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to stop attacks against Israel so as to guarantee the smooth implementation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal plan.
Qurei arrived in Egypt on Wednesday night, after Mubarak met with CIA director George Tenet to discuss Egypt's role in assisting the Palestinians following the Israeli disengagement. U.S. Ambassador David Welch and Suleiman also attended the meeting.

"Philadelphi Tunnel" Tender Published
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Preparing for the day after the Israel Defense Forces withdraws from the Gaza Strip, the Defense Ministry published today a tender calling on contractors to submit proposals for the excavation of a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, MA’ARIV reported. The tender apparently refers to the Philadelphi route where a 4-kilometer tunnel will be dug at a depth varying between 15 to 25 meters.
The Philadelphi route, which separates the southern Gaza Strip from Egypt, is used by terror organizations to smuggle weapons and terrorists. The security establishment is concerned that once the IDF withdraws from the route, terrorists will be able to use it without restrictions for their deadly operations.
Security authorities have been working for some time to come up with creative solutions to the problems caused by the Philadelphi corridor.

Disengagement Slated to Begin in August
Friday, June 18, 2004
An updated timeline for the implementation of the disengagement plan shows that settlers willing to voluntarily leave Gaza can begin to request compensation before the end of June, and that the first voluntary evacuation of inhabitants could take place by August, MA’ARIV reported. The original plan presented by the steering committee for the disengagement plan earlier this month, indicated that the voluntary evacuation of settlers from the Gaza Strip was to begin in March 2005. The Israel Defense Force is also preparing itself for the possibility that the government decide to enforce involuntary evacuation as early as December of this year, much earlier than the original assessments that forced evacuation would begin around the end of 2005. The IDF officially set up a special team on Thursday that will deal with the disengagement and work under the auspices of the Southern IDF Command. Security sources said that the timing element was critical, because a long, drawn out evacuation process would encourage Palestinian terrorist organizations to try and sabotage the process.

Palestinians Drafting Agreement on Gaza Rule After Disengagement
Friday, June 18, 2004
The Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have begun drafting an agreement on how to run jointly the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal, HA’ARETZ reported. PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei confirmed that the document was being written, and added it would be completed after additional talks in Egypt. Qurei met today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo to discuss the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Egypt is seeking assurances from Israel that it will halt all military strikes in Gaza well before the pullout, to enable Egypt to send military advisers there to train the Palestinian security forces. Egypt is also pressing PA Chairman Yasser Arafat to agree to security reform, including merging 12 security branches into three. Arafat has resisted reform in the past and has not given an unequivocal answer.
Egypt is also trying to broker an agreement between the PA and rival factions - including the terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad - on how to run Gaza after a pullback.
In the past, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have refused to join the PA.

 

SECURITY

Attack on Prime Minister Sharon's Bureau Foiled
Monday, June 14, 2004
A plan to carry out a terror attack on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office in Jerusalem has been foiled by Israel’s security services, MA’ARIV reported. The plan was revealed following the arrest a month ago of East Jerusalem resident Hussam Nabulsi, 38, for involvement in a different plot to perpetrate a terror attack on a synagogue in the capital's Mea Shearim neighborhood. During his interrogation, Nabulsi - who holds an Israeli ID Card, worked as a driver for a printing company, and apparently had access to government ministries, including Sharon's office - told the police he had planned to target the Prime Minister's Bureau by planting a bomb among printed materials designated for his office. He was to then move about 200 meters away, and detonate the explosive device using a cellular phone. The bomb was later found in a bag near the village of Bir Naballah and blown up by police sappers in a controlled detonation.

IDF Foils Car Bomb Attack at Netzarim Junction
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Israel Defense Forces troops foiled a car bomb attack at the Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip today, HA’ARETZ reported. The explosive-laden car was unable to cross a dirt mound and blew up after soldiers fired at it. There were no Israeli casualties in the incident. The Palestinian driver of the car escaped before the explosion, and was arrested by IDF troops.
Earlier Tuesday, two soldiers were lightly wounded after Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at forces in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The injured soldiers were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva.
The foiled car bomb attack was the third of its kind in the past two months. In May, a day after Israel's Independence Day holiday, Palestinians intended to detonate a Jeep, decorated with Israeli flags, at the Gaza Strip Jewish town of Kfar Darom. Three weeks ago an explosive-laden car was meant to explode near a bus carrying workers en route to one of the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Both attacks were foiled by IDF troops.

Three Terror Leaders Killed in Nablus
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Three Palestinian terrorist leaders were killed late Monday night when a missile blasted their car in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, HA’ARETZ reported. One of the dead was identified as Khalil Marshoud, a 24-year-old leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The two others were identified as Awad Abu Zeid and Mohammed Al Assi, a member of Islamic Jihad.
Marshoud is considered heir to two previous military commanders in the Nablus area, who were killed in a similar attack a few weeks ago in the city. Marshoud was responsible for multiple terror attacks in Israel. The Balata camp is a stronghold for the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Army sources said the decision to strike Marshoud was reached after numerous attempts to arrest him had failed, leaving no other alternatives to thwart the terror activities in which he was involved.

Restrictions on Palestinians in West Bank Eased
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
The Israel Defense Forces has begun the removal of some 40 roadblocks and obstacles near Palestinian villages across the West Bank in an effort to "ease the flow of movement and quality of life" for Palestinian civilians, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The effort follows several weeks of relative quiet in the area and an internal IDF assessment that the checkpoints and obstacles in question are not necessary to the fight against terrorism. The initiative is part of a wider IDF program to ease the burden placed on ordinary Palestinians.
Many of the roadblocks were placed shortly after the eruption of the current Palestinian violence in September 2000 to curb the movement of potential terrorists. The construction of the security fence, said one senior IDF source, has contributed to the lowered terrorist threat enabling the army to implement the new measures.

Mega-Attack by Hamas Thwarted
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
A mega-terror attack to be executed by six Hamas bombers was thwarted when the participants were apprehended with explosives while trying to get into Israel through the Karni border crossing, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Military Intelligence Chief Aharon Ze'evi Farkash informed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the bombers were to have set off their explosives "simultaneously," as a revenge for the killing of Hamas’s leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantissi.
Farkash said Hamas was still "highly motivated" to carry out a revenge attack, but was "frustrated" by the success of Israel Defense Forces operations. He emphasized that there was no cease-fire or "hudna" at present, and that Hamas was focusing on efforts to attack Jewish residents in the Gaza Strip.
Since January 2004, 72 planned suicide bomb attacks have been foiled, and 42 would-be bombers arrested, Farkash said. The group is suffering from the "political blow" dealt when Israel targeted the group’s top leadership earlier this year.

 

SOCIETY

High Court: Municipalities Not Allowed to Restrict Sale of Pork
Monday, June 14, 2004
In a landmark decision made by an extended (9 justice) panel, the High Court of Justice has struck down all the municipal by-laws forbidding or limiting the sale of pork products, MA’ARIV reported. In a landmark ruling, it ordered the local authorities to formulate new regulations in line with the country's basic laws guaranteeing freedom of occupation.
The justices determined three main criteria to be determined for the sale of pork meat: In a neighborhood where a secular majority exits, pork products can freely be sold; in a neighborhood with a religious majority, no such products will be sold; in mixed neighborhoods, local authorities will determine the list of stores allowed to sell pork. Until local authorities set new regulations, pork products can now be sold anywhere.
The ruling marks the end of a protracted legal process started in 2001 when MK Marina Solotkin, the Shinui party and a private meat company petitioned against the banning of the sale of pork in the municipalities of Beit Shemesh, Karmiel and Tiberias.

Attorney General Closes Case Against Sharon
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz has decided not to indict Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in connection with the 'Greek Island Affair' due to a lack of evidence, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz announced his decision today at the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem. "I have come to the decision to close the case against Ariel Sharon and Gilad Sharon," Mazuz said. Mazuz informed Sharon of the decision by phone before the news conference, and Sharon reportedly thanked the Attorney General.
MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz-Yahad) and MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) said they planned to petition the High Court of Justice if Mazuz decided not to indict the prime minister.
The Greek Island Affair dates back to the late 1990s when businessman and Likud kingpin David Appel allegedly paid Sharon's son, Gilad, nearly $700,000 for his work as part of a consulting team developing a vast tourism project in the Greek islands at a time when his father was foreign minister.

Israel Simulates Earthquake in Negev
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Israel set off an enormous explosion on Tuesday in the Negev near the border with Jordan to test its seismographic measuring equipment, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The explosion, designed to measure about 2.9 on the Richter scale, was to help the Israel Geophysics Institute calibrate its equipment and better estimate the precise location of quakes in the future, Rami Hofstepter, manager of the institute, said.
Jordan did not participate in the test, but Israel informed the Hashemite Kingdom and other countries in the region to avoid alarm. The last earthquake in the area, in February, was felt in Israel, the Palestinian areas, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria and ranked 5 on the Richter scale.
The region is located along the Great Rift Valley, which runs for 5,000 km. between Syria and Mozambique and passes through the Dead Sea, below Jerusalem's eastern hills.

Amid Debate over Non-Indictment Decision, AG Expresses Trust in State Prosecution
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who on Tuesday slammed the state prosecution over their original recommendation to indict Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said today that he did not have a crisis of faith in the law-enforcement agency, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. "I do not have a personal or professional crisis of faith with the team of prosecutors [who recommended indicting Sharon] and I never expressed reservations or a lack of faith in the state prosecution," Mazuz wrote in a letter he sent to prosecution officials. On Tuesday, Mazuz announced that he would not indict Sharon in the so-called Greek Island Affair. Mazuz also said that he planned to meet with members of the prosecution team in the next few days in order "to clear the air."
Meanwhile, the Knesset Law Committee will discuss next Monday Mazuz's decision to drop the case against Sharon and his son Gilad.
The Movement for Quality Government petitioned the High Court of Justice today to order Mazuz to rescind his decision not to issue an indictment. In response, the Justice Ministry issued a statement announcing that it would release the opinion and draft indictment issued by Edna Arbel – the former State Prosecutor in the Greek Island affair.

First “Christian Birthright” Group Visits Israel
Thursday, June 17, 2004
A group of Christian American students is visiting Israel as part of a program to train them to serve as "emissaries" on behalf of Israel in the United States and fight anti-Israel sentiments on campuses, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The three-week program, which has been dubbed the "Christian birthright," is now running as a pilot project with 11 participants. “Hundreds of Christian youth” are expected to come in the future, according to Robert Stearns, head of the Eagles Wings Ministry which sponsors and funds the three-week Israel Experience College Scholarship Program. All of the youth involved in the program are Evangelical Christians.
The group has already visited the Knesset and Yad Vashem, and will hold a discussion with Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom soon.
Stearns credited the recently established Knesset Christian Allies Caucus for opening doors for cooperation between Israel and pro-Israel Christians. Bill Ostan, a Pepperdine Law School student, said that he got involved in the pro-Israel effort two years ago as a result of "anti-Israel activities" on campus. "As a Christian I saw that I had to take a stand for Israel," he said. Ostan said the main goal of his visit is to "get the facts," and be able to articulate Israel's case. He said the students on the program have the potential for making an impact on U.S. society because they have been chosen for their leadership potential.

Israeli Arabs Credit Fence for Newfound Prosperity
Friday, June 18, 2004
Since the counter-terrorism fence's completion in their areas last August, many Arab communities - especially those bordering Palestinian villages - have enjoyed a spike in both security and economic activity, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Arabs who once hauled back millions of shekels worth of wares from nearby Jenin now shop locally. "God be blessed, the fence ended the parade of terrorists through this city and gave us an economic boom and increased security," says Umm el-Fahm City Manager Tawfiq Karaman. Until the completion of the fence outside Umm el-Fahm 10 months ago, locals in this city of 42,000, northwest of Jenin, had complained that Palestinians casually filtering through from the West Bak had harassed schoolgirls, stolen cars, and even snatched laundry. Worse yet, they stamped Umm el-Fahm as a launching pad for suicide bombers. Israeli checkpoints often blocked Umm el-Fahm's streets, and border policemen patrolled the city on a regular basis, hoping to pick up illegal Palestinian workers - or terrorists.

 

ECONOMY & HIGH-TECH

IBM, Cisco Systems' SPP Chip Designed in Israel
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
IBM and Cisco Systems Inc. announced today that the two companies collaborated to design and build the world's most complex, programmable custom chip to power the Cisco Carrier Routing System (Cisco CRS-1), a new class of routing system for moving data, voice and video across Internet Protocol (IP) networks, GLOBES reported. The Cisco silicon packet processor (SPP) was developed by a team of 30 engineers at the Cisco Systems development center in Israel, at an investment of $20 million. The Cisco SPP is a 40-Gbps (gigabits per second) application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), featuring an unprecedented 38 million gates, approximately 185 million transistors and 188 high-performance programmable 32-bit RISC processors executing 47 billion instructions per second (BIPS). The Cisco SPP along with Cisco IOS XR Software enables carriers to adapt to changing customer needs and accelerate service delivery.

Dubai to Copy Israeli Hi-Tech Model
Thursday, June 17, 2004
While striving to become the regional financial center of the Middle East, Dubai has decided to develop its hi-tech industry according to the Israeli model, MA’ARIV reported. Senior Dubai officials have approached Israel with the intention of developing joint technology projects. Dubai officials met with Israeli businessmen during the regional economic conference in Jordan and expressed interest in cooperation with leading Israeli hi-tech companies, which have not yet expanded to the Gulf. Dubai representatives showed excellent understanding of the Israeli legislation governing manufacture and the hi-tech industry. They also expressed willingness to visit Israel, since the Dubai government does not oppose such visits.

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