 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
November 1-5, 2004
- SECURITY
- At Least 3 Killed in Suicide Attack at Carmel Market in Tel Aviv
- Bethlehem Terror Cells Planning Large-Scale Bombing Arrested
- Investigators Attempt to Determine Tel Aviv Bomber's Route into Israel
- 5 Soldiers Wounded in Separate Gaza Attacks
- Child Terror on the Rise
- YASSER ARAFAT'S DETERIORATING HEALTH
- Arafat in Critical State 'Between Life and Death'
- Israeli Leadership Bracing for Day After Arafat
- Ma'ariv: Arafat Has Marked Kadoumi as his Successor
- DISENGAGEMENT PLAN
- Knesset Opens Debate on Key Evacuation and Compensation Bill
- Settler Compensation Bill Passes First Reading
- U.S. ELECTIONS 2004
- About 40,000 U.S. Citizens in Israel Took Part in Elections
- ECONOMY & HI-TECH
- Jerusalem Goes Wireless
- Israel About to Close $230m. Drone Deal with India
- POLITICS
- Barak Announces Bid to Compete for Labor Party Leadership
SECURITY At Least 3 Killed in Suicide Attack at Carmel Market in Tel Aviv
Monday, November 1, 2004At least three people were killed and dozens were injured in a suicide bombing at the crowded Carmel Market in central Tel Aviv today, HA'ARETZ reported. The blast went off at 11:15 A.M. near a dairy shop close to the intersection of Rambam and Hacarmel streets. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack. The suicide bomber was identified as Amar Alfar, 16, from Askar refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. Samira Abdullah, 45, Alfar's mother, said the people who had sent her son to Tel Aviv were wrong to exploit someone too young to understand the implications of his act. "It's immoral to send someone so young," she said. "They should have sent an adult who understands the meaning of his deeds."
Security officials said the bomber arrived with the explosives Sunday night at Abu Dis in East Jerusalem and was planning to carry out the attack in the capital. However, they said he probably decided to travel to Tel Aviv instead because of strict security at crowded areas in Jerusalem.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said that at least 32 people had been wounded in the attack and evacuated to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer. The dead were identified as two women and a man, apparently in their 20s.
Doctors at Ichilov were treating one person who sustained critical injuries, four in serious condition and one in moderate-to-serious condition. No children were among the wounded.
Bethlehem Terror Cells Planning Large-Scale Bombing Arrested
Tuesday, November 2, 2004Israel's security services said today they had arrested several terror cells comprised of 16 residents of Bethlehem planning a series of large-scale terror attacks in Jerusalem, HA'ARETZ reported. The cells planned to launch two pairs of suicide bombers to the Mea She'arim neighborhood in the capital, and to carry out a terror attack using an explosive-laden ambulance. Also attributed to one of the cells is a plan to attack a bus carrying worshippers to Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem.
Based on details released today by security forces, Hamas was meant to provide the suicide bombers for the missions, while Islamic Jihad was supposed to supply the explosive devices. Some of those arrested, including the would-be suicide bombers, served in the Palestinian national security services. Among those arrested is Hamed Dar'awi, an active member in the PA's national security services, who is said to have been the planner of the ambulance attack.
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces troops surrounding the West Bank city of Nablus tightened their formation today out of fear that suicide bombers could try to leave the city to carry out terror attacks, as a 16-year-old Palestinian boy did before exploding himself in Tel Aviv.
Investigators Attempt to Determine Tel Aviv Bomber's Route into Israel
Tuesday, November 2, 2004Investigators are seeking to determine the route taken by 16-year-old suicide bomber Amar al-Far, and find out who assisted him after he left his home in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus at 7:30 Monday morning, blowing himself up just over three hours later in Tel Aviv's Carmel Market, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. It was the 14th suicide bombing inside Israel this year. Security forces have arrested 15 potential suicide bomb attackers in the West Bank since September, the majority from the Nablus area. Security officials said that 48 Palestinian fugitives arrested in the past two months were from the Nablus area. Zaynab Salem, the female suicide bomber who blew up in Jerusalem's French Hill in September, was also from the Askar refugee camp.
Far was recruited by the Popular Front for the Liberation in Palestine's Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades. Security officials have yet to determine if Far was driven from Nablus to Jerusalem and from there to Tel Aviv, and just where he was fitted with the explosives belt. Officials also want to know where Far entered Israel, realizing that the security fence in the North forces terrorists to move southward towards Jerusalem or the southern Hebron Hills, where the security fence has not yet been constructed.
Far's mother Samir Abdullah told reporters that those who recruited and dispatched her son made a mistake "in taking advantage of someone too young to understand the meaning of his actions." His father, Abed al-Rahim, told reporters that his son woke him up early in the morning and asked him for two shekels before leaving home.
5 Soldiers Wounded in Separate Gaza Attacks
Wednesday, November 3, 2003Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded, one critically, in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip today, HA'ARETZ reported. An IDF soldier was critically wounded by Palestinian snipers in the Jewish community of Rafiah Yam, in southern Gaza. Another soldier sustained a light hand wound. The two were working to improve the defenses of hothouses in the Rafiah Yam's outskirts when the snipers opened fire. The soldiers were rushed to Soroka hospital in Be'er Sheva.
Later today, three IDF soldiers were wounded, one moderately, after a mortar shell landed in an IDF base in the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip. Two of the soldiers sustained light wounds, and another was in shock.
Earlier in the day, Gush Katif residents reported that two mortar shells had landed in Gadid, causing damage to property. No casualties were reported.
Tatiana Ackerman, killed in Monday's suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv market, was laid to rest this afternoon at the Yarkon cemetery in Tel Aviv. Thirteen people wounded in the attack are still being treated in hospital, five of them in serious condition.
Child Terror on the Rise
Friday, November 5, 2003According to an Israel Security Agency study, the use of children in attacks is now common among all the Palestinian terror organizations, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Since the outbreak of violence in September 2000, the number of Palestinian minors involved in terror has escalated. Up until the arrest on Thursday of Ahmed Bintawi - a 15-year old from Nablus, who had planned to launch a suicide attack in Israel - 126 minors were involved in planned and executed terror acts since the beginning of 2004, with a total of 309 in the past four years.
Children as young as 11 years old are easily persuaded to join the conflict with assurances that they will gain respect in the next life. Terror organizations then distance the young recruits from their families and schools and subject them to religious and nationalistic indoctrination.
Besides being influenced by programs broadcast on Palestinian Authority television encouraging them to support jihad, children are taught in schools and summer camps, under the banner of Islam, to back resistance acts against Israel and identify with martyrs.
YASSER ARAFAT Arafat in Critical State 'Between Life and Death'
Friday, November 5, 2003"[Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser] Arafat is unconscious and has undergone a general systems collapse," a high-level Palestinian official said Thursday night, HA'ARETZ reported. "He is being aided by respiratory machines and his condition appears irreversible, but reports of his death are not true." According to several reports from French and international media outlets, Arafat's condition is one of clinical death.
Sources in Ramallah said today that Arafat's wife, Suha, had the power to decide when to disconnect her husband from life support in the Percy Military Training Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris. Israel Radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Suha Arafat is deciding on all hospital matters regarding her husband.
Meanwhile, disputes swirled around Arafat's potential burial place. Israel does not appear prepared to let Arafat be buried in Jerusalem. Palestinians see Israel's position on the issue as key to judging Israel's intentions regarding a post-Arafat Palestinian leadership.
Israeli Leadership Bracing for Day After Arafat
Thursday, November 4, 2003Israeli leaders and security forces braced today for the day after Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, HA'ARETZ reported. Top Israeli security officials - including Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz and IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon - were meeting today to discuss how his death would affect the Middle East, officials said. The army has a contingency plan, called "New Leaf," to deal with the fallout from Arafat's death, including possible Palestinian rioting.
Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres said the Palestinian leader's death would have great impact on the region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "What has happened [already] is that a new leadership is forming," Peres said. The new leadership appears to be "more firmly grounded and also has great determination to bring an end to the terrible problem of the Palestinian nation," Peres added.
Ma'ariv: Arafat Has Marked Kadoumi as his Successor
Friday, November 5, 2003Senior Palestinian officials claim that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat had issued a political last will in which he appointed head of the PLO politburo Farouk Kadoumi as his successor, MA'ARIV reported. According to estimates, Kadoumi would accept the position of PLO chairman but would not serve as leader of the PA in light of his objection to the Oslo Accords. The Palestinian officials said that the "Rais" handed over copies of his last will to his wife Suha and his cousin Palestinian UN ambassador, Nasser al-Kidwa. Another senior official in Arafat's milieu strengthened the claims, saying that in his last moments of clarity, Arafat asked to summon Kadoumi to his bed in order to tell him something important. Meanwhile, rival Palestinian factions met in the Gaza Strip today in a show of unity.
DISENGAGEMENT PLAN Knesset Opens Debate on Key Evacuation and Compensation Bill
Monday, November 1, 2004The Knesset opened a debate Monday on the Evacuation and Compensation Bill, which would provide legal and financial underpinnings to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, HA'ARETZ reported. Foes of the disengagement view the bill as a crucial test, saying that if the law fails in the Knesset, the pullout plan as a whole will fail.
If passed, the law would offer monetary compensation for settlers evacuated from the 21 settlements of the Gaza Strip, and four enclaves in the northern West Bank. The law also specifies a penalty of up to three years imprisonment for settlers who actively interfere with the planned evacuation.
The "rebel" faction of Sharon's Likud, which opposes the disengagement, appeared today to be divided over its vote on the Evacuation and Compensation bill. The faction has been in disarray after a vote last week over the principle of disengagement. Sharon easily carried the vote, causing a number of Likud disengagement opponents to modify their stance in favor of calls for party unity.
The Labor Party will back the Evacuation and Compensation Bill and Labor members of the Knesset Finance Committee will back plans for early compensation payments for those settlers being evacuated.
Settler Compensation Bill Passes First Reading
Thursday, November 4, 2003The Knesset approved Wednesday, payments for settlers due to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. The settler compensation bill passed its first reading by a vote of 64-44, with nine abstentions. The bill was supported by the opposition Labor Party. The Likud Party was split on the vote. The bill will have to pass two more votes before becoming law. The government plans to complete the legislation by the end of 2004.
Meanwhile, the government decided Wednesday not to present the 2005 budget proposal and to only do so next week.
U.S. ELECTIONS 2004 About 40,000 U.S. Citizens in Israel Took Part in Elections
Wednesday, November 3, 2003Approximately 40,000 U.S. citizens living in Israel have exercised their voting right during the past month and sent a ballot to the state they are registered in, MA'ARIV reported. U.S. embassy officials said that in the past six weeks, thousands of requests for assistance had reached the embassy regarding exercising a voting right abroad. U.S. law states that only a U.S. citizen who is a resident of one of the states is allowed to cast his vote in a presidential election. The vote process must be carried out by sending a ballot several weeks before Election Day. A U.S. embassy official said that about 150,000 U.S. citizens live in Israel, but not all of them are eligible to vote.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer, said that both candidates in the U.S. presidential race would continue the tradition of maintaining close ties with Israel and assist the parties in the Middle East to reach agreements. According to Kurtzer, who spoke with reporters this afternoon, whether it is George W. Bush or John Kerry who sits in the Oval Office for the next four years, ties with Israel would only strengthen and broaden.
ECONOMY & HI-TECH Jerusalem Goes Wireless
Tuesday, November 2, 2004The new Unwire Jerusalem program, which provides free wireless Internet access in selected public places, was launched Monday at a ceremony at City Hall, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The program, which is the first of its kind in Israel, allows tourists and business people visiting the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall and its side streets, the Rivlin-Nahalat Shiva mall, Kikar Safra, and Rehov Shlomzion Hamalka to surf the Internet and receive e-mail on their WiFi-enabled computers. Other areas, such as Emek Refaim, the Hebrew University, government offices, schools, museums, malls, and parks, will also be unwired shortly.
The project was headed by the municipality, international chip giant Intel, IT services provider Compumat, and the nonprofit Jerusalem Business Development Corporation (JBDC). Services were also provided by Cisco Systems, Check Point Software Technologies, 012 Golden Lines, and venture-capital fund JVP.
Israel About to Close $230m. Drone Deal with India
Tuesday, November 2, 2004Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) is about to close a $230 million deal with the Indian army for the sale of about 50 Heron/Eagle drones, HA'ARETZ reported. According to the agreement, IAI will sell India the drones, officially called unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as a ground station, communication equipment and intelligence-gathering devices that use optics and radar. The drones carry an electro-optical payload system and maritime patrol radar, according to IAI.
Heron/Eagle is a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance type unmanned aerial vehicle that can operate at a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers and at altitudes above 25,000 feet for more than 24 hours, providing real-time intelligence. The system also features automatic take-off and landing, integrated mission planning and sensor technology, and can simultaneously carry a wide range of payloads.
POLITICS Barak Announces Bid to Compete for Labor Party Leadership
Thursday, November 4, 2003Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced today his return to political life in a bid to regain the leadership of the Labor Party, HA'ARETZ reported. Barak, speaking after a meeting with Labor Chairman Shimon Peres, said he intended to lead the party back to power. "I am aware that this means a marathon of hard work," Barak said. "I am acting out of sense of responsibility and commitment both to the State of Israel and to the Labor Party, which is my political home."
Barak's return after a four-year absence immediately breathed new life - and heat - into the Labor leadership struggle after the interim period of Shimon Peres as leader. Two months ago Peres announced he would compete in the primaries if they were brought forward, shortening his leadership period that was due to end in about a year. Labor MK Ephraim Sneh, who served Barak as deputy defense minister, branded Barak's abrupt return to the race for party leadership "an arrogant, impudent, immoral act." Histadrut leader MK Amir Peretz has already declared that, "if Barak competes, I shall compete against him under any circumstances." Another possible contender in the race is the former head of the Israel Security Agency, Ami Ayalon, who has also been holding meetings to sound out his own chances.
