Monday,
May 5
PM
Sharon Says He Will Not Be Deterred From Putting End to War
At
a memorial ceremony in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon, Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon vowed to move forward on the path toward peace. He
said that if the new Palestinian government does not disappoint
the many who are hanging their hopes upon it, the chance to make
peace will not be passed up, even if it comes at a painful price.
"I will not be deterred if I know that the moment of truth
is at hand to put an end to war and bloodshed and to bring peace
for generations," Sharon said. "I have set my obligations
and swear to do everything within my power to open the road to peace,"
he said. (From Ha'aretz) more
US
envoy: 'No Substitute for a Decisive Fight Against Terror'
Palestinians must seriously fight terror
and Israelis must halt settlement activity, US Middle East envoy
William Burns said Monday in a meeting with Palestinian Authority
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. "On the Palestinian
side [implementing its obligations under the roadmap plan] means
there's absolutely no substitute, no substitute, for a decisive
fight against terror and violence," Burns told reporters following
his meeting with Abbas. "On the Israeli side it also means
taking practical steps to ease the suffering of Palestinians living
under occupation, to stop the settlement activity and to renew a
sense of dignity and hope," he added. (From Jerusalem Post)
more
Tuesday,
May 6
Israel
Remembers Its Fallen Soldiers
Israelis
stood at attention Monday night and again Tuesday morning as sirens
sounded throughout the country to usher in Remembrance Day for Israel's
Fallen Soldiers. Since 1948, 21,540 men and women have given their
lives in the defense of the country, including 254 who were killed
in the last year. In addition, Remembrance Day marks the memory
of Israelis who have been killed as victims of Arab terrorism. The
National Insurance Institute reports that some 3,000 people have
been murdered in terrorist attacks since 1948. "The fire [of
the memory of the fallen] has still not burned out, it has not ceased;
this eternal flame of national sorrow continues to burn in our bones,
and will never burn out," President Moshe Katsav declared.
(From Israel Insider) more
PM
Sharon: U.S. to Discuss Israel's Reservations on 'Road Map'
Israel's reservations on the diplomatic
'road map' will be discussed in Washington in the upcoming days,
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview to Israel Radio
on Tuesday. He said that he would be glad to meet with newly-appointed
Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen and that such a meeting is
now being coordinated. He said that negotiations with the Palestinians
would focus on security issues, including bringing a halt to terror,
violence and incitement. He said that Abu Mazen has reached the
conclusion that Israel cannot be defeated by terror and added that
he would try to negotiate with him, although it won't be easy. (From
Ha'aretz) more
IDF
Chief Ya'alon: Yasser Arafat, not Hamas, is Main Threat to Abu Mazen
In an interview with Ha'aretz,
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon
said that Arafat was the greatest threat to the newly appointed
PA Prime Minister Abu Mazen. He added that Mazen's intention was
to carry out the vision laid out by U.S. President George Bush:
a reformed government with one decision-maker, "but along the
way, the chairman managed to curtail his authority."
Ya'alon believes that the PA security services are capable of handling
the terror organizations, but "the new leadership so far has
done nothing." "Since 1994, the PA has led a marriage
between a state and gangs that were partially armed and funded by
the chairman," he said.
In regard to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
Ya'alon assesses it is solvable: "we are at the height of a
regional earthquake that stems from America's national security
strategy, which has identified targets to deal with in the fields
of the war on terror, unconventional weapons and irresponsible regimes,
reducing the influence and freedom of action of extremist groups
and terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East." (From
Ha'aretz) more
Father
Killed Before His Young Daughter’s Eyes
The military wing of Fatah took responsibility
Tuesday for the attack near Achiya. Gideon Lichterman, from Achiya,
was killed and two others were seriously injured yesterday when
their car was fired upon. One of the injured is Lichternan’s
six-year-old daughter, Moriah. The attack took place around 10 PM
Monday when the car was ambushed near Ramallah. Gideon Lichterman
was 27 years old. Moriah was shot in the head. She and the other
shooting victim were transferred to the trauma unit at Hadassah
Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem. (From Ma'ariv) more
Netanyahu
Tells 'Post: Economy on Verge of Turnaround
The nation's economy is already at the
beginning of an economic turnaround, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Monday. Referring to
the recent appreciation of the shekel against the dollar and the
rise of stock prices, the finance minister said he believes the
new plan will encourage growth. "I think that people see hope
on the horizon ... as our plan is meant to save the economy and
grow the economy by allowing free enterprise to prosper, by cutting
down bureaucracy, by cutting down taxation, and by investments in
infrastructure and privatization." Netanyahu also called for
limiting the powers of the Histadrut labor federation. "Recent
events have shown that we can't continue this way," he said.
"We can't continue to have the most crucial services in the
country being held up, and the citizens of the this country being
held hostage to the whims of a small number of people, who are protecting
their own personal interest and their own personal benefits all
in the name supposedly of social justice." (From Jerusalem
Post) more
Wednesday,
May 7
Nation
Celebrates 55th
16th
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin inaugurated Independence Day with
a rousing speech. "Look at us, world!" he said. "This
is our place, and this is where we will stay!" Wishing Israel
a happy Independence Day, he expressed joy at the "beauty of
this nation that reveals its face in the hardest of times."
(From Jerusalem Post) more
Thursday,
May 8
Israel
Officials: PA Must Drop "Right of Return" Demand
Though Israel has almost always
objected to any implementation of the so-called "right of return"
for Arab refugees, it's now more official than ever. A series of
statements this week by the highest Israeli officials has made this
clear. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Sunday that the PA
must waive its demand for the right of an estimated 550,000-700,000
Arab refugees from 1948, and their three million descendants, to
return to what is now Israel. Shalom said that the second stage
of the Road Map plan - the creation of a PA state with provisional
borders - is conditional on this waiving. Prime Minister Sharon
called the "right of return" demand ''a recipe for the
destruction of Israel,'' as it would flood Israel with Arabs. Israel
currently has a population of 6.7 million, including roughly 1.3
million Arabs. PA leaders, for their part, say not only will they
not give up this demand, but that even the United States is with
them on this issue. (From Arutz Sheva) more
Dahlan
Appointment Creates Friction Between Arafat and Abbas
Abbas announced at a Fatah central
committee meeting chaired by Arafat Tuesday that he is transferring
the Interior Ministry's responsibilities for security to Muhammad
Dahlan. One official said the announcement caught Arafat by surprise.
"This is not what we agreed [to]," he quoted Arafat as
shouting at Abbas. According to a source, there is no guarantee
the move will succeed, because security forces' commanders remain
loyal to Arafat, and some have said in private that they refuse
to serve under Dahlan. A Fatah source predicted that many Fatah
members and security services officers loyal to Arafat would try
to create obstacles for Dahlan and make it difficult for him to
implement his decisions. Dahlan reportedly requested $30 million
from the U.S. and the EU to help him implement his plan to reorganize
the security forces and combat terrorism. PA officials said they
expect Hamas to agree to a cease-fire ending terrorist attacks for
a year or two. (From Jerusalem Post) more
US
Soldiers Find Iraqi Intelligence Info on Israel
In the basement of an Iraqi secret
police headquarters, American soldiers were surprised to discover
a trove of Iraqi intelligence information on Israel, including a
model of the Knesset, a satellite picture of the Dimona nuclear
reactor, maps of Scud strikes from the 1991 Gulf War and more. The
soldiers were actually searching for one of the oldest known copies
of the Babylonian Talmud, dating back to the seventh century. An
Iraqi official led the team of soldiers, and members of the Office
of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to the flooded basement
of a building described as Mukhabarat's "Israel-Palestine department."
"We got to the building and suddenly I saw Jewish holy books
and all kinds of Judaica objects floating above the water in one
of the flooded basements," one of the soldiers who took part
in operation said. "Some of the books were torn and damaged
and it gave me the chills. I am not a Jew, but it was still very
moving to see this. From our initial understanding, it seems that
the Iraqis invested a huge effort in researching Judaism as a means
to fight against Israel," he said. (From Israel Insider) more
Top
Hamas Terrorist Killed
The Israeli army took out a top
Hamas terrorist - Iyad Beck - at midday in downtown Gaza. No one
else was hurt in the attack, though some sources say that a terrorist
aide driving with him in the targeted car was wounded. Beck, a bodyguard
of arch-terrorist Salah Shehadeh, who was similarly targeted and
killed last July, was behind 18 attacks, in which 19 Israelis were
killed. He was on the verge of committing additional attacks in
the coming days, and once tried to put together an Al-Qaeda terrorist
cell. Today's killing was the latest in a series of IDF successes
in its counter-terrorism war in Gaza. On Thursday, ground troops
killed three wanted brothers who belonged to a Hamas cell that launched
Kassam rockets and planned and committed suicide attacks against
Israelis. (From Arutz Sheva) more
Friday,
May 9
Woman,
Girl Lightly Hurt When Qassam Rockets Hit Sderot
Palestinians fired six Qassam rockets
at Israel on Friday morning. A woman and a girl were lightly hurt
and three others were treated for shock when two of the rockets
landed in the southern town of Sderot, home to about 20,000 people.
The other four homemade Qassam rockets landed harmlessly in open
agricultural areas. The Islamic extremist group Hamas makes the
crude projectiles, unguided rockets that carry a warhead with about
12 pounds of explosives and have a range of about 5 kilometers.
In other news, a suicide attack was foiled near Kfar Darom as a
booby-trapped car exploded 20 meters from an IDF vehicle, killing
the attacker but causing no other casualties. (From Ha'aretz) more
Britain
Indicts Tel Aviv Bomber's Family
British authorities indicted on Thursday
the brother, sister and wife of Omar Khan Sharif, the would-be homicide
bomber involved in last week's homicide attack on a Tel Aviv cafe.
Sharif managed to flee when his explosive belt malfunctioned. The
three Derby residents, Zahid Hussain Sharif, 46; Paveen Akthor Sharif,
35; and Tahari Shad Tabassum, 27 were apprehended on charges of
failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. Paveen
Akthor Sharif - Omar's sister - was also charged with aiding, abetting,
counseling, and procuring acts of terrorism overseas. (From Ha'aretz)
more
Israel
Ready to Resume Talks With Syria
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
told Israel TV Thursday that he was prepared to resume peace talks
with Syria, as long as Syria did not set conditions. "We will
bring our demands, and they will bring their demands, and we will
discuss the issues," he said. "I am prepared to conduct
negotiations with all Arab countries with no prior conditions,"
he said. "The two sides must sit across the table from each
other." Syria has said it would only resume talks at the point
where they last broke off three years ago. At that time, Israeli
had proposed concessions on the Golan Heights.
Sharon confirmed that he had received messages from Assad in recent
weeks, offering to resume talks, but felt the offer was a Syrian
ploy to ease U.S. pressure on Damascus and decided to wait "a
few weeks." He noted that Syria is under intense U.S. pressure
over charges that it harbored members of the deposed Iraqi regime
and has large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and
Assad may have been using the offer as a way to placate the Americans.
(From AP) more
Israeli
Official: Powell Should Expect Inaction if Palestinian Violence
Continues
US Secretary of State Colin Powell
is slated to arrive in Israel on Saturday for a two-day visit, which
will kick off an intensive period of diplomatic activity. However,
according to a senior diplomatic official, Powell will be disappointed
if he expects Israeli to make concessions on security measures towards
the Palestinian Authority at this point, since Prime Minister Mahmoud
Abbas's (Abu Mazen) new government has not yet begun fighting terror.
The official also said that while Israel might be willing to take
some steps to relieve the humanitarian situation facing the Palestinians
during Powell's visit, measures such as lifting roadblocks or pulling
back troops would have to wait until the PA had a credible security
force in place that were both willing and able to fill the vacuum.
(From Jerusalem Post) more
Hezbollah
Computer Game Encourages Children to Kill Israelis
A three-dimensional computer game now on
the Lebanese market is the militant Hezbollah group's latest weapon
in its propaganda war on Israel - "Fight, resist, destroy your
enemy in the game of force and victory," the game's slogan
exhorts. "Special Force," made by Hezbollah's digital
production team, pits a guerrilla armed with a knife, a pistol,
hand grenades and a Kalashnikov assault rifle against Israelis operating
in southern Lebanon. "We don't see them as games but as part
of an educational process which is preventing any chance of real
peace," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ron Prosor said when asked
about "Special Force." Karim Arab, a Lebanese 10-year-old,
is a fan. "It's great," the boy said as he pounded at
an IDF outpost before his "guerrillas" prepared to storm
it. He said that what he liked about the game was being able to
shoot at Israelis, "which I cannot do in real life." (From
Ha'aretz) more
Fire
Rages in Carmiel Forest; Arson Suspected
A fire continues to rage in the
Carmiel Forest south of Haifa, with an estimated 600 dumans already
burnt. Authorities assume that the fire was set deliberately as
it broke out simultaneously in a number of places. (From Jerusalem
Post) more
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