A bomber blew himself up near a crowded shopping mall in the seaside city of Netanya on Tuesday, killing himself and two others. Police said about 30 people were wounded, two seriously.

Initial reports said the bomb went off just before 7 p.m. at the entrance to the mall. However, Israel radio stations said the bomber struck at a nearby intersection.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. It was the second such bombing since a truce declaration on Feb. 8. Two weeks into the truce between Israel and the Palestinians, a bomber killed five Israelis in Tel Aviv.

Read more..

Death toll is now three.

Finding Palestinians (particularly the Jordanian variety) among al-Qaeda is nothing new, but over the last two days it seems that the network’s infrastructure in Gaza has finally organized into a distinct group according to media reports. Called Jundallah, the majority of its members consist of former Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who decided that the other groups were “too moderate” for their liking.

Jundallah, not surprisingly, denies any connections to al-Qaeda but does adopt a far more strident line with respect to carrying out attacks on US targets (Hamas usually tries to skirt this issue with a “Maybe we will, maybe we won’t” kind of approach) and refuses to accept any kind of truce or cease-fire with Israel.

To be fair, accusations about al-Qaeda activity in the Gaza Strip are nothing new - Sharon mentioned them in 2002 following the failed attack on the El Al airliner in Mombasa, Kenya, but the general consensus at the time had been that whatever infrastructure the network had in the area was pretty spread out, in large part because most Palestinian Islamists who would normally be attracted al-Qaeda tend to join Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades instead for a variety of reasons. Now that all of the major terrorist groups seem more interested in establishing and securing their own power base post-Arafat rather than attacking Israelis, al-Qaeda appears to have been able to exploit the situation by recruiting any disaffected members who happen to cross their path.

Read the Rest…

Former Soviet prisoner of conscience Natan Sharansky is currently one of the world’s most influential politicians. His book, The Case for Democracy, has had a major impact on global Mideast policy. Which makes his resignation from Ariel Sharon’s government a key event. Here, in his own words, is why he’s leaving (Hat Tip: our Cairo correspondent Tarek Heggy):

bq.. “Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

I am writing to inform you of my decision to resign as Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Jerusalem.

As you know, I have opposed the disengagement plan from the beginning on the grounds that I believe any concessions in the peace process must be linked to democratic reforms within Palestinian society. Not only does the disengagement plan ignore such reforms, it will in fact weaken the prospects for building a free Palestinian society and at the same time strengthen the forces of terror.

Will our departure from Gaza encourage building a society where freedom of speech is protected, where independent courts protect individual rights, and where free markets enable Palestinians to build an independent economic life beyond government control? Will our departure from Gaza end incitement in the Palestinian media or hate- filled indoctrination in Palestinian schools? Will our departure from Gaza result in the dismantling of terror groups or the dismantling of the refugee camps in which four generations of Palestinians have lived in miserable conditions?

Read the Rest (plus our analysis)…

“Who are you?” my daughter Ruthie Blum demands as she greets me in the lobby of the King David hotel, “and what have you done with my father?”

Norman Podhoretz, who was one of the leading critics of the Oslo Accords that led to the the 1991-2005 Oslo War, lays out some of the current debates inside Israel about The Road Map and Sharon’s proposed withdrawal from Gaza et. al. As you can see, the writing captures the flavour of some of the conflicts and controversies very well.

The various briefings were part of a recent Hudson Institute tour, and while the piece itself is opinion, his reporting on the various currents of opinion inside Israel as given to him in direct briefings qualifies as news in my view.

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Israel and its neighbours, courtesy of Inkgrrl.

NB: Monday’s Winds of War has done a fabulous job of covering some of the big scaries in the region, so this briefing will concentrate on regional events of less immediately violent global import.

TOP TOPIC

• It’s been 60 years since the survivors of Auschwitz were liberated from hell on earth. Every year we are further away from that painfully bittersweet event is a celebration of mankind’s possibilities. There’s plenty of documentation and literature available to those who remain ignorant, or to those who think that Bosnia in our generation’s lifetime was an original idea; a good place to start is Yad Vashem.

Other Topics Today Include:
Falashas Coming Home, Social Justice Aborning, Beautiful Irony, Palestinian Welfare, Pups For Peace, Contrarian Fundamentalists, Ancient Dialogues, Hezbollah’s Got No Excuse, Syrian-Flavored Peace, We Are The Lebanese World, Egypt Busy On The Peace Front, and Free Speech In Jordan.

Palestinian security forces intend to disarm militant factions as part of a plan to prevent attacks on Israelis. Reuters reports that Bashir Nafe, commander of Special Forces and tipped as a possible security chief for the West Bank and Gaza, said:

“The instructions are clear … Weapons that don’t belong to the Palestinian police are illegal. So wherever illegal weapons are found, we will collect them,” Nafe told Reuters.

“There is no leadership in the world that gets elected on a peaceful program and leaves arms in the hands of militias and other groups,” he said.

From California Yankee.

Palestinian militants set off a large truck bomb as gunmen stormed an Israeli base at a vital Gaza crossing Thursday, killing five Israelis and wounding five others in an attack that defied peace efforts by new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The assault, in which three Palestinians attackers were also killed, was by far the biggest since Abbas won an election Sunday to succeed Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas has been trying to persuade militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to agree to a cease-fire, but so far with no success.

Read more..

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Israel and its neighbours, courtesy of Inkgrrl.

TOP TOPIC

• Opportunities for peace are always present despite ongoing conflict in the region. Since Colt’s wonderfully done Winds of War has scooped many of the key news events in and around Israel of late, this Roundup will focus more on possibility, conjecture, and acts of hope than on cold, hard body counts.

Topics Today Include: Good News In Spite Of It All, One Religious Challenge To Another, Music Soothes Not Only The Savage Breast, The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend, Israeli-Egyptian Relations Warming Up, and Conspiracy Theory Much?

Read the Rest…

HAARETZ: Member of Jewish terrorist organization jailed for 8 years

Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Monday sentenced far-right activist Shahar Dvir-Zeliger, a member of the “new Jewish underground,” to eight years in jail for membership in a terrorist organization that aimed to carry out terror attacks against Arab civilians and unlawful possession of weapons stolen from the Israel Defense Forces.

Zeliger was tried in September of this year for belonging to a terrorist organization under an counter-terrorism order - the first time that this has been used since indictments were brought against members of the “Jewish underground” in the 1980s.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Yoram Noam said Monday that there was no way of making it more severe, due to the cooperation shown by Zeliger during the police investigation.

JERUSALEM POST: Survey: 500,000 Israelis suffer ‘terror trauma’

Nearly half a million Israelis carry with them elements of severe emotional and psychological trauma due to incidents of terrorism, and are in need of medical treatment, a survey released Thursday shows.

Despite the fact that most Israelis were never present on the scene of terrorist attacks, the survey, which questioned nearly 500 Israelis in the last months, reveals that one in every ten Israelis is exposed directly to terror attacks.

The survey appears as part of a general study performed by the Tel Aviv University Medical School for Natal, a non-profit organization that deals with victims of terror and war in Israel.

JERUSALEM POST: Sharon: If PA keeps the peace, so will Israel

Israel will not launch attacks or raids against Palestinians if the situation remains calm and it is not provoked, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at a meeting of Israeli newspaper editors on Thursday afternoon.

However, Israel would act if it had information that ‘ticking bombs’ were planning imminent attacks on Israel and would respond if Palestinians fired rockets at Israel, he said.

“If there is quiet, we of course will not act. We too have an interest in keeping the quiet. But we reserve the right to intercept ticking bombs and cells launching Kassam rockets,” Sharon said.

“I see in the latest developments in the Palestinian Authority, the possibility for a historic opportunity within which it will be possible to advance in the peace process,” Sharon said.

“When the Palestinian Authority chooses the leadership it will choose- which will, I hope, be a leadership that does not support terrorism, fights terrorism, and shatters its infrastructure-our reaction will be positive.

“We are ready to go towards the Palestinians, to support them and to coordinate with them security issues, and varying elements related to the disengagement [from the Gaza Strip],” he continued.

Could refusing to halt the progress of a locust swarm be considered a biological weapon meant to commit the war crime of destroying civilian agricultural fields?

HAARETZ: Officials: Egypt responsible for locust attack on Israel

Egypt does not take proper action against locusts in its territories and as a result they continue to invade Israel, the head of the Plant Protection and Inspection Services, Dr. Eldad Landes said on Wednesday.

Landes cannot predict when the locusts will stop coming to Israel but he says the rain and cold weather which are expected in the next few days will stop the pests, at least temporarily.

A large swarm of locusts landed in the Ein Gedi reservation near the Dead Sea and began to feed on the vegetation in the fields of nearby kibbutz Ein Gedi, but no significant damage was caused.

The swarm had advanced north from the Sinai peninsula, through the Arava desert and Be’er Sheva. Two new swarms of locusts also arrived in Eilat and the western Negev near kibbutz Urim.

Plant Protection and Inspection Services officials are working to find the locusts, because they intend to dust nearby fields with insecticides in the early morning.

The locusts originated in Libya and migrated through Egypt. They can now be found along the entire Egyptian coastline.

Israel Police prepared to hit the highest level of alert– essentially signifying a state of war - Thursday night, as preparations for Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s funeral continued in Cairo and Ramallah.

Police said that at 6 a.m. Friday the force will go on Operation Alert Level D – the last time used two years ago prior to America’s invasion of Iraq and following threats made by Saddam Hussein that he will launch missiles against Israel.

Under the new alert level, all members of the Israel Police will be called up for active duty, including cadets and policemen currently on vacation.

Read more…

HAARETZ: Israel plans posthumous anti-Arafat campaign

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that after the funeral of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israel will launch a propaganda campaign against him. The political-security cabinet yesterday approved the proposed plans to bury Arafat in Ramallah.

“It is feared that after his funeral Arafat will become a national hero and freedom-fighter,” Sharon said. “We will launch a tough struggle to portray his murderous character and the fact that he is a strategist of world terror who hurt innocent people, both Israelis and American diplomats,” he said.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Thursday’s Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.

TOP TOPICS

• Yasser Arafat is dead. His rotting corpse will be put in a crate, shoved in the back of a cargo plane and sent to be buried in the most famous rubble heap in the Middle East: the al-Muqata compound in Ramallah. Before then, there will be a memorial in Cairo. Europe will not send heads of state, but foreign ministers, to attend. The reactions have varied. Kofi says he was ‘deeply moved’ upon learning that the career terrorist had died in his bed. Tony Blair sent his condolences to Arafat’s family. Jacques Chirac called him a “man of courage”. Hamas, the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad all hold Israel responsible for Arafat dying of something Zionist like being old and unhealthy.

• In the Netherlands, the Dutch are moving against known terrorist cells. Politically, they’ve called for Hezbollah to be listed as a terrorist organisation in the European Union. Several suspects have been arrested in raids across the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, two police officers were wounded by grenades. Dan Darling has an analysis of the likely perpetrators.

• It’s on in Fallujah. So far, so good. Joe Katzman has a continuously updated page of news from the city. Another good resource is The Adventures of Chester, the blog of a former Marine who served in Iraq.

Other Topics Today Include: Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade is back!; Russians nail assassin; U.S. warns of Uzbekistan attacks; Singapore guards facilities; PFLP wanted to hit French; al-Qaeda may disintegrate; GSPC murders innocents; caucasian suicide bomber in Iraq; IAEA: nucelar terrorism a threat (you read it here first); Bahrain Ansar al-Islam threatens U.S. and U.K.

Read the Rest…

JERUSALEM POST: Three terrorists killed near Netzarim

Security forces shot two terrorist cells Thursday afternoon south of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.

Three terrorists were killed and it appears that four more were wounded.

The IDF said that soldiers spotted armed Palestinians approaching the security fence and opened fire, and confirmed hitting several.

JERUSALEM POST: Far-right hand out candy marking Arafat’s ‘death’

About a dozen Israeli far-right activists affiliated with the outlawed Kahane movement distributed candy flowers and wine to Jerusalem motorists at the entrance to the capital late Tuesday night in celebration over the impending death of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

“Such should be the fate of all the enemies of Israel,” said self-declared Kahane spokesman Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Welcome! This briefing will be looking hard at the dark places most mainstream media seem determined to look away from, to better understand our declared enemies on their own terms and without illusions. Our goal is to bring you some of the top jihadi rants, idiotarian seething, and old-school Jew-hatred from around the world, leaving you more informed, more aware, and pretty disgusted every month. This Winds of Change.NET HateWatch briefing is brought to you by Lewy14. (Email me at my handle “hatewatch” here at windsofchange.net). Past briefings and posts on related topics can be found here. Entil’zha veni!

HIGHLIGHTED TOPICS

• Religious Hate: Al Qaida organ advises fighting during Ramadan; Dutch filmmaker butchered for his art; Official curriculum of Jihad in Pakistan; Muslim Students Association pays tribute to Yassin; Cleric reprises tired rant in Vancouver; Jihad in Thailand; Darfur: sharia as a root cause; Tajik boy kidnapped to fight jihad.

• Idiotarian Seethings: Iranian parliament tells us how they really feel; Duke University plays host to hatefest; Anti-Semitism on the Left in Australia; Canadian Muslim leader denies Israel has civilians; Bin Laden hates red states.

• Race and Culture: Palestinian Authority’s version of Big Bird; Hamas glorifies a shaheed; swastikas painted in a Jewish cemetery in France; Ethnic riots in China kill 148; Paleocon == hater?

• A Hopeful Note: The future (of Islam) and it’s (Islamist) enemies; Israeli Arab advocates for empowering women; Sistani: vote or be d*mned.

HAARETZ: Egypt announces arrest of five plotters of Sinai attacks

Five Egyptians have been arrested on suspicion of plotting three near simultaneous car bombings of a hotel and resort in the Sinai that killed at least 34 people, including 12 Israelis, earlier this month.

In a statement Monday, the Egyptian Interior Ministry also said the mastermind of the attacks, identified as Palestinian Ayad Said Salah, died in the October 7 explosion at the Taba Hilton hotel along with a fellow plotter, Egyptian Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Flayfil.

The statement said the two, identified through DNA testing, had been trying to leave the scene but their timed explosives went off prematurely.

According to the statement, two other suspects are said to be at large: Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfil, brother of Suleiman Flayfil, and Hammad Gaman Gomah. Mohamed Flayfil was accused of carrying out the attack on one of the campgrounds and Gomah was accused of carrying out the third bombing.

The statement said the Egyptian suspects were residents of the Sinai, and that Salah, lived in the Sinai town of al-Arish.

JERUSALEM POST: PC game simulates anti-Israel terror

A new video game for home computers is being developed in Syria which allows users to assume the role of Palestinians carrying out terrorist attacks on Israeli soldiers, including at least one suicide bombing.

Entitled “Under Siege”, the game is slated for release by the end of the year by Damascus-based Afkar Media, according to a report in the Beirut Daily Star.

Users will be able to simulate various types of attacks on Israelis, ranging from a teenage Palestinian armed with a slingshot to a 25-year old toting a machine gun.

In addition, one scene is said to depict a Palestinian female suicide bomber in Jenin who hands her child over to relatives before detonating a hand grenade in a crowd of Israeli soldiers.

Nonetheless, the game’s developers insist that it is intended to promote non-violence.

“This is not a game about killing. We are telling a story,” said Radwan Kasmiya, Afkar Media’s executive manager, adding, “It’s not about desperation, it’s about sacrificing your life to let others live,” he said.

The company’s primary target audience is said to be young Arab computer users across the Middle East.

HAARETZ: Hundreds of South African Muslims protest Olmert’s upcoming visit

Another of the demonstration’s organizers, Ebrahim Gabriels of the Muslim Judicial Council, said members of Hamas and other violent Palestinian groups behind suicide bombings and other attacks in Israel were not terrorists. Like South Africa’s anti-apartheid movements, they are fighting for freedom, he said.

“Hamas is not a terrorist group. The apartheid government once called the African National Congress terrorists, but we said no … they are liberators,” he said.

Gabriels said his movement supported Hamas “100 percent,” drawing cheers and raised fists from the crowd.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Thursday’s Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.

TOP TOPICS

• Egyptian holiday resorts on the Sinai, frequented by Israelis, were attacked by what are now thought to be car-bombs. The Hilton hotel was partially destroyed by a car bomb. The number of dead stands somewhere between 31-34, with over 100 wounded. More below…

• After CNS News reported Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda and possession of WMD, based on alleged Iraqi intelligence documents, there was widespread scepticism. However, they have released some of the documents for public verification. Our own Robi Sen is leading a charge to try to evaluate the documents.

• Zarqawi: Is He al-Qaeda? Meanwhile, today’s Iraq Report has a lot to say about developments in Fallujah, where Zarqawi is based.

• The Washington Times reports that 25 Chechen terrorists entered the United States across the Mexican border in July. The paranoid won’t be reassured by news that photographs, evacuation information and other details about several San Diego schools have been found on a CD in Iraq.

Other Topics Today Include: Sinai bombs; Iran Reports; Domestic Security; Chinese hostages; terrorists and CBW; missing nuclear materials; Delhi nuclear alert; Bigley murdered; French hostages in Syria?; Jordan’s secret prison; Bali anniversary; 3/11 bombers had local training; al-Qaeda in Libya?; Chinese foe; al-Qaeda vs. Israel; US military & nation-building…

Read the Rest…

JTA: Anti-rocket radar works

An Israeli town’s early-warning radar scored a first victory against Palestinian rockets.

The Ma’anim system installed in Sderot sounded a 20-second alert before two Kassam rockets fired by Palestinians in the nearby Gaza Strip struck Wednesday. The Kassams landed harmlessly in an open field, but security chiefs hailed the incident as a successful test for the Ma’anim, which was unveiled Tuesday.

JERUSALEM POST: Egypt: al-Qaida sleeper cell was activated to hit Sinai

Egyptian officials investigating the Sinai suicide bomb attacks believe that al-Qaida activated sleeper cells in Egypt received the full cooperation from Beduin living in the Sinai who, according to Egyptian media reports, assisted the terrorists in evading roadblocks manned by Egyptian security forces and provided them with explosives.

Egyptian investigators think the cell, whose members carried passports from a number of different countries, received cooperation from a number of Egyptians too.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom reiterated Monday Israel believes responsibility lies with the al-Qaida terror network led by Osama bin Laden, although it was not “100 percent” sure.

HAARETZ: Egypt: Bedouin says may have sold explosives for Sinai bombs

Egyptian security officials said some of dozens of Bedouins detained for questioning have been cooperating with authorities and have provided valuable information about the explosives.

At least one Bedouin told investigators he might have sold explosives to strangers not realizing they were destined for attacks in Sinai, according to an Egyptian security official.

“The explosives were sold on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

HAARETZ: Israeli rescue workers told to cease complaints

Government officials ordered rescue workers to cease complaints that Egypt is impeding rescue efforts at the scene of the deadly terror attacks in Sinai as the first bodies were returned to Israel.

Authorities are concerned that accusations of inefficiency and bureaucracy by Israeli rescue workers against their Egyptian counterparts may anger the Egyptians, further impeding joint relief efforts.

Magen David Adom and Israeli firefighter units on their way to help in rescue efforts following the devastating blast at the Hilton Hotel in Taba, Sinai, have accused Egyptian authorities of preventing them from entering Egypt.

“The Egyptians brought a unit of Egyptian firefighters who did not have the proper equipment. They are working with their hands and shovels, and the Egyptian government is not allowing us to bring in our heavy equipment. It is frustrating to stand in front of the destruction, unable to help the situation,” fire chief Shimon Romach said on Friday morning.

HAARETZ: Blast at Hilton Hotel in Taba, close to Egypt-Israel border

An explosion occurred at the Hilton Hotel in the Egyptian town of Taba on Thursday evening, close to the border with Israel.

There were reports of casualties in the blast.

Ambulances and emergency personnel were on their way to the site of explosion.

It is unclear whether the explosion was caused by an attack.

Army Radio reported that the blast could be heard in the Israeli resort town of Eilat.

Many Israelis have visited Egypt over the past month, during the period of Jewish holidays. Last month, the defense establishment cautioned Israelis against traveling to Sinai, following warnings of a potential terrorist attack.

JERUSALEM POST: Dozens of Israelis wounded in gas explosion at Hilton in Taba

A large number of Israelis were wounded in an apparent gas explosion at the Hilton Hotel in Taba, near the Israel-Egypt border.

Dozens of injured have been rushed to the Taba crossing where Magen David Adom ambulances are waiting to evacuate them to the Josephthal Hospital in Eilat.

Initial reports indicated that a section of the hotel collapsed in the explosion and a number of people were killed.

Tens of Israelis suffering light-to-moderate wounds have already crossed from Egypt into Israel and are receiving medical treatment from Magen David Adom personnel.

This contradicts initial reports that had said that Egypt was actively blocking MDA ambulances from crossing.

UPDATE:
CNN reports two more blasts at hotels in Egyptian resort towns… now it’s campgrounds…

Two smaller blasts occurred about two hours later in the area of Ras al Shitan, a camping area full of Israeli tourists south of Taba, witnesses said.

State-run Egyptian television is the Hilton explosion a gas leak, other sources say it may have been a car bomb.
23 killed at Taba, 10 floors collapsed.
Egypt is allowing Israeli helicopters to ferry out dead and wounded.

Now 29 killed, 114 wounded.

Via LGF, They are dancing in the streets of Gaza and Cairo. (Egypt receives $2 billion in US foreign aid per year and is seeking a seat on the UNSC, by the way)

HAARETZ: Israel to tell UN it is ‘unacceptable’ to employ Hamas members

Israel will demand that United Nations investigators who arrived in Israel on Wednesday hold a thorough investigation into whether the world body employs people who “aid and abet” Palestinian militant groups, a senior Israeli official said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent the team this week after Israel claimed a Palestinian rocket had been transported in a UN ambulance.

The UN Relief and Works Agency has denied allegations that IDF footage released last Friday showed personnel loading a Qassam into an ambulance, saying the object was actually a stretcher.

However, UNRWA commissioner, Peter Hansen, subsequently said in a television interview that the agency’s 24,000 employees probably include members of Hamas and other militant groups. “I don’t see that as a crime,” he said.

(Hansen forgot The First Law Of Holes.)

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Israel and its neighbours, courtesy of Inkgrrl.

TOP TOPIC

• Israelis continue major push into Gaza, and casualties are growing. Meanwhile, the US is sending mixed messages about the whole thing: on the one hand, Powell is calling for an end to the operation, and on the other, the US has vetoed a UN resolution against same.

Other Topics Today Include: Al-Quds Beheaded, Arafat Wants To Be Mandela, A Rare Voice Of Dissent Caught On Film, and Syria’s Cabinet In A Kerfuffle

Read The Rest…

Reuters reports that Arab nations want the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding Israel stop a major offensive in the Gaza Strip:

The draft resolution reaffirms support for the nearly dormant “road map” for Middle East peace and demands “the immediate cessation of all military operations in the area of northern Gaza” and the withdrawal of Israel from there.

U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said that after two years of attacks, it was not unreasonable for Israel to respond.

“So now the issue is, all right, where do we go from here?” Danforth said. “It is the position of the U.S. delegation that we should not simply pass resolution after resolution, which are all one-sided, but that we should insist that the road map is the way to peace.”

From California Yankee.

AP: Sharon: Operation in Gaza Will Continue

Israel’s army will operate in the northern Gaza Strip until all Palestinian rocket fire against Israeli towns is halted, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said late Saturday in an interview on Israel Radio.

Sharon spoke as his forces ended the fourth day of an invasion in which 50 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed. Israeli forces control a five mile strip of northern Gaza, aimed at moving Israeli border towns out of range of the primitive Palestinian rockets.

HAARETZ: Four people suffer from shock when Qassams hit Sderot

Four people suffered from shock when Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired three Qassam rockets at the western Negev town of Sderot on Sunday morning.

One rocket scored a direct hit on a home, the second fell between houses in a residential area and the third rocket landed in an open area.

JERUSALEM POST: Report: Arab state helping Mossad track Hamas

An Arab state provided Israel with valuable intelligence on the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and its leadership overseas, the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat reported Friday.

According to the newspaper, an intelligence agency belonging to an Arab state supplied Israel with intelligence on Hamas leaders living in Beirut, Damascus, Tehran and Khartoum at the request of Mossad head Meir Dagan.

Dagan approached the unnamed Arab state with a request for information on Hamas leaders, namely Khaled Mashal, head of the organization’s political bureau, following the double suicide bombing in Beersheba last month in which 16 Israelis were killed.

AP: Israel Issues Rocket Retaliation Warning

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned Sunday that Israel will retaliate against Palestinan rockets even if they are fired from civilian areas, and an arms manufacturer said Israel had installed a radar system in a border town to give warning of rocket attacks.

Sharon’s remarks and the reported radar defense were apparently aimed at hardline critics who say Sharon’s planned withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 would expose Israel to intense rocket attacks. Numerous Israeli military forays into northern Gaza have failed to still the rocket fire.

In the four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Palestinian militants have fired dozens of inaccurate, low-explosive rockets at Israeli border towns and Jewish settlements in Gaza.

The missiles caused deaths for the first time in June, when two Israelis, including a 4-year-old boy, were killed. Many missiles have fallen into fields, while others have damaged homes and cars.

The town of Sderot, a mile from Gaza, has been hit hardest. An early-warning system was recently installed in Sderot to allow residents enough time to get into bomb shelters before the rockets land, said Giora Shalgi, the director of Rafael, an Israeli arms manufacturer.

“It can identify in a very short time where it (the rocket) was launched and assess where it will fall and operate a warning system while the rocket is in the air, which is for about 20 seconds, depending on the range,” Shalgi told Israel Radio.

The Haaretz newspaper said the system is attached to Sderot’s public address system and was used for the first time a week ago.

Rocket fire from Gaza is expected to increase as the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza draws closer.

Sharon told the Cabinet Sunday that Israel would react more quickly to attacks, even if the rockets are fired from civilian areas. “We have to think about how to act against the sources of the fire, after warning the civilians,” he said.

JERUSALEM POST: Beduin Hamas cell smashed

Two men from the Beduin village of Tel Sheva near Omer in the South were charged Tuesday with assisting a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip with his plans to kidnap and murder IDF soldiers based in the south of the country. The Palestinian is reportedly a family member. The group planned to kidnap and kill soldiers, and use their bodies as bargaining chips in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Security officials revealed Tuesday that the terror cell was apprehended two months ago.

HAARETZ: Six Egyptian students charged with planning terrorist attack

Six Egyptian students suspected of planning a terrorist attack in Israel were indicted on Sunday at the Be’er Sheva District Court.

The charge sheet indicates that the suspects had been planning the attack for three years as part of an independent local organization, and had not associated themselves with any of the leading terrorist groups.

The six were caught on August 25 when they tried to cross the Egyptian border near Nitzana in the south. They came from Cairo and managed to enter three kilometers into the country when they were spotted and apprehended by border policemen.

The suspects were carrying 14 knives, black camouflage attire, backpacks, binoculars, communications equipment, maps of Israel and various other items to help carry out their scheme.

The indictment also includes conspiring to seize a tank and rob a bank in Mitzpe Ramon. The suspects allegedly planned to use the money from the bank to fund additional attacks on Israel once they return to Egypt.

MAARIV: Families of soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah to sue UN

The families of the three IDF soldiers who were kidnapped by Hezbollah have announced their intention to file a suit against the United Nations and the Hezbollah organization. Iran, Syria and Lebanon will also be sued in view of their support of the Lebanese terror group.

The suit will be filed in a US court by relatives of Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaed, eight months after their bodies were returned to Israel for burial as part of the prisoner swap deal with Hezbollah.

The three families confirmed their intentions in a conversation with NRG Maariv. “On Sunday, we will hold a press conference at Sokolov House in Tel Aviv, during which we will say all that we have to say”. Ya’akov Avitan, father of Adi, said.

Since the October 2000 abductions, Israel and the families have expressed outrage over the UN’s inability to prevent the kidnappings.

In July 2001, it was revealed that UNIFIL soldiers filmed Hezbollah operatives as they were transferring the three IDF troops, about 18 hours after they were kidnapped, from a distance of barely 20 km from point of abduction.

In addition, it became evident that several UN soldiers knew that the Lebanese terror group intends to kidnap IDF soldiers from the area of the Shaba Farms and had even been paid off by the Hezbollah in order to turn a blind eye.

Israeli officials were also infuriated over the fact that the UN had hidden a tape that was filmed during the abduction and demanded of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to use that tape in order to help determine the fate of the soldiers. Only after a long struggle, the UN allowed Israeli officials to view the tape, but only four times.

HAARETZ: Sharon to meet Russian FM over global anti-terror efforts

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is to meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem on Monday for talks likely to center on the need for greater global anti-terror efforts following the deadly seizure by militants of a Russian school, officials said Sunday.

An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the visit was arranged long before the latest wave of violence in Russia.

But the school siege, in which at least 350 were killed, nearly half of them children - along with last week’s Moscow suicide bombing and the August 24 bombing of two Russian passenger planes - meant the terror issue would now move higher up the agenda.

“The terrorist activities in Russia against innocent civilians prove anew that terror has no borders and a single goal: to destroy and sow ruin,” Sharon said at the beginning of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.

“Terror has no justification, and it’s time for the free, decent, humanistic world to unite and fight this terrible plague, which has no borders or fences,” he said.

(What’s so different about two unrelenting violently fanatical Islamic separatist movements attacking women and children in semi-sovereign regions legimitmately conquered and annexed through war? The Russians annexed in an offensive war, the Israelis in a defensive war.)

HAARETZ: Israel begins construction of stretch of separation fence in south

Israel began construction Sunday of a section of the West Bank separation fence in the southern West Bank, days after Palestinian suicide bombers carried out an attack from the area.
Security officials confirmed that work started on a 30-kilometer stretch of barrier southwest of Hebron.

But the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the work wasn’t related to last week’s attack in Be’er Sheva, in which Hamas suicide bombers from Hebron killed 16 people. The bombing has put pressure on the government to speed up construction, which has been delayed by a series of legal challenges

Winds of Change.NET HREF="http://windsofchange.net/archives/cat_features_regional_briefings.html">Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Israel and its neighbours, courtesy of Inkgrrl.

TOP TOPIC

• Nope, The Intifada Ain’t Over… Yet, and Israel hasn’t quite finished making her point in Hebron or Gaza in retaliation for the Be’erSheva bombing two days ago, but has also chosen to pick on someone her own size - Syria. Sharon believes that by harboring Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, Syria is directly at cause in the double suicide bombing that cost 16 lives. And he’s taking it all the way to the top.

Other Topics Today Include: Palestinians Discover Peaceful Protest… Sort of, Israeli Tunnel Rats Working Hard, Don’t Shadow Bashar Assad’s Bets, GI Jamila, and Election-Rigging Isn’t Just An American Pasttime

Read The Rest….

Update to this story.

Two buses exploded in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Tuesday, wounding at least 15 people, Israeli rescue officials said.

Israel Radio said Palestinian militants were suspected in the blasts, which would mark the first such attack since March. The report could not immediately be confirmed.

The nearly simultaneous blasts occurred in the city’s main street. Israel Radio said one bus was in flames, while windows were blown out of the second vehicle.

Read more…

UPDATE:

According to reports, at least 12 people have died in the explosions and 44 have been injured.

Israel’s Channel Two television said the blasts were carried out by Palestinian suicide bombers, but the report could not immediately be confirmed. TV reports said two mangled bodies were found — presumably those of the bombers.
The militant group Hamas quickly claimed responsibility for the bombings.

UPDATE:

Reports put the death toll at 15 now. Further updates available on the Magen David Adom site.

UPDATE:

From Al-Jazeera:

“These explosions show that all the security precautions and the barrier have been unable to stop the attacks,” Aljazeera correspondent al-Umari said.

(Ed- The barrier is not finished in that region.)

JERUSALEM POST: Bomb-sniffing dogs used for Jerusalem city buses

After months of bureaucratic delays, a new security plan for public buses across the country is currently underway, including the unprecedented use of bomb-sniffing dogs on Jerusalem City buses to snuff out Palestinian suicide bombers, a senior official in the Internal Security Ministry said Sunday.

As part of the bus security plan, sixteen specially trained dogs are being used to safeguard city buses in Jerusalem, with the number of dogs expected to triple in the coming months as the program expands nationwide, said the deputy director general of the internal security ministry, Eliezer Rosenbaum.

The dogs, which undergo a five-month training period by the ‘Pups for Peace’ Organization before being handed over to security officials for use on public buses, include German Shepherds, and Labradors.

The dogs are used by security guards to sniff out explosives at bus stops, bus stations, and bus queues.

HAARETZ: Deputy AG: End to terror could make fence illegal

Israel may have to dismantle the West Bank separation fence if the Palestinians “reach a real decision” to stop carrying out terror attacks, Deputy Attorney General Malchiel Balass told Haaretz on Tuesday.

According to Balass, a cessation of attacks is not sufficient grounds to consider dismantling the fence. A significant act would be required on the part of the Palestinians, similar to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s 1993 letter to Premier Yitzhak Rabin, since the separation fence was erected in the first place as a temporary security measure, which is also its legal justification.

“If the Palestinians reach a real decision to stop terrorism, a major legal question will arise surrounding the justification for the separation fence’s existence, and we may have to dismantle segments of it,” Balass said.

JERUSALEM POST: Police drill reveals security flaws in malls

Tel Aviv District Police infiltrated dummy bombs into two central shopping malls and a hotel in the Kiryat Ono area on Tuesday without being detected by security guards.

Police, from the Mesubim Station in conjunction with cadets from the Israel Police officer’s course, carried out the drill at the Kiryat Ono Mall, Yehud’s Savyonim Mall and the Avia Hotel in the city. In all three cases, an undercover police officer succeeded in infiltrating a large dummy explosives device inside a backpack into the establishments.

WaPo via Seattle Times: Hamas leader, 2 others accused of financing, backing terrorism

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department yesterday unsealed an indictment accusing a senior Hamas leader and two others of a 15-year racketeering conspiracy that raised millions of dollars for the militant group, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the United States for carrying out bombings, kidnappings and other attacks in Israel.

The indictment, handed up in Chicago, includes the deputy chief of Hamas' political wing, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, and a former Howard University professor, Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Fairfax County, Va.

Ashqar, 46, and a third defendant, Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah, 51, of suburban Chicago, were arrested Thursday night. Abu Marzook, expelled from the United States in 1997, is believed to be living in Syria, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

AP: Spy Balloon Said to Alert Israeli Troops

“The balloon is necessary for finding the Qassams,” an intelligence officer told the weekly. Giving his name only as Lt. Col. Yossi, he said, “it allows an improved watch over the area.”

The article did not say how the balloon would fit into Israeli army operations. It could be used to pinpoint the location of portable rocket launchers for an immediate strike.

During a recent operation in northern Gaza, from where most of the rockets are fired, Israeli forces said they prevented an attack by hitting a launcher and militants preparing it before they could fire a rocket.

The military said the strike was a rare success but did not say how soldiers spotted the launcher before the firing. Disclosure of the balloon could provide an explanation.

The weekly said the balloon flying over the command post is a prototype and the military hopes to have 10 such balloons in the air within a year.

Haaretz: Israeli civilian killed in shooting attack near Itamar

An Israeli civilian died of his wounds Friday shortly after he was hit in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus.

The gunman was identified as a member of the Tanzim, an offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Palestinian sources told Israel Radio that Yusuf Hanani, 25, was an officer in the Palestinian Preventive Security Service.

A Palestinian gunman fired at the Israeli man and stole his M-16. As the gunman was trying to escape, Itamar security guards got to the scene and fired at the terrorist, killing him.

The wounded Israeli was evacuated to a hospital for treatment, but died in the ambulance.

HAARETZ: IDF soldier seriously wounded during push into Gaza camp

An Israel Defense Forces soldier was seriously wounded by a Palestinian sniper Thursday morning, as IDF troops entered the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The soldier, who sustained head injuries, was evacuated to Soroka medical center in Be’er Sheva.

Troops, tanks and bulldozers rolled into the camp early Thursday, and began demolishing houses in a raid launched hours after a West Bank checkpoint car bombing killed two Palestinians.

A military source said troops had entered the Rafah camp to conduct a “centered operation against terror infrastructures in the area.”

HAARETZ: Israeli woman suspected of aiding terrorists

Police and the Shin Bet on Monday arrested an Israeli woman suspected of aiding Palestinian terrorists in carrying out security offenses.

Tali Fahima is suspected of involvement in planning terror attacks against Israelis, as well as maintaining contacts with Palestinian terrorists. Fahima was known as the former girlfriend of Jenin’s most wanted Palestinian, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades commander Zakariya Zubeidi, with whom she is supposedly still in touch.

Security officials on Tuesday requested the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court to extended Fahima’s remand. Most of the details of the investigations are forbidden for publication by a court order.

HAARETZ: Israeli Arab suspected of gathering intelligence for Hamas

An Israeli Arab resident of the Galilee has been arrested on suspicion that he gathered intelligence for a Hamas terror cell operating in the West Bank city of Hebron. The Shin Bet security services released details of the case for publication on Wednesday morning.

Zahar Ali, a resident of the Galilee village of Kaukab, who is studying for his Masters degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was arrested three weeks ago.

Ali is suspected of having picked out the Caffit coffee shop on Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street as a target for a terror attack. A suicide bomber was sent to the location on July 11, but changed his mind at the last moment and returned to Hebron. The man was killed two days later in a clash with Israel Defense Forces troops who attempted to arrest him.

Several other militants were arrested in Hebron in connection with the affair.

HAARETZ: MI chief: Terror can’t be eliminated using military means alone

Terrorism cannot be eliminated using military means alone, Israel Defense Forces intelligence chief Major General Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.

Ze’evi-Farkash’s statements contradicted those made some two weeks ago by Shin Bet internal security service director Avi Dichter during a session of the same Knesset committee. At that time, Dichter said it is possible to get to the bottom of the terrorism problem.

However, Ze’evi-Farkash said Tuesday that terrorism can be described as a bottomless well and confronting it is an endless task.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report.

Round 2 of our auditions is currently in progress, and today’s Winds of War briefing is brought to you by Larry Ice of Correct-Amundo!.

TOP TOPICS

• Suicide bombers strike U.S., Israeli, and government targets in Uzbekistan. Suspects were quickly arrested, though it is of note that the bombings took place the same week that suspects in bombings earlier this year were to be put on trial.

• Meanwhile, back home, the terror level is being jacked up for specific targets in specific cities. More on this in the Domestic Security Briefings section below, but people are witnessing unannounced drills taking place in our most populous city with increasing frequency as we lead up to the Republican Convention.

• On the intelligence front, the debate over the quality of our intelligence continues despite their apparent successes, and most certainly thanks to their spectacular failings. This last story has pretty large implications for our nation and one has to wonder, just how many tribal feuds are we being drawn into?

Other Topics Today Include: Iran resumes nuclear efforts; Israel’s ABM tests; Iran’s generation gap; The return of the July Surprise; Recent threat warnings; Palestinian civil war; More on Uzbekistan; Pakistani bombing; Afghanistan Report.

Read The Rest…

JERUSALEM POST: Tashkent: Explosion at Israeli embassy

At least two dead in explosions hit the U.S. and Israeli embassies in the Uzbek capital Friday, a top police official said. Another blast also hit the general prosecutor’s office and caused “deaths,” a Russian news agency reported.

Embassy officials weren’t immediately available for comment, but Israel Radio reported that a suicide bomber set off the explosion at the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent.

The victims who were killed at the Israeli Embassy were not Israeli citizens but were foreign workers employed there, Israel Radio said.

JERUSALEM POST: Laser gun against Kassams a possibility

The defense industry is considering adapting the Nautilus system, or Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL), meant for anti-Katyusha defense systems in the north, to combat lower tech Kassam rockets on the Gaza strip border. The Nautilus, which has cost hundreds of million of dollars to develop, is essentially a laser gun, has been developed over the last few years in a joint US – Israeli program.

According to security sources familiar with the design, the MTHEL will be able to fire a beam every five seconds and follow 15 targets simultaneously. It will also be able to turn glass canopies on fighter jets into opaque glass after a one-second blast. The MTHEL could also be used against helicopters.

In field tests conducted since development of the system, the Nautilus has succeeded in downing over thirty Katyusha rockets, and several artillery shells.

Advanced testing in New Mexico further improved the laser’s targeting system and enabled it to down a long-range missile.

A defense official told Israel Radio Sunday that the cost of adjusting the system to target Kassam rockets would be very high.

After all, you have to upgrade the sea bass to sharks…

HAARETZ: Hanegbi: Extreme right may carry out attack on Temple Mount

Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on Saturday said that the defense establishment has identified a strengthening of intent among extreme-right groups to carry out a terror attack on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in order to thwart the peace process.

“There is no information on specific persons, otherwise the Shin Bet and the police would not have enabled them to act,” Hanegbi told Channel Two news, “but there are worrying indications pointing to a purposeful - not just philosophical - frame of mind.”

“There is a danger that they would want to make use of the most explosive target, in hope that the ensuing chain reaction would bring about the destruction of the political process,” he added.

JERUSALEM POST: Mediators restart Hizbullah prisoner swap talks

German intermediaries have restarted negotiations regarding the second phase of the Hizbullah prisoner exchange in which information about the disappearance of missing aviator Ron Arad is to be exchanged for Haran family murderer Samir Kuntar.

According to a report on Channel 1 TV Wednesday night, Iran, seeking information on four missing diplomats it believes are being held by Israel, is pressuring the Hizbullah to fulfill its part of the bargain.

During the past months, bone fragments have been delivered to Israel that have proven to be immaterial to the exchange - following DNA tests proving the fragments were not those of Ron Arad’s.

HAARETZ: Hezbollah, IDF troops clash in north

Israel Defense Forces troops were on high alert along the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday after a Hezbollah militant was reported killed in heavy exchanges of fire with Israeli soldiers.

IDF officials insisted it was Hezbollah who started the skirmish when snipers opened fire at an IDF post in the north around midday Tuesday. The army called the shooting a “provocation.”

But Lebanese security officials said the Israelis were the first to shoot, and Hezbollah warned it would retaliate at the right time and place.

Israeli helicopters and a tank returned fire, hitting the Hezbollah position from which the sniper attack was initiated. A gunman was killed in the IDF strike, Lebanese security sources said.

It was unclear whether any IDF troops were wounded.

UPDATE: Two IDF soldiers killed.

MAARIV: Knesset to examine plans to protect its roof

The concern is that an architectural flaw in the building could cause its roof to collapse during an earthquake or a massive terror attack using explosives, airplanes or missiles.

“The chances of an attack on the building are slim but due to the recent earthquakes and certain security alerts received last year, I must assume the worst case scenario since several times a year, the Knesset hosts the entire leadership of the nation”, Rivlin explained.

The Mayor of Sderot Elie Moyal said in response, vIt is strange that they are willing to waste millions in order to protect a threat that exists only on paper while the residents of Sderot do not enjoy this luxury and are exposed on a daily basis to Kassam attacks”.

HAARETZ: System to defend planes against missiles tested successfully

An airborne defense system against shoulder-launched missiles aimed at civilian aircraft underwent a successful test at Palmahim on Monday.

The system, dubbed FlightGuard, is being jointly produced by Israel
Aircraft Industries and Israel Military Industries. It is slated to be installed on El Al passenger aircraft.

The two companies have sold marketing rights to an American firm, Aviation Protection Systems, which has Israeli and American investors. The company bought two passenger planes earmarked for demonstrations for the Federal Aviation Authority in an effort to win approval for the products.

Monday’s test was supervised by the air force and involved a Boeing 737 owned by Elta, an IAI company, on which the three main elements of the system were mounted: the radar, a control center and special infrared flares, which are invisible to the naked eye. The Elta-made radar spotted the Strella SA7 missile the moment it was launched - though it was a virtual missile launch - and the control system launched the flares. The virtual missiles chased after the flares as they flew away from the plane, which continued on its flight path.

Reuters reports:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An explosion rocked an Israeli bus near the central bus station in Tel Aviv Sunday, Israel radio reported, and emergency workers said around 10 people were wounded.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, which came two days after the World Court ruled that Israel’s West Bank barrier is illegal.

…

The head of emergency medical services Yossi Cohen in Tel Aviv told Israel radio that it was possible that the explosion went off at a bus station — next to, and not on, the bus.

Magen David Adom emergency services said most of the injured were only slightly wounded.

HAARETZ: Israel: ICJ fence ruling fails to address Palestinian terror

In a response to the ruling of the International Court of Justice on the West Bank separation fence, Israel said Friday that the court had failed to address the issue of “Palestinian terror” in determining that the barrier is illegal.

“It fails to address the essence of the problem and the very reason for building the fence - Palestinian terror,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a news briefing Friday.

Israel will not follow the International Court of Justice ruling on the West Bank separation fence, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said Friday.

JERUSALEM POST: Sderot mother learns her son is dead

Ruthie Zahavi, who was seriously wounded in last week’s Kassam rocket attack on Sderot, in which her three year-old son, Afik, and another local resident, Mordechai Yosefov, 50, were killed, has finally learned that her only child is dead.

Zahavi underwent a series of operations after being admitted to the hospital, including the amputation of her right leg, and had been unconscious for all the period since the attack.

She opened her eyes on Monday in the presence of close family as well as medical staff and, according to reports, her first words were: “Where is Afik.”

The family reportedly tried to avoid telling her, but in the end she learned from them the painful truth that her son was in critical condition when rushed to the hospital and died of his wounds.

According to reports in the Hebrew press, Zahavi cried quietly, almost to herself, and then asked to be left alone on the pretext she needed to rest.

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too.

This Regional Briefing focuses on Israel and its neighbours in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, et. al., courtesy of the inimitable Inkgrrl.

TOP TOPIC

• They’re calling it Sderot Syndrome… I’d call it echoes of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, as this essay nicely outlines. The voluntary pullout of Israeli settlers from Gaza is slated to start this August; cleanup of recalcitrant settlers from the Gaza Strip will begin on September first. Arafat’s still not happy and opened the UN conference on Palestinians in South Africa by shadow-boxing over the Gaza pullout.

• It takes one to know one? Lebanon has become a favorite hunting ground for American and other security contracting companies looking for experienced mercenaries willing to work in Iraq for relatively low pay. Makes sense, after all, Lebanon’s still got that old-time flyover/anti-aircraft action going on. There’s an old Arabic saying… the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or is it the bank account of my enemy is my friend? Wait, no, it’s the bank account of the capitalist Zionist dogs is my friend… yeah, that’s it.

Other Topics Today Include: Raising ‘Em Up Right, Pre-Emptive Weasel Strikes, Sderot Syndrome, Hizbollah’s Road Show, Radio Free Syria, Lebanese Cherry Picking, (Queen) Colonel Rania of Jordan, $300M in aid to Egypt, On The Difficulty of Buying a Vowel in Egypt

Read The Rest…

For comparison purposes, here’s the story of the rocket attack on the Israeli town of Sderot as covered by Al-Jazeerah:

AL-JAZEERAH: Settlement targeted after Gaza attack

At least two Israeli settlers were killed and a third seriously wounded when two home-made missiles fell on the Jewish settlement of Sderot east of Gaza.

One of the victims of Hamas’ first ever deadly rocket attack on Israel was a three-year-old boy on his way to nursery school.

The attack came on Monday a few hours after Israeli helicopter gunships attacked the Hay Al-Zaytun neighbourhood in central Gaza, destroying a foundry and injuring some Palestinian civilians.

Sderot is an Israel city within the State of Israel. It is not a settlement by any definition.

HAARETZ: Nasrallah: ‘Mistake’ led to deaths of 3 IDF soldiers

The three Israel Defense Forces soldiers whose bodies were returned to Israel in January’s prisoner exchange were killed by “mistake,” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday.

Adi Avitan, Omar Suwad and Benny Avraham were kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah in October 2000, while patrolling along the Israeli-Lebanese border. But Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television Thursday that Hezbollah had intended to kidnap live Israeli soldiers.

“A mistake was made,” Nasrallah said. “We expected the Israeli vehicles to be armored.” The explosive device used against the IDF vehicle in which the soldiers were traveling, Nasrallah said, was too strong for an unarmored vehicle.

JERUSALEM POST: Ya’alon: Destroying terrorists’ homes works

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon has defended the destruction of terrorists’ houses, saying Sunday that neighbors and family members of Palestinian would-be suicide bombers have often come forward with information to prevent the pending attacks, in an effort to spare their homes from demolition.

Israel has come under harsh international criticism for demolishing homes of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Speaking to cabinet ministers on Sunday, Ya’alon said that the recent calm is deceptive, and that the motivation of terror groups to carry out attacks is higher than usual.

Ya’alon also reported to the cabinet over 70 incidents of terror attacks in the last week: seven shootings on the highways; one instance of shooting at Kfar Darom; 32 shootings attacks on security forces; 12 cases of mortar fire in the Gaza Strip; five rocket attacks, including one at Sderot; and 19 mine and anti-tank attacks on forces in the Philadelphi Corridor on the border with Egypt.

(Just because buses aren’t blowing up, it doesn’t mean that the Palestinians aren’t trying to kill Jews and destroy Israel.)

HAAARETZ: Five Israeli Arabs charged with terror acts

Five Israeli Arabs from Kfar Kana and Kfar Manda were accused Monday of a series of security-related charges.

They are charged with shooting at a border police car near the Rimon intersection, throwing a firebomb at another in the northern Galilee, attempting to kidnap soldiers and policemen, and planning to stab a soldier in the Haifa shopping-center.

HAARETZ: 4 Bakri family members convicted of hosting suicide bomber

The parents and two cousins of Ibrahim Bakri, who was found guilty of the murders of nine Egged bus passengers in a suicide bombing at the Meron Junction in August 2002, were convicted Wednesday of hosting the terrorist who carried out the bombing.

The four let the bomber, Jihad Hamada, sleep in their homes as well as in a kindergarten in the Galilee village of Ba’aneh.

The Acre Magistrate’s Court ruled, however, that the four were unaware of the terrorist’s intention to carry out a suicide attack.

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Israel and its neighbours, courtesy of Inkgrrl.

TOP TOPIC

• Referenced here earlier in the week, the Israeli Operation Rainbow at Rafah is supposedly over. More inside.

Other Topics Today Include: Arab Summit fraught with usual troubles, despite early promise; Mubarak rejects participation in G8 Summit to consider democracy in the Middle East; revisiting a Palestinian call to non-violent resistance; Amal ousted for Hizbollah supremacy in Lebanese elections; the young al-Assad speaks to al-Jazeera.

Read The Rest…

For many people, the big question about Rafah is “why?” Why were the Israelis so determined to press this attack, despite casualties?

The short answer is, weapon smuggling and arms manufacturing. Here’s the official explanation from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The drawings and cross-sections are especially illuminating. I had no idea that the smuggling (and even having one’s house demolished) was so lucrative, and the excerpted “Islam Online” interview with a smuggler was interesting. Thanks to Winds of Change.NET reader Shirley-Anne for that tip.

Meanwhile, Dave at Israellycool fisks some of the distortions and outright lies that many media outlets are promoting uncritically, and adds a few thoughts of his own. Suffice to say that he’s unimpressed with the performance of the media. As he should be.

AP: Israeli Troops Pulling Out of Rafah Camp

Israeli troops and tanks began pulling out of the Rafah refugee camp at daybreak Friday, residents said, after a three-day sweep that left 39 Palestinians dead.

Israeli military sources confirmed that soldiers were “redeploying” after the operation in the camp, but they said that in principle, the search for weapons-smuggling tunnels under the border would continue.

As recently as Wednesday, Israeli leaders insisted that the operation would continue.

AP/NYT — Palestinians Say Blast at Protest Kills at Least 10

Israeli forces fired a missile and a tank shell Wednesday into a large crowd of Palestinians demonstrating against the invasion of a neighboring refugee camp, witnesses said. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, all children and teenagers, a Palestinian health official said.

At least 50 people were wounded, 36 critically, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Palestinian witnesses saw a missile land in the middle of the crowd of 3,000 demonstrators, and Associated Press Television Network footage showed smoke and debris flying as a large explosion rocked the area. The footage then showed Palestinians carrying the wounded, including children, from the smoky scene.

Military sources said on condition of anonymity that a helicopter and a tank fired one round each near the crowd after soldiers felt threatened.

Palestinian witnesses said four missiles and four tank shells were fired, and they also heard machine-gun fire from tanks.

Defense sources said senior officers, including the chief of staff, were in an emergency meeting to investigate the incident.

“We are still checking the event. This is a combat zone filled with explosives devices and it is premature to know exactly what happened this afternoon in Rafah,” army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Feingold said.

The demonstrators were marching down the busy main street of Rafah town, protesting against the Israeli invasion of the nearby Tel Sultan neighborhood in Rafah refugee camp. When the crowd was less than a mile from the besieged camp, the helicopter and tank began firing, witnesses said.

HAARETZ: IDF cuts Rafah from rest of Gaza, deploys on Khan Yunis road

A massive number of Israel Defense Forces troops on Monday successfully completed a major operation in the southern Gaza Strip, to isolate the town of Rafah from the rest of Gaza and neighboring Egypt.

Troops and tanks were then deployed at regular intervals along the road between Rafah and the neighboring town of Khan Yunis. The IDF said the move was aimed at preventing militants moving between the two towns.

The operation, the first division-level operation to be conducted in Gaza, was also aimed at destroying tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt into the Strip, as well as arresting and/or killing wanted militants.

Palestinian gunmen and troops exchanged sporadic gunfire in the area. Army Radio reported that militants fired anti-tank missiles at troops, although there were no injuries.

Seven IDF tanks and armored bulldozers, backed by helicopter gunships, moved into the area between Rafah and the town of Khan Yunis, witnesses said.

JERUSALEM POST: Al-Qaida planned to bomb Israel’s Canberra embassy

A British-born Muslim convert was recruited by al-Qaida for a plan to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra with a truck bomb, prosecutors said Monday on the opening day of the man’s trial.

Jack Roche, 50, was told by senior officials in Osama bin Laden’s terror network to form a terror cell in Australia to carry out the plot, prosecutor Ron Davies told Perth District Court. The bombing was never carried out.

Roche has pleaded innocent to one charge of conspiring to damage the Israeli embassy by means of explosives, and as a consequence harm diplomatic staff. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in convicted.

JERUSALEM POST: Um El Fahm Hamas member arrested

An Israeli Arab resident of Um Al Fahm who was arrested last month by the Shin Bet and Israel Police admitted to operating on behalf of the Hamas.

Together with a Palestinian resident in the territories, he planned to abduct an Israeli pilot, smuggle a car rigged with explosives into Israel and launch suicide bomb attacks.

JERUSALEM POST: Report: IDF reveals plan for tunnel in Rafah

The IDF revealed plans Sunday to create a 60 meter wide underground canal, 20 meters deep that is aimed at preventing the forging of arms-smuggling tunnels from the Egyptian side of Rafah to the Palestinian side. This is one option to widening the Philadelphia Corridor, reported channel 2 news Sunday.

Against a background of pledges by the defense establishment that operations in Gaza were to be bolstered, the High Court of Justice on Sunday rejected a petition by Palestinians to ban the demolition of homes in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Rejecting Palestinian claims quoted on Associated Press that the IDF had destroyed nearly 90 houses, leaving over 1000 people homeless, army officials claim that only 40 houses had been destroyed, and these had been used as cover by Palestinian gunmen to attack soldiers.

(Say what you will, but I wouldn’t mess with the gondoliers the IDF has punting across that bad boy.)

MAARIV: Court convicts extreme right activist with supporting terror groups

The Jerusalem Magistrates court convicted extreme right wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir with supporting a terror organization, Sunday. Charges against Ben-Gvir include printing pamphlets calling on the government to “remove the foreigners from the Temple Mount”; the pamphlet is signed “ex Kahana activists”.

Ben-Gvir said in response: “I am not surprised that the same system that does not indict people for flying the PLO flag would convict me”. Ben-Gvir promised to appeal the courts decision.

JERUSALEM POST: PM: Israel seeks Egyptian help in stopping terror

Israel has asked Egypt for assistance in halting weapons-smuggling by Palestinian militants across the border into Gaza, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Cabinet on Sunday.

Sharon told the ministers that he had been in touch with Egyptian officials over the past week. He also said he had asked the United States for help.

Thirteen IDF soldiers were killed last week in Gaza in a series of attacks by Palestinian terrorists. Israel says the terror groups smuggle weapons through tunnels across Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Sharon said the talks with Egypt are meant at modifying Israel’s historic Camp David peace agreement, which limited the amount of troops Egypt could maintain along the border with Gaza. He said the changes would allow Egypt to bring larger numbers of troops to the border area to halt the smuggling.

There was no immediate comment from Egypt.

HAARETZ: IDF catches Palestinian hermaphrodite with 15-kg bomb

Israeli security forces thwarted a terror attack planned for the center of the country when they arrested a Palestinian hermaphrodite armed with a 15-kilogram bomb in the West Bank on Monday, Army Radio reported.

Amal Juma’a, 32, was a hermpahrodite who goes by the name Ahmed, Palestinian Authority sources told Army Radio.

Juma’a was arrested near the West Bank city of Nablus and planned to bring the bomb into the center of the country for an attack planned for Monday, according to the report.

IDF troops also arrested the suspect’s 15-year-old brother and a neighbor of the same age, according to the report. They are being questioned by security forces.

Palestinian security forces defused the bomb, the radio said.

(Would it have gotten 36 male virgins and 36 female virgins, or 72 hermaphrodite virgins?)

JERUSALEM POST: Boim warns Lebanon, Syria over Hizbullah

Israel has an interest in keeping the northern border quiet, but if it is not quiet there, it won’t be quiet in Beirut, southern Lebanon, and in Syria either, Deputy Defense Minister Ze’ev Boim said Sunday.

Boim was speaking in reaction to the latest outburst of violence on the border in which St.-Sgt. Denis Laminov was killed and six other soldiers were wounded – two of them seriously.

HAARETZ: Court convicts cabbie who transported suicide bomber

Ofer Schwartzboim, the taxi driver who unwittingly transported a suicide bomber to Geha Junction last December, was convicted of causing death by negligence, in Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday, Israel Radio reported.

Under the terms of a plea bargain worked out by the prosecution and the defense, Schwartzboim is expected to receive six months of community service and will have his taxi driver’s license permanently revoked, the radio said.

REUTERS UK: Israel kills top Hamas man

Israel has released a co-founder of Hamas to the Gaza Strip but has shot and killed another leader of the militant group in the West Bank.

Mohammed Taha, 68, had been the highest ranking Hamas figure from Gaza in Israeli custody. He was arrested during a military raid in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza in March 2003.

Witnesses said Taha was freed at the Erez crossing in northern Gaza on Wednesday afternoon, and then driven by supporters to Bureij, in central Gaza.

It was not immediately clear exactly why Taha was released at a time when Israel has stepped up operations against Hamas, having assassinated two leaders of the group — Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantissi — since March.

Shortly after Taha’s release, Israeli soldiers shot dead a senior Hamas militant leader, Imad Mohammed Janajra, 31, in an olive grove in the northern West Bank, witnesses said.

An Israeli military source said Janajra was shot when soldiers spotted him armed and approaching them near his village of Talousa. The source said troops also detonated a bomb planted nearby.

Your explanation for this phenomenon is welcome in the comments.

AP: Suspected Lebanon Hezbollah Site Attacked

Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a suspected guerrilla hideout in south Lebanon on Wednesday, shortly after Hezbollah gunners fired on Israeli jets, security officials said.

The Lebanese officials in southern Lebanon said two Israeli fighter jets fired at least one missile at a valley near the village of Zibqine, southeast of the southern port city of Tyre.

Black smoke billowed from the area. There was no immediate word on casualties.

MAARIV: Security inspector prevents major terror attack

“I noticed that something didn’t look right and I checked package after package without giving up. I opened a package that contained a denim jacket and then realized that it was actually an explosive belt”, said “T” a security inspector at the Karni crossing who thwarted a suicide bombing due to her tenacity and alertness Thursday.

At about 16.00, one of the inspectors working at the Karni crossing became suspicious of a container of clothing that Palestinians were trying to transport in to Israel. The inspector alerted “T” who rummaged threw the packages of clothes and found an explosive belt hidden in a denim jacket, “T” called over her superiors who evacuated the area after confirming that it was indeed an explosive belt of the type used by Palestinian suicide bombers.

Border Police sappers arrived on the scene and neutralized the belt.

HAARETZ: 4 soldiers hurt foiling major Hamas attack in Gaza

Four IDF soldiers were injured, two moderately and two lightly, when they foiled a major suicide car bomb attack Wednesday on Gaza Strip settlers.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a jeep flying an Israeli flag and packed with as much as 300 kilograms of explosives drew the suspicion of Givati Brigade infantrymen on patrol near the Mor Bridge between the Kissufim crossing and the Gush Katif bloc of settlements.

Hamas identified the man as Tariq Khamayed, 24, of the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The IDF believes Khamayed planned to blow himself up against a bus or a convoy on the Kissufim-Gush Katif highway. The military had received general intelligence warnings of the possibility of such an attack.

HAARETZ: Police nab three members of cell said behind shooting attacks

An undercover police unit on Friday arrested three people believed to be members of a terror cell behind the March murder of a Jerusalem man and last week’s shooting attack in which another young man was seriously.
Details of the case were released for publication on Sunday.

According to the police, the cell murdered George Elias Khoury, a 20-year-old student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on March 19 in the French Hill neighborhood of the capital and seriously injured Nir Gil, 20, on April 19 in the Givat Hamivtar neighborhood. Both were shot at close range.

The three men detained have been identified as Louay Kurnaz, and cousins Amar Abu Alous and Sajid Abu Alous. The cousins are residents of the village of Aqeb, within the municipal boundaried of Jerusalem, and Kurnaz is a resident of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The three, aged 18-19, were apprehended in a police ambush while they were allegedly attempting to carry out another attack in the French Hill neighborhood.

Police spotted a vehicle that appeared to be following a pedestrian. The vehicle was ordered to stop and a loaded gun was found in it. Police suspect the same gun was used in the two previous attacks.

(Al-Aqsa took credit for their original attack, and then apologized for having killed an Arab.)

JERUSALEM POST: Zur: Israel has infiltrated Hamas leadership

Border Police head Cmdr. David Zur, said Saturday that “Israel has people in the leadership of the Hamas.”

Zur was responding to a question posed to him regarding Israel’s success in finding and killing top terrorist leaders, Ynet reported.

Zur was speaking at a cultural event in Beer Sheba.

“We are excelling in everything connected to human intelligence. We’re investing in agents. Israel has excelled beyond belief in this field,” Zur said.

HAARETZ: IDF may close Erez industrial area in Gaza Strip

The Israel Defense Forces is leaning toward shutting down the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, due to the spate of terror attacks in the area.

The army is finding it hard to protect soldiers who are deployed at the Erez junction, senior IDF officers told Haaretz yesterday. Under the present circumstances, they said, it is hard to justify an arrangement that endangers the soldiers’ lives.

Last Saturday, a Border Policeman was killed, and three other security personnel were injured, when a suicide bomber sent by Hamas and Fatah attacked the worker terminal area in the industrial zone. Three other attacks have occurred in this area since January, killing five security men.

“It is quite possible we will have no choice but to close the industrial zone, despite the damage this will do to the livelihood of thousands of Palestinians,” a senior IDF officer said yesterday.

HAARETZ: Court orders PA to pay millions to family of bomb victims

An Israeli court ordered the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday to pay NIS 74 million ($16.2 million) to six relatives of two Israelis killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber.

This is the first Israeli ruling to hold the Palestinian Authority responsible for one of the more than 100 suicide bombings since September 2000, and it will set a precedent for future claims, said the family lawyer, Roland Roth.

Ruth Peled and her granddaughter Sinai Keinan were killed in a suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Petah Tikvah in May 2002.

“The amount of compensation awarded has to take into account the terrible and unusual suffering (of the relatives) and the murderous actions of the defendants,” the court said in awarding each of the six relatives NIS 12 million (US 2.6 million) and an additional NIS 2 million ($440,000) in legal fees.

The Palestinian Authority did not submit a defense, saying it does not recognize the Israeli court.

JERUSALEM POST: PM: Israel’s hit list is not a short one

“We have harmed the terrorists. We struck out mortally at their leadership and we will continue to do this. We rid ourselves of the first murderer, and the second. But the business is not finished. The list is not short,” Sharon added.

Israel killed Hamas’ top two leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, within one month.

“We have proved to them [the terrorists] that they are the ones who will need to run and hide from our long arm, which will not stop hunting them,” the prime minister said.

HAARETZ: IDF operating in Jenin, Tul Karm

IDF troops surrounded a house where Tanzim militants were staying, and called on them to surrender, Israel Radio reported. When they refused, the troops fired warning shots, military officials said.

Mohammed Abu Kaber was shot in the head as he looked out the window from the house that troops had surrounded, neighbors said.

The army said Abu Kaber was killed by “warning shots.”

JERUSALEM POST: US won’t withhold loans on account of fence

The US will not withhold loan guarantees to Israel on account of the security fence, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate Appropriations Committee late Thursday.

“Israel has a right to build a fence to protect itself if it feels that’s what it needs to keep the terrorists from getting into Israel,” Powell told the committee’s hearing on foreign operations appropriations for 2005.

HA‘aretz is reporting that the IDF is changing its policy on the bodies of armed Palestinians killed in confrontations. The bodies may not be returned to the Palestinian Authority, and they may be buried in Israeli cemeteries.

(Will the Palestinian Authority invokes the Geneva Convention on this when the dead are non-uniformed combatants, nor is the PA a signatory to the G.A.?)

HAARETZ: Police: Gun license holders should carry arms over Pesach

Israelis with valid gun licenses should carry a weapon with them during the Passover holiday, Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki said Monday.

The police have beefed up their deployments for the Passover holiday, which starts Monday night, as all the security services move to boost the already high state of alert.

Aharonishki on Sunday ordered the police to remain at the level of vigilance that has been in place since the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned at Sunday’s cabinet meeting that, “Terror organizations, in particular Hamas, will make every effort during Passover to carry out a large-scale attack.”

HAARETZ: Mofaz: Closure to remain until after Independence Day

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Sunday that the closure clamped on the territories last month will remain in place until after Independence Day in late April.

Security forces were on high alert Sunday due to warnings of planned suicide attacks for Passover eve Monday, and following a shooting attack late Friday in the West Bank settlement of Avnei Hefetz, in which a man was killed and his teenage daughter was injured.

The forces have several warnings that terrorists will try to attack settlements during the week-long holiday.

Security sources say that terror organizations are still looking for ways to carry out a large-scale terror attack to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin two weeks ago.

MAARIV: Violent clashes mar Friday prayers at Temple Mount

A violent day reported on Temple Mount, as thousands of young Palestinians are barricading themselves inside the al-Aqsa mosque and clashing with police officers.

Palestinian sources report that dozens have been lightly injured by police rubber-coated bullets and tear gas.

The police are reporting that hundreds of Palestinian youngsters are hiding inside the al-Aqsa mosque, stoning police officers and chanting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”). At least nine Palestinians have been arrested on suspicion of stone-throwing and taken in for questioning.

A Palestinian eyewitness told Maariv Online that two thousand worshippers are encircled by police inside the al-Aqsa mosque and that officers are firing rubber-coated bullets at anyone attempting to leave the mosque. Dozens of Palestinian ambulances have been called to the scene.

THE AUSTRALIAN: Israel ‘might move on Arafat’

ISRAEL might move against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been confined to his West Bank headquarters for more than two years, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today.

Israel TV reported that Sharon made the comment in a series of interviews he gave for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover. The interviews were to appear in Israeli newspapers and on radio and TV stations tomorrow.

Sharon said that Arafat could not remain where he was forever, and it was not impossible that Israel would act against him in the future, Israel TV and another reporter present in the interviews said.

JERUSALEM POST: Add Hizbullah to terror list: Shalom to EU

Israel wants to see the EU place Hizbullah on its list of terror organizations, and wants to see individual European governments move faster in legislation outlawing Hamas, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Wednesday.

Shalom’s comments came at a Jerusalem press conference with Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot.

Shalom’s statement about placing Hizbullah on the EU’s list of terror organizations came in response to a question about what Europe can do to improve ties with Israel. Israeli government officials are increasingly pointing to links between Hizbullah and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza.

(Dutch Foreign Minister Bot today called the targeted strike on Yassin a violation of International law.)

JERUSALEM POST: Hamas terrorist indicted for planing to kill MK

A Military Court in the West Bank on Tuesday indicted a Hamas terrorist who planned to assassinate “a senior Israeli public figure from Beit She’an”. The public figure is most probably Likud Mk David Levy, a Beit She’an resident.

Over a month ago, security forces arrested Hamas member Majdi Abu-Hamis, 24, from the Jenin area, who worked in a fish shop in Beit She’an.

Abu-Hamis was also indicted on a series of attempts to hurt civilian and military targets, including shooting attacks at passing cars along the security fence in the Jenin area.

JERUSALEM POST: MI: 16 attacks thwarted since January

Palestinian terror groups are currently experiencing “difficulties,” in carrying out attacks, which has led them to try to look for ideas to bypass the obstacles such as using children as suicide bombers, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kupperwasser, who heads the intelligence branch’s research division said Monday.

Sixteen suicide attacks initiated from the West Bank have been foiled since January, Kupperwasser told members of the Knesset’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee.

In the past 10 days alone, three attacks were thwarted, including an attempt to carry out a car bombing with a sophisticated device, the official said in the committee.

JERUSALEM POST: High terror alet to last 40 days

The high terror alert put in place following the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin will last for at least 40 days, or until the end of Independence Day, Channel 1 reported Friday night.

The IDF’s targeted killings of Palestinian terror group leaders will continue. “These terror leaders have reason to worry,” the TV 1 reported senior defense officials as saying Friday.

The Associated Press reports that the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin:

The United States had demanded that the resolution also condemn violence by Hamas and other militant groups, and that it identify them by name. Algeria, the resolution’s sponsor, had resisted.

The resolution “is silent about the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas,” U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said before the vote. He called the measure “unbalanced, one-sided.”

The vote was 11 countries in favor, three countries abstaining and one country — the United States — against.

[. . .]

Hamas has claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings and shootings of Israelis during 3 1/2 years of violence. Israel says it is targeting the group’s leaders to stop such attacks, but critics say killing suspects without arresting or trying them violates international law.

JERUSALEM POST: US to veto anti-Israel Security Council resolution

The United States is expected to veto a UN Security Council resolution Thursday night condemning Israel for killing Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

The US, one of five nations with a veto power in the council, reiterated in the past week its refusal to condemn Israeli counter-terror actions without a condemnation of Palestinian terrorist groups.

On Tuesday, the council scheduled a debate to discuss Yassin’s assassination, after Algeria, the council’s only Arab member, failed to gain US support for council statement condemning Israel.

“Events must be considered in their context, and as we consider the killing of Sheikh Yassin, we must keep in mind the facts. Sheikh Yassin was the leader of a terrorist organization, which has proudly taken credit for attacks on innocent civilians,” said US ambassador John Negroponte.

MAARIV: FM Shalom asks UN’s Annan to denounce terrorism

Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom met tonight (Wednesday) in New York with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Shalom said during the meeting that the UN must denounce the perpetrators of terror rather than Israel over its justified assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Yasin. Annan offered that the UN would take part in maintaining order in the Gaza Strip after the planned withdrawal takes place.

(Because they’ve done such a great job with UNFIL and holding member-state Lebanon to their obligations.)

JERUSALEM POST: Mofaz: Israel to continue targeting terror leaders

Asked if Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is on the list of terror leaders, Mofaz smiled and answered, “You should ask him (Arafat).”

JERUSALEM POST: Foreign Office issues talking points

• Yassin was at important link in international terror, and Hamas had connections with other terror groups around the world.

• Trying to characterize Yassin as a “spiritual leader” is similar to trying to characterize Osama bin Laden in the same vein. Yassin took advantage of his status as a spiritual leader to influence the carrying out of hundreds of murderous attacks, from the Dolphinarium attack in Tel Aviv in 2001 to the Passover eve attack in Netanya in 2002. He personally was responsible for the June 2002 attack on the Number 19 bus in Jerusalem at the Patt Junction, in which 19 people were murdered and 74 wounded.

• Yassin led for years a radical Islamic terror organization that carried out a long list of horrible attacks which killed and wounded hundreds of Israelis.

• Yassin was a chilling example of the cynical use of religion to send women and children to blow themselves up and kill hundreds of Israelis.

• The killing of Yassin is not an act of vengeance, but rather part of a continuous campaign against terrorists who have targeted Israelis, and whose final goal is the destruction of Israel.

• Those who deal in terrorism must know that Israel will not sit quietly and wait for the next suicide bomber to appear on the streets of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Israel’s government, like all governments around the world, has a basic responsibility to protect its citizens from terrorists.

• In parallel to the fight against the terror infrastructure and terrorist leaders, Israel will continue to try to reach a diplomatic arrangement with the Palestinians based on the road map. This arrangement will only be reached in the future if the Palestinians will both fight terror and abandon terror as a way of solving diplomatic disagreements.

• Israel offered the Palestinians hope based on reasonable compromise. It extended its hand in peace, but received in exchange a full portion of terror. Even now, Israel is being threatened by an increase in terror, and it will continue to defend itself against these threats.

JERUSALEM POST: Sharon: Attack was originally planned for Sunday

Sharon told Likud members that he had personally called the chief of staff, the commander of the airforce and the head of the shin bet to congratulate them on the attack.

He said that the assassination of Yassin was in fact scheduled for Sunday, but was delayed for technical and operational reasons.

Had the attack taken place on Sunday, Sharon said, it would have been interpreted as a gesture to Likud ministers he met that day.

HA‘ARETZ: Mofaz to security chiefs: Step up offensive against Hamas

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Monday night instructed security chiefs to step up the offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas, which along with Fatah claimed responsibility for Sunday’s double suicide attack at the Ashdod port, which claimed the lives of 10 Israelis.

One of the suggestions raised was increasing targeted assassinations of the group’s leaders, in a similar manner to the one taken during the summer of 2003 after a wave of suicide attacks in Jerusalem, a method which the defense establishment believes proved successful.

In addition, it was decided that ground operations would be increased, following the example of a number of Israel Defense Forces operations during the past year and a half. Some of the proposals will be brought to the security cabinet’s approval. to be convened by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday.

Reuters reports that Israeli attack helicopters fired at least five missiles into Gaza City early on Monday. The air strike came hours after two Gaza terrorists killed 10 people at Israel’s port of Ashdod.

HA‘ARETZ: 8 killed in apparent suicide bombing in Ashdod port

Eight people were killed in two explosions Sunday afternoon at the Ashdod port, Israel Radio reported.

The blast was apparently caused by two suicide bombers.

Eight people were seriously wounded.

The explosions took place inside a warehouse. Eight teams of firefighters reached the scene, as did a number of police officers and Magen David Adom rescue workers.

Jerusalem Post relays that it may have been a gas tank exploding.
Maariv reports it may have been a suicide bombing based on shrapnel evidence.

JERUSALEM POST: Israeli Arab woman sentenced for aiding Islamic Jihad

An Israeli Arab woman, Lina Jarbuni, 29, of Arrabeh in the Galilee, was sentenced to 17 years in prison by the Haifa district court on Tuesday for helping members of the Islamic Jihad who had been planning to carry out terror attacks inside Israel.

Jarbuni helped one of them obtain an Israeli ID card, rented an apartment in Israel and also opened a bank account on behalf of the man and an accomplice.

She was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, contact with a foreign agent and helping the enemy at a time of war.

JERUSALEM POST: Border Police nab Islamic Jihad chief in Jenin

Undercover Border Policemen arrested the head of the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank city of Jenin Anas Ansawi on Tuesday, Army Radio reported.

The officers arrested three other wanted fugitives during the operation to nab Ansawi.

HA‘ARETZ: Police beef up presence in Jerusalem due to terror warning

Police beefed up presence in Jerusalem due to a terror warning Saturday, according to which terrorists were intending to carry out an attack in the capital, Israel Radio reported. Roadblocks were erected in the capital and police were examining suspicious vehicles, the radio said.

The road between Jerusalem and Givat Ze`ev was closed to traffic, and there were heavy traffic jams on the road between the capital and Ma`aleh Adumim, the radio said.

Security forces removed some roadblocks from the Sharon region midday Friday, but remained on alert and continued inspecting some vehicles in the wake of a terror threat in the area.

Police and the army have already been placed on “very high alert” for the Purim holiday weekend, amid threats from Hamas of vengeance for this week’s assassination of three Hamas activists, and a total closure was imposed on the territories.

HA‘ARETZ: Court sentences Israeli Arabs who planned terror attacks

The Haifa District Court on Wednesday sentenced three Israeli-Arabs to long prison terms for planning to carry out terror attacks.

Two residents of the Lower Galilee village of Kafr Manda; Mahmoud al-Halim and Mahmad Abed al-Hamid, were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while the third resident, Ibrahim Abed al-Hamid, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

According to the charge sheet, Halim met an Islamic Jihad member during a visit to Mecca in November 2002 and agreed to help carrying out terror attacks in Israel. Halim later contacted the other defendants, who agreed to join him in carrying out the attacks.

The three were also charged with contacting a foreign agent, conspiring to commit murder and conspiring to aid the enemy in wartime. The sentences were part of a plea bargain worked out with the prosecution.

HA‘ARETZ: Ya’alon: Key Gaza route must be kept to stop arms smuggling

Army Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon Tuesday reiterated for the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee what he has told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - that the general staff - other than the Central Command’s Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski - opposes Sharon’s plan to give up the Philadelphi route, the 100-200 meter wide strip of Israeli-controlled territory between Egypt and Gaza Strip.

Ya’alon told the MKs that if the Israel Defense Forces quits the narrow strip, it will be wide open for arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza. The generals were much more detailed when they spoke with Sharon about the issue last month. They did express understanding for Sharon’s desire to avoid leaving behind any friction points with the Palestinians after a withdrawal but claimed the IDF could “contain” the security threat to inside the Strip.

(Knowingly or as a dupe, Rachel Corrie died protecting those arms smuggling tunnels.)

HA‘ARETZ: Police lower alert in Tel Aviv

Police lowered the high alert level in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening after a possible terror attack in the area was averted.

Security forces had been on alert for about seven hours, beefing up security due to intelligence information that militants planned to carry out a terror attack in the area.

Security forces have issued a gag order on the details of the case.

Extra security forces had focused their alert around the central bus station in south Tel Aviv, blocking private cars from driving nearby. Police conducted door-to-door searches in south Tel Aviv and asked city residents to be especially vigilant and look out for suspicious persons or vehicles.

IHT

A senior Israeli official has said that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants Egypt to help secure the Gaza Strip after a proposed withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers from the area and that there should be no concern that such a pullout would lead to a takeover by the militant group Hamas.
“Our intention is to withdraw completely from Gaza,” the Israeli official said on Monday. He added that Egypt could help with security, especially in the area near its border. About 7,500 Israeli settlers now live in the strip. Israel is also talking about a withdrawal from the West Bank, but the official said plans for that area were less certain. He said that Israel planned to withdraw military forces from large parts of the area west of the Jordan River and relocate them to a buffer zone in the western part of the West Bank, where they would protect Israeli settlements.
In addition, he said, Israel was considering dismantling “a few rather remote settlements” in the West Bank and relocating them, leaving “a very large Palestinian area” free of Israeli presence, providing residents with “better contiguity, better transportation mobility and so on.”

On Tuesday Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher after a meeting with Marc Grossman said

“The Americans must clearly understand that one of principal problems hindering the reform process is the Israeli aggression on the Palestinians and its incessant threat to the Arab nation,”

“The Israeli attitudes are creating a very unhealthy atmosphere that is ruining all hopes for reform,”

JERUSALEM POST: Chief of General Staff: Fence will not end terror

Terrorists will still be able to attack Israel even after the West Bank security fence has been completed, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Ya’alon said the IDF is working on advanced technology to target Palestinian Kassam rockets. He said the army has succeeded in stopping production of Kassams throughout the West Bank but that the Palestinians are still manufacturing rockets and mortars in the Gaza Strip that can be launched over the fence.

“The IDF is acting under the assumption that terrorists will attempt to bypass the fence, either from above or below,” Ya’alon said. “We are aware of attempts to manufacture artillery, mortars, and Kassam rockets.”

JERUSALEM POST: High alert in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem

Security forces were on high alert in the area surrounding the Tel Aviv central bus station on Tuesday and in Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported.

According to the report, security forces have received a specific warning of a possible terror attack in the southern Tel Aviv area.

Security personnel were seen patrolling the station and the nearby area in search of suspicious people or bags.

In Jerusalem, police said that there was not a specific warning but police were seen setting up roadblocks on main roads.

HA‘ARETZ: Court: Temporarily confiscate funds seized in IDF raid of Ramallah banks

The Tel Aviv District Court on Monday ordered that some NIS 40 million seized during an Israel Defense Forces raid on Ramallah banks last week be temporarily confiscated.

Police, Shin Bet officers, Border Police and army troops seized the money from three Arab banks in the West Bank city last Friday, on the grounds that it came from accounts that were funneling funds from overseas into the hands of terrorist groups.

The court was responding to a petition by the Ungar family, two of whose members were killed in a 1996 terror attack carried out by Hamas.

Yaron and Efrat Ungar were murdered in the attack, which took place near Beit Shemesh. The Ungars’ parents and children, who are minors filed a civil lawsuit against Hamas in March 2000 in a federal court in Rhode Island.

The federal court ordered Hamas to pay the family $113 million in damages.

The suit was filed based on an American law that enables American citizens to seek damages for terror attacks executed outside U.S. borders, and Yaron Ungar was a citizen of the U.S.

The Ungar family argued in the petition that at least some of the funds seized during the IDF operation belong to Hamas, and should therefore be used to pay the family damages awarded by the United States court.

MA‘ARIV: IDF kills Palestinian responsible for attack on Jews at Joseph’s tomb

IDF soldiers on Sunday killed Iad abu Shalal the Palestinian terrorist responsible for masterminding an attack against Breslev Hassid’s at Joseph’s Tomb a couple of months ago.

JERUSALEM POST: Netanyahu: Palestinian terrorism should be on trial

Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday delivered a sharp message to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, currently debating Israel’s security fence.

“It is not the killers and their dispatchers who are put on trial, it is the victims. We shouldn’t be in The Hague on trial. It’s the Palestinian terror regime and terrorist organizations that should be there. That’s the right order of things,” Netanyahu said.

Speaking at a tourism conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had a message for those sitting on the court. “You have no right to serve as the moral conscience of the Jewish people. We have our own conscience. Now our conscience tells us that saving our own lives is more important than preserving somebody else’s quality of life. Quality of life is always amenable to improvement. Death is permanent,” he said.

Netanyahu said Israel was working to save the lives of Jewish people. “However, respected judges in Europe are claiming that that the Jewish state has no right to defend itself from murderers.”

JERUSALEM POST: Israel on maximum alert following bus attack

Security forces were on high alert Monday following a suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem a day earlier in which eight Israelis were killed.

Israel also fears Palestinian terror groups might carry out attacks timed to coincide with the opening of the hearings over the West Bank security fence at International Court of Justice at The Hague, Army Radio reported.

Israel has also raised the alert level to level ‘C,’ just one stage before declaring a state of emergency, the radio reported.

Forces were spread out throughout the country with IDF troops patrolling the seam line and the Jerusalem envelope.

HA‘ARETZ: Four victims of Jerusalem sucide bombing laid to rest

Four of the eight victims of Sunday’s suicide bombing in Jerusalem were laid to rest Monday afternoon. The eighth victim of the attack was identified Monday as Rahamiam Rami Duga, 37, from Mevasseret Zion. He was to be buried Monday at 3 P.M.

Ilan Avisedris, 41, was to be buried in Be’er Sheva at 3 P.M. and Yehuda Haim, 48, was to be laid to rest at the Givat Shaul cemetery.

Yaffa Ben-Shimol, 57, was laid to rest at midday Monday in Jerusalem. Lior Azulai, 18, Benaya Jonathan Zuckerman, 18, Nathaniel Havshsush 20, and Yuval Ozana, 31, were buried Sunday.

JERUSALEM POST: Israel annoyed at weak EU response

Israel was “very disappointed” with the “mild” condemnation of Sunday’s suicide attack issued by Ireland in its capacity as rotating president of the European Union, Israeli diplomatic officials said.

Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen issued a statement that condemned the suicide bombing that murdered eight people and offered his condolences to the families.

Then the statement read: “Outrages of this kind are attacks on the hope for peace of all rational people. Firm action against the planners of these attacks is imperative and should be taken to the extent possible by the Palestinian security forces. Renewed security cooperation and political negotiation are essential if peace is ever to be achieved.”

The diplomatic officials characterized the Irish statement as “tepid.”

“What do they mean that the Palestinians should take action ‘to the extent possible?’” one asked. “What is so difficult for them to come out and condemn the attack outright and call on the Palestinians to immediately fight terror with all their might.”

JERUSALEM POST: Bombing overshadows start of Hague hearing

President Moshe Katzav issued a statement following Sunday’s bombing saying, “It is the Palestinian terrorist organizations who should be on trial before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and not the state of Israel.

“As long as they continue perpetrating acts of terrorism, Israel must build the security fence and protect the lives of its citizens. The international community must halt the double standards; nobody has the right to condemn Israel or put it on trial solely because it is taking steps to protect the lives of its citizens by means of a temporary security fence.”

HA‘ARETZ: UN envoy: J’lem attack is war crime, but can’t let terror affect Gaza plan

The United Nations envoy to the Middle East, Terje Rode-Larsen, on Sunday condemned the suicide bombing in Jerusalem that claimed eight lives as a war crime, Army Radio reported.

But Larsen also cautioned that Palestinian terrorism should not be allowed to hijack Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate the settlements in the Gaza Strip, the radio said.

The suicide bomber, sent by Fatah-aligned Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, struck on Egged bus No. 14 at little after 8:30 A.M., killing the eight and wounding another 66 people.

MAARIV: Visiting US congressman astounded by Israeli restraint

Gerald Nadler, US congressman from Long Island was overwhelmed by what he saw this morning: “it is simply horrifying to see it up close, to see the pieces of human flesh on the ground”, he told Maariv Online.

Israel’s restraint is remarkable to Nadler: “Any other nation on earth under attack as Israel is would have already begun bombing the Palestinian Authority. If this had happened in America, you would already see the B-52’s in the air, blowing up the place where the terrorists were sent from. It is sheer hypocrisy on the part of those who say that Israel must not build the security barrier”. Nadler added that the images of what he saw remind him of the period of the Holocaust.

JERUSALEM POST: Mofaz: Fence is potent deterrent to attacks

Despite Sunday’s suicide attack in Jerusalem, the West Bank security fence is still a potent deterrent to suicide bombings, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said.

“We did not succeed this morning but lately we have had several successful cases where we thwarted suicide attacks and there is no doubt that the fence has proven itself as a successful tool against suicide bombers,” Mofaz said.

The defense minister estimated that the reason for Sunday’s attack was “in order to show that the fence is not effective against suicide bombers.”

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the cabinet meeting, in response to questions of the reason behind Sunday’s attack, “We don’t need to search for a reason why they kill Jews. They have been killing Jews for years and they won’t stop for one day.”

Of the 934 Israelis killed since the start of the Intifada, 584 were killed in suicide attacks.

Other ministers weigh in on the fence’s role in preventing attacks in the rest of the article.

HA‘ARETZ: Gov’t sources: there will be no harsh military response to attack

Israel will not launch a harsh military response after Sunday’s suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that killed eight people and wounded 66, government sources in the capital said.

The remarks followed a meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held after the weekly cabinet meeting.

Sharon and Mofaz met for two hours, during which they were updated on the details of the suicide attack and discussed possible Israeli responses. Mofaz will also convene a meeting of security officials later Sunday, to assess possible responses to the bombing.

JERUSALEM POST: Buses with security system to begin operating Mon.

Five new buses with sophisticated suicide-bomber detection devices are to start operating Monday in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

A ceremony, which was scheduled to take place Sunday to launch the new buses, was canceled following the Jerusalem bus attack.

Last month, Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman authorized the use of the security system for public buses that can detect suicide bombers and prevent them from boarding the vehicles.

The system, jointly developed by the bus manufacturing company Ha’argaz, the Transportation Ministry and TAAS-Israel Industries, consists of a barrier for the bus’s front door, explosives detectors and a back door to be used only for exiting the bus.

HA‘ARETZ: Mofaz: Terrorists were motivated by start of ICJ hearings

“On the day that the International Court opens its deliberations on the security fence, we will be burying our dead,” Health Minister Dan Naveh said Sunday from a Jerusalem hospital where he was visiting some of the wounded from a morning bus bombing in the capital, in which seven people were killed and over 60 wounded.

On Monday, the International Court of Justice is scheduled to begin deliberations on the legality of the separation fence Israel is building in the West Bank.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told government ministers that the terrorists behind the suicide bombing were likely motivated by the start of the court deliberations in The Hague.

HA‘ARETZ: Maxim restaurant in Haifa closed for security

The Maxim restaurant in Haifa, the site of an October suicide bombing in which 21 people were killed, was ordered shut Sunday for 30 days by police, citing inadequate security procedures.

According to the closure order, the restaurant will be allowed to reopen soon providing that the owners present a new security plan which is approved by police.

According to the police report, an undercover female officer was able to enter the restaurant while wearing a mock suicide belt. A security guard checked the officer, but he failed to detect the belt.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus Sunday morning, killing seven people and wounding more than 60, 11 of them seriously, police and rescue workers said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came just a day before the world court is to begin hearings on the West Bank security barrier that Israel says is crucial for keeping out bombers.

The huge blast went off around 8:30 a.m. during morning rush hour, as the bus drove past a gas station in downtown Jerusalem. The explosion ripped apart the back of the green bus and scattered body parts and shattered glass across a two block radius. The windows were blown out, the windscreen cracked and the roof was raised.

"It was like an earthquake," Ora Yairov, who was at the gas station during the explosion, told Channel One television. "The station was filled with shattered glass and pieces of flesh.'

An hour after the bombing, bodies still lay on the sidewalk. Rescue workers wrapped them in white sheets and put body parts in body bags. Security forces stood on the roof of the nearby gas station watching the crowd.

Three Israelis were wounded, one seriously, by accidental gunfire near Worshipers’ Way in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday. The circumstances of the incident remain unclear. The injured people were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karen Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment. —
Also Friday, two IDF soldiers were lightly injured when an anti-tank missile exploded close to their patrol in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell at a settlement in the Gaza Strip and opened fire on an IDF base near the Gaza settlement of Kfar Darom, Israeli media reported. There were no injuries in either incident.

Hezbollah is demanding that Israel give it the bodies of 30 militants in exchange for the body of a man that Israel mistakenly transferred to Hezbollah, a Nazareth newspaper reported Friday.

A brief history of Sharonism

This week’s headlines already distributed the hide of the bear: the Katif Bloc settlements in the Gaza Strip will be evacuated, the homes will be placed under the responsibility of an international body that will supervise their transfer to the Palestinian Authority, and the army camps will be shut down, with the Israel Defense Forces deploying on the international boundary along the Gaza Strip - and all by the end of the year.

Tannenbaum

Members of the Knesset Intelligence and Secret Services Subcommittee took the unusual step yesterday of issuing a statement describing the Elchanan Tannenbaum affair as “one of the worst ever in Israel’s history.” Tannenbaum, who was returned to Israel last month after three years in Hizbullah captivity, has failed polygraph tests and suspicion has been raised as to the circumstances of his kidnapping.
Chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Yuval Shteinitz (Likud) said the unusual statement was issued in response to recent media reports suggesting that Tannenbaum would soon be released, and that he would not be indicted for crimes against the State of Israel. Shteinitz told Army Radio today that his vision had darkened when he first learned of the suspicions against Tannenbaum.

Yasser Arafat and Ahmad Qurei (Abu ‘Alaa) Speeches to PA Legislative Council Prior to Vote on New Government

HA‘ARETZ: Terror groups said planning attacks on Israeli, Jewish targets

Palestinian and international terrorist organizations decided at a recent Beirut conference to launch a wave of terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish interests worldwide, Army Radio quoted the Kuwaiti newspaper A-Siasa as saying Thursday.

According to the report, there will also be similar attacks against coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

JERUSALEM POST: Zaka to display bombed out bus at the Hague

Israel’s Zaka (Disaster Victims Identification) organization announced Friday that it would place a terrorist-bombed bus outside the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

The burned-out bus was the target of a suicide bombing, in which 11 people were murdered in Jerusalem last week,

The court will hold hearings on Israel’s security fence on February 23rd, and the organization has received the approval of the Hague municipality to set up the installation

HA‘ARETZ: 10 dead in suicide bombing on J’lem bus; Al-Aqsa claims attack

Ten people were killed and at least 50 wounded in a suicide bombing on a bus in central Jerusalem, shortly before 9 A.M. Thursday.

The blast took place on Egged bus No. 19, on the corners of Arlozorov and Gaza streets, very close to the official residence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was not in the building at the time. The site of the explosion is also close to the Moment Cafe, where 13 people were killed in a March 2002 suicide bombing.

Magen David Adom said that 10 people were in serious condition, 15 had moderate wounds and the rest sustained light injuries. All of the wounded were taken to hospitals in the Jerusalem area.

JERUSALEM POST: ZAKA wants to send blown up bus to the Hague

Amidst Israel’s preparations for the hearing on the security fence in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, ZAKA (Disaster Victims Identification Organization) has suggested sending a display of a wrecked, charred bus to drum up support for Israel’s argument that the fence is necessary for self-defense.

The idea has been repeatedly rejected by the Foreign Ministry, for fear of harming Israel’s international image and tourism. However, the Ministry has announced that it is not opposed to the idea.

JERUSALEM POST: New bus security system approved

Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman authorized the use of a new security system for public buses on Thursday, which can detect suicide bombers and prevent them from boarding the vehicles.

The system, jointly developed by the Transportation Ministry and the Israel Military Industries, consists of a barrier for the bus’ front door, explosives detectors and a back door to be used only for exiting the bus.

The driver will have control over the front door barrier and a passenger will only be allowed to board the bus after the driver presses a button.

Explosives and metal detectors will assist the driver in inspecting the passengers before they board the bus.

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report.

TOP TOPICS

* What indicators would tell us that we were making significant progress in the War on Terror? What kinds of future events would tell us that our success in this war was in serious jeopardy? Our readers step forward to answer 'Praktike's Questions.'

* Making the world safe for discrimination against women? Team Stryker has a long article covering "sexual apartheid" in the Islamic world, and asking if the USA is doing enough to eliminate it as part of its efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq et. al. Intsapundit has more about Iraq moving family law toward shari'a. Is U.S. forbearance a necessary concession that avoids forcing these issue too soon and picking a fight the USA cannot win - or a kowtow to multiculturalist political correctness that will leave half of these populations enslaved? You decide.

* Armed Liberal takes dead aim at Jeffrey Record's Army War College article criticizing the Iraq war as the wrong move in the War on Terror. The key problem? Mr. Record, he says, fails to acknowledge that 9/11 scale terrorism is a binary agent. Our readers comment.

Other Topics Today Include: Democratic showdown in Iran; Container security; American jihadi arrests, cases & tribunals; Free speech zones - feh; Shari'a in the PA; The Fence; Canadian op in Kabul; US, SK agree on Korean base move; NK famine; French headscraves; Murad Kalam's illusions; Islam & the left.

Read the Rest..

In a first official comment since the story was first published a week ago, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon expressed concern regarding the deployment of F-15 fighter-bombers in the Tabuq airfield in northern Saudi Arabia.

"We have found out from an al-Qaida detainee interrogated - not by Israelis - that al-Qaida sought to recruit a Saudi pilot, either a Saudi air force pilot or a civilian pilot, for a 9/11-type attack against Israel from Tabuq," Ya'alon said. "So we are concerned about it and demand it [the F-15 deployment] be changed."

A week ago, Israel quietly asked the US to pressure Saudi Arabia to remove its F-15 S fighter-bombers from the Tabuq and put them out of quick strike range.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Two bombs exploded Tuesday in Israel killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, Israeli police said.

At least three people were killed and 32 injured in a bombing at an outdoor terrace of a cafe in West Jerusalem, police and medical sources said, hours after a suicide bomber killed six people in Tel Aviv.

One of the injured was in critical condition, ambulance services officials said, and four were in serious condition. Police said the blast at Cafe Hillel -- in a suburb about five miles outside Jerusalem's center -- was probably the work of a suicide bomber.

Earlier, a suicide bomber set off a powerful explosion at a bus stop near an Israeli army base east of Tel Aviv, killing six Israelis and seriously wounding 15, Israeli police said.

According to Arutz Sheva:

Preliminary reports from Jerusalem?s Shmuel HaNavi Street indicate dozens of persons were wounded in an explosion believed to have been caused by a terror attack. The explosion appears to have been on a bus in the Maalot Daphne neighborhood of the capital. More details to follow as information becomes available.

According to Ha'aretz:

An explosion was reported Tuesday night on a bus in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood in downtown Jerusalem. Fatalities were reported in the blast.

The explosion occured at around 9 P.M. on Egged bus number 2. Army Radio said that it is still unclear if the blast was caused by a suicide bomber or an explosive device. Ambulances and rescue workers were at the scene of the blast.

The Straits Times:

JERUSALEM -- An apparent suicide bomber set off an explosion outside a supermarket in central Israel on Tuesday, shattering a summer of relative calm that has prevailed since a cease-fire by Palestinian militants on June 29.

Ten people were injured, one seriously, the Zaka rescue service said. Rescue workers found a body at the scene believed to be that of the bomber.

A Nablus-based branch of the Al-aqsa Martyrs brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, calimed responsibility for the blast.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted - soon to be Major Andrew Olmsted.

TOP TOPICS

• Did the Administration inflate the Iraq threat to gain support for the war? The Washington Post has an in-depth feature that traces some of the Washington lineage of the Iraqi nuclear debate, and examines this question.

• JK: Armed Liberal discusses Iraq and the War on Terror, in terms of John Boyd's insights. We've covered Boyd a lot in our "4th Generation Warfare" category.

• JK: Trent discusses America's grand strategy in terms of "The Core, the Gap, and American Foreign Policy", a piece based on Esquire's article "The Pentagon's New Map." Some good material in the comments section, too, about the relationship between the War on Terror and The War on Drugs. Porphy's "America's 21st Century Foreign Policy Part IV" is also excellent.

read the rest! »

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday.

TOP TOPICS

• LA Times: "After more than a decade of working behind layers of front companies and in hidden laboratories, Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb." They've done a special investigative report. As WATCH/ notes, the NY Times has a similar investigative report.

• Fierce Highway has a great analysis of the missing 9/11 report pages, the Saudis, and U.S. policy. See also the sequel: "More Reason, Not Less".

read the rest! »

BBC:

A Palestinian man has stabbed three people in Tel Aviv, in what police describe as the first case of political violence in an Israeli city since Palestinian groups declared a truce in June.

One of the victims later died in hospital.

The attacker was shot in the leg and restrained by security guards from a nearby restaurant until police arrived.

The man, reported to be a 23-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, told investigators that he is a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Ananova:

Israeli premier Ariel Sharon will boycott the BBC when he visits London next week, according to reports.

Newspaper Haaretz said Israel has not invited the the BBC to Sharon's briefing after talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The BBC has asked for an interview with Sharon during the visit, but this request is expected to be turned down, said the Israeli newspaper.

The director of the Government Press Office, Danny Seaman, said that Israel decided not to cooperate with the BBC in protest against "its anti-Israel coverage, which is characterised by violation of journalistic ethics and the broadcasting of baseless claims."

AP:

JERUSALEM - A blast leveled a house in Kfar Yavetz, an Israeli village near the West Bank, killing the 65-year-old woman who lived there and an unidentified man.

Police said it was apparently a suicide bombing.

It would be the first such attack since Palestinian militants declared a cease-fire on June 29. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Fox News:

JERUSALEM — Police said they arrested two Palestinians believed to be on their way to carry out a major attack Wednesday in central Israel. A bag containing a large amount of explosives was also found, they said.

The bag was blown up in a controlled explosion that shattered nearby windows and was heard for miles.

Police Commander Yehuda Bachar said: "A large attack which would of had a lot of victims" was averted.

Military and police were placed on high alert early in the morning after receiving intelligence warnings that a potential suicide bomber and an accomplice had crossed into Israel to carry out an attack.

Full article...

Charles Johnson links to a chart of terrorist incidents in Israel over the last few months. It works out to about 100 per week. Isn't movement toward a Palestinian state supposed to be dependent on real performance?