www.aipac.org June 24, 2008
Qassam Rockets Strike Israel, Shatter Calm
IAEA Chief: Iran Could Build Nuclear Bomb in Six Months
Israel Sends Truckloads of Goods into Gaza
Intel Officials Warn of Hizballah Attacks Worldwide
Senators Voice Support for Israel's Quest for Peace
House Subcommittee Approves U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation
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Qassam Rockets Strike Israel, Shatter Calm In direct violation of Hamas' commitment to Egypt to halt all terrorist activity aimed at Israel, three Qassam rockets slammed into the Israeli town of Sderot on Tuesday, shattering a nearly week-long calm along the Israel-Gaza border, The Jerusalem Post reported. The night before, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza also fired a mortar at Israeli civilians. Hamas leaders have stated in the past that any lull in attacks against Israel is merely a "tactic" in the group's long-term war against the Jewish state."It is normal for any resistance... to sometimes escalate, other times retreat a bit... Hamas is known for that," Hamas' Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal said recently. "In 2003, there was a cease-fire and then the operations were resumed." Click here to read more about the threat of Hamas.
IAEA Chief: Iran Could Build Nuclear Bomb in Six MonthsIAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei recently said that with Iran's current nuclear capabilities, the country would need "six months to one year" in order to produce one atomic bomb. "It would need this period to produce a weapon, and to obtain highly enriched uranium in sufficient quantities for a single nuclear weapon," ElBaradei said. The interview, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on June 20, was translated by MEMRI. In recent months, Iran has accelerated its efforts to enrich uranium—a key step toward developing nuclear weapons—violating multiple binding U.N. Security Council demands that the Islamic Republic suspend its illicit nuclear program. Click here to learn how you can take action to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Israel Sends Truckloads of Goods into GazaIsrael on Sunday boosted supplies of food and medicine into the Gaza Strip by about 50 percent and said it would consider further transfers of non-humanitarian goods to the coastal strip in the coming days, The Christian Science Monitor reported. Gil Karie, a spokesman for the Israeli army's civil liaison office, said 90 truckloads of humanitarian supplies, including food, diapers and clothing, were allowed into Gaza on Sunday, up from about 65 truckloads on previous days. The Erez border crossing was also opened, allowing Gaza residents requiring medical care to be treated in Israel. The Jewish state has consistently, despite the risks involved, worked to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.
Intel Officials Warn of Hizballah Attacks WorldwideAmerican and Canadian intelligence agencies are warning that the Lebanon-based terrorist army Hizballah has activated sleeper cells to carry out a terror attack against Jewish targets outside of the Middle East, ABC News reported. "They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer. "They cannot have an operation fail... and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism." In Washington, the FBI recently put its domestic terror squads on alert for any threats against synagogues or other Jewish centers in the United States. Hizballah has been responsible for attacks against Jews around the world, including a string of bombings in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the mid-1990s that killed 115 people. Click here to learn more about the threat of Hizballah.
Senators Voice Support for Israel's Quest for PeaceIn a strong show of bipartisanship, the Senate on Tuesday sent a letter to President Bush in support of Israel's quest for peace. The letter called on Arab states to support Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by normalizing relations with the Jewish state and supporting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he pursues peace with Israel. Seventy-seven senators, including John McCain (R-AZ), signed the letter, which was spearheaded by Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) reinforced the Senate letter with an additional letter of his own. The two letters reaffirm American support for Israel's right to self-defense and underscore the importance of U.S. support for Israel at the United Nations. Click here to urge your member of Congress to sign the House version of the letter.
House Subcommittee Approves U.S.-Israel Energy CooperationThe House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water last week passed an energy bill that includes $2 million in funding for U.S.-Israel cooperative programs aimed at reducing the two countries' dependence on oil. "I can think of no two countries that have more of a strategic interest in overcoming a reliance on foreign oil, and no two nations more capable of using their resources to do so, than the United States and Israel," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), a champion of the initiative and a member of the subcommittee. The new funding will advance joint programming in the fields of solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and wave and tidal energies, as well as energy efficiency and advanced battery technology.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Israel's darkest week.
The ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza has lasted a day. But Hamas'
leader says smuggling into Gaza through the tunnels under the border
crossing with Egypt, can not be stopped, and hence is allowed. And
three Israeli teen age hikers were shot in an ambush in the West
Bank. But hey, it is not Gaza, so the ceasefire holds. As Caroline
Glick says, it has been Israel's darkest week.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1213794285097&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1213794291132&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/109137.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/19/europe/EU-GEN-France-
Mideast.php
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1970964520080619
http://www.bitterlemons.org/previous/bl090608ed22.html#isr2
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3557796,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international
leader says smuggling into Gaza through the tunnels under the border
crossing with Egypt, can not be stopped, and hence is allowed. And
three Israeli teen age hikers were shot in an ambush in the West
Bank. But hey, it is not Gaza, so the ceasefire holds. As Caroline
Glick says, it has been Israel's darkest week.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1213794285097&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1213794291132&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/109137.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/19/europe/EU-GEN-France-
Mideast.php
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1970964520080619
http://www.bitterlemons.org/previous/bl090608ed22.html#isr2
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3557796,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international
Israel air ability
Israel shows abilities for Iran strike By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 20, 10:02 AM ET
WASHINGTON - A large Israeli military exercise this month may have been aimed at showing Jerusalem's abilities to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.
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In a substantial show of force, Israel sent warplanes and other aircraft on a major exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean early this month, Pentagon officials said Friday.
Israel's military refused to confirm or deny that the maneuvers were practice for a strike in Iran.
Russia's foreign minister Friday warned against the use of force on Iran, saying there is no proof it is trying to build nuclear weapons with a program that Tehran says is for generating power.
U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the sensitive matter for the record.
"They have been conducting some large-scale exercises — they live in a tough neighborhood," one U.S. official said, though he offered no other recent examples.
The big exercise the first week of June was impossible to miss and may have been meant as a show of force as well as a practice on skills needed to execute a long-range strike mission, one U.S. official said.
The New York Times quoted officials Friday as saying that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged the maneuver, flying more than 900 miles, roughly the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, and that the exercise included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots.
"It was noticed that a significant exercise took place — dozens and dozens of aircraft participated," one U.S. officials said Friday. "We watch globally everyday, and this was noted."
A second U.S. defense official said the maneuver could be taken as a demonstration that Israel is serious about the need to challenge Iran's nuclear program — and could be prepared to do so militarily. "That's one of the assessments you could make out of the exercise," the official said.
Asked to comment, the Israeli military issued a statement saying only that the Israeli air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel."
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev offered no comment beyond the military's statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he prefers that Iran's nuclear ambitions be halted by diplomatic means, but has pointedly declined to rule out military action. Bush administration officials have said the same.
In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published on Wednesday, Olmert said the current international sanctions against Iran would probably not succeed alone, saying there were "many things that can be done economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily."
Asked if Israel was capable of taking military action against Iran, Olmert said, "Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind."
Israeli military analyst Martin Van Creveld of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said military preparations for a possible attack are indeed under way.
"Israel has been talking about this possibility for a long time, that it would not take an Iranian nuclear weapon lying down. And it has been practicing the operation or operations for a long time," he said.
But though an Israeli strike would likely be able to "paralyze the most important Iranian nuclear installations," it probably wouldn't be able to destroy the program entirely, Van Creveld said. "I would be very surprised if Israel can really knock out every part of this program, which by all accounts appears to be large and well concealed and well dispersed," he said.
There are precedents for unilateral Israeli action in such cases. In 1981, Israeli jets bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility to end dictator Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. And last September Israel bombed a facility in Syria that U.S. officials have said was a nuclear reactor being constructed with North Korean assistance.
A U.S. intelligence report released late last year concluded that Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program, but Israeli intelligence believes that assessment is incorrect and that work is continuing.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Iran should be engaged in dialogue and encouraged to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency.
Lavrov made the statement when asked to comment on an Israeli Cabinet member's statement earlier this month that Israel could attack Iran if it does not halt its nuclear program.
"I hope the actual actions would be based on international law," Lavrov said. "And international law clearly protects Iran's and anyone else's territorial integrity."
___
Fri Jun 20, 10:02 AM ET
WASHINGTON - A large Israeli military exercise this month may have been aimed at showing Jerusalem's abilities to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.
ADVERTISEMENT
In a substantial show of force, Israel sent warplanes and other aircraft on a major exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean early this month, Pentagon officials said Friday.
Israel's military refused to confirm or deny that the maneuvers were practice for a strike in Iran.
Russia's foreign minister Friday warned against the use of force on Iran, saying there is no proof it is trying to build nuclear weapons with a program that Tehran says is for generating power.
U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the sensitive matter for the record.
"They have been conducting some large-scale exercises — they live in a tough neighborhood," one U.S. official said, though he offered no other recent examples.
The big exercise the first week of June was impossible to miss and may have been meant as a show of force as well as a practice on skills needed to execute a long-range strike mission, one U.S. official said.
The New York Times quoted officials Friday as saying that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged the maneuver, flying more than 900 miles, roughly the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, and that the exercise included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots.
"It was noticed that a significant exercise took place — dozens and dozens of aircraft participated," one U.S. officials said Friday. "We watch globally everyday, and this was noted."
A second U.S. defense official said the maneuver could be taken as a demonstration that Israel is serious about the need to challenge Iran's nuclear program — and could be prepared to do so militarily. "That's one of the assessments you could make out of the exercise," the official said.
Asked to comment, the Israeli military issued a statement saying only that the Israeli air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel."
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev offered no comment beyond the military's statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he prefers that Iran's nuclear ambitions be halted by diplomatic means, but has pointedly declined to rule out military action. Bush administration officials have said the same.
In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published on Wednesday, Olmert said the current international sanctions against Iran would probably not succeed alone, saying there were "many things that can be done economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily."
Asked if Israel was capable of taking military action against Iran, Olmert said, "Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind."
Israeli military analyst Martin Van Creveld of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said military preparations for a possible attack are indeed under way.
"Israel has been talking about this possibility for a long time, that it would not take an Iranian nuclear weapon lying down. And it has been practicing the operation or operations for a long time," he said.
But though an Israeli strike would likely be able to "paralyze the most important Iranian nuclear installations," it probably wouldn't be able to destroy the program entirely, Van Creveld said. "I would be very surprised if Israel can really knock out every part of this program, which by all accounts appears to be large and well concealed and well dispersed," he said.
There are precedents for unilateral Israeli action in such cases. In 1981, Israeli jets bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility to end dictator Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. And last September Israel bombed a facility in Syria that U.S. officials have said was a nuclear reactor being constructed with North Korean assistance.
A U.S. intelligence report released late last year concluded that Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program, but Israeli intelligence believes that assessment is incorrect and that work is continuing.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Iran should be engaged in dialogue and encouraged to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency.
Lavrov made the statement when asked to comment on an Israeli Cabinet member's statement earlier this month that Israel could attack Iran if it does not halt its nuclear program.
"I hope the actual actions would be based on international law," Lavrov said. "And international law clearly protects Iran's and anyone else's territorial integrity."
___
terrorists
SOURCE: ABC News, Thursday, June 19, 2008
EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah Poised to Strike?
Officials Say "Sleeper Cells" Activated in Canada
By RICHARD ESPOSITO and BRIAN ROSS
June 19, 2008— Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against "Jewish targets" somewhere outside the Middle East.
Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected "sleeper cells" in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa.
Officials say Hezbollah is seeking revenge for the February assassination of Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.
The group's leaders blamed Israel, an allegation denied by Israeli officials.
There is no credible information on a specific target, according to the officials.
Suspected Hezbollah operatives have conducted recent surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and on several synagogues in Toronto, according to the officials.
Latin American is also considered a possible target by officials following Hezbollah's planning.
A senior US counter-terrorism official told ABC News, "There are concerns Hezbollah might be ready to do something along those lines."
Three US law enforcement agencies say they have been briefed on the developments by intelligence agencies.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the agency does not comment on the existence of ongoing intelligence operations.
Officials say the CIA, the NSA, and British and Canadian intelligence agencies began to pick up a steady stream of information - from electronic intercepts, human sources and surveillance - about a possible Hezbollah attack on Feb. 17, just days after the Beirut funeral of Mugniyah where Hezbollah leaders publicly declared they would seek revenge.
"They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who says he met with Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last month.
"They cannot have an operation fail," said Baer, "and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism."
Alarms were first raised in Canada, where as many as 20 suspected Hezbollah members have been under surveillance after as many as four suspected "sleeper cells" were activated, including one known as "Rashedan," intelligence officials tell ABC News. The members also received instruction to send their family members home to Lebanon, according to officials.
Officials have also reported that a known Hezbollah weapons expert was followed to Canada, where he was seen at a firing range south of Toronto, near the US border.
Intelligence officials said the recent Hezbollah activities were being coordinated with the help of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
"Hezbollah would not carry out an attack in the west, or wherever this attack is going to occur, without approval from Tehran," said Baer, the former CIA intelligence officer.
Baer says his Hezbollah contacts told him an attack against the US was unlikely because Iran and Hezbollah did not want to give the Bush administration an excuse to attack.
While US officials say there is no credible information of a Hezbollah attack on American soil, the Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, told Fox News two weeks ago, that "they make al Qaeda look like a minor league team."
"Hezbollah remains a threat to security in different parts of the world," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, section chief for the national Press Office.
"The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces conduct investigations into different groups that potentially pose a threat to the US or our interests overseas; however, the FBI and DHS have no specific intelligence about any group or so called sleeper cells planning an attack. Our job is to gather intelligence, work with our domestic and international partners to identify and disrupt any terrorism event," said Kolko.
Toronto has long been considered an important city for Hezbollah fund-raising and organizing, according to officials.
Pro-Hezbollah rallies and billboards depicting Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have outraged Jewish groups.
"Because of lax immigration policies, it became a center for Hezbollah operations outside the Middle East," said Malcolm Hoenlein, of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.
Hezbollah was declared a terror group by the government of Canada in December, 2002, leading to an increased surveillance of suspected members.
The last major attack by the terror group outside of the Middle East occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1994.
Argentinean authorities formally blamed Hezbollah and Iran for attacks on a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. Twenty-nine people died in an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that was also blamed on Hezbollah and Iran.
As a political organization, Hezbollah, which means "Party of God," plays a significant role in Lebanese politics as the leading opposition force.
Founded in 1982, following Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the group came to represent Lebanon's Shiite population and has increased its power and influence in recent months.
EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah Poised to Strike?
Officials Say "Sleeper Cells" Activated in Canada
By RICHARD ESPOSITO and BRIAN ROSS
June 19, 2008— Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against "Jewish targets" somewhere outside the Middle East.
Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected "sleeper cells" in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa.
Officials say Hezbollah is seeking revenge for the February assassination of Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.
The group's leaders blamed Israel, an allegation denied by Israeli officials.
There is no credible information on a specific target, according to the officials.
Suspected Hezbollah operatives have conducted recent surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and on several synagogues in Toronto, according to the officials.
Latin American is also considered a possible target by officials following Hezbollah's planning.
A senior US counter-terrorism official told ABC News, "There are concerns Hezbollah might be ready to do something along those lines."
Three US law enforcement agencies say they have been briefed on the developments by intelligence agencies.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the agency does not comment on the existence of ongoing intelligence operations.
Officials say the CIA, the NSA, and British and Canadian intelligence agencies began to pick up a steady stream of information - from electronic intercepts, human sources and surveillance - about a possible Hezbollah attack on Feb. 17, just days after the Beirut funeral of Mugniyah where Hezbollah leaders publicly declared they would seek revenge.
"They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who says he met with Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last month.
"They cannot have an operation fail," said Baer, "and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism."
Alarms were first raised in Canada, where as many as 20 suspected Hezbollah members have been under surveillance after as many as four suspected "sleeper cells" were activated, including one known as "Rashedan," intelligence officials tell ABC News. The members also received instruction to send their family members home to Lebanon, according to officials.
Officials have also reported that a known Hezbollah weapons expert was followed to Canada, where he was seen at a firing range south of Toronto, near the US border.
Intelligence officials said the recent Hezbollah activities were being coordinated with the help of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
"Hezbollah would not carry out an attack in the west, or wherever this attack is going to occur, without approval from Tehran," said Baer, the former CIA intelligence officer.
Baer says his Hezbollah contacts told him an attack against the US was unlikely because Iran and Hezbollah did not want to give the Bush administration an excuse to attack.
While US officials say there is no credible information of a Hezbollah attack on American soil, the Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, told Fox News two weeks ago, that "they make al Qaeda look like a minor league team."
"Hezbollah remains a threat to security in different parts of the world," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, section chief for the national Press Office.
"The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces conduct investigations into different groups that potentially pose a threat to the US or our interests overseas; however, the FBI and DHS have no specific intelligence about any group or so called sleeper cells planning an attack. Our job is to gather intelligence, work with our domestic and international partners to identify and disrupt any terrorism event," said Kolko.
Toronto has long been considered an important city for Hezbollah fund-raising and organizing, according to officials.
Pro-Hezbollah rallies and billboards depicting Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have outraged Jewish groups.
"Because of lax immigration policies, it became a center for Hezbollah operations outside the Middle East," said Malcolm Hoenlein, of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.
Hezbollah was declared a terror group by the government of Canada in December, 2002, leading to an increased surveillance of suspected members.
The last major attack by the terror group outside of the Middle East occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1994.
Argentinean authorities formally blamed Hezbollah and Iran for attacks on a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. Twenty-nine people died in an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that was also blamed on Hezbollah and Iran.
As a political organization, Hezbollah, which means "Party of God," plays a significant role in Lebanese politics as the leading opposition force.
Founded in 1982, following Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the group came to represent Lebanon's Shiite population and has increased its power and influence in recent months.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
JUF E Alert
Forward this to a friend June 19, 2008
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
BREAKING NEWS
Jewish Federation collecting for Midwest flood relief
Groups angered by new Presbyterian statement
Reports from Write On for Israel trip
Lawyer-turned-nun rises to Israel's defense
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Gaza cease-fire takes hold
A year after Gaza takeover, Hamas shows no sign of ending violence
Rice says houses hurt Mideast talks
IDF to remove Kalkilya roadblocks as 'reward'
Army of Islam terrorists killed in aerial attacks
Israel and World News
Israel offers Lebanon talks on peace, and land
Latest Israel-Syria talks end in 'positive atmosphere'
Top Defense Ministry official: If Shalit is not released, Rafah stays closed
Israel wins significant EU upgrade
Tourism to Israel breaks all-time record in May
Israel chooses national bird
Iran Watch
Iranian FM: We're willing to negotiate with West over incentives package
EU to issue stronger Iran sanctions
Iran says uranium enrichment is a "red line"
Events and Programs
TOV announces first annual Green Mitzvah Mania!
Teens: Learn about terrific programs just for you
CFJE offers Melton Adult Mini School program
Learn modern Hebrew at Chicago's Hebrew Ulpan Center
Editorial, Opinion & Analysis
From the world press
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
BREAKING NEWS
Just released: The full (12 judge) U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, based here in Chicago, just vacated it's own three judge panel ruling that vacated the $156 million civil judgment against Mohammed Salah and several local Muslim charities for their role in the murderous Hamas terrorist attack against American teenager David Boim. (Read the new ruling.) What this essentially means is that the historic ruling of liability against these American groups and an individual has been reinstated and it is now up to the defendants' attorneys to convince the entire Seventh Circuit Court Appellate Court that the original December 2004 judgment was flawed.
Rick Hoffman, who with his colleague Steve Landes of the Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon law firm, has handled the case for Stanley and Joyce Boim (David's surviving parents), applauded this latest ruling, expressing gratification that the full court recognized the flaws in the panel's analysis. Talking to E-Alert shortly after receiving word of the ruling he observed, "This is a significant legal victory that has broad implications. We are very pleased with the Court's ruling."
JUF's JCRC Executive Director Jay Tcath also welcomed the ruling, praised the committed, capable legal work of Landes and Hoffman and said, "While nothing can bring back David Boim, z.l., our thoughts are with Stanley and Joyce Boim whom from day one of this legal battle have been most interested in helping prevent a similar tragedy from befalling any other American parents. This civil case is an important piece of our country's battle to deter and stem the flow of U.S. support for international terrorism."
Background on the JCRC's "Chicago Connection to International Terrorism."
Back to top
JEWISH FEDERATION COLLECTING FOR MIDWEST FLOOD RELIEF
In the wake of the catastrophic flooding which has overwhelmed parts of the Midwest, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago has opened an emergency mailbox to funnel humanitarian aid to the devastated areas.
Funds from the Jewish Federation Midwest Flood Relief Fund will support humanitarian, non-sectarian needs on the ground. The Jewish Federation will not deduct any administrative costs;100% of collected funds will go directly to aid the victims.
Individuals can contribute online, by phone at (312) 444.2869 or by mail, making checks payable to:
Jewish Federation Midwest Flood Relief Fund
c/o Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
30 S. Wells St.
Room 3017
Chicago, IL 60606
Back to top
GROUPS ANGERED BY NEW PRESBYTERIAN STATEMENT
Just days before they are due to consider a range of motions on the Middle East at their biennial convention, the Presbyterian Church USA has released a document on combating anti-Jewish ideas. But Jewish organizational leaders say the statement is "infused with the very bias" it purports to condemn.
The document, "Vigilance Against anti-Jewish Bias In the Pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian Peace," aims to help Presbyterians advance existing church policies opposing Israel's occupation and the construction of the West Bank separation barrier, while avoiding anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish rhetoric.
"The purpose of this resource is to help Presbyterians guard against anti-Jewish bias, even as they make a strong stand for justice, and work in sustained ways for peace," the document reads.
But to some Jewish ears, the document lays blame for the conflict squarely with Israel, avoids any substantive treatment of Arab support for terrorism, and is yet another church statement that appears to hold Israel responsible for the violence directed against it.
An unusually large coalition of 13 Jewish organizations -- the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith International, and the major bodies of the Conservative and Reform movements among them -- harshly denounced the document last week. The document's release has generated fear that years of Jewish-Presbyterian dialogue following pro-divestment votes in 2004 and 2006 have yielded little fruit.
The original document, published on the PC (USA) website May 6, was the product of an effort spearheaded in Chicago through the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation. Leaders of the effort--initiated by JUF Rabbinic Scholar Yehiel Poupko, with the active involvement of JUF/JF Executive Vice President Michael Kotzin and Rabbis Peter Knoebel and David Sandmel--welcomed this original document which represented the final result of several successful meetings between the two parties. The document called on Presbyterians to look critically at materials that discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to reject anti-Jewish themes that the church acknowledges reside in some of these writings, including some that are rooted in the application of liberation theology to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The new, 'expanded version' of the document, which was released with no review and little warning, contained major changes. It was greeted with dismay by the four local interfaith activists.
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REPORTS FROM WRITE ON FOR ISRAEL TRIP
Read JUF News executive editor Aaron Cohen's blog entries from his trip to Israel with the fellows of the Write On for Israel program, as well as some entries from the fellows themselves.
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LAWYER-TURNED-NUN RISES TO ISRAEL'S DEFENSE
Former lawyer Sister Ruth Lautt works from a single room on the 19th floor of the God Box. Such is the nickname for the Interchurch Center, the office building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan that is the closest thing to a Vatican for America's mainline Protestant denominations. Indeed, Sister Ruth's fellow tenants include agencies of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
On many of the issues that animate the mainline churches--ecumenical outreach, social justice--she makes a perfectly companionable neighbor. On the subject of Israel, however, she qualifies as something more like the enemy within.
Through the organization she founded three years ago, Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, Sister Ruth has frequently and sharply clashed with the very denominations housed under the God Box's roof. When they have proposed divestment from Israel or more generally condemned its actions against Palestinians, she has fought against those positions, vociferously speaking out for Israel's right to self-defense and security.
"We are informed by the Christian mandate to stand for justice and to raise our voices when we see someone being falsely accused," Sister Ruth, 44, said in an interview at the God Box. "The issue isn't divestment. Divestment is a symptom, a symptom of bias against the state of Israel and an attempt to lay the blame on the shoulders of Israel."
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
GAZA CEASE-FIRE TAKES HOLD
The start of a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, took effect as scheduled on the Gaza border at 6 a.m. Thursday, after about 30 Qassam rockets were fired from the Strip at communities along its border, lightly wounding one woman. Moments before the truce took hold, the Israel Air Force killed a member of a Qassam rocket squad preparing to launch near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Palestinian sources said the man killed was a Hamas operative.
Also read Israelis on Gaza border have little faith in truce.
Back to top
A YEAR AFTER GAZA TAKEOVER, HAMAS SHOWS NO SIGN OF ENDING VIOLENCE
"For many of us, the coup in Gaza meant the end of the Palestinian dream of a single Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with a connection between them," said P., a resident of Gaza City's Sajiyeh neighborhood, on the one-year anniversary of the coup in which Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. "Israel will not agree to a Palestinian state in Gaza as long as it is under Hamas control, and the coup divided the Palestinian people in two," he continued. "Even in the Diaspora, Palestinians are divided between Hamas and Fatah supporters."
Beyond the coup's negative implications for Palestinian politics, its negative implications for the personal lives of Gaza residents have been enormous. Yet no small number of Gazans also mentioned positive changes that have taken place in the Strip in the past year.
Back to top
RICE SAYS HOUSES HURT MIDEAST TALKS
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that thousands of housing units that Israel is building on captured land were harming peace talks with the Palestinians. She also said she could not understand why Israel was still blocking three Fulbright grantees from leaving Gaza.
On the latest of her nearly monthly visits here to push along Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Ms. Rice was more explicit than usual in asserting that the construction was reducing confidence in the talks. The United States hopes to get the two sides to produce a peace framework by year's end, but the Palestinians say the new housing is a big stumbling block.
Following this statement, Rice met with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert who stressed that Israel's policy has not changed. "It remains as it was - and it was clarified to our counterparts, both American and Palestinian, long before the Annapolis conference and then again after it," said Olmert.
Back to top
IDF TO REMOVE KALKILYA ROADBLOCKS AS 'REWARD'
The Civil Administration in the West Bank has negotiated a deal with a number of Palestinian villages in the Kalkilya region in which dirt roadblocks cutting off their access to nearby cities and roads would be lifted in exchange for the cessation of local terror activity, a senior IDF commander told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
Back to top
ARMY OF ISLAM TERRORISTS KILLED IN AERIAL ATTACKS
As part of a joint IDF and ISA operation Tuesday, aerial attacks were carried out in which the IDF identified hitting Army of Islam terrorists involved in recent attempts to execute a large-scale terror attack against Israeli targets.
Among the terrorists killed were Ma'ataz Dagmesh, 29, resident of Gaza, Mahmud Shandi, 25, resident of Al-Hawa and Muhamad Asaliya, 21, resident of the Jabaliya R.C - three senior terrorists within the organization. Dagmesh, whose brother is the organization leader in the Gaza Strip, was the leader and planner of the thwarted terror attack. Asaliya served as the organization's senior terror attacks planner.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel and World News
ISRAEL OFFERS LEBANON TALKS ON PEACE, AND LAND
Israel offered on Wednesday to start direct peace talks with Lebanon, saying all issues would be negotiable, including a tiny, disputed piece of Israeli-held land on the countries' border. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Israel over the weekend and made a surprise stop in Lebanon on Monday. She spoke to the Israeli and Lebanese governments about the United States' desire to find a solution to the land dispute as a catalyst for solving bigger issues in the region, a senior Israeli official said. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, agreed to this effort. Among the larger issues is strengthening the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
But Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora rejected Israel's call for direct, bilateral talks to reach a peace deal between the two bordering countries. "Lebanon's known position before this government is that there is no place for bilateral negotiations between Lebanon and Israel," Siniora's media office said in a statement late Wednesday.
Hezbollah legislator Nawar al-Saheli told The Associated Press that the Israeli offer is "ridiculous propaganda."
Back to top
LATEST ISRAEL-SYRIA TALKS END IN 'POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE'
Two days of indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria in Turkey ended Monday, Israeli and Turkish officials said, adding that the atmosphere was positive and the contacts would continue.
An Israeli official said the talks covered practical matters as well as procedure, without giving details. The talks resumed on Sunday in Ankara, with negotiators aiming to prepare an agenda for a possible direct meeting next month.
Back to top
TOP DEFENSE MINISTRY OFFICIAL: IF SHALIT IS NOT RELEASED, RAFAH STAYS CLOSED
"If Gilad Shalit is not released, Rafah crossing does not open," said Senior Defense Ministry Official Amos Gilad during an interview with Ynet on Wednesday night. Gilad is currently representing Israel in talks negotiating the ceasefire with Hamas and the other Gazan terror organizations in Egypt.
Gilad's statement validated an earlier statement made by the kidnapped soldier's father, Noam Shalit, according to which Israel's government had neglected his son during the negotiations of a truce. Shalit claimed that the opening of border crossings would cause Israel to lose leverage in the negotiations, therefore putting his son at risk.
Back to top
ISRAEL WINS SIGNIFICANT EU UPGRADE
Despite intense lobbying by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, the European Union on Monday - in a sign of vastly improved European-Israeli relations over the last few years - agreed to a significant upgrade of relations with Israel.
The upgrade was announced in Luxembourg during the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting, headed by foreign ministers, which conducts the bilateral relations between Israel and the EU. The announcement was made at a meeting attended by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the ministers of the 27 EU states. A statement put out by the foreign ministry said this agreement "will usher in a new era in Israeli-European relations."
Back to top
TOURISM TO ISRAEL BREAKS ALL-TIME RECORD IN MAY
Nearly 300,000 tourists visited Israel in May, an all-time record, the Ministry of Tourism said. The number of tourists was five percent higher than May of 2000, Israel's record year for tourism, and at the current pace, 2.8 million tourists are on track to visit by the end of the year, according to the ministry.
Back to top
ISRAEL CHOOSES NATIONAL BIRD
Watch this video from the Colbert Report about Israel's new national bird, the noble long-billed hoopoe.
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran Watch
IRANIAN FM: WE'RE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE WITH WEST OVER INCENTIVES PACKAGE
Iran is prepared to negotiate with the West over a package of incentives to stop uranium enrichment, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced on Thursday.
Speaking at a Uganda gathering of Foreign Ministers from Muslim states, Mottaki added that his country hoped world powers would consider accepting Teheran's suggested solutions to the conflict surrounding its nuclear program.
Back to top
EU TO ISSUE STRONGER IRAN SANCTIONS
The European Union agreed Monday on the need to sharpen sanctions on Iran-- possibly targeting the oil and gas sectors in what would mark Europe's strongest punishments yet to discourage Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The EU's tougher stance follows Iran's latest refusal to accept an economic incentives in exchange for halting uranium enrichment, which Tehran insists is for energy-producing reactors but Western nations and others fear could be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Also read Iran withdraws $75 billion from Europe.
Back to top
IRAN SAYS URANIUM ENRICHMENT IS A "RED LINE"
Iran said on Tuesday uranium enrichment was its "red line" and would continue, despite an enhanced offer of incentives from big powers to stop activity the West fears could yield nuclear bombs. The EU's top diplomat, Javier Solana, presented Tehran on Saturday with an adjusted package of economic benefits designed to persuade it to curb its nuclear work, and said Iran should stop enrichment during negotiations to implement the offer.
"We have repeatedly said that enrichment is our red line and we should enjoy this technology. The work will be continued," deputy foreign minister Alireza Sheikhattar told reporters, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Events and Programs
TOV ANNOUNCES FIRST ANNUAL GREEN MITZVAH MANIA!
In an effort to explore new areas of volunteerism and to uphold the Jewish values of environmentalism and tikkun olam, the JUF TOV Volunteer Network is proud to introduce the first annual Green Mitzvah Mania!! This program will feature three one-time environmental volunteer projects throughout the summer. The first opportunity will be a family craft project and is scheduled for Sunday, June 29. Register online.
Green Mitzvah Mania is a great opportunity for people to give back in a meaningful way, learn more about the Jewish community's response to climate change, and volunteer outside with friends and family!
Back to top
TEENS: LEARN ABOUT TERRIFIC PROGRAMS JUST FOR YOU
Applications are now open for the hands-on youth philanthropy programs Voices and Kolot; Camp TOV 2008, a week long, fun and interactive service oriented day program on wheels; TOV MTV - Monthly Teen Volunteering; and Write On for Israel, a selective, two-year advocacy training fellowship.
Get more information about all these opportunities.
Back to top
CFJE OFFERS MELTON ADULT MINI SCHOOL PROGRAM
The Community Foundation for Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago (CFJE) offers adults an opportunity to achieve Jewish literacy and increase their knowledge about Israel with Melton. Classes are taught in a pleasant and enjoyable atmosphere. Knowledge of Hebrew is not required. Students are a committed group of adult learners who represent a great diversity in background, prior level of learning, and affiliation, united by a desire to learn more about our Judaism and about Israel. The Limud North suburban school meets at Temple Jeremiah in Northfield, and the Chicago/Lakeview School meets at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago from September 2008 through May 2009.
Registration has begun and will fill up fast. Find more information at www.cfje.org or contact the Melton Center at (847) 410-3900 x 25 or by e-mail at kkanter@cfje.org.
Back to top
LEARN MODERN HEBREW AT CHICAGO'S HEBREW ULPAN CENTER
The Community Foundation for Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago (CFJE) offers adults an opportunity to learn and feel comfortable with Hebrew through its "Merkaz Ivrit" or "Ulpan Center." Classes will take place in Skokie, the North Shore, Lakeview and new this year: the Northwest suburbs in Buffalo Grove. Running from October 2008 through May 2009, this 22-session program (1.5 hr/week) is structured to meet the needs of learners at all levels through more advanced.
Registration has begun and will fill up fast. Find registration information online or contact the Ulpan Center at (847) 410-3900 x 20 or by e-mail at Ulpan@cfje.org.
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
BREAKING NEWS
Jewish Federation collecting for Midwest flood relief
Groups angered by new Presbyterian statement
Reports from Write On for Israel trip
Lawyer-turned-nun rises to Israel's defense
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Gaza cease-fire takes hold
A year after Gaza takeover, Hamas shows no sign of ending violence
Rice says houses hurt Mideast talks
IDF to remove Kalkilya roadblocks as 'reward'
Army of Islam terrorists killed in aerial attacks
Israel and World News
Israel offers Lebanon talks on peace, and land
Latest Israel-Syria talks end in 'positive atmosphere'
Top Defense Ministry official: If Shalit is not released, Rafah stays closed
Israel wins significant EU upgrade
Tourism to Israel breaks all-time record in May
Israel chooses national bird
Iran Watch
Iranian FM: We're willing to negotiate with West over incentives package
EU to issue stronger Iran sanctions
Iran says uranium enrichment is a "red line"
Events and Programs
TOV announces first annual Green Mitzvah Mania!
Teens: Learn about terrific programs just for you
CFJE offers Melton Adult Mini School program
Learn modern Hebrew at Chicago's Hebrew Ulpan Center
Editorial, Opinion & Analysis
From the world press
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
BREAKING NEWS
Just released: The full (12 judge) U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, based here in Chicago, just vacated it's own three judge panel ruling that vacated the $156 million civil judgment against Mohammed Salah and several local Muslim charities for their role in the murderous Hamas terrorist attack against American teenager David Boim. (Read the new ruling.) What this essentially means is that the historic ruling of liability against these American groups and an individual has been reinstated and it is now up to the defendants' attorneys to convince the entire Seventh Circuit Court Appellate Court that the original December 2004 judgment was flawed.
Rick Hoffman, who with his colleague Steve Landes of the Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon law firm, has handled the case for Stanley and Joyce Boim (David's surviving parents), applauded this latest ruling, expressing gratification that the full court recognized the flaws in the panel's analysis. Talking to E-Alert shortly after receiving word of the ruling he observed, "This is a significant legal victory that has broad implications. We are very pleased with the Court's ruling."
JUF's JCRC Executive Director Jay Tcath also welcomed the ruling, praised the committed, capable legal work of Landes and Hoffman and said, "While nothing can bring back David Boim, z.l., our thoughts are with Stanley and Joyce Boim whom from day one of this legal battle have been most interested in helping prevent a similar tragedy from befalling any other American parents. This civil case is an important piece of our country's battle to deter and stem the flow of U.S. support for international terrorism."
Background on the JCRC's "Chicago Connection to International Terrorism."
Back to top
JEWISH FEDERATION COLLECTING FOR MIDWEST FLOOD RELIEF
In the wake of the catastrophic flooding which has overwhelmed parts of the Midwest, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago has opened an emergency mailbox to funnel humanitarian aid to the devastated areas.
Funds from the Jewish Federation Midwest Flood Relief Fund will support humanitarian, non-sectarian needs on the ground. The Jewish Federation will not deduct any administrative costs;100% of collected funds will go directly to aid the victims.
Individuals can contribute online, by phone at (312) 444.2869 or by mail, making checks payable to:
Jewish Federation Midwest Flood Relief Fund
c/o Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
30 S. Wells St.
Room 3017
Chicago, IL 60606
Back to top
GROUPS ANGERED BY NEW PRESBYTERIAN STATEMENT
Just days before they are due to consider a range of motions on the Middle East at their biennial convention, the Presbyterian Church USA has released a document on combating anti-Jewish ideas. But Jewish organizational leaders say the statement is "infused with the very bias" it purports to condemn.
The document, "Vigilance Against anti-Jewish Bias In the Pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian Peace," aims to help Presbyterians advance existing church policies opposing Israel's occupation and the construction of the West Bank separation barrier, while avoiding anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish rhetoric.
"The purpose of this resource is to help Presbyterians guard against anti-Jewish bias, even as they make a strong stand for justice, and work in sustained ways for peace," the document reads.
But to some Jewish ears, the document lays blame for the conflict squarely with Israel, avoids any substantive treatment of Arab support for terrorism, and is yet another church statement that appears to hold Israel responsible for the violence directed against it.
An unusually large coalition of 13 Jewish organizations -- the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith International, and the major bodies of the Conservative and Reform movements among them -- harshly denounced the document last week. The document's release has generated fear that years of Jewish-Presbyterian dialogue following pro-divestment votes in 2004 and 2006 have yielded little fruit.
The original document, published on the PC (USA) website May 6, was the product of an effort spearheaded in Chicago through the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation. Leaders of the effort--initiated by JUF Rabbinic Scholar Yehiel Poupko, with the active involvement of JUF/JF Executive Vice President Michael Kotzin and Rabbis Peter Knoebel and David Sandmel--welcomed this original document which represented the final result of several successful meetings between the two parties. The document called on Presbyterians to look critically at materials that discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to reject anti-Jewish themes that the church acknowledges reside in some of these writings, including some that are rooted in the application of liberation theology to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The new, 'expanded version' of the document, which was released with no review and little warning, contained major changes. It was greeted with dismay by the four local interfaith activists.
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REPORTS FROM WRITE ON FOR ISRAEL TRIP
Read JUF News executive editor Aaron Cohen's blog entries from his trip to Israel with the fellows of the Write On for Israel program, as well as some entries from the fellows themselves.
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LAWYER-TURNED-NUN RISES TO ISRAEL'S DEFENSE
Former lawyer Sister Ruth Lautt works from a single room on the 19th floor of the God Box. Such is the nickname for the Interchurch Center, the office building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan that is the closest thing to a Vatican for America's mainline Protestant denominations. Indeed, Sister Ruth's fellow tenants include agencies of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
On many of the issues that animate the mainline churches--ecumenical outreach, social justice--she makes a perfectly companionable neighbor. On the subject of Israel, however, she qualifies as something more like the enemy within.
Through the organization she founded three years ago, Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, Sister Ruth has frequently and sharply clashed with the very denominations housed under the God Box's roof. When they have proposed divestment from Israel or more generally condemned its actions against Palestinians, she has fought against those positions, vociferously speaking out for Israel's right to self-defense and security.
"We are informed by the Christian mandate to stand for justice and to raise our voices when we see someone being falsely accused," Sister Ruth, 44, said in an interview at the God Box. "The issue isn't divestment. Divestment is a symptom, a symptom of bias against the state of Israel and an attempt to lay the blame on the shoulders of Israel."
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
GAZA CEASE-FIRE TAKES HOLD
The start of a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, took effect as scheduled on the Gaza border at 6 a.m. Thursday, after about 30 Qassam rockets were fired from the Strip at communities along its border, lightly wounding one woman. Moments before the truce took hold, the Israel Air Force killed a member of a Qassam rocket squad preparing to launch near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Palestinian sources said the man killed was a Hamas operative.
Also read Israelis on Gaza border have little faith in truce.
Back to top
A YEAR AFTER GAZA TAKEOVER, HAMAS SHOWS NO SIGN OF ENDING VIOLENCE
"For many of us, the coup in Gaza meant the end of the Palestinian dream of a single Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with a connection between them," said P., a resident of Gaza City's Sajiyeh neighborhood, on the one-year anniversary of the coup in which Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. "Israel will not agree to a Palestinian state in Gaza as long as it is under Hamas control, and the coup divided the Palestinian people in two," he continued. "Even in the Diaspora, Palestinians are divided between Hamas and Fatah supporters."
Beyond the coup's negative implications for Palestinian politics, its negative implications for the personal lives of Gaza residents have been enormous. Yet no small number of Gazans also mentioned positive changes that have taken place in the Strip in the past year.
Back to top
RICE SAYS HOUSES HURT MIDEAST TALKS
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that thousands of housing units that Israel is building on captured land were harming peace talks with the Palestinians. She also said she could not understand why Israel was still blocking three Fulbright grantees from leaving Gaza.
On the latest of her nearly monthly visits here to push along Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Ms. Rice was more explicit than usual in asserting that the construction was reducing confidence in the talks. The United States hopes to get the two sides to produce a peace framework by year's end, but the Palestinians say the new housing is a big stumbling block.
Following this statement, Rice met with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert who stressed that Israel's policy has not changed. "It remains as it was - and it was clarified to our counterparts, both American and Palestinian, long before the Annapolis conference and then again after it," said Olmert.
Back to top
IDF TO REMOVE KALKILYA ROADBLOCKS AS 'REWARD'
The Civil Administration in the West Bank has negotiated a deal with a number of Palestinian villages in the Kalkilya region in which dirt roadblocks cutting off their access to nearby cities and roads would be lifted in exchange for the cessation of local terror activity, a senior IDF commander told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
Back to top
ARMY OF ISLAM TERRORISTS KILLED IN AERIAL ATTACKS
As part of a joint IDF and ISA operation Tuesday, aerial attacks were carried out in which the IDF identified hitting Army of Islam terrorists involved in recent attempts to execute a large-scale terror attack against Israeli targets.
Among the terrorists killed were Ma'ataz Dagmesh, 29, resident of Gaza, Mahmud Shandi, 25, resident of Al-Hawa and Muhamad Asaliya, 21, resident of the Jabaliya R.C - three senior terrorists within the organization. Dagmesh, whose brother is the organization leader in the Gaza Strip, was the leader and planner of the thwarted terror attack. Asaliya served as the organization's senior terror attacks planner.
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel and World News
ISRAEL OFFERS LEBANON TALKS ON PEACE, AND LAND
Israel offered on Wednesday to start direct peace talks with Lebanon, saying all issues would be negotiable, including a tiny, disputed piece of Israeli-held land on the countries' border. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Israel over the weekend and made a surprise stop in Lebanon on Monday. She spoke to the Israeli and Lebanese governments about the United States' desire to find a solution to the land dispute as a catalyst for solving bigger issues in the region, a senior Israeli official said. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, agreed to this effort. Among the larger issues is strengthening the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
But Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora rejected Israel's call for direct, bilateral talks to reach a peace deal between the two bordering countries. "Lebanon's known position before this government is that there is no place for bilateral negotiations between Lebanon and Israel," Siniora's media office said in a statement late Wednesday.
Hezbollah legislator Nawar al-Saheli told The Associated Press that the Israeli offer is "ridiculous propaganda."
Back to top
LATEST ISRAEL-SYRIA TALKS END IN 'POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE'
Two days of indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria in Turkey ended Monday, Israeli and Turkish officials said, adding that the atmosphere was positive and the contacts would continue.
An Israeli official said the talks covered practical matters as well as procedure, without giving details. The talks resumed on Sunday in Ankara, with negotiators aiming to prepare an agenda for a possible direct meeting next month.
Back to top
TOP DEFENSE MINISTRY OFFICIAL: IF SHALIT IS NOT RELEASED, RAFAH STAYS CLOSED
"If Gilad Shalit is not released, Rafah crossing does not open," said Senior Defense Ministry Official Amos Gilad during an interview with Ynet on Wednesday night. Gilad is currently representing Israel in talks negotiating the ceasefire with Hamas and the other Gazan terror organizations in Egypt.
Gilad's statement validated an earlier statement made by the kidnapped soldier's father, Noam Shalit, according to which Israel's government had neglected his son during the negotiations of a truce. Shalit claimed that the opening of border crossings would cause Israel to lose leverage in the negotiations, therefore putting his son at risk.
Back to top
ISRAEL WINS SIGNIFICANT EU UPGRADE
Despite intense lobbying by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, the European Union on Monday - in a sign of vastly improved European-Israeli relations over the last few years - agreed to a significant upgrade of relations with Israel.
The upgrade was announced in Luxembourg during the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting, headed by foreign ministers, which conducts the bilateral relations between Israel and the EU. The announcement was made at a meeting attended by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the ministers of the 27 EU states. A statement put out by the foreign ministry said this agreement "will usher in a new era in Israeli-European relations."
Back to top
TOURISM TO ISRAEL BREAKS ALL-TIME RECORD IN MAY
Nearly 300,000 tourists visited Israel in May, an all-time record, the Ministry of Tourism said. The number of tourists was five percent higher than May of 2000, Israel's record year for tourism, and at the current pace, 2.8 million tourists are on track to visit by the end of the year, according to the ministry.
Back to top
ISRAEL CHOOSES NATIONAL BIRD
Watch this video from the Colbert Report about Israel's new national bird, the noble long-billed hoopoe.
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran Watch
IRANIAN FM: WE'RE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE WITH WEST OVER INCENTIVES PACKAGE
Iran is prepared to negotiate with the West over a package of incentives to stop uranium enrichment, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced on Thursday.
Speaking at a Uganda gathering of Foreign Ministers from Muslim states, Mottaki added that his country hoped world powers would consider accepting Teheran's suggested solutions to the conflict surrounding its nuclear program.
Back to top
EU TO ISSUE STRONGER IRAN SANCTIONS
The European Union agreed Monday on the need to sharpen sanctions on Iran-- possibly targeting the oil and gas sectors in what would mark Europe's strongest punishments yet to discourage Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The EU's tougher stance follows Iran's latest refusal to accept an economic incentives in exchange for halting uranium enrichment, which Tehran insists is for energy-producing reactors but Western nations and others fear could be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Also read Iran withdraws $75 billion from Europe.
Back to top
IRAN SAYS URANIUM ENRICHMENT IS A "RED LINE"
Iran said on Tuesday uranium enrichment was its "red line" and would continue, despite an enhanced offer of incentives from big powers to stop activity the West fears could yield nuclear bombs. The EU's top diplomat, Javier Solana, presented Tehran on Saturday with an adjusted package of economic benefits designed to persuade it to curb its nuclear work, and said Iran should stop enrichment during negotiations to implement the offer.
"We have repeatedly said that enrichment is our red line and we should enjoy this technology. The work will be continued," deputy foreign minister Alireza Sheikhattar told reporters, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Events and Programs
TOV ANNOUNCES FIRST ANNUAL GREEN MITZVAH MANIA!
In an effort to explore new areas of volunteerism and to uphold the Jewish values of environmentalism and tikkun olam, the JUF TOV Volunteer Network is proud to introduce the first annual Green Mitzvah Mania!! This program will feature three one-time environmental volunteer projects throughout the summer. The first opportunity will be a family craft project and is scheduled for Sunday, June 29. Register online.
Green Mitzvah Mania is a great opportunity for people to give back in a meaningful way, learn more about the Jewish community's response to climate change, and volunteer outside with friends and family!
Back to top
TEENS: LEARN ABOUT TERRIFIC PROGRAMS JUST FOR YOU
Applications are now open for the hands-on youth philanthropy programs Voices and Kolot; Camp TOV 2008, a week long, fun and interactive service oriented day program on wheels; TOV MTV - Monthly Teen Volunteering; and Write On for Israel, a selective, two-year advocacy training fellowship.
Get more information about all these opportunities.
Back to top
CFJE OFFERS MELTON ADULT MINI SCHOOL PROGRAM
The Community Foundation for Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago (CFJE) offers adults an opportunity to achieve Jewish literacy and increase their knowledge about Israel with Melton. Classes are taught in a pleasant and enjoyable atmosphere. Knowledge of Hebrew is not required. Students are a committed group of adult learners who represent a great diversity in background, prior level of learning, and affiliation, united by a desire to learn more about our Judaism and about Israel. The Limud North suburban school meets at Temple Jeremiah in Northfield, and the Chicago/Lakeview School meets at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago from September 2008 through May 2009.
Registration has begun and will fill up fast. Find more information at www.cfje.org or contact the Melton Center at (847) 410-3900 x 25 or by e-mail at kkanter@cfje.org.
Back to top
LEARN MODERN HEBREW AT CHICAGO'S HEBREW ULPAN CENTER
The Community Foundation for Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago (CFJE) offers adults an opportunity to learn and feel comfortable with Hebrew through its "Merkaz Ivrit" or "Ulpan Center." Classes will take place in Skokie, the North Shore, Lakeview and new this year: the Northwest suburbs in Buffalo Grove. Running from October 2008 through May 2009, this 22-session program (1.5 hr/week) is structured to meet the needs of learners at all levels through more advanced.
Registration has begun and will fill up fast. Find registration information online or contact the Ulpan Center at (847) 410-3900 x 20 or by e-mail at Ulpan@cfje.org.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Aipac June 17
2008
Iran Rejects Incentives Offer, Refuses Nuclear Halt
Hamas Pounds Ashkelon With Katyusha Rockets
EU Upgrades Economic, Diplomatic Ties with Israel
United States Condemns Chinese Trade with Iran
Date Seed from Masada is Oldest Ever to Sprout
Shimon Peres Hosts U.S.-Israel Biotech Conference
take action!
Affect Israel's future and promote U.S. interests in the Middle East by urging your members of Congress to support critical legislation.
Click here to learn about these important initiatives and to email your elected representatives.
Policy Conference 2008
Click here to view highlights from the largest-ever AIPAC Policy Conference.
Iran Rejects Incentives Offer, Refuses Nuclear Halt Iran said Saturday that accepting a package of incentives offered by the United States and five other countries was "out of the question" because it includes a demand for the country to stop enriching uranium—a key step toward developing nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported. In response, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, and vowed heightened European pressure if Tehran refuses to halt its illicit nuclear work. "If Iran continues to ignore [U.N. Security Council] resolutions, to ignore our offers of partnership, we have no choice but to intensify sanctions," Brown said. Click here to learn how you can take action to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Hamas Pounds Ashkelon With Katyusha RocketsDespite ongoing Egyptian-mediated efforts to end Hamas rocket fire, the terrorist group on Monday fired several Katyusha rockets at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported. One man was wounded, and several others were treated for shock. "It appears today's attack is a deliberate attempt to undermine the Egypt initiative to achieve calm," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said. Hamas' longer-range, Iranian-supplied Katyusha rockets pose a serious threat to the industrial city of Ashkelon, home to 120,000 civilians and critical infrastructure. Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas terrorists there have overseen a massive arms buildup, turning the coastal area into a base for launching attacks at the Jewish state. Click here to learn more about the threat of Hamas.
EU Upgrades Economic, Diplomatic Ties with IsraelBrushing aside intense lobbying by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, the European Union on Monday announced it would significantly upgrade its diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported. Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who currently holds the EU presidency, announced the decision during a visit to Luxembourg by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "There are numerous historic, cultural and economic ties between us," Rupel said. "Therefore, the developments in these regions are of common concern to us." The upgrade is expected to enable Israel to better compete in the EU market, particularly in the high-tech arena, and will increase high-level diplomatic cooperation and dialogue between the parties.
United States Condemns Chinese Trade with IranThe U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said recently that China must halt its trade with Iran, Reuters reported. "This is not a time for business as usual with Iran, this is a time to demonstrate to Iran that they are hurting their country politically and economically by withholding information from the international community," Ambassador Gregory Schulte said. Schulte's statement comes as Iran continues to refuse to provide information about its nuclear activities to the IAEA. Tehran has also rejected an offer by the five members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany for help in developing a civilian nuclear program in exchange for a halt in enrichment activities that could produce a nuclear weapon.
Date Seed from Masada is Oldest Ever to SproutScientists in Israel have confirmed that an ancient date palm seed retrieved from the rubble of Masada and successfully germinated is about 2,000 years old, The New York Times reported. That makes it the oldest seed ever to sprout, beating the previous well-documented record holder, a lotus found in a dry lakebed in China, by about 700 years. The date seed was among several obtained in the 1960s by archaeologists excavating Masada, the fortress in the Judean Desert built by Herod around 35 B.C.E. and destroyed by the Romans in 73 C.E. The Judean Dead Sea region was well known for its date palms that produced high quality fruit around the first century C.E., but over several centuries this line of plants was lost. Researchers say more seeds are needed for a more thorough understanding of what made those old dates so good.
Shimon Peres Hosts U.S.-Israel Biotech ConferenceIsraeli President Shimon Peres recently hosted a two-day conference in Israel in order to foster U.S.-Israel biotechnology cooperation, the Web site Israel21c reported. Eric Richman, a Vice President of the Maryland-based company PharmAthene, said that when the United States and Israel do business together, both countries benefit. "Part of the technology we are using for a vaccine we are developing as a medical countermeasure to bioterrorism, was developed at the Hebrew University," Richman said. "The drug was adopted by the U.S. military, now we are meeting with Israeli military officials about making it available in Israel." Israel has long been a center of biotechnology
Iran Rejects Incentives Offer, Refuses Nuclear Halt
Hamas Pounds Ashkelon With Katyusha Rockets
EU Upgrades Economic, Diplomatic Ties with Israel
United States Condemns Chinese Trade with Iran
Date Seed from Masada is Oldest Ever to Sprout
Shimon Peres Hosts U.S.-Israel Biotech Conference
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Iran Rejects Incentives Offer, Refuses Nuclear Halt Iran said Saturday that accepting a package of incentives offered by the United States and five other countries was "out of the question" because it includes a demand for the country to stop enriching uranium—a key step toward developing nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported. In response, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, and vowed heightened European pressure if Tehran refuses to halt its illicit nuclear work. "If Iran continues to ignore [U.N. Security Council] resolutions, to ignore our offers of partnership, we have no choice but to intensify sanctions," Brown said. Click here to learn how you can take action to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Hamas Pounds Ashkelon With Katyusha RocketsDespite ongoing Egyptian-mediated efforts to end Hamas rocket fire, the terrorist group on Monday fired several Katyusha rockets at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported. One man was wounded, and several others were treated for shock. "It appears today's attack is a deliberate attempt to undermine the Egypt initiative to achieve calm," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said. Hamas' longer-range, Iranian-supplied Katyusha rockets pose a serious threat to the industrial city of Ashkelon, home to 120,000 civilians and critical infrastructure. Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas terrorists there have overseen a massive arms buildup, turning the coastal area into a base for launching attacks at the Jewish state. Click here to learn more about the threat of Hamas.
EU Upgrades Economic, Diplomatic Ties with IsraelBrushing aside intense lobbying by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, the European Union on Monday announced it would significantly upgrade its diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported. Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who currently holds the EU presidency, announced the decision during a visit to Luxembourg by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "There are numerous historic, cultural and economic ties between us," Rupel said. "Therefore, the developments in these regions are of common concern to us." The upgrade is expected to enable Israel to better compete in the EU market, particularly in the high-tech arena, and will increase high-level diplomatic cooperation and dialogue between the parties.
United States Condemns Chinese Trade with IranThe U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said recently that China must halt its trade with Iran, Reuters reported. "This is not a time for business as usual with Iran, this is a time to demonstrate to Iran that they are hurting their country politically and economically by withholding information from the international community," Ambassador Gregory Schulte said. Schulte's statement comes as Iran continues to refuse to provide information about its nuclear activities to the IAEA. Tehran has also rejected an offer by the five members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany for help in developing a civilian nuclear program in exchange for a halt in enrichment activities that could produce a nuclear weapon.
Date Seed from Masada is Oldest Ever to SproutScientists in Israel have confirmed that an ancient date palm seed retrieved from the rubble of Masada and successfully germinated is about 2,000 years old, The New York Times reported. That makes it the oldest seed ever to sprout, beating the previous well-documented record holder, a lotus found in a dry lakebed in China, by about 700 years. The date seed was among several obtained in the 1960s by archaeologists excavating Masada, the fortress in the Judean Desert built by Herod around 35 B.C.E. and destroyed by the Romans in 73 C.E. The Judean Dead Sea region was well known for its date palms that produced high quality fruit around the first century C.E., but over several centuries this line of plants was lost. Researchers say more seeds are needed for a more thorough understanding of what made those old dates so good.
Shimon Peres Hosts U.S.-Israel Biotech ConferenceIsraeli President Shimon Peres recently hosted a two-day conference in Israel in order to foster U.S.-Israel biotechnology cooperation, the Web site Israel21c reported. Eric Richman, a Vice President of the Maryland-based company PharmAthene, said that when the United States and Israel do business together, both countries benefit. "Part of the technology we are using for a vaccine we are developing as a medical countermeasure to bioterrorism, was developed at the Hebrew University," Richman said. "The drug was adopted by the U.S. military, now we are meeting with Israeli military officials about making it available in Israel." Israel has long been a center of biotechnology
McCain on Israel
McCain for America - and Israel
Jun. 17, 2008
MORRIS J. AMITAY , THE JERUSALEM POST
With both parties' presumptive nominees identified, the choice for the pro-Israel community is clear - John McCain is the one. I only wish my conclusion was shared by more of my co-religionists, a strong majority of whom invariably support Democratic candidates, more out of habit than conviction.
This majority fails to appreciate the growing menace of Islamic extremism both to the United States and to Israel. For too many Jewish Americans, ensuring our own safety and security and that of Israel appears to be a lower priority than certain domestic issues, such as preserving abortion rights. One has to wonder why the well-educated 50ish year-old woman I encountered recently would rank her absolute right to an abortion as the most important issue facing our nation, when the chances of her being killed by a terrorist act are infinitely greater than her having to deal with an unwanted pregnancy.
A similarly disappointing view was expressed by a retired septuagenarian in Florida who told me recently with all sincerity, that for him, the next president's Supreme Court appointments are the most crucial determinant of his vote. Can this really be more important than the future security of his grandchildren, or does he think that jihadist threats are less serious than the "menace" of a strict constructionist judge?
This baffling ordering of priorities would perhaps have more validity if McCain had made the abortion issue a prominent feature of his entire public life. Instead, his prime concern has been national security. Why do so many Jews with memories of the Holocaust still fresh consider the bloodcurdling statements by Islamist extremists as mere rhetoric, while at the same time taking at face value Obama's calls for "change we can believe in" and slogans such as "we are the ones we've been waiting for"?
THERE IS also the belief shared by some in the Jewish community here that the current unpopularity of Israel and the United States is a result of their actions, the "it's all our fault" mentality. A few years ago at a private meeting, a prominent liberal, Jewish US senator told then prime minister Ariel Sharon that the reason for growing anti-Semitism was Israel's actions.
Then there are the Jewish Americans who, in often frantic attempts to burnish their liberal credentials, subscribe to the "both sides are to blame" explanation of international conflicts. Purveyors of this theory conclude that the way to deal with sworn enemies is to demonstrate heartfelt concern for their "legitimate grievances," which will then lead to peaceful relations.
A LACK of basic understanding of the values the United States still represents to the world was pointedly in evidence when Michelle Obama infamously proclaimed that only now is she proud of America. As the son of immigrants who found refuge and better lives here, I have always felt proud to be an American, while not always agreeing with all the policies and actions of my country. The philosophy of the church attended by the Obamas for 20 years is a combination of victimology and hatred of America.
I have absolutely no problem with those who pursue their liberal causes - I was an aide to both a liberal Democratic representative and a liberal Democratic senator. I can truly claim that "some of my best friends" are Democrats! However, I have to admit that now most of them are of the centrist, Joe Lieberman, "Scoop" Jackson variety, than the Michael Moore, Dennis Kucinich, far-left "progressive" types enamored with Obama.
Lieberman, now an independent Democrat who has enthusiastically endorsed McCain for president, recently wrote, "I have worked with Sen. McCain on just about every national security issue over the past 20 years… I have seen Sen. McCain time and time again rise above the negativism and pettiness of our politics to get things done for the country he loves so much."
Contrast this with the shallow background and thin resume of McCain's likely opponent. Because he somehow transcends race, it is assumed Obama will transcend everything else - divisions of region, class, party, generation, and ideology, his record in the Senate to date to the contrary.
He is also being compared by an adoring media to John F. Kennedy's candidacy. As has been pointed out, however, it is not Obama, but actually McCain who, like Kennedy, was commissioned as a naval officer, awarded the Purple Heart, and decorated for helping his comrades. And McCain, like JFK, has pledged to fight for freedom around the world, and not retreat from our enemies.
THERE ARE many in the US Congress whose Israel-related voting records according to AIPAC are excellent. Obama in his brief four years in the Senate is among them. But some of these senators appear unwilling to confront the growing menace Islamofacism poses to America's vital interests in the Middle East and Israel's survival. During the past year there has been only one presidential candidate who before all kinds of audiences has repeatedly emphasized that "the transcendent challenge we face today is the menace of Islamic extremism."
That, of course, has been John McCain. And that is why in the coming election on November 4, he offers a clear choice to voters who share his concern for America and its friends' survival. McCain's "straight talk" is not, as some claim, merely fear or war "mongering," but facing up to the reality of today's world. McCain does not suffer from the moral equivalence syndrome of the US State Department, and the liberal media exemplified by the New York Times.
ONE CAN RESPECT Barack Obama for his ambition, his meteoric rise, and his rhetorical skills displayed recently at AIPAC's Policy Conference. But to no one's surprise, he almost immediately backtracked from his remarks on Jerusalem. This is eerily similar to his "explanation" of his previous assent to unconditional talks with Iran's Ahmadinejad.
Also worrisome is the unremarkable, but ultra-liberal, voting record he has compiled during his short time in the US Senate. He has earned the rank of the "most liberal" senator among his colleagues at the same time he claims to be a "unifier." Many centrist Democrats were disappointed by Obama's failure to join in the highly effective bipartisan senate initiative regarding judicial appointments known as the "gang of 14."
If his actual record on "bringing people together" is so meager, his national security resume is even thinner. This means he will have to rely more heavily on his advisers. Here it can really get scary, given both the backgrounds of several of those who have counseled him to date and the endorsements he has received from a long list of Israel bashers. It is not difficult to determine whose advice he will rely upon and to whom he will owe his political allegiance in the future, his AIPAC speech notwithstanding
If one believes we live today in a very dangerous world with unprecedented challenges, the choice before the American people and the Jewish community should be, as we say, a no-brainer. There are so many critical issues our next president will have to face on that much bullyhooed "day one": Iran, Iraq, Russia, North Korea, Afghanistan, China, global terrorism, a faltering NATO alliance - and, of course, the Israel-Arab conflict.
Given the candidates' records, experience and core values, the choice for the pro-Israel community and the American people as a whole should really be a "slam dunk" - John McCain for President.
The writer, a Washington attorney, is a former executive director of AIPAC and founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC (www.washingtonpac.com).
Jun. 17, 2008
MORRIS J. AMITAY , THE JERUSALEM POST
With both parties' presumptive nominees identified, the choice for the pro-Israel community is clear - John McCain is the one. I only wish my conclusion was shared by more of my co-religionists, a strong majority of whom invariably support Democratic candidates, more out of habit than conviction.
This majority fails to appreciate the growing menace of Islamic extremism both to the United States and to Israel. For too many Jewish Americans, ensuring our own safety and security and that of Israel appears to be a lower priority than certain domestic issues, such as preserving abortion rights. One has to wonder why the well-educated 50ish year-old woman I encountered recently would rank her absolute right to an abortion as the most important issue facing our nation, when the chances of her being killed by a terrorist act are infinitely greater than her having to deal with an unwanted pregnancy.
A similarly disappointing view was expressed by a retired septuagenarian in Florida who told me recently with all sincerity, that for him, the next president's Supreme Court appointments are the most crucial determinant of his vote. Can this really be more important than the future security of his grandchildren, or does he think that jihadist threats are less serious than the "menace" of a strict constructionist judge?
This baffling ordering of priorities would perhaps have more validity if McCain had made the abortion issue a prominent feature of his entire public life. Instead, his prime concern has been national security. Why do so many Jews with memories of the Holocaust still fresh consider the bloodcurdling statements by Islamist extremists as mere rhetoric, while at the same time taking at face value Obama's calls for "change we can believe in" and slogans such as "we are the ones we've been waiting for"?
THERE IS also the belief shared by some in the Jewish community here that the current unpopularity of Israel and the United States is a result of their actions, the "it's all our fault" mentality. A few years ago at a private meeting, a prominent liberal, Jewish US senator told then prime minister Ariel Sharon that the reason for growing anti-Semitism was Israel's actions.
Then there are the Jewish Americans who, in often frantic attempts to burnish their liberal credentials, subscribe to the "both sides are to blame" explanation of international conflicts. Purveyors of this theory conclude that the way to deal with sworn enemies is to demonstrate heartfelt concern for their "legitimate grievances," which will then lead to peaceful relations.
A LACK of basic understanding of the values the United States still represents to the world was pointedly in evidence when Michelle Obama infamously proclaimed that only now is she proud of America. As the son of immigrants who found refuge and better lives here, I have always felt proud to be an American, while not always agreeing with all the policies and actions of my country. The philosophy of the church attended by the Obamas for 20 years is a combination of victimology and hatred of America.
I have absolutely no problem with those who pursue their liberal causes - I was an aide to both a liberal Democratic representative and a liberal Democratic senator. I can truly claim that "some of my best friends" are Democrats! However, I have to admit that now most of them are of the centrist, Joe Lieberman, "Scoop" Jackson variety, than the Michael Moore, Dennis Kucinich, far-left "progressive" types enamored with Obama.
Lieberman, now an independent Democrat who has enthusiastically endorsed McCain for president, recently wrote, "I have worked with Sen. McCain on just about every national security issue over the past 20 years… I have seen Sen. McCain time and time again rise above the negativism and pettiness of our politics to get things done for the country he loves so much."
Contrast this with the shallow background and thin resume of McCain's likely opponent. Because he somehow transcends race, it is assumed Obama will transcend everything else - divisions of region, class, party, generation, and ideology, his record in the Senate to date to the contrary.
He is also being compared by an adoring media to John F. Kennedy's candidacy. As has been pointed out, however, it is not Obama, but actually McCain who, like Kennedy, was commissioned as a naval officer, awarded the Purple Heart, and decorated for helping his comrades. And McCain, like JFK, has pledged to fight for freedom around the world, and not retreat from our enemies.
THERE ARE many in the US Congress whose Israel-related voting records according to AIPAC are excellent. Obama in his brief four years in the Senate is among them. But some of these senators appear unwilling to confront the growing menace Islamofacism poses to America's vital interests in the Middle East and Israel's survival. During the past year there has been only one presidential candidate who before all kinds of audiences has repeatedly emphasized that "the transcendent challenge we face today is the menace of Islamic extremism."
That, of course, has been John McCain. And that is why in the coming election on November 4, he offers a clear choice to voters who share his concern for America and its friends' survival. McCain's "straight talk" is not, as some claim, merely fear or war "mongering," but facing up to the reality of today's world. McCain does not suffer from the moral equivalence syndrome of the US State Department, and the liberal media exemplified by the New York Times.
ONE CAN RESPECT Barack Obama for his ambition, his meteoric rise, and his rhetorical skills displayed recently at AIPAC's Policy Conference. But to no one's surprise, he almost immediately backtracked from his remarks on Jerusalem. This is eerily similar to his "explanation" of his previous assent to unconditional talks with Iran's Ahmadinejad.
Also worrisome is the unremarkable, but ultra-liberal, voting record he has compiled during his short time in the US Senate. He has earned the rank of the "most liberal" senator among his colleagues at the same time he claims to be a "unifier." Many centrist Democrats were disappointed by Obama's failure to join in the highly effective bipartisan senate initiative regarding judicial appointments known as the "gang of 14."
If his actual record on "bringing people together" is so meager, his national security resume is even thinner. This means he will have to rely more heavily on his advisers. Here it can really get scary, given both the backgrounds of several of those who have counseled him to date and the endorsements he has received from a long list of Israel bashers. It is not difficult to determine whose advice he will rely upon and to whom he will owe his political allegiance in the future, his AIPAC speech notwithstanding
If one believes we live today in a very dangerous world with unprecedented challenges, the choice before the American people and the Jewish community should be, as we say, a no-brainer. There are so many critical issues our next president will have to face on that much bullyhooed "day one": Iran, Iraq, Russia, North Korea, Afghanistan, China, global terrorism, a faltering NATO alliance - and, of course, the Israel-Arab conflict.
Given the candidates' records, experience and core values, the choice for the pro-Israel community and the American people as a whole should really be a "slam dunk" - John McCain for President.
The writer, a Washington attorney, is a former executive director of AIPAC and founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC (www.washingtonpac.com).
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
From Richard Baehr
2. Egypt is leaking word of a ceasefire to begin Thursday between
Gaza and Israel, and there have been some subtle shifts in announced
American policy regarding Shebaa Farms suggesting that the Turkish
sponsored Israeli-Syrian talks are more serious than some suspected.
There is also talk of a prisoner exchange between Israel and
Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas . Sadly, in the case of the two
prisoners held by Hezbollah, few believe they are still alive.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1212659753549&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=1323#more-1323
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1212659750870&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126517#replies
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1212659754465&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Gaza and Israel, and there have been some subtle shifts in announced
American policy regarding Shebaa Farms suggesting that the Turkish
sponsored Israeli-Syrian talks are more serious than some suspected.
There is also talk of a prisoner exchange between Israel and
Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas . Sadly, in the case of the two
prisoners held by Hezbollah, few believe they are still alive.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1212659753549&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=1323#more-1323
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1212659750870&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126517#replies
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1212659754465&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Tom Friedman New York Times
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman
Go to Columnist Page »
Question: What do America’s premier investor, Warren Buffett, and Iran’s toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer: They’ve both made a bet about Israel’s future.
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel “has reached its final phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene.”
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader’s statement on Israel Radio just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel’s famous precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran’s holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong war. I asked Iscar’s chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett’s reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: “He said, ‘I’m not interested in the next quarter. I’m interested in the next 20 years.’ ” Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a production record for the month. It helps when many of your “employees” are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I’d short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. “If you sleep on the floor,” he likes to say, “you never have to worry about falling out of bed.”
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel’s M.I.T., told me: “In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel.”
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can’t develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn’t worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran’s economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel’s economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel’s economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran’s is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I’m with Buffett: I’ll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
Thomas L. Friedman
Go to Columnist Page »
Question: What do America’s premier investor, Warren Buffett, and Iran’s toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer: They’ve both made a bet about Israel’s future.
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel “has reached its final phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene.”
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader’s statement on Israel Radio just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel’s famous precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran’s holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong war. I asked Iscar’s chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett’s reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: “He said, ‘I’m not interested in the next quarter. I’m interested in the next 20 years.’ ” Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a production record for the month. It helps when many of your “employees” are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I’d short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. “If you sleep on the floor,” he likes to say, “you never have to worry about falling out of bed.”
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel’s M.I.T., told me: “In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel.”
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can’t develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn’t worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran’s economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel’s economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel’s economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran’s is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I’m with Buffett: I’ll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
Peace talks
Israel Seems to Make Progress in Talks
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By ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: June 17, 2008
JERUSALEM — Israel appeared to be making diplomatic progress Monday on three fronts: a possible prisoner exchange with Hezbollah; a second round of indirect talks with Syrian representatives in Turkey; and a possible truce with Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli officials refused to comment about possible developments with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and said it would be premature to draw any conclusions about understandings with Syria or Hamas.
Some Israelis, meanwhile, have suggested that the current flurry of diplomatic activity is intended to distract attention from the political and legal troubles of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who the police say is suspected of receiving illicit funds.
The possibility of an imminent exchange with Hezbollah, involving the two Israeli soldiers whose capture by the militant group set off the 2006 war in Lebanon, seemed more likely on Monday when Zvi Regev, the father of one of the soldiers, said he had been told about a deal. Mr. Regev, the father of Eldad Regev, told Israel Radio that Ofer Dekel, the Israeli official in charge of the soldiers’ case, informed the family two weeks ago “that a deal was about to be carried out.”
Mr. Dekel did not go into detail, he said, and did not know about the soldiers’ condition. Both were wounded in a Hezbollah ambush across the Israeli border that led to their capture in July 2006; the Lebanese group has offered no proof that they are alive.
Two Lebanese newspapers, Al Akhbar and As Safir, reported on Monday that a prisoner exchange could take place as early as the end of this week.
On June 1, Hezbollah representatives unexpectedly handed over to Israel the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war, and Israel sent back across the border a Lebanese civilian who had completed a six-year prison term in Israel for spying for Hezbollah.
Any broader swap is likely to include the release of Samir Kuntar, the most notorious of the few remaining Lebanese prisoners in Israel. He was sentenced to multiple life terms for killing four Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl, during a terrorist raid in Nahariya in 1979.
Later on Monday, Turkish and Israeli officials announced that Israeli and Syrian representatives had completed two days of indirect talks through Turkish mediators. The talks were “serious, positive and constructive” and were to be continued, an Israeli government official said.
Israel and Syria announced three weeks ago that they were engaged in negotiations through Turkish mediators for a comprehensive peace treaty, the first talks in eight years.
The Israeli news media have been rife with reports that the Israeli team will try to persuade the Syrians to have their leaders meet face to face in Paris in mid-July at the conference, organized by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, to establish a Mediterranean Union.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, confirmed that Mr. Olmert had been invited to the Paris conference and that he hoped to attend. But “anything beyond that is speculation,” Mr. Regev said.
In Gaza, Ismail Haniya, a senior leader of Hamas, the Islamic group that controls the area, said on Monday that talks brokered by Egypt for a period of calm with Israel were nearing completion and that he hoped for a “happy ending.”
Towns and villages in southern Israel have been under continual rocket and mortar fire from Gaza in recent months, while Gaza has been subject to frequent Israeli military strikes aimed at militants and incursions.
Israel’s Security Cabinet decided last week to pursue an arrangement for mutual quiet, though it also instructed the military to prepare for more serious action should the talks fail or the truce break down.
In a violent reminder that the truce has not yet come into force, Israeli troops killed three militants in Gaza early Monday as they were trying to plant explosives by the border fence. The radical group Islamic Jihad said the militants were laying a bomb meant to blow up an Israeli jeep on patrol.
Later, a rocket fired from Gaza by militants fell in a cemetery in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon about 10 miles north, and the military said one Israeli civilian was lightly wounded.
At least one militant was killed in a subsequent Israeli strike against a rocket-launching squad, the military said.
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By ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: June 17, 2008
JERUSALEM — Israel appeared to be making diplomatic progress Monday on three fronts: a possible prisoner exchange with Hezbollah; a second round of indirect talks with Syrian representatives in Turkey; and a possible truce with Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli officials refused to comment about possible developments with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and said it would be premature to draw any conclusions about understandings with Syria or Hamas.
Some Israelis, meanwhile, have suggested that the current flurry of diplomatic activity is intended to distract attention from the political and legal troubles of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who the police say is suspected of receiving illicit funds.
The possibility of an imminent exchange with Hezbollah, involving the two Israeli soldiers whose capture by the militant group set off the 2006 war in Lebanon, seemed more likely on Monday when Zvi Regev, the father of one of the soldiers, said he had been told about a deal. Mr. Regev, the father of Eldad Regev, told Israel Radio that Ofer Dekel, the Israeli official in charge of the soldiers’ case, informed the family two weeks ago “that a deal was about to be carried out.”
Mr. Dekel did not go into detail, he said, and did not know about the soldiers’ condition. Both were wounded in a Hezbollah ambush across the Israeli border that led to their capture in July 2006; the Lebanese group has offered no proof that they are alive.
Two Lebanese newspapers, Al Akhbar and As Safir, reported on Monday that a prisoner exchange could take place as early as the end of this week.
On June 1, Hezbollah representatives unexpectedly handed over to Israel the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war, and Israel sent back across the border a Lebanese civilian who had completed a six-year prison term in Israel for spying for Hezbollah.
Any broader swap is likely to include the release of Samir Kuntar, the most notorious of the few remaining Lebanese prisoners in Israel. He was sentenced to multiple life terms for killing four Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl, during a terrorist raid in Nahariya in 1979.
Later on Monday, Turkish and Israeli officials announced that Israeli and Syrian representatives had completed two days of indirect talks through Turkish mediators. The talks were “serious, positive and constructive” and were to be continued, an Israeli government official said.
Israel and Syria announced three weeks ago that they were engaged in negotiations through Turkish mediators for a comprehensive peace treaty, the first talks in eight years.
The Israeli news media have been rife with reports that the Israeli team will try to persuade the Syrians to have their leaders meet face to face in Paris in mid-July at the conference, organized by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, to establish a Mediterranean Union.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, confirmed that Mr. Olmert had been invited to the Paris conference and that he hoped to attend. But “anything beyond that is speculation,” Mr. Regev said.
In Gaza, Ismail Haniya, a senior leader of Hamas, the Islamic group that controls the area, said on Monday that talks brokered by Egypt for a period of calm with Israel were nearing completion and that he hoped for a “happy ending.”
Towns and villages in southern Israel have been under continual rocket and mortar fire from Gaza in recent months, while Gaza has been subject to frequent Israeli military strikes aimed at militants and incursions.
Israel’s Security Cabinet decided last week to pursue an arrangement for mutual quiet, though it also instructed the military to prepare for more serious action should the talks fail or the truce break down.
In a violent reminder that the truce has not yet come into force, Israeli troops killed three militants in Gaza early Monday as they were trying to plant explosives by the border fence. The radical group Islamic Jihad said the militants were laying a bomb meant to blow up an Israeli jeep on patrol.
Later, a rocket fired from Gaza by militants fell in a cemetery in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon about 10 miles north, and the military said one Israeli civilian was lightly wounded.
At least one militant was killed in a subsequent Israeli strike against a rocket-launching squad, the military said.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Parasha notes on Israel from AIPAC
Parashat Shelach
Accomplices of Evil
Kulam anashim, roshei Bnei Yisrael – “All of them men, heads of the children of Israel” (Numbers 13:3)
Our parashah tells the story of the spies sent to scout the Land of Israel. The Torah describes the spies as, "Heads of the Jewish people" and indeed, Rashi states that before their appointment as spies they were men of great importance in the nation. Yet, suddenly they become corrupted. What happens to such significant people that transforms them from responsible leaders into agents of negativity and destruction? Maharal (Rabbi Judah Leow of Prague) in his Gur Aryeh commentary on Rashi explains that the real destructive motives laid first with the populations of the tribes that pushed for the spy mission. Because they were filled with doubt about the veracity of Moses' reports of the goodness of the Land of Israel these people initiate the mission with the hopes that the report would come back negative. While the men on the mission are initially righteous, their sponsors are not and therefore, when the spies agree to represent the tribes who send them, they become transformed into their sponsors and look for reasons for their mission to fail.
Maharal teaches us a critical lesson about those who work for and represent evil regimes. While at the outset they may enter the scene without prejudice, as soon as they become accomplices of evil they themselves take on not only the responsibility for their sponsors, but the attitudes and behaviors of them as well.
Today, many supporters of Israel are advocating taking action against modern accomplices of the Iranian regime that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. In order to peacefully pressure Iran to halt her nuclear program, activists are utilizing state-level campaigns to divest public pension plans from companies investing in Iran's oil and natural gas sector. Divesting from these companies would send a strong signal to Iran that American states will not provide funds to help Iran advance its nuclear weapons pursuit and support terrorism. While U.S. companies have been barred by Executive Order from directly investing in Iran since 1996, American citizens, including state pension managers, can still buy the stocks of foreign companies invested in Iran that are not covered by the order. State divestment legislation will partially close this loophole by prohibiting public pension funds from investing in some foreign companies that do business in Iran’s energy sector. Iran is already facing growing difficulties as a result of international sanctions and further divestment would increase pressure to halt its nuclear activities. For more on Iranian divestment click here.
Like the spies, these foreign companies cannot claim innocence with regard to Iran's nuclear pursuit. By investing in the Iranian regime they bear a moral and ethical responsibility.
Enemies in the Land
Ve’sham Achiman Sheishai v’Talmai – “And there were Achiman, Sheishai and Talmai” (Numbers 13:22)
During the spies’ travels through the Land of Israel on their mission, they encounter several daunting adversaries. As the Torah states, “And they went up into the South, and came unto Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there.” Many of the commentaries translate the word Anak not as a proper noun, but instead to mean “giants.” With this meaning of the word we learn that these three men were giants who presented formidable if not unconquerable adversaries. The Talmud in Sotah (34b) explains that these giants’ names relate their most fearsome qualities: “Ahiman [was so named because he was] the strongest [meyuman] of them; Sheshai because he made the earth like pits [shehithoth]; Talmai because he made the earth like furrows [telamim].”
Today the people of Israel face a modern-day Sheshai and Talmai that also create pits in the Land, not by the power of their gigantic foot, but rather from the powerful crash of mortars and rockets.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 more than 4,000 rockets and mortars have rained down on Israeli civilians. Faced with unremitting rocket attacks from Gaza, the government of Israel has been forced to take action to defend its citizens—the prime obligation of any nation. Yet simultaneously, and despite Hamas’ deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians, Israel remains committed to talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA). To improve the prospects for successful Israeli-Palestinian talks, the Arab states must increase essential political and financial support to the PA and begin to normalize relations with Israel. Arab states need to take concrete steps to support the talks by providing PA President Mahmoud Abbas with the political support he will need to fight terrorism, isolate Hamas and make the tough compromises necessary to reach an agreement with Israel.
Support from the Arab states is crucial in providing PA President Mahmud Abbas the political cover to make peace. If they do so then children in Sderot will no longer live in fear like the spies in the face of their giant enemies.
The Power of Speech
Vayotziyu dibat ha’aretz – “And they spread an evil report about the Land…” (Numbers 13:32)
The story of the sin of the spies comes at the heels of the story of Miriam’s illness found at the end of last week’s Torah portion. Rashi notes the juxtaposition of that story, where Miriam is afflicted with tzara’at (leprosy) as a punishment for her speaking slanderously about her brother Moses, with our story about the failed mission of the spies. Rashi teaches us that the Torah connects these stories, “Because she was afflicted for the issue of slander that she spoke about her brother. And these evil men witnessed [her ordeal] but did not take heed.” (See Rashi on 13:2) The Sin of the Spies teaches us the great power of speech. In a matter of moments, ten spies transformed an eager nation primed to enter the Promised Land into a frightened group ready to flee back to Egypt. Moreover, when they see the people wavering after their initial report, they resort to spreading lies and propaganda in order to further frighten the nation. Ramban (on verse 32) teaches us that the spies, convinced of the futility of the mission to conquer Israel, resort to falsehood and slander to destroy the morale of the nation. Their willingness to highlight the negative aspects of the Land of Israel brings about not only their own destruction, but the loss of an entire generation of Jews.
While this story highlights the harmful aspects of negative speech, it also teaches us the positive power of speech. If a single night of talk caused so much misery then using that same energy for positive purposes can bring equally stunning results.
Israel is currently using the power of speech in just such a positive way. Israel has repeatedly expressed its desire to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict with all its neighbors and has voiced its willingness to make painful sacrifices in order to achieve that objective. The success of the ongoing talks with Syria will depend on Syria’s willingness to match Israel’s commitment to peace by curtailing its strategic ties with Iran and ending its support for Hizballah, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, which operate freely in Damascus. In the south as well the power of speech has borne fruit as Israel’s cabinet has decided to pursue a cease-fire with terrorist organizations in Gaza. This great example of using speech for a positive purpose is already having an impact; however, we must remain aware that should Hamas rocket attacks continue, like those that killed an Israeli and wounded several others recently, Israel may be forced to take more aggressive action in Gaza.
There is a powerful lesson to be learned from the tragedy of the sin of the spies. In the words of Rashi, we must “take heed” of the incredible power of speech to impact our lives on a personal, communal and even national level.
Accomplices of Evil
Kulam anashim, roshei Bnei Yisrael – “All of them men, heads of the children of Israel” (Numbers 13:3)
Our parashah tells the story of the spies sent to scout the Land of Israel. The Torah describes the spies as, "Heads of the Jewish people" and indeed, Rashi states that before their appointment as spies they were men of great importance in the nation. Yet, suddenly they become corrupted. What happens to such significant people that transforms them from responsible leaders into agents of negativity and destruction? Maharal (Rabbi Judah Leow of Prague) in his Gur Aryeh commentary on Rashi explains that the real destructive motives laid first with the populations of the tribes that pushed for the spy mission. Because they were filled with doubt about the veracity of Moses' reports of the goodness of the Land of Israel these people initiate the mission with the hopes that the report would come back negative. While the men on the mission are initially righteous, their sponsors are not and therefore, when the spies agree to represent the tribes who send them, they become transformed into their sponsors and look for reasons for their mission to fail.
Maharal teaches us a critical lesson about those who work for and represent evil regimes. While at the outset they may enter the scene without prejudice, as soon as they become accomplices of evil they themselves take on not only the responsibility for their sponsors, but the attitudes and behaviors of them as well.
Today, many supporters of Israel are advocating taking action against modern accomplices of the Iranian regime that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. In order to peacefully pressure Iran to halt her nuclear program, activists are utilizing state-level campaigns to divest public pension plans from companies investing in Iran's oil and natural gas sector. Divesting from these companies would send a strong signal to Iran that American states will not provide funds to help Iran advance its nuclear weapons pursuit and support terrorism. While U.S. companies have been barred by Executive Order from directly investing in Iran since 1996, American citizens, including state pension managers, can still buy the stocks of foreign companies invested in Iran that are not covered by the order. State divestment legislation will partially close this loophole by prohibiting public pension funds from investing in some foreign companies that do business in Iran’s energy sector. Iran is already facing growing difficulties as a result of international sanctions and further divestment would increase pressure to halt its nuclear activities. For more on Iranian divestment click here.
Like the spies, these foreign companies cannot claim innocence with regard to Iran's nuclear pursuit. By investing in the Iranian regime they bear a moral and ethical responsibility.
Enemies in the Land
Ve’sham Achiman Sheishai v’Talmai – “And there were Achiman, Sheishai and Talmai” (Numbers 13:22)
During the spies’ travels through the Land of Israel on their mission, they encounter several daunting adversaries. As the Torah states, “And they went up into the South, and came unto Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there.” Many of the commentaries translate the word Anak not as a proper noun, but instead to mean “giants.” With this meaning of the word we learn that these three men were giants who presented formidable if not unconquerable adversaries. The Talmud in Sotah (34b) explains that these giants’ names relate their most fearsome qualities: “Ahiman [was so named because he was] the strongest [meyuman] of them; Sheshai because he made the earth like pits [shehithoth]; Talmai because he made the earth like furrows [telamim].”
Today the people of Israel face a modern-day Sheshai and Talmai that also create pits in the Land, not by the power of their gigantic foot, but rather from the powerful crash of mortars and rockets.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 more than 4,000 rockets and mortars have rained down on Israeli civilians. Faced with unremitting rocket attacks from Gaza, the government of Israel has been forced to take action to defend its citizens—the prime obligation of any nation. Yet simultaneously, and despite Hamas’ deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians, Israel remains committed to talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA). To improve the prospects for successful Israeli-Palestinian talks, the Arab states must increase essential political and financial support to the PA and begin to normalize relations with Israel. Arab states need to take concrete steps to support the talks by providing PA President Mahmoud Abbas with the political support he will need to fight terrorism, isolate Hamas and make the tough compromises necessary to reach an agreement with Israel.
Support from the Arab states is crucial in providing PA President Mahmud Abbas the political cover to make peace. If they do so then children in Sderot will no longer live in fear like the spies in the face of their giant enemies.
The Power of Speech
Vayotziyu dibat ha’aretz – “And they spread an evil report about the Land…” (Numbers 13:32)
The story of the sin of the spies comes at the heels of the story of Miriam’s illness found at the end of last week’s Torah portion. Rashi notes the juxtaposition of that story, where Miriam is afflicted with tzara’at (leprosy) as a punishment for her speaking slanderously about her brother Moses, with our story about the failed mission of the spies. Rashi teaches us that the Torah connects these stories, “Because she was afflicted for the issue of slander that she spoke about her brother. And these evil men witnessed [her ordeal] but did not take heed.” (See Rashi on 13:2) The Sin of the Spies teaches us the great power of speech. In a matter of moments, ten spies transformed an eager nation primed to enter the Promised Land into a frightened group ready to flee back to Egypt. Moreover, when they see the people wavering after their initial report, they resort to spreading lies and propaganda in order to further frighten the nation. Ramban (on verse 32) teaches us that the spies, convinced of the futility of the mission to conquer Israel, resort to falsehood and slander to destroy the morale of the nation. Their willingness to highlight the negative aspects of the Land of Israel brings about not only their own destruction, but the loss of an entire generation of Jews.
While this story highlights the harmful aspects of negative speech, it also teaches us the positive power of speech. If a single night of talk caused so much misery then using that same energy for positive purposes can bring equally stunning results.
Israel is currently using the power of speech in just such a positive way. Israel has repeatedly expressed its desire to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict with all its neighbors and has voiced its willingness to make painful sacrifices in order to achieve that objective. The success of the ongoing talks with Syria will depend on Syria’s willingness to match Israel’s commitment to peace by curtailing its strategic ties with Iran and ending its support for Hizballah, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, which operate freely in Damascus. In the south as well the power of speech has borne fruit as Israel’s cabinet has decided to pursue a cease-fire with terrorist organizations in Gaza. This great example of using speech for a positive purpose is already having an impact; however, we must remain aware that should Hamas rocket attacks continue, like those that killed an Israeli and wounded several others recently, Israel may be forced to take more aggressive action in Gaza.
There is a powerful lesson to be learned from the tragedy of the sin of the spies. In the words of Rashi, we must “take heed” of the incredible power of speech to impact our lives on a personal, communal and even national level.
Lawyer-Turned-Nun Rises to Israel’s Defense
On Religion
Lawyer-Turned-Nun Rises to Israel’s Defense
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Published: June 14, 2008
Sister Ruth Lautt works from a single room on the 19th floor of the God Box. Such is the nickname for the Interchurch Center, the office building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan that is the closest thing to a Vatican for America’s mainline Protestant denominations. Indeed, Sister Ruth’s fellow tenants include agencies of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Skip to next paragraph
G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times
Sister Ruth Lautt’s Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East sometimes puts her at odds with her fellow Christians.
Wearing the tapered suits left over from an earlier career in law and the crucifix of her more recent life as a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Ruth cuts an inconspicuous figure at the elevator bank. And on many of the issues that animate the mainline churches — ecumenical outreach, social justice — she makes a perfectly companionable neighbor. On the subject of Israel, however, she qualifies as something more like the enemy within.
Through the organization she founded three years ago, Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, Sister Ruth has frequently and sharply clashed with the very denominations housed under the God Box’s roof. When they have proposed divestment from Israel or more generally condemned its actions against Palestinians, she has fought against those positions, vociferously speaking out for Israel’s right to self-defense and security.
In the rancorous and relentless debate on the Middle East conflict, Sister Ruth stands as a sui generis player. She has little contact with Jewish advocacy groups, none with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby. She disassociates herself from Christian Zionists of the theological and political right. Even while defending Israel’s defensive measures, including the separation barrier, she openly criticizes its occupation of the West Bank and laments Palestinian suffering.
As for her methods, Fair Witness has specialized in behind-the-scenes infighting at denominational meetings. A former litigator with the famously aggressive Manhattan law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Sister Ruth has become both effective and controversial by working the floor at religious conventions, helping opponents of divestment draft motions, applying persuasion at the subcommittee and committee levels.
“We are informed by the Christian mandate to stand for justice and to raise our voices when we see someone being falsely accused,” Sister Ruth, 44, said in an interview at the God Box. “The issue isn’t divestment. Divestment is a symptom, a symptom of bias against the state of Israel and an attempt to lay the blame on the shoulders of Israel.”
Such a viewpoint collides with the political and theological direction of the mainline Protestant churches. Influenced by a version of liberation theology espoused by the Palestinian Christian activist Naim Ateek and his organization Sabeel, which likens Palestinians to the persecuted Jesus, all five of the mainline denominations in the United States (Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Evangelical Lutheran and United Church of Christ) have debated and in some cases adopted policies intended to bring direct or indirect economic pressure on Israel to compromise.
Just last month, with Sister Ruth present as a nonvoting observer, the United Methodist Church defeated three divestment motions. At the same time, however, the church’s general conference approved several motions reiterating opposition to Israel’s settlements and military presence in the West Bank.
To divestment proponents, Sister Ruth is an intrusive irritant.
“It’s inappropriate for an outside group like this one to come in to our conference and seek to influence internal decisions that reflect our values and our previously adopted positions on the occupation,” said Susanne Hoder, a member of the divestment task force of the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church. “It’s an odd pursuit for a nun to spend so much of her time seeking to discredit Christians who are trying to protect other Christians who are being persecuted by the occupation.”
Sister Ruth parts ways even with her own order of nuns, the Dominican sisters, in her stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On a Web site devoted to “justice and peace,” the Dominican order formally opposes the separation barrier and calls for “solidarity” with Palestinian Christians.
Acknowledging the friction, Sister Ruth said: “The overwhelming majority of these folks are extremely good people trying to be faithful to the Gospel call to justice. But they are mis- and under-informed when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and typically have only seen this conflict from one side.”
Little in Sister Ruth’s professional background anticipated her current cause. Before she joined the Dominican order in 1996, she had earned a law degree from New York University and worked at Skadden, Arps. Even after becoming a sister, she continued to litigate cases for a smaller firm on Long Island, close to the Dominican residence where she lived.
Sister Ruth did, however, earn a master’s degree in Jewish-Christian Studies from Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and participated in several ecumenical groups on Long Island.
While she said that she received a divine call to advocate for Israel, that call coincided with a rising tide of protests against Israel for sending its army back into the West Bank’s major cities after a rash of suicide bombings in early 2002. The criticism of Israel from liberal churches grew even greater with construction of the separation barrier, which for portions of its route crosses into Palestinian territory.
Sister Ruth made her first trip to Israel in 2003. (Since then she has returned five times, generally visiting the West Bank as well.) In December 2005, she incorporated Fair Witness and sent out its first news release.
Although the group has a board with Roman Catholic and Protestant members, the operation is essentially all Sister Ruth, all the time. She raises the money for its $120,000 annual budget. She assembled its database on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the positions of mainline Protestant groups. She leads Protestant delegations on study tours to the region — African-American clergy members will be going in August, Lutherans in November — and gives her historical analysis of Zionism and Israel to Christian audiences.
In a typical speech last November at Boston College, she commended the liberal churches for “a wholesome, Gospel-centered concern for Palestinian suffering, which is real,” and endorsed a two-state solution. But she also made the case for Israeli self-defense, even in the form of the separation barrier.
“I need to question how people feel they have the right in the name of peace and justice, to tell other people not to try to preserve their own lives,” she said at one point. “You’re not obligated to lay down and die.”
Lawyer-Turned-Nun Rises to Israel’s Defense
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Published: June 14, 2008
Sister Ruth Lautt works from a single room on the 19th floor of the God Box. Such is the nickname for the Interchurch Center, the office building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan that is the closest thing to a Vatican for America’s mainline Protestant denominations. Indeed, Sister Ruth’s fellow tenants include agencies of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Skip to next paragraph
G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times
Sister Ruth Lautt’s Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East sometimes puts her at odds with her fellow Christians.
Wearing the tapered suits left over from an earlier career in law and the crucifix of her more recent life as a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Ruth cuts an inconspicuous figure at the elevator bank. And on many of the issues that animate the mainline churches — ecumenical outreach, social justice — she makes a perfectly companionable neighbor. On the subject of Israel, however, she qualifies as something more like the enemy within.
Through the organization she founded three years ago, Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, Sister Ruth has frequently and sharply clashed with the very denominations housed under the God Box’s roof. When they have proposed divestment from Israel or more generally condemned its actions against Palestinians, she has fought against those positions, vociferously speaking out for Israel’s right to self-defense and security.
In the rancorous and relentless debate on the Middle East conflict, Sister Ruth stands as a sui generis player. She has little contact with Jewish advocacy groups, none with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby. She disassociates herself from Christian Zionists of the theological and political right. Even while defending Israel’s defensive measures, including the separation barrier, she openly criticizes its occupation of the West Bank and laments Palestinian suffering.
As for her methods, Fair Witness has specialized in behind-the-scenes infighting at denominational meetings. A former litigator with the famously aggressive Manhattan law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Sister Ruth has become both effective and controversial by working the floor at religious conventions, helping opponents of divestment draft motions, applying persuasion at the subcommittee and committee levels.
“We are informed by the Christian mandate to stand for justice and to raise our voices when we see someone being falsely accused,” Sister Ruth, 44, said in an interview at the God Box. “The issue isn’t divestment. Divestment is a symptom, a symptom of bias against the state of Israel and an attempt to lay the blame on the shoulders of Israel.”
Such a viewpoint collides with the political and theological direction of the mainline Protestant churches. Influenced by a version of liberation theology espoused by the Palestinian Christian activist Naim Ateek and his organization Sabeel, which likens Palestinians to the persecuted Jesus, all five of the mainline denominations in the United States (Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Evangelical Lutheran and United Church of Christ) have debated and in some cases adopted policies intended to bring direct or indirect economic pressure on Israel to compromise.
Just last month, with Sister Ruth present as a nonvoting observer, the United Methodist Church defeated three divestment motions. At the same time, however, the church’s general conference approved several motions reiterating opposition to Israel’s settlements and military presence in the West Bank.
To divestment proponents, Sister Ruth is an intrusive irritant.
“It’s inappropriate for an outside group like this one to come in to our conference and seek to influence internal decisions that reflect our values and our previously adopted positions on the occupation,” said Susanne Hoder, a member of the divestment task force of the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church. “It’s an odd pursuit for a nun to spend so much of her time seeking to discredit Christians who are trying to protect other Christians who are being persecuted by the occupation.”
Sister Ruth parts ways even with her own order of nuns, the Dominican sisters, in her stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On a Web site devoted to “justice and peace,” the Dominican order formally opposes the separation barrier and calls for “solidarity” with Palestinian Christians.
Acknowledging the friction, Sister Ruth said: “The overwhelming majority of these folks are extremely good people trying to be faithful to the Gospel call to justice. But they are mis- and under-informed when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and typically have only seen this conflict from one side.”
Little in Sister Ruth’s professional background anticipated her current cause. Before she joined the Dominican order in 1996, she had earned a law degree from New York University and worked at Skadden, Arps. Even after becoming a sister, she continued to litigate cases for a smaller firm on Long Island, close to the Dominican residence where she lived.
Sister Ruth did, however, earn a master’s degree in Jewish-Christian Studies from Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and participated in several ecumenical groups on Long Island.
While she said that she received a divine call to advocate for Israel, that call coincided with a rising tide of protests against Israel for sending its army back into the West Bank’s major cities after a rash of suicide bombings in early 2002. The criticism of Israel from liberal churches grew even greater with construction of the separation barrier, which for portions of its route crosses into Palestinian territory.
Sister Ruth made her first trip to Israel in 2003. (Since then she has returned five times, generally visiting the West Bank as well.) In December 2005, she incorporated Fair Witness and sent out its first news release.
Although the group has a board with Roman Catholic and Protestant members, the operation is essentially all Sister Ruth, all the time. She raises the money for its $120,000 annual budget. She assembled its database on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the positions of mainline Protestant groups. She leads Protestant delegations on study tours to the region — African-American clergy members will be going in August, Lutherans in November — and gives her historical analysis of Zionism and Israel to Christian audiences.
In a typical speech last November at Boston College, she commended the liberal churches for “a wholesome, Gospel-centered concern for Palestinian suffering, which is real,” and endorsed a two-state solution. But she also made the case for Israeli self-defense, even in the form of the separation barrier.
“I need to question how people feel they have the right in the name of peace and justice, to tell other people not to try to preserve their own lives,” she said at one point. “You’re not obligated to lay down and die.”
Truce in Gaza?
Israel expects reply on Gaza truce conditions next week
AFP - Saturday, June 14JERUSALEM (AFP) - - Israel said on Friday it expects a response next week to its conditions for a truce in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where tension is high after fighters bombarded southern Israel in a day of bloodshed.
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Among the conditions, Israel is insisting that not only Hamas but also the other militant groups operating in the Palestinian territory halt their rocket and mortar attacks, a defence ministry official told AFP.
Another key condition is that progress be made towards the release of Gilad Shalit, a young army corporal seized by militant groups including Hamas in a deadly cross-border raid two years ago.
Israel also wants the Egyptian authorities to be more energetic in their efforts to halt weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
Amos Gilad, a top aide to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, presented the conditions during talks in Cairo on Thursday with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman who is mediating the negotiations with Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of Gaza last June 15.
Egyptian mediators said they would have a response from Hamas by the middle of next week, the defence official said.
Hamas said on Thursday that any truce must include an end to the crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza and a timetable for reopening crossing points out of the isolated territory.
While Egypt has tried for months to get both sides to halt their fire in and around Gaza, the impoverished Palestinian enclave has remained rocked by violence.
Israel's top security cabinet on Wednesday decided after a marathon five-hour meeting to give Egyptian mediation efforts a chance.
But it also told the military to prepare for a major offensive into the densely-populated territory at short notice.
Senior security officials also expressed concern that Hamas would step up its attacks on southern Israel ahead of a possible truce.
Defence Minister and Labour party chief Ehud Barak claimed on Friday that the government of embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was stalling on a ceasefire.
"This government is incapable of making decisions," the Yediot Aharonot daily's Internet page quoted him as saying at a party meeting in Tel Aviv, adding that he blamed "the primaries ... lurking in the shadows."
Olmert's centrist Kadima party is considering holding primaries amid pressure for snap elections to replace him since he has become dogged by allegations of graft.
Meanwhile, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, acknowledged on Friday that a massive blast that killed seven of its members and a baby occurred as the militants were preparing for "a Jihad operation."
The explosion wounded another 50 people, levelled a house and damaged at least 10 others.
Hamas initially blamed Thursday's explosion on Israeli forces, and militants fired a barrage of more than 50 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel after the blast.
Israel responded by targeting militants, and medics said three Hamas fighters were killed in an air raid. Three more died earlier on Thursday.
At least 505 people, nearly all Palestinians and the majority of them Gaza militants, have been killed since peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian leadership resumed last November, according to an AFP count.
AFP - Saturday, June 14JERUSALEM (AFP) - - Israel said on Friday it expects a response next week to its conditions for a truce in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where tension is high after fighters bombarded southern Israel in a day of bloodshed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Among the conditions, Israel is insisting that not only Hamas but also the other militant groups operating in the Palestinian territory halt their rocket and mortar attacks, a defence ministry official told AFP.
Another key condition is that progress be made towards the release of Gilad Shalit, a young army corporal seized by militant groups including Hamas in a deadly cross-border raid two years ago.
Israel also wants the Egyptian authorities to be more energetic in their efforts to halt weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
Amos Gilad, a top aide to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, presented the conditions during talks in Cairo on Thursday with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman who is mediating the negotiations with Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of Gaza last June 15.
Egyptian mediators said they would have a response from Hamas by the middle of next week, the defence official said.
Hamas said on Thursday that any truce must include an end to the crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza and a timetable for reopening crossing points out of the isolated territory.
While Egypt has tried for months to get both sides to halt their fire in and around Gaza, the impoverished Palestinian enclave has remained rocked by violence.
Israel's top security cabinet on Wednesday decided after a marathon five-hour meeting to give Egyptian mediation efforts a chance.
But it also told the military to prepare for a major offensive into the densely-populated territory at short notice.
Senior security officials also expressed concern that Hamas would step up its attacks on southern Israel ahead of a possible truce.
Defence Minister and Labour party chief Ehud Barak claimed on Friday that the government of embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was stalling on a ceasefire.
"This government is incapable of making decisions," the Yediot Aharonot daily's Internet page quoted him as saying at a party meeting in Tel Aviv, adding that he blamed "the primaries ... lurking in the shadows."
Olmert's centrist Kadima party is considering holding primaries amid pressure for snap elections to replace him since he has become dogged by allegations of graft.
Meanwhile, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, acknowledged on Friday that a massive blast that killed seven of its members and a baby occurred as the militants were preparing for "a Jihad operation."
The explosion wounded another 50 people, levelled a house and damaged at least 10 others.
Hamas initially blamed Thursday's explosion on Israeli forces, and militants fired a barrage of more than 50 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel after the blast.
Israel responded by targeting militants, and medics said three Hamas fighters were killed in an air raid. Three more died earlier on Thursday.
At least 505 people, nearly all Palestinians and the majority of them Gaza militants, have been killed since peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian leadership resumed last November, according to an AFP count.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Bet on Israel's future
New York Times)
June 8, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
People vs. Dinosaurs
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Tefen Industrial Park, Israel
Question: What do America's premier investor, Warren Buffett, and
Iran's toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer:
They've both made a bet about Israel's future.
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel "has reached its final
phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene."
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader's statement on Israel Radio
just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel's famous
precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the
Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being
the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding
company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just
happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran's
holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong
war. I asked Iscar's chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett's
reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an
Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing
outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: "He
said, `I'm not interested in the next quarter. I'm interested in the
next 20 years.' " Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half
his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to
keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a
production record for the month. It helps when many of your
"employees" are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans
out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I'd short
Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it's in turmoil, largely because
the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But
Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is
exploding from the bottom up. Israel's currency, the shekel, has
appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a
flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries,
speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that
strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where
being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has
gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa
to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled
with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a
lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way
to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest
innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying
close to his customers and the latest technologies. "If you sleep on
the floor," he likes to say, "you never have to worry about falling
out of bed."
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the
top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for
start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572
million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with
1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel's M.I.T.,
told me: "In the last eight months, we have had delegations from
I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our
campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel."
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put
it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a
triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he
feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran
maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution,
which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and
inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian
civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not
trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology
you want, or can't develop yourself. This is not an argument that we
shouldn't worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran's economic and military clout today is largely dependent on
extracting oil from the ground. Israel's economic and military power
today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its
people. Israel's economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran's is a
dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I'm with Buffett: I'll bet on the
people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
June 8, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
People vs. Dinosaurs
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Tefen Industrial Park, Israel
Question: What do America's premier investor, Warren Buffett, and
Iran's toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer:
They've both made a bet about Israel's future.
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel "has reached its final
phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene."
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader's statement on Israel Radio
just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel's famous
precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the
Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being
the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding
company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just
happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran's
holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong
war. I asked Iscar's chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett's
reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an
Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing
outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: "He
said, `I'm not interested in the next quarter. I'm interested in the
next 20 years.' " Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half
his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to
keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a
production record for the month. It helps when many of your
"employees" are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans
out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I'd short
Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it's in turmoil, largely because
the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But
Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is
exploding from the bottom up. Israel's currency, the shekel, has
appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a
flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries,
speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that
strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where
being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has
gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa
to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled
with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a
lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way
to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest
innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying
close to his customers and the latest technologies. "If you sleep on
the floor," he likes to say, "you never have to worry about falling
out of bed."
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the
top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for
start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572
million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with
1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel's M.I.T.,
told me: "In the last eight months, we have had delegations from
I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our
campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel."
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put
it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a
triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he
feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran
maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution,
which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and
inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian
civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not
trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology
you want, or can't develop yourself. This is not an argument that we
shouldn't worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran's economic and military clout today is largely dependent on
extracting oil from the ground. Israel's economic and military power
today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its
people. Israel's economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran's is a
dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I'm with Buffett: I'll bet on the
people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Broad news about Israel
The articles in this newsletter (with the exception of Israeli Government statements) reflect the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs website - Click for the latest news, official statements, videos, and presentations relating to the current conflict as well as views of the Israel behind the headlines.
Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Gaza
Al-Qaeda Groups Active in Gaza after Year under Hamas - Nidal al-Mughrabi (Reuters)
Analysts believe al-Qaeda-allied radical groups like Jaysh al-Ummah (Army of the Nation) have benefited from the Hamas takeover in Gaza to expand their membership.
In addition, there has been an increase in attacks on Christians in the past year, apparently by Islamists not content with the extent of Hamas' "Islamization" of Gaza.
A "Black Year" for Palestinian Human Rights (AFP)
Palestinian Mazen Shahin, 41, says the torture he suffered in a month in Mashtal prison in Gaza as a prisoner of the Islamist Hamas was worse than the several years he spent in Israeli jails.
The Mashtal underground prison is a former PA intelligence center where members of Hamas were themselves locked up and tortured in 1996.
In the 12 months since Hamas seized power from Fatah, Shahin says he has been detained six times - and on each occasion he was badly thrashed. He recalled the first time he was picked up "by 50 masked men." He had the soles of his feet beaten with heavy electric cables and his captors shaved his head and beard.
"It's been one of the blackest years for human rights in two decades," said Raji Surani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
Qassam Attacks Continue
Palestinians Rain 65 Mortars and Rockets on Israel - Shmulik Hadad (Ynet News)
An Israeli woman was wounded in the Yad Mordechai area on Thursday as Palestinian terror groups launched a barrage of mortar shells and Kassam rockets against Israeli communities near the Gaza border. At least 40 mortars and 25 Kassam rockets landed in Israel. In addition, a Grad missile landed near Ashkelon.
No Large-Scale Israeli Action Expected in Gaza - Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
No large-scale military offensive is expected in Gaza in the coming months, absent a hit by a "strategic" Kassam rocket that exacts many casualties in Israel. According to the most optimistic IDF assessments, it would take many months of physical presence on the ground in parts of Gaza to bring about a significant decrease in attacks on the communities in the Gaza envelope. The army is not certain whether the public or the government can muster such patience, when it is obvious that the prolongation of any fighting will cost the lives of many soldiers. We can occupy parts of the territory, says a senior officer, with the aim of gradually reducing the rocket fire and preventing the strengthening of Hamas, which relies on weapons being smuggled in from Sinai. "However, under what arrangement will the territory be transferred into responsible hands? An answer of 'It'll be okay' will no longer suffice in this round."
Iran
Iran and the Problem of Evil - Michael Ledeen (AEI/Wall Street Journal)
The world is simmering in the familiar rhetoric and actions of movements and regimes - from Hizbullah and al-Qaeda to the Iranian Khomeinists and the Saudi Wahhabis - who swear to destroy us and others like us. More often than not, we downplay the consequences of their words, as if they were intended for internal consumption. Why are we failing to see the mounting power of evil enemies? It is unpleasant to accept the fact that many people are evil, and entire cultures can fall prey to evil leaders and march in lockstep to their commands. The writer is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Iran Building Seven Refineries to End Petrol Imports (Fars News Agency-Iran)
Iran has launched construction of seven oil refineries in an effort to boost its crude and gas refining capacity and achieve energy self-sufficiency.
The Source of Instability
Iran's Brutal Morality Police Are Growing in Power - Anne Penketh (Independent-UK)
Zahra Bani Yaghoub was sitting on a park bench chatting to her fiancé when Iranian religious police arrived and arrested the couple.
The fiancé was released but the body of Ms. Bani Yaghoub, a 27-year-old doctor, was delivered to her family two days later.
According to Shirin Ebadi, a Tehran-based lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, "Ms. Bani Yaghoub's family believes she was tortured and died as a result. That's my reading, too."
Under President Ahmadinejad, Iran's feared morality police have been acting with renewed vigor against what they consider to be unIslamic behavior.
Sanctions Continue
EU, U.S. Ready Crackdown on Iranian Banks
(Reuters)
The EU and the U.S. will warn Iran at a summit in Slovenia on Tuesday that they are ready to go beyond agreed UN sanctions, raising the possibility of a crackdown on Iranian banks. "We will continue to work together...to take steps to ensure Iranian banks cannot abuse the international banking system to support proliferation and terrorism," said the final draft of the communique to be issued at the meeting. Diplomats said the EU is preparing an asset and funds freeze on Iran's biggest bank, state-owned Bank Melli.
See Also: Ahmadinejad Orders Iran's Banks to Move Assets to Beat EU Freeze - Con Coughlin (Telegraph-UK)
Syria
Syrian Economy Requires a Peace Deal with Israel - Sami Moubayed (Gulf News-Dubai)
Many Syrians believe a peace deal with Israel would undoubtedly encourage investment in Syria, and end the financial hardships imposed on Syria since relations soured with the U.S. back in 2003.
State coffers are empty, and the Ministry of Finance lifted the state subsidy on some fuels in May, with the price of fuel rising by a staggering 350%.
Report: Assad's Brother-in-Law Attempted Coup (Ynet News)
Die Welt reports that Syrian military intelligence chief Assaf Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law, attempted to seize power by force in February, but was arrested after Hizbullah leader Imad Mugniyah informed Assad of the plot.
Shawkat was detained along with a hundred other Syrian intelligence officers. Mugniyah was assassinated in Damascus days later.
Business News
Shekel Goes International - Tal Levy (Ha'aretz)
The Bank of Israel announced Sunday that the shekel has joined the international clearing system and can be converted to any of 16 major currencies.
Israel Economy Grows by 5.4% in Q1 (Reuters)
Israel's economy is showing little sign of slowing despite a global downturn, growing at an annualized rate of 5.4% in the first quarter, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.
The economy grew at a 5.8% rate in the fourth quarter and 5.3% for all of 2007.
Unemployment Hits 13-Year Low - Moti Bassok (Ha'aretz)
Israel's unemployment rate hit a 13-year low in the first quarter of 2008, and now stands at 6.3%.
Israel - A Light Unto the Nations
IsraAID Provides Relief in Myanmar - Sheri Shefa (Canadian Jewish News)
The presence of Israeli relief teams is still being felt in Myanmar (Burma), as IsraAID recently dispatched a third team of medical and relief professionals to offer aid to the victims of the May 3 cyclone.
The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid (IsraAID) - an organization that represents 15 NGOs in Israel - sent a small team of doctors, nurses and water specialists to Myanmar just four days after the cyclone hit. One month later, Israelis are still working in the field to try to help survivors.
IsraAID has already shipped 10 tons of relief supplies, including food, water, mattresses, buckets and clothes to distribute to the survivors.
"They are not used to dealing with massive natural disasters, so our teams went into a couple of hospitals in Yangon (Rangoon) and trained them on how to deal with massive casualties, [sharing] the expertise that our doctors gain in Israel because of suicide bombings," said Shachar Zahavi, the director of IsraAID.
New Negev Research Center to Test Solar Technology - Stephanie Rubenstein (Jerusalem Post)
The newly built Negev-based Solar Energy Development Center is on track to move forward the initiative of a U.S.-Israeli company to build the world's largest solar plant in California's Mojave desert.
The site features more than 1,600 glass mirrors, known as heliostats, which track the sun and reflect light onto a 60-meter-high tower. The concentrated energy is then used to heat a boiler atop the tower to 550 degrees Celsius, generating steam that is piped into a turbine, where electricity can be produced.
Israeli Company Develops System to See Through Walls - Guy Griml (TheMarker-Ha'aretz)
Camero's unique radar utilizes Ultra Wide Band (UWB), a technology that has only come of age in recent years, and with the use of special algorithms can process data picked up by the detector to give a reasonable image of anything behind that wall.
Culture
Sderot Hosts Southern Film Festival Amid Qassam Threat - Merav Yudilovitch (Ynet News)
Cinema South Film Festival held in Sderot concludes with cash prizes awarded to students and alumni from city's Sapir College during festive awards ceremony, held despite daily rocket threat.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs website - Click for the latest news, official statements, videos, and presentations relating to the current conflict as well as views of the Israel behind the headlines.
Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Gaza
Al-Qaeda Groups Active in Gaza after Year under Hamas - Nidal al-Mughrabi (Reuters)
Analysts believe al-Qaeda-allied radical groups like Jaysh al-Ummah (Army of the Nation) have benefited from the Hamas takeover in Gaza to expand their membership.
In addition, there has been an increase in attacks on Christians in the past year, apparently by Islamists not content with the extent of Hamas' "Islamization" of Gaza.
A "Black Year" for Palestinian Human Rights (AFP)
Palestinian Mazen Shahin, 41, says the torture he suffered in a month in Mashtal prison in Gaza as a prisoner of the Islamist Hamas was worse than the several years he spent in Israeli jails.
The Mashtal underground prison is a former PA intelligence center where members of Hamas were themselves locked up and tortured in 1996.
In the 12 months since Hamas seized power from Fatah, Shahin says he has been detained six times - and on each occasion he was badly thrashed. He recalled the first time he was picked up "by 50 masked men." He had the soles of his feet beaten with heavy electric cables and his captors shaved his head and beard.
"It's been one of the blackest years for human rights in two decades," said Raji Surani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
Qassam Attacks Continue
Palestinians Rain 65 Mortars and Rockets on Israel - Shmulik Hadad (Ynet News)
An Israeli woman was wounded in the Yad Mordechai area on Thursday as Palestinian terror groups launched a barrage of mortar shells and Kassam rockets against Israeli communities near the Gaza border. At least 40 mortars and 25 Kassam rockets landed in Israel. In addition, a Grad missile landed near Ashkelon.
No Large-Scale Israeli Action Expected in Gaza - Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
No large-scale military offensive is expected in Gaza in the coming months, absent a hit by a "strategic" Kassam rocket that exacts many casualties in Israel. According to the most optimistic IDF assessments, it would take many months of physical presence on the ground in parts of Gaza to bring about a significant decrease in attacks on the communities in the Gaza envelope. The army is not certain whether the public or the government can muster such patience, when it is obvious that the prolongation of any fighting will cost the lives of many soldiers. We can occupy parts of the territory, says a senior officer, with the aim of gradually reducing the rocket fire and preventing the strengthening of Hamas, which relies on weapons being smuggled in from Sinai. "However, under what arrangement will the territory be transferred into responsible hands? An answer of 'It'll be okay' will no longer suffice in this round."
Iran
Iran and the Problem of Evil - Michael Ledeen (AEI/Wall Street Journal)
The world is simmering in the familiar rhetoric and actions of movements and regimes - from Hizbullah and al-Qaeda to the Iranian Khomeinists and the Saudi Wahhabis - who swear to destroy us and others like us. More often than not, we downplay the consequences of their words, as if they were intended for internal consumption. Why are we failing to see the mounting power of evil enemies? It is unpleasant to accept the fact that many people are evil, and entire cultures can fall prey to evil leaders and march in lockstep to their commands. The writer is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Iran Building Seven Refineries to End Petrol Imports (Fars News Agency-Iran)
Iran has launched construction of seven oil refineries in an effort to boost its crude and gas refining capacity and achieve energy self-sufficiency.
The Source of Instability
Iran's Brutal Morality Police Are Growing in Power - Anne Penketh (Independent-UK)
Zahra Bani Yaghoub was sitting on a park bench chatting to her fiancé when Iranian religious police arrived and arrested the couple.
The fiancé was released but the body of Ms. Bani Yaghoub, a 27-year-old doctor, was delivered to her family two days later.
According to Shirin Ebadi, a Tehran-based lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, "Ms. Bani Yaghoub's family believes she was tortured and died as a result. That's my reading, too."
Under President Ahmadinejad, Iran's feared morality police have been acting with renewed vigor against what they consider to be unIslamic behavior.
Sanctions Continue
EU, U.S. Ready Crackdown on Iranian Banks
(Reuters)
The EU and the U.S. will warn Iran at a summit in Slovenia on Tuesday that they are ready to go beyond agreed UN sanctions, raising the possibility of a crackdown on Iranian banks. "We will continue to work together...to take steps to ensure Iranian banks cannot abuse the international banking system to support proliferation and terrorism," said the final draft of the communique to be issued at the meeting. Diplomats said the EU is preparing an asset and funds freeze on Iran's biggest bank, state-owned Bank Melli.
See Also: Ahmadinejad Orders Iran's Banks to Move Assets to Beat EU Freeze - Con Coughlin (Telegraph-UK)
Syria
Syrian Economy Requires a Peace Deal with Israel - Sami Moubayed (Gulf News-Dubai)
Many Syrians believe a peace deal with Israel would undoubtedly encourage investment in Syria, and end the financial hardships imposed on Syria since relations soured with the U.S. back in 2003.
State coffers are empty, and the Ministry of Finance lifted the state subsidy on some fuels in May, with the price of fuel rising by a staggering 350%.
Report: Assad's Brother-in-Law Attempted Coup (Ynet News)
Die Welt reports that Syrian military intelligence chief Assaf Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law, attempted to seize power by force in February, but was arrested after Hizbullah leader Imad Mugniyah informed Assad of the plot.
Shawkat was detained along with a hundred other Syrian intelligence officers. Mugniyah was assassinated in Damascus days later.
Business News
Shekel Goes International - Tal Levy (Ha'aretz)
The Bank of Israel announced Sunday that the shekel has joined the international clearing system and can be converted to any of 16 major currencies.
Israel Economy Grows by 5.4% in Q1 (Reuters)
Israel's economy is showing little sign of slowing despite a global downturn, growing at an annualized rate of 5.4% in the first quarter, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.
The economy grew at a 5.8% rate in the fourth quarter and 5.3% for all of 2007.
Unemployment Hits 13-Year Low - Moti Bassok (Ha'aretz)
Israel's unemployment rate hit a 13-year low in the first quarter of 2008, and now stands at 6.3%.
Israel - A Light Unto the Nations
IsraAID Provides Relief in Myanmar - Sheri Shefa (Canadian Jewish News)
The presence of Israeli relief teams is still being felt in Myanmar (Burma), as IsraAID recently dispatched a third team of medical and relief professionals to offer aid to the victims of the May 3 cyclone.
The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid (IsraAID) - an organization that represents 15 NGOs in Israel - sent a small team of doctors, nurses and water specialists to Myanmar just four days after the cyclone hit. One month later, Israelis are still working in the field to try to help survivors.
IsraAID has already shipped 10 tons of relief supplies, including food, water, mattresses, buckets and clothes to distribute to the survivors.
"They are not used to dealing with massive natural disasters, so our teams went into a couple of hospitals in Yangon (Rangoon) and trained them on how to deal with massive casualties, [sharing] the expertise that our doctors gain in Israel because of suicide bombings," said Shachar Zahavi, the director of IsraAID.
New Negev Research Center to Test Solar Technology - Stephanie Rubenstein (Jerusalem Post)
The newly built Negev-based Solar Energy Development Center is on track to move forward the initiative of a U.S.-Israeli company to build the world's largest solar plant in California's Mojave desert.
The site features more than 1,600 glass mirrors, known as heliostats, which track the sun and reflect light onto a 60-meter-high tower. The concentrated energy is then used to heat a boiler atop the tower to 550 degrees Celsius, generating steam that is piped into a turbine, where electricity can be produced.
Israeli Company Develops System to See Through Walls - Guy Griml (TheMarker-Ha'aretz)
Camero's unique radar utilizes Ultra Wide Band (UWB), a technology that has only come of age in recent years, and with the use of special algorithms can process data picked up by the detector to give a reasonable image of anything behind that wall.
Culture
Sderot Hosts Southern Film Festival Amid Qassam Threat - Merav Yudilovitch (Ynet News)
Cinema South Film Festival held in Sderot concludes with cash prizes awarded to students and alumni from city's Sapir College during festive awards ceremony, held despite daily rocket threat.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
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Forward this to a friend June 12, 2008
In This issue
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
* UJC stands with Seattle Federation
* Holocaust survivors benefit from new German government Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund
* A look at the situation in Sderot and environs
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
* Israeli cabinet votes to seek truce in Gaza
* U.S. proposes trilateral talks with Israel, PA
* Palestinian PM: deal with Israel impossible in 2008
* Palestinian caught with 6 pipe bombs at Nablus checkpoint
* Israel transfers tax revenue to Palestinians
* Father of 3 killed in mortar attack, IAF strike kills girl in Gaza
* Blair firm on boycott of Hamas
Israel and World News
* Syria plays down chances of direct talks with Israel
* Lebanon rejects Israel offer for talks
* British Minister denies anti-Israel claim
Iran Watch
* Israeli attack "uunavoidable" if Iran goes nuclear
* Iran threatened with new sanctions
* Iran unmoved by threats on its atomic program
Events and Programs
* Greater Chicago Jewish Festival this Sunday!
* TOV announces first annual Green Mitzvah Mania!
* Teens: Learn about terrific programs just for you
* Learn modern Hebrew at Chicago's Hebrew Ulpan Center
Editorial, Opinion & Analysis
* From the world press
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
UJC STANDS WITH SEATTLE FEDERATION
UJC/The Federations of North America expressed solidarity with colleagues at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle after a court declared a mistrial this week in proceedings against the man who allegedly attacked the federation in 2006.
"We can only imagine the feelings of the Seattle Jewish community, both the victims, their families, and their colleagues, who in addition to the loss and injuries they suffered, now can't even have closure on this aspect of this terrible tragedy," said UJC's President and CEO, Howard Rieger.
Pam Waechter, a fundraising professional for the federation, was murdered in the attack, and six others were wounded.
Back to top
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS BENEFIT FROM NEW GERMAN GOVERNMENT GHETTO LABOR COMPENSATION FUND
Jewish victims of Nazi persecution may be eligible, under certain conditions, to obtain a payment of 2,000 Euros (approximately $3,000) from the German government's Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund if s/he:
- Was living in a ghetto under Nazi influence
- Worked "without force" during this period and
- Has not already received a Social Security pension for that same work.
The staff of the Holocaust Community Services program is working with a consortium of volunteer attorneys from Chicago law firms to provide assistance with the required application.
Holocaust Community Services is administered by Jewish Child & Family Services in collaboration with CJE Seniorlife, HIAS Chicago and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
For information or application assistance, call Holocaust Community Services at (847) 568-5151. View our ad.
Back to top
A LOOK AT THE SITUATION IN SDEROT AND ENVIRONS
JUF-funded programs in Sderot, Ashkelon, and other communities in southern Israel are making a difference in the lives of the area's most vulnerable residents, who face constant terror rockets from Gaza. The programs supported by the Federation system also are boosting the resilience of students, business owners, and professional first-responders whose commitment to the area will help assure its future. Seeing that work on the ground and meeting those helped is a deeply moving experience, JUF News Executive Editor Aaron Cohen discovered during a UJC Media Mission last week. Hear podcasts about the mission:
Giving Shelter from the Storm, Resilience, and Even a Little Techno, and Pondering Place on a Trek from Southern Wisconsin to Southern Israel. The text of these and other accounts also is posted on Aaron's blog.
Back to top
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
ISRAELI CABINET VOTES TO SEEK TRUCE IN GAZA
The Israeli security cabinet voted on Wednesday to pursue an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, but it left open the possibility of a military offensive should truce talks fail. The decision, after hours of deliberations, was reported to leave Israelis in waiting mode despite public pressure for immediate action to halt Palestinian rocket and mortar fire into southern Israel.
Violence continued, however, with terrorists firing mortar rounds from Gaza. An Israeli man was lightly wounded when a mortar shell hit a factory on the Israeli side of the border, according to the army. An Israeli worker was killed when a mortar shell struck the same factory last week.
Back to top
U.S. PROPOSES TRILATERAL TALKS WITH ISRAEL, PA
The American proposal for a tripartite effort appears to have been raised by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Washington last Tuesday. The idea had been making the rounds of the State Department for several weeks.
Rice will fly to Israel to try to push negotiations forward, and is likely to visit the region again later this month. The American proposal calls for a meeting at which Rice or one of her senior aides would sit with the heads of the respective negotiating teams, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Qureia, or their representatives.
Back to top
PALESTINIAN PM: DEAL WITH ISRAEL IMPOSSIBLE IN 2008
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday he believed it would be impossible to reach a peace deal with Israel this year.
Talks on Palestinian statehood have shown little progress since their launch at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November. Washington has said it hoped for a framework deal before President George Bush leaves office in January 2009. "I have a strong feeling that is tantamount to certainty that a solution won't be achieved this year," Fayyad told reporters, ahead of a planned visit to the region this weekend by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
His comments echoed remarks last week by Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmed Qurie, who said it would "take a miracle" to reach an agreement in 2008.
Asked about Qurie's comments, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week that in the turbulent Middle East "a realist is someone who believes in miracles".
Back to top
PALESTINIAN CAUGHT WITH 6 PIPE BOMBS AT NABLUS CHECKPOINT
IDF soldiers manning the Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus apprehended on Sunday an 18-year-old Palestinian who was carrying six pipe bombs, a bullet cartridge and a bag full of what appeared to be gunpowder. Following the incident Palestinian movement through the checkpoint was temporarily suspended.
Back to top
ISRAEL TRANSFERS TAX REVENUE TO PALESTINIANS
Israeli officials said they have transferred millions of dollars in tax revenue to the Palestinian authority, money that will help pay thousands of workers who have not received their May wages, the Palestinian prime minister said Monday. Israel had agreed to transfer the tax revenue--about $74 million dollars--at the end of last month.
Back to top
FATHER OF 3 KILLED IN MORTAR ATTACK, IAF STRIKE KILLS GIRL IN GAZA
The man killed last Thursday morning by a Palestinian mortar shell attack has been identified as 51-year-old Amnon Rosenberg of Kibbutz Nirim. Rosenberg, a member of the kibbutz since 1982, is survived by a wife, Tali, and three children - Dor, Eldar and Yarden.
Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades have claimed responsibility for the firing of the mortar, which crashed into the Nirlat factory in Kibbutz Nir Oz, which is located within Eshkol Regional Council limits. Five other employees sustained light-to-moderate shrapnel wounds and were evacuated to the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba for treatment. Several people were reported as suffering from shock at the scene.
Also, eighteen mortar shells were fired from Gaza toward the Nahal Oz area on Tuesday.
Back to top
BLAIR FIRM ON BOYCOTT OF HAMAS
Tony Blair has ruled out talks with Hamas until it recognizes Israel and stops firing rockets, yesterday saying he would not visit the Gaza Strip until he could be sure his trip would "help rather than harm" peace efforts.
Back to top
Israel and World News
SYRIA PLAYS DOWN CHANCES OF DIRECT TALKS WITH ISRAEL
A senior Syrian official said on Tuesday no direct negotiations will be held with Israel until it recognizes what Damascus regards as requirements for a deal. Indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel are expected to resume soon in Turkey, which has been mediating between the two sides since last year.
The Damascus government and Israel have kept secret the details of the talks. Syria seeks full return of the occupied Golan Heights and Israel has linked a peace agreement to Syria distancing itself from Iran and severing ties with Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Back to top
LEBANON REJECTS ISRAEL OFFER FOR TALKS
Lebanon rejected on Wednesday a call by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for peace talks and demanded that Israel withdraw from disputed territory along their international borders.
Back to top
BRITISH MINISTER DENIES ANTI-ISRAEL CLAIM
The government has hit back at claims by Israel's ambassador to Britain that the UK has become a "hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views." In a Daily Telegraph article, Ron Prosor wrote that a "climate of hatred" towards Israel had been stirred up on British university campuses. But Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell denied Mr Prosor's remarks. He said any such "uncomfortable or distasteful" views were held only by a "small minority."
Back to top
Iran Watch
ISRAELI ATTACK "UUNAVOIDABLE" IF IRAN GOES NUCLEAR
Israel "will attack" Iran if it continues to develop nuclear weapons, one of prime minister Ehud Olmert's deputies warned yesterday. Shaul Mofaz, a former defence minister and a contender to replace the scandal-battered Olmert, said military action would be "unavoidable" if Tehran proved able to acquire the technology to manufacture atomic bombs.
Back to top
IRAN THREATENED WITH NEW SANCTIONS
President Bush and European Union leaders threatened Iran Tuesday with new financial sanctions unless the country curbs its nuclear ambitions and opens facilities to international inspection.
Following a meeting that touched on Iran and a host of issues, including climate change and trade, Bush and his European counterparts indicated they were prepared to go beyond current United Nations sanctions to try to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.
The president of Iran has ordered the country's leading banks to transfer billions of dollars of assets from Europe to the Central Bank to prevent them being frozen by international sanctions, according to Western diplomats. The funds are being moved to Tehran through a secret network of "front" companies set up in Gulf states such as Dubai.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the move amid growing concern that Iranian banks would soon be subject to strengthened European Union-level sanctions. But his action has caused friction with Tahmaseb Mazaheri, the governor of the Central Bank. The Iranian press has reported that he may resign over the issue.
Back to top
IRAN UNMOVED BY THREATS ON ITS ATOMIC PROGRAM
Increasingly tough warnings from President Bush and his European allies have done nothing to temper Iran's stance on its nuclear program, worsening the confrontation over what American officials and others suspect is a covert Iranian plan to build an atomic bomb. In Germany for meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Bush emphasized again on Wednesday that "all options are on the table" in any response to what is suspected of being Iranian research into developing nuclear weapons. Those options would include the possibility of military force, he said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran responded by mocking attempts to rein in his country's nuclear program, which Iran maintains is for peaceful development of nuclear energy. Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in Iran that the West "cannot do anything" and singled out Mr. Bush as a lame duck who had failed at every attempt to hurt Iran.
"Bush's time is up, and he was not able to harm even one centimeter of our land," the state-run news agency, IRNA, quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
To receive E-Alert in your inbox (not bulk or junk folder), add e-alert@juf.org to your address book.
E-Alert logo
Forward this to a friend June 12, 2008
In This issue
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
* UJC stands with Seattle Federation
* Holocaust survivors benefit from new German government Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund
* A look at the situation in Sderot and environs
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
* Israeli cabinet votes to seek truce in Gaza
* U.S. proposes trilateral talks with Israel, PA
* Palestinian PM: deal with Israel impossible in 2008
* Palestinian caught with 6 pipe bombs at Nablus checkpoint
* Israel transfers tax revenue to Palestinians
* Father of 3 killed in mortar attack, IAF strike kills girl in Gaza
* Blair firm on boycott of Hamas
Israel and World News
* Syria plays down chances of direct talks with Israel
* Lebanon rejects Israel offer for talks
* British Minister denies anti-Israel claim
Iran Watch
* Israeli attack "uunavoidable" if Iran goes nuclear
* Iran threatened with new sanctions
* Iran unmoved by threats on its atomic program
Events and Programs
* Greater Chicago Jewish Festival this Sunday!
* TOV announces first annual Green Mitzvah Mania!
* Teens: Learn about terrific programs just for you
* Learn modern Hebrew at Chicago's Hebrew Ulpan Center
Editorial, Opinion & Analysis
* From the world press
Chicago, Midwest, and US news
UJC STANDS WITH SEATTLE FEDERATION
UJC/The Federations of North America expressed solidarity with colleagues at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle after a court declared a mistrial this week in proceedings against the man who allegedly attacked the federation in 2006.
"We can only imagine the feelings of the Seattle Jewish community, both the victims, their families, and their colleagues, who in addition to the loss and injuries they suffered, now can't even have closure on this aspect of this terrible tragedy," said UJC's President and CEO, Howard Rieger.
Pam Waechter, a fundraising professional for the federation, was murdered in the attack, and six others were wounded.
Back to top
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS BENEFIT FROM NEW GERMAN GOVERNMENT GHETTO LABOR COMPENSATION FUND
Jewish victims of Nazi persecution may be eligible, under certain conditions, to obtain a payment of 2,000 Euros (approximately $3,000) from the German government's Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund if s/he:
- Was living in a ghetto under Nazi influence
- Worked "without force" during this period and
- Has not already received a Social Security pension for that same work.
The staff of the Holocaust Community Services program is working with a consortium of volunteer attorneys from Chicago law firms to provide assistance with the required application.
Holocaust Community Services is administered by Jewish Child & Family Services in collaboration with CJE Seniorlife, HIAS Chicago and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
For information or application assistance, call Holocaust Community Services at (847) 568-5151. View our ad.
Back to top
A LOOK AT THE SITUATION IN SDEROT AND ENVIRONS
JUF-funded programs in Sderot, Ashkelon, and other communities in southern Israel are making a difference in the lives of the area's most vulnerable residents, who face constant terror rockets from Gaza. The programs supported by the Federation system also are boosting the resilience of students, business owners, and professional first-responders whose commitment to the area will help assure its future. Seeing that work on the ground and meeting those helped is a deeply moving experience, JUF News Executive Editor Aaron Cohen discovered during a UJC Media Mission last week. Hear podcasts about the mission:
Giving Shelter from the Storm, Resilience, and Even a Little Techno, and Pondering Place on a Trek from Southern Wisconsin to Southern Israel. The text of these and other accounts also is posted on Aaron's blog.
Back to top
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
ISRAELI CABINET VOTES TO SEEK TRUCE IN GAZA
The Israeli security cabinet voted on Wednesday to pursue an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, but it left open the possibility of a military offensive should truce talks fail. The decision, after hours of deliberations, was reported to leave Israelis in waiting mode despite public pressure for immediate action to halt Palestinian rocket and mortar fire into southern Israel.
Violence continued, however, with terrorists firing mortar rounds from Gaza. An Israeli man was lightly wounded when a mortar shell hit a factory on the Israeli side of the border, according to the army. An Israeli worker was killed when a mortar shell struck the same factory last week.
Back to top
U.S. PROPOSES TRILATERAL TALKS WITH ISRAEL, PA
The American proposal for a tripartite effort appears to have been raised by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Washington last Tuesday. The idea had been making the rounds of the State Department for several weeks.
Rice will fly to Israel to try to push negotiations forward, and is likely to visit the region again later this month. The American proposal calls for a meeting at which Rice or one of her senior aides would sit with the heads of the respective negotiating teams, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Qureia, or their representatives.
Back to top
PALESTINIAN PM: DEAL WITH ISRAEL IMPOSSIBLE IN 2008
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday he believed it would be impossible to reach a peace deal with Israel this year.
Talks on Palestinian statehood have shown little progress since their launch at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November. Washington has said it hoped for a framework deal before President George Bush leaves office in January 2009. "I have a strong feeling that is tantamount to certainty that a solution won't be achieved this year," Fayyad told reporters, ahead of a planned visit to the region this weekend by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
His comments echoed remarks last week by Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmed Qurie, who said it would "take a miracle" to reach an agreement in 2008.
Asked about Qurie's comments, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week that in the turbulent Middle East "a realist is someone who believes in miracles".
Back to top
PALESTINIAN CAUGHT WITH 6 PIPE BOMBS AT NABLUS CHECKPOINT
IDF soldiers manning the Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus apprehended on Sunday an 18-year-old Palestinian who was carrying six pipe bombs, a bullet cartridge and a bag full of what appeared to be gunpowder. Following the incident Palestinian movement through the checkpoint was temporarily suspended.
Back to top
ISRAEL TRANSFERS TAX REVENUE TO PALESTINIANS
Israeli officials said they have transferred millions of dollars in tax revenue to the Palestinian authority, money that will help pay thousands of workers who have not received their May wages, the Palestinian prime minister said Monday. Israel had agreed to transfer the tax revenue--about $74 million dollars--at the end of last month.
Back to top
FATHER OF 3 KILLED IN MORTAR ATTACK, IAF STRIKE KILLS GIRL IN GAZA
The man killed last Thursday morning by a Palestinian mortar shell attack has been identified as 51-year-old Amnon Rosenberg of Kibbutz Nirim. Rosenberg, a member of the kibbutz since 1982, is survived by a wife, Tali, and three children - Dor, Eldar and Yarden.
Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades have claimed responsibility for the firing of the mortar, which crashed into the Nirlat factory in Kibbutz Nir Oz, which is located within Eshkol Regional Council limits. Five other employees sustained light-to-moderate shrapnel wounds and were evacuated to the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba for treatment. Several people were reported as suffering from shock at the scene.
Also, eighteen mortar shells were fired from Gaza toward the Nahal Oz area on Tuesday.
Back to top
BLAIR FIRM ON BOYCOTT OF HAMAS
Tony Blair has ruled out talks with Hamas until it recognizes Israel and stops firing rockets, yesterday saying he would not visit the Gaza Strip until he could be sure his trip would "help rather than harm" peace efforts.
Back to top
Israel and World News
SYRIA PLAYS DOWN CHANCES OF DIRECT TALKS WITH ISRAEL
A senior Syrian official said on Tuesday no direct negotiations will be held with Israel until it recognizes what Damascus regards as requirements for a deal. Indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel are expected to resume soon in Turkey, which has been mediating between the two sides since last year.
The Damascus government and Israel have kept secret the details of the talks. Syria seeks full return of the occupied Golan Heights and Israel has linked a peace agreement to Syria distancing itself from Iran and severing ties with Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Back to top
LEBANON REJECTS ISRAEL OFFER FOR TALKS
Lebanon rejected on Wednesday a call by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for peace talks and demanded that Israel withdraw from disputed territory along their international borders.
Back to top
BRITISH MINISTER DENIES ANTI-ISRAEL CLAIM
The government has hit back at claims by Israel's ambassador to Britain that the UK has become a "hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views." In a Daily Telegraph article, Ron Prosor wrote that a "climate of hatred" towards Israel had been stirred up on British university campuses. But Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell denied Mr Prosor's remarks. He said any such "uncomfortable or distasteful" views were held only by a "small minority."
Back to top
Iran Watch
ISRAELI ATTACK "UUNAVOIDABLE" IF IRAN GOES NUCLEAR
Israel "will attack" Iran if it continues to develop nuclear weapons, one of prime minister Ehud Olmert's deputies warned yesterday. Shaul Mofaz, a former defence minister and a contender to replace the scandal-battered Olmert, said military action would be "unavoidable" if Tehran proved able to acquire the technology to manufacture atomic bombs.
Back to top
IRAN THREATENED WITH NEW SANCTIONS
President Bush and European Union leaders threatened Iran Tuesday with new financial sanctions unless the country curbs its nuclear ambitions and opens facilities to international inspection.
Following a meeting that touched on Iran and a host of issues, including climate change and trade, Bush and his European counterparts indicated they were prepared to go beyond current United Nations sanctions to try to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.
The president of Iran has ordered the country's leading banks to transfer billions of dollars of assets from Europe to the Central Bank to prevent them being frozen by international sanctions, according to Western diplomats. The funds are being moved to Tehran through a secret network of "front" companies set up in Gulf states such as Dubai.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the move amid growing concern that Iranian banks would soon be subject to strengthened European Union-level sanctions. But his action has caused friction with Tahmaseb Mazaheri, the governor of the Central Bank. The Iranian press has reported that he may resign over the issue.
Back to top
IRAN UNMOVED BY THREATS ON ITS ATOMIC PROGRAM
Increasingly tough warnings from President Bush and his European allies have done nothing to temper Iran's stance on its nuclear program, worsening the confrontation over what American officials and others suspect is a covert Iranian plan to build an atomic bomb. In Germany for meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Bush emphasized again on Wednesday that "all options are on the table" in any response to what is suspected of being Iranian research into developing nuclear weapons. Those options would include the possibility of military force, he said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran responded by mocking attempts to rein in his country's nuclear program, which Iran maintains is for peaceful development of nuclear energy. Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in Iran that the West "cannot do anything" and singled out Mr. Bush as a lame duck who had failed at every attempt to hurt Iran.
"Bush's time is up, and he was not able to harm even one centimeter of our land," the state-run news agency, IRNA, quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
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