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To: arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com From: Arutz-7 Editor <feedback@israelnationalnews.com> Subject: Arutz-7 News Brief: Friday, Dec. 7, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com> Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 / Kislev 22, 5762 ------------------------------------------------ Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday --- See below for subscription instructions ---
TODAY'S HEADLINES: 1. ARAFAT IN CONTROL: HAMAS TO HOLD QUIET FUNERAL 2. CONGRESS DEMANDS P.A. ACTION AGAINST TERRORISM 3. ANTI-SEMITISM ALIVE AND WELL ON ARAB TV 4. EXCERPTS FROM "SHARON FLINCHES"
1. ARAFAT IN CONTROL: HAMAS TO HOLD QUIET FUNERAL The PA continues to claim that it is making strides in its "war" against terrorism, although Israeli officials say that the terrorists arrested by the PA over the past few days are only small-fry. However, the PA did make a major gain in its "war" today: The Hamas terrorist organization has agreed to hold a quiet funeral for one of its slain colleagues.
This notable achievement - albeit not helpful in containing anti-Israeli terrorism - did not come cheap: The PA was forced to agree to release Hamas terrorist leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin from the house arrest it imposed on him earlier this week. Yesterday, in a skirmish outside Yassin's home, PA para-military police shot a Hamas protestor, who later died of his wounds.
2. CONGRESS DEMANDS P.A. ACTION AGAINST TERRORISM Both bodies of the U.S. Congress passed a resolution yesterday urging President Bush to "suspend all relations with Yasser Arafat and the PA if they fail to take actions" against terrorism. The House of Representatives, where the effort was led by Congressmen Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Henry Hyde (R-IL), passed the resolution in an overwhelming 384-11 vote. Senators Joe Biden (D-DE) and Jesse Helms (R-NC) led the Senate effort, and the resolution was passed unanimously. "This resolution clearly shows the exasperation of Congress with Arafat's continued indulgence in terror, even as he professes a desire for peace," said AIPAC President Tim Wuliger. "Congress is telling him he must either act to end Palestinian terror, or forfeit his relationship with America... Arafat is on the verge of losing his relationship with the United States."
One Congressman was very clear about his support for Israel at this time. Speaking at a private gathering in Indianapolis last night, Indiana's Michael Pence said that despite President Bush's recent statement in favor of a Palestinian state, "The heart of the President is committed to Israel." A devout Christian, Pence stressed that the overwhelming majority of American Christians have a deep emotional attachment to the land of Israel and recognize the Jewish nation's Biblical and historical connection to the land. He recently co-sponsored legislation protesting the Moslem Waqf's illegal construction on the Temple Mount. "Millions of Christians would be deeply offended if their tax dollars were used to desecrate the Temple Mount," Rep. Pence said last night.
3. ANTI-SEMITISM ALIVE AND WELL ON ARAB TV The prototype of modern anti-Semitism, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, is alive and well in the Arab media. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that several Arab television stations, including those in Egypt, are broadcasting a special series on the "evidence" of a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, as described in the above Czarist anti-Semitic tract. While "Protocols" is still widely sold in the Arab world, this is the first television series on the subject purporting to show how the Jews and Israel act today to enact the strategy described in the work. The 30-part series, entitled "Horseman Without a Horse," is a huge undertaking starring over 400 Arab actors, including prominent ones, from Egypt, Syria and France. MEMRI reports that the series was produced by Arab Radio and Television, which broadcasts to the Middle East, North America, Latin America, Australia and Africa.
An Egyptian weekly, Ruz al-Yusuf, lauded the series for "courageously tackl[ing] the 24 Protocols of the Elders of Zion, revealing them and clarifying that they are the central line that still, to this very day, dominates Israel's policy, political aspirations, and racism..." The book contain 24 aspects of an alleged Jewish plot to take over the world, and the TV series states that "19 of the 24 protocols [have already] been put into practice" - and then proceeds to give examples. For instance, the presidency of Bill Clinton is alleged to be the application of a Jewish plot to "choose someone corrupt [for the presidency of the superpower] and when he resists us - we will expose him." Other alleged Jewish "protocols" such as 'Feed a dog, [but] not a Muslim or a Christian' and `Kill a Muslim or a Christian and take his house as your house and his lands as your lands' are also highlighted.
4. Excerpts from "Sharon Flinches" by Charles Krauthammer The Washington Post, December 7, 2001
"You would think that the right to self-defense is elementary, a minimal decency one nation accords another. France has it. We have it. (See Afghanistan.) Yet when President Bush's spokesman declared on Dec. 3 that "Israel has a right to defend herself," it was news. Indeed, it was a thunderclap. To anyone who follows the baroquely nuanced language of Middle East diplomacy, it constituted something wholly new.
"For eight years, under the tutelage of a president hungry for a Nobel Prize, the American position had been that when attacked, Israel should exercise "restraint" and not contribute to the "cycle of violence." Everyone knew that this was no cycle; it was elementary self-defense in the face of an openly declared campaign of Palestinian terror. But truth could not be allowed to stand in the way of "peace."
".When Israel began retaliating for Dec. 1-2 -- Israel's Sept. 11 -- the State Department issued no criticism. In part, this was anger. State had just been pushing a campaign of greater American "engagement" in the Middle East. The president declared his support for a Palestinian state. Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a speech in Louisville calling for an end to "occupation" and the establishment of "Palestine." [Then American mediator Gen. Zinni] arrives, and is greeted with a mass murder of innocent Jews carried out by terrorists operating freely under Yasser Arafat. Zinni looks helpless; Powell looks the fool. Even the State Department is moved by such humiliations.
".The window thus opens for Israel finally to act. What does Prime Minister Sharon do? He flinches. He temporizes. He attacks symbolic targets -- destroys two of Arafat's helicopters, tears up his Gaza airport runway, flattens a few police stations, blasts the office next door to Arafat's. The intent is to "send a message," namely, "we can get you." But the effect is precisely the opposite. It tells Arafat, "We can, but we dare not." The message is clear. Israel does not (yet) have the will -- or the government -- to fight its own war.
".The shock of Dec. 1-2 will soon wear off. Media attention will wander. Normalcy, i.e., dead Jews daily, will return. Soon you will once again be hearing evenhanded laments about the "cycle of violence."
".The moment is passing. The window is closing. Sharon's policy of symbolic war and sympathetic words is not a strategy. It is the muddling through of a hopelessly muddled Israeli government, a government of national disunity.
"And yet, there will be an Israeli military campaign to do to the Palestinian Authority what the United States has done to the Taliban. Sooner or later, the war is coming. It is inevitable. Israel cannot bleed forever."
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To: arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com From: Arutz-7 Editor <feedback@israelnationalnews.com> Subject: Arutz-7 News Brief: Sunday, Dec. 9, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com> Sunday, Dec. 9, 2001 / Kislev 24, 5762 ------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES: 1. ISRAELI OFFENSIVES IN GAZA, SHOMRON 2. MIRACLE IN HAIFA: SUICIDE BOMBER WOUNDS SEVEN 3. P.A. "FIGHTS" TERRORISM.
1. ISRAELI OFFENSIVES IN GAZA, SHOMRON An IDF offensive in a PA-controlled village near Tul Karem (on the western edge of Shomron, 15 kilometers east of Netanya) uncovered an explosives laboratory and several ready-to-detonate explosive vests. Brig.-Gen. Gershon Yitzchak of the Judea-Samaria Division announced today that the forces also found several bombs that the terrorists planned to place on roads near the Shomron communities of Avnei Heifetz and Einav.
On the personnel side, the soldiers also arrested some 30 suspects of Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the DFLP terrorist organizations. Eight of them have already been identified as having perpetrated shooting and bomb attacks in the region.
Over the weekend, Israeli armed forces took military action in Gaza, including entering PA-controlled area in Rafiach for a short period. They destroyed two PA para-military posts there, and bombed other targets in southern Gaza. Palestinian mortar fire at civilian targets did not stop, however; shells landed in Jewish communities on Friday night, yesterday, and last night; no one was hurt.
2. MIRACLE IN HAIFA: SUICIDE BOMBER WOUNDS SEVEN A major catastrophe was averted in Haifa early this morning when a suicide bomber blew himself up earlier than he planned, causing the light wounding of only seven people. Two Zevulun District policemen noted the suspicious man and asked him for identification. The bomber then detonated the bomb, which injured but did not kill him. The two policemen saw that he continued to move his hands as if to blow up another bomb, and shot him to death.
The operative assumption of the police is that he did not arrive alone, and combed the area for his accomplice(s). It is assumed that the terrorist had planned to explode his bomb-pack, which was similar to the one that killed 15 people last Sunday morning, in a city bus.
3. P.A. "FIGHTS" TERRORISM. Israel has not let up on its demand that the Palestinian Authority arrest the 33 terrorists whose names appear on the list Israel provided a while ago - and in fact, the PA is making efforts to appear to be fulfilling this demand. It has already "arrested" 10 or 11 of them - i.e., they were asked if they agree to remain in detention, under better-than-usual conditions, for a period of a few weeks until the American and European pressure abates. So did a "senior military source" tell Ynet today. "It's for the good of the Palestinian Authority," the terrorists were told. Some of the 33 were arrested "on paper," and were released to their homes after being registered in the prison.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Sha'ul Mofaz told the Cabinet today that the PA is attempting to broadcast a message as if it has "changed direction," but that in actuality, the changes are merely tactical. Mofaz said that Israel would continue its offensives for as long as the terrorism continues.
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To: arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com From: Arutz-7 Editor <feedback@israelnationalnews.com> Subject: Arutz-7 News: Monday, December 10, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com> Monday, Dec. 10, 2001 / Kislev 25, 5762 - Chanukah ------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
WAQF KEEPS ON BUILDING, DESTROYING THE TEMPLE MOUNT
The Committee to Prevent Damage to the Temple Mount Antiquities says that the Moslem Waqf has begun taking steps to erect a memorial to Feisal Husseini on the Temple Mount. The Committee fears that this will cause further damage to Jewish artifacts there, and complains that Public Security Minister Uzi Landau has taken barely any action against the harmful Waqf activities there. The members met with him a few days ago and accused him of giving backing to the government's continued weakness in this matter. The meeting was tense and produced no concrete results.
Yisrael Kaspi, member of the Committee, told Arutz-7 today:
"We've known of the plans to make a memorial for Husseini for months. We have informed the relevant bodies, and they give us all sorts of evasive answers; the only thing they don't do is take action against the continuing destruction on the Temple Mount." He said that he and his colleagues had met with Minister Landau this week, "for the third time since he took office, but it was a very difficult meeting. He keeps ignoring the facts, and doesn't want to see, hear, or speak. We bring him intelligence, testimonies in writing and orally, and aerial photos of the continuing Waqf construction there - but he ignores them all. He uses the police to put a closure on the Temple Mount, so that the public can't see anything...
"I'll give you an extreme example: On July 11, he stood up in the Knesset and announced that for months, tractors had not been working on the Temple Mount. Two days later, we came to his office and showed him 80 photos of tractors working there in the preceding week. We are still waiting for his retraction, and for his admission that the reports he received from the police led him to lie to the Knesset. There are other similar cases as well.
"On the other hand, he did put a stop to the flooring work, and also stopped the trucks from coming in - at least formally, but the Waqf and Islamic Movement people still manage to sneak in all sorts of building materials and smuggle out antiquities. Worst of all, they have been carrying out an extensive operation of cleaning out underground caverns and cisterns - headed by an Israeli-Arab who is blatantly breaking the law without anyone enforcing it against him - for the purpose of bringing 'holy waters' from Mecca."
Archaeologist Eilat Mazar recently explained this issue to Arutz-7:
"They [the Waqf] claim that they are performing 'routine cleaning of water cisterns' - something that long-time Jerusalem archaeologists never heard of before. What they are really doing is emptying out the cisterns of valuable artifacts of first-degree importance. According to Arab media reports, there is really a much broader plan: to bring 'holy water' from the Zam-Zam spring in Mecca to the Temple Mount cisterns, thus 'upgrading' the status of the Temple Mount in Moslem eyes and obviating the need for Moslem worshippers to go to Mecca; they will be able to obtain the same spiritual 'value' by visiting the Temple Mount."
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To: arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com From: Arutz-7 Editor <feedback@israelnationalnews.com> Subject: Arutz-7 News: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com> Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2001 / Kislev 26, 5762 - Chanukah ------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES: 1. SHARON IN HOLDING PATTERN 2. THE TRUE "FACE" OF ARAFAT 3. ZINNI GIVES UP ON ARAFAT 4. YESHAI WANTS LAW OF RETURN CHANGED
1. SHARON IN HOLDING PATTERN The coalition easily defeated yesterday several no-confidence motions submitted to the Knesset by left-wing parties. The motions were made in protest of the Cabinet decision to declare the Palestinian Authority a "terrorist-sponsoring entity." It wasn't all smooth sailing for Prime Minister Sharon, however. The coalition party National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu did not participate in the vote, to show its displeasure with the government's failure to successfully contain the non-stop mortar fire against Gush Katif. Yesterday, for instance, five mortars were launched at the Jewish communities there, lightly wounding two children, and two more were fired this afternoon.
Infrastructures Minister Avigdor Lieberman has met with Prime Minister Sharon several times over the past few days, demanding a stronger military response against Arafat. The request, so far, has not been met. MK Tzvi Hendel said again that if Sharon does not decide to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, "his government has no reason to exist."
2. THE TRUE "FACE" OF ARAFAT A semi-private initiative in public relations for Israel: Hundreds of posters are being circulated around the world featuring a large full-face photo of Yasser Arafat. A closer examination of the picture, however, reveals that it is made up of hundreds of little photographs of terrorist attack scenes. The caption on the bottom reads, "What You See is What You Get." The poster can be seen at "http://go.ynet.co.il/arafat/".
Israel's Foreign Ministry sources say that they encourage initiatives of this sort in the ongoing media war around the world. MK Ahmed Tibi criticized the poster as "personal incitement" against Arafat, while Likud MK Ze'ev Boim called it an "excellent poster that exposes Arafat's true face..."
3. ZINNI GIVES UP ON ARAFAT American mediator Gen. Anthony Zinni, who met with Yasser Arafat yesterday, said about him, "I have never encountered such lack of trustworthiness in my life." He said it was a "waste of time to try to reach a serious agreement with Arafat," and will concentrate on talking with other top figures in the PA - probably a reference to Muhammad Dahlan, Jibril Rajoub, and others.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon breakfasted today with the European Union's Javier Solana, expressing his satisfaction with the EU's call for the dismantling of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The EU's statement of yesterday also called upon Israel to freeze settlement activity in Judea and Samaria. Sharon said that Israel is anxious to fulfill another EU request by easing some restrictions upon the Palestinian population, but "the unceasing terrorism makes this difficult."
4. YESHAI WANTS LAW OF RETURN CHANGED Interior Minister Eli Yeshai demands a change to the Law of Return, in order to make it harder for non-Jews to be eligible for automatic immigration rights to Israel. Yeshai says that 70% of the immigrants who arrived during the past year are not Jewish. "According to the law, however," he said, "they are legally eligible to immigrate because they either have one Jewish grandparent, are married to someone who is eligible, or are the close relatives of someone married to someone who is eligible."
The Knesset Immigration Committee discussed Yeshai's proposal today in what Arutz-7 Knesset correspondent Haggai Seri called a "surprisingly calm" session. "Israel is turning into a country of immigration." Yeshai said. "It is happening not necessarily by law-breaking, but via loopholes in the Law of Return itself. For instance, a non-Jew whose grandfather was Jewish, or a non-Jew who married a Jew, can immigrate to Israel, bringing his or her parents, children from a previous marriage, etc."
Jewish Agency head Salai Meridor told the Committee that the law must not be changed, lest it deliver a "slap in the face to the world Jewish community." He said that now, when we need the support of world Jewry, is not the time to suddenly change the Law of Return. Meridor emphasized, however, that the Jewish Agency strives to strengthen Jewish identity, "including conversion [to Judaism] for those who want." Several MKs, including some from the former Soviet Union, are against a change for fear that it will decrease immigration and bring about an Arab majority in the region; the religious MKs are in favor of a change.
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To: arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com From: Arutz-7 Editor <feedback@israelnationalnews.com> Subject: Arutz-7 News: Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001
Arutz Sheva News Service <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com> Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001 / Kislev 27, 5762 - Chanukah ------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES: 1. ETTINGER: AMERICAN GREEN LIGHT MAY BE "COLOR BLINDING" ISRAEL 2. U.S. PAPERS AGAINST ARAFAT
1. ETTINGER: AMERICAN GREEN LIGHT MAY BE "COLOR BLINDING" ISRAEL Former Israeli liaison to the U.S. Congress Yoram Ettinger explained to Arutz-7 today why U.S. President Bush has taken such a notably pro-Israel position of late:
"First of all, he feels that Arafat has personally betrayed him, and more than once... In addition, he is a student of former President Ronald Reagan, who reacted forcefully against Muammar Kaddafi and ports in Tripoli when five American soldiers were killed by Libyan terrorists in Germany... Also, Bush is surrounded by veterans of the Gulf War of 1991 - Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, and many others - who remember that the Palestinians were the bad guys at that time, who helped and cheered Saddam Hussein, and have since helped other terrorist elements as well... Another consideration is that he is in the midst of fighting the Taliban, and so it's hard for him to tell the Israelis to sit quietly, as the State Department would like, in the face of its own terrorist threat."
"Israel does not seem to be noticing the American green light for strong Israeli action against Arafat," Ettinger said. "The green light is flashing even more brightly of late, but for some reason Israel seems to be suffering from color blindness and is translating the green light into a red light. There has never been a better time for Israel in terms of American public opinion... This could change, however. We have yet to see if the present Bush has learned from the mistakes of his father, who didn't finish off Saddam Hussein and instead enabled him to come close to having nuclear capabilities. In Afghanistan, it looks as if has learned, but the question is whether he will then go on to fight other terrorist organizations around the world..."
2. U.S. PAPERS AGAINST ARAFAT A survey by the Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation League shows that a large majority of American newspapers feel that Arafat's time is running out and that he must be held responsible for stopping terrorism against Israel. The poll was carried out on Dec. 3-6, immediately following the massacres in Jerusalem and Haifa. Eighty percent of the 50 papers surveyed carried editorials regarding the terrorism war against Israel, with the message that it is time for Arafat to take strong action. Twenty-one papers, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Chicago Tribune, said that Arafat must choose between fighting against terror or being thrown out of the region. Thirteen papers wrote that despite his lack of trustworthiness, Arafat must be given another chance.
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