 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
August 9-13, 2004
- SECURITY
- Hezbollah, Women and Children Increasingly Involved in Palestinian Terror
- Israeli Suspected of Ties to Palestinian Terror
- Two Palestinians Killed, Seven Policemen Injured in Suicide Bombing
- IDF Soldier Seriously Wounded During Counter-Terror Raid in Gaza
- Israeli Father of Seven Killed near Itamar
- POLITICS
- Likud and Labor Meet But Fail to Agree on Unity Government
- Likud Offers UTJ Ministry Portfolio
- DIPLOMACY
- EU to Discuss Inclusion of Israel into Wider Europe
- PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS
- Palestinian Inquiry Blasts Arafat for Chaos in West Bank and Gaza
- ECONOMY & HI-TECH
- Netanyahu Unveils Details of 2005 Budget
- Israel at Rock Bottom of OECD Public Spending on Medications
- Israeli Companies Participate in Tender for European Separation Fence
- Israel Ranks 3rd in the World for U.S. Patent Filing
- SOCIETY
- 8,500 New Immigrants in First Half of 2004
- SPORTS
- Israeli Arab Soccer Team, Bnei Sakhnin Set to Make History
- 36 Israeli Athletes Will Compete in 2004 Olympics in Athens
SECURITY Hezbollah, Women and Children Increasingly Involved in Palestinian Terror
Monday, August 9, 2004The number of Israeli civilians killed in terror attacks in the last four years is nearly equal to that of people murdered by terrorists in Israel's first 53 years, Israel Security Agency Chief Avi Dichter told the cabinet Sunday, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Dichter told the cabinet that from November 29, 1947, when the UN voted for partition and Jewish statehood, until the start of the current violence in September 2000, some 755 Israelis had been killed in terror actions here or abroad. Some 674 Israeli civilians have been killed since September 2000.
Highlighting the increased involvement of Hezbollah in the West Bank and Gaza, Dichter said that in 2004, 22 Israelis - or some 30 percent of the total casualties so far this year - had been killed in Hezbollah-directed operations, carried out by the Tanzim-Fatah faction.
Dichter noted a substantial increase in the use of Palestinian women and children under 18 to carry out attacks. If in 2001 women and children took part in some 3 percent of attacks, in 2004, they were involved in 8 percent of them.
If Israel has had a wide success in stopping suicide attacks, it is still unable to reduce the motivation to carry them out. Dichter said that since January 2003, Israel had succeeded in foiling 70 percent of the attempted suicide attacks, and that since January 2004 this number had reached 77 percent. He said that the number of terror warnings remained steady at about 50 a day.
Israeli Suspected of Ties to Palestinian Terror
Tuesday, August 10, 2004Security Services arrested Monday Tali Fahima, a Jewish Israeli far left-wing activist and alleged lover of Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades Jenin leader Zakaria Zubeidi, the most wanted terrorist in Jenin, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Fahima is suspected of assisting Palestinian terrorists in planning a terrorist attack. She is believed to have committed serious security breaches.
Fahima, a resident of Tel Aviv's Yaffo neighborhood, was driving from Tel Aviv to the West Bank when police and Israel Security Agency officers arrested her. In May, Fahima was arrested at the Salem checkpoint north of Jenin for violating an IDF order not to enter Area A.
Security sources said they regarded her case as one of the most serious they had ever come across. Fahima has denied the charges, saying that the security forces are trying to use her as a hostage in order to get Zbeidi to surrender himself.
Two Palestinians Killed, Seven Policemen Injured in Suicide Bombing
Thursday, August 12, 2004Seven Israelis and six Palestinians were wounded, and two Palestinians were killed today in an attack by a suicide bomber south of the Israeli checkpoint at Qalandiyah, between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, HA'ARETZ reported. It is not clear if the Palestinian casualties included the suicide bomber.
All of the Israeli casualties were Border Police officers. Hospital officials said two of the wounded were in serious condition, one in moderate condition and four lightly injured.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message sent to international news agencies.
The explosion was apparently caused by a suicide bomber who drove south from the direction of Ramallah to a temporary checkpoint set up by security forces between Qalandiyah and nearby A-Ram. The bomber detonated his explosives when he reached the impromptu checkpoint.
IDF Soldier Seriously Wounded During Counter-Terror Raid in Gaza
Thursday, August 12, 2004An Israel Defense Forces soldier was seriously wounded by a Palestinian sniper this morning, as military troops operated against the terror infrastructure in the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, HA'ARETZ reported. The soldier, who sustained head injuries, was evacuated to Soroka medical center in Be'er Sheva.
Troops, tanks and bulldozers rolled into the camp early today, and began demolishing houses used by terrorists in their weapon smuggling operations from Egypt. A military source said troops had entered the Rafah camp to conduct a "centered operation against terror infrastructures in the area."
The raid follows a Palestinian car bombing Wednesday at the Qalandiya checkpoint near Jerusalem in which two Palestinians were killed and 19 people injured, including six Israeli Border Policeman. Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said the high state of alert was still on in the capital today.
Israeli Father of Seven Killed near Itamar
Friday, August 13, 2004Shlomo Miller, a 50-year-old father of seven children, was shot dead this morning by a Palestinian gunman close to the West Bank Jewish town of Itamar, south of Nablus, HA'ARETZ reported. The gunman was shot dead by security guards of the Jewish town soon after the attack. The attacker was identified as Yusuf Hanani, 25, an officer in the Palestinian Preventive Security Service. Hanani was a member of the Tanzim, an offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. He lived in the West Bank village of Beit Furik, near Nablus, from where some 30 Palestinians have carried out shooting attacks and suicide bombings since September 2000.
Miller first settled in Itamar more than 10 years ago from South Africa. He worked as security coordinator in Itamar where he assisted in 1996 in building the electronic fence that surrounds the settlement.
POLITICS Likud and Labor Meet But Fail to Agree on Unity Government
Monday, August 9, 2004Labor and Likud teams renewed negotiations meant to pave the way for the formation of a unity government today, but the talks ended without any significant results, HA'ARETZ reported. Today's negotiations were to be devoted to economic matters and aimed at finding a way to leave room for Labor to influence the 2005 state budget without postponing the cabinet vote on it. The Labor team rejected today the Likud's budget compromise according to which the government would vote on the budget on August 15. Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz said he did not understand, "why the negotiations are continuing after Sharon refused to delay the vote on the budget."
Peres told Sharon that while Labor's main reason for entering the government was the disengagement plan, Labor could not join without some concessions on economic and social issues.
Meanwhile, the Likud party's internal court accepted today an appeal filed by Minister Uzi Landau and 11 other party MKs calling for a convening of the Likud committee on August 18 to discuss the Labor Party joining the government.
Likud Offers UTJ Ministry Portfolio
Wednesday, August 11, 2004The Likud's coalition negotiating team offered on Tuesday the United Torah Judaism faction the Ministry of Construction and Housing in a future government, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. If the two factions reach a deal, UTJ will appoint Israel's first Ashkenazi haredi minister since MK Yisrael Meir Levin resigned in 1952. "The Likud sees our presence in the government as historic and they are willing to accommodate us accordingly," UTJ MK Avraham Ravitz said. In addition to the Construction and Housing portfolio, the Likud offered UTJ a deputy ministry in the Prime Minister's Office responsible for religious affairs and a deputy education ministry with full authority over the haredi school systems.
The Shinui party - a current coalition partner and firm opponent to including religious parties in the government - is scheduled to meet the Likud negotiation team this evening "to set things straight and clarify all the rumors." Shinui has informed the Prime Minister that any change in the current coalition agreement regarding state-religion affairs is unacceptable to them.
DIPLOMACY EU to Discuss Inclusion of Israel into Wider Europe
Tuesday, August 10, 2004A European Union Commission is scheduled to hold negotiations with Foreign Ministry officials on Israel's participation in the Wider European Initiative on August 24 in Jerusalem, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The Wider Europe/New Neighborhood Policy is an initiative to upgrade the EU's relations with a circle of some 14 countries bordering the enlarged EU. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to give free access to goods, services, capital, and people for the countries involved.
Before admission to the Wider Europe is granted, a country's political and economic issues must be assessed and approved. Israeli officials have admitted that the Wider Europe initiative would open many doors currently closed to Israel and would further improve Israeli-EU relations. The EU has openly made clear that one of the goals of the initiative is to offer deeper economic ties in return for political dialogue and democratic reform with countries that have little chance of full EU membership.
PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS Palestinian Inquiry Blasts Arafat for Chaos in West Bank and Gaza
Tuesday, August 10, 2004A recent Palestinian Legislative Council investigation into the reasons for the continuing chaos in the Palestinian Authority has found that the main reason for the anarchy is Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's failure to make a clear political decision to end lawlessness, HA'ARETZ reported. The report calls for an end to Qassam rocket fire into Israel and attacks inside Israel, the resignation of the Palestinian Prime Minister's government, and general elections.
"The main reason for the failure of the Palestinian security forces and their lack of action in restoring law and order," says the report prepared by a five-member PLC committee, "is the total lack of a clear political decision and no definition of their roles, either for the long term or the short."
The testimony is strikingly frank, and includes charges that the PA leadership failed to build state institutions and ended up using clan mechanisms instead of the law to deal with out-of-control armed factions. The report calls on Arafat to define in law the role of the security forces, and to issue presidential orders to operate them until those laws are passed. The report also lashes out at the National Security Council that Arafat heads, for failing to set security strategy. It calls on Arafat "to use his authority to issue immediate orders to end all the dangerous activity taking place in the Gaza Strip by some of the commanders and men of the armed security forces intimidating the citizenry, creating chaos and harming the supreme interests of the Palestinian people."
ECONOMY & HI-TECH Netanyahu Unveils Details of 2005 Budget
Monday, August 9, 2004Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the 2005 state budget would include an across-the-board cut of four percent in the allocation to government ministries, and that in order to reduce government spending, any increase in the public sector workers' salaries would be cut, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. Netanyahu proposed to slash the defense budget by 1.5 billion shekels and spoke of the need to reduce the scope of individuals exempt from taxes in order to bring in another two and a half billion shekels. Netanyahu pledged to use monies towards assisting the elderly, carrying out education reform, and helping new immigrants to pay their rents.
The finance minister said funding for the cabinet's disengagement plan was not included in the budget. Money allocated for the plan, he said, would be the only exception in exceeding the deficit target.
Israel at Rock Bottom of OECD Public Spending on Medications
Thursday, August 12, 2004Spending on medicines per-capita in Israel is lower than in any other countries belonging to the Organization or Economic Cooperation and Development in 2002, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The latest international comparison on government spending on medications, conducted by Dr. Phillip Sax, editor of PHARMA Drug Bulletin, was released Wednesday.
Israel government per-capita spending on medications is only $197 per year per person, compared to $362 for the OECD average and a range of up to $614 in the United States. Sax writes that medication is often the most cost-effective intervention in health care today. "It is high time to halt the erosion of the public financing of medicines within the framework of the national health insurance system," he said.
Israeli Companies Participate in Tender for European Separation Fence
Friday, August 13, 2004After European representatives launched a campaign against Israel's security fence, and voted against Israel at the UN general assembly, the European Union is now planning a separation fence of its own, GLOBES reported. The EU plans to build a fence to separate its new members - Poland and Hungary - from its new neighbors - Russia, Belarus and Ukraine - to prevent the free movement of immigrants seeking to enter the EU.
Israeli companies that specialize in the construction of warning fences and security systems will participate in tenders to build hundreds of kilometers of fences along the EU's new eastern border. Magal Security Systems is expected to sign a cooperation agreement with a major Western company for building fences as well as command and control systems in Eastern Europe. El-Far Electronics also plans to participate in the tender through a large international partner.
Defense industry sources estimate the potential business at several hundred million dollars. Based on the experience of building Israel's fence, each kilometer of fence costs $1 million to build. Bases, sophisticated transit points, and observation and command and control systems cost $2 million per kilometer.
Israel Ranks 3rd in the World for U.S. Patent Filing
Friday, August 13, 2004Israel was ranked third (in terms of ratio of population) in 2003 for the number of U.S. patents filed, behind Japan and Taiwan, GLOBES reported. The number of U.S. patents filed from Israel increased by 69 percent over the previous five years. The top five countries were Japan, with 2.98 U.S. patents per 10,000 people; Taiwan - 2.96; Israel - 2.04; Switzerland - 2.02; and Sweden - 1.92. Germany had 1.5 U.S. patents per 10,000 people; France 0.7; the UK 0.68; and Spain 0.08.
1,265 U.S. patents were filed from Israel in 2003, compared with 1.042 in 2002, 1,023 in 2001, and 748 in 1999.
SOCIETY 8,500 New Immigrants in First Half of 2004
Wednesday, August 11, 2004Some 230 North American Jews immigrated to Israel today in one of three planeloads of North American immigrants to arrive in Israel over the last few weeks, HA'ARETZ reported. The operation was sponsored by the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B'Nefesh, a group that encourages immigration from North America. More than 1,500 North American Jews are scheduled to arrive in Israel this summer under the plan.
A total of 8,500 people have moved to Israel in the first half of the year.
SPORTS Israeli Arab Soccer Team, Bnei Sakhnin Set to Make History
Thursday, August 12, 2004Bnei Sakhnin will become the first Arab team to play in the United European Football Association competition tonight at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan where they are scheduled to play Partizani Tirani of Albania, HA'ARETZ reported. Excitement is growing in this small town located in the Galilee hills in Northern Israel as Sakhnin prepares for its UEFA Cup second qualifying round. Sahnin earned its place in the UEFA tournament when it beat Hapoel Haifa with a score of 4-1 in the State Cup Finals held last May.
The team is composed of Arab and Jewish players as well as foreigners from Eastern Europe and Africa. The team's victories have peaked the interests of soccer fans throughout the Arab world. Offers for funding to help the poorest club in the Israeli Premier League have even come from donors in the oil-rich Gulf States. Sakhnin's cup final win in Tel Aviv was hailed as a triumphant sporting first for Israel's Arab minority, which numbers only 1.1 million, a fifth of the population of Israel.Friday, August 13, 2004
Bnei Sakhnin, the first Israeli Arab soccer team to play in any European soccer competition, scored an easy 3-0 victory over Partizani Tirani of Albania on the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup Thursday night in Ramat Gan, HA'ARETZ reported.
Sakhnin displayed unexpected confidence in all aspects of the game, as Partizani looked like the novice team. Meanwhile Maccabi Petah Tikva lost 3-0 to AEK Larnaca in Cyprus.
36 Israeli Athletes Will Compete in 2004 Olympics in Athens
Friday, August 13, 2004A total of 36 Israeli athletes competing in 15 disciplines will be participating in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, HA'ARETZ reported. Israel Olympic chairman Ephraim Zinger has said that he expects the delegation to bring home three medals, including a first-ever gold.
Judoka Arik Ze'evi will carry the Israeli flag at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympics tonight. Ze'evi, a three-time European champion in the under-100 kilo category, will march at the head of an Israeli delegation that is widely considered the best the country has ever sent to the Games.
Windsurfer Gal Friedman is expected to compete for a gold medal, along with Ze'evi, Greco-Roman wrestler Gocha Tsitsiashvili and pole-vaulter Alex Averbukh.
Since it first competed at the Games in Helsinki in 1952, Israel has won a total of four medals.
