January 24 - 28, 2005

• 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH CAMPS LIBERATION
  • UN Marks 60th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation
  • Wiesel at UN Special Session: Will the World Ever Learn Lessons from Holocaust?
  • PM Sharon: The World Did Not Lift a Finger to Stop the Holocaust
  • President Katsav Delivers Auschwitz Address
• SECURITY
  • Mossad Chief: Iran Nuclear Program 'Near Point of No Return'
  • Danish Citizen Admits to Spying for Hezbollah in Israel
• ISRAELI PALESTINIAN SECURITY TALKS
  • Israel to Hand Over Security Control of 4 West Bank Towns to PA
  • Palestinian Forces Deployed in South Gaza
  • FM Shalom: Palestinian Ceasefire Not an End In Itself
  • Palestinian Forces Finish Deployment in Gaza - IDF Will Reduce Counter-Terror Actions
• DIPLOMACY
  • Assad in Russia Confirms Intentions to Buy Missiles
• ECONOMY & HIGH-TECH
  • VC Investment Jumps 45 Percent in 2004
• HOME
  • Army to Disband Religious-Only Hesder Units by March
  • Israeli Arabs Can Purchase All Lands, Including JNF's
  • New York Jewish Leaders Fly to Israel to Study Social Issues
• PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS
  • Hamas Wins Local Elections in Gaza

 

60TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH CAMPS LIBERATION

UN Marks 60th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation
Monday, January 24, 2005

The United Nations General Assembly marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz today with a special session at the UN building in New York, HA'ARETZ reported. "The camps were not mere concentration camps," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as he opened the session. "Let us not use the euphemism of those who built them. Their purpose was not concentrate a group in one place, it was to exterminate an entire people."
The special all-day session was to be attended by the representatives of 30 senior UN members and leading intellectuals. Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom is representing Israel, while U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is there on behalf of the United States.
Among the speakers are U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos and Nobel Peace Prize winner Eli Wiesel, both Holocaust survivors.
The climax of the session is expected to be a cantor chanting the Hebrew mourning prayer "El Malei Rachamim" - the first time a Jewish prayer has been uttered in the General Assembly. The cantor will also sing Israel's national anthem, "Hatikvah."
In an extraordinary step, Annan called a special press conference together with General Assembly President Jean Ping from Gabon and Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman. The press conference is viewed as a special effort on Annan's part to stress the importance of the General Assembly session and the reason for holding it, "since the United Nations was founded as the world was learning the full horror of the camps."
On Monday evening a special two-part exhibit entitled "Auschwitz - the Depth of the Abyss," sponsored by the Foreign Ministry and curated by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, will open in the visitors' lobby of the UN headquarters. The first part of the exhibit, presents photos from the Auschwitz Album taken by SS personnel and representing the only surviving visual evidence of the process of the mass murders at the death camp. The other part of the exhibit is a series drawings by Ukrainian artist Zinovii Tolkatchev, who painted scenes from the Majdanek extermination camp in the fall of 1944 as the official artist of the Russian Army.

 

Wiesel at UN Special Session: Will the World Ever Learn Lessons from Holocaust?
Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Sixty years after the liberation of Auschwitz, an historic special session commemorating the victims of the Holocaust took place at the UN General Assembly in New York Monday, HA'ARETZ reported. Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Laureate, was the keynote speaker at the event - a rare appearance by a non-statesman or diplomat at the podium of the body that was created on the ashes of World War II. "If the world had listened, we may have prevented Darfur, Cambodia, Bosnia and naturally Rwanda," Wiesel said. "We know that for the dead it is too late. For them, abandoned by God and betrayed by humanity, victory did come much too late. But it is not too late for today's children, ours and yours. It is for their sake alone that we bear witness." He ended his poignant speech with a dramatic moment, a silent stare out at the diplomats and TV cameras watching, and then asked, "But will the world ever learn?"
Wiesel's speech was one of the highlights of the special session that was initiated by Israel, promoted by the United States and energetically undertaken by Secretary General Kofi Annan as an important event meant to remember "the Jews and others" who were murdered at Auschwitz and throughout Europe during the Nazi reign of terror.
While UN protocol prohibits any prayer from being recited in the plenum, Annan decided that the unique nature of the event and its special character made it possible to break the rules and allow the chanting of El Maleh Rahamim, a traditional Jewish memorial prayer.

 

PM Sharon: The World Did Not Lift a Finger to Stop the Holocaust
Wednesday, January 26, 2005

In a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at the Knesset this morning, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel had learned the lessons of the Holocaust, and that it had to defend itself against its enemies and serve as a place of shelter for Jews, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. The prime minister said the world had not lifted a finger to stop the Holocaust.
In unusually harsh remarks, the prime minister said that when the Nazis had begun deporting Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz in large numbers in 1944, allied forces had not even bombed the railroad tracks leading to the death camp, and that over a period of several weeks, more than 600,000 Hungarian Jews would be murdered in Auschwitz.
Sharon said, "The sad and terrible conclusion is that no one cared that Jews were being killed." He added, "The state of Israel has learned this lesson, and since its founding has defended itself and its citizens and provides safety to Jews everywhere. The lesson is that we can rely only on ourselves."

 

President Katsav Delivers Auschwitz Address
Thursday, January 27, 2005

Delivering in Auschwitz-Birkenau an address at the ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, President Moshe Katsav said that the mind refused to comprehend what had taken place in a site which now stood as the largest cemetery of the Jewish people, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Katsav pointed out that, "We stand here and witness the remains of the gas chambers, the final stop of the railroad tracks, which brought here, from all over Europe, millions to the burning furnaces. It appears as if we can still hear their cry."
Katsav stressed that, "At this place, the Nazis carried out their non-stop industry of genocide. The industry of killing the Jewish people in Europe. And then the Jewish people rose from the ashes and returned home [in Israel]."
"We are a proud and determined people, looking forward in hope and faith. Our strong ties with nations whose leaders stand here today, provide some sort of comfort and security," Katsav concluded.

 

SECURITY

Mossad Chief: Iran Nuclear Program 'Near Point of No Return'
Monday, January 24, 2005

Mossad Chief Meir Dagan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today that Iran's nuclear program was close to the "point of no return," where Teheran will no longer need outside or international help to enrich uranium for use in atomic weapons, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The international community is not using all of its capabilities to curb the Iranian program, Dagan stressed.
Dagan assessed U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's comment last week - according to which the possibility of an Israeli action against Iran would trigger European countries into action - as an attempt to provoke the international community and force it to react against Iran before it is too late. Cheney, in an MSNBC interview on the day U.S. President George W. Bush was inaugurated for a second term, said Iran was at the top of the American administration's list of world trouble spots. Cheney said that the Administration was concerned by Iran's combination of pursuing "a fairly robust nuclear program" and a history of sponsoring terrorism. "If, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards," Cheney said.
Today, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said he was convinced that Iran is single-handedly the world's most serious security threat. "Iran is the main problem of the Middle East. I do not think that the matter of Iran needs to be turned into an Israeli problem - it is a matter of concern to the whole world," Peres said in an interview with Israel Radio.

 

Danish Citizen Admits to Spying for Hezbollah in Israel
Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Ayad al-Ashuah, a 39-year-old Lebanese-born Danish citizen who was arrested on January 6, has admitted to being a Hezbollah operative sent to Israel to gather information on security facilities and recruit Israeli Arabs to join Hezbollah, HA'ARETZ reported. A court order allowed today public disclosure of the details surrounding al-Ashuah's arrest.
While traveling on a train from Nahariya to Haifa, al-Ashuah, who was born in Lebanon and immigrated to Denmark in 1986, aroused the suspicions by videotaping out the window of the train. Put under arrest by Israel's security services, he told investigators that he had joined Hezbollah in July 2004, and arrived in Israel in December 2004 with a new passport that lacked any stamps indicating previous travel. For the purposes of his mission, he was given 2,000 dollars from his handlers.
Prior to his arrest, Al-Ashuah succeeded in enlisting two Israeli Arabs to the service of Hezbollah.

 

ISRAELI PALESTINIAN SECURITY TALKS

Israel to Hand Over Security Control of 4 West Bank Towns to PA
Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior advisor Dov Weisglass met today with Palestinian Authority Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat in Jerusalem to discuss the transfer of four West Bank cities to Palestinian security control, HA'ARETZ reported. Within a few weeks, security control over Ramallah, Jericho, Qalqilyah, and Tul Karm should be handed to Palestinian security forces. Weisglass and Erekat also decided to continue security contacts between Israel and the PA. Senior Israeli officials Shalom Turgeman and Assaf Shariv, as well as senior Palestinian security official Mohammed Dahlan and Palestinian cabinet official Hassan Abu Libdeh also attended the Jerusalem meeting.
Abu Libdeh said today that an Israeli-Palestinian summit was to be held within two weeks if remaining differences over the agenda could be settled. Aides of Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are to meet again next week to discuss the agenda for the summit. Meanwhile, Israel has stopped the targeted killing of Palestinian terrorists, fulfilling a key Palestinian demand for a truce.
Abbas has allegedly reached an agreement in principle with Hamas leaders in Gaza on the group's participation in diplomatic decision-making and in a future Palestinian government.

 

Palestinian Forces Deployed in South Gaza
Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Palestinian security forces began deploying in the southern Gaza Strip this morning with an aim to halt terrorist attacks against Israeli targets, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. Witnesses said 20 Palestinian security men took up positions at the Tufah Crossing near Gush Katif. Israeli and Palestinian officers were due to hold another meeting at Tufah this afternoon to coordinate the deployment of more Palestinian forces. However, the meeting was cancelled after settlers punctured the tires of the Palestinian officers' cars. Scuffles broke out between settlers and Israeli police after the incident.
Palestinian public security commander, Major-General Moussa Arafat, met Tuesday evening at the Erez Crossing with IDF Gaza area commander Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi. The officers met to discuss the Palestinian deployment in the southern Gaza Strip, including the volatile Philadelphi route in Rafah. Last week, the two officers met to arrange the northern Gaza Strip deployment.

 

FM Shalom: Palestinian Ceasefire Not an End In Itself
Thursday, January 27, 2005

Responding to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' statement that he awaited an Israeli response to his offer of a mutual cease-fire, Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom reiterated today the Israeli government's stance on the issue, explaining a truce was akin to a "ticking bomb which will blow up in our faces," HA'ARETZ reported. "Whoever thinks a halt is the right thing, is mistaken, " Shalom said. "You cannot take a cease-fire as a long-range goal, while they are still preserving their [terror] infrastructure. The extremist organizations can regroup and bring about a situation when they choose to carry out one terrorist attack or a series of terror attacks, which will bring down this whole process and send it to hell."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Asaf Shariv also backed away from expressing support for a cease-fire per se, but said Israel was examining the Palestinian proposals. "I don't know if a cease-fire is the right wording," he said. "If there is quiet on the Palestinian side, Israel will respond with quiet."
Meanwhile, Israel is expected to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of a package of steps and goodwill gestures designed to help strengthen the new Palestinian leadership and encourage them to continue efforts to prevent terror, Israeli officials revealed.
Sharon will meet Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei in about two weeks and present them with the steps Israel intends to take to help advance dialogue between the two parties.

 

Palestinian Forces Finish Deployment in Gaza - IDF Will Reduce Counter-Terror Actions
Friday, January 28, 2005

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon instructed commanders today to minimize counter-terrorism operations in all Palestinian areas, especially in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian security forces have finished deploying, HA'ARETZ reported. Hundreds of Palestinian police officers deployed in the central and southern Gaza Strip today, a day after the new Palestinian leadership banned civilians from carrying weapons.
In light of the Palestinian gestures, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday conditions were ripe for a breakthrough toward peace.
The reduced military activity in Gaza is intended to allow Palestinian forces to take security responsibility in the Strip. "The intention here is to let the Palestinian forces operate in an efficient manner and to allow them to do their job and maintain order," said David Baker, an official in the prime minister's office.
If the quiet continues, the IDF will open the Erez, Karni and Rafah crossings, which connect Gaza to Israel and Egypt, starting next week. The Karni crossing was opened today for four hours to allow fruit deliveries to the Strip.
In the West Bank, the reduced military activity will focus on immediate security needs and operations against terror cells. Any operations in the West Bank are now subject to Ya'alon's approval. The IDF also intends to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank.

 

DIPLOMACY

Assad in Russia Confirms Intentions to Buy Missiles
Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is on his first official visit in Russia, declared today that the shoulder-launched Igla SA-18 missiles Damascus wishes to buy from Moscow would not pose a threat to Israel, HA'ARETZ reported. "This is a defensive, air defense, weapon," Assad told students during a visit to the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. "If Israel is against us buying it, it means it wants to invade our airspace. The Israeli stance is illogical."
A senior Israeli official said Monday that American pressure had prompted Russia to reconsider plans to sell the missiles to Syria.
The Syrian leader arrived in Moscow on Monday for a four-day visit. Prior to his arrival, Assad had declared that he wanted to advance the peace process with Israel and was not interested in the sophisticated missiles that have been the focus of recent tension between Russia and Israel. But Assad told the students today that he would discuss possible purchases of Russian weapons during his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials.

 

ECONOMY & HIGH-TECH

VC Investment Jumps 45 Percent in 2004
Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Israel's high tech sector was in full recovery last year, with 428 companies raising $1.46 billion, up 45 percent from $1.01 billion a year earlier, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. "The year was characterized by a return to full-scale activity in Israel's high tech sector from depressed 2001-2003 levels," said Ze'ev Holtzman, the chairman of Israel Venture Capital Research Center and Giza Venture Capital. He said he did not expect much growth in 2005 and predicts a similar amount of investment, with little chance of returning to the levels of the "bubble year" in 2000, when $3.09 billion was raised. In 2001, the figure was $1.99 billion, and in 2002 it was $1.14 billion.
The recovery in Israel is better than in the United States, where venture capital investment was $20 billion in 2004, up 8 percent from $18.9 billion a year earlier but way down on the $110 billion invested in 2000.
The communications sector attracted the highest sums, with 117 companies raising $430 million, 29 percent of the total and up from $332 million in 2003. The software and life sciences sectors came next, each gaining 22 percent of the total investment.

 

HOME

Army to Disband Religious-Only Hesder Units by March
Tuesday, January 25, 2005

The army plans to disband religious-only companies of hesder yeshiva students and place the soldiers in regular companies, Major General Elazar Stern announced today, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Hesder students, who are part of the national-religious community, serve in the army for a year-and-a-half, and study for over three years in yeshivot. Up until now, they spend their army service in separate yeshiva student companies so as to allow them to continue abiding by Jewish law while in the Israel Defense Forces.
Stern, a religious Jew, said the new decision would be implemented in March 2005, with the new draft of yeshiva students. "In the past, these companies were desirable because the army felt it was helping religious youngsters who want to join the IDF continue religious observance in the army," Stern said today. However, the situation today is different. "I think this is not a good structure. The IDF is the people's army. Each soldier brings his values and they are discussed with others. This is the best move for the IDF, and probably the best move for the State of Israel," Stern said.
"We don't want ideological units. We don't want to choose missions according to a unit's ideology," Stern explained. Asked whether it was a coincidence that the decision came at a time when many in the religious community called on soldiers to disobey evacuation orders during the disengagement - scheduled for summer 2005 - Stern replied the two matters were not related.

 

Israeli Arabs Can Purchase All Lands, Including JNF's
Thursday, January 27, 2005

Israeli-Arabs must have equal purchasing access to Israeli land parcels under the control of The Jewish National Fund and the Israel Lands Administration, Attorney General Menahem Mazuz ordered on Wednesday, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The decision was taken at a discussion session on Wednesday that Mazuz had gathered in response to petitions submitted to the High Court of Justice protesting the policy of only selling land to Jews. Heads of Mazuz's office, officials from the National Land Authority, and representatives of the JNF attended the discussions, at the end of which Mazuz concluded that the current policy could not be defended in court.
At the same time, Mazuz decided to set up a system that would grant alternative lands to the JNF for every parcel of land sold to a non-Jewish citizen, is in order to protect the original reserve of land parcels controlled by the Fund.
JNF Chairman Yehiel Leket said, "I am not aware of any dramatic and historic decisions. Except for one thing, that the Attorney General supports that there be practical arrangements, so there won't be instances where we will have to go to the High Court of Justice or get a legal decision."
MKs on the Right demanded Mazuz's resignation, while the Left hailed the decision as an end to decades of discrimination.

 

New York Jewish Leaders Fly to Israel to Study Social Issues
Friday, January 28, 2005

A group of over 70 Jewish community leaders from New York will begin a 5-day mission to Israel on Sunday to study the most pressing social issues in the country, GLOBES reported. The insights gained from the visit will be utilized by the Jewish leaders to make better-informed decisions about choosing programs eligible to receive funding in Israel. Every year the UJA-Federation of New York invests more than $12 million in joint projects with non-profit organizations in Israel. These projects, which are geared towards improving the Israeli society, focus on a broad scope of issues, including trauma relief, aging, youth-at-risk, domestic violence, immigrant absorption, unity and diversity, Jewish renewal and the development of the non-profit sector.
"UJA-Federation of New York is committed to contributing to a better life for people in Israel by strengthening civil society," said Liz Jaffe, Chair of the Commission on the Jewish People of UJA-Federation of New York. "Relying on our extensive experience in social welfare, education and health services in New York, we partner with Israel's 'best and brightest' to create new models for Israeli society."
During their visit, community leaders will meet with academic experts, government representatives, journalists, Israeli philanthropists, community activists and service beneficiaries. They will visit programs throughout the country including in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Malachi, Rechovot, Beit Shemesh, Kiryat Gat, Ashkelon and Sderot.

 

PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS

Hamas Wins Local Elections in Gaza
Friday, January 28, 2005

The Islamic group Hamas has won an overwhelming victory in local elections in 10 Gaza towns - a significant setback for the Fatah Party of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. An Associated Press analysis based on lists provided by the competing factions found that Hamas had won 75 council seats and Fatah 30. Election officials said today the Hamas victory reflected widespread support in Gaza for the terror movement, which, in parallel to carrying out attacks against Israel, provides welfare, schools and kindergartens to the impoverished residents of the territory. The issues most critical to voters were reportedly local matters and anger over corruption in the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority.
Thousands of Hamas supporters took to the streets of Gaza today to celebrate the victory. The elections results could give Hamas more leverage in its negotiations with Abbas over power sharing.

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