Monday,
June 16
Egyptian
Mediators Fail to Reach Cease-fire Agreement with Militants
A delegation of Egyptian intelligence
officials failed Monday to achieve a breakthrough in talks with
Palestinian militants aimed at arranging a cease-fire with Israel
and salvaging the U.S.-backed road map to Middle East peace, which
has been threatened by the violence of the past week. Representatives
of the militant groups said they had demanded international guarantees
for a halt to IDF strikes on their leaders before they would agree
to stop their own attacks on Israelis.
Addressing a cabinet meeting Sunday, PM Sharon said that if the
militants agree to a cease-fire, Israel would, for the most part,
respect it. "If no one fires on us, we will not return fire,
except in cases of ticking bombs," a cabinet official quoted
Sharon as saying. Up to now, Sharon had rejected the truce idea
out of hand, demanding an immediate crackdown on the militants,
including arrest of their leaders. The "ticking bomb"
phrase defines a militant about to carry out an attack. (From Ha'aretz)
more
EU
Eyes Listing Hamas as a Terrorist Organization
The EU said Monday it considered
listing all of Hamas as a terrorist organization saying the military
and political wings of the Palestinian militia - which rejects the
Mideast peace process - were increasingly intertwined. Those opposing
the "road map" to peace, drafted by the United States,
the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, "will face
consequences," the EU foreign ministers said in a statement
after a meeting. The EU has already listed Izz al-Din al-Qassam,
Hamas' military wing, as a terrorist organization. It will do the
same to its political wing unless Hamas backs the peace process
and abandons suicide bombings, said Greek Foreign Minister George
Papandreou, who presided over the EU meeting. (From Jerusalem Post)
more
President
Bush: "Agents of Peace Will Prevail" in Middle East
On June 15, President George W.
Bush expressed confidence that, despite setbacks, the nations of
the region and the world can help end violence and achieve peace
between Israelis and Palestinians. "My objective as the President
is to move the process forward so a state is established; it will
be a peaceful state, a free state, a prosperous state, so people
have hope," Bush said. "And in the meantime, before that
state is established, it is clear that the free world, those who
love freedom and peace, must deal harshly with Hamas and the killers."
Bush added, "But we've laid out the way forward, and I intend
to keep the process moving. And I believe we can have a peaceful
Palestinian state living side by side with the Israelis." (From
the US Embassy in Tel Aviv) more
Amid
the Killing, E.R. is an Oasis
At Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital,
Jews save Arabs and Arabs save Jews. Though the hospital treats
and employs mostly Jewish Israelis, 10 Palestinian doctors who work
at Hadassah's two facilities, one in the Ein Kerem neighborhood
(Ratrout's branch) and the other on Mount Scopus. What's more, about
10% of the staff are Arab residents of Israel, and Arab patients
and their visitors can be seen in the halls. Though Hadassah Ein
Kerem has handled more victims of terrorist attacks than any other
Israeli hospital, it stands as a model of integration in the conflict
between Israelis and Palestinians. As politicians continually fail
to find compromises for peace that will stick, Hadassah's mixed
staff — operating under terrible pressure — manages to
make coexistence work. "I've seen our Palestinian victims,
and I've seen Israelis after suicide bombs," Rawand Ratrout,
a Palestinian anesthesiologist says. "I don't differentiate
between them. Each time, I think, How can this happen?"
In the child oncology department, toddlers who would never meet
outside the hospital play together. This is a city where people,
for fear of attack, immediately take note of the ethnicity of those
around them. In this department, it's impossible at first to distinguish
a Jewish child from an Arab one, because the children playing on
toy trucks and fitting jigsaw pieces together have lost their hair
through chemotherapy. Parents sit on plastic chairs, ultra-Orthodox
Jews in black suits and Homburg hats next to Palestinian women in
traditional embroidered robes, watching the kids play. Chief nurse
Fatma Hussein believes it's not just the outward signs of suffering
on the children that increase tolerance among people who would be
suspicious of one another beyond the hospital confines. "In
this community of the sick, everyone understands what pain is,"
she says. "Nobody has patience for anybody who would inflict
pain on others." (From Time) more
Israel
Displays World's First Self-protection System for Commercial Aircraft
at Paris Air Show
Israel is making a big splash at
the 2003 Paris Air Show which is being held this week. A subsidiary
of Israel Aircraft Industries, Elta, is displaying the world's first
aircraft equipped with a Flight Guard Self-Protection System, designed
to protect passenger and freighter aircraft against missile attack.
The "Flight Guard" is a civilian version of its ELM 2160
radar-based missile warning system that is in service with 10 customers
on 15 types of aircraft, primarily airlifters and helicopters, Pnina
Joseph, director of marketing for Elta, told Aviation Week. It has
already been credited with saving several aircraft from attacks
by shoulder-fired missiles. If an incoming missile is detected,
the system triggers a flare dispenser. The radar missile warner
has higher reliability than infrared systems, reducing false-alarm
rates from one every 2 hours. of flight time to "one per year,"
said a company official. (From Israel 21c) more
Tuesday,
June 17
Powell,
Rice Due in Israel to Prod Road Map Talks
US Secretary of State Colin Powell
is expected in Israel on Friday to pursue efforts to implement the
road map, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will follow
a week later, Israeli officials said Tuesday. Powell will meet with
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom during
his daylong visit, and then head to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian
leaders, officials said. Shalom said the American missions are aimed
at making sure the Palestinians carry out their side of the road
map deal, which is to see to an end of terror attacks against Israel,
in exchange for achieving statehood by 2005. Meanwhile, Palestinian
Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas, who is making a final push to halt
attacks on Israelis, met Tuesday with the head of the US monitoring
team, John Wolf, ahead of Abbas' plans to meet with Palestinian
militias later in the day. (From Jerusalem Post) more
Shin
Bet Chief Tells Americans that Hudna is Dangerous
Avi Dichter, head of the Shin Bet security
service, was called to Washington to present senior members of the
Bush administration with a detailed survey of the Palestinian conflict
according to an Israeli point of view. Dichter was expected to tell
the Americans that a short-term, artificial Palestinian cease-fire,
or hudna, was dangerous to Israel. Hamas said it would continue
to attack Israeli soldiers and settlers. Dichter was expected to
present the Americans with intelligence information directly linking
the leaders of Hamas with the recent terror attacks in Israel, Maariv
reported. His talks were part of Israel's efforts to convince the
Americans of the need for an all-out war with the terrorist organizations,
including the use of additional targeted killings. (From Israel
Insider) more
Editorial:
Truth Serum on the Tip of a Missile
To paraphrase the old saying "Wine
in, truth out," one could say about Abdel Aziz Rantisi: "Missile
in, truth out." The Hamas leader, who escaped by the skin of
his teeth from the bungled bombing mission of our Apaches last week,
gnashed his teeth and promised that the armed struggle would continue
until the last Jew was driven out. In his anger, he revealed the
true goal of Hamas.
Unlike the PLO, which bills itself as a national liberation organization,
Hamas is a fanatical religious terror network that is seeking to
wipe out both Israel and secular Palestinian rule. In the attempt
on Rantisi's life, one may disagree with the timing and the method,
but there is no question that the heads of an organization which
has been killing our people indiscriminately for well over a decade
are terrorists who deserve to die.
Hamas was born in 1988, at the height of the first intifada, taking
its cue from Khomeinism in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas
doesn't want conciliation or a return to 1967 borders. It will settle
for nothing less than the obliteration of Israel. It's no accident
that three of the most savage attacks on Israel's civilian population
have taken place at the first signs of dialogue between Israel and
the Palestinians. (By Joel Marcus, Ha'aretz) more
US
Ambassador Receives 9/11 Commemorative Stamp
Terror's
sorrowful shadow hung heavy in the prime minister's office Tuesday
as US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer received a commemorative stamp from
Israel marking the September 11th attack in New York. As sad evidence
that that terror binds both countries, Kurtzer not only represented
a country that lost thousands to terror, but he himself is still
mourning his cousin, Anna Orgal, who was killed in Jerusalem's bus
attack last week. The Israeli
Postal Authority said the "X image, a symbol of erasure
and cancellation, with the yellow and black lines, marks the towers
and the airplane in red seen hitting the towers. The work is therefore
seemingly simple, but is actually very complex connecting between
the artist's personal agony to that of America and the entire world.
Kurtzer said it was emotional to receive a stamp, a reminder of
terror's agony so close to his own loss. "My family now joins
with Israel, which has suffered so much. America and Israel are
"of one mind" and "one heart" in their battle
against terrorism, Kurtzer said. (From Jerusalem Post) more
Three
Israelis Go Through to Second Round of Wimbledon Qualifiers
Five Israelis took part yesterday
in the first round of the men's singles qualifiers at Wimbledon.
Noam Okun (159th in the world, 25th in the qualifiers), Harel Levy
(165th in the world), and Andy Ram (701st in the world) made it
through to the next round. (From Ha'aretz) more
Statistics
Bureau: Jews in Israel Outnumber Jews in the U.S.
The number of Jews in Israel has
surpassed the number of Jews in the United States, according to
the Central Bureau of Statistics. CBS reported that there are 5.4
million Jews living in Israel, compared to 5.2 million in the U.S.,
according to the latest United Jewish Appeal Federation survey.
The data indicates the closure of an historical circle: For the
first time since the destruction of the Second Temple, Israel has
once again become the largest concentration of Jews in the world.
(From Ha'aretz) more
Wednesday,
June 18
Seven-year-old
Victim of Terror Attack Laid to Rest
Seven-year-old
Noam
Leibowitz, who was killed in Tuesday's shooting attack near
Kibbutz Eyal, was laid to rest Wednesday afternoon in the Moshav
Nir Etzion cemetery. Her grandparents, Miriam and Shmuel Elad, told
Army Radio that the family had been returning from a relative's
bar mitzvah in Jerusalem at the time of the attack. Noam and her
three-year-old sister, Shira, who was seriously wounded, were lying
down and sleeping in the back of the family's Transit van. "He
fired first at the driver and then he sprayed us from behind,"
said Miriam, who was also in the car.
As the stretcher bearing Noam's body was lowered into the grave,
her mother implored: "Carefully, gently! You see how little
she is." (From Ha'aretz) more
Romania
Retracts Holocaust Denial to End Row
Romania narrowly averted a diplomatic
crisis with Israel on Wednesday by retracting a statement that "no
Holocaust took place" on its territory during World War Two.
Romania, an ally of Nazi Germany during the war, has been reluctant
to face up to ugly chapters in its history, especially the murder
and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews during the rule
of war-time fascist dictator Ion Antonescu. Last week, the government,
again denied a Holocaust took place within its borders.
The government issued a fresh statement late on Tuesday. "The
pro-Nazi regime was guilty of grave war crimes, pogroms, and mass
deportations of Romanian Jews to territories occupied or controlled
by the Romanian army," it said. Government spokeswoman Despina
Neagoe told Reuters the statement was issued after Romania received
"lots of complaints from abroad." Israeli diplomats in
Bucharest said on Wednesday they now considered the issue closed.
(From Ha'aretz) more
Volunteers
Flock to IDF Bases
Despite the decline in tourism
as a result of the current security situation, the number of volunteers
flocking to Israel to help out on IDF bases around the country has
risen by 46%, mostly in the context of the IDF’s Sar-el
program. 3,504 people participated in the Sar-el program in 2002
– compared to 2,396 during 2001. An analysis of the demographic
makeup of the year’s participants shows a 59% increase in volunteers
from the United States, a 32% increase from France and South Africa,
a 44% increase from Canada, and a 100% increase from Britain. The
greatest total number of volunteers came from France. Whereas only
one volunteer hailed from Italy in the year 2001, forty volunteers
arrived from Italy this past year. The Sar-el program was founded
in 1982, during Operation Peace for the Galilee, with the aim of
drafting volunteers from the Diaspora to work on IDF bases. Since
then, thousands of volunteers have participated in the program,
working on supplies and logistics on various army bases for three-week
intervals, after which many stay on to pursue other more long-term
projects. Volunteers of all ages, from students to retirees arrive
to participate in the experience of truly helping out the IDF. (From
Arutz Sheva) more
New
Israeli Campaign For Christian Tourism
Minister of Tourism Benny Elon
held a press conference in New York on Monday to announce Israel's
new "Deter Terrorism, Not Tourism" campaign. He spoke
of the increased involvement of Evangelical Christians in support
of Israel. "In the face of terror," Minister Elon said,
"the U.S. administration must understand from our Christian
evangelical friends the need to fight terror, and not reward killers."
He said that Christian leaders have committed to bringing prayer
and solidarity groups to the State of Israel, and that visits from
Christian groups kept Israel's tourism industry from collapsing
even as the Palestinians' terrorism campaign plagued the country.
(From Arutz Sheva) more
Thursday,
June 19
Grocery
Owner Killed in Suicide Attack on Moshav in North
The
militant Islamic Jihad organization on Thursday claimed the suicide
bombing in a grocery store in Moshav Sde Trumot, near Beit She'an
in the north, in which the owner of the store was killed. The attack
took place shortly after 6 A.M. The grocery store owner, Avner
Mordechai, 63, was critically injured in the attack, and died
of his wounds after being evacuated to Haemek Hospital in Afula.
Mordechai was married with six children. The suicide bomber was
killed in the blast. Northern police chief Ya'akov Borovsky said
that Mordechai prevented a major tragedy by preventing the suicide
bomber from entering the moshav, where many more people could have
been killed. (From Ha'aretz) more
PFLP,
DFLP Tell Abbas They Won't Stop Terror Attacks
On the eve of his meeting with
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Palestinian Authority Prime
Minister Mahmoud Abbas failed to persuade the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) to agree to a temporary cease-fire
with Israel. The DFLP said in a statement that its leaders "reaffirmed
the Palestinian peoples' legitimate right to resist the occupation
and to pursue the intifada." Palestinian Authority officials
said the two groups said they were prepared to discuss Abbas's offer
to join a Unified National Leadership that would function within
the PLO. Abbas made a similar offer to Hamas and Islamic Jihad during
separate meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. The offer envisages
full political participation in the next PA general elections and
the expansion of the institutions of the PLO to include the Islamic
groups in exchange for their commitment to a comprehensive national
agenda. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have in the past refused to join
the PLO or the PA for fear that such a move would be interpreted
as recognition of the Oslo Accords. The two groups told Abbas this
week that they would study his offer, although their spokesmen said
it was unlikely that they would say accept it. (From Jerusalem Post)
more
Israeli
and Palestinian Security Officials Meet
Under heavy US pressure Israeli
and Palestinian security officials are meeting Thursday night in
Jerusalem in the presence of US envoys and security officials. The
Americans want the two sides to finalize a plan for an IDF withdrawal
from Gaza and the deployment of Palestinian security forces there,
ahead of Friday's visit of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to
Israel and the Palestinian areas. PA security chief Mohammad Dahlan
met Thursday during the day with US envoy John Wolf who urged both
sides to convene a security meeting to try to solve their differences
over the Gaza withdrawal and other security issues like targeted
killings of militants, easing of the internal closure and a gradual
prisoner release, a Palestinian official said. (From Jerusalem Post)
more
Israel
Tops List in EU's "Wider Europe" Initiative
Israel has been singled out as
a leading candidate for a closer partnership with the enlarged European
Union. Günter Verheugen, EU commissioner for enlargement, said
Israel should have no difficulty in fulfilling the political and
economic requirements to join the European Economic Area, a status
that would put it on a par with such countries as Iceland and Norway.
"Israel should belong to the priority countries," he said.
One benefit would be to enable Israeli companies to compete favourably
in tenders in the new members states that are due to join the EU
next year. (From Financial Times) more
On-line
Photo Exhibit: At the Western Wall
A new collection of stunning photos taken at the Kotel by Sandu
and Dinu Mendrea. Exclusive to the Jerusalem Post.
Click
here to enter gallery.
Friday,
June 20
One person killed
in shooting attack near Ramallah
An Israeli citizen was killed, and three people were injured, two
of them seriously, in a shooting attack Friday near the West Bank
settlement of Ofra. Two of those injured in the attack are an American
couple in their seventies, in Israel visiting family. The militant
Palestinian group Hamas - described before the attack by U.S. Secretary
of State Colin Powell at a joint press conference with Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem as "an enemy of peace" - claimed
responsibility for the attack. It is believed that the vehicle came
under fire north of Ofra, some 7 kilometers northeast of Ramallah.
(From Ha'aretz) more
Powell
meets Sharon in Jerusalem, says will push Abbas to fight terror
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called the militant
group Hamas an enemy of peace during a troubleshooting mission to
the Middle East on Friday. "The enemy of peace has been Hamas,"
Powell said at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with Sharon,
adding that as long as the group remains committed to terror and
violence, "this is a problem we have to deal with in its entirety."
Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader, responded angrily to Powell's
comments. "This is a statement that reflects and proves that
he is a little slave to the Zionists and to his master Sharon, that
he is the real enemy of peace and justice in the world," he
said. Sharon said that he will make the best effort to achieve peace,
but stressed that Israel's security came first. "As long as
terror continues, as long as violence continues, as long as this
terrible incitement continues, there will be no progress,"
Sharon said. "There will be no peace with terror." (From
Ha'aretz ) more
Olmert
meets Intel exec to discuss new plant
Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Ehud Olmert met Intel
SVP and general manager of the technology and manufacturing group
Robert J. Baker in Santa Clara on Wednesday, June 18, 2003 to discuss
possibly expanding Intel’s (Nasdaq:INTC) activities in Israel.
They are also discussing accelerating the establishment of Intel’s
second $4 billion fab in Kiryat Gat. The Investment Promotion Center
approved Intel’s application to build a second fab, and awarded
grants a 12.5% of the investment up to $3.5 billion, above which
Intel will be ineligible for additional grants. The new fab is intended
to make next-generation processors using innovative miniaturized
technologies that are not yet used in any Intel fab anywhere. Olmert
also met Mercury Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: MERQ) president
and CEO Amnon Landan, executives of 50 venture capital executives,
and Israeli high-tech leaders in Silicon Valley to discuss other
possible investments in Israel. (From Globes) more
Jerusalem,
Haifa to host gay pride parades Friday
Jerusalem and Haifa will host gay pride parades Friday -
the 2nd annual gay community parade in Jerusalem, and the first
in Haifa. In Jerusalem the parade will start at the municipality
near Safra Square, and proceed through Jaffa Street, Shlomo Hamelech
and Agron before concluding at Independence Park. Interior Minister
Avraham Poraz and the Director of Open House, the community's center
in the city, Hagai Elad, will address the participants at the conclusion
of the parade in Independence Park. The parade in Haifa will begin
as a motorcade at 2 P.M., starting from the central bus station,
heading for Neve Sha'anan, Ahuza, Moria, the Carmel Center, and
end at the French Carmel. An event will be held at the Leo Baeck
center, with a concert. Police will provide security for the parade,
organized by the Haifa Forum for the Gay Community. (From Ha'aretz)
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