FULL ARTICLES

Friday, September 5

IDF Naval Commando Killed in Nablus

Sgt. Maj. Ra'anan Komemi, a member of the Israel Defense Forces' elite Naval Commando unit, was killed before dawn Friday in clashes with armed Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus. Four other soldiers were wounded in the incident, one of them seriously.

A senior Hamas bomb-maker, Mohammed Hanbali, who orchestrated several fatal suicide bombings and was responsible for dozens of Israeli deaths, was also killed in the clashes.

The army later blew up the seven-story building where the gunbattle took place, and some 100 Palestinians had lived.

Komemi, 23, from Moshav Aminadav near Jerusalem, was laid to rest at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem later Friday. Komemi is the fifth soldier from the Naval Commandos to be killed in action since the end of the IDF's Defensive Shield. Six years ago Friday, 13 soldiers from the same unit were killed in an operation in Lebanon.

Troops from the elite Shayetet 13 unit exchanged fire with Palestinian militants they had come to arrest in a raid in the city in the early hours of Friday morning, killing one and arresting three, witnesses said.

Hanbali, a Hamas commander in the West Bank responsible for dozens of terror attacks and topped Israel's wanted list for that region, was killed in the raid.

The troops fired four rockets at the apartment building where the gunmen - defying a call over loudspeakers to surrender - were holed up, damaging two floors of the structure after residents were ordered to leave.

Then the army sent dogs to search the building area, after which troops entered and the Palestinian gunmen fired at them, Israel Radio quoted Brigadier General Gadi Eizenkot, who commands the West Bank Division, as saying. Komemi was killed in the shooting and four others were wounded, after which troops returned fire, killed a gunman, and destroyed the building, Eizenkot said.

Several loud blasts were heard during the two-hour firefight. The IDF said the wanted men threw grenades. It was not immediately clear whom the soldiers were chasing.

Witnesses said soldiers removed the body of a Palestinian man from the building. Four residents took the man's body and laid him nearby, the witnesses said. Three Palestinians were arrested after the gun battle, residents said.

IDF blows up Nablus apartment building The building was blown up more than six hours after the gunbattle had ended because the military believed some militants might have remained hiding on top floors, said Maj. Sharon Feingold, an army spokeswoman. Feingold didn't know if additional fire had been directed at Israeli troops after the gunbattle ended.

Israeli troops had ordered about 100 residents to evacuate the structure, which housed 15 apartments, before the start of the raid. As it exploded, the building disappeared behind large brown clouds of dust and debris that covered the neighborhood.

Three Palestinians were arrested after the gunbattle, the army said.

The family of the dead Hamas leader, Hanbali, said the young man was studying for a master's degree in industrial engineering at Nablus' An Najah University. He was a Hamas leader and his father is a well-known Islamic leader in the city.

Residents of the destroyed apartment building, some of them weeping, tried to salvage whatever they could from the rubble. Eleven families lived there.

"My family is in the street," said 8-year-old Baker Sobeh, searching for some school books in the debris. Soldiers arrested his father. His mother and siblings stood in the street in their pajamas.

"I thought it would be just for a few minutes or a short while," said his mother, Mona, explaining why residents left the building with no belongings when soldiers ordered them out.

Hours after the building was destroyed, a woman in her 70s, Fatima Herzellah, couldn't bring herself to go. "I just want to be close to my place," she said through tears. Someone brought her a plastic chair to sit there beside the ruins of the building where she shared an apartment with her son and his family.

An adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Dore Gold, acknowledged that the destruction of the apartment building would bring hardships to the families that lived there.

"Nonetheless, the war we are facing now has been imposed on us," Gold said. "Israel is not seeking to be in Nablus, but is only there because the area is a constant source of terror attacks on Israeli civilians."

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Naval commando killed in clash with Palestinians in Nablus
From Ha'aretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/337214.html

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Number of Jerusalem Bus Bombing Victims Rises to 22

The number of victims of the mid-August Jerusalem bus bombing rose to 22 when Netanya resident Mordechai Laufer, 27, died from his wounds Friday morning.

Laufer fought for his life for over two weeks, while his friends from the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Kiryat Sanz prayed for his recovery. He was was the third member of the Kiryat Sanz community to lose his life in the fatal bombing aboard bus number 2 on August 19.

Laufer was a student at the neighborhoods Sanz yeshiva. His father, a well-known figure among Kiryat Sanz community, is the Sanzer Hassidic rabbi in Haifa. Laufer was ordained last summer as a rabbi, and his teachers at the yeshiva described him as one of their outstanding students.

Laufer was buried in Netanya on Friday.

More than 118 people were wounded, 40 of them children and infants, when a Hamas bomber detonated a five-kilogram device packed with ball bearings on a crowded bus on August 19, a short while after entering the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood near Jerusalem. The No. 2 bus was packed with mostly ultra-Orthodox passengers returning from prayers at the Western Wall.

The militant wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for the bombing. The organizations declared that the attack was carried out in revenge for the IDF's killings of top militants Abdullah Kawasmeh and Mohammed Sidr.

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said the day after the bombing that five of the dead were American citizens.

By Haaretz Service

Number of Jerusalem bus bombing victims rises to 22
From Ha'aretz: http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/337208.html

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Abbas Says Will Not Use Force Against Terrorists

In his speech to parliament Thursday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that he would not use force, only persuasion, in dealing
with militants.

Abbas told legislators he must be given full power to carry out reforms required by the "road map" peace plan. If the demand is met, Abbas would have a stronger hand against militants carrying out attacks against Israelis.

Abbas stopped short of seeking a vote of confidence, but said he is leaving his future in parliament's hands.

"You either provide the resources of power and support those things ... or you take it back," he told legislators.

Summing up his first 100 days in office, Abbas only hinted at his conflict with Arafat, saying there were "problems" between his government and the Palestinian leadership.

But he said that "without a legitimate force in the hands of one authority ... we will not advance one step on the political track" - a reference to the road map, which envisions the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

Parliament scheduled a closed-door session Saturday and another one for midweek to meet with Abbas and discuss his demands, after which legislators were to decide whether to hold a confidence vote. Several legislators said they hoped to avoid a vote through mediation. If a vote is called, it would likely be held next week.

Abbas' appeal is the latest chapter in a power struggle that began just after Arafat, under strong international pressure, appointed him in April. The two wrangled over Abbas' Cabinet choices and Arafat has refused to give him complete control over Palestinian security forces.

Abbas would have more sway over militant groups if he fully controlled the armed services, but Arafat doesn't want to give up one of his last concrete sources of power.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher praised Abbas for pursuing progress on the peace plan and seeking to unify security forces. The Palestinians, Boucher said, "can only get a state by ending terrorism."

The road map requires that the Palestinians dismantle militant groups.

Though Abbas has little support among Palestinians, there appears to be a widespread understanding that his ouster could deal a heavy blow to efforts toward statehood.

Israel has warned of dire consequences if Abbas is ousted, saying it will not do business with a government picked by Arafat. Several Palestinian legislators have said U.S. diplomats told them Washington might lower its profile as a Mideast mediator if Abbas is toppled.

Abbas portrayed a unilateral cease-fire, declared by the armed groups June 29, as his main achievement so far. He accused Israel of sabotaging the truce with arrest raids, and of evading its obligations under the peace plan.

Abbas said the United States did not do enough to stop what he called "Israeli provocations" during the period of relative calm.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Abbas says will not use force against terrorists
From Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1062746008177

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Korea, Israel to Cooperate on Satellites

Korea and Israel are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in satellite and space technology this year, according to sources.

Israeli Ambassador to Korea Uzi Manor made the suggestion when he met with Science and Technology Minister Park Ho-koon on Aug. 26, they said.

"There is a high possibility that an MOU will be signed at a meeting of science ministers between the two nations to be held in November in Seoul," Lee Ok-gyu, an official from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said.

Bilteral cooperation in the satellite industry has been under way between the two nations.

Israel's Elop Electro-Optics Industries Ltd. and AeroAstro Inc. is developing high-capacity cameras to be loaded on Korea's KOMSAT-II. The satellite will be launched in Russia in November next year.

By Seo Ji-eun

Korea, Israel to cooperate on satellites
From Korea Herald: http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/09/05/200309050076.asp

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Lawn Bowls for Special Sportsmen

I was amazed one afternoon to find a beautiful field with people playing lawn bowls.

Somehow the sport brings to mind sedate English gentry, and here we were on a hot Jerusalem afternoon with calls like, "Very nice, Elmaliah," or "A bit wide of the mark, Kahalani," yelled out in Hebrew.

As I looked more closely at the small crowd at the Tzipori Center in the Jerusalem Forest, I saw that there was something different about the players.

Suddenly I realized that half were blind. I spoke to the coach, Gerry Myers, a former ad translator at The Jerusalem Post, who told me he volunteers his assistance once a week.

From him I learned that the green was established more than 12 years ago by Anglos who were keen on this gentlemanly sport. There are 55 paying members in Jerusalem, and half a dozen blind players. A management committee maintains the green and sets rules. For example, the blind usually play on Thursday afternoons. They have markings on the elliptical black balls indicating their weight. A string along each lane marks the path, and the coach, standing in front of them, calls out directions. I was amazed at their skill.

Rafi Elmaliah, a former telephone operator, has been playing for several years.

"It's a very nice sport," he says."I don't get tired out at all by it."

Elmaliah explains that they sometimes participate in inter-city contests. There are blind bowlers all over the country, and their central green is in Kiryat Ono. There are also international contests. Last year the Israeli team earned two medals.

Coach Shifra Gordon, a retired librarian, was brought to the sport by a friend.

"I love it; it's so relaxing," she explains. "I forget all my troubles out here on the field."

The spirit behind the blind group is neither Gerry nor Shifra, or any of the six coaches. It is Ephraim Levi, who became blind 13 years ago.

"After I lost my sight, I had deep psychological problems," he recalls. "I didn't want to leave my house, I didn't want to do anything. My family really suffered."

Levi explains that one day he decided to take his fate into his own hands. He contacted a teacher of the blind.

"I started being sociable again," says the now gregarious former public works foreman. "I had a friend from Kibbutz Tzora who came from South Africa. He's also blind. He got me started in lawn bowls eight years ago, and now I'm the head of the blind team here."

Levi and a few others travel to Kiryat Ono every Sunday to play with 40 other blind players.

"It's lots of fun," he says, "but we couldn't do it without the help of our volunteer driver and coaches."

By Leah Abramowitz

Lawn bowls for special sportsmen
From Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1061959713792