Olmert: Oslo direction was right

Speaking at special Knesset memorial session for Yitzhak Rabin, Likud Chairman Netanyahu says leadership must take stand against incitement. PM Olmert uses platform to reiterate call for major land concessions in peace talks
Amnon Meranda

The Knesset on Monday held a special session to mark 13 years since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which followed the state memorial ceremony. "Rabin was not motivated by foreign considerations," Opposition Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu said in his speech before the plenum, in an apparent jibe at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.


The Likud chairman slammed the recent partial broadcast of interviews with Rabin's killer, Yigal Amir. He spoke of the current generation of Israeli youth that has reached the age of Bar-Mitzvah, saying that the children born 13 years ago, "the children that grew up without Yitzhak Rabin. There is no reason for them to have to listen to the delusional rantings of the killer."


Netanyahu, who took part in a right-wing demonstration rife with incitement against Rabin a month before the latter was shot dead at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv, sounded markedly different in the Knesset on Monday.


"We cannot tolerate the voices that today call for attacks against the prime minister of Israel or IDF soldiers," said Netanyahu, "The lesson we all have learned is that a responsible leadership must take action against incitement. We will not allow reckless and violent instigation against law enforcement."


Olmert: Direction set by Oslo was right
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who delivered a divisive speech at the state ceremony in which he called for major concessions in the current peace talks, spoke before Netanyahu.



"I am not trying to retroactively justify the Oslo Accords, which I was against. But they defined a direction – and that direction is inevitable. After we learned to live with the guilt and pain we paid for Oslo, the ongoing terror and the disappointment with the stagnated diplomatic process, we are once again at the heart of the dispute. Now however, the time to make decisions grows closer, and we are at a precipice," said Olmert.



"Any government will have to tell the truth, and that truth, unfortunately, will require us to tear away many parts of the homeland, in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.


"Anyone who thinks we can evade making a decision and continue to build ties with Arab and Muslim
countries, as we are doing today – is living in a dream," he said.


Speaking of the domestic conflict in Israel, 13 years after Rabin's murder, Olmert warned that "the incitement hasn't lessened. The instigation hasn't decreased, and the hatred hasn't faded. Israeli citizens cruelly beat Palestinians who seek to harvest their olives, as they have done for hundreds of years in the places they and their families have lived. Young Israelis, overwhelmed by messianic dreams that have no foundation in the reality of our lives – beat our soldiers, break their bones and threaten their lives – and there is no end."

Al-Zahar rejects possibility of long-term truce with Israel

Day after Hamas leader Haniyeh says Islamic group will never accept Palestinian state unless it means return to '67 borders, another top Hamas official says movement has no intentions of implementing far-reaching ceasefire as 'there is no one to talk to on the Israeli side'
Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Hamas will not implement a long-term truce with Israel for the time being, a senior official of the Islamist organization said Sunday.

The offer "was not cancelled," Mahmoud al-Zahar said, but added that there was "no room to implement it for the time being since "there is no one to talk about this proposal with on the other (Israeli) side."


He said a long-term truce was "a project that can be developed when there are intentions."


The Hamas long-term truce offer was first made by the organization's late spiritual advisor, Ahmed Yassin, who suggested a 20-year-long ceasefire, without recognizing the Jewish state's right to exist, in return for an Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.


Zahar's remarks were made a day after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said his government could accept a Palestinian state if it only in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem - territories Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.


Haniyeh made his statements at a meeting with 11 European parliamentarians who sailed into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to 'break' Israel's blockade on the territory.


He said Israel rejected his offer, which also included a long-term truce.


A June 19 truce between Israel and the Gaza militant groups, Hamas included, was severely battered this week after Israel killed six gunmen when it destroyed a tunnel being dug under the Gaza-Israel border, and the armed groups responded with rocket barrages on southern Israel

Blackouts in Gaza after Israel stops fuel

Fuel shipments halted Wednesday following rocket attacks on Negev; Palestinian official says Strip will be plunged into total darkness Monday if shipments aren't resumed
Ali Waked and AP

Gaza residents are experiencing sporadic electricity blackouts, and Palestinian officials are blaming Israel for cutting off fuel shipments to their power plant. Israeli military administration spokesman Peter Lerner says the Palestinians warned their Gaza City electricity plant would run out of fuel Monday if shipments aren't resumed. He said the shipments were stopped last Wednesday because of Palestinian rocket attacks.


Kanan Obeid, chairman of Gaza’s Hamas-run Energy Authority, also said the Strip would be plunged into total darkness unless the fuel shipments are resumed.



According to him, one of the power plant's turbines has already been deemed inoperative, and the remaining turbines will stop functioning on Monday.


Obeid said there was no foreseeable solution to the fuel shortage, adding that Israel's policy was aimed at shutting the power plant down.


The Israeli Defense Ministry said Sunday no decision has been made about renewing the fuel supplies. The Gaza City plant provides about a quarter of Gaza's electricity. Most of the rest comes directly over lines from Israel. Egypt also provides a small amount.

U.N.: World powers line up for another Saudi-led "dialogue" charade

Dhimmi Watch

Another Saudi-led meeting on "cultural and religious tolerance" that, interestingly, is not being held in Saudi Arabia. This one seeks an additional veneer of legitimacy under the United Nations banner, but only serves to further diminish any remaining shred of moral authority the U.N. itself has in this area. "Critics Say U.N. 'Culture of Peace' Meeting Hides Culture of Oppression," by Jennifer Lawinski for Fox News, November 6: Critics are blasting the United Nations for hosting a meeting to talk about religious and cultural tolerance sponsored by Saudi Arabia, a country in which the U.S. government has said religious freedom is non-existent.

Following up on an interfaith meeting they held in Madrid in July, the Saudis asked the United Nations to hold a meeting on the "Culture of Peace," but some think it’s a move to lend support to the defamation of religions resolution that the world body will vote on this fall.

Would they be offended if someone in attendance regarded George Orwell as a prophet?

The U.N. General Assembly will host the Culture of Peace meeting initiated by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in New York on Nov. 12-13.

The White House announced on Wednesday that President Bush will attend the meeting on Nov. 13, and will also meet with King Abdullah while in New York.

"The President appreciates King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia's initiative in calling for this dialogue and remains committed to fostering interfaith harmony among all religions, both at home and abroad," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

Israeli President Shimon Peres will also attend the conference. Peres supports a Saudi-sponsored plan to make peace between Israel and the Arab world, but it is unclear if the two nations will discuss the plan while in New York, the Associated Press reported.

Jordan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Kuwait, the Philippines and Finland have also agreed to attend.

The Assembly President, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a Catholic priest, invited all member nations and observers, including the Vatican, to attend the meeting which it called a "useful prepatory step" towards an interfaith and intercultural meeting it will hold in 2010.

Enrique Yeves, Spokesman of the Presient of the General Assembly Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann said that the meeting will focus on more than religious dialogue — the topic of the Madrid meeting — and also touch on cultural issues.

"This is not a meeting on religious dialogue only it is about dialogue among cultures," Yeves said. "I don’t' know who has called it interfaith because its official name is Culture for Peace. For some reason most people, especially in the media, believe that it is only on religious dilalogue but it is further than that."

Critics say that Saudi Arabia's track record on religious tolerance and human rights shows that its dialogue initiative is just talk. The State Department has considered it a "country of particular concern" since 2004, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom considers religious freedom to be non-existent in the Arab kingdom.

"We'd like to see a conference like this take place inside Saudi Arabia and the fact that it isn't speaks volumes. That's true of the Madrid conference and true of the one at the U.N.," said commission chairwoman Felice Gaer.

The practice of religions other than Islam, and Wahhabi Islam in particular, in Saudi Arabia is forbidden, so religious leaders of other faiths could not go to Saudi Arabia, she said.

There are between two and three million non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia, Gaer said, and most are expatriate workers from foreign countries who "have to sign labor contracts requiring them essentially to waive their human rights to freedom of religion and to submit themselves to rather abusive treatment."

Churches are also forbidden in the country.

Saudi Arabia ranks second on the Open Doors 2008 World Watch List of countries that persecute Christians and the State Department has classified it a "country of particular concern" when it comes to violating the right to religious freedom....

But they're engaging in "dialogue!" So they must be taking concrete steps on the ground as well... right?

Mashaal: Ready to talk to Obama

Sky News quotes Hamas politiburo chief of calling for 'open-minded' dialogue, stressing that American administration must deal with them if it wants to deal with the region
Ynetnews

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal reported his group is ready to dialogue with US President-Elect Barack Obama, according to an interview with Sky News on Saturday. The organization's politiburo chief met with the British news agency in Damascus.


"We are ready for dialogue with President Obama and with the new American administration with an open mind, on the basis that the American administration respects our rights and our options," Sky News quoted Mashaal as saying. "The American administration, if they want to deal with the region, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict, they have no other option than deal with Hamas because we are a real force on the ground, effective... And we are a movement that won a majority of votes in the election. Second of all, it's not right that Hamas poses any danger to anyone," he said in his interview.



According to the British news agency, Mashaal expressed optimism now that Obama had been elected, saying that "there is no doubt that the recent American election is a big change when you get an American president with African roots... It's a big change - political and psychological - and it is noteworthy."


Dialogue across the region

A day earlier, Syrian President Bashar Assad also called for dialogue, as he congratulated Obama on his election a mere two weeks after U.S. planes raided Syria.



The state news agency said Assad sent a congratulatory telegram to Obama "expressing hope that dialogue would prevail to overcome the difficulties that have hindered real progress toward peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East".



Syrian officials say privately that under Obama they expect change in what they see as Washington's hardline policy toward Syria and support for peace talks between Syria and Israel.



AP contributed to this report

European MPs reach blockaded Gaza by sea

65-foot boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists, European politicians docks in Strip in protest of Israeli sanctions imposed on Hamas. British MP: Even prisoners have rights, rights to have food and medicine and to live in dignity. People here in Gaza don't have those rights
AFP

A boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and European politicians was allowed to dock in Gaza on Saturday despite a strict Israeli blockade, in the third such voyage in less than three months. The 20-metre (65-foot) "Dignity" arrived in Gaza at 9:30 am after departing from Cyprus on Friday to protest against the Israeli sanctions imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007.


On board were 11 European politicians, most of them British, and activists of the US-based Free Gaza Movement who last month completed a second successful attempt to reach the Gaza Strip.


The ship, flying the flags of several countries including Britain, the United States and Canada alongside Palestinian flags, was greeted with little fanfare by Hamas officials and police forces, but few civilians.


The politicians plan to visit hospitals to deliver a ton of medical supplies and three scanners for use in treating spinal injuries.


They also plan to meet some of the 700 students who have been denied the right to leave Gaza and study at universities that have accepted them.


'Many more boats can come'

In addition to the British politicians, parliamentarians from Italy, Switzerland and Ireland also made the overnight voyage.


"Even prisoners have rights, rights to have food and medicine and to live in dignity. People here in Gaza don't have those rights," Lord Nazir Ahmad, Labor member of Britain's House of Lords and head of the delegation, told AFP.


British MP Clare Short, a former minister for international development, said upon arrival that "our governments are shameful in that they don't hold up international law and say to Israel the siege is illegal and must be broken."


"We came on this boat and many more boats can come, and that is what they must do," she added.


The voyage is the third such trip by the Free Gaza Movement in as many months to protest against the Israeli sanctions imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007.


Israel had warned the activists ahead of the two previous journeys not to enter the closed military zone it maintains around the Gaza Strip, but it did not obstruct either voyage.


Israel has sealed Gaza off from all but limited humanitarian aid since Hamas -- which is sworn to destroying the Jewish state -- drove out forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a week of deadly street fighting.

Netanyahu offers new peace vision

Likud chairman meets US secretary of State Rice, tells her he intends to adopt peace model that combines diplomatic success with economic cooperation; peace vision premised on grassroots level progress, Bibi says
Roni Sofer

Wooing centrist voters: Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu told United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday that he intends to adopt a new peace model should he be elected as Israel's next prime minister. Netanyahu told Rice his model will combine diplomatic peace with economic peace, coupled with "accelerated development." He stressed that the peace model will be premised on improvement on the grassroots level and that would then move up to the leadership level.


The Likud chairman was referring to economic and trade ties between Israel and its neighbors that would ultimately prompt peace on the diplomatic front as well. His meeting with Rice in Jerusalem lasted 45 minutes.


During the meeting, the opposition chairman also expressed his gratitude to the Bush Administration, and specifically to the secretary of the state, for the American efforts to advance the Middle Eastern peace process. The two figures also discussed the Iranian threat.


Earlier Friday, the Iranian nuclear threat was also addressed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who said that Israel is convinced that Tehran is still pursuing nuclear weapons, while simultaneously deceiving the world via negotiations.



Speaking after his own meeting with Rice, Barak said he believed that the leaders of the free world are aware of these developments, which must be taken into account in any future decision.



"As for Israel, we have said before that all options are open," he said.

Left-wing activists smuggle Palestinians out of Gaza

Activists who sailed to Gaza in hopes of 'breaking' naval blockade set off back to Cyprus, taking seven Palestinians with them
Roi Mandel and AP

The human rights activists who traveled to Gaza in an effort to defy the naval blockade on the Hamas-ruled coastal strip departed for Cyprus on Thursday afternoon. The activists say seven Palestinians, including five children, are also on board. It's unclear if the IDF will attempt to stop the boats. The Palestinians on board included a father and his 16-year-old son, who hopes to be fitted with an artificial leg abroad. The activists earlier claimed they would also take with them Palestinian students who were denied exit from Gaza on security grounds. The activists assert Israel does not have the right to prevent the exit of Palestinians from the Strip.


The activists sailed into Gaza last weekend to protest Israel's blockade, imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the Strip in a bloody coup.



Hawida Araf, a law professor at al-Quds University and one of activists who sailed to Gaza, told Ynet that she and her group are prepared for the possibility of Israel forcibly preventing their journey. "They have no other way to keep us from leaving here with Palestinians who have already received visas and who have been accepted into European schools. It is their right," she said.



The activists said they waited for an answer from Cypriot authorities, as some of the Palestinians do not have entry visas to the country.


'Only civilians can break the siege'

The only Israeli in the group, Minnesota-born Jeff Halper, said taking the Palestinians out would prove the true test of the activists attempt to break the siege. Halper, who was arrested upon his return to Israel, was released on bail.



"We have no objection to Israel inspecting these ships, and we are aware of Israel's security concerns. But so long as Israel doesn't put forward the evidence proving why the Palestinians can't leave, it cannot deny people freedom of movement. That is a human rights violation, not to tell someone what he is being suspected of. Otherwise it's a totalitarian regime," said Halper.



Halper decided not to return to Cyprus with the rest of the activists. "I realized that the State is apparently planning to indict me, and so therefore I can't sail back to Cyprus. I took this into account when I did what I did. I wanted to say that peace, and the connection between peoples, cannot be restricted by a military order."



Halper noted that peace activist Abie Nathan, who died at the age of 81 on Wednesday, was also taken to court for his actions. "Abie met with Yaser Arafat, and was jailed twice. Today the president and the prime minister are eulogizing him. So the situation then was exactly as it is now. Nathan believed that as a citizen, he had do get up and do something, even if he had to pay a price for it. If people had listened to him then, maybe the occupation could have been prevented, or there would have been peace with Egypt and Israel could have been spared thousands of fatalities.

European PolticiansSail to Gaza

Third sailing protest sets off from Cyprus towards Strip with 11 politicians from UK, Switzerland, Italy in tow. 'We want to challenge failure of our gov'ts to uphold Geneva convention,' says British MP
Reuters

Eleven European politicians set sail to Gaza from Cyprus on Friday after saying attempts to get to the Palestinian territory via Egypt failed. Members of parliament from Britain, Ireland, Switzerland and Italy left the Mediterranean island on a boat arranged by a pro-Palestinian group.


"We were going to witness the living conditions in Gaza. We were not allowed through the Rafah crossing so we are going by boat because it is the only way to get in," said British MP Clare Short.



The parliamentarians said they expected to arrive in Gaza early on Saturday. It is the third time the US-based Free Gaza Movement has sailed from Cyprus to Gaza since August.



Israel has repeatedly announced that it would prohibit the group's boats from arriving at their destination, but the two previous sails have been successful. Angela Godfrey-Goldstein of the Free Gaza Movement told Ynet that this was good news.



"We are very pleased, and I believe people in Gaza are pleased as well and hope that Gaza's sea border remains open from now on."



The sea-goers are taking a metric ton of medical supplies and three medical scanners used for spinal injuries, said Arafat Shoukri, 37, a doctor based in Britain.



"We are taking very basic medical supplies like paracetamol and painkillers. We were shocked when we got the list from the Health Ministry in Gaza, it means they don't have anything," Shoukri said.



Short, a former minister in Tony Blair's government, said: "We want to witness the living conditions of these people, challenge the siege, and challenge the failure of our governments to uphold the Geneva convention. The whole of the EU is colluding to what is taking place in Gaza to our shame."



Organizers of the boat shuttle said more activists would travel to Gaza in mid-December, and a boat of European musicians would travel there in January.

Rice denies Annapolis peace push failed

During Ramallah news conference US secretary of state says she is certain if Palestinians, Israelis stay on Bush-endorsed track peace will be achieved; Abbas says he hopes Obama administration will begin tackling Mideast issues immediately
Reuters

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday denied the Israeli-Palestinian peace process sponsored by US President George W. Bush was a failure, saying it should lay the ground for an eventual deal. Launched nearly a year ago at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, the negotiations were hampered from the start by violence and bitter disputes over Jewish settlement building and the future of Jerusalem.

"We knew ... That if that agreement was not reached by the end of the year, there would be those that would say that the Annapolis process, the negotiations, had failed. In fact, it is quite the opposite," Rice told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.


"While we may not yet be at the finish line, I am quite certain that if Palestinians and Israelis stay on the Annapolis course, they are going to cross that finish line and can do so relatively soon," she added.


The White House acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that Bush's goal of a deal on Palestinian statehood before he leaves office in January was "unlikely" to be achieved.


Abbas and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made public commitments to Rice to continue the negotiations, which the secretary of state insisted had narrowed the gaps between the two sides.



Barack Obama, who won the US presidential election on Tuesday, takes office on Jan. 20 but it is unclear how soon he will engage in Middle East peacemaking. Rice on Thursday said it was an "open question" how the Bush administration would hand over the matter to Obama's team.



"We hope that the new administration will begin immediately tackling the Middle East issue so we would not waste time," Abbas told reporters.


He also said he complained to Rice about continued Israeli settlement building, "incursions" into Palestinian areas and what he called a "dangerous escalation" in attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.


US officials attributed the failure to reach an agreement this year to Israel's decision to hold an early parliamentary election, scheduled for Feb. 10.


With Abbas at her side, Rice cautioned Israel about continued building activity in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling it damaging to peace prospects.

The Campaign Autopsy

Charles Krauthammer
Friday, November 7, 2008

In my previous life, I witnessed far more difficult postmortems. This one is easy. The patient was fatally stricken on Sept. 15 -- caught in the rubble when the roof fell in (at Lehman Brothers, according to the police report) -- although he did linger until his final, rather quiet demise on Nov. 4. In the excitement and decisiveness of Barack Obama's victory, we forget that in the first weeks of September, John McCain was actually ahead. Then Lehman collapsed, and the financial system went off a cliff.

This was not just a meltdown but a panic. For an agonizing few days, there was a collapse of faith in the entire financial system -- a run on banks, panicky money-market withdrawals, flights to safety, the impulse to hide one's savings under a mattress.

This did not just have the obvious effect of turning people against the incumbent party, however great or tenuous its responsibility for the crisis. It had the more profound effect of making people seek shelter in government.

After all, if even Goldman Sachs was getting government protection, why not you? And offering the comfort and safety of government is the Democratic Party's vocation. With a Republican White House having partially nationalized the banks and just about everything else, McCain's final anti-Obama maneuver -- Joe the Plumber spread-the-wealth charges of socialism -- became almost comical.
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We don't yet appreciate how unprecedented were the events of September and October. We have never had a full-fledged financial panic in the middle of a presidential campaign. Consider. If the S&P 500 were to close at the end of the year where it did on Election Day, it will have suffered this year its steepest drop since 1937. That is 71 years.

At the same time, the economy had suffered nine consecutive months of job losses. Considering the carnage to both capital and labor (which covers just about everybody), even a Ronald Reagan could not have survived. The fact that John McCain got 46 percent of the electorate when 75 percent said the country was going in the wrong direction is quite remarkable.

However crushing the external events, McCain did make two significant unforced errors. His suspension of the campaign during the economic meltdown was a long shot that not only failed, it created the McCain-the-erratic meme that deeply undermined his huge advantage over Obama in perception of leadership.

The choice of Sarah Palin was also a mistake. I'm talking here about its political effects, not the sideshow psychodrama of feminist rage and elite loathing that had little to do with politics and everything to do with cultural prejudices, resentments and affectations.

Palin was a mistake (" near suicidal," I wrote on the day of her selection) because she completely undercut McCain's principal case against Obama: his inexperience and unreadiness to lead. And her nomination not only intellectually undermined the readiness argument. It also changed the election dynamic by shifting attention, for days on end, to Palin's preparedness, fitness and experience -- and away from Obama's.

McCain thought he could steal from Obama the "change" issue by running a Two Mavericks campaign. A fool's errand from the very beginning. It defied logic for the incumbent-party candidate to try to take "change" away from the opposition. Election Day exit polls bore that out with a vengeance. Voters seeking the "change candidate" went 89 to 9 for Obama.

Which is not to say that Obama did not run a brilliant general election campaign. He did. In its tactically perfect minimalism, it was as well conceived and well executed as the electrifying, highflying, magic carpet ride of his primary victory. By the time of his Denver convention, Obama understood that he had to dispense with the magic and make himself kitchen-table real, accessible and, above all, reassuring. He did that. And when the economic tsunami hit, he understood that all he had to do was get out of the way. He did that too.

With him we get a president with the political intelligence of a Bill Clinton harnessed to the steely self-discipline of a Vladimir Putin. (I say this admiringly.) With these qualities, Obama will now bestride the political stage as largely as did Reagan.

But before our old soldier fades away, it is worth acknowledging that McCain ran a valiant race against impossible odds. He will be -- he should be -- remembered as the most worthy presidential nominee ever to be denied the prize.

letters@ charleskrauthammer.com

So, nu, can we?

AMIR MIZROCH and HERB KEINON , THE JERUSALEM POST

It was the signature line of the Obama campaign, a line that said nothing but signified everything: "Yes, we can."

It was a line that US President-elect Barack Obama, preacher-like, majestically weaved through his early campaign speeches; a line he used as a refrain to build up, crescendo-like, to the conclusion of his victory speech.

It was a line that appeared in blue placards by the thousands at Obama rallies and that was put to music in a video featuring A-list celebrities. And now, with the election come and gone and the long, arduous campaign finally over, millions of Americans and people from around the world will be asking, "So, nu, can we?" Or, more accurately, "Can he?" Can he really, as promised, change the system, repair the world and transform the way Washington does business?

Israel is one place where that question is being asked with particular interest and concern, simply because our fate and the fate of the US are so intertwined. Here government officials and the average Rafi will be asking - each in their own way - the question of moment: Can we count on Obama?

In other words, first of all, can we count on maintenance of the current level of US support and assistance?

Yes, we can. Even if, in an impossible-to-imagine worst-case scenario, Obama wanted to fundamentally change the US-Israeli relationship, it is unlikely he would be able to do so.

Eran Lerman, director of the Israel and Middle East Office of the American Jewish Committee, has pointed out that Obama does want to fundamentally change the US, to reform the country. To do that, he is going to need to go to Capitol Hill and build coalitions. And coalition-building in Washington is good for Israel because Israel has many friends on the Hill who could be expected to link one issue to the next.

Can we trust an Obama administration to stand by us in our time of need?

Yes, we can. Unless, of course, we elect an extreme right-wing government that - completely unprovoked - initiates a war with the entire Arab world.

Can we fly over Iraqi airspace to hit Iran's nuclear facilities?

No, we can't.

Can we ask America to look the other way while our jets find another way into Iran?

No, we can't.

Can we expect America to do the job for us in Iran?

No, we can't.

Can we count on American early warning systems ahead of Iranian missile launches?

Yes, we can. In fact, they are already here. We can also expect the 120 US soldiers operating that system to keep their eyes on our air force, so that there are no surprises, like a sudden, massive flight eastward.

Can we expect America to negotiate with Iran without preconditions?

Yes, we can, and we are not going to like it.

Indeed, the first public signs of disagreement on this issue emerged Thursday when Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made clear Israel was opposed to those direct contacts at this time. She said on Israel Radio that Obama's stated readiness to talk to Iran was potentially counterproductive to efforts to persuade Teheran to curb its nuclear program.

"We live in a neighborhood in which sometimes dialogue - in a situation where you have brought sanctions, and you then shift to dialogue - is liable to be interpreted as weakness," she said.

Can we expect America to continue leading the efforts to impose sanctions on Iran?

Yes, we can. In fact, there are those who argue that the sanctions tool will be much more effective in Obama's hands than it was in the hands of President George W. Bush.

According to this argument, the night Obama won the election, America's stature in Europe went up 25 percent. There are players in Europe who didn't want to cooperate with Bush, simply because he was Bush, but who will have an interest in getting off on the right foot with Obama. One way to do this would be to forcefully back US economic sanctions. The question is whether Obama will make it a priority.

Can we expect continued forbearance if Israel continues to drag its feet on removing settlement outposts to avoid a confrontation with far-right settlers?

No, we can't. The new administration is unlikely to take as patient or subdued a stance to Israel's unwillingness, or inability, to carry out commitments it made to the US.

Can we expect Obama to engage in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking issues early on in his administration?

Yes, we can... and no, we can't. While it is likely Obama will set up a Middle East team relatively early, it is unlikely it will have too much to do before late spring or early summer, primarily because it will have to wait to see who Israel elects, and what kind of government is set up.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910057982&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Ahmadinejad to Obama: Restore Palestinian rights

Iranian president sends congratulatory telegram to US president-elect Obama. ‘We hope new government can fulfill its people's demand to distance itself from present statesmen's wrong approaches,’ he says
Dudi Cohen

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a congratulatory telegram to United States president-elect Barack Obama on his presidential victory, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported Thursday. IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as calling on Obama to make significant changes to America's approach to its role in the world.
Middle Eastern Perspective
Arabs waiting for Obama / Roee Nahmias
Roee Nahmias presents Arab world's view on American elections, Mideastern hopes for change
Full story



"You are generally expected to make a fast and clear response to the demands for basic... change in US domestic and foreign policy, which all people in the world and Americans want on top of your agenda,” the Iranian president wrote to his new counterpart.



Ahmadinejad went on to discuss his views on the extent of American involvement in the world. "They also want US intervention to be limited to its borders, especially in the Middle East. It is highly expected to reverse the unfair attitude towards restoring the rights of the Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghans,” he said.



Ahmadinejad took advantage of the opportunity to blast outgoing President George W. Bush, saying "we hope the new US government can fulfill its people's demand to distance itself from the present statesman's wrong approaches," he said.


'Short-lived opportunity'

"I hope you make the most of the chance of service and leave a good name by preferring people's real interests and justice to the insatiable demands of a selfish and indecent minority," wrote Ahmadinejad.

"You know the opportunities bestowed upon people by God are short-lived."



On Wednesday, government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham strengthened the Iranian president’s comments and called o Obama to "bring fundamental changes to the United States' approach to world questions in respect of human rights and to end the policy of domination and aggression against other countries."



Such changes could "improve the image of the United States and overcome the growing mistrust towards America," Elham said.



Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also congratulated the new president-elect and said that Obama's election is an, "evident sign" that Americans want basic changes in policy.



"We hope the new US government can fulfill its people's demand to distance itself from the present statesmen's wrong approaches," he said.



During his campaign, Obama repeatedly said that if he is elected he will weigh the option of dialogue opposite the Iranian regime.


Israeli officials are worried about this option in fear that it may harm the efforts made to isolate the Iranian government, which continues to develop its nuclear plan despite the demands made by the United Nations Security Council and NATO’s sanctions on Tehran.


http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3618948,00.html

5 Qassam rockets hit south

Palestinian terrorists fire two rockets at Sderot area; three more rockets land in open areas in western Negev; no injuries reported in rocket barrage. More than 50 rockets fired at Israel since Tuesday
Shmulik Hadad

Rocket attacks go on: Palestinian terrorists fired five Qassam rockets at Gaza-region communities Friday morning. Two rockets reportedly landed in the Sderot area, while three other rockets landed in open areas in the western Negev. No injuries were reported in the rocket barrage. The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the attack.



One of the rockets reportedly landed near a water reservoir at a southern kibbutz. Another rocket hit the fence of a western Negev kibbutz.



Meanwhile, the alert level in the south was raised ahead of the opening of the school day. Security chiefs at various regional communities urged parents to remain alert and boosted their patrols in the area.



In the southern city of Ashkelon, the municipal parents' association decided to postpone the opening of the school day in protest of the government's failure in handling ongoing rocket attacks on the city.


More than 50 rockets since Tuesday
On Thursday, four Qassam rockets were fired at Israel. No injuries were reported in the attacks. Since Tuesday, Palestinians fired a total of more than 50 rockets at Israel.


Security officials told Ynet Thursday that the next 24 hours could determine whether the Gaza Strip lull will continue. The officials said the defense establishment was preparing for any possibility.



Rocket attacks at Israel resumed this week in the wake of the IDF operation in the central Gaza Strip. The raid was meant to thwart the abduction of IDF soldiers via an underground tunnel dug by Palestinian terrorists.



Ali Waked contributed to the story

Are B’tselem’s “Impartial Statistics” Really Accurate?

During the past few years, the battle for hearts and minds has become an integral part of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. On the one side, Israel's enemies are waging a campaign to shape the messages and the data to fit their perception of "the truth". Israel, on the other side, has the IDF Spokesperson, the Foreign Ministry's Media and Public Affairs Division, and the Prime Minister's National Information Directorate. However, for various reasons, including the IDF's prohibition from about two years ago on Israeli reporters entering the Gaza Strip, there is a dearth of reliable first-hand coverage and the media is usually presented with diverse versions of events. One of the most conspicuous examples of this is the subject of the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli security forces. The Palestinians usually claim that the dead were innocent civilians, while in the Israeli version they are terrorists. The IDF and other official Israeli sources rarely issue data about how and how many Palestinians are killed. Into the breach comes B’Tselem, "The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories". The organization has established an impressive data base of individuals killed during the latest Intifada. Every Palestinian killed is noted by name, date and the circumstances surrounding his death. On October 21 the list ran to 4,757. B’Tselem’s is widely respected by the international community and its reports are often quoted by various arms of the United Nations, international organizations and the media as providing the “true facts.”

B’Tselem’s annual report summed up the statistics for Palestinians killed in 2007. According to the B’Tselem report issued on December 30, 2007, between January 1 and December 29, 2007 “the Israeli security forces killed 373 Palestinians, 53 of them minors; 290 were in the Gaza Strip, and the remaining 83 in the West Bank. At least 131, 35%, were civilians who were not fighting at the time they were killed.”

An examination of the data base appended to the report exposes many defects in fact-gathering, the deletion of pertinent facts and the omission of relevant information, as well as distortions and errors. The list was downloaded from the B'Tselem website on January 1, 2008, and analyzed by a team from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, headed by Dr. Dore Gold. Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi, formerly a lieutenant colonel in Military Intelligence, wrote the article summarizing their findings.

The B'Tselem report divided the Palestinians killed into three categories: “participated in fighting” (195), “did not participate in fighting” (119), and miscellaneous (66).

B’Tselem’s definition of “participated in fighting” is extremely narrow and relates only to Palestinians who at the time of their deaths were actively shooting, launching rockets, throwing Molotov cocktails, conducting surveillance to gather intelligence, etc. It does not include members of terrorist organizations who were not on the front line, or were on their way from one attack to another, or were involved in support for terrorism (i.e., transporting ammunition), or in planning and carrying out terrorist attacks. For example, six terrorist operatives from the Army of Islam (Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Gaza Strip) who died in a targeted killing were categorized by B’Tselem as “residents of the Gaza Strip killed while driving in a vehicle in the center of Gaza City.”

B’Tselem’s list of killed Palestinians makes almost no mention of their membership or roles in the various terrorist organizations. For example, Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin, and his replacement, Abd Aziz Rantisi, and Salah Shehade, the head of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who were responsible for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel in which hundreds of Israelis were killed, are listed as “residents of the Gaza Strip” who were “targets of assassinations” and killed when they, respectively, “left the mosque,” “were in their cars,” and “asleep.”

Dahoah-Halevi’s analysis comes up with completely different data: among the 119 Palestinians who according to B’Tselem did not participate in the fighting, 55 were terror operatives (and one was an operative in the Authority’s national-security services), 60 were uninvolved civilians and three were not killed by Israel at all. Out of the 66 “uncategorized,” he found 60 terror operatives and six civilians. B'Tselem's data did not include 19 Palestinian operatives belonging to various terrorist organizations who were killed by Israel in 2007. Final tally: out of 396 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces, 330 (83.3%) were "military operatives" and 67 (16.7%) were civililans (not 31.3%, as claimed in the B'Tselem report).

The civilians who were killed were either involved in suspicious activities such as infiltration, surveillance during fighting, hunting birds near the border, holding toy rifles, disobeying soldiers’ orders to halt, etc.; or were in a battle arena in a built-up area; or were in proximity to terrorists or rocket launchers; or were killed during the dispersal of riots; or were killed while attacking soldiers.

Information about the circumstances surrounding the deaths and terrorist organization affiliation of the names on the list was taken from the Palestinian press, Arab news sites, official Palestinian terrorist organization websites, human rights organizations websites, the official sites of the State of Israel and the Israeli media, archive material, sites of Palestinian families, sites documenting Palestinian deaths, the official sites of the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian municipalities and local councils devoting space to shaheeds, etc.


מח' מידע ואינטרנט – אגף תקשורת

Sharia finance expert warns Obama to avoid Islamic finance

Frank Gaffney speaketh truth to power: "Expert Warns Obama To Avoid Islamic Finance," by Dave Eberhart for NewsMax, November 5:

Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy warns that the president-elect should avoid financing his great society with tainted Islamic-correct petro dollars, saying their strings might be attached inextricably to the nation’s worst extremist enemies. With Barack Obama’s victory Tuesday sucking the oxygen from the air, few are focusing on Thursday, the day the U.S. Treasury Department will embrace the so-called “Shariah-Compliant Finance” or SCF.

If “Shariah” doesn’t ring any bells other than sounding foreign and somewhat ominous, it is simply the “religio-political-legal code authoritative Islam seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy,” Gaffney said.

The Treasury Department will host a “seminar for the policy community” entitled “Islamic Finance 101,” and it’s all about getting warm and fuzzy with SCF. Co-sponsoring the event is the Islamic Finance Project at Harvard Law School.

Harvard has benefitted mightily from the infusion of millions of dollars from a Wahhabi Saudi prince and his government, Gaffney said.

Yes, it’s all about money.

U.S. financial institutions, reeling from the credit crunch, are hungrily eyeballing more than $1 trillion in petrodollars, including Shariah-compliant bonds, mutual funds, mortgages, insurance, hedge funds, and real estate investment trusts.

Dow Jones Corp. has even created its own index for Islamic-correct investments: the Dow Jones Islamic Index, according to The Coalition to Stop Shariah.

Enter Uncle Sam, the always cash-strapped giant that must feed at any convenient trough these days, regardless of what strings are attached.

And what a trough it is. The global Shariah market is growing at a 15 percent pace, courtesy of the oil boom and resurgence in Islamic fundamentalism, according to the Center for Security Policy. It’s expected to more than double during the next 10 years.

Attractive chunk of available change and maybe even an imperative, but some watchdogs are ringing alarm bells.

Investors Business Daily recently examined Shariah-compliant finance and its involvement with investments and other transactions that have been structured to conform to the orthodox teachings of Islamic law.

“That means they can’t charge or earn interest, the cornerstone of our credit-driven economy,” the business publication advised. “Nor can they take any stake in ‘haram,’ or forbidden, industries, including meat and beverage producers (if they process any pork or alcohol); entertainment; gaming; and interest-based financing.

“Wall Street is jumping into this hot new market oblivious to the risks not just to the bottom line, but to national security. It knows little about Shariah law and is turning to consultants to create ‘ethical’ products to sell.

“Lost in the hype over these Muslim-friendly funds is that they must ‘purify’ their returns by transferring at least 3 percent into Islamic charities, many of which funnel funds to terrorists.”...

Towards a winning Palestinian strategy

Daoud Kuttab
Daily News Egypt

AMMAN: I must say I wasn’t surprised when I read the statements made by outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I had been informed by an Israeli friend of mine about Olmert’s dramatic conversion over the past few years, and especially last year. The statements can be seen as a refreshing vindication for Abbas’ engagement instead of confrontation. But will they be translated into real change, or will these be just more courageous statements made after a senior politician has lost power?

Olmert’s statements, made after his days in office, remind me of the many statements made by US presidents and senior officials after they left office and were no longer under the pressure of the pro-Israel lobby.

Of course, the problem for Palestinians is much more complicated. The decades of struggle and fighting produced no substantial results. On the ground, Palestinian control over their land and future has been gradually deteriorating since 1948. Palestinian efforts to attain freedom and liberty have passed through the entire ambit. From commitment to the armed struggle as the only way to liberate Palestine, to the use of diplomacy and negotiations, they passed through a partially nonviolent Intifada and a much more violent Intifada in between.

Palestinians are also starting to question the shape of the state they want to live in. Ever since the PLO was established, the Palestinian charter had specified that the inhabitants of the area need to live in a secular democratic state. But in 1988, with Yasser Arafat declaring a Palestinian state on part of Palestine, Palestinian nationalism shifted to embrace a two-state solution.

Non-stop Jewish settlements in the Palestinian part of this two-state division have rendered this territorial idea impractical and nearly un-executable.

The coming months are certainly going to force Palestinians to choose a strategy and an overall direction. The Islamic Hamas declared that Jan. 9, 2009 is the final day for President Mahmoud Abbas. According to the Palestinian interim constitution, when the term of a president ends or when he is no longer around (as was the case with Arafat), the speaker of the parliament rules the country for 60 days, during which preparations for presidential elections are to take place.

Parliament speaker Aziz Dweik is held administratively by the Israelis ever since an Israeli soldier was captured. Hamas and others are demanding Dweik and other prisoners (reportedly including Marwan Barghouthi) to be released in return for freeing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

There is, of course, a dispute irrespective of whether Abbas’ term ends on Jan. 9, or one year later, when the parliament also reaches the end of its term. Much can happen between now and then, but unless agreement is reached for early parliamentary and presidential elections, it will be difficult to see how this problem can be resolved easily.

Early elections are unlikely to take place without Hamas’ voluntary agreement. And with polls showing them not regaining a majority or winning the presidency, it is unlikely that they will voluntarily agree on early elections.

In Cairo recently, Hamas was reported to have backed down on contesting a possible extension of Abbas’ presidency.

A number of Palestinians feel it is illogical to discuss elections, the presidency or the parliament while the siege of Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank, and the illegal Jewish settlements in Palestinian lands continue unabated.

A study by the Palestine Strategy Study group calls for a serious change of discourse. It notes that terms like peacemaking, and state-building have become code words for the continuation of the status quo, in which Palestinians react, not act. This must be replaced, they argue, by “smart resistance” and “self-determination”.

The Palestinian strategy, they say, might have to resort to the decolonization strategy rather than waste time and effort on useless nation building and peace making discourse.

Naturally, the study group, made mostly of Palestinians living in occupied Palestine, calls for national unity as one of the most strategic points of power for Palestinians. Their call is not limited to Gaza and the West Bank, but, more importantly, asserts the need for Palestinians to have unified goals and strategy. The group insists that Palestinians must clarify to the Israelis and to third parties the meaning of the loss of the two-state solution.

While not agreeing on the alternative, they note that if needed, the new Palestinian strategy might have to pursue the one-state solution, and, if and when appropriate, dissolve the Palestinian Authority and let the Israelis take legal, moral and financial responsibility, thus exposing their real ongoing occupation. Their argument is summarized by the need to use strategic tools to make costly whatever option Israelis choose.

The ideas of the study group have not gathered enough steam among Palestinians. It will take some time before such ideas reach critical mass. But this 80-some-page document at least outlines in clear, logical terms a direction that Palestinians need to look at in order to get out of the decades-old policies of reacting instead of taking the initiative.

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. He is a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University in the United States. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from The Jordan Times.

IDF: Next 24 hours critical to ceasefire's future

Defense sources say rocket fire on western Negev expected on heels of IDF op in Gaza; add Israel's tolerance wearing thin, military will react if fire continues. Hamas reportedly asks Islamic Jihad to refrain from launching rockets, escalating situation
Hanan Greenberg

The next 24 hours will be crucial to ceasefire's future, a source in the defense establishment told Ynet on Wednesday night, adding that the "IDF is preparing for every possible scenario." The defense establishment is closely monitoring the escalation noted in the southern front, as dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel on Wednesday, in retaliation to the IDF's operation in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night.


Taking a Stand
Barak: We will not hesitate to strike again / Shmulik Hadad
Defense minister meets with heads of Gaza vicinity communities following latest Qassam salvo on area; says Israel has no interest in seeing ceasefire end but will act to impede any threat
Full story

The latest Qassam rocket was fired at Israel at 10 pm, landing near the security fence. No injuries or damage were reported in the shooting, which was claimed by Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades.



The defense establishment attempted to play down the unusual military operation, carried out some 270 yards into the Strip. Six soldiers were wounded during the operation, two moderately and four mildly.



The IDF stressed that the operation, dubbed "Operation Double Dare," was a surgical one, meant to curb an imminent threat. Israel, reiterated the military, has no intention of ending the ceasefire agreement, signed with the militant groups in Gaza in June.



As for the intense Qassam fire on the western Negev, a defense establishment source said that "while we expected Hamas to retaliate, we will not allow the rocket fire to become a patter. If the rocket fire does not stop, we will respond as we see fit."



Security sources added that Israel believed the rocket fire to be a limited, although broad, response to the operation, since Hamas has no interest in seeing the situation escalate once again.



A Palestinian source told Ynet that Hamas has asked Islamic Jihad to refrain from firing any more Qassam rockets at Israel. The Islamist group, it is believed, will be able to put a stop to rocket fire emanating from Gaza within a matter hours.



Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the defense establishment to keep the goods crossings between Israel and Gaza closed on Thursday as well, in light of the continued rocket fire from the Strip.



Shmulik Hadad and Ali Waked contributed to this report

Is Obama good for Israel?

President Obama will be good for Israel as long as he’s able to restore America’s power
Ron Ben-Yishai

Part one of analysis by Ron Ben-Yishai


Will President Obama be good for Israel? That’s not the right question. What should interest us is whether Obama will be good for America. If he will indeed be good for America, we shall benefit as well; if he fails, we will be in trouble. From an Israeli security perspective, the identity of the person in the White House and his attitude to Israel are secondary concerns. Since Israel’s establishment, all American presidents were ultimately pro-Israeli, because of the shared values and the deep involvement of American Jews in American politics.


Yet what is truly important to Israel’s security are the economic power and military-strategic determination that America conveys, as well as its position as a superpower on the global stage. The deterrence umbrella we gain through our deep and multilayered connection with our great friend overseas is derived from the above-mentioned factors.


The United States also grants us strategic as well as logistic-military safety net, which has already stood the test even during the terms of less sympathetic presidents, such as Richard Nixon and George Bush Sr. Moreover, we have been granted almost unconditional diplomatic support for more than 30 years now – even at times of disagreement between our governments.


America’s cultural and technological dominance allows us to integrate not only into the family of nations, but also among regional nations that see us as a foreign implant. Without all of the above, the State of Israel would be a much less safe place to live in.


The equation is a very simple one: Israel’s strategic situation improves the greater the power America conveys in the international arena, coupled with uncompromising commitment to the State of Israel’s security and wellbeing. As America’s status as a global power is mostly affected by its economic, technological, and social power, the next president’s ability to address the financial crisis in the United States is of critical importance – for us too.


This matter is much more fundamental in respect to our security than the question of whether Barack Obama deeply sympathizes with us, like Bush Jr. and McCain, or whether he balances his sympathies with his compassion for the suffering of Palestinians, as was the case with Jimmy Carter, for example.


Jewish vote cannot be ignored

Being a crafty American politician, who wishes to be elected for another term in office, Obama would not be able to ignore Israel’s existential interests and would have to take them into consideration. For example, in case he embarks on intensive diplomatic dialogue with Iran, as he said he intends to do. In his second term in office he would also have to take the positions of the Democratic camp that sent him to the White House, as well as the Jewish vote, into account.


What matters is the power and determination to be conveyed by America in the global theater. American-Iranian dialogue, for example, regardless of whether it prompts Tehran to stop uranium enrichment, would produce much more positive results for us should the president manage it from a position of economic and military strength.


The results of such dialogue would be different should the Iranians know that the US cannot really threaten them with a military stick or offer them truly tempting economic carrots.


The bottom line is as follows: The next president will be good for Israel should he be able to restore his country’s economic and diplomatic power, extract its army from the Iraqi quagmire, and leverage his election victory in order to unite the American people behind his policies. All of the above are seemingly domestic American issues, but they will indirectly affect the security of the State of Israel and its citizens.


Part two of Ron Ben-Yishai’s analysis will be published Thursday

"As It Is"

There is nothing to be said about the Obama win yesterday except that good things are wished for America. Things will play out over time. When and as it is appropriate, I will comment. From the perspective here in Israel, the important thing is to have a strong government that will speak for us effectively and defend our rights in the land. And, on this point I continue to be cautiously optimistic.

Benny Begin, who has joined Likud, held a press conference yesterday with Binyamin Netanyahu. Since his very recent announcement to run on the Likud list, he has been barraged with old media clips showing him fiercely criticizing Netanyahu for the Hevron Accord. Now he said:

"I saw that the media have taken clips from the attic that have no connection to the current reality...Adults can decide to overcome the problems of the past.

"I joined the Likud to deal with difficult challenges that lie ahead and because I want to participate and have influence in the current ideological debate.

"The reality has changed. People in Israel realize that there can no longer be illusions. The quest for diplomatic compromise has been tried by Israeli governments, and it led us nowhere but to increased violence."

Saying that he is still opposed to surrendering any of our land, Begin declared that Netanyahu was now "more mature" and the public had "reawakened from its illusions." The picture he is painting is one of a confluence of events that makes the time ripe for a real shift in this country, away from what's been happening for several years.

~~~~~~~~~~

Netanyahu, for his part, said he had made no promises to Begin ruling out negotiations with the Palestinians. What I had read earlier, however, is that he did promise that there would be no negotiations on Jerusalem, and it is to be hoped that this makes serious negotiations a nonstarter.

Of Begin, Netanyahu said, "I want help from his leadership and integrity to make the necessary changes to return security and economy and undertake an educational revolution."

~~~~~~~~~~

The issue of education, raised here by Netanyahu, is actually exceedingly critical. There is a tendency to focus on defense because if we are not secure in the land everything else becomes moot. But it is all connected.

We have been stalemated in an impossible situation for as long as we have precisely because of a failure of (secular) education in this country. The very essence of why we're here and what matters to us as a matter of right and tradition and longstanding history has been removed from the educational process. Secular schools teach world history instead of Jewish history, and multiculturalism but not Jewish values.

(This is not the case, I will note with the religious Zionist educational system -- which is why religious boys volunteer disproportionately for combat units in the army and are among our bravest and best soldiers. They understand and thus are devoted.)

The fact that people have not been taught what they need to know brings them to being casual about giving up what is ours and incapable of making our case within the world. They have lost the Jewish narrative. Once upon a time, this was not the case. The exemplar of this was David Ben Gurion. Not a religious or observant man, he knew his Bible, knew our roots in the land and how we connected to it.

And so, it is a hopeful thing indeed to hear talk about an educational revolution.

~~~~~~~~~~

Education was also uppermost in the thoughts of people within National Union and NRP as they called their press conference to announce their merger. Education, they said, would be the top priority because, according to MK Tzvi Hendel, of NU, we are dealing with "a crisis of values in politics and in every field in this country. The public understands that education is the foundation of everything."

Speaking of values, it was wonderful to hear MK Zevulun Orlev, head of NRP, say that NRP -- by merging its list with NU in order to make one large party that everyone who believes in Zionism could join -- was "sacrificing itself" (that is, its unique and long-standing identity) to better fight for the nation's "soul."

Instead of being small opposition parties, NRP and NU hope now to be part of a coalition that stands for the nation's values.

Amen to this. The implications are enormous.

~~~~~~~~~~

The party representatives present at the press conference explained that the new merged list would include two "non-kippah wearers" (i.e., representing secular nationalists), four people not on either list previously, and two women.

~~~~~~~~~~

It is, to my thinking, only a tremendous and painful loss of Jewish values that can make this possible:

Elisheva Federman -- whose home outside of Kiryat Arba was destroyed by authorities in the middle of the night -- was stopped by police and detained for interrogation yesterday. The police said they wanted to question her about assaults on police officers (throwing of stones) that took place during and after the destruction of her home by teens and young adults camping out on the site.

Said Elisheva, it was ironic that the police "are charging me with their own crimes." She reports that she and her husband Noam were thrown to the ground and lightly beaten when they were driven out of their home.

Now police insisted on taking a few strands of her hair for a DNA sample. A DNA sample? This is done when suspects face charges of serious crimes. "In this case," said a police spokesman, "because questioning had to do with assault, we took a DNA sample."

This strikes me as unmitigated nonsense. Harassment. She is not a "suspect." This is not a case of needing to prove that she committed a particular crime. The police, as far as I can determine, simply wanted information on what others had done.

The settler as criminal.

~~~~~~~~~~

Update on Beit HaShalom in Hevron: The 20 resident families have not been evacuated in spite of an order from Attorney General Mazuz saying they have to leave until the Court makes its decision with regard to the evidence brought -- that tape recording of the Palestinian seller verifying that he indeed did sell the house to Jews.

This is most likely first because 50 members of Knesset wrote a letter asking that this not be done, and then because activists in numbers had gathered at the scene.

The situation remains tense and uncertain, however.

~~~~~~

Last night and today a barrage of some 35 Kassams has been fired on Israel from Gaza, including three on Ashkelon and a few that damaged greenhouses.

As far as I can determine a good percentage of these fell before a brief IDF foray into Gaza this morning and additional rockets fell following.

The operation into Gaza consisted of special forces sent to blow up a tunnel that was being constructed to facilitate kidnappings (it would have run under the fence at the border into Israel). Our soldiers met resistance from Palestinian gunmen; in the ensuing battle, six Israeli soldiers were injured and at least six Palestinians were killed.

~~~~~~~~~~

A variety of mixed messages are now coming both from our military and Hamas:

From our side has come a statement that we want to continue the ceasefire, as the quiet benefits the communities near the Gaza border.

But at the same time there was an accompanying statement acknowledging that Hamas has been strengthening during the lull that began in June. This is maddening, for ultimately is it not in the best interest of these communities near Gaza for Hamas to grow even stronger and to have the capacity to launch attacks when they choose.

Following this was a warning: that Hamas now knows we won't sit still for every plan they have, as evidenced by the fact that we just launched this operation. And so, we are being told, our military has to be prepared for the possibility that the ceasefire might fall apart, or that, alternatively, Hamas might claim that it wants to sustain the ceasefire but then launch a terror attack.

Got all that?

Hamas, for its part, has also declared a desire to sustain the ceasefire. It really does serve its interests now. But along with this came saber rattling.

And even before this incident, Muhammad Deif, former head of Hamas's military wing surfaced to declare that Jihad would continue "until victory and martyrdom."

One senses that the days of quiet may be coming to an end, as ultimately they were bound to.

~~~~~~~~~~

Condoleezza Rice is headed our way one last time, to assess the "peace" situation. She should pack it in now. As the two parties will not be drafting an interim document assessing what gains have been made in negotiations, she will be drawing up a report for the new administration that sets out the parameters of what she perceives necessary for achieving peace.

~~~~~~~~~~
see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info