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JPost Middle East- Analysis: Why has the West Bank been quiet? January 6, 2009
- Lebanon doubts Hizbullah will open second front January 6, 2009
- UNSC to meet on Gaza resolution January 6, 2009
- Hamas opens hospital for gunmen January 6, 2009
- Sarkozy urges Assad to press for truce January 6, 2009
- ynet - Updates for RSS
- Bush adviser: Iran, Pakistan key Obama challenges January 7, 2009
- Judge to ponder whether Bernard Madoff dangerous January 7, 2009
- Rice says US supports Mubarak proposal on Gaza January 7, 2009
- Saddam wouldn't have allowed Israel's Gaza raid, says aide January 7, 2009
- UK voices support for Egyptian ceasefire initiative January 7, 2009
- Haaretz.com - News
- ANALYSIS / Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza January 7, 2009A few days ago, Physicians for Human Rights began soliciting $700,000 in donations for hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli humanitarian organization also provided a detailed list of the medical equipment Gaza lacks, including portable monitors, respirators, ultrasound and X-ray machines, wheelchairs, needles, dressings, catheters, oxygen, medical gases, endo-tracheal tubes, screws and plates for shattered limbs, and surgical gloves. According to PHR, Gaza also has a severe shortage of intensive-care beds, which cost about $50,000 apiece. Moreover, many Palestinian ambulances are out of commission. ...
- As truce efforts grow, Israel mulls expanding Gaza ground op January 7, 2009Israel's political leadership will meet in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning to discuss expanding the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip at a time when most of the aims of the operation have been met. ...
- Rice: U.S. backs Egypt proposal for Gaza cease-fire January 7, 2009U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday Washington backed a proposal by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. ...
- Venezuelan President Chavez: Gaza operation is a Palestinian 'holocaust' January 7, 2009Venezuela expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza only hours after leftist President Hugo Chavez called the attacks a Palestinian "holocaust." ...
- Israel to establish 'humanitarian corridor' for Gaza Strip January 7, 2009Israel will set up a "humanitarian corridor" to counter a crisis caused by its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office ...
- ANALYSIS / Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza January 7, 2009
UNCONFIRMED: WAS EARTHQUAKE IN IRAN A NUCLEAR TEST?
Let me begin by saying I am hesitant to send this to you because it is an unconfirmed report, and I hope it is wrong. But I wanted you to at least be aware and we’ll track the story together in the coming days.
An Israeli news service is reporting this morning that an earthquake in Iran last weekend may have been triggered by an Iranian nuclear weapons test, citing an Iranian nuclear scientist working on the project as its source.
“This past Saturday night, southern Iran experienced what was reported as a significant earthquake - a seismic event measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale,” reports Arutz Sheva/Israel National News, attributing the story first to the Israel Insider website. “Its epicenter was just north of the strategic Straits of Hormuz, which separates Iran from Abu Dhabi and Oman and which is the gateway to the Persian Gulf. The report quotes an Iranian nuclear scientist who claims to be working in uranium enrichment for the project, and who said that the ‘quake’ was acutally an undergound nuclear bomb test. Israel Insider adds that the test/quake was actually the second in a series. Nine days ago, a 4.8 Richter scale event occurred, with its epicenter only five kilometers away from the weekend tremor. The Israel Insider source reports that two nuclear rockets are currently ready - and are intended for use against Israel in the coming months. If the report is correct, it would belie previous speculation that Iran would not begin nuclear testing until it had more nuclear-bomb production capability.”
Let me stress again that this is an unconfirmed report. While the Associated Press did report a 5.0 earthquake in Iran this past weekend, as of 7:30am eastern on Friday the allegation that the quake was connected to Iranian nuclear testing has not been picked up by other major Israeli news services such as the Jerusalem Post, Ynet, or Haaretz. At the very least, let’s keep praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and preparing to care for those in the epicenter who would be severely affected if war is coming soon.
Meanwhile, Israelis will soon head to the polls to choose a new prime minister and a new parliament (Knesset). Kadima leader Tzipi Livni was unable to put together a governing coalition to replace the outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. So Israel will hold national elections on February 10th. Livni, who is currently the country’s Foreign Minister, will square off against former Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. Please be praying that the Lord’s will would be done in Israel as well as here in the U.S. with our own critically important elections coming next Tuesday. Americans and Israelis desperately need leaders like the “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” (I Chronicles 12:32)
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Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories Spread Globally As World Markets Grapple With Financial Crisis
Conspiracy theories linking Jews and Israel to the global financial meltdown are taking on global reach as the financial crisis on Wall Street continues to affect markets around the world.
According to Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which first reported a spike in anti-Semitic postings on U.S. financial Web sites, “anti-Jewish invective and conspiracy theories are spreading globally” in European and Latin American countries and the Middle East as a result of the global economic crisis.
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One widely circulated conspiracy theory suggests that “$400 billion in funds was secretly transferred to Israeli banks” just prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other major investment banks. Launched on an anti-Semitic Web site sponsored by a Washington, DC-based Holocaust denial publication, the false rumor has ricocheted across the Internet and around the world, appearing on numerous Web sites and comment boards with few questioning its veracity or citing its origins.
“One disturbing side effect to the global economic meltdown is the resurgence of the Big Lie,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “Anti-Jewish invective and conspiracy theories are spreading globally. While it is still early, we know from experience what can happen when anti-Jewish myths gain a foothold and move from the far fringes into the mainstream.”
Mr. Foxman pointed to similarities between the “$400 billion” conspiracy theory and the myth that spread around the world after 9/11 — that “4,000 Jews” did not report for work the day of the attack on the World Trade Center � which is today believed by many around the world. “Whenever world events are difficult to explain or understand, Jews are the most convenient scapegoat,” said Mr. Foxman.
“This belief that only Jews could be responsible for something so catastrophic and damaging to the global economy plays directly into some of the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes,” said Mr. Foxman. “The idea that there is Jewish control of the banking system and the world economy has its antecedents in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Nazi-era propaganda.”
International Response: Europe and Latin America
Anti-Semitic expressions in response to the financial crisis are spreading in European and Latin American countries, with many appearing on Web sites as articles or comments from unidentified individuals who are angry and seeking to place blame for the spreading impact of the crisis. Some are accompanied by vicious anti-Semitic caricatures and images.
The following is a snapshot of the global anti-Semitic reaction that has emerged as a result of the ongoing financial crisis as compiled by ADL:
� United Kingdom: The Web site of the mainstream British newspaper, The Independent, featured in its comments section a post by a visitor identifying himself as “Errol Flynn” that repeated the claim about the alleged $400 billion transfer from Lehman Brothers to Israeli banks. In response to a second article on the economic crisis, another reader commented, “So the banks used to be Jewish-owned � has anything changed?” Both posts were eventually removed by the site’s administrators.
� Russia: The Web site of Pravda newspaper published an article arguing that French, German and Italian leaders are advocating a bailout of European banks to benefit “Rothschild, Kuhn Loeb, and other banking magnates,” a reference to well-known Jewish banking families. The article continued, “The trouble is most of Europe is sick of their Zionist puppet governments, the wrecking of the universities and the flood of third world immigration. Another Hitler, running a united Europe, could be elected in a heartbeat.”
� Germany: Some discussion forums and blogs made casual linkage between the crisis and Jews or repeated anti-Semitic stereotypes of the “money-savvy” and “financially dominating Jew.” One comment on Ariva.de, an independent provider of financial news, stated: “When it comes to money Jews are always in the say.”
� Spain: Op-eds making reference to Jews and the financial crisis appeared in diario El Pais. While the articles did not directly accuse Jews of causing the crisis, the comments section following the articles contained several anti-Semitic entries. One writer declared, “The crisis is not a financial problem but an economic one � it is what is behind this gruesome scene of savage capitalism of the Zionist students of Milton Friedman.” Additionally, several financial Web sites featured articles with anti-Jewish themes, including one stating that “Lehman’s management board is made up of Jews who were only interested in results no matter at what price.” (Cincodias.com).
� Venezuela: The host of a virulently anti-Semitic radio program claims that the fact that the U.S. Congress recessed for the Jewish High Holidays after voting on the $700 billion bailout proposal was evidence “that the U.S. government is controlled by the Jewish lobby.”
First-Temple era tunnel found in J’lem
A water tunnel dating back to the First Temple era - but that might have been used even earlier, during King David’s conquest of Jerusalem - has been uncovered in the ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.
The opening of the 3,000-year-old tunnel, which was found earlier this year during the ongoing excavations at the site, is just wide enough to allow one person to pass through, but only the first 50 meters are accessible since it is filled with debris and fallen stones, said Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig at the site.
The walls of the tunnel are composed partly of unworked stones, while other parts simply use the bedrock.
The tunnel was discovered under an immense stone structure built in the 10th century BCE that has previously been identified by Mazar as the palace of King David.
The already-existing tunnel was integrated into its construction and was probably used to channel water to a pool located on the palace’s nearby southeast side, Mazar said.
Near the end of the First Temple period, the tunnel was converted to an escape passage, perhaps used in a manner similar to King Zedekiah’s escape during the Babylonian Siege, as related in 2 Kings 25:4, she said.
At this time, additional walls were constructed to prevent the possibility of anyone entering the tunnel from the slope of the hill and to prevent penetration of debris.
During the dig, complete oil lamps were found on the ground of the tunnel, characteristic of the end of the First Temple period.
But the tunnel’s characteristics, date, and location, Mazar said, testify with “high probability” that the water tunnel is the one called “tsinor” in the story of the King David’s conquest of Jerusalem (Samuel II, 5:6-8; Chronicles I, 11:4-6).
Archeologists have previously speculated that Warren’s Shaft, also located in the City of David, was the tsinor referred to in the biblical account.
“The new discoveries in the excavations in the City of David illuminate the ancient history of Jerusalem and the reality described in the Bible,” Mazar said.
The excavation at the City of David, which is located just outside the walled Old City across the road from the Dung Gate, has proven in recent years to be a treasure trove for archeologists.
Mazar, who rose to international prominence for her excavation of King David’s palace nearby, has been at the forefront of a series of Jerusalem archeological finds, including the remnants of a wall from the prophet Nehemiah in the area, and two seal impressions belonging to ministers of King Zedekiah.
The current dig is being conducted on behalf of the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute, and the right-wing City of David Foundation, and was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The latest finding will be made public Thursday morning in an archeological symposium at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Hamas grip on Gaza hardens: peace outlook bleak.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas‘ control of the Gaza Strip is now virtually complete.
Since the summer, the Islamic militants have silenced and disarmed their remaining opponents, filled the bureaucracy with their supporters, and kept Gaza’s economy afloat, even if just barely, despite a 16-month-old international embargo and border blockades by Israel and Egypt.
With nothing in sight to weaken Hamas‘ grip, the political split between Gaza and the West Bank - the two territories meant to make up a future Palestinian state - looks increasingly irreversible.
That conclusion was also reached by the International Crisis Group, an independent think tank, in a September report describing Hamas‘ ascendancy, and the split is one of the main obstacles to U.S. efforts to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
It weakens moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in the negotiations because he isn’t seen as speaking for Gaza. Israel, Abbas and the international community don’t want a deal that leaves out the 140-square mile Gaza Strip’s and its 1.4 million Palestinians. And it’s unlikely Israel would give up the West Bank as long as Hamas is in charge in Gaza.
Undisputed rule has also improved Hamas‘ leverage ahead of power-sharing talks with Abbas‘ Fatah movement in Cairo later this month.
Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas leader, said his movement is eager to reconcile with Abbas. “If there is no pressure from the United States and Israel (on Abbas), we can build a good national unity government,” Yousef said.
However, in previous negotiations, the militants showed little willingness to give up any of their power and are unlikely to do so now.
Instead, the failure of this round of talks could set the stage for a new round in the Palestinian power struggle.
Compounding Abbas‘ troubles is a dispute with Hamas over whether Palestinian law allows him to remain in office after Jan. 8, when Hamas says his term officially ends. Abbas, relying on an amendment that was never fully ratified, claims he can stay on another year. Hamas, citing Palestinian law, is set to appoint its own man, Deputy Parliament Speaker Ahmed Bahar, as president in January.
Abbas would be hard put to portray the Islamists as usurpers of power when his own legal status is in question.
“Starting in January, no one is legitimate,” said analyst Ghassan Khatib, a former Cabinet minister in the West Bank. “And when everyone is equal in being illegitimate, the advantaged party is the one that has the strength on the ground.”
That party is Hamas, which defeated thousands of forces loyal to Abbas in a five-day blitz in June 2007.
“We believe that Hamas is going ahead with its plan to sever Gaza from the West Bank and to build its own regime,” said former Deputy Prime Minister Azzam Ahmed of Fatah. “We believe they are succeeding.”
One reason they are succeeding is the situation on the ground. Gaza City’s streets are cleaner and safer than before the takeover. Despite budget shortages, Hamas has fixed traffic lights, paved some streets and opened a new children’s hospital, and claims to have imposed law and order after the chaos that often dogged Fatah rule.
It has also been careful not to push an overtly Islamic social agenda. For example, officials have suggested to female reporters covering Gaza’s parliament that they wear head scarves, but those who don’t are not shunned.
Still, one-party rule has made dissenters reluctant to talk openly, especially after hundreds of Fatah activists were rounded up over the summer.
Hamas now controls every aspect of daily life, from screening visitors at a new border checkpoint to running what the International Crisis Group described as a network of paid and volunteer informers.
Hamas has seized opportunities to neutralize opponents.
A July bombing blamed on Fatah gave Hamas a pretext for shutting dozens of offices of Fatah and related associations. Hamas policemen guard the now empty former Fatah headquarters.
“Everything has been taken over and there is nothing left for Fatah in the Gaza Strip,” said Hazem Abu Shanab, a Fatah spokesman who spent nearly two months in Hamas custody after the July blast.
The bombing also provided the grounds to go after one of Hamas’ last armed rivals, the Fatah-allied Hilles clan. In August, Hamas defeated Hilles fighters in a clash, sending dozens into exile and arresting others.
Ahmed Hilles, 24, a mechanic, said he was ridiculed in Hamas custody. “They told us we were defeated,” said Hilles, adding that he believes Hamas is now too powerful to fight.
Strikes by teachers and health workers, called by West Bank union leaders in August in an apparent attempt to pressure Hamas, have backfired. Hamas fired thousands of the teachers, replacing them with university graduates, and forced most doctors back to work.
Not all the new teachers are necessarily Hamas loyalists, but even those without political ties feel increasingly indebted to the Islamists.
“I am not a Hamas member, but I think they have done many good things since they took over,” said Abu Khaled, 35, a newly hired math teacher.
Economically, Hamas is surviving.
International sanctions can’t block the inflow of money from Iran and donations from Muslims worldwide. At the same time, Abbas, Israel and the international community don’t want to push Gaza over the brink by fully enforcing the embargo.
“The embargo is working, but not to the extent that we want it to work, and not to the extent that everybody is keeping up the pressure on Hamas,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron.
Abbas, for example, continues to pay the salaries of some 70,000 civil servants in Gaza, in exchange for staying loyal and refusing to work for the Hamas government. Such loyalty, and with that Abbas’ main link to Gaza, would likely disappear if the money stopped coming.
Yet the salaries help prop up Gaza’s economy, and thus Hamas rule.
In addition, Hamas has about 20,000 people on its payroll, and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh last month cited a monthly operating budget of $20 million. The money is scraped together by smuggling cash, laundering money and stepping up tax collection. There’s even enough left over for occasional unemployment payments.
Gazans are also feeling safer these days because of a cease-fire that has stopped Israel’s attacks on wanted militants in Gaza and salvoes of Palestinian rockets on Israeli border towns. Israel agreed to the truce in June despite concerns that Hamas would use it to bring in more weapons, and has eased the blockade, allowing in more trucks carrying food and humanitarian supplies.
Life is also made more bearable by the unhindered influx of goods, from weapons to food and medicines, through dozens of Hamas-supervised smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
For example, the underground trade has brought down the price of a pack of Marlboro cigarettes to $3, down from $8.30 a year ago.
Politically, through, the future looks gloomy, the International Crisis Group said.
“Reversing the drift toward greater Palestinian separation, both political and geographic, will be a difficult and, at this point, almost hopeless task,” said the think tank, which specializes in areas of conflict and has been monitoring the rise of Hamas in Gaza.
“In Gaza, new realities are taking hold,” it added. “Prospects for reconciliation, reunification and a credible peace process seem as distant and illusory as ever.”
KARIN LAUB
Associated Press writers Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah contributed to this report.
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
Researchers may have found King Solomon’s mines
(CNN) — Archaeologists believe a desert site in Jordan may contain the ruins of the elusive King Solomon’s Mines.
The mines have been the subject of films, including “King Solomon’s Mines,” starring Patrick Swayze.
Researchers using carbon dating techniques at Khirbat en-Nahas in southern Jordan discovered that copper production took place there around the time King Solomon is said to have ruled the Israelites.
The research findings were reported in this week’s issue of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which came out Monday.
King Solomon is known in the Old Testament for his wisdom and wealth and for building the First Temple in Jerusalem.
The fabled mines entered popular culture in 1885 with the publication in Great Britain of the bestselling “King Solomon’s Mines” by Sir H. Rider Haggard. In the book, adventurers in search of the mines find gold, diamonds and ivory.
Since then, the mines have been the the subject of several films. Yet their possible location — and whether they exist at all — remains cloaked in mystery.
Thomas Levy of the University of California San Diego, who led the research, said carbon dating placed copper production at Khirbat en-Nahas (Arabic for ‘Ruins of copper”) in the 10th century — in line with the biblical narrative of Solomon’s rule.
“We can’t believe everything ancient writings tell us,” Levy said in a university statement. “But this research represents a confluence between the archaeological and scientific data and the Bible.”
Khirbat en-Nahas is an arid region south of the Dead Sea, in Jordan’s Faynan district. The Old Testament identifies the area with the Kingdom of Edom.
As early as the 1930s, archaeologists linked the site to the Edomite kingdom, but some of those claims were dismissed in subsequent years.
“Now … we have evidence that complex societies were indeed active in 10th and 9th centuries BCE and that brings us back to the debate about the historicity of the Hebrew Bible narratives related to this period,” Levy said
Top commander: Iran arming Mideast ‘freedom armies’
Not only our armed forces are self sufficient, but freedom armies of region get part of their weaponry from us,’ Revolutionary Guards chief says
Iran is arming “freedom armies” in the Middle East, according to a top commander of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards quoted Sunday by a military website.
“Today, not only our armed forces are self sufficient but the freedom armies of the region get part of their weaponry from us,” said Hossein Hamedani, deputy commander of Iran’s volunteer Basij militia.
His comments appeared on the public relations website of the Revolutionary Guards, of which the Basij militia forms a part.
Like those of the Revolutionary Guards, commanders of the militia are appointed by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hamedani whose military rank was not provided, did not elaborate further on what he meant by “freedom armies.”
But Iran has dubbed Palestinian groups such as the Islamist movement Hamas and the hardline Islamic Jihad as well as the Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbullah as “freedom armies” since all have vowed to fight Tehran’s regional arch-foe, Israel.
Tehran has always maintained that its support to these groups is merely “moral” and that it does not provide them with any military means, despite claims to the contrary by Washington.
After Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, Shiite majority Iran has been accused by the US of providing arms to Shiite insurgents in Iraq, an allegation that has been denied by Tehran.
IDF kills Palestinian holding Molotov cocktail
In third such incident in three days, soldiers open fire at three Palestinians carrying Molotov cocktails northwest of Ramallah, injuring one of them. Palestinian sources say 19-year-old man died of his wounds at hospital.
Third Palestinian killed in three days: A Palestinian holding a Molotov cocktail was shot Wednesday night by an IDF force in the village of Kufr Malik, northwest of the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Ramallah hospital reported that the man died of his wounds.
Two other Palestinians carrying Molotov cocktails were killed by IDF soldiers in the past three days.
The army reported that a force belonging to the Kfir Brigade spotted three Palestinians, two of them about to hurl incendiary bombs. The soldiers fired at them, identifying a hit. There were no injuries among the soldiers.
Palestinian sources reported that the man killed was 19-year-old Aziz al-Haj, who was shot in his leg and was left to bleed for a long time before being rushed to the Ramallah hospital, where he died of his wounds.
Three wanted Palestinian terror suspects were arrested by the IDF in the West Bank on Wednesday night.
Two of the suspects were detained in the Nablus area and the third was arrested near Bethlehem. They were all taken in for questioning by the security forces.
Muhammed al-Ramahi, 17, was critically wounded on Wednesday evening after being shot by IDF troops in the Jilazun refugee camp near Ramallah. He was evacuated by Palestinian paramedics to the Ramallah hospital, but died of his wounds in the late evening hours.
The army said the soldiers opened fire after the youth hurled a Molotov cocktail.
The incident occurred in close proximity to where 16-year-old Abdel Rahman Badwi was killed on Tuesday under similar circumstances. Badwi and two other youths had been pelting Israeli cars with rocks and, the army said, Molotov cocktails.
Thousands attended Badwi’s funeral on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority continues to maintain that the incidents are not part of a renewed intifada, and accuses the IDF of creating provocations.
A PA official from Ramallah told Ynet that the army was conducting patrols in the refugee camp with no apparent reason, and this in turn provokes youths to attack the troops – a phenomenon which has faded in recent years.
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