Haaretz news today:Monday, January 26, 2009
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Last update - 19:33 26/01/2009
Fatah: No Israel-Hamas truce until Palestinian factions reconcile
By The Associated Press
"A lasting truce and reconstruction in the devastated Gaza Strip will only come once the rival Hamas and Fatah factions reconcile," a Palestinian negotiator said Monday.
Saleh Rafaat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, spoke in Cairo shortly after the first official meeting between the two Palestinian factions since Hamas evicted Fatah from Gaza in a violent June 2007 coup.
"In order to end the division a national consensus government should be formed to carry out [distribution of] aid to our people, the reconstruction and supervision of the crossings," said Rafaat, who is part of a small Fatah-allied Palestinian group.
Egypt has been presiding over an effort to build a lasting truce in the Gaza Strip, hosting delegations from Israel and the many Palestinian factions.
A Hamas delegation met with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman Sunday and then the next day had its unannounced and unprecedented meeting with the newly arrived Fatah delegation led by Azzam al-Ahmed.
"It was a consultative meeting we initiated in order to break the ice and restart the dialogue. He will consult with his leadership and I will also consult with mine," said al-Ahmed at the press conference, adding that he met with Gaza-based Hamas leader Jamal Abu Hashem.
The bitter battle between the two factions is hindering plans for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, devastated by a three week Israeli aerial and ground assault, as Israel, the U.S. and the EU all consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization and refuse to funnel reconstruction money to it.
"Any agreement should end this division, otherwise the international community will not talk to us," noted al-Ahmed.
For its part, Hamas has not expressed any urgency about the issue of reconciliation and suggested that a truce with Israel and an agreement over reopening Gaza's border crossings should take priority.
On Sunday, Hamas negotiator Ayman al-Taha said the militant group was ready to offer Israel a year-long truce if the border crossings were reopened.
A Fatah official familiar with the negotiations said that the Egyptians are losing patience with Hamas and its continuing hardline stance toward the truce and reconciliation.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Egypt wants an agreement by Feb. 5, ahead of Israeli elections and a planned, Egyptian-hosted, reconstruction conference.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Egypt will host the conference at the end of February and expected international representation at the ministerial level.
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Last update - 22:07 25/01/2009
Hamas: Israel proposes 18-month Gaza truce, but we insist on just one year
By News Agencies
A Hamas official said Sunday that Israel has proposed to Egyptian mediators an 18-month cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, but the Islamist group - which controls the coastal territory - is insisting on a truce of just one year.
"Hamas listened to the Israeli proposal presented by [Defense Ministry official] Amos Gilad, and with it a proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a counterproposal of one year only," Ayman Taha told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.
Jerusalem has not yet released information on the results of Gilad's meeting in Egypt.
Taha reiterated the group's calls for a lifting of the blockade imposed on the impoverished and devastated Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt as a condition for the truce. "[Hamas] called for a complete lifting of the blockade and an opening of all the crossings," Taha said.
Hamas proposed to Egyptian mediators that European and Turkish monitors be present at the border crossings, but rejected the presence of Israeli monitors, saying Israeli monitoring was "a large part of the problem," according to Taha.
Asked if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces would be present at the crossings, Taha said: "Hamas is the existing government in Gaza."
Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Fatah faction in fighting in 2007. Egypt has ruled out opening the Rafah crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and European Union observers.
Commenting on the talks, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera satellite television on Sunday that Hamas was unwilling to alter its positions to Israel's benefit.
"The Israelis must understand that they will not achieve through politics what they failed to do militarily," Hamdan said.
Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip in late December with the declared aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks on its southern communities. About 1,300 Palestinians, at least 700 of them civilians, were killed during the 22-day offensive, while Israel put its death toll at 10 soldiers and three civilians.
Hamas: No reconciliation with Fatah until it ends Israel peace talks
Hamas official Hamdan also said Sunday that Fatah movement must end peace negotiations with Israel before any reconciliation talks can take place.
The remarks were bound to complicate Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Speaking at a rally in Beirut Sunday, Hamdan - a close ally of Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal - said that the group welcomed Palestinian dialogue, but any reconciliation should be based on a resistance program to liberate territory and regain rights.
He also demanded that the PA end security coordination with Israel, and maintained that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had ended.
"Those who committed mistakes must correct their mistakes through a clear and frank declaration to stop security coordination with the [Israeli] occupation, release [Hamas] prisoners and later end negotiations [with Israel] because the peace process is irreversibly over," said Hamdan.
"It's time for us to talk about a reconciliation based on a resistance program to liberate the [occupied] territory and regain rights," he added.
Asharq Al-Awsat also reported Saturday that Hamas had suggested representatives of the Palestinian Authority be stationed at the Rafah crossing, but that they be residents of Gaza, not the West Bank.
Israel has been allowing some supply convoys into Gaza, though its borders remain largely closed. The Israel Defense Forces says more than 125 trucks a day - on some days nearly 200 - have entered Gaza since fighting ended on January 17th, but aid workers say the numbers are not enough.
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Last update - 09:06 25/01/2009
Jordan's King Abdullah fires intel chief over Hamas support
By Yossi Melman
King Abdullah of Jordan fired the head of the country's intelligence service, Mohammed Dahabi, early in January.
The dismissal had not been understood; however, analysts and experts following developments in the Hashemite Kingdom, now suggest that the move stemmed from Dahabi's overly close ties with the Damascus-based Hamas leadership.
Dahabi was replaced by his deputy, General Mohammed Raqqad, who is considered to be a professional intelligence officer without political predispositions.
Hassan Barari, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, published a paper late last week in which he outlines his assessment of the reasons for the dismissal.
Barari notes that Dahabi was the spirit behind a thawing of relations with the Hamas leadership. Ties were frozen eight years ago when the Hamas leadership was expelled from Jordan.
Last August, Dahabi met with Mohammed Nazel, one of the leading figures in the Hamas politburo in Amman. The meeting was supposedly an effort to develop a dialogue and understandings between Jordan and Hamas as a counterweight to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Dahabi was concerned that an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that does not take into consideration Jordanian interests would turn out to be detrimental to the kingdom's interests.
Moreover, Dahabi exhibited a tendency to interfere in politics and was on bad terms with Bassam Awadallah, a palace staff member of Palestinian descent.
Dahabi suspected that Awadallah was promoting a pro-PA policy and sought to balance it via contacts with Hamas. Dahabi was also involved in a campaign in the Jordanian media targeting Awadallah.
Apparently the power plays in Jordan's inner circle led to the king's decision to replace the head of intelligence.
Another factor, linked to the timing of the dismissal, was the demonstration that Dahabi allowed to take place, involving Islamist groups protesting against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.
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Last update - 20:43 26/01/2009
U.S. State Dept.: Mideast envoy Mitchell to visit region to listen, assess situation
By Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents
U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood held a briefing Monday ahead of George Mitchell's first visit to the Middle East in his new capacity as U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy to the region. Mitchell is expected to visit Israel, Egypt, the West Bank, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
He is coming to listen to regional leaders, Wood told reporters ahead of Mitchell's expected trip to the region Wednesday. He wants to begin working. He will assess the situation and report his conclusions to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Wood added.
The spokesman stressed that Mitchell does not intend to visit Syria, nor does he plan to speak with Hamas, not even indirectly via Egypt. He added that the new U.S. administration seeks to advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians in an active and aggressive manner, to promote a system to prevent arms smuggling and to resolve the humanitarian issues facing Gazans.
Meanwhile Monday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that Obama could use Israel's success in its recent offensive against Hamas to change the reality in the Middle East.
"The IDF operation in Gaza can and must serve as a turning point, not only restoring calm to the residents of the south, but also strengthening the regional processes which both Israel and the U.S. seek to advance," Livni told James Cunningham, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Israel killed about 500 Hamas militants and hundreds of other gunmen, the Israel Defense Forces says, during the 22-day campaign in Gaza that ended Jan. 17. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights says the operation killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians.
In the meeting with Cunningham, Livni added: "The operation created a strategic change in the status of Hamas and the extremist forces, and can serve as a stimulus for the new [U.S.] administration and the international community to change the reality."
She said that Israel made it clear that "we will not return to the status quo which prevailed prior to the IDF operation, and that we must take advantage of Hamas's weakness and work together to create opportunities that will strengthen the moderate forces in the region."
A Foreign Ministry official said Saturday that Mitchell will arrive on Wednesday for a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority for talks on boosting a Gaza cease-fire and reviving negotiations. This signals the new U.S. administration's first direct foray in peace efforts.
Mitchell is expected to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as well as with candidates for prime minister, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Last update - 14:51 26/01/2009
Netanyahu: Likud-led coalition wouldn't build new settlements
By Barak Ravid
A Likud-led government would not build new settlements in the West Bank but would allow for natural growth, Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu told Quartet envoy Tony Blair Sunday, in an apparent attempt to calm the international community before this week's arrival of George Mitchell, the newly appointed U.S. envoy to the Middle East.
"I have no intention of building new settlements in the West Bank," Netanyahu told Blair in a meeting Sunday. "But like all the governments there have been until now, I will have to meet the needs of natural growth in the population. I will not be able to choke the settlements."
Netanyahu also said he plans to work to advance negotiations with the Palestinians quickly and to focus on economic development.
"Every moment of stagnation isn't good, and I plan to deal with the Palestinian issue very intensively," he said.
Netanyahu and Blair discussed the renewed American interest in the Middle East and Mitchell's visit to the region, as well as the 2001 Mitchell Report compiled by a committee he headed. The report led to the roadmap and called for a freeze in settlement construction.
Mitchell, who is due to arrive Wednesday, will be meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Netanyahu. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has delayed a trip to Washington planned for Tuesday night so he will be able to meet with Mitchell as well - although when Mitchell was appointed Mideast envoy by then-U.S. president Bill Clinton in the final days of the Barak government, the Labor leader ordered the army and government ministries not to cooperate with him.
According to Likud officials, Netanyahu recently said he would like to form a coalition without Kadima because he doesn't think the leaders of the Likud breakaway party could survive a stint in the opposition, ultimately causing Kadima to disappear from politics. The officials said Netanyahu wants to include Labor, Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas in a Likud-led government.
Mazal Mualem contributed to this report.
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Last update - 06:34 25/01/2009
Kadima: Netanyahu-led Israel would clash with Obama
By Mazal Mualem and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents
Kadima is capitalizing on Washington's new administration in its campaign for the premiership against Likud chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that a Netanyahu government will lead to a clash between Israel and the United States.
Livni said privately on Saturday that "people forget what happened to this relationship when Bibi was prime minister, and they have to be reminded."
Livni said the visit Wednesday of Obama's new envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, was "an opportunity for Israel." The United States wants to be involved and bring about a solution to the conflict. The pressure it brings to bear will be directed at those who reject the process. Israel will have to chose whether it is on the side that promotes the process or rejects it; otherwise there will be an unavoidable rift with the United States," Livni said.
Kadima is considering using in its campaign spots excerpts from a book by Dennis Ross, special Middle East coordinator under former president Bill Clinton and expected to work with the administration as a special peace envoy. One excerpt from the book, "The Missing Peace," describes Netanyahu as insufferable and states that that after Ross and Clinton met with him, the U.S. president felt Netanyahu thought he was the power, and that the Americans were there to do his bidding.
Sources close to Netanyahu dismissed Kadima's "Obama campaign" and called it "very superficial" and indicated that Kadima was "desperate." The sources said that unlike Livni, Netanyahu had a deep understanding, developed over many years, of the American administration and its central figures.
Senior Likud figures said Livni's advisers were actually helping Netanyahu in their "Obama campaign." "Clearly the public has moved to the right after the war in Gaza, so it will also want a tough leader who will protect Israel's interests vis-a-vis the Americans," they said.
Sources close to Netanyahu say his views are much more suitable for the new administration than those of his rivals. If Netanyahu becomes prime minister, an associate said, "he will work to significantly improve the situation in the West Bank, both economically and in terms of security. In a short time under Netanyahu changes will be seen that were not seen all during the period that Livni was negotiating, so we will reach a real diplomatic solution." Meanwhile, sources close to Defense Minister and Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak are saying they are the ones who will work best with Obama.
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Last update - 15:03 24/12/2008
Netanyahu pledges to topple Hamas if elected prime minister
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Staff
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday pledged to topple the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip if elected prime minister in the February elections.
Speaking to a group of Russian speakers, Netanyahu said that under his leadership, Israel would move from a policy of absorbing blows to a policy of being on the offensive.
He said that apart from stopping the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, such a policy would also restore Israel's "national honor."
He also reiterated previous remarks that Israel would hold on to the Golan Heights.
"It should be clear to the Syrians and to the world, the Golan Heights will stay in our hands," Netanyahu said.
In response to reports that leaders of the Meretz party are seeking to create a "blocking majority" against a rightist government, Netanyahu emphasized the importance of turning Likud into the biggest party so that it could assemble a government. He said the rightist camp would be his first option in the search for coalition partners, but that he would also turn to other parties in order to create a wider coalition.
Netanyahu added that under no circumstances would he offer Shas the education ministry. He said the portfolio would remain the responsibility of Likud, and claimed he has not promised Shas anything that is likely to strike at the Russian-speaking community.
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein said the party aims to win seven or eight seats from Russian speakers alone at the February 10 general election, more than it has achieved in the past.
Kadima Chairwoman Tzip Livni made similar comments Monday to Netanyahu's regarding Hamas. After a meeting with the party's security forum, she said the forum had set the toppling of Hamas from its rule in the coastal territory as a central goal for the long term. Until that target is reached, Israel will work to regain its power of deterrence and to defend its citizens, she said.
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Last update - 01:20 22/12/2008
Ben-Eliezer rejects claim Barak is soft on rocket fire
By Mazal Mualem
National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer is rallying to the side of Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the face of accusations the Labor leader is not doing enough to quell rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
"The matter of Gaza and security affairs in general must not be part of election spin," said the Labor Party's Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister. "The ministers need to show responsibility and leave these issues out of the election campaign.
Ben-Eliezer targeted one of his party leader's main rivals, Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni.
"The one who particularly surprises me is Tzipi Livni, who until two days ago everyone saw as the leader of the left, the one who's going to resolve complicated political processes, and suddenly without warning she veered right and is now talking about destroying Hamas," said Ben-Eliezer. "These comments, which are affected by the [upcoming general] election, cause massive damage and weaken the State of Israel."
Livni, the foreign minister, said yesterday she would work to end Hamas' rule in Gaza if elected prime minister in February.
"Rockets are being fired on Gaza towns," Livni told a Kadima parliamentary faction meeting. "Israel needs to topple the Hamas government in Gaza, and a government led by me would do so."
On the other side of the spectrum, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Livni and the rest of the Kadima ministers for failing to take action to keep Palestinian militants from attacking southern Israel.
"The residents are paying a heavy price for the mistake by Livni and Kadima ministers, who are shirking responsibility," Netanyahu said yesterday during a trip to the rocket-weary southern town of Sderot, where he visited a house damaged by a Qassam rocket.
"But they are the ones responsible for the unilateral disengagement that led to the strengthening of terror from the Gaza Strip. For three years the Kadima ministers have been sitting and doing nothing, and burying their heads in the sand. The time has come to change that."
All the same, Netanyahu and Livni made similar statements yesterday about overthrowing Hamas. "In the long term, there will be no choice but to topple the Hamas government," Netanyahu said. He added that it was time to take action, and that Israel would have to choose from options including reoccupying the Strip.
Kadima was quick to accuse Netanyahu of having a "weak memory" regarding his role in the disengagement.
"We all remember his support for the disengagement, his hesitation and his policy of all talk, which characterize him," a Kadima official said. "A government led by Tzipi Livni would topple Hamas and offer real hope to the citizens of Israel."
Livni is due to meet with Kadima's security forum - including ministers Shaul Mofaz and Avi Dichter, and members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee - at her office in Tel Aviv today to discuss the situation in Gaza.
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Last update - 22:07 25/01/2009
Hamas: Israel proposes 18-month Gaza truce, but we insist on just one year
By News Agencies
A Hamas official said Sunday that Israel has proposed to Egyptian mediators an 18-month cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, but the Islamist group - which controls the coastal territory - is insisting on a truce of just one year.
"Hamas listened to the Israeli proposal presented by [Defense Ministry official] Amos Gilad, and with it a proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a counterproposal of one year only," Ayman Taha told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.
Jerusalem has not yet released information on the results of Gilad's meeting in Egypt.
Taha reiterated the group's calls for a lifting of the blockade imposed on the impoverished and devastated Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt as a condition for the truce. "[Hamas] called for a complete lifting of the blockade and an opening of all the crossings," Taha said.
Hamas proposed to Egyptian mediators that European and Turkish monitors be present at the border crossings, but rejected the presence of Israeli monitors, saying Israeli monitoring was "a large part of the problem," according to Taha.
Asked if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces would be present at the crossings, Taha said: "Hamas is the existing government in Gaza."
Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Fatah faction in fighting in 2007. Egypt has ruled out opening the Rafah crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and European Union observers.
Commenting on the talks, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera satellite television on Sunday that Hamas was unwilling to alter its positions to Israel's benefit.
"The Israelis must understand that they will not achieve through politics what they failed to do militarily," Hamdan said.
Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip in late December with the declared aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks on its southern communities. About 1,300 Palestinians, at least 700 of them civilians, were killed during the 22-day offensive, while Israel put its death toll at 10 soldiers and three civilians.
Hamas: No reconciliation with Fatah until it ends Israel peace talks
Hamas official Hamdan also said Sunday that Fatah movement must end peace negotiations with Israel before any reconciliation talks can take place.
The remarks were bound to complicate Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Speaking at a rally in Beirut Sunday, Hamdan - a close ally of Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal - said that the group welcomed Palestinian dialogue, but any reconciliation should be based on a resistance program to liberate territory and regain rights.
He also demanded that the PA end security coordination with Israel, and maintained that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had ended.
"Those who committed mistakes must correct their mistakes through a clear and frank declaration to stop security coordination with the [Israeli] occupation, release [Hamas] prisoners and later end negotiations [with Israel] because the peace process is irreversibly over," said Hamdan.
"It's time for us to talk about a reconciliation based on a resistance program to liberate the [occupied] territory and regain rights," he added.
Asharq Al-Awsat also reported Saturday that Hamas had suggested representatives of the Palestinian Authority be stationed at the Rafah crossing, but that they be residents of Gaza, not the West Bank.
Israel has been allowing some supply convoys into Gaza, though its borders remain largely closed. The Israel Defense Forces says more than 125 trucks a day - on some days nearly 200 - have entered Gaza since fighting ended on January 17th, but aid workers say the numbers are not enough.
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Last update - 16:21 24/01/2009
Hamas agrees to allow Fatah forces to patrol Rafah crossing
By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press
The London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday that Hamas has suggested representatives of the Palestinian Authority be stationed at the Rafah crossing, but that they be residents of Gaza, not the West Bank.
Also on Saturday, Hamas officials laid out some of their conditions for a continuation of the Gaza truce and for the release of captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
A Hamas delegation comprising representatives from Gaza and Damascus traveled to Cairo is to meet with Egyptian officials on Sunday.
One Hamas official reiterated the group's demand that Shalit be freed as part of a larger prisoner exchange, and that his release not be tied to the issue of opening Gaza's border crossings.
Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told Asharq Al-Awsat that his group wants European Union and Turkish troops to patrol Gaza's border crossings with Israel.
The discussions in Egypt will focus on a working paper to consolidate the cease-fire with Israel following the three-week offensive.
One official said the talks - slated for Sunday - will also address the fate of Israeli soldier Shalit, captured by militants in a June 2006 cross-border raid.
The Hamas officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
The six-day-old truce remains fragile. Israel wants a halt to arms smuggling to the militants, while Hamas wants an end to Gaza blockade. Hamas demands the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
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Last update - 18:32 26/01/2009
Egypt to Hamas: Take Gaza truce before Netanyahu is voted PM
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, The Associated Press and Haaretz Service
Officials in Egypt are attempting to persuade Hamas to accept Israel's current offer of a cease-fire in Gaza before a far less accommodating government under Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is elected, the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported Monday.
The newspaper quoted the officials as telling Hamas that polls in Israel show the opposition leader is likely be voted prime minister in February's general election, adding that he would form a coalition with "extremist parties."
They reportedly said that Hamas stands to "lose everything" under these circumstances.
Hamas' Gaza spokesman Ayman Taha, meanwhile, has said recently that Israel has offered his Palestinian Islamist group a 10-year cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt is also demanding a truce of a number of years' duration. But Taha said the group would agree to a cease-fire of anywhere between one year and no more than 18 months. Another Hamas spokesman, Ismail Radwan, said a long-term cease-fire "kills" the right to resistance by the Palestinians.
Also Monday, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Israel has offered Hamas a cease-fire for an unlimited amount of time and the opening of Gaza's borders in return for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
According to the report, Hamas rejected the offer on the grounds that it linked the opening of the border crossings to Shalit's release.
Shalit was kidnapped by Gaza militants in a 2006 cross-border raid. He is believed to be still held in the Strip.
Hamas and Israeli officials have also indicated that much of the discussion has centered on control of the border crossings in and out of Gaza. Hamas wants the blockade on Gaza lifted. Israel wants assurances that weapons smuggling into the Gaza strip will stop.
"Hamas listened to the Israeli proposal presented by [Defense Ministry official] Amos Gilad, and with it a proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a counterproposal of one year only," Ayman Taha told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.
The Hamas delegation met with the heads of Egyptian intelligence on Sunday who transmitted to them Israel's positions. Jerusalem has not yet clarified what stance it had presented.
Meanwhile, Taha reiterated the group's calls for a lifting of the blockade imposed on the impoverished and devastated Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt as a condition for the truce. "[Hamas] called for a complete lifting of the blockade and an opening of all the crossings," Taha said.
Hamas proposed to Egyptian mediators that European and Turkish monitors be present at the border crossings, but rejected the presence of Israeli monitors, saying Israeli monitoring was "a large part of the problem," according to Taha.
Asked if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' forces would be present at the crossings, Taha said: "Hamas is the existing government in Gaza."
Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Fatah faction in fighting in 2007. Egypt has ruled out opening the Rafah crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and European Union observers.
Commenting on the talks, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera satellite television on Sunday that Hamas was unwilling to alter its positions to Israel's benefit.
"The Israelis must understand that they will not achieve through politics what they failed to do militarily," Hamdan said.
Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip in late December with the declared aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks on its southern communities. About 1,300 Palestinians, at least 700 of them civilians, were killed during the 22-day offensive, while Israel put its death toll at 10 soldiers and three civilians.
Hamas: No reconciliation with Fatah until it ends Israel peace talks
Hamas official Hamdan also said Sunday that Fatah movement must end peace negotiations with Israel before any reconciliation talks can take place.
The remarks were bound to complicate Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Speaking at a rally in Beirut Sunday, Hamdan - a close ally of Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal - said that the group welcomed Palestinian dialogue, but any reconciliation should be based on a resistance program to liberate territory and regain rights.
He also demanded that the PA end security coordination with Israel, and maintained that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had ended.
"Those who committed mistakes must correct their mistakes through a clear and frank declaration to stop security coordination with the [Israeli] occupation, release [Hamas] prisoners and later end negotiations [with Israel] because the peace process is irreversibly over," said Hamdan.
"It's time for us to talk about a reconciliation based on a resistance program to liberate the [occupied] territory and regain rights," he added.
Asharq Al-Awsat also reported Saturday that Hamas had suggested representatives of the Palestinian Authority be stationed at the Rafah crossing, but that they be residents of Gaza, not the West Bank.
Israel has been allowing some supply convoys into Gaza, though its borders remain largely closed. The Israel Defense Forces says more than 125 trucks a day - on some days nearly 200 - have entered Gaza since fighting ended on January 17th, but aid workers say the numbers are not enough.
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Last update - 09:06 25/01/2009
Jordan's King Abdullah fires intel chief over Hamas support
By Yossi Melman
King Abdullah of Jordan fired the head of the country's intelligence service, Mohammed Dahabi, early in January.
The dismissal had not been understood; however, analysts and experts following developments in the Hashemite Kingdom, now suggest that the move stemmed from Dahabi's overly close ties with the Damascus-based Hamas leadership.
Dahabi was replaced by his deputy, General Mohammed Raqqad, who is considered to be a professional intelligence officer without political predispositions.
Hassan Barari, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, published a paper late last week in which he outlines his assessment of the reasons for the dismissal.
Barari notes that Dahabi was the spirit behind a thawing of relations with the Hamas leadership. Ties were frozen eight years ago when the Hamas leadership was expelled from Jordan.
Last August, Dahabi met with Mohammed Nazel, one of the leading figures in the Hamas politburo in Amman. The meeting was supposedly an effort to develop a dialogue and understandings between Jordan and Hamas as a counterweight to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Dahabi was concerned that an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that does not take into consideration Jordanian interests would turn out to be detrimental to the kingdom's interests.
Moreover, Dahabi exhibited a tendency to interfere in politics and was on bad terms with Bassam Awadallah, a palace staff member of Palestinian descent.
Dahabi suspected that Awadallah was promoting a pro-PA policy and sought to balance it via contacts with Hamas. Dahabi was also involved in a campaign in the Jordanian media targeting Awadallah.
Apparently the power plays in Jordan's inner circle led to the king's decision to replace the head of intelligence.
Another factor, linked to the timing of the dismissal, was the demonstration that Dahabi allowed to take place, involving Islamist groups protesting against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.
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Last update - 07:43 26/01/2009
Program launched to bring all Jewish teachers worldwide to Israel
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
A joint project of the State of Israel and the Jewish Agency will seek, over the next 10 years, to bring all Jewish teachers and educators from around the world for two week visits to Israel.
The government approved, on Sunday, a pilot version of the program - Netivei Masa - which will be tried out during 2009 with the participation of approximately 135 Jewish teachers from abroad
The program is the initiative of cabinet secretary Oved Yehezkel, whom Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed on Sunday to coordinate the activities of various organizations responsible for ties between Israel and the Jewish diaspora.
One of the central decisions behind this new initiative is to shift the emphasis in the relations between Israel and world Jewry from fund raising and other types of support for the country, to Israel assuming a greater responsibility in matters of Jewish and Zionist education.
"This is the fulfillment of a dream. We were surprised to find that only 20 percent of Jewish educators around the world have ever visited Israel. Even though the birthright and Masa programs are in place, bringing thousands of young Jews to Israel, there is no parallel program for teachers whose influence is much, much more extensive," Yehezkel said on Sunday.
The cost of the program during the first year is estimated to be NIS 4 million, half of which will be funded by the government and the rest by the Jewish Agency.
In addition, it was decided that the program will also be funded in the future from allocations provided to Masa, a program also funded jointly by the state and the Jewish Agency. Masa brings Jewish students to Israel but much of the budget for the program remains unused.
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Last update - 07:41 26/01/2009
U.S. businessman Guma L. Aguiar gives $8m to Nefesh b'Nefesh
By Raphael Ahern, Haaretz Correspondent
An American businessman and philanthropist has recently donated $8 million to Nefesh B'Nefesh, the organization announced on Sunday.
Guma L. Aguiar, who joined the Nefesh B'Nefesh board this June, made the gift to support the organization's work in helping Western Jews immigrate to Israel and integrate into Israeli society.
The money, which was donated in several installments during the second half of 2008, is "being used to help meet the needs of thousands of recent newcomers," Nefesh B'Nefesh explained in a statement.
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Last update - 22:04 25/01/2009
Jewish Agency: Anti-Semitic acts in Jan. 2009 triple last year's records
By Haaretz Service
A total of 250 anti-Semitic acts around the world were recorded in January 2009, according to a Jewish Agency report released on Sunday. This marks a dramatic leap from the 80 cases recorded during the same time last year.
According to the Agency, Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip most likely prompted the increased animosity.
The operation was launched with Israel's aim to halt Hamas militants' rocket firing into southern Israel. During the operation some 1,300 Palestinians were killed, spurring a spate of protests and demonstrations around the world which in some cases turned violent.
Earlier this month in Toulouse, France, assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue, causing damage but no injuries. That same day in southern Sweden, a Jewish congregation was attacked when someone broke a window and threw a burning object inside.
In the United States, vandals used shaving cream to paint swastikas on a Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue, and shattered one of its windows in mid-January.
France, home to one of the world's largest Muslim and Jewish populations, saw one of the most notable increases in the number anti-Semitic attacks since the beginning of Israel's offensive in Gaza.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has indicated that numerous blogs carry messages of violence against Israel, and that the state courts were ready to take vigorous action against any perpetrators of hate crimes related to Gaza.
In light of the wave of anti-Semitic incidents that took place in the country, French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited in mid-January leaders of the Jewish, Muslim and Catholic communities in France to issue a joint condemnation of incidents that took place in the country.
The incidents included a stabbing of a a young Jewish man by two masked car thieves outside Paris, and two firebombing attacks against synagogues in Saint Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and in Strasburg.
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Last update - 06:25 07/01/2009
Gaza offensive spurs rise in anti-Semitic incidents across Europe
By The Associated Press
PARIS - Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.
Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, on Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, also was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.
Someone also started a blaze outside the premises last week. And on Sunday slogans including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire" and "don't subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing" were daubed on Israel's embassy in Stockholm.
In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents allegedly injured two young Israelis last week, opening fire with a handgun. Police suspect his actions could be linked to the Gaza crisis.
France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities and a history of anti-Semitic violence flaring when tensions in the Middle East are high. In 2002, some 2,300 Jews left France for Israel because they felt unsafe.
President Nicolas Sarkozy warned in a statement on Tuesday that France would not tolerate violence linked to the Gaza crisis. A day earlier, his interior minister said she was concerned about the prospect of contagion and met with the heads of the two main Muslim and Jewish groups and police officials to stress the need to "preserve national unity."
Damage to the synagogue in Toulouse was limited to a blackened gate, and there were no injuries even though a rabbi was giving a course to adults inside, authorities said. They said unlighted gasoline bombs were also found in a car nearby and in the synagogue's yard. A local Jewish leader, Armand Partouche, said he believed the assailants had planned to torch the synagogue, but fled when the building's alarm went off.
"It could have been very, very serious," Partouche said in a telephone interview. "There were people inside; there could have been deaths."
He said Jewish leaders are asking Toulouse authorities for reinforced security for the city's synagogues.
"We really fear that anti-Semitism will spring up again and that the current conflict will be transposed to our beautiful French republic," he said.
In Britain, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish defense group, said it had seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since the start of Israel's offensive against Gaza. The group said it had recorded 20-25 incidents across the country in the past week that it believed were connected with Gaza, including an arson attempt on a synagogue in north London on Sunday.
London police are investigating the attack, in which suspects splashed flammable liquid on the door and set it on fire.
Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner said that in another incident last week, a gang of 15-20 youths walked along the main street in Golders Green, a largely Jewish neighborhood in north London, shouting "Jew" and "Free Palestine" at passers-by.
"It could get worse," Gardner said. "We tend to see these things happen in waves."
The government in Belgium yesterday ordered police in Antwerp and Brussels to be on increased alert after recent pro-Palestinian protests ended in violence and dozens of arrests. Police said burning rags were shoved through the mailbox of a Jewish home in Antwerp last weekend. Damage was limited and no arrests were made.
In the Danish shooting, one Israeli man was shot in the arm and another in the leg as they were selling hair care products in a shopping mall. Eli Ruvio, who owns the company that operated the stands, said his employees have been harassed by Muslim youths since they set up three kiosks in the shopping center in August.
"They kept cursing and shouting at us," Ruvio told The Associated Press. "He added that the Muslim youths also threw mud and firecrackers at the employees and spat at them."
Ruvio recalled an episode December 27 when some of the youths shouted "slaughter all the Jews."
"I told my employees not to speak in Hebrew and lie about where they come from, they should say there were from Spain or somewhere else. If people ask you where you are from, never say you're from Israel," he said.
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Last update - 15:00 11/01/2009
ANALYSIS / Price of stubbornness over Gaza exit is dead soldiers
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents
Those who want to treat the delay in creating a diplomatic exit strategy for the war in Gaza as if it were a divine decree must take into account that at the end of this determination are casualties. The repeated delays in moving ahead with Operation Cast Lead, first before the ground operation and now the slow way Israel is seeking 'exit points' have a price. We are now beginning to pay it.
Since the beginning of Cast Lead, most of the cabinet and the army have praised themselves for their thorough application of the Winograd recommendations from the Second Lebanon War. But the Winograd Committee's criticism of the poor coordination between military action and diplomatic achievements seems relevant in this round as well. Most of the military at the operational level is pushing for continuing the operation deep within Hamas territory. That is exactly what is expected of them.
In contrast, Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi was very cautious in presenting the risks and opportunities in Friday afternoon's cabinet meeting. Ashkenazi is likely to be satisfied with a quick end to the ground operation, in the coming days. However with the defense minister and the foreign minister both beginning their days trying to figure out how to thwart the success of the other, and the (outgoing) prime minister toying with the idea of smashing Hamas, it's little wonder that a diplomatic solution is still far off.
The IDF has inserted a crushing war machine into the Gaza Strip to confront thousands of terrorists and guerilla fighters who have been preparing for months for a possible invasion. The forces are advancing through built-up, fortified and booby-trapped territory, and in so doing are incurring great risk to themselves.
Ashkenazi had said in earlier discussions that use of major fire power would be inevitable even in the most densly populated areas. The Israeli solution was thus to be very aggressive to protect the lives of the soldiers as much as possible.
These are 'Georgia rules,' which are not so far from the methods Russia used in its conflict last summer. The result is the killing of dozens of non-combatant Palestinians. The Gaza medical teams might not have reached all of them yet.
When an Israeli force gets into an entanglement, as in Sajaiyeh last night, massive fire into built-up areas is initiated to cover the extraction. In other cases, a chain of explosions is initiated from a distance to set off Hamas booby-traps. It is a method that leaves a swath of destruction taking in entire streets, and does not distinguish military targets from the homes of civilians.
From Hamas' perspective, the Sajaiyeh incident that left 3 IDF troops dead Monday is a significant first achievement. For the first time, Israeli TV broadcasts raised the question of whether it was worthwhile for the operation to continue.
When the IDF first entered the Strip on the ground on Saturday night, Hamas avoided engaging it directly. Only when the troops began to make preparations to stay, including the takeover of Palestinian homes, did the Palestinian group begin to take on the invaders at closer range.
With the Palestinians already having suffered 550 dead and 2,700 injured, the Sajaiyeh incident is the first revenge by the people of Gaza. Until that incident last night, it seemed as if Hamas' distress was pushing it toward a diplomatic solution. Hamas turned to Egypt as an intermediary, despite the hostility between Cairo and Hamas.
However, the Egyptian cease-fire proposal does not allow Hamas to present any significant achievements at the end of the fighting. Egypt wants Hamas to stop fighting with no preconditions for an unlimited period, and to enter negotiations with no timetable.
Egypt also apparently intends to act more seriously to stop the smuggling into Gaza from its territory. Cairo sees the Israeli operation as the chance to settle accounts with Hamas for not renewing the dialogue with Fatah.
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 15:00 11/01/2009
ANALYSIS / Price of stubbornness over Gaza exit is dead soldiers
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents
Those who want to treat the delay in creating a diplomatic exit strategy for the war in Gaza as if it were a divine decree must take into account that at the end of this determination are casualties. The repeated delays in moving ahead with Operation Cast Lead, first before the ground operation and now the slow way Israel is seeking 'exit points' have a price. We are now beginning to pay it.
Since the beginning of Cast Lead, most of the cabinet and the army have praised themselves for their thorough application of the Winograd recommendations from the Second Lebanon War. But the Winograd Committee's criticism of the poor coordination between military action and diplomatic achievements seems relevant in this round as well. Most of the military at the operational level is pushing for continuing the operation deep within Hamas territory. That is exactly what is expected of them.
In contrast, Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi was very cautious in presenting the risks and opportunities in Friday afternoon's cabinet meeting. Ashkenazi is likely to be satisfied with a quick end to the ground operation, in the coming days. However with the defense minister and the foreign minister both beginning their days trying to figure out how to thwart the success of the other, and the (outgoing) prime minister toying with the idea of smashing Hamas, it's little wonder that a diplomatic solution is still far off.
The IDF has inserted a crushing war machine into the Gaza Strip to confront thousands of terrorists and guerilla fighters who have been preparing for months for a possible invasion. The forces are advancing through built-up, fortified and booby-trapped territory, and in so doing are incurring great risk to themselves.
Ashkenazi had said in earlier discussions that use of major fire power would be inevitable even in the most densly populated areas. The Israeli solution was thus to be very aggressive to protect the lives of the soldiers as much as possible.
These are 'Georgia rules,' which are not so far from the methods Russia used in its conflict last summer. The result is the killing of dozens of non-combatant Palestinians. The Gaza medical teams might not have reached all of them yet.
When an Israeli force gets into an entanglement, as in Sajaiyeh last night, massive fire into built-up areas is initiated to cover the extraction. In other cases, a chain of explosions is initiated from a distance to set off Hamas booby-traps. It is a method that leaves a swath of destruction taking in entire streets, and does not distinguish military targets from the homes of civilians.
From Hamas' perspective, the Sajaiyeh incident that left 3 IDF troops dead Monday is a significant first achievement. For the first time, Israeli TV broadcasts raised the question of whether it was worthwhile for the operation to continue.
When the IDF first entered the Strip on the ground on Saturday night, Hamas avoided engaging it directly. Only when the troops began to make preparations to stay, including the takeover of Palestinian homes, did the Palestinian group begin to take on the invaders at closer range.
With the Palestinians already having suffered 550 dead and 2,700 injured, the Sajaiyeh incident is the first revenge by the people of Gaza. Until that incident last night, it seemed as if Hamas' distress was pushing it toward a diplomatic solution. Hamas turned to Egypt as an intermediary, despite the hostility between Cairo and Hamas.
However, the Egyptian cease-fire proposal does not allow Hamas to present any significant achievements at the end of the fighting. Egypt wants Hamas to stop fighting with no preconditions for an unlimited period, and to enter negotiations with no timetable.
Egypt also apparently intends to act more seriously to stop the smuggling into Gaza from its territory. Cairo sees the Israeli operation as the chance to settle accounts with Hamas for not renewing the dialogue with Fatah.
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 06:25 07/01/2009
Gaza offensive spurs rise in anti-Semitic incidents across Europe
By The Associated Press
PARIS - Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.
Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, on Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, also was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.
Someone also started a blaze outside the premises last week. And on Sunday slogans including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire" and "don't subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing" were daubed on Israel's embassy in Stockholm.
In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents allegedly injured two young Israelis last week, opening fire with a handgun. Police suspect his actions could be linked to the Gaza crisis.
France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities and a history of anti-Semitic violence flaring when tensions in the Middle East are high. In 2002, some 2,300 Jews left France for Israel because they felt unsafe.
President Nicolas Sarkozy warned in a statement on Tuesday that France would not tolerate violence linked to the Gaza crisis. A day earlier, his interior minister said she was concerned about the prospect of contagion and met with the heads of the two main Muslim and Jewish groups and police officials to stress the need to "preserve national unity."
Damage to the synagogue in Toulouse was limited to a blackened gate, and there were no injuries even though a rabbi was giving a course to adults inside, authorities said. They said unlighted gasoline bombs were also found in a car nearby and in the synagogue's yard. A local Jewish leader, Armand Partouche, said he believed the assailants had planned to torch the synagogue, but fled when the building's alarm went off.
"It could have been very, very serious," Partouche said in a telephone interview. "There were people inside; there could have been deaths."
He said Jewish leaders are asking Toulouse authorities for reinforced security for the city's synagogues.
"We really fear that anti-Semitism will spring up again and that the current conflict will be transposed to our beautiful French republic," he said.
In Britain, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish defense group, said it had seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since the start of Israel's offensive against Gaza. The group said it had recorded 20-25 incidents across the country in the past week that it believed were connected with Gaza, including an arson attempt on a synagogue in north London on Sunday.
London police are investigating the attack, in which suspects splashed flammable liquid on the door and set it on fire.
Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner said that in another incident last week, a gang of 15-20 youths walked along the main street in Golders Green, a largely Jewish neighborhood in north London, shouting "Jew" and "Free Palestine" at passers-by.
"It could get worse," Gardner said. "We tend to see these things happen in waves."
The government in Belgium yesterday ordered police in Antwerp and Brussels to be on increased alert after recent pro-Palestinian protests ended in violence and dozens of arrests. Police said burning rags were shoved through the mailbox of a Jewish home in Antwerp last weekend. Damage was limited and no arrests were made.
In the Danish shooting, one Israeli man was shot in the arm and another in the leg as they were selling hair care products in a shopping mall. Eli Ruvio, who owns the company that operated the stands, said his employees have been harassed by Muslim youths since they set up three kiosks in the shopping center in August.
"They kept cursing and shouting at us," Ruvio told The Associated Press. "He added that the Muslim youths also threw mud and firecrackers at the employees and spat at them."
Ruvio recalled an episode December 27 when some of the youths shouted "slaughter all the Jews."
"I told my employees not to speak in Hebrew and lie about where they come from, they should say there were from Spain or somewhere else. If people ask you where you are from, never say you're from Israel," he said.
Last update - 22:23 01/01/2009 Livni: Cease-fire in Gaza would grant Hamas legitimacy By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: IDF, Gaza, Hamas, Israel News Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on a visit to Paris on Thursday, reiterated her government's rejection of a French-proposed cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Livni told her French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that Hamas must must not be given the opportunity to gain any sort of legitimacy within a renewal of a truce. Under the current offensive, she said, Hamas understand that Israels will not tolerate Gaza rocket fire without response. Advertisement The foreign minister also voiced concern that Hamas would exploit the cease-fire to restock its weapons arsenal, according to Army Radio. Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has damaged Hamas and will not end until Israel no longer deems the Palestinian Islamist faction a threat, Livni told reporters in Paris. "I think that even now, after a few days of operation we have achieved changes," she said. "We affected most of the infrastructure of terror within the Gaza Strip and the question whether it's enough will be according to an assessment on a daily basis." Livni, who met French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said Israel intended to "change the reality" in and around Gaza. Israeli officials say this would entail ending Palestinian rocket salvoes that have sown panic in neighboring southern Israel. "We want to weaken Hamas in the Gaza Strip. At the end of the day, Hamas is a problem not only to Israel but to the entire Palestinian people," Livni said. "They are a problem to all the Arab states who understand that they have their own radical elements back home, including Muslim brotherhoods in different places." Hamas has remained defiant despite an Israeli barrage that has killed more than 400 Palestinians. Four Israelis have been killed by retaliatory rocket strikes. Reiterating Israel's rejection of the 48-hour humanitarian cease-fire proposal, Livni said "there is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce." In her remarks to reporters, Livni said Israel had been careful to protect the civilian population and had kept the humanitarian situation in Gaza "completely as it should be". "The crossings are open, more than it used to be before the military operation," she said. On Wednesday, Israel rejected the proposal for a 48-hour humanitarian truce as unreasonable. "We did not go into the Gaza operation only to end it while rocket fire continues," Olmert told cabinet ministers during a special session. The government, meanwhile, allowed more than 90 truckloads with food and medicine would be permitted into the territory on Thursday and a similar number on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces recommends a diplomatic exit plan be prepared while a cease-fire agreement is formulated. Defense officials tend to favor a clear agreement with Hamas, even if it is not enshrined in a written document. Livni, however, reportedly believes that it might be better to aim for a situation in which there is no clearly set-out agreement, but Israel would make clear beforehand that it would respond forcefully to any firing from Gaza after hostilities ended. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for his part, has conditioned any future truce between Israel and Hamas on the establishment of an international mechanism to monitor the cease-fire. During an appearance on Thursday in rocket-besieged Be'er Sheva, Olmert said that Israel is not seeking an extended military campaign in the Gaza Strip. "It became clear that it is impossible to live under these circumstances," the premier, who also met with municipal and council heads of southern communities, said. "We could not come to terms with the situation in which hundreds of thousands of people go to sleep and wake up in fear, uncertainty, and discomfort. We will act so that there will be quiet in the communities of the south." "We did not declare war against the residents of Gaza, but against Hamas we will act with an iron fist," Olmert said. "Hamas is making things difficult for us, but more so for its people." The prime minister said he is hopeful the goals of the operation will be attained quickly. "We have no interest in waging a prolonged war," he said. "What we want is that our children will grow up in security and that they will not need to run away from the shrieking whistles of rockets." "We also are not eager to wage a war on a wide front," Olmert said. "We want quiet and that the way of life in the south will change so that the children will not live in fear." The premier also addressed concerns that the Gaza operation was beginning to resemble the Second Lebanon War. "In contrast to the war in Lebanon, there is no sense of collapse or a lack of capability, but rather there is a sense that the home front is being cared for quickly." The premier also refuted claims of a rift between him and his two key cabinet ministers, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "What was said and written in the newspapers is not what we know," Olmert said. "There is a government that is functioning with full cooperation. I won't allow election season politics into the rooms where decisions are made." Olmert is interested in the establishment of an international supervision and enforcement mechanism for any cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Olmert has made that a precondition of any deal and emphasized it in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world leades. "Israel cannot agree that the only party responsible for implementing and regulating the cease-fire be Hamas," a senior Israeli diplomatic source said on Wednesday. According to the source, lack of an external supervisory body was the central reason for the collapse of the calm earlier this month. "The situation in which Hamas didn't have to account for implementing the cease-fire did not prove viable," the source said. Olmert clarified in Wednesday's cabinet meeting that Israel will not end the Gaza operation until it achieves its goals. The cabinet did not debate any cease-fire proposals and resolved to continue the operation already approved. "We did not go into the Gaza operation only to end it while rocket fire continues," Olmert said. According to Olmert, a decision now to opt for a cease-fire would carry a heavy price. "Let's say we unilaterally stopped and a few days from now a barrage fell on Ashkelon," he said. "Do you understand the consequences in Israel and the region? For Israeli deterrence, for Israeli measures." Last update - 16:48 05/01/2009 Israelis who blame Israel are not helping the Palestinians By Ari Shavit Tags: gaza, israel news, israel Operation Cast Lead is a just campaign. Just, because in the summer of 2005 Israel destroyed all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and withdrew unilaterally to the international border. Just, because from 2006 to 2008 the Palestinian entity in the Strip did not take advantage of the occupation's end to build itself and its future and instead repeatedly attacked Israel within the Green Line. Just, because for three solid years the State of Israel bit its lips and acted with restraint. Just, because no country in the world can accept for an extended period of time a situation in which its citizens are forsaken and its sovereignty violated. Just, because there is no chance for peace in the Middle East if the Jewish state is viewed as easy prey bleeding in the water and attracting sharks. Advertisement Operation Cast Lead is a tragic campaign. Tragic, because it is causing the deaths of hundreds and injuring thousands. Tragic, because it is causing physical and emotional injury to innocent Palestinians, including women and children. Tragic, because like every war it creates intolerable human hardship and heartbreaking suffering. But the tragedy of Operation Cast Lead is unavoidable. It derives directly from the fact that the Palestinians did not take proper advantage of the historic opportunity given to them in 2005. It derives from the fact that when the Palestinians achieved self-government for the first time in their history they misused it. It derives from the fact that the Palestinian need to destroy Israel is still stronger than their need to build Palestine. Israel-hating Israelis call Operation Cast Lead a war crime. They record the names of each and every Palestinian killed, denounce each and every Israeli action and portray their state as a bully. While the Egyptians are saying that Hamas is largely responsible for the tragedy of Gaza, Israel-hating Israelis place the whole responsibility on their government and military. While the international community silently understands that a sovereign state is duty-bound to protect its citizens' lives, Israel-hating Israelis believe that Israeli lives can be forfeited. While the simple facts indicate that the violence in the south derives from the despicable actions of an extremist organization that turned the Strip into a district of terror, Israel-hating Israelis persist in their hatred of their people and homeland and defend the morality of Hamas' destructive aggression. There is no call for hating the Israel-hating Israelis. At the end of the day, their position is a pathetic one. Their self-righteousness is not at all righteous, and their moralizing has no morality. Their inability to show compassion for the Israelis of Be'er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Sderot shows that they possess a degree of callousness. Their inability to view the Arabs firing the Grad rockets as being responsible for their actions shows that they are not free of paternalism. The real motivation of Israel-hating Israelis is not genuine concern for the Palestinians, but rather a form of reverse racism. By showing forgiveness toward Palestinian fascism they turn their backs not only on Israelis but also on moderate, freedom-loving Palestinians. Those who blame Israel for everything and exonerate the Palestinians of everything are neither serving the cause of peace nor helping to end the violence and occupation. All they are doing is proving the extent to which they are blinded by their burning self-hatred. Operation Cast Lead is an intelligent, impressive operation. The element of surprise was total, the intelligence was precise and the timing was brilliant. The fact that the operation was launched after a six-month cease-fire violated by Hamas gives it political legitimacy and moral justification. The fact that it was carefully planned and carefully executed has restored a degree of trust in Israeli capabilities. It is possible that after the initial air campaign and the destruction of the tunnels, the operation should have been suspended. It is possible that the French truce proposal should now be adopted and a final chance given for Palestinian clearheadedness. But those who reject the operation in its entirety are blind to reality and the moral failure. The coming days will be difficult. There may be errors, perhaps complications, perhaps even victims. But for this very reason now is not the time for a campaign of hate against Israel's leaders, commanders, soldiers and pilots. Just the opposite. This is the time to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is proving himself to be a respected national leader. This is the time to stand behind the commanders, soldiers and pilots working day and night to conduct a difficult, complex and entirely just war. This is the time for Israel to finally behave as a mature nation protecting itself with wisdom and restraint. w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Last update - 22:04 25/01/2009 Jewish Agency: Anti-Semitic acts in Jan. 2009 triple last year's records By Haaretz Service A total of 250 anti-Semitic acts around the world were recorded in January 2009, according to a Jewish Agency report released on Sunday. This marks a dramatic leap from the 80 cases recorded during the same time last year. According to the Agency, Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip most likely prompted the increased animosity. The operation was launched with Israel's aim to halt Hamas militants' rocket firing into southern Israel. During the operation some 1,300 Palestinians were killed, spurring a spate of protests and demonstrations around the world which in some cases turned violent. Earlier this month in Toulouse, France, assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue, causing damage but no injuries. That same day in southern Sweden, a Jewish congregation was attacked when someone broke a window and threw a burning object inside. In the United States, vandals used shaving cream to paint swastikas on a Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue, and shattered one of its windows in mid-January. France, home to one of the world's largest Muslim and Jewish populations, saw one of the most notable increases in the number anti-Semitic attacks since the beginning of Israel's offensive in Gaza. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has indicated that numerous blogs carry messages of violence against Israel, and that the state courts were ready to take vigorous action against any perpetrators of hate crimes related to Gaza. In light of the wave of anti-Semitic incidents that took place in the country, French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited in mid-January leaders of the Jewish, Muslim and Catholic communities in France to issue a joint condemnation of incidents that took place in the country. The incidents included a stabbing of a a young Jewish man by two masked car thieves outside Paris, and two firebombing attacks against synagogues in Saint Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and in Strasburg. w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Last update - 16:39 31/12/2008 Disinformation, secrecy and lies: How the Gaza offensive came about By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning. The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike. Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well. Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip. This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities. The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops. On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation. However, they decided to put the mission on hold to see whether Hamas would hold its fire after the expiration of the ceasefire. They therefore put off bringing the plan for the cabinet's approval, but they did inform Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the developments. That night, in speaking to the media, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said that "if the shooting from Gaza continues, the showdown with Hamas would be inevitable." On the weekend, several ministers in Olmert's cabinet inveighed against him and against Barak for not retaliating for Hamas' Qassam launches. "This chatter would have made Entebe or the Six Day War impossible," Barak said in responding to the accusations. The cabinet was eventually convened on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's Bureau misinformed the media in stating the discussion would revolve around global jihad. The ministers learned only that morning that the discussion would actually pertain to the operation in Gaza. In its summary announcement for the discussion, the Prime Minister's Bureau devoted one line to the situation in Gaza, compared to one whole page that concerned the outlawing of 35 Islamic organizations. What actually went on at the cabinet meeting was a five-hour discussion about the operation in which ministers were briefed about the various blueprints and plans of action. "It was a very detailed review," one minister said. The minister added: "Everyone fully understood what sort of period we were heading into and what sort of scenarios this could lead to. No one could say that he or she did not know what they were voting on." The minister also said that the discussion showed that the lessons of the Winograd Committee about the performance of decision-makers during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were "fully internalized." At the end of the discussion, the ministers unanimously voted in favor of the strike, leaving it for the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister to work out the exact time. While Barak was working out the final details with the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to strike at Hamas. In parallel, Israel continued to send out disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual order to launch the operation was issued. "Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday." The final decision was made on Friday morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave the air force its orders. On Friday night and on Saturday morning, opposition leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the impending strike, including Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Last update - 02:03 28/12/2008 IDF mobilizes tanks, reinforces troops along Gaza border By Haaretz Service The Israel Defense Forces on early Sunday began mobilizing tanks and reinforcing ground troops near the Gaza border, in preparation for a possible ground incursion. Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Sky News that he would not rule out widening the offensive in the Gaza Strip to include a ground invasion. Barak on Saturday also said Israel "cannot really accept" a cease-fire with Hamas, rejecting calls by the United Nations and the European Union for a truce after Israel Air Force strikes killed at least 230 people in Gaza. "For us to be asked to have a cease-fire with Hamas is like asking you to have a cease-fire with Al-Qaida," Barak said in an interview with Fox News. "It's something we cannot really accept." Asked whether Israel would follow up the air strikes with a ground offensive, Barak said, "If boots on the ground will be needed, they will be there." "Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," he said. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier on Saturday said no country in the world would put up with the rocket and missile strikes Israel suffers from and that the time had come to react. Olmert's words came during a press conference he held hours after the Israel Defense Forces and the IAF carried out attacks in Gaza that Palestinian officials said left at least 230 dead and hundreds wounded. "Israel has done all it could to preserve the cease-fire with Hamas, but our desire for quiet was met with terror," Olmert said. Olmert added that Israel "is not itching for a fight, but will not back down from one either." The Prime Minister also vowed to restore quiet to the lives of Israel's southern residents, adding that they "will not be abandoned." He also said that the IDF operations in Gaza would take time, and asked for patience. Leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, accused Israel on Saturday of a "massacre" of Palestinians, saying "Palestine has never witnessed an uglier massacre." Haniyeh's statement was broadcast by his Islamist group's Gaza-based television channel, Al-Aqsa. Earlier Saturday, Barak held a press conference on Saturday in which he said had no choice and that "the time has come to fight." Barak said the IDF and IAF attacks had destroyed "terrorism infrastructure" and hit more than 150 Hamas targets. He also said the current campaign would be widened and will continue for some time. Barak said Israel cannot stand by while rockets strike the communities of the western Negev and "won't let terror hurt our citizens or soldiers." Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Saturday addressed the ongoing IDF campaign in Gaza, saying, "Until now we have shown restraint. But today there is no other option than a military operation." Livni, speaking in English at a press conference, said Israel had no choice but to act to "protect our citizens from attack through a military response against the terror infrastructure in Gaza." Livni called the IDF operations an expression of Israel's "basic right to self-defense." The Foreign Minister laid blame for the bloodshed at the feet of Hamas, saying the group "cynically abuses its own civilian population and their suffering for propaganda purposes." Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired at least 54 Qassam and Grad rockets into southern Israel on Saturday after the IDF campaign began. One of the rockets directly struck a home in the town of Netivot, leaving one Israel dead and four with moderate to serious injuries. w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Last update - 07:38 14/01/2009 Sarkozy urges French religious leaders to condemn anti-Semitic incidents By Assaf Uni BERLIN - French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited the leaders of the Jewish, Muslim and Catholic communities in France yesterday to issue a joint condemnation of the wave of anti-Semitic incidents that has taken place in the country since the Israel Defense Forces began its military operation in the Gaza Strip. Since December 27, 46 anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded, according to the French Union of Jewish Students. French authorities are concerned by the rising tension between the Muslim and the Jewish communities and by the possibility that the Middle East conflict may spill onto their streets. During the weekend, there were two firebombing attacks against synagogues in Saint Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and in Strasburg. Anti-Semitic graffiti calling for the killing of Jews was also found in the city of Puy-en-Velay. Also, following an incident last week in which a Jewish student was beaten by Muslim youths, the French media reported yesterday on another attack: Seven Jewish youths are suspected of having beaten three youngsters of North African descent last Thursday. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 demonstrated in various French cities over the weekend to protest the IDF's operation in the Gaza Strip. Demonstrations took place throughout Europe against Israel, and were among the most intense in recent times. About 100,000 demonstrators marched Sunday in Madrid in a protest organized by a coalition of leftist groups that was also active in denouncing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Some Spanish media, including the daily Publico, with affiliations to the ruling socialist party, encouraged the masses to participate. The demonstrators, who carried signs comparing the Star of David to the swastika, included senior representatives of the Socialist Party, and artists. At the end of the demonstration some participants threw stones at the Embassy of Israel in Madrid. Israel's ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, described Madrid's policy on the current confrontation between Israel and Hamas as "unfair" in an interview with a local radio station. In Scandinavia, too, radical leftist demonstrators took part in violent protests against Israel. Of the 30 people arrested in Oslo for attempting to disrupt a demonstration in support of Israel, only one was Palestinian. Police also reported the participation of youth movements in the violence. In Sweden, the head of the left-wing opposition, Mona Salin, took part in a demonstration in which an Israeli flag was torched. In London, 20,000 took part in a demonstration organized by the Stop the War coalition that was set up in 2003 to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In recent years, the coalition has directed much of its activities against Israel. In front of Israel's embassy in London, protesters are staging a daily demonstration, and over the weekend several hundred demonstrators smashed nearby shop windows. w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Last update - 02:09 28/12/2008 U.S. demands Hamas end terrorist acts, urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies The United States on Saturday urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties in air strikes on Gaza, and said Hamas must stop rocket attacks into Israel for the violence to cease. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put the responsibility for the violence on Hamas, saying "The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza. The cease-fire should be restored immediately." Rice also called for the international community "to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza" The White House did not call for an end to the Israel Air Force strikes that have killed at least 230 people in Hamas-ruled Gaza, according to Palestinian medical sources. "Hamas' continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza," he said. The Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip will closely resemble the Second Lebanon War, Hamas vowed on Saturday after a series of Israel Air Force strikes on the coastal enclave. Hamas officials said all of Gaza's security compounds were destroyed. Hamas said it would seek revenge, including launching new rocket attacks on Israel and sending suicide bombers to Israel. "Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking on a Gaza radio station. "Hamas is in good shape and the government is in good shape," Barhoum told Al Jazeera. "The world will see many things from us. Now all options are open before the Az a-Din al-Qassam Brigades" (Hamas' military wing). "Even if Israel kills the current heads of Hamas, there are hundreds of others that are capable of leading the organization," Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, said following the IAF strikes. Al-Masri warned Israel that the targeting of senior Hamas officials will be met with "a harsh response" from the Islamist group. "Assassinations of Hamas heads will not weaken us and we will not lose control but rather they will boost our forces and our stability," al-Masri said. "Within the movement there are leaders that will fill the missing ranks at any moment." He added that Hamas leaders are cognizant of the threats on their lives and thus take the necessary precautions. "All fighters are ordered to respond to the Israeli slaughter," said a statement by the Islamic Jihad group, echoing statements issued by Hamas and other armed factions. The head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt condemned the IAF attacks as "massacres" that were carried out "in criminal fashion." "They are trying to subjugate the Arab and Islamic world through these massacres in Gaza - God willing victory will come," the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told Al Jazeera. Hamam Said, the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, called on the Jordanian government to abrogate its peace treaty with Israel. He also urged all Arab armies to embark on a war against Israel. "The time has come for us to crush the Jewish enemy and to purify Palestine," Said said. "Everyone must take to the streets and highways, come from wherever you are." Labor unions in Jordan organized a mass demonstration to protest the IAF strikes in Gaza. "Egypt? The mother of the world, is not Gaza part of the world?" read one placard which was brandished during the protest. The demonstrators called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh to forge a united front. Hadash, the predominantly Arab leftist party, will stage a demonstration on Saturday in Nazareth to protest the IAF operations in Gaza. Hadash chairman Mohammed Barakeh called on the government "to immediately halt the crime in the Gaza Strip." "Escalation will not bring quiet and calm," Barakeh said. "It is inconceivable for the Palestinian people in Gaza to live between starvation and bombardment. The government and the defense minister are trying to gain political capital in an election period on account of the bloodletting of the Palestinian people." MK Jamal Zahalka, who is the chairman of the Balad faction, called for Defense Minister Ehud Barak to be tried for "war crimes" in Gaza. "Barak is trying to win votes in exchange for Palestinian blood," he said. In the West Bank, Hamas' rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that he condemns this "aggression" and calls for restraint, according to an aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Palestinian Authority official Yasser Abed Rabbo condemned the Israeli strike on Gaza as "a barbaric act," according to Channel 10. Responding to pressure from the Arab world, Egypt ordered the opening of the Rafah crossing to absorb wounded Palestinians from Gaza, Channel 10 reported. European leaders respond to Gaza escalation The spokesman for European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana criticized the escalation of fighting in the Gaza Strip and called for both sides to call a ceasefire, saying "We are very concerned at the events in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire and urge everybody to exert maximum restraint." A spokesman for French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an end to the violence, saying Sarkozy "demands an immediate stop to the firing of rockets on Israel and to the Israeli bombings in Gaza and calls for all parties to use restraint." Pleas for calm were echoed by the British Foreign office, which said "the only way to achieve lasting peace in Gaza is through peaceful means. Whilst we understand the Israeli government's obligation to protect its population we urge maximum restraint to avoid further civilian casualties" The UK foreign office also called for Gaza militants "to immediately cease all rocket attacks on Israel." "I am deeply concerned by continuing missile strikes from Gaza on Israel and by Israel's response today." Moscow also called for an end to hostilities, with a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry saying "the only way to achieve lasting peace in Gaza is through peaceful means. Whilst we understand the Israeli government's obligation to protect its population we urge maximum restraint to avoid further civilian casualties" "We also call on miltants in the Gaza Strip to immediately cease all rocket attacks on Israel." The Vatican's spokesman has urged Israelis and Palestinians to renounce violence and seek a peaceful solution to their conflict. The Rev. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio on Saturday that Israel's offensive will be a very serious blow to the Islamic militant group Hamas but could also cause many innocent victims and damage peace prospects in the Holy Land. Lombardi said all sides must look for a different way out, even though it seems impossible. Arab world denounces IAF strikes The Arab world reacted in shock to the attacks on the Gaza Strip on Saturday with scattered protests around the region and Egypt summoning the Israeli ambassador to express its condemnation of the air strikes. In a statement from the president's office, Egypt condemned Israel's attacks and held it responsible for those killed and wounded and called for renewed efforts to restore the truce with Hamas. "Egypt will forge ahead with its contacts to create a favorable atmosphere for renewing the truce and attaining inter-Palestinian reconciliation in a bid to end the suffering of the Palestinian people," the statement said. Egypt also opened its border with the Gaza Strip to receive Palestinian wounded. Egypt's closure of that border has been condemned by many in the Arab world for abetting Israel's siege of the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip. Arab League head Amr Moussa, meanwhile, called for an emergency meeting of all Arab foreign ministers in Cairo Sunday to address the crisis. Hundreds of protesters in the Jordanian capital of Amman demonstrated in front of the nearby UN headquarters, waving Hamas banners and condemning Israel's strikes. King Abdullah II called for an immediate halt all military actions in a statement issued by the royal palace, saying the attacks targeted innocents among the civilians including women and children. The king warned that "violence will only escalate the crisis and will not bring security to Israel." Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora described the Israeli attacks as a "criminal operation and new massacres to be added to its full record of massacres." In the country's south, dozens of Palestinian youths hit the streets in Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp to express solidarity with Gaza and set fire to tires. Larger demonstrations were planned later in the day in the camp and in the capital Beirut itself. In Syria's al-Yarmouk camp, outside Damascus, dozens of Palestinians also protested the attack as well, vowing to continue fighting Israel. "It's a Zionist holocaust, but it won't dissuade us from going on with our struggle to achieve our goals," said Ali Barakah, 42, one of the protesters. w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Last update - 15:03 24/12/2008 Netanyahu pledges to topple Hamas if elected prime minister By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Staff Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday pledged to topple the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip if elected prime minister in the February elections. Speaking to a group of Russian speakers, Netanyahu said that under his leadership, Israel would move from a policy of absorbing blows to a policy of being on the offensive. He said that apart from stopping the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, such a policy would also restore Israel's "national honor." He also reiterated previous remarks that Israel would hold on to the Golan Heights. "It should be clear to the Syrians and to the world, the Golan Heights will stay in our hands," Netanyahu said. In response to reports that leaders of the Meretz party are seeking to create a "blocking majority" against a rightist government, Netanyahu emphasized the importance of turning Likud into the biggest party so that it could assemble a government. He said the rightist camp would be his first option in the search for coalition partners, but that he would also turn to other parties in order to create a wider coalition. Netanyahu added that under no circumstances would he offer Shas the education ministry. He said the portfolio would remain the responsibility of Likud, and claimed he has not promised Shas anything that is likely to strike at the Russian-speaking community. Likud MK Yuli Edelstein said the party aims to win seven or eight seats from Russian speakers alone at the February 10 general election, more than it has achieved in the past. Kadima Chairwoman Tzip Livni made similar comments Monday to Netanyahu's regarding Hamas. After a meeting with the party's security forum, she said the forum had set the toppling of Hamas from its rule in the coastal territory as a central goal for the long term. Until that target is reached, Israel will work to regain its power of deterrence and to defend its citizens, she said.w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 06:25 07/01/2009
Gaza offensive spurs rise in anti-Semitic incidents across Europe
By The Associated Press
PARIS - Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.
Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, on Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, also was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.
Someone also started a blaze outside the premises last week. And on Sunday slogans including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire" and "don't subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing" were daubed on Israel's embassy in Stockholm.
In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents allegedly injured two young Israelis last week, opening fire with a handgun. Police suspect his actions could be linked to the Gaza crisis.
France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities and a history of anti-Semitic violence flaring when tensions in the Middle East are high. In 2002, some 2,300 Jews left France for Israel because they felt unsafe.
President Nicolas Sarkozy warned in a statement on Tuesday that France would not tolerate violence linked to the Gaza crisis. A day earlier, his interior minister said she was concerned about the prospect of contagion and met with the heads of the two main Muslim and Jewish groups and police officials to stress the need to "preserve national unity."
Damage to the synagogue in Toulouse was limited to a blackened gate, and there were no injuries even though a rabbi was giving a course to adults inside, authorities said. They said unlighted gasoline bombs were also found in a car nearby and in the synagogue's yard. A local Jewish leader, Armand Partouche, said he believed the assailants had planned to torch the synagogue, but fled when the building's alarm went off.
"It could have been very, very serious," Partouche said in a telephone interview. "There were people inside; there could have been deaths."
He said Jewish leaders are asking Toulouse authorities for reinforced security for the city's synagogues.
"We really fear that anti-Semitism will spring up again and that the current conflict will be transposed to our beautiful French republic," he said.
In Britain, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish defense group, said it had seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since the start of Israel's offensive against Gaza. The group said it had recorded 20-25 incidents across the country in the past week that it believed were connected with Gaza, including an arson attempt on a synagogue in north London on Sunday.
London police are investigating the attack, in which suspects splashed flammable liquid on the door and set it on fire.
Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner said that in another incident last week, a gang of 15-20 youths walked along the main street in Golders Green, a largely Jewish neighborhood in north London, shouting "Jew" and "Free Palestine" at passers-by.
"It could get worse," Gardner said. "We tend to see these things happen in waves."
The government in Belgium yesterday ordered police in Antwerp and Brussels to be on increased alert after recent pro-Palestinian protests ended in violence and dozens of arrests. Police said burning rags were shoved through the mailbox of a Jewish home in Antwerp last weekend. Damage was limited and no arrests were made.
In the Danish shooting, one Israeli man was shot in the arm and another in the leg as they were selling hair care products in a shopping mall. Eli Ruvio, who owns the company that operated the stands, said his employees have been harassed by Muslim youths since they set up three kiosks in the shopping center in August.
"They kept cursing and shouting at us," Ruvio told The Associated Press. "He added that the Muslim youths also threw mud and firecrackers at the employees and spat at them."
Ruvio recalled an episode December 27 when some of the youths shouted "slaughter all the Jews."
"I told my employees not to speak in Hebrew and lie about where they come from, they should say there were from Spain or somewhere else. If people ask you where you are from, never say you're from Israel," he said.
Last update - 22:23 01/01/2009
Livni: Cease-fire in Gaza would grant Hamas legitimacy
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: IDF, Gaza, Hamas, Israel News
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on a visit to Paris on Thursday, reiterated her government's rejection of a French-proposed cease-fire in the
Gaza Strip.
Livni told her French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that Hamas must must not be given the opportunity to gain any sort of legitimacy within a renewal of a truce. Under the current offensive, she said, Hamas understand that Israels will not tolerate Gaza rocket fire without response.
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The foreign minister also voiced concern that Hamas would exploit the cease-fire to restock its weapons arsenal, according to Army Radio.
Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has damaged Hamas and will not end until Israel no longer deems the Palestinian Islamist faction a threat, Livni told reporters in Paris.
"I think that even now, after a few days of operation we have achieved changes," she said.
"We affected most of the infrastructure of terror within the Gaza Strip and the question whether it's enough will be according to an assessment on a daily basis."
Livni, who met French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said Israel intended to "change the reality" in and around Gaza. Israeli officials say this would entail ending Palestinian rocket salvoes that have sown panic in neighboring southern Israel.
"We want to weaken Hamas in the Gaza Strip. At the end of the day, Hamas is a problem not only to Israel but to the entire Palestinian people," Livni said.
"They are a problem to all the Arab states who understand that they have their own radical elements back home, including Muslim brotherhoods in different places."
Hamas has remained defiant despite an Israeli barrage that has killed more than 400 Palestinians. Four Israelis have been killed by retaliatory rocket strikes.
Reiterating Israel's rejection of the 48-hour humanitarian cease-fire proposal, Livni said "there is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce."
In her remarks to reporters, Livni said Israel had been careful to protect the civilian population and had kept the humanitarian situation in Gaza "completely as it should be".
"The crossings are open, more than it used to be before the military operation," she said.
On Wednesday, Israel rejected the proposal for a 48-hour humanitarian truce as unreasonable. "We did not go into the Gaza operation only to end it while rocket fire continues," Olmert told cabinet ministers during a special session.
The government, meanwhile, allowed more than 90 truckloads with food and medicine would be permitted into the territory on Thursday and a similar number on Wednesday.
The Israel Defense Forces recommends a diplomatic exit plan be prepared while a cease-fire agreement is formulated.
Defense officials tend to favor a clear agreement with Hamas, even if it is not enshrined in a written document.
Livni, however, reportedly believes that it might be better to aim for a situation in which there is no clearly set-out agreement, but Israel would make clear beforehand that it would respond forcefully to any firing from Gaza after hostilities ended.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for his part, has conditioned any future truce between Israel and Hamas on the establishment of an international mechanism to monitor the cease-fire.
During an appearance on Thursday in rocket-besieged Be'er Sheva, Olmert said that Israel is not seeking an extended military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
"It became clear that it is impossible to live under these circumstances," the premier, who also met with municipal and council heads of southern communities, said. "We could not come to terms with the situation in which hundreds of thousands of people go to sleep and wake up in fear, uncertainty, and discomfort. We will act so that there will be quiet in the communities of the south."
"We did not declare war against the residents of Gaza, but against Hamas we will act with an iron fist," Olmert said. "Hamas is making things difficult for us, but more so for its people."
The prime minister said he is hopeful the goals of the operation will be attained quickly. "We have no interest in waging a prolonged war," he said. "What we want is that our children will grow up in security and that they will not need to run away from the shrieking whistles of rockets."
"We also are not eager to wage a war on a wide front," Olmert said. "We want quiet and that the way of life in the south will change so that the children will not live in fear."
The premier also addressed concerns that the Gaza operation was beginning to resemble the Second Lebanon War. "In contrast to the war in Lebanon, there is no sense of collapse or a lack of capability, but rather there is a sense that the home front is being cared for quickly."
The premier also refuted claims of a rift between him and his two key cabinet ministers, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "What was said and written in the newspapers is not what we know," Olmert said. "There is a government that is functioning with full cooperation. I won't allow election season politics into the rooms where decisions are made."
Olmert is interested in the establishment of an international supervision and enforcement mechanism for any cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Olmert has made that a precondition of any deal and emphasized it in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world leades.
"Israel cannot agree that the only party responsible for implementing and regulating the cease-fire be Hamas," a senior Israeli diplomatic source said on Wednesday.
According to the source, lack of an external supervisory body was the central reason for the collapse of the calm earlier this month.
"The situation in which Hamas didn't have to account for implementing the cease-fire did not prove viable," the source said.
Olmert clarified in Wednesday's cabinet meeting that Israel will not end the Gaza operation until it achieves its goals. The cabinet did not debate any cease-fire proposals and resolved to continue the operation already approved.
"We did not go into the Gaza operation only to end it while rocket fire continues," Olmert said.
According to Olmert, a decision now to opt for a cease-fire would carry a heavy price.
"Let's say we unilaterally stopped and a few days from now a barrage fell on Ashkelon," he said. "Do you understand the consequences in Israel and the region? For Israeli deterrence, for Israeli measures."
Last update - 16:48 05/01/2009
Israelis who blame Israel are not helping the Palestinians
By Ari Shavit
Tags: gaza, israel news, israel
Operation Cast Lead is a just campaign. Just, because in the summer of 2005 Israel destroyed all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and withdrew unilaterally to the international border. Just, because from 2006 to 2008 the Palestinian entity in the Strip did not take advantage of the occupation's end to build itself and its future and instead repeatedly attacked Israel within the Green Line.
Just, because for three solid years the State of Israel bit its lips and acted with restraint. Just, because no country in the world can accept for an extended period of time a situation in which its citizens are forsaken and its sovereignty violated. Just, because there is no chance for peace in the Middle East if the Jewish state is viewed as easy prey bleeding in the water and attracting sharks.
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Operation Cast Lead is a tragic campaign. Tragic, because it is causing the deaths of hundreds and injuring thousands. Tragic, because it is causing physical and emotional injury to innocent Palestinians, including women and children. Tragic, because like every war it creates intolerable human hardship and heartbreaking suffering.
But the tragedy of Operation Cast Lead is unavoidable. It derives directly from the fact that the Palestinians did not take proper advantage of the historic opportunity given to them in 2005. It derives from the fact that when the Palestinians achieved self-government for the first time in their history they misused it. It derives from the fact that the Palestinian need to destroy Israel is still stronger than their need to build Palestine.
Israel-hating Israelis call Operation Cast Lead a war crime. They record the names of each and every Palestinian killed, denounce each and every Israeli action and portray their state as a bully. While the Egyptians are saying that Hamas is largely responsible for the tragedy of Gaza, Israel-hating Israelis place the whole responsibility on their government and military. While the international community silently understands that a sovereign state is duty-bound to protect its citizens' lives, Israel-hating Israelis believe that Israeli lives can be forfeited.
While the simple facts indicate that the violence in the south derives from the despicable actions of an extremist organization that turned the Strip into a district of terror, Israel-hating Israelis persist in their hatred of their people and homeland and defend the morality of Hamas' destructive aggression.
There is no call for hating the Israel-hating Israelis. At the end of the day, their position is a pathetic one. Their self-righteousness is not at all righteous, and their moralizing has no morality. Their inability to show compassion for the Israelis of Be'er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Sderot shows that they possess a degree of callousness. Their inability to view the Arabs firing the Grad rockets as being responsible for their actions shows that they are not free of paternalism.
The real motivation of Israel-hating Israelis is not genuine concern for the Palestinians, but rather a form of reverse racism. By showing forgiveness toward Palestinian fascism they turn their backs not only on Israelis but also on moderate, freedom-loving Palestinians. Those who blame Israel for everything and exonerate the Palestinians of everything are neither serving the cause of peace nor helping to end the violence and occupation. All they are doing is proving the extent to which they are blinded by their burning self-hatred.
Operation Cast Lead is an intelligent, impressive operation. The element of surprise was total, the intelligence was precise and the timing was brilliant. The fact that the operation was launched after a six-month cease-fire violated by Hamas gives it political legitimacy and moral justification. The fact that it was carefully planned and carefully executed has restored a degree of trust in Israeli capabilities.
It is possible that after the initial air campaign and the destruction of the tunnels, the operation should have been suspended. It is possible that the French truce proposal should now be adopted and a final chance given for Palestinian clearheadedness. But those who reject the operation in its entirety are blind to reality and the moral failure.
The coming days will be difficult. There may be errors, perhaps complications, perhaps even victims. But for this very reason now is not the time for a campaign of hate against Israel's leaders, commanders, soldiers and pilots. Just the opposite. This is the time to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is proving himself to be a respected national leader.
This is the time to stand behind the commanders, soldiers and pilots working day and night to conduct a difficult, complex and entirely just war. This is the time for Israel to finally behave as a mature nation protecting itself with wisdom and restraint.
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 22:04 25/01/2009
Jewish Agency: Anti-Semitic acts in Jan. 2009 triple last year's records
By Haaretz Service
A total of 250 anti-Semitic acts around the world were recorded in January 2009, according to a Jewish Agency report released on Sunday. This marks a dramatic leap from the 80 cases recorded during the same time last year.
According to the Agency, Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip most likely prompted the increased animosity.
The operation was launched with Israel's aim to halt Hamas militants' rocket firing into southern Israel. During the operation some 1,300 Palestinians were killed, spurring a spate of protests and demonstrations around the world which in some cases turned violent.
Earlier this month in Toulouse, France, assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue, causing damage but no injuries. That same day in southern Sweden, a Jewish congregation was attacked when someone broke a window and threw a burning object inside.
In the United States, vandals used shaving cream to paint swastikas on a Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue, and shattered one of its windows in mid-January.
France, home to one of the world's largest Muslim and Jewish populations, saw one of the most notable increases in the number anti-Semitic attacks since the beginning of Israel's offensive in Gaza.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has indicated that numerous blogs carry messages of violence against Israel, and that the state courts were ready to take vigorous action against any perpetrators of hate crimes related to Gaza.
In light of the wave of anti-Semitic incidents that took place in the country, French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited in mid-January leaders of the Jewish, Muslim and Catholic communities in France to issue a joint condemnation of incidents that took place in the country.
The incidents included a stabbing of a a young Jewish man by two masked car thieves outside Paris, and two firebombing attacks against synagogues in Saint Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and in Strasburg.
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Last update - 16:39 31/12/2008
Disinformation, secrecy and lies: How the Gaza offensive came about
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning.
The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well.
Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip.
This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.
The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops.
On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation.
However, they decided to put the mission on hold to see whether Hamas would hold its fire after the expiration of the ceasefire. They therefore put off bringing the plan for the cabinet's approval, but they did inform Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the developments.
That night, in speaking to the media, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said that "if the shooting from Gaza continues, the showdown with Hamas would be inevitable." On the weekend, several ministers in Olmert's cabinet inveighed against him and against Barak for not retaliating for Hamas' Qassam launches.
"This chatter would have made Entebe or the Six Day War impossible," Barak said in responding to the accusations. The cabinet was eventually convened on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's Bureau misinformed the media in stating the discussion would revolve around global jihad. The ministers learned only that morning that the discussion would actually pertain to the operation in Gaza.
In its summary announcement for the discussion, the Prime Minister's Bureau devoted one line to the situation in Gaza, compared to one whole page that concerned the outlawing of 35 Islamic organizations.
What actually went on at the cabinet meeting was a five-hour discussion about the operation in which ministers were briefed about the various blueprints and plans of action. "It was a very detailed review," one minister said.
The minister added: "Everyone fully understood what sort of period we were heading into and what sort of scenarios this could lead to. No one could say that he or she did not know what they were voting on." The minister also said that the discussion showed that the lessons of the Winograd Committee about the performance of decision-makers during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were "fully internalized."
At the end of the discussion, the ministers unanimously voted in favor of the strike, leaving it for the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister to work out the exact time.
While Barak was working out the final details with the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to strike at Hamas.
In parallel, Israel continued to send out disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual order to launch the operation was issued.
"Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday."
The final decision was made on Friday morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave the air force its orders.
On Friday night and on Saturday morning, opposition leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the impending strike, including Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.
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Last update - 02:03 28/12/2008
IDF mobilizes tanks, reinforces troops along Gaza border
By Haaretz Service
The Israel Defense Forces on early Sunday began mobilizing tanks and reinforcing ground troops near the Gaza border, in preparation for a possible ground incursion.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Sky News that he would not rule out widening the offensive in the Gaza Strip to include a ground invasion.
Barak on Saturday also said Israel "cannot really accept" a cease-fire with Hamas, rejecting calls by the United Nations and the European Union for a truce after Israel Air Force strikes killed at least 230 people in Gaza.
"For us to be asked to have a cease-fire with Hamas is like asking you to have a cease-fire with Al-Qaida," Barak said in an interview with Fox News. "It's something we cannot really accept."
Asked whether Israel would follow up the air strikes with a ground offensive, Barak said, "If boots on the ground will be needed, they will be there."
"Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," he said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier on Saturday said no country in the world would put up with the rocket and missile strikes Israel suffers from and that the time had come to react.
Olmert's words came during a press conference he held hours after the Israel Defense Forces and the IAF carried out attacks in Gaza that Palestinian officials said left at least 230 dead and hundreds wounded.
"Israel has done all it could to preserve the cease-fire with Hamas, but our desire for quiet was met with terror," Olmert said.
Olmert added that Israel "is not itching for a fight, but will not back down from one either."
The Prime Minister also vowed to restore quiet to the lives of Israel's southern residents, adding that they "will not be abandoned." He also said that the IDF operations in Gaza would take time, and asked for patience.
Leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, accused Israel on Saturday of a "massacre" of Palestinians, saying "Palestine has never witnessed an uglier massacre."
Haniyeh's statement was broadcast by his Islamist group's Gaza-based
television channel, Al-Aqsa.
Earlier Saturday, Barak held a press conference on Saturday in which he said had no choice and that "the time has come to fight."
Barak said the IDF and IAF attacks had destroyed "terrorism infrastructure" and hit more than 150 Hamas targets. He also said the current campaign would be widened and will continue for some time.
Barak said Israel cannot stand by while rockets strike the communities of the western Negev and "won't let terror hurt our citizens or soldiers."
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Saturday addressed the ongoing IDF campaign in Gaza, saying, "Until now we have shown restraint. But today there is no other option than a military operation."
Livni, speaking in English at a press conference, said Israel had no
choice but to act to "protect our citizens from attack through a military response against the terror infrastructure in Gaza."
Livni called the IDF operations an expression of Israel's "basic right to self-defense."
The Foreign Minister laid blame for the bloodshed at the feet of Hamas, saying the group "cynically abuses its own civilian population and their suffering for propaganda purposes."
Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired at least 54 Qassam and Grad rockets into southern Israel on Saturday after the IDF campaign began. One of the rockets directly struck a home in the town of Netivot, leaving one Israel dead and four with moderate to serious injuries.
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Last update - 07:38 14/01/2009
Sarkozy urges French religious leaders to condemn anti-Semitic incidents
By Assaf Uni
BERLIN - French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited the leaders of the Jewish, Muslim and Catholic communities in France yesterday to issue a joint condemnation of the wave of anti-Semitic incidents that has taken place in the country since the Israel Defense Forces began its military operation in the Gaza Strip. Since December 27, 46 anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded, according to the French Union of Jewish Students.
French authorities are concerned by the rising tension between the Muslim and the Jewish communities and by the possibility that the Middle East conflict may spill onto their streets. During the weekend, there were two firebombing attacks against synagogues in Saint Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and in Strasburg.
Anti-Semitic graffiti calling for the killing of Jews was also found in the city of Puy-en-Velay.
Also, following an incident last week in which a Jewish student was beaten by Muslim youths, the French media reported yesterday on another attack: Seven Jewish youths are suspected of having beaten three youngsters of North African descent last Thursday.
Meanwhile, more than 100,000 demonstrated in various French cities over the weekend to protest the IDF's operation in the Gaza Strip.
Demonstrations took place throughout Europe against Israel, and were among the most intense in recent times. About 100,000 demonstrators marched Sunday in Madrid in a protest organized by a coalition of leftist groups that was also active in denouncing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Some Spanish media, including the daily Publico, with affiliations to the ruling socialist party, encouraged the masses to participate.
The demonstrators, who carried signs comparing the Star of David to the swastika, included senior representatives of the Socialist Party, and artists.
At the end of the demonstration some participants threw stones at the Embassy of Israel in Madrid.
Israel's ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, described Madrid's policy on the current confrontation between Israel and Hamas as "unfair" in an interview with a local radio station.
In Scandinavia, too, radical leftist demonstrators took part in violent protests against Israel. Of the 30 people arrested in Oslo for attempting to disrupt a demonstration in support of Israel, only one was Palestinian. Police also reported the participation of youth movements in the violence.
In Sweden, the head of the left-wing opposition, Mona Salin, took part in a demonstration in which an Israeli flag was torched.
In London, 20,000 took part in a demonstration organized by the Stop the War coalition that was set up in 2003 to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In recent years, the coalition has directed much of its activities against Israel.
In front of Israel's embassy in London, protesters are staging a daily demonstration, and over the weekend several hundred demonstrators smashed nearby shop windows.
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Last update - 02:09 28/12/2008
U.S. demands Hamas end terrorist acts, urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
The United States on Saturday urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties in air strikes on Gaza, and said Hamas must stop rocket attacks into Israel for the violence to cease.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put the responsibility for the violence on Hamas, saying "The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza. The cease-fire should be restored immediately."
Rice also called for the international community "to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza"
The White House did not call for an end to the Israel Air Force strikes that have killed at least 230 people in Hamas-ruled Gaza, according to Palestinian medical sources.
"Hamas' continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
"The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza," he said.
The Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip will closely resemble the Second Lebanon War, Hamas vowed on Saturday after a series of Israel Air Force strikes on the coastal enclave.
Hamas officials said all of Gaza's security compounds were destroyed. Hamas said it would seek revenge, including launching new rocket attacks on Israel and sending suicide bombers to Israel.
"Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking on a Gaza radio station.
"Hamas is in good shape and the government is in good shape," Barhoum told Al Jazeera. "The world will see many things from us. Now all options are open before the Az a-Din al-Qassam Brigades" (Hamas' military wing).
"Even if Israel kills the current heads of Hamas, there are hundreds of others that are capable of leading the organization," Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, said following the IAF strikes.
Al-Masri warned Israel that the targeting of senior Hamas officials will be met with "a harsh response" from the Islamist group.
"Assassinations of Hamas heads will not weaken us and we will not lose control but rather they will boost our forces and our stability," al-Masri said. "Within the movement there are leaders that will fill the missing ranks at any moment." He added that Hamas leaders are cognizant of the threats on their lives and thus take the necessary precautions.
"All fighters are ordered to respond to the Israeli slaughter," said a statement by the Islamic Jihad group, echoing statements issued by Hamas and other armed factions.
The head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt condemned the IAF attacks as "massacres" that were carried out "in criminal fashion."
"They are trying to subjugate the Arab and Islamic world through these massacres in Gaza - God willing victory will come," the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told Al Jazeera.
Hamam Said, the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, called on the Jordanian government to abrogate its peace treaty with Israel. He also urged all Arab armies to embark on a war against Israel.
"The time has come for us to crush the Jewish enemy and to purify Palestine," Said said. "Everyone must take to the streets and highways, come from wherever you are."
Labor unions in Jordan organized a mass demonstration to protest the IAF strikes in Gaza. "Egypt? The mother of the world, is not Gaza part of the world?" read one placard which was brandished during the protest.
The demonstrators called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh to forge a united front.
Hadash, the predominantly Arab leftist party, will stage a demonstration on Saturday in Nazareth to protest the IAF operations in Gaza. Hadash chairman Mohammed Barakeh called on the government "to immediately halt the crime in the Gaza Strip."
"Escalation will not bring quiet and calm," Barakeh said. "It is inconceivable for the Palestinian people in Gaza to live between starvation and bombardment. The government and the defense minister are trying to gain political capital in an election period on account of the bloodletting of the Palestinian people."
MK Jamal Zahalka, who is the chairman of the Balad faction, called for Defense Minister Ehud Barak to be tried for "war crimes" in Gaza.
"Barak is trying to win votes in exchange for Palestinian blood," he said.
In the West Bank, Hamas' rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that he condemns this "aggression" and calls for restraint, according to an aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh.
Palestinian Authority official Yasser Abed Rabbo condemned the Israeli strike on Gaza as "a barbaric act," according to Channel 10.
Responding to pressure from the Arab world, Egypt ordered the opening of the Rafah crossing to absorb wounded Palestinians from Gaza, Channel 10 reported.
European leaders respond to Gaza escalation
The spokesman for European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana criticized the escalation of fighting in the Gaza Strip and called for both sides to call a ceasefire, saying "We are very concerned at the events in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire and urge everybody to exert maximum restraint."
A spokesman for French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an end to the violence, saying Sarkozy "demands an immediate stop to the firing of rockets on Israel and to the Israeli bombings in Gaza and calls for all parties to use restraint."
Pleas for calm were echoed by the British Foreign office, which said "the only way to achieve lasting peace in Gaza is through peaceful means. Whilst we understand the Israeli government's obligation to protect its population we urge maximum restraint to avoid further civilian casualties"
The UK foreign office also called for Gaza militants "to immediately
cease all rocket attacks on Israel."
"I am deeply concerned by continuing missile strikes from Gaza on Israel and by Israel's response today."
Moscow also called for an end to hostilities, with a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry saying "the only way to achieve lasting peace in Gaza is through peaceful means. Whilst we understand the Israeli government's obligation to protect its population we urge maximum restraint to avoid further civilian casualties"
"We also call on miltants in the Gaza Strip to immediately cease all rocket attacks on Israel."
The Vatican's spokesman has urged Israelis and Palestinians to renounce violence and seek a peaceful solution to their conflict.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio on Saturday that Israel's
offensive will be a very serious blow to the Islamic militant group Hamas but could also cause many innocent victims and damage peace prospects in the Holy Land.
Lombardi said all sides must look for a different way out, even though it
seems impossible.
Arab world denounces IAF strikes
The Arab world reacted in shock to the attacks on the Gaza Strip on Saturday with scattered protests around the region and Egypt summoning the Israeli ambassador to express its condemnation of the air strikes.
In a statement from the president's office, Egypt condemned Israel's attacks and held it responsible for those killed and wounded and called for renewed efforts to restore the truce with Hamas.
"Egypt will forge ahead with its contacts to create a favorable atmosphere for renewing the truce and attaining inter-Palestinian reconciliation in a bid to end the suffering of the Palestinian people," the statement said.
Egypt also opened its border with the Gaza Strip to receive Palestinian
wounded.
Egypt's closure of that border has been condemned by many in the Arab world for abetting Israel's siege of the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip.
Arab League head Amr Moussa, meanwhile, called for an emergency meeting of all Arab foreign ministers in Cairo Sunday to address the crisis.
Hundreds of protesters in the Jordanian capital of Amman demonstrated in front of the nearby UN headquarters, waving Hamas banners and condemning Israel's strikes.
King Abdullah II called for an immediate halt all military actions in a statement issued by the royal palace, saying the attacks targeted innocents among the civilians including women and children.
The king warned that "violence will only escalate the crisis and will not bring security to Israel."
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora described the Israeli attacks as a
"criminal operation and new massacres to be added to its full record of
massacres."
In the country's south, dozens of Palestinian youths hit the streets in Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp to express solidarity with Gaza and set fire to tires. Larger demonstrations were planned later in the day in the camp and in the capital Beirut itself.
In Syria's al-Yarmouk camp, outside Damascus, dozens of Palestinians also protested the attack as well, vowing to continue fighting Israel.
"It's a Zionist holocaust, but it won't dissuade us from going on with our struggle to achieve our goals," said Ali Barakah, 42, one of the protesters.
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Last update - 15:03 24/12/2008
Netanyahu pledges to topple Hamas if elected prime minister
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Staff
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday pledged to topple the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip if elected prime minister in the February elections.
Speaking to a group of Russian speakers, Netanyahu said that under his leadership, Israel would move from a policy of absorbing blows to a policy of being on the offensive.
He said that apart from stopping the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, such a policy would also restore Israel's "national honor."
He also reiterated previous remarks that Israel would hold on to the Golan Heights.
"It should be clear to the Syrians and to the world, the Golan Heights will stay in our hands," Netanyahu said.
In response to reports that leaders of the Meretz party are seeking to create a "blocking majority" against a rightist government, Netanyahu emphasized the importance of turning Likud into the biggest party so that it could assemble a government. He said the rightist camp would be his first option in the search for coalition partners, but that he would also turn to other parties in order to create a wider coalition.
Netanyahu added that under no circumstances would he offer Shas the education ministry. He said the portfolio would remain the responsibility of Likud, and claimed he has not promised Shas anything that is likely to strike at the Russian-speaking community.
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein said the party aims to win seven or eight seats from Russian speakers alone at the February 10 general election, more than it has achieved in the past.
Kadima Chairwoman Tzip Livni made similar comments Monday to Netanyahu's regarding Hamas. After a meeting with the party's security forum, she said the forum had set the toppling of Hamas from its rule in the coastal territory as a central goal for the long term. Until that target is reached, Israel will work to regain its power of deterrence and to defend its citizens, she said.