Middle East Update

GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM . AUG 7 NO 127

SHARANSKY BACKS McCAIN, CALLS OBAMA A “RISk” TO Israel : by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Former Prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky has termed Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama a “risk” to Israel if he is elected president. The former minister in the Sharon government, who also is a personal friend of American President George W. Bush, told Shalom TV that he prefers Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain. Getting to Obama, there is no record. It can happen to be good. It can happen to be very bad. It’s a risk.

TWO TERRORIST STABBINGS THWARTED IN ONE MORNING : by Hillel Fendel
In the first incident, a 26-year-old woman from Bethlehem arrived at the Rachel Crossing south of Jerusalem. She was not allowed to enter the city, and then tried to stab one of the guards. The guard was not hurt, and the attacker was quickly overcome and taken for questioning. Shortly afterwards, a 20-year-old Arab male was arrested at the entrance to the Machpelah Cave in Hevron. He aroused the soldiers’ suspicions, and a quick body-check produced a 30-centimeter (12-inch) knife on his person. The suspect confessed that he had planned to stab an Israeli Border Guardsman. Israeli security forces arrested four terror suspects over the course of the night. One was captured in the hostile village of Yata, south of Hevron, and four M-16 rifles and much ammunition were found in his home. Three others were arrested in Kalkilye, east of Raanana. PA Arabs threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli car north of Dolev, in western Binyamin, during the night. In Jenin, in northern Samaria, an IDF force came under Arab fire. No one was hurt and no damage was caused in either incident.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM . AUG 1 NO 126

OLMERT COMMITS TO STEPPING DOWN :
Complains of having to ‘repel vicious attacks from day one’
In a dramatic televised announcement on Wednesday evening, July 30, embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he will not run in the upcoming Kadima primary and will resign from office once his successor has been elected, to allow them room to form a new coalition government.

PM OLMERT WILL CEDE GOLAN FOR DIRECT TALKS:
Ahmadinejad vows to strengthen Iran’s ties with Syria
According to right-wing Israeli sources cited on Army Radio on Wednesday July 30 , Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accepted Syria’s demand that Israel agree to cede the Golan before direct negotiations between the two sides begin over what Israel will get in return

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM . JULY 26 NO 125

OLMERT MAY QUIT AND NAME MOFAZ AS PM TO WEAKEN LIVNI : : by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is considering suspending himself and naming Transportation and Road Safety Minister Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) to replace him, Israeli media reported Saturday night July 26. Taking the action before Kadima’s September leadership primaries would diminish the chances of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in her bid to become the next Prime Minister

LAEST PA LIBEL EXPOSED :”ISRAEL DESPATCHES ANTI-ARAB RATS”: by Hillel Fendel
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports that two Arab newspapers in the Palestinian Authority are accusing Israelis of unleashing bands of rats against Jerusalem’s Arab population. According to the PA papers, the Israeli-Jerusalem rat is: 1. Immune to rat poison 2. Aggressive and larger than usual 3. Unafraid of cats and able to scare them away 4. Highly fertile, with females giving birth to 140 young rats a year, four times the normal average 5. Highly selective, as Jewish residents of Jerusalem apparently are not affected by these rats. “Creating libels against Israel,” PMW reports, “is a pivotal aspect of the Palestinian Authority’s incitement to hatred against Israel and Jews.”

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM . JULY 22 NO 124

WEST GIVES IRAN TWO WEEKS TO FREEZE NUCLEAR PROGRAM :
Rice warns more sanctions await if Iran continues enrichment
Iranian officials claimed that “progress’ was made in this weekend’s showdown in Geneva over Tehran’s renegade nuclear program, but Western leaders presented a different picture, insisting new sanctions await unless Iran agrees to halt its uranium enrichment activities within two weeks

BROWN TELLS KNESSET UK WILL STAND BY ISRAEL ON IRAN :
British PM also blasts Israeli settlement construction
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown assured Israeli leaders in a speech to the Knesset on Monday July 21 that the UK is ready to impose new sanctions against Iran that will further its isolation if Tehran does not halt its nuclear program and stop threatening the Jewish state.

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Rockets on Israel, fired by Hamas from Gaza or fired by Hizb’Allah from Lebanon, are great constraining factor on Israel’s civilian life. For the moment Israel has to live with the daily arrival of rocket-borne explosives on two of its towns, Sderot and Ashkelon, a situation that would not be tolerated in any other sizable western country. The main bombardment comes from inside Gaza and the establishment of a rocket free zone in the southwest inside Gaza is quite within the capabilities of the Israeli armed forces if it weren’t for the certainty of Hizb’Allah opening a furious barrage on the northern Lebanon/Syria front. Israel would find itself fighting on two fronts simultaneously with an expanded general war a certainty. Israel is not ready for this and hence puts up with rockets on her towns.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM . JULY 17 NO 123

LEBANON JUBILANT OVER RETURN OF VICIOUS ISLAMIC CHILD MURDERER KUNTAR :
Abbas, Palestinians join celebrations of Hizbullah ‘victory’
Lebanese leaders declared a national holiday on Wednesday to celebrate the “liberation” of PLO terrorist Samir Kuntar and four Hizbullah guerillas from Israeli jail in a lopsided prisoner swap

US DIPLOMAT TO HOLD FIRST MEETING WITH IRANIAN NEGOTIATOR :
Burns’ presence to signal US backing of incentives package
For the first time under the Bush Administration, a senior US diplomat will hold a meeting with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, as Ambassador William Burns plans to sit in on a meeting in Switzerland on Saturday July 19 with Tebran’s envoy Saeed Jalili.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM .. JULY 12 .. NO 122

OLMERT FACES NEW EVIDENCE OF DOUBLE BILLING FOR TRIPS :
Israeli police reveal wider charges after grilling PM
Ehud Olmert’s legal woes deepened during his third round of questioning in the Talanksy affair on Friday when Israeli police confronted the embattled prime minister with new evidence indicating he sought funding from several sources to pay for identical trips abroad so he could pocket the excess.

IDF PREPARES FOR COLLAPSE OF TRUCE :
After another week of Palestinian breaches of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza, the IDF expects the truce to collapse soon and is preparing for military action, senior defense officials said on Thursday July 10.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM .. JULY 8 .. NO 121

IDF BEGINS EXHUMING HIZBULLAH BODIES FOR PRISONER SWAP :
In a clear sign that an Israel-Hizbullah prisoner swap is about to take place, IDF rabbinic authorities on Monday July 7 began exhuming the bodies of approximately 200 Hizbullah fighters killed in combat with Israel from a special cemetery for enemy casualties near Safed. The bodies are to be transferred to Lebanon in the first stage of the prisoner swap deal, under which captured IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, presumed dead, will be returned to Israel in exchange for Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar and several other Hizbullah prisoners.

AHMADINEJAD SAYS ISRAEL AND US WON’T DARE ATTACK IRAN :
Experts say Iran has resumed nuclear bomb project
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday July 7 said his country would not stop enriching uranium, as demanded by the international community, and charged that Israel and the United States were too scared to attack his nation.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM .. JULY 2 NO 120

PA GLORIFIES CHILD MURDERER KUNTAR: By Hana Levi Julian
The P A leadership considers Lebanese arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar to be the epitome of the “ideal” PA prisoner, Kuntar, commander of a unit that attacked Nahariya in 1979, was convicted for the murders of four Israelis, including two toddlers. He has been serving four consecutive life terms in prison. This disgusting blot on humanity , Kuntar, first shot Israeli civilian Danny Haran on the Nahariya beach and drowned him in front of Einat his 4-year-old daughter. Kuntar then turned his attention towards the 4-year old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the toddler’s head, knocking her to the ground. He, then laid her head on a rock and beat her on the head until her skull was crushed and she was dead. This Lebanese Druze operative is likely to be freed from an Israeli prison within days if Hizbullah signs a prisoner swap deal for the return of the remains of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, approved by the Cabinet on Sunday June 29

IRAN SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR SPYING FOR ISRAEL : (Reuters)
A court has sentenced an Iranian man to death on charges of spying for Israel, Iranian media said on Monday June 30.. “Ali Ashtari, who had been accused of spying for the Zionist state and charged with engaging in espionage for (Israel’s) Mossad intelligence service, has been given the death sentence,” the ISNA news agency said.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM .. JUNE 26 NO 119

ORLEV : FRENCH PRESIDENT NEEDS LESSONS IN HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY :
MK Zevulun Orlev, Chairman of Israel’s National Religious Party, said of the visiting president of France, “Sarkozy should stay here a bit longer in order to learn some history, namely, that Jerusalem never beloned to Islam, but only to the Jews. He should also take a geography lesson, and visit Sderot and the transient camps of the Gush Katif expellees before he proposes another [Jewish] expulsion and retreat to the 1967 borders.” “His friendship with Israel must be based on those two lessons,” Orlev said. MK Benny Elon (National Union) said he agrees that there should be two states, but with slight differences than Sarkozy’s proposal: “One state should be Jordan, on the east bank of the Jordan River, and Israel on the west side. No other state should be established be established between them.

COURT : GAZA CROSSINGS REMAIN CLOSED FOR NOW : by Hana Levi Julian
The High Court of Justice has ordered the government to keep the Gaza Crossings closed for the time being and told Major-General (res.) Amos Gilad, head the of the Defense Ministry’s Security-Diplomatic Bureau, to meet with the Shalit family. They discussed Sunday night June their son’s situation, and the court told Gilad to try to find a way to resolve the points of contention with the family, who demand that negotiations guarantee release of the captive soldier. Israel’s High Court of Justice on Monday evening June 23 dismissed an appeal filed by Schalit’s family against the ceasefire agreement between Israel and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza, charging that it does not include a prisoner exchange deal for his return.

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