GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 10…. NO 99

MIN. DICHTER: TRANSFER ISRAELI-ARAB TERRORISTS : by Ezra HaLevi
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Saturday night March 8, that Israel should create laws allowing for the expulsion of terrorists’ families, even if they have Israeli citizenship. Dichter’s statements, part of an increasingly hard-lin increasingly hard-line taken by the former Shabak chief since a Grad-type missile nearly hit his Ashkelon home, and in light of the support in Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods for the terrorist who murdered eight yeshiva students Thursday night. Arab residents of Jerusalem have been involved in at least 20 percent of terrorist attacks against Israelis, Dichter said.

EIGHT SUSPECTS IN YESHIVA MASSACRE: by Hana Levi Julian
Jerusalem police arrested eight people over the weekend of March 9, in connection with the massacre of eight yeshiva students at the Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva last Thursday night. Jerusalem District Police Chief Aharon Franco confirmed on Saturday March 8, that eights suspects had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the terror attack, which police said was well- planned.

FATAH LEADER, SCHOOL BOOKS SUPPORT TERRORISM AGAINST U.S. IN IRAQ: by Ezra HaLevi
A leader of Mahmoud Abbas’s US-backed Fatah party has come out in support of the terrorist war being fought against US and British forces in Iraq. PA text books for school children also push attacks on American and British forces Mahmoud Ismail, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, expressed his support for the war on the US during an interview on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, which is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The clip was recorded and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors incitement on PA television

OLMET: KASSAM ROCKETS, TERROR ATTACK CONNECTED: by Hana Levi Julian
In his first public statement since a terrorist attack on the Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva Thursday night March 6,. Mr Olmert said there was “a direct connection” between the constant Kassam rocket attacks on Sderot and other Gaza Belt communities, and the murder of eight yeshiva students and wounding of 11 others in Jerusalem. “Both are designed to make our lives intolerable,” said the Prime Minister. “In the same way that we have prevented attacks by Arab countries and Hizbullah, which has not dared to fire a missile at us for a year and a half, we will prevent attacks by terrorists,” he said. Within hours of the murders,, all crossings into and out of Palestinian Authority-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria were sealed off. The closure, which began at 1:00 a.m. Friday March 7, is currently planned to extend through the upcoming holiday of Purim, which begins on March 20. (13 days!)

FATAH AND GOV’T TO CONTINUE TALKS: by Hana Levi Julian *
Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are to continue despite the massacre of eight young yeshiva students and wounding of 11 others by a PA Arab resident of Jerusalem Thursday night March 6. PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel not to abandon the talks in the wake of the attack which shook the country. PA residents in Gaza were photographed celebrating the massacre, handing out candies and firing gunshots in the air

ISRAEL COLLAPSES TO US PRESSURE: by Hana Levi Julian
Despite vows last week to continue military operations until there is an end to all rocket fire on southern Israel, the Israeli government has pulled troops out of Gaza. The move came after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressured Israeli leaders last week to end the counterterrorism operations against rocket-firing terrorists. More than 7,600 rockets have battered communities in the western Negev since the outbreak of the Oslo War in 2000, most recently striking the coastal city of Ashkelon

BARAK SAYS GAZA OPERATIONS TO RESUME SOON:
Joins Olmert in denying reports of truce with Hamas
In response to reports over the weekend of March 9, that Israel has agreed to observe a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Olmert emphasized on Monday March 10 that IDF activities in Gaza will resume soon.

PA DAILY: MASS MURDERER IS A MARTYR: by Gil Ronen
P A’s Mahmoud Abbas’s official daily newspaper has honored the terrorist who gunned down eight high school students at point blank range with the status of shahid, or holy Islamic martyr. The March 8th edition of the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida prominently placed a picture of the terrorist on the front page, with the caption, “The Shahid Alaa Abu Dheim.” In a page one article on the massacre at the Mercaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva, his crime was again defined as an act of martyrdom (shahada).

SHOWDOWN ON PALESTINIAN FUNDING: - Joel Mowbray
A showdown could be looming between Congress and the Bush administration over a $150 million emergency aid package for the P A government. At issue is whether or not Mahmoud Abbas has either the capacity or desire to bring Palestinians closer to a peace deal with Israel, and it was his own words that triggered congressional wrath. In an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dastur last week, Abbas spoke with pride of violence he had waged in his past, suggested that terrorism could start anew in the future, and essentially backed away from repeated statements that he “recognizes” Israel’s right to exist. A top congressional appropriator, Foreign Operations Chairwoman Nita Lowey, said flatly, “Abbas’ recent statements cast doubt on his willingness to take the steps necessary for peace with Israel.” (Washington Times)

HAMAS LEADER ADMITS HUNDREDS OF FIGHTERS TRAINED IN IRAN:- Marie Colvin
Israel has long insisted that Iran is behind the training of Hamas forces in Gaza. Last week Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, said as much when he claimed that Hamas had “started to dispatch people to Iran, tens and a promise of hundreds.” A senior Hamas commander confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been training its men in Tehran for more than two years and is currently honing the skills of 150 fighters. The details he gave suggested that, if anything, Shin Bet has underestimated the extent of Iran’s influence on Hamas’ increasingly sophisticated tactics and weaponry.

US ADMIRAL CRITICISES IRAN’S ROLE IN IRAQ: - Borzou Daragahi
At a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday March 9, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for American forces in Iraq, described new details of allegations that Iran is meddling in Iraq He said U.S. troops recently discovered a cache of weapons south of Baghdad with markings indicating the arms had been made recently in Iran.

IDF TO PATROL GAZA BORDER USING UNMANNED JEEPS:
The Israel Defense Forces plans to deploy unmanned jeeps this summer along the security fence with Gaza, replacing many manned vehicles. While pilotless drones are already common in the Israel Air Force, this is the first time a driverless jeep, developed jointly by Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, will be used by the army’s ground forces. (Ha’aretz)

PALESTINIAN CELEBRATION OF MURDER DOOMS HOPE FOR PEACE:- Michael Goodwin
After an Arab gunman went on a rampage at a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem, we saw pictures of Palestinians celebrating the massacre. They shouted jubilantly from cars and danced in the streets of Gaza. Men fired bursts of automatic weapons skyward. Every society has its madmen, its gangsters and killers. But in functioning societies, they are shunned and punished as an example of how not to behave. Not so in Palestinian society or in too much of the Muslim world. Celebrations of death, as they did Thursday, soon become odes to martyrs. In less than a day, pictures of the lone gunman in the massacre appeared on posters glorifying his death. Behind his clean-shaven, ordinary face were a mosque and messages of heroic defiance. (New York Daily News)

SARKOZY CALLS FOR AN END TO ISRAELI ‘COLONISATION’ IN WEST BANK:
Israeli President Shimon Peres has received a warm welcome in Paris this week from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, although he did tell Jerusalem on Monday March 10, that Jewish “colonization” of the West Bank needs to stop. Sarkozy assured Peres that France would always be at Israel’s side when its existence is drawn into question by Iran or others.

OLMERT OKs NEW CONSTRUCTION IN GIVAT ZE’EV:
In a decision drawing sharp criticism from the US, United Nations and European Union, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has authorized the continuation of a ‘building project’ in Givat Ze’ev, a settlement just north of Jerusalem. Olmert has now ordered the Housing Ministry to resume building around 750 homes on the western edge of Givat Ze’ev. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has endorsed the move as part of his strategy to strengthen the major settlement blocs ahead of any final status accord, reported The Jerusalem Post.

IRAN ANNOUNCES REWARD FOR KILLING BARAK & OTHER SECURITY HEADS:
According to Army Radio, Iran is offering a bounty for the killing of Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the heads of the Shin Bet security agency, the Mossad, and IDF Military Intelligence. According to the Iranian news service IRNA, the Iranian group known as The Islamic Students for Justice announced a reward for anyone who “will succeed in executing these three international terrorists,” in response to last month’s assassination of Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh

MINISTERS REJECT CRITICISM OF HOUSING PERMITS: by Avi Tuchmayer
Minister of Housing and Construction Zev Boim (Kadima) has rejected international and left-wing criticism of the government’s decision to build a new housing project in Givat Zev, saying approval for the project was issued nearly a decade ago but was delayed due to Arab violence. On Sunday March 9, Boim announced construction plans for 550 new homes in Givat Zev, and more than 1,100 in the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods of Neve Ya’akov and Pisgat Zev, located in areas liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

SDEROT GROUP SUING OLMERT, BARAK FOR FAILURE TO PROTECT REGION: by Sarah Morrison and Avi Tuchmayer
Sderot residents are suing the State of Israel for failing to implement adequate security measures to defend the town against daily rocket fire from Palestinian Authority terrorists in Gaza, less than five kilometers away. The group has named Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as primary defendants in the civil case for not using the Nautilus system to defend against Kassam and Grad-type Katyusha rockets. The advanced defense mechanism, developed by the United States and Israel, uses laser beams to shoot down missiles before they strike their intended targets.

BUSH SENDING CHENEY TO THE MIDDLE EAST - Paula Wolfson (VOA News)
President Bush is sending Vice President Cheney to the Middle East, following on last week’s trip to the region by Secretary of State Rice. Cheney leaves next week , March 17, for a visit to Israel, the West Bank, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

KUWAITI COLUMIST CRITICISES TERROR ATTACK ON JERUSALEM: YESHIVA:
Writing in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan, author and journalist Abdallah al-Hadlak harshly criticized the terror attack on the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Al-Hadlak called the attack an act of barbaric murder that expresses the extreme and inhumane ways of Hamas and Hizbullah. (Israel Radio-Hebrew)

ISRAEL AND HAMAS AGREE TO ‘LULL’ IN FIGHTING:
Fragile truce already tested by Grad rocket on Ashkelon
Despite repeated denials from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israeli defense officials confirmed on Tuesday March 11 ,that Egypt has managed to mediate a temporary lull in fighting with Hamas along the volatile Gaza border. During an initial 30-day test period, Israel has agreed to halt military operations in Gaza in exchange for an end to rocket fire and tunnel smuggling activity

ISLAMIC JIHAD CHIEF IN BETHLEHEM KILLED AS ‘CALM FALTERS’:
Palestinian sources claim fugitive planned Jerusalem yeshiva attack
IDF troops and elite police commandos operating in Bethlehem on Wednesday evening March 12, killed four top terrorists with the Islamic Jihad militia, including the planner of last week’s shooting massacre in a prominent Jerusalem yeshiva, Palestinian sources claim.

BARAK: ‘GAZA ESCALATION TO WORSEN BEFORE THE CALM’:
Truce not taking hold as IDF kills yeshiva attack plotter in Bethlehem
On a tour of the Gaza border area on Wednesday March 12, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned IDF troops that the battle with Hamas will most likely “bring an escalation beyond what we have seen so far, before we reach a period of calm.”

ISRAEL ‘IMPRESSED’ BY EGYPT’S CRACKDOWN ON TUNNEL SMUGGLING:
According to Israeli defense officials, Egypt has taken serious measures recently to reduce the smuggling of arms and explosive devices from Sinai into Gaza, following the recent escalation of rocket attacks on Ashkelon. The statement comes following previous criticism of Egypt from the IDF for not taking necessary action to stop the smuggling.

RUSSIAN FM. INSISTS ON IMMEDIATE TALKS WITH IRAN! :
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday March 11, the worldwide community should immediately open dialogue with Iran regarding its controversial nuclear development program

ISRAEL BOYCOTTING ALJAZEERA:
According to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the pan-Arabic TV news network Al-Jazzera is now being officially boycotted by the Jewish State due to biased reporting of the recent IDF incursions into Gaza. The ban includes Israeli officials declining interviews with the news stations and a prohibition on all Al-Jazeera reporters from entering Jerusalem’s government offices.

ROCKETS FIRED FROM GAZA: by Ezra HaLevi
More than fifteen Kassam rockets were fired at Sderot and the western Negev from Gaza overnight on March 13.. No injuries were reported