GPL M/ EAST UPDATES FROM . OCT 14 NO 138

ISRAEL PURSUING KIDNAPPERS OF CPL. GILAD SHALIT : - Ronen Solomon and Arik Weiss
“People are disappearing from the streets of Gaza,” a former senior officer in the PA Preventive Security Services who fled recently from Gaza said this week. According to Palestinian sources, on 7 Sep. 2007, Muhawash al-Kadi, one of the senior Hamas leaders involved in the kidnapping of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, was driving in the evening with his family to his home in Rafiah. After the car reached the city cemetery, the street was blocked by a Peugeot with its hood up. As al-Kadi turned into a side street, an old man seemed to fall in the street and al-Kadi stopped to help him. At this point, IDF soldiers dressed in Hamas uniforms sprayed something in al-Kadi’s face while other soldiers removed the family members from al-Kadi’s car. Taking al-Kadi, both cars sped toward the Dahaniya airport where two helicopters flew them to Israel. A month after the event, the PA Interior Ministry announced the arrest of collaborators who helped Israel in capturing al-Kadi.

FAKE REPORT ABOUT LEHMAN BROTHERS MOVING BILLIONS TO ISRAEL : - Anshel Pfeffer (Ha’aretz)
Dozens of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli web sites have been distributing a news report over the last few days claiming that on the eve of Lehman Brothers’ collapse last month, the firm transferred $400 billion to Israel. The story names three Israeli banks that allegedly received the money and charges American law-enforcement authorities with having knowledge of the transfer.

U.S. AND EU PLAN IRAN SANCTIONS WITHOUT UN : - Daniel Dombey and James Blitz
The U.S. and its allies are discussing a “coalition of the willing” that would impose sanctions on Iran’s energy and financial sectors without UN backing as concerns increase about Tehran’s accelerating nuclear program. European countries and the U.S. were planning to impose sanctions on Iran’s energy sector as “like-minded countries” - rather than through the UN - and were discussing targeting exports of engineering products for Iranian refineries as well as refined oil itself.

IRAN INTERFERING IN US-IRAQ SECURITY PACT, GENERAL SAYS : - Ernesto Londono
Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Sunday October 12, that American intelligence reports suggest Iran has attempted to bribe Iraqi lawmakers in an effort to derail a bilateral agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after the end of this year. (Washington Post)

ALERT IDF SOLDIER AT CHEKCPOINT PREVENTS PALESTINIAN TERROR ATTACK :
The IDF nabbed three Palestinians carrying nine pipe bombs at a checkpoint west of Nablus on Sunday October 12, averting a planned terror attack. When a female soldier at the checkpoint asked a Palestinian to open his bag, he refused. The soldier insisted, prompting the Palestinian to remove a shirt and pants from the bag before closing it again. However, then the soldier opened the bag herself, and found three pipe bombs inside it. At that point, the suspect’s two friends were also searched and were found to carry three pipe bombs in each of their bags. (Ynet News)

THE FAILING MARKETS IMPACT ON DIPLOMACY : - Herb Keinon
The disappearance of trillions of dollars worldwide will make it difficult for the international community to pay for an Israeli-Palestinian, or Israeli-Syrian, agreement, even if they miraculously appear . Who would pay for the tens of billions of dollars worth of new early warning systems Israel would have to set up following deep withdrawals from the West Bank and Jordan Valley, or a complete withdrawal - as the Syrians are demanding - from the Golan Heights? Who would pay compensation to Palestinian refugees if an agreement were reached that would deny them a “right of return” to pre-1967 Israel, but would recognize their right to compensation? Who would pay for the Palestinian security services or fund the infrastructure if a Palestinian state were agreed upon? The U.S.? After this month, forget about it. With the governments of the world now preoccupied with their own economies, the importance of solving the Israeli-Palestinian issues right now will likely fade. (Jerusalem
Post)

FISCHER : ISRAEL IN GOOD SHAPE : by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Israel is a relatively stable rock in the financial storm thrashing world markets, and the country is in good economic shape, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said. “Certainly, Israel will be hit,” he told Globes business news service. “We live in the world, and we’re not an island, but our situation is relatively good, and better than I expected.”

KADIMA EXPECTS DEAL WITH LABOR : by Ernie Singer
Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni sent a partial draft coalition agreement to Labor party leader Ehud Barak on Sunday afternoon October 12, with an eye to concluding coalition talks by Monday. A deal with Labor is seen as a prerequisite to talks with the hareidi-religious Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, the left wing Meretz party and the Gil Pensioners’ party. Livni told several cabinet ministers, “It’s not healthy that these negotiations are taking so long.” Under the agreement, Barak would be named a senior deputy prime minister in a Kadima-led coalition and play a significant role in negotiations with Syria.

KATZALEH : THE JEWISH FUTURE IN YESHA : by IsraelNN Staff
While the international community continues to pressure the Israeli government to surrender territory to the Palestinian Authority, Yaakov “Katzaleh” Katz, a Yom Kippur War hero and leader of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), is optimistic about the continued Jewish growth in Judea and Samaria. While listing the many thriving cities and towns in Judea and Samaria, Katzaleh expressed certainty that despite the enormous pressure from world leaders to destroy these communities, the process of Jewish settlement in these areas is irreversible.

GERMAN OFFICIAL ATTENDS TEHERAN’S “DESTROY ISRAEL” RALLY : - Benjamin Weinthal (Jerusalem Post)
German Ambassador to Iran Herbert Honsowitz violated EU guidelines by allowing a military attache to attend an anti-Israel military parade in Tehran last month, according to a spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry’s Iran section. “Israel must be wiped off the map” was one of the slogans painted on Shihab-3 missiles featured at the event.

MAVERICK LEABANESE CHRISTIAN LEADER ‘COZIES’ UP TO IRAN :- Raed Rafei (Los Angeles Times)
Lebanese Christian leader Michel Aoun, who returned to the country in 2005 after 15 years of exile in Paris and then banded together with Hizbullah, is on a high-profile official visit to Tehran. In a joint news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Aoun praised the Islamic Republic for its help to the Lebanese.

AMNESTY: EXECUTIONS SURGING IN SAUDI ARABIA : (BBC News)
Amnesty International says executions are surging in Saudi Arabia, and those most likely to face death by the sword are migrant workers and poor Saudis because they are unable to use the “blood money” system. Amnesty’s report - “Affront to Justice: Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia” - says there were 158 recorded executions in 2007 and the figure between January and August 2008 stood at 71. There were at least 1,695 executions between 1985 and May 2008, of which 830 were foreign nationals - a highly disproportionate figure. In some cases, execution is followed by crucifixion, Amnesty said.

RICE PLEDGES PURSUIT OF MIDEAST PEACE UNTIL HER TERM ENDS :
U.S. Secretary of State Rice said Tuesday October 14, she “will leave no stone unturned” to reach a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the next three months. Rice has visited the region multiple times - including eight trips this year. (VOA News)

WEST BANK FOREIGN INVESTMENT GROWS : - Jay Solomon
Efforts to attract foreign investment into the West Bank are accelerating, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in an interview. Intel is building a minicomputer lab in Hebron, while TouchStar is committing $1.5 million for a Middle East-focused call center in eastern Jerusalem. Cisco is overseeing a $10 million, three-year investment plan to create jobs and economic projects in the Palestinian territories. (Wall Street Journal)

PALESTINIAN FIRE-BOMBER KILLED IN WEST BANK : - Avi Issacharoff
Abdel Kader Zeit, 17, from Jalazoun, who tried to throw a fire bomb near the West Bank settlement of Beit El, was shot dead by IDF forces on Tuesday October 14. Troops found a cache of ten other fire bombs, which he planned to hurl together with two other Palestinians who fled the scene. (Ha’aretz)

PA RAIDS HAMAS “BOMB FACTORY” IN WEST BANK :
A security forces raided a Hamas bomb factory and arrested 11 members of the rival Islamist faction in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday. Ramadan Awad, chief of the PA police in Hebron, said more than 100 kg. of explosives were seized along with ammunition and homemade firearms. “The factory was preparing bombs,” he said. (Reuters)

HAMAS RULED GAZA BECOMING LIKE AFGHANISTAN : - Tariq al-Homayed
Gaza is following in the footsteps of Afghanistan with regard to an abundance of arms, poverty, and division between one armed group and another, who are more than prepared to fight, leading to even greater divisions. The transformation of Gaza into Afghanistan is a future whose first casualty will be the Palestinians and their cause, which has been shattered by Hamas.

HANGED FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN IN IRAN - Alasdair Palmer
A month ago, the Iranian parliament voted in favor of an “Islamic Penal Code” which would codify the death penalty for any male Iranian who leaves his Islamic faith.

LAST NAIL IN 2008 PA ‘PEACE COFFIN’ : by Hana Levi Julian
The financial crisis in the United States has tanked the last chance for U.S. President George W. Bush to establish a Palestinian Authority State and his place in Middle East history before the end of his term, says a Tel Aviv analyst. Hanna Siniora, co-president of the Israel-Palestinian Center for Research and Information told the Washington Times on Monday October 13, that the Middle East has been put on the back burner for now. “We are being shelved for the moment,” said the analyst. “And if the crisis deepens, it’s bad news for all of the Middle East. There won’t be any interest in the government of the U.S. to do anything.”

REPORT: RUSSIA SUSPECTED OF SECRETLY DELIVERING WEAPONS TO HIZBULLAH : - Jean-Pierre Perrin (Liberation-France)
On July 4, the Angela, a cargo ship flying the flag of Gibraltar, was subjected to a thorough search in the Bulgarian Port of Varna. Two containers were found to contain dual-use metal pipes produced in Russia. The grooves on both sides of the tubes suggest that these were parts for the assembly of missiles. Questioned for 17 hours, the captain, a Lithuanian, eventually confessed that the vessel was destined for Latakia, a major Syrian port. Why was such a delivery clandestine since Moscow and Damascus are linked by military cooperation agreements, unless the final destination of the material seized in Varna is not Syria? According to Western military sources, if these missiles are assembled in Syria, some of them are destined for Hizbullah.

PALESTINIAN INCITEMENT CONTINUES : (Palestine Media Center-PA)
“New Synagogue Built within Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the website of the Palestine Media Center, headed by PLO Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo, claimed Tuesday October 14. On Sunday, the Ohel Yitzhak Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Old City, located about 100 meters from the Temple Mount (and the Al-Aqsa mosque), was reopened after being abandoned in 1938 in the wake of waves of Arab violence.

IRAN SETS PRECONDITIONS FOR IRAN-USA TALKS :
Mahdi Kalhor, a top adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said on Saturday October 11 that as long as U.S. forces remain in the region and the U.S. backs Israel, talks with the U.S. will not take place. (Fars-Iran)

NO 2 LEADER OF AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ KILLED : - Ernesto Londono
The U.S. military on Wednesday October 15 announced it had killed Abu Qaswarah, the No. 2 leader of the Sunni insurgent group Al-Qaeda in Iraq, on Oct. 5 during an operation in northern Iraq. (Washington Post)

HAMAS “AQSA TUBE” GLORIFIES TERRORISM ONLINE :
Hamas recently launched a new Internet site called “AqsaTube,” devoted entirely to propaganda and incitement against Israel, glorifying terrorism, and preaching the doctrines of radical Islam. There is also a link to Hamas’ satellite channel, Al-Aqsa TV. AqsaTube is registered in Dubai, and its Internet service provider is the French firm OVH. Hamas manages and directs more than 20 websites in eight languages. (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)

BUSH OFFERS SYRIA THE GOLAN FOR IRAN : by Hana Levi Julian
.S. President George W. Bush offered Syrian President Bashar Assad a secret deal to pull Israel out of the Golan Heights in exchange for Damascus breaking off ties with Tehran, according to a report published Friday October 17, in the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida. A Palestinian Authority (PA) source quoted in the report said Bush reportedly proposed “a quick and satisfactory solution” to Syria’s dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights. The “solution” was to be finalized “within several weeks, before the U.S. presidential elections, in order to push the Middle East peace process, an achievement the president will be able to proudly present before leaving the White House in January,” according to Cairo-based journalist Abdel-Wahab Al-Nasser.

SHAS SAYS ITS ‘JERUSALEM OR BUST’ : by Gil Ronen
The hareidi-religious Sephardic party Shas wants Tzipi Livni, who heads the ruling party Kadima, to make a commitment not to negotiate over Jerusalem in the talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Shas Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai, met with Livni Thursday in her office in Jerusalem, and negotiating teams from both parties met in the evening for an extended, four-hour-long session. The main sticking points, according to leaks from both sides, are Shas’s demands for NIS 1.5 billion for stipends to aid families with numerous children and the demand regarding Jerusalem.

IDF AND PA MEET ON HEBRON : by Ernie Singer
Spokesman Noam Arnon of Hevron’s Jewish community criticized on Thursday October 16, government plans to transfer control of Hevron to the Palestinian Authority (PA). He was speaking to crowds that arrived to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the biblical Jewish city. Referring to terrorist sniper attacks, Arnon said, “We remember how they fired at us from the hill opposite [from where I'm standing]. We won’t give it to you. Hevron is Jewish and we see just how Jewish Hevron is.. Addressing the government, Arnon said, “We demand, in the name of the fathers, the mothers, the sons and the daughters, don’t you dare do this. The people of Israel have proved that they are…connected to Hevron.”

FACEBOOK GROUP WANTS ARABS OUT :
A pro-Zionist group on the popular internet Facebook social network is urging the Israeli government to expel Arabs instead of Jews from Judea and Samaria following the riots on Yom Kippur in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Akko. A petition, posted in English, Hebrew, French and Arabic, reads: “I hereby declare that instead of planning for the expulsion of Jews from Judea and Samaria, the Israeli government must prepare for the expulsion of Arabs from the Land of Israel.”