GPL M/ EAST UPDATES FROM JAN 24…. NO. 150

FREED BY USA, SAUDI BECOMES AL- QAEDA CHIEF : Robert F. Worth (New York Times)
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Said Ali al-Shihri has emerged as the deputy leader of al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with al-Qaeda in Yemen, where he is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Sana in September.

ARAB STATES FEAR MOSLEM MILITANCY MORE THAN THEY DISLIKE ISRAEL :- Tim Butcher (Telegraph-UK)
Egypt’s secular, military leaders have been struggling with the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1920s. Militant Islam remains one of the most clear and present dangers to President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. The links between Hamas and “the Brothers” are strong, deep and long-standing. Gaza abuts Egypt and in the eyes of many the Palestinian movement is little more than the “North Sinai Branch” of the Moslem Brotherhood. So just as Cairo needs to keep “the Brothers” in check, it also has an interest in seeing Hamas weakened.

ANTI ZIONISM, THE ABUSE OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT UNI OF CAL : - Tammi Rossman-Benjamin (Institute for Global Jewish Affairs)
Under the mantle of academic freedom, falsehoods and distortions about Zionism and Israel are heard in classrooms and at officially-sponsored events on many university campuses. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, numerous cases of faculty-generated anti-Zionist political advocacy have been documented.

ISRAELI TOURISM ROSE 32 % IN 2008 : (Reuters)
A record 3.03 million people visited Israel in 2008, up 32% from 2007, the Tourism Ministry said on Sunday. The largest number of tourists last year came from the U.S. at 617,000, a record level. Some 356,000 entered from Russia for an 84% jump. Tourism from Germany rose 40%.

HAMAS LEADER KHALED MASHAL CLAIMS VISTORY IN GAZA ‘WAR’ :
The ‘brave’ Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, hiding in Damascus in fear for his life, told Al-Quds TV on Wednesday January 21: “Our people and our nation have emerged victorious….”

ISRAEL RULES OUT OPENING GAZA BORDER IF HAMAS GAINS ! : - Adam Entous
Israel has all but ruled out fully reopening border crossings with Gaza as long as Hamas rules the enclave or stands to benefit from the easing of restrictions, a top adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

HAMAS TAKES CONTROL OF ALL GAZA TUNNELS : - Yaakov Katz
Hamas has seized control of all the smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza and has been moving in additional arms since the Gaza operation ended Sunday January 18. The tunnels in Rafah are usually run by local Palestinian clans. Hamas’ decision to take control enables it to decide what is smuggled in and to give priority to weapons and explosives.

IDF OFFICER : HAMAS USE OF CHILDREN DURING GAZA OPERATION WAAS “MONSTROUS” :
The Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza Division Commander on Thursday January 22, branded Hamas’ use of women and children during Israel’s recent offensive as “monstrous” and “inhumane.” Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg said civilians were sent by Hamas to transfer weapons to gunmen during the offensive. He also accused Hamas of booby-trapping many of the civilians’ homes. “Entire families in Gaza lived on top of a barrel of explosives for months,” Eisenberg said.

ADVICE FOR THE NEW MIDDLE EAST ENVOY : - Marty Peretz
George Mitchell is the U.S. special envoy to Israel for peace talks. Mitchell has been very clear that there is no purpose in negotiations with parties which don’t want peace. The delirium of Palestinian politics is a stark fact.

THE BATTLE OF GAZA…ONE BATTLE IN A WAR : - Clifford D. May
What took place in Gaza and Israel over the past three weeks was not a war - it was one battle in a war. Or, to be more precise, it was one battle in a “global insurgency” aimed at overthrowing what we used to call - in a more confident era - the Free World. “Yes, Allah is greater than America,” Hamas supreme leader Khaled shaal, hiding in Damascus , said on al-Jazeera television a few years ago. “Allah is greater than the superpowers. We say to the West: By Allah you will be defeated.” But Allah has had no luck for the last 80 years or more.

BRITAIN GIVING UP AGAINST GLOBAL JIHAD: - Melanie Phillips
In Britain, the war in Gaza has revealed the extent to which the media, intelligentsia and political class have simply crumbled in the face of the global jihad. Years of demonizing Israel and appeasing Islamist extremism within Britain have now coalesced, as a result of the media misrepresentation of the Gaza war as an atrocity against civilians, in an unprecedented wave of hatred against Israel and a sharp rise in attacks on British Jews.

BARCELONA CANCELS HOLOCAUST CEREMONY TO PROTEST ISRAEL’S GAZA OPERATION :
In a move that may spread to other European countries, a public service scheduled for next week in Barcelona to remember the Holocaust has been canceled in protest of Israel’s recent offensive against Hamas in Gaza. In recent years, many European nations and the European Union itself have set aside January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, as an annual day for holding Holocaust remembrance ceremonies. But the Catalunya government has become the first to cancel this year’s event, citing the Israeli incursion into Gaza. “Marking the Jewish Holocaust while a Palestinian holocaust is taking place is not right,” said one city official. !!

GADHAFI CALLS FOR A JOINT STATE OF “ISRAETINE”:
While speaking by videoconference to college students at Georgetown University on Wednesday January 21, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi repeated his recent calls that Israelis and Palestinians should join in a single, bi-national democratic state he refers to as “Isratine.” Gadhafi supported the Jewish people’s right to remain but said that the single-state solution is the best avenue because the Jews would always face strife in the Middle East. “Take them to Alaska or Honolulu or the Hawaiian Islands or the Pacific islands and they can live peacefully in an isolated setting.”

ISRAEL APPROVES ANTI-SMUGGLING AGREEMENT WITH EGYPT :
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met overnight Thursday January 22 and approved a series of new security agreements with Egypt intended to prevent future weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip

US NAVY INTERCEPTS IRANIAN SHIP : by Avraham Zuroff
A U.S. Naval vessel in the Gulf of Aden has been ordered to search for suspicious Iranian ships containing weaponry heading for Gaza. Combined Task Force 151, which is keeping pirates at bay in the Gulf of Aden, has been ordered to track Iranian arms shipments, the Sunday Times reports. Naval officers from the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dockship that serves as the headquarters for the taskforce, last week boarded a cargo vessel registered in Limassol and flying a Cypriot flag.

POPE WELCOMEWS HOLOCAUST DENIER : by David Shammah
In a move that many Jewish community officials said would cause relations between Jews and Catholics to further deteriorate, the Vatican on Saturday January 24, lifted an excommunication ban against Bishop Richard Williamson, one of four bishops who were banned in 1988 for taking on the office of bishop against the wishes of then-Pope John Paul II. Williamson is a Holocaust denier, and has repeatedly said that the gas chambers did not exist and that no more than 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II, mostly of starvation. In addition, Williamson has declared that the Jews are plotting to take over the world, and that the U.S. and Israel were behind 9/11.

PLAGUE KILLS TERRORISTS: by Hillel Fendel
At least 40 Al Qaeda terrorists were killed earlier this week by a plague called the Black Death. The same disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages claimed terrorists training this week in a camp in Algeria. The disease is accompanied by horrific symptoms, causing terrible suffering to its victims. One security source told the British paper The Sun, which broke the story, “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease. It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying Al-Qaeda.” The Sun reported that the last outbreak of the disease killed 30,000 Londoners in 1665.

HIZBULLAH REVENGE PLOTS THWARTED : by Gil Ronen
Authorities in Azerbaijan have thwarted a plot by Hizbullah to bomb the Israeli embassy in Baku, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan reported on Monday January 26.

HOW IRANIAN FROGMEN BRING WEAPONS TO HAMAS : Nadav Zeevi and Amir Buhbut (Maariv-Hebrew, 23Jan09)
According to an Israeli security source, the IDF has encountered Iranian-leased weapons ships anchored ten miles out to sea opposite Rafiah in Egyptian waters. The weapons are packed in waterproof containers which travel under the surface. During the night, Iranian frogmen transport the containers and tie them to Palestinian fishing vessels located closer to shore. The Palestinian vessels return to Gaza, towing the containers underwater to avoid detection.

IRAN IN SCRAMBLE FOR FRESH URANIUM SUPPLIES : - Robin Pagnamenta, Michael Evans and Tony Halpin (Times-UK)
Western powers believe that Iran is running short of yellow cake uranium, the raw material required to manufacture nuclear weapons. Britain, the U.S., France and Germany have started intensive diplomatic efforts to dissuade major uranium producers such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Brazil from selling to Iran.

POLL : AMERICANS SYMPATHETIC TOWARD ISRAEL ON GAZA : - Viola Gienger (Bloomberg)
60% of Americans sympathized with the Israelis compared with 17% who supported the Palestinians during the recent war in Gaza, according to a CNN opinion poll conducted Jan. 12-15.

AERIAL PHOTOS SHOW ROCKET SITES AND BASES IN HEART OF GAZA CIVILIAN AREAS : (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
Marked aerial photographs show how Hamas turned entire civilian neighborhoods, including houses, mosques, schools, hospitals and UN facilities, into quasi-military compounds from which it waged combat against the IDF. By doing so Hamas inevitably caused loss of life and property damage to innocent civilians.

GAZA OP. CAUSED HUGE BACKLOG IN EGYPT OF ARMS MEANT FOR HAMAS : - Barak Ravid
Israeli Defense Minister Barak on Sunday January 25, said a large quantity of arms had piled up in Egypt en route to Gaza as a result of Israel’s recent offensive and that Israel had informed Egypt of the build-up. (Ha’aretz)

ISRAEL CONDEMNS HAMAS MORAL ACROBATICS :
Prime Minister Olmert told the Cabinet on Sunday January 25: “With the typical moral acrobatics,” the terrorist organizations, led by Hamas, “and their supporters are trying to turn the attacker into the attacked and vice-versa. The undeniable truth is that for eight years, hundreds of thousands of residents of the State of Israel, who live in the south, were the unceasing targets of brutal, deliberate and planned rocket fire that was intentionally designed to hit civilians, including children and their parents.”

TOP EU OFFICIAL BLAMES HAMAS FOR GAZA WAR :
A top European Union official insisted on Monday January 26, that the “terrorist movement” Hamas bears full responsibility for the recent war in Gaza, comments that could help stem a burgeoning international campaign to try Israeli military and political leaders for “war crimes” in the recent Gaza fighting

ANTI SEMITIC ATTACKS JUMP 300 % :
The number of anti-Semitic attacks around the world during Israel’s three-week offensive against Hamas in Gaza soared more than 300 percent compared to the same period last year,.

IAF ATTACKS GAZA TARGETS AFTER BOMB ATTACK :
The Israel Air Force attacked targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon January 27, hours after an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a Palestinian-rigged bomb attack near the border. Palestinian witnesses also said by late Tuesday afternoon that Israeli tanks could be seen rolling into the Gaza Strip. “What the IDF has done now [in Gaza] is not the response,” Mr Olmert has states, referring to an IAF strike and clashes in the coastal territory, which followed the deadly attack. “Israel response is yet to come.”

GAZA CASUALTY FIGURES :
IDF finally released an official estimate of Palestinian casualties in its three-week Gaza offensive, concluding so far that between 1,100 and 1,200 people were killed, including 700 terrorists and 250 civilians. The IDF has yet to verify the identity of some 200 fatalities, mostly men in their 20s. Israeli President Shimon Peres also joined the fray on Monday, lashing out at those who decry the ‘disproportionate’ Palestinian casualty ratio in Operation Cast Lead. Citing statistics of Israeli casualties from Palestinian terrorism in the past decade or so, Peres noted that 842 civilians and 325 soldiers had been killed in recent years, making a total of 1,167 fatalities. “So where is the disproportion?” he queried.

GA HEAD SKIPS HOLOCAUST EVENT AFTER JEWISH GUESTS THREATEN A WALK-OUT :
UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a harsh critic of Israel, decided to skip an official United Nations ceremony marking the Holocaust on Tuesday January 27, after American Jewish leaders threatened a high-profile walk-out if he used the occasion to once again attack the Jewish state. Brockmann, who has aligned himself with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was to host the event by virtue of his official position and give the opening speech.

ISRAEL HITS BACK AT WAR CRIMES CHARGES :
IDF documenting Hamas misuse of civilian areas, human shields The Israeli military has gone on the offense in recent days to counter growing charges of ‘war crimes’ against it by releasing documents showing how Hamas used civilian areas in Gaza as military posts and exploited the local population as human shields

OBAMA AFFIRMS PLANS TO ENGAGE DIRECTLY WITH IRAN :
In his first interview with Arabic media since taking office, US President Barak Obama on Monday January 26 promised to engage Iran and to immediately become personally involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. “Iran has acted in ways that are not conducive to peace and prosperity in the region,” Obama told Al Arabiya television.

CAIRO STOPS IRANIAN ARMS SHIP BOUND FOR GAZA :
Israel continues to closely track an Iranian freighter believed to be carrying weaponry for Hamas that is currently docked in the Red Sea outside the Suez Canal, after Egypt refused to permit it to cross the waterway to the Mediterranean. Reports indicate the US Navy recently boarded the vessel and verified it was carrying artillery shells and other weaponry, but had no grounds to stop it from proceeding. “This is a big test for the Egyptians,” a senior Israel defense official said.

IAF ATTACKS TUNNELS UNDER PHILADELPIA COR RIDOR :
The IAF struck overnight Tuesday January 27, at arms smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor at least twice, Gaza residents reported. There were no immediate reports of injury but hundreds of people fled the area. The IDF Spokesman confirmed the strikes, and added that they were in response to the bomb attack against a military patrol along the border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning in which one soldier was killed and three others were wounded.

WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS GROW BY 69 % IN 2008 :
The number of new structures in the West Bank settlements and outposts increased by 69 percent in 2008, compared to 2007, according to a new study released by Peace Now on Tuesday evening. January 27. The report added that the settler population grew from 270,000 in 2007 to 285,000 in 2008 If this growth continues, it will no longer be possible to create a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank, Peace Now charged.

OBAMA TO INTERNATIONALISE JERUSALEM : by Hana Levi Julian
Likud party chairman and Knesset Opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu warned at the Jerusalem Conference Wednesday January 28, that the Obama administration and leftist Israeli politicians will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem — and he vowed to fight the move. Netanyahu told the audience, “Some politicians are trying to blur the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish People by referring to it as the ‘Holy Basin.’ We, as Jews, know who built the Temple Mount.” Dividing the capital, or resurrecting the specter of internationalizing the “Holy Basin”, this time at the recommendation of the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would cause more problems even for the international community that it would solve, he added.

OBAMA INTERVIEWED ON AL-ARABIYA : by Gil Ronen
President Barack Obama chose the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya Arabic satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president. He cited his Muslim background and Muslim relatives and said that one of his main tasks was to communicate to Muslims “that the Americans are not your enemy.”