GPL M/ EAST UPDATES FROM FEB 11……NO. 153

ISRAEL VOTES :
On Tuesday February 10, 5,278,985 were eligible to vote for the 18 th Knesset, to select their preference from 33 parties.

YEMENI JEWS DEMAND RESCUE :
Despite numerous government assurances and presidential instructions to protect and relocate the Jewish minority in Raidah Village, Amran governorate, the some 400 Yemeni Jewish citizens fear for their lives today more than ever.

HAMAS RETURNS SEIZED AID SUPPLIES TO THE UN IN GAZA : Adam Entous and Ndal al-Mughrabi
The Un said on Monday February 9, that Hamas has returned all of the aid supplies that it had seized in Gaza last week. UNRWA had suspended imports of goods after accusing Hamas of twice seizing aid supplies, accusing Hamas of taking blankets, food and other goods from a warehouse, and 10 aid trucks (Reuters)

IDF KILLS PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBER AT GAZA BORDER : Anshel Pfeffer
IDF troops spotted an armed Palestinian trying to cross the Gaza-Israel on late Sunday February 8, and opened fire, after which a bomb belt the man was wearing detonated. Islamic Jihad said the man killed was on a mission to attack an Israeli patrol along the border (Ha’aretz).

RIGHTS GROUPS SAY HAMAS CARRIED OUT ‘EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS’ DURING GAZA WAR:
Human rights groups have called on Hamas to investigate widespread allegations of abduction, torture and killings of Palestinians accused of being collaborators with Israel during the recent war in Gaza.

HAMAS TO ISRAEL TODAY: Edgar M Bronfman (Huffingtom Post)
“We do not recognize your right to exist. We reserve the right to attack you at any point. And we will surely not honour any previous agreements regarding peace and reconciliation”. The same organization fires rockets at Israeli civilians from among the ‘human shield’ civilians of the Gaza Strip, and then the whole world condemns the Israeli government for acting to defend its citizens!!

LIVNI, NETANYAHU JOCKEY AMONG COALITION SUITORS FOR PM POST :
With 99.7 percent of the votes counted, (February 12) a surging Kadima looks to have narrowly eclipsed Likud at the wire with 28 Knesset mandates to 27. Likud could still pull even through soldiers’ absentee ballots and surplus vote-sharing agreements with other right-wing parties, but the results last night already gave both factions reason to claim victory. All eyes will now turn to Israeli President Shimon Peres, who by law must consult with the heads of all parties entering the next Knesset and determine who has the best chance of piecing together a stable government. He indicated today that he would take his time and wait for the official results to be published before inviting the various faction leaders to Beit Hanassi - the presidential residence. The final results, including votes from soldiers and emissaries abroad, will only be officially published on February 18.

GAS DISCOVERY OFF ISRAEL LARGER THAN INITIAL ESTIMATE : - Jim Polson (Bloomberg)
Noble Energy Inc. said its Tamar natural-gas discovery off the coast of Israel is probably 61% larger than initially estimated when announced last month.

IRAN NOT RUNNING OUT OF URANIUM : (AP/International Herald Tribune)
Iran on Wednesday denied a London Times report that it was running out of raw uranium or seeking to buy uranium from abroad to sustain its nuclear program. An Atomic Energy Organization of Iran official said Iran has its own uranium mines to extract ore, which are sufficient. Iran’s principal source of uranium is its Saghand mine, which has the capacity to produce 132,000 tons of ore per year.

ISRAELI ELECTION RESULTS REVEAL ‘RIGHTWARD SHIFT” :
‘Nationalist camp’ rises from 50 to 65 seats When all votes counted in Israel’s national elections on Tuesday, the tally so revealed that the center/left bloc has lost 15 seats to the Likud-led right in the incoming Knesset. The nation now awaits President Peres to declare which party will govern after Kadima won one more seat than Likud but probly cannot form a government anyway.

HAMAS LAUNCHES FUNDRAISER TO REBUILD MOSQUES :
The Hamas government in Gaza announced Sunday February 8, the start of a fund-raising campaign to rebuild mosques destroyed by IDF strikes during Operation Cast Lead. Speaking at the ruins of the al-Taqwa mosque, the Hamas Minister for Religious Affairs, Dr. Taleb Abu Shaar, officially launched the campaign, saying that $25 million was needed for reconstruction of the mosques. Shaar said that 45 mosques had been completely destroyed during the fighting, 55 were too damaged to receive worshipers and dozens of others sustained lesser damage

IAF STRIKES BACK IN KHAN YUNIS : by Hana Levi Julian
Israel Air Force helicopter pilots strafed a Hamas military command center in southern Gaza in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning, February 12, hitting a terrorist post in the city of Khan Younis. Terrorist sources said the facility was damaged, but there were no casualties. The aerial strikes came in response to mortar shelling and rocket attacks on western Negev communities by Gaza terrorists a day earlier. Three mortar shells exploded in the Eshkol region close to the security barrier at around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday February 11. A single shell was also fired at a kibbutz in the same region at around 3:00 p.m. the same day. There were also reports of an earlier shelling of the Eshkol region Wednesday morning.

EGYPT ARRESTS 40 IN NEW SMUGGLING CRACKDOWN :
Egyptian police arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized over $1 million of contraband goods along the country’s sensitive border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official said Thursday February 12. The arrests were the result of a new smuggling crackdown that features hundreds of security forces recently deployed along the border. The security spokesman said that about 1,000 Egyptian police are now patrolling the narrow alleys and hillsides near the divided border town of Rafah. Town residents and visitors are subjected to extensive questioning and searches for the first time and new checkpoints have been set up along Rafah’s entrances and exits.

REPORT : HAMAS AGREES TO LONG TERM TRUCE : - Salah Nasrawi (AP/Washington Post)
Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said Thursday February 12 in Cairo that the Islamic militant group agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel for Gaza, the official Egyptian news agency MENA reported. Cairo believes that hammering out a long-term cease-fire between Hamas and Israel and easing hostilities between the Palestinian camps will reaffirm its stature as the Obama administration is considering renewing nearly $2 billion in annual U.S. military and economic aid to Egypt.

IRAQIS SEEK REPARATIONS FOR 1981 ISRAELI ATTACK ON NUCLEAR REACTOR : (DPA/Qatar Tribune)
Iraqi parliamentarians are demanding Israel pay billions of dollars in reparations for a 1981 Israeli attack on the Osiraq nuclear reactor, Baghdad’s daily Al Sabbah reported on Thursday February 12..

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE (USA) CUTS TIES WITH FIRMS INVESTED IN ISRAEL : - Peter Schworm
Student activists at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., are hailing a divestment decision by the board of trustees that they say makes the college the first in the country to break financial ties with companies specifically because they do business with Israel.

CYPRUS UNLOADS IRANIAN ARMS SUPPLIES FROM GAZA-BOUND SHIP :
The ship recently bound for Gaza but detained in Cyprus was loaded with Iranian military supplies for making munitions, Cypriot authorities said Friday February 13. More than 90 containers loaded with “raw material that could be used in the manufacture of munitions” would be stored at a naval base. The US military said it found artillery shells and other arms aboard the ship after stopping it last month in the Red Sea.

HAMAS WAR CRIMES :
The advocacy group Take-A-Pen has initiated a public petition directed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon demanding that Hamas leaders be tried for committing war crimes in the recent Gaza conflict, as defined under international law. The petition has drawn 75,000 signatures in a few short weeks.

NATIONAL RELIGIOUS ‘CAMP’ BUOYED : by Hillel Fendel
In light of the election results giving the nationalist camp a 65-55 Knesset majority over the left-wing/Arab camp, the religious-Zionist press is replete with calls along the lines of “Let’s not be afraid to rule.” Emanuel Shilo, editor of the weekly B’Sheva, Israel’s largest religious-sector newspaper, writes: “Kadima’s success in overtaking the Likud by one Knesset mandate should not confuse us: The clear meaning of the election results is a victory by the Jewish-nationalist camp over the liberal-left camp… The religious-nationalist camp now has a clear chance to form a stable coalition - if Lieberman remains true to his word…”

RUSSIA: ISRAEL ELECTION RESULTS MUST NOT HARM PEACE PROCESS: Barak David Haaretz andAP
Russia’s foreign minister on Sunday called for Israel to not let last week’s election results freeze the peace process, if a government dominated by the right-wing takes over. Lavrov also said that Russia is planning a Mideast peace conference for the first half of this year.

ONLY 3—NOT 40-NONCOMBATANTS KILLED NEAR UN SCHOOL: - David Horovitz (Jerusalem Post)
The most emblematic distortion of the death toll in the Gaza war relates to the deaths near the UN school in Jabalya on Jan. 6. Palestinian medical officials claimed that some 40 Palestinians, many of them women and children, were killed at the school by IDF shells. These claims sparked condemnation from the UN, widespread allegations of a “massacre” against Israel and escalated international political demands for an urgent end to the fighting. The IDF’s Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) reported on Sunday, after careful checking, that the Palestinian death toll in that incident - which involved Israel returning fire against Hamas gunmen outside the school facility - caused 12 fatalities, nine gunmen and three noncombatants

IDF : IRAN NO.1 THREAT TO ISRAEL : - Alex Fishman
The Israel Defense Forces’ annual work plan for 2009 officially defines Iran as “a threat to Israel’s existence.” This is the first time in years that the defense establishment has declared that the State of Israel is under an “existential threat.” The plan defines the Iranian peril as “the No. 1 threat the IDF is now preparing for.” (Ynet News

OLMERT SAYS FREEING SCHALIT HIS ‘TOP PRIORITY’ BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE :
Israel’s caretaker PM Ehud Olmert continues to press for a Gaza truce deal with Hamas that includes the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Scahlit, and is expected to convene the cabinet on Wednesday February 18 for crucial decisions on which Hamas killers the outgoing government will free in exchange. Olmert insisted on Sunday that any progress on Egyptian-mediated talks over a truce with Hamas and the opening of Gaza crossings was dependent on the release of Schalit.

US HOPES TO SALVAGE DURBAN 2 SUMMIT :
The Obama administration announced Saturday February 14 that it would participate in planning the highly controversial “Durban II” anti-racism conference despite concerns that the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others to demonize Israel. “The intent of our participation is to work to try to change the direction in which the review conference is heading,” the State Department communiqué said.

EGYPT CRACKING DOWN ON GAZA SMUGGLERS : - Ashraf Khalil (Los Angeles Times)
Gaza smuggling-tunnel owners have begun to direct their fury at the Egyptian government as Egypt has begun to impose stronger checkpoints throughout the Sinai Peninsula to prevent merchandise from reaching the tunnel zone. There’s talk of Egyptian police using informants to find hidden entrances and destroy dozens of tunnels with explosives or huge water hoses.

JEWISH STUDENTS HELD HOSTAGE IN TORONTO UNIVERSITY : - Tori Cheifetz (Jerusalem Post)
Jewish students at York University in Toronto were forced to take refuge in the Hillel office last Wednesday February 12 as anti-Israel protesters banged on the glass doors, chanting, “Die, Jew, get the hell off campus.”

MANCHESTER UK STUDENTS VOTE TO CONDEMN ISRAEL : (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
In an emergency general meeting of the Manchester University’s Student Union on Wednesday Ferbruary 18,, 550 students voted for a motion to boycott Israeli goods and condemn Israel’s Gaza operation, defeating 200 voting against.

OXFORD STUDENTS DEFEAT ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPAIGN : - Marcus Dysch (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
A motion calling for the university to condemn Israel’s action in Gaza was rejected by the Oxford University Student Union on Friday Febr uary 13, by 40 votes to 21

REPORT:ISRAEL’S COVERT WAR AGAINST IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM. - Philip Sherwell
Israel has launched a covert war to disrupt Iran’s illicit nuclear program, U.S. intelligence sources have revealed. A former CIA officer on Iran told the Daily Telegraph: “Disruption is designed to slow progress on the program, done in such a way that they don’t realize what’s happening…. The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach. With cooperation from the United States, Israeli covert operations have focused both on eliminating key human assets involved in the nuclear program and in sabotaging the Iranian nuclear supply chain.” (Telegraph-UK)

NETANYAHU: PALESTINIANS SOVEREIGNTY, YES, BUT NOT AT ISRAEL’S EXPENSE :
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting leaders from the Conference of Presidents on Monday February 15, that while he would not want to govern the Palestinians, Israel must maintain control of all borders and airspace. The Palestinians “should govern themselves, but they shouldn’t have certain powers that would threaten the State of Israel,” he said.

ALL OVER EUROPE, EVIDENCE OF A RISE IN ANTI-SEMITISM : - Denis MacShane
The periodic crises that have shaken world capitalism in the past century and a half are marked by a common political phenomenon: the rise of political anti-Semitism. Attacks on Jews and Jewishness constitute the canary in the coal mine that tells us something is going seriously wrong.

MUSLIM CLERICS MEET IN TURKEY TO PLOT NEW JIHAD AGAINST ISRAEL : - Bill Law
At a weekend meeting of February 15, in Istanbul, 200 religious scholars and clerics met with senior Hamas officials to plot a new jihad against Israel centered on Gaza.

JORDAN POSTPONES INTERNATIONAL LAWSUIT AGAINST ISRAEL: - Roee Nahmias
Jordan has decided to postpone its mission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Israel’s Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said Tuesday Februrary 17: “There is no greater hypocrisy than a country (Jordan) that just 39 years ago, during 1970s Black September, murdered 10,000 of its Palestinian residents, dealing with international crimes today….Jordan will not be the one to teach Israel about the ethics of warfare.” (Ynet News)

FRANCE OFFICIALLY ACKNOWLEDGES COLLABORATION IN THE HOLOCAUST :
The French Council of State found that the Vichy French government “allowed or facilitated the deportation from France of victims of anti-Semitic persecution.” Indeed, the draconian Vichy regime, led by Marshal Philippe Pe’tain, helped to deport some 76,000 people - including 11,000 children - from occupied France to concentration camps during the war. Fewer than 3,000 returned. Today, France has western Europe’s largest Jewish community, numbering approximately 500,000.

IAF WARPLANES STRIKE HAMAS TARGETS IN RESPONSE TO ROCKET FIRE:
Israeli war planes bombed a Hamas security compound and struck seven smuggling tunnels along Gaza’s border with Egypt on Wednesday February 18. Palestinian security officials said the Hamas base had been reduced to rubble in previous air strikes, but this time a mosque left standing inside the compound was destroyed. The IDF released a statement saying that the strikes on the compound and the seven tunnels along the Philadelphi Route were in response to recent Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.

RUSSIA HALTS SALE OF S-300 ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES TO IRAN:
Moscow on Wednesday February 18 informed visiting Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar that it has frozen the sale of Russia’s state-of-the-art S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to the Islamic Republic, the newspaper Kommersant reported today. An $800 million deal for five of the S-300 systems has already been signed, but Russia said their delivery would be delayed so as not to endanger dialogue with the new Obama administration, especially over Washington’s plans to deploy advanced anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe. Israel Radio quoted Moscow sources as adding that Russia also wanted to avoid ruining a $100 million drone purchase from Israel.

DESALTING TO QUENCH DRY THROATS : by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Water Authority director Prof. Uri Shani announced Tuesday night February 17, a new project to set up five temporary desalination plants with a $300 million price tag to relieve the water crisis. The plants, unlike larger projects that are underway but will not be completed for three to five years, will be in operation by next year, which still leaves Israelis with the threat of strict rationing this summer

GAZA WAR HELPED ISRAEL DEFENCE : by Maayana Miskin
As Gaza terrorists fired dozens of short and long-range rockets at southern Israel in the first weeks of 2009, Israeli weapons developers were following the attacks and taking advantage of the opportunity to examine terrorists’ weapons arsenal. Developers hope the latest data will assist in the development of the Iron Dome protective system. Developers say the Iron Dome system will be able to intercept rockets, destroying them before they can hit Israeli towns. Iron Dome is not expected to intercept short-range rockets fired on cities close to Gaza such as Sderot.