GPL M/ EAST UPDATES FROM FEB 20…NO. 154

YEMENITE IMMIGRANTS ARRIVE IN ISRAEL : - Yael Branovsky (Ynet News)
Ten immigrants from Yemen arrived in Israel Thursday February 19, by way of a third country. They include Said Ben-Israel, one of the Yemenite Jewish community’s leaders who was attacked and a grenade was thrown at his house.

ONE MONTH AFTER THE GAZA WAR : - Leslie Susser
A month after the Gaza war, Palestinians have fired nearly 50 rockets and mortars at civilian targets in the Gaza periphery. Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Hamas took a heavy beating in the war and that the Gaza-Israel border is on the verge of a long period of quiet. He sees the daily dribble of rocket fire as a pathetic attempt by Hamas to show it’s still around.

SEPARATING MYTHS FROM FACTS : - Michael Gove
Despite deliberate lies and the distortion of the truth and facts, in the supposed massacre in Jenin, the total number of casualties was only 75: 26 terrorists, 23 Israeli soldiers, and 26 civilians who died as a result of terrorist actions. . Each death a tragedy. But the reality of that grim arithmetic is that it does not add up to the massacre that was reported.

ARGENTINA ORDERS HOLOCAUST-DENYING BISHOP OUT : - Debora Rey (AP/New York Times) The bishop whose denials of the Holocaust embarrassed the Vatican was ordered Thursday to leave Argentina within 10 days. The Argentine Interior Ministry said it had ordered Richard Williamson out of Argentina because his comments on the Holocaust “profoundly insult Argentine society, the Jewish community and all of humanity by denying an historic truth.”

SOUTH KOREA TO BUY ISRAELI RADAR SYSTEM IN $215 (MILL) DEAL : - Yossi Melman (Ha’aretz)
South Korea has decided to buy Israel Aerospace Industries’ Green Pine radar warning system in a deal worth $215 million, according to Sunday’s Korea Times. On Monday February 15, Israel’s Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd., said it had won 22 million euros in contracts to supply Mexico’s federal police with airborne surveillance systems

IRAN HAS ENOUGH ENRICHED URANIUM FOR A NUCLEAR BOMB: - Daniel Dombey
Iran has built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, UN officials acknowledged Thursday February 19, saying Iran had produced more nuclear material than previously thought. They said Iran had accumulated more than one ton of low enriched uranium hexafluoride at a facility in Natanz, which if further enriched could produce more than 20 kg. of fissile material - enough for a bomb.

PALESTINIAN ROCKET FIRE CONTINUES : - Anshel Pfeffer
Palestinians in Gaza fired three rockets at Israel Thursday evening February 19, that struck near Sderot and Netivot. Two rockets had been fired at Israel earlier in the day. In response, the Israel Air Force bombed six smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, causing secondary blasts which indicated that explosives were hit. (Ha’aretz) Palestinian gunmen on Friday the 20 th fired ten mortar shells at IDF troops operating near the Kissufim crossing to Gaza. (Jerusalem Post)

DECLARATION TO FIGHT ANTI-SEMITISM SIGNED IN LONDON : - Jonny Paul
A declaration pledging to challenge anti-Semitism was signed on behalf of all participating nations on Tuesday February 17, the final day of the London Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism. Noting the dramatic increase in anti-Semitism being disseminated in the media and attacks targeting Jewish persons and property, the London Declaration was signed by 125 parliamentarians from 40 countries

TURKEY’S SHIFT TOWARD IRAN AND SYRIA : - Jonathan Spyer
Last weekend, a conference held under the title “Gaza, The Victory” took place in Istanbul, bringing 200 Sunni clerics and activists together with senior Damascus-based Hamas officials. The location of the conference is a further indication of the move of the Islamist AKP government in Turkey toward a more open alignment

USA AND EU OPENING UP TO DEALING WITH HAMAS :
A high-level US congressional delegation headed by Sen. John Kerry avoided any contact with Hamas while visiting Gaza on Thursday, but the international boycott against the Islamist terror militia is rapidly breaking down when it comes to European lawmakers and perhaps the Obama administration. President Barack Obama’s new Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell said today that a Palestinian national unity government between Fatah and Hamas would be “a step forward,” an indication Obama may be willing to deal with Hamas. Meanwhile, a number of European parliamentarians have opened direct dialogue with Hamas officials in recent weeks, including two French senators who traveled to Damascus to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, and two British MPs who met the Hamas representative in Beirut. “Far more people are talking to Hamas than anyone might think,” said a senior European diplomat. Since the end of last year, MPs from Sweden, the Netherlands and three other western European nations have also consulted with Hamas representatives.

ISRAELI RESEARCHERS ANNOUNCE ADVANCES IN CANCER RESEARCH :
In an article recently published in an American science journal, Israeli researchers became the first to have documented that the injection of stem cells from aborted human fetuses can trigger tumors. Meanwhile Israeli researchers working in Haifa have developed an “electronic nose” that is capable of distinguishing between cancer patients and healthy people. The device is based on a dog’s ability to detect cancer molecules on a person’s breath and boasts a success rate of 92%

OBAMA APPOINTS ANTI ISRAEL AIDE : by David Lev
A flurry of reports over the weekend said that the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas W Freeman, considered a sharp critic of Israel, is to be named to a top intelligence post in the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. Chas W. Freeman Jr., who was U.S. ambassador in Riyadh from 1989-1992, is set to be named chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which has a strong influence on the content of the intelligence briefings presented to the President (and puts together the National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, which in 2007 dissuaded the Bush regime from attacking Iran). The Council chairman is also often called on to give direct briefings to the President.. Typical of his remarks are the following :-
Those in the region and beyond it detest Israeli behavior Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; We wring our hands while sitting on them as the Jewish state continues to seize ever more Arab land for its colonists.

KERRY MEETS WITH BASHAR ASSAD!! : by Avraham Zuroff
In another possible sign of a changing U.S. foreign policy, Senate Foreign Relations Committee head Senator John Kerry met Saturday February 21 with Syrian President Bashar Assad. “I believe very deeply that this is an important moment of change, a moment of potential transformation, not just in the relationship between the United States and Syria but in the relationship of the region,” Kerry said after the meeting.

KATYUSHA FROM LEBANON HURTS 3 IN ISRAE L: by Gil Ronen
A Katyusha rocket fired from Lebanon hit an Israeli-Arab village in the western Galilee near the Lebanon border early Saturday February 21. Three Arab residents of the town were lightly injured by broken glass and were treated at Nahariya Hospital. Several others were treated for emotional shock. Two houses sustained damaged in the attack, which occurred at about 8:00 a.m. Saturday. The Lebanese Army reported that a second rocket exploded north of the Israeli border. A Hizbullah spokesman denied that the terror group had fired the rocket at Israel, according to Al-Arabiya television.

10 MKs MAY SPLIT FROM KADIMA : by Gil Ronen
Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu intends to offer Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni senior ministerial appointments as well as veto power over government decisions, if she agrees to join a government led by him. If Livni refuses the offer, one-third of her faction may split off and join Netanyahu. According to Yoav Yitzchak of News1, Shaul Mofaz and nine other elected Knesset members from Kadima’s list may not follow Livni into the opposition and could split off from Kadima to form their own faction, which would then join Netanyahu’s government.

RAFAH BORDER CROSSING OPENED : by Avraham Zuroff
Egypt reopened the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Sunday morning February 21, to students, sick patients, and foreign nationals. The crossing was opened to Arab traffic going both into Gaza and out, and will remain open for three days.

AL-QAEDA TELLS HAMAS : DON’T ACCEPT TRUCE : (Reuters)
Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Palestinians in Gaza not to succumb to Arab pressure for a truce with Israel. “Jihad to liberate Palestine and all Islamic land should not stop,” he said.

NETANYAHU TO FORM NEW ISRAELI GOVERNMENT : - Isabel Kershner
Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party, was invited by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, on Friday February 20, to assemble the next government. Netanyahu immediately called on the Kadima Party, led by Tzipi Livni, and the Labor Party, led by Ehud Barak, to join him in a unity government Israeli prime minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu promised Sunday to work with the U.S. to promote peace in the region. Tzipi Livni late Sunday night February 22, rejected Binyamin Netanyahu’s efforts to convince her to join a Likud-led unity government

BRITAIN AND ITALY THREATEN TO DROP OUT OF DURBAN 2 : - Leon Symons
Britain and Italy could join Canada and Israel in refusing to attend the Durban II Review Conference in April unless they receive cast-iron guarantees that it will not turn into an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel arena of hate. Britain’s Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said on Tuesday February 17, “I was at the first conference. I have never seen such a disgraceful event in quite a long international life….We are not going to stand idly by and allow this racist stuff to get through and be seen as acceptable. We are not going to have it.”

YES, WE SHOULD WORRY ABOUT IRAN’S SATELLITE : - Uzi Rubin
Iran successfully orbited its Omid satellite earlier this month. As a first satellite for a novice space-faring nation, it compares well with the Sputnik and America’s tiny Explorer 1. When the first Iranian spy satellite starts transmitting high resolution photographs of U.S. installations in the Middle East and elsewhere to Tehran, the true significance of the Omid will become evident.

RESEARCHERS RETURN TO ISRAEL : by Hillel Fendel
The Education Ministry reports that the current academic year of 5769 (2008-9) has seen the re-absorption of 104 “returning scientists” in Israel. They are engaged in research in seven universities, in disciplines such as nanotechnology, biology, chemistry, and physics, as well as education, history and law. Only 30 academics returned to Israel in the preceding year.

VETERAN MIDEAST ENVOY ROSS NAMED AS SPECIAL ADVISER : - Glenn Kessler (Washington Post)
Dennis Ross, a longtime diplomatic troubleshooter, has been appointed as a special adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with responsibility for developing a strategy for engaging Iran. In an article titled “Diplomatic Strategies for Dealing with Iran,” published in September, Ross recommended that the initial approach to Iran take place through a “direct, secret back channel.”

ISRAEL’S JEWISH POPULATION GETTING YOUNGER, ARAB POPULATION GETTING OLDER : - Yoram Ettinger (Jerusalem Post)
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of annual Jewish births increased by 45% between 1995 (80,400) and 2008 (117,000), and the proportion of Jewish births has grown from 69% (of total births) in 1995 and 74% in 2007 to 75% in 2008

ANCIENT SEALS UNEARTHED IN JERUSALEM DIG : - Etgar Lefkovits (Jerusalem Post)
An archeological excavation in Umm Tuba on the southeastern edge of Jerusalem has uncovered a series of seal impressions from the reign of the biblical King Hezekiah 2,700 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday February 23. Another Hebrew inscription, dating 600 years later, was discovered on a jar fragment from the Hasmonean period in the second century BCE.

USA TO GIVE $900 (MILL) IN GAZA AID : - Helene Cooper
The Obama administration intends to provide some $900 million to help rebuild Gaza, administration officials said Monday February 23. A U.S. official said that the aid would not go to Hamas but would be funneled through nongovernmental organizations

WITH RIVALS IN KEY POSTS, USA FACES HURDLES AT THE UN : - Colum Lynch
President Obama’s UN envoy, Susan Rice, has pledged to “refresh and renew American leadership” at the UN. But U.S. rivals with a long history of opposing American aims now hold some of the most influential posts at the world body, a testament to the diminished power of American diplomacy to shape the organization. The General Assembly is headed by a leftist Nicaraguan priest, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, who routinely rails against the evils of American imperialism. Cuba chairs the Non-Aligned Movement. Libya serves on the Security Council and next year will preside over the General Assembly. Last week, Libya blocked a U.S. plan for a Security Council resolution condemning violence against civilians in south Darfur. Even Iran and Sudan, which are subject to U.S.-backed UN sanctions, have secured leadership positions on the board of the UN’s top development agency and at the head of the Group of 77, a group that coordinates social policies for Third World countries. (Washington Post)

IDF FOILS MAJOR ISLAMIC JIHAD ATTACK ALONG GAZA BORDER :
IDF soldiers thwarted a Palestinian terror attack and attempted kidnapping along Gaza’s Kissufim border crossing into Gaza on Monday February 23. An IDF border patrol unit exchanged fire with two gunmen caught laying explosives near the crossing. The soldiers chased the fleeing terrorists into the Gaza Strip, using a house for cover before calling in a helicopter strike against the car used by the militants to flee the scene. The Islamic Jihad terror militia said the attack was an effort to abduct IDF soldiers, adding that its gunmen stormed the Gaza house in which Israeli special forces were positioned, before the IAF fired missiles at the terror cell.

BUSHEHR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT NEAR READY :
Iran’s first nuclear power plant at the port of Bushehr will undergo a critical series of tests starting Wednesday February 25 before full-scale operation begins later this year, Iranian state radio reported Sunday. The long-delayed 1,000-megawatt reactor is being built by Russia, which also supplies enriched uranium for the plant’s operation.

ISRAEL LAUNCHES MASSIVE SEARCH FOR FOSSIL FUELS :
Fifty-four percent of Israeli waters off the coast will soon be divided up among several companies to search for natural gas and crude oil. Following the discovery of an enormous gas deposit off the coast of Haifa last month, the council recommended further exploration in hopes of finding more fossil fuels.

MAKING THE WORLD ‘JUDENSTAATREIN” : Irwin Cotlet The Jerusalem Post
The new anti-Jewishness worldwide overlaps with classical anti-Semitism but is distinguishable from it. In a word, classical or traditional anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon the rights of Jews to live as equal members of whatever host society they inhabit. The NEW anti-Semitism involves the discrimination against the right of
Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations-with Israel as the “collective Jew”.

ISRAEL SLAMS AMNESTY REPORT : by Hana Levi Julian
The Foreign Ministry has slammed a report by the human rights organization Amnesty International that called for an end to arms sales to Israel. The London-based group has also asked the international community to embargo delivery of military supplies to Israel and the terrorist groups that have vowed to destroy the Jewish State. Amnesty International’s Middle East director Malcolm Smart said when the 38-page report was published late Sunday night February 22, that the Obama administration should immediately suspend military aid to Israel, citing “gross violations of the laws of war and of human rights.” The harsh report was “clearly part of a campaign to deprive Israel of the means to defend itself,” according to NGO Media Monitor director Prof. Gerald Steinberg.

TAX BENEFITS FOR OLIM, RETURNEES : by Hillel Fendel
Adding a cherry to the ice-cream Sundae of living in the Holy Land, Israel offers new tax benefits to new immigrants (olim) and returning Israelis. The innovative reforms include a ten-year exemption on taxes and reporting income and assets from abroad and assistance in establishing a business and finding work.5

ISRAEL’S 18 TH KNESST SWORN IN : - Shelly Paz (Jerusalem Post)
The 18th Knesset, sworn in Tuesday February 24, has a record 21 women and an average age of 53.

TURKEY AIRS ANTI-ISRAEL MINI-SERIES : - Etgar Lefkovits (Jerusalem Post)
A new Turkish television miniseries being broadcast throughout the Arab world depicts Israel supporting the Turkish mafia to spread prostitution and drugs throughout the country. The Turkish Jewish community recently said there were several Turkish TV programs that contained “harshly anti-Semitic rhetoric.”

SYRIA SETS UP MISSILE FACILITY AT SUSPECTED NUCLEAR SITE : - Katy Byron
Syria’s nuclear chief Ibrahim Othman told members of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency Tuesday that his country has built a military missile facility at a site where traces of uranium have been detected in the past. The Dair Alzour site was bombed by Israeli aircraft in September 2007. (CNN)

FOUR LEBANESE GENERALS TO BE HANDED TO UN FOR RAFIK HARIRI TRIBUNAL : - David Charter
Four army generals held in Lebanon over the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri are expected to be handed over within weeks to the UN tribunal in The Hague that will put them on trial, the court registrar said Tuesday February 24.

IRAN IS THE REAL ISSUE FOR ISRAEL AND AMERICA IN MIDDLE EAST : - Mortimer Zuckerman
The Middle East conflict is no longer one just between Israelis and Palestinians. Iran is at the core of a wider, unfolding struggle between radical Islamists and moderate national entities. Today, most Sunni Arab governments, including those of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and even Fatah - although not Syria and Qatar - are far more worried about Iranian regional dominance than they are about Israel. They know that Israel is not going to undermine or overthrow them, while radical, Iranian-sponsored Islamists just might.