GPL M/ EAST UPDATES FROM FEB 26……NO. 155

IRAN INCREASING CONTROL OVER HIZBULLAH OPERATIONS : - Amos Harel (Ha’aretz)
Iran has been increasing its involvement and control over Hizbullah’s operations since terror operations head Imad Mughniyeh was killed a year ago, using a large number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard and intelligence officers in Lebanon.
Iranian officers, most of whom are based in Syria, often visit Lebanon and tour the Israeli border. The Iranians are directly involved in running Hizbullah operations in southern Lebanon and, in addition, hundreds of Hizbullah militants head for Iran every month for training

THE IRANIAN OCTOPUS SENDS IT TENACLES IN TO AFRICA : - Nadav Zeevi (Maariv-Hebrew)
Ahmadinejad is signing economic and military agreements to strengthen Iran’s position in Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti, raising fears of African bases that may become centers of activity against Israel.

SHI’ITE PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN EASTERN SAUDI ARABIA : (AP/Jerusalem Post)
Members of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ite minority have held protests that included anti-government slogans rarely heard in public, sparked by a dispute at a cemetery in Medina.

IRAN BEGINS TO TEST FIRST ATOMIC REACTOR DESPITE WESTERN FEARS : - Miriam Elder
Iranians insist that the $1 billion Russian-built plant in Bushehr is part of a civilian energy program, but Western powers fear that its covert purpose is to produce atomic weapons. Start-up tests were carried out on Wednesday by Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear firm which built the plant.

EU : 3 PROPOSE TOUGHER SANCTIONS ON IRAN :
France, Germany and the UK have proposed a list of additional sanctions to be imposed against Iran over its nuclear program, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday February 24. The confidential document is said to list 34 Iranian entities and 10 individuals suspected of being connected to nuclear or biological weapons programs in the Islamic Republic.

FORMER PEACE NEGOTIATORS CALL FOR SCRAPPING QUARTET CONDITIONS FOR TALKING WITH HAMAS :
A group of former international peace negotiators on Thursday February 26, urged the world and Israel to abandon the policy of isolating Hamas and engage with the Islamist militant group. (Times-UK) British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Wednesday that talking to Hamas was “the right thing to do,” but Egypt and other parties were best placed to do it. Miliband said Egypt was acting on behalf of the whole world in its dealings with Hamas. (Jonathan Wright Reuters)

NETANYAHU TO WARN CLINTON AGAINST RECOGNISING HAMAS :
Israel’s Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu met with US special Mideast envoy George Mitchell on Thursday February 26 for discussions ahead of the next week’s visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Netanyahu will reportedly lobby Clinton against US recognition of a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas.

UAE SIGNS MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR DEFENCE DEAL WITH USA:
In light of the rise of Iranian regional hegemony, the United Arab Emirates has inked a $2.8 billion deal to purchase American military transport aircraft. The procurement of four C-17 jets from Boeing and 12 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from Lockheed Martin is a sign of the growing defense ties between the Gulf Arab emirates and the United States. The predominantly Sunni Gulf countries are flush with oil and fearful about the prospect of a radical Shi’ite regime in Iran armed with nuclear capabilities. Despite an economic downturn, the UAE has invested almost $4 billion in defense deals over the past few days alone.

POLL : PA LEADS IN HATE FOR USA : Maayana Miskin
A poll released this week by the World Public Opinion polling group showed the Palestinian Authority leading several other Arab and Muslim countries in hatred for the United States, belief that the United States is battling Islam and support for attacks on American civilians. The poll was conducted in 2007 and 2008 among residents of Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco and Pakistan, and in 2008 among residents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Jordan, Turkey and Palestinian Authority-controlled areas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Nigerian Muslims were polled as well

AVERTING ABUSE OF UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION : - Irit Kohn (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Right at the outset of Israel’s recent operation in Gaza, French pro-Palestinian organizations filed a lawsuit against the Israeli president, foreign minister and defense minister. Turkish prosecutors said in February 2009 that they were investigating whether Israeli leaders should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity over Israel’s offensive in Gaza, after Mazlum-Der, an Islamic-oriented human rights organization, filed an official complaint in Turkey. At the same time, a Spanish judge is currently investigating the role of Israeli soldiers and security officials in a bombing in Gaza in 2002 in which a top Hamas suicide bombing planner, Salah Shehada, and 14 other people were killed.

SOLANA MAKES FIRST GAZA VISIT SINCE HAMAS TAKEOVER :
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana toured war-torn Gaza on Friday February 27, the latest in a string of high-profile foreign dignitaries to do so ahead of a major donors’ conference this coming Monday focused on rebuilding the coastal Strip. Solana, who is not slated to meet with the terrorist militia Hamas, said that he came to “express solidarity with the people of Gaza and to tell them that we will be helping them.” With a release timed to coincide with Solana’s Gaza visit, the EU announced Friday that it was earmarking $556 million for the Palestinians in 2009. It was not clear, however, how much of the funds would be allocated for Gaza. US Senator John Kerry toured the coastal enclave last week in the highest-level visit by a US official since the Hamas takeover in June, 2007. Norway’s foreign minister was also in Gaza on Friday. The increase in diplomatic activity may signal the international community wishes to reverse its boycott of Hamas, a position Israel’s Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu adamantly opposes.

WIESENTHAL LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO COUNTER ANTI-SEMITISM ON CAMPUS :
Canadian Jewish students bracing for ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ In response to the growing harassment that Jewish university students face abroad, particularly in Britain, the US, Brazil and Canada, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced on Thursday an international effort to counter the phenomenon. One of their advert s includes the following “Committed to boycotting Israel?” the ad asks. “Be Zion-free - do not use cell-phones, voicemail, AIM and ICQ instant messaging, Google (which runs on Israeli algorithms), Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Microsoft Office, Intel microchip, Pentium chip and microprocessor, and firewalls and virus protection software.” All were developed in the Jewish State. The ad goes on to imply that those who wish to go ahead with a boycott, should understand exactly what that entails.

CATHOLIC BISHOP APOLOGISES FOR HOLOCAUST REMARKS :
Returning to his native England on Wednesday February 25, after being expelled from Argentina, controversial Catholic bishop Richard Williamson has reportedly apologized for the harm caused by his remarks denying the extent of the Nazi Holocaust. His apology does not mean he has changed his convictions regarding the Holocaust.

IRAN-ISRAEL NUCLEAR ENDGAME IS NOW MUCH CLOSER : Edwin Black, the Jerusalem Post
In recent days, four key developments have clicked in to edge Iran and Israel much closer to a military confrontation with profound consequences. The question of when and how this endgame will play out is not known by anyone. But when that moment does come, it will be swift, highly technological, and in the winkling of an eye. BUT , as one ‘informed’ official quipped, “those who know don’t talk. Those who talk, DON’T KNOW

LIVNI NIXES NETANYAHU’S FINAL OFFER ON UNITY GOVERNMENT :
Likud to speed up coalition talks with right-wing parties Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu failed in his last-ditch bid on Friday February 27, to persuade Kadima leader Tzipi Livni to join him in a government of national unity, still leaving him with enough support from right-wing parties to return to the premiership but giving them more bargaining power to extract concessions during the final weeks of coalition talks.

ISRAELI FIRM TO SUPPLY YEMEN : by Avraham Zuroff
An Israeli company that supplies laboratory information management systems (LIMS) has been awarded a tender to help run a natural gas exploration project off Yemen’s coast, the Al Quds Al Arabiya Arabic-language newspaper reports. Media leakage has created quite an embarrassment for the Yemenite regime, which does not share diplomatic relations with Israel.
According to the newspaper, Israel’s Starlims company will supply the French oil giant, Total, operating off Yemen’s Balhaf coast with computer systems for analyzing data and laboratory results of samples from the natural gas drilling site.

TRIAL BEGINS IN THE HAGUE ON MURDER OF LEBANESE PM HARIRI : (AFP)
A landmark international tribunal to try the suspected killers of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafiq Hariri opened in The Hague Sunday March 1. Chief prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said the Special Tribunal for Lebanon constituted the world’s first anti-terrorist court.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN ARABY : - Josef Joffe (Newsweek)
Anti-Semitism is as much part of Arab life today as the hijab or the hookah. Whereas this darkest of creeds is no longer tolerated in polite society in the West, in the Arab world, Jew-hatred remains culturally endemic.

US TO BOYCOTT U.S. “DURBAN 2″ UN RACISM CONFERENCE : - Matthew Lee and Edith M. Lederer
The Obama administration said Friday February 27 that the U.S. will boycott an upcoming UN conference on racism unless its final document is changed to drop all references to Israel.

ROCKET FIRED FROM GAZA HITS ISRAELI SCHOOL : IMPROVED ROCKETS BEING USED :
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza on Saturday landed in the courtyard of a school in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, sending shrapnel flying into classrooms. Authorities said the school was empty for the weekend. (Reuters) Experts say the two Grad rockets that landed in Ashkelon Saturday were new and improved models, capable of greater destruction than those usually fired from Gaza. The rocket that hit a school succeeded in penetrating the fortification used to protect it from projectiles. The rockets were locally manufactured 170 mm rockets with a range of 14 km (8.6 miles) and are capable of massive damage. Shmulik Hadad

PUZZLED IN GAZA : TRUTH V FANTASY : - Yvonne Green (Jerusalem Post)
Deeply disturbed by the reports of wanton slaughter and destruction during Israel’s Gaza operation, I felt I had to see for myself and crossed into Gaza on Jan. 28. What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas’ infrastructure. Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings. The UNRWA school in Al-Fakhora was visibly intact, making it impossible to understand how UN and press reports could ever have alleged that it had been hit by Israeli shells. I was shown where Hamas had been firing from nearby the school, and when I met Mona al-Ashkor, one of the people injured running toward Al-Fakhora, I was told that Israel had warned people not to take shelter in the school because Hamas was operating in the area.

REPORT : RUSSIA TO SEND 50 ARMOURED VEHICLES TO THE PA : (AP/International Herald Tribune)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday March 2 , that Russia would provide the Palestinian Authority with 50 armored vehicles “in the very near future,” the Interfax news agency reported.

END OF THE TURKISH-ISRAELI HONEYMOON ? - Haymi Behar (Ynet News)
Following Turkey’s harsh criticism of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, angry Israelis canceled more than 70% of travel bookings to Turkey. In any case, they wouldn’t feel so welcomed in many Turkish shops, which displayed signs expressing anti-Israeli sentiments.

OBAMA SEEKS RUSSIAN HELP TO STOP IRANIAN WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT : - Peter Baker
President Obama sent a secret letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev last month (February), suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday March 2.

DONORS PLEDGE $ 4.5 (BILL) FOR PALESTINIANS : - Heba Saleh
International donors at a conference in Egypt pledged $4.48 billion over two years to support the Palestinian economy and rebuild Gaza, but made clear none of the funds should end up in the hands of Hamas. Israel suggested it may be a waste of money as they might have to strike at Gaza again. “It might all go up in smoke again”. Netanyahu added that he was not willing to sacrifice Israel’s security “for a smile.” (Financial Times-UK).

THE NEED TO RECONSTRUCT GAZA IS GAZA’S OWN DOING : - Editorial
The need to reconstruct Gaza is Gaza’s own doing - the direct consequence of the penchant for terror displayed by the governing Hamas and other like-minded groups, of their insistent practice of targeting Israeli civilians for over eight years with assorted rocketry. Misguided efforts at assistance will prop up the very regime that is the root cause of Gaza’s woes. Hamas will benefit from resources bestowed even on ostensibly non-belligerent organizations. Those funds will free Hamas from responsibility for public welfare and free up money for rearmament.

BARAK OPEN TO JOINING NETANYAHU-LED UNITY GOVERNMENT :
In a major about-face, Labor chairman Ehud Barak is seriously considering an offer from Likud leader and prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu that would leave him in the post of Israel’s defense minister if he will bring his humbled faction into a national unity government.

OLMERT WON’T ACCEPT ATTACKS : by Hana Levi Julian
Prime Minster Ehud Olmert vowed Sunday morning March 1, that Israel would respond to the most recent rocket fire by Gaza terrorists until they “understand that Israel will not accept these attacks.” The statement came less than a day after 10 rockets were fired at southern Israeli communities from Gaza. Three of the projectiles, which struck the coastal city of Ashkelon, were advanced Grad missiles

HILLARY CLINTON VISITING MIDDLE EAST : by Avraham Zuroff
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton departed Sunday March 1, for her first official State Department tour of the Middle East region. She will begin her three-day tour by attending the Sharm El-Sheikh donor nations conference, which will discuss providing humanitarian aid to Gaza residents. The U.S. has already committed to providing over $10 million in aid. On Monday evening, Clinton will arrive in Jerusalem for meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, and Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu. She will also meet with Palestinian Authority leaders in Ramallah.

FLOODGATES OF HEAVEN OPEN UP : by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The floodgates of heaven opened up for Israel over the weekend, bringing at least nine inches of rain in northern Israel and six to seven inches in southern and central regions. Life-saving precipitation continued to fall across the country on Sunday morning, including in the south of the country. In the southern Hevron Hills, heavy snow was reported at 8:20 a.m. and rain was falling in Arad, located in the northeastern corner of the Negev above the southern tip of the Dead Sea.