Middle East Update

GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM FEBRUARY 28…. NO 97

KHAMENEI HAILS AHMADINEJAD’S ‘NUCLEAR SUCCESS’ :
Debunks assessments supreme Ayatollah not behind president
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday February 26 praised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s role in the “great success” of Iran’s nuclear program, indicating that the Iranian president has his full backing in the atomic standoff with the West.

KADIMA MKs REBEL OVER JERUSALEM TALKS:
While Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was visiting Japan this week, eleven out of the 29 MKs in his ruling Kadima party gathered together on Monday February 25, to discuss their opposition to plans for re-dividing Jerusalem.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM FEBRUARY 23…. NO 96

EGYPTIAN GENERAL SLAMS HAMAS FOR DESTROYING BORDER:(MEMRI-TV)
Retired Egyptian general Hussam Sweilem, told Al-Mihwar TV on Feb. 6, 2008: “The most important issue today is the organized crime that came from across the border. This is a violation of Egypt’s sanctity, a transgression of its borders, which [Hamas] has called ‘the great raid.’ They called the transgression of our borders ‘a raid’…those Hamas members from Hamastan.” “They violated Egypt’s sanctity, and entered our country with bulldozers, and then with men wearing masks from the ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.” “How can I sympathize with them when, after taking all the goods from the shops of the Egyptians, they paid with counterfeit dollars?”

SHAKEN HAMAS STILL IN CONTROL OF GAZA:- Karin Laub (AP/Washington Post)
Hamas policemen in Gaza are on edge and on the move these days. Worried about Israeli missiles, they mostly roam the streets away from their compounds. The once media-friendly Hamas cabinet has been meeting in secret and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh hasn’t been sighted since January, breaking his routine of leading weekly prayers at a local mosque. Yet Hamas faces no serious internal opposition, and its current state is shaken but in control.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM FEBRUARY 18…. NO 95

NASRALLAH VOWS TO ATTACK JEWS ABROAD:
IDF Chief-of-Staff puts northern forces on high alert . Hizb’Allah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Jewish targets abroad after accusing Israel of taking the fight beyond Lebanese borders with its assassination of one of the group’s top commanders, Imad Mughniyeh in Syria. “You have killed Hajj Imad outside the natural battlefield,” Hassan Nasrallah said.

SARKOZY VOWS “FRANCE WILL AWAYS BE AT ISRAEL’S SIDE”:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to visit Israel for the nation’s 60th anniversary celebrations in May, accepting President Shimon Peres invitation to address the Knesset. Emphasizing his commitment to Israel Sarkozy said, “France will always be at Israel’s side…. I would not meet with, I would not shake the hand of people who refuse to recognize Israel.”

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM FEBRUARY 13…. NO 94

SYRIA REBUILDS NEAR SUSPECTED NUCLEAR SITE:
Syria has built 3 new buildings on the site of suspected nuclear facility destroyed in a covert Israeli bombing raid last year, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported on Sunday February 10. According to the report, commercially available satellite images show three more buildings have sprung up close to the area where Israel launched a surprise aerial attack on September 7, 2007.

TARGETED HAMAS LEADERS GO UNDERGROUND AND THREATEN “UNPRECENTED ATTACKS”:
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said on Monday that the terror group will retaliate with “unprecedented attacks” and “all possible means” if Israel resumes targeting its leaders. According to London-based Palestinian daily Al-Quds al-Arabi, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has gone underground after being placed at the top of Israel’s most wanted list. “Only a few of Haniyeh’s bodyguards know where he is,” said Palestinian sources.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM FEBRUARY 8…. NO 93

ISRAEL TO START BUILDING A SECURITY FENCE ALONG BORDER WITH EGYPT:
2,000 Egyptians have entered Gaza to join jihad against Israel
Israel’s top leaders agreed on Wednesday February 6. to authorize construction of a security fence along the most vulnerable stretches of the Israeli-Egyptian border, to prevent Palestinian terrorists in Gaza from infiltrating through the Sinai.

HAMAS SCHOOL CLOSED DOWN IN EAST JERUSALEM:
According to Jerusalem Police on Tuesday February 5, the Hamas-run Education Club, operating since early 2000 in east Jerusalem’s Tsur Bahir neighborhood, was shut down on the orders of Internal Security Minister Avid Dichter. The center was used for recruiting new Hamas militia members and spreading radical Islamic teaching. Jerusalem police say Hamas is persistently trying to establish its terrorist militia in east Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM FEB 2 … NO 92

WINOGRAD REPORT LETS OLMERT OFF THE HOOK:
Sharpest criticism aimed at IDF top brass
In its final report on the Second Lebanon War released late Wednesday January 29, the special Winograd Committee was less sharp in its criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert than in its interim report last April, boosting the ‘relieved’ premier’s chances of fending off growing calls for his resignation.

EGYPT NABS SEVERAL PALESTINIAN TERROR CELLS IN SINAI:
Terrorists armed with bomber belts, sniper rifles, explosives,
Egyptian security forces this week apprehended five Palestinians in Sinai armed with explosives belts and planning to carry out terror attacks in Israel, the semi-official Egyptian paper Al-Ahram reported Wednesday morning January 29. The terror cell was arrested in Taba, just over the border from the southern Israeli port of Eilat, the site of the last suicide bombing in Israel last January.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM JANUARY 26…. NO 91

EGYPT FIRES WATER CANNONS AT PALESTINIAN BORDER:
Egyptian forces fired water cannons at Palestinians trying to force their way across the Gaza-Egypt border on Friday January 25 . Egyptian forces began placing barbed wire near the collapsed steel border wall early on Friday, and witnesses said Palestinians threw stones at Egyptian forces, who responded by beating some Palestinians with clubs. (Reuters) ON Friday January 25, Hamas made a second breach in the border fence. Rami Abdou, an economic analyst, estimated that Gazans spent $130 million in less than two days, a princely sum for the poverty-stricken territory. (AP) Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Thursday that Israel wants to relinquish all responsibility for the Gaza Strip, including the supply of electricity and water, now that the territory’s southern border with Egypt has been opened.

MORE JERUSALEM ARABS SEEK ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP: - Dion Nissenbaum (McClatchy)
Though many Arabs in Jerusalem want to see an independent Palestinian state, they don’t want to be part of it. The number of Arab residents of Jerusalem applying for Israeli citizenship more than doubled in 2007. There’s an uncomfortable acknowledgment, especially among the Arab middle class in Jerusalem, that their lives could get substantially worse under Palestinian rule. Eastern Jerusalem Arabs receive Israeli social security and health benefits. They’re allowed to vote in local elections. They have the freedom to travel throughout Israel without special permits. They know that none of these freedoms would apply under Hamas/Fatah rule

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Graham Bacon

At least one Israeli parliamentary member is advocating that the only logical solution to solve the problem of rockets from Gaza on southern Israel is Israel’s complete capture of Gaza. In addition to that, it is the eventual outcome envisaged in Obadiah’s prophecy.

Likud MK Yuval Shteinitz, who chaired the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee in the Sharon government, says that with the breakdown of the border between Gaza and Egypt, Israel’s lone option remains the same: “We must take over Gaza.”

In an effort to force Hamas in Gaza to stop the rocket fire into Israel, the Jewish state had imposed an isolation policy by closing all the entry points for supplies into Gaza. But Hamas and Egypt had co-operated in breaking down the Gaza-Egypt fence, allowing hordes of Gazans to surge into Egyptian border towns on shopping sprees. This released the pressure that Israel hoped would stop the bombardment of her southern towns.

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IRAN GETS FOURTH BATCH OF NUCLEAR FUEL FROM RUSSIA: (Reuters)
Iran received a fourth delivery of nuclear fuel from Russia on Sunday January 20 to power Tehran’s first atomic power plant and it expects four more before the consignment is complete, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

ISRAELI SPY SATELLITE LAUNCHED FROM INDIA - Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
The TecSar reconnaissance satellite, developed by the IAI’s Space Division, was successfully launched Sunday January 20, from India. Israel’s most advanced satellite, TecSar has the ability to create images of objects on earth day and night, even in cloudy weather, using synthetic aperture radar technology. It will allow greater capacity for intelligence gathering over Iran. Israel now has 3 reconnaissance satellites and 3 communication satellites. The launch of this satellite was delayed from September due to pressure applied through Indian opposition parties, particularly the Muslim and Communist political factions.

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FRANCE ANNOUNCES BASE IN PERSIAN GULF: - Molly Moore (Washington Post)
President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Tuesday January 15, that France would establish a military base in the United Arab Emirates, making it the only Western power other than the U.S. to have a permanent defense installation in the Persian Gulf.

BEIRUT BLAST NEAR U.S. EMBASSY VEHICLE KILLS 3: - Alia Ibrahim and Ellen Knickmeyer
A bomb exploded Tuesday January 15, as a U.S. Embassy sport-utility vehicle passed a parked car in Beirut, killing at least three Lebanese motorists but only lightly injuring two embassy workers.

PALESTINIAN ROCKET BARRAGE WOUNDS 10 IN ISRAEL: - Mijal Grinberg
At least 10 people were hurt Tuesday January 15, when Palestinians in Gaza launched a barrage of Kassam rockets and mortar shells at Israel. The Israel Defense Forces Tuesday counted 50 Kassam rockets and 30 mortar shells fired from Gaza. In addition, a Grad Katyusha rocket was found near a residential area in Ashkelon.

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