Middle East Update

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced Tuesday November 21,that they would be pulling out most of their aid workers from Gaza and suspending all activities after two Italian workers were abducted by Palestinians in central Gaza. The two were freed without harm on Wednesday.

IDF forces were conducting search and seizure operations throughout the West Bank Wednesday November 22, and arrested at least 15 Palestinian terror operatives before dawn. In the terror stronghold of Nablus, Israeli security units arrested wanted members of the Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror groups, confiscating weapons [...]

Canadian National Post Editorial
While the assembly of hundreds of Palestinians in anticipation of the planned Israeli bombing did succeed in protecting Barud’s home, the tactic may have backfired from a propaganda perspective: If Israel really were as sadistic as its critics claim, it wouldn’t have called off yesterday’s bombing run. Just the opposite: It would [...]

Globes reports that Israel’s Elbit Systems Ltd. has revealed its “Silver Marlin” unmanned patrol boat, and is currently negotiating with the Israeli Navy for testing, evaluation, and possible production. While other unmanned patrol boats have been controlled by remote, the Silver Marlin operates autonomously within a 500 K range, and is designed for maritime anti-terrorism [...]

The Associated Press reports that Syria and Iraq restored Tuesday November 21, the diplomatic relations that were severed 24 years ago. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem arrived in Iraq on Sunday in the first such visit by a senior Syrian official since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. After the signing ceremony, Iraqi [...]

Christian, Anti-Syrian leader gunned down in intimidation killing
The international media reported late Tuesday afternoon that Lebanese Industry Minister and prominent Christian leader, Pierre Gemayel, was assassinated in northern Beirut yesterday, thus plunging Lebanon deeper into an already boiling political turmoil.
Gemayel was a well-known leader of the outspoken anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese parliament, and although [...]

On November 3, MEMRI reported on the increasing political tension in Lebanon, which has now reached the point where civil war appears imminent - all due to Hizb’Allah’s struggle to seize a significant portion of the government by instigating street violence. As in the case of the recent war in Lebanon, the timing of the [...]

IDF begins ground operations in Gaza to choke out Palestinian terror
Israeli and international media sources report that just one day after the IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said that Israel was not “coming to terms” with Kassam rocket fire, a Sderot man was critically injured and hospitalized after a Kassam missile barrage struck the [...]

See below for links to various versions of Middle East Update publication.
NOVEMBER 2006.doc
NOVEMBER 2006.pdf
Large Print - NOVEMBER EXP 2006.doc

Russian-Israeli business tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak is aiming high, very high. Having won the sympathy of northern residents during the war in Lebanon last summer when he set up a tent for families fleeing Katyusha attacks, and having invited Sderot residents to Eilat last week, Gaydamak has the prime minister’s office as his next target.

I have [...]