Middle East Update

At least 25 people, mostly Shiites, were freed in northern Baghdad Thursday December 14, hours after being kidnapped, an Interior Ministry official said.

On Sunday December 10, PA Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs Salah Alrakab of Hamas, told students that Islam forbids signing a peace agreement with Jews, because

The conflict with the Jews is a religious, existential struggle and is not a conflict over borders.

According to Alrakab, Jews have no claim to the Land of Israel except [...]

On Wednesday December 13, IDF units discovered a large explosive device in a backpack during a routine search of a Palestinian vehicle coming out of the West Bank city of Nablus. The bomb was destroyed in a controlled manner, and the four passengers of the vehicle were arrested.

Herb Keinon, Jerusalem PostPrime Minister Ehud Olmert’s decision on Thursday December 14, to close the Rafah crossing to keep PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from bringing $35 million into Gaza was the first time Israel has actively intervened to stop the money flow. Haniyeh was only allowed to enter Gaza after leaving the funds in [...]

Incoming United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday December 14, that Iran’s call for Israel’s destruction and its denial of the Nazi Holocaust were “unacceptable,”. In powerful remarks, the former South Korean foreign minister urged all countries to reject calls for the elimination of any state or people.

Hamas: ‘The conflict with the Jews is religious, not over borders’
Palestinians in north Gaza fired three Kassam rockets into the Israeli city of Sderot on Thursday December 14, causing damage in residential areas and sending a number of residents into shock. Ynet News reports that twenty-five Kassams have landed inside of sovereign Israeli territory since [...]

Assassination attempt on Haniyeh sparks heavy factional violence
Israeli and Palestinian news agencies report that Fatah and Hamas gunmen have been exchanging fire on the streets of Gaza City and in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday December 15, a day after unidentified gunmen shot at Hamas leader and Palestinian Authority President Ismail Haniyeh’s [...]

Russia will start delivering fuel to Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr in three months, according to Sergei Shmatko, head of Russia’s nuclear equipment and services exporter, Atomstroyexport.
The announcement was made in Tehran on Tuesday December 12,, after Shmatko met Iran’s nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh. Preparations will begin in January for deliveries in March. Six months [...]

A report issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed that foreign direct investment in Israel tripled in the first nine months of 2006, reaching a record high of $9.6 billion, with financial investment doubling to $6.7 billion over previous periods. Export surplus reached $1.5 billion in six months of trade in 2006. [...]

Many of the 66 killed and 220 wounded by a suicide truck bomb blast in central Baghdad Tuesday morning were unemployed Iraqis lured toward the explosion by an offer of work, according to an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry. A car bomb exploded at a busy outdoor market in eastern Baghdad Wednesday morning, [...]