Middle East Update

GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 30…. NO 103

HAMAS URGES ARAB SUMMIT TO JOIN ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST ISRAEL:
Jordan joins boycotters of gathering in Damascus
Hamas on Friday March 28, urged the dwindling number of Arab leaders attending this weekend’s regional summit in Damascus to drop the 2002 Saudi peace initiative with Israel and support the Islamist terror militia’s armed campaign to destroy the Jewish state.

IDF KILLS HAMAS GUNMAN IN GAZA:
According to Palestinian reports, the IDF killed a Hamas member and injured another in Gaza on Friday morning March 28. The IDF stated that one of its units went through the Kissufim entrance but was still investigating the reports. Also in Gaza today, a Kassam rocket landed beside a pre-school center in the Western Negev, but no injuries were reported. Meantime, IDF troops arrested four Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank towns of Nablus, Ramallah, and Jenin overnight.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 26…. NO 102

ABBAS TALKS AT TWO TABLES: by Hana Levi Julian
While Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas was sipping coffee and chatting with US Vice President Dick Cheney in Ramallah Sunday March 23, one of his closest deputies was doing the same in Yemen with his Hamas counterpart. Jerusalem issued a warning Sunday that Israel would shut down its own talks with the PA if Abbas continues on the path to a rapprochement with Hamas

NASRALLAH STILL IN HIDING, “WE’LL GET ISRAEL” : by Hillel Fendel
Meanwhile, Hizbullah chieftain Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah continues to hide for fear of Israeli reprisals - yet threatens Israel with revenge attacks for the recent assassination of Imad Mughniyeh. In a recorded video speech in honor of the 40th day after the assassination, Nasrallah said, “Can Israel be erased? Yes! 1,000 times yes! … We will get back at Israel for the killing at a time and place of our choosing” - language often used by Israeli officials.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 15…. NO 101

COURT HANDS DOWN LIFE SENTENCES TO 4 ARABS: by Hana Levi Julian
An IDF military court north of Jerusalem sentenced four terrorists from the Hevron area to life imprisonment Tuesday evening March 11. The four killed six Jews in a series of attacks. The terror squad was created by Baher Shakib Awiwi, a clothes vendor, along with Moussa Ibrahim Wazuz, who was employed at an office supplies store, and Kassem Farid Jaber. A fourth member, Muhammad Julani, was recruited later. They purchased a Kalashnikov assault rifle and two Karl Gustav guns and trained on their own.

IDF KILLS JIHAD TERROIST: by Ezra HaLevi
IDF soldiers killed senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Saleh Karkoor after he opened fire on soldiers trying to arrest him Wednesday March 12, near Jenin. He was arrested for the first time 10 years ago and released shortly thereafter, only to be arrested again in 2002 for involvement in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The government released him again in November, 2006. He then “immediately” returned to terrorist activity, taking part in the establishment of an Islamic Jihad cell in the Jenin area. IDF soldiers arrested 12 wanted terrorists Tuesday night March 11.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 15…. NO 100

COURT HANDS DOWN LIFE SENTENCES TO 4 ARABS: by Hana Levi Julian
An IDF military court north of Jerusalem sentenced four terrorists from the Hevron area to life imprisonment Tuesday evening March 11. The four killed six Jews in a series of attacks. The terror squad was created by Baher Shakib Awiwi, a clothes vendor, along with Moussa Ibrahim Wazuz, who was employed at an office supplies store, and Kassem Farid Jaber. A fourth member, Muhammad Julani, was recruited later. They purchased a Kalashnikov assault rifle and two Karl Gustav guns and trained on their own.

IDF KILLS JIHAD TERROIST: by Ezra HaLevi
IDF soldiers killed senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Saleh Karkoor after he opened fire on soldiers trying to arrest him Wednesday March 12, near Jenin. He was arrested for the first time 10 years ago and released shortly thereafter, only to be arrested again in 2002 for involvement in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The government released him again in November, 2006. He then “immediately” returned to terrorist activity, taking part in the establishment of an Islamic Jihad cell in the Jenin area. IDF soldiers arrested 12 wanted terrorists Tuesday night March 11.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 10…. NO 99

MIN. DICHTER: TRANSFER ISRAELI-ARAB TERRORISTS : by Ezra HaLevi
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Saturday night March 8, that Israel should create laws allowing for the expulsion of terrorists’ families, even if they have Israeli citizenship. Dichter’s statements, part of an increasingly hard-lin increasingly hard-line taken by the former Shabak chief since a Grad-type missile nearly hit his Ashkelon home, and in light of the support in Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods for the terrorist who murdered eight yeshiva students Thursday night. Arab residents of Jerusalem have been involved in at least 20 percent of terrorist attacks against Israelis, Dichter said.

EIGHT SUSPECTS IN YESHIVA MASSACRE: by Hana Levi Julian
Jerusalem police arrested eight people over the weekend of March 9, in connection with the massacre of eight yeshiva students at the Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva last Thursday night. Jerusalem District Police Chief Aharon Franco confirmed on Saturday March 8, that eights suspects had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the terror attack, which police said was well- planned.

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PRESENT DAY EVENTS AND THEIR MEANING FROM THE BIBLE
The Gospel Publicity League, P.O.Box 4129 Edgeworth NSW 2285 Australia

MARCH 2008 to MAY 2008 ISSUE No. 467
Gaza - A Huge Danger to Israel
With the Gaza - Egyptian border breached, and an open cross flow of humanity having already occurred, any hope of Israel being able to restrict the supply of rocket material has gone. Take a typical day in January, “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. In Sderot, the Red Alert siren was sounded 14 times. Palestinians in Gaza fired at least 28 rockets at Israel Wednesday morning, including 11 at Ashkelon and 12 at Sderot” [Ha'aretz, Israeli newspaper]. The Jerusalem Post reports that this year so far, rockets are being launched at Israel at three times the rate of 2007 - 330 in 5 weeks.

How would you like that happening in your town? Or in any major country? In the end, it is intolerable in Israel and it cannot continue indefinitely. The newly opened border with Egypt will make it worse. Egypt has neither the means nor the will to seal the border and Hamas in Gaza will ensure that cross traffic will continue, so that Syrian and Iranian weapons will flow into Gaza. Previously they had restrictive tunnels. Now it is much easier.
It was no co-incidence that, a few days later, the first suicide bomber in more than a year killed and injured quite a number of Israelis in Dimona, an Israeli desert town adjacent to Egyptian Sinai. It seemed possible that he crossed the opened border into Egyptian Sinai and entered Israel in an area where the fence has not yet been completed. Completion of the valuable fence is now urgent.

A Biblical solution has been proposed [probably unawares] by an Israeli politician.

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GPL MIDDLE EAST UPDATES FROM MARCH 4…. NO 98

HAMAS CLAIMS VICTORY AD IDF WITHDRAWS:
Some 20,000 Hamas supporters attended a mass rally in Gaza City on Monday afternoon to celebrate the “great victory” over the IDF after Israeli forces withdrew from a two-day Kassam-search mission in areas of northeast Gaza this morning. The ‘great victory’ saw at least 120 Palestinians killed plus enormous destruction to terrorist infrastructures.

ISRAEL SENDS HUMANITARIAN AID TRUCKS INTO THE GAZA STRIP:
Despite the tense fighting in the area over the weekend, Israel authorized 62 trucks filled with humanitarian aid to deliver their loads of food and medical supplies into Gaza through the Sufa border on Sunday March 2.

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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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