Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, September 03, 2004

US Soldier convicted of trying to give help to al-Qaida

A National Guardsman accused of trying to give al-Qaida information about U.S. troops, including methods for killing soldiers, was found guilty Thursday on all five counts of trying to help the terrorist network.

The verdict in Spc. Ryan G. Anderson's court-martial, which began Monday, was announced late Thursday afternoon.

Anderson, a tank crewman whose 81st Armor Brigade unit is now in Iraq, was accused of trying to give terrorists information about U.S. troops' strength and tactics. The terrorists he thought he was meeting with were actually undercover federal agents, prosecutors said.

A military spokesman has said the charges amount to attempted treason.

Terror Tunnel Discovered In Time

IDF forces, whose tireless and unsung efforts have resulted in the uncovering of some 100 arms-smuggling tunnels over the past four years, made one of their most dramatic finds last night.

They uncovered a tunnel ten meters deep and 14 meters long leading from an Arab village towards the Jewish community of Kfar Darom. 'Another few days of work, and a terrible catastrophe could have occurred here,' said Kfar Darom resident Asher Mivtzari.

The tunnel was discovered leading from the home of an Arab family, and steps had already been dug leading towards Kfar Darom, very near by. The IDF announced that it would have enabled terrorists to perpetrate an attack in the heart of the Jewish town.

A similar tunnel was discovered several weeks ago leading to Netzarim, another Jewish community in Gaza. A tunnel of this nature was used in a major bombing attack against an IDF outpost in the area, leading miraculously to only one death.

IDF forces demolished two five-story buildings in the PLO-controlled city of Khan Yunis this morning, just south of Gush Katif in Gaza. The buildings, and other ones near them, were/have been used for the launching of Kassam rockets and mortar shells at Jewish targets. "

EU's Solana defendes Syria

EU’s Solana urges Israel not to threaten Syria

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana criticised on Friday Israeli threats against Syria following Palestinian suicide bombings this week that killed 16 people.

“I don’t think it’s helpful to start talking about attacking new countries. The situation in the Middle East is complicated enough,” Solana told reporters on arriving for an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in the Netherlands.

He said he did not believe the United States would support such threats.

Solana was responding to reported comments by Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz that Israel could not disconnect the suicide attacks in Beersheva, the deadliest for six months, from what he called activity in Lebanon and Syria. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos also urged restraint.

“We will try (to work things out so) that we don’t initiate spillover on the region. On the contrary we need dialogue, we need negotiation, we need a comprehensive peace in the Middle East and of course Syria is an important actor in the region,” he told reporters.

The Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, has offices in Syria and Israel has alleged that many bombings perpetrated inside the Jewish state are planned or orchestrated from Damascus.

Israeli reservists deal with double lives of being civilians and soldiers

At home, Eran Kurtzer is a suburbanite with a wife, baby daughter and small insurance agency. But for six weeks a year, 33-year-old Kurtzer is an army major leading a company of paratroopers on patrols through olive groves on the hills of the West Bank.

He and his unit are among thousands of Israeli men who once a year are torn from their everyday routine and thrust back into uniform.

The disrupted lives and livelihoods that American reservists are discovering as they spend months in Iraq have been a way of life in Israel since it was born in 1948. The potbellied, unshaven reservist, rifle casually slung over a shoulder, is a beloved stereotype of Israeli life. Reserve duty is the backbone of the army and an institution that has shaped Israeli society well beyond the military.

But as the military evolves technologically, many are questioning the need for the reserves system, which drains the economy of tens of millions of dollars a year in lost trade and wages. The issue has become more acute in part because the mission has changed. Reservists trained to defend the country from Arab armies increasingly are assigned to police the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that hurts morale.

Israel's founders established the reserves to deal with a dilemma that persists today. Surrounded by populous and hostile Arab neighbors, they needed a large army. But with a small population, they could not afford to employ hundreds of thousands of professional soldiers."

For some French emigrants, Israel really is the promised land

Heading to the West Bank(nowhere in the article does it say they live in the West Bank, so possibly Time considers Jerusalem to be "the West Bank" .)

Paul Zerah takes a break from his five-hour-a-day Hebrew class in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, just over a barren hill from the Palestinian town of Ramallah. Only two weeks ago, Zerah, 46, immigrated to the heart of one of the world's most violent conflicts. But he feels he's left danger behind — in Paris. "I was afraid for my children there," says Zerah, who brought his wife and two youngsters to Israel. "My son couldn't walk to the Jewish school with his yarmulke on."

Zerah followed his brother Marc who, in 1999, gave up a thriving gynecological practice in Paris's 12th arrondissement to move to Jerusalem with his wife and four children. Marc didn't publicly wear his yarmulke in France. Now he keeps it on all day. "It isn't just a physical immigration. It's spiritual," he says.

Paul says most of his Parisian friends are considering such a move, and the numbers back him up. In July alone, 800 French Jews immigrated. An Israeli university study recently predicted 30,000 will eventually make the switch. And they're being welcomed by an Israeli government facing demographic challenges from the region's Palestinians. In the 1990s, more than 1.2 million people emigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union — a huge boost to a nation with 6.5 million citizens, fewer than Paris. But since Russian immigration dried up, Israeli officials have switched their focus to France.

Like most French emigrants to Israel, the Zerahs are Sephardic Jews, whose families went to France from North Africa; Marc Zerah was born in Tunis, and his family moved to Paris when he was 10. In general, Sephardic Jews lack the French roots of the more assimilated Ashkenazic Jews, who arrived from Eastern Europe centuries ago. Sephardic Jews tend to be more religious and traditional, which makes Israel an attractive prospect. Like his brother Paul, Marc Zerah first relocated to a West Bank settlement. He says he felt a strong connection to the ancient Israelites, who entered Canaan via nearby Jericho, too. Despite the difficulties of learning a new language in the middle of their high school studies, his children also approve. Ilanit, 20, doesn't dwell on the question of whether she feels French or Israeli. "In France, we were the Jews," she says, with a shrug. "In Israel, we are the French."

After five years, Zerah doesn't miss France much. He had little choice there over where to live — he had to be within walking distance of a synagogue — and he couldn't enjoy French cuisine because of kosher dietary restrictions. In Israel, synagogues and kosher restaurants are never more than a few streets away. "Here in Israel," he says, "I eat much better."

Jihad, Apocalypse, and Anti-Semitism

An Interview with Richard Landes -The main goal of modern Jihadism - a cataclysmic apocalyptic movement - is Islam's dominance over the world. It makes millennial claims, promising that once Islam rules everywhere, there will be world peace. -Jihad, as the millennial war, operates in modern times on two major levels. The first is that of outright violence. Its aggression emerges in most places where Muslim majorities share a border with another culture. The second level expresses itself in demopathy, or the invocation of civil society's values to undermine that system from within. -Since its inception, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an apocalyptic forgery about the final stages of a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, has been the Judeophobe's favored text. After World War II, among its most enthusiastic 'believers' have been Arab intellectuals and political elites. -There is a significant overlap between the religious Hamas and the 'secular' PLO in their use of apocalyptic rhetoric. Its characteristics include global conspiracy theory, total war, virulent anti-Semitism, contempt for human life, and child sacrifice."

India to tie up with Israel, US for e-warfare systems

India will be collaborating with Israel and the US to develop nano-materials and hi-tech components needed for electronic warfare systems.

The outgoing chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), VK Aatre said that India had decided to launch joint programmes with Israel in the field of electronic warfare, where both countries were on an equal footing.

“Israel is very strong in sensors and packaging. We would like to work on fibre-optic gyros and micro-electromechanical systems,” Dr Aatre told mediapersons shortly before retiring as DRDO chief on Tuesday.

5 Acquitted in '94 Bombing of a Jewish Center in Argentina

The trial of four Argentine police officers and a car thief, accused of providing the vehicle used in a deadly terrorist bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, ended Thursday in the acquittal of all the defendants.

It was the longest, most complex trial in Argentine history, nearly three years, with 1,284 witnesses.

The verdict was reached 10 years after the attack on the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300 in what remains the deadliest anti-Semitic incident anywhere since World War II. For months, prominent Jews had warned that judicial misconduct and an official cover-up were ruining a true inquiry and preventing the main culprits from facing justice.

Carlos Sa�l Menem, who was president of Argentina at the time of the bombing, at first blamed Islamic extremists from Iran. Governments that came to power after he left office in 1999 have accused Mr. Menem of deliberately ignoring promising leads that might have implicated the state intelligence apparatus and other groups loyal to him. In their final ruling, the judges asked for an inquiry into the conduct of his minister of the interior, Carlos Carach.

'Carlos Menem is the culprit and is a criminal fugitive,'' Marina Degtiar, speaking on behalf of relatives of the victims, said at a recent ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the attack on the center, known by its Spanish initials as AMIA. 'So many facts still lie with impunity beneath the ruins,'' she added.

In 2003, arrest warrants were issued for four Iranian government officials who were accused of organizing and carrying out the attack. They included a former ambassador to Argentina. Iran responded with vague threats against Argentina, and Britain would not allow the former ambassador to be extradited after he was found there.

Amid heavy security, a three judge panel announced the verdict on Thursday night in a national television broadcast. The judges cited lack of proof as their reason for rejecting the prosecution's request for life sentences for the accused, but it will be a month or so before the full text of their decision will be made available.

The five men were not accused of a direct role in the attack, but were charged as accessories, part of what prosecutors called 'the local connection'' to Islamic extremist groups. 'The Iranian connection needs to be explored,'' the American Jewish Committee said in a statement urging the Argentine government 'to step up'' efforts to solve this case and a similar attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.."

High-level Turkish team visits Israel

A delegation of top-level aides to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan left Israel Thursday after reassuring the Israeli government there is no crisis in Israeli-Turkish ties.

Palestinian Rockets Land Near Kindergarten in Israel

Palestinians fired two Kassam rockets at the Negev city of Sderot Friday. The rockets landed near the Afikim kindergarten at an hour when the children were arriving. Five people were treated for shock. (Yediot Ahronot-Hebrew)

Iraqi-Israeli ties?

A powerful lobby is developing in Baghdad to promote the idea of diplomatic relations with Israel, the new Iraqi ambassador to Great Britain told Haaretz on Thursday.

Dr. Salah al-Shaikhly, who was appointed two months ago, said that the issue will be raised after the general elections, and 'now is not the right time.' Al-Shaikhly told Haaretz that he did not have 'any problem with Israel or Israelis who wish to visit Iraq,' but he also noted, 'I really don't know what is the position of as yet, but you should know there is a strong lobby working for you in Iraq.'

When asked if he was referring to the Americans, Al-Shaikhly responded, 'No, I mean Iraqis, in Iraq, who want to establish relations with Israel, who are in favor of this idea. But the current situation is so uncertain, so volatile that any attempt to push this through, at this point, will most certainly backfire.

'The situation in Iraq is not directed at present by rational and clear thinking, but by strong emotions. The situation is very dangerous, like in the Israel-Palestine conflict and I would advise to proceed with caution. The right things need to be done at the right moment. We need to find the moment, like in music, when all the instruments are in tune. We have so many problems before we can consider the issue of Israel; we need to bring people together from all sections of the society, to persuade them violence never pays.'"

"Peaceful" ISM in Action

From Frontpagemag.com:
The photograph above shows an International Solidarity Movement volunteer interfering with an Israeli Defense Forces soldier in a military zone by warning terrorists of the soldier’s firing position. What army in the world would tolerate this besides Israel’s?

Israel might strike in Syria for Beer Sheva terror responsibility

Israel has reportedly provided the United States with 'concrete evidence' of Syria's involvement in Tuesday's double suicide bombing attack, in which 16 Israelis were murdered. 'When Syria is responsible, it must of course understand that there are some quite clear results,' Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said. Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim hinted that Israel might stage military actions within Syria.

The Hamas terror organization claimed responsibility for the Beer Sheva attacks and said they were a response to Israel's 'targeted killing' of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi. The army imposed a closure on the West Bank town of Hebron and launched raids against the Hamas infrastructure there, which was directly responsible for sending the two suicide bombers on their missions.

Israeli leaders, however, blamed the Hamas command in Damascus for ordering and financing the suicide bombing attacks.

'The fact that Hamas is operating from Syria will not grant it immunity,' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's adviser Raanan Gissin told The Associated Press yesterday. Gissin said Israel had 'hard facts' proving that the Hamas command in Damascus was behind the attacks. "

Palestinian prisoners end hunger strike

Palestinian security prisoners ended a 18-day hunger strike today, claiming that Israel had agreed to meet demands for improving their conditions, the Associated Press reported. Israeli authorities confirmed that the strike was winding down, but denied giving in to any Palestinian demands, the AP said.

Canada's Pro-Israel Muslims (Daniel Pipes)

I am often asked questions along the lines of "Where are the moderate Muslims that you assure us do exist?" and I dutifully provide lists of names and organizations, then confess that they are largely fractured, isolated, intimidated, and ineffectual. Listing anti-Islamist individuals is one thing; learning that a respected pollster finds that a fifth of the Muslim population of Canada thinks "Israel is right on just about everything" is quite another. (And I am assuming that a Muslim who admires Israel is by definition a moderate.)

Conrad Winn, founder and president of Compas Polling, one of Canada's top political opinion surveyors, tells the Jewish Tribune that this conclusion stems not from a specific poll but from an analysis of many polls over the years. Winn explains it better than I can:

Quite often it is a reaction against what they would view as extremist leaders in their own communities or in their country of origin. This is not unusual; people who lived under the Soviet regime for many years believed that if the Soviet tyrant said that everything was awful in the United States and they knew that the tyrants lied about what went on the Soviet Union, that maybe everything was perfect in the United States and there was never poverty, potholes or crime. So quite often despots, whether they're leaders of despotic tyrannies where Muslims came from or their own community leaders for whom they don't have huge respect, will provoke some of the members of the community to the extreme opposite side. …

This pattern is not unusual in human nature. Quite often in societies that demand adherence to an official point of view you get people rebelling. … These people get very upset with, let's say, [Yasir] Arafat's corruption, and that sort of thing. Totalitarian communities are never entirely successful because they do make some of their members really upset. The people who are upset with the failures of their own communities and society often go to the other side.

How reliable is Winn's data? He is confident of standing on solid ground: "polls tend to be a pretty honest reflection of how people feel because people tend to think they don't have to fear anything when they're talking to an anonymous interviewer on the telephone."

This information does not come as a total surprise; in 1994, I published an article titled "Palestinians Who Praise Israel" and I have collected over the past decade many more such examples, but those concern Palestinians and other Arabs actually dealing with Israel, not Muslims living in Canada, totally abstracted from the harsh realities of the Middle East. This extremely positive piece of news deserves intensive study, both in Canada and elsewhere. (August 26, 2004)