Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Suicide-bomb belt discovered near Nablus

Members of the IDF's Haruv Battalion on Tuesday thwarted a suicide bomb attack that was to have taken place in central Israel in the coming days after finding a seven-kg. explosives belt hidden in a barrel in the yard of a house in Silat a-Daher, northwest of Nablus.

Security officials told The Jerusalem Post that a major attack was thwarted after an intelligence tip-off revealed the whereabouts of the bomb. Sappers blew the belt up, and a manhunt for the dispatchers and the plotters is under way, as are efforts to determine which terror group was behind the planned attack. In the early morning, security forces arrested two fugitives in the village, but it is not clear if they are linked to the planned attack or to other terror activities.

On Tuesday the security establishment registered 47 warnings of plans by terrorists to launch attacks against Israelis. In the afternoon Border Police sappers blew up two pipe bombs that had been placed on Route 60 near El-Khader, west of Bethlehem. Officials believe that terrorists planned to detonate the bombs near army forces or Israeli civilian cars on the road, which is the main route linking Jerusalem to Hebron.

In the early morning, 23 Palestinian fugitives were arrested in raids in the West Bank.

Israeli Officials Free Scores of Palestinians

Israel began freeing 161 Palestinian prisoners from its jails on Tuesday in the largest mass release in more than seven months, Israeli security officials said.

The Palestinian Authority called the move meaningless, and Israeli officials said it was meant not as a good will gesture but as a way to ease conditions in prisons overflowing with Palestinians rounded up during nearly four years of conflict.

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The release came less than a week after Palestinian inmates halted an 18-day hunger strike called to protest prison conditions. It was not known whether any of those released had been among the 3,000 who had taken part in the strike at its peak.

Israel's plan called for the release of 137 Palestinians on Tuesday and another 24 on Wednesday, all nearing the end of their jail terms and most convicted of minor offenses like stone-throwing or illegal entry into the country, security officials said.

The officials said none of the freed detainees had been involved in attacks on Israelis. 'These are prisoners without blood on their hands,' a member of the military said."

State Dept sends mixed signals on fighting terror

Powell opposes attack on Hamas training camp: Secretary of State Colin Powell disapproved Tuesday of an Israeli helicopter attack on a Hamas training camp in Gaza. 'Retaliation is not a solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said.

State Dept:

At this point, we're still trying to chase down the remarks and see what he actually said and whether he actually said what's been reported. Certainly, if the remarks are reported accurately, if he indeed did say this, then we would certainly find those kinds of comments unacceptable. There's nothing that can justify the kind of terrorism, the kind of bus bombings and other things that are attributed to Hamas recently.
We've made very clear these groups need to be put out of business. We've made very clear the Palestinian leaders need to take hold of this problem, need to get the authority and take immediate and credible steps to end terror and violence. The time for explanations, excuses and discussion is long past. We think it's time to see some action that sends a clear message that terrorists will not be tolerated.

And Colin Powell on the Today show this morning said "You don't negotiate with child-killers." - speaking of course about Beslan. Somehow he seems to have the illusion that the Palestinian Authority does not fit that definition.

Iranian paid $125,000 for Olympic no show

Iran have given judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili a $125,000 reward, saying he sacrificed a gold medal at the Athens Olympics by refusing to fight an Israeli, a sports official says.

State television showed Miresmaeili at an award ceremony receiving the same sum as Iranian Hossein Rezazadeh, who took the super-heavyweight weightlifting gold at the second Olympics in succession.

'He would definitely have won a gold medal if he had taken part,' the sports official, who declined to be named, said on Tuesday.

'By refusing to fight, Miresmaeili followed the policies of the country,' the official added.

Iran has refused to recognise the Jewish state's right to exist since its 1979 Islamic revolution.

The International Judo Federation had considered a sanction against Miresmaeili during the Games but concluded that he had been overweight for the fight and could not have taken part.

The International Olympic Committee also did not take any action.

Qureia:: Hamas killing kids in revenge would be justified

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia warned Israel that its air strike Tuesday that killed 14 Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip will invite a response from the group, adding that any retaliation for the killings will be justified.

'This crime cannot be accepted ... No crime goes unpunished,' Qureia said at a meeting of the Palestinian Cabinet. 'For sure there will be retaliation, and the retaliation will be justified if it happens.'"

Saudi Women Come Out Against Terrorist Internet Magazine - Arab News

RIYADH, 7September 2004 — A cross-section of Saudi women has come out strongly against the launch of a new Internet magazine targeting Saudi and other Arab women as well as children in the Al-Qaeda-inspired drive against “infidels in the Arabian Peninsula.”

They said that by calling on women to join in the preparations for Jihad, the deviant group was straying away from the path of Islam, which stands for mercy, compassion, tolerance and justice.

“What do they want to achieve?” asked radio journalist and broadcaster Samar Fatany from Jeddah. “They really need to think about the consequences of their actions. What they are preaching is extremism and revenge which are totally un-Islamic.”

She was confident that the website would have no adverse impact on Saudi women who are “God-fearing and in no way influenced by misguided teachings.”

According to Fatany, the situation reflects the weakness of the Arab world and the inaction on the part of the international community to stand up for justice and peace. She said the “unjust US foreign policy on the one hand and Israeli atrocities against Palestinians on the other have also been responsible for breeding such negative tendencies in the region.”

Another Saudi female journalist Hala Al-Nasser said the promoters of the Internet magazine were giving a twist to the concept of Jihad. “To me, Jihad means constant struggle and perseverance with oneself for the cause of peace.” She said Saudi women would not be attracted by the kind of message being put out on their website.

The newly launched online magazine declares that its mission is to “push our children to the battlefield, like Al-Khansaa.”

Umm Raad Al-Tamimi, the promoter of the magazine, further declares that another of their objective is to teach women how to contribute to jihad, or holy war.

The monthly, published by the “Women’s Information Office in the Arabian Peninsula,” advocates the ideology of Osama Bin Laden: “Drive infidels from the Arabian Peninsula,” or Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam’s holiest sites, Makkah and Madinah.

Named after a female Arab poet belonging to the pre- and early Islamic eras, the magazine appears to be the first of its kind targeting women and their children for jihad.

“Close ranks on the side of our men,” orders the publication, which also allocates space for alleged Al-Qaeda “martyrs” in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Khansaa, a companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him), is remembered for her eulogies, particularly the one written for her brother Sakhr who died in a tribal feud. She later sent her four sons for jihad. All of them were martyred.

“We will stand up, veiled and in abaya (black cloak), arms in hand, our children on our laps and the Book of Allah and Sunnah of the Prophet as our guide. The blood of our husbands and the bodies of our children are an offering to God,” says the editorial in the first edition.

One of the founders of the publication was Al-Qaeda’s former chief in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, killed in an encounter with the police in June. The journal carries a section entitled “Women’s Camp (Muaskar)”, which is reminiscent of Al-Qaeda’s military online magazine “Muaskar Al-Battar.”

Analysis / A deadly common denominator

By Ze'ev Schiff

There is a line connecting this weekend's mass murder in a school in North Ossetia, the ongoing genocide in Sudan, the bomb blasts on Madrid trains, the bombing of Istanbul synagogues and the suicide bombings in Be'er Sheva. That line is Islamic - for the most part Arab - terrorism and it endangers world peace, particularly as some of the organizations involved are trying to acquire nonconventional weapons, including nuclear arms.
This is not necessarily a 'clash of civilizations,' as a number of academic experts claim, because Islamic terrorists are carrying out murderous attacks against Muslims in Sudan, and against Muslim regimes such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. There is no chance of dealing with such terror without international cooperation. But such a combined effort cannot take place when most members of the United Nations support 'justified terrorism' if it is carried out in the form of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, while a blind eye is turned to the fact that countries like Syria and Iran fund terror operations and harbor the culprits. The massacre in North Ossetia also shows that there is no 'good' or 'bad' terrorism. It is also no coincidence that the last to offer assistance to those being butchered by Arab militias in Sudan are the Arab countries, including its neighbors.

The murder of children by terrorists in North Ossetia is shocking because of the large number of victims, but few remember the trauma of the attack against an Israeli school in Ma'alot nearly 30 years ago. Similarly, in that case, Palestinian terrorists took over the school and held scores of pupils hostage. Like in North Ossetia, the Ma'alot rescue effort hit a snag. The toll was 25 dead, among them 21 pupils. In both cases the murderers presented themselves and were recognized as freedom fighters.

The tendency is now to divert attention from the murderers to the failed attempt of the Russian forces that were rescuing the hostages. The root of the evil, and of the act of terrorism against civilians, lies in the premeditated takeover of the school, and the fact that the pupils were held hostage and were threatened with death if the colleagues of the terrorists were not released from Russian prisons.

The rescue operation in Russia has raised many questions because this is not the first time that dozens of hostages have been lost in that country as a result of an unimaginative and poorly executed action. In October 2002, more than 120 hostages were killed when Russian special forces stormed a Moscow theater where Chechen terrorists held hundreds of civilians. But the theater was only the second-choice target of the terrorists: The primary target had been a nuclear plant, but tight security there deterred them from carrying out their attack."

IDF begins work on southern section of separation fence

Defense Ministry bulldozers, supported by security guards and a military jeep, began yesterday to prepare the ground for the construction of the southern section of the separation fence, in the Hebron Hills area. The preparation work comes five days after Palestinian suicide bombers from the Hebron area carried out a terror attack in Be'er Sheva that killed 16 people.
Security sources confirmed that work had started on a 40-kilometer stretch of fence southwest of Hebron; but the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the work wasn't related to last week's attack. The bombing has put pressure on the government to speed up construction of the fence, which has been delayed by a series of legal challenges.

At this stage, the bulldozers are working on a six-kilometer segment, with the final route of the fence in the area yet to be agreed on. As published last week in Haaretz, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is at odds with some members of the defense establishment over the route of the southern section of the fence. Sharon wants the fence in the southern Hebron Hills area to be moved further to the north of the Green Line.

Security sources told Haaretz yesterday that in light of the delays in the construction of the fence, it is not expected to be completed before 2006."

Hebron's middle classes choose America rather than martyrdom

Tareq Natsha is fresh out of secondary school and about to join a growing exodus: young, middle-class Palestinians who are leaving their West Bank homes with their families' blessing and moving abroad, to escape from the clutches of the terrorist group Hamas.

Better-off parents in cities such as Hebron, a centre of Hamas recruitment for recent 'martyrdom' operations, are increasingly fearful of losing their children to the militants.

Tareq, 18, is planning to move to the United States - to most immigrants a land of opportunity, but to him a place of refuge from the Hamas recruiters, whom he fears will otherwise force him to join their ranks.

'Many families have lost their children for nothing,' he said.

'More and more families are now trying to get their kids out of here to give them a chance to live in peace. They are afraid that if they stay they may come under the influence of Hamas.'

At first glance Hebron's al-Jama neighbourhood does not appear to be a natural recruiting ground for the Palestinian militant groups.

With its large spacious houses, smart cars and vineyards spread out over undulating hills, the district is a pocket of relative prosperity.

There are subtle signs, however, that the violent Palestinian struggle against Israel is inflicting a heavy toll here.

On three sides of Tareq's family home are patches of flattened ground where the Israeli army has levelled the family homes of young suicide bombers.

Since the start of the latest Palestinian uprising four years ago, 11 young men living in al-Jama have met premature deaths while carrying out suicide bombings and gun attacks. Two bombers who killed 16 people in Be'er Sheva last week came from al-Jama.

As Tareq sat in the spacious living room of his family's three-bedroom house, where a portrait of his late father, a lawyer, hangs alongside elaborate Palestinian tapestries, he acknowledged that Hamas had had extraordinary success in secretly recruiting and persuading young middle-class men to die for the cause.

One of them was his friend, Basem Takhouri, a 19-year-old student and the son of a well-off shop owner, who blew up himself and 16 other people on a Jerusalem bus a year ago.

'Basem was a quiet person,' said Tareq. 'It was unexpected. Of course there is plenty of anger towards Israel over the occupation, the killings, the checkpoints and so on. But Hamas has been able to brainwash these young men.'

The response of dozens of young men from Hebron's middle-class families has been to flee the spreading influence of Hamas - which is now reaching beyond its usual recruiting ground in the ranks of poor and dispossessed Palestinians from the refugee camps.

Tareq's older brother, Sami, 21, also plans to move to the US - following another brother, Rami, 26. Yet another brother, Basel, 27, is already in France.

Sami said that those who cannot escape resent those who do, but added: 'It is hard, but we have no choice. We have to make a future for ourselves, and the best way for us to do that now is to go somewhere else.'"

The Unique Depravity of Modern Islamic Terror

It is the new reality of this current age that innocents are specifically targeted by Muslim terrorists in the name of some Islamic cause. The war on terror can be won only if the widespread ideological support for terrorism found in the Muslim world and some quarters of the West can be transformed into widespread condemnation. Nearly all nationalist movements - from the American revolutionaries to the Irish Republican Army - have had enough restraint to avoid the systematic murder of children. But there is something dysfunctional within the soul of modern Islam and its supporters that deems such depravity acceptable. (Wall Street Journal editorial)

Israeli spy satellite launch fails at cost of $100m

The attempt to launch the spy satellite Ofek-6 failed yesterday when the Shavit rocket carrying the payload on its tip malfunctioned in its third and final stage.

Ofek-6 was expected to provide Israel with intelligence data on countries of the 'third tier,' particularly Iran, who pose a threat with their ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

The loss of the satellite is expected to delay Israel's plans for more sophisticated surveillance of long-distance threats, as well as an early warning of the launch of ballistic missiles from enemy territory.

The financial damage as a result of the loss is estimated at $100 million, but what is of greater concern at Israel Aircraft Industries, the maker of the Shavit rocket and the Ofek series of satellites, is that the reputation of its products is damaged on the international market."

Arafat and old guard are running out of time

There was a time when it was impossible to escape the sight of his rubbery, stubbled features beaming down from half the walls in town.

Ramallah was Yasser Arafat's capital, the administrative seat of the Palestinian Authority, which came into being 10 years ago on a tide of optimism. Last week there was not a single portrait to be seen.

Yasser Arafat: no political gains

Among his subjects, hope for the future has all but evaporated and Mr Arafat sits in the battered compound in a corner of the city where he has lived for more than three years, afraid to leave in case the Israelis block his return.

At the rusty gates one Palestinian did speak up for his leader. 'The reason there are no posters is that he does not wish to brag,' said Rami Snobr, a young guard. 'He is in the heart of his people with or without pictures.'

The view of Imad Muna, an East Jerusalem bookseller, is more typical of the voices being heard in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 'Arafat should go immediately,' he said. 'This is not a political opinion. This is not an extremist opinion. It's the opinion of the majority of people.'

After a decade of misrule Palestinians seem to have lost faith in their president. Gratitude at his achievement in keeping their cause alive and reluctance to criticise for fear of giving comfort to Israel once shielded him from direct attack but no longer.

Hamas Leaders Apparently Quit Damascus, Says Israel

Hamas leaders have apparently quit Damascus following Israeli threats to target them for assassination in retaliation for a Palestinian double suicide bombing last week, Israel's defense minister said on Monday.

But Shaul Mofaz, who joined the cabinet after serving as army chief, said: 'They will not be free. We will chase them down everywhere.'

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza dismissed Mofaz's remarks as 'Israeli propaganda' but declined to comment on the whereabouts of the Damascus-based leaders except to say they visited other Arab countries from time to time."

Naomi Ragen: Who is the Enemy?

I have not been able to recover from the terrorist attack in Beslan. Terrorism is not the enemy. Terrorism is a tactic of the enemy. Who, then, is the enemy that fights all those who identify with the civilized world -- the world in which children and their mothers are cherished and protected, even in war? The world in which school buildings, and ambulances, and hospitals, and holy places are respected and left out of armed conflicts as neutral zones? The world in which children are taught to love thy neighbor, even if he is different and follows another religion? A world in which there can be no excuse for wiring a school building with explosives, starving children and shooting them and their mothers in the back when they cry, and finally blowing up the roof over their heads, burying hundreds in rubble?

The enemy is the man who shot Tali Hatuel when she was nine months pregnant and then shot her four little girls in the head at point blank range. The enemy is the man who blew up elderly Holocaust survivors at their Passover Seder in Netanya. The enemy is the man who blew up the nightclub in Bali, who laid the bombs on the train tracks in Madrid. The enemy is the political framework that train this man and rewarded him. The enemy is the country or countries that financed the political framework. The enemy is the leader of these countries.

The enemy is the religious leaders of these countries, who did not teach their people right from wrong. The enemy is the congregations who sat through the hate-mongering sermons. The enemy is the head of the family who went home and beat his wife, and strapped suicide belts on his sons, and slit the throats of his daughter and sister for supposed violations of the family honor. The enemy is the child who grows up in such a culture and becomes one of its perpetrators.

The enemy is the Western nations who turn a blind eye, looking to excuse this behavior so it will not have to do anything about it. The Sunday Telegraph, Le Monde, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Bild, all claiming the problem is that the Russian government has brought this on itself by angering the Chechans. It is the victim who is to blame. Just as Israelis deserve what they get. Tali Hatuel deserved what she got. Her little girls. The little children of Beslan. The only way to stop the murderers of children from murdering is to give into their demands, these newspapers claim [http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/09/06/202.html]

I disagree. The only way to stop murderers from murdering is to destroy them.

And if you say this is impossible, I say: think back sixty years. The Thousand Year Reich is the dust of history. We destroyed their leaders, their governments, their buildings, their youth movements, their philosophy. We destroyed it all. We didn't negotiate. We didn't appease. We didn't try to show them our softer side. We uprooted the evil from mankind, because no negotiations, no fence, no signed agreement,no borders, no words were effective against them.

Long before September 11, I wrote to this list: If an Israeli grandmother and her grandchild are not safe in a playground, than no grandmother and no grandchild anywhere in the world are safe in a playground.

If the children of Beslan were not safe in their school, then no child and no school is safe anywhere in the world. Until this enemy is destroyed root and branch, without mercy or equivocation.

The breakdown in morality which we witness everyday is finally engulfing us. Those in the Western news media who call armed terrorists, men who wire schools with explosives and murder women and children, 'hostage-takers' and 'militants' are setting themselves up to mourn their own children.

A generation ago, fifty million people died because the reaction of their governments and their religious leaders and their press came too late. The Neville Chamberlains saw to that. Too late. And for us, who have our Shimon Peres', and our Yossi Beilins, and our Chiracs, and our Kofi Anans, and Michael Moores and John Kerrys will it also be too late?

For the children of Beslan, the answer is yes. And for your children?

Copyright Naomi Ragen, 2004."