Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, October 25, 2004

Solana: Gaza pullout only the first step

Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should be the first step in a wider pullout from Palestinian territories, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in an interview with a German magazine to be published on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon “wants to begin (to follow the international peace plan known as the roadmap) with a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” Solana told Der Spiegel. “But he must also commit to making the withdrawal the first step in a process that leads to the pullout from all the occupied areas.” “If he thinks that withdrawal from Gaza alone is enough and that peace will automatically return, we will not back that idea. It would not be a dream but a nightmare.” Solana said the European Union would contribute to the implementation of the roadmap put forward by the EU, Russia, the United Nations and the United States by training Palestinian security forces. “From the beginning of November, there could be certain steps as part of the roadmap that could accelerate the process,” he said, in comment printed in German. “We plan, probably along with Egypt, to ensure that the Palestinian security authorities can carry out their duties.

“We will send people who are well-prepared so the Palestinians can have a reasonable command structure and also the means to carry out their tasks. “We want to commit all of our energy to creating security, otherwise there can be no Palestinian state. Of course, president Yasser Arafat must do his part and give his prime minister the necessary powers.” (afp)

Nasrallah: Hizballah Seeking Stronger Weapons

מנהיג החיזבאללה, שייח' חסן נסראללה, ממשיך לשגר איומים לכיוונה של ישראל. הפעם מאיים נסראללה בהשגת נשק מתוחכם ורב עוצמה.

העיתון הלבנוני "אל-מוסתקבל" מדווח כי בארוחה לרגל סיום הצום, שנערכה בעיירה אל-ע'בריירי בלבנון, אמר מנהיג החיזבאללה: "במצב הנוכחי, ההתנגדות (שם קוד לארגון חיזבאללה - א"ע) צריכה להיות חזקה מבעבר, ואם יש אפשרות להשיג נשק חזק יותר, יש להשיג אותו מכיוון שהאינטרס הלאומי מחייב את זה".

נסראללה ביקש להרגיע את שאר העדות בלבנון מפני הנשק רב העוצמה. "לבנון לא צריכה לפחד מנשק ההתנגדות בגלל שהוא מופנה נגד האויב, לשם הגנה על לבנון, על ריבונותה ועל עצמאותה", הוסיף נסראללה.

According to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustakbal, Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said recently:
"In the current situation, the resistance (code name for Hizballah) must be stronger than in the past, and if there is a possibility to acquire stronger weapons, we should acquire them because the national interest requires it."

Gaza terror groups thought to have anti-aircraft missiles

Palestinian terror organizations in the Gaza Strip may have anti-aircraft missiles in their possession, possibly Russian Strela (SA-7) missiles, the security establishment warned Sunday.
For some years the Palestinians have tried to smuggle anti-aircraft missiles from Egypt through tunnels. However, until now no reliable intelligence confirmed the existence of the missiles.

A senior military official told Haaretz Sunday that the security establishment working premise is now that such missiles do exist in Gaza and the air force is responding accordingly.

Combat helicopters are flying with minimum exposure to danger, as was the practice in southern Lebanon. Helicopters carrying senior officers have stopped landing inside Gaza, but rather on landing pads outside the Strip.

The downing of an Israeli plane or helicopter is an important objective for the Palestinians, symbolically. The fighting of the past weeks has only increased that importance.

The air force increased the presence of helicopters during Operation Days of Penitence and was responsible for hitting half of the military cells targeted.

Both sides are aware that if the disengagement plan is implemented, and IDF land forces pull out, airborne forces will play a much larger role than before. 'The Palestinians are clearly interested in challenging our total superiority in the air,' the senior official said.

Palestinian organizations have a role model in the guerrilla groups fighting the U.S. presence in Iraq. In the past 18 months dozens of U.S. helicopters with hundreds of crew members have been downed, some by anti-aircraft missiles, some by heavy mortar.

Hezbollah, however, never accomplished this goal during Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon.

In an interview to a Saudi newspaper last month, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official in Gaza said his organization was seeking help from Arab states to acquire weapons capable of downing Israeli aircraft, as an answer to the recent wave of assassinations.

Saudis Screw 500,000 Palestinians, no one cares

A Million Expatriates to Benefit From New Citizenship Law
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 21 October 2004 — Expatriates of all nationalities are entitled to apply for Saudi citizenship and their travels abroad with re-entry visas will not disqualify them, press reports said yesterday quoting senior officials.

Nasser ibn Hamad Al-Hanaya, undersecretary for civil status at the Interior Ministry, said the executive bylaw for the Kingdom’s amended naturalization law would be ready within four months. “We will look into applications only after the executive bylaw is issued,” Okaz Arabic daily quoted Hanaya as saying.

He estimated that more than a million expatriates would benefit by the amended law, which was passed by the Council of Ministers on Monday. There are nearly 8.8 million expatriates, mostly Asians and Arabs, in the Kingdom.

...
Shubaily ibn Majdoue Al-Qarni, chairman of the security committee which supervised amendments to the law, said Saudi citizenship would be open for all nationals working in the Kingdom. “The law does not aim at a particular nationality. On the other hand, it covers all expatriates in the country,” he told Al-Madinah.

But Al-Watan Arabic daily reported that the naturalization law would not be applicable to Palestinians living in the Kingdom as the Arab League has instructed that Palestinians living in Arab countries should not be given citizenship to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland.

Diplomatic sources have estimated the number of Palestinians in the Kingdom at about 500,000. There are large concentrations of Palestinians in the country’s western, central, eastern and northern provinces.

Arafat ill: Debka analysis

23 October: While both Palestinian and Israeli official sources are playing down Yasser Arafat’s state of health – dismissing its deterioration as a bout of flu – DEBKAfile’s political and Palestinian sources disclose that his medical advisers want him to undergo surgery to remove gall bladder stones without delay. This would mean flying him to a hospital outside the West Bank after three years of being confined to Ramallah

The nearest hospital is in Amman. So far, Israel has not been asked to grant him traveling permission. Prime minister Sharon would not object to him leaving, but is already under American and European diplomatic pressure to make sure he is allowed his return. A delegation of Tunisian physicians arrived in Ramallah Saturday night, October 23. According to our sources this visit has little to do with Arafat’s ailments. Tunisia holds presidential elections Sunday, October 24. The incumbent Zein bin Ali is certain that a show of concern for the Palestinian leader will enhance his electoral prospects. He asked Sharon to allow Tunisian physicians to attend the ailing Palestinian leader and the Israeli prime minister assented.

Earlier this week, on Monday, October 18, a medical team from Egypt and Palestinian doctors from Jerusalem and Nablus gave the 75-year old Palestinian leader a thorough check-up after he complained of severe pains. They decided provisionally that he was suffering from stones on the gall bladder that needed to be surgically removed and an acute intestinal infection, which is the more serious ailment because of its recurrence within a short period despite medication. For a definitive diagnosis, they want him X-rayed under hospital conditions which are lacking in Ramallah.

Even in extreme pain, Arafat keeps his eye on the main chance. He and his close aides have grasped that ill health offers him an opportunity to break out of the siege Israel clamped down on his Ramallah quarters after the failed Karin-A weapons smuggling episode in January 200.

The deterioration in Arafat’s health has caught Sharon unawares. He is currently in full tilt of an assault on government and parliament to hammer home his disengagement plan against massive resistance. The distraction of Arafat’s sudden departure from Ramallah threatens to slow down his plans in the short term. A long term threat cannot be ruled out. Established in an Arab or European country, the Palestinian leader would pose a different sort of peril, one that could undermine Sharon’s disengagement scheme. If and when Arafat recovers, he may decide not to return to Ramallah. He may find he has more freedom of action and broader international support for running the Palestinian political and terror war against Israel from a base in an Arab or European capital, like Paris. Arafat cut loose from his isolation in Ramallah could change the rules and force Israel to review its options afresh. US President George W. Bush could be confronted with uncomfortable dilemmas days before the November 2 election.

For the moment, Arafat has been so weakened by pain and high fever that he has given up the Ramadan fast and cancelled appointments. The official play-down of his condition continues until the various parties concerned fully digest its possible impact.

Adult Israelis seen as `targets' by Canadian Muslim leader

The president of the Canadian Islamic Congress is under fire for saying all Israelis above the age of 18 are legitimate targets of attack.

Mohamed Elmasry made the comments Tuesday on the Michael Coren Live TV show and was criticized yesterday by the Canadian Jewish Congress.

When asked whether 'anyone over the age of 18 in Israel is a valid target,' Elmasry replied: 'Anybody above 18 is part of the (Israeli) army.'

The show's moderator followed with another question: 'Anyone in Israel, irrespective of gender, over the age of 18 is a valid target?'

'Yes, I would say,' Elmasry responded.

Canadian Jewish Congress president Ed Morgan said his organization was outraged by Elmasry's comments.

'The very notion that anybody endorses the killing of civilians is beyond what we as Canadians are used to hearing,' he said.

'Anybody who makes a statement like that, to me, is not making an error. And if it is an error, then he should correct the record.'

Elmasry said on the show that since all adult Israelis are part of their country's army, they are not bystanders in the conflict.

'But they are not innocent if they are part of the total population which is part of the army. ... From 18 on, they are soldiers, even if they have civilian clothes,' Elmasry said.

Morgan disagreed.

'It is a ridiculous assertion. A civilian population is a civilian population. When people are sitting in a restaurant or at a bus stop, they are civilians. Simply because Israel has a draft doesn't mean any person is a target,' he said.

The CJC was not the only organization to protest Elmasry's statement.

Tarek Fatah, a founding member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said Elmasry's comments were a thinly veiled attack on Jews and hurt the Palestinian cause.

'Palestinians have a moral and legal obligation to fight the Israeli occupation but to believe all Israelis are targets is ... the height of hypocrisy,' he said.

Elmasry could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Reports Conflict on Arafat's Health

Three Tunisian doctors were headed to Arafat's Ramallah (search) headquarters, where the 75-year-old Palestinian leader has been confined since after the second intifada began four years ago.

'The president is in good health. He is suffering from a cold,' a Tunisian representative was quoted as saying in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. 'There is nothing to worry about.'

But sources told FOX News the Palestinian Liberation Organization (search) leader's condition has seriously deteriorated since Friday, when Israeli TV first reported he had the flu. Palestinian sources said that if the doctors determine Arafat needs surgery he will be flown to an overseas hospital.

However, Sharon has long stated that should Arafat ever leave the West Bank compound, he will not be allowed to return. The PLO has placed part of the blame for its leader's deteriorating health on his confinement by the Israelis.

Viewed by Washington as a major obstacle to peace in the Mideast, Arafat's health has been the subject of much speculation since the bloody uprising began in 2000. He appears to tremble during public appearances, but his representatives have routinely denied he suffers from a nervous disorder like Parkinson's disease.

BBC Photo Essay of Suicide Bomber Victim in Israel

Elad Wafa lives in Netanya, Israel. He is 27 years old and was born in Ethiopia. On the afternoon of 19 May 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber let off his explosives near the vegetable stall where Elad worked.

Elad suffered severe injuries and is now paralysed from the lower back downwards.

Louisiana buys $5m worth of Israel Bonds

The Louisiana Department of the Treasury has purchased $5 million in State of Israel bonds (Israel Bonds) 'to diversify investments and develop economic ties between the State of Louisiana and the State of Israel,' according to a Treasury statement from Baton Rouge. This is the first time that Louisiana has bought Israel Bonds.

'This is a win-win situation for Louisiana and Israel,' said Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy. 'Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. It is America's only true friend in the Middle East, and it is one of our staunchest allies.'

Louisiana law enables the State of Louisiana to invest up to 5% of the portfolios of three trust funds in bonds from other countries. The state's $5 million investment in Israel bonds is the first step in this process.

Israel cultivates Nobel laureates, Arabs cultivate suicide bombers

By Farid Ghadry
The writer is president of the U.S.-based Reform Party of Syria.

The news this week that two Israeli scientists, in addition to an American, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, should be read with interest in the Arab world.

This win says a lot about the state of affairs of the Middle East.

While Israel builds its future with Nobel laureates, the Arab world fills its future with suicide bombers.

Ever since the inception of the State of Israel, Arabs have had this romantic notion that through wars and revenge we can return to our past glory.

Of course, they don?t tell us which past they are referring to.

Was it when we were governed by the Ottoman Empire or by England and France?

Or was it more like 1,300 years ago when spears ruled the battleground?

Ever since 1967, Arabs from all countries -- but especially Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt -- have lived this fantasy that we can throw the Israelis to the sea.

With the 1973 near-win against Israel, Arabs concluded that one more loss is not reason enough to stop and think.

One more loss, with so many lives lost on both sides, is not enough for us to understand that the continued struggle is destroying us from within.

Even after Anwar Sadat came to understand the value of peace and co-existence, it seemed that more and more of our energies were diverted toward destruction.

The downfall of the Soviet Union, the longtime ally of the Arab world, seemed to spur us to seek justice with the barrel of a gun rather than through pragmatic understanding.

The Oslo Accords produced a willing Israel and exposed fraudulent Palestinians. Again, we watched as Arab leaders mounted a campaign of deceit to divert our attention away from our own oppression. We, the obedient Arab sheep, followed. We carried banners, objected, revolted and in the end, we created a new cadre of school children with strong arms to throw stones but without the education and discipline no brains to produce Nobel prizes.

Ever since the Intifada, a term that truly spurns our sense of justice, we have achieved the lowest point of our self-esteem. Arab children that throw stones seem to feel an invisible power that is not available to the children of the State of Israel.

That power to revolt consequently pre-disposes to a low self-esteem, which inevitably helps to build the mentality of a suicide bomber.

Suicide bombers feel nothing, understand little, and cannot see the future.

They go on automatic pilot with the brain functioning as a guiding tool to self-destruct literally, as a person and against the society that developed them. Suicide bombers represent the lowest of our self-esteem as people of Arab descent.

We are in an Intifada, but it is one that is seen through the eyes of the Israeli Nobel laureates.

We, as people of the Middle East, are dying and we cannot even feel it. We have reached the bottom and we do not even know it.

Because of oppressive regimes that give us no chance to think for ourselves, we have no hope, no future, and certainly no Nobel prizes in science awaiting us.

What very few people know is that an Intifada is also attributed to the last movement by a human body upon death.

Could that be this understanding of Intifada that is the true symbol of a struggle that should have ended long ago? All Arabs are in an Intifada, still moving yet not truly alive as citizens of the world.

Every time the Syrian Ba'athists call for armed resistance, secretly support groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and propagandize Arab unity, we fall further and further into oblivion. The funny thing is that very few Arabs care to understand why we do not have Nobel laureates.

They blame it on Imperialism and Zionism. In their minds, absent these two forces, we could be raking in those Nobel prizes.

So while Israel survives Intifadas, wars, hate, and oppressive Arab rulers, we, the Arab people, must wake-up.

If we pursue the same policies that drove us to the lowest point in our history (Asr al-Inhitat or Era of Despair as opposed to Asr al-Jahyliah or Era of Ignorance that preceded Prophet Mohammed), only we lose.

If we listen to our rulers, we will always be kneeling on the sideline watching Nobel prize winners produced by the Middle East -- but not by us or for us.

Early Childhood Jew-Hate Indoctrination

Well, Palestinian Arab children are in the midst of their sixth week of the school year. These school children are learning from new Palestinian Authority school books, made possible through grants made possible by US AID, CIDA of Canada and special grants from EU countries made available for educational institutions that operate in the Palestinian Authority.

This week, the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, an agency that monitors expression of peace and reconciliation in all educational systems of the Middle East, acting under the mandate of UNESCO that encourages education for peace and reconciliation, provided translations of the new Palestinian Authority school books at a press conference in Jerusalem, and published their findings at www.edume.org

In the new schoolbooks of the Palestinian Authority, no Jewish connection to the Holy Land is mentioned whatsoever. Indeed, Jews are only referred to in the context of their wars with Prophet Muhammad, where they are depicted in an unfavorable light, as violators of a treaty they had signed with him and as ”employers of trickery”. And the 5.5 million Jewish citizens of Israel are not even counted in the population figures of the new Palestinian geography schoolbook that covers all of the Holy Land, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

There is a single historic reference in the new Palestinian school books to the role of Jews in “early Palestinian history” – as the people who killed Christ.

At the same time, the new Palestinian Authority textbooks somehow transform the Canaanites and Jebusites of Biblical times into Palestinian Arabs, generations before Ishmael, the primordial ancestor of the Arabs was born, and many more generations before the Muslim conquest ever occurred.

In terms of how the new Palestinian school books define the state of Israel, the Jewish state appears nowhere on the maps in the new PA school books, while series of three maps in the Palestinian Authority history atlas which show the “Jewish Zone” in the 1937 Partition Plan, the 1947 Partition Resolution and the 1949 armistice lines.

However, Palestinian children learn from their new schoolbooks that the Palestinian Arab entity is the sovereign state in the region, encompassing Israeli regions, cities and sites which are presented as part of the Palestinian Arab State. Israeli territory is referred to as “the lands of 1948” or “the Green Line”

The new Palestinian school books describe the Middle East conflict as “a confrontation between “Zionism backed by Imperialism” – and its victims – the Palestinians. Not one word is mentioned in these new textbooks about the UN Partition Resolution of 1947 or about the invasion of the nascent state of Israel by seven Arab nations on the day of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948.

And how do the new textbooks of the Palestinian Authority explain the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem in 1948 to a new generation of Palestinian Youth? As nothing less than the “outcome of a premeditated plan by Zionism and British Imperialism to expel the Palestinian Arabs from their land”. The new Palestinian textbooks suggest only one solution to their plight” the return of the refugees (or, rather, their descendants) to their former homes inside today’s Israel.

Jerusalem is presented by the new Palestinian Authority as an Arab city from time immemorial. Its Jebusite founders are Arabized and the Israelite or Jewish historical ties to this city, both national and religious, are not mentioned. Jerusalem is declared to be the capital of Palestine.

Jihad and martyrdom are still exalted as ideals, though to some lesser extent than in the earlier books. Individual Palestinian terrorists who were killed in the act of terror are defined as martyrs and prisoners-of-war, and praised in the new Palestinian textbooks as role models for the Palestinian youngster to emulate.

Perhaps what is most worrisome about the new textbooks of the Palestinian Authority is that the western democracies are funding them – the first school system since the Third Reich to inculcate Children to make war on the Jews.

Not only are Western democracies funding the new Palestinian school system. Jewish organizations in the US and Canada and throughout Western Europe encourage their respective countries to aid Palestinian Authority education. Despite wishful thinking that the Palestinian education would change for the better, the brand new Palestinian school books convey another impression entirely.

Mickey Mouse and Mandela

Hirsh Goodman
Yasser Arafat told an interviewer recently that he wants to be remembered like Nelson Mandela, and that he would retire from his current position as president of no state only when the Palestinian state is established.

For Yasser Arafat to be like Nelson Mandela, day will have to turn to night, and night to day, the Messiah would have to arrive and ice cream be given out free, Madonna would have to become Esther and the Seven Dwarfs giants and camels would need to fly.

Mandela knew when to stop. He fought for his people, sat in prison, used terror, but he knew when to negotiate an end to the bloodshed. He was prepared to share with the whites. Arafat is not prepared to end the conflict and bloodshed, and he’s apparently not prepared to share what he sees as his people’s historic homeland. President Clinton, with the permission of then-prime minister Ehud Barak, offered Arafat 96 percent of the West Bank, all of Gaza, a land exchange for the remainder and, unbelievably, sovereignty over the mosques on Haram al-Sharif, the Temple Mount. Arafat, his appetite insatiable, refused.

After his victory in South Africa, Mandela could have done what others in Africa have done -- get rid of white colonialists, just as Robert Mugabe has been doing in Zimbabwe. Instead, Mandela decided to embrace the whites, immediately make them an integral and secure part of the new South Africa, building on their skills rather than dancing on their ashes. Mandela saw a new future for all the peoples of South Africa, built on tolerance and democracy. Picture Arafat in Mandela’s place: Can we call Arafat tolerant? Democratic? Embracing? Compromising? Another Mandela?

It is extremely unfortunate for all of us in this region that Arafat is not and can never be another Nelson Mandela. Arafat is, as President Bush has said, a failed leader. For proof, take a quick visit to Gaza or a drive through what could have been Palestine and is now more and more becoming Israeli-held Judea and Samaria, where there’s hardly a hilltop left without a Jewish settlement. Nothing more needs to be said.

Arafat has led his people to hell; Mandela led his to salvation. Arafat has brought about the destruction of Palestinian cities, towns, villages and homes. The new South Africa, with all its problems, is flourishing. Arafat has embraced suicide bombers and merchants of death. Mandela’s South Africa is about being reborn in a society of equals.

It has become very chic to say that Israel is the reincarnation of apartheid South Africa. The Palestinians are playing the odious comparison for all it’s worth at every possible opportunity, from the Durban 2002 conference on racism to the International Court of Justice in The Hague this year. The comparison between Israel with its free press and independent courts to apartheid South Africa, where people disappeared into the night never to be seen again, is about as accurate as Arafat comparing himself to Mandela.

Israel’s continued occupation of the territories is morally wrong, though it may be militarily justified. The point is that Israel had a prime minister who tried to give them back and the offer was refused and Arafat was the man who refused it. He could just not bring himself to make peace with the occupiers of Acre and Jaffa and Haifa. Mandela turned South Africa’s apartheid police force into South Africa’s police force, changing their mandate from enforcing apartheid to ending it. Mandela urged the diplomats representing apartheid South Africa at missions abroad to stay in their posts and represent the New South Africa, using their diplomatic skills to best further their country’s cause.

Arafat has seven security forces under his command. He uses one against the other. He turns a blind eye to groups within his own Fatah movement who send suicide bombers on their missions. Mandela had real strength as a leader. He did not need intrigue to stay in power. Arafat survives on intrigue. Without it he would be long gone.

The thought of comparing himself with Mandela is a symptom of the same megalomania that brought Arafat to start the current war with Israel, now in its fifth year, believing that the Jews would run and Israel would collapse. Mickey Mouse will become Mandela before that happens.

Israelis tested new high tech systems in clashes with Palestinians

TEL AVIV – Israel has successfully demonstrated a series of advanced military systems during the war against Palestinian insurgency groups.

Officials said the equipment included unmanned air vehicles, anti-tank missiles and munitions, laser-targeting devices and electronic warfare systems. They said some of these systems would not be fully deployed until 2009.

"Many of these systems were developed to counter a conventional military threat, particularly from Syria," an official said. "Instead, we have found ourselves testing these systems in operations against the Palestinians and see that the equipment can be used in multiple applications."

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the Israeli military has employed what he termed "unique measures" in the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. Mofaz said this included new systems and technology, but would not elaborate.

Officials said the new systems successfully demonstrated the fusion of tactical intelligence, airborne platforms and precision-guided weapons. They said the systems have significantly reduced the so-called sensor-to-shooter loop, in which the military has sought to destroy a target within minutes of its identification.

"Israel has adopted the U.S. model of a network-centric force," Col. Didi Ben Yoash, a former senior Defense Ministry official, said. "The use of network-centric is meant to achieve firepower superiority."

The new systems have been tested separately and within a network in both battlefield and laboratory environments. This week, the Ground Forces Command staged a company-level urban warfare simulation to demonstrate the military's network-centric capability.

Officials said one of the goals of the exercise – held at Rafael, Israel Armament Development Authority and scheduled to end on Thursday – sought to overcome limitations on bandwidth communications, a key obstacle to network-centric systems. They said the military planned to conduct a folo-up exercise in February 2005.

Israel invests about $700 million a year in defense research and development, focusing on systems meant to bolster firepower, targeting capability and intelligence, officials said. At a recent conference by the military's C4I directorate, a senior officer disclosed a range of new capabilities developed for both urban and conventional warfare.

Col. Ehud Gal, a former senior official in the Defense Ministry, said Israel has tested a range of new UAVs. Gal, who served as a deputy science chief in the ministry's Defense Research Directorate, said the platforms included micro and combat UAVs.

"We tested a micro-UAV equipped with a camera that went around the room and out the window," Gal told the C4I conference on May 18.

Gal said the military has demonstrated Israeli UAV capability to detect, track and destroy ground vehicles. Gal said the Israeli combat UAV effort was based on the Harpy, an unmanned platform meant to destroy radars and bunkers. He said the Harpy was introduced in the late 1980s but kept under wraps until 1999.

Other capabilities disclosed in the conference were the development of a 30-kilogram micro-satellite and a 155 mm artillery shell that could split into four autonomous warheads. Officers also told of a system that could disrupt and deceive enemy GPS.

"The future battlefield is becoming empty," Gal said. "If you are there, you are destroyed. The only options are stealth or autonomous systems."

Diaries of "another Anne Frank" shed light on camp hell

The newly discovered diary of an 18-year-old Jewish girl has offered a haunting insight into life inside a holocaust-era Dutch prison camp in a find archivists are comparing to the Anne Frank diaries.

The writings of Helga Deen describe her last month of imprisonment at the Vught detention centre during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands before she and her family were transported to the Sobibor concentration camp in Poland where they were murdered almost immediately after arrival.

'Even though everybody is very nice to me, I feel so lonely. Every day we see freedom from behind barbed wire,' she wrote in an extract from her 1943 journal made public yesterday by archivists in Tilburg, in the southern Netherlands.

Ms Deen's entries, written as love letters to her boyfriend, were concealed in a green school notebook marked 'Physics'. Inside its pages the youngster paints a haunting portrait of everyday life inside the camp, charting everything from her feelings of powerlessness and despair to arguments between inmates and the taste of the kale stew they were forced to live on.

David Barnouw of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation said the doomed teenager's writings were an extraordinary find: 'Very few diaries have been written in the camps because of the conditions of life there,' he said. 'If diaries were written in the camps they were rarely recovered because people's luggage was taken away when they were deported,' he said.

Ms Deen's diary is only the third so-called camp journal discovered in the Netherlands, and the first written by a woman. In it, she wrote about how the prisoners were deloused and children put on the transports to Auschwitz.

The diary of another Jewish girl, Anne Frank, helped the world to put a name and a recognisable face to the anonymous millions slaughtered in the holocaust. It records the time the Frank family and friends went into hiding in an Amsterdam attic in July 1942 to escape Nazi persecution. They were eventually betrayed two years later and Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945. The diary has sold more than 25 million copies and has been translated into 55 languages.

Ms Deen's diary journal shows how desperation slowly set in. In an excerpt dated 6 June, 1943, just after 1,300 children were deported to Auschwitz and Sobibor death camps, she wrote: 'Transport. It is too much. I am broken and tomorrow it will happen again. But I want to [persevere], I want to because if my happiness and willpower die, I too will die.'

'Packing, this morning a child dying which upset me completely. Another transport and this time we will be on it,' she wrote. It was her last diary entry.

Ms Deen had been in her final year of school in nearby Tilburg when she was sent to barracks 34B of the Vught camp, where she would spend her final weeks before boarding the one-way train to Sobibor. More than 31,000 people - half of them Jews - were held at camp Vught between January 1943 and September 1944.

The journal was brought to the Tilburg archive by the son of her wartime boyfriend, Kees van den Berg, who discovered it after six decades in a brown purse, along with a lock of hair and a fountain pen. 'The purse was like a religious relic for my father. Nobody could touch it,' he said.

Archivists say they have no idea how the diary was smuggled out of the detention camp.

Ten years on Jordan-Israel peace treaty remains cold

Ten years after Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel, relations between the two neighbours are far from warm, with most Jordanians persisting in branding Israel 'the enemy', politicians and analysts say.

Political ties are cool, the economic benefits of peace limited and popular animosity towards Israel is widespread over the violence and bloodshed linked to Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinians territories.

Even intellectuals like Hassan Barari who lived three years in Israel to learn Hebrew say they are fed up.

'Every time I see the scenes of Palestinian deaths and destruction on television I feel disgust' towards the Israelis, said this researcher from the University of Jordan's Center of Strategic Studies.

'A poll conducted in 1999-2000 (before the terror uprising - EoZ) showed that 80 per cent of Jordanians consider Israel 'the enemy'. If it was conducted today the percentage would be much higher because of what has happened over the past four years,' he said.