Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, October 25, 2004

What exactly is the political benefit of a Gaza pullout again?

Study: Israel legally occupying Gaza, even after pullout
By The Associated Press

Even after Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, it will still be considered under international law as the occupying power and be held responsible for the crowded territory, according to an internal government assessment made public Sunday.
Under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, Israel is scheduled to withdraw next year from the entire Gaza Strip and four isolated settlements in the northern West Bank.

But because Israel intends to maintain control over the crossings into Gaza, its coastline and airspace, international law will still hold Israel responsible for the territories and its population, according to the study by legal experts from the Justice Ministry, Foreign Ministry and the military.

'We must be aware that the disengagement does not necessarily exempt Israel from responsibility in the evacuated territories,' said the 47-page report.

Israel could reduce its responsibility over the territory, where 8,200 Jewish settlers currently live among 1.3 million Palestinians, if someone else were to take control there, the report said.

'The more active control is given to other parties, the more difficult it will be to claim Israel is still responsible,' the study said.

The study, which has been submitted to the National Security Council, responsible for implementing the withdrawal, said that both the involvement of an international force in Gaza or the establishment of a Palestinian state would reduce the burden on Israel.

However, Cabinet Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday that Israel was unlikely to endorse either option since it was reluctant to hand security control over to another party.

Despite the legal complications, Israel hopes the international community will recognize the withdrawal from Gaza as the end of occupation of the area, said Livni, a lawyer by profession. (Ah, so wishful thinking will make it so! - EoZ)

'I really would like to have the technical, legal, international declaration that Israel is no longer responsible there,' Livni told Army Radio. 'There is a tremendous difference between if Israel stays there ... and a situation in which Israel does everything to get out of there.'

Yahoo! News - Iran rejects European demands over nuclear standoff

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran rejected European demands that it halt all uranium enrichment activities and described a proposal aimed at ending Tehran's nuclear standoff with the international community as 'unbalanced.'

'The European proposal is their preliminary proposition and is not definitive but it is unbalanced,' foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.

Iran is also refusing to suspend indefinitely work on enriching uranium, part of the nuclear fuel cycle, as called for in the deal offered to Tehran last week by the European Three of Britain, France and Germany, he added.

'In their proposal, the Europeans sought the suspension of enrichment until a comprehensive deal is reached. During the negotiations there is no question of an unlimited suspension,' he told reporters.

Nevertheless, Asefi said, the decision to engage in negotiations with the Europeans was the right one, adding: 'Today we are on the right path.'

The three European states presented Iran with a deal Thursday, aimed at avoiding possible UN sanctions. Under the deal Tehran would receive valuable nuclear technology if it indefinitely suspended all uranium enrichment activities.

The proposal was seen as a last chance for Iran before the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), decides on November 25 whether Iran is cooperating with the international community.

The United States wants the IAEA, which since February 2003 has been investigating US claims that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons programme, to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions.

Tehran has long insisted it is seeking only to generate electricity and on its right to produce enriched uranium, which makes fuel for civilian reactors but which can also manufacture the explosive material for atomic bombs.

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.