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Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Sunday, Jul. 13 '08, 10 Tammuz 5768
HEADLINES:
1. ISRAEL HAS 'AMBER LIGHT' FROM US ON IRAN STRIKE, BUT NO SUPPORT
2. TERRORIST SHOOTS TWO BORDER POLICEMEN NEAR LIONS' GATE
3. GROWING THREAT FROM HOMEGROWN ISRAELI ARAB TERRORISM
4. POLICE: WE MAY INDICT OLMERT BY LATE AUGUST
5. PA LEARNS LESSON FROM HIZBULLAH SWAP: KIDNAP IDF SOLDIERS
6. OLMERT: POLICE TRYING TO OUST ME, ALLEGATIONS ARE 'DESPICABLE'
7. REPORT: RON ARAD IS DEAD, NO NEW DETAILS ON BODY
8. AUDIO: ‘TERRORIST RAN OVER OUR CAR WITH BULLDOZER AND...
1. ISRAEL HAS 'AMBER LIGHT' FROM US ON IRAN STRIKE, BUT NO SUPPORT
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
Israel will have an “amber light” from the U.S. to launch a strike on Iran if other measures fail, according to a source in the Pentagon. The statement, appearing Sunday in Britain’s Sunday Times, said that American President George Bush has given Israel conditional approval for an attack on the Islamic Republic if current diplomatic initiatives fail in stopping the latter’s nuclear weapons program.
According to the source, a high-level defense official in the Pentagon, the President has given Israel the go-ahead on an Iran strike if sanctions and other non-military means fail, reports JPost. The unconfirmed report acknowledged that the “amber light” came in spite of opposition among top brass in the U.S. armed forces, and despite American worries over the political and economic consequences that such an attack would carry.
"Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you're ready," said the official.
However, Israel will not be able to count on U.S. military support for the strike, according to the official. Despite hopes that Israel will carry out the onerous task of eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat, the official added that the Israeli Air Force would not be permitted to refuel at American air bases in Iraq. This contradicts recent reports indicating a willingness to allow Israel to use American bases as a staging area for the operation.
According to a Friday report from officials in the Iraqi Defense Ministry, there is already an IAF presence in Iraq, with Israeli war planes landing on U.S. air bases and practicing in Iraqi airspace. The report, published in a local Iraqi newspaper, said that IAF activity in Iraq is believed to be part of Israeli preparations for a possible strike on Iran.
America, as the leading Western nation, expects Israel to take on the Iranian threat single-handedly, despite the global nature of the threat, according to the Pentagon official,.
"It's really all down to the Israelis," said the official. "This administration will not attack Iran. This has already been decided. But the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn't believe that anything but force will deter Iran."
However, the official added, "if there is no solid plan, the amber will never turn to green," noting that Israel has yet to offer Bush a convincing military proposal.
He admitted that the prospect of American support for an Israeli strike has met considerable resistance within the Pentagon, mainly from officers who fear a counterattack from Iranian. "The uniform people are opposed to the attack plans, mainly because they think it will endanger our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan," said the official.
As recently as Saturday Iranian leaders repeated their threat to destroy Israel. Mojtaba Zolnour, an aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, added that his country would also wipe out the 32 US army bases in the region in response to an attack on the Islamic Republic.
"If Israel and the US fire a bullet or a missile at Iran, its forces will attack the heart of Israel and 32 American bases in the region before the dust from such an attack has settled," threatened Zolnour, according to Iran's Fars news agency. He warned that such targets would be "destroyed" by the Iranian counterstrike.
2. TERRORIST SHOOTS TWO BORDER POLICEMEN NEAR LIONS' GATE
by Gil Ronen
Two Border Policemen were very seriously wounded by a terrorist near the Lions' Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem in a shooting attack that occurred near midnight Friday. One of the policemen managed to fire back at the assailant but security sources say he did not hit him. The assailant had emerged from the Muslim cemetery nearby and escaped in the same direction.
Police and Magen David Adom emergency crews arrived on the scene and the two wounded men were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center. One of the officers, David Shriki from Rishon LeTzion, was shot in the head and is in critical condition, while the second, Imad Gadir from the Druze village of Zarzir, is in moderate condition.
The security camera at the scene recorded the attack but Channel 2 TV reported that the attacker could not be identified based on the video. Security forces rounded up some Arabs near the scene of the attack but let them go afterwards.
Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said that he did not see a connection between the attack Friday and two previous attacks in Jerusalem – the massacre at Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva and a killing spree by a bulldozer driver ten days ago. There was no prior intelligence warning that this kind of attack was imminent, he added.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter visited the wounded Border Policemen at the hospital and told reporters later that he did not see the recent spate of attacks by Israeli Arabs as a new violent uprising ("intifada"). "It is difficult to find a connection between the last three terror attacks in the capital, but the matter will be investigated," he said.
Dichter also hinted that there may have been a security failure in the incident: "The police will have to check how it happened that the two policemen were surprised by the terrorist's fire," he said, adding that the police "will know how to learn its lessons from the incident if needed."
3. GROWING THREAT FROM HOMEGROWN ISRAELI ARAB TERRORISM
by Hana Levi Julian
It was cleared for publication Sunday morning that four Israeli Arabs were arrested more than a month ago on charges of selling weapons to terrorists.
The suspects, three of whom lived in the village of Kafr Makr, and the fourth a resident of the northern city of Akko, were nabbed in a joint sting operation by officers from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police Galilee District.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter noted Friday night, following an attack on two Border Police officers in the Old City of Jerusalem, that there has been a rise in terrorist activity by Israeli Arabs. Dichter said the attacks appear to be "organized."
The two officers were shot during a routine patrol shift by an unknown assailant near the Lion's Gate entrance to the Old City. Although the attack itself was caught on security camera, the attacker's face was hidden in the darkness and thus impossible to identify. He escaped the same way he entered the area, through a nearby cemetery.
One of the officers wounded in the attack remains in critical condition. His patrol partner, who suffered moderate injuries, is still listed in fair condition. Both are hospitalized at Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Israeli Arab Terrorist Trend Developing?
Two cousins from the Abu Sakut clan in the southern Bedouin city of Rahat were indicted last week on charges of membership in the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization.
Taher and Omar Abu Sakut were caught in late May in a joint operation by Israel Police and the Shin Bet. Both confessed to a list of crimes under interrogation last month, including aiding the enemy in wartime, delivering information to the enemy in order to harm national security, and membership in a terrorist organization.
In Jerusalem, where a quarter of a million of the city's residents are Arabs, there have been two major terror attacks by Jerusalem Arabs within the past four months.
On July 2, an eastern Jerusalem Arab previously unknown to security forces climbed into the bulldozer he drove as a construction worker and proceeded to mow down civilians in the center of Jerusalem.
The terrorist rammed the huge earth-moving shovel into two buses and then slammed into six cars, killing three people and wounding 45 others before an off-duty IDF soldier and a Yassam police officer shot and killed him, ending the murder spree.
A deadly attack by another eastern Jerusalem Arab resident four months earlier raised red flags over the issue of how safe it is to hire Arab workers – even those who are residents of Jerusalem.
Eight young students at the Merkaz HaRav Kook yeshiva in Jerusalem were gunned down in a bloody attack by an Arab driver the boys knew and trusted and who had often transported them and others to and from school.
A previously unknown Israeli Arab terrorist group calling itself the "Free Galilee Brigades" (FGB) claimed responsibility for both attacks.
In an interview conducted through third-party e-mail, an unidentified terrorist leader from the organization told a journalist for the London-based Arabic daily Al Quds Al Arabi that the group had carried out a number of other attacks as well and threatened more to come.
4. POLICE: WE MAY INDICT OLMERT BY LATE AUGUST
by Gil Ronen
The State Prosecution and police announced Friday they have been investigating new charges against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the past month. According to Channel 2, police may combine the new charges with those involving businessman Morris Talansky and the "cash envelopes," and a decision to indict Olmert may be reached by late August.
The new case against Olmert involves suspicions that he used fraudulent means to trick organizations including Yad Vashem, Akim (for disabled children), Aleh (for blind students), the Association for the Welfare of Soldiers (Agudah Lema'an Hachayal) and the Wiesenthal Center into paying money that was supposedly meant for his fundraising flights abroad but actually went into a secret fund that paid for his family's private trips.
Double dipping
The police leaks to the media accuse Olmert of “double” and even “triple-dipping”: i.e., demanding and receiving payment for the same trips abroad from several organizations, although they were funded by the government. According to these leaks, Olmert stole over $100,000 in this way when he was Mayor of Jerusalem and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor. According to the allegations, Olmert used the services of a tour company called "Rishon Tours," which booked his flights for him, to send invoices to the organizations. The extra money that accumulated was put in a special account for Olmert's use and was used to pay for private trips by Olmert's family members.
At issue are trips Olmert took between 1998 and 2005. Police claimed that they have a great deal of evidence and testimony, including that of Rishon Tours' owner, which corroborates the suspicions.
"Attempted coup"
However, Olmert's lawyers, media advisers and confidantes denied over the weekend there was any wrongdoing in the case which the media has dubbed "Olmert Tours." They accused interested parties of trying to carry out "a coup" against the Prime Minister by leveling trumped up charges against him.
The Olmert camp claimed that multiple billing of nonprofit groups by donation raisers like Olmert was common practice, because one never knew which group would wind up paying and which would not. Asked why the extra money raised was not returned to the donors, an Olmert lawyer told Channel 2 that this "would have to be looked into." Olmert confidantes said the family trips which the police referred to were paid for through "frequent flyer" miles Olmert accumulated and not from the donation funds.
"Olmert didn't take a Shekel"
Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum Chairman Avner Shalev told reporters Saturday that he was "surprised" by the allegations. He said that about half of Yad Vashem's current budget was from donations and that "the Prime Minister always willingly agreed to help raise donations." Yad Vashem spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg said that on the occasions in which the Prime Minister was invited by Yad Vashem organizations abroad they paid him for expenses, flights and hotel fees, as is usual.
Rachael Risby-Raz, who served as Olmert's travel coordinator during his tenure as industry and trade minister, and who now serves as his adviser on Diaspora, was mentioned as a key witness in the "Olmert Tours" allegations. However, Risby-Raz issued a statement Saturday night defending Olmert: "The prime minister is not a thief and not a fraud," she stated, adding that she was "pained by the lies that appear in the media on a daily basis." Olmert, she said, "didn't take a shekel for himself and didn't use the public's money for his family's needs."
"Regretfully, she said, "unlike other sources who leak ceaselessly, I cannot give details on the investigation, protect the prime minister and my good name or tell the truth - for fear that I would be accused of disrupting the investigation."
"I am saddened by the fact that in my country what a person says in the interrogation room appears in the newspapers the next day, and no one thinks that's wrong," she added. "I am saddened by the fact that in my country you can butcher a man in the town square without trial or presumption of innocence - and everyone leans back to enjoy the show."
5. PA LEARNS LESSON FROM HIZBULLAH SWAP: KIDNAP IDF SOLDIERS
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
A Palestinian Authority minister assessed Israel’s prisoner swap deals: They encourage the P.A. to kidnap I.D.F. soldiers as well.
"On the Palestinian street there is now an understanding that without kidnapping soldiers, we can't get prisoners released. Through negotiation, we haven't managed to get prisoners released," said Ashraf al-Ajami, the Palestinian Authority's minister for Prisoners Affairs, over the weekend.
Ajami’s statements contrast with statistics that show Israel has already released thousands of PA/PLO terrorists, including many with blood on their hands, in multiple negotiated prisoner releases.
Al-Ajami sharply criticized Israel for dragging its feet on a new round of prisoner-release negotiations with the PA while signing deals with Hamas and Hizbullah to release terrorists in exchange for kidnapped soldiers.
According to Al-Ajami, the P.A. has repeatedly requested to negotiate the release of prisoners with terminal illnesses. "But we make requests,” said the minister, “and Israel does the opposite [of what we request]."
The P.A. considers a new prisoner-release agreement to be a prerequisite to any final-status agreement with Israel, he said. "There can be no final agreement without a release of all Palestinian prisoners," declared Ajami.
The minister, himself a terrorist, spent 12 years in Israeli prisons, from 1984 to 1996.
Al-Ajami added that he was concerned about the future of Israel-P.A. negotiations. "I'm sorry that I cannot present better news, but both sides are in a very serious situation," he said at a recent conference organized by the Geneva Initiative near Jerusalem.
Ever since the November 2007 Annapolis Conference the Olmert administration has shown little real cooperation with the P.A. on the issue of the release of P.A. prisoners, claimed Al-Ajami. "Annapolis was seven months ago, but we haven’t managed to take down one checkpoint," he said. The minister insisted that his own government has been much more cooperative and claimed “great efforts” by the P.A. to confiscate privately-held firearms throughout Judea and Samaria.
"Collecting those weapons is in our own interest. We can't rule effectively, with proper governance, unless the government is the sole source of armed authority," noted Al-Ajami.
The former convicted-terrorist blasted the recent IDF operations to shut down the economic base of Hamas terrorist action, in Shechem and other parts of Judea and Samaria. Al-Ajami argued that the operations were in fact carried out in order to embarrass the P.A. and weaken the P.A. authority in Judea and Samaria.
Al-Ajami further said he believed that a conclusion was near for Israel with Hamas, for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
6. OLMERT: POLICE TRYING TO OUST ME, ALLEGATIONS ARE 'DESPICABLE'
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
Sources close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert claim that the police, along with the State Attorney’s office, are doing everything they can to bring down Olmert’s government. The sources charge that the multiple investigations against the P.M. are nothing more than a reaction to Olmert’s “crusade” against the legal establishment.
The statements from Olmert aides came after news of yet another investigation against him, announced on Friday.
In the latest scandal, the State Attorney's Office has accused Olmert of having multiple charities and institutions pay for the same work-related trips abroad and then using the excess funds to pay for private trips for himself and his family. According to allegations, Olmert misappropriated thousands of dollars of funding from a range of organizations, including Yad Vashem, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Soldiers' Welfare Association, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The Prime Minister himself lashed out Saturday night at the latest round of charges, calling them “distorted” and “despicable.”
“The attempts to link my family to this affair are despicable,” said Olmert to reporters before leaving on a trip to the Mediterranean Forum in Paris.
The prime minister’s remarks suggested that the police had leaked the details of the investigation in a biased manner. Hiss office already had accused State investigators of bias in their handling of his cases.
The police and the Justice Ministry released a joint statement, on Friday, saying that they had widened a corruption investigation against Olmert, based on new evidence that the P.M. was defrauding private charities and state institutions by taking duplicate funding from them and spending the profits on family vacations.
"The investigation and the publications surrounding it, as well as the reports and leaks that emerged shortly after the investigation began, constitute a grave breach of acceptable norms, and deviate from everything that is acceptable and expected in a democratic regime," Olmert insisted, moments before boarding his flight to France.
"I was shocked by the distorted reports on behalf of law enforcement entities,” the P.M. continued. “The only result will be the weakening of the public trust in law enforcement bodies."
Olmert went on to blast the latest charges leveled at him, saying that investigator’s attempts to link the investigation to "favors for my family is reprehensible."
The P.M. defended his association with the various charities he is accused of defrauding. "These are institutions that I worked to advance and I invested immense energy into raising funds and I believe I made a significant contribution to them. Therefore, precisely against this backdrop, the exploitation [of these allegations] in this way was particularly hurtful."
The growing corruption scandals surrounding Olmert threaten to topple his leadership of the state. His own Kadima Party has shown signs of weakening confidence in the P.M., and Kadima primaries are expected to be held in September to choose his replacement.
7. REPORT: RON ARAD IS DEAD, NO NEW DETAILS ON BODY
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
An 80-page report submitted by the Hizbullah terrorist organization to German mediator Gerhard Konrad alleges that IAF navigator Ron Arad died while attempting to escape in 1988, but doesn't explain how. The report also fails to explain what became of his body.
The document, written in Arabic, was transferred to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Saturday, in an apparent attempt to settle Israel’s doubts on the fate of Arad, long presumed, but never confirmed, to be dead.
After translation to Hebrew, the report was circulated to Israeli intelligence officials for review, with a discussion of the findings to be discussed at the Tuesday weekly cabinet meeting.
As experts from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the international intelligence arm, the Mossad, analyze the document to determine its authenticity and accuracy, it is already being called “inconclusive” due to its lack of information on the whereabouts of Arad’s body.
The document is reported to contain maps showing the area where Arad was held prisoner and alleges that he died in a failed attempt to escape. It is supposedly based on ‘first-hand’ accounts of people who saw Arad about a year and a half after he was taken captive by the Lebanese Amal terrorist group who shot down his aircraft over southern Lebanon in 1986.
Arad’s daughter Yuval condemned the de facto pronouncement of death by the Israeli media, slamming the daily Maariv for its headline saying “all efforts have been exhausted.”
“We cannot declare someone dead because we have no information,” she argued. Yuval was 10 years old when her father disappeared.
The initial review of the document has not revealed any conclusive evidence, and the case of Ron Arad has yet to be closed by the Israeli government. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to convene his cabinet upon his return from France, and the meeting will focus on analysis of the report and recommendations from experts from the military and intelligence communities.
Hizbullah is meanwhile waiting for a report from Israel, concerning the fate of four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Beirut in 1982. Iran has repeatedly accused the Israeli-allied Lebanese Phalangist militias of abducting the four for Israel, a charge which Israel has consistently denied. Samir Geagea, a former leader of the Phalangists, claimed that his men killed the Iranians.
The Israeli cabinet is expected to accept the Hizbullah report on Arad and go through with the prisoner exchange deal it has signed with the Lebanese terrorists, regardless of whether the IDF soldiers kidnapped on Israel's northern border are dead or alive.
As part of the deal, Israel is to release the bodies of hundreds of dead Hizbullah terrorists, along with a number of living prisoners, many of whom have “blood on their hands”. Among those killers Israel is expected to release is Samir Kuntar, who led a terrorist attack that murdered four Israeli citizens in a 1979 in the northern coastal city of Nahariya. Kuntar recently vowed to resume his terrorist activities as soon as he is released.
In return, Israel hopes to see the return of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, captured across the border by Hizbullah like Arad. Hizbullah will also reportedly return remains of other IDF soldiers it says it is holding.
The exchange of live terrorists for dead bodies will reportedly take place on Wednesday or Thursday at the Rosh HaNikra border crossing with Lebanon.
8. AUDIO: ‘TERRORIST RAN OVER OUR CAR WITH BULLDOZER AND...
A7 Radio's "The Tovia Singer Show"
‘Terrorist Ran Over Our Car with Bulldozer and My Family Survived!’
“Suddenly, several workmen gesturing violently ran into the street that we should clear out.” But it was too late because the terrorist riding a massive bulldozer was bearing down on Rochelle Eissenstat’s car with her husband and three daughters who were ridding in the back seat. Listen to a powerful interview with Rochelle, as she vividly describes horror and salvation in the heart of Jerusalem.
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Rabbi Tovia Singer is the director of Outreach Judaism and a frequent lecturer on Israeli political issues. He hosts the Tovia Singer Show live every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 p.m. – 12 midnight New York time on Israel National Radio. |
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