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** OLMERT: PEACE WILL MOVE FORWARD ONCE TERROR GROUPS ARE DISMANTLED
** ISRAEL RETURNS BODIES OF TWO HIZBULLAH MEMBERS
** OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
** ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
PINPOINT
OPERATION AGAINST HAMAS MEMBERS THWARTS DOUBLE SUICIDE BOMBING
Two Hamas terrorists
were killed in a helicopter strike Sunday in an operation aimed at thwarting
a double suicide bombing planned by the terror group’s military wing, Izzadin
al-Kassam, HAARETZ reported. Israeli defense sources said that the principal
target of the attack was a senior member of Hamas’ military wing, Ahmed Shatiwi,
24, who served as the liaison between the group’s leadership in Gaza and its
cells in the West Bank. Shatiwi planned numerous attacks in Gaza and the West
Bank, and specialized in targeting tanks. Another target was Walid Alhumas,
a senior Hamas terrorist. Defense sources explained the interception resulted
in the foiling of double suicide attack that Hamas’s military wing had planned
to carry out in the near future. The operation took place a few hours after
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon announced that Israel viewed
"all Hamas personnel as targets for pinpoint preventions."
Two other men were killed during the IDF strike. They were reportedly members of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s presidential guard, Force 17, and were guarding a nearby roadblock in front of Arafat’s house in Sheikh Ajalin.
In other security-related news, the IDF received three specific warnings of terror attacks today. The perpetrators would be coming from Nablus, Israel Radio reported. A senior IDF officer said troops were operating in the city, digging into walls and pulling up tiles in a search for weapons. Troops also arrested four wanted Palestinians overnight in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus.
In addition, the IDF has imposed a full closure on the Gaza Strip. For the first time, Palestinians fired today at IDF outposts in Gush Katif, in Gaza, from the sea.
OLMERT:
PEACE WILL MOVE FORWARD ONCE TERROR GROUPS ARE DISMANTLED
Deputy Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert (who also serves as Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor and Communications)
said on Sunday that "the only chance for the future of the political process
is dependent on Israel’s ability to wipe out Hamas and Islamic Jihad,"
THE JERUSALEM POST reported. "If we succeed in critically wounding them
[the terror organizations], perhaps the conditions will be created which will
allow Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas] and [PA
Security Minister Muhammad] Dahlan to fulfill their obligations and crack down
on terror," Olmert said. Israel suspended its policy of targeting Hamas
and Islamic Jihad leaders at the end of June, as part of an accord between Israel
and the PA, but reinstated it last week following the Hamas bus bombing in Jerusalem
that killed 21 people.
Olmert stressed that Israel was still committed to the road map, but added that Israel had to adapt to the new situation in which the three major terror groups had declared an end to their unilateral cease-fire. "The hudna did not die; it was never born, and from its inception was only followed on a virtual level," Olmert said. A PA proposal to reach another cease-fire agreement – this time signed by Israel – was rejected by diplomatic officials in Jerusalem, because it was not based on dismantling Hamas and Islamic Jihad. "We have no objection to a cease-fire, but this has to be based on a different set of rules," a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office said. "If there is a cessation of violence, it has to be a complete cessation, not just a hudna. This type of hudna – stopping the violence when it suits them – will not happen. There has to be a complete cessation with a systematic dismantling of the terror organizations, or we will take the measures needed to protect our citizens."
Security officials released figures Sunday indicating the Israel Defense Forces had foiled some 54 terror attacks and arrested more than 100 terror suspects since the hudna was declared on June 29. According to these figures, the number of alerts which stood between 50 to 60 a day before the hudna, is now at about 30 a day, up by 10 from about two weeks ago.
Since the hudna, there have been about 280 different attacks, of which 192 were shooting incidents. During this period, 27 Israelis and a foreign worker were killed, and 152 people were wounded. The security officials said that since the beginning of the hudna, Israel passed on to the PA the names of 22 men in the West Bank allegedly involved in planning terror attacks. Only five of them are currently in PA jails. In Gaza, the official said, Israel passed the names of 15 terror suspects on to the PA, of which only two are now in jail.
ISRAEL
RETURNS BODIES OF TWO HIZBULLAH MEMBERS
Israel handed over
to the Red Cross the bodies of two Hizbullah members, Ammar Hammoud and Ghassan
Zaatar, at the Lebanese border this afternoon, HA’ARETZ reported. Security officials
said the bodies were transferred in exchange for information on Israeli hostages
held by the south Lebanon-based terror group. Hammoud was killed on December
30, 1999, in a suicide attack on an Israeli convoy in southern Lebanon and that
Zaatar was killed in clashes with Israeli troops in November 1998 in Iqlin al-Tuffah
in southern Lebanon.
Israeli sources intended the handover as a prisoner exchange. Some progress in German-mediated talks between Israel and Hizbullah on a prisoner swap was reportedly made, but no deal has been finalized as yet. Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz revealed last week that great efforts were put towards the issue of prisoners exchange but added "we should remember that we are dealing with a cruel enemy that has turned away from his commitments more than once."
Hizbullah is currently holding four Israelis, including three soldiers and a retired colonel. The Israeli soldiers were captured in the Har Dov area near the border with Lebanon in October 2000, while the reserve colonel was abducted overseas.
OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
Jibril Rajoub confirmed that Yasser Arafat did indeed appoint him to head the Palestinian Council of National Security, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL reported. One of the council’s duties will be to coordinate Palestinian contacts with the Quartet – U.S., UN, EU and Russia — in matters relating to the road map peace plan. Rajoub was a former Palestinian Authority head of security in the West Bank.
ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
International computer chip giant Intel is currently deciding whether to execute a $1 billion upgrade of its plant in Israel’s Kiryat Gat for the production of its next generation of nanotechnology chips, HA’ARETZ reported. Israel is competing with several nations, including the United States, China and Ireland, to be Intel’s primary manufacturer of the next generation chip, whose size is estimated to be a mere .065 microns. As of yet, Israel is considered to have a good change against the competition because of the attractive grant incentives that the country is offering Intel, and because of the skilled professional staff, which works in the plant. While Intel CEO Craig Barrett pointed out that Intel considered Israel and Singapore as the two countries with the most attractive grant incentives for encouraging chip-manufacturing facilities, Intel followed up this statement by saying that the issue of financial incentives was not the principal reason behind Intel’s interest in Israel. Rather, the Israeli plant was considered a leading candidate primarily because of its 5,000 highly experienced staffers who are well versed in Intel’s research, development and manufacturing process.
Africa-Israel Investments is planning to add 450 rooms to the Jerusalem Holiday Inn Hotel, making it Israel’s largest hotel, with 850 rooms, YEDIOT AHARONOT reported. The plan is to make one wing of the hotel an Israeli government guesthouse. The sale of 230 units for housing is expected in the first stage. These units are located near the hotel management company, which will lease the rooms for their new owners. Africa-Israel will use the $25 million proceeds from these sales for construction.
Today’s Israel Line was prepared by Victor Chemtob, Ravit Bar-Av, and Adar Zango at the Consulate-General of Israel in New York.
** TWO GUNMEN ARRESTED IN NABLUS HOSPITAL; PALESTINIANS FIRE AT IDF AND ISRAELI
COMMUNITIES IN WEST BANK AND GAZA
** SHALOM ASKS FOR JAPAN’S ASSISTANCE IN CONVINCING PA TO ENFORCE ROAD MAP
** START-UP COMPANY TAKES VOICE ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGY TO THE NEXT LEVEL
** ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
The German
mediator who arranged the hand over by Israel of two Hizbullah men killed in
clashes with the Israel Defense Forces has confirmed that Elhanan Tannenbaum,
the Israeli businessman man kidnapped by Hizbullah on October 15th, 2000, is
alive and in "reasonable health," HAARETZ reported.
Tannenbaum, a reserve colonel, was kidnapped by Hizbullah while on a trip abroad three years ago. One week before that, the terrorist group had abducted St.-Sgts. Benny Avraham, Omar Sawaid, and Adi Avitan, in an ambush on Mount Dov. Retired IDF General Ilan Biran, who heads the Israeli team in the negotiations, is due to return from Germany in the coming days to give a full report on Tannenbaum’s condition. A security source said the return by Israel of the bodies on Monday came in response to the Hizbullah’s letting the German mediator visit Tennenbaum earlier this week.
The mediator was the first intermediary to see Tannenbaum alive since he was captured. The security source said "proof of Tannenbaum’s well-being was an important step in negotiations" for a possible prisoner exchange between Lebanon and Israel.
No further details about the visit were provided. In January, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Hizbullah, had said that Tannenbaum was alive.
TWO
GUNMEN ARRESTED IN NABLUS HOSPITAL; PALESTINIANS FIRE AT IDF AND ISRAELI COMMUNITIES
IN WEST BANK AND GAZA
Israeli undercover
troops arrested two Palestinian terrorists who were in a hospital in Nablus,
and transferred them to the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva this morning,
Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. The men were identified as Othman Yunis,
27, a leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus,
and Fahid Bani-Odeh, 25. Israel has accused Yunis of being responsible for several
attacks in which at least 10 people were killed – including the recent Rosh
Ha’ayin homicide bombing on August 12 in which one Israeli died. Yunis and Bani-Odeh
were wounded Friday in a shootout with Israel Defense Forces.
The hospital raid came as the IDF imposed a curfew on the West Bank city of Jenin following warnings that terrorists could be coming out of the area to carry out an attack.
Also today, Palestinians fired 11 mortar shells and an anti-tank missile at communities and army bases in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians also fired mortar shells and shots at Israeli soldiers and civilians in the area of the Neve Dekalim community, and fired two anti-tank missiles at an IDF base near the town of Ganei Tal. In the West Bank, Palestinians fired at troops in Tulkarem and Qalqilyah and overnight, terrorists shot from in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank and detonated a bomb near troops in the area. There were no injuries reported in any of the incidents.
SHALOM
ASKS FOR JAPAN’S ASSISTANCE IN CONVINCING PA TO ENFORCE ROAD MAP
While on an official
visit to Japan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom asked the Japanese
government to use its clout to persuade the Palestinians to adhere to their
road map obligations and begin eliminating terrorism, HA’ARETZ reported. Shalom
also raised concerns about the nuclear program developed by Iran – Tokyo’s third-biggest
oil supplier.
"I asked that Japan use its influence on Palestinians to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorist organizations," Shalom said following talks with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Shalom said that since Japan had already given the Palestinian Authority $680 million in aid, Tokyo was in a position to ask the Palestinians to implement their road map commitments and dismantle terrorist organizations.
On the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, Shalom told his hosts that, "Japan can understand more than others what nuclear weapons mean, and the same threat you have in the region from North Korea, we have in our region from Iran." Shalom also invited Koizumi to visit Israel in the near future and called on Tokyo to play a key role in the Middle East peace process.
Meanwhile, according to GLOBES, Shalom and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma agreed today to set up a new joint Israel-Japan R&D fund. Hiranuma accepted Shalom’s proposal for a joint committee staffed by the economics ministries of the two countries. The committee will work in order to foster cooperation and bilateral activity between Israel and Japan. The Japanese minister stressed that Japan attached great importance to Israel’s high-tech capabilities, and planned to strengthen trade and economic ties between the two countries.
START-UP
COMPANY TAKES VOICE ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGY TO THE NEXT LEVEL
An Israeli
company has developed new software that analyzes the voice of a person talking
on the phone and can then determine the speakers’ feelings at the time of the
conversation, MA’ARIV reported. The new software, also known as "the love
detector," was developed by A.I. Sense, a part of Nemesysco Ltd, a 3 year
old start up company that specializes in developing products based on voice
analysis technology.
The new product can analyze different layers in the human voice, thus providing an in-depth view into the person’s range of emotions. The technology works according to the following mechanism: A microphone or the phone line is connected through a special device to a computer which displays the data results on the screen using red hearts.
The company’s Executive Director Amir Liberman explained that the software could in the future serve other goals such as assist information operators and provide additional tools during psychiatric evaluations. Liberman also stated that the software results had an accuracy rate of 90 percent. Nemesysco’s voice analysis technology is currently in use by some intelligence agencies and police units.
ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
The Bank of Israel has announced a cut in interest rates by half-a-percent, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL reported. Prime lending rate now reaches 8 percent. The central bank said the cut was made possible by a drop in prices and because expectations on inflation for next year had stabilized in line with the government’s target. The Bank of Israel said the government would be tested in its ability to reduce the deficit next year.
Arrow missile developer Dov Raviv has developed revolutionary technology for producing solar-powered electricity that can lower the manufacturing cost by 150 percent, from 5 cents to 1.5-2.0 cents per kilowatt/hour, HA’ARETZ reported. The technology is based on reducing the production cost of photovoltaic cells. These cells are capable of producing a voltage when exposed to radiant energy, for instance, light from the sun.
Today’s Israel Line was prepared by Adina Kay, Tallie Lieberman, David Dorfman, Ravit Bar-Av, and Victor Chemtob at the Consulate-General of Israel in New York.
** FOUR NEGEV BEDOUIN ARRESTED
FOR PLANNING HAMAS TERROR ATTACK – IAF STRIKE TARGETS HAMAS TERRORISTS IN GAZA
** ISRAEL EXPRESSES "CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM" ON PRISONER RELEASE TALKS
WITH HIZBULLAH
** WASHINGTON BLASTS ARAFAT’S EFFORTS TO UNDERMINE ABBAS
** FIRST ISRAELI METEORITE DISCOVERED
** OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
** ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
FOUR
NEGEV BEDOUIN ARRESTED FOR PLANNING HAMAS TERROR ATTACK – IAF STRIKE TARGETS
HAMAS TERRORISTS IN GAZA
Negev police arrested four Bedouin residents from the Negev who were allegedly
recruited by Hamas and were planning to carry out terror attacks, Israel Radio,
KOL YISRAEL reported. The four detainees, aged between 17 and 27, were preparing
to kidnap and murder soldiers, carry out sniper shootings and booby-trap cars
with explosives. They were reportedly recruited by Hebron resident Yussef Nakira,
21, who entered Israel illegally and worked in the village school’s cafeteria.
Security officials said that the cell was captured shortly before the attacks
were to have taken place. Negev police commander Moshe Kradi indicated that
this was the first time Hamas had succeeded in recruiting Israeli citizens in
the south.
Meanwhile, three missiles were fired at a car containing two or three Hamas terrorists traveling on the road between Gaza City and the Jabalya refugee camp Tuesday evening, in the third attack on the Palestinian terror infrastructure in five days, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. An elderly Palestinian man was killed and 26 others were injured in the strike, but the targets of the operation managed to escape moderately wounded. Israel decided to hunt down people involved in terrorism following last week’s homicide bus bombing in Jerusalem in which 21 were murdered and 136 wounded. The security establishment currently recorded 30 warnings of planned attacks, the majority of them stemming from Nablus and Jenin.
"Last week’s attack brought about a change in Israel’s strategy," a security official said. "Now, instead of offering to hand over further West Bank cities to Palestinian security control, the Palestinians will have to prove themselves. Until they do, Israel will continue to target ticking bombs. The term does not necessarily relate to those who wear the explosives and blow themselves up, but also to those who plan, direct, and legitimize such attacks against Israel," he added.
In other security-related news, a Palestinian was killed after trying to stab a soldier near Rachel’s Tomb outside Bethlehem today. Army officials said the man, holding a knife, ran towards a soldier who opened fire and killed him. Troops have arrested 32 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank. In Tulkarem, troops neutralized a bomb. A Kassam rocket fired from Gaza, fell near an electronic security fence in the Ehkol region in the western Negev, causing no injuries.
ISRAEL
EXPRESSES "CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM" ON PRISONER RELEASE TALKS WITH HIZBULLAH
Although no prisoner
swap deal has yet been made with Hizbullah, Israeli security officials said
Tuesday night that they were "cautiously optimistic" such a deal would
materialize in the "near future," HA’ARETZ reported. Talks between
Israel and Hizbullah were initiated several weeks ago by the Shi’ite organization,
when it indicated its willingness to make a deal involving the release of captured
Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum. Israel agreed to begin prisoner exchange
talks only on the condition that Hizbullah agreed to return three Israel Defense
Forces soldiers captured in October 2000 (they have been classified as fallen
soldiers whose places of burial are unknown); the first stage of the talks were
completed Monday, when Israel returned the bodies of two Hizbullah men killed
in clashes in southern Lebanon.
Upon the return of those bodies to Lebanon, German mediator Ernst Uhrlau was allowed to meet with Tannenbaum. According to A-Safir, the Beirut daily, Uhrlau managed to resolve several disputes between Israel and Hizbullah this week. The most divisive of these issues was Israel’s insistence that the release of two Lebanese men it has detained for 14 and 9 years respectively – Sheikh Abd al Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani – be conditioned on Hizbullah’s disclosing information about the fate of missing Air Force navigator Ron Arad, whose plane was brought down in Lebanon in 1986. A-Safir’s report suggests that Israel has now abandoned this position.
WASHINGTON
BLASTS ARAFAT’S EFFORTS TO UNDERMINE ABBAS
The White House sharply
criticized Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s efforts to undermine
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas by appointing Jibril Rajoub as the
Palestinian national security adviser, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The Bush
administration objected to the appointment, saying it would further damage Abbas’
efforts to take steps against terrorist organizations. "By blocking the
consolidation of the Palestinian security services under Prime Minister Abbas,
Yasser Arafat undercuts the fight against terrorism and further undermines the
hopes of the Palestinian people for peace and for a Palestinian state that can
live side by side with Israel in peace and security," White House spokeswoman
Claire Buchanan said. In a speech Tuesday, President Bush reinforced the White
Houses commitment to worldwide fight against terror. "The best way to win
the war on terrorism is to be on the offense whenever we confront it, whether
that be in Baghdad or Afghanistan or Gaza, so that we don’t fight that war at
home," he said.
FIRST
ISRAELI METEORITE DISCOVERED
A small but heavy
black rock discovered in the Timna region of the Arava a year and a half ago
was officially declared the first meteorite discovered in Israel on Tuesday,
HA’ARETZ reported. It was discovered by Gabriel Shaked of Kibbutz Afikim, who
has been looking for meteorites on the ground since he was a child in Hungary.
The small meteorite-weighing about 40 grams and measuring 4 centimeters in length-is a chondrite, a fairly common type that that has been discovered worldwide. "It’s not a scientific sensation; it’s just nice that Shaked opened his eyes, searched and found," Prof. Yehoshua Kolodny, a Hebrew University geologist, said. "There are lots of chondrites in the world, and some weighing more than a ton also have been discovered. It’s just the first chondrite that has been found here," he added. Shaked sent the sample to be tested at the University of California Geophysics Institute, and on Friday received a response confirming it was indeed a meteorite, approximately 4.5 billion years old.
According to Dr. Shmulik Marco of Tel Aviv University’s Geophysics Department, chondrite is important because "it is a substance that has not been melted, unlike all the compounds found on planets. The meteorite is the initial component from the beginning of the formation of the solar system, and has not undergone melting processes on the planets."
OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
An Israeli court convicted Raed Mahmoud Jamil Sheikh, 29, a former Palestinian Authority policeman, of intentional manslaughter for his part in the lynching of Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Vadim Novesche and Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Yosef Avrahami on October 12, 2000, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The two reservists accidentally strayed into Ramallah while driving to a nearby army base. Novesche and Avrahami were forced out of their vehicle and taken to the local police station, where an angry mob forced their way into the headquarters and, together with PA security officials, attacked and beat them to death. Scores of people participated in the lynching, which was broadcasted in grisly detail around the world.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed his solidarity with Israel on Tuesday during a daylong visit to Jerusalem, retracing the path of the victims of last week’s horrific terror attack, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. He urged Israel to continue to strike back against terrorists that would wreak carnage on its civilians, and said that Israel could not negotiate with the Palestinians so long as violence continued. "When someone has a gun to your head, you cannot negotiate," he said. "You have to stop the violence first. You can see that America is not letting the terrorists win. We are striking back and that’s I think what Israel has always done and what I would urge you to continue to do; terrorism against anybody is terrorism against us all." Bloomberg said that the world had unfortunately failed to learn the lessons of capitulating to Nazi Germany terror on the eve of World War II. "Anybody who sees the young babies [hospitalized] your heart had to go out, and you have to react and say we are not going to sit back and let our children be massacred and injured," he said. "This is just not acceptable in the civilized world."
ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that the 2004 state budget would not include new taxes or hikes in current taxes, HA’ARETZ reported. The major budget cuts in the 2004 budget will be around NIS 15 billion, and the treasury has demanded that NIS 6.5 billion of that amount comes from defense spending.
Israeli company Cyber-Ark Software has won a tender for the first stage of a multi-year U.S. government agency project for secure information sharing, GLOBES reported. The first stage is worth an estimated $3 to 5 million. The government agency is upgrading its online information sharing to modern infrastructure, which will facilitate connectivity to thousands of organizations, and guarantee both a high security level and short access times. Various alternatives were considered in the tender. It was eventually decided to base the next generation of information sharing infrastructure on Microsoft’s Net technology, together with Cyber-Ark’s Inter-Business Vault.
TriCN, which develops intellectual property (IP) for high-speed interface technology, has announced a new sales representative agreement with Amos Technology, GLOBES reported. "Given the makeup of the Israeli fabless semiconductor market, establishing a presence in the region is crucial for expanding our sales opportunities," said Dale Olstinske, VP Sales at TriCN. "Amos Technology has the experience and knowledge of the market that will enable us to service this important region efficiently and effectively." Founded in 1997, San Francisco, California-based TriCN is a leading developer of high-performance semiconductor interface IP. TriCN’s customers include startups and established fabless semiconductor and systems companies.
Today’s Israel Line was prepared by Arielle Bernstein, David Dorfman and Victor Chemtob at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.
** KASSAM ROCKETS HIT ASHKELON
** WHITE HOUSE: ARAFAT UNDERMINES THE HOPE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
** TREASURY DEPARTMENT: ISRAEL’S ECONOMY LOOKS PROMISING
** OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
** ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
KASSAM
ROCKETS HIT ASHKELON
Palestinian terrorists
fired four Kassam-2 missiles into Israel today, one of which landed in the southern
Israeli port city of Ashkelon, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. This is the first
time that Kassam missiles have reached Ashkelon, which has a population of 116,000.
The rockets were fired from Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense
Forces reported that no causalities were sustained in the attack.
"The Palestinian Authority and all of the terror organizations who were involved with the attack on Ashkelon today, have no understanding as to the extent of how the IDF will respond," a senior military source said. The Prime Minister’s Office echoed the reaction of the IDF. "Israel will not ignore a rocket attack on one if its major cities," said Prime Ministerial spokesperson Dore Gold said. "The Palestinians have clearly upped the ante in this situation," Gold added.
WHITE
HOUSE: ARAFAT UNDERMINES THE HOPE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
In a press briefings
this week, White House spokesperson Claire Buchan said that the Palestinian
Authority must work to consolidate all their security forces under PA Prime
Minister Mahoud Abbas and these forces must work to dismantle the terrorist
organizations, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. In regard the White House’s
reaction to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat call to reinstate the hudna (Palestinian
temporary ceasefire) Buchan said, "Arafat has once again shown himself
to be part of the problem and not part of the solution." She added, "Arafat
undercuts the fight against the terrorism and further undermines the hopes of
the Palestinian people for peace and for a Palestinian state that can live side-by-side
with Israel in peace and security.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials discounted Arafat’s call as propaganda, saying Israel will continue to work against terrorist organizations until the PA acts against them. Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said: "Arafat has never stopped supporting the strategy of terror."
TREASURY
DEPARTMENT: ISRAEL’S ECONOMY LOOKS PROMISING
The treasury revealed
very positive signs of growth for the coming year, THE JERUSALEM POST reported.
Coming two weeks before the official presentation of the budget to the Knesset,
the treasury report tells of a 2.5 percent growth in the gross domestic product
and an increase in per capita income by .8%. By these accounts, 2004 will be
the first year of positive growth in three years. Private consumption, the largest
component of the GDP (60 percent), is expected to grow by .3 percent this year
and 1.2% in the next.
The treasury’s forecast has a direct impact on fiscal policy. Budget deficit is measured as a percentage of GDP, so a high GDP projection gives the government more fiscal leeway. Besides positive signs in Israel, the treasury’s forecast was based on two external assumptions: that there will be no serious change in the security situation and that the world economy will grow by 2.7%.
OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
Minister of Interior Avraham Poraz handed out identity cards to members of the Black Hebrew community at a ceremony in Dimona on Wednesday, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL reported. About 350 African Americans left the U.S. in 1967 as followers of Chicago-born Ben Ami Carter who claimed that they were one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. They arrived on tourist visas via Liberia in 1969, but it was only in 1990 that they were given temporary resident status.
Minister of Health Danny Naveh said many over-the-counter, non-prescription drugs and medications would soon be sold in supermarkets as well as pharmacies, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL reported. The change in policy awaits approval of the Knesset Labor and Social Affairs Committee. Health officials believe that it will take very little time to implement the changes once the new regulation is approved.
ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
The Ministerial Committee on Privatization unanimously supported on Wednesday the privatization of Bezeq after 13 years of failed similar attempts, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. A top Treasury official said the prospectus preceding the privatization will be issued within four to five months after a difference of opinion with Bezeq workers regarding severance pay is settled. The committee members Minister of Finance Binyamin Netanyahu, Minister-without-Portfolio in the Finance Ministry Meir Sheetrit, Minister of Internal Security Tzahi Hanegbi, and Minister of Justice Yosef Lapid agreed that the government’s 51 percent share in Bezeq will be sold off in two separate slices. One of 11 percent-21 percent will be floated on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the second of 30 percent-40 percent will be sold to a strategic investor.
Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor Ehud Olmert and French Minister for Foreign Trade Francois Loos, who met on Tuesday in Jerusalem, have agreed that Israel and France would sign a new R&D agreement in the coming months, GLOBES reported. Other topics discussed at the meeting included the strengthening of trade ties between Israel and France, the commercial consequences of EU expansions, Israel’s status as a special EU trade partner, and Israel’s request to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The two ministers decided to strengthen the relationship between the Israel Export Institute and its French counterpart, and stressed the importance of cooperating in the fields of telecommunications, bio-technology, and aviation. Israel’s exports to France totaled $656 million in 2002, and imports amounted to $1.18 billion. Exports grew 8 percent to $411 million in January-July 2002, while imports dipped 3.2 percent to $682 million. Olmert told Loos that Israel expected France to help solve the problem of the EU tax levied on exports of Israeli goods manufactured in the West Bank and Gaza.
Today’s Israel Line was prepared by David Nekrutman and Matthew Miller at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.
** HAMAS MORTAR CELL LEADER TARGETED AS ISRAEL STEPS UP EFFORTS TO PREVENT ROCKET
ATTACKS
** SHARON TO U.S.: FINANCIAL PRESSURE ON PA WILL HELP FIGHT TERROR
** STUDY REVEALS ISRAELI ARAB, JEWISH CHILDREN AS LIKELY TO RECEIVE KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
** OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
** ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
An Israeli
man was killed and his pregnant wife suffered moderate wounds in a shooting
attack today, east of the West Bank city of Ramallah, HA’ARETZ reported. Shalom
Hamelech, 25, from the West Bank community of Homesh and his wife, Limor, who
is in her seventh month of pregnancy, were at the Alon intersection when Palestinian
gunmen ambushed them. The attack took place near the West Bank community of
Kochav Hashachar. Limor was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Doctors
described her wounds as moderate and said she had not lost the baby.
Pinhas Wallerstein, an official from their community, said, "they had driven to his parents and dropped off their 14-month-old baby just 10 minutes earlier, and then headed off for a holiday weekend." The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. Rescue personnel who arrived at the scene found the man with critical injuries, but attempts to resuscitate him failed. According to Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, Palestinian sources were quoted as saying that Palestinian Authority security forces were searching for the gunmen.
HAMAS
MORTAR CELL LEADER TARGETED AS ISRAEL STEPS UP EFFORTS TO PREVENT ROCKET ATTACKS
Hamzi Kalah, the head
of a Hamas cell responsible for launching mortar attacks in the Gush Katif area,
was killed Thursday night in Khan Yunis in a pinpoint strike carried by an Israel
Air Force helicopter, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The operation followed intelligence
information that Kalah’s cell was preparing to launch a mortar attack. It came
hours after a Qassam rocket hit Ashkelon’s southern industrial zone – the northernmost
point in Israeli territory to have ever been hit in a rocket attack. The operation
against Kalah, 35, the leader of Hamas’s military wing, Izzadin El Kassam in
Gaza’s Khan Yunis, is the fourth preemptive strike this week against the Palestinian
terror infrastructure in Gaza. The security establishment indicated such pinpoint
operations represent the most effective measure against Hamas in Gaza.
Following the Qassam rocket fire against Ashkelon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to take "all necessary steps" against Palestinian terrorists. "Today (brought) another escalation in the terrorist activity of the Hamas movement when for the first time, they launched a rocket into a town in the southern part of the country, Ashkelon, making an effort to hit a strategic target that is one of our largest power stations," Sharon said. "I have instructed the minister of defense to take all necessary steps to avoid such actions in the future," he added. Four rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, one of which landed in Ashkelon’s southern industrial zone. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Meanwhile, IDF troops, backed by tanks, entered Beit Hanoun today to uproot trees which serve as cover for Palestinian terrorists to fire Qassam rockets. Also today, shots were fired at a bus traveling near the town of Netzarim in Gaza and a mortar landed in a Gaza community. No injuries or damage were reported in either incident.
SHARON
TO U.S.: FINANCIAL PRESSURE ON PA WILL HELP FIGHT TERROR
Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon said that United States should pressure the Palestinians financially
in order to make the Palestinian Authority dismantle terror infrastructure,
HA’ARETZ reported. Sharon, talking to Republican congressmen Thursday night,
said that the U.S. should also pressure Syria to stop transferring aid to terrorists.
He added that Europe needed to declare Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terror organizations
in order to stop the flow of funds to these groups.
Meanwhile, the United States is pressing Israel to make "positive"gestures toward the Palestinians along with the military measures it is taking against terrorism.
In other diplomatic news, Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom said today that Iran was likely to reach the point of no return for nuclear capability within one year and called on Russia to stop providing assistance, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. Shalom made the comments to Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Yuri Federtov who is visiting Israel. A nuclear capable Iran would change the strategic balance in the region, Shalom added. The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran had shopped for nuclear components on the international black market and called on Tehran to be more "proactive" and "transparent."
STUDY
REVEALS ISRAELI ARAB, JEWISH CHILDREN AS LIKELY TO RECEIVE KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
Pediatric nephrologist
Professor Alfred Drukker and colleagues at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital
found that Israeli Arab children with end-stage kidney disease are as likely
to receive cadaver kidneys as their Jewish peers, THE JERUSALEM POST reported.
The study, published in the latest issue of Pediatrics, reported that from 1990-2000,
Arab Israeli children received 66 kidneys from cadavers and Jewish children
received 64. The waiting times for a kidney and the long-term outcome of surgery
was identical for both Jewish and Arab children.
The Shaare Zedek team noted that studies carried out in the United States and other countries had shown that minority groups in those places had significantly lower rates of kidney transplantation compared to the population’s majority. This is apparently due to reduced access to medical care for minorities. However, in Israel, which has a system of universal health insurance, transplant surgery is covered by health funds and candidates for transplants are selected by computers setting priorities on the basis of objective data.
The study also revealed that Arab Israeli children were on average far more likely to need a kidney transplant than their Jewish counterparts, due to the Arab phenomenon of consanguinity (inbreeding), in which congenital diseases occur because first cousins marry.
OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
The Palestinian Authority said Thursday it had frozen the bank accounts of nine Islamic charities to investigate whether they funnel money to terrorists, as part of a clampdown on armed groups sought by the United States, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The order to shut down 39 accounts of nine charities was issued by the Palestinian Monetary Authority on Sunday. The move came to light Thursday, when hundreds of Palestinians relying on welfare payments from charities tried to pick up their monthly support checks at banks in Gaza City. The banks turned them away, saying the accounts were blocked. Dore Gold, an Israeli government spokesman, welcomed the freezing of funds. "There have been charities that Israel has long suspected of being front organizations for Hamas," he said. "Anything that serves this need [of stopping the flow of money] is a positive development."
The yearly Love Parade’s
celebrations started in Tel Aviv on Thursday with the sponsorship of the city’s
Municipality, Music Plus and Gold Media, MA’ARIV reported. The weekend programming
started with a unique concert entitled "Symphony of Love". Organized
by the Dome Club, the concert featured 50 symphony orchestra musicians who cooperated
with DJ Vick to perform classical pieces played with electronic and house music
arrangements. The Love Parade itself is taking place today in the streets of
Tel Aviv and will end with beach parties.
ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS
U.S. company MEMSCAP announced today that it had acquired Israeli start-up GalayOr Networks, GLOBES reported. MEMSCAP develops MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) solutions, and GalayOr develops optical components. MEMSCAP will issue to GalayOr shareholders 19.5 million shares, currently worth $10 million. Subject to GalayOr meeting revenue targets, MEMSCAP will issue 11.6 million additional shares, currently worth $6 million. At the end of the process, GalayOr shareholders will own a third of the merged company. MEMSCAP stated all GalayOr employees would stay on in Israel, effectively becoming its R&D center. After the deal is completed, MEMSCAP will launch a large-scale hiring campaign for the center.
Today’s Israel Line was prepared by Adina Kay, Arielle Bernstein and Victor Chemtob at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.
