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** Palestinian
Gunman Kills 5-Including Two Children, at Kibbutz Metzer
** IDF Poised to Begin Operations in Nablus and Tulkarem
** Yisrael Beiteinu, Moledet and Tekuma Parties
Unite; Likud Convention Begins
** Terror Expert Professor Ehud Sprinzak Dies
at 62
** Israeli Precedent: Researchers Transform Bone
Marrow Cells into Bone Cells
** Economic Briefs
Palestinian Gunman Kills 5-Including Two Children, at Kibbutz Metzer
Five Israelis including two children were killed on Sunday night by a Palestinian gunman in a shooting attack at Kibbutz Metzer, HA’ARETZ reported. Three members of the Ohayoun family were killed – Revital, 34, and her sons, Matan, 5, and Noam, 4. Two other victims, Yitzhak Dori, 44, the secretary of the kibbutz, and Tirza Damari, 42, of Moshav Elyachin, were laid to rest on Monday.
According to THE JERUSALEM POST, Revital Ohayon, was reading her sons Matan, and Noam a bedtime story on Sunday night, when a Fatah terrorist broke into their home. Revital jumped in front of the children to protect them, but he shot all three dead. Kibbutz Coordinator Doron Libber said that the terrorist then went outside and encountered a member of the kibbutz who was walking with his girlfriend, and shot and killed her. Her boyfriend managed to get away. The fifth victim was shot in his car. He had come from his home and managed to fire several shots at the terrorist. "He fled toward our fields which are relatively dark and disappeared. Police and special forces as well as our stand-by unit conducted searches throughout the night," Libber said.
Fatah’s Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Metzer is situated just over the Green Line from Jenin and renowned for peaceful coexistence with its Arab neighbors. The terrorist, who had apparently observed the kibbutz before infiltrating, managed to escape. "We don’t have an electronic fence, just a regular one, and he apparently got through that," Libber said.
The search for the perpetrator continued at daybreak when residents who had been ordered to stay indoors throughout the night were allowed outside. There were no signs of the terrorist’s presence on the Kibbutz.
IDF Poised to Begin Operations in Nablus and Tulkarem
The Security Cabinet decided on Monday afternoon to move Israel Defense Forces into Nablus and Tulkarem in the wake of the attack on Sunday night at Kibbutz Metzer, in which two Israeli children and three adults were killed by a terrorist infiltrator, HA’ARETZ reported. According to Israeli security officials, the operation in Nablus had been planned for a few weeks earlier as the Hamas and Fatah terrorist networks in Nablus have been responsible for a series of attacks against Israelis over the past few months, including those at Immanuel, Ariel and Kfar Saba. At least five other suicide bombings, planned in Nablus, have been thwarted by Israeli security forces in the past few weeks. The decision to move into Tulkarem came after it became clear to Israeli officials that the Fatah gunman responsible for the Metzer attack, had come from there.
The armed wing of the Fatah took responsibility on Monday for the attack in Metzer. Late Sunday night, an anonymous caller telephoned Agence France Presse to say that the Al-Aqsa Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, had carried out the attack on the kibbutz. The Palestinian Authority condemned the terror attack on Monday and Arafat said he was forming a committee of inquiry over the incident. Senior sources in the Fatah admitted that the target of the attack had been "a mistake."
Yisrael Beiteinu, Moledet and Tekuma Parties Unite; Likud Convention Begins
Yisrael Beiteinu, Moledet and Tekuma reached an agreement today to establish a united list for the January 28 Knesset elections, HA’ARETZ reported. Party leaders are expected to announce their decision on Wednesday. The name of the united party list has not yet been decided. According to Moledet members, the leaders agreed to include the transfer concept in the party’s platform and that the name Moledet would be part of the united party’s name.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman met this morning with NRP chairman Effi Eitam in an attempt to unite the entire right-wing bloc. The factions are awaiting the results of a specially-commissioned survey designed to test the potential popularity of the united bloc in the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon both gave speeches at the Likud convention today. Netanyahu announced that his party was heading for a "big win" in the elections in January, while Sharon began his address by expressing his disappointment in the fall of the national unity government. He also vowed that Israel would continue to fight terror, and with God’s help, defeat it.
The election of a new Likud party chairman is one of the main issues on the convention agenda. Sharon and Netanyahu, however, have reached a compromise solution whereby two people will be elected temporarily to the post for technical purposes – MK Yisrael Katz, who is close to Netanyahu, and Uri Shani, the former head of the prime minister’s bureau and a Sharon confidante.
Meanwhile, the 2,700 convention delegates will be asked to approve November 28 as the date for the Likud leadership primary – also already agreed on by Sharon and Netanyahu – as well as December 8 as the date for electing the Likud’s Knesset list. The delegates will also be asked to approve the party’s election committee.
Terror Expert Professor Ehud Sprinzak Dies at 62
Professor Ehud Sprinzak, a counter terrorism expert and adviser to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, died on Friday afternoon of cancer at the age of 62, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Sprinzak was a world-renowned expert on terrorism, extremist politics, and the radical right in Israel. He was also the Founding Dean of the Lauder School of Government at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herziliya. Sprinzak was also Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he taught for thirty years.
As Dean at the IDC, Sprinzak worked actively to encourage and train a new young leadership for Israeli society through innovative programming. He was also among the initiators of the annual "Herziliya Conference on the Balance of National Strength and Security."
The President of the Interdisciplinary Center Uriel Reichman remembered Sprinzak as "a dear friend and an academic leader." "Within two years, he established the Lauder School of Government, which is unique in Israeli academia. His students loved him and accompanied him on educational and communal missions throughout the country. His enthusiasm infected us all. Ehud was totally devoted to the task of preparing future leadership, and to Israeli society," Reichman said.
Sprinzak is survived by his wife, four children, two grandchildren, and his mother.
Israeli Precedent: Researchers Transform Bone Marrow Cells into Bone Cells
Researchers from the National Bone Marrow Transplantation Center at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem succeeded in transforming bone marrow cells into bone cells, MA’ARIV reported. This is the first time that such a project has succeeded. The next step will be to transform the bone marrow cells into liver cells.
At an international conference concerning fetuses held on Monday, Professor Shimon Slavin, Head of the Bone Marrow Transplant Department, revealed that that transformation of the cells was made possible because of a first of its kind approval given by the Ministry of Health.
* One of the hottest fields in the slumbering semiconductor market is the integrated microprocessor, consisting of a processor, peripheral circuits, memory and communications on a single chip, GLOBES reported. Motorola recently presented its tPowerQICC lll series, developed in Israel. The integration of a complete system onto a single microprocessor saves production costs, improves communications equipment reliability, ensures compactness and saves energy, all of which are important factors in equipping communications centers.
* The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Investment Center has approved Intel Corp’s request for an investment grant toward a $4 billion chip plant in Kiryat Gat, HA’ARETZ reported. If Intel decides to build the plant, the Government would provide a grant of 12.5 percent of up to $3.5 billion of the investment, the ministry said in a statement. The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Director-General Amir Hayek said the decision indicates that Intel and companies like it are wanted in Israel. "Israel is the natural place to set up advanced industries because of its skilled workforce, and the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit that characterizes our marketplace," he said.
** Father
Eulogizes Family Killed in Kibbutz Terror Attack
** IDF Moves Into Nablus In Response to New Wave of
Terror
** Mofaz: Evacuation of Settlement Outposts is Continual
** Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz speaking before the
Knesset
** Economic Briefs
Father Eulogizes Family Killed in Kibbutz Terror Attack
On Tuesday, Avi Ohayon buried his sons, Matan, 5, and Noam, 4, and their mother, Revital in the Tzur Shalom cemetery, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The three were murdered in the terrorist attack at Kibbutz Metzer. More than 3,000 people attended the funeral. The following are excerpts from Ohayon’s eulogy:
Last Friday I came to pick up my children. We played in their yard and they found a lizard. Matani, my darling, was afraid of the lizard, and Noam, my soul, was not afraid and played with the lizard with the neighbor. They played with the lizard, and the lizard, as lizards do, left its tail and ran away. It left them just with the tail. They were fascinated by what happened. They ran to their mother, who knows everything and gives them answers right away, and asked about the tail that stayed in their dish and kept moving, while the lizard disappeared.
So she explained them lizards have this talent, that when you catch their tails they cut them off, run away and grow a new tail. And now you went and left me, your tail, because I always was your tail, and I can not grow a new life, and my heart and my head and my eyes, everything was cut off in the part that I lost.
Revital, we are 34. We met when we were 16. Half a lifetime. Half a lifetime, from 16 to 34. Not half, it is a whole lifetime. From the first day we were soulmates. We went through a whole world together. We came back from the ends of the world and remet. Then we said we are just going around and around and looking for things that are not there. And that everything is staring us right in the face.
Matan wanted to have a picnic with me. There were two days off, we said we would have a picnic, we would go have a good time. But he said: "Daddy, let’s wait till it rains. We’ll have a picnic in the rain." How can a five-year-old, a romantic, want to have a picnic in the rain?
As the children were lowered into their graves, Ohayon placed a plastic bag containing pacifiers in Noam’s grave. He placed a bag containing Matan’s butterfly collection in his grave.
IDF Moves Into Nablus In Response to New Wave of Terror
Large contingents of Israel Defense Forces Paratroopers, Armored Corps and engineering units entered the West Bank city of Nablus early this morning as part of Israel’s response to the deadly terror attack at Kibbutz Metzer on Sunday night in which five Israelis were murdered, MAARIV reported. The army focused on the Kasbah market in the center of Nablus and on the nearby Balata refugee camp, where Hamas and Tanzim terrorists have resurrected their terror networks. The Nablus operation is the largest IDF operation in the city since Operation Defensive Shield in April. Though the terrorist gunman who perpetrated the Kibbutz Metzer attack is believed to have been sent by a Tulkarem-based Tanzim cell, intelligence reports indicated that Nablus is the source of most of the recent Palestinian terrorist efforts. At least ten Palestinians suspected of involvement in terror activities were arrested, while nearly 30 terror suspects were arrested during an additional IDF operation overnight in Bir Zeit, just north of Ramallah. Military officials said that during the course of the incursion, Palestinian gunmen sporadically opened fire on the Israeli troops, but no injuries were reported.
Mofaz: Evacuation of Settlement Outposts is Continual
Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz speaking before the Knesset today said that in the last month, the IDF dismantled 23 illegal outposts, and that before that they had evacuated 60 others, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL reported. Mofaz said that three outposts were currently being evacuated and that the Supreme Court was to decide on the fate of six others. Mofaz also added that the Israel Defense Forces is currently investigating the status of 35 other settlement outposts.
Meanwhile, according to the THE JERUSALEM POST, United States Middle East envoy and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, arrived in Jordan today for talks on Palestinian reform and plans to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Satterfield arrived from Israel and the Palestinian territories, where he tried to promote a US-backed plan for renewing peace talks and establishing a provisional Palestinian state by 2003.
Satterfield is expected to brief Jordanian King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Ali Abu-Ragheb on the plan later today and will be joined by his counterparts from the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, Norway, Japan, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank at the Thursday and Friday meetings of the International Task Force on Reform. A State Department spokesman in Washington said the task force would focus on efforts to advance Palestinian civil and institutional reforms "that make possible free, fair and credible Palestinian elections in early 2003."
Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz speaking before the Knesset
Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz speaking before the Knesset today said that in the last month, the IDF dismantled 23 illegal outposts, and that before that they had evacuated 60 others, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL reported. Mofaz said that three outposts were currently being evacuated and that the Supreme Court was to decide on the fate of six others. Mofaz also added that the Israel Defense Forces is currently investigating the status of 35 other settlement outposts.
Hundreds of Iron Age Philistine ceramic ritual objects were discovered by chance recently in an archaeological dig near Tel Aviv, MA’ARIV reported. Archaeologists said the items were apparently buried in a repository at the site due to their religious significance. The objects, dating from the 9th or 10th century B.C.E., were revealed during the course of an Israel Antiquities Authority "rescue" excavation of a site discovered during construction work in the Coastal Plain. "We don’t want to say exactly where, because we are afraid of antiquities robbers," said Antiquities Authority spokeswoman Osnat Guez after the archaeological find was announced on Monday. The items discovered include rare cultic stands, incense burners, clay cups, male and female figurines, and other figures in the form of oxen, lions, gazelles, and mythological beasts. Some have intricate inscriptions and red, black and white geometric patterns. A few of the cups were decorated by half male and half female. "This is an extremely rare find," said Dr. Raz Kalter, who is directing the excavations, said "Items like this have not previously been unearthed in Israel."
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Since the beginning of October 2002, 32 people have been killed in terror attacks, IDF RADIO, reported. The following is some demographic information about the victims: 11 security force personnel (4 of them women); 15 women (including three girls and two elderly women) and 7 children below the age of 18 were killed. Twenty-one of them were killed in the Sharon area; six were killed in the Samaria area; three were killed in the Gaza strip; one in the Judah area and one in the Gosh Dan area.
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* Delta Galil Industries, a provider of intimate apparel, reported that its net profit reached $6.6 million in the third quarter – a 52 percent increase from the same period last year, GLOBES reported. Third quarter revenue reached $151.9 million, 2 percent higher than in the comparable quarter of 2001. North America accounted for 57 percent of total third quarter sales, Europe for 37 percent and Israel for 6 percent. Delta chairman Dov Lautman noted, "Our success in North America and more specifically, in the mass market, is the direct result of our acquisition strategy. Ladies’ intimates continues to be a strong driver in this market and around the world." "Delta’s focus on North America and the mass market has expanded the diversity of our customer base and broadened the company’s production sources," Lautman added.
* Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Novartis AG wishes to bolster its operations in Israel, GLOBES reported.
Novartis deals in pharmaceutics, generic drugs, consumer health, and healthcare
for poor people and animals. Novartis, headquartered in Basel, operates
in 140 countries, including Israel, and had sales of $19.1 billion and
a $4.2 billion profit in 2001. Novartis senior VP and head of global search
and evaluation Dr. Paul Sekhri announced the company’s plans on a visit
to Israel last week. In August 2001, Sekhri set up a special committee,
which he heads, to search, evaluate, and locate licensing opportunities
for compounds, technologies, platforms, and corporate acquisitions.
** IDF
Catches Man Responsible for Metzer Attack
** Woman Sentenced for Aiding a Terrorist; Arab Israeli
Youth Surrenders
** Local Council Workers Strike Ends
** First Edition of Time Out Tel Aviv
Published
** Economic Briefs
IDF Catches Man Responsible for Metzer Attack
Elite Israel Defense Forces Commando troops caught Mohammed Naife in Tulkarem this morning, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade that security sources say is responsible for dispatching the gunman who killed five people at Kibutz Metzer Sunday night, YEDIOT AHARONOT reported.
The troops, who received intelligence about Naife’s whereabouts, surrounded a house in the West Bank village of Shweike, north of Tulkarem, and demanded that he surrender. Naife decided to surrender after the IDF declared, through mediator-organizations such as the UNESCO and B’Tzelem, that he would not be harmed.
Meanwhile, according to THE JERUSALEM POST, four Palestinian terror groups issued a severe warning to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday to refrain from stopping them from continuing attacks. The military communiqué was signed in Gaza by the Izzaddin al-Kassam Brigades (Hamas), al-Kuds Brigades (Islamic Jihad), Salah Eddin Brigades (Fatah), and Ahmed Abu Reesh Brigades (Fatah). It promises to launch more "resistance operations" despite calls to put an end to such attacks inside the Green Line.
Woman Sentenced for Aiding a Terrorist; Arab Israeli Youth Surrenders
The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Angelica Yusupov today to 18 years in prison for aiding in the attempted murder of an Israel Defense Forces officer and in the laying of two explosive devices in Tel Aviv, HA’ARETZ reported. Yusupov, a 23-year-old resident of Holon, was convicted of abetting her partner, Zeid Kiliani. Kiliani was sentenced to life in jail plus 40 years for planting the explosive devices, stabbing a police officer in the Carmel market, and killing one person and wounding several others with a car bomb at the Mei Ami junction.
Meanwhile, the Israel Security Agency and the Israel Police have charged today a sixteen-year-old Israeli Arab minor from Taibeh, who turned himself in to the security forces, with planning to carry out a homicide attack inside Israel. The youth told security officials that he had been recruited to carry out the attack by the military wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, and that he had met with Fatah activists in Kalkilya on several occasions, to receive instructions and training on how to carry out the attack. The youth said he turned himself in, because he feared that his intentions were too well known and that he would soon be arrested in any case.
Local Council Workers Strike Ends
One hundred thousand local, regional and religious council workers ended their nine-day strike on Wednesday night and returned to work this morning, MA’ARIV reported. Histadrut Secretary General Leon Morozovsky signed the agreement with delegates from the Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa municipalities, and from the Union of Local Authorities.
The agreement came after the sides solved the dispute about payment to council workers for the days they were on strike. Out of the nine-day strike, workers will lose one day’s pay and will forfeit four days from their annual vacation day total. In addition, workers will return hours lost during the four other strike days by working overtime hours on Fridays with no compensation. It was also agreed that the NIS 700 (approximately $156) increase that the Histadrut demanded will be met starting June 2003, and not retroactively from January 2001, as originally demanded.
In addition, a wage increase agreement ending the income and land tax workers strike was signed on Wednesday with the Ministry of Finance. The 3,400 tax workers will return to their jobs on Sunday morning.
First Edition of Time Out Tel Aviv Published
The first Hebrew edition of Time Out, the top-rated culture and entertainment magazine in the world, came out today in Tel Aviv, YEDIOT AHARONOT reported. Tel Aviv will become the third city in the world to distribute Time Out in its full capacity, joining London (first edition came out in 1968) and New York (1995). Time Out Tel Aviv has the same format of Time Out London and Time Out New York, and will cover all of the cultural and entertainment venues in Tel Aviv and its vicinities.
The magazine publisher is the Yuval Sigler Entrepreneurship, Media and Publishing Group, which received the exclusive rights to use the Time Out name, logo, format and content. The editor in chief is Ronit Haber, who will be in charge of 40 employees and tens of freelance writers and commentators. In the near future, Time Out Tel Aviv will also start publishing the popular Time Out guides in Hebrew, and will operate a Web site at: www.timeout.co.il.
* Israeli start-up
Power Paper, a provider of thin and flexible batteries, announced that
it has entered into an agreement with Hasbro, Inc. to provide the toy
giant with access to its technology for use in future lifestyle toys and
games, GLOBES reported.
Power Paper says its micro-power source technology enables product designers
in a number of areas to design the power source around the product, rather
than designing a product around the battery. The first of Hasbro’s micro-power-enabled
smart toys is expected to reach store shelves in 2003.
* Israeli start-up Rend Bend Software and U.S. software firm InstallShield Software Corporation launched their first joint product vBuild 1.0, which was designed for InstallShield’s popular installation program, GLOBES reported. Red Bend develops solutions that facilitate simple and efficient distribution of software updates over any electronic channel, including the Internet, e-mail, and cellular communications. InstallShield is the world’s leading company in software distribution and installation.
