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1. Netanyahu in Germany: We Must Stop Evil in Due Time
by Avraham Zuroff
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received on Thursday in Germany 29 sketches of the Auschwitz death camp and declared, "We cannot allow evil to cause massive death. We must stop evil in due time.”
In a clear reference to Iran, he added, "There is a connection between despotism and terrorism, between freedom and peace. … Military barbarism knows no limits. We must prevent the spread of these armies on time so that humanity can be saved."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated several times that the State of Israel should be“ wiped out” and is advancing Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel and much of the Western world fears will enable the Islamic Republic to build a nuclear warhead to be aimed at Israel.
Ahmadinejad also is a leader in the movement to deny that the Nazi regime butchered six million Jews.
In a ceremony at the newsroom of the Berlin newspaper Bild, where the Prime Minister received the blueprints to be turned over to the Yad VaShem memorial museum, he added, “World leaders must act in time to avoid the fate of the Holocaust victims. We cannot allow those who are looking to cause mass death and threaten the Jewish State.”
The Bild newspaper was among those who purchased the blueprints and published their existence after an unidentified person found them last year in a Berlin apartment.
Yad VaShem chairman Avner Shalev and director of its archives, Chaim Gertner, were present at ceremony where the Bild publisher handed the documents to the prime minister.
The blueprints will be displayed at Yad VaShem in January 2010, marking 65 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. “As original plans detailing the construction of Auschwitz, where some one million Jews were murdered, these documents have great historical significance,” Shalev remarked. “They constitute concrete illustrations of the Germans’ systematic effort to carry out the ‘Final Solution’”, Shalev added, stating that the documents would be made available to researchers for years to come. The documents will be added to Yad VaShem’s archives, which currently holds over 125 million pages of Holocaust records.
The architectural plans, drawn on a 1:100 scale, show the addition of a gas chamber and crematorium, and a plan for a building to contain the corpses of the murdered Jews.
More than a million Jews and others deemed “sub-humans” by the Nazi regime were murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps during the Holocaust.
Netanyahu is expected later in the day to visit the villa on the Wannsee Lake outside of Berlin, where Nazis adopted in January 1942 the “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,” Germany’s plans for the extermination of Jews throughout the world.
The prime minister is culminating his visit with European leaders on Thursday, where he discussed Israel’s position on construction within Judea and Samaria and its delicate security situation, which he said could not be compromised in a final peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
2. Germany is Iran's Largest Trading Partner
by Yechezkel Laing
On the eve of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Germany, embarrassing figures have emerged about Germany and Iran. While German chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out against economic ties with Iran, statistics show that Germany has become Iran's largest trading partner.
Germany's Federal Statistical Office has released data showing exports to Iran increased 10 percent in 2008. Germany's exports to Iran reached $6 billion in 2008, close to the record it set in 2004 and 2005.
On November 27, 2008, German and Iranian business leaders began a conference in Hamburg called “Iran Sanctions: Practical Consequence for German Firms.” The purpose of the conference was to improve German business relations in Iran as well as the German and Iranian political relationship. Angela Merkel's own administration has subsidized investments in Iran by providing German firms with $400 million in credit guarantees.
Meanwhile, on June 8, 2009, German petrochemical company Basell Polyolefine signed a $1.3 billion trade deal with Iran to supply technology to build three plants involving synthetic and plastic material.
New reports also suggest that the Iranian regime is using technology obtained from Siemens, the German energy and engineering giant, and its partner, the Finnish communications firm Nokia, to crack down on internet access, cell phone use, and Twitter accounts of protesters and dissidents.
3. Netanyahu-Mitchell Talks End, More Planned
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell concluded discussions lasting several hours Wednesday afternoon in London, without any formal agreement on American demands.
The Obama administration wants Israel to stop all building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, a move that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has said is a condition for resumption of direct negotiations with Israel.
The London talks apparently paved the way for more talk, next time with Abbas, who said in Ramallah that he is open to a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu when they attend the opening of the General Assembly at the United Nations next month.
After the meeting in London, both leaders continued to present optimistic statements about “progress” towards a resumption of direct PA-Israeli negotiations, which in effect have been conducted with the United States as a proxy for the PA. The discussions between Mitchell and the Israeli leader are a continuation of American attempts to keep all sides talking, despite statements from both sides that seem to make any agreement impossible.
However, Abbas said in Ramallah on Wednesday that there may be talks but not any negotiations, adding that he is “determined to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital,” without letting Israel exercise sovereignty over any land that was restored to the Jewish State in 1967.
Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated Tuesday that Israel will not give up sovereignty over Jerusalem and will not stop all construction. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, in an interview with the London Times, said that the PA will be a de facto state within two years, regardless of Israel’s position.
Both he and Abbas have refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a condition that Prime Minister Netanyahu has said is a necessity for an agreement.
Following the four-hour meeting in London, Prime Minister Netanyahu boarded a plane for Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, set for Thursday.
4. Jewish Growth Continues in Eastern Jerusalem
by Hillel Fendel
The leftist organization Ir Amim (City of Nations) has some good news for Land of Israel-oriented Jews: 150 new housing units were “advanced” in the first half of 2009 in strategic locations in eastern Jerusalem.
Ir Amim released a report to this effect on Thursday morning. In addition to the 150 units slated to house some 750 Jews, the report documents “progress” on public construction such as synagogues, mikvaot (ritual baths) and cultural centers.
“Progress” in this context does not necessarily mean that the plans were approved, but Ir Amim director Yehudit Oppenheimer is concerned that the growth of Jewish presence to the north, east and south of the Old City will “thwart any chance of reaching a peace agreement.”
The report states that most of the activity towards increasing Jewish presence in these areas is carried out by private organizations such as Elad (the City of David association) and Ateret Cohanim. However, “it is part of a strategic approach done in coordination with the various governmental authorities, such as the Municipality of Jerusalem.”
Ir Amim “warns” that additional Jewish purchases of land in “sensitive” areas - such as Samir Amis and Beit Hanina in northern Jerusalem, as well as Jabel Mukabar, the Moslem quarter of the Old City, and elsewhere - may have been recently carried out.
One-Quarter of City of David: Jewish
The Ir David (City of David) area is located just below and to the south of the Temple Mount/Western Wall area, and was the site of the Jewish city of Jerusalem during the time of King David. Another recent report by Ir Amim indicated that though no Jews lived there before 1991, the situation today is very different: Approximately a quarter of the entire area is lived in or owned by Jews.
Future plans, not yet approved, call for the construction of an archaeological-tourism park and Jewish housing in much of Ir David.
5. Mortar Attack on Western Negev
by Hana Levi Julian
Palestinian Authority terrorists in northern Gaza fired a mortar shell Thursday at a kibbutz in the Sha'ar HaNegev region of the western Negev. No one was injured in the attack, which was aimed at workers in the agricultural fields of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, located near the security fence.
A search for the mortar shell launched immediately after the explosion eventually found the projectile had not made it past the barrier, and no damage was reported.
The Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council area is located midway between Be'er Sheva and Ashkelon and is bound on the west by Gaza. More than 6,000 Jews live in the region, which is home to 10 kibbutzim, one moshav, a family-owned farm and a village for immigrant students.
Kibbutz Nahal Oz, or "Mighty Stream", was founded in 1951 as the first of the Nahal settlements, initially as a Nahal outpost and then recognized in 1953 as kibbutz by the United Kibbutz movement. Home to some 90 families, the community is located near the southern Israeli cities of Sderot and Netivot. The kibbutz produces various metal items as well as hi-tech security cameras, in addition to its field crops and livestock.
6. Call to Turn Gush Katif Ruins into Buffer Zone
by Gil Ronen
Deputy Minister for the Development of the Galilee and Negev Ayoub Kara (Likud) called Wednesday upon the government to turn the ruins of the Gush Katif communities in Gaza into a buffer zone between Israel and Gaza. He spoke on a tour of Shaar HaNegev Council which borders on Gaza.
Kara -- a Druze -- is considered to be one of the Likud's most solidly hawkish members. Earlier this month he visited the Gush Katif Museum with former governor Mike Huckabee during the American politician's tour of Israel and the two agreed that sometimes it takes non-Jews like them to be "more Jewish than the Jews."
Arabs 'waiting for the right moment'
Also during Wednesday's tour, Shaar HaNegev Regional Council head Alon Shuster told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service that the area's residents are aware of the possibility that the security situation might escalate.
“It is true that in the last six months there has been a decrease in the number of missiles which struck the area,” he said. “But on the other hand there is a meaningful spike in the attempts to lay explosive devices on the roads in order to harm our soldiers, which only proves that on the other side they continue to build up their ammunition and missile arsenal. They are only waiting for the right moment, and we are preparing for a possible escalation...”
To read the rest of this important story, click here!
7. Report: Americans in Egypt to Destroy Gaza Tunnels
by Maayana Miskin
A delegation of experts from the United States is in Egypt to help wage war on Gaza smuggling tunnels, according to an anonymous Egyptian official quoted by the Arab media outlet Ma'an. The delegation landed in El-Arish on Tuesday, he said.
The experts are now on the Egyptian side of the border town of Rafiah. They are under heavy guard, the source reported.
Among the experts are U.S. military officers, who are in the region under the auspices of an American program that provides military aid to Egypt.
The delegates met with Egyptian military experts, who detailed the steps they are currently taking in order to locate and destroy smuggling tunnels under the city. After hearing from the Egyptians, the Americans proposed further steps that could be taken to prevent smuggling, with American aid.
The steps would be funded by the U.S. -- the American Congress has already voted to approve an aid package to Egypt to be used along the narrow Gaza-Egypt border.
Gaza residents have built hundreds of tunnels under the 3.5-kilometer strip of land connecting Gaza to Egypt. The tunnels are used to smuggle in both black-market goods and weapons. The weapons, including bombs, rockets, and according to some, anti-aircraft missiles, are then passed along to various local terrorist groups.
Israel destroyed many of the tunnels during the three week long Cast Lead counterterror offensive in Gaza. However, tunnel operators began rebuilding shortly after the operation concluded, and they claim to have restored their tunnel system to what it was prior to Cast Lead.
After largely ignoring Rafiah's tunnels for months, Israel bombed one tunnel on Tuesday in response to a mortar shell attack the day before. Three smugglers were reportedly killed in the strike.
