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1. Jews Flout Obama, Lay Cornerstone for E. Jerusalem Homes
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Developers of a new Jewish neighborhood on privately-owned land in eastern Jerusalem plan to lay the cornerstone for the project Wednesday afternoon, ignoring U.S. President Barack Obama’s opposition to Jewish “settlers" in the area. Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and National Union Knesset Member Uri Ariel plan to be on hand for the ceremony which marks the development of 105 luxury units in Nof Tzion. A new Torah scroll also will be dedicated.
The project is located in the Jabel Mukabar neighborhood, home to several terrorists with Israeli identity cards who have carried out murderous attacks on Israelis, including the murder of eight students at the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva last year. Police are deployed to prevent violence that has spread throughout eastern Jerusalem this week.
The new development project is the second stage of the Nof Tzion neighborhood and “is the best answer to incitement and violence from extremist elements,” according to the Im Tirtzu (If You Will It) organization. Ninety-one residential units already have been built, and most of them have been sold.
The new development of Nof Tzion, which literally means View of Zion, will extend to Armon HaNatziv in eastern Talpiot. The master plan calls for nearly 500 apartment units, two synagogues, community and educational facilities and a mall.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has rejected President Obama’s demand for a total freeze on building in eastern Jerusalem, saying the entire city is under the sovereignty of Israel. The United States and most Western nations regard all of Judea and Samaria, including many parts of Jerusalem, as Arab land that Israel “occupied” since the Six-Day War in 1967. Previously, Jordan occupied the same areas following the War of Independence in 1948, when the Arab world rejected the United Nations partition of the country, which at the time was ruled by the British Mandate.
2. US Poll: Support for Military Option against Iran 'If Necessary'
by Gil Ronen
Most Americans back the military option against Iran, if necessary, according to a new poll released on Tuesday, the same day that Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said that the United States is ready to impose tougher sanctions against Iran if international negotiations over its nuclear weapons program fail.
"This administration has demonstrated that it is committed to a diplomatic resolution of the international community's issues with Iran," Levey told the Senate Banking Committee.
"The world is now united in looking to Iran for a response. If Iran does not live up to its obligations in this process, it alone will bear the responsibility for that outcome," the senior official explained. "Under these circumstances, the United States would be obliged to turn to strengthened sanctions."
Levey, who is the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said: "We are intensifying work with our allies and other partners to ensure that, if we must go down this path, we will do so with as much international support as possible. We will now wait to see whether Iran follows its constructive words with concrete action. If it does not, and if the president determines that additional measures are necessary, we will be ready to take action, ideally with our international partners."
"We will need to impose measures simultaneously in many different forms in order to be effective," he said.
Preparing legislation
The Banking Committee's chairman, Senator Christopher Dodd (D), said he was strongly in favor of increasing pressure on Tehran, and said he was preparing "comprehensive sanctions legislation.”
"I am committed to ensuring that this Congress equips President Obama with all the tools he needs to confront the threats posed by Iran," he said. The draft of the Senate bill would place new sanctions on companies exporting refined petroleum products to Iran.
However, a top energy official in Iran said Tuesday that his country can defeat any gasoline sanctions the U.S. imposes. “If for any reason we are short of gasoline, we will move from one region to another, from one refinery to another,” said Hojatollah Ghanimifard, vice president at the National Iranian Oil Company.
Most Americans support military strike
A majority of Americans doubt that diplomacy with Iran will succeed in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. They think the U.S. should strike Iran militarily if that is the only way to prevent its acquisition of nuclear weapons.
A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey released Tuesday determined that 61 percent of Americans would support a military strike in order to prevent Iran's from arming itself with nuclear weapons. Twenty-four percent said it was more important to avoid conflict even if that means Iran would end up building nuclear arms.
While 63 percent supported direct U.S. negotiations with Iran, 64 percent said such efforts would not succeed.
3. Ministers: 'Outlaw Islamic Movement!'
by Hillel Fendel
Following the brief arrest on Tuesday of Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement Northern Branch, for incitement, at least two government ministers say that Salah’s entire movement should be outlawed.
Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom of the Likud sent a letter to Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser, asking that the next Cabinet meeting include this issue on its agenda.
The Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel was founded in 1996 as a result of a split with the original, more moderate, Islamic Movement. Its motto is: “Allah is our goal, the prophet [Muham is our leader, the Koran is our law, Jihad [religious wa is our way – and death in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
Though the organization is located in Israel, it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. It does use Israeli services for local purposes, however.
Shalom: We're Sovereign in Jerusalem
“It’s time we remind everyone that we are the sovereign in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount,” according to Minister Shalom. “The Prosecution and the police must stop the Palestinian take-over of Jerusalem, and must act with full force against the Islamic Movement’s wild incitement. There are times when the gloves must be taken off… The Islamic Movement must be outlawed – immediately. The movement’s leaders must be arrested and placed behind bars for many years.”
Minister Uzi Landau (Israel Our Home), a former Public Security Minister, says that this week’s Arab riots in Jerusalem “demand that we implement a simple and clear policy against the Islamic Movement. In Ariel Sharon’s first government, Raed Salah was tried and sat in prison… If we show weakness towards him and towards other Arab imams who incite to violence, this will bring upon us even worse riots in the future.”
Salah's Deputy: "Ethiopian Negro Won't Stop Moslem from Praying on Temple Mount"
Salah’s deputy, Camel Hatib, who has been termed a “dangerous man” by former Northern District Police Chief Alik Ron, is also in Israel sights.
MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) wrote to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, asking that an investigation be opened against Hatib for incitement to racism and violence. Hatib, interviewed on Army Radio, said, “The Al-Aksa Mosque and the Temple Mount are not holy to Jews and they are forbidden from praying there... It cannot be that an Ethiopian policeman, a Negro, will stop a Moslem from praying at the Al-Aksa Mosque.”
Salah Kept Out of Jerusalem
Sheikh Salah, head of the Northern Branch, was arrested in the Wadi Joz neighborhood of Jerusalem on Tuesday on charges of incitement and sedition against the State. The police asked that Salah, a resident of Umm el-Fahm in the southern Galilee, be detained for five days or kept under house arrest in his hometown. However, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ordered him released almost immediately, with the caveat that he not enter Jerusalem for the next month.
Police sources put on a brave front, saying the goal was to keep him out of Jerusalem and “show the inciters that Israel is a country of law.”
4. One Hundred Arabs Stone Police in Jerusalem
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Approximately 100 Arabs rioted in a Jewish neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem early Tuesday evening, injuring one officer and trying to blockade the main artery in the area. The police officers dispersed rioters in the Maaleh Har HaZeitim (Ras al-Amud) neighborhood.
The latest violence occurred several hours after Palestinian Authority senior negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of “sparking a fire, deliberately escalating tensions…instead of taking steps to placate the situation.”
In a separate incident, Arab terrorists attempted to cause fatal traffic crashes by throwing rocks and damaged a bus on the highway near Kalkilya, adjacent to Kfar Saba. No one was injured. Several hours earlier, approximately 70,000 Jewish marchers, protected by thousands of police officers, concluded the annual Sukkot parade in Jerusalem without incident.
Tension in Jerusalem has escalated during the Jewish holiday season, when tens of thousands of Jews from Israel and abroad visit the Western Wall (Kotel), the outer wall of the Temple Mount compound and the capital itself, which is the holiest Jewish city in the world. Muslim leaders have repeated allegations that Jews are planning to “take over” the Al-Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount, which they allege includes the area of the Western Wall.
Along with Erakat’s blaming Israel for the tension, Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raad Salah continued to call on Arabs “to defend” the Temple Mount. Several leading political leaders, including Yisrael Beiteinu Minister Uzi Landau, demanded that the police arrest Salah for incitement. He has been charged several times and has been convicted for inciting violence.
Most analysts have tried to calm fears that a “Third Intifada” is imminent, but there has been no relaxation in Arab rhetoric. PA leaders said they would “confront Israel” diplomatically and would use “legal means to protect our people and to confront Israel and its plan to thwart any efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital."
Mohammed Dahlan, former Fatah strongman in Gaza, now ruled by Hamas, accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of trying “to blow up the situation in Jerusalem to evade negotiations." He charged that "Israel tries to impose a de facto situation in Jerusalem by these aggressions in a continued plan to isolate the city from” Judea and Samaria, which the PA and international media refer to as the West Bank.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat commented Tuesday that the Arab riots “are specific events, stemming from centers of violence,” which have to be isolated.
Arab tempers flared Monday night after Jerusalem Police Chief Aharon Franco accused Arabs of being “ungrateful” by rioting after law enforcement officers preserved the peace during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in August.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said Tuesday, “The State of Israel is the sovereign in Jerusalem and there is no force that can limit it in the eternal, united capital of the Jewish people. Anti-Jewish preaching from within the country or from abroad cannot undermine nor loosen the connection between the People of Israel and their capital, and the need to strengthen and develop the city.”
Related articles: PA Fears Jewish Jerusalem
Heavy Security for Jerusalem March
5. Israeli, 2 Americans Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry
by Zalman Nelson
Ada Yonath of Israel and Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for "studies of the structure of the ribosome” which translates the DNA code into life.
According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the group’s work has been fundamental to the scientific understanding of life, and has helped researchers develop antibiotic cures for various diseases. The laureates successfully generated three-dimensional models that show how different antibiotics bind to ribosomes.
Yonath is only the fourth woman to win the chemistry Nobel Prize, and the first since 1964. The winners will split a $1.4 million purse, receive diplomas, and are invited to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of award founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.
“We are extremely proud of you," President Shimon Peres said in a phone conversation with Yonath on Wednesday. |It’s the first time that a researcher from the Weizman Institute has been awarded the Nobel Prize and I’m happy that in your merit the door has been opened to this award."
The chemistry award is the third Nobel Prize to be announced this year. On Monday, three American scientists shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells which inspired new research into cancer and aging. The physics prize went to three other Americans who created the technology behind digital photography and fiber-optic networks; Israeli Prof. Yakir Aharonov was nominated for the prize for his work in quantum mechanics, but did not win it.
The prize in literature and the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced later this week. Israeli author Amos Oz is believed to be a strong favorite to be honored in the literature division. Oz has written numerous novels on the peace process, which he strongly backs, and on life in Israel.
6. Court Orders Government to Dismantle, Rebuild Fence
by David Lev
The High Court issued a sharp condemnation of the State and ordered it to pay NIS 20,000 ($5,400) in court costs, for failing to fulfill a court order from three years ago demanding that portions of the security fence near the yishuv of Tzufim in Samaria be dismantled. The total cost of moving the sections of the fence in question will exceed $10 million, experts said.
The original court decision three years ago was made in response to a petition by residents of the Arab villages of Azzun and Nabi Elias located in the area, demanding that the eastern section of the fence, which in some places was built on land belonging to the villages, be dismantled.
The petition, first brought over four years ago, said that the sections of the fence were not built for security concerns, but in order to expand the Jewish town of Tzufim, which is east of Kalkilya. In addition, the villages complained that farmers were unable to get to land inside the fence, as the state had committed to enable them to do when the fence was first built.
The state, which had defended the need for the location of fence, did a sudden about-face, agreeing to dismantle portions of the fence around Tzufim and promising to do it within six months. Following the State's change of heart, the court issued an order demanding that the fence be dismantled when the case was concluded three years ago.
However, the Arab villages complained to the court that the State has dragged its feet on fulfilling the original court order. Attorneys for the Arab villages accused the State of "shaming the court by refusing to fulfill its orders." Only then was any action taken to begin dismantling the fence, a project that is still ongoing.
The court agreed with the Arab villages and on Tuesday reiterated its demand that the fence be dismantled immediately and rebuilt closer to the existing "building line" (the last row of houses currently in existence) in Tzufim.
At issue are some 650 (160 acres) dunams of land owned by local Arabs. The portion of the fence in question is about five kilometers long. According to experts, the cost for construction of the security fences is approximately $2 million per kilometer.
7. Anarchists Incite Arab-Jewish Clashes, Says Security Chief
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
The current olive harvest season in Judea and Samaria has raised the possibility of clashes between Arabs and Jews in groves adjacent to Jewish communities. However, the head of civilian security for the region says that confrontations are strictly a function of whether or not pro-Arab and anarchist activists are in the area.
Shlomo Vaknin, head of security for the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council, told Arutz Sheva radio on Tuesday that the olive harvest by Arab farmers takes place with no disruption as long as extremist activists do not interfere. "The integration of left-wing activists and anarchists in the olive harvest causes charged impulses and needless confrontations," Vaknin said. In recognition of their efforts to disrupt the peaceful harvest and cause provocations, he added, left-wing activists are being kept away from certain harvest areas by IDF forces.
As proof of his point, Vaknin cites last year's harvest period, which went almost completely smoothly after the IDF prevented activists from sparking confrontations near Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria. The residents of the Jewish communities, Vaknin claimed, behaved with great restraint in the face of provocations that occurred. "As far as I am concerned," Vaknin said, "the harvest concluded without any clashes between the two sides."
The IDF makes its security arrangements for the olive harvest period in complete coordination with the Judea and Samaria Jewish communities, with whom the ground rules for a peaceful harvest are determined, Vaknin explained. The IDF, the Civil Administration and the various security services assure Arab farmers access to their olive groves. For the most part, despite past instances of harvest time being used as an opportunity for pre-attack surveillance by terrorists, the IDF allows Arab farmers to collect their produce even in areas adjacent to many Jewish community perimeter fences. The objective of the defense establishment in such cases is to maintain, as much as possible, the daily life and routine of Arab farmers in Judea and Samaria.
According to Vaknin, the civilian security personnel in the Jewish communities are invited every year by IDF officials for discussions detailing clear rules of behavior during the olive harvest season. The issues raised are the exact borders of the Arab olive groves and what behavior is to be considered normal, and when there is a true security risk posed by the olive harvest.
