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1. Ship Carrying Iranian Terrorist Arms - Released
by Hillel Fendel
The ship captured on Tuesday and found to be carrying a very large terrorist weapons shipment has been released from the Ashdod port. The shipment of hundreds of tons of rockets and arms from Iran, headed for Hizbullah, was unloaded in Israel over the past two days.
Brig.-Gen. Rani Ben-Yehuda, head of the Israel Navy Staff, briefed reporters on “Operation Four Species” in which the ship was located and captured. A special commando unit boarded the ship on Tuesday night, in stormy weather, after Israeli intelligence tracked it for a number of days.
The IDF noted that the interception was carried out in accordance with international law, and the captain and 11 crew members offered no resistance. They were found to have been unaware of the nature of the cargo they were carrying. Hizbullah, for its part, denied any connection to the arms, and denounced "Israeli piracy."
The ship, Francop, is registered in Antigua, an island in the West Indies. It is now on its way “somewhere in the Mediterranean.”
“We found enough weapons on the ship to keep Hizbullah fighting for at least a month,” Ben-Yehuda said. “It was more than ten times the amount we found several years ago on the Karine-A ship,” he said, referring to the ship that held 83 cases, configurable to float at various distances below the ocean surface, carrying Katyusha rockets, mortars, anti-tank missiles, explosives, anti-tank mines, AK-47 assault rifles and other weapons.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has invited the ambassadors in Israel to come to Ashdod and view the tremendous quantity of weapons sent from Iran to Hizbullah, via Syria.
Emphasizing Iran’s role in equipping and supporting terrorism, Lieberman said, “This is more than a smoking gun - it’s a shooting gun – a gun that shoots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Gaza and southern Lebanon.”
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu similarly said in response to the ship’s capture, “It’s past time that the international community exert real pressure on Iran to stop this criminal activity and give backing to Israel when it defends itself from terrorists and their supporters.”
2. Israeli Ambassador to UN: Goldstone Report 'Born in Hate'
by Hana Levi Julian
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev had harsh words for the Goldstone Report on Wednesday, telling the U.N. General Assembly the document that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its counterterrorist operation in Gaza last winter had been "conceived in hate."
[weJe Email readers, please click here to view the video footage.
Defending Israel's right to protect itself from the constant barrage of rocket attacks that had emanated from Gaza for years prior to the counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead launched by the IDF on December 27, 2008, Shalev told the international body that the fact-finding mission that authored the report was a "politicized body with predetermined conclusions."
The committee led by retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone, she said, had from its inception been dispatched with a "öne-sided mandate" and had ended that mission with a report "conceived in hate and executed in sin."
If the document is endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Security Council, it may be advanced to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in accordance with the recommendations laid out in the report. If tehissues reaches the court, it will use the report as evidence in a trial against Israel and Israeli officials on charges of having committed war crimes and possibly on charges of having committed crimes against humanity during Operation Cast Lead.
Condolences for Victims of Terror - Elsewhere
Shalev began her address by conveying the condolences of the government and the people of Israel to the "most recent victims of terrorism"— more than 150 innocent men, women and children slaughtered in Baghdad by suicide terrorists – a sharp reminder that slaughter and terrorism has taken its toll in many places in the Middle East, not only in Israel.
"Our sorrow is with the more than 100 victims of the brutal terrorist attacks in Peshawar and Rawalpindi, Pakistan," she continued. "Our grief is with the families of the six United Nations employees – working in the name of peace – who were murdered by terrorists in Kabul [Afghanista," she told the General Assembly. Soldiers from the U.S. and other Western nations continue to be deployed in Iraq as well as Afghanistan; some areas of Pakistan have become harbors of safety for terrorists who launch attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.
UN 'Chose Again to Detach Itself'
"Yet… rather than confronting terrorism, the General Assembly chose again to detach itself from reality," Shalev lamented. "Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel. .
"This same Human Rights Council rejected any investigation regarding the constant firing of 12,000 rockets and mortarts by Hamas, over eights years, on towns and villages in Israel. The basic human rights of nearly one million Israeli citizens did not matter then. Are we now to believe that the Council's latest incarnation is honest, objective and fair?"
Israel's Vision of Peace
Shalev told the General Assembly, "Israel believes in a vision of peace. We believe in the vision established by the United Nations of two states for two peoples. But the Goldstone Report and this debate do not promote peace. They damage any effort to revitalize negotiations in our region. They deny Israel's right of self-defense."
Shalev underscored the need for a quid pro quo in any demand for Israel to make further concessions to the Palestinian Authority. "If Israel is asked to make concessions for peace we must be assured of the right to defend ourselves," she stated. "We must know that terrorists will not have impunity as they turn our gestures of peace into weapons of war."
3. Video: Goldstone Ignores Terror Victim Face-to-Face
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A doctor from Israel dramatically confronted United Nations Human Rights Council Judge Richard Goldstone with critical comments on his report’s accusations against Israel and its virtual disregard of her own testimony. He ignored most of her questions.
A video of the committee meeting, which took place several weeks ago, recently was released on video.
Dr. Mirela Siderer, an Israeli doctor who was brutally disfigured in 2008 by a Hamas rocket fired from Gaza into her Ashkelon medical clinic, asked him, “Where were you when Gaza [terrorist attacked my medical clinic in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law?”
Hamas terrorists traumatized southern Israel for eight years with thousands of rockets and mortars before Israel launched its three-week Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in late December 2008 and early January of this year. Judge Goldstone found Israel guilty of war crimes during the brief war. Since its conclusion, Hamas and allied terrorists have attacked Israel with more than 250 additional rockets and mortars.
The wounded doctor also wanted to know why Judge Goldstone ignored her testimony given during the commission’s fact-finding sessions. He ignored all of her questions, except after the following:
Dr.Siderer declared, “I feel so humiliated. I testified in good faith. You sent me a letter, ‘Your testimony is essential.' Why does my testimony appear only in passing? My name was mentioned once in parentheses in a technical context."
Judge Goldstone, searching for words, replied that he was sorry she felt bad and added succinctly, “She was referred to in the report.”
He did not reply to her complaints that Israeli victims were referred to in only two pages of the 576-page report. Dr. Siderer explained that “blood was everywhere: after the rocket exploded, wounding [he, a patient and 100 other people." She pointed out that she also treats Arab patients from Gaza.
“My life was changed forever,” she added. “Next month I will undergo my eighth operation."
Judge Goldstone also ignored other questions: “Why did you focus on my country’s response but not on the attacks that cause it?
“Why did you not tell me that this council judged Israel guilty in advance?
“Why did you not tell me that you and other commissioners signed public letters judging Israel in advance?
"Where was this council? Why were you all silent?”
4. Clinton: Netanyahu Offered to Stop All Construction
by Hillel Fendel
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the Netanyahu government has offered to end all settlement activity in Judea/Samaria, saying, "President Obama has gotten more before negotiations ever started out of Israel than anybody has ever gotten."
The Prime Minister's office has not yet commented.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking with a U.S. Congress-funded Arabic-language TV network in the Middle East on Wednesday, said that the Netanyahu government has offered to end all settlement activity in Judea/Samaria. “It would end permits, it would end approvals, it would end expropriation of land,” Clinton told the Al-Hurra network, adding, “It is not at all everything we would want, but for that government to do anything is unprecedented.”
Clinton repeated her call for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume talks with no pre-conditions – a call echoed by Netanyahu, but which PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has rejected as recently as this week. Abbas met with Clinton met in Abu Dhabi a few days ago, where he told her that her proposal was unacceptable.
Abbas has said that Israel must totally stop both “colonization” and demolition of illegal Arab structures as a “key” to resuming negotiations, and has even added that, “Without Jerusalem, there will be no peace.”
It is not clear what Netanyahu has actually offered Clinton in terms of Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. His office has not commented on the most recent reports.
The Arab world has been highly critical of the Obama Administration for accepting and praising Netanyahu’s willingness to restrict, but not freeze, Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. Clinton, however, attempted to downplay the issue, telling Al-Hurra that it had never been a demand in previous Israeli-Arab negotiations. “There have been numerous peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I know very well what happened in the 1990s with my husband and Yasser Arafat, how close everyone got,” Clinton said, referring to the Camp David talks that failed when Arafat refused then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s offer of 98 percent of Judea/Samaria. “And there was no demand or expectation that settlements would be dealt with before the entire negotiation.”
"Obama Has Gotten More Out of Israel Than Anyone Ever Did"
The same occurred in later talks between the Sharon and Olmert governments and Abbas, she said: “There was no demand about settlements… So President Obama has gotten more before negotiations ever started out of Israel than anybody has ever gotten, more than was ever asked for before. So I think everyone should take a deep breath and say, look, what is our goal here? Is our goal to end a few hundred settlements or a few thousand more units? Or is our goal a Palestinian state? And I think if we keep that in mind, we’ve actually made some progress along that way, even though not everybody is satisfied with it.”
Alhurra (Arabic for “The Free One”) is a commercial-free, Arabic-language satellite television network for the Middle East devoted primarily to news and information. It is operated by The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., which is financed by the American people via the U.S Congress.
5. 'In Next War, All Israel Will Be One Front'
by Gil Ronen
In the next war, missiles will rain down on all of Israel, Major General (ret.) Uzi Dayan, the former Head of Central Command and head of the National Security Council, told Arutz Sheva Wednesday. The discovery of the weapons shipment and the information provided Tuesday by Military Intelligence regarding a long range missile tested by Hamas prove yet again that in the next round of fighting, “all of Israel will be a single front,” he said.
“The IDF can chalk up a great achievement after using precise intelligence to take over a ship 200 km from Israeli territory,” Dayan said. He added sarcastically: “I think Judge Goldstone can write up another report against Israel, on how it dared to flout international law and take over a ship that was floating in international territorial waters, but we do not have to be concerned about that.”
Uzi Dayan / Israel news photo: Flash 90
“We need to protect ourselves because it is our basic right to live here. Whoever does not want to help us, let him at least be quiet when we defend ourselves,” he said.
Iran is continuing to beef up its outposts in the Middle East, Dayan explained. “The Iran-Syria axis continues to strengthen its northern outpost outside of Iran, the Hizbullah, and it wants to establish a similar array in Israel's south and we must not let that happen because then we will be in a complicated situation,” he warned.
The continued rearming of Hamas and Hizbullah stem from Israel's failures in the last wars, he added. “If you do not end a war with a military decision, then you need to continue to deal with the unsolved problem again and again. We should have brought Hizbullah to a collapse in the Second Lebanon War and we should have brought Hamas to a collapse in Cast Lead. We did not do that and now we have to deal with their continued rearming.”
6. Israeli Ambassador in Turkey Pelted with Eggs
by Hillel Fendel
Turkish police prevented a mob of students from breaking into a car carrying Israel’s Ambassador in Turkey, Gabi Levy. The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon in Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey.
Despite police efforts, the students succeeded in throwing eggs at Levy, who was unhurt.
Tensions between Turkey and Israel have risen dramatically over the past month, beginning when Turkey called off a joint military exercise with Israel and then held one with Syria. In addition, Turkey’s president has made some anti-Israel remarks, and even met with and praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad.
Turkish television recently broadcast a fictional series depicting IDF soldiers as cold-blooded murderers, prompting official protests from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Anti-Israel protests have been held in Turkey of late, featuring the burning of Israeli flags and the waving of Palestinian Authority flags.
Israeli Tolerance
Despite the above, the new Turkish Ambassador to Israel spoke this past Sunday to an Israeli audience in Be’er Sheva, nearly without incident. Marking the conquest of the Negev city from the Turks by Great Britain in 1917, Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol was interrupted only by two men carrying signs. The signs were addressed to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, and read, “Remember the Holocaust you [perpetrated upo the Armenian people!"
Before his speech, Ambassador Celikkol said there is no anti-Semitism in Turkey, and that “every relationship has its ups and downs; I am sure we can rehabilitate the relations between us."
7. Video: UN Sees the Good Side of Israel
by Yoni Kempinski
A United Nations officer's toddler, born with Down's Syndrome, stayed at Israeli Shalva center for a year. The experience did wonders for her - and did more for Israeli public relations than all of the efforts of the governement to counter the international community's growing anti-Israeli position.
Shalva is The Association for Mentally & Physically Challenged Children in Israel which provides services for children with special needs throughout Israel, along with intensive support for their families. Representatives of the United Nations gathered at the Shalva center in Jerusalem earlier this week for a unique and emotional event. The guests from the United Nations forces joined the staff of the institute as they said goodbye to Rachel, the daughter of staff Captain Gerry Casey of the U.N. Peacekeeping Division from Ireland
[weJe Email readers, please click here to view the video footage.
Captain Casey and his wife decided to serve in Israel primarily because the youngest of his four children – 16-month-old Rachel – was born with Down's syndrome and a severe heart defect, and the doctor in Ireland strongly urged Gerry and his wife Theresa to take her to a warm climate in order to heal.
When he came to check out a hospital in Jerusalem, he was told by a visiting patient that he was in the wrong place. "You want to go to Shalva. They are the specialists" he was told.
And now, a year since Rachel and her family became part of Shalva it's time to say goodbye. The U.N. captain came with his colleagues as well as the Irish ambassador to Israel
It was captain Gerry Casey himself who thought of the idea to invite members of the U.N. and diplomatic communities to see for themselves what Shalva is all about, Casey saw this as a way to open a door of opportunity for others who might want to come to Israel but are unaware of the available services for their children with special needs
Shalva and the Casey family sent out invitations and friends and colleagues, some of whom had to make unusual arrangements in order to come from Syria, Lebanon, Denmark, Jordon and Egypt, gathered to learn and support.
The staff of Shalva took the visitors on a tour through the center were they learned about the variety of services the center offers including hydrotherapy, massage therapy, speech training, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and multi-sensory work.
Rachel herself was part of a unique program called "Me & My Mommy", a special project which relies on parental partnership. Theresa, Rachel's mother, not only enjoyed Shalva's services throughout the year but she also will be returning to Ireland better equipped and greatly inspired by her Israeli experience.
The U.N. dignitaries, who don't regularly meet the positive side of Israel, returned to their bases with a better impression of the country.
