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1. PM Adds Rachel's Tomb, Cave of Machpelah to Heritage Sites
by Gil Ronen
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has added the sites where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of Israel are buried -- the Cave of Machpelah in Hevron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem -- to the list of heritage sites in which the government intends to invest. The decision appears to be the result of last-minute pressure exerted on Netanyahu from nationalists who could not understand why he left out the very important Biblical Jewish holy site, while including many Christian sites in the heritage list.
The government will vote Sunday on the decision to set aside funds for restoration and development of Jewish, Zionist and Christian heritage sites.
The government assembled for its weekly session Sunday morning at the Tel Chai compound, the site of a historic battle in which legendary one-armed Jewish hero Yosef Trumpeldor was killed in 1920.
Netanyahu opened the session with an explanation of the heritage site list plan. “Our existence here does not depend only on the IDF and military and technological prowess,” he said, “but also on what we pass on to the young generation and in our connection to the Land.”
"We are deciding on the largest and most comprehensive plan ever for strengthening the heritage infrastructures,” he told the Cabinet. We will renovate archaeological sites, museums and more. We will create two hiking paths – one historical and the other centered on the Israeli experience – which will connect the sites.”
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) congratulated the government for its decision to include the Cave of Machpelah in the list of national heritage sites. "I am glad that they listened to the wishes of the people that were expressed by the Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset," MK Eldad said. "Without the Bible it would be impossible to understand Jewish heritage in the Land of Israel," he explained, and added that other holy places in Judea and Samaria should be included in the list as well.
2. Attempted Bombing at Cairo Synagogue
by Hana Levi Julian
The largest synagogue in Egypt – the only one that still conducts High Holy Day services – was the target of an attempted bombing early Sunday morning.
According to an Egyptian police report quoted by the Associated Press, a man attempted to set the structure ablaze early Sunday morning, hurling an explosive suitcase at the synagogue from the fourth floor window of a hotel located across from the building. The attack occurred just after he checked in, at 3:00 a.m.
Once the largest building on the block in downtown Cairo, Sha'ar HaShamayim (Gate of Heaven) was built in 1899 and is the main synagogue in the Egyptian capital. It is also the synagogue attended by Israeli diplomats when they are in town.
In the suitcase were four containers of gasoline, each attached to a glass bottle of sulfuric acid that was intended to shatter on impact, igniting an inferno. The bag also contained cotton strips, a lighter, matches and clothing. It briefly caught fire as it fell onto the sidewalk, but was quickly extinguished. According to the report, the perpetrator, who fled, “may have panicked.” Police are searching for him.
For thousands of years, Egypt was home to a vibrant Jewish community. The famed Jewish physician, philosopher and Talmudic sage, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known as Maimonides, worked his way from Spain, where he was born, through Morocco and Israel to Egypt, where he finally settled and became a physician to Saladin and the royal family.
In the last century, many Jewish merchants streamed into the country with their families from Aleppo, Syria, and by 1940, the Egyptian Jewish community numbered approximately 80,000. Most of the Jews left when war broke out between Egypt and Israel upon the birth of the Jewish State, and more left with each subsequent war, until only a few dozen elderly members of the community have remained. There are also several synagogues still in existence, all heavily guarded and open only to Jews.
3. 20 Ships to Head for Clash in Gaza
by Hillel Fendel
The Turkish IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation announced that a fleet of 20 ships would be sent to break Israel’s embargo on Hamas-run Gaza two months from now. Five of the ships will be under the auspices of IHH; the support of charitable businessmen in Turkey is being sought for funding to purchase them.
IHH was founded in 1992 to provide humanitarian aid to Bosnia, and later extended its reach to “deliver foodstuff, clothes and tents to crisis regions hit by wars, conflicts, and natural disaster to meet urgent needs of victims.”
However, it has now added political intervention to its agenda, vowing that its “aid ships will continue to head for Gaza until Israeli embargo is lifted.”
The cargo ships are to carry “Israeli-embargoed building materials, generators, medication, medical equipment and educational materials.” In addition, passenger ships accompanying the cargo ships are scheduled to carry “journalists, human rights advocates, activists and lawmakers from various countries.”
Other reports of planned “humanitarian” flotillas headed for Gaza have been publicized of late. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was said to be planning to join one of them, along with anti-apartheid activists from South Africa. The ships were said to be planning to set sail for Gaza in March, in a convoy initiated by Hamas terror activist Muhammad Sualha, currently in Britain.
In late 2008, the “Free Gaza” movement sent a ship towards Gaza, with former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney aboard. Israel declared the coastal area a "closed military zone," but when the boat continued towards Gaza and tried to outmaneuver an Israel Navy patrol boat; a collision ensued, and the ship ultimately set sail for Lebanon after taking on water.
4. PA Police Destroy Stolen Israeli Cars
by Hana Levi Julian
Palestinian Authority police chose to destroy hundreds of stolen Israeli vehicles last week, rather than return them to their owners, after discovering the cars in the town of Jama'een.
The town, located south of the PA-controlled Samaria city of Shechem, has apparently served as the headquarters of a major car theft ring, where nearly 500 stolen Israeli vehicles were found last week.
PA police arrested three fugitives at the site, in addition to dismantling a 155-mm explosive shell, according to a report published Saturday by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency. No one was injured and the thieves did not attempt to damage the security forces' vehicles or equipment.
At least 941 stolen Israeli vehicles have been impounded – and destroyed – by PA police forces since January 1, 2010. None have been returned to their owners in Israel.
The issue of stolen vehicles making their way to the Palestinian Authority territories from pre-1967 Israel is not a new one, with reports of such incidents dating back to 2006 and beyond.
Israel Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told Israel National News on Sunday that a great many staff hours have been dedicated to preventing PA-Arab car thefts. He added there has been increased coordination between Israel Police and PA police authorities in recent months, with an effort towards clamping down on the phenomenon.
5. 'Netanyahu Blessed Al-Mabhouh Hit Squad Before Mission'
by Gil Ronen
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met the Mossad team that assassinated senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud Mabhouh before their mission and wished them luck, according to the British Sunday Times.
“In early January two black Audi A6 limousines drove up to the main gate of a building on a small hill in the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv: the headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence agency, known as the 'midrasha',” the newspaper reported Sunday.
“Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, stepped out of his car and was greeted by Meir Dagan, the 64-year-old head of the agency. Dagan, who has walked with a stick since he was injured in action as a young man, led Netanyahu and a general to a briefing room.
"According to sources with knowledge of Mossad, inside the briefing room were some members of a hit squad. As the man who gives final authorisation for such operations, Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a member of Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza.”
“Mossad is now deeply embarrassed” because of the revelation of its agents' modus operandi and faces by Dubai police, the paper reported. A source told the Times that Mossad has “suspended similar operations in the Middle East, mainly because of fear that heightened security would put its agents at greater risk.”
Bodenheimer Passport - Real
The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Cologne, Germany, ordered an investigation on Saturday after finding out that the German passport used by one of Al-Mabhouh's alleged assassins was not forged but genuine.
According to Der Spiegel, the passport was issued in Cologne in 2009 for Michael Bodenheimer. Bodenheimer had contacted the immigration authorities in Cologne and showed evidence that his grandparents lived in Germany before World War II. Based on this information, he was given German citizenship.
However, when Der Spiegel's reporters checked out the address which appears on Bodenheimer's passport, they found nobody by that name residing there.
6. Israel Loses Good Friend: Alexander Haig
by Hillel Fendel
Alexander Haig – four-star general, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, top adviser to US presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, and good friend of Israel – passed away over the weekend in Baltimore. He was 85.
Haig is generally considered responsible for bypassing then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and airlifting missiles and other military necessities to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He is also credited with supporting Israel’s counter-terrorism Peace for Galilee invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Some reports state, however, that after Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, it was then-US Secretary of State Haig who got his boss, then-President Ronald Reagan, to temporarily suspend strategic cooperation with Israel.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens, writing in Haaretz, described Haig as “a good friend to Israel – through thick and thin, both at the best of times and during difficult times. He never wavered in his friendship for Israel… Haig's support for Israel was not only based on the rationale that the United States and Israel had shared strategic interests; it was also tempered by an admiration for Israel's courage in the face of daunting odds.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Haig ''served his country in many capacities for many years, earning honor on the battlefield, the confidence of presidents and prime ministers, and the thanks of a grateful nation.''
7. 'Special Anniversary Riot' at Bilin
by Gil Ronen
About 1,200 Arab nationalists and their leftist sympathizers from Israel and abroad held a special "anniversary riot" Friday at Bilin, near Modiin. It marks five years since the first riot at Bilin.
The rioters say they are participating in “demonstrations” against the “apartheid wall” built by Israel – their name for the security fence built to stop suicide bombers. Their opponents say, however, that the weekly riots are meant to harass the IDF, give Arabs and leftists regular media coverage and draw volunteers looking for “action.”
The disturbances have become a weekly ritual and usually end in light injuries on both sides, although there have also been serious injuries. An IDF soldier from the Armored Corps lost an eye in a riot at Bilin in June 2005. An Arab rioter was killed when he was hit in the chest with a tear gas canister in April 2009.
After the riots at Bilin proved successful, another riot hotspot was created at Naalin, not far away. Recently leftists have attempted to create a third hotspot near N'veh Tzuf in northern Binyamin.
As usual in the Bilin riots, the participants threw rocks at IDF forces and damaged the security fence. Security forces responded with means for riot dispersal.
Geneva Mayor Participates
MK Dov Henin (Hadash) took part in the riot Friday and said, “The struggle at Bilin has turned into the symbol of the struggle against the settlements and the 'settlement wall.' We now mark five years since the start of the weekly riots at Bilin together with Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who carry on the struggle in a very impressive way. The struggle receives wide support throughout the world and its recognition in Israeli society deepens with every passing week.”
The Mayor of Geneva, Switzerland, Rémy Pagani, participated in the riot alongside Henin. Henin said that there was “great symbolism in the participation of the mayor of Geneva in the demonstration against the settlement wall and the settlements, which are in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention."
