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1. Ahmedinajad Envisions Middle East "Free of Zionists"
by Hillel Fendel
At a press conference in Damascus on Wednesday, Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmedinajad and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad took turns threatening and taunting Israel. The former received more headlines, with his remark about a “New Middle East free of Zionists."
Assad said, “We assume that we are facing an entity [Israel] that is ready to attack us at any time. We are always ready for aggression, whether small or large.” He said that he had discussed with his Iranian guest “Israel’s crimes, and how to deal with [Israel] and help the resistance forces.”
Ahmedinajad, for his part, told the reporters, “The new Middle East [a phrase originally made popular by President Shimon Peres who envisaged a peaceful, prosperous region – ed.] will be a Middle East without Zionists and without imperialists. With Allah’s help, this will happen.”
“We hope that they [Israel] will recognize the rights of the nations of the region,” the Iranian president said, “but they must know that if they continue their mistaken ways of the past, they will have no place in our region… If the Zionists repeat their past mistakes, all the nations of the region will stand against them and rip them up from their roots.”
"No one can damage" the close Iranian-Syrian ties, Ahmadinajad said, which will “become deeper and develop over the years… We are brothers. We have mutual interests, as well as common goals and enemies.”
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton downplayed last month's decision by the Obama administration to return an ambassador to Syria. Clinton told Congressmen that the U.S. demands that Syria sever all ties with Iran.
2. KidsKorner: Arutz Sheva's New Website for Children
by Tzvi Barish
Good news for kids and their parents: IsraelNationalNews (Arutz Sheva) inaugurated on Wednesday a new website for children. So far, the site boasts online games for different age groups, clean jokes submitted by children, kids' radio, drawings that young surfers upload, and pictures that can be downloaded for coloring.
KidsKorner definitely has a Web 2.0 facet to it, allowing surfers to upload content. Besides the jokes and drawings sent in by kids (or by their parents, if they need help, or by the children if the parents need help:) ), the site allows the younger generation to comment and rate what they see. Comments in the game section, enable the budding surfers to request help from their fellow gamers, discuss strategies or relate their great successes or failures (oops!).
Although the internet is not lacking sites with games, jokes and what-have-you aimed at kids, these sites often include immodest, lude or generally negative content, and often endanger one's computer with spyware and the like.
KidsKorner is truly unique in that it is under the well-known umbrella of IsraelNationalNews, ensuring that both parents and children know that while the content is fun and entertaining, it is also totally safe and in many instances educational.
IsraelNationalNews plans to develop and add content for the KidsKorner site and we look forward to your feedback and suggestions.
Now is the time to start enjoying the KidsKorner site - and don't forget to email your friends and family so they'll get to know the site as well.
3. Son of Hamas Leader was Top Spy for Israel
by Gil Ronen
Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of jailed Hamas terrorist leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, operated undercover in the service of Israel's intelligence agency for a decade. Yousef reveals this information in an upcoming book, and in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz to be published this weekend.
According to the newspaper, the intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of several high-ranking terrorists including Ibrahim Hamid, a Hamas terror commander in Judea and Samaria, as well as Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouti and Hamas bomb-maker Abdullah Barghouti.
Mosab Hassan Yousef converted to Christianity and moved to the U.S. in 2007, where the book he co-wrote, Son of Hamas, is due to be published shortly. He said that after he converted to Christianity, he decided he had to escape and "live my life away from violence, because I couldn't coexist with that situation as a Christian."
"He provided very important information [as did] hundreds of others fighting against terror," MK Gideon Ezra (Kadima), formerly deputy chief of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), told BBC World Service.
Haaretz said that Yousef “was considered Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership.”
"The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money," said his ISA handler, who is named in the book as "Captain Loai.”
Yousef's father, who has great influence within Hamas, was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006 from his prison cell.
Appalled by Torture
Yousef has said that from an early age he was appalled by the brutality of the Hamas movement. "Hamas, they are using civilians' lives, they are using children, they are using the suffering of people every day to achieve their goals. And this is what I hate," he said.
In an interview with Fox News in 2008, Yousef said that when he was 18 years old, he was arrested and placed in an Israeli jail. “Hamas had control of its members inside the jail and I saw their torture; [they were] torturing people in a very, very bad way... Hamas leaders that we see on TV now, and big leaders, [were] responsible for torturing their own members. They didn't torture me, but that was a shock for me, to see them torturing people: putting needles under their nails, burning their bodies. And they killed lots of them... I was a witness for about a year for this torture. So that was a huge change in my life.”
"Islam is the Problem"
“The problem is not Hamas, the problem is not people. The root of the problem is Islam itself as an idea,” he added. He said he saw no chance for Israel and the PA to make peace.
4. IDF Commander: “Goldstone Doesn’t Faze Us; We are Ethical”
by Hillel Fendel
The Commander of the IDF Armored Corps, Brig.-Gen. Agai Yehezkel, gave an uplifting pep talk, in light of the Goldstone Report, to the graduates of the Armored Corps basic combat training and Tank Commanders' courses on Wednesday.
"We have recently witnessed the Goldstone Report,” Yehezkel said at the graduation ceremony, “which questions the ethics and morality of the IDF. I find it important to emphasize that we, the commanders, are not confused by the report. We are not embarrassed.”
"We have no problem facing criticism, when it is to the point,” Brig.-Gen. Yehezkel said. “You - the graduates, your parents and you families - will be the unequivocal reply to this report. You graduates testify more than anything to our education towards ethics, a volunteering spirit, and morality."
Ready for Hizbullah
Yehezkel also related to the security situation along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and the Hizbullah strongholds. "Winds of tension are blowing again in the north of the country,” he said. “Though the challenge might be more difficult than during Operation Cast Lead [the anti-terror military operation against Hamas in Gaza a year ago, which lasted for three weeks – ed.], we are prepared for it."
"The State of Israel finds itself in sharp tension between being a developed and advanced country that tries to maintain normalcy,” Yehezkel said, “and the continuous need, ever since its establishment, to struggle for its existence.” He said that Israel can look to the IDF to “face all challenges.”
He praised the Amored Corps' advanced and precise techniques during Operation Cast Lead, and said they constituted a significant part of the operations.
Prayer for Shalit
Brig.-Gen. Yehezkel thanked the graduates and their families, and added a prayer for the safe return of Armored Corps soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity.
5. Knesset Proposal: Annex All Jewish Towns in Land of Israel
by Hillel Fendel
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will consider a bill proposed by MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) on the annexation of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria (Yesha). The bill was supported last year by Prime Minister Netanyahu himself.
The legislation committee is charged with deciding whether or not the government will back proposed legislation – often the critical factor in whether a given bill will be passed or defeated. It will vote on Katz’s new bill at its next weekly meeting, this coming Tuesday (after the Purim holiday).
The bill proposes that the Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria be annexed to Israel, just as eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights have been annexed in the past.
The bill was proposed in the previous Knesset by former MK Benny Elon, whom Katz succeeded, in many respects, in the Knesset. The bill was co-signed at the time by many MKs, among them Binyamin Netanyahu and other current Likud party Cabinet ministers such as Limor Livnat, Silvan Shalom, Yisrael Katz, Gideon Saar, Michael Eitan, Gilad Erdan, Yuval Steinitz, and more. MKs from other parties also signed at the time.
Explaining the proposed law, Katz said, “Following the liberation of parts of our national homeland in the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli law was applied to the areas in which 300,000 Jews live in the liberated neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and to those in which reside 20,000 Jews in the Golan. The time has now come to create a similar situation to the 350,000 Jews of Judea and Samaria. I am sure that the ministers, who co-signed the law last year, will now reaffirm their support and their signatures.”
Only Jewish towns annexed
Some 26 MKs are currently co-signed on the bill. No ministers or deputy ministers are among them, in keeping with the requirement that legislation sponsors not serve in those positions. Among the co-signers are MKs Levine, Hotovely, Elkin, Danon and Shama of the Likud; Rotem, Michaeli and Miller of Israel Our Home; Orbach of the Jewish Home; Ariel, Eldad, and Ben-Ari of the National Union; Moses and Maklev of United Torah Judaism, and Ze’ev, Vaknin, and Amsalem of Shas.
The legislation states: “The law, jurisdiction and administration of the State shall apply in the following cities, regional councils, and local councils, and the communities therein,” followed by a list of the Jewish cities and councils in Judea and Samaria: “Oranit, Alfei Menashe, Elkanah, Efrat, Ariel, Beit El, Beit Aryeh-Ofarim, Beitar Illit, Mateh Binyamin, Jordan Valley, Givat Ze’ev, Gush Etzion, Har Adar, Mt. Hevron, Dead Sea Scrolls, Modiin Illit, Maaleh Adumim, Maaleh Ephraim, Emanuel, Kedumim, Kiryat Arba, Karnei Shomron, and Shomron.”
The proposal emphasizes that it does not call for the annexation of all of Judea and Samaria to the State of Israel, but only of the Jewish towns there and their residents. Acknowledging that most or all of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria are now subject to Palestinian Authority law, it states, “The current situation creates an absurdity, in that the only citizens who are discriminated against are the Israelis – who must pay income tax and various fees, but do not receive all the rights of citizens; they are tried [in certain cases] in military courts, not civilian ones.”“The Knesset has already passed several measures applying parts of Israeli law to the Jewish towns in Yesha [Judea and Samaria]," the proposal continues, "but not in a uniform, systematic manner. As [former Meretz party MK] Prof. Amnon Rubenstein has written in his book entitled Constitutional Law: 'From a logical standpoint, it would be simpler if the Army administration [that officially governs Judea and Samaria] would apply Israel law in totality on all the Jewish local councils, instead of this patch-up job the government currently utilizes.'”
“This legislation is hereby proposed in order to stop the discrimination against the Israeli citizens and in order to create uniformity in the law.”
6. No Prayer Permitted on Temple Mount Gates Tour
by Hillel Fendel
The “El Har HaMoriah” (To Mt. Moriah) Institute has finally received police permission to hold a tour around the Temple Mount gates in the Old City – but the restrictions make it nearly unfeasible.
Following protracted negotiations between the Institute and police officials, a meeting was held last week in which the final details were hammered out. The restrictions appear to outweigh the permits, however – and first among the “don’ts” is "Don't pray."
Institute officials sense that the theme of the police permit appears to be the free rein Moslems have in and around the Temple Mount gates, while the Jews must behave as unwanted visitors who must be barely seen or heard. Some groups have banded together to fight this approach; this coming March 16 has been designated "International Temple Mount Awareness Day;" click here for details.
The hours of the tour are restricted, as are the number of participants – to 15. The Jews must obligate themselves not to disturb the Moslem worshippers and others passersby, and may not even sit on stools while the guide is providing an explanation. The guides, whose identities must be provided to the police in advance, may not sit at all, and they are responsible to prevent “provocations vis-à-vis the local population.”
The tour must not enter the cemetery next to Mercy Gate, nor the adjacent Arab school, nor may the participants come within two meters of Cotton Gate.
Most importantly, according to Institute officials: “There will be no group or individual prayers at the entrance way at any hour.”
And in conclusion: “The police can cancel the tour at any given moment according to [their] evaluation of the situation.”
Maya Shukri of El Har HaMoriyah wrote a letter of complaint to the local police, asking for “clarifications” on several issues. She said that it would be unfair for the police to be allowed to cancel the tour at a moment’s notice, and that at least three days’ advance warning should be required. She also asked that the term “provocations” be explained, “in order to prevent misunderstandings.”
Shukri dedicated most of her letter to the ban on prayer: “This blanket ban is unclear, especially when it refers to prayer at the closest point to the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Nation.” The actual Holy of Holies itself – currently occupied by the Dome of the Rock – is forbidden for entry according to Halakha (Jewish Law). This is because everyone is considered to be in a de facto state of Halakhic impurity today, as the procedures for.ritual purification are not available.
“The ban on prayer reflects neither the status quo nor the government decision on Temple Mount prayers, which forbid Jewish prayer only atop the Temple Mount plaza… For instance, at the monthly March Around the Gates, and on Sabbath eves, prayer and song is permitted. In light of this, I would ask you to explain the blanket prayer ban you have imposed, including the legal basis on which it relies – or, alternatively, to rescind the ban.”
The El Har HaMoriyah Institute is not planning to back down on their rights to pray at the Temple Mount gates. “We are not giving up,” Shukri said. “We will begin a publicity campaign to win over public opinion, with the participation of security figures, lawyers, archaeologists, Knesset Members, Cabinet Ministers, and Arab-affairs experts. Many of them have agreed to support our cause in the past… Both on the right and the left, no one understands the police; the Committee Against the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities has left-wing members, but they are also working to allow Jews to visit the Temple Mount – and left-wing MKs are involved in this struggle as well.”
7. Gallup Poll: American Support for Israel Near 20 Year High
by Malkah Fleisher
American sympathy for Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict has surged, with 63% of Americans saying they side more with Israelis than with Palestinians, according to a new Gallup poll.
In 1996 and 1997, support for Israel hovered at a lowly 38%. Support for Palestinians is currently 15%, down from 23% a few years ago, according to the poll, which was conducted February 1-3.
The last time Israel enjoyed such high popularity in the United States was almost 20 years ago in January 1991, just after Israel was attacked by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with Scud missiles during the First Gulf War.
Support from Republicans stands at a towering 85%, up from 77% in recent years, with Democratic and Independent support remaining about the same.
A whopping 67% of Americans are doubtful that a time will ever come in which Arab nations and Israel will "settle their differences" and live in peace. Politically, Democrats (39%) were more inclined to think this scenario would occur than independents (26%) or Republicans (25%).
