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1. Again: Gaza Rocket Slams into Israel
by Gil Ronen
A short range rocket slammed into southern Israel Thursday evening, within the territory of the Eshkol Local Authority. No one was hurt. Earlier in the day, a Thai worker was killed by a similar rocket.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon held a press conference Thursday at Netiv Ha'asara, near the spot where the foreign worker was killed.
"This is one rocket out of 12,000 that the citizens of Israel have endured in recent years," the Deputy Foreign Minister said."The responsibility for this attack rests with Hamas."
Honoring a mass murderer
Ayalon placed Thursday's events in the context of recent Arab riots and incitement directed against Israel. "While Israel continues to extend its hand in peace, the other side not only refuses to come to the negotiating table, but continues to incite recklessly against Israel," Ayalon said. "Israel still seeks peace and calls for negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without preconditions, however, the incitement must end."
The Deputy Foreign Minister noted that the Palestinian Authority recently decided to honor Dalal Mughrabi, the leader of the deadliest-ever terrorist attack in Israel, by naming a square in Ramallah after her.
Ayalon tied between the rocket attacks and the Goldstone Report, which he said “provides legitimacy and propulsion for terrorism” and is immoral and unprofessional. "I call on those who voted for the Goldstone Report to come and see the consequences," he added.
“With or without the report,” he said, “Israel will continue to defend its citizens."
Benefits to family of laborer who was killed
The laborer who was killed Thursday morning by a rocket fired from Gaza is a Thai national, 33. The National Insurance Institute (NII) said it would recognize the man as a victim of terror and his family would be eligible to all of the benefits and payments that Israeli families of terror victims receive by law.
The NII will also cover the cost of flying the victim's body to Thailand and burying him there. Foreign Ministry officials in Bangkok have already notified the family of the deceased man.
2. Report: Saudi Arabia Seeks Strike on Iran
by Maayana Miskin
The German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported that Saudi Arabia is hoping Israel will strike Iran's nuclear facilities, and is even prepared to open its skies to Israeli warplanes to allow such an operation to take place. Similar reports were published in 2009, and denied by both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Der Spiegel report stated that officials in Riyadh had spoken to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the importance of stopping Iran's nuclear program, even if doing so requires the use of military force.
The London Sunday Times claimed in 2009 that Saudi Arabia would allow Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran. The paper quoted a former Israeli intelligence officer as saying, “The Saudis are very concerned about an Iranian nuclear bomb, even more than the Israelis.”
Der Spiegel writer Bernhard Zand stated this week, “These days, the Arabs fear the terrorists of al-Qaeda and Iran's leadership, with its rabid rhetoric and nuclear program, as much as the Israelis do. Never before since the time of Israel's creation were Jews and Arabs as united as they are in the face of the Iranian threat.”
Zand accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of failing to take advantage of Israel's newfound common ground with the Arab world.
Iranian media dismissed the Der Spiegal report. “Der Spiegel is greatly influenced by the Israeli regime and has previously published reports that were meant to serve as an Israeli propaganda campaign or psychological warfare against the Islamic Republic,” accused Iran's Press TV.
The fear of terrorist takeovers of their governments and of Iran's weaponization is the reason several Arab regimes, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, do not protest with U.S. military offensives against al-Kaeda and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Iraq, even though they are not part of the CENTCOM coalition that fights alongside the U.S.. These regimes are worried that the U.S. response to Iran will be too little and too late, according to a JINSA (the American based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) analysis of the issue this week.
3. Lieberman: Yes to Talks, No to Blackmail
by Maayana Miskin
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman plans to leave Israel on Friday for a series of meetings with European ministers. On Thursday, Lieberman said Europe should convince the Palestinian Authority to halt its attempts to pressure Israel into making concessions by threatening to cancel negotiations.
"European states should explain to the Palestinians that renewing negotiations is in the best interest of all parties, and that the Palestinian attempt to get things outside the framework of negotiations, by pressuring Israel, will ultimately hurt the Palestinians more than it will hurt Israel,” the foreign minister declared.
"This government has expressed willingness to hold direct talks with the Palestinians since it first took power, and has made significant gestures to them, but we will not agree to a policy of blackmail as a condition for dialog,” he continued.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government has agreed to temporarily freeze construction of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria and to remove dozens of checkpoints and roadblocks.
Lieberman plans to meet with the European Union's Commissioner-designate for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, and with several other senior EU officials.
4. Fatah Terrorist gets 10 Years in Prison
by Maayana Miskin
A Gaza terrorist has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for attacks he carried out as a member of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. The man, Yousef abu-Hatab, was convicted of illegal weapons possession, three counts of attempted murder, taking part in illegal paramilitary training, conspiracy to commit a crime, and making contact with a foreign agent.
Hatab's crimes were committed between the years 2004 and 2008. He was accused of taking part in shooting attacks on IDF soldiers, planting bombs in Gaza, and digging a weapons tunnel between Gaza and Egypt.
In his verdict, Judge Baruch Azoulai gave support for a more lenient approach to punishment because Hatab, 20, did not succeed in causing injury or death in any of the attacks in which he took part. In addition, many of the attacks were committed while Hatab was 15 and 16, prior to his military training, “thus it stands to reason that he was not among the main organizers or perpetrators of the attacks.”
However, Azoulai stated that Hatab's young age could not be used to entirely excuse his behavior. “We must remember that due to the structure of terrorist organizations, the terrorist infrastructure is built on young men and teenagers like the accused, who are recruited at a young age toward the organization's murderous goals and 'develop' with the organization,” he said.
"We must fight terrorism in all its forms... and remember that youth does not earn exemption from punishment, in particular when it comes to serious crimes,” Azoulai stated.
5. IAF Hits Gaza Terror Tunnels
by Maayana Miskin
The Air Force hit six targets in Gaza early on Friday morning in response to recent rocket attacks on southern Israel. The targets were demolished. Gaza authorities reported that nobody was injured in the strikes.
One of the targets was a weapons factory in northern Gaza. Also destroyed were three weapons smuggling tunnels between Egypt and southern Gaza.
Strikes also took out two tunnels that were begun approximately one kilometer from the Gaza security barrier. The tunnels were to be used by terrorists to infiltrate Israel and attack soldiers or civilians, IDF intelligence sources said.
The strikes followed several rocket attacks in recent days, including a Thursday attack that killed a 33-year-old Thai worker. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's administration has promised a response to every rocket attack from Gaza.
Meanwhile, Friday morning, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at an Israeli car near Kalkilya in Samaria. No one was injured.
6. US Freezes Assets of Gaza Hamas Bank, TV Station
by Gil Ronen
The US Department of the Treasury on Thursday froze the US-based assets of Gaza-based Islamic National Bank and Al-Aqsa Television, which are controlled by Hamas. US citizens may no longer do business with either institution.
The Treasury Department explained that the Islamic National Bank (INB) is controlled by Hamas, which the US considers “a Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” and provides financial services to Hamas members and employees, including members of the organization's military wing.
“While posing as a legitimate financial institution, INB is providing Hamas with a means to receive and store large amounts of smuggled cash to use at the organization's discretion," the Treasury explained. "In May 2009, Hamas's finance office in Gaza moved 1.1 million Euros to INB, with which it then paid the salaries of members of Hamas's military wing who held accounts there. Hamas has also opened thousands of accounts for its members at INB through which it pays salaries.”
Recruiting children
The Treasury said that Al-Aqsa Television in Gaza is a primary Hamas media outlet that airs “programs and music videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.”
"Treasury will not distinguish between a business financed and controlled by a terrorist group, such as Al-Aqsa Television, and the terrorist group itself," Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey said.
Hamas headquarters in Damascus has allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars for Al-Aqsa TV's budget, and senior Hamas officials control the station's operations, according to the Treasury.
Fathi Hammad, the former director of Al-Aqsa TV, currently serves as the Hamas interior minister in Gaza and is a former senior member of Hamas's military wing in Gaza. Hammad has supervised the construction of smuggling tunnels for Hamas and has encouraged the building and use of homemade weapons for use against Israel.
"Consistent with our commitment to a well-regulated and transparent financial system in the Palestinian territories, Treasury will continue to expose Hamas's efforts to create institutions with the trappings of legitimacy that are in fact controlled by and used to support a terrorist organization," said Under Secretary Levey.
7. Hamas's Hateful Puppet Show
by Maayana Miskin
Hamas TV continues to find new ways to teach children to hate with a puppet show in which a young boy learns not to say good things about Jews in fear of looking like a “Zionist collaborator.” The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 11, and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The show depicts two characters, a young boy named Alloush and his uncle Hassan. Alloush is excited, having learned that the Ibrahimi Mosque – the Muslim term for the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron – is now open to Jews and Christians.
The show is apparently referring to Israel's recent decision to include the Tomb of the Patriarchs on a list of national heritage sites. The decision will not affect the current division of the space between Muslim and Jewish worshipers.
His uncle, Hassan, rebukes him harshly, saying, “Are you out of your mind, Alloush?... How can you possibly be happy when a mosque – where we would worship Allah and pray to Him night and day – is turned into a synagogue... and the Jews come to defile it?”
Hassan goes on to say that Jews plan to “steal [the mosque] and then make it like their false Temple.”
'Rise up!'
Alloush and other children should tell their parents and grandparents to “rise up against the criminal Zionists, who are planning to destroy Jerusalem,” Hassan orders. “We must rise against the Zionist criminals, the enemies of Allah, and liberate Jerusalem,” he adds.
While Alloush comes to agree with his uncle, Hassan remains concerned. “Did you tell this to anyone else?” he asks the child. When Alloush confirms that he did not, Hassan says, “Very good. You didn't make us look bad.”
If Alloush had publicly expressed enthusiasm over a decision allowing Jews to visit a holy site, “they would accuse you of being a collaborator. They would think that you are a Zionist collaborator,” Hassan warns. “We must think before we speak. Get it?” he adds.
Those suspected of “collaboration” with Israel are harshly punished, under both the rule of the breakaway Palestinian Authority led by Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah-led PA in Judea and Samaria. Helping Israel arrest terrorists is a crime under PA law, and those found guilty can be sentenced to death.
