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1. Divided PA OKs Indirect Talks for Four Months
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A divided Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, parent body of the Palestinian Authority, approved American-mediated indirect talks with Israel, but Israeli and international media reported the PLO decision as if it were unanimous.
The approval also includes a severe pre-condition that the PA’s demands be met within four months, a demand that U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley has said is not practical.
The Agence France Presse told readers that "the Palestinian leadership has decided to give an opportunity for the American suggestion to hold indirect talks between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.” Associated Press reported, “A skeptical Palestinian leadership agreed Sunday to hold U.S.-mediated peace talks with Israel for four months.”
However, none of the news reports bothered to note that the decision was split. The Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, which is considered close to the PA, quoted the PLO’s executive committee secretary Abed Rabbo as saying, “This decision of the Palestinian leadership was taken with the objection or disagreement by a number factions and members of the Executive Committee.”
The communist Palestinian People’s Party stated it voted against the decision and that the PLO was “embarrassed” by the decision of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (pictured) to ask the Arab League for backing a return to talks.
Even Abbas’ spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeina, cautioned that a four-month deadline was imposed for agreement to Arab terms of a new PA state that includes all of eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
Israeli public opinion and leaders across the political spectrum oppose the condition even though Abed Rabbo claimed that Israel has agreed that the 1949-67 borders will the basis for negotiations.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with visiting U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell Sunday following the Obama administration representative’s discussion with Defense Minister Ehud Barak the evening before.
The agreement is in effect a face-saving measure for the Obama administration, which has failed to convince the PA to drop pre-conditions for direct talks with Israel. U.S. President Barack Obama has sent his Vice President Joe Biden to Israel for a three-day visit beginning Monday evening.
Observers anticipate that Biden's scheduled address to students at the Tel Aviv University may feature a “reaching out to Jews” speech, paralleling the "reaching out to Muslims” address President Obama delivered in Cairo University last June. The president then referred to Israeli communities in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria as “illegitimate” as well as illegal.
Another possibility is that Biden may state that the United States will attack Iran with nuclear weapons if the Islamic Republic carries out its apparent plan to annihilate the Jewish State with nuclear warheads.
2. MK Schneller: NIF Influence in Halls of Power
by Maayana Miskin
MK Otniel Schneller believes that the New Israel Fund (NIF) scandal is far from over. Information will soon be revealed detailing the organization's influence in the halls of power, he says in an interview with Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service.
"We're going to see things no less disturbing than what's been revealed until now, in the institutions of power, in the educational system, in ministries, in the Jewish Agency. We'll see proof that parties and Members of Knesset were involved,” Schneller warns.
The purpose of the NIF is to change the State of Israel for its own purposes, Schneller believes. “It does this in a clever way. The group takes the important things it has done - and it has done important things - and uses them as a tool to do other things, things that are very problematic.”
Schneller recently proposed that a parliamentary committee investigate the NIF's behavior, but has dropped the proposal due to objections from several Knesset factions. Even factions whose political platforms are far from that of the NIF objected to the investigation, apparently out of concern that their own funding would be affected by decisions regarding foreign funding of the NIF, he says.
Instead of pursuing a lost cause, Schneller explains, he has decided to look into the NIF using different methods. He plans to reveal his findings only when he has gathered enough information to fully back his claims.
What's at stake is no less than the future of the State of Israel, Schneller believes. “The question is, are we keeping the old Israel of settling the land, of ingathering, a Jewish state where the state has intrinsic weight and the individuals serve the state? Or is the individual the most important point, do the rights of the individual take precedence over all else?”
3. Prof. Netanyahu, 100: Iran Trying to Split US Jews, Israel
by Gil Ronen
The Netanyahu clan, the Likud elite and leading political figures including President Shimon Peres gathered at a closed event in Jerusalem on Sunday to honor Prof. Ben-Tzion Netanyahu, the Prime Minister's father, on his 100th birthday.
In typical non-sentimental fashion, Prof. Netanyahu used the occasion at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center to deliver a stern, timely message of warning.
“From the Iranian side we hear the promise that in a short while – in a matter of days – an end will be put to the Zionist movement and there will be no more Zionists in the world,” he told the gathering. “One is supposed to conclude from this that the Jews of the Land of Israel will be annihilated, while the Jews of America, whose leaders refused to join the pressure on Iran, are being told in a hinted way that the annihilation of the Jews will not include them...”
“On the other hand, the Jewish people is making its position clear, and trusting its great military might. The Nation of Israel is showing the world today how a nation should behave when it stands before an existential threat: to look the danger in the eye; to weigh in a calm and collected fashion what should be done and what can be done; and to be ready to enter the fray at the moment the chances of success appear reasonable.”
Prof. Netanyahu concluded: “We must have the ability to stand firm mentally, which requires the presence of great powers of spirit. The People of Israel is showing the world today that it possesses such powers of spirit, and this is where my faith resides: an unqualified faith that our nation will fend off the danger that threatens its existence.”
Prophetic Intellect
The speakers at the centenary event included Yossi Achimeir, Director of the Jabotinsky Center, President Shimon Peres, and historian Prof. Yirmiyahu Yovel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the younger Netanyahu brother, Dr. Iddo Netanyahu, spoke admiringly of their father, and of their pride at being raised by him. The speakers' accounts of Prof. Netanyahu's character and work, and a videotaped interview with him that was screened in short sections between the speeches, combined to create a picture of a man with a sometimes-prophetic historical vision who has exerted tremendous personal influence on modern Jewish history through his own mental and political prowess and by virtue of the education and guidance he provided for his sons.
He was never as famous or directly influential as his two elder sons – the illustrious Lt.-Col. Yoni Netanyahu, who commanded the elite IDF forces in the 1976 Entebbe Raid in which he met his death, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – but at the event Sunday, it was clear that their accomplishments were in large part a result of the upbringing they received. The image that emerged of Prof. Netanyahu was that of a man of great power of intellect and character, as well as the courage to stand up for what he believed in when it was not popular.
In one of the evening's many amusing moments, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to dispel what he said was a false media account of his childhood home as being ruled by 'Prussian-style' discipline. Rather, he said, when his father entertained important guests in the front part of the house, he and his brothers used to host boys from the entire neighborhood in their room in the back of the house. They would close the door, place a towel in the crack between it and the floor, turn off the lights – and proceed to engage in wild pillow-fights. When things got too loud, his mother Tzila would knock on the door and ask to keep the volume down, but the pillow fight went on.
Prof. Netanyahu has been vocally critical of his son Binyamin when he deemed that he had veered off the proper Zionist path. He was extremely critical of his son's agreement to transfer part of Hevron to Arab hands in the 1996 Wye Accords, and signed a petition that called the 2005 Gaza Disengagement – for which his son voted in the Knesset, though later opposed – “a crime against humanity.”
4. Thousands of PA Arabs to Use Jerusalem-Modiin Highway
by Maayana Miskin
The IDF's Central Command estimates that approximately 3,000 Palestinian Authority Arabs will drive along the Jerusalem-Modiin highway Route 443 each day when the road is opened to PA traffic this May. The estimate is much higher than earlier IDF estimates, which predicted that only a few hundred PA Arabs would use the road.
The higher estimate was made after the IDF Civil Administration presented more accurate data than was previously available.
The IDF is preparing to deal with the security ramifications of allowing PA Arabs to use the highway, as mandated by a recent Supreme Court ruling. The court ruled this past December that PA Arabs must be allowed to use the highway despite terrorism fears, and despite the fact that a parallel road was built alongside much of the highway exclusively for PA Arab travel.
The ruling aroused opposition among Israelis who regularly use the highway, including many Jerusalem residents who use the road to get to their jobs in the Tel Aviv area.
Terrorism on the Highway
Highway 443 is set to open to PA traffic in May despite ongoing terrorist attacks on Israeli motorists along the road. In the most recent such attack, terrorists opened fire on soldiers along the route near the Jewish town of Beit Horon. No one was hurt in the incident.
In January, Arab attackers attempted to run an Israeli car off the road, and when they failed, began stoning the driver. The attackers were unaware that their chosen target was a Border Guard officer, who scared the attackers off by firing in the air.
When Highway 443 first opened, it was open to all motorists. The road was closed to PA residents in 2000 following a series of terrorist shootings along the highway in which several Israeli motorists were murdered.
5. Abbas to Promote Jailed Terrorist
by Maayana Miskin
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to promote terrorist Mahmoud Damara, the former head of the PA's elite “Force 17,” to the rank of Major-General. Damara is serving time in an Israeli prison for his involvement in multiple murders. The promotion was publicized in the PA daily Al-Quds.
Damara served in Force 17 and later in the presidential guard. He was wanted by Israel since 2000 for terrorist activity, and was arrested in 2006.
As head of a cell of Tanzim terrorists, Damara, also known as Abu Awad, initiated several terrorist attacks targeting soldiers and civilians. Among the attacks he coordinated were: A shooting attack in Jerusalem in 2000 that killed 25-year-old Esh Kodesh GillmoreA shooting in 2000 that killed Neve Tzuf resident Sara Lisha and IDF soldiers Amit Zana and Elad Levenstein.A 2000 shooting at the Tapuach Junction in Samaria that murdered 40-year-old Ariel Jeraffi.A shooting on Highway 443 that killed Eli Cohen of Modiin.A shooting near Ofra in December 2000 that killed Rabbi Binyamin and Talia Kahane and wounded three of their six children.A shooting at the French Hill junction in Jerusalem that did not cause injuries.
Damara also organized shooting attacks on IDF soldiers in the Ramallah area during Operation Defensive Shield. In addition, he planned bomb attacks, and was seen firing an RPG at an IDF tank.
6. US-Born Al-Qaeda Terrorist Nabbed after Call for Attacks
by Maayana Miskin
American-born terrorist Adam Gadahn was recently arrested in Pakistan, according to senior officials in Islamabad. The arrest took place shortly after Gadahn sent out a message calling for “lone wolf” terrorist attacks in the United States, Britain and Israel.
Gadahn, also known as “Azzam al-Amriki,” is a California native who has become a senior leader in the international terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda operatives released on Sunday a 25-minute video featuring Gadahn. In the film, titled “A Call to Arms,” Gadahn praised Nidal Hassan, an American Muslim soldier charged with murdering 13 people in a shooting spree at the Fort Hood army base.
Hassan “has shown the way forward for every Muslim who finds himself among the unbelievers,” Gadahn declared. He called on Muslims living in the “Zionist-Crusader alliance,” and in the Uniited State, Britain and Israel in particular, to carry out similar attacks.
Gadahn also accused the United States of operating “Muslim-only concentration camps” in the state of Illinois, an apparent reference to the transfer of terror suspects to an Illinois prison.
Gadahn has been wanted by the FBI since 2004 and was charged with treason in 2006 for joining Al-Qaeda. There is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
7. Video: Ex-IDF Dep. Chief of Staff Backs Eastern Jerusalem Jews
by Yoni Kempinski
Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan paid a visit to the Jewish communities in eastern Jerusalem on Sunday and declared that Jews should be allowed to live in any place legally purchased and built in the city. Dayan served in the past as IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, and headed the Israeli National Security Council.
