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1. Report: Obama Administration Backs Arab Rallies in Jerusalem
by Maayana Miskin
A senior PA official claims that the Obama administration backs pro-PA rallies in Jerusalem. The claim was reported by investigative journalist Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily.
According to the official, United States diplomats have encouraged Arabs to protest in parts of Israel's capital in order to pressure Israel to evacuate neighborhoods. The US administration does not recognize Israel's claim to key parts of the capital, including much of eastern and northern Jerusalem as well as the Old City and City of David.
The US recently sharply criticized Israel for allowing construction in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighborhood of northern Jerusalem.
It was not clear whether the PA official who spoke to WND saw the Obama administration officials as supporting peaceful rallies, or the violent riots that are much more common in the city. Riots have been particularly common in recent days, following the rededication of the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem and PA leaders' subsequent claims that Israel is threatening the Al-Aksa mosque.
2. IAF Responds to Rocket Strikes
by Maayana Miskin
The Air Force took out weapons factories and warehouses in Gaza on Thursday night in response to recent rocket attacks. Strikes were carried out in northern, central, and southern Gaza.
Pilots reported direct hits on two arms factories and two warehouses used to store weapons. The sites were empty at the time, and there were no casualties reported.
An IDF spokesman said the strikes were carried out in response to a terrorist rocket attack on southern Israel on Thursday night. The spokesman added that the IDF sees Hamas as bearing responsibility for all attacks from Gaza.
Gaza terrorists fired a rocket at the Ashkelon area on Thursday night. The attack did not cause injury.
Terrorists have greatly increased the frequency of their attacks on Israel over the past month. On Thursday, Israel Security Agency officials reported that Gaza terrorists had fired 35 rockets and six mortar shells at Israel in the month of March, compared to five rockets and five shells the month before.
March also saw the first rocket death since Operation Cast Lead in early 2009. A Thai worker was killed in March when a rocket struck the kibbutz (cooperative community) where he was employed.
Reports from Gaza and in the international media indicate that several of the attacks were carried out as a challenge to the ruling power in Gaza, Hamas. Attacks have been carried out by rival terrorist groups Fatah and Ansar al-Sunna.
3. Man Suffers Fractured Skull in Rock Attack
by Maayana Miskin
A resident of Yitzhar was wounded Thursday evening when Palestinian Authority Arabs threw a large rock at a car just outside the Samaria village. The rock hit his head as he sat in the back seat of the vehicle, next to his two children.
The man suffered a head injury and lost blood. IDF medics rushed him to Beilinson hospital. It was later determined that his wounds include a fractured skull, which required surgery, which was reported as successful. The children were unhurt in the attack.
Jewish residents of Samaria explained that since the Huwarra checkpoint was opened as a “good-will gesture” to the PA, Arab traffic has flooded the junction near Yitzhar. Terrorists have been known to take advantage of the slow traffic to pick out Israeli-owned vehicles and target them easily.
Time after time
Samaria Local Authority head Gershon Mesika called on the IDF to take action. “It's ridiculous that Jews are wounded in the same place time after time. Rocks can kill. The security apparatus needs to take strong action against these acts of terror,” he said following the attack.
The attack was the second to cause injury on Thursday. Earlier in the day an Israeli bus took a wrong turn in Hevron and was quickly surrounded by PA Arabs, who pelted it with rocks. One woman was wounded, and others suffered shock.
Also on Thursday, terrorists hurled two firebombs at an Israeli-owned car in the Binyamin region. No injuries were reported. Terrorists hurled heavy stones at an Israel-owned car north of Jerusalem, near Pisgat Ze'ev; no injuries were reported, but the vehicle was damaged.
4. MK Tibi Bails Out PA Rioters
by Maayana Miskin
MK Ahmed Tibi has bailed 10 Palestinian Authority Arabs out of prison. The ten were arrested on Sunday for attempting to break through a checkpoint near Bethlehem during a riot.
Tibi paid 15,000 shekels to get the group out of jail.
As the rioters were released, Tibi attempted to shake hands with Abbas Zaki (also known as Sharif Mashaal), a senior Fatah member who was among the detainees. Tibi's efforts to approach Zaki were met with resistance from police officers present, and a scuffle broke out.
Zaki's involvement in the Bethlehem riot, and the attempt to break through an Israeli checkpoint, was seen as evidence of the PA's growing commitment to “popular resistance,” according to pan-Arab network Al Jazeera.
Sunday's riot sparked another riot on Wednesday, at which protesters pelted soldiers and policemen with rocks. Three policemen were lightly wounded.
Wednesday's riot was also sparked by Israel's plan to use land near Bethlehem to build an entrance ramp to highway 443. The ramp is being built in order to allow PA Arabs to use the road, following a petition to the High Court against Israel's policy of barring PA Arabs from the highway for security reasons.
5. Vast Majority in Gaza Favors Death for Spies
by Hillel Fendel
The Freedom Center for Research and Public Opinion Surveys has found that an overwhelming majority of 85% of Arabs in Gaza favors the death sentence for Arab collaborators with Israel.
Specifically, the Hamas government in Gaza has put to death, and intends to continue doing so, Arabs who have been found to have collaborated with Israel or worked with Fatah and have been convicted of espionage.
A full 85.6% of the Gazan Arabs polled believe it is a good idea, and only 14.4% oppose. In the Rafah region, 90% supported the idea, and in Khan Yunis – adjacent to the former site of Gush Katif capital N'vei Dekalim – it was 87%.
Several dozen are already assumed to have been killed in recent months - including some executions carried out in the Rafiah area in what used to be the Jewish community of Rafiah Yam.
Hamas has long been no stranger to putting to death its own countrymen. During Israel's Operation Cast Lead 15 months ago, dozens of Fatah activists were executed – some by being thrown out of tenth-floor windows – and dozens more were shot and wounded. It was claimed that they had spirited out information enabling Israel to target and attack Hamas's headquarters and bomb-making facilities.
The Chief of Hamas Police in Gaza made a typical announcement earlier this week, saying that the police "have the situation under control," and that they had succeeded in revealing and arresting "hostile elements" that had been involved in placing bombs in public places.
The Hamas government, at the same time, continues to implement Islamic law throughout the Gaza Strip. In one of the latest such cases, chemical tests have been carried out by the police, finance ministry and Al-Azhar University on a fruit drink to determine whether, as accused, it contained alcohol.
6. Thousands Celebrated 'Heritage' Status at Patriarchs' Cave
by Gil Ronen
Thousands of people took part in a festive ceremony at the Cave of Patriarchs (Cave of Machpelah) in Hevron Thursday, to mark the inclusion of the cave in the government's list of national heritage sites. The Jewish community in the ancient city awarded certificates of gratitude to Knesset members who worked to include the ancient cave in the list, in spite of the political opposition to the move.
MK Prof. Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said at the ceremony that “when the Cave of Machpelah was not added to the list of heritage sites, the pressure on Jerusalem formed.”
"Five years ago, not many people understood that Gush Katif is the security belt of Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva,” he said, referring to the Expulsion from Gaza and the subsequent Arab rocket and mortar onslaught on southern Israel. “Hevron is the security belt of Jerusalem,” he added.
“Jerusalem is not like Tel Aviv and Hevron is not like Tel Aviv,” MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said. “Tel Aviv is 101 years old, Jerusalem is 3,000 years old and Hevron is 4,000 years old. We are tied through our souls to this place and no foreign leader will tell us what to do in places that belong to our forefathers. We will safeguard the Land of Israel and stand behind the Prime Minister so that he can stand firm in the face of pressures from world leaders.”
Additional speakers included MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima), Deputy Minister Gila Gamliel (Likud) and Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud), who said: “We are friends of America and walk hand in hand with America but nothing will move us from Hevron – not even Hussein Obama.”
7. High Court Deadline for Razing Heroes' Homes Draws Near
by Gil Ronen
In a session immediately after the Passover holiday, the cabinet is expected to discuss the demolition order against a neighborhood that includes the homes of fallen war heroes Major Roi Klein and Major Eliraz Peretz.
In a decision handed down February 16, High Court President Dorit Beinisch and Judges Elyakim Rubinstein and Yoram Danziger gave the state 60 days to complete the hearings it is conducting regarding the demolition and present a timetable for its execution. This means a timetable is due in two weeks' time.
Danon vows to fight
MK Danny Danon (Likud) visited Thursday the home of the Peretz family at Givat HaYovel in the community of Eli, north of Jerusalem. He told the mother of Major Peretz, who was killed in Gaza Friday, that he will "do everything" to prevent the demolition of homes in the neighborhood, and added: “If need be I will use my immunity in order to stop the razing of the homes.”
The home of the Peretz family, as well as the home of the family of Major Ro'i Klein, who died heroically in the Second Lebanon War, are slated for demolition. The High Court has ruled that 12 homes in the neighborhood were illegally built and issued a deadline by which the state must provide a timetable for the destruction, despite the state's own announcement that it was “examining alternatives” to demolition of the homes “in order to resolve the issue."
Unprecedented problem
The decision places the state in an unprecedented situation: while the homes of fallen IDF soldiers – and even their graves – have been razed and uprooted in the past, most notably in the Expulsion of 2005, this is the first time in recent memory that a demolition order centers on the homes of such high-profile war heroes.
Maj. Klein is famous for having leapt on a live hand grenade, saving his soldiers and calling out the “Shema Yisrael” incantation before he died. He provided one of the few tales of heroism in the Second Lebanon War, which was largely seen as a less-than-spectacular success. Maj. Peretz, a charismatic commander, is one of the two most recent casualties in Gaza. The order for demolishing their homes is an affront to the most basic Israeli consensual value – the sanctity of the IDF and its heroes.
Danon wrote a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is which he said – “Even before the unveiling of Eliraz's tombstone, his house will be destroyed and will turn into a memorial tombstone for for a Jewish neighborhood in Israel, for the security of which Eliraz fought. The nation voted in the Likud in order to maintain our existing assets and the communities, and we must find every way to make every neighborhood in Judea and Samaria as 'kosher' as a neighborhood in Ra'anana or Rehovot.”
