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1. Rahm Emanuel Sheds Tear at Kotel?
by Gil Ronen
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was photographed as he appeared to shed a tear at the Kotel (Western Wall) Thursday (see photos below).
President Shimon Peres hosted Emanuel with his wife Amy and their children, Zach (13), Ilana (11) and Leah (10) in the Presidential Residence Thursday. Peres gave presents to Emanuel's wife and children and taught Zach, who is in Israel to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah, a lesson about the weekly Torah portion.
Zach received a Kiddush cup and a gold-lined Book of Psalms with a personal dedication, while Amy, Ilana and Leah got small Psalm books with dedications and Presidential Residence pins.
The children told the President that of all the things they did on their visit to Israel, they especially enjoyed flying in a military helicopter and experiencing an Air Force flight simulator at Hatzerim.
After taking the Emanuels on a tour of the Presidential Residence garden, the President held a 90 minute closed door working meeting with Emanuel.
Several dozen activists shouted 'traitor' at Rahm Emanuel Thursday morning when he arrived near the Hurva Synagogue. Activist leader Itamar Ben Gvir Gvir was detained and forcibly removed from the scene by police. They told reporters that a person who thinks the Kotel (Western Wall) should be handed over to Arabs should not be allowed to go to the Kotel.
Emanuel's boss, President Barack Obama, visited the Kotel before his election and planted a note in it, which he released to the press. The visit was one of the elements in Obama's campaign that convinced many Jews he was was not hostile to Israel or to the Jewish people. Emanuel's radical left views on Israel are seen as one of the sources for Obama's pressure on Israel and hostile behavior to PM Netanyahu.
Photos by Flash 90:
Photos show Emanuel and his children visiting Kotel; Emanuel a places note between cracks and appears to shed a tear. Bottom photo: nationalists Itamar Ben-Gvir, Noam Federman, Baruch Marzel and MK Michael Ben-Ari at police station after Ben-Gvir was arrested.
2. Rocket Attacks on Sderot; Egypt Finds Tunnels
by Maayana Miskin
Sderot residents woke up early on Friday morning to the sound of rocket sirens as Gaza terrorists launched two projectiles at the city. Both rockets hit the Shaar Hanegev region, causing damage but no injuries.
On Thursday, terrorists fired a mortar shell at the Shaar Hanegev region. The day before, terrorists fired four rockets at Israeli towns near Gaza, but missed their targets, hitting open fields instead.
Also Thursday, terrorists attempted to infiltrate Israel, but were thwarted by IDF soldiers.
Egyptian military sources reported Friday that their troops had discovered 17 smuggling tunnels to Gaza in an overnight operation. The operation was part of an ongoing effort to shut down the tunnels trade, which includes weapons and drug smuggling, the sources said.
Four smugglers from Gaza were arrested during the mission. Three of those detained were children, all of them members of the same family from southern Gaza. They told Egyptian troops that they had been selected to work in the tunnels due to their small size.
The three have been released from custody, Egyptian officers said.
3. Abbas: Agree on Borders First, then Hold Direct Talks
by Maayana Miskin
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas revealed Thursday that he does not intend to hold direct negotiations with Israeli leaders until Israel and the PA have reached a United States-mediated final agreement regarding the borders of a future PA state. Those borders must include Jerusalem as the capital, he added.
"It is the aim of negotiations to lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," Abbas said at a press conference in Malaysia. The PA chairman is currently on a tour of Asia.
Israel and the PA should also resolve the issue of security in the current US-brokered 'proximity' talks before moving to direct talks, he said. Abbas told his audience that he is planning a trip to the US in the near future to meet with President Barack Obama and discuss the peace process.
He expressed hope that the current indirect talks would lead to an agreement regarding borders and security within four months, the deadline set by the Arab League.
The subject of borders, and the PA's demand for Jerusalem in particular, is widely considered one of the most hotly disputed issues in Israel-PA negotiations. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has categorically refused to split Jerusalem, saying, “Jerusalem was always ours, will always be ours, and will never again be divided.”
Other “core issues” include the PA's demand that Jewish Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria be forcibly removed, and not allowed to remain in their homes as PA citizens, and that Arabs descended from those who fled Israel during the War of Independence – which Arabs initiated and lost – be granted Israeli citizenship.
4. Leumi Beats Estimates, Pushing Israeli Stocks Up
by Maayana Miskin
Israel's largest banks, Leumi and Hapoalim, have both reported a rise in first-quarter net income. Hapoalim moved up by 4.6%, while Leumi rose by 2.5%.
Leumi's first-quarter earnings were well over its estimates. The bank's first quarter net profit was 596 million shekels ($155 million) compared to its expected earnings of 552 million. Profits were up 38.3% compared to the same period last year, when Leumi earned 429 million shekels.
The increase in profits reflected greater financing income and fewer defaults on loans, both seen by experts as signs of economic recovery.
The bank's assets at the end of the quarter totaled 317.6 billion shekels. Leumi managers say they are monitoring the bank's exposure to Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland, which are facing financial crises; the total Leumi exposure in those countries is approximately 1.1 billion shekels.
Profits at Leumi and Hapoalim, along with strong reports from Israel Chemicals and the drug firm Perrigo, led to a rise on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Thursday.
5. IDF Foils Gaza Terror Infiltration Attempt
by Gil Ronen
Israel Air Force helicopter gunships and IDF artillery stymied an attempt by Gaza-based terrorists to infiltrate into Israel on Thursday under cover of the heavy haze conditions. A military source said that three terrorists tried to enter Israel through the security fence but were identified by IDF spotters.
IDF radio reported that an explosion was heard that alerted the soldiers to an infiltration attempt. They said that a serious terror attack had been planned and thwarted, and the army expects more attempts at terror as the approaching flotilla of ships gives terrorists a feeling of encouragement and support .
The incident occurred near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The IDF source did not say whether the terrorists were hurt – possibly because the IDF was not sure if they had indeed been hit or just forced to turn back.
Arab sources quoted in Arab news media, however, said that that six people were hurt by IAF helicopter fire near the security fence at Nahal Oz.
Terrorists fired a mortar shell Thursday evening that exploded in an open space within the Shaar HaNegev local authority's area of jurisdiction. No one was reported hurt and no damage was caused. Four rockets were fired at communities in southern Israel Wednesday. They all fell in uninhabited areas.
6. As 443 Opens to PA, MKs Call to Restrict Supreme Court
by Maayana Miskin
Highway 443 opened Friday morning to Palestinian Authority traffic, after several years in which the road was closed to PA cars due to terrorism fears. The Supreme Court had ordered the road reopened to all vehicles in Judea and Samaria despite the risk of terrorist attack.
IDF spokespeople said Thursday that the army has worked for months to ensure that all passengers will remain safe despite the changes. The IDF has added stations at entrances to the road at which vehicles will be checked, they said.
Members of Knesset heard about the IDF preparations earlier this week and expressed concern that the measures described would be insufficient. The MKs called to postpone the opening of 443 to PA traffic, but the opening took place as scheduled despite their disapproval.
MKs Call to Change Basic Law
The 443 affair has heightened concern over the judicial system's involvement in security affairs. A group of MKs have now come together in an attempt to change the law to restrict the Supreme Court's involvement in matters of national defense.
A proposal sponsored by MK Yaakov Katz (Ketsale) signed by several MKs from the coalition and opposition, among them Yariv Levin, Avraham Michaeli, Nissim Zeev, and Danny Danon, would change the Founding Law on The Judiciary to state that the Supreme Court does not have the final say on “security matters directly relating to the preservation of human life.”
The Founding Laws (Chukei Yesod) relate to the structure of Israeli government and the protection of human rights, and were originally intended as the basis of a future constitution. Founding laws are rarely changed, although most can be altered via a simple majority vote.
Bereaved Father's Protest
Shmuel Landau of Givat Zev has been active in protesting the plan to allow PA vehicles on 443. Landau lost his son Ronen, 17, in a terrorist attack along the highway in 2001. The attack occurred as he was driving Ronen home from Jerusalem.
"Nine years ago my son was murdered in a shooting attack precisely because Palestinians were allowed to travel freely on this highway,” Landau told Arutz Sheva. “I decided to protest the opening of the highway [to PA traffic] because it upset me that the Supreme Court did not understand that only after the highway was closed did attacks stop, and I'm afraid for the children, I'm afraid that the terrorists will show us what they are capable of.”
Despite his concerns, Landau will continue to travel on Route 443. “I live in Givat Zev, this is the only route I have,” he said.
Observers noted that traffic on the road Friday morning was sparse, with few PA cars. It remains to be seen whether Israeli travelers going from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv will opt for the regular Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, route 1, instead of 443, in order to avoid PA vehicles, making it even more jammed than it has been when both roads were equally travelled..
7. “Human Rights” Flotilla Organizers Refuse Letters for Shalit
by Hillel Fendel
The parents of Gilad Shalit, held captive in Gaza for nearly four years, asked the organizers of the “human rights” flotilla to take letters and packages for Gilad. The answer was no.
The Shalit family even offered its help in asking the Government of Israel to allow the ships to pass through to Gaza – and still the organizers of the humanitarian mission said no.
Gilad has been held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for nearly four years, during which time he has been allowed absolutely no contact with neutral or Israeli elements.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal summoned the ambassadors of the participating countries in the flotilla – Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden and Ireland – and made it clear that Israel would not allow the ships to reach Gaza. He said that the ships' goods bound for Gaza could be dropped off in Ashdod, where they would be screened by security personnel and then delivered to Gaza.
Gal also told them that Gaza is run by a terrorist organization whose priority is not the welfare of its residents: “This organization continues to arm itself with arms and rockets, and to perpetuate a situation of armed conflict with Israel, after years of attacking Israeli citizens, under Iranian auspices. Israel therefore has the natural right to prevent the arrival of unsupervised products in Gaza.”
Defense Minister Ehud Barak similarly told some of the above countries’ foreign ministers last night and today that the Israel Navy would block the ships should they try to reach the Gaza shore. He said that the ships are simply a “political and media provocation,” and not a humanitarian project. Barak emphasized that thousands of tons of food and equipment arrive in Gaza each day.
The organizers of the flotilla told the Shalit family that their main purpose in organizing the convoy is to break the blockade and to deliver the humanitarian aid. They refused to make the transfer of the aid conditional on anything having to do with Gilad Shalit.
The Shalit family said afterwards that they regret the refusal of the convoy organizers to cooperate or to grant humanitarian aid to their son Gilad, “who has been held by Hamas in Gaza for four years, against all law and international charters.”
