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1. IAF Ceremony as Plane Carrying Fallen Soldiers Lands in Israel
by Elad Benari
The Israel Air Force plane returning the bodies of the six soldiers killed in joint maneuvers in the mountains of Romania on Monday in a fatal helicopter crash arrived at the Air Force base of Tel Nof on Friday. An honor guard stood silently as the chief cantor of the IDF sang the 'El Malei Rachamim" memorial prayer and IDF Chief Rabbi recited the Kaddish.
The IDF had completed the identification of the bodies after a lengthy identification process conducted by members of the IDF rabbinate assisted by military doctors before the bodies were flown in to Israel for burial.
The Boeing 707 airplane carrying the bodies landed in Israel on Friday morning and the funerals will take place during the day Friday, and will conclude before Shabbat.
Early Friday morning, the IDF Spokesperson cleared for publication the funeral times for all six soldiers:
* The funeral of Lt.-Col. Daniel Shifenbauer from Kidron will take place at 3:00pm in the military section of the cemetery in Gderot
* Lt.-Col. Avner Goldman of Modi'in will be laid to rest at 12:15pm in the military section of the cemetery in Modi’in
* Maj. Yahel Keshet of Hatzerim will be laid to rest at 1:00pm in the cemetery in Sharona
* The funeral of Maj. Lior Shai of Tel Nof Air Force Base will take place at 2:00pm in the military cemetery “Neve Hadar” in Hod HaSharon
* Lt. Nir Lakrif of Tel Nof Air Force Base will be laid to rest at 12:30pm in the military cemetery in Haifa
* The funeral of Sgt.-Maj. Oren Cohen of Rehovot will take place 1:00pm in the military cemetery in Rehovot
The bodies of the six soldiers had been recovered on Tuesday by Romanian and Israeli rescue services, and were then taken to local hospitals where the rabbinical and medical teams worked intensely during the day on Thursday in order to make the final identifications. Some difficulties occurred during the process due to logistical issues involving the transfer of the bodies between military bases and hospitals within Romania. The IDF considered flying back only some of the bodies and thus splitting the funeral times, yet the IDF’s chief rabbi said Thursday that he would make every effort to ensure that the bodies would be returned to Israel for burial before Shabbat.
The remaining soldiers who took part in the joint exercises with Romania landed in Israel on Thursday evening.The IDF Spokesperson also announced on Thursday that some of the victims would be posthumously promoted: Lt.-Col. Daniel Shifenbauer would be promoted to Colonel, Lt. Nir Lakrif would be promoted to Captain, and Sgt.-Maj. Oren Cohen would be promoted to Staff Sergeant.
2. Rocket Hits Central Ashkelon
by Maayana Miskin
A Grad rocket fired by Gaza terrorists hit an open area near a residential neighborhood in Ashkelon on Friday morning. No physical injuries were reported, although several people suffered shock and required medical attention. A vehicle was also damaged.
Ashkelon had experienced relative quiet following the Cast Lead counterterror operation in Gaza in early 2009.
The attack follows an attack last week that was carried out using an imported rocket more sophisticated than the short-range “Kassam” rockets produced in Gaza. In that case, the rocket failed to explode, and no injuries were reported.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has followed a policy of quick response to attacks from Gaza. Air Force planes have demolished smuggling tunnels and weapons factories in the region following previous rocket attacks.
3. Al-Qaeda Creating an Army in Yemen
by Maayana Miskin
The heads of Al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed Thursday to be creating an army in the country's south. In an audio recording posted online, terrorist commander Mohammed Sayeed al-Omda said Al-Qaeda will soon have a fighting force of 12,000 soldiers based in the cities of Aden and Abyan.
Omda issued a threat to continue attacking Yemeni troops. “This is a message to the Yemeni government forces and National security service: Our swords are ready and we are going to cleanse the land,” he declared.
Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for two fatal attacks on government targets in Yemen since June, and is suspected of being behind an additional two attacks in the same period. The international terrorist group accuses the Yemeni government of joining with “crusaders” and killing Muslims in the battle against insurgent groups.
Al-Qaeda poses a real and immediate threat to the Yemeni government, according to United States Marine Corp General James Mattis, who is charged with heading US forces in the region. At his nomination hearing Tuesday Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Yemen has been pushed “to the breaking point.”
Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh has dealt with crises “through negotiation and by co-opting his opponents,” Mattis said, adding “there are signs his ability to exert control is waning.”
Mattis listed Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan as the locations from which come the greatest threat from Al-Qaeda and its affiliate groups. The greatest threat lies in tribal regions of Pakistan “as those are strategic footholds for Al-Qaeda and its senior leaders,” he said.
4. Arab League Tries to Score Points for Abbas, 'Endorses' Talks
by Maayana Miskin
On Thursday, the Arab League published a letter backing direct talks with Israel, the first such negotiations since 2008, leaving the timing of the proposed talks for PM Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to decide.
Maainstream media such as the Wall Street Journal, hailed this move, quoting U.S. officials who saw it as a step up of "critical momentum" towards negotiations, in response to United States Prsident Obama's pressure on the PA leader. Obama had begun demanding that Abbas engage in direct talks following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's recent visit to Washington where the Israeli PM repeatedly declared willingness for direct talks without any preconditions from Israel, thereby placing the ball in the PA court.
The Arab League's missive, however, according to those who saw it, repeats the preconditions set by Abbas that remain the stumbling block to negotiations, as they predecide some of the PA desired outcomes of these very same negotiations: a return to 1967 borders, an end to settlements, the return of refugees, this by asking the US government to secure assurances that the demands are met before talks can begin.
Abbas was quoted by the official Egyptian Maan News Agency as reiterating "When I receive the demanded guarantees, which are the acceptance ofthe1967 borders and an end to settlements...I will immediately enter negotiations", just before the Arab League vote on Thursday.
Abbas has repeatedly demanded that Israeli completely freeze construction for Jews in areas east of the 1949 armistice line, including north, south, and east Jerusalem, and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commit to creating a PA state with borders based on the armistice line. Until those conditions are met, Abbas has said, the PA will not negotiate.
Almost no notice was taken of another pre talks decision that the PA chairman revealed, as he announced clearly that if a Palestinian Authority state is created in Judea and Samaria, no Israeli citizen will be allowed to set foot inside.The PA chairman also stated that he would block any Jewish soldiers from serving with an international force stationed on PA-controlled land.
"I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land,” Abbas declared. Israel is home to a sizable proportion of Arab citizens, who have the vote and are represented by Arab parties in the Knesset.
De facto, both Abbas and the League nixed the talks, but INN analysts viewed the publication of the letter and discusiion of conditions as an attempt to throw the ball back into Israel's court, while trying to gain empathy for Abbas.
In this vein, the WSJ reported that members of the PA delegation to the League meeting considered denouncing Abbas for accepting the contents of the League's letter but changed their minds. The newspaper quoted Arab leaders as saying tht the Arab League endorsed the talks but left the timing and location up to Abbas, which results in isolating him and pressuring him to start before he is ready.. "All the pressure is now on his shoulders," a person close to him was said to have remarked sympathetically.
Arab League members also claimed they had received new support from United States President Barack Obama. A recent letter from Obama to Abbas included “guarantees,” according to League head Amr Moussa. He did not specify if the alleged promises were the ones requested in the League's Thursday letter.
During the Arab League meeting, Abbas expouunded on why negotiations with the previous Israeli administration, headed by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, failed to yield a peace deal. “We almost reached an agreement, and I agreed to a land swap for 0.19% of the territory, while he suggested 6.5%. I refused, and we did not reach an agreement,” he said.
The land swap idea is meant to allow Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria to remain in their current locations even in the case of an Israel-PA peace deal.
Abbas also reiterated his support for the “right of return,” the demand by Arabs who fled Israel during the War of Independence when their leaders promised them a quick return after the Jews' annihilation, to come back to the country along with the hundreds of thousands of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren born since. That demand is the reason they remained in squalid refugee camps as opposed to the larger number of Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands in 1948 who became productive citizens of the land of Israel.
Abbas said he had discussed the “right of return” with Olmert, and had warned that the issue was “very dangerous” and must be resolved “according to the Arab initiative.”
5. Rabbi: Romania Disaster Reminds Us to Support IDF
by Maayana Miskin
The helicopter crash in Romania in which six IDF Air Force crewman were killed should serve as a reminder to respect IDF soldiers despite objections to expulsions of Jews from Gaza, and from outposts in Judea and Samaria, Rabbi Zev Sharon told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service.
"Despite our political dispute with the IDF – our soldiers are heros willing to risk their very lives to protect the Jewish people and the land of Israel,” he explained. Rabbi Sharon heads the pre-military preparatory program (mechina) in Maaleh Efraim.
The disaster in Romania “emphasizes the complexity” of the relationship many have with the IDF, he continued. “Career officers took part in expelling Jews from Gush Katif, among them many pilots... But we cannot forget for a second that the same pilots who participated in the Gush Katif expulsion are those who will get the order to bomb Iran's nuclear reactor, and they will risk their lives to make our country safe,” he said.
Even those soldiers who continue to take part in expelling Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria communities that lack authorization “are engaged in defending Israel 99.9% of the time,” he added. “Not that we justify everything being done, but we must not forget the essentials,” he said.
Funerals for the six crewmen killed in the Romania crash were held on Friday.
6. More Sharia Law in Gaza: Hamas Crackdown on Mannequins
by Maayana Miskin
Hamas continues to enforce its stringent interpretation of Islamic law in Gaza. In its most recent ruling, the organization has laid out a list of rules that must be followed by stores selling women's clothing, according to AFP.
Earlier in the month Hamas declared that women and teenagers are no longer permitted to smoke hookahs in public.
According to new rules, women's clothing stores are not allowed to have dressing rooms. Stores also cannot have tinted windows, and cannot have cameras inside the shop. Any mannequins shaped like women must be dressed in modest clothing.
The new set of rules is aimed at maintaining “public morality,” Hamas spokesmen said.
Hamas has taken other restrictive steps toward enforcing Islamic law (Sharia) in Gaza. It has banned women from riding motorcycles, required men to wear shirts while swimming in the sea, and has ordered female attorneys to wear a headscarf while in court.
The Islamic terrorist group may be spurred by the opposition it faces from Salafi Muslim organizations, which claim to represent an estimated 11,000 residents of Gaza. Salafi extremists have accused Hamas of failing to enforce Islamic law enough, and have carried out bombings targeting music stores, Internet cafes, and even United Nations camps in which boys and girls are allowed to mingle.
7. Report: Hizbullah Activist Behind Hariri Assassination
by Elad Benari
An Israeli television report which aired on Thursday said that a Hizbullah activist is responsible for the assassination of a former Lebanese Prime Minister.The report that aired on Israel’s Channel 1 identified Mustafa Badr Aldin as the prime suspect in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri. Hariri, who was known for opposing Syrian interference in Lebanon, was assassinated on February 15, 2005 when explosives were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St. George Hotel in Beirut. 22 additional people were killed as a result of the explosion.
Aldin who is suspected of being behind the assassination is also the brother in-law of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in 2008 in a car-bomb attack in Damascus, while reportedly in the midst of planning major terrorist attacks in moderate Arab countries. Aldin’s name has been mentioned as a candidate to replace Mughniyeh as Hezbollah's chief operations officer.
The Channel 1 report stated that Aldin, who is also known by the name "Elias Sa'ab", commanded the failed attempt to assassinate Kuwait's ruler in 1985.
Last Thursday it was published that Hizbullah members are expected to face charges in the Hariri assassination. Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah addressed this and blamed the United States and Israel, saying the expected indictments were part of a Zionist and American plot to push their Middle East agenda. He suggested that Israel was in fact behind the assassination and said of the tribunal that looked into the Hariri killing: “As long as it didn't focus on Israeli involvement, it's not an honest tribunal.”
Hizbullah has several times denied that it is behind the Hariri assassination. Last year, following an article in the German news weekly Der Spiegel that charged Hizbullah with being behind the assassination, Hizbullah called the report an Israeli-American conspiracy "aimed at sowing discord between [Lebanon's] Sunnis and Shi'ites."
Thursday’s report on Channel 1 added that current Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri (Rafik's son) is pressuring the Special Tribunal for Lebanon not to publish Aldin’s identity as a prime suspect in his father’s killing due to his government's ties with Hizbullah, which is currently a part of Lebanon’s coalition government.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi King Abdullah will travel to Beirut on Friday as part of the Saudi king’s tour of the Middle East. This will be the Saudi king’s first visit to the country since 2002. Assad and Abdullah are expected to meet President Michel Sleiman as well as PM Hariri and members of his national unity government to discuss ways to maintain stability in Lebanon.
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