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1. Mubarak Replacing Mitchell? Bibi, Abbas Visiting Egypt Sunday
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to visit Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Sunday in what may be a scenario to avoid a disaster for the American-sponsored indirect ”proximity talks.”
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs’ European department director Freddy Eitan describes the current scene as a “diplomatic ballet.”
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell returned to the region late last week to set the stage for a resumption of the discussions and was promptly rebuffed by Abbas, who kept his word that he would not agree to meet Israeli leaders without an extension of the building freeze against Jews in Judea and Samaria.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Mubarak was postponed twice last week, once reportedly due to the Egyptian president’s trip to Germany for a medical check.
No one is suggesting that there will be a three-way summit, but the convergence of both leaders in Cairo on the same day may not be a coincidence. Egypt has billed itself as the representative of the Arab world that can guide—if not actually order—Abbas what to do.
With virtually all political observers warning from the outset that Mitchell’s efforts were doomed to failure. Mubarak has the chance to steal the show. Neither Abbas nor Netanyahu can afford to backtrack without losing their respective political bases, but the threat of renewed violence may force their hands, according to Bar-Ilan University political science Professor Gerald Steinberg.
If the date passes without any diplomatic progress, the Arab street, which has been full of expectations, may erupt.
Discussions between Prime Minister Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House earlier this month threw the ball back into Abbas’ court, with Abbas in the unusual position of being under pressure from President Obama to accept direct talks with Israel.
Eitan suggests that the United States still has one card to deal to Abbas: money. He told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that offering additional aid to the Palestinian Authority “could well open the door to a continuation of the process even though the trust between Abbas and Netanyahu has not returned to what it once was.”
2. Israeli Spy Escapes from Lebanon, Beirut Daily Reports
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
One of the four alleged "Telecom” spies has escaped to Israel from Lebanon, according to the Beirut An Nahar newspaper. The man, whose identity was not revealed, reportedly fled though the “Kilo 9” crossing gate in southern Lebanon two days ago. Israel has not commented on the alleged spy ring.
Sources told An Nahar that the Lebanese interior minister, security forces and intelligent agents are providing information on the incident, which will be forwarded to Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri.
The reported escape also disclosed the political power of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, whose terrorist organization has been an increasingly dominant force in the government.
Shortly after Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on Friday, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud received information from the intelligence agents concerning alleged spy Charbel Qazzi, considered by Lebanon to be the most important suspect in the alleged ring.
“Did the Information Branch have data about spy Charbel Qazzi before he was arrested by the Intelligence Directorate? Nasrallah asked. He answered his own question by stating, "I don't want answers because I already have them.”
Nasrallah called for sentencing the ring to death, as allowed under Lebanese law if their actions contributed to deaths during the Second Lebanon War. Nasrallah charged, “It has become clear without a shadow of a doubt that Israel completely controls all telecommunication networks in Lebanon.
"When the Israelis waged the war in 2006, they believed that everything related to the Telecoms was under their control. Israel did not attack the mobile phone operating companies because it controls them and it was shocked at the strength of Hizbullah’s leadership correlation.
"The agents and spies working for the Israeli enemy played a major role before the war because they provided the enemy with a list of targets. Following the war, the spies had to refill the target bank of the Israeli enemy after it became empty."
3. PA Says No to Obama Envoy on Direct Talks
by Maayana Miskin
Senior Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan announced Saturday that the Palestinian Authority will not hold direct negotiations with Israel at this time. The announcement followed a meeting between PA leaders and United States envoy George Mitchell.
Mitchell termed his meeting with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas “constructive” and “fruitful.” He told reporters that the latest round of meetings with Israeli and PA leaders “began to achieve President Obama's vision for comprehensive peace.”
US President Barack Obama spoke to Abbas by phone last week. Senior PA official Saeb Erekat later confirmed that the president urged Abbas to agree to direct talks.
Dahlan said the call for direct talks had been rejected because Mitchell “did not offer President Abbas and the Palestinian leadership any new Israeli responses regarding security and borders.” The PA has demanded that Israel agree to the 1949 armistice line as the basis for determining the border of a PA state before moving to direct negotiations.
Abbas has also insisted that when it comes to security, talks begin at the point where negotiations between the PA and the Olmert administration left off in 2008.
4. Abbas Freezes Mitchell’s Bid with New Condition: Int’l Troops
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Maayana Miskin
The Palestinian Authority has put into the deep freeze American efforts to coax it into direct talks with Israel on its being recognized as a new Arab country within Israel’s borders. Besides rejecting U.S. President Barack Obama’s direct appeal for direct talks, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas now demands that international forces be placed in Judea and Samaria before direct talks can begin.
Abbas’s added his new condition in an interview Saturday with the Jordanian al Ghad newspaper. "Israel must accept that the Palestinian territory in question be that of the 1967 borders and with the presence of a third party," he said.
Abbas claimed that former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had agreed to accepting international soldiers and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must accept the previous deal, although it was never ratified by the Olmert government. Olmert also has stated that the PA never responded to his proposal, while the PA has charged that it was Olmert who did not answer a PA offer.
Israel is willing to consider the stationing of European troops at Gaza crossings, but only if they are trained fighting forces, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (pictured) told German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. He named the French Foreign Legion, an elite military unit, as an example of the level of combat readiness that any foreign border monitors would need to possess.
Israel has been let down by European troops in the past, the Foreign Minister reminded Westerwelle. In 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, European states agreed to take charge of the Rafiah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. However, when Hamas began to threaten the international monitors stationed at Rafiah they fled, leaving the crossing unmanned. Israel was forced to deal with the fallout, which included weapons smuggling, Lieberman added.
Abbas' new condition was made the same day he and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell talked for three hours in Ramallah, where the PA leader held by his previously-stated determination not to budge from his demands.
As previously reported, Abbas also wants Israel to allow new Arab security posts, referred to by the PA as ”police stations,” throughout Judea and Samaria, including some in Area “C” where Jewish communities are prevalent.
The military establishment has been preparing the groundwork for the acceptance of the idea by recent statements praising PA forces and highlighting meetings between senior Israeli and PA military officers. Current agreements officially bar the PA from having an army, but its police forces have been trained by American generals and are being equipped with 50 armored personnel carriers (APCs).
The next step in the American attempt to bring Israel and the PA to the same table is in the hands of the Arab world. Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in separate visits, are talking with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday, and the Egyptian leader will then conduct talks with the Arab League later in the week.
5. IHH Linked to Turkish President Erdogan
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The IHH “charity," which attacked Israeli Navy commandos and which has been termed a terrorist group by Germany, is in cahoots with the governing Turkish party led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according a report in The New York Times.
The IHH has been exposed as a charity front for terror since the May 31 clash on the high seas when it supposedly was bringing humanitarian aid on a peace mission as a guise to break Israel’s sovereignty over the coastal waters of Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The latest disclosure by the Times proves that the IHH not only was sponsored by the government, but its officials also are inherently linked with Erdogan’s Justice and Development party, also known as the AK. As many as 10 AK legislators canceled plans at the last minute to join the IHH’s Mavi Marmara ship after being warned by Turkish government officials that their presence may be too dangerous diplomatically, Times’ reporter Tyler Hicks wrote.
(Pictured at left: Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan) Nine IHH members, thoroughly trained by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups, were killed after clubbing Israeli Navy soldiers who had boarded the ship nearly defenseless in an effort to prevent it from continuing on its course to Gaza. The incident resulted in a worsening relationship between Turkey and Israel, but if the Turkish legislators had been on board, the situation would have been far more grave.
Turkish government officials warmly received the terror activists on their return, after the ship docked at Ashdod and was found to be carrying no humanitarian aid at all.
"The mission to Gaza served both the IHH and the government by making both heroes at home and in the Arab world,” according to Ercan Citlioglu, a terrorism expert at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul and quoted by the Times.
Despite IHH claims that it is not connected with Erdogan’s party, Tyler’s research found that 21 people on the IHH board of directors have or had close links with the AK party, including Murat Mercan, who also is chairman of the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee. He was in the overland convoy that delivered aid to Gaza via Egypt last January.
6. 2,000-Year-Old Gold Coin a Testament to Galilee Ancient History
by Hana Levi Julian
A 2,000-year-old gold coin discovered by a West Virginia University student at an archaeological site in the upper Galilee has proven to be the find of the season.
It is the first Antonius Pius coin ever found in Israel and was discovered by Alexis Whitley and her friend, on one of the hottest days of the summer. The two were clearing away dirt and rocks at the Bethsaida site when suddenly, Alex spotted the sparkle of a coin as it slipped down.
Unaware of its significance, it took a while for Whitley to understand why excavation director Dr. Rami Arav immediately had her pose with the coin as photographers raced to the site.
The coin, which Arav described as a discovery of Biblical dimensions, weights 7 grams of 24-karat gold – 97.6 percent gold, to be exact. It depicts the portrait of Antonius Pius, a Roman emperor who rules from 138-161 CE.
“Not every job that is boring has boring results,” Arav chuckled, when asked in an interview with Israel National News how he managed to stay focused on one site for the past 24 years. “Sometimes the results are fascinating.”
Arav, a professor at the University of Nebraska, said the coin was issued to celebrate Pius' designation of consul for a second time, which according to historical records took place in the summer of 138 CE. He noted that Pius' ascension to consul should have been indicated with an announcement on the flip side of the coin – but instead, the coin shows a portrait of the goddess Pietas – which the chief archaeologist said may have been a rare and valuable misprint. “Somebody in the Roman Imperial mint goofed. It is like having a rare and mistaken silver dollar,” Arav explained.
The coin also supports the theory that Pius embraced the Jewish population in Rome, unlike his father, who brutally oppressed the Jewish revolts. Pius is considered to have been a personal friend of Rabbi Yehudah (Judah) the Prince, creator of the Mishnah.
Bethsaida was founded as a capital of the ancient kingdom of Geshur and was the birthplace of at least three Christian apostles – Peter, Andrew and Philip. The ancient town is located at Park HaYarden, north of Lake Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee. The site, discovered by Arav in 1987, has seen 24 seasons of excavations thus far.
Other finds over the past years have included a golden earring, an Athenian tetradrachm, a small Egyptian figurine (Pataekos) and common cooking pots.
The golden earring was made of two pieces comprised of the head of an unidentified animal, decorated with small gold balls, with gold and silver twisted filigreed strings, soldered together with a gold strap.
The tetradrachm, a find which relates to the Persian period(450-330 BCE), dates back to approximately 450 BCE, according to a post on the Bethsaida excavation web site. The small figurine depicting the Egyptian god Pataekos was unearthed from beneath a 10-cm level of sediment of red burnt soil at the dig in 1994. Although most of the blue glazing was faded or peeled away, noted Arav at the time, “a few deposits under the right arm and under the neck indicate its original turquoise color.”
A globular cooking pot was also found at the site, one of the most common that exists in the excavation of the Hellenistic-Roman periods in the Land of Israel. The globular pot, equipped with two handles that emerge from the rim and were attached to the shoulders, was a common find at the site, said Arav.
He added that the coin, as well as all the other finds at the Bethsaida dig, remain the property of the State of Israel. “It is part of the heritage of this country,” he said. “Soon after the professional publication of the coin it will go to the Israel Antiquities Authority and I believe that it will be on display in a museum.”
The Bethsaida Excavation is being carried out by a consortium of 20 universities and colleges worldwide, Arav explained. Among the institutions involved are American, European, Australian and Israeli universities, headed by the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
The next season for the dig is planned for May 22 – June 25, 2011, and is open to volunteers who would like to participate, even for only part of the time. Volunteers and staff are hosted by Kibbutz Ginosar, and food is reportedly kosher, though the specific level of supervision was not discussed. No excavation work is performed on the Sabbath or on Sunday. Professor Richard Freund of the University of Hartford, who Arav described as an ordained rabbi, also oversees the project. The Beit Yigal Allon Museum is located on the kibbutz and is the home of the Bethsaida Excavation Project laboratory and office in Israel. Applications for volunteers may be submitted by clicking here.
7. Turkish Hackers Steal Thousands of Email, PayPal, Bank Accounts
by Hana Levi Julian
Turkish hackers have stolen the details of thousands of Israeli bank, credit card and Pay Pal accounts, and posted the information online.
According to the Israeli We-CMS blog, the information was posted on to the message board of a Turkish Internet forum. By Sunday morning, the We-CMS blog itself was found “suspended” when Israel National News attempted to access the site.
In addition to the details of at least 32,561 Israelis, more than 140 passwords to Israeli government web sites and more than 300 passwords to Israeli academic web pages were swiped as well.
Globes business news service reports that many of the email addresses and passwords obtained by the Internet terrorists included accounts on Facebook, Gmail and Microsoft Live Messenger. Most of those had been hacked since the flotilla clash between IHH terror activists and Israeli Navy commandos aboard the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship in May.
Erez Wolf, owner of the We-CMS, warned reporters, “The hackers used the information in their possession to enter accounts on other web sites. Assuming that many surfers use the same email, same password and same user name to register on all the sites that require registration – because it's easier to remember – the email and password from the hacked site will be the same one that gets them into others... like Pay Pal. From what I've been able to learn on the forum, the hackers penetrated the Pay Pal accounts of Israelis, and their bank accounts, and also were able to obtain credit card details as well.”
Wolf added that surfers have been debating the use of the information on the Turkish message board where the passwords and user names were posted in an Excel document. The discussion, said Wolf, is focused on whether or not it is permitted under Islamic law to use the stolen data.
Some of the writers have contended that as enemies of Islam, it is permitted to wreak whatever havoc is possible to Israeli users, citing social, criminal and religious arguments. Several quoted passages from the Koran that referred to the disposition of assets belonging to infidels (heretics).
The Excel file was downloaded from the Turkish web site and handed over to the Israel Police, who were unavailable for comment Sunday morning.
Israelis seeking to check whether their email addresses or other information appears on the hackers' Excel list can go to the Hebrew-language Designer web site by clicking here.
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