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1. Egyptian Author Threatens Lawsuit Over Hebrew Translation
by Elad Benari
An Egyptian author has threatened legal action against Israeli publishers who released an unauthorized Hebrew translation of his bestselling novel.
The novel in question is Alaa al-Aswany's novel "The Yacoubian Building". It was originally published in Arabic in 2002 and in an English translation in 2004. The book takes place in 1990, at about the time of the first Gulf War, and portrays modern Egyptian society since the coup of 1952, when King Farouk was overthrown by The Free Officers led by General Mohammed Naguib. The Yacoubian Building is an actual apartment building in downtown Cairo, in which al-Aswany, a dentist by profession, had his first office.
A best selling Arabic novel in 2002 and 2003, "The Yacoubian Building" has been translated into 23 languages worldwide. It was made into a film in 2006 and into a TV series in 2007.
The Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Understanding is the organization which had translated the novel to Hebrew, and explained that it was offering it to readers for free, to "expand cultural awareness and understanding".
In an online statement the group acknowledged that Aswany had refused to give permission for an authorized translation of the novel into Hebrew. Aswany for his part told Reuters: "This is a severe violation of my copyrights. The Yacoubian Building was translated, published and distributed for free without my permission."
While Aswany would not say whether he would ever allow an authorized translation of the novel into Hebrew, he said that publishing a translation without his permission amounted to "intellectual theft".
In fact, Aswany went as far as to accuse Israel radio of playing Egyptian songs without paying royalties. “Songs of (Egyptian singer) Umm Kulthum are broadcast every day for free on Israeli radio without respecting copyrights,” he said. “This would never happen to Frank Sinatra songs.”
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979 between Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat. The main features of the treaty were the mutual recognition of each country by the other, the end of the state of war between them, and a complete withdrawal by Israeli forces from the rest of the Sinai Peninsula which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967.
The Samaria International Liaison Office, which has been monitoring the brouhaha, commented: "Gershon Baskin's 'Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information' emphatic and arrogant attitude has resulted in the exact opposite of their goals. They set out to force more mutual appreciation between Egyptians and Israelis. But instead they have provided a strong platform for Egyptian intuletuals like Alaa al-Aswany to maintain his claim that Israelis are degenerates and thieves. In this particular case we tend to agree with al-Aswany."
Click here for an op-ed which takes a closer look at Egypt and its relationship with Israel.
2. Swift, Large-Scale IDF Action Caught Terrorist
by Gil Ronen
Swift action by the IDF led to to the capture of a terrorist just hours after he had fired a burst of bullets at a car carrying a Jewish couple Sunday night. The captive is Mohanned Mahmoud Azza, 34, of Bethlehem.
A senior military source said the terrorist was caught as a result of “a successful chase by soldiers from the Nachshon Battalion and the antiaircraft array, which made the terrorist's escape more difficult.”
The tracking-down of terrorist shooters immediately after an attack is rare. Usually, the gunmen manage to escape under cover of the night and are only caught a long time after their crime, through intelligence operations. This was not the case yesterday.
An IDF investigation has determined that at about 9:00 PM, Azza fired at an Israeli-licensed vehicle on the road from Har Gilo, northeast of Bethlehem, to Jerusalem. He managed to fire a single burst of automatic fire, from which one bullet struck the car, hurting no one. He then immediately attempted to escape, and managed to cover a considerable distance in a short time.
"We flooded the area with forces,” the military source said. “We identified his tracks and the forces followed them. Because of the magnitude of the force he was forced to change the route of his escape to a more difficult one.”
"We found him after three and a half hours in one of the ravines, on a steep cliff incline. The terrorist had been hiding between the bushes, but once he saw the force moving toward him he put up his hands.”
The terrorist is currently under interrogation. It is not yet clear of he acted alone or was part of a group.
The IDF stressed that the Palestinian Authority security forces were not part of the investigation.
3. UNESCO Erases Israeli Protests from Rachel's Tomb Protocol
by Hillel Fendel
“The attempt to detach the Nation of Israel from its heritage is absurd,” a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office asserts, in response to the UNESCO decision to recognize Rachel’s Tomb as a mosque and criticize Israel's inclusion of the Machpelah Cave as a "national heritage site."
“If the nearly 4,000-year-old burial sites of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish Nation – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah – are not part of its culture and tradition, then what is a national cultural site?” the statement asked rhetorically.
On Oct. 21, UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization – resolved that "Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel's Tomb [is] an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law."
Rachel's Tomb, located less than a kilometer south of the Jerusalem municipal border, has been recognized for more than 1,700 years as the tomb of Matriarch Rachel. Only ten years ago, some Muslims began calling it the "Bilal ibn Rabah mosque" as well. However, no Muslims have been known to pray there throughout the 43 years of Israeli control of the site.
“It is sad,” the PM’s office stated, “that an organization that was established for the purpose of promoting the legacy of historic sites around the world tries, for political reasons, to uproot the ties between the People of Israel and their legacy. The State of Israel, as opposed to our neighbors, will continue to maintain freedom of worship for all religions in these sites.”
UNESCO Erases Israeli Protests from Protocol
INN has learned that UNESCO erased from the protocol at which the resolution was voted on the remarks of protestation by Israeli representative Nimrod Barkan. UNESCO claimed that his words were “too aggressive.”
Barkan said afterwards, “The decision is politically slanted, and UNESCO is making a mockery of itself.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry released a similar statement.
When Did it Ever Become Moslem?
Even the UNESCO decision itself could barely explain the Moslem connection with Rachel’s Tomb. In an explanatory note to the proposed resolution, prepared by seven Arab states, the holy site is called “the Tomb of Rachel, home to the historic Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque.” But nowhere in the 11-paragraph document is it explained how or when the site came to be Moslem.
In fact, Rachel’s Tomb was venerated as such by Moslems for centuries, and up to only a few years ago, official Palestinian Authority publications never referred to the "Bilal bin Rabah Mosque.” Nadav Shragai notes that a publication called “Palestine, the Holy Land,” published by the Palestinian Council for Development and Rehabilitation, with an introduction by Yasser Arafat, simply says that "at the northwest entrance to [Bethlehem] lies the tomb of the matriarch Rachel, who died while giving life to Benjamin."
4. Time Clock Wreaks Havoc at Channel 1, Israel Radio
by David Lev
Channel One's 9 PM Mabat newscast, which has been broadcast in its time slot since the TV broadcasts began in Israel in the late 1960s, will either move to an earlier hour or be cancelled altogether because of a contract dispute with the Treasury. The Israel Broadcast Authority, under instructions from the Finance Ministry, is cutting out overtime pay and installing a time clock which workers will have to clock in and out with at work. As a result of the new rules, nearly all live broadcasts that were broadcast after 7 PM and on weekends are set to be cancelled.
The changes are due to take effect on Tuesday, November 2.
While IBA staff and management have agreed to broadcast Mabat earlier in the evening – most likely at 6:30 PM – it is possible that the program will be significantly shortened, or may not even be broadcast at all, IBA sources said. Similarly, all other live events, such as sports matches, will no longer be seen on Channel 1, and management was seeking to work out a deal with one of the commercial or cable stations for broadcast of games of the Israel Premier Soccer League (Ligat Ha'al).
The changes also affect Israel Radio, which will also no longer broadcast live events after 7 PM. As a result, soccer and basketball games will likely not be broadcast on the radio at all.
Long-time staff members and contract workers are strongly opposed to the installation of the time clock, but the clock is a requirement of the reforms being instituted by IBA management on the orders of the Treasury, which has said that the IBA had no right to sign contracts with many of its workers.
MK Ofir Akunis, chairman of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, told reporters Sunday that he planned to convene a meeting specifically to discuss the situation at the IBA, and to seek ways to convince workers to continue broadcasting after 7 PM. “There is no place for these kinds of actions on the part of employees. I don't know who is to blame or why, and I don't care. The bottom line is that it is a huge error to move Mabat to 7 PM. The viewers will be mainly hurt by this move, as Channel One's audience has specific, long-time viewing habits.”
IBA sources said that a committee of top IBA officials will meet daily to decide on how to handle each day's nighttime broadcasts, and to approve overtime pay if necessary.
5. Labor MK Wants Women in Peace Talks
by Maayana Miskin
Labor MK Einat Wilf is pushing for more female involvement in possible negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Committee on the Status of Women plan to meet to discuss the issue.
The meeting was planned to coincide with the tenth anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1325, which calls to include women in peace talks around the world.
The organization most closely associated with Resolution 1325 is the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), a 95 year old pacifist group with radical views on Israel. In its 2010 “Statement on Palestine,” WILPF's Middle East Committee blamed the Cast Lead counter-terror operation and the IDF closure of Gaza for terrible health problems: “Because of the war and the siege, Gaza has suffered health epidemics, including greatly increased birth defects and leukemia,” it says. There is no reference to a study or any other source that backs up these claims.
Wilf did not mention WILPF, but said: “The important thing is to see how resolution 1325 has been implemented, beyond declarations,” Wilf said. She said the issue is particularly important “due to the possibility of opening direct negotiations with the Palestinians.”
Wilf declared that she believes female representatives in negotiations could have a positive impact. “Beyond the obligation to uphold the law, the inclusion of women in decision-making during negotiations will enrich the Israeli position with a perspective that is not always included in public discourse,” she stated.
The push to include women in talks has continued despite the cessation of talks several weeks ago. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has refused to speak to Israel unless Israel agrees to freeze all construction for Jews east of the 1949 armistice line – including in Jerusalem, Israel's capital city.
In July, feminist activists pushed to include a woman on the Turkel Commission, which is tasked with investigating a clash between Israeli soldiers and Turkish terrorists off the coast of Gaza. While activists said a woman should be appointed “to give voice to the necessary gender perspective,” many of those involved hold radical left-wing views, and emails traded within the group suggested that they were hoping to see the commission include a woman with extreme-left political leanings.
6. Senator Schumer: Settlements No Obstacle to Peace
by Israel News staff
Senator Chuck (Charles) Schumer took the Obama administration to task for its Middle East policy on Sunday. What Obama must realize is that Arab refusal to recognize the Jewish state, and not Israelis in Judea and Samaria, is the obstacle to peace, he said.
“My basic view is very simple,” Schumer told his audience at the Agudath Yisrael breakfast in New York. “The reason we don't have peace in the Middle East is because a large percentage, I would say the majority.... of Palestinians and Arabs do not believe there should be a Jewish state anywhere in the Middle East. Period.”
U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to criticize Israel over construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria was “counterproductive,” he said. America's position on Jewish communities was “to the left of the PA” at one point, he added. Schumer noted that he made his objections known at the time, both in private meetings and publicly.
“Anyone who thinks the settlements are the cause of the problem, all they have to do is look at Gaza,” he said. Israel withdrew from Gaza completely, “and what was the response? Missiles on Sderot!” Schumer recalled.
What Obama and America should do for peace is to make it known that America's ties with Israel cannot be broken, he said. “By giving the Palestinian and the Arab world hope that they can break the tie between the U.S. and Israel, you don't further the cause of peace, you set back the cause of peace... If they think the tie is immutable, they will say, well maybe we should throw in the towel and have some kind of peace with Israel. It's that simple.”
While it is possible to hold any one of a variety of views regarding Israel-PA negotiations, “what's unequivocally wrong in my opinion is saying that settlements are the reason there's not peace and there's not talks,” the senator said.
He expressed belief that the Obama's administration's views are changing “in a positive direction,” saying, “We have some very strong allies within the administration.”
Schumer's speech was met with enthusiastic applause.
“Senator Schumer's comments are significant because he has been one of the strongest supporters of Obama's policies both domestically and on foreign issues,” explained Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) Vice-President Rubin Margules. “He has always been a strong supporter of Israel, and his pro-settlement statements this morning reflect an emerging change in the attitude of many members of congress who are more vocal in their disagreement with Obama's policies.”
7. Poll Reveals 'Secrets' of the Hareidi Community
by David Lev
A wide-ranging poll by the Geocartographia organization of the hareidi-religious Jewish public says that the community will consist of over one million members inside of a dozen years. By 2022, the poll says, the hareidi community in all of its forms – Hassidic, “Lithuanian,” and Sephardic – will number 1,018,535 individuals.
By 2022, the poll says, the Hareidi community in all of its forms – Hassidic, “Lithuanian,” and Sephardic – will number 1,018,535 individuals.
Currently, population experts estimate that the community consists of some 650,000 members. The near-doubling of the community by 2022 will be due to natural growth, as the average hareidi family has between 6 and 8 children. Experts believe there are currently 1.3 million hareidim in the world today.
The poll revealed some other interesting statistics about the community: For example, on average, hareidi families spend some NIS 3 billion ($725 million) on food products each year, out of a total of NIS 45.3 billion spent by all Israelis. Forty percent of hareidi parents go out to eat at least once a week, the poll said, as compared to 53% of the general population. Only 19% of hareidi families order food in from restaurants and fast food establishments; however, 29% of hareidim entertain guests at home on a regular basis, compared to 13% of all Israelis.
The poll also said that 66% of hareidi families do not own cars – and those that do prefer to buy used cars instead of new. Thirty nine percent own at least one cellphone, and 31.7% have more than one subscription. In addition, the poll said, 85% of hareidim said they were in good health, compared to 67% of the general population.
8. Was September Plane Crash a 'Practice Run' for Parcel Bombs?
by David Lev
United States and United Arab Emirates officials are said to be rethinking the causes of a plane crash in the UAE in September, in which a UPS jet carrying batteries was downed. Officials say that no evidence of a bomb was found, but a report on Channel 2 Sunday night said that, given the revelations that Al-Qaeda terrorists tried to send bombs to Jewish institutions in the United States via overnight parcels, experts are investigating the terror angle in September's crash. The UPS plane had made several stops in Middle Eastern countries before leaving the UAE for Europe. It was to have flown to the U.S. after stopping in Germany.
Right now we're making sure that we look at possible other events or other developments that might have some relationship with the most recent packages that we've discovered.
In an official statement, the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said that it “has concluded that there was no presence of acoustic evidence or any forensic signature supporting the detonation of an explosive device” in the crash of the UPS plane on September 3. The plane was on its way to Cologne, Germany, when it crashed into a military facility in Dubai. The pilot had reported smoke in the cockpit right before the crash. Despite the statement, the GCAA said it was continuing its investigation.
But on the CNN “State of the Union” interview program Sunday, John Brennan, who is a White House special counter-terrorism expert, said that the U.S. was “closely looking” at the September crash in light of the new developments. Brennan, in a follow up question on the September crash after discussing the parcel bomb plot with CNN's Candy Crowley, said that “right now we're making sure that we look at possible other events or other developments that might have some relationship with the most recent packages that we've discovered.”
Brennan added that he believed – and hoped – that the current threat was over. “We are working with the intelligence that we have. We feel as though we've stopped all of the packages that have come into the United States that were originating in Yemen.” However, he said, there was no guarantee that other packages would not be found. “The Yemeni authorities have cooperated to date. I really hope that cooperation continues. So we're trying to make sure that if there are other packages out there, that we're able to find them before they're able to be detonated,” he added.
Speaking on Army Radio Sunday morning, an Israeli security official said Sunday that the explosive parcels found over the weekend in Britain and Dubai would not have made it onto the plane in Israel. “Already from the early 1970s our security officials realized that we had to check commercial cargo, not just travelers, hand bags, and luggage,” Pini Schiff, the head of security at Ben Gurion Airport, told Army Radio. “You have to pay attention to all aspects of a plane's preparation in order to ensure that it can take off and arrive at its destination safely.”
The packages discovered over the weekend were found in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and in Britain, and had been cleared for shipment to Jewish institutions in Chicago. According to the U.S. Transport Safety Administration, at least 38% of cargo coming into the U.S. was not screened for security The two largest international parcel shippers, UPS and Fedex, ship nearly 25 million packages a day between them, according to TSA officials.
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