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| Monday, Jun 4 '12, Sivan 14, 5772 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Two-Day March from Givat HaUlpana to Knesset Begins
by Gil Ronen  Hundreds of Jewish nationalists and residents of the threatened Givat HaUlpana neighborhood in Beit El began a two-day protest march Monday. The march began at the Givat HaUlpana neighborhood and will end Wednesday outside the Knesset, as the Regulation Bill that could save the neighborhood from demolition comes to a vote. On its way to Jerusalem, the march will pass through Givat Assaf, another neighborhood facing the threat of bulldozing by the state unless the Regulation Law is passed. On Sunday, the Attorney General and Legal Advisor to the Government Yehuda Weinstein held a discussion in his bureau regarding the idea of moving the Givat HaUlpana buildings to the military base next to Beit El. He then met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to share the discussion's conclusions. Various reports later said that Weinstein thinks the idea of moving the buildings raises legal problems and requires more in-depth discussion. Weinstein reportedly has a problem with construction of the homes on land meant for military, not civilian construction. Netanyahu is expected to continue to demand that his ministers vote against the Regulation Law. It is not clear if he will also threaten to fire ministers who disobey him.
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2. Judge: Why the Hurry to Demolish?
by Gil Ronen  Laws must be obeyed, but what is one to think when the principle is upheld differently based on nationality? As the vote on the Regulation Law that could save Givat HaUlpana nears, nationalist Facebook users have been sharing a link to a news article from the recent past. The item concerns the illegal Bedouin community of Al Sara in the Negev, where 51 illegal structures were built. In late 2011, Kiryat Gat Magistrates' Court Judge Yisrael Axelrod ruled that the 51 demolition orders issued by the state against the structures were null and void. The judge asked why the demolition orders were only issued in 2006, when the Bedouin families have been living at the location for dozens of years, and when the state has no immediate need for the land in question. One can only wonder why a similar question did not guide the High Court judges when they ordered the demolition at Givat HaUlpana neighborhood, which was created with full state approval 12 years ago. Maariv journalist Kalman Libeskind has also shown that judges ruled differently on illegal construction when Arabs are the ones building illegally, or when the legal owner of the land is not an Arab.
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3. Yesha Chief: Gov't Lying about Moving Houses
by Gil Ronen  Yesha Council Head Danny Dayan scoffed Sunday at the government's promises to move the buildings of Givat HaUlpana in their entirety to a new location. Dayan said the government was pulling the wool over the public's eyes and that any Coalition Minister or Knesset Member who fails to vote against the Regulation Law "should see himself as driving the demolition bulldozer." The plan to "saw" the homes and move them to the new location is a bluff, he contended. Unlike the Kirya in Tel Aviv, where homes from the Templar neighborhood were moved a few years ago, the ground at Beit El is rocky, making the relocation of the buildings impossibility. The promise to issue new permits for construction as "compensation" for the destruction is also a bluff, he said. Experience shows that while the demolition will take place on time, the plans for construction will be stuck in some clerk's desk for years.
Tags: Danny Dayan ,Givat HaUlpana ,demolition.
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4. Rumor: Netanyahu May Leave Likud
by Shlomo Pyotrkovsky  Is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu planning a move similar to the one undertaken by Ariel Sharon, who left Likud and created a new party, Kadima, in 2005? The deep tension over the fate of Givat HaUlpana is giving rise to renewed rumors that such a move is possible. Sources close to the prime minister have been making veiled threats to this effect in the past few days. The threats are directed to the ears of Likud ministers, who are unsure how to vote Wednesday on the Regulation Bill that would legalize Givat HaUlpana, saving it and neighborhoods with similar legal status from being torn down. According to these threats, Netanyahu may carry out what is termed in local politics "a big bang," like the move Sharon executed seven years ago to enable him to carry out the Gaza Disengagement. He will leave Likud – presumably with some of the Likud MKs in tow, like Sharon – and join forces with Kadima, the party Sharon formed when Likud refused to support the Disengagement. This could happen, the rumor says, if Likud ministers embarrass Netanyahu by voting in favor of the Regulation Law. While such threats have been floating in the political arena for a long time, it seems that Netanyahu's confidantes have poured new life into them in order to threaten the ministers.
Tags: ariel sharon ,kadima Party ,Disengagement
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5. Kadima MK: We Are the Most Influential Party in the Coalition
by Elad Benari  MK Shai Hermesh (Kadima) expressed great satisfaction on Sunday with the fact that his party’s status has significantly increased since it joined the coalition. Hermesh said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to evictthe residents of the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El, a position supported by Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz, was proof of his party’s significance. “Kadima is the party with the greatest influence on the government,” Hermesh told Arutz Sheva, adding that if Netanyahu would not have chosen to evict and relocate the residents of Ulpana, he would have reconsidered Kadima’s joining the coalition. He added that Netanyahu previously could not act in accordance with his “relatively moderate positions”, as he put it, because of the extremists in the government. Now, said Hermesh, Netanyahu can act according to his moderate positions because he has Kadima’s support within the coalition. “Without Kadima’s 28 hands in the government, which soften and diminish the right-wing positions, Netanyahu would not have dared to stand strongly against the residents of the Ulpana neighborhood and against [MK] Ya’akov Katz, and I say this with full responsibility,” said Hermesh. He added that he was surprised by MK Zevulun Orlev for continuing to promote the law to legalize Jewish outposts and disputed neighborhoods. The law would mandate solving cases in which homes were built on private Arab land through compensation rather than destruction but, according to Hermesh, if the Arab landowner refuses to accept compensation he cannot be forced to do so. This should be applicable in all of Judea and Samaria, in the Ulpana neighborhood, and in similar cases in the rest of the country, Hermesh claimed. He also rejected the threats of some of the nationalist Knesset members, from the Likud and other parties, to leave the government if the Ulpana neighborhood is demolished. “They won’t do it for one simple reason, and that is the popularity of the Prime Minister and his being perceived by the public as the only man worthy to hold this position,” claimed Hermesh. "No one can oppose a strong leader. They will roar, bark and call the whole world into action, but this is a powerful and popular Prime Minister. It’s hard to believe that someone from within his own party will challenge him. I'm not sure that Hotovely, Danon, Regev and Edelstein can present an alternative.”
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6. Report: Israel Intensifies Security Along Border with Egypt
by Elad Benari  Israel has intensified security on its border with Egypt after verdicts were issued in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak, security sources in the Sinai Peninsula told the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper on Sunday. Eyewitnesses at the border area told the newspaper that the presence of Israeli armored vehicles and border patrols has increased markedly over the past two days due to fears of terrorism. The sources denied that Egypt had deployed forces on its borders and said everything was normal. On Saturday, Mubarak and his longtime interior minister, Habib al-Adly, were given life sentences for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising last year which brought about Mubarak’s ouster. The 84-year-old Mubarak reportedly suffered a heart attack upon his arrival at Tora Prison. Medical staff at the prison treated Mubarak and stabilized his condition. A security official said Mubarak refused to disembark from the helicopter that brought him to the prison and broke into tears upon his arrival. At the same time, the court cleared six high-ranking Interior Ministry officials of the same charges, and acquitted Mubarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal of financial corruption charges. Egypt’s chief prosecutor has appealed the life sentence handed down to Mubarak, saying he should be sentenced to death for the killing of more than 800 demonstrators last year. The appeal automatically included asking for a new verdict for Mubarak’s two sons and six security officers who were acquitted. The life sentence handed triggered mass protests by tens of thousands of Egyptians who wanted nothing less than the death penalty. The verdict played into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi is campaigning against a former Mubarak aide, Ahmed Shafiq. "The public prosecutor did not carry out its full duty in gathering adequate evidence to convict the accused for killing protesters," said Morsi’s campaign spokesman. Shafiq, meanwhile, hit hard at the Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, warning that an Islamist victory will lead to terrorizing Christians and accusing the Brotherhood of trying to make “Palestine" the central issue for Egyptians. In an unusually sharp attack, Shafiq accused the Brotherhood of acting as if “Palestine is the capital of Egypt.” He said that Egyptians face several domestic issues that should not be overshadowed by the status of the Palestinian Authority, whose Hamas faction was founded by the Brotherhood. “Don’t let the Muslim Brotherhood control Egypt and take it to the dark ages," Shafiq declared. "I represent a secular state... the Brotherhood represents a sectarian state. I represent progress and light, they represent backwardness and darkness.” Thousands of people took to the streets in cities across Egypt on Friday, to demand that Shafiq be disqualified from the presidential runoff. Shafiq has said that he would be ready to visit Israel, if elected, “provided it gives something to show it has good intentions.” The Muslim Brotherhood, which also clinched the majority in recent parliamentary elections, has threatened to cancel the peace treaty with Israel by putting the issue up for a referendum and letting Egyptians decide.
Tags: Egypt ,Hosni Mubarak ,Egypt-Israel ,Ahmed Shafiq ,terrorism
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7. Islamic Jihad Threatens Judea and Samaria
by Elad Benari  Khaled al-Batash, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad terror group, threatened on Sunday that his movement will not allow Israel to continue its current behavior towards Palestinian Authority Arab prisoners. Speaking at a rally in solidarity with two terror prisoners, Mahmoud Al-Sarasek and Akram Al-Richawi, currently being held in Israeli prisons, al-Batash said that the decision whether to escalate the situation or bring about calm is in Israel’s hands. He then threatened that if it any harm is caused to the prisoners, the group’s response will be painful and the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron) will be in danger. The two prisoners’ health has deteriorated recently, according to Arab sources, especially Al-Sarasek, who has been on a hunger strike for 81 days. Al-Sarasek is a player on the PA’s soccer team and has been in prison for three years. He began a hunger strike in March in protest of the fact that he has not yet been brought to trial. He continued his hunger strike even after the end of the mass hunger strike by thousands of Arab prisoners. As part of a deal to end the mass hunger strike last month, Israel made some concessions to the PA, including an agreement to stop placing prisoners in solitary confinement. In addition, Israel agreed to allow prisoners to call relatives, to pursue academic studies, and to allow prisoners from Gaza as well as from Judea and Samaria to receive visits from family members. The deal also included a release of the bodies of 91 terrorists to the PA. The release of the bodies was s another in an ongoing series of “gestures” by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the PA, in an effort to encourage PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to agree to return to negotiations with Israel. So far, the PA has refused, although Abbas has accepted Israel's “gestures.”
Tags: Islam ,terrorism ,Yesha ,hunger strike
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8. McCain: Obama Leaked Info on Stuxnet Attack to Win Votes
by Elad Benari  U.S. senator John McCain on the weekend accused President Barack Obama's administration of leaking the report of Obama's approval of cyber-attacks against Iran in a bid for pre-election glory. AFP quoted McCain as having told reporters in Singapore, where he was attending a conference on Asian security, “Again we see these leaks to the media about ongoing operations, which is incredibly disturbing. Doesn't this give some benefit to our adversaries?” McCain also pointed to previous leaks that revealed details of last year's U.S. raid that led to the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. He was responding to a New York Times report from Friday which said that Obama ordered the Stuxnet virus attack on Iran in 2010, as part of a wave of cyber sabotage and espionage against the would-be nuclear power. The report was based on a new book, citing senior Washington sources, which chronicles secret wars under the Obama administration. The book, “Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power”, was written by David Sanger. The Stuxnet virus, aimed at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, was designed to damage centrifuges by making covert adjustments to the machines controlling them. It was part of a “wave” of digital attacks on Iran, codenamed “Olympic Games” and was created with the assistance of a secret Israeli intelligence unit, the book says. McCain, who is the most senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in response to the report, “We know the leaks have to come from the administration. And so we're at the point where perhaps we need an investigation. So this is kind of a pattern in order to hype the national security credentials of the president, and every administration does it. But I think this administration has taken it to a new level.” While he admitted that the president has the authority to carry out such operations, McCain said most presidents would discuss them with a “select few leaders of Congress.” He added that the White House did not brief U.S. lawmakers about the cyber-attacks. The report on Obama’s role in the Stuxnet attack came several days after Iranian security experts reported that Flame, a virus far more dangerous than the Stuxnet worm, struck the country's computer systems. The virus, described by the Kaspersky Internet security firm as the “most sophisticated cyber-weapon yet unleashed”, struck at least 600 specific computer systems in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. Iran later admitted that its oil industry was briefly affected by Flame, but claimed that Iranian experts had detected and defeated the virus.
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Everyday of Freedom is an Act of Faith for my writings ============> http://robertoscaruffi.blogspot.com for something on religions ===> http://scaruffi1.blogspot.com
Monday, 4 June 2012
