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Newsletter : 2fax0531.txt
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Israel: More Incursions Possible into Palestinian Territories
By Meredith Buel (VOA-Jerusalem)
The Israeli military has withdrawn from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, after searching for militants allegedly responsible for carrying out suicide bombings and shooting attacks against Israelis.
Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers, and troops pulled out of Bethlehem and other forces withdrew from the adjacent Dheisheh refugee camp. Israeli soldiers raided the town and surrounding villages earlier this week, imposing a curfew that confined tens of thousands of Palestinians to their homes.
The army said that among those militants arrested during the incursion was a man responsible for planning a suicide bombing last week that killed two Israelis in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
During the raid Israeli soldiers blocked access to the Church of the Nativity, built over the site where tradition says Jesus was born, to prevent another standoff at the shrine with Palestinian gunmen.
Last month some militants took refuge inside the basilica during a previous Israeli incursion, and remained there for more than five weeks until a deal was reached to send them into exile in Europe or the Gaza Strip. Earlier, Israeli forces arrested at least 10 Palestinians during brief raids into Hebron, Jenin and a village near Tulkarm in the West Bank.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the incursions will continue until Palestinian attacks are stopped. "While attempts are being made to resume the peace process we also have, of course, to continue and fight terror," he emphasized. "There can be no immunity for terrorists. They can not expect to come and kill Israelis and then go and hide anywhere within the territory of the Palestinian Authority."
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns is in the Middle East as part of a fresh diplomatic effort to end 20 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Burns met with Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah and is scheduled to hold talks on Friday with top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Burns said he is in the region to renew a serious political process and support Palestinian efforts to build strong institutions in preparation for statehood. "There has been too much suffering and too much death for both Palestinians and Israelis." he stressed, "It is time to restore a sense of hope."
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, is due to travel to the Middle East on Friday and is expected to focus on helping the Palestinian Authority reform its security services.
PA Television Portrays Palestinian Martyrdom as a Christian Ideal
By Itamar Marcus
The Palestinian Authority has constantly presented the yearning for martyrdom as an Islamic ideal incumbent upon every Muslim. On Thursday, it broadened the religious significance, presenting martyrdom as a Christian ideal as well. On a television program discussing the power of words the following poem glorifying martyrdom was read and displayed on the screen. The poem promises that the martyr, in afterlife will, together with the Koran, "carry a cross."
"The Winds of Revolution"
"Why do you kill my dream,
And not let me die as a Martyr?
My death will strengthen me,
And melt the iron for me.
I do not die to end,
Because in my death -is life,
In my death -is a hymn.
I am, my friend, a revolution in a human body,
A determined volcano.
I will carry my soul on my shoulder,
And in the Afterlife I will carry
A Cross and a Koran."
Charges Against Israeli Woman
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Security officials announced that the police have arrested an Arab man and his Jewish wife, residents of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, who are suspected of driving suicide terrorists to a Rishon L'Tzion mall.
The woman, who immigrated to Israel 11 years ago from the former Soviet Union, said that she did not know in advance of the terrorists' intentions, and only realized what she had done after news of the attack became known.
"Settler" Removed from Broadcasting Lexicon
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Yosef Bar'el, director-general of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, has instructed his employees not to use the word "mitnachel" - settler - when referring on their broadcasts to residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
Environment Minister Tzachi HaNegbi was the one to raise the issue with Bar'el, in light of the negative connotations the word has taken on. Linguist Dr. Yitzchak Shashar of Ofrah told Arutz-7: "Actually, I like the word Mitnachel, as it's based on a commandment in the Torah: 'V'hitnachaltem... You shall divide the Land for an inheritance by lot among your families' (Num. 33, 54)."
He said that in the 1950s, when he lived in Tirat Tzvi, "I was also called a settler - such that there is clearly no difference between pre-1967 and post-1967 areas... Nor should there be a difference between the 'residents' of Tel Aviv and the 'settlers' of Yesha."
Sheshar said that he is not sure he would have made the same decision as Bar'el: "On the one hand, the term has definitely taken on a negative connotation in some parts of the public, but on the other hand, it has the above positive qualities. I sometimes use the term 'liberated territories,' or Yesha [the Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - Yehuda, Shomron, and Aza] - I like that term very much, because it has the added connotation of Yeshuah, salvation."
