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Newsletter : 2fax1209.txt
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Israel Investigates Possible Illegal Transfer of Palestinian Funds
By VOA News
Israeli officials say they are investigating possible financial ties between a former Israeli intelligence officer and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. The former officer, Yossi Ginossar, is suspected of having managed a Swiss bank account for Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. He allegedly helped the Palestinians transfer millions of dollars to the account and received large commissions for his work. Ginossar denies any wrongdoing.
Arab TV: Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Kenya Attack
By Greg LaMotte (VOA-Cairo)
The al-Qaeda terror group has reportedly claimed responsibility for attacks that claimed 13 victims last month in Kenya. The group threatened to widen its war against the "Christian-Jewish alliance."
An audio statement carried on an Islamist website was broadcast on the Qatar-based al Jazeera television channel. It claimed responsibility for the Nov. 28 suicide bomb attack at the hotel in Mombassa, as well as also claiming responsibility for a failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner taking off from a nearby airport. Israel had named al-Qaeda as the prime suspect in the attacks.
The man speaking on the audio Internet message identified himself as Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a spokesman for Osama bin Laden's terror group. The statement promised more "lethal" attacks against the United States and Israel.
The statement, in part, said, "The Christian-Jewish alliance will not be safe from attacks by the Mujahideen, or Muslim warriors" and added that the next phase of attacks will be bigger and more lethal and will occur on land, sea, and in the air.
Ghaith proclaimed himself an al-Qaeda spokesman following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. His whereabouts and those of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden are unknown. The statement noted that al-Qaeda does not usually claim responsibility for attacks, but would do so according to what it calls "relevant circumstances."
Palestinians Accuse Israel of Setting Up Fake al-Qaeda Cell
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of setting up a fake al-Qaeda cell in the Gaza Strip in order to justify launching attacks inside the territory. Israel dismissed the claim as ludicrous.
The Palestinian Authority said Saturday that Israel's Mossad security agency had enlisted what it called Palestinian collaborators in the Gaza Strip to pose as members of Osama bin-Laden's al-Qaeda network. Palestinian officials made the claim in response to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's allegations that al-Qaeda members had infiltrated Palestinian areas of Gaza.
The Palestinian chief of Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip, Rashid Abu Shbak, said his forces uncovered Palestinians in the territory, who allegedly had been ordered by Israeli security officials, "to work under the name of al-Qaeda."
Raanan Gissin, a Sharon spokesman dismissed the Palestinian statements against Israel as, "sheer nonsense." Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat also described as a big lie Sharon's statement that al-Qaeda members had penetrated the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, with the aim of targeting Israel. Sharon did not provide any details.
Speaking to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat said that Sharon had made the claims in order to justify what Arafat called crimes against the Palestinian people.
Palestinian Witnesses: Women Killed in Gaza Strip By Israeli Troops
By VOA News
Alleged Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded three of her children in the southern Gaza Strip. The witnesses said the victims were walking through a Palestinian refugee camp Sunday when they came under fire, adding that another woman was also injured.
But the Israeli army has another version of the incident. The military said its soldiers fired on six armed militants approaching the nearby Jewish settlement of Rafah Yam. It says four of the militants were wounded, and two escaped.
The violence comes after Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, including two U.N. workers, Friday during a fierce gun battle at the Palestinian's Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The fighting erupted when Israeli forces launched a pre-dawn raid to target a local militant leader involved in an earlier attack that killed three Israeli soldiers.
In other news, Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat said Sunday that a general election set for Jan. 20 would have to be delayed unless Israel eases its incursions into Palestinian-ruled areas.
The United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- the so-called Mideast Quartet, laid out a peace plan in September that includes Palestinian elections next year. The elections would be followed by the introduction of a Palestinian constitution and the creation of an interim Palestinian state.
Thieves With A Conscience
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Three months ago, the family home in Ashkelon of Emil Azulai - one of 73 soldiers killed in the helicopter crash in northern Israel almost six years ago - was broken into, and money and jewelry was stolen. What the robbers did not realize, however, was that some of the jewelry had tremendous sentimental value, as it had belonged to Emil.
The family made a public appeal, and last week, it was answered. "In the blue trash bin near the bus stop across from the main phone office," said an anonymous voice in a phone call to the Ashkelon Police Department, "you will find the jewelry wrapped in toilet paper." When the police arrived on the scene, together with a bomb sapper, a second phone call came in: "Tell the police they're precisely in the right place."
After the jewelry was found, identified, and returned to Emil's family, his father said, "I don't care about the other stuff [that was not returned]. This took me six years back, and it all came bursting out again... I am happy that at least they did this little act."
Suicide Bomber: Heroic Role Model for Young French Readers of New Book
By Israel Faxx News Sources
A newly released best-selling novel for teens, Rever la Palestine (Dream of Palestine), sympathetically portrays a young Palestinian who becomes a suicide bomber. The 15-year-old Egyptian author, Randa Ghazi, who lives with her family in Italy, writes about Palestinian teenagers who fight "bloodthirsty Jews, who assassinate children and old people, profane mosques, and rape Arab women."
Dream of Palestine is being touted as "surprisingly mature" and "a great text of suffering and hope." One of the novel's heroes calls for Jihad against the Jews who are "a doomed people" and to "kill all Israelis." The main character is encouraged "to kill hundreds in his suicide bombing" and later does blow himself up along with five Israelis.
Released to coincide with the Christmas season, and inexpensively priced, Dream of Palestine has quickly sold out in major bookstores in Paris. Flammarion, the third largest publishing house in France, a subsidiary of the Italian media giant, has released it Rizzoli Corriere della Sera, which includes among its holdings one of the largest Italian daily newspapers and Rizzoli bookstores in the United States.
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