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Newsletter : 7fax0312.txt
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Abbas-Olmert Meet was "Tense and Uneasy"
By IsraelNationalNews.com
The meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was "tense and uneasy," according to PA terror master Muhamad Dahlan, who attended the meeting. Both sides agreed that the PA unity government was an internal Palestinian matter.
The PA representatives demanded a release of prisoners being held by Israel – especially underage prisoners, women and ill people. Olmert expressed willingness to meet with Abbas in a PA city in the future, claiming the move would promote the idea of reciprocity between Israel and the PA.
Abbas to Olmert: Shalit May be Freed Before Unity Government is Formed
By Ha'aretz
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will make an effort to secure the release of captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit as soon as possible, and perhaps before the formation of the new PA unity government, Abbas told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday.
Olmert and Abbas met face to face in the Prime Minister's Residence Jerusalem for more than two hours Sunday. According to the Prime Minister's Office, the meeting was conducted in a "positive atmosphere" and dealt primarily with ongoing issues.
The two leaders agreed to continue meeting on a regular basis in order "to discuss issues related to security, the war on terrorism, and improving the conditions in which Palestinians live," the PMO said.
Senior Abbas aide Mohammed Dahlan said the Palestinians called on Olmert to ease travel restrictions in the West Bank by removing roadblocks, and to release sick and elderly Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, but Olmert made no promises.
Olmert reiterated his commitment to the two-state solution, in accordance with his Sde Boker address several months ago. According to PMO sources, Abbas told the prime minister that he supports the three principles laid out by the so-called Quartet of Middle East negotiators, according to which the PA government must recognize Israel, renounce terror and abide by prior agreements.
The PA chairman also accepted Israel's security demands, namely the release of Shalit, a halt to the ongoing Kassam rocket fire, and prevention of arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Abbas asked Olmert to uphold the Gaza ceasefire, although he agreed that the truce is dependant on the actions of the PA.
Olmert told Abbas that Israel would not discuss expanding the truce to the West Bank until it is fully implemented in the Gaza Strip. The prime minister also told Abbas that not only would Israel not recognize the PA unity government unless it agrees to the Quartet demands, Israel would not hold contacts with Fatah ministers serving in the unity government. In essence, Olmert told Abbas not to appoint Fatah officials who are in contact with Israel, in order to prevent the contacts from being terminated.
Olmert also asked Abbas how the $100 million in tax revenues that Israel transferred to the PA in recent months was spent. Israeli officials have said that a large portion of the funds was used to pay the salaries of members of the PA security forces, instead of being used to reform the security forces.
The meeting was Abbas and Olmert's second round of talks in less than a month, and comes weeks after Abbas' Fatah movement and the ruling Hamas reached an agreement at a summit in Mecca to form a unity government. Abbas had planned to ask Olmert to view the new PA unity government "as a positive step," his aide said.
The meeting took place at Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem. Olmert and Abbas walked into the residence together. The two leaders, flanked by their aides, sat on opposite sides of a conference table as the talks began. Olmert smiled to TV cameras in the room as he exchanged pleasantries with Abbas.
Hours before the summit, Olmert said Sunday that Israel was willing to treat the 2002 Saudi peace initiative "seriously," and said he supports a regional summit to discuss the plan.
Long-Secret Archive of Nazi Records to be Opened
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Millions of secret files on concentration camps and their victims are likely to be opened by the end of the year. Representatives of the 11 nations that comprise the governing commission of the International Tracing Service voted late last week to begin the process to publicize the papers, AP reported. The Service controls between 30 and 50 million pages of Holocaust documentation.
The body approved a set of recommendations for copying and transferring files to Holocaust institutions for use by survivors, victims' relatives and scholars. Two obstacles still remain, however: A more formal vote to be taken two months from now, and a unanimous ratification of a previous agreement to end the 60-year ban on using the files for research.
Among the 11 nations, Israel, the United States, Poland and the Netherlands have completed ratification, while Germany, Britain and Luxembourg are expected to do so within the next two months. France, Belgium, Italy and Greece are still not on board.
The files, stored in Bad Arolsen, Germany, have been used since the 1950s to help locate missing persons or uncover the fate of people who disappeared during the Third Reich. Later, the files were also used to validate claims for compensation. Only personnel of the Tracing Service, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, have had access to the files, which fill 16 miles of gray metal filing cabinets and cardboard binders in six buildings.
Though ratification is still incomplete, the process of opening the files "is irreversible," Reto Meister, director of the Tracing Service, told AP. Notably, the 11 delegations agreed that the Tracing Service should begin electronically transferring scanned files even now.
Institutions on the receiving end, such as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Israel's Yad Vashem memorial, will need several months to integrate the data and get them ready for public use.
Despite the tremendous amount of literature written about the Holocaust, scholars say there are still gaps to be filled in by the Bad Arolsen files. The papers include original Nazi letters, details of the concentration camps' structures, slave labor records and uncounted testimonies of victims and ordinary Germans who witnessed the brutality of the Gestapo.
The Bad Arolsen archives index 17.5 million names that appear in its files, making them the world's most complete record of individual suffering during the Holocaust.
Meister said the collection of documents on concentration camp incarcerations - some 13 million pages of death registers, transportation lists and camp registries - will be ready in June. The rest of the documents will be scanned and transferred within a year.
AP reported that Germany, which funds the Tracing Service, agreed to increase its allocation beginning next year to help offset the $3.2 million needed to speed up the digitization and transfer of files, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum also will provide an unspecified amount.
Egypt Seeking Murder Charges Against Ben-Eliezer
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Egyptian officials are reportedly "gathering evidence" against Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to try him on murder charges in Egypt or at the World Court in The Hague. They claim that soldiers under his command during the 1967 Six Day War executed 250 Egyptian prisoners of war at the close of the conflict, rather than transfer them to prisons in Israel.
In an article in the government-controlled Al-Ahram newspaper Friday, a government spokesperson said that Cairo was "gathering evidence" in order to make a case against Ben-Eliezer. Members of the Egyptian parliament are calling for Israel to recall its Ambassador to Cairo, Shalom Cohen, as part of the brouhaha. Moreover, former United Nations secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali is reportedly lobbying Egyptian authorities to take the case to the UN International Criminal Court (ICC).
The controversy began with an Israeli documentary film, "The Spirit of Shaked," which aired in Israel earlier this month. Egyptian officials claimed that the documentary proved that "Israeli hands are drenched with the blood of Egyptian prisoners."
Ben-Eliezer, who led the elite Shaked unit during the war, has denied the charge. He said that no massacre of Egyptian troops had occurred and that Israel was fighting Fedayeen terrorists in Gaza. The unit he headed, he said last week, had killed "a battalion of Palestinian Fedayeen operating from the Gaza Strip. I'm talking about this particular event, the 250. There were no Egyptians in this area."
In addition, the producer of the documentary said that the report verified that the dead fighters were armed and were killed while fighting. Some commentators have questioned why such a movie was broadcast on government-funded television.
Last Tuesday, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tzipi Livni met with her Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, to express Israel's concern over the allegations. Livni bluntly told Aboul Gheit during their meeting that "certain elements in Egypt are misrepresenting the documentary film... without checking the facts or substantiating what actually happened, with the intent of sabotaging our two countries' relationship."
Livni made it clear that the film does not describe a case of a massacre of prisoners of war, but rather the death of soldiers in the heat of battle. She promised to forward a copy of the film and a transcript of the narration to the Egyptian official.
Missing Iranian General Askari was a Spy
By IsraelNationalNews.com
According to recent reports, Iranian General Ali Reza Askari was a spy. Askari disappeared recently during a vacation in Turkey. While Iranian sources initially accused America and Israel of kidnapping him, it was later discovered that he had defected to America.
The Washington Post reported that Askari spied for Western countries over the course of the past four years, revealing information about the Lebanese terrorist group Hizbullah and its ties to Iran. Askari was forced to flee after the Iranian secret service began to suspect him. According to the Post report, Israel was responsible for planning Askari's escape.
Singing with the Enemy
By YnetNews.com
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is taking another turn. After years of bloody conflict, abductions and Kassam rocket fire – the Palestinians are about to fight Israel with a completely different weapon: a microphone, choreography and sequined costumes. Those who didn't want the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem will get it next year at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Israel has been taking part in the Eurovision song contest since 1973. For years, Israeli singers got the opportunity to appear before the world and even won the contest three times. At the same time, Arab singers who dreamed of an international career were not permitted to take part in the popular contest.
As of 2008, a singer or a group from the Palestinian Authority is expected to appear on the Eurovision stage as an official representative of the Palestinians.
In order to appear in the Eurovision contest, the Palestinian Authority's broadcasting authority will have to be accepted by the European broadcasting association organizing the event. A Danish company will assist the Palestinians in establishing the broadcasting infrastructure that will enable it to meet European standards. The Danes will also assist the elected Palestinian representative in preparing for the competition.
Coffee No Longer Automatically Kosher for Passover
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Rabbi Shmuel Singer - overseer of the Orthodox Union's "Kosher for Passover" certification program - writes that the OU has changed its policy regarding coffee on Passover. The OU, which certifies more than 400,000 products around the world for round-the-year consumption, is known as "the world's most recognized and the world's most trusted kosher symbol."
"Our position in former years in regard to coffee had been similar to tea," Singer writes in the latest yearly OU Passover update. "We maintained that all regular coffee, that is unflavored and not decaffeinated, is acceptable for Pesach without supervision. This is no longer true."
The reason for the change is that some coffee companies now add maltodextrin - which is either outright chametz [leaven, forbidden on Passover] or kitniyos [non-chametz grains banned on Passover in Ashkenazic households] - to their instant coffee. "As a result," Singer writes, "this coffee is not kosher for Passover."
However, the OU will continue to issue kosher-for-Passover certification for coffees that merit it, and warns that only coffee bearing an OU-P symbol, or brands listed in the gray area of the OU's Passover Directory, should be used. Ground coffee remains acceptable from any source as long as it is unflavored and not decaffeinated.
Changes have also been made in the OU's matzah line-up. For years, the only OU matzah bakery in the world was that of Manischewitz in the United States, where matzah such as Horowitz Margareten and Goodman's are baked. It continues to be the only one in the United States, but as of this year, Aviv, Osem, Yehuda and Rishon matzah products coming from Israel will also be OU-P certified.
