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Newsletter : 7fax0321.txt
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What's In A Name?
Israel News Faxx Humor
I met a Chinese man who told me his name was Abe Schwartz. I asked him if he was Jewish to which he replied that he wasn't. "How did you get that name? Did your mother marry a Jewish man?" "Of course not! What happened was, when I came to this country and was standing on the immigration line, the man in front of me was named Abe Schwartz". When it came my turn, they asked me my name and I said, Sem Ting"
Syria Acknowledges Secret Peace Talks with Israel
By Israel Faxx News Services
Syria acknowledged it had recently held secret talks with Israel on a resumption of peace negotiations.
President Bashar Assad confirmed in a newspaper interview this week that when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in power, there had been unofficial and indirect contacts between Jerusalem and Damascus. Syrian officials had denied such talks when they were first reported by Ha'aretz in January.
"Various figures visited Israel and came to Syria and conveyed to us the Israeli points of view, but there was nothing serious on the ground," Assad told the Saudi daily Al-Jazeera. Assad voiced hope for a peace deal but noted the unpopularity of Israel's current Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.
"The present Israeli government, in particular, is the weakest government in the history of Israel," he said. "Perhaps we have lost hope in the Israeli government or in the U.S. administration for the next two years, but I cannot lose hope entirely."
Israel is skeptical about Syria's recent peace overtures, given its sponsorship of Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists
Civil Defense Exercise Largest Since 1948
By IsraelNationalNews.com
The IDF Home Front Command is continuing the largest civil defense drill in Israel's history on Wednesday. Simulating a combined attack on Israel on all fronts, the drill was suspended for over an hour on Tuesday because of intelligence warnings of a genuine attack.
The exercise was preceded by this Home Front Command announcement, repeated on radio broadcasts throughout the morning: "Sirens will be heard at 2 p.m. Tuesday in many parts of central and southern Israel and heightened activity of IDF, police and rescue forces will be noticeable during the exercise. Traffic disruptions may be felt and blast sounds may be heard across the country."
The wail of sirens were heard in most of Israel, from Hadera to the Negev desert, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be'er Sheva, Raanana, Ashkelon and Dimona. In case of a real emergency, the public was told it would be notified through the mass media.
Preparations for the drill were suspended for more than an hour in the forenoon hours in light of warnings of a genuine terrorist alert. The Coastal Highway was closed to traffic until a taxi carrying two suspects - as well as several innocent passengers - was located and stopped.
One month ago, a large suicide attack was thwarted when security services learned that a terrorist had infiltrated pre-1967 Israel and was on his way to blow himself up in a crowded area. Large areas of central Israel were practically closed down as the security forces pursued the would-be murderer, finally locating him in a hideout-apartment in Bat Yam.
Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency rescue service, said the drill is the largest nationwide drill ever held since Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. Nine MDA districts participated simultaneously, practicing to deal with an unprecedented number of simultaneous events and a very large number of simulated victims.
MDA crews in the southern parts of Israel (Lachish and Negev regions) simulated a joint Kassam and Katyusha rocket attack from Gaza, together with a terror attack using unconventional weapons in the Be'er Sheva train station, with a large number of simulated casualties. In central Israel, MDA drilled for a chemical terror attack on a school in Ramat Gan and a missile attack with conventional warheads.
Some emergency forces said an unclear division of labor could become dangerous in the event of a real emergency. "If a rocket falls in Netanya and causes damage," Fire Commissioner Shimon Romach told Ma'ariv while drilling with his forces in Ramat Gan, "the Home Front Command is responsible. But if a terrorist attack happens in the same building, the police are responsible. This is confusing."
Wednesday, on the second day of exercises, MDA will simulate a mega-terror attack with 400 casualties in two locations – the community of Neurim and in the coastal city of Netanya. The Police and the Home Front Command will simulate a Syrian rocket attack on Tel Aviv, supposedly knocking the Reading power station out of service, as well as a chase after a suicide terrorist in central Israel and a mass terror attack on a school.
Thousands of people will participate in the drill. The Prisons Service will rehearse mass rioting by Arab terror prisoners, hostage taking and attempted escapes.
"The aim of the exercise is to prepare the different services and bodies operating in the civilian environment for various emergency scenarios, while implementing the lessons learned during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006," a Home Front Command statement read.
Nationwide Strike Set for Wednesday Morning
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Following on-again, off-again negotiations with government ministers, as well as issued and withdrawn threats of a nationwide strike, Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini announced Tuesday afternoon that a general strike would begin Wednesday morning.
The paralyzing strike is a bid to force the government to find an immediate solution to unpaid wages due to thousands of workers in many of the country's municipalities.
The Histadrut, the national labor union, is responsible mainly for employees in the public
sector. Therefore, the looming strike will impact Ben Gurion International Airport, all
employees of the nation's city halls (except for those working in special education), the
religious councils, coastal lifeguards, fire brigades (other than the ones participating
in an ongoing nationwide security drill), government ministries (other than the Ministry
of Defense), the National Insurance Institute, the Employment Service, the court system,
Israel Railways, border crossings, sea ports, and the Bank of Israel, which will stop
providing cash to the banks.
The health and education systems will operate as usual, but teachers' assistants will not be working in public kindergartens.
A report compiled and released by the Histadrut shows that 3,700 employees of 36 municipalities and 16 municipal religious councils remained unpaid as of Tuesday afternoon. This figure, Histadrut spokespeople noted, does not even include the 1,400 retirees from municipal public service who have not been receiving their pension payments.
Dome of the Rock: A Target of Muslim Extremists
By Emanuel A. Winston (Commentary)
Concern has been raised in Israel that Islamic terrorists such as Hamas or Al Qaeda may target the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock or Al Aksa Mosque which both sit atop the site of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Islamic terrorists would then blame Israel to arouse Muslim anger in order to trigger a war in the Middle East. The subsequent loss of Muslim lives is of little concern to them. On the contrary, they even think this is the best way to get their fellow Muslims into their paradise by making them "Shaheedim" (martyrs for Islam).
We have already seen Shiite and Sunni Muslims target each others' mosques for demolition and that both use their so-called "shrines" for the storage of weapons, explosives and safe houses for their terrorists. They do, however, expect Americans and Israelis to respect the self-proclaimed sanctity of their mosques and shrines.
Suspicions were raised in light of the frenzied reaction to Israel repairing a crumbling, earthquake damaged, earthen ramp that leads up to the site of the Temple Mount. They tried to assert that the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque were endangered by these repair measures - a rather ridiculous claim.
It was also thought that they were planning to collapse the shaky ramp on top of Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall. They also may have intended to use this excuse to permanently close the Mugrabi gate (the only gate open to non-Muslims) to the Temple Mount so no "infidels" (non-Muslims) could enter.
In this light it is now clear why they always opposed any infrastructure improvements in the area. With an anarchist agenda, they want people to get hurt and are happy to help the process along if it benefits their religious war against the Jews, Christians and all other non-Muslims whom they view as "Infidels" who they must kill.
In fact the Muslim Wakf has been carrying out secret excavations under the Temple Mount to make up and reinforce their own religious claims while disposing of all Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods of the Jews.
Israeli engineers warned them that they were weakening the supportive walls of the Temple Mount, including the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque. A dangerous bulge was spotted on a major retaining wall of the Temple Mount. Yet the Muslim Wakf has continued to undermine the foundations until today.
A moderately small earthquake on Feb. 11, 2004 coupled with the effects of a major snowfall, damaged the Mugrabi ramp leading up to the Temple Mount. Even a small earthquake could collapse the ancient stone walls. Many earthquakes have hit this region, which lies on a major fault along the Jordan River called the Dead Sea Rift which runs the length of Israel, creating a series of active faults throughout the country.
The area underlying the entire region is a series of major and minor faults under constant pressure to slip or crack, producing major and minor trembles. [If you wish to explore this further pull up "Earthquake 2004 damage to Mugrabi ramp to Temple Mount" on Google.] This will explain why even a small earthquake could collapse the wall of Solomon's Temple Mount now that the Muslim Wakf has dug out the core of the Temple Mount.
It is merely an event waiting to happen.
The other possibility is that the Muslim Arab terrorists might be preparing to place high explosives on the remaining supports that hold up the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque. Time will tell.
Poll: Israelis Say Diaspora Jews' Criticism is Kosher
By Ha'aretz
More than half of Israeli Jews support the right of Diaspora Jews to criticize Israel on particular issues, according to a recent survey by the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
The survey found that a quarter of Israeli Jews think it is fine for Diaspora Jews to criticize Israel no matter what, while 35 percent said such criticism was acceptable, but only to a certain extent.
World Union president Rabbi Uri Regev said he was surprised to discover the extent to which Israelis are open to Diaspora Jews' involvement in issues viewed as Israeli. He said the survey shows that a high percentage of Israeli Jews believe in global Jewish participation under the formula suggested by the Reform movement.
Meanwhile, the World Union survey found that 60 percent of the representative sample of 501 Israeli Jews said they had an ongoing connection with Diaspora Jews and that 73 percent said Israel should take the views of Diaspora Jews into account, to varying degrees, when deciding religion-state issues such as conversion and the Law of Return.
A vast majority of respondents - 82 percent - said Israel should invest resources in Jewish education abroad, and 47 percent said Israel must help Jews in distress no matter what. Some 45 percent said that Israel should help Jews in distress in general terms, but that the particular circumstances of each case must be taken into consideration.
The assistance works both ways, however: Some 86 percent of the respondents said Jews around the world should continue to contribute to Israel. That position flies in the face of a suggestion by Meretz-Yachad chairman MK Yossi Beilin that Israel should stop collecting money abroad because it is an independent country that does not need donations.
Joint Israeli-Palestinian Olive Oil Brand Launched
By YnetNews.com
Israeli and Palestinian olive oil manufacturers have launched a new brand – Olives of Peace. It is a product manufactured jointly by peace advocates from both sides of the divide. The oil is a blend of Israeli and Palestinian made virgin olive oil, bottled by leading producers on both sides.
The idea came up in a series of seminars for olive growers and oil producers, where specialists from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Italy gave lectures on new methods of producing quality olive oil.
The new brand will initially be marketed in Japan with the assistance of JETRO, the Japan external trade association. A British organization has also declared intent to order several thousand bottles and negotiations are being held with a company to market the oil in the US.
This project is a model of joint initiatives arranged by Crossroads, a new organization aimed at forming and supporting economic cooperation in the Middle East.
