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Newsletter : 7fax0322.txt
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U.S. Official Cites Hamas Buildup
By Reuters
Iran has boosted Palestinian militias under Hamas, a U.S. official was quoted as saying.
Reuters cited Washington sources in reporting Wednesday that Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the Bush administration's security envoy in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, told a closed-door briefing of U.S. congressional leaders and staff that because of Iran sponsorship, Hamas had a better armed and trained militia than the more moderate P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas also had a larger force than Abbas.
Dayton was further quoted as saying that should the Hamas buildup in the Gaza Strip remain unchecked, it could prompt Israeli military action.
Iran's Supreme Leader: We will Use All Capabilities to Defend Ourselves
By VOA News
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned that his country will use all its capabilities to defend itself against an attack.
Khamenei said in a national address Wednesday that if the United States and others want to threaten Iran and enforce coercion and violence, then Iran will respond to an attack by enemies.
He also is quoted as saying that Iran's nuclear activities have been in accordance with international regulations, and that Tehran will continue those actions, despite any action by the U.N. Security Council.
The Council is discussing a draft resolution on toughening existing sanctions against Iran for the country's failure to suspend uranium enrichment.
Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Russian parliament that Moscow would not support what he described as excessive U.N. sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend enrichment. The US and its allies alleged that Iran is working to develop nuclear weapons - a charge that Tehran denies.
The Council's five permanent members, the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China, plus Germany agreed on the proposed new sanctions last week. Council president South Africa has proposed amendments to the draft, which could delay its adoption for several days.
Pay Deal Ends Israel's Paralyzing General Strike
By Robert Berger (VOA-Jerusalem)
A one-day general strike that paralyzed Israel for one day ended when the government agreed to pay municipal workers. The pay dispute pitted an influential trade union against the government, which is demanding reforms in public spending.
Some 150,000 Israeli workers walked off the job, crippling air and seaports, railways, government offices, postal services and the stock exchange. Israel's powerful Histadrut Labor Federation called the strike because thousands of municipal workers had not been paid for months. The government says the salaries were not paid because of mismanagement by local authorities, which exceeded their budgets and failed to implement reforms.
Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson said the strike was irresponsible. "I don't see any justification for holding the economy of the state of Israel hostage," Hirschson said.
About eight hours into the strike, the Histadrut and the treasury reached an agreement. Trade union leader Ofer Eini announced that municipal workers would be paid and the strike was declared over. But the damage was done. The short strike cost the Israeli economy an estimated $200 million.
Knesset Extends Law Banning Israeli-Palestinian Family Unification
By Ha'aretz
The Knesset on Wednesday voted to extend and widen the controversial Citizenship Law, which denies family unification to Israelis and Palestinians.
The law, which was to have expired next month, will be extended to July 2008 and apply to citizens of the four "enemy states" - Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran - as well as to those of the Palestinian Authority. The law was passed in its second and third reading by a majority of 35-11. The Arab faction in Knesset requested a vote of no confidence on the matter.
The law provides for the establishment of a committee to consider exceptions on a humanitarian basis. However, as the Shin Bet, IDF and Population Registrar will have a majority in the committee, not many exceptions are expected to be approved.
The Citizenship Law denies family unification to Palestinian men aged 18-35 and women 18-25. The Knesset passed an amendment to the law in December, ostensibly to modify it in keeping with the criticism expressed by the High Court of Justice. But human rights organizations said the amended law was worse yet.
The amendment wished to extend the denial of family unification, which until now applied to people who have an immediate family member suspected of involvement in hostile activity, to people whose brother-in-law or nephew are suspected of such activity.
The current temporary Citizenship Law is set to expire April 16. Interior Ministry Roni Bar-On advised the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee chairman MK Ophir Pines-Paz that unless he passed the amended law in second and third readings by the end of the Knesset's winter session today, the cabinet would extend the existing law.
The committee stipulated that the committee to discuss humanitarian exceptions would have two public representatives, but canceled the clause enabling denial of family unification to people whose brother-in-law or nephew was suspected of hostile activity. It restricted the law's validity to July 31, 2008 (not to the end of 2008, as planned).
Pines-Paz himself voted against the law, claiming it was discriminatory and unconstitutional. The head of the Shin Bet's counter-terrorism division told the committee that the terror groups instruct Palestinians in the territories to apply for family unification, and then recruit them.
Some 40 percent of Israeli Arabs who were involved in suicide attacks in 2006 were naturalized, he said.
Mossad/Shin Bet Recruiting Women, Immigrants for Jobs
By Reuters
Israel lifted the veil over its secret services' recruiting practices Wednesday with a public call for more women and foreign Jews to sign up for sensitive government jobs in information technology.
Israel's Military Intelligence and the Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies are believed to have world-class electronic eavesdropping facilities, but officials have long complained of qualified candidates being lured away by private hi-tech firms.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said in a statement that he had ordered his security chiefs to seek out more female employees for "high-end" technological duties "in order to better exploit the potential human resources in Israel."
Olmert further said Israel should explore new ways of encouraging foreign Jewish youths with strong academic backgrounds to immigrate "and contribute to the defense establishment in a range of science and technology roles."
Like many of their counterparts abroad, Israel's secret services for decades relied on an old-boy network, coupled with the appeal of the spy mystique, to keep personnel replenished. But that drawing power has waned in recent years with the emergence of a lucrative Israeli hi-tech sector and a series of headline-making intelligence bungles.
"The concern was that we were losing out on quality people," said Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad director who spearheaded the new recruitment drive by running open ads in newspapers.
Mossad and Shin Bet have since launched Web sites, while Israeli youths who get drafted are allowed to apply for Military Intelligence posts that were previously "by invitation only."
The fact that women have a shorter mandatory service terms than men affects demographics in the Mossad, Shin Bet and Military Intelligence's career-officer corps, which depend on recently discharged draftees for their recruitment pool. "There are a lot of women serving already, but most of them end up in administrative roles," a retired intelligence operative said on condition of anonymity.
Israel's intelligence service chiefs have all been men, though the Mossad did have one female deputy director.
The Shin Bet, which monitors pro-Palestinian militants and Jewish ultranationalist vigilantes, last year announced it was seeking recruits from among Israeli women who opt for non-military national service when they turn 18.
Man Publishes Obituary for Israel
By YnetNews.com
Mourning loss of his beloved state which was 'murdered by wicked gold-diggers,' 60-year-old Shmuel Gonen has blamed the Israeli public for its lack of action "In sorrow and grief we announce the passing of our beloved State of Israel," read an obituary published in Ha'aretz Tuesday as one angry man's final attempt to bring about a change.
According to the notice, the State "was murdered by wicked gold-diggers who only sought power, men who would fight and argue. Those who destroyed you (Israel) came from within you."
The obituary reads: "In sorrow and grief we announce the passing of our beloved State of Israel which was murdered by wicked gold-diggers who only sought power, men who would fight and argue. Those who destroyed you came from within you."
The notice was ordered by 60-year-old Shmuel Gonen of the central city of Kiryat Ono, who stressed that he was not mourning the establishment of the State, but the fate to which it has fallen.
According to Gonen, the situation in the country has become unbearable. "The State has come to resemble a banana republic. Officials stand trial for financial and other offences. There is no accountability," he said. "The government offices are like ping-pong tables; ministers don't last more than three-four months in office, nothing can be done at this rate. There are Knesset members who act like they are in the circus," he continued.
The "wicked gold-diggers" Gonen referred to in the notice are no other than the State's leaders. "If there are income-tax heads being prosecuted, if there are serious investigations within the police, if the prime minister and the State comptroller are at war and the prime minister and the defense minister are barely talking – how can a country be run like this?" he wondered.
Gonen also holds a lot of anger toward Israel's citizens themselves, saying, "All they do is munch on (sunflower) seeds, complain, and do nothing." He defined the Israeli public as good people, but said they act like a heard of sheep and the blood of the finest among them is being spilled.
Gonen did not specify how much the notice cost him, but said it was "a significant amount of money, a few thousand shekels. I don't care about the money; I care more about the State. I do what I can for it, and this notice was also a way of acting," he said.
Gonen said that he received countless phone calls from readers who called in a display of identification and support. Nonetheless, he is doubtful that they will act. "I am not that naïve to think that every one of those who called me will do something. The public is tired, and each is busy with its own business.
"I don't want to sound like someone who is grieving the establishment of the State of Israel, the State is strong and we have been through a lot of suffering, but it is a pity that pure blood is spilled in wars and road accidents. There are people who give their souls and spirits, and there are low-lifes running the State," he concluded.
97% of Jewish Public Favors Circumcision
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Ninety-seven percent of the Jewish public answered in the affirmative to the question "will you circumcise your son?" in a survey conducted by Gesher/Ynet. Seventy-eight percent said the reason for their stance on the issue was religious, while 13 percent cited health considerations.
Nine percent said they did not want the boy to feel different and be ashamed, or that they would opt for the brit because "everybody does it." Sixty-nine percent of the Jewish public prefer a certified mohel to a doctor.
The survey was conducted among a representative sample of the Hebrew speaking adult Jewish Israeli population.
Israelis in Lunar Land Grab
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Approximately 10,000 Israelis have bought land on the moon, according to the Crazy Shop marketing agency, which is selling plots for American entrepreneur Dennis Hop. He has registered the moon in his name
Relatively to the number of residents in the country, Israel leads the pack in the real estate race to the moon. For those who want to get in the ground lunar floor, the price is 250 shekels (about $59.50) an acre.
