The Council of Torah Sages of the Shas party, headed by former Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, has decided: Once government representatives start talking with the PA about splitting Jerusalem, Shas leaves the government coalition.

The right-wing camp and many Shas supporters have long awaited this decision, and especially over the past two weeks since Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) left the government.  Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman announced on Jan. 16 that he was resigning his position as Minister for Strategic Affairs and leading his party out of the government coalition in protest of the start of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority over so-called "core issues."  Those issues include Jerusalem, final status borders and the so-called 'right of return' of hundreds of thousands of Arabs and their descendants to Israel.

The Shas decision was made Sunday afternoon at a Torah Sages Council meeting in the home of Rabbi Yosef in Har Nof, Jerusalem.  Shas leader Eli Yishai, Minister of Industry and Trade, was also present, briefing the rabbis on the planned timetable of the talks with the PA.

At present, the government coalition headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert numbers 66 Knesset Members - a majority of the Israeli Parliament's 120 members.  If and when Shas and its 11 MKs quit, Olmert will head a minority government vulnerable to a simple no-confidence motion in the Knesset. 

Olmert is also facing another political crisis this week: Wednesday's release of the Winograd Report on the government's handling of the Second Lebanon War. The report is expected to criticize Olmert personally; it will not call for him to step down, but it is likely to lead to a wave of public pressure for him to do so.

If Olmert resigns, new elections need not necessarily follow; he could simply be replaced by a fellow Kadima Party member.  If he brings the government down with him, however, or if the Knesset votes to disperse itself or votes no-confidence in the government, new elections must be held in 90 days.  In such a case, the government becomes a transitional government, and ministers and parties cannot resign or join.  Alternatively, the leading parties can decide on an agreed-upon date for new elections.

Given the dramatic ramifications of the Winograd Report to be issued two days from now, together with the Shas decision to quit as soon as Jerusalem is mentioned to the PA negotiators, the coming days and weeks are expected to be politically tense.

Iran has offered its cooperation with Egypt in dealing with the Gaza border crisis in the wake of last week’s destruction of the border fence by Hamas terrorists. According to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, the Islamic Republic is just a step away from normalization of ties with Egypt. "We are just waiting for our Egyptian friends to proclaim their final readiness," said Mottaki at a news conference Monday.

Intelligence reports have said that Iran provides advanced terrorist training as well as funding and arms to the terrorist group.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, last week, to discuss the destruction of the Gaza-Egypt border fence by Hamas. Hamas bombs opened a wide breach through which tens of thousands of Gaza residents, among them many terrorists, have been traveling to and from Egypt, to restock on cigarettes and various supplies.

Senior Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Mohammadi was in Cairo for a rare visit Sunday to meet with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit to offer the Islamic Republic’s assistance with the negotiations over future control over the Gaza border.

The offer comes as part of a general thawing of relations between Egypt and the Islamic Republic.

The two nations have had no diplomatic ties for almost 30 years.
Iran broke off relations after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and provided asylum for the deposed Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi at the time.

However, communication between the two nations has resumed over the past two months with contacts between senior diplomats in various areas.

Ali Larijani, Iran’s former nuclear development czar and currently a member of the country’s National Security Council, met in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in the last few days of 2007 to discuss renewing diplomatic ties.  Larijani later described the interaction as “positive and productive.”

There have been numerous reports by Israeli intelligence that Hamas operatives are receiving advanced terrorist training in Iran. The Islamic Republic is also suspected of funding and equipping the terrorist organization with improved missiles and other arms.

A Katyusha rocket fired by Hamas terrorists during an attack on Ashkelon earlier this month was found to have been manufactured in Iran.

Initially Egypt said it would not rebuild the border fence that separates it from Gaza, but quickly reconsidered the plan after thousands of PA Arabs continued to pour into the country, many choosing to live as refugees in Egypt rather than return to Hamas- controlled Gaza.

More than three dozen Egyptian police officers were wounded while trying to close the border on Saturday; the security forces were given a green light Sunday to use electrical cattle prods to keep vehicles from entering Egypt. Sand was piled up on the Egyptian side to create barriers in the gaping holes blown out by the explosives detonated by Hamas.

Pedestrian traffic has since continued unabated, but security forces have managed to contain the shoppers within the border town of Rafiah, site of the Egypt-Gaza crossing terminal. 

Talks Sunday between Egyptian and Palestinian Authority officials resulted in an agreement to allow the Fatah-led PA government to take control of the border crossing. Hamas officials will meet with their Egyptian counterparts later in the week.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced Sunday that he would not be reopening the investigations against policemen who were involved in gunfire at Arab rioters in October 2000. "I have decided against intervening in the decision by the Department for Investigation of Police Officers (Mahash) regarding the events of October 2000," Mazuz said.

"True, the result which involved the death of 13 people in these events is a harsh and troublesome one," he explained, in a 500 page decision. "And yet, there is but one criminal code and it has clear and strict rules regarding criminal responsibility and criminal proceedings. There was no choice but to close the file because there was no evidentiary basis for criminal responsibility of any of the people involved in these events."

The riots
In October 2000, then Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat launched a murderous terror war against Israeli civilians, which has claimed 1,500 lives. In sympathy with the campaign of murder by PA terrorists, Arabs with Israeli citizenship started an uprising of their own, blocking vitally important roads, burning cars, shooting, attacking Jewish motorists, and in one case killing a Jewish driver with rocks thrown from a bridge.  

After the riots were quelled, left wing and Arab politicians blamed the police for using excessive force. As a result of this political pressure, an official committee of investigation, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Theodore Orr, was established to investigate why the police used deadly force. The committee cast blame on the police, and several officers were forced to resign.

Kudos for Mazuz
MK Eliyahu Gabbai (NU/NRP) congratulated the attorney general for his decision. Gabbai said that Mazuz deserved praise for "not surrendering to the threats of violence from the Arab Knesset members." Gabbai added, "It is important to remember that the Orr Commission found the Arab Knesset Members respons
After the riots were quelled, left wing and Arab politicians blamed the police for using excessive force.
ible for the incitement which caused the riots and the harsh results. It is too bad that they have learned nothing and are continuing to incite without limits." He was referring to statements from Arab leaders following Mazuz's decision, calling the decision racist and vowing to pursue the matter in international tribunals.

Cops angry
The decision triggered anger among policemen whose careers were cut short by the Orr Commission, which investigated those events. Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Alik Ron said Sunday he was not surprised by the decision. Ron, who was the police's Northern District commander at the time, told Ynet that the real culprits behind the riots were the Arab leaders who incited and stirred up the Arab street, and who have never been brought to justice.

"For a mob to hit the streets, there has to be someone to send them there," Ron explained. The Arab Knesset Members and other leaders never paid the price for what they did, he said.
"The Orr Commission was set up in order to appease the Arabs," said Supt. (ret.) Guy Reif.
 

"The Orr Commission was set up in order to appease the Arabs," Supt. (ret.) Guy Reif told NRG Sunday. "The police are a body that prefers lying over taking responsibility," he said. Reif said he would consider suing the state for the damage caused him by the Orr Commission. Reif had been the commander of the Misgav police station when the October 2000 riots and their aftermath ended his career in uniform.

Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Waldman, who also had to leave the police, said: "I am sorry that people were killed, but one has to see the general picture. People went out and rioted, and in some places there was a serious concern for human life on the Jewish side, in Upper Nazareth, for instance, and policemen were also injured." Waldman said the commission hurt the police and its results can be seen in what happened recently in Druze violence against the Jewish community in the northern town of Peki'in.

The removal of IDF checkpoints from Arab-populated areas of Judea and Samaria, in accordance with US and PA demands, has lead to an increase in terrorist shooting attacks.

The increase was recorded over the last half of 2007, especially on the main north-south Highway 60 leading from Hevron to Jerusalem and in the northern Shomron area.

The IDF has long insisted, and continues to insist, that only its presence in PA-controlled Judea and Samaria can ensure that Hamas not take control.  However, it justifies the removal of some of the checkpoints - at the behest of strong international pressure - by saying that the number of intelligence warnings of attacks had dropped.

Checkpoint Soldiers Disarm Would-be Terrorist
Sunday afternoon, soldiers found a 15-centimter (6-inch) long knife on the person of an Arab who arrived at the Entebba Crossing near Tul Karem, east of Netanya. The Arab was taken in for questioning.

"Hamas will not be able to overturn the PA government in Judea and Samaria as it did in Gaza if the IDF is still there," a top officer told Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman, "but it continues to try to carry out terrorist attacks nonetheless."

Addressing the failure of the PA to contain Hamas, the source said, "In Gaza, the PA [Fatah] security services had weapons and the like, but at the critical moment, when Hamas attacked, they didn't fight; they just ran away."

Homesh on Target
The IDF says that there have been two recent attempts to carry out terror attacks against the Jews who continually try to visit the ruins of Homesh - one of the 4 Jewish towns in the Shomron that were destroyed in the Disengagement.  The army discovered and thwarted the two attempts in advance. 

The IDF continues to be on the alert for a Fatah or Hamas attempt to kidnap Jews, either soldiers or citizens, which would be a major accomplishment for the terrorists.

Approximately two dozen Israeli Arabs from the Wadi Ara region were arrested for dealing in guns and ammunition with PA terrorists.

It was released for publication that six of those arrested in the recent joint police and Shabak (General Security Service) operation were indicted Sunday.

The central figure in the arms dealing group is Hamza Masri, 24, from Kafr Kara. He is accused of trafficking in weapons and munitions with Shahar Hanina, 41, who heads Fatah’s Al-Aksa Brigades terrorist group in PA-controlled Kalkilya. 

In 2005, Masri allegedly supplied Hanina with a handgun and 15 kg of a potassium-based chemical used in manufacturing explosives. Masri was fully aware of the intended use of the chemicals, according to the indictment.

Masri was arrested in 2005 and warned about his ties with Hanina.  He was released later that same year, at which point Masri continued dealing with Hanina. In the course of that dealing, Masri purchased tens of thousands of dollars' worth of weapons and munitions for Hanina, including an M-16 assault rifle, a hunting rifle and a laser sight for the M-16.

Many of the weapons and bomb-making materials that make their way to PA terrorist groups are procured and transported by Israeli-Arabs, who enjoy freedom of movement throughout Judea, Samaria and Israel’s pre-1967 borders.

The attempted terrorist attack at Yeshivat Mekor Chayim in Kfar Etzion last Thursday was carried out by two terrorists who had just been released from prison after attempting to steal guns from an IDF base.

The government has reneged on its blockade of Gaza even as Israel’s Supreme Court deliberates over the blockade in an emergency session.

The Gisha and Adalah human rights organizations petitioned the court to issue an injunction against the blockade, which cut fuel to Gaza’s electricity generator. Although the Gaza generator supplies only 25 percent of the area’s electricity, the petitioners claim the blockade has ignited a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and constitutes “collective punishment.”

Even at the height of the blockade, Israel continued to provide its full capacity of 70 percent of Gaza’s electricity via its regular electrical grid. It has yet to ever have cut Gaza's Arabs off from their Israeli-supplied electricity. Egypt provides 5 percent as well.

The State Prosecutor agreed Sunday to resume fuel shipments to Gaza, beginning immediately. “If the rocket fire continues, we will consider limiting the supplies again,” he warned, however.

Butane cooking gas and diesel fuel deliveries were resumed to the area last Tuesday, along with deliveries of medicine. Patients with exceptional medical needs have also been transported into Israel through one of the crossings throughout the blockade.

Shipments of fuel to power Gaza’s power plant, as well as other items such as cigarettes, were halted after massive rocket attacks by Gaza terrorists on the western Negev.

Friedmann: Not Sure Whether Our Court or Int'l Groups More Critical
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann remarked at the weekly Sunday morning cabinet meeting that he is not sure whether it is easier to deal with international pressure or the State of Israel’s Supreme Court.

Clashes and Failed Closure Attempts at Border
Egyptian forces managed Sunday to close only parts of the border fence destroyed last week by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Officers were equipped with electrified cattle prods and plugged holes in the remaining portions of the border fence with sand in order to at least block vehicles from entering and leaving the country. Pedestrians are still able to cross freely at multiple locations.

A statement by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahem Aboul Gheit announced that Egypt planned to take steps to control the border as soon as possible but did not provide details.

Attempts by Egyptian forces on Saturday to reseal the border and hold back Gazans from entering Egypt resulted in violent clashes that left 38 Egyptian police wounded, several seriously. Egypt now says its forces have received permission to fire back at Palestinian Authority terrorists who continue their attempts to keep open the Gaza border with Egypt.

Some 200 meters of the Egypt-Gaza border fence at the Rafiah crossing were blown apart by Hamas, enabling tens of thousands of Gaza residents to flood into Egypt and stock up on cigarettes, gasoline, foodstuffs and anti-aircraft missiles, according to Hamas.

Egyptian forces claimed they arrested 20 terrorists from Gaza over the weekend. The terrorists were arrested, reportedly, as they attempted to bring weapons through the breach in the border fence.

While talks continue for the release of hundreds, possibly 1,000, Arab terrorists from Israeli prison, Jews convicted of security crimes see no freedom on the horizon.

Israel's 60th anniversary is only 100 days away, and prisoners accused of light crimes can be expected to be pardoned for the occasion.  The Jewish security prisoners, however, are not among them. Nor do they receive many of the perks given to other prisoners. They are given less yard time, and are permitted to be sent less money than others.

Most notably, the Jewish prisoners barely receive vacation time.  Shlomi Dvir of Bat Ayin, father of five young children, was sentenced in 2002 to 15 years in prison for his role in a failed bombing of an Arab school.  He and his two co-defendants claimed the bomb was never meant to go off, but rather to instill fear in the Arab community. The court ruled, however, that this was only an oversight on their part. "The court entered the realm of 'intentions' by saying this [placing an empty battery] was done accidentally," their lawyer claimed at the time.

One Vacation in Six Years
For his crime, Dvir has been allowed prison leave only one time in the past six years - for 12 hours when his baby daughter was born.  He was taken out of prison on two other occasions, chained in both legs and hands and with many guards surrounding him, for three hours each time, when his two sons were born.  His request to attend his brother's wedding last year was advanced by several Knesset Members, but the Prison Service and Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter refused to allow it - at the behest of the General Security Service (Shabak).

Shlomi's co-defendant Ofer Gamliel, also of  Bat Ayin and father of seven, was also sentenced to 15 years, and has been similarly deprived of vacation time. The Shabak forbids them to receive vacations, claiming that they are hiding information on other Jewish conspiracies.

Court Vindicates Them - but State Appeals
"What the Shabak is doing is against the law," a surprisingly upbeat Esther Dvir, Shlomi's wife, told Arutz-7. "And finally, the Tel Aviv District Court recently ruled that they must be allowed vacation time, just like the other prisoners.  But the State Prosecution immediately appealed the decision."  The appeal is to be heard in the Supreme Court a week and a half from now.

Meanwhile, Esther says, "though it is really hard to see the Arab terrorists being released time after time, we have decided to keep our heads up and live this experience in a positive way.  He was sentenced to 15 years, and though we can hope for a pardon or a reduction in the sentence, we decided that the time will not go by any faster if we are negative or sad all the time...  We have five beautiful children, and Shlomi's presence is very much felt here at home; every night he calls and says Shma Yisrael and tells a story to the children, and they fall asleep to his voice.  In addition, we visit him every Monday; that is the highlight of our week."

Asked how she supports her family, Esther said, "There is a small allowance from National Insurance. But in general, we live very simply. Our main expenses are food, travel to the jail every week - and of course phone cards!"

Release Them - or at Least Give Them Rights!
The Council of Families of Jewish Security Prisoners continues to demand that "Minister Dichter and the Israeli government act to release the 25 Jewish nationalist prisoners who acted out of a security crisis."  Some 450 people were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 2002 alone, the year that Dvir and Gamliel were arrested.

"And until they are released," the Council states, "they must be afforded at least the most elementary rights such as vacations, regular visitations, permission to go to weddings and the like that are given with no disruption to the other prisoners."

The Almagor Terror Victims Association says that if Arab terrorists are freed - "which they should not be, then Jews should be released as well... Experience has shown that 0% of Jewish security prisoners return to terrorism when freed, compared with 80% of Arab terrorists."

Almagor has praise for the late President Ezer Weizmann for having "set a precedent ten years ago when he accepted a list of Jewish prisoners submitted by the Honenu legal-rights organization and agreed that just because they do not have supporters who kidnap soldiers for ransom purposes doesn't mean they don't deserve the same consideration Arab terrorists get."  At the time, Weizmann reduced the prison sentences of several Jewish security prisoners. 

The existence of a previously unreleased “declaration of independence” establishing a blueprint for a future Jewish State by inhabitants of the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, even as they were marked for death by the Nazi war machine, was revealed Sunday in honor of International Holocaust Memorial Day.

The announcement was made by Simcha Stein, director-general of the museum at Kibbutz Lochamei HaGetaot (Warriors of the Ghettos), who said the three-page document would be exhibited at the museum in the near future.

The besieged Jews in the Lodz ghetto called for the formation of an official Jewish State in the document written seven years before David Ben Gurion declared its establishment to the world in his historical radio broadcast in 1948.

Lodz held the second largest Jewish community in Europe, with Warsaw being the brightest jewel in the pre-Nazi Eastern European Jewish world.

The Lodz declaration, dated May 18-19, 1941, includes a basic outline of what the Jewish State should be, and why.

“A Jewish State is something the world needs and that is the reason it will be formed,” reads the document. “In the Jewish State, the young generation will discover a future of light, freedom and dignity, “continues the author, who museum officials say may have been Oskar Singer, a Czechoslovakian journalist who managed the Jewish archives in Lodz during the Nazi era.

The document provides details on the creation of such a state, including proposed punishments for those who break the law. Citizens of the future Jewish State will “live in freedom” and “receive recognition for our tremendous achievements,” declares the document, signed at the bottom by Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Lodz Ghetto Judenrat.

The document, handwritten in Polish and believed to have been a draft, was written on the back of papers containing lists of the ghetto occupants eligible for food and clothing as well as lists of those who were no longer eligible – a list of life and death. Food was delivered to the ghetto as payment by the Nazis in exchange for goods produced by the Jews. Eligibility and the amount of food distributed to each individual was determined by work status.