Ehud Barak and other Labor leaders now say they are willing to join a new government coalition formed by Tzipi Livni of Kadima. The ball is now in the court of the Sephardic religious Shas party.

Labor
Though Barak said just recently that Livni is not the one he would trust to make major security decisions "when a call comes in at 3 AM," he now says he is willing to join a government headed by her. 

Speaking at a pre-Rosh HaShanah get-together at Labor Party headquarters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Barak said that he is interested in helping Livni form a new government, "as Israel faces real challlenges, from Iran down to how to deal with individual terrorists trying to run over people in Jerusalem."

Welfare Minister Yitzchak Herzog of Labor agreed, saying that Livni had "created the groundwork for a coalition [with Labor], and I believe it is possible."
"Both Livni and Barak say they are not afraid of elections," Netanyahu said, "but they're acting as if they are very afraid."

Shas
The key now lies with Kadima's second-largest coalition partner, Shas.  Shas leader Eli Yishai met with Livni on Tuesday afternoon, and noted his party's three demands: Increased National Insurance child allowances, no talks with the PA about dividing Jerusalem, and thirdly - a demand that cropped up in the past few days - a solution for the housing crunch for young hareidi-religious couples.

Livni will have trouble meeting at least the first two demands, as Labor insists on continued talks with the PA as a prerequisite for its membership in the coalition.  In addition, Finance Minister Roni Bar-On of Kadima is strongly against raising the child allowances.  Livni's aides, however, have said that there would likely be "no problem" in finding a way to meet some of the Shas financial demands.

Livni and Yishai agreed to have their representatives exchange position papers on the above issues.

Within Shas, the two politicians most trusted by spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef appear to have opposing positions.  Yishai leans towards new elections, while Communications Minister Ariel Attias says Livni should be given a chance.

Likud
Livni had earlier called on the Likud - currently the party most likely to win national elections if they are held soon - to join a national emergency government.  Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu held a press conference on Tuesday to explain why he would not do so.

"The country needs general elections," Netanyahu said. "The Prime Minister must be chosen not by a few Kadima members, but by the entire country."

"This [outgoing] government has failed miserably in every area," he continued, "and Livni has said that she will continue the same policies.  We need a fundamental change.  Until there are elections, there will be no governmental stability, because any government that is formed will limp along... It will be temporary and all the parties will be busy trying to achieve political gains."

"Both Livni and Barak say they are not afraid of elections," former Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "but they are acting as if they are very afraid."

Livni was first elected to the Knesset in 1999 on the Likud party list, when Netanyahu lost his bid to be re-elected Prime Minister to Ehud Barak of Labor.  When Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister in 2001, Livni was named Minister without Portfolio, while Netanyahu became Minister of Foreign Affairs - Livni's current position.

A U.S. administration under John McCain would discourage Israeli-Syrian peace talks and refrain from actively engaging in the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process. That was the message delivered over the weekend by two McCain advisers – Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Richard Williamson, the Bush administration's special envoy to Sudan – during a retreat hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy at the Lansdowne Resort in rural Virginia.

Richard Danzig, a representative of Barack Obama, said the Democratic presidential candidate would take the opposite approach on both issues.

'Not top priority'
In an interview with the Atlantic magazine over the summer, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) insisted that in his presidency he would serve as the chief negotiator in the peace process. But at the retreat this weekend, Boot said pursuing a deal between Israel and the PA would not be a top priority in a McCain administration.

Boot called the Bush administration’s renewed efforts to promote Israeli-PA talks "a mistake." He also claimed Israel's talks with Syria betray the stake that the United States has invested in Lebanon's fragile democracy. "John McCain is not going to betray the lawfully elected government of Lebanon," Boot said.

Williamson said that "Israel should not be dictated to in dealing with Syria or dealing with Lebanon," but added: "Hopefully as friends they will listen to us."

McCain a neo-conservative?
According to JTA, the session at Lansdowne appeared to suggest that McCain is adopting neo-conservatism, which believes in "a muscular foreign policy and an affinity for promoting democracy."

Surrogates for Obama re-emphasized their commitment to stepping up U.S. diplomatic efforts. Danzig said an Obama administration would revive the idea of a special envoy for pursuing a peace deal.

The "appropriate level of presidential engagement requires that the United States designate someone whose energies are predominantly allocated to this," Danzig said.

Someone like Tony Blair, the former British prime minister now leading efforts to build a Palestinian civil society, might fit the bill, he added.

It was clear that each campaign had devoted a great deal of attention to the issue. Officials from both campaigns signed on to a Washington Institute for Near East Policy paper this summer that called for closer U.S.-Israel coordination on Iran, born out of concerns that Israel's leadership was getting closer to contemplating the option of a strike.

The man that Israeli leaders consider to be the Number One threat to the existence of the State of Israel told the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday that 'Zionists" are the cause of the current financial disaster sweeping the world.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also told world leaders, "A few bullying powers have sought to put hurdles in the path of Iran's peaceful development of nuclear power. These are the same countries that possess stockpiles of nuclear arms that no one is monitoring."

It is believed that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon of mass destruction despite Ahmadinejad's denials.

The Iranian president accused European nations of "spending their dignities and resources on the occupations, crimes and threats of the Zionist network" and called for a referendum in Israel and the Palestinian Authority to create a government that would rule over a single state encompassing both Arabs and Jews.

"Today, the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters," he said. The Iranian president blamed "Zionists" for the financial woes in Europe and the US by controlling economic centers around the world in "a deceitful, complex and furtive manner."

Nor did he spare the United States from his forecast of doom, declaring that it should mind its own business on the international scene. The "American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders," he said.

Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran would continue to develop its nuclear technology, regardless of any efforts by the international community to halt the process. "The great Iranian people… will resist the bullying and has defended and will defend its rights," he said. "The Iranian nation is for dialogue. But it has not accepted and will not accept illegal demands."

Peres: First Time UN Allows Official Anti-Semitism

President Shimon Peres slammed Ahmadinejad's rant against "Zionist murderers", saying it constituted "the first time in the history of the United Nations that the head of a state is appearing openly and publicly with the ugly and dark accusations of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'"

The reference was to an infamous anti-Semitic diatribe published in the early 1900s that alleged a Jewish and Masonic conspiracy to seize control of the world. It is considered a hoax.

Peres added that Ahmadinejad's speech recalled "the darkest accusations in an air of hatred."

Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra, a former senior official in the General Security Services (GSS-Shabak), said Tuesday that terrorism should be fought with means that enhance Israeli deterrence. He cited house demolitions as an effective measure.
Barak also called on Tuesday for expediting the necessary legal procedures.

In a Hebrew-language interview with Israel National News on the morning after an Arab from Jerusalem rammed his car into a large crowd of pedestrians, injuring 23, Minister Ezra praised the individual who shot the attacker dead. At the same time, he had harsh criticism for the justice system, which is delaying the execution of demolition orders issued several months ago for the family home of another Arab terrorist in the capital.

According to Ezra, the courts fail to understand that house demolitions are not punitive; they are deterrent. "Deterrence should be enhanced in order to prevent the next terrorist attack," Ezra said. "This is the fourth attack in Jerusalem that came from the east side of the city. It's not possible to station a cop on every corner. ...Every terrorist and his family should know that their house will be demolished and that they will no longer be residents receiving all the benefits the State of Israel offers."

The government minister said that the High Court of Justice "must be a partner" in the decision to knock down the family homes of terrorists. "The High Court has already decided that a terrorist's room could be destroyed as a punitive measure if the terrorist attack was prepared in that room. However, in this case we are talking about a deterrent step. I think that a terrorist knowing that his family will suffer the shame of going hungry will assist in the prevention of attacks."

At this time, there is a demolition order before the courts for the home of the terrorist who murdered eight students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem in March of this year. Regarding the execution of this order, Ezra said, "The government is not responsible [for the delay]; rather, we're talking about legal procedures - today, no one makes a move without a positive judicial opinion in the matter."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak also called on Tuesday for expediting the necessary legal procedures to facilitate the demolition of terrorists' homes as soon as possible after any terror attack. Like Minister Ezra, Barak also endorsed the deterrent effect of house demolitions, saying that an almost immediate execution of such orders would increase their impact.

Chairman of the National Union-National Religious Party Knesset faction, MK Uri Ariel, said that the blame for Monday's ramming attack can be laid at the feet of Defense Minister Barak himself, as well as on the justice system. The delay in carrying out the demolition of terrorists' homes, as well as the periodic release of jailed terrorists as goodwill gestures to the Palestinian Authority led to the attack, he said.

An increasing number of new immigrants to Israel are finding themselves without their household belongings, as Israel-bound ships, unable to unload their cargo in the country’s ports, are taking their loads elsewhere. The latest shipping “fiasco” to hit Israeli ports is the result of strikes and work slowdowns by dock workers, in protest of a government plan to privatize a portion of the ports.

“It’s a fiasco,” says Shmuel Mantinband of Sonigo International Shipping, one of several major shipping agents affected by the work sanctions. “It’s a very difficult situation for everyone involved, including shipping lines, agents and the clients.”

As work slowdowns continue, many ships find themselves waiting at Israeli ports for a week or more, unable to unload at least part of their cargoes. Often these ships end up sailing back to ports in Turkey, Italy and other points in the Mediterranean,  where they unload the remainder of their Israel-bound shipments, including shipments that dozens of new immigrants have been counting on to start their new lives in Israel.

"We are literally being held hostage by the ZIM shipping company," said one new immigrant. Yitzhak Meirowitch, along with his wife and children, arrived in Israel several weeks ago from the United States, and their long-awaited shipment has yet to arrive.

On August 27, Israeli dock workers, acting through the national Histadrut union, announced a general strike as an attempt to prevent the government from enacting a paragraph in the 2009 Economic Arrangements bill that authorizes the use of private contractors in Israeli ports. The initial strike lasted until September 5 and slowed loading and unloading activities by an estimated 40-50 percent in Ashdod, with additional work reductions in the Haifa port.

For those like Meirowitch, the only way to receive their goods at this point is to pay the shippers an additional fee to send the shipment from the re-routed port in which it is currently being held. "It's not fair that we are being charged double for something that was not our fault," said the father of two.

Mantinband points out that the blame for the shipping diversions and the resulting fees does not lay entirely with the shipping lines. “They want to unload, but don’t know what the situation is going to be,” he said.

The shipping agent described a situation marked by a “tremendous lack of knowledge and lack of certainty” in Israeli ports. As one example, he cited a report issued two days ago on the status of 25 ZIM vessels, half of which were expected to unload on Wednesday.

“Over a three-day period, the status went from ‘not going to unload’ to ‘going to unload on [September] 24,’ and in the end they were unloaded a day early.” Due to the continued work slowdown, it’s “difficult for anyone to know what’s really going on, almost impossible to know what’s going to happen,” said Mantinband.

He noted that under international maritime law, shipping lines have a legal right to declare an “end of voyage,” releasing them from responsibility for the cargo, even if the cargo is not unloaded in the destination indicated in the bill of voyage.

“To add salt to the wounds,” Mantinband said, ports holding the rerouted goods often charge a daily fee for storage.

"It has made our initial absorption very difficult," Meirowitch continued. "We have absolutely nothing, every meal we have to eat out and we are sleeping on air mattresses."

"There is nothing I can do about it," he lamented. "If we want our things then we will have to pay."

According to a report published following a strike in 2004, many workers in the Histadrut-dominated Ports Authority earn 40,000 NIS per month, nearly six times the average wage in Israel. Apparently this salary is not enough for the current strikers, and Mantinband doubts the strike will end until after the Jewish High Holidays.  “I can say cynically they will not strike until after the holidays. They get so many benefits during the holidays” such as paid time off and other perks.

However, said Mantinband, “One day it’s going to end.One day they’ll start working like normal.”

Doctors in Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tivkah operated on an IDF soldier on Tuesday, after a female Palestinian Arab terrorist threw acid on his face.  Though preliminary reports stated that he had lost his eye, doctors said after the operation that his eye's future is uncertain.

The attack occurred Monday morning at the Hawara Checkpoint near Shechem.

The attacker was arrested by security forces, and was transferred to the police.  She is believed to be the perpetrator of another attempted another acid attack on a soldier 12 days ago; she escaped after that attack.

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US Role in Removing Anti-Terror Checkpoints
At similar checkpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, soldiers guard against the passage of terrorists and/or weapons and explosives to be used in terror attacks.  The U.S. has been instrumental in persuading Israel to accept the PA's demand to remove many of these anti-terrorism checkpoints.

On Monday night, Jewish residents of the Shomron quickly organized an evening of appreciation for the soldiers and the dangerous work they do on their behalf.  Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika and MK Otniel Shneller were in attendance.

The next day, Shneller visited some of the victims of the run-over terror attack in Jerusalem, in which 23 soldiers were wounded.

The evening of appreciation took place at the Hawara Checkpoint, where Jewish residents of the nearby towns distributed cake and candies to the soldiers.  The residents noted that the soldiers face a two-pronged struggle: against the Arab population and the potential terrorists, on the one hand, and vis-a-vis the left-wing MachsomWatch women, who document their every move that appears to the women to be too security-conscious and not sufficiently Arab-friendly.

"The soldiers act with total dedication vis-a-vis the Arab terrorists," Mesika said, "and also in the face of harassment of the MachsomWatch women, and therefore we must embrace, thank, encourage and strengthen them... We must become a normal country where the soldiers can defend themselves and not have to worry about the radical left that pesters them in their duties."

Ahmed Qureia, senior negotiator for the Palestinian Authority (PA), said on Tuesday that "resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right" and that violence could erupt if talks with Israel are stalled during the current transitional government.

The former PA prime minister declared that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been designated by President Shimon Peres to form the next government, had promised after the two leaders met Tuesday afternoon that talks would continue.

"Livni reassured me she would continue the peace process without accepting any conditions," he stated. However, he added that he doubts whether an agreement will be reached by the end of the year for establishing a new Arab state within Israel's current borders.

"The Palestinians will continue to negotiate," he said, regardless of what happens politically in Israel. "But if the talks reach a dead end, what do we do? Capitulate? Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right," he said.
If the talks reach a dead end, what do we do? Capitulate? Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right.

He later complained that his remarks were taken out of context and that he was referring to political and not violent resistance. 

Qureia has also opposed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's insistence on trying to bring about "a statement of principles" instead of a final pact for a new PA state within Israel's current borders.

Abbas Embattled in PA Politics

The PA negotiator also refused to join PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on his trip to the United States this week.

Abbas, who is meeting with American as well as foreign officials in Washington and New York, is facing his own troubles in the PA.

Although his term is due to end in January 2009, as with US President George W. Bush, he has stated that he intends to stay until 2010 to ensure a smooth and peaceful presidential and legislative election. The announcement was received with anger by the rival Hamas terrorist faction that rules Gaza, which was originally voted into majority rule of the governing Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006.

Fatah meanwhile agreed on Tuesday to an Egyptian proposal to form a new "national government of consensus," announced senior Fatah spokesman Nabil Sha'ath after the delegation met with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

"The proposal is for forming a new government with people accepted by all the organizations, and also by the Arabs and internationally," said Sha'ath.

An Israeli court on Tuesday halved a six-month sentence against nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu. Vanunu spent 18 years in prison for exposing Israeli nuclear secrets and details pertaining to Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to British newspaper, The Sunday Times, in 1986.

Vanunu's latest incarceration was for violating court-ordered bans on travel and contacting foreign media in 2007, when he contacted foreign media and tried to visit Arab-occupied Bethlehem.

A Jerusalem Magistrates'Court determined it would reduce Vanunu's sentence because Vanunu is sickly and his parole violations did not constitute a security risk.
We don't need a Jewish state

 
Vanunu, 54, worked from  1976 to 1985, as a nuclear plant technician and shift manager at the Negev Nuclear Research Center south of Dimona. He converted to Christianity in 1986 during a trip to Australia following his dismissal from the center, renaming himself John Crossman. After his conversion, Vanunu traveled to Britain, where he leaked Israel's nuclear secrets to a journalist whom he befriended.  While Vanunu was in the UK, some accounts say that a female Mossad agent was charged with luring him out of Britain to Rome, where he was captured and taken back to Israel.

Following his release from prison, Vanunu vowed to disassociate with Israel, even refusing to speak Hebrew, telling the BBC that "We don't need a Jewish state."