For the third time in a week, Palestinian Authority terrorists violated the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel early Thursday afternoon.

A Kassam rocket was fired at the western Negev city of Sderot shortly after 1:00 p.m. No one was injured and no property damage was reported in the attack.

Prime Minister Ehud Omert's spokesman Mark Regev told Israel National News that no decisions had yet been made on a response to the attack. "We'll wait and see. Obviously we'll be having discussions," he said. Israel limited its retaliation to the previous attacks by closing the Gaza crossings for two days, which had been opened in accordance with the agreement. 

Islamic Jihad terrorists announced that they would consider Israel has having violated the tahadiyeh, or temporary truce, if the Gaza crossings remained closed. IDF soldiers spotted the terrorists cell that had launched the attack, immediately following the barrage of three Kassam rockets fired at Sderot on Tuesday, but did not open fire.
Two Israeli civilians suffered shrapnel wounds and a number of others were treated for severe emotional shock, included several children.

Ofer Dekel, the Israeli negotiator for kidnapped and missing soldiers, will present Thursday morning new proposals towards the release of captive IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit to the head of Egyptian intelligence, General Omar Suleiman. The Egyptian official is expected to meet with representatives of the Hamas terrorist organization next week.

Israel, which officially does not recognize Hamas, will hold talks with the terrorist organization through Egyptian mediators. Hamas has demanded that Israel release hundreds of terrorists for Shalit, who was kidnapped two years ago. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the time that Israel would not agree to the release of Arab prisoners, and he threatened to strike at senior Hamas figures if Shalit was not freed. 

Latest Proposal Includes 150 Terrorists with 'Blood on Their Hands'
Israel's latest proposal includes an agreement to free 150 terrorists with "blood on their hands," on the condition they do not return to the Palestinian Authority territories or Gaza, Voice of Israel government radio reported Thursday morning. The proposed release of the murderers would be part of a larger deal that would include nearly 1,000 terrorists and other Palestinian Authority prisoners in exchange for Shalit.

Egypt has opposed the condition attached to the inclusion of the terrorists with "blood on their hands."

Cabinet Deliberations on Hizbullah Deal Set for Sunday
Government sources also stated that Israel and Hizbullah have reached a written “framework agreement” towards freeing terrorists for the release of captive IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The Cabinet is set to deliberate on the agreement Sunday. If it is approved, it will be conveyed to Beirut by German intermediaries for Hizbullah's approval. Prime Minister Olmert said that "we will be able to reach the moment of decision with a clear conscience."

After the Hizbullah attack on Israel and the kidnappings in July 2006, Prime Minister Olmert's government authorized the retaliatory Second Lebanon War and vowed it would continue until Goldwasser and Regev were released.

Israel is expected to receive the two soldiers, who most officials say probably are not alive, and in exchange will transfer to Hizbullah four terrorists captured in the 2006 Lebanon War, the remains of eight others buried in Israel, and Lebanese Druze terrorist Samir Kuntar. Hizbullah is also expected, as part of the deal, to send a report detailing the fate of captive Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, missing in action since 1986.

Veteran Mossad Chief Maj.-Gen. (res.) Meir Dagan is a vocal opponent of the proposed deal. In a meeting on Tuesday night with the Regev family, Dagan told them that Israel has reliable intelligence information that the two captive soldiers are not alive.

The small but wealthy Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain has asked its allies in the international community to notify it in case of any planned escalation with Iran.

Bahrain Public Security Chief Abdul Latif bin Rashid Al Zayani said in a speech Wednesday before the Royal United Services Institute in London that "the level of tension currently concerning Iran is a further significant threat."

Al Zayani warned the security think tank, "Should the situation deteriorate, there will be a major impact on Bahrain, where a proportion of our Shi'ite population follows Iran's religious leadership blindly and apparently without question."

Al Zayani appealed to Bahrain's allies to consider the impact of an escalation on the entire region before moving ahead with military action against the Islamic Republic. "As partners we ask, rather in hope than in expectation, that we are consulted or at least given early warning of major escalation or other actions," he said.

Speaking later with a reporter from the Reuters news service, Al Zayani added, "The intention of the consultation is to ensure that war will not happen. The intention is to have peace. We are against war… The Iranian nuclear issue is a challenge for the whole region and war will be a challenge to all. We don't want escalation… we hope it will end in a political solution."

Iran has repeatedly threatened to annihilate the State of Israel and has adamantly refused to halt its nuclear development program, which intelligence agencies fear is aimed at creating a weapon of mass destruction. The Israeli government has stated it will not tolerate an existential threat, regardless of what other countries decide to do, although it prefers to deal with the issue diplomatically.

Bahrain is one of the few Arab nations which have not displayed public hostility towards Israel. The monarchy recently appointed a Jewish woman, Huda Nunu, to be its ambassador to the United States, the first Arab nation to do so. Nunu, a businesswoman and mother of two, who was the head of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch, was named to the post after a long process.

Currently there are fewer than 10 Jewish families  in Bahrain, where Jews have lived since ancient times. Arabic records note their refusal to convert to Islam when the faith's founder, Mohammed, took over the territory.

The US-based Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations has thrown down the gauntlet in what may become a renewed battle over the issue of who has the right to immigrate to Israel.

The group is an umbrella organization for approximately 80 American Christian missionary congregations comprised of worshippers who seek to convince Jews to believe in Jesus. In their houses of worship, these congregations observe some Jewish traditions. But while Jewish law clearly says that Judaism is passed to the next generation through the mother, these missionary congregations say that if the father is Jewish, that's enough.

Some of the missionaries were born to Jewish mothers and are therefore Jewish according to Jewish law. Under the State's current Law of Return anyone with at least one Jewish parent or grandparent on either side of the family is eligible to immigrate to Israel. It is this law that enabled the Jewish Agency to utilize Jewish funds to bring in some 300,000 non-Jews to Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU).

In the past, however, those who profess belief in Jesus have been blocked from acquiring Israeli citizenship because such belief is in direct contradiction to the Jewish faith.

A more serious problem is the compulsion that most members of these missionary congregations feel to convince other Jews to believe in Jesus.

"Those people are proselytizers," says Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Ateret Yerushalayim Yeshiva. "They should not be allowed to have an influence on Jews who might be too weak to resist."

The issue of missionary activity in Israel has been heating up over the past year, particularly since Purim, when the son of a missionary was injured after he opened a booby-trapped gift package received by the family in Ariel. 

Orthodox Jewish anti-missionaries were accused of having sent the package, but there was no evidence to indicate that Jews were involved. The boy's father, Pastor David Ortiz, had been warned repeatedly by Palestinian Authority religious authorities to stop trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

In the small southern city of Arad, Christian missionaries have also been at the center of controversy. Eddie Beckford, a tall, burly American missionary was arrested earlier this year for attacking a Gur Chassid during a protest by the Yad L'Achim anti-missionary organization outside one of the group's centers.

Beckford was remanded to house arrest and has since moved to Be'ersheva, where he has joined forces with pastor Howard Bass at the burgeoning Congregation Nahalat Yeshua (Jesus' Inheritance).

From September 21-27, 2008, athletic tourists will be able to visit and tour the country in a unique style: Bicycling their way through the upper Galilee and the Golan Heights on the Jewish National Fund’s first annual Bike Ride Mission to Israel.

Bicycle riding in Jerusalem Hills
Flash 90

"Participants will traverse over 200 miles of breathtaking terrain," the JNF literature announces, "during four days of fully supported riding (all ability levels are welcome), and will be rewarded with exclusive accommodations at the 5-star Mitzpe Hayamim Hotel and Spa and The Carmel Forest Spa Resort."

The bicycle tours will include stops in towns, army bases, and JNF sites such as security bypass roads, forests, and nature reserves.  The participants will also hear talks from public officials and IDF officers, will learn about Israel's water problems and the JNF's efforts and successes in solving them, and will take part in rafting and wine-tasting activities.

The cost: $3,600 per rider (double occupancy), not including airfare. Participants can either bring their own bicycle or rent one here.

“This will be a once-in-a-lifetime, challenging, safe, and fun-filled cycling experience that incorporates unique encounters with the people of Israel,” said mission chair Ronald Lubin, an avid bike rider from Boston.

The Jewish National Fund started in 1901 by distributing blue boxes to Jews all over the world for people to save coins for the purchase of land and return the Jewish people to their homeland.  JNF has since evolved into a global environmental leader, and has become the central land-conservation address for the Jewish Nation. 

For more information on the bike mission, visit www.jnf.org/bikeisrael.

Radhi Assida, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), said at a Berlin conference that he has drafted terrorists into the security forces in order to "neutralize" them. He told Reuters News Agency the terrorists were people who had "lost their way."
The terrorists were people who had 'lost their way.'

Assida claimed that his 220-man force for the most part has disbanded Muslim terrorists groups. Israel has agreed to the deployment of American-trained armed policemen in Shechem and Jenin, which are considered major terrorist hubs. Israeli military officials have commented that the PA police do not try to confront terrorists and that they are able to function only because the IDF carries out counterterrorist operations at night, when the police are not on duty.
 
The PA wants to bring in heavy weapons, but Israeli officials have reminded observers that previous weapons given to the PA were used in terrorist attacks against Israel.

Assida also complained that financial aid to the PA is "pointless unless the Israelis ease the pressure on us."

Assida charged that donations for police vehicles do not help because Israel allegedly prevents them from going to villages where criminals are located. He said that when he told the IDF his forces are cracking down on terrorists, "They told me, 'How can that be? You haven't killed any yet.'"

The commander of the reserve unit of kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev sharply criticized the government and the IDF on Wednesday for making their families "beg" for their loved ones' return.

The commander, identified only as "Dudu", said in an interview of Voice of Israel government radio that the soldiers who fell in battle during the Second Lebanon War, as well as the captives, paid the price for the government's abandonment of the northern border in the year 2000.

Then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak ordered a hasty withdrawal from Lebanon at the time, following continued attacks by Hizbullah terrorists against Israeli soldiers patrolling the security zone in the southern part of the country.

The terrorist organization spent the next six years developing and refining its infrastructure in southern Lebanon, building deep underground bunkers and stockpiling thousands of Katyusha rockets and other advanced weaponry.

By the time they initiated they initiated the July 12, 2006 cross-border attack in which they kidnapped Goldwasser and Regev, the terrorists were ready for the start of the Second Lebanon War.

Not so Israel, however. Six years of government budget cuts had taken their toll.

The commander of the reservists' unit revealed that vehicles on the Israeli front were without diesel fuel and in a state of disrepair. He also reported that there were communication failures that prevented officers from knowing where their soldiers were located at critical times.

Improvements Have Been Made
These and other issues were listed meticulously by investigative commissions charged with probing the failures of the war. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, appointed to replace Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz following his resignation after the war's end, has since implemented the lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War.

Hizbullah Newspaper Warns Price for Hostages to Rise
The Hizbullah-affiliated Al Akbar newspaper reported Wednesday that the terrorist group will raise its price for the return of Goldwasser and Regev if Israel does not soon agree to its current terms.

The present deal would include the release of Lebanese Druze terrorist Samir Kuntar, who is serving four consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison for the brutal murders of four Israeli civilians, including two toddlers, during an attack he led on Nahariyah in 1979.

According to the report, Hizbullah refused a request by German mediators to reveal the fate of the two captives. The editor of the newspaper also wrote that contrary to claims by the Israeli government, the proposed deal includes the release of hundreds of other Arab terrorists as well.

Until this point, Israel said Hizbullah was demanding Kuntar's release, along with four other live operatives and eight dead terrorists captured during the Second Lebanon War.

In an effort to blunt the terror group's ability to drive the price higher, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky earlier in the week to make a determination as to whether the two captives could be declared legally dead.

If they are classified as having been killed in action, the negotiating price for their return will be greatly reduced, according to military sources.

Shomron Regional Council Head Gershon Masika said Wednesday that the struggle over the community of Migron, which the government has slated for demolition, will be "a second Amona" and will make that confrontation look like no more than an "opening shot." 
 
In an interview for this weekend's issue of SOS-Israel's leaflet, "Eretz Yisrael Shelanu," Masika said: "The attempt to make ourselves look beautiful for the general public and show them that we are nice, not 'extremists,' and want to connect to them with love, doesn't work. The general public understands nuances and it understood that in the struggle for Gush Katif we were not determined enough to hold on to the land.

"The result of the policy that led to the expulsion is that nobody gives a hoot about the expellees. They were thrown to the dogs and they are down and out and humiliated in refugee camps. Experience has
"Going like lambs to the slaughter yields no benefit but only means going from bad to worse."
thus shown that we need to change the policy. Our line of argumentation is not political, but very simple: the Land of Israel is ours and we will not give up a single grain of sand. Besides that, the concessions cause Jewish blood to be spilled."

'Go on the offensive'
"It is time to switch to an offensive war and stop being on the defensive all the time," Masika said. "We need to shout that the emperor has no clothes. The governments took us from bad to worse, from concession to concession, and brought us down to the gates of hell. They have no ideological or security value anymore, and they only serve our enemies." 

Asked about the events at Yitzhar last week, he said: "The evacuation did not proceed with ease. There was serious resistance with dozens wounded on both sides. And the main thing is that by the grace of G-d, on the same night of the destruction of the structure, the new caravan at Givat Shaked was built, which shows great determination.
The Druze and Bedouins "don't give a second thought to anything and that is why they are not uprooted, even though this is not their land."

"As council head I tried to be there and prevent the violence and rioting by the uniform-wearers against the wonderful, devoted and ideological youth that is worthy of all praise. We admire this wonderful youth, that is the pride of Judea and Samaria and gives us great pride."

Not lambs any more
"The lesson of Gush Katif is that going like lambs to the slaughter yields no benefit but only means going from bad to worse, to a complete destruction of the State of Israel, of the military, of the communities, a deep chasm through society and bleeding wounds that will apparently never heal."

Masika, who was elected in the aftermath of the Disengagement and is not considered a part of the old Yesha leadership establishment, explained: "When you demand your rights without caring about the cost, the treatment you will receive will be, at the very worst, what the Druze got and what the Bedouins in the Negev got. They don't give a second thought to anything and that is why they are not uprooted, even though this is not their land."

"If the country does not wake up at the last minute, Migron will be a second Amona, with all of t
"With HaShem's help, the day is not far when the leadership shall come out of the religious and hareidi public."
he serious meaning that involves. The reason the residents of Gush Katif were thrown to the dogs was that the eviction was wrapped in promises that supposedly, it would improve the security situation, and also improve the evacuees' lives. In fact they saw that the eviction not only did not improve anything, it actually made security worse and the evacuees reached rock-bottom."

'Daring struggle' ahead
"We will fight for every clod of earth. As the Arabs – lehavdil – say, that the land is sacred and one may not give up a single grain. Our struggle for the land is an existential necessity. We received it from the Kadosh Baruch Hu rightfully and no one is permitted to give it up. And the main thing like I said is that this is simply a security matter for the lives of millions of Jews. The State of Israel also understands that the planned eviction will not go smoothly. There will be a determined struggle and daring here with no compromises, and Amona will seem like an opening shot compared to it. 

"I learned two things from the Expulsion, Masika added: "The real field of battle is the political one. That is why we must unite all of the forces in a single bloc with no differences, and the uniting cry should be the one uttered by Mattityahu the Maccabee, "mi leHashem elai!" ("Whoever is for the Lord – let him come to me!"), and then we will be able to infuse the public with a new spirit.

"With HaShem's help, the day is not far when the leadership shall come out of the religious and hareidi public. Only we have the values, the clinging to Torah and Land and soil, as opposed to the alienated and disconnected secular leadership." 

Pressures from both within and without are increasing for religious girls to enlist in the army.

IDF Pressures, MK Ariel Protests
The IDF Recruitment Office in Jerusalem is reportedly making it uncomfortable for girls to declare that they are religious and thus receive the exemption from IDF service that has been automatic ever since the inception of the State.  MK Uri Ariel (National Union) has writen a letter of protest to the Deputy Defense Minister, saying, "The IDF is trying to persuade religious girls to enlist, using psychological pressure and challenging their motivation."

Religious Organization Weighs In
On the other hand, organizations such as Alumah (see below) are seeking to visit religious high schools for girls and explain why enlisting in the IDF need not be as bad as they fear. They have been welcomed in about a quarter of the country's religious girls' high schools.

Cultural Harassment
The B'Sheva weekly reports on an unexpectedly difficult encounter that 11th-grade ulpanah student Tzurit Shmuel faced in the IDF Recruitment Office.  Tzurit said, "I made the customary declaration in the Rabbinate that I am religious, and then I brought it to the Recruitment Office and asked for my exemption.  But the clerk did not accept it, and instead started challenging me: 'So what if you're religious? Why shouldn't you serve in the army? In what way are you religious?' She also told me very curtly that there is no problem to observe the Sabbath and kashrut in the army, and tested me on religious issues, and said, 'Let me tell you something: The fact that you have a declaration doesn't mean that you have an exemption.'  Only after a long debate did she finally agree to give me the exemption."

Tzurit said that several of her friends underwent similar attacks in the IDF office. 

MK Ariel wrote to Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, "This description of what happens in the Recruitment Office is very grave, and the religious public will not accept it.  I ask that you issue a clear order to cease such behavior... As it is, having girls serve in the IDF does not bring, in most cases, real benefits. In the long range, Israeli society, values, morals and even its economy lose out from having girls serve in the army."

One Fifth
Tzurit's account is part of a running debate within the religious-Zionist public regarding female service in the army.  The most recent official figures show that 21% of the some 7500 girls who graduate the public religious school system enlist in the army - but every year brings with it increased pressures and difficult deliberations.

One female ex-soldier, who began to become religious during her high school years, told Hagit Rotenberg of B'Sheva about her army experiences in a base with mostly not-religious soldiers:
"It was humiliating. I felt humiliated from the way they expressed themselves towards me.  I didn't know how to behave.  I was stunned at the way they talked and acted: You would walk in the hall and soldiers would touch you. They don't understand that religious males and females don't touch each other, and there's nothing you can do about it. They touch and kiss freely, they are always together and that's it, with no consideration for whether I'm there or not... The expressions and gestures of the soldiers and the officers - it's more than just dirty talk. This is what they're used to, and I was hurt by it many times."

Other girls give similar reports. Though the army makes official allowance for a religious lifestyle, "it is a day-to-day war," said another newly-religious girl who ultimately succeeded in leaving the army. "You have to constantly justify yourself, you have to wake up extra early to pray, you can't always eat the food, officers will give you little pinches out of affection, you have to work on certain days of fasting, people will make comments about my skirts and tell me to wear shorter ones... I cannot understand why a religious girl would want to go to the army; you can contribute much more by doing national service."

Alumah's Position
Some do not agree.  Yifat Sela, a mother of four from Modiin, heads the Alumah organization, which accompanies religious girls who wish to enlist in the army.  She makes light of the above issues:
"Girls in the army are not harassed any more than those in National Service, or more than in the bank or grocery store.  You can observe Jewish Law in the army, and there are rabbis there, and the army's policy of 'suitable integration' between girls and boys is implemented.  The girls' problem is not the boys in the army; it's the girls. Religious girls meet, for the first time, girls of their own age who are totally not religious yet have values and a different set of morals and political views - and this is difficult for them... They can go to the army in groups of two or three, making it easier for them. The secular girls sometimes go with them to the prayers, and this gives them [the religious girls] a feeling that they are having an influence on others and that they have a mission."

Col. Rabbi Hager
Rabbi Moshe Hager, an IDF Colonel in the reserves and head of the pre-military yeshiva academy in Yatir, has participated in seminars run by Alumah, but says he clearly prefers National Service for girls over the army. "Alumah is good for those who are taking the less desirable course.  Sometimes they imagine that when they go to the army, they will change the world, but the fact is that it is very hard and the chances of doing so are very small... In general, the fact that there are girls in the army is not good - mainly for the boys. It makes the boys function less well, especially in the combat units, which are clearly harmed by having girls there."

Rotenberg noted that several educators noted that if the National Service would be more efficient in placing girls in appropriate positions that matched the girls' desires, the option of the army would be less attractive.

Rabbi Magnes
Rabbi Yehoshu Magnes, a long-time head of the Tel Aviv Ulpanit (girls' high school) and a senior teacher in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, says the issue is really not up for debate: "Girls' service in the army in whatever framework was clearly forbidden by former Chief Rabbis Shapira and Eliyahu, so what's the question? Having girls under the control of men is not modest, and that's it. So why are we looking for ways to permit that which is forbidden?"

The French Jewish community has a new chief rabbi: Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, 56, who heads France's largest synagogue, the Ashkenazi Synagogue de la Victoire in Paris.

Rabbi Bernheim has the equivalent of a doctorate in philosophy and is known as an "intellectual." In a 184-99 vote of nearly 300 rabbis and communal leaders on Sunday, he defeated the outgoing "down-to-earth" Rabbi Sitruk. Both rabbis are Orthodox.

The partially-paralyzed Rabbi Sitruk, who now concludes three consecutive seven-year terms as Chief Rabbi, had defeated Rabbi Bernheim in a previous election for the position.

The position of Chief Rabbi of France, established by Napoleon in 1808, features no administrative authorities, but has important symbolic authority of spiritual leadership for the 600,000-strong Jewish community.

Rabbi Bernheim, the co-author of a book that recounts his conversations with a prominent French Cardinal, will assume office on January 1.

"Rabbi Sitruk was very popular," a former member of the French Jewish community told Israel National News, "but he is no longer in top form, after the stroke he suffered a number of years ago.  He brought many people back to observant Judaism with his casual style.  But Perhaps Rabbi Bernheim will raise the level even more."