Following a day of enemy rocket barrages from Gaza, hundreds of residents of the southern city of Sderot took to the streets in an angry spontaneous demonstration Monday night. They protested against the government's failure to stop the Palestinian Authority attacks on them. Attacks continued Tuesday morning, with PA rockets and mortars slamming into a home in Sderot and hitting a medical clinic in a kibbutz, among other targets.

During their Monday protest, residents blocked the main entrance to Sderot and burned tires. The demonstration dispersed after a short time without incident.

PA terrorists fired 19 rockets at towns in the western Negev on Monday. Several people suffered shock, and kibbutzim (cooperative communities) in the area reported some damage to property. One rocket slammed into a local highway.

Workers clear debris from Kassam landing, Tuesday morning, 29Apr08.

Israel News Photo: www.photocarlos.com

No Halt to Attacks
By Tuesday morning, Arab terrorists resumed their attacks on Israel. By 9:00 am at least ten rockets had fallen throughout the western Negev and several mortar shells landed in a kibbutz adjacent to Gaza.

Four Kassam rockets slammed into Sderot and its environs, with one hitting a house in the city and causing severe damage. Several people suffered from shock as a result of the attacks. One mortar shell fired by PA terrorists struck a medical clinic on a kibbutz in the Eshkol Region, causing slight damage to the reinforced structure.

Direct hit on Sderot house 29Apr08.
Israel News Photo: www.photocarlos.com

One rocket exploded near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar HaNegev region, causing no injuries or damage. Four other rockets fell in the same vicinity, causing slight property damage.
Fatah, led by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and the Islamic Jihad both claimed to be behind the Tuesday morning barrage.

Fatah, led by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and the Islamic Jihad both claimed to be behind the Tuesday morning barrage.

Exactly one year ago, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared that the Israeli government "will not avoid the necessary steps to protect the residents of the South [and] cannot continue to ignore the Kassam launching and infiltration attempts of terrorist cells." 

Israel News Photo: www.photocarlos.com

In other PA attacks, Arabs threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle on Monday night north of the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem. No injuries were reported in the attack, but the vehicle sustained
damage. A similar rock-throwing incident too place the same night near the town of Kfar Tapuach, in Samaria.  One vehicle was damaged and no injuries were reported.

In overnight IDF operations, soldiers apprehended 21 wanted terrorists in Judea and Samaria, including three who were caught in Tulkarm, six near Shechem, two in Kalkilya, adjacent to Kfar Saba, one in Ramallah and nine in the Hevron area. Still at large are two terrorists who escaped from a PA prison in Jericho Sunday night. Border Police also arrested approximately 300 PA residents who were found in pre-1967 Israel without work permits on Monday.

Kassam his Kibbutz in western Negev, Tuesday morning, 29Apr08
Israel News Photo: www.photocarlos.com

The majority of the Knesset faction of Kadima - Israel's largest party and political home of the Prime Minister and most of the more influential Cabinet ministers - opposes a giveaway of the Golan Heights.

The results of an internal party poll to this effect were published on the Kadima party website.  The site emphasizes that the results are "fluid," as they are dependent on the precise nature of an agreement that might be signed with Syria.

Prime Minister Olmert has not denied reports of last week that he transmitted a message to Syria stating he would be willing to give up the entire Golan in exchange for peace with the North Korean ally.

"Do You Favor Significant Withdrawal?"
The party's 29 MKs were asked whether they would support a "significant withdrawal" from the Golan Heights.  This term was defined as either the uprooting of all or most of the 33 Jewish towns there, or their transfer to Syrian sovereignty with a measure of Israeli autonomy.

Fifteen of the 29 MKs said they are totally against a "significant withdrawal." These included ten members of the Knesset Golan lobby - Ruchama Avraham Belila, Eli Aflalo, Tzachi HaNegbi, Yoel Hasson, David Tal, Marina Solodkin, Ze'ev Elkin, Ronit Tirosh, Michael Nudelman, and Shai Hermesh - as well as Yaakov Edry, Sha'ul Mofaz, Avraham Hirschson, Ze'ev Boim, and Otniel Shneller.  This number includes four Cabinet ministers (Mofaz, Boim, Edry and Belila).

Transportation Minister Mofaz told reporters in Washington on Monday that surrendering the Golan to the Iranian ally would mean giving Iran control of the high ground overlooking much of northern Israel. The former Defense Minister, who met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, is visiting Washington as part of the American-Israeli strategic dialogue that takes place every six months.

The position of two Kadima MKs - Minister Gideon Ezra and Amira Dotan - is not clear.  Ezra has gone on record as saying that there is no point in talking with Syria at present.

Twelve Kadima MKs say they favor a "significant withdrawal" from the Golan in exchange for peace with the country the US terms a "terrorism sponsor."  They are Olmert, Ministers Livni, Dichter, Sheetrit, Ramon, and Bar-On, and Shlomo Mula, Dalia Itzik, Menachem Ben-Sasson, Yitzchak Ben-Yisrael, Yochanan Plesner, and Majli Whbee.

Syria Shelled Israel from the Golan
Syria controlled the Golan for 19 years, beginning in 1948, and used it to systematically shell and attack the Jewish towns towns below.  140 Israelis were killed in these attacks, many more were injured, and heavy property damage was also inflicted.

Israel liberated the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War, thus freeing northern Israel of the Syrian threat.  Israel soon realized that the Golan was vital not only militarily, but also in terms of water, history, and more.  The Golan was officially annexed to Israel in 1981, and over the years, 33 Jewish communities were built, including the full-fledged town of Katzrin.  Today, over 17,000 Jewish residents live in the Golan and the slopes of strategically-vital Mt. Hermon. In addition, 19,000 Druze and 2,000 Muslims live there as well.

History to Repeat?
It is noteworthy that when Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert first floated the idea of a Disengagement from Gush Katif and northern Shomron, many of their Likud party members opposed it.  As time passed and political circumstances changed, however, their opinions did as well.

A Palestinian Authority court in the city of Hevron sentenced a 25-year-old man to death Monday for giving Israel information that led to the elimination of four terrorists. The condemned man, Emad Saad, did not deny the charges.

Samih Staidi, a senior member of the PA's official armed militia, said Saad, himself a former member of the PA forces, would be executed by a firing squad. Staidi expressed satisfaction with the verdict, saying, “Let it be an example to those who sell their homeland and their people.”

The court that sentenced Saad is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah organization. Abbas is currently involved in negotiations with Israel over what is being promoted as a peace agreement; however, Israel has predicated implementation on a concerted PA effort to fight anti-Israel terrorism. Earlier this month, Abbas granted an official award to two Arab terrorists responsible for the deaths of 16 Jews.

The last time the PA officially executed an Arab resident under its jurisdiction for assisting Israel was in 2001; however, dozens of Arabs who were said to have been offering assistance to Israel have been killed by PA lynch mobs or by Fatah and Hamas terrorists in recent years.

'A Slap in the Face to Israel'
In reaction to news of the PA death sentence, the Land of Israel Legal Forum wrote an urgent letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak calling on them to take action to prevent the execution. The Forum's Chairman, Nachi Eyal, wrote that the IDF should be sent into the PA-controlled area of Hevron to forcibly free the condemned man if the PA refuses to lift the sentence. 

"The State of Israel, which aids the Palestinian Authority in many varied ways, can make it clear to [Abbas] that this [death sentence] crosses a red line of incomprehensible cruelty and of uncultured behavior," Eyal wrote.

Noting that the execution of Arabs who assist Israel was characteristic of the rule of the late arch-terrorist and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, Eyal added that it also proves that "whosoever gives the Palestinian Authority any credit and transfers weapons and armored vehicles to it behaves irresponsibly."

In March, the Israeli government implemented a series of "goodwill gestures" that included delivering dozens of APCs to Fatah-controlled PA militias in Judea and Samaria.

"Execution of someone for cooperating with the State of Israel is a stinging slap in the face to Israel," Eyal explained in his letter to Olmert and Barak, "It is your moral obligation to make it clear to [Abbas], in whose hands approval of the sentence rests, that authorization of the sentence will be be treated extremely seriously by Israel."

Abbas Rejects Meeting With Diplomats Who Honor Israel's Independence Day
Meanwhile, PA officials said Monday that Abbas would not meet with foreign leaders and diplomats who visit Israel in honor of the country’s 60th Independence Day. At that time, they said, the PA will be commemorating the "Nakba", or “Disaster,” as it refers to the creation of the modern state of Israel.

PA sources said visiting diplomats should “show sensitivity to the Palestinian people’s feelings” and realize that the PA will be mourning the creation of the state of Israel, not celebrating it.

A record number of Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, approximately 300, took place throughout Monday morning at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem's Old City. Celebrants came from Israel and abroad, including 23 boys from the rocket-battered western Negev.
23 celebrations were sponsored by a family from Miami.

The Bar Mitzvah ceremony welcoming Jewish 13-year-old boys into the religious obligations of manhood includes honoring the Bar Mitzvah with a Torah reading, as well as his reciting blessings and putting on tefillin (known in English as "phylacteries") for the first time as an adult.

Members of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said that they do not recall so many parallel Bar Mitzvah events in one day at the Western Wall Plaza. The Foundation itself helped organize 180 of the celebrations as part of its project to provide free assistance to any Jewish family that wishes to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah at the Kotel. The Foundation provides guidance for the Bar Mitzvah boy in putting on tefillin, as well as arranging for a prayer quorum and for someone to read the Torah in accordance with tradition.

Another 23 celebrations were sponsored by a family from Miami that came to mark the Bar Mitzvah of their own 13-year-old son, Shmulik, on Israel's 60th Independence Day. Shmulik has been selected to light a torch in the central Independence Day ceremony in the name of children in the Diaspora.

Shmulik's family decided to host Bar Mitzvah children from Sderot and surrounding towns as well, and to provide each young man with a tallit (prayer shawl), tefillin, and a celebratory meal for him and his family. Before their Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, the children from the western Negev were introduced to Torah scribes and saw how the texts of the tefillin were written. 

More than 100 Bar Mitzvah ceremonies and celebrations were organized by individual families on their own.

Chief Rabbi of the Kotel and the Holy Places, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, expressed satisfaction with the multiple Bar Mitzvah celebrations. The fact that so many Jews come from Israel and abroad to mark their children's coming of age in the Western Wall Plaza is an indication of the deep connection between the Jews, Jerusalem and the Kotel.

"There is no more appropriate place to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah than at the Western Wall," Rabbi Rabinovitch said, "a place that connects a Jewish child with the chain of tradition and generations of his heritage, the source of Jewish people's strength and hope. I invite all Jewish children to come and celebrate their Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall."

In a New York Times op-ed on Monday, ex-Pres. Jimmy Carter says Hamas wants peace - while Hamas leader Khaled Meshal presents an entirely different picture.

Carter wrote in the Times about his recent meetings in Israel with the leaders of Hamas and Fatah, and painted a rosy picture of prospects for peace with Hamas.  He attacked the United States and Israel for having categorized Hamas as a terrorist organization, and for therefore not talking with them. 

It is a "counterproductive Washington policy [of] recent years," Carter writes, "to boycott and punish political factions or governments that refuse to accept United States mandates. This policy makes difficult the possibility that such leaders might moderate their policies."

Carter himself, on the other hand, talked with Hamas officials, and based on their "official responses," came up with the following conclusions (inter alia):

"Hamas will accept any agreement negotiated by Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert provided it is approved either in a Palestinian referendum or by an elected government.... Hamas will disband its militia in Gaza if a nonpartisan professional security force can be formed... Hamas will accept a mutual cease-fire in Gaza, with the expectation (not requirement) that this would later include [Judea and Samaria]..."

At an April 21 press conference in Jerusalem, Carter said, "Hamas said they would agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders [enabling Israel to continue to exist as it did prior to 1967 - ed.] if this was approved by the Palestinians, and that they would agree to accept Israel's right to exist as a neighbor with whom they would have peaceful relations."

Arab affairs analyst Yehonatan D. HaLevi writes that an interview given by Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal shows that Carter either did not understand the answers he was given, or that he is purposely presenting a false picture designed to "launder" Hamas in Western eyes.

Meshal: The Struggle Will Continue
HaLevi writes that Meshal told Al-Jazeera just three days ago from Syria something very different: "As opposed to the rosy picture presented by Carter, according to which Hamas is willing to recognize Israel under the current circumstances, Meshal said that the struggle against Israel would continue."

HaLevi quoted Meshal as having explained, "Israel is only willing to accept our ceasefire proposal - including a full retreat from eastern Jerusalem and to the '67 borders, the return of the refugees, but no recognition of Israel - if circumstances force it to do so and if a change in the balance in power forces it do so.  Hamas is working to make sure this happens."

Hamas Accepts Democratic Results - Only Under Certain Conditions
In addition, though Carter says Hamas is willing to accept the results of a Palestinian Authority referendum, in actuality, Hamas has placed so many qualifications on this as to render it totally moot.  Meshal told Al-Jazeera, "Hamas will accept the will of the Palestinian nation, as reflected in free elections for the Palestinian National Council in accordance with agreed-upon principles, or in a free referendum inside [within the PA-controlled areas] and outside [abroad] - on condition that the Palestinian negotiator will be obligated to Palestinian rights in accordance with the Document of National Consensus on the issues of Jerusalem, the refugees, and borders."

"In other words," HaLevi sums up, "Hamas will accept the results if they are identical with the original Hamas position."

Hamas and Shalit
It should also be noted that Carter says approvingly of Hamas that it will "permit Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, to send a letter to his parents."  No date has been set for this to happen. "If Israel agrees to a list of prisoners to be exchanged, and the first group is released, Corporal Shalit will be sent to Egypt, pending the final releases," Carter writes - without noting that the "list of prisoners" is many hundreds of names long and includes many who have been involved in the murder and maiming of dozens of Israelis in terrorist attacks.

HaLevi says Carter's position is puzzling: "He sees nothing wrong with Hamas even though it is a terrorist organization... He is essentially enabling terrorist and Fascist organizations to take over western democracies whenever these groups win a majority of the vote.  In addition, Carter is trying with all his might to launder Hamas and to market it to Israel and the international community as a moderate force - even though Hamas itself presents a totally opposite stance."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused a request Monday morning from Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair to remove a roadblock between PA-controlled Ramallah and the Jewish town of Beit El. He said that doing so would endanger the lives of the Jewish residents who live nearby. Unfettered access to the area would make it easier for terrorists to reach Jewish towns in Judea, Samaria as well as urban centers in pre-1967 Israel.

In the afternoon, however, it was announced that he agreed to dismantle a key security checkpoint strategically located between Shechem, known in the area as "terrorist central," and nearby Arab villages.

The checkpoint is used to monitor the flow of terrorist activities, materials and weaponry in the area as well as prevent the entry of attackers and illegal PA aliens into pre-1967 Israel. The two security points were among a list of travel and trade restrictions that Blair has asked the government to remove.

The former British Prime Minister, who now works for the US, Russia, European Union and United Nations (which comprise the Quartet), argued that the checkpoints and other security restrictions are damaging to the status of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

A spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry said, "The removal of the crossing is aimed at easing the lives of the Palestinians. But if it will be used for terror activities Israel will reconsider its opening."

Two More Terrorists "Escape" PA Prison
Three terrorists "escaped" from the PA prison in Jericho Sunday night. All were reportedly Fatah members of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terrorist organization. According to local sources quoted by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, the three left to protest their living conditions.

Prison police chief Khaled Abu Kamel later told the foreign AFP news agency, "People escape from prisons all over the world. We are investigating."

There have been numerous instances of such "escapes" from PA jails by terrorists in the past.

Refugees from destroyed communities in Gush Katif have appealed to the Supreme Court to force the government to enforce a pre-disengagement decision to erase refugees' debts to the World Zionist Organization.

The decision to erase debts incurred by Gush Katif pioneers when they established their communities was made by the Knesset Finance Committee in 2004. As with other areas around the country, Gaza communities benefited from long-term loans from the Jewish Agency in order establish farming infrastructure, but when the Sharon Administration decided to pull out of Gaza, it became clear that local residents would be unable to repay the debts.

Because the Finance Committee had supposedly "taken care" of canceling Gush Katif debts to the World Zionist Organization, the Knesset Laws Committee did not enshrine the debt erasure in the 2005 Evacuation – Compensation Law. As a result,  Gaza residents were left with little legal protection and saddled with debt for farming equipment and farm land they can no longer access. 

According to Anita Tucker, formerly of Netzer Hazani, the debt repayment is an especially sore point for pioneers who built up Jewish Gaza soon after the area was liberated from Egypt during the Six Day War.

"When we came to Gush Katif over 30 years ago, the World Zionist Organization gave a package of benefits to encourage agriculture in development areas. We received various essentials to start a farm. I was a farmer in Gush Katif for 29 years. We were in the process of paying back those initial benefits, when the government threw us out of the land, that it had originally encouraged us to develop."

Three years later, still refugees

Three years after the government forcibly removed Gaza's Jewish residents from their homes, expellees continue to be scattered in a variety of temporary housing arrangements, and most remain without suitable employment options. Most refugees survive on compensation payouts they received at the time of the eviction.

To raise funds to build a new dairy infrastructure in order to create a post-disengagement source of economic stability, some former Gush Katif communities sold shares in Tnuva, Israel's largest dairy product manufacturer. There is now a foreclosure order for approximately 3 million shekels on that money in order to cover the debts the refugees owe to the Zionist organization.

The lawsuit names as defendants the government, World Zionist Organization, the Finance Ministry, the accountant general, the agriculture minister and the Sela Disengagement Authority, and asks the court to force the above-mentioned bodies to enforce the government's decision. They say the plaintiffs' real ability to restore and rebuild their lives has suffered, and due to the huge sums involved (which is more than the sum total of the payout they have received to date), it has impaired their abilities to repair their lives in the future.

Knesset Member Effie Eitam (National Union-National Religious Party) slammed Arab MK Ibrahim Sarsur (Ra’am-Ta’al) on Monday night after Sarsur compared IDF soldiers to Nazis and claimed Israel was targeting Arab civilians for extermination.

MK Eitam called the Nazi comparison “chilling” and said, "MK Sarsur's desecration of the memory of the
“The Arab MKs have again proven their loyalty to the enemy." -- MK Eitam
Holocaust will never be forgiven, and it will remain a moral stain that will force the Knesset presidency to take appropriate action."

The statement by MK Sarsur was the latest in a series of incidents demonstrating that "Arab MKs have broken a new record in traitorous behavior towards the state and the IDF," said Eitam. "The Arab MKs have again proven their loyalty to the enemy," he said, adding that MKs who side with enemy elements, such as Hamas, should be removed from the Knesset as quickly as possible.

On Monday, MK Sarsur compared IDF soldiers to Nazis after five Arab civilians were killed in Gaza during an IDF counter-terrorism operation.

An initial IDF investigation showed that the civilians were not killed by the Israel Air Force strike. Rather, Arab terrorists were carrying a bomb near the family's house that detonated by accident. The IDF later ordered the artillery commander of the Southern Command to investigate Monday's deaths more in depth.

Sarsur said in a press statement, "Every day Israel proves that her army is the Nazis’ chief competitor and that it carries out an ideology of extermination." He blamed Israel for the civilians' deaths, calling the incident a "massacre of a Palestinian family... in the context of new aggression by the occupation army in the northern Gaza Strip."

The Arab MK emphasized, "We have no doubt that Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians for death, for shredding [their bodies], for starvation and for destruction [of their homes]...." Sarsur added that IDF spokesmen are lying when they say that the army doesn't target civilians. 

IDF spokesmen said that "additional inquiries are to be carried out, in order to eliminate any possible doubt regarding the accuracy" of the initial conclusions placing the blame at Hamas's doorstep. "By intentionally operating from within heavily populated areas, and using them for cover, the terrorist organization exploits civilians as human shields," the IDF Spokesman's Office added.

The IDF probe comes 24 hours after the incident, while an intensive PA public relations campaign has already mostly succeeded in placing the blame on Israel. On Thursday, donor nations to the PA are scheduled to meet in London, where it is expected that they will severely condemn Israel over Monday's deaths.

Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman Avigdor Lieberman slammed police prosecutors and Israel's media Monday, saying ongoing police investigations were tarnished with what Lieberman called "blackmail" and accusing print and broadcast media of conducting a "hunting" expedition against him.

Police have investigated Lieberman several times since the mid-1990s for a series of financial irregularities including money laundering, bribery, fraud and breach of public trust. The current investigation began in January 2008, a week after Lieberman resigned his position as Minister of Strategic Affairs to protest the government's conciliatory policy in the face of ongoing Kassam rocket and terror attacks emanating from the Palestinian Authority.

Lieberman's attorney, Yoav Many, is also suspected of helping him break the law by facilitating fraud, money laundering and breach of trust and falsifying corporate documents.

Political Investigation
Speaking to reporters at Sokolov House in central Tel Aviv, Lieberman claimed that police warned at least one defense witness to cooperate against him in order to prevent Lieberman from ever being elected prime minister. He also called on police to file an indictment against him or to drop the ongoing investigations. "The police have no excuse for dragging out the investigation. Ten years is enough time to serve an indictment. If they can’t do that, they should close the case," he said.

Lieberman also lashed out against the Israeli media, saying local reporters have conducted a "media witch hunt" against him. He singled out Amnon Abramovich, a reporter and political analyst for the Hebrew-language Maariv newspaper, and Mordechai Gilat, a reporter for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, for criticism, saying Abramovich is the "ringleader of [Israel's] corrupt media," and calling Gilat the "deputy ringleader."

No Attorney-Client Privilege
Last week, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Shmuel Baruch granted police access to documents seized from attorney Many's office last year, rejecting Lieberman's and Many's claim that the files should be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Baruch said the usual rules of attorney-client privilege do not apply in this case because he said police have sufficient reason to suspect Many may have been party to illegal dealings by helping Lieberman launder bribe money paid by businessmen Martin Schlaff and Michael Chernoy via companies owned by either Lieberman or his daughter, Michal Lieberman-Galon. 

Police and political echelon officials were quick to reject Lieberman's criticism. Minister for Public Security Avi Dichter told Voice of Israel government radio that he placed "full confidence" in the police department's investigative branch, and several police officials said the investigations against Lieberman have dragged on due to the former minister's failure to cooperate with police.