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1. Olmert under Fire to Hit Hamas
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

More and more Cabinet ministers are demanding that the government allow the IDF to do what has to be done to stop the rocket siege that threatens to come closer to Tel Aviv.

 

The "Kitchen Cabinet" met Wednesday morning shortly after Gaza-based terrorists fired a rocket that exploded next to a kibbutz in the western Negev, causing panic but no damage or injuries. Children were on their way to schools and kindergartens when the missiles hit.

 

One defense ministry source told Voice of Israel government radio that the latest rocket and mortar attacks are being carried out by smuggling tunnel operators who want Israel to keep Gaza crossings closed so that they can make more profits.

 

One of the government's considerations may be the fate of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been languishing in an unknown location for more than two years since he was kidnapped in a terrorist attack at a Gaza crossing that killed two of his comrades.

 

He is believed to be alive, but his fate is not known. Prime Minister Olmert has promised several times that he would bring him back home alive and at one point declared he would not meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas until Shalit was freed.

 

The crossing where Shalit was abducted is one of several that have been closed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak as a retaliatory measure against rocket attacks.

 

He announced Tuesday night that the crossings would be re-opened for humanitarian aid because 24 hours had passed without an attack. Several hours later, mortars struck and another round of shelling hit Wednesday morning at the Nahal Oz fuel crossing after the first shipment of fuel passed into Gaza.

 

As more ministers spoke louder for action, Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for fewer discussions. "I suggest everyone stop talking," he said. "The political discussion is unnecessary, and we will strike at the right time and in the right way."

 

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made similar pronouncements yesterday during a visit to Sderot, when he expressed deep feelings for children and adults who now are in their ninth year of the rocket siege.

 

While Israeli media showed him hugging a small child, he repeated a three-year-old discourse that has concluded with vows that "we will not tolerate rocket attacks" and that "we know how to react."

 

Livni: Fire against Fire

 

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Olmert's successor as leader of the Kadima party, who visited Sderot at the same time and also was photographed holding a small child, demanded Wednesday morning's meeting.

 

Her calls for "fire against fire" come at the same time that polls show her party stuck in second place in the polls while the Likud leads. "Whoever calls this a 'calm' does not what he is talking about," she said, referring to the June 19 ceasefire that never was fully honored by Gaza terrorists for more than several days.

 

Housing Minister Zev Boim (Kadima) joined her in the demand for an attack on Gaza. He warned, "The range of Hizbullah and Syrian rockets is growing." Boim added that fortifying buildings against rocket attacks is "insufficient and creates an illusion. We have to eliminate the Hamas government. We cannot make do with distributing flyers" on how to take cover during a rocket attack.

 

The Home Front Command earlier this week added Kiryat Malachi, located only a few miles south of Rehovot, to the list of cities that have received printed information warning them of the possibility of rocket strikes.  

 

"I warned that this would happen," said Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit (Kadima). "I warned that Hamas would stockpile weapons during the calm and develop more lethal weapons. The range of Hamas rockets is liable to endanger half a million people. We have to stop this policy of not retaliating. We have to stop dragging our feet."

 

Industry Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) called for "a surgical counterterrorist action" against the Hamas leadership and urged the government to cut off all electricity, gas and water to the Gaza region. He said such action would be legal because Gaza residents are attacking Israeli civilians.

 

Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon (Kadima) has made similar demands for more than a year.

 

However, Barak's Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai (Labor) echoed the official policy. "In the end there will be a strike on the head of Hamas, but we will act when we should," he stated.
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2. Likud to Continue PA Talks
by Maayana Miskin

Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu called Tuesday for “pragmatic diplomacy” and said he would continue talks with the Palestinian Authority if elected. “Our way of doing things combines decisiveness on defense and diplomatic pragmatism,” he told reporters.

Netanyahu also discussed the global financial slowdown, and claimed credit for Israel's relatively strong standing. “There's no economy that isn't effected by this global shakeup. Ours is relatively unaffected because of the steps we took,” he said.

Akunis Hopes to Change List

Netanyahu supporter Ofir Akunis, who was picked for the 28 slot on the Likud list, has filed an appeal to the party's internal court asking to change the order of slots. Akunis will ask the court to give regional representatives higher spots on the list.

Akunis, who represents the Tel Aviv region, may ask for the slots that had been reserved for women. These slots were not used because the women on the Likud list were elected to spots higher than those reserved for them.

If accepted, Akunis's appeal would push Jewish Leadership faction head Moshe Feiglin down on the list. Feiglin won the twentieth slot on the list, putting him in almost certain position to join the next Knesset. Candidates supported by Feiglin would be pushed down as well, while two candidates supported by Netanyahu would rise to higher slots and greatly increase their chances of being elected to the Knesset.
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3. Likud Gains in Post-Feiglin Poll
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

The first post-Likud primaries poll dispels chairman Binyamin Netanyahu's fears that Jewish Leadership faction leader Moshe Feiglin's victory will hurt the party, but Netanyahu and his allies are appealing to the party's court in an effort to dump him.

The Likud actually would gain two seats if elections were held today, according to a Haaretz-Dialog poll, while a Yediot Acharonot survey shows the party would lose one Knesset Member. However, the same poll also shows that the Kadima party would win two seats less than in the previous survey, while Labor would gain two.

Following are results of the Haaretz-Dialog poll in the first column, with the second column showing the number of seats according to the previous poll taken three weeks ago. Each party's present strength is listed after its name.

36 34   Likud 12

27 28   Kadima  29

12 10   Labor 19

11 11   Arab parties 10

 9  10   Shas 12

 9  10   Yisrael Beiteinu 11

 6    6   United Torah Judaism (Agudah) 6 

 6    7   Meretz 5

 4    4   Jewish Home 9

The Green, Pensioners, HaTikvah and Meimad parties would not win enough support for Knesset representation, according to the polls.

A Likud-led coalition including nationalist and religious parties would include 64 MKs compared with 45 for a coalition led by Kadima, not including the Arab parties.

The poll also revealed that nearly half of the respondents do not know if Feiglin's winning the 20th place on the party's list of Knesset candidates will affect the party in the general elections February 10. Twenty percent thought that the results would be positive, and 27 percent said the party would be hurt at the polls.

However, Netanyahu and his allies are not accepting the Feiglin victory quietly and have appealed to the party's court to change the placements of several candidates who won places higher than the spots that had been reserved for them. If the appeal is accepted, Feiglin and other strong nationalists would move further down the list.

 

Israeli media, particularly Yediot Acharonot, Haaretz and Voice of Israel government radio highlighted anti-nationalist views that the victories of Feiglin, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon and Benny Begin have turned the Likud into "an extreme right-wing" party. Haaretz published an article by former Meretz Knesset Member and party leader Yossi Sarid that made comparisons with Hitler and stated that Feiglin is a fascist.

 

Feiglin's victory came at the cost of Netanyahu's favorites, such as Asaf Hefetz and Uzi Dayan, whose distant places on the Knesset list mean they will enter the legislature only if the Likud can score a large victory in the general elections.

Haaretz noted that the "Feiglin effect" may take time before it is reflected in the pre-election polls, but Feiglin has claimed that his winning a high place on the list of candidates will attract national religious voters. The new Jewish Home party, a spin-off of the National Union party, would win only four seats, compared with nine in the current NRP-National Union party.
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4. Feiglin: I'm Right-Wing—So What?
by Maayana Miskin

Moshe Feiglin, head of the Likud's Jewish Leadership faction and in the 20th spot on the party's list of Knesset candidates, responded Tuesday night to charges that he is more hawkish than others in the party. “Of course I am to the right of [party head Binyami Netanyahu. So what? What's the problem?” Feiglin asked.

"The Likud needs to stop being ashamed of the fact that it's a nationalist party,” Feiglin said. The party “is constantly being swept to the left,” he added, pointing out that the Likud originally supported the establishment of a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River.

Feiglin rebuffed claims that Likud will lose voter support because he and other strongly nationalist candidates are relatively high on the party list. Such fears are “mud slung by Kadima and Labor... If the Likud does not spread the mud around, it won't stick.”

Feiglin advised Netanyahu to stick to the Likud's nationalist ideology. “Netanyahu was elected and is going to get a lot of mandates in order to create an alternative to the path set out by the Left. If you deny your ideological approach, you're in trouble.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Likud candidate Ofir Akunis filed an appeal to move regional representatives to higher slots on the party list. The move would bump Feiglin and some of his chosen candidates further down the list, and it was widely seen as an attempt to keep Feiglin out of the Knesset.
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5. 'Oil Price Cut Can Stop Iran'
by Maayana Miskin

President Shimon Peres visited the Israeli Arab city of Sakhnin in the Galilee on Tuesday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Adha and spoke on Israel's response to Iran's nuclear program and his views on regional peace.

“There is no need to use military force against Iran at this stage,” Peres told his audience. Instead, he said, Israel must work with the United States, Europe and China to reduce the price of oil, thus depleting Iran's economy and leaving it without resources to pursue nuclear bombs and other weapons.

"Iran's unlawful behavior is not a result of western pacifism, but rather of western division,” Peres said. “If the West had taken a united stance regarding Iran, Iran's nuclear program would not have made it this far.”

He called on Iranian leaders to focus on social problems and not military development, saying, “Iran's leaders must ask themselves what the children will eat tomorrow morning. What will they give them, uranium?” Nuclear development will not solve Iran's problems, he said.

Peres also took the opportunity to promote a region-wide peace deal, saying, “We cannot take too much more time to arrive at a comprehensive peace agreement with the entire Middle East.” Peres has been vocal in his support for a regional peace pact based roughly on the 2002 Saudi Initiative.
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6. Straight from TV to Knesset
by Hillel Fendel

Tzipi Hotobeli, who turned 30 last month, is a religious woman who surprised many by finishing in the top 16 in the Likud primaries - just weeks after she made an abrupt decision to enter politics.

Land of Israel, Jewish Education, Public Relations

A skilled orator who has been a regular for three years on a weekly political television program, Hotobeli says she plans to be active in three areas in the Knesset: Keeping the Land of Israel for the Jewish People, education and Jewish identity, and public relations for Israel.

Veteran TV and print journalist Dan Margalit is credited with giving her a national name.  “I met her by fluke a few years ago,” Margalit said on Tuesday, “when we needed someone on very short notice [for a short TV ite, and someone happened to mention that she knew this girl Tzipi who could do it...  She made such a positive impression that I immediately offered her a spot on the new political debate show that we were starting on Channel Ten.”

Hotobeli herself thanks Margalit, “and I told him yesterday that it’s his fault that I made it to the Knesset.  He even told me, when we first met, that I might make it to the Knesset one day.”

Margalit has written that her talented and straight talk angered many in Kadima and Labor, and that he was often pressured to remove her from the show.  "I said that if they ever succeeded in getting her off the show, I would resign along with her," Margalit wrote.

Voice of Israel radio talk-show host Yaron Dekel, interviewing both her and Margalit, asked her, “Did it bother you that you were chosen to represent the right-wing slot on that show?”

Four Against One

Hotobeli responded, “That’s a bit of a strange question. The question should really be why there were four left-wing and extreme left-wing veteran journalists on one side, and only one young woman representing the nationalist, Land of Israel camp.  After all, everyone knows that within the public, the voting patterns have shown that the nationalist camp is much stronger than that… I was very proud to represent these views; as Dan said, I was neither extreme right-wing nor lukewarm right-wing.”

“I spent three years criticizing politicians on that show,” she added, “and coming to realize the extent of the corruption in the system, as well as the opportunism of Kadima, which spent all its time promoting not ideology, but its own political survival.”

Instead of Complaining

Asked when she decided to join politics, Tzipi said, “You might be surprised, but it happened about a month ago, when Mr. Netanyahu proposed that I run in the Likud primaries and that he would support me.  I believe that instead of just complaining about the sorry state of Israeli politics, those of us who have the ability and the opportunity to try to actually do something to change it must do so.”

“I am happy that I got in to the Likud by the front door,” she said. “I spent these last three weeks meeting the voters wherever I could…  I spent in total only about 60 or 70,000 shekels – the same amount that some politicians spend for Election Day alone – and I was fortunate to have the help of many volunteers... Yes, I was totally surprised that I did so well [finishing 16th in the primarie; as a religious woman, I attribute it first and foremost to G-d’s help.”

In Begin’s Camp

As the polls continue to show that the Likud will receive at least 35 seats in the coming national election, two months from now, it is a given that barring unforeseen developments, Hotobeli will soon be a Member of Knesset.  Asked about her goals for her Knesset term, she said, “For one thing, my goal in the Knesset is to stop the next Disengagement. In terms of security and the Land of Israel, I am in Benny Begin’s camp, very much in the nationalist sector.  I am proud of our new Knesset list’s hawkish stance; we present a clear alternative to Kadima…”

“The Disengagement [from Gush Katif and northern Shomro was a very non-democratic act,” she feels, “and when you read [then-IDF Chief of Staf Moshe Yaalon’s book, you see how much corruption was involved… Binyamin Netanyahu has enough integrity to prevent him from taking a similar path.”

“My second goal is education. [Outgoing Education Ministe Yuli Tamir tried to universalize the system, taking it far from tradition and Judaism; I want to work to change that.  And third is hasbarah, making Israel’s case in the media, both internationally and at home.”

Israeli PR from Within the Knesset

On this last point, Hotobeli recently told Arutz-7 TV, “I want to continue the hasbarah work that I have been doing within the Knesset.  It is not enough for a Knesset Member to be a man of action or a good parliamentarian; he must also be someone who can fight the PR war and someone who can persuade.  Although many people have woken up and realized how wrong the Oslo process is, we need people who can present our case very effectively, given the fact that the Israeli elite in media and academia are still in favor of dividing our Land.”

Hotobeli said that she had been approached to run for a spot on the new Jewish Home party, but decided against it:  “I believe in a national party, not a sectarian one.  A religious party is concerned for its own schools and the like - essentially working for the personal good of its members.  But we are not in the Diaspora; we are in the State of Israel, and we should strive to have an influence on our entire society and what it looks like. To do this, we need to work within large parties.  I think religious people must view themselves as belonging in influential positions.  I hope that I will be able to help lead towards upgrading our Jewish identity.”

Hotobeli, who has B.A. and M.A. degrees from Bar Ilan University, will have to take time off from her doctoral studies in law at Tel Aviv University to be a Knesset Member.  She has been a Bnei Akiva emissary in Paris, and did her post-high school national service work as a Jewish Agency representative in Atlanta, Georgia. 
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7. Israeli Trauma Experts in Mumbai
by Hana Levi Julian

A team of Israeli trauma experts has quietly flown to Mumbai under the auspices of a non-governmental organization to train their local counterparts on how to deal with post trauma and prevent the subsequent development of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Jewish State has a widely regarded reputation in the area of trauma management due to Israel's unfortunate and extensive experience with terror attacks and massive disasters, IsraAID chairman Shachar Zahavi noted in an interview with Israel National News.

The project, jointly underwritten by IsraAID, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, was not IsraAID's first in India. As in a previous program, AJC's Mumbai representative arranged the invitation from Jaslok Hospital and Research Center's Trauma Counseling Unit, according to AJC's Israel Director, Dr. Eran Lerman.

"We've worked with IsraAID ever since the [December Tsunami," he said. "It has been a highly successful, cooperative relationship. Our representative in India, Priya Tandon, knows everyone in Mumbai and made it very easy for the team to get immediately to work.

"I think it is remarkable that the [India government is not asking for their help," he added. The Indian government, also politely but firmly refused all offers of assistance from the Israeli government during the three-day terrorist killing spree that shook the city of 17 million. However, he said, "the government reacted positively this time" to IsraAID's program being carried out at the private level.

"We will send more teams in the future," said Erdan.

 

The terrorists focused most of their attention on three main targets: the city's two largest and most luxurious hotels, the Taj Mahal and the Trident-Oberoi -- and the Chabad Jewish Center, known as the Nariman Chabad House. Six Jews, four of them from Israel, were murdered in the rampage.

"We picked two of the best post-trauma experts here in Israel, and just flew them abroad," said Zahavi. "Hopefully when they return in a week or so, we will develop further programs to help these people."

The IsraAID member team, comprised of Dr. Rony Berger, and Dr. Mark Gelkoff, both clinical psychologists who are experts in post-trauma issues, are training their counterparts in the Mumbai hospital, according to Zahavi. In his regular "day job," Berger works in the post-trauma NATAL program in Sderot. Gelkoff is a professor at Haifa University and also works at Tel HaShomer Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

"We have also received requests from the local schools as well, and the team will provide some training there as well," Zahavi added. The two psychologists are offering initial training for teachers on "how to impart resiliency to their students as well as how to provide direct support to the victims and their families." In addition, the team is making itself available to foreigners and Jewish and Israeli personnel in Mumbai who were on the ground during the attack.

When they return, the two psychologists will also have completed an assessment that will enable them to create a post-trauma program specifically tailored to the needs of the Mumbai community. "IsraAID will continue to send teams there to help them heal from this disaster," Zahavi said. "The information the team brings back will help us design a program that will fit the needs of Mumbai."
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