Palestinian Authority terrorists launched a barrage of Kassam rockets at Sderot and Ashkelon on Monday morning as IDF soldiers continued operations to put an end to attacks against Jewish communities in southern Israel.

Several barrages of Kassam rockets exploded in Sderot early Monday morning, and again at approximately 11:00 a.m.  By 12:00 noon, eight rockets had landed in the western Negev.

Two rockets slammed into areas within the Sderot city limits in late morning, leaving several victims severely traumatized. One of the rockets exploded close to a school in a residential neighborhood. The second scored a direct hit on a house. The damage has not yet been assessed. Magen David Adom paramedics treated the victims for emotional shock. There were no physical injuries reported in the attacks.

Two rockets slammed into the Ashkelon Coastal Regional Council area in mid-morning. Terrorists also shelled kibbutzim in the Eshkol Regional Council area. A number of buildings were damaged but no one was injured.

Seven mortar shells exploded in fields around the Kerem Shalom Crossing area as well.

The day began with residents in Sderot and other Gaza Belt communities forced to race for the safe rooms and bomb shelters as children were arriving at school and parents were on the way to work.

Three rocket attacks were fired at approximately 7:45 a.m. One of the missiles exploded in an open field near Sderot. Two other rockets landed in open areas in the Sha'ar HaNegev region. No one was injured in these attacks, and no property was damaged.

IDF Denies Hamas Claims Army Killed Mother, Children
Several of the Kassams were fired at Sderot after the IDF attacked rocket-launching terrorist cells in northern Gaza.

Hamas claims that Israeli soldiers killed a mother and four of her children during an attack on terrorists in Beit Hanoun. The IDF issued a statement officially denying the charge, saying the family was most likely killed when explosives inside the home were detonated by accident.

An IDF soldier from the Givati Brigade was lightly wounded in the heavy clashes that began in northern Gaza early Monday morning. He was evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva.

Israeli counterterrorism operations in northern Gaza continued Monday afternoon as Hamas vowed to escalate its attacks on Jewish civilians in the western Negev.

Five days after the originally scheduled launch date, Israel's most advanced communications satellite has been successfully launched into space. One hour and 20 minutes after its launch from a site in Kazakhstan Monday, the Amos-3 satellite was released from the final stage of its launch cycle and entered its orbit route.

The satellite joins its older brothers, Amos-1 and 2, both of which are in orbit. A few months from now it will be placed in a geostationary orbit, 36,000 km. from Earth, and will replace the Amos 1, which has been operating for 12 years. It will provide high-quality broadcasting and communications services to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of the United States.

The Amos-3 is Israel's most advanced communication satellite and has four broadcast antennae, two of which are mobile and can be repositioned according to clients' changing needs. The Amos-2, which was launched in December 2003, is expected to remain operational for another 8 years.

The satellite was built by Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) Space Division and will carry a 250 kg. payload, compared to 160 kg. for the other Amos satellites.

Amos-4 in the works
In January, Israel launched the TecSar satellite, the first of its kind developed here, and one of the world's most advanced space systems. The TecSar can create high-resolution images using advanced radar technology called Synthetic Aperture Radar.

The IAI has launched 11 communication satellites so far and has already signed a contract for developing a new one, the Amos-4.

Besides the Amos series satellites, Israel operates the TecSar satellite, which employs state-of-the-art radar technology, as well as the Ofek-5, Ofek-7 and Eros-B spy satellites.

The original launch was delayed because of a technical problem but both the Russian Space Agency and Israeli officials told the media that the problem was not in the satellite itself, but rather in a support arm of the launch mechanism, which did not descend properly. The launch had to be postponed for several days because the booster rocket had to be emptied of fuel and then refilled. 

IDF forces attacked Palestinian Authority terrorists in Gaza Monday morning to eliminate the source of rocket fire that marred the recent Passover holiday in Gaza Belt communities in southern Israel.

The soldiers fired artillery shells Monday morning at targets in the northern section of Gaza and were involved in one gunfight, which inflicted light wounds on one soldier.

Arab sources claimed that one artillery shell aimed at the source of rocket fire killed a woman and four of her children after a shell hit a house in northern Gaza. The IDF denied the charges and said the family was likely killed when explosives inside the home were detonated by accident.

Terrorists often use civilians as human shields or deploy them to pick up rocket launchers after attacks.

At least one terrorist was killed in heavy fighting near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, less than a mile away from the rocket-battered city of Sderot. 

On Sunday afternoon, Gaza terrorists launched a Kassam attack on Sderot. One slammed into the city's cemetery. The second exploded next to a home, igniting a fire and seriously damaging the house. Miraculously, no one was injured.

The battle for public opinion is heating up over who has the moral high ground on the issue of whether there was ever an offer to cede the Golan Heights to Syria after the region was annexed by the State of Israel in 1981.

Knesset Opposition leader and Likud Party Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu denied accusations by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday that he had offered the Golan to then-Syrian President Hafez el-Assad during Netanyahu's reign as Prime Minister.

"Olmert is trying to delude the public, but the opposite of what he says is true," stated Netanyahu's bureau. "Netanyahu insisted on staying in the Golan Heights and that was why the talks were stopped. Netanyahu stood up for the principles of security and reciprocity and brought security back to the citizens of Israel."

The bureau added in its statement, "It is ridiculous to hear moralizing sermons from the serial compromiser Olmert, whose unilateral concessions hurt Israel's security."

The Prime Minister's Office fired back, saying "Mr. Netanyahu's memory should be refreshed. It was he who sent an American businessman [Ron Lauder] to the elder Assad in order to cede the Golan Heights in the name of the Israeli people, even before any negotiations had begun."

Olmert's bureau added that Netanyahu "is not the man to teach the Israeli government about responsibility and good judgment."

Rabbi Tovia Singer returns to the airwaves April 29th, broadcasting from a new studio overlooking Jerusalem's Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

Singer became one of Israel's most popular English talk radio hosts when he moved his show from New York to IsraelNationalRadio in 2002. His show developed a sharp controversial edge, when he began engaging Arab callers, anti-Semites and neo-Nazis on air, confronting them with the hard facts and analysis that comprise his outspoken defense of Jewish rights to the Land of Israel.

On occasion, Singer has used sound effects to "flush down the toilet" callers who go on anti-Semitic rants.

As an ardent supporter of Israel's presence in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, Singer's Israel news monologues often focus on those regions which he says are on "the front lines of terrorism."

His penetrating political analysis is only part of the act. Tovia is the son of a rosh yeshiva (dean of a rabbinic seminary), and his vast knowledge of both the Jewish Bible and Christian Testament has been a draw for on-air inquiries from faith seekers as well as assaults from Christian missionaries. The on-line Virtual Studio chat room which accompanies the show registers peak activity during these exchanges.

Rabbi Singer has released for free internet download a 26-part lecture series on the Jewish Response to Jews for Jesus.

Along with its new schedule (see below) and location, the show has a new producer, Yehuda Frieman, who will be lining up interviews with leading newsmakers in Israel and the US.

The 2-hour Tovia Singer show will return live on Tuesday April 29th, 11 p.m. til 1 a.m. EDT (in Israel: April 30, 6-8 a.m.) on IsraelNationalRadio.com. The show's new schedule will include broadcasts on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, starting at 11 p.m. EDT (in Israel: Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 6 a.m.)

The show can be heard live at the above times, on-demand and podcast. The Tovia Singer show will soon be made available to radio stations and networks by satellite. Write here for syndication information.

IsraelNationalRadio.com features tens of hours of English language programming weekly.  

Three major Israeli Hebrew news websites – Ynet (which belongs to theYediot Acharonot newspaper), NRG (Maariv newspaper) and Haaretz – reported on Monday's artillery duel between IDF soldiers and Gaza terrorists in similar fashion: all three featured photographs which are best described as enemy propaganda. They show close-up photos of dead children, with the most gory parts blurred by pixellation.

Ynet homepage: dead children.

Similar gory photographs of Israeli victims are rare in Israeli media. Israel Media Watch's Yisrael Meidad commented on whether the Israeli media are purposely undermining morale at home or not.

YM: "The main Israeli media outlets – Haaretz, Yediot Acharonot and Maariv – do not see themselves as part of Israel's public diplomacy effort when it comes to issues such as these. They are in it for the news and today, unfortunately, the motto is "if it bleeds it leads."

- Why don't they show close-ups of Israeli victims then?

YM: "As far as Israeli casualties are concerned, there is an ingrained opposition which started out about a decade ago about having what we call close-ups of Israeli wounded or dead. There have been only a few such instances that I can recall in these years, and usually only due to pressure from the Foreign Ministry to show such pictures.

Ynet: dead children.

"The worst pictures of the terror attack at Merkaz HaRav Kook yeshiva, for instance, including the picture of the bloodied garment [tsitsis], were private pictures taken by ZAKA Emergency Services and not by the Israeli press.

"Our press does not view its job as raising the morale via pictures. I've been in seminars with people from Channel 2 and other news outlets. Whenever you ask them about these matters they will give you two answers: the first is to say – 'we are not in the business of morale building.' Then they add: 'and even if we were – had we shown the gory pictures of Israeli victims, we would actually be accused of weakening morale through showing the blood and suffering."

NRG-Maariv: Bloody bandages.

- Okay, why show dead Gazan babies then?

YM: "Because members of the Israeli press corps know it's expected of them by their colleagues from abroad, who will ask them – 'why didn't you show the pictures? You are hiding your government's actions from your populations!'

"It's also a question of editorship. I do remember seeing the close-up pictures of the boy who lost his legs and in Sderot being carried to shelter. I also saw pictures of an injured boy and his sister cowering behind a counter in a store in Sderot. So it's not cut and dried.

Haaretz: kids on stretchers.

"I will, however, definitely say that Israeli journalism will tend to show pictures that prove that our political and military echelons are either stupid or irresponsible and usually will not check the details or the facts."

- Is there no way that pressure can be brought to bear on these journalists?

YM: "No, it's too wide open. We do not have a sufficient economic or political strength for a boycott of new outlets, unlike the Haredim, who can successfully put economic pressure on a chain like AM/PM and force them to stop opening on the Sabbath.

"The top media editors move in a very rarefied atmosphere of politicians, rich businessmen and award ceremonies. They are not up for election like a politician. They know nothing will hurt them. However, Israel Media Watch is launching a new campaign in which we will encourage people to put stickers on newsstands saying – 'Warning: reading these newspapers is harmful for your moral health.'

"Perhaps if someone were to invest in a website which would give annual awards to 'the worst journalistic story of the year', the 'worst journalist, the 'worst photograph' etc., it would attract attention and bring pressure to bear on these people."

Shas MK Shlomo Benizri, sentenced to 1.5 years in prison and an 80,000-shekel fine, will be replaced in the Knesset by Ethiopian Rabbi Mazor Bahaina.  The court ruled also that Benizri's crimes bore a "mark of shame," thus banning him from serving in public office for the next ten years. 

In addition, Benizri's membership in the Knesset is automatically suspended - though he has said he will resign only when he appeals the verdict.  He will be replaced in the Knesset by the next-in-line on the Shas party list, heretofore nationally unknown Rabbi Mazor Bahaina.  If Benizri is successful in his appeal, he can return to the Knesset in place of Bahaina.

Rabbi Bahaina Walked to Sudan
Contacted by Arutz-7, Rabbi Bahaina said he immigrated to Israel at the age of 11 in 1982 (nine years before the weekend airlift of nearly 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in Operation Shlomo). "We walked from Ethiopia to Sudan, and there we waited in camps until being brought to Israel," he studied.  Young Mazor studied in the Yeshivat HaDarom yeshiva high school in Rehovot, then in a hareidi-religious yeshiva in Bnei Brak, then in the Sephardic yeshiva Porat Yosef in Jerusalem.  Known as a Torah scholar, he ran many social-educational projects in Jerusalem and Be'er Sheva.  He now serves as the rabbi of the 10,000-strong Ethiopian Jewish community in Be'er Sheva, and is a member of the Be'er Sheva Municipal Council.

Asked where he stands on the matter of Shas Party membership in a government coalition that is apparently negotiating the splitting up and handover of Jerusalem, the future MK said, "Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the light and Torah giant of the generation, clearly knows what is going on, and as long as he says that they are not discussing Jerusalem, then that is the truth..."

Benizri's Sentence
The Jerusalem District Court handed down the sentence to Benizri on Sunday.  The categorization of the crime as one bearing a "mark of shame" had been the subject of much media speculation over the past three weeks, ever since Benizri was convicted of accepting bribes from a Jerusalem contractor. Benizri said he would not resign on his own, but would rather await the court's final ruling.
 
The Prosecution had asked for a seven-year sentence, but did not appear to be disappointed by the judgment. "The sentence expresses the severity of Benizri's actions," a prosecution representative stated.  Benizri, who continues to protest his innocence, has said he will appeal the verdict, and the beginning of his jail sentence has therefore been postponed by at least 25 days.

Minister of Labor at the time of the alleged bribes, and a former secular Jew and army veteran who later turned to religious Judaism, MK Benizri was convicted of having shared information with personnel contractor Moshe Sela about government decisions regarding foreign worker quotas.  In exchange, the court ruled that he received payments, furniture, an air conditioning system, and donations to a charity fund from Sela, who later turned State's witness.
 

Gush Katif refugees: A long line of cars and dozens of walkers made their way from Yad Mordechai to the northernmost Gaza crossing Sunday afternoon, protesting "1,000 Days Without a Home."

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Marking the occasion of 1,000 days since the expulsion, dozens of former Gush Katif people marched and/or drove the four kilometers from the Yad Mordechai Junction to the Erez Crossing between northern Gaza and the Negev. 

After nearly 33 months of government promises, residents' demands, behind-the-scenes parliamentary work, mass protests, media reports, and more, the problem of the 9,000 Jews thrown out of their homes in Gush Katif simply won't go away.  The government has not come close to fulfilling its Disengagement campaign slogan, "A solution for every resident."

Arutz-7 asked organizer Tzuri Ganish, "What is your main message?"  His response:
"For one thing, we want the country to know that 1,000 days of suffering has not come to an end.  There are people who are sick, homeless, and without a job.  Nitzan, the largest of what we call the 'refugee camps,' is very similar to the slums of Khan Yunis...  Many people can't afford to build any more, as their compensation money has been eaten up for their every-day expenses.  And those who are building are hampered in every way.  The government is not solving this problem."

Message to Golan, Yesha: Don't Be Next!
"But our main message," Ganish said, "is to the people of the Golan and Judea and Samaria, those who are slated to be next in line for expulsion.  We say to you: Don't let them do it! And don't listen to their promises!  The absolute worst thing is to be thrown out of your houses... We in Gush Katif could have fought more strongly against it; don't make the same mistake!"

Ganish said that he had lived in the northern Gaza community of Elei Sinai for 15 years: "It began as a secular community, but little by little, we were able to bring in many religious families, and build synagogues and the like - but then, just as we were getting going, the expulsion came along.  Now Elei Sinai is broken up into seven different groups; I just hope that I will be able one day to live with at least one of them."

"I bought a house in Ashkelon," Ganish said, "so that my children won't have to feel that they are nomads. But what we really want is stability and community, and that is something that is very far away at the moment."

Each of the Gush Katif communities has its own story over the past 32 months, but nearly all of them have in common the following elements: Long and intolerable months waiting in hotels, dormitories, or campsites after the expulsion; one or more transfers, with many of them ending up in small pre-fab homes in hastily-built camps, with little or no infrastructures or public buildings; loss of business and work and great difficulty in finding new employment; psychological stress on families and individuals; lack of stable educational framework for at least a year; unfulfilled government promises to ease the difficulties and reach permanent solutions; and much more.

Avi Farhan, another former Elei Sinai resident - he was also thrown out of his home near Yamit in the 1982 peace agreement with Egypt - also helped lead the protest.  Relating to government charges that the residents' disagreements among themselves are blocking progress, Farhan said, "Sure, we are to blame for being uprooted from our homes without a fight.  We are to blame for giving in to governmental terrorism - a government that used the army against us instead of preparing it for the war in Lebanon.  The facts are known.  The refugees are still in Nitzan, Carmiyah, Sderot and Ashkelon."

Farhan said he disagreed with the Likud in 1982 when it evicted the Jews living in Sinai, "but at least it took just a year before we were building our new homes in Elei Sinai.  Today, it's already almost three years later and we still have no solution. The government knew how to uproot us on a precise timetable, but 1,000 days later it still doesn't know how to rehabilitate us."

"The elites are apathetic to our plight; that is well-known," Farhan said. "They are also apathetic to the Holocaust survivors, and towards others.  But I expect more from the public. The public must wake up and apply pressure upon the government to end this farce already."

A Justice Ministry committee is set to recommend a revolutionary change in the law regarding child custody in divorce cases. The committee, which is headed by Prof. Dan Shnit, handed in an interim report to Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann in which it recommended striking the "Tender Years Clause" from Israeli divorce laws. The clause, determines that in divorces, children under the age of six will always be transferred to the mother's custody, unless there are extreme circumstances precluding this.

Since their establishment 13 years ago, Israel's family courts have used the clause to justify a policy of automatically transferring children of all ages to their mothers' custody. This was justified by arguments that a child who grew up with his mother up to age six should be allowed to stay with her for the sake of continuity and stability, and that siblings should not be separated.

The Shnit Committee recommended in the interim report that the Tender Years Clause be replaced by a "Parental Responsibility Clause" which would determine that it is every child's right that both his parents be responsible for his safety and welfare.   

The interim report recommended that separating parents would work out an agreed "parenting plan" that would involve both parents in taking care of the children. These types of parenting plans, the committee stated, are used in other countries, including Australia and Canada.

The report's authors think these parenting plans could be reached by the parents with the help of a mediator or therapist. If the parents are unable to work out an agreed plan, the
"It's not a victory for the men or for the women," Prof. Shnit told Channel 2 TV, "but for the children."
court will determine a parenting plan for them, based on a set of criteria that will include the parents' skills and interviews with the children. "It's not a victory for the men or for the women," Prof. Shnit told Channel 2 TV, "but for the children." Shnit noted that research showed that in most cases, children of divorce fared best when both of their parents participated in raising them.

The committee's final proposals will be submitted as bills for Knesset approval with governmental support.

The interim report created a flurry of debate between women's groups, men's groups, and parents' groups.

Men's groups representatives saw the proposal as "a ray of hope" that would enable fathers to gain custody, or at least shared custody, of their children in divorce. However, some voiced skepticism about the laws' chances of passing in the Knesset. A parents' group called "Equal Parenting" (Horut Shava), which was represented in the Shnit Committee and had lobbied for its
Separating parents would work out an agreed "parenting plan" that would involve both parents in taking care of the children.
establishment, was also pleased by the announcement.

Women's representatives were divided. Irit Rosenblum, a feminist lawyer who heads the "New Family" organization, called the report "a great step forward for women's liberation." The Tender Years Clause, she said, "perpetuated women's status as a homemaker, the only parent responsible for the children and the one who has to take full responsibility without being able to demand full equality… because of her duty to raise the children. We cannot demand an egalitarian world when our status as mothers is fixed by the law."

However, a larger and older women's group, WIZO, opposed the proposed changes. "It is true that the child's best interest is of uppermost importance," said Ronit Erenfreund Cohen, a WIZO official. "However, cancelling the Tender Years Clause creates a suspicion that it was carried out with ulterior motives, because the change could be used as a means for the father to pressure and blackmail the mother during divorce. His pressure could express itself in lowering the child support," she explained.

Israeli divorce law borrows mostly from Halakhic (religious Jewish) law and does not give a divorced woman alimony. Jewish marriages do, however, involve a commitment by the husband to grant the wife a lump sum in case of divorce (in the marriage contract or ketubah), and rabbinical courts enforce this commitment, which often involves large sums. It should also be noted that the term "custody" in the debate refers to physical custody. Legal custody of the children is always shared by both parents.

An online initiative seeks to recount the positive accomplishments of the State of Israel in honor of its 60th Independence Day celebrations.

“Everyone knows how to criticize everything which is wrong with Israel - politically, religiously, socially and militarily,” explained Dan Illouz, a young activist who launched the Tzipiyah.com blog, dedicated to "a universal yearning for national renewal."

“Truthfully, it is important to have some constructive criticism," he added, "[but] periodically, we need to look back and remind ourselves of all the good we have done. We need to look back at our positive actions and take inspiration from them in order to move forward.”

With that, Illouz published a call to Jewish and Israeli bloggers for posts answering the following question: "What are the four accomplishments of the State of Israel which make you most proud?"

Illouz’s group blog has 15 regular writers, meaning a total number of submissions equaling 60. “Each writer will use his own style – some simply listing answers, others writing longer pieces, others even simply using pictures to describe their feelings. He calls on other writers to email him their submissions and links to their web sites and their lists of four to tzipiyah@gmail.com

"Brought millions of Jews to our homeland and rescued many from persecution," wrote one person on the Facebook group setup for the project. They also listed: "Reforested a barren land - Israel is the only country that that has more trees than it did 100 years ago." Another person wrote: "The destruction of the nuclear reactor in Iraq and the recent hit on the nuclear facility in Syria!"

A first, second and third post have already appeared at Tzipiyah's web site.