Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri warned Tuesday that the Fatah crackdown on the rival Hamas terrorist party in Judea and Samaria could spark a revolt. A Fatah leader dismissed the threats as being made by "irresponsible people."
 
Fatah has arrested hundreds of Hamas members and leaders and is closing down businesses, schools and institutions associated with Hamas.
 
Hamas, which ousted Fatah from political power in Gaza after bloody clashes in June 2007, has charged that Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are cooperating with Israel by trying to wipe out Hamas's strength.

"Now the Zionists [Israelis] are protecting you," Hamas said in a statement addressed to PA forces in Judea and Samaria. "You know that once the protection of the Zionists is over, people will enter your headquarters and kick you out."

A Fatah military officer challenged Hamas to try to stage a revolt. "What are they waiting for? Why is it allowed for them to kill and arrest people in Gaza?" he said.

Hamas has arrested more than 200 Fatah members in Gaza, and Fatah has retaliated in Judea and Samaria, causing an overflow in PA jails.

President Shimon Peres, following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon, has become the latest mainstream politician to intimate that Jerusalem must be divided.

Peres paid a condolence call this morning (Tuesday) to the family of David Shriki, a policeman who died of wounds he suffered in a Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem earlier this month. Shriki, 20, lived with his family in Rishon LeTzion.

Peres said that there must be a separation between the Arabs of Jerusalem and the Jews, and that it must be in the form of a wall.  Peres emphasized that the problem is also one of education. He said that Arab doctors are a common sight in Israel, yet Jews are not afraid to go under their knife. "This shows," Voice of Israel reported that Peres said, "that when we reach a certain level of education, the relations between the two sides change."

Teacher and Lawyer Murdered 41 Israelis Between Them
President Peres did not mention the suicide-slaughter of 21 Israelis aboard a #2 bus from the Western Wall in August 2003, which was perpetrated by a Moslem teacher and religious leader from Hevron. Nor did he mention the massacre of 20 Jews two months later in the Maxim Restaurant in Haifa commited by a female terrorist lawyer.

"Jerusalem has become a security problem of late," Peres said. "We have to make both a wall and a bridge in Jerusalem. We have to ensure separation and also let them live differently, otherwise it will be like a pressure cooker that is liable to explode.  Without offering a carrot, there is no value to using a stick; sticks alone cannot educate.  In the meanwhile, they are fortifying themselves, and Hamas is taking over the street, instilling fear on the Arab street in Jerusalem.  It is not simple to solve this problem, and it can take time to find the right solution."

Olmert Sees Separation as the Way to Agreement With Fatah
Prime Minister Olmert told a Knesset committee the day before that living with such a large number of Arabs in the capital means more terrorist attacks - implying that the reduction of terrorism is dependent upon removing them from the city's borders.  "Whoever thinks we can live with 270,000 Arabs in Jerusalem must take into account that there will be more bulldozers, more tractors, and more cars carrying out attacks," the Prime Minister said.

On Sunday of this week, Olmert's friend Vice Premier Chaim Ramon called for the detaching of eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Tzur Baher and Jabel Mukaber - homes to the two tractor/bulldozer terrorists - from Jewish Jerusalem. 

Arab construction in Jerusalem flourished under Olmert's tenure as Mayor of Jerusalem, charges WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.  He writes that the police and the Jerusalem municipality generally hesitated to act against illegal Arab construction, and thus left a vacuum into which the PA's Fatah stepped (Peres said it was Hamas that reigns in Jerusalem). Given Olmert's desire to conclude a peace agreement as quickly as possible with Fatah, which demands parts of Jerusalem as its own, Klein charges that the recent attacks in Jerusalem serve Olmert's purposes in encouraging a public sense that Jerusalem must be divided.

"Things are reversible," Klein concludes. "Israeli forces can go into troubled eastern Jerusalem hotspots and wipe out the terrorist infrastructure there if they so desired. Israel can allow Jews to build communities in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods that were purchased for that very purpose. Jerusalem does not need to be divided."

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign seems to have purposely leaked the contents of the note that he placed in the Kotel, web magazine Israel Insider wrote Tuesday. While Israel's Hebrew newspaper Maariv came under fire for publishing the note, "it now appears that Maariv had collaborated with the Obama campaign in getting the 'private' prayer, with its 'modest' supplication to the Lord, out to the public, buffing his Christian credentials and showing his "humility," the web magazine said.

Last Friday, on the morrow of Obama's visit to the Kotel, Maariv published a close-up picture of the note written by Obama to G-d, supposedly after a yeshiva boy took it from the crack between the Kotel stones in which Obama deposited it. Maariv's competitor Yediot Acharonot slammed the paper for violating Obama's privacy.

Filched or released for publication?
In a statement issued following the public outcry over the leak, Maariv said that "Barack Obama's note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put it in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem." A third newspaper, Haaretz, quoted Maariv as saying that "Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem."

Based on these statements by Maariv, Israel Insider concluded that the Obama campaign "managed the event brilliantly, if deceptively, getting the double benefit of appearing to be victimized by the invasive Israeli press and prayer-thieving Jew while at the same time leaking out his humble Christian plea to the Lord." The report noted that by the week's end, "a (relatively) slick video appeared on [public video website] YouTube that blended Obama's Western Wall prayer with various church scenes, crosses aplenty, a dove of peace, and a soundtrack based on Amazing Grace. The video closes with a "vote" button and an invitation to visit the official campaign website."

Pro-Obama video features Obama's "note to G-d."

Apparently unaware that the leaking of the note was coordinated by the Obama campaign and Maariv, Kotel Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz called the publication a "sacrilegious action" which "deserves sharp condemnation and represents a desecration of the holy site." He stated: "Notes which are placed in the Western Wall are between the person and his Maker; Heaven forbid that one should read them or use them in any way. The custom of placing notes between the stones of the Western Wall is ancient and is used as a means of expression by a person praying to his Creator."

Maariv's editors, Doron Galezer and Ruth Yovel, are considered to be hard-core leftists. The paper said that it was "pleased" with its "journalistic accomplishment."
"It now appears that Maariv had collaborated with the Obama campaign in getting the 'private' prayer, with its 'modest' supplication to the Lord, out to the public."

"In any case," Maariv added, "since Obama is not a Jew, publishing the note does not constitute an infringement on his right to privacy."

Campaign denies
An Obama campaign spokesman claimed that the campaign hadn't approved the publication of any kind of prayer note. "Prayer notes at the Wall should remain private," a campaign aide said.

Israeli Channel 2 TV reported Sunday that the note was returned to the Kotel. It showed an interview with an anonymous yeshiva student, whose face was not shown, who did not want to say how he got possession of the note and claimed that the note was filched from the Kotel by a yeshiva student as a prank.

Call for boycott
Jerusalem lawyer Shahar Alon asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz Monday to order a police investigation into the removal and publication of Obama's note.

"By making the note public," Alon wrote to Mazuz, "Maariv violated the law protecting holy sites, several clauses in the penal code and also infringed upon the basic rights of a person's honor and freedom."

Alon also initiated a boycott of the newspaper. In a public letter, he called on all who felt that Maariv had desecrated the holiness of the Kotel to refrain from purchasing the newspaper.

An online project is attempting to reconnect increasingly alienated Israeli subcultures. The “People-Israel: Guide to Israeli Society” project, created in part by Professor Oz Almog, a sociologist at Haifa University, explores the gap between growing Israeli subcultures, mainly the divide between the religious and the secular.
[video:123344]
Can't see video? Click here.

Almog explains that Zionism was once universal in Israel, a national fervor that united Israeli Jews as brothers. With a common goal – to strengthen the Jewish nation in Israel – other differences or disagreements became irrelevant.
 
But the decline of traditional Zionism in secular society has created a rift between the secular and religious public, the latter of whom perceive  a “spiritual vacuum” in today’s increasingly post-Zionist climate. However, tensions also exist within the religious Zionist public, according to Almog.

The tensions between religious and secular Israelis, as well as within religious communities, were perhaps exemplified best during the pullout from Gush Katif and northern Shomron, three years ago this month.

Though recently more secular Israelis have begun adopting religious traditions, Almog speculates that this is merely a popular trend and not a true return to Judaism.

Through the People-Israel website, Almog hopes to promote contact and understanding between Israelis and to explore the possibilities of brotherhood between diverse groups. The project is located at www.peopleil.org.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told Damascus that he is prepared to cede the Golan to Syria in exchange for Syria’s agreement to enter into direct talks with Israel, according to sources in the Knesset.

The sources from the opposition parties told Army Radio Wednesday morning that Olmert is wiling to make “painful concessions” in order to promote negotiations between the two countries. The sources did not specify what, if anything, Olmert asked the Syrians to sacrifice on their part.

According to the report, Olmert promised Damascus that Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights on the sole condition that the Syrians would agree to direct talks between the two governments, including a discussion on cutting ties with Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas.

The Prime Minister's Office denied the claims. Officials for the PM said that Olmert has not made any promises to Damascus.

Meanwhile, according to MK Yisrael Katz (Likud), the Syrians have agreed to direct talks with Israel on the condition that Israel gives them the Golan Heights in advance.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni criticized Olmert Tuesday, saying that he would easily give up too much Israeli land without appropriate concessions from the other side. Livni pointed out that there are "issues regarding negotiations with Syria that still require internal planning."

The FM’s remarks came the same day that Olmert declared a willingness to present Syria with a “true alternative” to partnership with Iran and Hizbullah.  Olmert also expressed his desire that the ongoing indirect talks become direct talks "at a certain stage."

A bill granting amnesty to protestors arrested during Israel's 2005 Disengagement from Gaza passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum Tuesday night. During the session, MK Zahava Gal'on (Meretz) infuriated her colleagues when she equated the opposition nationalist parties with the Nazis.
 
In denouncing the bill, Gal'on declared, "I want to tell you, and you better internalize it, even if it's unpleasant – the State of Israel's problem is that for years it has been turning a blind eye to the crimes of the right-wing parties. For years. So the role of democracy…is to learn the lessons of the Weimar Republic's collapse. I remind you that democracy in Germany collapsed because it enabled its enemies on the radical right to exploit it…and it undermined its basic powers."

This remark, equating Knesset members from the nationalist parties with Nazis, incensed a number of MKs. Zevulun Orlev (NU-NRP) stood up and angrily yelled, “You have gone crazy. You crossed all the red lines. It is unthinkable that an Israeli Knesset member will stand at the Knesset podium and say that the nationalist public in Israel conducts itself like the Weimer parliament that brought Hitler to power."

Orlev’s sentiments were shared by his colleague, Uri Ariel, who told Gal'on, "What you did is an abomination." Fellow MK Aryeh Eldad added, "As a doctor, I’m telling you – sickening self-hatred is a serious mental disorder…the self-hatred of the Israeli left is sick and reflects a deeply rooted mental disorder – it has no cure."

The new legislation, if passed in subsequent readings, would apply to 400 of the 482 criminal cases that were opened in the period before and during the expulsion of 9,000 Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria in 2005.

The bill would effectively halt all pending legal proceedings against Gaza expulsion protestors and expunge the criminal records of all those arrested. The new law would also promptly suspend any sentences handed down in court against anyone convicted of a crime whose motive was to stop the expulsion. The bill was submitted by MKs Reuven Rivlin (Likud) and Eli Gabbai (NU-NRP), together with a third of all MKs in the Knesset.

The law would mainly exonerate those who incurred no risk of personal injury or loss of life. This category includes the majority of those arrested for their protest activities.

Commenting on the vote after its passing, one of its supporters praised the initiative. "There are days when democracy needs to forgive and leave the past behind. The disengagement was a national trauma, and it cannot be compared to any other social crisis," said MK Rivlin.

"The clemency law will assist in mending the rift within Israeli society and correcting the injustice done to families of the evacuees, those who paid the price of democracy in the harshest manner," he said.

Arabs and anarchists will sail a small fishing vessel from Cyprus to Gaza next week in order to challenge Israeli sovereignty off the Gaza coast. The ship's 60 passengers expect to be arrested after leaving international waters approximately seven miles off the Mediterranean Coast.

The Carter Center, headed by former American President Jimmy Carter, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu are sponsoring the trip, designed to create negative publicity against Israel. The Arabs and anarchists claim that Israel has no sovereignty over the Gaza coast because it withdrew from the area three years ago under the Disengagement program. However, Israel specifically said at the time that it will retain control over the air and seas until the Palestinian Authority can prove it can guarantee security.

Organizers of the trip said they will stay on board for at least two weeks as a public protest if Israel naval forces stop it in international waters instead of arresting them when they approach the coast.

One of the passengers is Jewish, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, who said the event is designed to "remind the world that we will not stand by and watch 1.5 million people suffer death by starvation and disease." Gaza's economy was flourishing before the Oslo War broke out in 2000 and worsened three summers ago when Israel forced out of the area more than 9,000 Jews, many of whom had employed Arabs.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which last year was taken over by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, has blamed Israel for causing poverty by closing crossings into Gaza following thousands of rocket attacks on the western Negev the past eight years.

The aim of the Arab groups participating in the journey is to open up the port in Gaza. Israeli intelligence authorities have said that a large number of terrorists, weapons and explosives have been smuggled into Gaza via the Gaza coast.

Ten of the protestors are from Britain and Ireland.

Some 200 youths and adults on a week-long "Land of Hilltops Trek" were attacked by Arabs with clubs and rocks. The police arrested Jews, including one who fired in the air.

The trek, which began on Sunday, is being led by veteran Yesha (Judea and Samaria) settlement pioneer Daniella Weiss, former Mayor of Kedumim.  She described what happened:

"This is the third day of our beautiful march through the hilltops of the Land of Israel, which we began in Sa-Nur [one of four Jewish communities in Samaria that were destroyed in Ariel Sharon's Disengagement plan - ed.], and are planning to end up in Asa'el in southern Judea.  We have already been to Shvut Ami [adjacent to Kedumim], Kol Tzion near Adei Ad [just outside Shilo], and we are now at Maoz Esther, near Kokhav HaShachar.

"The plan is to continue to Migron, then Shaar HaMizrach (Gateway to the East) between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, and then we will sleep in Shdemah (south-eastern Jerusalem, near Har Homa), and then to Maaleh Halhoul and Asa'el.  Each of this places has important significance in terms of Jewish presence in the area.

           Click here for map of Judea and Samaria, about 1/6 of the way down the page.

"Everything was going very well, until we arrived in Maoz Esther.  A bunch of Arabs swooped down upon us with rocks and clubs, and three of our people were injured; they have just been evacuated by ambulance.  At one point, one of our escorts tried to protect one of our boys, and he shot in the air.  Right then, something amazing happened:

"From behind a little hill suddenly emerged some cars and policemen wearing civilian clothes, but with police hats - and they arrested the one who shot in the air, as well as some of our other escorts who were carrying weapons!

"Apparently, the police were waiting and watching the whole time, doing nothing until our boy shot in the air.  They want to leave us without weapons, and thus cause us to call off our entire trek, because they see - and want to discourage - the wonderful and pioneering spirit that we bring."

"But we will of course not stop, though we are now trying to figure out the best course of action. I can tell you that there will be some sharp measures and protests against the security forces."

Other participants accused the police of outright cooperation with the Arabs in their ambush of the Jews.

When told of a report that two Arabs were also arrested, Daniella seemed surprised and skeptical.  "We saw no such thing," she said. 

MK Eldad: Police State in Service of Olmert Gov't
MK Prof. Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said in response, "This is just another step in the police agreeing to become a 'political police' in the service of the Olmert government."

Eldad noted the decisions this week to place three Shomron Jews under house arrest and restrict Jewish entry to certain areas of Samaria.  "If the security forces do not revert immediately to protecting Jews instead of fighting against them alongside the Arabs, a catastrophe can be expected - and the responsibility will lie squarely with the Defense Minister [Ehud Barak] and the Public Security Minister [Avi Dichter]."

Supporters of Jonathan Pollard refuse to allow him to drop from the news - and have ideas as to how to ensure he is pardoned soon.

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem, co-Chief Rabbi of Beit El, and a long-time outspoken supporter of Pollard, has publicized a list of 12 ideas, many of them new, as to how to keep Pollard on the agenda.  The goal, he writes, is to ensure that outgoing U.S. President George Bush issues him a pardon, and the way to do that is to have the Israeli government make an official request for such - and the way to do that is to keep Pollard high in the public awareness, so as to influence the government. 

On November 21 of last year, Jonathan Pollard entered his 23rd year of a life sentence for his activities on behalf of Israel.  He was convicted not on charges of treason, as some mistakenly believe, but on one count of passing classified information to an ally.  The median sentence for this offense is 2-4 years, but Pollard received a life sentence - the result of a plea bargain which he honored and the U.S. government violated.

On Rabbi Aviner's list of ideas are the following:

1. Talk about Pollard wherever possible - with friends, in the store, in classes, on the radio, in written articles, and wherever possible. 

2. Wear a blue Pollard bracelet. 

3. Recite prayers, including public prayers in the synagogue during the Torah reading.

4. Mention Pollard in wedding and Bar-Mitzvah invitations and Grace After Meals cards.

5. Post bumper stickers and the like wherever permitted.

6. Give to the cause; helping to redeem captives is the best charity there is.

7. Involve non-religious people. "For some strange, illogical reason," the rabbi writes, "almost all those who have joined the struggle for Pollard are religious.  If you know high-ranking secular people, please try to interest them in the struggle..."

8. Write to MKs, Prime Minister Olmert, and U.S. President Bush.

9. Write to Pollard himself, though only in English.  His address:
JONATHAN  POLLARD  09185-016
P.O.B. 1000
BUTNER N. C.
U.S.A. 27509-1000

Former officials of the U.S. government such as ex- CIA director James Woolsey and former top U.S. Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross have come out in favor of clemency for Pollard.