Attacks on Christian targets and those identified with Western culture have grown more frequent in Gaza in the past two years, and especially since the Hamas takeover in June 2007, experts say. The targets have included churches, Christian and United Nations schools, the American International School, libraries and Internet cafes.

The most recent incident occurred this past Saturday, May 31, when gunmen attacked the guards at the Al Manara school, stole a vehicle belonging to the Baptist Holy Book Society which operates the school and threatened the society's director. The Hamas leadership is not acting to stop the attacks and no one has been brought to justice.

Global jihad involvement
An Israeli intelligence report determined that there has been an increase in the number of attacks on Christian figures and institutions, as well as those associated with Western values. The attacks are being perpetrated by elements identified with the global jihad and radical Islam. In the past two years, groups associated with Al-Qaeda took responsibility for attacks upon Christians and Christian institutions with the expressly-stated goal of driving Christians out of Gaza.

The Christian community in Gaza numbers around 3,000. According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), the attacks on Christians have included the following:

• May 18, 2008: a large bomb exploded at the entrance to a fast-food restaurant near Al-Quds Open University in the center of Gaza City. The restaurant was completely destroyed. According t
  Groups associated with Al-Qaeda took responsibility for attacks with the expressly-stated goal of driving Christians out of Gaza.
  o the owner, it was the second time his establishment had been attacked.
• May 16, 2008: a bomb exploded in the Rahabat al-Wardia school run by nuns in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. Hamas condemned the incident and a call was made to the police to bring the criminals to justice. The previous year, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, the school was subjected to thefts and an arson attack.
• April 3, 2008: a monument in the Gaza Strip's foreign nationals' cemetery was blown up. Hamas promised to investigate.
• February 15, 2008: Three gunmen from the “Army of Islam in the Land of Ribat,” a network headed by Mumtaz Dughmush, broke into the YMCA library in Gaza City and set off a bomb which caused extensive damage. Hamas police condemned the event, calling it “a criminal act” and promising to investigate. The Hamas security forces detained a number of Army of Islam operatives but released them shortly thereafter, following a threat to use force to free them. After the event, senior Hamas figures met with senior Christian figures to express solidarity.
• January 10, 2008: a group called "Army of the Believers -- the Al-Qaeda Organization in Palestine,” attacked the International School in Beit Lahiya twice, burning vehicles and stealing equipment. According to a statement issued two days later, the school was accused of spreading polytheism and hatred for Islam. The attacks were timed to coincide with U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Israel.
• December 31, 2007: the “Friends of the Sunnah Bayt al-Maqdis” issued a manifesto on the Pal-Today Website, affiliated with Islamic Jihad, threatening to attack anyone who participated in New Year's Eve celebrations.
• October 6, 2007, elements linked to Hamas abducted Rami Khadr Ayad from his home and shot him to death; he was a Christian who worked for the Holy Bible Society. The Hamas administration condemned the murder and opened an investigation whose results are so far unknown.
• June 19, 2007: during the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip Hamas gunmen attacked and vandalized a monastery and church.
• April 21, 2007: elements linked to the global jihad attacked the American International School in Gaza City.
• April 15, 2007: a group calling itself “The Swords of Truth in the Land of Ribat” set off bombs in two Internet cafes and a store selling Christian books, causing damage.

Tensions within the justice and law enforcement system mounted Tuesday as Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and retiring District Court Judge Sheli Timen separately expressed sharp criticism of the police and prosecution.

Minister Friedmann tore into the police and prosecution for the wiretaps they carried out in the investigation carried out against then-Justice Minister Chaim Ramon in 2006. The suspicions against Ramon involved a kiss between him and a female soldier, which the soldier later claimed involved improper behavior by Ramon. Friedmann spoke before a Knesset committee of inquiry established to investigate the matter of the wiretaps in the Ramon trial.

Wiretaps and pressure
The police carried out wiretaps on the soldier's phone and a senior female police officer. Supt. Miri Golan met with the soldier and pressured her to testify against Ramon. The prosecution did not inform Ramon's defense attorneys of the wiretaps and initially did not turn over some of the wiretap transcripts despite being instructed to do so by the court.

Friedmann said Tuesday that Ramon's misbehavior was a much less serious matter than the way the case was handled by the authorities. "The wiretap affair is harsh and serious," he said. "There is an uncompromising struggle by the entire legal system against the investigation. Inside the ministry there is very fie
Friedmann: "Ramon's misbehavior was a much less serious matter than the way the case was handled by the authorities."
rce opposition: one must not touch, one must not investigate." 

Committee of inquiry
"The situation is unbearable," Friedmann told the committee Tuesday. "I am convinced that there is no choice but to establish a governmental committee of inquiry with authority because if it does not have authority, the matter will be made to fade away… We have a justice system which you would expect to be prepared for some kind of meaningful supervision process and I do not feel this is so," Friedmann explained.

Friedmann accused Attorney General Menachem Mazuz of doing "all within his power" to block Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's initiative to appoint a committee of inquiry to investigate the wiretaps. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter also refused to conduct an investigation of the matter, Friedmann said.

He added: "It turns out that when the wiretaps dig up evidence that is in favor of the accused and not against him, these materials are not passed on…"

Confessed to murder, acquitted
Meanwhile, a Tel Aviv District Judge, Sheli Timen, attacked the police and prosecution in an unu
Timen: "Police and prosecution are covering up their own misdeeds in the case by mounting personal attacks."
sual and controversial verdict Monday which acquitted a man named Alexei Volkov who had been charged with murdering his ex-wife Yulia in 2006, despite a confession and re-enactment the man had given the police. The verdict, which was given by a panel of judges headed by Timen, determined that the police investigation was sloppy and that there was no way of knowing what had happened in the deceased's apartment on the day she was killed.

The judges determined that the police saw Volkov as the exclusive suspect in the case and neglected all other directions of investigation, "ignored warning lights" and showed carelessness in collecting evidence. The police ignored evidence implicating Yulia's boyfriend and did not interrogate him properly, preferring instead to wear down Volkov and make him fit his version of events to the police's evidence.

'Judge Timen is strange'
Sources within the prosecution called Timen "strange" and accused him of overstepping his role by criticizing them in his verdict. Timen said in response that the police and prosecution are covering up their own misdeeds in the case by mounting personal attacks on him.

In an interview he gave Haaretz two months ago, Timen said that judges were afraid of the feminist lobby and regularly issued guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual allegations. "A person charged with sexual offenses will almost certainly go to jail, and his family will be destroyed," Timen said. "And if there is a false complaint, G-d forbid – it doesn't matter. That is the atmosphere today. They mob you after every 'innocent' verdict."

[video:123233]A glimpse into the 24-hour Jerusalem festivities celebrating the liberation of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the reunification of Jerusalem...

Yeshiva students dance on Jerusalem Day, joyously celebrating the miracle that was the Six Day War and reunification of the holy city.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Dancing leads through the streets of Jerusalem toward the Temple Mount, the spiritual epicenter. Pictured is dancing in the Cardo, the old Roman central commercial avenue. Roman ruins remain.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Young and old flock to the Western Wall plaza below the Temple Mount to celebrate.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Dancing breaks out at the Kotel - the Western Wall - where tears of joy were wept by the liberating IDF paratroopers 41 year earlier.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Crowds gather for one of the many free concerts offered around Jerusalem.
(Photo: Flash 90)

The Western Wall plaza gets more and more crowded as the night goes on, leading up to prayers and singing at dawn.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Antique cars and farming equipment used by the Israeli pioneers are part of a parade through Jerusalem saluting the settlement of the Land of Israel.
(Photo: Flash 90)

The flag-march (rikudgalim) through Jerusalem and around the Old City, taking place Jerusalem Day.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Dancing through downtown toward the Old City.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Dancing past the Damascus Gate (Sha'ar Shechem in Hebrew) on Jerusalem Day.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Wild dancing breaks out at Damascus Gate, the main Arab marketplace in eastern Jerusalem.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Young people marching through the streets of Jerusalem in song.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Forensic pathologists have identified the tissue remains of three IDF soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon war, which were transferred to Israel by Hizbullah.

The body parts returned to Israel by Hizbullah on Sunday are remains of three IDF soldiers killed in combat in the 2006 Lebanon War, according to pathologists at the Abu Kabir Forensic institute. According to the institute, some of the body parts transferred to Israel will take up to another month to identify.

The casket containing the remains of the three soldiers was handed over Sunday to the Red Cross, as part of a deal with the Olmert government that enabled Nissim Nasser, a convicted Lebanese spy and naturalized Israeli citizen, to walk alive and free into Lebanon.

Included with the remains is the dog tag of Sgt.-Major Ron Mashiah, killed when his helicopter was shot down during the war. The dog tag was displayed by Lebanese media earlier this year when Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah announced that his organization had the body parts of IDF soldiers, and Mashiah's family received it on Monday.

Mashiah's brother Motti told news website Ynet that "[the tag] won't bring him back anymore, but it's still an item which he held on to in his last moments. It has sentimental value which cannot be ignored. There is no doubt that this brings everything back. The tag is with our parents now, for safe keeping, and one day we will give it to his son, so he'll have something to remember his father by."

According to Motti, the family was surprised at the news that they would be receiving the tag, and commended the Israeli government's endurance in the face of Hizbullah's pressure: "One good thing you can say is that the State never gave in to Nasrallah's demands and held its ground. We knew the bodies were here and even if there was anything left behind in Lebanon, the State mustn't trade anything for it."

Motti added that the family insists the government must hold its ground in the event that Israel's enemies make bodies or body parts of fallen Israeli soldiers a part of a future trade. "This is not negotiable," he added. "The State shouldn't have to pay for bodies, body parts or any other items. The State must draw the line and not cross it."

The newly identified remains are from three of 20 of the war's fatalities who the IDF confirmed recently were not buried intact. DNA samples were taken from all of the fallen, giving the military precise documentation of the body parts still missing.

Shas is once again threatening to quit the government and bring it down - this time, over the issue of child allowances, which were sharply decreased several years ago and which Shas has consistently demanded be increased.

The Shas Party's Council of Torah Sages, headed by Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, has resolved that if a solution is not found for the problem of low child allowances, Shas will join the opposition and support the dissolving of the Knesset and new elections.

The threat may not be as potent as it once was, since it is a matter of general consent that the Olmert government's days are numbered in any event. Even top Kadima party Cabinet Minister Chaim Ramon has said that new elections are likely to be held in November.

Rabbi Yosef Not Impressed
Finance Minister Roni Bar-On arrived at Rabbi Yosef's home in Har Nof, Jerusalem on Monday and presented him with a list of economic benefits that the Olmert government has conferred upon the underprivileged classes.  Rabbi Yosef was unimpressed, saying that the child allowances must be returned.

At present, a family with four children under the age of 18 receives a monthly allowance of 823 shekels, and is scheduled to receive slightly more than 600 shekels next year - compared with approximately 1,300 shekels five years ago.

Bar-On categorically told the new "Calcalist" economic weekly that "there will be no increase to the child allowances.  We won't allow a regression from years of economic policies that have proven themselves."  He suggested, instead, that education for ages 3 and 4 be paid for by the government in lower-class communities, at a cost of 102 million shekels; that technological education in the Ministry of Education be enhanced to the tune of 56 million shekels; that afternoon daycare be subsidized or covered for 10,000 children of working women (50 million shekels); and other similar benefits.

Shas has been threatening for months to leave the coalition because of the negotiations over Jerusalem.  In mid-February, Shas leader and Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai said Shas would leave if negotiations with the PA over the future of Jerusalem begin.  Within a short time, he changed the threat to "if negotiations over Jerusalem continue."  Despite statements by senior PA negotiators, and even by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, that talks for the division of Jerusalem were well underway and had made significant progress, Shas has refused to budge from its government chairs.

Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police operatives arrested three young Arab men from Lod in April and May of this year for conspiring to abduct and murder an IDF soldier in order to bargain for the release of Palestinian Authority security prisoners. The three planned to video the abducted soldier, murder him and hide his body, according to a statement issued by the Shin Bet.

All three terrorists-in-training, 20-year-old Amir Nafar (studying Sharia at a Jordanian university), 26-year-old Iman Kadura and 19-year-old Yassin Hinawi, hold Israeli citizenship and are members of the Islamic Movement.

According to the Shin Bet, during the Eid al-Adha holiday last December, Amir Nafar invited his co-conspirators to a secret and urgent meeting in the Great Mosque in Lod. "There, Nafar explained his support for the idea of jihad ("holy war" in Arabic) and said that it was every Muslim's duty to uphold the precept of jihad against the infidels.  After Kadura and Hinawi expressed their support for jihad, Nafar proposed that they perpetrate the aforesaid abduction and murder.  Kadura expressed his support and began to save money for the terrorist attack whereas Hinawi did not respond to the proposal.

"Their investigation shows that Nafar, Kadura and Hinawi are extremists who were heavily influenced by fanatic Islamic elements.  They were familiar with the Islamic Movement led by Sheikh Raad Salah.  Nafar went to study Sharia (Islamic law) in Jordan and was exposed to radical Islamic ideas and influences that likely spurred him into terrorist activity," said the statement.

The three were to be indicted Monday in the Petah Tikva District Court, with Nafar and Kadura to be charged with aiding the enemy in wartime and criminal conspiracy and Hinawi to be charged with failing to report a crime.

Afternoon Attacks on Israeli Roads
Palestinian Authority Arabs continued to attack Israelis throughout the country on Monday, primarily carried out by hurling rocks at motorists in Judea and Samaria.

PA Arabs attacked Israeli drivers and their passengers with stones on Monday afternoon as they passed near the Samarian village of Azoun. At least one vehicle was damaged, but no one was injured.

Attacks on Israeli drivers have increased in frequency and creativity; in the wee hours of Monday morning, an Israeli vehicle overturned after hitting a rock trap on the road near the Hawara checkpoint south of Shechem, also in Samaria.

Terror Attacks Continue at the Gaza Crossings
Terrorists in Gaza shot at workers near the Kissufim Crossing twice on Monday afternoon. Soldiers returned fire. No injuries were reported.

Earlier in the day, terrorists fired a mortar shell at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal. The shell landed harmlessly on the Gaza side of the crossing and no injuries were reported.

Shortly afterwards, terrorists fired on Israeli workers along the Gaza security barrier north of the Sufa Crossing, another conduit through which humanitarian supplies are delivered weekly to the region.  None of the workers were injured in the attack.

Nahal Oz has been targeted repeatedly by Gaza terrorists in recent months. At least once, the terminal was attacked by Hamas operatives, who stole gas supplies stored at the depot by their own power authority for use by local residents.

Veteran Israeli singer Shlomo Gronich, who has been attacked from the political left for his consent to perform at the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism Award ceremony in the City of David, has released a new album based on Jewish texts from the Bible and prayer book. He spoke with IsraelNationalRadio this past week.

[audio:123234]
Can't see player? Click here.

Releasing his first album in 1971, Gronich is well known for his 1993 album Shlomo Gronich and The Sheba Choir, which consists of Ethiopian children. He still teaches and performs with the choir and is planning to record new material. Gronich has been touring with the Journey to the Source material throughout Israel and in South America.

His new album, entitled Journey to the Source, guest stars a mix of secular and religious Israeli performers.

INR: Tell us about your new album, Journey to the Source.

Shlomo Gronich: Well, I can't tell you all about it. All the texts are from the Jewish source - from the Bible and from the Siddur. This is something that is very exciting for me. It doesn't remind me of anything I did before. It takes me somewhere very high, very spiritual. It takes my whole soul into it. I started working on this journey three years ago when I received by fax an ancient prayer taken from the Sabbath morning prayer, Ilu Finu: "Even if our mouth would be as full of song like the sea, we could not fully praise You..." When I read it, I was so moved by the purity and meaning of the wise words. Since I am not a religious person, it was my first time reading it. Religious people read it every Shabbat morning, but I was not familiar with this prayer. I took the prayer from the fax. I went to the piano. I turned on the tape, closed my eyes, and the music came as a whole. It was a very exciting experience. I really felt it was the first time it was happening to me like that. So strong. This was the trigger to this journey.

Right after that, wonderful things started to happen to me. I met people who gave me advice as to which psukim [verses] to take from the Bible. I went from one sentence of the Bible to the other with this music. They were very
fruitful days for me. In a week I composed twenty new prayers. I was very moved by it. I think ancient lyrics have so much power just because they are so old. They gather so much power during the thousands of years. It feels so pure and clean and fresh and good to sing these lyrics, especially today when the radio and everything around us seems to go in to fashion music and fragments. I find it a very quality and refreshing experience.

The magic continued in the studio. When I composed the music, as I told you, it came as a whole to me. It came from within me. No mistakes. No erase. As a whole. When I was composing, I knew I should take a string quartet and produce the music with them. We went into the studio with a string quartet and a percussion player. After the first track, I felt I could use other people's voices. I made some phone calls to another great composer, David Broza. On the spot he came to the studio came and gave his voice to another song, A Woman of Valor. He sings a duet with me. Then I pulled another amazing guy, with an amazing voice, Gad Elbaz. And another one and another one. This album is really hosting many good musicians besides me which gives me the great pleasure of listening to it and not only to my own voice but to this wonderful ensemble that was put together.

INR: You went on tour with this material before the album came out. How did the audience receive it?

Shlomo Gronich:  They liked it very much. What was very interesting is that the audience is composed of religious people and non-religious people and it's very exciting to see these two types of audience sitting together and going through a spiritual adventure.

INR: I like the song "In Green Pastures" with the guy speaking English in the beginning. What is that one about?

Shlomo Gronich:  They are from the Black Hebrew community of Dimona. They have great voices. They sat with me in a few songs. As we started the song, one of them started to recite the words in English. David's Psalms.

INR: So it wasn't planned like that?

Shlomo Gronich:  It was not planned. He started to recite it and I made the signal to the man recording. I left it there to start the Hebrew version with an English version. What is interesting here is that The L-rd is My Shepherd is being said by non-Jewish people concerning death. It's very sad in ceremonies of death. My version is very happy and gay. It's the opposite of death. It's very alive. It makes it interesting.

INR: You have been around for a long time. How has your music changed? How have you grown musically?

Shlomo Gronich:  I can't be the judge of myself, but I think this project shows that this guy, me, is getting ripe with the years. My hair is becoming white. My voice is becoming deep. My soul is becoming deep. My touch of music is becoming more mature and more meaningful and honest. That's what I feel and I hear it from others as well. Everything that I learned within my short life, almost 60 years, is being put today in my music. Every day I learn something new. That's why it sounds so wide ranging in the styles of music. Classical with pop with jazz with ethnic with world with religious with hasidic. Everything is here. It's really a new language of music.

INR: I saw an old video of you on the internet with [former Israeli singing star] Mati Caspi. Then I saw a video of you two from today and you both look almost exactly the same - except with white hair.

Shlomo Gronich:  Besides being older and wiser a little bit, well maybe not wiser, maybe less stupid, the energy is inside. The river is inside. It's the same person. The same soul. The same energy.

INR: Is there anything else you want to say about your music or your new album?

Shlomo Gronich:  I am so much into this new project now. Usually I work on so many things together, but this project is taking all of me into it. I hope it gets the chance to be played abroad, because I think that it's not only for the Jewish people, it's really for all of humankind. The Bible is not a thing of only the Jewish people, its really of all mankind. I feel the same about this project, this music and these lyrics, should be heard by so many people not only in Israel. I hope to get the chance to do it.

To listen to audio excerpt from Shlomo Gronich interview click here.

# # #

Benyamin Bresky is a music journalist and the host of The Beat on Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio.

Transportation Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, remembered for insisting that he had no plans to leave the Likud just two days before he joined Kadima, is making no secret of his desire to become Prime Minister.

Headlines in the Israeli media over the past three days read as follows: "Mofaz Sharply Attacks Livni," "Mofaz Attacks Barak for Gaza Policy," "Likud Activists Will Support Mofaz," "Mofaz Works With Shas to Prevent New Elections," and the like.

Mofaz is hoping to be chosen in Kadima primaries to succeed criminal investigation-beleaguered Ehud Olmert, without the need for new national elections.  The Shas Party, however, has been threatening to bring down the government and cause new elections - on the backdrop of its demand for higher monthly child allowance payments.  Shas has said it would support any candidate who promises to raise the allowances - and Mofaz has reportedly made this promise.

Mofaz's main competitor in the race for Kadima party leadership and the Prime Ministership is Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.  Livni currently enjoys a significant lead over Mofaz among the 60,000 registered Kadima members.  A joint Yediot Acharonot/Dachaf poll conducted late last week shows that 39% of the members would vote for Livni, while only 25% would choose Mofaz.

Mofaz in the Golan: It Must Remain Israeli
Though he denied any connection, Mofaz's visit to the Golan Heights Tuesday morning appears to be connected with his political ambitions.  He made strong statements in favor of retaining the Golan, and even said that he was considering moving there with his family.  "I have fought against the Syrians and I have talked with them," he said. "There is no need to jump every time the Syrians show some interest in talking with us."

Mofaz further said that the Golan should not be given to Syria, and that doing so means "having Iran in the Golan."

Assad Takes Tough Stance
Meanwhile, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad said the opposite: "We will never agree to compromise [and accept less than] the borders of 1967," he vowed during a visit to the United Arab Emirates this week. "In the framework of a peace agreement, Israel must be willing to return all Syrian land captured in 1967."

Assad said that this includes the entire Kinneret (Sea of Galilee): "Regarding water, there are international laws that govern this... But if that means that Syria must cede the condition it set - insistence on the 1967 borders all the way up to Tiberias [which lies on the eastern shore of the Kineret] - we will never agree to this."

Mofaz Against Livni and Barak
On Sunday, Mofaz had sharp words for Minister Livni and Labor Party leader Defense Minister Barak, saying their alliance "is liable to destroy Kadima... They won't teach us what honesty is."  Mofaz, a former Defense Minister himself, also said that Barak's military policies in Gaza are wrong.

The Mofaz Zig-Zag
In December 2005, just hours after he called upon Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu to "join me in liquidating [a rival camp within] the Likud," and while a mass-mailing was underway asking Likud members to support his bid to lead the party, he phoned then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and informed him that he was leaving the Likud and joining Sharon's new Kadima party. 

Just days earlier, he had criticized Kadima for the lack of unity displayed by the members' various opinions, and said that the politicians who switch from party to party "show a lack of stability and a lack of leadership."

American Jews Stand Strong With Israel. Hear the Israel Day Concert in Central Park as broadcast live on IsraelNationalRadio.

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