In a letter to a fellow Kadima politician, the lead negotiator on behalf of the government in talks with the Fatah-run half of the Palestinian Authority confirmed his plan to relinquish sovereignty over much of Jerusalem, including in the Old City.

In response to a concerned letter of inquiry from Jerusalem Municipal Council Member Nir Barkat, Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon wrote, "The Jewish neighborhoods [of
Ramon fully represents the government in negotiations with the PA.
Jerusalem] will be recognized as Israeli and under Israeli sovereignty. Accordingly, the Arab neighborhoods will be recognized as Palestinian. Passages between the Israeli neighborhoods will be open and secure – accordingly the same will be true for the Palestinian neighborhoods."

Regarding the "holy sites" in the capital, Ramon wrote only that there would be an undefined "special sovereignty." Inside the Old City, the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter "will remain under Israeli rule forever," the vice-premier wrote.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office confirmed that Ramon fully represents the government in negotiations with the PA, but said that the opinions he expressed in his letter were his own and "do not obligate the Prime Minister."

In reaction to the publication of the letter to Barkat, Knesset Member David Rotem of Yisrael Beiteinu, a member of the governing coalition, said, "Minister Ramon's plan will enhance his prestige in the Left, but will dissolve the government." Rotem made the comment to the Yediot Acharonot newspaper on Tuesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of the Shas party expressed strong opposition to the Ramon plan, as well, saying Jerusalem is "not a bargaining chip." Last week, responding to then-unconfirmed plans by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to divide Jerusalem, Yishai declared, "Unequivocally, Shas will not sit in a government that creates a Palestinian state on the Green Line and within Jerusalem municipal territory."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, of the Labor party, reserved comment on the Ramon letter.

Minister of Pensioner Affairs, Rafi Eitan of the Gil Pensioners party, said that the Ramon plan for Jerusalem will not garner a government majority, in any case. Without speaking
"Ramon's plan will enhance his prestige in the Left, but will dissolve the government." - MK David Rotem.
for his fellow party members, as the faction was formed strictly to promote pensioners' interests, Eitan said that he would oppose the Vice Prime Minister's ideas on Jerusalem.

Even some Knesset members representing Ramon's own faction, Kadima, expressed concern over the positions espoused by the government's chief negotiator. Both MK Ze'ev Elkin and MK Otniel Schneller claimed that the idea of dividing sovereignty in Jerusalem is antithetical to the basic platform of the Kadima party.

MK Tzvi Hendel of the National Union party, who was expelled from his home in the Gush Katif town of Netzer Hazani, slammed the selection of Ramon as chief negotiator: "There is no greater shame than the fact that a convicted criminal, who lacks morals and who promoted the evacuation of Gush Katif - which lead to the current disasters - is now conducting, on behalf of Olmert, insane negotiations for the division of Jerusalem." Hendel called for the toppling of the government by the Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu parties.

A Palestinian Authority terrorist deported from Jordan was planning to carry out a massacre of Israeli tourists in the Hashemite kingdom, according to information released Tuesday by Israeli security sources. The 25-year-old Hamas member, Khader Hashem Khader Shakir, was taken into custody by Israeli forces in PA-controlled Ramallah approximately six weeks ago.
Shakir and Daaba decided to launch their attacks at two well-known hotels.

Shakir, a native of a village near Ramallah, was initially picked up by Jordanian authorities on suspicion of membership in an illegal international Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. He was then deported to the PA, foiling his plan to murder Israeli tourists in Jordan, but facilitating his activity on behalf of Hamas in Israel.

On July 31, Shakir was apprehended by Israeli security services. An indictment against Shakir for his involvement in terrorist activities has been filed with the Jerusalem Magistrates Court.

Details of the plan to attack Israeli tourists in Jordan were made public by the General Security Services (GSS). Shakir and a member of the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Shadi Daaba, were planning to board an Israeli tour bus in Amman and open fire with automatic weapons. Shakir and Daaba decided to launch their attacks at two well-known hotels in the Jordanian capital. At least one of the hotels selected by the two Islamists, the Radisson SAS Hotel, was targeted in a triple car bombing in Amman in November 2005. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.

In another success for IDF counter-terrorism forces, soldiers operating in Shechem arrested 12 wanted terrorists on Wednesday morning. Two terrorists were killed in clashes as the elite IDF troops made their way through the city, which is located in Samaria. On Tuesday, intelligence officers warned that Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists in Shechem were planning a suicide bombing against Israeli targets.

During separate counter-terrorist operations in Shechem on Monday night, Staff Sgt. Ben-Zion Haneman was killed by enemy forces.

Women in Green is planning a rally Wednesday night in Jerusalem against the plans of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to divide Jerusalem and establish a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

The protest has been called by the grassroots nationalist camp organization for 7 PM at Paris Square at the southern end of King George St., a block away from the Prime Minister's residence in the capital.  It will be timed to coincide with a dinner meeting between Olmert and visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Those who can blow a shofar (ram's horn) are asked to bring one. 

Asked if she is expecting a large turnout for the event, Women in Green co-founder Nadia Matar told Arutz-7, "We know that we have 350,000 people who signed a petition against a Palestinian state, and many more who feel the same way.  We also know that in general, only the die-hard activists generally show up for protests like this.  This will be our opening shot; we have to get the ball rolling."
 
A press release for the event states that Olmert and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah have "already signed an 8-point document which basically calls for the creation of a PLO state in all of Judea and Samaria, the destruction of over 95% of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the division of Jerusalem, and the handing over of the Temple Mount to the PLO."
 
Women in Green quotes Israel's founding Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, as having said:

“No Jew is at liberty to surrender the right of the Jewish Nation and the Land of Israel to exist. No Jewish body is sanctioned to do so. No Jew alive today has the authority to yield any piece of land whatsoever. This right is preserved by the Jewish people throughout the generations and cannot be forfeited under any circumstance. Even if at some given time there will be those who declare that they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the jurisdiction to negate it for future generations to come. The Jewish Nation is neither obligated by nor responsible for any waiver such as this. Our right to this land, in its entirety, is steadfast inalienable and eternal. And until the coming of the Great Redemption, we shall never yield this historic right.”

"Whereas the allied powers couldn’t have guessed the extremity of Hitler’s designs," the announcement states, "our leaders have no such excuse.  The only honest conclusion twelve years after the Oslo Accords were signed is that the Arabs want war, not peace.  The Arabs’ sole and consistent purpose remains the destruction of Israel.  Therefore, ongoing peace negotiations have nothing to do with peace...

"History sometimes arrives at climactic junctures that are followed by a point of no return.  Once crossed, the momentum leading to disaster becomes unstoppable.  We fear that the second Munich conference being planned for this November is such a juncture.
 
"Israel’s leadership has lost all sense of national responsibility and accountability as it rushes heedlessly down this path. It doesn’t represent the interests of the Jewish people or the Jewish State, but submits willingly to foreign interests and pressures.  It has become the accomplice of Israel’s enemies in securing the enemy’s goals.
 
"The public has no faith in the Olmert government, but also has no power to democratically influence the government’s actions.  We therefore place the Olmert government on notice that neither the Jewish people nor the citizens of Israel are bound by the diplomatic acts of their leaders...
 
"We therefore call upon all the citizens of Israel and Jews worldwide to denounce and renounce this government of fools and rogues and to take action  necessary to save the land and people of Israel."

Women in Green is also paying for a front-page ad in the Jerusalem Post which states:
"Ehud Olmert, Israel is not your private real estate!  Condoleezza Rice, keep your hands off the Land of Israel!"

IDF soldiers eliminated an Arab terrorist in Shechem Wednesday, as troops continued their operation launched against a terror cell that was preparing to carry out an attack on Israelis.

The ongoing operation against a joint PFLP/Hamas terror cell which is holed up in the Ein Beit Ilma neighborhood of Shechem, 30 miles north of Jerusalem, began before dawn Tuesday. Brig. Gen. Noam Tibon said the IDF would not let up pressure on the enemy until the threat emanating from the camp is eliminated.

In Tuesday's action, terrorists lobbed explosive charges on the combined Paratroopers Palsar / Haruv force and a firefight developed. Staff Sgt. Ben-Zion Haneman, 22, a Palsar paratrooper, was gravely wounded and another soldier was lightly injured. A helicopter was called in order to evacuate Haneman to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead before the helicopter arrived. The lightly wounded soldier received first aid before being taken to Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikvah.

IDF forces then shot and killed the Arab who had killed Haneman. They also arrested four terrorists, from Hamas and the PFLP.
Ben-Zion was about to end his term of army service yet did not hesitate to place himself at the forefront of the IDF force entering the terrorist neighborhood.

Border Guard Policemen, also taking part in the offensive, opened fire on a group of gunmen that had begun firing on them and identified hits on two enemy terrorists.

An arms cache with two M-16 guns, a few improvised hand grenades and additional ammunition was discovered.

Lately, IDF soldiers have been operating in Shechem on a nightly basis, in order to arrest or kill terrorists, locate explosives laboratories and carry out additional counter-terror activities.

Quiet, with piercing blue eyes
Staff Sgt. Ben-Zion Chaim Haneman, was from the small religious moshav (agricultural community) Nov in the Golan Heights. He was the son of Yaakov and Tamar Haneman. Ben-Zion had nine brothers and sisters.

His funeral took place Tuesday at 11:30 PM in Hispin, near Nov.

Ben-Zion was to end his military service two weeks from now. "He planned to travel overseas immediately after his release from the IDF, and then study agriculture and winemaking and join the family business," his older brother Ro'i told journalists. Ro'i described his brother as a young man with piercing blue eyes, who did not speak much. Brig. Gen. Tibon also noted that Ben-Zion was about to end his term of army service yet did not hesitate to place himself at the forefront of the IDF force entering the terrorist neighborhood.

Ben-Zion was born in Sussia, near Hevron, and his family later moved to Nov, a small religious community with 115 families, including that of Knesset Member Effie Eitam, related by marriage to the Haneman family. "He was a quiet, introverted, pleasant-mannered boy and well liked by all," Nov's secretary Yaakov Nusboim said. "Unfortunately this is a heavy blow to the family and to the entire moshav," he added.

Ben-Zion studied in the Yeshiva L'Tzeirim in Jerusalem, and after finishing high school he studied in the college-age Yeshiva at Mitzpe Ramon for a short time.

Again, a 'knit kippah' soldier
The increasingly central role played by religious soldiers in the IDF's combat units has been the subject of much discussion in Israel lately, after the heroic stories of Maj. Ro'i Klein, Lt. Col. Emanuel Moreno and others in the Second Lebanon War brought home to Israelis that the "knit kippah" boys are replacing the kibbutz and moshav boys of previous generations as the backbone of the fighting units.

"Their presence in the army is several times larger than it is in the general population," journalist Ben Caspit wrote recently. "It is clear," he wrote, that "the religious-Zionist movement's educational institutions continue to disseminate values, Zionism, Judaism and mission orientation." Of the religious soldiers he wrote: "They do everything willingly, with their entire soul."

New details of Syria’s weapons programs have been reported, indicating that chemical weapons may have been destroyed in the Israeli strike as well.

According to Jane’s Defense Weekly, the Israeli air strike was ordered after an accident involving a joint Syrian-Iranian team that was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a scud missile.

Jane’s reports that an accident involving the same facility on July 23rd released sarin and VX nerve gas into the air and killing “dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers.”

Syria’s government-controlled media reported the incident as an explosion at an explosives storage facility near Aleppo “due to the heat.”

It has long been known that Syria has an advanced chemical weapons program, which it launched in 1973, just prior to the Yom Kippur War.

Syria Appointed to UN’s Nuclear Watch Group
Syria was appointed deputy chairman of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference Monday.

The conference is taking place in Vienna, Austria this week.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency boasted that the nation had already succeeded in putting Israel’s nuclear arsenal on the conference’s agenda. The item is entitled: "Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat." Iran is not referred to by name on the agenda.

Eastern Gush Etzion, the Jewish towns southeast of Jerusalem on the edge of the Judean Desert, has finally been connected directly to Jerusalem, making an hour-long trip into a ten-minute excursion and representing a victory for local activists.

IsraelNN.com brings you on a trip along the old road from the Jerusalem-Hevron Highway to eastern Gush Etzion and onward toward the capital on the brand new road.

The turnoff from Route 60, the Jerusalem-Hevron road, leading to eastern Gush Etzion - formerly the only way to drive to the area

The Herodion, built by King Herod and used by Bar Kochba's rebels, can be seen in the distance, above a fig tree

Olive groves as far as the eye can see

Turning right leads to P'nei Kedem, Metzad-Asfar, Maaleh Amos and Ibei HaNachal

Left goes to Tekoa, Nokdim, Kfar Eldad and Maaleh Rechavam

Straight ahead is Area A - forbidden to Israelis, according to a sign posted

Herodion grows closer, along the winding road

Residents of eastern Gush Etzion had to drive through this village to go to and from the capital, often targeted by local Arabs throwing stones or firebombs

A sign outside Tekoa still informs motorists that the out-of-the-way route is the way to Jerusalem

The new road can be seen as a dotted red line on this Gush Etzion tourist map
(Map: Moetzet Gush Etzion)

A sign on the main road points to the home of Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman, who is Minister of Strategic Affairs in the Olmert government

An exit for the Arab village of El-Khas on the way toward Jerusalem

An old stone house, with the Partition Fence in front of it, overlooks the road

A tunnel connects a local Arab village under PA administrative control (Area B) with PA-controlled Bethlehem

An IDF pillbox along the road

Jerusalem's southern Har Choma neighborhood can be seen in the distance

A stretch of the road in the foreground with Har Choma in the background

Passing under a PA-controlled road with PLO slogans painted on it and an Arabic Ericsson ad

The checkpoint marks the segment of the road that had remained closed for so long

Border Police, as well as private security guards, man the checkpoint

The Partition Fence

A gate for vehicles and one for pedestrians in the Partition Fence

The Partition Fence

A south-bound view of the checkpoint

The brand new road

The last bend in the road

A confusing stretch just before...

Jerusalem! The Har Choma neighborhood lies straight ahead after just 8 minutes of driving from Tekoa

The road wraps around Har Choma, providing two exits into the neighborhood before ending on Jerusalem's Derech Hevron road, near Talpiot

The view of Jerusalem immediately upon turning onto Derech Hevron

Click here for a PDF tourist map of Gush Etzion and click here for events in eastern Gush Etzion happening over the holidays

What makes one smell pleasant and another odious? Is there something in the chemistry of a substance that can serve to predict how we will perceive its smell? Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of California at Berkeley have now discovered that there is, indeed, such a link, and knowing the molecular structure of a substance can help predict whether we will find its smell heavenly or malodorous.

 In sight and hearing, for instance, our perceptions are determined by the physical properties of waves – the length of light waves in sight, and the frequency of sound waves in hearing. But until now, there was no known physical factor that could explain how our brains sense odors. The new study, conducted by Prof. Noam Sobel of the Institute’s Neurobiology Department and his colleagues, represents a first step in understanding the physical laws that underlie our perception of smell. Their results appeared last week in the Journal of Neuroscience. 

 To identify the general principles by which our sense of smell is organized, the researchers began with a database of 160 different odors that had been ranked by 150 perfume and smell experts according to a set of 146 characteristics (sweetish, smoky, musty, etc.). These data were then analyzed with a statistical program that analyzed the variance in perception among the smell experts.

The scientists found that the data fell along an axis that describes the “pleasantness rating” of the odors – running from “sweet” and “flowery” at one end to “rancid” and “sickening” at the other. The same distribution along this axis, they discovered to their surprise, closely describes the variation in chemical and physical properties from one substance to another. From this, the researchers found they could build a model to predict, from the molecular structure of a substance, how pleasing its smell would be perceived.

 To double check their model, Sobel and his team tested how experimental subjects assessed 50 odors they had never smelled before for pleasantness. They found that the ratings of their test subjects fit closely with the ranking shown by their model. In other words, they were able to predict the level of pleasantness quite well, even for unfamiliar smells. They noted that, although preferences for smells are commonly supposed to be culturally learned, their study showed that the responses of American subjects, Jewish Israelis and Muslim-Arab Israelis all fit the model’s predictions to the same extent.

Sobel: “Our findings show that the way we perceive smells is at least partially hard-wired in the brain. Although there is a certain amount of flexibility, and our life experience certainly influences our perception of smell, a large part of our sense of whether an odor is pleasant or unpleasant is due to a real order in the physical world. Thus, we can now use chemistry to predict the perception of the smells of new substances.”

An Israeli-Arab group has called for a boycott of El Al airlines to protest security measures the airline takes to maintain its record of zero hijackings.

"The annoying and humiliating checks of Arab passengers are an intolerable form of discrimination," said Amin Makhul of the Supreme Follow-up Committee of the Arabs in Israel (also known as the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee) at a press conference in Nazareth Tuesday.

El Al responded that it operates in accordance with guidelines of Israel’s Aviation Authority. Arutz-7 found that those carrying out security procedures leaving Israel are not associated with El Al, but work for Ben Gurion Airport and a division of the Defense Ministry. Coming into Israel, El Al security officers, trained by official Israeli bodies, question passengers.

The Supreme Follow-up Committee of the Arabs in Israel is the same group that published a position paper last year calling to do away with the uniquely Jewish aspects of the State of Israel. Supreme Follow-up was initially formed as a movement in support of the Israeli-Arab Islamic Movement and its militant leader Sheikh Raad Salah. Most recently, the Committee has announced its intention of fighting the “persecution” it sees against Arab MKs who illegally visit enemy states such as Syria.

Salah, who was present at the press conference, faces charges of incitement to violence after calling for an Israeli-Arab uprising during the construction of the Rambam foot bridge at the Western Wall Plaza earlier this year.

The El Al boycott is the decision of a sub-committee within the organization and has not yet been adopted by the group. At the press conference, however, members said they encourage all Israeli-Arab organizations to comply with the boycott.