Hamas officials have admitted that the demolition of the Gaza-Egypt border was not related to the blockade placed by Israel, but that months of planning went into the demolition operation. Egypt refuses to heed calls to rebuild it as Israel fears massive amounts of heavy weaponry and explosives are being transferred into Gaza. MK Aryeh Eldad is hailing the Arab exodus to Egypt as proof that voluntary transfer is indeed an option.

Hamas terrorist commander Abu Usama told the Times of London that work on demolishing the wall that runs along the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt has been ongoing for months – long before Israel placed a blockade on Gaza. He said Popular Resistance Comittee men have been using oxy-acetylene torches for months to slice through the heavy metal wall, enabling it to be completely toppled by the dozens of bomb blasts overnight Tuesday. "I've seen this happening over the last few months,” he said. “It happened in the daytime but was covered up so that nobody would see."

Hamas men use bulldozers to complete the demolition of the wall, enabling vehicular traffic and making sure the Egyptians will not rebuild.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Asked by the reporter whether he had informed his superiors in the Hamas government, he said: "It was the government that was doing this. Who would I report it to? Last night we were told to keep away from the wall. We were ordered to stay away because they were going to break the blockade."

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal reportedly ordered the preparations and timed the demolition of the border to coincide with the terrorist summit that began in Damascus Wednesday. Called the Palestinian National Congress, the conference was organized by Iran and Syria and is being attended by dozens of representatives from each of the terrorist groups seeking Israel’s destruction, except for Fatah.

Mashaal delivered a fiery speech to open the conference, calling on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to ignore Israeli calls to close the border, saying he is not bound by any international agreements with regard to the region.

Mashaal seemed to indicate that Hamas was asserting sovereignty over northern Sinai, calling upon the Arab world to take advantage of the Islamist group’s new stronghold to provide aid directly without Israeli interference.

An Arab man holding suitcases flees Gaza over the demolished border fence with Egypt.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Egypt Refuses to Close Border
Egypt heeded Mashaal’s call, announcing that it has no intentions of honoring Israel’s demands to seal the border. Israel fears the destruction of the barrier will allow terrorists to freely bring heavier arms and explosives into Gaza than were already being smuggled through the network of underground tunnels. The border will remain open "as long as there continues to be a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished coastal territory," an Egyptian government spokesman told CNN.

An estimated 350,000 residents of Gaza crossed over into Egypt Wednesday, with Egyptian police standing aside and making moderate efforts to prevent them from leaving Rafiah and El-Arish for other destinations in Egypt. Many returned to Gaza, but a significant number remained in Egypt, with many traveling south to Egyptian population centers, raising concern in the Egyptian press of a massive wave of Gazan immigration.

Gazans crossing into Egypt with suitcases.
(Photo: Flash 90)

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that Egypt had to take care of the crisis on the Gaza border. Barak, in France, said: "I think that the Egyptians understand what their duty is, and we expect them to act to fix what happened today.”

MK Eldad Hails Voluntary Transfer
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said Wednesday that the crossing of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from Gaza to Egypt proves that a voluntary transfer of populations between territories is possible.

"The Israeli left continues to claim that there is no such thing as voluntary transfer, and simply ignores reality," Eldad said.

Gaza Arabs leaving.
(Photo: Flash 90)

The Moledet faction, within the National Union party, has long called for voluntary transfer, with MK Benny Elon's new Israeli Initiative limiting that call to the self-identified Arab refugees living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Likud MK Yuval Shteinitz, who chaired the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Sharon government, says that with the breakdown of the border between Gaza and Egypt, Israel's lone option remains the same: "We must take over Gaza."

Speaking with Arutz-7 today, Shteinitz said, "If Hamas worked to break open the border with Egypt, this means it is not in Israel's interest.  For one thing, our pressure tactic against the Gazan terrorists - that is, the siege that we imposed - is no longer effective, as they can just go to Egypt to buy whatever they need.  In addition, if until now, small weapons were able to be smuggled through via the tunnels, now they will be able to bring larger weapons in through the openings in the border wall."

Egypt Will Take Advantage
Shteinitz named yet another problematic aspect of the new situation: "You will see, very soon Egypt will say they want to reopen the [1979 Camp David] peace treaty agreement with Israel about how many forces they are allowed to have in the Sinai, and they'll say they need many more in order to monitor the crossing.  Their goal is to have as many forces as they can close to Israel."

MK Shteinitz has been warning for years of Egypt's bellicose intentions towards Israel. He has accused Egypt of helping breed terrorists by enabling them to pass from Gaza to Lebanon and Iran for training and briefing, as well as receiving new terrorist technologies.  "Egypt is not acting like Jordan, which liquidates the smuggling networks and prevents quantities of arms from reaching the border," he told Arutz-7 exactly a year ago - and again today (Thursday).

"In light of Egypt's President Mubarak's fight against extremist Islam in Egypt," Arutz-7 asked Shteinitz, "why would he be interested in keeping the border open with extremist Hamas?"

"Egypt has no intention of allowing the Arabs from Gaza into Egypt proper," Shteinitz said, "and not even past the El-Arish area [in north-west Sinai].  Egypt, just like Assad in Syria, likes to fight the Moslem extremists in his own country - but doesn't mind aiding them elsewhere."
Asked if the country is willing to pay the price in soldiers' deaths likely to be incurred by a full-fledged invasion, Shteinitz said, "The best way to convince the nation is by doing it and succeeding."

The Big Lie
"This is the big lie," Shteinitz said, "according to which Egypt is a moderate country that is allied with the West.  They fight against extremist Islam only when it bothers them."

Asked what Israel should do in light of the new open Gazan-Egyptian border, he said, "As I have been saying for a while: Conquer Gaza. That's the only way to stop the Kassam rockets."

Asked if the country is willing to pay the price in soldiers' deaths that is likely to be incurred, Shteinitz said, "The best way to convince the nation is by doing it and succeeding."

Hamas Warns that Next Breakthrough Will be to Israel
Senior Hamas official Ahmed Yusuf, a top aide to Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniye, took the opportunity of the breakdown of the Egypt-Gaza border to warn Israel that "next time, 500,000 people will break down the border with Israel at the Erez Crossing and stream through.  They will be willing to give their lives to go back to [what they claim are - ed.] their original homes [from before 1948].  This is not imaginary."

Shteinitz said he does not believe this threat is likely to materialize.  "They simply won't do it," he said. 

Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim, on the other hand, sounded more cautious.  "It could happen," he told Voice of Israel Radio.  "We must learn from what has just happened here.  I don't make light of what we saw there [in Rafah], and we must take this seriously." 

Boim does not agree with Shteinitz about Egypt: "It could be that as a result of the new developments, Egypt may see the dangers and start cooperating with us more fully regarding the Philadephi crossing."  He said that Israel should increase its control of the Philadelphi Crossing, with Egyptian consent." 

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted in a speech Wednesday evening that the Hizbullah terrorist organization in Lebanon has more missiles today than it did before the 2006 Second Lebanon War, but declared he has no regrets in terms of the decisions he made "during the war and during other situations."

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Olmert said that the north was flourishing as a result of the conflict. "The present situation is incomparably better than that which preceded it," he said. "The residents of the north have peace and security. There is no daily friction and no firing of rockets or even Kassams. This has gone on, not for a day or a month but for 18 full months. This is the longest period of quiet in the north in the past 25 years."

"Our enemies in the north are in no hurry to fight us," Olmert added. "They know why. The reasons are flying in the air, they are felt in the region, they are known to all those who need to know."

The Likud party published a reaction to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech saying that Olmert was "disconnected from reality and inventing a virtual reality as the Winograd Report approaches."

The statement by the opposition party noted, "In the north, the Hizbullah has armed itself with more rockets than it had on the eve of the war and in the south, Israeli citizens live under a constant missile threat."

The Winograd Report, which is to be published next Wednesday, is expected to slam the Prime Minister for the government’s mismanagement of the war.

Families of the IDF soldiers who fell in the war, however, have pre-empted the report with one of their own, entitled “How the Mighty Have Fallen.”

The report, presented to the Knesset Wednesday, harshly condemned Olmert, whom they accused of total irresponsibility by remaining in office.  “He should have quit the day the last soldier returned from Lebanon,” the report stated. It added that "the blood of the fallen soldiers cries out for him to quit."

The families said they reached their conclusions after their own investigation. They criticized the mandate of the Winograd Commission, which was appointed by the Prime Minister to avoid a state commission of inquiry that would have been authorized to reach conclusions on individuals and summon them to trial if necessary.

Tafnit party chairman and former senior IDF officer Uzi Dayan joined the voices calling for the Prime Minister’s resignation on Wednesday, saying Olmert is increasingly dangerous for Israel.

Dayan, who has been active in the movement to bring back kidnapped IDF soldiers, revealed he consulted with the army company commander who drafted a letter calling on the Prime Minister to resign. The letter was signed by fifty company commanders and officers.

Neither of the two primary goals of the war – to disarm and disable the Hizbullah terrorist organization in order to eliminate the threat to northern Israel and to rescue Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad, the two IDF reservists kidnapped by Hizbullah operatives in a cross-border raid – was met.

The condition and whereabouts of Goldwasser and Regev remains unknown, and Hizbullah has re-armed and strengthened its infrastructure to a level higher than that with which it began the Second Lebanon War.

Responding to the Supreme Court and the radical Peace Now group, the Prime Minister and Defense Minister said that the 43 families currently living in Migron, north of Jerusalem, would be evicted by this coming August.

Migron (Samuel I 14,2; Isaiah 10, 28) is a strategically critical hilltop community north of Jerusalem, overlooking the Jerusalem-Shomron highway.  It grew very quickly following its founding in March 2002, swelling to 40 families within less than a year and a half - but the government then clamped down, and barely a single new caravan (trailer home) has been allowed in since then.  Migron, as well as 25 other outposts in Yesha (Judea and Samaria), is considered "unauthorized" outpost because they were built after March 1, 2001 - the date ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised U.S. President George Bush that no new communities would be built. 

Some of the land in Migron was clearly purchased by Jews, but the Supreme Court has been asked by Peace Now to rule that other parts of the community are situated on private, Arab-owned land - and to order the destruction of the entire community.  Peace Now's objective is to ensure the erasure of all vestiges of Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.

Destroying Migron Would Lead to Violence
It is widely assumed that a dismantling of Migron would not go over without an Amona-style fight.  Two years ago, the new Olmert government decided to go ahead with the eviction of nine Jewish families from their homes in Amona, a hilltop community overlooking Ofrah (and six miles directly north of Migron).  What developed was an extremely violent clash between police/army forces and many hundreds of Land of Israel supporters who came to protest the government's decision.  Hundreds of the latter were injured, many of them seriously, in extreme cases of police violence, many of which were documented on film. 

Seeking Voluntary Transfer
Olmert and Barak, in their response to the Court, added that they would try, during the coming six months, to come to an agreement with the residents and find an agreed-upon alternative site for them to live.  The new site must be legally approved and with ready infrastructures, the State's response stipulates.

It was also said that if genuine steps were taken during the six months towards voluntary evacuation from Migron, "the State reserves the right to request another extension for the evacuation of the outpost in order to enable the completion of the evacuation procedure."

A new poll presented at the prestigious Herzliya Conference shows that the religious-Zionist public is the most patriotic of all. 

Some 850 respondents were asked whether they consider themselves "greatly patriotic," "very patriotic," "somewhat patriotic," or "not patriotic."  Four-fifths (80%) of the religious public graded themselves in the first two categories, compared to 68% of the "traditional" public, 67% of the secular public, and only 46% of the hareidi-religious sector.

Lack of identification of the hareidi public with the State's irreligious leadership led 26% of this group to say they are not patriotic at all - compared with 5% of the other groups.

Notably, despite the unilateral disengagement from Gush Katif and other blows to the religious-Zionist public, patriotism among this group did not decrease over the past year.  In the other sectors, this year's poll showed lower patriotism among the other groups as compared with last year's poll.

MK Effie Eitam (National Union) spoke at the conference about the findings of the poll, and said that the "left-wing elites" must take this opportunity to re-evaluate their negative views and plans regarding the religious-Zionist camp.  "There are amongst us," he said, "those who see patriotism not as a value, but as a burden - and even as a swamp that breeds nationalism, aggression, occupation, etc.  Some of our elites have decided to dry out this swamp, in order to prevent these 'mosquitoes' from spreading."

Left Seeks to Destroy Right in Every Area
Eitam said that the religious-Zionist public, with its accomplishments and patriotism, "should be the main source of human capital in building up a healthy and strong society.  Yet, if we check how the leadership echelons in the country actually act, we will be astonished to see that they relate to this human capital in precisely the opposite manner - and in every single area, they try almost systematically to destroy them.  In recent years, there has been no area in which the State of Israel did not try to dwarf, to send into despair, to liquidate and to split this patriotic camp." 

Eitam said that the religious-Zionist sector passed the ultimate test of loyalty to and love for the State: the Disengagement: "I don't think any sector would have passed this trauma of Disengagement - the destruction of their lives and their life work, being thrown out of their homes to the fringes of society like a utensil with no use... and not to mention the 'targeted killing' of their educational system, the yeshivot and ulpanot and mechinot that gave birth to these elites and which are now forced to beg for donations.  It's much easier to be in the hareidi sector - vis-a-vis patriotism - and make all sorts of dark deals with the government for millions, while the heads of hesder yeshivot and the like receive cuts of 70% of their budgets.  This is how they treat the leadership of this patriotic camp... And what about the teenaged girls of this week who were imprisoned for three full weeks just because they didn't identify themselves!  Where are all the knights of civil rights? Where's the normalcy, the sanity?  Are these girls murderers?!  ... 

"In the army, I can tell you that my son is the operations officer of Battalion 51, which is now in Gaza, fighting day and night. In this battalion, the commander, the deputy commander, its three company commanders, and the operations officers are all graduates of the Eli pre-military yeshiva academy and the like.  This is the chain of command in Battalion 51; yet 20 years ago, I was the only religious Lt.-Col. in the whole army!  And I haven't even mentioned the reserves - look and see all the religious commanders in the different levels!  Yet the left-wing elites, who received relatively low scores on the scale of patriotism, have banded together with the media and other bodies to dwarf, bring to despair and to frustrate the arrowhead of Israeli patriotism!  This is self-destructive behavior on the part of a country!" 

Eitam Explains How to Achieve Patriotism
"We can't just talk generally about 'love of homeland' and bandy these words about," MK told the largely secular audience. "Where does this love of homeland come from? I'll tell you: Every family knows where its house begins and ends, but our country doesn't!  It doesn't know its own homeland, and the most important locations from where our national existence sprouted are considered disgusting and out of the consensus!  Shechem and Joseph's Tomb are considered like the tomb of Rahab the Harlot, while Hevron, the City of Patriarchs, is looked upon as an Arab city where some crazy nuts decided to settle. The most important parts of our homeland are hated.  If Tel Aviv is ours, then all the more so are Hevron and Shechem and all of Jerusalem!  But when we don't have this concept straight, then the message given over is to say the words 'love of homeland' - but with a wink."

Family First - and Know the House Rules
"In addition, every family knows that its own members are the most beloved in the world.  You can love other people and respect them, but family comes first.  We are all brothers, and we must love and support each other more than others.  But instead of giving this message, we try, for instance, to find all sorts of ways and tricks to release Barghouti from serving his five life sentences for murder in order that he be our negotiating partner so that we can throw at him the most authentic pieces of our homeland.  So what type of patriotism and loyalty to our heritage and homeland and family are we teaching?"

"And finally - in a house, there are also rules of behavior. Yes there are. We learned them from our father and his father and his grandfather, and they govern how we must act.  We have rules as to how to give birth, and how to leave this world, and we have holidays, and we have a tradition - you cannot have a house that is full of holes, nor a set of rules for living there that is just a random collection of passing fads... I don't say that everyone has to be the same thing - but we must all mine our resources from our own authentic national mine.  And if not, then let us not be surprised that our ties to country and homeland get weaker."

"I am not calling for war against the left-wing; I am calling for an apology and for a re-evaluation and for self-reckoning. I call upon the elites of the extreme left, and also the media, and also a large part of the intellectuals in Israel, to take stock anew of the situation, and to view this [religious-Zionist] public - which passed probably the supreme test of all regarding loyalty to the State and army service, i.e., the test of the Disengagement - and to say that perhaps 'we made a mistake, perhaps we went too far.'  We are very open to dialogue of this nature.  And despite all, we will continue to lead in the patriotism index, which is a basic part of us - our love for this State is absolute, permanent, total, existential." 

Other Findings
Other findings of the patriotism poll: The geographical area with the most patriotism is actually the Kassam-battered western Negev, where 47% of the residents say they are "greatly patriotic."  The north, which came under Katyusha bombardment a year and a half ago, came in second, with 45%.  This, as compared with 36% of the general public around the country.

In total, 60% of the public defines themselves as greatly or very patriotic.  Among the Jewish public alone, this number is 67%.

Israel will introduce electric cars and the infrastructure necessary to make them a viable alternative to oil-consuming vehicles within the next three years.

The first cars, to be produced by Nissan and Renault, are projected to be on Israel’s streets by 2009, with 100,000 by the next year and a complete switchover from oil within the decade.

The initiative is aimed both at environmental friendliness and reducing the reliance on Arab oil.

Shai Agassi, who heads the initiative and founded Project Better Place, says the goal is to show the world that it is possible to stop using oil in a manner that can be replicated. He says Israel is a good place for the initial pilot program since the distance a charged electric car can travel of 200 km (124 miles) is more than enough to travel anywhere in the Jewish state. Ninety percent of car owners drive less than 72 km a day and Israel’s urban centers are all less than 160 km apart.

Battery exchange stations will be deployed around the country, as well as charging stations at parking lots. Agassi says the plan will initially need 150,000 charging points, but estimates there will be about 500,000 such points around Israel eventually. He compares the deployment of the charging points to the cellular companies’ erection of cell-phone towers to provide seamless coverage throughout the country.

The program also calls for fueling plans to be purchased in a manner similar to cell-phone calling plans, with a certain price for unlimited charging and other plans for pre-paid battery-switches and the like.

Through the battery-exchange program, Agassi hopes to keep the price of the cars down. The cost of replacing the expensive batteries has in the past been a deterrent factor to the adoption of electric cars.

The Israeli government has agreed to pitch in, slashing taxes on electric vehicles drastically compared with standard ones.

Agassi says officials in 15 other countries, including the UK, Denmark, and China, are interested in the project, eyeing the Israeli pilot program to gauge its success.

Asked by Globes for his response to detractors who doubt the viability of the project, Agassi responded that he had already raised $200 million in capital for the project – making him quite the “magician” if the plan indeed lacks viability. “Enterprises like Israel Corp. and Morgan Stanley don’t put in money without seeing a business plan, and this was one of the strongest business plans I've ever seen,” he said.

Commenting on the cars themselves: “There's already an operational prototype. I've driven it, and it goes from 0 to 100 km per hour in 7.5 seconds. In other words, there's a product and it's one of the fastest cars on the road.”

The United National Security Council convened to discuss the events in Gaza, but failed to reach an agreement on a statement or action.

Libya, the current council chair, drafted a statement that would call on Israel to open its borders with Gaza and ensure "unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people," according to the AFP.

Israeli Chargé d’Affaires Gilad Cohen delivered a statement responding to the failure to mention the shelling of Sderot on behalf of Israel. The following are excerpts:

“The situation in the region today did not develop overnight. It is the consequence of many choices - repeatedly wrong choices - made by the Palestinians, to adopt terrorism and violence over peace and negotiations with Israel…

“[T]hey chose Hamas, who uses terrorism and violence to advance its vision to destroy Israel. Since the year 2000, more than 7,000 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Last year alone, that number was over 2,000. And since Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in June 2007, the frequency of rocket attacks rose 150 percent, to more than 250 rockets and mortars a month. This means, on average, one rocket is fired at Israel every three hours.

“Most of these rockets fall on the southern city of Sderot. Normal life in Sderot is a thing of the past. Not a day goes by when the Red Alert warning system does not sound, which gives children on playgrounds and in schools, and parents at home and at work, less than 15 seconds to find the nearest shelter before the next rocket comes slamming into their lives.

“Liora Fima, a Sderot mother and head of a local elementary school, knows firsthand the traumatic impact of these rockets on the youth of Sderot - where up to 94 percent of children suffer from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, including sleep and concentration problems, and even bed wetting. Listen to her words: ‘For the children in Sderot, red is not the color of roses, but of blood and flames.’

“Why is the Council not concerned with the safety and security of Israel's children, women, and elderly who live in the southern city of Sderot? Why is the Council silent as they live in fear and panic each and every day?...

“I ask each Member of the Council: what would you do if London, Moscow, Paris, or Tripoli was attacked and fired on? Would you sit back and do nothing? I am certain that no member state on this Council - and certainly no country in the world - would be silent. And Israel is no different. It will act in accordance with its inherent right under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter to protect and defend its people. This is the very obligation and right of all States…

“The international community must make it clear that Hamas' actions are unacceptable, and that continuing to choose Hamas will only lead to continued suffering - for both Israelis and Palestinians. It is up to the international community to tell those states that initiated this debate, and those states that think singling out Israel and condemning it will bring about change, that Israeli security cannot be sacrificed.”

Later, in response to a speech by the Syrian delegate:

“It is the height of hypocrisy, cynicism, and indecency for the distinguished representative of Syria to address the Council and condemn Israel for merely defending itself against the very Hamas terrorists that it supports.”

Israel and US to Boycott Human Rights Council Meeting
Israel and the US plan to boycott a special United Nations Human Rights Council meeting to take place in Geneva Wednesday called to condemn Israel's blockade on Gaza.

This is the first time that Israel will have boycotted such a session.