Despite vows last week to continue military operations until there is an end to all rocket fire on southern Israel, the Israeli government has pulled troops out of Gaza.

The move came after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressured Israeli leaders last week to end the counterterrorism operations against rocket-firing terrorists. More than 7,600 rockets have battered communities in the western Negev since the outbreak of the Oslo War in 2000, most recently striking the coastal city of Ashkelon.

Egyptian officials have been serving as mediators between Israel and Hamas to arrange an unofficial ceasefire, said Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah, who were quoted by the Jerusalem Port as saying "secret understandings" had been reached.

Both Israel and Hamas have publicly denied any such secret arrangement.

Defense Ministry officials also said they had not been informed of any ceasefire deal with Hamas.

But a military source said "There is restraint, even if undeclared." A senior government official expressed frustration with the quiet deal, saying "the new tacit arrangement… completely contradicts the cabinet's decision (to maintain pressure on Hamas –ed.) without proper procedure or cabinet approval."

Hamas spokesman Muhammed Nasr acknowledged that Egypt has been working on the issue, but noted that "Egypt has been working to achieve calm (tahadiye in Arabic –ed.) for several years." The terrorist organization has been insisting on a full IDF pullout from Gaza, the reopening of all the border crossings and an end to Israel's counterterrorism operations in Judea and Samaria as well.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused the PA, after a massacre at a Jerusalem yeshiva that left eight young students dead and 11 others injured last week, of not doing enough to fight terrorism.

A senior aide to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas responded by accusing Israel of deliberately sabotaging peace efforts by carrying out counterterrorism operations in PA-controlled cities in Judea and Samaria.  Yasser Abed Rabbo threatened that the PA would not return to negotiations until an Israeli ceasefire with Hamas was reached.

Hundreds of trucks loaded with foodstuffs, medical supplies and equipment have been sent by Israel to Gaza throughout the IDF counterterrorism operations. On Monday alone, 145 trucks of humanitarian aid (meat, dairy products, oil, sugar, etc) are being delivered via the various crossings into Gaza. In addition, a number of Gaza residents wounded in the shootouts have been brought to Israeli hospitals for treatment. 

Talks to Resume Between Hamas and Fatah

Hamas and Fatah officials did confirm that an agreement to resume talks between the rival factions had been reached. Officials from the two factions are set to meet in Yemen in the near future to discuss ways to end the friction and hold early elections to form a new government.

The deal violates a promise by Abbas to eschew further contact with Hamas.

PA security forces received millions of dollars in foreign aid, thousands of new weapons, millions of rounds of ammunition and advanced military training by the US on the strength of that promise.

The closure imposed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak early Friday on Judea and Samaria was lifted Monday morning despite reports on Sunday that it was to remain through the holiday of Purim, which begins March 20.

Security officials sealed off crossings in and out of PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria hours after Thursday's attack on the yeshiva.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's official daily newspaper has honored the terrorist who gunned down eight high school students at point blank range with the status of shahid, or holy Islamic martyr.

The March 8th edition of the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida prominently placed a picture of the terrorist on the front page, with the caption, "The Shahid Alaa Abu Dheim." In a page one article on the massacre at the Mercaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva, his crime was again defined as an act of martyrdom (shahada).

Photo of terrorist who murdered 8 Jewish students, as appeared on front page of PA Daily with caption: "The Shahid...(Martyr)." March 8, 2008 edition of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida
Photo: pmw.org.il

Watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) said that in publishing the article, "the PA is sending its people a straightforward message of support for the terror murders and the murderer." According to the PA's interpretation of Islam, PMW explained, a human being can achieve no higher status than that of shahid.

Will it cost them?
Besides its effect in inciting and encouraging terror, the honoring of terrorists by the PA has significant financial ramifications, PMW explained. Last week the US Administration sent a request to Congress to allocate $150 million to the Palestinian Authority. However, in response to earlier PMW reports on the widespread PA practice of honoring terror, Congress made it illegal for the US to give money to entities that "advocate" terror, as follows:

"[The Secretary of State] shall terminate assistance to any individual, entity... which she has determined to be involved in or advocating terrorist activity." Congress further legislated that "none of the [U.S.] ... assistance under the West Bank and Gaza Program may be made available for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals who commit, or have committed acts of terrorism" (2008 Foreign Operations Bill).

PMW stated Sunday: "Since a society's honoring of terrorists is one of the greatest terror prom
"[The Secretary of State] shall terminate assistance to any individual, entity... which she has determined to be involved in or advocating terrorist activity."
otions, and as the budget for the PA newspaper comes from the PA's general budget, the incessant honoring of this and all recent terrorists by Abbas's PA as Holy Islamic Shahids should render the Palestinian Authority ineligible to receive any American money under the terms of US law.

Shahid status
To strengthen its case, PMW gave examples of statements made by five Palestinian religious leaders in the past few years, all teaching of the supreme status of the shahids:

"Shahada [Islamic Martyrdom] is an honor, only those who Allah desires, attain the privilege" (Sheikh Yusuf Abu Sneina, Al Aqsa Mosque, Friday Sermon, PA Radio, Dec. 28, 2001).

"When the Shahid meets his Maker, all his sins are forgiven from the first gush of blood, and he is exempted from the torments of the grave. He sees his place in Paradise. He is shielded from the Great Shock and marries 72 dark eyed [maidens]. He is a heavenly advocate for 70 members of his family. On his head is placed a crown of honor, one stone of which is worth more than all there is in this world" (Dr. Isma'il al-Raduan, Friday Sermon, PA TV, Aug 17, 2001).

"The believer was created to know his Lord to fulfill Islam... to be a Shahid or intend to be a Shahid. If the believer does not hope for Shahada he will die as in the Jahiliya [pre-Islam]... We must yearn for Shahada and request it from Allah. If we truthfully request it from Allah, he will grant us its rewards even if we die in bed" (Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Razak, PA TV Friday Sermon, March 22, 2002).

"We are not like you, because we do not desire life. If you threaten to kill President Arafat, we will pray to Allah: 'Grant the President Shahada for you.' Yes, we do not pray - like other preachers pray - for longevity for the rulers; here in Palestine we pray: 'Lord, grant the President Shahada for you'" (Sheikh Ibrahim Mudyris, PA TV Friday Sermon, April 30, 2004

"When a man sees one of his brothers being killed for Allah, a person with no head, no legs, his body completely burned. Intestines outside, fingers are gone... The most difficult thing which we fear is what the Shahids wish for most of all. They ask Allah: 'Oh God, bring us back [to earth] to be killed by the Apache, so the planes will blow us up, that our heads will be cut off...'

We shouldn't forget that Allah, praise him, in blessing the blood of the Shahid, He forgives him from the first gush of blood. And he sees his place in Paradise. He is shielded from the Great Shock and marries 72 Dark-Eyed Maidens (virgins)" (Sheikh Imad Hamato, PA TV religious program, Nov. 3, 2006).

Police have refused to hand over the body of mass murderer Ala Abu Dheim for burial. Dheim, an Arab Israeli citizen who slaughtered eight yeshiva students last week, was shot and killed during the attack by an armed student and an off-duty IDF officer who was nearby.

His funeral was scheduled for Monday, but authorities will not return his body until the family commits to holding a small funeral, thereby preventing a pro-Jihad procession which could turn violent.

Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian Authority Arabs are expected to participate in the funeral, which was to end with the terrorist's burial in his eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukabar.

The Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, under control of Mahmoud Abbas, ran a front page picture of Abu Dheim calling him a shahid (Holy martyr).

Jerusalem District Police have been preparing for the possibility that the funeral procession will become a march to demonstrate support for Hamas and Hizbullah, as well as other terrorist organizations.

Police released Abu Dheim's father from custody earlier in the day. Hisham Abu Dheim was questioned repeatedly to determine whether he and his family were involved in his son's terrorist activities. Police said they will continue the investigation.

The Abu Dheim family is known to have ties with Hamas, according to Arab neighbors. The terrorist's father removed Hamas and Hizbullah terror organization flags adorning the family's mourning tent only after he was ordered by the Jerusalem municipality to do so.

Police have established a presence near the family home in order to guard it from Jewish activists who tried Sunday to reach and destroy the public mourning tent in which relatives welcomed guests who came to honor the murderer.

The police refused a request to allow Jews to set up a protest tent near the Abu Dheim mourning tent, located in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukabar, but said they would allow activists to erect a protest tent elsewhere in the city.

However, a Jerusalem court has extended the arrests of activists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel, who were arrested along with four others in the attempt to reach the Abu Dheim family mourning tent. "The arrest is in vain and violates freedom of expression," Marzel said before entering the courtroom.

In eastern Jerusalem, Islamic Movement leader Ra'ad Salah said he is planning to hold a news conference later in the day. Salah himself was indicted earlier this year for incitement to violence and racism during a fiery speech he gave that was followed by rioting last year.

Students at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva (Seminary) booed Education Minister Yuli Tamir after she came to pay a condolence call Sunday night following last week's massacre of eight young students by an Arab terrorist who was a resident of Jerusalem.

Tamir said she was kicked, spat on and shouted at by a group of students who called her a "murderer" and ordered her to "get out of here" as she left the building after addressing the students. Students charged that the transfer of guns to terrorist groups in the Palestinian Authority forces authorized by her government had led to terror attacks like the one at Merkaz HaRav.

Education Minister Yuli Tamir (in green) with Rabbis at Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva
Flash 90

The Education Minister is a known supporter of the radical-left Peace Now organization which is committed to wiping out the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.  She also recently slashed the budgets of national religious high schools.

The yeshiva is the flagship of the religious-Zionist movement; Mercaz HaRav has produced every major rabbinical leader and dean of a hesder yeshiva (which combines IDF service with Torah studies).

Tamir expressed "mental anguish" following the incident, saying the students who were slaughtered "were my students" and that she felt it was her obligation to see the site of the murder.

"I came to console the students and see the scene of the attack for myself… In a matter of seconds we found ourselves surrounded by dozens of rioters… I am deeply saddened that people cannot differentiate between a condolence visit and a political one… I only came to pay my respects to the murdered, not to engage in politics."

Monday morning, National Union Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev countered Voice of Israel government radio interviews aimed at condemning the students' actions. "Either her visit was a provocation or simply showed insensitivity," MK Orlev told the radio network. "She is politicking on the blood of the slain students."

Orlev pointed out that both Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi visited the yeshiva after coordinating with rabbis, but that Tamir came unannounced.

Prime Minister Also Persona Non Grata at the Yeshiva
Yeshiva officials have reportedly also warned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office that he will not be welcome.

The yeshiva's rabbinic leaders also explained that the government's intention to give away parts of Israel, to divide Jerusalem and hand over large parts of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority, is against Torah law. 

"It is no secret that there is an ideological rift between Olmert and the yeshiva," acknowledged a source at the Prime Minister's Office. "Despite everything, we will further examine the possibility of visiting the yeshiva and decide."

The yeshiva's administration was reportedly "not enthused" over the idea of hosting the Prime Minister, but a source said no official decision had yet been reached.

"Instead of the thorn bush, the cypress will come up, and instead of a hollow government, a strong one shall grow," said Rabbi Yaakov Shapira Sunday, in a paraphrase on a verse from Isaiah 55. Rabbi Shapira, the head of Mercaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva, spoke to journalists following the Thursday-night massacre at its campus.

"At this time, we need to realize the potential power that is hidden in this entire nation, enlarge the Torah and make it great, [and] maintain proper and true educational systems for the general public, until the ministry which is in charge of education touches the deep roots of these powers," the rabbi said.
 
No Torah - no moral fiber
The rabbi went on to quote from Judges 21: "And in those days there was no king in Israel, and each person did what he thought right." He explained that the meaning of the word "king" is Torah.

"If there is no Torah, there is no moral fiber and the physical strength is also lacking," the yeshiva head added. "All day long, we are on the defensive vis-à-vis our neighbors. The nation expects and yearns for a systemic change in thinking, and this is the time."

Rabbi Shapira called for a continuation of the struggle for the Land of Israel. "The voice of the blood of our brothers is calling out to us from the earth," he said. "Here, in this sacred spot, the students' blood – may the Lord avenge their blood – was spilled, on the soil of the Land of Israel."

Where is our Hevron?
He also related to the journalists the story of the Independence Day celebration in the yeshiva in 1967, during which former dean Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook cried out, prophetically: "Where is our Hevron? Where is our Shechem? Where is every single clod of earth from the sacred Land of Israel?" Three weeks later, the IDF conquered Shechem and Hevron.

Rabbi's Tzvi Yehuda's cry, he said, "strengthens, to this day, the faith and dedication to the indivisibility of the Land of Israel and the prohibition on giving up any part of its territory."

Not ashamed to cry
"The nation expects and yearns for a systemic change in thinking and this is the time."

Earlier Sunday, Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, who heads the High School Yeshiva in Mercaz HaRav, spoke to his students. "Matters of life and death are beyond our comprehension, and we all need help: you, I, the teachers and the educators," he said. "Do not be too shy to ask for help and to cry. I am also not ashamed to cry," said the rabbi, who wept Friday during eulogies for the Youth Yeshiva's fallen students.

Before the conversation with the rabbi, the students made arrangements to study Gemara portions, for the raising of the souls of their slain friends. Rabbi Weiss updated them on the condition of their wounded classmates and asked them to organize the visits to the hospital in an orderly fashion. He also stressed the importance of continuing to study Torah.

"Loss of life is a terrible thing, and now we have to complete what we are missing in the study house," he told his students, his voice occasionally breaking. "We cannot make up for missing people, and if we are not organized we will all fall apart. It is important that within all this chaos, we are able to move forward."

Likud Knesset Member Gilad Erdan announced Sunday he will propose a ban on any form of public mourning for a terrorist, saying that the State of Israel is "more like a suicidal democracy than a democracy that is defending itself."

Although Ala Abu Dheim's family in Jordan was forbidden by Jordan's government to erect a mourning tent or publicly mourn him with an open house, the Israeli government did not stop his immediate family from doing so in Jerusalem, saying there was no law against it.

Abu Dheim massacred eight young yeshiva students and wounded 11 others in a massive shooting in the library of the Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva last Thursday night. His family has been welcoming visitors paying their respects to honor the terrorist's memory.

Olmert: we won't pay for funeral
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the National Insurance Institute not to hand over a payment for burial fees to the family of the terrorist who massacred eight yeshiva students Thursday. However, the decision will undergo review by legal experts "to see if it can be justified legally."

Speaking at Sunday's cabinet meeting, Olmert instructed the security forces "to act according to the law" in the matter of the mourners' tent put up by the killer's family in eastern Jerusalem. He asked that Hamas flags and other "nationalist symbols" be removed from the tent and its vicinity.

Family concerned about its business
Meanwhile, the family members of mass child-murderer Abu-Dheim removed the Hamas and Hizbullah flags that were hung around their house after the Jerusalem massacre and claimed Sunday that they did not know who put the flags up. The flags were only removed Sunday after the municipality ordered the family to take them down.

The family published a press statement in which they said that their son did nothing to indicate that he was about to carry out a murderous attack in Israel. The terrorist's father claimed to be "in a state of shock." Three of the family members were arrested Sunday.

Channel 10 reported that the family business depends on working relations with Israelis and that the family is afraid these relations will now be severed.

One family member said that had he known of his relative's intent to carry out the terror attack he would have "put a bullet in his head" himself. However, the man covered his face as he spoke so that he could not be recognized.

Rabbi Zev Segal, who for more than half a century represented Judaism at its warmest and best in Newark, New Jersey, passed away last week after an early morning stint helping his son keep Jewish radio alive in the United States.

Rabbi Segal's body was flown to Israel late Saturday night after he spent decades travelling back and forth between the rest of the world and the Jewish State.

He left his birthplace of Saratov, Russia for the Holy Land with his family in 1919, at the age of two. By a miracle, he was "out of town" during the massacre of Jews by axe-wielding Arabs that rocked his community in Hevron in 1929. By 1939, he had arrived on the shores of the United States, soon to be ordained at the Skokie Yeshiva in Illinois, followed by a stint as a spiritual leader in Los Angeles.

The long-time Rabbi of the Young Israel of Newark arrived in New Jersey in 1945, and led his congregation till his retirement in 1978. It was a time in which American Jewish youth transformed from "greenhorn immigrants" who wanted nothing more than to assimilate, into proud Jews with strong attachments to the State of Israel.
The moment of Nachum's father entering the studio was filled with emotion. A father coming to honor his son.

From 1968 to 1971, Rabbi Segal also served as president of the Rabbinical Council of America, which represents about 1,000 Orthodox rabbis in 14 countries. He had served as a vice president for the RCA for a decade.

A proponent of interfaith dialogue on issues such as race relations, poverty, peace and substance abuse, Rabbi Segal had no qualms about taking an equally strong stance against what he referred to as 'homogenized religion.'

In 1967 he firmly told reporters, "Discussion of the deep religious commitments which a faith community holds can only serve to confuse."  Three years later, as RCA president, he combined efforts with Protestant and Catholic leaders to combat drug abuse, drawing African-American and Puerto Rican organizational leadership into the dialogue in an effort to prevent Jewish "white flight" from racially mixed neighborhoods.

Since his retirement Rabbi Segal spent much of his time working for the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.

He was a man that all his children looked up to, 6'2" -- including his 6'7" son, radio personality Nachum Segal, host of the most popular Jewish music and news radio program in the US, JM in the AM on WFMU in Jersey City.

Rabbi Segal's last morning was spent helping his famous son on the air in his annual fundraising marathon. Last Wednesday, as he offered his congratulations to Nachum on the program's 25th anniversary, little did father and son realize it would be their last conversation.

"The moment of Nachum's father entering the studio was filled with emotion," recounted one of the show's producers and fill-in hosts, Mattes Weingast. "A father coming to honor his son."

Rabbi Segal told the listeners that he and his wife were very proud of their son's accomplishments in the Jewish world, that they knew from early on that he would make a difference in the world, and wished continued success for his son in continuing to support the nation of Israel and the Land of Israel.

"Out of respect, Nachum stood for the entire interview," Weingast told Arutz-7's IsraelNationalNews.com. "He did not even mention his father by name when introducing him, but rather had an associate mention the name."

Upon leaving the radio station, the 91-year-old rabbi drove his car down the road, but in the wrong direction, plunging directly into the Hackensack River at the end of a nearby dead-end street. Foul play was ruled out by Hudson County prosecutor Edward J. DeFazio, who noted that Rabbi Segal's car was not the first to drive into the river at that location.

A spiritual leader at a time in which the challenge of keeping the Sabbath collided with the challenge of staying fed, Rabbi Segal gracefully bridged the gap between observant and secular Jews, "a brilliant scholar" who had one foot in both parts of the world.

"It was in a time when many 'traditional' people were not able to keep the mitzvos or didn't care to anymore, but not that they were the Conservatives or Reform Jews necessarily. It was more the non-observant Orthodox people, or those who had little knowledge," Weingast explained.

"See, unlike now, back then you had a lot of people who were Orthodox but didn't follow everything. They had to work on Shabbos. Nowadays many of the so-called 'gedolim' or their people wouldn't give them the time of day," said Weingast, who added that Rabbi Segal enjoyed a very close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as with "all of the true gedolim of the previous generation."  

It was his warmth that Weingast remembers most, however. "He was a quiet and unassuming man, but yet very powerful. He was always very welcoming. He could draw people in with his words and actions, never berating. He welcomed all."

In addition to Esther, his wife of 60 years, Rabbi Segal leaves behind two daughters, Leah Aharonov and Penina Rabin, both of whom live in Israel, as well as four sons, including Nachum, Rabbi Nate Segal of Staten Island, NY, Rabbi Moshe Segal, NY and Rabbi Yigal Segal, a resident of Jerusalem.

The shiva (seven-day mourning period) will be observed in Tel Aviv at the home of Peninah Rabin, Rehov Ha'Atzma'ut 13, Petach Tikvah (03 909-5767) and in the capital at the home of Rabbi Yigal Segal, 6/8 Agasi, Har Nof (02 652-3103) until Sunday morning, March 16, 9 Adar II.

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