Israel and Syria issued similar announcements almost simultaneously around noon today (Wednesday), declaring the opening of unofficial talks between them. 

Israel and Syria have never had diplomatic relations, and have been in a state of war ever since 1948.  In 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria, which had used the area for years to pound Israeli towns below with deadly rockets.  These attacks killed 140 Israelis, wounded many more, and inflicted heavy property damage.

Since 1967, Syria has always demanded the full return of the Golan as a precondition for peace.

The Syrian declaration today that it has begun unofficial talks with Israel under Turkish auspices, with "the goal of reaching full peace in accordance with the principles reached at the Madrid Conference [in the mid-1980's]," is seen as an indication that Israel has, in fact, agreed to withdraw to the pre-1967 border. 

This jibes with Olmert's lack of denial, last month, of Turkish reports that he had agreed to give over the entire Golan to Syria.

Such a withdrawal would mean that Israel would lose not only the strategic depth and water sources of the Golan, but would not even control the northeast perimeter of the Kinneret Sea (Sea of Galilee).

"The Nation is With the Golan" - by 4-1
The War and Peace Index of last month - a survey of 600 Israeli adults conducted by the B. I. Cohen Institute of Tel Aviv University - found that a whopping 75% of Israelis oppose an Israeli withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights for a full peace treaty with Syria, whereas only 19% favor this.

Governmental talk of giving away the Golan in 1996 and 1999-2000 was repressed by widespread popular national campaigns against it.  In the mid-90's, thousands of banners and a million stickers reading "HaAm Im HaGolan" (The Nation is With the Golan) graced porches, billboards and cars throughout the country. In January 2000, some 300,000 people took part in one of the largest demonstrations in Israeli history, calling on then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak not to withdraw the IDF from the Golan Heights.

It is known that United States is not enthusiastic about bringing terrorism-backing Syria into the circle of accepted nations.  U.S. President George Bush visited Israel last week, and Prime Minister Olmert is set to pay a return visit two weeks from now.  it is assumed that the topic of Syria is a signficant issue on their joint agenda. 

Israeli negotiators Yoram Turbovitz and Shalom Turjeman have been meeting in Turkey with senior Syrian officials for the past three days. 

Olmert Under Political Attack
The political establishment attacked Olmert for the timing of the announcement, as he is currently under intense political investigation for possible major financial crimes. Even Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said, "Syria is still the seat of the axis of evil, and I'm not certain that it's a good idea to give Israel's northern front over to the axis of evil... Olmert himself said in the past that as long as Syria continues to hold its same positions, we shouldn't talk with them - so what has changed now?"

Likud MKs, predictably, were much harsher. Together with the National Union and Israel Our Home, they demanded an immediate Knesset session on the matter, even as early as today. 

Likud MK Gilad Erdan said the Prime Minister "is prepared to sell everything" in order to protect himself from police investigation.  MK Yisrael Katz stated there is a clear majority in the Knesset against surrendering the Golan Heights, and MK Limor Livnat said Olmert has no "moral mandate" to conduct such talks with Syria. 

"There are no limits to [Olmert's] cynicism," charged Likud faction chairman MK Gideon Saar.  "He is playing around with the security of the country by agreeing to indirect talks with Syria."

On the political left, Meretz MK Zahava Gal'on said she supports talks with Syria, but agrees that Olmert does not have the mandate to do it.  Labor MK Shelly Yechimovitch expressed similar sentiments.  Labor's Eitan Cabel said talks with Syria must be held no matter who the Prime Minister is.

MK Nissan Slomiansky (National Religious Party ) asserted that the Prime Minister's statement proves that the criminal probe is reaching a critical stage.
 

PA prime minister Salam Fayyad has confirmed that 50,000 Arabs have left Gaza since Hamas took over.  He said many times that amount would like to go if they could.

Speaking on Tuesday at a conference in Bethlehem designed to attract investors to the PA-controlled areas, Fayyad said that "hundreds of thousands" of Arabs are seeking ways to follow the 50,000 who have already left. 

Fayyad linked the exodus to the fighting between Hamas and Fatah, which resulted in the Hamas take-over of Gaza and a sharp decline in international aid to Gaza.  PA sources admit that the clash has caused a great rift among the Arabs of the PA-controlled areas (Gaza, Judea, and Samaria), weakened the PA's international status, shaken internal security - and brought about increased emigration.

Conference organizer Hassan Abu Libdeh agreed: "There is a Palestinian brain drain caused by the difficulties of living here," he said.

A year ago, in May 2007, the Mufti of Jerusalem for the PA, Sheikh Muhammed Amin Hussein, issued a religious ruling banning emigration from "the land of Palestine."  Hussein acknowledged in his ruling at the time that many young Arabs are flooding foreign embassies in an effort to receive residency permits.

They suffered in silence for decades. Deprived of the right to work, to gather, to pray and to speak, they tiptoed their way through life like soldiers in a minefield. 

Their government demonized them as “enemies of the people” in the press and in schoolrooms. Always conscious of the fact that at any moment they could lose their jobs, their families, their freedom, and their lives, they burrowed those lives behind thick walls of secrecy. 

These are not the victims of the Nazi Holocaust. These are victims of the Soviet Union, and the walls behind which they hid formed the Iron Curtain , the 20th Century’s longest humanitarian crisis. To the world they became known as the Prisoners of Zion.

Tuesday night in Jerusalem several former Prisoners of Zion declared at a conference: “We demand compensation for our suffering.”

(Left to right) Alexander Razgon, Rabbi Yosef Mendelevitch, and David Maayan
(Photo: Alexandr Barshay)

Just as the Jews of Europe have received reparations for the horrors they endured in the Holocaust, so should the tens of thousands of Jews whose lives were destroyed by the Soviet government—so claims Yosef Mendelevitch, a speaker at the conference and a dissident well-known throughout the Russian community. Now a respected Rabbi at Jerusalem's Machon Meir yeshiva, Mendelevitch was part of a group of fifteen Soviet Jews who captured global headlines in 1970 by attempting to steal a small Soviet airplane in a desperate act to leave for Israel.  The plane never left the ground, but the group succeeded in drawing attention to the plight of Soviet Jews, and for the next twenty years Jewish leaders in the West, including the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, battled for a tragically basic right: the right of Jews to leave the Soviet Union.

For westerners, it is hard to imagine wanting—much less needing—to take such great risks to leave one's country. However, for all but a lucky few in the Soviet Union, leaving was not an option no matter how unbearable life became.  The Soviet government required official permission in order to emigrate, and then almost invariably denied the request on the following grounds: If a person likes his life in the Soviet Union, he should not want to leave. If he wants to leave, it means he is a “dissident”, a critic of the Soviet regime who could endanger the reputation of the government if allowed to go abroad.  Such an Orwellian feat of logic became only part of an absurd institution, a country-turned-prison of 200 million inmates.

As Mendelevitch's group of would-be hijackers languished in Siberian prisons, other protesters, including Natan Sharansky, later to become a minister in the Israeli government, joined them in jail. Meanwhile, throughout the 1970’s thousands of Jewish families began to suffer once again as the USSR reverted to Stalin-era tactics of intimidation and oppression. The Jewish community began to cope again with that most familiar companion of Jews living in foreign lands—fear.

Click here to read the full story on IsraelNN.com

Ida Nudel, an ex-Prisoner of Zion in the former Soviet Union, demands that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intervene to save the life of an Arab who collaborated with Israel.

Nudel, represented by Nitzana Darshan-Leitner of the Israel Law Center, submitted a petition Tuesday morning to the Supreme Court.  She demands that Olmert take immediate action to prevent the Palestinian Authority from carrying out the execution of Imad Sa'ad.  Sa'ad, 25, was sentenced to death last month by a PA military court for having collaborated with Israeli security forces when they killed four Palestinian terrorists.

The Israel Law Center states that the plea is urgent, in that "past experience has shown that the PA is liable to carry out this sentence at any time, with no advance notice."

The petition asks that Olmert apply immediate pressure on Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas, either by calling off talks with the PA or by threatening not to release any further PA prisoners or make good-will gestures.  Nudel also demands that Olmert raise the issue with third parties, such as the United States, the European Union, the Vatican and/or the United Nations.

If Nothing Else Works, then Military Force
As a last resort, Israel must use military force to rescue Imad Sa'ad from PA prison, Nudel insists.

Nudel and the Israel Law Center have worked together in the past on saving Arab collaborators from death at the hands of the PA.  They succeeding in having Israel's General Security Service effectively intervene in one case, and three ears ago, they successfully filed suit to have then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pressure the PA not to carry out the death sentence on 15 Arabs sentenced to death for helping Israel.

Exiled to Siberia
Nudel who grew up in Moscow, was harassed by the Soviet authorities for seven years because of her request to move to Israel.  Finally, in 1978, she was convicted of "malicious hooliganism" and sentenced to four years in Siberian exile.  The specific acts for which she was charged began with her hanging of a placard on her balcony stating, "KGB: Give me my Visa!"  When plainclothesmen tried to take down the poster, she drove them away by dousing them with water. When they finally succeeded, on the third try, in removing the placard, Ida quickly placed another one in its place.

In 1987, Ida Nudel finally arrived in Israel, and now lives near Rehovot. She has been active in civil-rights causes, and runs "Mother to Mother," which organizes after-school activities for children of Russian immigrants. The organization is estimated to have helped close to 5,000 children.

The Ministry of Tourism reports that 290,000 tourists visited Israel in April 2008, an amount similar to that recorded in Israel's record-breaking tourism year, 2000. 

The totals for this past April were 26% over April 2006, as well as 41% more than April 2007, when tourism was still negatively affected by the Second Lebanon War eight months earlier. 

Annual Rate Up 43%
During the first four months of 2008, 936,000 tourists arrived in Israel - an increase of 43% from the same period in 2007, and 34% more than the same period in 2006. 

The current pace of growth is consistent with Tourism Ministry goals to attract 2.8 million tourists to Israel this year.  However, Tourism Ministry Director General Sha'ul Tzemach says that this blessing places in bold relief the increasing shortage of available guest rooms in Israel.
The current number of guest rooms does not match future demands.

"The current number of guest rooms does not match future demands," Tzemach said. The Ministry hopes to attract 5 million tourists in 2012.  "We hope to build another 2,500 rooms within three years, and to increase the budget for building hotels and assisting local and foreign entrepreneurs who have recently shown great interest in investing in the Israeli hotel industry."

The second stage of a 90-million shekel initiative to encourage tourism investment is beginning today (Wednesday). The Ministry's Investments Committee and representatives from the Ministries of Finance and Industry/Trade are meeting to examine 12 new proposals for the construction or expansion of hotels and guest rooms in Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee area, Akko (Acre), Ashdod, Kiryat Shmona and the Upper Galilee.

The combined scope of these investments is 1,660 new guest rooms for a total of 1 billion shekels. Plans that meet the ministries' preconditions will be eligible for financial assistance from the government of up to 20%.  Several similar proposals raised last year are already being seriously considered by the Tourism Ministry, for the construction or renovation of 700 guest rooms.

If tourism continues to climb in accordance with Tourism Ministry goals, this will result in a shortage of thousands of hotel rooms, at a tremendous financial cost to the tourism industry in particular and the economy in general.

Violent attacks against Jews in recent weeks have taken place in Los Angeles, England and New York City. In Ireland, a Jewish man had graffiti daubed on his home reading: "Go Home, Jew."

A visibly Jewish man was attacked April 12 in Los Angeles by two men with shaved heads “who spoke a language not English or Spanish,” according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is publicizing a $30,000 reward offered by the L.A. City Council for information leading to the apprehension of the attackers.

The victim, a 58-year-old, was wearing a yarmulka when he was attacked by the two men, who called him “dirty Jew” and hit him on the side of the head before punching and kicking him once he was down.

L.A. Police report a steep rise in anti-Jewish attacks in the San Fernando Valley, with anti-Semitic vandalism and improvised bombs targeting the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus and a private home in West Hills.

German Arab Terrorist Sentenced For Stabbing Rabbi
A German court has sentenced a German Arab Muslim terrorist to three and a half years in prison for trying to murder a local rabbi with a knife.

The court found 23-year-old Sajed Aziz guilty of causing serious injuries in the September attack on Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch. CNN reported that Aziz claimed in court that he had acted in self-defense; that the rabbi had approached him in a “threatening manner.” Aziz was born in Germany to parents from Afghanistan.

The German prosecutors said there was not enough evidence that Aziz intended to murder the rabbi for a manslaughter charge. According to the European Jewish News two key witnesses in the case, a Jewish man and the woman who had been walking with Rabbi Gurevitch, refused to testify at the trial because they feared for their safety.

Local Jewish officials criticized the light sentence. "After a verdict like this Frankfurt has become more unsafe for Jews," Moshe Mendelzon, who attended the trial with other Orthodox Jews living in Germany, told the European Jewish News.

Frankfurt Jewish community President Salomon Korn said the sentence “has given a clear message to potential stabbers. I wonder if this would have been the sentence if there had been a religiously tinged attack on a Christian clergyman.”

Aziz was freed Tuesday on bail until the end of all possible appeal proceedings.

British Jews Targeted by Attacks
Anti-Jewish graffiti covered shops, sidewalks and walls outside four synagogues in the northeast London Clapton Common and Stamford Hill neighborhoods last week.

The 40 slogans said things like "Jihad to Israel" and "Jihad to Tel Aviv."

David Greenwald, a young member of the Belz synagogue, one of those targeted, told This is London:
"This morning I went to synagogue to pray and saw the writing all over everywhere - walls, shops, traffic lights. Everyone feels scared. Here we do not have any problem with Arabs - there has never been anything like this before, but now we are worried."

The report quoted another member: "It makes us feel that we are in exile. It could be kids doing it, but even so, it shows something." The other synagogues were Satmar Beth Hamedrash Yetev Lev, Atereth Zvi Beth Hamedrash, and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. A day later more graffiti appeared in Bethnal Green.

Crown Heights Tensions Simmering After Attack
The Crown Heights Jewish community is still reeling following the attack on16-year-old Jewish boy Alon Sherman, who was victim of a severe beating followed by the stealing of his bike, wallet and cell phone.

"We're having an uptick in antisemitism and racism in our community that's unconscionable and it's unexcusable," Barry Sugar of the Jewish Leadership Council told New York Channel 1 News. "We are being assaulted and city government is doing little to address our concerns." 

Terrorist Trial in Seattle Federation Attack Continues
The trial of Muslim terrorist Naveed Haq, who killed one woman and injured five others at a local Jewish Federation building, continues as the Pakistani Muslim shooter attempts to convince the jury of an insanity plea.

Dayna Klein, a pregnant Jewish woman who worked at the Federation at the time, took the witness stand and described bring shot in the arm by the terrorist after she called 911. The terrorist shot toward the four-month-pregnant woman’s stomach, but she shielded herself with her arm and the bullet miraculously lodged in her arm, sparing the unborn child. 

Klein recalled crawling out of the room she was hiding in once she felt the coast was clear and finding co-worker Layla Bush “lying on her stomach, bleeding from her abdomen.” Klein recalled Bush trying to stop the bleeding from her wound using the baby clothes a fellow worker had bought Klein as a baby gift.

On her way out of the building she passed co-worker Pamela Waechter, shot dead from behind as she tried to escape the terrorist, who was ranting about Jews and Israel.

Haq’s defense lawyers are trying to plead insanity despite evidence of calculated premeditation. Haq bought guns and researched Jewish organizations ahead of the attack. He also, according to Klein, made a statement to the 911 operator when he took the phone away from her. "He began to state that...he would like to talk to [television talk-show host] Larry King and the Jews... [who] need to get out of Lebanon and Iraq," she said.

Forensic psychologist J. Robert Wheeler testified, for the prosecution, that Haq told him in their interview. “I just got it in my mind to do some political activism, so I just hopped in my truck. I got in my head to do a mission. On my way to the federation I decided I was going to take hostages.”

Haq searched for his target on Google, first searching "AIPAC in Sacramento," then "future AIPAC events," "evangelists," "national evangelical events" and "AIPAC in Seattle," which brought him eventually to the web site of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. He then searched "current Jewish Federation events," seemingly seeking to carry out a mass-casualty attack. Seeing none in the immedtae future, he decided to embark on a three hour trip to the Federation office.

In Ireland: Go Home, Jew
A Jewish man living in Ireland complained to police last week of Nazi graffiti on his home.

According to the Irish Independent, Herb Meyer's home on the Dublin Road in Tuam was spray-painted with swastikas and slogans such as “Go Home, Jew.”

Meyer said he wasn’t aware of many people who even knew he was Jewish, as he does not dress identifiably like a Jew.

According to the Independent, Meyer “and his partner Armida Walsh, a Tuam native,” were intending to move to London to be near relatives, but they may revise their plans due to the attack.

The paper did not elaborate whether the revised plans may involve going to Israel.

The Palestinian Authority / Fatah special police force that was trained by the US to fight terrorists has turned out to be a failure, according to recent reports. The US-backed police force was supposed to enable Israel to turn over security control of Judea and Samaria to the PA, as a prelude to a possible retreat from its biblical heartland. But so far the force's contingent in Jenin has been running scared from the terrorists it was supposed to bring under control.

According to WorldNetDaily, the Jenin unit's first mission was to clear out a section of Kabatiya, a neighborhood south of Jenin which is considered the main base for the Islamic Jihad terrorist group.

About 200 policemen attempted to engage members of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah's own "Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades."  But witnesses, including members of Fatah and Israeli security sources, said that within less than 30 minutes of the start of the clashes, the elite PA police force retreated from the scene. "The security men ran away scared. They didn't arrest anyone," said one witness.
"The security men ran away scared. They didn't arrest anyone."

"No chance for the troublemakers"
The PA's special force has been undergoing training under the supervision of US Middle East envoy Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton since late 2006. An initial contingent of 500 police officers was deployed in Shechem, in northern Samaria, in February of 2008, and another 480 members of the elite force deployed in Jenin in early May. The Jenin force's commander, Suleiman Amran, announced to the media that following the deployment, there is "no chance for troublemakers to return to Jenin."

Gen. Dayton personally oversaw the Jenin and Nablus units' training at US-operated bases in Jordan and in the Judean city of Jericho, and his office has been closely monitoring the police force's deployment. The budget for the force's training and arming was reported to be in the millions of dollars.

However, an Israeli security official closely monitoring the progress of the Shechem and Jenin forces said that they could not fight terrorism. "The Israel Defense Forces must do most of the work for them in that regard. When it comes to public security, they can block off streets and create a perimeter and carry out other basic duties, but beyond that, fighting crime isn't going well," the security official said.

Helpless in Shechem
In Shechem, the new police force proved helpless against 13 senior leaders of the "Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades" who were pardoned last June by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on condition they disarm and refrain from attacks, but who nonetheless publicly took up arms and vowed terror attacks against Israel. They then created a stronghold in the Old City of Shechem, calling themselves the Night Warriors of Al Aqsa.

According to informed security sources, among the Brigades leaders rejecting the agreement were Hanni Ka'abe, Mahdi Abu Jazaleh, and brothers Omar and Amer Haqube. The US-backed Shechem police unit was called upon to eject the "Night Warriors" from Shechem's Old City.
"They couldn't even get near the stronghold without being heavily fired upon and then retreating."

A large force attempted to raid the terrorists' stronghold several times, but according to security officials, the assaults repeatedly failed. "We are talking about six attempts so far, five of the attempts utilized more than 300 policemen against the 13 terrorists and all attempts failed miserably," said a security official. "They couldn't even get near the stronghold without being heavily fired upon and then retreating," the official said.

In the end, the IDF raided the Brigades' stronghold, killing Brigades terrorist leader Ka'abe in a shootout and sending at least five other rebel Brigades terrorists into hiding. "Israel had to come in and do the work for the Palestinian force," said a security official. "I don't know how they can handle security without Israel backing them up."

Dayton blames Israel
Dayton was recently quoted as blaming Defense Minister Ehud Barak for the police force's failures, according to the PA’s Ma’an News Agency.  Dayton reportedly praised the PA in meetings with foreign consuls in Ramallah, but criticized Barak and the IDF. The PA, he said, is “acting with great seriousness in the realm of security as part of its responsibility to secure its territories.” However, he said, Israel causes the PA to fail, in part by refusing to grant PA officers free access to areas under Israeli control.

Meanwhile, US training of elite PA security forces continues. A new, three-month course began in March at US-controlled bases in the Jordanian village of Giftlik, according to Israeli security officials. More than 600 "elite PA soldiers" are enrolled in the current course.

The plan of instruction calls for a 1,400-hour curriculum that includes human rights law, defensive tactics, first aid, urban and rural small-unit tactics, firearms, mounted- and foot-patrol techniques, crime scene investigations and more.

Cigarette lighters for handguns
However, according to a recent report in the Herald Tribune, the force's instruction has been inept to the point of being pathetic. In its poorly translated instruction manuals, for example, the words "cover fire," a term to describe small-arms fire to pin down the enemy, was translated as "extinguish a burning fire."

"Instruction in defensive tactics for hundreds of students was taught with three practice batons, a few handcuffs, and dummy pistols that were actually novelty cigarette lighters. The students had none of the safety equipment normally associated with police work," wrote a Tribune reporter. "In the classrooms, I watched as students were taught radio communications without radios, driving and vehicle maintenance with no vehicles, foot-patrol tactics without weapons or radios, and mounted-patrol tactics without vehicles."

In addition, fully 10 percent of the students were reported to be functionally illiterate.

A recent report by a senior Palestinian Authority journalist in the PA daily Al-Ayyam documented the decision by masses of Arabs in 1948 to leave their homes in the hopes that they would return once Israel was defeated.

"The Arabs who became refugees in 1948 were not expelled by Israel but left on their own to facilitate the destruction of Israel," the senior PA journalist wrote, according to Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors the Arabic language PA media. "This plan to leave Israel was initiated by the Arab states fighting Israel, who promised the people they would be able to return to their homes in a few days once Israel was defeated."

PMW points out that the Al-Ayyam article's conclusion that Arab states are responsible for the Arab refugee problem undercuts a backbone of Arab propaganda claiming that Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of Arabs in 1948. "In recent years, PMW has documented an increasing willingness among Palestinians to openly blame the Arab states and not Israel," the report concludes, citing five sources and witnesses' accounts conveyed in the PA media to support the claim:

• Jawad Al Bashiti, PA Arab journalist in Jordan, writing in Al-Ayyam, May 13, 2008
   
  "Remind me of one real cause from all the factors that have caused the "Palestinian Catastrophe" [the establishment of Israel and the creation of refugee problem], and I will remind you that it still exists... The reasons for the Palestinian Catastrophe are the same reasons that have produced and are still producing our Catastrophes today.
  
  "During the Little Catastrophe, meaning the Palestinian Catastrophe, the following happened: the first war between Arabs and Israel had started and the "Arab Salvation Army" came and told the Palestinians: 'We have come to you in order to liquidate the Zionists and their state. Leave your houses and villages, you will return to them in a few days safely. Leave them so we can fulfill our mission (destroy Israel) in the best way and so you won't be  hurt.' It became clear already then, when it was too late, that the support of the Arab states (against Israel) was a big illusion. Arabs fought as if intending to cause the "Palestinian Catastrophe" 
  
• Mahmoud Al-Habbash, PA Journalist in PA-run daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 13, 2006 
  
  "...The leaders and the elites promised us at the beginning of the "Catastrophe" in 1948, that the duration of the exile will not be long, and that it will not last more than a few days or months, and afterwards the refugees will return to their homes, which most of them did not leave only until they put their trust in those 'Arkuvian' promises made by the leaders and the political elites. Afterwards, days passed, months, years and decades, and the promises were lost with the strain of the succession of events..." [Term "Arkuvian," is after Arkuv - a figure from Arab tradition - who was known for breaking his promises and for his lies."] "
  
• Asmaa Jabir Balasimah, Woman who fled Israel in 1948, Al-Ayyam, May 16, 2006
  
  "We heard sounds of explosions and of gunfire at the beginning of the summer in the year of the 'Catastrophe' [1948]. They told us: The Jews attacked our region and it is better to evacuate the village and return, after the battle is over. And indeed there were among us [who fled Israel] those who left a fire burning under the pot, those who left their flock [of sheep] and those who left their money and gold behind, based on the assumption that we would return after a few hours." 
  
• Son of man who fled in 1948, PA TV 1999
  
  An Arab viewer called Palestinian Authority TV and quoted his father, saying that in 1948 the Arab District Officer ordered all Arabs to leave Palestine or be labeled traitors. In response, Arab MK Ibrahim Sarsur, then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, cursed those leaders, thus acknowledging Israel's historical record.
   
  "Mr. Ibrahim [Sarsur]. I address you as a Muslim. My father and grandfather told me that during the "Catastrophe" [in 1948], our district officer issued an order that whoever stays in Palestine and in Majdel [near Ashkelon - Southern Israel] is a traitor, he is a traitor."
   
  Response from Ibrahim Sarsur, now MK, then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel:
   "The one who gave the order forbidding them to stay there bears guilt for this, in this life and the Afterlife throughout history until Resurrection Day."
  
• Fuad Abu Higla, senior PA journalist, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, March 19, 2001
  
  Abu Higla, then a regular columnist in the official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, wrote an article before an Arab Summit, which criticized the Arab leaders. One of the failures he cited, in the name of a prisoner, was that an earlier generation of Arab leaders "forced" them to leave Israel in 1948, again placing the blame for the flight on the Arab leaders.
   
  "I have received a letter from a prisoner in Acre prison, to the Arab summit:
  To the [Arab and Muslim] Kings and Presidents, poverty is killing us, the symptoms are exhausting us and the souls are leaving our body, yet you are still searching for the way to provide aid, like one who is looking for a needle in a haystack or like the armies of your predecessors in the year of 1948, who forced us to leave [Israel], on the pretext of clearing the battlefields of civilians...
  So what will your summit do now?"

PMW Director Itamar Marcus believes it is critical that the admission of PA Arabs to the root causes of the refugee issue be brought to light, as the matter is not only at the heart of negotiations, but has become a rallying point for anti-Israel activists seeking to flood the Jewish state with the descendants of those who fled originally. "It is clear from these statements that there is general acknowledgement among Palestinians that Arab leaders bear responsibility for the mass flight of Arabs from Israel in 1948, and were the cause of the 'refugee' problem," Marcus said. "Furthermore, the fact that this information has been validated by public figures and refugees in  the Palestinian Authority media itself confirms that this responsibility is well-known - even though for propaganda purposes its leaders continue to blame Israel publicly for 'the expulsion.' "

The Knesset Education Committee, at the behest of MK Ariel, will hold an urgent session on Wednesday on the Education Ministry's decision of last week to cut down National Service for religious girls by a third.  The decision effectively ends the activity of over 3,000 National Service girls in schools around the country.

The decision was made by Education Minister Yuli Tamir of Labor, a co-founder of the ultra-left Peace Now organization.  MK Ronit Tirosh (Kadima), a former Likud member who served in the past as Director-General of the Education Ministry, said, "The Education Minister is consistent in one thing, and that is in causing irreversible damage to [Israel's] educational network... Though she claims to be an adherent of the egalitarian-democratic approach, she wipes out with a wave of her hand the important National Service enterprise for religious girls."

National Service is the choice of close to 10,000 female high school graduates each year, whose religious beliefs prevent them from choosing to enlist in the army.  Over 3,000 of them work in schools around the country. 

If the decision takes effect next year as planned, the country will lose the services of some 3,000 girls who, instead of enlisting in the army, will choose a third option: Staying home - i.e., getting a job, going to school, or the like.

Minister Tamir, claiming Finance Ministry cuts as the basis for her decision, announced a cut last week of 1/3 National Service positions - meaning trouble both for the girls and the schools who count on them.

MK Ariel: Tamir's Decision a 'Crime for Generations'
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said that the decision by Tamir is both a "crime vis-a-vis the coming generations, and ugly political persecution."

"The schools rely on the National Service girls as counselors, tutors, teachers' assistants, and aides to weak and at-risk children," Ariel said.  "Taking them out of the pool means no future for the children who count on them."

Of the 3,136 National Service girls who served in schools last year, 90% of them were in public or public-religious schools.

This is not the first blow delivered by Minister Tamir against National Service.  Over two years ago, she cut national budgeting for National Service by 35% - from 60 million shekels to 38 million.  Despite the damage that this could have caused, the National Service associations decided not to cut the amount of National Service goals, and to pay, out of their own pockets, the girls' monthly transportation and housing expenses.

Ariel attacked Tamir for "waging a stubborn and persistent war against every enterprise that is identified with [religious] Zionism, even in something that helps the entire public - such as her cuts of the pre-army yeshiva academies, the Jewish Awareness centers, and Jewish studies clauses for yeshivot and religious girls high schools."

"Yuli Tamir's hatred for the knitted yarmulke [a trademark of the religious-Zionist public - ed] and everything it represents," MK Ariel continued, "has caused her to lose her senses, and she is now using the Education Ministry, which belong to the entire public to destroy a religious-Zionist educational and volunteer enterprise."

Knesset Committee to Convene Urgently
At Ariel's request, Knesset Education Committee Chairman MK Rabbi Michael Melchior (Labor) has called a session for Wednesday, 9:30 AM to discuss the new decree.

Yaron Lutz, Deputy Director of the Association for Volunteer Work, told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine, "I believe that the State of Israel cannot allow itself such a situation of no National Service in schools - neither ethically, nor socially, nor practically.  I cannot see how schools will be able to function without the National Service girls."

Lutz said Tamir is not justified in blaming the Finance Ministry for the cuts: "The Finance Ministry cut a mere few percentage points; this cannot be the reason for cutting 30% of the National Service positions."

American Jewish businessman Moshe (Morris) Talansky told investigators from the police’s anti fraud unit that he gave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert money that was not used for elections, according to Maariv.

“I gave Olmert money that was not used to cover elections debts or to fund the election campaign,” Talansky reportedly said. 

Talansky’s admission contradicts Olmert’s claim that all of the money he was given went to cover campaign costs or to pay back debts incurred during his campaigns. Talansky continues to insist that he did not receive any benefits in exchange for the money given to Olmert, and that he had no intention of getting anything in return when he gave Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Police investigators from the National Fraud Unit again questioned Talansky on Tuesday in connection with a bribery investigation against PM Olmert.

Talansky is scheduled to testify in a deposition in the case in Jerusalem District Court in early testimony on Sunday, May 25, a day before he is scheduled to return to the US. State prosecutors feared he would be reluctant to return to provide later testimony.

Police will question also question Olmert again, with investigators scheduled to show up at 10 a.m. Friday at Olmert's home in Jerusalem.

Gag Order to be Lifted
The remaining partial gag order in place with regard to the latest Olmert scandal will be lifted at 8 p.m. Wednesday, as police have decided not to request an extension. Investigative journalist Yoav Yitzchak of News First Class says that new details of the case will be disclosed at that point.