Former Coalition Chairman Avigdor Yitzchaki (Kadima) resigned Thursday in protest of PM Olmert’s refusal to step down. “Olmert is truly dangerous for Israel,” he said of his party leader.

MK Yitzchaki handed his resignation to Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. It will take effect in 24 hours. “This is a difficult decision,” MK Yitzchaki said, “but I promised that if the Prime Minister did not resign, I would – and I’m a man of my word.”

The Kadima MK already announced his decision a week ago. Anti-Olmert MKs had been trying to convince him to stay on, saying he would be replaced by a pro-Olmert MK, making it that much more difficult to garner a majority against the Prime Minister in votes to bring down the government.

He refused, saying Monday that he cannot continue to sit beside people who have no concern for the future existence of the State of Israel. "I have to say, it is too difficult for me to sit beside people who really do not care about the leadership, the ethics, the very existence of this country," said Yitzchaki of his Kadima Party colleagues. "I look forward to returning to this building, but under worthy leadership."

He told Yediot Acharonot that Prime Minister Olmert is “the worst prime minister in the history of the state” and that Olmert is “truly dangerous for Israel.”

Yitzchaki was a founder of Kadima together with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a close friend of his, and served as party chairman in 2006. Yitzchaki supported the destruction of 25 Jewish towns in the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. He has been trying to unseat Olmert since the publication of the Winograd committee’s interim report last year. Due to his rebellion, he was relieved of his position as party whip.

Though he originally sought to replace Olmert with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, he now says Livni carries an unethical stain on her personality in that she has remained by Olmert’s side. He insists that most Kadima MKs want Olmert ousted, but that they have been bought with positions of power.

Ethiopian Jewish immigrant Shlomo Mula will take Yitzchaki’s place as next on the Kadima Party’s Knesset list.

Seven terrorists were killed in counter-terror operations in Gaza Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Among them were two brothers, one a Hamas terrorist and one affiliated with the Islamic Jihad gang.

Gaza terrorists bombarded Israeli territory on Thursday morning with no fewer than 20 Kassam rockets.  One of the rockets landed in Sderot, just 200 meters from a public library.  Several western Negev residents suffered shock by the rockets, but no other damage was caused.

For the first time in its history, the Diamond Exchange in Ramat Gan suspended trading on Thursday, and its management held a meeting in Sderot. The move was taken as a sign of solidarity with the besieged city.

IDF Golani Brigade soldiers and tank units with air cover clashed with terrorists in Jabalya, north of Gaza City, on Wednesday night. At the same time, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck Beit Hanoun, just over the northern Gaza border fence, used most by terrorists to fire Kassam rockets at Israeli towns.

A Hamas spokesman confirmed that at least five Hamas terrorists were among the dead in the IAF strike – two of them local commanders.

A second IDF air strike destroyed a metal-works facility in central Gaza where rockets were being manufactured, along with a weapons storage facility in the area. PA reports say bystanders were wounded in those strikes.  Another air strike Wednesday evening targeted the home of senior Hamas official Sheikh Zaki Al Dardissy in Khan Yunis, further south in Gaza.  No one was killed in that attack, which Hamas said hit an empty room in the house.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed confidence in the IDF's ability to stop the Kassam rockets, saying, "It won't end today or tomorrow, but in the end, we will bring about an end to the rockets, as we have done in the past."

The air strikes came after two young Israeli girls were wounded Wednesday evening by shrapnel while playing in their backyard when a rocket slammed into their western Negev kibbutz.  

Hamas Warns
Though Fatah and the PFLP took credit for the Dimona attack, Hamas has become the coordinator of terrorist assaults on Israel.

Hamas officials were afraid to attend a scheduled meeting of the PA parliament in Gaza Wednesday, concerned that they would be targeted by Israel.  They warn that if Israel attempts such attacks, they would respond with a rash of suicide attacks.  Hamas has long tried to carry out such attacks, but barely succeeds because of IDF counter-terrorism activity.

Iran and Hamas
Hamas’s representative in Iran, Dr. Abu-Osama Abed Al-Ma'ati, announced Wednesday that Hamas has decided to renew such attacks inside major Israeli cities. “The Dimona attack is a message,” he said. “That message is that Hamas has renewed the suicide attacks.” Iran is the major backer and funder of Hamas. 

Intelligence officials say Iran now has a critical influence on Hamas, smuggling Iranian Katyusha missiles to Gaza from Egypt and bringing Iranians to train Gaza’s terrorists.  At least 2,000 terrorists from Egypt also reportedly entered Gaza during the recent period where the Gaza-Egypt border lay open, according to Egypt’s al-Masry al-Yawm daily.

IDF in Hevron
In Hevron, IDF forces entered a Hamas-dominated neighborhood and raided the home of one of the suicide bombers who carried out Monday’s attack in Dimona.  PA forces under Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas were ordered to stay away from the area during the operation. Three local terrorists were wounded in clashes with the soldiers.  This was the second IDF visit to the home. Soon after the attack, security forces arrested family members of both bombers.

Two young girls were hit by shrapnel Wednesday afternoon when a Kassam rocket slammed into a playground in Kibbutz Be'eri, located in the Eshkol Regional Council. Both were lightly wounded and their mother suffered emotional shock.

Two-year-old Techelet was struck in the leg; her 12-year-old sister Yardena was hit in the shoulder. Paramedics removed a piece of shrapnel from the body of one of the girls before sending them both to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva.

The children's mother, Gladys Za'arur-Fishbein, said there was no warning before the attack. "There were times in the past when we heard the Color Red alert system and then raced for cover," she said, "but this time the rocket fell without warning; it just exploded before my eyes."

The Hamas terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack.

Within the hour, another attack was fired from Gaza, this time at Sderot, scoring a direct hit on a house. Miraculously, no one was physically injured, although a number of people suffered emotional shock. The house sustained heavy damage.

The Popular Resistance Committees, a terrorist umbrella organization, claimed responsibility for the attack on Sderot.

The first rockets were raining down by 7:30 a.m., with a barrage exploding within the territory of the Eshkol Regional Council. All of the missiles landed in open areas. No one was hurt and no damage was reported.

Less than two hours later, another attack sent a Kassam whistling into a community near Sderot. This missile also exploded in an open area, with no injuries or damage reported.

The coastal city of Ashkelon, home to several strategic facilities, was the recipient of the third attack of the day, with rockets exploding at the southern edge of the city. No one was hurt and no damage was reported.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said, "These rockets are being fired indiscriminately into civilian population centers. We are obligated as a government to take the necessary steps to protect our people and we will continue to do so. The extremists shooting rockets are a legitimate target and we will act surgically to strike against hardcore terrorist cells."

Gaza officials cancelled a session of the Hamas legislature, fearing retaliation by Israel.

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck several targets in Gaza overnight in response to attacks on the western Negev Tuesday that wounded six civilians and knocked out power in Sderot. Hamas reported that four of its operatives were moderately wounded.

"We need to understand there is a war in the south," Vice Premier Chaim Ramon said in an interview with Voice of Israel government radio, echoing oft-repeated remarks by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials.

"The war against Hamas has to be fought on all fronts," he said, adding that Israel would continue to use "the economic weapon" as well. The comment was a reference to the blockade imposed by Israel three weeks ago. All crossings remain sealed.

Israeli-Arab Knesset Members want Arab terrorists with Israeli citizenship released in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday. The hundreds of convicted terrorists recently set free by the Olmert government were not Israeli citizens, but rather live in the Palestinian Authority.

United Arab List (Ta’al) MKs Ibrahim Sarsour, Abbas Zkoor and Taleb a-Sana held a meeting with Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann Wednesday, in which they asked that he release 20 Israeli-Arabs serving life sentences for engaging in terrorist activity against Israel’s Jewish citizens.

The MKs also complained that Israeli-Arab terrorists were discriminated against, saying their phone privileges are limited and they have only been given 40 vacations from jail since the state’s establishment.

“These are Israeli citizens who shouldn’t have to wait for Hamas to put them on their list to be released,” MK Zkoor told Haaretz. He said the prisoners seek to “turn over a new leaf.”

MK Sarsour told News First Class that the meeting with Friedmann went very well and the Justice Minister was seriously considering the request.

Meir Indor, who tracks the release of terrorist prisoners and their return to terror activity, warns against the impending release of the brother of a recent murderous suicide terrorist.

Indor, who heads the Jerusalem-based Almagor Terror Victims Association, has called upon Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann not to release Hevron-area terrorist Muatu Hirbuye from prison when his sentence ends two weeks from now.  Hirbuye is the brother of one of the two suicide terrorists who murdered a woman in Dimona this week.

Keep Him in Jail, or Expel Him
"The fact that his suicide terrorist brother was released from Israeli prison and became a living bomb," Indor wrote to Friedmann, "and the fact that their mother praised their murderous acts, shows that this is a dangerous family that was brought up to murder.  Israel cannot afford to take chances, and must take protective steps against the younger brother - such as administrative detention or expulsion to an Arab country."

Almagor also demands that the mother be indicted for her words of incitement and encouragement of terrorism, which are against the law. 

"The old system of destroying terrorists' homes was very effective in the past," Almagor says, "and should be resumed."  The practice was reduced greatly after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.

The suicide terrorists have been elevated to "holy martyr" status in the Palestinian Authority.

Ten-year-old Elad, with well over 30,000 hareidi and religious residents, was named a full-fledged city on Tuesday.

At a ceremony on Tuesday attended by municipal and national-level dignitaries, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit declared the Local Council of Elad a municipality.  He praised the residents' accomplishments, saying, "I decided quite quickly to upgrade Elad's status to that of a city, because the time has come to do this, and the time has come for us to recognize the contribution of the residents who came to live here. Don't forget that Elad began with a little neighborhood built on empty land; this is your contribution to the development of the Land."

As is his wont, Sheetrit also took the opportunity to tell off the city's public. Turning to Shas Party leader Eli Yeshai, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Sheetrit asked him to "open a new trend in the hareidi public in Israel, along the lines of our rabbis and fathers of old, involving work and army service together with the study of sacred texts and wisdom."  He also told the residents themselves that it is of "utmost importance for people in the city to find jobs and support, and not to live in poverty or from government allocations."

Sheetrit even made a comment about the customary separation of men and women at the ceremony, causing some awkwardness among the attendees.

Two years ago this month, Sheetrit, who was Minister of Education at the time, met with junior high school girls from the religious Samaria community of Beit El, and treated them to a torrent of sarcasm, anger and insulting remarks. Beit El Education Department Chairman Menachem Lev, who was present for part of the meeting, said, "He simply lost it. He interrupted them, yelled a lot, and mocked them again and again... He asked them if they study together with boys, and why not, and how do they manage without boys, and 'how do you know it's better without boys if you never tried it?' He gave them a whole grilling on this topic, putting them in a very awkward situation... He was also full of sarcasm, saying things like, 'Sure, sure, the police hit you' [at the Amona incident two weeks earlier - ed.] and the like."

Elad was founded ten years ago, and now numbers well over 32,000 residents.  Most of them are hareidi, but about 1,000 families are counted in the religious-Zionist community, which has nine synagogues, three elementary schools, and its own rabbi (as does the Yemenite and other communities in Elad).
 
Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Rishon LeTzion, also addressed the audience, as did Tel Aviv's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Elad's two chief rabbis, MKs Moshe Gafni and Meir Porush, and Mayor Tzvika Cohen.

Jerusalem, Too
Minister Yeshai, in his remarks, took the opportunity to address Cabinet Secretary Oved Yechezkel and remind him of the importance of continued construction and building in the Jerusalem area.

Though some residents complain of excess politicization in the upper echelons of the city leadership, it appears to be a matter of consensus that the city is awash with people and organizations who give freely of their time and money to help others. 

From One Woman to Another
"There are many gmachim [free-loan funds]," one woman told Arutz-7, "and a food distribution system, and we also have a very unique project called 'From One Woman to Another.'  It involves women from all sectors of the town - a cooperative effort which is unique in and of itself.  The town's welfare department was collapsing under the burden of dealing with all the needy cases here, and the wives of most of the town's rabbis - hareidi, Hassidic, religious-Zionist, and more - got together to see how they could help.  What developed was a working group that meets periodically, a course for volunteer social workers, and a round of women who go to homes that need their help."

Elad is also known for its well-planned streets and parks, as well as the external attractiveness of its buildings.

A protest demanding the indictment of Israeli policemen who harassed seven jailed female minors was held Monday night. The girls were originally arrested for "entering a closed military zone," as they assisted in establishing the new hilltop Jewish community of Givat Haor, north of Jerusalem.

The girls were held in jail for several weeks and were released after the courts caved in to public pressure. Soon after, the story of abuse and humiliation the girls experienced while incarcerated came out, including their being denied sleep, and stripped and searched for drugs in the presence of a male officer.

[video:123068]
Can't see video screen? Click here to watch video of protest.

In this video of the protest, the mother of one of the jailed girls explains how shocked she was to find out what had happened and her angry cry for justice.

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