The Hizbullah terrorist organization late Tuesday night lost a top commander in a powerful car bombing the group said was carried out by Israeli operatives in Damascus. Journalists were prevented by Syrian police from approaching the vehicle following the blast.

Imad Mughniyeh, considered to be the mastermind behind most, if not all of Hizbullah’s terror attacks, was one of the group’s most senior commanders in Lebanon.  He lived in hiding for years and was able to evade the public eye until Tuesday night’s attack.

An unconfirmed report by Iranian sources said Hajj Hussein Halil, politburo director and deputy to Hizbullah chief terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, also was killed in Tuesday night's car bombing. Hizbullah has not commented.

Mughniyeh was involved in numerous terror attacks on Israel's border with Lebanon, including the kidnapping of IDF soldiers Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Souad. He was also apparently behind the abduction of IDF reservists Elad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser in July 2006, the cross-border raid that ignited the Second lebanon War.

He was indicted in the US for the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, in which the airliner’s passengers were held hostage for six days at the Beirut airport. The Hizbullah terrorists severely beat US Navy diver Robert Stethem, a passenger on the June 24 flight, before killing him and dumping his body onto the tarmac.

The dead terrorist was on the US government’s Most Wanted List for having organized an attack on a US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. The October 23 car bombing killed 241 American military personnel who were stationed in Beirut as part of a peace-keeping force.

Mughniyeh was also behind the 1994 attack on the Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) Community Center in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people were murdered and 300 others were wounded in the attack. 

“He has been the target of the Zionists for 20 years,” the Hizbullah terrorist organization said in a statement to the media that claimed Mughniyeh “became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis.”

He was also Hizbullah's main liaison with the terrorist group's main patron, Iran. The Islamic Republic provides massive support in the form of funding, equipment, weaponry and terrorist training to the group, as does Syria.  Both countries have remained silent on the assassination.

The bombing is also likely to cause further upheavel in the current political crisis in Lebanon, which has been wracked by conflict between pro- and anti-Syrian forces.  Anti-Syrian parties have fought off attempts by Hizbullah to increase its power in the Lebanese Cabinet.  The impasse has forced a delay in Lebanon's presidential elections by several months.

A senior government official in Kuwait hinted Tuesday that Gulf States are expecting and waiting for Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear reactor before the security situation reaches critical mass.

Sami Alfaraj, advisor to the Kuwaiti government and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said Kuwait and the other Gulf States might ask both the Jewish State and the United States to guarantee their security if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear power station.

“I believe in something on the same Iraqi model… We are assuming in the Gulf that Israel will take it out,” Alfaraj told the Reuters news agency.

Israel destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility in a daring raid June 7, 1981 that neutralized its ability to function before the reactor went “hot” – thereby protecting the surrounding countries  as well. Israeli intelligence had confirmed that the Iraqi government planned to produce nuclear weapons at the site.

Then, as now, Israeli officials were convinced that nuclear power in the hands of the enemy constituted an existential threat to Israel.  In his briefing to IAF fighter pilots prior to the operation, then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Rafael Eitan said, “The alternative is our destruction.”

A report by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency to be published by the end of next week indicates that questions remain about how the Islamic Republic plans to utilize the nuclear power it plans to produce.

Although Iranian scientists were able to explain the traces of bomb-grade uranium found during inspections of its nuclear research sites, they were unwilling to discuss the suspected links between the uranium enrichment already in process, high explosives tests and new missile design.

Western nations are concerned about boasts by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Islamic Republic has been testing advanced centrifuges that would enhance and streamline the nuclear power production process.  According to the Associated Press, Iran is currently producing more than 300 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas, a key component used in the uranium enrichment process.

Iran has resisted all attempts by the international community, including increasingly severe sanctions imposed upon it by the UN Security Council, to cease its uranium enrichment program.

Former US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said during his speech at the 8th Herzilya Conference last month that an Israeli strike might be the last chance to stop Iran from completing a nuclear weapon. Former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who also spoke at the conference, also hinted that the military option is growing more likely.

The United States and Israel in particular are convinced that Iran is intent upon producing a nuclear weapon of mass destruction, to be aimed at the Jewish State.  Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to “wipe Israel off the map.”

The thorny issue of negotiations over Jerusalem will be put on the back burner until the rest of the final status discussions with the Palestinian Authority are completed, according to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
 
“I wouldn’t say that we have pushed the Jerusalem issue aside, but we don’t want to corner ourselves at the beginning of negotiations,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that "the matter of Jerusalem is not first but last in terms of the order in which the core issues will be discussed and there is agreement by all parties involved in the negotiations."  The PA has not confirmed this.

Shas Threats
Olmert’s claim came in the face of reports that senior government negotiators are already talking with their PA counterparts on the issue, which threatens to break up the Olmert coalition government.

Shas has warned it will quit the coalition if talks take place on dividing the capital.

Shas chairman Eli Yishai, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, expressed surprise Tuesday after reporters noted that Israeli chief negotiator Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met Monday and Tuesday with her PA counterpart in the talks, Ahmed Queri (Abu Ala). Yishai was unaware of those meetings, despite a promise by Olmert to keep him updated on the negotiations.

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Can't see video screen above? Click here.

In the exclusive English interview above, Shas MK Shlomo Benizri is asked why Shas is staying in the government when Israel's Foreign Minister won't deny that Jerusalem is already being negotiated. Benizri says that the party will wait until the Prime Minister returns from Germany to get clarification.

Shas Communications Minister Ariel Atias was unsurprised. “We get the impression that Jerusalem is being discussed,” he told the Jerusalem Post. “The foreign minister doesn’t deny it. Olmert has to decide whether he wants Shas in the government or whether he wants what Livni is doing.”

Yishai is scheduled to meet Wednesday with Olmert and is expected to confront the Prime Minister on the issue. Also on Wednesday, a delegation of Rabbis is scheduled to meet with Shas Party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, amongst them Sderot Hesder Yeshiva Dean David Fendel, to convince him to pull his party out of the government.

A Shas party official told the Hebrew newspaper Ma’ariv that Livni may be holding secret talks on Jerusalem as a means of forcing Shas to quit the coalition and bring down the government.

In such a scenario, Prime Minister Olmert would face a challenge for the party chair. Several of his Kadima colleagues have expressed interest in running against him for the position and although she has not said so, many analysts expect Livni to be one of the candidates. It is also possible that the Kadima party might lose its leadership of the government altogether.

“We don’t expect Olmert to scold Livni,” said the source. “We just want to know if she is conducting secret negotiations on Jerusalem.”

The Prime Minister told reporters the PA has expressed "satisfaction at the seriousness with which the talks are progressing," although PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad this week complained that Israel is stalling on negotiations and that there has been no progress.

Rocket Update
Two Kassam rockets were fired at Israel on Tuesday - one that landed south of Ashkelon, and one that fell near Kibbutz Gevim, just south of Sderot.  No one was hurt and no damage was reported.  No rockets or mortar shells were fired at Israel on Wednesday morning.

The two Tuito family brothers, Rami, 19, and Osher, 8, are undergoing operations again on their legs in Sheba Hospital at Tel HaShomer.  The two were seriously wounded on Saturday night when a Kassam rocket slammed into the ground just two meters away from them as they were headed home; they began running when they heard the Color Red rocket warning alarm, but could not outrun the rocket.  Osher has already lost a leg, below the knee, and doctors are working to save his other one.  Rami underwent an operation Wednesday, and Osher is expected to undergo another one as well.  Both are listed in stable condition; Osher is still being kept unconscious and on a respirator.

UN Hears Sderot's Plight
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Gillerman, told the Security Council about the two boys, and said, "We are the only democracy in the world in which children need an armed escort."  The Council was holding a special session entitled, "Children in Armed Conflicts."

Gillerman discussed the intolerable situation of the residents in Sderot, and also read aloud parts of letters sent to Osher by Tehilla and Yisrael Cohen - siblings whose legs were amputated as a result of a mortar shell attack in Kfar Darom in 2000.

How to Cover Sderot: Only From Within
Evgeniya Karavchik, the winner of this year's Media Criticism Prize awarded by Israel Media Watch, says that reporters covering the Sderot story must be on the scene.  Speaking with Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine on Tuesday, she said, "Whoever was not in the shoes of a person living 24 hours a day with terrible fright does not understand [what is going on there]."  She said it reminded her of the situation in the north during the war with Hizbullah in 2006: "I felt the ground shake under my feet when the Katyushas hit, I saw the scared people, and the shelters, and the fear all around.  But when I returned home to Bat Yam, I found people sitting in restaurants on the sea as if they had been there since the day before."

"It's not only Sderot," Karavchik emphasized, "but 40 communities in which people live and breathe.   I was in one of the kibbutzim where the houses are not at all protected, and the little children are too scared to go out and play. It's surrealistic... but the media only mentions that five protestors were arrested at the protest - five people from what seems to be 'the other country' of Sderot.  What are they supposed to do, these people whose lives have been destroyed?"

Karavchik feels that the Russian media in Israel is more skeptical and therefore more accurate, "perhaps because the writers had different lives under the Russian regime and learned not to trust government propaganda.  When I heard of rock-throwing attacks in Judea and Samaria, and of terrorists planning more murderous attacks, I compare this to the reports I hear about the 'peace' they want to make with the state of Ramallah - now that peace with the state of Gaza is no longer an option - and I know how to relate to those reports."

Pupils Join Protest
Meanwhile, the Parents Committee of Sderot has decided to join the recent protest activities organized by city residents.  Beginning Wednesday, four classes from schools all over the city will go to Jerusalem and hold their studies at the Sderot protest tent that has been erected outside the Knesset.  "The children of Sderot are also part of the struggle," Committee representatives stated, in anticipation of possible criticism, "and the people of Israel have to know this." 

The protest is being run by the Sderot Task Force, headed by Alon Davidi, with the back-handed support of the Sderot Municipality and Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal.  Though there has been some criticism of the road-blockings of this week and of the political leanings of some of the organizers, Moyal has made sure to emphasize that everyone is united in the basic goal of ensuring the right of Sderot citizens to live in safety and security. 

The Knesset Finance Committee voted on Tuesday to extend until the end of 2008 the categorization of Sderot and nearby communities as "border towns."  This will enable them to continue to receive special state compensation for rocket-related damages.

A new Yeshiva of Higher Torah Learning for post-high school students will open in the ancient city of Yafo (Jaffa) in September 2008. Rabbi Eliyahu Mali of Bet El is leading the initiative alongside the existing Rosh Yehudi Jewish Outreach core group in the seaside southern neighborhood of Tel Aviv.

Over the years, the Arab neighborhoods of Yafo grew and Arabs purchased homes from Jews who could afford to leave for nicer locations. Some of the town's old, beautiful synagogues closed down. The Jews who remain thus welcome the influx of college-age religious youth to strengthen the Jewish presence there.

Rabbi Mali teaching Tanach (bible) on field trip with potential students

The entrance gate to the Ohr Yisrael Synagogue which will house the new Yafo Yeshiva

Inside the synagogue which will host the Yafo Yeshiva

 

Once a flourishing spiritual center with over 100 worshippers, the Ohr Yisrael Synagogue now holds prayers only on the Sabbath and holidays with just over ten regular attendees. The synagogue members, plagued with maintenance costs, reduced the size of the main sanctuary by building a wall down the middle of it.

When the worshippers of Ohr Yisrael heard of the new yeshiva, they rejoiced and are doing all they can to help. They rebuilt the roof, which was caving in, but could not afford to renovate other parts of the structure that are on the verge of collapse.

Parts of the future yeshiva have caved in due to lack of use.

Estimating the cost of renovating this room (note crack in back wall)

The current state of the bathrooms at the Ohr Yisrael Synagogue

In mid-January, tens of potential students came to Yafo with Rabbi Mali for the Sabbath on which the story of the splitting of the Red Sea is read in synagogues worldwide. As part of the program, Rabbi Mali took them for a walk on the Yafo shore to teach about that week's Torah portion.

On the beach, a 75-year-old non-religious resident of Yafo came running towards the group and greeted them enthusiastically. "Yafo is emptying out of Jews. We need Jews just like you," he told them.

Site of the new Yafo Yeshiva - once the home of a flourishing Jewish community

The yeshiva's location is two blocks from the Mediterranean Sea

Rabbi Mali and his staff are organizing solutions for dormitories and classrooms, and seek to purchase and renovate nearby structures.

When asked if the yeshiva has funds to purchase buildings, Rabbi Mali replied, "We don't, but we know that if we act to redeem the Land of Israel and spread Torah, then donors and investors will come."

The Etz Chaim Synagogue in Yafo is closed and slated to be demolished. Arabs have moved into all the houses on the road. The Yeshiva hopes to buy the building for community usage.

Rabbi Mali giving a class

The Rabbi elaborated: "According to many writings, we are in the period of the Messiah from Joseph, which precedes the Messianic era of the son of David. Regarding Joseph, our holy Torah says, 'and all that he did, G-d caused it to prosper.' The secret of this period is to act and initiate as did Joseph, and G-d will cause our actions to prosper. We have faith that people who wish to participate in this national endeavor will donate money to purchase the buildings, or buy them in their own name and allow us to use them."

Rabbi Mali emphasized that one must not wait for money to begin redeeming the Land. He noted that when Joshua Hankin purchased lands in the Jezreel Valley at the turn of the 20th century, he signed contracts without a cent in his pocket, and only then gathered the funds.

Rabbi Mali further drove home the point that in our time, Divine blessing follows behind our initiative: "The students of the Vilna Gaon who came to build the Land of Israel were inspired by a particular teaching from their master, which they turned into their motto. The verse in Isaiah 28:16 says, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation stone, a test stone, a costly corner-stone of sure foundation…' The students said that in Zion, you must lay the corner-stone, and then G-d can build on it. But without the first stone, nothing moves forward. In rebuilding Yafo physically and spiritually, we are adopting this approach."

An interview by the Rosh Yehudi weekly magazine with Rabbi Eliyahu Mali appears below.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, the founder and driving force behind the new Yafo Yeshiva

Question: Who are the residents of Yafo?
Rabbi Mali: Today, there are some 30,000 Jewish residents of Yafo. Most of them are traditional Jews. There is an artists' colony, primarily in the Old City of Yafo, and there is a very wealthy neighborhood on the ocean front. All of them welcome the new Torah-oriented population.

Question: Is this the purpose of the yeshiva?
Rabbi Mali: Absolutely. We seek to establish a large spiritual center, revive Judaism, and create a greater role for Torah in the life of the city, together with the core group that already exists in Yafo.

Question: What is unique about this yeshiva, besides its extraordinary location?
Rabbi Mali: It was here that Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook (1865-1935) issued his famous call to establish a yeshiva for the mostly-secular new Zionist agricultural settlements in the early 1900s. He called for a yeshiva imbued with a fresh dynamism and deep study of the why-questions in Jewish faith and philosophy. We identify with this calling. Like other yeshivas, the primary focus will be on Talmud, but there will also be in-depth encounters with Jewish thought, a strong emphasis on Tanach (the Jewish Bible) from the perspective of the modern era, and other subjects.

Question: Tanach from the perspective of the modern era? Please elaborate.
Rabbi Mali: The events of the Tanach occurred at a time when the Jewish People dwelt in their land. Today, we can understand the Tanach's messages much better than in previous generations who hadn't yet returned to a national Jewish life. We must learn from the Tanach, and seek its ramifications for the modern State of Israel.

Question: Are today's students looking for a different approach to study than those from a generation ago?
Rabbi Mali: Students today have a broad spiritual quest. For many years, Torah study in religious-Zionist circles focused on Klal Yisrael – the national manifestations of the Torah. The encounter with Torah matters concerning Klal Yisrael must not come at the expense of building the individual's character. Today, there is a great demand for understanding the soul, and clarifying the different aspects of one's character.

Question: Are you referring to Hassidut?
Rabbi Mali: Absolutely.

Question: Rabbi Kook and Rebbe Nachman together?
Rabbi Mali: Yes, and not just their works. Reb Tzadok, The Noam Elimelech, the Tanya of Chabad and others. Of course, all of these will compliment a broad program of in-depth Talmud study. We envision a synthesis between intellectual study and development of spiritual and psychological faculties.

Question: Reaching out to the city of Yafo likely emanates from lessons learned from the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. Is this the answer?
Rabbi Mali: Let's say it this way: The first years of religious-Zionism were a must. We invested great and important resources in developing the Land, and this great enterprise succeeded with great blessing. But today, it appears that G-d is hinting at us to increase our efforts to influence in additional directions, as is already being done in various places.

Question: To penetrate the Greater Tel Aviv region?
Rabbi Mali: To understand that this is an important mission like no other. If every large community in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), would send one tenth of their residents to large cities, the strength of the Yesha communities would not be compromised, since the vacant houses would fill up again immediately. And this one tenth of people imbued with faith will establish a community, a yeshiva, and a center amidst the Jewish populace, which will create a different reality than we know today.

Question: Are you talking about young families?
Rabbi Mali: Not only. There are many large established families that very much want to join our endeavor. The local schools will happily accept them on their teaching staffs.

Question: But not all of them are charismatic educators with a twinkle in their eyes…
Rabbi Mali: It doesn't matter. Personal example is very significant. I'll give you an example. My friend moved to Tel Aviv. He told me that one day while waiting at a bus stop, he started up a conversation with one of his neighbors standing there. Before they parted, my friend said, "Why don't you all come for a Shabbat meal?"  His neighbor was startled. "You don't know me. Why would you invite me for Shabbat?"

We are not aware of how great the alienation is that exists today. People do not know their fellow residents in their own apartment buildings.

Question: Did his neighbor come for Shabbat?
Rabbi Mali: He came for Friday night dinner, and they spoke until 2am. It was a wonderful experience for both sides. A few days later, the neighbor called and said that their conversation was one of the most captivating he had in years.

"When King Solomon set out to build the First Temple," says Rabbi Mali, "he shipped Cedars of Lebanon along the shores of the Mediterranean to the Yafo port. The path to building the Holy Temple passes through Yafo."

For more information: yeshivatyafo@gmail.com

Israel is becoming a major player in the world of medical tourism, which brought in $40 million in 2006.

Ronny Linder-Ganz summed up the phenomenon in a Haaretz article last week, writing, "As part of the world's transformation into a small global village, the phenomenon of medical tourism has picked up in the past few years: Increasingly, patients who have trouble obtaining or affording medical care in their home countries seek cheaper or better alternatives elsewhere."

Many thousands of visitors have come to Israel to undergo medical procedures in recent years. Linder-Ganz noted that in 2006 alone, "some 15,000 foreigners flew to Israel for complex procedures such as bone marrow transplants, heart surgery and catheterization, oncological and neurological treatments, rehabilitation after a car accident and more."

Amitai Rotem, director of marketing at Hadassah, is quoted as saying that while bypass surgery costs $120,000 in the U.S. for those without insurance, "at Hadassah the procedure costs $35,000, and that includes all the necessary arrangements, such as airfare, accommodations and food for both patient and family."

Similarly, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) costs up to $3,500 in Israel, compared to $16,000-$20,000 in the U.S.

Hadassah recently launched a $20,000 international Internet campaign to increase the number of medical tourists, and other hospitals, both private and state-run, actively pursue this up-and-coming resource as well.

A 17-year-old terrorist stabbed an IDF soldier Tuesday evening at a checkpoint near the Palestinian Authority-controlled Samarian city of Jenin.

The teenage attacker, a resident of one of the nearby villages south of Jenin, walked up to the soldier, pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the back of the neck. Other soldiers at the scene grabbed the young terrorist and turned him over to security personnel.

The soldier was moderately wounded. He was treated at the scene and then evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera.

The attack occurred during a routine operation in which an artillery brigade operated a roadblock used to catch terrorist fugitives and PA Arab suspects.

The teenage attacker is a member of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, according to what he told security forces during interrogation following the incident.

The traumas of the expulsion from Gush Katif have not gone away, but are merely being dealt with in various ways including with psychodrama.

The girls of the Nvei Dekalim ulpanah high school - presently located in Givat Washington, near Ashdod, but hoping to relocate soon to Nitzan, home to hundreds of former Gush Katif families - spent the past year dealing with their pain by writing and performing a striking and vivid play about their experiences.  A dramatic sampling of their performance can be seen on the Katif.net website by clicking here: katif.net/pirsom/banot.wmv (the file is likely to take longer than expected to open).

Expulsion, 2005: HaShem is King... who dares fight the King?

Entitled "Pictures of Our Lives," the show was written by the high school girls themselves, with the guidance of their drama teacher Toby Klein Greenwald of Efrat and choreographer/dance teacher Rivka Azulai of Beit El.  Greenwald has past experience in directing four successful plays performed by the Raise Your Spirits Summer Stock Company.

"Pictures of Our Lives" has been performed twice in the past month in the Heichal HaTarbut Cultural Hall in Ashkelon before women-only audiences.  Some 1,200 women have seen the play thus far; additional performances might occur this summer.

The play tells the story of a Gush Katif family, whose lives become increasingly more difficult and tense as the twin threats of mortar shells and expulsion become increasingly stronger.  The expulsion itself is depicted in various scenes of drama and dance, and the climax is reached when the heroine of the story discovers that her fiancé was a soldier who actually took part in the expulsion of her neighbors and friends. 

Expulsion, 2005: 'Hamas terrorists will live here happily'

Director Greenwald told Arutz-7, "We first began working on various drama exercises designed to help the girls deal with their feelings about what happened and also to provide an enriching drama experience. The actual writing of the play only began about halfway into the year [a year ago].  The play gradually began to take shape, with the girls deciding who the players would be, what the scenes would be, what would be depicted - I guided them, but this was their show, written by them. It was very important that the ideas come from within them, both for artistic and psychological reasons." 

Rivka Azulai, who directed the dance scenes, agreed. "Many of the ideas for the dances, and what kind of music and the like, came from the girls themselves," she said. "This was very important... It was more than just a play; I felt that it was a great privilege to be working with them, and that I was even on an important mission.  For instance, when they showed me their new auditorium, one girl said wistfully, 'But you know it's not really ours...'  and I told her, 'Nothing in this world is ours; it all belongs to G-d.  We must understand that' - and she did..."

Expulsion, 2005: Soldier (right) and residents of Gush Katif

Perhaps the most dramatic dance scene involved a long line of "faceless" soldiers wearing masks who ultimately trampled a lone girl trying in vain to wake them up to their destruction of people's homes and lives.  Other dances portray the heartfelt prayers that were so ever-present throughout and prior to the expulsion; the centrality of the beach and sea in their past lives; the people who came to live in Gush Katif in the weeks and months prior to the expulsion; and more.

"Don’t think the play transmits only despair," Azulai said, "as might be inferred from the powerful 'faceless soldiers trampling the girl' dance.  The girls were full of faith, hope, and vision for the future, including the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, and they made sure this was brought out in many aspects of the play... True, they poked fun, for instance, at the social workers who came to help them after the expulsion, demanding of them, 'Where were you during the expulsion? Why didn't you help out then?'  But now, they know that the question is not 'Where were you then?' but rather, 'Who are we now? What do we believe in? How will we transmit it further?'"

"When we finished," Ms. Greenwald said, "I cried the whole next day - tears of joy for their success, mixed with tears of sorrow at the overwhelming experience of watching them reenact and relive the so-difficult months that they had lived through."

Hundreds of protesters marched to the main entrance to Jerusalem on Monday night as part of a rolling series of
Activists called for the government to put an end to Palestinian Authority rocket attacks.
demonstrations on behalf of Sderot and other battered Negev communities.

A large number of police officers accompanied the protesters, most of whom came from Sderot and Jerusalem. The activists called for the government to put an end to Palestinian Authority rocket attacks on the western Negev. 

Five protesters were detained by Jerusalem police for questioning. They were accused of disorderly conduct. Four activists were also detained near Meron, in the Galilee, as they protested alongside a highway in solidarity with the Jerusalem event.

Sderot resident Elad Kalimi explained that the demonstration "is no longer a protest. It is an expression of rage... We live like sitting ducks."  Kalimi said that drivers had expressed support during protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, even when protesters blocked roads. Activists plan to protest in the south and the north as well, he said.

The Monday night protest capped a day of protest and road-blockings in Tel Aviv, and followed similar nonviolent direct action in Jerusalem on Sunday.

"Olmert Go Home" at Jerusalem protest
Josh Shamsi

 

Protest in Jerusalem for Sderot security
Josh Shamsi

 

Protest in Jerusalem for Sderot security
Josh Shamsi

 

Spent Kassam rocket at the Jerusalem protest
Josh Shamsi

 

"We Want to Stay in Sderot - The Place Enchanted (Heb.: 'kassam') Us"
Josh Shamsi

 

"Sderot in My Heart"
Josh Shamsi

As the protests continued, so did PA attacks on Jewish towns in the Negev. Gaza terrorists launched an attack on the western Negev Tuesday afternoon. One Kassam rocket exploded in an area south of the coastal city of Ashkelon. Earlier in the day, there were seven rockets and mortar attacks in the area of the Negev communities Alumim and Nachal Oz. No injuries were reported in the shellings, but a Golani Brigade soldier was lightly injured in a shootout with a group of armed terrorists in northern Gaza. On Monday, terrorists fired two rockets at Ashkelon and a second Israeli town. Those rockets landed in open areas.

Kassam rocket and "Sderot in My Heart" at Jerusalem protest
Josh Shamsi

Overnight Monday, IDF infantry, tanks and combat engineering forces entered northern Gaza to carry out operations against the terrorist infrastructure there.

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit announced Tuesday that he is working towards the establishment of a new Arab city in Israel. "I am advancing the city's establishment and planning," he said.

Speaking in the Israeli Arab city of Umm El-Fahm, Sheetrit said, "The plan is for a modern city in which every couple will be able to buy a house and live, just like in every other modern city in the world," he explained.  Umm El-Fahm and the surrounding Wadi Ara region is the largest Arab concentration, in terms of territory and population, in pre-1967 Israel.

Although the Minister refused to say where the new city would be located, a source in Housing Minister's bureau told Ynet that the city is planned for construction in the Galilee.

Minister of Science, Culture and Sport Raleb Majadle (Labor) welcomed the announcement and said "the present government has internalized the fact that the Arab population has equal rights. The decision will strengthen the Arab sector's feeling of belonging to the country in which it has lived for many centuries."

MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu) said that it is "weird" that the government which delays and halts construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, now comes up with the idea of constructing an Arab city in the Galilee.

Dror Ezra, a leading member of the environmentalist "Greens" group, said that his organization objects in principle to the creation of new communities, and that the Interior Minister should upgrade existing communities.

Israeli Arab leaders have been calling for a new Arab city for years. They claim the Arab villages in Wadi Ara and elsewhere are suffering from overpopulation, and that the Arab communities need a new city that would be designed specifically for their population.

Sheikh Hashem Abdel-Rachman threatened to resign his post as mayor of Umm el Fahm if demolitions of illegal construction are not halted. "I want you to relay this message to the Prime Minister and the rest of the government," he told Public Security Minister Avi Dichter in a recent meeting.  

MK Taleb a-Sana (Ra'am / Ta'al) said the creation of an Arab city was a good decision. He said it could be a precedent-setting step towards providing solutions for the Arab sector's real estate distress.