Israel is holding direct negotiations with Hamas, despite a government policy prohibiting such talks, Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon said Monday. The same day, Foreign Ministry officials requested clarification of the French position on contacts with the Palestinian Authority Islamist terror organization.

Speaking at a meeting of the Kadima party's Knesset faction, Ramon expressed frustration at the government's contacts with Hamas and said he hoped that the decision to eliminate the terrorist entity would soon be made.
[Ramon said] he hoped that the decision to eliminate the terrorist entity would soon be made.

"The IDF knows what to do," Minister Ramon said. "We are not fighting a terrorist group, but a terrorist state called Hamastan."

According to a government resolution, Israel is not to make direct contact with Hamas until it recognizes Israel, renounces terrorism, and agrees to abide by agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Until Monday, government officials claimed that all negotiations with Hamas were being conducted via Egyptian mediators.

In reaction to Ramon's admission, Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman, the head of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home), said Monday that direct talks with Hamas "will bring [Hamas leader] Khaled Mashaal in through the front door of the White House." The talks will give Mashaal legitimacy, as happened with former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, he explained.

"Terrorist groups should be dismantled, not strengthened," Lieberman said.

Israel Questions France Over Hamas Contacts
With ironic timing, while Minister Ramon was revealing Israeli contacts with Hamas, the Foreign Ministry demanded that senior French officials explain their statement that the French government has "contacts" but not "relations" with the PA Islamist organization.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Merkel said that the French government has assured Israel that there is no change in the position of France regarding relations with Hamas. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters questioning him about France's contacts, "We don't believe it is helpful to the process of bringing peace to the region."

Egypt: Israel Dropped Demand for Release of Cpl. Shalit
Leaks from the Egyptian brokering of contacts between Israel and Hamas continue.

Egyptian officials have asserted that Israel will agree to a version of a ceasefire in Gaza without demanding the immediate release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas. However, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said earlier this week that there will be no deal without advancing the return of the soldier, who was abducted almost two years ago in a cross-border raid that killed two other soldiers.

Unnamed Egyptian sources were quoted as saying that Israel will settle for a renewal of talks involving the release of Arab terrorists in return for Shalit.

Likud Party Chairman and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu called for early elections Monday, and said Prime Minister Olmert and the current government have no mandate to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority.

"This government has no mandate to negotiate the borders of this country or to divide its capital city," he told a meeting of the Likud Knesset faction. "The government must go back to the people and allow the nation to choose its leadership once again."

Netanyahu cited five reasons that Olmert should step down, including failures in the Second Lebanon War, ongoing rocket attacks on Israel, failures in the economy and education and a lack of faith by the public in the government institutions. He added that several ongoing criminal probes against the Prime Minister are additional reasons for Olmert to resign.

Netanyahu also called on the Shas Party to leave the government.

"Every area that is given away (to the PA) will become a base for terror activity and radical Islam," he said.

Olmert: Gaza Op Coming
Also Monday, Prime Minister Olmert said the time is "drawing near" for Israel to launch a broad military operation in Gaza in response to ongoing rocket fire at Sderot, Ashkelon and other Israeli cities in close proximity to the Gaza region.

"Israel will not resign itself to the current situation in the south, which reached a new 'high' point with the missile attack on Ashkelon," he said.

Olmert added, "We have had two consecutive weeks of unusual events. Everyone has been impressed with the level of commitment displayed by the United States towards Israel, as we heard during President Bush's speech at the Knesset. It was an unprecedented speech."

Alert IDF soldiers at a Samaria checkpoint on Monday night shot and killed a 20-year-old Arab man who had explosives strapped to his body. When soldiers spotted the explosive devices and the terrorist refused to comply with their orders, a commander on the scene opened fire to prevent what appeared to be an attempt at detonation.
The man refused orders to lie down and began to lower his arms, apparently to set off the bombs.
The incident took place at the Hawara checkpoint, 25 miles east of Herzliya.

Nineteen-year-old Corporal Michal Ya'akov is credited with raising the initial alarm. At around 8:00 pm, she ordered the Palestinian Authority resident to pass through the metal detector at the checkpoint, which sounded a beep signaling that a further search was necessary. She told him to raise his shirt, exposing several explosive devices strapped to his body in a bomb vest. Cpl. Yaakov alerted the other soldiers at the checkpoint, initiating an isolation and neutralization procedure.

The man refused orders to lie down and began to lower his arms, apparently to set off the bombs. A commander at the checkpoint then shot and killed the terrorist before he could take any further action. 

Soldiers cordoned off the area where the body lay until IDF sappers called to the scene gave the all-clear signal. A vest laden with five pipe bombs was removed from the dead would-be terrorist. It remains unknown if his intention was to throw the bombs or detonate himself along with them.

Military sources expressed concern that Defense Minister Ehud Barak's order this week to remove dozens of roadblocks and checkpoints to ease travel restrictions for Arabs will also make it easier for terrorists to reach Israel's urban centers.

Senior Islamic Jihad Terrorist Captured
In other counterterrorist events, air force planes carried out an air strike on a Gaza terror cell responsible for shooting rockets at Sderot, the IDF reported Tuesday morning. The strike took place in northern Gaza's Beit Lahiya almost immediately after two rockets were fired by the cell into the western Negev. Both the IDF and PA sources confirmed that one terrorist was killed and two were wounded. No damages or injuries were reported in the PA attack that precipitated the air strike.

It was released for publication Monday night that security forces succeeded in apprehending a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist in Jenin. The joint operation of the General Security Services (Shabak) and an elite IDF unit netted Omar Saleh Abu-Alon, who has been involved in many shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis.

Also on Monday night, PA Arabs threw fire bombs at an Israeli driver near the city of Ariel in Samaria. The driver was not injured in the attack. A similar attack took place near Ariel the night before. Arabs in Judea and Samaria have been carrying out Molotov cocktail attacks on Israeli drivers in the area with increasing frequency in recent months.

In the western Negev, Gaza terrorists fired three mortar shells at Israeli communities in the Shaar HaNegev and Eshkol regions on Monday night. PA terrorist groups fired five mortar shells at Israeli communities earlier in the day. None of the attacks succeeded in causing injury or damage.

State Prosecutor Moshe Lador told the High Court Monday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert personally received thousands of dollars in cash from American businessman Moshe Talansky and is suspected of fraud and breach of public trust. Lador said the money transfers occurred both in the United States and in Israel and not through a third party, as some observers previously believed.

The police announced this morning (Tuesday) that Olmert will be questioned, under caution, this Friday morning - three weeks after his previous interrogation.  Talansky is also expected to be questioned again, apparently today.

Lador's statement provides the first concrete confirmation of the details surrounding the case. Although the Olmert/Talansky affair has consistently made headlines since the story broke in early May, the story has been shrouded in secrecy.

The police have not uncovered proof that Olmert provided favors for Talansky in exchange for the money, but on the other hand, neither have they found any justification for his having taken the sums without reporting them. Olmert's explanations that he used the money to finance campaign expenses and/or debts have not been proven.

Supreme Court to Decide Re: Talansky Testimony
The Supreme Court still has yet to decide whether or not to allow investigators to take a pre-trial deposition from Talansky early next week. Talansky has been summoned to testify on Sunday, but the move has been challenged by Olmert's lawyers, who say such a move would cause harm to the prime minister's basic right to due process.

It is also unclear whether Talansky will be permitted to leave Israel as scheduled next week, after arriving in Israel  last month to celebrate the Passover holiday with family members. He has been prevented from leaving the country as police investigate his role in the unfolding scandal but fear he will not return for further questioning.

Talansky says he must return to America to care for his wife, but plans to return to Israel next in mid-June for a grandson's wedding.

Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was rushed, once again, to the intensive care unit of Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center on Tuesday, just before noon. The rabbi's condition was described as "critical."

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the rabbi's son and the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, told Arutz Sheva Radio that his father is currently on a respirator and in an induced coma. "We passed through the first stage," Rabbi Shmuel said, "and now they are helping him recuperate step by step."

Following emergency surgery and an extended hospitalization last month, Rabbi Eliyahu has been reporting to the hospital every morning for follow-up health checks. On Tuesday, the rabbi suffered a medical deterioration, and
The rabbi suffered a medical deterioration, and hospital staff had to revive him.
hospital staff had to revive him when he suddenly stopped breathing.

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said that his father was "spared by a miracle" in that the medical emergency happened when the rabbi was at the hospital and undergoing a check up, rather than at home.

Rabbi Eliyahu's personal assistant, Rabbi Shmuel Zaafarani, asked the public to pray for a complete and speedy recovery for the rabbi, Rav Mordechai Tzemach ben [son of] Mazal Tov. Among other spiritual measures, Rabbi Zaafarani suggested reading the Book of Psalms individually or as a group, as well as reading the sections of Psalms 115 that correspond to the letters of Rabbi Eliyahu's name.

A large public gathering has been called for 5:00 pm Tuesday evening at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, in order to pray for the rabbi's speedy recovery.

Jonathan Pollard Calls for 'Heartfelt Pleas'
From his jail cell in Butner, North Carolina, imprisoned American Jew and Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard dispatched an urgent message calling for prayers on behalf of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, whom he regards as his spiritual guide.

Pollard wrote to Rabbi Pesach Lerner of the National Council of Young Israel, "The Rav needs an abundance of teffilot (prayers). We must storm the Heavens with our heartfelt pleas for mercy for Am Yisrael in the form of a a complete and speedy recovery for our beloved Rav, who has always been the Rav to all the People of Israel, without exception.

"...[Do] whatever you can to encourage people to daven [pray] as they have never davened before, with all of their hearts and with tears, for a swift and speedy Refuah Shleimah (complete healing and recovery)...."

The Rabbi Suffered a Heart Attack in April
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu is considered one of the leading rabbinic figures of the religious-Zionist public in Israel. A noted kabbalist and scholar, Rabbi Eliyahu gives Torah lectures at the Heichal Yaakov synagogue in his Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe. He served as Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, alongside his Ashkenazic colleague, the late Rabbi Avraham Shapira, from 1983 to 1993.

In late April, on the last day of Passover, Rabbi Eliyahu was rushed to Shaarei Zedek hospital after suffering a heart attack. He underwent a six-hour surgery, including a successful bypass operation. Before the incident, the rabbi had delivered his regular sermon during Friday night services in his synagogue and showed no signs of weakness. He was released from the hospital on May 11, after doctors decided his condition had sufficiently improved.

Several months ago, Rabbi Eliyahu underwent cataract surgery in both eyes and refrained from leaving his home until April, when he renewed his public appearances at his synagogue and at various functions.

Jewish residents of Samaria are accustomed to passing through checkpoints on their way to central Israel. However, in recent weeks residents have been forced to undergo security checks on their way home to Samaria as well. Dozens protested the new procedure recently, accusing the government of ordering the security checks as a form of psychological pressure on Jewish residents of the area.

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Can't see video player? Click here.

“There is no security logic, and the army agrees with this,” said regional council head Gershon Messika. “To have a blockade entering the Shomron [Samaria]—what, are they afraid that Jews will come in?”

Residents also protested the frequent attacks on Israeli motorists near the Arab village of Azoun in Samaria. “Day after day Molotov cocktails and stones are thrown, and this big army is helpless, because it’s preoccupied with self-defense. When you’re protecting yourself, you can’t predict where the next blow will land,” Messika said.

In the above video, Jewish residents of Samaria gather to protest the checkpoints at the entrance to Samaria, and call on the army to retaliate against those who attack Israeli motorists.

A Sela Disengagement Authority spokesman said Sunday that the Authority has provided housing solutions for nearly two-thirds of the approximately 1,800 families evicted from their homes in the Gaza and northern Shomron regions three summers ago, and slammed the hundreds of still homeless refugees for making "unfair" demands on the government for reparations for lost homes and property.

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Speaking at a press conference to mark 1,000 days since Jewish residents were evicted from their homes, Adiel Shomron, deputy manager of the Sela Disengagement Authority, claimed that 600 former Gaza and northern Shomron families have received plots of land and could start building new homes immediately. In addition, another 300 families who have received their compensation money and purchased homes in other areas of Israel
 
"We cannot forces evacuees to accept the solutions we are offering," he said, "but the situation today is that we are waiting for the settlers to come.
 
Settlers: 'Compensation' Unfair
Hundreds of former Gaza and northern Shomron residents attended the press conference to protest the government's inaction to provide compensation and to reimburse residents for lost property and livelihood. One refugee, Aharon Fargon, who was forced from his home in the Gaza community of Dolech. Nearly three years later, he said he still lives in a "cara-villa" with no idea when, or if, he will be able to return to a normal family situation. 
 
"Three years later, I have no income, and I have no idea what the future holds.  I don't know when I'll be able to build a home [and] don't know when I'll be able to return to work," he said.
 
Shomron also claimed that the average payout to refugee families was approximately 1.5 million shekels, and that the process of distributing compensation benefits was completed approximately six months ago.
 
But whatever the payout, Fargon said he and his former neighbors received just 39 percent of the market value for their homes, and that the refugees have been forced to pay lawyers fees for administering their benefits.

"(The bottom line is) when the government wants this to end, it will end," he said. "But the government is earning money from our suffering, so they do not want it to end."

The Jerusalem District Police have cleared for publication the news that a group of Jerusalem-area Arabs have been arrested on charges of trading and selling weapons to Palestinian Authority residents of Judea and Samaria.

The 13 suspects, who are residents of Shuafat, were arrested in a joint sting operation by the Israel Police and Border Police over the past several weeks. Each confessed to the charges against him.

The weapons that were recovered by the police were brought to a munitions laboratory to determine whether they had been fired.

IDF Approves 20 New PA Police Stations
Meanwhile the IDF approved on Monday the establishment of 20 new PA police stations in Judea and Samaria as part of the ongoing effort to ease restrictions on Arab life in the territories. Thus far, four police stations have been established in the areas around the PA-controlled Samarian cities of Kalkilya and Tulkarm.

The US-trained PA police force is tasked with maintaining law and order in Judea and Samaria, although the IDF remains in control of dealing with terrorism.  The police force operates only during daylight hours.

In addition to the increased number of police stations throughout the PA areas, 70 security roadblocks were removed by the IDF during the month of May, including the Sheep Junction in Judea where a number of Jews have been murdered by PA terrorists in the past.

John Demjanjuk, 88, lost an appeal to the US Supreme Court on Monday against deportation from the United States to his native country, Ukraine. Demjanjuk is accused of serving as a Nazi guard during the Holocaust, a fact he concealed in his post-World War II request for political asylum in the United States.

In their appeal, which the high court refused to hear, Demjanjuk's attorneys tried to argue that a Cleveland, Ohio,
The Ohio court rejected the claim that the retired auto worker would suffer torture and persecution in Ukraine.
Immigration Court lacked the authority to order his deportation in 2005. The Ohio court rejected the claim that the retired auto worker would suffer torture and persecution in Ukraine; however, the court specified that if Ukraine refuses to accept him, Demjanjuk will be sent to either Poland or Germany.

Demjanjuk, named Ivan in his native tongue, has been fighting to keep his US citizenship since 1977, when the US Justice Department recommended that his citizenship be revoked. By 1986, he was extradited to Israel to face charges that he was the brutal Nazi-era Treblinka camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible."

Based in part on the American Justice Department investigation and Israeli testimony, Demjanjuk was sentenced to death in 1988. However, on appeal, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the death sentence in 1993, saying that new evidence from the collapsed Soviet Union introduced doubt that Demjanjuk was indeed Ivan the Terrible.

Immediately following the Supreme Court decision, ten Holocaust survivors petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding that Demjanjuk stand trial for Holocaust-era crimes as a guard at Sobibor and other concentration camps. The appellants argued that, while he may not have been identified as Ivan the Terrible, Demjanjuk could still be charged for his own crimes.

In rejecting the survivors' petition, the justices noted that Demjanjuk was extradited from the United States specifically to stand trial for offenses attributed to Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka, and not for other alternative charges. They also believed that the likelihood of a further acquittal was high, limiting therefore the public interest in pursuing the case. Demjanjuk was ultimately released and returned to America.

In 2002, a federal court judge determined that Demjanjuk served a Nazi camp guard in Poland and in Germany. Therefore, the court said, he must still be deported for having misrepresented his war-time activities at the time of his asylum request.

Demjanjuk claimed that he served in the Soviet army during World War II and was imprisoned by the Germans, not enlisted by them.

Three Knesset Members who abandoned the Gil Pensioners Party withdrew their proposal to form a new Knesset faction representing Russian-born billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak's Social Justice party. Their cancellation of the request came Monday afternoon, as a Knesset committee was debating whether to approve the amalgamation with Gaydamak's political party, which has yet to run in any elections.

The legal advisor for the Knesset, Nurit Elstein, said on Sunday that the Pensioners defectors, MKs Moshe Sharoni, Sarah Marom-Shalev and Elchanan Glazer, may have violated Knesset rules by agreeing to join up with Gaydamak. Elstein decided to examine the legality of the new faction following a request from the Pensioners Party Knesset faction chairman MK Yitzchak Galanti.

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MK Sharoni, who led the walkout from the Pensioners Party, explained that he will study the relevant legal opinions and re-submit the request after he consults with attorneys. "But I ask," Sharoni added, "What took so long? The agreement was signed on May 1. Today, we are 18 days after the fact - why? Did they not have enough time to examine the clauses?"

Sharoni said that he is willing to take the matter up with the Supreme Court if it becomes necessary. "And I will sue whoever is involved [in blocking the formation of the new faction]. This is harassment. It is immoral. It's not fair," the MK charged.

Pensioners Party leader MK Rafi Eitan said the withdrawal of the proposal was expected, because MK Sharoni knew that the Knesset panel would not approve formation of the new faction.

Calling those people questioning the legality of the proposed formation of the Social Justice Knesset faction "irresponsible," Gaydamak claimed, "Everything was done according to law."

Monday morning, Gaydamak was questioned at the Petach Tikva Police Headquarters over suspicions that he has been involved in money laundering. The Russian-Israeli businessman claimed that the years of investigation into his affairs by the Israeli police have been "to satisfy their personal interests."