Israeli security agencies are watching the northern border closely Thursday as the burial of a top Hizbullah commander takes place on the third anniversary of the assassination of Lebanon's anti-Syrian, pro-democracy former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Israeli embassies around the world have been warned by the General Security Service (Shin Bet) to raise their alert status in anticipation of threatened retaliation for the assassination of Hizbullah's second-in-command, arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh.

The entire Arab world has pointed the finger at Israel for killing Mughniyeh. Jerusalem officially denied any involvement in the Damascus car bombing which killed him late Tuesday night.

The mastermind of most, if not all of Hizbullah’s terror attacks, for more than two decades, is to be buried Thursday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (7:00 a.m. EST) in Beirut.

The funeral, expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pro-Syrian supporters, comes on the same day in which hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian Lebanese were expected to attend a rally in memory of Hariri.

It was widely suspected that Damascus had a hand in his assassination; Hariri was outspoken in his opposition to Syrian dominance of Lebanon.
 
However, many Hariri supporters said they would stay home because of fears of violence.

Lebanese army soldiers have been deployed throughout Beirut, and security is heavy. Nasrallah will not appear  at Mughniyeh's funeral in person, inasmuch as he has been hiding from Israeli justice in an underground bunker for more than a year.

The convergence of the two events comes after months of tension between pro and anti-Syrian parties, which has caused the worst political crisis in the country since the 15-year-long civil war from 1975-1980.

Lebanon remains without a president; the government is paralyzed and unable to reach an agreement between the majority government and the vocal, sizeable minority of Hizbullah and other pro-Syrian allies.
     
The Fox Outfoxed
The U.S. had offered $5 million for information that would lead to the capture or conviction of Mughinyeh, widely accepted as the Number 2 leader in Hizbullah, second only to Nasrallah himself.

Mughniyeh was responsible for the murders of hundreds of Americans and Jews in terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East and in South America.

Known as The Fox, he underwent plastic surgery twice, did not allow himself to be photographed in recent years, frequently left a room by a window and often did not sleep in the same house two nights in a row.

"The world is a better place without this man in it," said American State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, who expressed Washington’s joy over his death. "One way or another he was brought to justice."
 
"Car bombings were Imad Mughniyeh's specialty," noted the National Post of Canada. "During his quarter-century as a master terrorist, he sent explosive-laden vehicles to blow up embassies, military barracks and even a community center.

“It was perhaps only fitting that when he met his demise in Damascus it was in a sudden concussive burst of gas and flames--a bomb planted in a parked Mitsubishi Pajero."

US Tightens Sanctions on Syria
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush has ordered stricter economic sanctions against Syria, the White House announced in an executive message to Congress.

The order to freeze the assets of people held responsible for actions that "undermine efforts to stabilize Iraq," came Wednesday, the day before Mughniyeh’s burial and the anniversary of Hariri’s assassination.

Economic sanctions against Syria date back to 2004 for Damascus's support of the Hizbullah and Hamas terrorist groups.

The United States has charged Syria with being behind Hariri’s murder. "Syria continues to undermine Lebanon's sovereignty and democracy, imprison democracy activists, curtail human rights, and sponsor and harbor terrorists," the White House said.

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, the eldest son of the current spiritual leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, is charging the party with endangering Jews.

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef said the Shas party should immediately quit the government or bear responsibility for putting Israel in grave danger.

He charged Wednesday that Shas can no longer use the excuse that negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to surrender parts of Jerusalem are far from fruition. 

Shas party chairman and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Eli Yishai, expressed surprise Tuesday when reporters informed him that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, chief negotiator for Israel, had discussed the status of Jerusalem with PA negotiator Ahmed Qureia in meetings Monday and Tuesday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said repeatedly that the status of Jerusalem would not be negotiated until after all other outstanding issues had been resolved in the negotiations with the PA.

As late as Wednesday, the prime minister reassured Minister Yishai that he remained firm in his commitment that Jerusalem would not be put on the negotiating table at this point, despite numerous reports to the contrary.

Yosef said that Shas is betraying the decision of the Council of Torah Sages and putting the entire Jewish people in endanger by remaining in the government. He added that Shas would garner a lot of popular support from strong pro-Israel voters if it quit the coalition.

Shas sources say that Yosef has disagreed politically in the past with his father, the party’s spiritual leader and said that Yosef’s views do not reflect the positions of his father or of the Shas party.

They reiterated, however, that Shas remains firm in its intention to leave the government if Jerusalem is put on the negotiating table.

Eight-year-old Osher Tuito regained consciousness Thursday and is now breathing on his own after days of surgery by doctors desperately trying to save his right leg.

Surgeons were forced to amputate his left leg at the knee. A Kassam rocket attack on Sderot Saturday night seriously wounded both the young boy and his 19-year-old brother Rami. Rami also spent days on the operating table.

Osher, whose name in Hebrew means "happiness," had been kept in a medically-induced coma and on a respirator in order to allow his body to heal from the multiple traumas and surgeries following the blast.
 
Osher and Rami’s mother and 15-year-old brother were also briefly hospitalized following the Kassam attack. Thirteen other residents were treated for severe emotional shock.

The Kassam attacks fired by Gaza terrorists have continued unabated since that debilitating attack. On Thursday alone, five rockets had been launched at the western Negev by midday.

Two of Thursday's missiles exploded in open areas near Sapir College, in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council not far from Sderot. Another one landed in a field within the limits of the southern city, and a fourth exploded on the outskirts of the community. A fifth missile landed in a field elsewhere in the western Negev.

No injuries or damage reported in any of Thursday’s attacks.

On Wednesday a rocket scored a direct hit on a house in Sderot in one of several attacks that day on southern Israel. Several people were treated for shock and the house sustained heavy damage. A Kassam rocket was also fired Wednesday by Gaza terrorists at the coastal city of Ashkelon. The missile landed just south of the city. No injuries or damage were reported.

Late Wednesday night, two more rockets were launched from northern Gaza. Both exploded in open areas. No one was injured and there was no damage.

Palestinian Authority sources quoted by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency reported that Israel killed two Hamas terrorists in Egyptian territory in recent days.

According to the report, the Hamas gunmen crossed into Sinai during the period when the border lay open and were killed by IDF Special Forces as they approached Israel.

These terrorists were the apparent reason Gazan families initially claimed it was their relatives that carried out the suicide bombing in Dimona. In fact, the terrorists were killed before they could cross into Israel; the Dimona bombers came from Hevron.

IDF Efforts Inside Israel
On Wednesday evening, An IDF force operating at Halat al Miya, southeast of Hevron, found a Carl Gustav recoilless anti-tank gun, as well as a handgun and three cartridges. The weapons were confiscated. Their Arab owner was arrested and taken to be interrogated by security forces.

A day earlier, an IDF soldier was stabbed in the back by an Islamic Jihad terrorist at a security checkpoint near Jenin. He is listed in moderate condition at Ramle’s Hillel Yaffe Hospital.

IDF Arrests 13 Wanted Terrorists
Army soldiers Wednesday night arrested 13 more wanted terrorists in Judea and Samaria, following the arrest of 70 terrorists the night before. There were no injuries, and security personnel are interrogating those arrested.

Soldiers also discovered and confiscated a revolver and ammunition that were in a building where some of the terrorists were hiding.

Hamas Asks Egypt To Hand Over Fatah Terrorists
Hamas has asked Egypt to hand over rival Fatah party terrorists who fled from Gaza last June during Hamas's military takeover of the region. Hamas official Sa'id Siam stated that Hamas presented Egypt a complete file documenting confessions of the terrorists' plans to assassinate deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
 
The evidence reportedly includes instructions, sent by e-mail and cell phone by Fatah members in Egypt, on carrying out the planned assassination.

An Education Ministry '60th Anniversary of Israel' poster features a non-existent Christian church over the Western Wall.

The poster, distributed to all schools across the country, features eight symbols portraying important aspects of the State of Israel: The Declaration of Independence flanked by the country's official flag and emblem; photos of the Knesset, government complex and Supreme Court, representing the government's three branches; a satellite photo of the entire country; and a large photograph of the Western Wall (the Kotel). 

This last, however, is marred by technological manipulation in two ways. In addition to the golden Dome of the Rock towering over the Kotel, the minaret of another Moslem mosque is shown above the Wall - despite the fact that in reality it is much further to the north and out of sight of Jews at the Wall.  Secondly, a church spire has been placed to the right of the minaret and above the Kotel - when in fact no such church is located in the vicinity.

The photo thus creates the effect of a Jerusalem belonging jointly to three religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

An Attempt to Internationalize Jerusalem
Jerusalem City Councilman David Hadari (National Religious Party) refuses to take it lying down. In an urgent letter to Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Hadari wrote, "This is clearly not a simple mistake, and certainly was not done innocently.  The distortion of reality and the misuse of photos to transmit a message implying the internationalization of Jerusalem is an act that abusively tramples the status of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish Nation in the State of Israel."

Hadari demands that all the schools be instructed to remove the poster, and that the Education Ministry send another one in its stead "that will accurately and fairly reflect the true reality."

Temple Institute Speaks Out
The Temple Institute is also up in arms. Director Yehuda Glick told the NRG website, "It is regrettable that those in charge of the education of our children... are ashamed of the Jewish roots of Jerusalem.  The Jewish People is the only nation that prays towards Jerusalem and its holy sites, and is the only one that longs for its rebuilding; the attempts to distort this will not change history."

Glick compared the "adjusted" poster to an imaginary Education Ministry poster depicting the Supreme Court towered over by the Vatican and a Moslem religious court, or to a photograph of Mt. Herzl surrounded by the graves of George Habash and Stalin, "in the interests of making a gesture to the brotherhood of nations."

Education Ministry Responds
The Education Ministry explained in response that "in order to express in a pictorial manner the fact that Israel's capital Jerusalem is sacred to the three religions, a Jerusalem church spire was incorporated into the photograph.  This was an act of graphic design whose purpose was to concretize this matter."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told foreign diplomats Wedesday that Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza could have created hope for Arab residents of the region, but that Hamas terrorists have capitalized on a Jew-free Gaza to build military capabilities to attack Israeli civilians and IDF troops.

Speaking on a ministry-sponsored tour of the area, Livni told diplomats not to underestimate the strength of Hamas' military power, and charged the international community with responsibility to help put a stop to daily rocket and missile attacks on Jewish towns in the western Negev region.

"Israel pulled out of Gaza. We offered hope to the Palestinians, (but) the current situation there is one of terrorism. Hamas is getting stronger. The international community supported our decision to pull IDF troops off the Philadelphi patrol route, and Hamas has used the opportunity to build a small, but powerful, army in Gaza. Israeli and foreign decision makers must deal with this," she said.

Livni also said Israel would continue to differentiate between "extremist" and "moderate" forces in the Palestinian Authority, but admitted that negotiations with PA terrorist groups would not lead to a solution for besieged residents of Sderot and surrounding communities.

"We will continue negotiating but we must be realistic," she said. "Negotiations alone will not create a magic solution for the problems created from Gaza, certainly not in the short term. The opposite is actually true. The situation in Gaza has an impact on our ablity to implement the results of these negotiations."

Livni also said November's international summit in Annapolis, Md. produced "agreement" that Israel-Arab negotiations would be subject to the Arab side meeting the demands of the US-sponsored Road Map, which calls for "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere," and demands that "official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."

"There are three things we will never agree to: A terror state, a radical-Islamist state on our border, or a weak country doomed to failure… I believe this is in the interest of both sides.

"The content of the negotiations must provide answers for the negative experience of Gaza. Therefore, any future agreement must include security assurances for Israel. Any future agreement will be subordinate to the facts on the ground. Gaza is ruled by Hamas and absolutely has a direct influence on the Palestinian future.

The diplomats' agenda also included an address by Brigadier General Moshe Tamir, commander of the IDF Gaza Division, who presented the group with an overall summary of the Hamas threat, and remarks by Colonel Nir Peres, who presented evidence that terror groups are using buildings owned by international organizations to fire Kassam rockets at Israeli civilians. Peres also presented an overview of the uses of international aid to Gaza.

A Jewish Agency emissary has been arrested and charged with helping non-Jews pose as Jews so that they could immigrate to Israel. In response, Likud party MK Yuli Edelstein says the Jewish Agency must find ways to encourage Aliyah and support its emissaries other than the "quota" system that currently exists.

The arrested man, a 68-year-old resident of Raanana who was the Jewish Agency's representative in Venezuela, was taken into custody at Ben Gurion International Airport by the Immigration Police.  He is suspected of having brought some 200 people into Israel as new olim [immigrants] under the Automatic Citizenship for Jews law - even though he knew that their conversion to Judaism was fictitious.  The police say he admitted to having done this in order to receive recognition from the Jewish Agency as a "top employee."

MK Edelstein, who himself immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union, criticized the Jewish Agency's policies for encouraging the sham.  "The Jewish Agency must find new ways to show appreciation to its emissaries," Edelstein said, "without encouraging a certain 'quota' in finding and bringing Jews to Israel.  Aliyah is critical for Israel, but only inasmuch as it contributes to the strengthening of Zionism - and that is why we cannot rely just on numbers and quotas."

"We have been witness of late," Edelstein said, "to an increasing stream of new immigrants who have no connection at all to Judaism and Zionism - and this hurts the loyalty of the Jewish agency as well as the entire Zionist enterprise.  We must find new ways to encourage Aliyah."

The Jewish Agency oversaw the immigration to Israel of an estimated one million people from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, of whom an estimated 300,000 were not Jewish.

From Venezuela to Israel

The sham Venezuelan immigrants were all treated to the basket of benefits worth thousands of shekels that every new immigrant receives. Some of them still live today in Ramle, while others have left the country. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have sought refuge in the United States, Europe and other western countries since the rise to power of the dictator-like Hugo Chavez in 2001.

A spokesman for the Jewish Agency said, "We have always been committed to guaranteeing a legal Aliyah process.  We are therefore helping the police in its investigation, and we have even flown one of our emissaries back to Israel for the purpose.  We hope that the suspicions will prove to be false and that the emissary will soon be back at work." 

Agency sources say it is not true that emissaries are pressured to bring back olim "at any cost."

Jewish and Non-Jewish Exodus

Venezuela's Jewish and non-Jewish communities have been in upheaval since the 2001 election of socialist Hugo Chavez as president, especially since Chavez's re-election in 2004. Since assuming office, Chavez has nationalized several industries, including at least one major oil producer, seized near-dictatorial powers and the country has seen spiraling crime and inflation rates. The result has been a middle class exodus from the country, with hundreds of thousands of citizens seeking refuge in the United States, Europe and other western countries.

For the country's Jewish community, which numbers approximately 15,000 people, Chavez's close relations with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and several anti-Semitic elements inside Venezuela have raised questions about the community's future in the country.

Community leaders have sought to minimize anti-Semitic statements by Chavez saying they were taken "out of context," but several Jewish community buildings and synagogues have been targeted by anti-Semitic attacks in recent months.

Hamas leader and arch-terrorist Khaled Mashaal met a year ago with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro in Teheran. Mashaal and Maduro agreed that Venezuela and the Palestinian Authority, at that time led by Hamas, would open direct diplomatic ties. Maduro said that the PA would be allowed to open an embassy in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Venezuela was one of the first countries to accept Hamas as a legitimate governing body.

Syria confirmed for the first time Wednesday night that the Number 2 leader of the Hizbullah terrorist organization, 45-year-old Imad Mughniyeh, was killed late Tuesday in a car bombing in Damascus and placed the blame squarely on Israel's shoulders after an initial statement in which it refrained from assigning responsibility for the hit.

The state-run SANA news agency quoted Syrian Interior Minister Brig.-Gen. Bassam Abdul-Majid as saying "The ongoing investigation into the car bombing in the residential Kfar Sousse neighborhood last night has proven that it targeted Lebanese combatant Imad Mughniyeh. Syria condemns this cowardly terrorist act," he added.

Hizbullah immediately blamed Israel, the terrorist group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Hussein Fadlallah, adding that "with Mughniyeh's killing, the jihad (holy war -ed.) has lost one of the pillars in the fight against its enemies."

An unnamed senior Syrian source said  Mughniyeh  was a target for both American and Israeli intelligence, but said that Defense Minister Ehud Barak "tends toward this kind of quality operation against resistance leaders... and wants to boost the morale of the Israeli army after the loss it suffered in the Lebanon War... and revive the military establishment's deterrent ability."

Israel officially denied involvement in the assassination.

Iran strongly condemned the killing and pointed its finger directly at Jerusalem. "This action is a clear result and example of organized state terrorism by the Zionist regime," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammed Ali Hosseini, according to the state-run news agency IRNA. He also called on the international community to "prevent the Zionist regime from taking these actions that are a clear violation of international law," and praised the arch-terrorist, calling him "a golden page in the history of mankind's fight against the aggressive and occupying Zionists."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) vowed to attack Israel's leaders in retaliation for the assassination. In a statement issued Wednesday, the organization threatened, "The Zionist murderers and the collaborators... must know that the hand of the resistance and its people will respond with  bullets and murderous explosives [at the] heads, throats and chests of the leaders and heads of the Zionist terror and its collaborators."

Washington welcomed Mughniyeh's killing. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack denied knowlege of who was responsible for his death, but added, "The world is a better place without this man in it. He was a cold-blooded killer, a mass murderer and a terrorist responsible for countless innocent lives lost. One way or another, he was brought to justice."

Mughniyeh, considered to be the mastermind behind most, if not all of Hizbullah’s terror attacks, lived in hiding for years and was able to evade the public eye until the bombing, executed with surgical precision. Other than some shattered windows in the residential neighborhood in which the attack took place, no buildings were damaged. 

An unconfirmed report by Iranian sources said Hajj Hussein Halil, politburo director and deputy to Hizbullah chief terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, also was killed. Hizbullah did not comment on the report.

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, with the American government offering millions of dollars for information leading to his arrest and/or capture 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.

United States President George W. Bush again signed a six-month waiver of a law which bans the presence of the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist group in Washington, D.C.

The law was based on anti-terrorist legislation dating back to the 1980’s, but has been routinely waived since the Oslo process in 1993.

Bush sent the renewed waiver to Congress on Wednesday, the day before the funeral in Beirut of Hizbullah arch-terrorist chieftain Imad Mughniyeh, who spent 25 years on the FBI’s “20 Most Wanted” list.

The American President also signed another routine six-month waiver, this one postponing the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

President Bush had promised that his first step on taking office in 2001 would be to move the embassy to Israel’s capital.

In less than a month after Bush entered the White House, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell reneged on Bush’s campaign promise, citing tension and violence in the area. Powell rejected attempts to pin him down on exactly when the embassy would relocate to Jerusalem.

The new Bush administration’s National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice also stalled, saying the new administration was still committed to the move, but could not say when it would take place.

On June 12, 2001 President Bush issued the second of what would become a series of semi-annual “routine” waivers to delay the embassy’s relocation to Jerusalem. His predecessor, former President Bill Clinton, had carried out the same practice.

The US embassy has remained in Tel Aviv up to the present time. Observers have noted that the delay of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem calls into question US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Bush’s term in office will end January 15, 2009, leaving him two more opportunities to fulfill his promise to the American Jewish community and the People of Israel.

Jerusalem has always enjoyed the monopoly over the top spiritual spot in the world – but now voters have a chance this month to reinforce that reality in an online contest by Hasbro, the company that created the Monopoly game.
 
Jewish communities all over the world are racing the internet highway in their drive to put Jerusalem in first place on the board when Hasbro releases its new global edition of Monopoly.

The company’s 75-year-old game of commerce and real estate will feature 20 world cities in its new edition, which was opened to international competition last week. The classic board features famous places in the United States, including a number of streets in New York City as well as national railroads and other properties.

The contest will continue through February 28 to allow voters to cast their ballots for the top 10 cities from a pre-selected list that includes Jerusalem, Israel.

At the end of the month, the 20 cities with the highest number of ballots will take their place in history on the new global Monopoly board.

Those promoting the idea of having Jerusalem on the board claim it will help educate Jewish children and remind them of the existence of the holy city that is the capital of Israel.

But not all agree. Opponents argue that Jerusalem should not be considered as a property than can be bought and sold. Some of those who want to make sure that “Jerusalem is not for sale” even on a game board are voting in the other direction.

Directions on how to vote are being sent in email chain letters and

1. Go online to www.hasbro.com and click on the box marked “Monopoly, vote here.”

2. In the right-pane, click ‘Sort By: Cities’

3. Scroll down to ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ and click it.

4. A pop-up appears: click ‘Add to My Cities’

5. A small picture of Jerusalem should appear in lower section of the screen. (Please do not select any other cities. This would reduce Jerusalem’s scoring.)

6. Click “Vote.”

7. Click “Create your login now.”

8. Enter a desired username and password. Click “Save.”

9. You will receive a confirmation email at the entered address.

10. Click the link in the email.

11. Put Jerusalem where it belongs – in the top spot!

(Psssst! Voters are allowed to cast their ballots every day.)