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Daily News – September 3rd, 2010
Our news sources today are Ha’aretz and Ynet.
In today’s headlines:
U.S. pressuring Abbas to continue talks even if settlements expand..…….. Israeli car stoned in West Bank; girl injured…….. Hebrew U. researchers develop treatment to kill HIV cells
And now for the news in detail:
According to the source, a Palestinian okay to the renewal of construction just as direct talks are resumed is politically impossible. Sources in Ramallah said yesterday that both the Israelis and Americans know Abbas' likely course of action. At first, Abbas will demand that the talks not last longer than a year, culminating with the establishment of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, and with Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas would not be able to give up Palestinian sovereignty in East Jerusalem and especially the Temple Mount, but large Jewish neighborhoods would be retained by Israel. If this much is achieved, Abbas will be able to agree that the refugee issue will be resolved primarily within the borders of the new Palestinian state, with only a few tens of thousands receiving Israeli citizenship as a humanitarian gesture.
------------ Terror wave continues: A 12-year-old girl riding in a car driving through Tapuach Junction in the West Bank was mildly wounded Thursday, after the car was stoned by Palestinians. This is the third West Bank attack in three days, just as Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were getting underway in Washington. Security forces began canvassing the area immediately in search of suspects. Magen David Adom emergency services paramedics were immediately dispatched to the scene and treated the girl on site. She was rushed to the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
------------ A team of researchers from the Hebrew University has developed a treatment that completely destroys HIV-infected human cells in laboratory cultures, according to an article published last month in the scientific journal AIDS Research and Therapy. The therapy, developed by scientists from the university's Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and the Institute of Chemistry, destroys cells infected with HIV without damaging adjacent healthy cells. Current treatments involve inhibiting the replication of the virus, which delays the development of AIDS, making AIDS a chronic, yet managed disease.
----------- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to lead the direct negotiations with the Palestinians inaugurated in Washington on September 2. Netanyahu says he plans to focus on security arrangements before addressing final borders. Speaking behind closed doors, Netanyahu said the success of the talks will hinge on understandings between the leaders. "I will want to reach agreed principles with the Palestinian leadership and there will be no need for many teams [of negotiators] and hundreds of meetings .... If I get the security that will ensure that no missiles will fall on Tel Aviv, it will be possible to move quickly toward a comprehensive arrangement," he was quoted as saying. Netanyahu said during his meetings he wants to discuss security issues with the Palestinians first; only then would the two sides focus on borders of a future Palestinian state.
----------- Hamas will try to execute more terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, a Palestinian Authority source told Ynet on Thursday night. General Adnan Damiri, a commander and spokesman for the Palestinian Security and Police Forces, said that the PA's security forces were "on high alert." Our premise, he added, is that Hamas "will attempt to launch more attacks and that the settlers will try to expand their retaliatory acts, as well." The past three days have seen three attacks against Israelis: Tuesday saw four Israelis killed near Mount Hebron, Wednesday saw two Israelis injured near Ramallah, and Thursday saw a 12-year old girl wounded in a stoning attack at Tapuach Junction.
Jerusalem Weather
Forecasters called for 81° Fahrenheit in Jerusalem today, then going down to 66° tonight, with partly cloudy skies.
Daily News – September 2nd, 2010
Our news sources today are Ha’aretz, Arutz 7 and Ynet.
In today’s headlines:
Shooting Victims Buried..…….. Hamas claims responsibility for second West Bank shooting attack in two days…….. IDF warns of wave of violence as Hamas vows to sink peace talks
And now for the news in detail:
Yitzchak and Talia Imas, parents of six children, were buried in the Mount of Olives (Har Hazeitim) cemetery in Jerusalem. Their daughter Rut eulogized them, saying, “For 19 years you raised me... G-d, thank you for giving me wonderful parents.” She recalled their 25th wedding anniversary just two weeks earlier, “You promised you would reach your golden anniversary as well.” “Mother, I promise to look over our family, to keep doing the things that were important to you, and to keep the family together,” she added. “I'll be there for the little ones, who will grow up with no mother or father.”
------------ Hamas on Thursday claimed responsibility for a shooting attack in which two Israelis were wounded, one of them seriously, in the West Bank. Wednesday's roadside attack, near the Jewish settlement of Kochav Hashachar, occurred on the eve of face-to-face peace negotiations between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. "The attack was a message to those who pledged to the Zionist enemy that there would be no more attacks," said Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida, referring to Abbas's U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority administration.
------------ The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday warned of a possible wave of attacks as Hamas militants try to sabotage Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which formally opened in Washington on Wednesday. The warning follows two drive-by shootings on Israeli targets in the West Bank this week, which killed four Israeli civilians and wounded two more. Hamas militants claimed responsibility for both attacks. "There may be more attacks," Brig. Gen Nitzan Alon told Army Radio. "The capability exists on the ground." Alon said the military had received no specific intelligence about the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday – but that the army had expected attempts to disrupt the talks.
----------- U.S. President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away as he opened a U.S.-sponsored summit to relaunch direct talks shadowed by Middle East violence. But in the wake of a second West Bank shooting attack against Israelis in as many days and a persistent deadlock over settlements, Obama acknowledged skepticism "in some quarters" about his prospects for succeeding where so many U.S. leaders have failed and said he was under no illusions about the challenges ahead. Wading into hands-on peacemaking on the eve of restarting face-to-face negotiations after a 20-month hiatus, Obama brought both sides together for ceremonial handshakes at the White House and a commitment to try to forge within a year a deal on Palestinian statehood.
----------- Iran called Thursday on all Iranians to attend nationwide anti-Israeli rallies as direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians were under way in Washington. The late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had declared the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan as Quds (Jerusalem) Day and called for mass rallies against Israel and in support of the Palestinians. The rallies this year, to be held this Friday, coincide with the first direct Middle East peace talks in almost two years, set Thursday in Washington, where US President Barack Obama was hosting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Jerusalem Weather
Forecasters called for 79° Fahrenheit in Jerusalem today, then going down to 64° tonight, with partly cloudy skies.
Daily News – August 31st, 2010
Our news sources today are Ha’aretz and Ynet.
In today’s headlines:
Netanyahu heads to Washington as settlement building casts shadow over peace talks..…….. Mubarak signals Egypt succession by taking son to Washington…….. UN votes to keep peacekeepers on Israel-Lebanon border until 2011
And now for the news in detail:
But despite Netanyahu's optimism, negotiations will start under a cloud of uncertainty, as Israel has still failed to address Palestinian demands to continue its 10-month construction freeze on West Bank settlements, due to expire on September 26. "We have held talks with the Americans and there is no change in our stance," Netanyahu said at Sunday's cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "I assume that there will be problems, but the framework of negotiations is the way it was established, without preconditions. I do not know that there is any intention to go beyond discussion on procedure in Washington." The Palestinians have repeatedly threatened to walk out of the U.S.-backed talks if building continues.
------------ Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will accompany his father to this week's Washington peace summit in what may be the clearest sign yet that he is being groomed for the succession. Gamal has long been the center of speculation that he will replace his ageing father - but until now the 82-year-old president has kept his presumed heir at arm's length during high-profile international engagements. This time, the younger of the president's two sons is expected to meet with Israeli delegates to U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians, and perhaps even with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. Two months ago Haaretz revealed that President Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt almost unopposed since 1982, is ill with cancer, prompting vehement denials from Cairo.
------------ The UN Security Council decided unanimously Monday to keep its peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon another year because of the unstable situation along the border with Israel. The council voted 15-0 to keep the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until August 31, 2011, saying that force and the Lebanese army have established a "new strategic environment" in southern Lebanon since 2006, following the brief Israeli-Hezbollah war in the region. UNIFIL has been deployed for decades in southern Lebanon. But its mandate was strengthened with the addition of more troops after 2006 to monitor the ceasefire that ended the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. It currently has 11,492 military personnel on land 794 personnel serving in the maritime task force patrolling Lebanon's coastlines. The council said in the resolution that "all parties" must implement the 2006 ceasefire, prevent violations and respect the blue line in its entirety, and to cooperate with UNIFIL.
----------- German central banker Thilo Sarrazin is to appear before his board of the Bundesbank Tuesday to answer for controversial comments made on race and immigration. Sarrazin caused uproar with comments relating to his new book, in which he criticized Germany's Muslim community and also made comments about a "Jewish gene." Calls for his resignation have come from the government's integration officer as well as Muslim and Jewish community groups. The bank's corporate governance officer, Uwe Schnieder, said in Frankfurt that Sarrazin would appear on Tuesday. A scheduled meeting of the board had been due to take place Wednesday.
----------- Dutch investigators on Tuesday questioned two men arrested at Amsterdam's airport after U.S. authorities found suspicious items in their checked luggage, including a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle and a knife and box cutter. The pair were arrested Monday morning at Schiphol Airport after getting off a United Airlines flight from Chicago, where their decision to change their flight plans raised flags in the U.S., officials said. They were being held at the airport for questioning, but neither has been charged with any offense in the Netherlands, said Martijn Boelhouwer, the national prosecutor's office spokesman.
Jerusalem Weather
Forecasters called for 84° Fahrenheit in Jerusalem today, then going down to 64° tonight, with partly cloudy skies.
Daily News – August 30th, 2010
Our news sources today are Ha’aretz and Ynet.
In today’s headlines:
Report: Hezbollah, Syria to join forces in future clash with Israel..…….. Netanyahu: I never promised to extend West Bank settlement construction freeze…….. Feminist groups urge PM to add woman to peace talks team
And now for the news in detail:
The report came as Syrian president Bashar Assad urged Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri earlier Monday to support Hezbollah and maintain calm in the divided country. Speaking with al-Rai Monday, sources have indicated that Hezbollah and Syria have formed a joint headquarters meant to orchestrate the cooperation between the two forces, which is to be commanded by two officers – one from the Syrian military and one from Hezbollah. The joint command, the report said, would ensure full cooperation in land, sea, and air warfare, as well as take care of the positioning of anti-aircraft missiles in both Lebanon and Syria in order to confront the possibility of an Israeli nuclear assault.
------------ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Likud ministers on Sunday that he had not made any promises to U.S. President Barack Obama or any other American government official regarding an extension of the settlement construction freeze in the West Bank. "We made no proposals to the Americans on extending the freeze," Netanyahu said. "We said that the future of the communities will be discussed as one of the elements of a final-status settlement, along with the other issues. We promised nothing on this issue to the Americans." Netanyahu sharply criticized the Palestinian demand for extending Israel's 10-month construction freeze, which expires September 26. "They are building an entire city with our encouragement and then they are fighting with us over every house in Judea and Samaria," said Netanyahu.
------------ Weeks after High Court judges harshly criticized the Turkel Committee's failure to include a woman, a coalition of 14 women's groups appealed to the prime minister on Sunday to name women to the team handling peace talks with the Palestinians. Among the signatories to a letter addressed to Benjamin Netanyahu are Women Lawyers for Social Justice, Ahoti Movement, Isha L'Isha, Economic Empowerment for Women, Lobby for Gender Equality, The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow, and Kolech. The organizations are demanding that the prime minister appoint a woman in accordance with a law that requires "adequate female representation" on government committees formed by the cabinet, the prime minister, a minister or a deputy minister. In their letter, the groups said that the law also regards negotiating "staffs" or "teams" as bodies bound by the terms under which state committees operate.
----------- The United States on Sunday condemned remarks by the spiritual leader of Israel's leading ultra-Orthodox party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who said the Palestinians should "perish". "We regret and condemn the inflammatory statements by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley. "These remarks are not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace." "As we move forward to relaunch peace negotiations, it is important that actions by people on all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it." Yosef had said during his weekly Shabbat sermon that the Palestinians, namely Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, should perish from the world. Yosef, a founder of the Shas Party, also described Palestinians as evil, bitter enemies of Israel.
----------- Despite Israel's objections, Russia will not cancel its sale of advanced missiles to Syria, the Kremlin announced on Sunday. Haaretz reported on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to cancel the sale of long-range surface-to-sea cruise missiles to the Syrian Army. Following the Haaretz report, Sergei Prikhodko, a senior adviser to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, told the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti that Moscow would fulfill all agreements it had made with foreign countries and would not halt the deal. "Lately, some Israeli media outlets have been actively disseminating information distorting Russia's position on the implementation of its obligations to Syria, including in the sphere of military and technical cooperation," Prikhodko said. "I would like to stress that the Russian Federation honors all the agreements that were previously signed between Russia and Syria."
Jerusalem Weather
Forecasters called for 84° Fahrenheit in Jerusalem today, then going down to 64° tonight, with partly cloudy skies.
Daily News – August 27th, 2010
Our news sources today are Ha’aretz and Ynet.
In today’s headlines:
Hamas: PA can't give up Jerusalem in direct Mideast peace talks..…….. Netanyahu proposes bi-weekly meetings with Abbas during direct peace talks…….. Israel working to thwart Russia arms deal with Syria
And now for the news in detail:
On Tuesday, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal said that the upcoming U.S.-backed direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were illegitimate and the result of coercion by Washington. Speaking in Ramadan fast-breaking meal in the Gaza town of Khan Younis late Thursday, Haniyeh claimed that "no negotiator who would give up Jerusalem has a national mandate," adding that "Palestinians across the globe will not support any movement holding absurd talks with Israel."
------------ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed to the U.S. administration on Thursday that he hold a face-to-face meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas every two weeks to try to forge covert understandings and set principles to solve every issue. After the principles are determined, small negotiation teams would hammer out the details and put the understandings into writing. Netanyahu said in a meeting to prepare for the Washington summit that "serious negotiations in the Middle East mean only direct, quiet and consecutive talks between the two leaders on the key issues." Netanyahu on Thursday evening began forming Israel's negotiating team for the direct peace negotiations set to commence next week, the Prime Minister's Office announced.
------------ Israel is trying to prevent an arms deal between Russia and Syria, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to stop the arms sale involving advanced anti-shipping missiles. The deal involves the sale of advanced P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to the Syrian military. Israel considers this weaponry capable of posing significant danger to its navy vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. In a conversation with Putin, Netanyahu told the Russian leader that missiles his country had delivered to Syria were then transferred to Hezbollah and used against IDF troops during the Second Lebanon War.
----------- The Auschwitz memorial in Poland says it has obtained around 150 medical instruments believed to have been used by the Nazis in experiments on the death camp inmates. Memorial spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel said Thursday the gynecological and surgical instruments were recently offered to the museum by a historian who acquired them from a family that found them shortly after World War II at their house, which was located on the former camp grounds. Bartyzel says given where they were found and that their shape matches that of wartime instruments, it is "almost certain" that they were used by Auschwitz doctor Carl Clauberg, an obstetrician who experimented with the mass sterilization of women.
----------- A Paris synagogue received a letter marked with a swastika containing bullets and death threats against Jews, French News Agency AFP reported on Wednesday. “Dirty Jews, we’ll get you all,” read the letter, which, accompanied by nine bullets and a swastika, was received at the synagogue. The anonymous package, which was reportedly delivered on Aug. 14, was discovered Tuesday by synagogue workers. The synagogue in Drancy was erected in place of an infamous transit camp from which Jews were sent to death camps during World War II.
Jerusalem Weather
Forecasters called for 88° Fahrenheit in Jerusalem today, then going down to 72° tonight, with partly clear skies.
Daily News – August 26th, 2010
Our news sources today are Ha’aretz and Ynet.
In today’s headlines:
Palestinians clash with settlers, Border Police in East Jerusalem.…….. Military Advocate General: Gaza blockade entirely legal…….. Turkish officials: We're committed to preserving friendly Israel ties
And now for the news in detail:
A Jewish resident of the region, 22, was lightly hurt when a rock was hurled at his head. The Palestinian demonstrators also set fire to trees, trash receptacles, a guard's post and more. According to the demonstrators, the clashes began when settlers tried to break down a gate leading to a mosque courtyard. "At three a.m., four settlers arrived and asked to open the gate so they could take a shortcut to a spring," said Mahmoud Karin, a resident of the neighborhood and an employee of the Silwan information center. "One of the [Muslim] worshippers saw them and yelled to them to find out what they were doing and they fled," he said.
------------ Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit testified Thursday before committee investigating the events of an Israeli raid aboard a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship, saying that Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip was entirely legal. On May 31, Israeli navy commandos boarded a Turkish aid ship headed for Gaza in violation of an Israeli naval blockade. The ship was one of eight boats aiming to deliver aid to Gaza as part of a flotilla. The commandos were met with violence and killed nine Turkish activists in the ensuing clash. An Israeli committee, headed by retired justice Jacob Turkel, has been interviewing top military and government officials as part of its investigation of the incident. In his testimony, Mendelblit addressed two main issues: the legal justification for the initial blockade on the Gaza Strip, and the legal aspects of the military action taken to prevent Turkish ships from violating the blockade.
------------ Senior Turkish officials currently visiting the United States confirmed their commitment to preserving warm relations with Israel, the Turkish newspaper Zaman reported Thursday. Ties between Turkey and Israel, once close allies, have been strained ever since Turkey mounted harsh criticism against Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008/2009. Relations deteriorated further following a Turkish-sponsored aid flotilla in May, which aimed to bring supplies to Gaza in violation of an Israeli naval blockade. An Israeli navy raid aboard one of the flotilla ships ended in a violent clash that left nine Turkish activists dead. Earlier this month, the U.S. denied reports it had given Turkey an ultimatum, threatening to scrap a huge arms deal unless the Muslim state toned down its hostile stance against Israel.
----------- The Palestinian Authority has told the U.S. administration that an Israeli commitment to continuing the freeze on settlement construction must include East Jerusalem. During preparatory talks ahead of the summit due in Washington next week, the Palestinians made it clear they refuse to accept any softer formula on the building freeze. They expect that even after the September 26 deadline, when the 10-month moratorium ends, the United States will support their demand to continue the ban on all construction outside the Green Line, including in the settlement blocs. The Palestinian negotiating team, headed by Saeb Erekat, delivered to the Americans an opinion prepared by Israeli jurists. The Palestinians say this paper proves that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims that the government has no authority to freeze construction on private land are unfounded.
----------- Israel Railways has invested NIS 3 million in planning the first section of a train line from Rosh Ha'ayin to the West Bank town of Nablus. The line is part of Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz's plan to build a railway across the West Bank. Katz, who visited the West Bank in May to inaugurate a new road, said the ministry was promoting a railway through the West Bank that would link up with both the historic Valley Train to Haifa and the Jerusalem line. The planned route would run from Rosh Ha'ayin to Nablus via the settlements of Barkan and Ariel. The first section, from Rosh Ha'ayin to Ariel, is the part that has already been planned, at a cost of NIS 3 million.
Jerusalem Weather
Forecasters called for 84° Fahrenheit in Jerusalem today, then going down to 66° tonight, with partly cloudy skies.
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