Middle East briefs
By JTA
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Poll finds Sderot residents want out
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Nearly two-thirds of residents of an Israeli town targeted by Palestinian rocket crews would leave if they could. A poll published Dec. 21 in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot showed that 64 percent of those living in hardscrabble Sderot would leave if they had the means and opportunity, while 35 percent said they would not.
Sderot has suffered thousands of rocket strikes from the nearby Gaza Strip, but the survey’s findings suggested that the townspeople’s difficult economic situation also may have contributed to low morale. Respondents censured Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for his overall handling of Palestinian rocket fire. Eighty-six percent of them gave the government a “bad” grade on the issue, 10 percent gave a “medium” grade and 2 percent gave a “good” grade. Yediot did not say how many responded to the poll or provide a margin of error.
Orthodox rabbis convene in Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Orthodox Jewish leaders from around the world are holding an annual convention in Israel. The World Conference of Orthodox Rabbis and Community Leaders, organized by the World Zionist Organization, began its three-day conference in Jerusalem Dec. 24. About 150 rabbis and leaders from 32 countries participated in the conference, which included meetings with Israel’s chief rabbis and other notables.
Egypt buys tunnel detection eqipment
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Egypt said it bought a multimillion-dollar system for detecting tunnels on the Gaza Strip’s border. An unnamed Egyptian official told The Jerusalem Post that Cairo recently spent U.S. aid funds on an advanced technology that will allow it to find tunnels used to smuggle arms to Hamas-run Gaza from the Sinai. “It is in our interest to stop the smuggling,” the Egyptian official told the Post. “We have no interest in seeing a radical Muslim group, with ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, rise up along our border.”
Israel preparing public for possible war
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s Home Front Command is preparing the public for possible war scenarios. The Home Front Command on Dec. 23 launched a public information campaign, during which every Israeli household will receive a manual titled “Being Protected and Prepared.” The manual, which is available in several languages, instructs the public on subjects such as the type of rockets that might be fired at Israel during a future war and where to seek shelter.
Home Front Command personnel have also been collecting the gas masks issued to the public during the 2003 Gulf war, with a view to issuing new and more advanced kits in the near future. Despite recent tensions with Syria and Iran, Israeli officials have denied that the Home Front Command’s actions have anything to do with concerns that a conflict could be imminent. They say the state is implementing one of the lessons of last year’s Lebanon war, when many residents of northern Israel were caught unprepared for Hezbollah rocket salvoes.
Israel welcomes Iranians
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel welcomed a group of Iranian immigrants. Forty Jews from Tehran and other Iranian areas landed in Ben-Gurion Airport Dec. 25 after traveling through a third country in a secret aliyah operation organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel. Details on their identities were barred from publication for fear relatives still in the Islamic Republic could be targeted in reprisals. The new immigrants were offered $10,000 each by Zionist charities to make the move, officials said. More than 200 Iranians have immigrated to Israel in 2007, up from 65 the year before. Some 25,000 Jews live in Iran, their lives overshadowed by tensions between the Tehran regime and Israel.
Olmert courts non-Jews
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Ehud Olmert affirmed the importance of Israel’s non-Jewish minority to the state. The Israeli prime minister convened leaders of the country’s Muslim, Christian and Druze communities at his Jerusalem residence Dec. 23 to extend holiday season’s greetings on behalf of the Jewish mainstream. “This is the first time that dignitaries from the entire non-Jewish sector have been guests in this house,” Olmert’s office quoted him as saying. Around 20 percent of Israel’s population is not Jewish, and inter-faith ties have been strained by the last six years of Palestinian violence. Among Israeli Arabs there is increasingly open opposition to Zionism, provoking animosity among the Jewish majority.
Two Hamas men killed
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s air force killed two Hamas gunmen in the central Gaza Strip. Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a vehicle spotted near Gaza’s border with Israel at Bureij Dec. 24, killing two of its occupants. They were identified as members of a Hamas patrol. Military officials said the car was traveling in a manner suggesting it was part of a hostile operation. Israeli forces on the Gaza periphery regularly come under attack from Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups.
Defense funding OK’d
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s security cabinet approved funding for a new defense system against Kassam and Katyusha rockets. The Iron Dome rocket defense system, approved Dec. 23 after several months of comparing 14 different systems, will intercept short- and medium-range rockets like the ones that have been terrorizing the country’s northern and southern borders. Developing the defense system will cost nearly $207 million. The system is expected to be operational in Sderot in 2½ years.
Reports will be secret
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The United States will confer privately with Israel and the Palestinians over meeting their peacemaking commitments. Reuters reported Dec. 24 that the Bush administration has decided to keep the assessment process of compliance with the road map peace plan secret, though it will go public if necessary. Israel wants to keep the judging process secret, while the Palestinians are in favor of disclosure. In the first stage Israel is committed to halting building in the settlements and Palestinians have pledged to stop terrorism.
MKs back settler pay
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Haim Ramon said he has the support of 70 lawmakers to pay settlers east of the West Bank security barrier to move. The deputy prime minister has been Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s stalking horse on possible concessions to the renewed U.S.-initiated Israeli-Palestinian peace process. According to the daily Ha’aretz, Ramon says he now has the backing of a majority of the 120-member Knesset to compensate settlers willing to decamp from parts of the West Bank east of the barrier. Ramon says he may present the bill as early as March.
N.J. to disinvest
JERUSALEM (JTA)—New Jersey is set to disinvest from Iran. The state Senate voted unanimously last month to approve legislation passed over the summer by the state Assembly that would divest all state pension plans from Iran as a means of pressuring the Islamic Republic to end its suspected nuclear weapons program. Gov. Jon Corzine was expected to sign the bill, initiated in New Jersey by NORPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee. New Jersey would be the fourth U.S. state to pull its funds from Iran.
Rice: Israel ‘understands’ settlement issue
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel has taken steps to show it understands the seriousness of the settlement issue, Condoleezza Rice said.
“We have told the Israelis repeatedly that the settlement activity is both against U.S. policy and against the ‘road map’ obligations,” the U.S. secretary of state said Dec. 21, referring to the U.S.-initiated “road map” peace plan. “And I would note that my understanding is that even the Israelis themselves have taken some decisions that suggest that they understand the seriousness of this issue.”
Rice may have been referring to a freeze Israel put recently on apartment building in Har Homa, an east Jerusalem neighborhood abutting Bethlehem. Two days later, however, the proposed 2008 budget presented by Israel’s housing ministry included requests for funding to construct 500 apartments in Har Homa and 240 apartments in the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. Rice is accompanying President Bush next month on a visit to the region to promote U.S.-convened Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Olmert rules out Hamas truce
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Ehud Olmert ruled out any truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli prime minister quashed talks of a possible cease-fire with the ruling Palestinian Islamist faction in Gaza Dec. 23, reaffirming international demands that Hamas first unilaterally foreswear terrorism and accept the Jewish state.
“The State of Israel has no interest in negotiating with those that refuse to accept the basic principles of the Quartet,” Olmert told his Cabinet. “This applies to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and anyone else. He who accepts the Quartet principles is a negotiating partner, but he who is not ready to accept them is no partner and our policy will not change.”
Israel stepped up deadly airstrikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists last week following a surge of rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza. That prompted Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, to offer truce talks with the Olmert government. Some members of Olmert’s Cabinet said the overture should be considered, while others said a truce would only allow Hamas to rearm and regroup. “This war will continue,” Olmert told his Cabinet, referring to the Gaza offensive.
Conference of Presidents backs united Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Conference of Presidents reaffirmed its longstanding position that a united Jerusalem should remain the sovereign and eternal capital of Israel. In a meeting Dec. 20, the conference, the principal U.S. Jewish umbrella group on foreign affairs, voted to defer discussion on another resolution that would have insisted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remove portions of the charter of his Fatah movement calling for the elimination of Israel. Malcolm Hoenlein, the conference’s executive vice chairman, told JTA that members overwhelmingly supported a discussion on the Fatah charter resolution. But, he added, those present at the meeting voted to defer discussion until after the group’s February mission to Israel. The mission will also include a visit to the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Some members of the conference have argued that both resolutions would serve to undercut the Israeli government as it participates in U.S.-convened peace talks with the Palestinians. Others counter that the resolutions would strengthen Israel’s negotiating hand.