| | Terrorists Running in Palestinian Authority Elections The PA demands the release from Israeli prison of Marwan Barghouti, accused of murdering 35 Israelis. So says PA official Saeb Erekat. Barghouti wants to run in the upcoming PA parliament elections. more | | | Help the needy make ends meet! Don't just wish a Shana Tova - Make one! A contribution to Ezras Yisroel will ensure that you have indeed fulfilled the mitzvah of charity and chesed in the best possible manner. Click Here | | | Rent a Cellphone from Arutz Sheva Don't miss any calls when you visit Israel! Arutz Sheva will provide you with an Israeli cellphone at the best price! Delivery in USA and Israel. Call 1-646-432-4542 in the USA and 02-652-2353 in Israel. More Details | | | Tuesday, October 11, 2005 8 Tishrei 5766 | | | 1. Terrorists Running in Palestinian Authority Elections
| | | By Hillel Fendel
The PA demands the release from Israeli prison of Marwan Barghouti, accused of murdering 35 Israelis. So says PA official Saeb Erekat. Barghouti wants to run in the upcoming PA parliament elections.
| Erekat told Army Radio today that the PA also demands the release of Hizbullah murderer Samir Kuntar. Kuntar and three other terrorists infiltrated into northern Israel by sea in 1979, abducted and murdered Danny Haran and his young daughter Einat, and killed policeman Eliyahu Shachar. Danny's 2-year-old daughter Yael was also killed in the attack.
Erekat's demand is not likely to be fulfilled - at least not in the coming weeks. A meeting scheduled for today between PA leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was canceled precisely because Abbas knew that Sharon would not respond positively to demands of this nature.
On the other hand, it is not unlikely that Barghouti will be released in the future. In June of this year, Israel daily Yediot Acharonot reported that top Israeli officials have recommended that the government consider releasing Barghouti. The recommendation reportedly appeared in a secret document given to senior security cabinet ministers.
Last November, then-interior Minister Avraham Poraz of the Shinui Party said it would be possible, "under certain circumstances," to consider releasing Barghouti from prison. The ultra-left Gush Shalom organization has also called for Barghouti's release. The Justice for Jonathan Pollard organization has also reported in the name of Acting Finance Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel is grooming Barghouti and preparing him to be the next Palestinian Authority leader.
Barghouti and other Al-Aksa Brigades terrorists are pressuring the PLO's Fatah, its mother organization, to be included on its list of candidates for the upcoming PA parliamentary election. The election is scheduled for late January 2006.
Fatah has not yet agreed to incorporate Al-Aksa on its list, however, and the disagreement has already led to violence. Al-Aksa terrorists fired at a car of a senior PA parliament leader last week - in protest of Fatah's refusal to include them in a Bethlehem gathering convened to formulate an election list.
Topping the list of aspiring Al-Aksa candidates is Barghouti, who has been in Israeli prison for three and a half years and is serving several life terms. The arch-terrorist is considered the founder of the Al-Aksa Brigades. Others on the list of potential PA lawmakers are Nasser Awis, a subordinate of Barghouti who dispatched suicide terrorists; Yasser Abu Baher, currently serving three life terms plus 40 years for various murders; and Jamal Hawil, responsible for many attacks against Israelis in the Jenin area.
An Al-Aksa leader known as Abu Udai demands that the Fatah leadership include what he calls Fatah's "military arm" in the list of candidates. He says that the Al-Aksa Brigades are a "fundamental part of Fatah."
This attempt by Al-Aksa, writes analyst and former IDF Intelligence officer Yonatan D. HaLevy, is an expression of its desire to effect a "white revolution" within Fatah against the old leadership. Al-Aksa's influence within the organization has grown over the past five years of warfare, and it is now ready to translate this to political power.
Weeks ago, terrorists fired at the home of Hani Al-Hasan, a veteran Fatah leader who has fallen out of favor with the more militant and younger Fatah members.
The calls against Hamas' participation in the elections, because of its declared intentions to destroy Israel, apply just as well to Fatah. The latter's official website presents its charter just as it was written in 1989, in which it declares its ambition to bring about the "total liberation of Palestine and the liquidation of the Zionist entity economically, politically, militarily and culturally." This will be done, the charter states, via armed popular revolution - and Al-Aksa and other groups have taken it upon themselves to carry this out.
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| | 2. Investigation Against Police Brutality Dropped
| | | By Hillel Fendel
The Department for the Investigation of Policemen has dropped all charges against the policemen accused of brutality during the expulsion from Kfar Darom. The stated reason: lack of public interest.
| The head of the department, Herzl Shviro, informed the Land of Israel Task Force that all complaints against policemen involved in the expulsion from the synagogue in Kfar Darom were being erased.
In a letter dated Sep. 29, Shviro wrote, "After I studied the complaint and the material that has been gathered, I have decided - for reasons of public interest - that the construct of circumstances of the incident does not correspond with a criminal indictment... However, I have decided to transfer the material for a check by the Public Complaints Department of the Police Department."
The complaints, which were submitted by the Task Force against dozens of policemen who had contact with protestors in Kfar Darom, include the following:
* Violence and abuse of the demonstrators. Brought as evidence were photos of policemen hitting demonstrators while the latter were held down by policemen, and of policemen purposely placing a demonstrator on a roll of barbed wire such that the barbs pricked his back. The photographer himself later said, "It can be seen and heard from the context that the policemen tried to force the demonstrator to promise to behave nicely and leave the roof on his own - and that only after he promised did they lift him off the barbed wire."
* Use of dangerous substances and spraying fire extinguishing powder - in blatant violation of the law and police guidelines.
* False testimony by policemen, who claimed under oath that tens of policemen were hospitalized because of burns and severe bruises - when in fact not more than two policemen were hospitalized, and none suffered serious injuries. Some policemen coordinated their false testimonies with one another regarding accusations of demonstrators' use of dangerous substances.
* Deception and breach of trust by military and police officers on the scene - namely Imad Fares and Amos Yaakov - who promised that whoever left the synagogue roof on his own would be allowed to pray freely and would not be arrested. In the event, however, the police violated the agreement, breaking into the synagogue in the middle of the evening prayer and dragging all the worshipers away in a mass arrest.
Aviad Visuly, head of the Land of Israel Task Force, said that he sent several notebooks full of material and evidence against the policemen to the Department for the Investigation of Policemen. "But instead of appointing an investigator," Visuly said, "and instead of meeting with us, as we requested, [Shviro] goes and closes the cases."
On the other hand, the State Prosecution has filed at least 17 indictments against demonstrators on charges of violence against policemen during the Kfar Darom expulsion.
"This is a scandal of the highest magnitude," Visuly said. "Citizens are charged with violence against policemen, but when dozens of policemen hit and abuse citizens, against all semblance of law, lie in court, make up evidence and violate dozens of laws - here, Shviro decides that the public isn't interested. Let me emphasize: He didn't close the files for lack of guilt, or for lack of evidence. The Department knows that there is plenty of evidence against them, but closes its eyes on purpose and refuses to accept it."
Visuly said that the Investigations Department, "which comprises mostly former policemen who will return to active duty, has become a department for the cover-up of criminal policemen, and is itself a public deception. Only dark dictatorships have such departments in their State Prosecutions to cover up their policemen's crimes. The Knesset should outlaw this farce of a Department."
Visuly added that his organization would appeal the wholesale dropping of the charges against violent and law-breaking policemen, and would also demand that the charges against the demonstrators be dropped.
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| | | Arbaat HaMinim from Eretz Yisrael Buy your Arbaat HaMinim this year from Arutz Sheva! We have made a special effort to get you the best sets. Order today to reserve yours! | | 3. Gov't Tries to Break Apart Gush Katif Community
| | | By Hillel Fendel
Thirty families from the former Gush Katif community of Gadid who have long demanded to remain together have now been told that they are to be scattered in different directions.
| Waiting nearly two months for their new temporary community to be ready, the families were informed last night that they are to move at the end of the month to apartments in various cities.
[photo: The now-destroyed synagogue in Gadid]
Almost two months ago, at the height of the Katif-Shomron expulsion when 9,000 residents were thrown out of their homes, the families of Gadid were taken directly to the N'vei Ilan Hotel outside Jerusalem. The intention was to house them there for the immediate short-range, just until the longer-range temporary solution could be found.
Negotiations between the residents and the Disengagement Authority began immediately to house them in a caravilla community in Masuot Yitzchak. Masuot, north of Ashkelon, was chosen partly because of its proximity to two other neighborhoods of Gush Katif expellees, in Shafir and Ein Tzurim.
The negotiations dragged on, but the residents understood that the final agreement was merely a matter of ironing out details and receiving the proper approvals - when suddenly last night, they received a shock: A Disengagement Authority representative named Moti Elimelech arrived and informed them that at the end of this month, they would be moved to private apartments in Sderot, Ashkelon and elsewhere.
"People cried, and many couldn't get to sleep last night," said long-time Gadid resident Orli Mazuz this morning. "It's just an impossible situation. We didn't ask to be thrown out of our homes, but now the government can't get its act together and has barely started work on our site. Why are we to blame?"
Some 30 families from Gadid, including spiritual leader Rabbi Yigal Hadaye, are currently living in N'vei Ilan; another 30 are at the Nitzan caravilla site. Mazuz said that she and the others refuse to leave N'vei Ilan without a communal solution: "Should our children have to switch kindergartens and nurseries three times in a few months? This is an impossible situation, and I'm telling you, if they want us out of here, they'll have to force us out with Yassam police again like they did the first time."
Work on the Masuot Yitzchak site has barely begun; surveyors were first seen there just a number of days ago. Government officials claim that it will cost too much to continue to house the residents in the hotel for the four months that will likely be required to complete it. The residents are not impressed: "We were perfectly willing to remain in our homes in Gadid for another few months while the government completed the temporary homes," Mazuz said, "and it wouldn't have cost the government anything. So the money issue is truly not our concern."
Mazuz said that though the hotel management is going out of its way to make their stay pleasant, "and the Disengagement Authority has tried as well, but the fact is that this is not a way for families to live. But relative to others, the conditions here are pretty good - we have nurseries and kindergartens here, and the people of Dolev [in southern Shomron] have adopted us very warmly, and our neighbors in Telz Stone are helping too. How can the government scatter us now to different places? And if we are scattered all around, who says that Masuot will ever be finished? There's no guarantee."
Chaim Altman, spokesman for the Disengagement Authority, was not willing to accept blame: "A recent government decision stipulated that no expellees will remain in hotels beyong the end of this month. They will therefore be relocated to private apartments, paid for as stipulated in the Evacuation-Compensation Law." He further said that as long as the contract for Masuot Yitzchak had not been signed, there was no government obligation to house them there, implying that the residents should also not have anticipated such a solution.
Another resident, Ariel Porat, who was involved in the negotiations with the Authority, said today,"The delay in the negotiations was certainly not due to us, except for maybe the last two days. Throughout the entire period, they kept giving us conflicting messages, saying we would not be able to get a particular approval, then saying we would, or telling us that we wouldn't last and would start splitting up... In general, they wanted to break us up as a group, hoping all along that they wouldn't have to grant us a communal solution. They keep dropping us little threats, such as that we will have to pay for our stay in the hotels, and then raising the amounts that we'll have to pay, and the like..."
"I can't say for sure that they never planned to build Masuot for us," Porat said, "but I also can't say the opposite. It could be that the contract will be signed in a few days, and I hope that work on the site will begin right away - but on the other hand, it's now the holiday season, and then the winter begins, etc. ... We have been strong until now, and I hope and am confident that we will remain that way in the future."
Many of those who remain in N'vei Ilan have no work, while others travel fairly long distances to their previous jobs in the south. Porat himself owns a flower nursery, which he rebuilt at the entrance to Masuot immediately after the expulsion. "I had no idea at the time that we might actually live here," he said, "but merely because I had no place to go and the people of Masuot were so very generous and helpful." Other Gadid farmers were not as fortunate, because they need to test the land to see what they can grow, and thus remain idle, in limbo and income-less.
Asked to characterize those who remained in N'vei Ilan, as opposed to those who have left the group and are on their own, one resident said, "We are basically those who believed up until the last minute that we could and should fight this thing, and refused to accept the decree."
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| | 4. Katif Families Continue to Live in Uncertainty
| | | By Hillel Fendel
Many groups of expelled Gush Katif families, almost two months after being thrown out of their homes, still do not know where the government will agree to house them.
| * A large group of expelled Gush Katif residents - mostly from N'vei Dekalim and Netzer Hazani - were informed yesterday (Monday) that all agreement and plans regarding plans for their temporary homes in Kibbutz Ein Tzurim were canceled. However, intensive hours of talks during the course of the day between the Israel Lands Authority and Ein Tzurim yielded fruit, and it was announced late last night that work on the site will begin immediately after the Sukkot holiday. The work is expected to take at least four months.
Aviel Tucker of Netzer Hazani said that, unlike other expelled residents, they have not been told that they must leave their temporary lodgings by the end of October: "Here, where we are staying - in Hispin in the Golan - the conditions are relatively very good. Our hosts are just amazing, and the guest house even allowed our wives to take over the kitchen before Rosh HaShanah and cook their own food... I have to note especially Gabi Hemu, the manager of the guest house and the deputy mayor of the Golan Regional Council; he has just been amazing..."
"I also want people to know," Tucker added, "that we have opened a Torah-study Kollel for the men here; many of us don't have work, so instead of wasting our time, we study Torah for several hours each day. The rabbis of the yeshiva here, headed by Rabbi Avraham Shiller, give of their time to teach us."
* On Sunday night, the 35 expellee families of N'vei Dekalim who are in the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem received word that they must vacate the hotel by Oct. 26, the day after the Sukkot holiday. One of the residents, Naamah Gross, said that this threat has been made before, "and we told them that we refuse to be pawns in the fights between the hotel and the Disengagement Authority. If they want to throw us out, let them bring the Yassam police again." Gross and her family are among those awaiting the completion of caravillas in Nitzan.
Other expelled residents in similar predicaments are those of Gadid in the N'vei Ilan Hotel, and 50 families from various communities in the Shirat HaYam Hotel in Ashkelon. The latter hotel abruptly turned off the electricity and water on its guests just hours before the Sabbath, turning it on again only when an agreement had been reached to delay their re-expulsion by another week.
* The former residents of Moshav Katif, who have been living in the Kfar Pines Ulpanah Girls' High School near Hadera in the nearly two months since their expulsion, say the situation cannot continue this way. The high school senior girls have generously agreed to live in classrooms and specially-made tents, in order to allow the families to live in their dorm rooms. The families say they greatly appreciate the girls' hospitality, but that a more permanent solution must be found.
At present, two options are under consideration: Relocation to the Chafetz Chaim guest house when the current guests, the ex-residents of Ganei Tal, move to their caravillas in nearby Yad Binyamin, or the renting of three apartment buildings in Kiryat Malachi.
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| | | Menshenables Judaica Fun name, Fun-ky Judaica. Unique gifts and ritual items for every simcha and holiday. Click Here! | | 5. Environment Ministry Allocates Million Shekels for Animals
| | | By Baruch Gordon
Environment Minister Shalom Simhon has allocated 1 million shekels ($220,000) for the welfare of animals. The money was made available during budget talks with the Finance Ministry.
| Earlier this year, the Shinui party transferred 2.5 million shekels to the ministry to benefit animals in Israel. The money came from government funds granted to the Shinui party during coalition negotiations for its entry into the government.
Attorney Zohar Shekalim, filling in as Head of the Department for Prevention of Animal Suffering, says that the funds will be used for rescuing animals in distress and for national animal welfare projects.
On his Arutz-7 Weblog, commentator Michael Freund compared between the Israeli government's treatment of animals and Gush Katif refugees in a posting entitled Poodles vs. People. In his closing remark, he noted: "And so, in the twisted moral calculus of our government, there is plenty of extra money to find shelter for cats or dogs, but not for the thousands of Jewish citizens made homeless by the expulsion from Gaza."
"When a government starts favoring poodles over people, that's as sure a sign as any that it's time for it to go," added Freund.
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| | 6. Failures and Formulas: Feiglin Looks at Battle for Gush Katif
| By David A. Miller
Moshe Feiglin, founder of the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the Likud, reviews the mistakes he and others made in the battle for Gush Katif.
A candidate for Likud Party Chairman, Feiglin founded and led the Zo Artzeinu [This is Our Land] movement in its struggle against the Oslo Accords.
Speaking with Eli Stutz and Yishai Fleisher this week on Israel National Radio, Feiglin said, "There were four points where a potential struggle could start. The first one and the most important one was to disobey orders in the army. The second one and also a very important one was blocking the roads. The third one was breaking out of Kfar Maimon. The fourth one was the actual fight within Gush Katif in the last week. In all these four points, these were potentially the real struggle. I'm not saying if we would have done all of these things, we would definitely have won, but at least then we would have known."
So, as is always the case in a post mortem review, who’s to blame? Feiglin does not mince words. “The Yesha Council sent out a calendar... with the slogan 'We shall not forget, we shall not forgive'. The slogan is a good one, but it's a joke when it comes from the mouth of Yesha Council. With all due respect to those who deserve it (not many, apparently), when they say it, it is really not serious," says Feiglin.
"I'm not really even angry with them, because I had no expectations, and therefore no anger. When deep inside, you are a slave to the old secular Zionist system, this is what you get," Feiglin adds.
The timing of looking back at the failures of Gush Katif plays well with the coming of Yom Kippur. Feiglin puts it into perspective. "The atmosphere of Yom Kippur is going to be very meaningful this year. We definitely have to ask ourselves many questions. We can't say that the destruction of Gush Katif happened because the 'Orange Army' was not pure enough, made sins, did not pray enough, and did not say enough Psalms. What's the message? Where did we go wrong? After all, we did everything by the book. Maybe everything is not so great with our books. Maybe we should look," adds Feiglin.
But, along with blame comes forgiveness. “I think that I personally have to ask forgiveness from many people. I believe in what I say, and it brings me to speak in a very sharp ways in many ways, maybe too sharp. And I also have to ask forgiveness from all those who I told there would be no disengagement. I believed it, and I said it. I also feel I have to give people the strength by telling them what I feel. I wanted to create a struggle by giving people strength. It did not happen. I actually said there will be no disengagement, because we would not let it happen, but the end result was that we did let it happen,” says Feiglin.
But, can it all be put into the simple terms that we all truly know in our hearts, but have failed to acknowledge? Certainly. "The sin is disconnecting ourselves from reality. The reason why we lost the battle of Gush Katif is very simple. We did not fight... we expected G-d to fight for us. G-d is not working for us, we are working for Him...and that's why we got punished. We didn't get punished by Sharon...he's nobody next to G-d," says Feiglin.
OK. So there’s the internal as well as external blame. Mea Culpa. But, besides the obvious loss of Gush Katif, what’s the damage? “The result is much worse than just the loss of Gush Katif, and the horrible tragedies of the individuals who lived there. The result was that the average Israeli who watched on TV saw how easily in just a few days, the whole of Gush Katif was wiped out. And, nothing happened to the country. Mr. Israeli went to work, came back home, he was told that they all got a lot of money, and everybody had a place to live, and everything was fine.”
“The Orange Army was just the tip of the iceberg of a whole big national camp that was against Sharon. Now, the average Israeli and the whole national camp moved toward Sharon’s side, and we were left alone. Now we saw that a month later in the results of the vote in the [Likud] Central Committee that represents the average Israeli. It was not because of jobs, and all these things, that Sharon won. No. Sharon really won in the Israeli conscience. He really swept the national camp into the hands of the extreme left and the only ones to blame are those leaders and those rabbis who destroyed the struggle of Gush Katif."
“Sharon was right, we were wrong all the time. It was proven in Gush Katif. We have nothing to do there, we have no values to stick to in Israel, in Judaism, we are all pragmatic these days, and we give up on everything. Everything is on the line now because of what happened in Gush Katif. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking from the point of despair. Whoever knows me, that is not the way I feel and function. I’m just saying the situation we are facing now is very, very problematic and the collapse and the catastrophe is much bigger than the destruction of Gush Katif because of the fact that we did not fight,” says Feiglin.
Not prone to throwing in the towel, Feiglin says, “Sharon is an obstacle. Nothing more. He is not my Prime Minister. He is not my leader. Everything starts and ends with what you and I will do. It all leans on us, not on him. I’m not even angry at him. I’m not expecting anything; it’s all on our shoulders. We should get into this conscience. I believe that when we will, and when we understand it’s all on us, we will be able to win. And we will."
Feiglin's positions are further explained at "www.jewishisrael.org".
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