 | | Israel´s Next National Election: February-March 2006
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz met briefly today and agreed that new elections should be held either in late February or early March.
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More Details |  | | Editor: Hillel Fendel
Thursday, November 17, 2005
15 Cheshvan 5766
 |
| | | 1. Israel´s Next National Election: February-March 2006
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz met briefly today and agreed that new elections should be held either in late February or early March.
| Sharon told the newly-elected Labor Party leader that he feels it is irresponsible on Peretz's part to dismantle the unity government and lead to new elections. "But if you have already decided to do so, I won't delay it," Sharon said.
Peretz said afterwards that he responded, "On the contrary; it is undemocratic to call this irresponsible, because elections are to be held in any event next year, so what's the point in retaining a government that cannot function?" Peretz said that any date Sharon chooses between their two birthdays - Sharon will be 78 on Feb. 26, and Peretz will turn 54 on March 9 - is acceptable to him.
At present, it appears that Feb. 28 is the most likely date, as it is the only Tuesday - the traditional election day - that is not otherwise occupied. March 14 is Purim, and March 7, the date of Moses' death, is reserved for commemorating the deaths of soldiers whose burial places are unknown.
Sharon has appointed Likud faction head MK Gideon Saar to coordinate plans for new elections with the other parties.
However, on another critical issue regarding the elections, Sharon has not been as quick: He still refuses to say whether he will seek to head the Likud for the coming elections, or whether he will start a new party.
Though yesterday, sources close to the Prime Minister intimated that Sharon was leaning towards remaining in the Likud, today's spin went in the opposite direction. Minister Tzachi HaNegbi said today, "I can just say that in the next election, Sharon will lead the true Likud Party." When pressed to explain, he backtracked slightly and said, "Either it will be the Likud Party, or he will claim that it is the real Likud."
HaNegbi added his opinion that Sharon has no interest in starting a new party. He acknowledged, however, that the anti-disengagement camp of the Likud - they call themselves the 'Likud loyalists,' though they are popularly known as the rebels - can be expected to give Sharon a very difficult time in the next Knesset if he promotes further withdrawals and major concessions.
MK Uzi Landau, who is seeking to head the Likud for the coming election, had sharp words for Sharon. Noting that the Prime Minister refuses to say whether he will remain in the Likud or not, Landau said, "Perhaps Sharon is not representing the best interests of the Likud? Perhaps he is even planning how to crumble the Likud?"
Asked if he would join Sharon if he quits the Likud, HaNegbi said, "I don't think I would join Sharon in a new party; I don't think such a party would even last more than one term."
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that he hopes Sharon remains in the Likud, and implied that if not, he himself is likely to run for the party leadership.
Later today, Sharon met with Opposition Leader MK Tommy Lapid (Shinui), and told him that he would announce his personal plans in the coming days.
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| | 2. Six Girls Kept in Prison, Despite Court Orders
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
Six girls aged 13-15, arrested four days ago after a scuffle with Arabs in the Shomron, were not freed - despite two court orders to do so. Now, they themselves refuse to sign the release papers.
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The girs' attorney maintains that the police are "misusing their authorities" in keeping them in prison against the stated intention of the courts.
The saga began on Sunday afternoon, when the girls met up with a group of Arab olive harvesters, and a clash ensued. This one ended unlike other city scuffles, however, when soldiers and policemen were called to the scene and the six girls were arrested.
Contrary to press reports that the girls "destroyed a full day's worth of olive pickings," the mother of one of the girls said that during the clash, a bag or two of olives were torn, and a "small amount of olives spilled out."
"The police decided to harass the girls and arrest them, even though they had done nothing that would justify arrest according to the criminal code," their lawyer, Ephraim Katzir of the Honenu organization, said. "Anywhere else in the country, no one would take the time to arrest someone for such a thing."
The girls were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrates Court, and the police charged them with attacking Arabs, attacking soldiers and attacking policemen. "A total exaggeration, a thread turned into an entire suit," Katzir said. "We then had to wait over 6 hours at the courthouse for a hearing that took less than an hour."
The prosecutor already then reserved the right to ask for the girls' custody until the end of the legal proceedings against them. Atty. Katzir, considered to be one of Honenu's top lawyers, cross-examined the police investigator extensively, and the true story that was revealed convinced the judge to order the girls' immediate release to four days of house arrest.
The police did not give in, however, and asked that the judgment be delayed so that they could file an appeal. The court agreed, but when the issue was passed to District Court Judge Noam Solberg, he "deviated from his authority," according to Katzir, "by not ruling on the appeal itself - instead he allowed the release to be delayed for yet another 24 hours."
"I did not give in, though," Katzir said, "and I immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. There, Justice Edna Arbel called an urgent hearing within two hours, and in fact ordered their release."
The ruling was that the girls would be placed under house arrest for four days. At one point, the Prosecution asked that the house arrest be outside of Judea and Samaria, where the girls live. Katzir objected: "At this rate, we'll all end up in the 1948 borders, and from there we'll continue to the sea. You can't have different laws for different areas." Justice Arbel accepted Katzir's protest.
However, this Supreme Court ruling was promptly ignored, and the Prosecution appealed once again - with the girls remaining in prison. The Prosecution claimed again that the girls are a danger to the public and could "lead to an escalation in the entire area, because if they are attacked, they would hit back and this would cause the soldiers to have to get involved and shoot."
Katzir said, "The Prosecution essentially blamed the girls for the fact that the Palestinians hit them, and for causing the soldiers to have to shoot to protect them."
But the Prosecution's appeal found its way back down to the District Court - which concurred with the Supreme Court and ordered their release. But the story still did not end there. The Shai (Samaria/Judea) Police District submitted a request for their incarceration until the end of the proceedings.
Katzir expressed amazement at the turn of events: "Is there an automatic arrest clause such that they have to remain in jail because of a police request? It is totally unacceptable and judicially illogical, and the police are misusing the authorities they have been granted, in order to thwart judicial rulings."
Finally, just as the release was to go into effect, and even after the process started for one of the girls, the police claimed they were unable to find the proper forms, and the girls spent last night in prison as well.
This morning, they were to be released on 800 shekels' bail - but here the story took a swing in another direction: Some of the girls refused to sign any papers restricting their freedom, saying that they do not recognize an Israeli judicial system that is based on non-Torah law. The mother of one explained that their decision is also based on the real suspicion that the police and courts are merely toying with them. In fact, a court hearing is still scheduled for tomorrow regarding the police request to keep all six in custody until the end of the proceedings.
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Click Here! | | 3. Partition Wall Set to Slice Gush Etzion
|  | | By Ezra HaLevi
Defense Minister Sha’ul Mofaz visited Gush Etzion Wednesday to hear security assessments and complaints of local municipality members regarding the partition fence/wall.
| Participating in the visit were IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, IDF Central Command Head Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh and the mayors of Gush Etzion, Efrat and Betar Illit. The mayors warned Mofaz and the other security brass against turning the security barrier into a political border, and urged them to treat communities on both sides of the wall equally.
According to the fence's tentative route, Gush Etzion will be sliced into pieces, with the communities of Tekoa, Nokdim, Meitzad, Pnei Kedem, Maaleh Rehavam and Carmei Tzur left outside the fence. Efrat, Beitar Illit, N'vei Daniel, Elazar, Alon Shvut, Bat Ayin, Kfar Etzion and Ein Tzurim will be on the "Israeli" side. The possibility of all Jewish communities outside the Partition route being destroyed in the future is already discussed openly in government circles. Private initiatives have even been launched to induce residents of such communities to leave in return for financial incentives.
The mayors and municipalities represent the more conciliatory approach toward the wall, seeking to negotiate the fence's route with the authorities, in the hope of mitigating the negative effects of the wall. According to the website of the Gush Etzion municipality, that approach, spearheaded by Gush Etzion Mayor Sha'ul Goldstein, stipulates non-opposition to the wall as long as it “does not interfere with the normal every day activities of those residents of Gush Etzion living within the fence."
The opposing camp, galvanized by Kibbutz Kfar Etzion’s decision to request that Gush Etzion be left outside the wall altogether, seeks to prevent the construction of the wall around Gush Etzion altogether. They argue that not only will the wall be a de facto border, abandoning Jewish towns, but that the close proximity of the wall to their communities will suffocate any future growth of the towns. They also oppose the wall's dissection of the Gush Etzion bloc.
Another issue raised by the security chiefs of the various communities is that the wall, called a security barrier by the government, in fact harms local Jewish security. The partition route leaves much high ground for Arab snipers to shoot at Jewish homes and the main Gush Etzion highway, while acting as an obstacle to security forces pursuing terrorists.
They also point to IDF and GSS security assessments that it is only a matter of time until rockets and mortar shells begin to be used in Judea and Samaria, as they were in Gaza.
The partition is a large concrete wall in many areas, particularly around Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, but is a chain-link fence or even natural barriers in most others.
According to Mayor Goldstein, a verbal agreement was reached with Mofaz weeks ago, whereby construction of the wall would not begin until the route had been agreed upon by the two sides. The agreement, however, appears to have been violated, and construction on the wall has already begun.
In addition to negotiating the fence’s route, the mayors have raised the concept of a “non-sequential security obstacle.” They argue that such a barrier - one of the widely-reported manifestations of which would be made of sabra-cacti - would prevent Arabs from objecting to the fence route in court and prevent the creation of a clear political border.
During the Defense Minister’s visit Wednesday, the mayors told the officials that residents continue to see the fence as a hindrance to the region’s development and a breaking apart of the Gush Etzion bloc. They also bemoan the detrimental effect the fence will have on the region’s security and on relations with and employment of Palestinian neighbors.
Shimon Karniel of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion explained the current situation to Arutz-7, saying that the bottom line is that the wall neither contributes to residents’ security nor provides any benefit to the region.
Of Wednesday’s meeting, Karniel said, “I felt that our requests were weak. All of the requests for changes in the route, when the changes are accepted or rejected – most probably rejected – what are we left with?”
“The fence is not the big struggle,” Karniel said. “The struggle is not only against the strangulation of our communities, but for Jewish sovereignty in Gush Etzion. If the ‘settlement blocs’ that Sharon speaks about are really to exist, and if there really is a consensus regarding Gush Etzion - Israel must assert sovereignty and annex the region into the State of Israel right now.”
Karniel fears that creating a wall that tightly hugs the current communities is merely the creation of an enclave without a future, to face the same fate as Gush Katif years down the road.
Those fighting the Partition Wall - a term they feel accurately describes the purpose of the barrier – to divide the Land of Israel and between Jewish communities - have set up an illustrative web site and email address (gadergush@gmail.com) for those wishing to get involved.
A recent group email from the activists reads: “As of now we are standing behind our decision to begin a public campaign. This project is extremely important and depends greatly on your volunteer participation. There are no paid employees that will work on this. This all depends on us.”
(Photos: Gershon Elinson and Kfar-Etzion.co.il)
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| | 4. Tourism to Israel Continues to Soar
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
Over the first ten months of the year, nearly 1.6 million tourists arrived in Israel - more than in all of 2004.
|
Tourism to Israel continues to rise, for the third straight year.
Figures released by the Ministry of Tourism and the Central Bureau of Statistics show that the number of tourists over the past ten months is 27% more than during the same period last year. Large increases were registered at the air, sea and land crossings. The number of travelers arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport rose by 23%, while the number of those arriving on direct flights to Eilat increased by 30%.
In October alone, 164,400 tourists entered Israel - a 28% increase over October 2004.
The trend of increasing tourism to Israel thus continues for the third straight year. Last year's total was approximately 1.5 million, following totals of 1.06 million in 2003 and 0.86 million in 2002. The peak of over 2.4 million, registered in the pre-Oslo War year of 2000, has still not been reached, but Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson says he expects to surpass this number in 2007.
Last year, 379,000 tourists arrived from the U.S., compared with 272,000 the year before. From France, the numbers were 257,000 and 174,000, respectively. The increase from Great Britain was from 104,000 to 146,000. From Canada, the increase was particularly dramatic - from 31,000 to 44,000.
Israel's Tourism Ministry's motto is: "Israel - No One Belongs Here More Than You."
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Click Here! | | 5. State Seeks to Bar Federman From Bar
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
The State Prosecution, having lost its bid to keep Hevron resident Noam Federman under administrative detention and house arrest, is now seeking to prevent him from becoming a lawyer.
|
Federman, who recently completed law school in the Academic College in Kiryat Ono, is serving as an apprentice in a Jerusalem law firm. His official registration as such, however, is being held up because of the Prosecution's objections - preventing him from taking the Bar exams and practicing as an attorney.
Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan presented to the Israeli Bar a "thick volume," according to Federman, detailing all of Federman's past crimes. These include, for instance, a conviction for assault and unseemly public behavior for spitting on PA leader Feisal Husseini in January 1990, as well as other acts of violence against Arabs and involvement in scuffles with IDF soldiers.
However, Federman noted, "we told the panel that much of what is written there is simply untrue. Nitzan included many alleged 'crimes' for which I was never even indicted, or, in one case, of which I was acquitted. The panel was surprised to hear that they were being misled in this way."
"Furthermore," Federman said, "Nitzan's charges against me included the fact that I was in administrative detention or house arrest for much of the past two years - but every child knows that it was trumped-up. The Jerusalem District Court even ordered the government to award me 100,000 shekels in damages for having done so."
Federman claims that he has been a long-time target of the Jewish section of the General Security Service (Shabak). He feels that the current attempt to prevent him from practicing law is part of the same campaign.
Federman also provided some examples of people who were allowed to become lawyers in Israel: "Muhammed Burjal, who admitted to having planned terrorist crimes such as the kidnapping of soldiers, and another Arab who was convicted of spying for Syria. They can be lawyers, and I can't?"
The Bar panel did not reach a decision, and will call another session in the near future.
Asked if he was optimistic, Federman said, "I really don't know. After all, this is not an issue based on the merits of the matter, but is rather politically motivated."
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| | 6. Legendary YU Basketball Coach Bernard "Red" Sarachek Dies at 93
|  | | By Ezra HaLevi
Bernard "Red" Sarachek, the beloved coach of Yeshiva University's basketball team in its hey-day, passed away on Monday.
| (Photo: YU)
Sarachek, a member of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame and the longtime coach of the Yeshiva University basketball team, died after a lengthy illness in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Although not necessarily the cause of his death, Sarachek was left without food, water and electricity for five days following the hurricane that struck Florida last month.
"Red" was known as a coach of coaches, and of players. "He taught more high school and college coaches in [the New York metro area] than anybody," former St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca once said of Sarachek. "Red is the guru."
Each year, Yeshiva University holds a high school basketball invitational named for Sarachek. The Red Sarachek Basketball Tournament, which takes place each spring, attracts Jewish high school basketball teams from as far away as Los Angeles and Toronto.
Marvin Hershkowitz, one of the legendary coach’s former players, who now lives in Israel, said that Sarachek "was the most influential person in my life. He was an excellent teacher and he was like a parent to me. He took care of his players off the court as well as on it, and if we needed anything he would work for us tirelessly to make it happen."
Although not strictly observant, "Red taught us to be good Jews and to be gentlemen." Hershkowitz, who last spoke with Sarachek two weeks ago, recalled the coach's private crusade to enforce the Orthodoxy of his Flatbush synagogue. "They had a vote on the Mechitza - divider separating men and women during prayer – and Red called up all of his buddies and brought them all to the meeting to vote on it."
Several of Sarachek's former players have moved to Israel. "He loved Israel, and many years ago when we played an Israeli team in Madison Square Garden he was thrilled to play them," Hershkowitz said. "He was very proud of several of us when we decided to make Aliyah [immigrate to Israel]."
Sarachek coached the YU team from 1942 to 1943 and again from 1945 to 1969. When professional basketball was in its infancy in the 1940s, Sarachek simultaneously coached the Scranton Miners of the American Basketball League and a team representing Herkimer, NY in the New York State League. Sarachek led both teams to championships at the same time he was coaching the Yeshiva University team.
With the Scranton team in the late 40s, Sarachek broke the league's segregation rules by playing Dolly King, William "Pop" Gates, and Eddie Younger at the same time. Pop Gates went on to a stellar pro career that led to international fame with the Harlem Globetrotters and eventual enshrinement in the NBA Hall of Fame.
The current YU basketball coach, Jon Halpert, now in his 34th season as coach, played for Coach Sarachek from 1962-1966. Halpert said the key thing to know about Sarachek was that he believed in the truth. "If you made a bad play, you heard about it," Halpert said. "He did what he thought was right and he said what he thought was right. That was Red."
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| 7. On A7 Radio: Devastating Report on Gush Katif Refugees
|  | | A7 Radio's "The Tovia Singer Show"
| In a shocking interview on the plight of Jews expelled from Gaza, journalist Toby Klein Greenwald vividly exposes how Sharon deliberately abandoned thousands of desperate refugees.
Listen Now -or- Download*
Also on Tovia Singer:
Why do Arabs Hate Israel?
Investigative journalist Joel Bainerman provides unexpected answers to fundamental questions.
Listen Now -or- Download*
*To download audio files, right-click and choose 'Save Target As'
For more A7 Radio visit www.IsraelNationalRadio.com.
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|   | | |  | |  | Remembering Abba Eban
Last week, the State of Israel commemorated the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. Soon, it will be time to commemorate the third yahrzeit of Abba Eban, Israel's greatest diplomat.
|  | | | "Female, 22, Danger to the Public"
The following imaginary letter to a judge was written by Sarah Feld in the name of her daughter, Tziporah, who spent three weeks in N'vei Tirtza prison following the anti-expulsion protests in Jerusalem.
|  | | | | |  | Abraham's Generous, Loving Nature
It is true that the people of Sodom sinned heavily, and ostensibly, Abraham could have ignored them and cut himself off from them. Yet, Abraham had a generous nature. He had love for the Creator and His creations - even those who had distanced themselves far from Him.
|  | | | Vayera: A Man for All Reasons
Jewish legend is replete with stories of visits from beyond, Eliyahu-like strangers who appear from out of nowhere, popping into our lives to teach us something important - usually about ourselves - and then disappearing as mysteriously as they came.
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