 | | Rice Pushes Israel to Give Up on Security at PA Crossings
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday morning – and was urged on behalf of U.S. President Bush to enable the opening of crossings for Gaza’s Arabs.
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More Details |  | | Editor: Hillel Fendel
Monday, November 14, 2005
12 Cheshvan 5766
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| | | 1. Rice Pushes Israel to Give Up on Security at PA Crossings
|  | | By Ezra HaLevi
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday morning – and was urged on behalf of U.S. President Bush to enable the opening of crossings for Gaza’s Arabs.
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Rice said that although the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria was a positive and important step, Israel must continue to empower the Palestinian Authority and assist in establishing a Palestinian state.
"I expect to continue to work with you and your camp,” Rice told Sharon a the start of the meeting, “and to progress toward the two-state solution in which Israel and the Palestinian state can live in peace, free and free of terror."
She went on to apply intense pressure upon PM Sharon to relax Israel’s security requirements in order to open the Rafiach border between Gaza and Egypt. Israel has insisted on closed circuit cameras being installed in the Rafiach Crossing, but the PA refuses to allow such a move. PA sources later announced that a deal had been reached that would enable the opening of the border.
Prior to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, Rafiach was a major point for weapons smuggling, with hundreds of arms-smuggling tunnels uncovered and destroyed in recent years in extensive IDF operations. Following the withdrawal, despite PA and Egyptian guarantees, the border was left wide open for over a week, enabling the transport of unknown amounts of heavy weaponry into Gaza.
Rice also conveyed the U.S. perspective with regard to the Hamas terror group taking part in PA elections. She said that she believes that if Hamas participates in the elections, it will actually be easier to compel Hamas to disarm because the pressure will come from the entire international community. She said that this was what had happened in northern Ireland and Angola, but assured Sharon that the U.S. would never hold contacts with Hamas or Islamic Jihad even if they are in the administration.
Rice also demanded that Israel expand the exports and granting of work-permits to PA residents at the Karni Crossing from Gaza to Israel – a reality difficult to implement due to PA refusal to accede to Israeli security needs. Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn has also been applying pressure upon Israeli to relinquish its security demands in favor of enabling free passage to residents of the PA. Wolfensohn told reporters that Israel is “entrenching itself in security considerations, transforming the Gaza Strip into an enormous prison.”
One of the arguments made prior to the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria by pro-Disengagement politicians was that a Gaza withdrawal would create separation between Israelis and PA residents. Opponents, on the other hand, predicted that the pressure to open the crossings would make such a claim incorrect, pointing out that most terror attacks emanating from Gaza were the result of Arabs taking advantage of the crossings. The crossings have remained operational following the withdrawal, with scaled-back Israeli security infrastructure and growing international pressure to allow Gaza’s Arabs and their exports increased access to Israel.
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| | 2. Rivlin: Don't Force a Rabin Package Deal Upon Us
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
Knesset Speaker Rivlin, in his Knesset speech on the 10th anniversary of the death of Yitzchak Rabin, says the memory of the murder must not become the private legacy of any one political camp.
| Excerpts from the speech:
"The murder of Gedaliah ben Achikam in the year 582 BCE was undoubtedly a traumatic event for the people of that period...
But it was not because of the personal trauma they experienced that caused this event to be engraved on the Jewish national heart and calendar. The Fast of Gedaliah was instituted as a moral warning, to warn us against the murder of a Jewish leader by a Jewish murderer! ... When a Jew fasts on this day, he does not remember Gedaliah himself, his works, or his legacy - but rather the stain that his murder left on the pages of our history...
In the eyes of the Israeli student of the year 2015, what should be the main thing he remembers on the anniversary of Rabin's murder - the memory of Yitzchak Rabin the man, or the murder itself?
...We [already] now often hear, "What would Rabin have said?" and "What would Rabin have done?" and "Rabin would not have done this, or that," etc. ... After ten years of attempts to force upon us a package deal of memory and ideology, of myth and political conclusions, I imagine that we are permitted to wonder aloud: "Is Rabin's memory acquiring a grasp on our hearts as an 'enlisted myth'"?
Yes, Rabin was murdered because of his political path, because of Oslo... But in the same breath we must add that this does not grant extra ethical weight to his political stances, with which many great people differed and continue to differ even today...
I believe that no political murder can sanctify a political stance. I believe that even the abominable political murder of Yitzchak Rabin cannot turn people like myself, who continue to believe in that which they believed before the murder, into lepers, or into partners in any measure of guilt...
Ten years later, it tragically appears that the moral lesson has not yet been internalized... The murder of Rabin must be engraved as a symbol for all of Israel - and woe unto all of us, right and left, if it becomes the private legacy of a particular political stream. This is our obligation towards the State. This is our obligation towards Yitzchak Rabin."
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Click Here! | | 3. Rabin Supported Gush Katif
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
Though the media have been replete this week with citations of Yitzchak Rabin's political legacy, they have not always been accurate - especially with regard to Gush Katif.
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HaTzofeh newspaper brings the following quotes:
* Orit Shochat recently wrote in Haaretz, "It could be that Sharon's tough stance towards the settlers of Gush Katif this past summer is the only lesson learned from the murder of Yitzchak Rabin."
* Gadi Taub wrote in Maariv, "The dirges on the death of the Rabin legacy were unnecessary. If... most of the Likud now supports a Palestinian state, then this legacy has won... A unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, dismantling of the settlements, a partition in Judea and Samaria. The right-wing has adopted the Rabin legacy."
In fact, however, Rabin was totally against a withdrawal from Gush Katif. In his last Knesset speech, he said:
"We will not return to the lines of June 4, 1967... The security border will be placed in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest interpretation of this concept... [We will] include Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are east of what was the Green Line... and also... settlement blocs like Gush Katif; would it be there were others like them in Judea and Samaria as well."
Neither was Rabin in favor of a Palestinian state, and stated clearly his envisioned solution of a "Palestinian entity that is less than a state."
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| | 4. Attendees of Rabin Conference Will Be Met by Protestors
|  | | By Baruch Gordon
The International Conference marking the 10th anniversary of Yitzchak Rabin's death convenes this week in Netanya. A protest against the official version of the assassination will also be held.
| Dignitaries from around the world will attend the conference at the Netanya Academic College [pictured above]. They include James Wolfenson, Quartet Special Envoy for Disengagement and Former President of The World Bank; Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union; Foreign Ministers from Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, and Sweden; and representatives from the United States, Great Britain, Jordan, India, Austria, Egypt, France, and Greece.
Conference organizer MK Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom invited Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen and PA Prime Minister Abu Ala to deliver speeches. Representing Abu Mazen will be the PLO's Saeb Erekat.
Conference participants will be met by protestors who challenge the official government version of the events surrounding the Rabin assassination. Former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, who led the investigative commission into the assassination, told Israel Radio Monday morning that his probe was "very encompassing and very thorough."
But the protest organizers feel otherwise. Led by Barry Chamish, who authored the book "Who Killed Yitzchak Rabin," they are demanding the the investigation into the assassination be re-opened.
Though once widely ridiculed for his theories regarding the Rabin murder, Chamish is no longer alone. A Dahaf Institute poll commissioned by Israel's largest circulation paper, Yediot Acharonot, earlier this month revealed that no less than 25% of Israelis believe there was a conspiracy to murder Prime Minister Rabin.
In an interview with IDF Radio on Sunday, Yitzchak Rabin's daughter, Dalia Rabin-Pilosoph, said that the Shamgar Commission left many questions unanswered and that she was not satisfied with its results.
She first voiced her doubts four years after the assassination, in November, 1999, in that month's edition of the Hebrew-language Woman's World (Olam Ha-Isha) magazine. In an interview with Sarit Yishai-Levi, Rabin-Pilosoph speaks about questions she raised in conversations with her mother, Leah Rabin, immediately after the assassination: "Who shouted, 'These are blanks!'? Why didn't the Shamgar Commission determine who shouted that the shots fired were blank cartridges?"
She questions why her mother was driven away in a different car when Yitzchak Rabin was driven to the hospital. "Why," Rabin-Pilosoph asks, "did they tell her that it was an exercise?... Why didn't they kill the assassin?"
Rabin-Pilosoph speaks of Channel Two investigative reporter Matti Cohen, who shared with her significant findings regarding the assassination but whose report was never allowed to be shown to the public.
In the 1999 interview, Rabin-Pilosoph said that security agents complained to her that they were forbidden to testify about various matters connected to the events during the assassination and immediately afterwards.
In an interview later that day on Israel Radio, Rabin's son, Yuval, demanded that a re-investigation into the murder be opened. "I also have the same questions," he said, "[and more]... I don't think that we can and should give answers to the questions. My role is to raise the questions and to bring them back to the public agenda, this is my job..."
The protestors who accuse the Israeli government of lying about the Rabin assassination will be distributing a list of their own findings and unanswered questions including the following:
- We charge former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Meir Shamgar with gross judicial misconduct for changing the time of Rabin's murder from 9:30 to 9:50pm.
- We charge Yoram Rubin with perjury for testifying to the Shamgar Commission that Rabin was shot at 9:50. Yigal Amir was arrested at 9:30.
- We charge Rabin's driver, Menachem Damti, with perjury for testifying to the Shamgar Commission and at Amir's trial that he drove to Ichilov Hospital in less than two minutes. The ride actually took 22 minutes.
- We charge Rubin, Damti and Shamgar with conspiracy to alter evidence, by coordinating a new, later time of murder.
- We charge Eitan Haber of evidence-destruction based on his own testimony to the Shamgar Commission that he absconded with Rabin's possessions at Ichilov Hospital, while later admitting to Jerusalem newspaper Kol Ha'ir that on the same night he cleaned out Rabin's filing cabinets at the Prime Minister's office.
- We charge Menachem Damti with perjury for testifying to the Shamgar Commission that he was opening the door for Leah Rabin when he heard the first shot, and that he reacted by immediately jumping into the driver's seat, as he was trained to do. Leah Rabin was standing on the steps nowhere near her husband when Amir shot the blanks and Damti stayed outside after the shot.
- We charge Shimon Peres with gross misconduct and dereliction of public service. As prime minister, Peres approved the Shamgar Commission's conclusions that Rabin was shot twice in the back.
- We charge the pathologist Dr. Yehuda Hiss with medical malpractice and evidence tampering. While all other doctors including Gutman, Sneh and Barabash reported that Rabin's spine was shattered, causing death, Hiss removed the wound from Rabin's autopsy.
- We charge Avishai Raviv with perjury at his recent trial. Raviv testified that Amir never informed him of his murderous intent.
- We charge the chief judge at Yigal Amir's trial, Edmund Levy, with gross judicial misconduct for dismissing the testimony of police forensics expert Inspector Baruch Gladstein, who proved scientifically that Rabin was shot at point blank range, about half a meter closer than Amir ever got to Rabin. We charge that Levy acted with full knowledge and intent in this dismissal of evidence. Within the defense summation of attorney Jonathan Goldberg, there is more than enough proof that Judge Levy deliberately ignored and dismissed relevant evidence throughout the trial.
Protestors will meet at 9 am at Merkaz David at the corner of Deganya and Klauzner Streets in Netanya on both days of the conference. The demonstration will be ongoing from 9am to 8pm in the vicinity of the Netanya Academic College.
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Click Here! | | 5. New Elections: First Step This Wednesday
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
Preparations for the next national elections, which are likely to be held in the coming months, have begun in the Likud and Labor parties, as well as in the religious-Zionist camp.
| MK Yitzchak Levy (National Union) plans to submit a bill for the dissolution of the Knesset this Wednesday, and Labor Party leader Amir Peretz says he wants his party to vote for it. Prime Minister Sharon has said that any Cabinet minister who votes in favor will be fired forthwith - leading Labor leaders to say they would resign beforehand. In either event, this would mean the end of the government.
Though Peretz has announced that he will continue his efforts to lead his party out of the government coalition, opinion in Labor is divided regarding this idea. Some ministers, such as Shimon Peres and Matan Vilnai, feel that the issue must be discussed in a more measured manner, and that there is no rush to leave. Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, on the other hand, has come out in favor of Peretz's initiative.
The Labor Party Knesset faction will convene tomorrow to decide its stance.
Within the Likud Party, some are saying that the oft-postponed political fight between Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu ought to be put off once again. Ynet reports that "senior Likud figures" are promoting a plan according to which Netanyahu would forego his race against Sharon for party leadership. In exchange, Netanyahu would be guaranteed the second slot on the list of candidates, without his having to run at all. Sharon would also have to agree to present all future diplomatic initiatives in a national or party referendum - and would ostensibly also have to agree to abide by the results. It is widely recalled that Sharon promised to adhere to the will of the party regarding the disengagement, but then proceeded to ignore the 60%-40% margin that rejected it.
The logic behind the initiative is that a Netanyahu-Peretz race for Prime Minister would likely send many voters to the Peretz camp, given the disenchantment with ex-Finance Minister Netanyahu's economic policies among the lower socio-economic classes. Peretz stands for more socialist policies, and he and Netanyahu have clashed in the past more than once on these issues. Sharon, on the other hand, is not as identified with his government's budget-cutting policies as is Netanyahu.
Within the religious-Zionist camp, contacts between the National Religious Party and the National Union continue, exploring the option of a merger between the two. NRP leader recently poured cold water on the idea, announcing that merely "finding job opportunities" for the MKs is not sufficient. MK Tzvi Hendel expressed surprise at Orlev's response, saying that the two parties had already come to some agreements, "including saving the position of Education Minister for the NRP." Hendel said that the religious-Zionist public demands unity, and that whoever torpedoes such an idea must resign.
In the meanwhile, the National Union party has formulated the structure of its list of candidates for the coming election. Places numbered 1, 6, 9 and 10 will be reserved for Moledet - leading, presumably, with Benny Elon and Aryeh Eldad; 2, 5, 8, and 11 will go to Tekumah - leading with Hendel and Uri Ariel; and slots numbered 3, 4, 7 and 12 will go to the newcomer Religious Zionist Renewal party, with Effie Eitam and Yitzchak Levy.
Eldad, however, says he will "not be #6 on the list." Though aware that this could imply that he will resign rather than be relegated to that spot, he did not elaborate. Eldad did say, however, that he believes there should be party primaries to determine the placement of the various candidates.
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| | 6. New Labor Head Peretz Wants to Fund Voluntary Yesha Evacuation
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
Amir Peretz, fresh off his surprise victory over Shimon Peres in the Labor party leadership race, has co-submitted a Knesset bill to encourage and fund Yesha residents to leave.
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The bill was submitted by Peretz together with MKs Ilana Cohen and Yuli Tamir. It stipulates that if least 60% of a community's residents agree to leave on their own, all the residents will be compensated. The implication is that the 40% who do not agree would be forcibly expelled and then compensated.
Peretz appears to be attempting to emphasize his left-wing bent. He spoke this week of the likelihood that he would include an Arab party in his government, about the need to end the "conquest," and his desire to continue the path of Oslo.
Peretz's co-sponsors of the bill, Cohen and Tamir, are also his political allies. Cohen, chairperson of the Nurses Organization, joined Peretz when he formed the One Nation party, and then again again when he joined Labor. Tamir was one of the few Labor Party MKs to support Peretz in the leadership race against Peres.
The bill's introduction explains that the momentum of the Disengagement Plan must be continued. That event "was a concrete example of the State's ability to form an appropriate system of compensation for citizens who are evacuated from their homes."
Most of the 8,500 citizens expelled from their homes during the recent disengagement have not yet received a cent of their compensation money. The Supreme Court was forced to order the State last week to begin making advance payments to hundreds of residents.
"The successful implementation of the disengagement plan," the bill's introduction states, "should be used as a lever for the continued attempts to reach a final status agreement - and this, among other things, via the formation of incentives for continued voluntary evacuation of Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria."
The proposed bill, according to its three co-sponsors, will become a "supportive wind for the implementation of further evacuations," and will remove obstacles that might stand in the way of future final-status diplomatic agreements.
A similar initiative is being promulgated by the Bayit Echad (One Home) organization. The group claims that the partition wall being built between Yesha and the rest of Israel endangers and abandons tens of thousands of residents who will remain on its "wrong" side. Bayit Echad therefore promotes public action for legislation that will "guarantee the Yesha residents a future economic promise that will enable them to leave their communities today, and to receive appropriate compensation in the future."
Among the backers of the initiative are MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz), MK Collete Avital (Labor), former MKs Dalia Rabin (Labor) and Yehuda Lankri (Likud), Prof. Avi Ravitsky, and others.
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| 7. The Time Has Come: Stolen Clock Returned to Jews
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
A stolen Holocaust-era clock, a historically-minded concerned Gentile, a radio show and hostess and a girls' high school in Judea all came together last week to right a long-buried historical wrong.
| The story began in 1855 with the manufacture, somewhere in Europe, of an ornate four-foot tall clock. It later ended up in the hands of a Jewish family - but did not remain there when the Nazis came to power, stealing personal property en masse. In 1972, the clock in question surfaced again when U.S. non-commissioned military officer Albert Cuppet purchased it from an American soldier. Cuppet barely noticed the Jewish Star penciled on back of his new property, and it hung in his house for decades.
The story's next development occurred in 2004, when Cuppet - a highly-decorated military man - was interviewed by IsraelNationalRadio's Tamar Yonah. Though the conversation was not directly related to Israel, Cuppet later said it made him begin to think about the Jewish People and their return to their homeland. He then remembered the clock on his wall and the Jewish Staron its back - and was hit with the realization that it was property stolen from Jews, and should be returned to them.
Cuppet contacted the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but was informed that though his gesture was appreciated, they could not guarantee that the clock would be put on display anywhere other than in a storeroom. He then phoned up Tamar Yonah once again, asking her to take the clock for her own home, and "at least it will be back in the hands of a Jewish family."
Tamar suggested, instead, that he give the clock to a Jewish school, "as that way, it will be seen by generations of students." Al liked the idea, and it was arranged that the clock would be donated to the Tzvia Girls Junior High and High School in Kochav Yaakov, just north of Jerusalem.
Tamar then put Cuppet in touch with Avi and Rivki Barr of Baltimore, who were about to make Aliyah [immigrate] to Israel and to Kochav Yaakov. "They graciously agreed to ship the clock over with their personal belongings at their expense," Yonah said.
The clock-hanging ceremony in Ulpanat Tzvia, Kochav Yaakov took place this past Thursday morning. Addressing the students were principal Rabbi Gilad Haleh, Mr. Cuppet himself, and Tamar's father, Holocaust-survivor Dr. Abraham C. Peter.
Rabbi Haleh noted that the ceremony was reminiscent of an account in the beginning of the Book of Ezra, which describes the surrounding nations bestowing gifts to the Jews upon their return to the Land of Israel. "Could it be," he asked, "that this deed of the Nations helping enable the Jews' return to Zion, with gifts and whatever else they need, will also occur in the End of Days? Is this indeed the start of the Nations of the World restoring to the Jewish People what was once theirs?"
Dr. Peter told of his Holocaust experiences, relating how the Germans forced him and his family to leave their home in Lodz, Poland, carrying only one bag of belongings each. (Click here to hear interview.)
One thing that remained in his memory forever was a giant grandfather clock that had been in his family for generations. "Often I would hear my father speak about that clock," Tamar said, "and I would wonder which German household now had possession of his family's heirloom."
Dr. Peter's father was later beaten to death by the Nazis. One of the girls at the ceremony later said, "I was crying as he told his story - and I saw that Al Cuppet had tears in his eyes as well."
Mr. Cuppet then addressed the girls, and told them his story and that of the clock. His written account of the story is framed and now hangs beneath it. "I am not Jewish," the letter states, "but my heart is with the Jewish People. I have donated this clock you see before you to your school as a reminder of the terrible crimes against G-d's Chosen People. In trying to right wrongs, I have donated this clock to your school. Please read the story below on the history of this clock of how it came into my hands."
The letter ends with a quote of the Divine promise to bless "all the nations of the earth" in the merit of Abraham. "May the return and display of this clock be a great and manifold blessing to many people around the world; and to Eretz Yisrael, and to the citizens thereof."
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| | 8. Sonic Boom Policy in Danger
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
The Supreme Court hears an Arab petition against the IDF's anti-rocket policy of sonic booms over Gaza skies. The State says the policy is necessary for security, the Arabs say it's too scary.
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At issue is a recent Israel Air Force policy of effecting tremendously loud sonic booms over Gaza, with the objective of scaring and disorienting the terrorists and Kassam-rocket launchers.
The State presented its position on Sunday, explaining that the booms "are an operational necessity that cannot be waived."
Just a month ago, the Supreme Court ruled that a procedure deemed necessary by the IDF was illegal. Known as the Neighbor Procedure, the tactic is designed to facilitate the safe arrest of wanted Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria. It involves asking a neighbor of the sought terrorist(s) - instead of soldiers, who would thus be endangered - to knock on their door and inform the occupants that the army demands their surrender. The Court ruled that the procedure must not be used, as it is likely to endanger the neighbor without sufficient justification. "In balancing the military and humanitarian considerations," Chief Justice Aharon Barak wrote, "the considerations that forbid the army to use local residents have the upper hand."
The sonic bomb suit was brought on Nov. 2 by the Doctors for Civil Rights Organization and the Mental Health Center in Gaza, claiming that the booms cause heavy damage to the civilian population, and particularly to children. A brief attached to the suit by chief Gaza Psychiatrist Ihad Saraj claims that the policy causes the children "fears, nightmares and physical harm," including headaches and weakness.
It should be noted that the Israeli kibbutzim and communities bordering Gaza have also complained of the effects of the booms - though they have not brought a law suit against the policy.
The State Prosecution submitted the following response to the suit:
"The military activity to stop and interfere with the firing of Kassam rockets and mortar shells towards Israel is done via various means. Among the options at the IDF's disposal is that of flying IAF planes in the airspace over the launching areas. This is designed to disrupt the activities of the terrorists by causing the terrorists planning to fire rockets or bombs a fear that they will be identified and attacked in real-time while or immediately after they prepare the launch."
The State said that this method also causes confusion and disinformation amidst the terrorists regarding IDF plans in the area, as well as the sensation that the terrorists are constantly being tracked and endangered. The State emphasizes that this means is not lethal, has been used in the past by other countries, and is effective against rocket attacks without endangering life.
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| | | 9. Kever Rachel Trip Breaks Barriers
|  | | By Israel National News Staff
Huge concrete slabs, myriads of people, and two thousand years of exile did not stop a special trip of English speakers from reaching Kever Rachel - the Tomb of the Biblical matriarch Rachel.
| The 11th of the Jewish month Cheshvan is the "Yahrtzeit" (anniversary of the passing) of the Matriarch Rachel. On this date each year, thousands of Jews converge on Rachel's Tomb to pray and to give homage to this great Biblical persona, the only woman in the Torah to be called a shepherdess. Arutz Sheva, Kumah, and the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund felt this was the perfect opportunity to bring together English speakers in Israel on a special trip. Billed under the banner "Have You Visited Your Mother Lately?" and with a subsidized price of 20 NIS, the trip was quickly booked up.
"We wanted to create a trip where new Olim (immigrants) can come to Kever Rachel and say to her, 'You can stop crying for us, because we've come home' said trip organizer Yishai Fleisher "When I asked how many people in the bus are Olim, most of the hands went up, and in my mind that was the real success - to bring all these Jews who have decided to come home to visit their mother."
Chaim Silberstein of the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund streamlined the access pass for the bulletproof bus and then took the group to the properties whose purchase his organization facilitated. Chaim told the story of how Rachel's Tomb was saved from the clutches of the Palestinians:
"During the Rabin administration, Kever Rachel was slated to fall into 'Area A', that is, under full Arab civil and military control. Upon seeing this, Knesset Member Chanan Porat decided that he must speak with Rabin in the hopes of changing his mind. As Chanan Porat was walking to Rabin's office, Knesset Member Rabbi Menachem Porush asked Porat where he was going. Hearing that Porat was about to fight for Kever Rachel, Porush asked to join in the meeting. At Rabin's office, Chanan Porat was diligently explaining the ins and outs of the security situation at Kever Rachel and making rational arguments that did not seem to move Rabin.
"Suddenly Rabin looked at Porush and saw that he was crying. Porush held Rabin's hands and with tears streaming down his face, said: 'Yitzchak, it's Mamma Rachel, Mamma Rachel.' At that moment Rabin's heart opened, and he altered the map so that Kever Rachel would remain in Jewish hands."
Silberstein also revealed that there are plans for growth at Rachel's Tomb - such as a Bat Mitzva center that would draw Jewish families from throughout the world on a pilgrimage to celebrate a Jewish girl's rite of passage to womanhood. "Rachel Imeinu (our Matriarch) is the paradigm of the Jewish people's selfless devotion to our G-d and our nation - people must be allowed to come here."
After the tour of the properties, the group went on to some personal prayer time. The halls adjacent to the actual grave were packed, but no one in the group seemed to complain about the cramped conditions. Shlomo Goodman, who made Aliyah from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and now lives in Maaleh Adumim, said: "I was intellectually prepared, and knew what Kever Rachel was all about, but the knowledge did not prepare me for the spiritual and emotional reality of the place. Without thinking, I was overcome, I went in there, and there wasn't a dry eye."
Following the hour-long prayer session, the group reconvened outside the complex and boarded the bus. The Kever Rachel part of the trip was over, but now the group needed some time to let the things they saw and felt settle in. The bus took the group to a park in the Gilo neighborhood that featured a spectacular view of Jerusalem. Lunch was brought out, including six bottles of the wine from the Beit El winery.
Yitz Berlin, who had come on Aliyah less than a week before from Baltimore, Maryland, said: "I enjoyed meeting the Arutz Sheva group, especially the faces behind Israel National Radio; it was a great welcome to Eretz Yisrael."
The Torah writes that Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, died when giving birth and was buried in Bethlehem on the road to Efrat, south of Jerusalem. Later, in the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, Rachel is heard weeping for her exiled children:
Thus says G-d: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Thus says G-d: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says G-d; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, says G-d; and your children shall come again to their own border. [Veshavu Banim Le'Gvulam] (31:15-17)
For more info on the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund, email: chaim@jcdf.org
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| | 10. Four Terrorists Killed in Two Days of Attempted Attacks
|  | | By Hillel Fendel
IDF forces killed four Palestinian terrorists over the past two days, in four separate attempted terror attacks. One of the dead terrorists: Hamas leader Ahmed Hinawi.
| Early this morning in Shechem, Hinawi, the top Hamas man in Shechem, was killed in a joint IDF-Police-General Security Service operation in the city. When the force neared his home, Hinawi burst out of the building, shooting wildly with his Kalachnikov rifle. The soldiers returned fire and killed him.
Hinawi had led an intensive campaign to build explosives factories, and was involved in many terror attacks in the past, killing or mortally wounding several Israelis.
The Shechem operation also netted the arrests of several leading Hamas terrorists in the region.
In the Shomron city of Jenin on Sunday morning, an IDF force identified two armed terrorists apparently on their way to an attack against another IDF unit. The soldiers opened fire, wounding one - but both escaped. Not for long, however, as IDF forces pursued them into Jenin, found the house to which they escaped, and shot and killed one of them. The dead terrorist turned out to be Shajija Bilawi, who had been wanted by the IDF.
IDF forces also killed two terrorists in Gaza - one yesterday as he tried to place a bomb, and another one today as he tried to launch a mortar shell. Two terrorists were seriously wounded in the latter incident.
IDF forces fired over 40 artillery shells towards northern Gaza last night, following Palestinian shelling of Israeli targets.
Thanks to the alertness of IDF soldiers manning the Hawara checkpoint south of Shechem today, three Arab youths were arrested trying to smuggle a ready-to-operate explosive device. The bomb was safely detonated in a controlled explosion, and the youths were taken for interrogation. Hawara is a popular spot for attempted Arab bomb smugglings.
Despite the continued terror attempts, the IDF lifted its closure of Judea and Samaria yesterday, with 8,000 workers allowed to cross from Gaza into Israel. The closure was imposed after the terrorist bombing in the Hadera market three weeks ago, in which six people were murdered.
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| | Today on IsraelNN.com: |  |  | Netanyahu warns Peretz is a danger to the economy
|   | | |  | |  | A Bus Ride and Jewish Destiny
The other day, I had an experience that, had it happened to me anywhere else but in Israel, I believe would have pretty much ruined my day. But, happening in Israel, it gave me one more reason to appreciate how fortunate I am to be living here.
|  | | | | |  | Rabbi Kook on the Atmosphere of Eretz Yisrael
Under the influence of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, an American Jew came to Eretz Yisrael with the intention of settling here permanently. One day, however, he showed up the rabbi's house and requested a farewell blessing. For some reason, he had decided to return to America.
|  | | | Lech Lecha: A Pleasant View
Avraham and Sarah arrive in a country similar to the modern State of Israel, one that awaits redemption and return -- as the Canaanite nations "still" inhabit the Land (12:6). This raises a question that remains timely: What advantage is there for a Jew to live in Eretz Yisrael if this is not yet the appointed time?
| Rabbi Steven Ettinger for Aloh Naaleh | | | | | |  |
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