FULL ARTICLES

WE'RE ALL ISRAELIS NOW, SAYS ABBOTT

We're all Israelis now, says Abbott
By Dennis Shanahan and Megan Saunders
The Herald Sun (Australia)
October 30, 2003

Tony Abbott has accused the Sydney Peace Prize winner, Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi, of justifying terrorism against civilians, and declared that the Bali bombing has made all Australians "Israelis now".

Continuing an assertive defense of Western values and Judeo-Christian beliefs against terrorism, the Federal Health Minister said instead of "spawning phobias" about Israel, the September 11 and Bali terror attacks should generate a shared suffering between Israel and Western democracies.

His comments came as John Howard also waded into the debate over the prize, to be awarded in Sydney next week, joining Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer in naming former Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen as a better choice.

"Amongst Palestinians over the past year or so a more appropriate choice for the peace prize would be Abu Mazen (also known as Mahmoud Abbas) who made an enormous effort to support the road map for peace in the Middle East and to oppose terrorism," Mr Howard's spokesman said. "Hanan Ashrawi has not been active in promoting the road map."

While Mr Howard and Mr Downer back Mr Mazen as a more suitable alternative, the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council refers to his "long history of Holocaust denial" on its official website.

Multicultural Affairs Minister Gary Hardgrave told The Australian he believed selectors from the Sydney Peace Foundation should have chosen two winners - one from each side of the conflict.

Mr Abbott, responding to criticism of Israel by The Australian's columnist Phillip Adams, said it was not "anti-Semitic to criticise the Israeli Government when it's wrong".

"But what is it, then," he asked "to proclaim moral equivalence between an Israeli leadership striving to preserve a liberal, pluralist democracy and Palestinian leadership running a one-party statelet dedicated to destroying its neighbour?"

Mr Abbott told the Zionist Council of Victoria on Tuesday night it was anti-Semitism that made many Western citizens "habitual critics of Israel even though it's the only functioning liberal democracy anywhere in the Middle East."

"September 11 demonstrated that Israel and the West not only have common values but also share vulnerability to similar enemies," he said in Melbourne.

 

SEVEN SUICIDE BOMBINGS THWARTED IN PAST WEEK

Seven suicide bombings thwarted in past week
By Margot Dudkevich
The Jerusalem Post
October 29, 2003

In the past ten days, the Shin Bet and IDF forces succeeded in thwarting seven potential suicide bomb attacks in Israel, including a double suicide bomb attack that was to have taken place in Beit She'an, and a car bomb attack in Israel.

The security establishment registered 41 warnings of plans by terrorists to perpetrate attacks on Wednesday, a security official told The Jerusalem Post, noting that the majority of the warnings received related to potential suicide bomb attacks.

"People should not be misguided by the supposed calm," the official said, noting that the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank continues in its efforts to launch attacks against Israeli citizens.

On October 19, security forces arrested two senior terrorist commanders affiliated with the Islamic Jihad and Tanzim who were described by officials as 'ticking bombs'. The two, Said Zid and Yakub Jawadra were planning to perpetrate an imminent suicide bomb attack in Beit She'an and later disclosed to security officials the whereabouts of the two explosive belts, each weighing ten kilos they planned to use in the attack.

On October 20, Fares Abu Hamda, a Palestinian teenager affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and described by security officials as a " potential attacker" was arrested in the Askar refugee camp in Nablus.

A day later near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, IDF forces shot a number of terrorists attempting to infiltrate members of their cell into Israel to perpetrate attacks.

In Hebron, On October 22, IDF forces arrested Imad Natsche and Wajah Abu Shama, members of the Islamic Jihad who they spotted hiding in a car parked next to Natsche's home. Troops shot and killed Tanzim fugitive A-Khadi Natsche spotted fleeing from Imad's house.

Basem Natsura an Islamic Jihad fugitive was arrested in Kalkilya by security forces and revealed plans to smuggle a car rigged with explosives into Israel.

Sami Jeradat, an Islamic Jihad commander was arrested in Silat A Hartiyah and was involved in the plotting of suicide bomb attacks including the attack at the Maxim restaurant earlier this month in which 22 Israelis were killed and scores wounded.

Officials said Jeradat was also involved in the planning of additional attacks against Israelis. In the same village security forces also arrested Iman Jeradat who assisted Sami in the planning.

Ahmed Hamis a senior PFLP commander was shot and killed while evading arrest by security forces in Kalkilya. Officials said Hamis was involved in plotting and planning shooting and bomb attacks against Israeli vehicles traveling on roads in the area and was also involved in attempts to launch suicide and shooting attacks against Israelis on the seam line border.

In the village of Rai' security forces arrested Mohammed Melahem a member of the Islamic Jihad who was involved in tracking down and recruiting two potential suicide bombers willing to perpetrate attacks on behalf of the Islamic Jihad.

In Ramallah, security forces arrested Osama Braham, an Islamic Jihad commander and bomb expert, who operates in the Tulkarm area and was visiting in the city.

During his investigation it was revealed that he prepared a number of bombs and smuggled potential suicide bombers on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine into Ramallah.

 

TWO ISRAELIS INJURED IN WEST BANK SHOOTING

Two Israelis injured in West Bank shooting
Reuters
October 29, 2003

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli car near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Wednesday, wounding two passengers, military sources said.

Israel Radio said one Israeli was seriously wounded in the attack near the Palestinian city of Jenin.

It was the latest violence in tit-for-tat bloodshed that has sidelined a U.S.-backed peace "road map" that set out steps leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.

 

JEWISH SETTLERS WEIGH MERITS OF SNIFFER PIGS

Jewish settlers weigh merits of sniffer pigs
From Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem
London Times
October 29, 2003

Israelis are considering using pigs instead of sniffer dogs to help to protect Jewish settlements.

Overturning millennia of religious stigma, Gdud Haivri, which provides guard dogs for settlers, has sought rabbinical permission to teach the animals, known for their superior sense of smell, to patrol settlements, locate concealed gunmen and identify weapons and explosives.

Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov, a spokesman for the group, said that settler rabbis had granted approval after deciding that saving lives overrode all other considerations. The former New Yorker, who left America for the ultra-nationalist Jewish settlement of Kfar Tappuah, on the West Bank, said: "As a Jew I certainly want to have nothing to do with pigs, but I would get my hands dirty if they are going to save lives.

"We also know that Muslims, according to Islam, are not allowed to touch pigs, especially before they blow themselves up, because they believe they have a place in Heaven afterwards.

"If they know there may be pigs in the area it might deter them."

Scientists at the Institute of Animal Science and Research in Lahav Kibbutz have been studying specially bred miniature pigs for the past year.

Dan Ratner, the institute's founder, said: "The pigs can learn quite fast, find out objects and mark them by sitting near by. Usually their smell is much better than dogs, they are cheaper to keep and they can be taught very easily."

Gdud Haivri usually uses Malinois shepherd dogs, which cost up to £7,000 to breed, train and transport from Belgium.

Rabbi Daniel Shilo of Kedumim, chairman of the rabbinical committee of Judea and Samaria, told The Times: "If it is a matter of saving lives, my judgment is that it should be permissible to breed them in Israel, but the final decision should be given by the chief rabbinical authorities."

Mr Ben-Yaakov concedes that many Jews are opposed to the idea. "We would lose some of the financial support we receive from religious Jews in Israel and abroad," he said, "but if Jews are upset, then Muslims will also be and the pigs may be a very important deterrent."

 

ISRAEL ASKS FOR HELP TO TRACE 'BRITISH BOMBERS'

Israel asks for help to trace 'British bombers'
By Daniel McGrory
London Times
October 27, 2003

Israeli army officials have asked British security agencies for help in tracking down British Muslims whom they fear may be plotting suicide attacks from Syria.

Several young British Muslim militants have gone missing after travelling to Syria in recent months, the Israeli officials claim.

They say that at least three men travelling on genuine British passports are being sheltered in the Gaza Strip by terrorist groups.

There are suspicions that a handful of young militants from Britain may have also slipped into Iraq to join in attacks against American and British troops.

While officials accept that the vast majority of young men going to Damascus are genuine students, the concern is that militants can easily slip across Syria's borders into Israel or Iraq.

The requests being made to British security agencies come after two British citizens - Asif Mohammed Hanif, 21, and Omar Khan Sharif, 27 - staged a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv café on April 30, killing three and wounding 40.

The men had told their families that they were going to study in Damascus.

Security sources believe that up to 50 other British passport-holders have moved to Syria in the past few months, and some of them cannot be traced.

A key question is whether men such as Hanif and Sharif were recruited for their mission in Britain or when they reached Damascus. A senior Israeli army officer told The Times that the bombing at Mike's Bar was not an operation run by local Palestinians but had been planned abroad.

He said that Hanif, who had been in Syria for five months before crossing into Israel, had met leading figures from Hamas in Damascus.

The officer claimed to have evidence that Sharif was "activated" for the suicide mission before he left Britain.

"We certainly believe there are other British citizens who plan to do the same," he said.

Three times in as many months he said that the Israeli Army had been ordered to track down British passport-holders who, he claims, came into the country posing as peace demonstrators, just as Hanif and Sharif did.

He refused to say whether any of the three men had been found.

"Having a genuine British passport, as these two had, certainly made it easier for them to cross into Israel and move around the country," he said.

Israeli diplomats have made their concerns known to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Officials also handed over documents that were printed in Britain by an extremist group based in the Midlands, urging others to become suicide bombers.

There is no suggestion that the Syrian authorities had any knowledge of the men's mission, or that other militants have definitely followed their route.

A Syrian official said that there had been an increase in the number of applications from young British men to visit the country in the past 12 months, though all have given the addresses of colleges and other institutions where they intend to pursue their studies.

Their own investigation is continuing into the activities of Hanif and Sharif.

The younger of the two, Hanif, was killed in the popular sea-front café after detonating explosives strapped around his body. Sharif ran away after his belt failed to detonate and his body was found 12 days later in the sea close to where the attack had been carried out.

His family in Britain have not been given any official explanation as to how he ended up in the sea and whether his death was murder or suicide.

Some of his supporters claim that he was interrogated and later murdered by the Israeli security services.

Neither man had any criminal record, though intelligence agencies had monitored them attending meetings staged by the extremist al-Muhajiroun group, which has praised Osama bin Laden and the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks.

Al-Muhajiroun's founder, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, who gave religious instruction to the two suicide bombers, described how they "died on the battlefield and will now go to paradise".

He said: "I knew Sharif very well and I'm very proud of him and any Muslim who will do the same as he did. He died for my sake and the sake of his brothers."

Earlier this month Israeli forces launched an air strike on the Ein Saheb camp inside Syria which they claim was a training base for terrorists.

Syria denied the claim and complained to the United Nations Security Council that the Israelis had attacked a refugee camp. Military commentators said it was the first time that Israel had struck so far inside Syrian territory since the 1973 Middle East war.