ISRAELI WOMAN IS CROWNED MRS. WORLD IN INDIA

Israeli mother, Sima Bakahr, crowned 'Mrs World'
Press Trust of India
Amby Valley (Lonavala)
February 26, 2005

www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1258750,000900040001.htm
www.hindustantimes.com/onlineCDA/PFVersion.jsp?article=http://10.81.141.122/news/181_1258750,000900040001.htm

The 28-year-old Israeli mother's simple statement that "being away from her daughter" was her biggest challenge, seems to have clinched the diamond and ruby-studded Mrs World crown for Sima Bakahr.

The 27-year-old Croatian contestant, Ivana Boce and 37-year-old Sherin Peace from New Zealand were crowned first and second runner up respectively at the beauty pageant, organised last night exclusively for married women and hosted by the Sahara group in the picturesque hill station of Lonavala in Amby Valley.

It was Bakahr, a mother of young daughter, answer at the final round that her biggest challenge at the contest was "being away from her daughter" that clinched the title and the $18,000 diamond-and-ruby studded crown.

Bakahr, an architect by profession, also bagged the "Beautiful Legs" at the Mrs World Contest, held for the first time in India.

The contest also saw the svelte beauty from New Zealand, Sherin Peace, walking away with the "Dream Body" while the Bulgarian beauty, Yana Marinova romped home with the "Beautiful Smile" title.

The Ukrainian beauty title holder, Svitlana Valova, was conferred the Beautiful Skin award. The Indian beauty Jeevika Shah also featured among the final six contestants vying for the title, but failed to make it to the last three.

Stepping out of the threshold of their homes, 41 married contestants from across the globe sashayed down the ramp, dressed in designer outfits, and amidst some melodious strains of music - all vying for the crown.

 

MRS ISRAEL – MOST BEAUTIFUL MARRIED WOMAN

Mrs Israel – most beautiful married woman
Deccan Herald
February 26, 2005

www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb262005/i6.asp

As Mrs Israel Sima Bakahr took centre stage to be crowned Mrs World 2005, the cameras could not stop flashing to capture the most beautiful emotion of the evening. Mrs Croatia, Ivana Brnic Boce was named the first runner-up and Mrs New Zealand Sherin Peace was the second runner-up, reports Sumaa Tekur from Amby Valley, Sahara Lake City near Mumbai.

The open air theatre against the backdrop of a 15th century fort along the Sahyadri range in Amby Valley at Sahara Lake City near Mumbai was the venue on Friday.

Chandigarh-born Jeevika Shah, India's entry to the contest made it to the final six. When asked, "What are the most important qualities essential to becoming a successful human being?" she replied, "It is necessary for a successful human being to be calm, composed, peaceful with oneself, focussed and intelligent." But what won Mrs Israel the diamond and ruby studded crown worth $18,000 was simply a mother missing her daughter.

To the question, "What was your biggest challenge in this competition?" this 28-year-old beauty who has been married for the last five years answered, "Staying away from my daughter. I am having a great time here, but my thoughts keep going back to my daughter."

The cheers and the loud applause from the very impressed audience said it all.

The judges chose Mrs Ukraine Svitlana Valova as the Dettol Beautiful Skin, and Mrs Bulgaria Yana Marinova as Duncans Beautiful Smile, while Mrs Israel was voted Most Beautiful Legs.

 

OSCAR-NOMINEE NATALIE PORTMAN'S KISS INFURIATES RELIGIOUS JEWS

Oscar-nominee Portman infuriates religious Jews over kiss scene
Entertainment News
AFP
Feb 23, 2005

Hollywood star Natalie Portman, nominated for a best supporting actress award at [yesterday's] Academy Awards, stirred a scandal over a kissing scene by Jerusalem's Wailing Wall -- the most sacred spot in Judaism, the top-selling Israeli daily said.

The Israeli-born 23-year-old, who [was nominated for] a golden statuette [yesterday] for her role in the film "Closer," was on location in Jerusalem for the shooting of "Free Zone", an Israeli-directed film, Yediot Aharonot reported.

But a kissing scene with co-actor Aki Avni in a car park next to the Wailing Wall infuriated religious Jews praying at the site, who slammed the smooch as an act of "lewdness" before chasing the pair and the crew off the set.

The paper said director Amos Gitai had not asked for permission prior to shooting the scene, but reached a compromise after the incident that he and his crew could come back to the site at a later hour.

 

ISRAEL'S BOBSLED TEAM BOMBS IN CANADA

Israel's Bobsled Team Bombs In Canada
The Media Line
February 20, 2005

If Jamaica can do it, why not Israel? Three American Jews who hold Israeli citizenship have launched a bobsled team for international competition. Midpoint in the 2005 Bobsled World Championships at Calgary, Canada, "Israel One" – as the team is known -- held 35th place out of 39 teams.

 

OWNER OF THE NFL CHAMPION NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS REDEDICATES JERUSALEM STADIUM

Kraft rededicates Jerusalem field
The Jerusalem Post
February 24, 2005

Robert Kraft may have made his most important offseason football move Wednesday night from a lush, green field in Jerusalem. The owner of the NFL champion New England Patriots re-dedicated Kraft Family Stadium in front of several hundred people, and he is hoping that history will repeat itself.

"It wasn't until we dedicated this field in '99 here in Jerusalem that we won three out of the last four Super Bowls," Kraft said in Hebrew to the delight of the assembled crowd. "I don't think it's a mere coincidence."

Kraft, who grew up in a traditional Jewish family, not only provided American Football in Israel, a 900-member flag football league, with new artifical grass, but also with a blessing. "We hope that this creates more interest in American football," he said. "Pru Urvu [Be fruitful and multiply]."

Kraft's wife Myra, who is leading an Israel mission from Boston, wants to see more females taking snaps on Kraft Field. "I hope to see more and more women's teams playing on the field," she said after autographing the backs of several young girls' shirts. "I hope that Israel does what America finally did with giving equal money to women's sports."

Shana Sprung, 19, is one of many girls who has benefited from the Krafts' generosity. "I've been playing football basically for three years already," Sprung said while taking a breather on the sideline of the women's league all-star game. "It started when we were sitting on the sideline watching the guys play, and Steve [Leibowitz] came over to us and asked us if we wanted to play. He said we may even be able to go to the Dominican Republic."

Sprung represented Israel last year in the Dominican Republic, as the national women's team finished fourth at the World Cup of Flag Football. "That was amazing," she said, and then darted back onto the field for the next play.

Leibowitz, the president of AFI, founded the league in 1988 and is looking forward to watching the sixthteenth Holyland Bowl, the league championship game, on Saturday night. "It's not the Super Bowl," Leibowitz told hundreds of fans and players. "But we've got the best Jewish players in the world."

While the Patriots were busy winning Super Bowls, AFI players were gradually improving their football skills. Moshe Shapiro, 23, knows that the league's competitiveness will only increase as a result of the improved Kraft Family Stadium.

"Before [the new turf] there were a couple of sand traps in the middle where we twisted our ankles, there were mud puddles, and general mayhem," said Shapiro, a residnt of Har Nof. "I think [the artifical grass] is unbelievable. I love it."

To begin the dedication ceremony, Kraft walked out onto the field accompanied by Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. While dozens of people encircled Kraft to get a picture of him, Netanyahu took a football in his left hand and threw it to a young boy. The ball fell short of the target.

The crowd was later treated to both the American and Israeli national anthems played by the Israeli Police Marching Band. Although most of those in attendance were from America, the crowd was considerably louder in singing Hatikva.

"In our lifetime I never thought I'd be able to feel the special ruach [spirit] of hearing the American national anthem," said Kraft. "And then hearing Hatikva game me the chills."

At the end the ceremony, Kraft hoisted the silver Vince Lombardi Super Bowl trophy for all to see. People rushed up to get a closer look, as some began chanting "DY-NA-STY" in reference to the Patriots' repeated succes and in gratitude to the team's owner.

 

"SOUND OF SILENCE" IS NEW SOCCER ANTHEM

'Sound of silence' is new soccer anthem
The Media Line
February 10

Spare a thought for the soccer players of Croatia. The national squad played a friendly game against Israel in Jerusalem on Wednesday night. While all soccer internationals begin with considerable panache, last night the organizers could not even manage to pump out the Croatian national anthem. Staff at the stadium had burnt the anthem onto a compact disc, but the format chosen would not play on the public-address system. So, at half time, a car was driven into the arena, the disc inserted into its stereo system, while an employee held a microphone up to the car’s speakers. And in case you were wondering, the anthem is entitled Lijepa Nasa Domovino or Our Beautiful Home.

 

ISRAELI SCIENTISTS EXPLAIN HOW TOMATOES PREVENT CANCER

Israeli scientists explain how tomatoes prevent cancer
By Allison Kaplan Sommer
Israel 21c
January 30, 2005

If you are looking for a reason to eat more pizza and pasta topped with lots of tomato sauce, you can thank Israeli researchers for providing great justification.

Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have identified why it is good for us to consume large quantities of tomatoes - and say that the best way to eat them is cooked up with some olive oil and cheese.

Scientists have long believed that the carotenoids found in fruits and vegetables have a cancer preventive effect. In particular, studies have found that as the consumption of tomato products increases, risk of certain types of cancer decreases - even more so than when a variety of vegetables are eaten. Over the years, studies have found that the risk of up to ten different types of cancer can be reduced by eating tomatoes. The preventative effect is due to the lycopen, the phytonutrient which gives tomatoes their red color.

What has been a relative mystery until now is precisely why this happens. But the BGU scientists are well on the way to discovering the precise mechanism that would explain this relationship between tomato consumption and cancer prevention.

In a study published in the January 2005 issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, Dr. Yoav Sharoni and Dr. Joseph Levy discuss how carotenoids, well known for their antioxidant activity, also act to prevent cancer by stimulating the body's antioxidant response element. Lycocenes, which comes from lycopen, is a member of the carotenoid family.

"Luckily, we have an established system in our body to fight carcinogens and toxins. This system is the anti-oxidant response elements, Levy said.

"Put simply - when you have toxins or carcinogens attacking the cells, our bodies turn on this system. It produces a lot of enzymes which convert these toxins and carcinogens - that can cause DNA mutations that lead to cancer – to less toxic forms by expelling them from the body through urination."

"What is new is that we have shown that the lycocenes and other family members, are the most active when it comes to turning on this antioxidant response system. Our study is focused on the mechanism of how carotenoids like lycopen successfully activate this known protective system in our body which produces the enzymes - we have found clearly that they activate this system. This is the mechanism which prevents cancer."

The clear message this research points to: Eat lots of vegetables, and particularly tomatoes. Levy says that the research clearly shows that the so-called Mediterranean diet is superior to a meat-and-potatoes regimen when it comes to maintaining health, and recommends that people consider drastically increasing their vegetable consumption.

"If you can, incorporate between five to nine portions of fruits and vegetables in your daily diet," he said.

Surprisingly, that doesn't necessarily mean consuming piles of salad. Many people believe instinctually that vegetables like tomatoes are best eaten raw for maximum benefits. But Levy says the research points otherwise.

"Many of these materials are not soluble in water, so they are badly absorbed in our gut when eaten raw and by themselves. You have to take them with some fat, some cheese or oil in salad and more of that. If you cook them, they are very stable, and if you cook them with some oil and have them as sauce or soup they are better absorbed than raw tomatoes," he said.

Levy holds the Irving Isaac Sklar Chair In Endocrinology and Cancer at BGU. He is a Professor in the university's Clinical Biochemistry Department Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University, and acts as the Head of the Endocrine Laboratory at Soroka Medical Center.

His research partner, Sharoni is also a Professor in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, and is the past chairman of the department. Their work has received grant support from agencies including Chief Scientists of the Israeli Ministry of Health, European Community, Cap Cure, as well as from pharmaceutical and nutraceutical corporations.

FULL ARTICLE ON YWCA

ANTI-ISRAEL REPORT STANDS

Anti-Israel report stands
YWCA national board fails to condemn Witness Report
The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix (Arizona)

By Deborah Sussman Susser
Associate Editor
February 18, 2005

www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/050218/ywca.shtml

The YWCA of the USA's National Coordinating Board (NCB), which met in Phoenix from Feb. 11-13, failed to pass a statement condemning the 2004 Witness Report, a four-page account of a visit that 14 members of the World YWCA made to the Middle East last spring.

That report detailed a visit to Yasser Arafat at his compound in Ramallah and concluded that Israelis were trying to "rid the land of Palestinians" just as "Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews."

Arafat, who died Nov. 11, was the leader of the Palestinian Authority.

The YWCA of the USA is a member of the World YWCA. The YWCA of the USA is made up of local associations that are organized into regions, such as the Southwest Delta Region, to which the Maricopa County YWCA belongs.

The statement condemning the report had been adopted and put forward to the NCB by the Pacific Region of the YWCA, which includes Tucson.

Janet Marcotte, executive director of the Tucson YWCA, said the Witness Report "has been a concern to our organization for a long time. I'm surprised it hasn't come up sooner."

Sharon Bettinelli, executive director of the YWCA Berkeley, in California, echoed Marcotte's concerns. "I'm on the executive committee, so we had been dealing with this for a while," she told Jewish News by phone the day after the NCB voted against the Pacific Region's statement.

In anticipation of the NCB meeting in Phoenix on Feb. 13, Bettinelli sent the 30 members of her board copies of the Pacific Region's statement as well as the Witness Report.

"I wanted to make sure our board members knew about it," she said, "because it was very important for us to separate ourselves from what was going on. ... We have quite a number of Jewish people involved here, and we don't want them to think in any way that we support this. 'They' are 'we.' That's why it was so important for so many of us out here to try to make sure that this resolution was passed at the meetings in Phoenix."

Five members of the NCB voted for the statement, and 11 voted against. There was one abstaining vote.

According to several YWCA members and observers who attended the meeting, the substance of the statement was not discussed; after it was voted down, it was referred to the YWCA's World Relations Committee for further study.

A prior statement from the Southwest Delta Region denouncing the Witness Report was voted down and referred to the same committee at a meeting of the NCB in November. According to participants at the Feb. 13 meeting, the committee has taken no action on the Southwest Delta Region's statement.

Marcotte said she found the results of the Feb. 13 vote "astounding. Anybody outside the organization would be distressed to see that given what we say we stand for as an organization, we didn't pass this very frankly inoffensive statement and make it the policy of the YWCA of the USA."

Authored by Doris Pagelkopf, vice president of the World YWCA and the American representative on the World YWCA board, the Witness Report reads in part: "I strongly felt the correlation to World War II. During that war Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews and now a group of Israelis ... is trying to choke off and rid the land of Palestinians."

The report was distributed to members of the World Relations Committee by Pagelkopf, who is a member of that committee, and included in a link in the newsletter of the YWCA of the USA, which is where Barbara Lewkowitz, then executive director of the YWCA of Maricopa County, came across it last summer.

Lewkowitz and Maricopa County YWCA board member Abbie Beller had already been alarmed by what both described as a "lack of balance" in a resolution brought before the World YWCA by the YWCA of Palestine at a meeting in Brisbane, Australia, in 2003, which both Lewkowitz and Beller attended. The 2003 resolution called for "an end to Israeli military aggression" as well as "the immediate withdrawal of occupation forces from Iraq."

The YWCA of the USA was the only national body to vote against the 2003 resolution, which was adopted by the World YWCA.

Lewkowitz, who was first interviewed by the Jewish News in November, after she resigned her position, said at the time, "I thought the resolution was untenable, but I was even more offended by the (Witness) Report."

According to Lewkowitz, she mailed a copy of the report to the members of the executive committee of the local YWCA and received no response. She said that she also asked to have the issue put on the agenda for the August board meeting and that it was not.

At that meeting, Beller resigned in protest. Interviewed by Jewish News in November, Beller expressed dismay that the board of the Maricopa County YWCA "didn't take the situation more seriously." At least one other board member later resigned as well. In her letter of resignation, a copy of which was obtained by Jewish News, she noted she was unable to reconcile her own views with the World YWCA's initiatives regarding Palestine, Israel and Iraq.

Connie Robinson, president of the YWCA of Maricopa County board of directors, said she did not attend the Feb. 13 session at which the Pacific Region's statement opposing the Witness Report was presented.

Reached by telephone the following day, Robinson said that she had not seen the statement and had no opinion on it. Asked for comment on the Witness Report, she said that she had none and that she had not read it in its entirety. She also declined to comment on the resolution on the Middle East passed by the World YWCA in 2003, saying, "I don't have anything in front of me right now. I need to refresh my memory and I don't have anything to refer to," and added that she had other priorities.

Prior to the NCB meeting this past weekend, the directors of the Jewish Community Relations Councils of the Jewish federations in both Phoenix and Tucson, in conjunction with the YWCA of Tucson, invited Peggy Sanchez Mills, the CEO of the YWCA of the USA, and members of the YWCA's national board to meet with members of the Jewish community while they were in Phoenix for the NCB gathering.

Josh Protas, director of the Southern Arizona JCRC, said that Sanchez Mills declined to meet in person, but offered to arrange a conference call.

Both Protas and Michelle Steinberg, director of the Greater Phoenix JCRC, declined to participate in a conference call, saying in a joint statement, "We believe that a face-to-face meeting is required to begin a meaningful and productive dialogue about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and have offered to meet at a future time and place that is convenient for the leadership of the YWCA of the USA."

According to Steinberg, she tried unsuccessfully several times to arrange a meeting with Robinson and other board members of the local YWCA in the month preceding the NCB meeting.

Robinson and a small number of local YWCA board members met on Feb. 9 with President Ken Smith and Executive Director Rabbi Robert Kravitz of The American Jewish Committee regarding, in Kravitz's words, "the misunderstandings and the difficulties in (Robinson's) planning for her upcoming event."

That event is the Tribute to Women, the local YWCA's major fund-raising lunch, to be held March 2. Kravitz told Jewish News that Robinson called the AJC at the urging of one of the honorees.

Kravitz described the meeting with Robinson and her board members as "a very frank meeting of the minds, and I think the result will be positive. They told us that they would be publishing two advertisements, one in the Jewish News and one in the Arizona Republic, indicating their position."

The ad published in this week's Jewish News does not mention the Witness Report that is denounced by the statements from the Southwest Delta and Pacific regions.

Eileen Mershant, one of two NCB representatives from the Great Lakes Region who voted for the Pacific Region statement on Feb. 13, said that she did so because "it was a fairly straightforward request to simply say that the comments in the Witness Report made last summer do not reflect the views of the YWCA of the USA. And I don't believe they do."

Asked why the statement was defeated, she sighed. "I wish I had a simple answer and I don't," she said finally. "I have a feeling other things entered into it that I'm not sure I understand, because it seems pretty straightforward to me."

Mershant wondered if perhaps the voting members didn't "refresh their memories on the content of the Witness Report" prior to voting. "I have looked at (the Witness Report) again," she said, "and it was terribly one-sided. It just simply would have been a far clearer thing to say this does not represent the views of the YWCA of the USA and make that a clear, unequivocal statement."

Mershant added her concern that because the Witness Report initially came through the World Relations Committee, which is a committee of the YWCA of the USA, "it could appear that the World Relations Committee was endorsing it."

Asked whether the World Relations Committee from which the Witness Report originally came is the same committee to which the Southwest Delta and Pacific Region statements have been returned for review, Mershant allowed that it was.

"That makes your head wonder a bit," she said. "It's kind of circular."

The resolution is scheduled to be revisited at the NCB's next meeting, in April, in Washington, D.C.

FRANCE BANS IRI'S SAHAR TV NETWORK

France bans IRI's Sahar TV network
February 22, 2005

www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=187740&n=35

Under pressures of Zionis [sic] lobby, French government decided to bar Iran's Sahar TV Network from broadcasting as of the tenth of March.

French and Arabic parts of Sahar TV Network has shown two anti-Zionist programs which triggered French council for monitoring media to ban broadcast of the network.

Director of the Sahar TV Network said that the network had tried to reveal the crimes of the Zionist regime as well as the unbased allegations over gas rooms and genocide of Jews known as holocaust among Zionists.

The decision by French Monitoring Council unveiled the true face of democracy in the West.

 

TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCASTS ON IRANIAN TV

Broadcast of Iranian TV Channel Sahar
February 23, 2005

Newscaster: "The French Higher Council for Radio and Television decided to cancel [the broadcasting of] Iranian Sahar TV, which belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the Hotbird satellite. This was the result of its airing the 'Al-Shatat' series and 'Zahra's Blue Eyes,' which, naturally, had various ramifications because it wanted to express the truth, to tell the truth, and to highlight the truth in everybody's minds, but not as the Zionists want. Our only crime is that we wanted to side with the oppressed. Our only crime is that we wanted to be followers of Imam Hussein's teaching, peace be upon him - Hussein who taught us, and indeed continues to teach us, how to face the aggressors."

 

"FRANCE HAS BANNED THE BROADCASTS... DUE TO ANTI-ISRAEL PROGRAMMING"

Broadcast of Iranian TV Channel Jaam-E-Jam 3
February 23, 2005

First newscaster: "Following the ban on the Al-Manar TV broadcasts in France, we see that the Sahar TV broadcasts have also been banned in a country that has claims to be free and democratic."

Second newscaster:"Yes, unfortunately... As you've said, France has banned the broadcasts of the Sahar Global network due to anti-Israeli programming. The French Higher Council for Radio and Television passed on this decision to the Eutelsat company. Sharif-Zadeh, director of the Sahar network, had this to say:"

Intervieweee, Mohsan Sharif-Zadeh, in response to a question: "Obviously, we began this trend to support the Palestinian people and to present the false foundations of the Zionist regime. Naturally, we will continue all programming as long as broadcasts have not been stopped by Eutelsat. Even afterwards we will continue our programming."

 

CHIRAC AGAIN CONDEMNS RACISM, BUT JEWS DEMAND ACTION

France's Chirac Condemns Racism, Jews Demand Action
February 22, 2005
Reuters

[Extracts of this report only included here]

French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday condemned an attack in which swastikas were daubed on the main mosque in Paris, and faced pressure from Jewish groups to intensify the fight against anti-Semitism and all racism.

The graffiti scrawled on the outer wall of the Grand Mosque and an arson attack on a railway carriage that is now a monument to Jews killed by the Nazi Germans, were the latest in a wave of racist attacks that have alarmed Muslims and Jews in France.

... A dozen swastikas, the SS initials of Adolf Hitler's guard and the words "Get out!" were found Monday written in black paint on the outer wall of the mosque in central Paris.

... There has also been no claim of responsibility for the attack on the railway carriage at Drancy, just outside Paris.

Police said a petrol bomb was thrown at the carriage on Sunday night but it was not badly damaged. The Nazi Germans transported Jews by train from a transit camp at Drancy to death and concentration camps during World War II.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin condemned the Drancy attack Monday, but a Jewish leader said Tuesday French should step up its fight against anti-Semitism.

"It's true that the authorities do the maximum to fight this curse of anti-Semitism and racism, but one must fight it more intensely," Roger Cukierman, head of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, told RTL radio.

He said all French people must make an effort to help prevent racist attacks.

"Public opinion must understand that these are not viewpoints but crimes which have to be punished," said Cukierman, who has criticized French sentences for anti-Semitic crimes as too light.

About 600,000 Jews live in France, the largest Jewish population in Europe. It is also home to [over] 5 million Muslims, Europe's largest Muslim minority.

Despite Chirac's drive to crack down on racist attacks, more than 300 tombs or graves have been desecrated in eastern France since April - many in Jewish cemeteries but also some Muslim and a few Christian graves...

FULL ARTICLE

"MOSSAD'S CHRISTIAN HEROINE DIES"

Mossad's Christian Heroine Dies
By Uri Dan
New York Post
February 19, 2005

www.nypost.com/commentary/40014.htm

The Mossad, Israel's spy agency, this week brought home to her final rest one of its legendary female operatives, Sylvia Raphael. Only now is it being revealed that she was one of the secret agents who penetrated the PLO bases in Jordan and Lebanon four decades ago when a little-known gang leader named Yasser Arafat was beginning his terrorist attacks.

Her story reads like ... well, like a spy novel.

Raphael was born in 1937 in South Africa to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. That made her non-Jewish, technically, but after she and her mother read "Exodus," she became devoted to Israel and went to Tel Aviv to teach English in the early 1960s.

The Mossad spotted the tall, intelligent Raphael as a potential intelligence operative and recruited her.

After a year's training, she was sent to Paris, posing as a free-lance journalist with a Canadian passport under the name Patricia Roxburgh.

When Israel decided to hunt down the Black September terrorists who killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, she obtained information that helped commandos find and execute three of them.

Four months later, Raphael's secret career came to an end in an operation that still remains largely a mystery.

She and other agents were assigned to the Norwegian town of Lillehamer in July 1973 to eliminate Hassan Ali Salameh, the Black September operations chief. But other agents mistakenly killed another man — and Raphael was arrested in the ensuing dragnet.

She was convicted and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in jail. She married her defense lawyer, Annaeus Schjodt, behind bars.

While in prison, she was adopted by an Israeli kibbutz, Ramat Hakovesh, and she lived there briefly after her release. Then she and Schjodt lived together in Norway and South Africa.

A few months ago, cancer-stricken and in a wheelchair, Raphael returned to Ramat Hakovesh and said that's where she wanted to be buried.

And so, after her Christian cremation, her ashes were buried there in a Jewish ritual this week.

 

ISRAEL HAREL, “THE MAN WHO MADE THE MOSSAD”

[This is the introduction to a previous dispatch. The article attached to that dispatch is not repeated here.]

From: Tom Gross
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Subject: Israel Harel, the man who made the Mossad

[Note by Tom Gross]

Israel (“Little Isser”) Harel, considered to be the true creator of Israel’s external intelligence agency, the Mossad, died yesterday in a Tel Aviv hospital, aged 91. (Reuven Shiloah actually set up the Mossad in 1951, but Harel than led it from 1952 through much of the 1950s and 60s.)

Harel was credited by Russian, American and British spy chiefs for making the Mossad one of the finest organizations of its kind in the world. In the words of today’s headline in Israel’s best-selling newspaper “Yediot Ahronot,” he was “The Man who made the Mossad.”

He personally directed the two-year operation to capture Adolf Eichmann, the SS officer who presided over the “Final Solution,” and after the war had escaped to Argentina where he lived under the pseudonym “Ricardo Klement”.

“HE WOULDN’T EVEN HAVE CAUGHT YOUR EYE”

Moshe Tabor, the Mossad operative who captured Eichmann, said Harel played an instrumental role in the operation: “If you were in a room with Isser and a hundred other people, he wouldn’t even have caught your eye. He was small and quiet. He had a sharp ability to analyze situations and reach the right conclusions. Isser was the one who coordinated the whole Eichmann operation.”

In a television interview aired long after Eichmann’s capture in 1960, Harel said he told (then Israeli) Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion: “I have brought you a present. Eichmann is here.” Harel’s book recounting the abduction – “The House on Garibaldi Street” – became a best-seller and was turned into a Hollywood movie.

OBTAINING KRUSHCHEV’S FAMOUS 1956 “SECRET SPEECH”

Among his other triumphs was when he handed James Jesus Angleton, the head of the CIA’s counterintelligence division, the full text of Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev’s famous 1956 “secret speech” denouncing Stalin, a copy of which the Mossad had obtained.

Born Isser Halperin in Vitebsk, Russia (the region in which the famed painter Marc Chagall grew up and depicted in many of his paintings), Harel moved with his family to Latvia in 1922 and to Palestine in 1929. He fought for the British against the Nazis in the 1940s, while at the same time gathering intelligence for the Haganah against the British who then controlled Palestine. He became head of Haganah intelligence in 1944, and was appointed deputy head of the Mossad in 1952.

WOLFGANG LOTZ, THE “CHAMPAGNE SPY” OF CAIRO

Among the agents under Harel’s command were:

* Shula Cohen, the so-called “Mata Hari of the Middle East,” who ran Mossad operations in Beirut in the 1950s and 60s;
* Elie Cohen, whose information was critical in helping Israel win the Six Day War, and who was hanged in Damascus after being caught; and
* Wolfgang Lotz, the so-called “Champagne spy,” who lived in Cairo and befriended many senior Egyptian army officers. Lotz, who was born in Mannheim, Germany, and was partly Jewish but not circumcised, also took an Israeli name: Ze’ev Gur-Aryeh.

-- Tom Gross

FULL ARTICLES

LONDON MAYOR CALLS JEWISH REPORTER "WAR CRIMINAL"

London mayor calls Jewish reporter "war criminal"
By James Kilner
Reuters
February 11, 2005

London's outspoken Mayor Ken Livingstone refused to apologise on Friday for comparing a Jewish newspaper reporter to a war criminal and concentration camp guard, despite complaints from Britain's main Jewish group.

"Were you a German war criminal?" the Evening Standard quoted Livingstone as saying on a tape recording of the exchange with its reporter Oliver Finegold.

When the journalist said he was Jewish and was offended by the mayor's remarks, Livingstone replied: "Actually you are just like a concentration camp guard."

He also called the Evening Standard, a London newspaper he has clashed with in the past, a "load of scumbags." The confrontation took place outside a City Hall party to mark the 20th anniversary of former national government minister Chris Smith's announcement that he was gay.

Jon Benjamin, director-general of the board of deputies of British Jews, said: "We are depressed and upset by what really amounts to some rather bizarre comments.

"We have sent in a complaint over these offensive and upsetting comments," he told Reuters on Friday.

A statement from the mayor's office accused the Standard of harassing guests and provoking the mayor. His office said the mayor would not comment further.

"The discussion between the journalist and the mayor escalated, from relatively light-hearted comments of the mayor asking whether the journalist's previous job had been as a war criminal - given the paper he was working for - to the journalist eventually telling the mayor to 'f++k off'," the statement read.

A frequent, outspoken critic of Israeli policy, Livingstone has denied in the past that he is anti-Semitic.

A report released on Thursday said violent anti-Semitic attacks in Britain had reached record levels, prompting calls by Jewish leaders for more to be done to protect their community.

 

BLAIR SEEKS MAYOR'S APOLOGY OVER NAZI REMARK

Blair Seeks Mayor's Apology Over Nazi Remark
The Associated Press
February 17, 2005

Prime Minister Tony Blair urged London's mayor on Wednesday to apologize for an offensive remark made to a Jewish journalist comparing him to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

Mr. Blair said he did not believe that the comment by the mayor, Ken Livingstone, was meant to be anti-Semitic, or that it should jeopardize his job. But the prime minister urged the mayor to say he was sorry.

"A lot of us in politics get angry with journalists from time to time, but in the circumstances, and to the journalist because he was a Jewish journalist," Mr. Blair said on television. "Yes, he should apologize. Let's just apologize and move on - that's the sensible thing."

Mr. Livingstone's comment coincided with the release of a new report showing that the number of anti-Semitic attacks in Britain rose sharply to record levels in 2004, including physical attacks, name calling, hate mail and the desecration of property, like the vandalism of synagogues with swastikas.

In January, Prince Harry, 20, third in line to the British throne, caused an uproar by attending a costume party in London wearing a swastika armband. The royal family issued an apology on his behalf.

In addition, the opposition Conservative Party recently accused Mr. Blair's Labor Party of using an anti-Semitic advertisement on one of its Web sites. It showed the faces of the Tory leader, Michael Howard, and his deputy, both of whom are Jewish, transposed onto the bodies of flying pigs.

Asked about Mr. Livingstone, Mr. Howard said Wednesday that he thought it was important for politicians to talk with "civility and courtesy about the issues we all face." He added, "I think it is a matter of great sadness that we are not seeing that from the Labor Party."

Lord Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust, praised Mr. Blair for urging Mr. Livingstone to apologize. Speaking on ITV News, Lord Janner said of the mayor: "I would never have regarded him in the past as being anti-Semitic. But the sort of remark he made is anti-Semitic."

For several days, Mr. Livingstone has turned down requests for an apology from Jewish and Holocaust groups, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and the London Assembly.

He has said he did not believe he had done anything wrong.

 

LONDON'S MAYOR IRKS JEWISH GROUPS

London's mayor irks Jewish groups
By Al Webb
The Washington Times
February 16, 2005

The mayor of London has infuriated Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors in Britain by accusing a Jewish reporter of acting like a Nazi concentration camp guard, and then refusing to apologize for the anti-Semitic jibes.

The flap could not have come at a worse time, as International Olympic Committee representatives from around the globe arrived in London yesterday to tour the city and make a judgment on whether London is fit to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The defiant mayor, Ken Livingstone, sometimes known as "Red Ken" for his socialist politics, rejected growing demands that he retract the accusations he leveled at reporter Oliver Finegold, insisting his comments were not racist and that he had no intention of withdrawing them.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews immediately lodged a formal complaint with the Standards Board of England, a local government watchdog that has the power to ban Mr. Livingstone from holding public office for five years if he is found guilty of misconduct.

With competition for the world's most important international sports spectacular at a critical stage, fears grew here that Mr. Livingstone's jibes at the reporter could do London's bid irreparable harm and tilt the odds in favor of one of the four rival candidate cities " New York, Paris, Moscow and or Madrid. The winning city is to be announced on July 6. At the moment, Paris is considered the favorite.

A crucial meeting between the 13 Olympics inspectors and British government officials is scheduled for Friday at Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office, and among those expected to meet and greet them is Mr. Livingstone.

The furor began at a party in honor of one of Mr. Blair's Labor members of Parliament who was celebrating 20 years of "coming out" as a homosexual.

Mr. Finegold, a reporter for the London Evening Standard, asked the mayor how the festivities were going.

"What did you do before?" asked Mr. Livingstone. "Were you a German war criminal?" To which the reporter replied, "No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal and I'm, actually quite offended by that. So how did tonight go?"

"All right, well, you might be [Jewish]," the mayor said, "but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard. You are doing it just because you are paid to, aren't you?" Mr. Livingstone said.

Mr. Livingstone, an outspoken left-wing politician who claims he has been the victim of a hate campaign at the hands of the Evening Standard for the past 25 years, then told Mr. Finegold that "your paper is a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots." The Board of Deputies of British Jews, whose members also represent victims of the Holocaust, immediately demanded an investigation, and the Greater London Assembly, the 25-member elected body that helps the mayor govern the capital, voted unanimously to demand that Mr. Livingstone withdraw his remarks.

But the mayor, at a press conference yesterday, flatly refused to apologize for his remarks.

"You may think that my remarks to that reporter " and many over the years are offensive," he said. "That is purely a matter of judgment. ... If you think [my comments] are racist, I think you are wrong... It would be very easy for me to buy off media pressure by lying, but I am not going to do it."

Mr. Livingstone dismissed any suggestion that the uproar could harm London's Olympics bid, and suggested that his actions in standing up for his beliefs might even impress the visiting inspectors.

"I think it is important that the IOC members realize that when we get the Games, inevitably there will be some in the media that are going to go for them, and that they have a mayor who is not going to panic, change course or get in a great flap," he said.

Instead, he said, what the inspectors will find is that they will have a London mayor who "will deliver the Games on time and to budget."

 

LIVINGSTONE IGNORES BLAIR DEMAND FOR APOLOGY OVER JEWISH SLUR

Livingstone ignores Blair demand for apology over Jewish slur
By Andrew Pierce, Sam Coates and Helen Nugent
(London) Times
February 17, 2005

Ken Livingstone was back on a collision course with Labour’s leadership last night after he defied Tony Blair’s demand for him to apologise for an allegedly anti-Semitic outburst that has cast a shadow over London’s 2012 Olympic bid.

Members of Labour's powerful National Executive Committee, who have the power to expel party members, said that the Mayor of London could face disciplinary action if he did not withdraw comments in which he likened a Jewish reporter to a "concentration camp guard".

The Prime Minister's intervention came on the second day of the four-day visit by an inspection team from the International Olympic Committee to assess the capital's bid for the 2012 Games.

Mr Blair, asked on 5 television if Mr Livingstone should say sorry, said: "Yes, it's a simple answer. A lot of us get angry with journalists from time to time, but in the circumstances in which the journalist was a Jewish journalist, yes, he should apologise. He should apologise and move on."

Pressure is growing on Mr Livingstone from all wings of the Labour Party to climb down only 12 months after his suspension from the party was lifted. Mr Livingstone was expelled for breaking his promise in March 2000 not to stand against a Labour candidate in the mayoral election.

A senior member of the NEC, who declined to be named, said: "If Livingstone fails to apologise or to make amends by explaining himself, the NEC will have a duty to investigate the issue."

Mark Seddon, a member of the NEC who has been a vocal supporter of Mr Livingstone, said: "Ken has a great record on race relations. I do not for one minute think he is anti-Semitic. But these remarks are unacceptable. The NEC will have to tell him to apologise. If he does not his reselection as a Labour Party candidate could be re-examined and called into question."

Mr Livingstone, whose signature is on all the bid documents, was among the team who began detailed presentations yesterday morning to the 13 IOC inspectors.

Tony McNulty, the Transport Minister with special responsibility for London, speaking minutes after addressing the IOC team, said: "The remarks were offensive, gratuitous and insensitive and he should apologise."

Mike Lee, the London 2012 communications director, said at a press conference: "This issue is a matter for the mayor to resolve. Tessa Jowell (Culture Secretary) and Tony Blair have said what should happen next. It's clear that it's time for him to apologise."

A spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: "The offence taken to Ken Livingstone's comments is clearly not limited to the Jewish community. The public is clearly of the opinion that he should apologise.'

Lord Janner of Braunstone, the Labour peer who was a British Army war crimes investigator, said: "(Livingstone's) remarks were totally offensive and disgraceful. I cannot think of anything more offensive or disgusting for Mr Livingstone to say.

"The Prime Minister is the leader of Mr Livingstone's party and if he doesn't listen to his party leader on an issue such as this then he should resign as Mayor of London. There is a real danger now that he is damaging London’s Olympic prospects."

Mr Livingstone, in a terse statement, said that he "was not making further comment on this issue at the present time" as he was dealing with the IOC visit. The statement repeated his insistence that he despised anti-Semitism with the same virulence as all other forms of racism.

The Conservatives on the London Assembly have lodged a formal complaint with the Commission for Racial Equality. Bob Neill, the Tory leader, said: "As London's senior civic leader the mayor has an explicit responsibility to promote ever-better race relations. I believe that in his failure to apologise he has abjectly failed to do that and may in fact have badly damaged them."

 

SURVIVOR DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM MAYOR

Survivor demands apology from mayor
By Lisa O'Carroll
The Guardian (Media Guardian section)
February 10, 2005

A survivor of the Holocaust has called on Ken Livingstone to apologise for remarks he made in an exchange with an Evening Standard journalist, comparing the reporter to a "concentration camp guard".

Gina Turgel, a Polish Jew, questioned how a man in his position could "make light" of the pain and suffering the survivors of the Holocaust felt.

"I am quite a placid person, but this makes me angry," she said.

The mayor of London told the reporter, Oliver Finegold, that he should not be working for a paper that has a "record of supporting fascism" - a reference to its sister paper, the Daily Mail, which flirted with fascism in the 1930s.

In an extraordinary tirade, Mr Livingstone started by asking Mr Finegold whether he was considering "getting treatment" for working with the Standard. In what must be assumed to be a reference to the Mail's links with fascism, he went on to ask whether Finegold was a "German war criminal".

"How can a man in the mayor's position make light of the Holocaust? Particularly when as a nation we have just taken time to remember the horror of the past. Perhaps the mayor does not understand the pain we went through. As a survivor I hope the mayor will make a public apology, but that would only be a first step," said Ms Turgel.

The 68-year-old survived Auschwitz, Buchenwald and the Bergen-Belsen death camps. Her three brothers and two sisters were killed by the Nazis and she now lives in Britain.

Two weeks ago she was chosen to lead the Queen to her seat in Westminster Hall at the national ceremony held to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The mayor's remarks have also raised temperatures at the gay and lesbian lobby group, Outrage, which says it is bewildered by the mayor's "bizarre outburst" which took place outside a party for gay MP Chris Smith who was celebrating 20 years since coming out.

Today the mayor's office defended the exchange and claimed Finegold and his photographer had been harassing gay and lesbian guests on their way to and from the party.

"Of all the mayor's many events and receptions, the Evening Standard chose to 'door-step' the people attending an event with a large number of lesbian and gay attendees, thrusting a camera into their faces as they left," Mr Livingstone's spokesman said.

"The mayor took the Standard's relatively unusual actions in this regard to be harassment of a predominantly lesbian and gay event.

"In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the discussion between the journalist and the mayor escalated, from relatively light-hearted comments of the mayor asking whether the journalist's previous job had been as a war criminal - given the paper he was working for - to the journalist eventually telling the mayor to 'f**k off'.

"The Standard's Diary journalists, who only ever write anonymously, can dish it out but they aren't prepared to take it."

Finegold was not available for comment but he has a tape recording of the exchange which the Standard has played to MediaGuardian.co.uk.

"We can confirm there is a tape recording of the conversation and Oliver [Finegold] did not swear at the mayor," said a senior executive.

The spokesperson went on to justify the reference to fascism by detailing the links between the Rothermere family - the founders of the Daily Mail, whose company Associated Newspapers took over the Evening Standard 25 years ago - and fascist leaders in the 1930s.

Brett Lock, spokesman for Outrage, said: "It was a bizarre outburst, bizarre that the mayor should be using the gay and lesbian community as an excuse for what was a high profile public event. I do now see how media exposure could not have been expected.

"The mayor's suggestion that the gay and lesbian community need to be protected from photographers - it's almost as if he expects us to skulk around in the dark and then he swoops down like Superman and comes to our rescue."

FULL ARTICLES

HUMANE PORTRAYAL OF PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBERS SCREENS AT BERLIN FILM FEST

Humane portrayal of Palestinian suicide bombers screens at Berlin Film Fest
Agence France Presse, Berlin bureau
February 15, 2005

A portrayal of Palestinian suicide bombers as complex and conflicted people driven to their deadly deed by the Israeli occupation premiered in an unflinching film at the Berlinale.

"Paradise Now," shot almost entirely in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, follows the two longtime friends, Kais Nashef as Said and Ali Suliman as Khaled, as they prepare and set out for their attack in Tel Aviv.

But gradually, the young men change their minds.

"They are human, whether you like it or not, even the suicide bombers are human. They make extreme decisions in an extreme situation," Palestinian-born director Hany Abu-Assad told AFP in an interview.

The Berlin audience warmly applauded the controversial movie, screening in competition at the festival for the Golden and Silver Bear awards. Six days before the honors are handed out there is no clear favorite.

"This is reality, this is what life is like under occupation. We didn't need to do much acting," Ashraf Barhoum, chilling as Abu-Karem, the mastermind behind the planned attack on Israeli soldiers, told a news conference through a translator.

Abu-Assad (who directed the 2002 film "Rana's Wedding") said he intentionally chose Nablus, picking mostly actors from there. Often, the crew had to interrupt work because of shooting or even missile attacks.

"The concept of the film was to make fiction in a 100 percent reality," he said. "To shoot in the place while it's happening ... this is why it looked so authentic, but at the same time it's a film."

The director, whose film already has distributors in several European countries, among them France, Italy and Spain, is keen to see the movie shown in Middle Eastern theaters, particularly in Israel.

"I think it's very important that the Israelis see it," he told reporters, stressing that he by no means condones suicide attacks. "They have to see it because it is part of their narrative, part of their tragedy."

"Paradise Now" has already taken the first step towards screening there. The state-backed Israeli Film Fund announced here it would support the film with advertising, but only if it secures a distributor.

"They might give us the money, but we still have to find the theaters. We can find ourselves with pockets packed with dollars but no theaters to show the film," Israeli co-producer Amir Harel said.

The movie includes the filming of the traditional video in which the would-be "martyrs" explain why they are sacrificing themselves in the armed struggle against occupation, and a scene in which the men are wired up as human bombs.

Barhoum said everyone felt the film hit very close to home.

"People were crying when Khaled was reading his last will and testament" to the video camera, he said.

The would-be attack is thwarted when a military patrol arrives after the two slip through a cut fence between the West Bank and Israel, and they are separated. Only Khaled returns to the base, while Said, explosives still strapped to his chest, disappears.

Suha (French actress Lubna Azabal in a convincing outing), a Palestinian woman attracted to Said, joins Khaled on the wild hunt for Said. Said still wants to avenge his dead father, executed when he was 10 for collaborating with the Israelis.

"If we can't live as equals, at least we can die as equals," Khaled screams at her. "In this life, we're all dead."

But Suha spits back "We kill and are killed, and nothing ever changes."

Abu-Assad co-wrote "Paradise Now," which also has Palestinian, Dutch, French and German producers -- basing his tale upon interrogation transcripts of failed suicide bombers, along with friends and families of attackers who died.

But humor also figures in what would appear to be a very heavy tale -- the video camera breaks down twice as Khaled is reciting his suicide manifesto, and when it finally works he looks up to see several people chewing on pita bread on the other side of the camera.

The 55th Berlinale, second only to Cannes and equal to Venice on the global film festival circuit, runs through the 20th of February.

 

NEO-NAZI WEBSITE EXPOSES JEWISH DANES

Neo-Nazi website exposes Jewish Danes
The Copenhagen Post
February 14, 2005

www.cphpost.dk/get/85864.html

Prominent Danes with Jewish and foreign backgrounds have been exposed on a website connected to neo-nazi group. The Police Intelligence Service is on the case.

Pictures of prominent Danes of Jewish and foreign background have been published on a website with connections to neo-nazi organizations. The page features Danish politicians, journalists, columnists, and artists, to name but a few.

The website features pictures of the people and their names, with the word "Jew" stamped under the picture. Some of those appearing also have their telephone number and email address listed.

Many of those appearing on the website are prominent media personalities such as movie director Susanne Bier, and journalists from leading television stations and newspapers. The site claims that that Jews, especially those in the media, conspire to control the world.

Socialist and Muslim MP Kamal Qureshi is also portrayed on the website.

Denmark's Police Intelligence Service told media that the content of the website might be permitted under Denmark's freedom of speech laws, but that they would investigate whether Denmark's racism-preventive legislation banned it.

"The homepage pushes freedom of speech to its limits," Chief Detective Inspector Hans Jørgen Bonnichsen told daily newspaper Politiken. "It's in a gray zone, and we must see if it is against the law."

The Security Service has noted an increasing number of racist websites.

"We're more than aware of this development as it can increase the risk of direct confrontations," Bonnichsen said.

FULL ARTICLES

AL QAEDA DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN HARIRI KILLING

Al Qaeda denies involvement in Hariri killing
Al Bawaba
February 15, 2005

www.albawaba.com/en/news/180111

A day following the attack in which former Lebanese premier Rafic al-Hariri was killed, a statement posted on the web Tuesday and attributed to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network denied any involvement in the incident. It said Lebanese, Syrian or Israeli intelligence were those behind the Beirut attack.

The statement, signed by an unknown group calling itself the Al Qaeda Organization in the Levant, was posted on an Islamist website often used by al Qaeda, a day after another unknown Islamist group claimed it was behind the massive blast that killed Hariri and eight others. Several hours after the attack, Al Jazeera TV broadcast a video tape from the unknown Islamist group which said it had killed Hariri because of his Saudi ties.

"Blaming the Jihadist and Salafist groups for what happened in Beirut is a complete fabrication," the statement said, according to Reuters. "The priorities of the jihadist groups in the Levant are supporting our brethren in Iraq and Palestine, not blowing up cars."

"This is clearly an operation that was planned by a state intelligence agency ... and we blame either the Mossad, the Syrian regime or the Lebanese regime."

 

AL HARIRI'S KILLING CONDEMNED BY WORLD LEADERS, IRAN POINTS FINGER AT ISRAEL

Al Hariri's killing condemned by world leaders, Iran points finger at Israel
Al Jazeera.com
February 15, 2005

www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7079

Yesterday’s assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al Hariri was condemned by several world leaders; from France, Palestine, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy and the White House.

Although Damascus itself strongly condemned Al Hariri's killing, some openly pointed the finger of suspicion at Syria, which hinted on Monday that some were trying to "sow division" between the two countries, Syria and Lebanon.

Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed on Monday in a powerful bomb explosion that destroyed his convoy on Beirut's seafront.

Analysts say that Al Hariri's assassination came at a time of high political tension, as legislative elections are to be held in the coming few months and the U.S. is trying to step up international pressure on over Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

Seizing the chance to increase its pressure on Syria, the United States condemned the killing of Al Hariri, repeating its call for the immediate withdrawal of the Syrian troops from Lebanon.

U.S. President George W. Bush "was shocked and angered" by the brutal attack which killed Al Hariri, claiming the lives of another 9 people with him, said Scott McClellan, White House spokesman.

"This murder today is a terrible reminder that the Lebanese people must be able to pursue their aspirations and determine their own political future free from violence and intimidation and free from Syrian occupation," he said.

Shortly after Al Hariri’s killing, the U.S. president contacted, allies, governments in the region, and the UN Security Council to "punish those responsible" for the killing and force Syria to pull out its troops from Lebanon, said the spokesman.

Bush discussed the former PM's killing with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, McClellan said, after an unknown militant group claimed in a video that it was behind the assassination of Al Hariri for his ties with Saudi Arabia.

Although McClellan stopped short of blaming Damascus or any other country for the attack, Israel quickly pointed the finger at Syria, with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom claiming that some rebel groups backed by Syria could be behind the assassination.

Speaking to the Israeli radio from Paris, Shalom said: "I cannot say for certain that Syria is behind the attack but there are many groups which could have carried it out".

During his visit to Paris, Shalom met with French President Jacques Chirac, a close personal friend of Hariri. Chirac called for an immediate probe into the killing.

"France strongly condemns this crime. It asks that an international inquiry be launched without delay to determine the circumstances of this tragedy and who is responsible," his office said.

The Israeli foreign minister said there was "no doubt that Syria... is uncomfortable with the prospect of elections in Lebanon, and the last thing they want is to be forced to leave Lebanon."

Saudi Arabia sent "the kingdom's heartfelt condolences" and stressed its "total rejection of terrorist acts against innocents that seek to plant chaos and destruction".

On the other hand, UN chief Kofi Annan said that the bombing was from "a chapter in Lebanon's history" that he had hoped was over.

"Such acts are a reversion to a chapter in Lebanon's history that he had hoped was long past. It is imperative that the already fragile situation in the region should not be further destabilised," his office said in a statement.

Syria swiftly condemned the assassination, with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad calling it an a "terrible criminal act ".

"The Syrian government and people stand alongside brotherly Lebanon in this dangerous situation and convey our sincerest condolences to the family of Mr Hariri and the families of the other victims," President Assad said.

Al-Assad urged the Lebanese people "to reinforce their national unity and reject all those who aim to cause trouble and sow division among the people".

The Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhl-Allah stated, "Syria regards this as an act of terrorism, a crime that seeks to destabilise Lebanon."

He further added, "Syria expressed its support and backing for Lebanon," and that it was a "black day" for Syria, Lebanon and all Arabs.

Hariri, a self-made billionaire who helped rebuild his country after decades of war was described by Dakhl-Allah as "…a distinguished popular Lebanese leader who fought for

Lebanon's growth, prosperity and independence. It's a criminal, terrorist act that aims to shake Lebanon's stability and kill as many Lebanese as possible."

"This comes at a time of great international pressure on Lebanon and Syria which aims to realise Israel's desires in the region and this act cannot be separated from these pressures," he added.

Commenting on Al Hariri’s assassination, the Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said that the former Prime Minister had died a "martyr for a united Lebanon", ordering three days of mourning and a state funeral for him.

Iran accuses Israel

Also Iran expressed concern about the fallout of what it described as a "terrorist act", pointing finger at Israel.

"An organized terrorist structure such as the Zionist regime has the capacity for such an operation whose aim is to undermine the unity of Lebanon," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Raising concerns about Lebanon's stability, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said: "I hope we will all contribute to maintaining peace and security in Lebanon."

Also Nabil Abu Rudeina, the Palestinian Authority spokesman, condemned the killing as "a crime against the Lebanese people and a blow to the stability of Lebanon."

The Japanese foreign ministry also denounced Al Hariri's assassination saying that: "Terrorism cannot be justified for any reason. Japan renews its firm condemnation against such terrorist attack."

Also British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that the former Prime Minister Hariri helped a lot in rebuilding Lebanon after the civil war.

"Until now, Beirut and Lebanon as a whole have enjoyed relative peace and security, so this is a setback as well as an act of terror," he said.

In Germany, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also voiced his condemnation and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent a message of condolence.

Also Gianfranco Fini, the Italian Foreign Minister, sent a message to Lebanese counterpart Mahmud Hammud expressing his country's condolences after the "vile attack".

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana praised Hariri as "a man of peace and a great friend."

 

"LEBANON-MOSSAD HIT TEAM STRIKES AGAIN"

Former Lebanese PM assassinated:
Lebanon - Mossad hit-team strikes again
Islam Online Discussion Forum
February 14, 2005

www.islamonline.net/Discussion/English/bbs.asp?action=maintopic&aParID=482426&aPathID=242&aGroupID=88601&aSubject=Lebanon+%2D+Mossad+%91hit%2Dteam%92+strikes+again

A car bomb took the life of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri today. It would not be the first time that Israel has, directly or indirectly, has targeted Arab leaders to keep its neighbouring countries in turmoil. During its invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s, the Zionists used their Christian proxy, Phalangists, to assassinate several Lebanese leaders, both Muslims and Christians. Israeli Mossad has always been considered the possible 'key player' behind the scene in the following murders:

March 1977 - Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt is killed in ambush in his Shouf mountain fiefdom in central Lebanon . June 1978 - Tony Franjieh, son of former President Suleiman Franjieh, is assassinated in raid by rival militias at his home in Ehden, north Lebanon.

September 1982 - Bashir Gemayel, elected president, is killed before taking office by a bomb. His brother Amin becomes president.

June 1987 - Lebanon's veteran Prime Minister Rashid Karami is killed by a bomb in an army helicopter in Tripoli. Karami was serving his ninth term as prime minister in a 37-year career.

May 1989 - Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, religious head of Lebanon 's Sunni community, is killed by a car bomb in Beirut. The blast killed 22 people and wounded 80.

November 1989 - President Rene Muawad is killed in a huge bomb explosion in Beirut.

October 1990 - Gunmen killed Dany Chamoun, chairman of the National Liberal Party, in a Beirut suburb.

February 1992 - Israelis killed Abbas Mussawi, a Hizbullah leader, in helicopter ambush of his convoy near village of Jibsheet in south Lebanon.

January 2002 - Elie Hobeika, former minister and leader of pro-Israeli militia involved in 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, is killed in Beirut.

May 2002 - Mohammad Jihad Ahmad Jibril,