News from Israel

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NEWS FROM ISRAEL

Israel frees terrorist prisoners, Palestinians unimpressed

In a move that won the harsh criticism of coalition and opposition leaders alike, Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert on Monday carried out a decision to set free from Israeli prisons another 198 Palestinian
terrorists without demanding anything in return.

Late Sunday night Israel's Supreme Court rejected the final appeal against the prisoner release, clearing
the way for Olmert to lay his latest "goodwill gesture" before Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The court blasted the Olmert government for its hastiness in carrying out the release, which Olmert
wanted to coincide with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival on Monday, but insisted it had
no right to interfere with a political and diplomatic decision.

The judges also took a swipe at the prime minister for causing more pain to Israeli victims of terror, and
for failing to balance its diplomatic offerings by providing some form of comfort to its own citizens.

Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was less forgiving, calling Olmert's gesture a "national
humiliation," and taking special offense at the freeing of two Palestinians who had directly murdered
Israelis Jews, men with "blood on their hands."

Even cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz, one of the leading candidates to take over for Olmert when the ruling
Kadima Party holds its primary elections next month, strongly opposed the government's decision.

Mofaz said Israel should not be releasing terrorists from the consequences of their actions, and certainly
not when the Palestinians are still holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit hostage in Gaza.

Mofaz asserted that the prisoner release was supported and even formulated by his Kadima leadership
rival, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Meanwhile, Abbas gave the freed terrorists a hero's welcome in Ramallah, but insisted that the
Palestinians would never make peace with Israel until all jailed Palestinian security prisoners were
released.

Israel is currently holding thousands of Palestinian Arabs who have directed, carried out or tried to carry
out brutal acts of terrorist violence against Israeli Jews over the past few decades.

Most telling was Abbas' insistence that Israel include in its next release Ahmad Saadat, leader of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Saadat is serving a life sentence for ordering the 2001
assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

Despite his rejection of the notion that those who have committed murderous crimes against Israel should
face justice, Abbas continues to be held aloft by Israel's left-wing leaders and the governments of Europe
and the United States as the best hope for peace.

Hamas claims it has no problem with Jews, just Zionists

Hamas promises it will treat Jews with the same dignity and respect Muslims have always shown if given a
chance in the future to impose its brand of Islamic rule over all the lands west of the Jordan River.

In an interview with IslamOnline, senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk said in response to a question
submitted by an Israeli that after seizing control of "Palestine" Hamas will deal with Jews "in accordance
with our ethics, religious teachings, and historical values."

To clarify, Marzouk pointed to previous centuries during which all Middle East Jews supposedly lived in
peace and prosperity alongside their Muslim neighbors.

"We do not have a problem when it comes to dealing with the other. We understand and recognize other
people's rights, which are part of our belief system and ethics," he said.

Marzouk left out that Islam demands non-Muslims living under Muslim rule must pay an infidel tax and
cannot practice their own religions in public.

The Hamas Charter provides a more realistic view of how Jews would fare under Hamas rule. In the
charter, Jews are blamed for every global conflict since the French Revolution.

The Hamas Charter also quotes a well-known Koranic verse that points to an apocalyptic time during
which even the trees and the stones will aid Muslims in finding and murdering Jews.

Hamas has long held up the venomous czarist anti-Semitic blood libel "The Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion" as evidence that the Jewish race is inherently greedy, conniving and desirous of global
domination at any cost.

Those beliefs stand behind regular mosque sermons that demonize the Jews as a bloodthirsty race that
went so far as the perpetrate the Holocaust on its own people.

Most recently, a popular Hamas children's television program called "Tomorrow's Pioneers" taught young
Palestinian viewers that Jews, not just Israelis, are the scourge of the earth, the enemies of Allah and the
murderers of their favorite fuzzy fictional characters.

Palestinian police officers found operating in Jerusalem

Israeli police on Monday arrested seven Arab residents of the Jerusalem suburb of Shuafat for operating
as Palestinian Authority police officers in the Israeli capital.

Israel's Army Radio reported that in addition to publicly identifying themselves as Palestinian Authority
police, the seven suspects were also bullying other Arab residents of Jerusalem.

The illegal Palestinian police force had reportedly kidnapped a number of Jerusalem Arabs and taken
them to police stations in the nearby Palestinian Authority capital of Ramallah.

The Palestinian Authority is forbidden under the terms of its agreements with Israel to operate in any
official capacity inside Jerusalem.

Palestinians mock abducted Israeli soldier

Hostage Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has become the butt of local jokes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip,
Israel's Channel 10 News reported on Monday.

In addition to more conventional jokes, Gazans have also produced video clips and doctored
photographs mocking Shalit, as well as a popular audio recording of a phony telephone call from Shalit's
mother.

Shalit's two-year-old captivity is the source of great anxiety and consternation among Israeli Jews, which
has fueled the Palestinians' contemptuous view of the abducted soldier's fate.

Israelis consider benefits of Biden's VP nomination

As soon as presumptive US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden as
his running mate became official, Israelis began debating the potential benefits and drawbacks of the
Delaware senator becoming America's number 2.

Israel's Army Radio included in its coverage of the news a sound clip of a 2007 interview during which
Biden declared himself a "Zionist," a title that his strong pro-Israel voting record appears to support.

Israelis also hoped that Biden's long and comprehensive experience with foreign policy issues would
temper what many fear are Obama's dangerous intentions vis-a-vis the Iran threat, Iraq and the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

But Israeli media also carried warnings from prominent Jewish Republican leaders in America that Biden
is nearly as naive as Obama when it comes to Iran's nuclear program, which is the single greatest threat
facing Israel today.

According to a statement issued by the Republican Jewish Coalition: "Like Obama, Biden fundamentally
misunderstands the threat posed by an Iran determined to obtain nuclear weapons. Biden has
continuously demonstrated poor judgment on Iran. He has voted against significant legislation that would
pressure Iran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons. Biden has failed to recognize the serious threat that Iran
poses to Israel and the US and its allies in the Middle East."

Biden has been among the more vocal of those that insist Iran does not pose a serious threat, nuclear or
otherwise. He is believed to support Obama's intention to engage Iran in direct dialogue and end
Tehran's isolation.

Israel, meanwhile, is reported to be preparing for a possible military strike on Iran's main nuclear facilities
should diplomatic efforts continue to prove futile.

Israel allows protest boats to reach Gaza

The Israel Navy on Saturday allowed several small boats full of leftist international protestors to reach the
blockaded Gaza Strip, despite earlier talk of seizing the vessels or physically preventing the completion of
their journey.

The protestors set sail from Cyprus with a small shipment of minor medical equipment determined to
provoke a confrontation with Israeli forces and shine a spotlight on what they call Israel's "siege" of the
volatile Hamas-ruled coastal territory.

Israeli officials who spoke to Ha'aretz said that by refusing to confront the protestors on the high seas,
Israel had "taken the wind out of their sails," so to speak.

Noted one official, "Instead of letting the entire international press obsess about this for a week, the boats
received almost no coverage, simply because there was no confrontation."

There was no indication that Israel had thought through what to do when the activists try to depart Gaza.
Some officials fear they may try to smuggle wanted Hamas terrorists out of the area.

News From Israel

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