1. Bibi to Become ‘Super-Minister'?
by Gil Ronen
The shape of the government being formed by Israel’s Prime Minister-designate, Binyamin Netanyahu, is still not known. Two weeks before the initial deadline for presenting a government coalition, most of the political action is going on behind closed doors between Netanyahu, Yisrael Beiteinu party chief Avigdor Lieberman and Sephardic hareidi party Shas.
According to some reports, Netanyahu plans to appoint a leading businessman as “minister in the Finance Ministry,” while he himself will hold the title of Finance Minister and supervise policy making. Netanyahu was Finance Minister three times: twice for relatively short periods when he was Prime Minister and for 2.5 years under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu reportedly wants to be Finance Minister in order to make it easier to push the government budget through the Knesset.
Shrouded in Smoke
Netanyahu and Lieberman held a prolonged meeting in the Knesset on Thursday. The location of the meeting was kept secret from reporters for as long as possible and the two politicians were only accompanied by a small retinue composed of bodyguards and drivers. When reporters finally located the room where the meeting was held, they were not able to discern much about the goings on except that the smell of cigar smoke was heavy in the corridor outside.
After the meeting, the two released a joint statement, which said that they had discussed “matters of security and economics, and especially the need to pass the budget.” It also said that while the two leaders had ‘assessed’ the negotiations between their parties, the matter of which portfolio was to go to whom would be discussed later. Both sides, it said, believe that the portfolio distribution “will not present an obstacle.”
According to a report published in the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz on Friday, Lieberman is demanding that Netanyahu give him full freedom as Foreign Minister. He wants guarantees that MK Silvan Shalom (Likud), even as Defense Minister, will not receive authority over a specific diplomatic subject – such as negotiations with Syria – that will cut into Lieberman’s authority.
Lieberman reportedly also wants his party to control the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, the Public Security Ministry and the Communications Ministry, and to have Prof. Daniel Friedmann reappointed to the Justice Ministry.
Shas Optimistic
Eli Yishai, chairman of the Sephardic religious Shas, said that his party is interested in the ‘social’ ministries: Interior, Housing, Religion, Welfare and Health. Yishai expressed hope that a draft agreement between Shas and Likud would be drafted next week.
The two smaller parties that are to join the government are National Union and Jewish Home. Each of them wants a ministry as well: Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) wants Housing for his National Union party, and Rabbi Dr. Daniel Hershkowitz, head of the Jewish Home, wants Education. Ketzaleh served as top assistant to Ariel Sharon when the latter was Housing Minister in the early 90's.
Inside Labor, there is fierce opposition to party leader Ehud Barak’s wish to join the coalition. Some 200 Labor activists met Thursday and demanded that the party head for the opposition. MK Ophir Pines told the assembled activists that accepting Barak’s move to join the coalition would result in Labor becoming “a fig leaf for a right-wing radical government.”
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by Gil Ronen
The shape of the government being formed by Israel’s Prime Minister-designate, Binyamin Netanyahu, is still not known. Two weeks before the initial deadline for presenting a government coalition, most of the political action is going on behind closed doors between Netanyahu, Yisrael Beiteinu party chief Avigdor Lieberman and Sephardic hareidi party Shas.
According to some reports, Netanyahu plans to appoint a leading businessman as “minister in the Finance Ministry,” while he himself will hold the title of Finance Minister and supervise policy making. Netanyahu was Finance Minister three times: twice for relatively short periods when he was Prime Minister and for 2.5 years under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu reportedly wants to be Finance Minister in order to make it easier to push the government budget through the Knesset.
Shrouded in Smoke
Netanyahu and Lieberman held a prolonged meeting in the Knesset on Thursday. The location of the meeting was kept secret from reporters for as long as possible and the two politicians were only accompanied by a small retinue composed of bodyguards and drivers. When reporters finally located the room where the meeting was held, they were not able to discern much about the goings on except that the smell of cigar smoke was heavy in the corridor outside.
After the meeting, the two released a joint statement, which said that they had discussed “matters of security and economics, and especially the need to pass the budget.” It also said that while the two leaders had ‘assessed’ the negotiations between their parties, the matter of which portfolio was to go to whom would be discussed later. Both sides, it said, believe that the portfolio distribution “will not present an obstacle.”
According to a report published in the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz on Friday, Lieberman is demanding that Netanyahu give him full freedom as Foreign Minister. He wants guarantees that MK Silvan Shalom (Likud), even as Defense Minister, will not receive authority over a specific diplomatic subject – such as negotiations with Syria – that will cut into Lieberman’s authority.
Lieberman reportedly also wants his party to control the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, the Public Security Ministry and the Communications Ministry, and to have Prof. Daniel Friedmann reappointed to the Justice Ministry.
Shas Optimistic
Eli Yishai, chairman of the Sephardic religious Shas, said that his party is interested in the ‘social’ ministries: Interior, Housing, Religion, Welfare and Health. Yishai expressed hope that a draft agreement between Shas and Likud would be drafted next week.
The two smaller parties that are to join the government are National Union and Jewish Home. Each of them wants a ministry as well: Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) wants Housing for his National Union party, and Rabbi Dr. Daniel Hershkowitz, head of the Jewish Home, wants Education. Ketzaleh served as top assistant to Ariel Sharon when the latter was Housing Minister in the early 90's.
Inside Labor, there is fierce opposition to party leader Ehud Barak’s wish to join the coalition. Some 200 Labor activists met Thursday and demanded that the party head for the opposition. MK Ophir Pines told the assembled activists that accepting Barak’s move to join the coalition would result in Labor becoming “a fig leaf for a right-wing radical government.”
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2. Tractor Terrorist: J'lem Arab
by Maayana Miskin
The Arab terrorist who attacked police officers and civilians in Jerusalem with his bulldozer on Thursday was a resident of the city, police have announced. He was identified as 26-year-old Mir'i Redeideh.
Redeideh was married, police said, and had one child. He lived with his family in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina, in the northern part of the city.
Redeideh was carrying a Palestinian Authority ID at the time of the attack, leading to initial reports that he was a resident of the PA-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria.
He was shot and killed by alert police officers and a civilian taxi driver as he attempted to carry out his rampage. Before he was neutralized he managed to wound two police officers and had sent several schoolgirls into severe emotional shock.
The tractor used in the attack was apparently Redeideh's personal property, police said. An open copy of the Koran was found inside.
Radeideh is the fourth Arab resident of Jerusalem to carry out an attack in the capital in less than a year. In the summer of 2008 two attacks took place in which Arab residents of the city who were working on construction sites used bulldozers to attack Jews.
In September of 2008 an Arab teenager from Jerusalem rammed his car into a group of soldiers and civilians standing near the Old City, wounding more than 20 people in the process. The terrorist was shot and killed.
Just a few months before the 2008 bulldozer attacks, another Arab resident of Jerusalem opened fire at young students in the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva, murdering eight and wounding many more.
Many activists and politicians have called for the terrorists' houses to be destroyed in the hopes of deterring other potential attackers.
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by Maayana Miskin
The Arab terrorist who attacked police officers and civilians in Jerusalem with his bulldozer on Thursday was a resident of the city, police have announced. He was identified as 26-year-old Mir'i Redeideh.
Redeideh was married, police said, and had one child. He lived with his family in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina, in the northern part of the city.
Redeideh was carrying a Palestinian Authority ID at the time of the attack, leading to initial reports that he was a resident of the PA-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria.
He was shot and killed by alert police officers and a civilian taxi driver as he attempted to carry out his rampage. Before he was neutralized he managed to wound two police officers and had sent several schoolgirls into severe emotional shock.
The tractor used in the attack was apparently Redeideh's personal property, police said. An open copy of the Koran was found inside.
Radeideh is the fourth Arab resident of Jerusalem to carry out an attack in the capital in less than a year. In the summer of 2008 two attacks took place in which Arab residents of the city who were working on construction sites used bulldozers to attack Jews.
In September of 2008 an Arab teenager from Jerusalem rammed his car into a group of soldiers and civilians standing near the Old City, wounding more than 20 people in the process. The terrorist was shot and killed.
Just a few months before the 2008 bulldozer attacks, another Arab resident of Jerusalem opened fire at young students in the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva, murdering eight and wounding many more.
Many activists and politicians have called for the terrorists' houses to be destroyed in the hopes of deterring other potential attackers.
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3. Italy Boycotting Durban II
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday that Italy will not attend the Durban II conference scheduled for April in Geneva because of “aggressive and anti-Semitic statements” in resolutions being prepared for the summit on racism. Israel, Canada and the United States already have said they will not attend, and Britain threatened to follow suit.
Foreign Minister Frattini also announced a postponement of a trip to Iran due to anti-Israeli and anti-American remarks by Iranian leaders.
Like the U.S., Frattini said that the decision to boycott Durban II could be reconsidered if the draft resolutions against Israel are changed. Several pre-conference motions have singled out Israel for alleged racism and have accepted Palestinian Authority recommendations supporting its claim that Arab descendants of former Israeli Arabs have the right to immigrate and live in Israel.
Mark Malloch-Brown, Britain’s minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations, told the Human Rights Council that, “A change in…direction will be required for any outcome document to gain our support.”
The committee preparing resolutions for Durban II also rejected a suggestion for condemnation of anyone denying the Holocaust. "The UK will find unacceptable any attempt to use the Durban process to trivialize or deny the Holocaust, or to renegotiate agreements on the fight against anti-Semitism," said Malloch-Brown.
Israel has called on all European Union countries to follow Canada and the U.S. and boycott the conference, a follow-up to the first conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The U.S. walked out of the parley because of harsh anti-Israel resolutions that compared Zionism with racism.
Holland has also put the Durban II planners on notice that it also will join the boycott if the resolutions are not modified.
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by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday that Italy will not attend the Durban II conference scheduled for April in Geneva because of “aggressive and anti-Semitic statements” in resolutions being prepared for the summit on racism. Israel, Canada and the United States already have said they will not attend, and Britain threatened to follow suit.
Foreign Minister Frattini also announced a postponement of a trip to Iran due to anti-Israeli and anti-American remarks by Iranian leaders.
Like the U.S., Frattini said that the decision to boycott Durban II could be reconsidered if the draft resolutions against Israel are changed. Several pre-conference motions have singled out Israel for alleged racism and have accepted Palestinian Authority recommendations supporting its claim that Arab descendants of former Israeli Arabs have the right to immigrate and live in Israel.
Mark Malloch-Brown, Britain’s minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations, told the Human Rights Council that, “A change in…direction will be required for any outcome document to gain our support.”
The committee preparing resolutions for Durban II also rejected a suggestion for condemnation of anyone denying the Holocaust. "The UK will find unacceptable any attempt to use the Durban process to trivialize or deny the Holocaust, or to renegotiate agreements on the fight against anti-Semitism," said Malloch-Brown.
Israel has called on all European Union countries to follow Canada and the U.S. and boycott the conference, a follow-up to the first conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The U.S. walked out of the parley because of harsh anti-Israel resolutions that compared Zionism with racism.
Holland has also put the Durban II planners on notice that it also will join the boycott if the resolutions are not modified.
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4. 'House Demolitions Deter Terror'
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
The Land of Israel Legal Forum appealed to government officials on Thursday to accelerate the legal process for demolition of terrorists' homes in the capital. The measure is a priority for its deterrent effect, the Forum claims.
In a letter to outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, the Legal Forum noted that the bulldozer rampage on Thursday was the fourth terrorist attack in Jerusalem in the past 12 months. It was also the third in which a bulldozer was turned into a deadly weapon. All of the recent terror attacks in the capital were perpetrated by Muslim Arab residents of the city, most of whom held Israeli ID cards.
Nachi Eyal, chairman of the Legal Forum, said that Israelis feel the security agencies are helpless to act against suicide bombers and other terrorists who live in eastern Jerusalem. "The pace at which the defense and legal systems operate is a perversion of justice and diminishes Israel's deterrent abilities," Eyal wrote. "The latest terrorist attack carried out today could have been avoided if there had been a threat that his home would be demolished, and it was clear to him that he was harming his family and all that is dear to him."
Israeli authorities have not taken steps to demolish the homes of the terrorists who carried out the previous bulldozer attacks in the capital. However, a section of the family home of Alaa Abu Dheim, who murdered eight yeshiva students in a shooting attack in Jerusalem one year ago, was sealed with concrete in January 2009.
In his letter, Eyal pointed out that there is no legal obstacle preventing the demolition of the homes of terrorists. Citing a 2003 decision, Sharbati v. the Home Front Commander (HCJ 10467/03), he reminded Barak and Mazuz that the High Court of Justice allowed the use of similar measures against Arabs from eastern Jerusalem. In the Sharbati case, the Arab petitioners used their Israeli residency status to facilitate terrorist attacks.
There is no reason why the decision regarding the more recent attackers should be different, Eyal explained. "To the contrary, the fate of all terrorists should be equal so that they will know ahead of time the price they and their families will pay after the fact for their actions."
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by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
The Land of Israel Legal Forum appealed to government officials on Thursday to accelerate the legal process for demolition of terrorists' homes in the capital. The measure is a priority for its deterrent effect, the Forum claims.
In a letter to outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, the Legal Forum noted that the bulldozer rampage on Thursday was the fourth terrorist attack in Jerusalem in the past 12 months. It was also the third in which a bulldozer was turned into a deadly weapon. All of the recent terror attacks in the capital were perpetrated by Muslim Arab residents of the city, most of whom held Israeli ID cards.
Nachi Eyal, chairman of the Legal Forum, said that Israelis feel the security agencies are helpless to act against suicide bombers and other terrorists who live in eastern Jerusalem. "The pace at which the defense and legal systems operate is a perversion of justice and diminishes Israel's deterrent abilities," Eyal wrote. "The latest terrorist attack carried out today could have been avoided if there had been a threat that his home would be demolished, and it was clear to him that he was harming his family and all that is dear to him."
Israeli authorities have not taken steps to demolish the homes of the terrorists who carried out the previous bulldozer attacks in the capital. However, a section of the family home of Alaa Abu Dheim, who murdered eight yeshiva students in a shooting attack in Jerusalem one year ago, was sealed with concrete in January 2009.
In his letter, Eyal pointed out that there is no legal obstacle preventing the demolition of the homes of terrorists. Citing a 2003 decision, Sharbati v. the Home Front Commander (HCJ 10467/03), he reminded Barak and Mazuz that the High Court of Justice allowed the use of similar measures against Arabs from eastern Jerusalem. In the Sharbati case, the Arab petitioners used their Israeli residency status to facilitate terrorist attacks.
There is no reason why the decision regarding the more recent attackers should be different, Eyal explained. "To the contrary, the fate of all terrorists should be equal so that they will know ahead of time the price they and their families will pay after the fact for their actions."
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5. Ambassador to U.S. Steps Down
by Maayana Miskin
Sallai Meridor, Israel's ambassador to the United States, has announced that he plans to step down from his position. He personally informed Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of his decision earlier this week.
Meridor explained that he was stepping down in order to allow a new candidate to take the job. “In light of the sensitivity and importance of this position, as ambassador to this important country, our greatest ally, it is fitting and appropriate that the new government should have the opportunity to select a man or woman it trusts in,” he said.
Meridor thanked the current government, Olmert and Livni “for granting me the opportunity to serve the country on a central, positive front during a sensitive and challenging time.” He wished Netanyahu success.
Olmert selected Meridor as ambassador to the U.S. in 2006. He has served in the position for two and a half years. Before that he was chairman of the board of the Jewish Agency.
Meridor's elder brother, Dan Meridor, is an MK-designate on the Likud list.
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by Maayana Miskin
Sallai Meridor, Israel's ambassador to the United States, has announced that he plans to step down from his position. He personally informed Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of his decision earlier this week.
Meridor explained that he was stepping down in order to allow a new candidate to take the job. “In light of the sensitivity and importance of this position, as ambassador to this important country, our greatest ally, it is fitting and appropriate that the new government should have the opportunity to select a man or woman it trusts in,” he said.
Meridor thanked the current government, Olmert and Livni “for granting me the opportunity to serve the country on a central, positive front during a sensitive and challenging time.” He wished Netanyahu success.
Olmert selected Meridor as ambassador to the U.S. in 2006. He has served in the position for two and a half years. Before that he was chairman of the board of the Jewish Agency.
Meridor's elder brother, Dan Meridor, is an MK-designate on the Likud list.
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6. WSJ: Get Serious on Iran Now
by Gil Ronen
In its leading editorial piece Wednesday, the influential Wall Street Journal called on U.S. President Barack Obama to “get serious” about Iran now or face a potentially broader Middle Eastern war started by an Israeli pre-emptive strike.
The paper notes that as a presidential candidate, Obama called for direct, high-level talks in the hopes of persuading Iran’s mullahs to abandon their nuclear aspirations.
“We've never held out much hope for those talks, which would inevitably be complicated and protracted,” the paper wrote. “Mr. Obama is already trying to lure Russian help on Iran by offering to trade away hard-earned missile defense sites in Eastern Europe. Russia's President claims to be unimpressed. And now it turns out that the rate at which Iran's nuclear programs are advancing may render even negotiations moot.”
The WSJ cites the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, which found that Iran has produced more than 1,000 kilograms of low enriched uranium and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Michael Mullen's weekend acknowledgment that the U.S. believes Iran has enough fissile material to make a bomb.
Iran now possesses 5,600 centrifuges in which it can enrich uranium and plans to add 45,000 more over five years. “That will give Tehran an ability to make atomic bombs on an industrial scale,” the paper notes. The Arak heavy water reactor, scheduled for completion in 2011, “can have no purpose other than to produce weapons-grade plutonium.”
The WSJ says that the IAEA report “is the latest in a long line of reports that should have sounded alarms but instead have accustomed the world to conclude that a nuclear Iran is something we'll just have to live with. Well, not the entire world: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned last week that ‘time is slipping through our fingers’ when it comes to stopping Tehran. ‘What is needed,’ he added, ‘is a two-pronged course of action which includes ironclad, strenuous sanctions . . . and a readiness to consider options in the event that these sanctions do not succeed.’”
“Nobody -- Mr. Obama least of all -- can doubt what Mr. Barak means by ‘options,’ the New York paper warns. “Nor should the Administration doubt that an Israeli strike, however necessary and justified, could put the U.S. in the middle of a broader Middle East war. If Mr. Obama wants to avoid a security crisis in the first year of his watch, he will have to get serious about Iran now.”
The Concise Encyclopedia Britannica calls the Wall Street Journal “the most influential American business-oriented paper and one of the most respected dailies in the world.”
Comment on this story
by Gil Ronen
In its leading editorial piece Wednesday, the influential Wall Street Journal called on U.S. President Barack Obama to “get serious” about Iran now or face a potentially broader Middle Eastern war started by an Israeli pre-emptive strike.
The paper notes that as a presidential candidate, Obama called for direct, high-level talks in the hopes of persuading Iran’s mullahs to abandon their nuclear aspirations.
“We've never held out much hope for those talks, which would inevitably be complicated and protracted,” the paper wrote. “Mr. Obama is already trying to lure Russian help on Iran by offering to trade away hard-earned missile defense sites in Eastern Europe. Russia's President claims to be unimpressed. And now it turns out that the rate at which Iran's nuclear programs are advancing may render even negotiations moot.”
The WSJ cites the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, which found that Iran has produced more than 1,000 kilograms of low enriched uranium and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Michael Mullen's weekend acknowledgment that the U.S. believes Iran has enough fissile material to make a bomb.
Iran now possesses 5,600 centrifuges in which it can enrich uranium and plans to add 45,000 more over five years. “That will give Tehran an ability to make atomic bombs on an industrial scale,” the paper notes. The Arak heavy water reactor, scheduled for completion in 2011, “can have no purpose other than to produce weapons-grade plutonium.”
The WSJ says that the IAEA report “is the latest in a long line of reports that should have sounded alarms but instead have accustomed the world to conclude that a nuclear Iran is something we'll just have to live with. Well, not the entire world: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned last week that ‘time is slipping through our fingers’ when it comes to stopping Tehran. ‘What is needed,’ he added, ‘is a two-pronged course of action which includes ironclad, strenuous sanctions . . . and a readiness to consider options in the event that these sanctions do not succeed.’”
“Nobody -- Mr. Obama least of all -- can doubt what Mr. Barak means by ‘options,’ the New York paper warns. “Nor should the Administration doubt that an Israeli strike, however necessary and justified, could put the U.S. in the middle of a broader Middle East war. If Mr. Obama wants to avoid a security crisis in the first year of his watch, he will have to get serious about Iran now.”
The Concise Encyclopedia Britannica calls the Wall Street Journal “the most influential American business-oriented paper and one of the most respected dailies in the world.”
Comment on this story
7. Bulldozer Terror Photo Essay
by Hana Levi Julian
A quick-thinking taxi driver and two police officers stopped a bulldozer terrorist from carrying out what he hoped would be a murderous rampage on Jerusalem's Menachem Begin Highway Thursday afternoon.
Site of the attack was on the highway itself
Israel News Photo: Flash 90
Shovel of the bulldozer is the most dangerous weapon
Israel News Photo: Flash 90
See TV report from INN on the tractor terrorist attack.
Click here to see the ENTIRE PHOTO ESSAY.
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by Hana Levi Julian
A quick-thinking taxi driver and two police officers stopped a bulldozer terrorist from carrying out what he hoped would be a murderous rampage on Jerusalem's Menachem Begin Highway Thursday afternoon.
Site of the attack was on the highway itself
Israel News Photo: Flash 90
Shovel of the bulldozer is the most dangerous weapon
Israel News Photo: Flash 90
See TV report from INN on the tractor terrorist attack.
Click here to see the ENTIRE PHOTO ESSAY.
Comment on this story
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