 The wife a wealthy Melbourne barrister, Sonja Karkar and her pro-terror Palestinian front group “Australians for Palestine” is planning to disrupt the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. VEXNEWS understands that Victoria Police have been alerted to the disruption plans. Karkar’s group has gone completely ga-ga because an Israeli (read Jew) athlete Shahar Peer has entered the tournament. They plan to terrorise and intimidate Peer in an orchestrated campaign of disruption. Her website ominously encourages members of her pro-terrorist group to attend any game played by Shahar Peer: The Australian Open begins on Monday 18 January 2010 and runs for two weeks. Shahar Peer will be playing in the first round and as soon as we know the date and time of her match, we will post the details. An email sent by Karkar makes her intentions perfectly clear: PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WISH TO HELP PROTEST WHEN SHE PLAYS DURING THE TOURNAMENT. VEXNEWS understands from a well-placed source that Karkar’s group plans to smuggle whistles and other noise-making devices into the tennis centre.
They will not necessarily all be sitting in one group. In addition they will attempt to bring in a large banner to unfurl attacking the young woman and her country. These non-violent terrorist tactics are clearly calculated at distracting and discouraging Shaheer Peer from playing the sport at the elite level. Left-wing sources have been told that they can expect a free pass to be organised by them, giving rise to the suspicion that the wealthy lady Karkar is financing the tennis terror campaign.
She is married to one of Melbourne’s most accomplished commercial barristers. The bejewelled, heavily made-up activist is affronted at the mere presence of an Israeli athlete at the Australian Open and has judged her to be responsible for what ails the upper class protester. The ginger group Australians for Palestine have displayed posters that include a photograph of Shahar Peer in Israeli military uniform without explaining that all Israelis are required to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces, a situation made necessary by being surrounded by those wishing to obliterate the Middle East’s only true liberal democracy. Karkar’s attack is nothing less than organised racism, she pronounces: Although Shahar Peer has been asked to step away from promoting Israel, she already made her choice to serve Israel when she agreed to become an Israeli army poster girl. Her group disingenously claims Israel is an “apartheid” state, despite Israel being one of the most ethnically diverse and inclusive societies on Earth. And uses that false claim to justify a “sports boycott.” VexNews (See also previous post on "Tennis Jihad" ) 
 Israel inched a step closer to deploying a missile defense system along the border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after the Iron Dome successfully intercepted a number of missile barrages in tests held in southern Israel this week. The tests were overseen by the Defense Ministry, the Israeli Air Force and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. which has developed and is manufacturing the Iron Dome, slated to become operational and deployed along the Gaza border in the middle of 2010. The missile barrages that the system succeeded in intercepting included a number of rockets that mimicked Kassam and longer-range Grad-model Katyusha rockets that are known to be in Hamas's arsenal. The Iron Dome is supposed to be capable of intercepting all of the short-range rockets in fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon, by using an advanced radar that locates and tracks the rocket that is then intercepted by a kinetic missile interceptor. During the test, the radar succeeded in detecting which rockets were headed towards coordinates that were designated as open fields and therefore did not launch an interceptor to destroy them. The IDF has already established a new battalion that will be part of the IAF's Air Defense Division and will operate the Iron Dome. Prototypes of the Iron Dome have already been supplied to the new battalion which has commenced training with the systems. The IDF has also located positions along the Gaza border that will be used as bases for the system, which includes a launcher and radar system. After it completes the deployment of the system along the Gaza border, the IDF will begin deploying the system along the northern border with Lebanon. MOD Dir.-Gen. Pinhas Buchris said that the system would eventually "transform" security for residents of southern and northern Israel. "The defense establishment continues to be committed to do everything it can to provide all residents of Israel a multi-layered defense against missiles and rockets," he said. JPost
 A report published by the Shlomit - National Service Placement Organization indicated that the past year has seen a 90% increase in the number of Arab-Israelis volunteering for National Service. In 2009, 1,400 Arabs joined the National Service program, compared with only 580 in the previous year. Every Israeli citizen who is not obligated to serve in the army has the option of volunteering for National Service, which involves assisting staff at schools, hospitals and other institutions. Haya Shmuel, director general of Shlomit, told Ynet that the figures are indicative of the Arab youngsters' desire to integrate into Israeli society.
According to her, this trend began in 2006, when the recruitment of Arabs to National Service was made possible following a High Court petition filed by Shlomit to that end. "One of the factors that had prevented Arabs from volunteering in the past was the objection voiced by Arab politicians and the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, but during the past year we have not heard from the committee on this matter," Shmuel explained. "They understood that when it comes to (National Service) they cannot suppress their people's will." According to her, the sharp rise in the number of Arab volunteers stems form the realization that their involvement in the National Service program benefits the entire sector, as most of the youngsters recruited to National Service work within the Arab communities – in schools, kindergartens and community police. However, many Arab-Israelis still disapprove of National Service.
Amdad Darawsham, 18, who resides in a village near Akko, began his volunteer work at Magen David Adom emergence services this year. "There were those who called me a traitor; I don’t know why, and I don't care, because I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing," he told Ynet. "I recommended the National Service to a few friends. I think it's very helpful. During these two years after graduating from high school we can evolve as people and connect to Israeli society," said Darawsham, who hopes to become a nurse. Minister Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi) said in response to the report that he considers increasing the number of Arabs volunteering for National Service an important mission.
 Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Sheskin, a retired officer (Major) of the IDF. He has spent many years in Israeli intelligence services, primarily in the European theatre of operations. His expertise is in Radical Islam, Sharia Law, and the art of detecting the whereabouts of terrorist leaders in Europe and bringing them to justice. He lives in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. Visit his website at Waltzingwicked.com. FP: Dave Sheskin, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Sheskin: Thank you for this opportunity. FP: Give us a bit of background about yourself. Sheskin: I was born, raised and educated in Montreal. When the Six Day War erupted in June of 67, I was 24 years of age, and at the time I couldn’t care less about a war being fought many thousands of miles away. Having said that, I received a phone call from my older brother asking me if I was willing to go to Israel as a volunteer and help out while the regular and reserve soldiers were being called to duty. My initial reaction was definitely not a positive one, but at that time, my brother was the Director of the Labour Zionist Youth Movement, and began bombarding me with Jewish guilt. Reluctantly, I eventually agreed to go for a three month period providing that I still had a job waiting for me when I returned. I discussed the issue with my boss, who was the owner of a high-end men’s retail outfit, and little did I realize at the time that he too was very active in the Jewish community in Montreal, and raised funds for Israel. His precise words to me were, “if you don’t go, Dave, I will be ashamed of you.” Three days later I was in Israel. My parents were devastated by my decision, and for many months after, neither my parents or two older sisters spoke to my brother. “He’s just a boy,” they said. They insisted that my brother bring me home immediately, but by that time I was deep into the adventure of a lifetime and had no desire to return to Canada. Two months later, I met my first wife and we began a family immediately. I enlisted in the IDF in 69, and eventually embarked on a permanent career with the IDF. In 69, I entered the Officers Military Academy, and my initial assignment after graduation was as a young Lieutenant Liaison Officer to the United Nations stationed in the Golan Heights. Subsequent to the Yom Kippur War in 73, I was scouted by a talent agent from Mossad, and recruited into the illustrious institute. I served my country and its people for more than 19 years. FP: So what can you tell us in general, in terms of what you can say without divulging sensitive information, that you were doing over those 19 years for Mossad? Sheskin: Yes Jamie, as you allude to, it’s unfortunately not in my best interest to divulge sensitive data about the organization, or openly relate any information that may be sensitive, harmful or embarrassing to my ex-employer, who, by the way, has treated me with respect and fairness throughout my career. More at FPM
 A delegation of Israelis from the West Bank on Sunday brought copies of the Koran to the Palestinian village of Yasuf, where two days earlier a mosque was torched and vandalized allegedly at the hand of angry settlers.
The delegation from the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, led by peace activist Rabbi Menachem Froman, met the village elders at a nearby checkpoint after being held up for several hours by the Israel Defense Forces.
The delegation said they brought the Muslim holy books to show their condemnation for the attack and to replace those burnt by vandals.
Security officials say they fear that the torching of a mosque near Nablus on Friday could lead to reprisal attacks by Palestinians on Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israel's security services to find the people behind the arson, which Jewish extremists are suspected of perpetrating.
Immediately after the attack on the mosque at the village of Yasuf, Palestinian residents scuffled with members of the Border Police, a few of whom were lightly wounded. Several Palestinians were also hurt.
The arson prompted army and Border Police commanders to increase their presence in the Nablus area to prevent further attacks by Jewish extremists and reprisals by Palestinians. Security sources said such reprisals were a concern because the arson attack offended Palestinians' religious sentiments.
"The attack on the mosque was a dangerous provocation that could cause a further and unnecessary conflagration," one security official said.
Israel Defense Forces officers in the West Bank say that some settlers may escalate their opposition to the temporary freeze on settlement construction by targeting the Palestinian population - the "price tag" policy.
Attacks like the arson have provoked similar attacks by Palestinians, which the Shin Bet security service calls "popular attacks." These include acts that require little planning like stabbings, stone throwing and the hurling of Molotov cocktails.
The assailants - whose acts drew condemnations from U.S., Palestinian, Israeli and settler leaders - entered Yasuf before dawn Friday, according to the police.
They burned prayer carpets and a book stand containing Muslim holy texts, and left graffiti on the floor reading "Price tag - greetings from Effi." The vandals escaped. Police officials said they had no definite leads. The Shin Bet declined to discuss the investigation.
"We condemn this attack in the strongest terms and call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice," the U.S. State Department said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has condemned the act as a bid to thwart the peace process with the Palestinians. "This is an extremist act geared toward harming the government's efforts to advance the political process for the sake of Israel's future," he said on Friday.
President Shimon Peres urged officials to do "everything in their power to bring to justice" the people behind the attack, which he said ran contrary to Israel's fundamental values.
"The government, the security forces and the law-enforcement institutions must take every measure, with the utmost urgency, to find the perpetrators and put them on trial in accordance with the gravity of the acts," Peres said in a statement.
According to opposition leader Tzipi Livni in a speech in Herzliya on Friday, "while a human rights march goes on in Tel Aviv, in Samaria extremist elements set fire to a mosque in a severe, despicable act of provocation."
In a statement yesterday, the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, added that the "profanation of the mosque and the torching of copies of the Koran found in it, and the spraying of racist graffiti on the mosque's walls against Islam and Muslims represent blatant aggression against the sanctity of sacred places."
Danny Dayan, who heads the Yesha Council of settlements, said the vandalism was "a wrong and foolish act." He added that "whoever did this does not wish for the good of the settlements in Judea and Samaria."
But far-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir said that "Netanyahu must freeze these racist edicts to calm the atmosphere."
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) added that "those who wish to wipe out the Jewish people must not expect us to identify with their symbols and centers of incitement. I ran out of condemnations when the synagogues at Gush Katif were burned."
 The IDF Home Front Command is preparing for the possibility that Hamas will fire missiles up to a range of 80 kilometers from the Gaza Strip in the event of a future conflict with Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The preparations are being carried out on several different levels within the IDF, with a focus on preparing regional council members and municipality officials within the range - including Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan - for the possibility of missile and rocket attacks in their communities. During Operation Cast Lead, which began December 27, 2008, Hamas fired rockets to a range of around 40 km., hitting Ashdod and Yavneh. In late September, Hamas fired a missile with a 60 km. range from the Gaza Strip into the Mediterranean Sea. The IDF is also preparing information kits that could be distributed in the affected areas, as well as Home Front Command reserve units that would need to be deployed there in the event of rocket attacks. The IDF believes that Hamas has obtained Iranian-made Fajr missiles, either the Fajr 3 or Fajr 5. The Fajr 3 is five meters long and can carry a 45-kilogram warhead. To increase the rocket's range, Hamas has the option of shrinking the warhead to 25 or 30 kilograms, enabling it to strike deeper into Tel Aviv. Hizbullah also possesses such a missile. The Fajr 5 is slightly larger - 10 meters long - and has a range of up to 75 km, which could reach Tel Aviv, as well as communities further up the coast. Intelligence assessments are that Hamas smuggled themissiles into the Gaza Strip through tunnels, possibly as separate components. Iran already supplies Hamas with 122mm Katyusha rockets that are smuggled into Gaza in several pieces, then assembled by Hamas engineers. JPost
 "The military has been following attempts to carry out attacks through the 'U-route', where Gazan terrorists travel to Egypt, then turn back upon reaching Sinai and infiltrate Israel via the more penetrable Israel-Egypt border." "Terror attack foiled as troops chase away man carrying bomb," by Yaakov Katz for the Jerusalem Post, November 26: An IDF bomb squad detonated a 15-kilogram explosive seized during a search conducted along the Egyptian border on Thursday. Late Wednesday night, IDF troops on a routine patrol of the border area spotted a suspicious figure carrying a bag containing what was later discovered to be a 15-kilogram bomb. The soldiers ordered him to stop and fired several shots in the air. However, the man fled the scene back into Egypt, dropping the bag in his haste. IDF sources said it was possible that the suspected terrorist was from the Gaza Strip and had crossed into the Sinai Peninsula with the intention of then crossing into Israel to carry out an attack. The military has been following attempts to carry out attacks through the 'U-route', where Gazan terrorists travel to Egypt, then turn back upon reaching Sinai and infiltrate Israel via the more penetrable Israel-Egypt border. Channel 10 quoted security officials as assessing the device was either meant to be used in Eilat, Israel's southernmost city, or in another major Israeli city to which the suspect would have been driven, in order to perpetrate a multiple-casualty attack. OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant praised the soldiers' alertness and quick response.
 by Michael J. Totten Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah recently announced that he could hit any and every place in Israel with long-range missiles. That would mean that, unlike in 2006, Hezbollah could strike not only the northern cities of Kiryat Shmona and Haifa but also Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion International Airport, and the Dimona nuclear-power plant. I dismissed his claim as a wild boast last week, but Israeli army commander Major General Gabi Ashkenazi confirmed it this week. So while we've all been worried about Iran's nuclear-weapons program, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been quietly arming his chief terrorist proxy with more advanced conventional weapons. A Third Lebanon War could make the Second Lebanon War in 2006 look like a minor kerfuffle.
And the Second Lebanon War was anything but. When Noah Pollak and I covered it from the Israeli side, we found the whole northern swath of the country emptied of people and cars like it was the end of the world.
The city of Tiberias looked like a zombie movie set. Kiryat Shmona is so close to the border that the air raid sirens often didn't start wailing until after Hezbollah's incoming Katyusha rockets had already exploded. Meanwhile, pitched battles between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah seriously chewed up South Lebanon. The centers of entire towns were pulverized by Israeli air and artillery strikes. More than a thousand people were killed, many of them civilians used by Hezbollah as human shields. Hezbollah is much more dangerous than any terrorist group that has ever been fielded from the West Bank or Gaza. It managed to create hundreds of thousands of refugees inside Israel, and it did so with fewer and shorter range rockets than it has now.
And while the "Party of God" may think it's terrific that it can do what Hamas in Gaza only fantasizes about, its arsenal indirectly threatens Lebanon just as much if not more than it threatens Israel. Nasrallah can unleash a great deal of destruction, but it's still no match for what the IDF can dish out while fighting back. If Israel's nuclear power plant comes under fire, if Tel Aviv skyscrapers explode from missile attacks, if Hezbollah manages to turn all of Israel into a kill zone where there is no place to run, Israelis will panic like they haven't since the 1973 Yom Kippur War when it briefly appeared the Egyptian army might overrun the whole country. I wouldn't want to be anywhere in Lebanon while Israelis are actively fending off that kind of assault. No country can afford to be restrained while fighting for its survival. The last Lebanon war caught almost everyone by surprise, although it should not have. The next one might start much the same way because few seem to be taking its likelihood or its potential magnitude seriously. It's possible that a "balance of terror" on each side of the border will prevent anyone from doing anything stupid, but I wouldn't count on it. Hezbollah's rhetoric is more belligerent this year than ever. Not only does Nasrallah threaten to avenge the assassination of his military commander Imad Mugniyeh, he and the rest of the leadership fantasize in public about nuclear war. Christopher Hitchens went to a commemoration for Mugniyeh in the suburbs south of Beirut earlier this year and saw a huge poster of a nuclear mushroom cloud next to the stage. "OH ZIONISTS," read the inscription below, "IF YOU WANT THIS TYPE OF WAR THEN SO BE IT!” This, I'm certain, really is bombast – at least for now. Nasrallah doesn't have nuclear weapons. Apocalyptic imagery and rhetoric, though, tells us something important about Hezbollah's psyche. Just ask yourself how you would have felt during the Cold War if Ronald Reagan or Mikhail Gorbachev said "SO BE IT" to nuclear war. I would have wanted to hide in my basement or go off-planet entirely. And I have a hard time imagining an American or Russian crowd roaring with applause and pumping its fists in the air in response to that sort of thing. That's just not how Americans or Russians thought about a nuclear holocaust. Israelis don't think about nuclear war that way either, nor do Hezbollah's opponents in Lebanon. The same is almost certainly true of the millions of Iranian citizens who brave beatings, arrest, and worse to yell "death to the dictator" in the streets of Tehran. Hezbollah's mindset is different. If you expect moderation, reasonableness, and restraint from that crowd, you are far more optimistic than I am. Commentary Magazine
 AS the shock departure of Mahmoud Abbas sinks in for Palestinians, Ahmad Aweidah is rising fast in the new generation of leaders. Mr Aweidah, 39, insists he is not interested in politics, though he's rarely shy about entering the major debates. He argues that Mr Abbas's successor be Nasser al-Qudwa, nephew of the late PLO chief Yasser Arafat, rather than the contender who polls highest among Palestinians, the jailed Marwan Bargouti. As head of the Palestine Securities Exchange - responsible for $US7 billion ($7.6bn) in deposits and $US2bn in loans - Mr Aweidah refuses to join a political party and abhors Hamas's militant outlook. He says Arafat's major achievement was to give the Palestinians independence from countries such as Iran and Syria. He voted last election for Mr Abbas. On all these measures, he is a moderate, which is why it is ominous that someone like Mr Aweidah reflects a growing view among the Palestinian elite that the pursuit of a two-state solution is over. "In terms of one state, I think we should go with the Martin Luther King call of one man one vote," he said. It would be a federal system under which the Israel Defence Forces would retain responsibility for defence. "Under one state, Jews and Arabs would share power at a local level for things like education and health, while things like water would be decided at a national level," he said. "The Jews would have their own canton and the Arabs would have their own canton. It would be a federal structure. The Palestinian canton would not be responsible for the defence of the country. I am happy for the Jewish canton to remain in charge of defence through the IDF. Not a single Palestinian would serve in the IDF. Jerusalem would be everybody's. Jews would be able to live in Hebron not as settlers but as full citizens. "The Irish and the English resolved their conflict. The English and the Scots. There have been many other conflicts that have seemed as intractable as this one. It's better than continued conflict, is it not?" In two recent interviews - one with foreign journalists and one with The Weekend Australian - Mr Aweidah argued that the possibility of a Palestinian state passed with the growth of Jewish settlements. Palestinian politician Mustafa Bargouti said this week that international pressure had encouraged Palestinians to seek a two-state solution - an independent Palestine alongside Israel - but that this was no longer realistic. Mr Aweidah agreed: "The two-state solution is no longer viable," he said. "I think the only solution now is one state where the Palestinians are the majority and the Jews are a protected minority, just like the whites are now in South Africa. "Time and demographics are on our side. In 15 years' time, Palestinians will be the majority." Mr Aweidah claims the Palestinians have a birth rate of 4.3 per cent. As with everything in this conflict, this is disputed. Israeli analyst Yoram Ettinger described it as "a fairytale". "We have come up with documented data, mostly Palestinian material, which determines that the trend is exactly the opposite," Mr Ettinger, head of research group Second Thought, told The Weekend Australian. He found the number of Arabs in Judea and Samaria had been inflated by 66 per cent, and the number of Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza had been overestimated by 43 per cent.
"The demographic tailwind is Jewish - the Arab birth rate is coming down in a free dive," he said. However, prominent Israelis such as opposition leader Tzipi Livni continue to sound the demographic alarm for the Jewish population. As Washington's push to resume peace talks sinks, Palestinians more frequently are speaking about a unitary state. "What have we got from 15 years of negotiating since Oslo?" Mr Aweidah said. "Today we're sitting behind a wall with 500,000 Jewish settlers. So what will we get from another 15 years of negotiations - one million settlers? The Jews say `never again' about the Shoah. We say `never again' about losing more years negotiating for nothing." Asked of Israelis who would resist his vision out of fear for the end of the Jewish state, he said: "But it would be the birth of the Jewish canton. Don't worry, we will be good to them. They will be treated as a protected minority. We are not interested in oppressing them. Historically, we don't have a problem with Jews.
Anti-semitism is not an Arab or Muslim thing, it's primarily been a Christian thing." Mr Aweidah says his views are typical today. The question is, if the moderates are speaking like this in public, how are the hardliners speaking in private? The Australian
 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A Gaza charity headed by the interior minister of the militant Hamas group on Wednesday offered $1.4 million to any Arab citizen of Israel who abducts a soldier. Palestinians have frequently called on Israeli Arabs to abduct Israeli soldiers, but this is the first time that money has been offered. The Waad group from Gaza offered the bounty for Israeli soldiers in an e-mail sent to Palestinian media. The organization, which supports Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, is headed by Hamas' Interior Minister Fathi Hamad. The minister did not return messages seeking comment. The charity could presumably raise the cash through its connections with Hamas. The militant group is thought to have millions of dollars at its disposal, both through its tight control of Gaza and support from Iran and other allies. Waad's director, Usama Kahlout, said the bounty was in response to an Israeli group's offer to pay Gaza residents for information on the whereabouts of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier captured more than three years ago by Hamas-allied militants. The Born to Freedom Foundation offered $10 million for information pertaining to Israeli soldiers missing in action or held captive. Activists routinely call phone numbers in Gaza as well as in Lebanon looking for leads on missing Israeli soldiers. Israeli intelligence is also believed to call Gazans in search of information. German mediators are currently overseeing negotiations between bitter rivals Israel and Hamas to exchange Schalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel is holding some 7,500 Palestinian prisoners. Schalit is the only Israeli held by Hamas, while four Israelis who disappeared in Lebanon in the 1980s remain unaccounted for. On Wednesday, visiting French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, met with Schalit's parents in Jerusalem.
The Schalits have French citizenship, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has offered his support to the family. FoxNews
 Ali Waked For 10 years, residents of the Palestinian village of Khirbet Bir al-'Idd in the Hebron area have been living with relatives for fear of being harassed by settlers.
Last week, after receiving approval from the Israel Defense Forces, they returned to their homes, but say the attacks were renewed shortly afterwards.
Between the years 1999 and 2000, some 20 families living in the village were forced to evacuate themselves gradually due to repeated cases of harassment by settlers from the Mitzpe Yair outpost, who according to the Palestinians and their representatives in the Rabbis for Human Rights organization harassed them on a regular basis and prevented them from using the road leading to Khirbet Bir al-'Idd.
The Palestinians claimed that the army would turn a blind eye to the harassment, forcing the residents to leave the area. In recent years they turned to the rabbis' organization, which petitioned the High Court through Attorney Kamar Mishraki, demanding that the army allow them to return to the place they had left.
Following talks between the sides, Attorney Einav Golomb of the State Prosecutor's Office declared on May 2009 that the residents would be allowed to return to the village and that the road blocked by the settlers would be reopened.
The area's brigade commander decided to implement the decision, and four families returned to the village last Sunday. According to the Palestinians, however, they were assaulted by settlers on Thursday, one of their sheep was slaughtered and the residents were instructed to stop using the access road they had paved themselves.
The Palestinians claim that the settlers again blocked the road leading to the village and resumed their attacks on the residents. A Rabbis for Human Rights organization led by Rabbi Arik Ascherman visited the area on Monday.
Attorney Mishraki, who also arrived there, told Ynet that the settlers attacked and insulted the visitors in front of the soldiers.
"One of the settlers even took the brigade commander's decision, which orders the opening of the road, from Rabbi Ascherman's hands and tore it in front of soldiers.
Another female settlers, who did not know that I was Arab, shouted at me, 'Would you agree to have your boys and girls grow up next to Arabs?'"
The lawyer noted that one of the residents suffering from the road being blocked was a woman in advanced pregnancy.
According to Mishraki, the fact that the road is closed prevent the Palestinians from getting water and running their everyday life. She added, "The army that confirmed that the evacuation was illegal and decided to bring back the residents must implement the decision and defend the residents, rather than treat them like a security threat.
The law must be enforced against those harassing them."
 A day after the chief of staff warned against an increasing threat from the north, Hezbollah bragged, "All cities, military bases, factories, and settlements in Israel are within the organization's firing range." Hezbollah's political bureau chief Mahmoud Qomati was responding to the statements made by IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. Ashkenazi said that Hezbollah is armed with tens of thousands of missiles that can even reach Dimona. "Some of them reach a range of 300 km (about 185 miles)," he said. According to the chief of staff, the missiles are ready for use. "There is a paradox. On the one hand, there is quiet, but when you raise your head over the fence, you see strengthening and arming. If Hezbollah carries out an attack to avenge the death of Mughniyeh, this will obligate Israel to respond. This can lead to deterioration." Qomati said Wednesday that if Israel attacks the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut's Dahiya neighborhood, the organization will respond with an all-out shelling of Tel Aviv. Qomati dismissed Ashkenazi's statements: "Ashkenazi's threats are empty statements made in a bid to restore the initiative to his hands after the enemy's defeat in Lebanon and Gaza." Qomati continued, "The enemy knows that any offensive initiated under the current conditions will ensure his total defeat, will change the balance of power in our favor, and will bring about the end of its entity.
 IDF sources responded to Hizbullah reports that it had uncovered three Israeli "spying devices", saying that the incident was staged by the Lebanese terror group in an attempt to divert attention from the explosion of a weapons cache in Tayr last week, Channel 10 reported on Sunday evening.
Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station had said a blast that rocked the Wadi Houla area in southern Lebanon on Saturday was apparently caused by the detonation of three "spying devices" that Israel had planted in the area. Al-Manar claimed that after the devices were discovered, at least one was remotely destroyed by the IDF. Lebanese army and UNIFIL troops arrived at the scene amid public panic and began working to destroy one of the devices, the TV station reported. The Voice of Lebanon radio station reported that the explosion following a breach in Hizbullah's secure telecommunications network, which reportedly led to the discovery of two 50-meter cables near an Israeli outpost across the border. According to the Voice of Lebanon, one of the cables had been used for wiretapping, while the other had been used for broadcasting. News agency DPA in Beirut quoted a Lebanese source who suggested that the devices the Lebanese army had detonated were "batteries" belonging to the "espionage device" that had exploded earlier. IDF troops were said to have conducted patrols close to the border later in the day. Hizbullah has for years been claiming to find various forms of "listening" or "spying" devices on Lebanese soil. The IDF Spokesman Office said it was "looking into" Sunday's claims. Source: JPost
 by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu The Israel Air Force and Hamas-controlled terrorists in Gaza fought another hit and run battle Tuesday night.
A Kassam rocket hit kibbutz fields, several hundred yards from a wedding celebration, and the IAF retaliated by bombing two smuggling tunnels. Arab sources said three people were wounded, one moderately, by air-to-ground missiles, although a French news agency reported that Arab sources said one person died in the raid. No one was wounded at the kibbutz, whose fields abut the Gaza separation fence, and no damage was reported. Witnesses in Gaza told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that F-16 jets hovered over Rafiah, which straddles the Egyptian-Gaza border, and destroyed at least two tunnels that are used to transport explosives and arms. Hamas has been using cement and other building materials, some of it approved by Israel and others smuggled in from Egypt, to rebuild its smuggling tunnel system that was severely damaged in the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign 10 months ago. Source: INN
 By CHARLES LEVINSON BET EL MILITARY BASE, West Bank - Israel's military, taking a page from the Pentagon's counterinsurgency playbook, has changed tactics in the West Bank by emphasizing improvements in Palestinian living conditions, rather than focusing solely on killing and capturing militants. The shift, however, is threatened by personnel changes: Three generals who were instrumental in planning it are on the way out. Under their guidance, the Israeli Defense Force, which has occupied and administered the West Bank since its capture in 1967, has pulled back its soldiers from the enclave's cities, turned over security responsibilities to Palestinians, and lifted many of the checkpoints and roadblocks that had shackled the economy. Israeli forces are refraining from airstrikes or shelling, tactics they once used frequently to attack suspected militants. Instead of daytime raids with large battalions, commanders have turned to more surgical strikes by commandoes, which are less disruptive to the civilian population. "Part of our philosophy is to fight the terrorists with M-16 [rifles], not F-16 [jets]," said Brig. Gen. Noam Tivon, one of the leaders of the shift. Gen. Tivon ended his tour as commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank this week. Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, head of Israel's Central Command, is changing jobs in the coming weeks, and the Department of Defense's Civil Administration commander Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai is due to finish up within the next year. Some officers have voiced concern about the continuity of the trio's policies. One incoming general has little experience in the West Bank and came up through the ranks as a tank commander; some military analysts say that background means he could be the wrong person to oversee a strategy that calls for using less force and keeping a lower profile. Read more here,,,, Source: WSJ
 by David Lev Retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone told an interviewer Sunday on the CNN cable news network that as a Jew, he had an "obligation" to investigate war crimes, such as the ones the he claimed the IDF committed in Gaza. Goldstone headed a panel on behalf of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which issued a report accusing the IDF of committing "war crimes" against residents of Gaza. While parts of the interview were dedicated to enumerating the supposed war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers – for example, he accused troops of killing thousands of chickens and destroying the egg industry in Gaza – Goldstone spent a good portion of the interview reflecting on his personal philosophy, and how the fact that he is Jewish figured into his investigation. Speaking to CNN host Fareed Zakariah on the GPS program, Goldstone said that he tried to be fair to both sides, and that any limitations on his investigation was due to a lack of resources. For example, he said, his panel was unable to verify whether Israeli accusations that Hamas used Gaza Arabs as human shields in hospitals and schools were true or not. "We investigated specific incidents, we didn't find the Israeli claims to be justified," he told Zakaria, but added that did not mean that Israel's claims weren't true. And, Goldstone said, he was certainly not anti-Israel. "I have great love for Israel and have worked for many Israeli causes. What saddens me is that Jews, whether inside or outside of Israel, think that because I am a Jew, I should not investigate Israel. However, I believe I have a greater responsibility, as a Jew, to do so. If I have investigated war crimes in other countries, why should Israel be different? That should be welcomed," Goldstone said.
In general, he said, he believed Israel had the wrong idea about his mission. "We didn't question the right [of Israel] to defend itself, we looked at the method," he said. Goldstone added that despite the report, Israel's actions could not be compared to war crimes around the world that have taken place in recent years, such as those committed in Yugoslavia. "I don't like making comparisons," he said. He added that Israel's relationship to Gaza "is also not apartheid. I don't like that comparison, there are some similarities but there are more differences." He added that he hoped his report would be an impetus for both Israel and Hamas to settle their differences in a peaceful manner. "No South African can be pessimistic regarding the chances for peace. We [South Africans] had an impossible situation and we were positive there would be a bloodbath. And thanks to good leadership, this was prevented.
And I am proud to say that today we have a wonderful democracy in South Africa. True, there are problems, but we are progressing in the right direction," he said. Source: INN
 Five people have been injured after shots were fired at a funeral in Gaza City for two of three Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid, Palestinian medical sources have said. The gunshots rang out from across the border with Israel, Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera, as thousands of Palestinians turned out in the streets for the funeral on Saturday. Israel has yet to confirm whether gunfire came from their side of the border, but has said that it is looking into the incident. "The funeral procession was taking place very close to the border with Israel, [near] the Nahal Ouz crossing - obviously that border that splits Gaza from Israel is very heavily guarded by Israeli forces," Sherine Tadross, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, reported. "During the procession, mourners started firing shots up into the air - as is tradition to show their defiance, their protest and anger. "Israeli forces on the border saw that as an act of aggression and started firing," she said. The incident is also the first time guns have been fired during a protest since the end of Israel's offensive on Gaza at in January that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians. The brandishing of weapons in Gaza City was a rare show of force by the Islamic Jihad movement, and came despite strict rules against the public display of weapons enforced by Hamas. The group banned the bearing of weapons in public after it seized power in Gaza in June 2007. "We call on all Palestinian resistance factions to resume martyrdom operations inside the Zionist entity," one protest leader at the funeral yelled through a megaphone, referring to suicide bombings. The funeral was for fighters from Islamic Jihad, killed on Friday evening by Israeli aircraft in a strike that severely wounded three other people. The three men killed in the Israeli air raid were travelling in a car when it was struck by a missile, Moaiya Hassanain, an official at the Gaza health ministry, said. The Israeli military said the Palestinian militants were hit from the air as they unloaded rockets from their vehicle. An Israeli military spokesman said the army had "targeted three terrorists in the Gaza Strip on their way to launch rockets at Israel". Islamic Jihad issued a statement blaming Israel for what it said was a "cowardly crime" and calling on all Palestinian armed groups to confront it. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, condemned the violence. "These crimes are the result of a Zionist attitude based on killing, violence and destruction, especially in the absence of a strong Arab and international position, which ought to protect the interests of the Palestinian people," he said. Earlier in the day a rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel without wounding anyone, according to the Israeli military. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 By Aaron Klein Carter adviser suggested U.S. shoot down Jewish state's aircraft if they attack Iran
JERUSALEM – Both the Israeli government and the military here refused to respond to comments by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, who said the U.S. should confront Israeli jets if that nation chooses to take military action against Iran's nuclear installations. "We will not dignify Brzezinski with a response," a source in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told WND. Netanyahu's spokesmen and the Israel Defense Forces refused to provide an official reply. Discussing the possibility of an Israeli airstrike against Iran, Brzezinski declared in an interview with the Daily Beast website, "We are not exactly impotent little babies." "Are we just going to sit there and watch?" Brzezinski asked. He said the U.S. has to be "serious" about denying Israel the right to fly over U.S.-patrolled airspace in Iraq to attack Iran "That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not," he said. "No one wishes for this, but it could be a Liberty in reverse," he said. The Liberty was a U.S. ship in international waters in the Middle East during the Six-Day War in 1967 that was hit by Israeli gunfire. Brzezinski advised Carter on confrontations in Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East during Carter's White House tenure. He said the Obama administration also already should have developed "a clearer position on what we are prepared to do to promote a Palestinian-Israeli peace." "Simply giving a frequent-traveler ticket to George Mitchell is not the same thing as policy. It took a long time to get going on Iran, but there is an excuse there, the Iranian domestic mess. And we are now eight months into the administration, and I would have thought by now we could have formulated a strategy that we would have considered 'our' strategy for dealing with Iran and Pakistan," he said. "For example, the Carter administration, which is sometimes mocked, by now had in motion a policy of disarmament with the Russians, which the Russians didn't like, but eventually bought; it had started a policy of normalization with the Chinese; it rammed through the Panama Canal treaty; and it was moving very, very openly toward an Israeli-Arab political peace initiative," he said. Source: WND
 JERUSALEM: The United Nations has condemned Friday's rocket attack on Israel from southern Lebanon, and urged both sides "to exercise maximum restraint."
Israel's military fired between 12 and 18 artillery shells into southern Lebanon Friday shortly after the rocket attack on northern Israel, according to the Israeli military and a Lebanese army official. There were no casualties in either incident. Rockets fired from Lebanon struck open spaces in the western Galilee region of northern Israel, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said. There were no reports of damage. Israel retaliated by firing toward the source of the rocket fire, the IDF spokesman said. The shells landed near the southern Lebanese village of Qlayleh around 3 p.m. (8 a.m. ET), a Lebanese army official said. The IDF spokesman said the Israeli military considers the rocket-fire incident to be serious and holds Lebanon's government and military responsible. Israel Radio reported one rocket struck near the northern town of Nahariya and another landed near Gesher Haziv, a kibbutz, or collective community. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said residents near Nahariya heard several explosions, and the remnants of at least one rocket were found. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement through his spokeswoman, condemning the attack. He said the United Nations mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, "is investigating the circumstances of the incident in close cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces." There are an estimated 30,000 rockets in southern Lebanon, all under the control of Hezbollah militants. Israel fought a war against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon three years ago that is widely regarded as having empowered the Shiite militia. Source: CNN
 by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu Gaza terrorists continued to escalate attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers Wednesday afternoon.
The IDF neutralized several roadside bombs but did not respond to three shooting attacks on civilians carrying out maintenance work at the Gaza separation fence and at soldiers patrolling the areas. The IDF denied a stream of allegations that Israeli forces made incursions into northern Gaza, reported by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, which has close ties with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.
The same news organization claimed Thursday that IDF bulldozers and armored helicopters destroyed farmland near Beit Hanoun. Military spokesmen said no bulldozers entered the area. Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades military wing of Hamas, warned Israel that "if it carries out a new war on the Gaza Strip, the responses won't by words; it will be by fire and iron. The only language the Israeli enemy understands is the language of force. The daily incursions carried out by the Zionist enemy is [sic] part of a programmed aggression. They fear anything [that] moves near the borders, even trees, foliage or sands.” Wednesday's attacks followed a an increasing number of mortar and gunfire attacks on Israel.
Eight days ago, Hamas took responsibility for firing three mortar shells within a 24-hour period, one of the most intense assaults on Israel in months. The IDF retaliated by bombing a tunnel, designed to help terrorists infiltrate into the western Negev. Arab terrorists responded the following day with a rocket attack on a Negev farm, causing no injuries or damage. In Judea and Samaria, Jewish motorists have been subjected to daily terrorist attacks with firebombs and rocks, but the Israeli mainstream media has ignored most of the incidents despite damage to several vehicles. The army, under orders from Defense Minister Ehud Barak, has drastically reduced the number of roadblocks, checkpoints and patrols on highways. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has maintained that the PA has honored American Roadmap obligations that it halt violence and incitement.
Keeping up an image that there is peace and quiet throughout Judea and Samaria strengthens the PA’s position in its demands, backed by U.S. President Barack Obama, that Israel stop all building for Jews in the areas where it wants to create a new Arab state. Source: INN
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The wife a wealthy Melbourne barrister, Sonja Karkar and her pro-terror Palestinian front group “Australians for Palestine” is planning to disrupt the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. 
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