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Jailed West Bank senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said in a rare prison interview that Israel's plan for disengagement is "a victory for the Intifada." Speaking to the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, Barghouti stated that Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip is, in his words, "the first step of the collapse of an occupation which is on its way to the trash heap of history." Prison services are looking into how Barghouti managed to hold the interview, although assumptions are that he made the statements via his lawyers. In May of this year, Barghouti was convicted of involvement in four...

Natan Katanoff of Sderot believes the large new succa on his front patio saved his life and that of his family when a Kassam rocket landed across the street Tuesday morning. "It's a miracle," said Katanoff as he pointed to the small bullet-size holes in the white floral cloth. Metal shards bounced off the metal frame, thus missing him as he sat drinking tea by the front window. Thanks to the succa, the shards also failed to hit the gas canister underneath the window, thereby averting an explosion that would have killed the family. "If it wasn't for the succa,...

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell seeking assurance from Israel that Gaza withdrawal is first step towards peace (AP)

Various Palestinian security organizations in the Gaza Strip have redoubled efforts to get weapons and ammunition before the IDF withdraws from the Strip and the settlements are evacuated. The units buy arms and ammunition from smugglers bringing them into Gaza from Egypt by tunnels under the Philadelphi road. Every Palestinian organization represented in Gaza is making preparations for `withdrawal day,' and each group is making ready for several scenarios, including one of clashes. A great deal of effort is also being put into obtaining various types of weapons and ammunition and some of the organizations have direct or indirect control...

In a damning condemnation of left-wing behavior, a new book on the “Al-Aqsa Intifada,” quotes Hamas leaders saying that the behavior of Israel's left-wing encourages them to continue their attacks. The book, “The Seventh War” – written by journalists Avi Yissocharov from state-run Voice of Israel radio and Amos Harel from Haaretz – was based on a comprehensive investigations and interviews with Hamas leadership in Gaza and Israeli prisons, carried out by the two journalists. Yissocharov told Channel 1’s ‘New Evening’ program this afternoon that Hamas leaders told him over and over again that it was the Israeli left-wing that...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - facing a stalemate of sorts in his bid to widen the government coalition - is about to issue an ultimatum to his fellow Likud MKs: disengagement now, or early elections. So reports the Yediot Acharonot newspaper. The Prime Minister thus feels that he can force his party colleagues to vote for the disengagement by threatening them with new elections - which they are likely to fear might cost some of them their Knesset seats. Together with the votes of opposition parties, Sharon thus feels that he will have a majority for his expulsion plan. MK...

The drumbeat of anti-Semitic and anti-American incitement marches on in the Egyptian government-controlled press. In recent weeks, the media in Egypt has come out with a series of articles that, like the long and continuous stream of their poisonous predecessors, dehumanize Jews, and criminalize both Israel and the United States. In one recent piece in the ruling National Democratic Party's newspaper Al-Liwaa Al-Islami, Dr. Rif'at Sayyed Ahmad wrote a dirge of Holocaust denial entitled "The lie about the burning of the Jews." Like most Holocaust denials, this one argues that the Jews made up the Holocaust in order to blackmail...

"The four Jewish towns in northern Samaria which the government will dismantle as part of the disengagement plan are not going to be the only ones,” Deputy PM Ehud Olmert declared today. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whom many consider to be Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s ‘trial-balloon dispatcher,’ told Army Radio today that Israel will retreat from many more Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria than those included in the Prime Minister’s disengagement plan. Olmert made the comments while touring the separation fence in the area near Modiin. He assured reporters that, despite the fierce opposition to the Prime Ministers...

'Disengagement operates on the principle that Israel must suit its own convenience first, withdrawing from territory that has become a strategic liability, while consolidating control over territory that remains an asset" is Bret Stephens's reasoned, if at times tortuous, description of why he changed his mind and today supports withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The Jerusalem Post's editor explains, in two long articles, that he did not reach this conclusion easily. "I'd rather Israel seize its chances, on its own terms, than wait for winds to blow fair in Ramallah or Iraq or Brussels or Turtle Bay." Stephens has lost...

Were it not so reminiscent of the anti-Semitic canard about Jews ruling the world, the idea would be laughable: that 200,000 settlers – more than half of them children – dictate policy, and Israel's 6.5 million other citizens are helpless against them. Yet a surprising number of opinion leaders have made this claim since the Likud rejected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. "Once again, it has become clear that the settlers set Israel's agenda," declared a Haaretz editorial. The nation is in "shock," wrote columnist and historian Meron Benvenisti, over "the power of a few thousand settlers to force...

US President George Bush sent a letter on Tuesday to Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia(Abu Ala), in which he asked him to support Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. "If the plan is implemented, there is a real chance to move forward toward peace and toward the realization of Palestinian national aspirations," Bush said in the three-page letter to the Palestinian Prime Minister . "The building of the institutions of a Palestinian state could then begin in earnest, in Gaza". According to Bush, "The United States will not prejudice the outcome of final status negotiations,...

What does the Palestinian Authority really think about Prime Minister Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza? Arutz-7 has reported in the name of National Union MK Tzvi Hendel that Arab MKs are happy with the prospect of Israel's abandonment of Gaza. Now, Itamar Marcus of the Palestinian Media Watch organization proves that the PA in general is "thrilled," using direct quotes from PA sources. Marcus writes, "All Palestinian Authority elements are united in seeing the evacuation plan as a victory for terrorism and a tool for attaining political goals. From the PA leadership to the Hamas, Sharon's moves are...

MK Michael Ratzon, who was deeply involved in the campaign against the prime minister's disengagement plan, hates being labeled "extreme right." A conversation with the deputy minister of industry, commerce and employment does reveal surprising positions, far more moderate than those of his boss, Ehud Olmert, the first and most outspoken supporter of the plan to unilaterally disengage from Gaza and the northern West Bank. Thus, Ratzon proposed leaving the Gush Katif settlement bloc in place - but offering the Palestinians uninhabited territory inside Israel. Ratzon says the idea - mentioned in the Clinton framework and the Geneva initiative -...

Thousands of young people from the Jewish settlements of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip yesterday stood at dawn in the amphitheater next to the Neveh Dekalim Local Council building and sang Hatikvah, and the hymn "I believe." It's exactly the way Independence Day prayers end in National Religious communities - the national anthem along with a kind of religious anthem, the Maimonidean principle of faith that begins "I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah." Before they began singing, the young people had been listening to Rabbi Rafi Peretz, head of the pre-army study program at...

The main subject of today's Likud referendum - the expulsion of Jews from their homes - is completely illegal, and in violation of Israeli and international law according to the Dean of the Shaarei Mishpat Law College, Professor Emeritus Eliav Schochetman. Professor Schochetman said in a lecture on Friday that any Israeli government decision to expel people from their homes, even in the context of a diplomatic move, would represent a wanton violation of basic human rights and civil liberties protected under Israeli and international human rights law. The lecture, reported on by journalist David Bedein, focused on the legality...

In a devastating terror attack at 12:45 PM today, Gazan Arabs murdered a Jewish mother in her 8th month of pregnancy and her four children - spraying their car with bullets and then shooting each child repeatedly at point-blank range. The attack was perpetrated on the Kissufim Road leading into Gush Katif, along Israel's southern Mediterranean coast. Another civilian and two soldiers were wounded in ensuing exchanges of fire. The preliminary investigation indicates that two terrorists came from the nearby Arab town Dir el-Balah and waited for an Israeli car to pass by on the main vehicular artery into the...

A moderate voter turnout in the Likud - but the victory of the opponents of the unilateral evacuation/expulsion plan was sweeping. The Channel One television prediction, based on exit polls and other information, indicates that the Prime Minister's plan was defeated by a staggering 62%-38% vote. Another prediction states that the margin is 58-59% against, 41-42%. Channel Two: 56%-44%. MK Ehud Yatom of the Likud, an opponent of the plan, said that despite the wide victory, "Prime Minister Sharon must continue to lead the government." Yatom's party colleague MK Gila Gamliel said the same. Minister Gideon Ezra, who supports the...

What started out as the prime minister's last minute decision to obtain the endorsement of the Likud membership for his plan for unilateral withdrawal from Gush Katif and northern Samaria - an endorsement that he could not obtain from the delegates to the Likud's conference - has, within a matter of weeks, grown into a minor earthquake. According to the prime minister and his spokesmen, if the plan is not approved by the Likud membership in the May 2 referendum, the government is liable to fall, the president of the United States is likely to turn his back on Israel,...

November 30, 2005 JERUSALEM – In an attack on Israeli naval forces, Palestinian militants disguised as fishermen blew up an Israeli patrol boat off the coast of Gaza yesterday. The militants and five Israeli sailors were killed in the blast. Hamas and Fatah claimed joint responsibility for the attack which the groups claimed came as revenge for the navy's sinking of a Palestinian weapons ship off the coast of Gaza last week. UN Secretary General Kofi Anan and EU Foreign Policy chief Chris Patten issued separate statements yesterday condemning the attack. Yet both men maintained that the Israeli navy's control...

An initiative which has brought thousands of people from across the country to visit Gush Katif for the first time is winning the hearts of the people of Israel, including quite a few Likud voters. “Ask most proponents of a withdrawal from Gaza whether they have ever been to Gush Katif and the answer will usually be, ‘no, I’ve never been there’ – ask them what they think it looks like and you usually hear a description of a fortified army base,” one volunteer told Arutz-7 after speaking with hundreds of Likud members. An organization called ‘We are on the...

Three hundred rabbis called on Likud Party members on Thursday to vote against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan in the referendum to be held Sunday. The rabbis, identified with far-right political movements, are members of a group called "Pikuah Nefesh," Hebrew for "saving lives," the highest precept in Judaism. The group believes that giving up any of the West Bank or Gaza violates religious precepts and endangers lives. "All withdrawals from Jewish land close to a border and its transfer to non-Jews will encourage the enemy to try and attack us from there in order to get more lands,"...

The Gush Katif Local Council has made Sunday, the day of the Likud referendum, an official day off. Thousands of families are planning to close their homes for 12 hours and head with their children to the polling stations. Preference will be given to the central and northern regions. The south is already "theirs," or at least that is how the residents of Neve Dekalim feel. Entire families are planning to camp out near the polling stations. The objective is no secret: unmediated contact with the voter, moments before his vote is cast; one last look in the voter's eye...

Poll results on support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's retreat plan in surveys carried out last night of Likud members: Dahaf - Yediot Ahronot: For 39% Against 47% Teleseker- Maariv: For 42% Against 45% Maagar Mochot-Israel Radio: For 43% Against 47% The following is IMRA's translation of results from two telephone polls carried out by "Brain Base" ["Maagar Mochot"] under the direction of Prof. Y. Katz for Israel Radio's "Another Matter" program on 28 April with the results of their 21 April 2004 also presented for purposes of comparison Part 1 - Representative sample of 538 adult Israelis (including Israeli...

Another aspect of the alleged Prime Minister's Office deception concerns Sharon's assurances regarding five settlement blocs that will allegedly remain Israeli. Correspondent Haggai Huberman notes that U.S. President George Bush never said a word about them in his letter of two weeks ago to Sharon. He rather wrote that it "is unrealistic to expect" a full return to the 1949 armistice borders "in light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers." Bush actually made sure to state that he is not endorsing any particular solution: "It is realistic to expect that any final status...

Prime Minister Sharon has so far stood fast against his advisors who recommend that he threaten outright to resign if he loses. Asked by his interviewers last night if he would resign in such a case, Mr. Sharon said, more than once, "I don't even want to think about such a possibility." However, he emphasized that if his plan is rejected, it would lead to a toppling of the government and the weakening of the Likud Party. At an emergency meeting of Sharon advisors late this morning, it was decided to sharpen the tone even more strongly against those who...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will press for greater international involvement in Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza at next week's meeting of the Middle East quartet in New York, Annan said on Wednesday. The quartet of the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations will be trying at the May 4 gathering to keep alive its road map to Middle East peace after an apparent major shift in U.S. policy and Israel's assassination of two leaders of the Hamas militant group. Some Arab and European leaders have expressed fear that the road map may be dead...

Residents of southern Israel, prepare for the coming of the Katyushas. The fate that has, until now bee a plague limited to the northern Galilee, will soon be yours. On Sunday, if Prime Minister Sharon’s efforts are successful, we will begin the countdown for their launch, which will begin when the last settlers are expelled from Gush Katif. In the calm after the last heart-rending struggles, prepare for bombardment. Until the evacuation, the evacuees will continue to be the rockets’ main target. As I write these lines, 4,059 mortar shells and rockets of various kinds have already hit them. Most...

Proponents of Ariel Sharon's "unilateral disengagement plan" have claimed that the Bush-Sharon summit resulted in extraordinary benefits for Israel in such critical matters as the Palestinian "right of return," Israel's security needs, and Israel's right to retain settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria in any final settlement. Yet a careful reading of the Bush letter and a comparison between the Bush and Sharon letters lead one to query whether the Israeli public is not buying bogus merchandise. The first question to ask is: How binding is the Bush letter on future administrations or even on the Bush administration itself? It...

<p>Click here to view a short video about Gush Katif, Gaza, one of the places that Jews will be removed from (in addition to Northern Judea and Samaria) if Sharon's Gaza Plan goes forth.</p> <p>It is a Windows Media Player stream. It may be helpful to download the stream to your hard drive, using this program (free), so it isn't choppy.</p>

(IsraelNN.com) Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) this morning that if the prime minister in his capacity as party leader invokes party discipline in the upcoming referendum on the unilateral Gaza disengagement plan, he will resign. “I will not cast a vote against the Land of Israel”, the veteran Likud MK stated. Rivlin came under fire from colleagues who support the prime minister’s plan after his Memorial Day and Independence Day remarks were directed at Sharon and his plan, using harsh words in his description of someone who would knowingly act to uproot Jewish communities in...

Tensions are high in the Likud with only four days to go until its 193,000 members go to the polls to help decide the future of Gush Katif and the State of Israel. It is assumed that those who object to the plan are more motivated and thus more likely to vote. The higher the voter turnout there is, therefore, the more the Sharon camp has room for optimism. Efforts in both camps, though still concentrating on person-to-person visits - Prime Minister Sharon is engaged in phone calls this morning - are now turning to the logistics of "getting out...

For a nation that rightly prides itself on its humane treatment of its enemies, Israel needs to start taking a long, hard look at how it treats its own citizens. This coming Sunday, the fate of some 8,000 Jews will hang in the balance, when members of the Likud cast their ballots on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to withdraw from Gaza and northern Samaria. It is a vote laden with significance, in political as well as diplomatic and strategic terms, one whose outcome will have far-reaching repercussions, both locally and on the international scene. But amid all the debate...

Ahead of a meeting next week between the US and Jordanian leaders, US President George W. Bush is preparing a letter to Jordan's King Abdullah II, in which he states that the final positions on West Bank settlements and Palestinian right-of-return are subject to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, reported IBA news Wednesday. Advertisement Administration officials in Washington said the letter would also reiterate the US's continuing endorsement for the road map peace plan. The King reportedly cancelled a previous meeting with Bush due to the president's letter of principles to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israel's ambassador to the...

Jordan's King Abdullah told visiting Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia Wednesday that Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a "total Israeli withdrawal" from all Palestinian areas, said a statement from the royal court. "Israel's plan, envisaging a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a total Israeli withdrawal in accordance with the provisions of the road map," the king was quoted as telling Qureia. The king added that any solution to the Palestinian issue should be decided by the parties concerned. Abdullah briefed the Palestinian leader on "Jordan's efforts aimed at reinvigorating...

The State Department said on Monday that the United States would assist the Palestinians as they assume control of the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal, but rejected a claim from a former senior US envoy that responsibility for what happens in Gaza will fall to Washington. On Sunday, former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk wrote in the Washington Post that neither the collapsed PA nor Egypt would be equipped to take charge of Palestinian affairs in Gaza once Israel pulls out. "Instead, de facto responsibility for what happens in Gaza once Israel withdraws will fall to the United...

Hamas official al-Zahar: Hamas will cooperate with Arafat, PA in enforcing law, order in Gaza after Israeli retreat (Army Radio)

The threat of evacuation that is hovering over the heads of the Gush Katif inhabitants in the Gaza Strip has led them to make use of any means they think might help avert the evil decree. Pogroms against the Jews dating back to the days of Amalek, a comparison between the situations of the Gush residents and the condition of the Jews of Spain before the expulsion and even a reminder about the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe have been enlisted in order to prove that a tragic historical continuity links them to the fate of the Jewish people....

Translation from Hebrew to English by me The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, called Saturday night the Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu Ala, and asked him to look at the disengagement plan as a good way of getting territories. Powell told Abu Ala that this program is being done in the context of the roadmap, and it gives an opportunity for moving the peace. Powell asked Abu Ala to join in negotiation on this matter - so that the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, will be the one that gets the territories Israel will be leaving in Gaza and northern Samaria...

The past 10 days have been good for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He was able to take a pat on the back from George W. Bush and turn it into public declarations of support for his plan to turn Gaza and much of Samaria into safe havens for terrorists from his heirs apparent in the Likud – Ministers Netanyahu, Shalom and Livnat. Additionally, Sharon this week has successfully silenced debate of his plan to uproot 25 communities in Gaza and Samaria and to turn the territory over to Israel's enemies. He maneuvered his way out of debating Minister without Portfolio...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon caused an uproar in a summer recess session of the Knesset on Thursday when he termed his stated intention to act according to the results of the May 2 Likud referendum as a "moral" commitment, not a "legal" one. "The commitment we took upon ourselves, the members of Likud and myself, to act according to the results of the referendum, is a public and moral duty, not a legal or binding duty," Sharon said. Amid a decline in Likud support for his disengagement plan, Sharon seemed to indicate by the tone of his speech that he...

A poll of 550 Likud members on Thursday sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America and conducted by Kidron strategies found that the gap between supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan is only three percent. Respondents were asked at the beginning of the call whether they intend to vote in favor, then were asked questions about whether the plan would be a victory for terror, and then were asked again about their vote. The results from the beginning of the call were 47 percent in favor, 40 opposed. At the end of the call, the results...

The idea of transferring the Palestinian population makes me shudder in horror. The idea of Jewish soldiers dragging entire families from their homes, throwing them onto trucks, and evacuating them over the border is so horrible and unethical that I cannot start to imagine it. The idea also horrifies me when it involves Jews. The idea of evacuating entire communities from the homes and fields for which they cared lovingly despite the Katyusha rockets, uprooting children and young people from their schools, yeshivot, and pre-military training programs, and displacing three generations from their land is terrifying. However, despite the horrible...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says that you, the registered members of the Likud, bear a heavy responsibility, and he calls on you to vote for his uprooting-running away plan. This time, however, you must flout his authority and vote according to your consciences. During home visits and telephone conversations that we, residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, are holding these days with many of you, we are learning that despite the great confusion that surrounds you due to Sharon's unbelievable zigzagging, your hearts and consciences are, on the whole, in the right place. Even so, in these conversations,...

With only ten days left before the Likud referendum, opponents of the unilateral Gaza withdrawal/evacuation/expulsion plan say they are gaining momentum. Latest polls show that only 4% separate those who support the plan from those who oppose it. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has proposed a unilateral disengagement from Gaza, under which Israel is to withdraw its forces and evacuate its 8,000 residents by the end of 2005. This is to be done with no coordination with the Palestinian Authority, and therefore involves no reciprocal commitments on its part. The nearly 200,000 card-carrying members of the Likud will vote in a...

Arutz-7 called a number of local Likud chapter heads to discuss their opinions on the disengagement plan and whether there is feverish activity for and against in their towns: * The head of the Likud chapter in a growing city in the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv area said that he's against the evacuation, but, "I'm making sure that there's not too much activity here regarding the plan, if you understand me." MK Omri Sharon has reportedly threatened local Likud leaders who refuse to support the plan with the loss of their jobs. Asked to detail the main reasons he opposes the withdrawal,...

In a special session in the midst of the Knesset's Passover recess today, Prime Minister Sharon delivered a diplomatic speech during which he said, "The referendum does not obligate any of the other parties. On the contrary, if the rest of the Knesset decides to vote against the position of the Likud, it is obvious that the Likud's position will not pass." Since it is clear, in light of Labor's stated support for the plan, that it will pass in the Knesset, Sharon was openly signaling that he will make sure to pass the plan in the Knesset even if...

TEL AVIV – Yoram Ettinger was the minister for congressional affairs at the Israeli embassy in Washington during the Shamir government in the early 1990’s. Ettinger, 59, has also served as consul-general in Texas and director of the Government Press Office in Jerusalem. Currently he is a consultant on U.S.-Israel relations to the Internal Security Ministry. As a veteran of Israel-U.S. diplomacy, Ettinger is supremely knowledgeable about how legislators on Capitol Hill view Israel. The Jewish Press: How do you feel about last week’s meeting between Ariel Sharon and President Bush in Washington? Ettinger: This is another situation in which...

Farouk Kaddoumi, the PLO's hard-line "foreign minister," said Thursday that when Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat talks about the need to pursue the struggle against Israel, he is referring to the armed struggle. Kaddoumi said the armed struggle was the only way to force Israel to accept the demands of the Palestinians. Kaddoumi's remarks were made in an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab. He admitted that the PLO charter, which denies Israel's right to exist, was never changed. In response to a question what does Arafat mean when he talks about the continuation of the struggle, Kaddoumi, who is...

SECRETARY POWELL: Foreign Minister Muasher and I have just had a very successful conversation about issues of mutual interest. As you would of course expect, we discussed the situation in the Middle East, and I briefed the Foreign Minister on the President's continued commitment to his vision of June 2002, the roadmap, and the desire to see a Palestinian state created that will live side by side in peace with Israel, and that final status issues associated with the creation of that state must be mutually agreed upon by the parties. We discussed the issue of the President's meeting with...

-snip- MR. SCHWEID: Can I ask you about the Middle East? It's a trick question. (Laughter.) Do you still consider settlements an impediment to peacemaking? Jewish population centers, too? SECRETARY POWELL: We know that the issue of settlements has to be dealt with. For the three-plus years that I have been in office, we have tried to get a peace plan going. We have tried to start implementing the vision that President Bush laid out. We have tried to get on the roadmap. We haven't been able to. We're stymied. The Israelis come along -- Prime Minister Sharon -- and...