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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...