Be Glad this Nutcase Moved from Florida to Israel

QUOTE: . . .in 2004 placed bottles of poison-laced juice in a Palestinian village . . . he placed a bomb bear the monastery at Beit Jimal near Beit Shemesh, which injured a Palestinian tractor driver because he "heard that the monks there were enticing Jewish children with candy." . . . Tytell allegedly put an explosive charge in Purim candy he placed near the home of the Ortiz family in Ariel. A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured in the attack.

U.S.-born Jewish terrorist suspected of series of attacks over past 12 years

By Amos Harel and Chaim Levinson

The authorities have arrested a resident of the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel for suspected murder and a role in a string of murder plots, according to details of an investigation revealed Sunday after a gag order was lifted.

Yaakov (Jack) Tytell, who was arrested last month, is suspected of involvement in the murder of two Palestinians and the rigging of a bomb that seriously injured a boy from a Messianic Jewish family in Ariel. He was allegedly involved in two other bombings, which lightly injured Prof. Zeev Sternhell and a Palestinian. The police say Teitel has confessed to these acts.

Some of his actions were allegedly motivated by hatred for gays and lesbians; Tytell was also questioned about possible involvement in the murder of two people at a gay youth club in Tel Aviv last August. He initially claimed responsibility for those murders, but investigators say he did not commit them.

Tytell, 36, moved to Israel from the United States nine years ago. He and his wife Rivka, who married in Israel, have four children. The police detained Mrs. Tytell for questioning, but she exercised her right to remain silent.

Her husband had been involved in the past with the extreme right wing, but he says he carried out his attacks alone and no one else knew about them, according to investigators. The Shin Bet security service and police are still examining this claim, but have so far not discovered accomplices.

Police found many weapons and explosives at his home and another concealed location.

Tytell was arrested on October 7 in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof after posting signs around town praising the attack on the Tel Aviv gay center. He was apprehended in possession of a loaded gun.

He was remanded and interrogated for about three weeks without being allowed to see a lawyer, a step that was approved by various courts, including the High Court of Justice.

A native of Florida

Tytell was born in Florida and lived in Israel for extended periods in the 1990s. He came to Israel in 1997, he said, to take revenge on Palestinians for suicide attacks that decade. He told investigators that in 1997 he murdered a Palestinian taxi driver in East Jerusalem.

A few months later, he allegedly murdered another Palestinian near the settlement of Carmel in the South Hebron Hills. He said that in both murders he used a gun he had taken apart and smuggled aboard his British Airways flight to Israel.

Tytell said he hid the gun at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Police searched the area with Tytell but did not find the gun. Shortly after the second murder, Tytell returned to the United States, where he remained for three years.

During that time, he had several run-ins with the law. When he returned to Israel he was questioned based on an intelligence tip by the Shin Bet and police on the Carmel murder; he denied involvement.

Despite his arrest, he obtained a gun license in Israel; he also had six rifles and three pistols, which he allegedly smuggled into Israel from the United States in a shipping container.

Police found the weapons buried in his yard in Shvut Rachel in what they said was "excellent" condition. One pistol was buried at the nearby outpost of Adei-Ad. Tytell reportedly said his main stockpile had been discovered and he had to go into hiding.

Tytell allegedly maintained a room in his home where he experimented with explosive charges. The police said he became proficient at making bombs. Tytell, however, has never served in the Israel Defense Forces or the U.S. military, as some media outlets had reported.

According to the Shin Bet, Tytell placed four improvised anti-personnel mines near the Arab Israeli town of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem. They say in March 2003 he placed a bomb near the home of a Palestinian in the village of Sajur near Ramallah, and in 2004 placed bottles of poison-laced juice in a Palestinian village near the settlement of Eli. No one was injured in those cases.

Tytell reportedly told the police that in 1997 he stabbed an Arab in Jerusalem's Independence Park after he suspected that the man was offering him sex.

On November 2, 2006, Tytell allegedly embarked on a series of attacks to deter police from providing security for the Gay Pride Parade that was to be held in Jerusalem. He allegedly placed an improvised but potentially lethal explosive charge at the police station in Eli, which was found by a police sapper.

Tytell told the police that on April 20, 2007, he placed a bomb bear the monastery at Beit Jimal near Beit Shemesh, which injured a Palestinian tractor driver because he "heard that the monks there were enticing Jewish children with candy."

On May 15 that year he allegedly placed a bomb that exploded near a police car in Jerusalem, and a month later he set off another explosive charge near a patrol car in the capital. There were no injuries in those cases.

On March 20, 2008, Tytell allegedly put an explosive charge in Purim candy he placed near the home of the Ortiz family in Ariel. A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured in the attack. Tytell reportedly said the family were "missionaries who intended to entrap weak Jews."

On September 25, 2008, Tytell allegedly struck for the last time, with the bomb outside the front door of Sternhell's house.

The last two attacks brought the police closer to Tytell. They said the breakthrough came in March 2008 when a security camera outside the Ortiz home caught Tytell climbing the staircase and putting the explosive device down. Tytell apparently knew of the camera and covered his face, but the police were still able to identify him.

After the attack on Sternhell, the commander of the police's West Bank Central Unit, Chief Superintendent Eli Makmal, suspected links with other cases. The Shin Bet profiled the suspect as an American who hated various groups. DNA was also found at the scene of the attack on Sternhell. By the end of August this year the police suspected Tytell and began 24-hour surveillance.

A senior Shin Bet official said Sunday that although Tytell had been under surveillance, he was very careful about his activities, which made it hard to collect evidence against him. He did not commit any other attacks during the surveillance, the police say.

Yesha Council condemns attacks

"Acts of the kind allegedly committed by Yaakov Tytell are grave, prohibited and unacceptable. The security forces should be congratulated for discovering him," Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council of settlements, said Sunday.

"Any person of conscience in Israel must rise up in indignation against such acts, as well as against any despicable attempt to use them to gain political capital by blaming an entire community that is not connected - and is in fact vehemently opposed - to such actions," Dayan added.

Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah, a liberal religious-Zionist movement, said that it "condemns any kind of violence. There is no justification for these heinous acts in the Torah, which espouses kindness and peace. However, we ask that people avoid pointing fingers and casting blame on an entire community because of the acts of one person."

Said radical right-wing activist Itamar Ben Gvir: "I don't support violence, certainly not against Jews, but people like [Prof. Zeev] Sternhell need to take a good look at themselves. His statements and recommendations to Arabs to attack 'only' settlers constitute a provocation that has led to violence."

Last update - 09:42 02/11/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1125254.html

Not so Smart After All?

Other stories have bemoaned Israel's "brain drain" and lack of achievement in academics (except Nobel prizes, where they have done very well), as well as other education problems. Maybe it they spent more money on education and less trying to take land away from the Palestinians they could perform better.

Chinese ranking puts Hebrew University in 64th slot in world

Shanghai Jiao Tong University lists Jerusalem institution among top 100 schools worldwide, fourth overall for Asia-Pacific. Other Israeli universities included in top 500 list

Yaheli Moran Zelikovich

The Hebrew University in Jerusalemhas been included in China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University's top 100 academic institutions worldwide.

The Israeli university ranked 64th in Jiao Tong's annual review of the top 500 universities in the world. The ranking is considered one of the most objective ones in the world of academics.

The parameters used to determine ranking include the number of scientific publications, which account for 40% of the ranking, the number of Nobel Prize laureates (30%), the number of scientists quoted in 21 difference [sic] disciplines (20%) and the number of academic achievement in ratio to the university's size (10%).

The list also ranks the Hebrew University's computer science programs in 25th place and further ranks it among the top 75 schools for business and economics.

The university ranked fourth overall for the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian National University ranked third, Japan's Kyoto University ranked second and topping the list for Asia-Pacific was the University of Tokyo.

Topping the top 100 list were the American Harvard, Stanford and Berkley universities.

Other Israeli universities were included in Jiao Tong's extended list, ranking 101 to 500: Tel Aviv University and the Israel Institute of Technology were ranked among the top 151 schools in the world, the Weizmann Institute of Science was ranked among the top 200, and the Bar Ilan and Ben-Gurion universities ranked among to top 400 universities worldwide.

Published: 11.02.09, 13:35 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3799017,00.html

Another American Traitor for Israel

'Nozette passed information to Israel'

[Comment: this is another step in the process of bringing him to trial. What is perhaps new is the charge that he actually bragged to the sting operators that he believed he was giving secrets to Israel before the sting.]

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER AND AP

WASHINGTON

US prosecutors accused an alleged American spy of having passed on secrets to Israel during a hearing Thursday which saw the defendant held without bond over concerns he would flee.

The former US scientist, 52-year-old Stewart Nozette, was arraigned last week in a sting operation in which Nozette allegedly sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as a Mossad contact.

In the hearing in US District Court Thursday, the prosecution went further in alleging that before the FBI set-up, Nozette had claimed to have already actually transmitted information to Israel.

"He told the agent that he had indeed communicated classified information," prosecutor Anthony Asuncion said. "He had admitted to the agent actual espionage."

During the hearing, Asuncion played video excerpts of an undercover sting operation against Nozette in which the scientist lounges on a hotel room couch, discussing the possibility of having to flee the country if he came under scrutiny from US officials.

Nozette looked starkly different as he sat in court Thursday. Wearing baggy, black-and-white striped jail clothes, he stared passively as the screen showed him eating and laughing with the undercover agent.

Nozette's lawyer, John Kiyonaga, said there was no basis for that accusation, and noted the government's charges don't contain any such allegations.

He also argued the video recordings shown in court were misleading because they left out significant parts of a longer conversation.

Israeli officials have repeatedly pointed out that the case involves no accusations of Israeli wrongdoing, and at the time of Nozette's arrest 10 days ago several stressed they had found out about the situation through the media.

At Thursday's hearing, the prosecution succeeded in convincing Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson that Nozette was a sufficient flight risk, and had enough important information, to be held without bond.

Nozette, a Maryland resident, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted espionage, following his arrest last week. He is accused of seeking $2 million for selling secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. The Justice Department could seek the death penalty.

Nozette had high-level security clearances during decades of government work on science and space projects. He was known primarily as a defense technologist who had worked on the Reagan-era Star Wars missile shield effort formally named the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Because he knows so many secrets, including about the nation's nuclear missile program, Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered special communications restrictions placed on him while he is in jail, authorities said.

"The defendant is himself a walking safe deposit box of classified information," said prosecutor Anthony Asuncion. "He is now a treasure trove of some of our most sensitive matters."

According to prosecutors, Nozette was paid more than $225,000 by a company that was wholly owned by the Israeli government and spoke to them regularly. In court Thursday, Kiyonaga identified the company as Israel Aircraft Industries. IAI officials in Israel had already acknowledged they were the company connected to Nozette.

During one of his secretly recorded conversations with the undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, Nozette said: "I thought I was working for you already. I mean, that's what I always thought, [the foreign company] was just a front."

Prosecutors also say Nozette kept a stash of gold Krugerrand coins worth tens of thousands of dollars in a safe deposit box in California - more evidence, they say, of his risk of flight.

Oct 31, 2009 21:55 | Updated Nov 1, 2009 7:50

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256799054271&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

UN report: Israeli company dealing in 'blood diamonds' from Ivory Coast

By Yossi Melman and Ora Coren

A United Nations report on trade in "blood diamonds" - rough stones whose sale is used to fund conflicts - raises the possibility that an Israeli company active in Liberia and Ramat Gan is dealing in diamonds whose proceeds are used to support rebels in the Ivory Coast.

According to the report, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz, the company involved is apparently Perry Diamonds of Ghana, which is linked to the late Israeli diamond merchant Israel Freund, a former member of the Ramat Gan diamond exchange who died four months ago. Perry is considered a small company.

The report says the UN panel visited Liberia to examine the possibility that rough diamond suppliers from Ivory Coast, including those who provided rough stones to Perry, had moved their operations there. Liberia serves as a transit point for diamond merchants in adjacent countries, and that is where they receive official certification that their sources are not African rebel groups, but legal mines - a process known as the Kimberly Process.

The panel found that one diamond supplier, identified as "A." in the report, established a company in the Liberian capital of Monrovia in partnership with Yuri Freund. During a visit to Monrovia this past June, the panel examined suspicious aspects of the company's activities - namely, the fact that the diamonds the company advertised for sale were similar in make-up to Ivory Coast diamonds, but the document attesting to their origin said they came from a western Liberian mine, far from the Ivory Coast border.

Moreover, the date on the document was also the date on which the diamonds arrived in Monrovia, though under Liberian law, the date must be the one on which the diamonds left the mine. The panel did not think one day was enough time for the diamonds to make their way from the mine to the capital and concluded that the documents were probably false.

The UN report also noted that the company's two partners are known to have been connected to the illegal diamond trade in the past. Partner A. was one of Frey's main suppliers of Ivory Coast diamonds, and his family remains active in the diamond business in that country. And Freund was investigated in Mali in 2004 on suspicion of smuggling rough diamonds through the airport in Bamako.

The panel concluded that the partners, A. and Freund, apparently established a company to create an additional illegal channel for rough diamonds from Ivory Coast. It therefore submitted its findings to Israel's diamond controller, Shmuel Mordechai, who heads the Diamonds, Precious Stones and Jewelry Administration in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. Mordechai responded that the relevant Israeli authorities have not identified any suspicious imports by the Freund family's operations.

The UN report on the situation in Ivory Coast, where civil war continues to rage, said that Israel, like the United Arab Emirates, Guinea and Mali, had not provided the panel with satisfactory answers to its questions. Israel, it noted, is of utmost importance to this issue, because the country is a key player in the global trade in rough stones.

Blood diamonds are stones whose trade supports rebels in civil wars against legal governments, wars whose victims are hapless civilians. Israel is a senior member of the Kimberly Process, meant to eliminate the trade in blood diamonds, which flourished in Africa in the 1990s. Since the Kimberly Process was instituted, each diamond now receives a document attesting to its legitimate origin. Nonetheless, the process has not completely eliminated trade in blood diamonds, which account for about four percent of world diamond sales.

Mordechai, the Industry Ministry's diamond controller, said "we completely reject the reports about Israeli trade in blood diamonds. The State of Israel has never dealt in rough diamonds from Ivory Coast. In recent years, we have cooperated fully with the UN panel and proved beyond doubt that diamonds without Kimberly certification do not enter Israel ... Israel has been part of the Kimberly Process from the beginning and operates a strict system of supervision and enforcement."

The Freund family said that "all the family's activities in Liberia are legal; everything is registered and documented as required. The family is not connected in any way to the blood diamond trade. Shimon Freund was interrogated in 2008 by the relevant UN unit, whose allegations were never substantiated. Yuri Freund established the company in Liberia without partners. Yuri has absolutely no connection to the matter and has never been investigated. The suspicions that have been made public are nothing but nonsense and lies."

Fri., October 30, 2009 Cheshvan 12, 5770

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124668.html

Israel Accused of Hanky Pank in Lebanon

[See another story below on Israel’s machinations in Lebanon. It’s not surprising that Israel works hand-in-glove with the stud who rules Italy. That sexually over-active clown (he was to prove to a courtroom that he was capable of getting an erection) has done far more outrageous things than comment on President Obama’s "suntan," and Israel likes working with officials it can corrupt. As for the President of Lebanon, he was a general, respected by all sides in the complex politics of that country, and was elected President because all believed him to be thoroughly honest, trustworthy, and neutral.]

Lebanon: Israel arranged Katyusha fire to keep tensions high

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Thursday suggested that Israel had arranged for collaborators in his country to fire Katyusha rockets at the Galilee earlier this week, in a bid to keep tensions high in the area.

According to the Lebanese newspaper A-Sapir, Israel's declarations that it would not cease its intelligence activities on Lebanese territories validate Suleiman's accusations.

A panel of inquiry established by the Lebanese Army found that the rockets, fired from Houla in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, were launched from the home of the village's mayor.

The mayor was not present in his home, according to the panel, and has no connection to the rocket fire.

Lebanese troops found and dismantled four rockets ready for launching in a building under construction near the border with Israel on Wednesday, said a senior Lebanese army official.

Three of the four Katyusha rockets found were ready to be fired, said the official.

The discovery came one day after the Katyusha fired, the first such incident since last month.

The attack on Tuesday drew a rapid response from Israeli artillery in a brief flare-up across the border that caused no casualties.

Last update - 10:34 29/10/2009

Spain fuming after Netanyahu asks Italy to retain control of UNIFIL

By Barak Ravid

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has secretly asked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to keep his country in charge of the United Nations force in Lebanon rather than handing control to Spain as planned, causing chagrin in Madrid.

The issue, which has turned into a serious diplomatic incident, was expected to feature prominently in talks between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Spanish officials this week. It appears that Barak, who left for Spain on Sunday to discuss bilateral diplomatic and security-related ties, needs to provide a solid explanation for Israel's request if he is to avert a full-blown crisis.

In making the request of Italy earlier this month, Netanyahu sided with the Israel Defense Forces' argument that Israel should make an effort to keep Italy's Major General Claudio Graziano in charge of the UN Interim Force in Lebonon for at least another six months beyond the scheduled end of his term in a few weeks. The IDF said that though there was no problem with Spanish command of UNIFIL in general, the situation in Lebanon is very sensitive at this time and replacing the UNIFIL commander now is liable to cause difficulties in coordination and destabilize the situation.

The Foreign Ministry, however, said Israel should not get involved in the planned change in command, so as not to insult the major European countries that take part in UNIFIL - Italy, France and Spain, which are due to decide shortly who will be the next commander - and to avoid unnecessary friction. The ministry also said the issue involved a political struggle among the European countries that revolves around their international reputations and their roles in the Afghanistan war.

A Spanish diplomat questioned Israel's argument, asking in a conversation with Haaretz: "What does a 'sensitive period in Lebanon' mean? When isn't there tension in Lebanon? What kind of argument is this?"

Spanish officials were also angered by the initial concealment of the conversation between Netanyahu and Berlusconi, a lack of coordination between the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry and the wrong messages the Spanish government received.

Netanyahu adopted the IDF perspective, but kept his request discreet. However, it was so discreet that the Foreign Ministry didn't know what was going on. Italy told Spain that the Israelis, along with the Lebanese and the Americans, wanted to extend the Italian command of UNIFIL by six months. But when Spanish officials asked the Foreign Ministry for clarification, they got the wrong information because of the lack of internal Israeli coordination.

When the Spanish ambassador to Israel, Alvaro Iranzo, asked Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon to clarify the Israeli request, Ayalon - who had never been informed of Netanyahu's conversation with Berlusconi - denied that Israel was getting involved in the UNIFIL transfer of power. Israeli representatives in Madrid and the United Nations were instructed to make similar statements.

Last update - 09:04 29/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124442.html

Rabbi Maces Israel's Rosa Parks

'Woman refusing to walk on other street side attacked'

[You may recall Rosa Parks as the black woman who, tired after a long day of hard work, refused to get out of a "whites only" seat on a bus and move to stand in the black section at the rear.]

By ABE SELIG

Yoel "Yoelish" Kraus, the kambatz, or "operations director" for the Eda Haharedit organization, was released to house arrest on Monday after being arrested the previous evening for assaulting a haredi woman who refused to move to the other side of the street in the capital's Mea She'arim neighborhood, police said.

Kraus, a high-profile member of the fiercely anti-Zionist organization, was ordered to serve 30 days of house arrest outside of Jerusalem.

On Sunday, Jerusalem Police announced that Kraus had been arrested after allegedly spraying the woman with a mace-like substance and attacking her.

Some streets in the capital's ultra-Orthodox enclave are unofficially segregated between men and women. Kraus allegedly spotted the woman walking on one of the neighborhood's streets and told her to cross to the other side.

When she refused, Kraus attacked her, police said. The woman, who did not require medical attention, called the police, who on Monday said that Kraus had initially admitted his role in the incident.

The Eda Haharedit, however, has asserted Kraus's innocence, saying that "Rabbi Kraus never laid a hand on anyone."

Kraus is known to police most recently for his organizational role in the haredi riots that rocked the capital over the summer after the municipality decided to open a public parking lot near the Jaffa Gate on Shabbat.

Scores of police and rioters were injured during the months of unrest, which saw weekly confrontations between the two sides in front of the Karta parking lot, opposite the Old City.

While those disturbances have died down, Kraus's arrest, and subsequent claims by the Eda Haharedit of his innocence, may threaten the delicate relationship that exists between the capital's police and its haredi population.

Kraus is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing after his house arrest is completed.

Oct 27, 2009 2:50 | Updated Oct 27, 2009 9:50

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256557968995&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israeli Illegal Arms Dealer Sentenced

It will be interesting to see if Israel turns him over to France to serve his sentence.

France: Gaydamak gets 6 years in jail

Israeli-Russian businessman and his partner, French businessman Pierre Falcone, sentenced in Paris to six years in prison for their involvement in arms sales worth $790 million to Angola in 1990s

AFP

Israeli-Russian businessman Arcadi Gaydamak and his partner, French businessman Pierre Falcone, were sentenced Tuesday in Paris to six years in prison for their role in Angolagate, a case of arms sales worth $790 million to Angola in the 1990s.

The huge arsenal - 420 tanks, 150,000 shells, 170,000 anti-personnel mines, 12 helicopters, six warships - shored up President Eduardo Dos Santos's regime during its vicious bush war against the UNITA rebels.

Gaydamak's lawyer said he would appeal his conviction in the affair and the six-year sentence handed down to him by the French court.

"Gaydamak was acquitted of half of the charges against him, and, despite this, was still sentenced to six years in prison. This is unfortunate. Of course, we intend to submit an appeal," said the lawyer.

Gaydamak's other lawyer, Attorney William Goldnagel, said that his client was "a victim of political and legal games." In statements made to Russian news agency Novosti, Goldnagel said that he intends to submit an appeal, but that he must consult first with Gaydamak.

Angola pushed to have the trial abandoned, while President Nicolas Sarkozy flew to Luanda in May 2008 to mend ties strained by the case.

Observers believed a harsh verdict could poison France's relations with Angola, where it hopes to develop massive oil contracts.

The arms sales began when Socialist president Francois Mitterrand was president in 1993 but continued until 1998, three years after conservative Jacques Chirac's election.

Mitterrand's son and former Africa advisor, Jean-Christophe, was sentenced to two years probation on charges of accepting millions of euros in "consultant fees" on the arms deals between 1993 and 1998.

Former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua was sentenced to one year in prison.

From October 2008 to March this year, judges struggled to make sense of a labyrinth of murky deals linking French politicians, businessmen and public figures and a massive arms shipment to a war-torn African country.

Prosecutors claim the shipment was in itself illegal, although the main defendants dispute this, and allege many millions of dollars were skimmed off the contract to pay bribes to senior French and Angolan figures.

But despite a promise to come and explain his role, Gaydamak has remained in Israel. He is said to have used his contacts in Eastern Europe to get his hands on the Soviet-designed weapons that were shipped to Luanda.

Falcone, who holds French, Canadian and Angolan citizenship, was named Angola's ambassador to the United Nations Paris-based cultural organisation UNESCO in 2003 and has claimed diplomatic immunity in the case.

Several defendants have insisted the trade was carried out in full view of French authorities but that Paris kept quiet to shore up a regional ally and protect an important source of oil.

Latest Update: 10.27.09, 20:10 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3796350,00.html

Israel Using Passive Germ Warfare on Palestinians

European countries have donated millions of dollars to repair the Gaza sewer and water systems, but Israel refuses to allow needed building materials into the territory and Egypt is collaborating with it.

QUOTE: During Israel's offensive in Gaza last year, water and sewage pipes suffered severe damage. Rovera said the water situation in Gaza had reached a "crisis point," with 90 percent to 95 percent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

Amnesty: Israel withholds water from Palestinians

Rights group accuses Israel of consuming more than its fair share of water in West Bank

Associated Press

Amnesty International is accusing Israel of pumping disproportionate amounts of drinking water from an aquifer it controls in the West Bank, depriving local Palestinians of their fair share.

The London-based human rights group also said in a report released Tuesday, that Israel has blocked infrastructure projects that would improve existing water supplies to Palestinians, both in the West Bank and those living in the Gaza Strip.

"This scarcity has affected every walk of life for Palestinians," Amnesty's researcher on Israel, Donatella Rovera, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday, ahead of the report's release. "A greater amount of water has to be granted to them."

The report especially focuses on the so-called Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank. It says that Israel uses more than 80 percent of water drawn from the aquifer and while the Jewish state has other water sources, the aquifer is the West Bank's sole supply of water.

Government spokesman Mark Regev called Amnesty's claims "completely ludicrous". He said Israel holds the legal right to the aquifer since it was the first to discover, develop and pump from it.

Regev said Israel pumps less water from the Mountain Aquifer today than it did in 1967, and Palestinian consumption of fresh water has actually tripled in that time.

He blamed the Palestinians for not investing in development in the West Bank and said they have failed even to drill wells that have already been approved.

But Amnesty charged that Israel routinely denies Palestinians permits to launch desperately needed water sanitation and infrastructure projects in the West Bank.

90-95% of Gaza's water contaminated

Israelis use more than four times the amount of water per person on average than do Palestinians, whose consumption falls far below the minimum amount recommended by the World Health Organization, the report said.

The 450,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinian residents, Amnesty said.

Shaul Arlosoroff, a leading authority on water acquisition and use, said Israeli restrictions in the West Bank are meant to protect an already taxed aquifer from overpumping.

In the report, Amnesty also cited serious problems with water supply to the Gaza Strip.

Since Hamas seized control of the coastal territory in 2007, Gaza's long-standing problems with sewage and water sanitation facilities have deteriorated, Rovera said. During Israel's offensive in Gaza last year, water and sewage pipes suffered severe damage.

Rovera said the water situation in Gaza had reached a "crisis point," with 90 percent to 95 percent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

An Israeli blockade of Gaza has halted any repairs to the strip's overburdened sewage and water networks, preventing materials and equipment to repair the infrastructure from getting in, Rovera said.

"This is a false, manipulative report whose results were predetermined," Tsviki Bar Hai, head of Har Hevron Regional Council, said in response.

"This is demonstrated by the report saying there are 450,000 settlers, when the actual number is 300,000. in the past few years, he added, "There has been an increase in water theft by Palestinians. Over three million cubic meters of water were stolen in the Hebron area alone in the past year."

Published: 10.27.09, 11:51 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3796085,00.html

Anti-Israel Effort in Bahrain Will Doubtless Fail

The pattern in the Middle East is that the people are against Israel, but the dictators or kings who rule almost everywhere show a degree of favor to Israel, depending on what rewards and pressure they receive from the US and Europe (Egypt and Jordan get billions of dollars a year since they signed peace treaties with Israel, and they regularly use police to jail people who protest against Israel.)

QUOTE: Diplomats and analysts say Arab governments have been pressured by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to make steps towards normalizing ties in order to help encourage Israel to enter peace talks with Palestinians. But popular sentiment has been opposed to such moves.

Bahrain parliament votes to penalize contacts with Israel

By Reuters

Bahrain's parliament on Tuesday approved legislation penalizing contacts with Israel, a move which could complicate Gulf Arab leaders' efforts to promote peace talks with Israel.

"Whoever holds any communication or official talks with Israeli officials or travels to Israel will face a fine...and/or a jail sentence of three to five years," member of parliament Jalal Fairooz from the Shi'ite Al-Wefaq bloc, an opposition group that was the driving force behind the move.

"The motivation is that steps are being taken by certain countries to allow certain talks to be held with Israeli officials. Israeli delegates have managed to participate in events in Arab countries with no treaties with Israel."

Diplomats and analysts say Arab governments have been pressured by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to make steps towards normalizing ties in order to help encourage Israel to enter peace talks with Palestinians.

But popular sentiment has been opposed to such moves. An Egyptian writer is facing disciplinary action by the journalists union for meeting the Israeli ambassador in Cairo.

Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa wrote in the Washington Post in July that Arabs had not done enough to communicate directly with Israelis.

Bahraini officials visited Israel in July in an official capacity for the first time to collect five of their nationals Israel was deporting after seizing them on a ship bound for the Palestinian territory of Gaza, blockaded by Israel.

Bahrain's parliament has limited powers and bills must pass through an upper house whose members are chosen by the king. Ultimate power lies with the ruling family.

Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania are the only Arab League states with formal ties with Israel.

Last update - 18:37 27/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1123980.html

Israel ranks low for freedom of press, after Gaza war media ban

COMMENT: Whenever Israel is challenged, its defenders tout it as the "only democracy" in the Middle East (conveniently forgetting Turkey and Lebanon). Well the "only democracy" is and always has been low on the list of press freedom, and somebody once said a free press is essential to a workable democracy.

By Gili Eizkovitch Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Israel placed 93 out of 175 on an international list ranking freedom of press released on Tuesday, dropping 47 spots since last year.

The list was compiled by 'Reporters without Borders', an international organization funded by private firms and donations, which monitors press freedom violations around the world.

Of the 175 countries on the list, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates received higher ranking than Israel for their countries' freedom of press.

Israel's dramatic drop since last came as a result of its press regulations dictated to international media during the Gaza offensive earlier this year.

"During its military offensive Cast Lead from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, Israel banned foreign media from the Gaza Strip for 'security reasons,'" said the report.

"This sealing of the territory constituted a serious press freedom violation. Six journalists were killed, two of them while working, and around 15 were wounded in the conflict," said the report.

Israel placed 44 on the list in 2007, and in 2008 it was ranked 46.

Nevetheless, said the report, Israel's freedom of press is quite high compared to others in the region. "Despite military censorship [Israel's] press still enjoys total freedom that is unequaled in the region," said the report.

Last update - 21:43 20/10/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122370.html