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Europe

Swedish Social Democrat Leader in Sderot during rocket attack

2007-09-06

Social Democrat Mona Sahlin was forced to take shelter during her visit to Sderot in southern Israel when a Kassam rocket exploded at a nearby school. Sderot, a town located close to the Gaza border, has dominated the news in Israel this week with parents keeping their children out of school until the government takes action to prevent the rocket attacks. "Two Kassam rockets hit the city. One of them didn't explode but the other one did," Sahlin's press secretary Cecilia Eklund told The Local. There were no reports of any injuries. The rocket was thought to have exploded at a school some 1.5 kilometres from the school Sahlin was visiting at the time. "Mona Sahlin was eating lunch and drinking coffee when the alarm went off. She took shelter in the school and was not in any danger," said Eklund. Despite being fully aware of the recent attacks, Sahlin was "absolutely affected by the situation". Earlier in the day, the leader of the Social Democrats had met with Israel's former Defence Minister Amir Peretz. Together they visited a day care centre, which was hit by one of the seven Kassam rockets launched at the town on Monday. Though shaken by Thursday's attack, Sahlin returned to Tel Aviv after lunch for the last leg of her visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. There she is scheduled to meet with the Prime Minister's wife Aliza Olmert before travelling on to Greece on Friday.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF penetrates kilometers into Gaza

2007-06-05

TEL AVIV - Israeli ground troops backed by armour entered the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, in what a military spokeswoman described as a sweep for militant suspects. The force penetrated about one kilometre into the salient, the spokeswoman said. Palestinian sources said the troops took over two homes in the area and stationed themselves on the rooftops. They said the Israelis ordered all male residents of the Gaza-Egypt border town of Rafah aged between 16 to 45 to gather in a central square. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz told the Knesset Foreign and Defence Committee that the military was acting in an ‘aggressive’ manner to combat Palestinian rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel pounds Gaza killing two Palestinians

2007-05-20

Israeli warplanes attacked Palestinian targets in eastern Gaza Strip on Saturday killing two people, medical sources said. The sources said bodies of the two Palestinians that were brought to hospital were disfigured beyond recognition. Bodies of the two Palestinians that were brought to hospital were disfigured beyond recognition... The warplanes carried out four raids targeting the district of Al-Shujaiah, metal workshops in Hey Al-Zaitoun region and a building housing offices for a charity run by the mainstream Palestinian organization, Fatah. The building and two workshops were destroyed in the strikes. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz played down the immediate prospect of a massive ground invasion of Gaza. "I think the idea of taking over Gaza again is a decision that can be made at any time," he added. The Israeli army claimed an air strike hit three militants firing rockets from northern Gaza. Local residents said the one person who was killed was a shepherd with no connection to the ruling Hamas movement. Another five people were wounded, two seriously. Overnight, the army said it destroyed two Hamas weapons' depots in Gaza City. Palestinians said they were metal foundries not connected to Hamas.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Fatah brings forces into Gaza from Egypt

2007-05-15

Hundreds of fighters loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction crossed into Gaza from Egypt on Tuesday as possible reinforcements in fighting against Hamas militants, Western sources say. Fatah said the group that crossed into Gaza did not do so to fight Hamas. "They're coming for a, ah.., class reunion. Yeah, that's it." The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was briefly opened to readmit a 450-strong Fatah contingent into the coastal strip, according to the sources, who spoke in Israel on condition of anonymity. The sources said the crossing was opened, with Israeli consent, in only one direction to allow in the Fatah contingent. Once they crossed into Gaza, the crossing was re-closed. The men were not carrying heavy equipment. The move came as fighting intensified in Gaza between Abbas's Fatah forces and those loyal to the ruling Hamas movement. In the fiercest battle, at least eight members of Abbas's Presidential Guard were killed in an attack by Hamas gunmen near Gaza's Karni commercial crossing with Israel, security officials said. "The role of the security forces is to protect the security of the Palestinian people and not to take part in internal fighting," Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, Fatah's spokesman in Gaza Strip and the West Bank. "They had been sent for training. It was a rehabilitation course that had nothing with any intention of fighting Hamas, or anyone else," he added. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would not intervene in the fighting. "Hey, they want to kill each other, who am I to argue?" The 450 fighters are loyal to Abbas's national security adviser, Mohammad Dahlan. Western officials say Dahlan, recuperating from leg surgery in Egypt, recently sent about 500 men loyal to Fatah to Egypt to receive more advanced instruction in police tactics, according to Western diplomats. Abbas could also dispatch thousands of reinforcements from the occupied West Bank and draw upon the Jordan-based Badr Brigade, a Fatah-dominated force that includes at least 1,000 members. But a senior Western diplomat involved in the matter played down the chances that Abbas would deploy either his West Bank or Jordanian-based forces. "They won't go," the diplomat said.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Olmert's coalition under threat from Labor

2007-05-05

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government continued self-destructing came under renewed threat on Friday when members of the left-leaning Labour party threatened to withdraw from the coalition following a scathing Lebanon war inquiry. Labour, in the midst of its own power struggle, is the largest partner in Olmert's coalition government and its withdrawal could force new elections. Israel's next general election is not due until 2010. The head of Labour, Defence Minister Amir Peretz, is considering stepping down from his post in response to the Lebanon war report. Increasingly unpopular within his own party, Peretz could be forced out when Labour holds internal elections on May 28. Increasingly unpopular within his own party, he could be forced out when Labour holds internal elections on May 28. Israel's Haaretz newspaper quoted Olmert's aides as saying they were concerned that members of Labour would opt for self-preservation push to end their coalition partnership with his centrist Kadima party in order to form a new government. Some coalition members have suggested that they would stick by Olmert because they might lose significant parliamentary clout if fresh elections were held now. Olmert's approval ratings have plummeted into the single digits and his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, this week joined calls for his removal. Labour party member Ofir Pines and several other Labour leaders said that Olmert must go, even if it means early elections. "We will make an effort to build a new coalition and a new government. If we won't be able to do so, we will have to have early elections," Pines told Reuters. "It is not the best option but it's a better option than to stay with the present government." Danny Yatom, also a candidate for Labour party leadership, said that as long As long as Labour stays in the coalition, it gives legitimacy to a government that has lost the support of the Israeli people. as Labour stays in the coalition, it gives legitimacy to a government that has lost the support of the Israeli people. "I will try to convince my friends in the faction and in the central committee to withdraw from the coalition and finally I hope that after such a big demonstration, they will be convinced," Yatom said. Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Friday that he had no intention of resigning despite a mass rally that called on him to step down over a scathing Lebanon war report. "The prime minister does not intend to resign, these are speculations," Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP. "The prime minister listens attentively to everything that happens and is trying to react in the best interests of the state of Israel." "The prime minister listens attentively to everything that happens and is trying to react in the best interests of the state of Israel," she said. Late Thursday between 150,000 and 200,000 demonstrators, according to police and organiser estimates, gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square calling on Olmert to quit after a government inquiry blasted him for serious failure during last year's war against Lebanon's Hezbollah. It was the first mass demonstration calling for Olmert's ouster since the report was published on Monday.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Reaction over Lebanon war report: Olmert refuses to resign as cabinet minister quits

2007-05-02

A member of Ehud Olmert’s cabinet quit on Tuesday, opening the first crack in Israel’s government after the prime minister vowed to ride out a scathing reprimand by an inquiry into last year’s costly Lebanon war. Announcing he was stepping down, Eitan Cabel, a minister without portfolio from the Israeli leader’s main governing partner, the Labour Party, told a news conference: “I cannot sit in a government headed by Ehud Olmert.” Cabel said Olmert “must resign” after the Winograd Commission probing the conflict with Hezbollah gunmen listed severe failings on the part of the premier, Defence Minister Amir Peretz of Labour and the army chief, who has already quit. The panel said the government had rubber-stamped the decision to go to war but Olmert bore “supreme responsibility” for launching the air, sea and land offensive without a proper plan after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12. The government-appointed commission, however, stopped short of recommending that Olmert step down. A snap Israel Radio opinion poll after its interim report examining the start of the war found that 69 percent of Israelis wanted Olmert to go. Olmert, who heads the centrist Kadima party, said he would not resign, insisting he was the best man to put things right. “It would not be right to quit and I have no intention of doing so,” Olmert told Israelis in a concise televised address, hours after the nation watched former Supreme Court judge Eliyahu Winograd read out sharp criticism of his actions. Cabel said he would try to persuade Labour to pull out of its power-sharing partnership with Kadima. Labour holds a leadership election on May 28 that Peretz is widely expected to lose. Labour holds 19 of the Olmert coalition’s 78 seats in the 120-member parliament. A survivor of decades at the heart of Israel’s combative politics, Olmert declared himself “indestructible” last month. “This government made the decisions and this government will deal with correcting the defects,” Olmert told the nation on Monday. The cabinet would meet on Wednesday to discuss how.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Peres: Israeli army was not ready for war on Hezbollah

2007-03-24

Vice-Premier Shimon Peres told a panel investigating the government's handling of last year's war in Lebanon that Israel's decision to invade was a mistake and the military was unprepared, according to testimony made public. Peres also said Hezbollah did a better job of handling media coverage than the Israelis did. "The greatest mistake is the very fact of war," he told the commission. "If it had been up to me, I would not have gone into this war." The 15-page transcript of his appearance before the commission last November has large swathes deleted by Israel's military censors on security grounds, but nevertheless provides insights into the veteran statesman's thinking. The transcript was released on Thursday. No blame game Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed the commission, headed by a retired judge, under intense pressure from a dissatisfied public because of the inconclusive war. Hezbollah rained almost 4,000 rockets on northern Israel, but Israel's military failed to achieve the war's stated aims - smashing the group and returning two captured soldiers. Army chief Dan Halutz resigned after widespread criticism and there were calls for Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz to follow suit. While Peres refused to lay blame, he said the military "was not prepared for this war" and its inconclusive outcome harmed Israel's deterrent posture in the eyes of the Arab world. "We are perceived today as weaker than we were before," he said. Peres told the commission the war was neither a success nor a failure, but he said the government was wrong to publicly prioritise the return of the soldiers, snatched by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12. "If you say your primary objective is to free the abducted [soldiers], you in practice put yourself at the mercy of the enemy," Peres told the panel. "Why would you say that?" He added that Hezbollah had been more effective than Israel in the battle for favourable media coverage of the month-long conflict, finding an effective spokesman in its leader Hassan Nasrallah. "Hezbollah united around a spokesman of no little talent - Nasrallah," Peres said. "We relentlessly attacked one another. One person blamed the other and the net effect was negative." Peres, 83, told the five-member panel of jurists and retired generals that he kept his misgivings about the war to himself for fear that arguing against it in Cabinet meetings would leak out and damage the public perception of ministerial unity. "It would have come out immediately," he said. "I wanted to be cautious but effective and not like someone from the opposition." The panel has said it will issue partial findings in late April, including assessments of decisions taken by Olmert and other key officials. Although the commission does not have the power to dismiss Olmert, analysts say a critical report could force the unpopular premier to resign. In February, Olmert gave seven hours of testimony and underwent intense questioning before the commission in a closed-door hearing perceived as his last chance to stave off censure. The transcript is expected to be released soon.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli ABM missile test 'successful'

2007-02-11

Israel has carried out a successful test of its Arrow missile, the defence ministry has said. One of the missiles was fired at night and destroyed what Israeli media said was a target similar to Iran's long-range Shahab-3 missile. The test took place as Iran celebrated the 28th anniversary of its Islamic revolution. Israel considers Iran its greatest threat since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003, analysts say. 'Message to Iran' "This evening's successful test reinforces Israel's readiness... against external threats at the extremes of its operational envelope," said Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz. The Arrow missile was fired from a base south of Tel Aviv at a missile launched from an aircraft over the eastern Mediterranean at a high altitude. This was the first test of the Arrow missile to be conducted at night. Israeli public television called the test a "message to Iran". The anti-ballistic missile system was developed jointly with the United States after Israel came under attack by Iraqi Scud missiles during the first Gulf War. Some Western nations, including Israel, fear Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel chooses new army chief: media reports

2007-01-23

JERUSALEM - A former general with years of experience fighting Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas has been chosen as the new chief of Israel’s armed forces, Israeli media reported on Monday. Gaby Ashkenazy, 52, an infantry commander and currently director of the Defence Ministry, will replace Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz who quit last week over his failure to crush Hezbollah in the July-August war, they said. An aide to Defence Minister Amir Peretz said announcement of the appointment was likely later in the day. In a speech after the reports Ashkenazy had been tapped, Peretz did not mention a candidate but said a new military chief would be chosen quickly. Ashkenazy served extensively in southern Lebanon and headed the army’s northern command in the final years before Israeli troops, after constant attacks by Hezbollah fighters, withdrew in 2000. Ashkenazy was not in uniform during the fighting in which some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, most of them soldiers, were killed.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel agrees to remove some West Bank roadblocks

2006-12-26

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet on Monday approved the removal of 27 Israeli roadblocks in the occupied West Bank, a move officials said was meant to bolster ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. If ever there's a man who needs bolstering ... An Israeli source said removal of the 27 roadblocks would allow goods to be transported more freely in the West Bank, which has hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints in all. Israeli officials said removing the roadblocks would take time and they did not provide a start date. I'd start shortly after hell freezes over myself ... ‘The removal ... is a step in the direction of ending all internal closures in order to ensure the free movement of goods and people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,’ senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said. He estimated the number of roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank at 400. Saeb can't admit to the world why the checkpoints are there, can he? Wouldn't be right to complain how effective the roadblocks have been in stopping the splodydopes. Olmert’s cabinet also agreed on Monday to make improvements at the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip in order to speed the flow of cash goods. The Israeli source said travel restrictions on senior Palestinian officials and medical crews would also be eased. Oh yes, can't slow the Red Crescent ammo carriers ambulances! ‘We reached the conclusion that we must certainly begin relieving (pressure) at the checkpoints, especially in areas that do not pose a threat -- to ease movement a little inside the villages and between the villages,’ Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said earlier.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel could cave on Barghouthi

2006-12-25

Israel said on Sunday it would consider freeing Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi from jail as part of a prisoner exchange deal. The comment by Defence Minister Amir Peretz suggested a change in Israel’s longstanding refusal to consider freeing Barghouthi as it tries to bolster President Abbas in his showdown with Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also suggested that he could release some Palestinian prisoners as early as this week, even though militants have yet to free an Israeli soldier held in Gaza. “The time has come for flexibility and generosity, and it could be different than what has been said in past meetings,” Olmert told his cabinet, according to a cabinet source. Barghouthi, a popular member of Abbas’s Fatah faction, was jailed by an Israeli court for five life terms for ordering attacks as part of the Palestinian revolt against occupation. He denied the charges.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon denies arms smuggling from Syria

2006-10-19

BEIRUT - The Lebanese army said on Wednesday that the country’s borders were under tight control and rejected Israeli claims of weapons smuggling from Syria. “The land and sea borders are controlled in a very meticulous and effective way, and there are no acts that indicate that there are arms entering Lebanon,” the army command said in a statement. “Therefore, the army command considers that the declaration of the Israeli defence minister is an interference in Lebanese internal affairs that aims at shaking (Lebanon’s) stability,” it said. Then their lips fell off and their noses grew. On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would continue surveillance flights over Lebanon as long as arms smuggling from Syria continued in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. “His remarks are just... pretexts to pursue aggressions on Lebanon, through ever-increasing airspace violations and a failure to abide by Resolution 1701,” it said. "Just wait til we sic the French on those dastardly Zionists!" On Sunday, a senior Israel intelligence officer charged that Syria was aiding arms smuggling into Lebanon in violation of Resolution 1701 which ushered in a truce on August 14 after 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad was quoted as saying by the Spanish newspaper El Pais earlier this month that no army deployment along the border could be efficient if “there is a will to smuggle arms into Lebanon.” The requisite nod and wink from the chinless wonder.

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