Prophecy and Current Events

July 13 - July 18

July 13: -

The killing of an Israeli near Hebron last night has set off another round of violence, including the apparent targeted killing of a Hamas terrorist. The chain of events began around midnight, when members of the city council of Kiryat Arba, a Jewish community next to Hebron, toured the scene of an earlier Palestinian shooting attack in which an Israeli motorist was critically wounded. While the council members were standing by the roadside, shots were fired at them by Palestinian gunmen. Council member Hezi Mualem was killed by a shot in the back, and a second man was wounded. The Palestinian "Popular Army Front" claimed responsibility for the attack. "We will chase those mob settlers on all the roads and we will target the YESHA Council [the settlement leadership] for arming the settlers," the group said in a statement. The shooting attack triggered a fierce gun battle that lasted through the night. Israeli tanks fired shells at outposts belonging to Yasser Arafat_s elite Force 17. At least ten Palestinians were wounded. In the Gaza Strip, the army said soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who had thrown a grenade at them as they tried to defuse a bomb near the Jewish settlement of Aley Sinai.

A few hours later, a terrorist from the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas was blown up in Palestinian-ruled Tulkarem. Fawaz Badran, 27, was killed when a car parked outside his electronics store exploded. Palestinian officials said he was opening the door to his shop when the blast went off. Hamas described it as another Israeli "assassination" and vowed revenge. The army did not comment. Israel Radio said Badran was on a list of terrorists Israel had handed to the Palestinian Authority, with the demand they be arrested. The Palestinian Authority did not respond. Since the start of Palestinian uprising last September, some two dozen terrorists have been targeted and killed by Israeli forces. At a recent Cabinet meeting, Israel announced that it was stepping up the policy of targeted killings, as an act of "self-defense" and in an attempt to thwart terrorist attacks. The policy has been sharply criticized by the US, the UN and Europe. After the explosion, Palestinians fired at an Israeli army post near Tulkarem, drawing return fire, including tank shells. No one was injured.

In an attempt to avoid further escalation, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent his son Omri to meet with Yasser Arafat. He repeated Israel's demand for a total cessation of violence, and reiterated that Israel is interested in peace. In Rome, Sharon warned that Israel's military response would escalate at the pace of Palestinian attacks. After meeting Italian leaders, he said his security Cabinet had approved a number of steps. "I estimate that a certain amount of time will pass and we will carry them out," he said. Sharon said his government would follow a policy of "immediate response" to Palestinian attacks. But he rejected any large-scale Israeli operation against the Palestinians at present. "Our aim is still to arrive at a political process," he said.

Israel's outgoing ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, says Arafat is not doing enough to stop the violence. "It is possible to get him to stop the violence," Indyk said in a speech to Israelis. "It requires a combination of Israeli restraint, international pressure led by the United States, the threat of terrible consequences if he doesn't and the promise of a credible political process to redress Palestinian concerns if he does." Indyk warned against growing calls for Arafat's overthrow, saying he would be replaced by Islamic radicals from Hamas or Hizbollah. He also warned against calls for unilateral "separation" in which Israel would draw its own border, describing it as the "antithesis of the peace process" and "giving up territory for nothing." Speaking with unusual candor because he is leaving office, Indyk also advised against evacuating Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria without a peace agreement, even though his government has traditionally called the settlements obstacles to peace. He said any unilateral concession would appear as weakness in the eyes of the Palestinians and generate more violence. Indyk, a Jew, has been a key player in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts during two separate terms as ambassador.

July 15: -

Efforts to save the collapsing cease-fire shifted to Cairo today, where Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat met separately with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. There was a possibility that Arafat would also meet Peres. Arafat and Peres met last month at a conference in Lisbon; but they failed to narrow the gaps on implementing the cease-fire, and Peres took a lot of heat from cabinet ministers who thought the meeting was premature and inappropriate. "We have got to go again to the political road," Peres told reporters after meeting Mubarak. "Israel is searching for a political solution, not a military solution. We should continue to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, the elected leader of the Palestinian people...Many mistakes were committed, but the greatest mistake, the mother of mistakes, is war." Yesterday, Arafat met in Ramallah with US envoy David Satterfield, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs. Arafat also spoked by phone Secretary of State Colin Powell and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

The stepped up US, European and Egyptian involvement comes against the background of an ominous report in "Jane's Foreign Report," a British newsletter that specializes in intelligence matters. The report says Israel is planning a massive of invasion of Palestinian areas after the next major terrorist attack. The operation would be initiated by heavy air raids with F-16 and F-15 fighters_possibly preceded by an artillery barrage_on all the main Palestinian Authority command and control centers in Gaza and Ramallah. Up to 30,000 Israeli paratroops, infantry and armored brigades would then quickly move in. "Estimated Israeli casualties would be in their hundreds; Palestinian losses would be in their thousands," the report said, citing a source that had seen the plan drawn up by Israeli generals. "By the end of the operation, the generals reckon that the President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, would have been forced to leave the West Bank or Gaza Strip," the newsletter said. "The 40,000-strong Palestinians armed forces would be disarmed and either dead or held in detention camps." The Israeli army denied the report. "The Israeli army like every army in the world has many plans for many possibilities but such a plan as mentioned has not been raised and has not been proposed," said Israeli army spokesman Olivier Rafowicz. Nevertheless, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer warned that "Arafat is leading his people to destruction."

Dozens of Israeli residents of the divided city of Hebron in Judea briefly occupied a house in the Arab marketplace today, but left peacefully when ordered out by police. The settlers said they took over the house, which they described as Jewish property, as an act of protest and defiance against Palestinian terrorists who killed two residents of the area in separate attacks last week. "We entered to show the Arabs, the world at large and the army, that as long as terror attacks try to remove and reduce us, we aren't afraid to leave our homes and enter additional places that belong to us," Hebron resident Elimelech Karzan told Army Radio. Part of Hebron is under Israeli control including the Tomb of the Patriarchs; the other part is under Palestinian control.

The Lebanese terrorist group Hizbollah has announced that it has a videotape of the abduction of three Israeli soldiers last October on the northern border. Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the videotape would be released at the appropriate time. Another Hizbollah official said the organization filmed all its operations and would use this one to pressure Israel into releasing Lebanese detainees held in Israel. Hizbollah said its film was separate from a videotape taken by UN peacekeepers the day after the October 7 abduction, which has been at the center of controversy over the past few days. Israel has protested to the UN over intentions to edit the tape before handing it over for viewing. Nasrallah's revelation of the video came a day after Israel's "Ma_ariv" newspaper quoted an unidentified peacekeeper of the UN_s Indian battalion as saying a number of his fellow troops had collaborated in the abduction. Israel has not received any information on the condition of the abducted soldiers.

July 16: -

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday in Cairo, drawing criticism from hawkish cabinet ministers in Jerusalem. Peres said he came out of the surprise meeting "with a sense that there is a hope to continue" with efforts to implement the collapsing US-brokered cease-fire and move on to the peace plan set out by former US senator George Mitchell. "Our position is that we don't negotiate under fire but we talk about how to stop fire," Peres told reporters after the 90-minute meeting with Arafat. Peres also met with Arafat last month in Lisbon. Arafat left the meeting without speaking to reporters. Peres ruled out reports that Israel is planning a massive invasion of Palestinian areas with 30,000 troops. "We don_t have any intention whatsoever, neither to have a ground attack, nor to attack Arafat or expel Arafat; it_s nonsense. Arafat in our eyes is the elected leader of the Palestinians and he represents them," Peres said. But at home, many cabinet ministers were furious. "Shimon Peres is not representing the policy of this government," said Minister Limor Livnat of the ruling Likud party, adding that there should be no talks with Arafat while violence continues. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is also uncomfortable about talks with Arafat, played down the dispute for the sake of national unity. "We all want a diplomatic process, but it can happen only after there is a complete halt to terror, violence and incitement," Sharon said.

The Peres-Arafat meeting did nothing to stop the violence. Two Palestinians were killed while preparing a bomb last night, less than a mile from the Jerusalem stadium where the Maccabiah Games, or "Jewish Olympics," begin today. "The bodies of two Palestinians were found in an empty field," a police spokesman said. "It appears they were killed in a _work accident' when a bomb they were preparing exploded prematurely." It_s not clear if the target was the stadium, but police are on high alert amid warnings that terrorists are planning attacks at the games. Some 2,000 Jewish athletes from all over the world and another 1,000 from Israel are participating in the 16th Maccabiah. The games, held every four years in Israel, were almost cancelled after foreign delegations said fears of Palestinian terrorism had cut registration by half. But the games went ahead after Israeli officials pressed overseas organizers not to give a "victory to terrorism." Some 1,000 police and paramilitary border police will be deployed to secure the games.

In other violence, the Israeli army carried out an operation overnight in Hebron in Judea, south of Jerusalem. Israeli tanks moved into Palestinian-controlled territory from three directions and destroyed five police posts. Military sources say the posts were run by Arafat_s elite Force 17, responsible for repeated shooting and bomb attacks against Israelis in the past 10 months of fighting. Palestinian officials said nine people were wounded. The army said the fighting erupted when Palestinian gunmen opened fire from several locations in Hebron, the only town in the disputed territories divided into Israeli and Palestinian zones. Hebron has been a focal point of violence since two Israelis from the area were shot and killed by Palestinian terrorists last week.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned Israel that it would pay a heavy price if it attacks Syria. "Our decision is clear; we will stand fast and we will retaliate for aggression, even if...the enemy would destroy a lot of our infrastructure," Assad told the Lebanese newspaper "As-Safir" in an interview published today. "We are poor, but we can stand fast more than they can imagine and we can rebuild what had been destroyed. In addition to that, we can cause a lot of harm to the enemy." Tension between Israel and Syria escalated this month, when Israel attacked a Syrian radar position deep in Lebanon for the second time this year. The air raid was in retaliation for an unprovoked attack by Syrian-backed Hizbollah guerillas that wounded an Israeli soldier in a border post. Assad said Israel is preparing for war."This war will not solve the Israeli problem...Israel could start a war but it could never control ending it or what would result from it. The Arabs, and we in particular, will decide when to end the war and what it would lead to," Assad said. "We know that Israel is stronger than us militarily, but we are steadfast...We will not receive blows silently and after that submit to the Israeli conditions of peace."

The Israeli Cabinet has approved plans to build five new communities near the Gaza Strip on Israeli territory that the previous government offered to the Palestinians in a "land swap." Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Halutza Sands area in the Negev desert to the Palestinians in exchange for Israel_s annexation of Jewish settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria. The Palestinian rejected the deal. "The decision was in line with the coalition_s guidelines which call for strengthening the Negev," a Cabinet statement said. It was also a clear message to the Palestinians that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has no intention of repeating the offers made by Barak, especially when it comes to sovereign Israeli territory. The decision was criticized by what_s left of the Israeli opposition. "I think the government is tying its own hands," said Mossi Raz of the ultra-dovish Meretz Party. "Even if a peace agreement doesn't happen today, what will happen in 10 years?"

July 17: -

A Palestinian strapped with a bomb weighing 20 kilos (44 pounds) blew himself up outside a train station last night in northern Israel. Two Israeli soldiers, a young man and woman, were killed along with the bomber. Three other Israelis were seriously wounded. The attack occurred in the town of Binyamina, north of the coastal city of Netanya. Asher Ben-David, who was among the wounded, said he saw the bomber approaching. "Then he pushed a button and he just exploded," he told reporters from his hospital bed. Police said they had intelligence warnings about possible bomb attacks at train stations. The bomber apparently timed his attack to coincide with the arrival of two passenger trains, but police said he was unable to enter the station because of the increased security presence. The Islamic Jihad terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, identifying the bomber as a 21-year-old from Palestinian-ruled Jenin in Samaria.

Israel blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the attack and vowed to retaliate. "If there is one instigating factor that is threatening to deteriorate the situation and bring about instability to the Middle East, it_s Yasser Arafat," said Israeli spokesman Ra_anan Gissin. "We are not going to continue to tolerate these kind of attacks without response." The response came a few hours later when Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian police posts in two towns, Jenin and Tulkarem. Checkpoints manned by Yasser Arafat's special Force 17 guard unit came under fire. One of the shells hit a power transformer in Tulkarem, causing a blackout. There were no reports of casualties. This afternoon, an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a house in Bethlehem, killing at least three Palestinians including two senior Hamas activists on Israel_s most-wanted list. The Israeli army didn_t comment, but Israel Radio said the group was planning a major attack in Jerusalem in the coming days. Two weeks ago, the Israeli Cabinet decided to step up the targeted killing of terrorists in what it called an "act of self-defense." The security situation is so serious that Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer cancelled a visit to the United States. He had planned to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan during the week-long visit.

In Washington, the United States condemned the bombing "in the strongest possible terms." "We call upon the Palestinian leadership to unambiguously condemn this heinous act and take steps to bring to justice those responsible for actions such as these," said State Department Richard Boucher. "In addition we encourage the Israeli government to exercise continued restraint and not allow the cycle of violence to continue. There can be no military solution to this conflict," Boucher said. The Palestinian Cabinet later issued a statement condemning the bombing, calling for "a stop to all violent actions from all sides" and implementation of peace plans. Arafat also held a late-night meeting with faction leaders including representatives of Islamic groups. "Arafat gave a clear and firm warning to Islamic Jihad and Hamas that any new operations in Israel mean that they are pushing us into arresting their own activists," a Palestinian security official said. Islamic Jihad, however, vowed that attacks would continue. "No power in the world can stop the resistance operations," said Abdullah Shami, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza. According to the cease-fire brokered by CIA chief George Tenet, Arafat was supposed to arrest Islamic terrorists, but he never has. Israel officials are skeptical about Arafat_s intentions to say the least. As Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put it: "The Palestinian Authority has not yet made a decision to fight against terror."

The suicide bombing occurred just before the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah Games, or "Jewish Olympics" here in Jerusalem. More than 20,000 people gathered in Teddy Stadium for the festive event. As delegations held colorful marches, more than 1,000 police and soldiers patrolled the stadium and the hills around. The blue flashing lights of police vehicles were everywhere, and floodlights illuminated the hills, checking for anything suspicious. "It's very difficult for the athletes to compete in this tense atmosphere, but I know that we are very well protected by the army and local police," American track and field athlete Jonathan Vakneen told Israel Radio. The American team was originally supposed to number about 600 people, but because of security concerns, only about 350 arrived. Speaking at the event, Prime Minister Sharon encouraged the 2,000 athletes from abroad to immigrate to Israel and join the struggle "for Jerusalem and for Jewish rights and independence." "We need you," he said. "We need you now more than ever."

Israel sent infantry and armored reinforcements to the Bethlehem area today, after a day of tit-for-tat violence, culminating in the firing of two mortar shells at the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo here in Jerusalem. It was the first time Palestinians have fired mortars in Judea and Samaria since the intifada began 10 months ago. Earlier, Israeli helicopter gunships killed four terrorists from the Moslem fundamentalist group Hamas in Bethlehem, including the local leader of the Hamas military wing. A tour of the Gilo and Bethlehem areas by "israel today" indicated that the troop reinforcements were relatively minor, and officials immediately played down speculation that Israel was planning to invade Palestinian areas. "Contrary to the reports we do not intend to reconquer...the territories," said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. Other officials say the deployment was a warning to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to stop the violence. "This is a measure of deterrence for the Palestinians, for them to understand what their reckless and irresponsible policy will lead to if this wave of terror continues against us," said government spokesman Avi Pazner.

Palestinians, on the other hand, described Israel_s military buildup as "psychological warfare" with ominous implications. "There are signs that Israel is going to escalate this current level of confrontation and go for a major strike," said Palestinian analyst Ghassan Khattib. "There are preparations on the ground for a major assault." Yasser Arafat also commented on the situation in Cairo, where he was attending a meeting of Arab foreign ministers: "What is happening now with Israeli escalation shows their intention to continue their aggression," he said. The mobilization appeared to be timed to coincide with the G8 Summit this weekend in Genoa, Italy, where US and European leaders will be gathering. "The meeting should impress on Arafat the urgent need to take the measures under his control to end violence," said Foreign Minister Peres.

In Washington, the Bush administration continued to step up pressure on Arafat, saying the Palestinian condemnation of a suicide bombing on Monday that killed two Israeli soldiers at a train station was not enough. "We continue to call upon the Palestinian Authority to take steps to combat terror and violence and to bring to justice those responsible for actions such as these," said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker. The Palestinian Authority has "an authority over a region, an area, and that's what we would like to see," he said. Arafat has failed to arrest Islamic terrorists, even though he is required to do so under the US-brokered cease-fire, not to mention the Oslo Accords. While the US has been sharply critical of Israel_s policy of targeted killings, the spokesman would not directly comment on the helicopter strike in Bethlehem. "Our message to Israel remains the same, to try to break the cycle of violence," Reeker said. Secretary of State Colin Powell also discussed the crisis by phone with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Amid signs that Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are growing more desperate, the government has been investigating the possibility that militants could try to form another "Jewish Underground." In the 1970s and 80s, a group by that name carried out attacks on Palestinian mayors and even had plans to blow up the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount. Deputy Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said there were two shooting attacks last month "which apparently points to the existence of a [Jewish] squad acting against innocent Arabs...We know of one organized squad, no more, and that's already too many," Ezra told Israel Radio, adding that "settlers" should not take the law into their own hands. "I urge this group to let the army and Israeli police do their work," he said. Security officials are concerned that a major attack by a Jew would set off another explosion of violence. Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the community of Elon Moreh in Samaria says vigilante acts are a result of Palestinian attacks and the sense that the Israeli government has not done enough to protect residents. "The government of Israel today acts in utter anarchy," he said. "You can't know what will happen...There could be Jewish suicide attackers. I don't know about them or know them. I don't expect there to be any. But I am saying there could be."

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