Israel News

Israeli security forces disclosed on Thursday they have captured three more members of the Ramallah-based terror cell organized by PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s elite Force 17, which was responsible for a string of attacks that killed eight Israelis and was planning a massive car-bombing in Jerusalem.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav demanded on Wednesday that the government stop the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount, adding that he could not shake off the impression that the Waqf’s goal is not only to reinforce Muslim control of the Mount, but “to erase every Jewish trace” there.

Following another bloody weekend of Palestinian rioting and a threatening resolution out of the Arab League summit in Cairo on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has suspended indefinitely the Oslo peace process. The move opens the door a little wider for an emergency national unity government with the opposition Likud party, but drew a sharp retort from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who forsees only gains by prolonging the conflict.

In one of the first major foreign policy moves of the new Bush Administration, the US on Tuesday night vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an international observer force to “protect” Palestinians.

The US-led Mitchell Committee got a close-up look at the renewed intifada during its tour of Israel and Palestinian areas and headed home on Sunday to finish its report on the causes of the last six months of violence.

If thirty US Senators have their way, President George W. Bush will make sure he agrees to help visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon locate Israel’s MIA’s.

wo terrorist bombings in Jerusalem on Tuesday, following hard on the heels of the shooting of a 10-month-old Jewish girl in Hebron by Palestinian snipers on Monday evening, have increased calls by the Israeli public for strong action against terror just as the Arab League summit opens in Amman, Jordan.

Israeli police arrested on Tuesday the manager and three employees of a broadcasting company in central Jerusalem on suspicion of operating an illegal television and radio station that was re-transmiting Palestinian and Hizb’Allah television and radio broadcasts abroad.

Israel’s northern border continues to be plagued by violent demonstrations and cross-border terrorist attacks, thus making it a potential flashpoint for sparking a wider regional conflict.

Following Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s departure for Washington, Palestinian terrorists ambushed a Jewish motorist early Monday morning, just hours after the first mortar attack inside Israel proper.

Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday finally requested police to meet with Islamic Waqf officials in Jerusalem and halt the reported destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount.

The Vatican expressed understanding on Friday for Israel’s position that it is essential to immediately end the violence in the disputed territories and acts of Palestinian terrorism, according to Ovadia Sofer, Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon’s emissary.

Britain designated 21 groups as “terrorist” this week under a new anti-terrorism law designed to halt funding and support for militant groups based in the United Kingdom.

The Israeli coastal resort town of Netanya was rocked by yet another terrorist bombing on Sunday, leaving four dead and up to ninety wounded, and sending Israeli police scrambling to counter the imminent threat of even more attacks inside Israel.

Palestinian Authority Communications Minister Imad Faluji confirmed on Friday what Israel has known and attempted to relay to the international community since Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in late September – that the renewed Palestinian intifada was pre-planned.

There has been no let-up in the intifada, as a Palestinian sniper shot at Israel’s newly-installed Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer while he was observing Palestinian areas from the rooftop of an Israeli military command center in the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The most recent Mideast peace accord that was agreed upon in Egypt by Palestinians and Jews appears to offer little hope for a lasting peace. Violence continues in Israel as Muslim leaders incite their followers to hate and commit acts of violence against Christians and Jews.

New Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the IDF to tighten its blockade of Ramallah over the weekend, following the arrest of members of an active terrorist cell in the area and specific intelligence that other members of the cell are still at large.

Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on security cooperation and final-status issues made little headway over the weekend, and were suspended on Monday when an Israeli citizen was found murdered in Gush Katif and the IDF renewed its tight closure on the Gaza Strip.

In a sign of spiraling mistrust and lawlessness in Palestinian areas over the past week, two Palestinians were summarily executed for alleged collaboration with Israel, three more were secretly murdered by militants, another two have been sentenced to death, and at least five others have been arrested as suspected informers. And in Gaza on Wednesday, the head of Palestinian TV was shot dead by masked gunmen in an unexplained hit.