New video of Schalit expected Friday The security cabinet on Wednesday morning approved the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for an up-to-date video tape of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, in the first concrete move toward freeing the soldier since he was kidnapped over three years ago. The decision to release the Palestinians came upon the recommendation of the team working for Schalit's release, headed by Hagai Hadas. The release of the Palestinians, and receipt of the tape, are scheduled to take place on Friday. According to the suggestion that came from the German mediator, working together with the Egyptians, Israel will get recent and unequivocal proof of Schalit's condition. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu congratulated Hadas and the team on their "professional work" away from the spotlight, and said, "it is important that the whole world will know that Gilad Schalit is alive and well, and that Hamas is responsible for his fate and well being." Watch previous audio of Schalit in captivity as released by Hamas on June 25, 2007 A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said the cabinet decided to respond positively to this initiative as a "confidence building measure within the framework of the indirect negotiations" with Hamas over Schalit. The names of the Palestinians to be released will be published later Wednesday by the Justice Ministry, and their names will be posted on Israel Prison Service's website. A senior source in the PMO said Hadas was in constant contact with the Schalit family, and that they were informed of the developments. "The negotiations are still expected to be long and hard," the source said, "and we will continue to take concrete steps to bring Gilad home as quickly as possible." The sources cautioned that this development did not mean that the sides were on the cusp of an agreement, but that this was part of a larger agreement that was still a long way off. Once the names of the Palestinians are on the internet, the public - as was the case in similar prisoner releases in the past - will have 48 hours to appeal. After that period, the prisoners will be released once the German mediator - Ernst Uhrlau - hands the tape over to Israel. Urlau has already seen the video, which is believed to have been taped within the last few weeks. Nineteen of the 20 prisoners are from Judea and Samaria, and only one is from Gaza. The vast majority has already served two-thirds of their sentence, and was scheduled to be released within the next two years. None of the women were directly involved in the killing of Israelis, although two or three were indirectly involved. A number of others were arrested for offenses such as carrying knives. If a final deal is agreed upon for the release of Schalit, these 20 prisoners will come off the final number of prisoners that the Palestinians are demanding. It is not clear whether these names were on the list of prisoners that was drawn up by Hamas. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida confirmed that 20 female prisoners were expected to be returned in the coming days. He made no mention of a videotape of Schalit, saying only that Hamas would respond by "clarifying his fate." A senior Egyptian official involved in the mediation said the move was designed to create "an atmosphere of trust." "There is no doubt that this step will support the efforts of all sides to solve the problem," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity under security guidelines.

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'US Jews back military strike on Iran' Amajority of American Jews support military action against Iran to prevent the Teheran regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, a new study claims. Asked if they would support American military action, 56% of American Jews said they would, while just 36% opposed it, according to the American Jewish Committee's 2009 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion. An even greater number support Israeli military action against the Iranian nuclear program, with 66% in favor and just 28% against. The survey, which polled 800 representative American Jews and was conducted by Synovate between August 30 and September 17, also dealt with US-Israeli relations, worries over anti-Semitism and identity. It found that a majority of American Jews oppose the Obama administration's recent policy of demanding a total Israeli settlement freeze, but this did not translate into support for keeping these settlements in the long term. While 51% oppose the American freeze demand (though a substantial 41% agree with it), fully 60% said Israel should dismantle all (8%) or some (52%) of the West Bank settlements in the context of a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. Despite any criticism, however, American Jews believe that Israeli-American relations were being handled well by the two country's leaders. The Obama administration received 54% approval, compared to 32% disapproval, in its handling of this relationship while Netanyahu garnered a slightly better 59%-23%. In general, the vast majority of respondents believe US-Israeli relations are strong, with 81% saying they were either "very" or "somewhat" positive and just 16% disagreeing. Asked about the prospects for peace, three-quarters of the respondents expressed profound skepticism over Arab intentions, saying they agreed with the statement "The goal of the Arabs is not the return of occupied territories but rather the destruction of Israel." Just 19% disagreed. Thus it is perhaps not surprising that 51% do not believe there will ever "come a time when Israel and its Arab neighbors will be able to settle their differences and live in peace." That pessimism rises substantially, to 79%, when the Palestinian side of the equation is Hamas. Just 17% think peace is achievable between Israel and Hamas. But the pessimism is not reflective of their hopes. American Jews favor a Palestinian state, even "in the current situation," by a factor of 49-41, through they are opposed (58 to 37) to compromising on Israeli jurisdiction over Jerusalem. The survey briefly delved into questions of identification. Asked for their political affiliations, respondents revealed the expected overwhelming identification with the Left and Center. Fully 53% said they were Democrats, 30% Independent and just 16% Republicans. As for religious affiliation, 27% said they were Reform, 24% Conservative, 9% Orthodox and 2% Reconstructionist. But the most popular answer, at 36%, was "just Jewish." Jewishness was important to the respondents, with 51% saying it was "very important" in their lives, 33% "fairly important" and just 15% "not very important." This Jewish identification, however, did not necessarily translate into a feeling of connection with Israel. Just 28% said they felt "very close," 41% "fairly close," and fully 30% were either "fairly distant" or "very distant." The survey had a margin of error of 3%.

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Israel receives at least one new German Dolphin-class submarine

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

September 30, 2009, 10:25 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile's military sources report that at least one of two Dolphin-class U212 submarines on order for the Israeli Navy from the German HDW shipyards in Kiel was delivered this week, bringing the Navy's total number of this type of sub to four. According to foreign military sources, the Dolphin is capable of carrying cruise missiles with nuclear warheads.

Israel has never officially confirmed possession of this type of nuclear-capable submarine. According to our military sources, Chancellor Angela Merkel was persuaded by the military tensions put forth by Iran to step in personally and raise the completion of Israel's submarine order fitted out for cruise missiles to top priority. The work was finished a year before the date on the contract.

The delivery of at least one of the pair of Dolphins just before the Six Powers confront Iran on its nuclear program Thursday, Oct. 1, gives substance to Israel's option to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

In June, an Israeli Dolphin passed through the Suez Canal for the first time, escorted by Egyptian navy vessels, as a message to Tehran that Cairo would open the waterway to Israeli warships in the event of the controversy over Iran's nuclear program getting out of hand.

DEBKAfile only confirms the arrival of one Dolphin.

The French and Italian news agencies, AFP and ANSA, reported Tuesday that Israel had taken delivery of not one but two German-made U212 submarines and now had a fleet of five. AFP quoted a military spokesman in Tel Aviv. An ANSA correspondent reported that military sources in Tel Aviv and Berlin had declined to comment on the report except for promising to check it. According to the Italian reporter, it is also possible that the subs were handed to an Israeli Navy crew by the shipyard and had not yet reached Israel.

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Likud to send Gaza evacuation report to Obama Outspoken Likud MK Danny Danon plans to translate an interim report on the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and its aftermath into English and have it sent to US President Barack Obama as evidence of why Israel will never again conduct such a pullout on the "whim" of an American leader. The report highlights the ongoing instability experienced by a large portion of the Israeli Jews uprooted from Gaza's 21 Jewish communities, as well as the escalation of Palestinian violence following the withdrawal and Hamas' subsequent takeover of the territory. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Danon noted that Israel had taken a great risk to jump-start peace efforts at the behest of former President George W. Bush. By sending the report to Washington, Danon hopes to make clear that Obama's disregard for Israel's gesture and the Palestinian response to it means the Jewish state is no longer prepared to take such risks for peace based on American assurances.

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More Gaza rockets hit southern Israel Palestinian terrorist forces operating out of the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday evening. Both rockets landed in open areas and caused no injuries or damage. One of the rockets landed just outside the southern coastal city of Ashkelon, the first direct attack on that city in over two months. Israeli warplanes responded to the rocket fire by attacking Palestinian smuggling tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border early Wednesday morning. Israeli security officials have noted a marked increase in violence emanating from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip over the past month. Many fear a return to the daily attacks that plagued southern Israel prior to the Gaza war in January. In other violence, Palestinian terrorist gunmen shot and moderately wounded an Israeli motorist near the Samarian Jewish town of Shilo on Tuesday night. Local officials blamed the attack on Israel's decision under pressure from the US to remove Israeli army checkpoints in the area

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IDF Targets Three Gaza Smuggling Tunnels

GAZA STRIP - In response to Kassam rockets and a mortar shell fired on southern Israel by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Israel Air Force jets targeted Hamas smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt on Tuesday night.

The IDF confirmed the air strikes, which destroyed several arms smuggling tunnels.

Two people were killed and six wounded in the air strike, according to Palestinian sources.

One Kassam rocket exploded in a field in Kibbutz Zikkim, just south of the coastal city of Ashkelon, causing no injuries or damage.

Since the beginning of the year, Gaza-based Palestinians have fired some 720 rockets, mortar shells and Grad missiles (Katyushas) into southern Israel.

Meanwhile, an Israeli driver was lightly injured in a drive-by shooting near Shiloh in the Binyamin Regional Council north of Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon.

In a separate incident, Arab residents threw rocks at an Israeli bus traveling on the Gush Etzion road near Hevron.

Arabs also threw firebombs at Israeli cars near the Gush Etzion tunnels, caused minor damage to one vehicle.

Overnight Tuesday, IDF troops arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) suspected of terror-related activities. The men were taken in for questioning.

Too late to stop Tehran, Obama aims to stifle an Israeli attack

DEBKAfile Special Analysis

September 26, 2009

Maestro Barack Obama's histrionics in New York and Pittsburgh Thursday and Friday, Sept. 24-25 - and his threat of "confrontation" for Iran's concealment of its nuclear capabilities - were water off a duck's back for Tehran, whose nuclear weapons program has gone too far to stop by words or even sanctions.

The Islamic regime only responded with more defiance, announcing that its second uranium enrichment plant near Qom would become operational soon.

The US president's tough words and willingness to step out of his axiomatic insistence on dialogue and turn to economic warfare against Iran may be impressive but it is no longer effective. Tehran is too close to its goal of a nuclear weapons capability to be deterred by offers of engagement or economic penalties.

Obama certainly knows this. He also understands that Iran is now unstoppable except by force. His performance was therefore directed at another target: Israel, whom he is determined to dissuade from resorting to military action against Iran's nuclear installations.

Defense secretary Robert Gates hit the nail on the head when he said Friday: "The reality is there is no military option that does anything more than buy time. The estimates are one to three years or so."

Iran was allowed to reach the point defined by Gates thanks to the permissiveness of two US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and two Israeli prime ministers, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. They had no illusions about the deterrent value of the three sets of UN Security sanctions imposed to punish Iran, but held back from pre-emptive action on the pretext that there was still plenty of time before Iran was in a position to destroy Israel.

In any case, Israeli leaders argued, Iran's nuclear ambitions were a threat to the whole world and it was therefore incumbent on the "international community" to take care of them.

This of course did not happen. Iran carried on exploiting international inaction, finally capitalizing on Obama's foot-dragging in his first nine months in office.

By now, Iran has used the gift of time to process enough enriched uranium to fuel two nuclear bombs and is able to produce another two per year.

Its advanced medium-range missiles will be ready to deliver nuclear warheads by next year.

Detonators for nuclear bombs are in production at two secret sites.

And finally, a second secret uranium enrichment plant - subject of the stern warning issued collectively in Pittsburgh Friday by Obama, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and British premier Gordon Brown - has come to light, buried under a mountain near Qom. Its discovery doubles - at least - all previous estimates of Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Caught red-handed yet again in massive deceit, the Iranian president Mahdmoud Ahmadinejad had only more defiance to offer. America owes his government an apology, he told interviewers in New York Friday, because the new plant would not be operational for 18 months, and Tehran had therefore not violated International Atomic Energy Agency rules requiring notification.

He was soon caught in another lie.

Saturday, the Iranian news agency was informed by an aide of supreme leader Ali Khamenei that "the new plant would become operational soon."

Iran's published concealments and deceptions are disquieting enough. But a whole lot more are undoubtedly buried in fat intelligence dossiers on Iran's nuclear program - plutonium production, for instance. The progress made in its plutonium-based weapons program was never mentioned in the stern condemnations of the last few days, except indirectly in a quiet comment from an anonymous Israeli official Friday night.

He said Iran operates on two hourglasses and both were running out fast. He was referring obliquely to the enriched uranium and the plutonium tracks.

Sarkozy was clearly thinking about those undiscovered Iranian secrets and evasions when he declared in Pittsburgh:

"Everything - everything must be put on the table now" (at the October 1 meeting of the Six Powers with Iranian negotiators). Obama too urged Iran "to come clean."

All the powers concerned - the US, Russia, France, Germany the UK and even China - have the same information as Israel and are fully aware that Iran has already crossed a number of red lines this year and will cross more in 2010. The more time allowed for diplomacy and engagement, the greater Tehran's defiance. Meanwhile, world powers will argue - not over futile sanctions, but on how to stop Israel, so wasting several more months.

DEBKAfile's sources note that the Gates assessment and the cooling note he injected into the US president's oratory came after Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak visited the Pentagon. The visit clearly did not change Gates' view that the Iranian nuclear program was now too advanced to stop, while the use of force would only gain an interval of up to three years, after which Tehran would pick itself up and start again. Therefore, according to Gates, diplomacy remained the only viable option.

The answer to this argument is simple: It is exactly this approach which gave Iran 11 quiet years to develop its weapons capacity. For Israel and Middle East, a three-year setback is a very long time, a security boon worth great risk, because a) It would be a happy respite from the dark clouds hanging over the country from Iran and also cut back Hamas and Hizballah terrorist capabilities, and b) In the volatile Middle East anything can happen in 36 months.

But the US defense secretary believes Israel, like the rest of the world, must accept life under the shadow of a nuclear-armed Iran and make the best of it.

This view is shared by the Kremlin. It was advanced by prime minister Vladimir Putin to Binyamin Netanyahu during his secret trip to Moscow on Sept. 7.

According to DEBKAfile's Russian sources, when the Israeli prime minister tried to counter Putin's thesis and explain what restraint meant for Israel, the Russian prime minster became impatient and told his guest to leave.

After that interview, the Israeli government can no longer avoid appreciating that Gates and Putin talk the real talk for Washington and Moscow, while their leaders' moralistic condemnations of Iran are mainly hot air for public consumption and for maneuvering Israel into a position where a military strike would be hard to conceive.

Netanyahu's Sphinx-like silence on the nuclear to-do in the US this week was apt. But it is hard to tell what he is hiding. Will he succumb to the world powers' pressure to sit tight while Iran goes all the way to a military nuclear capability - or face up to it and act?

This is the most important decision of Netanyahu's political life as two-time prime minister of Israel. It will also determine Israel's future.

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Hundreds of Arab Muslims on Sunday violently attacked a small group of Jews who ascended Jerusalem's Temple Mount to mark Yom Kippur, the biblical Day of Atonement, atop Judaism's holiest site. The Jewish group was accompanied by a large police escort, which fired stun grenades at the riotous Muslims while helping the Jews flee to safety. Police subsequently bowed to Muslim demands and banned all non-Muslim visitors from the site for the remainder of the day. But the concession by Israeli authorities did little to appease the Muslims, and violence quickly spread to the streets of the Old City, where Arab youth hurled stones and firebombs at Israeli police. At least 22 Israeli police officers and 15 Muslim rioters were wounded in the Temple Mount and Old City confrontations. Later in the evening, Arab youth in the Jerusalem suburb of Isawiya hurled at least 20 firebombs at Israeli Border Police officers stationed nearby, wounding five. The racial tension continued on Monday, when a small group of Jews threw stones at Arab vehicles violating traditional Yom Kippur cultural norms by driving on a major thoroughfare that passes several Jewish neighborhoods en route to Bethlehem. Five suspects were arrested in that incident. On Monday evening, Arab residents in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, the biblical City of David, threw two firebombs at the homes of Jewish neighbors, causing damage but no injuries. Police maintained a high security alter in the city on Tuesday, and arrested many of the Arabs involved in the violence. The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, blamed the flare-ups on the Jews for provoking Arab Muslims by praying atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount on a Jewish holy day. "At a time when President Obama is trying to bridge the divide between Palestinians and Israelis, and to get negotiations back on track, Israel is deliberately escalating tensions in Jerusalem," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who vaguely threatened a new terrorist uprising if Israel did not halt such "provocations." The Palestinian Center for Human Rights referred to the entry of Jews onto the Temple Mount as "settlement activity," and likewise blamed the resulting violence solely on the Jews and Israel. Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA noted that the Palestinian reactions to the day of violence should highlight how impossible it is to reach an acceptable compromise regarding control of Jerusalem and its holy sites, an issue international peace brokers continuously push off as a "final status" issue.

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Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired a number of rockets and mortar shells at communities in southern Israel on Monday, as Israelis were trying to mark Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Several of the rockets scored direct hits on small communities in the Negev region, while most fell in open areas between towns. There were no reports of injuries in any of the attacks. Local community leaders told Israeli media that they increasingly fear a return to the days before the recent Gaza war, when Gaza-based terrorist groups fired tens of rockets into southern Israel on a daily basis. Most said a repeat of the Gaza invasion dubbed "Cast Lead" would not be sufficient, and that Israel needs to come up with a long-term solution to the terrorist aggression from Gaza.

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A London court rejects Palestinian bid to arrest Israeli defense minister

DEBKAfile Special Report

September 29, 2009, 6:31 PM (GMT+02:00)

Before the court ruling, defense minister Ehud Barak refused advice from the foreign ministry in Jerusalem to leave the UK after a Palestinian group sought an international warrant for his arrest for alleged war crimes in Gaza. He insisted on keeping to his schedule of conferences with British prime minister Gordon Brown and foreign secretary David Miliband Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 29-30.

DEBKAfile adds: The Westminster Magistrate court's ruling is a landmark, placing in question the sustained campaign by pro-Palestinian groups to seek UK court warrants for the arrest of Israel leaders and military officers whenever they set foot on British soil.

The news reached Barak in at the British Labor Party conference in Brighton where he represented Israel's Labor party of which he is chairman. The defense minister refused to consider leaving or heeding the Palestinian step in the light of Israel-UK ties as friends, allies and strategic partners. Last week, he hosted the British armed forces chief in Tel Aviv on an unannounced visit.

The Palestinians based their petition for his arrest on alleged war crimes and breaches of the Geneva Convention during the Israeli operation launched nine months ago to stop eight years of Palestinian missile and mortar attacks on its population. They claimed the operation was launched on his watch as defense minister. They also drew on the UN report in which former Judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of war crimes in that operation. Israel rejected the report as pre-judgmental and biased.

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Moscow again cool on sanctions, foists restraint on US-led line for Iran

DEBKAfile Special Analysis

September 29, 2009, 11:17 AM (GMT+02:00)

Two days before the Six-Power bloc-Iranian meeting in Geneva, DEBKAfile's Russian sources report Moscow appears to have taken a step back from the small opening allowed by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev for a fresh round of sanctions against Tehran. Monday night, Sept. 28, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agencies that although Iranian's missile exercise was worrying, restraint was needed. An official communiqué urged "Western powers to restrain themselves."

This is a setback to the tactic US president Barack Obama employed for bringing Russia aboard for stringent international sanctions when he announced Sept. 19 that he was scrapping the US missile shield planned in East Europe.

It is also one in the eye for the Netanyahu government and its latest policy of cooperation with international steps for bringing Iran to heel on its nuclear activities. Monday night, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a television interview: "Israel must not attack Iran's nuclear installations. It must be left to world powers. DEBKAfile's political sources report that Lieberman is increasingly criticized for aligning his policies with those of Moscow.

The Obama administration is working on broadened sanctions in the event that Iran fails to "come clean" on its nuclear activities and deliver on international requirements by the end of the year.

However, two days before Iran's negotiator meets the world powers in Geneva, Iran's atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi made it clear in an interview Tuesday that Iran would never give up its uranium enrichment program. He described the second enrichment plant in a mountain near Qom as very small and explained it had been built underground to protect personnel and instruments in a possible attack. "But this does not mean we believe the worst case will ever come," he said, "because any wrong steps would… start a fire they cannot extinguish."

The sanctions under review in Washington might focus on maritime traffic to and from Iran - including pressure on shipping firms in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, especially Dubai, to stop doing direct or third-party business with Tehran, and raising insurance premiums. Foreign investments in Iran, its financial and telecommunications sectors and foreign travel might also be targeted for bans.

Earlier plans to ban refined petrol products and gasoline exports to Iran, which could indeed cripple parts of Iran's economic and military capabilities, appear to have been dropped from the Obama administration's review of possible sanctions. The DEBKAfile's Gulf sources report that some of these options were tried unsuccessfully in the past with little impact on Iran's economy - and certainly not on the regime's determined adherence to its nuclear plans, most of all the rapid momentum of uranium enrichment. As in the past, the new steps under review would have to run the gauntlet of international consensus to fully succeed. Some would no doubt fall by the wayside while the bargaining would meanwhile consume time.

Moscow has moved back in position to delay the process.

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US giant bunker-buster bomb project rushed since Iran's Qom site discovered

DEBKAfile Special Report

September 28, 2009, 6:26 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Pentagon has brought forward to December 2009 the target-date for producing the first 15-ton super bunker-buster bomb (GBU-57A/B) Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which can reach a depth of 60.09 meters underground before exploding. DEBKAfile's military sources report that top defense agencies and air force units were also working against the clock to adapt the bay of a B2a Stealth bomber for carrying and delivering the bomb.

The Pentagon has ordered the number of bombs rolling off the production line increased from four to ten - a rush job triggered in May by the discovery that Iran was hiding a second uranium enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom - a discovery which prompted this week's international outcry.

Congress has since quietly inserted the necessary funding in the 2009 budget.

All this urgency indicates that the Obama administration has been preparing military muscle to back up the international condemnation of Iran's concealed nuclear bomb program, its sanctions threat and his willingness to join the negotiations with Iran opening on Oct. 1 in Geneva. Tehran may have to take into account a possible one-time surgical strike against its underground enrichment facility as a warning shot should its defiance continue. In particular, the world powers this week demanded that Iran open up all its nuclear facilities and programs to full and immediate international inspection. Failure to do so could bring forth further US military action.

According to our military sources, the earliest date for the accelerated Pentagon program to produce a super bunker buster bomb mounted on a stealth bomber is December 2009 or January 2010. This too is three years ahead of its original schedule.

Pressed into service are two US Air Force research centers for work on adapting the radar-evading stealth bomber to the giant bomb: the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the Munitions Directorate and Air Armament Center, both headquartered at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

Last month, DEBKAfile quoted Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford as disclosing that the Pentagon had decided to accelerate the production of 10-12 giant bunker buster bombs in response to intelligence received of Iranian and North Korean underground nuclear plants.

PM appeals to world leaders to reject Goldstone findings A day after the release of the scathing Goldstone Commission report that accused Israel of war crimes, Jerusalem on Wednesday revealed its defensive strategy: convince the world's democracies the report handcuffs them in their fight against terrorism, and keep discussion of the document confined to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who on Wednesday termed the report a "prize for terrorists" that makes it more difficult for democratic countries to combat them, will be speaking in the coming days to a list of prime ministers of countries represented on the Human Rights Council, lobbying them to oppose any resolution adopting the findings of the report. Netanyahu said the commission, headed by South African Constitutional Court Judge Richard Goldstone, was a "kangaroo court" whose conclusions were drawn up before the hearings even started. The Human Rights Council, which mandated Goldstone to "investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power, Israel, against the Palestinian people," will review the findings on September 29. Simona Halperin, director of the Foreign Ministry's International Organizations and Human Rights department, said while it was almost certain - because of its composition - that the council would adopt a critical resolution, "we need to ensure that the democracies that care about the rule of law will not support the one-sided resolution." In other words, Israel's diplomatic efforts are now centered on ensuring that any critical resolution that comes out of the Human Rights Council, and which perhaps forwards the report for discussion to the UN Security Council, will be approved by countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and not by countries like South Korea, Canada, Brazil, France and Italy. Without support of the world's Western democracies, the logic goes, such a resolution would lack moral authority. "The goal is to keep this from going outside of Geneva, to make sure the poisonous fruit born in sin in Geneva, stays in Geneva," Halperin said. Previewing arguments Israeli officials will use in fighting against the report, Halperin said, "All democracies fighting terrorism, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world, should be worried that this report throws out the narrative of democracies fighting terrorists, and embraces the idea that terrorists are freedom fighters entitled to act the way they do. The world which cares about the rule of law and protection of human life should be outraged at this message." Another senior government official said that while until now the Foreign Ministry's focus regarding the Goldstone Report was to argue about Israel's right to defend itself, and to deflect accusations of war crimes, since the document was issued the message has been recalibrated and is now portraying the report itself as part of a greater problem facing the West: defending itself against terrorists. The Goldstone Report, in this light, becomes not only an Israeli problem, but an international one. "We are trying to create awareness in the public that this report threatens every democratic country," the official said. "Those who are happy with the report are those trying to blow us up." In an effort to get this message across, the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday launched a "Gaza Facts" Web site (www.mfa.gov.il/GazaFacts), which links to an in-depth, 160-page document on all aspects of Operation Cast Lead, from an Israeli perspective. Links to Gaza Facts will be advertised on major Web sites in those countries considered friendly to Israel that are represented on the Human Rights Council, and whose vote on any resolution will be critical. For instance, anyone going on to The New York Times Web site in Slovenia will see a link to this site. The site will also be advertised extensively in the US. Israel, meanwhile, is also mounting an aggressive diplomatic campaign at the United Nations, with Israeli officials planning to meet on Wednesday with US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, as well as with other US administration officials and members of Congress. Gabriela Shalev, Israel's permanent representative to the UN, said "concentrated diplomatic efforts" would target members of the Security Council, which could send the matter to the International Criminal Court at The Hague unless the referral is vetoed by an Israeli ally. "We trust our friends, the United States, for full support," Shalev said. She said Israel hoped the US would also exert its influence in the Human Rights Council, which it rejoined earlier this year after a hiatus. "We do hope this is an opportunity to show the US is standing with us regarding human rights and not singling out Israel," Shalev said. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who is currently in the US, said the Goldstone Report "is a dangerous attempt to harm the principle of self-defense by democratic states and provides legitimacy to terrorism." Ayalon, who met with Jewish community leaders in New York and called on them to join together and act with full force against the report, said in a speech to the heads of the American Jewish Committee that this document "should be treated like the UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism. We must mobilize and act with all force against the report in order to remove it." American and European officials have so far declined to offer specifics on how they will handle the report. "Justice Goldstone's report regarding alleged violations of international humanitarian law and abuses during the Gaza conflict was just released yesterday. The issues it addresses are complex and the findings will take time to digest," one US official said Wednesday. "We will review it carefully."

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'My wish is for an open Israeli probe'

  After filing harsh and detailed accusations against Israel's conduct in Operation Cast Lead in the document released on Tuesday bearing his name, Judge Richard Goldstone expressed disappointment at the public outcry against the findings of the report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council.

UN investigator Richard Goldstone in Gaza. Photo: AP

SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region  |  World

"I'm not surprised but disappointed for not seeing any detailed response," Goldstone told Channel 1 on Wednesday evening. "There was a very quick rejection of the report, even before anyone read it." He firmly rejected the notion that his committee and its findings were biased. "I deny that completely, I was independent, nobody dictated any outcome... the outcome of the report which was the result ," he reiterated.

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When asked what differences, if any, he would have made in the investigation and report, Goldstone replied: "The only difference I would have preferred was that the Israeli government would have told us what to investigate, that's what I asked." "The Hamas rockets constitute war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," he stressed in Wednesday's interview. "My first wish and hope is that there would be open inquiry in Israel," Goldstone said, continuing in the vein of the committee's proposal that the UN Security Council require Israel to begin independent investigations into the "serious violations" of international law referred to in the report. "Israel can do it if it wishes, it is a matter of will and would prevent international involvement," he said.

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Israel: UN war crimes probe gives legitimacy to Hamas terror

DEBKAfile Special Report

September 15, 2009, 9:56 PM (GMT+02:00)

Palestinians fire missiles into Israel for eight years before Israel struck Gaza

A UN investigation led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of "war crimes and possible crimes against humanity" in its 33-day Gaza Strip campaign against Hamas which ended late January.

Although the panel found evidence that Palestinian armed groups, by firing rockets and mortars into Israel civilian areas, had also "committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity," the bulk of the 575-page report released Tuesday, Sept 15, pointed the finger at Israel.

The foreign ministry spokesman in Jerusalem called the report "unbalanced, shameful and dangerous" in its even-handed treatment of Israel and Hamas. "The Goldstone report has written a shameful new chapter in international law by questioning the right of this nation to self-defense."

Jerusalem refused to cooperate with the investigation or accept its authority, maintaining its mandate was loaded a priori against the Jewish state by the UN Human Rights Council, which routinely singles Israel out for castigation while turning a blind eye on Palestinian violations.

In this case, the panel disregarded the deliberate Hamas strategy of using Palestinian civilians as cover for launching terrorist attacks, said the foreign ministry in Jerusalem.

By prejudging Israel guilty of war crimes before the panel began its work, "the world body has declared diplomatic war on Israel and more dangerously given a terrorist organization legitimacy," the foreign ministry official said.

Israeli diplomats have been instructed to challenge the Goldstone report on those grounds and urge UN Security Council members to reject it.

Israel's envoy to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, said: "We knew the report would be biased and one-sided, but did not imagine it would be so harsh."

Israel Defense Forces investigated more than 100 complaints of misconduct during Operation Cast Lead in which Hamas reported 1,300 killed, most of them civilians, figures which Israel challenges.

In a preliminary investigation immediately after the war, the Israeli army cleared itself of systematic wrongdoing and found that any rights violations were isolated incidents. This was followed by separate probes of individual soldiers.

Goldstone, a former chief UN war crimes prosecutor who headed the four-person inquiry team, said he would pass its findings to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

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TULKAREM - In a well-planned operation, 10 former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers rescued an American woman and her child who had been held captive in a Palestinian Authority-controlled area for three years.

According to a report on Army Radio, the woman met and married a Palestinian man in the United States.

He brought her to his home in a village near Tulkarem in northern Samaria (West Bank), where she and their young son lived with his first wife and four older children.

Here, she was beaten and threatened that if she left, she would never see her son again.

After failing to secure her release through the PA government, her parents contacted an American Jewish man who had served in an IDF combat unit.

He, in turn, got in touch with a number of his friends in Israel and together, they planned the rescue operation.

After weeks of gathering intelligence on the family's routine, the group succeeded in rescuing the woman and her son on Monday, according to a report on Army Radio.

Immediately after the rescue, she and her son were taken to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, where they were helped to board a flight home to America on Tuesday.

According to one member of the team named Giora, the IDF did not participate in the rescue, but the U.S. consulate followed the operation from beginning to end.

The family wanted to reward the men, but they said "we didn't do it for money."

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"Our best friends and allies ... are pushing us into a corner"

Israel may have to attack Iran by December

(JPost) Israel will be compelled to attack Iran's nuclear facilities if Western powers do not impose serious sanctions against Teheran by the end of 2009, former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh said on Wednesday. "We cannot live under the shadow of an Iran with nuclear weapons," he was quoted as telling Reuters in an interview on a visit to the UK. "By the end of the year, if there is no agreement on crippling sanctions aimed at this regime, we will have no choice." Sneh reportedly stressed that a military strike would be "the very, very last resort. But ironically it is our best friends and allies who are pushing us into a corner where we would have no option but to do it." "I wonder if they will quickly enough. If not, we are compelled to take action."

 

Sneh, who holds no position in the government and was speaking in his personal capacity, told Reuters it was not clear the US and EU had the decisiveness to take such steps, which should include tougher banking and oil curbs, by year's end. He added that the need for the involvement of "Russia and China is a myth," as strict sanctions imposed by the West would be tough enough to work. "It is bloodless, and it even stops short of a naval blockade," he said. Sneh reportedly explained that Jerusalem could not accept a nuclear-armed Iran because government processes would be "substantially distorted," as the cabinet's decision making would be hostage to the fear of Teheran's nuclear retaliation.