Israeli police bust Palestinians with ancient text By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 6, 6:23 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Undercover Israeli officers foiled an attempt by two Palestinian men to sell an ancient, valuable papyrus document on the black market, police said Wednesday. The men were arrested at a Jerusalem hotel Tuesday after a sting operation lasting several weeks, police said. The 1,900-year-old Hebrew document, previously unknown and valued at millions of dollars, was rescued, and police showed it to reporters.It was unclear where the two men obtained it, police and archaeologists said. Similar documents have been found in caves in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, where they have been preserved over the centuries by the dry climate, they said.
The most famous of those are the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient holy books and apocalyptic treatises thought to have been collected by an ascetic Jewish sect two millennia ago.
The document, six inches by six inches (15 centimeters by 15 centimeters), contains 15lines of Hebrew characters of a type also used in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but is a legal text apparently unrelated to the more famous scrolls.In this document, a widow named Miriam, daughter of Yaakov, legally transfers property to her late husband's brother, said Amir Ganor, an archaeologist with the government department entrusted with fighting antiquities theft.Dated to the 2nd century A.D., it is unique because it includes the names of Jewish villages and a date — four years from the destruction of the house of Israel.Ganor said that was likely an allusion to a Jewish revolt put down violently by Rome around 135 A.D.Ganor said scholars are 95 percent sure the document is genuine, but it will be tested to make sure it is not a fake like the ones that surface periodically on the lucrative market in Holy Land antiquities.Only few scrolls like this were found in Israel and all of the Middle East, and we hope that the historic situation of discovering this scroll will be helpful to the research about the period,Ganor said.The suspects, ages 48 and 60, are from the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, near Jerusalem, police said.After receiving information on the men and tracking them for several weeks, police caught the two at a Jerusalem hotel where they had arranged to sell the document, Superintendent Eli Cohen said.
They came to a place we chose, and they were arrested there,Cohen said, while refusing to reveal whether police agents posed as buyers.They are suspected of violating Israeli antiquities laws by illegally possessing and trafficking in archaeological artifacts and could face several years in prison if convicted. Police are trying to determine how the document fell into their hands.If authentic, the document could help scholars learn important details about Jewish life two millennia ago, said archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar Ilan University, near Tel Aviv.It could be important to understanding everything from the geography, the names of people, the type of contracts they used, and the status of women, of weddings and relationships between families,he said.Similar documents belonging to a woman named Bavta, who lived around the same time, were found in the 1950s by the famed Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, Maeir said, and this one could fit in nicely with those findings.
Israel air raid on Gaza tunnels after mortar fire Wed May 6, 1:15 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel launched air raids against smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza on Wednesday, hours after it said Palestinian militants fired mortar rounds at the Jewish state.The air force targeted three smuggling tunnels in the Rafah border area with Egypt in response to the continuous firing of rockets and mortar shells at Israeli southern communities from the Gaza Strip, the military said.Palestinian medical sources said four people were slightly wounded.Earlier this morning, five mortar shells hit a field in the Shaar Hanegev municipal council in the western Negev region of Israel. No casualties or damage were reported, the military said in a statement.Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza, said it fired mortar shells at Israeli troops carrying out an incursion in the central Gaza Strip.The Israeli military says more than 200 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at southern Israel from Gaza since it carried out a devastating December-January offensive on the impoverished territory.The armed forces have responded with a series of air strikes, mostly on tunnels which Israel says Hamas uses to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, in an interview published in the New York Times on Tuesday, said his Islamist movement was holding its rocket fire for the time being.Not firing the rockets currently is part of an evaluation of the movement which serves the Palestinian interest,he said.
UN Gaza report outrageous, one-sided: Peres Wed May 6, 1:05 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres Wednesday blasted as outrageous and one-sided a UN inquiry that blamed Israel for six serious attacks on UN buildings during its Gaza offensive.It's outrageous, we shall never accept it (the report), he told reporters after conferring with UN chief Ban Ki-moon. We don't think we have to apologize because we have the right to defend the lives of our children and women.
Peres said the UN board of enquiry overstepped its authority, noting that it was supposed to probe damage to UN installations but instead decided to investigate the whole situation in Gaza.We don't accept one word,he added, slamming the conclusions as unfair,one-sided.But he appeared to exonerate Ban, saying he had the highest regard for him.The secretary general is not responsible for the report, Peres said. He tried to distinguish between what is necessary in order to be objective and fair and listen to us.The Israeli president insisted that his country has cooperated fully with the UN enquiry team and conceded that we made some mistakes.The UN report was drawn up by an independent panel set up to investigate nine cases in which UN buildings in Gaza were damaged by bombardments or arms fire during the three-week Israeli offensive.The findings laid out the latest criticism of Israel over the war it launched against the Hamas-run enclave on December 27 in response to ongoing rocket fire from Gaza militants. More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.
In six of the nine incidents, the board concluded that the death, injuries and damage involved were caused by military actions, using munitions launched or dropped from the air or fired from the ground, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the report said.
A seventh less serious incident was also blamed on Israeli light arms fire during the offensive, while the eighth was attributed to a Palestinian faction, probably Hamas.
The probe by the UN panel, however, could not determine who was to blame for the ninth incident.The report accused Israel of failing to protect UN buildings and the civilians inside them, and recommended that the United Nations seek damages.Peres, meanwhile, was also asked whether the Jewish state under the new government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still committed to a two-state solution under which a viable Palestinian state would be created alongside a secure Israel.Peres made clear that the current Israeli government announced it would respect the decisions made by the previous government.The previous government of Israel took the decision to accept the roadmap that was introduced by the (Middle East diplomatic) Quartet, he added. In the roadmap, there is a clear reference to the two-state solution and that is my answer.The roadmap, drawn up by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, foresees the peaceful co-existence of Israel and Palestine, and calls for a halt to Jewish settlement activity in Palestinian territories and an end to Palestinian attacks against Israel.The plan has made little progress since it was drafted in 2003.
No alternative to two-state Mideast solution: Merkel Wed May 6, 10:40 am ET
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that a two-state solution was the only path to peace in the Middle East and urged the new Israeli government to move quickly to begin talks with the Palestinians.Merkel was speaking ahead of a visit to Berlin Thursday by ultranationalist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has voiced opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.As far as Middle East peace is concerned, we want to continue to focus on a two-state solution, Merkel told reporters at a joint news conference with Jordan's King Abdullah.She described the coming months as decisive and said progress between Israel and the Palestinians was essential for the success of western efforts to reach a deal with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.Abdullah said the goal was to get Israel and the Palestinians to sit down at the negotiating table in the coming months.Lieberman began his tour of European countries Monday in Italy, where he described Iran's nuclear work as a destabilizing factor for the entire world.He is viewed with skepticism by the government in Berlin, where he is due to meet members of the foreign affairs committee of the German parliament and dine with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier but not make any public statements.(Reporting by Andreas Moeser; Writing by Noah Barkin; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Iran's Ahmadinejad in new tirade against Israel by Roueida Mabardi – Tue May 5, 2:58 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slammed Zionism as occupation and aggression Tuesday as he delivered his latest diatribe against the Jewish state on a visit to key Middle East ally Syria.The Zionist occupiers are destructive microbes, because Zionism itself is occupation, aggression, the use of assassination and annihilation, he told a joint news conference with President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital.Zionism was created to threaten us. To support the Palestinian resistance is a humanitarian and popular obligation,Ahmadinejad said in remarks in Farsi that were translated into Arabic.Syria and Iran are united in supporting the Palestinian resistance.The Iranian president's comments came barely two weeks after he sparked a European walkout from a UN anti-racism conference in Geneva by equating Zionism with racism.He has gone further in the past, predicting that the Jewish state is doomed to be wiped from the map and describing the Holocaust as a myth.Ahmadinejad asked why it was the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza that is blacklisted by the European Union and the United States, and not Israel after its devastating offensive against the territory at the turn of the year.They've attacked Gaza, killing people in their own land and massacring women and children... and yet it's the Palestinians they accuse of terrorism,he complained.Ahmadinejad, whose visit to Damascus came as Defence Secretary Robert Gates toured US allies in the region to reassure them about overtures to the Tehran regime by President Barack Obama, hit out at the continuing US military presence on Iran's borders.They weren't invited in. They're unwelcome visitors who should leave Afghanistan and the borders of Pakistan, the Iranian president said.We don't want honey from bees that sting us. Efforts must be made to rid the region of the presence of foreigners... and to reform the unjust global political and economic system.Ahmadinejad said Iran and Syria were standing together to resist foreign intervention and the major powers trying to impose their hegemony over the region.
The United States has put pressure on Syria and Iran, but it needs us and wants to develop relations, he said.Circumstances are changing rapidly in our favour. We are on the road to victory.Assad in turn hailed what he called the natural strategic alliance between Syria and Iran, which he said was built on shared principles and interests.We agreed to support reconciliation in Iraq and look forward to the departure of the last foreign soldier,he added.The United States and its key regional ally Israel have long sought to sour the three-decade-old alliance between Iran and Syria, which are the main foreign backers of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as well as Hamas.The Obama administration has stepped up US contacts with Damascus and the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs Jeffrey Feltman is due to leave for the Syrian capital on Wednesday on his second visit this year. In March, he made the first high-level US trip to Syria since 2005. But on Monday, Washington baulked at calls by the Syrian president for it to open talks with Hamas and Hezbollah, saying the two militant groups had to renounce violence first. We would like to see Syria change the behaviour of these two groups, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. Ahmadinejad was also due to meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal during his Damascus visit.
Israeli PM wants triple track approach to peace Richard Lardner, Associated Press Writer – Mon May 4, 9:27 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Israel's prime minister on Monday outlined a triple track approach to peace with the Palestinians, a strategy that emphasizes political, economic and security planks to resolve the decades-long conflict.Benjamin Netanyahu said his government is ready to resume peace negotiations without any delays or preconditions.
The sooner the better,Netanyahu told a convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington. Netanyahu's brief remarks were broadcast by satellite from Jerusalem.He also cautioned, however, that Israel never would compromise its own security as it seeks peace.Echoing remarks to the convention made earlier in the day by Shimon Peres, Israel's president, Netanyahu said Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Netanyahu said Jews and Arabs in the Middle East share that goal and must work together to meet it.For the first time in my lifetime, Arabs and Jews see a common danger,he said. There is a great challenge afoot. But that challenge also presents great opportunities.While the Obama administration supports a two-state solution to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Netanyahu did not mention creation of a Palestinian state during his remarks.Instead, he proposed his three-track strategy, which he called a fresh approach that would improve the quality of life for Palestinians while preserving Israel's security.
The political track is focused on resuming peace negotiations. The security track would strengthen what he called the security apparatus of the Palestinians, Netanyahu said. On the economic track, Netanyahu said Israel is prepared to remove as many obstacles as possible to advance the Palestinian economy.I want to see Palestinian youngsters know that they have a future, he said.I want them not to be hostage to a cult of death, and despair and hate.But Netanyahu's pitch for peace was tempered by what he called two provisos.First, if Israel abandons its own security,we'll have neither security nor peace,he said. Second, for any peace settlement to be achieved, the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the Jewish state, Netanyahu said.On the Net:
American Israel Public Affairs Committee: http://www.aipac.org/
Abbas to press Obama for two-state deal Sun May 3, 9:51 am ETAMMAN
(AFP) – Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said on Sunday he will tell US President Barack Obama this month that resuming peace talks with Israel hinges on its approval of a two-state solution.We will go the Washington on May 28 to talk with the US administration about our conditions to resume peace negotiations with Israel in the future, Abbas was quoted in a palace statement after meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II.Our conditions and demands are based on the two-state solution and Israel's halt of settlement building as well as house demolitions. These are our demands and the demands of the Americans themselves to resume the talks.Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory -- supported by the largely right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- are one of the main stumbling blocks in the troubled Middle East peace process.Netanyahu has so far failed to publicly endorse the creation of a Palestinian state, a principle strongly backed by the White House.The Palestinians are demanding that Netanyahu back a two-state solution -- to which Israel committed itself under the roadmap peace plan launched by the international community in 2003 -- before the two sides resume talks.
Israel's firebrand FM kicks off first tour abroad Sat May 2, 11:20 am ET
ROME (AFP) – Israel's firebrand Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman arrives in Italy Monday on his first trip abroad, the Italian foreign ministry said Saturday.He will have talks with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini during his two-day stay in Rome, and will give a press conference Monday with Frattini.His office said Thursday the controversial Lieberman would also be visiting the Czech Republic, France and Germany on his first foreign tour since being sworn in with the rest of the largely right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 31.Lieberman is known for controversial statements and has been called a racist by critics over his anti-Arab diatribes.Immediately after taking office, he sparked criticism by saying that the new Israeli cabinet was not bound by the decision that the previous government took at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007 to restart negotiations with the Palestinians.He has also lashed out at Iran, saying it is a key obstacle to resolving the Middle East conflict and has come out against resuming indirect talks with Syria.His trip to European Union countries follows a warning from Israel to the EU limit its criticism of Netanyahu's cabinet or risk losing involvement in the Middle East peace process.An Israeli official said Thursday the warning was issued in a series of phone conversations in recent days between the deputy director of the Israeli foreign ministry's European desk Rafi Barak and the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany.Israel asks the European Union to keep a low profile and conduct a quiet dialogue... But if these declarations continue, Europe will not be able to have involvement in the peace process and both sides will lose,the senior official quoted Barak as telling the ambassadors.
Israel earlier rapped the EU after its commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said that a planned upgrade of bilateral relations would not be implemented until Netanyahu commits to the peace talks with the Palestinians.The former speaker of the Israeli parliament, Avraham Burg, called Lieberman a clear threat to Israeli democracy in an interview published Saturday in the Spanish daily El Mundo.Lieberman is racist and xenophobic, Burg said, expressing disquiet at the support his Yisrael Beiteinu party gained in the elections.Israel is heading for a clash between the concept of democracy and that of Jewish theocracy, he warned.
