ISRAELI POLICE ARREST 5

Israeli police arrest 5 in West Bank mosque blaze By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – JAN 18,10

JERUSALEM – Israeli police said Monday they have arrested nine people at a radical Jewish settlement in connection with the torching last month of a West Bank mosque and other attacks on Palestinian property.Five people arrested in the pre-dawn police raid were linked to the mosque blaze, while four others are suspected in connection with what police described as severe damage to other Palestinian property.

Police officials gave no further details and spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.Authorities suspect the Dec. 11 mosque fire was set by Jewish extremists outraged by a government-ordered slowdown in West Bank settlement construction. Some extremists take out their anger on Palestinians in a practice known as price tag.The mosque attackers burned prayer carpets and a book stand with Muslim holy texts, and spray-painted Hebrew graffiti on the floor.

A teen was briefly detained last month in connection with the blaze.(This version CORRECTS that four of the nine arrested, not all, are being held in connection with other attacks on Palestinian property.)

Israel PM heads to Germany
JAN 18,10

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Berlin on Monday with leading members of his centre-right government to hold a joint cabinet meeting with the German government.Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were also to hold bilateral talks focused on Middle East peace efforts,threats to regional security and on Iran, the prime minister's spokesman Mark Regev said.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman were among members of the cabinet joining the premier for the day-long trip.Ministerial talks will cover a broad range of issues, including defence cooperation. Media have widely reported that Israel has ordered a sixth Dolphin-class diesel submarine from Germany. Israel currently has three Dolphins and has confirmed it ordered two more.

The submarines are believed to have a range of 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) and the capacity to launch nuclear-capable cruise missiles.We attach great importance to our ties with Germany because of their economic and political impact and mainly because of Israel's security, Netanyahu told journalists ahead of his trip.Germany is playing a leading role in efforts to broker a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement for an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants inside the Gaza Strip since 2006.The joint cabinet meeting was initially planned for November but was postponed because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came down with a viral infection.Merkel and several of her ministers had made a similar visit to Jerusalem in March 2008.

Rights group urges Israel to end Gaza blockade
Mon Jan 18, 1:55 am ET

JERUSALEM – A leading human rights group again on Monday urged Israel to end the Gaza blockade, saying it is suffocating the 1.4 million Palestinians living in the strip.Israel blockaded Gaza after the militant Palestinian Hamas group overran it in 2007. The blockade has prevented the territory from rebuilding after Israel's bruising war there last winter, and has drawn widespread and repeated criticism from rights groups.Israel, which allows only limited humanitarian supplies into Gaza, says the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas and prevent materials that could be used to produce weapons from reaching the militants.In its latest statement, Amnesty International dismissed Israel's claim that the blockade targets Gaza militants who have fired thousands of rockets on southern Israel.The reality is that the blockade does not target armed groups, but rather, punishes Gaza's entire population by restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials, said Malcom Smart, the group's Middle East and North Africa director.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev promptly rebuffed Amnesty and accused Hamas of abusing the Gazans.The Palestinians in Gaza are under the thumb of the brutal Hamas regime that places violent jihad against Israel above the well-being and the welfare of the people of Gaza, Regev said.This time, Amnesty did not assail Egypt, which has also blockaded its boundary with Gaza. The sealed borders have forced Gazans to build hundreds of tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt frontier to smuggle in goods as well as weapons.

Israel says Turkey ties warm; analysts skeptical By IAN DEITCH and SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writers – Sun Jan 17, 3:22 pm ET

ANKARA, Turkey – Israel's defense minister said Sunday that a daylong visit to Turkey had helped end an ugly diplomatic feud but analysts expressed skepticism that the trip would ease tensions rising since Israel's Gaza war.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told reporters that the countries had moved beyond a disagreement that erupted after Israel's deputy foreign minister deliberately humiliated the Turkish ambassador to express anger over an anti-Israeli show on Turkish television.Israel apologized, and Barak said at a joint news conference with Turkey's defense minister that,I believe it was a mistake, and the right step was taken according to the norms of diplomacy.It is appropriate that all the ups and downs in our relationship over the years should be solved and put behind us, Barak said.Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was satisfied with Barak's description of the humiliation as a mistake and said Turkey would not pursue the issue further.Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul did not address the diplomatic spat directly and said the two countries had common interests but delivered an assessment of the relationship that Israeli analysts saw as lukewarm at best.

We are strategic allies as long as our interests force us to do so, said the minister, who is not a fluent English speaker. We are living in the same area. Although we don't have common borders, we have the same interests.Turkish Defense Ministry officials could not be reached for comment on the his choice of words. But Israeli analysts described the remark as evidence that relations were not back to what they were.The honeymoon days of the '90s are over and will not return, said defense analyst Alon Ben-David, reporting from Ankara for Israel's Channel 10 TV.

Turkish analysts said they doubted that Turkey was prepared to back away from its harsh criticism of Israel's offensive in Gaza a year ago, a conflict that threatened the military and economic alliance between the two countries.It is not possible for relations to return to the warm level they were at up until recently, said Ali Tekin, an assistant professor of international relations at Ankara's Bilkent University.Dogu Ergil, a former political science professor at Ankara University and a columnist for Zaman newspaper, said neither country was ready to break off ties but Turkey wanted to keep relations at a low profile.Turkey's preference is for relations to be interest-driven rather than fraternal, Ergil said.Barak was the first Israeli official to visit Turkey since the feud erupted Jan. 11 after Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, summoned the Turkish ambassador to complain about a TV show depicting Israeli agents kidnapping children and shooting old men.

The ambassador, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, was forced to sit on a low sofa without a handshake, while Ayalon told local TV stations that the humiliation was intentional. Outraged, Turkey threatened to recall the ambassador, forcing Ayalon to apologize.
Gonul said Turkey and Israel had completed seven out of 13 military projects, including the upgrade of F-4 and F-5 jets. Israel is to deliver 10 Heron unmanned aircraft to Turkey in the first half of this year, Gonul added. Turkey hopes to use the drones to monitor Kurdish rebel hideouts.No new projects were announced Sunday, but Gonul said Turkey and Israel were looking to jointly upgrade M-60 battle tanks in Turkey for other countries.In a goodwill gesture, Barak asked his personal photographer to take a picture of him with Celikkol during the visit, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. Celikkol had traveled to Ankara for Barak's visit. Hours before Barak's departure, Ayalon said the Turkish ambassador could be expelled if Turkish TV dramas continue to depict Israeli security forces as brutal. In Israel on Sunday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman criticized the way Ayalon handled the protest, but defended its substance. We don't seek conflicts, but we will stand our ground,Lieberman said at a Jerusalem news conference.Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.

Abbas urges US endgame unless Israel halts settlements
Sun Jan 17, 9:40 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas urged Washington on Sunday to declare an endgame to resolve the decades-old Middle East conflict if Israel does not agree to halt settlement growth.Abbas, in a statement carried by the official Wafa wire service, said Arab states and the Palestinians would present a unified position to the United States offering two options.Either Israel adheres to a complete halt to settlements and the guidelines (of negotiations) or America must come and say this is the endgame with respect to determining borders and the refugee issue and other final-status issues.Abbas has resisted months of US pressure to relaunch peace talks suspended during last year's Gaza war, saying Israel must first freeze all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.In November, Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enacted a 10-month moratorium on new building starts in the West Bank but excluded east Jerusalem, public buildings and projects already under way.The United States hailed the move as unprecedented but the Palestinians have rejected it as insufficient.Israel's hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, however, said on Sunday that his country would make no more gestures towards the Palestinians.As far as we are concerned, we have exhausted our arsenal of gestures. There will be no more gestures. Right now, it is time for gestures from the Palestinians, he told a press conference.Last week, Abbas appeared to give some ground by demanding a halt to settlement growth for a fixed period, but in Sunday's statement he remained adamant about a complete halt.We cannot return to the negotiations if Israel stays with this position,Abbas said, referring to the limited moratorium.US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to return to the region this week to try again to convince both sides to restart negotiations.Israel's Maariv newspaper reported earlier this month that Washington was pushing a plan to restart peace talks that foresees reaching a final deal in two years and agreeing on permanent borders in nine months.

Lebanese protest Egypt's Gaza barrier
Sun Jan 17, 9:17 am ET

BEIRUT – Lebanese protesters accused Egypt's president Sunday of acting like an agent of Israel over his country's construction of an underground steel wall along the Gaza border.The Egyptian barrier could deprive Gaza's Hamas rulers of their only lifeline by blocking hundreds of smuggling tunnels.About 200 people took part in the protest near Egypt's embassy. Crowds set fire to U.S. and Israeli flags. Some of the Israeli flags had Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's picture on them.The protesters also carried banners depicting Mubarak as an Israeli agent, as well as portraits of the president with a Star of David on his forehead.The Gaza barrier has angered many Arabs and Muslims. Egypt calls it a matter of national security.Hamas' exiled political leader, Khaled Mashaal, visited Beirut last week and urged Egypt to stop construction of the barrier, saying walls are built between enemies, not brothers.

Sunday's protesters — most of them activists from leftist groups — carried banners with Mubarak's image and the words: At your service USA.Since Israel's withdrew settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas is believed to have stepped up its weapons imports considerably and Israel has struck hard at the hundreds of tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border to stop the flow of arms.The underground passages also pose a threat to Egypt, which is increasingly concerned about an Islamic militant regime on its doorstep that could spill into its territory and incite violence.

Turkish movie sparks Israeli fury
Sat Jan 16, 7:55 am ET

ANKARA (AFP) – The scriptwriter of a Turkish television series that sparked a diplomatic row with Israel said his team is working on a movie to show more alleged Israeli crimes against humanity, in remarks published Saturday.The movie, to be released in the second half of this year, will focus on Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip and depict Israel as it is -- with bloody hands, merciless... flouting all human values, Bahadir Ozdener told the Vatan newspaper.What we do is fiction... But what about what they do, their crimes against humanity? They are real, he claimed.Ozdener is the scriptwriter of Valley of the Wolves, a long-running television series about the adventures of a Turkish secret agent which took Turkish viewers by storm but is widely criticised for being chauvinistic and glamorising violence.In the episode that angered Israel, the protagonist storms an Israeli diplomatic mission to rescue a Turkish boy kidnapped by the intelligence agency Mossad, with one scene showing blood splaying over the Star of David as he kills an Israeli agent.Israel slammed the show for depicting Israel and Jews as baby-snatchers and war criminals,but Ozdener expressed no remorse.It is Israel who must show remorse.... If they cannot see themselves in the mirror, we know how to hold the mirror to their face, he said.A diplomatic storm broke Monday when Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned Turkey's ambassador, Oguz Celikkol, to protest the series, giving him a public dressing down.As the unexpecting Celikkol smiled, Ayalon turned to reporters and told them in Hebrew to pay attention that the envoy was made to sit on a low couch and that the Turkish flag was removed from their table.Bowing to pressure from a furious Ankara, Ayalon sent a letter of apology to the ambassador on Wednesday, cooling the row that had threatened to plunge the two already estranged allies into a serious crisis.

Celikkol returned to Turkey Saturday for preparations ahead of a visit by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, planned for Sunday before the row erupted.He described Monday's incident as one that will go down in the books of diplomatic history, the Anatolia news agency reported.The once-flourishing Turkish-Israeli ties took a sharp downturn last year when Israel's devastating war on Gaza prompted an unprecedented barrage of criticism from the Islamist-rooted government in Ankara.

Israel experts check Jordan embassy after bomb attack
Fri Jan 15, 1:51 pm ET

AMMAN (AFP) – Israeli security experts paid a visit to Jordan on Friday to evaluate risks of any attacks against the Jewish state's Amman embassy a day after a bomb attack on a convoy from the mission.Jordanian Information Minister Nabil Sharif told AFP the delegation was assessing Israeli security measures of their embassy in the wake of the blast that caused no casualties as the convoy headed for Israel via the West Bank.The minister said however that the delegation was in no way involved in the ongoing investigation which is totally in the hands of the Jordanian authorities.
Sharif said that no arrest has occurred up until this time and no information can blame a particular group in the attack.

Following the attack on Thursday, Sharif had said there were no casualties or damage.

While cars, including two Israeli embassy cars, were travelling near the town of Naur on the road between Amman and the Jordan Valley a bomb exploded without causing casualties or damage, Sharif said.A source close to the investigation said the blast left a crater 10 centimetres (four inches) deep and 80 centimetres (32 inches) wide.

Hamas fighter killed while handling explosives: medic
Fri Jan 15, 6:29 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – A member of the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas was killed while handling explosives in the Gaza Strip overnight, a Palestinian medic said on Friday.Imad al-Selkawy, 25, suffered fatal injuries in the accidental blast, which occurred at Deir el-Balah in the centre of the Palestinian territory, the medic said.Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades confirmed the death in a statement, saying its activist had been killed during a mission of jihad, a phrase it uses to describe such incidents.

Jordan confirms bomb near Israeli embassy convoy
Thu Jan 14, 12:17 pm ET

AMMAN (AFP) – A roadside bomb blew up near an Israeli embassy convoy headed to Israel from the Jordanian capital on Thursday, causing no casualties, an Israeli envoy posted in Amman confirmed.The Israeli embassy convoy left Amman and was headed for the Hussein bridge when the blast occurred. Nobody was hurt, the diplomat contacted by telephone told AFP, referring to the Allenby Bridge between Jordan and the West Bank.

The bridge stands about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Amman.

Israeli diplomats often travel home on Thursdays, the start of the Muslim weekend in Jordan, and return on Sundays to Jordan, which has had a peace treaty with the Jewish state since 1994.

U.S. tells Abbas pushing hard for Mideast talks By Mohammed Assadi – Thu Jan 14, 10:38 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – A senior U.S. envoy told the Palestinian president on Thursday that Washington is working hard to find a way to broker a resumption of peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said.Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made clear he still wants U.S. President Barack Obama to press Israel to halt all expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before he would consider new negotiations.U.S. national security advisor Jim Jones told Abbas in Ramallah that Washington was trying very hard to find a way to resume the negotiations, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters after the meeting.Jones, who also met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, is touring the region as part of a renewed effort to broker a resumption of the peace talks stalled for more than a year. George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy for Middle East peace, is also due to visit in the coming days.Appearing to pour cold water on the new U.S. push, Abbas said in an interview he would resist pressure to resume negotiations unless his demands on Jewish settlements were met.Abbas has insisted on a complete halt to Israeli building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and is not satisfied with a partial, temporary freeze ordered by Netanyahu. Abbas has so far resisted U.S. pressure to return to talks with Israel.

Asked by Egypt's Voice of the Arabs radio how he would react if the United States insisted on an immediate resumption of talks, Abbas said: We will not accept this and we have already conveyed our position to the American administration.U.S. pressure to resume talks without a full settlement freeze was unjust, he said in the interview conducted this week and rebroadcast by Voice of Palestine radio on Thursday.Netanyahu's office said the Israeli prime minister and Jones discussed advancement of the diplomatic process with the Palestinians and regional security -- a likely reference to shared concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

CLINTON PRESSURE

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations straight away and to focus immediately on agreeing the borders of a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem, suggesting this could break the deadlock over Jewish settlements. U.S. and regional officials have said the United States is looking at what assurances it might provide the Palestinians and Israelis -- possibly in the form of letters -- that might help the parties get back to the table.Asked whether U.S. guarantees would persuade him to resume negotiations, Abbas said: They already gave guarantees. These guarantees did not do anything. We do not want guarantees.We want (the United States) to tell Israel to fully freeze settlement for a period of time and then we resume negotiations,he said.Obama disappointed Abbas last year when he softened his demand for a settlement building freeze, instead calling on Israel to exercise restraint in construction in the lands it captured in a 1967 Middle East war.Abbas said if the United States was not able to force Israel to halt settlement,how it could implement an agreed deal?(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry in Ramallah; editing by Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem and Paul Taylor)Israeli media reported earlier that the bomb detonated near the convoy carrying Israel's ambassador to Jordan on its way to the Allenby Bridge.

In Gaza, Hamas calls prayers for rain By Nidal Al-mughrabi – Thu Jan 14, 10:22 am ET

GAZA (Reuters) – The Islamist group Hamas held prayers in the Gaza Strip Thursday to ask God for rain, calling for divine help to ease a water crisis that is compounding the woes of Palestinians in the coastal enclave.We usually plant grain, olives and almonds. This year there is nothing. What can we do? said Palestinian Fatima Abu Tair, lamenting the unusually dry winter that has left her land parched and trees bare. We are awaiting God's mercy.The Hamas-run Ministry of Religious Affairs led dozens of worshippers in prayer in a large playground in Gaza City.We have learned from the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, that when rain is blocked and the land is dry, we should resort to God and hold prayers seeking rain, Hamas ministry official Abdallah Abu Jarboa said.The Gaza Strip is served by a single aquifer that does not meet the needs of its population of 1.5 million Palestinians.The aquifer has been depleted and contaminated by over-extraction, sewage and seawater and 90-95 percent of its water is unfit for human consumption, Amnesty International said in a report last year.Many Palestinians in Gaza have dug their own wells to reach better drinking water, placing additional strain on the aquifer.Plans to build a desalination plant for Gaza have been frozen since Hamas won a legislative election in 2006 and ascended to power, defeating the long-time dominant Fatah movement of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.

The group seized complete control of Gaza in 2007.

Since the Palestinian elections were held, most of the institutions of donor countries retreated from their pledges, Munther Shoblaq, director general of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, said.Farmer Narziq Abu Tair said his 15-member family depends on what he grows on his land.Winter is ending and summer is coming and there was no rain and there is no alternative to water our lands, the 68-year old said.(Editing by Tom Perry and Elizabeth Fullerton)

US security envoy meets Israeli, Palestinian leaders
Thu Jan 14, 10:14 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's national security adviser James Jones held talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders on Thursday aimed at furthering US-led peace efforts.Jones confirmed Obama's determination to arrive at a comprehensive peace in the Middle East despite the difficulties, and said the key to peace in the region is to resolve the Palestinian issue, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP after Jones met president Mahmud Abbas.The US envoy later met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks that focused on jump-starting the peace process with the Palestinians and regional security threats, an Israeli government statement said.Jones did not speak to reporters during the regional tour, which has also taken him to Saudi Arabia and comes after months of US-led peace efforts.Obama has been struggling to get the two sides back to the negotiating table since he assumed office nearly a year ago but has thus far failed to get Israel to completely halt settlements or secure Arab concessions to the Jewish state.The Palestinians have said they will not resume talks -- suspended a year ago during Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza -- until Israel halts all settlement building in the occupied territories.Israel has enacted a 10-month moratorium on new settlement projects but has excluded mostly Arab east Jerusalem, public buildings and projects already under way. The Palestinians have rejected the move as insufficient.