News from Israel

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NEWS FROM ISRAEL

Hizballah takeover of Lebanon may benefit Israel

Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak on Monday noted a full Hizballah
takeover in Lebanon could play into Israel's hands.

Speaking to Army Radio, Lipkin-Shahak explained that "if an armed conflict erupts it will be simpler to
strike Lebanon when Hezbollah is the legitimate ruler."

Pointing to Iran's growing involvement in the area, Israeli military officials have been warning for over a
year that renewed conflict with Lebanon and probably Syria is a matter of when, not if.
Israel was severely restricted in its last war against Hizballah as it did everything possible to avoid hitting
parts of the country ostensibly under the control of the Western-backed central government.
Late last week, Hizballah forces marched into Beirut, effectively exerting control over the western half of
the city. The group withdrew its forces three days later, but not before extracting heavy concessions from
the government. Fighting has continued in other parts of the country, claiming at least 85 lives over the
past week.

Hizballah's show of military might in Beirut and its ability to violently blackmail the government prompted
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon to declare on Sunday that Lebanon had become a "Hizballah
state," and that it was an illusion to continue speaking of an alternative authority.

Israel rejects insufficient Egyptian truce proposal

Israeli leaders on Monday told visiting Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that they could not
endorse a proposal he had drawn up for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas-ruled
Gaza Strip because it failed to demand a halt to Gaza arms smuggling and the release of an Israeli
soldier being held in the territory.

In his meeting with Suleiman, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert echoed what his security cabinet
ministers had told him earlier in the day, stating that an agreement that allowed Hamas and allied terror
groups to continue strengthening themselves militarily would only be setting the stage for more intense
violence in the future.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak also met with the Egyptian, and stressed that for Israel, the release of
abducted IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit is "a central component of stabilizing the situation in the Gaza Strip."
Earlier in the day, senior defense officials cited by Israel's Ynet news portal said Suleiman's visit was a
last ditch effort to avoid a major Israeli military incursion into Gaza in response to escalating rocket fire.
In their meeting, Barak confirmed to Suleiman that Israel will not continue to show restraint in the face of
Hamas aggression much longer.

Iranian missiles hit southern Israel city

Missiles provided by Iran to Palestinian terror groups based in the Gaza Strip struck the southern Israel
coastal city of Ashkelon on Monday morning, shocking locals after a period of relative calm.
One of the two GRAD-type Katyusha missiles landed just feet from a residential building and not far from
a schoolhouse. The missile left a large crater in the ground, but did not cause any damage to
surrounding structures. An Israeli woman who was nearby when the missile struck was treated for anxiety.
The second missile landed in a national park that was fortunately empty of visitors at the time of the
attack.

Meanwhile, Israeli defense officials cited by Israel's Ynet news portal said that Gaza terrorists are now
firing more mortar shells than rockets, believing Israel less likely to launch any significant military
response to the "softer" weapons.

Despite the ongoing terrorist fire from Gaza, Defense Ministry sources told The Jerusalem Post that Israel
will resume large-scale industrial fuel supplies to the Hamas-ruled territory to prevent the shutdown of its
main hospital.

Israel to build new Temple Mount bridge

The Jerusalem Municipality this week approved plans to replace a damaged land bridge leading to the
southwest entrance to the Temple Mount.

The Mugrabi Gate bridge was damaged in an earthquake last year, making it unsafe for the Jewish and
Christian visitors for whom it is the only entrance to the holy site.

As repair efforts got underway, Israeli archeologists found stunning remains and worked to uncover and
preserve those remains as the construction work continued.

However, the Muslim world erupted in wild hysteria, claiming that Israel was trying to undermine the
foundations of the Temple Mount and bring down the mosques that currently occupy Israel's holiest site.
Work on the new bridge is expected to elicit a similar response.

Gaza rocket narrowly misses busload of Israeli kids

Palestinian forces operating out of the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at the southern Israel town of Sderot
on Sunday afternoon, one of which landed just feet from a school bus packed with young Israeli children.
The bus' windows were all blown out by the force of the blast, and three children were treated for shock,
though, miraculously, there were no physical injuries reported.

The other rocket landed in the parking lot of a local college, sending one woman into shock and
damaging a number of parked cars.

A day earlier, Gaza-based terrorists fired at least 21 rockets at southern Israel, damaging numerous
buildings, including a synagogue, in Sderot. A house in the hard-hit working-class town suffered a direct
hit during the barrage. The family was home at the time of the attack, but escaped any physical injuries.
On Friday, a Palestinian mortar shell barrage left one Israeli dead in a nearby kibbutz.
In other Gaza security news, Israeli forces apprehended three Palestinian terrorists trying to infiltrate
southern Israel on Sunday.

In Samaria, Palestinian stone throwers lightly wounded an Israeli motorist on Sunday morning. The victim
required treatment at a Jerusalem hospital.

On Friday, a group of five young Israelis out for a weekend hike in Samaria were attacked by two armed
Palestinian Arabs. The Israelis, some of whom were IDF soldiers on leave, returned fire, killing one of
their attackers.

Hizballah has made Lebanon an Iranian vassal

Just as Gaza has fallen to Iranian proxy rule via Hamas, so too Lebanon is now under the direct influence
of Tehran after Beirut's fall to Hizballah at the weekend, declared Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim
Ramon on Sunday.

Lebanon "is controlled by this terror organization and its government has become irrelevant," Ramon was
quoted as saying at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "The notion that there is another
government apart from Hizbullah is entirely fictitious."

Earlier in the day, Hizballah began pulling its forces off the streets of Beirut, but only after the
Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora made major concessions to the group.
Attempting to save face, Siniora issued a tough-worded statement insisting that Lebanon could no longer
tolerate an armed Hizballah. However, the group's leadership said that the outcome of its brief
confrontation with government forces was a clear victory for Hizballah, and demonstrated its ability to
effectively counter Western influences in the country.

Hizballah left a small number of its troops in Beirut to patrol allied Muslim neighborhoods in order to deter
any possible retribution by government forces.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting broke out in other parts of the country between Hizballah and government
forces on Sunday. The violence was most severe in the northern coastal city of Tripoli, where at least 12
people were killed and anther 20 were wounded.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that Israel will watch patiently from the sidelines for the
time being and not become involved in Lebanon's current troubles, despite the fact that a decisive
Hizballah victory would pose a grave threat to the Jewish state.

Barak urged the international community to get involved and prevent a total Hizballah takeover.

News From Israel

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