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Thursday, October 19, 2006
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Iran seen stopping Shalit release
Iran reportedly bribed the top Hamas leader to prevent the release of an Israeli soldier being held in the Gaza Strip.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority recently were on the verge of a deal for the recovery of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, but an Iranian delegation paid Hamas’ supreme leader, Khaled Meshaal, $50 million to scupper it, Yediot Achronot reported Thursday.
Meshaal, who lives in Syria, has confirmed ordering the June 25 border raid in which Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and abducted Shalit to Gaza.
He has demanded a sweeping amnesty for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails in exchange for the hostage.
According to Yediot, a more limited prisoner swap had been agreed upon between Israel and the Palestinian Authority before Meshaal called off the deal.
Dichter to White House: Egypt must do more
Israel’s top security official told the White House that Egypt must do more to stop arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
Avi Dichter, Israel’s internal security minister, met Wednesday with Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s national security adviser. Dichter said he believed Egypt was capable of doing more to stop terrorists from smuggling in arms that are used against Israelis.
“I don’t think the United States understood the breadth of the smuggling, in relationship to the capabilities of the Egyptians to stop it,” Dichter told reporters after meeting with Hadley.
Dichter said he wanted Egypt to treat the problem “as if the smugglers were smuggling arms from Gaza into Egypt.”
Dichter also said Israel would not object if the United States helped expand the security detail assigned to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a relative moderate.
Dichter also met with his U.S. counterpart, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
U.S. lawyer turns Israeli soldier
A 37-year-old New York lawyer, inspired by the Lebanon war, joined the Israeli army.
After dumping his six-figure salary Manhattan job, Ran Zev Shechnovitz came to Israel and is currently serving alongside conscripts half his age in the Golani infantry brigade’s boot camp, Ma’ariv reported Thursday.
“I wanted to go to Golani the most,” he told the newspaper.
“I saw during the war that it is the best fighting unit with the most honor.”
Shechnovitz was born in Israel but moved abroad as a baby.
“When I was in the United States, I didn’t really feel that it is my home. I worked in a big office with 40 staff, handling doctors and businessmen, but I wasn’t happy. I knew that Israel is the only place for me,” he said.
http://www.jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 11:00 PM Permanent Link
 
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