Arab terrorists opened fire on a vehicle near the northern entrance to the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat Thursday evening, murdering one Jew and seriously wounding another.  At the same time, an attack in Kfar Etzion, south of Jerusalem, ended in the death of two terrorists.  Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigades terrorist group announced that it was behind both attacks.

A Border Police officer - Rami Zuari, 20, from Be'er Sheva - was mortally wounded in the first attack. Medics at a nearby checkpoint administered CPR to no avail, and he was pronounced dead. The other victim, a female Border Police officer, also 20, was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Miracle and Courageous Counselors in Kfar Etzion
Around the same time, Arab terrorists also infiltrated Kibbutz Kfar Etzion in Gush Etzion in an event that ended miraculously without major casualties. The two terrorists entered Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's Mekor Chaim yeshiva high school, entering a library room where seven of the boarding school's counselors were having a meeting. The terrorists, armed with a knife and a gun - which later turned out to be a fake - were dressed in the uniforms of a security company, and ordered the seven to line up on one side of the room. A counselor realized they were terrorists, drew his personal firearm and opened fire. Another grabbed the fake gun from one of the terrorists, wrestled him to the floor, while the first counselor shot him dead. The terrorists managed to lightly stab two of the counselors before falling dead.

At the same time, the Beit Medrash (study hall) - adjacent to the library - was packed with students taking part in the weekly Thursday night "mishmar" all-night Torah study session.  Other students were scattered in rooms in the immediate vicinity.

Both of the lightly wounded counselors were taken to Hadassah Hospital for treatment and observation. Residents of the Kibbutz were told to remain in their homes for a while after the attack, for fear that other terrorists were still present in the community.  A search was carried out for the exact spot in the perimeter fence through which the terrorists infiltrated.

The IDF commended the counselors, saying their bravery prevented what would have been a major terrorist attack.

Former MK Chanan Porat, a resident of Kfar Etzion, remarked afterwards on the miraculous nature of the event: "Thank G-d it ended this way - and the counselors deserve amazing credit for their courage and skill who did the work and killed the terrorists."

A month ago, on Dec. 28, armed terrorists opened fire and murdered two hikers - both former students of the same Mekor Chaim yeshiva - in Nachal Telem, west of Hevron.  The two, off-duty soldiers Amikam Amichai and David Rubin, managed to return fire, killing one terrorists and seriously wounding another.  A girl who was hiking with the two hid and was saved.

As a result of the demolition of the separation wall between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday, police and military forces have increased security measures along the Israeli border with Egypt. Israelis visiting the Sinai Peninsula have been instructed to return home immediately.

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs from the Palestinian Authority in Gaza have entered Sinai since Wednesday morning. According to Israeli intelligence assessments, it is likely that PA terrorists have taken advantage of the
It is likely that PA terrorists have taken advantage of the border breach.
border breach to exit Gaza in order to infiltrate Israel via the Egyptian border. Commanders from the military, intelligence agencies, the police and other security bodies in the south have been meeting to coordinate their response to the increased threat.

As a first step, IDF forces on the border with Egypt have been put on a higher alert level, and are consulting and coordinating with police and local municipalities in the south. The army has ordered Route 10 along the Israeli border with Egypt to be temporarily closed to civilian traffic due to security concerns.

In addition, the National Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Bureau urges Israelis currently in the Sinai Peninsula to return to Israel immediately. The bureau issued a warning on Thursday saying that Israelis should absolutely avoid travel to the Sinai at this time. Security officials explained that PA terrorists are planning to kidnap Israelis in Sinai and bring them to Gaza. Terrorists would find it easy to enter Egypt and return to Gaza with kidnapping victims due to the open border between Sinai and southern Gaza, they said.

To further preserve security in the south, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter has ordered police to step up operations in the vicinity of the Israel-Egypt border. In the wake of the massive southward flight of PA residents, he expressed concern that terrorists could try to sneak in from the Sinai along with a group of refugees or smugglers.

While Gaza is bounded on the Israeli side by a relatively secure perimeter barrier, the border between Egypt and Israel is much more open. Security officials estimate that hundreds of people, most of them African refugees, smugglers and migrant workers, manage to cross the border illegally every month.

US Offers to Help Egypt; Mubarak Says 'Not Yet'
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said Thursday that the US would be willing to help Egypt regain control of the border with Gaza.  Burns told journalists that the US believes that Egypt must restore security along its border.  In response to pressure along these lines from both the US and Israel, Egypt announced that the border would be closed at Friday at 1 PM.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday that Egypt would not prevent the free movement of Gaza Arabs in the Rafiah area until they had a chance to purchase goods in Egyptian stores. Israel has allowed only essential goods in through Gaza crossings in recent weeks, causing a sharp increase in the cost of certain products, such as gasoline, cheese, and cigarettes. However, Hamas officials have admitted that the demolition of the Gaza-Egypt border was planned months in advance. It was, they said, not related to the partial embargo imposed by Israel.

Israeli Air Force pilots eliminated four terrorists in two air strikes late Thursday night and early Friday morning, three of whom were members of Hamas.

In one attack, the IAF struck two terrorists riding in a vehicle near the border fence with Egypt. The other two terrorists were killed while driving in the Egypt-Gaza border town of Rafiah.

One of the dead terrorists was the commander of the Hamas cell in Rafiah, according to local sources quoted by IDF Army Radio.

The IDF raised the terror alert along Israel’s border with Egypt after Hamas terrorists blew up the border fence separating Egypt from Gaza on Wednesday, allowing terrorists to move freely and bring arms, explosives and cash into Gaza from Egypt.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter reported Thursday that Gaza terrorists have amassed close to 100 tons of explosives as well as advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft missiles and long-range Katyusha rockets.

PA to Control Border?
Defense Minister Ehud Barak offered to transfer control of Israeli crossings into Gaza to the Palestinian Authority if it could prove its security control was as “effective as that of Jordan, Egypt and even Syria.” He added, however, that Israel was “not promising anything.”

Egyptian officials had rejected overtures from Israel suggesting that Egypt take over total responsibility for the Hamas terrorist-controlled region on Thursday since the border is now open.  Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki bluntly told the Associated Press, “This is a wrong assumption.”

What follows is an abridged transcript of an interview with three religious teenaged girls who were released from prison on Monday after sitting in jail for three weeks.  Their crime: Attending an outpost-building ceremony outside Beit El and then refusing to identify themselves.  The reason they refused: Unwillingness to recognize the authority of a Jewish court system that refuses to allow Jews to settle throughout the Land of Israel.

Following three weeks of harassment by the courts and prison systems, during which even some on the left called for the girls to be freed, they scored a victory in forcing their release without conditions or restrictions - and without identifying themselves.

The girls, all 9th and 10th graders in the Maaleh Levonah Ulpanah Girls High School near Shilo in Shomron, are not permitted to be identified in the media, as they are minors.  They are known in this interview as Chana, Tchiyah (Revival), Herut (Freedom) and Yael.

Q. How did you feel when you learned of your release?

Yael:  It was totally unexpected. We felt as if it came from G-d alone.

Herut:  I had trouble believing we would ever get out.  When they actually released us with no restrictions, we saw how G-d is all-powerful.  Even things that are beyond all imagination can happen.

Q. After this long period, and the difficult experiences you went through, what do you have to say to the legal system about how they treated you?

Tchiyah:  It doesn't matter what you try to do, G-d is King - and this is not just a slogan.

Yael:  As with the Egyptians before the Exodus, the more you try to weaken us, the stronger we will become.

Asked about the harassment they underwent, one said, "One time, a few of us were falling asleep in our chairs, and the policemen kept waking us up, telling us we had no right to sleep... The officer in charge of the prisoners in the N'vei Tirtzah Women's Prison prevented visitors from coming, and did not give us phone cards. One time, when a lawyer from the Honenu [legal rights] organization came to visit us, the officer lied and told him that we were sleeping.  This was very hard for us, because we had been waiting anxiously for that visit."

One girl said that their first night in jail was particularly difficult: "Border Guard policemen, Druze, spoke to us very not nicely and did very not nice things.  Their behavior was very base." At one point, a male policemen interrupted a session in which they were being physically checked - a clear violation of their modesty.  "They did it for no purpose, just to weaken us... But we have our faith, and we are strong. It was clear that it was only to weaken us."

Yael:  When you see how they try to weaken us simply because they were afraid, that strengthened us.

In this connection it is worth noting that when their friends demonstrated outside the police station a few days after their arrest, the police were heard telling each other, "Whatever you do, don’t arrest them!"

Herut:  This past Sabbath, after three girls were freed and we remained, it was hard for us that we stayed alone.  But then we remembered that everything is from G-d...

Chana:  The hardest part is that our friend, who recently turned 18, is still in prison, with no friends. She was arrested two months ago for trying to banish Arab olive-pickers from an area near Elon Moreh, and is being held until the end of the proceedings.  She's freezing at night because they give her just one blanket, there is no plug for a heater, they stole her phone card, and they don't allow her to bring things in... We are out, but we have to remember that there is another girl who is still there, though she did nothing wrong. We have to yell about this, and we must not rest until she is freed.

Tchiyah:  We spoke with the other prisoners at times, mostly about Judaism.  Many of them said they knew that Judaism is the right way.  It's precisely in the lowest places that one's true faith emerges.  You can see that they understand that there is a G-d, and it is good for them."

Chana:  There were some prisoners whom we taught to pray, and we brought them prayerbooks.

Herut:  One of them said, 'Look at that, they're sitting for ideology, while I'm here for selling drugs.'

Yael:  They appreciated that we were there because of our principles. Some of them said that they understand us, though they don't agree.  Others really admired our dedication.

Asked if they weren't negatively influenced by their presence together with convicted prisoners, Herut answered simply, "We were doing the right thing, and G-d protected us."

Q. Wasn't it hard to be alone and detached from the outside world for so long?

Chana:  We understood that this was our test and our task at that time.  We decided that we would take this road, despite all the difficulties.  It's important to emphasize that it wasn't easy, but we believed with perfect faith that we were supposed to be there.  We knew that we could get out, and we just had to hold on until the test was over."

Q. Why do young girls like you have to take this mission upon yourselves?

Herut:  You can always let things fall to other people; there are always excuses. But that's not how the Redemption will be brought.  Everyone has to give up a little and give of himself, according to what he can.  We don't have families to run, so we can take this mission on ourselves.  The Hebrew word for youth is no'ar, which comes from the same root as hitna'arut, to arouse; if we don't do it, no one will.

Chana:  The courts could have released us from the beginning; they knew our names. We shouldn't have remained in jail.  It was the court's problem, and they just wanted to harass and abuse us. But we were strong."

Q. What was the principled stand behind your refusal to identify yourselves and cooperate with the legal system?

Tchiyah:  We are in the Land of Israel. The Nation of Israel must be judged by Torah law.  But instead of our true and just Torah, we have courts that judge according to Turkish and British law.

Yael:  We felt that our public must wake up.  The courts are leading the country, and the government also acts according to rulings set by the Supreme Court.  The same law that kept us in prison is the same law that expelled Jews from their homes and left them with nothing. We wanted to show the public that everything is soiled and that we have to wake up from it."

Chana:  When the Nation of Israel first arrived in the Land, we were commanded in the Torah to appoint a king.  This is part of the process again, to build a regime that will run according to G-d's law.

Tchiyah:  Just like we are forbidden to follow an illegal law, we are also not permitted to be judged in a court run by such laws.

Q. Do you truly believe that seven girls in jail will lead to a Torah regime in the State of Israel?

Yael:  First our sector will wake up, and then the whole country will follow.

Tchiyah:  Our entire history is full of examples of the few against the many - David and Goliath, Avraham on one side of the river as opposed to everyone else, the Maccabees, and more.  Obviously we know the Sanhedrin won't be built in a month, but we have to start, and with G-d's help, if people change their way of thinking, it will be worth it."

Q. When you got out, did you feel that you had achieved something for being in jail so long?

Herut:  It came out better than we thought.  The whole public woke up and there was a great ripple.  We see how the legal system is afraid of this, letting us out without having to identify ourselves.  The truth won out.

Tchiyah:  I think it  might be less of a victory over the legal system and more of a feeling that G-d had confirmed that we were doing the right thing by refusing to have anything to do with the system.

Chana:  It's between us and G-d. I felt complete with Him. We were educated according to Torah ways, and there is no reason why we shouldn't also be judged accordingly.  The judges tried to re-educate us - as if the education that we received at home was not good enough... Sometimes the judges even admitted that they were leaving us jail another day in order to educate us - but in the end, they achieved exactly the opposite."

Q. How did your parents react?  Some people said they should have had you out of there even against your will.

Chana:  Our parents supported and strengthened us very much, even though it wasn't their decision for us to be there.  It seems that it's harder to worry from the outside than to actually be inside... This is our opportunity to thank them very much.  The thing is that according to Jewish Law, once a girl turns 12, she is Bat Mitzvah and is responsible for her own actions. So we made this decision - not lightly - and then our parents went along with what we did. 

The girls also expressed thanks for those who helped in the media and from a legal standpoint, such as the Honenu organization.  "Without such strong public support," they said, "our struggle would have been much harder.  But when we saw how many people were standing outside each time we went to court, we understood that we were doing the right thing and this was everyone's war, not just ours.  Many people began to understand that something is not right with our country and we must not sit on the sidelines.  If everyone does something, we can bring the Redemption - or at least fix one small thing."

The girls said they received many thanks afterwards, together with some negative reactions as well. "But if we go only by the latter, we'll never get anywhere," one said.

Q. Will you continue to go to outposts even though you know you could be arrested again?

Yael:  No one wants to sit in jail, but if we stop our advance on the Land of Israel, they will have won.  We just continue to get stronger and stronger.
 

IAF Commander Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy made a pointed comparison Thursday between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Shkedy, the son of a Holocaust survivor, hinted that Israel may have to "go it alone" against Iran, in a speech before a gathering of foreign military attachés military at the Masuah Institute for Holocaust studies. He said there that vis-à-vis Iran, Israel can "trust no one but itself."

'Subconscious Holocaust Story'
"Everyone has a personal and family Holocaust story. They are all more or less similar," Shkedy told Voice of Israel government radio after the speech. "Each of us has a story like that, which accompanies him everywhere. It is in your subconscious and in everything that you do."

"It is important to me that these things be understood and be well known," Shkedy said. "I am convinced that we have to look at reality with our eyes wide open," he told the radio station's military affairs correspondent, Carmela Menashe.

Matching Iranian, German Quotes
In the interview, Menashe noted that Shkedy had presented his audience with matching quotes
'It is simply inconceivable that a person in the present century allows himself to stand before the entire world and say these things.'
from Hitler and Ahmadinejad.

"The quotes are not… from the same periods of history," Shkedy told her, "but still, we need to take things seriously and not underestimate things that are said. People who say [these things] in a harsh, clear, continuous manner… I think we have to understand that there is a more than realistic possibility that they mean it."

Shkedy went on to explain: "This is a little simplistic, but if you read the things as they are, without resorting to any special translation or going especially deep into things, it is just unbelievable. It is simply inconceivable that a person in the present century allows himself to stand before the entire world and say these things. I think it is incomprehensible."

The statement by Shkedy could be seen as one of the most potent warnings to the Iranian regime to date, that Israel is serious about forestalling its nuclear ambitions. Recent hints to the same effect were made by former Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz at the Herzliya Conference, where former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton encouraged Israel to act on its own, too.

The IAF's aircraft and armament are reviewed in the IAF's website.

A lengthy investigative exposé in Haaretz targeting Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) has unearthed connections between the financier of the corruption-laden Oasis Casino in Jericho and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his predecessor Ariel Sharon.

Lieberman is currently being investigated for receiving a bribe from Austrian-Jewish businessman Martin Schlaff.

Schlaff “was known during the Cold War for his ties with the East German secret police, the Stasi,” Haaretz reports. It also notes the fact that he met with Yitzchak Rabin hours before Rabin was murdered on November 4, 1995. He established the Jericho casino with the help of former Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri during Binyamin Netanyahu’s term as prime minister. The two were introduced by Dov Weissglas, who went on to be the architect of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement as a consultant to Sharon.

Many see the casino as one of the most corruption-laden aspects of the Oslo Accords. For years, gambling moguls lobbied for a casino in Israel and were rebuffed. Finally, with the “Gaza and Jericho First” stage of the Oslo Accords, in which the two areas were relinquished to PLO control, the Knesset no longer needed to approve the casino’s establishment.

While it remained illegal to gamble in Israel, Israelis flocked to the Jericho casino to gamble there, forking over an average of a million dollars a day. Local Arabs were barred from gambling there by the nascent Palestinian Authority.

At the start of the Oslo War, after Arab terrorists used the casino to fire at IDF soldiers and a tank blew a hole in the front of it, Schlaff tried to broker a cease-fire to get the casino running again. The biggest Haaretz revelation was that he did so through then-mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert, who would meet with Yasser Arafat’s confidant Mohammad Rashid, a partner in the casino.

Olmert, Rashid and Schlaff met at least six times, with the last meeting including Shas Chairman Eli Yishai and Atty. Dov Weissglass, Haaretz says.

Schlaff is now afraid to set foot in Israel, as he is being investigated for giving out millions of dollars in bribes to Lieberman and former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Police have concluded that Schlaff transferred $3 million in bribes to Sharon through South African millionaire Cyril Kern to open offshore casinos on boats docked in Eilat. Austrian police confirmed that Sharon accepted the bribes.

The original Haaretz interest in the case was a series of articles by left-wing activist-turned-journalist Uri Blau, who was determined to expose Lieberman’s corruption, even at the cost of bringing down Olmert and Sharon.

Blau reported that $650,000 was transferred from an Austrian company owned by Schlaff to a Cyprus-based company “police suspect” was controlled by Lieberman on August 14, 2001 (while he was serving as Minister of Infrastructures in the Sharon government). Lieberman had established the company, originally named Nativ el HaMizrach (“Path to the East”) in 1998. Schlaff says the money was payment for Ukrainian lumber mills bought from the company. The article says, “Police suspect the money was a bribe.” It was not speculated for what the bribe was made.
 
Lieberman’s lawyer’s response: "Nativ el Hamizrach was sold by Lieberman in April 2001, and since then he has had no connection with it, and therefore he has no idea what happened to the company four months later."

The investigation against Lieberman and his daughter have been ongoing for years, but suddenly became active again once he left the government last week.

In a joyous ceremony held at Jerusalem's Great Synagogue Thursday night, a descendant of the once-flourishing Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, was married under the hupah (wedding canopy) to a recent immigrant from the United States.

Shoshana Rebecca Li, 29, made Aliyah [immigrated to Israel] two years ago from China, and recently underwent formal conversion by Israel's Chief Rabbinate.  "For me, to have a proper religious Jewish wedding in Israel, it is a dream come true. I am very excited," Li said prior to the ceremony. "I was raised knowing that I am a Jew and I made Aliyah because of our tradition."

Li's husband, Ami Emmanuel, 25, arrived in Israel two years ago from Florida after studying film and directing. “No one in the world is as happy as I am," said Emmanuel. "I thought it impossible to marry a Jewish woman from China. However, it seems miracles do happen, and this is the biggest miracle of my life.”

The newlywed couple plan to make their home on Kibbutz Ketura in Israel's Aravah region, north of Eilat.

More than 150 friends and relatives took part in the wedding festivities, which were organized by Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund. The Shavei Israel organization, which helped arrange Shoshana's Aliyah, assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. "This wedding symbolizes the beginning of the return of the remnants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China to the Jewish people and to the State of Israel," Freund said.

Jews first settled in Kaifeng, China, over 1,000 years ago when it was an important stop along the Silk Route. The community flourished, and numbered as many as 5,000 people during the Middle Ages. After the last rabbi of Kaifeng died in the first half of the 19th century, assimilation and intermarriage took their toll, eventually leading to the collapse of the community. Nonetheless, around 700 to 1,000 Jewish descendants still live today in Kaifeng, and many of them are seeking to reclaim their Jewish identity

"150 years after the Kaifeng Jewish community essentially ceased to exist," Freund said, "a wonderful young woman descended from that community is getting married to a new immigrant from the United States under a Jewish wedding canopy in Jerusalem. I cannot think of a more poignant example of kibbutz galuyot – the Ingathering of the Exiles."

Based in Jerusalem, Shavei Israel works with various groups around the world that have a historical connection with the Jewish people. These include the Bnei Menashe of northeastern India, who claim descent from a lost tribe of Israel, the Bnai Anousim ("Marranos") of Spain, Portugal and South America, the Subbotnik Jews of Russia, and the "Hidden Jews" of Poland from the time of the Holocaust. The organization also assists with the absorption of new immigrants in Israel, including providing assistance with housing, employment, and professional training. For more information, contact office@shavei.org.

 

Preparations are underway for the Fifth Annual Jerusalem Conference, to be held next month, February 19-20. Critical issues determining Israel’s future as a viable, modern, democratic Jewish State will be discussed.

The Jerusalem Conference provides a broad public forum for diverse viewpoints to discuss issues of national importance. Topics include Israel's international relations, security, economics, social welfare, Jewish education, Aliyah, and more.

Among the speakers at this year's event will be U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kansas), Natan Sharansky,  former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr., former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, historian and Islam expert Bernard Lewis, and dozens of other key figures and policy makers in the political, economic, social, security/military, rabbinic and academic spheres of influence in Israel.

The speakers include national leaders, traditionalists and patriots who present the case for Israel’s long-term national interest from various angles.  Jewish and non-Jewish political and religious leaders and opinion molders from around the world will also participate.

This year’s conference will explore the international threats of jihadi terrorism and Islamofacist regimes, providing focus on the existential threats to Israel from Iran, the terrorist armies of Hizbullah and Hamas, and jihadi terrorism.

For the first time, the Conference will feature simultaneous sessions in both Hebrew and English, and all sessions will be translated in real-time to Hebrew, English and French.