http://www.imemc.org/article/48541

More civilian deaths in Gaza
Tuesday May 22, 2007 11:09 by Rami Almeghari - Rami Almeghari rami at imemc dot org

In an isolated barely field, located just few hundred meters away from the Israel-Gaza border line in eastern Rafah city, a heap of barely lies in the middle of the field. The field is now abandoned -- why? Not because there are no farmers in the area, but rather because the Loulahi family, who had been harvesting barely, were hit by Israeli missiles.

Funeral procession of the Loulahi family/photo by Ma'an News Agency

Samah, the daughter, was killed, and Ahmad, the son, killed as well. The father Sulieman was wounded, while A'isha, 19, is being treated at the nearby European Hospital after sustaining shrapnel wounds to her leg.

With her pale and yellow face, while surrounded by relatives and friends, the simple Rafah farmer spoke out with a sadness and bitterness which she would have never felt unless the Israeli missiles hadn't killed her "soul."

Despite her pain, A'isha spoke out: "It was 6:30 pm. We were harvesting the barely near the Sufa crossing, the sun was setting, while myself, my father and my brothers and sisters were all bending down in our field.

"My father asked us to leave our brother Mohammad in the car. We left the field, then the Zannana [unmanned drone plane] fired a missile that hit us directly," Aisha says.

"My father rushed to us and called for the ambulance, then another missile was fired. I kept dragging my body until I arrived at our house and asked help from the neighbors, then a third missile was hit. By then, I heard people saying, 'the car was went off' and I learned that my sister Samah and my brother Ahmad were killed, while my father was injured," A'isha recalls.

"There were no gunmen near us, it's our field, we come here everyday to harvest the barely. Why did they hit us? What is our fault?" A'isha wonders, while sighing bitterly at the loss of her family.

A'isha's family is not to the first and, unfortunately, probably not the last civilian causality as a result of the current Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Just upon writing this piece, an Israeli tank fire killed three Palestinian shepherds while they were tending to their livestock in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun.

On Thursday, Israeli air forces involving F-16 jetfighters, Apache helicopters and unmanned drones as well as artillery fire, have been hitting several targets across the Gaza Strip, under what Israel termed to be a response to the Palestinian homemade shells being fired by Palestinian resistance groups into nearby Israeli towns.

The attacks have so far killed 36 Palestinians and wounded scores of others, including bystanders, and caused severe damages to civilian infrastructure.

The Palestinian Authority's information minister condemned the Israeli raids on Gaza, calling them "war crimes" and stated that Israel should talk peace instead of stepping up aggressive actions against the Palestinians.

"War crime" is a description that was not only wielded by the Palestinian Authority, but also by the Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem, which sent an urgent letter to the Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz urging him to stop what the group called "a form of collective punishment."

The group considered these attacks as an act of revenge that would not stop the homemade Qassam shells being fired at Israeli targets.

Indeed, it appears the offensive won't prevent the firing of homemade shells, or at least that's what was insisted by Abu Adnan, member of the political leadership of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip.

Abu Adnan believes that the Palestinian resistance is determined to keep up resisting the occupation until it wins the battle the way the Lebanese resistance did in southern Lebanon last summer.

"Israeli politics seems to be locked down in extreme darkness as Israel has so far rejected all peace offers including the Palestinian prisoner swap deal, the Palestinian willingness for direct peace talks with Israel and most recently, the Arab states' peace initiative," says Abu Adnan.

"Israel also has yielded no effort to further strangulate the Palestinian people, by blocking movement, closing border crossings, attacking the West Bank and shunning all peace proposals. Amid such Israeli arrogance, what do you expect from the Palestinian people? To keep their hands cuffed?" Abu Adnan wonders aloud.

Chief of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, speaking at the Amman World Economic Forum on Saturday, blamed Israel for the deteriorated situation in the Gaza Strip, saying that Israel's policy of starving the Palestinian people, leading to an unemployment rate of 70 percent, has largely contributed to the current conditions.

Moussa rejected the latest offer by Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert to open direct talks between Israel and 22 Arab states, saying that Israel should first halt settlement activity in the West Bank and resume direct talks with the Palestinians and consider the Arab peace proposal, which he believes opens up a genuine chance for a lasting peace.

The Israeli government rejected in late March an Arab peace proposal that calls for full Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands Israel occupied in 1967 and Israeli recognition of the Palestinian people's right to return, in exchange for normal Arab-Israeli ties.

Coincidently, in recent days, the Israeli army had killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, endangering a six-month old ceasefire with the Palestinians, which halted the firing of homemade shells and put an end to last summer's deadly Israeli offensive on Gaza that killed more than 450 Palestinian men, women and children and destroyed much infrastructure.

In 2002, the year in which the Arabs first launched their peace initiative, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon attacked the West Bank completely within his military offensive "Defensive Shield," intended to stamp out the Palestinian resistance.

Sharon then said "the initiative is not worthy of the ink on its paper." It seems that his successor Ehud Olmert has also adopted the same stance, by further striking the Palestinians with last year's "Summer Rains" offensive and now, apparently, with new rains this spring.

But wait, one more civilian causality has just fallen in northern Gaza. A 15-year-old this time, but who knows who is next

http://www.imemc.org/article/48626

The view from the Palestinian village of Nahhalin, in the west Bethlehem area, is sobering. This small village—along with the villages of Husan, Battir, Wadi Fuqin, and Al Walaja—are becoming more and more isolated from Bethlehem.

(there is a map of water reservoirs in the West Bank included with this article...go to the link above this article to access it..copy paste it into your browser)

As Israeli colonization in the Etzion bloc grows and as the Wall continues to cut deeply into the West Bank strangulating these communities, these Palestinian villagers have little access to the rest of the Israeli occupied West Bank. Even now, Israel is burrowing out a tunnel under the major settler bypass road running through the Etzion bloc, that will provide “transportational contiguity” for this one of many isolated islands of land on 40 to 50 percent of the West Bank that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice want to sell to the world as “the state of Palestine.” [1]
Stuck between the “Green Line”—the 1949 Armistice Line that separates Israel from the West Bank—and the Wall, Palestinians from Nahhalin find themselves among some 60,000 Palestinians living in the “seam zone,” that is that western segregation zone between the Wall and the Green Line which includes roughly 11 percent of the West Bank and that will ultimately be annexed to the “state of Israel” in Israel’s unilateral plan to define its own borders.
When I last visited Nahhalin, I was joined by my friends at the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ). [2] ARIJ had begun a waste water treatment project in Nahhalin that will now be duplicated to provide rural Palestinian areas in the West Bank with new sources of water for irrigation. ARIJ’s water and environment research unit will install on-site waste water treatment systems for 180 homes, providing direct benefits to about 1,800 people. The project gets underway this year and will be completed in 2010.
Nader Sh. Hrimat from ARIJ pointed out to me that scarcity of fresh water supplies and restricted access to traditional water supplies creates ongoing shortages of water for agricultural purposes. These new systems will not only improve access to water, they improve management of waste water, said Nader, explaining that the re-use of treated wastewater for irrigation is now considered to be one of the most feasible and economical ways to utilize household waste water in a sanitary manner.
The anticipated success of expanding this project to 180 homes is expected to encourage more Palestinian villages to install on-site treatment systems. In addition to addressing water shortages and water pollution concerns, these systems are also expected to increase agricultural productivity and food security, a function all the more important considering that over a third of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are, with another 12 percent at risk of becoming, “food insecure.” [3] Treatment units will be manufactured locally and create much-needed employment opportunities here where rampant unemployment has contributed to a poverty rate of over 33 percent (with a quarter living in “deep poverty”). [4]
On the surface, this might simply appear to be another development project, one that is similar to many others around the world. However, in this context of ongoing Israeli colonization and occupation of Palestinian life and land, such simple acts of waste water treatment and sustainable development are not only peacebuilding initiatives in their own right but they also become powerful acts of nonviolent resistance.
Another example would be the next phase of a hydrology project in the northern part of the West Bank with the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG). [5] I recently joined Abdul-Latif from PHG in a field visit to the Palestinian villages of Jayyus and Kafr Jammal near Qalqilya where farmers are cut off from their agricultural lands by the Israeli separation barrier. This hydrology project in its various phases has sought to assist farmers in keeping a presence on their lands on the other side of the Wall, the “seam zone,” by maintaining well pumps and irrigation systems.
Projects such as these give Palestinian people greater control over their natural resources, explained Nader. Water resources, he noted, are particularly vulnerable because Israel controls over 80 percent of the Palestinian groundwater resources in the West Bank, restricting access to water for agricultural irrigation and other purposes. [6]
Abdul-Latif also pointed this out to me. With Israeli control over water resources, and Palestinians captive to Israeli water companies, Abdul-Latif asks, “Where is the infrastructure for this ‘Palestinian state’?” Abdul-Latif then pointed out to me the citrus lying on the ground having rotted off the trees as another sign of the economic strangulation on these communities. These fruits go unpicked because Palestinian farmers have very limited access to a market of any sort to sell their goods due to the Israeli closure system in the West Bank. And when they can sell their goods somewhere, Israel has flooded the market with cheap fruits from Israel (and Jordan) that these farmers simply cannot compete with.
These indicators point to what many see as the imminent demise of a “two-state” solution to this terrible conflict and the solidification—through this structure of occupation, colonization, and apartheid—of Israeli domination over the Occupied Territories. And with the absence of any viable economic infrastructure, those calling for investment in Palestinian society as a “positive” response to the “critical” call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions need to understand the context of this structure that holds Palestinians captive in “Bantustans” as cheap laborers and consumers—a structure that will not benefit Palestinians or Israelis in the long run.
A hydrology initiative such as this is the form that a relevant nonviolent resistance has taken in the Occupied Territories. And it goes unnoticed by many in North America because it is not as recognizable as demonstrations or sit-ins. But in a context where so many pressures are exerted on Palestinian communities to leave their homes due to economic, social, or political forces (or other softer forms of what is essentially ethnic cleansing), assistance by the international community to help these communities simply be, simply exist, is the most salient form of nonviolent resistance that Palestinians live out on a daily basis.
This is why when I hear people ask, “Where is the Palestinian Gandhi, or the Palestinian King, or the Palestinian Mandela?” (once again blaming the victim for their victimhood and absolving the oppressor by placing the responsibility and the initiative on the shoulders of the oppressed, which makes one want to respond with a “Where is the Israeli Mandela or de Klerk?”) I think of the Nader’s and Abdul-Latif’s of Palestine who exercise courage, persistence, and steadfastness in the face of all of these pressures of dispossession, colonization, occupation, and most recently international boycott, and through the seemingly mundane acts of farming, reclaiming land, and water and food security initiatives truly resist injustice and truly pursue a sustainable peace born of justice in this broken land.
-Timothy Seidel is a peace development worker with Mennonite Central Committee in the Occupied Palestinian Territories where he has lived for the past three years.
1. See Jeff Halper’s recent comments on this in “The Livni-Rice Plan: Towards a Just Peace or Apartheid?” ICAHD.org, 2 May 2007, http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=433.
2. See http://www.arij.org/.
3. See the IRIN report, “One-third of Palestinians ‘food insecure’,” The Electronic Intifada, 22 March 2007, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6713.shtml and “Growing poverty, unemployment threaten Palestinians’ ability to feed their families,” UN News, 22 February 2007, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6583.shtml or “Poor Palestinians unable to purchase enough food,” WFP Press Release, 2 February 2007, http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2377.
4. See “Financial boycott sends Palestinian poverty numbers soaring, finds UN report,” UN News, 24 November 2006, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20725&Cr=Palestin&Cr1= and Rory McCarthy, “UN plea for millions in Palestinian aid amid fears of economic collapse,” The Guardian, 8 December 2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1967251,00.html.
5. See http://www.phg.org/.
6. See the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department summary on water at http://www.nad-plo.org/listing.php?view=nego_permanent_water

http://www.imemc.org/article/48626

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=22505
Another assassination in Ramallah's city center - By Sam Bahour
Date: 30 / 05 / 2007 Time: 12:43
Ramallah (29 May 2007) - It was a good day today, well, that is until about 5:40pm when Israeli undercover and military forces assassinated a Palestinian outside the window where I was standing.

The target was Omar Abu Daher, a 22-year-old who it seems happens to be a member of a security force loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He was only one of several that were murdered in cold blood today; two more were killed in Gaza, one in Tulkarem, two others in Jenin. These are the ones reported so far, but the night is still young.

Unknowingly, I, along with a dozen Palestinian and foreign colleagues, happened to be in the same building where it seems Omar was having dinner. Omar was sitting in the popular street-front Nazareth Restaurant (catty-corner from Angelo's Pizzeria), well known for its falafel and where my wife stopped this morning to bring some falafel home for breakfast after she drove our younger daughter Nadine to school this morning. The restaurant is walking distance from the elementary school's entrance.

As a matter of fact, only a few hours before this assassination, between 1:30pm and 1:45pm to be exact, my daughters and I passed this same spot after picking up Nadine from school. Our other daughter Areen was home all day studying for her end of year exams and wanted to take a break so she went with me for the drive. I dropped Areen off in front of Nazareth Restaurant so she could buy the three of us ice cream cones from Baladna Ice Cream Shop to eat on the way home. Baladna is a few doors up from Nazareth Restaurant.

Later in the afternoon, while Omar, the latest Israeli victim, was having a meal at Nazareth Restaurant, I was on the third floor, in a roundtable discussion, one in a series that I'm attending at the Mattin Group, a human rights-based policy research and advocacy organization. We were meeting to learn about the workings of the European Union and how we can make it more accountable to International Humanitarian Law. The irony between what was about to happen on the ground floor and what was being discussed on the third floor is mind-boggling and sobering, to say the least.

An hour and a half into our meeting in the conference room, the window of which overlooks the main Ramallah thoroughfare, we heard car tires screech and a loud bang. My knee-jerk comment was that a car accident had happened. One of my colleagues bent back to take a look and before he could speak rapid machine gun fire and loud explosions erupted. The gunfire was literally below our window. We all immediately took to the floor and crawled to a safe hallway in the middle of the office. A peek out to the street and it was confirmed, as it has been so many times prior, the Israeli military had entered the middle of town again.

A few more peeks and the picture became clearer. An undercover Israeli military hit team entered under the cover of an armored jeep, camouflaged to look like a Palestinian delivery truck, with Palestinian license plates and the whole works. A few meters away was a blue civilian mid-sized car with more undercover hit men; this group also had a masked man with them, most likely a Palestinian collaborator who was used to identify the hit team's target. This assumed collaborator could have also been an Israeli fake to make Palestinian onlookers feel like they are being betrayed more so than they really are -- we will never know. A few minutes later and an Israeli armored jeep showed up clearly exposing the unraveling events below. Then a Palestinian mini-van taxi with more Israeli plainclothes military personnel appeared, now wearing only baseball caps that identified them as "POLICE."

For the most part, we stayed in the center of the office, away from the windows. Most people with me had been through this type of activity before and took it in stride, thinking that another arrest operation was taking place. Two young foreign women that were with us seemed to be experiencing this for the first time and were worried it would last long. We comforted each other with some jokes. I lightheartedly noted that the normal time this goes on for is three days. A friend said that, if that's the case, we better start rationing the two small bags of pretzels that were on the table. Our foreign colleagues smiled and relaxed a bit. We joked that the Israelis shooting up a storm down below needed to join us in our meeting to learn about international humanitarian law. Although we all laughed, we knew that this is exactly the kind of act that keeps provoking and prolonging this crisis. In the heat of the moment, one does not see the crisis, but rather sees those around as humans who need comfort and everyone supports everyone else.

The shooting and percussion grenades intensified. We all now felt that something dire was happening. With every barrage of gunfire we would pull people away from the windows which were numerous and all exposed to the gunfire. Our hosts made their case for staying in the hallway, showing us the bullet holes in the wall from past stray bullets sustained during previous Israeli adventures. While we sat this out, we also recalled when the exact same office we were in was taken over in 2002 by the Israeli military which used it as a field base when they were operating in Ramallah, placing the city under military curfew for 34 consecutive days. In that episode, the soldiers trashed the entire office, leaving their feces on top of the photocopy machine as a souvenir.

After about 45 minutes we could hear a mass of people chanting below and we could hear rocks banging against the cars. A peek out the window and we saw hundreds of Palestinian youth flooding into the main street. In front of them a convoy of Israeli military jeeps was leaving the scene. As the jeeps accelerated, the youth ran after them in a desperate and futile attempt to inflict damage on their armored vehicles by pelting them with rocks.

Our woman host looked out to the main street below; she stretched over the window ledge to see if any soldiers were still on the sidewalk below. As she stepped back from the window she was noticeably shaken. She said, "They took him away dead." I looked to see what she was referring to and the ambulance had just raced off, leaving a pool of thick, dark red blood on the sidewalk, as the only remnant indicating that hell had just visited this spot. A young female colleague standing next to me stood quietly, just weeping. It was assumed by us all that whoever was taken away in the ambulance, was taken away lifeless.

By the time we raced downstairs to the main road hundreds of people had gathered in two groups; one around the pool of blood and the other, 20 meters away, at the doorstep of Nazareth Restaurant which had its metal doors all closed, except one that was cracked open and the owner stood blocking people from entering. He was watery-eyed and visibly shaken, telling onlookers that there was nothing to see. The aftermath was less chaotic than usual, onlookers were already in mourning.

It seems seven other persons were injured and taken to the Ramallah Hospital and the Israeli military followed and surrounded the hospital! Tonight, it is yet unclear of these persons' fates. Right now, it's confirmed that one person, in Ramallah, was assassinated, point blank.

I walked away from the growing crowds to my car, which was parked out of the line of fire. As I drove home, I found many of the roads leading into the city center were full of rocks. It become clear that this was a rather large operation and Israeli jeeps stationed at the city's entry points all met with resistance from those who were around at the time with the only 'weapon' readily available, stones.

On my way home, I passed the Presidential Compound on Radio Street. This is Mahmoud Abbas's headquarters. Only a few hours before it was reported in the news that he announced that he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert on June 7 to discuss the 'peace process.' Alone, I just shook my head and wondered for how long can this Palestinian President, this Palestinian Authority Government, and this Palestinian Legislative Council continue to go through the empty motions of governance under military occupation, while Israel, with full internationally-sanctioned impunity, assassinates Palestinian citizens -- those very same security personnel that are supposed to hold the peace -- in broad daylight, arrests dozens from their beds every night -- including ministers, mayors and legislators -- and prohibit millions of Palestinians whom they have displaced from returning to their homes.

I guess the more accurate question I should be asking myself is until when will the Palestinian people continue to accept such inept leadership?

It is now being reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Information that:
Israel undercover 'special forces' executed a Palestinian man at point blank range this afternoon during an attack on Ramallah. The man, identified as Omar Abu Daher, a member of Mahmoud Abbas' Presidential Guard, was initially shot in the leg outside the offices of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute on Ramallah's Main Street.

When he fell to the ground, Israeli undercover forces executed him with a shot to the back of the head at close range. He was killed instantly.

Paramedics from the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) managed to retrieve his body, which they transported to Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Ramallah. Doctors said that Daher had been shot 24 times all over his body.

As I close this writing, the shooting outside has been nonstop for almost an hour, mainly coming from the direction of the Al-Amari Refugee Camp, which is walking distance from my home. Most likely, this is from Palestinians, shooting in air, in an act of defiance (and desperation) after the loss of their fallen comrade.

As I put my daughters to bed, I pray for those that fell today, all of them, and their families. I give thanks that my daughters were not with me tonight to see what I saw and hear what I heard. I also pray for those innocent Israeli citizens that will fall victim to the inevitable revenge attacks that I saw brewing this evening with my own eyes in the streets of Ramallah.

The sad fact is that it does not have to go on like this. The world could bring Israel into line with international humanitarian law, United Nations resolutions and common sense to stop this nonsense, this waste, this needless human loss.

-------------
Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman living in Al-Bireh/Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. He is co-author of HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994). He can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=22421

.....the silent news we never hear or see in America or much of the world around.....
ISraeli Crows looking for Carrion in Gaza ! Buzzing drones swarm in the skies of Gaza (26 May 2007)
The aerial Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have continued for the 10th day. 59 Palestinians have been killed so far. 17 of the victims are civilians, including 7 children. More than 140 Palestinians, including 18 children and 10 women, have been wounded by Israeli missiles.
Palestinian information minister Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi described Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip as “real war crimes that the world couldn’t ignore." He added, "The Israeli occupation forces have given themselves the right to indiscriminately kill and destroy everything that is Palestinian, be it a child, a woman, or an elderly person."
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has said the air strikes in Gaza are a sign of Israel's political and security crisis. "This campaign will fail because of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people," he predicted. "This aggression will not achieve its aims but will lead to further deterioration with dangerous consequences." He added that the Israeli strikes were "part of an international and regional plan to change the political map in the Palestinian Authority." He also suggested that the attacks were aimed at weakening Hamas in favor of forces which would be more convenient for Israel.
Meanwhile, officials in the Palestinian Authority including President Mahmoud Abbas have called for a renewal of the ceasefire, but Israeli officials have made it clear that they would not accept the calls for now.
Hamas's armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, have sent a barrage of rockets into southern Israel over the past 10 days. It has been an attempt to redirect the battle towards the Israeli occupation that aims to weaken Hamas and continues its attacks on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Hamas said.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops arrested Cabinet Minister Wasfi Qabha, confiscating his computer and many documents. The arrest came two days after a sweep in which more than 30 Hamas politicians, legislators, local council members and mayors of Nablus and Qalqilya were arrested, including the education minister, Nasser Addin Ash-Sha'er.
For the 10th day of this offensive, residents of Gaza have got used to hearing the fearsome roar of Israeli F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopters and the unmanned drones, officially called "unmanned aerial vehicles". The drones are used for reconnaissance and to attack targets with missiles; they are being used to take aerial photographs of the Palestinian targets and can provide accurate real time video pictures at very low cost and with low risk to human life. These drones are heard but hardly seen; they usually fly overhead too high to be spotted in great numbers, patrolling the ghostly skies of Gaza. These drones are considered to be the Israeli Army's eyes in the skies of the Gaza Strip.
The people of Gaza call the unmanned drone in Arabic, "Zannanah", which means buzzing; they make a noise so loud you cannot forget it, like a swarm of wasps on a summer afternoon. Their buzzing engines warn Palestinian missile squads and projectile launchers that Big Brother has you in his sights, while also intimidating and maddening an entire population.
Gaza resident, Atef, 36, said, "When we hear F-16 fighter jets or Apache choppers, we hold our breath and our hearts start to beat quickly and we say, God knows what is the target that they are going to bomb!"
Basma, who lives to the east of Gaza City and is a mother of 4 children, said, "My children get scared whenever they hear the F-16 or Apache helicopters and when they hear the explosions they cry and shiver." Her husband Khalil said: "Last night they hit 10 locations belonging to the Executive Force across the Gaza Strip. The night before they bombed several money changer shops, a food storeroom, a brick factory and empty containers! They have run out of "legitimate" targets - this is according to what an Israeli army general who said his army really did not know what else to strike!"
Um Hamed, 46, said: "We live in misery; the Israelis use all their arsenal weapons including F-16s, Apaches, tanks, and drones against us. We the Palestinians are still living under the mercy of the Israeli occupation. We want to live in peace but we also want to feel that we are being treated as humans."
"Drones don’t leave the skies of Gaza," Fayez, 29, said. "They give out a noisy sound, and you can hear it clearly at night. If you don’t hear it and you want to check if there are drones in the sky, then switch on the satellite and you will notice disruption when using digital receivers."
Crows are nesting in the skies of Gaza, and for sure they are hungry and looking for prey.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=22421

from: Arutz....IsraeliNationalNews.com
Lieberman: Complete Disengagement, Declare Gaza Enemy State
Politicians and public figures have weighed in over the past days with suggestions for how to bring an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza.

Lieberman: Complete Disengagement, Declare Gaza Enemy State
Rocket Report: Electricity Knocked Out in Sderot
Russians Bidding for Control in Downtown Jerusalem
Public Figures Express Regret For Disengagement
Background: History of PA Shelling Against Israel
Poll: Israelis Finished With Withdrawals
Inventor of Pal-Kal Sentenced to Four Years
Audio: Bush Declined to Meet Chief Rabbi Metzger Over Pollard

1. Lieberman: Complete Disengagement, Declare Gaza Enemy State
by Ezra HaLevi

Politicians and public figures have weighed in over the past days with suggestions for how to bring an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman announced a plan Thursday that calls for a “completion of the Disengagement.” Lieberman explained to Army Radio: “We expelled all the Jews from Gaza and left there completely, but still provide it with economic support, water and electricity. We must sever all connections with Gaza and declare it an independent enemy entity,” he said. “There is no reason Egypt cannot supply the electricity and water for Gaza and let the European Union build infrastructure and provide security if they care about the poor Palestinians so much,” he added. “Membership in the axis of evil has a heavy price—financially, politically, and militarily.”

Lieberman said his plan includes a complete closure of all crossings between Gaza and Israel through which PA Arab workers currently cross into Israel and through which aid passes to Gaza. His plan also calls for bombing Gaza neighborhood in response to rocket-fire, ending visitation rights for PA terrorists until kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is released, severing Gaza from Judea and Samaria and stopping diplomatic contacts with any and all PA officials, including Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.

NATO troops would be called upon to provide security and the European Union would be invited to provide infrastructure and jobs for PA Arabs.

Lieberman said the plan would come into effect in 2008 and be modeled after how Israel related to the Sinai after withdrawal. "Just as Israel did not continue to provide anything to Sinai after it withdrew, there is no reason why it should act any differently toward Gaza, especially in the current situation," he said. The Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) chairman said he would present his plan to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the rest of the government Thursday.

Other Proposals
Ministers Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) and Rafi Eitan (Pensioners) proposed a concept similar to Lieberman's, in terms of the IDF’s response to Kassam rockets, at Wednesday’s Security Cabinet meeting. They suggested that Israel produce its own version of the Kassam rocket and fire it at targets in Gaza each time Kassams are fired toward Israel.

They said such a rocket would cost very little but recreate the psychological pressure felt by residents of Sderot among Gaza’s civilian population.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishai (Shas) suggested that Israel launch air strikes to destroy entire PA villages in response to rocket fire, after warning the Arab residents to vacate their homes. Fellow Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen suggested Israel cut off electricity, water and gas to Gaza – an idea backed by Shabak (General Security Service) chief Yuval Diskin and rehashed in Lierbman’s proposal.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly rejected those proposals, but ordered the IDF to continue to apply pressure via targeted killings and air strikes on Hamas targets.

Left-wing MKs Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) and Zahava Gal-On (Meretz), meanwhile, have been enthusiastically promoting a plan to invite the Arab league to take responsibility for Gaza and coordinate a multi-national force together with the European Union to deploy there. The two say they have presented the idea to European and PA officials and plan to present it to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has expressed interest in the deployment of foreign troops along Israel’s Gaza border.

Minister Rafi Eitan (Pensioners) recently suggested a similar idea, involving bringing Egyptian troops into Gaza and Jordanians into Judea and Samaria. "The same thing [as happened following the Second Lebanon War – the deployment of international troops –ed.] sooner or later, will happen in the Gaza Strip, with the senior partner in such a force being Egypt because it has no choice," Eitan told government radio.

“When the Egyptians are there, when 500 or 600 (Palestinian) civilians are killed, no one will say anything. That is what will eventually happen. We are getting there, gradually.” Eitan added that he also sees a future deployment of Jordanians in Judea and Samaria.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, speaking at a Tel Aviv University conference Wednesday evening, said that Israel has no plans to enter Gaza, because "restraint is power.” Peretz added later on in the speech that “if there is no choice, the IDF will operate in Gaza.”

2. Rocket Report: Electricity Knocked Out in Sderot
by Hillel Fendel

Of two Kassam rockets fired from Gaza at Israel Thursday morning, one landed at the entrance to a kibbutz in the western Negev. No one was hurt, but a wheat field was set on fire.

Just two days ago, Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon announced that the farming communities around Gaza would be eligible for a total of 800,000 shekels ($200,000) for the purpose of quickly harvesting their fields. Many wheat fields have been burnt in the past two weeks by Kassam rockets, just as they were about to be harvested.

Wednesday's five rockets to Sderot caused heavy damage to two houses and knocked out electricity in parts of the city.

The "Color Red" warning siren did not go off before some of the rockets hit - a situation that residents say is particularly frightening. In last night's direct hit, however, the warning system was activated, and the family was able to hide in its protected room and thus save their lives. Parts of the city were left in darkness around the same time when another rocket hit an electric pole. Electricity was restored only at 5 AM around the area of the explosion, and by midnight for the rest.

Earlier Wednesday, just minutes after noon, another home in Sderot was hit directly by a Kassam rocket; no one was home at the time. Six people were evacuated to the Shock Treatment Center in Sderot, however.

Meanwhile, the father of a boy who died last week is saying his son was a Kassam rocket victim - yet he has not been recognized as such. Israel Radio's southern region correspondent Nissim Keinan reported Thursday morning that a 13-year-old boy, Chai Shalom, died last week in Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva after being wounded in a Kassam attack. Deaf, mute, and suffering from cerebral palsy, he and three other children were wounded when a rocket exploded near their bus; the woman bus driver was able only to open the door and cry out for help before fainting. Though the boy has not, as of yet, been governmentally recognized as a terror victim, Welfare Minister Yitzchak Herzog said that now that he has been informed of the matter, he would look into it.

Ten people are listed as having died as a result of Kassam rocket attacks - the last two being Shir'el Friedman of Sderot and Oshri Oz of Hod HaSharon over the past ten days. Chai Shalom's death brings the total to eleven.

In the midst of yesterday's rockets, the Quartet - the US, UN, EU and Russia, convening in Berlin - condemned the Arabs' rocket fire at Israel, while also warning Israel not to "over-react." The Quartet representatives said Israel must not respond by harming civilians or damaging civilian infrastructures.

In other PA violence, two Arabs were killed Wednesday night in Shechem when a car exploded near them. The car was apparently being prepared by Fatah terrorists as a car bomb to be used against IDF forces.

3. Russians Bidding for Control in Downtown Jerusalem
by Hillel Fendel

If current negotiations with the Russians succeed, a large complex in central Jerusalem will be handed over to control of the Russian government.

The area in question is part or all of what is known as the Russian Compound, so named because it was built and once owned by the Russian government. It was originally constructed as one of the first complexes outside the Old City of Jerusalem, for the purpose of housing the thousands of Christian Russian pilgrims who wished to visit the holy city.

Though the 17-acre area in the heart of Jerusalem, between Jaffa, HaNeviim, and Shivtei Yisrael Streets, was once a bustling center with impressively-built structures, it now is used largely as a courthouse and detention center. The Russian government has of late informed various Israeli Prime Ministers that it would like to reclaim the area - at a price of $100 million.

Secret Talks
Negotiations have been underway during the regimes of Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert - very secretly, so as not to arouse the expected storm of public protest.

Despite the secret nature of the talks, Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen reports that Foreign Ministry sources say the talks "regarding the Russian property are proceeding to the satisfaction of both sides... though a final agreement has not yet been reached." The Foreign Ministry wishes to emphasize that the area is not being sold, but rather being "returned" to its former owners.

It is assumed that the deal will only be finalized after the Jerusalem Magistrates Court is able to be relocated to a new building currently being constructed.

A Historic Spot
Legend says that the current-day location of the Russian Compound was the jump-off point for the armies of both Sennacherib and Titus in their respective military campaigns, centuries apart, against the Jewish city. (Sennacherib lost, Titus succeeded.)

4. Public Figures Express Regret For Disengagement
by Ezra HaLevi

The Yesha Council of Judea, Samaria and Gaza communities has published a collection of statements by public figures who supported or helped implement the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria and have since expressed regret. The following are some of the statements:

Maj.-Gen (ret.) Yiftah Ron-Tal, IDF ground forces commander at the time of the Disengagement: In the year preceding the Disengagement, the army trained mostly for dismantling communities, and that prevented it from preparedness for the war in Lebanon. The training for the Disengagement not only prevented preparedness for such a war, but dragged it away from the consensus as a people’s army. It is nearly certain that the excitement of those who led the decision and implementation of this is directly tied to the big failure in Lebanon…I still cannot understand how Israel gave up parts of its land willingly and with abandon, and how the residents connected to that land were turned into criminals, instead of raising their dedication as a banner of preserving the Jewish identity of the state of Israel.
- Kfar Chabad weekly, October 6, 2006

Ilana Dayan, Journalist, Host of Popular ‘Uvda’(Fact) Program on Channel 2: How come nobody is standing up and asking where this rain of Kassams is coming from? Why didn’t we ask the deep questions? Why didn’t we wonder whether this was the right way – even for those of us who wanted to divide the land? Why did we only examine the Disengagement when ‘orange’ youth burned tires in the street? Why did [Sharon confidant and Disengagement architect] Dov Weisglas not tell us there would be a rain of Kassams on Sderot? Because this wasn’t popular and because there was a strong prime minister [Ariel Sharon] with a firm hold on the central hubs of the media.
- address at B’nai Brith journalism prize ceremony, June 22, 2006

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, Chairman of the National Security Council and one of the Disengagement’s chief architects: There was no forward contemplation. The Disengagement contributed nothing to a solution to the conflict…There was no discussion of its merits. When I was tasked with planning it, all that existed was the word ‘Disengagement’ used by Sharon at the Herzliya Conference…I was given four months to plan, but Dov Weisglas was already committing to the Americans and leaking details of the withdrawal plans to the press…The paradigm of two states for two nations is not implementable. Perhaps the whole world agrees to it, but on the ground, it simply cannot be done.
- Haaretz, June 1, 2006

Avri Gilad, broadcaster and TV personality who supported Disengagement: I supported the Disengagement. I was mistaken. The way it was carried out was a crime.
-Maariv, January 23, 2007

From a practical perspective, pragmatic and seeing the situation for what it is – the orange public was right…Large segments of the public supported the plan out of general ideological reasons.
-Army Radio, HaMilah Acharona, June 26, 2006

Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff at the time the government decided to carry out the Disengagement: “There is no escaping the fact that the background leading to the decision was a political crisis – the decline in support for the prime minister, and added to that was a personal crisis – the investigations into corruption…Examining the Disengagement in hindsight opposite Israel’s interests, it was the worst possible…Israel withdrew from every millimeter, including evacuating settlements, received nothing in return, and thus created a very problematic precedent.”
- Maariv, February 24, 2006

Ron Ben Yishai, senior journalist for military affairs: The fact that they mixed the IDF up with the Disengagement, that the army was forced to do the job of the police, was a heavy blow to motivation. Not to mention that the IDF didn’t train for an entire year, during which it dealt only with evacuations. We have to put the IDF back in uniform.
- Army Radio, Ma Boer, February 14, 2007

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a major backer of the Disengagement: The more we take the army out of the territories, the more terror nests develop.
- Address to the Center For Local Government, January 4, 2007

Professor Aaron Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel Prize Laureate for Chemistry, vocal Disengagement advocate: I supported the idea of Disengagement last year, which seemed to me an act of unilateral volunteerism toward the Palestinians. I hoped our kindness would be returned, but I was mistaken. After our unilateral withdrawal we received only terrorism and more terrorism. The unilateral idea is bankrupt and along with it the party soap bubble of a party that was established on its basis.
- Yediot Acharonot, October 27, 2006

Yoel Marcus, left-wing commentator for Haaretz and ardent Disengagement supporter: To my great sorrow, it now seems that the extremist and pessimistic settlers were those who were right. The Palestinians do not wish to recognize Israel and have not accepted its existence. And now, with the election of Hamas, they again are not missing any opportunity to miss an opportunity…They turned the communities of Gush Katif into launch sites against residents of the Negev and particularly the town of Sderot. The warnings of Ariel Sharon and Dan Halutz that ‘If they will fire Kassams after Gaza is evacuated, Israel’s response will be harsh’ has not really frightened them.
-Haaretz, November 21, 2006

Hillel Halkin, Author and political commentator: Indeed, splitting the Likud was a bad thing. But so, it is necessary to say two years later, was disengagement. Those who were for it, like myself, were wrong. Those who were against it, like Mr. Netanyahu, were right...At great economic cost and at the price of a deep inner rift in Israeli society that still has not healed, 8,000 Jewish settlers were uprooted from their homes in return for supposed benefits, none of which has materialized. Gaza has become more, not less, of a military menace to Israel; Palestinian politics and the Palestinian street have become more, not less, radicalized; Israel's public image as an occupying country has not significantly improved in the world; and further unilateral disengagement in the West Bank as a possible way of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has turned out to be a chimera, in large measure because of the failure of what was supposed to be its Gazan first stage.
-New York Sun, May 29, 2007

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the first to float Ariel Sharon's Disengagement plan to the media: It must be said that that the experience we had in Lebanon and Gaza are not encouraging. We completely withdrew from Gaza, and every day they fire Kassam rockets on Israelis.
- Interview with Chinese media, January 8, 2007

Yaron London, Ynet commentator and host of Channel 10 London & Kirshenbaum Show, supported Disengagement: Nothing was built on the rubble except for terrorist training camps…The wall does not guarantee quiet: Kassams fly over it and terrorists dig under it.
- Ynet, June 26, 2006

Meirav Michaeli, TV anchor and radio personality identified with left-wing and feminist activism: The Disengagement left thousands of families without a home, escalated the situation in Gaza and did not advance the security situation at all.
- Ynet, February 19, 2007

Vice-Premier Shimon Peres, Oslo Accords architect and withdrawal proponent: The Disengagement idea is over. There will not be a repeat in Judea and Samaria of the Gaza withdrawal. There will not be a massive evacuation of settlements…Public opinion is against the idea of another unilateral Disengagement. Therefore, this won’t occur, at least in the next five year, or even the next decade.
- Yediot Acharonot, September 8, 2006

Yehoshua Sobol, author and prominent left-wing spokesperson and proponent of left-wing refusal to serve in the IDF: Nothing is being built there [in Gaza] these days. Nothing – nothing but destructive activities. This assumption, that it is enough or us to leave territory in order for the other side to stop its attacks has proven false…I do not want to see a situation where we once again fold, in Judea and Samaria, and the next day Kassam rockets begin to be fired on Kfar Saba, Raanana and Herzliya.
- Reshet Bet, July 27, 2006

Shabak (General Security Service) chief Yuval Diskin: The Disengagement was first and foremost a process of uprooting. There is in Israel a Laundromat of words. They call it an evacuation or all sorts of other things, but there was an uprooting here.
- Lecture at the pre-army academy in Eli, February 6, 2007

IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh: I claimed from the beginning that there was not [a single] security consideration in the Disengagement. This was a purely political decision whose motivations will perhaps someday be investigated.
- Maariv, April 19, 2007

Yair Lapid, popular TV personality and commentator: The Disengagement was not carried out despite the settlers but because of them. It never had anything to do with the Palestinians, with demographics, with a peace agreement, with the IDF or with any of the other explanations given and reviewed over and over. The drive was one thing: to teach the settlers a lesson in modesty. The Disengagement is now examined with other tools – political, strategic and demographic – and it doesn’t stand up to the test, especially while Kassams are falling on Sderot and Ashkelon.
- Yediot Acharonot, October 13, 2006

We left Lebanon and the Hizbullah attack us from Lebanon. We left Gaza and the terror groups attack us from Gaza. The region that is most quiet right now is Judea and Samaria. Even the biggest leftists are faced with the creeping heretical though: perhaps it wasn’t the occupation?
-Yediot Acharonot, column

MK Amira Dotan (Kadima), head of the Knesset committee for Gush Katif evacuees, supported the Disengagement: In hi-tech, when you do something, you examine it fully before you say it is OK. Here, we did something without examining what would happen afterward. There was no working model created beforehand.
- HaTzofeh, August 6, 2006

Absorption Minister Ze’ev Boim, who supported the Disengagement as Deputy Defense Minister in the Sharon government and left the Likud to join Kadima: From the beginning, the plan had some question marks which, after the fact, became clear were serious defects in the plan. We lost the Philadelphi Corridor [between Gaza and Egypt, though which weapons and explosives are smuggled –ed.]. It was a mistake to give up control of Philadelphi.
-Jerusalem Conference address, March 20, 2007

Senior TV newsanchor Dan Margalit, a strong supporter of Disengagement: Ehud Olmert has lost the mandate for a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria that he received when elected on the platform of such a withdrawal. When such a withdrawal is once again presented, I will think again before choosing it at the ballot box.
- Maariv, July 28, 2006

Maj.-Gen. Gershon HaCohen, who commanded the Disengagement and expressed his public agreement with it prior to implementation: What happened last year was a crime, and I was part of this crime against the Jewish nation. What is happening now – the Second Lebanon War – is the punishment for what happened last year.
- on visit to bereaved family, August 24, 2006

5. Background: History of PA Shelling Against Israel
by Hillel Fendel

On Jan 31, 2001, for the first time in the Oslo War, Arabs shot a mortar shell into Netzarim, a Jewish town in central Gaza. The rocket hit and damaged a house, but no one was hurt. Two more mortar shells were fired at Netzarim over the next two weeks.

On March 18, Gaza Arabs fired three mortar shells at an IDF base near Kibbutz Nachal Oz in the Negev - the first such attack from Gaza at pre-1967 Israel. A reserve duty soldier on the base was lightly wounded by shrapnel. Minister of Defense Ben-Eliezer stated that Israel "will not accept the current situation and will deploy the necessary forces to protect its citizens." IDF commanders stated that the attack signals the crossing of yet another red line by terrorist forces.

On April 3, in only the 5th or 6th mortar attack on Gush Katif, toddler Ariel Yered was critically wounded by shrapnel to his head. Israel retaliated, the terrorists increased their fire, and mortar shells quickly became a commonplace occurrence and lost their shock value - but not their lethal punch. On Nov. 24, reserve soldier Barak Madmon, 26, was killed outside Kfar Darom when a mortar shell hit his IDF outpost.

In early Feb. 2002, ten months after the first shells were fired, the first Kassam-2 home-made rockets were fired at an Israeli target. They landed near Kibbutz Saad and Moshav Shuva in the Negev, both just south of Sderot.

Within a few days, on Feb. 17 of that year, Arutz-7 reported, "The firing of Kassam rockets, which Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and other officials warned would be greeted with a severe Israeli response, appears to have become a matter of course. Palestinian terrorists fired a Kassam-1 last night at an IDF command post in northern Gaza's Nisanit, while the much more far-reaching and powerful Kassam-2 was fired towards Kibbutz Kfar Aza, well within pre-1967 Israel. No one was hurt."

Two weeks later, on Mar. 5, 2002, Sderot was first targeted: Two Kassam rockets hit a home in the Negev city, wounding three children.

Mortar shells and Kassams continued to be fired at Gush Katif, and more sporadically at the Negev. On Yom Kippur eve of 2004, Tiferet Tratner, 24, became the first civilian casualty of a mortar shell attack in Gush Katif when she was killed in her home in N'vei Dekalim. A total of close to 20 soldiers, civilians and foreign workers have been killed by mortar and rocket attacks in and around Gaza and Sderot.

Ultimately, 5,905 rockets and shells were counted as having been fired at Gush Katif during its last four and a half years of existence.

On Dec. 18, 2003, less than three years after the first shell was fired, PM Ariel Sharon gave up. "If in a few months," he announced, "the Palestinians still continue to disregard their part in implementing the Roadmap – Israel will initiate the unilateral security step of disengagement from the Palestinians." A month and a half later, Sharon said, "I have given an order to plan for the evacuation of 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip. It is my intention to carry out an evacuation - excuse me, a relocation - of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, such as the Gaza settlements."

Though there have been isolated reports of Kassams in Judea and Samaria, the full power of Kassam rockets has clearly not been brought to bear in those areas. Between the time the first shell hit Gush Katif and the time Sharon made his initial Disengagement announcement, almost three years passed. If it took less than three years of mortar attacks against Jewish Gaza for Israel's government to come up with the idea of running away, how long will it take for the "Convergence Plan" in Judea and Samaria to be taken out of its deep freeze?

6. Poll: Israelis Finished With Withdrawals
by Ezra HaLevi

A poll carried out by the Knesset channel found a majority of Israelis want no more withdrawals from parts of the Land of Israel – not even for "real peace."

The poll, conducted by the Dahaf Institute for the Knesset Channel – found that even in the case of a what was termed a “real peace deal,” 68 percent of Israelis would not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights, 53 percent from Judea and Samaria and 86 percent from the Western Wall.

Just two weeks ago, former coalition chairman MK Avigdor Yitzchaki (Kadima) brought a bill requiring a referendum prior to any withdrawals from Jerusalem or the Golan Heights through its first reading, despite the opposition of the government, Meretz and Arab parties.

The poll sought to examine how Israelis would vote in such a referendum. A minority of 46 percent favored surrendering most of Judea and Samaria for a "real peace." 65 percent oppose any unilateral withdrawals from Judea and Samaria. 28 percent said they would support it.

Only eight percent believe that the government is able to reach a peace agreement with Syria, opposed to 86 percent against.

Asked whether the lands conquered in the 1967 Six Day War improved Israel’s security situation, 51 percent said it did and 29 percent said it worsened it.

A representative sample of five hundred Israeli adults took part in the survey.
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7. Inventor of Pal-Kal Sentenced to Four Years
by Hillel Fendel

The inventor of the construction method used in Jerusalem's Versailles Hall, which collapsed in mid-wedding six years ago, killing 23, has been sent to jail for four years.

The sentencing judge wrote that Eli Ron is the "father of the original sin who is still convinced that his method is safe."

Engineers who helped build the building, Dan Sheffer and Shimon Kaufman, were sentenced to 22 months each, while an employee of the Pal-Kal company was sentenced to six months of public service works.

The Tragic Wedding
The Versailles Hall collapsed exactly six years ago, in May 2001, killing 23 wedding guests and injuring close to 350. It was termed the worst civilian disaster in Israel's history, occurring just as Israel was suffering a wave of Oslo War terrorist attacks. In the week before the collapse, a suicide terrorist murdered five people in Netanya, two Israelis were killed in separate terrorist shooting attacks, and a Rishon LeTzion man was murdered in Tul Karem after making an appointment to meet an Arab. Eleven other people were murdered in eight other Palestinian terrorist attacks that month.

Owners Sentenced Last Year
In November 2005, the owners of the Versailles Hall were sentenced to 30 months in prison for causing death by negligence. Though they saw a depression in the floor shortly before the collapse, the judge ruled that they chose to cover it up with a drinks bar rather than consult with an engineer. In addition, during renovations on the building some time before it collapsed, support beams were removed from the building.

However, most of the criticism surrounding the tragedy has always related to the Pal-Kal method with which the structure was built. The Israeli-patented method was ruled unacceptable by the Interior Ministry in 1996. However, many existing buildings were built with Pal-Kal beforehand, and some were built afterwards.

Ron was found guilty last December of causing death by negligence in having disseminated his invention. The ruling deemed his Pal-Kal method as "dangerous," saying it did not meet Israeli or other standards. "It is true that many buildings constructed in this way did not collapse," the judge wrote, "but the quality and danger of a construction method are judged in extreme situations - and in this case, extreme changes were made that led to the failure brought about by the Pal-Kal method."

The Pal-Kal method is a money-saver in that in place of reinforced steel installed between concrete layers, it uses corrugated boxes as the stress support system. However, the boxes can end up "floating" between the concrete layers if something goes wrong with the concrete or they way it is poured.

As a result of the Versailles collapse, the government established a national commission of inquiry, the City of Jerusalem waged its own internal investigation of the tragedy, and the Local Government Center instructed all municipalities to carry out a comprehensive check of the thousands of buildings using the Pal-Kal construction method. In 2005, all construction using the Pal-Kal method was outlawed.

Versailles and Sbarros
The tragic collapse indirectly saved up to 50 other lives three months later. City inspectors making the rounds of public buildings after the Versailles tragedy informed Noam Amar, the owner of the Sbarro's restaurant in downtown Jerusalem, that his building technically met all the requirements, but that it might be advisable for him to install extra supporting pillars. Even after he learned that the cost of the extra columns would be $110,000, Amar decided to go ahead with it. Shortly afterwards, in August 2001, 15 people were killed in a terrorist blast in his restaurant; engineers later told him that his extra precautions had prevented the building from collapsing further, thus saving the lives of possibly 50 other people in the restaurant at the time.

8. Audio: Bush Declined to Meet Chief Rabbi Metzger Over Pollard

A7 Radio's "Alex Traiman Show"

Chief Rabbi of Israel Yonah Metzger is one of few Israeli public officials to speak out on behalf of Jonathan Pollard. Alex speaks with the Chief Rabbi and Rabbi Pesach Lerner, who has visited Pollard on several occassions. Plus, Karen Hochberg organized a 5K Walk to raise funds for Israel in Great Neck.