David Bedein

"I am not like the others, who lie and say that we have no arms while we accumulate and distribute them," the leader of Hezbollah said. "We can reveal that we have arms, and of all kinds. We move them covertly, and Israel does not know about it."

The working class city of Sderot (est. pop. 20,000), in southern Israel, is possibly the first city since Sarejevo to live under constant bombardment of its civilian population for a sustained period of time. One by product of this situation is that the small mental health trauma unit in Sderot was simply no longer able to meet the needs of the situation, with more than 3,000 people in Sderot in treatment for the after effects of shock, anxiety and stress.

--Prime Minister Ehud Olmert believes there is a chance of renewing peace negotiations if the Hamas-Fatah government forswears terror and recognizes Israel and honors the agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians. This transpires from remarks the prime minister made in the course of a discussion that he held with security and political establishment leaders after the Mecca agreement--Syrian Organization Claims Capture Of Israeli Soldier

Jerusalem officials say that the Russians did not use their supervisory apparatus, as they had promised, and did not prevent the trickle. The quantity is not at the level that it was before the war, but rather at the beginning of a worrying trend.

Ahmadinejad had hinted he was going to announce on the 28th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that saw hard-line clerics take power in Iran that his country had begun installing 3,000 centrifuges at its nuclear plant at Natanz - a move widely seen as a defiant gesture to international community, which has demanded Iran suspend uranium enrichment.

The Israeli government miscalculated when it based its approach toward Hamas on its blind faith in the economic and political boycott. Only two weeks ago, this reporter heard Israel's 83-year-old Deputy Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, the architect of the 1993 Oslo Accord, declare that "only with economics can we make peace." Peres went on to say that if members of terrorist groups perceive economic incentives, they will cease to be terrorists. Peres, not a religious man, has never understood the tenacity of a terrorist movement which is grounded in religion - not only in prosperity.

Israel does have The Basic Law, which guards the rights and dignity for all of its citizens, and which gives all citizens the right to sue the government in the Israeli citizens court - the Israel High Court of Justice. Experience has it in Israel that when a citizens group needs budget to protect a fundamental need, that citizen group simply sues in the Israel High Court of Justice and the court often orders the government to find a way to protect human rights, and to find the necessary funds for that purpose.

Any Palestinian government that adopts the conditions of the Quartet and the international community will be acceptable to Israel, Olmert said, and Israel will cooperate with it. Yet until then Israel would do everything in its power to prevent terrorism. He said in recent months Israel had exercised absolute restraint, but the Palestinians had not honored the cease-fire for even one day.