Thursday marked Jerusalem Day in Israel. This was the day on the Hebrew calendar marking the 42nd anniversary of the Israeli defeat of an attack by the Jordanian Arab Legion against Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.

The battle unexpectedly gave Israel control over all of Jerusalem and united the holy city under Israeli rule. During 19 years of Arab rule over the Old City of Jerusalem, all Jewish synagogues and seminaries in the Old City were burned, and no Jew was allowed to enter the Old City.

The speeches by Israeli leaders on this year’s Jerusalem Day ceremonies were aimed both at the people of Israel and at the president of the United States.

These speeches were prompted by the publication of an Obama Middle East plan, which would force Israel to relinquish control of Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority and cede sovereignty over the Old City to the U.N.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his first speech since his return from his meeting with President Barack Obama in the White House. He addressed the nation on all Israeli electronic media to give the “assurance that Jerusalem will not be divided” and that “Jerusalem is not on the negotiating table.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres delivered a strong speech on Ammuition Hill, on the spot of one of the bloody battles in Jerusalem. He reminded the world that only Israeli rule has given “freedom of access of all religions, and that this is why Jerusalem’s sovereignty would remain in Jewish hands.”

Appearing at a leading Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, Israeli Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, addressing the president with a message from the people of Israel, gave a direct message for Mr. Obama: “The president of the United States must know that Jerusalem belongs to the people of Israel.”

Senior Israeli government minister Benjamin Begin, son of the legendary late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, spoke at a Jerusalem Day rally and stressed the historical right of the Jewish people to Jerusalem.

In his prepared remarks, Mr. Begin criticized “foreign leaders” who demand the people of Israel relinquish their rights in Jerusalem and other portions of the land of Israel, when “these leaders know full well from the experience of the past 15 years that no peace settlement will come out of any of this.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

The purported outline of the Middle East peace plan President Barack Obama plans to propose during a speech in Cairo, Egypt, on June 4 was published yesterday morning in a British Arabic-language newspaper.

The widely circulated London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper ran an in-depth report that lays out what it says will be found in Mr. Obama’s peace initiative.

According to this press report, the American president’s plan, which will be based on the Saudi-sponsored Arab League plan from March 2002 would create a demilitarized Palestinian state.

The details of the purported plan do not address how the president plans to disarm the 50,000 Palestinian troops now in uniform.

Mr. Obama reportedly plans to mandate the creation of a Palestinian state with “territorial contiguity” between the West Bank and Gaza, which would split Israel in two.

The president’s reported plan would envision having Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods serve as the capital of a Palestinian state, even though these neighborhoods intertwine with Jewish neighborhoods.

The report said Mr. Obama plans to propose ending Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem’s Old City and turning it into an international territory. A similar proposal was part of the U.N.’s 1947 partition plan for the British Palestine mandate, which the Arabs rejected.

The Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper wrote Mr. Obama conceived the plan together with King Abdullah II of Jordan during their recent White House meeting.

This is first time that an American president had created a Middle East peace plan without advance coordination with Israel, which has many Israeli officials worried, none of whom would went on the record with their concerns.

The plan likely will face stiff Israeli resistance.

David Bedein can be reached at Bedein@thebulletin.us

Israeli intelligence has issued an unprecedented warning: Terrorists may use Facebook as a weapon in their war of terror.

A senior Israeli officer identifies recently fired high-tech workers or young career women seeking work abroad as potential terrorist targets for Facebook infiltration.

Their method is simple: monitor personal details on social networks and send their targets a tempting offer – for example, a dream job in Europe – with the hope they will also be able to obtain information, recruit spies and maybe even a kidnap an Israeli.

That is the Israel security establishment’s nightmare, and it believes Hezbollah already uses this technique.

An Israeli citizen recently told law enforcement authorities he had been solicited on Facebook by someone who introduced himself as a businessman from Lebanon. The businessman asked him to relay intelligence information in return for a fee.

Israel security sources say this instance was not the only case, and they believe Hezbollah has engaged in some of these activities.

“Based on our investigations, both into the people who lured Israeli civilians and the people whom they tried to lure, a worrisome picture emerges,” said a high-ranking security official. “Israelis have a short memory, but it happened once before that a boy was lured by means of the Internet by woman terrorist Amna Mona who in the end murdered the boy, Ophir Rahum. We’ve seen a lot of attempts like that lately.”

The official also said resumes sent out on the Internet also serve as bait.

“In response, someone could receive a tempting job offer that is hard to turn down and for which they would have to go to Europe – and then be kidnapped. This isn’t made up,” the official said.

It is known that Arab terror organizations use Israeli Web sites and social networks where there are a lot of Israelis, including veterans of classified Israeli Army units, with the goal of obtaining classified information on Israel’s security targets.

One year ago, two residents of the Bedouin city of Rahat were arrested and accused with transferring information to al-Qaida on Facebook.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

A Qassam rocket fired from Gaza slammed between two homes around 5:30 p.m., local time, yesterday. The Tzeva Adom, Color Red siren, blared twice in the city, sending residents fleeing to area bomb shelters. After the second Color Red siren, an unusually loud explosion sounded throughout the city.

The sound of the rocket explosion shocked no one more than Ilan Dahan. Ilan was sleeping when the Qassam rocket crashed into his backyard, right outside his bedroom.

“I slept right through the Color Red siren,” said Ilan. Ilan, dazed and shocked, walked into his bedroom. His bed was full of broken glass, from a window right above the bed, which shattered from the impact of the rocket slamming into the ground.

“It’s a miracle that all I got was this small scratch,” Ilan told the Sderot Media Center. A piece of broken glass struck Ilan’s back, leaving behind a red mark.

Both of Ilan’s parents were home when the rocket struck. His father raced into Ilan’s bedroom after the rocket struck, picked his son up and carried him outside to safety. “At that point, I didn’t even realize that the rocket hit right outside our home,” said Ilan, who is 18 and getting ready to enter the army.

Shula, Ilan’s mother, looked tearfully at her son.

“I never expected this to happen to us during a cease-fire,” she said. The family was sitting outside in the front of the home to cool off from the heat of the evening when the siren sounded.

“We didn’t react quickly enough to the siren,” said Shula. “If we had reacted, we would have raced to the back of the home where our new shelter is located. Most likely, one of us would have been injured because the rocket exploded right outside the shelter.”

The back of the Dahans’ home suffered severe damage from the rocket blast. Broken glass and debris littered the floor, while holes from rocket shrapnel marked the ceiling and walls. Outside, the Dahans’ shelter was also covered with shrapnel marks.

The rocket explosion also damaged the home next to the Dahans.

Family members from both sides suffered shock, as did neighbors further along the street. Several people were treated for trauma on the scene.

The rocket attack comes as the Sderot Mental Health Center is shutting down. Dr. Adrianne Katz, the head of Sderot Mental Health, told the Sderot Media Center that the mental health center is closing due to budget cuts. The Sderot Mental Health Center has provided therapy treatments to thousands of Sderot trauma victims and has 5,500 patients on file.

The Gaza rocket attacks on Sderot came in the wake of the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama in the White House on Monday.

During a White House press conference after the meeting, President Obama said: “[T]here is a recognition that the Palestinians are going to have to do a better job providing the kinds of security assurances that Israelis would need to achieve a two-state solution, [and] gain additional legitimacy and credibility with their own people, and delivering services.”

Mr. Obama also called the situation in Sderot unacceptable and recalled his experience visiting the city during last year’s presidential campaign.

When Mr. Obama visited Sderot last year, he stated in a Sderot press conference: “I will work from the moment that I return to America, to tell the story of Sderot and to make sure that the good people who live here are enjoying a future of peace and security and hope.”

The president emphasized Israel’s responsibility to protect its citizens.

“If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing,” Mr. Obama said.

Yesterday marked the fifth month since the Hamas-Israel cease-fire in mid-January. Since then, over 210 rockets have been fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza at Israel.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

A senior adviser to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has said, according to Middle East Newsline, Fatah, the faction that runs the PA, has agreed in principle to form a joint security force with its rival, Hamas.

Nabil Shaath, who is serving as a PA negotiator, said this took place in the course of its negotiations in Cairo, Egypt with the rival terrorist group, which runs Gaza. This has taken place despite the presence of American military advisers in the West Bank who are training the PA’s security forces and U.S. opposition to Hamas.

“There are many details that must be concluded,” Mr. Shaath said.

This marked the second time in three months that a Fatah official claimed an agreement with Hamas in reconciliation talks conducted in Egypt.

Egypt has been encouraging Hamas to agree to the joint security force in an effort to form a unity government with Fatah. The next round of talks was scheduled for July.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a briefing yesterday regarding Monday’s meeting with President Barack Obama.

The prime minister called the meeting successful as far as he was concerned.

First and foremost, it is clear Mr. Netanyahu had interpreted Mr. Obama’s seemingly contradictory words relating to a timetable for dialogue with the Iranians over their nuclear program as a deadline in every sense of the word.

Although Mr. Obama said he would not commit to an artificial deadline, he made it clear the U.S. was giving itself until the end of the year to make progress in talks with Tehran.

“If only these negotiations succeed,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Obama talked about re-evaluating at the end of the year. Is that a deadline or not?”

He said setting the end of the year as a clear target date for re-evaluating progress equaled setting a time limit for the dialogue.

The prime minister left the meeting with Mr. Obama pleased, particularly relating to what was agreed upon on Iran.

“I didn’t ask him for a green light or an orange light,” the prime minister said. “What’s important is that we reached agreement on a commitment to the outcome – that Iran not develop nuclear military capability. He stated this clearly.”

As for the Palestinian issue, it was apparent that the White House meeting did not exactly end according to Mr. Netanyahu’s expectations. The prime minister again clarified his belief that discussions with regard to establishing a Palestinian state should focus on restrictions that would guarantee Israeli security.

“All those who talk about the solution don’t stress the constraints enough – that it not have an army, about how to ensure that this be an entity that does not threaten Israel. That is the emphasis for us,” he said.

Mr. Netanyahu said the meeting between them had taken place in a very friendly atmosphere.

“At first, there was a meeting of an hour and 45 minutes, and that was very important to solidify the personal connection between us,” the prime minister said.

The president’s verbal ability and good English definitely helped, but it was not the only thing that solidified this important connection between the leaders.

“There is a deep commitment to the connection between Israel and the U.S.,” Mr. Netanyahu said, summing up the summit.

Predictions About Tense Meeting Were Proved Wrong

The Israeli political establishment had braced for a disastrous meeting between Messrs. Netanyahu and Obama.

Once the results of the meeting became known last night, members of the prime minister’s Likud Party expressed their happiness with the outcome.

“The predictions about a tense meeting were disproved,” said Likud Knesset member Ophir Okunis, who heads the party’s public response team. “The Obama-Netanyahu meeting proved once again the might of the relationship between the United States and Israel.

“The government is committed to the peace process with the Palestinians not on the basis of two states for two peoples, but, rather, on the basis of Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.”

However, Dr. Aryeh Eldad, a Knesset member of the opposition National Union Party, said he was troubled by Mr. Obama’s statements about Iran.

“There is cause for real concern because the United States is shrugging off its historic duty to guarantee Israel’s security. The United States is willing, in practice, to resign itself to a nuclear Iran, so that Israel has been left facing Iran alone.”

Dr. Eldad said that Israel might not have any choice, in light of Mr. Obama’s statements, but to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

Labor Knesset member Yuli Tamir said: “Netanyahu has insisted on ignoring the unequivocal policy that has been introduced by the president of the United States, who regards the principle of two states for two peoples to be the key for stability in the Middle East…”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides have been busy trying to arrange a meeting between his wife, Sara, and first lady Michelle Obama.

Mrs. Netanyahu said she has been interested in having such a meeting, but it is unclear whether one will take place.

“We are attempting to schedule a meeting between Sara Netanyahu and Michelle Obama [for today],” said a source in the prime minister’s entourage.

This could prove difficult because Mrs. Obama is presently away from Washington.

The tradition so far has always been, during an Israeli prime minister’s first visit to Washington, for the wives of the two leaders to meet for a joint meal.

Mrs. Obama, it seems, had other plans.

She is in no hurry to meet with wives of leaders who visit Washington and prefers cultural and social events instead. But the last word has yet to be said, and indeed, if the efforts of the Israelis bear fruit, Mrs. Netanyahu will be able to hold a face-to-face meeting with the first lady of the United States.

During Mr. Netanyahu’s fist visit to Washington in the course of his first term as prime minister in the 1990s, Mrs. Netanyahu met with then first lady Hillary Clinton.

Even if she does not meet with the president’s wife, a busy schedule still awaits Sara Netanyahu, and she has already been rather busy.

Yesterday, she paid an official visit to the Holocaust Museum, met with professionals in her field – child psychology – visited a local school and also met with Noa Meridor, the wife of Israeli Ambassador to Washington Sallai Meridor.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Following the Papal visit, the Israeli Tourism Ministry has announced that it is launching comprehensive marketing activities via the Israel Government Tourist Offices overseas to promote Christian tourism to Israel.

The Israel Government Tourist Offices, located around the world, have been working with target audiences and leading tourism bodies in target countries and will launch focused marketing campaigns within the next few weeks.

They will act in accordance with the various market activities, including conventions on the theme of pilgrimage travel; launching focused itinerary suggestions; hosting opinion makers in the Christian world; and launching complementary public relations activities.

A special Israel Tourism Ministry camera crew accompanied the Pope during his recent pilgrimage.

Over the next few days, a special film of the visit will be produced and used to augment marketing activities overseas.

Alongside these marketing activities, a Web site developed by the Tourism Ministry in honor of the Papal visit will remain online.

Israel Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said: “The visit of the Pope represents a strategic anchor for Christian tourism to Israel in the coming years, and the Israel Tourism Ministry will operate in all areas to realize the great potential in this type of tourism.”

Three million tourists visited Israel in 2008 (a record year), of whom over 1 million were Christian.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com