Jerusalem – The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jerida has confirmed that the head of the Hamas political bureau, Khalid Mashaal, traveled to Tehran, where he informed Iranian leaders who have been arming Hamas that he has given a green light to Hamas to carry out major attacks on the Jewish state in order to force Israel to accept his terms for cessation of missile attacks on Israel.

Israel has insisted that the Hamas hand over the one Israeli POW in its hands, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, as part of the cessation agreement, which would also involve an Israeli commitment to stop military incursions into Gaza. Hamas refuses to hand over Cpl. Shalit, held since June 25, 2006, without an Israeli handover of at least 1,000 convicts, many of whom now serve life sentences for multiple murders.

Given this impasse, the heads of the Israeli intelligence services told the Israeli cabinet on Sunday that no time can be wasted in delaying strong military action against Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah announced on Monday that he expected that “Sami Kuntar would be coming home soon.” The hint was that Mr. Kuntar, a Lebanese citizen who murdered an Israeli family 30 years ago in Naharia, would be traded for two Israeli POWs, Uri Goldwasser and Udi Regev, who have been held since July 12, 2006.

The Israel Broadcasting Authority television news quoted Israeli government sources as saying that Israel would also hand over four Hezbollah terrorists whom it has been holding for the past two years as part of the arrangement.

Olmert’s Syrian Initiative May Lead To Felony Charges

Attorney Yosef Fuchs, a prominent member of the Israel Bar Association and a founder of the Israel Legal Forum, has dispatched a strong letter to Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazoz demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be investigated for a felony.

Mr. Olmert announced negotiations that would involve land transfer to Syria, a nation at war with Israel, without the legally required Israeli government approval to launch any such negotiations.

Mr. Fuchs cited the Israeli legal statute from 1978, which forbids any Israeli citizen from discussing transfer of sovereign Israeli territory with any nation at war with Israel.

Mr. Fuchs noted that the provisions in this law also forbid any member of the Israeli government from launching negotiations concerning transfer of land to a nation at war with Israel without the express approval of the government of Israel.

Mr. Fuchs noted that Israel, unlike totalitarian states, operates with a parliamentary system that has created laws, procedures, checks and balances that oversee the operation of the Israeli government to prevent arbitrary actions of Israeli leaders who may try to act without government sanction.

Mr. Fuchs has asked that Mr. Mazoz issue an immediate directive to Mr. Olmert to cease and desist from any negotiations with Syria until and unless Mr. Olmert gains formal government consent.

Mr. Olmert does not currently have a majority of government cabinet members who would favor any such negotiations with Syria and has not therefore not received any authorization to launch talks with Syria from his own government.

Next week, Mr. Olmert plans to fly to the United States, where he will keynote the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference. Mr. Olmert has indicated that he will use the AIPAC platform to sell his Syria initiative to mainstream supporters of Israel in the U.S., along with members of the U.S. Congress. Mr. Olmert will share the AIPAC dais with presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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