The results are in after Hamas conducted elections last week.

The elections were held in Gaza and in other areas of the Middle East.

The Fatah, which runs Palestinian institutions in the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Jenin, Bethlehem, and Nablus, would not allow Hamas members in these areas to participate in the Hamas elections.

On Monday, the Ma’an Palestinian news agency reported Khaled Masha’al was re-elected politbureau chief of Hamas.

Ma’an, based in Ramallah, reported Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, was elected to replace Mohammed Nazzal on the ruling panel.

Mr. Masha’al, the head of the political bureau, has been in the position since 1997. Mr. Masha’al’s deputy, Mussa Abu Marzouk, also retained his post.

Maan said Hamas also elected an executive council. The council was said to comprise 15 members of the political bureau and 10 members of the General Consultative Council.

Elections for the Shura Council and General Consultative Council have been set for every four years. The elections were meant to establish Hamas’s administrative and political leadership.

While Hamas is defined by the United States, Canada, Australia and all members of the European Union Hamas as an illegal terrorist organization which honors anyone who will murder Jews, Hamas has built a democratic process that seems to be functioning with great efficiency. Hamas can now present itself to the West as a democratic entity, even if it is a terrorist organization.

Pundits often note Adolf Hitler came to power in democratic process.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Hours before Israel Memorial Day began yesterday, honoring those Israelis who were killed in battle or murdered by terrorists, Israeli security officials announced they had arrested the Arab terrorist who had been involved with the murder of one boy and the injury of another on April 2.

The confessed murderer, identified as Moussa Teet, 26, killed Shlomo Nativ, a 13-year-old Jewish boy, and injured Yair Gamliel, a 7-year-old child, with a pickax, in Bat Ayin, located southwest of Bethlehem.

The Israeli security services captured the terrorist after receiving information he was hiding in Beit Ummar, located south of Bethlehem. They reached him on April 14 during the late evening hours, before surrounding him and forcing him out.

“We surrounded the house, called upon him to come out, and five minutes later he came out with his hands up. He acted coolly and didn’t panic. It took a few days before he confessed to the murder,” Israeli security officials said.

Mr. Teet re-enacted the incident during questioning from the planning stage until he fled the scene of the murder after residents of Bat Ayin began to pursue him.

He told his interrogators he had committed the act for religious reasons, and he had written a will 10 days before carrying out the terror attack.

The confessed terrorist also led the investigators to the weapons he had hidden in the field after murdering the teenager. He also thought he would not emerge from the attack alive.

“I wanted to be a shahid (a martyr),” Mr. Teet said under questioning.

After he managed to escape from Bat Ayin, he tried to continue to go about his life as usual, with the belief he would not be caught.

“Army forces combed the village on the day of the murder. He saw that they did not reach him, and thought that he wouldn’t be found. He went on with his life, tended the sheep and felt safe,” sources said.

Samih Teet, the terrorist’s cousin and an officer in the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, said he intended to inform the Palestinian Authority, so it would arrest Moussa and investigate whether he had committed the murder.

“On the day of the arrest, children in the village saw Moussa burying the clothes that he was wearing at the time of the attack,” Samih said. “People immediately started to talk about the fact that Moussa carried out the attack.”

Shlomo Nativ’s family has asked for Mr. Teet’s execution for murder; however, Israel has only administered the death penalty once before, when it hanged Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichman in 1962.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

The executive director of Iran’s national oil company, the Continental Shelf Oil Company, says his company has signed an agreement with a French company worth 32 million euros, or about $40 million.

Mahmoud Zirkjian Alizada, the executive director, says the plan will carry out support and planning operations in Iran’s Dorood Three refinery.

According to Iranian Mehr news agency, Mr. Alizada told reporters covering the Fourth International Exhibition on oil, gas and petrochemicals in Tehran that contracts worth $12 billion had been signed between domestic and foreign companies and the Iranian company.

The executive director said the volume of oil and gas production from oil fields in the Persian Gulf has increased during the past year. He stressed the Iranian Frouzan oil field production increased by 11 percent, as well as the size of Salman oil field production, which witnessed an increase of 6 percent.

“Iran has 13 oil and gas fields shared with Gulf, and there are about 5 billion barrels of crude oil in those fields,” Mr. Alizada said.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

With two weeks left before Pope Benedict XVI’s scheduled trip to Israel, set to take place May 11 to 15, the Vatican has announced it has signed a deal with the Arab League outlining cooperation aimed at promoting “peace, security and stability.”

Vatican senior diplomat Dominique Mamberti and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa signed the agreement.

However, what the Vatican did not mention in its press statement was the League of Arab States remains in a formal and active state of war with Israel.

The league declared a war to destroy the nascent state of Israel on the day that Israel declared its independence following the end of the British Mandate, on May 14, 1948. A spokesman for the Washington office of the Arab League confirms the international organization has never rescinded that state of war.

In March 2002, the league announced its first peace plan by making peace with Israel conditional on a full Israeli withdrawal to the territory it held prior to 1967, the expulsion of Jews from the Old City of Jerusalem and Israel’s recognition of the Arab refugees’ rights to the homes and villages that they left in 1948 war.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said last week Israel views the league’s plan as a prescription for its destruction.

In that context, a source in the Israel Foreign Ministry says that Israel has little to rejoice from the Vatican signing a new agreement with the Arab League, because the league remains committed to its 61-year-old war to destroy Israel.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Whenever Israel Independence Day approaches, someone with a historical perspective invariably reminds the people of Israel the American State Department did everything in its power to dissuade Israel from declaring its independence after the British withdrew in May 1948.

After Israel declared independence and in spite of the State Department’s warnings Arab armies would overwhelm it, the U.S. enforced an arms embargo of Israel during its War of Independence.

This week, as Israel enters its 61st anniversary, American directives abound once again.

The text of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s testimony to the Congress from last week was released to the Israeli media yesterday, and it does not sit well with Israel.

In that testimony, Mrs. Clinton warned Israel it risks losing “Arab support” if itdoes not resume negotiations to launch a Palestinian state.

Mrs. Clinton made this demand, despite the fact that both movements that represent the Palestinians – Fatah and Hamas – remain at war with Israel.

“For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can’t stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand,” Mrs. Clinton told the House Appropriations Committee.

Concerning a funding request for the Palestinians, Mrs. Clinton said the State Department would ensure that no U.S. taxpayer money goes to Hamas.

“No aid will flow to Hamas or any entity controlled by Hamas,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton said any new Palestinian Authority government that would include Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous agreements.

However, Mrs. Clinton contradicted herself and indicated that the U.S. would not necessarily cut funding to the Palestinians even if Hamas were to join a unity government and fail to meet the three of the above conditions, noting that the U.S. continues to provide funds to Lebanon, whose government includes Hezbollah.

“We are doing that because we think, on balance, it is in the interest of the United States,” she said.

The question as to whether American policy plays into the interest of the state and people of Israel remains to be seen.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

The Middle East Newsline has confirmed Saudi Arabia has warned its nationals of the prospect of an imminent attack by al-Qaida in India.

Al-Qaida was believed to have targeted Saudi diplomatic and trade interests in several Indian cities.

“We have detected this threat after [the November 2008 al-Qaida-aligned seaborne strike in] Mumbai,” an official said. “We assess that al-Qaida believes it would be easier to attack Saudis in India than in the kingdom.”

Indian intelligence relayed the warning of al-Qaida’s plans to attack Saudi facilities such as the Saudi consulate and the state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines in Mumbai. They said Mumbai contains al-Qaida sleeper cells that were identifying Saudi and other targets.

Saudi nationals in India have also been ordered to avoid appearing in groups. Officials said 350 Saudi university students were enrolled in India.

India and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in an intelligence exchange in the effort to prevent al-Qaida attacks. Officials said the exchange intensified in wake of the Mumbai strike, in which nearly 200 people were killed.

The Jedda-based Arab News quoted a senior Indian police official as saying that New Dehli intercepted communications between Islamic insurgency groups.

The communications reported al-Qaida infiltration of India and plans to attack Saudi interests in Mumbai.

“There is high possibility of Saudi aircraft being hijacked from Indian airports,” the Arab News said.

A key concern, officials said, was that al-Qaida was being aided in India by Pakistani-based insurgency groups. They cited Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which are said to have been linked to the November Mumbai attack.

“The most valued target of al-Qaida would be the blowing up of a Saudi airliner, and we have received tremendous cooperation from Indian authorities,” the official said. “But there are other Saudi targets that would also be important.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Two weeks after the revelation of a Hezbollah network in Egypt, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has threatened Iran’s revolutionary regime and Hezbollah with harsh language.

“We are well aware of your plans,” he said. “We will reveal your plots and grab you by your necks. Stop hiding behind the Palestinian cause. Beware the wrath of Egypt and its people.”

In the course of the speech, which was his most bitter to date aimed at Iran and its allies, the Egyptian president also accused Iran of being hostile to peace and of pushing the region to the brink of hell.

“They wish to force their influence and agenda on our Arab world, and they ignite disharmony in the Palestinian and Arab arena,” he said “They infiltrate their agents in the region in order to threaten Egypt’s national security, to breach its borders and to shake its stability.”

Since the uncovering of the Hezbollah network, sources in Cairo have said they would act in a localized and efficient manner against the Shiite organization.

They have hinted that most of the damage would be to the weapons’ smuggling conducted along the Sinai roads and Suez Canal.

Mr. Mubarak’s speech came while his men continued to uncover more information in the course of the investigation.

The brains behind the Hezbollah network in Egypt – Hezbollah’s intelligence officer Mohamed Kablan – trained and qualified Palestinian suicide bombers for attacks in Israel. Mr. Kablan is a senior officer in Hezbollah’s 1800 unit, a secret body that aids Hamas and other Palestinian factions in their struggle against Israel.

Information on his involvement in attacks against Israel emerged in the course of the interrogation of the affair’s main suspect, the Lebanese Mohammad Yussuf Mansur, aka Sami Shihab.

“Mohamed Kablan is responsible for preparing the Palestinians who left for Jihad,” Mr. Shihab told his interrogators, “This is due to his proficiency in the language and his great ability to spark enthusiasm in the hearts of the holy warriors.”

Mr. Kablan lived in Egypt in the past for a long period and is fluent in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

A national coordinating agency for Jewish youth at 150 Orthodox synagogues in the United States and Canada has issued a call to its members to urge the Obama administration to oppose the formation of an independent, armed and sovereign Palestinian state.

The National Council of Young Israel warns an independent Palestinian state would open the door to a new wave of terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

“America’s stated intent to pursue an independent Palestinian state is untenable and unfeasible in light of the Palestinians’ well-documented hatred of the Jewish people and resentment of the Jewish state,” the coordinating agency said in a statement.

The Young Israel memo warns about the following issues:

• That the Palestinian Authority issues a death sentence to people who sell land to Jews;
• That Israeli POW Gilad Shalit is still being held captive by Islamic militants;
• That the U.S. has rejected Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state before renewing peace talks.
• That Prime Minister Netanyahu’s concerns that ceding control of Israeli land to the Palestinians would exacerbate the situation need to be taken seriously by the U.S., despite its failure in Gaza;
• That Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people, cannot be divided;
• That control of Jewish holy sites, and for that matter, the Christian holy sites, cannot and should not be relinquished to the Palestinians;
• That the U.S. has not discussed what would happen in the event that the two-state solution, which it is advocating, eventually fails, nor has it spoken about what role the U.S. is prepared to play in that event to restore a sense of stability to the region.

The Young Israel initiative comes on the heels of the visit of George Mitchell, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, to Israel.

Mr. Mitchell told his Israeli hosts during a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman: “A two-state solution is the only solution. U.S. policy favors, in respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a two-state solution which will have a Palestinian state living in peace alongside the Jewish State of Israel.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State described the United States’ policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the “pursuit of a two-state solution with the two countries living side-by-side in peace.”

These statements signify a trend with regard to the United States’ approach toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, under the assumption that the creation of an independent Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel will achieve a peaceful resolution of the situation in the Middle East.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

On Thursday, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, decried Arab desecrations of Joseph’s Tomb in the town of Nablus.

Reports Thursday morning of a group of Israelis who went to worship at the tomb of this Jewish patriarch state that the tomb was covered in bootprints and swastikas.

In response, Nathan J. Diament, director of public policy of the Orthodox Union, issued the following statement:

“The Orthodox Union decries the desecrations of the holy site of Joseph’s Tomb and we call upon all people of goodwill to join us in condemning such acts of desecration of holy sites.”

Mr. Diament also warned this could serve as a precedent for what could happen if Israel relinquishes sovereignty over other Jewish holy sites, most notably in Jerusalem.

During the 1948-1967 Arab rule over the Old City of Jerusalem, 57 synagogues in the Old City were torched, and Jews were not even allowed to visit the Old City.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

On Tuesday night, the Swiss Foreign Ministry issued an unprecedented sharp statement against Israel.

The Swiss announced they had summoned the Israeli ambassador to Bern, Switzerland’s capital, in order to protest Israel’s response to the meeting of the Swiss president, Hans-Rudolf Merz, with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That meeting occurred at the beginning of the Durban II conference and on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, which happened Monday.

Israel’s diplomatic response to the meeting was expansive.

It included the recall of the Israeli ambassador to Switzerland for consultations in Jerusalem and sharply worded statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman condemning the meeting. The charge d’affaires of the Swiss Embassy in Israel was also summoned for a “meeting of reprimand” at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

In response, the Swiss Foreign Ministry issued a statement “condemning” the “exaggerated language” of Israeli representatives, since Switzerland had notified Israel about the planned meeting with Mr. Ahmadinejad in advance.

Later on, the Swiss statement said Swiss officials were surprised by the “venomous” response by the high-ranking Israeli officials. They said the Swiss president condemned Holocaust denial and the Iranian president’s calls for the destruction of Israel during the meeting.

The Swiss response, which was transmitted in sharp diplomatic language, deepens the current crisis between Israel and Switzerland. The latter is one of the only countries in the world whose representatives meet regularly with the Iranian president, who is considered persona non grata in most Western countries. Moreover, less than a year ago, Switzerland’s energy company, EGL, signed a billion-euro contract for natural-gas supply from Iran.

Later in the day, after the harsh Swiss response was issued, the president of Switzerland tried to soften the impression that had been created in the wake of his meeting with the Mr. Ahmadinejad in an interview on Israel Radio.

His foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, continued along this line, saying, “I have a message for the Israelis; Switzerland is a good friend of Israel.”

However, she expressed amazement over Israel’s sharp response, calling Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments unacceptable.

“I know many people who suffered. We gave advance notice to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland of the planned meeting, and we explained that the reason it was taking place was because we serve as a communications channel between Iran and the United States,” Ms. Calmy-Rey said.

In response to a question from Ma’ariv, Swiss Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey said she had met with the Iranian president in the past (wearing a veil) and said Switzerland did not sign the natural-gas contract.

This was not a government decision, but the act of a private company. It should be mentioned Ms. Calmy-Rey is the one who revealed the deal’s existence to the press during a visit to Iran. She also said then: This measure will diversify Switzerland’s energy sources.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com