An inquest into rumored abuses against Palestinian civilians by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during January’s Gaza incursion has been closed.

The investigation came about as a result of press rumors the IDF had killed several Palestinian women in cold blood during military action in Gaza, following the publication of transcripts in the major press from a February conference that was held at the Rabin Pre-Military Academy.

The conference was attended by Israeli soldiers who had taken part in the Gaza operation in January, and the allegations were made about the unjustified shooting at innocent civilians at that time.

Israel’s judge advocate general, Brig. Gen. Avi Mendelblit, decided to close the Israeli Military Police Corps’ investigation after he determined the underlying evidence had been based on rumors and innuendo rather than hard evidence. The decisive portion of the investigation into the IDF’s having allegedly killed the noncombatants was undermined when the judge and investigators determined the rumors were not based on personal knowledge emanating from two Israeli soldiers who had started the rumors.

No corroborating evidence surfaced at the Rabin Pre-Military Academy, where the rumors first arose. The Military Police Corps interviewed all of the soldiers who spoke at the February conference at the academy and found none of those who spoken there had been involved in combat during the Gaza offensive. Consequently, none of them had first-hand knowledge of what had allegedly happened.

The soldiers further said they had then exaggerated the content of those rumors and had made them more extreme in order to convey a message to the people attending the conference.

“It turned out that soldiers at the conference [held at the academy] either hadn’t been precise in their statements and that is why a different impression was formed or they made complaints that were then published by media outlets,” the IDF said in its review. “In that context no evidence was discovered to warrant additional legal measures. As soon as the case failed to provide evidence, the decision that was made was to close it.”

In the conclusion of his decision regarding the findings of the Israel Military Police findings, Brig. Gen. Mendelblit wrote:

“One ought to regret that none of the speakers took precautions while presenting assertions in the context of a conversation among veterans and, furthermore, that none of the veterans chose to present different factual situations of an egregious nature, despite the fact that they were aware of the fact that they had no personal knowledge about them.

“It is difficult to measure the damage that these things caused the IDF in Israel and around the world in terms of its image and ethics.”

IDF officials are furious with the head of the academy, Danny Zamir, whom high-ranking officers accuse of having goaded the soldiers into saying what they said and then for having recorded them without their knowledge, as well as for having brought their remarks to light in the press.

“He can’t be principal of a pre-military academy,” said one officer in the IDF General Staff.

Those on the Israeli left, however, are outraged with the closure of the investigation.

The Jerusalem Post quoted left-leaning groups including B’tselem, Adalah, Yesh Din and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel having said in a joint statement, “The speedy closing of the investigation immediately raises suspicions that the very opening of the investigation was merely the army’s attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during Operation Cast Lead.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Some 750,000 Israelis who live abroad could end up participating in Israel’s next election if certain Knesset members get their way. Those living abroad would be able to vote at Israel’s embassies or consulates around the world for the first time since the Jewish state’s establishment.

About half of these Israelis live either in the United States of Canada, and some estimates place the number at around 1 million. Of those, an estimated 300,000 live in the Los Angeles area, making it the largest Israeli community outside Israel.

This question arises every few years, and several bills were introduced on the matter in the past decade. Some of these bills passed preliminary votes in the Knesset, only to be shot down by the government.

This time, the effort looks more serious than ever because Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, the incoming foreign minister, made allowing Israelis living abroad to vote a condition for his entering Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Many in the Israeli political establishment believe Mr. Lieberman pressed for this condition in order to allow the some 200,000 Russians, who came to Israel in the early ’90s, only to leave the Jewish state, to vote for him. This speculation could have a solid basis because a substantial number of Russian immigrants voted for him.

The following statement outlining the deal on the expected resolution was released:

“The government shall formulate a bill that will provide for Israelis residing overseas on election day to vote under conditions agreed to by the various factions. This bill shall be placed on the Knesset’s agenda within a year after the government is sworn in.”

Incoming finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, passed on a recommendation to Mr. Netanyahu to safeguard the legislation this past weekend.

“Every citizen who resides overseas and who visited the country in the past 36 months prior to the elections or visited the country at least once since the previous elections, will be allowed to vote in the Knesset elections in ballot boxes that will be available in Israel’s embassies and consulates overseas,” he wrote.

Mr. Steinitz claims the bill will increase voter turnout.

“The bill will strengthen the bond and affinity of Israelis residing overseas who tend to visit Israel,” Mr. Steinitz said. “And will prevent the discrimination that is created between those whose wealth allows them to fly to Israel just to vote in elections, and those who are less wealthy residing in the same place, among them, naturally, many students.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

As Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepares to leave office, he does so under a cloud of successive ethical and political failures. He departs his office with the noteworthiness of being the first Israeli prime minister to leave after having been indicted on charges of theft, breach of trust and fraud.

Additionally, unlike many of his predecessors, he leaves office with practically no popular support.

This cloud, however, does not seem to be affecting Mr. Olmert publicly.

“I am leaving with a sense of joy and satisfaction,” Mr. Olmert said yesterday, without hesitation, on his final day in office, three years after he was elected.

His term in office likely will be remembered as much for its failures as anything else.

Mr. Olmert’s tenure oversaw the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the Winograd Commission – which he appointed to investigate Israeli conduct in the conflict – declared a failure.

The prime minister’s decision to send Israeli troops into Gaza in late December and early January produced few results except to strengthen Hamas’ resolve. The invasion had been intended to prevent the militants from firing rockets and mortar shells at Israeli targets; however, they did not stop. Mr. Olmert’s effort to return Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli prisoner of war held by Hamas in Gaza, likewise failed, and the war in Gaza made Israel especially hated worldwide.

From the day he failed in Lebanon and the investigations against him began, it was clear he was living on borrowed time. Since then, he has engaged mainly in survival.

The September 2007 strike against a Syrian nuclear reactor stands as his only acknowledged real achievement. Few details of the strike, however, are actually known.

Mr. Olmert leaves office as the “almost” man. He “almost” reached a breakthrough with Syria. He “almost” signed with the Palestinian Authority to end the conflict, and he “almost” brought back Gilad Shalit.

The charges against the outgoing prime minister, according to Israel’s law enforcement agencies, stem from his having allegedly abused his decades of power and status to gain – by every possible means – apartments, benefits, appointments for associates, airline tickets for family members, envelopes filled with cash, all at the public’s expense.

He will now stand trial on three criminal indictments, concerning accusations that he mishandled private investments, took bribes from an American businessman and embezzled funds from philanthropies.

Mr. Olmert’s legacy contrasts with previous Israeli prime ministers who left office with pride and who have major institutes and centers named after them, such as Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Menahem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

The departing prime minister has hired public relations professionals to promote him as a speaker abroad, where he will ask for top fees to cover the legal costs that he will incur in the years to come. It remains to be seen if Mr. Olmert’s reputation in Israel will follow him abroad.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Palestinians have disbanded a youth orchestra from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) Jenin refugee camp after it performed last Wednesday for elderly Nazi concentration camp survivors who now live in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon.

The children performers ranged in age from 11 to 13, including the son of Zakariya Zubeidi, a Fatah terrorist wanted for murder.

As a result of last week’s concert, part of the “Good Deeds Day” organized by the Ruach Tova/Good Spirit Foundation, the camp’s popular committee, which oversees municipal activities in the camp, ordered its disbandment.

Leading residents of the UNRWA camp, however, say they did not know who the orchestra was playing for until they saw the report published in a Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, which reported about the performance for the survivors.

Adnan al-Hindl, the head of the camp’s popular committee, told The Associated Press the Holocaust was “a political issue,” and he chastised Wafa Younis, the youth orchestra’s director, for dragging the children into politics.

“We want an orchestra; we want cultural education, but not by misusing the children,” Mr. al-Hindi said. “She exploited the children. She will be forbidden from doing any activities… We have to protect our children and our community.”

Other camp residents also agreed with Mr. al-Hindi’s sentiments.

Mr. al-Hindl charged the Palestinian people have suffered just as grievously as the Holocaust survivors had since the establishment of the State of Israel.

“The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves,” Mr. al-Hindl said. “We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we’ve lived in refugee camps for the past 50 years.”

The organizers, however, reject the claims being made by Mr. al-Hindl and others like him.

“We wanted to go to Israel with the children of Jenin and speak the language of music, which is the language of peace and respect between peoples,” said Ms. Younis, the orchestra’s director.

Kaynan Rabino, director of the foundation that organized the event, said he was disappointed to hear about the reaction in Jenin.

“They approached us and volunteered to play. Wafa knew the orchestra would play before Holocaust survivors,” he said. “We wanted to bring people’s hearts closer together, and if they are against that, then that’s a real shame.”

Ms. Younis, a resident of the village Ara in northern Israel, was declared “persona non grata” and was expelled from the refugee camp. The camp leaders filed a complaint against her with the Palestinian police on the grounds that she had acted unlawfully.

“The children are not to blame,” Mr. al-Hindi said yesterday. “They haven’t even heard about the Holocaust, but the director gave them politics instead of music. There are people who don’t even have mercy on children. Therefore, after a meeting of representatives of all the organizations in the camp, we decided to declare her ‘persona non grata’ in the refugee camp and closed her club.”

Members of the organization that helps the survivors heard the news with astonishment that the orchestra was being shut down.

“This is a foolish thing to do,” said Dan Waldman, director of the organization that provides psychological assistance to concentration camp survivors.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Until recently, Iran had waged a war of attrition against Israel through proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Arab terror groups.

Now, however, the Iranian-Israeli war is reaching a stage where Israel will no longer be able to only deal with Iran’s proxies.

Two months ago, as The Bulletin reported Friday, Israel bombed shipments of medium-range rockets that emanated from the Sudan, with a range of 46 miles, apparently of the “Fajr 3” model.

This is not a small rocket, and it is one the Iranians manufacture specifically for Gaza. It is designed so it will be possible to dismantle it and smuggle it through border tunnels between Gaza and Israel.

According to senior Israeli intelligence sources, Iran seeks to establish a rocket base on Israel’s southern border that can reach the Tel Aviv area from the south, after Iran already established a threatening Hezbollah base from the north.

This “stranglehold theory” established by Israeli intelligence is not theoretical one because Iran has been able to gain footholds on Israel’s northern and southern borders.

“We operate wherever we can target terrorist infrastructures: In near places-and in places less close,” said outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a conference at the Interdisciplinary Intelligence Center Herzliya, coming close to affirming reports of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike on Sudan.

Mr. Olmert went on to say at the event: “We hit them in a manner that enhances deterrence and strengthens the image of deterrence, which is no less important.

“This was true for the north, in a series of events, and it is true for the south in a series of events. There is no point in going into details – everyone can use his imagination on this matter. The fact is that those who need to know that there is no place where the State of Israel cannot operate. There is no such place.

“The State of Israel has never had more powerful deterrence than that which was built over the past few years,” Mr. Olmert said. “Military deterrence is not determined by newspaper headlines or by the random grumbling of self-interested political sources, but rather by what is projected towards those at whom the deterrence is aimed.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Hanin Zoabi is the first woman to be elected to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, as a representative of an Arab party. Ms. Zoabi, former director of the I’lam: Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel, is a feminist and strong secularist. She is now one of three representatives of the Balad (National Democratic Assembly) Party.

On one of her first days in the Knesset, the new parliamentarian asked for her thoughts regarding increased Iranian influence in Gaza. Ms. Zoabi replied that she welcomed it.

She said, “If this influence is supporting me, so I will not mind this influence. Even, I would ask for this influence… The question is not whether there is an influence or not, the question whether this influence is supporting you, can support your demands or can go against your demands.”

Queried regarding Iran’s quest to manufacture nuclear weapons, she stated was that “It would [sic] be more supporting me to have a counter-power to Israel” and “I need something to balance its [Israel’s] power.”

She also spoke of Egypt and Jordan as being a threat to the Arabs of the Gaza Strip, intimating that they are scared of a free and democratic Palestinian state.

Ms. Zoabi was then asked if she felt worried due to the fact that Iran is getting close to acquiring a nuclear weapon and because she lives in close proximity to Jews. She replied, “No, I am not, I’m afraid from the nuclear Iran, I am more afraid from the Israeli nuclear [weapons].”

Israel does not officially admit to being a nuclear power, yet it is generally accepted that it has been a nuclear power since the 1960s.

When asked if she thought that Iran would use nuclear weapons, she deliberately misunderstood and replied, “The Israelis? I think yes. And I am afraid from real risk rather than from potential risk.” She said that everyone is asking about potential risk while “Every day the Israeli uses its violence, army violence.”

“The Iranian is a potential… but the real risk is the Israeli army.”

Ms. Zoabi said that Israel was an aggressor state, and that only a situation similar to that which existed between the Soviet Union and United States in the form of the doctrine of “Mutually Ensured Destruction” would restrain Israel.

“It’s the balance of power. This is the only idea. Our only idea that it is more dangerous to the world, more dangerous to everyone, more dangerous to the Palestinians, to Israelis to have Israel as the only powerful state. I need something to balance its power because this balance of power will restrict the Israeli using of power. The Israeli violence of the army is an outcome of the Israel’s convenient feeling that no one will restrict her, that no Arab country will really declare a war against [Israel].”

She continued by saying “and another thing… I need a power which can make contrast to the Israeli power and it’s not for myself. It is not supporting me the fact that Israel would be the only state with a nuclear weapon. It’s more supporting me to have counter power to Israel.”

“I believe that [Israel] would respect its use of power if she’s afraid from others. The fact that she is not afraid from Arab countries, the fact that she is not afraid from a potential declaration of our Arab world to declare war against Israel, makes Israel more violent. You understand me. Sometimes I need power not in order to implement this power but in order to respect the other’s power. “

She was then asked if an Iranian bomb would lead to a nervous America and thus more U.S. pressure on Israel and if that would be good for her she replied “Exactly.”

Asked about Israel as a Jewish state, Ms. Zoabi declared that the very concept of a Jewish state is “inherently racist,” saying that Israel must be turned into a “state of all its citizens,” which would eliminate its Jewish or Zionist nature.

The Knesset Central Elections Committee disqualified the Balad party from running in the recent elections due to its members’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and reported calls for violence against it. The party was allowed to run when the Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Elections Committee.

Party chairman Dr. Jamal Zahalka responded to MK Zoabi’s comments by saying “I think Ms. Zoabi tried to explain some analysis that’s what’s better if you have, but this is not a position it’s an analysis [of] what would be safer for the region, if there is a balance… this is not supporting a nuclear weapon in Iran.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Two senior Sudanese government officials Thursday confirmed the recent CBS report Israeli Air Force (IAF) planes bombed targets in the Sudanese desert in January – more than 1,100 miles from home.

The aircraft strafed the city of Port Sudan where trucks were waiting to be loaded with missiles, rockets and other equipment. From there, they were supposed to have crossed the Sudanese desert in convoys run by professional smugglers who then were supposed to have taken the equipment into Egypt and Gaza.

At that time, Iran was threatening to transfer rockets to Hamas with a 45-mile range, allowing the terror group to hit Tel Aviv.

The Gaza arms delivery route begins in Iran and then goes through Yemen and Somalia. From there, the weapons and other equipment travel through Sudan and onward to Gaza through Egypt’s Sinai Desert.

The process of purchasing and smuggling arms for Gaza is orderly and organized, and makes use of “sub-contractors” such as the convoys of the smugglers in the Sudanese desert and the Bedouins in Sinai.

A leading intelligence analyst, Ronen Bergman, told the Israeli media, “Since the 1990s, Israel has been monitoring with concern the takeover of Sudan by radical Islamic elements and the establishment of terror organization training bases there,” and “In recent years Sudan has become one of the preferred smuggling routes for Iranian intelligence in transferring arms from the bases of the Revolutionary Guards to Sudan and from there to Egypt to the Sinai Desert and to the tunnels [under the Gaza border].”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Israel’s ambassador to Cairo, Shalom Cohen, included harsh criticisms of Egyptian policies in a speech he gave at Hebrew University’s Truman Institute Wednesday marking the 30th anniversary of the peace treaty between the two nations.

Mr. Cohen lamented that connections with Israel continue to be viewed as “shameful” in Cairo, and he expressed worry about the values being instilled into coming generations of Egyptians.

“How will it be possible to change the anti-Israeli reality on the Egyptian street into something different in the future?” Mr. Cohen asked.

“After all, a new generation is growing up in Egypt that constitutes about half the population, a large part of which does not know a thing about the State of Israel and its culture.”

Mr. Cohen said the idea of having normal relations with the Jewish state remains a “nasty word” in Egyptian public, political and media discourse.

Israel Worries Over Islamic Takeover Of Egypt

Meanwhile, the Middle East Newsline has revealed that Israel’s military has become increasingly concerned over a possible Islamic takeover of Egypt.

Military sources say Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak faces an increasingly confident and popular Islamic opposition. The sources said the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood could intensify its opposition to the Mubarak regime and seek to block the president’s attempt to transfer power to his son, Gamal.

“Mubarak has been keeping the Islamists at bay, but time is not on his side,” a source said. “Once he leaves the scene, everything will change.”

Egypt has the largest military in the Arab world. The air force and army have been built around American weapons, including the F-16, the AH-64D attack helicopter and the M1A1 main battle tank. Israel also operates many of the same weapon systems.

“Radical Islam could take over Egypt,” according to a source at the Israel’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies said. “The process could take place in wake of democratic elections, civil war or a coup, like Iran.”

Egypt, flushed with revenues from its growing natural-gas sector, has increased its defense budget by 30 percent since 2006.

They said Egypt has maintained an army of 450,000, which is far larger than Israel’s standing army.

[Res.] Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael, former head of the Defense Ministry’s research directorate, said Israel has long misunderstood Egypt.

He said Egypt was too large and powerful to be defeated by Israel.

“It (Israel) can jab Egypt, but can’t defeat Egypt,” Maj. Gen. Ben-Yisrael told a recent Tel Aviv University seminar. “We’re just beginning to learn this.”

But Maj. Gen. Ben-Yisrael has also downplayed the Egyptian threat. He said as Egyptian Air Force commander, Hosni Mubarak, today president, kept the air force out of the 1973 Egyptian-Israeli war.

This allowed Mr. Mubarak to claim a major success, which eventually led to his appointment as vice president under then-President Anwar Sadat.

Israeli military sources say Egypt has intensified exercises meant to counter any Israeli invasion of the Sinai Peninsula.

Still, they said, Egypt has retained its respect for Israel’s military, particularly in wake of the war with Hamas in January.

“Egypt knows that the technology gap with Israel, especially concerning U.S. weapons, is wide, and that has served as a deterrent,” the military source said.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Sitting at home at your laptop or PC anywhere in the world, you can now enjoy virtual tours of Israel using a Web site, including 100 videos, 130 panoramic views and numerous photographs on the Israel Ministry of Tourism Web site, which can be accessed directly at www.goisrael.com/vt, or at www.goisrael.com in 11 languages.

Ten virtual 10-day tours are available online that include items of general interest, Jewish interest, Christian interest, culture and history, along with nature, food and wine, family, archaeology and mobility-challenged tours.

Sites that can be “visited” include, among others, Caesarea, the Western Wall, the Old City of Jerusalem, Mitzpe Ramon, Gamla, Ben Gurion’s hut, Hayarkon Park, Katzrin, Mount Bental and Mount Hermon.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com