Hundreds of Israelis Missing in Southeast Asia Following Earthquake Disaster
With a the death toll from Sunday's earthquake in Southeast Asia reaching an estimated 23,000, Foreign Ministry officials said today that while 450 Israelis in the region had so far been contacted, hundreds were still missing, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Between 7 and 14 Israelis are known to have been injured in the aftermath of the natural disaster. The missing list includes 160 Israelis on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal; 270 in southern Thailand; 60 in Sri Lanka and around 50 people in southern India.
Foreign Ministry officials and doctors flew to Southeast Asia today to search for missing Israeli tourists and provide assistance to countries struck by the massive earthquake and tidal waves. Israeli army doctors are to offer medical assistance in Thailand and Sri Lanka, and army teams will look for missing Israelis in southern India. Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor said that Israel would dispatch $100,000 worth of medicine and food to Thailand and India. In addition, a Foreign Ministry delegation including three top doctors from the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and an officer from the Home Front Command departed for the area to provide emergency assistance.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Shalom said Israel would assist its citizens in every way possible and also offered Israel's assistance to the nations struck by the natural disaster.
Israel Frees 159 Palestinians
Israel released 159 Palestinian prisoners today, many of them serving the final months of their sentences, in a step regarded by the Prime Minister's Office as a gesture to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and to the new Palestinian leadership, HA'ARETZ reported. Sharon had promised the release to Mubarak after the handover a few weeks ago of Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Druze sentenced in Egypt in 1997 to a 15-year term on espionage charges. Israel has always strongly denied he was a spy.
Among the prisoners whose release was authorized by the cabinet last week are 50 illegal residents; the rest are inmates whose prison terms were almost up and do not have "blood on their hands." Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Sharon, said that the prisoner release was a sign of Israel's desire to coordinate its planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year.
PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas has welcomed the move, but called on Israel to free every single Palestinian prisoner. "In principle we work for every prisoner to be released, but what we are looking for is the release of those who have spent many long years in jail," Abbas, who is currently campaigning for the PA leadership position, pointed out.
Cabinet to Vote Next Month on 2005 Start to Pullout
The cabinet will vote as early as next month to authorize the start of the pullout from the Gaza Strip in the middle of the year, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today, HA'ARETZ reported. Committee chair Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said after the meeting that Sharon had originally planned to seek cabinet approval in April or May for the actual removal of all 21 settlements in Gaza and a further four in the northern West Bank, but was advised by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to speed up ratification. "The prime minister made it crystal clear the attorney general [told him] he had to give settlers at least six months' notice before evacuating them," Steinitz said.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Yesha Council of Settlements were to meet today with members of the Knesset Constitution, Justice and Law Committee to discuss the boundaries of legitimate protests against the disengagement plan. On Sunday, 12 people were arrested following clashes with police during a demonstration outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.
Responding to settlers' threats that they would harm security forces taking part in their evacuation, Sharon and Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz sent harsh warnings at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday saying, "Let no one dare lift a hand against a soldier or a policeman."
Israir Expects $25 million from Resumption of Tel Aviv-New York Flights
Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd., which will renew its flights from Tel Aviv to New York late March 2005 following a "very successful" trial period last summer, expects to earn a revenue of $25 million next year from its operations, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Israir CEO Sabina Biran said the company planned to offer three or four direct night flights per week to New York, as well as flights to other destinations in North America during the summer, and flights to the Far East in the winter.
For the program, the company has so far leased a wide-bodied Boeing 767-300ER for three years. The airplane Israir will hire will be brand new, with 233 seats in tourist class and 20 seats in business class. The flights will be marketed by Israir's sister company Unital Tourism and Aviation, which will offer them as part of products such as package tours.
Biran rejected newspaper reports that Israir had stopped the flights in October because it could not compete with El Al Israel Airlines, saying that the company had only planned the trial period for four months. Israir did not make a profit during the trial period, Biran said, because of the investment it made in the venture, such as the setting up of a New York office, and the high cost of oil.
Other News in Brief
* Wael Reahi, a major arms dealer who transferred weapons to terrorists, was killed by an Israel Defense Forces unit in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus today after resisting arrest, Israel radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. Reahi failed to obey orders to stop while driving through the camp, and attempted to run over several soldiers. Reahi was armed at the time of the incident.
In the Gaza Strip, two mortar shells were fired this morning at IDF bases in the southern part of the strip. No one was injured and there was no damage.
* The Palestinian Authority has released official results from Thursday's municipal elections in the West Bank, Israel radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. The Supreme Council for local elections showed that Hamas had scored victories in nine West Bank council races, and that Fatah had won in 16 council contests. Last week marked the first time that Hamas has participated in Palestinian elections. The turnout in the 26 relatively small towns reached around 90 percent.
Economic & Hi-Tech Briefs
* The Office of the Chief Scientist, Technion Entrepreneurial Incubator Company and its partners, Vertex Venture Capital, ProSeed Venture Capital Fund, and Shalom Equity Fund, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Izhak Nakar (a co-founder of Top Image Systems) have invested $750,000 in start-up Matteris, which is developing an innovative holographic storage system, GLOBES reported. Matteris is developing a holographic storage system for storing greater volumes of information than currently possible. The product is designed to save large and small enterprises money, and will later be adapted for home use. Holographic storage is an innovative optical method for information storage, which exploits a material's volume and not just its surface, enabling the storage of 1,000 times more information than other storage systems.
[Today's Israel Line was prepared by Victor Chemtob at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.]