IDF exposes Hamas terror cells
The IDF and Shin Bet have exposed three Hamas terror groups in recent weeks behind several terror attacks during and prior to the period of calm, including the kidnapping and murder of Israeli citizen Sasson Nuriel, YNET reported. According to the Shin Bet, the cell responsible for the murder of Nuriel was instructed by Hamas headquarters in Gaza to kidnap an IDF officer who had been involved in the drug trade. In order to improve the cell's operational capacities, the Gaza commanders sent an explosives expert to train the men in the West Bank. The expert, a 22 year-old woman by the name of Samer Sabih joined the group in the West Bank town of Tul Karem and taught them how to prepare explosive devices. In September, two cell members who worked with Nuriel forced him to join them for a ride to Aram in northern Jerusalem in order to buy coffee. While on their way, the terrorists kidnapped Nuriel at gunpoint and took him into hiding where he was compelled to recite a statement in support of Hamas, while being filmed by his abductors. Fearing exposure by the IDF, the members attempted to keep Nuriel alive. However, the terrorists later took Nuriel to a garbage dump near Bitunia where they stabbed him to death and buried his body.
A senior Shin Bet official said Nuriel was murdered even before his family was able to filed a missing report with the police. The cell members reported the murder to their commander in the Strip, and relayed to him photos of Nuriel. Only after the Shin Bet exposed the operation and uncovered the body, did Hamas claim responsibility for the murder. According to the Shin Bet, the cell members plotted to carry out further terror attacks, including kidnapping Jews in various areas of Jerusalem and carrying out a suicide bombing at an army base. However, their plans were thwarted due to their arrest.
Families: Don't blur victims' memories
A few dozen family members of the victims killed in the Maxim suicide bombing demonstrated yesterday opposite the Haifa restaurant, in protest of the owners' refusal to allow the building of a memorial near the restaurant, YNET reported. While the families spoke about their loved ones and protested against the restaurant owners' indifference to their distress, people continued to flock to the restaurant for lunch. The restaurant owners closed the blinds of the windows facing the demonstration. Ora Regev, mother of Nir who was killed in the attack, used a megaphone to address those entering the restaurant, wishing them bon appetite and mentioning that 21 people were killed on the premises two years ago.
She also informed them that the restaurant's owners "are doing everything they can to ignore the disaster and blur the victims' memories."
Since the attack, the families have negotiated with Haifa's City Hall, the Delek fuel company, whose gas station is adjacent to the restaurant, and the restaurant owners. A plan was organized to build a monument on the wall separating the restaurant from the gas station. While Delek and City Hall have approved the plans, the restaurant owners have objected, claiming that a monument in remembrance of such a great disaster would harm the restaurant's chance of overcoming the attack. The families reject the claim, saying that the real reason for the owners' objection is their desire to maintain the parking places next to the restaurant's entrance and their attempts to minimize the repercussions following the disaster.
Restaurant owner Tony Matar told Ynet he and his people do not oppose the building of a monument. "The dispute between us and the families revolves around the size and the location. They want to build a wall, and this will lead to the closing of the restaurant. Whoever wants to come in will be forced to pass through the wall and to sit inside the monument," he said. The Maxim restaurant was attacked on 4 October 2003, on the Saturday between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.A female suicide bomber blew herself up inside the restaurant during lunchhour rush, killing 21 people and injuring over 50
Israeli wins 2005 Nobel Prize for economics
Yisrael Aumann, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Thomas C. Schelling, an American, have won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, HAARETZ reported. Aumann, who was born in Frankfurt, Germany, is a professor at the Center for Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Aumann and Schelling won the prize "for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis," the academy said.
Through their work, Aumann, 75, and Schelling, 84, have helped to "explain economic conflicts such as price wars and trade wars, as well as why some communities are more successful than others in managing common-pool resources," the academy said in its citation. "The repeated-games approach clarifies the raison d'etre of many institutions, ranging from merchant guilds and organized crime to wage negotiations and international trade agreements." Schelling is a professor at the University of Maryland's department of economics and a professor emeritus at Harvard.
Professor Aumann was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and his family immigrated to New York in 1938. He studied mathematics in New York and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies over there. He then went to MIT to write his doctoral dissertation. Aumann immigrated to Israel in 1956 and became a staff member at the Hebrew University Mathematics Institute, where he taught until his retirement. In his research Aumann developed tools for accurate analysis of economic systems where player groups have great influence over the final result, while individual players have very little influence over the outcome of processes.
Winning the Noble Prize is an unprecedented achievement for Israeli scientists. Last year two biochemistry professors from Haifa's Technion, Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This was the first time Israeli scientists won the Nobel Prize.
Israeli Arab appointed dean of university for first time
Professor Majid Al-Haj has been appointed Dean of Research at the University of Haifa - the first Arab citizen to hold such a position at an Israeli universit, THE JERUSALEM POST reported.
Al-Haj, a senior member of the university's Department of Sociology and Anthropology, was appointed by the University Senate to the post, which he will hold for the next three years. Al-Haj has published more than 40 scholarly articles, as well as a number of books. He was a member of the central committee of the Israel Sociological Society and chaired the committee for the advancement of higher education among Arabs in Israel. Friends and acquaintances noted that Al-Haj, a resident of Shfaram in the Galilee who is married with four children, was a leading light in efforts to promote educational services for Arab citizens in all parts of the country.
[Today's Israel Line was prepared by Hili Sharon at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.]