Tanzim Leader Barghouti Convicted For Deaths of Five People
Former West Bank Tanzim commander Marwan Barghouti was convicted by the Tel Aviv District Court today for the deaths of five people, HA'ARETZ reported. The five were murdered in 3 different terror attacks staged by Barghouti. The Tanzim leader was also found guilty of attempted murder, membership in a terror organization and conspiring to commit a crime. However, the court acquitted him of 33 other murders, noting the absence of evidence that he was a full partner in those incidents. The prosecution was seeking today to sentence him to five life terms.
The court ruled that Barghouti was directly responsible for a January 2002 terror attack on a gas station in Givat Zeev in which Israeli Yoela Chen was murdered. Barghouti had admitted his responsibility for this attack. The attack in which a Greek monk was murdered in Ma'aleh Adumim on June of 2001 was also carried out at the instruction of Barghouti, the judges said. The former Tanzim leader, the court ruled, also approved the March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv's Seafood Market restaurant in which three people were murdered, as well as a car bomb attack in Jerusalem.
The judges said Barghouti's orders for terror attacks were sometimes "based on instructions" from Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. "Arafat would never give explicit instructions for attacks but he let it be known when the timing was right," the judges said.
Meanwhile, terrorists in the Gaza Strip vowed today to kidnap Israeli soldiers and exchange them for Barghouti.
Operation Against Arms Smuggling Tunnels Expands
The IDF Operation codenamed Rainbow in the south Gaza Strip town expanded today as troops continued to target the terrorist infrastructure in the area, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. A total of seven Palestinian terrorists were killed today in the Rafah refugee camp. Israeli forces increased their activities against arms smuggling in Rafah, entering the Brazil neighborhood, south-east of Tel Sultan. Military intelligence shows that most arms smuggling tunnels have entrances and exits in the Brazil neighborhood.
Minister of Justice Yosef Lapid explained Israel had to act against terrorists in Rafah because they were trying to smuggle in Strela anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down civilian airliners. "If this happens, God forbid, and airplanes are shot down, people will ask us why we didn't act to stop it," Lapid said. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority turned down an Israeli offer to evacuate Palestinians wounded as a result of IDF activities in Gaza to hospitals in Israel.
New York Times Reporter in Gaza Escapes Abduction Attempt
New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief James Bennet narrowly escaped a kidnap attempt by Palestinians while covering Israel's military operation in the Rafah refugee camp on Wednesday, HA'ARETZ reported. Bennet said that he was speaking on his cellular phone in front of a Rafah hospital when an unidentified Palestinian smiled at him, said, "welcome", and offered his hand. When Bennet shook his hand, the man and another Palestinian grabbed him and tried to thrust him into an old Mercedes car that pulled up with its back door open, recalling kidnappings of foreigners by Muslim terrorists in wartime Beirut in the 1980s.
Responding to Bennet's cries, the police at the hospital thwarted the abduction. The kidnappers then jumped in the car and sped away, escaping the police.
Jewish Leaders from More than 40 Countries Meet in Budapest
Jewish leaders from more than 40 countries gathered today in Budapest to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing their communities just a few weeks after the enlargement of the European Union, HA'ARETZ reported. Participants from Europe, Israel, the United States, and several countries in North Africa were expected to debate topics including the role of Jews in the new Europe, the international impact of the Middle East conflict and internal strategies for Jewish communal development.
The Third General Assembly of European Jewry has been organized amid tight security by the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
"There is much to celebrate, but much to concern us," Cobi Benatoff, president of the ECJC, said in a statement. "As the European map undergoes change, there has been an emergence of instability liked to global and local tensions such as racism, anti-Semitism, the threat of terrorism, immigration, and unequal levels of development," Benatoff said. "This makes it all the more necessary to review the Jewish people's place as citizens with rights in this new Europe."
Economic & Hi-Tech Briefs
* A joint Israeli-European team has recently revealed a revolutionary development for weaning addicts off drugs, a prosthetic tooth that releases medication to reduce an addict's craving, THE MARKER.COM reported. The scientists developed a microcomputer that is implanted in a prosthetic tooth in the mouth of the addict, many of whom suffer from dental problems and missing teeth. In an adjacent prosthetic tooth sits a tiny cell containing the medication, which is released by computer into the addict's mouth. The researchers intend to miniaturize the device to the extent that both the microcomputer and the medication cell can be planted together in one prosthetic tooth.
* Signs are emerging of a recovery in the textile and fashion industry, halting the trend of lay-offs that has prevailed in the last ten years, GLOBES reported. In the first quarter of 2004, 300 new textile workers were hired, bringing the total to 28,000, said Offis Textile CEO and Manufacturers Association textile and fashion division chairman Ramzi Gabbay. The figures also show that textile exports grew 10 percent in the first quarter of 2004 to $318 million, following the global economic recovery and the textile manufacturers' marketing efforts. Domestic sales were up 8 percent owing to higher prices for competing Chinese imports.
* The largest Far Eastern airline, Cathay Pacific, is examining the possibility of operating a flight from the Far East to Israel, MA'ARIV reported. Augustus Tang, Cathay Pacific Airline's Director of Corporate Planning, said the move was being examined as part of company plans to establish flights from the Far East to the Middle East.
[Today's Israel Line was prepared by Victor Chemtob and Tallie Lieberman at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.]