“Israeli Arab” terror group threatens jihad

An Israeli Arab terror organization calling itself the “Galilee Liberation Brigades” has threatened to unleash an unprecedented wave of violence against the Jewish state.

The Galilee Liberation Brigades (GLB) claimed credit last week for a deadly bulldozer attack perpetrated by an Arab resident of Jerusalem.  The group also said it was behind the March shooting spree at a Jerusalem yeshiva that left 8 young Jewish students dead.

The GLB has previously taken responsibility for the 2003 kidnapping and murder of IDF soldier Oleg Shaichat and the 2007 slaying of Michael Ronkin.

In a weekend interview with the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a man claiming to be the group’s leader said the GLB was also responsible for the 2003 disappearance of Dana Bennet.

Israel has largely refused to recognize the GLB or act against it in any significant way, despite its apparent history of organized ideological violence.  The interviewed terror boss said that is a mistake, as his group “seeks to sow terror in the hearts of Zionists,” and has already done just that.

He went on to threaten “a new wave of internal terror unlike anything the Palestinian Arabs had hit Israel with,” and urged all fellow Israeli Arabs to violently reject the sovereignty and legitimacy of the Jewish state.

(Israel Today, 7/8)

Palestinians received nearly $1 billion in last 6 months

The international community has paid out $920 million in direct aid to the Palestinians in six months, officials of the International “Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State” said in Paris on Monday (7th).

(AFP, 7/8)

PA Attorney General targeted in car blast

PA Attorney General Ahmed Moghanni says an explosion went off under his car as he started the vehicle Tuesday morning (8th).  He was not hurt in the blast outside his house in Ramallah.  The explosion went off under the fuel tank badly damaging the car.

(REKA, 7/8)

Italians free PLO Achille Lauro hijacker

Italian authorities released a Palestinian terrorist Monday (7th) who hijacked the Achille Lauro ship in 1985, during which the elderly wheelchair-bound Jewish American Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered.

Italy said the 43-year-old Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif was freed from a detention center in Rome, and was ordered to leave Italy within 15 days.  Abdelatif was given a 25-year sentence for being a member of a four-man team that high-jacked the Italian cruise ship and shot and pushed Klinghoffer overboard.

Italy has rejected Abdelatif’s request for political asylum and Lebanon has refused his return even though he was born there.  The Achille Lauro high-jacking was carried out by the Palestinian Liberation Front in part to demand the release of Samir Kuntar, the terrorist now at the center of the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbullah.

(REKA, 7/8)

Two Hamas members killed in Gaza “work accident”

At least two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday (8th) in an explosion at a Hamas training camp located in a former Israeli settlement near Khan Younis in Gaza.  “Paramedics evacuated two dead bodies and two wounded persons, and we expect more casualties because the blast destroyed the whole facility,” said Muawia Hassanien of the PA Health Ministry ambulance department.

(Xinhua-China, 7/8)

NYC lawsuit claims Lebanese banks helped Hizbullah kill civilians

Some 57 Israeli victims of terrorist attacks in Israel filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday (3rd) seeking at least $100 million in damages from Lebanese banks for aiding Hizbullah and abetting its ability to kill civilians.  Fransabank Sal, Banque Libanese Pour Le Commerce, Bank of Beirut Sal, Banque Libano-Francaise Sal, and the Middle East Africa Bank were accused of providing Hizbullah with “regular, systematic and unfettered access to U.S. currency,” enabling it to buy missiles and other weapons to terrorize civilians.  The lawsuit said a Hizbullah fund-raising form asks donors whether they wish to fund specific items such as missiles or small arms.

(AP/International Herald Tribune, 7/8)

MORE – Canadian victims of Hizbullah file against Lebanese banks also

Canadian victims of Hizbullah terror attacks have filed an unprecedented civil action in the Quebec Superior Court against the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB) in Montreal.  The plaintiffs, all of whom were injured in northern Israel in Katyusha rocket attacks, alleged that LCB unlawfully provided financial services to the Hizbullah terrorist organization by allowing charity groups affiliated with Hizbullah to transfer funds prior to and during the attacks on Israeli cities in 2006.

(Canada Newswire, 7/8)

Israel’s worst water-crisis in 80 years

Israel Water Authority Chief Uri Shani announced on Tuesday morning (8th) at a special press conference in Tel Aviv that Israel faces “the worst water crisis in 80 years, since they started keeping records.”  Major sources of drinking water in Israel including the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and the Mountain Aquifer are all below their “red lines,” and the Coastal Aquifer has fallen below the black line (when the water pipes are exposed) indicating it will suffer rapid and possibly irreversible damage.  Shani predicted that the Kinneret itself could fall below the “black line” by December 2008.

To help ease the crisis, the Israel Water Authority has authorized the following emergency measures: water will be pumped from the sources of the Kinneret (water which should not have reached the Kinneret until 2010), desalination plants will increase output, and polluted wells will be purified.  Water use for gardening will also be limited.  The price of water will nearly double from NIS 3.90 per cubic meter to NIS 7.40.  The price hike and a government NIS 1 billion investment will be used over the next five years for water infrastructure, desalination, and sewage treatment for agriculture.

On Monday (7th) a senior Israel Water Authority officer said that “Israelis better start praying for an exceedingly rainy winter because the nation today stands on the edge of a severe and protracted drought.”

(Israel Today, Arutz-7, 7/8)

Israel’s Elbit wins drone contract

Major Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems has won a $20 million dollar contract to provide UAVs (unmanned airborne vehicles) to an unnamed European country.  The project reportedly means supplying several “Hermes” type drones and their associated ground systems in 2009.

The “Hermes” is the basic IAF airborne drone and also serves as the basic vehicle for the UK’s “Watchkeeper system,” which is the largest UAV program in Europe.  Currently these UAV’s are active in fighting terror in Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

(Arutz-7, 7/8)

Israeli scientists communicate with plants

Israeli scientists at Bar-Ilan University have developed a method of communicating directly with plant life in order to determine levels of contamination in bodies of water.  The technological breakthrough has already won international acclaim, and has been published in many of the most prestigious scientific journals, reported The Jerusalem Post.  Departing from traditional methods of measuring contamination in plant life, the Israelis decided to find a way to let the plants literally tell them how they are doing.  By shining a laser beam on small algae plants, the scientists induce photosynthesis (the process of converting light into energy).  The light that is not converted into energy is converted into sound waves that heat the surrounding water.  By listening to those sound waves the Israelis are able to determine if the plant is healthy or contaminated.

(Israel Today, 7/8)