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Friday February 9, 2007

Shorts: Mideast

U.S. delegation comes under fire

A delegation of New York City Council members visiting Israel came under Palestinian rocket fire.

The City Council members, including Speaker Christine Quinn, were in Sderot on Tuesday, Feb. 6 meeting with Mayor Eli Moyal when the city’s air raid sirens sounded, forcing the group to take shelter.

Once the all-clear was given, the 11 council members rushed to a clinic on Sderot’s outskirts where one of the missiles had landed.

“It’s one thing to read about it in the papers,” Quinn said. “It’s another thing altogether to be in a place that actually the moment you’re there is having a rocket attack occurring.” — jta

Israeli surgeon saves two Iraqi girls

Two Iraqi girls received lifesaving operations from an Israeli surgeon.

The girls came to Israel secretly via Jordan with the help of Israeli authorities and two local nonprofits, according to a report in Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv.

One patient, Santa Maria Jamal Zaki, 6, a Kurdish Christian, was treated for a heart defect in Israel last year. In the course of that treatment a kidney problem was discovered, which was repaired in a second operation several days ago.

A second patient, Hawara Said, 2, suffered from a heart defect that impeded the flow of blood to her lungs. She was operated on successfully last week. — jta

Western Wall dig stirs ire

Israel began a controversial dig in the Western Wall Plaza. Bulldozers from the Antiquities Authority broke ground Tuesday, Feb. 6 near a ramp connecting the plaza to the Temple Mount, with officials saying the aim was to search for historical artifacts before fixing weather damage to the structure.

Footage relayed live on Middle East television stations prompted Arab leaders to accuse Israel of trying to undermine the Al-Aksa Mosque and another major Muslim shrine on the Temple Mount.

“I appeal to all our Palestinian people to be united and to rise up together to protect Al-Aksa,” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said.

The Antiquities Authority’s director of excavations, Gideon Avni, denied that such a threat existed. “Nothing in the work touches the wall of the Temple Mount,” he told reporters. — jta

One in 10 Israeli Jews intermarried

Around 10 percent of married Israeli Jews have non-Jewish spouses, a study found.

The New Family lobby, which promotes alternatives to Orthodox marriage rites in Israel, released data this week suggesting that 58 percent of Israeli families include a Jewish mother and father.

Approximately 12 percent of Israeli families are entirely non-Jewish — many of them, presumably, Israeli Arabs — while 10 percent of families comprise a Jewish parent and a non-Jewish parent. The remaining population is made up of single-parent families, common-law couples and foreign workers. — jta

Development plan dropped

Israeli officials nixed a plan for large-scale residential development at the western entrance to Jerusalem.

The National Council for Planning and Construction voted Tuesday, Feb. 6 against the so-called Safdie plan, which called for 20,000 new homes to be built in areas west of the capital that are currently forested.

The plan, masterminded by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie, had long been in question given vigorous opposition by environmental groups.

Israeli media quoted government officials as saying that other available land in Jerusalem would be sufficient to provide housing for the city’s growing population until at least 2020. — jta

Al Qaida boosts Israeli academic

An Israeli expert on terrorism received an unexpected endorsement on a Web site linked to al Qaida.

Haifa University announced this week that references to a book by faculty member Gabi Weimann had appeared on alfirdaws.org, a Web site favored by followers of Osama bin Laden’s international terrorist network.

A comment posted on the site said Weimann’s book, “Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, The New Challenges,” demonstrates that “the Western amazement at the success of our terrorist brethren’s Internet use inspired them to write.”

Weimann voiced surprise at the mention. “The paradox is that an organization that came out against the advances of Western society uses the West’s most advanced tool as its weapon,” he said in a statement. — jta