A senior IDF Northern Command official says that Hizbullah is being treated even more cordially by Syrian President Bashar Assad than by his late father Hafez Assad. Syria recently provided the Lebanese terrorist organization with 220mm rocket launchers with a range of 70-75 kilometers. Hizbullah has the strongest military framework of any terrorist organization in the world, the official says, and Assad is making a mistake in treating Hizbullah with kid-gloves, as his ineffectual control of the terrorists may boomerang against him. Israeli defense officials are of the opinion that Hizbullah is likely to take advantage of a U.S. attack on Iraq to barrage northern Israel with missiles and katyushas.
Finance Minister Silvan Shalom has ordered the transfer of 71 million shekels of Palestinian Authority funds to Israeli creditors. Israel collected and is holding some 2.5 billion shekels of PA tax monies, but refuses to hand over the money until it receives guarantees that the funds will not be used in the PA's terrorism war against Israel. Seventy million shekels will go to the Israel Electric Company to cover outstanding electric bills rung up by the PA in Gaza, and the other million will go to the Ministry of Agriculture to pay for vaccinations. Shalom says that the PA has more debts to Israelis, and that more such transfers are likely in the coming days and weeks.
Jerusalem police report that tires of 11 Arab vehicles in the Abu Tor neighborhood of the capital were punctured over the course of Friday night. Abu Tor is a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood located south of the Old City. Stones were thrown at Arab motorists in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood on Friday night, and windows of at least two vehicles were blown out. In the nearby neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel, tires of Arab vehicles were punctured. One person was arrested, as were two youths alleged to have assaulted Arab employees of a food counter in Jerusalem's Malcha Mall. The violence followed Thursday's bus bombing in which a Palestinian suicide bomber murdered eight women, two boys, and a visiting tourist.
Finance Minister Silvan Shalom has ordered the transfer of 71 million shekels of Palestinian Authority funds to Israeli creditors. Israel collected and is holding some 2.5 billion shekels of PA tax monies, but refuses to hand over the money until it receives guarantees that the funds will not be used in the PA's terrorism war against Israel. Seventy million shekels will go to the Israel Electric Company to cover outstanding electric bills rung up by the PA in Gaza, and the other million will go to the Ministry of Agriculture to pay for vaccinations. Shalom says that the PA has more debts to Israelis, and that more such transfers are likely in the coming days and weeks.
Jerusalem police report that tires of 11 Arab vehicles in the Abu Tor neighborhood of the capital were punctured over the course of Friday night. Abu Tor is a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood located south of the Old City. Stones were thrown at Arab motorists in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood on Friday night, and windows of at least two vehicles were blown out. In the nearby neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel, tires of Arab vehicles were punctured. One person was arrested, as were two youths alleged to have assaulted Arab employees of a food counter in Jerusalem's Malcha Mall. The violence followed Thursday's bus bombing in which a Palestinian suicide bomber murdered eight women, two boys, and a visiting tourist.