They have opened up multiple routes from the Bekaa Valley, by seizing Druze villages in the Chouf.

www.guardian.co.uk

Despite calls for a ceasefire, Hizbullah fighters defeated militants loyal to Druze leader Waleed Jumblatt in clashes starting on Sunday night, gaining control of Niha, a village in the southern Chouf mountains, 25 miles south-east of Beirut.

Analysts said the village provides the Iranian-backed group, also an ally of Damascus, with a crucial link between its stronghold in the eastern Bekaa Valley and the coastal highway that leads to Hizbullah's bases in Beirut's southern suburbs.

"Hizbullah have shown they are not interested in unseating Jumblatt but rather opening a possible supply route between Bekaa and the southern suburbs," said Ousama Safa, director of Beirut's Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies. "They can now use the area as a second front, behind the Bekaa."

On Sunday Hizbullah fighters took over key positions in Aley, a Druze town north of the Chouf, which abuts the main Beirut-Damascus highway, giving them control of another key artery. Both Druze areas have since been turned over to the army, which has a longstanding agreement on military cooperation with Hizbullah over Israel.

Having largely pacified Beirut, they appear to be engaging the Druze:

Fighting in Mount Lebanon rages between pro and anti-government supporters

Meanwhile Sunday's Israeli Cabinet meeting was a celebration of the obvious:

"Everything that happens there is the responsibility of Hizbullah. The country is controlled by this terror organization and its government has become irrelevant"

In the north of the country the Lebanese army stretched the meaning of the word "control" to the breaking point:

Army Takes Control of North Lebanon and give in to Hizballah demands in the South

Choice quote from the last link (above):

The opposition announced on Saturday it was ending its takeover of large swathes of west Beirut after the army revoked government measures aimed at curbing the group.

"The opposition welcomes the army's decision and will proceed with the withdrawal of all its armed elements so that control of the capital is handed over to the military," an opposition statement said.

The army earlier said it was overturning a government decision to reassign the head of Beirut airport security and to probe a Hizbullah telecommunications network -- measures that sparked the unrest.

For it's part, Agence France Presse is shocked to see that the Israeli Air Force is conducting reconnaissance over southern Lebanon:

Israeli Jets Violate Lebanese Skies

Yes, that's what is done before:

A. Dropping bombs
B. Firing missiles
C. Invading

(You may pick one or more of the above).

But not to worry:

Defense official: Israel not to get involved in Lebanon

And why would he lie?

OK, party's over: back to work.

To put it another way: the Palestinians need to get their sh*t together. Until they do their situation will not only not improve, it will likely worsen.

The real Nakba, By Shlomo Avineri

Steep Drop in Muslim and Arab Fertility Rates

Yoram Ettinger - Ynet

The UN Population Division says that the drop in Muslim and Arab fertility rates is the highest in the world. Over 25 years, Iranians have gone from an average of 10 children per woman to 1.8. The number of children per woman in Egypt is 2.5 and is 3 in Jordan. In Israel the fertility rate is 2.8. The annual number of Jewish births in Israel has risen 40% since 1995 (112,455 in 2007 compared to 80,400 in 1995), while the number of Israeli Arab births has steadied at 39,000.

Jerusalem Post

The Israel Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau head, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, believes that Israel is not facing a new eruption of war on its northern front.

Gilad said "the overseas publication of the fact that three Syrian divisions were called up is incorrect."

"Syria isn't interested in attacking Israel, and vice versa," he added.

Nothing to worry about.

Ha kol b'seder.

Believe.

Barak postpones German trip over mounting tension in North

Yaakov Katz, Jpost.com staff and Yaniv Berman , THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 2, 2008

Due to the increase in tensions in the north as well as in the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, The Jerusalem Post has learned, has decided to cancel a planned trip to Germany next week.

IDF - 26 March 2008, 18:39

In a joint IDF and ISA arrest operation overnight at the Bal'a village near Tulkarm, Omar Jabar, head of the Hamas terror organization in Tulkarm area, was arrested. Jabar has been sought since 2002 for his direct responsibility in carrying out the suicide attack at the "Park Hotel" in Netanya in Passover, March 27th 2002, in which 30 Israeli civilians were killed and 143 were injured.

"The implementation of this kind of operation during the Purim holiday is not symbolic; it only shows that the IDF and ISA do not rest nor relax for a moment when it comes to the defense of Israel's security," said Lieutenant Colonel Nir Bar-On. "The combat soldiers will continue to carry out operations so that Israeli civilians will be able to celebrate their holidays in peace and security."

Omar Jabar has been sought since 2002 for his direct responsibility in carrying out the suicide attack during the Passover holiday in the "Park Hotel" in Netanya on March of the same year. Jabar was responsible for recruiting the contact that dispatched the suicide bomber, introducing him to the head of the Hamas in Tulkarm at the time, Abed Sayad. Sayad admitted in his investigation that the connection with Jabar had already begun in 1994, when the two were imprisoned together. Since 2002, Jabar was directly involved in recruiting militants to Hamas secrete terror cells and in the past year was involved in their combat training.

In recent years, whilst hiding in the Tulkarm area villages, Jabar used his own family members to transfer encrypted messages to Hamas terror operatives, in order to lead the Hamas terror organization in Tulkarm, finance his and other militants' terrorist activity and purchase weapons.

Following clashes between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip in January 2007, Jabar worked to establish and finance a Hamas operational cell in Tulkarm. He purchased weapons and recruited terror operatives, intended for the establishment of a Hamas cell similar to operational cells active in Gaza.

Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 24, 2008

Moshav Tzipori, in the Lower Galilee, is a microcosm of the history of the Land of Israel. A regional capital under King Herod, Tzipori was the seat of Jewish learning and the preservation of the Torah through some of the most tumultuous periods of Jewish history.

After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, refugees from Jerusalem fled to the Galilean town. Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who presided over the writing of the Mishna, or oral law, moved to Tzipori from Beit Shearim, and it was there that he codified the six books of the Mishna and died.

The Jews of Tzipori revolted against the Roman Emperor Constantine, refusing to accept Christianity and the city was destroyed. The Jews later returned during the Islamic period. On and off, for the next millennia, Jews settled, were forcibly removed and resettled the city several times under various conquerors of Israel.

During the 1948 War of Independence, the ancient city was the site of a major battle between the new Israel Defense Force and the neighboring Arab villages assisted by invading forces from Syria and Lebanon. The Arabs were routed. In 1949, Moshav Tzipori was founded.

LAST FRIDAY afternoon, the struggle for Jewish control of Tzipori, the Galilee and the Land of Israel as a whole continued on the ancient ground. On that quiet afternoon of Purim, under the blistering sun, three horses stood happily grazing in a field of shrubs and grasses. The only problem with the otherwise pastoral scene was that the horses belong to Arab squatters from the Kablawi clan. In recent years, the Kablawis have built themselves an illegal village of some 20 houses masquerading as storage containers on stolen Jewish National Fund land adjacent to Tzipori's fields. The horses, who entered through a hole cut into the field's fence, pranced about and ate, destroying the field that was painstakingly cultivated for the moshav's cattle herds.

The farmers and ranchers of the Galilee, like their counterparts in the Negev are at wits' end. Fearing Arab riots or political condemnation by the Israeli Left, Arab leaders, the Islamic Movement and their allies abroad, the police and the state prosecutors have simply stopped enforcing the laws against the Galilee and Negev Arabs. Surrounded by increasingly hostile and lawless Arab and Beduin villages, local Jews' livestock and crops are continuously plundered.

They are faced with three equally unacceptable options for contending with this state of affairs. They can do nothing and let their livelihood and lives' work be destroyed. They can pay protection money to Arab criminal gangs, who in exchange agree not to rob them. Or they can try to sell off their lands and abandon agriculture altogether.

The obvious recourse - filing a complaint with the police - is an exercise in futility. Thousands of complaints are filed each year. Almost none of them end in indictments or trials. Most of the files are closed by the police due to "lack of public interest."

IDF - 26 March 2008, 12:45

During a joint IDF and ISA operation that was carried out on January 15, 2008, IDF forces arrested Ibrahim Sayid Ibrahim Salem, age 23, a senior wanted PFLP operative, resident of the Balata R.C. in Nablus.

During his investigation, Ibrahim Salem admitted to being involved in numerous shooting attacks, and to activating explosive devices and a car bomb against IDF forces in the Nablus region in October of 2006.

Ibrahim Salem also confirmed that he was involved in a shooting attack against IDF forces on September 18, 2007 during which an IDF soldier, Staff Sergeant Ben-Zion Haneman, was killed. Several additional senior wanted PFLP operatives took part in the attack, amongst them were Jad Hamidan and Majdi Mabruk, the latter was recently arrested. Ibrahim Salim also revealed that he, along with other PFLP operatives, was involved in the ongoing production of explosives at a hidden location in the Ein Beit Ilma R.C.

The investigation of Ibrahim Salem along with the investigation of other PFLP and Hamas operatives confirmed that these explosives were used for making explosive devices for detonation against IDF forces, sometimes with the use of cellular technology.

Ibrahim Salem's investigation revealed that he was also involved in recruiting suicide bombers for the PFLP and the Hamas terrorist organizations in Nablus. In the end, these particular suicide bombings were not carried out.

Ibrahim Salem was also involved in the planning of a terror attack, which was organized by Nihad Shakirat, an operative from the Hamas terrorist organization. Shakirat, who planned to use a suicide bomber recruited by Salem, was killed during an IDF operation on Yom Kippur, 2007. The terrorist attack was prevented due to a joint IDF and ISA operation.

No word on whether he took to banging a table with his shoe, but otherwise the performance was evidently highly reminiscent of the Cold War (when at one point Russian planned on attacking Israel directly).

'Russia set on Mideast parley, whether Israel likes it or not'

Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 26, 2008

Russia is determined to go ahead with an international Middle East conference in Moscow in June whether Israel likes it or not, government sources told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, summing up Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit here last week.

The sources characterized Lavrov's one-day visit last Thursday as "nasty," saying the Russian minister was agitated throughout his meetings with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres. He was, the sources said, in a slightly better mood during his talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

West Bank Palestinians Hooking Up to Israel's Electricity Grid

About 15,000 Palestinians in the West Bank are hooking up to Israel's electricity grid in 27 villages in the northern West Bank near Jenin under a joint Israeli-French program. A ceremony inaugurating the new connection took place Tuesday.

Power from Israel is also running a water reservoir, and connecting to Israel's electricity supply cuts water costs by a third.

...fortunately the haircut is optional.

Fitna is here:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103

jpost.com

The Syrian army has moved some 10,000 soldiers into five cities in the country's northern, Kurdish-dominated region, following violence over the weekend, which left three people dead. The killing occurred during celebration of the Kurdish New Year - Nowruz - in the city Qameshli close to the border with Turkey, according to several local news sources.

The "International Solidarity Movement" specialized in providing cover for Palestinian terrorists, and routinely attempts to disrupt Israeli counter-terrorism operations.

Iraq war protesters disrupt Chicago Mass

CHICAGO - Six Iraq war protesters disrupted an Easter Mass on Sunday, shouting and squirting fake blood on themselves and parishioners in a packed auditorium.

Three men and three women startled the crowd during Cardinal Francis George's homily, yelling "Even the Pope calls for peace" as they were removed from the Mass by security guards and ushers.

One Mass attendee, Mike Wainscott of Chicago, yelled at the anti-war protesters.

"Are you happy with yourselves?" he said. "There were kids in there. You scared little kids with your selfish act. Are you happy now?"

The group, which calls itself Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War, said in a statement after the arrests that they targeted the Holy Name Cathedral on Easter to reach a large audience, including Chicago's most prominent Catholic citizens and the press, which usually covers the services.

Kevin Clark of International Solidarity Movement told the Chicago Tribune that he attended the Mass to serve as a witness for the protesters.

"If Cardinal George is a man of peace and is walking the walk and talking the talk, he should have confronted George Bush and demanded an immediate end to the war," Clark said.

Speaking after the service, George said, "We should all work for peace, but not by interrupting the worship of God."

Police charged each of the six protesters with one count of felony criminal damage to property and two counts each of misdemeanor simple battery.

The six were scheduled to appear in bond court on Monday to face the felony charge, police said. They have court date set for March 31 on the misdemeanors.

naharnet.com

Syria has deployed three military divisions along the borders with Lebanon amidst mounting tension in the region, press reports said Sunday.

The leading daily an-Nahar attributed the report to well informed sources, noting that the deployment backs a similar massing of fighters by pro-Syrian Palestinian factions in the Bekaa valley, especially Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in the Qoussayah area.

It's not the conversion, per se.

It's the conversion, on Easter weekend, of a Muslim, at the Vatican, immediately after the release of bin Laden's message condemning the Pope and Crusaders generally.

Pope baptizes prominent Italian Muslim

John C. Drake, Boston Globe - March 17, 2008

Two Molotov cocktails were hurled at the off-campus apartment of an Israeli emissary who works with Jewish students at Brown University early Saturday, an attack the FBI is investigating as a potential hate crime.

No one was hurt in the attack. One of the devices crashed through a window but did not explode, and a second one glanced off the side of the building and ignited a small fire in the yard, police said.

The apparent target of the attack is one of 500 emissaries worldwide of the Jerusalem-based Jewish Agency for Israel, a nonprofit whose goal is to connect Jewish people with Israel, said a spokesman for the organization. The victim is also the Israel fellow on the staff of Hillel, a Jewish student group serving Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Brown University said it was providing support to the employee. In a statement released yesterday, university officials said authorities had no suspects and no motives for the attack.

"This is the first time that a Jewish Agency emissary has been attacked in America, either criminal or political," Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the organization, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"There's no nexus to terrorism," said Gail Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the Boston field office of the FBI.

"We would look at it as a potential hate crime."

When they parade his carcass about the town, wrapped in a Hizballah flag.

Next!

US Jewish Agency on alert after attack

Haviv Rettig, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 16, 2008

The Jewish Agency's security apparatus in North America was on alert Sunday after the previous day's Molotov cocktail attack on the home of agency emissary to the Brown University campus Yossi Knafo.

No one was wounded in the attack, which took place just before 2:00 a.m. Saturday near the Brown campus in Providence, Rhode Island.

One firebomb hit an outside wall of the house and caused a fire in the yard, while a second firebomb passed through a window into the house, but failed to explode.

Knafo, who was awake in an adjacent room at the time of the attack, immediately alerted local police and Jewish Agency security personnel. Agency security transferred him temporarily to a hotel.

Police and the FBI opened an investigation into the attack.

A neighbor reportedly told law enforcement officials she saw two unidentified individuals near the house at the time of the attack. The unexploded Molotov cocktail was being examined for fingerprints and other possible clues to the identity of the assailants.

The motive for the attack is as yet unclear.

Knafo said he knew of no reason anyone would target his home, while Hermon and other agency officials believe the attack may mark an unparalleled escalation of anti-Israel campus activism.

"This is unprecedented," said Amos Hermon, a member of the Jewish Agency Executive and chair of its Task Force on Anti-Semitism. "A Jewish Agency emissary hasn't been attacked in America for decades, and we've never known a Molotov cocktail attack that came from anti-Israel or anti-Semitic groups."

Hermon confirmed the agency was "in direct contact with the FBI and Rhode Island police."

Agency officials, including Hermon, cite tensions that may have risen over the weekend due to a massive Jewish Agency campaign on dozens of university campuses and in hundreds of synagogues and schools in the US and worldwide to commemorate the March 6 terror attack on Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav yeshiva which killed eight students.

The agency has also received warnings from Israeli security services over possible retaliation attacks in the wake of the assassination in Damascus of Hizbullah mastermind Imad Mughniyeh on February 12.

At the time, Israeli officials welcomed Mughniyeh's death but did not claim responsibility for the operation.

Following the Saturday attack, Jewish Agency emissaries were briefed on the event and its security implications.

The Jewish Agency has a small security team of former Israeli security personnel. The team is responsible for the safety of emissaries, operates emergency telephone lines for its personnel and maintains contact with local police and the FBI.

YNET - Yael Branovsky - 03.15.08, 21:12

A Molotov cocktail was thrown Saturday into the home of a Jewish Agency envoy residing in Rhode Island in the north-eastern United States. The envoy, who was home at the time, was immediately evacuated to a nearby hotel following the incident.

The incident took place at 2 am (local US time) when a Molotov cocktail was throw through the living room window of the envoy's apartment. He was in a different room at the time, and was therefore not injured. The Molotov cocktail set a nearby yard on fire, but firefighters dispatched to the scene easily extinguished the flames.

The FBI as well as local Rhode Island police personnel are investigating the incident. This is the first time that a Jewish Agency envoy is attacked in this fashion.

The Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Zeev Bielski, spoke to the envoy following the incident in order to show his concern and support.

Bielski noted that the Jewish Agency would assist the envoy in every possible fashion, and would work closely with the Foreign Ministry and American law enforcement agencies in order to thoroughly investigate the incident.

The Jewish agency has hundreds of envoys worldwide that engage in all manner of educational, Zionist and PR endeavors. The agency furthermore organizes numerous solidarity rallies with Israel, including a recent rally following the shooting attack on the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Two Molotov cocktails was thrown at the home of the Jewish Agency's representative at Brown University in the United States on Saturday, causing no injuries. The motive behind the attack is not yet known.

The two explosives were hurled into the Hillel delegate's home in Providence, Rhode Island. One landed in the living room without exploding and was taken for fingerprint analysis. The second hit an external wall, igniting a fire in the yard.

Federal Bureau of Investigation detectives and local police were investigating the incident.

Amos Hermon, head of the Jewish Agency task force on anti-Semitism stressed that while authorities had not yet reached a conclusion on the attack's motives, radical left-wing groups were increasing anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activity on U.S. campuses.

The dog's name is Beastie.

Right...

Keep this story in mind the next time some malignant troll in Beirut or Tehran says that Israel is all but defeated.

Requests for assignment to combat units rise in aftermath of Second Lebanon War

12 March 2008 23:04 - Amir Kidon

This March's draft marks a 4 percent increase in the number of new IDF recruits requesting to serve in combat positions. Another notable statistic was the total 1 percent increase of those who actually serve in combat positions. 71.3 percent of all soldiers were assigned to combat positions during last year’s March recruitment and this March 72.2 percent of all soldiers were assigned to combat positions.

Another impressive figure was released concerning the rise of those interested in serving in the Infantry Corps. The Golani Brigade is the most requested of the infantry brigades, with an average of 3.5 requests for every position in the brigade in contrast to 2 requests for every position last March. In the Nachal Brigade an increase of those interested in serving was also reported, with 2.5 requests for every position in the brigade. This is a significant increase in requests for Nachal from last year’s average of 1.9 requests per position. There has also been a rise of those interested in serving in the Anti-Aircraft Missile units, the Border Police, the Armor Corps the Combat Engineering Corps and Field Intelligence.

"This is one of the first groups of enlistees that have lived through the past war," said a senior officer in the Human Resources Branch. "There is a sense of trust in the army; people have seen the improvements the IDF has made since the past war." The same officer noted that although on a whole the number of enlistees has decreased, the combat forces will not suffer from lack of manpower because of the high rate of those who are interested in serving in combat positions.

It seems the nice fellows of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, under orders from their leadership in Damascus, and with the tacit approval of the deceptively named Palestinian Authority, were planning a series suicide bombings in Israel.

PIJ will need to find some new planners.

Note that there appears to be no basis for Palestinian claims that these guys were involved in the recent attack on the Yeshiva Mercaz Harav in Yerushalayim.

Senior Islamic Jihad Terror Operative Killed During Arrest Operation

IDF 12 March 2008 13:42

Saleh Amar Saleh Karkoor, age 26, a senior terror operative was killed this morning during a joint IDF, ISA and Border Police arrest operation in Seida, southwest of Jenin. Border Police special forces and the Nachal Brigade Patrol Battalion surrounded the building where Karkoor was hiding and called, multiple times, for him to evacuate the building. After no response was given, the forces resorted to using various means to prompt him to exit the building. During the operation fire was opened towards the forces and explosive devices were activated against them. The forces returned fire and identified hitting Karkoor.

One AK-47 Assault Rifle, a number of explosive devices and a number of ammunition clips were uncovered on his person. The weapons were detonated in a controlled manner by sappers.

Karkoor has been extremely active in the Islamic Jihad terror organization since the 1990s. On January 25, 2002, Karkoor was arrested following a suicide bombing in Tel- Aviv in which 23 civilians were injured. He confessed to having accommodated the two bombers at his house, to his involvement in terror activity and the recruiting of suicide bombers.

During the past weeks he was involved in planning suicide bombings along with other Islamic Jihad operatives.

Meanwhile, in Betlehem, a unit from YAMAM just happened to be in a position beside a road when a car with four high quality targets just happened to be driving by. Such a coincidence! Baruch Hashem.

Four Islamic Jihad Terrorists Killed by IDF Forces in Bethlehem

IDF, 12 March 2008 21:16

During a joint IDF and Border Police arrest operation that took place this evening in Bethlehem, Border Police Special Forces identified several Palestinian gunmen in a vehicle. The forces fired at the vehicle and confirmed killing four gunmen. An MP5 and two M16 rifles were found on their persons. The four were senior wanted terrorists belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization

One of gunmen who was killed during the activity was Muhamad Sh'ahade Abed Ta'amari, age 45, head of the Islamic Jihad in Bethlehem. Abed Ta'amari was involved in several terrorist attacks in which many Israeli civilians were wounded and killed, including the car bombing on Shomeron St. in Jerusalem on November 2, 2000 which killed two civilians. He was also involved in the March 27, 2001 car bombing on Talpiyot St. in Jerusalem in which five civilians were wounded; the December 5, 2001 suicide bombing in the Hilton hotel in Jerusalem in which six civilians were wounded; the March 17, 2002 suicide bombing in the French Hill neighborhood in Jerusalem in which 31 civilians were wounded and the April 1, 2002 shooting attack in the Har Home neighborhood in Jerusalem in which an IDF soldier was killed.

The three other wanted terrorists, Ahmed Halil Salem Balbul, age 48, Imad Hasin Mahmud Camel, age 35, and Isa Marzuk Saleh Zuhara, age 36, were a part of the Islamic Jihad leadership in Bethlehem and were also involved in extensive terrorist activity since the beginning of the Intifada.

Muhamad Sh'ahada and the Islamic Jihad in Bethlehem were in direct contact with the Islamic Jihad leadership in Syria from which they received operational orders.

'Before calm, Gaza will escalate beyond anything we've seen'

THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 12, 2008

"Continued combat in Gaza will bring an escalation beyond what we have seen so far, before we reach a period of calm," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday.

Barak was touring the northern brigade of the IDF's Gaza Division. With him were IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen Yoav Galant and OC Gaza Division Brig.-Gen. Moshe Tamir.

"We are not in a state of calm with Hamas, we are in ongoing activity meant to stop Kassam fire," he said. "There is no change in what we are doing. What awaits us here is further operations and [the soldiers] will need to be prepared again for action in order to win this issue."

An officer and a hero

THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 10, 2008

As the tragic events of Thursday began to become more clear, it became increasingly obvious that the hero of the evening was Paratroopers Capt. David Shapira, a father of two young children who proved to be the right man in the right place during the bloody attack.

Shapira was supposed to have been at his base, but he left to perform errands for his battalion, trading places with another officer for the weekend.

The 29-year-old operations officer in the 890th Battalion had just bathed his children, and had put one of them to sleep when he heard explosions coming from the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva across the street.

Although he first thought the noise was from pre-Purim firecrackers, he quickly realized that the explosions were gunshots. Grabbing his service weapon, he ran out of the house toward the yeshiva where he himself had studied.

At the entrance to the yeshiva in the capital's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, Shapira ran into a group of police officers who were standing outside the building, listening to the gunshots from inside. They warned him not to go in, but Shapira pushed them aside and entered.

The officer tracked the terrorist to the library, and, according to his own account, got within two to three meters of his target. Shapira shot 16 bullets at the terrorist, immediately neutralizing him.

Whatever...

Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 8, 2008

Jordanian security forces have prevented relatives of Ala Abu Dhaim, the man who carried out the terrorist attack in Jerusalem last Thursday, from publicly mourning him.

The relatives, who live near Amman, tried Friday to erect a large tent to receive mourners, but were ordered by Jordanian security officers to dismantle it immediately.

The officers handed the relatives an order signed by the governor of Amman banning them from erecting the tent or publicly mourning Abu Dhaim.

They were also instructed to remove Hamas and Hizbullah flags that were hanging on rooftops and electricity poles.

Made in Palestine

See also: Terrorist Infiltrates Jerusalem Yeshiva, Murders Eight Israelis

Photo by Nava