Israeli Arab charged in Hezbollah plot to kill IDF chief

Gabi Ashkenazi

Rawi Fuad Sultani, 23, admitted he met a Hezbollah activist in a summer camp in Morocco one year ago and told him he had information on Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who worked out at the same gym as he did in the town of Kfar Saba.

For full article, visit http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/08/31/83491.html

According to the charge sheet, Sultani first made contact with Hezbollah agents at a multi-national Arab summer camp in Morocco organized by the Israeli Arab political party Balad. Lebanese Hezbollah agent Salman Harev, who also took part in the camp, spent much of the summer lecturing the Israeli Arab participants on his group’s struggle.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1111344.html

Rawi Sultani

Sultani’s father, Attorney Fuad Sultani, said that his son was exploited and that he is innocent. “My son was maliciously exploited by these agents. The accusations are apparently politically-based,” said the senior Sultani, who is representing his son.

For full artic le, visit http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3769627,00.html

The National Democratic Party or Balad, which represents Israel’s Arab minority and is named in charges against Sultani as having funded his trip to Morocco, reacted angrily to news of the arrest.

“This experience shows us how the police and security services exaggerate this type of incident and make mountains out of molehills. We maintain that Sultani has the right to be presumed innocent,” the party said in a statement.

For full article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090831/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanontrial_20090831122055

Correspondents say the allegations raise further questions about Lt Gen Ashkenazi’s security, two weeks after it was disclosed that his credit card details and a gun in his office had been stolen by a soldier.

For full article, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8230726.stm

Lebanon arrests three more Israel ’spies’

Former security services officer Brigadier General Adib al-Aalam was charged with espionage along with his wife Hayat Saloumi and nephew Joseph Semaan al-Aalam — also a security official.

The three are accused of informing Israel about Lebanese and Syrian military and civilian sites “with the aim of facilitating Israeli attacks,” a judicial official said on Thursday.

A fourth suspect, Nicolas Assad Habib, remains at large, added the official, who requested anonymity.

For full article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090425/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonspyisraelarrests

Israel is profiting from Egypt-Hezbollah quarrel

Israel, which can regard the events with some satisfaction, is keeping a low profile. Hezbollah’s penetration into Egypt, now facing a close race for Mubarak’s successor, leaves no doubt as to Iran’s intentions. This may result in increased security coordination between Israel and Egypt against arms smuggling into the Strip, and will apparently also dictate Cairo’s continued cool stance toward Gaza.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077896.html

2nd Lebanon War victims take legal action against North Korea

Thirty Israelis wounded during the Second Lebanon War from rockets fired by Hizbullah have filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the North Korean government, the prosecution announced Friday.

The complainants in the 100-million-dollar case, also filed against Hizbullah, said that North Korea supported the Shi’ite terrorist organization by providing it with training and territory on which to store the Katyusha rockets used against Israeli citizens.

It marks the first time victims of Hizbullah attacks are taking legal action against North Korean leadership.

For full article, visit http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562951261&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Hamas denies involvement in alleged Hizbullah plot

“Egyptian security is part of Palestine’s security,” Barhoum said, adding that Hamas “does not have any information about the group that was seized by Egyptian security but through media outlets.”

Egypt is holding some 49 people in detention on suspicion of working for the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah, the country’s attorney general has confirmed.

For full article, visit http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37027

Hezbollah admits Running Guns to Gaza; Denies Accusations of Wanting to Launch Attacks in Egypt

This is the first time the militant group has acknowledged Shehab was a member, although media reports in November linked him to the group. “What he [Shehab] really did was a kind of logistic work to help Palestinian brothers in transporting men and equipment for the resistance inside Palestine,” Nasrallah said.

During a live television address, Nasrallah denied accusations that Hezbollah is trying to harm Egyptian security or is planning attacks on Egyptian targets, saying such claims “are meant to sully the image of Hezbollah among the Egyptian people.”

“I fully reject and deny all charges that Hezbollah was intending to launch an act of aggression in Egypt or at any part of the world,” Nasrallah said on al-Manar Television.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077695.html

Nasrallah said the aim of these accusation is to “agitate the Egyptian people and to defame Hezbollah’s pure and bright image.

“Such accusations aim to only please the Americans and Israelis for the Egyptian regime has failed by all means,” he said, and declared it was a “duty for Hezbollah” to help the Palestinians.

For full article, visit http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2009/04/nasrallah_admit.php

“If helping the Palestinians is a crime, I officially admit to my crime … and if it is an accusation, we are proud of it. Everybody knows that this is not the first time Hezbollah has  tried to furnish arms to the Palestinians,” he said.Rula Amin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Beirut, said” “Hezbollah has never denied that it supports the resistance in Gaza.

“It sees it as a duty for all Arab countries to support Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups in Gaza in order to resist Israeli occupation. For Hezbollah, it would not be a shameful thing to smuggle money and weapons to Gaza.”

For full article, visit http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/04/200941019538502350.html

Egyptian security arrests 40 persons accused of gathering support for Hezbollah and Hamas

Egyptian sources reported that the Egyptian police arrested 40 Lebanese, Egyptian and Palestinian nationals, including Arab residents of Israel, accused of aiding Hezbollah and of gathering financial support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

For full article, visit http://www.imemc.org/article/59831

Montasser al-Zayat, the defendants’ lawyer, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that he was notified of the arrests after receiving a phone call from the family of Hani Sami Shihab, one of the detainees, saying that he had been taken by security forces and that they were unaware of the charges.

“I began to follow up the case in which seven of the 1948-Arabs [Palestinian Israelis] were arrested. Then information followed [of] Egyptian young men on charges of supporting members of Hezbollah to deliver aid and funds to Hamas and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” al-Zayat said.

For full article, visit http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/04/20094845946844472.html

Netanyahu government / No sense of democracy in action

First to ascend the dais is Ehud Olmert. He delivers a defensive speech, summing up his tenure as prime minister as well as his political career. “Even if it happened sooner than I had hoped, and under a cloud of circumstances that are well-known, I don’t carry even a trace of bitterness, anger, or complaint,” the outgoing prime minister promises, for starters. No complaining? Is that the Olmert that we knew, or did they bring a double? This suspicion clears fairly soon, however, as Olmert confronts the press in his usual manner, albeit perhaps in subtler tones. “The multitude of slanderers by mouth and pen” apparently gave “a free propaganda trophy to the Hezbollah.” Those who criticized the Gaza war are mere “pen pushers.” To Olmert, everyone else is always wrong.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1075351.html

How Israel Foiled an Arms Convoy Bound for Hamas

An Israeli jet fighter pilot readies his helmet in a hangar as he prepares to go on a sortie in his F-16 fighter.

The bombing raid came after an intelligence tip-off. In early January, at the height of Israel’s assault on Gaza, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency Mossad was told by an informant that Iran was planning a major delivery of 120 tons of arms and explosives to Gaza, including anti-tank rockets and Fajir rockets with a 25 mile range and a 45 kg warhead. With little time to plan the operation, naval vessels and helicopters were rushed to the Red Sea in case Israel had to rescue a downed pilot, and the plan was rushed through. “The Israelis had less than a week to pull this all together,” a source said.

For full article, visit http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1888352,00.html

Assad: Israel’s new government is against peace

Assad underlined the need for continued resistance, a reference to anti-Israeli militant groups like the Palestinian Hamas, which Damascus supports.

“Resistance is a national and patriotic and moral duty and it is the only option,” he said. “Peace cannot be achieved with an enemy who does not believe in peace without it being imposed on him by resistance.”

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074919.html