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This could be good news:

One of the Palestinian terror operatives who kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Schalit in a cross-border raid near Kerem Shalom last June has been arrested, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced Friday afternoon, lifting a gag order.

Muhammad Salameh Abed Zufi, 30, was apprehended in Rafah on June 9. — Jerusalem Post

One hopes that information can be extracted from him that will lead to Schalit’s location being pinpointed. Although an operation to rescue him would be difficult and dangerous — both for Schalit and for his rescuers — it may turn out to be the best alternative.

I’ve mentioned the Israel Police Yamam unit before. Although it has been used for many purposes, such as intercepting suicide bombers and arresting fugitives, the original purpose and focus of the unit is hostage rescue operations. The training of this group’s operatives and the technology available to them is awesome.

In the past, perhaps for political reasons, Israel has not always employed the Yamam when it would have been the best choice for a particular mission. If it turns out that it is possible to rescue Schalit, and if this is judged to be indeed the best course of action, then there are probably few (if any) police or military units anywhere in the world that could do it better.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Schalit, Shalit, Yamam

Two news items:

1) A six-year-old girl from the Arab village of Isawiya was evacuated to Hadassah-University Hospital in Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, after she was accidentally shot in the head during wedding celebrations on Thursday night. — Jerusalem Post

2) Palestinians threw rocks at an Israel car driving south of Bethelem on Thursday evening. — Jerusalem Post

Item 2 occurred a short distance from item 1. Just another day of Israelis trying to behave humanely in the midst of conflict, along with Palestinian business as usual.

Technorati Tags: Israel

This is not an isolated incident:

Tel Aviv district Court on Thursday convicted Ashraf Keisi, a 28-year-old Israeli Arab from Baka al-Gharbiya of five counts of murder and dozens of attempted murders for his part in a suicide attack at a Tel Aviv club, the “Stage”, in February 2005, which killed five people and injured fifty more…

“There is no dispute over the fact that he drove the terrorist and even assisted in choosing the site,” the judges wrote in the ruling. “Not only did he not thwart the attack, as he easily could have done, but he associated with [terrorists]…and had a significant part in the attack.” — Jerusalem Post

I spoke to a former member of the Israel Police’s Yamam counter-terrorism unit. During the early part of the second intifada, there was a flood of suicide bombings and attempts. Most of the bombers were intercepted before reaching their targets, but of course some got through, causing much death and destruction.

In more than a few cases, the bomber was taken to his final destination by an Israeli Arab citizen, with Israeli license plates on his vehicle (cars registered in the territories have distinctive plates which might arouse suspicion).

The growing radicalization of the Israeli Arab population is as dangerous to Israel as the Iranian nuclear program, although not as exciting. The solution does not lie either in appeasement of their demands, which will never be enough to satisfy them, or in expelling them, which would be both immoral and impossible.

In my opinion the only solution is for Israel to thoroughly defeat her external enemies — Hamas, Hezbollah, and perhaps Syria and Iran — so that there will not be external sources for subversion and financing of internal rebellion.

Israel also needs to be careful to ensure that law abiding Arab citizens of Israel have their civil rights protected and are treated fairly. This does not include meeting demands for what I’ve called ‘national aspirations’, which are entirely different from civil rights.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Israeli Arabs, terrorism

Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel here, either.

A federal policy that bans Canadians from listing Jerusalem, Israel, as their birthplace on their passports does not violate the Charter of Rights, the Federal Court of Appeal said Tuesday.

The ruling came in the context of a three-judge panel decision that the Canadian government was not required to allow 19-year-old Eliyahu Veffer, the son of a Toronto rabbi, to amend his passport to indicate that his birthplace, Jerusalem, was part of Israel.

The Canadian National Post reported that the decision upheld a 2006 court ruling that Canada’s passport policy was neither discriminatory nor a violation of religious freedom, despite the fact that Israel was the only exception to a practice of letting passport applicants list their birth country of choice when dealing with cities in disputed territories.

The federal government, citing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over the control of Jerusalem, insisted that immigrants who were born there are issued passports without any reference to a country. — Jerusalem Post (my emphasis)

The fact that only the eastern part of the city is outside the 1967 borders of Israel is ignored.

They also apparently do not admit that the annexation of Jerusalem, which included an offer of full citizenship to all residents and which took place after a war the Arabs started and lost, was legitimate.

Perhaps they are using the Hamas definition of occupied territory, which includes Tel Aviv? In this case, no Canadian should have ‘Israel’ listed as their birthplace.

Since the Parti Québécois disputes the proposition that Montreal, for example, is part of Canada, should passports list “Montreal, Canada”?

Technorati Tags: Israel, Canada