ISRAEL

Infolive,tv, July 15 - The cabinet on Tuesday ratified a deal to return two IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser captured by the Lebanon-based Hizbullah in 2006, in exchange for four Lebanese fighters and terrorist Samir Kuntar incarcerated in Israel - The deal was approved with a majority vote of 22 ministers in favor and three opposed.

Israel had demanded the Ron Arad report as part of the exchange deal, but government officials said it would not be a deal-breaker.

Yedioth Aharonot, July 7 - Violent confrontation between Palestinians, settlers - Palestinians exchange blows with settlers of Asael near Mt. Hebron, acres of agricultural fields set on fire; settlers accused of tying Palestinian man to pole, beating him for two hours

MFA Newsletter - IDF operation against Islamic Charity Movement in Nablus, July 8 - IDF forces operated in Nablus against institutes of The Islamic Charity Movement, operating on behalf of the Hamas terror organization under the guise of a charity organization.
(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)

The Jerusalem Post, July 6 discusses the dire situation facing the Water Authority, resulting from four years of scant rainfall - Never in the state's 60 years have Israel's water resources been as compromised, and the editor urges the public, especially, the agriculture sector, to utilize existing methods of water conservation while adhering to strict water conservation guidelines.
 
ISRAEL AND  IRAN

Jerusalem Post, July 11 - 'Israeli warplanes practice in Iraq' - Israel Air Force (IAF) war planes are practicing in Iraqi airspace and land in US airbases on the country as preparation for a potential strike on Iran, sources in the Iraqi Defence Ministry told a local news network, Friday.

The Economist, Jul 10th - Be very afraid, please - America and Israel often hint at military action to stop Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program. The latest rumblings, however, may be more serious. The atmosphere has been charged by a combination of factors: Iran’s expanding uranium-enrichment program, faltering diplomatic efforts to halt it, a dying American administration and a nervous Israel.

Throw in the latest war games by Israel, America and Iran—and Iran’s apparent rejection of the latest international incentives to halt its nuclear work—and some reckon the sparks could soon fly.

Defiant Iran fires more missiles after tests alarm world, July 10 - Tehran (AFP) — Iran test-fired more weapons on Thursday as it continued war games in defiance of global concern over its launch of a broadside of missiles in the midst of efforts to end the nuclear crisis.

…Crude oil prices rose once again in Asian trade as the market feared a regional conflict that could disrupt supplies from Iran, OPEC's number two producer.

The chief of French oil giant Total Christophe de Margerie said it was too politically risky to invest Iran at present, as Western governments lean on commercial firms to cut their ties with the Islamic republic….

Guardian-UK, July 11 - Nervous Arab States Fear War in Gulf, But a Nuclear-Armed Iran Is an Even Greater Concern - Ian Black - Arab governments are deeply worried about the prospect of war between Iran and Israel and/or the U.S. since several of them would be directly in the firing line if hostilities erupted.

Even without the threat of war, Iran's Arab neighbors have long lived in fear of another Chernobyl: the Bushehr nuclear reactor, two miles from the Gulf coast, is closer to six Arab capitals (Kuwait, Riyadh, Manama, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Muscat) than it is to Tehran.

Tehran is mistrusted in almost every Arab capital. None believe the claim that it is interested only in civilian nuclear power and has no military ambitions. It is seen as working to establish its hegemony across the Middle East, setting the agenda through allies or "non-state" proxies such as Hizbullah and Hamas.

"Perhaps the objective of Iran's frequent threats is to stir up fear among the Gulf states over the repercussions of any U.S. strike against it so that they in turn may pressure Washington into preventing any military action," observed Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed in the Saudi-owned Asharq Alawsat. "But this is having an opposite effect from the desired one."

UNION  FOR  THE  MEDITERRANEAN SEA
 
By Haaretz Editorial , July 13 - Tags: corruption probe, Israel - The prime minister departed for Paris to take part in the Union for the Mediterranean conference being organized by the French president. Nobody anticipates any significant diplomatic achievements from the summit.

The participants, who include leaders from the European Union, Arab countries and Israel, will arrive in Paris just so they won't be absent. The exception to this group is the Israeli prime minister. Ehud Olmert departs for Paris not to promote his country's interests, but to prove that his political life goes on. Since the police cannot issue an injunction barring him from leaving the country, he is free to bring shame on the citizens as he wishes. …   

In an interview published in French newspaper Le Figaro Tuesday, Assad said : "We are witnessing a break between the current policy of France and the policy of the past. "This new policy is more realistic and better suited to the interests of both our countries. It is a solid basis to renew healthy relations."

Jerusalem Post, July 13 - Sarkozy: Syria, Lebanon to upgrade ties - France's president said Saturday that Syria and Lebanon will open embassies in each other's countries for the first time. But Syria's leader cautioned there was still work to be done before that could happen.

Syria and Lebanon have not had full-fledged embassies in each other's countries since Lebanon became independent in 1943 and Syria in 1945. Syria dominated Lebanon for almost three decades until 2005, keeping tens of thousands of troops stationed in its smaller neighbour
   
Haaretz, July 13 - The Mediterranean summit / Sarkozy in the role of Bush, By Zvi Bar'el - …Now that a Lebanese government has been formed, Assad and Sarkozy will be free to discuss the peace process with Israel, the international trial of the suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and advancing the Israel-Palestinian negotiations.

It's a two-way deal: Assad will push the peace process with Israel and Sarkozy promises to make a state visit to Damascus in September or October. Assad will see to the functioning of the Lebanese government and open an embassy in Lebanon, and Sarkozy will send a delegation of high-level business people and legislators to Syria in August. A deal to sell Airbus planes to Syria is also in the offing. American sanctions on Syria are clearly breaking down.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a last-minute decision to come to the conference, despite concerns that the Union for the Mediterranean will leave his country at sea, far from the warm shores of the EU. Turkey, also an intermediary in the Syrian-Israeli process, will push in two directions at the conference: toward direct talks, and bringing in Washington as a partner. A Turkish source told Haaretz Saturday that he did not discount the presence of an American representative at the coming round of talks.

"The Americans must accept that we are part of the solution not only in Lebanon but also in Iraq and Palestine," Assad told Le Monde diplomatique. The Americans apparently realize that if they don't hurry, Sarkozy will take the whole pot.

According to Arab press reports, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the conference's co-chairman, has invited Assad to dinner. Yes, this inter-Arab conflict must also be solved if Egypt wants to advance negotiations between Israel and Hamas. So must the bad blood between Saudi Arabia and Syria, after the Hariri assassination in 2005 and Assad's calling the Saudis "half men" for not sufficiently supporting Hezbollah in the Lebanon war. And Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah are not on speaking terms. If feathers can be smoothed over dinner, Assad can receive Arab approval and Sarkozy can chalk up another success in the face of American feebleness.

ANTI-SEMITISM

Crif in Action, July 5 - Defacement of a memorial to Jewish children who died in Nazi death camps - A stone memorial honouring 90 Jewish children aged 14 days to 6 years deported to Nazi death camps during World War II, has been vandalised with a hammer in Paris’ 18th precinct.

CULTURE

July 8, 2008 - Three new sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List - The Bahá’i Holy Places in Haifa and Western Galilee (Israel) are inscribed for the testimony they provide to the Bahá’i’s strong tradition of pilgrimage and for their profound meaning for the faith.

The property numbers 26 buildings, monuments and sites at 11 locations in Acre and Haifa, associated with the founders of the faith, among them the Shrine of the Bahá’u’lláh in Acre and the Mausoleum of the Báb in Haifa. It also includes houses, gardens, a cemetery and a large group of modern buildings in the neoclassical style that serve for administration, archives and a research centre.

Salonika - The head of Greece’s Jewish community warned Monday that work on a new metro line for the northern city of Salonika risks disturbing the remains of a historic Jewish cemetery, by AFP - "The entire area was once a Jewish cemetery. In-depth excavation is certain to hit upon graves and remains," Moses Constantinis, head of the Central Board of Jewish Communities (KIS), told AFP.
"We would not want the peace of the dead to be disturbed. In our religion, it is a sin to move the dead after burial."

The metro tunnels will run well beneath the cemetery, but one station will surface near the Aristotelio University library, where excavation has unearthed the remains of Jewish funerary monuments, community sources say.

"We would like the area studied, and if excavation interferes with the cemetery, which we believe it does, then to avoid building (the station) or move it to a different location," Constantinis said.
…The Jewish cemetery, one of the largest in Europe, was razed in 1942 during the German wartime occupation of Greece.

Two decades later, the cemetery site was built on during an expansion of Aristotelio University.
Founded more than five centuries ago, the cemetery is believed to have held more than 300,000 graves.
Construction work on the Salonika metro began last summer, more than a decade after plans for an underground train were first floated by local authorities. It is scheduled to be completed in 2012.

Home to a thriving Sephardic Jewish community of around 50,000 people before World War II, Salonika was once known as the "Jerusalem of the Balkans."
Virtually the entire city’s Jews perished in Nazi extermination camps.
The Greek Jewish community now numbers around 6,000 people.