Israel need not pay much attention to Europe, which is using its Middle East policy to separate itself from the US, has a tendency toward appeasement and is largely pro-Palestinian, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar told The Jerusalem Post Monday.
"Europe likes appeasement very much; this is one of the most important differences between us and the States," Aznar said in an interview on the Bar-Ilan University campus. "Europeans don't like any problems. They prefer appeasement."
The strongly pro-American Aznar, who bucked public sentiment in Spain and backed US President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, served as prime minister from 1996-2004. He is currently in the country for Bar-Ilan's jubilee celebration, at which he will receive an honorary doctorate on Tuesday.
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The mobilization of IDF reserve soldiers has already begun, in preparation for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and northern West Bank this summer, a senior IDF officer said Monday.
Addressing the Knesset's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, the senior officer noted that all of the army's reserve combat units will be called up for military duty this summer.
Reserves have been mobilized, the officer said, to free up soldiers in regular service to train for the evacuation. It is the regular service soldiers who will carry out the actual evacuation, while reservists take over their standard duties.
The committee's main guest, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, asked the settlers slated for evacuation to voluntarily move their children elsewhere before the implementation of the pullout in order not to expose them to unnecessary trauma.

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An Israeli Inventor has developed a breathing apparatus that will allow breathing underwater without the assistance of compressed air tanks. This new invention will use the relatively small amounts of air that already exist in water to supply oxygen to both scuba divers and submarines. The invention has already captured the interest of most major diving manufacturers as well as the Israeli Navy.
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reprinted from Arutz Sheva
21:55 Jun 06, '05 / 28 Iyar 5765
As parades filled the streets of Jerusalem Monday - Jerusalem Day - the reestablished Sanhedrin convened in the city to elect a Nassi and representatives to lead it.
The Sanhedrin was reestablished last October in Tiberias, the place of its last meeting 1,600 years ago. Since then, it has met in Jerusalem on a monthly basis, various committees meeting more often to discuss issues ranging from the areas of the Temple Mount permitted to Jewish worshipper by Jewish law, to the establishment of courts of non-Jews who accept the Seven Laws of Noah and to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to uproot the Jewish communities of Gaza and northern Samaria.

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