By Stan Goodenough
The future of Israel's Golan Heights appears to be suddenly under renewed threat as reports during the Passover week that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had offered to give them to Syria in exchange for peace were quickly followed Sunday by Syrian demands for an Israeli guarantee of a complete pullout from the plateau.
According to the Qatari newspaper al-Watan, Syrian President Bashar el-Assad told Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Damascus demands a written commitment by Israel of the Jewish state's willingness to fully relinquish the Golan.
Assad said Israel's refusal thus far to make such a pledge meant that the time has still not come for peace.
Olmert, who spent some of his Passover vacation on the Heights, refused to deny Syrian claims reported on April 24 that he had messaged Assad via Erdogan that the Golan was up for grabs.
In September 2006, Israeli newspapers quoted Olmert as saying: "As long as I serve as prime minister the Golan Heights will remain in our hands because it is an integral part of the State of Israel."
Biblically part of the Land of Israel, and included in the inheritance of the Israelite half-tribe of Manasseh, the ...   more »

By ALIA IBRAHIM
BEIRUT, LEBANON - Abu Omar, a money changer and father of 11 who lives in Beirut, has bought at least 10 firearms since the beginning of last year. "Everything I can put my hands on and I can afford, I buy. I never sell," he said. "Now is a time for buying arms."
Many Lebanese, increasingly worried about the country's political paralysis devolving into violence, are preparing themselves in the same way. One measure of their anxiety is the price of small arms: An AK-47 that went for $75 to $100 a year ago now costs somewhere between $600 and $1,000.
Even larger, outdated arms are gaining value, including rocket-propelled grenade launchers that were once considered the "garbage of weapons," said Ghassan Qarhani, a former fighter familiar with the arms market. Today, RPG launchers cost $500, up from $50, he said, noting that they are useful for street warfare.
Civil war
Political tension has been rising in Lebanon since 2006, when opposition ministers resigned from Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Cabinet. A stalemate between the government, backed by the U.S. and Europe, and opposition forces led by the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which is allied with Syria and Iran, ...   more »

by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Globes business site informed the Bank of Israel on Friday that its site was reporting anti-Israel messages - and two days later, the site is still down. The extent of the damage is unclear.
Surfers visiting the Bank of Israel's website to check the rise/fall of the dollar or other information are greeted with the message, "The site is temporarily closed."  Hackers assumed to be from Algeria broke into the site as early as Thursday, replacing lists of foreign currency exchange rates and other numbers with threatening warnings against the Jews. 
Reporters from Globes said they were the first to inform Bank of Israel officials, who were away celebrating the Passover holiday.  The site was immediately closed down, and remains that way as of Sunday.  Bank of Israel spokesman Yossi Saadon said the site would reopen only after it verifies the source of the hacking and ensures that the attack is over.
The hackers warned that Israel would lose in war against the Muslims, that the "scenario of Chechnya will be repeated and we will drive you out. Millions of young Muslims are willing to die for al-Quds [Jerusalem], which belongs to us."
This is ...   more »

Residents alarmed by fighter jet executing complex maneuvers involving pyrotechnics at seemingly low altitude above their houses. Army clarifies pilot was training for Independence Day air show
Shmulik Hadad Published:
Israeli citizens are accustomed to the sights and sounds of fighter planes soaring across the sky, but nothing could prepare Ashkelon's residents for the drama that took place against the backdrop of their city's otherwise blue skies on Sunday afternoon.
Thousands of picnickers making the most of their Passover vacations at the beach and in a nearby national park were caught surprised to see an Air Force fighter jet diving to a significantly low altitude and proceed to carry out a series of flying maneuvers above their heads.  
Reports began flooding after the plane dropped several flares (usually used as decoys against anti-aircraft fire) and continued to fly precariously close to the city's skyline.  
And eyewitness told Ynet several successive blasts resounded through the national park, stirring an uneasy panic among visitors. "They were hysterical, people started running and yelling that there were Qassam rockets. But because there was nowhere to take shelter, people just ran away," he said.
Another resident, 23-year-old Elad Hatuel, explained that the flares ...   more »

WND first broke story terror group seeking to acquire pilotless aircraft
By Aaron Klein
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel – Egyptian authorities reportedly arrested members of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist organization for providing the Hamas terrorist group with components used to build pilotless drone aircraft.
WND first broke the story in May 2006 Hamas was seeking the ability to attack Israel using small pilotless airplanes laden with explosives. Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WND at the time the aim was to fly the aircraft 9/11-style into important targets.
Today the state-run Al-Ahram Egyptian daily quoted security officials stating Egyptian forces detained four people and accused them of plotting to buy fuel and a remote control device for a small pilotless aircraft for Hamas.

The newspaper said some equipment for the aircraft was already acquired and was transferred to the Gaza Strip, which borders Egypt. The goal of the aircraft initiative was to manufacture aerial drones to be fitted with explosives that would be detonated by remote control, Al-Ahram reported.
Two of those detained were Muslim Brotherhood members.
Both the Brotherhood and Hamas officially denied the charges.
Hamas was founded in 1987 as a military offshoot of Egypt's ...   more »

by Sarah Shapiro
A Seder in Bergen-Belsen.
--- as told by Joseph Freuchtwanger, nephew of Rabbi Davids
It was erev Pesach, 1944. The entire Jewish community of Rotterdam -- men, women, and children -- had just been transferred from Vesterbork, a deportation camp in Holland, to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Conditions in Vesterbork had been harsh, but continued religious observance had to a remarkable extent preserved the Jews' dignity and their will to live. Under the leadership of the loved and revered Torah scholar Rabbi Aharon (Bernard) Davids, some semblance of communal cohesiveness and optimism had been sustained. Upon arrival at Bergen-Belsen, however, daily existence took a sudden, overwhelmingly drastic turn for the worse, as most of the things that make a human being feel human were taken away. In what for us -- some 60 years later -- has become a familiar yet impossible-to-imagine scenario, families were divided, people starved, the absurdly hard labor broke body and soul, and disease was spreading fast.
Matzah for the Seder was, of course, unavailable.
Rabbi Davids, then in his early forties -- whose wife and three children had been separated from him upon arrival in the camp -- yearned to ...   more »

(CBS) The commander of the Israeli air force takes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threats against Israel extremely seriously. Israelis must be ready for anything and ultimately trust only themselves, he believes, and for good reason: his family survived the Holocaust.
Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy speaks to 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon in a story about the Israeli air force this Sunday, April 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
"I think it is a very serious threat to the state of Israel, but more than this, to the whole world," Shkedy says of the Iranian leader’s public animosity toward Israel. "They are talking about what they think about the state of Israel. They are talking about destroying and wiping us from the earth," he tells Simon. It reminds him of the Holocaust. "We should remember. We cannot forget. We should trust only ourselves."
The general likens ignoring Ahmadinejad today to the atmosphere that enabled the Holocaust yesterday. "In those days, people didn't believe that Hitler was serious about what he said. I suggest not to repeat this way of thinking, and to prepare ourselves for what they are planning," says Shkedy. "We should be prepared for everything."
Iran publicly professes to be ...   more »