Richard Melson

October 2004

Sharon uses the ICEJ, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, as an instrument to keep Bush in line by threatening to unleash a revolt by the Christian Zionists/Evangelicals, the mainstay of the Bush/Rove electoral base.

Other Christian polticians such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and various "televangelists" such as Jack Van Impe, are all wooed and courted and "bedded" by Sharon, Olmert, Netanyahu.

The idea is to checkmate Bush/Rove, using Christian fundamentalist alliances, into paralysis and acquiescence. In this, they have, for the time being, succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and in bending Washington to their will, succeeded in capturing it to a point where it has now become a policy-colony of the neo-con Zionist grouping.

An unmanned airborne Israeli drone reportedly fired two missiles at the Gaza home of Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed Sheikh Khalil in the Rafah refugee camp Monday afternoon. The blasts wounded five people, two critically, according hospital officials said. Islamic Jihad leaders insisted that Khalil himself was "in good shape" having not been home at the time of the strike. Khalil is a well-known terrorist leader who lost an arm in a previous attempt on his life and a leg, while working with explosives.

EU ENVOY: SECURITY BARRIER WORKING – The European Union’s Middle East envoy, Marc Otte, has conceded that the controversial 700 km long security fence has stopped Palestinian extremists from carrying out suicide attacks in Israel. "The barrier has drastically sunk the number of attacks," the Belgian diplomat told the Financial Times Deutschland, making him the first high-level EU diplomat to publicly say that the fence has fulfilled its aim.

IRAN TO REACH NUCLEAR THRESHOLD BY NOV - Iran will reach the "point of no return" in its nuclear weapons program by November, much earlier than original IDF estimates, Israel's national security adviser, Giora Eiland told Ma’ariv last week. The warning comes as former Iranian President Rafsanjani admitted that Tehran can now launch a missile as far as 2,000 km substantially increasing the announced range of the Islamic state's military capabilities and bringing both Israel and southern Europe within range. According to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz Israel will consider "all options" to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons.

‘MAMA’ BOMB CARRIER SENTENCED - A 40 year-old Palestinian mother of seven from the Balata refugee camp was sentenced to 35 years by an Israeli military court on Sunday for transporting a suicide bomb belt intended for an attack on the Israeli town of Rosh Ha'ayin. Prosecutors charged that Latifa Abu Diran attempted to carry the belt past an IDF checkpoint knowing that as a woman, she was less likely to be searched.

Israeli rescue workers in the Red Sea resort of Taba ended their search operation Sunday having located the bodies of all 12 Israeli citizens killed in Thursday night’s triple suicide bomb attacks against tourist sites in the Sinai. In total at least 32 people were killed and 160 wounded when a bomb-laden vehicle crashed into the foyer of the Taba Hilton, close to the Israeli-Egyptian border and twin simultaneous suicide blasts rocked two popular camping sites near Ras al-Satan, some 50km away.

Contrary to early reports most of those killed were not Israelis but foreign tourists despite the fact that thousands of Israelis ignored unequivocal government terror warnings and spent the Succot holiday season in Egypt. Among the dead were 6 Egyptian hotel workers, a dozen Eastern Europeans, 2 Italians and a Russian. Nevertheless, the severity of the blast that shredded the Hilton’s southern façade has left authorities uncertain as to the exact death toll. The Israeli fatalities included three children, two young brothers who died with their mother and a ten-year old Israeli Arab from Jaffa.

Egyptian officials investigating the attacks believe that al-Qaeda activated sleeper cells in Egypt received help from Sinai Bedouin who assisted the terrorists in evading roadblocks and provided them with explosives. The AP reports that at least one Bedouin tribesman has confessed selling explosives "on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians," an Egyptian investigator said.

Other reports suggest that at least one of the 8-10 terrorists suspected of carrying out the attacks was a female suicide bomber, believed to have been one of the three-person team that drove the explosive-packed car bomb into the Hilton.

Egypt believes that the terrorists may have slipped in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan, using speedboats to traverse the narrow Gulf of Aqaba.

Meanwhile in Israel PM Ariel Sharon has ordered the Mossad to step up its hunt for al-Qaeda operatives after the triple attacks as thousands of Israelis fled Sinai Peninsula resorts for Israel.

"This time al-Qaeda hit our back yard," a security source told The Times. In November 2002 al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed 14 people. In early September the government warned that they had specific intelligence warnings of a similar al-Qaeda plot to target the Sinai.

NEWS SOURCES: AFP, AP, CNN, Ha’aretz, IMRA, International Herald Tribune, Israel Defense Force, JCPA, Jerusalem Post, Ma’ariv, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Reuters, The Times (UK), Yediot Ahronot.

This bulletin was written and compiled by Michael Hines

Editor - David Parsons

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