Reported from Jerusalem
1. TEL AVIV SUICIDE BOMBING PREVENTED… Israeli security officials revealed on Tuesday that a suicide bombing planned for Tel Aviv last week had been prevented. The would-be bomber is an 18-year old member of Yassir Arafat’s Tanzim faction of Fatah who was arrested by Israeli forces. He admitted to the plot and supplied the details. He said that he intended to lure Israeli soldiers to a computer monitor that was filled with explosives and then detonate it. Ahmad Ashkar told authorities that he set out on his mission accompanied by others, but they ditched the exploding monitor and fled when they spotted an Israeli army patrol.
2. HIZBULLAH HEAD: WE’LL CAPTURE MORE ISRAELIS… With a prisoner exchange deal with Israel not even complete, the head of the Hizbullah terrorist organization is already threatening to kidnap more Israelis in the future. Sheikh Sayyid Hasan Na’srallah told a Beirut news conference in answer to a question that, “Yes, there will be more abductions.” Clearly not moved by any sense of conciliation after having concluded the prisoner swap, Na’srallah also refused to indicate whether those Israelis that are being held are alive or dead. Many Israelis remain angered that missing airman Ron Arad (missing 17 years) is not part of the deal and that all Israel is demanding in return for its last bargaining chip – the murderer of three members of one Israeli family — is information, not Arad himself. This, although Israel is releasing the two Hizbullah leaders it captured specifically in order to effectuate the release of Arad.
3. LEBANESE PRESIDENT: ISRAEL ADMITS HIZBULLAH, RESISTANCE, IS LEGITIMATE… Lebanese President Emil Lahoud said releasing prisoners and detainees through negotiations constitutes Israel’s unequivocal admittance that the resistance is legitimate, according to the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal. ”Israel is also admitting that the resistance is nationalist and ‘not a marginal terror group as they claim,’” Lahoud said. He said the outcome of the negotiations are “a great victory” for Lebanon and its resistance, meaning Hizbullah, as well as for the Palestinian people and Arabs in general.
4. GERMANY SAYS IT WILL RELEASE PRISONERS TO HELP ON ARAD ISSUE… The German intermediary who brokered the prisoner swap between Israel and the Hizbullah terrorist organization said that his nation will release Lebanese prisoners it’s holding and try to convince other European nations to do the same in return for the release of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad. Arad has been missing for 17 years and it is not known where he is or whether he remains alive. Israel’s acceptance of the swap was delayed due to a public outcry over the exclusion of Arad from the basic deal. Prime Minister Sharon convinced his cabinet to approve it in part by promising that the deal would lead to a second one in which Arad would be included. Israel will release Samir Quntar, the killer of three members of one family and an Israeli policeman, if DNA proof of Arad’s identity and information on whether he is alive are provided. The deal does not require that Arad himself be turned over. Arab prisoners are expected to be released on Thursday, in time to celebrate an Islamic feast. The Israel army has already begun to exhume the bodies of dead terrorists from a special cemetery in the north of Israel.
5. HAMAS TERRORIST ORGANIZATION CALLS FOR 10-YEAR TRUCE IN RETURN FOR ISRAELI PULLBACK… The Hamas terrorist organization said it will agree to a 10-year truce if Israel withdraws from all of the land it acquired in the 1967 Six Day War – including Jerusalem. The offer came in a Reuters interview with Hamas head ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz A-Rantisi. He also said that the deal would not include recognition of Israel and that the 10-year truce was just the first phase of what he called “phased liberation.” Under the Hamas terms, a Palestinian state would be immediately formed on the land vacated by Israel. A-Rantisi said that the truce would not last any longer than 10 years. He also said he did not expect Israel to respond favorably.