Reported from Jerusalem…
1. MASSIVE HUNT UNDERWAY FOR MISSING SOLDIER… Hundreds of soldiers, police and volunteers are searching for Oleg Shaihat, an Israeli soldier who has been missing since Monday. He was traveling from his army base in the northern city of Safed to his home in Upper Nazareth on Monday, but never arrived. Officials fear that Shaihat was kidnapped or killed by Palestinians. Terrorist organizations are known to want to capture Israeli soldiers to use for bargaining chips in order to get security prisoners released from Israeli jails. Police have now all but ruled out criminal motives and are focusing on the increasingly probable scenario of a kidnapping by terrorists.
2. JERUSALEM CYCLIST ATTACKED, STABBED BY PALESTINIANS… 40-year old David Shilo of the Jerusalem suburb of Pisgat Ze’ev, was riding his bicycle past the Shuafat refugee camp on the way home on Wednesday night when he was challenged by four 15-year old Palestinians who asked if he would sell them his bike. They pushed him to the ground and stabbed him with a kitchen knife before fleeing. Police believe the attack was nationalistic in nature. Shilo received light to moderate wounds.
3. ISRAELI LEADERSHIP IN AGREEMENT: ‘ABBAS’S EFFORTS INADEQUATE… Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom told Israel Radio Thursday morning exactly what security officials have also been saying: the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud ‘Abbas, its prime minister, are not acting against terrorist organizations. Security officials have asked that Prime Minister Sharon refuse to take any steps beyond the next planned release of several hundred prisoners until there is concrete evidence of a PA crackdown on terror. Shalom went farther and compared the behavior of ‘Abbas to that of Yassir Arafat who, according to the foreign minister, “committed himself time after time in all the agreements that were signed [but never fulfilled the commitment].” Shalom reiterated the Israeli demand that the terrorist infrastructures be dismantled, weapons collected and incitement halted.
4. U.S.-ISRAEL RIFT OVER SECURITY FENCE HEATS UP… The United States is again demanding that work be halted on the controversial security fence that Israel is building along its border with the Palestinian territories. U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who first broached the topic while on a visit to Israel, told Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom that construction must stop and the designated route of the barrier be changed. The Americans agree with the Palestinian argument that the fence will become a de facto border and will cause hardships for many Palestinians.
5. IMMUNITY DEAL BEING NEGOTIATED… Palestinian sources claim that negotiations are under way to grant immunity to a number of men on the wanted list in return for promises that they will not participate in new attacks. According to the newspaper Haaretz, the immunity issue is key to a deal between the Palestinian Authority and Fatah that would include making some of the wanted men part of the PA security forces.
6. U.S. REFUSES TO LIFT ISRAEL TRAVEL ADVISORY… According to Globes financial newspaper, Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom failed on two counts during his current trip to Washington: the State Department’s travel advisory will not be changed and Israelis will continue to be required to obtain visas for entry into the United States. Tourism officials have been complaining that the advisory continues to deter potential business and leisure travelers. Shalom asked Homeland Security Secretary Tom Rudge to lift visa restrictions for Israelis seeking to enter the United States, but was only promised a shortened waiting period for approval. New requirements for American visas are turning it into an ordeal for foreign nationals to obtain them unless they are citizens of an exempt nation. Shalom wants Israel added to that list, but the American Administration doesn’t agree.