IDF soldiers checking a Palestinian vehicle at a road block outside Ramallah

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The Officer commanding Arafat's presidential guard in the Ramallah region, Mahmoud Amara, was commander of the squad that killed 8 Israelis, planned a mass terrorist attack on Jerusalem's Neveh Ya'akov neighborhood and additional attacks at clubs in the Capital frequented by youth.

The discovery of the squad was announced tonight after Israeli security forces made arrests in northern Jerusalem and the Kalandia refugee camp near Ramallah. Security sources clarified that the severe steps taken in the Ramallah region this week were a result of information received during interrogation regarding the planned terrorist attacks.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will advise the US President next week, that Israel is only committed to signed agreements ratified by the Knesset, and will therefore call upon President Bush to work on the implementation of the Wye agreements that were signed on October 28 under President Clinton's auspices.

Sharon will arrive in Washington early Monday morning. On the same day he will meet with senior officials at the State Department, among them Secretary of State Collin Powel and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. During his visit, Sharon he will hosted at the official guesthouse "Blair House" and on Tuesday he will meet with George Bush at the White House.

During his visit Sharon will make his appearance in Washington at the AIPAC Annual Policy Conference and on Wednesday he will meet with the heads of Jewish organizations in New York. During his visit, the Prime Minister will also meet with senior officials at the Congress and with representatives of the US press.

During a consultation meeting in preparation for the visit in Tel Aviv today, Sharon rejected Head of the National Security Council, Uzi Dayan's suggestion that Israel should agree to continue talks with the Palestinians from the understandings reached at Sharm A-Sheikh meant to put a stop to the violence. At the meeting, it was agreed that Sharon will try to convince the Americans that Arafat's recent behavior is endangering Middle East stability and that it is necessary to proceed through many stages and long term interim agreements in order to re-establish trust between the sides, cease warfare and finally reach peace.

At his meetings with Jewish Organizations, the Prime Minister will thank them for activity on behalf of Israel and will call upon them to support Israel's stand regarding the issues of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Right of Return.

Israel appointed an Inter-Ministerial Investigations Committee that began investigating the question of the two thousand Jews who disappeared in Argentina during the Junta government of the 70's.

The committee will try to investigate what happened to those missing and if it turns out that they were murdered, to bring them for burial to Israel. The committee will also try to find out what happened to the Jewish children who were adopted by non-Jewish families in Argentina during that period. The committee is composed of representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Justice, representatives from the Academia and representatives of families.

Non-the-less, 51% of the American public believe that Israel should agree to divide Jerusalem and 67% of the public believe that it is necessary to support the establishment of a Palestinian State alongside Israel.

Conference of Presidents Executive Vice-Chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein expressed satisfaction from the results of the survey because it indicated that Palestinian and Arab propaganda will not alter the American public's fundamental support for Israel.

The survey was conducted as the Jewish organizations in the US were getting ready to launch a promotional campaign out of fear that the Al-Aksa Intifada could damage Israel's image in north America.

An armed Palestinian aims his rifle at an effigy of Ariel Sharon

Fatah (Tanzim) activists carry out dozens of terror attacks daily (mostly after dark), in the form of ambushed shooting attacks, from residential neighborhoods and private homes, at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.

Since the events began in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, Fatah fighters have committed thousands of shooting attacks: harassment shootings (firing in a general direction aimed at disrupting daily routine), sniper fire, firing on traffic routes, firing at several points simultaneously and gradually, firing which continues for several hours, firing from a crowd of demonstrators during violent rioting at points of conflict, combined attacks.

Tanzim and Fatah activists have made frequent use of automatic weapons (machine gun 0.5) in daily attacks at Israeli neighborhoods in Judea, Samaria and in Jerusalem. Fatah activists have carried out hundreds of bomb attacks particularly on roads, in an effort to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. Some of the roadside bombs have been directed against Israeli buses carrying children to school. Two bomb attacks were carried out by the Fatah inside Israel.

• $ 19,000 - Jewish Agency allocation for the year 2000 to the Federation of Hebrew scouts for the Shva project within the framework of projects that foster "Unity, Tolerance and Mutual Respect"

• $ 19,000 - Jewish Agency allocation for the year 2000 to Israel Aids Task Force educational program for AIDS prevention within the framework of support of "Special Needs Populations."

• $ 19,000 - Jewish Agency allocation for the year 2000 to Havatzelet Educational Foundation for Leadership Building within the framework of allocations "Enhancing Jewish Identity for Israelis."

• 7,309 Olim arrived in Israel since the beginning of 2001. 5,565 are from the FSU.

• 876 new immigrants arrived in Israel this week. 712 from the FSU and Eastern Europe; 80 from Ethiopia and the rest from France, Spain, Turkey, England, South Africa, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, the USA, Canada and India.

A new wind blows in Moscow: While classified documents about KGB activity against the Zionist movement and the Jewish Agency are being released, Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor shook hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who until recently was one of the heads of the P.S.B. (the K.G.B. in its post-Soviet format). The meeting between the two took place during President Moshe Katsav's state visit to Russia last month, in which Meridor was part of the entourage.

A look at the documents published after the "unfreezing" of the KGB archives shows that the Soviet security services closely followed the activities of international Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Agency. Below we present an extract of a secret report prepared at the time by then Deputy Head of the KGB - P. Ivashutin, after a synagogue in Malahovka, near Moscow, was torched. This act of anti-Semitism took place in 1959. Following are the main points of the document issued by the K.G.B. on November 3rd 1959.

"...as for the arson attack on the synagogue in Malahovka, I wish to report that the incident raised particular interest among employees at the Israeli embassy in the USSR as well as that of American businessman Alfred Saks, who visited Moscow as a tourist. On the day of the incident, October 4th, Saks set out specially to visit Malahovka, where he met with Jewish residents and asked them for details of the incident, while embassy officials discussed the subject with Jews at the Choral Synagogue in Moscow.

A series of articles was published in the foreign Zionist press, which give a distorted description of the arson of the synagogue with anti-Soviet comments. The "New York Times" on October 13th published a false article claiming that the incident was an act of anti-Semitism, aimed at repressing the Jewish religion. The Israeli press launched an extensive anti-Soviet campaign and intensified its condemnation of the Communist party in Israel.

The fire led to an undesirable reaction among some members of the Moscow and Malohavka Jewish communities. On October 11th leaflets were found in these cities, which had been distributed by the "Committee for the Return to Israel", calling on Jews to emigrate from the USSR. It should be noted that recently employees at the Israeli embassy in Israel have intensified their hostile activity. When visiting various parts of the country which have concentrations of Jewish populations, they hold discussions with Jews in synagogues and on the street, praising life in Israel, and encouraging the Jews to leave the Soviet Union and spread Zionist and anti-Soviet propaganda.

In an effort to expose the false Zionist campaign and counter hostile activity on the part of employees at the Israeli embassy in Moscow, the Committee for National Security (KGB) recommends taking the following measures:

To publish an article in our press, signed by the rabbis of the Moscow and Malahovka synagogues, exposing the false Zionist propaganda and the repression of the Jewish religion in the USSR, denying false information spread abroad about imaginary pogroms in Malahovka, the closure of the synagogue in Kiev and the invention of other lies.

To organize letters and complaints to the Soviet Foreign Ministry from a number of believing Jews about inappropriate behavior on the part of Israeli embassy officials, who distribute anti-Soviet Zionist literature, so that the Foreign Ministry can formally contact the Israeli ambassador in the USSR.

Simultaneously, using the KGB's possibilities for publishing material in the Middle East and western Europe, exposing the undermining tactics of the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency and the provocative nature of Zionist statements against the Soviet Union."

It should be noted that the findings of the investigation of this particular incident showed that prior to the arson attack on the synagogue, anti-Semitic calls had been distributed in the area. The attacker was sent for a psychiatric evaluation and classified as mentally disturbed, and the KGB recommended publishing this fact in order to prove that there were no manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. No evidence was found of the existence of the "Committee for the Return to Israel". During this period there was also a widespread anti-religion campaign during the course of which, along with sites associated with other minority groups, a large number of synagogues were closed, the baking of matzot was prohibited and steps were taken against rabbis, gabbaim (synagogue managers) and mohalim (circumsizers).

This document was sent by the Moscow Archive for the Preservation of Documents to the Cummings Center for Research on Russia and Eastern Europe at Tel Aviv University. It was recently published in De Jure, the Russian language journal published in Israel. We can only hope that the world will not revert to those days.

Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor with Russian President Vladimir Putin
(Photo: Yaacov Saar, Israel Government Press Office)

On March 16th, 2001, at 9am young people from all over Israel will gather at Independence Park in Jerusalem, across from the the US consulate on Agron Street.an effort to raise consciousness for Israel's Missing Soldiers -- Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Souad were abducted by Hizbollah Terrorists on the Lebanese border on October 7th 2000. Hayim Avraham, father of Benny Avraham will be speaking.

The rally has been organized by Young Judaea and the Federation of Zionist Youth. For more information, please call us at 02-561-9233 or 056-566-138.

Jewish Agency Treasurer Chaim Chesler, who last week toured the Carmiel-Misgav area in order to take a close look at the absorption of olim in the area, particularly in the hi-tech field, said that during Y2K the Jewish Agency had invested NIS 190 million in the north of Israel.

Chesler stated that JAFI investments in the area included NIS 84 million for the construction of education and community buildings; NIS 44 million for absorbing new olim in the north of Israel; NIS 26.5 million to strengthen ties between Jewish communities around the world and Israel and for running social projects through the Partnership 2000 program; NIS 12 million in stipends for student olim; and NIS 10 million in enhancing settlement in the area.

Chesler added that in 1999 the Jewish Agency had invested a similar amount in the northern communities and that it intends to continue its efforts to strengthen this region, particularly by directing olim to the area.

The Jewish Agency, Ministry of Absorption and the Electronics Industries Association are holding three hi-tech fairs in the US this week, during which they hope to recruit engineers among potential olim and returning Israelis for Israel's hi-tech industries.

Comverse and Tower Semi-conductor will be participating in the fairs which will take place in three major US cities: Silicon Valley's Palo Alto between March 11-12, in Chicago on March 13-14 and in New York on March 18-19 .

It should be noted that more than 400 potential olim and Israelis living in North America have so far sent their resumes to the fair organizers, in an effort to find employment in Israel's hi-tech sector.

A group of 22 young people aged 21- 26 recently completed a prestigious course in the Dimona Science Center as Internet Web Masters and 18 of them qualified as Microsoft Certified Professionals. Each student received a certificate personally signed by Bill Gates and a medal.

The rationale behind the three month intensive course was to train young people who had recently finished the army in the field of hi tech in order to improve their job prospects. Sponsored by the Alliance Israelite Universelle, Partnership 2000, and the Ministry of Labour and Welfare, 100 prospective candidates signed up for the course, and after a scrupulous selection process, only 25 were accepted. The majority of the students came from Dimona, the rest from Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, nearby development towns. The students paid a nominal fee (privately the course costs approximately $10,000) and in addition received unemployment benefit during the course, thus greatly assisting them. The average pass rate in this international course is 30% but the group managed to achieve an amazing 87% success rate!

Mati Aharoni, the professional who taught the course from the prestigious John Bryce company, noted that " the group were highly motivated and really did want to learn, unlike my other students! Teaching the course was great fun, the people were warm and I was surprised by the high level and the success rate." Avi Ben Zohar, aged 23, born and raised in Dimona, had left Dimona after finishing the army and had no intention of returning. The course changed his mind and he is now looking for work in the region as a result. " To tell you the truth, Dimona didn't hold out many opportunities for me, but I now feel confident having passed this course and I hope to stay in the area. At least my parents are happy that I am living near them!"

As a result of the success of this course, further courses are planned in the near future with the help of Partnership 2000.

The IDF's efforts to locate MIA's continues constantly, even with respect to soldiers who were killed during the War of Independence and previously.

A file of records of olim who arrived in Israel, among them those who came in 1948 and were immediately drafted into the IDF was recently found in the Jewish Agency's warehouse at Zerifin.

The Central Zionist Archives of the World Zionist Organization brought this to the attention of IDF officials and as a result the Head of Manpower and the Chief of Personnel designated a group of women soldiers to input the data (some 250,000 names of olim), which may shed light on the identity of soldiers who were killed but not identified. The first batch of soldiers will finish inputting data this week, under the auspices of the Eitan unit for locating IDF MIA's.

The Jewish Agency spokesperson, Brigadier General (Res.) Ephraim Lapid said that the Zionist Archive has 80 million documents from the early days of the Zionist movement. These documents are significant in national assignments such as demarcating the borders with our neighbors as well as classifying the status of land in Israel, including in Judea and Samaria.

In January 2001 a seminar was held in Monterrey, California, at which 40 Israeli and American leaders met to study Jewish sources and discuss fundamental issues facing Jewish society.

The Israeli group comprised graduates of the Wexner program (a Harvard University program in the US which trains senior people from the public sector) who are studying Judaism in the "Kolot" (Voices) framework. The American group comprised graduates of the Wexner leadership program in San Francisco. Throughout the year both groups have made a separate study of - "The attitude to strangers as a reflection of self-identity", and the joint seminar which took place in January was one of the highlights of the learning process.

The seminar lasted four days and was extremely intensive. Basic issues such as one's relationship with a place, the meaning of language, Jewish creativity, free choice in Judaism, and more, were the focus of discussion. The Israelis made a careful study of Jewish creativity and personal responsibility for one's identity, while the Americans are re-appraising their relationship with Israel, a relationship which has undergone severe change in recent years. The seminar was fraught with sharp disagreement but a special basis was created allowing the disputes to be turned into a social-creative lever.

Among other subjects, the groups discussed the significance of joint Jewish leadership, whether the groups share a common fate even today and particularly the common goals of contemporary Jewish leadership.

The meaningful personal ties and trust created will serve as a lever for the continuation of the process. During the Talmudic era there was a fruitful dialog between Eretz Israel and Babylon. This seminar was a first, important step in examining the possibility of maintaining a cultured dialog between the two major Jewish centers of our time, as during the time of the Talmud.

A second joint seminar is due to take place in Israel in August 2001.

Immediately after the Moslem Sacrifice Festival and the day after Purim, a conference organized by the Rabin Center was held at Ulpan Akiva in Netanya, on "Educating for peace in time of crisis".

Seventy Arab and Jewish school principals and teachers from all over the country participated in the conference which took place at Netanya's Ulpan Akiva, an International Institute for Hebrew language and culture, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary (1951-2001). The Jewish Agency allocates $90,000 to the Rabin Center for programs on dialogue and tolerance in Israeli society.

The Jewish Agency's allocation for programs promoting Jewish-Arab co-existence in Israel totals $200,000 .

The Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization and Israel Radio, will hold a first conference of Jewish radio stations around the world this summer. One hundred directors and broadcasters from Jewish radio stations and Jewish ethnic programs in countries which have no independent radio station but programs on public or state radio will participate.

The steering committee for the conference, chaired by Chaim Chesler, JAFI Treasurer, Amnon Nadav of Kol Israel (Israel Radio), Gideon Meir - Deputy Director General for Public Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, and Jewish Agency spokesperson Ephraim Lapid, is currently calling on Jewish communities to invite Jewish radio stations to the conference. Israeli embassies, Zionist Federations and Jewish communities have been asked to forward details regarding this subject.

The convention will also include workshops for the production of joint broadcasts with Israel Radio in the field of news, Israeli music, Internet broadcasts and ways of increasing cooperation between stations around the world and the various Israel Radio channels.

During the early 1970's, hydrology experts were brought to Israel from all over the world who examined Lake Kinneret and submitted reports which stated: "The Kinneret is a lost cause, this is the end of the lake." They were opposed by a brave woman, who with careful, painstaking work refuted their claims. She was Prof. Colette Zruya, who recently passed away.

During the 1990's and until her retirement, Zruya headed the Jewish Agency's Settlement Department's Negev-Arava R&D work. During this period she developed numerous original projects, such as irrigating tomatoes with saline water, fish farming in plastic ponds and raising algae for food purposes. Prof. Dov Pasternak of the Institute for Applicable Biology at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, who was familiar with her special talents and sent her to the deserts of Africa to teach date farming, said of her: "She was the best thing that ever happened to the Negev".

Colette was born in a small village near Paris, and received a Master's in geology and botany from the Sorbonne. At the end of 1957 she was invited to Israel by Tahal (Israel's water planning agency) to conduct a study on underground water sources in the Galilee - this was her doctoral thesis. After undertaking another doctorate abroad, she and her husband decided to settle in Israel.

Colette was a pioneer in Israel in the field of Limnological research. Before working for the Jewish Agency, she managed the laboratory for the study of the Kinneret and was the Director General of the Israel Oceanographics and Limnological Research Institute She fought to persuade local authorities of the need to preserve and treat Lake Kinneret - and was successful. During her long years at the Jewish Agency as head of Negev-Arava R&D, she was the first to appear for work in the morning, at 07:00 a.m.. On Sundays she did this after a long journey from Tivon, setting out at three in the morning.

This woman fought the "strong men" and the authorities and won, but she was unable to overcome cancer and its was this illness which overwhelmed her at the age of 66 .

Dog integration into police units combating drugs and terrorism, they will soon be integrated into more sophisticated investigative units and some will become "Crime identification dogs". Investigators who arrive at the scene of the murder or rape, will wipe objects or clothing that have high probability that the offender touched them, with a special wipe-cloth that will be stored in special container called the "scent bank". The scent will be kept for five to ten years during which time, investigators will take scent samples from potential suspects, will let the special dog smell the sample and will direct it to smell a line-up of containers collected at different scenes. The dog will indicate (by barking or another sign) the wipe-cloth containing the suspect scent.

As part of the "VeShinantam Le'Vanecha" Program, run by the Frankel Center for Jewish Family Education , and funded by the Jewish Agency, each child had been requested to bring in for Yom Hamishpacha one item that has special significance for his family. All the items werel collected in a half-opened suitcase at the front of the class. The teacher pulled out items at random, and the parent (or child) explained its significance.

"These simple tin candlesticks came with my grandmother when she fled Galicia for Vienna right after the first World War," explained Liora's mother, " In 1939, when my mother fled to England, she was unable to take anything valuable out of the country, and so she took with her these candlesticks as a memory of her home and her Jewish roots.

"When she and my father moved to Canada after World War II, these candlesticks had become our family's most cherished heirloom. When I came on Aliyah almost thirty years ago, my mother gave me these candlesticks, saying to me ' Let them come home with you.' "

Amit was next, "This Hamsa has been reputed to have been in our family in Morocco for 22 generations (i.e. since the Expulsion from Spain). When my grandparents made the difficult journey to Eretz Yisrael it was only natural that they should bring it along, and it hangs in a prominent place in our house in Musrara ever since."

"This Haggadah was printed in Bagdad in 1896," said Ofrah, the class teacher, " See how it was repaired with simple newsprint, such was the poverty of those days! When my grandfather was thrown into jail for Zionist activity, he took this Haggada along. He handed it down to my late father as a precious link between the kisuffim (yearnings) in the Diaspora for Zion, and our life in Israel. For years, even when we were inundated with beautiful, richly illustrated Haggadot, my father insisted on using this one for the Seder: 'So that we remember where we came from, and why we're here,' he used to say. "

Next to come out of the suitcase is a small, vinyl-bound Siddur. " My grandfather asked me to buy myself a siddur before I went off to milu'im (reserve duty) in Lebanon in the early '80's , " said Dani's father. " Saba said that in his father's house in Poland, no Jewish adult would ever leave home without a siddur: Because he got out of Europe by the skin of his teeth, there was no family siddur that he could give me," he explained.

" During those Milu'im, with this siddur in my pocket, I had a very close scrape with death, and suddenly I saw the connection between my family here and there, Jewish tradition, and what we are doing in our Return to the Land. This siddur has never left my side since."

"Three photos," announced Michal's mother," This is me as a little girl in Romania with my mother and father. See how serious and mesoodar {orderly} we look. And here is me with my friends in Israel, in our Ma'abara {temporary shacks for olim in the fifties}.How relaxed I look, and how happy, even though we had practically nothing. And here is a picture of one of Michal's birthday parties. How similar she looks to the picture of me as a child , and yet how different!"

"Here's me," announced Aviva's father, " I'm 3 years old, and I'm holding the New York newspaper announcing the vote in the U.N. in 1948. When I came on Aliyah 25 years later, I had the exhilirating feeling that I had closed a circle ."

"My grandmother was a halutza from Germany, the oldest daughter, " said Re'ut's mother, " When she left her home in the '30s she refused to take anything with her from the Old Country . Her mother gave her this necklace, as a present 'for being born anew in Israel'. Bubbe gave my mother this necklace when she gave birth to me, and I will give this necklace to Re'ut when she gives birth to her oldest daughter!"

And so it continued: each family and its special link back into the past.

And the tattered suitcase from which all these items had been taken?

"When we got permission to leave Russia, we had no money to spare on fancy luggage," said Ilana's father, " When we got here, we thought we'd just throw it out. But we decided to keep it to remind the kids and ourselves from where we came from, and why we're happy to be home.."

"Each child reclaimed his family heirloom with reverence," notes Rubin. "For many, it had been the first time that they had heard its story. And everyone in that class knew that something deep had happened in the Hevruta of that morning: Through the simple yet powerful modality of family memorabilia we were reminded of the vital link between the Tekuma (rebirth of Israel) and between the Homecoming of each and every Jewish family living here, of the personal Zionist imperative that grandparents, and their grandparents have passed on to us from unmarked graves."

"From homes throughout Israel, from the mantle-pieces and the living room shelves come the heirlooms and the stories. And, perhaps even more poignantly, from the boidems and intersols, where after years of neglect, these items are being brought back , because of this program, into the Narrative of the family, and its connection to the Land.

"The post-Zionist debunkers at home, and the prophets of gloom and doom from abroad think that they can understand the Israeli soul by reading our newspapers. But if they haven't attended a Yom Mishpacha recently, then they will never be aware of the ongoing depth and quiet tenacity of our individual and familial commitment to a Homeland that is also a yearned-for home."

The dream of many will soon become real, when their portrait will appear on an official postage stamp. The international stamp fair - Jerusalem 2001 - due to take place at Jerusalem's International Convention Center on March 18-22, 2001, is organized by the Israel Philatelic Association together with the Postal Service Philatelic Service. Each visitor will have the opportunity of being photographed and will receive a sheet of stamps with pictures of flowers, and his/her own photograph beside the stamp. The personalized stamp will be sold at the Postal Service stand at the fair as a sheet of 16 stamps for NIS 35 .

Some 500 display cases, exhibiting rare stamps and special items is reawakening the curiosity of new and veteran collectors. The Jerusalem 2001 fair will exhibit a wide range of stamps and valuable postal items on different subjects, with exhibitors from Italy, Germany, Argentina, Spain and Israel, including collectors connected with Eretz Israel, Judaica and other religious subjects.

This is a well-known refreshing soup, particularly popular in Spain and Portugal

Ingredients :

1/2 kg. tomatoes
1 cucumber
2 green peppers, seeds removed
3 slices whole-wheat flour, crusts removed, or 3-4 tsp. ground almonds
1 small white onion or several green onions chopped finely
2 cloves garlic
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 tsp. wine vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
3 tsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. onion powder, parsley, mint or marjoram chopped finely
1-2 cups water

Preparation :

• Immerse tomatoes in boiling water and peel. Wash cucumber and peppers and chop coarsely.

• Soak the bread in water and squeeze well (3-4 tablespoons of almonds will be a good substitute), place in food processor with the other ingredients.

• Add cold water as necessary to create a smooth, light mixture and chill.

B'Te'avon!     Bon Appetit!