Has the policy to freeze out the Hamas-led PA had the opposite effect? Support for Hamas from the Palestinian public, far from falling off, is on the rise.
Analysis
By Rafael D. Frankel
After democratic elections, governments often enjoy a honeymoon period. For the first few months, their own people and the international community give them some breathing room, time to get their own house in order, and generally the benefit of the doubt.
Not so with the Hamas government elected by the Palestinians on January 26.
Since that fateful day which saw yet another in a series of apparently endless trump cards played in the poker game which is Middle East politics, the band of home- grown militants which constitutes the Hamas leadership in the "territories" has seen the flame beneath their caldron turned to "high" by everyone who stands to lose from their startling political ascension.
First Israel announced it was ceasing its monthly transfer of tax revenues - a provision of the 1994 Paris Protocols - to the newly controlled PA. It then began a largely effective international economic boycott of the Hamas-led PA, which saw the United States and European Union - by far the PA's largest donors - vow not to fund the Palestinian government until the now well- known three conditions were met by Hamas: recognition of Israel; a disbanding of its militant wing; and the adherence of all previously signed international accords.
Even Arab countries like Qatar and Iran have been unable to donate money pledged to the Palestinians because international financial institutions are afraid to defy an American directive to refrain from transferring money to the PA.
The effects of that boycott are already rippling through Palestinian society. With its coffers empty due to the dried-up funding and its own economic mismanagement, Hamas has been unable to pay the 152,000 PA civil servants (among them 50,000 armed security personnel) upon whom over 1 million Palestinians are directly dependent for their livelihood. According to a report released by the United Nations on Sunday, if the economic boycott continues, poverty and unemployment will dramatically rise in the territories in 2006, even if, as Israel and the international community say, direct humanitarian aide to the Palestinians is increased in order to prevent exactly that.
As if international isolation were not a rude enough welcome for Hamas, events of the last week show the group's problems are not limited to the "Zionist-Crusader" axis other well-known Islamic militants recently railed about.
Their attempts to wrestle control of the PA security forces having failed, Hamas was twice scorned by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas when he vetoed their appointment of Jamal Abu Samhadanah, the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees and the No. 2 on Israel's Most Wanted List, to head a new security branch.
For months, even before the Palestinian elections, the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah was at a fever pitch. Thus, it was no surprise that Abbas's veto led to a war of words between Ramallah and Damascus, where Hamas chief-in-exile Khaled Mashal called Abbas "a traitor" for "serving the Zionist entity" and the PA chairman properly returned the compliment, accusing Mashal of being "a civil war monger."
All the while, the Gaza leadership was caught in between and left to mop up the practical ramifications of the verbal spat - in this case 40 Palestinians wounded in Fatah-Hamas clashes during an incident which prominent Palestinians said could be the first salvo in a soon-to- come civil conflict.
"Neither camp wants to give into the reality," said Eyad Sarraj, a Gaza psychiatrist who was an adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team at the 2000 Camp David Summit. "Hamas is so obsessed with power now, and Fatah cannot deal with the defeat of election day. It's going to escalate and lead to chaos and anarchy and confrontation between the two sides."
When matters looked like they couldn't get any worse, on Tuesday Jordan announced that the Hamas cell members it arrested last week for weapons-smuggling were on orders from the leadership in Damascus to attack public figures in the Hashemite Kingdom. Whether the charge is true or not is anyone's guess, but the message from Jordan was clear: The leadership of the country with the largest Palestinian population had also cast its dye against Hamas.
GIVEN THE results of Hamas's political rule to date, leaders of Israel, the international community and Fatah should probably all be kicking back this weekend in the late-April sun with their legs up on a lawn chair, a glass of lemonade in hand, and a big grin across their faces. For, despite proclamations from PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh that the Palestinian people would "make do with eating olives and salt" before Hamas "[goes] back on its principles," it would seem to be clear that the unrelenting pressure brought to bear upon the terrorists-cum-national leaders is moving the situation toward a collapse of the Hamas regime only a month after it first coalesced.
Except for one problem. Support for Hamas from the Palestinian public, far from falling off, is on the rise.
According to the latest poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Hamas's popular support is up to 47 percent among Palestinians in the territories, while Fatah's has fallen to 37%. By contrast, the popular vote totals of the Palestinian elections in January gave Fatah and its allies around 55% and Hamas and its allies around 45%.
Though the poll was conducted on the eve of the Hamas government's swearing-in, those surveyed, the poll's authors said, expected economic and political support to fall from the PA immediately after the government was formed. In essence, Palestinians knew what they were getting themselves into and yet public "support for Hamas has never been as high as it is today," the authors wrote.
The results, said Basem Ezbidi, a professor of political science at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, show whom the Palestinians blame for the deteriorating conditions inside the West Bank and Gaza.
"Everybody knows Hamas is under siege and not able to deliver money. It's indicative of the support on the part of the population, because Hamas is being perceived as an illegitimate terror group [by the international community] even though it came to power through democracy," Ezbidi said. "The people are sticking more and more to the conviction that this kind of intransigence by the outside world means Hamas deserves more sympathy than the other way around. This government was not provided even a chance to perform."
Sympathy aside, it is important not to gloss over the power that Fatah - by virtue of Abbas's presidency of the PA and chairmanship of the Palestine Liberation Organization - retains in Ramallah. Nor should the lengths Fatah will go to assume that power - and Hamas to hold onto it - be taken lightly.
The struggle between them escalated this week with the announcement that Hamas established and already used a special internal security force it formed in the wake of Sunday's clashes.
The move, said Israeli Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Shalom Harari, who served in the territories for 20 years and was a senior adviser to the IDF on Palestinian affairs, is part of a Muslim Brotherhood - of which Hamas is the main Palestinian representative - strategy to establish parallel security forces to those of Abbas.
"The Muslim Brotherhood has the parliament, and they want to conquer the PA. Fatah is blockading them in the governing systems - money, weapons, media and passages to the outside," Harari said.
The desire of Hamas to penetrate those areas, he explained, has exacerbated the conflict between the Islamists in Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the secularists in Fatah, the PFLP and other Palestinian factions. As a result, he predicted, the potential for armed conflict between the sides "has grown by around 30% since Hamas took control of the PA."
THE DETERIORATING humanitarian situation, increasing likelihood of Palestinian civil conflict and rising popular support for Hamas is what Israel is now facing - partly, perhaps, as a result of its policy regarding its sworn enemy.
This begs the question: Is it really worth pursuing the collapse of the Hamas-led PA?
When Israel's no-contact, no-funding policy regarding Hamas was formed, it came in the wake of Hamas's stunning electoral victory and the sudden loss of former prime minister Ariel Sharon's firm hand on the Israeli wheel. Three months and a national election later, it is time the new government - once it is sworn in - figures out what it is trying to achieve where Hamas is concerned, said Gidi Grinstein, the founder and president of the Re'ut think tank in Tel Aviv.
"Israel must decide what it wants beyond the knee- jerk, gut reaction that we have to this entity that denies our right to exist," Grinstein said. A Hamas in power is one that so far has not engaged in terror and is also one that allows Israel the leverage it needs to sell Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's convergence plan to the international community, he said.
"If the government is serious about convergence, then the most important thing for us is to have on the other side an address to which we can transfer power, responsibility and territory, because a total breakdown of the PA and civil war may undermine it," said Grinstein, who was a member of former prime minister Ehud Barak's negotiating team at Camp David. "Probably avoiding the humanitarian crisis and the downfall of the PA should be a higher priority than Hamas accepting the three demands."
But keeping the screws tight on Hamas does have its advantages, according to Shalem Center Senior Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi.
So long as the terror group is busy trying to figure out how it will cut pay checks to PA workers and managing a conflict with Fatah, "its focus is not on killing Israelis," he said.
Additionally, the argument that a Palestinian civil conflict would "spill over," bringing more violence to Israel, is one Halevi rejects, along with the notion that Hamas is observing a cease- fire. "Whatever they are not doing now is because of what we're not letting them do - there's no restraint," he said.
As for the potential downfall of the Hamas government, it is important to remember what came before Hamas, he said. "We should be wary of the sudden Israeli enthusiasm for Fatah. I hope we're not going to forget all that we learned over the last five years about Fatah, just because Hamas looks even worse."
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
Friday, April 28, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
UN report warns of worsening Palestinian humanitarian situation
By Rafael D. Frankel
The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories will likely worsen in the coming months if Israel and the international community continue the policy of withholding funding from the Hamas- led Palestinian Authority, according to a new report by the United Nations said.
The report, released on Sunday, came a day after it emerged that financial institutions worldwide were instructed by the United States not to transfer funds to the PA, meaning alternative funding promised to the PA from Arab states such as Qatar and Iran may not be able to reach its destination.
The widening poverty and economic distress could destabilize the situation in the territories enough that violence between the Palestinian factions would materialize and spill over into Israel, the report, released by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.
Israel has said on numerous occasions that it does not wish to bring about a humanitarian crisis for the Palestinians through its no-contact, no-funding policy regarding Hamas. However, that may yet be the result of the largely successful international coalition it is leading to isolate the terrorist entity which won the Palestinian Legislative Elections in January.
As a result of the cut-off in foreign funding, the cessation of tax transfers from Israel, and its own mismanagement of resources, the PA is bankrupt.
"The lines between funding humanitarian causes and the PA are heavily blurred, especially when [152,000] people need to get their salaries through the government budget," said Gidi Grinstein, the president and founder of the Re'ut think tank in Tel Aviv.
According to the UN, the 152,000 Palestinians on the PA payroll directly support around one million people living in the territories. Even if donor countries and organizations make good on their pledges to continue funding humanitarian aid projects within the West Bank and Gaza, the lack of those salaries will send the Palestinian poverty rate soaring to 74 percent from its current rate of 56%, the report said. In 2000, before the start of the second intifada, poverty in the territories was at 22%.
The loss of funding for infrastructure and other projects commissioned by the PA will cause the unemployment rate to rise to 40% by the end of the year from its rate of around 30% in 2005, the report predicted.
The quality and quantity of health care, education and social work are also expected to severely diminish, the report said, as the vast majority of those services are provided to Palestinians through the PA.
Israel is coordinating with donor countries and organizations - mostly the United States and European Union - methods to provide those services without funneling funds through the PA.
"Israel does not want to see the Palestinian people pay the price for the stubbornness, shortsightedness and extremism of the Hamas leadership," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "We will do everything we can within the limitations of the situation to make sure that the Palestinian people do not have to suffer because of the sins of their government."
Hamas officials have said that no amount of Palestinian suffering will persuade them to change their political positions.
"We will make do with eating olives and salt, but our resolve will not falter because we are loyal to the principles of our people," PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on April 16 in Gaza. "We will not relinquish our borders" and "we will not go back on our principles."
On April 11, United States Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones announced that whereas the United States was cutting off all funding to the PA, it was boosting the amount of humanitarian aid provided through UNRWA and partner non-governmental organizations directed at the Palestinian people, amounting to at least $249 million with as much as another $165m. under review.
But despite Israeli, American and European intentions, the humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza is likely to worsen if the political stand-off continues between Israel and the Quartet on one side, and the Hamas- led PA on the other.
If such is the case, differing points of view are emerging from within Israel on how to proceed politically.
Once the new government is sworn in, it should move quickly to formulate a policy regarding Hamas that clearly defines the goals Israel is trying to achieve vis--vis the PA, Grinstein said.
"Israel must decide what it wants beyond the knee- jerk, gut reaction that we have to this entity that denies our right to exist," he said.
A Hamas in power is one that so far has not engaged in terror and is also one that allows Israel the leverage it needs to sell Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's convergence plan to the international community, Grinstein said.
"If the government is serious about convergence, then the most important thing for us is to have on the other side an address that we can transfer power, responsibility and territory to because a total breakdown of the PA and civil war may undermine the convergence plan," he said. "Probably avoiding the humanitarian crisis and the downfall of the PA should be a higher priority than Hamas accepting the three demands" of recognizing Israel, laying down its arms, and abiding by previous PA agreements.
However Shalem Center Senior Fellow Dan Schueftan said the suffering of the Palestinian people, even if it is worsened, is not a problem that Israel can alleviate.
"The Palestinians have demonstrated that every penny they have will go to corruption or terrorism. So whether the [PA is funded] or not is not important to economic problems because the money never goes to addressing the economic problems of Palestinians anyway and it is funneled to something destructive," said Schueftan, who is also the deputy director of the Internal Security Department at the University of Haifa.
"Everything we know about human beings trying to improve their life doesn't apply to Palestinians who put terrorism before improving their quality of life," he said. "There is nothing short of national suicide that the Israelis can do to satisfy them."
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories will likely worsen in the coming months if Israel and the international community continue the policy of withholding funding from the Hamas- led Palestinian Authority, according to a new report by the United Nations said.
The report, released on Sunday, came a day after it emerged that financial institutions worldwide were instructed by the United States not to transfer funds to the PA, meaning alternative funding promised to the PA from Arab states such as Qatar and Iran may not be able to reach its destination.
The widening poverty and economic distress could destabilize the situation in the territories enough that violence between the Palestinian factions would materialize and spill over into Israel, the report, released by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.
Israel has said on numerous occasions that it does not wish to bring about a humanitarian crisis for the Palestinians through its no-contact, no-funding policy regarding Hamas. However, that may yet be the result of the largely successful international coalition it is leading to isolate the terrorist entity which won the Palestinian Legislative Elections in January.
As a result of the cut-off in foreign funding, the cessation of tax transfers from Israel, and its own mismanagement of resources, the PA is bankrupt.
"The lines between funding humanitarian causes and the PA are heavily blurred, especially when [152,000] people need to get their salaries through the government budget," said Gidi Grinstein, the president and founder of the Re'ut think tank in Tel Aviv.
According to the UN, the 152,000 Palestinians on the PA payroll directly support around one million people living in the territories. Even if donor countries and organizations make good on their pledges to continue funding humanitarian aid projects within the West Bank and Gaza, the lack of those salaries will send the Palestinian poverty rate soaring to 74 percent from its current rate of 56%, the report said. In 2000, before the start of the second intifada, poverty in the territories was at 22%.
The loss of funding for infrastructure and other projects commissioned by the PA will cause the unemployment rate to rise to 40% by the end of the year from its rate of around 30% in 2005, the report predicted.
The quality and quantity of health care, education and social work are also expected to severely diminish, the report said, as the vast majority of those services are provided to Palestinians through the PA.
Israel is coordinating with donor countries and organizations - mostly the United States and European Union - methods to provide those services without funneling funds through the PA.
"Israel does not want to see the Palestinian people pay the price for the stubbornness, shortsightedness and extremism of the Hamas leadership," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "We will do everything we can within the limitations of the situation to make sure that the Palestinian people do not have to suffer because of the sins of their government."
Hamas officials have said that no amount of Palestinian suffering will persuade them to change their political positions.
"We will make do with eating olives and salt, but our resolve will not falter because we are loyal to the principles of our people," PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on April 16 in Gaza. "We will not relinquish our borders" and "we will not go back on our principles."
On April 11, United States Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones announced that whereas the United States was cutting off all funding to the PA, it was boosting the amount of humanitarian aid provided through UNRWA and partner non-governmental organizations directed at the Palestinian people, amounting to at least $249 million with as much as another $165m. under review.
But despite Israeli, American and European intentions, the humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza is likely to worsen if the political stand-off continues between Israel and the Quartet on one side, and the Hamas- led PA on the other.
If such is the case, differing points of view are emerging from within Israel on how to proceed politically.
Once the new government is sworn in, it should move quickly to formulate a policy regarding Hamas that clearly defines the goals Israel is trying to achieve vis--vis the PA, Grinstein said.
"Israel must decide what it wants beyond the knee- jerk, gut reaction that we have to this entity that denies our right to exist," he said.
A Hamas in power is one that so far has not engaged in terror and is also one that allows Israel the leverage it needs to sell Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's convergence plan to the international community, Grinstein said.
"If the government is serious about convergence, then the most important thing for us is to have on the other side an address that we can transfer power, responsibility and territory to because a total breakdown of the PA and civil war may undermine the convergence plan," he said. "Probably avoiding the humanitarian crisis and the downfall of the PA should be a higher priority than Hamas accepting the three demands" of recognizing Israel, laying down its arms, and abiding by previous PA agreements.
However Shalem Center Senior Fellow Dan Schueftan said the suffering of the Palestinian people, even if it is worsened, is not a problem that Israel can alleviate.
"The Palestinians have demonstrated that every penny they have will go to corruption or terrorism. So whether the [PA is funded] or not is not important to economic problems because the money never goes to addressing the economic problems of Palestinians anyway and it is funneled to something destructive," said Schueftan, who is also the deputy director of the Internal Security Department at the University of Haifa.
"Everything we know about human beings trying to improve their life doesn't apply to Palestinians who put terrorism before improving their quality of life," he said. "There is nothing short of national suicide that the Israelis can do to satisfy them."
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
Dozens killed as terror shatters Dahab calm
3 Israelis reported among hundreds wounded
Al-Qaida blamed for three blasts at tourist sites
By Rafael D. Frankel and Yaakov Katz
Three powerful explosions rocked the Egyptian resort town of Dahab last night killing at least 30 people and wounding hundreds, many of them foreigners, in the third terrorist attack on the Sinai Peninsula in the last 18 months, Egyptian officials said.
As of press time, three Israelis were reportedly wounded in the blast, Israel Radio said, though information was emerging slowly from the scene and phone calls into Dahab were not going through.
It is the height of the tourist season in Sinai, and police said bombs ripped through the central part of the city, packed with thousands of people eating dinner and strolling through the open- air markets shortly after nightfall.
A restaurant, a market and a hotel were hit in timed explosions that detonated shortly after 7 p.m., within five minutes of each other, Al-Jazeera television reported.
There was no claim of responsibility as of press time, but al- Qaida and its affiliates were responsible for the previous attacks and they are the likely suspects once again, Israeli security officials said.
The National Security Council's counterterrorism division has issued multiple warnings against traveling to Sinai for the holiday season, saying there was specific intelligence that Islamic terrorists were planning attacks and possibly kidnappings of Israeli citizens there and in other Arab countries.
"Unfortunately, the warnings came true," Ambassador to Egypt Shalom Cohen said on Channel 10 last night.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said four people from the Cairo Embassy were dispatched to Dahab to identify if Israelis were among the dead and wounded.
At the Taba border, seven ambulances stood at the ready to cross into Egypt to treat the wounded, as well as move any casualties to Josephthal Hospital in Eilat. Police cars also lined the border as did army vehicles and fire trucks.
Israeli offers to assist further were declined by the Egyptians who said the situation was under control, the spokeswoman said. The Taba border was closed to civilians.
The Interior Ministry said that all Israelis would be allowed to enter Israel via the Taba border, even if they were not carrying their passports with them. The ministry said those without passports would go through a brief interview before being granted immediate entry.
The Home Front Command's search and rescue teams were put on standby in case Egypt asked for assistance in searching for survivors in the rubble. By press time, the units had not been deployed and officers said that the likelihood that they would was slim. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the IDF to offer the Egyptians assistance.
Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to express his condolences and those of the Israeli people. In the brief phone call, the two discussed the need to cooperate in the struggle against global terrorism, the Prime Minister's Office said.
The attacks, senior security officials said, were likely carried out by Global Jihad or al-Qaida cells known to be in Egypt and Jordan. Cells of terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida, one official said, were known to be operating in the hills and caves in the northern Sinai and were believed to have been behind the recent attacks in Sinai, including the bombings in Sharm e-Sheikh last July and Taba in October, 2004, which together killed more than 100 people.
Al-Qaida has also already tried setting a foothold in Israel. In February, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh revealed that Global Jihad and al-Qaida terror cells based in Jordan had stepped up their attempts to infiltrate Israel and were in close contact with terror cells in the West Bank.
Dahab was once a common destination for Israeli tourists, but its popularity plummeted after the Taba and Sharm e-Sheikh attacks, and the continuous warnings from the government against traveling there.
Today, the town is a destination mostly frequented by Europeans on holiday and foreign backpackers making their way around the Middle East. The pristine waters and stunning aquatic life also make Dahab popular with scuba divers.
According to the Foreign Ministry, there are an estimated 5,000 Israelis in Sinai, and another 1,000 Jewish tourists.
The border reopened around 11 p.m. Two Israelis came through from Egypt on foot and another two were in a battered white car. It stalled as it came over and needed a jump start.
None of the Israelis had heard of the explosions until they were delayed at the border before it reopened.
"When we arrived at the border, they didn't let us through and we didn't understand," said one.
Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevy said Josephthal Hospital was ready for emergency assistance and that the Club Hotel was prepared to host people over night if need be.
Among those stranded on the Israeli side of the border were 29 Russian Christian pilgrims who had come for Easter and were flying home out of Egypt. They were debating the wisdom of crossing into Egypt. Another 51 members of their group were in an Eilat hotel.
Michael Chen of the Tourism Ministry, who was on hand to help them leave, made light of his efforts by stating that typically "my job is to promote Eilat, not to evacuate it."
US President George W. Bush condemned the deadly explosions in the Dahab and vowed to bring the terrorists to justice.
"Today we saw again that the terrorists are willing to try to define the world the way they want to see it," Bush said during a fund-raising speech.
"I strongly condemn the killings that took place, the innocent life lost in Egypt. This is a heinous act against innocent civilians."
"The United States sends our condolences to the families of those who were killed," Bush said. "We keep those were injured in our thoughts and prayers, and I assure the enemy this: we will stay on the offense, we will not waver, we will not tire, we will bring you to justice for the sake of peace and humanity."
The attack, Jonathan Fighel, senior researcher at the International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, told The Jerusalem Post, was mostly likely perpetrated by a group related to al-Qaida which aimed to hit the Egyptian government through the economy.
"Hitting tourist sites is part of the strategy of al- Qaida," he said. "They are trying to destabilize moderate Islamic states that are cooperating with the US.
Herb Keinon, Orly Halpern, Tovah Lazaroff, Yigal Grayeff, Hilary Leila Krieger and AP contributed to this report.
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
Al-Qaida blamed for three blasts at tourist sites
By Rafael D. Frankel and Yaakov Katz
Three powerful explosions rocked the Egyptian resort town of Dahab last night killing at least 30 people and wounding hundreds, many of them foreigners, in the third terrorist attack on the Sinai Peninsula in the last 18 months, Egyptian officials said.
As of press time, three Israelis were reportedly wounded in the blast, Israel Radio said, though information was emerging slowly from the scene and phone calls into Dahab were not going through.
It is the height of the tourist season in Sinai, and police said bombs ripped through the central part of the city, packed with thousands of people eating dinner and strolling through the open- air markets shortly after nightfall.
A restaurant, a market and a hotel were hit in timed explosions that detonated shortly after 7 p.m., within five minutes of each other, Al-Jazeera television reported.
There was no claim of responsibility as of press time, but al- Qaida and its affiliates were responsible for the previous attacks and they are the likely suspects once again, Israeli security officials said.
The National Security Council's counterterrorism division has issued multiple warnings against traveling to Sinai for the holiday season, saying there was specific intelligence that Islamic terrorists were planning attacks and possibly kidnappings of Israeli citizens there and in other Arab countries.
"Unfortunately, the warnings came true," Ambassador to Egypt Shalom Cohen said on Channel 10 last night.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said four people from the Cairo Embassy were dispatched to Dahab to identify if Israelis were among the dead and wounded.
At the Taba border, seven ambulances stood at the ready to cross into Egypt to treat the wounded, as well as move any casualties to Josephthal Hospital in Eilat. Police cars also lined the border as did army vehicles and fire trucks.
Israeli offers to assist further were declined by the Egyptians who said the situation was under control, the spokeswoman said. The Taba border was closed to civilians.
The Interior Ministry said that all Israelis would be allowed to enter Israel via the Taba border, even if they were not carrying their passports with them. The ministry said those without passports would go through a brief interview before being granted immediate entry.
The Home Front Command's search and rescue teams were put on standby in case Egypt asked for assistance in searching for survivors in the rubble. By press time, the units had not been deployed and officers said that the likelihood that they would was slim. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the IDF to offer the Egyptians assistance.
Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to express his condolences and those of the Israeli people. In the brief phone call, the two discussed the need to cooperate in the struggle against global terrorism, the Prime Minister's Office said.
The attacks, senior security officials said, were likely carried out by Global Jihad or al-Qaida cells known to be in Egypt and Jordan. Cells of terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida, one official said, were known to be operating in the hills and caves in the northern Sinai and were believed to have been behind the recent attacks in Sinai, including the bombings in Sharm e-Sheikh last July and Taba in October, 2004, which together killed more than 100 people.
Al-Qaida has also already tried setting a foothold in Israel. In February, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh revealed that Global Jihad and al-Qaida terror cells based in Jordan had stepped up their attempts to infiltrate Israel and were in close contact with terror cells in the West Bank.
Dahab was once a common destination for Israeli tourists, but its popularity plummeted after the Taba and Sharm e-Sheikh attacks, and the continuous warnings from the government against traveling there.
Today, the town is a destination mostly frequented by Europeans on holiday and foreign backpackers making their way around the Middle East. The pristine waters and stunning aquatic life also make Dahab popular with scuba divers.
According to the Foreign Ministry, there are an estimated 5,000 Israelis in Sinai, and another 1,000 Jewish tourists.
The border reopened around 11 p.m. Two Israelis came through from Egypt on foot and another two were in a battered white car. It stalled as it came over and needed a jump start.
None of the Israelis had heard of the explosions until they were delayed at the border before it reopened.
"When we arrived at the border, they didn't let us through and we didn't understand," said one.
Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevy said Josephthal Hospital was ready for emergency assistance and that the Club Hotel was prepared to host people over night if need be.
Among those stranded on the Israeli side of the border were 29 Russian Christian pilgrims who had come for Easter and were flying home out of Egypt. They were debating the wisdom of crossing into Egypt. Another 51 members of their group were in an Eilat hotel.
Michael Chen of the Tourism Ministry, who was on hand to help them leave, made light of his efforts by stating that typically "my job is to promote Eilat, not to evacuate it."
US President George W. Bush condemned the deadly explosions in the Dahab and vowed to bring the terrorists to justice.
"Today we saw again that the terrorists are willing to try to define the world the way they want to see it," Bush said during a fund-raising speech.
"I strongly condemn the killings that took place, the innocent life lost in Egypt. This is a heinous act against innocent civilians."
"The United States sends our condolences to the families of those who were killed," Bush said. "We keep those were injured in our thoughts and prayers, and I assure the enemy this: we will stay on the offense, we will not waver, we will not tire, we will bring you to justice for the sake of peace and humanity."
The attack, Jonathan Fighel, senior researcher at the International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, told The Jerusalem Post, was mostly likely perpetrated by a group related to al-Qaida which aimed to hit the Egyptian government through the economy.
"Hitting tourist sites is part of the strategy of al- Qaida," he said. "They are trying to destabilize moderate Islamic states that are cooperating with the US.
Herb Keinon, Orly Halpern, Tovah Lazaroff, Yigal Grayeff, Hilary Leila Krieger and AP contributed to this report.
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
Friday, April 21, 2006
Lax security at gaps in fence eases entry for bombers
Palestinians flow freely into J'lem as Border Police look on
By Rafael D. Frankel and Sheera Claire Frenkel
Three days after a suicide bomber crossed into Israel from the West Bank and killed nine people in Tel Aviv, Border Police officers in charge of guarding gaps in the security fence around Jerusalem are allowing unfettered access to Palestinians coming into the capital.
It is through such gaps in the incomplete barrier that the defense establishment believes most suicide bombers are entering from the territories.
At temporary checkpoints along the route of the incomplete fence sections viewed by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, the atmosphere was relaxed, with the vast majority of Palestinians crossing without having their IDs checked or being searched by border guards.
At the checkpoint separating Jebl Mukaber, part of east Jerusalem and inside the security fence, and East Sawahre, an Area A Palestinian town, for instance, Palestinians young and old, male and female, crossed into Jerusalem undisturbed as border police ate lunch in the shade of their concrete post.
"We don't check them here, they can go freely," said one officer, who would not identify himself, as he chatted with private contractors who were fortifying the position. "We only check them once there is a problem, and that is only sometimes."
A few kilometers down the road and across the wadi at a checkpoint separating Jebl Mukaber and Sheik Said, a town whose position in relation to the fence lies in the hands of the High Court, the situation was similar.
Since 2000, the army has blocked off roads connecting Sheikh Said and Jebl Mukaber, forcing Palestinians to drive to one side of the checkpoint, walk a half-kilometer on foot to the adjacent road inside the route of the security fence, and board taxis to their final destinations within Jerusalem. Throughout the day, Palestinian taxi drivers with Jerusalem IDs wait on both sides of the checkpoint to ferry workers to and from their jobs.
Border police at that checkpoint said they were under orders to check the IDs of Palestinians coming into and leaving Jerusalem. However in the half-hour this reporter spent at the checkpoint, they only checked the IDs of a handful of the few dozen people who crossed into Jerusalem and searched none. All the while, others walked on paths that led around the checkpoint, mostly out of view of the officers.
Even as they allowed the near free-flow of people, the border police said checkpoints around Jerusalem like this one were Israel's weak point in preventing suicide bombings.
"That's how an attack happens," one officer said. "Someone comes to a place like this, and we don't see him. If he tries to go through one of the [larger crossings], there is no way he can get to Tel Aviv."
The officer said the Border Police caught Palestinians who did not have permission to be outside of the territories "all the time" on their way back home and those people "are taken to the police station."
Minutes later, the same officer stopped a woman for just this reason and gave her only a verbal warning not to do it again.
According to Border Police spokeswoman Sarit Phillipson, orders given to officers guarding the dozens of holes in the security fence around Jerusalem vary from location to location. Checks were less severe around Arab Israeli neighborhoods and Palestinian towns where relative quiet prevails, she said, while they were more strenuous in areas with a more violent history. Orders could also change depending on the standing security situation of the day, she said.
In the case of the checkpoints visited by the Post, Phillipson said security precautions were lower because those crossing into Jerusalem from that area would pass through a second check before entering the main areas of the city.
However, this reporter, traveling along the same route taken by the Palestinians, saw no additional checkpoints or security inspections on the way into the center of town.
"I feel furious at these things," said Uzi Dayan, the former national security adviser who first presented the plan for the security fence to the Sharon government in 2001. As the chairman of the Tafnit party, Dayan remains a vocal advocate for the fence's expedited completion.
"The last terror attack just passed and no one feels a sense of responsibility," he said. "This is a terror event with nine funerals that certainly could have been prevented with a completed fence and secure checkpoints."
Sounding a different note than Phillipson, Eli Amitai, the Border Police commander for Jerusalem, said his officers "are under orders to check everyone. Sometimes they know the people, but they should check everyone."
When informed of the porous security at the checkpoints on Thursday, Amitai said he would immediately look into situation.
Acknowledging it as a "problem," Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office, said the cabinet would address the security measures border police are to employ at the checkpoints around Jerusalem in a meeting scheduled for next week. That meeting, Shariv said, was called by Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in response to the Tel Aviv bombing and would also focus on ways to speed up the construction of the fence around the city, many kilometers of which remain in various stages of construction.
Government and security officials say legal injunctions issued by the High Court against building the fence in certain neighborhoods were responsible for the unfinished segments. Accelerating those legal proceedings, Shariv said, would be the focus of the cabinet meeting.
However, on at least one occasion, the government requested that the court delay its rulings on petitions brought by Palestinians challenging the fence route.
In December, the government asked the court to postpone a ruling on the A-Ram neighborhood, north of Beit Hanina, until it could open a new hi-tech checkpoint at Atarot. That terminal has been open since January and was declared fully operational on April 4. But five months after the government requested the delay, the court has yet to rule on that section of the fence and construction has not commenced.
In an interview with the Post in February, Col. (res.) Danny Tirza, who is in charge of planning the fence's route, said the Jerusalem envelope would be completed by the end of the summer with overall fence construction reaching 100 percent by the end of 2007. Previous deadlines and estimates made by defense officials were generally not met.
On Sunday, Dayan sent draft legislation to a host of Knesset members that would require the government to complete the fence by the end of this year. So far, he has not received a reply. A previous attempt to pass legislation requiring the barrier's completion by the end of 2004 was voted down that January.
"A security fence isn't the ultimate solution for everything, it doesn't substitute for political policy or grand strategy," Dayan said. "But it's like offering the country antibiotics and the country is choosing not to take them because it can get away with it."
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
By Rafael D. Frankel and Sheera Claire Frenkel
Three days after a suicide bomber crossed into Israel from the West Bank and killed nine people in Tel Aviv, Border Police officers in charge of guarding gaps in the security fence around Jerusalem are allowing unfettered access to Palestinians coming into the capital.
It is through such gaps in the incomplete barrier that the defense establishment believes most suicide bombers are entering from the territories.
At temporary checkpoints along the route of the incomplete fence sections viewed by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, the atmosphere was relaxed, with the vast majority of Palestinians crossing without having their IDs checked or being searched by border guards.
At the checkpoint separating Jebl Mukaber, part of east Jerusalem and inside the security fence, and East Sawahre, an Area A Palestinian town, for instance, Palestinians young and old, male and female, crossed into Jerusalem undisturbed as border police ate lunch in the shade of their concrete post.
"We don't check them here, they can go freely," said one officer, who would not identify himself, as he chatted with private contractors who were fortifying the position. "We only check them once there is a problem, and that is only sometimes."
A few kilometers down the road and across the wadi at a checkpoint separating Jebl Mukaber and Sheik Said, a town whose position in relation to the fence lies in the hands of the High Court, the situation was similar.
Since 2000, the army has blocked off roads connecting Sheikh Said and Jebl Mukaber, forcing Palestinians to drive to one side of the checkpoint, walk a half-kilometer on foot to the adjacent road inside the route of the security fence, and board taxis to their final destinations within Jerusalem. Throughout the day, Palestinian taxi drivers with Jerusalem IDs wait on both sides of the checkpoint to ferry workers to and from their jobs.
Border police at that checkpoint said they were under orders to check the IDs of Palestinians coming into and leaving Jerusalem. However in the half-hour this reporter spent at the checkpoint, they only checked the IDs of a handful of the few dozen people who crossed into Jerusalem and searched none. All the while, others walked on paths that led around the checkpoint, mostly out of view of the officers.
Even as they allowed the near free-flow of people, the border police said checkpoints around Jerusalem like this one were Israel's weak point in preventing suicide bombings.
"That's how an attack happens," one officer said. "Someone comes to a place like this, and we don't see him. If he tries to go through one of the [larger crossings], there is no way he can get to Tel Aviv."
The officer said the Border Police caught Palestinians who did not have permission to be outside of the territories "all the time" on their way back home and those people "are taken to the police station."
Minutes later, the same officer stopped a woman for just this reason and gave her only a verbal warning not to do it again.
According to Border Police spokeswoman Sarit Phillipson, orders given to officers guarding the dozens of holes in the security fence around Jerusalem vary from location to location. Checks were less severe around Arab Israeli neighborhoods and Palestinian towns where relative quiet prevails, she said, while they were more strenuous in areas with a more violent history. Orders could also change depending on the standing security situation of the day, she said.
In the case of the checkpoints visited by the Post, Phillipson said security precautions were lower because those crossing into Jerusalem from that area would pass through a second check before entering the main areas of the city.
However, this reporter, traveling along the same route taken by the Palestinians, saw no additional checkpoints or security inspections on the way into the center of town.
"I feel furious at these things," said Uzi Dayan, the former national security adviser who first presented the plan for the security fence to the Sharon government in 2001. As the chairman of the Tafnit party, Dayan remains a vocal advocate for the fence's expedited completion.
"The last terror attack just passed and no one feels a sense of responsibility," he said. "This is a terror event with nine funerals that certainly could have been prevented with a completed fence and secure checkpoints."
Sounding a different note than Phillipson, Eli Amitai, the Border Police commander for Jerusalem, said his officers "are under orders to check everyone. Sometimes they know the people, but they should check everyone."
When informed of the porous security at the checkpoints on Thursday, Amitai said he would immediately look into situation.
Acknowledging it as a "problem," Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office, said the cabinet would address the security measures border police are to employ at the checkpoints around Jerusalem in a meeting scheduled for next week. That meeting, Shariv said, was called by Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in response to the Tel Aviv bombing and would also focus on ways to speed up the construction of the fence around the city, many kilometers of which remain in various stages of construction.
Government and security officials say legal injunctions issued by the High Court against building the fence in certain neighborhoods were responsible for the unfinished segments. Accelerating those legal proceedings, Shariv said, would be the focus of the cabinet meeting.
However, on at least one occasion, the government requested that the court delay its rulings on petitions brought by Palestinians challenging the fence route.
In December, the government asked the court to postpone a ruling on the A-Ram neighborhood, north of Beit Hanina, until it could open a new hi-tech checkpoint at Atarot. That terminal has been open since January and was declared fully operational on April 4. But five months after the government requested the delay, the court has yet to rule on that section of the fence and construction has not commenced.
In an interview with the Post in February, Col. (res.) Danny Tirza, who is in charge of planning the fence's route, said the Jerusalem envelope would be completed by the end of the summer with overall fence construction reaching 100 percent by the end of 2007. Previous deadlines and estimates made by defense officials were generally not met.
On Sunday, Dayan sent draft legislation to a host of Knesset members that would require the government to complete the fence by the end of this year. So far, he has not received a reply. A previous attempt to pass legislation requiring the barrier's completion by the end of 2004 was voted down that January.
"A security fence isn't the ultimate solution for everything, it doesn't substitute for political policy or grand strategy," Dayan said. "But it's like offering the country antibiotics and the country is choosing not to take them because it can get away with it."
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
Monday, April 03, 2006
Mission ends in symbolism
After crossing deserts, an expedition including Jews and Muslims planted an olive tree Friday at Mount Sinai.
By Rafael D. Frankel | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
MOUNT SINAI, EGYPT – The Breaking the Ice peace mission that made its way across deserts in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Egypt completed its journey last Friday by planting an olive tree at the foot of this mountain believed by Jews, Christians, and Muslims to be the place where Moses received theTen Commandments from God.
A symbol of peace since biblical times, the olive tree from Jerusalem was meant for the soil of Tripoli, but the group decided to plant it at this ground deemed holy after Libyan officials refused to allow the three Israelis in the peace mission entrance into their country.
The "message to the world is a simple one," says Neda Sarmast, reading a declaration written by the group at the tree-planting ceremony. "If not me, then who?" The eight that finished the mission took turns shoveling mounds of dirt onto the tree, which they named "Oliver."
The Monitor first covered the expedition on March 24 after the full mission was refused entrance to Libya because the group included Israeli citizens.
The 24-day expedition through the desert, covering 2,850 miles, was a grueling affair with long days of driving and living in tight quarters.
Afghan participant Yahya Wardak left early and another, Iraqi Latif Yahia, took a personal two-day break from the expedition. Personal and cultural conflicts contributed to the dissension.
In the end, eight of the nine people - from Israel, the Palestinian territories, the US, Iraq, Iran, and Ukraine - were on hand for the final act of peace. Considering everything the group endured, says group leader Heskel Nathaniel, that unity is a powerful symbol of what cooperation and understanding between cultures can achieve.
"Those who were inspired now need to put their own drop in the ocean," Mr. Nathaniel says. "If we've been able to encourage 1,000 people around world to stand for a change and every one of them is touching other people's hearts, in the long term you can create a critical mass of positive energy."
©2006 The Christian Science Monitor
By Rafael D. Frankel | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
MOUNT SINAI, EGYPT – The Breaking the Ice peace mission that made its way across deserts in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Egypt completed its journey last Friday by planting an olive tree at the foot of this mountain believed by Jews, Christians, and Muslims to be the place where Moses received theTen Commandments from God.
A symbol of peace since biblical times, the olive tree from Jerusalem was meant for the soil of Tripoli, but the group decided to plant it at this ground deemed holy after Libyan officials refused to allow the three Israelis in the peace mission entrance into their country.
The "message to the world is a simple one," says Neda Sarmast, reading a declaration written by the group at the tree-planting ceremony. "If not me, then who?" The eight that finished the mission took turns shoveling mounds of dirt onto the tree, which they named "Oliver."
The Monitor first covered the expedition on March 24 after the full mission was refused entrance to Libya because the group included Israeli citizens.
The 24-day expedition through the desert, covering 2,850 miles, was a grueling affair with long days of driving and living in tight quarters.
Afghan participant Yahya Wardak left early and another, Iraqi Latif Yahia, took a personal two-day break from the expedition. Personal and cultural conflicts contributed to the dissension.
In the end, eight of the nine people - from Israel, the Palestinian territories, the US, Iraq, Iran, and Ukraine - were on hand for the final act of peace. Considering everything the group endured, says group leader Heskel Nathaniel, that unity is a powerful symbol of what cooperation and understanding between cultures can achieve.
"Those who were inspired now need to put their own drop in the ocean," Mr. Nathaniel says. "If we've been able to encourage 1,000 people around world to stand for a change and every one of them is touching other people's hearts, in the long term you can create a critical mass of positive energy."
©2006 The Christian Science Monitor
Sunday, April 02, 2006
After 24 days, journey ends at Mount Sinai
Part of an exclusive series on an expedition from Jerusalem to Tripoli
By Rafael D. Frankel
MOUNT SINAI - The sun rose above the jagged Sinai Desert mountains Friday, providing a brilliant beginning to the final day of the Breaking the Ice peace mission for the six participants who climbed the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.
Four hours later, it blazed overhead as all eight team members who hung through the 24-day, 4,750-kilometer expedition planted an olive tree from Jerusalem at the foot of Mount Sinai, marking an end to their desert journey, which saw both intercultural harmony and poignant conflict.
During the first minutes of daylight atop the mountain, Israelis Gil Fogiel and Galit Oren, Americans Daniel Sheridan and Ray Benson, Ukrainian Yevgeny Kozhushko and Iranian Neda Sarmast sat in a row looking down on the Red Sea and the surrounding mountains, posing for pictures with their arms around each other. Fogiel and Oren joined Israeli group leader Heskel Nathaniel in singing Shir Hashalom (The Song of Peace)."
Iraqi Latif Yahia and Palestinian Mohammad Azzam Alarjah did not make the hike up the mountain, but they were on hand for the tree planting ceremony that officially ended the expedition.
In the garden of the Fox Desert Camp, Alarjah and Oren, who had became good friends during the trip, put the olive tree in the earth together, and the participants, plus Nathaniel and Director of Operations Adam Rice, took turns shoveling soil on its roots.
Speaking in the name of the tree, Sarmast read the following declaration: "For thousands of years, since the beginning of humanity, I have represented peace among people. As I stand here today after my long journey across the Sahara Desert in search of a new home to spread my roots, I invite you to join my worthy cause.
"Standing beside my fellow eight travelers and messengers for peace from various countries and religions, my promise to them is to continue their quest for inner and global peace by giving birth to new seeds of peace for future generations. Their message to the world is a simple one: 'If not me, then who?'"
Fogiel buried two items along with the tree's roots to protect their symbol during what they hope will be many years of life: the torn and tattered Breaking the Ice flag the group had flown from one of two 1960s-era German fire trucks and a Hamsa hand good luck symbol.
The final push to Mount Sinai was no easier than the rest of the journey, with several logistical obstacles and an internal fight that nearly broke up the peace mission with just one day left.
On Thursday, when a partial solar eclipse darkened the sky and seemed to stir heavy winds, the group found itself knocked suddenly out of joint.
During the drive through the Sinai Peninsula, Yahia, the former body-double for Uday Hussein, twice threw punches at Sheridan after the New York Fire Dept. captain told Yahia to stop complaining about the conditions of the journey.
Yahia said afterward that he had made great strides in controlling himself since his escape from Iraq in 1991.
"Everything is cleaned within. It's just the anger which I still have," he said. "Just don't wake the devil."
The fight in the back of the truck was stopped by the other six participants, and the vehicle quickly pulled over to the side of the highway where Sheridan and Yahia were separated.
As cameras rolled, Yahia came out with a verbal tirade and he, Sheridan, and Kozhushko all said they were ready to leave the mission at that very moment. But after tempers were calmed, Sheridan and Yahia made peace, hugging and apologizing to one another. Though shaken, the group stayed intact and rolled on toward their final destination.
However, like in so many instances over the past three weeks, Egyptian police used their heavy hand to thwart the group's plans.
The expedition had clearance to drive on the road leading to Mount Sinai from the west, but police manning the checkpoint changed their minds as the group stopped to pick up lunch, declaring the road unsafe for travel after the heavy rains of the previous two days.
For a few minutes, a not-so-small amount of baksheesh seemed to have cleared the way, but as the drivers turned on their engines, police dashed in front of the trucks, rolling in garbage cans to create an ad-hoc roadblock.
A two-hour drive was thus turned into another full day of travel as the group was forced to make its way around the southern tip of the peninsula and approach Mount Sinai from the east.
One day later, including a rebellion among the drivers - as result of the long hours they were putting in - a broken gas tank, a live video conference with donors in Berlin, a seafood dinner, a hotel breakfast buffet, and seven military checkpoints, the expedition limped to the foot of Mount Sinai, on its physical and mental last legs.
Despite all this, and the countless other obstacles that materialized during the expedition, this determined band of eight people from around the world stood together at the end.
When the last morsels of soil were heaped upon their olive tree and Sarmast had made his declaration, everyone broke out into cheers and hugs. Some were forced to choke back tears as the desert odyssey was brought to a close.
That unity and friendship served as proof of the journey's success, many of the participants said afterward. The group had been hoping to have a final party in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, but visas could not be obtained for Yahia and Alarjah.
"We brought here people from different nationalities, cultures, religions and backgrounds and experiences, and it was not easy but the differences between the people we managed to solve," Fogiel said.
"There were misunderstandings, misbehaviors, all of the usual behavior that we observe in the outside world. In this small universe of us we managed to overcome [these problems] by facilitating, going in between, being imaginative in solutions and ways to solve these problems. And you [saw] every morning people getting on the truck smiling, forgetting the dispute of yesterday - they coexist and they go on," he said.
"We chose a goal common to all of us and we understood that we wanted to achieve this goal, so we cooperated. If humankind chooses some goals to achieve and does the same as we did in our microculture" it could do the same, he said.
So, "having cast a stone of peace into a sea of conflict, this group must now wait to see just how far the ripples will travel," Fogiel said.
©2006 The Jerusalem Post
By Rafael D. Frankel
MOUNT SINAI - The sun rose above the jagged Sinai Desert mountains Friday, providing a brilliant beginning to the final day of the Breaking the Ice peace mission for the six participants who climbed the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.
Four hours later, it blazed overhead as all eight team members who hung through the 24-day, 4,750-kilometer expedition planted an olive tree from Jerusalem at the foot of Mount Sinai, marking an end to their desert journey, which saw both intercultural harmony and poignant conflict.
During the first minutes of daylight atop the mountain, Israelis Gil Fogiel and Galit Oren, Americans Daniel Sheridan and Ray Benson, Ukrainian Yevgeny Kozhushko and Iranian Neda Sarmast sat in a row looking down on the Red Sea and the surrounding mountains, posing for pictures with their arms around each other. Fogiel and Oren joined Israeli group leader Heskel Nathaniel in singing Shir Hashalom (The Song of Peace)."
Iraqi Latif Yahia and Palestinian Mohammad Azzam Alarjah did not make the hike up the mountain, but they were on hand for the tree planting ceremony that officially ended the expedition.
In the garden of the Fox Desert Camp, Alarjah and Oren, who had became good friends during the trip, put the olive tree in the earth together, and the participants, plus Nathaniel and Director of Operations Adam Rice, took turns shoveling soil on its roots.
Speaking in the name of the tree, Sarmast read the following declaration: "For thousands of years, since the beginning of humanity, I have represented peace among people. As I stand here today after my long journey across the Sahara Desert in search of a new home to spread my roots, I invite you to join my worthy cause.
"Standing beside my fellow eight travelers and messengers for peace from various countries and religions, my promise to them is to continue their quest for inner and global peace by giving birth to new seeds of peace for future generations. Their message to the world is a simple one: 'If not me, then who?'"
Fogiel buried two items along with the tree's roots to protect their symbol during what they hope will be many years of life: the torn and tattered Breaking the Ice flag the group had flown from one of two 1960s-era German fire trucks and a Hamsa hand good luck symbol.
The final push to Mount Sinai was no easier than the rest of the journey, with several logistical obstacles and an internal fight that nearly broke up the peace mission with just one day left.
On Thursday, when a partial solar eclipse darkened the sky and seemed to stir heavy winds, the group found itself knocked suddenly out of joint.
During the drive through the Sinai Peninsula, Yahia, the former body-double for Uday Hussein, twice threw punches at Sheridan after the New York Fire Dept. captain told Yahia to stop complaining about the conditions of the journey.
Yahia said afterward that he had made great strides in controlling himself since his escape from Iraq in 1991.
"Everything is cleaned within. It's just the anger which I still have," he said. "Just don't wake the devil."
The fight in the back of the truck was stopped by the other six participants, and the vehicle quickly pulled over to the side of the highway where Sheridan and Yahia were separated.
As cameras rolled, Yahia came out with a verbal tirade and he, Sheridan, and Kozhushko all said they were ready to leave the mission at that very moment. But after tempers were calmed, Sheridan and Yahia made peace, hugging and apologizing to one another. Though shaken, the group stayed intact and rolled on toward their final destination.
However, like in so many instances over the past three weeks, Egyptian police used their heavy hand to thwart the group's plans.
The expedition had clearance to drive on the road leading to Mount Sinai from the west, but police manning the checkpoint changed their minds as the group stopped to pick up lunch, declaring the road unsafe for travel after the heavy rains of the previous two days.
For a few minutes, a not-so-small amount of baksheesh seemed to have cleared the way, but as the drivers turned on their engines, police dashed in front of the trucks, rolling in garbage cans to create an ad-hoc roadblock.
A two-hour drive was thus turned into another full day of travel as the group was forced to make its way around the southern tip of the peninsula and approach Mount Sinai from the east.
One day later, including a rebellion among the drivers - as result of the long hours they were putting in - a broken gas tank, a live video conference with donors in Berlin, a seafood dinner, a hotel breakfast buffet, and seven military checkpoints, the expedition limped to the foot of Mount Sinai, on its physical and mental last legs.
Despite all this, and the countless other obstacles that materialized during the expedition, this determined band of eight people from around the world stood together at the end.
When the last morsels of soil were heaped upon their olive tree and Sarmast had made his declaration, everyone broke out into cheers and hugs. Some were forced to choke back tears as the desert odyssey was brought to a close.
That unity and friendship served as proof of the journey's success, many of the participants said afterward. The group had been hoping to have a final party in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, but visas could not be obtained for Yahia and Alarjah.
"We brought here people from different nationalities, cultures, religions and backgrounds and experiences, and it was not easy but the differences between the people we managed to solve," Fogiel said.
"There were misunderstandings, misbehaviors, all of the usual behavior that we observe in the outside world. In this small universe of us we managed to overcome [these problems] by facilitating, going in between, being imaginative in solutions and ways to solve these problems. And you [saw] every morning people getting on the truck smiling, forgetting the dispute of yesterday - they coexist and they go on," he said.
"We chose a goal common to all of us and we understood that we wanted to achieve this goal, so we cooperated. If humankind chooses some goals to achieve and does the same as we did in our microculture" it could do the same, he said.
So, "having cast a stone of peace into a sea of conflict, this group must now wait to see just how far the ripples will travel," Fogiel said.
©2006 The Jerusalem Post