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Source: Daily News Alert from Israel - COP/JCPA
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Source: Daily News Alert from Israel - COP/JCPA
[Ha'aretz] Barak Ravid and Yoav Stern - Lebanon's eastern border with Syria is wide open to smugglers, according to a report submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday by a task force he appointed to study the issue. The report harshly criticizes both Lebanon and Syria, saying there has been no improvement over the past year despite promises by both countries to address the issue. There are several well-known unofficial border crossings, which is where much of the smuggling occurs. Israel says Hizbullah has built a network of sophisticated underground bunkers in some 150 villages throughout south Lebanon in recent months. These bunkers can hold up to 15 fighters, plus rockets and rocket launchers. Neither the UN forces in Lebanon nor the Lebanese Army has done anything to stop construction of these bunkers.

Source: Daily News Alert from Israel - COP/JCPA
[Ynet News] Ali Waked - Less than 24 hours after the release of 198 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to Mahmoud Abbas, and with U.S. Secretary of State Rice in the region, Israel on Tuesday has granted amnesty to dozens of wanted Palestinians. A senior Palestinian source said 45 wanted men would receive full amnesty. Additionally, a number of wanted men who were not granted amnesty in the past will enter a probation period of several months.

Source: Daily News Alert from Israel - COP/JCPA
[Ynet News] Roni Gal - An Israeli businessman was kidnapped in Port Harcourt in Nigeria on Tuesday evening, said Yossi Levy, a spokesman for the Israel Foreign Ministry. Hundreds of local and foreign workers employed in Nigeria's oil industry have been kidnapped in recent years.

Source: Daily News Alert from Israel - COP/JCPA
[Ha'aretz] In Gaza, the new school year got off to a shaky start as teachers loyal to Mahmoud Abbas declared a five-day work-stoppage. Teachers' Union Secretary-General Jameel Shehada said Hamas police took over the building belonging to the PLO-affiliated Teachers' Union, fired some employees of the education ministry, and transferred some teachers to remote schools. Hamas is expected to appoint its own teachers to replace those who went on strike, and has already appointed its loyalists as principals in most schools.

Source: Daily News Alert from Israel - COP/JCPA
[Jerusalem Post] Editorial - On any given day, Israeli prisons are hosting Red Cross representatives, journalists, lawyers and prisoners' advocates, as well as family members of convicted Palestinian prisoners. Gilad Shalit, the Palestinians' lone Israeli prisoner, is not a terrorist but a simple soldier who was guarding sovereign Israeli soil when he was abducted on June 25, 2006. The IDF soldier - who under international law should be treated as a POW - is not allowed to see Red Cross representatives, and his parents are forbidden to visit him. Meanwhile, Israel released 198 long-serving Palestinian prisoners, including several killers, in a gesture to boost Mahmoud Abbas' standing. Abbas used a Ramallah ceremony welcoming the men to say: "We will not rest until [all] the prisoners are freed and the jails are empty," specifically citing Marwan Barghouti, serving five consecutive life terms for murder; Ahmed Saadat, imprisoned for the assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi; and Aziz Duaik, a Hamas politician taken into custody in response to Shalit's abduction. It is sobering to remind ourselves that Abbas reflects the most moderate of Palestinian opinion. Writing in Yediot Ahronot on Monday, novelist and playwright Yoram Kaniuk, a government critic who has long expressed compassion for Palestinian suffering, did what Abbas should have done. He urged ordinary Palestinians to call for better treatment of Shalit: "Keeping a young person imprisoned without trial, without his parents being able to visit him, is unparalleled cruelty." It is.