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Volume LXXVII, Number 23186

THE JERUSALEM POST
FOUNDED IN 1932 NIS 10.00 (EILAT NIS 8.60)

T H U R S D AY,






H E S H VA N ,


HERODIAN FIND
Herod family sarcophagi uncovered? See Page 5

OUT OF HIS COMFORT ZONE
Leonardo DiCaprio plays by Ridley Scott’s rules in ‘Body of Lies’ See Page
24

IN TODAY’S WEEKEND *
A trip toward Gaza, herbal tea mixes to set the mood and a ride on a gravy boat
* For subscribers only

Abbas to boycott League meeting – Page 3 ■ Peres gets standing ovation – Page
4 ■ Economic crunch spurs ADL layoffs – Page 5

Germany bans Hizbullah television
• By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL Jerusalem Post correspondent

PA forces in Hebron arrest over 250 Hamas terrorists
IDF cites ‘growing satisfaction with the operation’
• By YAAKOV KATZ

BERLIN – Germany has banned Hizbullah’s Al-Manar satellite television station,
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter revealed on Tuesday. Dichter was in Berlin to
sign a declaration of intent with his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, to
foster cooperation on counterterrorism and crime-fighting technology. When asked
if Hizbullah’s status as a legal organization in Germany – it has 900 active
members there – would be on the agenda in his talks with the German Interior Ministry,
Dichter told The Jerusalem Post: “I heard they banned AlManar.” An Interior Ministry
spokesman confirmed to the Post that Schäuble had issued an administrative order
on November 11 and that the ban would go into effect toward the end of the month.
According to the spokesman, the restrictions cover Al-Manar advertisements, fund
raising for its Beirut studio and the station’s reception in hotels. However, the
spokesman
See GERMANY, Page 19

BANK OF ISRAEL Governor Stanley Fischer (left), Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On and
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert attend a meeting of the socioeconomic cabinet at which
Bar-On presented the government’s economic stimulus plan yesterday. (Ariel Jerozolimski/The
Jerusalem Post)

Histadrut threatens strike over lack of pension safety net Gaza closure isn’t working
but in Treasury’s stimulus plan will remain in effect, IDF says
See HEBRON, Page 2 • By SHARON WROBEL

Less than a month after deploying in Hebron, a UStrained battalion of Palestinian
policemen has arrested over 250 terror suspects affiliated with Hamas, defense officials
revealed to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. In addition to the terror suspects,
the battalion has also arrested over 140 Palestinians defined as “criminal suspects”
and wanted for a wide range of criminal activity.

Army puts off action against Hebron settlers, Page 2
The Palestinian policemen underwent US-directed military training in Jordan prior
to deployment in Hebron in late October, which was approved by OC Central Command
Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni following a request from the Palestinian Authority to allow
the contingent

into the city as part of an effort to crack down on Hamas terror infrastructure in
the West Bank. “There is growing satisfaction with the current operation in Hebron,”
a senior defense official told the Post. “The battalion began its operations in
the outlying Hebron villages and this week entered the city, where it began conducting
arrest operations as well as seizing terror funds.”

The Histadrut Labor Federation threatened on Wednesday night to call a general strike
to protest the lack of a pension safety net in the Treasury economic stimulus plan
unveiled earlier in the day. Business leaders and Knesset members also blasted the
NIS 21.7 billion economic stimulus plan aimed at moderating the effects of a global
slowdown and creating 10,000 jobs.

Pressure has been growing on the government in recent weeks to provide a safety net
for pension funds, a measure that the Histadrut has set as a condition for its support
of the plan. Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini warned that unless the plan was amended
to include pension funds, which have suffered huge losses as a result of the global
meltdown, the labor federation could launch painful economic sanctions.

“This is not an economic emergency plan but a ‘coveryour-ass’ economic plan,”
Eini said. “The plan lacks two crucial components – a safety net for employees
who are reaching retirement age and are seeing their savings disappear, and measures
to avert layoffs.” “I am going to meet with the Treasury to be proven wrong,”
he said. “However, if it turns out that the plan is to be
See STRIKE, Page 19

• By YAAKOV KATZ

Abbas reaches out to the Israeli public
• By TOVAH LAZAROFF

In an unprecedented move, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has taken
the cause of peace directly to the Israeli public by taking out an advertisement,
to be published Thursday in four Israeli dailies, promoting the 2002 Arab League’s
Peace Initiative. “Fifty-seven Arab and Muslim countries will forge diplomatic
ties and normal relations with Israel in exchange for a full peace agreement and
an end to the occupation,” reads the ad, which Arab sources said would appear in
Haaretz, Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom. It reprints the text of the
Arab initiative

and is framed by flags of Arab and Muslim countries. The League’s initiative calls
for a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including from the Golan and parts of
Jerusalem. It also references United Nations resolutions that allow for a return
of Palestinian refugees into Israel. Abbas felt that ordinary Israelis don’t know
enough about the Arab offer and wanted to approach them directly, said Abbas aide
Saeb Erekat. “Not enough has been done to promote it,” he said. Erekat said it
was the first time a Palestinian leader had tried to reach Israelis directly in such
a fashion. The move comes on the eve of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s final visit
to

Washington on Sunday and less than two weeks after Abbas stood at a Quartet meeting
and pledged his support for the Annapolis process. It also comes at the same time
the Foreign Ministry has admitted that refugees remain a sticking point with the
Palestinians. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Wednesday, “Palestinians
have consistently refused to acknowledge that Israel is the national state of the
Jewish people and should be recognized as such, even as they are claiming the future
state of Palestine as their national state. There
See ABBAS, Page 19

Israel’s decision to keep the crossings into Gaza closed will remain in effect
until the end of the week, defense officials said Wednesday, despite an official
IDF assessment submitted to Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the restriction is not
having an effect on Hamas. The crossings between Israel and Gaza have been closed
for almost two weeks as part of Israel’s response to the continued rocket attacks
against the western Negev. On Wednesday, two Kassam rockets landed south of Ashkelon
without causing any injuries or damage. On Tuesday, three rockets slammed into fields
in the Negev. Officials in Barak’s office said Wednesday that the closure imposed
on the crossings would remain in effect even though its effectiveness was minimal.
“We cannot allow the Palestinians to fire rockets into our cities without a response,”
an official explained.

BRIG.-GEN. Eyal Eisenberg (right) takes over the Gaza Division from Brig.-Gen. Moshe
Tamir (left) yesterday as OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant looks on. (IDF
Spokesman) According to the IDF assessments which were presented to Barak, Hamas
continues to retain full control over the Gaza Strip despite the closure of the crossings
and is succeeding in bringing in almost all of the supplies the Palestinian people
require via the hundreds of tunnels it operates under the Philadelphi Corridor. The
one commodity that Hamas can’t get from Egypt is the diesel fuel needed to operate
the Gaza power plant. While Israel has stopped supplying the fuel, it does continue
to provide electricity to the Gaza Strip. The IDF is also allowing a minimal flow
of humanitarian supplies into Gaza. On Monday, for example, over 30 trucks were allowed
to transfer basic food and medical supplies. The closing of the crossings
See GAZA, Page 19

Sarkozy adviser envisions Arab Mediterranean states sending medical staff for training
EXCLUSIVE
• By JUDY SIEGEL

A leading French geneticist and pediatrician who is an adviser to French President
Nicolas Sarkozy is promoting

INDEX
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listings Crossword Puzzle 24 . . . . . .Arts & Ent.

a project that would bring Arab doctors and nurses and others from Mediterranean
countries to Israel for advanced training, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Prof.
Arnold Munnich, chief of the Necker Hospital Center for genetics in Paris and research
director of its “genetic handicaps” unit, told the Post on Wednesday he had encountered
approval and enthusiasm for the project, which he hoped would receive funding from
the European Union and other public and private sources. He said it would be one
facet of the Union for the Mediterranean (previously known as the “Mediterranean
Union”) – a community initiated by Sarkozy in July to bring together EU members
and several other countries that border the

FRENCH GENETICIST Prof. Arnold Munnich (left) visits with Dr. Eyran Halpern, director
of the Rabin Medical Center, in Petah Tikva yesterday. (Israel Hadari) Mediterranean,
as well as Jordan and Mauritania. Among other things, Sarkozy, who proposed the union
during his 2007 election campaign, regards his plan as a way of promoting peace between
Israel and Arab states. “Until now, there has been no political opposition, but

we are only launching it,” Munnich said. Munnich, who is currently lecturing at
an international conference on genetics organized by the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson
Campus in Petah Tikva, came to mark the establishment of the Raphael Recanati Genetics
Center on the campus. “President Sarkozy, who is the current president of the EU,
wants to bring together the Mediterranean countries so they can share as many skills
and resources as possible. I suggested that he support not only physics research
at CERN [the European Organization for Nuclear Research] and water management but
also health and genetics; he agreed,” said Munnich, who is Jewish, speaks Hebrew
and visits Israel three or four times a

year, mostly for collaboration on medical genetics research. The Union of the Mediterranean,
based in Barcelona, is meant to bring together countries such as Morocco, Tunisia,
Lebanon, Egypt and Israel, the French geneticist said. He envisions training Arabs
and other doctors and nurses from union member states at Beilinson and at Hadassah
University Medical Center in Jerusalem, both of which have much expertise in such
training of foreigners. “Israel would be a great contributor to such a program,”
he said. “Officials in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco have already agreed to this,
and I have a meeting with Egyptian officials soon.” The Union of the Mediterranean
was conceived by Sarkozy as a “looser grouping than the EU in which the

people of the Mediterranean would do the same thing, with the same goal and the
See STAFF, Page 19