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Coalition Agreement Sets Stage for Moderate Israeli Government
by Robert Berger
 Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima Party and the dovish Labor party have signed a coalition agreement. It includes a pledge to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank over the next four years. Under Mr. Olmert's plan, about 70,000 Jewish settlers would be removed from their homes. At the same time, Israel would annex big West Bank settlement blocs. Mr. Olmert (pictured with Labor leader Amir Peretz) says he would prefer to do this as part of an agreement with the Palestinians. (Voice of America)
"Iran's President on Par with Hitler"
 Israel's former premier Shimon Peres compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler as the Jewish state observed a day of remembrance for victims of the Nazi genocide last week. "This is the first man since Hitler to stand up and say that the Jewish people must be exterminated," the Nobel peace prize winner told public radio from the Polish city of Krakow where he was attending ceremonies to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Independent Online)
See also Holocaust March Remembers Victims (CNN)
Secretary Rice: Hamas Must Renounce Violence and Terrorism
- Editorial
 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. "cannot fund and will not fund a Palestinian government that does not recognize the Quartet principles." "We are funding, however, very extensively, humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people because we do not have an argument with the Palestinian people. Hamas has got to make a choice," says Ms. Rice. "If it is going to govern, it is going to have to govern on internationally acceptable standards and that means," she says, Hamas has got "to renounce violence and terrorism." (Voice of America)
Mark your calendars!
Israel Memorial Day (Yom Hazicharon) is May 2.
Israel Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut) is May 3.
Note: all commemorations begin the night before.
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U.S.: Hamas, Iran Rekindling Hatred of Jews
 Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick used a U.S. Holocaust remembrance Thursday to warn of new efforts by Iran and the militant Palestinian group Hamas to incite hatred of Jews. At a national commemoration at the U.S. Capitol, Zoellick said, "In its response to the recent terrorist Passover bombing in Israel, Hamas continued to justify terrorism and feed hatred. Equally troubling, today the modern Jewish democracy that emerged from the Holocaust faces a new threat from an Iranian leader who denies the very existence of that Holocaust...who threatens to wipe Israel and its people off the map...and who seeks nuclear weapons." (AFP/Yahoo)
Israeli Satellite to "Spy on Iran"
 Israel has launched a satellite that officials say will enhance its ability to spy on Iran's nuclear program. The satellite, reportedly capable of taking clear photographs of objects on the ground as small as two feet, was sent into space from eastern Russia. Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Monday that Tehran's nuclear programme posed the biggest threat to Jews since the Nazi Holocaust. (BBC News)
See also Quality of New Israeli Spy Satellite Photos Said "Excellent" (Ha'aretz)
Officials in Israel: 'Global Jihad is Closing in'
by Yaakov Katz
For months now, security officials have warned that al-Qaida and Global Jihad were slowly closing in on Israel and were attempting to establish cells in the Palestinian territories. Even though this most recent attack was in the Sinai, not in Israel, it was still cause for concern at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, where senior officers on Tuesday referred to it as another sign of Global Jihad's encroachment on Israel. (Jerusalem Post)
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