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The Media Line Daily News Focus 5 April 2006

1. PALESTINIAN SOURCES REPORT GROWING AL-QA’IDA PRESENCE... At least ten Al-Qa’ida operatives are present and active in the Palestinian Authority according to Palestinian sources. The terrorists are reported to be in place to carry out attacks on what are being called “sensitive targets.” Palestinian security sources believe the Al-Qa’ida operatives infiltrated from Egypt, some openly through the Rafah crossing, and are living in Rafah and Khan Younis.

2. PALESTINIAN CABINET DISCUSSES 3-MONTH EMERGENCY PLAN... Atop the agenda for Wednesday’s Palestinian Authority cabinet meeting is discussion of a three-month emergency plan designed to compensate for the expected loss of millions of dollars in foreign aid from countries that refuse to cooperate with the Hamas-led government. It will be the first cabinet meeting of the new government and will be marked by the advent of teleconferencing made necessary by Israel’s refusal to allow legislators who are Hamas members to travel from the Gaza Strip to the governmental complex in Ramallah. Most pressing is the need to cover the shortfall created by the cessation of monthly transfers of tax revenue collected for the P.A. by Israel and lost contributions from donor nations which pay the salaries that constitute income for one-third of the Palestinian population. Deputy prime minister Na’sir A-Din A-Sha’ir drew up the emergency plan, the details of which have not been released.

3. WORLD MEDIA TOO QUICK TO LOOK FOR SIGNS IN HAMAS ACTIONS... World media on Wednesday morning overflowed with reports that Hamas was softening. A senior Hamas member, they said, had hinted at U.S. President George W. Bush’s language of a two-state solution in a letter to Kofi Annan.
Surely recognition of Israel would be around the corner.

But the Palestinian Authority’s new minister for external relations quickly reacted to news reports. Setting the record straight, the moment of optimism was quickly quashed.

It began when the P.A.’s United Nations observer Riad Man'sour told reporters that A-Zahhar’s letter to Annan spoke of a desire to “live side-by-side with our neighbors,” hinting at the oft-cited “two-state solution.”

But Mahmoud A-Zahhar told the Reuters news agency that “Such a sentence was not used in this letter” and showed reporters a copy to prove it. What the letter did say was that the Hamas-led government wanted “to work with the United Nations and countries of the world ... to achieve regional peace and stability based on a comprehensive and just solution.” It continued, “We hope
some countries will reconsider their positions and hasty decisions especially regarding stopping aid and the use of the language of threats instead of dialogue.”

4. PROFESSOR: JESUS WALKED ON WATER....FROZEN WATER... Florida State University Professor Doron Nof is one scientist willing to believe in a story told in the Bible. The story in point is the New Testament’s account of Jesus walking on water in the Sea of Galillee. According to Nof, it’s entirely possible that the event did, in fact, occur, but what made it possible is that the water was frozen at the time. Using records of the Mediterranean Sea's surface temperatures and statistical models to examine the dynamics of the Sea of Galilee, Nof determined that a period of cooler temperatures in the area between 1,500 and 2,600 years ago could have included the years during which Jesus lived. He theorizes that a temperature drop in the area of what is now called Lake Kinneret could have caused the formation of ice thick enough to support the weight of a man ? even Jesus ? walking on the surface. Global cooling?

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