================
GOOD NEWS ISRAEL
================

Jewish Agency For Israel-Press Release for ALiyah 2005
******************************************************

* About 23,000 new immigrants made aliyah this year based on Jewish
Agency preliminary figures for 2005.

* Record number of new immigrants from the west - from France a
record for the last 34 years and from North America, a record number
for 22 years.

* For the first time since the intifada, the downward trend has
turned and more immigrants will arrive this year than last year.

* Rise in number of young people coming to Israel for short- and
long-terms educational programs

Around 23,000 new immigrants will have arrived in Israel by the end
of 2005 based on Jewish Agency preliminary figures for 2005.  There
is a rise in aliyah from the west, especially from North America and
France.  From North America, 3,052 new immigrants will have made
aliyah, an increase from 2,640 last year.  The last year when there
was a higher number was 1983, when 3,806 olim arrived.  2,980 French
Jews will have made aliyah this year, as opposed to 2,415 in 2004.
This is a record for 34 years, since 1972 when 2,356 new immigrants
arrived.  From the CIS, the 2005 total is 9,124 new immigrants; this
is a 10% decrease from last year.   From Russia itself there is a
small rise in aliyah, and from Belarus there is a 26% increase from
last year.

From South America, 1,850 olim will have arrived in 2005, an increase
from last year's figure of 1,348 last year (a 37.2% increase).  From
England,over 450 olim  will arrive this year, an increase from 435
last year.  From Ethiopia, there will be a total of 3,700 olim,
similar to last year.

On Wednesday December 28th the last special EL AL flight of
immigrants this year will land in Ben Gurion Airport, with 220 new
immigrants from the U.S. and Canada.

This is the seventh special flight with immigrants for 2005 in the
framework of the joint project of the Jewish Agency and "Nefesh
B'Nefesh".

There is also an increase in the number of Jewish youth from around
the world participating in educational programs in Israel, supported
by the Jewish Agency,both short-term and long-term.  This year,
29,712 young Jews took part in short-term programs (including
birthright-israel, Israel Experience and others), whereas last year
the number was 28,822.  There was an increase of 37% in participation
in long-term educational programs:

5,583 students and youths this year took part, as opposed to 4,058
last year (relating to the 2004-2005 academic year).

The Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Zeev Bielski, stated : "I hope
that this year will mark a turning point for aliyah and for
participation of young people in educational programs in Israel.
After several difficult years we've been through, we believe that the
improvement in the security and economic situation will increase the
feeling of security, and together with the Jewish Agency's new
"aliyah of choice" strategies, aliyah will be on the rise in 2006 as
well.  I am happy that so many people are choosing to come to Israel".

Jewish Agency for Israel
www.jewishagency.org


\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

==========
HEARD SAID
==========

IDF Leaflet dropped by air to Gaza residents telling them to leave
area designated as "Gaza Buffer Zone":

"Anyone who will not heed to this warning is placing his/her life in
immediate danger. Know that the terror organizations have turned you
into hostages and human shields and are harming your interests."


\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\


65% of Palestinians Applaud Terror Attacks on US and Europe
***********************************************************

Ezra HaLevi - Dec 27, 2005

Arutz-7

A poll carried out in the Palestinian Authority shows 65% support for
Al Qaeda terror attacks on the United States and European countries -
the biggest donors to the PA.

The poll comes at a time when US and European funding of the
Palestinian Authority is at an all-time high.

With elections due to be held next month and the Hamas terror group
gaining significantly in municipal elections and polls, the survey
further illustrates the desire of a majority of PA Arabs to establish
an Islamic state, similar to Iran. A whopping 79.9% of Palestinians
would like the PA to follow Shari'a - Islamic religious law. Included
in the figure are 11.3% of the respondents, who would like to see
Shari'a supplemented by the laws of a PA Legislature.

"What is striking is the willingness of Palestinians to turn against
even the Western countries upon whom they are so totally dependent in
order to progress," said Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) Director
Itamar Marcus. "The poll underscores what PMW has been documenting
for years - the profoundly negative impact hate education has had on
PA society…Palestinians are not in direct conflict with the US, and
certainly have counted on the Europeans as active allies. And yet an
overwhelming majority desire to see Europeans and Americans killed by
a religion-based terror organization."

The poll was conducted by FAFO - a Norwegian-based NGO not known for
sympathy toward Israel or antipathy toward the PA. FAFO says it
conducted the polling among the Palestinian population "in order to
assess political feelings after Israel's voluntary withdrawal from
Gaza in late-summer 2005." The poll results were reported in the PA
newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida last Friday.

Last month (November 18th), in a sermon broadcast on PA-controlled
television, Islamic leader Suleiman Satari offered the following
prayer:

"Destroy the Infidels and the Polytheists! Your [i.e. Allah's]
enemies are the enemies of the religion! Count them and kill them to
the last one, and don't leave even one."

According to PMW, prayers to annihilate all "infidels" have been
included in Friday prayers on PA TV at least six times in recent
months. Two such sermons were delivered by Yusuf Jum'a Salamah, PA
Minister of the Waqf Religious Authority - the most important
religious office in the PA. Even though PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas was
present on at least one of these occasions, similar prayers for
genocide continued on the PA-owned and controlled TV in subsequent
weeks.

Just weeks before the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001, Dr.
Ikrime Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem and the highest-ranking Islamic
figure in the Palestinian Authority said on PA radio: "O Allah,
destroy America and its supporters and collaborators. O Allah,
destroy Britain and its supporters and collaborators."



\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\


Iran, Hizballah and Palestinians Gang up for a Second Front against
Israel
*******************************************************************

DEBKAfile Special Report

On Dec. 17, DEBKAfile reported exclusively:

A special Iranian plane flew Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal
to Revolutionary Guards HQ at Bandar Abbas Monday, Dec. 12, after he
spent 10 days in Tehran as favored guest of Iran's clerical rulers.
There, he conferred with RG commanders on operational collaboration
between the two Palestinian groups, Hamas and Jihad Islami in Gaza
and the West Bank, and their hook-up with Iranian networks and
Hizballah in Lebanon. Their shared goal: the opening of a second
rocket and shelling front against northern Israel to complement the
Gaza front in the south.

This decision was implemented ten days later, Tuesday night Dec, 27,
with a bombardment from southern Lebanon of Israel's western Galilee
and the northern towns of Kiryat Shemona and Shlomi. It was only be
sheer good fortune that no one was hurt by the double salvo of 105mm
rockets. Two homes were badly damaged in Kiryat Shemona.

The Sharon government an his security advisers have no intention of
admitting that Meshaal's Hamas, assisted by Hizballah missile experts
present in Gaza, are the hands behind the Qassam offensive against
southern Israel, even though the crews are put up by a coalition of
the Jihad Islami, the Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades and the Popular
Resistance Committees. Tehran and the Damascus-based Meshaal keep
this coalition well supplied with the projectiles, are working on
improving their precision and selecting the targets.

But instead of hitting home, Israel's armed forces are told to strike
empty spaces in the Gaza Strip. While the Hamas leader plots the next
attacks, Israeli officers are sent to address public symposia to
explain that a Hamas victory in the January 25 Palestinian general
election might not be a total security disaster, because going into
politics and government may well temper its violent bent and mute its
aspirations to destroy Israel.

Exactly the same sort of talk with accompanied the 1993 Oslo process
reference to Yasser Arafat.

The Sharon government has two compelling reasons for burying its head
in the sand:

1. Its unquestioning adherence to the policy line laid down
Washington, which is that any delay in the Palestinian poll will
finish Mahoud Abbas for good. The vote must therefore take place in
the slim hope that Abbas and the jailed Marwan Barghouti will be able
to bring Fatah level with the Hamas. That would be the lesser of two
evils, in the American view.

DEBKAfile's Palestinian sources note that Barghouti, through his
spokesman Kadoura Fares, have managed to sell this reassuring line to
secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Washington has thus been sucked
into the accepting a strong Hamas showing in the polls and a share in
Palestinian government. Ariel Sharon has fallen in behind Washington
and therefore finds himself seriously enfeebled on the security front.

2. Sharon cannot afford to directly tackle Hamas in Gaza because this
would be an admission of the radical group's expanding strength and
the failure of his disengagement policy to beget the promised
improved security.

DEBKAfile's security experts liken the Israeli air force raids of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine group's bases south of
Beirut following the Katyusha raid to the bombardment of empty ground
in the northern Gaza Strip as a means of halting the Qassam attacks.
It was no more than a sop to still angry complaints of the people
living within range of the Lebanese border, who were looking forward
to a quiet Hanukah holiday with a healthy influx of trippers.

Hizballah and Palestinian leaders in Lebanon went through the motions
of repudiating the Katyusha attacks on northern Israel. But it is no
secret that no one moves anywhere in southern Lebanon, including the
Lebanese army, without the Hizballah's sayso. By holding back from
striking at Hizballah bases, Sharon conferred on the Hizballah the
same of immunity he extends to Meshaal's Hamas in Gaza.

Nonetheless, the very real decline in Israel's security situation and
deterrent force is becoming harder to deny as time goes by. Israel
gained no strategic advantages from its unilateral withdrawal from
the Gaza Strip. If anyone has gained it is the newly emerging terror
axis drawn between Tehran, Beirut, Gaza and Ramallah. They drove this
point home Tuesday night. That Palestine projectiles flew across two
fronts in a single night was no coincidence.





*********************
The GAMLA News Ticker
*********************

WEBMASTERS: "Gamla" has now added, at the top of our homepage, a News
Ticker. This will bring updated, real time headlines of breaking news
to
our users. You can easily take the code from a special page (see URL
below) and add this ticker to your page. Every time we update the
ticker
- you will see the updates!

To get the code (only 10 lines!) - go to:

http://www.gamla.org.il/english/news/code1.htm

GAMLA: News and Views from Israel
http://www.gamla.org.il/english