Weekend Wrap

JPost.com's Shabbat news round-up: Hamas, Iranian nukes, and another Israeli leader being sued overseas.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
weekend wrap 88 (photo credit: )
weekend wrap 88
(photo credit: )
I>Hamas won't renew truce with Israel December 9, 2005 9:10 p.m. Hamas will not renew its truce with Israel when it expires at the end of the year, the political leader of the Palestinian terrorist group, Khaled Mashaal, told a rally Friday. "There is no room for the renewal of the truce in the face of the (Israeli) enemy's policy of increased assassinations and arrests," Mashaal said. Next year, he continued, "we will only choose the road of resistance, especially since we are waiting for the last moments of the truce, which has fatigued us." Sanctions may not deter Iran nukes December 9, 2005 9:03 p.m. Iran is closing in on production of nuclear weapons and even UN sanctions may not deter the aggressive government in Tehran, a top State Department official said Friday. Describing the Iranian government as "very aggressive, very determined to develop nuclear weapons," Robert Joseph, undersecretary for arms control and international security, dismissed Iran's contention it seeks only civilian nuclear power. Israel slams lawsuit against Dichter December 9, 2005 1:24 p.m. Israel on Friday denounced a lawsuit filed by Palestinians against a former Israeli security chief as "cynical manipulation" by extremists. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York federal court, said former Shin Bet director Avi Dichter is responsible for a July 2002 airstrike that killed 15 people in the Gaza Strip and seeks unspecified damage. The suit also seeks class-action status for survivors of the bombing and relatives of those who were killed. Taxi driver attacked near Gush Etzion December 9, 2005 1:10 p.m. Yet another Israeli taxi driver fell victim to a robbery attempt in the West Bank Friday afternoon, the latest instance of a growing trend in which taxi drivers from the center of the country are lured by Palestinians into the West Bank and then robbed. B-S rabbi arrested for sexual assault December 9, 2005 11:28 a.m. A 60-year-old Beersheba rabbi was arrested Friday under suspicion that he sexually assaulted two 17-year-old girls whom he employed to clean his house. The suspect, a head of a kollel and the rabbi of a public body, allegedly met the two girls when they were employed at a synagogue, and offered them employment cleaning his house, Israel Radio reported.