"They said the pair had served as "electronic lookouts" for a secret meeting of "Israeli" intelligence informants who had information on possible terrorist attacks by international terrorist groups. Arestis said the defense argument might explain the scanners but did not explain why the pair had approached a military area while a highly classified National Guard operation was going on. "Even if we accept the defense's version of events it cannot be accepted as a mitigating factor because no explanation was given as to why they went to a prohibited area without permission from the interior ministry," he said. "Cyprus does not have the luxury to accept such activity," the judge said, adding, in a reference to Turkey, that "Cyprus is an occupied country fighting to survive against a superior power." The two "Israelis" showed no emotion when the verdict was read out in court at the end of the 40-minute sentencing hearing. Andis Triantisyllides, one of their lawyers, said they were considering filing an appeal but no final decision had been made. Cypriot Attorney General Alecos Markides called the plea bargain last week "a satisfactory result" in the case and that it had been taken in the public interest. "On the one hand it helped get a conviction and also it stopped military secrets being divulged in court," Markides said. He said the "Israeli" government, US senators and European officials all had extensive contacts with President Glafcos Clerides and Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides to convince them the two "Israelis" were not acting against Cyprus. The plea bargain agreement followed a reported secret visit to Cyprus by "Israeli" attorney-general Eliyakim Rubinstein to argue that the two men were not spying on Cyprus or acting against Cypriot interests, The two suspected Mossad agents were arrested near the southern fishing of Zygi in possession of scanners, other sophisticated listening equipment and maps reportedly showing the locations of secret military installations. "Israel" had initially refused to recognize that the two were state agents, but issued statements saying they "were not acting against Cyprus or on behalf of Turkey," which maintains 30,000 troops in the north of the island".

MK Bshara praises Hizbullah… (1)
"Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein will investigate whether MK Azmi Bashara (Hadash) sh ould be prosecuted for the statements he made in support of Hizbullah".

"Bashara was talking over the weekend at the convention in which he was chosen as head of the Balad Party, which will run separately from Hadash. He also questioned the Zionist nature of the state.

He said Hizbullah is an Arab nationalist movement fighting bravely against occupation by "Israel". Bashara said Hizbullah had given "Israel" the choice of either reaching a just peace while withdrawing from south Lebanon and the Golan Heights - which he described as southern Syria - or not reaching peace at all."

"Even the Hebrew media have stopped calling Hizbullah 'terrorists' and now refers to 'Hizbullah fighters.' "

He said he was referring to Hizbullah "only in the context of a Lebanese national organization fighting against the occupation of its country - which is fair - with no mention of other aims which Hizbullah may or may not have."

"He also said there is nothing new in his comments on the state and he has made them in public before, including in the Knesset. Bashara said he works through democratic means to change the Zionist - not the Jewish - nature of the state".

"He said the mood in the country has been radicalized by the Right. "I welcome any debate about the nature and character of the state," he said. "My program is considered liberal democratic. If they want to go and complain to the Central Elections Committee, as [Eitan] threatens, concerning the legality of my party, I think the issue will become the legality of democracy in this country."

"He said that "I do not challenge the Jewish character of the state, because it reflects the character of the majority and I have no problem with that. My problem is the Zionist character, which claims to be the state of the Jews in the whole world... not the state of its citizens."

"Bashara said as a result, the whole country becomes subject to Zionist rationale which results in land expropriations to build up a demographic Jewish majority in places like Galilee and the Negev.

Another Balad official said it also means that "Arabs become second-class citizens and Jews coming from Brooklyn to "Israel" immediately get preferential rights over them."

Bashara said: "More importantly, you can't talk about the separation of state and religion because who is a Jew and Jewishness is also religiously defined, so if you want the separation of state and religion and if you want equality, the state must function as the state of its citizens. I don't think this will happen tomorrow or next year, but this could be the compass for the [direction] of the future. And I think more and more Jews also think the state should be the state of all its citizens."

He said nobody could consider himself liberal or democratic "and at the same time question my right to propound liberal democratic ideas."

"Israeli" Army branches bicker over naval commando burials… (1)
"New contradictions between branches of the IDF* came to light yesterday in the second day of discussions by the committee investigating the burial of two naval commandos killed in a Hizbullah ambush last year in South Lebanon. The navy and the IDF's human resources branch hurled recriminations and gave contradictory versions of the events".

"At the committee's previous meeting, three senior officers of the human resources branch had provided the same story. Major General Yehuda Segev, his predecessor, Major General Gideon Sheffer and the head of the casualties department, Brigadier General Drora Pe'er, concurred that human resources issued a directive to inform the families of Sergeant Major Raz Teby and Sergeant Major Guy Golan that parts of their sons' bodies had been returned to "Israel". However, they said, the navy did not carry out the order in time, and so the body parts were buried almost two weeks before the families were informed".

"Yesterday, however, senior naval officers testified to a contradictory version of events. Navy Commander Alex Tal and Colonel Nir Maor, who heads the naval personnel division, said the human resources branch issued instructions on the matter late, if at all. That division, they said, did not tell the navy the bodies were already buried when it instructed the navy to inform the families".

"The most embarrassing contradiction concerned Colonel Maor. On Friday, Major General Segev had told the committee a moving story, which he claimed he learned while investigating the
circumstances of the burial: Many years ago, he said, Maor's brother was killed in an accident during his military service. The body was badly mutilated, and Maor was called to identify it. The incident traumatized him so badly that he wanted to spare the families a similar trauma. He therefore decided not to inform them that the body parts were returned."

"In the beginning of his testimony yesterday, Maor asked to correct some details of the story. His brother, Major Tzur Maor, was not killed in an accident, but during the Lebanon War. The brother, the commander of an armored brigade, was killed after destroying seven Syrian tanks. He received a medal of honor for his service. His body was not mutilated. At the time, Nir Maor was in a
submarine several hundred meters away. Therefore, he was not called to identify the body, and so was not traumatized by it. In addition, he said, he made no decision against informing the families.

Maor said that the announcement was delayed by two days because he wanted to confirm some
details".

"Major General Tal's account contradicted Sheffer's testimony. "It has been said that I received an instruction or an order from Sheffer. I want to make it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt: I received no such instruction."

"Hearings on the petition submitted by the parents of the two commandos to reopen their sons' graves will be delayed until the committee completes its work in a time limit of 90 days, the High Court of Justice decided yesterday".

"The parents are demanding that DNA tests be conducted on the body parts. Also present at the hearing was a representative of the mother of Raz Teby, who is the only one of the bereaved parents who opposes reopening the graves".