Shorts: Mideast

Bye bye, bad breath

jerusalem (jta) | An Israeli scientist claims to be able to cure bad breath with a laser treatment.

The 15-minute technique, developed by Yehuda Finkelstein of Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, burns out infected tissue in the tonsils that causes the worst cases of halitosis, the latest issue of New Scientist reported.

According to the magazine, 53 patients have been cured, half of them after a single treatment and the rest after several sessions.




Violin incident dismissed

jerusalem (jta) | The Israeli army vindicated troops who were present when a Palestinian man began to play his violin at a West Bank checkpoint.

The head of the Israel Defense Forces' central command, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, said the Palestinian who began to play his violin for a few seconds at a checkpoint last week was not coerced but did so of his own volition to show soldiers that the instrument was not a bomb.

An Israeli watchdog group filmed the incident, which was shown on national media and evoked, for some pundits, images of the Holocaust. Musical instruments have been used in previous terrorist attacks:

On Nov. 30, an Israeli military court handed down a life sentence to a Palestinian who gave an explosives-packed guitar to the suicide bomber who struck at a Jerusalem Sbarro restaurant in 2001.




Gaza unit disbanded

jerusalem (jta) | The Palestinian Authority announced it is disbanding a "death squad" operating against Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian security chief Mohammed Abu Shbak said recently that the secret unit, which had operated for around a year, was being abandoned as part of efforts by the dominant Fatah faction to clean up the political apparatus in the West Bank and Gaza.

Shbak said the unit's main mission was to crack down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, although there was no immediate evidence of such actions.

According to Israeli media, the unit also served as a bodyguard to Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, who had frequently challenged the late Yasser Arafat in power squabbles.




Death certificate spat

jerusalem (jta) | Israel's ambassador to France has demanded that Yasser Arafat's death certificate show he was born in Cairo.

Ha'aretz reported that Nissim Zvili sent a letter of protest to the French municipality of Clamart, which listed Arafat as having been born in Jerusalem when he died at a local hospital on Nov. 11.

"I cannot understand how the French government agreed to issue a death certificate based on false information," Zvili said. Arafat's claim to have been born in Jerusalem, a core element of Palestinian propaganda, is disputed by biographers and historians, who say he was born in Cairo while his father was working there.

According to Zvili, Arafat's widow, Suha, registered the Palestinian leader as being born in Jerusalem after the birth of their daughter several years ago in Paris.




Hotel hit by suicide bombers reopens

jerusalem (jta) | An Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that was hit by suicide bombers in 2002 reopened for business. The Paradise Hotel reopened Sunday, Nov. 27, exactly two years after 12 people were killed in an attack by three suicide bombers. The crime, widely attributed to al-Qaida, remains formally unsolved.




Playing at hate

jerusalem (jta) | Iranian television screened an anti-Israel drama — in Hebrew.

The miniseries shown by the Sahar 1 channel over the Muslim festival of Ramadan in November purported to expose an "Israeli plot" to kill Palestinian girls using booby-trapped dolls.

Several scenes show "Captain Shimon" and other Israeli troops played by Iranian actors, holding discussions in pidgin Hebrew.

The media watchdog MEMRI said Iranian broadcasters work closely with Lebanese counterparts to produce anti-Israel and anti-Zionist shows during Ramadan, a critical period for disseminating propaganda in the Muslim world.




Terror victim wants to die

jerusalem (jta) | An Israeli paralyzed in a Palestinian suicide bombing has asked to be taken off life support. Yona Malina, 36, appealed for permission to disconnect the respirator that has kept him alive since he was severely wounded by a Jerusalem bus bombing in 1995.

The Tel Aviv District Court delayed a decision pending a medical assessment of Malina's condition. A lawyer for the Swiss-born Malina said the Israeli hospital that has overseen his treatment declined to carry out the assessment, so a private doctor is being sought.

According to the lawyer, Malina's health is rapidly deteriorating due to a bronchial infection, and he would prefer a swift death.

Given religious Jewish objections to euthanasia, Israeli law allows for patients not to be revived in certain cases but generally shuns any action that would speed their demise.




There's gold in that museum

jerusalem (jta) | Israel's first gold medalist is among those named to International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Joining Gal Fridman, who won his gold this year in windsurfing, are recent gold medal winner Lenny Krayzelburg, who won four golds in swimming for the United States in 2000 and 2004, and Sarah Hughes, the figure skating gold medal winner at the 2002 Olympics.

Also named were American swimmer Dara Torres, who won nine medals, including one gold, between 1984 and 2000, and Joe Jacobi, a gold medal winner in canoeing at the 2000 Games. Ladislav Hecht, a Czechoslovak tennis star in the 1930s, Sidney Halter, the first commissioner of the Canadian Football League, and Chicago sportswriter Jerome Holtzman were also named.




U.N. condemns suicide bombing

jerusalem (jta) | A United Nations committee has condemned suicide bombings in Israel.

The resolution from the committee on decolonization, concerning Israeli practices affecting Palestinian human rights, included an oral amendment expressing "grave concern at the use of suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians, resulting in extensive loss of life and injury." Israeli officials said the language was included at European nations' behest.

"We said that every time the resolutions include condemning Israel for its acts, there's no mention of the suicide bombers," an Israeli spokeswoman said. "We're glad that the Europeans made sure" to condemn suicide bombings in Israel this time.

The resolution passed by a vote of 142 to 6, with 15 abstentions.




Hamas dispatcher jailed

jerusalem (jta) | Israel jailed a Palestinian who masterminded a wave of suicide bombings in 1996.

A military court sentenced Mahmoud Abu Varda to 48 life terms after he confessed to planning two Jerusalem bus bombings and another attack in Ashkelon on behalf of Hamas.

Forty-five people were killed in the terrorist wave, the worst Israel saw in the Oslo years.




O.U. backs stem-cell research

jerusalem (jta) | The Orthodox Union has reiterated its support for stem-cell research.

A resolution at the O.U.'s annual meeting, held in Jerusalem last week, "stated its support, consistent with Orthodox rabbinic teaching, for the continuation of and public funding for cutting-edge biotechnology research, including embryonic stem cell research," an O.U. statement said.