According to "Iran, Israel and Nuclear War," the superiority of Israel's assumed atomic arsenal would offset the disadvantages of the country's tiny territory. Iran's nuclear strikes would likely target the Tel Aviv area and Haifa, killing 200,000 to 800,000 people outright, Cordesman wrote. But he added that for Israel, recovery would be "theoretically possible in population and economic terms." By contrast, Israeli nuclear attacks on Iran would kill between 16 million and 28 million, making recovery "not possible in the normal sense of the term."

Rallying the troops

Tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis, staging separate demonstrations, rallied this week against Tuesday's Annapolis peace conference.

On the Israeli side, right-wing protesters packed Jerusalem's Paris Square on Monday, shouting out "no" to a divided Jerusalem and "yes" to the construction of more settlements and Jewish homes in the West Bank.

The rally followed a larger demonstration at the Western Wall in which some 15,000 prayed for the Annapolis talks to fail if the summit results in mandated territorial withdrawal.

In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, thousands of Hamas supporters held demonstrations featuring chants of "Death to Israel, Death to the United States."

Rally organizers denounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a "traitor" for seeking coexistence with the Jewish state. Meanwhile, Hamas sympathizers in the West Bank, which is still under Abbas' control, attempted similar demonstrations, only to clash with P.A. security forces. At least one protester was reported to have been killed by police gunfire in Hebron, while a journalist was wounded in Ramallah.

Cops, soldiers suspected

in vehicle resale fraud

Another example of burgeoning corruption in the public sector was revealed Monday when police announced that a gang that includes Israel Defense Forces noncommissioned officers, Defense Ministry employees and even an officer in the Israel Police was suspected defrauding the public of tens of thousands of shekalim in a vehicle resale scheme.

The probe began approximately six months ago when investigators received information about shady dealings at a vehicle lot at the Tzrifin military base near Beit Dagan.

Police said that the central suspect was the lot's 60-year-old manager, a Tel Aviv resident, who is suspected of selling the vehicles at absurdly low rates to interested parties and family members. The buyers would then allegedly resell the vehicles at substantial profit, and distribute percentages of their earnings to all of the alleged members of the ring.

Bahrain spurns diplomatic

relations with Israel

The Gulf Arab emirate of Bahrain has refused an offer by Israel's Foreign Minister Tizpi Livni to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, the Jordanian Petra news agency reported Monday.

According to Petra, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, who came under harsh criticism for an unofficial meeting he held with Livni at the United Nations earlier this fall, asked to wait until after the Annapolis peace parley before discussing possible diplomatic ties.

Last week, Bahrain's parliament called upon the Gulf Arab emirate's government to cease all contact with Israel and to refrain from attending Annapolis, which it labeled "a waste of time."

"Most of the parliament is in favor of cutting off any contact with Israel," Abd-Ali Muhammad Hassan, a member of Bahrain's Chamber of Deputies, said. "We are not going to recognize Israel and have any dealings with them until the rights of the Palestinians are achieved," he said.

Islamist deputy Nasser al Fadhala said that Khalifa should ritually wash his hands six times with water and then cleanse them with sand for having shaken Livni's hand.

Cinemas pay reservists

for Jenin film damages

Two Israeli movie theaters have paid damages to a group of Israeli army reservists after screening a controversial documentary that was the subject of a lawsuit.

The Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cinemas this week paid $10,000 total in compensation to five former soldiers who had sued them for screening Jenin, Jenin, which insinuates the army committed war crimes during 2002 fighting in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The plaintiffs all served in Jenin, and while they do not appear in the film, they argued that it defamed them indirectly. The case was settled out of court. The plaintiffs are pursuing a separate suit against Jenin, Jenin director Mohammed Bakri, an Israeli Arab. That case is go to court early next year. Fifty-four Palestinians, at least half of them gunmen, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in Jenin, facts that did little to dispel perceptions in the Arab world that the Israeli army perpetrated widespread "massacres" in the city.

It's a (really) grand

old flag

Israel this week displayed an unprecedentedly huge national flag in the Negev. An Israeli flag the size of two football fields was unveiled near Masada on Monday as part of a campaign by the Ministry of Tourism in preparation for next year's 60th anniversary of the birth of the Jewish state. The flag was donated by Sister Grace Galindez-Gupana, a pro-Zionist businesswoman from the Philippines.

The tourism ministry said the banner was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest flag ever, measuring 2,200 feet by 300 feet and weighing 5.2 tons. It took a 48-person design team three weeks to manufacture.

"The Israeli flag is the Zionist symbol of independence of the people of Israel and the State of Israel, and I thank Sister Grace, who in this moving gesture is giving us the opportunity to take pride in our independence of 60 years," Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said.

"God spoke to me in thunder and lightning," AP quoted Galindez-Gupana as saying. "The Lord said, 'Make the flag of Israel the standard of my people.' "

‹ compiled from reports filed by JTA News and Features, The Jerusalem Post and other sources