Middle East Inside Line: West Bank Lands, Israel in China, Dubai Killing

Netanyahu announced on Sunday that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem (all in the West Bank) would both be added to the list of national heritage sites that the government plans to promote. He said that the rightist religious party Shas persuaded him add the two sites to the list and added:

Our existence depends not only on the IDF or our economic resilience - it is anchored in...the national sentiment that we will bestow upon the coming generations and in our ability to justify our connection to the land.

Following an unproductive Russia visit, a high-ranking Israeli delegation is to leave at the end of the month for Beijing. Both officials will not only talk about the increasing financial cooperation between two countries but also the request for sanctions on Tehran. Haaretz underlines that Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have not visited China and held no significant talks with Chinese officials on the Iranian issue but have always held meetings with the rest of the 5+1 camp (Russia, USA, Germany, UK, France).

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri blamed Israel on Sunday for seeking to start a war with Iran and Syria, despite the Arab nations' desire for peace. He said: "Israel can't claim to be interested in the peace process without doing anything tangible in this regard."

The U.A.E.'s minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, urged European investigators to launch full-scale probes into how fraudulent passports were used by a hit squad accused of killing Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

According to the Sunday Times, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the hit squad in a Mossad headquarters and in early January authorized the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Israel: Army Commander Undermines Claims on "Proper Conduct" in Gaza War

With two Israeli army officers, "disciplined" for firing artillery shells towards a densely-populated area near a UN compound, still not facing a criminal investigation by the Israeli Defense Forces, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed on Thursday that he had received a full internal report from the Israelis.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday:

This document completely expresses Israel's commitment to conduct an honest internal probe according to the standards of international law. Despite the difficult conditions of fighting against Hamas terror, Israel has stringently abided by international norms and will continue to do in the future - though our foremost obligation is to protect our citizens.

However, The Independent of London reported a confession from a high-ranking Israeli official who talked to Israel's Yedhiot Ahronot. The officer said that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement, concerning the protection of civilian lives, to minimise military casualties during the Operation Cast Lead. The senior commander said:

Means and intentions is a definition that suits an arrest operation in the Judaea and Samaria [West Bank] area... We need to be very careful because the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] was already burnt in the second Lebanon war from the wrong terminology. The concept of means and intentions is taken from different circumstances. Here [in Cast Lead] we were not talking about another regular counter-terrorist operation. There is a clear difference.

According to the newspaper, a more junior officer who served during the operation described the new policy as one of "literally zero risk to the soldiers" as a part of the policy to avoid the heavy military casualties of the 2006 Lebanon war.