On April 9, 2003, three weeks after troops in a US-led coalition first entered Iraq in a war constantly surrounded by controversy, one of the most symbolic and perhaps misleading landmark events in the military push took place. Images of US Marines toppling a large statue of Saddam Hussein were broadcast live globally, and presented as marking the end of fighting. But while knocking down the statue signified the fall of Baghdad, its assigned value symbolizing the end of the war would turn out to be nearly nine years premature.

The 3rd Battalion of the 4th Marines had neither orders nor plans to topple statues that Wednesday morning. Tasked with pushing deep into the center of Baghdad toward the end of the land invasion, the Marine battalion was diverted to secure the city’s Palestine Hotel, where communications breakdowns and poorly marked maps had recently led to the killing of two journalists by American artillery shells. After finding the hotel with the help of journalists they encountered along the way, many of whose colleagues were holed up in the building that did not appear on American military maps, a group of marines found themselves waiting in Firdos Square, at the center of which towered a statue of almost-deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

US troops were indeed in the final throes of capturing the Iraqi capital that day. The victory in the first military push into Iraq, however, had lacked a symbolic moment of victory to be pointed to by the American government and world media.

The first Iraqis to gather in the square that morning were quick to rip two plaques off the base of the statue and parade them to gathered cameramen who were anticipating what might transpire. Then, with more and more journalists descending to the square from the Palestine Hotel, a few dozen more Iraqis began intensifying their attempts to chip away at the massive bust. A non-commissioned officer responsible for a crane-equipped heavy duty tow truck approached Lt.-Col. Bryan McCoy, commander of the 3rd Battalion, and asked him if he could provide the crowd with light equipment to help them fell the statue. McCoy gave him his tacit approval, but the sledgehammer and rope the NCO gave the Iraqis were not nearly enough to bring it down.

The Lieutenant-Colonel, however, himself having walked down to Firdos Square from the hotel, saw the Iraqis’ futile attempts and noticed the growing crowd of journalists eager to beam dramatic video footage back to their editors. McCoy called his own commander and asked for permission to help the Iraqis topple the statue of Saddam. After hanging up, he gave his men the order to use their heavy equipment to pull the statue down.

The entire scene was broadcast live for over two hours on US and other television news networks around the world. The images were replayed and seized upon by US military and government officials. Then-US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld said later that day, “We said from the beginning he is finished — now [the Iraqis] are daring to believe it. Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators.”

But closer scrutiny of the footage from that day and accounts from journalists who witnessed the scene has revealed a different reality than was portrayed nine years ago. No more than a few hundred Iraqis were gathered in the square when the statue was toppled and only a fraction of those present actually attempted to bring it down.

A number of the journalists who were there later complained their reports were taken out of context to assign much greater significance to the event than they felt it deserved. Tightly cropped shots focused on the few celebrating the toppling of the statue and correspondents played up the significance of the event.

A number of other symbolic visuals would be presented to the public in the coming months and years, including former US president George W. Bush’s dramatic “Mission Accomplished” speech after landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln only weeks after statue was toppled in Baghdad. At the end of that year, pictures of a ragged-looking Saddam Hussein were released after the dictator was pulled out of the spider hole he had hidden himself in. But none of those symbolically rich moments actually signified the end of the war.

The images that showed the actual end of the Iraq War came eight-and-a-half years later when the last US troops crossed the border back into Kuwait, the same way they entered in March 2003 but in much less dramatic fashion.

While still a lasting symbol of the fall of Saddam Hussein, the dramatic scene of toppling one of hundreds of statues of the dictator, turned out to be not much more than an opportune media event on the sidelines of the chaos at the end of a war and the beginning of a decade-long insurgency. Nevertheless, it was one of the more memorable scenes of the Iraq War for television viewers worldwide.

Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) told the The New York Times that he would “respond to 100% of the territorial demands of the Palestinians” if elected Prime Minister.

“I intend to replace Netanyahu,” Mr. Mofaz, 63, said. “I will not join his government.”

Mofaz said that he believed Israel should keep the main settlement blocs, but that he would give the Palestinian Authority as much land from sovereign Israeli ground as he kept from Judea and Samaria.

He added that he believes it is possible to reach an agreement on the borders and security within one year.

When asked about Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria living in communities he would cede to the Palestinian Authority, Mofaz said, “If they’re given the right incentives they will leave their homes. Those who do not, we would have to evacuate [them].”

MK Uri Ariel (National Union) responded by saying “He proposes Palestinians be given 100% of the land with a swap, and those Jews who do not leave voluntarily evacuated by force.”

“This is a wildly radical program that undermines our security and will lead the State of Israel into one hundred years of conflict rather than one hundred years of peace,” Ariel countered. “Mofaz should find another way of trying to achieve popularity for his [declining] party without undermining Israel’s security.”

Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan said, “A man who will give the Palestinians 100% of what they demand in a territorial power play and evict tens of thousands of Israelis is unfit to be prime minister of Israel.”

“But do not worry,” Dayan said. “Kadima will not be chosen to lead the nation again.”

Kadima is currently Israel’s largest party with 28 Knesset mandates. However, recent polls indicate Kadima would only win 12-15 seats if elections were held today. It may be an effort to gain Kadima voters from other left of center parties that is causing Mofaz to voice extremist views, sources have said. He has also made anti hareidi remarks.,

Even with 28 mandates, Mofaz’s predecessor Tzipi Livni was unable to call upon sufficient coalition partners to form a government – a task that was given to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

Likud, which has 27 Knesset mandates at present, is currently polling at 32 seats. Other rightist parties are also polling beyond their present numbers.

Israel on Saturday said recent claims by an Iranian lawmaker that Tehran could build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so supported Jerusalem’s view that Iran’s nuclear program had a military dimension. 

An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity repeated Jerusalem’s demands that Iran must stop enriching uranium, remove all military-grade enriched material from the country, and dismantle its Fordo nuclear research site. 

The remarks were in response Iranian lawmaker Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam, who for the first time on Friday admitted Iran has the capability to produce nuclear weapons. 

Moghadam told the parliament’s news website, “Iran has the scientific and technological capability to produce [a] nuclear weapon, but will never choose this path.” 

The statement by Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam is the first time an Iranian politician has publicly stated that the country has the knowledge and skills to produce a nuclear weapon. 

Moghadam said Iran could easily create the highly enriched uranium that is used to build atomic bombs, but it was not Tehran’s policy to go down that route. 

Tehran has previously denied its nuclear program has military dimensions, insisting it is solely for peaceful civilian purposes. 

Moghadam’s remarks seemed to validate charges in recent International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Tehran had sought – and continued to seek – nuclear technology of a military nature. 

The IAEA has also sharply criticized Iran for systemically blocking nuclear inspectors from accessing its key enrichments sites in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Tehran is a signatory.
However, his remarks also fell in line with a recent conciliatory shift in Iranian rhetoric ahead of talks between the P5+1 and Iran on its nuclear program slated from April 13-14. 

Early last month, a key advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei indicated Tehran was willing to back away from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s belligerent nuclear stance. 

Mohammad Javad Larijani said the West should accept Iran’s “peaceful nuclear program,” sell Iran 20 percent enriched uranium, and provide the customary assistancenuclear nations provide to those building nuclear power plants. 

In return for cooperation from the West Iran would offer “full transparency,” Larijani said. 

He did not say Iran would halt uranium enrichment – a key demand by Jerusalem andWashington to avoid military strikes – but observers say the stipulation that the West provide 20% enriched uranium indicates Iran is open to doing so.

At least 70,000 people from Israel and abroad gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday for the traditional priestly blessing.

The blessing is held at the Kotel – the Hebrew name for the Western Wall – during the intermediate days of Passover and Sukkot, and also on Shavuot, and typically attracts thousands of worshipers. The assemblage at the Temple Mount for these holidays is rooted in the Jewish tradition which saw Israelites ascend to the Temple for ritual worship led by the high priests during these three holidays, called the Shalosh Regalim, or the three pilgrimage festivals.

While pilgrimage is no longer required in Judaism since the destruction of the Second Temple, many Jews grasp the opportunity to go up to Jerusalem during these holidays.

One man, a husband and father of two, told Army Radio on Monday that he brought his family from the United States just for the Passover gathering at the Western Wall.

“People have come from all over,” he said. 

The rabbis conducting the ceremony made traditional dedications during their blessings, this year directing their prayers towards Israel’s soldiers, the hospitalized Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard – who is serving a life sentence in the US – and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, a highly influential Ashkenazi rabbi who at 101 has been in and out of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center a number of times this past year. 

After the blessings, Israeli chief rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar addressed the crowds, along with Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch.