Israel arrests 30 in West Bank refugee camp APR 30,08
NABLUS (AFP) - Israeli troops arrested 30 Palestinians in an operation early Wednesday in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, a Palestinian security official said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops had detained 13 people in the raid, which she described as a routine arrest operation targeting wanted men.The Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, showed the names of 30 people he said were arrested to an AFP correspondent.Residents of Askar camp said troops entered the camp before dawn in some 30 armoured jeeps, searched several houses and questioned residents on the streets.Those arrested included members of the Islamist movement Hamas, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party and ordinary citizens, residents said.Abbas's forces have been carrying out a security crackdown in Nablus since November as part of renewed peace talks with Israel.But the Israeli army still regularly operates in every part of the occupied West Bank and carries out operations in Nablus on an almost nightly basis.
Study: Israel can remove 10 key West Bank checkpoints By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer APR 30,08
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel should remove 10 major West Bank checkpoints to give a badly needed boost to the Palestinian economy, a group of Israeli ex-generals and Palestinian officials said in a joint report Wednesday. Removing the roadblocks would not compromise security for Israel, but they cause major disruptions to Palestinian trade and movement, said the report. Its authors include two former chiefs of Israel's military government in the West Bank.The report comes just days after the World Bank warned that the Palestinian economy is not likely to grow this year, largely due to continued Israeli restrictions on movement, despite massive foreign aid.Representatives of donor countries will meet in London later this week to review the aid effort — $7.7 billion pledged over three years. The bank warned that more aid may be needed if the Palestinian economy doesn't recover from several years of downturn. A recovery depends on easing restrictions, the bank said.
Israel says it's willing, in principle, to ease restrictions, but Palestinian militants still pose a threat. A hasty removal of checkpoints could lead to more attacks, which would then harm peace efforts, Israel argues.Israel erected a network of hundreds of roadblocks, dirt mounts and gates after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000. It insists it's still the most effective way to deter militants.However, Wednesday's study said Israel could ease up without compromising security.While there was once a serious security need for checkpoints and roadblocks, this need is diminishing with time, the study said. The checkpoints and roadblocks policy, however, has not changed accordingly.A removal of checkpoints is in Israel's long-term interest because it would help defuse Palestinian resentment and improve the standard of living, said one of the authors, Israeli reserve Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, who headed the West Bank's military government from 2002-2005.
If Israel wants the Palestinian economy to improve ... we have to change the reality in the West Bank, said Paz. We want to create a light at the end of the tunnel for the Palestinians, so they won't search for revenge or hatred against the Israelis.The six-member group, which also included three senior Palestinian government officials, said the majority of West Bank roadblocks should be removed, arguing they've become unnecessary with the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank. The barrier, expected to stretch about 500 miles is two-thirds complete.However, the report noted that a blanket removal is currently unrealistic owing to the strength of opposition made by the Israeli security forces and the Jewish settlers centering around security considerations, the report said.Instead, the group focused on 10 checkpoints that Palestinian officials said are particularly harmful to trade. The list included three checkpoints around Nablus, the West Bank's second largest city and a former militant stronghold.In recent months, the Palestinian government tried to assert control in Nablus, deploying security forces and trying to get gunmen off the streets. Israel has portrayed the deployment as a good start, but said the Palestinian Authority needs to do more. In the meantime, Israeli troops carry out almost nightly arrest raids in the city.
The study said the Nablus checkpoints can be removed, provided Israeli and Palestinian forces step up coordination and Palestinian forces heighten their activity in the city.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev reiterated that Israel is taking some risks but does not want to be hasty. We have an obligation to protect our people from a very real terrorist threat that exists in the West Bank, he said.In other developments, Israeli troops on Wednesday shut down a women's sewing cooperative run by the Islamic Charitable Association, the largest Islamic charity in the West Bank city of Hebron.The Israeli military says the charity is a Hamas front, and that it funds violent activity against Israel. The military has ordered all of the charity's operations closed, including private schools, among them a boarding school for children from disadvantaged homes. The charity denies it's linked to Hamas. Israel closed other offices of the charity earlier this year. That closure came after two Hamas members from the city carried out a suicide bombing that killed an Israeli. Hamas advocates Israel's destruction, and the group violently seized power in the Gaza Strip last year. Both Israel and the moderate Palestinians rulers of the West Bank fear Hamas will try to wrest control of the West Bank as well. Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
YES THESE SOLDIERS BETTER LEARN ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST, BECAUSE THE GREATEST IS YET TO COME AS REVELATION CHAPTER 12 TELLS US.
Israeli soldiers urged to study Holocaust by Charly Wegman
APR 30,08
KIBBUTZ LOHAMEY HAGETAOT, Israel (AFP) - At a kibbutz founded by survivors of the Nazi death camps, Israel's top brass has urged soldiers to learn the lessons of the Holocaust to better protect the Jewish people. The Nazis had vowed to annihilate the Jewish people ... every Jew is a Holocaust survivor, said army chief of staff Lieutenant General Gaby Ashkenazi, before flying to Poland to pay tribute to the Jews who led the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising 65 years ago.Ashekenazi's comments were made at a gathering of top military officers and survivors at a kibbutz in northern Israel ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which starts at sunset on Wednesday.The army must protect the Jewish people as well as their state which some still want to destroy, Ashkenazi told the 24 generals assembled at Lohamey Hagetaot kibbutz, whose name recalls the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.Educating soldiers about the Holocaust, when more than six million Jews perished in the Nazi concentration camps, was a crucial part of military training, he said.
Teaching about the Holocaust is imperative for the rank and file of the army. We want to preserve and pass on the memories (of the Holocaust) before the last witnesses die, said Brigadier General Elie Shermeister, head of the army's education department.Holocaust instruction will be expanded and groups of new army recruits will travel to the sites of the death camps and other memorials, including the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.At the kibbutz, which was was founded in 1949 by Holocaust survivors from Poland and Lithuania, emotional mementoes of those who died are on display.Carefully preserved in glass cases are simple objects such as a pair of shoes, a suitcase, a prayer shawl, a Torah scroll, a typewriter, a jewellery box, pens and notebooks.At an interactive station, the history of each item is explained along with the story of the tragic deaths of their owners.We have preserved some 150 million objects, among them a cloth in which a two-year-old girl, Ruthie, was hidden by her mother at Auschwitz, before she was taken to be used in medical experiments at Birkenau by Doctor Joseph Mengele, said museum director Simha Stein.Ruthie lived through it all and today is among the 280,000 Holocaust survivors still living in Israel.The generals stood before a giant screen on which the names of 4,000 Jewish communities that were eradicated in Europe and north Africa during the Nazi era briefly appear before fading away.Here, at Lohamey Hagetaot, we are determined to remain strong, Stein said.Starting at sundown on Wednesday, the entire country will begin marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, when each year the wail of sirens reminds the citizens of the genocide.
Palestinian factions back proposed truce with Israel: Egypt APR 30,08
CAIRO (AFP) - Palestinian militant factions on Wednesday agreed to a proposal for a truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip and subsequently in the West Bank, a senior Egyptian official said on Wednesday, Palestinians meeting in Cairo agreed to the plan already backed by Hamas and Fatah for a comprehensive, simultaneous and reciprocal period of calm to be applied progressively, first in Gaza and then in the West Bank, the MENA news agency said, without naming the official.This is a stage in a plan aimed at creating a situation that will allow for the lifting of the (Israeli) blockade of the Gaza Strip and the end of internal Palestinian divisions, the official was quoted as saying.
Hamas are Iran's proxy warriors: Rice by Lachlan Carmichael
APR 30,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Palestinian Hamas militants are serving as the proxy warriors for an Iran bent on destroying Israel and destabilizing the Middle East, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here. In a speech Tuesday to the American Jewish Committee in Washington that underscored growing US concerns about Tehran, Rice mentioned Iran as not just a threat in the Palestinian territories, but also in Lebanon, Iraq and even in Afghanistan.
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said after talks with Rice on Monday that an Iran-led radical front in the Middle East is becoming more powerful and weaknesses in it need to be found.Rice vowed to pursue US efforts to isolate Hamas which she said refused to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and respect all previous Palestinian agreements with Israel.But perhaps of deepest concern, the leaders of Hamas are increasingly serving as the proxy warriors of an Iranian regime that is destabilizing the region, seeking a nuclear capability and proclaiming its desire to destroy Israel, Rice told the group's annual meeting.
She did not elaborate.
Iran is one of the most vocal backers of the Islamic Resistance Movement and pledged millions of dollars in 2006 to help a Hamas government through a funding drought caused by Western aid cuts.But Tehran has always insisted its support for Palestinian militant groups is moral in nature and does not extend to arming or training fighters.Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in June last year after ousting forces loyal to Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction, which remains in power in the West Bank.Fatah and Hamas had served in a national unity government after Hamas won elections in 2006.The United States backs the Palestinian Authority in new peace negotiations with Israel that were launched last November, and denounces Hamas as a terrorist organization.Rice called for international support for the Palestinian Authority, which she said had the will to fight terrorism and the desire to govern effectively but did not yet have the means.She echoed remarks by President George W. Bush who said Tuesday he was still hopeful of a Middle East peace deal before he left office in January but warned that Hamas could undermine the effort.Rice also vowed that Washington would continue to tighten controls on Iran's alleged misuse of the international financial system for terrorism and weapons proliferation.
The US Treasury last October slapped sanctions on Iran's elite Quds Force, accused by the US of being a supporter of terrorism, as well as the country's Revolutionary Guards, said to be a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.We made designations for instance of the Quds Force, we made designations of the Revolutionary Guard, Rice recalled. You can believe that we're going to continue to make designations.In her speech, Rice spoke of a new belt of extremism that ranges from Hamas, to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah in Lebanon to radicals in Iraq and radicals even increasingly in places like Afghanistan.It is supported overwhelmingly by Iran and to a certain extent Syria, but particularly Iran, gives this conflict a regional dimension it has not had before, Rice said. Critics say the US-led invasion of Iraq that overthrew Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab, has emboldened non-Arab Iran and its Shiite Muslim allies throughout the region.
Bush: Hopeful for Mideast peace deal by end of term By Tabassum Zakaria Tue Apr 29, 9:45 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, seeking a Middle East peace legacy that eluded his predecessors, said on Tuesday he is still hopeful an Israeli-Palestinian deal can be reached before he leaves office in January. Bush will encourage Israeli and Palestinian leaders to move forward when he meets them separately in Israel and Egypt during a May 8-13 trip that includes a visit to Saudi Arabia.Negotiations have bogged down since Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November where both sides pledged to try to reach a peace deal by the end of his term.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after meeting with Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week in Washington, came away disappointed and pessimistic about prospects for a deal this year, according to aides.Bush offered a more optimistic assessment. I'm still hopeful we'll get an agreement by the end of my presidency, he said at a news conference at the White House.He accused Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, of trying to undermine peace efforts. But he avoided direct criticism of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who met the Palestinian group's leadership to try to pull them into peace talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Bush made clear he would not have similar engagement with Hamas, an Islamist group that advocates Israel's destruction and which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organization.They are a significant problem to world peace, or Middle Eastern peace. And that's the reason I'm not talking to them, Bush said.
The road to a peace agreement is strewn with obstacles.
Abbas, whose mainstream Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas in June, and Olmert face strong opposition at home to making concessions.The fragile peace process has stalled amid Israeli settlement expansion plans and violence in and around Gaza, where Hamas cross-border rocket fire has drawn a tough Israeli military response.Bush also accused Syria of helping Hamas and said there were rumors that Iran was also aiding the group.So when you want to talk about peace being difficult in the Middle East, it's going to be difficult, but it's even made more difficult by entities like Hamas, he said.
DIFFICULT DECISIONS
Speaking later to a Jewish group, Rice said Hamas leaders were increasingly serving as the proxy warriors of an Iranian regime that is destabilizing the region, seeking a nuclear capability and proclaiming its desire to destroy Israel.She said the United States was likely to impose additional bilateral sanctions on Iran over its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons and she called for intensive diplomatic activity to try to persuade Iran to abandon such ambitions.Iran says its nuclear program is for power generation.Rice also urged Israel to make some sacrifices for peace. Difficult decisions are coming. Difficult decisions will have to be made, Rice told the American Jewish Committee. Israel can be bold in the pursuit of peace, for America is fully behind her and fully committed to her security.Bush, whose stated goal is the creation of a Palestinian state co-existing peacefully with Israel, said of his talks with Abbas and Olmert that the attitude is good. People do understand the importance of getting a state defined.Bush's visit to Israel will be his second this year. His January trip to Israel and the Palestinian West Bank was his first in seven years at the White House, raising skepticism about his commitment to the peace process. As for his stop in Saudi Arabia, Bush is under pressure at home to do something about record-high oil prices that are dragging down the U.S. economy. The White House has said there is no short-term fix to the problem. On his last visit to Saudi Arabia, Bush urged OPEC to boost production because the high price of oil was hurting the economies of its customers, but the oil group did not do so. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Eric Beech)
Egypt finds black market fuel tunnels to Gaza Tue Apr 29, 3:49 AM ET
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP) - Egyptian security forces have discovered five tunnels used to smuggle petrol and goods into the Gaza Strip, a security official said on Tuesday. Two of the tunnels contained plastic tubes 850 metres (2,800 feet) long that were used to pump black market petrol into the isolated territory, the official said.
No one was arrested when the tunnels were discovered north of the Rafah border crossing on Monday evening.Israel has repeatedly accused Egypt of doing too little to counter alleged arms smuggling through tunnels dug from Gaza into Egypt. The accusations have been vehemently denied by Cairo.Palestinian militant groups are meeting in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss an Egyptian-mediated truce with Israel aimed at ending the Jewish state's punishing blockade of Gaza since the Islamist Hamas took over there in June.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
ISRAEL OPEN MEETING - SYRIA
Israel open to meeting with Syrians: officials By Adam Entous APR 27,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel would be open to participating in a senior-level meeting with the Syrians brokered by Turkey to test the waters for renewed peace negotiations, Israeli officials said on Sunday. Such a preliminary meeting between Israeli and Syrian representatives would be the next step in mediation efforts by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who held talks over the weekend with Syrian President Bashar al Assad, the officials said.
That meeting could lay the groundwork for more formal talks in the future, Israeli officials said, though Erdogan could face an uphill task bringing the two sides to formal negotiations before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office next January.The Bush administration has been cool to renewing Israeli-Syrian negotiations, which collapsed in 2000 without resolving the fate of the Golan Heights, Israeli officials said.If such an invitation comes from Turkey, I can't see any reason why Israel would not attend, said a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.They would accept, another Israeli official said of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office.Syria says it received word from Turkey that Israel would be willing to give back the Golan in return for peace with the Arab state. Israel captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
Syrian officials said on Saturday that Damascus would cooperate with Turkey in its mediation efforts but that the Jewish state must also make an effort towards a deal.Olmert has neither confirmed nor denied that such an offer was conveyed to Damascus, and a spokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on whether the prime minister would agree to send a representative to a senior-level meeting with the Syrians.Israel desires peace with Syria, Regev said. As you know, messages have been sent. The Syrians are aware of Israel's expectations as to the talks and we are aware of the Syrian expectations as to the process.While Assad sought out Olmert's stance on the Golan, Israeli officials said the prime minister has been seeking assurances that peace talks would lead Syria to sever ties with Iran and anti-Israel groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip.
A senior Israeli official said it was unclear whether Olmert had received any assurances from Assad to that effect. The question of what price they're willing to pay remains an open question, the official said.Olmert, whose U.S.-backed peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have shown little sign of progress, has sought to shore up his public standing, damaged by Israel's inconclusive war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.
Renewing the Syrian track could be a major political gamble for Olmert, already under fire from Israel's right wing parties over negotiations with the Palestinians.Previous Israeli prime ministers have conveyed similar messages to Syria about returning the Golan for peace. But at issue is the scope of any Israeli withdrawal.
Erdogan has said that mediation efforts would start at a low level and move up the chain if successful. Turkey, which is a NATO member, has close ties with Israel.But without full U.S. backing, diplomats doubt talks will go anywhere. Last week, Washington released intelligence alleging Syria had built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help before an Israeli air strike destroyed the facility last September.In remarks published in a Qatari newspaper on Sunday, Assad said the site was not part of a nuclear weapons program, but was a military facility under construction. (Editing by Giles Elgood)
Assad says facility Israel bombed not nuclear: paper APR 27,08
DUBAI (Reuters) - The Syrian site Israel bombed in September was not part of a nuclear weapons program, but was a military facility under construction, President Bashar al-Assad said in remarks published on Sunday. Last week, Washington released intelligence alleging Syria had built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help before an Israeli air strike destroyed the facility on September 6.
Is it logical? A nuclear site did not have protection with surface to air defenses? A nuclear site within the footprint of satellites in the middle of Syria in an open area in the desert? Assad told Qatar's al-Watan newspaper in an interview conducted before the U.S. accusations were made.At that stage, he was commenting on media reports that said the target was a nuclear site. The truth is that the raid was at a military site under construction, Assad said in the interview. We are against mass destruction weapons for Israel, Iran or others.Assad said it was illogical for Syria to seek a nuclear bomb. Where would we use it? On Israel it would kill the Palestinians. I do not see this as logical.Assad accused Washington of ignoring a Syrian proposal to make the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction because it included Israel.In 2003, when Syria was a member of the United Nations' Security Council, the Arab state pushed for a ban on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in the Middle East in what was seen than as a bid to shine a spotlight on Israel's arsenal.
Israel is believed to have about 200 nuclear warheads but the country's policy is not to discus the issue -- which some diplomats say is an open secret.Speaking after the U.S. accusations, Syria's ambassador to the United States dismissed as a fantasy the U.S. allegations.Assad said he did not know why Israel, officially at war with Syria since the 1973 Middle East conflict, bombed the site.
Why did they raid it, we do not know what data they had, but they know and they see through satellites; they have raided an incomplete site that did not have any personnel or anything. It was empty, he added.
BILATERAL RELATIONS
Asked about Syria's response, Assad said: Retaliation does not mean a missile for a missile, a bomb for a bomb or a bullet for a bullet ... They (Israelis) understand what we mean. We do not say that we will retaliate, i.e. we will bomb.You have to ask a different question; had Syria not been harming Israeli policy would Israel have carried out an operation of this sort? The truth is that we have the means to respond, but in our own way.We understand Israel wants to provoke Syria and possibly to drag Syria into war while we do not seek war. We have been clear about this point. We have other means and we do not necessarily have to declare them.
Assad refused to answer a question about reports that Syria was seeking to acquire Russian missiles.If there was a door open, even if it was small, for peace you should not seek war but you should seek to defend yourself. Now are you prepared or not, psychologically we are always ready and constantly prepare ourselves, but in terms of results no one knows results until the battle itself.Watan ran part of the interview on Thursday in which he said Damascus was ready to negotiate with Israel through Turkey to find common ground for peace, but any direct talks must wait until a new U.S. president is elected. Syria says it received word from Turkey that Israel was willing to give back the occupied Golan Heights in full in return for peace with the Arab state -- a key issue that led decade-long negotiations to falter in 2000. (Reporting by Summer Said; writing by Inal Ersan)
Abbas gives Egypt mediation unconditional support Sun Apr 27, 10:02 AM ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday gave his unconditional support to Egypt's mediation efforts with Israel as Palestinian factions prepared to meet in Cairo to discuss a truce. The Palestinian Authority unconditionally supports the efforts undertaken by Egypt to achieve a truce in Gaza, Abbas told reporters in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after talks with President Hosni Mubarak.Egypt has been serving as a go-between in the truce negotiations as Israel considers Hamas -- which has control of the Gaza Strip -- a terror group and refuses any direct contacts.Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will host Palestinian factions on Tuesday and Wednesday to draft a common position regarding the truce proposal.
At least three smaller Palestinian militant groups will send delegations to Egypt on Monday, including the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) which often claims rocket attacks on Israel.The delegation will present the Committees vision for a ceasefire with the Zionist enemy considering that experience confirms the enemy will not adhere to it, PRC spokesman Abu Mujahid said in a statement.Spokesmen from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have also said they will be sending representatives to Cairo.The radical Islamic Jihad movement, responsible for many of the persistent rocket attacks on southern Israel, has not yet said whether it will be sending a delegation but was involved in abortive truce talks last month.On Thursday, senior Hamas official Mahmud al-Zahar said in Cairo that the Islamist movement had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza first, which could be extended to the West Bank within six months.Zahar, speaking after talks with Suleiman, said the move must be reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive and that Israel must end its crippling blockade of the impoverished territory.A proposal put forward by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit stipulates a ceasefire, the opening of the border crossings, a lifting of the blockade and finally the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said on Sunday however that the plan does not say the elements are simultaneous.
Hundreds of Gaza Christians head to West Bank for Easter Sun Apr 27, 8:16 AM ET
EREZ BORDER CROSSING, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Some 500 Palestinian Christians were allowed to leave the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday to celebrate Easter in the West Bank, an Israeli army spokesman said. Approximately 500 Palestinian Christians were allowed to leave the Gaza Strip to go to the West Bank for Easter, Major Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the military's coordinator of activities in the territories, told AFP.The Palestinians left through the Erez crossing bound for the West Bank town of Bethlehem with special permits that will allow them to remain for a few days to celebrate Orthodox Easter.Some 2,500 Palestinian Christians, most of them Greek Orthodox, live alongside 1.5 million Muslims in the impoverished coastal strip, which has been ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since it seized power in June.Since then, Israel has tightened restrictions on movement in and out of Gaza, sealing it off to all but very limited humanitarian supplies in a bid to put pressure on Hamas to stop rocket fire from the territory by militants.
World Bank: Israeli blockade stalls Palestinian economy By KARIN LAUB, Associated Writer Sun Apr 27, 4:31 AM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian economy won't grow this year, largely due to Israeli restrictions on movement and despite billions of dollars in aid meant to shore up support for peace talks, the World Bank predicted Sunday. The bleak prognosis stands in contrast to the bank's initial assessment that double-digit economic growth would be possible if Israel, the Palestinian government and the donors did their part.The bank now estimates that the Gross Domestic Product — currently at about $4 billion — will grow by only 3 percent in 2008.That, taking into account population growth, leaves per capita income static, if not lower than the previous year, the report said.The bank noted that the Gaza economy has sharply contracted because of the virtually complete closure of the Gaza strip by Israel and Egypt after the violent Hamas takeover there last year. In the West Bank, where Israel maintains a network of hundreds of checkpoints, gates and earthen barriers, GDP growth was only modest, the bank said.In December, donor countries pledged $7.7 billion over three years to help fund a Palestinian reform and development plan.The idea was to gradually cut government spending and revive the private sector, which has been hit hard during Israeli-Palestinian fighting and stifling Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement. This would eventually make the Palestinians less dependent on international aid.
The international community also hoped that an economic recovery would lend support to peace negotiations, which have yielded little tangible progress so far.However, the bank said that the private sector revival required for a virtuous cycle of growth has not been realized due to the continued restrictions on movement and access.
The Palestinian reform and development plan is largely implemented in the West Bank, though Gaza does see some of the foreign aid, in the form of salaries paid to thousands of civil servants there.On Friday, said the Palestinian government in the West Bank has made significant strides toward reducing its huge budget deficit of 27 percent of the GDP, but that international donors need to transfer an additional $400 million to close the deficit in 2008. Much of international aid is currently earmarked for development projects, not budget support.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is working closely with the donor community, and that it is in Israel's interest to see the Palestinian economy recover.
However, he said Palestinian militants continue to pose a threat, and a hasty removal of roadblocks, if followed by attacks on Israel, could set back peace efforts.We are ready for calculated risks. We are not ready for irresponsible risks, he said. We will continue to work with the Palestinians and the international community in taking down roadblocks.In recent weeks, Israel removed some obstacles to movement in the West Bank, mainly dirt mounds. However, the report, citing U.N. figures, said in March that the overall number of obstacles had increased.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel would be open to participating in a senior-level meeting with the Syrians brokered by Turkey to test the waters for renewed peace negotiations, Israeli officials said on Sunday. Such a preliminary meeting between Israeli and Syrian representatives would be the next step in mediation efforts by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who held talks over the weekend with Syrian President Bashar al Assad, the officials said.
That meeting could lay the groundwork for more formal talks in the future, Israeli officials said, though Erdogan could face an uphill task bringing the two sides to formal negotiations before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office next January.The Bush administration has been cool to renewing Israeli-Syrian negotiations, which collapsed in 2000 without resolving the fate of the Golan Heights, Israeli officials said.If such an invitation comes from Turkey, I can't see any reason why Israel would not attend, said a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.They would accept, another Israeli official said of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office.Syria says it received word from Turkey that Israel would be willing to give back the Golan in return for peace with the Arab state. Israel captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
Syrian officials said on Saturday that Damascus would cooperate with Turkey in its mediation efforts but that the Jewish state must also make an effort towards a deal.Olmert has neither confirmed nor denied that such an offer was conveyed to Damascus, and a spokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on whether the prime minister would agree to send a representative to a senior-level meeting with the Syrians.Israel desires peace with Syria, Regev said. As you know, messages have been sent. The Syrians are aware of Israel's expectations as to the talks and we are aware of the Syrian expectations as to the process.While Assad sought out Olmert's stance on the Golan, Israeli officials said the prime minister has been seeking assurances that peace talks would lead Syria to sever ties with Iran and anti-Israel groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip.
A senior Israeli official said it was unclear whether Olmert had received any assurances from Assad to that effect. The question of what price they're willing to pay remains an open question, the official said.Olmert, whose U.S.-backed peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have shown little sign of progress, has sought to shore up his public standing, damaged by Israel's inconclusive war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.
Renewing the Syrian track could be a major political gamble for Olmert, already under fire from Israel's right wing parties over negotiations with the Palestinians.Previous Israeli prime ministers have conveyed similar messages to Syria about returning the Golan for peace. But at issue is the scope of any Israeli withdrawal.
Erdogan has said that mediation efforts would start at a low level and move up the chain if successful. Turkey, which is a NATO member, has close ties with Israel.But without full U.S. backing, diplomats doubt talks will go anywhere. Last week, Washington released intelligence alleging Syria had built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help before an Israeli air strike destroyed the facility last September.In remarks published in a Qatari newspaper on Sunday, Assad said the site was not part of a nuclear weapons program, but was a military facility under construction. (Editing by Giles Elgood)
Assad says facility Israel bombed not nuclear: paper APR 27,08
DUBAI (Reuters) - The Syrian site Israel bombed in September was not part of a nuclear weapons program, but was a military facility under construction, President Bashar al-Assad said in remarks published on Sunday. Last week, Washington released intelligence alleging Syria had built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help before an Israeli air strike destroyed the facility on September 6.
Is it logical? A nuclear site did not have protection with surface to air defenses? A nuclear site within the footprint of satellites in the middle of Syria in an open area in the desert? Assad told Qatar's al-Watan newspaper in an interview conducted before the U.S. accusations were made.At that stage, he was commenting on media reports that said the target was a nuclear site. The truth is that the raid was at a military site under construction, Assad said in the interview. We are against mass destruction weapons for Israel, Iran or others.Assad said it was illogical for Syria to seek a nuclear bomb. Where would we use it? On Israel it would kill the Palestinians. I do not see this as logical.Assad accused Washington of ignoring a Syrian proposal to make the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction because it included Israel.In 2003, when Syria was a member of the United Nations' Security Council, the Arab state pushed for a ban on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in the Middle East in what was seen than as a bid to shine a spotlight on Israel's arsenal.
Israel is believed to have about 200 nuclear warheads but the country's policy is not to discus the issue -- which some diplomats say is an open secret.Speaking after the U.S. accusations, Syria's ambassador to the United States dismissed as a fantasy the U.S. allegations.Assad said he did not know why Israel, officially at war with Syria since the 1973 Middle East conflict, bombed the site.
Why did they raid it, we do not know what data they had, but they know and they see through satellites; they have raided an incomplete site that did not have any personnel or anything. It was empty, he added.
BILATERAL RELATIONS
Asked about Syria's response, Assad said: Retaliation does not mean a missile for a missile, a bomb for a bomb or a bullet for a bullet ... They (Israelis) understand what we mean. We do not say that we will retaliate, i.e. we will bomb.You have to ask a different question; had Syria not been harming Israeli policy would Israel have carried out an operation of this sort? The truth is that we have the means to respond, but in our own way.We understand Israel wants to provoke Syria and possibly to drag Syria into war while we do not seek war. We have been clear about this point. We have other means and we do not necessarily have to declare them.
Assad refused to answer a question about reports that Syria was seeking to acquire Russian missiles.If there was a door open, even if it was small, for peace you should not seek war but you should seek to defend yourself. Now are you prepared or not, psychologically we are always ready and constantly prepare ourselves, but in terms of results no one knows results until the battle itself.Watan ran part of the interview on Thursday in which he said Damascus was ready to negotiate with Israel through Turkey to find common ground for peace, but any direct talks must wait until a new U.S. president is elected. Syria says it received word from Turkey that Israel was willing to give back the occupied Golan Heights in full in return for peace with the Arab state -- a key issue that led decade-long negotiations to falter in 2000. (Reporting by Summer Said; writing by Inal Ersan)
Abbas gives Egypt mediation unconditional support Sun Apr 27, 10:02 AM ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday gave his unconditional support to Egypt's mediation efforts with Israel as Palestinian factions prepared to meet in Cairo to discuss a truce. The Palestinian Authority unconditionally supports the efforts undertaken by Egypt to achieve a truce in Gaza, Abbas told reporters in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after talks with President Hosni Mubarak.Egypt has been serving as a go-between in the truce negotiations as Israel considers Hamas -- which has control of the Gaza Strip -- a terror group and refuses any direct contacts.Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will host Palestinian factions on Tuesday and Wednesday to draft a common position regarding the truce proposal.
At least three smaller Palestinian militant groups will send delegations to Egypt on Monday, including the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) which often claims rocket attacks on Israel.The delegation will present the Committees vision for a ceasefire with the Zionist enemy considering that experience confirms the enemy will not adhere to it, PRC spokesman Abu Mujahid said in a statement.Spokesmen from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have also said they will be sending representatives to Cairo.The radical Islamic Jihad movement, responsible for many of the persistent rocket attacks on southern Israel, has not yet said whether it will be sending a delegation but was involved in abortive truce talks last month.On Thursday, senior Hamas official Mahmud al-Zahar said in Cairo that the Islamist movement had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza first, which could be extended to the West Bank within six months.Zahar, speaking after talks with Suleiman, said the move must be reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive and that Israel must end its crippling blockade of the impoverished territory.A proposal put forward by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit stipulates a ceasefire, the opening of the border crossings, a lifting of the blockade and finally the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said on Sunday however that the plan does not say the elements are simultaneous.
Hundreds of Gaza Christians head to West Bank for Easter Sun Apr 27, 8:16 AM ET
EREZ BORDER CROSSING, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Some 500 Palestinian Christians were allowed to leave the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday to celebrate Easter in the West Bank, an Israeli army spokesman said. Approximately 500 Palestinian Christians were allowed to leave the Gaza Strip to go to the West Bank for Easter, Major Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the military's coordinator of activities in the territories, told AFP.The Palestinians left through the Erez crossing bound for the West Bank town of Bethlehem with special permits that will allow them to remain for a few days to celebrate Orthodox Easter.Some 2,500 Palestinian Christians, most of them Greek Orthodox, live alongside 1.5 million Muslims in the impoverished coastal strip, which has been ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since it seized power in June.Since then, Israel has tightened restrictions on movement in and out of Gaza, sealing it off to all but very limited humanitarian supplies in a bid to put pressure on Hamas to stop rocket fire from the territory by militants.
World Bank: Israeli blockade stalls Palestinian economy By KARIN LAUB, Associated Writer Sun Apr 27, 4:31 AM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian economy won't grow this year, largely due to Israeli restrictions on movement and despite billions of dollars in aid meant to shore up support for peace talks, the World Bank predicted Sunday. The bleak prognosis stands in contrast to the bank's initial assessment that double-digit economic growth would be possible if Israel, the Palestinian government and the donors did their part.The bank now estimates that the Gross Domestic Product — currently at about $4 billion — will grow by only 3 percent in 2008.That, taking into account population growth, leaves per capita income static, if not lower than the previous year, the report said.The bank noted that the Gaza economy has sharply contracted because of the virtually complete closure of the Gaza strip by Israel and Egypt after the violent Hamas takeover there last year. In the West Bank, where Israel maintains a network of hundreds of checkpoints, gates and earthen barriers, GDP growth was only modest, the bank said.In December, donor countries pledged $7.7 billion over three years to help fund a Palestinian reform and development plan.The idea was to gradually cut government spending and revive the private sector, which has been hit hard during Israeli-Palestinian fighting and stifling Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement. This would eventually make the Palestinians less dependent on international aid.
The international community also hoped that an economic recovery would lend support to peace negotiations, which have yielded little tangible progress so far.However, the bank said that the private sector revival required for a virtuous cycle of growth has not been realized due to the continued restrictions on movement and access.
The Palestinian reform and development plan is largely implemented in the West Bank, though Gaza does see some of the foreign aid, in the form of salaries paid to thousands of civil servants there.On Friday, said the Palestinian government in the West Bank has made significant strides toward reducing its huge budget deficit of 27 percent of the GDP, but that international donors need to transfer an additional $400 million to close the deficit in 2008. Much of international aid is currently earmarked for development projects, not budget support.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is working closely with the donor community, and that it is in Israel's interest to see the Palestinian economy recover.
However, he said Palestinian militants continue to pose a threat, and a hasty removal of roadblocks, if followed by attacks on Israel, could set back peace efforts.We are ready for calculated risks. We are not ready for irresponsible risks, he said. We will continue to work with the Palestinians and the international community in taking down roadblocks.In recent weeks, Israel removed some obstacles to movement in the West Bank, mainly dirt mounds. However, the report, citing U.N. figures, said in March that the overall number of obstacles had increased.
Friday, April 25, 2008
ISRAEL DOWNPLAYS HAMAS TRUCE
Israel downplays Hamas truce offer by Patrick Moser APR 25,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel dismissed as not serious on Friday a Hamas proposal for a six-month truce in the Gaza Strip, where UN agencies have suspended aid distribution and warned that shortages hurt the peace process. Unfortunately, this appears not to be serious at all, government spokesman Mark Regev said after the Islamist movement that controls Gaza told Egypt on Thursday that it agreed to implement a ceasefire.Hamas called for a six-month truce in Gaza, stressing that the move must be reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive and that Israel must end its crippling blockade of the impoverished territory.Israel responded by saying it would only stop military raids on Gaza after Hamas gives up terrorism and after militants in the territory stop attacking the Jewish state and smuggling in weapons from Egypt.But an official close to Defence Minister Ehud Barak suggested the two sides could still reach some form of tacit truce.In a first stage we demand all groups stop firing rockets. Israel would then be willing to reduce its operations if the calm continues, he told AFP.Hamas said a truce could eventually extend to the occupied West Bank, but Israel has insisted in the past its operations in that region are essential to prevent militants from launching attacks inside the Jewish state.
On Friday, security forces were hunting for a Palestinian militant who killed two guards on the border with the West Bank in an attack jointly claimed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.Egypt has been serving as a go-between in the truce negotiations as Israel considers Hamas a terror group and refuses any direct contacts.The Hamas proposal also states that if Israel rejects a truce, Egypt would open its border with Gaza, which has been mainly closed since Hamas seized control of the territory in June.Cairo has not commented on that assertion.On January 23, Palestinian militants demolished border barriers, allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to flood into Egypt and stock up on vital supplies.Egyptian and Hamas forces resealed the frontier on February 4.A week later, Foreign Minister Ajmed Abul Gheit said Egypt would no longer tolerate Palestinians infiltrating the country from Gaza, and threatened to break the legs of anyone crossing the Rafah border illegally.
Israel allows only limited humanitarian aid into Gaza as part of a blockade aimed at forcing militants to stop rocket attacks.On Friday, thousands of Hamas supporters massed near border crossings in Gaza to protest the embargo.Hamas is working in a positive manner to end the siege and achieve a truce, Hamas official Yussef al-Shrafi told a crowd of about 5,000 people in the northern town of Jabaliya.Humanitarian organisations say the embargo has left Gaza teetering on the brink of disaster. On Thursday, UNRWA halted food distribution to 650,000 people there, saying it no longer had any petrol for its aid trucks. The big picture is there is a peace process going on and this is extremely unhelpful, said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency. Hungry, angry people do not serve the interests of peace; neither do they serve Israel's security interests, he told AFP. Israel accused Hamas of stage-managing the crisis in a bid to stir international condemnation of the Jewish state. On Thursday, a demonstration in Gaza prevented tankers from picking up fuel for UNRWA at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, UN and Israeli officials said. Nahal Oz, which supplies all of Gaza's fuel needs, has opened only a few times since Gaza militants attacked the border installation on April 9, and it remained closed on Friday. Israel accuses Hamas of preventing the distribution of a million litres (260,000 gallons) of fuel stored on the Palestinian side of the terminal. UN special envoy Robert Serry on Friday urged Hamas and Israel to act to avert further suffering of the civilian population.
Hamas ... must ensure conditions to enable the distribution of supplies at Nahal Oz, he said, adding that the Islamists must also end attacks on crossings into Gaza. Israel must restore adequate supplies of diesel and benzene for the civilian population of Gaza in accordance with international law, Serry added.
Israeli military says Palestinian militant kills 2 Israelis By AMI BENTOV, Associated Press Writer APR 25,08
NITZANEI SHALOM, Israel - A Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards early Friday at a factory along the divide between Israel and the West Bank, the military said. Medics pronounced the two middle-aged guards dead at the scene, rescue services said. Troops began combing surrounding areas for traces of the assailant.Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki condemned the attack, saying it was meant to undermine the efforts by the Palestinian government to undertake full security responsibilities in the West Bank. The attack was also meant to embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas while he is in Washington for meetings with U.S. officials, al-Malki said.Any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will have to include an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank to make room for a Palestinian state. For that to happen, Israel says the Palestinians must keep their gunmen in check. Israel has argued that attacks like Friday's prove Palestinian authorities are not yet capable of controlling militants.
This was a clear example of extremism and terrorism by those seeking to foil any prospects for advancing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Israeli government spokesman David Baker said.
Israel's military regularly carries out arrest raids targeting militants in the West Bank, and Israel has refused Palestinian calls to cease such operations and allow Palestinian security forces to take control.A violent offshoot of Abbas' Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to a Palestinian news agency. Two militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said in a phone call and text message to The Associated Press that they had carried out the attack jointly. It's not uncommon for several militant groups to claim responsibility for the same attack, hoping to strengthen their hardline credentials among their people.Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the West Bank city of Jenin, said in a phone call that Friday's attacker crossed into Israel several days ago dressed as a woman and then pretended to be a worker to get close to the factory. He then began shooting and was lightly wounded in an exchange of gunfire but managed to escape, said Abu Mujahed, who gave only his nom de guerre because he is wanted by Israel.The military said the gunman approached the two guards while they were screening workers entering the small industrial zone of Nitzanei Shalom, opened fire and then escaped, the military said.
The industrial zone is located on the line between Israel and the West Bank. It contains five Israeli factories that employ Palestinians.Palestinian security officials in the nearby town of Tulkarem said soldiers moved into the West Bank in force after the attack and set up a checkpoint. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The West Bank is controlled by Abbas' moderate government, which is negotiating a peace deal with Israel. There have been few shooting attacks in the area in recent years.Most current Israeli-Palestinian violence is limited to the Gaza Strip, ruled by Abbas' rivals from Hamas. Israeli troops regularly clash in the coastal territory with militants who attack border positions and fire rockets at Israeli towns.Hamas announced Thursday that it would be prepared to accept a cease-fire with Israel in Gaza, dropping an earlier demand that any truce immediately include the West Bank as well.Hamas wants Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza's border crossings, imposed to weaken Hamas' rule and end the ongoing rocket fire. But Israel fears such a move would allow Hamas, which seized control of Gaza last June, to smuggle in weapons and expand its already considerable arsenal to prepare for a future round of fighting.
Israel expressed skepticism on Friday about Hamas' announcement.
To Israel's dismay, Hamas is not serious. It's playing games, trying to buy time in order to regroup and rearm, said Baker, the government spokesman.There would be no need for Israel's defensive measures if Hamas discontinued its terrorist activities against Israel. Israel will continue to take all measures to defend its civilians, he said. Also Friday, the International Monetary Fund said the Palestinian government was making strides toward fiscal sustainability. The Abbas government has promised international donors to try to reduce spending, especially on the government payroll. The praise came in one of the agency's regular progress reports on the government's performance. The reports are part of a Palestinian development plan underwritten by $7.7 billion in international aid.
Thousands in Gaza protest against Israeli blockade APR 25,08
GAZA (AFP) - Thousands of Hamas supporters on Friday demonstrated in Gaza to demand that Israel lift its crippling blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory. The protesters massed in the north and the south of the narrow strip of land near border crossings into Israel and Egypt.In Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, some 5,000 people waved Hamas flags and brandished banners proclaiming No to the siege! Hamas is working in a positive manner to end the siege and achieve a truce, Hamas official Yussef al-Shrafi told the crowd.In Rafah, about 1,000 people called for Egypt to open its border crossing, the only one that bypasses Israel.We do not represent a threat to Egypt's security but we ask our brothers to open Rafah and break the siege, said Abu al-Sibbah, a Hamas leader.
Israel imposed its blockade after Hamas seized power in the territory last June.On Thursday, UN agencies suspended aid distribution to Gaza saying they had run out of fuel. A UN envoy urged Israel to allow fuel supplies in and called on Hamas not to prevent its distribution.
IAEA chief hits out at US, Israel over Syrian reactor claims by Simon Morgan APR 25,08
VIENNA (AFP) - The UN atomic watchdog hit out Friday at the United States for withholding intelligence that Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea's help. The International Atomic Energy Agency also criticized Israel for acting on the allegations and bombing the purported reactor in a raid last September without giving IAEA inspectors an opportunity to investigate.The agency insisted it was taking seriously the allegations that were passed on by the United States on Thursday.
(We) will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information, it said in a statement.Syria has an obligation under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility.Nevertheless, the watchdog was critical of both the US and Israel for their handling of the matter.IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei deplores the fact that the information was not immediately passed on the the Vienna-based watchdog in accordance with the guidelines of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),the statement said.Under the NPT, the agency has a responsibility to verify any proliferation allegations in a non-nuclear weapon state party to the NPT, the statement said.In light of the above, the Director General views the unilateral military action by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime, it added.
On Thursday, the US accused Syria of building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea's help, charging that the facility had a military purpose until Israel destroyed it in a September raid.
Damascus immediately rejected the allegations as ridiculous.
The construction of this reactor was a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world. The Syrian regime must come clean before the world, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.In a two-page statement, released after top US national security officials briefed US lawmakers on the issue Thursday, Perino said: We have good reason to believe that reactor ... was not intended for peaceful purposes.A senior US intelligence official said the reactor was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on September 6, 2007 as it was nearing completion, although it had not been loaded with uranium fuel.Israel felt that this reactor posed such an existential threat that a different approach was required, the official said.In a briefing for reporters, senior officials said Israel and the United States had discussed what steps to take, but Israel acted on its own with no green light from Washington.None was asked. None was given, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A senior intelligence official said that before it was destroyed the reactor was ready to go into operation in weeks and possibly months.US intelligence examined but rejected the possibility that plutonium produced by the Syrian reactor was intended for North Korea. Our judgment, based on the overwhelming body of evidence, was this was in Syria for Syria, a senior intelligence official said. Among the evidence displayed were photographs taken inside the reactor showing construction of the shield for the reactor core, and control rods and refueling ports on top of the reactor.
The reactor and the building that housed it were similar in design to the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produces plutonium, the officials said. The Syrian embassy charged that the United States may have helped execute the Israeli air strike and pointedly tied the charges to the widely discredited weapons-of-mass-destruction case for invading Iraq. The Syrian government hopes that the international community and the American public, particularly, will be more cautious and aware this time around in facing such unfounded allegations, it said. The revelations could upset six-country talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear program, although chief US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the intelligence suggested there was no ongoing cooperation between Pyongyang and Syria.
Sarkozy vows no talks with Taliban, Hamas, Iran Fri Apr 25, 1:39 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Thursday that he would not hold talks with Taliban militia in Afghanistan, Hamas in the Palestinian territories nor Iran's president. Signalling a tough stance on some of the world's troublespots and defending his decision to send extra troops to Afghanistan, Sarkozy said that if France abandons the Afghan government Pakistan will fall like a house of cards.We are in Afghanistan next to the Afghans, Sarkozy said in a primetime television interview.Next to Afghanistan there is Pakistan, there is an atomic bomb, he added. If we let Afghanistan fall, Pakistan will fall like a house of cards.
Sarkozy this month announced that France would send an extra 700 troops to Afghanistan but he said this is not a war, as the immense majority of Afghans need the coalition that is there.Sarkozy rejected calls from some quarters for a dialogue with the Taliban, which has fought back against international forces since it was forced from power in late 2001.Opening a dialogue with people who amputate the hand of a woman because she had varnish on her nails, who have stopped millions of little girls from going to school, who brought down Buddhas with hundreds of years of history, who stone a so-called adulterous woman, if it means talking with this outfit, I don't think we have a lot to say.Sarkozy had a similar message for the Hamas leadership and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.I don't think I can speak to Hamas ... because I do not have the right to speak to an organisation which announces that it wants to wipe Israel off the map, he said.I cannot speak with the Iranian president who has announced that he too wants to wipe Israel off.
There are a minimum of principles in our diplomacy, the French leader declared.Sarkozy said that EU aid and money should be given to Palestinian authority president Mahmud Abbas and not to Hamas which rules Gaza.We have to give it to people who understand that there is no future without the recognition of Israel (as) there is no future for Israel without the recognition of a modern, democratic and secure Palestinian state.
President Bush Meets with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority Oval Office APR 24,08 TEXT
Focus: Global Diplomacy 1:51 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thanks for coming. Mr. President, I appreciate a chance to talk about peace. I assured the President that a Palestinian state is a high priority for me and my administration -- a viable state, a state that doesn't look like Swiss cheese, a state that provides hope. It's in -- I believe it's in Israel's interest and the Palestinian people's interest to have leaders willing to work toward the achievement of that state.
The people that can deliver that state, that vision, to the Palestinian people were sitting right here in the Oval Office, led by the President. The President is a man of peace. He's a man of vision. He rejects the idea of using violence to achieve objectives, which distinguishes him from other people in the region. I'm confident we can achieve the definition of a state. I'm also confident it's going to require hard work.
To that end, I'm going back to the Middle East. I'm looking forward to meeting you, sir, and thank you for making time. I consider you a friend. I also consider you a courageous person. And I'm also will -- believe strongly that when history looks back at this moment and a state is defined, that the Palestinian people will thank you for your leadership.
There are a lot of issues we discussed, issues of importance: the security of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, the economic advancement of the Palestinian people. The thing that I'm focused on, and you are, is how to define a state that is acceptable to both sides. I'm confident it can get done. I want to thank you for coming. I appreciate your time.
PRESIDENT ABBAS: Thank you. (As translated.) Mr. President, thank you very much for receiving us here at the White House these days. And I also would like to thank you very much for the initiative that was launched during the Annapolis Conference.
We believe that you actually are truly seeking a true, genuine and lasting peace in the Middle East. And I am certain that you would like to see an agreement and settlement before the end of your term. And at the same time we are doing everything we can in order to seriously negotiate and reach a peace that will be satisfactory to both the Palestinian side and the Israeli side, a peace that would be promoted around the world.
There are many parties also that are working very hard to support our efforts and to help us reach that peace. When I talk about your initiative, Mr. President, I also have to praise the Arab peace initiative, an initiative that simply states that peace will be achieved after the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab and Palestinian Territories. As a result of that, I believe strongly that more than 57 Arab and Islamic countries will normalize their relations with Israel.
I believe very strongly that time is of the essence; we are working very hard and hope not to waste any time and continue these efforts to achieve peace.
Mr. President, your efforts, the efforts of your administration, the various visits -- your previous one and your upcoming visit to Sharm el-Sheikh and to the region, all of this is a strong indication that you are very keen to continue to work very hard and to achieve your vision.
I cannot say that the road to peace is paved with flowers. It is paved with obstacles. But together we will work very hard in order to eliminate those obstacles and achieve peace.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir. Thank you, all. Shokren (inaudible). END 1:58 P.M. EDT
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel dismissed as not serious on Friday a Hamas proposal for a six-month truce in the Gaza Strip, where UN agencies have suspended aid distribution and warned that shortages hurt the peace process. Unfortunately, this appears not to be serious at all, government spokesman Mark Regev said after the Islamist movement that controls Gaza told Egypt on Thursday that it agreed to implement a ceasefire.Hamas called for a six-month truce in Gaza, stressing that the move must be reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive and that Israel must end its crippling blockade of the impoverished territory.Israel responded by saying it would only stop military raids on Gaza after Hamas gives up terrorism and after militants in the territory stop attacking the Jewish state and smuggling in weapons from Egypt.But an official close to Defence Minister Ehud Barak suggested the two sides could still reach some form of tacit truce.In a first stage we demand all groups stop firing rockets. Israel would then be willing to reduce its operations if the calm continues, he told AFP.Hamas said a truce could eventually extend to the occupied West Bank, but Israel has insisted in the past its operations in that region are essential to prevent militants from launching attacks inside the Jewish state.
On Friday, security forces were hunting for a Palestinian militant who killed two guards on the border with the West Bank in an attack jointly claimed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.Egypt has been serving as a go-between in the truce negotiations as Israel considers Hamas a terror group and refuses any direct contacts.The Hamas proposal also states that if Israel rejects a truce, Egypt would open its border with Gaza, which has been mainly closed since Hamas seized control of the territory in June.Cairo has not commented on that assertion.On January 23, Palestinian militants demolished border barriers, allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to flood into Egypt and stock up on vital supplies.Egyptian and Hamas forces resealed the frontier on February 4.A week later, Foreign Minister Ajmed Abul Gheit said Egypt would no longer tolerate Palestinians infiltrating the country from Gaza, and threatened to break the legs of anyone crossing the Rafah border illegally.
Israel allows only limited humanitarian aid into Gaza as part of a blockade aimed at forcing militants to stop rocket attacks.On Friday, thousands of Hamas supporters massed near border crossings in Gaza to protest the embargo.Hamas is working in a positive manner to end the siege and achieve a truce, Hamas official Yussef al-Shrafi told a crowd of about 5,000 people in the northern town of Jabaliya.Humanitarian organisations say the embargo has left Gaza teetering on the brink of disaster. On Thursday, UNRWA halted food distribution to 650,000 people there, saying it no longer had any petrol for its aid trucks. The big picture is there is a peace process going on and this is extremely unhelpful, said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency. Hungry, angry people do not serve the interests of peace; neither do they serve Israel's security interests, he told AFP. Israel accused Hamas of stage-managing the crisis in a bid to stir international condemnation of the Jewish state. On Thursday, a demonstration in Gaza prevented tankers from picking up fuel for UNRWA at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, UN and Israeli officials said. Nahal Oz, which supplies all of Gaza's fuel needs, has opened only a few times since Gaza militants attacked the border installation on April 9, and it remained closed on Friday. Israel accuses Hamas of preventing the distribution of a million litres (260,000 gallons) of fuel stored on the Palestinian side of the terminal. UN special envoy Robert Serry on Friday urged Hamas and Israel to act to avert further suffering of the civilian population.
Hamas ... must ensure conditions to enable the distribution of supplies at Nahal Oz, he said, adding that the Islamists must also end attacks on crossings into Gaza. Israel must restore adequate supplies of diesel and benzene for the civilian population of Gaza in accordance with international law, Serry added.
Israeli military says Palestinian militant kills 2 Israelis By AMI BENTOV, Associated Press Writer APR 25,08
NITZANEI SHALOM, Israel - A Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards early Friday at a factory along the divide between Israel and the West Bank, the military said. Medics pronounced the two middle-aged guards dead at the scene, rescue services said. Troops began combing surrounding areas for traces of the assailant.Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki condemned the attack, saying it was meant to undermine the efforts by the Palestinian government to undertake full security responsibilities in the West Bank. The attack was also meant to embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas while he is in Washington for meetings with U.S. officials, al-Malki said.Any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will have to include an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank to make room for a Palestinian state. For that to happen, Israel says the Palestinians must keep their gunmen in check. Israel has argued that attacks like Friday's prove Palestinian authorities are not yet capable of controlling militants.
This was a clear example of extremism and terrorism by those seeking to foil any prospects for advancing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Israeli government spokesman David Baker said.
Israel's military regularly carries out arrest raids targeting militants in the West Bank, and Israel has refused Palestinian calls to cease such operations and allow Palestinian security forces to take control.A violent offshoot of Abbas' Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to a Palestinian news agency. Two militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said in a phone call and text message to The Associated Press that they had carried out the attack jointly. It's not uncommon for several militant groups to claim responsibility for the same attack, hoping to strengthen their hardline credentials among their people.Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the West Bank city of Jenin, said in a phone call that Friday's attacker crossed into Israel several days ago dressed as a woman and then pretended to be a worker to get close to the factory. He then began shooting and was lightly wounded in an exchange of gunfire but managed to escape, said Abu Mujahed, who gave only his nom de guerre because he is wanted by Israel.The military said the gunman approached the two guards while they were screening workers entering the small industrial zone of Nitzanei Shalom, opened fire and then escaped, the military said.
The industrial zone is located on the line between Israel and the West Bank. It contains five Israeli factories that employ Palestinians.Palestinian security officials in the nearby town of Tulkarem said soldiers moved into the West Bank in force after the attack and set up a checkpoint. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The West Bank is controlled by Abbas' moderate government, which is negotiating a peace deal with Israel. There have been few shooting attacks in the area in recent years.Most current Israeli-Palestinian violence is limited to the Gaza Strip, ruled by Abbas' rivals from Hamas. Israeli troops regularly clash in the coastal territory with militants who attack border positions and fire rockets at Israeli towns.Hamas announced Thursday that it would be prepared to accept a cease-fire with Israel in Gaza, dropping an earlier demand that any truce immediately include the West Bank as well.Hamas wants Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza's border crossings, imposed to weaken Hamas' rule and end the ongoing rocket fire. But Israel fears such a move would allow Hamas, which seized control of Gaza last June, to smuggle in weapons and expand its already considerable arsenal to prepare for a future round of fighting.
Israel expressed skepticism on Friday about Hamas' announcement.
To Israel's dismay, Hamas is not serious. It's playing games, trying to buy time in order to regroup and rearm, said Baker, the government spokesman.There would be no need for Israel's defensive measures if Hamas discontinued its terrorist activities against Israel. Israel will continue to take all measures to defend its civilians, he said. Also Friday, the International Monetary Fund said the Palestinian government was making strides toward fiscal sustainability. The Abbas government has promised international donors to try to reduce spending, especially on the government payroll. The praise came in one of the agency's regular progress reports on the government's performance. The reports are part of a Palestinian development plan underwritten by $7.7 billion in international aid.
Thousands in Gaza protest against Israeli blockade APR 25,08
GAZA (AFP) - Thousands of Hamas supporters on Friday demonstrated in Gaza to demand that Israel lift its crippling blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory. The protesters massed in the north and the south of the narrow strip of land near border crossings into Israel and Egypt.In Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, some 5,000 people waved Hamas flags and brandished banners proclaiming No to the siege! Hamas is working in a positive manner to end the siege and achieve a truce, Hamas official Yussef al-Shrafi told the crowd.In Rafah, about 1,000 people called for Egypt to open its border crossing, the only one that bypasses Israel.We do not represent a threat to Egypt's security but we ask our brothers to open Rafah and break the siege, said Abu al-Sibbah, a Hamas leader.
Israel imposed its blockade after Hamas seized power in the territory last June.On Thursday, UN agencies suspended aid distribution to Gaza saying they had run out of fuel. A UN envoy urged Israel to allow fuel supplies in and called on Hamas not to prevent its distribution.
IAEA chief hits out at US, Israel over Syrian reactor claims by Simon Morgan APR 25,08
VIENNA (AFP) - The UN atomic watchdog hit out Friday at the United States for withholding intelligence that Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea's help. The International Atomic Energy Agency also criticized Israel for acting on the allegations and bombing the purported reactor in a raid last September without giving IAEA inspectors an opportunity to investigate.The agency insisted it was taking seriously the allegations that were passed on by the United States on Thursday.
(We) will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information, it said in a statement.Syria has an obligation under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility.Nevertheless, the watchdog was critical of both the US and Israel for their handling of the matter.IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei deplores the fact that the information was not immediately passed on the the Vienna-based watchdog in accordance with the guidelines of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),the statement said.Under the NPT, the agency has a responsibility to verify any proliferation allegations in a non-nuclear weapon state party to the NPT, the statement said.In light of the above, the Director General views the unilateral military action by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime, it added.
On Thursday, the US accused Syria of building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea's help, charging that the facility had a military purpose until Israel destroyed it in a September raid.
Damascus immediately rejected the allegations as ridiculous.
The construction of this reactor was a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world. The Syrian regime must come clean before the world, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.In a two-page statement, released after top US national security officials briefed US lawmakers on the issue Thursday, Perino said: We have good reason to believe that reactor ... was not intended for peaceful purposes.A senior US intelligence official said the reactor was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on September 6, 2007 as it was nearing completion, although it had not been loaded with uranium fuel.Israel felt that this reactor posed such an existential threat that a different approach was required, the official said.In a briefing for reporters, senior officials said Israel and the United States had discussed what steps to take, but Israel acted on its own with no green light from Washington.None was asked. None was given, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A senior intelligence official said that before it was destroyed the reactor was ready to go into operation in weeks and possibly months.US intelligence examined but rejected the possibility that plutonium produced by the Syrian reactor was intended for North Korea. Our judgment, based on the overwhelming body of evidence, was this was in Syria for Syria, a senior intelligence official said. Among the evidence displayed were photographs taken inside the reactor showing construction of the shield for the reactor core, and control rods and refueling ports on top of the reactor.
The reactor and the building that housed it were similar in design to the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produces plutonium, the officials said. The Syrian embassy charged that the United States may have helped execute the Israeli air strike and pointedly tied the charges to the widely discredited weapons-of-mass-destruction case for invading Iraq. The Syrian government hopes that the international community and the American public, particularly, will be more cautious and aware this time around in facing such unfounded allegations, it said. The revelations could upset six-country talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear program, although chief US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the intelligence suggested there was no ongoing cooperation between Pyongyang and Syria.
Sarkozy vows no talks with Taliban, Hamas, Iran Fri Apr 25, 1:39 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Thursday that he would not hold talks with Taliban militia in Afghanistan, Hamas in the Palestinian territories nor Iran's president. Signalling a tough stance on some of the world's troublespots and defending his decision to send extra troops to Afghanistan, Sarkozy said that if France abandons the Afghan government Pakistan will fall like a house of cards.We are in Afghanistan next to the Afghans, Sarkozy said in a primetime television interview.Next to Afghanistan there is Pakistan, there is an atomic bomb, he added. If we let Afghanistan fall, Pakistan will fall like a house of cards.
Sarkozy this month announced that France would send an extra 700 troops to Afghanistan but he said this is not a war, as the immense majority of Afghans need the coalition that is there.Sarkozy rejected calls from some quarters for a dialogue with the Taliban, which has fought back against international forces since it was forced from power in late 2001.Opening a dialogue with people who amputate the hand of a woman because she had varnish on her nails, who have stopped millions of little girls from going to school, who brought down Buddhas with hundreds of years of history, who stone a so-called adulterous woman, if it means talking with this outfit, I don't think we have a lot to say.Sarkozy had a similar message for the Hamas leadership and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.I don't think I can speak to Hamas ... because I do not have the right to speak to an organisation which announces that it wants to wipe Israel off the map, he said.I cannot speak with the Iranian president who has announced that he too wants to wipe Israel off.
There are a minimum of principles in our diplomacy, the French leader declared.Sarkozy said that EU aid and money should be given to Palestinian authority president Mahmud Abbas and not to Hamas which rules Gaza.We have to give it to people who understand that there is no future without the recognition of Israel (as) there is no future for Israel without the recognition of a modern, democratic and secure Palestinian state.
President Bush Meets with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority Oval Office APR 24,08 TEXT
Focus: Global Diplomacy 1:51 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thanks for coming. Mr. President, I appreciate a chance to talk about peace. I assured the President that a Palestinian state is a high priority for me and my administration -- a viable state, a state that doesn't look like Swiss cheese, a state that provides hope. It's in -- I believe it's in Israel's interest and the Palestinian people's interest to have leaders willing to work toward the achievement of that state.
The people that can deliver that state, that vision, to the Palestinian people were sitting right here in the Oval Office, led by the President. The President is a man of peace. He's a man of vision. He rejects the idea of using violence to achieve objectives, which distinguishes him from other people in the region. I'm confident we can achieve the definition of a state. I'm also confident it's going to require hard work.
To that end, I'm going back to the Middle East. I'm looking forward to meeting you, sir, and thank you for making time. I consider you a friend. I also consider you a courageous person. And I'm also will -- believe strongly that when history looks back at this moment and a state is defined, that the Palestinian people will thank you for your leadership.
There are a lot of issues we discussed, issues of importance: the security of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, the economic advancement of the Palestinian people. The thing that I'm focused on, and you are, is how to define a state that is acceptable to both sides. I'm confident it can get done. I want to thank you for coming. I appreciate your time.
PRESIDENT ABBAS: Thank you. (As translated.) Mr. President, thank you very much for receiving us here at the White House these days. And I also would like to thank you very much for the initiative that was launched during the Annapolis Conference.
We believe that you actually are truly seeking a true, genuine and lasting peace in the Middle East. And I am certain that you would like to see an agreement and settlement before the end of your term. And at the same time we are doing everything we can in order to seriously negotiate and reach a peace that will be satisfactory to both the Palestinian side and the Israeli side, a peace that would be promoted around the world.
There are many parties also that are working very hard to support our efforts and to help us reach that peace. When I talk about your initiative, Mr. President, I also have to praise the Arab peace initiative, an initiative that simply states that peace will be achieved after the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab and Palestinian Territories. As a result of that, I believe strongly that more than 57 Arab and Islamic countries will normalize their relations with Israel.
I believe very strongly that time is of the essence; we are working very hard and hope not to waste any time and continue these efforts to achieve peace.
Mr. President, your efforts, the efforts of your administration, the various visits -- your previous one and your upcoming visit to Sharm el-Sheikh and to the region, all of this is a strong indication that you are very keen to continue to work very hard and to achieve your vision.
I cannot say that the road to peace is paved with flowers. It is paved with obstacles. But together we will work very hard in order to eliminate those obstacles and achieve peace.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir. Thank you, all. Shokren (inaudible). END 1:58 P.M. EDT
Thursday, April 24, 2008
LIMITED TREATY SUGGESTED IN PP
* * * * FLASH TRAFFIC: WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * *
IS THE NEW HAMAS OFFER PROPHETICALLY SIGNIFICANT?
Note: I will be on The Glenn Beck Show on CNN Headline News each night this week discussing current events, Bible prophecy, and Dead Heat. On Friday, Glenn and I will do a one-hour special together.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., April 22, 2008) -- At the end of last night's segment on CNN regarding former President Jimmy Carter's recent meetings with senior Hamas leaders, Glenn Beck asked me whether there was any Biblically prophetic significance to the meeting. It was an important question (and one not usually asked on CNN). While I only had 30 seconds to answer it, allow me to raise a few points.
First, Hamas's offer of a 10 year peace deal with Israel is a new and startling development. I personally don't believe Hamas really wants peace with Israel. What's more, the founding Hamas Charter explicitly rejects all comprehensive peace treaties with the Jews. This is simply a ruse to get Israel to stop assassinating Hamas terrorist leaders and lure Israel into a false sense of security. But that's not the point. The point is that this the first time in history that one of Israel's primary enemies has suggested forging not a comprehensive peace deal in perpetuity, but a peace treaty of a short and specific time frame. Israel's treaty with Egypt signed in 1979 was not a time-limited agreement. Neither was Israel's treaty with Jordan in 1994. The Oslo Agreements were never time-limited. Nor is President Bush's Road Map for Middle East peace. This is a new development. And I suspect the Hamas offer will eventually be taken seriously by the leaders of Israel, the U.N. and the E.U. (perhaps the U.S., too.)
Second, this time-limited peace offer by Hamas is fascinating in that it is completely consistent with Bible prophecy about the last days. In Daniel 9:27, the ancient Hebrew prophet tells us that in the End of Days, an evil leader will make a comprehensive peace deal or covenant with Israel and her many neighbors and enemies. That deal will seem firm, says Daniel, but it will not be forever. It will be for 7 years. According to the Book of Daniel and Revelation, Israel will accept the deal (fatally flawed though it is), but the evil leader will break the deal after 3 1/2 years, invade Israel, set up a global empire, and eventually trigger the War of Armageddon. Let me be clear: while Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al is without question an evil leader who seeks nothing less that the liberation of Jerusalem for radical Islam and the liquidation of all Jews and Christians in the Holy Land, I am not saying he is the evil leader of which Daniel writes. But Mash'al's proposal has now injected something new and Biblically significant into the Middle East peace process equation -- the element of a time-limited deal. Very interesting.
Third, in my new political thriller, Dead Heat, I write about this exact scenario of a time-limited peace deal between Israel and her enemies. On page 167, my fictional U.N. Secretary General says: We need to win the Israelis' confidence. We need them to lower their guard. Their Zionist ideology is exhausted. Their political leaders are feckless. Their diplomatic leaders are so desperate to be loved, to be accepted by the rest of the world, they're willing to give away almost anything. But we must not make the ridiculous mistakes of the past. We must not threaten Israel with war. We must invite them to make peace. We must not turn our backs to them. We must offer them an open hand. We must not boycott them....We must shock them. We must offer them a comprehensive peace treaty, the likes of which the world has never seen before. We must lure them into feeling safe and secure. We must lull them into trusting us, into trusting me...And then, when all this has been accomplished, when the time is right, you and I will make our move. We will seize Jerusalem. We will raze the Temple....But not now. We're not ready -- yet. Then, on p. 371 of Dead Heat, my fictional Israeli Prime Minister says: The world is suddenly very unstable and Israel, I'm afraid, is suddenly very vulnerable. [The U.N. Secretary General] is suggesting we go from Rome to Babylon and have some time alone with [the leader of Iraq]. He wants us to hammer out some kind of fast regional peace treaty -- even a temporary one, something that might last five or ten years, or so....To be honest, given all that's happening, I'm inclined to say yes.
Fourth, watch carefully to see if this concept of a time-limited Arab-Israeli peace deal gains traction. I wrote about a fictional deal like this in Dead Heat because it seemed like a plausible geopolitical scenario to get us to the Biblical prophecy of a 7-year Middle East peace deal. But until this week, no one in real life had ever talked seriously about a limited time frame for a peace deal with Israel. Now Israel's most dangerous immediate neighbor has, assisted by the architect of the Camp David Peace Accords. What's more, President Bush says he is optimistic that an Israeli-Palestinian deal can be struck by the end of 2008. Perhaps prophetic events are moving faster than most Americans think.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE GLENN BECK SHOW
CNN Headline News
Monday, April 21, 2008
BECK: Call me an optimist but honestly, I didn`t think the news could get any worse. And then Jimmy Carter showed up. Let me just remind you, Jimmy Carter, horrible president. But at least we only had to deal with his energy crisis, his Iran hostage crisis, and the -- oh, yes, the economic crisis for four years. Thank goodness for Ronald Reagan. I don`t think America could have survived a second Carter term. But now I feel Jimmy Carter may actually do more harm as a former president than he did as president. And that`s saying something.I think it`s great that Jimmy Carter likes to build houses for the poor. No, I really do. But when he stops being a carpenter and starts thinking, Hey, maybe I`ll be a peacemaker, I kind of feel like boycotting peanuts. How about you?Carter has just ended his Middle East peace trip. And he says now -- and he`s bringing home a souvenir, an agreement from the terrorist group Hamas, that says, they`ll accept a peaceful co-existence with Israel. Oh, that`s great. And I believe them. This is -- even though they refuse to officially recognize Israel as a nation. And they still proclaim that they want Israel wiped off the map, which is weird because it seems like the second part negates the first part of that. But I`m sure Jim has got that all figured out. So to sum up, Jimmy Carter is a stooge. Is this just another argument against him or is this a sign of what some people have been waiting for, for like, say, the last 2,000 years.Joel Rosenberg is the author of Dead Heat and the founder of the Joshua Fund. He`ll be joining me all week to answer some of these questions about the Middle East and the end of days -- Joel.
JOEL ROSENBERG, AUTHOR, DEAD HEAT: Hey, Glenn, how are you?
BECK: Very good. President/preacher boy, Jimmy Carter, doesn`t seem to understand a little something I like to call evil.
ROSENBERG: He doesn`t. This president is literally the worst ex- president we`ve ever had. And he displayed it this week. He literally doesn`t understand the difference between good and evil.And you know, look, Hamas is a terrorist organization. They`re a genocidal organization. You read the founding document of the Hamas charter, back in 1988, 89. Read it. It says, Under no circumstances will we allow a peace treaty between us and the Jews, the Zionists. We`re going to wipe them off the face of the planet.
BECK: Well, that`s 1987 -- 1988. Those are old details. Why do you keep bringing up the past like that?
ROSENBERG: Well, because just this year, Hamas television is running cartoons of Asud (ph) the bunny. Assud the Bunny is claiming he will eat all the Jews in Palestine in order to liberate the homeland of Palestine.
BECK: It`s a bunny.
ROSENBERG: This is just the type of examples of how they are inciting children, not to mention adults, for genocide. Genocide is what Hamas wants. Carter doesn`t understand this.
BECK: Joel, children know the difference that a cartoon bunny is not going to eat all the Jews.
ROSENBERG: Well -- and yet the Hamas leaders are raising terrorists, suicide bombers.I mean, look, the problem is. And I make this point in Dead Heat the central theme of my political thriller, which is to misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it.
BECK: You know, the last time we failed to recognize evil, we failed to recognize evil in Germany. And we waited and we waited. And we said, Oh, well they don`t really mean that. They were very clear. Anybody who read Mein Kampf, you can`t deny that, you know -- look, I`m of German descent. I remember when I went in and bought Mein Kampf. Because I wanted to know if the German people really knew or not.If you read Mein Kampf, you have no excuse. He was extraordinarily clear on how he felt about the Jews. And it`s the same thing that`s happening now. And yet all of these people are just in absolute denial. Jimmy Carter, he`s got to be an anti-Semite.
ROSENBERG: You know, look, I think often of the Jerry Seinfeld episode where George Costanza -- where Jerry says, Look, George if every instinct you`ve ever had is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right. And I look at Jimmy Carter. And any instinct that he has had in foreign policy has always been wrong.
BECK: No.
ROSENBERG: And we have to just do the exact opposite. I mean this is -- look, if you read Mein Kampf in 1939, and you said, Well, Hitler wrote that years ago. What does that have to do with becoming final solution? Come 1945, everybody understood that.
BECK: OK. So let me change gears real quick. Because we`re spending time with you, because I read Dead Heat, and it`s fantastic. And I know your other books have -- have, in a way, come true. Some of the things that you`ve written about, and 9/11 was one of them. You predicted the planes and everything else.I want to talk to you a little bit about. Jeez, and I`m getting a 30- second. Quick, let`s tie it into the end time. Any sign of the end times here in anything of this stuff with Hamas and peace deals?
ROSENBERG: Well, what`s weird about this right now is that Hamas -- what Carter is coming home is saying Hamas is allowing for a ten-year hudna, a 10-year truce. In other words, Hamas won`t say they recognize Israel. But for ten years, let`s cut a deal. Let`s create a Palestinian state, and we`ll have ten years of semi-peace.What`s interesting about this is this may set into motion -- I don`t know. But it may set in motion what the Bible talks about: a seven-year peace deal in which the leader that signs the deal with Israel then breaks the deal halfway through. This comes from Daniel, comes from Revelations.
BECK: OK. Joel, we`ll talk to you more about that later on this week. Every night, join us as he joins us. And again, Dead Heat is a phenomenal book.
IS THE NEW HAMAS OFFER PROPHETICALLY SIGNIFICANT?
Note: I will be on The Glenn Beck Show on CNN Headline News each night this week discussing current events, Bible prophecy, and Dead Heat. On Friday, Glenn and I will do a one-hour special together.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., April 22, 2008) -- At the end of last night's segment on CNN regarding former President Jimmy Carter's recent meetings with senior Hamas leaders, Glenn Beck asked me whether there was any Biblically prophetic significance to the meeting. It was an important question (and one not usually asked on CNN). While I only had 30 seconds to answer it, allow me to raise a few points.
First, Hamas's offer of a 10 year peace deal with Israel is a new and startling development. I personally don't believe Hamas really wants peace with Israel. What's more, the founding Hamas Charter explicitly rejects all comprehensive peace treaties with the Jews. This is simply a ruse to get Israel to stop assassinating Hamas terrorist leaders and lure Israel into a false sense of security. But that's not the point. The point is that this the first time in history that one of Israel's primary enemies has suggested forging not a comprehensive peace deal in perpetuity, but a peace treaty of a short and specific time frame. Israel's treaty with Egypt signed in 1979 was not a time-limited agreement. Neither was Israel's treaty with Jordan in 1994. The Oslo Agreements were never time-limited. Nor is President Bush's Road Map for Middle East peace. This is a new development. And I suspect the Hamas offer will eventually be taken seriously by the leaders of Israel, the U.N. and the E.U. (perhaps the U.S., too.)
Second, this time-limited peace offer by Hamas is fascinating in that it is completely consistent with Bible prophecy about the last days. In Daniel 9:27, the ancient Hebrew prophet tells us that in the End of Days, an evil leader will make a comprehensive peace deal or covenant with Israel and her many neighbors and enemies. That deal will seem firm, says Daniel, but it will not be forever. It will be for 7 years. According to the Book of Daniel and Revelation, Israel will accept the deal (fatally flawed though it is), but the evil leader will break the deal after 3 1/2 years, invade Israel, set up a global empire, and eventually trigger the War of Armageddon. Let me be clear: while Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al is without question an evil leader who seeks nothing less that the liberation of Jerusalem for radical Islam and the liquidation of all Jews and Christians in the Holy Land, I am not saying he is the evil leader of which Daniel writes. But Mash'al's proposal has now injected something new and Biblically significant into the Middle East peace process equation -- the element of a time-limited deal. Very interesting.
Third, in my new political thriller, Dead Heat, I write about this exact scenario of a time-limited peace deal between Israel and her enemies. On page 167, my fictional U.N. Secretary General says: We need to win the Israelis' confidence. We need them to lower their guard. Their Zionist ideology is exhausted. Their political leaders are feckless. Their diplomatic leaders are so desperate to be loved, to be accepted by the rest of the world, they're willing to give away almost anything. But we must not make the ridiculous mistakes of the past. We must not threaten Israel with war. We must invite them to make peace. We must not turn our backs to them. We must offer them an open hand. We must not boycott them....We must shock them. We must offer them a comprehensive peace treaty, the likes of which the world has never seen before. We must lure them into feeling safe and secure. We must lull them into trusting us, into trusting me...And then, when all this has been accomplished, when the time is right, you and I will make our move. We will seize Jerusalem. We will raze the Temple....But not now. We're not ready -- yet. Then, on p. 371 of Dead Heat, my fictional Israeli Prime Minister says: The world is suddenly very unstable and Israel, I'm afraid, is suddenly very vulnerable. [The U.N. Secretary General] is suggesting we go from Rome to Babylon and have some time alone with [the leader of Iraq]. He wants us to hammer out some kind of fast regional peace treaty -- even a temporary one, something that might last five or ten years, or so....To be honest, given all that's happening, I'm inclined to say yes.
Fourth, watch carefully to see if this concept of a time-limited Arab-Israeli peace deal gains traction. I wrote about a fictional deal like this in Dead Heat because it seemed like a plausible geopolitical scenario to get us to the Biblical prophecy of a 7-year Middle East peace deal. But until this week, no one in real life had ever talked seriously about a limited time frame for a peace deal with Israel. Now Israel's most dangerous immediate neighbor has, assisted by the architect of the Camp David Peace Accords. What's more, President Bush says he is optimistic that an Israeli-Palestinian deal can be struck by the end of 2008. Perhaps prophetic events are moving faster than most Americans think.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE GLENN BECK SHOW
CNN Headline News
Monday, April 21, 2008
BECK: Call me an optimist but honestly, I didn`t think the news could get any worse. And then Jimmy Carter showed up. Let me just remind you, Jimmy Carter, horrible president. But at least we only had to deal with his energy crisis, his Iran hostage crisis, and the -- oh, yes, the economic crisis for four years. Thank goodness for Ronald Reagan. I don`t think America could have survived a second Carter term. But now I feel Jimmy Carter may actually do more harm as a former president than he did as president. And that`s saying something.I think it`s great that Jimmy Carter likes to build houses for the poor. No, I really do. But when he stops being a carpenter and starts thinking, Hey, maybe I`ll be a peacemaker, I kind of feel like boycotting peanuts. How about you?Carter has just ended his Middle East peace trip. And he says now -- and he`s bringing home a souvenir, an agreement from the terrorist group Hamas, that says, they`ll accept a peaceful co-existence with Israel. Oh, that`s great. And I believe them. This is -- even though they refuse to officially recognize Israel as a nation. And they still proclaim that they want Israel wiped off the map, which is weird because it seems like the second part negates the first part of that. But I`m sure Jim has got that all figured out. So to sum up, Jimmy Carter is a stooge. Is this just another argument against him or is this a sign of what some people have been waiting for, for like, say, the last 2,000 years.Joel Rosenberg is the author of Dead Heat and the founder of the Joshua Fund. He`ll be joining me all week to answer some of these questions about the Middle East and the end of days -- Joel.
JOEL ROSENBERG, AUTHOR, DEAD HEAT: Hey, Glenn, how are you?
BECK: Very good. President/preacher boy, Jimmy Carter, doesn`t seem to understand a little something I like to call evil.
ROSENBERG: He doesn`t. This president is literally the worst ex- president we`ve ever had. And he displayed it this week. He literally doesn`t understand the difference between good and evil.And you know, look, Hamas is a terrorist organization. They`re a genocidal organization. You read the founding document of the Hamas charter, back in 1988, 89. Read it. It says, Under no circumstances will we allow a peace treaty between us and the Jews, the Zionists. We`re going to wipe them off the face of the planet.
BECK: Well, that`s 1987 -- 1988. Those are old details. Why do you keep bringing up the past like that?
ROSENBERG: Well, because just this year, Hamas television is running cartoons of Asud (ph) the bunny. Assud the Bunny is claiming he will eat all the Jews in Palestine in order to liberate the homeland of Palestine.
BECK: It`s a bunny.
ROSENBERG: This is just the type of examples of how they are inciting children, not to mention adults, for genocide. Genocide is what Hamas wants. Carter doesn`t understand this.
BECK: Joel, children know the difference that a cartoon bunny is not going to eat all the Jews.
ROSENBERG: Well -- and yet the Hamas leaders are raising terrorists, suicide bombers.I mean, look, the problem is. And I make this point in Dead Heat the central theme of my political thriller, which is to misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it.
BECK: You know, the last time we failed to recognize evil, we failed to recognize evil in Germany. And we waited and we waited. And we said, Oh, well they don`t really mean that. They were very clear. Anybody who read Mein Kampf, you can`t deny that, you know -- look, I`m of German descent. I remember when I went in and bought Mein Kampf. Because I wanted to know if the German people really knew or not.If you read Mein Kampf, you have no excuse. He was extraordinarily clear on how he felt about the Jews. And it`s the same thing that`s happening now. And yet all of these people are just in absolute denial. Jimmy Carter, he`s got to be an anti-Semite.
ROSENBERG: You know, look, I think often of the Jerry Seinfeld episode where George Costanza -- where Jerry says, Look, George if every instinct you`ve ever had is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right. And I look at Jimmy Carter. And any instinct that he has had in foreign policy has always been wrong.
BECK: No.
ROSENBERG: And we have to just do the exact opposite. I mean this is -- look, if you read Mein Kampf in 1939, and you said, Well, Hitler wrote that years ago. What does that have to do with becoming final solution? Come 1945, everybody understood that.
BECK: OK. So let me change gears real quick. Because we`re spending time with you, because I read Dead Heat, and it`s fantastic. And I know your other books have -- have, in a way, come true. Some of the things that you`ve written about, and 9/11 was one of them. You predicted the planes and everything else.I want to talk to you a little bit about. Jeez, and I`m getting a 30- second. Quick, let`s tie it into the end time. Any sign of the end times here in anything of this stuff with Hamas and peace deals?
ROSENBERG: Well, what`s weird about this right now is that Hamas -- what Carter is coming home is saying Hamas is allowing for a ten-year hudna, a 10-year truce. In other words, Hamas won`t say they recognize Israel. But for ten years, let`s cut a deal. Let`s create a Palestinian state, and we`ll have ten years of semi-peace.What`s interesting about this is this may set into motion -- I don`t know. But it may set in motion what the Bible talks about: a seven-year peace deal in which the leader that signs the deal with Israel then breaks the deal halfway through. This comes from Daniel, comes from Revelations.
BECK: OK. Joel, we`ll talk to you more about that later on this week. Every night, join us as he joins us. And again, Dead Heat is a phenomenal book.
Monday, April 21, 2008
OBAMA FAULTS, BUSH, CLINTON ON MIDEAST
Report: Syria, Israel trade messages on possible peace talks By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 20, 8:11 PM ET
DAMASCUS, Syria - Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday he has exchanged messages with Israel through a third party to explore the possibility of resuming peace talks, the country's official news agency reported. During a meeting with ruling Baath Party officials, Assad commented on media reports about indirect contact between the two countries.There are efforts exerted in this direction, he was quoted as saying by SANA.An Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, on Thursday quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying Israel and Syria have been exchanging messages to clarify expectations for any future peace treaty. He did not disclose the content of the messages or provide other details about the contacts.The paper quoted Olmert as saying, They know what we want from them, and I know full well what they want from us.Assad echoed those comments on Sunday, saying Israel knows well what is accepted and not accepted by Syria.But he also rejected having any secret direct talks or contacts with Israel.
Anything Syria does in this regard will be announced to the public, Assad was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate.Negotiations broke off in 2000 after Syria rejected Israel's offer to return the Golan Heights, which it captured in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed.Syria wanted Israel to withdraw to the prewar line on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. But Israel was not prepared to give up any control of the lake that provides about half of the country's drinking water.Despite the peace overtures, tensions have been high between the two countries in recent months, largely stemming from an Israeli air attack on a Syrian military facility in September. Some foreign reports have said the target was a nuclear installation Syria was building with North Korean assistance.Damascus denies having a nuclear program, and North Korea says it was not involved in any such project. Syria did not retaliate for the attack.Both Syria and Israel have expressed a willingness to renew talks since Israel's war against the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia in 2006. Olmert has insisted that if Syria is serious about peace, Damascus must withdraw its support for Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Abbas to discuss Israel-Palestinian peace with Bush By Wafa Amr Sun Apr 20, 5:59 PM ET
TUNIS (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday he would consult President George W. Bush this week on ways to advance peace talks so that a deal with Israel can be reached by the end of the year. Abbas, speaking during a visit to Tunisia from where he travels to Washington on Tuesday, said he does not want the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian talks, shrouded in secrecy, to end with a vague declaration of principles.I will focus in my talks with President Bush and American officials on the negotiations and on ending talks with an agreement this year, Abbas told reporters.
The Palestinian president said he wants a framework deal that would outline the way sensitive final status issues can be resolved to establish a Palestinian state.Palestinian officials have said that peace talks on issues including the fate of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees and borders, have shown no real signs of progress since their launch late last year.Bush, who is set to visit Israel in May to celebrate the Jewish state's 60th anniversary, said at the summit in Annapolis, Maryland last November that he wanted the sides to reach a deal before he leaves office early in 2009.Abbas said he will meet Bush on Thursday and will also have two meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to review progress in the talks.I'm not saying we will end up with agreement but we will try to meet the target date of having a deal by the end of this year, he said.Abbas warned against missing the window of opportunity for making peace this year and said that if this year ends without an agreement, we will face very difficult times.
SUGGESTIONS FROM BUSH
Senior aides traveling with Abbas said he was hoping to hear Bush's suggestions on ways to save the peace process as they were concerned that the year-end target would lapse.President Abbas is not going to Washington to complain but to review the talks five months after Annapolis and to see how things can be moved forward, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.The Palestinians also said that Washington has so far refrained from pressuring Israel to advance the process.We will tell the Americans we don't expect them to pressure Israel, but we want them to be fair, Abbas said.Israeli negotiators headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian negotiators led by Ahmed Qurie had been meeting regularly to discuss all the issues, he added.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier this month it would be possible to reach understandings with the Palestinians this year that would lead to a future Palestinian state, but added, I don't see any chance that we can implement an agreement in the coming period.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said President Bush believes that Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas are committed to getting an agreement this year.Israeli officials have said that even if a deal was reached, it would not be implemented as long as the Gaza Strip is run by militant Hamas Islamists who seized the territory from Abbas's Fatah faction almost a year ago. (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Ori Lewis and Keith Weir)
I WROTE TO OBAMA AND ASKED HIM IF HE WOULD HELP ISRAEL OR STICK UP FOR THE ARABS IN THE PEACE PROCESS. I JUST GOT A RESPONSE, WE HAVE TO MANY E-MAILS TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.
Obama faults Presidents Bush, Clinton on Mideast Sun Apr 20, 4:19 PM ET
READING, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - White House hopeful Barack Obama on Sunday criticized both President George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton for waiting too long to make a big push to achieve Middle East peace. Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, said he would pursue an active diplomacy from the beginning to try to reach a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.Campaigning in Reading, Pennsylvania, Obama was asked his view on former President Jimmy Carter's meetings with leaders of the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas during a trip to the Middle East that began a week ago.I actually disagree with him on his meeting with Hamas, Obama said.Obama is vying with former first lady Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and the right to run against Republican Sen. John McCain in the November presidential election.
On the other hand, what I also disagree with is a habit of American presidents which is every president in their last year, they finally decide, we're going to try to broker a peace deal, Obama added. Bill Clinton did it in his last year and he ran out of time. George Bush tried to do it.The peace conference launched in Annapolis, Maryland, in November marked a shift for Republican Bush, who previously had avoided a hands-on role in Middle East peace negotiations.Democrat Bill Clinton's attempts at Middle East peace included the summit he hosted at the Wye River near Washington in 1998. In 2000, his final year in office, he invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to Camp David for a summit to resolve disputes but the talks ended in crisis.Obama said the Annapolis process has initiated some useful discussions but, why didn't they start at the beginning of the term instead of at the end of the term? I think that we do have to move forward on active diplomacy and I do believe that diplomacy has to involve all the Arab states in the region, he said.
Although he disagreed with Carter's decision to meet Hamas, Obama credited the former president, a Democrat, with achieving significant progress on the peace effort during his time in the White House. Carter hosted talks at Camp David that led to the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Official: Carter briefs Jordan's king on Hamas meetings By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 20, 1:44 PM ET
AMMAN, Jordan - Former President Carter briefed Jordan's king Sunday on his controversial talks with the exiled militant Hamas leader, a Royal Palace official said. But King Abdullah II chose to focus their meeting on the faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace process rather than Carter's dealings with Hamas, which has frosty relations with Jordan, said the official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.Carter held talks with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and his deputy in Syria on Friday and Saturday — defying U.S. and Israeli warnings that doing so would lend legitimacy to the group, responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed some 250 Israelis.Jordan also accuses Hamas of stockpiling and concealing weapons in the kingdom with the intention of using them to destabilize the pro-U.S. government.Hamas officials said they talked with Carter about an internationally backed Israeli embargo on Gaza and a possible Israel-Hamas prisoner swap.
Carter, who brokered the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace, is trying to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. But Hamas has said Shalit would not see the light until Palestinian prisoners are also released in an exchange.Hamas also did not respond to Carter's requests that it halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns and agree to talk to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishak about a prisoner exchange.Abdullah's closed-door talks with Carter came as Israel killed seven Hamas militants in a series of air strikes after the group detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives at an Israeli crossing on the Gaza border.It was not immediately known what Carter said to Abdullah about his talks with Mashaal. Carter, who has said he is on a personal peace mission, has not publicly commented since being in Syria.According to a statement released by the Royal Palace, Abdullah discussed with Carter ways to help Palestinians and Israelis continue their negotiations on final status issues leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.The king also urged Israel to abandon its siege (of the Gaza Strip) and settlement expansion, the statement said.Carter will be in Jerusalem on Monday for the final stop on his Mideast tour.
DAMASCUS, Syria - Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday he has exchanged messages with Israel through a third party to explore the possibility of resuming peace talks, the country's official news agency reported. During a meeting with ruling Baath Party officials, Assad commented on media reports about indirect contact between the two countries.There are efforts exerted in this direction, he was quoted as saying by SANA.An Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, on Thursday quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying Israel and Syria have been exchanging messages to clarify expectations for any future peace treaty. He did not disclose the content of the messages or provide other details about the contacts.The paper quoted Olmert as saying, They know what we want from them, and I know full well what they want from us.Assad echoed those comments on Sunday, saying Israel knows well what is accepted and not accepted by Syria.But he also rejected having any secret direct talks or contacts with Israel.
Anything Syria does in this regard will be announced to the public, Assad was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate.Negotiations broke off in 2000 after Syria rejected Israel's offer to return the Golan Heights, which it captured in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed.Syria wanted Israel to withdraw to the prewar line on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. But Israel was not prepared to give up any control of the lake that provides about half of the country's drinking water.Despite the peace overtures, tensions have been high between the two countries in recent months, largely stemming from an Israeli air attack on a Syrian military facility in September. Some foreign reports have said the target was a nuclear installation Syria was building with North Korean assistance.Damascus denies having a nuclear program, and North Korea says it was not involved in any such project. Syria did not retaliate for the attack.Both Syria and Israel have expressed a willingness to renew talks since Israel's war against the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia in 2006. Olmert has insisted that if Syria is serious about peace, Damascus must withdraw its support for Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Abbas to discuss Israel-Palestinian peace with Bush By Wafa Amr Sun Apr 20, 5:59 PM ET
TUNIS (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday he would consult President George W. Bush this week on ways to advance peace talks so that a deal with Israel can be reached by the end of the year. Abbas, speaking during a visit to Tunisia from where he travels to Washington on Tuesday, said he does not want the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian talks, shrouded in secrecy, to end with a vague declaration of principles.I will focus in my talks with President Bush and American officials on the negotiations and on ending talks with an agreement this year, Abbas told reporters.
The Palestinian president said he wants a framework deal that would outline the way sensitive final status issues can be resolved to establish a Palestinian state.Palestinian officials have said that peace talks on issues including the fate of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees and borders, have shown no real signs of progress since their launch late last year.Bush, who is set to visit Israel in May to celebrate the Jewish state's 60th anniversary, said at the summit in Annapolis, Maryland last November that he wanted the sides to reach a deal before he leaves office early in 2009.Abbas said he will meet Bush on Thursday and will also have two meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to review progress in the talks.I'm not saying we will end up with agreement but we will try to meet the target date of having a deal by the end of this year, he said.Abbas warned against missing the window of opportunity for making peace this year and said that if this year ends without an agreement, we will face very difficult times.
SUGGESTIONS FROM BUSH
Senior aides traveling with Abbas said he was hoping to hear Bush's suggestions on ways to save the peace process as they were concerned that the year-end target would lapse.President Abbas is not going to Washington to complain but to review the talks five months after Annapolis and to see how things can be moved forward, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.The Palestinians also said that Washington has so far refrained from pressuring Israel to advance the process.We will tell the Americans we don't expect them to pressure Israel, but we want them to be fair, Abbas said.Israeli negotiators headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian negotiators led by Ahmed Qurie had been meeting regularly to discuss all the issues, he added.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier this month it would be possible to reach understandings with the Palestinians this year that would lead to a future Palestinian state, but added, I don't see any chance that we can implement an agreement in the coming period.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said President Bush believes that Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas are committed to getting an agreement this year.Israeli officials have said that even if a deal was reached, it would not be implemented as long as the Gaza Strip is run by militant Hamas Islamists who seized the territory from Abbas's Fatah faction almost a year ago. (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Ori Lewis and Keith Weir)
I WROTE TO OBAMA AND ASKED HIM IF HE WOULD HELP ISRAEL OR STICK UP FOR THE ARABS IN THE PEACE PROCESS. I JUST GOT A RESPONSE, WE HAVE TO MANY E-MAILS TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.
Obama faults Presidents Bush, Clinton on Mideast Sun Apr 20, 4:19 PM ET
READING, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - White House hopeful Barack Obama on Sunday criticized both President George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton for waiting too long to make a big push to achieve Middle East peace. Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, said he would pursue an active diplomacy from the beginning to try to reach a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.Campaigning in Reading, Pennsylvania, Obama was asked his view on former President Jimmy Carter's meetings with leaders of the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas during a trip to the Middle East that began a week ago.I actually disagree with him on his meeting with Hamas, Obama said.Obama is vying with former first lady Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and the right to run against Republican Sen. John McCain in the November presidential election.
On the other hand, what I also disagree with is a habit of American presidents which is every president in their last year, they finally decide, we're going to try to broker a peace deal, Obama added. Bill Clinton did it in his last year and he ran out of time. George Bush tried to do it.The peace conference launched in Annapolis, Maryland, in November marked a shift for Republican Bush, who previously had avoided a hands-on role in Middle East peace negotiations.Democrat Bill Clinton's attempts at Middle East peace included the summit he hosted at the Wye River near Washington in 1998. In 2000, his final year in office, he invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to Camp David for a summit to resolve disputes but the talks ended in crisis.Obama said the Annapolis process has initiated some useful discussions but, why didn't they start at the beginning of the term instead of at the end of the term? I think that we do have to move forward on active diplomacy and I do believe that diplomacy has to involve all the Arab states in the region, he said.
Although he disagreed with Carter's decision to meet Hamas, Obama credited the former president, a Democrat, with achieving significant progress on the peace effort during his time in the White House. Carter hosted talks at Camp David that led to the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Official: Carter briefs Jordan's king on Hamas meetings By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 20, 1:44 PM ET
AMMAN, Jordan - Former President Carter briefed Jordan's king Sunday on his controversial talks with the exiled militant Hamas leader, a Royal Palace official said. But King Abdullah II chose to focus their meeting on the faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace process rather than Carter's dealings with Hamas, which has frosty relations with Jordan, said the official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.Carter held talks with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and his deputy in Syria on Friday and Saturday — defying U.S. and Israeli warnings that doing so would lend legitimacy to the group, responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed some 250 Israelis.Jordan also accuses Hamas of stockpiling and concealing weapons in the kingdom with the intention of using them to destabilize the pro-U.S. government.Hamas officials said they talked with Carter about an internationally backed Israeli embargo on Gaza and a possible Israel-Hamas prisoner swap.
Carter, who brokered the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace, is trying to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. But Hamas has said Shalit would not see the light until Palestinian prisoners are also released in an exchange.Hamas also did not respond to Carter's requests that it halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns and agree to talk to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishak about a prisoner exchange.Abdullah's closed-door talks with Carter came as Israel killed seven Hamas militants in a series of air strikes after the group detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives at an Israeli crossing on the Gaza border.It was not immediately known what Carter said to Abdullah about his talks with Mashaal. Carter, who has said he is on a personal peace mission, has not publicly commented since being in Syria.According to a statement released by the Royal Palace, Abdullah discussed with Carter ways to help Palestinians and Israelis continue their negotiations on final status issues leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.The king also urged Israel to abandon its siege (of the Gaza Strip) and settlement expansion, the statement said.Carter will be in Jerusalem on Monday for the final stop on his Mideast tour.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
SACRIFICE UPDATE IN ISRAEL
EXODUS 12:1-20 King James Bible
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,
2 This month (NISAN) shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month (NISAN) they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
TODAY IS NISAN 12TH IN ISRAEL.
I'M KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON THIS STORY TO SEE IF THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE GET PERMISSION TO DO THE OFFICIAL SACRIFICE.
News Update:Temple Movements Request Passover Sacrifice
reprinted from Arutz 7
6 Nissan 5768, 11 April 08 01:17
(IsraelNN.com) Organizations dedicated to rebuilding the Temple submitted a request to the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday asking to be allowed to hold the Passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount. The groups named Jerusalem District Police Commander Aharon Franco, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, the state of Israel, and the Muslim Waqf in a suit alleging racist discrimination.
The organizations are demanding that those named in their suit stop preventing Jews from accessing the Temple Mount, refrain from bothering Jews who attempt to enter the area, and prevent inappropriate behavior. The groups mentioned a recent incident in which Muslim youths played soccer on the Temple Mount as an example of such behavior.
The groups said allowing them to access the Temple Mount would be a victory for freedom of religion. Forbidding Jews from holding their religious ceremonies on the Temple Mount is racism, they said.
AT LEAST THEY GOT TO DO A PRACTICE SACRIFICE THE COURT ALLOWED THAT AT LEAST.
HERE IS THE ACTUAL SACRIFICE OF THE LAMB ON APRIL 08,08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVV2pGInuW4&feature=related
THIS WILL BE TAKING PLACE SHORTLY IN THE REBUILT THIRD TEMPLE PRAISE THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD KING JESUS.
Jerusalem Court Rules for Jewish Temple Movement
reprinted from Arutz 7
1 Nissan 5768, 06 April 08 09:40
(IsraelNN.com) A Jerusalem court ruled Friday that the Jewish Temple movement could slaughter a sheep on Sunday as a general rehearsal for the renewal of the Pesach (Passover) sacrifice. Animal rights group Tnoo Lachayot Lichyot (Let the Animals Live) had argued that the planned slaughter constituted illegal cruelty to an animal.
In her ruling, judge Hagit Mac-Kalmanovich said, I was not convinced by the argument that the given event would cause the animal more pain and suffering than the accepted methods of slaughter in slaughterhouses. She rejected the group's comparison of the planned slaughter to illegal fights between animals, pointing out that only one animal was involved, and that it would not be harmed in any way prior to the actual slaughter. The event must be allowed under laws protecting freedom of religion, she concluded.
Carter meets Hamas leaders in Egypt by Jailan Zayan APR 17,08
CAIRO (AFP) - Jimmy Carter met a Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip in Cairo on Thursday after Israel barred the former US president from visiting the Palestinian territory. The delegation, which includes leaders Mahmud Zahar and Said Siam and four others, went into the meeting with Carter at a Cairo hotel amid heavy security, an AFP correspondent reported.Ahead of the talks, Hamas coordinator in Cairo Ibrahim al-Darrawy said that Carter, who has been snubbed by Israel and criticised by the US administration for wanting to meet Hamas, is well disposed and we need that.Carter had lunch with President Hosni Mubarak before the meeting amid ongoing Egyptian efforts to broker a truce between the Islamists and Israel.
The chances of such a truce hammening have been reduced by unrest in the Gaza Strip where violence on Wednesday killed 18 Palestinians, including a cameraman for an international news agency, and three Israeli soldiers.The Hamas delegation, which drove to Cairo from the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday, will inform Carter about the situation in the Gaza Strip and tell him that Hamas is a national liberation movement, Darrawy told AFP.On his arrival in Egypt, hardline Hamas leader Zahar hailed the upcoming talks.President Carter can break all the Israeli restraints that they want to place between him and Hamas and so we and our brothers in Damascus are determined to meet with him, he said.The former president is expected to meet exiled Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Friday.Zahar and Siam are considered hardline Hamas leaders who planned the violent takeover of Gaza from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June.The delegation is also due to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to discuss a possible ceasefire with Israel, reopening the Rafah crossing, and the fate of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace prize, on Sunday began a nine-day tour of the region to promote the Middle East peace process.Israeli political leaders snubbed him over his plans to talk with Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by the Jewish state as well as by the United States and European Union.Carter said Israel denied him permission to travel to the Gaza Strip. Israel sealed its borders with Gaza after Hamas took control of the territory.
Carter, who insists he is not acting as a mediator, has been urging talks with Hamas and Syria, saying a Middle East peace accord cannot be reached without them.Washington has said the former president is acting in a personal capacity.After two days in Egypt, Carter is due to travel to Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
White House: Carter, Hamas meeting not useful APR 17,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House said Thursday that former US president Jimmy Carter's meeting with a Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip was not useful and again condemned the group as a terrorist organization.We do not think that meeting was useful. As we can all see by the recent violence in Gaza, Hamas is a terrorist organization, said US national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Gaza simmers a day after Israeli incursion kills 18 by Adel Zaanoun APR 17,08
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement traded threats on Thursday, a day after a fierce incursion into the Gaza Strip killed 18 Palestinians, including a cameraman for an international news agency. Hamas vowed to avenge Wednesday's assault on the impoverished territory, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Islamist movement bears direct responsibility for the fighting, which killed three Israeli soldiers.We consider that Hamas bears sole, direct responsibility for what happened in Gaza and it will pay the price, Olmert said in an interview with Israel's Maariv newspaper.Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a widescale operation to oust Hamas from Gaza, but media have speculated that it may wait until after the week-long Jewish Passover holiday, which begins on Saturday.Police have gone on high alert for Passover, one of the holiest periods of the year. They have deployed thousands of reinforcements around the country, and the army is strictly limiting Palestinian movement into and out of the occupied West Bank.
Reacting to Wednesday's violence, which also saw the deaths of five Palestinians under the age of 15, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP that all options are open to repel this aggression against our people.In an Internet statement Hamas called on its fighters to attack Israel in every place and with all means available.Israel troops continued to strike Palestinian militants on Thursday.They killing two Islamic Jihad fighters during a predawn arrest operation in the West Bank and a militant in southern Gaza who the army said approached a border crossing.Witnesses said a dozen Israeli military vehicles advanced into the area near the Kerem Shalom crossing and that there was a heavy exchange of fire nearby at Gaza's abandoned and mostly demolished airport.The fighting erupted a day after militants ambushed Israeli troops near the Nahal Oz fuel terminal and crossing in the central Gaza Strip, killing three soldiers and touching off an Israeli incursion backed by helicopters.Israeli troops killed 18 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in what was the deadliest day in the Hamas-ruled territory since March 1, when more than 60 Palestinians were killed in an air and land blitz.Hundreds of people marched in Gaza City at the funeral for 23-year-old Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank he was filming during Wednesday's incursion.That blast also killed three other people, including two boys on a bicycle.Mourners carried Shana's body, draped in a Palestinian flag, from Al-Shifa hospital to a nearby cemetery.Alongside the body others held aloft a stretcher bearing his shattered camera.
Shana had been standing next to a jeep clearly marked with TV and Press stickers, Reuters said. A videotape found in the camera shows a wide shot with the tank on the horizon seconds before it fired the shell that killed him.After the incident an Israeli military spokesman said we regret the death of a photographer, but it must be pointed out that there's a war going on.Shana had been near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where at least nine Palestinian civilians were killed in an earlier air strike.
According to Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, most of the Palestinians killed on Wednesday were civilians. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, on a visit to Moscow, has strongly condemned the Israeli military assault and on Thursday called for a new Middle East peace conference in the Russian capital. Moscow has already been pushing for such a meeting as a follow-up to one in Annapolis, Marlyand, last November that led to Abbas resuming peace talks with Olmert. Israel has been carrying out near-daily military operations in the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket fire on southern Israel, which has killed 14 people since 2000. Welfare Minister Yitzak Herzog said Wednesday's clashes showed that Israel is putting pressure on the Hamas-run government. Hamas is under very high pressure. That's why they tried to launch operations like the one yesterday, in order to try to change the rules of the game, said the minister, who serves on Israel's powerful security cabinet. The latest deaths bring to 413 the number of people killed, mostly Gaza militants, since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks, according to an AFP count.
Olmert says Iran will never be a nuclear power Thu Apr 17, 5:21 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Iran will never become a nuclear power, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted on Thursday as saying, as Iran's president was proclaiming his country the most powerful nation on earth. I can say... that, to my knowledge, and on the basis of what I know and read, I believe the efforts of the international community will succeed, and that Iran will not become a nuclear power, he told the Maariv daily.There is an enormous effort on the part of the international community to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear country. Israel plays an important part in those efforts, without leading them.Building on that, and in an allusion to recent threats made against Iran by an Israel minister, Olmert added: That is why Israel should not resort to threats as made recently.Last week, Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer warned that any Iranian attack against Israel would lead to the destruction of the Iranian nation.That prompted a response from the deputy commander of Iran's army, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, that his country would eliminate Israel from the global arena if it were attacked by the Jewish state.Olmert's remarks were published as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a military parade marking Army Day that Iran is the most powerful and independent nation in the world.Ahmadinejad said all the branches of the armed forces would react forcefully in response to any attack against Iran, and boasted that no one would dare to launch a strike on the country.The United States and Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear power programme as a cover for attempting to develop an atomic bomb.Tehran vehemently denies that, but has had three sets of United Nations Security Council sanctions slapped on it over its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Obama would do everything to help Israel defend itself Wed Apr 16, 5:17 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic hopeful Barack Obama said Wednesday that as president he would do his utmost to help Israel defend itself from any regional threat, as he criticized ex-president Jimmy Carter for seeking to meet with Hamas. As president, I will do everything that I can to help (Israel) protect itself ... We will make sure that it can defend itself from any attack, whether it comes from as close as Gaza or as far as Tehran, Obama told a synagogue in Philadelphia, according to his campaign aides.He said US-Israeli cooperation, although successful, can be deepened and strengthened.Obama, who has said he would meet with US enemies Iran and Cuba if elected president, criticized Carter's expected meeting Wednesday in Cairo with Hamas, stressing: Hamas is not a state, Hamas is a terrorist organization.The Illinois senator, whose middle name Hussein has raised concern among critics that he harbors Muslim sympathies -- he is a Christian -- spoke to 75 representatives of the Jewish community in Pennsylvania's biggest city, a week ahead of the state's key primary in the race for the White House.Obama told to his audience he was a friend both of the Jewish community and of Israel, his campaign said.Asked about the future of Jerusalem, which Israel took over in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Obama said it was up to the parties involved to decide, but stressed that returning the city to its pre-1967 partitioned state is not an acceptable option.
Obama said that because of his background, he was uniquely positioned to help Israel.My links to the Jewish community are not political. They preceded my entry into politics.He also promised that if he were elected president, the United States would continue to veto anti-Israeli resolutions at the United Nations.Robert Wexler, Florida Democrat in the House of Representatives, told reporters after the meeting that Obama unequivocally rejects the Palestinian right of return -- a perennial sticking point in Palestinian-Israeli peace talks -- because he understands that Israel must remain a Jewish state.
Security Council urges solution to Israel-Lebanon conflict By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 15, 8:42 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council called Tuesday for the disarming of Hezbollah and other militias in Lebanon along with greater progress toward a cease-fire and a solution to the conflict between Lebanon and Israel. A statement adopted by consensus by the 15-member council reiterates its commitment to the full implementation of all provisions of Resolution 1701 which ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006.That resolution reiterates a call for the disarming of all militias and bans arms transfers to them. It calls on the government to secure its borders and entry points to prevent the entry into Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel.It also calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent cease-fire and long-term solution based on full respect for the U.N.-drawn Blue Line along their border, security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, and the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon so there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.The statement noted the progress and concerns expressed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his latest report on the issue. Ban highlighted in March that Israel says Hezbollah is rearming and has an arsenal that includes 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern Lebanon.
The report did not confirm Israel's claim, but Ban reiterated his concern about Hezbollah's public statements and persistent reports pointing to breaches of a U.N. arms embargo. He also expressed concern at the threats of open war against Israel by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.In a report in late October, Ban drew attention to alleged breaches of the arms embargo and the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Iran and Syria — both strong backers of Hezbollah — across the Lebanon-Syria border. Syria disputed the claim.U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said negotiations on the good, acceptable statement took time because it involved different countries inside and outside the Security Council.With regard to the implementation, I think there are pluses and minuses there, he said. We would like to see more progress on disarming militias.
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,
2 This month (NISAN) shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month (NISAN) they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
TODAY IS NISAN 12TH IN ISRAEL.
I'M KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON THIS STORY TO SEE IF THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE GET PERMISSION TO DO THE OFFICIAL SACRIFICE.
News Update:Temple Movements Request Passover Sacrifice
reprinted from Arutz 7
6 Nissan 5768, 11 April 08 01:17
(IsraelNN.com) Organizations dedicated to rebuilding the Temple submitted a request to the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday asking to be allowed to hold the Passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount. The groups named Jerusalem District Police Commander Aharon Franco, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, the state of Israel, and the Muslim Waqf in a suit alleging racist discrimination.
The organizations are demanding that those named in their suit stop preventing Jews from accessing the Temple Mount, refrain from bothering Jews who attempt to enter the area, and prevent inappropriate behavior. The groups mentioned a recent incident in which Muslim youths played soccer on the Temple Mount as an example of such behavior.
The groups said allowing them to access the Temple Mount would be a victory for freedom of religion. Forbidding Jews from holding their religious ceremonies on the Temple Mount is racism, they said.
AT LEAST THEY GOT TO DO A PRACTICE SACRIFICE THE COURT ALLOWED THAT AT LEAST.
HERE IS THE ACTUAL SACRIFICE OF THE LAMB ON APRIL 08,08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVV2pGInuW4&feature=related
THIS WILL BE TAKING PLACE SHORTLY IN THE REBUILT THIRD TEMPLE PRAISE THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD KING JESUS.
Jerusalem Court Rules for Jewish Temple Movement
reprinted from Arutz 7
1 Nissan 5768, 06 April 08 09:40
(IsraelNN.com) A Jerusalem court ruled Friday that the Jewish Temple movement could slaughter a sheep on Sunday as a general rehearsal for the renewal of the Pesach (Passover) sacrifice. Animal rights group Tnoo Lachayot Lichyot (Let the Animals Live) had argued that the planned slaughter constituted illegal cruelty to an animal.
In her ruling, judge Hagit Mac-Kalmanovich said, I was not convinced by the argument that the given event would cause the animal more pain and suffering than the accepted methods of slaughter in slaughterhouses. She rejected the group's comparison of the planned slaughter to illegal fights between animals, pointing out that only one animal was involved, and that it would not be harmed in any way prior to the actual slaughter. The event must be allowed under laws protecting freedom of religion, she concluded.
Carter meets Hamas leaders in Egypt by Jailan Zayan APR 17,08
CAIRO (AFP) - Jimmy Carter met a Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip in Cairo on Thursday after Israel barred the former US president from visiting the Palestinian territory. The delegation, which includes leaders Mahmud Zahar and Said Siam and four others, went into the meeting with Carter at a Cairo hotel amid heavy security, an AFP correspondent reported.Ahead of the talks, Hamas coordinator in Cairo Ibrahim al-Darrawy said that Carter, who has been snubbed by Israel and criticised by the US administration for wanting to meet Hamas, is well disposed and we need that.Carter had lunch with President Hosni Mubarak before the meeting amid ongoing Egyptian efforts to broker a truce between the Islamists and Israel.
The chances of such a truce hammening have been reduced by unrest in the Gaza Strip where violence on Wednesday killed 18 Palestinians, including a cameraman for an international news agency, and three Israeli soldiers.The Hamas delegation, which drove to Cairo from the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday, will inform Carter about the situation in the Gaza Strip and tell him that Hamas is a national liberation movement, Darrawy told AFP.On his arrival in Egypt, hardline Hamas leader Zahar hailed the upcoming talks.President Carter can break all the Israeli restraints that they want to place between him and Hamas and so we and our brothers in Damascus are determined to meet with him, he said.The former president is expected to meet exiled Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Friday.Zahar and Siam are considered hardline Hamas leaders who planned the violent takeover of Gaza from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June.The delegation is also due to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to discuss a possible ceasefire with Israel, reopening the Rafah crossing, and the fate of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace prize, on Sunday began a nine-day tour of the region to promote the Middle East peace process.Israeli political leaders snubbed him over his plans to talk with Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by the Jewish state as well as by the United States and European Union.Carter said Israel denied him permission to travel to the Gaza Strip. Israel sealed its borders with Gaza after Hamas took control of the territory.
Carter, who insists he is not acting as a mediator, has been urging talks with Hamas and Syria, saying a Middle East peace accord cannot be reached without them.Washington has said the former president is acting in a personal capacity.After two days in Egypt, Carter is due to travel to Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
White House: Carter, Hamas meeting not useful APR 17,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House said Thursday that former US president Jimmy Carter's meeting with a Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip was not useful and again condemned the group as a terrorist organization.We do not think that meeting was useful. As we can all see by the recent violence in Gaza, Hamas is a terrorist organization, said US national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Gaza simmers a day after Israeli incursion kills 18 by Adel Zaanoun APR 17,08
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement traded threats on Thursday, a day after a fierce incursion into the Gaza Strip killed 18 Palestinians, including a cameraman for an international news agency. Hamas vowed to avenge Wednesday's assault on the impoverished territory, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Islamist movement bears direct responsibility for the fighting, which killed three Israeli soldiers.We consider that Hamas bears sole, direct responsibility for what happened in Gaza and it will pay the price, Olmert said in an interview with Israel's Maariv newspaper.Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a widescale operation to oust Hamas from Gaza, but media have speculated that it may wait until after the week-long Jewish Passover holiday, which begins on Saturday.Police have gone on high alert for Passover, one of the holiest periods of the year. They have deployed thousands of reinforcements around the country, and the army is strictly limiting Palestinian movement into and out of the occupied West Bank.
Reacting to Wednesday's violence, which also saw the deaths of five Palestinians under the age of 15, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP that all options are open to repel this aggression against our people.In an Internet statement Hamas called on its fighters to attack Israel in every place and with all means available.Israel troops continued to strike Palestinian militants on Thursday.They killing two Islamic Jihad fighters during a predawn arrest operation in the West Bank and a militant in southern Gaza who the army said approached a border crossing.Witnesses said a dozen Israeli military vehicles advanced into the area near the Kerem Shalom crossing and that there was a heavy exchange of fire nearby at Gaza's abandoned and mostly demolished airport.The fighting erupted a day after militants ambushed Israeli troops near the Nahal Oz fuel terminal and crossing in the central Gaza Strip, killing three soldiers and touching off an Israeli incursion backed by helicopters.Israeli troops killed 18 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in what was the deadliest day in the Hamas-ruled territory since March 1, when more than 60 Palestinians were killed in an air and land blitz.Hundreds of people marched in Gaza City at the funeral for 23-year-old Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank he was filming during Wednesday's incursion.That blast also killed three other people, including two boys on a bicycle.Mourners carried Shana's body, draped in a Palestinian flag, from Al-Shifa hospital to a nearby cemetery.Alongside the body others held aloft a stretcher bearing his shattered camera.
Shana had been standing next to a jeep clearly marked with TV and Press stickers, Reuters said. A videotape found in the camera shows a wide shot with the tank on the horizon seconds before it fired the shell that killed him.After the incident an Israeli military spokesman said we regret the death of a photographer, but it must be pointed out that there's a war going on.Shana had been near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where at least nine Palestinian civilians were killed in an earlier air strike.
According to Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, most of the Palestinians killed on Wednesday were civilians. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, on a visit to Moscow, has strongly condemned the Israeli military assault and on Thursday called for a new Middle East peace conference in the Russian capital. Moscow has already been pushing for such a meeting as a follow-up to one in Annapolis, Marlyand, last November that led to Abbas resuming peace talks with Olmert. Israel has been carrying out near-daily military operations in the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket fire on southern Israel, which has killed 14 people since 2000. Welfare Minister Yitzak Herzog said Wednesday's clashes showed that Israel is putting pressure on the Hamas-run government. Hamas is under very high pressure. That's why they tried to launch operations like the one yesterday, in order to try to change the rules of the game, said the minister, who serves on Israel's powerful security cabinet. The latest deaths bring to 413 the number of people killed, mostly Gaza militants, since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks, according to an AFP count.
Olmert says Iran will never be a nuclear power Thu Apr 17, 5:21 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Iran will never become a nuclear power, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted on Thursday as saying, as Iran's president was proclaiming his country the most powerful nation on earth. I can say... that, to my knowledge, and on the basis of what I know and read, I believe the efforts of the international community will succeed, and that Iran will not become a nuclear power, he told the Maariv daily.There is an enormous effort on the part of the international community to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear country. Israel plays an important part in those efforts, without leading them.Building on that, and in an allusion to recent threats made against Iran by an Israel minister, Olmert added: That is why Israel should not resort to threats as made recently.Last week, Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer warned that any Iranian attack against Israel would lead to the destruction of the Iranian nation.That prompted a response from the deputy commander of Iran's army, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, that his country would eliminate Israel from the global arena if it were attacked by the Jewish state.Olmert's remarks were published as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a military parade marking Army Day that Iran is the most powerful and independent nation in the world.Ahmadinejad said all the branches of the armed forces would react forcefully in response to any attack against Iran, and boasted that no one would dare to launch a strike on the country.The United States and Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear power programme as a cover for attempting to develop an atomic bomb.Tehran vehemently denies that, but has had three sets of United Nations Security Council sanctions slapped on it over its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Obama would do everything to help Israel defend itself Wed Apr 16, 5:17 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic hopeful Barack Obama said Wednesday that as president he would do his utmost to help Israel defend itself from any regional threat, as he criticized ex-president Jimmy Carter for seeking to meet with Hamas. As president, I will do everything that I can to help (Israel) protect itself ... We will make sure that it can defend itself from any attack, whether it comes from as close as Gaza or as far as Tehran, Obama told a synagogue in Philadelphia, according to his campaign aides.He said US-Israeli cooperation, although successful, can be deepened and strengthened.Obama, who has said he would meet with US enemies Iran and Cuba if elected president, criticized Carter's expected meeting Wednesday in Cairo with Hamas, stressing: Hamas is not a state, Hamas is a terrorist organization.The Illinois senator, whose middle name Hussein has raised concern among critics that he harbors Muslim sympathies -- he is a Christian -- spoke to 75 representatives of the Jewish community in Pennsylvania's biggest city, a week ahead of the state's key primary in the race for the White House.Obama told to his audience he was a friend both of the Jewish community and of Israel, his campaign said.Asked about the future of Jerusalem, which Israel took over in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Obama said it was up to the parties involved to decide, but stressed that returning the city to its pre-1967 partitioned state is not an acceptable option.
Obama said that because of his background, he was uniquely positioned to help Israel.My links to the Jewish community are not political. They preceded my entry into politics.He also promised that if he were elected president, the United States would continue to veto anti-Israeli resolutions at the United Nations.Robert Wexler, Florida Democrat in the House of Representatives, told reporters after the meeting that Obama unequivocally rejects the Palestinian right of return -- a perennial sticking point in Palestinian-Israeli peace talks -- because he understands that Israel must remain a Jewish state.
Security Council urges solution to Israel-Lebanon conflict By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 15, 8:42 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council called Tuesday for the disarming of Hezbollah and other militias in Lebanon along with greater progress toward a cease-fire and a solution to the conflict between Lebanon and Israel. A statement adopted by consensus by the 15-member council reiterates its commitment to the full implementation of all provisions of Resolution 1701 which ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006.That resolution reiterates a call for the disarming of all militias and bans arms transfers to them. It calls on the government to secure its borders and entry points to prevent the entry into Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel.It also calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent cease-fire and long-term solution based on full respect for the U.N.-drawn Blue Line along their border, security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, and the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon so there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.The statement noted the progress and concerns expressed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his latest report on the issue. Ban highlighted in March that Israel says Hezbollah is rearming and has an arsenal that includes 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern Lebanon.
The report did not confirm Israel's claim, but Ban reiterated his concern about Hezbollah's public statements and persistent reports pointing to breaches of a U.N. arms embargo. He also expressed concern at the threats of open war against Israel by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.In a report in late October, Ban drew attention to alleged breaches of the arms embargo and the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Iran and Syria — both strong backers of Hezbollah — across the Lebanon-Syria border. Syria disputed the claim.U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said negotiations on the good, acceptable statement took time because it involved different countries inside and outside the Security Council.With regard to the implementation, I think there are pluses and minuses there, he said. We would like to see more progress on disarming militias.
Monday, April 14, 2008
HOUSE CHAIR CONDEMNS CARTER
Carter offers to be Hamas go-between By BETH MARLOWE, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
AIRPORT CITY, Israel - Former President Jimmy Carter defended his plan to meet with the top leader of the violently anti-Israel Hamas movement, saying Monday he hopes to become a conduit between the Islamic militant group and Washington and Israel. Isolating Hamas is counterproductive, Carter said. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip but is ostracized by Israel, the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist group.I think it is absolutely crucial that in the final and dreamed-about and prayed-for peace agreement for this region that Hamas be involved and Syria will be involved, he told a business conference outside Tel Aviv.I can't say that they will be amenable to any suggestions, but at least after I meet with them I can go back and relay what they say, as just a communicator, to the leaders of the United States, he said.The U.S., EU and Israel have blacklisted Hamas for its history of killing some 250 Israelis with suicide bomber attacks and its refusal to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.Israel's top leaders are boycotting Carter during his nine-day Mideast trip, in part because he plans to meet later in the week in Syria with Hamas' exiled supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. government has made clear our views that we did not think now is the moment for him or anyone to be talking with Hamas.U.S. officials will be happy to hear Carter's reflections on his visit with Hamas, but that they aren't likely to change the administration's views on the militant group, Casey said.The Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee criticized Carter for meeting with Hamas. Carter in effect is undermining a current policy which is not just American but held by many others, Rep. Howard Berman of California told The Associated Press.Carter also offered to relay Hamas' views to Israel. If the U.S. agrees to hear what Hamas says, I hope then the Israeli government will deign to meet with me — they have so far refused, he said.President Shimon Peres, Israel's ceremonial head of state, was the only leader to meet with Carter since he arrived Sunday. Peres, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, criticized Carter for planning to meet with Mashaal, calling it a very big mistake," a Peres spokeswoman said.A schedule released by Carter's aides showed no plans for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or Defense Minister Ehud Barak.The cold shoulder is a highly unusual brush-off to a former U.S. leader — especially one so closely linked to Mideast peacemaking.Carter brokered Israel's historic peace accord with Egypt in 1979, the first treaty it signed with an Arab country. But his popularity fell in Israel after he published a book two years ago drawing comparisons between Israeli policies in Palestinian areas and apartheid in South Africa. The planned talks with Mashaal only fueled Israeli anger.In an interview published Monday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Carter said he intended to use his meeting with Mashaal to press for return of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. He said he would also try to get Hamas to accept an Arab plan for peace with Israel.The most important single foreign policy goal in my life has been to bring peace to Israel, and peace and justice to Israel's neighbors. I have done everything I could in office and since I left office to do that, the paper quoted Carter as saying.
On Monday, Carter toured Sderot, the southern Israeli town targeted most frequently by Palestinian rocket squads in the Gaza Strip. He was shown a house badly damaged by a rocket strike and piles of rusting projectiles collected after hitting the town. More than 1,000 rockets have exploded in Sderot in the past year.I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, and my hope is there will be a cease-fire soon, Carter told reporters.
Israeli FM: Israel, Arabs in same camp By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
DOHA, Qatar - In her first visit to a Gulf nation, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sought Arab support against Iran and militant groups, warning Monday that extremists like Hezbollah and Hamas are trying to sabotage regional peace efforts. Livni told delegates at a democracy and trade conference in Qatar that Israel and Arab states are mired in the same struggle with extremists who refuse to recognize our democratic rights.When I say our, I mean the rights of Israelis, moderate Palestinians, moderate Arabs and pragmatic Muslim regimes alike, Livni said Monday during a panel discussion.
We, the moderates of the region, are all members of the same camp, she said.It was Livni's first visit to Qatar, an energy-rich Gulf state that supports the Palestinian movement Hamas and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.The two countries maintain low-level trade relations, however, and Qatar publicly offered to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas earlier this year.Hamas officials visit Qatar regularly. Last year, Qatar also invited Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit.On Monday, Livni said Iran — whose nuclear ambitions worry Israel and Iran's Arab neighbors across the Gulf — is an example of extremist ideology.
The three-day conference was attended by mostly European delegates, and several Arab politicians were conspicuously absent.Livni said she'd visit any Arab country that would invite me.Associated Press Writer Jessica Desvarieux contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.
House chair condemns Carter, Hamas talks By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
WASHINGTON - The new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday criticized fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter for plans to meet with Hamas, saying the former president holds warped views on the Middle East. By meeting with the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza and does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Carter in effect is undermining a current policy which is not just American but held by many others, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., said in an interview with The Associated Press.The Bush administration also has criticized Carter's plans to meet in Syria this week with the leader of Hamas, and the plans have angered Israel. There's been less public criticism from other Democrats.
Both the U.S. and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Carter said Monday he hoped to become a communicator between the U.S. and Hamas and said Washington's policy of not meeting with people it labeled terrorists is counterproductive.Jimmy Carter's view of the forces at work in the Middle East and how he likes to attribute blame and responsibility is so warped to my way of thinking that I'm skeptical of any initiative he undertakes, said Berman, a longtime supporter of Israel.There's been no indication that Hamas is willing to change its view that Israel should not exist, and without that there's nothing he can do that the Israelis will buy into, Berman said.Berman took over the Foreign Affairs Committee in March after the death from cancer of its previous chairman, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos of California.In Monday's interview he also raised doubts about whether Democrats can use an upcoming emergency war spending bill to alter Bush's war strategy for Iraq. Democrats plan to push for withdrawal timelines to be included in the bill, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been adamant about trying to get Bush to change course on Iraq.
We're going to need an election and a new administration to fundamentally change Iraq policy, said Berman, who initially supported the war and stuck with that position longer than most Democrats.Everything else is staking out positions and trying to educate the public or sort of show our views to the public, but it's not going to change the administration's policy, said Berman. They're going to end up getting their money and they're obviously quite wedded to this policy.Berman criticized the Bush administration's policy on Iran, saying the approach doesn't appear to be working and the administration should engage more countries in a push for sanctions to ensure Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons.Berman also joined other leading Democrats in calling on Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing to protest the country's crackdown on protests in Tibet and other policies. Bush has said he doesn't view the Olympics as a political event, but the White House has not yet said whether he will attend the opening ceremony on Aug. 8.(This version INCORPORATES story that moved earlier, BC-Foreign Relations Chairman, and SUBSTITUTES lead, paragraph 7 to correct name of House Foreign Affairs Committee.)
Israeli strike in Gaza kills militant By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in northern Gaza late Monday, fatally wounding a senior Palestinian militant, witnesses and officials said. A man identified by witnesses as Ibrahim Abu Olba, 42, from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was hit in a missile blast as he was getting out of his car.The victim, whose small militant faction that has claimed responsibility for recent rocket attacks against Israel, died of his wounds in a Gaza hospital, Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Three bystanders were also hurt.The Israeli military confirmed that it carried out the strike targeting Abu Olba, who it said had been involved in a string of attacks against Israel and was planning more. Israel often targets suspected militants with airstrikes, often aiming for rocket squads or their commanders.The vehicle was hit in the town of Beit Lahiya near the Israel-Gaza border.
Israel snubs Carter, declines security help By Adam Entous
Mon Apr 14, 5:48 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli leaders shunned former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit because of his plans to meet Hamas and Israel's secret service declined to assist U.S. agents guarding him, U.S. sources said on Monday. They're not getting support from local security, one of the sources said, on condition of anonymity.
An American source described as unprecedented the lack of Shin Bet cooperation with the U.S. Secret Service, which protects all current and former U.S. presidents, as well as Israeli leaders when they visit the United States.Carter, who brokered Israel's first peace treaty with an Arab neighbor, Egypt, signed in 1979, met Israel's largely ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, on Sunday. But Israel's political leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, steered clear of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.The former U.S. leader has angered the Israeli government over plans to meet Hamas' top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as a system of apartheid in a 2006 book.An Israeli security source said the Shin Bet security service provided no protection to Carter during his visit to the Jewish state because no request was made.Asked about the Israeli account, Carter's delegation, which had previously declined to comment, told Reuters in a statement: The Carter delegation inquired with both the lead agent of the Secret Service detail (protecting Carter) and the State Department Regional Security Officer and were told unequivocally that an official request for assistance had been made.American sources close to the matter said the Shin Bet, which helps protect visiting dignitaries and is overseen by Olmert's office, declined to meet the head of Carter's Secret Service detail or provide his team with assistance as is customary during such visits.
PROGRESS WELCOME
Israel and the United States have sought to isolate Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June from more secular Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas holds sway in the occupied West Bank and has launched U.S.-backed peace talks with Olmert.The Bush administration and Israel oppose Carter's planned meeting with Meshaal, whose Islamist group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 but was boycotted by the West for refusing to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Carter has defended talks with Hamas as an opportunity to gauge the group's willingness to accept Arab peace overtures.U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York it would be positive if Carter's talks with Hamas could achieve a breakthrough.Anything which will help to produce some political progress ... would be extremely welcome and if Jimmy Carter can achieve that by talking to Hamas, why not? he said.Holmes added the United Nations was not in a position to engage in political discussions with Hamas, though U.N. humanitarian officials were in touch with the group at a practical level to carry out aid work in Gaza when necessary.Carter visited the Israeli border town of Sderot on Monday and said he was distressed by cross-border rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, Carter said, adding that he hoped a ceasefire would be reached soon.Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the group's 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Israel said it rejected Carter's request to meet jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas.
Barghouthi was convicted in 2004 of murder by an Israeli court over the killing of four Israelis and a Greek Orthodox monk in attacks by Palestinian militants. He is serving five life sentences. (Additional reporting by Brenda Gazzar, and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Mary Gabriel)
West Bank economy growing despite hardships: Blair By Wafa Amr Mon Apr 14, 12:12 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Middle East envoy Tony Blair said on Monday if the political situation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip changed, it could get a share of the international aid that has helped the occupied West Bank grow. It's worth repeating on behalf of the international community that if the situation could only change there, there would also be an enormous desire to help people in Gaza too, not just people in the West Bank, said Blair, an envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators.Hamas Islamists, shunned by the West over their refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence, took over the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction in fighting last June.Blair, a former British prime minister, spoke at a signing ceremony establishing a mortgage company that will help Palestinians buy homes in a new $1.5 billion housing project.(The) economy of the West Bank is actually growing despite all the problems, so think of how much more can be achieved, if we were able to realize the vision ... of a Palestinian state, Blair said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Abbas sacked the Hamas-led government after the Gaza Strip's takeover and Israel tightened border restrictions on the passage of people and goods to and from the territory.We are worried about the situation in the Gaza Strip, the siege, the incursions and the useless rockets, Abbas said.We are working with our brethren in Egypt to achieve a truce so people can lead a dignified life, he added.The appointment of Western-backed Salam Fayyad as Palestinian prime minister ended international sanctions on the West Bank but those on the Gaza Strip have remained in place.The United States and the rest of the international community pledged $7.7 billion in aid to Fayyad's government in a donor's conference in December last year.(Editing by Mary Gabriel)
Israel to connect to US missle early warning system: report Mon Apr 14, 11:46 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The United States has agreed to connect Israel to its ballistic missile early warning system to warn of any missile attack from archfoe Iran, a senior Israeli defence official said on Monday. Israel asked the US to connect to its ballistic missile early warning system as part of its efforts to defend itself from missile attacks, first of all from Iran, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The US has agreed to the request, he said.
Israel first benefited from the worldwide radar system, which was built in the 1959, during the 1991 Gulf War when Iraq fired dozens of missiles at the Jewish state.It was put in action again during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.Israel claims that Iran's controversial nuclear programme and its recent ballistic missile test firing are aimed at developing an atomic weapon, a claim denied by Tehran.The Jewish state considers Iran's Islamic regime an existential threat after President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad's repeated call for Israel's destruction.Defence Ministry Director General Pinkhas Bukhris and top ministry adviser Amos Gilad have been in Washington twice in recent months to discuss military cooperation between Israel and its chief ally.The US embassy in Israel did not immediately comment on the report.
Most Israelis oppose partition of Jerusalem: poll Mon Apr 14, 9:30 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - More than two thirds of Israelis are opposed to any peace deal that would give the Palestinians sovereignty over Arab east Jerusalem and the holy sites of its Old City, a poll has found. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they opposed handing over to Palestinians the Old City and its Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews also revere as the Temple Mount, the poll conducted for the Begin-Sadat Centre of Strategic Studies found.Twenty one percent said they were in favour of dividing Jerusalem to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, while the remainder expressed no opinion.In addition, 67 percent said they opposed handing over even Palestinian residential neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed.The status of Jerusalem has been one of the major stumbling blocks in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and the poll, which was was released ahead of a conference on Tuesday on the city's future, found that 62 percent of respondents wanted the issue off the negotiating table.An overwhelming majority of the Israeli public oppose the partition of Jerusalem, and in particular the return of the Old City and Al-Aqsa mosque compound to the Palestinians, due to symbolic, historical and demographic reasons, the Begin-Sadat Centre's director, Ephraim Inbar, told AFP.Fifty-nine percent of those interviewed said they believed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was negotiating a division of the city, despite his government's denials.The survey shows Israelis' strong opposition to their government. People do not have confidence in Olmert and want this question decided by referendum, Inbar said.
Olmert had suggested in October that he might be open to accepting Palestinian sovereignty over some Arab neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of their promised state.Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community.The poll was conducted in March by the Maagar Mohot Polling Institute among a representative sample of 501 Israeli Jews. The pollsters gave a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percent.
AIRPORT CITY, Israel - Former President Jimmy Carter defended his plan to meet with the top leader of the violently anti-Israel Hamas movement, saying Monday he hopes to become a conduit between the Islamic militant group and Washington and Israel. Isolating Hamas is counterproductive, Carter said. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip but is ostracized by Israel, the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist group.I think it is absolutely crucial that in the final and dreamed-about and prayed-for peace agreement for this region that Hamas be involved and Syria will be involved, he told a business conference outside Tel Aviv.I can't say that they will be amenable to any suggestions, but at least after I meet with them I can go back and relay what they say, as just a communicator, to the leaders of the United States, he said.The U.S., EU and Israel have blacklisted Hamas for its history of killing some 250 Israelis with suicide bomber attacks and its refusal to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.Israel's top leaders are boycotting Carter during his nine-day Mideast trip, in part because he plans to meet later in the week in Syria with Hamas' exiled supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. government has made clear our views that we did not think now is the moment for him or anyone to be talking with Hamas.U.S. officials will be happy to hear Carter's reflections on his visit with Hamas, but that they aren't likely to change the administration's views on the militant group, Casey said.The Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee criticized Carter for meeting with Hamas. Carter in effect is undermining a current policy which is not just American but held by many others, Rep. Howard Berman of California told The Associated Press.Carter also offered to relay Hamas' views to Israel. If the U.S. agrees to hear what Hamas says, I hope then the Israeli government will deign to meet with me — they have so far refused, he said.President Shimon Peres, Israel's ceremonial head of state, was the only leader to meet with Carter since he arrived Sunday. Peres, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, criticized Carter for planning to meet with Mashaal, calling it a very big mistake," a Peres spokeswoman said.A schedule released by Carter's aides showed no plans for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or Defense Minister Ehud Barak.The cold shoulder is a highly unusual brush-off to a former U.S. leader — especially one so closely linked to Mideast peacemaking.Carter brokered Israel's historic peace accord with Egypt in 1979, the first treaty it signed with an Arab country. But his popularity fell in Israel after he published a book two years ago drawing comparisons between Israeli policies in Palestinian areas and apartheid in South Africa. The planned talks with Mashaal only fueled Israeli anger.In an interview published Monday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Carter said he intended to use his meeting with Mashaal to press for return of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. He said he would also try to get Hamas to accept an Arab plan for peace with Israel.The most important single foreign policy goal in my life has been to bring peace to Israel, and peace and justice to Israel's neighbors. I have done everything I could in office and since I left office to do that, the paper quoted Carter as saying.
On Monday, Carter toured Sderot, the southern Israeli town targeted most frequently by Palestinian rocket squads in the Gaza Strip. He was shown a house badly damaged by a rocket strike and piles of rusting projectiles collected after hitting the town. More than 1,000 rockets have exploded in Sderot in the past year.I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, and my hope is there will be a cease-fire soon, Carter told reporters.
Israeli FM: Israel, Arabs in same camp By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
DOHA, Qatar - In her first visit to a Gulf nation, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sought Arab support against Iran and militant groups, warning Monday that extremists like Hezbollah and Hamas are trying to sabotage regional peace efforts. Livni told delegates at a democracy and trade conference in Qatar that Israel and Arab states are mired in the same struggle with extremists who refuse to recognize our democratic rights.When I say our, I mean the rights of Israelis, moderate Palestinians, moderate Arabs and pragmatic Muslim regimes alike, Livni said Monday during a panel discussion.
We, the moderates of the region, are all members of the same camp, she said.It was Livni's first visit to Qatar, an energy-rich Gulf state that supports the Palestinian movement Hamas and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.The two countries maintain low-level trade relations, however, and Qatar publicly offered to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas earlier this year.Hamas officials visit Qatar regularly. Last year, Qatar also invited Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit.On Monday, Livni said Iran — whose nuclear ambitions worry Israel and Iran's Arab neighbors across the Gulf — is an example of extremist ideology.
The three-day conference was attended by mostly European delegates, and several Arab politicians were conspicuously absent.Livni said she'd visit any Arab country that would invite me.Associated Press Writer Jessica Desvarieux contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.
House chair condemns Carter, Hamas talks By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
WASHINGTON - The new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday criticized fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter for plans to meet with Hamas, saying the former president holds warped views on the Middle East. By meeting with the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza and does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Carter in effect is undermining a current policy which is not just American but held by many others, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., said in an interview with The Associated Press.The Bush administration also has criticized Carter's plans to meet in Syria this week with the leader of Hamas, and the plans have angered Israel. There's been less public criticism from other Democrats.
Both the U.S. and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Carter said Monday he hoped to become a communicator between the U.S. and Hamas and said Washington's policy of not meeting with people it labeled terrorists is counterproductive.Jimmy Carter's view of the forces at work in the Middle East and how he likes to attribute blame and responsibility is so warped to my way of thinking that I'm skeptical of any initiative he undertakes, said Berman, a longtime supporter of Israel.There's been no indication that Hamas is willing to change its view that Israel should not exist, and without that there's nothing he can do that the Israelis will buy into, Berman said.Berman took over the Foreign Affairs Committee in March after the death from cancer of its previous chairman, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos of California.In Monday's interview he also raised doubts about whether Democrats can use an upcoming emergency war spending bill to alter Bush's war strategy for Iraq. Democrats plan to push for withdrawal timelines to be included in the bill, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been adamant about trying to get Bush to change course on Iraq.
We're going to need an election and a new administration to fundamentally change Iraq policy, said Berman, who initially supported the war and stuck with that position longer than most Democrats.Everything else is staking out positions and trying to educate the public or sort of show our views to the public, but it's not going to change the administration's policy, said Berman. They're going to end up getting their money and they're obviously quite wedded to this policy.Berman criticized the Bush administration's policy on Iran, saying the approach doesn't appear to be working and the administration should engage more countries in a push for sanctions to ensure Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons.Berman also joined other leading Democrats in calling on Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing to protest the country's crackdown on protests in Tibet and other policies. Bush has said he doesn't view the Olympics as a political event, but the White House has not yet said whether he will attend the opening ceremony on Aug. 8.(This version INCORPORATES story that moved earlier, BC-Foreign Relations Chairman, and SUBSTITUTES lead, paragraph 7 to correct name of House Foreign Affairs Committee.)
Israeli strike in Gaza kills militant By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in northern Gaza late Monday, fatally wounding a senior Palestinian militant, witnesses and officials said. A man identified by witnesses as Ibrahim Abu Olba, 42, from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was hit in a missile blast as he was getting out of his car.The victim, whose small militant faction that has claimed responsibility for recent rocket attacks against Israel, died of his wounds in a Gaza hospital, Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Three bystanders were also hurt.The Israeli military confirmed that it carried out the strike targeting Abu Olba, who it said had been involved in a string of attacks against Israel and was planning more. Israel often targets suspected militants with airstrikes, often aiming for rocket squads or their commanders.The vehicle was hit in the town of Beit Lahiya near the Israel-Gaza border.
Israel snubs Carter, declines security help By Adam Entous
Mon Apr 14, 5:48 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli leaders shunned former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit because of his plans to meet Hamas and Israel's secret service declined to assist U.S. agents guarding him, U.S. sources said on Monday. They're not getting support from local security, one of the sources said, on condition of anonymity.
An American source described as unprecedented the lack of Shin Bet cooperation with the U.S. Secret Service, which protects all current and former U.S. presidents, as well as Israeli leaders when they visit the United States.Carter, who brokered Israel's first peace treaty with an Arab neighbor, Egypt, signed in 1979, met Israel's largely ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, on Sunday. But Israel's political leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, steered clear of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.The former U.S. leader has angered the Israeli government over plans to meet Hamas' top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as a system of apartheid in a 2006 book.An Israeli security source said the Shin Bet security service provided no protection to Carter during his visit to the Jewish state because no request was made.Asked about the Israeli account, Carter's delegation, which had previously declined to comment, told Reuters in a statement: The Carter delegation inquired with both the lead agent of the Secret Service detail (protecting Carter) and the State Department Regional Security Officer and were told unequivocally that an official request for assistance had been made.American sources close to the matter said the Shin Bet, which helps protect visiting dignitaries and is overseen by Olmert's office, declined to meet the head of Carter's Secret Service detail or provide his team with assistance as is customary during such visits.
PROGRESS WELCOME
Israel and the United States have sought to isolate Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June from more secular Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas holds sway in the occupied West Bank and has launched U.S.-backed peace talks with Olmert.The Bush administration and Israel oppose Carter's planned meeting with Meshaal, whose Islamist group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 but was boycotted by the West for refusing to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Carter has defended talks with Hamas as an opportunity to gauge the group's willingness to accept Arab peace overtures.U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York it would be positive if Carter's talks with Hamas could achieve a breakthrough.Anything which will help to produce some political progress ... would be extremely welcome and if Jimmy Carter can achieve that by talking to Hamas, why not? he said.Holmes added the United Nations was not in a position to engage in political discussions with Hamas, though U.N. humanitarian officials were in touch with the group at a practical level to carry out aid work in Gaza when necessary.Carter visited the Israeli border town of Sderot on Monday and said he was distressed by cross-border rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, Carter said, adding that he hoped a ceasefire would be reached soon.Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the group's 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Israel said it rejected Carter's request to meet jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas.
Barghouthi was convicted in 2004 of murder by an Israeli court over the killing of four Israelis and a Greek Orthodox monk in attacks by Palestinian militants. He is serving five life sentences. (Additional reporting by Brenda Gazzar, and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Mary Gabriel)
West Bank economy growing despite hardships: Blair By Wafa Amr Mon Apr 14, 12:12 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Middle East envoy Tony Blair said on Monday if the political situation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip changed, it could get a share of the international aid that has helped the occupied West Bank grow. It's worth repeating on behalf of the international community that if the situation could only change there, there would also be an enormous desire to help people in Gaza too, not just people in the West Bank, said Blair, an envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators.Hamas Islamists, shunned by the West over their refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence, took over the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction in fighting last June.Blair, a former British prime minister, spoke at a signing ceremony establishing a mortgage company that will help Palestinians buy homes in a new $1.5 billion housing project.(The) economy of the West Bank is actually growing despite all the problems, so think of how much more can be achieved, if we were able to realize the vision ... of a Palestinian state, Blair said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Abbas sacked the Hamas-led government after the Gaza Strip's takeover and Israel tightened border restrictions on the passage of people and goods to and from the territory.We are worried about the situation in the Gaza Strip, the siege, the incursions and the useless rockets, Abbas said.We are working with our brethren in Egypt to achieve a truce so people can lead a dignified life, he added.The appointment of Western-backed Salam Fayyad as Palestinian prime minister ended international sanctions on the West Bank but those on the Gaza Strip have remained in place.The United States and the rest of the international community pledged $7.7 billion in aid to Fayyad's government in a donor's conference in December last year.(Editing by Mary Gabriel)
Israel to connect to US missle early warning system: report Mon Apr 14, 11:46 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The United States has agreed to connect Israel to its ballistic missile early warning system to warn of any missile attack from archfoe Iran, a senior Israeli defence official said on Monday. Israel asked the US to connect to its ballistic missile early warning system as part of its efforts to defend itself from missile attacks, first of all from Iran, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The US has agreed to the request, he said.
Israel first benefited from the worldwide radar system, which was built in the 1959, during the 1991 Gulf War when Iraq fired dozens of missiles at the Jewish state.It was put in action again during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.Israel claims that Iran's controversial nuclear programme and its recent ballistic missile test firing are aimed at developing an atomic weapon, a claim denied by Tehran.The Jewish state considers Iran's Islamic regime an existential threat after President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad's repeated call for Israel's destruction.Defence Ministry Director General Pinkhas Bukhris and top ministry adviser Amos Gilad have been in Washington twice in recent months to discuss military cooperation between Israel and its chief ally.The US embassy in Israel did not immediately comment on the report.
Most Israelis oppose partition of Jerusalem: poll Mon Apr 14, 9:30 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - More than two thirds of Israelis are opposed to any peace deal that would give the Palestinians sovereignty over Arab east Jerusalem and the holy sites of its Old City, a poll has found. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they opposed handing over to Palestinians the Old City and its Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews also revere as the Temple Mount, the poll conducted for the Begin-Sadat Centre of Strategic Studies found.Twenty one percent said they were in favour of dividing Jerusalem to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, while the remainder expressed no opinion.In addition, 67 percent said they opposed handing over even Palestinian residential neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed.The status of Jerusalem has been one of the major stumbling blocks in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and the poll, which was was released ahead of a conference on Tuesday on the city's future, found that 62 percent of respondents wanted the issue off the negotiating table.An overwhelming majority of the Israeli public oppose the partition of Jerusalem, and in particular the return of the Old City and Al-Aqsa mosque compound to the Palestinians, due to symbolic, historical and demographic reasons, the Begin-Sadat Centre's director, Ephraim Inbar, told AFP.Fifty-nine percent of those interviewed said they believed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was negotiating a division of the city, despite his government's denials.The survey shows Israelis' strong opposition to their government. People do not have confidence in Olmert and want this question decided by referendum, Inbar said.
Olmert had suggested in October that he might be open to accepting Palestinian sovereignty over some Arab neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of their promised state.Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community.The poll was conducted in March by the Maagar Mohot Polling Institute among a representative sample of 501 Israeli Jews. The pollsters gave a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percent.
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