SEPT CHANGES IN MIDEAST PEACE PROCESS

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

EU: Fresh Mideast talks could be announced soon By JEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer – AUG 31,09

JERUSALEM – A top European Union official said Monday that renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks could be announced in late September.The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he expected a plan to reopen negotiations to emerge with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23.I sense...that we will have some kind of statement, some kind of proposal, that will come probably around the days of the United Nations,Solana told reporters between meetings with Israeli leaders.Israeli and Palestinian officials last week confirmed that efforts were under way to arrange a meeting between their leaders at the U.N. next month.

Frequent meetings between Israeli and Palestinian officials during the administration of former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert produced no agreement, and talks petered out after Israel launched a large-scale military offensive into the Gaza Strip in December to stop daily rocket attacks by gaza militants.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office in March, says he is willing to renew talks. But the Palestinians say he must first halt Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Palestinian official Nabil Shaath said Monday that it was up to President Barack Obama to maintain his insistence on a settlement freeze or fail in his attempt to resuscitate negotiations.If Obama approves continuing settlement-building in Jerusalem, Obama has pulled out of the Middle East peace process,Shaath told foreign journalists in the West Bank town of Ramallah.Without Mr. Obama this time fully, categorically stopping all settlement activities it will be very, very difficult — impossible in fact — to restart the negotiating process with the Netanyahu government.

The Obama administration has been pressing Israel for at least a temporary freeze.

Netanyahu has said he wants a compromise that would allow Israel to continue with some West Bank settlement construction while at the same time restarting peace talks with the Palestinians.He is adamant, however, that he will accept no restrictions in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and which the Palestinians see as their future capital. Israel claims all of Jerusalem.Solana said Monday that Israel and the U.S. were still trying to resolve the settlement issue.Solana was scheduled to visit Palestinian leaders in the West Bank later Monday, then fly on to Lebanon and Egypt.

The military option Sunday, 30 August 2009 06:59 News from Jerusalem
Dialogue or confrontation?

September 2009 will apparently see a major shake-up in the Middle East. If everything will go according to plan, it will be a month where almost all the players active in this arena will be reshuffling the deck and sitting at the table in order to formulate a simultaneous all-inclusive process – ranging from the release of Gilad Shalit to the handling of the Iranian nuclear program.The Obama Administration is indeed supposed to stimulate the process, yet the major roles are reserved for the regional players. These are supposed, in line with advance coordination with Washington, to show initiative and creativity on separate channels – all these developments coming together should break the dead-end currently in place in the Middle East.The phase of coordinating plans and expectations is being carried out at this time, and we are already seeing significant progress. The official launch will take place ahead of, during, and after the United Nations General Assembly, scheduled for September 23rd. The process will mostly start in three (and a half) channels.

Dialogue or confrontation?

In respect to the third channel – Iran – the US will reach a crossroads at the end of September; it will have to do decide whether to take the path of confrontation or continue its efforts to engage in diplomatic talks.This depends to a large extent on two developments: Firstly, Tehran’s response to the Obama administration’s offer to engage in dialogue; secondly, a report about to be published by the International Atomic Energy Agency.Officials in Israel and in the US estimate that Iran will not explicitly reject dialogue, but will continue to adopt diplomatic and media delay tactics, thus confusing the Americans and their allies, putting off the start of the dialogue, and at the same time enabling Iran to make progress on uranium enrichment and the building of new centrifuges.This will enable the regime in Tehran to set facts on the ground and reinforce its status as a state on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons. Under such circumstances, the dialogue will be empty of all substance in the West’s view. In addition, the UN atomic watchdog is expected to finally confirm that its inspectors uncovered clear signs that Iran is indeed attempting to develop nuclear weapons.Should these estimates materialize, the Obama administration will reassess its policy, while engaging in intense contacts with other powers and with Arab Gulf states, in an effort to work out an agreement on grave sanctions. This will include an embargo on fuels and refined oil products, in addition to limits on the ability of Iranian banks and companies to raise funds and finalize deals in the global market.Such sanctions are expected to jeopardize the regime’s stability and are therefore believed to constitute effective pressure. The problem will be to convince Russia and China to cooperate.Diplomatic officials in the West say that the American reassessment will also include reexamination of what is known as the military option.These sources already see today growing understanding within the Obama administration that the military option must be on the table the moment sanctions are imposed.

Without genuine willingness on America’s part to consider the use of force in Iran (on its own or in cooperation with other allies,) the sanctions will also be doomed for failure, as Iran will attempt to annul them through the use of force. Even a superpower cannot secure its diplomatic objective if at the end of the day it is unwilling to use its military power, an influential Western official said.Finally, there is the Syrian half channel. Throughout September we will see the continuation of the patient and slow contacts between Washington and Damascus on the possibility of Syria changing its Iraq policy, disengaging from the alliance with Hezb'allah, Hamas and Iran, and the possibly resuming the talks with Israel.The September processes will put the Obama Administration’s conception that everything is related, and that success in each of the channel will assist in advancing the others, to the test. This holistic conception is also accepted by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak, who is one of the main ideologists behind it; it’s also endorsed by Egyptian President Mubarak.The question is whether the many other elements that need to play their part will not torpedo the conception and its aims. By the end of September we will know the answer, more or less.ynet

US may put missile shield in Israel, Turkey instead of E. Europe - Polish report Saturday, 29 August 2009 05:35 News from Jerusalem Defense Shield

According to the Warsaw newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Washington plans to scrap its plans to deploy anti-missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic for defense against attacks from Iran.In deference to adamant opposition from Moscow, the Obama administration is looking at alternatives including Israel and Turkey. No immediate comment was available from US, Polish of Czech officials on this disclosure, but the Polish paper cited unnamed US officials on Aug. 27 as affirming that Washington was now considering deploying anti-missile interceptors on naval vessels and at bases in Israel and Turkey, as well as potentially in the Balkans.According to a Pentagon spokesman the missile shield plans were still being reviewed. No final decisions have been made regarding missile defense in Europe, he said. DEBKAfile's Washington sources do not view this statement as an out-and-out denial of the Polish news report.A pro-missile lobbyist Riki Ellison added: Signals from the Pentagon were absolutely clear,with the US scouting for alternative sites. A source in the US Congress confirmed that Washington had been testing the water among lawmakers for weeks after scrapping the eastern European part of the plan. During his Moscow visit on July 6-7, US president Barack Obama found Russian leaders still flatly opposed to the deployment of US missiles on its doorstep and promised to review the project.

DEBKAfile's military analysts report that basing parts of the missile shield in Israel would have far-reaching strategic effects:
1. Moscow would owe the Obama administration a quid pro quo for removing the planned missile interceptor and radar station from its borders and ought to be more amenable to lining up behind America for tough sanctions against Iran, including the sale of gasoline and refined petroleum products.
2. The longstanding close cooperation between the US Missile Defense Agency and the Israel Air Force's space and missile wings would be upgraded and acknowledged publicly.
3. Since the Arrow anti-missile system developed jointly by the US and Israel is already an integral part of American missile defenses in Europe and the Middle East, Jerusalem is unlikely to object to a US request in this regard.
4. Anyway, for almost a year now, a key element of the US missile defense array has been deployed on Israeli soil, namely the advanced US FBX-T radar system for which an off-limits compound accessible only to US personnel has been allotted at Israel's Negev Air Force base at Nevatim.Using the infrastructure already present in Israel would substantially cut down the financial and manpower costs of building a missile shield against Iran.
5. Israel would be integrated in the American missile umbrella guarding the Middle East and Persian Gulf nations against Iranian missile attack.
6. Since all US diplomatic overtures for thawing relations with the Assad regime in Damascus have come to naught, an American interceptor base in Israel would also be a shield against Syrian missiles and the missile batteries Moscow is planning to install for defending the Russian naval bases under construction in the Syrian ports of Latakia and Tartous.
7. The new US bases in Israel will not fundamentally change the nature of Israel-Russia relations. Moscow has always regarded the Jewish state anyway as a part of America's military and intelligence machinery in the Middle East.debka

It's open season on Israel Saturday, 29 August 2009 07:31 News from Jerusalem Avigdor Lieberman is a nuisance - a nuisance to those who hide their heads in the sand and deny that a storm is raging around us.

Lieberman broke official Israel's conspiracy of silence in the face of the worldwide smear campaign being waged by various media outlets and countless nonprofit organizations (including Israeli ones), which are preparing public opinion - and the governments that follow public opinion - to see the Jewish state as a virus that endangers world peace.Only due to the uproar that Lieberman fomented did the public become aware of the anti-Israel zealotry of many of these nongovernmental organizations, which are financed, inter alia, by donations from Arab oil powers, huge western foundations like the Ford Foundation, countries such as Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and the European Union.The assault on the Israel Defense Forces by a Swedish newspaper is part of a worldwide blood libel campaign. When this campaign's participants include organizations that present themselves as global guardians of human rights, it stops being merely absurd (the IDF traffics in organs and kills women and children waving white flags), and becomes another link in the chain of depredation.Millions of people worldwide are deluged morning and evening with a flood of libelous op-eds and reports, broadcasts full of crude lies, and hate-filled caricatures. The language used to criticize the globe's worst tyrannies does not even come close to the hate-filled language used against Israel.

If a Swedish newspaper, albeit a tabloid, decided to publish this libel about organ trafficking, that means the author and the editor deem it conceivable that it really happened. If the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by an Israeli who urged a total boycott of his own country, there is only one possible conclusion: A global boycott of Israel would be perfectly legitimate.Indeed, since the reports issued by Breaking the Silence (an Israeli organization) and Human Rights Watch (an international organization) include allegations of crimes against humanity committed by members of a nation that was itself a victim of such crimes just 70 years ago, it must be proper to impose a boycott. In the past, before the demonization had gained a foothold even in the serious press, no American paper would have dreamed of publishing an op-ed like this.Lieberman's response in the affair of the Swedish paper was not the opening shot of a comprehensive campaign against the dehumanization of Israel. It seems doubtful that his statements will succeed in breaking the conspiracy of denial about the gravity of the problem, even within his own ministry. The Foreign Ministry, even if the minister assigns it this task, is not built - primarily due to lack of motivation and deep faith in the justice of Israel's cause - to wage a multipronged strategic campaign against the numerous tentacles of organizations whose main goal, and perhaps even their only one, is to bring about Israel's collapse. Fact: It is not the Foreign Ministry, with its hundreds of employees, that has gathered most of the information we have about these organizations, but NGO Monitor, a small nonprofit headed by Prof. Gerald Steinberg, which obtained this information via patient, diligent footwork.

Words, screamed Peace Now earlier this week, can kill. That is true. And what about the millions of words denouncing Israel that this organization, and others like it, export overseas, where they serve as weapons of propaganda against Israel? (In 2007, to take one example, the British government donated more than NIS 4 million to radical leftist organizations like Peace Now and Breaking the Silence in order to fund these words. And that is on top of the money from private donors, the European Union and various foundations.) Can these words not also kill? As far as is known, Military Intelligence and the Mossad have not identified the globalization of anti-Israel hatred as a strategic threat. Nor has the sextet of key cabinet ministers ever dealt with this issue, even though each one of them personally understands that the delegitimization of Israel undermines the rest of the world's motivation to stand up to Iran's rulers over that country's nuclear program. Maybe now that the National Security Council, under Uzi Arad's leadership, is assuming both an authority and a strategic vision that it lacked before his arrival, there will be someone capable of correctly identifying the magnitude of the threat. But merely identifying it is not enough.This ongoing, organized, global and completely unbridled campaign of demonization is liable (and who should know better than we?) to end in a new license for genocide - against us.haaretz

Welcome to Camp Hamas Sunday, 30 August 2009 07:55 News from Jerusalem
Would you send your kids to Camp Hamas?

100 thousand kids and youth spent their summer vacation training in 700 Hamas training camps. The camp's curriculum includes firearm training and military drills in order to nurture the next generation of militants.700 summer camps, for children and teenagers, operated this summer by terror organizations along the Gaza Strip – operating under the slogan – A Victory for Gaza – The Glory of Jerusalem. The camps are operated by the Hamas in order to encourage the next generation of this organization. In the same area many summer camps are operated by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) – the main competition of Hamas’s summer camps. The Hamas reacted by presenting the UNRWA camps as child corrupters, trying to discourage the parents from sending their kids to the foreign aid organization's camp.According to Arab and Palestinian media, 100 thousand children and teenagers participated in Hamas camps this year. The budget of these camps is estimated to be 2 Million Dollars. The youths were guided by 1,500 counselors that went through special training courses. A marketing campaign of the Al-Aqsa channel of the Hamas and a special internet site encouraged participation of children in these camps. The children and teenagers in the summer camps undergo semi military training. The pictures and commercials published this year and last summer showed that part of the curriculum included firearm practices and grenades dismantling as well as military drills for the children, while holding life-like weapons.

In addition to that, the camp participants undergo an intense process of political and Islamic indoctrination by counselors and Hamas operatives, which visit the camps. The camp goal is to train the movement’s next generation. According to Mahmud Abu Aeed, the purpose of the camps is to prepare the children for leadership of the organization through Victory and Freedom. According to Hamas commercials the camp goal is to Experience a soldier's life, serving Islam, locating excelling student groups that can operate in the preaching of Allah and Islam, in schools and central mosques.Moreover, the children are taught about the lives of martyrs and carry pictures of them during processions.by Arnon Ben-Dror-IDF

Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert indicted By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Aug 30, 2:47 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was indicted on corruption charges Sunday, becoming the first Israeli premier to go on trial and highlighting a series of cases that have shaken the public's faith in the political system.The charges likely end the three-decade career of a man who just three years ago seemed poised to lead his nation to a bold withdrawal from the West Bank and an aggressive push for peace with the Palestinians.Olmert, who was forced to step down because of the case, was accused of illegally accepting funds from an American backer, double-billing for official trips abroad and pocketing the difference, concealing funds from a government watchdog and cronyism. All of the alleged crimes took place before Olmert was elected prime minister in 2006.Olmert, 63, issued a statement professing his innocence.Olmert is convinced that in court he will be able to prove his innocence once and for all,said a spokesman, Amir Dan.The formal charges in the indictment include fraud and breach of trust. The Justice Ministry did not say when the trial would begin or what penalties Olmert could face. But Moshe Negbi, a leading legal commentator, said the fraud charge alone could carry a prison term of up to five years.A rumored political comeback would be highly unlikely unless he is cleared.In the immediate future it doesn't seem possible, but it all depends on the court,Negbi said.Olmert, a lawyer by training, has repeatedly been linked to corruption scandals throughout a three-decade career that included a lengthy stint as Jerusalem mayor and a series of senior Cabinet posts. But until Sunday, he had never been charged. He is the first prime minister, sitting or retired, to be charged with a crime.

The indictment follows a string of high-profile trials that have soured an already cynical public toward the nation's leadership.Olmert's former finance minister was sentenced to five years for embezzlement in June, and another member of his Cabinet was sentenced to four years for taking bribes. Israel's former ceremonial president, Moshe Katsav, is being tried on rape and sexual harassment charges, and a longtime Olmert aide has been charged with illegal wiretapping, fraud and breach of trust.The most damaging allegations against Olmert accused him of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from an American businessman during trips abroad.The businessman, Moshe Talansky, testified last year that he delivered the cash in envelopes and painted Olmert as a greedy politician who enjoyed first-class travel, fancy hotels and expensive cigars. The testimony helped turn public opinion against Olmert and played a large part in forcing him from office.The indictment said Olmert used his connections to help Talansky's business, but did not charge Olmert with accepting bribes.In another case, Olmert was charged with double-billing nonprofit organizations and the government for trips he took abroad and then using the extra money to pay for private trips for his family.Olmert became prime minister in January 2006 after then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke. He subsequently led their newly formed Kadima Party to victory in a parliamentary election.On the campaign trail, Olmert promised an aggressive push for peace with the Palestinians, and said in the absence of a deal, he would unilaterally withdraw from large parts of the occupied West Bank.A gifted orator, Olmert crossed a series of taboos while in office — warning that Israel could become like apartheid South Africa if it continued its occupation of the Palestinians and expressing readiness to relinquish control of parts of the holy city of Jerusalem as part of a peace deal. Olmert led his government to the Annapolis peace conference in November 2007 — launching more than a year of ambitious, but unsuccessful peace talks with the Palestinians.

Despite his ambitious agenda, Olmert's term was clouded by an inconclusive war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon that took place just over a month after he took office. A series of corruption investigations — most of which were dismissed — also followed him.The politically weakened Olmert announced his resignation last fall and stepped down in March after Benjamin Netanyahu won a parliamentary election. Olmert is currently out of politics and battling prostate cancer, but is widely rumored to be plotting a comeback. Resounding elections setbacks have not kept Israeli politicians down for long. Both Netanyahu Defense Minister Ehud Barak both rebounded quickly from landslide losses at the polls.Olmert's spokesman said his priority is to focus on his legal battle.Once this is over and he has proved he is innocent, then he will consider what to do next. All options are open,he said.

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.

Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.

ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

Israel ups settlement activity in east Jerusalem Sun Aug 30, 9:27 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli settlement activity in annexed east Jerusalem accelerated in the first half of 2009 despite US calls for a freeze, an anti-settlement activist group said on Sunday in a report.Recent months have seen the acceleration of the process of Israeli settlement in Palestinian communities in east Jerusalem, the Israeli Ir Amim group said.These settlements... implant (a) Jewish population... precisely in the areas of the most intense dispute in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,it said.During the first six months of the year, plans were advanced to build an additional 150 housing units in east Jerusalem, which if completed would add some 750 settlers to the 2,000 who currently live in Palestinian neighbourhoods in the annexed part of the city, it said.The creation of an additional 150 residential units in the area that is the core of the Israeli-Palestinian disagreement is likely to thwart the possibility for a negotiated political resolution of the conflict,Ir Amim head Yudith Oppenheimer said in a statement.

Private groups such as the hardline Elad and Ateret Cohanim are behind most of the activity, but it is evident that individual settlements are part of a strategic move, coordinated and facilitated by national governmental units, as well as by the Jerusalem municipality,the report said.In addition to the Israelis living in Palestinian neighbourhoods, there are nearly 180,000 settlers in large blocks in east Jerusalem, according to another settlement watchdog group, Peace Now.Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.The fate of the Holy City, sacred to the world's three main monotheistic faiths, is one of the most sensitive issues in the decades-old Middle East conflict.Israel views the city as its eternal, undivided capital, while the Palestinians want to make the eastern part the capital of their promised state.Since US President Barack Obama took office in January, his administration has pressed Israel, where hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assumed office on March 31, to freeze all settlement activity including in east Jerusalem.Israel has so far refused a complete freeze, but said it would not issue any new tenders until early 2010 -- a gesture that Washington called a step in the right direction, but that critics slammed as falling short of a full freeze.

Israel accepts German-mediated Shalit swap deal: report Sat Aug 29, 1:39 pm ET

BERLIN (AFP) – Israel has accepted a German-mediated prisoner swap deal for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to which Hamas has yet to respond, Germany weekly Der Spiegel said in its edition to appear Monday.The German secret services have recently been holding talks with the Israeli government and Hamas. The aim is to obtain the exchange of Gilad Shalit against several hundred Palestinian prisoners, Der Spiegel said.The Israeli government of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the proposal which would see 450 Palestinian prisoners released and Hamas has until early September to respond, Der Spiegel said, without citing sources.Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants including from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, in a cross-border raid in June 2006. Successive Egyptian efforts to broker a prisoner exchange deal have floundered.

Egypt has accused Israel of altering its terms when on the verge of a deal.

The German deal resembles previous Egyptian proposals: Israel would release a first batch of prisoners, Shalit would be taken across the border from Gaza to Cairo, and then more Palestinians would be released.Israeli radio reported that a senior German official was recently in Israel and Egypt in the hope of sealing a deal.Germany in 2004 brokered a deal between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah that saw an Israeli businessman and the remains of three Israeli soldiers swapped for more than 400 Arab prisoners.Then a 19-year-old corporal, Shalit was captured by militants from Hamas and two smaller groups who had tunnelled out of Gaza on June 25, 2006 and attacked an army post, killing two other soldiers.Shalit, who has since been promoted to staff sergeant, is believed to be held somewhere inside the Gaza Strip, under Hamas control since the Islamist movement seized power in the Palestinian enclave two years ago.

EGYPT:JERUSALEM INCLUDED IN FREEZE

Egypt: Israeli freeze must include east Jerusalem AUG 28,09

STOCKHOLM – Egypt's foreign minister says east Jerusalem must be included in a freeze of Israeli settlement activity before Middle East peace talks can restart.Ahmed Aboul-Gheit told reporters in Stockholm on Friday that Jerusalem is Arab and it will continue to be so.He said the Arab world expects the area to be included in a moratorium on Israeli settlements.The Obama administration has hinted it may be backing down on its insistence that Israel halt all settlement activity as a condition for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians.U.S. officials have denied Israeli media reports that Washington has agreed to leave East Jerusalem out of the agreement and settle for a nine- to 12-month freeze in the West Bank.

Palestinians must unite for talks, UN chief says Fri Aug 28, 9:28 am ET

VIENNA (Reuters) – Palestinians must be able to show a united front to help revive Middle East peace talks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.It will be crucially important that the Palestinian peoples are united among themselves and should be able to carry on these negotiations,he told a news conference in Vienna.Ban said that while a seven-year-old Arab League peace initiative provided a cornerstone for negotiations,at the same time we also value ... bilateral negotiations between Israel and Palestinian authorities.Hamas, the Islamist group which has controlled Gaza since defeating the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, opposes Abbas' readiness to negotiate peace with Israel.U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is pressing Arab governments for positive gestures toward Israel if it freezes Jewish settlement building on occupied land.Washington hopes this will lead to regional peace talks but Arab states are cool to the idea.Arab leaders say they remain committed to an initiative, endorsed at a 2002 Arab League summit, offering Israel recognition in return for withdrawal from all lands Israel occupied in the 1967Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.Successive Israeli governments have rejected or ignored the offer, saying the return of refugees to areas now inside Israel would destroy the Jewish character of the state.Still, Ban said he had high hopes for Obama's approach in pushing forward with the peace process.We will see some positive results coming from the American administration's direct engagement in the Middle East,he said.(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Tens of thousands at Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem Fri Aug 28, 7:40 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Tens of thousands of faithful thronged the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan, with Israeli police reporting no significant incident.Police estimated the crowd at 90,000.Israeli authorities eased access restrictions for Palestinians from the West Bank, allowing men aged 50 and over and women of 45 and over to enter the site.Authorities generally prohibit Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from entering Israel or east Jerusalem, which it occupied in the 1967 Six-Day-War and later annexed.At the Qalandia checkpoint into Jerusalem, long lines of people could be seen streaming into the city from early morning onwards.The Israeli army has extended opening times at some checkpoints for the month of Ramadan, and said in a statement soldiers manning the barriers have been told to refrain from eating and drinking in public whenever possible so as to demonstrate a high level of respect and understanding.Security forces beefed up their presence, particularly in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.The compound is known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif to Muslims and is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina.Jews refer to the same area as the Temple Mount, the location of the Second Jewish Temple razed by the Romans in 70 AD and Judaism's holiest site.

Three killed in Gaza smuggling tunnel collapse Fri Aug 28, 5:01 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Three Palestinian brothers were killed on Friday in the collapse of a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, medics said.A fourth Palestinian, who was also working in the tunnel near Rafah, was seriously wounded, the sources said.Deadly cave-ins are common in the tunnels used to smuggle food, goods and, according to Israel, weapons and explosives into the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel heavily bombed the vast network of tunnels during its deadly 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of Gaza at the turn of the year, but many tunnels were quickly redug.Tunnel operators say Egypt too is cracking down on the underground smuggling, pumping sewage or gas, or throwing explosives into the tunnels.

Just 4% of Israelis think Obama is pro-Israel Fri Aug 28, 4:30 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Only four percent of Jewish Israelis believe US President Barack Obama's policies are pro-Israel and 50 percent oppose a temporary freeze of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a poll out on Friday showed.The survey showed 51 percent considered Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli, as compared with 50 percent in June, the Jerusalem Post said.The percentage of Jewish Israelis who consider Obama as pro-Israel was down to four percent from six percent in the June 19 poll. By comparison, 88 percent of those interviewed for the June survey thought former US president George W. Bush was pro-Israel.Obama has pressed Israel to freeze settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, causing friction with the close US ally. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted natural growth makes a total halt of housing construction in settlements impossible.

The issue of settlements, which the international community considers illegal, is seen as one of the major hurdles in Middle East peace efforts.Asked whether they would support a one-year freeze, which has been raised as part of efforts to push forward the hobbled peace process with the Palestinians, 50 percent of the opinion poll's respondents said no and 41 percent said yes.The Smith Research poll was conducted this week among 500 Jewish Israelis and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

U.S. hints at flexibility on Israeli settlement halt By Arshad Mohammed – Thu Aug 27, 4:56 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations could possibly resume without a complete freeze in Israeli building of Jewish settlements, a senior U.S. official suggested on Thursday.The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said it was more important that the scope of a settlement freeze was acceptable to the Israelis and the Palestinians than to the United States.The Obama administration hopes next month to announce a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which have been stalled since December, but the pieces have not yet fallen into place, diplomats and U.S. officials said.U.S. special envoy George Mitchell is trying get Israel to freeze its construction of Jewish settlements, a Palestinian condition for resuming talks. He has also asked Arab states to offer some gestures toward normalization of ties with Israel.Even if Israel and the Palestinians agree to resume talks, analysts believe chances of a peace agreement any time soon are slim because of divisions among the Palestinians and a fragile, right-wing coalition in Israel.The Obama administration has taken the public stance that Israel must halt all settlement activity, including so-called natural growth under which new homes are built within existing enclaves to accommodate growing settler families.While saying this was still Washington's position, the U.S. official suggested the United States would not stand in the way if the two sides could agree on something short of that.

Are we going to argue, if at some point the parties say, you know, this is not everything that we hope for but it's enough? asked the U.S. official.That would then have us presenting an obstacle to the start of a negotiation.Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an unusually upbeat statement after meeting in London on Wednesday, saying that their talks were very productive and that they had made good progress.However, Netanyahu on Thursday denied that they agreed on a temporary halt to settlement building. An Israeli team is due in the United States next week for more talks and Mitchell will return to the region in September.About half a million Israelis live in settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in territory captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East War.Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with its capital in Jerusalem.

An Arab diplomat suggested neither side will get everything that it wants, with the Palestinians likely to accept something short of a total settlement freeze while Israel gets only symbolic normalization steps from Arab states.Whatever deal we get on the settlements will be less than perfect,said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.In other words, there comes a point where they just have to take what they can get,he said. (Editing by Alan Elsner)

Netanyahu calls for crippling sanctions against Iran by Ron Bousso – Thu Aug 27, 4:36 pm ET

BERLIN (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Thursday for crippling sanctions against Iran to stop its disputed nuclear work, on a solemn visit to Berlin marked by Holocaust remembrance.After talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netanyahu expressed hopes for a quick resumption of Middle East peace talks as he warned of a mortal threat to Israel's survival posed by Iran.There is not much time to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions, he told reporters.I think the most important thing that can be put in place is what the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called crippling sanctions. It is possible to put real pressure, real economic pressure, on this regime if the major powers of the world unite.He said that even if the UN Security Council failed to approve tougher sanctions against Tehran over its sensitive nuclear work due to opposition from Russia or China, a coalition of the willing could enact its own measures.Merkel told the same news conference that if Iran failed to meet international obligations by next month then more serious steps including energy sanctions would have to be considered.Widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed power, Israel suspects Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.

Israel considers the Islamic republic to be its main foe following repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying that the Jewish state is doomed to be wiped off the map and calling the Holocaust a myth.Netanyahu and Merkel said they were convinced the time was right to jumpstart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.I hope that in a timeframe of a month or two we can relaunch negotiations, Netanyahu said.Let's just get on with it. We have a big job to fend off the radicals and move forward.But Merkel echoed the US position that no progress could be made if Israel failed to halt construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.I made clear that the Federal Republic of Germany believes that progress on the issue of settlement building -- a stop to settlement building -- is an important building block and a condition for relaunching the Middle East peace process,she said.Netanyahu came to Berlin from London where he met British counterpart Gordon Brown and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who also pressed him to freeze settlement building.Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has come under heavy criticism as well. On Thursday, Palestinian medics said a Gaza fisherman was killed by a shell fired by Israel's navy, though Israel denied the claim.Navy vessels enforcing Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory regularly fire at Palestinian fishermen to prevent them from venturing more than a few kilometers (miles) from shore.The Israeli premier was on the second and final leg of a four-day European tour. It was his first trip to Germany since taking office in March.Earlier, Netanyahu accepted a gift of rare original blueprints of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz for Jerusalem's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem from a German publisher.We cannot allow those who call for the destruction of the Jewish state to go unchallenged,he said in reference to Ahmadinejad as he took possession of the plans.We cannot allow evil to prepare the mass deaths of innocents.The blueprints, which date from 1941-42 and include plans drawn with cool technical precision of a gas chamber and a crematorium, were discovered in a Berlin apartment last year and then bought by the Bild newspaper.More than one million Jews, Roma and others deemed subhuman by Adolf Hitler's regime were killed at Auschwitz, near the Polish city of Krakow, out of a total six million Jews slaughtered by the end of World War II in 1945.Netanyahu later became the first Israeli premier to visit the museum at a lakeside villa on the outskirts of Berlin where top Nazis adopted in January 1942 the final solution -- plans to exterminate European Jewry.As the prime minister of the state of Israel, I only want to say the following -- that the Jewish nation is alive,he said as he examined records from the conference.

Settlements no precondition on Mideast talks: US Thu Aug 27, 3:50 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States indicated Friday that its calls on Israel to freeze settlements were not a precondition for restarting Middle East peace talks, as the Jewish state held firm in its refusal.President Barack Obama's administration insisted it was not changing its stance, which has caused friction with the close US ally, that Israel halt all settlements in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem.But State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the main US goal was to relaunch talks between Israel and the Palestinians, who will decide for themselves on the contours of a peace deal.The United States position on settlements, we've said it many times, we haven't changed it,Crowley said.But he added: The key here is getting to the negotiations.Remember what we are trying to achieve here,he said.We are hoping to get to a formal negotiation through which we can reach a resolution between the Israelis and the Palestinians as part of our ambition to see comprehensive peace in the Middle East.A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged Israel's right-leaning prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has resisted the settlement demands.

The United States is waiting to see whether the Palestinians and other Arabs support holding peace talks nonetheless, the official said.We've set a high bar and the objective here is how close to that bar can you get,the official said.We have our very strong views which we have enunciated about what we think it necessary. But if you get close to that and the parties themselves say this is okay,then Washington will not complain, the official said.Netanyahu met Wednesday in London with the US special envoy on the Middle East, former senator George Mitchell, without any breakthrough.An Israeli delegation is expected to travel next week to New York for further talks with Mitchell.

UN council extends Lebanon force with same mandate By Patrick Worsnip – Thu Aug 27, 1:44 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Security Council extended on Thursday the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon but sidestepped the issue of whether they could do more to stop Hezbollah building up an armed presence in the south.Israel has criticized the UNIFIL force for not stopping weapons it says are flowing to Hezbollah guerrillas who might again bombard northern Israel with rockets as they did during a 2006 war. The United Nations says that is the primary responsibility of the Lebanese authorities.On July 14, an arms dump exploded in the south Lebanese village of Khirbet Selim. Israel said the incident showed Hezbollah was stockpiling weapons in breach of Security Council resolution 1701, passed after the war.UNIFIL is still investigating the blast. In a letter this month to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there were signs the dump was Hezbollah-controlled although it appeared to have been in place for several years.A resolution approved unanimously by the council extended UNIFIL's mandate until August 31, 2010. The force, currently 12,000-strong, has been in Lebanon in various forms since 1978 but was beefed up after the 2006 war.Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told the council that following the July 14 incident, the extension is an excellent opportunity for the Security Council and the (U.N. peacekeeping department) to further encourage UNIFIL to strengthen its good work.Shalev told reporters earlier this week that Israel was not seeking changes to UNIFIL's mandate, though council diplomats said privately that Israel made clear it would like UNIFIL to more aggressively counter any rearming by Hezbollah.No changes to the mandate were provided for in Thursday's resolution, which merely encouraged further coordination between UNIFIL and Lebanon's army.

VIOLATIONS

The resolution expressed deep concern at the serious violations cited in Ban's letter, but did not specifically mention the arms explosion or Israeli overflights of Lebanon, also a breach of resolution 1701 that Beirut regularly raises.Thursday's French-drafted text reaffirmed UNIFIL's authority to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind but said it should take action as it deems within its capabilities.Ban's August 6 letter stated that the Lebanese authorities have the primary responsibility to ensure that there are no unauthorized personnel, assets or weapons between the Litani River and the Israeli border, and that UNIFIL merely helped.

UNIFIL says disarming Hezbollah is not in its mandate.

A war of words between Israel and Hezbollah has heated up in recent weeks as Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri seeks to form a cabinet expected to include civilian representatives of the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah group.Hezbollah has said its guerrilla force is back to full strength after the 2006 war and has recently hinted it could add anti-aircraft missiles to its arsenal of short-range rockets and small arms.Thursday's resolution also endorsed a review of the force structure of UNIFIL that Ban plans to launch.This will include an evaluation of UNIFIL's naval task force, which Ban said was stretched to the limits because its original 12 vessels had been reduced to seven.(Editing by Alan Elsner)

Netanyahu in Berlin: Iran, settlements, Auschwitz By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 27, 12:32 pm ET

BERLIN – With memories of the Holocaust as their backdrop, the leaders of Israel and Germany spoke Thursday about the need to keep the Jewish state safe from threats like a nuclear-armed Iran.Chancellor Angela Merkel also underlined her country's desire to see Israel stop building its controversial settlements, telling reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that time on this is short.

Netanyahu's talks with Merkel in the German capital came a day after a rare sign of progress in bringing Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, with both sides indicating a first meeting between their leaders was likely to take place within weeks.A meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which the officials said could happen in September at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, would be an important symbolic step toward resuming peace talks.I hope that in a time frame of a month or two we can relaunch negotiations, Netanyahu said Thursday.Let's just get on with it.But Netanyahu offered no indication that Israel would agree to a settlement freeze, the Palestinian condition for resuming the peace talks.Some 300,000 Israelis now live in West Bank settlements, besides 180,000 Israelis living in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas.

The United States, a strong ally, has urged Israel to stop expanding the settlements.

Netanyahu arrived in Berlin from London, where he met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell. The Israeli leader's meeting with Mitchell, centering on efforts to achieve a settlement compromise, appeared to have been inconclusive, with a joint statement afterward saying only that good progress was made.Netanyahu has said he wants a compromise that would allow Israel to continue with some settlement construction while at the same time restarting peace talks with the Palestinians. Israeli officials say one possibility being discussed would let Israel complete 2,500 housing units now under construction while promising not to build more.Netanyahu has said he will accept no restrictions in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and which the Palestinians see as their future capital.It is unclear what sort of compromise would be acceptable to American or Palestinian officials, who have said they will not resume talks before Israel freezes construction in its settlements.Turning to Iran, Merkel and Netanyahu underlined the need for Tehran to stop its nuclear program or face stiffer sanctions.Merkel noted after their meeting that the Group of Eight's position made it clear that a definitive point on the existing offer for Tehran to resume talks on the issue would be reached in September.If there is no answer, then we will have to talk about stronger measures and sanctions in the energy, financial and other important sectors, Merkel said.Netanyahu said he and Merkel also discussed a prisoner swap for an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since 2006. Germany has not confirmed reports it is involved in negotiations, but Netanyahu hinted that Berlin has been playing a role.

(Israel) appreciates all efforts of well meaning governments to help us in this regard, and Germany is definitely a well-meaning government,he said.A visit by an Israeli leader to Germany is never limited to current events. Between meetings with Merkel and the German foreign minister, Netanyahu was also visiting the Wannsee House, the site of a key 1942 meeting during which the Nazis formalized plans for the extermination of the Jews. Netanyahu also took possession of a set of blueprints of the notorious Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Accepting the blueprints from the editor of Bild, the German newspaper that obtained the plans after they surfaced in Berlin last year, Netanyahu drew a parallel between past and current events. We cannot allow those who wish to perpetrate mass deaths, those who call for the destruction of the Jewish people or the Jewish state, to go unchallenged, Netanyahu said.It is important for the leaders of other nations to realize that their own fate is imperiled by those who threaten our fate,he said. Netanyahu didn't explicitly mention Iran, but it was a clear reference to that country's nuclear program, which Israel sees as a grave threat and wants blocked by stronger international sanctions.The 29 sketches of the death camp built in Nazi-occupied Poland date as far back as 1941. They include detailed blueprints for living barracks, delousing facilities and crematoria, including gas chambers, and are considered important for understanding the genesis of the Nazi genocide.The sketches are initialed by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess.Germany and Israel today enjoy close ties, and Merkel underlined Germany's special commitment to Israel's existence, saying it was her country's obligation to defend Israel always.Germany built the Israeli navy's three Dolphin-class submarines, which foreign press reports say can launch nuclear-tipped missiles. It is also building two more submarines and is in talks with Israel's military about supplying its fleet with several modern missile boats.

PLO picks new leaders at landmark meeting Thu Aug 27, 12:58 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) elected on Thursday six new members to its executive body.Among the six elected are Ahmed Qorei, a veteran who recently lost his position in the leadership of the secular Fatah movement, along with top negotiator Saeb Erakat, and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, a PLO spokesman said.The Palestinian National Council (PNC), the organisation's parliament, last held a plenary meeting in 1996, and was replacing members of the PLO's 18-member Executive Committee who have since died.Among Executive Committee members who died in recent years was iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who passed away in 2004 in a Paris hospital.

The Executive Committee is headed by Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas.

The PLO groups the main Palestinian nationalist factions, including Abbas's Fatah, but not the Islamist Hamas which has ruled the Gaza enclave since 2007.It created the Palestinian Authority in July 1994 when Arafat returned to Palestinian land after 27 years in exile.The international community recognises the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, but Hamas disputes that claim and has in the past sought to create a rival body.

Abbas to call election if talks with Hamas fail By Mohammed Assadi – Wed Aug 26, 10:35 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday he would press ahead with a January parliamentary and presidential election opposed by the rival Hamas movement if reconciliation efforts failed.We are still offering the same proposal, but if it's refused, then the sole alternative is to go to presidential and parliamentary elections, Abbas said, referring to a unity government including his secular Fatah party and Islamist Hamas.Abbas was speaking at the first meeting of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) in 13 years.More than 300 members of the PNC, the top legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization, convened to determine how to replace, whether by appointment or vote, six deceased members of the PLO's 18-member Executive Committee.Hamas, which won a 2006 parliamentary election and seized control of the Gaza Strip a year later in fighting with Fatah, says it will not accept a new poll in January unless a package deal is reached with Abbas' party.Going to an election without a (unity) accord is not acceptable because it will not be based upon a national agreement, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, said in Gaza.He said that without a reconciliation deal, Hamas would not allow a ballot to be held in the Gaza Strip. Hamas opposes the Western-backed Abbas' peace efforts with Israel.Egyptian mediation stretching over more than a year has failed to secure a deal on forming a unity government, restructuring security services, ending political arrests in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and establishing an election mechanism.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)(For blogs and links on Israeli politics and other Israeli and Palestinian news, go to http://blogs.reuters.com/axismundi)

Abbas to meet Sarkozy in Paris next week Wed Aug 26, 4:35 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on September 4, a Palestinian official told AFP on Wednesday.President Abbas will travel to Paris on September 3 and will meet President Sarkozy the next day,the official said on condition of anonymity.Abbas's second visit to the French capital since February comes amid an international push led by the United States to budge the stalled Middle East peace process by the time the UN General Assembly convenes in September.

Fayyad unveils plan for Palestinian state in two years by Hossam Ezzedine – Tue Aug 25, 2:44 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday unveiled his government's plans to create a de facto state in two years as international efforts to restart Middle East peace talks grind on.The Palestinian government is determined to build state institutions without waiting for the outcome of peace talks with the Israelis, Fayyad said at a news conference in the occupied West Bank's political capital of Ramallah.The Palestinian government is struggling determinedly against a hostile occupation regime... in order to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years,he said.This can and must happen within two years,he said, calling on Palestinians -- deeply divided since the June 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza, the smaller part of their promised state -- to rally behind the plan.We must confront the whole world with the reality that Palestinians are united and steadfast in their determination to remain on their homeland, end the occupation and achieve their freedom and independence,he said.The world should also know that we are not prepared to continue living under a brutal occupation and siege that flouts not only the law, but also the principles of natural justice and human decency.The establishment of an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state is fundamental for peace, security and stability in our region.

This government seeks to involve all sectors and segments of society in the national drive to develop and advance our institutions.Among the priorities listed were disentangling the economy's dependence on Israel and foreign aid, trimming the size of the government, increasing the use of technology and implementing a performance-based system in the public sector.Another priority was keeping public sector wages in check and unifying the legal system that at present is a hodgepodge of Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli laws and regulations.The plan also included objectives for each ministry and major government offices such as the central bureau of statistics.Fayyad, a former World Bank and International Monetary Fund official widely respected in the West who has twice served as Palestinian finance minister, has won international praise for reforms he has instituted in his two years as premier.He was appointed prime minister just days after Hamas ousted forces loyal to Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas from Gaza in June 2007, and the Islamist movement ruling the coastal strip does not recognise his authority.The plan comes amid a renewed drive by the US and the international community to get the Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace negotiations that were suspended during the Gaza offensive at the turn of the year.Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, criticised the plan.There is no place for either unilateral actions or threats, he said.It is clear that a Palestinian state, no matter what its form, will not see the light of day if Israel's security concerns are not taken into account.

Brown upbeat after talks with Israel's PM by Ron Bousso – Tue Aug 25, 12:05 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged visiting Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement building Tuesday, but said he was increasingly confident of progress on Mideast peace.At the same time the hawkish Israeli leader, on the first full day of a European trip aimed at placating critics, reiterated that Jerusalem remains non-negotiable.Jerusalem is sovereign capital of Israel and we accept no limitation to our sovereignty. Jerusalem is not a settlement, said Netanyahu, at a joint press conference with Brown after talks in his Downing Street office.But he said that a winning formula was a demilitarised Palestinian state that recognises Israel as the Jewish state.We're working hard to advance a peace process that will lead to an actual peace result. And we hope to move forward in the weeks and months ahead,Netanyahu told reporters.Israel has come under increasing diplomatic heat over its settlement activity in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank and has refused to heed US and other international calls to freeze such construction.

Brown called Netanyahu a leader of immense courage,saying:We've had good talks which leave me as realistic as ever, but more optimistic than before.The Palestinian economy must be allowed to flourish so I strongly welcome his recent moves to remove checkpoints in the West Bank,Brown said, adding that an economic roadmap should underpin a sustained political dialogue.We also discussed the issue of settlements in East Jerusalem. I made it clear that settlement activity was a barrier to a two-state solution,he said.But he added: I am increasingly confident... that there is a genuine will to make progress, that a freeze of such activity would result in meaningful steps towards normalisation from Arab states.As well as the Middle East peace process, Brown and Netanyahu also discussed efforts to halt arch-foe Iran's nuclear drive. The United States has threatened new sanctions if Tehran fails to return to the negotiating table.

Brown reiterated concern over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The region and the world have nothing to fear from a civilian nuclear programme in Iran, but Iran's actions do not make their arguments convincing,the British leader said.Netanyahu's talks at 10 Downing Street come ahead of a summit on Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government is traditionally one of Israel's closest allies in Europe.The visit to London offers Netanyahu a chance to patch up relations with Brown's government, which recently said it was appalled by the eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in a district of Arab east Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967 after the Six Day War.On Wednesday, Netanyahu will meet US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell.He is pressing Israel hard to freeze settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to establish the capital of their promised future state.Britain and Germany are among the many states to back the US demand, seen as key to reviving the peace talks halted last December when Israel launched a deadly offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.Netanyahu said Israel has removed 147 checkpoints in the West Bank -- and called on Palestinians to respond.We've moved on the ground, I've also moved not only in deed but in word. I have spoken about the need to achieve this balance of a demilitarised Palestinian state next to a Jewish state.We have moved, we expect similar movement from the Palestinian Authority,the Israeli leader said.

Palestinian PM seeks aid for embryo state By Mohammed Assadi – Tue Aug 25, 10:38 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – An international airport for a future state of Palestine, national institutions and new rail links were listed by the Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday in a government program needing foreign funding.Salam Fayyad's 65-page program proposes a generous tax regime for foreign investors in a Palestinian state, which he says could be made ready by 2011.The program appeared to be a wish-list rather than a detailed blueprint. Peace talks with Israel, in which Palestinians seek a state on Israeli-occupied land, have been suspended since December.We need continued support by the international community, Fayyad told reporters after introducing the document.We are going to seek this additional funding, he said without disclosing figures.Even after the state is established ... we will continue to need external financial support at least for development and public investment spending.The Palestinian Authority is heavily dependent on foreign assistance for most of its budget. In 2008, it received 1.8 billion in budget support.

The Fayyad plan is short on detail, but setting out such objectives is a departure from Palestinian policy over the past 15 years, which focused exclusively on negotiations with Israel rather than building institutions.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made a resumption of peace talks with Israel conditional on a freeze on Jewish settlements in territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war.

AIR FORCE ONE

Fayyad said he had informed the European Union and U.S. president Barack Obama of his vision of an international airport in the Jordan valley, which is under Israeli occupation.He said he recently told U.S. officials during a visit to Washington that the Palestinians want to receive President Obama in our airport. We want to receive him landing in his Air Force One, not the Marine helicopter from Israel.We know that the path ahead is not planted with flowers, Fayyad said. But we are heading forward and we know that we are living under occupation but we should not give up and say this is our destiny.A technocrat with no significant political base, he heads a newly aligned cabinet with more ministers than before from the dominant Fatah faction of President Abbas, whose Islamist Hamas rivals refuse to recognize the premier.Fayyad's program includes building infrastructure, securing energy sources and water, and improving housing, education, and agriculture. No detailed schedules are included.
Fayyad said other projects for the would-be state include an oil refinery.

Israel PM hopes to resume peace talks by end of September Sun Aug 23, 2:46 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he hoped to relaunch US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians by the end of next month.

There is an assessment that we can (resume negotiations) by the end of September, depending on understandings between us, the Americans and the Palestinians, he said at a cabinet meeting, according to a senior official.This is more or less the direction and the time-frame we would like to achieve, Netanyahu added on the eve of a four-day trip to Europe during which he plans to meet US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.Israel and the Palestinians last relaunched peace talks in November 2007 in the US city of Annapolis, but the negotiations made little tangible progress and were suspended during the war in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.Israel's hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman meanwhile said that US President Barack Obama's vision for Middle East peace was unrealistic.Bringing President Obama's dream to fruition in two years, including an overall agreement and a (Palestinian) state, is an unrealistic goal,Lieberman said after the weekly cabinet meeting.The controversial minister, who heads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, said the foreign ministry in the past had concerned itself too much with the conflict.One of the foreign ministry's mistakes was to turn itself into a ministry for Palestinian affairs,he said.I have no intention of doing that, no plans for obsessive engagement.

Obama has repeatedly called on Israel to halt all settlement activity in the occupied territories and on Arab leaders to take steps towards normalising relations with the Jewish state.Netanyahu has rejected a complete freeze, but last week said the government would not issue new tenders for construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem until 2010.Netanyahu said his meeting with Mitchell on Wednesday will not be our last meeting before the launch of the American peace plan to resume negotiations.The presence of around a half million Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem has been a major stumbling block to past peace efforts and the Palestinians have said they will not meet with Netanyahu until all settlement activity is halted.

Plans for new settlement in Jerusalem: report by Charly Wegman – Sun Aug 23, 11:54 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A plan for a new Jewish settlement in Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem has been submitted for approval to city hall, a newspaper reported on Sunday.The plan calls for the construction of about 104 housing units in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood, currently home to some 14,000 Palestinians, the Haaretz newspaper reported, quoting sources at the Jerusalem municipality.This plan for massive construction in a high-density Palestinian area is extremely dangerous for the urban equilibrium,Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, told AFP.Approval of the plan is certain to cause a storm amid US efforts to get Israel to freeze all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land in order to revive the stalled peace process.Palestinian senior negotiator Saeb Erakat slammed the project, saying in a statement that Israel?s continued settlement expansion in east Jerusalem is an out and out land grab that threatens the very possibility of a negotiated two-state solution.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the call for a settlement freeze, but in a gesture to Washington he agreed last week not to invite any new construction tenders in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, until early 2010.The US administration welcomed the announcement as a move in the right direction, but critics said it fell far short of demands for a total freeze on settlement construction, one of the main stumbling blocks in the peace talks.Israel has always made a distinction, not recognised by the international community, between east Jerusalem, which it regards as part of its eternal, undivided" capital, and the rest of the West Bank.

The Jewish state captured the territory from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed Arab east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by the international community, which considers all settlements on occupied land illegal.In a report published on Sunday, Peace Now said almost 600 housing units have been constructed in the West Bank since the start of the year, including 96 structures in wildcat outposts built without Israeli government approval.The construction continues with government support in the large settlement blocs and, in a roundabout manner, in isolated colonies,the report said.About half a million Israelis currently live in settlements in the West Bank including east Jerusalem.

Israel's New Visa Rule for Foreigners: If You Want To Visit Palestine, Stay There By MATTHEW KALMAN / RAMALLAH - Sat Aug 22, 3:20 am ET

When Canadian businessman Sam Ismail brought his wife and five children to visit his brother's family in Ramallah last week, he planned to stay for 10 days and tour both Israel and the Palestinian territories. They had flown into Amman, crossed over to the West Bank. Knowing that Palestinian Authority license plates are banned in Israel, Ismail reserved a car at an Israeli rental company. But, when he got to Israeli border control, he was shocked to discover that his Canadian passport was stamped Palestinian Authority Only.Last time they came, they visited Acre, Haifa, Jerusalem - the whole country,Ismail's brother Nedal, who lives in the West Bank, told TIME.This time they packed up after 96 hours and spent the extra week in Jordan instead.Ismail had fallen afoul of an Israeli border policy, quietly begun in June, that bars foreigners who say they are visiting the Palestinian Authority from entering Israel. Israel says the visa helps to exclude visitors who threaten security. According to Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad, the procedure is based on an unpublished 2006 decision by the Israeli interior and defense ministers that any foreign national who wants to enter the Palestinian Authority must have a permit issued by the army, and entry is permitted only into PA territory.(Read a story about Mike Huckabee's visit to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.)

Palestinians say it violates international law and the promise of unhindered movement for foreign travelers under the 1995 Oslo II Accords.Israel wishes to strictly regulate travel of visitors who come to the country, especially those curious to see the West Bank,says Toufic Haddad, a Palestinian-American activist. (Read about Ezra Nawi, the Israeli activist jailed for aiding Arabs.)The policy has affected U.S. citizens. This week, Betty Najjab, an American from Centreville, Virginia and the widow of a Palestinian, was given one of the new visa stamps after visiting in-laws in Jordan. She told TIME she didn't know if she would be able to fly home: the return leg of her ticket departs from Israel's Ben-Gurion airport.We have made it quite known to the Israeli Government... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin,U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters this week.These kinds of restrictions we consider unacceptable.

It is being applied in an arbitrary manner,Salwa Duaibis, Coordinator for the Right to Enter Campaign in Ramallah, told TIME.It depends on the discretion of the person sitting at the border. If you want to go and visit family in Jerusalem and you get this visa, then your whole plans are thrown out of the window.The new policy is alienating businessmen like Khaled Sabawi of London, Ontario whose family has for years fostered investment in Palestine and whose father Mohamed was on the board of the Peres Peace Center. Sabawi runs the Ramallah-based MENA Geothermal, one of the first green energy companies in the Middle East. He has spent nearly three years traveling between Canada and Ramallah on three-month Israeli tourist visas. Last January, Sabawi was suddenly turned back at the border crossing from Jordan. Subsequently, he was denied entry twice. Since June, his visa has restricted him to Palestinian territory. Says Sabawi: I find myself being racially profiled, interrogated by security officials and forced to wait for up to eight hours at the border.I can't meet with Israelis any more and lots of our equipment comes from Israeli manufacturers. I can't buy from them if I can't meet them to negotiate, Sabawi told TIME.We will withdraw our investments if we can't be here to oversee our businesses. It will simply be too risky for us to invest in Palestine.

OBAMA DATES-CRAZY

In Ramadan, the best dates in Egypt are Obama By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Writer – Fri Aug 21, 12:46 pm ET

CAIRO – For the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Egyptian fruit sellers have named their best dates of the year after President Barack Obama in a sweet tribute to the American leader for his outreach to the Muslim world.Dates are a traditional food for Ramadan — which begins Saturday in most of the Islamic world — since the Prophet Muhammad is said to have used them to break the month's sunrise-to-sunset fast each evening.In Egypt, shops have created a new tradition of naming their best and worst dates to catch attention and boost sales — giving a little reflection of the political mood.Obama's vault to the top of the Egyptian date-scale comes after he delivered a landmark address in Cairo in June, saying he wants to improve American ties with Muslims around the world. Those ties were deeply strained under his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was widely resented in the Arab world — and whose name was given to the worst quality dates in Egypt in past Ramadans.We love Obama and so we named our best dates for him, said Atif Hashim at his busy shop in downtown Cairo.Huge barrels in his shop were piled with "Obama" dates, selling for just under $2.50 a pound ($5 a kilogram). For an additional dollar, there is an even better date, labeled on a sign as Super Obama.We put a sweet date in Mr. Obama's mouth and a message in his ear, Hashim said.Please help to bring peace to the world. We have a lot of hope in you.Hashim named his poorer dates after Israeli Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman, a hard-liner who is particularly disliked in Egypt for once saying its president, Hosni Mubarak, can go to hell.

Other low-quality dates were named after Lieberman's predecessor, Tzipi Livni, and after Bush. They all go for about 17 cents a pound (36 cents a kilogram).In 2006, many sellers in Egypt named their best dates after the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, whose popularity soared among Arabs because his militants battled Israel in a devastating war that summer.During the lunar month of Ramadan, observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from sunrise to sunset. It is believed that God began revealing the Quran to Muhammad during Ramadan, and the faithful are supposed to spend the month in religious reflection, prayer and remembrance of the poor.It's also a time of celebrations, late nights out with friends and family and elaborate meals for iftar, the sunset dinner that breaks the fast.This year, Ramadan starts in August for the first time in 33 years — meaning a long, hot day for those fasting. In a bid to bring up the time for iftar, Egypt went off daylight savings time on Friday.The fast begins Saturday for most of the Mideast and Asia, although Libya, Turkey, and some Lebanese Shiites began fasting Friday. The month begins when each Muslim country's Islamic authorities sight the crescent moon that marks the beginning of the lunar month — sometimes using only the naked eye, leading to some discrepancies in the timing.In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinians decorated their houses with lights in the shape of crescents and stars and shops began preparing special pastries and traditional Ramadan drinks like kharoub, made of carobs. The Israeli military said it would keep checkpoints open longer hours to allow more people to cross.In Hamas-controlled Gaza City, officials hung signs reading Welcome Ramadan and provided mosques with large carpets to accommodate the increased number of worshippers.Shops sold little electric lamps, a traditional children's toy during Ramadan — made in China and brought through smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to circumvent the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power two years ago.In Turkey, the mosques were jam-packed and municipalities set up soup kitchens to serve iftar to the poor. Holiday-makers began deserting beach resorts to return home. Newspapers carried recommendations from dietitians and Mehmet Emin Ozafsar, the deputy head of Turkey's department for religious affairs, urged people observing the fast not to use it as an excuse for aggressive behavior or abstinence from work. Fasting is patience and tolerance,Ozafsar said.Associated Press reporters in the Mideast and Turkey contributed to this report.

Ramadan begins on Saturday amid swine flu worries Fri Aug 21, 7:34 am ET

RIYADH (AFP) – Islam's fasting month of Ramadan begins on Saturday in most of the Arab world and Iran, but swine flu has cast a cloud over pilgrimages to Mecca and might also dampen enthusiasm for the popular evening get-togethers to break the fast.

Because Islam follows a lunar calendar, this holiest of months begins each year about 11 days earlier, its commencement traditionally determined by the appearance of the new moon.After the crescent failed to be spotted on Thursday night, the first possible sighting, it is expected on Friday, with fasting to begin at daybreak on Saturday.This will apply in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.However, all Libyans as well Shiite Muslims in Lebanon, who determine the lunar month according to astronomical calculations, begun their fasting on Friday, clerics said.

In Mecca, the Saudi birthplace of Islam, pilgrim arrivals surged this week ahead of Ramadan, but the numbers were well below usual.Egypt, Iran and Iraq are among countries that have placed restrictions on those permitted to undertake the minor pilgrimage, or umrah, during Ramadan because of swine flu.Normally several hundred thousand people perform the umrah, a shortened version of the major hajj pilgrimage that takes place this year in November.The umrah is popular because the faithful can arrive at any time and do not need the permits that are assigned to countries by quota for the hajj, which is required of Muslims once in their lifetime if they have the means.However, with flu cases rising, and with the disease having touched nearly all the region, warnings from governments and the World Health Organisation have heightened fears of being in crowded places.After the region's first death in July, health ministers and WHO officials met in Cairo and recommended discouraging or banning people over 65, pregnant women and children under 12 from joining either the umrah or the hajj.Saudi Arabia did not apply mandatory controls but has urged countries to voluntarily implement restrictions.The impact of the pandemic on Ramadan iftar dinners when people sometimes invite hundreds to break the fast together in homes, tents or hotel ballrooms just after sunset has yet to be seen.But Kuwait's health minister has already advised people to stop shaking hands and kissing each other at such gatherings to stem the spread of the disease.While fasting and iftar are the most well-known elements of Ramadan in the popular mind, this ninth month of the Muslim calendar is meant to be a deeply prayerful. It includes the day on which Muslim's believe God gave the Koran, their holy book, to Mohammed.

Similar to the Christian season of Lent, Ramadan is a time for greater reflection and more frequent worship, with the faithful focusing on purifying not only their bodies but their souls.Sexual relations are banned during hours of fasting, and Muslims are enjoined to concentrate on self-discipline, sacrifice and charity toward those who are less fortunate.Many pious Muslims will endeavour to read the entire Koran, or attend the nightly readings at a mosque that accomplish the same end.Ramadan ends with the holiday known as Eid al-Fitr. On this Festival of Breaking the Fast, communal prayers are held early in the morning. Then people wearing their finest clothes, often bought for the occasion, begin feasting, visiting relatives and friends, giving gifts to children and donating food to the poor.

Israel, Palestinians trade blame for peace deadlock By Joseph Nasr and Mohammed Assadi Joseph Nasr And Mohammed Assadi – Fri Aug 21, 5:11 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel and the Palestinians on Friday traded blame for failure to resume stalled peace talks after President Barack Obama renewed his call on both sides to resume negotiations as soon as possible.A senior Israeli official said the Palestinians had rejected repeated calls by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume talks that have been frozen for eight months.The government of Israel has been calling for weeks to the Palestinians to return to the negotiation table, he said. It is the Palestinian side that has prevented the return to talks by making unprecedented preconditions.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat rejected the charge, saying it was not the Palestinians who were setting new conditions but the Israelis who were flouting obligations to stop settlement in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.We don't have any conditions. Stopping settlement activity and resuming permanent status negotiations are Israeli obligations and not Palestinian conditions,Erekat said.The impasse over settlements has created the most serious rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade.Obama made a fresh bid on Thursday to break the deadlock on Middle East peace, calling on Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states to act simultaneously to help kick-start negotiations. He made the appeal during a phone call with Jordan's King Abdullah.Obama's proposal seeks to overcome deep disagreement between Israelis and Arabs on which side should go first in making conciliatory gestures to revive a peace process the president has promised to relaunch.

MOVEMENT

Netanyahu took office in March resisting pressure from Israel's main ally to halt settlement activity and avoiding commitment to a two-state solution. But he has moved way some since then to meet Washington's demands.Israel disclosed this month it had not given final approval for any new housing projects in the West Bank since Netanyahu's right-leaning coalition took office.The Israeli leader is due to hold talks with Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in London next week.Obama said this week after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he was seeing signs of progress on the thorny issue of Israeli settlement construction.The White House said the aim of Mitchell's talks was to finalize with the parties the steps they would take, and lay the groundwork for the resumption of negotiations.Netanyahu is trying to appease Washington without alienating hawks in his coalition government.He interrupted his summer holiday on Thursday to summon a minister of his own right-wing Likud party who described left-wing opponents of Jewish settlement as a virus.Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, said this week that Israel could not halt settlement expansion forever.Israel Radio quoted him as saying Israel could not put up with such a suspension for an extended period of time.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended peace talks with Israel in December over its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. He has said repeatedly that talks cannot resume unless all settlement construction stops. Obama has appealed to Arab states to make peace overtures to Israel but they insist that Israel should act first.Arab leaders say they are committed to a 2002 Arab League peace initiative that offers Israel recognition in return for withdrawal from land occupied in 1967, creation of a Palestinian state and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.
(Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Ralph Boulton)

Mitchell to finalize gestures by Middle East powers: official Thu Aug 20, 2:37 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House said Thursday that Middle East envoy George Mitchell will finalize steps all parties can take to pave the way for Israeli-Palestinian talks, in an upcoming visit to the region.President Barack Obama unveiled the scope of Mitchell's mission in a telephone call to Jordan's King Abdullah II, two days after his Oval Office talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.The President and the King agreed on the need to launch Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as soon as possible,said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.They also agreed that all parties, Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states should take steps simultaneously to create a context in which these negotiations can succeed.The president said special envoy Mitchell will follow up with the parties in the next few weeks to finalize the steps that they would take and lay the groundwork for a resumption of negotiations.Obama has been pressing Israel for a halt in settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and has called on Arab states to make a series of minor concessions towards Israel to improve chances of a resumption of peace talks.

Israel PM summons minister over call to defy US Thu Aug 20, 2:29 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reprimanded a cabinet minister who whipped up a political storm by suggesting the government oppose US demands for a settlement freeze.Netanyahu had told Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon to report to him in the evening, after the premier returned from vacation, public radio said.Channel Ten private television said Netanyahu reprimanded Yaalon to demonstrate that there are lines that must not be crossed.In the controversial statements, Yaalon had said: I for one am not afraid of the Americans. There are issues on which one should say that's enough.He clearly rejected US calls for a freeze of settlement activity, insisting that Jews have a rightful claim to the biblical Land of Israel -- a term used to include the Palestinian territories.I believe that Jews have the right to live anywhere in the Land of Israel forever,he said at a meeting of far-right wing members of Netanyahu's Likud party on Sunday.The statements caused a stir after Channel Two television broadcast them on Wednesday night.Yaalon, who is also a vice premier, further called the Israeli anti-settlement Peace Now group a virus.

Netanyahu responded angrily to the statements.

The prime minister does not accept either the tone or the substance of minister Ayalon's statements. They do not reflect the position of the government,his office said.Netanyahu has rejected US calls for a total construction freeze in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, insisting new homes needed to be built in order to accommodate natural growth.But in a gesture to Washington he agreed on Tuesday to curtail settlement activity by not issuing any new construction tenders until early 2010.The US administration welcomed the announcement as a move in the right direction, but critics said it fell far short of demands for a settlement freeze as construction of homes for settlers will continue.Yaalon had already embarrassed the government by touring unauthorised settlement outposts on Monday. He and another three cabinet ministers with him criticised the government's decision to raze such wildcat settlements.The international community considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal. Israel rejects the claim, but has repeatedly vowed to demolish outposts built without government authorisation.

Hamas official upbeat on Fatah reconciliation Thu Aug 20, 2:10 pm ET

DAMASCUS (AFP) – A Hamas representative said on Thursday the Palestinian Islamist group was still positive about reconciliation with its rival Fatah, days ahead of an expected new round of Egyptian-brokered talks.We are going to continue the dialogue with a positive mentality, but we must settle the question of (Hamas) political prisoners in the West Bank, Hamas official Osama Abu Khaled told AFP.He spoke after meetings in the Syrian capital between the deputy to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Cairo's pointman on the talks, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine chief Nayef Hawatmeh.Abu Khaled said the visit to Syria by Mohammed Ibrahim was part of the efforts being made by Egypt towards Hamas-Fatah reconciliation.Cairo has been mediating between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah and Hamas with the aim of healing bitter divisions between the two, aggravated when the Islamists seized control of Gaza in 2007.Last month Egypt's official MENA news agency said talks between the feuding factions set for July 25 had been delayed for a month.

The talks hope to seal a deal on a new electoral law as well as define the make-up of security forces and of a committee to liaise between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank ahead of a Palestinian election in 2010.Fatah and Hamas accuse each other of persecuting rival supporters in the territories under their control, while human rights groups have accused both groups of making arbitrary arrests and mistreating detainees.

US complains to Israel on Palestinian-American entry rules Wed Aug 19, 4:18 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Wednesday it had complained to Israel about restrictions on the travel of US citizens of Palestinian origin, calling the measures unacceptable.The State Department said that Israel has been issuing entry stamps for some travelers, mostly those of Arab ancestry, stating that they are only allowed in the Palestinian Authority and cannot transit through Israel.We have made it quite known to the Israeli government ... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.These kinds of restrictions we consider unacceptable, Kelly told reporters.We will continue to protest.The State Department, in a recent travel advisory, warned that Israeli immigration authorities may write a Palestinian Authority identification number in a passport, regardless of whether the traveler has US citizenship or even held Palestinian documentation previously.Such travelers are then required to carry Palestinian travel documents and may be refused use of Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, the country's main international gateway.Instead, the travelers must transit through the Allenby Bridge connecting the West Bank and Jordan. Due to Israeli checkpoints, this means they effectively cannot go to Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip.Israeli authorities recently started to stamp in visitors' passports whether they are heading to Israel or the Palestinian territories, potentially preventing them from travelling to both.Israel's tourism ministry on Monday denounced the restrictions introduced by the interior ministry, warning they would damage Israel's reputation and impede some of the millions of pilgrims who flock each year to religious sites across the region.In some cases, Israeli immigration has given such Palestinian Authority only stamps even to travelers with no apparent Palestinian origin, according to the State Department.

Israeli minister calls anti-settler group a virus Wed Aug 19, 4:10 pm ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interrupted his summer holiday to say on Wednesday he would summon a senior minister who described left-wing opponents of Jewish settlement building as a virus.Netanyahu's office issued a statement after Israel's Channel 2 television broadcast video footage in which Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon was shown making the remark to a forum of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.Whenever the politicians bring us the peace dove, we as the army have to go in and clean up after them,Yaalon, a former military chief and also a minister of strategic affairs, said.Replying to a question as to how Yaalon would rescue Israel, an allusion to U.S. President Barack Obama's demands to halt settlement construction in occupied land, Yaalon said:We are dealing again with a situation where the virus, which is Peace Now, and if you will, the elites, their damage is very great and that Jews should be permitted to live forever in all parts of Israel, which would include the West Bank.Peace Now, a watchdog that lobbies against building Jewish enclaves in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, argues it is against Israel's security interests to control Palestinians seeking a state, is often the butt of rightist criticism.Netanyahu's office said the Israeli leader had plans to summon Minister Yaalon for a private meeting once he returns from vacation.
Yariv Oppenheimer, a Peace Now leader, called Yaalon's remarks dangerous and unacceptable and part of a government campaign to try and delegitimise left-wing views in the eyes of Israelis.

THE STUPID WORLD WILL BLAME ISRAEL FOR ANYTHING FROM THAT IDIOT MIKE RIVIERO TO JEFF RENSE ISRAEL HATERS WILL PAY BIGTIME WHEN GOD DESTROYS THEM IN WW3.

Israel furious over Swedish newspaper article By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer - Wed Aug 19, 12:24 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israel and the Swedish Embassy responded furiously Wednesday to a Swedish newspaper article that suggested Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs.The article published Monday in Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest circulation daily, implies a link between those charges and the recent arrest in the U.S. of an American Jew for illicit organ trafficking. Later the reporter told Israel Radio he did not know if the allegations were true.Headlined Our sons are plundered for their organs,the story made news in Israel, where some commentators compared it to medieval libels that Jews killed Christian children for their blood. Daniel Seaman, who heads Israel's government press office, said the article played on vile anti-Semitic themes.The article was illustrated with a photograph of a dead Palestinian man with a line of surgical stitches running the length of his torso, apparently taken after an autopsy, as well as pictures of stone-throwing youths and Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, a New York resident arrested in an FBI sting last month and charged with plotting to buy a kidney from an Israeli and sell it to an American patient for $160,000.The writer, Donald Bostrom, based the story on accounts from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza whom he identified only by their first names. It quotes an Israeli military spokesman denying the charges and saying that Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are routinely subjected to autopsies.

Interviewed on Israel Radio on Wednesday, Bostrom said he was worried by the allegations he reported but could not vouch for their accuracy.It concerns me, to the extent that I want it to be investigated, that's true. But whether it's true or not — I have no idea, I have no clue,he told the station.Aftonbladet Editor Jan Helin said, The article poses a question — why has this body been autopsied when the cause of death is obvious? There I think Israeli authorities owe us an answer.Israeli legal expert Moshe Negbi said that according to Israeli law, Autopsies are immediately performed after every unnatural death, and this is true for most other countries as well.Helin also objected to what he called the hate campaign that has been expressed in e-mails to me and the editorial office, but also through Israeli media.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said,This piece is so blatantly racist and can induce to hate crimes in such a way that we think authorities need to take care of the matter.In a statement Wednesday, the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv said the article was as shocking and appalling to us Swedes as it is to Israeli citizens.In Stockholm, the Swedish Foreign Ministry distanced itself from that statement.We obviously don't think it is great to comment on what is written in the media, ministry spokesman Anders Jorle told The Associated Press.In Sweden, the article drew a critical editorial from a rival daily, Sydsvenskan, which said it followed the usual template of a conspiracy theory.Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Benny Dagan, said the piece did not indicate a climate of general hostility toward Israel.It's certain elements,he told Israel Radio.It's not all Sweden or mainstream Sweden or the Swedish parliament.Associated Press Writer Malin Rising reported from Stockholm.

Turkey, Jordan warn Israel on Jerusalem settlements Wed Aug 19, 10:00 am ET

ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey and Jordan warned Israel Wednesday that settlements in east Jerusalem threatened peace efforts, amid press reports that the Jewish state is to revive construction plans in the annexed region.Israel needs to act with responsibility on the issue of settlers and especially developments in east Jerusalem,Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference with his visiting Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.If there is genuine will for peace, it is time to openly display it,he added.Judeh, for his part, said: We agreed that unilateral moves in east Jerusalem will harm the peace process because such moves are not only confidence-shattering but also illegal.Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday agreed to curtail construction in the occupied West Bank that fell short of US demands for a settlement freeze.Critics, however, say construction continues on the ground in a number of settlements in Palestinian territory.TheMarker, a supplement to the Haaretz newspaper, reported Wednesday that Israeli authorities reversed a decision to reject bids for a 2008 project in east Jerusalem, paving the way for the construction of 450 housing units.Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Six Day War and subsequently annexed it in a move the international community has not recognized.

Obama speech in Cairo allayed Muslim concerns: Mubarak Tue Aug 18, 1:46 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hailed Tuesday US President Barack Obama's keynote speech in Cairo in June, saying the address had allayed the concerns of the Islamic world about US intentions.He came to give his address, it was a very strong address and it removed all doubts about the United States and the Muslim world,Mubarak said after meeting Obama at a White House summit.The importance of the Cairo visit was very appreciated by the Muslim Islamic world because the Islamic world had thoughts that the US was against Islam... But his great, fantastic address there has removed all those doubts.Obama has made relaunching the Middle East peace process a top priority, pledging a new beginning for Islam and the United States in his landmark speech to the world's Muslims in Cairo.He has also bluntly called for Israel to halt settlement activity while urging Arabs to move closer to making peace with Israel.

Huckabee says 2 states in Holy Land unrealistic By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 18, 11:18 am ET

JERUSALEM – Former U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Tuesday there should be no Palestinian state in the West Bank and endorsed Israeli settlements there, sharply disagreeing with Washington and much of the world.A three-day tour of Israel, hosted by a far-right group of religious nationalists, is taking Huckabee to some of the most contentious hotspots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including a West Bank settlement outpost that even Israel's hard-line government considers illegal and an east Jerusalem housing project that the Obama administration has demanded be halted.Israel officially refuses to freeze its settlement activity, but officials have confirmed that approval is now being withheld from fresh projects.

Huckabee's opposition to a Palestinian state puts him at odds with the accepted wisdom of both Democrats and Republicans — and to some degree even with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come out in favor of some form of Palestinian independence.Speaking to a small group of foreign reporters in Jerusalem, Huckabee said the international community should consider establishing a Palestinian state some place else.The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic.

The politician, a Southern Baptist preacher and a two-time former governor of Arkansas, praised Israel for giving Muslims access to Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock — also once the site of the ancient Jewish temples — even though the presence of a mosque there could be considered an affront.Israel is a place where they're going to allow other cultures and religions, but don't ask the Jewish people whose homeland it is to completely yield over their ability to live within the context of their country,said Huckabee.President Barack Obama is calling for a complete freeze on Israeli settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for their would-be state.

Huckabee is being hosted by the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, a pro-settler group seeking to bolster the Jewish presence in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope will serve as their future capital.Their activities, some of them funded by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, are aimed at blocking the division of the city as part of any future peace deal.Huckabee said he welcomed a demonstration Monday night by anti-settlement protesters outside the Shepherd Hotel, the site of a planned housing project in east Jerusalem which the Obama administration has demanded be stopped and where the Moskowitz family hosted Huckabee for dinner.He called the freedom to protest an affirmation of everything that is wonderful and great about Israel and the United States.During his tour, Huckabee will also visit the site of a planned neighborhood near Jerusalem that has also drawn U.S. ire and which Palestinians say will slice their future state in half. He will also travel to Hebron, the traditional burial place of the Biblical patriarch Abraham and the focus of particularly acute tensions between Muslims and Jews.

Medvedev, Peres meet on Mideast tensions Tue Aug 18, 8:53 am ET

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held talks Tuesday with Israeli President Shimon Peres on efforts to check Iran's nuclear program, stalled Mideast peace talks and other issues, the Kremlin said.The informal meeting got under way at Medvedev's official residence in Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast and was also to focus on plans long in the works for Moscow to host an international Mideast peace conference.The situation in the Middle East, which raises serious concern in Russia, will be at the centre of attention in the meeting,the Kremlin said in a background paper distributed ahead of the Sochi meeting.Welcoming Peres to his residence, Medvedev said there were more problems than one would like in the Middle East at present that required discussion, ITAR-TASS news agency said.Peres also said he planned to discuss a range of issues concerning the Middle East peace process in general and Israeli-Russian relations in particular.

Russia is helping Iran build its first nuclear power station while Israel and the United States fear Tehran secretly intends to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program.Tehran vehemently denies this suspicion. The Kremlin said the situation surrounding Iran would be on the agenda for the talks.The Medvedev-Peres meeting comes at a moment of unusually high tension between Israel and its chief ally, the United States, over differences on how to deal with Iran and control Jewish settlement activity.Russia was working actively to ease international tensions over Iran's nuclear program, the Kremlin said, and this issue would be examined in detail during Tuesday's talks.Russia and Israel were also in agreement on the need to fight efforts to falsify history,specifically denial of the Holocaust and of Russia's decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, the Kremlin said.

Attempts to rehabilitate Nazis and their supporters are unacceptable for us,it added, without elaborating.Tuesday's visit to Russia was the first by Peres since he was elected Israeli president in June 2007.