Thursday, January 06, 2011

HAMAS NAZI GENOCIDE WAS A LIE

Hamas leader says Nazi genocide was a lie
– Thu Jan 6, 1:22 pm ET


JABALIYA, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A senior Hamas leader on Thursday accused Israel of carrying out countless holocausts against the Palestinians while saying the Nazi genocide was a lie.Mahmud Zahar made the remarks during a memorial ceremony for 43 Palestinians who were killed at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp during Israel's 22-day war on Gaza that began in December 2008.The lie according to which they were a victim of a holocaust and the (Jewish) people are a victim -- this lie has crumbled with the holocaust of Beit Hanun, the holocaust of Al-Fakhura and the other countless holocausts ... committed by the Zionist enemy, he said.Zahar was speaking on the second anniversary of an Israeli air strike on the United Nations' Al-Fakhura school in the northern Gaza Strip.The incident was one of the deadliest in Israel's Operation Cast Lead" offensive, which left 1,400 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, along with 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.Before an audience that included members of the Hamas leadership in Gaza, Zahar paid tribute to those who died in the school where they had taken refuge from the heavy fighting.

The blood that was shed in Al-Fakhura and in every inch of Palestine will not be in vain, he said.Cast Lead, which Israel said it launched in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, ended in a ceasefire on January 18, 2009.Israel was established in 1948 in the wake of World War II when six million Jews were killed during the Nazi Holocaust.

EU's Ashton meets Palestinian chief in talks drive
– Thu Jan 6, 1:07 pm ET


RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday called for an immediate meeting of the Mideast peace Quartet to tackle the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.The call was made in a statement issued after she met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss ways to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.During my talks, we discussed latest developments and ways to move beyond the current impasse, said Ashton, adding that she had urged both sides to find a satisfactory way to engage without delay in substantive negotiations on all final status issues.I propose the Quartet meet as soon as possible to help find a solution to the current impasse, she said, suggesting that such a meeting could take place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in early February.Her remarks were made a week after Abbas called on the Mideast Quartet, which is comprised of the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, to spearhead efforts to forge a new peace plan.We demand that the Middle East Quartet and the various UN bodies, headed by the Security Council, draft a peace plan which conforms with international law, instead of keeping up negotiations which do not solve the problem, Abbas said on Friday in remarks broadcast on Palestinian television.Ashton said there was no alternative to a negotiated solution, and said the European Union would do whatever possible to help both parties reach an agreement.

The two met as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh holding talks with President Hosni Mubarak about the crisis in the peace process.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began on September 2 but hit a crisis just three weeks later when an Israeli ban on settlement building expired.Since then, the Palestinians have refused to continue talking until Israel renews a freeze on settlement activity. Last month, Washington admitted that its efforts to coax Israel into reimposing a new freeze had failed, with international efforts now focusing on drawing the two sides into some form of indirect dialogue.

Egypt's Mubarak warns Israel against new Gaza war
– Thu Jan 6, 11:47 am ET


CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday warned Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu against launching a new war on Gaza, as they met in a bid to break the impasse in Middle East peace negotiations.Mubarak's remarks were made during joint talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, which came after several weeks of rising tensions and clashes along Israel's border with the Palestinian enclave.At the meeting, the Egyptian leader warned of the danger of the latest Israeli threats and their repercussions on the stability and security of the region and the cause of Middle East peace, the official MENA news agency reported.

Mubarak affirmed Egypt's rejection of any new offensive on Gaza, it said.Senior Israeli officials have warned in recent weeks that Israel could launch another strike on Gaza, like the devastating 22-day war that ended in January 2009.That offensive killed some 1,400 Palestinians, around half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.Following the war, the number of rocket attacks dropped significantly, although 230 rockets and mortar rounds were fired into Israel last year, the army said.Israel's vice prime minister Silvan Shalom said last month that Israel would be forced to respond with all our force if Gaza militants kept firing rockets into the Jewish state.The warnings were made against the backdrop of almost daily rocket attacks and retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Gaza.Late on Wednesday, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians who were apparently trying to breach the border fence after a day in which militants fired seven projectiles, most of them mortar rounds, into southern Israel without causing casualties or damage.

Mubarak also warned the Israeli leader about the impact of a surge in violence on the deadlocked peace talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Direct talks between Netanyahu and Abbas stalled in September last year when Israel refused to renew a moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.The Palestinians have refused to continue talking while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.The Egyptian leader stressed the need for Israel to revisit its stances and policies, and to take tangible steps to build trust with the Palestinians, MENA said.A statement from Netanyahu's office described the meeting as friendly and comprehensive.Netanyahu highlighted the central role of Egypt in pushing forward the peace process and requested that Mubarak exert pressure on the Palestinians to return to direct, intensive and serious negotiations, the statement said.Netanyahu also updated Mubarak on the fence that Israel is building along the Egyptian border, aimed at stopping the influx of African illegal immigrants into the Jewish state.One of the stumbling blocks to any peace deal is the rift between Abbas and Hamas, which ousted the Palestinian leader's Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip in 2007 and rejects any form of negotiations with Israel. Israel and Egypt imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power there, and since then, Egypt has failed in efforts to to mediate a unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions.

Israel asks U.S. to ban Turk group behind Gaza ships
– Wed Jan 5, 4:35 pm ET


JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has asked the United States to consider outlawing the Turkish Islamist group behind a flotilla that tried to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in May, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman requested the outlawing of the IHH, or Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, at a meeting with visiting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Tuesday.The IHH is a prominent Turkish charity banned in Israel over its alleged support for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that appears on Israeli, U.S. and EU terrorist lists.The IHH describes itself as an aid organization, and organized the Gaza flotilla, which the Israeli navy intercepted, storming one of the ships and killing nine Turkish activists who fought the Israeli marines.Once-strong ties between Turkey and Israel hit rock-bottom as a result of the incident. Turkey has demanded an apology and compensation, which Israel has refused.The U.S. embassy in Israel did not immediately return a call for comment on Lieberman's request.A U.S. diplomatic cable from December 2009 and published by WikiLeaks said a U.S. Treasury official who visited Ankara raised concerns about IHH and described it as a large NGO providing material assistance to Hamas.(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Tim Pearce)

Swift action needed for peace: Jordan
– Wed Jan 5, 3:59 pm ET


AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdullah II on Wednesday urged swift action to help push forward the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, warning against wasting more time, a palace statement said.Efforts for having serious and effective peace talks should continue, based on a two-state solution, which is the only way to achieve regional stability and security, the statement quoted the king as telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the telephone.The deadlocked peace process threatens the entire region.The king, whose country signed a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, said practical steps are needed to remove obstacles facing the peace process, the statement said.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began in Washington on September 2 but quickly stalled when a 10-month Israeli settlements freeze expired on September 26.The Palestinians refused to return to talks until all settlement building stopped in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.The telephone call came after controversial hard-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told AFP on Tuesday that at least a decade would be needed to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians.Meanwhile, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh will visit the Palestinian territories on Thursday for talks on the peace process, an official statement said.

Russian president to visit Palestinian territories
– Wed Jan 5, 8:32 am ET


MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit the Palestinian territories even though his trip to Israel has been canceled due to an Israeli Foreign Ministry strike, the Kremlin said in a statement.The Kremlin statement, released late Tuesday, said Israeli President Shimon Peres had apologized to Medvedev for the inability to prepare for his visit in mid-January.During their telephone conversation, the two presidents agreed to meet during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of the month, the Kremlin and Peres' office said.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman shrugged off suggestions that Israel might be offended by Medvedev's visit to the Palestinians, saying the Russian leader is free to visit wherever he wants.The Kremlin did not say Wednesday whether Medvedev planned to visit the West Bank, Gaza or both. But in a statement, Peres said Medvedev would be meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho.The cancellation of the Israeli leg of his trip was due to a strike at Israel's Foreign Ministry, which made it difficult to organize the Russian president's visit.Workers are striking because they say they are underpaid. The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a pay slip Tuesday it said belonged to an Israeli diplomat showing he earns just over minimum wage_ about $1,000 a month.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Wednesday that Israel had reached an understanding with Russia that Medvedev's visit should be postponed until after the strike.The president is most welcome to visit Israel any time he wants and the Russians know this, Palmor said. The problem is that the Foreign Ministry is on strike and there is no one to properly take care of such an important visit.

No Mideast peace for at least a decade: Lieberman
by Philippe Agret and Charly Wegman – Tue Jan 4, 7:13 pm ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Controversial hard-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told AFP on Tuesday at least a decade would be needed to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians.I think that we have good cooperation (with the Palestinians) on the economy and security and we must continue cooperation on these two levels and postpone the political solution for at least a decade, he said in an exclusive interview.I think that it's impossible in an artificial way to accelerate the political process. I think that we must move step by step. All relations between... two countries, two entities are on three levels -- the political level, security and the economy.We must advance step by step, said the hardline leader of the Yisrael Beitenu party, who has been largely sidelined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in peace talks with the Palestinians.What we need today is a long-term intermediate agreement.But he said he does not see what he thinks is any readiness, any goodwill from this Palestinian leadership for a real political process. They think that they can achieve from the international community everything they want without talks, without any compromise. This is their strategy.Asked what the steps were to achieving peace, he said first of all we must tighten our economic and security cooperation; second, less international involvement... which creates a lot of expectations and after the expectations you get frustration and it will lead to violence and clashes.

He said there was an overdoing, overspeaking and over involvement on the part of the whole international community, including the United States, the Middle East diplomatic Quartet and others.He also pointed to what he said was the emotional nature of the conflict.It's not a logical one. Issues like refugees and Jerusalem and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state ... It's very difficult to resolve emotional issues.And he repeated Israeli objections to Palestinian threats to declare independence unilaterally if the avenue of talks fails, saying it's against all our agreements, all our understandings and what we signed.I think they will lose much more than they can gain in establishing a unilateral independent country, adding that the Palestinian Authority could not exist without Israeli assistance.

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began in Washington on September 2 but quickly stalled when a 10-month Israeli settlements freeze expired on September 26.The Palestinians refused to return to talks until all settlement building stopped in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.After weeks of seeking to convince Israel to extend the freeze, Washington acknowledged on December 7 that it had failed.Netanyahu had reluctantly accepted a US proposal to extend the moratorium for another three months, but the Israeli premier demanded written guarantees from Washington and the matter went nowhere.The United States subsequently proposed a return to the indirect proximity talks the two sides had been engaged through US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.

But that was rejected by the Palestinians, who continued to insist on a halt to settlement construction. On Monday Netanyahu said talks to secure a new settlement freeze ground to a halt when the United States stopped pressing for the ban, not because Israel rejected it, media reported.

Lebanon urges UN to curb Israel offshore drilling
– Tue Jan 4, 1:33 pm ET


BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon's foreign minister on Tuesday asked the United Nations to curb Israel's offshore drilling plans, days after a US firm announced the discovery of a large field off the Jewish state's coastline.We request you do everything possible to ensure Israel does not exploit Lebanon's hydrocarbon resources, which fall within Lebanon's economic zone as delineated in the maps the foreign ministry submitted to the United Nations in 2010, Foreign Minister Ali Shami said in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.Any exploitation by Israel of this resource is a flagrant violation of international law and an attack on Lebanese sovereignty, read the letter, which was carried by the state-run National News Agency.US firm Noble Energy announced last week that the Leviathan gas field, offshore from Israel, holds an estimated 450 billion cubic metres (16 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.The discovery, which surpasses the Tamar field discovered off the northern port of Haifa, has positioned the Jewish state as an exporter, Noble Energy said.News of the offshore fields, which surfaced in 2010, has increased tensions between the two neighbouring countries which do not have formal maritime borders and sparked an angry exchange of warnings between the two states.Lebanon's Energy Minister Gebran Bassil has said his country plans to outline its maritime sea borders and auction off rights to explore potential offshore natural gas and petrol reserves in 2012.

Netanyahu: Israel never said no to new freeze
by Steve Weizman – Mon Jan 3, 5:22 pm ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said talks to secure a new settlement freeze ground to a halt when the United States stopped pressing for the ban, not because Israel rejected it.Israeli radio and news sites quoted him as telling parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that Washington initially asked Israel to extend a 10-month building freeze which expired in September.The truth is that we were prepared to do this but contrary to what was reported Israel did not refuse to extend the freeze, Maariv daily's nrg website quoted Netanyahu as telling lawmakers.In the end the United States decided not to take that path, rightly in my opinion, he added.Haaretz daily's website quoted Netanyahu as saying that he told US President Barack Obama he would ask his cabinet to approve a three-month extension.I told Obama that I am prepared to go with this to the cabinet and that I will be able to enforce the move, but then I received the surprising phone call from the Americans who said they no longer demand that Israel extends the freeze, the paper quoted him as telling the committee on Monday.

Netanyahu said in November that he would put the US request to a cabinet vote if incentives from Washington were put in writing, among them finance for advanced warplanes and a promise to veto any UN Security Council resolution against Israel's interests.

That letter apparently never came.

US officials admitted last month that efforts to coax Israel into imposing new curbs on West Bank settlement construction had gone nowhere.Netanyahu on Monday said that senior Obama aide Dennis Ross would be in Israel this week for discussions. Netanyahu also confirmed that he himself would visit Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak.This week the envoy Dennis Ross and other American envoys will arrive. On Thursday I shall go to Egypt, he told senior members of his Likud party in remarks broadcast on public radio.We have a single aim, to strengthen security and to move toward achieving peace.Mubarak has publicly blamed Israel for the collapse of peace talks, and has urged the international community, especially the United States, to move the process forward.Without a new freeze, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate, effectively deadlocking direct peace talks that began on September 2, only to run aground three weeks later when building resumed in the settlements.We have been pursuing a moratorium as a means to create conditions for a return to meaningful and sustained negotiations, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on December 7.After a considerable effort, we have concluded that this does not create a firm basis to work towards our shared goal of a framework agreement.Haaretz on Sunday quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that a US counterpart told him Washington was deeply disappointed with Israeli Defence Minister and Labour party leader Ehud Barak for failing to deliver on promises that he could win government approval for a fresh freeze.

Some Labour ministers in Netanyahu's right-dominated coalition government are calling for Barak to lead the party out of the government if there is no progress towards peace talks.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is now calling for the international community, spearheaded by the peacemaking Quartet of the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, to come up with a new peace plan. We demand that the Middle East Quartet and the various UN bodies, headed by the Security Council, draft a peace plan which conforms with international law, instead of keeping up negotiations which do not solve the problem, he said in a televised address last week. Netanyahu said on Sunday that he was prepared for an immediate resumption of face-to-face talks with Abbas until white smoke emerges," a statement from his office said.If Abbas were to accept the invitation, the statement quoted Netanyahu as saying, they could discuss all key aspects of the dispute and see if there were prospects for progress.We shall very soon know if we shall be able to reach an agreement,Netanyahu said.

Aftenposten: Israel gears up for Iran attack
– Mon Jan 3, 7:07 am ET


OSLO, Norway – Israel believes it would have only 10-12 minutes' warning if Iran launched rockets but that threats from Hamas and Hezbollah are the most pressing, according to leaked U.S. State Department cables published in a Norwegian newspaper.

The Aftenposten daily on Sunday cited a cable describing a Nov. 15, 2009, meeting between an American congressional delegation and Israel's military chief in which he reportedly said Israel was preparing to defend itself against such attacks.The paper quoted Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi as telling the delegation that Iran has 300 Shihab rockets which could reach Israel. Some 1 million Israelis would be at risk from attacks from the country's enemies in the region, including Hezbollah and Hamas, he said.It also cited Israeli military leaders as saying the two militant groups are the most immediate threat to the country, with Lebanon's Hezbollah sitting on a stockpile of 40,000 rockets and Hamas having the capacity to attack Tel Aviv. The next war in the Middle East would take place in Lebanon and on the Gaza Strip, Ashkenazi said.The cables come from a trove of 250,000 uncensored U.S. diplomatic documents that secret-spilling site WikiLeaks has been making public. Aftenposten said last month it had obtained all the documents.Hamas took over Gaza soon after Israel pulled out in 2005, and Hezbollah took over most of southern Lebanon when Israel left in 2000.In separate U.S. cables dating back to talks in September 2009 between the Israeli military and an American congressional delegation, an officer from the Israeli Security Agency Shin Bet gave a detailed description of the situation in Gaza to U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

According to Aftenposten, the officer said that six months after the Israeli attack against Gaza in 2008-2009, Hamas had already regained the same amount of weapons it had before the operation.He reportedly said that Hamas was working actively to develop its own weapons production and had been trying to obtain Iranian rockets that can reach Tel Aviv.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

ISRAEL EXTENDS BAN

Israel extends ban on immigration through marriage
JAN 2,10 4PM


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Sunday extended for six months a ban preventing Palestinians married to Israelis to immigrate to the Jewish state, the premier's office said in a statement.The ministerial committee for security affairs decided tonight (Sunday) to extend for six months a text on family unification, which expired December 31, said a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.That extension until June 30 denies Palestinians the right to acquire Israeli citizenship or resident status through marriage.The so-called Family Unification provision has been the subject of an outcry from leftist movements and groups representing the country's Arab minority, who charge the ban is inhumane and racist.The ministerial committee also asked the justice minister to work towards early finalisation of a law on family unification, which will meet the national security and long-term interests of the government of Israel,the statement added.The Israeli government is concerned that uncontrolled immigration could slowly erode the state's Jewish identity.Israeli Arabs currently number some 1.4 million, or 20 percent of the population.

Israeli PM wants nonstop talks with Palestinians By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press – Sun Jan 2, 2:34 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister on Sunday proposed nonstop, face-to-face talks with the Palestinian president until a peace agreement is reached — offering a possible way to advance talks that have stalled over the construction of Jewish settlements.Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal offers the appeal of leaders working together to make history, and it comes in response to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' latest claim — made over the weekend in South America — that genuine talks could yield a deal within months. But the Palestinians showed little enthusiasm for Netanyahu's offer.Reached by The Associated Press in Brazil on Sunday, Abbas reiterated his call for a settlement freeze. If he does so, we can reach an agreement not in six months, but in two months, he said.Abbas' chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Netanyahu's offer amounted to little more than an empty declaration. He called on the Israeli leader to spell out a vision of peace, and specifically to commit to a near-complete withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem.In his comments Sunday, Netanyahu urged the Palestinians to turn their focus away from settlements and instead work with him on the broader issues needed to reach a final peace deal.

He said he was ready to sit with Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, for continuous direct one-on-one negotiations until white smoke is wafting, an allusion to the Vatican's custom for announcing a new pope.If Abu Mazen agrees to my proposal of directly discussing all the core issues, we will know very quickly if we can reach an agreement, he said.Netanyahu did not spell out details, but his new approach would be based on the idea that all the outstanding issues would be on the table, as opposed to the Palestinian approach of demanding a settlement freeze and general agreement on borders before talks resume.President Barack Obama has made Mideast peace a top priority, personally launching the latest round of negotiations at the White House in early September and pledging to forge a deal within a year. But the U.S.-brokered talks broke down just three weeks later with the expiration of a limited Israeli freeze on settlement construction.Netanyahu grudgingly accepted the principle of a Palestinian right to statehood only two years ago, and the past months' diplomatic difficulties have deepened the Palestinians' distrust. Appearing to despair of restarting talks, they have embarked on a parallel track of seeking recognition by world governments for a Palestinian state even without Israeli agreement.The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. They say that Israel's construction in these areas is a sign of bad faith and refuse to renew talks until settlement building is frozen again.Israel has refused, and U.S. officials have been unable to find a way to get talks moving again. There was no immediate comment from the Americans on Netanyahu's latest idea, which — in ratcheting up the level and intensity of negotiation — could offer a creative way to sidestep the settlement issue.The fate of the settlements is critical to any future deal. Some 300,000 settlers now live in the West Bank, in addition to 200,000 Israelis living in east Jerusalem.

Talks would have to also address other difficult issues: final borders between Israel and a future Palestine; the fate of Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants; and perhaps most explosive, the competing claims to the holy city of Jerusalem, which Netanyahu has insisted must remain entirely Israeli. The gaps on all these issues are wide — although previous, more liberal Israeli governments did make progress on borders.Netanyahu said his proposal was a response to Abbas' claim over the weekend that serious talks could yield an agreement in just two months. Speaking in Brazil, Abbas suggested that Netanyahu adopt the positions of his more dovish predecessor, Ehud Olmert.We were close to an agreement, Abbas said. The Palestinian position is clear to the Israelis and the Israeli position presented by Olmert is clear to us.Olmert has said he offered the Palestinians virtually all of the West Bank and parts of east Jerusalem. The Palestinians did not accept the offer, and negotiations broke down in late 2008. Netanyahu, who leads a more hardline coalition government, has given no indication that he is prepared to make similar concessions.Eitan Bentsur, a former director general of Israel's Foreign Ministry and onetime peace negotiator, said direct talks might give the negotiating process a fresh start, but were unlikely to bridge all the deep differences at this stage. Very soon they will face the core issues that have to be overcome,he said.

Yossi Beilin, a dovish former Israeli negotiator, said Netanyahu does not have a peace plan, so such an invitation (to nonstop talks) is hollow. Beilin told the AP that Netanyahu is very, very far from the demands of the most pragmatic Palestinian leadership ever.Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, complained that during the three weeks of direct talks last September, Netanyahu made no proposals for future arrangements between Israel and Palestine. It is time for him to present his vision of peace, two states based on the 1967 lines, with minor, mutually agreed land swaps, Erekat said. A broad withdrawal offer would likely cause Netanyahu's government to collapse, though he could seek the support of more liberal parties. The main opposition party, Kadima, is also the largest in parliament, and its leaders have said they would prop up Netanyahu if he made genuine peace moves.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, said the prime minister knows that reaching peace will require hard choices from both sides.To be successful, it has to be done eye to eye, directly between the leaders of both sides,he said. But (Netanyahu) firmly believes this is doable. In fact, there is no other way to peace.

Israel preparing for large scale war: cable
– Sun Jan 2, 9:20 am ET


OSLO (AFP) – Israel's army chief told a US Congress delegation in late 2009 he was preparing for a large war in the Middle East, probably against Hamas or Hezbollah, leaked US diplomatic cables showed on Sunday.I am preparing the Israeli army for a large scale war, since it is easier to scale down to a smaller operation than to do the opposite, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi was quoted as saying in a cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv.The document, dated November 15, 2009, was quoted Sunday in Norwegian by Oslo-based daily Aftenposten, which said it had obtained WikiLeaks' entire cache of 251,187 leaked US embassy cables.The rocket threat against Israel is more serious than ever. That is why Israel is putting such emphasis on rocket defence, Ashkenazi told the US delegation led by Democrat Ike Skelton, the cable showed.The army chief lamented that Iran has some 300 Shihab rockets that can reach Israel and stressed that the Jewish state would have only between 10 and 12 minutes warning in case of an attack.However, it was Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon that posed the most acute threat, he cautioned.According to the quoted cable, Hezbollah is thought to have more than 40,000 rockets, many of which are believed capable of reaching deep into Israel.

US officials meanwhile reportedly estimate the militant group has acquired an arsenal of around 50,000 rockets.A 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel killed 1,200 Lebanese, many of them civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.And in his comments made nearly a year after Israel on December 27, 2008 launched the deadly Gaza war, Ashkenazi said Israel is on a collision course also with Hamas, which rules Gaza.Hamas will have the possibility to bombard Tel Aviv, with Israel's highest population concentration, he was quoted as saying.The Gaza war -- a response to hundreds of rockets fired into the Jewish State -- killed some 1,400 mainly civilian Palestinians and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers. It ended on January 18, 2009.Israel had been harshly criticised for putting civilians at risk during fighting in the densely populated Gaza Strip.However, in the cable leaked Sunday Ashkenazi is quoted saying Israel next time will not accept any restrictions on warfare in populated areas,and insisted the army had never intentionally attacked civilian targets.

Arabs held for plotting Jerusalem stadium attack
by Steve Weizman – Sun Jan 2, 11:07 am ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Two Arabs have been arrested for a suspected plot to fire a rocket into a Jerusalem football stadium along with three other men who sold them firearms, Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service said Sunday.Shin Bet, the Jewish state's domestic security agency, said two of the men, Mussa Hamada and Bassem Omari, had been active for several years in the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Jerusalem.They received support from the Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi Arabia, it said in a statement.The two were formally charged on Sunday with membership in and support for a terrorist organisation, firearms offences and conspiracy to commit a crime, it said.Three other men have already been charged with trafficking in weapons, it added.Shin Bet said Omari, a resident of Beit Safafa in annexed east Jerusalem, is an Israeli citizen.Hamada and the three accomplices were described as residents of east Jerusalem, a term used to describe Palestinians authorised to live in Jerusalem but who do not have Israeli citizenship.The statement was the first news of the arrests, which the agency said were made in November.It said the suspects began plotting an attack after Israel's December 2008-January 2009 Operation Cast Lead offensive in Gaza, and had planned to target the 21,000-capacity Teddy Stadium during a football match.

From their Shin Bet interrogation it transpires that after Operation Cast Lead the two began to plan a terror operation in Jerusalem, as part of which they examined the possibility of firing a missile at Teddy Stadium while a game was in progress, the statement said.The two went to a ridge overlooking the stadium in order to select the best place for an attack and carried out reconnaissance of the area, although the planning was not translated into action, it added.The statement said the men had bought several pistols and were trying to acquire a rifle and explosives.It added that Hamada's cousins, Mohammed and Omar Hamada, obtained pistols from Balal Bahtan and the three had been charged within the past few days on many firearms violations. All had confessed, it added.The Israeli military's website added that Omari had also been planning an attack against Israeli soldiers.The Shin Bet statement that during the past two years Hamada made several visits to Saudi Arabia, where he met a local member of the Muslim Brotherhood.During one of the meetings, the Saudi representative gave Mussa Hamada money for the purchase of weapons and asked in return that he gather information on Jerusalem, the statement said.More than 270,000 Arabs live in east Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed shortly after, in a move not recognised by the international community.

Very few of them hold Israeli citizenship although Palestinian residents of the city have special status which allows them free movement throughout Israel, unlike those from the West Bank.In 2001, two Palestinians died in an explosion near Teddy Stadium and police said they were killed when a bomb they were assembling exploded prematurely.The blast occured shortly before then-prime minister Ariel Sharon was due to arrive at the stadium to attend the ceremonial opening of the Maccabiah Games, an international sporting event also known as the Jewish Olympics.

Israel says direct negotiations best path to peace
– Sat Jan 1, 2:19 pm ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Face-to-face negotiations are still the best path to peace with the Palestinians, an Israeli official said Saturday dismissing calls for a new peace plan as premature.On Friday, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called for the international community, spearheaded by the peacemaking Quartet of the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, to come up with a new approach.We demand that the Middle East Quartet and the various UN bodies, headed by the Security Council, draft a peace plan which conforms with international law, instead of keeping up negotiations which do not solve the problem, he said, without elaborating.

But Shahar Azrami, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, disagreed.Israel has been quite adamant in the last few months in trying to get the Palestinians to sit with Israel around the negotiating table and only once this option is exhausted should we think about trying to reach new solutions,Azrami told AFP.We haven't reached the moment yet, at least as far as Israel is concerned, in which we give up negotiations, he said.On Friday Abbas laid the cornerstone of a new Palestinian embassy in Brazil, part of a strategy to clinch recognition of Palestinian statehood from as many countries as possible as a prelude to going to the Security Council and asking to be admitted as a full UN member.Brazil was the first of several Latin American states that recognised Palestinian statehood this month within the borders of 1967, the boundaries that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in that year's Middle East war.Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador have followed suit and Uruguay said it will do likewise later this year.

Israel opposes such moves and has reportedly ordered its own diplomats worldwide to mount a counter-offensive.It would be more viable to seek peace in the immediate neighbourhood, that is through direct negotiations with Israel rather than elsewhere in the world, be that in South America or in the United Nations,Azrami said.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began on September 2 but stalled after a 10-month Israeli settlement-building freeze expired three weeks later and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to renew it.Abbas says talks cannot resume as long as Israeli settlement construction continues.

AP Interview: Abbas says recognitions hit Israel By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press – Fri Dec 31, 7:24 pm ET

BRASILIA, Brazil – Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that a recent wave of nations recognizing a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders is pressuring Israel and the U.S. to return to negotiations and reach a peace deal.Abbas, in Brazil to lay the cornerstone of a Palestinian Embassy and attend the inauguration of President-elect Dilma Rousseff, told The Associated Press in an interview that recent recognition of a Palestinian state by several Latin American nations would help push the U.S. and Israel into new talks.These recognitions of a Palestinian state will help us to convince the Israelis on the necessity to reach a two-state solution,said Abbas.The current round of peace negotiations collapsed in late September, just weeks after they were launched, when Israel ended a slowdown on settlements in West Bank areas it captured in 1967, land where the Palestinians plan to build their state. By December, the U.S. abandoned trying to persuade Israel to halt the settlements.The Palestinians refuse to negotiate while Israel builds homes for Jews in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.Abbas said he expects other Latin American and European nations to soon join Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia in recognizing a Palestinian state.Uruguayan officials have said they'll likely recognize the state soon. Cuba and Venezuela did so long ago.

Eventually, Abbas said, It will only be Israel and maybe the United States who do not recognize the Palestinian state — and this will put pressure on them.The Israeli government has reacted testily to the recognitions, saying that inaugurating an embassy for a nonexistent state — and Palestinians efforts for recognition of that state — is not the best way to achieve peace.The Israeli government has been trying to relaunch and re-engage Palestinians in direct talks for a very long time, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Shachar Azani told the AP. Unfortunately, so far there has been no response.Azani said that the Palestinians must remember that at the end of the day peace is done with your neighbor and not in faraway continents or with the United Nations.Earlier this week, Palestinian officials said they plan to ask the U.N. Security Council to declare Israeli settlements illegal and demand a halt to their construction. That would be a key element in a Palestinian campaign to rally international support for independence.

Abbas said the settlements were the cause of the stalled talks.It's not that we don't want the negotiations. We were extending our hand always to the negotiations with the Israelis, he said.Despite the deadlocked talks, Abbas said he is optimistic that 2011 will be the year of peace.The Palestinian people have suffered a lot. They need to live free in their own state and they hope this will be achieved in 2011, he said.Earlier Friday, Abbas laid the cornerstone for a future Palestinian Embassy in Brazil.We seek peace. We demand this peace not only for our generation but also for our children, our grandchildren and their children, Abbas said at the ceremony.We know the Israelis believe in this peace.Brazil donated a plot of land in its embassy district in Brasilia — as it has done for nations in the past. At the ceremony, white doves were released and a banner overhead read: Palestinian Homeland in Arabic.Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja in Brasilia and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Brazil hosts first Palestine embassy in Americas
– Fri Dec 31, 12:26 pm ET


BRASILIA (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas thanked Brazil on Friday for recognizing his nation's statehood with the first embassy in the Americas and said other countries were following suit.Brazil became the first of several South American countries in recent weeks to recognize a Palestine state along pre-1967 borders.Since then Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador have done the same. Chile, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua are reported to be considering recognition.Israel says the moves are seriously harmful to the Middle East peace process and Washington has called them premature.We thank Brazil for its support in the construction of a Palestine state. This favor we will never forget, said Abbas after laying the cornerstone in Brasilia for his nation's first embassy in the Western Hemisphere.

We see several countries following the example of Brazil in recognizing the Palestinian state, Abbas said before meeting with outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.Palestinian authorities are hoping for a diplomatic domino effect to give international validity to their claim for a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured along with East Jerusalem in a 1967 war.Direct peace talks revived by Washington in September after a year's suspension collapsed within weeks. A U.S. drive to keep the process alive via third-party talks is in limbo.The Palestinians reject further negotiation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until Jewish settlement of West Bank land is frozen and Netanyahu states clearly what size and shape of country he envisages agreeing to eventually.

Lula has raised eyebrows in some Western countries with his mediation efforts in the Middle East peace process. He also angered Washington earlier this year when he held talks with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Iran's nuclear program.In a further sign of growing pro-Palestinian sentiment in South America, the regional trade bloc Mercosur signed a trade accord earlier this month with the Palestinian authority.Bolivia broke ties with Jerusalem in 2009 after an Israeli attack on Palestinian territories.
Abbas will attend the swearing-in of Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff on Saturday.(Reporting by Raymond Colitt; Editing by Eric Beech)

2010 sees drop in Palestinian attacks: Shin Bet
– Thu Dec 30, 3:00 pm ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – The year 2010 saw the fewest militant attacks against Israel and the least number of casualties since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising a decade ago, the Shin Bet security agency said Thursday.However, Israel's internal security agency cautioned that the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers have intensified efforts to smuggle in advanced weapons as they prepare for a future conflict with Israel.The Shin Bet said that nine Israelis were killed in attacks by Palestinian militants in 2010, down from 15 in 2009 and a high of 452 in 2002.For the second year in a row there were no suicide bombings, the Shin Bet said in a statement.

And despite a recent spate of rocket and mortar attacks fired from Gaza into Israel, 2010 was significantly quieter with 150 rockets and 215 mortars launched.This was down from 569 rockets and 289 mortars in 2009, and 2,048 rockets and 1,668 mortars in 2008, the Shin Bet said.In December 2008 Israel launched its devastating 22-day assault on Gaza in a bid to halt the rocket fire. The conflict killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.The Shin Bet warned that despite the quiet, Hamas continued to try and smuggle quality weapons into Gaza.In the last year hundreds of military-grade rockets were smuggled into the Strip (most with a range of 20-40 kilometres, 12-24 miles), about one thousand mortars and tens of anti-tank weapons and tons of raw materials for making explosives,the statement said.It said most of the weapons came from Iran and were smuggled into Gaza through Sudan and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

DEUTERONOMY 7:7-8
7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people;(ISRAEL) for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you,(ISRAEL) and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

ZECHARIAH 2:8
8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

JEREMIAH 3:14
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you:(ISRAEL) and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

ISAIAH 42:1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect,(ISRAEL) in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

ISAIAH 45:4
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

ISAIAH 65:9,22
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

ISAIAH 56:5
5 Even unto them (ISRAELIS) will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name,(ISRAEL) that shall not be cut off.

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.

Arab majority in historic Palestine after 2014: survey
– Thu Dec 30, 1:15 pm ET


RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Arab population in historic Palestine will equal the Jewish population by 2014, and quickly outstrip it thereafter, Palestinian statistics released Thursday said.The figures published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics show the Arab population in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip nearing the size of the Jewish population, but with a significantly higher birth rate.The bureau said the Arab population in the West Bank and Gaza currently stands at 4.1 million, with another 1.4 million Arabs living inside Israel.That gives a total not far short of the 5.8 million Jews living in the same area, according to current Israeli data.The number of Palestinians (Arabs) will reach that of Jewish residents by the end of 2014, around 6.1 million, at the current growth rate, the Palestinian bureau said.It noted that the birth rate in the Palestinian territories is currently 32.8 per thousand residents, as compared to 26.2 per thousand in Israel.The bureau put the current number of Palestinian refugees living overseas at 5.6 million, primarily in Arab countries.A number of Israelis have advanced the demographic argument to push for a two-state solution, warning that without a resolution, the growing Arab population will erase Israel's character as a Jewish state.

Gaza militants meet over Israel tensions
– Wed Dec 29, 10:38 am ET


GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, called a meeting of Palestinian factions overnight as tension rises along the border with Israel, a source told AFP.In past weeks, Palestinian militants have fired a series of rockets into southern Israel and the Israeli military has launched retaliatory air raids.At the meeting on Tuesday night, the factions discussed the question of rocket fire and not providing the Israeli occupation with a pretext for increasing its aggression, a source with knowledge of the meeting told AFP.There was a consensus on the need to coordinate a response to the aggression, the source added, without providing additional detail.The meeting included all the main Palestinian factions except Fatah, the bitter Hamas rival that the Islamist group drove out of power in Gaza in 2007.Khader Habib, a leader of the Islamic Jihad, told AFP the meeting discussed the growing Zionist threats to launch a new war against the Gaza Strip, and we agreed that the Palestinian people have the right to resistance to defend themselves.The renewed tensions come just two years after Israel launched the devastating Operation Cast Lead in response to rocket fire from Gaza.The war, which ended in a ceasefire on January 18, 2009, killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.

Palestinian leader to lay first stone of Brazil embassy
– Tue Dec 28, 4:16 pm ET


BRASILIA (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is to lay the symbolic first stone of an embassy in Brazil this week, following Brasilia's decision to recognize a Palestinian state, the Palestinian representative here told AFP.Abbas will head the stone-laying ceremony on Friday, and on Saturday he will attend the inauguration ceremony for Brazil's new president, Dilma Rousseff, Palestinian diplomatic representative Ibrahim al-Zeben said.Brazil angered Israel and the United States early this month when it declared it was recognizing a sovereign Palestinian state within the borders before the 1967 Six Day War.

Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia have since followed suit.The other Latin American countries that previously recognized an independent Palestine are Cuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica Venezuela.Israel has called the declarations regrettable, and said a Palestinian state should only be defined with its assent.Lawmakers in the United States, Israel's close ally, have also criticized the moves.Washington regularly uses its veto power in the UN Security Council to block any motions deemed to run counter to Israeli interests.