CLINTON IN JERUSALEM FOR TALKS

Israeli official: Clinton to hold Jerusalem talks By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer Steve Weizman, Associated Press Writer – OCT 27,09

JERUSALEM – An Israeli official says U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton is expected to arrive in Israel at the weekend to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a fresh attempt to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.An aide to Netanyahu said she was due on Saturday night. He spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement.Palestinian officials have said in local media interviews over the past few days that Clinton was expected to visit Palestinian leaders in the West Bank next week.In Washington, the State Department had no comment on Clinton's travel plans, other than to say she would be in Morocco early next week where she would be meeting with various Arab foreign ministers.

Rocket fired from Lebanon prompts Israeli barrage by Charly Wegman – OCT 27,09

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A Katyusha rocket fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel on Tuesday night without causing casualties, prompting Israel to retaliate with artillery, sources on both sides said.The attack, which was not immediately claimed, was the latest incident in growing cross-border tensions, and an Israeli military spokeswoman laid ultimate blame on the Beirut government.The rocket landed in open ground east of the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona and started a fire but caused no serious damage, sources there said.A security source in Lebanon said eight rockets fired from Israel then hit near the border village of Hula. There were no immediate reports of casualties.At about the same time, witnesses in Kiryat Shmona said Israeli artillery retaliated by firing on southern Lebanon.An Israeli military spokeswoman later confirmed that artillery had opened fire on the sector from which the Katyusha rocket was fired.She said the army considered the attack as serious, and considers that responsibility for it falls on the Lebanese government.UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese army cut off the road to Hula and searched the area, an AFP correspondent said.

Hula residents said they heard a rocket being fired from the brush outside the village shortly before the rockets hit the area.While no group claimed responsibility, Israel will have its eyes on Shiite movement Hezbollah, which fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and which has its stronghold in south Lebanon.A rocket exploded in a village there on October 12 in the home of activist Abdel Nasser Issa.The Israeli military released footage from a drone that it said showed rockets being removed.But Hezbollah's Al-Manar television broadcast pictures it said showed men outside a garage putting a rolled up metal shutter into a truck, watched by a Lebanese soldier and two UN troops.Israel's military said the blast proves again the presence of weapons forbidden in southern Lebanon under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war.The conflict killed more than 1,200Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.Resolution 1701 called for the removal of weapons in southern Lebanon from the hands of everyone except the Lebanese army and other state security forces.Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of rearming, and an Israeli military spokesman has claimed the group has dozens of arms caches containing hundreds of rockets.Following the October 12 incident, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Hezbollah of turning Lebanon into a powderkeg.It's not Israel that is endangering Lebanon, but rather Hezbollah, just as Hamas is endangering the Palestinians.There is no reason for Israel not to make peace with Lebanon,he said, adding that Israel's northern neighbour could be, with the help of this peace, the Switzerland of the Middle East. But it's clear to everyone who is preventing this.

Tuesday's attack on Israel was the fourth from Lebanon this year.On September 11, at least two rockets fired from the southern village of Al-Qlaileh slammed into Israel without causing casualties but triggering retaliatory artillery fire.A group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility, according to US monitoring group SITE Intelligence.In February, Israeli artillery bombarded Al-Qlaileh in response to a rocket attack. There were no casualties in Lebanon, while a few Israelis were lightly wounded.In January, during Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, four rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel, wounding two women.

Israel demolishes Palestinian houses in east Jerusalem Tue Oct 27, 1:55 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Tuesday razed five Palestinian houses in occupied east Jerusalem, defying international calls to halt the demolitions in the disputed city, the municipality said.The Jerusalem municipality demolished houses and structures built without permits in the neighbourhoods of Shuafat, Zur Baher, Silwan and Jabel Mukabar, municipality spokesman Gidi Schmerling said in a statement to AFP.All the houses were demolished in accordance with a court order,he said.An Israeli rights group, Ir Amim, criticised the demolitions as an irresponsible step that could escalate the situation in the city and bring it to a new boiling point.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat had vowed to crack down on illegal construction in the city, including east Jerusalem, whose fate is one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The city's Palestinian residents have long accused the Israeli-run municipality of discriminating against them and making it virtually impossible to get legal permits for new homes or extensions to existing ones.As a result, Arab residents have built thousands of illegal structures in recent decades and Israel has issued demolition orders and destroyed dozens of houses each year.Threatened demolitions have raised tensions in the eastern half of the city, with Palestinians holding regular protests and filing court cases.Several Western countries, including the United States, France and Britain, have also criticised the threatened evictions, saying they have a negative effect on the Middle East peace process.

Israel considers the entire Holy City to be its eternal undivided capital, including east Jerusalem which it seized and annexed during the 1967 Six-Day War.The international community has never recognised Israel's claim to east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.Around 270,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem alongside around 190,000 Israeli Jews.

Israel's Barak faces party revolt over peace deadlock By Allyn Fisher-ilan – Tue Oct 27, 1:42 pm ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak faced the possible breakup of his left-of-center Labor party when a group of lawmakers threatened on Tuesday to break away protesting a lack of movement in peace talks.Legislator Eitan Cabel of Labor said he was one of four of the party's 13 legislators launching a movement to press Israel to renew stalled negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians.Cabel told Reuters the group demanded a lot more activism by Israel to advance the peace process and could quit the party unless Barak heeded their message, a step that could weaken rightist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.The threat introduced the risk that Netanyahu's fractious seven-month-old coalition was vulnerable not only to pressures from ultranationalists against stopping Jewish settlement, but also to demands from moderates seeking more diplomacy.Netanyahu commands the support of 71 of parliament's 120 lawmakers, but his coalition comprises an uneasy alliance of unlikely partners as Barak's Labor as well as far-right and religious factions.Cabel, a veteran lawmaker removed months ago as party director after criticizing the alliance with Netanyahu, accused Barak of destroying the Labor party and now destroying the Left,by failing to press further to renew peace talks.Israeli negotiations with Palestinians stalled over a Gaza war in December, and efforts to revive them have so far failed despite the efforts of U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who was due back in the region for further talks this week.

TALKS MUST RESUME

Cabel accused Barak of failing to ease Netanyahu's resistance to freezing construction in Jewish settlements, which Palestinians see as a key obstacle to resuming peace talks.There must be a freeze,Cabel said in a telephone interview, adding that Barak's stance made him appear as though he was planted by the Right as a virus.Time isn't on our side,Cabel added, also urging a resumption of talks with Syria stalled since 2000 in a dispute over demands Israel withdraw from land captured in a 1967 War.There is quiet along the border with Syria but which could blow up at any moment without anyone's express intent,Cabel said.He and three allies would launch their group called The Democratic Platform,in the coming days as a forum to generate new ideas, and try to force Barak either to wield more influence for peace or to step aside as party leader, Cabel said.Under Israeli law, they would need the support of at least five lawmakers, or a third of Labor's slate, in order to secede and form a separate parliamentary faction.The party's faction leader, Daniel Ben-Simon, resigned that job last week but has not said whether he would join Cabel.A Labor official close to Barak said the defense minister, a veteran military chief, had done more for peace than anyone in the party, often risking his political career.A former prime minister who lost a snap election after a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 when peace talks failed, Barak insists he had a key role in Netanyahu's conditional nod in June to establishing a Palestinian state next to Israel.

Abbas says might not run in poll, officials say By Mohammed Assadi – Tue Oct 27, 7:16 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. President Barack Obama he would not run for re-election unless Israel dropped its refusal to freeze settlements, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday.Abu Mazen (Abbas) told him that he would not be a candidate in the presidential election (in January) unless Israel abided by the peace requirement,said one of the officials, who are briefed regularly by Abbas and spoke on condition of anonymity.The officials said Abbas made the comments to Obama to vent his anger at what Palestinians see as an easing of U.S. pressure on Israel over construction of homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.However, Tayyeb Abdel-Rahim, a senior aide to the Western-backed Palestinian leader, issued a denial and described the telephone conversation between Abbas and Obamas as warm and candid.Abbas, who has made a return to peace talks conditional on Israel ceasing settlement activity in line with a 2003 peace road map, has threatened to step down on occasions in the past.But Palestinian officials who gave details of his exchange with Obama voiced doubt he would do so now. Abbas's Fatah party, trounced by Hamas Islamists in a 2006 election, does not have another presidential candidate in polls planned for January 24.The Palestinian relationship with the U.S. administration is very tense,one of the Palestinian officials said.They have retreated from their previous position.

The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat had no immediate comment.At a meeting with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York last month, Obama urged Israel to show restraint over settlements -- a step back from his original demand for a construction freeze under the road map that charts a course toward Palestinian statehood.Netanyahu has ruled out a complete suspension of building within settlements, saying the needs of growing families must be accommodated.Now, Palestinian officials said, Washington is urging the Palestinians to resume peace talks, suspended since December, without a settlement freeze.

ENVOY'S RETURN

You negotiated with (former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert while settlement activities continued. What's the difference now?,one of the officials quoted U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell as having told Erekat.Mitchell is expected to return to the region later this week to continue his pursuit of a formula to revive peace talks.In a Voice of Palestine radio interview on Monday, Erekat said negotiations with Israel were unlikely to resume in the near future, an assessment echoed by Israeli officials.He blamed Israel for the impasse and urged Washington to do the same.Netanyahu has called on Abbas to begin talks immediately without preconditions. Abbas has said he was simply asking that Israel meets its obligations under the road map.Israeli government officials have expressed doubt Abbas could show flexibility toward Israel before the Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections in three months' time. (Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Alison Williams)

Israel govt team to examine UN Gaza war report fallout Mon Oct 26, 3:43 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set up a team to outline Israel's response to a UN report on the Gaza war which has placed it under massive diplomatic pressure, officials said on Monday.The hawkish premier nevertheless ruled out setting up new inquiry committees to examine the army's conduct during the 22-day military offensive that Israel launched on December 27 in response to rocket fire from the enclave where 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.There will be no investigation committee that will question soldiers and commanders in the IDF (Israeli army) because the existing procedures within the IDF are excellent,an official quoted Netanyahu as saying.Netanyahu held talks on Sunday evening with top representatives of several government ministries and the army to discuss the sensitivities and problems the report poses on Israel's diplomacy, the international laws of war and world public opinion,spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.The prime minister asked the officials to put forward their recommendations on how to deal with the different aspects,he said.Israel came under blistering international criticism and pressure after the United Nation's Human Rights Council last week adopted the Goldstone report.Israel called the endorsement of the report a diplomatic farce which harms Middle East peace efforts.Richard Goldstone, who led a fact-finding mission concluded that both Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Goldstone recommended that the conclusions of the report be forwarded to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations into the conflict within six months.Israel has launched a major public relations offensive against the Goldstone report while at the same time campaigning to amend international laws of war to reflect what it says is the global spread of terrorism.An Arab diplomat at the United Nations said on Monday the UN General Assembly will discuss the Goldstone report next month.The Arab group is requesting that the report... be debated in the General Assembly in early November,said the Arab League's ambassador Yahya Mahmassani, conveying the request in a letter to Assembly president Ali Triki.Discussions would definitely now go ahead probably on November 4,he told AFP.

Calm returns to Jerusalem's Old City after clashes Mon Oct 26, 4:25 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli police reopened the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound to Muslim worshippers and tourists on Monday, a day after the latest clashes erupted in and around Jerusalem's flashpoint site.The streets of the Old City remained calm after the latest violence to shake the site, known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims and as Temple Mount to Jews.There are still a number of police patrolling in and around the Old City,Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. But the Temple Mount will be open to both visitors and Muslim worshippers.The site of the compound is the holiest place in Judaism and third-holiest to Muslims, after the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.Dozens of Israeli police and Palestinians were wounded when clashes erupted at the compound on Sunday after Muslim leaders called on their followers to defend the site, accusing Jewish extremists of plotting to enter.Police twice entered the compound and clashed with stone-throwing Palestinian youths in the narrow streets of the Old City, Jerusalem's main tourist attraction. At least 18 Palestinians were detained during the fighting.Sunday's violence was the latest to rock the holy site, where perceived changes in the status quo have often sparked deadly clashes.

Kadhafi says Palestinians should have nuclear weapons Sun Oct 25, 10:56 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – Arab nations and even the Palestinians should be allowed nuclear weapons as long as Israel's nuclear ambitions are tolerated, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said in an interview out Monday.Israel is widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear state, and Kadhafi told Britain's Sky News television that the international community should also allow its Arab neighbours to develop nuclear weapons.If the Israelis have the nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities, then it is the right of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Saudis to have the same -- even the Palestinians should have the same because their counterparts, or their opponents, have nuclear capabilities,Kadhafi said.He added: And, if we don't want this situation, so we'll have to disarm the Israelis from their nuclear weapons and capabilities.The Libyan leader said he would oppose Iran acquiring nuclear weapons if it acknowledges such a goal, but noted Tehran's insistence that its nuclear programme is peaceful -- something that Western powers dispute.Iran, up to now, hasn't said it is manufacturing a nuclear weapon: Iran says it is enriching uranium,Kadhafi said.If Iran were to manufacture nuclear weapons, nuclear arms, then all of us, including us, will be against them. But Iran has not said so.He added: Our position is clear and it should be clear and evident... that we are against anyone who manufactures, possesses a nuclear weapon, whether it is Iran, America, Libya, or the Israelis.Meanwhile he said US President Barack Obama merited winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but had been given it too soon.I do believe he deserves it, but to be given right now I think it is some sort of hypocrisy, sycophancy, and I think it is premature. It is not due yet,he said.

Israel to review its own Gaza war probe: source By Dan Williams – Sun Oct 25, 3:53 pm ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Hoping to defuse a U.N. report fiercely critical of its war in Gaza, Israel plans to review the internal inquiries that cleared its armed forces of serious wrongdoing, a political source said Sunday.Israel has been under pressure to set up an independent investigation into war-crimes allegations raised by the fact-finding mission under South African jurist Richard Goldstone.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak hope this move will put the issue to rest,the source, a government aide speaking on condition of anonymity, said.Israel bombarded and invaded the Gaza Strip last December in what it said was a response to rocket fire by Palestinian Hamas. It refused to cooperate with Goldstone, citing bias concerns.The Goldstone report lambasted both sides in the war, which killed up to 1,387 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was harsher toward Israel. It gave both sides six months to mount credible investigations or face possible prosecution at The Hague.Goldstone has said he would have confidence in an independent Israeli investigation. Such panels have, in the past, prompted high-level political resignations and reshuffles.But the political source said Netanyahu and Barak did not want to preempt a series of internal military investigations that supported the army's tactics. The handful of courts-martial since the war have been on minor charges such as looting.The idea is to set up a team to double-check the findings, to ensure there was no whitewash or lack of professionalism,the source said, adding that Netanyahu's and Barak's initiative awaited cabinet approval next week.Asked why the government resisted the idea of an independent investigation, the source said: Netanyahu is afraid of having his hands tied if further action is required in Gaza.

A Netanyahu spokesman declined comment. Barak's office did not immediately confirm the review initiative, but made clear it considered Israel's Gaza veterans off limit to further probes.Defense Minister Ehud Barak reiterates and clarifies that no investigative commission will be set up ... that will investigate an Israel Defense Force soldier or officer,it said in a statement.The State of Israel intends to struggle against the legitimacy of the Goldstone report. In addition, Israel will take action so that the laws of war are amended to bring them into line with the struggle against terrorists who operate among civilians.Israel has lobbied against any bid to bring the Goldstone report to the U.N. Security Council. Netanyahu said such a move would be an assault on Israel's right to self-defense and would hurt U.S.-led efforts to revive peacemaking with the Palestinians.Hamas, an Islamist group that refuses permanent coexistence with the Jewish state, has said it would form a committee to investigate the allegations in the Goldstone report.(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Abbas decrees elections, with or without Hamas By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Writer – Sat Oct 24, 4:24 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday his government would hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 24, regardless of whether it reaches a power-sharing deal with the rival militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip.Hamas criticized the announcement, deepening the rift between the Islamic group and Abbas' secular Fatah movement, which have led dueling governments in Gaza and the West Bank for the past two years. The split has complicated efforts at Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.The decision to hold balloting in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza satisfies a legal requirement that Abbas decree elections, but binds him to a vote that many see as unlikely to happen, given Hamas opposition.Abbas said Palestinian law required him to decree elections for January after Hamas rejected a unity deal that would have postponed elections until June.When we didn't reach national reconciliation, we returned to the constitution and the law,Abbas told the Palestine Liberation Organization's central council in Ramallah.But he did not say how his Palestinian Authority would apply the decree, which he signed Friday, outside the West Bank, the only territory where it holds sway. Although Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state, Israel annexed the territory in 1967 after capturing it and would need to approve voting there.

Abbas would face a similar obstacle in Gaza, which Hamas seized by force in 2007.

The latest round of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks fell apart this week when Hamas refused to sign a reconciliation agreement after Fatah accepted it. Hamas said it disagreed with portions of the final document dealing with elections and security forces.On Saturday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called Abbas' election decree unconstitutional and illegal and said elections cannot be held with without reconciliation.We see from Abbas' statements today that Abbas wants elections under conditions that he sets. Elections can't be held under these circumstances, as long as there is no agreement,Abu Zuhri said.Hamas' Damascus-based leadership and seven other Syria-based radical Palestinian factions also rejected the decree on Saturday, saying it would deepen internal divisions.We condemn this step and consider it illegal and unlawful,Hamas' top leader, Khaled Mashaal, told reporters. Reconciliation first and then we go to elections.Under Palestinian law, the election results would be legitimate even if Gazans weren't allowed to participate as long as representatives from Gaza were to appear on ballots.Political analyst Hani al-Masri said Abbas' decree sought to reaffirm his legitimacy as president while pressuring Hamas into accepting a reconciliation agreement. Abbas was elected in 2005 to a four-year term that was later extended by a year, a move Hamas has refused to recognize.

Abu Mazen wants to make Hamas come back to the Palestinian political scene, but he wants them to do so after recognizing his legitimacy and leadership, not as competitors and opposition, Masri said, referring to Abbas by his nickname.
Palestinian legislative elections were last held in 2006, when Hamas won a majority.
Fatah members insist the decree was a constitutional requirement and not intended to pressure Hamas, though they say they still want reconciliation.The door of reconciliation with our brothers in Hamas is open and we won't close it until the last moment,said leading Fatah member Jibril Rajoub. Other say elections can only realistically be held after a unity agreement.Any real action that is taken by the Palestinians has to be done under an agreement,said Fatah member Qadoura Faris.Without that, nothing can be done.

Palestinians must recognize Israel as Jewish: Israel PM Sat Oct 24, 1:47 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in an interview published Saturday, Palestinians needed to recognize Israel as a Jewish state in order to resolve their conflict.That's right, Netanyahu told The Washington Post when asked if such a recognition was needed.Israel is not a binational state, he explained.It has non-Jews who live here with full, equal rights, but it has two things that assure its special character. It's the homeland of any Jew. And there is a very broad consensus in Israel that the Palestinian refugee problem should be resolved outside Israel's borders.Netanyahu said Palestinians will have to make a final peace deal with the Jewish state of Israel.Jews come here and Palestinians will go there. So choose. That's the basis of a solution," the Israeli prime minister said.

Palestinian PM sees state structure ready by 2011 Sat Oct 24, 1:33 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said, in an interview published Saturday, that his government was determined to complete building a structure of a future Palestinian state by 2011.We've committed ourselves to a path of completing the task of institution building,he told The Washington Post.He said the institution building meant the capacity to govern ourselves effectively in all spheres of government within two years.Asked if Palestinians should declare an independent state in 2011, Fayyad said: I said this will be the program of the Palestinian government -- it will commit itself to deliver the state in terms of capacity within two years.

ISRAEL WARNS AGAINST UN COUNCIL

Israel warns against U.N. council seeing Gaza report By Michelle Nichols – Fri Oct 23, 8:38 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Israel warned on Friday against bringing before the Security Council a U.N. report charging it with war crimes in the Gaza Strip, a position that diplomats said had the unlikely support of Russia and China.Moscow and Beijing have signaled they do not want the Security Council to consider the report as they feel it would interfere with the national sovereignty of the Jewish state, said Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.South African jurist Richard Goldstone's report accuses both Israel and the Islamist group Hamas of war crimes in the Gaza Strip, but is most critical of Israel. Up to 1,387 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the war last December and January.If the Goldstone report comes to the Security Council it will damage the option to move forward in the political (peace) process with the Palestinians,Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.

Shalom described the report as unacceptable and biased.The U.N. Human Rights Council recently endorsed the report by passing a resolution that singled out Israel for censure without referring to wrongdoing by Hamas. Palestinian officials then called for further U.N. inquiries into Israel's actions.In his report, Goldstone recommended that the U.N. Security Council refer the war crimes issue to the International Criminal Court in The Hague if the two sides failed to conduct credible domestic investigations within six months.Shalom said Israel has already investigated allegations against it and it does not need advice on how to handle its internal affairs.

RUSSIA, CHINA, U.S. UNITED ON GOLDSTONE REPORT

Western diplomats said Moscow and Beijing, which have been criticized in the past for their own human rights records, want to avoid the precedent of the council taking up such a report and see it as an issue for the Human Rights Council in Geneva.The Americans, they say, oppose the idea of giving Israel's critics another chance to bash the Jewish state in New York.Ban, who visited Gaza in January, also spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman overnight and emphasized the need for justice and accountability.He reiterated his call for a credible domestic investigation by all parties into any allegations of serious human rights violations committed during the conflict,Ban's spokesman, Farhan Haq, told reporters.Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libyan's deputy U.N. ambassador, told Reuters the Goldstone report likely would be taken up by the 192-nation U.N. General Assembly, where the Americans, Russians and Chinese have no veto power. Long hostile to Israel, Libya is on the Security Council until the end of the year.Lieberman also told Ban he hoped the report would not reach the General Assembly.U.S. President Barack Obama's administration pressed Israel and the Palestinians on Thursday to do more to help relaunch long-stalled peace talks after the latest flurry of U.S. diplomacy failed to yield any sign of a breakthrough.(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Chris Wilson)

Israeli PM to travel to Washington in November Fri Oct 23, 2:47 pm ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington next month for a conference of Jewish organizations and hopes to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama, an Israeli official said on Friday.The trip comes as the Obama administration is pressing Israel and the Palestinians to do more to help relaunch long-stalled peace talks after the latest flurry of U.S. diplomacy failed to yield any sign of a breakthrough.It is not certain whether the two leaders will meet, the official from Netanyahu's office said.Organizers of the annual general assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America said both Netanyahu and Obama would participate in the three-day event, beginning November 8.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed Obama this week a less-than-glowing assessment of Middle East peace efforts amid skepticism inside and outside of the region about the prospects for unblocking the peace process.Obama set Middle East peace as a top priority at the start of his presidency in January, in contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush, who was criticized internationally for neglecting the long-running conflict. But so far the new administration has little to show for its efforts.

Netanyahu, whose right-leaning coalition includes pro-settler parties, has resisted Obama's calls for a total freeze on settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, politically weak because he governs only in the West Bank while Hamas Islamists control the Gaza Strip, has said he will not resume direct talks until a complete settlement freeze is implemented.(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Myra MacDonald).

Mitchell: Mideast talks effort isn't a failure By GLENN ADAMS, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 22, 8:56 pm ET

WATERVILLE, Maine – President Obama's Mideast envoy George Mitchell said Thursday it's too soon to brand his efforts to resume peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders a failure.The former Senate leader recalled being asked hundreds of times while negotiating for years in Northern Ireland when he was going home because the talks there were considered a failure. He finally brokered the Good Friday peace accords in 1999.The administration's current efforts in the Mideast are "as difficult and complex as everyone told me it would be,said Mitchell.But we are determined to stay the course ... until the job is done.He said the process has been in motion only for months. His experience in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 1999 suggests that the current peacemaking effort could take years.

I am not in the slightest discouraged,said the 76-year-old Mitchell.Mitchell said no other president has taken action so early in his administration to start peace talks in the region.There's a sense of urgency, a sense of involvement and commitment on the part of the president, Mitchell said before delivering a speech on conflict resolution at Colby College, where his father once worked as a janitor.His speech also came as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received a report on the progress of peace efforts in the Mideast. Mitchell has been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders for months in an attempt to get peace talks between the two sides going again.Mitchell acknowledged setbacks in the process, including a United Nations report that accused Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes last winter.We continue in our efforts, notwithstanding that report, Mitchell said. He noted that the United States has taken the position that the report is deeply flawed.Mitchell said he and Clinton plan to attend a conference in Morocco on Nov. 2 where they will meet with foreign ministers from most or all of the Arab countries.The secretary of state has been directly and personally and actively involved in the process, said Mitchell, adding that he completed a round of meetings this week with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators where some good progress was made.

US ambassador Rice pays quiet visit to West Bank Thu Oct 22, 11:31 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice paid a quiet visit to the West Bank on Thursday a day after she gave a speech in Israel denouncing international anti-Israel vitriol.Rice held closed-door meetings with Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad and Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), but did not make any public statements.

On Thursday Rice called on UN members to replace anti-Israeli vitriol with recognition of Israel's legitimacy and right to exist in peace and security at a Jerusalem conference organised by Israeli President Shimon Peres.She made no direct mention of the controversial Goldstone report on the Gaza war, which concluded that both Israel and the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.Officials said she discussed the report with senior Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who thanked Washington for its vigorous opposition to the report and its support for the Jewish state.The UN General Assembly is expected to discuss the report by Richard Goldstone, a South African former international war crimes prosecutor, by the end of the year, after it was endorsed by the Human Rights Council.Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the 22-day Gaza conflict that Israel launched on December 27 in response to rocket fire from the territory.Goldstone recommended referring the report's conclusions to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.Israel called the endorsement by the UN Human Rights Council a diplomatic farce and said it harmed Middle East peace efforts.But the Palestinians welcomed the resolution which they said should result in follow-up action by the UN Security Council.

Israel, US rehearse state of the art air defence umbrella by Gavin Rabinowitz – Thu Oct 22, 9:44 am ET

TEL AVIV (AFP) – A massive air defence drill under way in Israel will join Israeli and US systems to create the world's most advanced anti-missile umbrella to protect the Jewish state, officials said on Thursday.The Juniper Cobra 10 exercises, the fifth in a series of joint air defence drills between the allies, began this week and comes amid heightened tension between Israel and arch-foe Iran.Some 1,000 US soldiers will take part in the two-week exercise combining Israeli and US systems to create the world's most advanced air defence system to protect our citizens and homes from attack,the commander of Israel's Air Defence Corps, Brigadier General Doron Gavish, told reporters.Israeli and US commanders refused to describe the scenarios they are simulating, but said they would practise merging different anti-missile systems that defend simultaneously against long-, medium- and short-range missiles.Israeli media reported that the exercise would likely include a scenario of a combined attack from Iran together with shorter range barrages from Syria and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Rear Admiral John Richardson, the commander of the US forces, said systems used would include the American THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence), the ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence System, and the Patriot anti-aircraft system, as well as the Israeli Arrow (Hetz) II.Israel and the US have cooperated in missile defence since the US sent batteries of Patriot missiles to Israel during the first Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein fired dozens of Scud missiles at Israel.Israel's air defences have since been further tested. Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into Israel during the 2006 conflict in Lebanon and Palestinian militants have lobbed thousands of improvised rockets from the Gaza Strip.The exercises were purely defensive and, planned nearly two years in advance, were not in reaction to any current world events, the generals said.

But they come amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran.

Israel, the sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, has never ruled out a resort to military action to stop Iran's nuclear drive which the West suspects is aimed at making nuclear weapons but Tehran insists is only for peaceful ends.Iran for its part has recently tested missiles that put Israel within range and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said that the Holocaust was a myth and that Israel was doomed to be wiped off the map.Juniper Cobra will take part in three stages, deploying US forces, simulating attacks and finally a live-fire testing of the Patriot system, Richardson said, adding that all US forces would leave the region once the drill ended.

Egypt against Israel FM at Mediterranean forum Wed Oct 21, 10:44 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt is opposed to hardline Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman attending a meeting of the Mediterranean Union which it co-chairs with France, diplomats said on Wednesday.Foreign ministers of the 43-strong grouping, which brings European Union members together with states from north Africa, the Balkans, Arab countries, Israel and Turkey, are due to gather in November in Istanbul.An Egyptian diplomat told AFP that Cairo did not want to send an invitation to the Israeli (foreign) minister,but could accept that Lieberman be represented by someone else.Egyptian officials refused anything to do with Lieberman after he said last year that President Hosni Mubarak could go to hell if he continued to refuse to visit Israel.But earlier this year, Mubarak received hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks on the deadlocked Middle East peace process.Other Arab members of the Mediterranean Union also have no wish to see the ultra-nationalist Lieberman join the Istanbul forum because of his hardline positions concerning the Palestinians, other diplomats said.

But an Israeli official told AFP in Jerusalem that Lieberman was not the problem.The issue from the beginning has been the refusal by Egypt and Arab countries to discuss joint cooperation projects with Israel,the official said on condition of anonymity.
The Mediterranean Union was launched at a summit in Paris last year and is aimed at developing projects for regional integration in one of the most volatile regions of the world.But like its regional predecessor, the Barcelona Process which stalled in large part over Arab-Israeli disputes, the union got bogged down by Israel's war on the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year in response to Hamas missile strikes.

Rights group in hot water over Israel criticism by Olivia Hampton – Tue Oct 20, 10:02 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – One of the world's leading human rights groups is battling a barrage of criticism for lashing out at Israel's record while allegedly soft-pedaling violations by Saudi Arabia.The latest accusation against Human Rights Watch came from an unlikely critic Tuesday, as former chairman Robert Bernstein blasted the group he helped found for helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.Bernstein's charges, in an opinion piece published in The New York Times, revived debate over the organization that ranks as a respected leader in its field along with Amnesty International.HRW, which counts over 275 staff members posted around the globe and publishes reports on some 90 countries each year, has been forced to issue a series of red-faced statements in recent months amid charges of anti-Israel bias and a soft stance toward authoritarian regimes.Last month, the New York-based rights group temporarily suspended Marc Garlasco, a US senior military analyst, after it emerged he was an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.The former Pentagon official helped investigate and co-authored an HRW report on Israel's use of white phosphorus in the 22-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.An HRW delegation's May visit to Saudi Arabia also came under scrutiny, with opinion pieces in leading US and Israeli newspapers claiming the trip sought to raise Saudi money without criticizing Riyadh's rights record.The allegations were echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the largest US pro-Israel lobby AIPAC and former Israeli minister Natan Sharansky, who claimed HRW has become a tool in the hands of dictatorial regimes to fight against democracies.The group, which began in 1978 as Helsinki Watch with a policy of publicly naming and shaming abusive governments, insisted it did not solicit funds from Saudi officials, noting it raises money from private sources and not governments.

Pointing the finger at HRW is merely a distraction, critics say.There is a very, very intense campaign dedicated to making sure that the conversation becomes about Human Rights Watch rather than the Israeli government's actions,said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator who heads the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation.The real thing that threatens Israel's legitimacy is the way it behaves and maintains the occupation, and it's a tragedy,he told AFP.The row with Bernstein, the former HRW chairman, emerged at a critical time, amid a global spat over a damning UN report on the Gaza war that accused both Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas of war crimes.Bernstein initially raised his concerns in April at a full meeting of HRW's Board of Directors, which unanimously rejected his claims, the group said.We fundamentally disagree with Mr Bernstein's views, HRW said in a statement Tuesday, adding that it does not believe that the human rights records of closed societies are the only ones deserving scrutiny.Open societies and democracies commit human rights abuses, too, and Human Rights Watch has an important role to play in documenting those abuses and pressing for their end,it said.Bernstein, however, charged that HRW casts aside its important distinction between open and closed societies and Israel faces the brunt of Human Rights Watch's criticism.

There is a difference between wrongs committed in self-defense and those perpetrated intentionally,said Bernstein, who chaired HRW from 1978 to 1998. He highlighted Israel's democratic record and said HRW had lost critical perspective as it ignored the plight of citizens of the Middle East's authoritarian regimes.HRW said its work on Israel is only a tiny fraction of its activities.Out of 75 HRW reports this year, three dealt with rights concerns related to Israel, one looked at Palestinian militant groups' rocket attacks, another condemned political violence by Gaza rulers Hamas and three drubbed Saudi Arabia's rights record.The group's annual world report also criticized those violations.

Protester assails Blair in Palestinian mosque Tue Oct 20, 12:53 pm ET

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Bodyguards subdued a Palestinian man Tuesday as he approached Middle East envoy Tony Blair, shouting You are a terrorist.The former British prime minister was verbally assailed while visiting an ancient mosque during an official trip to the West Bank city of Hebron.The protester, carrying a bag, was backed into a corner by guards who tried to shut him up. He is not welcome in the land of Palestine,the struggling man shouted.Blair, 56, is envoy for the Quartet of powers on the Middle East, comprising the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations.He gave a tight-lipped smile and a pacifying wave in the general direction of the shouting man, and afterwards played down the incident as a protest and that's fair enough,but not one that should be viewed as typical of local feelings.Most Palestinians and Israelis want the conflict resolved in a peaceful way,he said. They understand it's not going to be resolved unless we find a way of creating two states, a state of Israel and a state of Palestine side by side in peace.Frankly it's not protests that will do that. It's patient negotiation,Blair told reporters.A spokesman for the envoy told Reuters it was unclear why the protester launched his attack on Blair.We've heard nothing on that,he said.Blair's Hebron hosts were upset by the security breach. He remains unpopular with some Arabs for supporting the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq and for what they perceive as his bias in favor of Israel when he was Britain's prime minister.You know, he made his protest and that's fair enough,Blair told reporters once the man was removed.I think it's important for you guys as well to not always mistake the protest for the general view of the whole population,he said.(Reporting by Reuters TV; writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Jon Boyle).

Jurist: Ties to Israel obligated war crimes probe By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Oct 19, 10:53 am ET

JERUSALEM – The internationally renowned jurist who oversaw a U.N. report accusing Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip said Monday that his deep attachment to the Jewish state compelled him to carry out the investigation.South African jurist Richard Goldstone also faulted Israel for not cooperating with the investigation in an op-ed piece published in the Jerusalem Post, an English-language Israeli daily. It was the first time he has reached out to the Israeli public since his report was published last month.Goldstone's report on the three-week winter war has set off an uproar in Israel. Leaders say the document was biased and commissioned by a U.N. body known for its hostility against Israel. The report's harsh findings against Hamas militants in Gaza have done little to temper the criticism, much of which has been personal. Some critics have gone so far as to accuse Goldstone of being a pawn of anti-Israel forces.Goldstone, who is Jewish and has strong connections to Israel, said he has been hurt by the attacks. He noted his years of work battling human rights abuses in places as diverse as South Africa, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, China, Russia and Iran.I would have been acting against those principles and my own convictions and conscience if I had refused a request from the United Nations to investigate serious allegations of war crimes against both Israel and Hamas,he wrote.As a Jew, I felt a greater and not a lesser obligation to do so.Goldstone also took Israel to task for not cooperating with the investigation, saying it had committed a grave error by not telling its side of the story.Israel could have seized the opportunity provided by the evenhanded mandate of our mission and used it as a precedent for a new direction by the United Nations in the Middle East. Instead, we were shut out,he said.Israel attacked Gaza last December in a mission it says was meant to end eight years of incessant rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the offensive, including hundreds of civilians, according to Palestinian officials and human rights groups. Thirteen Israelis, including four civilians, also died.The 575-page report concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields and destroyed civilian infrastructure during the incursion.

It also accused armed Palestinian groups including Hamas, which controls Gaza, of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through years of rocket attacks on southern Israel.It called on both sides to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses, or face possible referral to international war crimes prosecutors. Last week, the U.N. Human Rights Council, the body that commissioned the investigation, endorsed the report.Israel has an internationally renowned and respected judiciary that should be (the) envy of many other countries in the region,Goldstone wrote in the op-ed.It has the means and ability to investigate itself. Has it the will? Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation, saying the rights council has a history of anti-Israel decisions and could not possibly be fair. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the report's findings encourage terrorism and would make it difficult to pursue peace since it questions Israel's right to self-defense.Hamas, an Islamic militant group backed by Syria and Iran, has welcomed the report's harsh condemnations of Israel while brushing off the criticism of its own conduct.

COOKED CHICKEN-ISRAEL HATERS DESTROYED

RUSSIA,MUSLIMS CHINA AND ALL NATIONS WHO COME AGAINST ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL BE COOK CHESE IN THE FUTURE,ESPECIALLY ISLAM AND PALESTINIAN COUNTRIES.

LUKEWARM CHURCHES

REVELATION 3:15-19
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue (VOMIT) thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

ISAIAH 14:1-32 (SATAN)
1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3 And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
5 The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

EZEKIEL 28:1-26(SATAN)
1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:
4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.
8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
20 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
21 Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,
22 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
23 For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
24 And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
25 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.

EZEKIEL 29:1-21
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
5 And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.
6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7 When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
9 And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.
10 Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.
11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
12 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
13 Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered:
14 And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
16 And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD.
21 In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

EZEKIEL 30:1-26
1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!
3 For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
4 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
5 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.
6 Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
7 And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.
8 And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed.
9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh.
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.
11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.
12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken it.
13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
14 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No.
15 And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.
16 And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily.
17 The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity.
18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
19 Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
20 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.
22 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.
23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man.
25 But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt.
26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

EZEKIEL 31:1-18
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
5 Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.
6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
7 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.
10 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
15 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.
17 They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

EZEKIEL 32:1-32
1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.
3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.
4 Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.
5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height.
6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.
7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.
9 I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.
10 Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.
11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.
12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.
13 I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD.
15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.
16 This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.
19 Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.
20 They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.
21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
22 Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:
23 Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.
24 There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.
25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that be slain.
26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
28 Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword.
29 There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.
30 There be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.
31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
32 For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

EZEKIEL 33:1-33
1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
12 Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
14 Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
15 If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
16 None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
18 When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
19 But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
20 Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.
21 And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
22 Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.
23 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
24 Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
25 Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?
26 Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land?
27 Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
28 For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.
29 Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.
30 Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD.
31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
33 And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.

EZEKIEL 34:1-31
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
7 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
8 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;
9 Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
17 And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.
18 Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?
19 And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.
21 Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;
22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.
25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
26 And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
27 And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.
28 And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.
29 And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.
30 Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD.
31 And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.

EZEKIEL 35:1-15
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
3 And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword.
9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.
12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

EZEKIEL 38:1-23
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, 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, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: 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.
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.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

EZEKIEL 39:1-29
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
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, 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, 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, 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.
9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
23 And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.
24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.
25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;
26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.
27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;
28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.
29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

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.

ISAIAH 15:1-9
1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;
2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.
3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.
4 And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.
5 My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.
6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.
9 For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

ISAIAH 16:1-14
1 Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
3 Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.
4 Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
5 And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.
7 Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.
9 Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen.
10 And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh.
12 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.
13 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time.
14 But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.

ISAIAH 17:1-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.
7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.
9 In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.
10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

ISAIAH 18:1-7
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!
3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.
4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.

ISAIAH 19:1-25
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12 Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.
16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.
23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

ISIAH 20:1-6
1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;
2 At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;
4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?

ISAIAH 21:1-17
1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
6 For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
7 And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:
8 And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:
9 And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
10 O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
11 The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
13 The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.
14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled.
15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
16 For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:
17 And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it.

ISAIAH 22:1-25
1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far.
4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
6 And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8 And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest.
9 Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall.
11 Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
12 And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
15 Thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,
16 What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?
17 Behold, the LORD will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.
18 He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house.
19 And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
21 And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
25 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

ISAIAH 23:1-18
1The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.
5 As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.
7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?
9 The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.
10 Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.
12 And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.
13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

ISAIAH 24:1-23
1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

ISAIAH 25:1-12
1 O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

ISAIAH 26:1-21
1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
11 LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
12 LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
13 O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.
16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

ISAIAH 27:1-13
1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

ISAIAH 28:1-29
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

ISAIAH 29:1-24
1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6 Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
22 Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

ISAIAH 30:1-33
1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

ISAIAH 31:1-9
1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
4 For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.
5 As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
6 Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
7 For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.
8 Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.
9 And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

ISAIAH 32:1-20
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3 And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4 The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7 The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.
9 Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.
10 Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
11 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.

ISAIAH 33:1-24
1 Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
2 O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
3 At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.
4 And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
5 The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
7 Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.
9 The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
10 Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
11 Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
12 And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
13 Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
16 He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.
17 Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
20 Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
21 But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
23 Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

ISAIAH 34:1-17
1 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8 For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
16 Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

ISAIAH 35:1-10
1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.

2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them; 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.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).

MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

ISRAEL PULLS TEXT BOOK

West Bank separation barrier draws protests Mon Oct 19, 1:58 pm ET

JERUSALEM – The separation barrier Israel started building in the West Bank seven years ago amid a deadly wave of suicide bombings has been a lightning rod of controversy from day one.Israel says the barrier is essential to its security. But Palestinians claim it to be a land grab and have been holding weekly demonstrations ever since.The 680-kilometer (425-mile) barrier is a combination of concrete walls, fences, trenches and patrol roads. It runs along the line between Israel and the West Bank but in certain parts cuts into Palestinian territory, leaving almost 10 percent of the West Bank on the Israeli side.The Palestinians say the barrier severs them from their land, disrupts their lives and cripples their economy. They have mounted a series of Supreme Court challenges to the barrier's route, forcing Israel to make adjustments.The wall segment of the barrier has been a particular draw for protesters, who have sprayed it with anti-Israel graffiti. Artistic opposition has also found its way as far as the Tel Aviv beach, where bathers lay on fake slabs of concrete.

Israel pulls textbook over reference to ethnic cleansing Mon Oct 19, 12:13 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Education Ministry has recalled all copies of a history textbook because of a passage alleging ethnic cleansing of Palestinians during the 1948 war, a newspaper reported on Monday.Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the secondary school textbook was removed from shelves because it sought to present both Israeli and Arab perspectives on the departure of some 750,000 Palestinians during the fighting that erupted after the creation of the Jewish state.The Palestinians have always said they were violently expelled by Jewish forces while Israel has maintained they were ordered to flee by invading Arab states or alarmed by inflammatory Arab radio reports.The fate of the refugees and their descendants, who now number some 4.6 million and are scattered across the region, has been one of the most divisive issues in the decades-old Middle East conflict.The textbook in question, for 11th and 12th graders, contained both versions of the events side-by-side, but according to Haaretz the ministry took issue with the Palestinian version.

It quoted the passage in question as saying: The Palestinians and the Arab countries contended that most of the refugees were civilians who were attacked and expelled from their homes by armed Jewish forces, which instituted a policy of ethnic cleansing.Haaretz said the textbooks would be reissued after corrections are made.The education ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.Since assuming office in March, Israel's right-wing government has sought to reinforce Israel's Jewish identity, including by instituting a plan to change traffic signs to display only Hebrew place names.Israel's former dovish Education Minister Yuli Tamir sparked controversy in December 2006 when she said school textbooks should show Israel's borders prior to the 1967 Six Day war, during which it conquered Egypt's Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the West Bank including east Jerusalem.
Israel returned the Sinai under a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and annexed the Golan and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians have demanded the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza as their future state.

Fatah hits out at Hamas over stalled unity deal Mon Oct 19, 7:29 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party lashed out at the Islamist Hamas movement on Monday, blaming it for the failure of an Egypt-proposed Palestinian unity agreement.The vitriol came as Abbas prepared to leave for Egypt later on Monday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday on the reconciliation process.Hamas has a bigger stock of lies than Netanyahu,Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah official, told reporters in Ramallah, referring to the right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.They got everything they asked for in the Egyptian document, and we in Fatah knew that our position would draw fire from the sons of Fatah... But despite all this we agreed to it,he said.

Hamas has thwarted all efforts. They have frustrated us and Egypt.Egypt has been struggling to broker a reconciliation agreement between the two main Palestinian factions for months and this month proposed an agreement that would see new elections held in June.Fatah has signed the agreement while Hamas has repeatedly postponed its official response, saying it needs more time to mull the deal.Dahlan insisted that in the absence of a deal Abbas would call elections for January in accordance with the constitution.We have taken our final decision to go to elections at the constitutionally appointed time... because we respect the law,he said.The bitter divisions between Fatah and Hamas go back to the start of limited Palestinian self-rule in the 1990s, when Fatah strongmen cracked down on the Islamist militant group.Their divisions boiled over in June 2007 when Hamas -- which had won parliamentary elections a year before -- drove Abbas's loyalists from Gaza in a week of bloody clashes, seizing control of the impoverished territory.

Jordan king warns over US Mideast policy Mon Oct 19, 6:22 am ET

ROME – Jordan's king said in comments published Monday that the U.S. administration seems to be focusing more of its attention on Iran and less on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying time was running out to make peace.In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica, King Abdullah II said the region's hopes for peace were huge at the start of the Obama administration, but now sees the goal getting farther away.I've heard people in Washington talking about Iran, again Iran, always Iran, Abdullah was quoted as saying. But I insist on, and keep insisting on the Palestinian question: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most serious threat to the stability of the region and the Mediterranean.Abdullah granted the interview on the eve of a visit to Italy starting Monday.He said the two sides have a window of opportunity over the next year to make progress on creating a two-state solution, after which point the possibility of a Palestinian state will disappear as more Arab land gets swallowed up by Jewish settlements.The window of opportunity will soon close,he was quoted as saying.By the end of 2010, if Israel doesn't believe in the two-state solution, the possibility of a future Palestinian state will disappear because of geographic reasons: already the land is fragmented into cantons.He urged Washington and the European Union to put pressure on Israel to sit down with the Palestinians to negotiate peace, even though he remains suspicious of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and somewhat disillusioned with the U.S. effort to date.

I'll be sincere; I had expected more, sooner,he said of the U.S. efforts and the seven missions already conducted by the U.S. envoy George Mitchell.I believed in a decisive turn at the beginning of the summer, ahead of a true peace negotiation at the United Nations,he said. But the question of Israeli settlements — which are illegal according to the international community — remains central.Obama began his term in office with a Mideast peace push that included an unequivocal call for Israel to halt settlement activity in the West Bank. Though Netanyahu agreed in principle to the formation of a Palestinian state and said he would limit settlement construction for a limited time, he refused to agree to a full halt.The White House recently appears to have softened its position, saying it was time for the sides to start talking again even if settlement work continues.

Israel claims Russian pledge on Gaza war report Mon Oct 19, 4:38 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Russia has assured Israel that it will oppose any UN Security Council discussion of a damning report on the Gaza war, a senior Israeli official told AFP on Monday.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote in a letter that Moscow would oppose the Security Council, of which it is a veto-wielding member, examining the Goldstone report, the official said on condition of anonymity.The Russian ambassador to Israel, Peter Stegnyi, handed the letter to the foreign ministry several days ago,he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Russia to the comments.

Russia on Friday was among the 25 countries that voted to endorse the Goldstone report at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, a vote that Israel has blasted as unjust.Six countries on the 47-member Council voted against and 16 either abstained or did not vote.The report, compiled by a UN-mandated mission led by South African judge and war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the 22-day war at the turn of the year that killed 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.The report recommended that its conclusions be passed to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague if the two sides fail to conduct credible investigations of the war within six months.Discussion of the report at the Security Council would bring it one step closer to a possible referral to the ICC.

Turkey defends criticism of Israel's mistakes Sun Oct 18, 12:55 pm ET

ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish President Abdullah Gul defended his government's criticism of Israel on Sunday amid a war of words over the Gaza conflict which has soured relations between the regional allies.Gul noted in a television interview that majority-Muslim Turkey was one of the rare countries to maintain good relations with both Arab nations and the Jewish state.But that does not mean that Turkey will not raise its voice against mistakes if they are made. ... We should not think that Turkey would keep quiet,he told TRT public television.Gul did not specify the mistakes, but Turkey has repeatedly slammed Israel over the 22-day war in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, launched on December 27 in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory.Turkey criticises Israeli policy regarding the Palestinian territories with courage, but this is not bound to shake the foundations of bilateral relations, Gul said.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched on Saturday a new, if veiled, verbal attack on Israel saying: Turkey has never, in its history, been on the side of persecutors, it has always defended the oppressed.

Erdogan has been at the forefront of global criticism of the Gaza war, storming out of a debate at the World Economic Forum in January where he told Israeli President Shimon Peres that you know well how to kill people.Relations took another sharp downturn last week when Ankara excluded the Jewish state from annual joint military exercises, prompting a rebuke from the United States.In recent days, Israel criticised a Turkish state television series that depicts Israeli soldiers deliberately killing Palestinian children.The spat has prompted a large Israeli cafe chain to stop selling Turkish coffee in its shops until matters improve.A top official at Israel's national airline El Al said his employee association and those of several other major Israeli businesses plan to stop subsidising vacations for their workers to Turkey during the Passover holiday next April.

Abbas's popularity dips over Gaza war report By Mohammed Assadi – Sun Oct 18, 7:17 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Anger among Palestinians over President Mahmoud Abbas's original position on a Gaza war report critical of Israel has cost him public support in a rivalry with Hamas, a poll showed on Sunday.The survey by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) indicated Abbas would receive 16.8 percent of the vote, with Hamas Islamist leader Ismail Haniyeh running neck-and-neck with 16 percent, if a presidential election was held now.In terms of overall popularity in the occupied West Bank and in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Abbas's rating dropped to 12.1 percent from 17.8 percent in the previous JMCC poll in June. Haniyeh's approval rating held steady at 14.2 percent.Abbas, whose Fatah party lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas in fighting in 2007, has said his administration erred in approving a U.N. decision in Geneva two weeks ago to delay action on the report on the December-January Gaza war.He was widely believed to have bowed to U.S. pressure over the matter, taking a stance that surprised and angered many Palestinians and, according to the JMCC, led to his popularity decline in the new poll.

Abbas reversed course last week.

In a special session proposed by the Palestinians, the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed the report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, who accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes but was more critical of Israeli actions.The council passed a resolution that singled out Israel for censure without referring to any wrongdoing by Hamas.Abbas has said he would proceed with plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in January unless Hamas agreed to a deal proposed by Egypt to delay the ballot until June.Egypt has been trying to mediate a reconciliation pact between Fatah, which has accepted the unity proposal, and Hamas, which is still weighing the plan.The JMCC said it interviewed 1,200 people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip between October 7 and 11, a few days after the Palestinian Authority agreed to defer the U.N. report. It said the poll had a margin of error of three percent.(Editing by Richard Williams)

Muslims concerned about Israeli settlements: Mubarak Sat Oct 17, 5:40 pm ET

ROME (AFP) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Saturday the entire Muslim world was concerned about Israel's settlement construction in Palestinian territories, ANSA news agency reported.Mubarak, who met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during a visit in Rome, also denounced what he described as Israel's attempts to assimilate Jerusalem.Israel's continuation of settlement construction worries not only the Palestinians but the entire Muslim world,Mubarak said.The international community considers Israeli settlements in all of the West Bank including east Jerusalem to be illegal and a major impediment to a Middle East peace deal.The United States has demanded a complete freeze to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, land the Palestinians want to turn into a future state. But Israel has so far balked at the call.The fate of Jerusalem, with sites sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims, is one of the most sensitive issues in the decades-old Middle East conflict.Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. It considers the entire city to be its eternal, indivisible capital.The Palestinians want to make eastern Jerusalem the capital of their promised state.

Khamenei urges OIC to support Palestinians Sat Oct 17, 4:02 pm ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday told the visiting Senegalese president whose nation heads the world's largest Islamic body to do more for Palestinians, his website reported.The aim of creating the Organisation of the Islamic Conference is to follow up the Palestinian issue and therefore the OIC has an important responsibility,Khamenei told Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade.Today Palestine is really oppressed and alone and is in need of a calculated move (of support) by the Islamic world,Khamenei said without elaborating.The demand of Muslim nations is to aid Palestine and it is up to the OIC to bring hope to the hearts of the Palestinian people by supporting them,he added.Senegal has held the presidency of the the 57-member OIC since March 2008.Khamenei's comments come nearly a month after he denied that Iran -- a staunch supporter of the Palestinians -- was seeking a military solution to the Middle East conflict.Khamenei then stressed it was a lie... claimed by Western media that Iran is attempting to destroy the Zionist regime (Israel) by military equipment.The Islamic republic has proposed a reasonable, logical and humane plan,the leader said, referring to a proposed referendum to decide on the future of Israel, the Gaza Strip and West Bank.However, after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Tehran withdrew its recognition of Israel.The Jewish state considers the Islamic republic to be its arch-enemy after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust was a myth and Israel is doomed to be wiped off the map.

Arab League says US donations used to finance settlements Sat Oct 17, 2:22 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – The Arab League on Saturday urged US President Barack Obama's administration to prevent American associations from collecting funds to finance Israeli settlement building in annexed east Jerusalem.Mohammed Sobeih, a deputy secretary general in charge of Palestinian affairs, told reporters such funding was being used for a hostile and illegal act which stands in the way of reaching a peace deal.Such associations, exempted from taxation, help to finance the building of Israeli settlements in the Old City and other districts of east Jerusalem, according to a report compiled by the Arab League's office in Washington.Sobeih said the report showed some of the funds were being used to seize properties from their Palestinian residents and to expel them, singling out the ultra-nationalist American Friends of Ateret Cohanim.Financed by Jewish American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, the charitable trust has been linked to Jewish settlement projects in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.But it has denied reports that American donations finance the purchase of disputed lands.The Obama administration has been pressing hard for Israel to halt all construction work on occupied Palestinian land ahead of the resumption of Middle East peace talks. Israel has so far balked at the demand.

Israel's Netanyahu vows long fight against U.N. report By Allyn Fisher-ilan – Sat Oct 17, 9:40 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a lengthy diplomatic battle to delegitimise United Nations charges that Israel committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip, an official said on Saturday.The U.N. Human Rights Council singled out the Jewish state for censure in a resolution on Friday, while endorsing a report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone which condemned both Israeli and Hamas actions in a war last December and January.Netanyahu, who has said the Goldstone report could undermine U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace moves and that he would object to Israelis standing trial for war crimes, was quoted as saying Israel would wage a protracted struggle against the criticism.Israel must delegitimise the delegitimisation,Netanyahu said, according to an Israeli official. He said the campaign would not take just a week or two but possibly years.Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Friday that Israel totally and completely rejected the U.N. council's vote condemning Israel but not the Palestinian Islamist faction. However, Ayalon added that he thought Israel would not ultimately suffer any significant consequences.Twenty-five states including China and Russia endorsed the resolution passed by the council meeting in Geneva, while six including the United States voted against, charging that the resolution was one-sided. Eleven states abstained. Four, including France and Britain, did not vote at all.

The resolution endorsed Goldstone's recommendation that the war crimes issue be referred to the U.N. Security Council if the sides failed to conduct credible domestic investigations within six months, and possibly then to the International Criminal Court.It did not mention Hamas, which Goldstone also criticized for its actions in the Gaza war. Palestinians say that as many as 1,387 Palestinians died, among them many civilians, while 13 Israelis were killed.Palestinians have said they would name committees to see to implementation of Goldstone's recommendations. Hamas said on Friday it would investigate, but did not comment on the report's criticism of the Islamist group.Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would also see to forming a panel to implement the report so it doesn't end up lying on a shelf like other resolutions do,said an aide, Yasser Abed-Rabbo, in the West Bank.Israel had said it launched the war in response to Hamas rocket attacks which had terrorized residents of Israeli towns bordering on the Gaza Strip for several years, though they caused few casualties.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)(Editing by David Stamp)

Rice to hold bilateral Middle East talks: US mission Fri Oct 16, 7:55 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice will hold bilateral talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a trip to Israel next week, her office confirmed Friday.Rice will travel Monday to represent President Barack Obama's administration and deliver remarks at an annual conference hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres, entitled Facing Tomorrow,the US mission here said in a statement.Ambassador Rice's remarks will focus on our common vision of a better future that is possible with resolve and collective action,it added.Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev told AFP Thursday that Rice would be visiting Israel to attend the conference and to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rice's bilateral talks will come after the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (HRC) Friday endorsed a UN report accusing Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the 22-day Gaza conflict.The report by a panel led by respected South African judge Richard Goldstone was particularly critical of Israel's disproportionate use of force in response to rocket firing by Palestinian militants and of its failure to protect civilians during its Gaza onslaught.Washington Friday defended its decision to vote no on the Goldstone report while saying it remained deep concerned over the violence that took place in December and January.Our voting no against this in no way diminishes the deep concern that we have about the tragic events of last January and the suffering caused by the violence in Gaza and southern Israel,State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.He echoed the concerns expressed by Goldstone, who said the resolution's wording, unlike his report, slammed only Israel and spared Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip.We thought that the resolution had an unbalanced focus. And we're concerned that it will exacerbate polarization and divisiveness,said Kelly.

Palestinian vote in January if no unity deal: Abbas By Mohammed Assadi – Thu Oct 15, 12:36 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he would hold elections as planned in January unless Hamas agreed to an Egyptian reconciliation deal that would delay the polls until June.Our Basic Law stipulates that elections must be held before January 24th, 2010,Abbas told a news conference after meeting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.According to the Egyptian document, elections should be held on 28th of June 2010. If there is an agreement (with Hamas) we will abide by it, but if there is no agreement we will abide by the Basic Law,Abbas said.Abbas's aides have made similar statements but the Western-backed leader's comments, voiced while Hamas continued to weigh Cairo's proposal, marked the first time he has said publicly he would order January polls in the absence of a deal.Egypt has been trying for more than a year to close the wide rift between Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Islamist Hamas, which won a parliamentary election in 2006 and took over the Gaza Strip in a brief Palestinian civil war in 2007.Under the proposed reconciliation, a committee of Palestinian factions would act as a liaison between the Fatah-dominated government in the West Bank and Hamas, and a joint police force would be formed.While likely to be welcomed by many Palestinians, such Fatah-Hamas cooperation could pose a problem for Israel and the United States, which has been pressing Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume peace negotiations.Hamas opposes the talks, suspended since December, and has rejected Western demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals.

Egypt has invited Fatah and Hamas to attend a ceremony on October 24-26 in Cairo, where they were expected to sign a reconciliation pact.But Hamas asked last week for a postponement, citing Abbas's agreement under U.S. pressure to back the deferral by the U.N. Human Rights Council of a vote on a report that accused Israel of war crimes during Israel's December-January Gaza offensive.The report, by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, also said Hamas militants, who carried out cross-border rocket attacks on communities in Israel, committed war crimes.(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Ramallah and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Matthew Jones)

Syria raises doubts about signing EU partnership Wed Oct 14, 3:59 pm ET

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria indicated on Thursday it might not sign a partnership deal with the European Union on October 26 as announced in Brussels last week, saying it wanted to study the deal in detail.The accord was frozen by the EU in 2004,Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said at a press conference with his visiting Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos.The European decision not to sign surprised us and, consequently, the Syrian government wants to study all the details of the deal.

If the goverment concludes its review during the Swedish presidency (of the EU, which ends on December 31) we will sign the accord. If not, we will sign it during the Spanish presidency,which begins on January 1.On October 8, a diplomat in Brussels said the deal is due to be signed with Syria on October 26 in Luxembourg.The EU and Syria first drew up the draft pact in 2004 but it was never signed by EU nations. The Netherlands, in particular, had demanded a clause allowing for its suspension in the event of proven rights abuses.The EU froze relations with Damascus after the assassination in February 2005 of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, despite Syria's denials of involvement.Muallem recently warned in Paris that political conditions" would be unacceptable under any final accord.But the source said a compromise brokered by the Swedish presidency would see a separate memorandum of understanding signed by the Europeans to deal with rights concerns.It will in substance say that the EU reserves the right to suspend the association accord, the diplomat underlined.

An updated text agreed in February envisaged the granting of financial aid to Syria in return for economic reforms, after which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called in April for more European investment in his country.He said Damascus had launched a series of reforms to liberalise its markets and drawn up the necessary legal framework for a reform of its financial and tax systems.Meanwhile, Moratinos said Spain would push Israel to re-engage in the peace process with the Palestinians.
Moratinos is accompanying Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on a regional tour that will take them to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.He said Spain would make every effort to encourage the Israeli authorities to engage in the peace process in a more effective way ... which is a vital necessity after 60 years of conflict between Arabs and Israelis.

US puts spotlight on Quartet goals for Palestinians Tue Oct 13, 5:51 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States supports efforts at reconciling feuding Palestinian factions, as long as it produces a government that respects Quartet goals, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.We certainly favor an effective Palestinian government, and we are certainly supportive of a reconciliation process, spokesman Philip Crowley said in a press briefing.The Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations -- call for recognition of Israel's right to exist, respect for earlier agreements and renunciation of violence.Palestinian Basic Law mandates that a new general election must be called at least three months before the end of the sitting parliament's mandate, a deadline which falls on October 25.But feuding between the Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah since 2006 elections won by Hamas has deeply divided the Palestinian camp, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Fatah in charge of the West Bank.Egypt has sought to broker a reconciliation with little apparent success and analysts say failure to reach an agreement on holding general elections could permanently harden those divisions.If you have a unity government that operates ... on the basis of the principles that we've laid out, then we will be supportive of it,Crowley stressed.

We'll be happy to work with whoever is in a Palestinian government that support the principles,Crowley said.He said that US envoy George Mitchell, just back from the Middle East, would welcome an Israeli delegation on Thursday and a Palestinian one October 20.Tensions between Hamas and Fatah date back to the start of limited Palestinian self-rule in the mid-1990s when Fatah strongmen cracked down on Islamist activists.They rose again in January 2006, when in a surprise election rout, Hamas beat the dominant Fatah to grab more than half the seats in parliament.Their differences boiled over into a week of deadly street clashes in June 2007 that ended with Hamas routing pro-Fatah forces from Gaza.

Israel to join NATO Mediterranean patrols Tue Oct 13, 6:49 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli navy will join a NATO force patrolling the Mediterranean Sea as part of the global war on terror,a military spokesman said on Tuesday.The spokesman confirmed a report by the Maariv newspaper which said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters last week approved the Israeli Navy's inclusion in Operation Active Endeavour.The navy will participate in the activities,the spokesman said.The announcement came as a major boost just days after Turkey scrapped a joint aerial exercise that was to have included Israel, Maariv said.Bilateral relations have taken a downturn since Israel launched a devastating military offensive in Gaza in December.Operation Active Endeavour was launched one month after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

As part of the operation, NATO ships patrol the Mediterranean to monitor shipping to help detect, deter and protect against terrorist activity,according to the transatlantic alliance.Task Force Endeavour consists of surface units, submarines and patrol aircraft and regularly uses frigate forces.Israel had first requested to deploy a vessel as part of the force two years ago to participate in the global war on terror,Maariv said.In Israel's international situation today, with legitimacy for its military actions shrinking, even a patently minor development, such as the inclusion of an Israeli ship in the alliance's naval police force, is big news,the newspaper said.

ISRAEL WILL NOT ALLOW WAR CRIMES TRIAL

Israel will not allow war crime trials over Gaza: PM Mon Oct 12, 9:36 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would not allow its citizens to be tried for alleged war crimes over the Gaza war and that adopting a damning UN report on the offensive endangered the stalled peace process.

The hawkish premier was speaking days before the UN Security Council was to raise the report, which accused both Israel and the Gaza Strip's Islamist Hamas rulers of committing war crimes during the 22-day war at the turn of the year.Our first mission is to head off this attack,Netanyahu told the opening of the winter session of parliament, the Knesset.This warped document... written by this warped committee undermines Israel's right to self defence. This report encourages terror and endangers the peace,he said, repeating comments he made at the annual UN General Assembly.I want to make it clear -- Israel will not take any chances for peace if it can't defend itself,he said.Netanyahu also said that Israel will not allow a situation in which its political leadership during the war and military officials would face trial over the conflict that killed 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.We will not agree to a situation where (ex-premier) Ehud Olmert, (defence minister) Ehud Barak and (ex-foreign minister and now opposition leader) Tzipi Livni, who sent our soldiers to defend our cities and citizens, will sit on the defendants' bench in The Hague,he said of the International Criminal Court.We will not agree to a situation where IDF commanders and soldiers are branded war criminals after they defended the citizens of Israel with bravery and honour from a cruel enemy, Netanyahu said.The UN report, released by an independent international fact-finding mission headed by former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone last month, accused Israel and Palestinian armed groups of committing war crimes during the war that erupted last December 27.

The UN Security Council is due to begin holding its regular monthly debate on the Middle East on Wednesday, with the session widely expected to discuss the findings of the Goldstone report.UN chief Ban Ki-moon supports a Palestinian proposal to reopen debate in the Human Rights Council on the report, his spokeswoman Michele Montas said on Monday.She said Ban discussed the issue during a telephone conversation with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday.

Peres tells Israeli govt to relaunch peace talks Mon Oct 12, 12:33 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – President Shimon Peres on Monday urged Israel's hawkish government to relaunch peace negotiations with the Palestinians or risk further international criticism and isolation.The cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces two choices, the Jewish state's elder statesman and Nobel peace laureate told the opening winter session of parliament, the Knesset.To be alone, isolated, and solely responsible for all the (occupied) territories while facing hostility from Palestinians and Arab states, as well as increasing criticism from many other countries. This risks a de facto single state with two nations.Or we can continue to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority until we find an acceptable solution, he said.I say to the government and Knesset, here and now, don't slow down the negotiations -- look for every break, try every option in order to put an end to more than 100 years of quarrel and bloodshed.Enough with the process, the time has come to reach final conclusions. We cannot miss this opportunity,he said.If we move forwards with peace and make peace with the Palestinians, and if we start negotiations with Syria and Lebanon, we will remove the main pretext for the Iranian madness -- against us and against the other residents of this region.Netanyahu, who addressed the Knesset session immediately after Peres, said he was willing to enter peace talks without preconditions.We expect the Palestinian leaders to be genuine partners for peace. We are prepared to work hard for peace,he said.However, Netanyahu blamed the Palestinians for the failure of previous peace talks, saying they broke down because the Palestinian leadership was not ready to declare an end to the conflict and their demands, and once-and-for-all recognise the Jewish State.The United States has been pushing the Israelis and Palestinians to agree to resume peace talks that were relaunched in November 2007 but suspended after Israel launched a 22-day war on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on December 27.

Israel, U.S. to hold anti-missile drill next week Mon Oct 12, 9:59 am ET

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel and the United States will hold their biggest joint air-defense exercise next week, the Israeli military said, testing missile interceptors that would serve as a strategic bulwark in any showdown with Iran.The drill, dubbed Juniper Cobra, has taken place every two years since 2001 but now underscores efforts by the Americans to reassure Israel as they and other world powers pursue negotiations to curb Iran's nuclear program.An Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the maneuvers would begin on October 20, having been postponed from their original October 12 start-date.But a military spokeswoman, Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich, said holding the exercise next week did not constitute a postponement.The exercise will happen next week in accordance with the original plan,she said.U.S. forces including 17 naval ships and ground personnel operating the Aegis, THAAD and Patriot missile shields will be meshed with Israel's Arrow II interceptor for the drill, the defense official said.It will be the biggest Juniper Cobra ever,the official said, adding the exercise would be overseen by Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, chief of the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet, as well as by the commander of Israel's air defense arm.The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv had no immediate word on scheduling. In a statement issued last week, it said Juniper Cobra is not related to or in response to any world events.

Iran denies seeking a nuclear bomb, but the lack of transparency around its designs and Tehran's rhetoric against the Jewish state have stirred fears of war.Israel, which is assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has hinted at the possibility of attacking Iran if it deems diplomacy a dead end.But some analysts believe Israel's military limitations, and U.S. resistance to the idea of pre-emptive strikes, may force it into a more defensive posture with the help of its top ally.(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Israel not undermining al-Aqsa foundations: Netanyahu Mon Oct 12, 6:00 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday blamed recent violence at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque on Arab extremist elements whom he said spread lies that Israel intended to dig under the holy site.Tensions in Jerusalem have risen over the past few weeks after Israeli police and Palestinian protesters clashed near al-Aqsa in the walled Old City on the eve of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur late last month.Reasons for the confrontations at the flashpoint compound, which is revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and by Jews as the Temple Mount, were disputed.Israeli security forces control access to the area and regularly prohibit young Muslim men from entering the holy site in the Old City, citing security concerns.In last month's violence, small groups of Palestinian stone-throwers confronted Israeli forces, and Israel banned the Israeli Arab head of a fundamentalist Islamist movement from Jerusalem, saying he was inciting violence.Extremist elements tried to disturb the peace and quiet in Jerusalem,Netanyahu told reporters at the weekly meeting of his cabinet.We are talking about a radical minority that spread lies that we intend to dig under the Temple Mount. I want to make clear that this is a lie,he said.I appreciate that the majority of Israel's Arab citizens were not caught up in these provocations.Muslim religious authorities have pointed to Israeli archaeological work near the compound as endangering the foundations of al-Aqsa, allegations Israel has long denied.

UPRISING

The violence in Arab East Jerusalem, which has since dissipated, was accompanied by warnings from Palestinians in senior positions of the risk of a third Intifada, or general uprising.A Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after then-Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, toured the plaza above Judaism's Western Wall where al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock shrine now stand.During Netanyahu's first term as prime minister, his opening of a new entrance to an archaeological tunnel for tourists near the holy compound touched off gun battles in which 60 Palestinians and 15 Israelis were killed.Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and annexed it in a move that has not won international recognition. Israel considers all of Jerusalem its eternal and united capital.Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by David Stamp)

Gaza militants say Hamas stops their rocket fire By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Sat Oct 10, 10:10 am ET

GAZA (Reuters) – A Palestinian armed group accused the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers on Saturday of preventing its men from firing rockets at Israel, a sensitive allegation for the Islamist faction as it pursues mediated deals with the Jewish state.Hamas police intercepted Islamic Jihad rocket crews on three occasions over the past month, a group official said, foiling their bids to avenge Israeli fire on Gaza and to show solidarity with Palestinian protests over a contested Jerusalem shrine.We have been prevented from launching attacks, the Islamic Jihad official told Reuters, adding that Hamas had also scrapped a planned rally by the group and arrested two of its members in a dispute over control of a mosque in northern Gaza.Hamas, which fired hundreds of short-range rockets into Israel during a December-January war but has since privately called for the salvoes to stop for the sake of repairing Gaza's ravaged infrastructure, denied Islamic Jihad's allegation.There is no truce with the occupation (Israel), whose crimes against our people are continuing, and therefore we have not and we will not block resistance,said Ehab Al-Ghsain, spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.Islamic Jihad's complaint could not be independently verified -- not least as, by its own account, its rocketeers had been only briefly detained by Hamas police.Gazan rocket attacks on Israel have tapered off since the war, and Israeli defense officials have credited Hamas, saying it sought calm in order both to avoid another conflict and to improve its standing among Palestinians and abroad.Like Islamic Jihad, Hamas is deeply conservative and rules out coexistence with Israel, a position that helped trigger a schism with U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who holds sway in the West Bank and wants a Middle East peace pact.Yet Hamas has signaled willingness to enter a long-term truce with Israel and, through Egypt and Germany, is negotiating the exchange of an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza for hundreds of jailed Palestinians.Egypt is also trying to mend the rift between Hamas and the secular Fatah faction of Abbas, who has often accused the Islamists of jeopardizing Palestinian national aspirations with pointless violence against Israel.(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Police and protesters clash in Jerusalem by Menahem Kahana – Fri Oct 9, 2:33 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli security forces on Friday clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians near Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound as authorities limited access to the flashpoint site sacred to Muslims and Jews.Eleven officers were injured and two Palestinians arrested, a police spokesman said after the scuffles, which came as Palestinians staged a one-day strike in defence of the compound they claim is threatened by right-wing Jews.The trouble started in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood just outside the gates of the Old City following Friday prayers when a dozen masked youths hurled stones at police.As police moved deeper into the neighbourhood to arrest the youths, residents threw stones, water and even chairs at them.Authorities said it was an isolated incident and that they may lift restrictions on access to the mosque compound within days if calm prevails.Several hundred Palestinians performed prayers in the open just outside the Old City after being denied access to Al-Aqsa.Security forces set up checkpoints around and within the Old City and turned back Palestinians who do not live or work there, witnesses said.However, they were allowing in tourists and Jews wanting to pray at the Western Wall -- also known as the Wailing Wall -- below the mosque compound.Most stores in the Old City shut down, though some shop-owners grumbled about the strike.We need to strengthen our presence in Jerusalem, not weaken it,said sweets-seller Ramdan Abu Sbeeh, 32, who defied the strike call.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah party called the strike to peacefully protest and to proclaim the attachment of the Palestinian people to their holy places and to Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the independent Palestinian state.Fatah accused Israeli forces of allowing rightwing Jewish extremists to enter the mosque compound while denying access to Muslims.Police claimed the Islamic Movement in Israel had incited tension and this week briefly detained its leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, for making inflammatory statements.Salah, who previously spent two years in Israeli prison, has repeatedly called in recent days for Muslims to defend Al-Aqsa against Israel.Israel imposed the restrictions on access to the mosque compound following a series of clashes that started late last month. Women could enter freely but the only men authorised to attend Friday prayers were Muslim residents of east Jerusalem or Israel over the age of 50.In the Gaza Strip, thousands of people on Friday took part in demonstrations called by the territory's Hamas rulers and the Islamic Jihad movement.The real Al-Aqsa battle has started, said Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya.About 600 people took part in a march in the Jordanian capital in support of Al-Aqsa mosque and protesting Israel's violations in Jerusalem,correspondents said. They chanted Death to Abbas and Death to Israel.In Riyadh, the head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Abderrahman al-Attiyah, meanwhile, called for an immediate lifting of Israel's siege and praised the resistance of the Palestinians.The latest surge in tension over the Al-Aqsa compound broke out on September 27 when Palestinians hurled stones at a group of visitors they thought were rightwing Jews.

The visitors were in fact French tourists, according to police, who responded by firing stun grenades. The Al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has often been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence.The second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, erupted there in September 2000.

Father of captive Israeli soldier sees no light at end of tunnel by Claire Snegaroff – Thu Oct 8, 4:28 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – The father of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit said Thursday he saw no immediate hope that his son would be freed soon, despite the release of a video last week showing him alive.We were moved to see him after so much time, after a period in which we hadn't even received a photo of him, Noam Shalit told AFP during a trip to Paris, were he is urging France to push for his release.On the other hand we are very worried, we don't see light at the end of the tunnel, Shalit said before meeting later Thursday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.Sarkozy reassured Shalit's father of his full support and told him that France was committed to securing his son's release, the French presidency said in a statement after their meeting.Israeli authorities last week received the first footage showing Gilad Shalit looking healthy after more than three years of captivity in Gaza, where he is being held by Palestinian militants.The video was sent in exchange for Israel's release of 20 Palestinian women prisoners.Looking gaunt, the clean-shaven 23-year-old read from a piece of paper, at times smiling or repressing a grin, as he sat on a chair against a white wall in the footage made public just hours after the women were set free.The exchange was widely seen as the biggest breakthrough since Gaza militants captured Shalit in a 2006 cross-border raid, and as a key step toward an eventual swap that would see Israel free hundreds of prisoners.But Noam Shalit, whose son also has French nationality through his mother, is not so hopeful.For us, it is a step in the right direction, but that doesn't mean that a deal on prisoners is close, there has been no breakthrough,he said.

But the decision by Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, to release the video was a sign that they are under pressure and they want to move things forward, he said.He said he believed that the video had had a powerful effect on the Israeli public.No-one can remain indifferent to a film like that, he said.Noam Shalit believes that things have progressed much more rapidly since Benjamin Netanyahu became Israeli Prime Minister in March.He took a swipe at Netanyahu's predecessor Ehud Olmert, saying Olmert repeatedly said they were trying everything, that there wasn't a day that they didn't talk about it, but at the end of the day they got nowhere.Shalit is hoping that his meeting with Sarkozy, who since the soldier's capture has personally intervened to try to secure his release, will lead to a breakthrough.We always thought France has an important role to play. France is a major player in the Middle East. Even today, although the German team is at the forefront, France has the possibility of helping finding a deal.Israel and Hamas have held nearly three years of on-again, off-again negotiations brokered by Egypt, and which German mediators joined in July. France can act on several axes, and the Paris-Damascus axis is one of them,said Shalit.The exiled political chief of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, lives in Syria, with which France is busy rebuilding once close ties after several years of tension over Damascus's role in Lebanon.Senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar said in a recent press interview that Shalit's release was a matter of weeks, at most a few months.Noam Shalit however said Thursday that until we see a real breakthrough we cannot be reassured.We must continue our fight and not let ourselves be beguiled by all sorts of declarations in the media,he said.

US backs delay in vote on UN Gaza report Wed Oct 7, 7:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States Wednesday again backed a delay in a vote on a UN report that has condemned Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip and raised concerns about war crimes by both sides.State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said such a delay could help contribute to creating an atmosphere favorable to dialogue after the report's release last month triggered an outcry.All of our energies right now are being employed to move this process forward, and we want to clear the decks of any issues that might impede our progress towards this, said Kelly.And this is why we thought that it was perhaps better to delay discussion of this.The United States believes that the report raised some very serious allegations that should be reviewed,Kelly added.But we also believe that these issues should be discussed in a constructive and non-divisive manner. And for that reason, we believe that the place for this kind of discussion is in the Human Rights Council.The UN Human Rights Council has postponed until March 2010 its vote on the report, produced by an independent fact-finding mission headed by former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone.But Libya's deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told AFP his country had circulated a letter on behalf of the UN Arab group requesting an emergency meeting of the 15-member UN Security Council to discuss it.

The UN report accused both Israel and Palestinian armed groups of committing war crimes during the three-week war in Gaza that erupted on December 27, killing some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.The United States, which recently joined the 47-member Human Rights Council after remaining on the sidelines for years, has opposed the endorsement of the report.The European Union had also expressed concern about moves to adopt a resolution endorsing its recommendations.

Blair seeks religious leader unity on Jerusalem Wed Oct 7, 11:54 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former British Prime Minister and Middle East envoy Tony Blair called Wednesday for a joint appeal by Jerusalem's religious leaders on keeping the holy city open to all faiths even as tensions flare.Blair, speaking at a forum on religious understanding at Georgetown University, said it was crucial to recognize and address the religious dimension of the Middle East conflict.One of the things we've been trying to organize is a statement by the rabbinate and the Christian leaders and the Muslim leaders about Jerusalem and about Jerusalem being an open city or worship for people of all the Abrahamic faiths, Blair said.Unless we're prepared to recognize that dimension and to act upon it, then I think that we fail in our duty, he said.Blair serves as the envoy for the so-called Quartet on the Middle East peace process -- the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations.He was due later Wednesday to hold talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the latest developments in the region, which US special envoy George Mitchell is now visiting.Tensions have run high since Sunday when Israeli authorities closed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, saying that people were inciting violence.Blair said the Middle East reminded him of Northern Ireland, where a 1998 deal brokered by Mitchell largely ended three decades of strife pitting Catholics against pro-British Protestants and British forces.They say to me, It's not really about religion, you know. It's about politics,Blair said of discussions in the two places.I say, that's fine. Unfortunately, a lot of people involved in the conflict think it's about religion. And so you can't actually separate out the religious dimension from the conflict,he said.

Libya seeks Security Council meet on UN Gaza report Tue Oct 6, 6:51 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Libya on Tuesday pressed for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to weigh a UN report that condemned the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, diplomats said.Libya's deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told AFP that his country circulated a letter on behalf of the UN Arab group requesting an emergency meeting of the 15-member body to consider the UN report.The report, released by an independent international fact-finding mission headed by former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone last month, also accused Israel and Palestinian armed groups of committing war crimes during the three-week Gaza war that erupted December 27.Arab diplomats said the Security Council was to hold consultations Wednesday to decide whether or not to hold a formal meeting on the Goldstone report.We are welcoming Libya's step that they have asked the Security Council to meet tomorrow (Wednesday) to discuss the Goldstone report, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said in a telephone conversation from Rome.

Libya's step is supporting the Palestinian people's rights.Earlier in the day, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that Abbas was seriously studying the possibility of asking that a UN Gaza war report be passed on to the Security Council.
The move appeared to mark an about-turn as the Palestinian delegation last Friday backed a move at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to defer a vote on whether the report should be passed on.The United States had welcomed the decision by the UN rights body to delay a vote on the UN report.We appreciate the decision to defer consideration of the Goldstone report and will continue to focus on working with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to re-launch permanent status negotiations as soon as possible, US Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Esther Brimmer said Friday.We also encourage domestic investigations of credible allegations of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,added Brimmer, who heads the US delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council.The United States, which recently joined the 47-member Council after remaining on the sidelines for years, had opposed endorsement of the report, while the European Union had also expressed concern about moves to adopt a resolution endorsing its recommendations.

Thousands of Christians march for Israel by Patrick Moser – Tue Oct 6, 12:49 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world marched through the streets of Jerusalem on Tuesday, chanting their support for Israel and praying for peace in the Holy Land.People must understand the Holy Land was given by God to the Jews,said Rosie Smith, one of a group of English women clad from head to toe in the Israeli flag. By Holy Land, she said she meant not just what is now Israel but also Jordan and the occupied West Bank.We are Christians who stand with Israel, she said. Her views echo those of many of the pilgrims who turned up at the march.Marching under dozens of national banners, the pilgrims made their way from a park near parliament to the gates of the Old City.The Angolan delegation swayed to a furious beat while the Singapore delegation swirled colourful banners in the air, chanting the Hebrew song Shalom Aleichem (peace be upon you).Colourful costumes abounded, such as the cloth with a map of the world below the words Virtuous Women Community wrapped around a Zimbabwean who identified herself as Mother General Prophetess AC Manjoro.The Korean delegation sported T-shirts proclaiming: Prepare the way for the King of Glory.

Grace Galindez-Gupana from the Philippines proudly held up a flag of Jerusalem.We are here as flag-carriers for Israel at a time when evil forces are seeking to divide Jerusalem,she said, her booming voice quivering with emotion.It says in the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse her will be cursed,said Galindez-Gupana. She claims to hold the world record for the longest Drawing of Idols burned to Ashes (over five kilometers -- three miles of drawings of biblical beasts that were set alight.)Many said the annual pilgrimage, organised by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ,) represented a fulfilment of a Biblical prophesy that all nations would gather in Jerusalem for Sukkot -- the Feast of Tabernacles -- which the Jewish faithful celebrate this week.Israelis headed the procession, with employees of weapons manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defence Systems marching in the lead, in step to a drumbeat and holding up a model of a missile. Nearby a man was dressed up as a fighter jet.We are proud to be part of this, said Ron Collard, 70, who travelled from Turangi, New Zealand to attend the Sukkot celebrations in Israel.The tourism ministry also hailed the event, and the tourist dollars it brought in.The ministry estimated at 8,000 the number of Christians who travelled to Israel for the Sukkot week, saying this amounted to 56,000 hotel nights and income of between 16 million and 18 million dollars (11 million-12 million euros).

Peace fragile, prized as Palestinians tend new crops By Alastair Macdonald – Tue Oct 6, 6:39 am ET

QABATIYA, West Bank (Reuters) – The olive branch is a symbol of peace in the Middle East, but for Yusuf Sabaani the thousands of tiny olive seedlings he has just planted are a more tangible image of his dream for the future of his children.Yet, like Palestinian farmers across the West Bank, he knows his tree nursery depends not only on his own skill and the vagaries of weather but on a fragile peace with Israel that only lately took hold and now seems threatened by rumblings of new violence, fueled by anger at the pace of negotiations.It's got better over the last couple of years. During the Intifada it was tough, said Sabaani, 48, as he showed off his pride and joy, a new plastic greenhouse nurturing 30,000 olive seedlings just outside the once turbulent city of Jenin.I'm hoping that we'll see much more investment because of the stability we have here now, the father of eight said as he strolled around his small farm at the sprawling village of Qabatiya.We support peace between the Palestinians and Israel.

The negotiations are important.U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy George Mitchell will be back in the region this week, trying to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back to the negotiating table for a final peace deal.But, Sabaani cautioned, in a week marked by clashes around Jerusalem that sparked talk of a third Palestinian uprising: The people who benefitted from the last Intifada are pushing again,he said of former militants lurking in the background.Going back to square one will ruin everything.Sabaani, who wants to expand his exports of high-yield, oil-producing olive trees into Saudi Arabia, is not alone in his determination to grab foreign aid and credit. It has arrived along with a Western-backed policing drive by Abbas's Palestinian Authority, curbing an anarchic mix of armed groups.Just down the road, Nimmer Nazzal, the president of the Qabatiya Cooperative for Irrigating Farmers, is inspecting the new greenhouse frames and 6 km (4 miles) of piping that will house and water the village's new venture in strawberries.

FROM TANKS, TO STRAWBERRIES

Three or four years ago we simply couldn't be out here,he said, pointing out a house on the boundary between the field and the town. It was wrecked by tank fire in the second Intifada, the years of suicide bombings and gunbattles that began in 2000.
This area was too dangerous to farm during the Intifada, said Nazzal, 41, as he explained the two-year-old, 168-member cooperative's plans to expand into luxury cash crops for export, like strawberries, diversifying away from staples like tomatoes.There were checkpoints on the roads everywhere. They stopped us going to market. We could take all day just getting into Jenin, which is only a few minutes away now.But everything still depends on the security situation. If the atmosphere goes sour, everything will collapse overnight.The appreciation the farmers of Qabatiya show for the sense of security, and the availability of funding, that have taken hold in the past year or two may be gratifying to Abbas's Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his European and U.S. backers.They have pursued a strategy intended to break the violent despair felt by Palestinians in the early years of this decade, when the streets of Jenin and the fields around were best known as a battleground for Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops.There is also acknowledgment, too, of changes from Israel's new leader, Netanyahu. He has ordered occupying troops to ease movement for business and people around the West Bank by lifting roadblocks -- a strategy to boost prosperity before negotiating peace with a Palestinian Authority Netanyahu says is too weak in the face of Islamist hardliners to guarantee Israel security. But as they nurture the seeds of what they hope may be a new economy for the next generation, Sabaani, Nazzal and others say Netanyahu must now show more willing to negotiate a state for the Palestinians with Abbas -- or risk frustrations with the occupation boiling over again, to everyone's cost.

DON'T MAKE US MAD

Explaining how he hopes to use his $3,000 loan from a USAID-backed microfinance agency, Sabaani has his eye on more than the West Bank's drying water resources: The future will be bad if the Israelis do not give peace a chance,he said. As long as I am being reasonable, I am for peace. But if the Israelis won't give us peace, that'll make me mad and we'll react unreasonably. Palestinians are people like everyone else.Cooperative chief Nazzal, who is overseeing $125,000 of mostly European aid and loans on a hectare of heavily irrigated land, worries about water, too, and also about the whims of Israeli control of the trade outlets through which his easily spoiled strawberries and other high-margin produce must pass.We have a dream to switch from traditional farming,he said.It's an experiment. We're taking a risk for the future.

We'd like to have more control over our borders,he added.For now, Nazzal said, the economy was looking up around Jenin, away from areas where Jewish settlements have cut deep into the land and road system, defended by Netanyahu.But the further outlook, he believed, depended on President Obama: We want peace but we have no faith in this Israeli government. They want peace, but they want the land as well.
(Additional reporting by Wael al-Ahmed; editing by Myra MacDonald)

EU DIPLOMATIC SERVICE ON TRACK

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

HERES GOING TO BE THE BEGINING OF THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE THAT WILL GUARENTEE ISRAELS SECURITY FOR THE 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY OF DANIEL 9:27.

MEPs pressure member states on diplomatic service-The European Parliament is keen to maintain the institutional power balance (Photo: EUobserver)HONOR MAHONY Today OCT 7,09 @ 09:20 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs are rushing to establish the European Parliament's formal position on the union's fledgling diplomatic service amid fears that member states will create a body that is beyond democratic scrutiny and control.Euro-deputies are keen to have the service attached to the European Commission and part of the overall community budget rather than an independent service only answerable to, and funded by, national governments.A diplomatic service is one of the major innovations of the proposed Lisbon Treaty, along with an EU foreign minister and a permanent president of the European Council.

A draft report on the issue, due to be voted on in plenary on 22 October, urges the commission to make use of the fact it has quasi-veto power over the formal decision by member states to establish the service.The External Action Service (EAS) should be administratively and budget-wise within the Commission, formally a part of the Commission,said German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok, in charge of drawing up the report, on Tuesday (6 September).According to British Liberal deputy Andrew Duff the diplomatic service should be a sui generis body attached to the Commission.MEPs are also calling for the service, whose exact shape and size still has to be fixed, to be staffed on the basis of merit, expertise and excellence and for balance in representation from the Commission, the Council - representing member states - and national diplomatic services.

Foreign minister hearing

The issue is set to cause a power scuffle with national governments. Member states – only slowly waking up to the foreign policy implications of the treaty - are reluctant to let parliament dictate the terms of the diplomatic service. This is not something that has great support in the Council,Swedish Europe minister Cecilia Malmstrom told this website when asked about making the service part of the commission's structure.But the parliament, which only has the right to be consulted by member states on the diplomatic service, believes it can influence the proceedings by playing hardball during its hearing of the foreign minister.This is the preparatory report. We will then have the hearing of the candidate for vice-president of the commission and foreign minister,said Mr Duff, referring to the fact that the new foreign minister will also be a member of the commission.We'll fail to support him. We've drawn blood before and we will do it again,the MEP, in charge of the hearings procedure, said.The European Parliament conducts hearings on the suitability of all members of the college of the commissioners and set a precedent in 2004 by rejecting an Italian nominee. This created a shift in the balance of power between the institutions which MEPs have been keen to build on ever since.The issues raised by the creation of a diplomatic service go to the heart of the union's perennial struggle between those who want an EU foreign policy that is a result of intergovernmental co-operation and those who want a communitarian approach, with the involvement of the commission and MEPs.

Blair manuouevre

The foreign service is just one point of unclarity in a list of several created by the Lisbon Treaty, which looks set to come into force early next year.Another issue is the exact job description of the proposed president of the European Council. Smaller countries fear the creation of a powerful post run by large member states.

Yesterday, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg circulated a confidential memo calling for the post to maintain the institutional balance of the union, according to the Irish Times.The memo also calls for someone who has demonstrated his commitment to the European project.This is being interpreted as a move against former British prime minister Tony Blair, who has been increasingly mentioned as a contender for the job.Poland has also indicated it may be unhappy with the Blair candidacy.We are not interested in a celebrity. It should be someone who is willing to spend a lot of time carrying out shuttle diplomacy among member states and talking to the commission in search of compromises,Polish EU affairs minister Mikolaj Dowgielewicz told EUobserver.

EU macro-regions could get own funding from 2014
VALENTINA POP Today OCT 7,09 @ 09:14 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU macro-regions such as the one surrounding the Baltic Sea could by 2014 be granted their own budget line from the Union's common coffers, the Swedish EU presidency said on Tuesday.The Baltic Sea Strategy is fantastic, but it has its limitations. It mainly focuses on projects and won't solve all the problems of the region,Swedish minister for EU affairs Cecilia Malmstrom said at a press panel during the Open Days, a marathon of events in Brussels dedicated to regions and cities.The Baltic Sea Strategy is the EU's pilot project for so-called macro-regions comprising several member states featuring a common geographical characteristic. As with the states bordering the Baltic Sea, the EU could soon see a strategy for the Danube region, one for the Alps and another for the Carpathian mountains.In the case of the Baltic Sea Strategy, the main aims are to clean up the highly polluted waters, to connect the transport and energy networks of the bordering countries and to spur research and exchange among different universities.

Adopted by the European Commission in June, the strategy still needs the endorsement of all member states – something the Swedish EU presidency is hoping to achieve by the end of October.The strategy does not provide for new funds, only how to better co-ordinate existing projects among the eight countries concerned – Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.As discussions on the next seven-year EU budget (2014-2021) are about to begin, Ms Malmstrom was asked if the so-called macro-regions could get their own financing in the future.I could imagine, within the cohesion funds, one headline for macro-regional co-operation,she said. It is not on the agenda so far, but it could very well come up,she added.EU regional affairs commissioner Pawel Samecki said that discussions on this matter had already started last month in Stockholm, when foreign ministers gathered for an informal meeting on the Baltic Sea strategy.The question was raised whether we should have a separate budget line for macro-regions. It is a relevant question, which would have other implications as well, as to who will manage this money – the EU commission, existing structures or a new body?

Carsten-Ludwig Ludemann, a local official with the German city of Hamburg, said it was actually good that the commission did not attach a specific sum to the Baltic Sea strategy, as it was still facing acceptance issues with the member states not concerned.We are a federal state and all 16 Bundeslaender [regions] had to approve the strategy, which they did. But no land said they wanted a Danube or another strategy now,he noted.The Baltic Sea strategy is due for review in 2011, under the Polish EU presidency, when countries and regional organisations responsible for specific projects will report about the actual implementation of the measures.It is very important to make states responsible,Finnish EU affairs minister Astrid Thors said.I hope we won't need to name and shame countries in two years time,she added.

Future of internet has dangers for privacy, Brussels warns
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today OCT 7,09 @ 09:25 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - There is a dark side to some of the impressive new online technologies that are appearing, from social networking to behavioural advertising to RFID smart chips, the European Commission's internet chief has warned.While such technologies offer great vistas of opportunity, the commission is monitoring their development closely for the very real potential threats to privacy they contain, information society commissioner Viviane Reding said on Monday at a debate on the future of the internet in Brussels.Ms Reding threatened that if social networking sites such as Facebook themselves do not make moves to ensure the profiles of minors are kept private, she would intervene with legislation to force them to do so.

Privacy must, in my view, be a high priority for social networking providers and for their users. I firmly believe that at least the profiles of minors must be private by default and unavailable to internet search engines,she told the meeting in the European Parliament, organised by Icomp, an industry initiative backed by Microsoft to discuss the online marketplace.The European Commission has already called on social networking sites to deal with minors' profiles carefully, by means of self-regulation,she continued.I am ready to follow this up with new rules if I have to.But she said she worries about all users of social networking, not just children, and fears that most users of such sites are unaware of the dangers to their privacy.
Social networking has a strong potential for a new form of communication and for bringing people together, wherever they are,she said.But is every social networker really aware that all pictures and information uploaded on social networking profiles can be accessed and used by anyone on the web?

Advertising concerns

The EU's internet chief also said that behavioural advertising - those ads that appear that seem to know exactly the sort of books or vacations or concerts you would be interested in - was another privacy concern repeatedly mentioned to the European Commission these days.Behavioural adverts are able to do this by keeping track of internet users' web browsing to better target them with advertisements.Ms Reding said that the EU executive was watching this development for infringement of privacy: European privacy rules are crystal clear: a person's information can only be used with their prior consent.The commission is closely monitoring the use of behavioural advertising to ensure respect for our privacy rights,she added.I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty.The commissioner also warned of the perils contained within the internet of things - the use of radio frequency identification (RFID), or smart chips, that could be attached to any product.There is enormous potential from a world in which all mugs, containers, shoes or airplane parts are attached with tiny identifying devices. Analysts predict that common events that plague businesses and individuals such as running out of stock, product wastage, and theft. Losing your keys could be a thing of the past, if we know where a product is at all times. But there are also great privacy pitfalls in such a world, noted Ms Reding.I am convinced [RFID] will only be welcomed in Europe if they are used by the consumers and not on the consumers,she told the crowd.No European should carry a chip in one of their possessions without being informed precisely of what they are used for, with the choice to remove or switch it off at any time.The Internet of Things will only work if it is accepted by the people.

Her speech also focussed on the need for a single online market for digital content, which she has repeatedly argued is fragmented, a competitive disadvantage for Europe when compared to the United States.Before the end of the current commission's mandate, she said, she and internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy would publish a reflection paper over a set of possible legislative options to create such a single digital market.Ms Reding would also like to see the development of a European Rights Registry to ease the digitalisation of books. Such a registry would aim to overcome the current problem of books republishing online books that are out of print, but whose copyright ownership remains cloudy.Although the Luxembourgish Ms Reding has expressed an interest in returning to Brussels as part of President Jose Manuel Barroso's second college of commissioners, it is not clear that if she returns, she would be awarded the same dossier.She underlined that in making her comments on the future of the internet, she did not want to pre-empt the new commission.

UNEASY TENSION ON HOLY SITE

Israeli police deploy around tense holy site By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – OCT 5,09

JERUSALEM – Israel deployed thousands of policemen in and around Jerusalem's Old City on Monday to prevent a new round of disturbances around a tense site holy to Jews and Muslims.Police have been clashing sporadically for several days with Muslim protesters in and around the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. No one has been seriously injured, but in the past deadly violence has erupted at the site.Thousands of Jewish worshippers gathered at the foot of the Old City compound for services at the supporting wall known as the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Monday's prayers marked the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Tourists and men in white prayer shawls packed the plaza opposite the wall as police officers patrolled and kept watch nearby.

Police restricted the entrance of Muslim worshippers to the compound, saying calls by Israeli Arab leaders for protests could spark violence. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that only men over the age of 50 were being allowed to pray at the compound. There were no restrictions on women.Early Monday, a small group of Palestinians threw stones at a group of Jewish worshippers outside the Old City, but no one was hurt, Rosenfeld said.In a separate incident, a Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli security officer checking bus passengers near a refugee camp in the city, lightly wounding him, police said. The assailant was apprehended. No further details were immediately available.The recent clashes appear linked to rumors among Palestinians that Jewish extremists plan to enter or damage the compound, home to the Al-Aqsa mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the Rock and sanctified by Muslims as their third-holiest site. Similar rumors in the past have led to riots.Light disturbances broke out a week ago when a group of Muslim worshippers, drawn to the site by a cleric's warning that Jewish settlers were planning to enter the compound, threw stones at a group of visitors escorted by police. Police said the visitors were French tourists.

Rioters and policemen were lightly wounded in the clash.

In neighboring Jordan, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh summoned the Israeli ambassador and protested what the Jordanian government called Israel's continuous violations of the sanctity of Muslim and Christian holy sites in east Jerusalem,according to the country's official Petra news agency.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel told the Jordanians that the provocations have originated from radical elements who wish to create a crisis around the Temple Mount.Jews venerate the site as the location of two biblical temples. Israel has controlled it since 1967, but day-to-day administration is in the hands of Muslim clerics.Jerusalem correspondent Michael Barajas contributed to this report.

Police flood Jerusalem's Old City after clashes by Majeda El Batsh – OCT 5,09

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Police flooded into Jerusalem's Old City on Monday following clashes with Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and as tens of thousands of Jews attended a religious ceremony.Authorities restricted access to the compound to Muslim men aged 50 and over, with no restrictions for women, after Sunday's clashes in which seven Palestinian protesters were injured and three arrested.Ten masked Palestinians were arrested on Monday for throwing stones at security forces just outside the Old City, police said.Thousands of officers deployed in and around the area, focusing on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, and the Western Wall, the main Jewish pilgrimage site also known as the Wailing Wall.Two Arab neighbourhoods adjoining the Old City were sealed off as helicopters and a surveillance drone flew overhead.These measures were taken to avert new incidents on the compound and the Old City and to prevent stones being thrown at the Jewish faithful who come to pray at the Western Wall,police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.Tension flared on Sunday after police closed access to the Al-Aqsa compound -- known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as the Temple Mount -- saying calls for Muslims to gather there were inciting violence.

Clashes broke out after more than 150 people gathered to pray outside the compound. After the prayers, worshippers threw stones and security forces responded with stun grenades and a water cannon.Rumours had earlier swept through the Old City that the Israeli authorities would allow right-wing Jewish settlers to enter the compound during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot.On Monday an estimated 30,000 Jewish worshippers prayed at the Western Wall below Al-Aqsa for the Priestly Blessing ceremony, a highlight of the Sukkot celebrations.Rosenfeld earlier said hostile elements are inciting to violence,pointing the finger at the Islamic Movement, an Arab-Israeli group that regularly calls the faithful to rally to the defence of Al-Aqsa.Sheikh Azam Al-Khatib, who heads the Islamic trust that manages the compound, claimed the current tension was caused by Jewish extremists who provoke the Muslim faithful and don't hide their ambition to kick the Muslims out to build a temple.The compound was the site of the Second Temple, Judaism's holiest site, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.In Gaza, thousands of people joined a protest organised by the Islamist Hamas rulers of the Palestinian enclave, calling for a popular uprising or intifada to defend the mosque compound.

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday urged the international community to immediately intervene and bring the question of the Al-Aqsa mosque before the UN Security Council.Jordan summoned Israel's ambassador in Amman on Sunday to demand a halt to repeated violations at the compound.A week ago several people were wounded in unrest that erupted after a group of non-Muslims entered the mosque compound. Police said they were French tourists, but the Palestinians insisted they were Israeli extremists.The site of the compound is the holiest in Judaism and third holiest in Islam, and has often been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence.The second Palestinian intifada began there in September 2000 after a visit by Ariel Sharon, the right-wing politician who became Israeli prime minister the following year.

New Israeli settlement construction underway: report OCT 5,09

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A Peace Now report said on Monday that some 800 new housing units are being built in settlements across the occupied West Bank, despite US calls for Israel to freeze settlement construction.The Israeli settlement watchdog said that work got underway over the past three months in 34 settlements for the construction of the units.In addition, some 55 buildings are in the process of being completed and foundations are being laid for an additional 50, the report said.According to a Peace Now report, the new projects are not among some 2,400 houses already in different stages of construction that Israel aims to complete despite agreeing to a temporary halt in settlement construction.The settlers are working fast to produce as many construction starts as possible so that these new housing units will be counted as existing settlements and not included in any future agreed upon freeze, it said.Washington has been pressing hard for Israel to halt all construction work on occupied Palestinian land ahead of the resumption of Middle East peace talks. Israel has so far balked at the demand.

Israel minister cancels UK trip over arrest fears Mon Oct 5, 8:52 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon recently cancelled a planned trip to London over fears that he could be put on trial for alleged war crimes, his spokesman said on Monday.He called off the trip for fear pro-Palestinian groups in London might seek his arrest for his role, as military chief-of-staff at the time, in the 2002 deaths of 15 people, among them a Hamas leader and eight children.Yaalon, who is also strategic affairs minister, had been invited to attend a fund-raising dinner hosted by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund, but the foreign ministry's legal team advised against it.Yaalon was military chief-of-staff when an Israeli warplane dropped a one-tonne bomb in Gaza City which killed Salah Shehadeh, the head of the armed wing of Hamas, and 14 civilians, including his wife, in July 2002.Last Tuesday Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak branded a bid to have him arrested in Britain absurd as he attended the governing Labour party's annual conference.British activists had sought his arrest over Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza at the start of this year, when more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13Israelis were killed. The request was denied on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.

Azerbaijan jails two Lebanese over Israel embassy plot Mon Oct 5, 7:31 am ET

BAKU (AFP) – An Azerbaijani court on Monday found two Lebanese men guilty of plotting an attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital Baku, jailing them for 15 years each, a court spokesman said.

Abbas postpones Syria visit Mon Oct 5, 5:36 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Syria has postponed a visit to Damascus by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas due to begin on Tuesday, a Palestinian official told AFP.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the postponement came because of a surprise visit to Damascus by Saudi King Abdullah.A report on Al-Jazeera television had earlier said Damascus postponed Abbas's trip in protest over the Palestinian delegation to the UN Human Rights Council dropping its support for an immediate vote on a damning report on the Gaza war.But the official insisted the claim by the pan-Arab channel was not true. Abbas had been due to arrive in Damascus on Tuesday and hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad.Abbas has faced a growing wave of criticism both at home and abroad over the decision not to support a vote on the Gaza report, which was widely seen as a result of intense pressure from the US and Israel.The UN report on Gaza, authored by respected South African Judge Richard Goldstone, accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and recommended that the Human Rights Council pass the findings to the UN Security Council and the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.On Friday, the 47-member council in Geneva decided to postpone until March 2010 a vote on the report, following a request by Pakistan on behalf of Arab, African, Non-Aligned and Muslim states that supported the report.

Mubarak urges Israel to resume peace talks Sun Oct 4, 4:47 pm ET

CAIRO – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinians where they broke off more than a year ago, warning that the peace process can't take another failure.Israeli-Palestinian negotiations tapered off last year and haven't resumed since last winter's war in Gaza and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli prime minister. Since then, the two sides have yet to establish a framework to renew talks. The Palestinians want to pick up where negotiations left off, while the hawkish Netanyahu says he is not bound by any concessions his more dovish predecessor made.But in an interview published Sunday, Mubarak called on Israel to respond positively to the renewed push for peace and resume talks where they left off.It is unreasonable and unacceptable to start from zero,Mubarak told the Armed Forces newspaper. I told (Israel) that ... settlements are eating away Palestinian land and must stop immediately.Mubarak's comments were part of a wide ranging interview published days ahead of the 36th anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war that opened the way for the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty six years later.U.S. President Barack Obama has spearheaded renewed efforts to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, but key sticking points remain.The Palestinians say talks should resume where they left off, and want a complete freeze of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.

Israel has agreed to slow settlement building, but has rejected a total halt to construction. Israel had pledged to stop settlement building in a 2003 U.S.-backed peace plan, but has not done so, claiming that the Palestinians have not carried out their obligations.Mubarak said he was optimistic that U.S. efforts would bring the two sides back to the table and would usher in wider regional talks to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict.The region is rife with crises, conflicts and tension, Mubarak said.The Middle East will remain a region of instability in the absence of a peaceful and just settlement to the Palestinian issue. The situation is critical, and the peace process ... can't take another failure.Mubarak urged Israel to reconsider the way it deals with the Palestinians and Arabs to ensure a return to normal relations in the region.Israel must take a big step like the total halt to settlement and achieving tangible results in peace negotiations before talking of any Arab gestures, initiatives or step toward it,he said.

Fatah and Hamas eye truce deal, but hurdles remain By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Sun Oct 4, 1:42 pm ET

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas and Fatah, the warring parties that have divided the Palestinian territories, may agree this month to an Egyptian-brokered deal that sketches out a path to peace between them, but which also faces many further obstacles.Officials close to the negotiations, which have been going on for much of the two years since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief civil war, said on Sunday a deal may be signed in Cairo on October 22. Talks are due to begin on October 19.Despite frequent such meetings in Egypt, the Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, have missed several previous deadlines. The deal would map out a process of reconciliation, intended to culminate in presidential and parliamentary elections.Both sides are sounding more positive on the chances of signing an accord this time, which would start the countdown toward elections in late June. But officials are still cautious on the chances of seeing the process through, given the deep resentments felt on either side.Mohammad Dahlan, a Gaza-born senior figure in Fatah, now based with Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told Reuters much depended on clarifications Abbas would be seeking on Hamas's final offer when he meets Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday.

STICKING POINTS

There is a difference between what we are hearing from our brothers in Egypt and the positive statements by Khaled Meshaal,Dahlan said of the Egyptian mediators and the Syria-based leader of Hamas. The Islamists have said they expect to sign a revised reconciliation pact later this month.There are still sticking points,Dahlan said on Sunday.Among these were Fatah's rejection of a key element in the draft pact that calls for a joint committee of members from Hamas, Fatah and other political parties that would liaise between the internationally isolated Hamas government in Gaza and Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.Hamas would also be able to supervise a joint police force in Gaza in the run-up to the June elections, something Fatah sees as cementing Hamas control there after what it calls the coup of June 2007.Dozens of Fatah men were among over 100 people killed then in a week of fighting in the coastal enclave, which is divided from the West Bank by 30 km (20 miles) of Israeli territory.In Gaza on Sunday, however, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said things looked set for an agreement.We have accepted the content of the Egyptian paper and that has prepared the ground for signing an agreement at the forthcoming Cairo meeting,he said.Any failure to reach that would not be of Hamas's making.Egypt hopes to end Fatah and Hamas disputes over hundreds of political detainees jailed in the two territories. Progress on this track could determine whether such a deal could hold.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, editing by Alastair Macdonald and Mark Trevelyan).

Israeli planes strike Gaza Sun Oct 4, 2:35 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes carried out three air strikes in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, without causing casualties, the army and Palestinian witnesses said on Sunday.

They said two of the raids targeted the south of the Palestinian territory while the other hit Gaza City.Our planes on Friday night attacked a structure in Gaza City being used to build weapons and carried out a twin raid on Saturday night on tunnels in the south of the territory on the border with Egypt, an army spokesman said.The air strikes came after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket and a mortar shell against southern Israel, the spokesman said, also without causing casualties.

Mubarak urges Israel to start final status talks Sat Oct 3, 1:14 pm ET

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Israel to open talks with the Palestinians on the full range of issues blocking the path to peace.
Stuttering negotiations between the two sides on a step-by-step road map toward peace have been suspended completely since Israeli forces launched an assault on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last December.Mubarak said they should move straight to the six final status issues: borders, the status of Jerusalem, refugees, Israeli settlements in occupied territory, security and use of water.What is required now is political will, particularly by the leaders of Israel,Mubarak said in an interview with the newspaper al-Quwat al-Musallaha (The Armed Forces).Mubarak said he was in regular contact with Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.He said talks should resume where they left off under the previous Israeli government.It is not reasonable or acceptable to start from scratch. I told them that the negotiations should address all six final status issues without exception,he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last month that, for talks to resume, Israel must honor agreements on borders and Jerusalem that he says its previous government made in talks last year.No clear agreements were ever published before talks were suspended. Netanyahu, a right-winger who took office in March, has made clear he does not wish to repeat any such offers that Olmert may have made.

SETTLEMENTS

After talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and Netanyahu, Abbas also repeated a Palestinian insistence that Israel halt settlement building in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.But Netanyahu has fought off U.S. and Arab pressure to freeze settlements.Since then, U.S. diplomacy has focused on an immediate and unconditional resumption of negotiations.Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to do so.Mubarak said that agreement, which saw Israel withdraw troops and settlers from Egypt's Sinai peninsula, should be seen as a model for future pacts between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arab states.Mubarak's comments, cited by the state news agency MENA on Saturday, are the latest in a string of calls for Israel to accept a framework for peace based on U.N. resolutions and a land-for-peace formula contained in the Arab peace initiative.

That initiative, launched by Saudi Arabia in 2002, offers normalization with all Arab states in return for withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and a just settlement for refugees.Mubarak said peace was difficult but not impossible.Egypt has played a central role in negotiations to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in return for freedom for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. On Friday, Israel freed 20 female prisoners after receiving evidence that Shalit is alive and well.Egypt is also trying to broker reconciliation between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions running Gaza and the West Bank respectively, and hopes they will sign a pact this month.(Writing by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Palestinian economy minister resigns: source Sat Oct 3, 11:19 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian economy minister Bassem Khuri resigned on Saturday, an official close to him said, becoming the second minister to step down since the government was formed earlier this year.Bassem Khuri has resigned to protest the Palestinian Authority's agreement not to discuss the Goldstone report, the official said on condition of anonymity.The UN Human Rights Council on Friday delayed a vote on a damning report by former international prosecutor Richard Goldstone on alleged war crimes by Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas during the Gaza war.The move followed a request by Pakistan, on behalf of the several Arab, Muslim and African states who supported the report, to defer endorsement.Earlier, the Palestinian delegation to the council had stopped pushing for the report's immediate consideration because of US pressure, according to media reports.Khuri, a political independent, was a new face in the government formed by Western-backed Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad in May. The team does did not include any members of Hamas, which rules Gaza.The Palestinian Authority's minister for Jerusalem affairs, Hatem Abdel Qader, resigned in July over what he said was the government's failure to aid residents in battling Israeli housing demolitions.

UN rights council postpones vote on damning Gaza report Fri Oct 2, 12:35 pm ET

GENEVA (AFP) – Members of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday postponed a decision on a damning report on Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip that raised evidence of war crimes by both sides and possible crimes against humanity.The 47 member Council decided to delay until March 2010 a vote on the report by an independent international fact-finding mission headed by former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone.Goldstone last month recommended that the UN Security Council should ask the International Criminal Court to examine possible charges, unless progress was made in investigations in Israel and the Palestinian Territories within six months.Friday's move followed a request by Pakistan, on behalf of Arab, African, Non Aligned and Muslim states that supported the report, to defer endorsement, according to documents filed with the Council.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned on Thursday that Human Rights Council would have dealt a fatal blow to the stalled Middle East peace process if it passed the report on to the Security Council.The United States, which recently joined the Council, had opposed endorsement while the European Union had also expressed concern about moves to adopt a resolution endorsing the report's recommendations.The report by Goldstone and three other legal experts said there was evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during the offensive and in rocket attacks against Israel.Unusually, the mission set up by the Council earlier this year held public hearings with some Palestinian and Israeli victims and witnesses.

ARAB WOMEN RELEASED BUT NO SHALIT FREED

Palestinian women prisoners return to new worlds By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 1, 3:04 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Women make up only a tiny minority of more than 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but they often pay a high personal price for what has largely been a supporting role in the Palestinian uprising.Some have raised babies behind bars, and others have watched their families torn apart in their absence.When 20 of them go home early on Friday — in exchange for the first videotaped sign of life from an Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants — they're returning to worlds very different from what they left behind.The violent revolt they were swept up in has largely fizzled. Nine years after the outbreak of an uprising against Israeli occupation, Palestinian pragmatists seeking a peace deal have pacified the West Bank. Even Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers have been holding their fire, cowed by Israel's bruising offensive last winter.

Personal circumstances have also changed.

Fatima Ziq, 41, was pregnant when she was arrested in May 2007 as an alleged accomplice in a foiled suicide bombing. She returns to Gaza City with a toddler — her ninth child — who has known only prison life.Zhour Hamdan, 45, was a married mother of eight when she was picked up in 2003, also as an accomplice in an aborted bombing. Her husband has remarried, and her children were forced to fend for themselves.Our mother was the heart of our family,said one of her daughters, Neveen, 22. "When she was arrested, our entire life changed.The video-for-prisoners exchange is seen as a down payment for a broader swap, in which Israeli Cpl. Gilad Schalit would be traded for about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. The soldier was seized by Hamas-allied militants from an army base near Gaza in June 2006.As of late summer, Israel held 7,430 Palestinian prisoners on security-related charges, from involvement in deadly attacks to throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, according to government figures provided to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.Fifty-three of the prisoners are women, according to Palestinian activists, including the 20 slated for early release Friday.Among those remaining behind bars are five serving life terms, including an accomplice in a 2001 suicide bombing that killed 15 Israelis in a Jerusalem pizza parlor and a woman who used an Internet promise of romance to lure an Israeli teen into a deadly West Bank ambush.

The release of prisoners is an emotional issue for both sides.

Palestinians view the prisoners as heroes fighting Israeli occupation at great personal cost, and virtually every Palestinian family has current or former detainees in its midst.In contrast, many Israelis see the inmates as terrorists. Since the outbreak of the uprising, 1,171 Israelis have been killed, most in bombings, shootings and other attacks by Palestinian militants. In the same period, more than 6,300 Palestinians were killed by Israelis.The Israeli public is divided over whether to release large numbers of prisoners in exchange for Israeli captives. Some argue that such releases only drive up the cost of future exchanges and increase the dangers of future attacks.Israeli military correspondent Alex Fishman said Israel is paying an exorbitant price by releasing the women.We have become accustomed to being pushovers,he wrote Thursday in the Yediot Ahronot daily.Among Palestinians, there's a broad consensus that women should be first in line for release.We are a conservative Muslim society,said Issa Karake, the prisoners affairs minister in the West Bank government.Women are the pillar of the house. When a wife or mother leaves the house, it would be ruined.Bothaina Duqmaq, a prisoners' rights activist in the West Bank, said that four babies have been born to Palestinian women in Israeli prisons over the years.The women slated for release Friday were jailed for relatively minor offenses, were close to release or did not harm Israelis. One woman had a month left on an 11-month sentence for interfering with police activity, according to the Israeli Prisons Service.Only a few of the women were members of militant groups, and most were assigned supporting roles, such as helping bombers reach their targets, Duqmaq said.

Many were driven by the desire to avenge relatives killed or arrested by Israeli troops.Linan Abu Gholmeh, 30, from the West Bank city of Nablus, who is getting out after serving four years on a five-year sentence, attempted to stab an Israeli soldier after her husband was killed in a clash with Israeli forces. Heba Natche, 19, tried to stab a soldier in an act of revenge and completed her high school diploma in prison, while serving half of her 40-month sentence.Hamdan, the mother of eight, told her children she never expected to be arrested when she led a suicide bomber into Israel. The assailant was caught and gave her name to the Israelis. Hamdan told her children that in 2003, at the height of Israeli-Palestinian violence, she was swept up by the angry mood and felt she needed to do her part.Her youngest, Mohammed, was 18 months old at the time and was raised by his siblings, some of whom quit school to feed the family.The siblings said their mother's arrest wreaked havoc with their lives and they're eager for her to come home.These are tears of happiness,Neveen said.Additional reporting by Ben Hubbard in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Ali Daraghmeh in Nablus and Nasser Shiyoukhi in Hebron, West Bank.

Lebanese say UAE pressed them to spy on Hezbollah By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 1, 12:57 pm ET

BEIRUT – A Lebanese businessman alleged Thursday that he and several hundred other Lebanese were expelled from the United Arab Emirates country because they refused to spy on the Shiite militant group Hezbollah and other fellow citizens.Hassan Alayan said more than 300 Lebanese — mostly Shiites — have been forced to leave the Emirates over the past three months. He said most of those deported said UAE authorities asked them to inform on fellow Lebanese Shiites living in the country and on Iranian-backed Hezbollah.Authorities told the Lebanese they were being deported for security reasons, but they believe their refusal to spy was the real reason, Alayan told a news conference in Beirut. The Emirates refused to comment on the allegations, and Lebanese officials said they were contacting authorities there over the matter.One of those deported, Zuhair Hamdan, said his residency permit was rejected after he refused to give authorities information about fellow Lebanese or possible Hezbollah sleeper cells in the UAE.I told them I have been living in the UAE for 33 years. How can I have information about Hezbollah,said Hamdan, who lived in the Emirates since he was 2 years old and worked as a traffic policeman.The UAE is among several predominantly Sunni Arab nations wary of Shiite Iran's growing regional clout — which Iran partly maintains by supplying weapons and cash to the powerful Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A statement by a committee set up to represent the deportees suggested the decision by the Emirates could be the result of U.S. pressure to try to choke off routes of funding for the anti-American and anti-Israel Hezbollah. The U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization.The Emirates is close to the United States and has cooperated with Washington in trying to shut down networks smuggling weapons to Iran, U.S. officials have said.Alayan said some of those deported were forced to leave even after Lebanese President Michel Suleiman sent a military delegation five weeks ago to the UAE to try resolve the matter without success. More than 100 people who said they were deportees, as well as two Hezbollah legislators, attended the news conference in Beirut.In whose interest is it to ask Lebanese to spy on one another and on the resistance of Lebanon and Palestine? said the committee's statement.Alayan alleged UAE authorities have also deported Palestinians who refused to spy on the militant Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip. He said the Palestinians recounted similar pressures by authorities to inform on Hamas.Some Arab media have reported that those who were deported were sending money to Hezbollah, a claim denied by Alayan and Ali Faour, another member of a committee representing the deportees.Faour told reporters that most of those deported have been living in the UAE for decades and most were business owners.Hezbollah, the largest and most powerful Shiite group in Lebanon, came to the defense of the deportees because most of them are Shiite. The deportees had been silent for a few months but last week started meeting with Lebanese officials to complain about their treatment.Lebanon's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, urged UAE President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to take a quick initiative to rescue hundreds of Lebanese families.Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassem, described the deportations as clear injustice and called on the UAE to be fair with people who are not suspected of working against their host country.

Israel warns UN body against Gaza report Thu Oct 1, 10:51 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel warned on Thursday that the UN Human Rights Council would strike a fatal blow to the stalled Middle East peace process if it passes its damning Gaza war report on to the Security Council.The adoption of what is called the Goldstone report would deal a fatal blow to the peace process,Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, repeating comments he made at the UN General Assembly last week.Israel will not be able to take further steps and further risks towards peace if the report is adopted and it is denied the right to self-defence, Netanyahu said.The Geneva-based Human Rights Council this week has been discussing the results of the probe which accused both Israel and Palestinian militant groups of war crimes.The panel also recommends sending the report to the UN Security Council and to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

Richard Goldstone, the respected South African judge who headed the probe, on Tuesday urged the United Nations to refer Israel and the Palestinians to the ICC if they fail to conduct independent investigations as called for by the report.Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon warned that the Palestinian Authority's support for the report and sanctions against Israel could hamper future negotiations on the creation of an independent Palestinian state.They were the ones that instigated the report and that are calling for measures. We would expect them to cease this altogether, not just because there is no basis for it but also because this is the most unfriendly act if we want to deal together on the most difficult issues, Ayalon told reporters.Any action taken on this report would have a detrimental effect on the peace process, if not deal it a fatal blow... The Palestinians cannot try to talk peace and attack us at the same time,he said.He nevertheless said that Israel was not planning any steps against the Palestinians.The United States has been putting heavy pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to renew the peace talks which broke down late last year during the Gaza offensive.

Israel to free prisoners for video of held soldier by Ron Bousso – Wed Sep 30, 4:16 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will free 20 Palestinian women prisoners in return for a video of a soldier held in Gaza, in a breakthrough in nearly three years of indirect talks with Hamas, officials said on Wednesday.The Israeli security cabinet decided to authorise the release of 20 Palestinian women detainees and prisoners,the Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement.Israel will receive updated and clear proof on the health and condition of Gilad Shalit. This proof of life will be handed to Israel by the mediators in the form of a videotape that has recently been filmed.

The release of the prisoners and the handing over of the videotape to Israel will be done back-to-back on Friday, a senior Israeli official told reporters.The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, confirmed the deal, which was proposed by Egyptians and Germans mediating the indirect talks between the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state.The development marked a major breakthrough in nearly three years of on-again, off-again Egyptian-brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas for an exchange. German mediators joined the talks in July.Shalit, now 23, was seized in June 2006 after Gaza militants, including Hamas, tunnelled out of the Palestinian territory and attacked an Israeli army post, killing two soldiers.

Since 2006, Cairo has been trying to broker a deal under which Shalit would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.The video to be handed over on Friday proves that Shalit is alive, officials said.The video is one minute long and is proof that Shalit is alive,a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three groups that carried out the raid in which Shalit was captured, told AFP.The Israeli official declined to comment on Shalit's state of health in the video, saying only that the recording was probably several weeks old and that the German mediator has already seen the video. We have indications of the contents but no Israeli official has seen it.A Hamas spokesman said that the movement has already handed the recording over to the mediators.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by his office as saying: It is important that the entire world know that Gilad Shalit is alive and well, and that Hamas is responsible for his health and state.All but one of the Palestinian women due to be released are from the occupied West Bank and none has been directly implicated in the killing of Israelis, the official told reporters.The prisoners to be released include four from Hamas, three from Islamic Jihad and five from Fatah, seven independents and one from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said.The developments do not spell the imminent release of Shalit himself, Netanyahu's office warned, saying it is meant as a confidence-building measure... ahead of decisive stages in the negotiations for Shalit's release.The negotiations are still expected to be long and arduous,an Israeli official said.

China, U.S. risk rifts in Middle East: former Chinese envoy By Chris Buckley – Wed Sep 30, 1:41 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China and the United States risk deepening rifts over influence and oil in the Middle East, Beijing's former envoy to the region has said, urging his nation to bolster ties with Iran and other energy-exporting powers.Sun Bigan was China's special envoy on the Middle East until March, and in a new essay he said U.S. President Barack Obama's effort to improve ties with Islamic states in the Middle East was a tactical shift that had not removed the potential for friction between Washington and Beijing in the region.China faced growing risks to energy security as it increasingly relied on imported oil, especially from the volatile Middle East, where Beijing's sway had been limited, Sun said.The U.S. has always sought to control the faucet of global oil supplies. There is cooperation between China and the U.S., but there is also struggle, and the U.S. has always seen us as a potential foe,he wrote in the September issue of Asia & Africa Review,which reached subscribers this week.Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable. We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security,Sun wrote in the Chinese-language journal, which is published by the State Council Development Research Center, a prominent state think tank.Sun's essay was written before the latest flare-up over Iran's nuclear ambitions, which has renewed Western pressure on Beijing to distance itself from Iran and back sanctions.China's Foreign Ministry has urged restraint on all sides ahead of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, as well as Germany, in Geneva on Thursday. The permanent Council members are the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China.Sun, who now works for a government-run association promoting ties with Asia and Africa, was not directly involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran, but he served as China's ambassador there, as well as in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.He could not be contacted at the association on Wednesday.

BLUNT WARNING

The unusually blunt warning from a former senior diplomat, nonetheless underscores some of the anxieties over oil, influence and security that are likely to shape China's response to the West's confrontation with Iran.Both now and in the future, the Middle East should be our first choice in importing oil and developing oil cooperation,Sun wrote. China should focus on strengthening trade with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Oman, he added.Washington would strive to ensure Iraqi oil remained under U.S. control, he said, but Iran has bountiful energy resources and its oil gas reserves are the second biggest in the world, and all are basically under its own control.Oil gas is the natural gas found in oil fields.In the first eight months of this year, Iran was China's third biggest foreign source of crude oil, with shipments of 17.2 million tonnes, a rise of 14.7 percent compared to the same period last year. Angola and Saudi Arabia were the first- and second-ranked suppliers.

Chinese imports of Iranian oil and gas have been held back by U.S. sanctions, Iranian commercial demands and Chinese jitters, Sun said. But China could find access to Iranian supplies drastically curtailed if political power in Tehran passed to forces more sympathetic to Washington, he suggested.Obama's new Middle East policy is merely a tactical adjustment, and the United States will not and cannot alter its global goals and dominance,Sun wrote.(Editing by Dean Yates)

Bid to arrest Ehud Barak in Britain rejected By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 29, 7:06 pm ET

LONDON – A Palestinian bid to have Israeli defense chief Ehud Barak arrested for alleged war crimes during a visit to Britain has failed, a lawyer for the groups involved said Tuesday.Attorney Tayab Ali said a London court rejected his application late Tuesday. Palestinians had hoped to take advantage of Britain's principle of universal jurisdiction, under which alleged war criminals can be tried in domestic U.K. courts, to arrest Barak. But Israeli officials had said they weren't worried because, as a top government minister, Barak was immune from arrest.

The British arrest bid is the latest in a series of attempts to arrest or prosecute Israeli officials abroad, something Barak said was absurd.This has to stop otherwise the world will give a prize to terrorists,the defense minister said in a statement.

Barak traveled to Britain to attend the annual conference of Britain's left-leaning Labour Party. He shared what his office said was a hug and a handshake with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown before engaging in talks about Iran and the Middle East peace process with Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth.Tipped off to his visit, the Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza and the Ramallah-based al-Haq put together a case against the defense minister accusing him of committing war crimes while directing the Israeli winter offensive against the Gaza Strip, according to the Mezan Center's Mahmoud Abu Rahma.Their case was dismissed at a hearing at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, according to Ali, who said the judge cited the immunity tendered to senior foreign officials. Ali called the outcome a disappointment.We don't accept that it's correct that immunity applies to him for this type of crime,he said.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the attempt to have Barak arrested would not survive past today's headlines, but the defense chief is the latest Israeli official threatened with arrest over war crimes charges abroad.In 2005, Doron Almog, a retired general, dodged arrest by staying on aboard his plane at London's Heathrow airport after a tip-off that police were outside to arrest him. The Israeli jetliner flew him straight back home, and the warrant was eventually dropped for procedural reasons.

The war crimes allegations stemmed from his role as commander of the Israeli army in Gaza in 2002, when Israeli forces destroyed 59 houses in Gaza that Israel said were used by militants and Palestinians said belonged to civilians.In December 2007, Israeli public security minister Avi Dichter, a former chief of the Shin Bet internal security agency, turned down an invitation to visit Britain after being advised he could be arrested for his role in the 2002 assassination of a senior Hamas militant in Gaza. The deadly airstrike on the militant killed 14 other people, including nine children.Earlier this year, a Spanish court shelved a judge's investigation into the same airstrike, siding with prosecutors who said Spain lacked jurisdiction. Complaints have also been filed in Britain against two former Israeli military chiefs, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz and Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, in connection with the airstrike.In 2001, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was tried in absentia in Belgium, though not convicted, in connection with a 1982 massacre in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut carried out by Lebanese militants.Barak said Israel needed to do its all to ensure that Israeli citizens and Israeli officials can move freely in the free world.It's absurd that those who try to protect the citizens are those who have to protect themselves,he said.Associated Press Writers David Stringer in Brighton, England, Gregory Katz in London, Joseph Federman and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Ben Hubbard in Gaza City, Gaza Strip contributed to this report.(This version CORRECTS Corrects day of the week to Tuesday STED Wednesday)

Israel gets two more German submarines Tue Sep 29, 3:51 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has taken delivery of two German submarines ordered four years ago, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.We have received two Dolphin-class submarines built in Germany,he said, on condition of anonymity.The submarines, called U212s, can launch cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads, although when it confirmed the sale in 2006 the German government said the two vessels were not equipped to carry nuclear weapons.The subs were ordered in 2005 and delivery was initially expected in 2010.Including the two new ones, Israel has five German submarines -- the most expensive weapon platforms in Israel's arsenal.Germany, which believes it has a historic responsibility to help Israel because of the mass murder of Jews in World War II, donated the first two submarines after the 1991 Gulf War.

It split the cost of the third with the Jewish state.

According to Jane's Defence Weekly, the U212s are designed for a crew of 35, have a range of 4,500 kilometres (2,810 miles) and can launch cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads.Israeli media have written that the Dolphin submarine could be key in any attack on arch-foe Iran's controversial nuclear sites.An Israeli submarine recently used the Suez Canal for the first time in June, escorted by Egyptian navy vessels, in what Israeli media said was intended as a message to Iran.Widely considered the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel suspects Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.

Palestinian unity talks in Egypt in October: Meshaal Mon Sep 28, 2:27 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Rival Palestinian factions will meet in Egypt in October for talks aimed at reaching a national reconciliation agreement, Hamas supremo leader Khaled Meshaal said on Monday.The exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement was in Cairo for talks with officials over Egyptian proposals to reconcile Hamas with the secular Fatah party of president Mahmud Abbas.The Egyptian proposal can be a good basis for achieving Palestinian reconciliation,Meshaal told reporters.Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is overseeing the mediation, told us that (Egypt) will work on a final draft of the reconciliation agreement in the coming days and will invite different Palestinian factions next month, October, for a national meeting,he said.According to extracts of the proposals obtained by AFP, the plan calls for both presidential and parliamentary elections to be held across the Palestinian territories in the middle of 2010.It also calls for the reinforcement of the Fatah-dominated security forces under Egyptian supervision and the release of prisoners in both the Fatah-run West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.Egypt has twice postponed the scheduled date for the signature of a reconciliation agreement in Cairo because of continuing disagreements between the two Palestinian factions.

Zawahiri brands Obama a criminal: TV Mon Sep 28, 1:28 pm ET

DUBAI (AFP) – Al-Qaeda's second-in-command branded US President Barack Obama a criminal who turns a blind eye to the expansion of Israeli settlements, in an audiotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television on Monday.Have we realised the truth of Obama the criminal, or do we still need more crimes to be carried out in Kabul, Baghdad, Mogadishu and Gaza to be sure of his criminality?Ayman al-Zawahiri asked.

Have we realised the lowliness of America under the leadership of the smiling and wooing Obama?he asked in the recording which could not be immediately authenticated.
Zawahiri accused the US president of showing little interest in curbing the growth of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, while at the same time forcing Arab leaders to make further concessions to Israel.Obama leaves the settlements spread in the West Bank and around Jerusalem, showing little remorse, while he presses the surrendering (Arab) rulers to give in further,he charged.Egypt-born Zawahiri, the right-hand man of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, was speaking in a recording released to praise the former leader of Pakistan's Taliban who is believed to have been killed in a US attack in August.Zawahiri eulogised Baitullah Mehsud in the 28-minute statement, reported IntelCenter, a US-based group which monitors Islamist websites.US and Pakistani officials said Mehsud had most probably died after a missile attack by an American drone in August.In a recording posted on the Internet on September 23, Zawahiri said Obama would be defeated by Islamist fighters.In his latest tape, Zawahiri also scolded Turkey for its forthcoming assumption of the leadership of NATO forces operating in Afghanistan.

Every Turk who is concerned about Islam and the Muslims should know that his country's troops will assume next month the leadership of the Crusade in Afghanistan that is burning the villages, destroying homes, killing women and children and occupying the land of Islam,he said.The Turkish forces in Afghanistan will lead the same (kind of) operations that are conducted by the Jews in Palestine. How could the free zealous Turkish people accept this crime against Islam and the Muslims,he added.

Syria calls for Israel to join nuclear treaty By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated press Writer – Mon Sep 28, 1:20 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS – Israel must comply with the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency if the Mideast is to become a region free of weapons of mass destruction, Syria's foreign minister said Monday.Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem echoed calls by many Arab nations during the current U.N. General Assembly session for Israel to comply with the IAEA's demand to submit its nuclear facilities to the agency's safeguard regime and to adhere to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty restricts any nuclear program to nonmilitary purposes.Israel has never said it has nuclear weapons, but is universally believed to possess a sizable arsenal of such warheads.The U.S. and its allies consider Iran the region's greatest proliferation threat, fearing that Tehran is trying to achieve the capacity to make nuclear weapons despite its assertion that it is only building a civilian program to generate power. They also say Syria — which, like Iran is under IAEA investigation — ran a clandestine nuclear program, at least until Israeli warplanes destroyed what they describe as a nearly finished plutonium-producing reactor two years ago.Islamic nations, however, insist that Israel is the true danger, saying they fear its nuclear weapons capacity.

Earlier this month, the 150-nation IAEA conference adopted a resolution directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program for the first time in 18 years. Iran hailed the vote as a glorious moment.The result was a setback for Israel, the United States and other backers of the Jewish state. It also reflected building tensions between Israel and its backers and Islamic nations, backed by members of the 120-nation Nonaligned Movement.The meeting adopted a resolution calling for a Mideast free of nuclear weapons in a near-consensus vote, with only Israel voting against.

Syria stresses the need to commit Israel to comply with the resolution adopted by the IAEA ... regarding Israeli nuclear capabilities,Al-Moualem said.Attempts to contact the Israeli mission to the U.N. for comment were unsuccessful on the holiday of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

JORDAN SOLO ON PIPELINES

Jordan to go solo with Red Sea to Dead Sea pipeline Sun Sep 27, 2:44 pm ET

AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan has decided to go it alone and build a two-billion-dollar pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea without help from proposed partners Israel and the Palestinian Authority, an official told AFP.Jordan is thirsty and cannot wait any longer,said Fayez Batayneh, the country's chief representative in the mega-project to provide drinking water and begin refilling the Dead Sea, which is on course to dry out by 2050.Israel and the Palestinians have raised no objection to Jordan starting on the first phase by itself, Batayneh said.The first stage, at an estimated cost of two billion dollars, will begin in 2010 and should be completed in 2014 on a BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis,he said.The plan is for the pipeline to draw off 310 million cubic metres (10.5 billion cubic feet) of water each year, of which 240 million will be fed into the desalination plant at the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba, enabling an annual production of 120 million cubic metres of drinking water.Batayneh said the remaining 190 million cubic metres will be channelled towards the Dead Sea, the saltiest natural lake on the planet and the lowest point on the earth's surface.

Jordan, where the population of six million people is expanding by 3.5 percent a year, is recognised as one of the 10 driest countries in the world, with desert covering 92 percent of its territory.The kingdom relies mainly on winter rain for its water needs, which are projected to reach 1.6 billion cubic metres in 2015.Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan agreed in 2005 on the outlines of a project to channel two billion cubic metres of water a year via a 200-kilometre (120-mile) canal in order to restore the level of the Dead Sea, produce fresh water and generate electricity.The total cost of the scheme has been estimated at 11 billion dollars.

Arabs and Israelis tell clashing tales of the land By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 27, 12:00 am ET

RAMOT MENASHE PARK, Israel – Israeli and Palestinian hikers are taking to the hills in the footsteps of their ancestors — deploying maps, holy texts and walking boots in the long-running battle for control of the Holy Land.In Israel and the West Bank, bands of enthusiasts trek over the same paths mentioned in antiquity and past villages abandoned to wars. But Israeli and Palestinian hikers mostly emphasize their attachment to the land and ignore each other's historical footprints.In northern Israel's Ramot Menashe Park, guide Innon Kahalany recently led a group past pungent fig trees, bringing to life characters of the Old Testament, which he calls Israel's first guide book. He vividly described how on nearby Mount Carmel, the Jewish prophet Elijah challenged the priests of the heathen god Baal.But his entranced hikers were not told that they were standing near the ruins of seven Arab villages destroyed during the 1948 Mideast war when Israel became a state and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out or fled.Kahalany said he speaks of those events carefully, if at all.People don't like a history lesson, I try to make it easy,he said.Some 45 miles south, in the West Bank, Palestinian guide Saleh Jawad led a dozen hikers up a grass knoll to the ruins of the ancient village of Khirbet Kfar Ana, now used as grazing lands.His route was dictated not by the distant past, but by the reality of the modern conflict: He avoided sealed-off Israeli military zones and checkpoints, and stayed away from the Jewish settlements that dot the area.

Settlers are free to roam the West Bank, which is mostly ruled by Israel and which Palestinians hope will be part of their future state. On the other hand, Jawad and other Palestinians would have a hard time getting a permit to enter Israel.At Khirbet Kfar Ana, Jawad described how the village was most likely destroyed a century ago by the Turks who then ruled Palestine and were upset at the villagers for harboring bandits. The conversation quickly fell to tracing a Palestinian connection to the land from biblical times.This is exactly what this struggle is about,said Jawad.It's the feeling that I'm walking on the land of my ancestors.Many Palestinians assert they are the descendants of the biblical Canaanites, who inhabited the Holy Land before the Hebrews conquered it.We never left the land and they can see that,said George Rishmawi, a hiker who leads a walking group of Palestinian eco-tourists.Hiking — from school trips to weekend getaways — is far more ingrained in Israelis than in Palestinians. Pioneering Zionists established a hiking culture to strengthen the connection between ancient Israel and new Jewish immigrants, said Yael Guter, professor of Israel Studies at Bar Ilan University.The same impulse drives the Palestinians, but their recreational hiking is a nascent pastime, hampered by the Israeli restrictions on movement and their own cultural taboo that regards walking as something only poor people do.Jawad's three-year-old group was established by environmentalists, including Raja Shehadeh, who wrote a book about the diminishing trails of the West Bank.

Rishmawi has created the Palestine Trail — part of a larger regional project called the Abraham Path, a planned 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) route that would follow the route of the patriarch revered by both Jews and Muslims from Turkey, where he reputedly first heard the call to God, to his burial place in the West Bank city of Hebron.Some believe hiking could hold a key to reconciliation, acknowledging the history of the other.Eitan Bronstein is the Israeli head of an organization that tries to educate his countrymen about how Palestinians see the 1948 war, including a campaign to signpost Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948, such as those in the Ramot Menashe Park.It's important to know,he said,because not to know is to continue the conflict without knowing why there is a conflict.

Clinton seeks Arabs' help on stalled Mideast talks By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Sat Sep 26, 2:59 pm ET

NEW YORK – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday urged Arab nations to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel and supporting the Palestinians in an effort to help restart stalled Mideast peace talks.Clinton made the case with senior officials from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. The session followed President Barack Obama's talks this past week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.She declined comment on the substance of her discussions, but told reporters afterward that the talks were extremely productive.But officials said the Obama administration wants Arab states to make tangible and credible goodwill gestures toward Israel and provide political and economic support to Abbas to lay the groundwork for a resumption in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, officials say.Among the gestures toward Israel that U.S. has suggesting are opening trade and commercial offices, allowing Israeli aircraft overflight rights and promoting academic and cultural exchanges.Thus far, most have resisted, demanding that Israel first make concessions, including a total freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. That's something Netanyahu is refusing to do despite heavy U.S. pressure.

Even in the absence of such a step, American officials say the Arabs should act.

We don't want to have the perfect be the enemy of the good,said Jeffrey Feltman, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East.We're don't want to wait for the perfect package. It's time to start negotiations now.We hope that the Arabs would find ways to demonstrate to the Israeli public that Israel will be an accepted, normalized part of the region,he told reporters ahead of Clinton's meeting. He added that Arab financial and moral support for the Palestinians also was critical.We would hope that the Arabs would find ways to support President Abbas and his team as they go into negotiations,Feltman said.

Israel seals West Bank for Yom Kippur Sat Sep 26, 2:01 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli army will close off the West Bank from Saturday on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar which starts at sunset on Sunday, a military spokesman said.The closure becomes effective from Saturday midnight (2100 GMT) and continues until midnight Monday (2200 GMT), the spokesman said.The Israeli-occupied West Bank is routinely closed before Jewish holidays for fear of attacks by Palestinian militants.Twenty-one Israelis were killed on the eve of Yom Kippur three years ago when a female suicide bomber from Islamic Jihad blew herself up in a restaurant in the northern port city of Haifa.Since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, the West Bank has been partially blocked off, with Israel authorising only tens of thousands of Palestinians to travel to the Jewish state every day.Israel comes to a standstill during Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, when observant Jews fast during 24 hours and pray for forgiveness for their sins.Israel suspends all television and radio broadcasts, stops all public transport, closes ports and airports, and shuts down entertainment venues.The 1973 Arab-Israeli war, in which some 2,700 Israeli soldiers were killed, began when Egyptian and Syrian troops launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur.

Gulf states say Obama's speech is a basis for Mideast peace Fri Sep 25, 3:47 pm ET

DOHA (AFP) – The Arab states of the Gulf said on Friday that US President Obama's speech this week to the UN General Assembly can be a basis for reaching a Middle East peace agreement.We believe the content of (the president's) speech constitutes a basis for reaching a just and global solution to conflict in the Middle East, Abdulrahman al Attiya, secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, said in a statement.It is time to recognise a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as capital on territory occupied in 1967,he said.The GCC's members are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.Obama said in Wednesday's speech: We continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements in occupied territory.The US president also called for a resumption of talks between Israelis and Palestinians without pre-conditions on security for Israelis and Palestinians, borders, refugees and Jerusalem.

Ex-Israeli PM Olmert makes first court appearance by Marius Schattner – Fri Sep 25, 2:07 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on Friday made his first court appearance on charges of graft, vowing he would prove his innocence.As the first ex-premier to face criminal charges in court, Olmert acknowledged at the arraignment hearing in Jerusalem that he understood the accusations against him. He is scheduled to enter a plea on December 21.Olmert resigned as prime minister under pressure last September after police recommended he be indicted but has insisted on his innocence and told journalists on Friday he was confident the trial would vindicate him.I am innocent, and I am certain the court will clear me of any suspicions,he said.It is not an easy day for me; for the past three years I have been the target of an almost inhuman defamation campaign.The court decided it would start hearing testimony on February 22 and hold three sessions a week.If found guilty, Olmert could be sent behind bars, said justice ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen, without specifying what the maximum sentence would be.Olmert, who turns 64 on Wednesday, was charged in August with three counts of graft. Olmert profile.The 61-page indictment includes allegations of fraud, breach of trust, registering false corporate documents and concealing fraudulent earnings.All the charges concern actions Olmert allegedly took before he became prime minister in May 2006, first as mayor of Jerusalem and later as trade and industry minister.He remained in office as caretaker until late March when hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu, elected in February, was sworn in.

Olmert is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky and of multiple-billing foreign trips.He has also been charged with cronyism in relation to an investment centre he oversaw when he was minister of trade and industry between 2003 and 2006.Attorney General Menahem Mazuz dropped three other corruption investigations against Olmert, whom Time Magazine named Israel's most able politician when he became prime minister.In his final months in office, Olmert was subjected to repeated police interrogations, which prompted a wave of calls for him to step down.Nevertheless, during that time he oversaw Israel's 22-day onslaught on the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip that left 1,400 Palestinians dead and wreaked widespread destruction in the impoverished enclave.Israel has been dogged by scandals involving public officials in recent years.Three former ministers have been handed prison sentences and both of the country's most recent former presidents resigned in disgrace, but Olmert is the first ex-premier to face criminal charges.In August, police recommended that current Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman be indicted for bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.Former president Moshe Katsav is on trial on several counts of rape, sexual harassment and indecent acts.And on September 1, ex-cabinet ministers Avraham Hirshon and Shlomo Benizri went to jail, the former for embezzling one million dollars and the latter for bribery and fraud.

Mideast negotiators lauds Obama's initiative Thu Sep 24, 5:40 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS – The Quartet of Mideast peacemakers says President Barack Obama's meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas represents an important step toward the resumption of peace talks.The Quartet — comprising the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — said it shared the sense of urgency expressed by Obama regarding the comprehensive resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said some progress had even been made on the thorny issue of Israel's during a series of talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.On Tuesday, Obama summoned Netanyahu and Abbas to a joint meeting at the U.N. Obama told the two leaders that too much time had already been wasted and that it's time to resume negotiations.

Netanyahu hits back at Iran Holocaust claims By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 24, 6:17 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS – Waving the blueprints for Auschwitz and invoking the memory of his own family members murdered by the Nazis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his most passionate and public riposte yet to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's questioning of the Holocaust.The documents he brought to the podium of the U.N. General Assembly Thursday also included the protocol of the meeting where the Nazis decided on the Final Solution.Netanyahu tied the Holocaust issue to Iran's nuclear program and Ahmadinejad's rejection of Israel's right to exist, and seemed to tacitly draw a parallel between the world's treatment of Iran today and its failure to act against Hitler in time to head off World War II and save European Jewry.The Israeli leader came armed with original documents handed to him last month when he visited Germany, and launched into an angry denunciation of Ahmadinejad's comments on the Holocaust, most recently in a speech in Tehran last week in which he spoke of twisted propaganda plots to depict Jews as oppressed, and said the Holocaust needed research ... to clear up facts.Holding up the protocol of the 1942 conference at Wannsee, outside Berlin, where top Nazis decided on the destruction of European Jewry, Netanyahu asked: Is this protocol a lie? Then he held up the blueprints including gas chambers and crematoria for Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp where more than 1 million Jews were murdered.Those plans are signed by Hitler's deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Is this, too, a lie? he asked.Six million Jews were killed during World War II, one-third of all world Jewry. In Europe, nearly every family was affected — including Netanyahu's own.

What of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? he asked.Are those tattoos a lie? My wife's grandparents, her father's two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins, were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie? Netanyahu asked.To those who remained at the General Assembly on Wednesday when Ahmadinejad spoke, he asked: Have you no shame? Have you no decency? In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Ahmadinejad turned aside the subject of his questioning of the Holocaust. Instead he argued that since the Holocaust was perpetrated by Europeans, the Palestinians should not have had to pay the price by accepting a Jewish state in their midst.

Netanyahu went on to warn that Iran's nuclear program could evolve into another world catastrophe.The greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction,he warned.The most urgent challenge facing the U.N. is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons,he said.The Iranians deny they are producing such weapons, but Israel, the U.S. and other world powers don't believe them. Iran so far has refused to stop enriching uranium, a process that could be used to make bombs. Israel considers Iran to be its greatest threat.There has been much speculation Israel might launch a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites as it did against an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. This week, Netanyahu said again that all options are on the table and Israel reserves the right of self-defense.Netanyahu questioned whether the U.N. was up to the task of standing up to Tehran — and strongly denounced its report accusing Israel of war crimes in its winter war against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.(This version CORRECTS RECASTS top with more color, quotes, corrects that more than 1 million died at Auschwitz. For global distribution.)

All-round pessimism after dud Middle East summit Thu Sep 24, 11:40 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A cloud of pessimism is suffocating hopes that U.S. President Barack Obama can pull off a miracle in the Middle East by setting negotiations on course for rapid progress toward a comprehensive peace agreement.The New York encounter he arranged between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this week produced no more than a schedule of lower-level meetings this week and next, which has only deepened skepticism.

Here is a sample of fairly typical comments:We're in a corner. Obama is running out of steam. He was expected to set the direction in the first six months. But now it's the politics of no choice, of deadlock,said Zakaria al Qaq, foreign affairs director at Al-Quds University.Al Qaq and other commentators say Netanyahu seems content with the status quo, and in no hurry to open talks on a final settlement leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.In Netanyahu's view, the threat of an atom bomb in the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the top priority. In his own words: The Iranian issue overshadows everything.Obama, Palestinian analysts note, has his hands tied by issues of greater immediacy for American voters -- healthcare policy and war in Afghanistan -- and cannot afford to open a new front with the right by taking on Israel in a test of wills.He is captive of the healthcare issue and he cannot move freely, so the Palestinians are captive also,al Qaq said.Abbas wants to allow Obama 3or 4 months more to see what happens on healthcare. But what we are getting is meetings, not negotiations, and the people are not fooled.

Pessimism is not limited to the Palestinians.Aaron David Miller, Mideast counsel to six U.S. secretaries of state, writes in Politico that to all but the terminally obtuse,the chances of a deal right now are about zero.Even if Obama could deliver a freeze on Israeli settlement building in the West Bank that Abbas has again demanded and Netanyahu has again refused, Miller says, the fact remains that the Palestinian national movement is divided and Israel still doesn't know what price it's prepared to pay for peace.Obama may soon have to decide whether to get out of the serious peacemaking business ... or get more deeply involved and consider an unprecedented American effort to bridge the gaps.

SOMETHING DRAMATIC

Palestinians put one positive gloss on New York's meeting, saying it proved Obama's personal commitment to securing a deal.It is clear that Obama will not accept failure of his political investment in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict, columnist Talal Okal wrote it the newspaper al-Ayyam.But domestic concerns including the continuing recession, Afghanistan and Iraq would severely limit his scope and it would not be Israel that would feel the impact, said Okal.It's clear that the American administration is about to exercise certain pressures (and) it will be easier to put pressure on the weaker side i.e. the Palestinians.American Jewish groups who advocate a critical approach to Israel over the interminable peace process were also downbeat.There is a mood of resignation, of quiet despair that there is really (no) way out of the conflict,said Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of the pro-peace group J Street.Ben-Ami said it would take more than incremental diplomatic business-as-usual, along well-trodden paths, to make any change. It needs something more assertive and more dramatic.

James Besser in New York-based Jewish Week wrote that when the late Yasser Arafat and the late Yitzhak Rabin shook hands on the White House lawn 16 years ago there was a sense among most mainstream Jewish leaders that the long Israel-Palestinian impasse could soon be broken.Now there is a new consensus crystallizing that says that the status quo is about the best that can be hoped for.The conflict has reached another impasse, according to Michael Goldfarb in the Weekly Standard. Israel is fixed on Iran's perceived nuclear threat while Abbas and his Palestinian Authority cannot speak for the 1.5 million Palestinian of the Gaza Strip -- which is under the control of Islamist Hamas leaders opposed to recognizing Israel.Obama is talking about having talks, and when talks do get underway, Hamas won't be at the table, and the Palestinian Authority will not be able to speak on their behalf. Abbas can make no deals and offer no concessions without confronting Hamas first, and the Israelis can make no concessions without forcing some kind of confrontation with Iran first.
(Writing by Douglas Hamilton, editing by Jon Boyle)

Gaza rocket lands in Israel without causing injuries Thu Sep 24, 8:50 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired a rocket into Israel early on Thursday, with the projectile landing inside the Jewish state without causing casualties or damage, the army said.A rocket fired from Gaza fell this morning in Israel without causing injuries,a spokeswoman said.Israel launched a deadly offensive into Gaza in late December in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.The 22-day war ended with mutual ceasefires by Israel and Hamas on January 18 and since then the border between the territory and Israel has remained largely quiet, despite occasional violations by both sides.

Israel hails US call for talks without conditions By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 24, 5:58 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister welcomed Thursday President Barack Obama's call for the resumption of Mideast peace talks without preconditions despite Palestinian demands for a halt to new Jewish settlements in the West Bank before any new negotiations begin.In the past, Obama had said all Israeli building must stop on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. But he toned down his language Tuesday at a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York, where he spoke of Israeli steps to restrain settlement activity.And in a speech to the U.N. Wednesday, Obama called for talks to restart without conditions.I'm pleased that President Obama accepted my request that there should be no preconditions,Netanyahu told Israel Radio by telephone from New York.Netanyahu is proposing a partial and temporary slowdown, while Palestinian leaders say there can be no negotiations without a complete halt to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, Obama criticized Israel's settlement policy, saying that American does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.But the Obama's statement was no more critical of the settlements than previous U.S. administrations have been since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast War.Netanyahu said the U.S. position was nothing new but said he was pleased Obama did not make the issue a prerequisite for talks.The president of the United States said unequivocally that is not an issue that should prevent the start of negotiations, he said.

Netanyahu added that dropping preconditions to talks along with Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state were the key to peace in the Middle East. In his U.N. speech Obama supported that goal, along with creation of an independent Palestinian state.At the end of the day those are the most important things for peace,Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu wants Israel recognized as Jewish Thu Sep 24, 3:09 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not drop his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state in peace negotiations that the United States wants to revive.I told Abu Mazen I believe peace hinges first on his readiness to stand before his people and say,We ... are committed to recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,Netanyahu told Israel Radio in an interview aired Thursday, referring to President Mahmoud Abbas.I will not drop this subject and other important issues under any final peace agreement,Netanyahu said.U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday brought the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for the first time since Netanyahu came to power in March and urged them to revive stalled peace negotiations soon.The Palestinians have rejected Israel's demand that they recognize it as a Jewish state. They say Israel should meet its previous commitments to fully halt settlement activity in the occupied West Bank before talks can resume.Netanyahu has rejected this demand and Israeli officials say he has offered a nine-month construction freeze.Netanyahu will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York Thursday and Israeli officials say his speech will focus on Iran's disputed nuclear program, which Israel deems as a threat to its existence.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted Israel's inhumane policies toward the Palestinians in his speech at the United Nations Wednesday and several delegations walked out after he made apparently anti-Semitic remarks directed at Israel.(Writing by Joseph Nasr)

NETANYAHU ON BLITZER - ON GAZA WE-PROTECTED OURSELVES FROM 10,000 ROCKETS AGAINST US,WHILE ARBS COMITTED DOUBLE WAR CRIMES-FIRING ON ISRAELI CIVILLIANS WHILE HIDING BEHIND THEIR OWN WOMEN AND CHILDREN.WAY TO GO BENJAMIN.AND ON JERUSALEM-NETANYAHU-ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM NEVER DIVIDED.SEPT 22,09 6:15PM

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A big day today, the president of the United States hosting a summit with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders right here in New York.
Let's get right to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He's joining us.Mr. Prime Minister, thanks very much for coming in.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, told our Fareed Zakaria the other day that he had an assurance from the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, that Israel has no intention of attacking Iran.

Is that true?

NETANYAHU: Well, I'm not going to deal with hypotheticals.

I think the important thing is to recognize that Iran's ambitions to acquire or develop nuclear weapons is a threat, not only to Israel, but to the entire world.
Remember, this is the country that sponsored terrorism worldwide. And imagine what would happen if these terrorists had a patron that had -- that gave them a nuclear umbrella, or, worse, actually gave them the nuclear weapon. I think that these are catastrophic consequences. And it's the interests of the entire international community to make sure this doesn't happen.

BLITZER: So, are you willing to repeat what you have been quoted in the Israeli press as saying, that -- quote -- all options for Israel are on the table right now?

NETANYAHU: Well, I'm willing to say that -- what President Obama has said, namely, that all options are on the table is a position we support.

BLITZER: Have you been concerned at all about the Obama administration's diplomatic initiative in trying to reach out to Iran to see if that will secure some results?

NETANYAHU: Wolf, I have spoken to President Obama several times about this. And he assured me that the goal of all his activities, diplomatic and otherwise, is to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.And I think the goal is what counts. And, increasingly, I think people understand in Washington and certainly in -- certainly in Washington and elsewhere, in the major capitals, that the problem of Iran's acquiring nuclear weapons threatens everyone. It threatens world peace in a way that very few events could possibly threaten it.I'm hopeful and I would like to believe that the international community understands that Iran has to be pressed strongly. There are ways of pressing this regime right now, because it's weak. It's weaker than people think. It doesn't enjoy the support of its own people.

BLITZER: How much time is there, Mr. Prime Minister?

NETANYAHU: Whatever time is there, Wolf, it's getting shorter, because Iran is moving ahead.But this is a regime that is -- is susceptible to pressure. It's been exposed for what it is. It tyrannizes its own people. The Iranian people detest this regime, as has been plainly evident in the recent election fraud. But, equally, I think that Iran is susceptible because its economy is susceptible. And pressure -- the time for pressure is now, with or without talks.

BLITZER: Would you act unilaterally, without U.S. support?

NETANYAHU: Well, there you go again asking a hypothetical question.

I -- I would like to believe that the United States and the major powers of the world understand that this threat, that this danger threatens them as well. And you know what? From everything that I have seen and heard, speaking to President Obama, speaking to President Sarkozy this afternoon as well, speaking to all the major -- many of the major leaders of the world, I stand by that assessment. Iran is certainly a grave threat to Israel, but it's a grave threat to international peace. It's a grave threat to America and to everyone else.

BLITZER: I want to read to you what -- some comments that the former national security adviser to then President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, wrote the other day. He said this. He said: We,referring to the United States, are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? If they fly over, you go up and confront them, Brzezinski writes. They have the choice of turning back or not.That's a pretty strong statement. What does it say about the current state of U.S.-Israeli relations when a former national security adviser writes something like that?

NETANYAHU: See, now you're asking me to comment on a hypothetical on a hypothetical. I'm not going to do that.But I will tell you that the state of the U.S.-Israeli relations is very good, indeed. I was very pleased with the meeting hosted by President Obama today. For months, I have been calling for such a meeting, to put aside all these preconditions, and get on with the business of talking about peace.
It's very hard to make peace unless you talk about it, although we have been improving conditions on the West Bank, and life is getting a lot better there. But we can do a lot more if we talk to each other. So, on Iran, I have given you my answer. But, on peace, I think the -- the possibilities are there. Let's just get on with it. Let's move. And I think that a good and firm U.S.-Israel relationship is the pivot of that peace and the pivot of security in the Middle East.

BLITZER: I want to get on and talk a little bit about the peace process.

But just give me an answer, if you can, to a sensitive question that a lot of people are asking, especially friends of Israel here in the United States. Who is a better friend of Israel, the former President George W. Bush, who had a very close relationship with you, or the current president, Barack Obama?

NETANYAHU: Let me tell you something about President Obama, because I think this should be fully appreciated.He stood before the entire Muslim world. I don't know if a billion people heard him, but hundreds of millions of people in Muslim countries heard him. And he said: The bond between America and Israel is unshakeable. We are absolutely committed to Israel's security. I think that was a very important statement. And I think every president of the United States has had his contribution to Israeli- American relations and to the friendship between our countries. It is a very strong friendship, indeed. And I appreciated the president's comments in Cairo. And I appreciated his comments today, too.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I hear you saying you trust this president.

NETANYAHU: I think that President Obama's commitment to Israel has been expressed very loud, very clearly by him. And I think this reflects the underlying friendship between our two countries. It's very strong.You know, I walk on the streets of -- well, New York, yes, but also the Midwest and every part of the United States. I have been in every part of it. I will tell you, it's warm -- heartwarming, because I see this tremendous, tremendous effusion of friendship towards Israel as a sister democracy, yes, often embattled by these dark forces of terrorism that embattle all of us.And I think Israel has a terrific friend in America and the American people. And I want the American people to know that you -- they have a terrific friend in Israel. In the Middle East, you don't have that many friends, but we're definitely right at the top of the list.

BLITZER: In the first eight months of his administration, he's repeatedly appealed to you to freeze all settlement activity, and you have declined that request. Did anything change today?

NETANYAHU: I think what is important is that we're moving on to talk peace. And I hope to make peace.Any time we have encountered an Arab leader who wanted to make peace, we made peace. Anwar Sadat came. Menachem Begin of the Likud made peace. The late King Hussein came. Yitzhak Rabin of Labor made peace. I'm telling you that, if Mr. Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, genuinely steps forward and says, we recognize the state of Israel, we're willing to make peace with the Jewish state, just that, the Jewish state, and it will be a peace of the recognition and security, then my government will make peace.I'm no exception, because the people of Israel want peace. And I think people understand that now. As to the question of settlements, I think that raising this condition, something that hasn't happened in 15 years of Israeli- Palestinian dialogue -- nobody put this precondition -- this is just costing us a great deal of time.The issue of settlements has to be discussed at the end or in the context within these negotiations, not before. It has to be resolved. And we're prepared to look into this issue, as into other issues. But we have to talk in order to talk about it. That's obvious. And yet we haven't. For six months, we have been waiting to talk about talks. I say let's put that aside. Let's just get on with it and start the peace process again.

BLITZER: We're hearing from U.S. officials and Palestinian officials that the president gave them, the Palestinians, a commitment that, once the negotiations resume, they would resume where they left off, including such sensitive issues as the future of Jerusalem, allowing Jerusalem to -- at least part of it, to be under Palestinian control.Is that even available to you? Is that even open to you, that Jerusalem could be a subject for these negotiations?

NETANYAHU: Well, you asked me two questions in that question.The first is, will the talks continue where they left off? Well, there were no agreements. I mean, the previous government spoke for three years, but came to no agreements. And we were elected with a clear mandate to provide peace and security. And, of course, we will do that.We will take into account the 15 years of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but we're -- we will be committed to the mandate that we received. And that mandate seeks to arrive at a better future for all of us. That is a future of peace for our children and for future generations of Israelis and Palestinians, and, for that matter, any Arab party in the Middle East. We're prepared to begin negotiations immediately or go anywhere.

(CROSSTALK)

NETANYAHU: Yes.

BLITZER: Are you ready to talk about Jerusalem?

(CROSSTALK)

NETANYAHU: Well, now the -- we have certain views about Jerusalem. I think the fact that it's been united under Israeli sovereignty has ensured that, for the last four decades, all major faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, all monotheistic faiths, have enjoyed the great freedom of worship and access to their religious sites, something that hasn't happened before since the rise of the three monotheistic religions.It's only under Israeli sovereignty that this city has been open to all religions. Jerusalem for us is our internal capital. We don't want to redivide it and see a Berlin Wall in the center of it. So, obviously, that's our position. The Palestinians will raise their point of view. And that's clear. But we will talk about these things, but my position is well- known.

BLITZER: You know this United Nations commission, which just came back with a scathing report suggesting that Israel, your military, committed war crimes or something close to that, crimes against humanity, perhaps, even, during the fighting in Gaza.And I know you strongly disagree, but I want you to react to that United Nations report.

NETANYAHU: Now you're being a diplomat.I strongly disagree? I think this is preposterous. It's absurd. Israel was rocketed, pummeled for eight years by thousands of rockets that came from Gaza. We vacated all of Gaza, hoping that this thing would stop, and they fired not one rocket, but thousands of rockets, after we left Gaza.So, what's a country to do? I mean, what would you do if thousands of rockets fell on -- Where are you talking from, Wolf, Washington, right? -- Washington, D.C., or any part of the United States? You know what the United States would do.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The argument, though, Mr. Prime Minister, was -- the argument in this U.N. report is that you overreacted, and, in the process, you killed a lot of civilians.

NETANYAHU: We overreacted, did we? Well, let me tell you, after millions -- I million, a million or so of our people were under rocket fire, progressively larger and larger circles of rockets falling on our cities, we did what no -- no -- what every reasonable country would do. We tried to get at the rocketeers, those terrorists firing those missiles and rockets who placed themselves, embedded themselves in homes and schools and mosques, and you name it.And we tried to target these people. We even sent them SMS text messages, telling the Palestinian civilians, please get out of harm's way, cellular phones, you name it. So, we did everything possible to minimize the loss of innocent civilian lives.And yet the Hamas that -- actually was committing a double war crime, firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians. That's a double war crime. We're -- they're the ones who sort of get a free bill out of this biased U.N. report, and Israel, that is defending itself, is accused.

BLITZER: All right.

NETANYAHU: So, the terrorists are exonerated. The victims are accused. That's -- that's an upside-down world. And I think this does grievous harm to the battle against terrorism, because the terrorists are basically being told, you get a free ride. All you have to do is fire at a democracy from -- from built-up areas, from residential quarters, and you will get a clean bill of health. And I think it does a great disservice to peace, too, because we're asked to take risks for peace. The international community says, if you take risks for peace, we will support your right of self- defense. And yet we did just that. We vacated Gaza in the hopes of -- that this would advance peace.And when we're rocketed with thousands of rockets and missiles from the places we vacated, people say Israel is the war criminal.

BLITZER: All right.

NETANYAHU: Come on. I mean, this is absurd.

BLITZER: If there is a trial at the International Court and the accusation is that Israel committed war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Gaza, will you cooperate with that?

NETANYAHU: Well, that's -- the question is, will any serious country cooperate with it? I took note of the fact that the leading democracies that were in this U.N. commission, they -- they opposed this. They were against this mandate, because it looked like a kangaroo court in the first place, where Israel was basically hanged, drawn, and quartered morally and given an unfair trial to boot right at the start of these proceedings. I think this is wrong. But understand this. It's not only we who will be damaged. It's you, too. I mean, American pilots, NATO pilots, let alone Russia and other countries that are fighting terrorists, are going to be put on the dock, too, because it's said that you cannot fight terrorists. It means that all the terrorists have to do is put themselves in a residential quarter, and they receive immunity. And that's not something that any country fighting terrorism can accept. And I don't think you can accept it either.

BLITZER: Mr. Prime Minister, there was an op-ed article written in The New York Times back in July by an Israeli journalist named Aluf Benn, who writes for the Haaretz newspaper. And, among other things, he said that President Obama is ignoring Israel, has not visited Israel, even though he's been to several Arab countries, and he's not reaching out to the Israeli people, the way he's reaching out to the Arab and Muslim world. He hasn't given any interviews, as far as I know, to the Israeli press, for example, or Israeli television.Do you agree with that assessment?

NETANYAHU: I think that people should not rush to judgment. I -- I think that these are two new administrations, my own new government and the new government in Washington. We have found a way to communicate. I think we have resolved a lot of the issues between us. We can have differences. That happens among the best of friends. It even happens in our own families.But I think there's a -- there's a growing closeness that I have found. What people don't know -- and I -- and I'm not referring to the public diplomacy -- but I want to tell you something about private diplomacy. There's virtually not a day that goes by that the Obama administration and my own government don't communicate in a very -- on a very senior level on very important matters in a very confidential and respectful way.And I say that advisedly. I'm choosing my words carefully. There's barely a day that goes by without that happening. So, that should give you some indication of the growing -- of the closeness of that relationship. And it's getting better, for sure. There's no question about it.

BLITZER: Because there was a very explosive charge in that same article on the op-ed page of The New York Times.And I will read it to you, because I want -- give you a chance to respond. It caused a huge commotion. This is what Aluf Benn wrote in The New York Times.In Mr. Netanyahu's narrative, the president has fallen under the influence of top aides, in this case, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, and David Axelrod, the White House adviser, whom the prime minister has called -- quote -- self-hating Jews.Is that true?

NETANYAHU: No. No, it's not. I never -- I never called them any such thing. And I don't think that. I have known Rahm Emanuel for some time. I just met David Axelrod today, in fact. And I think they're American patriots. They think of what is important for the United States. And they certainly bear no enmity to Israel.They probably want the best for Israel, too. So, I think that this is -- and we can have, as we say, occasional differences of opinion. But I never called them those things, and I don't think that, and I'm -- I'm sorry that anyone has given credence to this kind of nonsense. It's just...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Did you reach out to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod and reassure them that that -- that that was a lie?

NETANYAHU: Well, we immediately denied it. And, yes, we did reach out to them, of course.

BLITZER: Did you personally call them?

NETANYAHU: I didn't personally call them, but I had my aides communicate this to the White House as quickly as we could.

BLITZER: All right, let's move ahead and take and look and see where the situation goes from here. You have now met with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Are there going to be more direct meetings with you and the Palestinian leader without the United States in the room?

NETANYAHU: I hope so. And I think we should.I said to Mr. Abbas today, listen, we're old hands. We have had many meetings in the past when I was prime minister during my first tenure, and I met him. And I respect him. And I think there is a lot we can do together. Look, we have -- you know, we have lifted all these roadblocks in the West Bank, checkpoints. I've opened the Allenby Bridge on the Jordan River to allow the inflow of goods into the West Bank.So life is getting better. The IMF is talking about a seven percent growth rate in the West Bank.And guess what, Wolf?

I think we can top that. I think -- this is what we're doing. I mean we're easing those restrictions and opening up passage, even though there's a certain security risk involved, because I think that prosperity is good for peace. I don't think it's a substitute for a political peace, but I think it really enables it because young Palestinians see there -- there is a future there. I mean they -- they have jobs. They're -- there are investments. There are buildings sprouting out in Palestinian cities like Ramallah and Jenin and not missiles, as in Gaza, but, you know, high rises, apartment blocks, office buildings.This is what I'd like to see. I'd like to see this dynamic of peace, prosperity and security. And if we meet, then we can -- we could get a lot more of this going and that's good for us. It's good for the Palestinians. It's good for peace.

BLITZER: Mr. -- Mr. -- Mr. Prime Minister, a year from now, will there be an agreement, a peace treaty, if you will, between the Israelis and the Palestinians?

NETANYAHU: Well, I -- I think -- I don't want to set a timetable on it or a stopwatch, but the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll get an agreement. If there is a willingness on the part of the Palestinians to remove the main obstacle to peace. And the main obstacle to peace is the persistent refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish state -- the nation state of the Jewish people.There are non-Jews living there and they have equal rights. The Arab citizens of Israel vote in the Knesset. They're represented in every form of life and have political rights. But -- equal political rights. But Israel is the state -- the nation state of the Jewish people. And I think if we're asked to recognize the Palestinian state as the nation state of the Palestinian people, then the least we expect from the Palestinians is to come right out and say yes, you know, it's over. Yes, we accept the state of Israel...

BLITZER: But if the Palestinians do that...

NETANYAHU: ...and this (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: If the Palestinians do that, Mr. Prime Minister, are you ready to bite the bullet and make the tough concessions that have to be made? And everybody seems to know what the final agreement is going to look like.Are you ready to make those territorial concessions and go back, sort of, close to the '67 line?

NETANYAHU: Well, I think we need to make sure that Israel can defend itself and defend the peace. Because even if the Palestinian leaders make that simple statement that they so far haven't made, that they recognize the Jewish state -- and I think that's imperative for peace -- it may take a long time for this to be internalized by the Palestinian people that have been subjected repeatedly to very harmful propaganda against Israel.So we have to make sure that we can defend ourselves, that we don't have these Palestinian territories become the sites for the -- the launching of thousands of missiles and rockets, which is exactly what happened to us from the other areas we vacated.We need a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state. That's the winning formula for peace.Now, look, any time Israel was faced with an Arab leader that genuinely wanted peace, whether Anwar Sadat or -- or the late King Hussein, Israel made peace. And if President Abbas takes this forceful step, deciding that he wants to be a Sadat and not an Arafat, then he will find in me a partner for peace. And believe me, the Israeli people are yearning -- yearning is not -- praying, hoping that we have such a Palestinian partner on the other side.

BLITZER: Prime Minister Netanyahu, thanks very much for joining us.And good luck to the Israelis, good luck to you, good luck to the Palestinians.We'll be covering this story every step of the way.We appreciate it very much.

NETANYAHU: Thank you, Wolf.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHUS SPEECH AT UN - VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44HkjBDQz_k&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofIwsB7xDm8&feature=player_embedded
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPEdIWa5H9k&feature=player_embedded

AHMADINEJADS HATE SPEECH AGAINST ISRAEL AT THE UN SEPT 23,09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EBgqgIWuoc#

Here's the full transcript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly Thursday, in which he responded to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial by holding up dcoumentary evidence, blasted the Goldstone Report and urged the international community to stop Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons:http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/09/24/1008134/netanyahus-un-general-assembly-speech

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth. Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie. Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments. Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?

A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie? This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie? One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie? Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency? A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state.What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries. In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times.

Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated. The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day. Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially. It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the internet. What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come. We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances – by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after an horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind. That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.

The most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom? Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood? Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism? Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world? The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging. Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted. For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks. We heard nothing – absolutely nothing – from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis. We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare. You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded? Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II. During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances. Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas.We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave. Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way.

Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel. A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth. What a perversion of justice.

Delegates of the United Nations,Will you accept this farce?

Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity. And in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here's why.When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense. What legitimacy? What self-defense? The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us –my people, my country - of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!

Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists? We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen,All of Israel wants peace.

Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein. And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace. In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples – a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it. We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state. Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers.Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more.These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city, in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem.We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland. As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don't want another Gaza, another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.

We want peace.

I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order. The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them. Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the confirmed unteachability of mankind, the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them. Churchill bemoaned what he called the want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the unteachibility of mankind is for once proven wrong. I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.

3 TUSSLE OVER MIDEAST PEACE

Obama, Netanyahu, Abbas Tussle Over Mideast Peace By TONY KARON – SEPT 23,09

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, President Barack Obama used his first-ever address to the U.N. General Assembly to try and reverse the impression that his ambitious Middle East peace effort had suffered a reversal at the hand of Israel's hawkish Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. I am not naive,Obama told the gathered world leaders. I know this will be difficult. But all of us must decide whether we are serious about peace or whether we only lend it lip service.Many a jaded commentator saw Obama's Tuesday meeting with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a symbol of surrender to Netanyahu's refusal of the U.S. demand that Israel halt all construction on land conquered in 1967. Instead, Netanyahu offered a partial and time-limited freeze and appeared to force the President of the United States to back down. For Abbas, the handshake with Netanyahu orchestrated by Obama was viewed as a humiliating climbdown from his refusal to talk to the Israelis until they implemented that settlement freeze. (Read about the photo-op peace process.)

Netanyahu, briefing the Israeli media after the talks, suggested that the Palestinians had also caved in to his demand for a reopening of talks without preconditions on an agenda the two sides would determine in discussions. But Abbas insisted that any talks would be based on the full range of final-status issues established by previous agreements - Netanyahu has publicly ruled out negotiating on two of those issues, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital. (See pictures of life in a West Bank settlement.)Abbas appeared to win Obama's backing in the U.N. speech, which made clear that the President has not accepted Netanyahu's position on the precursor issue of a settlement freeze even if he's decided to move on to the final-status negotiations.America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,the President insisted on Wednesday. That could be read as a response to the damage Obama's credibility has suffered in the Arab world as a result of being forced by Netanyahu to retreat on the settlement issue, which had been widely viewed as a test of Israel's peacemaking bona fides and had been a centerpiece of Obama's Cairo outreach speech in the spring. But there was an even stronger challenge to Netanyahu in Obama's declared plan to relaunch negotiations that address the permanent-status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians; borders, refugees and Jerusalem.He also spoke of the goal of those negotiations as being the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967.(See a video of Mike Huckabee's three-day trip to Israel.)

While many analysts focused on Tuesday's meeting as an Obama admission of defea on settlements, some were more optimistic. Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy believes that the Administration's pivot on the issue smartly boxed Netanyahu into a negotiating process the Israeli leader would have preferred to avoid, by turning his own argument against him: if, as Netanyahu insists, settlements should be an issue for negotiation rather than a precondition because their fate will depend on future borders, then why not move straight to final-status negotiations over those borders?
Final-status talks were something Netanyahu had hoped to dodge. Not only does his right-wing coalition government refuse to countenance negotiations over refugees or Jerusalem, but also, the Prime Minister, much of whose political career has been built on resisting the Oslo peace process, has sought to promote incremental improvements in Palestinian life, particularly the economy, over the search for a final two-state agreement. Obama isn't buying it. According to Israeli accounts of Tuesday's meeting, the U.S. President scolded Netanyahu and Abbas, declaring We've had enough talks. We need to end this conflict. There is a window of opportunity, but it might shut.And according to these reports, Obama insisted that the negotiations will not be started from scratch but will instead be based on the previous agreements established through the Oslo process. In other words, Jerusalem and refugees are on the table, and Israel is expected to show up.

Obama is still talking tough, then, but having watched him climb down from his settlement-freeze demand - and the rebuff from moderate Arab states to the President's call for them to make tangible gestures toward normalization of ties with Israel - most analysts are waiting to see what actions back his words. Reports from the talks suggest the Administration will summon the two parties to Washington next month for talks under U.S. auspices on the full gamut of final-status issues. But Netanyahu may have his own ideas and may be buoyed by his success in resisting the settlement-freeze demand. Indeed, the Israeli Prime Minister's domestic popularity has surged as a result of his defiance of Obama. Abbas, however, who had already been reduced to an increasingly marginal figure by the failure of his negotiating efforts over the past decade to win any significant gains for the Palestinians, suffered further political damage by even showing up for the handshake. But even the relatively hawkish Israeli commentator Shmuel Rosner warns that Israel should restrain itself from declaring victory just yet. True, Obama had to draw down his overeager demands from Israel. But it is also true that Netanyahu, not long ago, had to reverse his opposition to a two-state solution and publicly declare that his goal is similar to the one espoused today by Obama. True, Abbas was dragged to the summit only days after insisting that he will not come to any meeting unless settlement construction is frozen first. But it is also true that Netanyahu, the head of the right-wing Likud Party, is one of the first Israeli Prime Ministers to agree to some form of settlement freeze.

Levy, too, believes it is too early to count out Obama's effort. America will have to recognize that in the Israelis and Palestinians, it is dealing with two deeply dysfunctional polities,he argues.The parties simply cannot achieve a peace agreement of their own volition. And the outcome is too important for them, and for America, to leave it at the mercy of the two electorates. So at some point, I think, the Administration is going to find an appropriate moment to present and pursue an American plan for a comprehensive peace.

No meetings between Israelis, Palestinians planned By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 23, 6:23 pm ET

NEW YORK – Israelis and Palestinians said Wednesday that their envoys would meet with U.S. officials but not with each other, cementing the impression that a U.S.-sponsored meeting between their leaders had fallen flat.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said there would be no follow-up session with the Israelis because the two sides hadn't bridged the divides that have prevented them from resuming talks.

It's not happening because we agreed to continue dealing with the Americans until we reach the agreement that will enable us to relaunch the negotiations,Erekat said.The Palestinians refuse to restart talks until Israel freezes settlement construction in territories the Palestinians claim for a future state. They also want talks to restart where they left off before breaking down earlier this year, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do.In an NBC interview Wednesday, Netanyahu called Israeli settlements bedroom suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And he told the Israeli news web site, Ynet, that under an accord, Israel would not withdraw from all territory it occupied during the 1967 Mideast war.Previous (Israeli) governments did not agree to return to 1967 lines and my government certainly would not agree to do so,he said.Failing to win compromise after months of U.S. mediation, Obama summoned Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to a meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Obama admonished the two men — who met for the first time since Netanyahu became Israel's leader in March — to stop wasting time and to start making peace.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would dispatch envoys to meet with U.S. officials in Washington, but there were no plans now to meet again with the Palestinians.He said, however, that it was Israel's sincere hope that we will see the restart of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.Early on in his presidency, Obama had demanded an all-out halt to settlement construction. He had hoped to defuse the historic impediment to peacemaking and encourage the Arab world to make overtures toward the Jewish state that might lead to a normalization of relations.

But Netanyahu refused to freeze construction, agreeing only to slow settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem for a limited time. He said Israel would proceed with already approved plans to build thousands of apartments and would not curb any construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 War and later annexed.The international community does not recognize that annexation, nor does it sanction West Bank settlements.Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's hardline foreign minister, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that the Obama meeting was a victory for Israel because it took place in the face of resistance to U.S. pressure by the Netanyahu government.The Israeli government kept its promises to the voter by showing it was not necessary to surrender and give in,he said.Netanyahu has been interviewed multiple times on American television since meeting with Obama and Abbas, using those platforms to argue that Israel needs to continue building to accommodate population growth in existing settlements.The settlers who are there have to live. You can't freeze life,he said.Nearly half a million Israelis have moved to the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the past 42 years.

Continued Israeli settlements in West Bank not legitimate: Obama Wed Sep 23, 2:57 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The United States does not view continued Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as legitimate, President Barack Obama told the UN General Assembly Wednesday.We continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements (in the West Bank),he said in a maiden speech to the 192-member body.The US leader made the remarks a day after holding inconclusive talks in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, welcomed Obama's comments.We are encouraged and highly appreciate President Obama's statements on settlements being illegal and calling to an end of the occupation that started in 1967,he told AFP.

Netanyahu did not react to Obama's comments on settlements.I commend this important speech of Obama and his call to renew the peace process without preconditions,the Israeli premier however said.I commend his unequivocal support of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.This rapprochement between the US and Israeli viewpoints is the result of many contacts we have had, and of course the expression of good will by both sides,he added.The Obama administration has demanded a complete freeze to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, land the Palestinians want to turn into a future state. But Israel has so far balked.Tuesday, Abbas also made clear that Israel must halt settlement construction.We insisted on the need for Israel to respect its commitments, notably an end to settlement construction in all its forms, including natural growth,Abbas told Palestinian journalists.Obama meanwhile told the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Tuesday to stop stalling and open talks on a comprehensive deal to end an endless cycle of conflict and suffering.Final status issues include the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the borders of an eventual Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Israeli FM: Summit a victory for settlement stand By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 23, 9:05 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday that the summit of Israeli, U.S. and Palestinian leaders proved Israel could successfully fend off international pressure to freeze West Bank settlement construction.Palestinian officials expressed disappointment with Tuesday's meeting in New York. The U.S. appeared to back down from a demand, expressed forcefully in recent months, that Israel cease all construction in West Bank settlements.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in New York with President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It was Netanyahu's first meeting with Abbas since taking office in March. Beyond a cool handshake, there were no signs of progress toward the U.S. goal of restarting peace talks.The Palestinians have said they will not resume negotiations until Israel halts all construction in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas and the Gaza Strip, all captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future independent state.Speaking to Israel Radio, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the fact that the meeting took place showed Israel's firm stand against a settlement freeze was effective.This government has shown that you don't always need to get flustered, to surrender and give in, Lieberman told Israel Radio. What's important for me is that this government kept its promises to the voter ... and the fact is that this meeting happened.Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had previously demanded a full halt to construction in the settlements.

But at Tuesday's meeting, Obama did not explicitly call for a settlement freeze, and George Mitchell, the White House Mideast envoy, said afterward that the administration does not see a resolution of the settlement showdown as a precondition for resuming negotiations.Palestinian officials said they were disappointed Obama had softened his stance and urged him to reassess his position.
This shows the negative intentions of the Israeli government,said Jibril Rajoub, a top official in Abbas' Fatah movement.The Americans should review their policies toward cooperating with the Israeli government, because its actions pose a danger to regional stability, are against the American government's policies and contradict international law.Israeli media largely portrayed the summit as a futile exercise, while acknowledging Netanyahu's success in rebuffing the Obama administration's previous pressure on settlements.There has never been such a hollow ceremony,Nahum Barnea, a prominent Israeli columnist, wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily.While Netanyahu might feel that he won,he should remember the lesson that the Middle East gives all its winners: In this region, the short-term winner loses in the long term, Barnea wrote.Seeking to simultaneously appease the U.S. and his hardline coalition government, Netanyahu has agreed to slow settlement construction for a limited time. He has said construction will continue on some 3,000 housing units, most of which are already being built.

Palestinian PM cites support for statehood plan By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 22, 9:21 pm ET

NEW YORK – Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in an interview Tuesday that he has won broad international support for his plan to ready the Palestinians for statehood within two years.However, Fayyad sidestepped the question of whether the Palestinians would unilaterally declare statehood at the end of that period if a peace deal with Israel is not in place. He said that decision would have to made by the Palestine Liberation Organization and others when the time comes.With peace efforts deadlocked, Fayyad's two-year plan to build up and reform governing institutions may well offer the Palestinians the only practical prescription for moving closer to statehood.Israel and the Palestinians remain far apart on what it would take to resume peace talks. The gaps were highlighted during Tuesday's first meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, hosted in New York by President Barack Obama.While Netanyahu and Abbas faced off at a hotel in midtown Manhattan, Fayyad lobbied for his plan in a meeting with donor countries on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.Donors have funneled billions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians over the years, and Tuesday's meeting was meant to assess the aid program and make up pledging shortfalls.The huge sums have been less effective than donors had hoped, in part because they were spent to soften the economic damage stemming from Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement, rather than on development projects.

Fayyad's program, unveiled a month ago, proposes beefing up or reforming government ministries and institutions of the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government in the West Bank. The plan also envisions several major projects, such as an international airport.The West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation and the Gaza Strip is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. But Fayyad said this should not keep Palestinians from working for their state.Part of what this is intended to do is to break that psychological barrier associated with having ... statehood being talked about for so long now, with it not happening,he said.However, Fayyad would not say how he expects to get around major obstacles to his vision, such as Hamas rule in Gaza or the need to get Israeli approval for major projects.

Fayyad was appointed by Abbas as prime minister two years ago.Since then, the Western-educated Fayyad, a respected economist, has ended vigilante rule in former militant hotspots and cracked down on Hamas' West Bank operations.In recent months, the Palestinian economy in the West Bank has seen a modest upturn, after years of shrinking, in part because of an easing of Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement and the influx of foreign aid. The economy in Gaza has been crippled by a two-year border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas takeover.

Obama warns Israel, Palestinians to move on talks by Gavin Rabinowitz – Tue Sep 22, 7:30 pm ET

NEW YORK (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Tuesday curtly told Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stop stalling and open talks on a comprehensive deal to end an endless cycle of conflict and suffering.Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations,Obama said, his frustration evident, as he gathered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas for a three-way summit.Obama said final status talks on forming a Palestinian state must begin, and begin soon,in his most personal intervention yet in Middle East peace making, which he has put at the center of his foreign policy agenda.The US president officiated as his guests, meeting for the first time since Netanyahu took office in March, performed an awkward handshake for the cameras before the talks at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel.Obama announced that he had asked both sides to send negotiators back to Washington next week for more discussions on relaunching the stalled dialogue to be brokered by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.He directed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to report back on how the talks were going by mid-October.

All sides had downplayed prospects of movement in the summit, so it was no surprise that there was little obvious evidence of progress.Both parties seek the relaunch of negotiations as soon as possible although there are differences on how to proceed, Mitchell said.Abbas called on Israelis to impose a freeze on settlement construction, which the Palestinians have made a condition of going back to the table.We insisted on the need for Israel to respect its commitments, notably an end to settlement construction in all its forms, including natural growth,Abbas said told Palestinian reporters.Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to drop their demands, saying it was holding up progress.It's precisely those preconditions on negotiations that have stymied our progress so far, Netanyahu said in an interview later with ABC news.Everybody said they're not placing preconditions. I'm not and I hope the Palestinians don't. I think we have to move on with the business of peace, he said.Despite the apparent deadlock, Obama called on both sides to show urgency.

My message to these two leaders is clear,he said.We have to summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and suffering.Obama said Netanyahu's hawkish government must show real action on halting settlement construction and said Palestinians need to stop anti-Israeli incitement and move forward with negotiations.He also appealed to Arab states which have so far not acted on his request to make conciliatory gestures to entice Israel to the negotiating table. Final status issues include the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the borders of an eventual Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.Obama, who vowed, unlike ex-president George W. Bush, to engage in the Middle East early in his presidency, had hoped a deal on opening talks would already be sealed after exhaustive diplomacy by Mitchell.Facing a flurry of challenging problems at home, and a clutch of brewing foreign crises, the president is taking something of a risk with his fungible political capital by holding the meeting at all.Some observers, key members of the Bush administration included, argue that the symbolism of the presidency should only be brought to bear when a critical moment is in sight -- not merely as a way of kick-starting talks.But Obama's aides say that only with consistent, focused US engagement at a high level will Israelis and Palestinians ever move towards a consistent process of dialogue.

Shiite financier investments embarrasses Hezbollah By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 22, 6:00 pm ET

TOURA, Lebanon – A Mideast version of the Bernie Madoff scandal is threatening to tarnish Hezbollah's reputation in Lebanon for being incorruptible, and the powerful Shiite militant movement faces calls to bail out small investors to keep its position from being undercut.Hundreds of Lebanese sold land or drained their retirement savings and handed over hundreds of millions of dollars to Salah Ezzedine, a Shiite businessman with connections to Hezbollah.The anti-Israeli Hezbollah is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations and maintains the strongest military force in Lebanon. For its Shiite followers, however, it is seen as a trusted quasi-government that provides social services and aid. The group gets substantial funding from Iran and paid out millions to rebuild the Shiite heartland in south Lebanon after a devastating 2006 war with Israel.Hezbollah has said it had nothing to do with the alleged swindle and has so far resisted pressure to rescue the investors.Nevertheless, many investors put their trust in Ezzedine, principally because of the financier's connections to Hezbollah and because of his reputation as a pious, respectable Shiite. Ezzedine's investment company promised as much as 40 percent in annual returns, according to residents of this southern Lebanese village.

Ezzedine and his partner, Youssef Faour, have been arrested on suspicion of cheating investors out of perhaps up to $1 billion, prosecutors say. Earlier this month, they were charged with fraudulent embezzlement, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison. Alleged victims included well-off Shiites but also smaller investors who sold land or pulled out savings to bundle the cash and give it to Ezzedine.Lebanese are comparing to the swindle by Madoff, now serving a 150-year prison sentence for masterminding a multibillion-dollar scheme that burned thousands of investors.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah earlier this month denied the group had any connection with the financier. A parliament member from Hezbollah reportedly lost money with Ezzedine and is suing him — a sign, the group's supporters say, that it, too, was victimized.Still, Hezbollah is trying to ward off any blow to its status among loyalists. Nasrallah spoke recently by video link to a group of investors in the south to hear their complaints and reassure them, although he made no promises of compensation, according to an investor who lost money, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the meeting.The losses among people of all economic levels have stunned Shiites, who hold an abiding faith in Hezbollah's integrity and incorruptibility. While many still vow loyalty to the movement, they feel it should support its followers and pay compensation.That is what we hope, Wajih Shour, an investor from Toura, told The Associated Press. He said he paid several installments — including one of $150,000 — into the scheme. He refused to say the total amount he invested with Ezzedine but showed two checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that were given to him by one of Ezzedine's companies as a guarantee on his investment. The checks bounced because there was no money in the accounts, he said.The 47-year-old Ezzedine was well-known for his religious works and charity in the southern port city of Tyre and surrounding Shiite villages. He had personal connections with Hezbollah figures — as any major businessman in the south would. He owns the Dar Al-Hadi Publishing House, one of Lebanon's most prominent producers of Shiite religious books that also prints books written by Hezbollah officials, and the children's TV channel Al-Hadi.Among his charitable works was largely financing a giant mosque in the center of his hometown of Maaroub. A sign at its entrance says it was inaugurated in 2005 under the auspices of Nasrallah. A nearby municipal stadium was also financed by Ezzedine and was named Stadium of the Resistance and Liberation Martyrs.Judicial officials said Ezzedine had major business interests, particularly in oil and iron industries, in Eastern Europe and suffered substantial losses when oil prices fell last year. They added that Ezzedine tried to make up for his losses by taking money from Lebanese investors. They have not detailed what Ezzedine did with the money or where the funds are now.In Maaroub, a town of about 4,500 people, no one was home at the financier's large villa surrounded by a garden. Residents refused to say anything bad about Ezzedine, insisting he is a decent man.Rida Dbouki, 75, has known Ezzedine since he was a little boy and describes him as a man who did all the good for this village.Asked about the losses, the grocer said, We don't know how all this happened.

Another Maaroub resident, Hussein Khalil Khamis, 78, recounted how Ezzedine paid for his wife's diabetes and high blood pressure medications that he could not afford — amounting to $200 a month.Only one man in Maaroub, who identified himself only as Abu Ali because of the sensitivity of discussing the scheme in Ezzedine's hometown, acknowledged he invested a small amount of money, was promised 40 percent in annual return and never got it back. He would not say how much he invested. He said dozens of residents sold plots of land or took their retirement funds and invested them.

Investors in Maaroub and the nearby town of Toura told the AP that those who wanted to invest $100,000 and above could go directly to Ezzedine's office in nearby Tyre. Those who had amounts less than that gathered their money and gave them to a person they trusted to invest it for them.Fadi Ajami, owner of a hardware shop in Toura, said he and a friend each invested around $500,000, plus another $3 million bundled from dozens of his neighbors. Now he's trying to pay them back from his own funds, returning $390,000 so far after selling property and using his savings.Ajami proudly proclaims himself a Hezbollah supporter — his office is decorated with pictures of its leaders, including Nasrallah and its military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by a car bomb in Syria last year.What really hurts is that those people (Ezzedine and Faour) used their connections with Hezbollah as a cover to gain people's trust. Hezbollah had nothing to do with them,Ajami said.

Palestinians want support for WTO observer status bid Tue Sep 22, 11:20 am ET

GENEVA (AFP) – The Palestinian territories are seeking support in their bid for observer status at the World Trade Organisation, a first step towards full membership, the Palestinian economics minister said Tuesday.We are here to lobby and request a status of an observership in the general council and all associated bodies of the WTO. We do that because we dream of an eventual full accession to WTO, said Bassim Khoury.We believe this is needed because this could be an engine for reform and an engine of statebuilding,he added.Khoury said meetings with 32 diplomats from the United States, European Union, China and Japan, have yielded very nice feedback to the Palestinians' bid.Now it is time to see if the music translates into action or only stays as music,he added.With the exception of the Vatican, observers have to start accession negotiations within five years of gaining observer status.All 153 members of the WTO would have to approve an accession bid before a country can join the trade body as a full member.

Will Abbas's rising clout be hurt by Netanyahu meeting? By Ilene R. Prusher – Tue Sep 22, 5:00 am ET

Jerusalem – Heading into a US-brokered meeting Tuesday morning with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is facing deep pessimism from his own people about the prospect of peace – and a severe attack on his credibility by Hamas.President Abbas's popularity among Palestinians had risen significantly in recent months, potentially giving him more clout as a negotiator. But scathing criticism from Hamas over his agreement to meet Mr. Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York could eat into those gains.In a statement sent to reporters in Gaza, Hamas said it was truly shocked that Mr. Abbas accepted President Barack Obama's invitation for the talks, given that Abbas has insisted for months that he would not meet Netanyahu without a freeze on settlement expansion in the West Bank.This means that Abbas has yielded to Israel and the US and retreats from his stance,said Hamas, calling Abbas's decision a submission to the Zionists.The Islamic movement, which has controlled the Gaza Strip for over two years, called on Abbas to immediately stop his political rush and stop yielding to Zionist dictations,adding that he should first achieve Palestinian unity.A Palestinian reconciliation deal to bring Hamas and Fatah together has remained elusive and Abbas is taking a risk by agreeing to a high-profile summit in the absence of the settlement freeze sought by Obama since his June 4 policy speech in Cairo. The Washington Times on Tuesday reported that the Israelis had offered a temporary freeze for six to nine months that would exclude 2,500 units already approved for construction, but such a deal has not been made public and could not immediately be verified.

Abbas gained in polls against Hamas leader
But recent polls have given Abbas a reason to believe that most Palestinians are behind him and will likely accept his going out on a limb to talk to Israel in the name of achieving Palestinian statehood.Abbas is certainly stronger, and the public gives him more support now than it did for some time. But the fact that he feels stronger is giving him courage that he didn't have before, and because of that, I think he'll be tougher vis-a-vis the US and Israel,says Khalil Shikaki, director of The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), a Ramallah-based polling organization.He'd been accused of being a weak president, but now that he has legitimacy and has Fatah behind him, perhaps he feels he can stand up to the American and Israelis and say no to them.PCPSR found in its most recent poll – conducted in mid-August – that support for Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) he leads was rising while support for Hamas was sinking. Since the organization's previous poll in May, there has been a significant widening in the gap between the level of support for Abbas and for Ismail Haniyeh, the former prime minister in a joint Hamas-Fatah government that dissolved after Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007. Specifically, 52 percent supported Abbas and 38 percent supported Mr. Haniyeh in the most recent poll. Their previous support figures were 49 percent and 44 percent, respectively.The organization says the shift is likely due to the popular Fatah congress held in Bethlehem in August and improving security conditions in the West Bank. There is also a noticeable decrease in public perception of the existence of corruption in PA institutions under Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad,the PCPSR said in its report on the August survey.The survey included Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and their numbers roughly reflected the proportion of Palestinians in each of those areas. All surveys were done in person.

Palestinian opinion hard to categorize
But looking at the bigger picture, there's an overwhelming pessimism among Palestinians about the ability of their leaders to get to a peace deal with Israel. Sixty-nine percent of those polled, including West Bankers and Gazans, said they believe that the chances for establishing an independent Palestinian state next to Israel in the next five years are slim or nonexistent.Moreover, some of the positions that Israel and the US are asking Abbas to adopt will be hard to sell to the Palestinian public. For example, only about half of Palestinians say they will accept a mutual recognition of Israel as the state for the Jewish people and Palestine as the state for Palestinian people. A majority of those polled – 61 percent – say they oppose a peace deal based on the Clinton parameters and the Geneva Initiative.The reference is to talks under former President Bill Clinton in 1999 and 2000 and to an unofficial blueprint for peace developed by prominent Israelis and Palestinians, including former negotiators in the Oslo peace process.

Both drafts presented similar solutions to a variety of difficult issues, including Jerusalem, refugees, and borders. A large number of Palestinians expressed opposition to those plans because of their dislike of solutions presented on individual issues. For example, only 24 percent of Palestinians say they would support the idea of a Palestinian state with no army, a drop from the 36 percent figure when the poll was first held in 2003.The polls show how hard it is to categorize the Palestinian public's views. On some matters, Palestinians remains closer to the viewpoint of Hamas than that of Abbas, explains Dr. Shikaki, referring to the Palestinian leader by his nom de guerre, Abu Mazen. On the question of violence, most Palestinians are with the Hamas position and not Abu Mazen's,adds Shikaki.They believe that violence has been helpful in achieving their national rights. But on the issue of two-state solution, they do take a position that is closer to Abu Mazen.

Arabs criticize Obama, too
Mr. Obama has come under fire from Arab commentators for pressuring Abbas to attend the meeting despite US envoy George Mitchell's failure to secure promises of a settlement freeze from Israel.Obama bent down to all of Netanyahu's pressures and withdrew from the battle of the settlements that he had engaged in the last period, wrote Abed-El-Bari Utwan, the longtime editor in chief of the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper in London. Obama put [Abbas] in an embarrassing situation by making him attend a meeting with Netanyahu after having announced to his people that he would only do such a thing after Israel commits itself to the settlement freeze.They left Philadelphia to live in the West Bank? The Allons simply wanted more space at the right price. Read about how they and other Israeli settlers see their decision to live at the center of a global dispute.

Carter says Israel must stop building settlements By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 21, 10:23 pm ET

HARRISONBURG, Virginia – Israel must stop building settlements in the Palestinian territories if peace is ever to be achieved in the Middle East, former President Jimmy Carter said Monday night as he received an award at a Virginia university for his humanitarian efforts.As President Barack Obama has made clear, the key factor that prevents peace is the continuing building of Israeli settlements in Palestine, driven by a determined minority of Israelis who desire to occupy and colonize east Jerusalem and the West Bank,Carter said.Carter, a Nobel Peace laureate, spoke to a crowd of 6,500 as he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter received an award from James Madison University's Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence.Carter, 84, who helped bring peace between Egypt and Israel with the Camp David Accords when he was president in the late 1970s, has maintained a strong interest in the Middle East. He said he has visited the region three times within the past year.Carter said he's convinced that withdrawal of Israeli forces from Arab territories will dramatically reduce any threats to Israel.All 22 Arab countries have offered diplomatic recognition and full trade and commerce if Israel will withdraw from occupied territories,he said.

And withdrawal is necessary, Carter said.

The alternative to two states is one nation in the same area, within which Arabs will soon comprise a clear majority,he said.This will mean the end of a Jewish state or else an apartheid system within which Palestinians are dominated and deprived of equal rights.Carter and fellow Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu of South Africa were among a delegation of veteran statesmen who visited Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip last month to support Israelis and Palestinians seeking peace.In June, he went to Gaza and met with leaders of Hamas, which the United States, European Union and Israel have refused to deal with directly because they consider it a terror group.Tutu was the first recipient of the James Madison center's nonviolence award in 2007, and the Carters are the second. It was presented on the United Nations' International Day of Peace.Sushil Mittal, director of the Gandhi Center, said the award recognizes the Carters' commitment to humanitarian efforts.They understand and exemplify the importance of tolerance and compassion for other nations and people from different backgrounds,he said in a statement.After leaving the White House in 1981, the Carters established a nonprofit center in Atlanta dedicated to resolving conflicts and promoting health worldwide.

Israel blames Palestinians for Mitchell's peace failure Sat Sep 19, 1:40 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Saturday blamed the Palestinian Authority for the failure of US envoy George Mitchell to reach a deal for the resumption of stalled peace talks.

The Palestinian Authority is the one that is preventing the resumption of the peace process by making conditions that it has not made in the past,foreign ministry spokesman Yossi Levi said.Mitchell wrapped up a mission to the Middle East on Friday after failing to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement expansion to pave the way for the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks stalled since December.He was hoping to secure the deal and arrange for a meeting at next week's UN General Assembly between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.Palestinians have been demanding a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, as a condition for resuming talks with Israel.Since the new government was formed five months ago, Israel has always said it was ready to resume, without preconditions, the peace process and meetings with Palestinian Authority representatives,Levi said in a statement.Earlier on Saturday, Abbas had blamed Israel for Mitchell's failure to make any breakthrough, during separate talks in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak and in Jordan with King Abdullah II.The road is now blocked,Abbas told reporters in Cairo, adding that the onus was now on Israel.

There is no more work (for Mitchell) with the Western or Palestinian sides because we are complying with all our duties. The focus has to be on the Israeli side,he said.Abbas and King Abdullah II later urged the international community to intervene and put pressure on Israel, saying in a statement released by the palace that settlements are the key obstacle to achieving progress.The international community must bear its responsibilities and prevent Israel from undermining the efforts that are under way to push for serious and effective negotiations,the statement said.

During the meeting in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, Abbas and the Jordanian king also insisted that the United States must have a leading role in trying to revive the peace process.Mitchell had been aiming to secure an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the resumption of peace talks.Over the past weeks, Netanyahu has rebuffed repeated US calls to freeze settlement construction.Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since December when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip.

Abbas meets Mubarak after Mitchell trip Sat Sep 19, 11:17 am ET

CAIRO (Reuters) – Failure to agree a settlement freeze inhibits the resumption of peace negotiations with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Egypt's Hosni Mubarak on Saturday, according to state media.Abbas visited Cairo days after U.S. envoy George Mitchell and less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped by to brief Mubarak and other Egyptian officials on efforts to resume stalled peace talks.Mitchell returned to Washington on Friday with little to show for his shuttle diplomacy between Jerusalem and Arab capitals.Israel has blamed Abbas for the impasse, saying Palestinian negotiators showed no flexibility while Israel did.Netanyahu, whose right-wing cabinet includes strong pro-settler elements, had offered a nine-month freeze on building in the West Bank -- longer than the six months Israel previously indicated it would consider, but less than the year-long pause Mitchell had sought.Abbas has said he would not agree to renewed negotiations with Israel unless it agreed to a total freeze on settlement expansion and stressed that the United States must push Israel to comply with the 2003 road map call for a cessation of all settlement-building.An Abbas spokesman said the Cairo meeting -- which lasted an hour and a half -- was called to coordinate Arab and Palestinian positions ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, which starts in New York on Tuesday.The participants, which included Egypt's foreign minister and intelligence chief and the Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator, also discussed intra-Palestinian developments, Egypt's state-run news agency MENA said.Negotiations could not resume because Israel would not consider including Jerusalem in any settlement freeze, nor would it stop building in settlements to accommodate natural growth, MENA quoted Abbas as saying.Some 300,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank, and another 200,000 live in Arab East Jerusalem, areas home to around 2.5 million Palestinians seeking independent statehood. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.(Writing by Alastair Sharp).

US raps UN Gaza report By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press – Fri Sep 18, 5:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Friday sharply criticized a U.N. report alleging Israeli war crimes in its Gaza war earlier this year, ending nearly a week of muted reaction to findings already rejected by Israel.The State Department said the conclusions of a U.N. commission headed by South African justice Richard Goldstone were unfair to Israel and did not fully address the role of the militant Palestinian group Hamas in the conflict. And it said the U.S. objected to a recommendation that alleged crimes be referred to the International Criminal Court.

Although the report addresses all sides of the conflict, its overwhelming focus is on the actions of Israel,spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.While the report makes overly sweeping conclusions of fact and law with respect to Israel, its conclusions regarding Hamas' deplorable conduct and its failure to comply with international humanitarian law during the conflict are more general and tentative,he added.The report, released on Tuesday, faulted Israel for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying it used disproportionate force in the offensive. About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week conflict. Israel charged that Hamas was to blame, saying they placed rocket launchers and forces in crowded neighborhoods.

The report also called Hamas' firing of rockets at Israeli civilians a war crime.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the findings, saying Israel's security forces were exercising their right to self-defense. The United States had until Friday been largely silent, limiting its response to expressions of concern about unspecified content and the panel's mandate.That mandate was given to Goldstone and his colleagues by the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier this year, before President Barack Obama decided to end the Bush administration's policy of snubbing the body and join it.Kelly said Friday that the United States wanted to keep discussion of the report within the council and had very serious concerns about a recommendation that it be raised at other bodies, including the International Criminal Court.We note in particular that Israel has the democratic institutions to investigate and prosecute abuses and we encourage it to use those institutions,he said.U.S. officials are also concerned that Arab states and others might attempt to raise the report at next week's United Nations General Assembly session. Kelly said it was important for the world to remain focused on trying to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.We hope efforts related to the Middle East at the Human Rights Council and other international bodies will look to the future and how we can support the goal of a two-state solution,he said.

IRAN MASS PROTESTS

Iran opposition chiefs attacked as mass protests hit regime by Jay Deshmukh – Fri Sep 18, 3:15 pm ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian opposition chiefs were attacked on Friday as their supporters battled riot police, with tens of thousands mounting the first protest in two months against the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi had to abandon plans to take part after an angry crowd of hardliners shouting Death to the hypocrite Mousavi attacked his car, the official IRNA news agency said.Former president Mohammad Khatami, a key Mousavi supporter whose 1997-2005 term saw a mild thaw in relations with the West, was also assaulted before being rescued by riot police, reformist website parlemannews.ir said.During the scuffle, his turban fell off and they wanted to beat him but supporters resisted them and the riot police promptly intervened,it said.

Khatami's brother, Mohammad Reza, said he was uninjured.

Some people shouted slogans against him,he told AFP.He is home now. He is not hurt and he is fine.As Ahmadinejad gave the keynote speech at Tehran University, renewing comments about Israel and the myth of the Holocaust that have sparked an international outcry, tens of thousands chanted Death to the dictator in nearby streets, witnesses said.Protesters defied dire warnings against demonstrating during Iran's annual mass display of solidarity with the Palestinians.Shouting slogans in support of Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's main challenger in the June 12 election, they gathered in major squares around the capital before heading to the university.

Supporters of the regime among the more than 100,000 people who joined the Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally mounted counter-demonstrations, leading to repeated scuffles, the witnesses said.Baton-wielding riot police beat protesters who were pelting them with stones in central Haft-e Tir Square, they told AFP.Police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who chanted: Torture and rape are not effective any more, one witness said.That was a reference to opposition allegations of abuses against some of the more than 4,000 activists and reformist politicians detained during the post-election disturbances.

The attacks on Mousavi and Khatami drew criticism both at home and abroad.

I don't accept such aggressions and illegal acts. I don't approve of them,deputy parliament speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar said.French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Paris is highly concerned by reports of violence committed against leaders of the Iranian opposition.There were also reports of clashes in other cities, as unrest over the presidential election flared again for the first time since July 19 in a sign of the seriousness of the challenge facing the regime.
Members of the Basij Islamic militia attacked and seized demonstrators in both Tabriz in the northwest and Isfahan south of the capital, the mowjcamp.com opposition website said.

State television played down the unrest.A few demonstrators protested against Ahmadinejad but they were drowned in the massive crowds of people expressing solidarity with the Palestinians,it said.The protests came despite a threat from the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps to crush any renewed attempt to contest the official election results giving Ahmadinejad a landslide victory.In his address, the hardline president again described the mass extermination of Jews during World War II as a myth and said Israel was heading for collapse.They (Western powers) launched the myth of the Holocaust. They lied, they put on a show and then they support the Jews,he said to chants of Death to Israel from his supporters among the crowd. The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie ... a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust.This regime's days are numbered and it is on its way to collapse. This regime is dying.Britain, France, Germany and the United States condemned Ahmadinejad's comments.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called them abhorrent as well as ignorant,while White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that denying the Holocaust was baseless, ignorant and hateful.In Paris, Valero called the Iranian president's remarks unacceptable and shocking,and in Berlin German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Ahmadinejad shamed Iran. With his intolerable tirades, he shames his country,and his anti-Semitism ... must be collectively condemned,he said.

Ahmadinejad's Holocaust myth comments slammed Fri Sep 18, 2:28 pm ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a myth as he addressed the annual Quds Day rally in Tehran on Friday, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world.The United States, Britain, France and Germany all issued statements slamming his latest outburst.The very existence of this regime is an insult to the dignity of the people,the hardline Ahmadinejad said of Iran's arch-foe Israel.They (Western powers) launched the myth of the Holocaust. They lied, they put on a show and then they support the Jews.If as you claim the Holocaust is true, why can a study not be allowed? he said to chants of Death to Israel from the crowd gathered for the annual display of solidarity with the Palestinians.The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie... a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust,he added.This claim is corrupt and the pretext is corrupt. This (the Israeli) regime's days are numbered and it is on its way to collapse. This regime is dying.

Washington condemned Ahmadinejad's comments as ignorant and hateful.Regardless that we've heard that type of rhetoric before, obviously we condemn what he said, and I would point to what the president (Barack Obama) said in Cairo: denying the Holocaust is baseless, ignorant and hateful,White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Promoting those vicious lies serves only to isolate Iran further from the world.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband branded Ahmadinejad's comments abhorrent as well as ignorant,and said they were not worthy of the leader of Iran.The coincidence of today's comments with the start of Jewish New Year only adds to the insult,he added.French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero called the Iranian president's remarks unacceptable and shocking. We resolutely condemn them.In Berlin German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Ahmadinejad's remarks shamed Iran. With his intolerable tirades, he shames his country,and his anti-semitism... must be collectively condemned,he said.Similar comments by Ahmadinejad shortly after his first election as president in 2005 also sparked an international outcry.Then he said Israel was doomed to be wiped off the map.

Hezbollah chief vows to destroy Israeli army if attacked Fri Sep 18, 12:36 pm ET

BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Friday that his Shiite militant group was ready to destroy the Israeli army if it attacked Lebanon.I admit that Israel might launch a war on Lebanon and I declare that we do not want war,he said in a televised address marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day.I do not know what excuse they might use for this war, but if Israel attacks us, we must turn the threat into an opportunity,he said.Nasrallah said Israel was a state that centred on its military, adding: If we destroy their army here in Lebanon, what future does the state have? The next war will change the face of the region.Thousands of people, including women and children, also formed a human chain for five kilometres (three miles) along south Lebanon's border with Israel, waving Hezbollah and Palestinian flags to denounce Israel's creation in 1948.I declare that we... will not acknowledge, deal with, normalise ties with or surrender to Israel, even if the whole world acknowledges (its existence),Nasrallah said.Quds Day, the brainchild of the Islamic republic of Iran's late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in 2006. The fighting killed nearly 1,200Lebanese, a third of them children, and 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers.The conflict destroyed much of Lebanon's major infrastructure and also targeted Hezbollah strongholds in the south and the southern suburb of Beirut, where Friday's rally was held.The war ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire on August 14, 2006.

Thousands rally in Gaza on Quds Day Fri Sep 18, 9:09 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Thousands of Palestinians joined protests across the Gaza Strip on Friday organised by the territory's Hamas rulers to mark the Iranian-inspired Quds (Jerusalem) Day.Demonstrations were held after the weekly Friday prayers in several cities of the besieged territory where Iranian-backed Hamas seized power in June 2007.Jerusalem is ours and the Zionists are destined to disappear,Ahmad Bahar, a deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament told the crowd in Gaza City.Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.It is marked by mass demonstrations across Iran to denounce the Jewish state and its main ally, Washington.During Friday's Quds rally in Tehran, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad once again called the Holocaust a myth in comments that have sparked outrage around the world.

UN report on Gaza war a kangaroo court: Netanyahu by Gavin Rabinowitz – Thu Sep 17, 1:34 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned a damning UN report on the Gaza war as a kangaroo court,saying it was biased from the start.The UN probe said both Israel and Palestinian groups committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the 22-day war in December-January that Israel launched in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.The report was a kangaroo court; it was fixed from the start, Netanyahu told Israel's privately-owned Channel Two television, speaking publicly for the first time on the report.

Netanyahu called on the international community to condemn the report, which reserved some of its harshest language for the actions taken by Israel against the civilian population in the densely populated Gaza Strip.The report encourages terrorism and undermines the natural right of states to defend themselves, Netanyahu said.If you support our right to self-defence, say so now.Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied that Israeli forces committed atrocities during the Gaza war, describing the report as hypocrisy.We share very human values and Israel's army is maybe the most human army in the world. We are fighting for our independence since 1948, he said in Podgorica, Montenegro.But South African judge Richard Goldstone, who headed the commission that issued the report, rejected Israeli criticism that it was biased.I deny that completely,Goldstone said in remarks broadcast on public radio.I was completely independent, nobody dictated any outcome, and the outcome was a result of the independent inquiries that our mission made,he said.The UN report, which Goldstone presented at the UN on Tuesday and which accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes, has faced stinging criticism in Israel for being one-sided and biased.But Goldstone, former chief prosecutor on the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, rejected the charges and said the only thing he regretted was that Israel refused to cooperate with his team.There is really nothing I can think of that I would do differently,he said.If there is any difference that I would have preferred, (it) would have been that we could have got cooperation from Israel and, in particular, I would have liked the Israeli government to assist us and decide what we should investigate because that's what I asked them to do.In the wake of the UN report, numerous Israeli commentators have launched personal attacks on Goldstone, with one rightwing paper writing: the liberal anti-Semitism strides delicately, appoints a hostile commission and finds an obsequious Jew, to dance to the tune of the gentile landowner.Goldstone, 70, is a South African judge who also headed the public inquiry into violence and intimidation in the run-up to that country's first post-apartheid elections in 1994.The impartial inquiry, which became known as the Goldstone Commission, was widely credited with preventing South Africa's slide into widespread violence with the demise of the whites-only apartheid regime.

Israel sees hypocrisy in UN's Gaza report Thu Sep 17, 9:53 am ET

PODGORICA (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied on Thursday that his country's forces committed atrocities during the Gaza war, describing a United Nations report on the conflict as hypocrisy.We share very human values and Israel's army is maybe the most human army in the world. We are fighting for our independence since 1948, he said.I would call that report a hypocrisy of the modern world, Lieberman said during an official visit to Podgorica, Montenegro's capital.He insisted that the real reasons behind such reports are not war crimes but the price of oil, gas and interests in markets.When leaders like (Libyan Moamer) Kadhafi and (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad try to condemn Israel for war crimes that is really ironic and cynical,said Lieberman.The minister said he was surprised that international community did such kind of a report and was interested not in a terror against Israel and atrocities perpetrated on people in Gaza Strip and on political opponents of Palestinian authorities.The UN probe said both Israel and Palestinian groups committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the 22-day war in December-January that Israel launched in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.It reserved some of its harshest language for the actions taken by Israel against the civilian population in the densely-populated Gaza Strip.

Syrian president in Turkey for talks on Israel By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 16, 2:54 pm ET

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey encouraged Syria on Wednesday to think of ways to revive the stalled peace talks with Israel, but the Syrian president said Israel does not appear to be a partner in the process.Syrian President Bashar Assad sat down with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul to consider how to restart the talks.Israel has again showed that it does not want peace,Assad said after the iftar, the dinner that breaks the daily fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.Israel has dynamited all peace negotiations so far, it has massacred people in Lebanon, it has attacked Gaza.He said Israel's presence at the peace table is only virtual,echoing remarks Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem made through an interpreter earlier.On the peace issue, we don't think Israel is present as a partner,al-Moallem said. He accused Israel of maintaining construction of Israeli settlements and continuing its aggression against Gaza.Turkey, which mediated indirect Syrian-Israeli talks last year, has offered to help restart the peace negotiations after they broke off in March when a more hardline Israeli government came to power.

Turkey has also been trying to help defuse a spat between Syria and Iraq triggered by Iraqi allegations that Syria has been used as a launching pad for violence in Baghdad.Security talks held Tuesday by Iraqi and Syrian diplomats in Ankara ended with no agreement, after Syria refused to extradite suspects accused of deadly Baghdad bombings, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.The Iraqi and Syrian foreign ministers plan to meet Thursday in Istanbul. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa will also attend.Iraq is demanding Syria hand over two members of Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath Party who are blamed by Iraq for the Aug. 19 truck bombings that killed more than 100people in Baghdad. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on the U.N. Security Council to investigate the attacks.Syria rejected Iraq's request, saying it had failed to provide evidence implicating the two suspects.Turkey mediated another Syrian-Iraqi meeting last week in Cairo that ended with the Iraqi foreign minister accusing Syria of fueling sectarian tensions in Iraq and supporting terrorism. Syria denies the charges.Meanwhile, Turkey and Syria on Wednesday bilaterally waived visa requirements in a sign of improving ties, Davutoglu said.Associated Press Writer Gulden Alp in Ankara contributed to this report.

No three-way summit yet set for UN meet: Netanyahu Wed Sep 16, 2:14 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that it was unclear if a three-way summit with the United States and Palestinian leaders would go ahead in New York.The three-way meeting has not been set yet. But I'll go anyway and give my speech on Thursday at the (UN General) Assembly,Netanyahu told reporters.Amid US mediation efforts, there was speculation Netanyahu might meet US President Barack Obama and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York.US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been meeting with Netanyahu and Abbas this week in an attempt to reach a compromise on the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.Mitchell is seeking Israeli agreement on some kind of a moratorium on settlement construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the resumption of peace talks suspended in late December after Israel unleashed an assault on the Gaza Strip.Meanwhile, Netanyahu said he would not attend any General Assembly session, including Obama's speech, if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were taking part.Israel considers and Iran are arch-enemies, and Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.

Israel starts removing 100 West Bank roadblocks: army Wed Sep 16, 1:58 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has started removing 100 of its roadblocks in the West Bank as part of efforts to improve the economic situation in the Palestinian territory, the military announced on Wednesday.The armed forces would not say how many roadblocks will remain but recent UN figures put at more than 600 the number of such obstacles that restrict the movement of Palestinian people and goods in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Today, following the directives given by the Israeli government, the Israel Defense Forces began removing 100 roadblocks,the military said in a statement.It said the process should be completed by the time Muslims celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan next week.Israeli officials have long argued the heavy restrictions are essential to prevent violent attacks but say they have been eased in recent months as part of hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's much-vaunted plan for economic peace.The International Monetary Fund said earlier this month that continuation of new economic growth in the West Bank will depend on Israel lifting more restrictions, which international organisations say have stymied private sector investment in the Palestinian territory for almost a decade.

Evidence of Israel, Hamas war crimes in Gaza: U.N. By Louis Charbonneau – Tue Sep 15, 6:02 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity, during the December-January Gaza war, the United Nations charged on Tuesday.A 575-page report by a fact-finding mission organized by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council called on both sides to thoroughly investigate the allegations. Israel did not cooperate with the investigation.The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly in some respects crimes against humanity, were committed by the Israel Defense Force,U.N. investigator Richard Goldstone told reporters.The report also said rockets fired by Palestinian militants into Israel where there were no military targets would also constitute war crimes, and perhaps crimes against humanity.The rocket and mortar attacks have caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel, causing loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians, as well as damage to buildings and property,it said.In response, Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva issued a statement that criticized Goldstone's mission and explained why Israel did not cooperate with it.Its mandate was clearly one-sided and ignored the thousands of Hamas (Palestinian militants) missile attacks on civilians in southern Israel that made the Gaza operation necessary,the statement said.A Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip rejected the suggestion that the Islamist group's firing of rockets into Israel could also amount to war crimes. He said it was self-defense, which is a right sacred under international law.Goldstone, a noted South African jurist, recommended that the U.N. Security Council call on Israel to fully investigate possible crimes committed by its forces. His report made clear that Palestinian authorities should do the same regarding crimes committed by Palestinian fighters.The probes should be independent and in conformity with international standards and establish a committee of human rights experts to monitor any such proceedings in Israel and the Palestinian territories.If either Israel or the Palestinians fail to do so, then the 15-nation council should refer the situation in Gaza to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the report said.Goldstone said Israeli efforts to investigate allegations of war crimes by its soldiers had so far been pusillanimous.The Gaza war, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, began on December 27, 2008, and ended on January 18.

GAZA BLOCKADE

An Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, said last week that 773 of the 1,387 Palestinians killed were civilians.Israel has said 709 combatants, 295 civilians and 162 people whose status it was unable to clarify were killed. Thirteen Israelis, 10 soldiers and three civilians, died.Israel has rejected international criticism of an offensive it said was launched to curb Hamas rocket attacks on its towns. Israel says it is investigating allegations but has not yet found cause to prosecute any of its soldiers.Goldstone, a former South African Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judge and U.N. prosecutor, led a commission of inquiry into political violence and police hit squad activities in the early 1990s in his homeland. The investigator said verbal attacks on his mission by Israel and pro-Israeli groups were disappointing, though understandable given the politically charged atmosphere.

Goldstone said Israel's blockade of Gaza, which began prior to the assault, amounted to collective punishment for the 1.5 million Gazans, most of whom rely on aid to survive. The summary said Israel's operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, not just Hamas militants. His report said Israeli forces humiliated, dehumanized and carried out an assault on the dignity of the people in Gaza ... unlawful detentions, unacceptable conditions of detention ... obscenities and racist slogans.It said a court could find that the blockade of Gaza is itself a crime against humanity. Israel continues to tightly restrict goods entering Gaza to staples and humanitarian supplies, saying that lifting these restrictions would allow Hamas to smuggle weapons into the Strip. Goldstone's report also criticized Israel for firing white phosphorus incendiary shells over the U.N. compound in Gaza and for its intentional strike on the Al Quds hospital using high explosive artillery shells and white phosphorus. Israeli shells hit and damaged several U.N. facilities in the Gaza Strip during the conflict.The report said an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants since June 2006, Gilad Shalit, has prisoner-of-war status and should be treated humanely according to the Geneva Convention.(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Alan Elsner)

Israelis, Palestinians present peace blueprint By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 15, 5:22 pm ET

TEL AVIV, Israel – Jerusalem divided by a series of fences, trenches and walls. The West Bank and Gaza linked by a sunken highway. Palestinians and Israelis trading land that would require 100,000 Jewish settlers to move.These proposals are part of a 424-page blueprint for Mideast peace presented Tuesday — the most detailed description yet of what an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could look like.The plan was released as a new U.S. diplomatic effort was under way to restart peace talks and ahead of meetings next week at the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.Created by teams of Israeli and Palestinian experts and former negotiators, the blueprint is meant to show it's still possible to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel, despite many setbacks, said those involved in the drafting.If you want to resolve the conflict, here is the recipe, said Gadi Baltiansky, a leader of the Israeli team.The core of the plan is a Palestinian state in nearly 98 percent of the West Bank, all of the Gaza Strip and the Arab-populated areas of Jerusalem. By going into the tiniest details, it highlights the staggering challenges and expense of implementing any peace deal.The blueprint was presented Tuesday by Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli peace negotiator, and by Baltiansky, who served as an aide to former prime minister Ehud Barak.

The Palestinian participants kept a low profile. The most senior, Yasser Abed Rabbo, now a high-ranking aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, declined comment and did not attend the plan's unveiling in Tel Aviv.Israeli officials said the Palestinians planned their own presentation later, but it appeared the Palestinians also wanted to avoid giving the impression their government endorses the plan. Israeli government officials also declined comment.

The blueprint highlights how complex and expensive peace will be.

It had to resort to flow charts to describe a multilayered bureaucracy of thousands of international troops and monitors who would serve as referees. The partition of Jerusalem would require building border terminals inside the city and dividing a major thoroughfare between the two states.A sunken four-lane highway with bridges and tunnels would be built through Israel to link the West Bank and Gaza, administered by the Palestinians but under Israeli sovereignty. Israeli motorists would have to carry tracking devices on designated transit routes through Palestine to make sure they didn't go astray.The document builds on the 50-page outline of a peace deal published in 2003 by the same group, known as the Geneva Initiative. It is also close to the terms of a failed agreement suggested in late 2000 by then-President Bill Clinton.The blueprint goes into detail on issues that were only dealt with in broad strokes in the earlier efforts.For example, the 2003 plan said the West Bank and Gaza, which flank Israel, should be connected by a corridor running through the Jewish state. The expanded proposal describes a sunken four-lane highway with bridges and tunnels; it would also give the Palestinians the option of adding train tracks, underground fuel pipes and communications cables.

The partition of Jerusalem required perhaps the most creativity.

Earlier efforts called for Jewish neighborhoods to join Israel and Arab ones to become part of Palestine. However, traditionally Arab east Jerusalem has become a patchwork of Jewish and Arab neighborhoods since Israel captured it in the 1967 Mideast war and moved nearly 200,000 Israelis there.As a result, the border on the blueprint snakes around neighborhoods, divvying them between Israel and Palestine. A major thoroughfare that bisects the city would become a binational road, with Israeli and Palestinian motorists divided by a series of fences, trenches, walls and greenery.A pedestrian overpass in the downtown area, near the famed American Colony Hotel, would link the Palestinian part of Jerusalem with the Israeli sector, passing through a border checkpoint.Huge multilevel border terminals would be built in the northern and southern areas of the city, and planners included detailed architectural drawings of the crossings.Both sides would have access to the walled Old City with its major religious shrines, but from separate gates. The border puts the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, in Israel, while the Palestinians would get the adjacent Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine.The document does not have a detailed chapter on the fate of Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants, one of the toughest issues facing peacemakers. The Palestinian team leader, Nidal Foqaha, said the issue was still too sensitive.The security annex was the most difficult to put together, Baltiansky said. He said the involvement of senior former Israeli military officials ensured the document addresses Israel's security concerns.Israel fears Palestinian militants would overrun the West Bank after a withdrawal and launch rockets at Israel. Gaza was seized by Hamas in 2007, two years after Israel's withdrawal, and militants there have fired thousands of rockets into southern Israel.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a future Palestinian state to be demilitarized, and the security annex lists weapons the Palestinian security forces would be banned from having, including tanks, artillery, rockets, heavy machine guns and weapons of mass destruction.

The plan also stipulates that an Israeli infantry battalion of 800 soldiers would remain in the Jordan Valley, on the West Bank's border with Jordan, for three years after all other Israeli troops have left the Palestinian territory.When Netanyahu speaks about a non-militarized Palestine, in this book we write exactly what it means,Baltiansky said.We translate it into a detailed reality.The manual is being presented to Israeli and Palestinian leaders as well as top diplomats in the U.S., Europe and Egypt in hopes they will use it as a reference once peace talks resume, organizers said.http://www.geneva-accord.org/

Mousavi to join mass rally in Iran despite warnings Tue Sep 15, 11:50 am ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June's disputed presidential election, will join Friday's annual pro-Palestinian Quds Day march, his website said Tuesday.Reformist Mousavi is the second opposition leader to say he and his supporters will attend the public rally, after another defeated presidential candidate, cleric Mehdi Karroubi, urged his backers to come out in force.Quds Day is a souvenir of the late Imam Khomeini and is the day of Islam, and he (Mousavi) along with people will attend the rally,Mousavi's office said on his website, referring to the Islamic republic's late founder.

No further details were given.Friday's rally will be the first mass demonstration in the capital's streets since July 9 when thousands of demonstrators defied government warnings and staged a march to commemorate the anniversary of bloody student unrest in 1999.Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's successor, all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has already warned against using Friday's rally for anything other than demonstrating solidarity with the Palestinians.Be watchful so some who want to spread division do not succeed. No division should be created,he said on Friday.Iran's police chief, Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, also warned a week ago against using the Quds Day march to stage anti-Ahmadinejad protests.

Opposition groups continue to reject Ahmadinejad's re-election, saying it was massively rigged, triggering the worst crisis in the Islamic republic's 30-year history.In the weeks following the June 12 election, thousands of people took to the streets in protest and some 4,000 were arrested in an ensuing crackdown by the authorities.Official figures say about 30 people were killed in street violence, while the opposition says 72 people died.Around 140 alleged protesters have gone on trial, including leading reformist politicians, activists and employees of the British and French embassies.

OLMERT TO GO TO TRIAL

Former Israeli premier Olmert to stand trial Mon Sep 14, 7:40 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's justice ministry says the corruption trial of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will begin on Sept. 29 in Jerusalem.Olmert was indicted last month for illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. Olmert has denied any wrongdoing.The charges, stemming from when he was Jerusalem's mayor and later as a Cabinet minister, emerged when Olmert was still prime minister. He eventually resigned the premiership, to which he was elected in 2006.The 63-year-old Olmert left politics when Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister last March.

Egypt destroys 10 Gaza smuggling tunnels Mon Sep 14, 7:20 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian security forces destroyed 10 tunnels used to smuggle contraband to the besieged Gaza Strip after a tip-off from a runner arrested last week, a security official said on Monday.The tunnels were found north of the Egyptian border town of Rafah late on Sunday after Mohammed al-Shaer gave details of their location, the official told AFP, adding that the tunnels were immediately destroyed.Shaer was arrested last week at the Rafah border crossing as he tried to enter Gaza on false documents.He was one of the most wanted smugglers in the area and could provide vital information on smuggling networks operating in Egypt, the official said.The Gaza Strip, under a tight blockade since Islamist Hamas seized power in the enclave in 2007, relies on international aid and products smuggled through a network of tunnels linking it to Egypt.The tunnels are also used to send in weapons.Egypt, under pressure from Israel and the United States, has taken robust measures to crack down on the smuggling.

Abbas's Fatah backs Egypt election delay proposal By Mohammed Assadi – Mon Sep 14, 12:59 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction Monday said it had accepted an Egyptian proposal to end a rift with Islamist Hamas and would delay presidential and parliamentary elections due in January.Egypt is trying to reconcile rival factions Fatah and Islamist Hamas and last week proposed holding elections during the first half of 2010 to allow more time to work out a power-sharing deal between the two rival groups.Fatah's acceptance of the delay now puts the onus on Hamas which won the 2006 parliamentary election and a year later took over the Gaza Strip after routing forces loyal to Abbas in a brief civil war.

Fatah controls the West Bank and Hamas rules Gaza, territory that Palestinians want for a future state culminating from peace negotiations with Israel.Presidential and parliamentary elections are slated for January 25 but it remains unclear how they could take place with the Palestinian population split in two territories run by rival administrations that do not recognize one another.We have decided to accept the Egyptian proposal, including holding the elections during the first half of next year and no later than this date,said Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, the group's executive body.Fatah made the announcement early Monday after its Central Committee convened a late-night meeting Sunday chaired by Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.Fatah officials said that Hamas had told Fatah during past round of talks that it prefers an extended delay to elections.Nabil Shaath, another Fatah official, said that the group did not mind a delay but there should be a specific date and not to leave the matter open as if we do then it could be postponed again.Hamas has said it would state its position regarding the Egyptian proposal after the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr due next week.The Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee had already submitted the response to Egypt, Aahmad Majdalani, a PLO member, told Reuters.Abbas, who has Western backing, had said he would hold the elections on time with or without a deal with his Hamas rivals. Hamas has threatened to block the ballot if Abbas proceeds with the plan.Egypt's mediation efforts for a unity deal between Hamas and Fatah have so far shown no sign of progress in finding a formula for power-sharing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.The Egyptian proposal stipulates that most Hamas political activists jailed by Fatah-led forces in the West Bank and Fatah men held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip would be released after a deal is reached. Hamas wants its men freed before an accord.(Editing by Ori Lewis and Michael Roddy)

Militant group claims rocket attacks on Israel Sun Sep 13, 9:08 pm ET

DUBAI (Reuters) – A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda said on Monday it was behind the firing of rockets into northern Israel last week.Your brothers fired two Katyusha rockets from south Lebanon which landed in the Naharia settlement in the north of occupied Palestine,a statement on web sites used by militants said.It cited Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and preventing worshippers praying at the Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem as the reasons for the action.The statement was signed by the Ziad al-Jarrah division of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the posting's headline linked the group to Sunni Muslim militant network al Qaeda.Ziad al-Jarrah, a Lebanese militant, was one of the group of 19 who carried out the September 11 attacks of 2001 in the United States. Abdullah Azzam was a preacher close to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.It was not possible to verify the claim. A group using the name Abdullah Azzam Brigades said it carried out deadly bombings at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in 2005.Israel retaliated to the rocket attack by firing shells. No one was injured on either side.
The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and has its stronghold in the south, denied responsibility for the February attack.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)

West Bank growth depends on easing restrictions: IMF by Joseph Krauss – Sun Sep 13, 4:45 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The West Bank economy is recovering but further growth will depend on Israel lifting more restrictions in the occupied territory, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Sunday.The West Bank economy will likely post a seven-percent growth rate in 2009 on the back of Palestinian reforms and the lifting of some Israeli barriers, the IMF said in a report to be presented to international donors later this month.Provided remaining restrictions in the West Bank are lifted in the remainder of the year, real GDP in the West Bank is projected to rise by about seven percent in 2009, the report said.It added that this would be the first substantial increase in living standards since 2005.The report cautions however that even in such an optimistic scenario it would take several years for the West Bank economy to recover from the closures put in place following the outbreak of the 2000 Palestinian uprising.Even in this scenario, real income per capita in 2012 would still be around 20 percent below its level in 2000,the report said, adding that unemployment would be slightly higher in 2012 than it was before the intifada.The relaxation of restrictions so far represents a breathing space that has allowed GDP to recover from a very low base, given the longstanding restrictions since 2000, said Oussama Kanaan, the head of the IMF's mission to the West Bank and Gaza and one of the authors of the report.It cannot provide the underpinnings for sustainable growth over the medium and long term,he added, in remarks accompanying the report's release.

Meanwhile, the economic outlook for the Gaza Strip, which has been under a closure regime imposed by Israel and Egypt since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, remains dire.The IMF predicted a further decline in real GDP per capita despite a modest overall growth rate of one percent.And unemployment in the first half of 2009 remained high, at 18 percent in the West Bank and 37 percent in Gaza, though it was slightly down from 2008.The IMF said donors would have to provide the Palestinian Authority with 1.5 billion dollars (one billion euros) of assistance to finance the 2009-2010 budget deficit, including 1.1 billion dollars for public investment and reconstruction.The IMF released similar figures in the middle of July, but the latest report is more comprehensive, and will be presented to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) for assistance to the Palestinians on September 22.

The group of international donors will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly amid international US-led efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which was suspended at the turn of the year.The two sides last relaunched talks in November 2007 but the process was suspended during Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza launched on December 27 that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to pursue economic peace with the Palestinians since taking office on March 31.But he has refused demands from the United States, the European Union and the Palestinians for a complete freeze of settlement growth in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.And the two sides remain deeply divided on the core issues of the conflict, including borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Netanyahu: Israel won't hold back when attacked By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 13, 7:48 am ET

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon on Sunday that Israel will not hold back when attacked and holds the Lebanese government responsible for any assault on his country.Netanyahu delivered the warning after two rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Friday. Israel responded immediately with artillery fire, and the exchange ratcheted up persisting tensions between the two countries.We view this very gravely,Netanyahu told his Cabinet.We will not hold back when Israeli territory comes under fire, and will not reconcile ourselves to missile fire or any other form of terror directed at Israeli citizens.It was not immediately known who fired the rockets Friday. But radical Palestinian factions in Lebanon have been blamed in four firings at Israel this year.The Israel-Lebanon border has been tense since Israel mounted a monthlong war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in the summer of 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon and 160 Israelis died in that conflict, which ended in a United Nations-brokered truce.On Sunday, Netanyahu put the onus of maintaining the cease-fire squarely on the shoulders of the Lebanese government.We see it responsible for all these violations and hostilities directed at our territory that originate from Lebanese soil,he said.Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal, but is not believed to have used them against Israel since the 2006 fighting. It has denied involvement in previous rocket attacks on Israel.But friction between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated as Lebanese politicians wrangle over the formation of a new government. The Hezbollah-led opposition would likely be a part of that cabinet.In mid-July, a suspected Hezbollah arms depot exploded near the Israeli border. Israel said this was proof the group was rearming and stashing weapons in populated villages.Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper reported Sunday that the U.N. force in Lebanon, which was beefed up significantly after the war to monitor the border, had been warned of a possible attack 10 days earlier.The U.N. force relayed this information to the Lebanese army two days before the attack, the report said.A spokesman for the U.N. force, Milos Strugar, said an investigation under way is pointing in the direction of some extremist groups.He did not elaborate.

Netanyahu and Mubarak meet on reviving peace talks by Samer Al-atrush – Sun Sep 13, 1:16 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meet on Sunday in a bid to revive peace talks with the Palestinians ahead of a possible three-way meeting later this month.Netanyahu's visit, his second since May, will coincide with the arrival of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell in the region as Washington continues its push to get the peace process back on track.

Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, which defies US pressure and Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas's condition for resuming talks, is likely to top the agenda in Cairo.The two leaders are also expected to discuss the exchange of an Israeli soldier held by the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The United States has sought to fast-track a peace process that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. It has floated the possibility of hosting a meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, according to Israeli President Shimon Peres.But both sides have rebuffed the US call for goodwill gestures that would see a freeze to settlement construction in return for Arab states beginning to normalise ties with Israel.Arab countries have said normalisation will only come after substantive peace talks, or a settlement to the conflict, and Abbas insists that he will not meet Netanyahu before a complete end to settlement construction.Earlier this month, Netanyahu authorised the construction of 455 new homes in West Bank settlements, prompting Abbas to say that there was no point in attending a summit with him.Washington criticised the settlement expansion as "inconsistent" with the peace process, but has also said it does not consider a settlement freeze a condition for peace talks to resume.Israel has said it would weigh demands for a freeze in settlement construction in the West Bank. However, it stresses that this would be time-limited, would not include the newly authorised construction, nor the 2,500 homes currently being built, and would also exclude occupied east Jerusalem.Israeli media reported last week that Netanyahu said he believed he would reach a deal on settlements with the United States when Mitchell arrived.If a deal is secured, it would place pressure on Abbas to retreat from his calls for an immediate freeze of all settlement construction before resuming negotiations.

Egypt has been mediating between rival Palestinian factions Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas, which rules the besieged Gaza Strip which the Israeli military attacked at the turn of the year.It has been Israel's main Arab interlocutor since the two signed a peace treaty in 1979, but the neighbours remain at odds over the peace process.Cairo has also acted as a mediator in talks between Hamas and Israel on a possible deal to end the crippling Gaza blockade and free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants more than three years ago.Efforts to reach a deal have reportedly intensified in the past month, but a senior Hamas official in Damascus, where the group's leadership is exiled, on Saturday downplayed reports of an imminent agreement.

US envoy arrives in Israel for talks Sat Sep 12, 5:28 pm ET

JERUSALEM – U.S. Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell is in Israel to try and kick start Israeli-Palestinian talks before the two sides meet at the U.N. later this month.A spokesman for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said Mitchell arrived in Israel Saturday night. He is set to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders next week.

Peace talks broke down in December after Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to stop militants firing rockets on southern Israeli towns.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is willing to renew talks. The Palestinians insist Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem end before negotiations begin.The sides are expected to announce a renewal of talks at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23.

Israel warns Lebanon on rockets but sees calm for now Sat Sep 12, 6:03 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Saturday it viewed rockets fired from Lebanon as an isolated incident but would be ready to take massive action if any border violence continued.Speaking on Israel Radio a day after two rockets struck northern Israel in the first such attack in seven months but causing no injury, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Israel expected United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon to prevent further attacks.The shootings raised tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.Israel retaliated swiftly for the rockets by firing a dozen artillery rounds at Lebanon, with no injuries reported. Ayalon said no further military action was called for now and that Israel saw the incident as an isolated occurrence.There's no interest in escalating the situation,Ayalon said.We must make clear that if Israel is forced, if the quiet is disrupted, Israel will know to restore calm, even if it is forced to take massive action.Ayalon accused Lebanon of failing to prevent smuggling of weapons by Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite movement, but stopped short of blaming the group for the rockets, for which no group has as yet claimed responsibility.Both Washington and the United Nations condemned the violence and urged continued adherence to a 2006 truce that ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah.P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said Friday the rocket fire was in clear violation of that ceasefire and showed the urgent need to bring arms in Lebanon under control of the state.United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides, in a statement, to exercise restraint and said U.N. peacekeeping troops known as UNIFIL were investigating the circumstances of the incident.(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Mitchell heads to Israel, other Mideast nations Fri Sep 11, 4:33 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. special envoy George Mitchell leaves on Friday to visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt as he seeks to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the State Department said.Mitchell has been trying to put together a package under which Israel would freeze settlement construction and Arab nations would make gestures toward recognizing the Jewish state as a precursor to the resumption of peace talks.The envoy hopes to secure a deal for a possible meeting at the U.N. General Assembly this month among Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. President Barack Obama.U.S. officials have declined to speculate on the odds of that occurring or of peace talks, which have been stalled since December, resuming.We are in discussions. Where they lead and how quickly, we'll see, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters as he announced Mitchell's travel.The spokesman said Mitchell was expected to visit Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt after his talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials but he declined to specify his exact travel plans.

Netanyahu's refusal so far to stop settlement activity has led to a rare Israeli diplomatic rift with Washington, and the issue of ceasing construction is likely to be among the most difficult on Mitchell's trip.Israel approved on Monday the building of 455 settler homes in the West Bank, a move that drew Palestinian protests and rare U.S. criticism but that could pave the way for the construction moratorium sought by Washington.Some 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, land which Israel captured in a 1967 war and Palestinians seek for a state, and Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.Palestinians, who number about three million in the West Bank, say settlements deprive them of land for a viable state.(Editing by Philip Barbara)

US strongly condemns rocket attack on Israel Fri Sep 11, 2:27 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States strongly condemned a rocket attack Friday on Israel from southern Lebanon, a US State Department spokesman said.We strongly condemn these attacks which were in clear violation of the cessation of hostilities called for in UNSC (UN Security Council) resolution 1701,said Assistant Secretary of State PJ Crowley.He said the incident highlights the urgent need to put arms in Lebanon under control of the state and the need for the international community to remain fully committed on supporting UNIFIL which is the UN mission in Lebanon.

Several rockets fired from southern Lebanon slammed into Israel on Friday, prompting Israel to fire artillery rounds across the border in retaliation, the Israeli military said.The Lebanese army said the village of Al-Qlaileh was hit and ambulances were rushed from the port city of Tyre, nine kilometres (five miles) away.

A Lebanese security official said two rockets were fired earlier from the village, 15kilometres (10 miles) from the border. No one immediately claimed responsibility.In Israel, police said they found debris from Katyusha rockets near the northern city of Nahariya, while witnesses said they heard explosions.

Rockets hit Israel from Lebanon, no casualties Fri Sep 11, 1:27 pm ET

Tire, Lebanon (Reuters) – At least two rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Friday, prompting Israeli artillery to shell the fruit groves from which they were fired, security officials on both sides of the border said.No casualties were reported by Israeli police, who said two rockets landed. Lebanese security sources, who reported at least two outgoing missiles and 15 incoming Israeli shells, did not say who might have fired the rockets.An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that Israel fired about a dozen artillery rounds in response to several rockets.The Israeli army holds the Lebanese government responsible for preventing such attacks, the spokesman said.It was the first time since February that rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel, raising tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.Occasional salvoes since then have been blamed by Israeli, Lebanese and U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area largely on fringe militant groups rather than on Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite movement which remains a powerful force in Lebanon, especially in the south.United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the rocket fire and urged both sides to exercise restraint, a statement issued by a spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said.

U.N. peacekeeping troops known as UNIFIL were investigating the circumstances of the incident,Ban's statement said. He called on the parties to fully adhere to a truce the world body had brokered in 2006 to end their month-long war.During Israel's offensive against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip in January, Hezbollah denied responsibility for several rockets fired from Lebanon. Security officials have said small groups active among Palestinian refugees or with links to al Qaeda were more likely to have mounted the attacks.(Reporting by Nadim Ladki and Tom Perry in Beirut and Ori Lewis and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jersualem; writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Andrew Roche)

Israel returns fire after rocket attack from Lebanon Fri Sep 11, 12:43 pm ET

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (AFP) – Several rockets fired from southern Lebanon slammed into Israel on Friday triggering retaliatory artillery fire across the border, the Israeli military said.Several rockets hit western Galilee. They did not cause any casualties,a military spokesman told AFP.We responded by firing 12 to 15 artillery shells towards the source of the fire,he said.The Lebanese army said the village of Al-Qlaileh was hit and ambulances were rushed from the port city of Tyre, nine kilometres (five miles) away.A Lebanese security official said two rockets were fired earlier from the village, 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the border. No one immediately claimed responsibility.Troops and UN peacekeepers later found the wooden platforms from which the rockets were fired, the official said.In Israel, police said they found debris from Katyusha rockets near the northern city of Nahariya, while witnesses said they heard explosions.The IDF (Israel military) considers the Lebanese government and Lebanese military as accountable to prevent such attacks," the spokesman added.The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that together with the Lebanese armed forces, it deployed additional troops in the area to prevent an escalation.UNIFIL is in contact with both sides urging them to exercise maximum restraint, uphold the cessation of hostilities and avoid taking steps which could lead to further escalation,it said in a statement.It said calm returned to the area following the incident, adding that it had no report of casualties on either side.

In February, Israeli artillery bombarded Al-Qlaileh in response to similar rocket fire. There were no casualties on the Lebanese side while a few Israelis were lightly wounded.The Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and has its stronghold in the south, denied responsibility for the February attack.In the 2006 conflict, more than 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, most of them civilians, along with 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.The war started after two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah fighters in a deadly cross-border raid.It ended with a ceasefire resolution adopted by the UN Security Council that demanded the disarming of all militant groups in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, and an end to arms smuggling across its borders.

Hezbollah has had no declared arsenal in south Lebanon since 2006 but Israel says the movement has tripled its hoard of weapons and has 42,000 rockets capable of reaching locations in the centre of the Jewish state.Israel warned last month that the Lebanese government as a whole would be blamed for any attack from its territory if the militant group were part of the new government to be formed after June elections. The United States, like Israel, blacklists the Iranian-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Most European governments maintain contacts with its political wing.Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last month that the militia was ready for any confrontation with Israel, but at the same time ruled out any war in the near future.

Explosions heard, rocket found in north Israel Fri Sep 11, 9:29 am ET

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (AFP) – Remnants of a Katyusha rocket were found in northern Israel on Friday, police said, after a security official said two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon.Residents of northern Israel said they heard explosions.Debris from at least one Katyusha rocket fired from south Lebanon was found in the area of the city of Nahariya and Kibbutz Gesher Aziv,a police source told AFP.

LEBANON FIRES-ISRAEL RETALIATES

Rocket fire from Lebanon sparks Israel retaliation By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 11 12:15PM

BEIRUT – Two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel on Friday, prompting Israel to respond with artillery fire, Lebanese security and military officials said.

The exchange, in which no casualties were reported by either side, was the latest in persisting tensions between the two countries. It was the fourth time rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Israel, each time bringing Israeli retaliation.It was not immediately known who fired the rockets Friday. But radical Palestinian factions in Lebanon have been blamed in the previous barrages this year.The border has been tense since Israel and the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah fought a brutal 34-day war in 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon and 160 in Israel died in the conflict. Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal but is not believed to have used them against Israel since the 2006 fighting. It has denied involvement in previous rocket attacks on Israel.Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, told reporters in Beirut that the incident is a very, very serious development and I would like to call on all sides to exercise absolute caution and restraint.Friday's exchange began when two rockets were fired into Israel from the area of the Lebanese town of Qlaileh, near the port city of Tyre, a Lebanese military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

One of the rockets hit near the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. No injuries were reported. Israel's Channel 10 TV showed a telephone pole near a kibbutz not far from the border that was toppled by a rocket.The Israeli military said it fired artillery at the source of rocket fire. The military views this incident very severely and we hold the government of Lebanon responsible,a statement said.At least two Israeli shells hit near Qlaileh, Lebanese security officials said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that nine Israeli artillery shells fell near the town, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which monitors the border, said it, in cooperation with Lebanese Armed Forces, deployed additional troops in the Qlaileh area to prevent escalation. The force, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that it had contacted both sides, urging them to exercise maximum restraint.Israel and Hezbollah have been increasingly exchanging warnings in recent weeks that they will retaliate against each other if either side sparks hostilities. The tensions come as Lebanese politicians are wrangling over the formation of a new government, which would likely include members of the Hezbollah-led opposition.Israel has said that if Hezbollah is part of the Cabinet, it would hold the Lebanese government directly responsible for any attack by the guerrillas.Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reported on the exchange, but did not make any claim of responsibility.The last exchange, blamed on Palestinian militants, across the border came in February. Palestinian militants also fired rockets across the border twice in January, during Israel's offensive on Gaza against the militant Palestinian Hamas.Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

Rockets hit Israel from Lebanon, no casualties SEPT 11,09

Tyre, Lebanon (Reuters) – At least two rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Friday, prompting Israeli artillery to shell the fruit groves from which they were fired, security officials on both sides of the border said.No casualties were immediately reported by Israeli police, who said two rockets landed. Lebanese security sources, who reported at least two outgoing missiles and 15 incoming Israeli shells, did not say who may have fired the rockets.

Israeli television later reported a third missile damaged an electricity pylon.

An Israeli military spokesman said there were several rockets but no casualties and confirmed the Israeli army returned fire. The Israeli army holds the Lebanese government responsible, the spokesman said.U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon and the Lebanese army deployed extra troops to prevent any escalation, a spokeswoman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force said.UNIFIL is in contact with both sides, urging them to exercise maximum restraint, uphold the cessations of hostilities and avoid taking steps which would lead to further escalation, Yasmina Bouziane said. UNIFIL was investigating the incident.It was the first time since February that rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel, raising tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.Occasional salvoes since then have been blamed by Israeli, Lebanese and U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area largely on fringe militant groups rather than on Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite movement which remains a powerful force in Lebanon, especially in the south.During Israel's offensive against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip in January, Hezbollah denied responsibility for several rockets fired from