Heres something I find real interesting in the EU Constitution. If it will be confirmed, But now I believe it will be agreed on and the Constitution will come in to effect. But Why?
The Presidency system
22. The Constitution provides for the replacement of the existing six-monthly rotating Presidency by a 'Team Presidency' system. Under it, all Councils apart from the Foreign Affairs Council (which will be chaired by the European Union Foreign Minister) will be chaired by a team of three Member States holding the Presidency for 18 months. In principle, one Member State will preside over all the Councils for 6 months, supported by others in the Team, though the Member States concerned may agree alternative arrangements amongst themselves. The details of rotation will be set out in a separate Council Decision.
23. The Government believes that the Team Presidency system will provide a longer-term, more stable decision-making structure and therefore ensure greater coherence and consistency in the work of various sectoral Councils. The Team Presidency system is set out in the Declaration re Article I-22, paragraph 6, concerning the European Council decision on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
DANIEL 7:7-8,23-24
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,(THE EU) dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces,(TRADING BLOCKS) and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.(10 NATIONS)
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn,(#11 SPAIN) before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots:(3 EU COUNTRIES) and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(THE EU,REVIVED ROME OR 7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: 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)
By what the constitution says above, now we know that Spain will be part of the 3 countries that will rule together for 18 months and Spain will be given the 18 month term to talk for the EU.
Out of this 18 month term The FUTURE DICTATOR WILL BECOME STRONG AND A PEACEFUL MAN. HE WILL HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THE MIDEAST EAST PEACE PLAN AND SOMEWHERE DOWN THE LINE HE WILL BE THE ONE THAT SIGNS THE 7 YEAR ISRAELI / ARABS AND MANY PEACE CONTRACT OF DANIEL 9:27.
REVELATION 17:3,7-13
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
So whether the Constitution comes into force or not I belive this 3 country 18 month term will stand no matter what it fits right in with Daniel 7:23-24 perfectly.
STAN L BOWMAN JR.
Monday, July 31, 2006
OLMERT AGREES TO A FORCE
PM Olmert Agrees to a Multinational Force Along Northern Border
By Yechiel Spira(INN)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to a US plan calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force along Israel’s border. Following an almost two-hour meeting in his Jerusalem residence with US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice on Saturday night, the prime minister agreed to the US plan, calling for the deployment of a multinational force between Israel and Lebanon and Syria. It was announced that France and Lebanon would take part in the force, but other details have yet to be decided upon.According to reports following the high-level meeting, the size of the force and the timing for such a move must still be agreed upon, but Olmert has given his approval to the idea of such a force being positioned between Israel and Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.
Secretary Rice will leave for Lebanon on Sunday, and she will return to Israel following talks with officials in Beirut as she continues her shuttle diplomacy mission in the hope of actualizing a ceasefire. The US-brokered plan includes yet another land withdrawal by Israel, from the Har Dov area, also known as Shab’a Farm. The area today has a vital strategic significance, permitting IDF troops to man outposts along the border area.The prime minister has indicated a willingness to consider withdrawing from Shab'a, despite Israel’s compliance with the demands of the international community in its May 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and despite the fact that the Har Dov area was liberated from Syrian occupation, not Lebanese.
UN Resolution 1559 of two years ago calls for the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah. It is not clear if this will help achieve Israel's stated goals of distancing Hizbullah from Israel’s border and cutting off Hizbullah’s weapons supply train from Iran and Syria.While Secretary Rice did not call upon Israel to stop the military offensive in Lebanon at this time, French President Jacques Chirac released a statement that he would not authorize the deployment of his troops until Israel ceases its fire.Reports quoting senior Defense Ministry officials state that the Americans will permit the ongoing Israeli offensive against Hizbullah to continue for another 7-10 days, but no such official statement has been released. France on the other hand is preparing to turn to the UN Security Council, demanding an immediate Israeli ceasefire. The French resolution was distributed to council members over the weekend, calling for a stabilization force numbering some 20,000 troops.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan on Monday will head a session discussing potential force members, which is expected to include European Union nations as well as Turkey. In a weekend interview with the BBC, British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed optimism, stating he believes an agreement on the international force and a ceasefire can be reached in a number of days. Israel’s military offensive intended to disarm and distance the Hizbullah threat was launched following a multi-pronged Hizbullah attack on July 12 which left eight soldiers dead and two IDF soldiers falling captive to the terrorists. Since the start of the ongoing warfare, Hizbullah has fired close to 2,000 missiles into Israeli civilian population centers, striking the entire northern area. Hizbullah has continually threatened to direct longer-range rockets into the Greater Tel Aviv area. Last week, longer-range missiles landed as far south as Afula.
Secretary Rice has signaled that any ceasefire agreement must include the unconditional release of captive IDF soldiers being held by terrorists. A third IDF soldier is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza. He was taken captive in the Kerem Shalom area near Gaza in June. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has released statements remaining firm in his demands for the immediate and unconditional release of the three as a prerequisite to an Israeli agreement to halt military offensives in Lebanon and Gaza.
By Yechiel Spira(INN)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to a US plan calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force along Israel’s border. Following an almost two-hour meeting in his Jerusalem residence with US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice on Saturday night, the prime minister agreed to the US plan, calling for the deployment of a multinational force between Israel and Lebanon and Syria. It was announced that France and Lebanon would take part in the force, but other details have yet to be decided upon.According to reports following the high-level meeting, the size of the force and the timing for such a move must still be agreed upon, but Olmert has given his approval to the idea of such a force being positioned between Israel and Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.
Secretary Rice will leave for Lebanon on Sunday, and she will return to Israel following talks with officials in Beirut as she continues her shuttle diplomacy mission in the hope of actualizing a ceasefire. The US-brokered plan includes yet another land withdrawal by Israel, from the Har Dov area, also known as Shab’a Farm. The area today has a vital strategic significance, permitting IDF troops to man outposts along the border area.The prime minister has indicated a willingness to consider withdrawing from Shab'a, despite Israel’s compliance with the demands of the international community in its May 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and despite the fact that the Har Dov area was liberated from Syrian occupation, not Lebanese.
UN Resolution 1559 of two years ago calls for the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah. It is not clear if this will help achieve Israel's stated goals of distancing Hizbullah from Israel’s border and cutting off Hizbullah’s weapons supply train from Iran and Syria.While Secretary Rice did not call upon Israel to stop the military offensive in Lebanon at this time, French President Jacques Chirac released a statement that he would not authorize the deployment of his troops until Israel ceases its fire.Reports quoting senior Defense Ministry officials state that the Americans will permit the ongoing Israeli offensive against Hizbullah to continue for another 7-10 days, but no such official statement has been released. France on the other hand is preparing to turn to the UN Security Council, demanding an immediate Israeli ceasefire. The French resolution was distributed to council members over the weekend, calling for a stabilization force numbering some 20,000 troops.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan on Monday will head a session discussing potential force members, which is expected to include European Union nations as well as Turkey. In a weekend interview with the BBC, British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed optimism, stating he believes an agreement on the international force and a ceasefire can be reached in a number of days. Israel’s military offensive intended to disarm and distance the Hizbullah threat was launched following a multi-pronged Hizbullah attack on July 12 which left eight soldiers dead and two IDF soldiers falling captive to the terrorists. Since the start of the ongoing warfare, Hizbullah has fired close to 2,000 missiles into Israeli civilian population centers, striking the entire northern area. Hizbullah has continually threatened to direct longer-range rockets into the Greater Tel Aviv area. Last week, longer-range missiles landed as far south as Afula.
Secretary Rice has signaled that any ceasefire agreement must include the unconditional release of captive IDF soldiers being held by terrorists. A third IDF soldier is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza. He was taken captive in the Kerem Shalom area near Gaza in June. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has released statements remaining firm in his demands for the immediate and unconditional release of the three as a prerequisite to an Israeli agreement to halt military offensives in Lebanon and Gaza.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
RICE STUCK ON PALESTINIAN STATE
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
DANIEL 8:25
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:39
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
ISAIAH 28:14-19
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.
TAKE NOTICE WHAT VERSE 14 SAYS YES ITS JERUSALEM THATS DIVIDED.THATS WHY GOD IS SO MAD AND WW3 RESULTS BECAUSE OF IT. IN DANIEL CHAPTERS 2 + 7 IT SAYS THE EU WILL BE THE LAST DAYS POWER AND IN DANIEL 9:24-27 IT INVOLVES ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM. YOU COULD NOT DIVIDE JERUSALEM IF IT WAS NOT IN ISRAELS HANDS, THATS WHY THE LAST DAYS COUNTDOWN STARTED WITH ISRAEL BECOMING A NATION AND RECAPTURING JERUSALEM IN THE SIX DAY WAR. JERUSALEM IS THE KEY. BECAUSE JERUSALEM WILL BE TROUBLSOME AND A CUP
OF TREMBLING IN THESE LAST DAYS.
ZECHARIAH 12:1-3
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Rice says need to keep focus on Palestinian state By Wafa Amr 1 hour, 1 minute
RAMALLAH (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday there was a need to remain focused on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel despite the crisis in Lebanon. Rice met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after visiting Lebanon and Israel, where she discussed the two weeks of fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas that have opened up a
second front for Israel, already fighting in Gaza for a month.
Even as the Lebanon situation is resolved, we must remain focused on what is happening here, in the Palestinian territories,Rice told a news conference.On our desires to get back to ... (the) vision of two states living side by side in peace.
Israeli-Palestinian relations hit a new low last month when gunmen from the Gaza Strip, including militants from the governing Hamas Islamist movement, killed two soldiers in Israel and abducted a third.That prompted an Israeli offensive which has left 121 Palestinians dead, but failed to secure the soldier's release or halt rocket fire by militants. The fighting in Gaza has been overshadowed by the war in Lebanon.A senior Palestinian official said Rice had told Abbas, a moderate, that Washington wanted to see a change in the Hamas government, which is under a U.S.-led aid embargo to force it to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept peace deals.
She also told Abbas to use his authority to restore calm so that a political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be discussed when the Lebanon crisis is over.
THREAT
If the Palestinians don't change the government and don't achieve calm, the Palestinians will be ignored,the official said. There was no immediate U.S. comment.Abbas, who has been struggling to salvage peacemaking amid resistance from Hamas, voiced hope that the Israeli soldier would be returned by the militants and Israel would be prompted to release Palestinian prisoners.
We ... will exert maximum effort to revive the peace process and to guarantee the release of the soldier,he said.We hope that Israel will realize the suffering of 10,000 Palestinian families whose sons and daughters are in Israeli jails.Israel, which abandoned Gaza in 2005 after a 38 years of occupation, has ruled out any prisoner swap, although Germany, which helped negotiate an exchange of prisoners in 2004, said on Monday it was hopeful for the release of the soldier.A Palestinian official said Abbas told Rice that a more fanatical group might emerge in Lebanon if Hizbollah is cowed, noting that when Israel pushed out Palestinian guerrillas from Lebanon in the 1980s they were replaced by Hizbollah.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas dismissed calls by Rice for a new Middle East of peace and democracy.It seems that the new Middle East from the American perspective begins with the destruction of Lebanon and by killing the biggest number of Palestinians, Haniyeh said.(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming)
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
DANIEL 8:25
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:39
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
ISAIAH 28:14-19
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.
TAKE NOTICE WHAT VERSE 14 SAYS YES ITS JERUSALEM THATS DIVIDED.THATS WHY GOD IS SO MAD AND WW3 RESULTS BECAUSE OF IT. IN DANIEL CHAPTERS 2 + 7 IT SAYS THE EU WILL BE THE LAST DAYS POWER AND IN DANIEL 9:24-27 IT INVOLVES ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM. YOU COULD NOT DIVIDE JERUSALEM IF IT WAS NOT IN ISRAELS HANDS, THATS WHY THE LAST DAYS COUNTDOWN STARTED WITH ISRAEL BECOMING A NATION AND RECAPTURING JERUSALEM IN THE SIX DAY WAR. JERUSALEM IS THE KEY. BECAUSE JERUSALEM WILL BE TROUBLSOME AND A CUP
OF TREMBLING IN THESE LAST DAYS.
ZECHARIAH 12:1-3
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Rice says need to keep focus on Palestinian state By Wafa Amr 1 hour, 1 minute
RAMALLAH (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday there was a need to remain focused on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel despite the crisis in Lebanon. Rice met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after visiting Lebanon and Israel, where she discussed the two weeks of fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas that have opened up a
second front for Israel, already fighting in Gaza for a month.
Even as the Lebanon situation is resolved, we must remain focused on what is happening here, in the Palestinian territories,Rice told a news conference.On our desires to get back to ... (the) vision of two states living side by side in peace.
Israeli-Palestinian relations hit a new low last month when gunmen from the Gaza Strip, including militants from the governing Hamas Islamist movement, killed two soldiers in Israel and abducted a third.That prompted an Israeli offensive which has left 121 Palestinians dead, but failed to secure the soldier's release or halt rocket fire by militants. The fighting in Gaza has been overshadowed by the war in Lebanon.A senior Palestinian official said Rice had told Abbas, a moderate, that Washington wanted to see a change in the Hamas government, which is under a U.S.-led aid embargo to force it to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept peace deals.
She also told Abbas to use his authority to restore calm so that a political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be discussed when the Lebanon crisis is over.
THREAT
If the Palestinians don't change the government and don't achieve calm, the Palestinians will be ignored,the official said. There was no immediate U.S. comment.Abbas, who has been struggling to salvage peacemaking amid resistance from Hamas, voiced hope that the Israeli soldier would be returned by the militants and Israel would be prompted to release Palestinian prisoners.
We ... will exert maximum effort to revive the peace process and to guarantee the release of the soldier,he said.We hope that Israel will realize the suffering of 10,000 Palestinian families whose sons and daughters are in Israeli jails.Israel, which abandoned Gaza in 2005 after a 38 years of occupation, has ruled out any prisoner swap, although Germany, which helped negotiate an exchange of prisoners in 2004, said on Monday it was hopeful for the release of the soldier.A Palestinian official said Abbas told Rice that a more fanatical group might emerge in Lebanon if Hizbollah is cowed, noting that when Israel pushed out Palestinian guerrillas from Lebanon in the 1980s they were replaced by Hizbollah.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas dismissed calls by Rice for a new Middle East of peace and democracy.It seems that the new Middle East from the American perspective begins with the destruction of Lebanon and by killing the biggest number of Palestinians, Haniyeh said.(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming)
Monday, July 24, 2006
ISRAEL MIGHT LET EU TROOPS COME IN
The Bible tells me the Eu troops will come in because the EU can not defend Israel if the troops do not come in. And the Bible says that Israel will be defended by the EU for a land for Security 7 year Peace treaty.
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
Israel could accept EU peacekeepers in Lebanon24.07.2006 - 09:56 CET By Lucia
KubosovaIsrael has signalled it could accept a European peacekeeping force in Lebanon if it has a stronger mandate and more soldiers than current UN troops operating in the region.
Israel is ready to see deployment of a force with military capabilities and combat experience made up of troops from European Union countries once its mandate has been fixed,Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday (23 July), following talks with envoys from Germany, France and the UK.Earlier this month, several EU foreign ministers suggested their countries would support a new UN mission once the international community agrees on the details of its deployment.Mr Olmert said the new peacekeeping team should be capable of controlling crossings between Syria and Lebanon and be able to support the Lebanese army in
dismantling the military power of Hezbollah.
He denied allegations his government is preparing to attack Syria, which Jerusalem has
repeatedly accused of supplying weapons to Hezbollah, but warned that If Syria joins the conflict, we will react severely. The Israeli announcement came after top level meetings with German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and British foreign office minister Kim Howells.Mr Douste-Blazy visited the northern city of Haifa, where he called for a ceasefire which answers Israel's legitimate aspiration to live in security and a ceasefire which preserves the state of Lebanon,according to European media. But the BBC reports that Jerusalem has indicated it will need another week or ten days to conclude its operation.At least 362 Lebanese and 37 Israelis have been killed since the violence started a fortnight ago, with civilian casualties on both sides.The conflict was triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers on 12 July by Hezbollah which demanded an exchange for their own people jailed in Israel.
Brussels helps out
Meanwhile, the European Commission has responded to Lebanese calls for help by activating a so-called EU civil protection mechanism which pools member states' resources for coordinated assistance to disaster-stricken countries. The monitoring and information centre which conducts humanitarian activities on behalf of the EU has informed member states of the most urgent needs of Lebanon - such as medical supplies, materials for shelter and construction and fire-fighting equipment. Cyprus has also been negotiating with other EU member states on how to coordinate the transport of other countries' nationals that have been evacuated to the Mediterranean island from Lebanon in recent days.
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
Israel could accept EU peacekeepers in Lebanon24.07.2006 - 09:56 CET By Lucia
KubosovaIsrael has signalled it could accept a European peacekeeping force in Lebanon if it has a stronger mandate and more soldiers than current UN troops operating in the region.
Israel is ready to see deployment of a force with military capabilities and combat experience made up of troops from European Union countries once its mandate has been fixed,Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday (23 July), following talks with envoys from Germany, France and the UK.Earlier this month, several EU foreign ministers suggested their countries would support a new UN mission once the international community agrees on the details of its deployment.Mr Olmert said the new peacekeeping team should be capable of controlling crossings between Syria and Lebanon and be able to support the Lebanese army in
dismantling the military power of Hezbollah.
He denied allegations his government is preparing to attack Syria, which Jerusalem has
repeatedly accused of supplying weapons to Hezbollah, but warned that If Syria joins the conflict, we will react severely. The Israeli announcement came after top level meetings with German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and British foreign office minister Kim Howells.Mr Douste-Blazy visited the northern city of Haifa, where he called for a ceasefire which answers Israel's legitimate aspiration to live in security and a ceasefire which preserves the state of Lebanon,according to European media. But the BBC reports that Jerusalem has indicated it will need another week or ten days to conclude its operation.At least 362 Lebanese and 37 Israelis have been killed since the violence started a fortnight ago, with civilian casualties on both sides.The conflict was triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers on 12 July by Hezbollah which demanded an exchange for their own people jailed in Israel.
Brussels helps out
Meanwhile, the European Commission has responded to Lebanese calls for help by activating a so-called EU civil protection mechanism which pools member states' resources for coordinated assistance to disaster-stricken countries. The monitoring and information centre which conducts humanitarian activities on behalf of the EU has informed member states of the most urgent needs of Lebanon - such as medical supplies, materials for shelter and construction and fire-fighting equipment. Cyprus has also been negotiating with other EU member states on how to coordinate the transport of other countries' nationals that have been evacuated to the Mediterranean island from Lebanon in recent days.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
WATCH THE PALESTINIANS
Watch the ‘Palestinians’
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 and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE 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 17:11 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 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 have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines(PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
WATCH THE PALESTINIANS
There is a very important lesson regarding the “land-for-peace” process that Israel must learn from the current battle with Hizb’allah.
Hizb’allah’s raison d’etre - at least as far as the world was concerned - was Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. But six years ago, Israel withdrew from every square inch of Lebanon, as demanded by the international community.
And yet, Hizb’allah remains, and is causing more trouble today than ever before. That is because Hizb’allah’s true raison d’etre, according to its own covenant and statements, is the annihilation of the Jewish state.
The same is true not only for more “radical” groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but also for Fatah and the entire PLO, which were established for the liberation of Palestine.
It is telling to watch the reaction of the Palestinian Arabs as Hizb’allah assaults their Israeli “peace” partners. While the entire Arab world outside of Syria is criticizing Hizb’allah, the “Palestinians” are cheering on the Lebanese terrorists.
They are not, as one would expect of participants in their own land-for-peace process, urging Hizb’allah to halt its aggression now that it has achieved its initial territorial demands. No, the “Palestinians” are actually hollering for Hizb’allah to hurry up and start lobbing missiles into Tel Aviv.
The “Palestinians” are demonstrating that even if they are given 100% of Judea, Samaria and Gaza - including eastern Jerusalem - they are as likely as not to follow the lead of their Hizb’allah role models and find a reason (the very existence of Israel) to fight on.
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 and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE 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 17:11 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 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 have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines(PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
WATCH THE PALESTINIANS
There is a very important lesson regarding the “land-for-peace” process that Israel must learn from the current battle with Hizb’allah.
Hizb’allah’s raison d’etre - at least as far as the world was concerned - was Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. But six years ago, Israel withdrew from every square inch of Lebanon, as demanded by the international community.
And yet, Hizb’allah remains, and is causing more trouble today than ever before. That is because Hizb’allah’s true raison d’etre, according to its own covenant and statements, is the annihilation of the Jewish state.
The same is true not only for more “radical” groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but also for Fatah and the entire PLO, which were established for the liberation of Palestine.
It is telling to watch the reaction of the Palestinian Arabs as Hizb’allah assaults their Israeli “peace” partners. While the entire Arab world outside of Syria is criticizing Hizb’allah, the “Palestinians” are cheering on the Lebanese terrorists.
They are not, as one would expect of participants in their own land-for-peace process, urging Hizb’allah to halt its aggression now that it has achieved its initial territorial demands. No, the “Palestinians” are actually hollering for Hizb’allah to hurry up and start lobbing missiles into Tel Aviv.
The “Palestinians” are demonstrating that even if they are given 100% of Judea, Samaria and Gaza - including eastern Jerusalem - they are as likely as not to follow the lead of their Hizb’allah role models and find a reason (the very existence of Israel) to fight on.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
FATAH MURDERERS CALL FOR INTERVENTION
Fatah calls for international peace conference to end Mideast crisis
The Central Committee of Palestinian Fatah movement on Tuesday called for an international peace conference focuses on ending the Middle East violence, especially the Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. In a statement issued by the committee, the Fatah movement demanded the conference to be held according to the Arab peace initiative which was adopted in the Arab League's Beirut summit in 2002, and the Internationally-backed roadmap peace plan.
The Arab peace initiative forms a true basis to revive the peace process and stop the Israeli policy which insists on occupation, settlement and annexing Palestinian and Arab land, said the statement. It also called for immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and urged the Israeli army to withdraw from the two territories. Israel launched two separated military operations into Gaza Strip and Lebanon after Palestinian militant groups and Lebanese Hizbollah captured three Israeli soldiers in two unlinked raids.
Calling on Arab leaders to move quickly and face the Israeli aggression, the statement held the international community, UN Security Council and the Middle East Quarter responsible for the deterioration of the peace process. (Source: Xinhua)
The Central Committee of Palestinian Fatah movement on Tuesday called for an international peace conference focuses on ending the Middle East violence, especially the Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. In a statement issued by the committee, the Fatah movement demanded the conference to be held according to the Arab peace initiative which was adopted in the Arab League's Beirut summit in 2002, and the Internationally-backed roadmap peace plan.
The Arab peace initiative forms a true basis to revive the peace process and stop the Israeli policy which insists on occupation, settlement and annexing Palestinian and Arab land, said the statement. It also called for immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and urged the Israeli army to withdraw from the two territories. Israel launched two separated military operations into Gaza Strip and Lebanon after Palestinian militant groups and Lebanese Hizbollah captured three Israeli soldiers in two unlinked raids.
Calling on Arab leaders to move quickly and face the Israeli aggression, the statement held the international community, UN Security Council and the Middle East Quarter responsible for the deterioration of the peace process. (Source: Xinhua)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
NOT THEIR TEMPLE
'Not Their Temple'
By ELI LAKEJuly 17, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt - One of the most popular graffiti tags here is roughly translated, as It's our mosque, not their Temple. You can find these words emblazoned on not only concrete walls of tenements, but also under framed pictures of al Aqsa Mosque in the offices of newspaper editors, politicians and lawyers. I first noticed it at the lobby of Cairo's medical syndicate, the Egyptian equivalent of the American Medical Association.
This slogan is a way to understand Arab public opinion about the latest war in Lebanon and Gaza. There is no Jewish claim to the remains of the second temple on the base of the Temple Mount. There is only the mosque where Mohammed ascended to heaven for a brief visit.
There is no equivalent academic movement in the Arab world similar to the Israeli post-Zionists of the 1990s, who sifted through Israeli archives to dissent, dubiously at times, from what they saw as the myths of their state's founding. There are no Arab equivalents of the Israeli B'tselem, who spend their hours documenting the plight of Palestinians under occupation. There are not
even programs at universities to study the enemy, to understand Israeli society, to learn Hebrew. There is only this abstract noun - the Zionist entity, populated by abstractions - the Jews.
From this well of ignorance, slanders and lies flourish. The Holocaust? It never happened, a myth of the Jew-run press. Israeli scientists invented AIDS. Israelis poison Palestinian drinking water. Hezbollah is still resisting Jewish occupation, even though it celebrates how their arms drove Israeli occupiers out of southern Lebanon in 2000. How can anyone be surprised that in this environment, when Arabs are given an electoral choice, pluralities and majorities will vote
for parties that seek the destruction of the enemy abstraction? There was no serious coverage in the Arab press of Israel's withdrawal last summer from Gaza, only the line about occupation.
While Israelis may have abandoned the dream of a greater Israel extending to Gaza and the West Bank, most Arabs struggle for Jerusalem.The ruling regimes in the Middle East help proliferate this ignorance. The Saudi royal family funds the publishing house that prints
Arabic translations of the old Russian forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Ramadan miniseries produced in Syria and Lebanon depict the practice of rabbis using the blood of gentile children to make Matzoh. When an Egyptian playwright, Ali Salem, visited Israel in 1994 and published a book about his travels, not an apology, just an account of particulars of his time in Egypt's northern neighbor, he was kicked out of the writer's syndicate and suffered the brunt of a rumor campaign led by the state-funded press. From a professional perspective he was ruined.
The consensus in America and Europe now is that free elections in the Middle East will empower those openly seeking the elimination of Israel. This is what the sovereign families prefer. Hence the mediocre strong men and sultans of the Arab world become indispensable to the western powers that seek nothing more than stability and oil. Our diplomats sigh in relief when they
read comments from anonymous members of the Saudi royal family who criticize Hezbollah.
They fret when they see the Arab reporters screaming at the Arab League's secretary general for not promising Arab armies will save Lebanon from the latest Zionist invasion.But despotism also has its costs. The corollaries of tyranny - corruption and a suffocation of rights - also drive young men to grow beards the size of their fists, read and re-read passages of the Koran and embrace the nihilism of Saudi-exported Islam. The fruits of western prosperity - iPods, cars, clothes - are not on offer to even the brightest Arabs, where almost all the spoils of the state are
hoarded for friends and family of the rulers. Most college graduates in Egypt today cannot afford a furnished apartment.
While there is a liberal opposition in the Middle East, its agenda is rendered moot when it sees Beirut burning and is told that at any moment, Cairo or Amman could be next. So with no good options for a future, more and more young, educated men choose to destroy the source of temptation and reject all of the things they wanted. The jihad movement is unbending in its opposition to the West and Israel. Like the petty dictators that so often throw them in torture rooms and jail cells, the death Sheikhs benefit from the West's reliance on these jailers.
The Bush administration has labored under the illusion that the region's royal families understand this dangerous cycle and will voluntarily reform before it tips out of control. It would be nice to believe. But when reality intrudes, as it is intruding now, our ambassadors cannot be bothered to discuss the latest press laws or jailing of protestors. No, there is peace that must be processed. If only we could get Israel talking with the right Arab leaders to extinguish the latest fire from the fundamentalists. Meanwhile, most Arabs see only a war for a mosque on a mountain and no evidence there was ever a Temple there before it.
By ELI LAKEJuly 17, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt - One of the most popular graffiti tags here is roughly translated, as It's our mosque, not their Temple. You can find these words emblazoned on not only concrete walls of tenements, but also under framed pictures of al Aqsa Mosque in the offices of newspaper editors, politicians and lawyers. I first noticed it at the lobby of Cairo's medical syndicate, the Egyptian equivalent of the American Medical Association.
This slogan is a way to understand Arab public opinion about the latest war in Lebanon and Gaza. There is no Jewish claim to the remains of the second temple on the base of the Temple Mount. There is only the mosque where Mohammed ascended to heaven for a brief visit.
There is no equivalent academic movement in the Arab world similar to the Israeli post-Zionists of the 1990s, who sifted through Israeli archives to dissent, dubiously at times, from what they saw as the myths of their state's founding. There are no Arab equivalents of the Israeli B'tselem, who spend their hours documenting the plight of Palestinians under occupation. There are not
even programs at universities to study the enemy, to understand Israeli society, to learn Hebrew. There is only this abstract noun - the Zionist entity, populated by abstractions - the Jews.
From this well of ignorance, slanders and lies flourish. The Holocaust? It never happened, a myth of the Jew-run press. Israeli scientists invented AIDS. Israelis poison Palestinian drinking water. Hezbollah is still resisting Jewish occupation, even though it celebrates how their arms drove Israeli occupiers out of southern Lebanon in 2000. How can anyone be surprised that in this environment, when Arabs are given an electoral choice, pluralities and majorities will vote
for parties that seek the destruction of the enemy abstraction? There was no serious coverage in the Arab press of Israel's withdrawal last summer from Gaza, only the line about occupation.
While Israelis may have abandoned the dream of a greater Israel extending to Gaza and the West Bank, most Arabs struggle for Jerusalem.The ruling regimes in the Middle East help proliferate this ignorance. The Saudi royal family funds the publishing house that prints
Arabic translations of the old Russian forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Ramadan miniseries produced in Syria and Lebanon depict the practice of rabbis using the blood of gentile children to make Matzoh. When an Egyptian playwright, Ali Salem, visited Israel in 1994 and published a book about his travels, not an apology, just an account of particulars of his time in Egypt's northern neighbor, he was kicked out of the writer's syndicate and suffered the brunt of a rumor campaign led by the state-funded press. From a professional perspective he was ruined.
The consensus in America and Europe now is that free elections in the Middle East will empower those openly seeking the elimination of Israel. This is what the sovereign families prefer. Hence the mediocre strong men and sultans of the Arab world become indispensable to the western powers that seek nothing more than stability and oil. Our diplomats sigh in relief when they
read comments from anonymous members of the Saudi royal family who criticize Hezbollah.
They fret when they see the Arab reporters screaming at the Arab League's secretary general for not promising Arab armies will save Lebanon from the latest Zionist invasion.But despotism also has its costs. The corollaries of tyranny - corruption and a suffocation of rights - also drive young men to grow beards the size of their fists, read and re-read passages of the Koran and embrace the nihilism of Saudi-exported Islam. The fruits of western prosperity - iPods, cars, clothes - are not on offer to even the brightest Arabs, where almost all the spoils of the state are
hoarded for friends and family of the rulers. Most college graduates in Egypt today cannot afford a furnished apartment.
While there is a liberal opposition in the Middle East, its agenda is rendered moot when it sees Beirut burning and is told that at any moment, Cairo or Amman could be next. So with no good options for a future, more and more young, educated men choose to destroy the source of temptation and reject all of the things they wanted. The jihad movement is unbending in its opposition to the West and Israel. Like the petty dictators that so often throw them in torture rooms and jail cells, the death Sheikhs benefit from the West's reliance on these jailers.
The Bush administration has labored under the illusion that the region's royal families understand this dangerous cycle and will voluntarily reform before it tips out of control. It would be nice to believe. But when reality intrudes, as it is intruding now, our ambassadors cannot be bothered to discuss the latest press laws or jailing of protestors. No, there is peace that must be processed. If only we could get Israel talking with the right Arab leaders to extinguish the latest fire from the fundamentalists. Meanwhile, most Arabs see only a war for a mosque on a mountain and no evidence there was ever a Temple there before it.
Monday, July 17, 2006
EU BACKS UN FORCE
Olmert Blames Iran, Syria as Europe Backs UN Force (Update1)
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert blamed the conflict in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Iran and Syria and vowed to keep up the fight as long as Israel remains under threat from what he called their terrorist proxies.
Olmert's remarks in a televised speech to the Israeli parliament came as European leaders endorsed a call by the United Nations for a military force to quell the combat in Lebanon. The French government urged a cease-fire. The U.S. government cast doubt on the idea of inserting UN troops, with President George W. Bush seeking pressure on neighboring Syria to disarm Hezbollah guerrillas.
``The battle we are conducting now is against the terrorist organizations operating in Lebanon and in Gaza,'' Olmert said in an address to the Israeli parliament late today. ``They are contractors, acting under the tutelage and with the encouragement of governments that support terrorism and oppose peace, the axis of evil that runs from Tehran to Damascus.'
The Lebanon conflict stretched into its sixth day with Israeli forces attacking Hezbollah's Beirut headquarters and other targets as up to 30 Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel, including Haifa, the country's third-largest city.
The military operation is the largest Israel has undertaken in Lebanon since 1982 and comes as Israeli forces battle Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Dollar Rises, Oil Falls
The U.S. dollar surged to the highest level in almost three months against the yen and strengthened versus the euro as investors sought a haven from the Middle East violence.
Crude oil fell 2.3 percent in New York, the biggest decline in five weeks, on speculation that Israel may halt its offensive within days. Israel's Channel 10 reported that a senior Israeli officer had said the attacks may end soon, according to Sky News, which also said an Israeli government spokeswoman denied the report.
Stocks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt rebounded as investors bet a slide caused by fighting may have been overdone.
`Head-On' Fight
Olmert said Israel's goals were the same as the Group of Eight industrial nations, which conferred on the conflict during their summit in Russia. Israel doesn't seek a wider war or a ``head-on confrontation,'' yet must act so its citizens can enjoy a normal life and not be held ``hostage'' by terrorism, Olmert said.
Bush and the other G-8 leaders issued a statement blaming ``extremist forces'' for the fighting. Their message stopped short of condemning Hezbollah's Syrian or Iranian sponsors.
Meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, the G-8 said Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket attacks fired from Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. They demanded the return of captive Israeli soldiers, an end to Hezbollah shelling of Israeli territory and a halt in Israeli operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
The U.S. State Department said the ``international security monitoring presence'' proposed by the G-8 was still a concept. Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington the U.S. wants action by the Lebanese armed forces to secure southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah's militia holds sway now.
McCormack said the U.S. expects UN Security Council action on Lebanon later this week after three envoys -- Vijay Nambiar, Alvaro de Soto and Terje Roed-Larsen -- return from the region. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice intends to make a trip to the region aimed at laying ``the groundwork for a lasting cessation of violence,'' McCormack said.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi offered to make a ``significant contribution'' to any deployment in Lebanon, after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the plan at the summit. U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also backed the idea.
Truce Sought
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin asked for an ``immediate humanitarian truce,'' after meeting in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, according to Agence France-Presse.
Bush voiced reservations about the UN initiative to gain a cease-fire in an informal conversation with Blair at the G-8 that was picked up by a nearby television microphone. ``See, the irony is, what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over,'' Bush said.
Since 1978, the UN has stationed peacekeeping forces in a southern strip of Lebanon. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, now has about 1,990 troops in the country, a contingent that has failed to stop either Israel or Hezbollah from undertaking operations.
The only kind of international force that will make a difference in Lebanon will be one ready to ``kill and be killed,'' said Mark Heller, principal research associate at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.
Casualties Rise
Twelve people were killed when an Israeli missile struck a minibus south of Beirut late today, bringing the total number killed in Lebanon to 42 since the morning, Al Arabiya television said, citing reporters.
At least 170 Lebanese civilians have been killed since the conflict began, according to Lebanese police, who decline to be identified. Twenty-four Israelis have also been killed.
Italy and the U.K. sent warships into the eastern Mediterranean as most of the Group of Eight countries made plans to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon and Israel.
Leaving Beirut
The U.S. military today stepped up the voluntary evacuation of Americans in Lebanon and prepared for a potential mass exodus. Pentagon planners will use helicopters and a ferry for the effort. Marine Corps CH-53 helicopters have taken 64 Americans from Beirut so far. We are operating on the scale of potentially thousands of people who want to leave, McCormack told reporters at a briefing. U.S. citizens will be evacuated to Cyprus, he said, either by air or by sea.
Rockets fell on Haifa this afternoon, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. The rockets, which also landed in other northern towns, caused part of a three-story building to collapse and injured six people, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, said by telephone. Haifa is the site of Israel's largest oil refinery.
Longest Strikes
Other rockets fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah struck today in areas of Galilee's Jezreel Valley about 50 kilometers (31 miles) inside Israel, the longest such strikes since the conflict began, an army spokeswoman said.
Haifa port, Israel's biggest, ceased operations today and the two vessels berthed there departed, an official for the state-owned Haifa Port Co., who asked not to be identified, said by telephone. She said officials will decide whether to continue the closure tomorrow.
Israel will strike Lebanon's electrical infrastructure if Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa's petrochemicals plants, Israel Radio said, citing an unidentified senior army officer. Until now, Israel hasn't knocked out Lebanon's power grid in order not to undermine the Lebanese government, the officer said, according to the radio.
In Gaza, where Israel has been staging operations since June 28, Israel targeted rocket launchers after Qassam missiles hit two southern towns, the army said. Palestinians reported one civilian death.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, an Israeli soldier was killed and another wounded when Palestinian gunmen threw an explosive device at a patrol, the army said.
Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, razing Jewish settlements it established after seizing the area from Egypt in the Six-Day War of 1967. To contact the reporters on this story:
Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net;
Dania Saadi in Cairo at at dsaadi2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: July 17, 2006 15:55 EDT
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert blamed the conflict in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Iran and Syria and vowed to keep up the fight as long as Israel remains under threat from what he called their terrorist proxies.
Olmert's remarks in a televised speech to the Israeli parliament came as European leaders endorsed a call by the United Nations for a military force to quell the combat in Lebanon. The French government urged a cease-fire. The U.S. government cast doubt on the idea of inserting UN troops, with President George W. Bush seeking pressure on neighboring Syria to disarm Hezbollah guerrillas.
``The battle we are conducting now is against the terrorist organizations operating in Lebanon and in Gaza,'' Olmert said in an address to the Israeli parliament late today. ``They are contractors, acting under the tutelage and with the encouragement of governments that support terrorism and oppose peace, the axis of evil that runs from Tehran to Damascus.'
The Lebanon conflict stretched into its sixth day with Israeli forces attacking Hezbollah's Beirut headquarters and other targets as up to 30 Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel, including Haifa, the country's third-largest city.
The military operation is the largest Israel has undertaken in Lebanon since 1982 and comes as Israeli forces battle Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Dollar Rises, Oil Falls
The U.S. dollar surged to the highest level in almost three months against the yen and strengthened versus the euro as investors sought a haven from the Middle East violence.
Crude oil fell 2.3 percent in New York, the biggest decline in five weeks, on speculation that Israel may halt its offensive within days. Israel's Channel 10 reported that a senior Israeli officer had said the attacks may end soon, according to Sky News, which also said an Israeli government spokeswoman denied the report.
Stocks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt rebounded as investors bet a slide caused by fighting may have been overdone.
`Head-On' Fight
Olmert said Israel's goals were the same as the Group of Eight industrial nations, which conferred on the conflict during their summit in Russia. Israel doesn't seek a wider war or a ``head-on confrontation,'' yet must act so its citizens can enjoy a normal life and not be held ``hostage'' by terrorism, Olmert said.
Bush and the other G-8 leaders issued a statement blaming ``extremist forces'' for the fighting. Their message stopped short of condemning Hezbollah's Syrian or Iranian sponsors.
Meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, the G-8 said Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket attacks fired from Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. They demanded the return of captive Israeli soldiers, an end to Hezbollah shelling of Israeli territory and a halt in Israeli operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
The U.S. State Department said the ``international security monitoring presence'' proposed by the G-8 was still a concept. Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington the U.S. wants action by the Lebanese armed forces to secure southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah's militia holds sway now.
McCormack said the U.S. expects UN Security Council action on Lebanon later this week after three envoys -- Vijay Nambiar, Alvaro de Soto and Terje Roed-Larsen -- return from the region. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice intends to make a trip to the region aimed at laying ``the groundwork for a lasting cessation of violence,'' McCormack said.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi offered to make a ``significant contribution'' to any deployment in Lebanon, after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the plan at the summit. U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also backed the idea.
Truce Sought
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin asked for an ``immediate humanitarian truce,'' after meeting in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, according to Agence France-Presse.
Bush voiced reservations about the UN initiative to gain a cease-fire in an informal conversation with Blair at the G-8 that was picked up by a nearby television microphone. ``See, the irony is, what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over,'' Bush said.
Since 1978, the UN has stationed peacekeeping forces in a southern strip of Lebanon. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, now has about 1,990 troops in the country, a contingent that has failed to stop either Israel or Hezbollah from undertaking operations.
The only kind of international force that will make a difference in Lebanon will be one ready to ``kill and be killed,'' said Mark Heller, principal research associate at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.
Casualties Rise
Twelve people were killed when an Israeli missile struck a minibus south of Beirut late today, bringing the total number killed in Lebanon to 42 since the morning, Al Arabiya television said, citing reporters.
At least 170 Lebanese civilians have been killed since the conflict began, according to Lebanese police, who decline to be identified. Twenty-four Israelis have also been killed.
Italy and the U.K. sent warships into the eastern Mediterranean as most of the Group of Eight countries made plans to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon and Israel.
Leaving Beirut
The U.S. military today stepped up the voluntary evacuation of Americans in Lebanon and prepared for a potential mass exodus. Pentagon planners will use helicopters and a ferry for the effort. Marine Corps CH-53 helicopters have taken 64 Americans from Beirut so far. We are operating on the scale of potentially thousands of people who want to leave, McCormack told reporters at a briefing. U.S. citizens will be evacuated to Cyprus, he said, either by air or by sea.
Rockets fell on Haifa this afternoon, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. The rockets, which also landed in other northern towns, caused part of a three-story building to collapse and injured six people, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, said by telephone. Haifa is the site of Israel's largest oil refinery.
Longest Strikes
Other rockets fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah struck today in areas of Galilee's Jezreel Valley about 50 kilometers (31 miles) inside Israel, the longest such strikes since the conflict began, an army spokeswoman said.
Haifa port, Israel's biggest, ceased operations today and the two vessels berthed there departed, an official for the state-owned Haifa Port Co., who asked not to be identified, said by telephone. She said officials will decide whether to continue the closure tomorrow.
Israel will strike Lebanon's electrical infrastructure if Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa's petrochemicals plants, Israel Radio said, citing an unidentified senior army officer. Until now, Israel hasn't knocked out Lebanon's power grid in order not to undermine the Lebanese government, the officer said, according to the radio.
In Gaza, where Israel has been staging operations since June 28, Israel targeted rocket launchers after Qassam missiles hit two southern towns, the army said. Palestinians reported one civilian death.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, an Israeli soldier was killed and another wounded when Palestinian gunmen threw an explosive device at a patrol, the army said.
Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, razing Jewish settlements it established after seizing the area from Egypt in the Six-Day War of 1967. To contact the reporters on this story:
Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net;
Dania Saadi in Cairo at at dsaadi2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: July 17, 2006 15:55 EDT
PRAYER FOR ISRAELI SOLDIERS
Prayer for Gilad Shalit, to be read by all communities,
composed by the Rishon Le'Sion, Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Shelomo Amar.(Psalm readings: Chapters 70, 13, 142, 126)
OFFICIAL LETTER FROM CHIEF RABBINATE
Prayer for the Deliverance of the Captured Israeli Soldiers
MAY it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that these Psalms which we have read before You today should come to You favorably, and be accepted before you as if King David Your anointed one – peace be on him – had said them himself. Please take action for the sake of Your Holy names which are written in them, and which are alluded to in them, and accept with mercy and favor our prayers and requests, so that our supplications reach You.
Have pity, show concern and extend mercy to the captives, Ehud ben Malka Goldwasser; Eldad ben Tovah Regev; and Gilad ben Aviva Shalit, and save them, showing redemption and mercy,
together with all captives and prisoners from Your nation Israel.
MAY the One who can liberate captives release them from their detention, deliver them from captivity to liberty, from tyranny to redemption, and from gloom to brightness, and restore them to complete health – a healing of the soul and of the body – and revitalize their spirit, reinvigorate their strength, and help them in happiness and joy; then they will be strengthened and healed and will have eternal happiness.
MAY the merit of the prayers, the cries, and the supplications of the multitudes who plead for them all over the world stand for them as a shield and a protection, freeing them from their captivity. Please tear asunder any negative judgments. May all their merits be presented before You, the Blessed One, and all that they have achieved and done for the sake of our nation and our heritage.
Tear up their verdicts for the merit of the Holy Name that is alluded to in the initial Hebrew letters of the phrase “Accept the prayer of your nation; fortify us, purify us, You who are so awesome. MAY the words of this scriptural verse (Isaiah 53:10) be fulfilled for them: “God’s captives will return and come to Zion in joy; eternal happiness will be on their heads, they will be invested with joy and happiness, and sorrow and anxiety will be banished.” May this
happen very soon!
Translation by Rabbi Mayer Waxman, Director of Synagogue Services, Orthodox UnionEdited by David Olivestone, Director of Communications, Orthodox Union
Gilad Shalit is a corporal in the Israel Defense Forces. He comes from Mitzpe Hila in the Western Galilee, and holds dual Israeli and French citizenship. Gilad is the first Israeli soldier captured by Palestinians since Nachson Wachsman in 1994. Early on Sunday morning, June 25, 2006, Shalit was kidnapped by Palestinian Arab terrorists who attacked an army post in Israel after crossing the border from Gaza via a tunnel near the Kerem Shalom crossing at the south Gaza Strip border. During the morning attack, two Israel Defense Force soldiers were killed and four others wounded.
composed by the Rishon Le'Sion, Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Shelomo Amar.(Psalm readings: Chapters 70, 13, 142, 126)
OFFICIAL LETTER FROM CHIEF RABBINATE
Prayer for the Deliverance of the Captured Israeli Soldiers
MAY it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that these Psalms which we have read before You today should come to You favorably, and be accepted before you as if King David Your anointed one – peace be on him – had said them himself. Please take action for the sake of Your Holy names which are written in them, and which are alluded to in them, and accept with mercy and favor our prayers and requests, so that our supplications reach You.
Have pity, show concern and extend mercy to the captives, Ehud ben Malka Goldwasser; Eldad ben Tovah Regev; and Gilad ben Aviva Shalit, and save them, showing redemption and mercy,
together with all captives and prisoners from Your nation Israel.
MAY the One who can liberate captives release them from their detention, deliver them from captivity to liberty, from tyranny to redemption, and from gloom to brightness, and restore them to complete health – a healing of the soul and of the body – and revitalize their spirit, reinvigorate their strength, and help them in happiness and joy; then they will be strengthened and healed and will have eternal happiness.
MAY the merit of the prayers, the cries, and the supplications of the multitudes who plead for them all over the world stand for them as a shield and a protection, freeing them from their captivity. Please tear asunder any negative judgments. May all their merits be presented before You, the Blessed One, and all that they have achieved and done for the sake of our nation and our heritage.
Tear up their verdicts for the merit of the Holy Name that is alluded to in the initial Hebrew letters of the phrase “Accept the prayer of your nation; fortify us, purify us, You who are so awesome. MAY the words of this scriptural verse (Isaiah 53:10) be fulfilled for them: “God’s captives will return and come to Zion in joy; eternal happiness will be on their heads, they will be invested with joy and happiness, and sorrow and anxiety will be banished.” May this
happen very soon!
Translation by Rabbi Mayer Waxman, Director of Synagogue Services, Orthodox UnionEdited by David Olivestone, Director of Communications, Orthodox Union
Gilad Shalit is a corporal in the Israel Defense Forces. He comes from Mitzpe Hila in the Western Galilee, and holds dual Israeli and French citizenship. Gilad is the first Israeli soldier captured by Palestinians since Nachson Wachsman in 1994. Early on Sunday morning, June 25, 2006, Shalit was kidnapped by Palestinian Arab terrorists who attacked an army post in Israel after crossing the border from Gaza via a tunnel near the Kerem Shalom crossing at the south Gaza Strip border. During the morning attack, two Israel Defense Force soldiers were killed and four others wounded.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
HEZBOLLAH MURDERER SPEAKS OUT
Leader: Hezbollah Has 'Complete Strength
The Associated PressSunday, July 16, 2006; 12:02 PM
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah urged Arabs and Muslims worldwide to support his guerrillas, saying Sunday that his group is fighting Israel on their behalf and that the battle has just begun.A confident-looking Nasrallah said in a speech aired on his Al-Manar TV that Hezbollah guerrillas were at their "full strength" and that the group had "no choice" but to hit the northern Israeli city of Haifi with rockets Sundayh after Israel struck civilians in Lebanon.As long as the enemy acts without limitations, it is our right to act similarly,he said.Nasrallah said he taped the message at 1 p.m. Sunday, disspelling reports that he had been hurt in the massive Israeli bombing of his headquarters overnight Sunday as some Israeli reports said. The message was aired about six hours after that time.
We are in our full strength and power. We will choose the place and the time, and we will not let the enemy impose the means or place to use their weapons,he said.Facing criticism by some in Lebanon that Hezbollah dragged the country into a fight with Israel by snatching two soldiers last week, Nasrallah sought to rally Lebanese and the Arab annd Islamic world behind his fighters., painted the battle as a chance for the Arab and Islamic world to deal a defeat to Israel.You Arab and Muslim people must take a position toward your future, the future of your children, he said.
The peoples of the Arab and Islamic world have a historic opportunity to score a defeat against the Zionist enemy ... We are providing the example.Hezbollah is not fighting a battle for Hezbollah or even for Lebanon but for the Islamic nation,he said.He denied Israeli claims that Iran had sent members of its elite Revolutionary Guards to help Hezbollah.I completely deny the presence of any Iranian troops, he said. "Lebanese are the ones firing these weapons .. They talk about Iranians to diminish and humiliate us as Lebanese and Arabs that we don't have the capabilities and experience.
The Associated PressSunday, July 16, 2006; 12:02 PM
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah urged Arabs and Muslims worldwide to support his guerrillas, saying Sunday that his group is fighting Israel on their behalf and that the battle has just begun.A confident-looking Nasrallah said in a speech aired on his Al-Manar TV that Hezbollah guerrillas were at their "full strength" and that the group had "no choice" but to hit the northern Israeli city of Haifi with rockets Sundayh after Israel struck civilians in Lebanon.As long as the enemy acts without limitations, it is our right to act similarly,he said.Nasrallah said he taped the message at 1 p.m. Sunday, disspelling reports that he had been hurt in the massive Israeli bombing of his headquarters overnight Sunday as some Israeli reports said. The message was aired about six hours after that time.
We are in our full strength and power. We will choose the place and the time, and we will not let the enemy impose the means or place to use their weapons,he said.Facing criticism by some in Lebanon that Hezbollah dragged the country into a fight with Israel by snatching two soldiers last week, Nasrallah sought to rally Lebanese and the Arab annd Islamic world behind his fighters., painted the battle as a chance for the Arab and Islamic world to deal a defeat to Israel.You Arab and Muslim people must take a position toward your future, the future of your children, he said.
The peoples of the Arab and Islamic world have a historic opportunity to score a defeat against the Zionist enemy ... We are providing the example.Hezbollah is not fighting a battle for Hezbollah or even for Lebanon but for the Islamic nation,he said.He denied Israeli claims that Iran had sent members of its elite Revolutionary Guards to help Hezbollah.I completely deny the presence of any Iranian troops, he said. "Lebanese are the ones firing these weapons .. They talk about Iranians to diminish and humiliate us as Lebanese and Arabs that we don't have the capabilities and experience.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
ANY CHANCE OF PEACEMAKING
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Any Chance for Peacemaking?
What the Players WantMuch has changed in the Mideast since the U.S. choreographed an end to the 1996 Israel-Lebanon flare-up. A look at the competing agendas at work now.
Posted Friday, Jul. 14, 2006
The flare-up in violence across Israel's border with Lebanon is a graphic reminder that none of the Middle East's individual conflicts can be isolated from the region's other flashpoints, making episodes like this one much more difficult to manage, let alone resolve. And at a moment where much of the region's traditional architecture of power — from Iraq through Lebanon to the Palestinian territories — has been demolished or critically weakened but not necessarily replaced, the challenge of containing a crisis in the region is even more daunting.
A decade ago, for example, the U.S. together with France was able to act as an honest broker between Israel, Syria and Lebanon to put an end to a similar flare-up. But back then, Syria was in control of Lebanon and participating in U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel over the fate of the Golan Heights; Iraq was still ruled by Saddam Hussein's tyranny which also functioned to limit Iran's regional ambitions; and the Oslo peace process offered Israel and the Palestinians the prospect of peace. Today dialogue amongst the various parties is rare, even as the prospects for U.S. success on key issues such as stabilizing Iraq, fighting al-Qaeda and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons may hinge in no small part on its ability to stop the Israel Hizballah crisis from spinning out of control. But having dispensed with the traditional U.S. role of shuttling between warring parties, the Bush administration finds its ability to keep a lid on their clashes quite limited.
A quick look at the agendas of the various players in the latest conflict underscores the difficulty facing any would-be peacemaker:
Hizballah
By opening a second front against the Israelis, Hizballah is showing support for the Palestinians of Gaza, who have been under siege by the Israelis for two weeks since they seized an Israeli captive of their own. Moderate Arab governments like Egypt and Jordan appear unable to ease the plight of the Palestinians, and Hizballah may be helping its main sponsor, Iran, burnish its claims to be standing up to Israel and the U.S. on behalf of the whole region. The movement gained a kind of pan-Arab hero status in 2000, when Israel quit Lebanon and Hizballah was acclaimed as the only Arab army ever to have forced an Israeli retreat. It had become a role model and tutor to Palestinian radical groups such as Hamas, which sought to emulate not only Hizballah's art of combining welfare work, politics and military activities, but also its principle of using violence to extract concessions from Israel.
In fact, the Hamas militants that seized Corporal Gilad Shalit at Kerem Shalom may have been hoping to emulate Hizballah by forcing the release of large numbers of prisoners for the Israeli's freedom. But Palestinian analysts suggest they were also trying to sabotage any move toward moderation and negotiation with Israel by the Hamas parliamentary leadership. But Hizballah also has a domestic agenda, which includes hanging onto the private army that gives it disproportionate power in Lebanon. Ever since international pressure forced its ally and enabler, Syria, to retreat from Lebanon last year in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Hizballah has faced a mounting clamor from the other Lebanese political parties to give up its weapons — in line with U.N. Security Council demands — and confine itself to democratic politics. But the Lebanese government has been powerless to enforce that demand. By picking a fight with Israel and provoking harsh military retribution felt by
all of Lebanese society, Hizballah may be perversely trying to make a case for maintaining its army, given the clear inability of the Lebanese army to stand up to the Israelis. It also, ironically, eclipses even the Damascus-based leadership of Hamas by demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners as part of its price for freeing Hizballah's Israeli captives.
Syria
Syria's departure left a power vacuum in Lebanon that gave Hizballah even greater freedom of action. Before 2000, Syria, which lacks the military strength to go head-to-head with Israel, saw Hizballah's guerrilla war in southern Lebanon as the key leverage behind its own demands that Israel hand back the Golan Heights. It transferred weapons sent from Iran to Hizballah's forward positions along the Israeli border, and created a defensive shield behind which its fighters trained in the Bekaa Valley. But that relationship both enabled and restrained Hizballah, because Israeli or U.S. pressure on and incentives to Syria could prompt it to rein in the Lebanese guerrilla army. Syria's departure from Lebanon may have diminished some of its direct influence over Hizballah, and Damascus may have less will to restrain it while Syria remains in Washington's diplomatic dog-house. While some statements from the Bush
administration appear to hold Syria accountable for the flare-up, others are less accusatory, couched more in terms of encouraging Syria to use its influence to help resolve the crisis.
Iran
Having created Hizballah in 1982 and maintaining close ties with the organization ever since, Iran may also see its interests served by the escalation of violence in Lebanon and Gaza regardless of whether or not Hizballah actually coordinated its decision with Tehran. Iran's regional influence has grown substantially as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which removed its arch-enemy, Saddam Hussein, and brought to power a Shi'ite coalition government dominated by elements allied with Tehran. Prospects for averting the slide towards civil war in Iraq appear to be grim without active support from Iran, which retains considerable influence
over the main Shi'ite militias.
The U.S. vulnerability in Iraq, as well as the ability of Hizballah to make life difficult on Israel's northern border, may have emboldened Iran's leaders to play hardball in nuclear negotiations with the West. Iran's growing reach may also raise the incentives for Washington to seek a "grand bargain" with Tehran that would stabilize relations based on addressing Iran's demand for a normalization of its diplomatic status and security guarantees if it satisfactorily addresses Western concerns over its nuclear program and support for the likes of Hizballah and Hamas.
(In a spurned Iranian overture to Washington in 2003 revealed by former National Security Council Middle East director Flynt Leverett and also by Colin Powell's former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson, Iran reportedly offered to discuss ways in which Hizballah could be converted into a purely political organization.) With the U.S. and its European allies moving the Iran nuclear issue back to the UN Security Council in exasperation over Tehran's tardy response to their incentives package, Iran could use the violence in Lebanon either to change the subject, or eventually as an opportunity to demonstrate responsible behavior by quietly prevailing on Hizballah to accept some form of truce.
Israel
The events in Gaza and Lebanon clearly took the Israeli leadership by surprise, and the first instinct of a government that by Israeli standards has a notable lack of military experience has been to retaliate harshly in order to reestablish Israel's deterrent power. The Palestinians and the Lebanese must be made to pay a heavy price for tolerating the militants in their midst, goes the thinking, and Israel is reportedly considering a ground invasion aimed at dismantling Hizballah's military capability.
But the two-week operation in Gaza has thus far failed to yield either the return of Corporal Shalit or an end to Palestinian rocket fire, and Hamas appears to be more popular than ever. The Israelis insist that they must erase the threat to their citizenry by taking down the leadership of Hamas and Hizballah, and that a failure to do so would simply invite further provocations. But the track record suggests that military means may be unable to accomplish that goal, and the militants know this. They are clearly betting they can withstand the Israeli offensive as the civilian casualty toll and the destruction of infrastructure inevitably bring calls for restraint from the West.
The domestic political damage to Israel's government may be more enduring. With every escalation of the current crisis, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plans to make a unilateral withdrawal from parts of the West Bank along the same lines that Israel quit Gaza last year look less realistic. Opinion polls show as much as half the population is now opposed to going ahead with the plan that had been the centerpiece of Olmert's election campaign.
The Diplomatic Conundrum
If, as history suggests is likely, the Israelis can't achieve their objectives militarily, Washington is in a tough position. The escalation threatens not only long-term U.S. goals in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, but also Washington's ability to secure a consensus over Iran and Iraq. But to the extent that this administration has distinguished itself from predecessors by its reluctance both to impose restraints on Israel and to deal with actors it deems beyond the pale, such as Hamas, Hizballah, Syria and Iran, its ability to quickly contain the crisis may be limited.
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Any Chance for Peacemaking?
What the Players WantMuch has changed in the Mideast since the U.S. choreographed an end to the 1996 Israel-Lebanon flare-up. A look at the competing agendas at work now.
Posted Friday, Jul. 14, 2006
The flare-up in violence across Israel's border with Lebanon is a graphic reminder that none of the Middle East's individual conflicts can be isolated from the region's other flashpoints, making episodes like this one much more difficult to manage, let alone resolve. And at a moment where much of the region's traditional architecture of power — from Iraq through Lebanon to the Palestinian territories — has been demolished or critically weakened but not necessarily replaced, the challenge of containing a crisis in the region is even more daunting.
A decade ago, for example, the U.S. together with France was able to act as an honest broker between Israel, Syria and Lebanon to put an end to a similar flare-up. But back then, Syria was in control of Lebanon and participating in U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel over the fate of the Golan Heights; Iraq was still ruled by Saddam Hussein's tyranny which also functioned to limit Iran's regional ambitions; and the Oslo peace process offered Israel and the Palestinians the prospect of peace. Today dialogue amongst the various parties is rare, even as the prospects for U.S. success on key issues such as stabilizing Iraq, fighting al-Qaeda and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons may hinge in no small part on its ability to stop the Israel Hizballah crisis from spinning out of control. But having dispensed with the traditional U.S. role of shuttling between warring parties, the Bush administration finds its ability to keep a lid on their clashes quite limited.
A quick look at the agendas of the various players in the latest conflict underscores the difficulty facing any would-be peacemaker:
Hizballah
By opening a second front against the Israelis, Hizballah is showing support for the Palestinians of Gaza, who have been under siege by the Israelis for two weeks since they seized an Israeli captive of their own. Moderate Arab governments like Egypt and Jordan appear unable to ease the plight of the Palestinians, and Hizballah may be helping its main sponsor, Iran, burnish its claims to be standing up to Israel and the U.S. on behalf of the whole region. The movement gained a kind of pan-Arab hero status in 2000, when Israel quit Lebanon and Hizballah was acclaimed as the only Arab army ever to have forced an Israeli retreat. It had become a role model and tutor to Palestinian radical groups such as Hamas, which sought to emulate not only Hizballah's art of combining welfare work, politics and military activities, but also its principle of using violence to extract concessions from Israel.
In fact, the Hamas militants that seized Corporal Gilad Shalit at Kerem Shalom may have been hoping to emulate Hizballah by forcing the release of large numbers of prisoners for the Israeli's freedom. But Palestinian analysts suggest they were also trying to sabotage any move toward moderation and negotiation with Israel by the Hamas parliamentary leadership. But Hizballah also has a domestic agenda, which includes hanging onto the private army that gives it disproportionate power in Lebanon. Ever since international pressure forced its ally and enabler, Syria, to retreat from Lebanon last year in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Hizballah has faced a mounting clamor from the other Lebanese political parties to give up its weapons — in line with U.N. Security Council demands — and confine itself to democratic politics. But the Lebanese government has been powerless to enforce that demand. By picking a fight with Israel and provoking harsh military retribution felt by
all of Lebanese society, Hizballah may be perversely trying to make a case for maintaining its army, given the clear inability of the Lebanese army to stand up to the Israelis. It also, ironically, eclipses even the Damascus-based leadership of Hamas by demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners as part of its price for freeing Hizballah's Israeli captives.
Syria
Syria's departure left a power vacuum in Lebanon that gave Hizballah even greater freedom of action. Before 2000, Syria, which lacks the military strength to go head-to-head with Israel, saw Hizballah's guerrilla war in southern Lebanon as the key leverage behind its own demands that Israel hand back the Golan Heights. It transferred weapons sent from Iran to Hizballah's forward positions along the Israeli border, and created a defensive shield behind which its fighters trained in the Bekaa Valley. But that relationship both enabled and restrained Hizballah, because Israeli or U.S. pressure on and incentives to Syria could prompt it to rein in the Lebanese guerrilla army. Syria's departure from Lebanon may have diminished some of its direct influence over Hizballah, and Damascus may have less will to restrain it while Syria remains in Washington's diplomatic dog-house. While some statements from the Bush
administration appear to hold Syria accountable for the flare-up, others are less accusatory, couched more in terms of encouraging Syria to use its influence to help resolve the crisis.
Iran
Having created Hizballah in 1982 and maintaining close ties with the organization ever since, Iran may also see its interests served by the escalation of violence in Lebanon and Gaza regardless of whether or not Hizballah actually coordinated its decision with Tehran. Iran's regional influence has grown substantially as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which removed its arch-enemy, Saddam Hussein, and brought to power a Shi'ite coalition government dominated by elements allied with Tehran. Prospects for averting the slide towards civil war in Iraq appear to be grim without active support from Iran, which retains considerable influence
over the main Shi'ite militias.
The U.S. vulnerability in Iraq, as well as the ability of Hizballah to make life difficult on Israel's northern border, may have emboldened Iran's leaders to play hardball in nuclear negotiations with the West. Iran's growing reach may also raise the incentives for Washington to seek a "grand bargain" with Tehran that would stabilize relations based on addressing Iran's demand for a normalization of its diplomatic status and security guarantees if it satisfactorily addresses Western concerns over its nuclear program and support for the likes of Hizballah and Hamas.
(In a spurned Iranian overture to Washington in 2003 revealed by former National Security Council Middle East director Flynt Leverett and also by Colin Powell's former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson, Iran reportedly offered to discuss ways in which Hizballah could be converted into a purely political organization.) With the U.S. and its European allies moving the Iran nuclear issue back to the UN Security Council in exasperation over Tehran's tardy response to their incentives package, Iran could use the violence in Lebanon either to change the subject, or eventually as an opportunity to demonstrate responsible behavior by quietly prevailing on Hizballah to accept some form of truce.
Israel
The events in Gaza and Lebanon clearly took the Israeli leadership by surprise, and the first instinct of a government that by Israeli standards has a notable lack of military experience has been to retaliate harshly in order to reestablish Israel's deterrent power. The Palestinians and the Lebanese must be made to pay a heavy price for tolerating the militants in their midst, goes the thinking, and Israel is reportedly considering a ground invasion aimed at dismantling Hizballah's military capability.
But the two-week operation in Gaza has thus far failed to yield either the return of Corporal Shalit or an end to Palestinian rocket fire, and Hamas appears to be more popular than ever. The Israelis insist that they must erase the threat to their citizenry by taking down the leadership of Hamas and Hizballah, and that a failure to do so would simply invite further provocations. But the track record suggests that military means may be unable to accomplish that goal, and the militants know this. They are clearly betting they can withstand the Israeli offensive as the civilian casualty toll and the destruction of infrastructure inevitably bring calls for restraint from the West.
The domestic political damage to Israel's government may be more enduring. With every escalation of the current crisis, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plans to make a unilateral withdrawal from parts of the West Bank along the same lines that Israel quit Gaza last year look less realistic. Opinion polls show as much as half the population is now opposed to going ahead with the plan that had been the centerpiece of Olmert's election campaign.
The Diplomatic Conundrum
If, as history suggests is likely, the Israelis can't achieve their objectives militarily, Washington is in a tough position. The escalation threatens not only long-term U.S. goals in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, but also Washington's ability to secure a consensus over Iran and Iraq. But to the extent that this administration has distinguished itself from predecessors by its reluctance both to impose restraints on Israel and to deal with actors it deems beyond the pale, such as Hamas, Hizballah, Syria and Iran, its ability to quickly contain the crisis may be limited.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
ISRAEL DEFENDS ITSELF
Either God is giving Israel some of their promised land in these mini wars, or Israel and the U.S are getting ready to Bomb Irans Nuclear sites and possibly Syria.
Israel Shuts Down Lebanon in Response to Hizbullah Barrage
By Hillel Fendel(Arutz-7 NEWS)
Dozens of Hizbullah-fired Katyusha rockets struck all over the north Thursday morning, killing two. Northern Israel had six years of quiet, and Hizbullah had six years to build up its rocket forces.Israel has essentially imposed a total blockade on Lebanon, having taken out the runways of the Beirut International Airport and imposing a naval blockade of Lebanese seaports.Israel also continues to attack dozens of targets throughout Lebanon, destroying bridges, roads, military positions, arms storehouses and missile battery locations. The city of Baalbek - the main Hizbullah stronghold in Lebanon, some 100 kilometers north of Israel - was also bombed.
Close to 50 Lebanese have been reported killed in the Israeli attacks.
The Israel Air Force also hit the Al-Manar terrorist television studios. The station, however, apparently anticipated the attack, and moved its broadcasts to an unknown location ahead of time. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz says that Israel has warned residents of a southern Beirut suburb - home to Hizbullah chief Sheikh Nasrallah and many other leading Hizbullah terrorists - to evacuate the area. It is unreasonable to assume that they will be allowed to live there in serenity for much longer, Halutz said.
Hizbullah threatens to bomb Haifa if southern Beirut is bombed. The Beirut-Damascus highway is also a target that will be taken care of, IDF sources said.Interior Minister Roni Bar-On (Kadima), a staunch supporter of the Disengagement plan, said today, There is only one possible outcome: the victory of [our] army, leadership and nation.
Israeli officials said the purpose of Israel's offensive is to eradicate Hizbullah, and pressure Lebanon to withdraw its tacit support for the terrorist organization in its midst.The names of the two soldiers who were abducted by Hizbullah yesterday were released this afternoon. They are Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, from Kiryat Motzkin.
Early Afternoon Attacks
After Hizbullah's initial Katyusha attack this morning, it continued firing afterwards at northern Israel, firing a total of more than 50 Katyushas. Rockets hit Beit Hillel again and caused a fire - one of several that were caused by the rockets - and struck other areas as well. Katyushas fell in Kfar Nasi in the Galilee and in Kibbutz Mahanayim, deeper into Israel than ever before. The hospital in Nahariya, operating on an emergency basis, has moved all of its hundreds of patients to underground floors, for fear of a Katyusha attack.After a lull of 3-4 hours, another four Katyushas hit the city of Tzfat. Two people were hurt, with critical and moderate wounds,
respectively, and several others were treated for shock. Rockets were also fired at Shlomi, in the northwestern Galilee, this afternoon.Government and military officials say that the offensive in Lebanon will take weeks, and will be qualitatively different than any Israeli offensive since the 1982 Peace for Galilee War.
Israel's Retaliation Followed by Morning Katyusha Barrage
Israel attacked Hizbullah throughout yesterday (Wednesday) and over the night, following Hizbullah's killing of eight soldiers and its abduction of two others Wednesday morning. Israel's retaliation included more than 100 aerial attacks in southern Lebanon Wednesday night and early Thursday. Hizbullah's response to the retaliation, as expected and long-planned, was quick to come: Shortly after 7 AM this morning (Thursday), a barrage of Katyusha rockets began, hitting an IDF position in Mount Meron, not far from Tzfat. No one was hurt, but soon afterwards, four more rockets hit the other side of the Galilee - the coastal city of Nahariya.
One Katyusha hit the porch of a home where a woman was eating breakfast; she was killed on the spot. Within minutes it became clear that Nahariya and Mt. Meron were not isolated attacks. Nahariya was rocketed again, as were many other locations throughout the north, including Rosh Pina, Tzfat, Margaliot, Machanayim, Machanayim Airport, Beit Hillel, Kfar HaNasi, and Mishmar HaYarden. The IDF Northern Command Headquarters was also hit. Ten Katyushas hit Tel Chai between 8 and 9 AM.
The total number of injured is close to 70.
The IDF has instructed residents throughout the north - hundreds of thousands of people - to enter their shelters and reinforced rooms. The orders have been largely ignored, however, and army officials have stepped up their tone, practically imploring residents to protect themselves. If until now Nahariya and Kiryat Shmonah were always in range of Hizbullah's Katyusha rockets, communities further to the south are now in range as well - but the IDF estimates that Hizbullah has not even fired its longest-range Katyushas as of yet. The army is considering ordering the residents of towns and cities further to the south into their shelters.Israel Police was placed on a level-3 alert, just one level below a state of emergency, anticipating a possible attempt by Palestinian terrorists to attack in the homefront.
The Israeli Offensive
Among the Lebanese targets attacked by Israel's air force over the night were a dozen bridges and much of southern Lebanon's highway infrastructure. One strike hit a vehicle in which two Hizbullah terrorists were traveling. Israel has announced that it views the Lebanese government as responsible for the attacks from within its borders, including the rockets and abduction of the two IDF soldiers. The IDF announced the formation of a one-kilometer buffer zone, and any Lebanese seen in the area will be shot on sight.
Until now, Hizbullah has stationed many outposts all along the border with Israel, practically adjacent to Israeli positions. Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that Israel would not allow Hizbullah to return to its former positions. "The only body that can operate there is the Lebanese Army, Peretz said. Last night, Gen. Udi Adam, the Commander of the Northern Command, said he was unsure whether Hizbullah would be permitted to rebuild its positions. Just a few weeks ago, the IAF destroyed many Hizbullah positions, but allowed the terrorists to begin rebuilding immediately afterwards.
Israel Shuts Down Lebanon in Response to Hizbullah Barrage
By Hillel Fendel(Arutz-7 NEWS)
Dozens of Hizbullah-fired Katyusha rockets struck all over the north Thursday morning, killing two. Northern Israel had six years of quiet, and Hizbullah had six years to build up its rocket forces.Israel has essentially imposed a total blockade on Lebanon, having taken out the runways of the Beirut International Airport and imposing a naval blockade of Lebanese seaports.Israel also continues to attack dozens of targets throughout Lebanon, destroying bridges, roads, military positions, arms storehouses and missile battery locations. The city of Baalbek - the main Hizbullah stronghold in Lebanon, some 100 kilometers north of Israel - was also bombed.
Close to 50 Lebanese have been reported killed in the Israeli attacks.
The Israel Air Force also hit the Al-Manar terrorist television studios. The station, however, apparently anticipated the attack, and moved its broadcasts to an unknown location ahead of time. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz says that Israel has warned residents of a southern Beirut suburb - home to Hizbullah chief Sheikh Nasrallah and many other leading Hizbullah terrorists - to evacuate the area. It is unreasonable to assume that they will be allowed to live there in serenity for much longer, Halutz said.
Hizbullah threatens to bomb Haifa if southern Beirut is bombed. The Beirut-Damascus highway is also a target that will be taken care of, IDF sources said.Interior Minister Roni Bar-On (Kadima), a staunch supporter of the Disengagement plan, said today, There is only one possible outcome: the victory of [our] army, leadership and nation.
Israeli officials said the purpose of Israel's offensive is to eradicate Hizbullah, and pressure Lebanon to withdraw its tacit support for the terrorist organization in its midst.The names of the two soldiers who were abducted by Hizbullah yesterday were released this afternoon. They are Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, from Kiryat Motzkin.
Early Afternoon Attacks
After Hizbullah's initial Katyusha attack this morning, it continued firing afterwards at northern Israel, firing a total of more than 50 Katyushas. Rockets hit Beit Hillel again and caused a fire - one of several that were caused by the rockets - and struck other areas as well. Katyushas fell in Kfar Nasi in the Galilee and in Kibbutz Mahanayim, deeper into Israel than ever before. The hospital in Nahariya, operating on an emergency basis, has moved all of its hundreds of patients to underground floors, for fear of a Katyusha attack.After a lull of 3-4 hours, another four Katyushas hit the city of Tzfat. Two people were hurt, with critical and moderate wounds,
respectively, and several others were treated for shock. Rockets were also fired at Shlomi, in the northwestern Galilee, this afternoon.Government and military officials say that the offensive in Lebanon will take weeks, and will be qualitatively different than any Israeli offensive since the 1982 Peace for Galilee War.
Israel's Retaliation Followed by Morning Katyusha Barrage
Israel attacked Hizbullah throughout yesterday (Wednesday) and over the night, following Hizbullah's killing of eight soldiers and its abduction of two others Wednesday morning. Israel's retaliation included more than 100 aerial attacks in southern Lebanon Wednesday night and early Thursday. Hizbullah's response to the retaliation, as expected and long-planned, was quick to come: Shortly after 7 AM this morning (Thursday), a barrage of Katyusha rockets began, hitting an IDF position in Mount Meron, not far from Tzfat. No one was hurt, but soon afterwards, four more rockets hit the other side of the Galilee - the coastal city of Nahariya.
One Katyusha hit the porch of a home where a woman was eating breakfast; she was killed on the spot. Within minutes it became clear that Nahariya and Mt. Meron were not isolated attacks. Nahariya was rocketed again, as were many other locations throughout the north, including Rosh Pina, Tzfat, Margaliot, Machanayim, Machanayim Airport, Beit Hillel, Kfar HaNasi, and Mishmar HaYarden. The IDF Northern Command Headquarters was also hit. Ten Katyushas hit Tel Chai between 8 and 9 AM.
The total number of injured is close to 70.
The IDF has instructed residents throughout the north - hundreds of thousands of people - to enter their shelters and reinforced rooms. The orders have been largely ignored, however, and army officials have stepped up their tone, practically imploring residents to protect themselves. If until now Nahariya and Kiryat Shmonah were always in range of Hizbullah's Katyusha rockets, communities further to the south are now in range as well - but the IDF estimates that Hizbullah has not even fired its longest-range Katyushas as of yet. The army is considering ordering the residents of towns and cities further to the south into their shelters.Israel Police was placed on a level-3 alert, just one level below a state of emergency, anticipating a possible attempt by Palestinian terrorists to attack in the homefront.
The Israeli Offensive
Among the Lebanese targets attacked by Israel's air force over the night were a dozen bridges and much of southern Lebanon's highway infrastructure. One strike hit a vehicle in which two Hizbullah terrorists were traveling. Israel has announced that it views the Lebanese government as responsible for the attacks from within its borders, including the rockets and abduction of the two IDF soldiers. The IDF announced the formation of a one-kilometer buffer zone, and any Lebanese seen in the area will be shot on sight.
Until now, Hizbullah has stationed many outposts all along the border with Israel, practically adjacent to Israeli positions. Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that Israel would not allow Hizbullah to return to its former positions. "The only body that can operate there is the Lebanese Army, Peretz said. Last night, Gen. Udi Adam, the Commander of the Northern Command, said he was unsure whether Hizbullah would be permitted to rebuild its positions. Just a few weeks ago, the IAF destroyed many Hizbullah positions, but allowed the terrorists to begin rebuilding immediately afterwards.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
OLMERT REAFFIRMS WITHDRAWL PLANS
Tuesday, July 11, 2006. Issue 3450.
Olmert Reaffirms West Bank Withdrawal PlansBy Steven Gutkin ,The AP.
JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday said that he is absolutely determined to carry out his planned West Bank withdrawal, despite heavy fighting with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Olmert also ruled out negotiations or a prisoner swap with the Hamas-led Palestinian government to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier, calling the Islamic militant group a terrorist bloody organization.Speaking to foreign reporters, Olmert said separation between Israelis and Palestinians was inevitable, adding that the current round of violence in Gaza would not prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Olmert wants to withdraw from most of the West Bank by 2010 to allow the Palestinians to gain independence and to enable Israel to finalize secure borders. I haven't changed my basic commitment to the realignment plan, he said, referring to the pullout. I am absolutely determined to carry out the separation from the Palestinians and establish secure borders. If peace efforts remain stalled, he said, he would carry out the withdrawal unilaterally, just as Israel carried out a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip last year. As a first step, Olmert said he expected to begin uprooting unauthorized outposts in the West Bank in the near future.
Continued rocket fire out of Gaza, along with Israel's recent invasion of the area, has raised questions about whether Olmert can carry out the West Bank pullout. The withdrawal
could put major Israeli population centers well within the range of Palestinian rockets. But Olmert said the violence could not halt a process that began with the Gaza withdrawal. We want to separate in a friendly manner and to live alongside each other ... in a peaceful way, he said. If the terrorist organizations will impose a violent confrontation, both Israelis and Palestinians will have to bear the consequences. That can't stop the inevitable process of separation of Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip on June 28, following the capture of the Israeli soldier. Israel expanded the operation last week into northern Gaza to halt months of rocket attacks. Tanks and ground forces have entered the area, and Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes, leading to widespread destruction.We have no particular desire to topple the Hamas government as a policy. We have a desire to stop terrorists from inflicting terror on the Israeli people,he said, declining to give a timetable for the operation.
The Hamas-linked militants holding the soldier, as well as top Hamas leaders, have called on Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to help end the standoff. Olmert ruled out a prisoner swap. Trading prisoners with a terrorist bloody organization such as Hamas is a major mistake that will cause a lot of damage to the future of the state of Israel,he said. He focused much of his criticism on Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, whom Israel accuses of plotting the capture of the soldier.
Olmert Reaffirms West Bank Withdrawal PlansBy Steven Gutkin ,The AP.
JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday said that he is absolutely determined to carry out his planned West Bank withdrawal, despite heavy fighting with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Olmert also ruled out negotiations or a prisoner swap with the Hamas-led Palestinian government to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier, calling the Islamic militant group a terrorist bloody organization.Speaking to foreign reporters, Olmert said separation between Israelis and Palestinians was inevitable, adding that the current round of violence in Gaza would not prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Olmert wants to withdraw from most of the West Bank by 2010 to allow the Palestinians to gain independence and to enable Israel to finalize secure borders. I haven't changed my basic commitment to the realignment plan, he said, referring to the pullout. I am absolutely determined to carry out the separation from the Palestinians and establish secure borders. If peace efforts remain stalled, he said, he would carry out the withdrawal unilaterally, just as Israel carried out a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip last year. As a first step, Olmert said he expected to begin uprooting unauthorized outposts in the West Bank in the near future.
Continued rocket fire out of Gaza, along with Israel's recent invasion of the area, has raised questions about whether Olmert can carry out the West Bank pullout. The withdrawal
could put major Israeli population centers well within the range of Palestinian rockets. But Olmert said the violence could not halt a process that began with the Gaza withdrawal. We want to separate in a friendly manner and to live alongside each other ... in a peaceful way, he said. If the terrorist organizations will impose a violent confrontation, both Israelis and Palestinians will have to bear the consequences. That can't stop the inevitable process of separation of Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip on June 28, following the capture of the Israeli soldier. Israel expanded the operation last week into northern Gaza to halt months of rocket attacks. Tanks and ground forces have entered the area, and Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes, leading to widespread destruction.We have no particular desire to topple the Hamas government as a policy. We have a desire to stop terrorists from inflicting terror on the Israeli people,he said, declining to give a timetable for the operation.
The Hamas-linked militants holding the soldier, as well as top Hamas leaders, have called on Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to help end the standoff. Olmert ruled out a prisoner swap. Trading prisoners with a terrorist bloody organization such as Hamas is a major mistake that will cause a lot of damage to the future of the state of Israel,he said. He focused much of his criticism on Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, whom Israel accuses of plotting the capture of the soldier.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
TEMPLE MOUNT NO LAND REGISTRY
Temple Mount - not listed in the Land Registry By Nadav Shragai
Tel Aviv architect Tuvia Sagiv, an amateur but well-known researcher of the history of the Temple Mount, no doubt did not imagine that his influence would go as far as the Oval Office of the president of the United States. However, according to Dr. Shmuel Berkovits, an attorney who has written a new book about the holy places, Sagiv is the source for former president Bill Clinton?s proposal to divide sovereignty over the Temple Mount vertically, from top to bottom.
At the end of December 2000, Clinton proposed that the Palestinians get the sovereignty over the level of the mosques while the Jews make do with sovereignty over the depths of the mount, the Western Wall and the Holy of Holies. Sagiv combed the Temple Mount with radar equipment and infra-red cameras that were operated from helicopters flying above and
alongside the site. Relying on these tests, he claimed that the Temple had lain at a depth of 16 meters below the water fountain between Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and that what is known as the Western Wall is not the western wall of the temple but rather part of the wall that was built by the Emperor Adrianus around the Roman shrine that he built on the Temple Mount after the conquest of Jerusalem and its destruction in the second century.
Sagiv proposed breaking open a giant gate in the Western Wall through which Jews could go to reach the level of the Temple, under the level of mosques. Sagiv's revolutionary approach is not in keeping with accepted scholarly opinions. Most of the important archaeologists and rabbis to
this day believe that the Holy of Holies is not situated deep under the ground but rather at ground level as we know it at present, exactly at the spot where the rock is located in the Dome of the Rock. Berkovits, in his new book, How Dreadful is This Place, recounts the history of Sagiv's theory, which was submitted more than 10 years ago to Ariel Sharon when he was still an opposition member of the Knesset. At that time, Sagiv proposed to Sharon that it would be possible to solve the problems of Jews and Moslems praying on the Temple Mount by dividing the use of the site lengthwise rather than breadthwise. Some time later, the U.S. Embassy asked Sagiv to furnish them with an expository copy of his proposal, and in this way the idea made its way into the hands of Clinton.
In any event, Berkovits is of the opinion that even if Sagiv's idea were more acceptable, the Palestinians would never agree to Israeli sovereignty over the depths of the mount, both because of their historic fear that the Jews would undermine the foundations of the mosques and knock them down to rebuild the Temple, and because of their anxiety lest the Jews dig there and find the remnants of the Temple, proof that it existed on the Temple Mount, contrary to the Palestinians' claims about this.
"No holy buildings"
Holy sites are more or less Berkovits' profession. He is a world-renowned expert in the field, and he has been doing research for 25 years, as well as teaching and consulting on these topics. He is a member of the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, serves as an adviser to the Armenian Christian community, to the Museum of Tolerance and the Diaspora Yeshiva. His doctoral thesis was put at the disposal of the Israeli team at the Camp David peace talks with Egypt in 1978 as the central reference document about the holy sites. His previous book, The Wars over the Holy Places, won first prize in 2001, in the field of Israeli security, from the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
Academics and experts in international law will find a great deal of interest in the analyses and the legal innovations in his new book which deals with sanctity, politics and law in the holy places in Jerusalem and in Israel in general. He even received an enthusiastic foreword from the former president of the supreme court, Meir Shamgar. (The two sit together on the committee for prevention of the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount). But the general public will be more interested in those holy cows that Berkovits is not afraid to slaughter, and not always with academic caution.
The most obvious example is his attitude toward the affair of the burning of the synagogues at Gush Katif. Berkovits states: The Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces are keeping secret the information, as if it was a military secret, that before the IDF withdrew from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, the army chaplaincy removed the sanctity of all the synagogues and religious study centers in the Gaza Strip so that the buildings which the Palestinians looted, burned and destroyed in the settlements that were evacuated were no longer synagogues but merely regular buildings. Berkovits says he posed a question to the army chaplaincy on this matter but received an evasive answer, and the military chaplains were prepared only informally to tell him of these developments.
In his book, Berkovits cites, for the first time, the full halakhic ruling written by Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger in which he gives the details of the required halakhic procedure to remove a synagogue's sanctity. The most substantive stage of this procedure comes when there is an act of sale, and the central role is supposed to be that of the chief chaplain of the IDF. In his halakhic opinion, Rabbi Metzger sats the state must assign its rights according to the property laws to the army chief rabbi, and he is the one who must later carry out the sale to the state treasury.
At the time of expropriation, Metzger instructed, the state must make a legal commitment to give something in return for the buildings whose sanctity has been removed, and for buildings that serve for other religious purposes (such as ritual baths). This commitment, he says, will serve as a payment for the sale and will lead to the implementation of the removal of the sanctity. Berkovits also refers to another, albeit less painful, sham, presented to the Israeli
public in 2001 : the negotiations in Taba between representatives from Israel and from the Palestinian Authority, which devoted a great deal of time then to the status of Jerusalem's Old City and the Temple Mount. The foreign minister at the time, Shlomo Ben-Ami, and Yossi Beilin, declared that there had been progress in all the issues and stated that we had never been so close as then to signing a peace agreement. The person who revealed that this was a bluff was none other than Ben-Ami himself.
The book quotes him as saying: It was a week before the elections and this is a legitimate act. It would have been stupid not to take advantage of it.The former prime minister, Ehud Barak, also refers to this display as groundless. Berkovits also does not hesitate to apparently contradict earlier publications about the Taba talks, such as that of Dr. Menahem Klein in his book Shattering a Taboo. Klein wrote in this book that, at the Taba talks, Israel agreed to place the neighborhoods close to the Old City (such as Silwan, a-Tur, Ras el-Amud, and Sheikh Jarrah) under Palestinian sovereignty, and that the Palestinians agreed that neighborhoods like
Gilo, East Talpiot, French Hill and Ramot would be part of Israel. Berkovits' book, How Dreadful is This Place offers a different version, that of attorney Gilad Sher, who headed the Israeli negotiating team to the talks. Sher contends that the sides did not really conduct negotiations and did not arrive at any real agreement on that at all. All the same, Berkovits points out that the very fact that the Israeli side agreed to the Clinton document (although with reservations) gives the impression as if there was some type of agreement.
The big denial
The book devotes space to the great show of denial the Muslims have initiated in the past few years about everything to do with the existence in the past of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, and it brings examples to illustrate that this is not how things were in the past. A guide to the Temple Mount, put out by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1924, states explicitly that the identity of the Temple Mount as the site of the holy shrine of Solomon is beyond any kind of doubt. Berkovits' book also quotes texts from the Palestinian historian Aref al-Aref (1892-1973). Al-Aref was the partner of the Grand Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini in the leadership of
the Palestinian National Movement at the beginning of the Mandatory period, and in his book, A Detailed History of Jerusalem, he writes: The Wailing Wall is the exterior wall of the temple that was reconstructed by Herod ... and the Jews visit there frequently and, on particular, on Tisha B'Av [the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple]. And when they visit the wall, they remember the glorious and unforgettable history and they begin to weep.
Berkovits returns to a finding he mentioned in the past and makes it more concrete - about claims that the Western Wall is holy to Islam because that is where Mohammed tied his winged horse, Al-Burak. Until the middle of the 19th century, various places in the Harm el-Sharif [as the Muslims call the Temple Mount] compound were mentioned as the place to which he tied his horse, sometimes the eastern wall, sometimes the southern wall, but never the Western wall. Berkovits assumes that the Muslims' eventual decision to choose the Western wall was a reaction to the fact that, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Jews started to bring chairs, tables and Torah scrolls with them when they came to pray in the plaza in front of the Western wall. He also cites a long list of proofs of the existence of the Temple on the Temple Mount.
Among the interesting details, and the lesser known ones, on this list are two Greek inscriptions from the Second Temple period that were found in the vicinity of the Lions' Gate that prohibit
the entry of foreigners beyond the barrier that surrounds the Temple, and threaten trespassers with the penalty of death in the following language: A foreign person shall not enter inside the partition that surrounds the Temple or to the court that surrounds it, and whoever is caught will pay with his life and his fate is death. Incidentally, a photograph of the inscriptions appears in the complete guide to the Temple Mount archaeological excavations that was published a few years ago by Dr. Eilat Mazar, and they are mentioned in the description of the Temple by Josephus in his book The Jewish War.
Berkovits, in his book, proposes a series of changes in Israeli legislation relating to holy sites, following the author's discovery that there is no definition of the term holy place. It also points to a hitherto unknown fact that could have far-reaching implications in the argument over the High Court of Justice's right to hear petitions about implementing the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount: In the most famous case on this subject, known as the High Court ruling on nationalist groups, the High Court ruled that Israeli courts do not have the authority to discuss whether the right to prayer can be implemented at holy sites altogether, and at the Temple Mount in particular. With this in mind, all the petitions dealing with the implementation of the Jews' right to pray at the Temple Mount over some 30 years have been rejected.
But in a different case, known as the High Court ruling on women at the Wall, the High Court ruled that it has the authority to discuss the right to pray at the Western Wall, and in this ruling it effectively overturned its own ruling in the case on the nationalist groups. In the last chapter, a fascinating issue is examined. It transpires that the Temple Mount and most of the Western Wall are not registered in any way in the Israel Land Registry ("Tabu") and the issue of who their earthly owners are, has not yet been decided. At the same time, and contrary to what is generally thought to be true, Israel has constantly refrained from expropriating the Western Wall so that this will not be interpreted as a relinquishment of the other walls of the Temple.
One part of the Western Wall was expropriated and registered in the Land Registry as property owned by the State of Israel. The area in question is between the southwestern corner of the Western Wall and as far as the Makhama building [deep beneath which lie the tunnels from the Second Temple period], along the entire height of the wall.
Tel Aviv architect Tuvia Sagiv, an amateur but well-known researcher of the history of the Temple Mount, no doubt did not imagine that his influence would go as far as the Oval Office of the president of the United States. However, according to Dr. Shmuel Berkovits, an attorney who has written a new book about the holy places, Sagiv is the source for former president Bill Clinton?s proposal to divide sovereignty over the Temple Mount vertically, from top to bottom.
At the end of December 2000, Clinton proposed that the Palestinians get the sovereignty over the level of the mosques while the Jews make do with sovereignty over the depths of the mount, the Western Wall and the Holy of Holies. Sagiv combed the Temple Mount with radar equipment and infra-red cameras that were operated from helicopters flying above and
alongside the site. Relying on these tests, he claimed that the Temple had lain at a depth of 16 meters below the water fountain between Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and that what is known as the Western Wall is not the western wall of the temple but rather part of the wall that was built by the Emperor Adrianus around the Roman shrine that he built on the Temple Mount after the conquest of Jerusalem and its destruction in the second century.
Sagiv proposed breaking open a giant gate in the Western Wall through which Jews could go to reach the level of the Temple, under the level of mosques. Sagiv's revolutionary approach is not in keeping with accepted scholarly opinions. Most of the important archaeologists and rabbis to
this day believe that the Holy of Holies is not situated deep under the ground but rather at ground level as we know it at present, exactly at the spot where the rock is located in the Dome of the Rock. Berkovits, in his new book, How Dreadful is This Place, recounts the history of Sagiv's theory, which was submitted more than 10 years ago to Ariel Sharon when he was still an opposition member of the Knesset. At that time, Sagiv proposed to Sharon that it would be possible to solve the problems of Jews and Moslems praying on the Temple Mount by dividing the use of the site lengthwise rather than breadthwise. Some time later, the U.S. Embassy asked Sagiv to furnish them with an expository copy of his proposal, and in this way the idea made its way into the hands of Clinton.
In any event, Berkovits is of the opinion that even if Sagiv's idea were more acceptable, the Palestinians would never agree to Israeli sovereignty over the depths of the mount, both because of their historic fear that the Jews would undermine the foundations of the mosques and knock them down to rebuild the Temple, and because of their anxiety lest the Jews dig there and find the remnants of the Temple, proof that it existed on the Temple Mount, contrary to the Palestinians' claims about this.
"No holy buildings"
Holy sites are more or less Berkovits' profession. He is a world-renowned expert in the field, and he has been doing research for 25 years, as well as teaching and consulting on these topics. He is a member of the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, serves as an adviser to the Armenian Christian community, to the Museum of Tolerance and the Diaspora Yeshiva. His doctoral thesis was put at the disposal of the Israeli team at the Camp David peace talks with Egypt in 1978 as the central reference document about the holy sites. His previous book, The Wars over the Holy Places, won first prize in 2001, in the field of Israeli security, from the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
Academics and experts in international law will find a great deal of interest in the analyses and the legal innovations in his new book which deals with sanctity, politics and law in the holy places in Jerusalem and in Israel in general. He even received an enthusiastic foreword from the former president of the supreme court, Meir Shamgar. (The two sit together on the committee for prevention of the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount). But the general public will be more interested in those holy cows that Berkovits is not afraid to slaughter, and not always with academic caution.
The most obvious example is his attitude toward the affair of the burning of the synagogues at Gush Katif. Berkovits states: The Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces are keeping secret the information, as if it was a military secret, that before the IDF withdrew from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, the army chaplaincy removed the sanctity of all the synagogues and religious study centers in the Gaza Strip so that the buildings which the Palestinians looted, burned and destroyed in the settlements that were evacuated were no longer synagogues but merely regular buildings. Berkovits says he posed a question to the army chaplaincy on this matter but received an evasive answer, and the military chaplains were prepared only informally to tell him of these developments.
In his book, Berkovits cites, for the first time, the full halakhic ruling written by Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger in which he gives the details of the required halakhic procedure to remove a synagogue's sanctity. The most substantive stage of this procedure comes when there is an act of sale, and the central role is supposed to be that of the chief chaplain of the IDF. In his halakhic opinion, Rabbi Metzger sats the state must assign its rights according to the property laws to the army chief rabbi, and he is the one who must later carry out the sale to the state treasury.
At the time of expropriation, Metzger instructed, the state must make a legal commitment to give something in return for the buildings whose sanctity has been removed, and for buildings that serve for other religious purposes (such as ritual baths). This commitment, he says, will serve as a payment for the sale and will lead to the implementation of the removal of the sanctity. Berkovits also refers to another, albeit less painful, sham, presented to the Israeli
public in 2001 : the negotiations in Taba between representatives from Israel and from the Palestinian Authority, which devoted a great deal of time then to the status of Jerusalem's Old City and the Temple Mount. The foreign minister at the time, Shlomo Ben-Ami, and Yossi Beilin, declared that there had been progress in all the issues and stated that we had never been so close as then to signing a peace agreement. The person who revealed that this was a bluff was none other than Ben-Ami himself.
The book quotes him as saying: It was a week before the elections and this is a legitimate act. It would have been stupid not to take advantage of it.The former prime minister, Ehud Barak, also refers to this display as groundless. Berkovits also does not hesitate to apparently contradict earlier publications about the Taba talks, such as that of Dr. Menahem Klein in his book Shattering a Taboo. Klein wrote in this book that, at the Taba talks, Israel agreed to place the neighborhoods close to the Old City (such as Silwan, a-Tur, Ras el-Amud, and Sheikh Jarrah) under Palestinian sovereignty, and that the Palestinians agreed that neighborhoods like
Gilo, East Talpiot, French Hill and Ramot would be part of Israel. Berkovits' book, How Dreadful is This Place offers a different version, that of attorney Gilad Sher, who headed the Israeli negotiating team to the talks. Sher contends that the sides did not really conduct negotiations and did not arrive at any real agreement on that at all. All the same, Berkovits points out that the very fact that the Israeli side agreed to the Clinton document (although with reservations) gives the impression as if there was some type of agreement.
The big denial
The book devotes space to the great show of denial the Muslims have initiated in the past few years about everything to do with the existence in the past of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, and it brings examples to illustrate that this is not how things were in the past. A guide to the Temple Mount, put out by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1924, states explicitly that the identity of the Temple Mount as the site of the holy shrine of Solomon is beyond any kind of doubt. Berkovits' book also quotes texts from the Palestinian historian Aref al-Aref (1892-1973). Al-Aref was the partner of the Grand Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini in the leadership of
the Palestinian National Movement at the beginning of the Mandatory period, and in his book, A Detailed History of Jerusalem, he writes: The Wailing Wall is the exterior wall of the temple that was reconstructed by Herod ... and the Jews visit there frequently and, on particular, on Tisha B'Av [the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple]. And when they visit the wall, they remember the glorious and unforgettable history and they begin to weep.
Berkovits returns to a finding he mentioned in the past and makes it more concrete - about claims that the Western Wall is holy to Islam because that is where Mohammed tied his winged horse, Al-Burak. Until the middle of the 19th century, various places in the Harm el-Sharif [as the Muslims call the Temple Mount] compound were mentioned as the place to which he tied his horse, sometimes the eastern wall, sometimes the southern wall, but never the Western wall. Berkovits assumes that the Muslims' eventual decision to choose the Western wall was a reaction to the fact that, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Jews started to bring chairs, tables and Torah scrolls with them when they came to pray in the plaza in front of the Western wall. He also cites a long list of proofs of the existence of the Temple on the Temple Mount.
Among the interesting details, and the lesser known ones, on this list are two Greek inscriptions from the Second Temple period that were found in the vicinity of the Lions' Gate that prohibit
the entry of foreigners beyond the barrier that surrounds the Temple, and threaten trespassers with the penalty of death in the following language: A foreign person shall not enter inside the partition that surrounds the Temple or to the court that surrounds it, and whoever is caught will pay with his life and his fate is death. Incidentally, a photograph of the inscriptions appears in the complete guide to the Temple Mount archaeological excavations that was published a few years ago by Dr. Eilat Mazar, and they are mentioned in the description of the Temple by Josephus in his book The Jewish War.
Berkovits, in his book, proposes a series of changes in Israeli legislation relating to holy sites, following the author's discovery that there is no definition of the term holy place. It also points to a hitherto unknown fact that could have far-reaching implications in the argument over the High Court of Justice's right to hear petitions about implementing the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount: In the most famous case on this subject, known as the High Court ruling on nationalist groups, the High Court ruled that Israeli courts do not have the authority to discuss whether the right to prayer can be implemented at holy sites altogether, and at the Temple Mount in particular. With this in mind, all the petitions dealing with the implementation of the Jews' right to pray at the Temple Mount over some 30 years have been rejected.
But in a different case, known as the High Court ruling on women at the Wall, the High Court ruled that it has the authority to discuss the right to pray at the Western Wall, and in this ruling it effectively overturned its own ruling in the case on the nationalist groups. In the last chapter, a fascinating issue is examined. It transpires that the Temple Mount and most of the Western Wall are not registered in any way in the Israel Land Registry ("Tabu") and the issue of who their earthly owners are, has not yet been decided. At the same time, and contrary to what is generally thought to be true, Israel has constantly refrained from expropriating the Western Wall so that this will not be interpreted as a relinquishment of the other walls of the Temple.
One part of the Western Wall was expropriated and registered in the Land Registry as property owned by the State of Israel. The area in question is between the southwestern corner of the Western Wall and as far as the Makhama building [deep beneath which lie the tunnels from the Second Temple period], along the entire height of the wall.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
MIDEAST PROSPECTS SLIM EU
Mideast peace prospects 'slim'05/07/2006 17:35 - (SA)
Strasbourg - The European Union said on Wednesday that prospects for the peace process in the Middle East looked slim in light of the escalating violence, but pledged to continue with its efforts to find a solution to the conflict.
The EU urged Palestinian militants to immediately release a captured Israeli soldier and called on Israel to end its military operation that had disrupted electricity supplies in much of Gaza and threatened the lives of civilians.
In the prevailing circumstances the prospect for the peace process are slim but the idea of a two-state approach must be kept alive. Arms are not the answer, Finnish foreign trade and development minister Paula Lehtomaki, whose country has taken over the six-month EU presidency, told the EU Parliament.
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the abduction and Israeli military incursions into Gaza that followed it signalled a worrying escalation of the conflict.
Both sides need to step back from the brink before this becomes a crisis that neither one can control, she said, adding that the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza punishes the Palestinians collectively and puts civilian lives at risk.
Strasbourg - The European Union said on Wednesday that prospects for the peace process in the Middle East looked slim in light of the escalating violence, but pledged to continue with its efforts to find a solution to the conflict.
The EU urged Palestinian militants to immediately release a captured Israeli soldier and called on Israel to end its military operation that had disrupted electricity supplies in much of Gaza and threatened the lives of civilians.
In the prevailing circumstances the prospect for the peace process are slim but the idea of a two-state approach must be kept alive. Arms are not the answer, Finnish foreign trade and development minister Paula Lehtomaki, whose country has taken over the six-month EU presidency, told the EU Parliament.
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the abduction and Israeli military incursions into Gaza that followed it signalled a worrying escalation of the conflict.
Both sides need to step back from the brink before this becomes a crisis that neither one can control, she said, adding that the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza punishes the Palestinians collectively and puts civilian lives at risk.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
POPE CALLS FOR MIDEAST PEACE TALKS
Sunday July 2, 10:27
PMPope calls for Israeli, Palestinian peace talks
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Sunday called for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians and an end to spiralling violence in Iraq. Speaking to thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square, Benedict for the second time this week warned a spiral of "atrocious carnage" in the Holy Land and Iraq risked being aggravated if all sides failed to negotiate. In the face, on one side, of blind violence and atrocious carnage, and on the other, of the threat of aggravating the crisis in the last dramatic few days, there is a need for justice and a serious and credible peace plan: that unfortunately there is no sign of,Benedict said.
Israeli helicopters stepped up a military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Sunday after the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid a week ago. In Iraq, a car bomb on Saturday killed more than 60 people, while Osama bin Laden appeared to warn the country's majority Shi'ites they were not safe from attack by Sunni militants. All must remember that every man, from whatever population, is a brother, Benedict said. Escalating violence in the Middle East and the rise of terrorism has seen the Vatican seeking allies, in particular the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been split from the Catholic Church after a nearly 1,000-year-old schism. Benedict, on Sunday, welcomed the meeting of Russian Orthodox and Catholic delegations in Moscow this month.
This important meeting reveals the shared wish to promote the dialogue among civilisations and the search for a more just and peaceful world order, Benedict said.
PMPope calls for Israeli, Palestinian peace talks
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Sunday called for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians and an end to spiralling violence in Iraq. Speaking to thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square, Benedict for the second time this week warned a spiral of "atrocious carnage" in the Holy Land and Iraq risked being aggravated if all sides failed to negotiate. In the face, on one side, of blind violence and atrocious carnage, and on the other, of the threat of aggravating the crisis in the last dramatic few days, there is a need for justice and a serious and credible peace plan: that unfortunately there is no sign of,Benedict said.
Israeli helicopters stepped up a military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Sunday after the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid a week ago. In Iraq, a car bomb on Saturday killed more than 60 people, while Osama bin Laden appeared to warn the country's majority Shi'ites they were not safe from attack by Sunni militants. All must remember that every man, from whatever population, is a brother, Benedict said. Escalating violence in the Middle East and the rise of terrorism has seen the Vatican seeking allies, in particular the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been split from the Catholic Church after a nearly 1,000-year-old schism. Benedict, on Sunday, welcomed the meeting of Russian Orthodox and Catholic delegations in Moscow this month.
This important meeting reveals the shared wish to promote the dialogue among civilisations and the search for a more just and peaceful world order, Benedict said.
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