Friday, January 26, 2007

KADIMA WEST BANK TO EU

YES, ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER QUICK NOW, THE EU (REVIVED) ROME IS GETTING INTO THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS, AND WILL TAKE CONTROL OF IT AND IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE, THE DICTATOR WILL COME ON THE SCENE, WILL BE ELECTED LEADER OF THE EU AND WILL SIGN THE 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY BETWEEN ISRAEL - ARABS AND MANY OF DANIEL 9:27. I LOVE THIS HEADLINE

Olmert's party proposes handing West Bank to EuropeFollows WND reports of secret talks to evacuate strategic territory under EU supervisionPosted: January 25, 2007 - By Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – A member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party yesterday proposed transferring control of the West Bank to a European task force until the establishment of a Palestinian state, at which time the strategic territory would be handed to security forces associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The proposal comes after WND broke the story earlier this week that, according to top European and Egyptian diplomatic sources, Israel has been conducting behind-the-scene negotiations to hand over most of the West Bank to Abbas' security forces. The sources said the transfer of security control to
Abbas would be coordinated by the European Union and Jordan. The West Bank borders Jerusalem and is within rocket-firing range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. At Israel's prestigious Herzliya Conference, Knesset Member Shlomo Breznitz, reportedly a close confidante of Olmert, said yesterday the West Bank should be transferred temporarily to the Europeans and that most of the territory's Jewish communities should be evacuated.

The only way to get out of the impasse is to transfer the territories, for a limited time, to an international mandate, that will run them until the establishment of a Palestinian state, said Breznitz at the conference. The Herzliya Conference is attended by Israel's top leadership and regularly maps out the country's agenda for the coming year. In 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip at the conference. Breznitz told Israel's Maariv daily newspaper the West Bank should be transferred to the European community and not the U.S. because, he said, after the invasion of Iraq, America lost its status as an honest broker in the view of the Palestinians and the Arab states.Breznitz said his West Bank transfer proposal received a warm reception from European and Palestinian officials. I have reason to believe, and I don't want to expand on this, that the Palestinians will support the proposal. Ambassadors and diplomatic representatives from European countries who were shown the proposal also believe that without international help it will not be possible to resolve the conflict, said Breznitz.

According to the Israel Resource News Agency, Olmert regularly consults with Breznitz and is known to spend vacation time with the Breznitz family.

The Knesset member's plan comes after WND reported yesterday the EU is in the process of expanding its offices in Israel, including in the Palestinian areas, in anticipation of an increased security role here following what European diplomatic sources say is new momentum regarding an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. The sources, who said they were directly involved in behind-the-scene negotiations, said one proposal being considered is for the EU and Jordan to supervise the transfer of the northern West Bank to Abbas' security forces, which reportedly are receiving aid, weapons and training from the U.S. The sources said major changes in Israeli-Palestinian affairs are expected within a few weeks to two months.

According to an aide to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, speaking on condition ofanonymity, there will be a historic political evolution and movement in negotiations in the next few weeks and few months, unseen since the Camp David peace talks in 2000. During the Camp David talks, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem. According to the diplomatic sources, still being debated in the purported West Bank negotiations is the role of Hamas, which leads the PA and maintains the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament.

Negotiations between Abbas and Hamas leaders for a national unity government have mostly fallen through. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said he viewed any Palestinian elements recognizing the state of Israel as a partner for negotiations even if it is Hamas.Olmert has made similar comments. So far, Hamas has refused to recognize Israel but recently offered a 10-year truce with the Jewish state. In a series of interviews this past weekend, Hamas leaders told WND during any 10-year truce period they would build a large Palestinian army and plan for the destruction of Israel. Olmert's office this week denied the WND reports on negotiations to evacuate the West Bank. There were no negotiations regarding a West Bank withdrawal. This would go contrary to other things we have said in the recent past, said Olmert's spokesperson, Miri Eisin. Perhaps the officials talking to WorldNetDaily were referring to general expectations for movement in the Israeli-Palestinian arena,Eisin said. But the European and Egyptian sources stood by their statements that Israel agreed in principal to transfer West Bank security control to Abbas. Israeli leaders previously have denied reports of pending withdrawals only to later carry them out.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, elected in 2001 on a platform against unilateral withdrawal, at first denied media reports Israel was planning to evacuate the Gaza Strip but later announced his Gaza withdrawal plan. Olmert was elected prime minister on the platform of carrying out a withdrawal from the West Bank, but after this summer's Lebanon war, he has stated a West Bank withdrawal would not occur. Olmert in August called the policy of unilateral withdrawal a failure and said it was no longer relevant. But he can argue handing the West Bank to Abbas in an agreement is not unilateral.

Contradicting Olmert, Israeli Interior Minister Roni Bar-On of Olmert's Kadima party said last summer, The withdrawal plan is not dead, though its implementation has been postponed. The plan is now on the shelf or in the freezer, but when the time comes it will be accessed. Several recent public opinion polls showed the majority of Israelis now oppose a West Bank withdrawal. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan have expressed reservations about withdrawal plans, fearing terrorism can spill over into their respective countries. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. It had occupied a small section of Lebanon's border with Israel following repeated attacks by Palestinian terrorists in the area. Since the withdrawal, Hezbollah has staged numerous attacks against Israel, including rocket bombardments of civilian population centers, raids against military outposts and ambushes and kidnappings of Israeli troops. Hezbollah built an arsenal in south Lebanon of more than 13,000 short- and medium-range rockets capable of hitting central sections of the Jewish state Israel withdrew last August from the Gaza Strip. Since then, rockets have been fired almost daily into nearby Jewish communities, Hamas has been elected to power and both Israeli and Palestinian officials have stated al-Qaida has infiltrated the territory. Israel says thePalestinians have smuggled hundreds of tons of heavy weaponry into Gaza and are preparing for a large-scale confrontation.

Monday, January 22, 2007

EU ARABS WANT FINAL SOLUTION

EU, Arabs want final solution to Israel questionBy Stan Goodenough - January 21, 2007

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Sunday all the parties to the Middle East peace process he had recently met with were ready to now re-launch that process because they have the political will to make it happen.Speaking in Amman, Jordan, before leaving for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem Sunday evening, Solana said a final status solution was the goal now sought by the states of the European Union and the Middle East.

Solana has long sought to position himself and the EU – sometimes called the revived Roman Empire – in a more pivotal position in Middle East peace-making and nudge the United States somewhat to the side.

The final status solution he is pushing for contrasts with the approach taken by visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week. She sought Palestinian agreement to the idea of setting up a state with temporary borders in the short term, but this was rebuffed by the PA.Before he left Jordan, Solana heard King Abd’allah stress his belief that the EU should upgrade its role in the peace process. The monarch also expressed the hope that the role of the Quartet, scheduled to meet again on February 2, would be reactivated.

A number of political leaders have publicly expressed their belief that resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict is the key to bringing peace to the Middle East and to the world.Finding a final solution to this question is thus becomeing a top priority for the international community.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

ARABS OFFER 10 YR PEACE

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:22 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 9:26-2726 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

IF THE FUTURE CONTRACT IS TO WORK OUT, IT HAS TO BE A 7 YEAR CONTRACT AND THE EUROPEAN UNION HAS TO DO THE CONTRACT. THIS IS JUST THE ARABS PLAYIN HEADS GAMES AGAIN. AND BESIDES IT HAS TO BE A LAND FOR PEACE DEAL.

Hamas leader offers 10-year truce with IsraelBut terror group tells WND of long-term plan to destroy Jewish stateJanuary 20, 2007 - 4:12 p.m. Eastern - By Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM -- Hamas is willing to accept a temporary Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem in exchange for a 10-year truce with Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, announced today. But top Hamas officials and spokesmen for the terror group told WND the truce was meant to show some flexibility to the international community. They said Hamas' goal of destroying Israel had not changed, and that the terror group has a 10-year plan to build a large army and defeat the Jewish state. We are with liberating any inch of Palestine, but we will not close the door for the next generation, because the weak don't always stay weak, and the strong won't stay strong, Haniyeh said today in a televised address, explaining his 10-year truce proposal. His comments come as the U.S. is set to mediate a meeting within the next few weeks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to begin discussions on establishing a Palestinian state.

Haniyeh's statements could be seized upon by Abbas as proof Israel can make peace with the Palestinians even while Hamas runs the Palestinian government. But Hamad al-Ruqb, a top Hamas spokesman, said Hamas is working to destroy the entire state of Israel: Hamas will be able to free most of the territories of the historical Palestine occupied in 1948 (the state of Israel) and bring back the Palestinian refugees to their lands and houses. This step will be followed by a struggle to release the rest of the lands that will remain under occupation, al-Ruqb said. Al-Raqb said Hamas has a 10-year plan to defeat Israel that includes setting up a massive army comprised of all Palestinian factions that would train for a period of ten years. A senior Hamas official in the Palestinian parliament told WND al-Raqb's remarks were proof Hamas has not abandoned its main goal of destroying Israel.

The legislative member, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, slammed attempts by Abbas to present Hamas to the international community as a movement that would recognize a peace agreement with the Jewish state. Fatah attempts to present Hamas like a movement that gave up its ideology in order to keep its power, but these attempts failed. You see with the calls for a truce that Hamas can show some flexibility in its tactical policy but the strategic goals [of defeating Israel] are unchanged, the Hamas official said. Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WND Hamas is preparing for a military confrontation with Israel in spite of Haniyeh's calls for a 10-year truce. The efforts in the field of preparations are running very well, Abu Abdullah said. He said other Palestinian factions, including parts of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, are sharing their knowledge, their technological experience, connections and trainings with us. Abu Abdullah confirmed recent reports members of Hamas and other Palestinian organizations have been receiving training abroad, although he would not list specific locations.

WND earlier this month quoted Israeli and Palestinian intelligence officials stating Hamas members traveled to Iran and Lebanon for advanced military training. Haniyeh's calls for a 10-year truce with Israel in exchange for the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem come exactly one year after WND conducted a well-circulated exclusive interview in which a top Hamas leader said his group would make public a peace initiative offering to trade strategic land with Israel, cease attempts to capture parts of Jerusalem, and sign a 10-year renewable cease-fire with the Jewish state. But the Hamas leader said the plan, which he justified using Islamic tradition, is a temporary machination to ease international and U.S. hostility toward his group. We will be ready for a long interim agreement based on a period of cease-fire that can go to 10 or even 15 years like it was done by the Prophet Muhammad with the enemies of the Muslims. During this period we will build our state on the strong basis of honor and with an honest administration, the top Hamas leader said. Hamas officials, including overall Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, who resides in Syria, formulated a peace proposal they said would be acceptable to their group in which the Palestinians would offer to trade certain lands with Israel, the top Hamas official revealed. With the territories we will be ready to discuss the possibility that the three big settlement compounds will remain under the power of the occupation (Israel) and in exchange we will receive territories for the Palestinian independent state, said the Hamas leader.

The leader told WND the three settlements he was referring to are Ariel and Gush Etzion, two large regions in the West Bank that contain many of the area's major Jewish communities, and western and peripheral sections of Jerusalem, which he said Hamas considers Israeli settlements. Hamas, in exchange, would want the eastern sections of Jerusalem, the parts of the southern Israeli Negev desert that border the Gaza Strip and the Jordan Valley, which extends from outside Jerusalem toward Jordan and encompasses most of Israel's major water supplies. The Hamas official said his group would be willing to compromise on its territorial demands. We are most interested in Jerusalem and the Negev, the leader said. The leader then justified the Hamas peace plan using Islamic history. The Muslim hero Saladin gave up land when he gave Acco to the Crusaders in order to keep Jerusalem. Therefore, I say that the possibility of the exchange of territories existed already in the history of Islam and it cohabitates with our principle that all of Palestine is a dedicated land from Allah, may he be blessed to the Muslims, and no one has the right to give up any part of it, said the leader. The leader insisted the policies are based on the formulation Hamas will not be able to defeat Israel in the near future, but he said his group is confident it ultimately will be victorious. I do not see the Palestinian people and Islamic nation succeeding to liberate this blessed land of Palestine in the very near future, he said. This is an Islamic land and the Jews are invited to live in Palestine and the Muslims will guaranty their safety and honor. ... But we will never give up our right for the whole of Palestine. We should be realistic to admit that the mission for the liberation of Palestine will pass on to the coming generations.

Monday, January 15, 2007

RICE 3 WAY TALKS

Rice to hold three-way talks with Mideast leaders U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY JAN 15,2007

LUXOR, Egypt Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she would bring the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority together soon for informal broader discussions on creating a Palestinian state.Making good on a pledge she made last year to intensify her involvement in trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute, Rice announced no date or location for the three-way
talks and said they were not meant to substitute for other meetings between Palestinians and Israelis.There are a number of issues, some old, some new, that will ultimately have to be resolved if there is to be a Palestinian state, Rice said in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, where she stopped Monday for talks with Egyptian leaders after two days in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The parties have not talked about these issues for a long time (and) it seems wise to begin this informal discussion.

U.S. Arab allies and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have urged a higher U.S. profile on the Israeli-Palestinian front to strengthen pro-U.S. governments in the region and take away a potent tool of anti-U.S. regimes such as Iran's. But there was skepticism about how much the Bush administration could accomplish in its final two years in office, given its preoccupation with Iraq and the weakness of Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Joseph Alpher, an Israeli strategic expert who advised former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during unsuccessful Camp David peace talks in 2000, said he would have been more impressed if Rice had stayed in Israel for a third day and brought the two sides together now.I think she's much more focused on Iraq and Iran than the Arab-Israeli dispute, Alpher said.

President Bush hosted a summit in Jordan in 2003 with then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and then Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas that launched a so-called roadmap to Palestinian statehood. There was little U.S. followup, however, and the Bush
administration and Israel refused to deal with then Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The Israelis confined Arafat to his Ramallah headquarters, accusing him of encouraging anti-Israel terrorism. In 2005, Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza. Israeli troops and settlers remain throughout the West Bank.Abbas was elected president in 2005 following Arafat's death and lacks his predecessor's authority. He was weakened further when the militant Hamas movement won parliamentary elections a year ago.Abbas met last month with Ehud Olmert, who succeeded Sharon after he suffered a massive stroke in late 2005. The talks focused on taxes and prisoners, not issues involving statehood: the boundaries of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem and the status of millions of Palestinian refugees. Rice said it was important to deal with day-to-day concerns as well as to create a political horizon for statehood that could strengthen Abbas. Also much less popular than his predecessor, Olmert is blamed by Israelis for lackluster military performance in a 34-day war last summer between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement, Hezbollah.

Rice confirmed that the Bush administration wants $86 million to equip and train about 30,000 Palestinian security personnel, including Abbas' 3,700-member presidential guard. The money would go for mess kits, uniforms and communication gear. The funding would require congressional approval. On Sunday, Abbas reiterated his opposition to establishment of a provisional Palestinian state with temporary borders, a possible interim step before a permanent peace can be negotiated with Israel.Abbas also complained that IOlmert has failed to deliver on recent promises to release Palestinian prisoners, cut the number of Israeli
checkpoints in the West Bank and hand over $100 million in Palestinian taxes Israel has collected.Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, has been locked in a stalemate with Abbas over formation of a Cabinet. Recent violence between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement has killed nearly 40 people. Hamas has about 6,000 armed men and has vowed to double the force.Contributing: the Associated Press

Friday, January 12, 2007

SPAIN WANTS ARABS IN QUARTET

Spain proposes adding Arab participation to Mideast Quartet Fri Jan 12, 11:28 AM ET

MADRID (AFP) - Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has proposed Arab participation in the Middle East Quartet comprising the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia, in order to advance the peace process. The moment has come to open up (the Quartet) to the Arab world, Moratinos told an international meeting in Madrid to mark 15 years since the Madrid Conference which preceded the 1993 Oslo Accords.Moratinos and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana both expressed the hope that concrete progress could be made in the coming six months to unblock the stalled peace process as Spain lobbies hard to host a new full-blown conference.Solana said he saw the current situation as resembling a train of peace negociations (which) has never left the station.

It is impossible to continue in the current vein, Solana added, as he and Moratinos noted, along with meeting chairman and former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, that the situation has worsened with the additional regional flashpoint of Iraq.On Thursday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon had annonced that a planned meeting of the Quartet due to take place in Paris later this month had been postponed because of a scheduling conflict.Instead, he expressed the hope that the forum could convene as soon as possible.And US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said just before leaving for a Middle East tour that her discussions would concentrate on Iran and Iraq rather than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Since 2003, the Quartet has been backing a roadmap for peace which calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the plan has been stalled.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

BACK WERE IT STARTED SPAIN

Madrid conference opens to mark 1991 Mideast peace talks JAN 11,07

An international conference began on Wednesday to commemorate the 1991 peace talks which brought Israeli and Arab leaders together for the first time and paved way for the Oslo Accords. The Madrid conference aimed to bring new vigor to the stalled Mideast peace process. Some leaders involved in past efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict sent letters to voice their support for the conference, which is sponsored by private peace foundations. Messages from former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev and ex-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III were read out at the opening session.

The convening of this conference 15 years later could not be more timely, wrote Baker, who helped arranged the 1991 talks. It offers an opportunity to assist the possibility of moving forward toward Arab-Israeli conflict resolution. Clinton underlined the importance of the 1991 talks in his letter, saying It was the first time that Israeli and Arabs met at the conference table rather than on the battlefield. He said the new meeting showed there was still hope for the future.

The two-day conference brought together foreign ministers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and experts from the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the Middle East. The Madrid conference in October 1991 set the framework for a peace process which ultimately led to the Oslo Accords, which in 1993 outlined a plan for a Palestinian state. Source: Xinhua

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

PERETZ PEACE PLAN

PM Joins Growing Consensus Against Unilateral WithdrawalBy Nissan Ratzlav-Katz & Hana Levi Julian(INN) JAN 09,07

In an interview with Chinese news agency Xinhua, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that unilateral withdrawal has proven to be a ailed policy. While he expressed willingness to negotiate a withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria, Olmert said that it would
only be done in the framework of bilateral negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

This is in contradiction to the terms of a unilateral withdrawal plan, dubbed convergence, that Olmert was promoting as late as this past summer. In spring of 2006, Olmert set a deadline for PA leaders to come to the negotiating table to discuss permanent borders with Israel. If the PA leadership did not manage to make it to the table by the end of the year, he warned, Israel would get the job anyway - alone. At the time, the Prime Minister said he was convinced that unilateral withdrawal was the only way to ensure a Jewish majority in the Jewish State and to
provide effective security for Israeli citizens, if the PA continued to refuse to cooperate on measures to reach a final status agreement.

Olmert explained his new position to the Chinese interviewer by reference to the Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005, both of which, he said, encouraged terrorism and increased the likelihood of war.

A year ago, I believed that we would be able to do this unilaterally, he told reporters ahead of a three-day trip to China, which began Tuesday morning. However, it should be said that our experience in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip is not encouraging. We pulled out of Lebanon unilaterally, and see what happened. We pulled out of the Gaza Strip completely, to the international border, and every day they are firing Kassam rockets at Israelis. Under the existing circumstances, it would be more practical to achieve a two-state solution through negotiations rather than [unilateral] withdrawal.Under the unilateral Disengagement Plan, Israel withdrew military personnel and uprooted entire civilian Jewish communities - constituting 9,000 people - from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria areas.

With his latest statements, the prime minister is joining other political leaders in retroactive criticism of Ariel Sharon's unilateral withdrawal policy, which Olmert supported and defended vigorously at the time.

Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni was recently quoted as saying that the Disengagement has proven to only have strengthened the extremists, as she called the Islamist terror organizations, in the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, in December Livni expressed her support for negotiations with the PA leadership over all outstanding issues even as PA-based terrorism against Israeli civilians continues. On Monday night, Defense Minister Amir Peretz unveiled his own diplomatic plan to reach accommodation with the Palestinian Authority. Calling it a new Road Map, in reference to the US- and EU-backed plan called the Road Map to Peace, Peretz's plan is based on negotiations with the PA's Fatah leadership.

Laborites Split on Peretz’s ‘New Road Map’ PlanBy Hana Levi Julian(INN) JAN 9,07

Defense Minister and Labor party Chairman Amir Peretz issued a call Monday evening for a new Road Map in which Israel’s final borders would be drawn. The proposal had mixed reviews in the party. Peretz called for final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to begin within the next six months in a three-stage plan for a new Road Map which he presented to a Labor faction meeting.Formulation of a new security and economic policy would comprise Step One of the plan. Negotiations on final status principles and the expansion of the PA, which would begin within the next six months, would constitute Stage Two. The final stage would be implemented with negotiations on the details of the final status agreement.Peretz contended that the plan, coauthored by Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, would strengthen moderates such as PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) by offering a diplomatic solution to the present situation.The original Road Map was also comprised of a three-stage plan formulated by the United States, Russian, the United Nations and the European Union (known as the Quartet). The PA never got past the first step, however, which called for an end to violence as Israelis came forth with confidence-building incentives. A PA state with provisional borders would come with the second phase of the plan. Final status was reserved for stage three.

Three of Peretz’s competitors in the primaries were quick to slam the proposal. Knesset member Danny Yatom said the proposal was unrealistic. As long as the Palestinian Authority is made up of two heads, it is impossible to reach an understanding regarding a permanent settlement. The most that can be accomplished is a ceasefire and the release of Gilad Shalit, he added, referring to the IDF corporal who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists last June. Shalit’s
whereabouts and condition are unknown.Another voice from the leadership race, Knesset member Ophir Pines-Paz also criticized Peretz’s initiative. You can’t mention the evacuation of illegal outposts in a diplomatic plan, while you as a defense minister are doing nothing to address the issue, he charged.Knesset member Ami Ayalon, considered by many to be the frontrunner in the upcoming race for the party leadership, expressed his preference for Kadima Foreign Minister Tzipy Livni’s diplomatic proposal.

“Such an approach of working in phases will fail, he said, adding that Livni’s plan did not require cessation of violence as a condition for moving on to the next step, the main difference between her plan and the original Road Plan. Livni’s proposal, though not specifically outlined, includes steps which have already begun, including the transfer of funds to the PA. Release of prisoners and convincing the Egyptians to stop smugglers from bringing arms into Gaza under the Philadephi Route are also part of the plan. As with the Quartet’s plan, other elements include setting up tentative borders to establish a PA state, followed by final status negotiations. There was no comment from former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who announced his candidacy
in the race the day before the meeting. Expressing his support for the plan, Tourism Minister and Barak supporter Isaac Herzog, said, We always said we wanted to strengthen the moderates. This plan will serve as a basis for negotiation within the Labor party.Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, also praised the initiative, saying he was glad about any policy that is founded to advance dialogue with our neighbors. Simhon is a Barak supporter.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

ISRAEL JOIN NATO EU

Lieberman: Israel Should Join NATO and the EU 17:08 Jan 01, '07 / 11 Tevet 5767

(IsraelNN.com) Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman declared Monday that the Jewish State should aim to join NATO and the EU. The political and security goal of the State of Israel for the next month needs to be clear: joining NATO and entering the European Union, Lieberman told Israel Radio in an interview. The war we're fighting in the Middle East is not Israel's war, but the entire free world's [war], and we are standing on the frontlines, he said.On January 1 Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU, further expanding the European Union to 27 countries, 13 of which have currently adoped the Euro as their common currency.