Olmert looking at Jordan troops for West Bank: report Mon Jul 30, 3:51 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in favour of Jordanian forces deploying in the occupied West Bank to help Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas fight extremists, a report said on Monday. What Olmert has in mind and what has been raised in recent meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah II... (is) regular Jordanian army troops, Bedouin who have experience fighting terrorism, said the English-language Jerusalem Post, citing unnamed sources.Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin dismissed the report, calling it speculation.
But she said that Olmert is not opposed to the idea of deployment of foreign troops, including from Arab countries, in the West Bank with a view to combating the terrorists of Hamas.The Islamist Hamas overran troops loyal to the moderate Abbas in the Gaza Strip on June 15, splitting the Palestinians into two separate entities, with the Western-backed president ruling over the West Bank and the Western-shunned Islamists in control of Gaza.Following the takeover, Israel has taken several steps aimed at bolstering Abbas in the West Bank and isolating Hamas, which does not recognise the Jewish state.Israeli media reports in recent months have speculated Jordan's Badr Brigade, made up of 1,500 to 2,000 Palestinians who receive their salaries from the Palestine Liberation Organisation, would be deployed in the West Bank.But Olmert is leaning toward the regular Jordanian troops instead, the Post said.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
EU MUST BE FORCEFUL IN PEACE PROCESS
ITS COMING TOGETHER NOW FOLKS THE EU SHOULD SOON BE THE LEADER IN THE PEACE PROCESS JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS. THEY (EU) WILL MAKE THE FINAL 7 YEAR TREATY, NOT AMERICA.
House of Lords urges EU action for Mideast peace JULY 29,07
The House of Lords European Union Committee has on Monday warned that the situation in Palestine could deteriorate rapidly and that the crisis is in danger of spreading. Underlining the urgent need for international action, the Committee argues that the European Union is in a strong position to press for a lasting peace in the region and should participate actively and forcefully in efforts to renew the Middle East Peace Process.
The Committee’s report The EU and the Middle East Peace Process asserts that the EU and the international community must act urgently to restore the credibility of the peace process through a renewed, concerted and sustained effort. Expressing its grave concern about the security, human rights and socio-economic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Committee criticises the approach taken by the Quartet – the US, Russia, the UN and the EU - which it says contributed nothing to ameliorate the crisis.
The report comes at a critical juncture in diplomatic activity. The Quartet held it first meeting with Tony Blair, its newly appointed envoy, on 19 July. The Committee sees the Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and UN as continuing to be the essential diplomatic tool for coordinating the involvement of the wider international community in the peace process.A key conclusion of the report is that the EU must press upon the US the importance of its sustaining an active, balanced and consistent interest and engagement in the peace process.
The report calls on the EU to be more active and assertive than it has been in the past, including by providing leadership and imaginative ideas within the Quartet. The Committee point out that the EU led the way in 1980 in putting forward the key premises for a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report asserts that the Quartet ‘Road Map’, or blueprint for peace, as originally conceived in 2003, cannot be the only vehicle for progress. The Committee urge the EU to keep the objective of a two-state solution firmly in mind at every stage of its dealings with the Palestinians and Israelis. But it argues that the interim steps described in the Road Map should no longer be pursued to the exclusion of consideration of the final status issues, including the territorial limits of the two states, the fate of refugees and the status of Jerusalem. The report stresses that any peace process should be inclusive, and cites experience in Northern Ireland as a positive source of inspiration.
The report outlines the significant role that the EU plays in supporting the Palestinians through the provision of billions of euros of humanitarian and financial aid and assistance for institution-building, but states that the EU should link its financial and technical assistance more directly to its political goals.
The report says the EU is right to require Hamas to renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept past agreements signed by the PLO, but that it should avoid an ‘undesirably rigid’ approach to dealing with Hamas that risks undermining progress in building viable and democratic Palestinian institutions, a pre-requisite for any peace settlement.
The Committee calls on the EU to build and strengthen the bilateral relationship with the Israeli Government, and to press them to transfer quickly the remaining Palestinian tax and customs revenues to the Palestinian authorities in a way that benefits all Palestinians. The report commends the Arab League States’ recent diplomatic efforts and praises the role played by Saudi Arabia in the formation of the Palestinian National Unity Government. It argues that the EU should encourage the renewal of Arab regional leadership. The Committee also call for the EU to continue to engage with Syria to ensure it does not undermine the peace process either by supplying weapons to Hezbollah or by providing safe haven to exiled Hamas leaders. The report outlines Iran’s destabilising influence in the region, including its links to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to Hamas. It concludes that while it is important that the EU continue to engage with Iran diplomatically, Iran ‘should not be allowed to have a veto’ over the peace process.
The report argues that the peace process is vulnerable to derailment by extremists on both sides, but the EU should not allow the process to be held hostage by any faction, individual or state
The Committee believe that discussions should start to identify whether the EU may be in a position to support a peace settlement through the deployment of a peacekeeping mission.Commenting Lord Roper, Chairman of the Lord EU Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs, said: The EU has a crucial role to play in ensuring the Middle East Peace Process gets back on track.As recent events have testified the situation in Palestine is very fluid and it will be necessary to engage effectively with all the parties involved, that is where the EU has an advantage over other members of the Quartet, he added.Lord Roper also said: The EU should now take an assertive approach both unilaterally and within the Quartet to ensure innovative solutions are found to move the peace process forward as quickly as possible.
He stressed: The focus must now be on the working towards sustainable final status agreements not a inflexible devotion to the Road Map, the goal of a two state solution is key and the EU should do everything it can to ensure that it is achieved.
-Alarabonline-
House of Lords urges EU action for Mideast peace JULY 29,07
The House of Lords European Union Committee has on Monday warned that the situation in Palestine could deteriorate rapidly and that the crisis is in danger of spreading. Underlining the urgent need for international action, the Committee argues that the European Union is in a strong position to press for a lasting peace in the region and should participate actively and forcefully in efforts to renew the Middle East Peace Process.
The Committee’s report The EU and the Middle East Peace Process asserts that the EU and the international community must act urgently to restore the credibility of the peace process through a renewed, concerted and sustained effort. Expressing its grave concern about the security, human rights and socio-economic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Committee criticises the approach taken by the Quartet – the US, Russia, the UN and the EU - which it says contributed nothing to ameliorate the crisis.
The report comes at a critical juncture in diplomatic activity. The Quartet held it first meeting with Tony Blair, its newly appointed envoy, on 19 July. The Committee sees the Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and UN as continuing to be the essential diplomatic tool for coordinating the involvement of the wider international community in the peace process.A key conclusion of the report is that the EU must press upon the US the importance of its sustaining an active, balanced and consistent interest and engagement in the peace process.
The report calls on the EU to be more active and assertive than it has been in the past, including by providing leadership and imaginative ideas within the Quartet. The Committee point out that the EU led the way in 1980 in putting forward the key premises for a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report asserts that the Quartet ‘Road Map’, or blueprint for peace, as originally conceived in 2003, cannot be the only vehicle for progress. The Committee urge the EU to keep the objective of a two-state solution firmly in mind at every stage of its dealings with the Palestinians and Israelis. But it argues that the interim steps described in the Road Map should no longer be pursued to the exclusion of consideration of the final status issues, including the territorial limits of the two states, the fate of refugees and the status of Jerusalem. The report stresses that any peace process should be inclusive, and cites experience in Northern Ireland as a positive source of inspiration.
The report outlines the significant role that the EU plays in supporting the Palestinians through the provision of billions of euros of humanitarian and financial aid and assistance for institution-building, but states that the EU should link its financial and technical assistance more directly to its political goals.
The report says the EU is right to require Hamas to renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept past agreements signed by the PLO, but that it should avoid an ‘undesirably rigid’ approach to dealing with Hamas that risks undermining progress in building viable and democratic Palestinian institutions, a pre-requisite for any peace settlement.
The Committee calls on the EU to build and strengthen the bilateral relationship with the Israeli Government, and to press them to transfer quickly the remaining Palestinian tax and customs revenues to the Palestinian authorities in a way that benefits all Palestinians. The report commends the Arab League States’ recent diplomatic efforts and praises the role played by Saudi Arabia in the formation of the Palestinian National Unity Government. It argues that the EU should encourage the renewal of Arab regional leadership. The Committee also call for the EU to continue to engage with Syria to ensure it does not undermine the peace process either by supplying weapons to Hezbollah or by providing safe haven to exiled Hamas leaders. The report outlines Iran’s destabilising influence in the region, including its links to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to Hamas. It concludes that while it is important that the EU continue to engage with Iran diplomatically, Iran ‘should not be allowed to have a veto’ over the peace process.
The report argues that the peace process is vulnerable to derailment by extremists on both sides, but the EU should not allow the process to be held hostage by any faction, individual or state
The Committee believe that discussions should start to identify whether the EU may be in a position to support a peace settlement through the deployment of a peacekeeping mission.Commenting Lord Roper, Chairman of the Lord EU Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs, said: The EU has a crucial role to play in ensuring the Middle East Peace Process gets back on track.As recent events have testified the situation in Palestine is very fluid and it will be necessary to engage effectively with all the parties involved, that is where the EU has an advantage over other members of the Quartet, he added.Lord Roper also said: The EU should now take an assertive approach both unilaterally and within the Quartet to ensure innovative solutions are found to move the peace process forward as quickly as possible.
He stressed: The focus must now be on the working towards sustainable final status agreements not a inflexible devotion to the Road Map, the goal of a two state solution is key and the EU should do everything it can to ensure that it is achieved.
-Alarabonline-
Friday, July 27, 2007
RICE END OF OCCUPATION
Weapons Transferred to West Bank; Rice Calls for End of Occupation
By Julie Stahl - CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
July 26, 2007
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office refused to confirm or deny reports on Thursday that Israel had allowed the delivery of up to 3,000 rifles and hundreds of thousands of bullets to the West Bank town of Jericho on Thursday.Israel, the U.S. and its Quartet partners (the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations) as well as Egypt and Jordan are working to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction on the West Bank following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity in Jerusalem this week with separate visits by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the newly appointed Quartet envoy, and the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt.
Israel allowed four Jordanian trucks carrying some 3,000 rifles and hundreds of thousands of bullets and other ammunition into Jericho on Thursday, the Israeli Internet site YNET reported.The weapons were then transferred to warehouses across the West Bank, an unnamed Palestinian source was quoted as saying, and nine more trucks are expected in the coming days with bulletproof vests and other equipment, he said.Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisen said she could not confirm or deny reports about the rifles. But she said that steps are being taken in the security, civil and economic spheres to bolster Abbas. This would not be the first time that Israel has allowed the delivery of weapons to Abbas' forces.
Last December, Egypt -- with Israeli and U.S. approval -- transferred some 2,000 rifles and two million rounds of ammunition to bolster Abbas' forces in the Gaza Strip. Again in February, there were reports that more weapons had been transferred to Abbas' forces in Gaza.And in June, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip following a violent confrontation with Fatah, it confiscated thousands of automatic weapons, pistols, hand grenades, mortars and communications equipment, much of which had been transferred from Egypt and Jordan during the last few years.Former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Zalman Shoval said facilitating the transfer of weapons is less serious than some of the other measures that Israel has taken recently to bolster Abbas. Israel recently released hundreds of Palestinian security prisons and granted amnesty to nearly 200 more wanted Palestinians in the West Bank.
Nevertheless, Shoval said, the alleged weapons transfer is not a positive development. As has been seen in the past, the weapons are often turned against Israel in the end, he said.Some Palestinian experts themselves say the Palestinians don't need more weapons - they need democracy and freedom.Press reports on Thursday said Abbas' national security advisor Mohammed Dahlan has announced his resignation. Dahlan, whom many Palestinians see as corrupt, was outside the Gaza Strip when factional fighting broke out there in June, leading to the Fatah ouster and the Hamas takeover.
Occupation
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is due in the region next week, said Israel needs to end its occupation of the West Bank soon.I believe that Israel understands that it has obligations that need to be met and need to be met now, because the future of Israel is not in the continued occupation of the West Bank, Rice said in an interview on the U.S.-sponsored Al Hurra television station. The future of Israel is in building a strong Israeli state in places like the Negev and Galilee, she said. Rice was repeating remarks that President Bush made in a speech last week on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres and other Israeli leaders have spoken about the need to develop the mountainous region in northern Israel and the desert in southern Israel.Eisen said that Rice wasn't voicing a new idea, since both Olmert and previous Israeli leaders have voiced similar sentiments.
Shoval said that while Israel should continue to remove unauthorized outposts in the West Bank as it has committed itself to do, Rice needs to be reminded that Bush sent a letter to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which Israel interpreted as supporting its right to hold onto parts of the West Bank in a final settlement for security reasons.Israel cannot afford to return to the vulnerable green line, Shoval told Cybercast News Service, a reference to the boundary between Israel and the Jordanians on the West Bank prior to 1967.Abbas and his Fatah faction want to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a connection between the two entities that cuts through sovereign Israel. Hamas, now in charge of Gaza, wants to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in those areas as well as in Israel.
More than 200,000 Israelis live in the West Bank - an area that the Jewish people consider to be part of the their Biblical inheritance.The very demand to return to the green line is a non-starter, said Shoval. The basis for the United Nations Security Council resolution 242 following the 1967 Six-Day war was that the future borders of Israel would be secure borders and adopted through negotiations, he said.
While the Negev and the Galilee are important to Israel, they cannot be exchanged for the security of the state, Shoval said.Hamas has been less successful in the West Bank than in Gaza, Shoval said, partly because the Israeli Army is there and partly because the large settlement blocs provide a physical and strategic bulwark against terrorism, he said.
Israel on Thursday targeted a number of armed Palestinians, including two who were preparing to launch rockets from the Gaza Strip, the army said. Three Palestinians were reportedly killed in one aerial attack in the central Gaza Strip.More than 120 rockets and mortar shells fell in Israel this past month, the army said on Thursday.
Abbas Wants Israel Peace Deal in a Year JULY 27,07
Abbas Says He Hopes to Reach a Peace Agreement With Israel in Less Than a Year
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads a cabinet meeting at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, July 26, 2007. Abbas said Thursday he hopes to reach a final peace agreement with Israel in a year or less.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) The Associated Press By KARIN LAUB Associated Press Writer RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP)
Share Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he hopes to reach a full peace deal with Israel within a year, after Israel's prime minister floated the idea of starting with a joint declaration on the contours of a Palestinian state. Abbas spoke to reporters after telling an Israeli newspaper that President Bush promised him he would push hard to conclude a Mideast agreement before he leaves the White House in January 2009.Israel Gaza Strip George W Bush Salam Fayyad Hamas Islamic Jihad In the Gaza Strip, three Israeli airstrikes killed five Palestinians, including the military leader of the Islamic Jihad there. Later, four Islamic Jihad members were wounded in a firefight with Hamas forces at the scene of one of the airstrikes, following a dispute over items in the targeted vehicle, witnesses said.
Also Thursday, Mohammed Dahlan, a leader of Abbas' vanquished forces in Gaza, said he would resign as national security adviser, citing health reasons. Dahlan was widely blamed for the surprising collapse of the pro-Abbas forces in five days of fighting that ended with Hamas' takeover of the coastal Gaza strip last month.
A committee of inquiry appointed by Abbas recommended Thursday that 60 members of the security forces face trial for their poor performance in Gaza, said an Abbas aide, Rafiq Husseini.The Hamas takeover of Gaza has spurred a flurry of diplomatic activity, with the international community lining up behind Abbas and his West Bank-based government of moderates.On Thursday the government, headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, approved a platform that includes acceptance of all previous peace deals with Israel. The Hamas refusal to endorse the peace accords and renounce violence led to an international aid cutoff. The aid has been restored to Fayyad's government.
Bush is planning an international peace conference in the fall, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is arriving next week for more talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is settling in as the international Mideast envoy.Abbas was quoted Thursday by the Israeli daily Maariv and the comments were later confirmed by his aides that Bush and Rice told him they'd work hard for a final peace deal within a year.The Americans are determined to push the sides to reach a peace agreement during President Bush's current term, Abbas was quoted as saying. I heard this with my own ears from the president himself and from Secretary of State Rice.
Asked Thursday about the U.S. assurances, Abbas was evasive, but said We hope to have a comprehensive peace with the Israelis within a year or even less than that.
Yossi Beilin, leader of Israel's dovish Meretz Party, said Abbas told him Thursday that he wants to move quickly toward a final peace deal. If there is an opportunity now, then it's better to go for the whole thing than a declaration of principles, Beilin quoted Abbas as saying.Beilin said Abbas' time in office was also a factor. The maximum he has is another year-and-a-half. He does not have any intention to be a candidate for another term, Beilin said.However, Abbas also reiterated Thursday that he wants to hold early presidential and legislative elections, though he has not set a date. It's not clear whether Abbas would refrain from running if a vote is held soon. A potential successor as leader of his Fatah movement, Marwan Barghouti, is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison.
Olmert's aides, meanwhile, confirmed the prime minister wants to formulate a declaration detailing what a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank would look like. However, they hinted that it would leave out the most difficult issues, such as final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees.In the Maariv interview, however, Abbas said the final result must be resolved first.It's likely that implementation will take time, that the timetable will be drawn out, but what's important is that the Palestinians know the final result, the end game, at the start,Abbas was quoted as saying.2007 The Associated Press.
7/27/2007
Senior Israeli official backs negotiated pullout from most of West Bank
Eds: INCORPORATES BC-Israel-Ramon.AP Photos By MATTI FRIEDMAN Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) -- One of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's closest confidants said Friday that Israel should withdraw from most of the West Bank in a negotiated deal with the Palestinians and that a previous plan for a major unilateral pullback was no longer viable. Vice-premier Haim Ramon, one of the politicians closest to Olmert, told Israel Radio that he favored reducing the Israeli presence in the West Bank to the large settlement blocs and that NATO forces could replace Israeli troops in the areas evacuated. In my eyes, the occupation of the territories threatens our very existence, our legitimacy and our international standing, Ramon said in the radio interview. The major blocs are in the northern and southern parts of the West Bank and to the east of Jerusalem. According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, more than 100,000 of the approximately 260,000 West Bank settlers live in these three clusters.
Ramon would not specify the scope of the pullout he envisaged, but said a plan floated by Olmert before his election in 2006 for a unilateral pullout from 90 percent of the West Bank was no longer a possibility, certainly not in one step.
He said Israel's 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was an option of last resort forced by the breakdown of talks with the Palestinians in 2000, and that the political situation has been transformed since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' split last month with the radical Islamic Hamas. That split led to Abbas' installation of a government of Western-leaning moderates under former international banker Salam Fayyad. The Palestinian Authority is now headed by two people committed to negotiations and fighting terror, Ramon said. We have a partner. The moment there's a partner, we must renew negotiations with him and reach agreements, he said. In an interview published Friday in the mass-circulation Israeli daily Maariv, Abbas praised Olmert and was upbeat about prospects for progress toward peace.
I am optimistic, I work with Olmert, the paper quoted Abbas as saying. We are about to meet every few weeks and move forward, he said. The two leaders last met July 16, in Jerusalem. An official in Olmert's office said Friday no date or venue had so far been finalized for the next session. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is arriving next week for talks with Olmert and Abbas, but her office hasn't said if there will be a joint meeting of the three. In an excerpt from the Maariv interview released Thursday, Abbas said both Rice and President Bush promised to push hard to conclude a Mideast agreement before Bush leaves the White House, in January 2009. I heard this with my own ears from the president himself and from Secretary of State Rice, Abbas told the paper. They want to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the next year. His aides confirmed those comments.
Aides to Olmert said Thursday he wants to formulate a declaration detailing what a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank would look like. However, they hinted that it would leave out the most difficult issues, such as final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Abbas ejected Hamas from a coalition government after the group's fighters chased his Fatah forces out of the Gaza Strip last month in five days of brutal fighting. Abbas aide Nabil Amr said Friday that security officials and field commanders deemed responsible for the defeat would face trial or disciplinary proceedings within the Fatah movement. More than a dozen people have already resigned from their posts, including Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza strongman who was not in Gaza during the fighting.
There are those whom a court of law or justice will hold accountable, and there are those whom Fatah will handle, Amr said. He did not mention any names, but said some senior Fatah members could face disciplinary action. The Hamas takeover of Gaza spurred a new round of diplomatic activity, with the international community lining up behind Abbas and his moderate government. On Thursday, the government approved a platform that includes acceptance of all previous peace deals with Israel. Hamas' refusal to endorse the peace accords and renounce violence led to an international aid cutoff. The aid has been restored to Fayyad's government.
By Julie Stahl - CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
July 26, 2007
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office refused to confirm or deny reports on Thursday that Israel had allowed the delivery of up to 3,000 rifles and hundreds of thousands of bullets to the West Bank town of Jericho on Thursday.Israel, the U.S. and its Quartet partners (the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations) as well as Egypt and Jordan are working to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction on the West Bank following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity in Jerusalem this week with separate visits by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the newly appointed Quartet envoy, and the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt.
Israel allowed four Jordanian trucks carrying some 3,000 rifles and hundreds of thousands of bullets and other ammunition into Jericho on Thursday, the Israeli Internet site YNET reported.The weapons were then transferred to warehouses across the West Bank, an unnamed Palestinian source was quoted as saying, and nine more trucks are expected in the coming days with bulletproof vests and other equipment, he said.Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisen said she could not confirm or deny reports about the rifles. But she said that steps are being taken in the security, civil and economic spheres to bolster Abbas. This would not be the first time that Israel has allowed the delivery of weapons to Abbas' forces.
Last December, Egypt -- with Israeli and U.S. approval -- transferred some 2,000 rifles and two million rounds of ammunition to bolster Abbas' forces in the Gaza Strip. Again in February, there were reports that more weapons had been transferred to Abbas' forces in Gaza.And in June, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip following a violent confrontation with Fatah, it confiscated thousands of automatic weapons, pistols, hand grenades, mortars and communications equipment, much of which had been transferred from Egypt and Jordan during the last few years.Former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Zalman Shoval said facilitating the transfer of weapons is less serious than some of the other measures that Israel has taken recently to bolster Abbas. Israel recently released hundreds of Palestinian security prisons and granted amnesty to nearly 200 more wanted Palestinians in the West Bank.
Nevertheless, Shoval said, the alleged weapons transfer is not a positive development. As has been seen in the past, the weapons are often turned against Israel in the end, he said.Some Palestinian experts themselves say the Palestinians don't need more weapons - they need democracy and freedom.Press reports on Thursday said Abbas' national security advisor Mohammed Dahlan has announced his resignation. Dahlan, whom many Palestinians see as corrupt, was outside the Gaza Strip when factional fighting broke out there in June, leading to the Fatah ouster and the Hamas takeover.
Occupation
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is due in the region next week, said Israel needs to end its occupation of the West Bank soon.I believe that Israel understands that it has obligations that need to be met and need to be met now, because the future of Israel is not in the continued occupation of the West Bank, Rice said in an interview on the U.S.-sponsored Al Hurra television station. The future of Israel is in building a strong Israeli state in places like the Negev and Galilee, she said. Rice was repeating remarks that President Bush made in a speech last week on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres and other Israeli leaders have spoken about the need to develop the mountainous region in northern Israel and the desert in southern Israel.Eisen said that Rice wasn't voicing a new idea, since both Olmert and previous Israeli leaders have voiced similar sentiments.
Shoval said that while Israel should continue to remove unauthorized outposts in the West Bank as it has committed itself to do, Rice needs to be reminded that Bush sent a letter to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which Israel interpreted as supporting its right to hold onto parts of the West Bank in a final settlement for security reasons.Israel cannot afford to return to the vulnerable green line, Shoval told Cybercast News Service, a reference to the boundary between Israel and the Jordanians on the West Bank prior to 1967.Abbas and his Fatah faction want to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a connection between the two entities that cuts through sovereign Israel. Hamas, now in charge of Gaza, wants to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in those areas as well as in Israel.
More than 200,000 Israelis live in the West Bank - an area that the Jewish people consider to be part of the their Biblical inheritance.The very demand to return to the green line is a non-starter, said Shoval. The basis for the United Nations Security Council resolution 242 following the 1967 Six-Day war was that the future borders of Israel would be secure borders and adopted through negotiations, he said.
While the Negev and the Galilee are important to Israel, they cannot be exchanged for the security of the state, Shoval said.Hamas has been less successful in the West Bank than in Gaza, Shoval said, partly because the Israeli Army is there and partly because the large settlement blocs provide a physical and strategic bulwark against terrorism, he said.
Israel on Thursday targeted a number of armed Palestinians, including two who were preparing to launch rockets from the Gaza Strip, the army said. Three Palestinians were reportedly killed in one aerial attack in the central Gaza Strip.More than 120 rockets and mortar shells fell in Israel this past month, the army said on Thursday.
Abbas Wants Israel Peace Deal in a Year JULY 27,07
Abbas Says He Hopes to Reach a Peace Agreement With Israel in Less Than a Year
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads a cabinet meeting at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, July 26, 2007. Abbas said Thursday he hopes to reach a final peace agreement with Israel in a year or less.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) The Associated Press By KARIN LAUB Associated Press Writer RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP)
Share Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he hopes to reach a full peace deal with Israel within a year, after Israel's prime minister floated the idea of starting with a joint declaration on the contours of a Palestinian state. Abbas spoke to reporters after telling an Israeli newspaper that President Bush promised him he would push hard to conclude a Mideast agreement before he leaves the White House in January 2009.Israel Gaza Strip George W Bush Salam Fayyad Hamas Islamic Jihad In the Gaza Strip, three Israeli airstrikes killed five Palestinians, including the military leader of the Islamic Jihad there. Later, four Islamic Jihad members were wounded in a firefight with Hamas forces at the scene of one of the airstrikes, following a dispute over items in the targeted vehicle, witnesses said.
Also Thursday, Mohammed Dahlan, a leader of Abbas' vanquished forces in Gaza, said he would resign as national security adviser, citing health reasons. Dahlan was widely blamed for the surprising collapse of the pro-Abbas forces in five days of fighting that ended with Hamas' takeover of the coastal Gaza strip last month.
A committee of inquiry appointed by Abbas recommended Thursday that 60 members of the security forces face trial for their poor performance in Gaza, said an Abbas aide, Rafiq Husseini.The Hamas takeover of Gaza has spurred a flurry of diplomatic activity, with the international community lining up behind Abbas and his West Bank-based government of moderates.On Thursday the government, headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, approved a platform that includes acceptance of all previous peace deals with Israel. The Hamas refusal to endorse the peace accords and renounce violence led to an international aid cutoff. The aid has been restored to Fayyad's government.
Bush is planning an international peace conference in the fall, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is arriving next week for more talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is settling in as the international Mideast envoy.Abbas was quoted Thursday by the Israeli daily Maariv and the comments were later confirmed by his aides that Bush and Rice told him they'd work hard for a final peace deal within a year.The Americans are determined to push the sides to reach a peace agreement during President Bush's current term, Abbas was quoted as saying. I heard this with my own ears from the president himself and from Secretary of State Rice.
Asked Thursday about the U.S. assurances, Abbas was evasive, but said We hope to have a comprehensive peace with the Israelis within a year or even less than that.
Yossi Beilin, leader of Israel's dovish Meretz Party, said Abbas told him Thursday that he wants to move quickly toward a final peace deal. If there is an opportunity now, then it's better to go for the whole thing than a declaration of principles, Beilin quoted Abbas as saying.Beilin said Abbas' time in office was also a factor. The maximum he has is another year-and-a-half. He does not have any intention to be a candidate for another term, Beilin said.However, Abbas also reiterated Thursday that he wants to hold early presidential and legislative elections, though he has not set a date. It's not clear whether Abbas would refrain from running if a vote is held soon. A potential successor as leader of his Fatah movement, Marwan Barghouti, is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison.
Olmert's aides, meanwhile, confirmed the prime minister wants to formulate a declaration detailing what a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank would look like. However, they hinted that it would leave out the most difficult issues, such as final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees.In the Maariv interview, however, Abbas said the final result must be resolved first.It's likely that implementation will take time, that the timetable will be drawn out, but what's important is that the Palestinians know the final result, the end game, at the start,Abbas was quoted as saying.2007 The Associated Press.
7/27/2007
Senior Israeli official backs negotiated pullout from most of West Bank
Eds: INCORPORATES BC-Israel-Ramon.AP Photos By MATTI FRIEDMAN Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) -- One of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's closest confidants said Friday that Israel should withdraw from most of the West Bank in a negotiated deal with the Palestinians and that a previous plan for a major unilateral pullback was no longer viable. Vice-premier Haim Ramon, one of the politicians closest to Olmert, told Israel Radio that he favored reducing the Israeli presence in the West Bank to the large settlement blocs and that NATO forces could replace Israeli troops in the areas evacuated. In my eyes, the occupation of the territories threatens our very existence, our legitimacy and our international standing, Ramon said in the radio interview. The major blocs are in the northern and southern parts of the West Bank and to the east of Jerusalem. According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, more than 100,000 of the approximately 260,000 West Bank settlers live in these three clusters.
Ramon would not specify the scope of the pullout he envisaged, but said a plan floated by Olmert before his election in 2006 for a unilateral pullout from 90 percent of the West Bank was no longer a possibility, certainly not in one step.
He said Israel's 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was an option of last resort forced by the breakdown of talks with the Palestinians in 2000, and that the political situation has been transformed since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' split last month with the radical Islamic Hamas. That split led to Abbas' installation of a government of Western-leaning moderates under former international banker Salam Fayyad. The Palestinian Authority is now headed by two people committed to negotiations and fighting terror, Ramon said. We have a partner. The moment there's a partner, we must renew negotiations with him and reach agreements, he said. In an interview published Friday in the mass-circulation Israeli daily Maariv, Abbas praised Olmert and was upbeat about prospects for progress toward peace.
I am optimistic, I work with Olmert, the paper quoted Abbas as saying. We are about to meet every few weeks and move forward, he said. The two leaders last met July 16, in Jerusalem. An official in Olmert's office said Friday no date or venue had so far been finalized for the next session. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is arriving next week for talks with Olmert and Abbas, but her office hasn't said if there will be a joint meeting of the three. In an excerpt from the Maariv interview released Thursday, Abbas said both Rice and President Bush promised to push hard to conclude a Mideast agreement before Bush leaves the White House, in January 2009. I heard this with my own ears from the president himself and from Secretary of State Rice, Abbas told the paper. They want to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the next year. His aides confirmed those comments.
Aides to Olmert said Thursday he wants to formulate a declaration detailing what a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank would look like. However, they hinted that it would leave out the most difficult issues, such as final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Abbas ejected Hamas from a coalition government after the group's fighters chased his Fatah forces out of the Gaza Strip last month in five days of brutal fighting. Abbas aide Nabil Amr said Friday that security officials and field commanders deemed responsible for the defeat would face trial or disciplinary proceedings within the Fatah movement. More than a dozen people have already resigned from their posts, including Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza strongman who was not in Gaza during the fighting.
There are those whom a court of law or justice will hold accountable, and there are those whom Fatah will handle, Amr said. He did not mention any names, but said some senior Fatah members could face disciplinary action. The Hamas takeover of Gaza spurred a new round of diplomatic activity, with the international community lining up behind Abbas and his moderate government. On Thursday, the government approved a platform that includes acceptance of all previous peace deals with Israel. Hamas' refusal to endorse the peace accords and renounce violence led to an international aid cutoff. The aid has been restored to Fayyad's government.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
EU BALANCED APPROACH TO MIDEAST
EU seeks balanced approach to the Middle East
25.07.2007 - 09:20 CET | By Renata Goldirova
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Tony Blair, the former UK premier and the newly-appointed envoy of the Mideast Quartet, has urged Israelis and the Palestinians to capitalize on a current moment of opportunity, while the European Union seeks a balanced approach to the region.
I think there is a sense of possibility, but whether that sense of possibility can be translated into something that is something that needs to be worked at and thought about over time, Mr Blair said on Tuesday (24 July).
It was Mr Blair's first visit to Israel and the West Bank since his appointment by the international Quartet - the US, the EU, the United Nations and Russia - to bolster economic recovery and institution-building in the Palestinian territory.
The comment comes just a day after EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, also spoke of a positive momentum and called on the parties to desist from any action that threatens the viability of a [two-state] solution.
I sense a moderate optimism about a possibility of launching a political initiative, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
However, some diplomats indicated that ministerial debate had shown differences on what kind of message should be sent to the region, with some EU capitals – such as Berlin or Bratislava – pushing for more balanced wording.
On the other hand, France, Sweden, Cyprus and Malta stressed that an EU message should reflect the Israeli occupation and settlements as being the core problem.
In their final statement, EU ministers welcome Israel's move to release 255 Palestinian prisoners and the partial transfer of withheld Palestinian tax and custom revenues. At the same time, however, they call for the immediate and complete release of remaining and future funds as well as for a removal of checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank.
In addition, while recognizing Israel's legitimate right to self defence, the EU urged Israel to exercise utmost restraint and underlined that action should not be disproportionate or in contradiction to international humanitarian law.
The Union should apply a balanced approach to maximum extend in order to seize a positive momentum and remain credible to both parties, Slovakia's foreign minister Jan Kubis stressed.
Currently, all diplomatic efforts are channelled towards an international Middle East peace conference due in September – something expected to give new impetus to bilateral Israeli-Palestine dialog and the moribund peace process as such.
According to Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the meeting would be an opportunity to draw conclusions on how we can move ahead on the way to a two-state solution.
An Arab peace initiative is seen as a major element in moving the Middle East peace process forward by the EU bloc. The proposal - to be also discussed by Israel, Egypt and Jordan later today (25 July) - foresees full Arab recognition of Israel in return for lands the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Arab ministers in Israel for land-for-peace talks By Adam Entous
Wed Jul 25, 9:23 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Egyptian and Jordanian envoys from the Arab League, on their first visit to Israel to present an Arab land-for-peace plan, called on Wednesday for setting a rapid timetable for talks with the Palestinians over statehood. We need a precise timetable, a quick timetable and we urge Israel not to waste this historic opportunity. Time is not on our side, said Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah al-Khatib, in Jerusalem with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he believed there was a chance in the near future for the process to ripen into talks that would, in effect, deal with the stages of establishing a Palestinian state.His comments were the clearest statement yet of Israel's intention to try to relaunch final-status talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip last month to Hamas Islamists.But Olmert said there were no precise timetables or stages established yet" for getting to discussions about permanent borders and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, all divisive issues in the Jewish state.
Neither Israel nor the visiting Arab envoys spelled out how significant progress could be made towards statehood with the Palestinian territories divided between Hamas-run Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where Fatah holds sway.The one-day visit to Israel by Gheit and Khatib, who both spoke at a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, was the first by Arab League representatives to promote the group's peace plan, stalled since 2002.The initiative offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.We want to hear your ideas and want to express our ideas, so that we'll be able to carry on, Olmert, who has said the plan had positive elements, told the envoys at his office.But citing demographic and security concerns, Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now the Jewish state and wants to hold on to major settlement blocs in the West Bank.
TURNING POINT
Israel sought to cast the envoys' arrival as a potential turning point in relations with the Arab League, which has long shunned it. Livni described the visit as historic.Arab diplomats played down the gesture. Egypt and Jordan already have full relations with Israel, and despite U.S. and Israeli appeals to expand the number of Arab participants in the talks, Saudi Arabia and other Arab League members with no formal ties to the Jewish state have refused to take part.I will be more than happy that next time you come, you'll bring with you ministers from more Arab countries, Olmert said in his welcoming remarks to Gheit and Khatib.
The United States has been pushing Olmert to move ahead to serious negotiations over border issues with Abbas, who dismissed a unity coalition with Hamas last month after the Islamists seized control of Gaza.Olmert described his current talks with Abbas as serious and said the goal was to advance a process in a natural way towards discussion of central issues.Former British prime minister Tony Blair ended his first visit as international envoy to the Middle East on Wednesday after saying he saw a moment of opportunity for peace. But he offered no specifics in public.(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan)
25.07.2007 - 09:20 CET | By Renata Goldirova
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Tony Blair, the former UK premier and the newly-appointed envoy of the Mideast Quartet, has urged Israelis and the Palestinians to capitalize on a current moment of opportunity, while the European Union seeks a balanced approach to the region.
I think there is a sense of possibility, but whether that sense of possibility can be translated into something that is something that needs to be worked at and thought about over time, Mr Blair said on Tuesday (24 July).
It was Mr Blair's first visit to Israel and the West Bank since his appointment by the international Quartet - the US, the EU, the United Nations and Russia - to bolster economic recovery and institution-building in the Palestinian territory.
The comment comes just a day after EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, also spoke of a positive momentum and called on the parties to desist from any action that threatens the viability of a [two-state] solution.
I sense a moderate optimism about a possibility of launching a political initiative, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
However, some diplomats indicated that ministerial debate had shown differences on what kind of message should be sent to the region, with some EU capitals – such as Berlin or Bratislava – pushing for more balanced wording.
On the other hand, France, Sweden, Cyprus and Malta stressed that an EU message should reflect the Israeli occupation and settlements as being the core problem.
In their final statement, EU ministers welcome Israel's move to release 255 Palestinian prisoners and the partial transfer of withheld Palestinian tax and custom revenues. At the same time, however, they call for the immediate and complete release of remaining and future funds as well as for a removal of checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank.
In addition, while recognizing Israel's legitimate right to self defence, the EU urged Israel to exercise utmost restraint and underlined that action should not be disproportionate or in contradiction to international humanitarian law.
The Union should apply a balanced approach to maximum extend in order to seize a positive momentum and remain credible to both parties, Slovakia's foreign minister Jan Kubis stressed.
Currently, all diplomatic efforts are channelled towards an international Middle East peace conference due in September – something expected to give new impetus to bilateral Israeli-Palestine dialog and the moribund peace process as such.
According to Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the meeting would be an opportunity to draw conclusions on how we can move ahead on the way to a two-state solution.
An Arab peace initiative is seen as a major element in moving the Middle East peace process forward by the EU bloc. The proposal - to be also discussed by Israel, Egypt and Jordan later today (25 July) - foresees full Arab recognition of Israel in return for lands the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Arab ministers in Israel for land-for-peace talks By Adam Entous
Wed Jul 25, 9:23 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Egyptian and Jordanian envoys from the Arab League, on their first visit to Israel to present an Arab land-for-peace plan, called on Wednesday for setting a rapid timetable for talks with the Palestinians over statehood. We need a precise timetable, a quick timetable and we urge Israel not to waste this historic opportunity. Time is not on our side, said Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah al-Khatib, in Jerusalem with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he believed there was a chance in the near future for the process to ripen into talks that would, in effect, deal with the stages of establishing a Palestinian state.His comments were the clearest statement yet of Israel's intention to try to relaunch final-status talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip last month to Hamas Islamists.But Olmert said there were no precise timetables or stages established yet" for getting to discussions about permanent borders and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, all divisive issues in the Jewish state.
Neither Israel nor the visiting Arab envoys spelled out how significant progress could be made towards statehood with the Palestinian territories divided between Hamas-run Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where Fatah holds sway.The one-day visit to Israel by Gheit and Khatib, who both spoke at a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, was the first by Arab League representatives to promote the group's peace plan, stalled since 2002.The initiative offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.We want to hear your ideas and want to express our ideas, so that we'll be able to carry on, Olmert, who has said the plan had positive elements, told the envoys at his office.But citing demographic and security concerns, Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now the Jewish state and wants to hold on to major settlement blocs in the West Bank.
TURNING POINT
Israel sought to cast the envoys' arrival as a potential turning point in relations with the Arab League, which has long shunned it. Livni described the visit as historic.Arab diplomats played down the gesture. Egypt and Jordan already have full relations with Israel, and despite U.S. and Israeli appeals to expand the number of Arab participants in the talks, Saudi Arabia and other Arab League members with no formal ties to the Jewish state have refused to take part.I will be more than happy that next time you come, you'll bring with you ministers from more Arab countries, Olmert said in his welcoming remarks to Gheit and Khatib.
The United States has been pushing Olmert to move ahead to serious negotiations over border issues with Abbas, who dismissed a unity coalition with Hamas last month after the Islamists seized control of Gaza.Olmert described his current talks with Abbas as serious and said the goal was to advance a process in a natural way towards discussion of central issues.Former British prime minister Tony Blair ended his first visit as international envoy to the Middle East on Wednesday after saying he saw a moment of opportunity for peace. But he offered no specifics in public.(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan)
Monday, July 23, 2007
THE NAZI CONNECTION
The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism
By Chuck Morse
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 20, 2007
Presentation delivered at Congregation Kadimah Toras Moshe in Brighton, Mass. January 22, 2007.
Harvard Professor George Santayana said Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.My interest in history, which led me to write this book, is based on an attempt to understand historical events and mindsets that led to today’s crisis which is, as I see it, an aggressive existential war against Israel, the western democracies, and moderate Islamic states.We are defending freedom today, and our future as a sovereign nation, against an aggressive assault by the evil forces of radical Islam as personified by Osama bin-Laden.How did things devolve to such a low point that fanatics blow up buildings in Manhattan, and blow themselves up with bomb belts, in order to kill as many innocent people as possible who do not agree with their conception of how to live and what to believe?
I trace the origin of today’s war against the west to the post World War I period, 1918-1921. This was a time when new sovereign nations were emerging in Europe and the winds of freedom and hope were sweeping across a Middle East that had been suppressed for centuries by the recently defunct Ottoman Turkish Empire.In those heady years, many Arabs and Muslims reverently hoped that new and modern sovereign Arab nations would develop alongside a Jewish State existing in the ancestral homeland promised to the Jews by the almighty in a Torah that was, and is, considered to be divine by Muslims and Christians as well as by Jews.In fact, like the Christian New Testament, the Koran, the holy book of Islam, recognizes Israel as a Jewish State in the following passages:the words of Moses to his people. He said: Remember, my people, the favors, which Allah has bestowed upon you…. Enter, my people, the holy land which Allah has assigned for you.(Sura V) …. “When the promise of the hereafter cometh to pass (at Judgment Day) we shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of various nations.” (Sura XVII: 104)
Emir Faisal
Emir Faisal ibn Hussein, the Hashemite son of Hussein, Sherif of Mecca, and considered by many to be a direct descendent of the Islamic Prophet Mohammad, typified the pro Israel viewpoint amongst Arabs at that time. Faisal, who would become King of Syria and later King of Iraq, was the head of the accredited delegation of Arab representatives attending the Paris Peace Talks where the League of Nations was established. Faisal met with Chaim Weizmann, the accredited head of the Zionist delegation to the Paris peace talks, in London where he signed a document known as the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, January 3, 1919.
The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement includes the following provisions:
Article I
The Arab State and Palestine in all their relations and undertakings shall be controlled by the most cordial goodwill and understanding and to this end Arab and Jewish duly accredited agents shall be established and maintained in their respective territories.
Article II
Immediately following the completion of the deliberations of the Peace Conference, the definite boundaries between the Arab State and Palestine shall be determined by a Commission to be agreed upon by the parties hereto.
Article III
In the establishment of the Constitution and Administration of Palestine all such measures shall be adopted as will afford the fullest guarantees for carrying into effect the British Government's Declaration of the 2nd of November 1917.
Article IV
All necessary measures shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil. In taking such measures the Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights, and shall be assisted in forwarding their economic development.
Article V
No regulation nor law shall be made prohibiting or interfering in any way with the free exercise of religion; and further the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall for ever be allowed. No religious test shall ever be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.
Article Vl
The Mohammedan Holy Places shall be under Mohammedan control.
Article Vll
The Zionist Organization proposes to send Palestine a Commission of experts to make a survey of the economic possibilities of the country, and to report upon the best means for its development. The Zionist Organization will place the aforementioned Commission at the disposal of the Arab State for the purpose of a survey of the economic possibilities of the Arab State and to report upon the best means for its development. The Zionist Organization will use its best efforts to assist the Arab State in providing the means for developing the natural resources and economic possibilities thereof.
Article VIII
The parties hereto agree to act in complete accord and harmony in all matters embraced herein before the Peace Congress.
Article IX
Any matters of dispute which may arise between the contracting parties shall be referred to the British Government for arbitration.
Provided the Arabs obtain their independence as demanded in my Memorandum dated the 4th of January 1919, to the Foreign Office of the Government of Great Britain, I shall concur in the above articles. But if the slightest modification or departure were to be made [sc. in relation to the demands in the Memorandum] I shall not be bound by a single word of the present Agreement which shall be deemed void and of no account or validity, and I shall not be answerable in any way whatsoever.
(Signed) FAISAL IBN HUSAIN (in Arabic)
(Signed) CHAIM WEIZMANN
The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, a founding document of the League of Nations, is a recognition by the Arab and Muslim nations of the State of Israel and is legally binding international law. All of its provisions have been fulfilled. The Arab and Muslim nations are sovereign. The rights of the Israeli Arab are assured. The Islamic holy sites in Israel are under Moslem control.
The final borders of the Jewish State were determined by a commission headed by Winston Churchill back in 1922, which divided the British Palestine Mandate into an Arab sector east of the Jordan River and a Jewish sector west of the Jordan River. This is exactly where Jewish Palestine, Israel, and Arab Palestine, Jordan, are situated today. The borders of Israel correspond exactly to the borders described in the Torah as the Holy Land. The Torah describes the Holy Land as from Dan to Beersheba, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean sea.
Regarding the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, Emir Faisal wrote the following to Harvard Law School Dean and later US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter:
We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in race, having suffered similar oppressions at the hands of powers stronger than themselves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their national ideals together.
We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organization to the Peace Conference and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, in so far as we are concerned, to help them through: we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.
We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a real success without the other.
The beautiful sentiments expressed here by the political and spiritual leader of the Arab and Islamic world in 1919 are a true reflection of what President George W. Bush and other western leaders refer to when they speak of Islam as a religion of peace.
May the Arab and Muslim nations honor this noble agreement entered into with Israel in 1919 by the recognized leaders of the two peoples, a just and fair agreement that is entirely in accord with the national and religious interests of both Muslims and of Jews.
The Mufti
There was another wind blowing in the post World War I years and that was the sinister wind of totalitarianism. That ill wind cut a swath across Europe in the form of Mussolini’s Fascism and in the ascendance of the two world order socialist movements, Hitler’s Nazism and Lenin’s Communism. Nazism profoundly influenced the Middle East in the years leading up to and including World War II, and Soviet Communism picked up the gauntlet in the post World War II years. Those European political and philosophical exports found fertile ground in traditional pan-Arabism, a bloody chauvinistic tradition of world conquest, one that runs contrary to more peaceful Islamic traditions. Modern pan-Arabism, formed on the crucible of the two secular European political faiths, is now made manifest in the beliefs and actions of the pan-Arabist radical Islamic Jihad we face today.
Faisal’s enlightened vision of sovereign Arab nations co-existing with a sovereign Jewish State was eclipsed by the radical pan-Arab designs of Haj Amin al-Husseini, named as Mufti of Jerusalem by the British Governor of the Palestine Mandate, Sir Herbert Samuel, in 1921. This was after al-Husseini had been convicted in absentia for his involvement in a slaughter of Jews in Jerusalem in 1920, known in Israel today as Bloody Passover. The liberal Samuel, himself a British Jew, pardoned al-Husseini, returned him from exile, and chose him as Mufti and head of the political Supreme Muslim Council in Palestine in spite of the fact that he had been opposed by the Palestinian Arab population who placed him in fourth place in a field of four Arab candidates for the position of Mufti.
In the nineteen twenties and the early nineteen thirties, the Mufti agitated against the Jews, incited a bloody riot in 1929 involving a mass slaughter of the indigenous Jewish community of Hebron, and instituted assassinations and suicide bombers who would target Arabs who refused to take his side in his fight against the Jews. Many Muslim and Christian Palestinian intellectual leaders and clerics were assassinated by the Muftis men for opposing his terrorist agenda.
The following is a partial list of Arabs assassinated by the Mufti’s followers during the Arab revolt of 1936-1939:
Sheikh Daoud Ansari ( Imam of Al Aqsa Mosque), Sheikh Ali Nur el Khattib (Al Aqsa Mosque), Sheikh Nusbi Abdal Rahim (Council of Muslim Religious Court), Sheikh Abdul el Badoui (Acre, Palestine), Sheikh El Namouri (Hebron), Nasr El Din Nassr (Mayor of Hebron). Between Feb. 1937 and Nov 1938, and Eleven (11) Mukhtars (community leaders) and their entire families.
The Mufti became a leader of the Arab and Islamic world as he attended conferences and sent envoys to Muslim nations as far away as Malaysia to raise money to, among other projects, gold plate the Dome of the Rock Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem claming that the Jews were plotting to blow it up.
It has been written that in 1936, the Mufti met with Adolf Eichmann, sent by his Nazi superiors on a mission to the Middle East, during a twenty-four hours in Haifa. I was interviewed at Yad Vashem last year on this book and the group of scholars I met with informed me that there was no proof that Eichmann had ever set foot in Palestine. What is not disputed, however, is that Eichmann did meet with the Mufti at that time, possibly in Cairo where Eichmann spent a week, and that the Mufti became a Nazi agent as a consequence of that meeting.
Swiss Nazi banker Fransois Genoud began to funnel money to the Mufti who used the funds to further the formation of pro-Nazi political organizations such as the Egyptian Green Shirts, headed by Abdul Gamal Nasser, who would become the Egyptian Dictator who instigated war against Israel in 1967, and to foment trouble against the British. The Mufti continued a close collaboration with Eichmann until the end of the war and with Genoud for decades after the war.
After instigating the Arab Revolt against British in Palestine in 1936, the Mufti fled Palestine. In 1941, the Mufti turned up in Baghdad where he played a major role in instigating a pro-Nazi coup against the pro-British government in Iraq. One of the generals involved in the pro-Nazi coup, General Kharilla Tulfah, was Saddam Hussein’s uncle, father in law, and mentor. When the pro-Nazi coup failed, the Mufti recorded an anti-Semitic broadcast blaming the indigenous Iraqi Jews for the failure, which triggered the Fahud, a bloody pogrom against the Iraqi Jews, a community that pre-dated the Muslim invasion of Iraq by almost a thousand years.
The Mufti and Hitler Fleeing Bagdad, and passing through Tehran, Istanbul, and Rome, the Mufti made his way to Berlin where he was met with all the pomp and circumstance of a visiting head of state. The Nazis gave the Mufti a mansion to live in, on fashionable Klostock Street in Berlin, one that had been confiscated from a Jew who was sent to a concentration camp, and the Nazis gave the already wealthy Mufti a hefty salary, which he received up until the last weeks of the war. The Mufti was given access to the SS controlled Sonderfund. These were monies and properties that had been confiscated from Jews as they were sent off to the ovens.
The Mufti used the sonderfund to support a Palestinian Arab expatriate community living in wartime Nazi Berlin, to train pro Nazi European Muslim militias in Bosnia and Russia, and to foment anti Jewish and pro Nazi activities in the Middle East where he maintained an extensive network of contacts. The Sonderfund financed the Mufti’s Nazi-Muslim government in exile and was used to fund an Islamic Institute in Dresden under the Mufti. The purpose of the institute was to inspire an elite cadre of Nazi- Muslim leaders. More research is required to trace the career paths of these Nazi Muslim leaders after the war.
Monies derived from the sonderfund continued to flow into the Middle East, from Swiss bank accounts and with the involvement of Swiss-Nazi banker François Genoud and the Mufti, years and even decades after the end of World War II with the funds going to terrorists. Genoud committed suicide in 1996 at the age of 81 before a committee, investigating Nazi money laundering in Swiss banks and headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker, had the opportunity to interview him. More research is required to follow the Nazi money trail after the war.
The Mufti recorded several radio broadcasts, transmitted from a large tower in Bari, Italy into the Arab world, calling for Arabs to Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, History and Religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.It should be noted that the main line of propaganda used by Hitler and the Mufti against the Jews was that there was a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world. This was the basic thesis used against the Jews by Hitler in Mein Kampf and previously, in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Russian forgery that was widely disseminated in those years.
History indicates that those who pointed the finger of accusation at the Jews, Hitler’s Nazis, Stalin’s Communists, the Muftis pan-Arabists, and today’s Jihadists were, and are, in fact, movements that were, or in the case of the Jihadists presently are, conspiring to rule the world.
Zionism, on the other hand, was, and remains, a movement that seeks to fulfill the modest national aspirations of the Jewish people in the tiny and inscrutable sliver of land known as Israel, nothing more and nothing less. It was the Nazis and the Communists who sought a new world order with themselves in charge, and who murdered hundreds of millions of human beings perceived as standing in the way of their demented goal. It was the Mufti who sought to annihilate the tiny State of Israel as a stepping-stone toward a Arab Caliphate on vast and oil rich Arab lands. The Jihadists of today are the inheritors of the world conquering conspiracy.
In November of 1941, the Mufti met face to face with Hitler, who promised that as soon as he finished off Europe, Nazi brigades would cross the Caucasus and conquer the Arab world. The Mufti would then be installed as the Nazi backed puppet head of a united Nazi-Arab Caliphate. Before the Hitler-Mufti meeting, the Nazis were still open to the idea of deporting Jews, possibly to Palestine. In 1939, the Allies closed the door to Jewish refugees at the Evian Conference thus condemning the Jews of Europe to the Nazi prison. It is reasonable to assume that the Mufti urged Hitler to not let Jews go to Palestine, which, at any rate, had been closed to Jews by the British, and instead urged, on the Holocaust. A few months after the Mufti-Hitler meeting, the Nazis held a conference at an estate in Wansee, a suburb of Berlin, where it was decided to systematically annihilate the entire Jewish population of Nazi occupied Europe.
The Mufti was directly involved in the Holocaust in various ways. Under the guidance of Himmler, of whom he maintained close contact, the Mufti was put in charge of recruiting and training a Bosnian Nazi-Muslim SS military unit known as the Hanzar Division, which grew to 27,999 men. Along with other Nazi-Muslim military formations in the Balkans and in Russia, the Hanzars would carry out the genocide of 250,000 Serbs, Gypsies and Jews. Himmler called for special treatment for Muslim troops and in a letter to Nazi Propaganda minister Josef Goebbels wrote: “I have nothing against Islam because it educates the men in this division for me and promises them heaven if they fight and are killed in action. A very practical and attractive religion for soldiers.” Nazi-Muslim brigades in Russia were involved in the infamous einzatsgruppen, which were mobile killing units operating behind Nazi lines and charged with liquidating Jews and others viewed as enemies of the Nazi state.
The Mufti toured the death camps to witness firsthand the mass murder and urge it on. The Mufti sent letters to pro-Nazi governments in Hungary and Rumania to stop them from trading Jews for POW’s, urging them instead to send their Jews to Aushwitz. The Mufti intervened in a May 14, 1942 letter to his friend, Adolf Eichmann, to stop an offer by the Red Cross to exchange 4000 orphaned Polish Jewish children for Nazi prisoners of war. He wrote something to the effect that little Jews grow up to be big Jews. The children were sent to the gas chambers.
After the War
At the end of the war, the Mufti fled, one step ahead of indictment by the Nuremberg Tribunal on charges brought by Yugoslavia, to Cairo and spent the rest of his life fomenting violence against Israel whenever possible. The British once again give the Mufti amnesty and he returned to Palestine to fight Israel in 1948 where he issued a fatwa: I declare a Holy War, My Muslim Brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!. After Israel became a state, the Mufti was implicated in the assassination of the moderate Hashemite King Abdallah of Jordan, the brother of the aforementioned King Faisal, who was about to make peace with Israel.
The Mufti aided in Operation Odessa, which was a ratline smuggling thousands of Nazi war criminals into Egypt and Syria. Many Nazis, once settled in Arab capitals, changed their names, converted to Islam, and involved themselves in war against Israel. The Mufti promoted the so-called right of return for Palestinian Arabs, this after having exhorted Arabs to leave Palestine during Israel’s war of independence. The Mufti worked to keep Arabs in refugee camps to be used as recruiting centers to fight against Israel. In his last public appearance in a speech before a World Islamic Conference in 1962, the Mufti called for the ethnic cleansing of all Jews from the Arab world. He died in Beirut July 5, 1974.
The islamo-Fascist Mufti was mentor to the islamo-Communist Yasir Arafat, said to be his nephew. Arafat started his career at the age of 17 as a gunrunner for the Mufti’s irregular militia, which participated in the 1948 war against Israel. After attending a communist youth convention in Prague in 1956, Arafat and a group of his cohorts went to Moscow for training where they formed the terrorist cell known as al-Fatah. After the collapse of Nazism, the Marxist founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian professor Hassan el-Banna, openly allied his group with the Soviet Union. The secretive Muslim Brotherhood would later spawn both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The connection between Arab terrorism and the Soviets accelerated in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Where do we go from here?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt proved that he was a great political and moral leader in the war against Nazism when he declared that he would accept nothing short of unconditional surrender. Ronald Reagan did likewise against the Communists when he spoke of the evil empire and asked Gorbachev to tear down this wall. President George W. Bush will go down in history as having the political and moral fortitude to stand up to the international forces of the radical Jihadists by his farsighted commitment of American troops to fight for the freedom of Afghanistan and of Iraq.
This may not happen fast enough for many but eventually America will have helped the Muslim nations and peoples in their struggle against the followers of haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The progressive vision of Emir Faisal will come to pass in the Arab and Muslim world but only with the support of the freedom loving western democracies. Germany and Japan are free today, something that was not considered possible in the 1930.s, because America and her allies stood for freedom. Russia and the Eastern Europe are well on their way to freedom and prosperity today thanks to American leadership. Arabs and Muslims deserve the same opportunity and are also capable of practicing peace and freedom it the western democracies stand up to the aggressors. We need to stand with those Muslims who love freedom and utterly crush those who seek to oppress their own people, to kill us, and destroy our way of life.
The Iraq war is as just and righteous a war as was the war to liberate Europe from Nazism. We must stay the course however long it takes.
The Palestinian question was settled in 1921 when Palestine was divided into a Jewish and a non-Jewish Arab sector. Jordan is east Palestine, Israel is west Palestine. The Jews of Israel are as much Palestinian as the Arabs of both Israel and Jordan. Local autonomy should be granted to the Palestinian Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza with Jordan playing a role to be determined and Israel maintaining overall military and security control. Jews should never again be ethnically cleansed from any part of Israel.
Arabs should be offered financial incentives to emigrate to Iraq once that country becomes more stable and peaceful. This program would not be ethnic cleansing as it would be voluntary. Muslim and Christian Arabs choosing to remain in Israel should be encouraged to fully participate in the life and in the spiritual destiny of the Holy Land by becoming Jews. Muslim and Christian Arabs who choose to live in Israel and maintain their faiths, and who are willing to participate as peaceful citizens, should be offered full citizenship and all the rights that such citizenship implies.
By Chuck Morse
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 20, 2007
Presentation delivered at Congregation Kadimah Toras Moshe in Brighton, Mass. January 22, 2007.
Harvard Professor George Santayana said Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.My interest in history, which led me to write this book, is based on an attempt to understand historical events and mindsets that led to today’s crisis which is, as I see it, an aggressive existential war against Israel, the western democracies, and moderate Islamic states.We are defending freedom today, and our future as a sovereign nation, against an aggressive assault by the evil forces of radical Islam as personified by Osama bin-Laden.How did things devolve to such a low point that fanatics blow up buildings in Manhattan, and blow themselves up with bomb belts, in order to kill as many innocent people as possible who do not agree with their conception of how to live and what to believe?
I trace the origin of today’s war against the west to the post World War I period, 1918-1921. This was a time when new sovereign nations were emerging in Europe and the winds of freedom and hope were sweeping across a Middle East that had been suppressed for centuries by the recently defunct Ottoman Turkish Empire.In those heady years, many Arabs and Muslims reverently hoped that new and modern sovereign Arab nations would develop alongside a Jewish State existing in the ancestral homeland promised to the Jews by the almighty in a Torah that was, and is, considered to be divine by Muslims and Christians as well as by Jews.In fact, like the Christian New Testament, the Koran, the holy book of Islam, recognizes Israel as a Jewish State in the following passages:the words of Moses to his people. He said: Remember, my people, the favors, which Allah has bestowed upon you…. Enter, my people, the holy land which Allah has assigned for you.(Sura V) …. “When the promise of the hereafter cometh to pass (at Judgment Day) we shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of various nations.” (Sura XVII: 104)
Emir Faisal
Emir Faisal ibn Hussein, the Hashemite son of Hussein, Sherif of Mecca, and considered by many to be a direct descendent of the Islamic Prophet Mohammad, typified the pro Israel viewpoint amongst Arabs at that time. Faisal, who would become King of Syria and later King of Iraq, was the head of the accredited delegation of Arab representatives attending the Paris Peace Talks where the League of Nations was established. Faisal met with Chaim Weizmann, the accredited head of the Zionist delegation to the Paris peace talks, in London where he signed a document known as the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, January 3, 1919.
The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement includes the following provisions:
Article I
The Arab State and Palestine in all their relations and undertakings shall be controlled by the most cordial goodwill and understanding and to this end Arab and Jewish duly accredited agents shall be established and maintained in their respective territories.
Article II
Immediately following the completion of the deliberations of the Peace Conference, the definite boundaries between the Arab State and Palestine shall be determined by a Commission to be agreed upon by the parties hereto.
Article III
In the establishment of the Constitution and Administration of Palestine all such measures shall be adopted as will afford the fullest guarantees for carrying into effect the British Government's Declaration of the 2nd of November 1917.
Article IV
All necessary measures shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil. In taking such measures the Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights, and shall be assisted in forwarding their economic development.
Article V
No regulation nor law shall be made prohibiting or interfering in any way with the free exercise of religion; and further the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall for ever be allowed. No religious test shall ever be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.
Article Vl
The Mohammedan Holy Places shall be under Mohammedan control.
Article Vll
The Zionist Organization proposes to send Palestine a Commission of experts to make a survey of the economic possibilities of the country, and to report upon the best means for its development. The Zionist Organization will place the aforementioned Commission at the disposal of the Arab State for the purpose of a survey of the economic possibilities of the Arab State and to report upon the best means for its development. The Zionist Organization will use its best efforts to assist the Arab State in providing the means for developing the natural resources and economic possibilities thereof.
Article VIII
The parties hereto agree to act in complete accord and harmony in all matters embraced herein before the Peace Congress.
Article IX
Any matters of dispute which may arise between the contracting parties shall be referred to the British Government for arbitration.
Provided the Arabs obtain their independence as demanded in my Memorandum dated the 4th of January 1919, to the Foreign Office of the Government of Great Britain, I shall concur in the above articles. But if the slightest modification or departure were to be made [sc. in relation to the demands in the Memorandum] I shall not be bound by a single word of the present Agreement which shall be deemed void and of no account or validity, and I shall not be answerable in any way whatsoever.
(Signed) FAISAL IBN HUSAIN (in Arabic)
(Signed) CHAIM WEIZMANN
The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, a founding document of the League of Nations, is a recognition by the Arab and Muslim nations of the State of Israel and is legally binding international law. All of its provisions have been fulfilled. The Arab and Muslim nations are sovereign. The rights of the Israeli Arab are assured. The Islamic holy sites in Israel are under Moslem control.
The final borders of the Jewish State were determined by a commission headed by Winston Churchill back in 1922, which divided the British Palestine Mandate into an Arab sector east of the Jordan River and a Jewish sector west of the Jordan River. This is exactly where Jewish Palestine, Israel, and Arab Palestine, Jordan, are situated today. The borders of Israel correspond exactly to the borders described in the Torah as the Holy Land. The Torah describes the Holy Land as from Dan to Beersheba, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean sea.
Regarding the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, Emir Faisal wrote the following to Harvard Law School Dean and later US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter:
We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in race, having suffered similar oppressions at the hands of powers stronger than themselves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their national ideals together.
We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organization to the Peace Conference and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, in so far as we are concerned, to help them through: we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.
We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a real success without the other.
The beautiful sentiments expressed here by the political and spiritual leader of the Arab and Islamic world in 1919 are a true reflection of what President George W. Bush and other western leaders refer to when they speak of Islam as a religion of peace.
May the Arab and Muslim nations honor this noble agreement entered into with Israel in 1919 by the recognized leaders of the two peoples, a just and fair agreement that is entirely in accord with the national and religious interests of both Muslims and of Jews.
The Mufti
There was another wind blowing in the post World War I years and that was the sinister wind of totalitarianism. That ill wind cut a swath across Europe in the form of Mussolini’s Fascism and in the ascendance of the two world order socialist movements, Hitler’s Nazism and Lenin’s Communism. Nazism profoundly influenced the Middle East in the years leading up to and including World War II, and Soviet Communism picked up the gauntlet in the post World War II years. Those European political and philosophical exports found fertile ground in traditional pan-Arabism, a bloody chauvinistic tradition of world conquest, one that runs contrary to more peaceful Islamic traditions. Modern pan-Arabism, formed on the crucible of the two secular European political faiths, is now made manifest in the beliefs and actions of the pan-Arabist radical Islamic Jihad we face today.
Faisal’s enlightened vision of sovereign Arab nations co-existing with a sovereign Jewish State was eclipsed by the radical pan-Arab designs of Haj Amin al-Husseini, named as Mufti of Jerusalem by the British Governor of the Palestine Mandate, Sir Herbert Samuel, in 1921. This was after al-Husseini had been convicted in absentia for his involvement in a slaughter of Jews in Jerusalem in 1920, known in Israel today as Bloody Passover. The liberal Samuel, himself a British Jew, pardoned al-Husseini, returned him from exile, and chose him as Mufti and head of the political Supreme Muslim Council in Palestine in spite of the fact that he had been opposed by the Palestinian Arab population who placed him in fourth place in a field of four Arab candidates for the position of Mufti.
In the nineteen twenties and the early nineteen thirties, the Mufti agitated against the Jews, incited a bloody riot in 1929 involving a mass slaughter of the indigenous Jewish community of Hebron, and instituted assassinations and suicide bombers who would target Arabs who refused to take his side in his fight against the Jews. Many Muslim and Christian Palestinian intellectual leaders and clerics were assassinated by the Muftis men for opposing his terrorist agenda.
The following is a partial list of Arabs assassinated by the Mufti’s followers during the Arab revolt of 1936-1939:
Sheikh Daoud Ansari ( Imam of Al Aqsa Mosque), Sheikh Ali Nur el Khattib (Al Aqsa Mosque), Sheikh Nusbi Abdal Rahim (Council of Muslim Religious Court), Sheikh Abdul el Badoui (Acre, Palestine), Sheikh El Namouri (Hebron), Nasr El Din Nassr (Mayor of Hebron). Between Feb. 1937 and Nov 1938, and Eleven (11) Mukhtars (community leaders) and their entire families.
The Mufti became a leader of the Arab and Islamic world as he attended conferences and sent envoys to Muslim nations as far away as Malaysia to raise money to, among other projects, gold plate the Dome of the Rock Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem claming that the Jews were plotting to blow it up.
It has been written that in 1936, the Mufti met with Adolf Eichmann, sent by his Nazi superiors on a mission to the Middle East, during a twenty-four hours in Haifa. I was interviewed at Yad Vashem last year on this book and the group of scholars I met with informed me that there was no proof that Eichmann had ever set foot in Palestine. What is not disputed, however, is that Eichmann did meet with the Mufti at that time, possibly in Cairo where Eichmann spent a week, and that the Mufti became a Nazi agent as a consequence of that meeting.
Swiss Nazi banker Fransois Genoud began to funnel money to the Mufti who used the funds to further the formation of pro-Nazi political organizations such as the Egyptian Green Shirts, headed by Abdul Gamal Nasser, who would become the Egyptian Dictator who instigated war against Israel in 1967, and to foment trouble against the British. The Mufti continued a close collaboration with Eichmann until the end of the war and with Genoud for decades after the war.
After instigating the Arab Revolt against British in Palestine in 1936, the Mufti fled Palestine. In 1941, the Mufti turned up in Baghdad where he played a major role in instigating a pro-Nazi coup against the pro-British government in Iraq. One of the generals involved in the pro-Nazi coup, General Kharilla Tulfah, was Saddam Hussein’s uncle, father in law, and mentor. When the pro-Nazi coup failed, the Mufti recorded an anti-Semitic broadcast blaming the indigenous Iraqi Jews for the failure, which triggered the Fahud, a bloody pogrom against the Iraqi Jews, a community that pre-dated the Muslim invasion of Iraq by almost a thousand years.
The Mufti and Hitler Fleeing Bagdad, and passing through Tehran, Istanbul, and Rome, the Mufti made his way to Berlin where he was met with all the pomp and circumstance of a visiting head of state. The Nazis gave the Mufti a mansion to live in, on fashionable Klostock Street in Berlin, one that had been confiscated from a Jew who was sent to a concentration camp, and the Nazis gave the already wealthy Mufti a hefty salary, which he received up until the last weeks of the war. The Mufti was given access to the SS controlled Sonderfund. These were monies and properties that had been confiscated from Jews as they were sent off to the ovens.
The Mufti used the sonderfund to support a Palestinian Arab expatriate community living in wartime Nazi Berlin, to train pro Nazi European Muslim militias in Bosnia and Russia, and to foment anti Jewish and pro Nazi activities in the Middle East where he maintained an extensive network of contacts. The Sonderfund financed the Mufti’s Nazi-Muslim government in exile and was used to fund an Islamic Institute in Dresden under the Mufti. The purpose of the institute was to inspire an elite cadre of Nazi- Muslim leaders. More research is required to trace the career paths of these Nazi Muslim leaders after the war.
Monies derived from the sonderfund continued to flow into the Middle East, from Swiss bank accounts and with the involvement of Swiss-Nazi banker François Genoud and the Mufti, years and even decades after the end of World War II with the funds going to terrorists. Genoud committed suicide in 1996 at the age of 81 before a committee, investigating Nazi money laundering in Swiss banks and headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker, had the opportunity to interview him. More research is required to follow the Nazi money trail after the war.
The Mufti recorded several radio broadcasts, transmitted from a large tower in Bari, Italy into the Arab world, calling for Arabs to Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, History and Religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.It should be noted that the main line of propaganda used by Hitler and the Mufti against the Jews was that there was a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world. This was the basic thesis used against the Jews by Hitler in Mein Kampf and previously, in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Russian forgery that was widely disseminated in those years.
History indicates that those who pointed the finger of accusation at the Jews, Hitler’s Nazis, Stalin’s Communists, the Muftis pan-Arabists, and today’s Jihadists were, and are, in fact, movements that were, or in the case of the Jihadists presently are, conspiring to rule the world.
Zionism, on the other hand, was, and remains, a movement that seeks to fulfill the modest national aspirations of the Jewish people in the tiny and inscrutable sliver of land known as Israel, nothing more and nothing less. It was the Nazis and the Communists who sought a new world order with themselves in charge, and who murdered hundreds of millions of human beings perceived as standing in the way of their demented goal. It was the Mufti who sought to annihilate the tiny State of Israel as a stepping-stone toward a Arab Caliphate on vast and oil rich Arab lands. The Jihadists of today are the inheritors of the world conquering conspiracy.
In November of 1941, the Mufti met face to face with Hitler, who promised that as soon as he finished off Europe, Nazi brigades would cross the Caucasus and conquer the Arab world. The Mufti would then be installed as the Nazi backed puppet head of a united Nazi-Arab Caliphate. Before the Hitler-Mufti meeting, the Nazis were still open to the idea of deporting Jews, possibly to Palestine. In 1939, the Allies closed the door to Jewish refugees at the Evian Conference thus condemning the Jews of Europe to the Nazi prison. It is reasonable to assume that the Mufti urged Hitler to not let Jews go to Palestine, which, at any rate, had been closed to Jews by the British, and instead urged, on the Holocaust. A few months after the Mufti-Hitler meeting, the Nazis held a conference at an estate in Wansee, a suburb of Berlin, where it was decided to systematically annihilate the entire Jewish population of Nazi occupied Europe.
The Mufti was directly involved in the Holocaust in various ways. Under the guidance of Himmler, of whom he maintained close contact, the Mufti was put in charge of recruiting and training a Bosnian Nazi-Muslim SS military unit known as the Hanzar Division, which grew to 27,999 men. Along with other Nazi-Muslim military formations in the Balkans and in Russia, the Hanzars would carry out the genocide of 250,000 Serbs, Gypsies and Jews. Himmler called for special treatment for Muslim troops and in a letter to Nazi Propaganda minister Josef Goebbels wrote: “I have nothing against Islam because it educates the men in this division for me and promises them heaven if they fight and are killed in action. A very practical and attractive religion for soldiers.” Nazi-Muslim brigades in Russia were involved in the infamous einzatsgruppen, which were mobile killing units operating behind Nazi lines and charged with liquidating Jews and others viewed as enemies of the Nazi state.
The Mufti toured the death camps to witness firsthand the mass murder and urge it on. The Mufti sent letters to pro-Nazi governments in Hungary and Rumania to stop them from trading Jews for POW’s, urging them instead to send their Jews to Aushwitz. The Mufti intervened in a May 14, 1942 letter to his friend, Adolf Eichmann, to stop an offer by the Red Cross to exchange 4000 orphaned Polish Jewish children for Nazi prisoners of war. He wrote something to the effect that little Jews grow up to be big Jews. The children were sent to the gas chambers.
After the War
At the end of the war, the Mufti fled, one step ahead of indictment by the Nuremberg Tribunal on charges brought by Yugoslavia, to Cairo and spent the rest of his life fomenting violence against Israel whenever possible. The British once again give the Mufti amnesty and he returned to Palestine to fight Israel in 1948 where he issued a fatwa: I declare a Holy War, My Muslim Brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!. After Israel became a state, the Mufti was implicated in the assassination of the moderate Hashemite King Abdallah of Jordan, the brother of the aforementioned King Faisal, who was about to make peace with Israel.
The Mufti aided in Operation Odessa, which was a ratline smuggling thousands of Nazi war criminals into Egypt and Syria. Many Nazis, once settled in Arab capitals, changed their names, converted to Islam, and involved themselves in war against Israel. The Mufti promoted the so-called right of return for Palestinian Arabs, this after having exhorted Arabs to leave Palestine during Israel’s war of independence. The Mufti worked to keep Arabs in refugee camps to be used as recruiting centers to fight against Israel. In his last public appearance in a speech before a World Islamic Conference in 1962, the Mufti called for the ethnic cleansing of all Jews from the Arab world. He died in Beirut July 5, 1974.
The islamo-Fascist Mufti was mentor to the islamo-Communist Yasir Arafat, said to be his nephew. Arafat started his career at the age of 17 as a gunrunner for the Mufti’s irregular militia, which participated in the 1948 war against Israel. After attending a communist youth convention in Prague in 1956, Arafat and a group of his cohorts went to Moscow for training where they formed the terrorist cell known as al-Fatah. After the collapse of Nazism, the Marxist founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian professor Hassan el-Banna, openly allied his group with the Soviet Union. The secretive Muslim Brotherhood would later spawn both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The connection between Arab terrorism and the Soviets accelerated in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Where do we go from here?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt proved that he was a great political and moral leader in the war against Nazism when he declared that he would accept nothing short of unconditional surrender. Ronald Reagan did likewise against the Communists when he spoke of the evil empire and asked Gorbachev to tear down this wall. President George W. Bush will go down in history as having the political and moral fortitude to stand up to the international forces of the radical Jihadists by his farsighted commitment of American troops to fight for the freedom of Afghanistan and of Iraq.
This may not happen fast enough for many but eventually America will have helped the Muslim nations and peoples in their struggle against the followers of haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The progressive vision of Emir Faisal will come to pass in the Arab and Muslim world but only with the support of the freedom loving western democracies. Germany and Japan are free today, something that was not considered possible in the 1930.s, because America and her allies stood for freedom. Russia and the Eastern Europe are well on their way to freedom and prosperity today thanks to American leadership. Arabs and Muslims deserve the same opportunity and are also capable of practicing peace and freedom it the western democracies stand up to the aggressors. We need to stand with those Muslims who love freedom and utterly crush those who seek to oppress their own people, to kill us, and destroy our way of life.
The Iraq war is as just and righteous a war as was the war to liberate Europe from Nazism. We must stay the course however long it takes.
The Palestinian question was settled in 1921 when Palestine was divided into a Jewish and a non-Jewish Arab sector. Jordan is east Palestine, Israel is west Palestine. The Jews of Israel are as much Palestinian as the Arabs of both Israel and Jordan. Local autonomy should be granted to the Palestinian Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza with Jordan playing a role to be determined and Israel maintaining overall military and security control. Jews should never again be ethnically cleansed from any part of Israel.
Arabs should be offered financial incentives to emigrate to Iraq once that country becomes more stable and peaceful. This program would not be ethnic cleansing as it would be voluntary. Muslim and Christian Arabs choosing to remain in Israel should be encouraged to fully participate in the life and in the spiritual destiny of the Holy Land by becoming Jews. Muslim and Christian Arabs who choose to live in Israel and maintain their faiths, and who are willing to participate as peaceful citizens, should be offered full citizenship and all the rights that such citizenship implies.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
BLAIRS ROADMAP TO REDEMPTION
Blair's road map to redemption?
Former Prime Minister confronts history of failure in new role as Middle East envoy
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem 19 July 2007
Tony Blair arrived in Lisbon last night to begin a second career in which he must know that success may prove even more difficult than being the first British Labour prime minister to win three elections in a row. Mr Blair will be anointed as Middle East envoy by the international Quartet, the EU, UN, Russia and the US, knowing the history of the region is littered by the failures of his predecessors as international peacemakers. On the one hand Mr Blair brings considerable assets to the job, including success in Northern Ireland, and a real interest in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which has no doubt been sharpened by, but did not begin with, the desire to make good for the fiasco of Iraq. On the other hand, it is hard at present to see how he can succeed without coming at some point into collision with both Israel, where he is justly regarded as a friend, and his chief sponsor President Bush.
One sharp question is whether he will at some point talk to Hamas, if only to encourage a rapprochement with its Fatah rivals. On present showing that would incur the wrath of Israel, which has said it will not talk to international figures who engage with the Islamic faction, as well as President George Bush and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who yesterday launched one of his fiercest denunciations yet of Hamas, again proposing fresh elections in the hope of depriving them of a mandate. On the other hand, even Mr Blair's own successor government in Britain, in which his one-time chief policy adviser David Miliband is Foreign Secretary, is among several in Europe tentatively reviewing whether it is really sensible to continue an arguably failed policy of total international isolation of Hamas. No decisions have been taken but the case for change is that more realistic demands, such as an immediate halt to Qassam attacks on Israel and perhaps a pledge not to renew suicide bombing, might produce bankable results. And those advocating conditional engagement, including some prominent Israeli experts, believe it could strengthen the faction's more pragmatic wing at the expense of hardliners who may in time prefer violent opposition, perhaps including suicide bombings, to Israel as well as to Mr Abbas's new emergency administration in Ramallah.
Mr Blair will make a trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah next week before returning for at least a week per month from September, with his likely base being Government House, ironically the headquarters of the old British Mandate but now the headquarters of the UN. And it's then that the real heavy lifting will begin. Even if Mr Blair sees, as Mr Bush made clear that he does, the main task as being to give backing to the government of the new Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, and Mr Abbas in Ramallah as it seeks to improve relations with Israel by pursuing the path of "moderation", he will come up against a series of problems. Mr Blair must know it is difficult enough helping Mr Abbas build state institutions, including a judiciary and effective security ministry when there is no state. But he also knows it is impossible unless there is a tangible quid pro quo from Israel that goes further than anything offered so far.
That means, for example, improving movement and access, diplomatic speak for dismantling some of the checkpoints and roadblocks which the World Bank has blamed for the collapse in the West Bank's economy (a 10 per cent slump in GDP last year alone). And that means some tough talking with Israel, whose military has been reluctant to ease such closures. And here Mr Blair can hardly ignore Gaza, however much pressure he will be under to ignore Hamas. John Ging, the UN refugee agency director in Gaza, and a group of Gaza businessmen directly appealed to Mr Blair and the Quartet to use his good offices to reopen the Karni crossing whose closure they said had triggered the loss of 68,000 jobs since Hamas's bloody takeover of the Strip in June.
Mr Blair is said to have been shocked by conditions in much of Gaza when he visited it as long ago as 1999 and would be even more shocked now. Similarly, will the man who released IRA and loyalist prisoners in the pursuit of peace at a pace that was often criticised heed the persistent calls of Mr Abbas for Israel to go much further than the 250 mainly Fatah prisoners being released tomorrow? For many years Mr Abbas has been vainly pressing for the release of men gaoled before the Oslo accords for taking part in militant missions on which they were sent by those whom Mr Bush and Israel now praise as Palestinian moderates including Mr Abbas.
These are details, though important ones. But the bigger picture is a diplomatic horizon in which negotiations on a final settlement become a reality. Mr Blair is reportedly happy that Mr Bush indicated on Monday, however vaguely, that he wanted such negotiations to take place. Mr Blair's success will be judged in the end, fairly or not, on how far he can help make that distant prospect a reality.
The international guardians
The International Quartet - consisting of the US, UN, EU, and Russia - was set up as guardians of the 2002 road map, a three-phase process towards a final settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, one that was supposed to take place by 2005.
The road map may be dormant to moribund, despite remaining (apart from the timetable dates) the official policy of Western powers. But the Quartet remains the most active international forum for discussion of the conflict. It is responsible for the policy of consistent isolation of Hamas since it took office after winning the Palestinian legislative elections. While Russia has disagreed with that policy, it has tended, thanks to US domination, to be binding on the UN - a cause of strong frustration for Alvaro de Soto, the previous UN special peace envoy to the Middle East.
Tony Blair, who will attend today's meeting of Quartet foreign ministers, was appointed by it as special envoy. His immediate predecessor was James Wolfensohn, the former head of the World Bank, who was appointed to deal with issues arising out of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. He became increasingly frustrated with the difficulty, because of Israel's security concerns, of keeping Gaza crossings open, which he regarded as essential to regenerating the Strip's economy, and left last year. He persuaded Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to broker a deal on opening crossings in November 2005 but it was not largely implemented, because of those same security concerns. Movement and access for Palestinians, one of Mr Wolfensohn's main concerns, will also be in Mr Blair's remit.
Although his appointment had to be approved by the Quartet as a whole, there was some irritation in Moscow and Brussels that they were not more fully consulted by Wash- ington about his appointment.
The plan for peace
1 Dismantle Israeli settlement outposts, such as this one in the northern West Bank, and freeze all settlement-building activity immediately
2 Talk to the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and heal the factional split between the Palestinians
3 Ease restrictions on Palestinian economy and back Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
4 Make progress by getting the Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to agree to final status talks
5 Use experience of Ireland to urge prisoner releases, including Israeli Gilad Shalit.
Former Prime Minister confronts history of failure in new role as Middle East envoy
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem 19 July 2007
Tony Blair arrived in Lisbon last night to begin a second career in which he must know that success may prove even more difficult than being the first British Labour prime minister to win three elections in a row. Mr Blair will be anointed as Middle East envoy by the international Quartet, the EU, UN, Russia and the US, knowing the history of the region is littered by the failures of his predecessors as international peacemakers. On the one hand Mr Blair brings considerable assets to the job, including success in Northern Ireland, and a real interest in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which has no doubt been sharpened by, but did not begin with, the desire to make good for the fiasco of Iraq. On the other hand, it is hard at present to see how he can succeed without coming at some point into collision with both Israel, where he is justly regarded as a friend, and his chief sponsor President Bush.
One sharp question is whether he will at some point talk to Hamas, if only to encourage a rapprochement with its Fatah rivals. On present showing that would incur the wrath of Israel, which has said it will not talk to international figures who engage with the Islamic faction, as well as President George Bush and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who yesterday launched one of his fiercest denunciations yet of Hamas, again proposing fresh elections in the hope of depriving them of a mandate. On the other hand, even Mr Blair's own successor government in Britain, in which his one-time chief policy adviser David Miliband is Foreign Secretary, is among several in Europe tentatively reviewing whether it is really sensible to continue an arguably failed policy of total international isolation of Hamas. No decisions have been taken but the case for change is that more realistic demands, such as an immediate halt to Qassam attacks on Israel and perhaps a pledge not to renew suicide bombing, might produce bankable results. And those advocating conditional engagement, including some prominent Israeli experts, believe it could strengthen the faction's more pragmatic wing at the expense of hardliners who may in time prefer violent opposition, perhaps including suicide bombings, to Israel as well as to Mr Abbas's new emergency administration in Ramallah.
Mr Blair will make a trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah next week before returning for at least a week per month from September, with his likely base being Government House, ironically the headquarters of the old British Mandate but now the headquarters of the UN. And it's then that the real heavy lifting will begin. Even if Mr Blair sees, as Mr Bush made clear that he does, the main task as being to give backing to the government of the new Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, and Mr Abbas in Ramallah as it seeks to improve relations with Israel by pursuing the path of "moderation", he will come up against a series of problems. Mr Blair must know it is difficult enough helping Mr Abbas build state institutions, including a judiciary and effective security ministry when there is no state. But he also knows it is impossible unless there is a tangible quid pro quo from Israel that goes further than anything offered so far.
That means, for example, improving movement and access, diplomatic speak for dismantling some of the checkpoints and roadblocks which the World Bank has blamed for the collapse in the West Bank's economy (a 10 per cent slump in GDP last year alone). And that means some tough talking with Israel, whose military has been reluctant to ease such closures. And here Mr Blair can hardly ignore Gaza, however much pressure he will be under to ignore Hamas. John Ging, the UN refugee agency director in Gaza, and a group of Gaza businessmen directly appealed to Mr Blair and the Quartet to use his good offices to reopen the Karni crossing whose closure they said had triggered the loss of 68,000 jobs since Hamas's bloody takeover of the Strip in June.
Mr Blair is said to have been shocked by conditions in much of Gaza when he visited it as long ago as 1999 and would be even more shocked now. Similarly, will the man who released IRA and loyalist prisoners in the pursuit of peace at a pace that was often criticised heed the persistent calls of Mr Abbas for Israel to go much further than the 250 mainly Fatah prisoners being released tomorrow? For many years Mr Abbas has been vainly pressing for the release of men gaoled before the Oslo accords for taking part in militant missions on which they were sent by those whom Mr Bush and Israel now praise as Palestinian moderates including Mr Abbas.
These are details, though important ones. But the bigger picture is a diplomatic horizon in which negotiations on a final settlement become a reality. Mr Blair is reportedly happy that Mr Bush indicated on Monday, however vaguely, that he wanted such negotiations to take place. Mr Blair's success will be judged in the end, fairly or not, on how far he can help make that distant prospect a reality.
The international guardians
The International Quartet - consisting of the US, UN, EU, and Russia - was set up as guardians of the 2002 road map, a three-phase process towards a final settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, one that was supposed to take place by 2005.
The road map may be dormant to moribund, despite remaining (apart from the timetable dates) the official policy of Western powers. But the Quartet remains the most active international forum for discussion of the conflict. It is responsible for the policy of consistent isolation of Hamas since it took office after winning the Palestinian legislative elections. While Russia has disagreed with that policy, it has tended, thanks to US domination, to be binding on the UN - a cause of strong frustration for Alvaro de Soto, the previous UN special peace envoy to the Middle East.
Tony Blair, who will attend today's meeting of Quartet foreign ministers, was appointed by it as special envoy. His immediate predecessor was James Wolfensohn, the former head of the World Bank, who was appointed to deal with issues arising out of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. He became increasingly frustrated with the difficulty, because of Israel's security concerns, of keeping Gaza crossings open, which he regarded as essential to regenerating the Strip's economy, and left last year. He persuaded Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to broker a deal on opening crossings in November 2005 but it was not largely implemented, because of those same security concerns. Movement and access for Palestinians, one of Mr Wolfensohn's main concerns, will also be in Mr Blair's remit.
Although his appointment had to be approved by the Quartet as a whole, there was some irritation in Moscow and Brussels that they were not more fully consulted by Wash- ington about his appointment.
The plan for peace
1 Dismantle Israeli settlement outposts, such as this one in the northern West Bank, and freeze all settlement-building activity immediately
2 Talk to the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and heal the factional split between the Palestinians
3 Ease restrictions on Palestinian economy and back Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
4 Make progress by getting the Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to agree to final status talks
5 Use experience of Ireland to urge prisoner releases, including Israeli Gilad Shalit.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
SOLANA ONE PA STATE NOT MORE
Solana rejects division of Palestine, calls for Gaza aid - Summary
Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:47:11 GMT
Brussels - European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana on Tuesday warned against any formal political division of Gaza and the West Bank, saying international efforts should focus on establishing one independent Palestinian state. Solana, who arrives in Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, also said foreign economic aid and humanitarian assistance should go to both Gaza and the West Bank. What we want is to have a Palestinian state...it has to be a Palestinian state and not one-and-a-half or three-quarters, Solana told reporters.
Gaza is currently in the hands of the Hamas militant group while the moderate Fatah movement has control of the West Bank. The new interim government led by Salaam Fayyad does not include any Hamas members. Solana made his comments after talks with former British premier Tony Blair who is now an international envoy for Middle East peace. He will be working on helping Palestinians to have a state, said Solana, adding that Blair's task was very important in efforts to find a two-state solution to the conflict. Blair's role was fundamental and would involve helping build Palestinian institutions and rally economic assistance for the Palestinian territories, said Solana. The EU foreign and security policy chief also welcomed US President George W Bush's renewed drive to end Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.
The (Bush) speech has elements that were never said before, said Bush, referring to the US leader's call for an international conference to pave the way for a two-state solution and economic aid for Palestinians. Solana said the 27-nation bloc would work side by side with the US in a determined effort to bring about an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The diplomatic Quartet - whose members include the US and the EU as well as Russia and the United Nations - would have a major part to play in such efforts, he said. The Quartet is expected to meet in Lisbon on Thursday for the first time since the appointment of Blair. It is also the first encounter of the group since Hamas captured the Gaza Strip in June and the subsequent nomination of a non-Hamas interim government led by Palestinian prime minister-designate Salam Fayyad. Bush has said the US will provide full backing to Blair's peace efforts but several EU officials and ministers, including Solana, were taken aback by the US push to give the former British premier the Quartet job. Like the US, the EU has pledged to improve the clout and standing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his moderate Fatah movement. But unlike Washington, the EU has yet to release millions of dollars in direct aid to the Fatah-led Palestinian government.
The funds were frozen after last year's Hamas electoral victory. The militant group is black-listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US. The EU has, however, been channelling aid for the Palestinian health and security sector through non-governmental aid groups. Officials said an estimated 700 million euros in such emergency aid was sent to Gaza and the West Bank last year. The money was used to pay the salaries of teachers, doctors and health workers and for supplies of fuel, water and electricity to the territories. Bush has announced 190 million dollars in direct aid to the Palestinian government, with an additional 80 million dollars for security. The amount includes funding humanitarian causes in Gaza. We are showing the Palestinian people that a commitment to peace leads to the generous support of the United States, Bush said. 2007 Respective Author
Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:47:11 GMT
Brussels - European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana on Tuesday warned against any formal political division of Gaza and the West Bank, saying international efforts should focus on establishing one independent Palestinian state. Solana, who arrives in Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, also said foreign economic aid and humanitarian assistance should go to both Gaza and the West Bank. What we want is to have a Palestinian state...it has to be a Palestinian state and not one-and-a-half or three-quarters, Solana told reporters.
Gaza is currently in the hands of the Hamas militant group while the moderate Fatah movement has control of the West Bank. The new interim government led by Salaam Fayyad does not include any Hamas members. Solana made his comments after talks with former British premier Tony Blair who is now an international envoy for Middle East peace. He will be working on helping Palestinians to have a state, said Solana, adding that Blair's task was very important in efforts to find a two-state solution to the conflict. Blair's role was fundamental and would involve helping build Palestinian institutions and rally economic assistance for the Palestinian territories, said Solana. The EU foreign and security policy chief also welcomed US President George W Bush's renewed drive to end Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.
The (Bush) speech has elements that were never said before, said Bush, referring to the US leader's call for an international conference to pave the way for a two-state solution and economic aid for Palestinians. Solana said the 27-nation bloc would work side by side with the US in a determined effort to bring about an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The diplomatic Quartet - whose members include the US and the EU as well as Russia and the United Nations - would have a major part to play in such efforts, he said. The Quartet is expected to meet in Lisbon on Thursday for the first time since the appointment of Blair. It is also the first encounter of the group since Hamas captured the Gaza Strip in June and the subsequent nomination of a non-Hamas interim government led by Palestinian prime minister-designate Salam Fayyad. Bush has said the US will provide full backing to Blair's peace efforts but several EU officials and ministers, including Solana, were taken aback by the US push to give the former British premier the Quartet job. Like the US, the EU has pledged to improve the clout and standing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his moderate Fatah movement. But unlike Washington, the EU has yet to release millions of dollars in direct aid to the Fatah-led Palestinian government.
The funds were frozen after last year's Hamas electoral victory. The militant group is black-listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US. The EU has, however, been channelling aid for the Palestinian health and security sector through non-governmental aid groups. Officials said an estimated 700 million euros in such emergency aid was sent to Gaza and the West Bank last year. The money was used to pay the salaries of teachers, doctors and health workers and for supplies of fuel, water and electricity to the territories. Bush has announced 190 million dollars in direct aid to the Palestinian government, with an additional 80 million dollars for security. The amount includes funding humanitarian causes in Gaza. We are showing the Palestinian people that a commitment to peace leads to the generous support of the United States, Bush said. 2007 Respective Author
BUSHS MIDEAST PUSH SPEECH
President Bush Discusses the Middle East
Cross Hall
1:09 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. In recent weeks, debate in our country has rightly focused on the situation in Iraq -- yet Iraq is not the only pivotal matter in the Middle East. More than five years ago, I became the first American President to call for the creation of a Palestinian state. In the Rose Garden, I said that Palestinians should not have to live in poverty and occupation. I said that the Israelis should not have to live in terror and violence. And I laid out a new vision for the future -- two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security.
Since then, many changes have come -- some hopeful, some dispiriting. Israel has taken difficult actions, including withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Palestinians have held free elections, and chosen a president committed to peace. Arab states have put forward a plan that recognizes Israel's place in the Middle East. And all these parties, along with most of the international community, now share the goal of a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state -- a level of consensus never before seen on this crucial issue.
The past five years have also brought developments far too familiar in the recent history of the region. Confronted with the prospect of peace, extremists have responded with acts of aggression and terror. In Gaza, Hamas radicals betrayed the Palestinian people with a lawless and violent takeover. By its actions, Hamas has demonstrated beyond all doubt that it is [more] devoted to extremism and murder than to serving the Palestinian people.
This is a moment of clarity for all Palestinians. And now comes a moment of choice. The alternatives before the Palestinian people are stark. There is the vision of Hamas, which the world saw in Gaza -- with murderers in black masks, and summary executions, and men thrown to their death from rooftops. By following this path, the Palestinian people would guarantee chaos, and suffering, and the endless perpetuation of grievance. They would surrender their future to Hamas's foreign sponsors in Syria and Iran. And they would crush the possibility of any -- of a Palestinian state.
There's another option, and that's a hopeful option. It is the vision of President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad; it's the vision of their government; it's the vision of a peaceful state called Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people. To realize this vision, these leaders are striving to build the institutions of a modern democracy. They're working to strengthen the Palestinian security services, so they can confront the terrorists and protect the innocent. They're acting to set up competent ministries that deliver services without corruption. They're taking steps to improve the economy and unleash the natural enterprise of the Palestinian people. And they're ensuring that Palestinian society operates under the rule of law. By following this path, Palestinians can reclaim their dignity and their future -- and establish a state of their own.
Only the Palestinians can decide which of these courses to pursue. Yet all responsible nations have a duty to help clarify the way forward. By supporting the reforms of President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, we can help them show the world what a Palestinian state would look like -- and act like. We can help them prove to the world, the region, and Israel that a Palestinian state would be a partner -- not a danger. We can help them make clear to all Palestinians that rejecting violence is the surest path to security and a better life. And we can help them demonstrate to the extremists once and for all that terror will have no place in a Palestinian state.
So in consultation with our partners in the Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations -- the United States is taking a series of steps to strengthen the forces of moderation and peace among the Palestinian people.
First, we are strengthening our financial commitment. Immediately after President Abbas expelled Hamas from the Palestinian government, the United States lifted financial restrictions on the Palestinian Authority that we had imposed. This year, we will provide the Palestinians with more than $190 million in American assistance -- including funds for humanitarian relief in Gaza. To build on this support, I recently authorized the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to join in a program that will help generate $228 million in lending to Palestinian businesses. Today, I announce our intention to make a direct contribution of $80 million to help Palestinians reform their security services -- a vital effort they're undertaking with the guidance of American General Keith Dayton. We will work with Congress and partners around the world to provide additional resources once a plan to build Palestinian institutions is in place. With all of this assistance, we are showing the Palestinian people that a commitment to peace leads to the generous support of the United States.
Second, we're strengthening our political and diplomatic commitment. Again today, President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert sat down together to discuss priorities and resolve issues. Secretary Rice and I have strongly supported these meetings, and she has worked with both parties to sketch out a "political horizon" for a Palestinian state. Now we will intensify these efforts, with the goal of increasing the confidence of all parties in a two-state solution. And we will continue to deliver a firm message to Hamas: You must stop Gaza from being a safe haven for attacks against Israel. You must accept the legitimate Palestinian government, permit humanitarian aid in Gaza, and dismantle militias. And you must reject violence, and recognize Israel's right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties. As I said in the Rose Garden five years ago, a Palestinian state will never be created by terror.
Third, we're strengthening our commitment to helping build the institutions of a Palestinian state. Last month, former Prime Minister -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to take on a new role as Quartet representative. In this post, he will coordinate international efforts to help the Palestinians establish the institutions of a strong and lasting free society -- including effective governing structures, a sound financial system, and the rule of law. He will encourage young Palestinians to participate in the political process. And America will strongly support his work to help Palestinian leaders answer their people's desire to live in peace.
All the steps I've outlined are designed to lay the foundation for a successful Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza -- a nation with functioning political institutions and capable security forces, and leaders who reject terror and violence. With the proper foundation, we can soon begin serious negotiations toward the creation of a Palestinian state.
These negotiations must resolve difficult questions and uphold clear principles. They must ensure that Israel is secure. They must guarantee that a Palestinian state is viable and contiguous. And they must lead to a territorial settlement, with mutually agreed borders reflecting previous lines and current realities, and mutually agreed adjustments. America is prepared to lead discussions to address these issues, but they must be resolved by Palestinians and Israelis, themselves. Resolving these issues would help show Palestinians a clear way forward. And ultimately, it could lead to a final peace in the Middle East -- a permanent end to the conflict, and an agreement on all the issues, including refugees and Jerusalem.
To make this prospect a reality, the Palestinian people must decide that they want a future of decency and hope -- not a future of terror and death. They must match their words denouncing terror with action to combat terror. The Palestinian government must arrest terrorists, dismantle their infrastructure, and confiscate illegal weapons -- as the road map requires. They must work to stop attacks on Israel, and to free the Israeli soldier held hostage by extremists. And they must enforce the law without corruption, so they can earn the trust of their people, and of the world. Taking these steps will enable the Palestinians to have a state of their own. And there's only way to end the conflict, and nothing less is acceptable.
Israel has a clear path. Prime Minister Olmert must continue to release Palestinian tax revenues to the government of Prime Minster Fayyad. Prime Minister Olmert has also made clear that Israel's future lies in developing areas like the Negev and Galilee -- not in continuing occupation of the West Bank. This is a reality that Prime Minister Sharon recognized, as well. So unauthorized outposts should be removed and settlement expansion ended. At the same time, Israelis should find other practical ways to reduce their footprint without reducing their security -- so they can help President Abbas improve economic and humanitarian conditions. They should be confident that the United States will never abandon its commitment to the security of Israel as a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people.
The international community must rise to the moment, and provide decisive support to responsible Palestinian leaders working for peace. One forum to deliver that support is the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee -- a group chaired by Norway that includes the United States and Japan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. Today I call for a session of this committee to gather soon, so that the world can back its words in real support for the new Palestinian government.
The world can do more to build the conditions for peace. So I will call together an international meeting this fall of representatives from nations that support a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties. The key participants in this meeting will be the Israelis, the Palestinians, and their neighbors in the region. Secretary Rice will chair the meeting. She and her counterparts will review the progress that has been made toward building Palestinian institutions. They will look for innovative and effective ways to support further reform. And they will provide diplomatic support for the parties in their bilateral discussions and negotiations, so that we can move forward on a successful path to a Palestinian state.
Arab states have a pivotal role to play, as well. They should show strong support for President Abbas's government and reject the violent extremism of Hamas. They should use their resources to provide much-needed assistance to the Palestinian people. Nations like Jordan and Egypt, which are natural gateways for Palestinian exports, should open up trade to create opportunities on both sides of the border.
Arab nations should also take an active part in promoting peace negotiations. Re-launching the Arab League initiative was a welcome first step. Now Arab nations should build on this initiative -- by ending the fiction that Israel does not exist, stopping the incitement of hatred in their official media, and sending cabinet-level visitors to Israel. With all these steps, today's Arab leaders can show themselves to be the equals of peacemakers like Anwar Sadat and King Hussein of Jordan.
The conflict in Gaza and the West Bank today is a struggle between extremists and moderates. And these are not the only places where the forces of radicalism and violence threaten freedom and peace. The struggle between extremists and moderates is also playing out in Lebanon -- where Hezbollah and Syria and Iran are trying to destabilize the popularly elected government. The struggle is playing out in Afghanistan -- where the Taliban and al Qaeda are trying to roll back democratic gains. And the struggle is playing out in Iraq -- where al Qaeda, insurgents, and militia are trying to defy the will of nearly 12 million Iraqis who voted for a free future.
Ceding any of these struggles to extremists would have deadly consequences for the region and the world. So in Gaza and the West Bank and beyond, the international community must stand with the brave men and women who are working for peace.
Recent days have brought a chapter of upheaval and uncertainty in the Middle East. But the story does not have to end that way. After the wave of killing by Hamas last month, a 16-year-old girl in Gaza City told a reporter, "The gunmen want to destroy the culture of our fathers and grandfathers. We will not allow them to do it." She went on, "I'm saying it's enough killing. Enough."
That young woman speaks for millions -- in Gaza, the West Bank, in Israel, in Arab nations, and in every nation. And now the world must answer her call. We must show that in the face of extremism and violence, we stand on the side of tolerance and decency. In the face of chaos and murder, we stand on the side of law and justice. And in the face of terror and cynicism and anger, we stand on the side of peace in the Holy Land.
Thank you.
END 1:26 P.M. EDT
Cross Hall
1:09 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. In recent weeks, debate in our country has rightly focused on the situation in Iraq -- yet Iraq is not the only pivotal matter in the Middle East. More than five years ago, I became the first American President to call for the creation of a Palestinian state. In the Rose Garden, I said that Palestinians should not have to live in poverty and occupation. I said that the Israelis should not have to live in terror and violence. And I laid out a new vision for the future -- two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security.
Since then, many changes have come -- some hopeful, some dispiriting. Israel has taken difficult actions, including withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Palestinians have held free elections, and chosen a president committed to peace. Arab states have put forward a plan that recognizes Israel's place in the Middle East. And all these parties, along with most of the international community, now share the goal of a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state -- a level of consensus never before seen on this crucial issue.
The past five years have also brought developments far too familiar in the recent history of the region. Confronted with the prospect of peace, extremists have responded with acts of aggression and terror. In Gaza, Hamas radicals betrayed the Palestinian people with a lawless and violent takeover. By its actions, Hamas has demonstrated beyond all doubt that it is [more] devoted to extremism and murder than to serving the Palestinian people.
This is a moment of clarity for all Palestinians. And now comes a moment of choice. The alternatives before the Palestinian people are stark. There is the vision of Hamas, which the world saw in Gaza -- with murderers in black masks, and summary executions, and men thrown to their death from rooftops. By following this path, the Palestinian people would guarantee chaos, and suffering, and the endless perpetuation of grievance. They would surrender their future to Hamas's foreign sponsors in Syria and Iran. And they would crush the possibility of any -- of a Palestinian state.
There's another option, and that's a hopeful option. It is the vision of President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad; it's the vision of their government; it's the vision of a peaceful state called Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people. To realize this vision, these leaders are striving to build the institutions of a modern democracy. They're working to strengthen the Palestinian security services, so they can confront the terrorists and protect the innocent. They're acting to set up competent ministries that deliver services without corruption. They're taking steps to improve the economy and unleash the natural enterprise of the Palestinian people. And they're ensuring that Palestinian society operates under the rule of law. By following this path, Palestinians can reclaim their dignity and their future -- and establish a state of their own.
Only the Palestinians can decide which of these courses to pursue. Yet all responsible nations have a duty to help clarify the way forward. By supporting the reforms of President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, we can help them show the world what a Palestinian state would look like -- and act like. We can help them prove to the world, the region, and Israel that a Palestinian state would be a partner -- not a danger. We can help them make clear to all Palestinians that rejecting violence is the surest path to security and a better life. And we can help them demonstrate to the extremists once and for all that terror will have no place in a Palestinian state.
So in consultation with our partners in the Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations -- the United States is taking a series of steps to strengthen the forces of moderation and peace among the Palestinian people.
First, we are strengthening our financial commitment. Immediately after President Abbas expelled Hamas from the Palestinian government, the United States lifted financial restrictions on the Palestinian Authority that we had imposed. This year, we will provide the Palestinians with more than $190 million in American assistance -- including funds for humanitarian relief in Gaza. To build on this support, I recently authorized the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to join in a program that will help generate $228 million in lending to Palestinian businesses. Today, I announce our intention to make a direct contribution of $80 million to help Palestinians reform their security services -- a vital effort they're undertaking with the guidance of American General Keith Dayton. We will work with Congress and partners around the world to provide additional resources once a plan to build Palestinian institutions is in place. With all of this assistance, we are showing the Palestinian people that a commitment to peace leads to the generous support of the United States.
Second, we're strengthening our political and diplomatic commitment. Again today, President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert sat down together to discuss priorities and resolve issues. Secretary Rice and I have strongly supported these meetings, and she has worked with both parties to sketch out a "political horizon" for a Palestinian state. Now we will intensify these efforts, with the goal of increasing the confidence of all parties in a two-state solution. And we will continue to deliver a firm message to Hamas: You must stop Gaza from being a safe haven for attacks against Israel. You must accept the legitimate Palestinian government, permit humanitarian aid in Gaza, and dismantle militias. And you must reject violence, and recognize Israel's right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties. As I said in the Rose Garden five years ago, a Palestinian state will never be created by terror.
Third, we're strengthening our commitment to helping build the institutions of a Palestinian state. Last month, former Prime Minister -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to take on a new role as Quartet representative. In this post, he will coordinate international efforts to help the Palestinians establish the institutions of a strong and lasting free society -- including effective governing structures, a sound financial system, and the rule of law. He will encourage young Palestinians to participate in the political process. And America will strongly support his work to help Palestinian leaders answer their people's desire to live in peace.
All the steps I've outlined are designed to lay the foundation for a successful Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza -- a nation with functioning political institutions and capable security forces, and leaders who reject terror and violence. With the proper foundation, we can soon begin serious negotiations toward the creation of a Palestinian state.
These negotiations must resolve difficult questions and uphold clear principles. They must ensure that Israel is secure. They must guarantee that a Palestinian state is viable and contiguous. And they must lead to a territorial settlement, with mutually agreed borders reflecting previous lines and current realities, and mutually agreed adjustments. America is prepared to lead discussions to address these issues, but they must be resolved by Palestinians and Israelis, themselves. Resolving these issues would help show Palestinians a clear way forward. And ultimately, it could lead to a final peace in the Middle East -- a permanent end to the conflict, and an agreement on all the issues, including refugees and Jerusalem.
To make this prospect a reality, the Palestinian people must decide that they want a future of decency and hope -- not a future of terror and death. They must match their words denouncing terror with action to combat terror. The Palestinian government must arrest terrorists, dismantle their infrastructure, and confiscate illegal weapons -- as the road map requires. They must work to stop attacks on Israel, and to free the Israeli soldier held hostage by extremists. And they must enforce the law without corruption, so they can earn the trust of their people, and of the world. Taking these steps will enable the Palestinians to have a state of their own. And there's only way to end the conflict, and nothing less is acceptable.
Israel has a clear path. Prime Minister Olmert must continue to release Palestinian tax revenues to the government of Prime Minster Fayyad. Prime Minister Olmert has also made clear that Israel's future lies in developing areas like the Negev and Galilee -- not in continuing occupation of the West Bank. This is a reality that Prime Minister Sharon recognized, as well. So unauthorized outposts should be removed and settlement expansion ended. At the same time, Israelis should find other practical ways to reduce their footprint without reducing their security -- so they can help President Abbas improve economic and humanitarian conditions. They should be confident that the United States will never abandon its commitment to the security of Israel as a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people.
The international community must rise to the moment, and provide decisive support to responsible Palestinian leaders working for peace. One forum to deliver that support is the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee -- a group chaired by Norway that includes the United States and Japan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. Today I call for a session of this committee to gather soon, so that the world can back its words in real support for the new Palestinian government.
The world can do more to build the conditions for peace. So I will call together an international meeting this fall of representatives from nations that support a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties. The key participants in this meeting will be the Israelis, the Palestinians, and their neighbors in the region. Secretary Rice will chair the meeting. She and her counterparts will review the progress that has been made toward building Palestinian institutions. They will look for innovative and effective ways to support further reform. And they will provide diplomatic support for the parties in their bilateral discussions and negotiations, so that we can move forward on a successful path to a Palestinian state.
Arab states have a pivotal role to play, as well. They should show strong support for President Abbas's government and reject the violent extremism of Hamas. They should use their resources to provide much-needed assistance to the Palestinian people. Nations like Jordan and Egypt, which are natural gateways for Palestinian exports, should open up trade to create opportunities on both sides of the border.
Arab nations should also take an active part in promoting peace negotiations. Re-launching the Arab League initiative was a welcome first step. Now Arab nations should build on this initiative -- by ending the fiction that Israel does not exist, stopping the incitement of hatred in their official media, and sending cabinet-level visitors to Israel. With all these steps, today's Arab leaders can show themselves to be the equals of peacemakers like Anwar Sadat and King Hussein of Jordan.
The conflict in Gaza and the West Bank today is a struggle between extremists and moderates. And these are not the only places where the forces of radicalism and violence threaten freedom and peace. The struggle between extremists and moderates is also playing out in Lebanon -- where Hezbollah and Syria and Iran are trying to destabilize the popularly elected government. The struggle is playing out in Afghanistan -- where the Taliban and al Qaeda are trying to roll back democratic gains. And the struggle is playing out in Iraq -- where al Qaeda, insurgents, and militia are trying to defy the will of nearly 12 million Iraqis who voted for a free future.
Ceding any of these struggles to extremists would have deadly consequences for the region and the world. So in Gaza and the West Bank and beyond, the international community must stand with the brave men and women who are working for peace.
Recent days have brought a chapter of upheaval and uncertainty in the Middle East. But the story does not have to end that way. After the wave of killing by Hamas last month, a 16-year-old girl in Gaza City told a reporter, "The gunmen want to destroy the culture of our fathers and grandfathers. We will not allow them to do it." She went on, "I'm saying it's enough killing. Enough."
That young woman speaks for millions -- in Gaza, the West Bank, in Israel, in Arab nations, and in every nation. And now the world must answer her call. We must show that in the face of extremism and violence, we stand on the side of tolerance and decency. In the face of chaos and murder, we stand on the side of law and justice. And in the face of terror and cynicism and anger, we stand on the side of peace in the Holy Land.
Thank you.
END 1:26 P.M. EDT
Monday, July 16, 2007
PA STATE BUSH INSISTS
BUSH INSISTS ON PALESTINIAN STATE JULY 16,2007
BY STAN L BOWMAN JR
GEORGE W INSISTS ON GIVING THE SO CALLED MODERATE WASHINGTON ARABS AS WELL AS HAMAS MURDERERS A STATE OF THEIR OWN SIDE BY SIDE WITH ISRAEL WITH EAST JERUSALEM AS THEIR CAPITAL.
THIS IS COMPLETE NONSENCE AS WASHINGTON IS DECIEVED INTO BELIEVING THE LIE THAT BY GIVING THE ARABS A STATE OF THEIR OWN THAT PEACE WILL OCCUR. LITTLE DOES GEORGE KNOW THAT WORLD WAR 3 OCCURS BECAUSE JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL IS DIVIDED, WHEN WILL WASHINGTON GET THIS THROUGH THEIR THICK SKULLS.
WASHINGTON WANTS TO GIVE THE ARABS 190 MILLION PLUS IN AID TO HELP BUILD INSTITUTIONS IN THE WEST BANK (THE MODERATE SO CALLED WASHINGTON ARABS) AS WELL AS IN GAZA ( HAMAS MURDERERS). WASHINGTON INSISTS ON A TWO STATE SOLUTION. I INSIST ITS ISRAELS GOD GIVIN LAND AND ONLY ISRAELS.
WASHINGTON INSISTS ISRAEL GIVE THE 67 BORDERS AS WELL AS EAST JERUSALEM AS THE ARABS CAPITAL. WELL IF THESE PEOPLE READ THE BIBLE THEY WOULD KNOW ITS ISRAELS LAND AND GOD WILL TAKE REVENGE ON ALL WHO FORCE ISRAEL INTO THE DECEPTION OF LAND FOR PEACE. BUT SINCE THE BIBLE SAYS IT HAS TO BE A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY, IT HAS TO COME TO PASS, SO THE DECEPTION HAS TO BE FULFILLED FOR THE PROPHECIES TO OCCUR.
WASHINGTON ALSO WANTS A CONFERENCE IN THE FALL TO GET THE PRO PALESTINIAN STATE COUNTRIES TOGETHER TO FIGURE OUT THE TIMELINE AND TO KEEP THE ROAD MAP ON TRACK.
BY STAN L BOWMAN JR
GEORGE W INSISTS ON GIVING THE SO CALLED MODERATE WASHINGTON ARABS AS WELL AS HAMAS MURDERERS A STATE OF THEIR OWN SIDE BY SIDE WITH ISRAEL WITH EAST JERUSALEM AS THEIR CAPITAL.
THIS IS COMPLETE NONSENCE AS WASHINGTON IS DECIEVED INTO BELIEVING THE LIE THAT BY GIVING THE ARABS A STATE OF THEIR OWN THAT PEACE WILL OCCUR. LITTLE DOES GEORGE KNOW THAT WORLD WAR 3 OCCURS BECAUSE JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL IS DIVIDED, WHEN WILL WASHINGTON GET THIS THROUGH THEIR THICK SKULLS.
WASHINGTON WANTS TO GIVE THE ARABS 190 MILLION PLUS IN AID TO HELP BUILD INSTITUTIONS IN THE WEST BANK (THE MODERATE SO CALLED WASHINGTON ARABS) AS WELL AS IN GAZA ( HAMAS MURDERERS). WASHINGTON INSISTS ON A TWO STATE SOLUTION. I INSIST ITS ISRAELS GOD GIVIN LAND AND ONLY ISRAELS.
WASHINGTON INSISTS ISRAEL GIVE THE 67 BORDERS AS WELL AS EAST JERUSALEM AS THE ARABS CAPITAL. WELL IF THESE PEOPLE READ THE BIBLE THEY WOULD KNOW ITS ISRAELS LAND AND GOD WILL TAKE REVENGE ON ALL WHO FORCE ISRAEL INTO THE DECEPTION OF LAND FOR PEACE. BUT SINCE THE BIBLE SAYS IT HAS TO BE A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY, IT HAS TO COME TO PASS, SO THE DECEPTION HAS TO BE FULFILLED FOR THE PROPHECIES TO OCCUR.
WASHINGTON ALSO WANTS A CONFERENCE IN THE FALL TO GET THE PRO PALESTINIAN STATE COUNTRIES TOGETHER TO FIGURE OUT THE TIMELINE AND TO KEEP THE ROAD MAP ON TRACK.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
FRANCE PUSHES FOR EU ARMY
WELL THE BIBLE CLEARLY SAYS THE EU WILL HAVE ITS OWN ARMY, SARKOZY IS MAKING IT COME TO PASS.
France stages pan-European Bastille Day bash
Associated Press - Published July 15, 2007
PARIS -- Troops from all 27 European Union nations marched in France's Bastille Day parade for the first time Saturday, part of a revamped celebration enacted by new President Nicolas Sarkozy.It's a party. It's Europe's party, Sarkozy said of the holiday. It was a parade of armies, but it is peace that we want to celebrate.
Sarkozy, who has pushed for a united European military, stood in the back of a military vehicle to lead the procession. It circled the Arc de Triomphe before continuing down the Champs-Elysees escorted by mounted regiments of the Republic Guards.
He got out of the vehicle briefly to talk with spectators, an unplanned move that took guards by surprise.On the eve of the Bastille celebrations, Sarkozy reiterated his push for Europe-wide defense.The basis for a European defense exists. We must make it grow, he said in a speech to European defense ministers and French officers. I want Europe to be capable of ensuring its security autonomously.Chicago Tribune
France stages pan-European Bastille Day bash
Associated Press - Published July 15, 2007
PARIS -- Troops from all 27 European Union nations marched in France's Bastille Day parade for the first time Saturday, part of a revamped celebration enacted by new President Nicolas Sarkozy.It's a party. It's Europe's party, Sarkozy said of the holiday. It was a parade of armies, but it is peace that we want to celebrate.
Sarkozy, who has pushed for a united European military, stood in the back of a military vehicle to lead the procession. It circled the Arc de Triomphe before continuing down the Champs-Elysees escorted by mounted regiments of the Republic Guards.
He got out of the vehicle briefly to talk with spectators, an unplanned move that took guards by surprise.On the eve of the Bastille celebrations, Sarkozy reiterated his push for Europe-wide defense.The basis for a European defense exists. We must make it grow, he said in a speech to European defense ministers and French officers. I want Europe to be capable of ensuring its security autonomously.Chicago Tribune
Friday, July 13, 2007
PEACE TREATY THIS MONTH POSSIBLE
THIS CAN NOT BE A FINAL TREATY THIS MONTH BECAUSE THE FINAL TREATY HAS TO BE A 7 YEAR TREATY MADE BY THE EU FOR ISRAEL AND THE ARABS AND MANY.
Mideast peace treaty possible this month, says expert
By Deena Douara
First Published 7/4/2007
CAIRO: A meeting between the Quartet, the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli leaders will take place in Egypt mid-July, announced EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Toward the middle of the month, we will recuperate this initiative, he said. Political analyst from the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Emad Gad told The Daily Star Egypt that he believed the countries were very close to negotiating a peace treaty delineating a two-state solution very close to what former PM Arafat was said to have been offered at the 2000 Camp David meeting. He believes that moderate Palestinians are ready to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
While the Quartet meeting was postponed from late June due to high tensions within the Palestinian territories, Gad explains that the situation is very different now.
It is looking positive in the West Bank, he says, where Israel has returned tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority and the EU has resumed relations with the territory. Abbas is also supported by the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
Abbas is actually stronger than before, explains Gad, as he and his Fatah party no longer need to take approval or agreement from Hamas, as was the case under their unity government.
Hamas is now controlling Gaza only.
The meeting will also represent former British PM Tony Blair’s first test as Middle East envoy for the Quartet — composed of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.Despite being generally considered pro-Israel, Abbas had welcomed Blair as the new representative, saying the Arabs were ready to deal with Blair as mideast negotiator.Blair can play a positive role in convincing the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate, says Gad. He explains that Blair’s close ties to US President Bush put him in an advantageous position, as the US is in a position to pressure the Israelis to resume negotiations.
Mideast peace treaty possible this month, says expert
By Deena Douara
First Published 7/4/2007
CAIRO: A meeting between the Quartet, the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli leaders will take place in Egypt mid-July, announced EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Toward the middle of the month, we will recuperate this initiative, he said. Political analyst from the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Emad Gad told The Daily Star Egypt that he believed the countries were very close to negotiating a peace treaty delineating a two-state solution very close to what former PM Arafat was said to have been offered at the 2000 Camp David meeting. He believes that moderate Palestinians are ready to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
While the Quartet meeting was postponed from late June due to high tensions within the Palestinian territories, Gad explains that the situation is very different now.
It is looking positive in the West Bank, he says, where Israel has returned tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority and the EU has resumed relations with the territory. Abbas is also supported by the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
Abbas is actually stronger than before, explains Gad, as he and his Fatah party no longer need to take approval or agreement from Hamas, as was the case under their unity government.
Hamas is now controlling Gaza only.
The meeting will also represent former British PM Tony Blair’s first test as Middle East envoy for the Quartet — composed of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.Despite being generally considered pro-Israel, Abbas had welcomed Blair as the new representative, saying the Arabs were ready to deal with Blair as mideast negotiator.Blair can play a positive role in convincing the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate, says Gad. He explains that Blair’s close ties to US President Bush put him in an advantageous position, as the US is in a position to pressure the Israelis to resume negotiations.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
ABBAS WANTS TROOPS IN GAZA
Published: July 10, 2007
Abbas wants international force in Gaza
RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 10 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that an international force should be deployed in Gaza to protect the area's residents. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has said that it would regard any international troops as occupiers, Alalam Satellite TV reported. Abbas met Tuesday with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Prodi said that all parties involved, presumably including Hamas, would have to support the deployment of an international force. We have insisted on the necessity of deploying an international force in the Gaza Strip to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid and to allow citizens to enter and leave freely, Abbas said at a news conference with Prodi in Ramallah.
Abbas said that 4,000 people are waiting at the Rafah Crossing into Egypt, trying to leave Gaza and at least 11 people have died there.
Abbas wants international force in Gaza
RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 10 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that an international force should be deployed in Gaza to protect the area's residents. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has said that it would regard any international troops as occupiers, Alalam Satellite TV reported. Abbas met Tuesday with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Prodi said that all parties involved, presumably including Hamas, would have to support the deployment of an international force. We have insisted on the necessity of deploying an international force in the Gaza Strip to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid and to allow citizens to enter and leave freely, Abbas said at a news conference with Prodi in Ramallah.
Abbas said that 4,000 people are waiting at the Rafah Crossing into Egypt, trying to leave Gaza and at least 11 people have died there.
Monday, July 09, 2007
ARAB LEAGUE COMES TO ISRAEL
Arab League sending delegation to Israel By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 9, 3:40 AM ET
JERUSALEM - For the first time in its history, the 22-nation Arab League will send a delegation to Israel this week, with the mission of discussing a sweeping peace initiative as well as the threat posed by Hamas and other Islamic extremists. The announcement from Israeli and Arab diplomats came Sunday, just as Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners in a bid to bolster moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.The Arab League historically has been hostile toward the Jewish state, but has grown increasingly conciliatory given the expanding influence of Islamic extremists in the region a concern underscored by Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last month. Jordan's foreign ministry said Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit would arrive in Jerusalem on Thursday for talks with Israeli officials Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the foreign ministers would lead an Arab League mission to Israel to discuss the Arab peace plan, which would trade full Arab recognition of Israel for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and the creation of a Palestinian state. This is the first time the Arab League is coming to Israel, Regev said. From its inception the Arab League has been hostile to Israel. It will be the first time we'll be flying the Arab League flag. Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa said Sunday that the upcoming visit of Egypt's and Jordan's foreign ministers to Israel upon the request of the Arab committee of peace initiative is to conduct necessary contacts with Israel. The two foreign ministers, whose countries have peace agreements with Israel, have been designated as the League's official point men for the Arab peace initiative.
Livni met them in Cairo in May for the first official, public talks between the two sides, and the Arab peace initiative was the focus. Israel rejected the Arab plan outright when Saudi Arabia first proposed it in 2002, at the height of the Palestinian uprising. But it softened its resistance after moderate Arab states endorsed the plan again in March, sharing their concerns about Iran's growing influence. Israeli officials have said they welcomed aspects of the plan, while rejecting its call for a return of all of the West Bank and an implied demand to take in Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that followed Israel's creation.
In another gesture of support for the moderate Palestinian leadership, Livni met late Sunday in Jerusalem with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, according to Fayyad and Foreign Ministry spokesman Regev. Fayyad said the meeting centered on ways to push the peace process forward as well as issues related to the daily life of the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip. Regev said the two officials discussed events in the Palestinian territories and how the larger Arab world can help the process.But at the same time, Israel has continued military operations aimed at Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Israeli forces killed a Palestinian gunman late Sunday in an exchange of fire near the town of Jenin, Palestinian officials and the army said. Islamic Jihad said the militant, Mohammed Nazal, 24, was one its leaders.
Moderate Arab countries and the West have been pushing for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking since Gaza fell to Hamas, a group that refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings. Abbas dismissed Hamas from government after the Gaza takeover and set up an emergency Cabinet of loyalists that has Western and moderate Arab backing. Last month, Egypt hosted a summit of the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders to show support for Abbas and to discuss the resumption of peace talks. At that meeting Olmert pledged to free 250 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in a goodwill gesture meant to bolster Abbas. On Sunday the Cabinet formally approved the prisoner release. But the timing remained unclear, reflecting a dispute between security officials, who want to free only prisoners whose terms are almost up, and Olmert, who wants a more significant gesture. Palestinians criticized Israel for not consulting with them on who should be let go, and said the matter should be referred to a joint committee on prisoners the two sides set up two years ago.
JERUSALEM - For the first time in its history, the 22-nation Arab League will send a delegation to Israel this week, with the mission of discussing a sweeping peace initiative as well as the threat posed by Hamas and other Islamic extremists. The announcement from Israeli and Arab diplomats came Sunday, just as Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners in a bid to bolster moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.The Arab League historically has been hostile toward the Jewish state, but has grown increasingly conciliatory given the expanding influence of Islamic extremists in the region a concern underscored by Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last month. Jordan's foreign ministry said Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit would arrive in Jerusalem on Thursday for talks with Israeli officials Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the foreign ministers would lead an Arab League mission to Israel to discuss the Arab peace plan, which would trade full Arab recognition of Israel for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and the creation of a Palestinian state. This is the first time the Arab League is coming to Israel, Regev said. From its inception the Arab League has been hostile to Israel. It will be the first time we'll be flying the Arab League flag. Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa said Sunday that the upcoming visit of Egypt's and Jordan's foreign ministers to Israel upon the request of the Arab committee of peace initiative is to conduct necessary contacts with Israel. The two foreign ministers, whose countries have peace agreements with Israel, have been designated as the League's official point men for the Arab peace initiative.
Livni met them in Cairo in May for the first official, public talks between the two sides, and the Arab peace initiative was the focus. Israel rejected the Arab plan outright when Saudi Arabia first proposed it in 2002, at the height of the Palestinian uprising. But it softened its resistance after moderate Arab states endorsed the plan again in March, sharing their concerns about Iran's growing influence. Israeli officials have said they welcomed aspects of the plan, while rejecting its call for a return of all of the West Bank and an implied demand to take in Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that followed Israel's creation.
In another gesture of support for the moderate Palestinian leadership, Livni met late Sunday in Jerusalem with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, according to Fayyad and Foreign Ministry spokesman Regev. Fayyad said the meeting centered on ways to push the peace process forward as well as issues related to the daily life of the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip. Regev said the two officials discussed events in the Palestinian territories and how the larger Arab world can help the process.But at the same time, Israel has continued military operations aimed at Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Israeli forces killed a Palestinian gunman late Sunday in an exchange of fire near the town of Jenin, Palestinian officials and the army said. Islamic Jihad said the militant, Mohammed Nazal, 24, was one its leaders.
Moderate Arab countries and the West have been pushing for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking since Gaza fell to Hamas, a group that refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings. Abbas dismissed Hamas from government after the Gaza takeover and set up an emergency Cabinet of loyalists that has Western and moderate Arab backing. Last month, Egypt hosted a summit of the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders to show support for Abbas and to discuss the resumption of peace talks. At that meeting Olmert pledged to free 250 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in a goodwill gesture meant to bolster Abbas. On Sunday the Cabinet formally approved the prisoner release. But the timing remained unclear, reflecting a dispute between security officials, who want to free only prisoners whose terms are almost up, and Olmert, who wants a more significant gesture. Palestinians criticized Israel for not consulting with them on who should be let go, and said the matter should be referred to a joint committee on prisoners the two sides set up two years ago.
Friday, July 06, 2007
EU PAR CALLS FOR MIDEAST CONFERENCE
European Parliament president calls for international Mideast peace conference By Yossi Lempkowicz Updated: 04/Jul/2007 16:36
BRUSSELS (EJP)---The President of the European Parliament has called for the convening of an international Middle East peace conference under the ageis of the Quartet. I am convinced that in the current situation, we need a multilateral approach to solve the Mideast conflict, Hans-Gert Poettering said at a conference organized by the Socialist group of the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday.
Poettering, who visited several Mideast countries last month, urged Israel to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to avoid previous failures to drive him into a corner. Israel must give Abbas the chance to regain the confidence of 65 percent of the Palestinians who elected him as president in 2006, he said. He also called on Israel to release the Palestinian legislators and other politicians arrested by Israel but made no reference to the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Find its own voice
The two-day conference, entitled “Moving towards an international peace conference for the Middle East, was attended by politicians, academics and high-level experts.
Pasqualina Napoletano, vice-president of the Socialist group in charge of international relations, said The EU should find its own voice, including in the framework of the Quartet, in efforts aimed at restarting genuine negotations on the various tracks of the peace process.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the conference, the Socialist group said talks between Palestinians should be urgently revived to allow the formation of a new government in the spirit of reconciliation and national unity. International support for President Abbas should be accompanied by a concrete and realistic political plan leading to a permanent status agreement and an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, the statement added.
BRUSSELS (EJP)---The President of the European Parliament has called for the convening of an international Middle East peace conference under the ageis of the Quartet. I am convinced that in the current situation, we need a multilateral approach to solve the Mideast conflict, Hans-Gert Poettering said at a conference organized by the Socialist group of the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday.
Poettering, who visited several Mideast countries last month, urged Israel to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to avoid previous failures to drive him into a corner. Israel must give Abbas the chance to regain the confidence of 65 percent of the Palestinians who elected him as president in 2006, he said. He also called on Israel to release the Palestinian legislators and other politicians arrested by Israel but made no reference to the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Find its own voice
The two-day conference, entitled “Moving towards an international peace conference for the Middle East, was attended by politicians, academics and high-level experts.
Pasqualina Napoletano, vice-president of the Socialist group in charge of international relations, said The EU should find its own voice, including in the framework of the Quartet, in efforts aimed at restarting genuine negotations on the various tracks of the peace process.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the conference, the Socialist group said talks between Palestinians should be urgently revived to allow the formation of a new government in the spirit of reconciliation and national unity. International support for President Abbas should be accompanied by a concrete and realistic political plan leading to a permanent status agreement and an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, the statement added.
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