Olmert's party considers ballot over scandal By Joseph Nasr
Fri May 30, 12:10 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Leaders of Israel's governing Kadima party plan to meet in as little as a week to decide on an internal ballot that could replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, senior Kadima members said on Friday. Olmert has so far defied a demand by his main coalition partner, Defence Minister Ehud Barak's left-leaning Labour Party, to leave office over a growing corruption scandal.
A poll by Israel's mass circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper found Olmert's deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, would win an internal vote to find a new leader for their centrist party.Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, garnered the support of 39 percent of Kadima members, according to the poll. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz came in second with 25 percent.
But a poll by the Maariv daily found that Livni, as Olmert's successor, would lose to Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud Party if a general election was held today.Lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, head of Kadima's central committee, told Israel Radio on Friday that Kadima delegates would convene a meeting on a leadership ballot after Olmert returns from a visit to the United States at the end of next week.Kadima sources said Olmert wants his centrist party to put off any such vote for months, hoping to ride out the police investigation into allegations he accepted envelopes filled with cash from a Jewish-American businessman.Olmert has denied wrongdoing but has said he would resign if indicted. The turmoil threatens to derail U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Sixty percent of Kadima's members believe Olmert does not have to resign at this stage in the investigation, the Yedioth Ahronoth poll found.Olmert has responded to the crisis with a business-as-usual approach. He will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Israel's attorney-general, Menachem Mazuz, said on Thursday the investigation would be accelerated in order to complete it as soon as possible. He gave no precise timeframe for a decision on whether to indict the prime minister.Olmert has survived corruption scandals in the past.(Additional reporting by Adam Entous; editing by Jon Boyle)
Beleaguered Olmert's party eyes succession by Patrick Moser
Fri May 30, 10:44 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - With Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert up against the ropes, members of his Kadima party are already jockeying for position in anticipation of his downfall and possible early elections. The Kadima party primary began yesterday, even if nobody declared this officially. Even the prime minister realises that he cannot prevent it from taking place soon, the top-selling Yediot Aharonot wrote in an editorial.Olmert suffered a stinging one-two blow when his deputy challenged his leadership right after a key ally demanded he quit over a corruption scandal.Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the number two in the government and in Kadima, on Thursday called for unprecedented primary elections in the centrist party, hinting strongly that the scandal-tainted Olmert must go.She dropped the political bombshell just one day after Defence Minister Ehud Barak, whose Labour party is a key partner in the government coalition, demanded that Olmert step down or face early election.The scent of elections is in the air, the Haaretz newspaper said, echoing the prevailing view of political experts.A poll published by Haaretz said that while Livni is the favourite among Kadima voters, the opposition right-wing Likud party of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu would emerge the winner if an election were held now.
The hawkish Netanyahu vocally rejects any suggestion of a withdrawal from the Golan Heights that was raised when Olmert announced earlier this month his government was involved in Turkish-mediated indirect talks with Syria.Addressing Israeli settlers in the area which Israel occupied in 1967 and annexed in 1981, Netanyahu said on Thursday that an early election would allow the people to say no to a withdrawal from the Golan.Israeli voters believe Olmert, who has weathered political crises, corruption scandals and single-digit popularity ratings since he took office in 2006, must go.An opinion poll on Thursday found that 70 percent of people surveyed thought he should step down.Pressure against Olmert, 62, reached boiling point after Jewish-American financier Morris Talansky testified before a Jerusalem court on Tuesday that he had given Olmert vast amounts of cash stuffed into envelopes.
Talansky said he had given at least 150,000 dollars in the 14 years before he became prime minister in 2006, some of which might have been used to fund Olmert's taste for luxury goods.Olmert has denied any wrongdoing over the allegations that have been simmering since police first questioned him in the affair on May 2. He has, however, acknowledged receiving campaign donations.The prime minister, who flies to Washington on Monday for a three-day visit and a meeting with US President George W. Bush, has asked Kadima MPs not to do anything until his return, Israeli media said.A growing number of Israeli lawmakers have said Olmert cannot devote the necessary energy to US-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians, as well as indirect negotiations with Syria, while at the same time fighting for his own political survival.But Olmert aides insist it is business as usual in the premier's office.
The prime minister is scheduled to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Monday before leaving for Washington. The meeting will focus on the ongoing negotiations, the situation on the ground and the truce talks between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza, which are being mediated by Egypt, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said. Olmert and Abbas will meet at the premier's official residence in Jerusalem, Erakat said. In Washington, officials stressed that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's travel plans to the Middle East are unaffected by the corruption scandal. I'm not aware that anything that's occurred in Israeli politics in the last few days has made any change in our plans necessary, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said on Thursday.
Israeli poll finds Netanyahu would win elections Fri May 30, 4:16 AM ET
JERUSALEM - Hardline Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu would win national elections if a corruption probe topples Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, an Israeli poll showed Friday. The Dialog poll indicates that popular Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would come in second and Defense Minister Ehud Barak would come in third.The corruption probe involves a Jewish-American businessman who testified he had given Olmert about $150,000 that was used in part to fund a lavish lifestyle.The poll, published in the Haaretz daily newspaper, surveyed 467 people and has a margin of error of 5.1 percentage points.
U.S. presses Israel on Gaza students' exit visas By Arshad Mohammed Fri May 30, 3:10 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pressed Israel on Friday to let seven Gaza Strip Palestinians travel to the United States to study on coveted U.S. government Fulbright fellowships and Israel said it was working on the issue. Israel tightened its cordon of the Gaza Strip after the Hamas Islamist group took over the coastal Mediterranean territory nearly a year ago and it gives few Palestinians, besides some who are gravely ill, permission to leave.
The U.S. State Department this week told the seven that their Fulbright grants had been withdrawn and it has taken steps to be able to direct the money to other Palestinians in the West Bank because of the trouble getting the exit visas from Gaza.However, after The New York Times published a report on the issue on Friday, U.S. officials said they were redoubling their efforts to get the Israeli exit visas for the students.Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, the third-ranking U.S. diplomat, spoke to the Israeli ambassador to the United States on Friday to emphasize the U.S. desire to see the matter resolved, the State Department said.Frankly, a decision to let people that have been vetted for what is perhaps the most prestigious foreign educational program run by the United States ... it ought to be falling off a log for them to be able to do this, said U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey.I expect that we'll have some positive outcome for this in the not-too-distant future, he told reporters.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said a few of the Fulbright students had recently left Gaza through the Erez crossing but Casey said he could not verify this. It was not immediately possible obtain independent confirmation.
We're trying to get them out, Mekel said. Obviously the situation, with Hamas shooting at the border crossings, it is not such an easy thing to do.There are regular rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel and the Israeli government argues that its travel restrictions are designed to prevent suicide bombings or other attacks.
PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS
The State Department spokesman said the money for the Gaza residents had not been given to other students and that if the seven received their exit visas, they would be given the Fulbright fellowships.Top U.S. officials appeared to have been taken by surprise by the incident and embarrassed that their initial efforts to get Israel to allow the students to leave had not worked. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested she disapproved of the move to reallocate the money for the seven Gaza students, who hope to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions in the fall.It was a surprise to me and I am definitely going to look into it, Rice said at a news conference with Iceland's Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Gisladottir in Reykjavik. I am a huge supporter of Fulbrights.Fulbright grants are the U.S. flagship program in international educational exchange and are used to help promote a better understanding of U.S. values abroad.Rice is expected to return to the Middle East next month to continue the Bush administration's uphill push to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of the year. (Additional reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Joseph Nasr and Adam Entous in Jerusalem and Susan Cornwell in Reykjavik; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Israel seeks international peace talks amid political uncertainty by P. Parameswaran Fri May 30, 6:20 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Amid political uncertainty in Israel and the United States, the Jewish state's deputy prime minister Haim Ramon called Friday for an international conference to forge an interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Ramon, a close associate of embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said he was confident the two sides could reach a parameters agreement on such key issues as refugees, Jerusalem, borders and security.The international conference could be a sequel to peace talks formally relaunched in November at a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, he said at a forum of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.Ramon said it was critical to review the progress achieved since Annapolis in view of the political uncertainty in the United States, which faces presidential elections in November, and Israel, where he predicted polls could also be held in the same month.
There is intense pressure on Olmert to resign over suspicions he unlawfully took large sums of money from a US millionaire before becoming premier.I believe because of these political circumstances... now let's come together and report to the Annapolis process what was achieved until now in the negotiations between us and the Palestinians, Ramon said.He said any framework peace agreement supported by the Arab world, by the Palestinians and the current US and Israeli administrations would come in handy for any new administration in Washington or Israel.Progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential, especially when the gap between Israelis and Palestinians is quite narrow, he said.While Ramon believed issues such as the future of Palestinian refugees, the borders of a Palestinian state and Jewish settlements, the security of Israel and the status of Jerusalem could be ironed out, he said Israel should not compromise on the Gaza strip seized by the Hamas group.I believe that in Gaza, we have to bring the end of the victory march of radical Islam. It is possible and it can be done and I hope that is what will happen in the near future.The Hamas Islamist movement seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas about a year ago.
Ramon's push for a Gaza takeover from Hamas prompted former US State Department Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, who was chairing the forum, to ask whether it was viable in the context of Ramon's parameters agreement plan.Will you be able to convene an Annapolis-type arrangement if you go into Gaza in the way you seem to be implying, Ross asked.I believe that we can do it, Ramon shot back, explaining that any Israeli seizure of Gaza would see the territory eventually handed back to the Palestinian Authority led by Abbas through an arrangement with the Arab world or the international community.Abbas and Olmert are scheduled to meet on Monday before the Israeli Prime Minister leaves later that day to Washington for talks with President George W. Bush.
Iran's foreign minister slams US foreign policy By LOUISE NORDSTROM, Associated Press Writer Fri May 30, 7:43 PM ET
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Iran's foreign minister said Friday that the United States should conduct a serious review of its foreign policy after the presidential election — a signal that Iran is leaving open the possibility of improved relations with Washington. The comments by Manouchehr Mottaki — in an interview with The Associated Press — extended no clear offer for greater dialogue and included numerous jabs about the U.S. role in the Middle East and its global standing.But the undertones of statements are often just as relevant in the nearly three-decade diplomatic freeze between the two nations. Mottaki's suggestion that the November election could signal a new course for U.S. views on the Middle East could also hint that Tehran may be ready to soften its stance.We don't want to make a problem for the American presidential candidates, but this election is among a limited number of American presidential elections where foreign policy plays a key role, Mottaki said a day after a U.N. conference on Iraqi reconstruction held outside Stockholm.The American people need change, he added.
Mottaki did not go deeper into Iran's impressions of the remaining candidates seeking the White House. But Barack Obama has expressed a willingness to open new channels with Iran — a position that has drawn fire from Republican John McCain and Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.Speaking through an interpreter at the Iranian Embassy in Stockholm, Mottaki said Iran was less concerned with parties and people than the course of U.S. policies after the election.The United States of America needs a serious review of its foreign policy toward the Middle East, he said. These policies in ... Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and generally speaking the Middle East are mistaken policies.The estrangement between Washington and Tehran stretch back to the seizure of the U.S. Embassy shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A slight thaw began following the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who opened the door to greater cultural exchanges and other contacts.
But opportunities for greater breakthroughs were dashed after President Bush in 2002 included Iran as an axis of evil along with Iraq and North Korea. The 2005 election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad further widened the gulf with his biting rhetoric that included vows to wipe out Israel.Recently, however, chances for new outreach appear to be gaining ground in Iran — which holds presidential elections next year.On Wednesday, Iran's parliament selected conservative Ali Larijani as speaker, boosting one of Ahmadinejad's likely challengers. Larijani, the nation's former top nuclear negotiator, is perceived as a more moderate leader who could seek less confrontation with the West.But few expect any rapid steps to smooth relations between Washington and Tehran — whose interests and ambitions collide on many levels.
Washington has led the pressure on Iran over its nuclear program — which the West and others worry could be used to make atomic weapons. Iran says it only seeks power-generating reactors.The United States' closest Sunni Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, also worry about the expanding influence of Shiite Iran in neighboring Iraq. Washington, meanwhile, accuses Iran of backing Shiite militias in Iraq.But Iraq also has opened some room for contact. U.S. and Iranian envoys have held three rounds of talks since last year on efforts to stabilize the country.
Mottaki said the next resident of the White House must break with the mistaken and failed policies of the Bush administration or risk a further decline of the United States' standing in the Middle East.
American politicians, he said, are spending taxpayer money to buy the hatred of other people in other parts of the world.In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey was dismissive after a reporter described Mottaki's comments. Gee, an Iranian foreign minister criticizing U.S. policy. There's a real man bites dog story for you, huh? he said. Casey added that the Iranian government is pursuing policies that are inimical to the interests of the Iranian people and isolating the country from the international community by the standoff over its nuclear program.
I would also hope that those in the Iranian government who might wish to have a more responsible leadership might also turn that mirror back up to him to take a very hard look at the unproductive, unhelpful and destabilizing policies that Iran is pursuing, he said. On Thursday, Mottaki was among delegates from more than 90 countries and organizations who gathered to review security and economic progress in Iraq. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Mottaki ignored each other at the meeting. Rice was seen on live television snickering as Mottaki told delegates that the the occupiers of Iraq — the United States — were pursuing mistaken policies that are responsible for violence there.
Rights groups tells Hamas to probe abductions By Nidal al-Mughrabi MAY 31,08
GAZA (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch has urged the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip to investigate the abduction and alleged torture of three Palestinians by an Islamist militant group that accused them of spying for Israel. The three were seized on May 20 by Islamic Jihad, which said they had helped Israeli forces kill several militants, including one of its leaders. After making taped confessions, the men were handed over to the Hamas-run Interior Ministry for prosecution.A ministry spokesman, Ehab al-Ghsain, said the detainees bore signs of torture. Islamic Jihad denied having abused them.The New York-based rights group issued a statement on Friday calling on Hamas, which took over Gaza a year ago after routing the forces of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to exercise sole responsibility for law enforcement.An armed group like (Islamic Jihad's) al-Quds Brigades has no legal right to arrest, detain or interrogate suspects, said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division.The Hamas authorities in Gaza, who control the governing institutions there, have a duty to prosecute those responsible for these abductions and apparent use of torture, Stork said.Hamas should charge the three suspected spies with a recognizable criminal offence and try them in accordance with international standards or free them, Human Rights Watch added.
Ghsain said Hamas had rebuked Islamic Jihad over the abductions, but no legal action against the group was planned.There were marks of torture (on the suspects) and we expressed our displeasure to Islamic Jihad and told them what happened must not be repeated, he said.We have warned all parties against carrying out such act in isolation from the official agencies.Islamic Jihad, which like Hamas has spearheaded an almost eight-year-old uprising against the Jewish state but lacks Hamas's political profile, defended its actions.While we fight the Israeli occupation we must fight collaborators who endanger the lives of leaders and society in general, said Daoud Shehab, the group's spokesman.We have acted legally and fairly, he said. The three collaborators were not tortured by any means and they gave full confessions of their own free will.Several suspected spies for Israel have received death sentences in Palestinian courts and dozens of others have been executed by armed militants in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The phenomenon has been condemned internationally.Ghsain said the three detainees were being interrogated by Hamas authorities and could be prosecuted if convicted. Dozens of suspected spies are in Gazan prisons awaiting trial, he said.(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Lebanese troops shoot suspected suicide bomber By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer MAY 31,08
BEIRUT, Lebanon - A senior military official says troops shot and killed a suspected suicide bomber near Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp. The official says a man suspected of wearing an explosive belt approached an army checkpoint just outside the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian camp on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon.Troops opened fire and killed the man instantly, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.The army position had previously been targeted by Palestinian militants.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
OLMERT UNDER FIRE TO RESIGN
HELL ON EARTH
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=8029227&ch=4226714&src=news
BARACK OLMERT SHOULD RESIGN
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=8014841&ch=4226714&src=news
Israel's FM and number two challenges Olmert by Patrick Moser MAY 29,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's foreign minister and Kadima party number two challenged Ehud Olmert's party leadership on Thursday, calling for an unprecedented primary amid demands he quit as premier over graft suspicions. Kadima should start preparing now for any possible scenario, including elections. I am a big believer in primaries, said Tzipi Livni, who is also deputy prime minister.I believe most of the public should be involved in the election of the (party) leadership. This way we will be able to retrieve the public's support in Kadima, she told reporters in Jerusalem.At no point, however, did Livni explicitly call for Olmert to step down as party leader or as premier.Kadima, founded hastily by former prime minister Ariel Sharon before the March 2006 elections, does not have an internal mechanism for ousting a leader or holding leadership elections.Israel has been abuzz with speculation about a snap election in late 2008 or early 2009.That began after a key ally in the government coalition, Defence Minister and Labour party leader Ehud Barak , joined calls for Olmert to step down over allegations he illegally received large sums of cash from a US financier.
Barak reiterated his message a day later on Thursday: The prime minister should take decisions, his party needs to take decisions. If they don't, we will make those decisions for them.Rina Mazliah, a political commentator with the privately run Channel 2 news, summed up the situation by saying: Ehud Barak placed the gun on the table and Livni put the bullet down.As the pressure on Olmert mounted, Attorney General Menahem Mazuz decided after a meeting with the state prosecution on Thursday to speed up the investigation, the justice ministry said.We can't ignore recent days' events. The issue is not only legal, it is not only a criminal question, Livni said. These are not the prime minister's personal issues. These are questions of values and norms we want to apply.Olmert, whose term ends in late 2010, has said he had no intention of quitting, although an opinion poll on Thursday found that 70 percent of people surveyed thought he should go.I am going to continue to exercise my functions, the embattled prime minister said on Wednesday.Some people think that each time an investigation is launched, it has to lead to a resignation. But I don't share that opinion -- and I am not going to give up.However, if Olmert were to be indicted over the latest scandal, he would be legally bound to step aside.Olmert, 62, has denied any wrongdoing over the allegations that have been simmering since police first questioned him in the affair on May 2. He has, however, acknowledged receiving campaign donations.
But experts say it will be difficult for him to focus on peace talks with the Palestinians and indirect negotiations with Syria while fighting for his own political survival.Opposition lawmakers have also claimed that the scandal-tainted premier lacks the moral authority to lead peace efforts that could shape the future of the Middle East. Olmert, who flies to Washington on Monday for a three-day visit and a meeting with US President George W. Bush, has asked Kadima MPs not to do anything until his return, Maariv newspaper reported. Barak, himself a former premier, said that unless Kadima acts to form a new government, with Labour's support, we will work to decide on a new agreed early date for elections.Without the support of Labour's 19 MPs Olmert's coalition would lose its parliamentary majority in the 120-member Knesset. Barak dropped his political bombshell a day after Jewish-American financier Morris Talansky testified before a Jerusalem court that he had given Olmert large amounts of cash stuffed into envelopes. Talansky said he had given Olmert at least 150,000 dollars in the 15 years before he became prime minister in 2006, some of which might have been used to fund Olmert's taste for luxury goods. Olmert faces three more police inquiries into suspected corruption involving potential conflicts of interest, fraudulent property transactions and abuse of power linked to political appointments.
Olmert unmoved by demand he step aside By Jeffrey Heller
MAY 29,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded with a business-as-usual approach on Thursday to a demand by his defense minister that he step aside over corruption allegations. But his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said their Kadima party should take decisions and start preparing for any scenario, including an early general election and an internal leadership vote.
Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, is widely seen as a top candidate to replace Olmert. In her public remarks, Livni did not call for Olmert to step down, but said values and norms must be upheld in Israeli politics.Stepping up the pressure, defense Minister Ehud Barak told members of his left-leaning Labor faction that if the prime minister failed to act, Labor would force the issue.The prime minister has to make decisions. Factions have to make decisions, and if they don't, we will make the decisions for them, said Barak, whose party is Olmert's largest coalition partner.Olmert has made clear through aides that he has no intention of stepping down. At a welcoming ceremony for Denmark's prime minister on Thursday, he made no reference to Barak's call to go on leave or quit.I intend to discuss with the visiting prime minister ... the international effort to stop Iran's nuclear (program), the regional peace process, the war against terror and the strengthening of radical Islam in the Middle East and worldwide, Olmert said, hitting his usual talking points.Olmert plans a three-day visit to Washington next week for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and a speech to the annual policy conference of a pro-Israel lobbying group.Barak threatened on Wednesday to pursue an early election -- bringing political turmoil that could derail Israeli-Palestinian peace talks -- after a U.S. businessman told an Israeli court he had handed Olmert envelopes with thousands of dollars in cash.Amid the political uncertainty, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz convened prosecutors and police officers on Thursday to discuss the way forward in the investigation against Olmert.Mazuz issued a statement after the meeting saying the investigation would be speeded up in order to complete it as soon as possible. He gave no precise timeframe for a decision on whether to indict the prime minister.Olmert has ridden out similar storms in the past. He has pledged to resign if charged and denied any wrongdoing in accepting what he has described as above-board election campaign contributions.
HAZY
Barak, a former prime minister, has been hazy on what steps he might take, and when.He stopped short of making a move that would immediately bring down the government and trigger a snap election. Polls suggest the right-wing Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu would defeat Labor if a ballot, not due until 2010, were held now.A top Likud lawmaker, former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, predicted new elections would be held in November.A cartoon in Israel's most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, illustrated what some commentators saw as Barak's failure to take stronger action.It showed Barak wearing bunny ears and holding a carrot, an allusion to Hebrew slang in which rabbit means coward.The American Jewish businessman at the centre of the case, Morris Talansky, is due back in Israel in July, when he will be cross-examined by Olmert's lawyers. Chief prosecutor Moshe Lador said after Talansky testified on Tuesday it was too early to tell if charges would be brought against Olmert.(Additional reporting by Avida Landau and Ari Rabinovitch; editing by Andrew Roche)
Tutu blasts international complicity over Gaza MAY 29,08
GAZA CITY (AFP) - South African Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu on Thursday denounced what he called the international community's silence and complicity over the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip. My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity, especially on the situation in Gaza, shames us all, Tutu said at the end of a three-day UN fact-finding mission to the impoverished Palestinian territory.Gaza needs the engagement of the outside world, especially its peacemakers, the Anglican archbishop said at a news conference.The overcrowded sliver of land is strangled by a tight blockade and faced with almost daily military raids which Israel says are aimed at forcing militants to halt rocket and mortar attacks.I think what we've seen shows plenty of evidence of at least the possibility of war crimes that needs much further independent investigation, said British professor Christine Chinkin, who travelled to Gaza with Tutu.I would certainly say the concept of collective punishment in a situation of occupation constitutes the notion of war crimes and possibly of a crime against humanity, she said in reference to the Israeli-imposed embargo.Tutu and Chinkin were in Gaza on a UN fact-finding mission into the killing of 19 Palestinian civilians in a 2006 Israeli artillery attack.Following an internal investigation, Israel concluded that shelling the civilians' homes was a rare and grave technical error of the artillery radar system, and announced in February that no charges would be brought against Israeli forces involved in the incident.
During the visit, Tutu also urged a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to end rocket attacks against Israel.He told journalists he asked dismissed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya: Can you stop the firing of rockets into Israel? Tutu, who was a prominent anti-apartheid activist when South Africa was still under white minority rule, also urged bith sides in the Gaza conflict to sit down and negotiate.Israel refuses to talk directly to Hamas because it blacklists the Islamist group as a terrorist organisation, but Egypt has been mediating between the two in a bid to achieve a truce in and around the Gaza Strip.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
US presses UN to broaden nuclear search in Syria: report Thu May 29, 10:05 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is pressing UN inspectors to broaden a search for secret nuclear sites in Syria to check if it has other hidden facilities beyond an alleged reactor destroyed by Israel, The Washington Post reported Thursday. US officials have given information on three suspect sites to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which is negotiating with Syria for permission to conduct inspections in the country, the Post said, citing US government officials and Western diplomats.US officials want to know if the suspect sites were support facilities for the alleged Al Kibar reactor, which Washington says was built with North Korean help, the daily said.Officials declined to describe the suspect sites or discuss how they were identified, the newspaper said.Western governments have long wanted to identify possible locations for a facility in Syria that might have supplied fuel rods for a reactor, it said.The Al Kibar site, while described as nearly operational when it was bombed, had no clear source of uranium fuel needed for operation, the Post said, citing US intelligence officials and diplomats familiar with the site.The US government charges that the reactor, which was destroyed in an Israeli air raid on September 6, had a military purpose.Syria has denied the US allegations and has promised full cooperation with the UN watchdog.
CIA Director Michael Hayden told the Post that the intelligence community's insight into Syria's nuclear ambitions had deepened since the Israeli raid.Do not assume that Al Kibar exhausted our knowledge of Syrian efforts with regard to nuclear weapons, Hayden was quoted as saying.I am very comfortable -- certainly with Al Kibar and what was there, and what the intent was. It was the highest confidence level. And nothing since the attack last September has changed our mind, he said.In fact, events since the attack give us even greater confidence as to what it was.Hayden predicted that Syria would almost certainly attempt to delay and deceive the IAEA.
German foreign minister due in Mideast Thu May 29, 8:51 AM ET
BERLIN, May 29, 2008 (AFP) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday he will visit the Middle East this week for talks on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and political stability in Lebanon. Steinmeier told the Bundestag lower house of parliament in a debate marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel that the trip beginning Saturday would take in Beirut, Jerusalem and Ramallah.
He will return to Berlin Wednesday.
Steinmeier hailed the election of new Lebanese President Michel Sleiman Sunday which he said created the conditions for rebuilding the country after years of strife.He also welcomed indirect talks between Israel and Syria and said visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan would brief him on his knowledge of the discussions in Berlin Friday.Germany has played a key role in reviving efforts by the so-called Middle East quartet -- grouping the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- to help bring about a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.Berlin has invited foreign ministers from the Middle East, Europe, the United States and several other countries to a conference on June 24 on efforts to assist the Palestinians on build up their police forces and justice system as steps toward creating a viable state.
Steinmeier said the Nazis' slaughter of six million European Jews during World War II meant it had a particular responsibility for helping to ensure Israel's security alongside a Palestinian state.
The engagement for the future derives from the responsibility for the past, he said.
Dozens captured in Israeli incursion in Gaza: witnesses Thu May 29, 4:02 AM ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Dozens of Palestinians were captured before dawn on Thursday in an Israeli military incursion in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. Israeli troops used loudspeakers to order residents of the Beit Hanun area aged 16 to 60 to gather in a square, and then took away about 60 of them, according to Mohammed al-Kafarneh, who said he witnessed the incident.The Palestinian Ramattan news agency said one of its cameramen, Ashraf al-Kafarneh, was among those captured.An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the raid.During a routine activity by the Israeli army in the north of the Gaza Strip, about 60 wanted Palestinians were taken by security services to be interrogated, the spokesman told AFP.
Witnesses said armoured military bulldozers destroyed farmland during the incursion.Meanwhile, a 29-year-old Palestinian civilian died of his wounds on Thursday, one day after he was hit by Israeli gunfire in southern Gaza, the head of Gaza emergency services said.
Israel launches almost daily attacks in the Gaza Strip and imposes a tight blockade on the Palestinian territory in a bid to force militants to halt rocket fire targeting the Jewish state.Israel and the Hamas movement that rules the impoverished territory are engaged in indirect negotiations over a possible truce, with Egypt acting as a go-between.At least 486 people, nearly all Palestinians and the majority of them militants, have been killed since the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in November at a US-sponsored conference, according to an AFP count.
Lebanon president names Siniora as PM of unity cabinet by Jocelyne Zablit Wed May 28, 10:26 PM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's newly appointed premier Fuad Siniora prepared for consultations Thursday with various parliamentary blocs on forming a 30-member cabinet, which will include the Hezbollah-led opposition. Siniora, 64, was appointed by the new Lebanese President Michel Sleiman on Wednesday to a government of national unity.Based on his consultations with members of parliament ... the president has asked Fuad Siniora to form a new government, the presidency said.The opposition made it clear it was not satisfied with the choice of Siniora, saying he did not reflect the spirit of national unity called for in last week's Arab-brokered accord reached in Doha.His nomination is a recipe for conflict rather than reconciliation, Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun warned.It seems the ruling bloc, rather than battling for a new Lebanon, is seeking to unleash a new conflict.He added, however, that his camp would not stand in the way of forming a new government.A Sunni Muslim and close ally of slain former premier Rafiq Hariri, Siniora has been prime minister since 2005 and headed a caretaker government since Sleiman's election by parliament on Sunday.That earlier, US-backed administration was crippled by a long-running opposition protest campaign.Siniora will be working to form a coalition government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition will have veto power over key decisions.
But he said he would seek to bridge the gaps among all the rival parties as he embarks on a new term and seeks to form a government of national unity.I extend my hand for cooperation and solidarity so that our country can achieve the breakthroughs it deserves, he said.He said he hoped all parties would draw the lessons from past events that must not be repeated.I call on all of you to heal the wounds and to overcome the divisions we have experienced and not to resort to violence to solve our problems, he said.Of the 127 members in parliament, 68 MPs gave Siniora their backing on Wednesday.The formation of a unity government is a key plank of a deal hammered out by rival factions last week to end an 18-month political crisis that boiled over into deadly fighting and threatened to plunge the nation into a new civil war.Under the deal , the ruling bloc will hold 16 seats in the new cabinet and the opposition 11, with the president appointing three ministers.
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said his bloc had decided to nominate Siniora again as he was the best man for the job. We didn't name Siniora as a challenge (to the opposition) but as a move toward real reconciliation and to turn over a new page, he told reporters. Much of Siniora's previous term was dominated by the standoff with the opposition, which withdrew its ministers from his government in late 2006 in a bid to force him to resign.
Analysts said the parliamentary majority decided to keep Siniora in his post to allow Hariri, the son of Rafiq Hariri, to prepare for legislative elections next year. Sleiman, Lebanon's army chief for the past 10 years, formally appointed Siniora after wrapping up consultations on Wednesday and the new government is expected to be formed within a week. Sleiman's election on Sunday followed the deal brokered in the Qatari capital that also gives veto power to the opposition and calls for a new electoral law. The accord was reached after sectarian battles earlier this month left at least 65 people dead and saw Hezbollah stage a spectacular takeover of Sunni sectors of west Beirut. The violence, sparked by government measures against Hezbollah that were eventually rescinded, was the worst sectarian unrest since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
If Olmert is toast, so is Bush bid to broker peace deal By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer Wed May 28, 6:32 PM ET
WASHINGTON - If Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is toast in a corruption scandal, so is President Bush's effort to broker a Mideast peace deal by the time he leaves office. Time and patience were running short for U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians before Olmert's simmering political troubles boiled over this week. If Olmert is forced out, there will be little time and perhaps even less appetite among all sides to start over.Israel's powerful defense minister, Ehud Barak, who is presumed to want Olmert's job, said Wednesday the prime minister should step aside because of his political or legal distractions. Barak threatened to bring down the government if Olmert doesn't comply.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refused comment to Wednesday on the unfolding political drama, and the State Department put on a game face.
We firmly believe and are fully committed to helping the Israelis and Palestinians achieve a peace agreement by the end of the year, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. We have committed to supporting their efforts. They have committed to reaching that agreement. That is where we were yesterday, that's where we were today, and I expect that's where we'll be tomorrow.Students of previous, failed negotiations said Olmert's precarious position could let the Bush administration off the hook if the current talks go nowhere.If Israeli politics are in meltdown, that's certainly not the time to lock in an agreement that breaks new ground, said Jonathan Alterman, Mideast scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Israeli prosecutors are looking into tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions that Olmert collected from American donors in the years before he became prime minister in 2006.Pressure for Olmert to resign, or at least go on vacation,as Barak put it, grew louder after a key witness, U.S. businessman Morris Talansky, testified this week that he had given $150,000 to Olmert. Talansky said the payments, often cash-stuffed envelopes, helped fund Olmert's expensive lifestyle that included luxury hotels and first-class travel.Olmert has denied any wrongdoing and promised to resign if indicted.
Olmert's government was built on the premise that cutting a deal with the Palestinians is in Israel's best long-term interest. If Barak carries out his threat, new elections could bring a government opposed to those high-level negotiations as well as new, low-level talks with Syria.Even if there were a deep bench of peace-minded politicians behind him, Olmert's personal relationship with his Palestinian counterpart and his direct involvement in talks would be difficult to replicate quickly.Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meet regularly, shake hands warmly and act as billboard advertising for closed-door talks that both men say are confronting the toughest issues in the six-decade Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. negotiator and author of a recent history of U.S. peace efforts, The Much Too Promised Land,likens the current talks to a car with three flat tires. The Palestinian Authority is still a mess, Olmert's in trouble and the U.S. doesn't seem reconciled to the kind of arduous diplomacy and hard political choices that a successful U.S.-brokered settlement would require, Miller said.The fourth tire is the only one with any air, and that's Abbas and Olmert. They like each other, and seem to work well together, Miller said. But the car can't really go where it needs to go.Olmert and Abbas inaugurated the negotiations last fall, after seven years of violence, with the goal of sketching a separate Palestinian state before Bush's term ends in January 2009. The talks have produced no clear public accomplishments.
Rice had been pushing both sides to demonstrate some progress, perhaps through the drawing of a new West Bank border, to give Israelis and Palestinians confidence that the talks are getting somewhere.Rice was visibly rattled by questions about Olmert's political future during a visit to Jerusalem this month, and his fortunes were a hot topic during her private meetings with both Israelis and Palestinians. As she often does, Rice also met with Barak on that trip. Olmert, a master political survivor, has weathered repeated scandals throughout his three-decade political career. The new police investigation is the fifth opened into his affairs since he was elected, and he was widely seen to have botched Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon. He could hang on, but would probably be a diminished figure with less political capital to spend selling the unpopular concessions that would be required of Israel under a real land-for-peace settlement. Our goal here is not to achieve an agreement based on the personalities of President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert, Casey said. Our goal here is to achieve an agreement that serves the interests of the Palestinian people and of the Israeli people.EDITOR'S NOTE — Anne Gearan covers diplomacy and foreign affairs for The Associated Press.
Previous Israeli political scandals By The Associated Press
Wed May 28, 3:43 PM ET
A corruption investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is threatening to force his resignation. Some previous scandals and investigations that have rocked Israel's politics:
• Israeli President Moshe Katsav was forced to resign in June 2007 under a cloud of rape, sexual harassment and other charges.
• Omri Sharon, son of ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, started serving a seven-month prison term in February 2008 after being convicted on campaign funding violations. Ariel Sharon was mentioned often in the inquiries but not charged.
• Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson resigned in July 2007 under suspicion of embezzling millions from a union he used to run.
• Olmert ally Haim Ramon was convicted in March 2007 of forcibly kissing a female soldier. After a light sentence, Ramon returned to Olmert's Cabinet as vice premier.
• President Ezer Weizman was forced to resign in 2000 under suspicion of accepting large sums of money from a businessman.
• Prime Minister Ehud Barak and aides were suspected in 2000 of campaign finance irregularities. No charges were filed.
• Decorated Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai resigned from Cabinet in 2000 after being charged with sexually assaulting female workers. He was convicted and given a suspended sentence.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was suspected in 1997 of engineering the appointment of a crony as attorney general in exchange for political support from the Shas party. Netanyahu was not charged.
• Shas leader Arieh Deri was convicted in the case of the attorney general. Also, in 1999, Deri was convicted of accepting bribes and served two years in prison.
• Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resigned in 1977 shortly before an election when his wife is discovered to have an illegal foreign currency account in the United States.
• Labor Party stalwart Asher Yadlin, picked to be governor of Israel's central bank, was charged in 1977 with taking bribes. Cabinet Minister Avraham Ofer, linked to the Yadlin affair and another corruption case, committed suicide.
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BARACK OLMERT SHOULD RESIGN
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Israel's FM and number two challenges Olmert by Patrick Moser MAY 29,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's foreign minister and Kadima party number two challenged Ehud Olmert's party leadership on Thursday, calling for an unprecedented primary amid demands he quit as premier over graft suspicions. Kadima should start preparing now for any possible scenario, including elections. I am a big believer in primaries, said Tzipi Livni, who is also deputy prime minister.I believe most of the public should be involved in the election of the (party) leadership. This way we will be able to retrieve the public's support in Kadima, she told reporters in Jerusalem.At no point, however, did Livni explicitly call for Olmert to step down as party leader or as premier.Kadima, founded hastily by former prime minister Ariel Sharon before the March 2006 elections, does not have an internal mechanism for ousting a leader or holding leadership elections.Israel has been abuzz with speculation about a snap election in late 2008 or early 2009.That began after a key ally in the government coalition, Defence Minister and Labour party leader Ehud Barak , joined calls for Olmert to step down over allegations he illegally received large sums of cash from a US financier.
Barak reiterated his message a day later on Thursday: The prime minister should take decisions, his party needs to take decisions. If they don't, we will make those decisions for them.Rina Mazliah, a political commentator with the privately run Channel 2 news, summed up the situation by saying: Ehud Barak placed the gun on the table and Livni put the bullet down.As the pressure on Olmert mounted, Attorney General Menahem Mazuz decided after a meeting with the state prosecution on Thursday to speed up the investigation, the justice ministry said.We can't ignore recent days' events. The issue is not only legal, it is not only a criminal question, Livni said. These are not the prime minister's personal issues. These are questions of values and norms we want to apply.Olmert, whose term ends in late 2010, has said he had no intention of quitting, although an opinion poll on Thursday found that 70 percent of people surveyed thought he should go.I am going to continue to exercise my functions, the embattled prime minister said on Wednesday.Some people think that each time an investigation is launched, it has to lead to a resignation. But I don't share that opinion -- and I am not going to give up.However, if Olmert were to be indicted over the latest scandal, he would be legally bound to step aside.Olmert, 62, has denied any wrongdoing over the allegations that have been simmering since police first questioned him in the affair on May 2. He has, however, acknowledged receiving campaign donations.
But experts say it will be difficult for him to focus on peace talks with the Palestinians and indirect negotiations with Syria while fighting for his own political survival.Opposition lawmakers have also claimed that the scandal-tainted premier lacks the moral authority to lead peace efforts that could shape the future of the Middle East. Olmert, who flies to Washington on Monday for a three-day visit and a meeting with US President George W. Bush, has asked Kadima MPs not to do anything until his return, Maariv newspaper reported. Barak, himself a former premier, said that unless Kadima acts to form a new government, with Labour's support, we will work to decide on a new agreed early date for elections.Without the support of Labour's 19 MPs Olmert's coalition would lose its parliamentary majority in the 120-member Knesset. Barak dropped his political bombshell a day after Jewish-American financier Morris Talansky testified before a Jerusalem court that he had given Olmert large amounts of cash stuffed into envelopes. Talansky said he had given Olmert at least 150,000 dollars in the 15 years before he became prime minister in 2006, some of which might have been used to fund Olmert's taste for luxury goods. Olmert faces three more police inquiries into suspected corruption involving potential conflicts of interest, fraudulent property transactions and abuse of power linked to political appointments.
Olmert unmoved by demand he step aside By Jeffrey Heller
MAY 29,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded with a business-as-usual approach on Thursday to a demand by his defense minister that he step aside over corruption allegations. But his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said their Kadima party should take decisions and start preparing for any scenario, including an early general election and an internal leadership vote.
Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, is widely seen as a top candidate to replace Olmert. In her public remarks, Livni did not call for Olmert to step down, but said values and norms must be upheld in Israeli politics.Stepping up the pressure, defense Minister Ehud Barak told members of his left-leaning Labor faction that if the prime minister failed to act, Labor would force the issue.The prime minister has to make decisions. Factions have to make decisions, and if they don't, we will make the decisions for them, said Barak, whose party is Olmert's largest coalition partner.Olmert has made clear through aides that he has no intention of stepping down. At a welcoming ceremony for Denmark's prime minister on Thursday, he made no reference to Barak's call to go on leave or quit.I intend to discuss with the visiting prime minister ... the international effort to stop Iran's nuclear (program), the regional peace process, the war against terror and the strengthening of radical Islam in the Middle East and worldwide, Olmert said, hitting his usual talking points.Olmert plans a three-day visit to Washington next week for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and a speech to the annual policy conference of a pro-Israel lobbying group.Barak threatened on Wednesday to pursue an early election -- bringing political turmoil that could derail Israeli-Palestinian peace talks -- after a U.S. businessman told an Israeli court he had handed Olmert envelopes with thousands of dollars in cash.Amid the political uncertainty, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz convened prosecutors and police officers on Thursday to discuss the way forward in the investigation against Olmert.Mazuz issued a statement after the meeting saying the investigation would be speeded up in order to complete it as soon as possible. He gave no precise timeframe for a decision on whether to indict the prime minister.Olmert has ridden out similar storms in the past. He has pledged to resign if charged and denied any wrongdoing in accepting what he has described as above-board election campaign contributions.
HAZY
Barak, a former prime minister, has been hazy on what steps he might take, and when.He stopped short of making a move that would immediately bring down the government and trigger a snap election. Polls suggest the right-wing Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu would defeat Labor if a ballot, not due until 2010, were held now.A top Likud lawmaker, former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, predicted new elections would be held in November.A cartoon in Israel's most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, illustrated what some commentators saw as Barak's failure to take stronger action.It showed Barak wearing bunny ears and holding a carrot, an allusion to Hebrew slang in which rabbit means coward.The American Jewish businessman at the centre of the case, Morris Talansky, is due back in Israel in July, when he will be cross-examined by Olmert's lawyers. Chief prosecutor Moshe Lador said after Talansky testified on Tuesday it was too early to tell if charges would be brought against Olmert.(Additional reporting by Avida Landau and Ari Rabinovitch; editing by Andrew Roche)
Tutu blasts international complicity over Gaza MAY 29,08
GAZA CITY (AFP) - South African Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu on Thursday denounced what he called the international community's silence and complicity over the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip. My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity, especially on the situation in Gaza, shames us all, Tutu said at the end of a three-day UN fact-finding mission to the impoverished Palestinian territory.Gaza needs the engagement of the outside world, especially its peacemakers, the Anglican archbishop said at a news conference.The overcrowded sliver of land is strangled by a tight blockade and faced with almost daily military raids which Israel says are aimed at forcing militants to halt rocket and mortar attacks.I think what we've seen shows plenty of evidence of at least the possibility of war crimes that needs much further independent investigation, said British professor Christine Chinkin, who travelled to Gaza with Tutu.I would certainly say the concept of collective punishment in a situation of occupation constitutes the notion of war crimes and possibly of a crime against humanity, she said in reference to the Israeli-imposed embargo.Tutu and Chinkin were in Gaza on a UN fact-finding mission into the killing of 19 Palestinian civilians in a 2006 Israeli artillery attack.Following an internal investigation, Israel concluded that shelling the civilians' homes was a rare and grave technical error of the artillery radar system, and announced in February that no charges would be brought against Israeli forces involved in the incident.
During the visit, Tutu also urged a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to end rocket attacks against Israel.He told journalists he asked dismissed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya: Can you stop the firing of rockets into Israel? Tutu, who was a prominent anti-apartheid activist when South Africa was still under white minority rule, also urged bith sides in the Gaza conflict to sit down and negotiate.Israel refuses to talk directly to Hamas because it blacklists the Islamist group as a terrorist organisation, but Egypt has been mediating between the two in a bid to achieve a truce in and around the Gaza Strip.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
US presses UN to broaden nuclear search in Syria: report Thu May 29, 10:05 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is pressing UN inspectors to broaden a search for secret nuclear sites in Syria to check if it has other hidden facilities beyond an alleged reactor destroyed by Israel, The Washington Post reported Thursday. US officials have given information on three suspect sites to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which is negotiating with Syria for permission to conduct inspections in the country, the Post said, citing US government officials and Western diplomats.US officials want to know if the suspect sites were support facilities for the alleged Al Kibar reactor, which Washington says was built with North Korean help, the daily said.Officials declined to describe the suspect sites or discuss how they were identified, the newspaper said.Western governments have long wanted to identify possible locations for a facility in Syria that might have supplied fuel rods for a reactor, it said.The Al Kibar site, while described as nearly operational when it was bombed, had no clear source of uranium fuel needed for operation, the Post said, citing US intelligence officials and diplomats familiar with the site.The US government charges that the reactor, which was destroyed in an Israeli air raid on September 6, had a military purpose.Syria has denied the US allegations and has promised full cooperation with the UN watchdog.
CIA Director Michael Hayden told the Post that the intelligence community's insight into Syria's nuclear ambitions had deepened since the Israeli raid.Do not assume that Al Kibar exhausted our knowledge of Syrian efforts with regard to nuclear weapons, Hayden was quoted as saying.I am very comfortable -- certainly with Al Kibar and what was there, and what the intent was. It was the highest confidence level. And nothing since the attack last September has changed our mind, he said.In fact, events since the attack give us even greater confidence as to what it was.Hayden predicted that Syria would almost certainly attempt to delay and deceive the IAEA.
German foreign minister due in Mideast Thu May 29, 8:51 AM ET
BERLIN, May 29, 2008 (AFP) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday he will visit the Middle East this week for talks on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and political stability in Lebanon. Steinmeier told the Bundestag lower house of parliament in a debate marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel that the trip beginning Saturday would take in Beirut, Jerusalem and Ramallah.
He will return to Berlin Wednesday.
Steinmeier hailed the election of new Lebanese President Michel Sleiman Sunday which he said created the conditions for rebuilding the country after years of strife.He also welcomed indirect talks between Israel and Syria and said visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan would brief him on his knowledge of the discussions in Berlin Friday.Germany has played a key role in reviving efforts by the so-called Middle East quartet -- grouping the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- to help bring about a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.Berlin has invited foreign ministers from the Middle East, Europe, the United States and several other countries to a conference on June 24 on efforts to assist the Palestinians on build up their police forces and justice system as steps toward creating a viable state.
Steinmeier said the Nazis' slaughter of six million European Jews during World War II meant it had a particular responsibility for helping to ensure Israel's security alongside a Palestinian state.
The engagement for the future derives from the responsibility for the past, he said.
Dozens captured in Israeli incursion in Gaza: witnesses Thu May 29, 4:02 AM ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Dozens of Palestinians were captured before dawn on Thursday in an Israeli military incursion in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. Israeli troops used loudspeakers to order residents of the Beit Hanun area aged 16 to 60 to gather in a square, and then took away about 60 of them, according to Mohammed al-Kafarneh, who said he witnessed the incident.The Palestinian Ramattan news agency said one of its cameramen, Ashraf al-Kafarneh, was among those captured.An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the raid.During a routine activity by the Israeli army in the north of the Gaza Strip, about 60 wanted Palestinians were taken by security services to be interrogated, the spokesman told AFP.
Witnesses said armoured military bulldozers destroyed farmland during the incursion.Meanwhile, a 29-year-old Palestinian civilian died of his wounds on Thursday, one day after he was hit by Israeli gunfire in southern Gaza, the head of Gaza emergency services said.
Israel launches almost daily attacks in the Gaza Strip and imposes a tight blockade on the Palestinian territory in a bid to force militants to halt rocket fire targeting the Jewish state.Israel and the Hamas movement that rules the impoverished territory are engaged in indirect negotiations over a possible truce, with Egypt acting as a go-between.At least 486 people, nearly all Palestinians and the majority of them militants, have been killed since the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in November at a US-sponsored conference, according to an AFP count.
Lebanon president names Siniora as PM of unity cabinet by Jocelyne Zablit Wed May 28, 10:26 PM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's newly appointed premier Fuad Siniora prepared for consultations Thursday with various parliamentary blocs on forming a 30-member cabinet, which will include the Hezbollah-led opposition. Siniora, 64, was appointed by the new Lebanese President Michel Sleiman on Wednesday to a government of national unity.Based on his consultations with members of parliament ... the president has asked Fuad Siniora to form a new government, the presidency said.The opposition made it clear it was not satisfied with the choice of Siniora, saying he did not reflect the spirit of national unity called for in last week's Arab-brokered accord reached in Doha.His nomination is a recipe for conflict rather than reconciliation, Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun warned.It seems the ruling bloc, rather than battling for a new Lebanon, is seeking to unleash a new conflict.He added, however, that his camp would not stand in the way of forming a new government.A Sunni Muslim and close ally of slain former premier Rafiq Hariri, Siniora has been prime minister since 2005 and headed a caretaker government since Sleiman's election by parliament on Sunday.That earlier, US-backed administration was crippled by a long-running opposition protest campaign.Siniora will be working to form a coalition government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition will have veto power over key decisions.
But he said he would seek to bridge the gaps among all the rival parties as he embarks on a new term and seeks to form a government of national unity.I extend my hand for cooperation and solidarity so that our country can achieve the breakthroughs it deserves, he said.He said he hoped all parties would draw the lessons from past events that must not be repeated.I call on all of you to heal the wounds and to overcome the divisions we have experienced and not to resort to violence to solve our problems, he said.Of the 127 members in parliament, 68 MPs gave Siniora their backing on Wednesday.The formation of a unity government is a key plank of a deal hammered out by rival factions last week to end an 18-month political crisis that boiled over into deadly fighting and threatened to plunge the nation into a new civil war.Under the deal , the ruling bloc will hold 16 seats in the new cabinet and the opposition 11, with the president appointing three ministers.
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said his bloc had decided to nominate Siniora again as he was the best man for the job. We didn't name Siniora as a challenge (to the opposition) but as a move toward real reconciliation and to turn over a new page, he told reporters. Much of Siniora's previous term was dominated by the standoff with the opposition, which withdrew its ministers from his government in late 2006 in a bid to force him to resign.
Analysts said the parliamentary majority decided to keep Siniora in his post to allow Hariri, the son of Rafiq Hariri, to prepare for legislative elections next year. Sleiman, Lebanon's army chief for the past 10 years, formally appointed Siniora after wrapping up consultations on Wednesday and the new government is expected to be formed within a week. Sleiman's election on Sunday followed the deal brokered in the Qatari capital that also gives veto power to the opposition and calls for a new electoral law. The accord was reached after sectarian battles earlier this month left at least 65 people dead and saw Hezbollah stage a spectacular takeover of Sunni sectors of west Beirut. The violence, sparked by government measures against Hezbollah that were eventually rescinded, was the worst sectarian unrest since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
If Olmert is toast, so is Bush bid to broker peace deal By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer Wed May 28, 6:32 PM ET
WASHINGTON - If Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is toast in a corruption scandal, so is President Bush's effort to broker a Mideast peace deal by the time he leaves office. Time and patience were running short for U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians before Olmert's simmering political troubles boiled over this week. If Olmert is forced out, there will be little time and perhaps even less appetite among all sides to start over.Israel's powerful defense minister, Ehud Barak, who is presumed to want Olmert's job, said Wednesday the prime minister should step aside because of his political or legal distractions. Barak threatened to bring down the government if Olmert doesn't comply.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refused comment to Wednesday on the unfolding political drama, and the State Department put on a game face.
We firmly believe and are fully committed to helping the Israelis and Palestinians achieve a peace agreement by the end of the year, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. We have committed to supporting their efforts. They have committed to reaching that agreement. That is where we were yesterday, that's where we were today, and I expect that's where we'll be tomorrow.Students of previous, failed negotiations said Olmert's precarious position could let the Bush administration off the hook if the current talks go nowhere.If Israeli politics are in meltdown, that's certainly not the time to lock in an agreement that breaks new ground, said Jonathan Alterman, Mideast scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Israeli prosecutors are looking into tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions that Olmert collected from American donors in the years before he became prime minister in 2006.Pressure for Olmert to resign, or at least go on vacation,as Barak put it, grew louder after a key witness, U.S. businessman Morris Talansky, testified this week that he had given $150,000 to Olmert. Talansky said the payments, often cash-stuffed envelopes, helped fund Olmert's expensive lifestyle that included luxury hotels and first-class travel.Olmert has denied any wrongdoing and promised to resign if indicted.
Olmert's government was built on the premise that cutting a deal with the Palestinians is in Israel's best long-term interest. If Barak carries out his threat, new elections could bring a government opposed to those high-level negotiations as well as new, low-level talks with Syria.Even if there were a deep bench of peace-minded politicians behind him, Olmert's personal relationship with his Palestinian counterpart and his direct involvement in talks would be difficult to replicate quickly.Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meet regularly, shake hands warmly and act as billboard advertising for closed-door talks that both men say are confronting the toughest issues in the six-decade Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. negotiator and author of a recent history of U.S. peace efforts, The Much Too Promised Land,likens the current talks to a car with three flat tires. The Palestinian Authority is still a mess, Olmert's in trouble and the U.S. doesn't seem reconciled to the kind of arduous diplomacy and hard political choices that a successful U.S.-brokered settlement would require, Miller said.The fourth tire is the only one with any air, and that's Abbas and Olmert. They like each other, and seem to work well together, Miller said. But the car can't really go where it needs to go.Olmert and Abbas inaugurated the negotiations last fall, after seven years of violence, with the goal of sketching a separate Palestinian state before Bush's term ends in January 2009. The talks have produced no clear public accomplishments.
Rice had been pushing both sides to demonstrate some progress, perhaps through the drawing of a new West Bank border, to give Israelis and Palestinians confidence that the talks are getting somewhere.Rice was visibly rattled by questions about Olmert's political future during a visit to Jerusalem this month, and his fortunes were a hot topic during her private meetings with both Israelis and Palestinians. As she often does, Rice also met with Barak on that trip. Olmert, a master political survivor, has weathered repeated scandals throughout his three-decade political career. The new police investigation is the fifth opened into his affairs since he was elected, and he was widely seen to have botched Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon. He could hang on, but would probably be a diminished figure with less political capital to spend selling the unpopular concessions that would be required of Israel under a real land-for-peace settlement. Our goal here is not to achieve an agreement based on the personalities of President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert, Casey said. Our goal here is to achieve an agreement that serves the interests of the Palestinian people and of the Israeli people.EDITOR'S NOTE — Anne Gearan covers diplomacy and foreign affairs for The Associated Press.
Previous Israeli political scandals By The Associated Press
Wed May 28, 3:43 PM ET
A corruption investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is threatening to force his resignation. Some previous scandals and investigations that have rocked Israel's politics:
• Israeli President Moshe Katsav was forced to resign in June 2007 under a cloud of rape, sexual harassment and other charges.
• Omri Sharon, son of ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, started serving a seven-month prison term in February 2008 after being convicted on campaign funding violations. Ariel Sharon was mentioned often in the inquiries but not charged.
• Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson resigned in July 2007 under suspicion of embezzling millions from a union he used to run.
• Olmert ally Haim Ramon was convicted in March 2007 of forcibly kissing a female soldier. After a light sentence, Ramon returned to Olmert's Cabinet as vice premier.
• President Ezer Weizman was forced to resign in 2000 under suspicion of accepting large sums of money from a businessman.
• Prime Minister Ehud Barak and aides were suspected in 2000 of campaign finance irregularities. No charges were filed.
• Decorated Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai resigned from Cabinet in 2000 after being charged with sexually assaulting female workers. He was convicted and given a suspended sentence.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was suspected in 1997 of engineering the appointment of a crony as attorney general in exchange for political support from the Shas party. Netanyahu was not charged.
• Shas leader Arieh Deri was convicted in the case of the attorney general. Also, in 1999, Deri was convicted of accepting bribes and served two years in prison.
• Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resigned in 1977 shortly before an election when his wife is discovered to have an illegal foreign currency account in the United States.
• Labor Party stalwart Asher Yadlin, picked to be governor of Israel's central bank, was charged in 1977 with taking bribes. Cabinet Minister Avraham Ofer, linked to the Yadlin affair and another corruption case, committed suicide.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
FREE ADVERTISING FOR CHRISTIANS AND JEWS
BRINGING CHRISTIANS AND JEWS TOGETHER UNDER ONE UMBRELLA.
ALSO CHECKOUT MY EVENTS IN TIME BLOGSITE OUT. STORIES OF PROPHECY BEING FULFILLED BEFORE OUR VERY EYES.
http://israndjer.blogspot.com
SALVATION GODS FREE GIFT TO YOU
IF YOU DONT KNOW KING JESUS AND WANT HIM TO TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE, HE LOVES YOU AND WANTS YOUR HEART TO BE WITH HIM FOREVER AND EVER. HE WANTS ALL PEOPLE ON EARTH TO COME TO REPENTENCE AND CALL ON HIM TO SAVE US FROM OUR SINS. ONLY HE CAN DO IT WHEN WE CALL ON HIM.IF YOU WANT TO BE SAVED FOR TIME AND ETERNITY WITH KING JESUS SAY THIS PRAYER AND HE PROMISES ETERNAL LIFE WITH HIM. HELL WAS MADE FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS, GOD WANTS ALL HUMANS TO BE WITH HIM FOREVER.
PRAY THIS PRAYER
THANK YOU LORD JESUS. THAT YOU LOVED ME, AND GAVE YOURSELF FOR ME. WHAT LOVE, AND TODAY I RESPOND, I WANT YOU AS MY OWN PERSONAL SAVIOR. AND YOUR PRECIOUS BLOOD PUT INTO A SPECIAL BODY BY YOUR FATHER, WAS SHED FOR ME, TO CLEANSE ME, TO WASH ME, TO SAVE ME. I ACCEPT IT NOW, COME INTO MY HEART PRECIOUS SAVIOR. I PRAY THIS IN YOUR HOLY NAME KING JESUS. AMEN AND AMEN.COME QUICKLY LORD JESUS.
WE HAVE A SURE WORD OF PROPHECY (THE BIBLE)
2 PETER 1:19-21
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
ISAIAH 46:9-10
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
2 TIMOTHY 3:16
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
ISAIAH 28:9-11
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
EXODUS 20:3-17 THE 10 COMMANDMENTS KJV
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
JEWISH CALENDAR SO YOU KNOW WHAT ISRAELI FAST OR FEAST IS HERE.
The Jewish calendar has the following months:
Hebrew
English Number
Length
Gregorian Equivalent
Tishri 7TH MONTH - OUR 9TH 30 days September-October
Cheshvan 8TH MONTH - OUR 10TH 29 or 30 days October-November
Kislev 9TH MONTH - OUR 11TH 30 or 29 days November-December
Tevet 10TH MONTH - OUR 12TH 29 days December-January
Shevat 11TH MONTH - OUR 01ST 30 days January-February
Adar I (leap years only) 12TH MONTH - OUR 02ND 30 days February-March
Adar (called Adar II in leap years) 12 (13 in leap years) 29 days February-March
Nissan 1ST MONTH - OUR 03RD 30 days March-April
Iyar 2ND MONTH - OUR 04TH 29 days April-May
Sivan 3RD MONTH - OUR 05TH 30 days May-June
Tammuz 4TH MONTH - OUR 06TH 29 days June-July
Av 5TH MONTH - OUR 07TH 30 days July-August
Elul 6TH MONTH - OUR 08TH 29 days August-September
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
TIMELINE OF HISTORY TO THE 7 YR FUTURE TREATY 483 YRS COMPLETE OF THE 490 YRS TILL JESUS IS ANNOINTED KING OF JERUSALEM
DANIEL 9:24-27
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people (ISRAEL) and upon thy holy city,(JERUSALEM) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,(7X7=49 YRS) and threescore and two weeks:(62X7=434 YRS) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (69x7=483 YRS TO THIS POINT, THE FINAL 7 YR TREATY IS IN THE NEXT VERSE TO FULFILL THE
490 YEARS OF DANIELS PROPHECY.
9:27 And he (THE FUTURE ROMAN PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3RD TEMPLE DESECRATED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.(WW3)
AT THE END OF THE 7 YR TREATY AFTER GOD HAS DEALT WITH ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM FOR THE FINAL 70TH WEEK OF DANIELS PROPHECY THE TRUE MESSIAH JESUS THEN RULES FROM JERUSALEM FOREVER.
JESUS RETURNS TO EARTH BODILY TO RULE AND REIGN FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER AND WE COME BACK WITH HIM ON WHITE HORSES.
ACTS 1:10-11
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
ZECHARIAH 14:4
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
REVELATION 19:11-16
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
JUDE 14-16
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
ALSO CHECKOUT MY EVENTS IN TIME BLOGSITE OUT. STORIES OF PROPHECY BEING FULFILLED BEFORE OUR VERY EYES.
http://israndjer.blogspot.com
SALVATION GODS FREE GIFT TO YOU
IF YOU DONT KNOW KING JESUS AND WANT HIM TO TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE, HE LOVES YOU AND WANTS YOUR HEART TO BE WITH HIM FOREVER AND EVER. HE WANTS ALL PEOPLE ON EARTH TO COME TO REPENTENCE AND CALL ON HIM TO SAVE US FROM OUR SINS. ONLY HE CAN DO IT WHEN WE CALL ON HIM.IF YOU WANT TO BE SAVED FOR TIME AND ETERNITY WITH KING JESUS SAY THIS PRAYER AND HE PROMISES ETERNAL LIFE WITH HIM. HELL WAS MADE FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS, GOD WANTS ALL HUMANS TO BE WITH HIM FOREVER.
PRAY THIS PRAYER
THANK YOU LORD JESUS. THAT YOU LOVED ME, AND GAVE YOURSELF FOR ME. WHAT LOVE, AND TODAY I RESPOND, I WANT YOU AS MY OWN PERSONAL SAVIOR. AND YOUR PRECIOUS BLOOD PUT INTO A SPECIAL BODY BY YOUR FATHER, WAS SHED FOR ME, TO CLEANSE ME, TO WASH ME, TO SAVE ME. I ACCEPT IT NOW, COME INTO MY HEART PRECIOUS SAVIOR. I PRAY THIS IN YOUR HOLY NAME KING JESUS. AMEN AND AMEN.COME QUICKLY LORD JESUS.
WE HAVE A SURE WORD OF PROPHECY (THE BIBLE)
2 PETER 1:19-21
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
ISAIAH 46:9-10
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
2 TIMOTHY 3:16
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
ISAIAH 28:9-11
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
EXODUS 20:3-17 THE 10 COMMANDMENTS KJV
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
JEWISH CALENDAR SO YOU KNOW WHAT ISRAELI FAST OR FEAST IS HERE.
The Jewish calendar has the following months:
Hebrew
English Number
Length
Gregorian Equivalent
Tishri 7TH MONTH - OUR 9TH 30 days September-October
Cheshvan 8TH MONTH - OUR 10TH 29 or 30 days October-November
Kislev 9TH MONTH - OUR 11TH 30 or 29 days November-December
Tevet 10TH MONTH - OUR 12TH 29 days December-January
Shevat 11TH MONTH - OUR 01ST 30 days January-February
Adar I (leap years only) 12TH MONTH - OUR 02ND 30 days February-March
Adar (called Adar II in leap years) 12 (13 in leap years) 29 days February-March
Nissan 1ST MONTH - OUR 03RD 30 days March-April
Iyar 2ND MONTH - OUR 04TH 29 days April-May
Sivan 3RD MONTH - OUR 05TH 30 days May-June
Tammuz 4TH MONTH - OUR 06TH 29 days June-July
Av 5TH MONTH - OUR 07TH 30 days July-August
Elul 6TH MONTH - OUR 08TH 29 days August-September
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
TIMELINE OF HISTORY TO THE 7 YR FUTURE TREATY 483 YRS COMPLETE OF THE 490 YRS TILL JESUS IS ANNOINTED KING OF JERUSALEM
DANIEL 9:24-27
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people (ISRAEL) and upon thy holy city,(JERUSALEM) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,(7X7=49 YRS) and threescore and two weeks:(62X7=434 YRS) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (69x7=483 YRS TO THIS POINT, THE FINAL 7 YR TREATY IS IN THE NEXT VERSE TO FULFILL THE
490 YEARS OF DANIELS PROPHECY.
9:27 And he (THE FUTURE ROMAN PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3RD TEMPLE DESECRATED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.(WW3)
AT THE END OF THE 7 YR TREATY AFTER GOD HAS DEALT WITH ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM FOR THE FINAL 70TH WEEK OF DANIELS PROPHECY THE TRUE MESSIAH JESUS THEN RULES FROM JERUSALEM FOREVER.
JESUS RETURNS TO EARTH BODILY TO RULE AND REIGN FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER AND WE COME BACK WITH HIM ON WHITE HORSES.
ACTS 1:10-11
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
ZECHARIAH 14:4
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
REVELATION 19:11-16
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
JUDE 14-16
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
KEEP UP RESISTANCE - IRAN
CHINA FEARS FLOODING WILL ADD TO DEATH TOTAL
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=7991889&ch=4226714&src=news
CHINA QUICKLY EVACUATES 80,000 DUE TO MADE SEAS.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080527/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake;_ylt=AjEi1MhcYD7mVtuAOfXECIqbOrgF
AL-QUIDA GROUP WANT RETALIATION ON US
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080527/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AlZKNVlPEB405AJnj_YqX4abOrgF
US suggests Hezbollah speech shows self-inflicted damage MAY 27,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's claim that his group does not want to control Lebanon may reveal how self-defeating its recent armed offensive in Beirut was, a senior US official said Tuesday. I think their actions belie the statements, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked to comment on Nasrallah's speech to his supporters in Lebanon on Monday.They (Hezbollah) showed a willingness to use arms to kill their fellow citizens. Perhaps these words are a recognition of the real political damage done to Hezbollah, he said.Any pretense of it as a liberation organization, or an organization designed to protect Lebanese from outsiders has really been torn away, McCormack added.The Hezbollah-led opposition, which won admiration in the past for fighting Lebanon's southern neighbor Israel, staged a spectacular armed takeover of large swathes of mainly Sunni west Beirut earlier this month.The assault angered many Lebanese but led to negotiations to end an 18-month political feud between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Western-backed ruling majority that left the nation without a head of state for six months.
As part of a deal brokered in Qatar last week by the Arab League, General Michel Sleiman was elected by parliament Sunday in a first step towards national reconciliation.The following day, in a speech marking the eighth anniversary of Israel's pullout from south Lebanon after a two-decade occupation, Nasrallah pledged that his Shiite Muslim group would not use its weapons for political gains.
Hezbollah does not want power over Lebanon, nor does it want to control Lebanon or govern the country, Nasrallah said.But he also warned that the new government should not try to use the army to tackle the weapons of Hezbollah or any of its political allies.
Analysts give some credence to US State Department arguments that Hezbollah has lost popular support by turning its guns on fellow Lebanese rather than its traditional enemy Israel.But analysts said that, at least in the short term, it was the US-backed government of Fuad Siniora that suffered the political setback, not Hezbollah, which they said achieved political gain through force of arms.
US millionaire admits giving cash to Olmert by Charly Wegman MAY 28,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A US millionaire testifying in a corruption probe that could force Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert out of office said on Tuesday he gave the premier large sums of cash to fund his political ambitions and perhaps his taste for high living. Morris Talansky gave evidence for seven hours in a Jerusalem district court in a criminal investigation into claims that Olmert received tens of thousands of dollars in illegal funds in the years before he became prime minister in 2006.The 75-year-old Jewish American financier said in sworn testimony that could later be used at a trial that he handed envelopes stuffed with cash to Olmert and his assistant over a period of 15 years.I gave some money to Olmert for his (election) campaigns in 1991 and 1992... He told me that he would prefer cash, and I gave him first some money from my private funds, then some money collected in the United States on his behalf, said Talansky, according to Israeli public radio.In 1998 also some money, generally about 3,000 to 8,000 dollars each time, was given, always in cash, because Olmert did not want cheques.
Talansky said in New York that he had raised about 100,000 dollars for Olmert's campaigns, and also loaned him money, which would bring the total figure to around 150,000 dollars.Talansky could not testify how the money was ultimately used but described Olmert as someone with a taste for first-class hotels and luxury items.I only know that he loved expensive cigars. I know he loved pens, watches. I found it strange, Talansky said, according to pool reports from the courtroom.He did say that one 25,000-dollar loan to Olmert was for a vacation in Italy and another time he gave the Israeli leader his credit card for a three-day stay at the Ritz Carlton in Washington. None of the loans has been paid back, he added.The 62-year-old Olmert, who has yet to be charged, has denied any wrongdoing but admitted receiving money from Talansky to help finance election campaigns in 1999 and 2003.Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem and trade minister before becoming premier in 2006 after his predecessor Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke and fell into a coma, has been questioned twice by investigators.He has faced mounting calls for his resignation but has said he will only go if he is indicted.An opinion poll published by the Yediot Aharonot newspaper last week found that only six percent of respondents had full confidence in Olmert and 51 percent had no confidence in him at all.
And Palestinian officials have expressed fears that the affair could affect the Middle East peace process, particularly if Israel calls early elections.Talansky said he got to know Olmert around the time of the 1991 Gulf War and admired the Israeli politician, but insisted he never received anything in return for his financial support.I never expected anything personally, I never had any personal benefits from this relationship whatsover, he said.But Talansky said Olmert did offer to help him once with his mini-bar business, contacting some major hotel owners. He (Olmert) wanted to do me a favour but it never worked out.Questions from state prosecutor Moshe Lador and Jerusalem prosecutor Eli Abarvanel had to be translated from Hebrew into English for the financier, who began crying at one point when prosecutors said it might take another day to complete the deposition. Talansky will be back in court in July so that lawyers for Olmert can cross-examine the financier. We cannot make the slightest conclusion from the first part of the testimony. He will be questioned again in July. We will decide whether to indict or close the case when the inquiry is finished, prosecutor Lador told reporters after the deposition was over. One of Olmert's lawyers, Eli Zohar, said Talansky's testimony was no surprise and reaffirmed that the premier did nothing against the law.
Keep up resistance, Iran tells Hamas Tue May 27, 6:52 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday told the visiting political supremo of Hamas to keep up the resistance against Israel, warning that abandoning the struggle would lead to disgrace. The meeting between Khamanei and Khaled Meshaal came a week after Syria and Israel announced they had resumed indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators, after an eight-year freeze.It is evident today that the Zionist regime is at its lowest ebb and is unable to resist the patient Palestinian people, Khamenei was quoted by state radio as telling the Syria-based Meshaal.Thank God the Palestinian people have stood like a mountain despite the disaster. The only way to the liberation of Palestine is to resist faithfully.The ones who choose a path that is not one of resistance will pay a price and be disgraced in the eyes of God, he added.Iran, which does not recognise Israel, is one of the militant Palestinian group's main cheerleaders in the region. However Tehran denies it provides Hamas with arms or military training.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he remained confident that Syria -- Iran's closest regional ally -- will keep up the struggle against Israel despite its announcement of renewed peace negotiations.Ahmadinejad has provoked outrage with his frequent verbal tirades against the Jewish state, which he has likened to a stinking corpse and predicted is doomed to disappear.
Israeli demolition threatens 3,000 Palestinian homes: UN Tue May 27, 5:21 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank risk being displaced as the Israeli authorities threaten to tear down their homes and in some cases entire communities, a UN agency said on Wednesday. To date, more than 3,000 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank have pending demolition orders, which can be immediately executed without prior warning, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.
At least 10 small communities throughout the West Bank are at risk of being almost entirely displaced due to the large number of pending demolitions orders, OCHA said.Most of the orders were issued because there were no construction permits, which Israeli authorities only seldom grant to Palestinians.The buildings are located in so-called Area C, which makes up more than 60 percent of the West Bank and which is under full Israeli control.In the first quarter of 2008, Israeli authorities demolished 124 structures as compared with 107 for the whole of 2007, leading to the displacement of 435 Palestinians, 135 of them children, OCHA said.
Children are frequently disproportionately affected by the demolition of their homes and the subsequent displacement of their families, the study said.Over 94 percent of applications for building permits in Area C submitted by Palestinians between January 2000 and September 2007 were denied, according to official data.During this period 5,000 demolition orders were issued, and over 1,600 Palestinian buildings were actually demolished.The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a silent transfer of the Palestinian population from Area C, the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a recent report.In the 2000 to 2007 period, 2,900 demolition orders were issued against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but just seven percent were implemented, according to Peace Now.Some 283,000 settlers live in Area C, which is also home to 70,000 of the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Peace with Syria would isolate Iran: Israeli minister Tue May 27, 5:11 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Any peace deal between Israel and Syria would dramatically change the face of the Middle East, in particular by isolating Iran, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Tuesday. Peace with Syria would break up the current strategic situation because it would isolate Iran and silence (Lebanese Shiite militant group) Hezbollah, said Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.We are talking about a true peace, an end to hostilities, an opening of the borders, and Israel is ready to pay the price for such a peace and coexistence with Syria, he told public radio.Israel and Syria confirmed last week that they have launched indirect peace talks through Turkish mediation, a process that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said began in February 2007.The last round of peace talks broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau which Israel seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised by the international community.Ben Eliezer said he would visit the Golan on Tuesday to discuss with the local population its electricity and development needs.Opinion polls show that two thirds of Israelis are opposed to withdrawing from the Golan, which is now home to some 20,000 Jewish settlers.Ben Eliezer was also questioned about an eventual prisoner swap with Hezbollah.I pray that Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser are still alive, he said, referring to two Israeli soldiers captured in July 2006 by Hezbollah guerrillas in a deadly cross-border raid.
The violence triggered a devastating Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon that lasted for 34 days until a UN-brokered ceasefire in August.For two years, we have doing everything possible to bring them home, and we are ready to pay the price for that, Ben Eliezer said.Military radio has reported that Israel is prepared to free five Lebanese prisoners and return the remains of 10 Hezbollah fighters in exchange for Regev and Goldwasser.Among the prisoners who could be freed is Samir Kantar who was sentenced in 1980 to 542 years in prison for killing an Israeli civilian and his daughter as well as a police officer in an attack that shocked Israel, the radio said.
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US suggests Hezbollah speech shows self-inflicted damage MAY 27,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's claim that his group does not want to control Lebanon may reveal how self-defeating its recent armed offensive in Beirut was, a senior US official said Tuesday. I think their actions belie the statements, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked to comment on Nasrallah's speech to his supporters in Lebanon on Monday.They (Hezbollah) showed a willingness to use arms to kill their fellow citizens. Perhaps these words are a recognition of the real political damage done to Hezbollah, he said.Any pretense of it as a liberation organization, or an organization designed to protect Lebanese from outsiders has really been torn away, McCormack added.The Hezbollah-led opposition, which won admiration in the past for fighting Lebanon's southern neighbor Israel, staged a spectacular armed takeover of large swathes of mainly Sunni west Beirut earlier this month.The assault angered many Lebanese but led to negotiations to end an 18-month political feud between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Western-backed ruling majority that left the nation without a head of state for six months.
As part of a deal brokered in Qatar last week by the Arab League, General Michel Sleiman was elected by parliament Sunday in a first step towards national reconciliation.The following day, in a speech marking the eighth anniversary of Israel's pullout from south Lebanon after a two-decade occupation, Nasrallah pledged that his Shiite Muslim group would not use its weapons for political gains.
Hezbollah does not want power over Lebanon, nor does it want to control Lebanon or govern the country, Nasrallah said.But he also warned that the new government should not try to use the army to tackle the weapons of Hezbollah or any of its political allies.
Analysts give some credence to US State Department arguments that Hezbollah has lost popular support by turning its guns on fellow Lebanese rather than its traditional enemy Israel.But analysts said that, at least in the short term, it was the US-backed government of Fuad Siniora that suffered the political setback, not Hezbollah, which they said achieved political gain through force of arms.
US millionaire admits giving cash to Olmert by Charly Wegman MAY 28,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A US millionaire testifying in a corruption probe that could force Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert out of office said on Tuesday he gave the premier large sums of cash to fund his political ambitions and perhaps his taste for high living. Morris Talansky gave evidence for seven hours in a Jerusalem district court in a criminal investigation into claims that Olmert received tens of thousands of dollars in illegal funds in the years before he became prime minister in 2006.The 75-year-old Jewish American financier said in sworn testimony that could later be used at a trial that he handed envelopes stuffed with cash to Olmert and his assistant over a period of 15 years.I gave some money to Olmert for his (election) campaigns in 1991 and 1992... He told me that he would prefer cash, and I gave him first some money from my private funds, then some money collected in the United States on his behalf, said Talansky, according to Israeli public radio.In 1998 also some money, generally about 3,000 to 8,000 dollars each time, was given, always in cash, because Olmert did not want cheques.
Talansky said in New York that he had raised about 100,000 dollars for Olmert's campaigns, and also loaned him money, which would bring the total figure to around 150,000 dollars.Talansky could not testify how the money was ultimately used but described Olmert as someone with a taste for first-class hotels and luxury items.I only know that he loved expensive cigars. I know he loved pens, watches. I found it strange, Talansky said, according to pool reports from the courtroom.He did say that one 25,000-dollar loan to Olmert was for a vacation in Italy and another time he gave the Israeli leader his credit card for a three-day stay at the Ritz Carlton in Washington. None of the loans has been paid back, he added.The 62-year-old Olmert, who has yet to be charged, has denied any wrongdoing but admitted receiving money from Talansky to help finance election campaigns in 1999 and 2003.Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem and trade minister before becoming premier in 2006 after his predecessor Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke and fell into a coma, has been questioned twice by investigators.He has faced mounting calls for his resignation but has said he will only go if he is indicted.An opinion poll published by the Yediot Aharonot newspaper last week found that only six percent of respondents had full confidence in Olmert and 51 percent had no confidence in him at all.
And Palestinian officials have expressed fears that the affair could affect the Middle East peace process, particularly if Israel calls early elections.Talansky said he got to know Olmert around the time of the 1991 Gulf War and admired the Israeli politician, but insisted he never received anything in return for his financial support.I never expected anything personally, I never had any personal benefits from this relationship whatsover, he said.But Talansky said Olmert did offer to help him once with his mini-bar business, contacting some major hotel owners. He (Olmert) wanted to do me a favour but it never worked out.Questions from state prosecutor Moshe Lador and Jerusalem prosecutor Eli Abarvanel had to be translated from Hebrew into English for the financier, who began crying at one point when prosecutors said it might take another day to complete the deposition. Talansky will be back in court in July so that lawyers for Olmert can cross-examine the financier. We cannot make the slightest conclusion from the first part of the testimony. He will be questioned again in July. We will decide whether to indict or close the case when the inquiry is finished, prosecutor Lador told reporters after the deposition was over. One of Olmert's lawyers, Eli Zohar, said Talansky's testimony was no surprise and reaffirmed that the premier did nothing against the law.
Keep up resistance, Iran tells Hamas Tue May 27, 6:52 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday told the visiting political supremo of Hamas to keep up the resistance against Israel, warning that abandoning the struggle would lead to disgrace. The meeting between Khamanei and Khaled Meshaal came a week after Syria and Israel announced they had resumed indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators, after an eight-year freeze.It is evident today that the Zionist regime is at its lowest ebb and is unable to resist the patient Palestinian people, Khamenei was quoted by state radio as telling the Syria-based Meshaal.Thank God the Palestinian people have stood like a mountain despite the disaster. The only way to the liberation of Palestine is to resist faithfully.The ones who choose a path that is not one of resistance will pay a price and be disgraced in the eyes of God, he added.Iran, which does not recognise Israel, is one of the militant Palestinian group's main cheerleaders in the region. However Tehran denies it provides Hamas with arms or military training.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he remained confident that Syria -- Iran's closest regional ally -- will keep up the struggle against Israel despite its announcement of renewed peace negotiations.Ahmadinejad has provoked outrage with his frequent verbal tirades against the Jewish state, which he has likened to a stinking corpse and predicted is doomed to disappear.
Israeli demolition threatens 3,000 Palestinian homes: UN Tue May 27, 5:21 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank risk being displaced as the Israeli authorities threaten to tear down their homes and in some cases entire communities, a UN agency said on Wednesday. To date, more than 3,000 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank have pending demolition orders, which can be immediately executed without prior warning, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.
At least 10 small communities throughout the West Bank are at risk of being almost entirely displaced due to the large number of pending demolitions orders, OCHA said.Most of the orders were issued because there were no construction permits, which Israeli authorities only seldom grant to Palestinians.The buildings are located in so-called Area C, which makes up more than 60 percent of the West Bank and which is under full Israeli control.In the first quarter of 2008, Israeli authorities demolished 124 structures as compared with 107 for the whole of 2007, leading to the displacement of 435 Palestinians, 135 of them children, OCHA said.
Children are frequently disproportionately affected by the demolition of their homes and the subsequent displacement of their families, the study said.Over 94 percent of applications for building permits in Area C submitted by Palestinians between January 2000 and September 2007 were denied, according to official data.During this period 5,000 demolition orders were issued, and over 1,600 Palestinian buildings were actually demolished.The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a silent transfer of the Palestinian population from Area C, the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a recent report.In the 2000 to 2007 period, 2,900 demolition orders were issued against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but just seven percent were implemented, according to Peace Now.Some 283,000 settlers live in Area C, which is also home to 70,000 of the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Peace with Syria would isolate Iran: Israeli minister Tue May 27, 5:11 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Any peace deal between Israel and Syria would dramatically change the face of the Middle East, in particular by isolating Iran, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Tuesday. Peace with Syria would break up the current strategic situation because it would isolate Iran and silence (Lebanese Shiite militant group) Hezbollah, said Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.We are talking about a true peace, an end to hostilities, an opening of the borders, and Israel is ready to pay the price for such a peace and coexistence with Syria, he told public radio.Israel and Syria confirmed last week that they have launched indirect peace talks through Turkish mediation, a process that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said began in February 2007.The last round of peace talks broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau which Israel seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised by the international community.Ben Eliezer said he would visit the Golan on Tuesday to discuss with the local population its electricity and development needs.Opinion polls show that two thirds of Israelis are opposed to withdrawing from the Golan, which is now home to some 20,000 Jewish settlers.Ben Eliezer was also questioned about an eventual prisoner swap with Hezbollah.I pray that Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser are still alive, he said, referring to two Israeli soldiers captured in July 2006 by Hezbollah guerrillas in a deadly cross-border raid.
The violence triggered a devastating Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon that lasted for 34 days until a UN-brokered ceasefire in August.For two years, we have doing everything possible to bring them home, and we are ready to pay the price for that, Ben Eliezer said.Military radio has reported that Israel is prepared to free five Lebanese prisoners and return the remains of 10 Hezbollah fighters in exchange for Regev and Goldwasser.Among the prisoners who could be freed is Samir Kantar who was sentenced in 1980 to 542 years in prison for killing an Israeli civilian and his daughter as well as a police officer in an attack that shocked Israel, the radio said.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
ARABS WANT EU TO BE LEAD IN PP
Syria rejects linking Israel peace with cutting off Iran MAY 24,08
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria will not accept preconditions over its resumed peace talks with Israel and will not compromise its relations with other states, the government daily Tishrin said on Saturday, referring to Iran. Damascus rejects all preconditions concerning its relations with other countries and peoples, it said after an Israeli call for Damascus to distance itself from Tehran, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.Damascus will make no compromise on these relations, an editorial said.
Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday they had launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as go-between, after an eight-year freeze.Israel's Housing Minister Zeev Boim said peace can be reached with the Syrians only if they end all terror activities, including supporting and arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and giving up their strategic dependence on Iran.Israel regards Iran as its greatest strategic threat.A three-decade alliance between Damascus and Tehran was bolstered in 2006, when they signed an agreement on military cooperation.A first round of peace feelers between Syria and Israel last year ran up against Damascus's objection to any explicit linkage between a peace deal and its support for Iran and Arab militant groups.Last June, Syria's ruling coalition, the National Progressive Front, accused Israel of trying to impose conditions which have nothing to do with the principles of peace.
Israel also wants Syria to stop supporting Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups. Damascus has repeatedly denied having links to such organisations.Tishrin said on Saturday that adding non-negotiable conditions to the indirect talks would hamstring efforts to achieve peace.Syria is not concerned with Israeli (policy) but with peace and achieving it by the shortest route, the editorial said.Damascus says it has received Israeli commitments for a full withdrawal from the occupied-Golan Heights, the main sticking point in previous talks.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has carefully avoided mentioning the Golan but has drawn fire after hinting that Israel would have to pay a painful price for a peace accord.The strategic Golan plateau was seized by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised internationally.On Wednesday Boim, of Olmert's centrist Kadima party, said he opposes in principle any withdrawal from the Golan Heights.Nevertheless we should hear exactly how and on what issues the negotiations are held, he added.Syria insists that any negotiations with Israel must be based exclusively on the principle of the exchange of land for peace. The Golan, which rises from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is now home to some 20,000 Israeli settlers and key military installations. In the past Damascus has insisted that the entire Golan Heights be returned, and also that it have access to the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main source of fresh water.
Sign of change? Israeli, Palestinian officers meet By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat May 24, 12:48 AM ET
SALEM CHECKPOINT, Israel - The military men don't look like diplomats and the sun-baked checkpoint dividing the West Bank from Israel couldn't have been farther from the Jerusalem hotels and ministerial residences where Israeli-Palestinian peace talks unfold. But the fate of those negotiations depend in large measure on the success of meetings like this one around a faux-wood desk in Lt. Col. Fareis Atilaa's utilitarian office. The Associated Press was given rare access to the meeting this week, providing a glimpse of the minutiae and personal dynamics of the new contacts.Atilaa, a 36-year-old Israeli army officer, heads the military unit that coordinates links between Israel and the Palestinian government and security forces in the West Bank town of Jenin.A Druse Arab fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, he does his job not with a rifle — his M-16 lay unceremoniously on the floor — but with the two cell phones clipped to his belt and the two land lines next to his computer.
The meeting was conducted in Arabic. The Palestinians were represented by the Jenin commander, Suleiman Amran, who wore a checkered shirt and slacks. He was accompanied by a liaison officer in a smart forest-green uniform.Sitting opposite them were Atilaa and a high-ranking Israeli officer who cannot be identified because of army regulations. The Palestinians had mustaches, the Israelis were clean-shaven.These twice-monthly meetings are key to the current U.S.-backed attempt to bolster the authority of President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate government in the West Bank, which remains under the control of the Israeli military.But despite the contacts, Palestinians contend that Israeli actions on the ground — including military incursions and targeted assassinations — are severely undermining their efforts to establish authority in the West Bank.
What's more, little has changed since peace talks resumed at a U.S.-hosted conference in November to inspire confidence that peace efforts can bear fruit.Sometimes the tensions are indeed about fruit — literally.A truckload of watermelons can sit at an Israeli checkpoint for most of a day, a big blow to a farmer who may find himself or his sons drawn into the arms of the militants. But such trucks have been used in violence, including one case in 2001 when a militant tried to blow up a bus with explosives hidden inside watermelons.Palestinians are discouraged because Israel has failed to lift these roadblocks, which hobble movement and trade, or to stop building on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. A confiscated tract of land may have been that farmer's watermelon patch, and his sons may be among the thousands of Palestinians who remain in Israeli prisons.Israel has not forgotten the waves of suicide bombings that came out of Palestinian-controlled towns like Jenin not so long ago. Although the Palestinians have moved against common criminals, Israel believes the Palestinians are not yet able — and possibly not entirely willing — to dismantle the hard-core militant groups that have spoiled peacemaking in the past.
This week's meeting at the Salem checkpoint took place during an important test for the Abbas government: Hundreds of armed security men were brought into Jenin to try to restore law and order to an area long known as a militant hotbed. A similar operation in the unruly city of Nablus restored a measure of security earlier this year.The last security contacts like these, in the heyday of peacemaking in the 1990s, were successful for a time, progressing with much backslapping and friendly talks over plates of hummus. But they ended in 2000 with the outbreak of violence and the subsequent disintegration of the Palestinian government and its security forces.In one of the first incidents of violence that year, an Israeli soldier was shot to death by his Palestinian counterpart on a joint security patrol.But now Israel and Palestinian moderates find themselves facing a common enemy: Hamas, the Islamic group that seized Gaza last June, and its extremist allies. The new security cooperation, like the peace talks themselves, are driven by that shared threat.The atmosphere at this week's meeting was pleasant, at times jovial. The officers had a good laugh about masked men spotted in the Jenin refugee camp earlier this month — the Palestinians jokingly said they were Israeli undercover troops and the Israelis countered they were local militants. (The Israelis later privately insisted their men had not been in the area.) But there was no question who was in charge: the Israeli officer, who asked the questions and spoke last. The Israeli military says it is trying to keep out of the way. We told them, we're not only going to stay away from where you're operating — we're not going to be anywhere in the area, Atilaa told the AP before the meeting. Success depends on Palestinian determination: If they will it, it is no dream, he said — quoting Theodor Herzl, the Jewish visionary who dreamed up the modern State of Israel. Amran agreed his troops face no obstacles from the Israelis, who try as much as possible to facilitate our movement. But overall control, he made clear, remains in Israel's hands. In the village of Qabatiyeh, Amran told his Israeli counterparts, there were now 15 officers with four vehicles. Earlier this month, three people were wounded in a clash between his men and local gunmen apparently concerned about interference in the town's lucrative trade in stolen Israeli cars.
Amran said the village was now under control. The Israelis haven't entered Qabatiyeh since the Palestinians went in, Atilaa said.
With a certain measure of pride, Amran informed the Israelis that his men had now begun entering Jenin's notorious refugee camp without backup — demonstrating to what extent the Palestinian authorities lost control in recent years. Two Islamic Jihad men had just turned themselves in, he said. And that day, 14 stolen Israeli cars were sent back into Israel through the checkpoint. The Israelis asked Amran to make sure his men always wear uniforms and travel in marked cars to avoid being mistaken for militants. If they enter villages at night, the Israelis want to know, to avoid friendly fire incidents, the Israeli officer said. Then came the meeting's only open note of discord. The Israelis asked if more Palestinian forces were due to arrive, and Amran said there was another battalion training in Jordan — but it would only be deployed in Jenin if his men were given more authority. It was clear the Israelis don't trust them enough to cede responsibility, a fact that was not hidden by the good-natured banter in Atilaa's office. A name that came up at the meeting gave a telling indication of the situation on the ground. The Israelis mentioned a wanted gunman from Islamic Jihad, Amar Abu Ghaliun, a well-known figure in the Jenin refugee camp. Amran's men had been in the camp and tried to arrest him twice, but he got away. On Sunday, an Israeli unit went into the camp and caught him. Amran was unhappy about that. We in the Palestinian Authority are against these incursions and arrests, he said after the meeting. But in Atilaa's office, the officers didn't let that spoil the atmosphere. They parted with handshakes, and the Palestinians walked past the armed Israeli sentries and passed through the checkpoint back into the West Bank. Associated Press Writer Mohammed Ballas reported from Jenin.
Palestinian PM: $1.4 billion in investments raised By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer Fri May 23, 1:44 PM ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - A business conference helped raise $1.4 billion in investments for projects aimed at bolstering Palestinians' battered economy, the Palestinian prime minister said Friday. The investments could create as many as 35,000 jobs, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said at the end of the three-day conference, which drew more than 500 foreign investors, many from the Arab world, along with hundreds more from the Palestinian territories.
More than $500 million of the investments are in real estate and $65million are in high-tech, Fayyad said.But the conference was not without its critics. Most of the money will go into construction, creating temporary jobs rather than steady employment. And the largest investment — $650 million by a new mobile phone provider — has been in the works for 18 months, and Israel still hasn't given final approval for the necessary frequencies. The company said Thursday it has been assured approval is imminent.Critics also said investment is risky in the turbulent Palestinian territories — especially at a time when the fate of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is uncertain — and because of restricted access for some foreigners to the Palestinian areas.Still, Fayyad, a respected economist, declared the conference a success, saying it was the start of moving the wheel of the economy.The Palestinian economy has been severely hampered by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade, imposed after the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 2000. Delays at Israeli checkpoints can make it hard for Palestinian exports to deliver their goods on time.
Israel says it can't ease restrictions faster because Palestinian militants still pose a threat. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who attended the conference, disagreed.Israel should and Israel can exert more efforts in this regard without endangering its security, Kouchner said.Kouchner also criticized Israel for ongoing construction in Israeli settlements, which he said obstructs development of the Palestinian economy.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said construction continues only in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, which Israel does not consider settlements, and inside large West Bank settlement blocs that Israel intends to retain in any final peace accord.The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as a future capital but Israel annexed the sector of the city to its capital after capturing it in 1967.The Palestinians also want sovereignty over the entire West Bank, though negotiators have discussed swapping the land where major settlement blocs stand in exchange for an equal amount of Israeli territory.
Israel minister to French counterpart: Shun Hamas By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu May 22, 4:24 PM ET
JERUSALEM - The Israeli foreign minister told her visiting French counterpart Thursday that world governments must shun Hamas, days after he disclosed that France was in touch with the Islamic militant rulers of Gaza, an Israeli ministry statement said. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in her comments referred to a suicide bombing early Thursday at a Gaza crossing that killed the Palestinian driver of a truckload of explosives. Smaller groups claimed responsibility, but she blamed Hamas.The bombing should demonstrate to the international community that, while it demands that Israel take care of the situation in Gaza and open the crossing points, Hamas, which controls Gaza, is not interested in improving the lives of the population and doesn't take even minimal responsibility, a Foreign Ministry statement quoted Livni as saying.
The international community must continue to delegitimize Hamas, she said.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's response was not reported. The French Embassy did not issue a statement.Kouchner had said in a radio interview Monday that France had been in touch with Hamas over several months, but the contacts did not amount to relations or negotiations. He did not detail the substance of the contacts with Hamas, which rejects Israel's existence.Israel, the United States and the international community have listed Hamas as a terrorist organization, and Washington delivered a swift rebuke after Kouchner's revelation, with the State Department saying the contacts were not wise or appropriate.Israel's Foreign Ministry said Monday it would be seeking clarification from Kouchner during his visit, but a ministry official could not say if the issue had been satisfactorily resolved at Thursday's meeting.The Quartet of Middle East mediators — the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union — has demanded Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept previous peace accords as a condition for any talks. The militant group has refused.An Israeli government official said the issue of French contacts with Hamas was mentioned at Kouchner's meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but he declined to give details. In brief comments to journalists as he entered the meeting with Livni in a Tel Aviv hotel, Kouchner did not refer to Hamas.We have to talk about the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis, he said in English. We have to say some words and have to listen to her about the beginning of talks with Syria, and we have to talk about Iran.
Abbas wants Europe to play vital role in Mideast peace process Thu May 22, 3:27 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday urged Europe to play an important political role in the Middle East peace process. We discussed the peace process, and we say frankly that we want Europe to have a role -- we insist on it, Abbas told a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.It's true that Europe offers economic support, but we also want it to play an important political role. It is geographically the closest to the Middle East and best understands the region, he said.The Middle East process was relaunched last November at a US-sponsored meeting in Annapolis with the aim of reaching an agreement by the time President George W. Bush leaves office next January.A breakthrough has yet to be achieved, and in private Palestinian officials accuse Washington of not exerting enough pressure on Israel to take the process forward.Kouchner earlier expressed doubts that Israel and the Palestinians will reach a peace accord this year.If one looks at the situation, we have reasons to be sceptical, he told the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam in an interview published on Thursday.
Kouchner told the news conference that the European Union must not just play the role of cashier to dispense money in aid to the Palestinians.We must stand by the side of our Palestinian and Israeli friends to participate in progress in the peace process... to be positive and to help, not to be anti-American, he said.
Kouchner, who met earlier in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, again called for Jewish settlement in occupied Arab land to cease.France's position is clear, he said. We are completely against the creation of new settlements and have always insisted to our Israeli friends that this must stop. We restated this position yesterday and today in Israel.He played down recent contacts between France and the Islamist Hamas movement which ousted Fatah forces loyal to Abbas from the impoverished Gaza Strip more than 11 months ago.There was only one meeting, you know about that and it is over, he said.It was a simple contact aimed at gleaning information on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It was not a political negotiation, Kouchner said of talks a senior retired diplomat had with Hamas leaders.The United States and the European Union refuse to talk to Hamas, which they consider to be a terrorist organisation.
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria will not accept preconditions over its resumed peace talks with Israel and will not compromise its relations with other states, the government daily Tishrin said on Saturday, referring to Iran. Damascus rejects all preconditions concerning its relations with other countries and peoples, it said after an Israeli call for Damascus to distance itself from Tehran, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.Damascus will make no compromise on these relations, an editorial said.
Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday they had launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as go-between, after an eight-year freeze.Israel's Housing Minister Zeev Boim said peace can be reached with the Syrians only if they end all terror activities, including supporting and arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and giving up their strategic dependence on Iran.Israel regards Iran as its greatest strategic threat.A three-decade alliance between Damascus and Tehran was bolstered in 2006, when they signed an agreement on military cooperation.A first round of peace feelers between Syria and Israel last year ran up against Damascus's objection to any explicit linkage between a peace deal and its support for Iran and Arab militant groups.Last June, Syria's ruling coalition, the National Progressive Front, accused Israel of trying to impose conditions which have nothing to do with the principles of peace.
Israel also wants Syria to stop supporting Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups. Damascus has repeatedly denied having links to such organisations.Tishrin said on Saturday that adding non-negotiable conditions to the indirect talks would hamstring efforts to achieve peace.Syria is not concerned with Israeli (policy) but with peace and achieving it by the shortest route, the editorial said.Damascus says it has received Israeli commitments for a full withdrawal from the occupied-Golan Heights, the main sticking point in previous talks.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has carefully avoided mentioning the Golan but has drawn fire after hinting that Israel would have to pay a painful price for a peace accord.The strategic Golan plateau was seized by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised internationally.On Wednesday Boim, of Olmert's centrist Kadima party, said he opposes in principle any withdrawal from the Golan Heights.Nevertheless we should hear exactly how and on what issues the negotiations are held, he added.Syria insists that any negotiations with Israel must be based exclusively on the principle of the exchange of land for peace. The Golan, which rises from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is now home to some 20,000 Israeli settlers and key military installations. In the past Damascus has insisted that the entire Golan Heights be returned, and also that it have access to the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main source of fresh water.
Sign of change? Israeli, Palestinian officers meet By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat May 24, 12:48 AM ET
SALEM CHECKPOINT, Israel - The military men don't look like diplomats and the sun-baked checkpoint dividing the West Bank from Israel couldn't have been farther from the Jerusalem hotels and ministerial residences where Israeli-Palestinian peace talks unfold. But the fate of those negotiations depend in large measure on the success of meetings like this one around a faux-wood desk in Lt. Col. Fareis Atilaa's utilitarian office. The Associated Press was given rare access to the meeting this week, providing a glimpse of the minutiae and personal dynamics of the new contacts.Atilaa, a 36-year-old Israeli army officer, heads the military unit that coordinates links between Israel and the Palestinian government and security forces in the West Bank town of Jenin.A Druse Arab fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, he does his job not with a rifle — his M-16 lay unceremoniously on the floor — but with the two cell phones clipped to his belt and the two land lines next to his computer.
The meeting was conducted in Arabic. The Palestinians were represented by the Jenin commander, Suleiman Amran, who wore a checkered shirt and slacks. He was accompanied by a liaison officer in a smart forest-green uniform.Sitting opposite them were Atilaa and a high-ranking Israeli officer who cannot be identified because of army regulations. The Palestinians had mustaches, the Israelis were clean-shaven.These twice-monthly meetings are key to the current U.S.-backed attempt to bolster the authority of President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate government in the West Bank, which remains under the control of the Israeli military.But despite the contacts, Palestinians contend that Israeli actions on the ground — including military incursions and targeted assassinations — are severely undermining their efforts to establish authority in the West Bank.
What's more, little has changed since peace talks resumed at a U.S.-hosted conference in November to inspire confidence that peace efforts can bear fruit.Sometimes the tensions are indeed about fruit — literally.A truckload of watermelons can sit at an Israeli checkpoint for most of a day, a big blow to a farmer who may find himself or his sons drawn into the arms of the militants. But such trucks have been used in violence, including one case in 2001 when a militant tried to blow up a bus with explosives hidden inside watermelons.Palestinians are discouraged because Israel has failed to lift these roadblocks, which hobble movement and trade, or to stop building on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. A confiscated tract of land may have been that farmer's watermelon patch, and his sons may be among the thousands of Palestinians who remain in Israeli prisons.Israel has not forgotten the waves of suicide bombings that came out of Palestinian-controlled towns like Jenin not so long ago. Although the Palestinians have moved against common criminals, Israel believes the Palestinians are not yet able — and possibly not entirely willing — to dismantle the hard-core militant groups that have spoiled peacemaking in the past.
This week's meeting at the Salem checkpoint took place during an important test for the Abbas government: Hundreds of armed security men were brought into Jenin to try to restore law and order to an area long known as a militant hotbed. A similar operation in the unruly city of Nablus restored a measure of security earlier this year.The last security contacts like these, in the heyday of peacemaking in the 1990s, were successful for a time, progressing with much backslapping and friendly talks over plates of hummus. But they ended in 2000 with the outbreak of violence and the subsequent disintegration of the Palestinian government and its security forces.In one of the first incidents of violence that year, an Israeli soldier was shot to death by his Palestinian counterpart on a joint security patrol.But now Israel and Palestinian moderates find themselves facing a common enemy: Hamas, the Islamic group that seized Gaza last June, and its extremist allies. The new security cooperation, like the peace talks themselves, are driven by that shared threat.The atmosphere at this week's meeting was pleasant, at times jovial. The officers had a good laugh about masked men spotted in the Jenin refugee camp earlier this month — the Palestinians jokingly said they were Israeli undercover troops and the Israelis countered they were local militants. (The Israelis later privately insisted their men had not been in the area.) But there was no question who was in charge: the Israeli officer, who asked the questions and spoke last. The Israeli military says it is trying to keep out of the way. We told them, we're not only going to stay away from where you're operating — we're not going to be anywhere in the area, Atilaa told the AP before the meeting. Success depends on Palestinian determination: If they will it, it is no dream, he said — quoting Theodor Herzl, the Jewish visionary who dreamed up the modern State of Israel. Amran agreed his troops face no obstacles from the Israelis, who try as much as possible to facilitate our movement. But overall control, he made clear, remains in Israel's hands. In the village of Qabatiyeh, Amran told his Israeli counterparts, there were now 15 officers with four vehicles. Earlier this month, three people were wounded in a clash between his men and local gunmen apparently concerned about interference in the town's lucrative trade in stolen Israeli cars.
Amran said the village was now under control. The Israelis haven't entered Qabatiyeh since the Palestinians went in, Atilaa said.
With a certain measure of pride, Amran informed the Israelis that his men had now begun entering Jenin's notorious refugee camp without backup — demonstrating to what extent the Palestinian authorities lost control in recent years. Two Islamic Jihad men had just turned themselves in, he said. And that day, 14 stolen Israeli cars were sent back into Israel through the checkpoint. The Israelis asked Amran to make sure his men always wear uniforms and travel in marked cars to avoid being mistaken for militants. If they enter villages at night, the Israelis want to know, to avoid friendly fire incidents, the Israeli officer said. Then came the meeting's only open note of discord. The Israelis asked if more Palestinian forces were due to arrive, and Amran said there was another battalion training in Jordan — but it would only be deployed in Jenin if his men were given more authority. It was clear the Israelis don't trust them enough to cede responsibility, a fact that was not hidden by the good-natured banter in Atilaa's office. A name that came up at the meeting gave a telling indication of the situation on the ground. The Israelis mentioned a wanted gunman from Islamic Jihad, Amar Abu Ghaliun, a well-known figure in the Jenin refugee camp. Amran's men had been in the camp and tried to arrest him twice, but he got away. On Sunday, an Israeli unit went into the camp and caught him. Amran was unhappy about that. We in the Palestinian Authority are against these incursions and arrests, he said after the meeting. But in Atilaa's office, the officers didn't let that spoil the atmosphere. They parted with handshakes, and the Palestinians walked past the armed Israeli sentries and passed through the checkpoint back into the West Bank. Associated Press Writer Mohammed Ballas reported from Jenin.
Palestinian PM: $1.4 billion in investments raised By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer Fri May 23, 1:44 PM ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - A business conference helped raise $1.4 billion in investments for projects aimed at bolstering Palestinians' battered economy, the Palestinian prime minister said Friday. The investments could create as many as 35,000 jobs, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said at the end of the three-day conference, which drew more than 500 foreign investors, many from the Arab world, along with hundreds more from the Palestinian territories.
More than $500 million of the investments are in real estate and $65million are in high-tech, Fayyad said.But the conference was not without its critics. Most of the money will go into construction, creating temporary jobs rather than steady employment. And the largest investment — $650 million by a new mobile phone provider — has been in the works for 18 months, and Israel still hasn't given final approval for the necessary frequencies. The company said Thursday it has been assured approval is imminent.Critics also said investment is risky in the turbulent Palestinian territories — especially at a time when the fate of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is uncertain — and because of restricted access for some foreigners to the Palestinian areas.Still, Fayyad, a respected economist, declared the conference a success, saying it was the start of moving the wheel of the economy.The Palestinian economy has been severely hampered by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade, imposed after the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 2000. Delays at Israeli checkpoints can make it hard for Palestinian exports to deliver their goods on time.
Israel says it can't ease restrictions faster because Palestinian militants still pose a threat. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who attended the conference, disagreed.Israel should and Israel can exert more efforts in this regard without endangering its security, Kouchner said.Kouchner also criticized Israel for ongoing construction in Israeli settlements, which he said obstructs development of the Palestinian economy.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said construction continues only in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, which Israel does not consider settlements, and inside large West Bank settlement blocs that Israel intends to retain in any final peace accord.The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as a future capital but Israel annexed the sector of the city to its capital after capturing it in 1967.The Palestinians also want sovereignty over the entire West Bank, though negotiators have discussed swapping the land where major settlement blocs stand in exchange for an equal amount of Israeli territory.
Israel minister to French counterpart: Shun Hamas By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu May 22, 4:24 PM ET
JERUSALEM - The Israeli foreign minister told her visiting French counterpart Thursday that world governments must shun Hamas, days after he disclosed that France was in touch with the Islamic militant rulers of Gaza, an Israeli ministry statement said. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in her comments referred to a suicide bombing early Thursday at a Gaza crossing that killed the Palestinian driver of a truckload of explosives. Smaller groups claimed responsibility, but she blamed Hamas.The bombing should demonstrate to the international community that, while it demands that Israel take care of the situation in Gaza and open the crossing points, Hamas, which controls Gaza, is not interested in improving the lives of the population and doesn't take even minimal responsibility, a Foreign Ministry statement quoted Livni as saying.
The international community must continue to delegitimize Hamas, she said.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's response was not reported. The French Embassy did not issue a statement.Kouchner had said in a radio interview Monday that France had been in touch with Hamas over several months, but the contacts did not amount to relations or negotiations. He did not detail the substance of the contacts with Hamas, which rejects Israel's existence.Israel, the United States and the international community have listed Hamas as a terrorist organization, and Washington delivered a swift rebuke after Kouchner's revelation, with the State Department saying the contacts were not wise or appropriate.Israel's Foreign Ministry said Monday it would be seeking clarification from Kouchner during his visit, but a ministry official could not say if the issue had been satisfactorily resolved at Thursday's meeting.The Quartet of Middle East mediators — the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union — has demanded Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept previous peace accords as a condition for any talks. The militant group has refused.An Israeli government official said the issue of French contacts with Hamas was mentioned at Kouchner's meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but he declined to give details. In brief comments to journalists as he entered the meeting with Livni in a Tel Aviv hotel, Kouchner did not refer to Hamas.We have to talk about the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis, he said in English. We have to say some words and have to listen to her about the beginning of talks with Syria, and we have to talk about Iran.
Abbas wants Europe to play vital role in Mideast peace process Thu May 22, 3:27 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday urged Europe to play an important political role in the Middle East peace process. We discussed the peace process, and we say frankly that we want Europe to have a role -- we insist on it, Abbas told a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.It's true that Europe offers economic support, but we also want it to play an important political role. It is geographically the closest to the Middle East and best understands the region, he said.The Middle East process was relaunched last November at a US-sponsored meeting in Annapolis with the aim of reaching an agreement by the time President George W. Bush leaves office next January.A breakthrough has yet to be achieved, and in private Palestinian officials accuse Washington of not exerting enough pressure on Israel to take the process forward.Kouchner earlier expressed doubts that Israel and the Palestinians will reach a peace accord this year.If one looks at the situation, we have reasons to be sceptical, he told the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam in an interview published on Thursday.
Kouchner told the news conference that the European Union must not just play the role of cashier to dispense money in aid to the Palestinians.We must stand by the side of our Palestinian and Israeli friends to participate in progress in the peace process... to be positive and to help, not to be anti-American, he said.
Kouchner, who met earlier in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, again called for Jewish settlement in occupied Arab land to cease.France's position is clear, he said. We are completely against the creation of new settlements and have always insisted to our Israeli friends that this must stop. We restated this position yesterday and today in Israel.He played down recent contacts between France and the Islamist Hamas movement which ousted Fatah forces loyal to Abbas from the impoverished Gaza Strip more than 11 months ago.There was only one meeting, you know about that and it is over, he said.It was a simple contact aimed at gleaning information on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It was not a political negotiation, Kouchner said of talks a senior retired diplomat had with Hamas leaders.The United States and the European Union refuse to talk to Hamas, which they consider to be a terrorist organisation.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
SYRIA IN TALKS WITH ISRAEL
CALIFORNIA QUAKE RESULTS
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=7930546&src=news
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
EU DICTATOR (WORLD LEADER)
REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
REVELATION 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)
REVELATION 13:1-10
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4 And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the beast:(JEWISH EU DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD (JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Investing in Palestinian territories supports peace: Fayyad by Ezzedine Said MAY 22,08
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Thursday told hundreds of foreign investors at a conference that investing in the Palestinian territories would be an investment in peace. By investing in Palestine, you are investing in the promotion of peace and stability... in this part of the world, Fayyad said in a speech on the second day of a conference in Bethlehem seeking to attract private investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Some 1,200 business people are participating in the event which runs through Friday.Fayyad insisted that investors could find opportunities despite restrictions imposed by Israel in the occupied West Bank.The Palestinian economy, despite the difficulties we face, has great potential to grow and develop in the future, said Fayyad, himself an economist.The Palestinian economy will revive with the creation of a free, competitive and diversified market.He cited, as some of the positive economic aspects in the Palestinian territories, the modern banking system, low taxes on revenue and a low inflation rate.The West Bank's economy however is hampered by more than 500 Israeli roadblocks which restrict movement throughout the occupied territory. Israel claims they are needed for security.
Fayyad admitted that more efforts must be made to overcome the (Israeli) restrictions on the movement of people and merchandise and access to resources.He noted that Israel has cooperated in allowing the hundreds of conference participants to reach Bethlehem.
Conference director Hassan Abu Libdeh said on Wednesday that 109 projects costing about two billion dollars would be presented by Palestinian business leaders to the investors.Among the projects is a 2,000-unit affordable housing development that the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF) wants to build in the outskirst of Ramallah.
We are looking for a partner and a lot of (foreign) investors have expressed interest, said PIF president Mohammad Mustapha, who estimated the cost of the project at 300 million dollars.On Wednesday the PIF reached a deal with The Land Holding company based in Saudi Arabia to build a commercial and residential centre in Ramallah for 200 million dollars.Since 2000, the Palestinian economy has turned from one driven by investment and private sector productivity to one sustained by government spending and donor aid, according to the World Bank, which predicts economic growth will be stagnant this year.The United States has offered strong backing for the conference seeking to boost the private sector and create jobs. Major US companies Intel and Cisco are among the sponsors.I encourage American companies to explore for themselves the opportunities for investment in the West Bank, said Robert Kimmitt, deputy treasury secretary who is heading the US delegation, on Thursday.Europeans are also lending support and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is set to address the closing session of the conference on Friday. In an interview with Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam published on Thursday, Kouchner echoed Fayyad's sentiments that economy and peace go hand in hand. He said European businesses should invest in the Palestinian territories because there exist real opportunities for them and it is in the interest of peace... creating jobs and improving the daily lives of Palestinians.Kouchner added however that to achieve economic growth of six to eight percent annually, Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories and stop building Jewish settlements.
Washington has been pushing for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace accord creating an independent Palestinian state before President George W Bush leaves office in January. France, like the United States and the whole of the international community, officially asks Israel to stop all settlement activity to show its true commitment to the creation of viable Palestinian state and peace in the Middle East, Kouchner told the newspaper, adding that he was sceptical about reaching an agreement this year.
Israel confirms Golan Heights talks with Syria By Josh Mitnick Thu May 22, 4:00 AM ET
Tel Aviv - After an eight-year hiatus, Israel and Syria have resumed negotiations about an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights in return for a normalization of ties with Syria. After weeks of official quiet amid Syrian claims that Turkey was serving as a go between for the sides, a surprise statement from the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed a decision to conduct indirect peace talks in a serious and continuous way, in order to achieve the goal of comprehensive peace.In response to the Israeli statement, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem said that Israel had already agreed to a full return of the entirety of the territory it captured during the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, the daily Haaretz reported. That includes not only the Golan's strategic plateau, but also the descending slopes that reach to the eastern shore of Israel's natural water reservoir, the Sea of Galilee.It's pretty dramatic, said Eyal Zisser, an expert on Syria from Tel Aviv University, speaking on Israel Radio.The Syrians have demanded from the beginning of the negotiations in 1991, a full Israeli withdrawal to the shores of the Sea of Galilee as a precondition for peace talks. I have no reason to think that [Syrian President] Bashar Assad is lying in public. If the prime minister of Israel said to him that he's ready to withdraw to the Sea of Galilee, a very serious obstacle has been removed.For Israel, the new track of peace talks marks a departure with its US ally, which for years has preferred to isolate Syria as punishment for giving shelter for the Iraqi insurgency.
Israeli proponents of peace talks with Syria have argued that normalization of ties with Damascus would count as an important reversal of Iran's growing power within the Middle East. Syria serves as an important link to two Iranian allies that have threatened Israel: as a conduit of weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and as host to the offices of Hamas's political politburo in exile.
For Syria, Israel's most powerful neighbor after Egypt, the peace talks serve to reassert itself as the linchpin of regional peace after years of focus on the Palestinian negotiating track. Engaging Israel in peace talks also helps Syria to avoid become wholly reliant on its alliance with Iran.Because the Golan Heights has a commanding overlook of much of northern Israel, many Israelis argue that they can never risk returning it to Syria.A peace deal with the Syrians is considered a substantially simpler treaty to negotiate compared with one with the Palestinians, as giving back the Golan Heights involves security arrangements, water rights, and resettlement for only a few thousand Israeli settlers.Critics of Israel's government said the timing of the announcement is intended to deflect public discussion of a police investigation into cash sums accepted by Prime Minister Olmert from American Jewish donors.
The announcement sharpened a debate over whether a prime minister under the threat of indictment has the moral authority to make decisions on war and peace.Since the 1991 Madrid Peace conference initiated the first Israeli-Syrian peace talks, talks have occurred intermittently.The last formal negotiations broke off in Shephardstown, Md., when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak rejected Syrian demands that the withdrawal reach the cease-fire lines of June 4, 1967, which come up to the Sea of Galilee.
Israelis express skepticism on Syria peace talks By BETH MARLOWE, Associated Press Writer MAY 22,08
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's dramatic announcement that he is negotiating a peace deal with Syria was greeted Thursday with overwhelming skepticism in Israel. Many Israelis appear to believe the embattled leader made the declaration to divert attention from the corruption allegations that threaten to end his term in office, and opinion polls showed Israelis remained wary of withdrawing from the strategic Golan Heights — even in return for peace with one of Israel's most bitter enemies.The announcement that peace talks had resumed eight years after they broke down came on the same day a court-issued gag order on the new Olmert case was lifted, allowing the publication of new details of the charges that Olmert took money in cash from a Jewish-American businessman. It also came two days before Olmert was set to be questioned again by police.
Competing Israeli newspapers Yediot Ahronot and Maariv shared the same headline on Thursday: Interrogation and Peace.In a published interview Thursday, Olmert tried to focus attention on the historic talks. The peace negotiations with Syria are more important than all the rumor and investigations, he told the Yediot Ahronot daily.
Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday that talks, which are indirect and mediated by Turkey, are moving ahead, with another round of discussions in the near future.Olmert assured French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that while negotiating with Syria, Israel intends to continue working toward peace with the Palestinians, with neither coming at the expense of the other, said a statement from the prime minister's office.The statement said Olmert made it clear that the State of Israel aspires to reach peace with the Palestinians in the coming year.In a poll published in Yediot Thursday, only 36 percent said the negotiations with Syria are meant to promote peace, while 49 percent of Israelis said they believe Olmert is trying to draw attention away from the new police investigation.The poll, carried out by the Dahaf Institute, questioned 500 respondents and a margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.Olmert is suspected of illicitly receiving up to $500,000 from American businessman Morris Talansky. Olmert denies wrongdoing and says the money was to fund political campaigns. But police are not ruling out bribery.
Olmert's popularity, low since he was widely seen to have bungled Israel's war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon two years ago, has taken a further drubbing in the past weeks because of the case. His current legal troubles mark the fifth police investigation into his affairs since he took power in 2006. He has never been convicted.A withdrawal from the Golan Heights — Syria's key demand for peace — will be hard to sell in Israel, and it is highly unlikely a leader as unpopular as Olmert will be able to pull it off.The strategic plateau was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and is considered a valuable buffer against attack. Today the Golan Heights are home to 18,000 Israelis who run thriving wine and tourism industries. Olmert himself vacationed there last month.
According to the poll, only 19 percent of Israelis are willing to cede the entire Golan Heights, down from 32 percent a month ago.
Israelis want peace and security, but they have seen that haphazard efforts in the past have yielded dangerous results, said Dore Gold, the head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N.Gold mentioned Israel's withdrawals from southern Lebanon in 2000 and from the Gaza Strip in 2005, saying both had eventually resulted in more violence.The burden of proof will be on the Israeli government to convince the Israeli public that this time withdrawal will not lead to more conflict but will lead to stability and peace, he said. A Thursday report in the government-run Syria Times said Syria has good intentions and a strong desire for peace but is skeptical about Israel's seriousness. It said Damascus would not under any circumstances bargain on the Golan Heights' full return. Israel and Syria are bitter enemies whose attempts at reaching peace have failed in the past. The last round of talks collapsed in 2000 because of a disagreement over a narrow strip of land along the Sea of Galilee that Israel wanted to keep in order to preserve its water rights.
The nations have fought three wars, their forces have clashed in Lebanon, and more recently, Syria has given support to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups. The sides' demands in any peace deal are well-known. Syria wants a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, and Israel wants Syria to end its support for militants, curb its ties with Iran, and establish full diplomatic relations. But that isn't likely to happen on Olmert's watch, most Israeli commentators seem to agree. It does not matter what Olmert does in the months he has left in office, wrote Yossi Verter in Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Everything will be considered spin. That is his fate.
Israel sets demands in new Syrian peace track By Jeffrey Heller MAY 22,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel set terms for concluding a peace deal with Syria on Thursday, closing ranks with Washington in demanding Damascus distance itself from Iran and stop supporting Palestinian and Lebanese militants. Coordinated announcements on Wednesday by Israel and Syria that they had begun indirect talks in Turkey, the first confirmation of negotiations between the long-time enemies in eight years, drew a lukewarm response from the United States.Many analysts say U.S. hostility to Damascus, and to its Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies, makes a Syria-Israel deal unlikely before President George W. Bush steps down in January.Summing up three days of discussions in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Ala Babacan said both sides were satisfied they had found shared ground. He said future talks would be held periodically in Turkey.
The Syrians know what we want and we know what they want, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in Jerusalem. Olmert revealed the talks two days before he faces a second round of police interrogation over graft allegation.Syria is demanding the return of the Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Damascus on one side and the Sea of Galilee on another, since Israel captured the strategic territory in the 1967 Middle East war.Syrian Information Minister Muhsin Bilal condemned Israel's setting of any prior conditions.These conditions have already been rejected as is the phrase difficult concessions as what the Syrians are demanding is their right, Bilal told Al Jazeera television.Olmert, who recently took a vacation on the Golan Heights, has not said publicly that Israel would give up all of the area. But he has spoken of difficult concessions Israel would have to make in any land-for-peace accord with Syria.Echoing U.S. comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Syria needed to distance itself completely from problematic ties with Iran.Syria, she told reporters, must also stop supporting terror -- Hezbollah, Hamas, groups backed by the Islamic Republic.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who as prime minister in 2000 took part in U.S.-hosted talks with Syria that failed over the key issue of the future of the Golan Heights, said in a speech that both sides would have to make painful concessions.
No U.S. OBJECTION
The United States, in its initial public reaction to Israeli-Syrian contacts, said it did not object to talks but repeated its criticism of Syria's support of terrorism.The United States and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization. The Islamist group, which seized control of the Gaza Strip last June, opposes statehood talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Washington hopes can result in a deal by year's end.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, speaking in the occupied West Bank, said he was not worried Israel would pursue peace with Syria at the expense of progress in the U.S.-brokered negotiations with the Palestinians.The concern is if the (Israeli-Palestinian) political process ... does not proceed at the pace necessary, Fayyad told reporters. I hope other tracks are moving and moving well.Olmert, who revealed the discussions with Syria two days before he faces a police interrogation over bribery allegations he has denied, said peace efforts would be lengthy and complex. A television poll found 70 percent of Israelis oppose giving back the Golan Heights to Syria, and a majority also believed Olmert was using the talks to distract from the criminal investigation that could force him from office. Everyone knows that Olmert wants to end his term on a diplomatic note, not a criminal one. The question is, what will come first -- an indictment or a peace treaty, columnist Yossi Verter wrote in newspaper Haaretz. Barak, leader of Israel's centre-left Labor Party, said peace with Syria could be achieved only from a position of strength and self-confidence. Eight months ago, Israeli jets bombed what U.S. officials described as a North Korean-built nuclear facility in Syria.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said Israel had shown that it might return the plateau. Without this commitment we cannot conduct any negotiation, he told Reuters. The Israeli-Syrian talks in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in 2000 broke down over control of the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Israel draws much of its water. Among Olmert's vast army of domestic critics, supporters of the 18,000 Jewish settlers in the Golan Heights threatened to bolt his fragile coalition if he tries to give up the territory. Others wondered aloud if Wednesday's announcement was not timed to divert attention from Olmert's troubles with the police. They will interview him for a second time, on Friday, over suspicions he took bribes from an American businessman. Olmert has said he would resign if indicted. (Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul and Lin Noueihed in Dubai; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
Palestinian truck bomber attacks border crossing By Nidal al-Mughrabi MAY 22,08
GAZA (Reuters) - A truck laden with four tonnes of explosives blew up near an Israeli border crossing with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday but only the suicide bomber was killed in the blast heard 30 km (18 miles) away. Israeli media reports said soldiers fired at the vehicle as it approached Erez Crossing. An army spokeswoman said it had exploded on the Palestinian side of the frontier, blowing out windows in nearby buildings.In other violence, Israeli soldiers shot and killed one Palestinian and wounded 10 others, medical workers said, after youths taking part in a Hamas rally against Gaza border closures approached Israel's Karni Crossing, medical workers said.An Israeli army spokesman said troops shot a gunman in an exchange of fire with armed men in the crowd.Egyptian efforts to secure a Gaza truce to end Israeli raids and cross-border rocket attacks by militants have so far been unsuccessful. Hamas said Israel's refusal to agree to reopen borders as soon as a truce goes into effect was delaying a deal.
The militant Islamic Jihad group said it carried out the Erez operation in cooperation with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah group, to avenge Israeli attacks on Palestinians.Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad's armed wing, said the truck carried four tonnes of explosives. He identified the suicide bomber as 23-year-old Ibrahim Nasser from Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli and Gaza Strip residents living up to 30 km (18 miles) from the crossing reported hearing the blast.An Israeli army spokeswoman said two other men involved in the attack were hit by missiles fired by an Israeli helicopter at their getaway vehicle. Islamic Jihad said the men had managed to leap from the vehicle before it was struck.The spokeswoman said there were no Israeli casualties.
Separately, but at the time of the bombing, Israeli troops raided a village in the central Gaza Strip and shot dead a 63-year-old man, medical workers and Hamas said.
U.N. CONDEMNATION
Robert Serry, the U.N.'s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, condemned the Erez attack.Incidents of this kind are totally unacceptable. They also act against the interests of the population of the Gaza Strip, because aid workers and medical cases must pass through Erez, Serry said.He also called on Israel to ensure its military operates with care and restraint, ensuring its actions are in full conformity to international humanitarian law.
Israel tightened its restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and goods through its border crossings with the Gaza Strip when Hamas seized the territory from Fatah in fighting last June.An Israeli government official said Hamas, by continuing to attack these humanitarian crossing points was demonstrating its complete disregard for the welfare of its own people.(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
US welcomes Lebanon deal, but admits Hezbollah gains MAY 22,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States welcomed Wednesday's deal to end an 18-month deadly feud between Lebanon's pro-Western government and the Iranian-backed opposition, but warned the crisis was not over yet. The United States welcomes the agreement reached by Lebanese leaders in Doha, Qatar, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a statement, as she renewed support for the central government to extend its authority nationwide.We view this agreement as a positive step towards resolving the current crisis by electing a president, forming a new government, and addressing Lebanon's electoral law, consistent with the Arab League initiative.
Under Arab League auspices, rival Lebanese leaders clinched a deal on Wednesday to end the political feud that exploded into deadly sectarian fighting May 5 and nearly drove the country into a new civil war.The agreement, announced after days of tense talks in Doha, will see the election of a president for Lebanon within days and the creation of a unity government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition will have the power of veto.
Lebanese lawmakers will gather on Sunday to elect army chief Michel Sleiman president following the deal, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told AFP in Beirut.The deal calls for fresh negotiations to allow the Western-backed Lebanese government to extend its authority throughout the country after the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah used its weapons to seize much of west Beirut.Rice told reporters later that she had telephoned Siniora to tell him she was pleased for the Lebanese and reiterated US support for him.David Welch, the assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, echoed Rice's points in a press briefing earlier and suggested the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah may have shot itself in the foot, even if it has made some political gains.Yes, because there is a blocking minority, the (Hezbollah-led) minority is able to block major decisions if they chose to do so, Welch said.Some have argued that they are accomplishing political objectives by intimidation and violence, he said.But he added that the average Lebanese reacted very badly to that, suggesting Hezbollah had undermined its political standing not only in Lebanon but with other Arab countries, which are dominated by Sunni Muslims.And he added that Hezbollah's use of violence is deeply disturbing.Welch said the Doha agreement also re-emphasized UN Security Council resolutions calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah and extending the writ of the central government.The deal is a setback for the Hezbollah is because now it has been inscribed again on the national agenda with some prominance that something's got to be done about this bid to establish central government authority, he said.But he admitted the Lebanese still have very delicate political issues to resolve.This is not the end of this crisis. Lebanon still has to go through implementing this agreement, Welch said.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=7930546&src=news
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
EU DICTATOR (WORLD LEADER)
REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
REVELATION 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)
REVELATION 13:1-10
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4 And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the beast:(JEWISH EU DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD (JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Investing in Palestinian territories supports peace: Fayyad by Ezzedine Said MAY 22,08
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Thursday told hundreds of foreign investors at a conference that investing in the Palestinian territories would be an investment in peace. By investing in Palestine, you are investing in the promotion of peace and stability... in this part of the world, Fayyad said in a speech on the second day of a conference in Bethlehem seeking to attract private investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Some 1,200 business people are participating in the event which runs through Friday.Fayyad insisted that investors could find opportunities despite restrictions imposed by Israel in the occupied West Bank.The Palestinian economy, despite the difficulties we face, has great potential to grow and develop in the future, said Fayyad, himself an economist.The Palestinian economy will revive with the creation of a free, competitive and diversified market.He cited, as some of the positive economic aspects in the Palestinian territories, the modern banking system, low taxes on revenue and a low inflation rate.The West Bank's economy however is hampered by more than 500 Israeli roadblocks which restrict movement throughout the occupied territory. Israel claims they are needed for security.
Fayyad admitted that more efforts must be made to overcome the (Israeli) restrictions on the movement of people and merchandise and access to resources.He noted that Israel has cooperated in allowing the hundreds of conference participants to reach Bethlehem.
Conference director Hassan Abu Libdeh said on Wednesday that 109 projects costing about two billion dollars would be presented by Palestinian business leaders to the investors.Among the projects is a 2,000-unit affordable housing development that the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF) wants to build in the outskirst of Ramallah.
We are looking for a partner and a lot of (foreign) investors have expressed interest, said PIF president Mohammad Mustapha, who estimated the cost of the project at 300 million dollars.On Wednesday the PIF reached a deal with The Land Holding company based in Saudi Arabia to build a commercial and residential centre in Ramallah for 200 million dollars.Since 2000, the Palestinian economy has turned from one driven by investment and private sector productivity to one sustained by government spending and donor aid, according to the World Bank, which predicts economic growth will be stagnant this year.The United States has offered strong backing for the conference seeking to boost the private sector and create jobs. Major US companies Intel and Cisco are among the sponsors.I encourage American companies to explore for themselves the opportunities for investment in the West Bank, said Robert Kimmitt, deputy treasury secretary who is heading the US delegation, on Thursday.Europeans are also lending support and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is set to address the closing session of the conference on Friday. In an interview with Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam published on Thursday, Kouchner echoed Fayyad's sentiments that economy and peace go hand in hand. He said European businesses should invest in the Palestinian territories because there exist real opportunities for them and it is in the interest of peace... creating jobs and improving the daily lives of Palestinians.Kouchner added however that to achieve economic growth of six to eight percent annually, Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories and stop building Jewish settlements.
Washington has been pushing for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace accord creating an independent Palestinian state before President George W Bush leaves office in January. France, like the United States and the whole of the international community, officially asks Israel to stop all settlement activity to show its true commitment to the creation of viable Palestinian state and peace in the Middle East, Kouchner told the newspaper, adding that he was sceptical about reaching an agreement this year.
Israel confirms Golan Heights talks with Syria By Josh Mitnick Thu May 22, 4:00 AM ET
Tel Aviv - After an eight-year hiatus, Israel and Syria have resumed negotiations about an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights in return for a normalization of ties with Syria. After weeks of official quiet amid Syrian claims that Turkey was serving as a go between for the sides, a surprise statement from the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed a decision to conduct indirect peace talks in a serious and continuous way, in order to achieve the goal of comprehensive peace.In response to the Israeli statement, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem said that Israel had already agreed to a full return of the entirety of the territory it captured during the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, the daily Haaretz reported. That includes not only the Golan's strategic plateau, but also the descending slopes that reach to the eastern shore of Israel's natural water reservoir, the Sea of Galilee.It's pretty dramatic, said Eyal Zisser, an expert on Syria from Tel Aviv University, speaking on Israel Radio.The Syrians have demanded from the beginning of the negotiations in 1991, a full Israeli withdrawal to the shores of the Sea of Galilee as a precondition for peace talks. I have no reason to think that [Syrian President] Bashar Assad is lying in public. If the prime minister of Israel said to him that he's ready to withdraw to the Sea of Galilee, a very serious obstacle has been removed.For Israel, the new track of peace talks marks a departure with its US ally, which for years has preferred to isolate Syria as punishment for giving shelter for the Iraqi insurgency.
Israeli proponents of peace talks with Syria have argued that normalization of ties with Damascus would count as an important reversal of Iran's growing power within the Middle East. Syria serves as an important link to two Iranian allies that have threatened Israel: as a conduit of weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and as host to the offices of Hamas's political politburo in exile.
For Syria, Israel's most powerful neighbor after Egypt, the peace talks serve to reassert itself as the linchpin of regional peace after years of focus on the Palestinian negotiating track. Engaging Israel in peace talks also helps Syria to avoid become wholly reliant on its alliance with Iran.Because the Golan Heights has a commanding overlook of much of northern Israel, many Israelis argue that they can never risk returning it to Syria.A peace deal with the Syrians is considered a substantially simpler treaty to negotiate compared with one with the Palestinians, as giving back the Golan Heights involves security arrangements, water rights, and resettlement for only a few thousand Israeli settlers.Critics of Israel's government said the timing of the announcement is intended to deflect public discussion of a police investigation into cash sums accepted by Prime Minister Olmert from American Jewish donors.
The announcement sharpened a debate over whether a prime minister under the threat of indictment has the moral authority to make decisions on war and peace.Since the 1991 Madrid Peace conference initiated the first Israeli-Syrian peace talks, talks have occurred intermittently.The last formal negotiations broke off in Shephardstown, Md., when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak rejected Syrian demands that the withdrawal reach the cease-fire lines of June 4, 1967, which come up to the Sea of Galilee.
Israelis express skepticism on Syria peace talks By BETH MARLOWE, Associated Press Writer MAY 22,08
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's dramatic announcement that he is negotiating a peace deal with Syria was greeted Thursday with overwhelming skepticism in Israel. Many Israelis appear to believe the embattled leader made the declaration to divert attention from the corruption allegations that threaten to end his term in office, and opinion polls showed Israelis remained wary of withdrawing from the strategic Golan Heights — even in return for peace with one of Israel's most bitter enemies.The announcement that peace talks had resumed eight years after they broke down came on the same day a court-issued gag order on the new Olmert case was lifted, allowing the publication of new details of the charges that Olmert took money in cash from a Jewish-American businessman. It also came two days before Olmert was set to be questioned again by police.
Competing Israeli newspapers Yediot Ahronot and Maariv shared the same headline on Thursday: Interrogation and Peace.In a published interview Thursday, Olmert tried to focus attention on the historic talks. The peace negotiations with Syria are more important than all the rumor and investigations, he told the Yediot Ahronot daily.
Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday that talks, which are indirect and mediated by Turkey, are moving ahead, with another round of discussions in the near future.Olmert assured French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that while negotiating with Syria, Israel intends to continue working toward peace with the Palestinians, with neither coming at the expense of the other, said a statement from the prime minister's office.The statement said Olmert made it clear that the State of Israel aspires to reach peace with the Palestinians in the coming year.In a poll published in Yediot Thursday, only 36 percent said the negotiations with Syria are meant to promote peace, while 49 percent of Israelis said they believe Olmert is trying to draw attention away from the new police investigation.The poll, carried out by the Dahaf Institute, questioned 500 respondents and a margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.Olmert is suspected of illicitly receiving up to $500,000 from American businessman Morris Talansky. Olmert denies wrongdoing and says the money was to fund political campaigns. But police are not ruling out bribery.
Olmert's popularity, low since he was widely seen to have bungled Israel's war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon two years ago, has taken a further drubbing in the past weeks because of the case. His current legal troubles mark the fifth police investigation into his affairs since he took power in 2006. He has never been convicted.A withdrawal from the Golan Heights — Syria's key demand for peace — will be hard to sell in Israel, and it is highly unlikely a leader as unpopular as Olmert will be able to pull it off.The strategic plateau was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and is considered a valuable buffer against attack. Today the Golan Heights are home to 18,000 Israelis who run thriving wine and tourism industries. Olmert himself vacationed there last month.
According to the poll, only 19 percent of Israelis are willing to cede the entire Golan Heights, down from 32 percent a month ago.
Israelis want peace and security, but they have seen that haphazard efforts in the past have yielded dangerous results, said Dore Gold, the head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N.Gold mentioned Israel's withdrawals from southern Lebanon in 2000 and from the Gaza Strip in 2005, saying both had eventually resulted in more violence.The burden of proof will be on the Israeli government to convince the Israeli public that this time withdrawal will not lead to more conflict but will lead to stability and peace, he said. A Thursday report in the government-run Syria Times said Syria has good intentions and a strong desire for peace but is skeptical about Israel's seriousness. It said Damascus would not under any circumstances bargain on the Golan Heights' full return. Israel and Syria are bitter enemies whose attempts at reaching peace have failed in the past. The last round of talks collapsed in 2000 because of a disagreement over a narrow strip of land along the Sea of Galilee that Israel wanted to keep in order to preserve its water rights.
The nations have fought three wars, their forces have clashed in Lebanon, and more recently, Syria has given support to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups. The sides' demands in any peace deal are well-known. Syria wants a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, and Israel wants Syria to end its support for militants, curb its ties with Iran, and establish full diplomatic relations. But that isn't likely to happen on Olmert's watch, most Israeli commentators seem to agree. It does not matter what Olmert does in the months he has left in office, wrote Yossi Verter in Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Everything will be considered spin. That is his fate.
Israel sets demands in new Syrian peace track By Jeffrey Heller MAY 22,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel set terms for concluding a peace deal with Syria on Thursday, closing ranks with Washington in demanding Damascus distance itself from Iran and stop supporting Palestinian and Lebanese militants. Coordinated announcements on Wednesday by Israel and Syria that they had begun indirect talks in Turkey, the first confirmation of negotiations between the long-time enemies in eight years, drew a lukewarm response from the United States.Many analysts say U.S. hostility to Damascus, and to its Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies, makes a Syria-Israel deal unlikely before President George W. Bush steps down in January.Summing up three days of discussions in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Ala Babacan said both sides were satisfied they had found shared ground. He said future talks would be held periodically in Turkey.
The Syrians know what we want and we know what they want, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in Jerusalem. Olmert revealed the talks two days before he faces a second round of police interrogation over graft allegation.Syria is demanding the return of the Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Damascus on one side and the Sea of Galilee on another, since Israel captured the strategic territory in the 1967 Middle East war.Syrian Information Minister Muhsin Bilal condemned Israel's setting of any prior conditions.These conditions have already been rejected as is the phrase difficult concessions as what the Syrians are demanding is their right, Bilal told Al Jazeera television.Olmert, who recently took a vacation on the Golan Heights, has not said publicly that Israel would give up all of the area. But he has spoken of difficult concessions Israel would have to make in any land-for-peace accord with Syria.Echoing U.S. comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Syria needed to distance itself completely from problematic ties with Iran.Syria, she told reporters, must also stop supporting terror -- Hezbollah, Hamas, groups backed by the Islamic Republic.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who as prime minister in 2000 took part in U.S.-hosted talks with Syria that failed over the key issue of the future of the Golan Heights, said in a speech that both sides would have to make painful concessions.
No U.S. OBJECTION
The United States, in its initial public reaction to Israeli-Syrian contacts, said it did not object to talks but repeated its criticism of Syria's support of terrorism.The United States and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization. The Islamist group, which seized control of the Gaza Strip last June, opposes statehood talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Washington hopes can result in a deal by year's end.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, speaking in the occupied West Bank, said he was not worried Israel would pursue peace with Syria at the expense of progress in the U.S.-brokered negotiations with the Palestinians.The concern is if the (Israeli-Palestinian) political process ... does not proceed at the pace necessary, Fayyad told reporters. I hope other tracks are moving and moving well.Olmert, who revealed the discussions with Syria two days before he faces a police interrogation over bribery allegations he has denied, said peace efforts would be lengthy and complex. A television poll found 70 percent of Israelis oppose giving back the Golan Heights to Syria, and a majority also believed Olmert was using the talks to distract from the criminal investigation that could force him from office. Everyone knows that Olmert wants to end his term on a diplomatic note, not a criminal one. The question is, what will come first -- an indictment or a peace treaty, columnist Yossi Verter wrote in newspaper Haaretz. Barak, leader of Israel's centre-left Labor Party, said peace with Syria could be achieved only from a position of strength and self-confidence. Eight months ago, Israeli jets bombed what U.S. officials described as a North Korean-built nuclear facility in Syria.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said Israel had shown that it might return the plateau. Without this commitment we cannot conduct any negotiation, he told Reuters. The Israeli-Syrian talks in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in 2000 broke down over control of the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Israel draws much of its water. Among Olmert's vast army of domestic critics, supporters of the 18,000 Jewish settlers in the Golan Heights threatened to bolt his fragile coalition if he tries to give up the territory. Others wondered aloud if Wednesday's announcement was not timed to divert attention from Olmert's troubles with the police. They will interview him for a second time, on Friday, over suspicions he took bribes from an American businessman. Olmert has said he would resign if indicted. (Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul and Lin Noueihed in Dubai; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
Palestinian truck bomber attacks border crossing By Nidal al-Mughrabi MAY 22,08
GAZA (Reuters) - A truck laden with four tonnes of explosives blew up near an Israeli border crossing with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday but only the suicide bomber was killed in the blast heard 30 km (18 miles) away. Israeli media reports said soldiers fired at the vehicle as it approached Erez Crossing. An army spokeswoman said it had exploded on the Palestinian side of the frontier, blowing out windows in nearby buildings.In other violence, Israeli soldiers shot and killed one Palestinian and wounded 10 others, medical workers said, after youths taking part in a Hamas rally against Gaza border closures approached Israel's Karni Crossing, medical workers said.An Israeli army spokesman said troops shot a gunman in an exchange of fire with armed men in the crowd.Egyptian efforts to secure a Gaza truce to end Israeli raids and cross-border rocket attacks by militants have so far been unsuccessful. Hamas said Israel's refusal to agree to reopen borders as soon as a truce goes into effect was delaying a deal.
The militant Islamic Jihad group said it carried out the Erez operation in cooperation with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah group, to avenge Israeli attacks on Palestinians.Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad's armed wing, said the truck carried four tonnes of explosives. He identified the suicide bomber as 23-year-old Ibrahim Nasser from Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli and Gaza Strip residents living up to 30 km (18 miles) from the crossing reported hearing the blast.An Israeli army spokeswoman said two other men involved in the attack were hit by missiles fired by an Israeli helicopter at their getaway vehicle. Islamic Jihad said the men had managed to leap from the vehicle before it was struck.The spokeswoman said there were no Israeli casualties.
Separately, but at the time of the bombing, Israeli troops raided a village in the central Gaza Strip and shot dead a 63-year-old man, medical workers and Hamas said.
U.N. CONDEMNATION
Robert Serry, the U.N.'s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, condemned the Erez attack.Incidents of this kind are totally unacceptable. They also act against the interests of the population of the Gaza Strip, because aid workers and medical cases must pass through Erez, Serry said.He also called on Israel to ensure its military operates with care and restraint, ensuring its actions are in full conformity to international humanitarian law.
Israel tightened its restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and goods through its border crossings with the Gaza Strip when Hamas seized the territory from Fatah in fighting last June.An Israeli government official said Hamas, by continuing to attack these humanitarian crossing points was demonstrating its complete disregard for the welfare of its own people.(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
US welcomes Lebanon deal, but admits Hezbollah gains MAY 22,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States welcomed Wednesday's deal to end an 18-month deadly feud between Lebanon's pro-Western government and the Iranian-backed opposition, but warned the crisis was not over yet. The United States welcomes the agreement reached by Lebanese leaders in Doha, Qatar, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a statement, as she renewed support for the central government to extend its authority nationwide.We view this agreement as a positive step towards resolving the current crisis by electing a president, forming a new government, and addressing Lebanon's electoral law, consistent with the Arab League initiative.
Under Arab League auspices, rival Lebanese leaders clinched a deal on Wednesday to end the political feud that exploded into deadly sectarian fighting May 5 and nearly drove the country into a new civil war.The agreement, announced after days of tense talks in Doha, will see the election of a president for Lebanon within days and the creation of a unity government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition will have the power of veto.
Lebanese lawmakers will gather on Sunday to elect army chief Michel Sleiman president following the deal, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told AFP in Beirut.The deal calls for fresh negotiations to allow the Western-backed Lebanese government to extend its authority throughout the country after the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah used its weapons to seize much of west Beirut.Rice told reporters later that she had telephoned Siniora to tell him she was pleased for the Lebanese and reiterated US support for him.David Welch, the assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, echoed Rice's points in a press briefing earlier and suggested the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah may have shot itself in the foot, even if it has made some political gains.Yes, because there is a blocking minority, the (Hezbollah-led) minority is able to block major decisions if they chose to do so, Welch said.Some have argued that they are accomplishing political objectives by intimidation and violence, he said.But he added that the average Lebanese reacted very badly to that, suggesting Hezbollah had undermined its political standing not only in Lebanon but with other Arab countries, which are dominated by Sunni Muslims.And he added that Hezbollah's use of violence is deeply disturbing.Welch said the Doha agreement also re-emphasized UN Security Council resolutions calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah and extending the writ of the central government.The deal is a setback for the Hezbollah is because now it has been inscribed again on the national agenda with some prominance that something's got to be done about this bid to establish central government authority, he said.But he admitted the Lebanese still have very delicate political issues to resolve.This is not the end of this crisis. Lebanon still has to go through implementing this agreement, Welch said.
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