Friday, May 07, 2010

US ENVOY PROMOTES PEACE

US envoy pushes Mideast peace agenda
MAY 07,10 6:15AM


JERUSALEM (AFP) – US envoy George Mitchell on Friday was scheduled to meet with Israel's president and later with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the hopes the two sides will start indirect talks within days.Mitchell, who already spoke on two occasions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Friday.In the evening he was due to head to the Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank for talks with Abbas.The Palestine Liberation Organisation is due to decide on Saturday whether to proceed with the indirect talks, after which Mitchell will hold a final meeting with Abbas, a senior Palestinian official said.At that meeting, Abbas will convey to the US envoy the Palestinians' definitive answer on the talks, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

Mitchell is then expected to make a formal announcement about the start of the proximity talks on Saturday evening or on Sunday before he returns to Washington, the spokesman said.Direct talks resumed after a seven-year hiatus in November 2007 but had made little visible progress when they collapsed again just over a year later.The Palestinians had agreed in March to take part in proximity talks but pulled out after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.After receiving US assurances the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be shelved, the Palestinians eventually agreed to consider a new attempt at proximity talks.They want east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state but Israel considers all of the Holy City to be its eternal and indivisible capital.The status of Jerusalem as well as the issue of settlements are among the thorniest in efforts to achieve a peace deal.Israel has imposed a partial and temporary freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, but it does not include occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, or buildings already under construction.

YESTERDAY THE DOW DROPPED 700 POINTS IN 10 MINUTES FROM 2:46 TO 2:56PM AND WIPPED OUT $1 TRILLION DOLLARS OF LOST MONEY.

World stocks slide on Dow collapse, debt crisis By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer Pan Pylas, Ap Business Writer – MAY 07,10

LONDON – World markets fell sharply Friday following a huge sell-off on Wall Street and amid fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread and derail the global economic recovery.In Britain, where investors were grappling with uncertain general election results, the FTSE 100 index was down 53.05 points, or 1 percent, at 5,207.94 following a slide in the pound.Germany's DAX fell 71.80 points, or 1.2 percent, at 5,836.46 while the CAC-40 in France was 92.81 points, or 2.6 percent, lower at 3,463.30.The falls in Europe follow big declines in Asia — Japan's benchmark Nikkei index closed 3.1 percent down at 10,364.59.Some respite could come when Wall Street traders return later, though analysts said the monthly U.S. payrolls report before the open could shift sentiment — Dow futures were up 2 points at 10,459 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 1 point to 1,123.40.Investors around the world are uneasy about the prospect of trouble in the euro zone from Greece's crisis. Many economists say Greece may be insolvent in the end despite an EU-IMF bailout, and there are fears that other countries will face bond market skepticism — and higher borrowing costs that will worsen their finances in a vicious spiral. That could undermine markets and consumer confidence just as Europe crawls out of recession.They were further rattled by the massive sell-off on Wall Street — at one stage, the Dow Jones industrial average was in freefall, trading 1,000 points lower.

Though the collapse was blamed in part on a trading error and the Dow did recover to close 3.2 percent lower and regulators said they were reviewing what had happened, the drop fed into a prevailing fear that Greece's debt crisis was spreading to Portugal and Spain and possibly further afield. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations will hold a teleconference later in the day to discuss the situation, Japan's finance minister Naoto Kan said.Stock markets weren't alone in seeing massive swings — in the currency markets, the dollar was down a massive 6 yen at 88.68 yen one stage, while the euro dropped to $1.2520, its lowest level in 14 months. The retreats were reversed though and dollar was trading 1.5 percent higher on the day at 92.11 yen while the euro was up 0.9 percent at $1.2745.Contagion has smashed risk appetite and created panic while a fat finger glitch has created mayhem in equities, said Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.Caution remains the watchword especially in front of the G7 conference call where markets will be wary of support/intervention action,said Mackinnon.The scale of the current stage in the crisis was evident in the news that the Bank of Japan was offering two trillion yen ($22 billion) in short-term loans to commercial banks to boost liquidity after the dollar had tumbled.We would like to ensure stability in financial markets by providing ample funds to banks, Bank of Japan official Yuichi Adachi said. He declined to elaborate further.

As if all that wasn't enough, investors, particularly in London, had to grapple with the inconclusive outcome of the British general election.With the counting of the votes coming to an end, it's clear than no party has won enough seats to control Parliament.The U.K. will have a coalition government irrespective of the remaining declarations and indeed the media's political focus has long since shifted to this front,said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.The uncertainty was most evident in the currency markets where the pound tumbled 1.8 percent to a year low of $1.4481.Across Asia, stocks were hit hard even though the government debt crisis is centered on Europe — all the main indexes ended lower with Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand down sharply. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 1.9 percent lower while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended around 1.1 percent down. Financial markets have begun to over-run policymakers' ability to implement measures to stem the crisis,said Sean Darby, a strategist with Nomura in Hong Kong. A strong dollar and the flight to quality mean that Asian equities have also been drawn into the contagion.Oil markets were also oscillating wildly — benchmark crude for June delivery was up 49 cents to $77.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That modest rise follows the $2.86 slide on Thursday.Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

Report: Dubai IDs 5 new suspects in Hamas murder
MAY 07,2010


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A local newspaper says Dubai police has identified five new suspects in the slaying of a Hamas operative in the Gulf city-state.The National says the five traveled to Dubai with Australian, British and French passports to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. He was found dead in his Dubai hotel room in January.Dubai has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of killing al-Mabhouh. The police previously released names of 27 suspects who traveled to Dubai on fake identities and forged European and Australian passports.Friday's report did not reveal the new suspects' names.If confirmed, this would bring the number of suspects behind the slaying to 32 people.Dubai police could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. Government officials declined to comment.

Gaza smokers forced to cough up as Hamas seeks cash by Patrick Moser – MAY 07,10

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Gazans are trapped in their overcrowded strip by an Israeli blockade and are still struggling with the aftermath of war, but their anger today is directed at the Hamas rulers for taxing their smokes.Many see the new tax imposed on cigarettes smuggled from Egypt as a sign the Islamists are in deep financial trouble in the Palestinian territory that essentially survives on aid and a black market economy.Egypt has stopped the money from coming in (and) Hamas now badly needs money to pay salaries, said a local journalist, an inveterate smoker, who asked not to be named.Since Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed a tight blockade, allowing in only essential and humanitarian goods.

Hundreds of tunnels that dot the border with Egypt have served to bring in other commercial goods -- anything from motorbikes to Marlboros -- as well as weapons and cash.But Egypt has recently cracked down on the smuggling, dealing a strong blow to Hamas, which is boycotted by most banks because it is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.Hamas has made it clear it plans to gradually impose sales taxes on a wide range of items in order to address the financial crisis.Everybody is angry,says Hassan Abu El Kass, pointing to the stamp that shows the smokes he sells from a tiny street stall have been taxed.

The three-shekel sales tax (0.8 dollars, 0.60 euros) sent the price of a pack soaring by about 60 percent.Sales are down, people can't afford such prices, says Kass. A small crowd gathers around him, expressing outrage over the tax and lashing out -- albeit quietly -- at Hamas.One of Gaza's political factions recently warned in rare public criticism of the Islamists that there would be an explosion if Hamas continues collecting the new taxes.Battling power outages that leave Gaza in the dark for hours on end, Hamas is also trying to get people to pay their electricity bills, something many residents haven't done for years.Gaza gets about 70 percent of its electricity through power lines from Israel and five percent from Egypt, with the rest produced by the territory's sole power plant that relies on industrial fuel imports from Israel.That plant has been working at only a fraction of its capacity since Israel imposed the blockade, receiving only 2.2 million litres of fuel a week, as opposed to the 3.5 million litres it needs.Gazans have long been used to power cuts, but the outages have become longer and more frequent since the European Commission stopped funding fuel purchases in November.The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, dominated by president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah -- the arch-foe of Hamas -- is now in charge of buying the fuel, and supplies have dropped significantly.In March, a weekly average of 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel were imported into Gaza. That figure dropped to about one million litres in the last week of April.The shortfall has been blamed on animosity between Hamas and Fatah, but also on a failure by consumers to pay their bills.

The Gaza Electricity Corporation (GEDCO) says it has monthly sales of about 50 million shekels (13.4 million dollars, 10 million euros) but collects only about 35 to 40 percent of the bill. The accrued arrears of municipalities alone amounted to 413.5 million shekels (110.8 million dollars, 83.3 million euros) by January, according to GEDCO. People haven't been paying, Hamas hasn't been paying, municipalities haven't been paying,says Yaser Alwadeya, a Gaza industrialist and independent politician, who has pushed for Hamas to tackle the issue urgently. In recent weeks, municipal employees have been going door-to-door to collect well-overdue payments, sometimes backed by police and technicians ready to cut off anyone who doesn't pay up. But the power outages are still lengthy and frequent, affecting just about every sector of life from industrial plants to fishmongers, from sanitation facilities to reconstruction efforts.

And Gaza's blockade-ravaged economy was not much to start off with.

Nothing works properly: water is not drinkable, there's barely any electricity, there are no services and banks have no money available,says Alwadeya, who says he is among the few business leaders left in Gaza. Alwadeya's company was once the largest food maker in Gaza, but much of his production line was reduced to rubble by Israel's devastating three-week offensive launched in December 2008. He paints a bleak picture of the situation in the narrow coastal enclave.We no longer have an economy in Gaza. Just dealers from tunnels.The blockade has left many Gazans struggling to eke out a living, and 80 percent of the 1.5 million population depend on food aid. Fishermen, prevented by Israeli gunboats from venturing more than five kilometres (three miles) out to sea, now sail to the southern border to buy Egyptian fishermen's catch. Some fish is also brought in through the tunnels. Farmers risk their lives when they venture into fields near the border wall. Citing the risk of militant attacks, Israel regularly opens fire on anyone getting to close to the boundary. The risk does not deter hundreds of people who scavenge for construction materials among the ruined buildings by Gaza's northern border with Israel, using horse-drawn carts to carry their heavy loads. The closer they get to the border wall, the better the materials, and the higher the risk of getting shot. A little farther back, a cloud of dust rises from a spot where dozens of people collect pebbles that will be crushed and mixed into concrete. It's hard work, it's dangerous,says 12-year-old Motaz as he sifts through the sand just a few hundred metres from the border. Asked if he'd rather be at school, he mops his brow with a corner of his dusty Mickey Mouse T-shirt, adjusts his red baseball cap and shrugs. We need the money.

Israeli's Olmert says he is victim of a witch-hunt
Thu May 6, 8:08 am ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert appeared in court on Thursday to answer charges of corruption, claiming he is the victim of a witch-hunt.

Speaking to reporters just before the hearing in a Jerusalem court, Olmert said a brutal, ruthless witch-hunt, the likes of which have never before been seen in Israel,was being waged against him.I have never been offered and I never have accepted bribes,he added.Olmert is on trial on charges of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes, multiple billing of foreign trips and influence-peddling.

In December, Olmert pleaded not guilty to the charges.Prosecutors are now considering filing additional charges in connection with a spiralling real estate scandal in which several suspects allegedly received bribes to smooth the way for construction of Jerusalem's grandiose Holyland residential complex in the 1990s.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003 and then served as trade and industry minister.

After lengthy diplomacy, Mideast peace talks begin By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 5, 3:14 pm ET

JERUSALEM – A U.S. mediator launched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations Wednesday after a break of more than a year, starting a shuttle mission between a hard-line Israeli government and a Palestinian administration in control of only part of its territory.President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, met for three hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to start the indirect negotiations. In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the talks would continue on Thursday. No details were released.In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the meeting was good and productive but did not give details.Mitchell will travel between Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem and the headquarters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, less than half an hour's drive away.But the positions of the two sides are worlds apart, and Mitchell's shuttling would be considered a success if he managed no more than to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to sit down at the same table — something they did for nearly two decades before the last round of talks ended in January 2009.

The two could not even agree about the technicality of whether the talks had begun. Israel labeled the Mitchell-Netanyahu meeting Wednesday as the beginning of the mediation, while Palestinians insisted they still had to give formal approval to the process over the weekend.Crowley said Mitchell's meeting on Saturday with Abbas would mark the start of the indirect talks.Restarting the talks after a year of intensive diplomacy could give the Obama administration a badly needed foreign policy achievement, but it would be a temporary gain unless progress is made.Abbas is allocating four months for the indirect talks, insisting that the main disagreements must be discussed — control of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, borders and Israel's West Bank settlements.Negotiations will focus on final status issues and there's no need to enter into details and small matters, because we have had enough of that in the previous negotiations,Abbas said after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Jordanian capital.We said the indirect negotiations will last only four months, Abbas said.After that, we will go to the Arab League to consult on whether to continue or what to do.The Palestinians have refused to hold direct talks with Israel until it freezes all Jewish construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Netanyahu agrees to talk about everything but has made it clear that his priority is safeguarding Israel's security.Over the past decade, the two sides have come close to a comprehensive accord twice, but talks broke down both times in disagreement over core issues, especially Jerusalem, home to holy sites revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims.Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, with some minor land exchanges and a link between the West Bank and Gaza through Israel.While Netanyahu has reluctantly endorsed creation of a Palestinian state, he has posed strict security conditions, fearing that the West Bank would fall under control of Islamic Hamas militants. Hamas forces expelled Abbas loyalists from Gaza in 2007, and since then, Israeli border communities have become frequent targets for rockets from Gaza.Both sides face formidable internal obstacles to far-reaching compromise.Abbas' loss of Gaza is a major impediment because he does not control all the territory that Palestinians claim for a state. Also, Hamas has rejected any peace talks with Israel and threatens to undermine Abbas' position in the West Bank. Netanyahu heads a coalition government that includes hard-line elements, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who oppose giving control of much of the West Bank to the Palestinians or removing Jewish settlements there.Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.

U.S. and other big powers back Mideast nuclear arms ban By Louis Charbonneau – Wed May 5, 12:57 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China voiced support on Wednesday for making the Middle East a nuclear-weapons-free zone, which would ultimately force Israel to scrap any atomic arms it has.The move, in a joint statement, reflected U.S. concern to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program by offering a concession over its ally Israel, but Washington says the zone cannot be actually established yet.We are committed to a full implementation of the 1995 NPT resolution on the Middle East and we support all ongoing efforts to this end,the five permanent U.N. Security Council members said in a statement issued at a conference taking stock of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.The 1995 resolution adopted by signatories of the landmark arms control treaty called for making the Middle East a zone without nuclear arms. The Jewish state has never confirmed or denied having nuclear arms.We are ready to consider all relevant proposals in the course of the (NPT) Review Conference in order to come to an agreed decision aimed at taking concrete steps in this direction,said the statement, which was obtained by Reuters.U.S. support for the idea of creating such a zone in the future could be unwelcome to Israel, which has said it can only consider it once there is Middle East peace.

But diplomats from the Jewish state's Western allies say Arab states are pushing hard on the issue in exchange for their support in U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program.Egypt, which chairs the powerful 118-nation bloc of non-aligned developing nations, circulated a proposal to the 189 signatories of the treaty calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear arms in which all countries in the region would participate.The United States and Russia, with the support of the other three countries allowed to keep nuclear weapons under the NPT, are negotiating with Egypt to come up with an acceptable compromise proposal, Western diplomats say.Despite U.S. support for the principle of the proposed zone and for Egypt's call for discussion of it, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday the time was not yet ripe for creating the zone.

IRAN AND NORTH KOREA

Without naming specific countries, the statement also urged those outside the NPT to join it. Israel, like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, never signed the treaty but is presumed to have a sizable atomic arsenal.We urge those states that are not parties to the treaty to accede as non-nuclear-weapon states and pending accession to the NPT, to adhere to its terms,the five powers said.Israel has tried to fend off Egyptian-led scrutiny of its arsenal by urging Cairo to view Iran's atomic ambitions as the regional threat, an Israeli official has said. Egypt says both Israel and Iran are nuclear threats to the region and wants action on both countries.The statement by the five powers touched on the nuclear programs of both Iran and North Korea.The proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program remain of serious concern to us,the statement said. The five powers and Germany are negotiating on a fourth U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment.Tehran refuses to stop enriching, saying its program is intended solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.

The statement did not mention sanctions. Russia and China, Western diplomats say, are pushing hard in negotiations to dilute the measures in a U.S.-drafted sanctions proposal. The five powers also called for the renewal of six-nation talks on North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The five official nuclear powers also reaffirmed previous disarmament commitments they made in 2000 and praised a recent U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction agreement. The previous U.S. administration infuriated Arab and other non-aligned nations by refusing to reaffirm those pledges -- and the call for a Middle East nuclear-arms-free zone -- at the last NPT review conference in 2005. That conference was widely viewed as a failure.(Editing by Patrick Worsnip and Vicki Allen)

Nuke-free Mideast idea rises on global agenda By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent – Wed May 5, 11:57 am ET

UNITED NATIONS – The Middle East, that timeless tinderbox at the core of so much in world affairs, looms as a battleground in the U.N.'s meeting halls this month, as 189nations debate nuclear proliferation.The idea of establishing the region as a zone free of nuclear weapons, a notion on the back burner for 15 years, has emerged as a central issue at the twice-a-decade conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).It is rising higher on the agenda because Iran's ambitious nuclear program, which the West alleges is aimed at weapons-making, threatens to prompt other Mideast nations to develop their own programs. And an expected future shift toward nuclear power worldwide will put possibly sensitive technology in more hands.But Israel, with its long-established but unannounced nuclear arsenal, remains a highly uncertain partner in any move toward a nuke-free Mideast.Egypt has formally proposed that this 2010 NPT conference back a plan to start talks next year on such a Mideast nuclear ban. Algeria has also submitted a plan.This conference represents a pivotal turning point in the history of the treaty, and an opportunity that may be the last and that must be seized,Egyptian U.N. Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz told delegates Wednesday.

The Middle East would join five other nuclear-free regions — Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific and Latin America — covering some 116 countries that have outlawed the presence of atomic arms in their areas.The United States, Israel's prime international backer, has long endorsed the idea of a Mideast zone, but has never pushed for action. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton caught the General Assembly Hall's attention on Monday, however, by saying Washington is now prepared to support practical measures for moving toward that objective.The U.S. and Israel are discussing what such practical measures might be, said a Western diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity about other countries' contacts.Russia's deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, said Moscow is partnering with Washington on a draft plan. In recent weeks, we have managed to develop a joint approach with the United States,Sergei A. Ryabkov told reporters.He didn't elaborate, beyond saying they have focused on a compromise,common denominator plan in place of the Egyptian and Algerian proposals.Fifteen years ago, the 1995 NPT Review Conference adopted a resolution calling for a Mideast zone free of weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, chemical and biological. It was a concession by the U.S. and others to the Arabs, who want Israel to join the nonproliferation treaty, giving up its officially unacknowledged arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear weapons, the Mideast's only such arms.

In exchange, the Arabs in 1995 backed the West's successful effort to extend the NPT's life indefinitely.With India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel is one of four nations not party to the NPT.After 15 years of inaction on a Mideast zone, two ideas are now under discussion: appointing an official special coordinator to study and consult with governments about ways forward; or planning a Mideast regional conference in 2011 on the subject.Important details would have to be worked out for a conference: its precise mandate; its proposed length and venue; the participating countries.Although Western diplomats privately express optimism about something new emerging here on a Mideast WMD-free zone, no one expects quick movement after the session toward a treaty. Embattled Israel has long maintained that a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace must first be reached before it would consider such a region-wide regime.Still, any movement here would be seen again as a concession by Washington and its allies, perhaps enabling them to win support on other elements they favor for a 2010 conference final document — making withdrawal from the treaty more difficult, for example. Iran is viewed as a candidate for withdrawal, since the U.S. and others believe Tehran's uranium enrichment program is aimed at building bombs, something Iran denies. If it decides to produce nuclear weapons, this thinking goes, Tehran will give the required three months' notice and pull out of the NPT. One more complication faces those pushing for a WMD-free zone: the other WMD. The Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention outlaw possession of those mass-casualty devices. The small handful of nations that haven't ratified those pacts include three crucial to the Middle East effort: Egypt, Syria and Israel.The three countries would have to accede to those treaties, and work would have to begin on identifying and neutralizing the chemical or biological weapons they might have.

UN has no evidence of Hezbollah Scud smuggling
Wed May 5, 11:24 am ET


BEIRUT (AFP) – A UN peacekeeping force said in a newspaper report on Wednesday that it has no evidence of any Scud missiles in southern Lebanon, after Israel accused Syria of smuggling the missiles to Hezbollah.We have no evidence of any Scud missiles in UNIFIL's area of operations in southern Lebanon, the daily An-Nahar quoted Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, as saying.These missiles are large and difficult to hide, he added in comments made in English.Israel's President Shimon Peres sparked controversy in April when he accused Syria of supplying the Shiite Hezbollah movement with long-range Scud missiles, a charge Damascus has staunchly denied.Washington, which has sought rapprochement with Damascus, further fed the controversy when Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with sophisticated weaponry, without naming Scuds.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the risks of triggering a regional war if he supplied the Shiite group with the missiles.But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday refused to confirm or deny the Scud allegations, saying his militant party had a legal right to own any weapons it wished.We do not confirm or deny if we have received weapons or not, so we do not comment and we will not comment, Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, is the only group that did not disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, arguing its weapons are necessary to fight Israel which it later faced off in a devastating conflict in 2006.Spain in January took over command of the 12,000-strong UNIFIL, which was set up in 1978 to monitor Lebanon's border with Israel and was beefed up after the 2006 war.

Gaza report judge meets critics in South Africa
Wed May 5, 8:44 am ET


JOHANNESBURG – An internationally respected jurist who accused Israel of war crimes has discussed his findings with fellow South African Jews who criticized his U.N. report.In a statement Wednesday, the South African Zionist Federation said Monday's meeting came after Richard Goldstone attended his grandson's Johannesburg bar mitzvah. Goldstone was able to attend the weekend rite of passage after protests by his Jewish critics were called off.The federation says neither side would add publicly to opening statements it released.In his statement, Goldstone says it would have been hypocritical to denounce war crimes around the world but remain silent when it came to Israel.Federation chair Avrom Krengel says Goldstone's report was biased against Israel and caused pain and anger.

Founder of Israel's Rabbis for Human Rights dies
Tue May 4, 1:51 pm ET


JERUSALEM – Rabbi David Forman, founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, a prominent group defending Palestinians, has died, a colleague said Tuesday.Forman was 65. He died Monday in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he was undergoing treatment, said Rabbi Arik Ascherman, current leader of the human rights group.Forman founded Rabbis for Human Rights in 1988 and led it until 1992. He served as its chairman again from 2002-2003.A Reform Jewish rabbi, he was director of the Israel office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform umbrella group. He moved to Israel in 1972.Rabbi Forman was a mentor and a moral compass for several generations of rabbis and Jews around the world through his work in human rights, Ascherman told The Associated Press.Rabbis for Human Rights leads regular protests against the demolition of Palestinian homes and uprooting of olive trees in the West Bank.Forman is survived by his wife and four children. His funeral is set for Thursday in Israel.

Palestinian leader meets Saudi king ahead of new peace talks
Tue May 4, 1:50 pm ET


RIYADH (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ahead of the expected launch of US-brokered indirect negotiations with Israel, a Palestinian diplomat said.Abbas spent half a day talking with Abdullah and other top Saudi officials in preparation for meeting US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Friday, as the US pushes proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians that it hopes will open the door to a deal on a two-state solution.The king expressed total solidarity with the Palestinians and Palestinian leadership,a Palestinian diplomat said after the talks.He also expressed support for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas,the two main rival Palestinian factions, the diplomat added.Abbas was on a whistlestop tour of the region to coordinate with his Arab backers as momentum built for the resumption of negotiations with Israel.He will see Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday ahead of his planned meeting with Mitchell, who arrived in the region on Tuesday.Riyadh's support for the talks is considered crucial. Saudi Arabia has played a key role in backing negotiations towards a two-state solution, and in 2002 launched an Arab peace initiative towards that end.The support of the kingdom for our cause springs from its strong belief that what it is doing for the Palestinian cause is a duty dictated by its conscience and its faith, Abbas told the Okaz newspaper in an interview before the visit.On April 15, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Arab leaders to prove their commitment to Middle East peace through action, not just rhetoric that would make it easier for the Palestinians to pursue negotiations and achieve an agreement.

She also urged countries like Saudi Arabia to step up financial support for the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas.Arab states need to share a greater portion of these responsibilities,she said.Abbas's writ has effectively been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since Hamas forces seized the Gaza Strip in 2007. Saudi Arabia played a lead role in so far abortive efforts to reconcile factions.

Israel says Hezbollah missile buildup accelerating
Tue May 4, 9:39 am ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Syria's government routinely ships weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militia Hezbollah in an operation that goes well beyond sporadic smuggling, a top Israeli intelligence officer said on Tuesday.The head of the military intelligence research department, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told a parliamentary committee that Hezbollah's arsenal included thousands of rockets of all ranges and types, some solid-fuelled.Baidatz did not specifically name the long-range Scud missiles which Israeli President Shimon Peres has accused Hezbollah of stockpiling, but appeared to allude to Peres' warnings.The shipments of long-range missiles which have been reported recently are only the tip of the iceberg, Baidatz told the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.Syria has a significant role in the growing strength of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, he said.Weapons are sent to Hezbollah from Syria on a regular basis under the direction of the Syrian and Iranian regimes.Hezbollah has not confirmed or denied the Scud allegations, saying only that it has the right to possess any weapon it chooses.

On Monday, President Barack Obama renewed US sanctions on Syria for a year, accusing Damascus of supporting terrorist groups and pursuing missile programs and weapons of mass destruction.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week about the risks of sparking a regional war if he supplied long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.

U.S. envoy arrives for Israeli-Palestinian talks By Jeffrey Heller – Mon May 3, 11:41 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Barak Obama's Middle East peace envoy arrived in Tel Aviv Monday for expected indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks but Israel voiced doubt about any breakthrough without direct negotiations.Hours before envoy George Mitchell flew into Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak conferred in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh about the upcoming U.S.-mediated negotiations. Obama's peace efforts received a boost Saturday when Arab states approved four months of proximity talks, whose expected start in March was delayed by Israel's announcement of a settlement project on occupied land near Jerusalem.Israeli Defense Ministry strategist Amos Gilad said on Israel Radio the indirect negotiations would begin Wednesday.It was not immediately clear when the envoy would hold talks with the Palestinian side. The executive committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to meet only Saturday to give the formal nod to start the negotiations.Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor described indirect talks as a strange affair after face-to-face peace negotiations stretching back 16 years.There have been no direct talks for the past 18 months, a period that has included Israel's Gaza war, election of a right-wing Israeli government and entrenched rule in the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists opposed to the U.S. peace efforts.

REAL TALKS

I think it is clear to everyone that real talks are direct talks, and I don't think there is a chance of a significant breakthrough until the direct talks begin, Meridor said.The talks will be held. The envoy, Mitchell, will talk to us, to them. But the more we hasten to arrive at direct talks, the more we will be able to address the heart of the matter.Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said the negotiations would show whether the Israeli government was serious about peace and test the sincerity of the Obama administration in pursuing Palestinian statehood.The truth is we are not in need of negotiations. We are in need of decisions by the Israeli government. This is the time for decisions more than it is the time for negotiations,Abu Rdainah said.In an interview published Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam, Abbas said Obama had given a commitment he would not allow any provocative measures by either side.

Abbas has long insisted Israel freeze Jewish settlement building before any negotiations resume, and he had rejected a temporary construction moratorium that Netanyahu ordered in the occupied West Bank last November as insufficient.Netanyahu, who heads a pro-settler government, has pledged not to curb Israeli home construction in East Jerusalem.But after angering Washington by announcing a 1,600-home project -- during a visit in March by Vice President Joe Biden -- Israel has not approved new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, in what some Israeli politicians called a de facto freeze.Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a 1967 war, and considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.(Additional reporting by Cairo bureau, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Tom Perry in Ramallah)

Jordan River could die by 2011: report by Patrick Moser – Sun May 2, 5:36 pm ET

ALUMOT, Israel (AFP) – The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday.The famed river has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of Galilee, devastated by overexploitation, pollution and lack of regional management, Friends of the Earth, Middle East (FoEME) said in a report.More than 98 percent of the river's flow has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan over the years.The remaining flow consists primarily of sewage, fish pond water, agricultural run-off and saline water," the environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank said in the report to be presented in Amman on Monday.Without concrete action, the LJR (lower Jordan River) is expected to run dry at the end of 2011.The river -- which runs 217 kilometres (135 miles) from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea -- and its tributaries are shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank.In 1847, a US naval officer who led an expedition along the river described navigating down cascading rapids and waterfalls. Today the Jordan is a brackish stream barely a few metres (yards) wide.

A couple of kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee -- which is actually a lake -- a dam cuts off the flow of the river. Just south of the dam, raw sewage gushes from a pipe.This is what is today the source of the lower Jordan River, FoEME director for Israel Gidon Bromberg says, pointing to the foul-smelling water.No one can say this is holy water. No one can say this is an acceptable state for a river this famous worldwide.A few metres away, saline water -- diverted from salt springs to protect the nearby lake -- flows into the foaming brown mess.About 100 kilometres downstream, a Russian clad in a white robe immerses himself in the river at a site in Jordan where many Christians believe Jesus was baptised.Every year, thousands of pilgrims take the plunge in the biblical river despite alarmingly high pollution.

Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities along the lower Jordan river -- about 340,000 people in all -- dump raw sewage into the river.Ironically, if the sewage stops flowing into the river -- which Israel plans to do on its stretch -- the damage could be even greater unless additional measures are taken to reduce the salinity of the water.FoEME believes the solution lies in releasing huge amounts of fresh water into the river.The Jordan once had a flow of 1.3 billion cubic metres (45.5 billion cubic feet) a year, but now discharges only an estimated 20 million to 30 million cubic metres into the Dead Sea.A new study we commissioned reveals that we have lost at least 50 percent of biodiversity in and around the river due to the near total diversion of fresh water, and that some 400 million cubic metres of water annually are urgently needed to be returned to the river to bring it back to life, said Munqeth Mehyar, FoEME's Jordanian director. Israel, Syria, Jordan must all return water to the ailing river, the report says. Israel, having diverted the largest share and being a developed nation, should return a proportionally higher percentage of water, it adds. Better management could save Israel 517 million cubic metres of water a year and Jordan 305 million cubic metres, part of which could be allocated to the Jordan river, the environmental group says.Improving the flow of the Jordan River would also go a long way towards saving the Dead Sea, which is in turn withering rapidly.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

ISRAEL - PALESTINIAN TALKS IN DAYS

Israelis, Palestinians to start talks within days
by Charly Wegman 10:13AM MAY 2,10


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli and Palestinian officials said Sunday they expected to start indirect peace talks within days, following the Arab League's endorsement of a US-brokered plan to end the impasse.From the very start we have been in favour of peace talks without preconditions and the objective is to start in the coming days, at the latest next week, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio.It is a positive development. The Arabs also want to break the deadlock, Ayalon added, referring to the Arab League decision Saturday to back a US plan to mediate talks between the sides as a prelude to direct negotiations. US President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy George Mitchell is due back in the region for another round of shuttle diplomacy this week and is expected to hold talks with both sides.

President Abbas will meet with Mitchell on Friday, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has so far not officially announced a meeting between Mitchell and the premier. Local media reports say the US envoy will meet Israeli officials on Tuesday and Wednesday.Abbas said in a newspaper interview published Sunday that with the Arab League giving its blessing and a similar endorsement expected from the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee this week, the US- sponsored talks could now go ahead.They will begin immediately and last for four months, Abbas told the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam.He added that his planned visit to Washington this month will be for bilateral talks with Obama. There is no plan for a tripartite summit with Netanyahu, he said.Netanyahu himself is to fly to neighbouring Egypt on Monday to consult with President Hosni Mubarak on the latest peace moves.Direct talks with the Palestinians collapsed when Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008.In March, the Palestinians agreed to participate in US-mediated indirect talks for a period of four months.But those plans collapsed when Israel announced during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden that it would build 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, in a neighbourhood named Ramat Shlomo.The announcement infuriated the United States and the international community.

The Cairo-based Arab League's decision to endorse the indirect talks was taken by its committee of foreign ministers after guarantees from Obama in a letter to Abbas.
Despite the lack of conviction of the Israeli side in achieving peace, the committee affirms what was agreed on the 2nd of March 2010 in regards to the time period for the indirect negotiations,an Arab League statement said.Erakat told a Cairo news conference on Saturday that any Israeli construction in disputed east Jerusalem would bring an immediate halt to the talks. If they build one unit out of the 1,600, we will not go to the talks,he said. Israeli ministers attending the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday said Erakat's comments did not bode well for coming negotiations.

Trying to impose preconditions like this ... it's not an encouraging sign,Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz told reporters. We need to explain to Erakat that Israel will continue to build in Jerusalem,hardline Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said. We shall not build just one house in Ramat Shlomo, we shall build many houses.Asked in Sunday's radio interview if Israel was considering a construction freeze in east Jerusalem, Ayalon said: On the ground, we will not prevent life from continuing because a question of principle, even of morals, is involved.Israel has welcomed the Arab League endorsement but says it awaits formal acceptance by the Palestinians. However, the militant Islamic Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip condemned the League's decision.Hamas completely rejects any negotiations with the occupation,it said, labelling US guarantees a trick.

Israel, Turkey hold talks amid tensions
MAY 2,10


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli and Turkish diplomats met in Jerusalem on Sunday for routine talks hailed as positive and warm amid deteriorating relations between the allies.The director general of Israel's foreign ministry, Yossi Gal, met Turkish undersecretary for foreign affairs, Feridun Sinirlioglu, the Israeli ministry said in a statement.During the discussions, which were held in a positive and warm atmosphere, the two sides reiterated the importance of the relationship to both countries,it said.The talks dealt with a range of bilateral and regional issues and the peace process.Once flourishing relations between Israel and its only ally in the Muslim world deteriorated sharply after Israel launched its devastating 22-day Gaza offensive in December 2008.In a memorable outburst, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2009, after telling Israeli President Shimon Peres: You know well how to kill people.Relations were further strained after Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon gave Turkey's ambassador a public dressing down in January to protest against a Turkish television series which showed Israel in a bad light.After keeping Oguz Celikkol waiting, the envoy was made to sit on a low couch and the Turkish flag was removed from their table. Ayalon had pictures taken of the humiliating scene.

Recently Erdogan branded Israel the principal threat to peace in the region.Sunday's meeting was part of a regular dialogue between the two countries, and both sides agreed to hold their next discussion in Ankara in November, the statement said.

Palestinian leader says to meet Obama in Washington
By Tom Perry - MAY 2,10


RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on the verge of indirect negotiations with Israel, said he would meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington this month to advance Middle East peace.Obama's peace efforts received a boost on Saturday when Arab states approved four months of U.S.-mediated talks, whose expected start in March was delayed by Israel's announcement of a settlement project on occupied land near Jerusalem.In an interview published on Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam, Abbas said Obama had given a commitment he would not allow any provocative measures by either side.He said the U.S. leader had invited him to Washington later this month in an attempt to push the peace process forward. Abbas gave no specific date for the visit.Calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a direct security concern to the United States, Washington has pushed hard for a resumption of talks suspended since December 2008.But many observers question whether the latest effort can succeed where years of diplomacy have failed.

Abbas's last meeting with Obama was in September in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also attended that meeting -- part of Obama's efforts to get the peace process moving again.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week she expected the so-called proximity talks,to be mediated by special envoy George Mitchell, to begin this week.

PLO officials said the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee was likely to convene within days to give its approval, opening the way for Mitchell to arrive later in the week.It looks like the locked situation is being unlocked now, Israeli President Shimon Peres told reporters in Jerusalem.

SETTLEMENT FREEZE

Abbas has long insisted Israel freeze Jewish settlement building before any negotiations resume, and he had rejected a temporary construction moratorium that Netanyahu ordered in the occupied West Bank last November as insufficient.Netanyahu, who heads a pro-settler government, has pledged not to curb Israeli home construction in East Jerusalem.But after angering Washington by announcing a 1,600-home project -- during a visit in March by Vice President Joe Biden -- Israel has not approved new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, in what some Israeli politicians called a de facto freeze.Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a 1967 war, and considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Abbas said the Palestinians had nothing to fear from what he described as Obama's promise not to tolerate actions from either side that could jeopardize peacemaking.We accepted this because on our part there are no provocative steps,he said. Abbas said some Israelis had complained that his West Bank-based administration had incited violence against Israel, but the accusations were baseless.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon raised the issue in an interview with Israeli Army Radio on Sunday, calling on the Palestinians to stop the terrible incitement.He said Israel had given no commitment to freeze construction in Jerusalem, insisting no undertaking has been given and none will be given.Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Matthew Jones)

France tells Syria to toughen border security
MAY 2,10


PARIS (AFP) – France wants Syria to guarantee security on its border with Lebanon, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday after Israel accused Damascus of supplying missiles to Hezbollah.The situation is serious, dangerous, Kouchner told Europe 1 radio.There is a stockpile of weapons, short-range, medium-range and perhaps even long-range missiles and we are concerned.A US anti-terrorism assessment team visited the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing last week amid allegations that Damascus had allowed deliveries of Scud missiles to its ally Hezbollah.We are asking the Syrians to guarantee the security of that border,Kouchner said.I am not saying that it's a sieve because a certain number of facts have not been established.But this is dangerous and reinforces extremism,he added.Last month, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of providing Scud missiles to Hezbollah. Damascus has denied the charges.Israel maintains that Hezbollah has a stockpile of more than 40,000 rockets, some of which have a range of more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) that would allow the Shiite militant group to hit major cities in Israel.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates last week accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with increasingly sophisticated rockets and missiles, saying the arsenal undermined stability in the region.But Gates did not say if Syria was supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles as Israel has alleged.France has been spearheading moves to bring Syria out of diplomatic isolation since President Nicolas Sarkozy took office in 2007.Hezbollah is the only Lebanese group that did not disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that its weapons were necessary to fight Israel which it later faced off in a devastating conflict in 2006.

Arab League backs resumption of Middle East talks
By Yasmine Saleh Yasmine Saleh – Sat May 1, 9:37 pm ET


CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab League nations on Saturday endorsed a resumption of negotiations on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, raising hopes that indirect talks brokered by the United States could revive the stalled peace process.Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters after a meeting of Arab officials in Cairo that the regional body would back indirect negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli officials.The timeframe of indirect talks will not change from what was agreed to in March, and there will be no change from indirect talks to direct talks until after the outcome of indirect talks has been assessed, he said.Arab League backing is key if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to risk opposition from Palestinian hardliners backed by Syria and Iran and embrace negotiations that have been on hold since the three-week Gaza war began in December 2008.Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, told Reuters the condition for Arab League support would be a halt of settlement activity in the West Bank.If Israel builds one house in the West Bank, Palestinians will immediately stop the negotiations.He said a final decision would be made by the Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee next week. It was a very positive meeting and they made a consultative decision on engagement in proximity talks for four months.In March, a majority of Arab League nations backed the talks, but later retracted the decision after Israel announced it would erect 1,600 settler homes in an area of the occupied West Bank that the Israelis annexed to East Jerusalem.Israel has refused to freeze such projects, calling Jerusalem its indivisable capital -- a status not recognized internationally. Palestinians want a capital in East Jerusalem.

GOODWILL

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did, however, declare in November a limited moratorium on other West Bank settlements. Praised by Washington as a goodwill gesture, the moratorium expires in September.Netanyahu's spokesman said the prime minister welcomed the Arab League decision, adding that Israel wants to renew the peace talks with the Palestinians any time and any place, on condition this is done without preconditions.Syria and Lebanon did not support the Arab League statement, Syria's ambassador said, demanding more from Israel before talks could resume.This committee has exceeded its authority and given the Palestinians the green light to start indirect talks without the Israelis taking steps on the ground, Yousef al-Ahmed said.On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she expected indirect talks to begin next week with U.S. special envoy George Mitchell returning to the region to try to energize a peace process that is a key U.S. foreign policy goal.An Israeli political official said Mitchell was expected to visit the region on Monday.

Abbas had insisted Israel freeze Jewish settlement building before he would come to the negotiating table. But Palestinian sources have suggested he might accept a delay to some Jewish housing projects instead and have spoken of an unwritten commitment from Mitchell to assign blame publicly to any party that jeopardizes the talks.Erekat said the Palestinian side had been given positive indications by the United States but declined to elaborate.Netanyahu is planning to visit Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak next week. Egypt was the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel. (Additional reporting Ayman Samir in Cairo and Dan Williams in Jerusalem)

Hezbollah chief refuses to confirm Scud build-up
Sat May 1, 11:44 am ET


BEIRUT (AFP) – The chief of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement said on Saturday it had a legal right to own any weapon it wishes, but would not confirm or deny Israeli allegations it was stockpiling Scud missiles.The Scud (issue) emerged a while ago... and it created a lot of fuss, Hassan Nasrallah said in his first public reaction to the controversy, according to a statement from Hezbollah's press office.We do not confirm or deny if we have received weapons or not, so we do not comment and we will not comment,he told a committee in charge of security, financial and logistical backing for Hezbollah, adding: This is our position.Hezbollah has a legal and humanitarian right to own any weapon it wants to protect people oppressed and threatened by Israel's cancerous presence.The controversy erupted in April when Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of supplying its Lebanese ally Hezbollah with the missiles, a charge Damascus denied.Washington, which has sought a rapprochement with Damascus, further fed the controversy as Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with sophisticated weaponry, without specifying they were Scuds.Gates warned at a joint news conference Tuesday with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak that Hezbollah has far more rockets and missiles than most governments in the world.On Saturday Nasrallah dismissed talk that the controversy about Hezbollah weaponry was a prelude to a new armed conflict.

When the US defence minister Gates says that Hezbollah has more weapons than most governments in the world... whether this is right or wrong, I will not comment, he said.I don't believe that all this fuss about the missiles is a prelude to a war, and God willing I am right. It is not a climate of war.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the risks of sparking a regional war if he supplied long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.It is the only Lebanese group that did not disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that its weapons were necessary to fight Israel which it later faced off in a devastating conflict in 2006.

US, Egypt negotiate Mideast nuclear-free zone: report
Sat May 1, 4:32 am ET


WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials are in talks with Egypt over a plan to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, part of an effort to block the Iranian nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the White House wanted to build on a non-binding agreement that emerged from a 1995 UN review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).That agreement had designated the region as a zone free of weapons of mass destruction: the aim now was to promote a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone, which would include Israel, the Arab states, Iran and Turkey.The US administration was also seeking a conference on the subject.US officials said talks with Egypt would resume in New York in the coming month during the month-long nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, the paper said.We've made a proposal to them that goes beyond what the US has been willing to do before, the Journal quotes one senior US official as saying.

However, US officials stressed that they didn't believe progress in the nuclear-free zone talks would happen without first achieving major advances in Arab-Israeli peace talks, the paper noted.The United States had also discussed the proposal with the Arab League and other members of the Non-Aligned Movement, the paper reported, quoting Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.But this latest initiative could raise new tensions between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Journal said.Israel has never publicly acknowledged having nuclear weapons, maintaining a policy of deliberate ambiguity since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in 1965.It is not a party to the NPT, which requires international inspections.A new nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review summit opens Monday at UN headquarters in New York. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to participate.The summit comes as the United States and its partners seek to craft a new UN resolution imposing a fresh round of sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.On Tuesday, Egypt's UN Ambassador Maged Abdel Aziz said that establishing a Middle East nuclear-free zone at the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference was the key to resolving the nuclear standoff with Iran.Iran denies the charges that its civilian nuclear program hides a covert quest for an atomic arsenal, but has refused to freeze uranium enrichment, which can be a key step towards developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran warns Israel against attacking Syria
Fri Apr 30, 12:06 pm ET


DAMASCUS (AFP) – Iran will cut off Israel's feet if the Jewish state attacks Damascus, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Rida Rahimi vowed on Friday at the end of a two-day visit to key regional ally Syria.We will stand alongside Syria against any (Israeli) threat, Rahimi said at a news conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri.If those who have violated Palestinian land want to try anything we will cut off their feet, he said in reference to the Jewish state.Rahimi described Syria as a strong country that is ready to confront any threat and pledged that Tehran will back Syria with all its means and strength.On Tuesday, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with increasingly sophisticated rockets and missiles which he said undermined stability in the region.

And on Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against the risk of sparking a regional war if he supplies long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.President Assad is making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region,she warned.Earlier this month, Israeli President Shimon Peres claimed that Syria was supplying the militant Shiite group Hezbollah with Scud missiles.

Syria has denied the charges.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006 during which it fired more than 4,000 rockets on the Jewish state.Israel estimates that Hezbollah has since stockpiled more than 40,000 rockets, some of which could reach major Israeli population centers, and has warned it stood ready for any attack by the Lebanese group.Despite a 1949 armistice agreement, Israel remains technically at war with Syria, which was among those that battled the nascent Jewish state in the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.Assad recently indicated willingness to resume indirect Turkish-mediated peace talks, which were suspended when Israel launched its devastating Gaza Strip offensive in December 2008.

Israel PM claims major party win, media calls it spin
Fri Apr 30, 4:03 am ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed a major victory against hardliners in his right-wing Likud party in a procedural vote some media on Friday dismissed as a major spin campaign.The party's 2,525-strong central committee voted by 77 percent in favour of the premier's proposal to delay by a year internal party elections amid concerns a more hawkish makeup could have tied Netanyahu's hands in any future US-brokered peace negotiations.Netanyahu had gone all out to rally the troops for the vote that was painted as a make-or-break battle against hardliners.But some Israeli newspapers wondered whether the hawkish premier really needed the vote.Benjamin Netanyahu could allow himself a smile after the Likud central committee vote ... but it seems that the real winner in the Likud yesterday was the spin, the Maariv daily said.Israel Hayom, which is considered close to Netanyahu, said: It is not at all certain that Netanyahu needed these elections.The impressive, and higher than expected turnout -- more than 80 percent -- clearly showed the premier has undisputed control of the party, the newspaper said.

Commentators had claimed earlier that Netanyahu would face an uphill battle to gain the two-thirds majority necessary to win Thursday's vote.The prime minister himself had insisted ahead of the vote that achieving such a majority was an almost impossible mission.Opposing him was a group led by hardline settler Moshe Feiglin, convicted of sedition by a court in 1997 after organising a campaign of civil disobedience against the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians.

Feiglin's supporters wanted a party convention to be held now so they could rally opposition to Netanyahu and limit his ability to make concessions over Jerusalem and other thorny issues in the peace process.Movement towards a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks, suspended since December 2008, has shown signs of picking up. On Sunday, Netanyahu said he expected indirect, US-brokered negotiations to get under way within days.Feiglin said on Thursday that Netanyahu was preparing to make significant concessions to the Arab side and accused him of trying to immobilise internal Likud opposition.US President Barack Obama has been pressing Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch peace negotiations.The Palestinians have refused direct talks unless Israel freezes settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in 1967 and annexed in a move not recognised internationally.Netanyahu has declared a partial moratorium on new construction in the West Bank but refuses to freeze building anywhere in Jerusalem, which Israel officially claims as its indivisible capital.The Israeli media have said Netanyahu has quietly put the brakes on Jerusalem settlement activity as a gesture to Washington, but Netanyahu and members of his government have adamantly denied the reports.

Clinton warns Iran, Syria on threats to Israel By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer - Thu Apr 29, 11:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration Thursday warned Iran and Syria that America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakable and that they should understand the consequences of threats to the Jewish state.In a speech, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Syrian transfers of increasingly sophisticated weaponry including rockets to militants in southern Lebanon and Gaza could spark new conflict in the Middle East. And she said a nuclear-armed Iran would profoundly destabilize the region.These threats to Israel's security are real, they are growing and they must be addressed,she said in the speech to the American Jewish Committee. The speech was the administration's latest effort to reassure Israel that its ties to the United States remain strong despite tensions that flared last month.Clinton told the group that Israel is confronting some of the toughest challenges in her history, particularly from Iran, Syria and groups they support like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and reaffirmed U.S. determination to get them to change course.

Transferring weapons to these terrorists — especially longer-range missiles — would pose a serious threat to the security of Israel, she said.Israel has accused Syria of providing Hezbollah with Scud missiles, weapons that would dramatically increase the group's ability to strike targets in Israel. Syria has denied the charges.U.S. officials have not confirmed Hezbollah's possession of Scuds, but say they are concerned about its growing arsenal of rockets and missiles.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, addressing the same group later, made the same points as Clinton and said Israel was watching closely the situation with Hezbollah and Iran. He said Israel would hold the Lebanese and Syrian governments responsible for the introduction of any balance-breaking weapons to Hezbollah.Getting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop supplying these weapons, Clinton said, is one of the administration's prime goals in returning an ambassador to Damascus. The U.S. has been without an ambassador in Syria for five years. The nominee, career diplomat Robert Ford, is still awaiting Senate confirmation.Some lawmakers have questioned the wisdom of sending an envoy to Syria now, saying it would reward the country for bad behavior.But Clinton argued it would not be a reward or concession, but rather a tool that can give us added leverage and insight and a greater ability to convey strong and unmistakably clear messages aimed at changing Syria's behavior.President Assad is making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region, she said.We know he's hearing from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. It is crucial that he also hear directly from us, so that the potential consequences of his actions are clear.

On Iran, Clinton said the administration is still open to engaging with Tehran but that it must meet international demands to prove its suspect nuclear program is peaceful and not a cover for developing atomic weapons. Short of that, the U.S. will continue to press for tough new U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran.Iran is trying to forestall fresh sanctions and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may try to use a nuclear conference at the United Nations next week to lobby against them.
Ahmadinejad is now a confirmed speaker at the conference, which will review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at U.N. headquarters in New York, the U.N. said Thursday night.Ahead of her speech, Clinton said any attempt by Ahmadinejad to undermine the purpose of the conference would fail.If he believes that by coming he can somehow divert attention from this very important global effort or cause confusion that might possibly throw into doubt what Iran has been up to, ... then I don't believe he will have a particularly receptive audience, she said.In her speech, Clinton also said the U.S. will continue to pursue an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and is hoping to restart indirect talks between the two sides soon. The administration's special Mideast envoy George Mitchell is due back in the region next week. His visit will follow a weekend meeting of Arab League diplomats at which U.S. officials hope for an endorsement of the indirect talks, which Mitchell would mediate.

An attempt to get those talks started last month fizzled when Israel announced a new Jewish housing project in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as a future capital. That drew fierce criticism from the United States and led to the worst rift between Washington and its top Mideast ally in decades. Since then, the administration has sought to repair the damage with a series of recent meetings and speeches from senior officials, including Clinton and national security adviser James Jones.

Rights group: Mideast maids unprotected from abuse By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 29, 12:09 pm ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Reforms undertaken by governments in the Middle East to protect domestic workers from abuse are insufficient to shield women working as house maids from abuse and violence, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.Millions of mostly Asian women who work in countries like Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates remain at risk of human trafficking, forced labor, confinement and sexual violence, the New York-based group said.Although several governments have made improvements for migrant domestic workers in the past five years, reform has been slow and incremental, Nisha Varia, the group's senior researcher of women's rights told The Associated Press.There has been a big change in the sense that these countries are recognizing there is a problem, Varia said in a phone interview.But while many governments are introducing reforms, most have yet to implement them.The 26-page report released Thursday documents progress in extending protections to mostly Asian women working as house maids in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and the Emirates.

Women working in private homes often work 20-hour days, face forced confinement and are sometimes physically and sexually abused, the report said.Their passports are confiscated upon arrival, leaving employers in full control of their house maids' lives under what is known as a sponsorship system.The custom remains the biggest factor contributing to abuse, leaving women trapped in abusive situations since they are not allowed to legally change an employer, HRW said.The group also urged that it's essential that domestic workers' rights — now governed by immigration law in most Mideast countries — are included in the labor law, assuring them of basic rights such as setting their work hours, regulating the quality of food and housing they get and guaranteeing them a day off a week.Governments will have to think creatively how to reach out to women working in private homes, Varia said.It is a unique working environment.While Human Rights Watch praised Jordan for including domestic work in the country's labor law, it said that enforcement remains a big concern.Most migrant workers in the Middle East — 1,5 million, according to HRW's assessment — are employed in Saudi Arabia. About 200,000 migrants work in Lebanon and 660,000 in Kuwait.Domestic work in foreign countries is an important source of employment for women in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal, India, and Ethiopia. Their earnings abroad amount to much of the billions of dollars of remittances sent home each year.

INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.

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

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

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.

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

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

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

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

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

I KNEW THE FALSE PEACE WOULD BE FORCED ON ISRAEL THATS WHAT THE BIBLE TELLS ME BECAUSE ITS A PEACE TREATY OF DEATH AND HELL WHICH MEANS A TREATY OF WORLD WAR.

Obama to act if Mideast talks derailed
Thu Apr 29, 8:29 am ET


RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – US President Barack Obama has vowed to take action against Israel or the Palestinians if either undermines indirect peace talks, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that, in a letter handed to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas by US envoy George Mitchell during a meeting last week, Obama pledged to hold both parties accountable.Obama called on president Abbas to return to the negotiations, pledging that if (either) party hinders them or takes provocative steps during the indirect negotiations, there is an American commitment to take steps against it and there will be a re-evaluation of the US administration's policy towards it, the official said.During the meeting with Abbas, Mitchell confirmed that the American administration was pledged and committed to taking (such) steps, including revising and reviewing US policy towards Israel,the official added.Those steps could include Washington refraining from using its permanent veto to protect Israel if the Palestinians were to seek a UN Security Council ruling against continued settlement activity, the official said.The official said Mitchell told Abbas Israel had pledged not to undertake any work on settlements during the talks and to halt a controversial project to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem.

A US embassy spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat confirmed that Abbas had received a letter from Obama that said he remains committed to the two-state solution and is prepared to exert every effort to give it the opportunity to succeed.The Palestinians were to meet with Arab foreign ministers on Saturday to discuss whether to hold US-brokered indirect talks with Israel, and Abbas said earlier this week he hoped for a positive response.In March, the Palestinians, with Arab backing, grudgingly agreed to indirect talks but the initiative collapsed days later when Israel announced the east Jerusalem plans during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.That announcement drew a sharp rebuke from Washington, which has been struggling for months to relaunch peace negotiations last suspended after the December 2008 outbreak of the Gaza war.

AND ILL ADD HERE .HERE ARE THE COUNTRIES THAT WILL PAY FOR HATING JESUS AND ISRAEL THE MOST.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

AND THE RESULT AFTER ALL THE ARAB-MUSLIM NATIONS ARE DESTROYED.

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE

EZEKIEL 47:13-23,48:1-35
13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; This shall be the border, whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions.
14 And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance.
15 And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad;
16 Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazarhatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran.
17 And the border from the sea shall be Hazarenan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side.
18 And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the east sea. And this is the east side.
19 And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side southward.
20 The west side also shall be the great sea from the border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side.
21 So shall ye divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel.
22 And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
23 And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord GOD.
1 Now these are the names of the tribes. From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west; a portion for Dan.
2 And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Asher.
3 And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Naphtali.
4 And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.
5 And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim.
6 And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Reuben.
7 And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.
8 And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.
9 The oblation that ye shall offer unto the LORD shall be of five and twenty thousand in length, and of ten thousand in breadth.
10 And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof.
11 It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.
12 And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the Levites.
13 And over against the border of the priests the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.
14 And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD.
15 And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof.
16 And these shall be the measures thereof; the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.
17 And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty.
18 And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward: and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy portion; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city.
19 And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.
20 All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city.
21 And the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof.
22 Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.
23 As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side unto the west side, Benjamin shall have a portion.
24 And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion.
25 And by the border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar a portion.
26 And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto the west side, Zebulun a portion.
27 And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion.
28 And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the great sea.
29 This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their portions, saith the Lord GOD.
30 And these are the goings out of the city on the north side, four thousand and five hundred measures.
31 And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi.
32 And at the east side four thousand and five hundred: and three gates; and one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan.
33 And at the south side four thousand and five hundred measures: and three gates; one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun.
34 At the west side four thousand and five hundred, with their three gates; one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali.
35 It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.