Wednesday, September 21, 2011

ABBAS SUICDE BELT BLOWS UP PA LIES

Op-Ed: Abbas’ Suicide Belt Blows Up PA Lies Published: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 12:57 PM
Try to imagine how the world would exist without Israel and with Frankenstein – or Mohammed –as your leader.Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

The biggest lies since Holocaust denial are being blown up, bit by bit, by the Arab world’s stooge, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.Yasser Arafat, his predecessor, figuratively used the pistol on his hip to shoot the PA in its head and blow up the Oslo Accords into the Oslo War in 2000.Abbas, whose doctoral thesis supported Holocaust denial, stepped into his shoes, dressed like a diplomat instead of a terrorist and is carrying a diplomatic suicide belt that strikes at the heart of the Palestinian Authority.His ammunition is donated by his Arab superiors, particularly those in Saudi Arabia, where its 2002 Peace Initiative has become the constitution for Abbas' conditions to create the Palestinian Authority as a new Arab country within Israel’s borders.Palestinian Authority media have clearly destroyed the lie that Abbas would recognize the pre-1967 borders of Israel – Jewish or not. The PA considers these borders as temporary and that all of Israel actually is Palestine.The lie that Abbas and the Arab world want a two-state solution also unravels with the demand of the right of return, a Guinness Book of Records clincher for the most ridiculous 1984 doublespeak term ever created. Arabs whose second to fifth generation relatives lived in Israel before 1948 have a right to live in Israel just as much as descendants of Pilgrims who fled Englan to live in the 13 Colonies have the right to claim the United Kingdom as their home.

The influx of several million Arabs to Israel obviously would be the end of a Jewish state, but Abbas bared another lie of co-existence last week when he told the world that a future Palestinian Authority will be free of Jews.World leaders have accepted the gross slander of Israeli apartheid, but Abbas has blown up that lie with his Judenrein policy in a classic case of the liar covering up his sins by casting them on others.An Arab-dominated Israel suits the Arab Middle East; it only would be a matter of time that the Jewish problem would be solved in a nice, neat diplomatic fashion, without the need for gas chambers.The ploy of going to the United Nations for unilateral recognition leaves the Palestinian Authority’s true ambitions naked even to American policy-makers in the State Department’s Foggy Bottom and European turn-the-other-cheek nations.Even the mainstream media, although it still clings with eroding bare threads to its blame Israel bias, has stopped believing in the peace process, and Abbas has exposed it as a façade for the annihilation of the State of Israel.He has thrown dust in the eyes of Western leaders, who for decades have slept easier by seeing the purpose of the existence of Israel as satisfying their guilty conscience for burying the truth during the Holocaust, and now for letting the world sink into a morass that recalls the generations of the Tower of Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah.The vacuum of true Judaic values outside of Israel has been an incubator for the Arab world’s lies, nurtured by mainstream media and ignorant Christian – and Jewish – leaders.Abbas, in the name of his Saudi masters and Muslim clerics, has revealed that a new Arab state cannot be created unless it lays the groundwork for the destruction of Israel.Try to imagine how the world would exist without Israel and you have Frankenstein – or Mohammed – as your leader.It may be too late for European countries to stop the Islamic Caliphate in their countries, but Abbas’ detonation of Arab lies and of the Palestinian Authority itself is waking up the Obama administration that truth conquers all.Maybe we should thank G-d for Abbas.

Op-Ed: This Week's UN Farce: Delegitimizing Israel
Published: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 8:31 AM


The PA is saying: I’ll cancel every previous agreement, I’ll set the boundaries, ignoring negotiations, security guarantees for Israel, all decisions by the U.N. and with no recognition of the State of the Jewish people.MP Fiamma Nirenstein
Il Giornale, September 19, 2011 (sent to Arutz Sheva in translation by the author)
http://www.fiammanirenstein.com/articoli.asp?Categoria=5&Id=2695

A dramatic week starts at the United Nations, the most important international organization and also the most damaging and confused. Since the U.N. General Assembly is in the hands of an automatic majority of Islamic States and of former Non-Aligned Countries, it is always to be expected that it will create only misunderstandings and human rights violations, rather than solutions.And this is what will happen this week: on one side we have the Palestinian Authority asking for a unilateral recognition of a State.It is the incredible pretence of announcing: I’ll cancel every previous agreement, I’ll set the boundaries, I’ll solve the extremely thorny bilateral issues such as refugees and Jerusalem, ignoring negotiations, security guarantees for Israel, all the previous decisions by the U.N. and the Quartet and with no recognition of the State of the Jewish people.On the other side, while the Palestinian Authority does that, Israel will be vilified worldwide by the same old lie: it is Israel that does not want peace and wants to continue oppressing the Palestinian people.No one remembers that Israel has always left land when it thought, right or wrong, to achieve peace. It did it in Sinai, in Lebanon, in Gaza: under the Oslo agreement, it left all the Palestinian Arab towns.

Now in sight of a Palestinian State, as usual the U.N. supports the tale of Western Countries as oppressive and imperialistic and does not make the Palestinian Arabs accountable for their de facto authoritarian regime, for the huge power in the hands of Hamas, for the persecutions of homosexuals and of political dissidents.The Palestinians actually rejected any negotiated agreement with Israel: their dream is to see it vanish; again they are refusing to negotiate and nobody reminds them that they turned down the agreements with Rabin, with Barak, with Olmert and also Netanyahu’s proposal to sit and talk.At this very moment there are frantic debates on the Security Council/General Assembly options. If Europe supports them in the General Assembly, for the time being the Palestinian Authority looks as though it will be ready to give up the Security Council, where the United States promised its veto.But Europe is split: some Countries are in favor of a solution for the Palestinian Authority as observer member, but it is not clear whether they would be pleased with this proposal or even if other European States (including Italy) would accept it.In fact, some of them openly say that unilateralism violates any international law principle and that it is necessary to negotiate to really achieve peace.The only clear thing is that Abu Mazen wants to make his historical move using the UN to become the leader of an international movement of defamation and delegitimation of Israel that will probably spread a lot of violence.

EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)

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 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) 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.

REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)

Op-Ed: Barak Outsources Israel's Security
Published: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 11:34 AM


Egypt is another border to watch out for, but Israel's current defense minister has long shown a stubborn preference for short-term expediency over long-term vision and is allowing militarization.Ariel Harkham

With the tent protests, missiles falling on population centers, yet another neighbor-state (Syria) in turmoil, and the brouhaha surrounding a Palestinian state grab at the UN and possible Arab riots, it's been one hot summer and fall in Israel.
But the action in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula--from the terror attack that took eight Israeli lives, next to an Egyptian outpost in the demilitarized peninsula--has us starting to realize that while summer might be receding, things are just starting to get hot.After the coordinated terror attack that took place near Eilat several weeks ago, the Israeli leadership finally woke up to a major threat. The Sinai Peninsula represents 23,000 square miles of nearly ungovernable space. For years the terror threat has been increasing, but with the downfall of the Mubarak regime, it has deteriorated into the kind of desert no-man's-land, similar to parts of Sudan and Pakistan's Waziristan region, that makes rife soil for Islamist terror cells.Of course, Israel learned its lesson--which everyone already knew--too late. Now in the aftermath, the man charged with protecting Israel's borders, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who failed to anticipate the threat in the first place, has unilaterally declared that the Egyptian army can and should return to the area.

But this move is a distinct violation of the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, the one formalized by the famous handshake between Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and with a smiling Jimmy Carter between them. The broad strokes of that treaty called for Israel to return the peninsula, which it had conquered for the second time in 1967, to Egyptian sovereignty and control, and in return Egypt would normalize relations with Israel and maintain a demilitarized peninsula to serve as an Israeli security buffer.Ehud Barak's recent call to re-militarize the peninsula represents is a thunderbolt to the Middle East political equation. As the first successful land-for-peace deal ever made by Israel, the Sinai Peninsula was the model of not just how to execute such an arrangement, but of its validity and feasibility. For years, proponents of this sort of peace--Barak chief among them--have pointed to Egypt as the proof that land for peace works.Coming from Barak, a move of this magnitude made with such a careless air is no surprise. Israel's current defense minister and one-time prime minister has long shown a stubborn preference for short-term expediency over long-term vision. Barak is in fact unabashed about this, telling The Economist this week that: Sometimes you have to subordinate strategic considerations to tactical needs.While this is not altogether untrue in fragile situations that require a great degree of flexibility, when put into this particular Egyptian context--which is as strategic a context as there is--it shows a lack of vision that borders on recklessness.

Given the tumult in Egypt this past year, Barak’s stated policy becomes even more unreasonable. A massive political transformation in Egypt that has yet to reveal its true nature is no time to be making radical changes to previous agreements. And yet by advocating an abrogation to a frigid peace on Israel’s tense southern borders without knowing the true attitude of Egypt’s revolution is more than mere folly but potentially disastrous.Moreover, it calls into question all other agreements of this sort because Barak forces Israel to ingest an untenable slippery slope of political conveniences erode the security clauses crucial to the cogency of the land peace equation.By uttering such a policy unilaterally, Barak encourages Egypt to only compound the pressure already on Israel. Egypt’s temporary government sees a militarization of the Sinai as an easy win. It can sell this as a reversal of the peace accords to quell its vast anti-Israeli constituency.Begin on demilitarized Sinai: ... strategic depth, in case the other side has taken the first step towards a war of aggression, as happened in Europe only three years after the abrogation of the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland.It should be noted that Egypt has done very little to stem the tide of weapons and terrorist in the Sinai, despite the enlarged force (an additional 750 troops) which Ariel Sharon permitted so that it could effectively control the Gaza border after disengagement. Indeed, Egypt has been unable to secure its own pipeline infrastructure, which have been repeatedly attacked over the past few months. In light of Hamas’ control of Gaza and a security vacuum on its southern border, Israel should be hugging tight to its security agreements with Egypt.

If Israel wants Egypt to do more with it Sinai forces it already has it should be using diplomatic triggers built into the agreement that forces Egypt to act not for Israeli interests but for its own interests. This treaty has many carrots to leverage, allowing Egypt to obtain the latest in military hardware, international credibility, a billion plus in annual US aid, all of which Israel could effectively call into question if Egypt continues to close its eyes to what is happening within its own borders.Speaking to a class of military graduates in 1983, Menachem Begin clearly pointed out the importance of a demilitarized Sinai peninsula, saying that it provided the attainment of strategic depth, in case the other side has taken the first step towards a war of aggression, as happened in Europe only three years after the abrogation of the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland.”[1] In other words, without this buffer zone, Israel could face a situation in which, by the time in knew of an invasion, its enemy would already have crossed into Israeli territory.

Rather than taking the fight to Israel’s aggressors, Barak is choosing to outsource Israel’s security to an ominous Egyptian state. The same strategy is employed with the Iron Dome system, which leaves the fight in the hands of Israel’s enemies and provides the façade of calm. At a time when Israel is under missile attacks from Gaza, and terror attacks coming out of Sinai, Israel can ill afford leaders of its defense that are expert in posturing and fixed towards negotiation, instead of retaking the initiative and offering innovative strategies to bring the battle to the enemies.In short, Israel needs a dynamic defense minister unwilling to sacrifice long-term security for short term calm, who won’t solve smaller problems by creating bigger problems.Thankfully, in democracies power is checked, the speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin announced that a decision in changing the Egyptian-Israeli peace accords requires the Knesset’s approval. Netanyahu attempted to water this down by claiming that such treaty changes requires only cabinet approval.In any event, Egypt’s military is kept at bay, at least for now. What all this should mean for us paying attention is that we are observing the first clear call to backtrack from the Sinai accords and with it the land for peace paradigm it has fathered. That such declarations are coming from the left makes it even more noteworthy, forcing Israel to seriously rethink the land for peace equation in future diplomatic negotiations with any of its neighbors.

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.

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

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.

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

Prayer at Lubavitcher Rebbe's Tomb Ahead of PA's UN Bid
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148098#.TnkwCeztg44

Former leaders urge EU to recognise Palestine
Today SEPT 20,11 @ 09:27 By Andrew Rettman


Senior EU personalities have called for member states to recognise Palestinian independence, as UN negotiations count down to a vote in New York on Friday (23 September).Should this request [for full UN membership] be made, the EU should support it, coupling it with a clear expectation that an independent Palestine would be prepared to conduct negotiations with Israel, the joint statement, seen by EUobserver, says.Noting that the EU has already recognised that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has, with European support, created a fully functioning country in the West Bank, it adds: Backtracking from this commitment now would demonstrate inconsistency, weakness and an absence of political will.It also warns that EU relations with post-Arab Spring countries are at stake: At a moment when the European Union is working to redefine its relations with the societies of the region, member states should not squander this opportunity to play a positive and meaningful role.The roll call of 40 signatories includes former European leaders, cabinet ministers and EU commissioners, as well as Finland's current foreign minister, Erkki Tuomioja.Names from traditionally pro-Palestinian countries France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain comprise former French prime ministers Lionel Jospin and Michel Rocard, ex-Irish president Mary Robinson, one-time Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio and former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzales.

Signatories also come from pro-Israeli countries Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, including former German president Richard von Weizsacker, ex-prime ministers of Italy Giuliano Amato and Romano Prodi and former Dutch leader Andreas van Agt.
Speaking in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel on Tuesday (20 September), Fayyad also noted that the EU risks contradicting itself if it opposes the bid. What if, just as an illustration, we go to the UN General Assembly and present a draft resolution where the preamble is taken verbatim from the European Council's 2009 position? No one could then tell me why the European Union should oppose it, he said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has publicly promised to seek full UN membership from the UN Security Council on Friday.France and the UK in separate briefings from New York on Monday indicated they would not support Abbas' plan because it could lead to a split between the EU and the US and risk violence on the ground.Such a move in the Security Council would clearly be vetoed by the United States ... it would leave no one any further forward, British foreign minister William Hague said.If you go to the security council and then afterward there is an American veto, then nothing will happen on the ground except perhaps a resumption of violence because people are frustrated, French foreign minister Alain Juppe told the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.The EU officially favours a return to Israeli-Palestinian talks on the basis of 1967 borders with a shared capital in Jerusalem. But if Abbas changes tack from seeking full UN membership and asks the UN General Assembly instead just to upgrade Palestine's status to a non-member state like the Vatican, several EU countries are prepared to vote in favour.Most member states are honouring a gentleman's agreement not to say how they will vote until the final text of the Palestinian draft UN resolution is on the table.For his part, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, made an ambiguous statement on Monday. If the text of the resolution does not constitute a threat to Israel and advances the problem of Palestine, and if it creates a shadow of a chance of a compromise [with Israel], we are ready to vote in favour,he said.

Palestinians will submit UN membership letter APBy MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH and TAREK EL-TABLAWY - Associated Press | AP – SEPT 20,11

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is pressing ahead Tuesday with his diplomatic campaign to gain full U.N. membership, brushing aside heated Israeli objections and a promised U.S. veto as the issue of Palestinian statehood takes center stage with world leaders gathering for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly session.Abbas had meetings scheduled Tuesday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, among leaders, as he sought to line up support ahead of his speech Friday to the General Assembly when the Palestinians vow to submit a letter formally requesting U.N. membership.Envoys of the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia — planned to meet again Tuesday in an effort to avert a divisive showdown over Palestinian statehood by crafting a way forward that would be enough to persuade the Palestinians to drop their bid and have enough caveats for Israel to get its support.

As the Palestinians edged closer to seeking statehood recognition from the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Abbas to meet with him in New York. The Israel leader said he wanted to resume peace talks, upping the pressure on Abbas and building on the frenzied diplomacy swirling around the Palestinians' bid.Regardless, Abbas said he had not been swayed by what he called tremendous pressure to drop the bid for U.N. recognition and instead to resume peace talks with Israel. Senior aides to the Palestinian leader said Abbas was undaunted by threats of punitive measures.Abbas says to every one: it's enough, 20 years of negotiations are more than enough, the world should intervene and end the Israeli occupation as long as the USA can't,said Mohammed Ishtayeh, an Abbas aide.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, however, there was still time to find a solution to the diplomatic crisis.Clinton told reporters in New York that the U.S. is talking with all sides to defuse the standoff, noting that there were still several days to seek a compromise before Abbas' speech.She joined Netanyahu in calling for new talks and repeated the U.S. position that the only path to a separate state for Palestinians is through negotiations with Israel.Nabil Shaath, senior aide to Abbas, told The Associated Press that the Palestinian leader informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during their meeting Monday that he would present him with a letter requesting full membership on Friday, ahead of Abbas' speech to the General Assembly.Any candidate for U.N. membership must submit a letter to the secretary-general stating it is a peace-loving state and accepts the U.N. Charter. Ban is expected to examine the Palestinian letter and then send it to the 15-member U.N. Security Council, which must give its approval before a vote in the larger General Assembly.

Ishtayeh said the letter will state: Palestine is a peace-loving state and has contributed to human civilization, that it has succeeded in building state institutions. It would also cite the need to consider the pre-1967 Mideast War borders as those of the Palestinian state, he said.Although any submission by the Palestinians could wait weeks or months for U.N. action, it has sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity with Mideast mediators scrambling to find a way to draw the sides back to the negotiating table.Shaath said last ditch efforts to dissuade the Palestinian president from approaching the Security Council had failed. He said Palestinians had been threatened with harsh punitive measures but had decided to move ahead nonetheless.The comment appeared to refer to the warnings by some in the U.S. Congress that current and future financial aid to the Palestinian Authority could be in jeopardy if they move ahead with the membership bid. The U.S. gives some $500 million a year in aid to the Palestinians.Israel has not said how it will respond to a Palestinian declaration of independence, though hardliners in Netanyahu's government have called for a variety of measures, including annexing parts or all of the West Bank or withholding tax funds that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that by going to the U.N., the Palestinians are violating the spirit and the word of signed commitments that pledged to resolve disagreements through negotiations. Israel reserves the right to respond, he said Tuesday, refusing to elaborate.Each side in on-again-off-again Israeli-Palestinian talks has accused the other of being an untrustworthy and intransigent participant in the peace process.

In a statement issued late Monday, Netanyahu called on Abbas to begin direct negotiations in New York and continue them in Jerusalem and Ramallah. It provided no other details or indications that Netanyahu was willing to cede to any of the Palestinians' demands.Ban reiterated his support for the two-state solution and stressed his desire to ensure that the international community and the two parties can find a way forward for resuming negotiations within a legitimate and balanced framework,U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said after the secretary-general met with Abbas.The comment underscored the desires of some members of the Quartet of Mideast mediators that Palestinian statehood should not be granted before a resumption of peace talks. While the four international mediators have repeatedly called for renewed negotiations, Russia supports U.N. membership for Palestine.The long-stalled negotiations have been unable to solve key issues including Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and the status of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed at a Monday night meeting that the Quartet envoys should meet again for the third straight day on Tuesday, officials said.A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic work, said progress was being made on a joint Quartet statement that would include a modest upgrade to Palestinian status at the U.N., address Israel's demand that it be recognized as a Jewish state, and set a broad timeline for renewed negotiations.The timeframe wouldn't be a deadline, as such, but would be aimed at addressing the Palestinian desire to see quick action. The offer would come with an unchanged message that Washington would veto the Palestinian bid at the Security Council for U.N. membership, but at the very least it would represent a dignity-saving compromise for Abbas' U.S.-backed government.By already promising a veto in the Security Council, the U.S. has blocked that course for the Palestinians before they even submit the request.Alternatively, the Palestinians could seek the approval of a majority of the General Assembly's 193 member states to upgrade their status from a permanent observer to a nonmember observer state — a designation that would leave them with a symbolic victory despite years of failed negotiations and waning hopes for statehood.In either scenario, the Palestinians will have shown they have the power to force action on the issue at a time when Israel is feeling increasingly isolated in the region.Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Karin Laub in Ramallah, West Bank, Matthew Lee and Bradley Klapper in New York, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem and Julie Pace in Washington, D.C., contributed reporting.

Embracing Israel, GOP candidates assail Obama AP By BETH FOUHY and KASIE HUNT, Associated Press – Tue Sep 20, 5:36 pm ET

NEW YORK – Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and their GOP presidential rivals slammed President Barack Obama's Middle East policies Tuesday while emphatically declaring their ownsupport for Israel as the United Nations considered a bid for Palestinian statehood.Republican front-runner Perry, the Texas governor, denounced the president's Israel policy as misguided and dangerous, speaking to supporters in New York as the Obama administration worked a few miles away to thwart a U.N. vote to grant formal recognition to the Palestinian Authority.Perry also accused Obama of appeasement, as did Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who assailed the president from the Midwest.Perry's chief rival for the nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, issued a statement accusing Obama of throwing Israel under the bus.The Republican campaigns have similar goals: establish contrasts with Obama on an issue where he's struggled; chip away at American Jews' support for Democrats and prove their conservative, pro-Israel bona fides with the evangelical voters who will play a significant role in the GOP presidential primaries.During the 2008 election campaign, Obama worked hard to reassure nervous Jewish voters that he would defend Israel as president. But he's faced doubts and criticism since then.

Perry criticized Obama's stated goal that any negotiations should be based on Israel's borders prior to the 1967 Mideast war, with mutually agreed adjustments and land swaps to accommodate population shifts and some homebuilding since 1967. Perry called that stance insulting and naive.Obama angered Israel earlier this year by endorsing a Palestinian demand that negotiations over future borders begin with the lines Israel held before capturing the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in 1967.In regard to potential official recognition, the administration has been working intensively behind the scenes to restart direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and to persuade Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to drop his push and avoid an explosive confrontation at the U.N. later in the week.But Perry had strong criticism nonetheless, speaking to a group of ultraconservative Jewish and Israeli leaders at a New York hotel.Simply put, we would not be here today at the precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama policy in the Middle East wasn't naive, arrogant, misguided and dangerous, Perry said, flanked by U.S. and Israeli flags. The Obama administration has appeased the Arab Street at the expense of our own national security interests. They have sowed instability that threatens the prospect of peace.Romney said, What we are watching unfold at the United Nations is an unmitigated diplomatic disaster. It is the culmination of President Obama's repeated efforts over three years to undermine its negotiating position. He called for an end to U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority if the U.N. vote went the Palestinians' way.The candidates' remarks represented their efforts to win over the conservative and evangelical voters who care deeply about GOP support for Israel. They back Israel as a U.S. ally in the fight against terror and as a rare democracy in the volatile Mideast. Some also support Israel for theological reasons.

Perry told reporters his support for Israel was in part driven by his religious faith.I also as a Christian have a clear directive to support Israel, so from my perspective it's pretty easy, Perry said when a reporter asked if Perry's faith was driving his views. Both as an American and as a Christian, I am going to stand with Israel.Republicans who describe themselves as evangelical prefer Perry over Romney — 33 percent really like Perry while just 17 percent really like Romney, according to an August AP-GfK poll. Republicans who aren't evangelical like both men about the same.A third Republican candidate, Minnesota Rep. Bachmann, also weighed in Tuesday — but Bachmann, also an evangelical, left religion out of it and instead issued a statement calling on Obama to prevent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from coming to the U.N.Ahmadinejad has shown himself to be an enemy not only of Israel, but also of the United States, the Minnesota congresswoman said. This administration tried and failed to do outreach to Iran, reminding us once again that appeasement of deadly dictators is never a wise or effective strategy.Perry also accused the Obama administration of appeasing bad actors in the Middle East in connection with the Palestinian statehood effort.We're equally indignant of the Obama administration and their Middle East policy of appeasement that has encouraged such an ominous act of bad faith.In a political context, appeasement is language used sometimes used to describe how European governments tried to accommodate Adolf Hitler without sparking war.Obama's re-election campaign was prepared to deal with the political fallout and assembled a team of prominent Jews ready to defend the president's record on Israel.

It appears to be a coordinated Republican effort to distort and misrepresent Obama's strong record and support for Israel, by these presidential candidates and others, for partisan advantage, said former Democratic Rep. Mel Levine of California, who spoke to The Associated Press after Obama's campaign asked him too.In 2008, Obama won 78 percent of the Jewish vote against Republican John McCain. While few strategists expect Jewish voters to swing heavily toward the GOP next year, even a small erosion of support for Obama could make a difference in Florida, a major swing state, and in several House districts across the country.Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes strongly defended the president's record on Israel Tuesday. This administration could not have been a stronger friend and supporter here, Rhodes told reporters at the U.N. What we're here to do is strongly support Israel and help work toward a two-state solution in the best interest of both Israel and the Palestinians, Rhodes said.Tensions are likely to escalate as the week goes on. Abbas, the Palestinian leader, said he will continue to seek full U.N. membership even though he says he is under tremendous pressure to drop the effort. The U.S. has indicated it would veto the proposal in the U.N. Security Council.U.S. officials are insisting there is still time to avoid a divisive showdown, and have been working with Western allies in hopes of a last-minute compromise. Obama is to address the U.N. Wednesday.Kasie Hunt reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Bradley Klapper contributed from New York, Thomas Beaumont from Des Moines, Iowa, and Brian Bakst from Minnesota.

Obama aims to salvage Mideast crisis aversion plan AP By BRADLEY KLAPPER and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press – SEPT 20,11

NEW YORK – The U.S. and its allies changed tactics Tuesday on how to avert a crisis over a Palestinian statehood bid, as the White House announced that President Barack Obama would meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. At the same time, U.S. officials conceded they could not stop Abbas from officially launching his case for the Security Council's approval of the statehood effort.But they hoped to contain the fallout by urging Abbas not to push for an actual vote in the Council, where the U.S. has promised a veto, to give international peacemakers time to produce a statement that would be the basis for resumed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Obama is expected to make a pro forma request to Abbas when they meet Wednesday not to proceed with his initial plan, but also make the case for the Palestinian leader to essentially drop the move for statehood recognition after delivering his letter of intent to the U.N., expected Friday.The president will be able to say very directly why we believe that action at the United Nations is not the way to achieve a Palestinian state, said Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser. He noted that Abbas has indicated his intent to go the Security Council, but said Obama has made it clear that we do not believe that that will lead to a Palestinian state, that we oppose such efforts.Obama will also meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.The new approach would see the quartet of Mideast peace mediators — the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia — issue a statement addressing both Palestinian and Israeli concerns and setting a timetable for a return to the long-stalled peace talks, officials said.

Israel would have to accept its pre-1967 borders with land exchanges as the basis for a two-state solution, and the Palestinians would have to recognize Israel's Jewish character if they were to reach a deal quickly, officials close to the talks said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing diplomacy.
European officials, supported by the United States, were presenting the contours of a compromise agreement to the Israeli and Palestinian governments, and asking for tough concessions from each. Officials said several extremely challenging hurdles were leading to some pessimism as to whether mediators would be able to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, with both sides being pressed to accept positions they've long deemed anathema to their visions of a two-state peace pact.The difficult diplomacy reflected in some ways the intractability of a dispute that has foiled would-be peacemakers for decades, even though none of the actual elements of a final agreement was being discussed.Quartet envoys met for a third straight day in New York to come up with a formula that would lead to direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The goal is to reach a comprehensive agreement that would address this week's three major issues, officials said.The Palestinians would be allowed to deliver their letter of request Friday to the United Nations, but the Palestinians would not act on it for a year or would withdraw it at a later point. That would allow Abbas to save face and prevent an embarrassing defeat that might empower his party's rival faction, Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the United States.

The Palestinians could also go to the U.N. General Assembly, where they have overwhelming support, but would have to seek instead some form of intermediate upgrade that would stop short of a full recognition of statehood.And the quartet, with Israel and the Palestinians' advance approval, would give the two sides a year to reach a framework agreement, based on Obama's vision of borders fashioned from Israel's pre-1967 boundary, with agreed land swaps. The statement would also endorse the idea of two states for two peoples, Jewish and Palestinian, which would be a slightly amended version of Israel's demand for recognition specifically as a Jewish state.So far, neither side seemed willing to make such a dramatic concession, officials said. There was also some disagreement among the quartet with Russia expressing its displeasure with a number of EU and U.S. supported ideas, they said. And they cautioned that the agreement could cause the same conundrum at next year's U.N. General Assembly meeting if talks fail to advance by then.Obama met on Tuesday with Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan of Turkey, once a close regional partner of Israel but lately an increasingly vociferous critic, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed the Palestinian plan with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister.

In addition to international pressure, Obama was coming under fire from leading Republican hopefuls over his handling of the Mideast peace process.Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Obama was part of the problem, criticizing him for demanding concessions from Israel and claiming that the president had emboldened the Palestinians to take their case to the United Nations.We would not be here today at this very precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama policy in the Middle East wasn't naive and arrogant, misguided and dangerous, Perry said in a speech in New York.The Obama policy of moral equivalency, which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a very dangerous insult.In a statement before Perry spoke, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also waded into the dispute and called the jockeying at the United Nations this week an unmitigated disaster. He accused Obama's administration of repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position.In Congress, Republicans and Democrats expressed their opposition to the Palestinian effort and implored world leaders to vote against any U.N. resolution. Leading Senate voices on foreign policy have written to Latin American and African governments asking that they oppose the Palestinian action, and warning the Palestinians that they could lose millions of dollars in U.S. aid.U.S. foreign assistance is not an entitlement, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said. Assistance is not automatic.Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Beth Fouhy in New York and Donna Cassata in Washington contributed to this report.