PERES CALLS FOR REFERENDUM

Gaza plunged into darkness after Israel lockdown by Adel Zaanoun JAN 21,08

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Gaza was in darkness early Monday after its only power plant shut down for lack of fuel as Israel kept up a blockade of the Hamas-run territory in retaliation for rocket fire, despite warnings of a humanitarian crisis. The closure of the plant, which accounts for 30 percent of the population's needs, plunged entire city blocks in Gaza City into darkness, and was set to sharply worsen power cuts already hitting the impoverished coastal strip.

We have had to close the power plant for want of fuel, its director Rafiq Mliha told reporters, warning of very serious consequences for residents, but also for the operation of hospitals and water treatment plants.Mliha said he had no word on when Israel might allow in the fuel to enable the power station to resume generating electricity.The Gaza Strip, where most of the 1.5 million residents depend on aid, remained sealed off for a third consecutive day Sunday as the Israeli cabinet decided to maintain the closure of crossing points amid escalating violence.The Gaza director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees called on Israel to reopen the crossings and appealed to the international community to help the civilian population.The power station's shutdown has plummeted Gaza City, which has 600,000 people, into darkness, John Ging told a news conference, adding that the loss of electricity affects every aspect of the civilian population's lives here in Gaza.If you visit any of the hospitals you will find that its generators are only producing enough electricity to keep essential equipment going. They are very cold, all of the wards, adding to the misery of the patients, Ging said.In the darkened streets of Gaza City, hundreds of people held a candlelit vigil chanting: No, no to the siege.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the crossings into Gaza closed late on Thursday, saying the move was aimed at pressuring militants inside to stop firing rockets and mortars into Israel and that it would be reassessed.On Sunday, Barak told the cabinet that the army was weakening daily life in Gaza.We are targeting the terror elements and we are trying to show the international community that we are exhausting all possible options before Israel decides on a broad (military) operation, a senior government official quoted him as saying.The Islamist Hamas movement, which has controlled Gaza since seizing power after a week of deadly clashes last June, said the Israeli measures amounted to a death sentence for the territory and called for international intervention.Closing the crossings into the Gaza Strip and stopping fuel shipments, alongside the continuation of the criminal killings, represents a death sentence and a slow death for the Palestinian people, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose forces Hamas defeated in Gaza, joined the calls for an end to the Israeli closure. Abbas called on the Israeli government to lift its blockade of Gaza immediately and allow the entry of fuel to facilitate the lives of the innocent and enable the proper functioning of hospitals which are facing a crisis that is putting lives at risk, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.The Palestinian president also called for a special meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab League to discuss the crisis and threatened to raise the matter with the UN Security Council if Israel did not relent in the coming hours.The power cuts come amid peak winter demand and with Gaza already reeling from a previous package of restrictions Israel imposed after the Hamas takeover. This is a very fragile system that is suffering from seven months of closure and every additional blow is reverberating throughout hospitals, water wells and homes in Gaza, said Sari Bashi, who heads the Israeli human rights watchdog GISHA. Israel has been carrying out air and ground strikes inside Gaza for months but it has so far failed to halt the rocket and mortar fire. On Sunday an Israeli air strike wounded four Palestinians, who an army spokesman said were transporting rockets ahead of an attack.

A Palestinian activist with a group linked to Fatah was killed later Sunday and two other Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli air raid east of Gaza City, Palestinian medical sources reported.
Clashes between the army and Gaza militants sharply escalated after an Israeli operation killed 19 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, on Tuesday in the deadliest single day in Gaza in more than a year.
Since then, Israeli raids have killed 37 people, most of them militants, and gunmen have launched some 200 rockets or mortar rounds into Israel, wounding at least 10 people.

Israel's Shimon Peres calls for referendum on any peace deal Sun Jan 20, 5:29 PM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's President Shimon Peres said on Sunday any peace deal with the Palestinians should be put to a vote in the Jewish state either through a referendum or elections.
Israel and the Palestinians re-launched peace talks after a seven-year hiatus at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November.Both Israel and the Palestinians agreed to try and reach a deal on Palestinian statehood before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in a year.I propose either a referendum or elections but this should be at the end of negotiations, Peres told Reuters on the sidelines of Israel's annual Herzliya security and policy conference which held its opening session in parliament.Peres, who holds the largely ceremonial position, said the government, as well as Israel's opposition parties in parliament, needed to put together its position .... so the people can decide.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government faces stiff opposition to this peace drive from right-wing members of the 120-member parliament. A key coalition partner quit his cabinet last week in protest over the talks.

Asked if a referendum could potentially weaken Olmert, Peres said: I think if he (Olmert) comes up with a plan it would bolster him rather than make things more difficult for him.Israel has never held a referendum, which would require a change in the state's basic laws.(Reporting by Dan Williams; Writing by Avida Landau, Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)

Orthodox Christians mark Jesus baptism in Jordan River Fri Jan 18, 3:48 PM ET

JERICHO, West Bank (AFP) - Thousands of Orthodox Christians made a pilgrimage on Friday to the Jordan River site where Jesus is believed to have been baptized. The event marked the Feast of the Epiphany, when Jesus began his public ministry by receiving baptism from John the Baptist.Western Christians celebrate Epiphany on January 6, or 12 days after Christmas. The Orthodox, who continue to use the old Julian calendar, mark the date on January 18.The celebrations began with prayers by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, at the fifth-century monastery of St. John the Baptist on a hill overlooking the river.The monastery and the riverside site where the baptism is believed to have taken place are located in what has been a closed Israeli military zone since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian uprising.

Visitors are only allowed in on special occasions, under heavy security.A similar ceremony was held on the east side of the river, in what is Jordanian territory, where several thousand people also gathered.Traditionally, the patriarch blesses the waters, after which people press toward the river down steep banks lined with scrubby trees and rushes.Many will bathe in the river as a re-enactment of their own baptisms, while the less adventurous will fill bottles with water from the river.This year, however, authorities prevented pilgrims on both sides of the river from entering the water.