Hamas, pro-al Qaeda group clash in Gaza By Nidal al-Mughrabi – AUG 14,09
GAZA (Reuters) – Islamist radicals from a pan-Arab group defied the Hamas rulers of Gaza Friday by declaring an Islamic emirate,prompting clashes that killed 16 gunmen.
Although Jund Ansar Allah (Warriors of God) rallied only a few hundred men for an event at a Gaza mosque, it marked a clear challenge to Hamas's nationalist brand of Palestinian Islam by groups espousing a pan-Arab militancy aligned with al Qaeda.It was followed by clashes between Hamas policemen and supporters of the leader of the movement in the southern town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.Medical workers said 16 gunmen, including at least three Hamas policemen, were killed and about 85 people injured.Hamas said its gunmen stormed the movement's stronghold, including the mosque where Abdel-Latif Moussa -- known to followers by the al Qaeda-style nom de guerre Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi -- had announced before weekly prayers the start of theocratic rule in the Gaza Strip, starting at Rafah.
Hamas also stormed Moussa's house but did not find him.
We declare the birth of the Islamic Emirate,said Maqdessi, a heavily-bearded, middle-aged cleric in a red robe who was guarded by four black-clad, masked men with assault rifles. One wore what appeared to be an explosive suicide belt.An audience of several hundred men filled the mosque with cheers and shouts. Al Qaeda uses the historical term emirate to mean clerical rule across the Islamic world.
ZIONIST PROPAGANDA
Ismail Haniyeh, who heads Gaza's Hamas government, denied in his sermon Friday that any non-Palestinian gunmen were in the territory, as alleged by Israel which says veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken up residence.Such groups do not exist on the soil of the Gaza Strip ... there are no fighters in Gaza except Gazan fighters,he said.Such Zionist propaganda from Israel was designed to turn the world against Hamas, he said.Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called Maqdessi's speech wrong thinking and the Interior Ministry said he was mad.His group announced its presence in Gaza two months ago after three of its members were killed in a border raid on an Israeli base in which gunmen rode on horseback.Outside the mosque Friday, nearly 100 of the group's masked fighters in Pakistani-style dress, and with long hair in a style believed to imitate the Prophet Mohammad, carried automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.Hamas's leaders say it is a moderate movement while independent analysts say it gives priority to Palestinian nationalist goals over the international religious aims that are typical of al Qaeda's network.Israel unilaterally ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005 and withdrew its forces. Islamist radicals began to surface in Gaza following the takeover of the Israeli-blockaded enclave by Hamas in 2007, when it routed the forces of the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.(Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Andrew Dobbie)
Hezbollah chief: We'll hit Tel Aviv if Beirut hit By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer – AUG 14,09
BEIRUT – The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah warned Israel Friday his fighters would hit Tel Aviv with rockets if Israeli forces attack Beirut or the guerrillas' stronghold in its southern suburbs.Speaking on the anniversary of the end of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the Shiite militants are now capable of striking any Israeli city.In 2006, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah rocketed the port of Haifa and other parts of Israel's north but spared Tel Aviv to the south. Israeli warplanes destroyed entire blocks in Beirut's southern suburbs, including Nasrallah's office and Hezbollah's headquarters. The inconclusive, monthlong war killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and about 160 in Israel.Nasrallah's speech added to the tension of back-and-forth warnings between Hezbollah and Israel that have escalated since a July 14 explosion at a suspected Hezbollah arms depot near the Israeli border.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would hold the Lebanese government responsible for any attacks on Israeli targets by Hezbollah. He warned Lebanon against letting Hezbollah join the new government. He said the government in Beirut could not turn a blind eye to Hezbollah's activities while the group sits in the Lebanese parliament and plays a major role in the country's politics.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak made an even starker warning last week, saying that in the event of renewed hostilities, Israel would go after not only Hezbollah but the entire state of Lebanon.Nasrallah, appearing on a giant screen from his hiding place, addressed thousands of supporters waving yellow Hezbollah flags who gathered for the rally in south Beirut. He said recent Israeli warnings against Lebanon do not signal that Israel is planning to attack soon.
He said the Israeli warnings were part of a psychological war aimed at preventing the militant group from joining a new Lebanese unity government, whose formation has been stalled since the June 7 election.Today we are capable of striking any city or village in Israel, Nasrallah told the crowd. He promised surprises if Israel launches a new war on Lebanon. He did not elaborate.It is our right to make (Israel) understand that if it bombs Beirut or the southern suburbs, we will strike Tel Aviv, Nasrallah said, drawing the cheers of supporters.The 2006 war began when Hezbollah guerrillas launched a cross-border attack that killed three Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah calls the outcome of the war a divine victory because Israel failed to crush the guerrillas, who withstood massive Israeli airstrikes and artillery bombardment.A U.N.-brokered cease-fire has held despite the threats from both sides.
Hezbollah chief says no war with Israel for now Fri Aug 14, 3:46 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday said his party stands ready for military confrontation with Israel but downplayed the probability of war in the near future.We do not think there will be a new Israeli war on Lebanon in the near future,he told a crowd of thousands gathered in Beirut's southern suburb, a stronghold of the Shiite group, to mark the third anniversary of the end of the summer war with Israel.Today we are in a better situation than we were three years ago,he said, referring to Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas movement.We do not want war, but we are not afraid of it and we say to you: if you bomb Beirut or its suburb, we will bomb Tel Aviv,Nasrallah said in the televised speech, adding that Hezbollah now has the capacity to strike any area in Israel.
Israel's 33-day war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 Lebanese civilians, a third of them children, as well as 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.The conflict destroyed much of the country's major infrastructure and targeted Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon and the southern suburb of Beirut before ending with a UN-brokered ceasefire on August 14, 2006.On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the Lebanese government would be held responsible for any new attacks against Israel coming from its territory if the Shiite group was included in the cabinet.But Nasrallah said Netanyahu's warnings only amounted to psychological warfare and served to sow discord among Lebanese parties and hinder the formation of a cabinet.Seven weeks after the start of negotiations on a new Lebanese government, rival parties agreed on the number of ministers each political bloc will have but still disagree over who will get such key portfolios as foreign affairs, finance, interior and telecommunications.
Palestinian Fatah elects new party assembly Fri Aug 14, 9:02 am ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Aug 14 - (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction elected a new party assembly on Friday, in a further move to rejuvenate the movement after overhauling its main executive body this week.Some 600 candidates competed for 80 open places on the 128-seat Revolutionary Council at Fatah's first congress in 20 years, which began in Bethlehem on Aug 4.The Revolutionary Council, which convenes every three months, is charged with implementing resolutions of the congress and monitoring the performance of the Central Committee.Preliminary results indicated that Fatah's younger generation in their 40s would win places.Election officials said they had counted more than 70 percent of the vote and expected to finish the process around midnight, announcing final results on Saturday.Abbas on Thursday announced a Central Committee lineup that included several younger members and unseated a number of veteran old guard contemporaries of the late Yasser Arafat.
Palestinians of the diaspora came to Bethlehem from more than 80 countries for the 44-year-old movement's first convention on home soil.Fatah members believe their secular, Western-backed group is now better placed to seek reconciliation with the rival, Islamist group Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip, restoring some unity to the divided Palestinian nationalist cause.Reinforcement of Fatah, battered in parliamentary polls by Hamas in 2006 because of its perceived corruption, cronyism and complacency, may also strengthen Abbas's hand in talks with Israel as U.S. President Barack Obama readies a new peace plan.(Writing by Mohammed Assadi; Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Samia Nakhoul)
U.N. rights chief slams Israel over Gaza violations Fri Aug 14, 7:18 am ET
GENEVA (Reuters) – There is significant evidence that Israeli forces violated international law and human rights in their invasion of Gaza between late December and mid-January, the United Nations human rights chief said Friday.A report by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay lambasted the nearly total impunity for the violations.The already critical human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) deteriorated further during the war, she said in the report, the first of a series of periodic reports ordered by the U.N. Human Rights Council in January during Israel's Operation Cast Lead.The 34-page report is one of two -- together with a forthcoming one by South African jurist Richard Goldstone who has been conducting hearings in Gaza -- that will be presented to the council next month..significant prima facie evidence indicates that serious violations of international humanitarian law as well as gross human rights violations occurred during the military operations of 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, which were compounded by the blockade that the population of Gaza endured in the months prior to Operation Cast Lead and which continues,Pillay said.Pillay said rights violations included arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial execution, forced eviction and home demolition, settlement expansion and related violence and restrictions on freedom of movement and expression.While these violations are of deep concern in their own right, the nearly total impunity that persists for such violations (regardless of the responsible duty bearer) is of grave concern, and constitutes a root cause for their persistence,the former South African high court judge said.
Pillay's recommendations included the following:-- Israel should lift the blockade of Gaza and restrictions on movement in and out of the West Bank, which amount to illegal collective punishment.-- Allegations of violations of humanitarian law and human rights during the Gaza war should be investigated by independent bodies, and victims should have the right to reparations.-- Israel should tackle impunity for violations, and curb its use of the military justice system, which does not meet international standards.-- Israel should end the illegal expansion of settlements in the occupied territory, halt evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes, and end settler violence.Unlike rulings of the U.N. Security Council, the findings and recommendations of the Human Rights Council are not binding.Islamic and African countries, backed by Russia, China, Cuba and Nicaragua, currently have a majority on the 47-member council, which has spent more time on Israel/Palestine than on any other issue since being set up three years ago.(For Pillay's full report go to http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A%20HRC%2012%2037_AEV.pdf )(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)
Israeli diplomat keeps job after warning about US ties Thu Aug 13, 2:36 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli diplomat will keep his job after being reprimanded over a memo he wrote warning that government policy on settlements was harming the country's ties with the United States, a ministry official said on Thursday.Boston Consul General Nadav Tamir had been recalled for consultations after the memo criticising policy on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank was leaked to Israeli media.The ministry's director General Yossi Gal made it clear to Tamir that he should not have distributed the memo as widely as he did within the ministry and Tamir expressed regret for having done so, the source said.On Monday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted by his spokesman as saying that anyone who disagrees with, and is uncomfortable with, government policies can resign.Privately owned Channel 10 television reported last week that Tamir had warned that the refusal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government to heed US requests to freeze settlement activity was harming Israel's most important diplomatic relationship.The row over settlement activity in the West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, has brought Israel's relations with its key ally to their lowest ebb in years.The Palestinians have refused to resume peace talks with Israel until it follows through with its undertakings under the US-sponsored process to freeze all settlement activity.
Israel rejects Sarkozy call to free prisoner Thu Aug 13, 11:44 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Thursday a call by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to free a Palestinian-French man jailed for plotting to kill a prominent rabbi, a government source said.The prime minister decided to reject the demand for the release of this Palestinian, the official said, adding that the man never expressed regret.Sarkozy recently sent a letter to the hawkish premier requesting the release of Salah Khamuri, a resident of annexed Arab east Jerusalem who carries a French passport. France asked for Khamuri's seven-year sentence to be cut by a third for good behavior.Khamuri was arrested in 2005 and convicted of plotting to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the spiritual leader of the powerful ultra-Orthodox Shas party, currently a member of Netanyahu's governing coalition.
Abbas rules out talks unless Israel halts settlements by Hossam Ezzedine – Thu Aug 13, 10:45 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday ruled out resuming peace talks with Israel unless it stops settlement building and insisted on the Palestinians' right to legitimate resistance.Abbas made the comments during the inaugural meeting of the new 23-member Central Committee his Fatah party elected during its first convention in two decades.He said negotiations with Israel would only resume on the basis of commitments made by both sides ... particularly a halt to all forms of settlement activity without exception in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied territories.The US-backed leader welcomed the efforts of President Barack Obama and his insistance on the need to create a Palestinian state and to totally halt settlement activity.Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has risked a rift with Washington by refusing to heed calls to freeze building of settlements, which the international community considers illegal and a major hurdle in Middle East peace efforts.Earlier, the head of a delegation of US Democratic members of Congress blamed the Palestinians for failing to hold talks with Israel, calling it the largest thing impeding the peace process.I think the largest thing impeding the negotiations at this point is simply the unwillingness of Abbas to sit down (with the Israelis),House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters in Jerusalem.Abbas also stressed that while the Palestinians remain committed to peace, they also reserve the right to use legitimate resistance, guaranteed under international law against the Israeli occupation.A resolution with a similar wording was adopted during the Fatah congress, which opened August 4 and was due to formally conclude after officials announce later Thursday or Friday election results for its 120-member Revolutionary Council.
Abbas hailed the gathering as a huge success.This congress marks the beginning of a reform and renewal process within Fatah,said Abbas, who was confirmed as party leader during the congress in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem.The 2,000 delegates renewed Fatah's Central Committee in an election seen as an injection of fresh blood that could revive the Palestinian party founded by the iconic leader Yasser Arafat half a century ago to pursue independence, a movement that has lost much of its clout in recent years.Marwan Barghuti, a popular militant leader, was among those elected to the Central Committee, even though he is serving five life sentences in Israel for his role in deadly attacks.Top Palestinian negotiator and former prime minister Ahmed Qorei, who lost his seat on the committee, claimed interventions sullied the balloting.He told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper he formally complained to the Fatah leadership not only against the results but also against the entire process of elections.The daily also cited Qorei -- who served as chief negotiator during the Annapolis peace talks in 2007 and 2008 -- as saying he no longer believes a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is realistic.Such a solution is quasi-impossible. How can there be a state whose borders are not defined, whose territory is cut up by settlements,he said.The talks he chaired were launched under US sponsorship in November 2007 but the Palestinians suspended the process during Israel's war on the Hamas movement in Gaza at the turn of the year.Abbas played down the criticism and ruled out any break-up of the party.
US delegates blame Palestinians for no peace talks Thu Aug 13, 3:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The head of a delegation of US Democratic members of Congress blamed the Palestinians on Thursday for failing to hold talks with Israel, calling it the largest thing impeding the peace process.I think the largest thing impeding the negotiations at this point is simply the unwillingness of (Palestinian president Mahmud) Abbas to sit down (with the Israelis),House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters in Jerusalem.Abbas has refused to meet with Israel's new right-leaning government until the Jewish state ceases all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank in line with repeated demands from the White House.Hoyer however said the issue of settlements should be addressed through direct negotiations and said if he had met Abbas during his delegation's week-long visit to the region, he would have asked him to drop preconditions.The United States' policy has been for a stop to any additional settlements. That is a thorny, tough issue... It's an issue that has to be solved at the negotiating table,he said.The delegation of 29 congressional Democrats met several senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.Hoyer said a scheduled meeting with Abbas had been cancelled because it conflicted with the Palestinian leader's Fatah party congress.Senior US Republican Congressman Eric Cantor, who visited Israel a week ago at the head of a similar delegation, also blamed the Palestinians for the stalled talks and criticised the US administration's focus on settlements.Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks at a US conference in November 2007 but the Palestinians suspended the negotiations during Israel's three-week war on the Hamas movement in Gaza at the turn of the year.US President Barack Obama has called on both sides to return to the negotiating table while ramping up pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction, including the so-called natural growth of existing settlements.Netanyahu has said his government will not approve the building of new settlements but will continue to allow construction in existing ones.
Palestinian PM Fayyad seen at risk to new Fatah By Douglas Hamilton and Mohammed Assadi – Wed Aug 12, 10:30 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, an independent technocrat favored by the West, may face pressure to cede his post to a figure from the resurgent Fatah movement, political sources said on Wednesday.Western diplomats said this might be one outcome of Fatah's landmark congress in Bethlehem, its first in 20 years and first on Palestinian soil, which senior figures say has strengthened the movement and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas.This has always been on the cards. It remains to be seen what the president wants,said a Western diplomat.Remember, it's a caretaker government and it's entirely up to Abbas.A senior Fatah official speaking on condition of anonymity said it would be natural to review Fatah's position now that we have a new leadership (with) the right to reconsider its representatives in the government.Many in Fatah have been irked by Abbas's reliance on Fayyad, a former International Monetary Fund official, and complain budget cuts have hit the party and its loyalists.Fayyad's supporters, including Western aid donors, say the premier has curbed corruption and waste that Fatah's critics say were the hallmarks of its earlier rule.A source close to the prime minister said: The government should enjoy the official support of the biggest party.This means that the government may be changed, reshuffled or stay. But at the end of the day, the government should be publicly backed by the ruling party, not only by (Abbas).A second diplomatic source said rumors of Fayyad's likely replacement were merely background chatter prompted by shifting political fortunes at the congress, and predicted no change of prime minister.Fayyad had tendered his resignation in March, apparently partly in frustration at opposition from Fatah. But Abbas refused and confirmed him in the premiership in May, heading a cabinet with more Fatah representation. There were simply no credible alternatives to Fayyad, the second diplomat said.
STIR THINGS UP
The congress, now in its ninth day, was still counting votes on Wednesday for seats on the movement's general assembly, called the Revolutionary Council. Abbas, 74, was expected to hold a news conference once results were final.Fayyad, 57, has headed the caretaker Palestinian Authority government for the past two years, since Abbas dismissed an elected, Hamas-led government following fighting in the Gaza Strip in which the Islamists defeated Fatah-led forces.He is rejected outright as a Western puppet by the Islamist Hamas movement which runs the Gaza Strip and is Fatah's main political rival for dominance of the Palestinian cause.Some commentators say the forced retirement of several of Fatah's old guard who lost to younger generation leaders in the convention's ballot for a new Central Committee could breath new life into so far vain efforts to reconcile the two groups.Others point out, however, that the new faces on the top executive body are, nonetheless, veterans of the upper reaches of a long dominant party whose critics blame it for corruption, poor governance and a failure to win statehood for Palestinians.Fayyad has no significant power base of his own but is popular for his grass-roots engagement. Hamas would welcome his removal at any time. They consider him an obstacle to dialogue because of his security crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank.Fayyad's government has made progress in key areas. Public finance, once in chaos, is now up to international standards, he says. There is also better security in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with U.S.-backed police helping curb crime and persuade Israel to ease some restrictions on movement.Fatah stalwarts attacked Fayyad for a June 22 keynote speech which they said exceeded his authority.Fayyad defended his outlook in an interview with Reuters on June 29, saying it was time for Palestinian leaders to stir things up and get on with building the independent state they seek, instead of waiting for a peace agreement with Israel.(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Abbas strengthened by Fatah conference by Hossam Ezzedine – Tue Aug 11, 1:16 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas emerged strengthened from his Fatah party convention at a time reconciliation talks with arch-rival Hamas and peace efforts with Israel are bogged down.Fatah unanimously voting to retain him as its leader, while rejuvenating the governing body in a separate vote at the congress in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.Weakened by internal divisions, Fatah managed to put on a show of unity just by holding the convention, its first in 20 years.In the five years since taking over at the death of Fatah founder and iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Abbas has tightened his grip on a party known for indiscipline and still struggling to make the transition from a liberation movement to a governing political party.The political programme adopted by the congress reiterates the right of Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation while also backing efforts for peace with the Jewish state, now deadlocked.During the congress, several members of the governing Central Committee stepped aside or were voted out to make way for younger men, including Marwan Barghuthi, who is behind bars for conducting deadly attacks in Israel.Two powerful Abbas allies were also among those elected to the committee -- former Palestinian internal security chief Jibril Rajub and Fatah's former strongman in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Dahlan.Abbas treated this congress as a battlefield. He led with success and emerged victorious, said political analyst Abdelmajid Soweillem.I believe the new Fatah leadership will be inclined to support political negotiations with Israel and dialogue with Hamas,he added.
Samir Awad, who teaches political science at Bir-Zeit University in the West Bank, concurs.The new team includes many people who are close to Abbas and who at some stage or other worked with him,he said.Awad is convinced that by successfully leading the convention, despite heated debates and sharp attacks on the current leadership, Abbas pulled Fatah out of the intensive care unit.While Dahlan is a Hamas nemesis, Awad doesn't believe his presence on the Central Committee will affect a dialogue with the Islamists since other members are in favour of such talks, including Abbas himself.Another analyst, Hani Al-Masri, believes Abbas will have more room to manoeuvre both in domestic and international policies under the new leadership.He says Abbas now has several options on how to deal with Israel, as some members of the new committee support peace talks and others oppose them.The situation is similar regarding efforts at reconciliation with Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of Gaza in June 2007 by ousting Fatah forces after a week of deadly clashes.
While some have an intransigent line towards Hamas, most of the new members of the Central Committee, particularly those who scored best, are favourable to a dialogue that will produce results,said Masri.
Netanyahu warns Lebanon over Hezbollah power-share By Dan Williams – Mon Aug 10, 5:18 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any future Hezbollah attack should the Iranian- and Syrian-backed militia be brought into Beirut's incoming government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.Though U.S.-backed Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri bested Hezbollah in a June ballot, he is holding talks on a new coalition expected to include the Shi'ite group and its allies. Hezbollah has a minister in the outgoing cabinet.Israel fought Hezbollah in its southern Lebanese bastions in a 2006 war but has accused the guerrillas of rearming under the noses of U.N. peacekeepers and plotting attacks on Israelis to avenge the assassination of a top militia leader last year.Some analysts believe that Israel, which has hinted it could attack arch-foe Iran's nuclear facilities, also wants to blunt Hezbollah's ability to serve as a retaliatory arm of Tehran.If Hezbollah joins the Lebanese government as an official entity, let it be clear that the Lebanese government, as far as we are concerned, is responsible for any attack -- any attack -- from its area on the state of Israel,Netanyahu told reporters.It cannot hide and say: It's Hezbollah, we don't control them.Triggered by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, the 2006 summer war exacted a heavy toll on Lebanese infrastructure. Some 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.
BORDERLINE CALM
Israel credits the offensive with keeping the border largely quiet since, but Hezbollah has said it is ready to fight again and is determined to hit back for the February 12, 2008 killing of its military mastermind, Imad Moughniyeh, in a Damascus car-bombing.Israel denied involvement in that slaying, and has warned that Hezbollah and Lebanon would bear the consequences for any reprisals against Israelis abroad.
Netanyahu's threat followed similar comments by the Israeli defense minister and deputy foreign minister in recent days. The spiraling rhetoric has stirred speculation on both sides of the frontier that a fresh conflict could be in the making.Senior Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hashim Safieddin said on Sunday that if Israel attacked Lebanon again, the group's response would make the 2006 war seem like a joke,Lebanese media reported.Underlining the point Monday, deputy Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said Israel would face a heavy price if it attacked.They know that we now are in a better position (than before) and in an excellent state of readiness, he told the group's al-Manar television station.Asked about Netanyahu's remarks, Deputy Israeli Prime Minister Dan Meridor said they were intended to preserve the quiet through deterrence. But he also made clear that Israel regards its neighbor as a potential Iranian proxy.Hezbollah is a terror organization that has become a semi-army. Basically, it is a branch of Iran on our northern border, with Syria's consent and with Lebanon's consent. This is not a healthy phenomenon,Meridor told Israel Radio.Assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, Israel has questioned the efficacy of U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy. Iran denies seeking the bomb but has stoked regional jitters with virulently anti-Israel statements and support for Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamist militants similarly arrayed against the Jewish state.(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Charles Dick)
US senators press Obama on Arab peace role Mon Aug 10, 4:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama should press Arab leaders for dramatic gestures on behalf of Middle East peace, an overwhelming majority of US senators said in a letter made public on Monday.We would like to understand what steps you are urging Arab states to take and what your expectations are from Arab states in the coming weeks and months, more than 70 of the 100 senators said in the message to the president.We also hope that you will continue to press Arab leaders to consider dramatic gestures toward Israel similar to those taken previously by brave leaders like King Hussein of Jordan and Anwar El-Sadat of Egypt.They were referring to Sadat's historic 1977 visit to Jerusalem and the king's opening of direct Jordan-Israel ties.Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both signed the message, which was drafted by Republican Senator James Risch of Idaho and Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana.
The letter came as Israel's ultra-nationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, warned against attempting to impose a Middle East peace deal, saying the most peace talks can achieve for the coming year is improving security and the Palestinian economy.The US lawmakers also urged Arab leaders to end the Arab League boycott of Israel, meet openly with Israeli officials, boost trade relations with Israel, issue visas to Israeli citizens and invite Israelis to take part in academic and professional conferences, as well as sporting events.We also believe that Arab states must immediately and permanently end official propaganda campaigns which demonize Israel and Jews,they wrote.
Palestinians get EU, Saudi aid worth $255 mln Mon Aug 10, 3:33 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority has received 255 million dollars in aid from Saudi Arabia and the European Union, prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Monday.Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has ordered the transfer of 200 million dollars the Palestinian Authority, Fayyad told reporters at a ceremony during which the EU signed over to the Palestinians 39 million euros (55 million dollars).Fayyad said the Saudi aid was part of a one-billion-dollar financial assistance package pledged in January by Saudi King Abdullah to help the Palestinians deal with a steep financial crisis.I received a call from the Saudi finance minister, Ibrahim al-Assaf, who informed me of King Abdullah's decision to order the transfer of 200 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority's treasury, Fayyad said.The Palestinian Authority received pledges totalling some 12 billion dollars from international conferences in Paris in 2007 and Sharm el-Sheikh in March this year.But Fayyad has repeatedly complained that international donors have been slow to hand over the promised cash due to the political deadlock in the Middle East.During a visit to Norway in June he said that the PA needs 50 million dollars in international aid per month.And in May the Western-backed Palestinian Authority was forced to take out bank loans worth 530 million dollars to cover its operations.The latest EU aid brings to 207 million euros (around 293 million dollars) the total assistance received by the Palestinians from Europe since the beginning of the year.According to Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority has received a total of 703 million dollars since the beginning of 2009 in international aid, excluding the 200 million dollars announced Monday by Saudi Arabia.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on July 24 that the United States had given 200 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority -- part of a 900-million-dollar aid package announced in March.
China urges more global effort for Mideast peace Mon Aug 10, 2:57 pm ET
AMMAN (AFP) – China said on Monday the international community should lend more support to Israel and the Palestinians to help them resume peace talks and end their conflict.A two-state solution does not only require efforts by Israel and the Palestinians, it also needs more international support to help resume peace negotiations as soon as possible,visiting Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh at a meeting, according to a statement.China backs all efforts to create a suitable environment for a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.The Jordanian foreign ministry statement said Judeh and Yang stressed that peace efforts should lead to serious negotiations.China plays a key role in supporting the Middle East peace process,said Judeh, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned on Monday against attempting to impose a Middle East deal, saying the most peace talks can achieve in coming years is to improve security and the Palestinian economy.US President Barack Obama has vowed to work vigorously to end the decades-old conflict and his administration is attempting to put the faltering Middle East peace talks back on track.
Mideast peace unlikely in coming years: Israeli FM by Leigh Baldwin – Mon Aug 10, 10:58 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's foreign minister warned on Monday against attempting to impose a Middle East deal, saying the most peace talks can achieve for the coming year is improving security and the Palestinian economy.The Palestinians' radical and uncompromising positions on Jerusalem, the right of return and the settlement blocs create an unbridgeable gap between us and them,Avigdor Lieberman told a delegation of US Democratic lawmakers.Therefore, Israeli policy must be based on reality and not illusion while maintaining the dialogue between us and the Palestinians, improving security arrangements and the economic condition of the Palestinians.This is the maximum we can reach in the coming years,Lieberman's office quoted the ultra-nationalist minister as saying.US President Barack Obama has vowed to work vigorously to end the decades-old conflict and his administration is attempting to put the faltering Middle East peace talks back on track following their suspension in December.The United States is also putting heavy pressure on hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement construction in the occupied West Bank -- a key Palestinian demand for talks to resume.
But Lieberman warned against any attempt to impose a peace deal.
Any other extravagant goal such as imposing an agreement that is limited in time, would again end in failure, disappointment and even confrontation, he told the US delegation.This is a realistic policy and all the rest is spin, public relations and lack of understanding of the processes taking place at this time.Lieberman on Monday also lashed out at Nadav Tamir, Israel's consul in Boston who had warned in a leaked memo that the government's policies on settlements were harming ties with the United States.Anyone who disagrees with, and is uncomfortable with government policies can resign,his spokesman quoted him as saying.Washington has repeatedly called for a total freeze on Jewish settlement construction.Last week Israel drew the ire of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after two Palestinian families were evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah area of east Jerusalem.President Shimon Peres later told the delegation Israel had agreed to stop building new settlements and that the only unresolved issue was construction within the bounds of those already there.The only point where we disagree with America is on building in existing settlements,he said.I believe this is negotiable.Peres also said Israel and the Palestinians were for now incapable of agreeing over key sticking point Jerusalem.I know that there is a solution for Jerusalem for the future,he said.But right now we cannot achieve it.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, but the Palestinians see the city as the capital of their future state. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said, however, that Israel must continue building in settlements on the outskirts of Jerusalem.I hope we can convince the Americans to allow this construction,Yishai told reporters.
Israeli jets bomb Gaza tunnel in retaliation Mon Aug 10, 10:54 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip on Monday near the southern city of Rafah, hours after at least three mortar rounds were fired into Israel, Palestinians and the army said.In the first air strike against the Gaza Strip since June 14, Israeli warplanes bombed an area where tunnels are known to run under the border to Egypt to evade the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory.An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the attack, saying a smuggling tunnel had been targeted.
The mortar attacks Sunday targeted the Karni and Erez border crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and caused no casualties or damage.Later on Monday Palestinians fired another mortar shell against southern Israel, an Israeli army spokesman said, adding that it landed in an open area, causing no damage.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned several times in recent weeks that the Israeli army would respond to each rocket or shell fired into Israel.According to the army more than 200 rockets and shells have been fired from Gaza since Israel's 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of the territory in December and January.
Operation Cast Lead, which led to more than 1,400 Palestinian deaths and devastated swathes of the coastal strip, was officially aimed at ending the firing of rockets from Gaza.
SINCE THE RAPTURE OCCURS BEFORE THE FUTURE 7 YR TREATY IS SIGNED, I WONT BE AROUND TO HAVE THE ACTUAL TREATY SIGNING. BUT UNTIL THEN THIS SITE IS DEDICATED TO THE BEGININGS OF THE ISRAELI / ARAB PEACE PROCESS. AND AS CLOSE TO THE 7 YEAR SIGNING THAT WE GET BEFORE THE RAPTURE OF THE SAVED TO HEAVEN. UNTIL WE MEET JESUS IN THE CLOUDS BODILY, AND COME TO EARTH 7 YRS LATER.
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