Israel attack on Iran could ignite Middle East: Hezbollah By Mariam Karouny and Laila Bassam – Thu Mar 18, 3:33 pm ET
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Violence could spread across the Middle East with Israel paying a heavy price if it launched military action against Iran, the deputy leader of Hezbollah said on Thursday.Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence and has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's atomic work.The United States and other western powers suspect Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon and are currently discussing the imposition of new economic sanctions against Tehran.Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity.Israel or the United States cannot just bomb Iran and (expect) things to continue normally, Sheikh Naim Kassem told Reuters.Any attack on Iran could ignite the whole region and the assailant will pay a heavy price whether its Israel or the United States.He said any countries which allowed an attack on Iran to be launched from U.S. bases on their territory would also face reprisals.Kassem refused to discuss details of Hezbollah's role in responding to any attack on Iran.Israeli officials say Hezbollah, and to a lesser degree the Palestinian group Hamas, would launch cross-border rocket salvoes on Iran's behalf should it come under attack and this scenario was featured in an Israeli-U.S. air defense exercise last year.Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Lebanese group, was set up with the help of Iranian Revolutionary Guards to fight Israeli forces that invaded Lebanon in 1982 and still enjoys strong support from Tehran as well as Syria.
The group fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 that cost 1,200 lives in Lebanon and 159 in Israel. Despite U.N. resolutions and a U.N. peacekeeping force, Hezbollah has since rearmed.Earlier this month, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon expressed concern that a wave of bellicose rhetoric between Israel and Lebanon has fueled fears the two hostile neighbors could be headed for another conflict.
Lebanese and Syrian officials have accused Israel of pushing for a new war in the Middle East but Kassem said he did not expect a war soon.Based on our expectations ..there are no signs for a war soon, but Israel is planning for one and whether this day is far or near we have to be ready and prepared and that is what we are now.
US, Russia clash over startup of Iran nuke plant By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer – Thu Mar 18, 7:06 pm ET
MOSCOW – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Russian counterpart clashed openly Thursday over the planned launch this summer of Iran's first, Russian-built nuclear power plant, highlighting a split in views over how to steer Iran away from nuclear weapons.Clinton did not criticize the long-delayed project directly but said the Obama administration is opposed to the timing of the nuclear plant's startup. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the summer startup plans on Thursday, shortly after Clinton arrived for a two-day visit.The nuclear plant is an example of Russian-Iranian economic ties and technical cooperation, on terms that have long made the United States uncomfortable. It was a background issue during a difficult period in U.S.-Russian relations last year and in the ongoing U.S.-led effort to bring new United Nations economic penalties against Iran over suspicions that part of its nuclear program is aimed at building a bomb.Putin's announcement adds another complication to the already long list of issues on which Clinton and her Russian hosts don't agree. Clinton is seeing Putin on Friday.At a news conference with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after talks on a wide range of issues, Clinton told reporters that Iran, while entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, must reassure the world that it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon.In the absence of those reassurances, we think it would be premature to go forward with any project at this time, because we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians, she said.Lavrov forcefully asserted that, whatever the U.S. concerns, his country will finish its work on the Bushehr nuclear power plant shortly.
The project will be completed, Lavrov said.We are now in the final stage, and this nuclear power plant will be launched. It will be put into operation, it will be functioning, producing power. He added that the plant will operate under strict compliance with requirements of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency.Lavrov and Clinton also asserted to reporters that U.S.-Russian negotiations on a new treaty to reduce long-range nuclear weapons are close to completion. The accord would replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expired in December.Lavrov said the two sides now are discussing the time and place for President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev to sign the new deal, which also must be ratified by each country's legislature.We are now at the finish line, Lavrov said.
Clinton was a bit more circumspect.We have a saying in the United States: Don't count your chickens before they hatch, she said.And that means that we are beginning our discussions about where and when our two presidents will sign the START agreement. But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. First, our negotiators have to sign on the dotted line, so to speak.A Clinton spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said later that the negotiators were down to one or two issues before completing the deal.
Another negotiating session was to be held Friday in Geneva, Switzerland.The Obama administration has been unsuccessful in pressing Iran to take steps to reassure the world of its nuclear intentions and has pointed to its secret construction of a uranium enrichment plant — disclosed by the West last fall — as evidence that Iran's intentions are not purely peaceful.Clinton suggested that by endorsing Iran's startup of its Bushehr power plant, Tehran would get the mistaken impression that the rest of the world accepted its claim that it wants nuclear power only for electricity generation and not to secretly produce nuclear bombs.Crowley said Clinton's comment was not intended as criticism of Russia's involvement in the Bushehr project, which has been decades in the making. Russia agrees that Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons, but it has close commercial ties with Tehran and has used its position as a veto-wielding permanent U.N. Security Council member to water down Western-backed sanctions. Lavrov said he and Clinton discussed the prospect of a new U.N. sanctions resolution, but he made clear that Moscow does not see new sanctions as inevitable. As for sanctions that might be discussed in the United Nations Security Council, that discussion has not begun yet,Lavrov said. Asked what Russia was doing to nudge China — which also has veto power in the Security Council — toward accepting the idea of new sanctions against Iran, Lavrov indicated that China has demonstrated that it is willing to live up to its obligations as a nuclear power. He said China, like the U.S, Russia and other nuclear weapons states, has a special commitment and obligation to ensure that nuclear weapons technology does not spread around the world.Our Chinese partners have never given us any grounds to suspect them of insufficient attention to nonproliferation issues,he said.
Clinton and Lavrov were attending a dinner Thursday with representatives of the European Union and the United Nations — together known as the Quartet — to discuss the recent setbacks in getting Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations. Clinton appeared to be seeking to calm U.S. relations with Israel, which were roiled last week after Israel announced new housing for Jews in east Jerusalem. The announcement, made during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden, was seen by the Obama administration as an insult and a repudiation of U.S. efforts to get Israel to halt construction of additional Jewish settlements. Our goals remain the same, Clinton said.It is to relaunch negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians on a path that will lead to a two-state solution. Nothing has happened that in any way affects our commitment to pursuing that.
Ashton, in Gaza, condemns violence after fatal rocket
Thu Mar 18, 7:14 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned any kind of violence on Thursday after Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, where she was on a brief visit, fired a rocket into Israel, killing one man.I condemn any kind of violence, we need to move forward to get the peace process moving toward a successful resolution, Ashton told reporters in Gaza.As Ashton toured the coastal enclave a rocket slammed into the Netiv Ha'assera kibbutz in Israel, a few kilometres (couple of miles) from the Gaza border.Earlier Ashton's first stop was a UN-run girls' school in the Jabalya refugee camp.The English baroness was also due to hold talks with UN officials during her brief visit to Gaza, which is still struggling with the aftermath of the devastating 22-day military offensive Israel launched in December 2008 in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.She has made it clear she would not meet any officials of the Islamist Hamas movement which has ruled Gaza since ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a week of deadly fighting in 2007.
Hamas remains on the EU and US lists of terrorist organisations.Israel and Egypt impose a tight embargo on the Gaza Strip only allowing in basic and humanitarian supplies.Ashton was on a five-day tour of the region ahead of Friday's meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet in Moscow.She has also visited Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel as well as the West Bank.
Obama says US-Israeli relationship not in crisis
Wed Mar 17, 6:42 pm ET
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the U.S.-Israeli relationship is not in crisis.Obama told Fox News Channel that Jerusalem's new settlement homes weren't helpful in carving out a peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But he also says Washington remains a committed ally for Israel.Obama says the expanded settlement homes were a poor choice for Israel, but added: Friends are going to disagree sometimes.Israel announced Jewish settlement expansions as Vice President Joe Biden arrived for a visit last week. The move drew rebukes from Obama, Biden to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
US still waiting for Netanyahu response on settlement concerns
Wed Mar 17, 4:56 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was still waiting Wednesday for a response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about US complaints over Israeli settlements, a US spokesman said.We're still looking forward to a response. It hasn't happened yet. There hasn't been a call yet, Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told reporters after Clinton's departure for Middle East Quartet talks in Moscow.State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Tuesday he expected a conversation very soon between Clinton and Netanyahu, while a senior US official told reporters the same day that one could happen Wednesday.With nightfall in Jerusalem and Clinton flying to Moscow on her US Air Force plane, which has nonetheless good phone connections, there was no sign the call would happen Wednesday.Netanyahu spoke overnight, meanwhile, with US Vice President Joe Biden, the prime minister's office in Jerusalem said.A White House aide would only say that the call was part of ongoing negotiations.The row erupted when Washington, frustrated by the lack of success for its peace brokering, reacted angrily last week to an Israeli announcement that 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers would be built in east Jerusalem, the mainly Arab half of the Holy City that was annexed after being captured in 1967.The move came two days after the United States convinced the Palestinians to take part in indirect proximity talks with the Israelis, and during a visit to Jerusalem by Biden aimed at encouraging peace efforts.
The State Department said Tuesday that US envoy George Mitchell will not meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials before Clinton joins her Quartet partners Russia, the United Nations and the European Union in Moscow on Thursday.Mitchell had been scheduled to visit the Middle East for talks with Palestinians and Israelis at the beginning of the week.The State Department said Mitchell first delayed his visit to give Netanyahu time to respond to the US concerns on settlements, but then said logistics were the reason the envoy canceled plans to visit the Middle East this week.It gave no date for when the talks will occur.Netanyahu is due to visit the United States next week to speak at a meeting of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby.Israeli public radio reported Netanyahu would likely meet with Biden and Clinton during the trip.
AMERICA NEEDS A CHANGE IN THEIR GOVERNMENT.THE SOETORO-OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS TO GO THAT SOCIALIST-MARXIST-DICTATORSHIP AGAINST ISRAEL.
US may be seeking Israel regime change by Lachlan Carmichael – Wed Mar 17, 9:38 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Obama administration's row with Israel over settlements has prompted some analysts to wonder whether it seeks regime change, a new government that can make peace with the Palestinians.However, the analysts doubt that President Barack Obama's administration, which has made Arab-Israeli peace a national security priority, will achieve anything if it has indeed adopted such a strategy.In unusually harsh words, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday that his right-wing government's plans to build new settler homes in east Jerusalem sent a deeply negative signal about Israel's ties to its top ally.Is this about regime change, or is it about (Israeli) behavior modification? asked Aaron David Miller, a Middle East peace negotiator in past Republican and Democratic administrations.Because either way, it's going to be a rocky ride, Miller told AFP.
If it's the former, then I think we're naive in the extreme in thinking that we will be able to produce and somehow manage that, said Miller, now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.Miller said Obama and Clinton may be trying to create the impression Netanyahu is mismanaging the relationship with Washington in order to shake up Israeli politics.After all, he said, former president George H.W. Bush and his top diplomat James Baker did much the same thing with then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir and helped pave the way for Yitzhak Rabin to become prime minister.But there are no more Rabins, Miller said.Rabin, who was assassinated by an Israeli right-wing extremist in 1995, sealed a short-lived peace deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the White House in 1993 under then president Bill Clinton.Under another scenario, if the Obama administration defuses the row and even wins some concessions from Netanyahu, he warned, it may still be impossible to bridge the Israeli-Palestinian divide, say analysts,Miller and others like Daniel Kurtzer, the former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel, have long wondered whether the Obama administration has a strategy to revive Arab-Israeli peace talks suspended since 2008.
Both noted that the Obama administration, in its first year, demanded a total halt to Jewish settlements, only to yield to Netanyahu's call for a 10-month moratorium on construction in the West Bank but not in east Jerusalem.The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war, to be the capital of a future state; Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital.Kurtzer, who is now at Princeton University, could not rule out that the Obama administration might be contemplating a way to change Israel's political landscape.I would like to say no because we don't do that with Israel and with friends and democracies, Kurtzer told AFP when asked whether regime change might be part of the Obama strategy.But I don't doubt that there are some (Obama) people who are angry enough to want to see the (Netanyahu) government fall, he said.The previous George W. Bush administration embraced regime change for Iraq, Iran and North Korea, although the term referred to the violent overthrow of dictatorships. In people's heart of hearts, they probably want somebody other than Netanyahu but I can't imagine that anybody really believes that they have a strategy or a real chance of effecting it,the former ambassador said.To be sure, he said, Netanyahu might be able to drop a right-wing party and bring in Tzipi Livni, a former foreign minister and candidate for premier who once mulled joining his government, and her centrist Kadima. But to do this under siege, as he (Netanyahu) feels right now, is not going to happen,Kurtzer said.
Haim Malka, a top analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told AFP there is no obvious or viable alternative to Netanyahu at the moment when asked if regime change could work. And trying to trigger a reshuffling of the Israeli political landscape will more likely lead to paralysis rather than a coalition willing to make political compromises with the Palestinians,he said. He said he would not speculate however on whether the Obama administration might be considering regime change.
Spain presses two-state solution in talks with Barak
Tue Mar 16, 4:20 pm ET
MADRID (AFP) – Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos insisted Tuesday on the need for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict during a meeting with Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak.The talks came as hundreds of Palestinians clashed with security forces in east Jerusalem as tension boiled over in the city and a senior Hamas leader called for a new intifada, or uprising.During their 90-minute meeting in Madrid, Moratinos insisted on the need to advance decisively towards the consolidation of the two-state solution, the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement.Last week Israel gave the green light to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in the area the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state, during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.The move dealt a heavy blow to months of US-led efforts to relaunch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The presence of nearly a half million Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem has long been a major obstacle to the peace process.Moratinos, a former European Union envoy to the Middle East, also stressed during his talks with Barak that Spain backs the efforts by US President Barack Obama's administration to relaunch the Middle East peace talks, the foreign ministry added.Barak met later on Tuesday with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero who urged him to resolve the tensions between Israel and the United States over the timing of the announcement of the settlement expansion, a spokesman for the prime minister's office said.The Israeli defence minister discussed concerns over the the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would represent for the Middle East during his meeting with Zapatero, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, the spokesman added.
Israel FM blasts international community
Tue Mar 16, 6:46 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman blasted the international community on Tuesday following a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.I have talked overnight with Ban Ki-moon and I have the impression there is no response within the international community to all the measures Israel has taken over the past year, he told journalists.We are getting the feeling that all the efforts and positive steps Israel has made over the last year ... including the settlement freeze and the removal of checkpoints have been taken for granted by the international community, he told journalists.In the end there has been no encouragement, nor a more objective or constructive attitude from the international community which, instead, has stepped up demands and pressure, the right-wing minister said.The UN chief is due to visit the region over the weekend after attending a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, which is made up of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.
REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE (THE EU DICTATORS TEMPLE)
ISAIAH 30:10-15
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
DANIEL 9:27
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.
REBUILT 4TH TEMPLE (THE TRUE MESSIAHS TEMPLE)
ZECHARIAH 6:12-13
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
ISAIAH 60:9-10
9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.
10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.
ISAIAH 2:1-5
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
MARK 11:9-10,15-17
9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
EZEKIEL 40 TO 48 IS THIS 4TH TEMPLE TO BIG FOR THE MOUNT I BELIEVE TO BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM JERUSALEM.
3RD TEMPLE REBUILDING
TAMAR YONAH TALKS TO OKTAR ABOUT 3RD TEMPLE ON MOUNT
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1332
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/Author.aspx/1179
TAMAR INTERVIEWS RABBI ABOUT OKTAR ON 3RD TEMPLE
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1275
SECRET OF THE COPPER SCROLL
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1324
FUTURE OF THE 3RD TEMPLE
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1281
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1242
JOEL RICHARDSON INTERVIEW WITH OKTAR
http://tr.harunyahya.tv/videoDetail/Product/14800/AN_INTERVIEW_WITH_MR._ADNAN_OKTAR_BY_JOEL_RICHARDSON_(JUNE_22,_2009)
TRANSCRIPT OF OKTAR-RICHARDSON INTERVIEW
http://tr1.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/15166/ADNAN_OKTAR_S_MEETING_WITH_JOEL_RICHARDSON_(CONSERVATIVE_CHRISTIAN_WRITER_AND_SPEAKER)
TEMPLE INSTITUTE
http://templeinstitute.org/
MARCH 16 UPDATE-LAST 30 MINUTES
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1979
MARCH 16,10 INFORMATION
http://www.templeinstitute.org/temple-mount-awareness-day.htm
REMEMBER MARCH 16,2010 ISRAEL WANTS TO START REBUILDING THE 3RD TEMPLE BY LAYING THE CORNERSTONE ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT.GET IN CONTACT WITH NETANYAHU AND DEMAND THE ISRAELIS GET TO REBUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE NOW AND PRAY AT ALL TIMES ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT TO THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD KING JESUS.AND ALSO TO SACRIFICE TO JESUS.
US Israel criticism ignites firestorm in Congress By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Mon Mar 15, 11:07 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration's fierce denunciation of Israel last week has ignited a firestorm in Congress and among powerful pro-Israel interest groups who say the criticism of America's top Mideast ally was misplaced.Since the controversy erupted, a bipartisan parade of influential lawmakers and interest groups has taken aim at the administration's decision to publicly condemn Israel for its announcement of new Jewish housing in east Jerusalem while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting on Tuesday and then openly vent bitter frustration on Friday.With diplomats from both countries referring to the situation as a crisis, the outpouring of anger in the United States, particularly from Capitol Hill, comes at a difficult time for the administration, which is now trying to win support from wary lawmakers — many of whom are up for re-election this year — for health care reform and other domestic issues.And those criticizing the administration's unusually blunt response to Israel say they fear it may have distracted from and done damage to efforts to relaunch long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.It might be well if our friends in the administration and other places in the United States could start refocusing our efforts on the peace process, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday.Now we've had our spat. We've had our family fight, and it's time for us now to stop and get our eye back on the goal, which is the commencement of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, he said.
McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., both urged the administration to ease the tone of the dispute, which they said was demonstrating disunity and weakness to steadfast allies of Iran.Let's cut the family fighting, the family feud, Lieberman said.It's unnecessary; it's destructive of our shared national interest. It's time to lower voices, to get over the family feud between the U.S. and Israel. It just doesn't serve anybody's interests but our enemies.At least eight other lawmakers have offered similar concerns, and more are expected to weigh in after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton upbraided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the housing announcement in a tense and lengthy phone call on Friday and White House officials repeated the criticism on Sunday's talk shows.It's hard to see how spending a weekend condemning Israel for a zoning decision in its capital city amounts to a positive step towards peace, said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. He complained that the administration was attacking a staunch ally and friend when it should be focusing on the threat posed by Iran's nuclear problem.Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., accused administration officials of using overwrought rhetoric in suggesting that the east Jerusalem housing announcement threatened U.S.-Israeli ties.
The administration's strong implication that the enduring alliance between the U.S. and Israel has been weakened, and that America's ability to broker talks between Israel and Palestinian authorities has been undermined, is an irresponsible overreaction, she said.With tensions still high, former Sen. George Mitchell, the administration's Mideast peace envoy, has delayed his departure to the region, where he is scheduled to hold separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, a U.S. official said.Mitchell had been scheduled to depart Washington on Monday night. He still intends to go, but the timing is uncertain, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.The State Department on Monday said it was still awaiting a formal response from Israel to Clinton's call and, while repeating elements of the criticism, stressed that the U.S. commitment to Israel's security remains unshakable.But spokesman P.J. Crowley also said a lot is riding on whether Israel agrees to take steps suggested by Clinton to underscore its commitment to the peace process and strong relations with America.We will evaluate the implications of this once we hear back from the Israelis and see how they respond to our concerns,he told reporters.Reaction to the administration was particularly intense from pro-Israel groups. Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he was shocked and stunned at the administration's tone and public dressing down of Israel on the issue of future building in Jerusalem.We cannot remember an instance when such harsh language was directed at a friend and ally of the United States,Foxman said. Associated Press writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
Israel reopening of historic synagogue angers Palestinians by Michael Blum – Mon Mar 15, 5:39 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Monday reopened a landmark synagogue in Jerusalem's walled Old City, saying it should symbolise religious tolerance, 62 years after the building was destroyed in fighting with Jordan.In a video message because he was unable to attend personally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the synagogue brought a message of coexistence.We permit believers of other faiths to conserve their places of worship. We proudly protect our heritage, while at the same time allowing others freedom of religion, he said.But the rededication came against a backdrop of heightened political and religious tensions in the holy city, with thousands of police deployed after clashes with Palestinian demonstrators.
Palestinian rivals the secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas were united in their condemnation of the move.Exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal slammed it as a falsification of history, and warned it could cause the Middle East to explode.
Hamas also declared Tuesday a day of rage and alarm and called on Arabs and Muslims to come to the aid of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.Israel is playing with fire and touching off the first spark to make the region explode, he said.Hatem Abdel Qader, who oversees Jerusalem affairs for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah, said: This is not just a synagogue.This synagogue will be a prelude to violence, extremism and religious fanaticism, and that will not be limited to extremist Jews but includes members of the Israeli government.The United States however, called Palestinian comments incitement.
We are deeply disturbed by statements made by several Palestinian officials mischaracterising the event in question, which can only serve to heighten the tensions we see,State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.We call upon Palestinian officials to put an end to such incitement, he said, without singling out officials by name.The ceremony was attended by parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin, ministers and the chief rabbis of Israel.Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi, placed at the entrance of the synagogue a mezuza -- the parchment scroll inscribed with a verse from the Torah and placed in a case which Jewish families hang on door frames.Monday's ceremony came as Israel barred men under the age of 50 and non-Muslims from entering the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for a fourth day running after clashes between police and Palestinians in and around the site.
Meshaal, the leader of Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, denounced the ceremony.We warn against this action by the Zionist enemy to rebuild and dedicate the Hurva synagogue. It signifies the destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the building of the temple, he said in Syria. Al-Aqsa and the rebuilt Hurva synagogue are around 700 metres (yards) apart in the Old City. The Al-Aqsa compound is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It is also Judaism's holiest site because it was the location of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
The synagogue was first built in 1694 and destroyed 21 years later by Ottoman authorities who held power at the time. The site lay empty for many years and acquired the name Hurva, Hebrew for ruin, before being rebuilt in 1864 and becoming a centre for the Jewish community in the Holy Land. It was blown to pieces in 1948, after Jordan captured the Old City from the newly established state of Israel, during the battle for control of Jerusalem. The synagogue's latest incarnation is the result of a 20-million-dollar (15-million-euro) government-funded restoration project. The ceremony was held hot on the heels of a controversial Israeli decision to build 1,600 new Jewish settlements in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem, leading the Palestinians to rule out peace talks until the move is reversed.
US renews Israel backing in rift by Christophe Schmidt – Mon Mar 15, 5:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Obama administration pledged Monday that Israel remained a US ally as congressional rivals rallied behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a feud over the construction of settlements.Irate US officials last week demanded a halt to construction for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem after Israel gave the green light for 1,600 homes just as Vice President Joe Biden was visiting to promote peace talks.With the Israeli ambassador to Washington reportedly calling the spat the worst between the two nations in 35 years, the US State Department said that the specific area of concern did not affect the broader relationship.Israel is a strategic ally of the US and will continue to be so, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. Our commitment to Israel's security remains unshakeable.He also declined to comment on Netanyahu's remarks to his Likud Party that construction would go ahead, saying that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was waiting for a formal reply to a tense telephone call on Friday.When she outlined what she thought appropriate actions would be to the prime minister, she asked for a response by the Israeli government. We wait for the response,Crowley said.Without prompting from reporters, Crowley criticized unnamed Palestinians for their remarks on Israel's reopening of a landmark synagogue in Jerusalem's walled Old City that had been destroyed in fighting 62 years ago.
While Crowley denied that the United States was trying to balance its criticism, his remarks came as the Obama administration faced intense attacks from Republicans on Capitol Hill.To say that I am deeply concerned with the irresponsible comments that the White House, vice president and the secretary of state have made against Israel is an understatement, said Representative Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the House.In an effort to ingratiate our country with the Arab world, this administration has shown a troubling eagerness to undercut our allies and friends, said Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House.Republican Senator Sam Brownback said it was hard to see how spending a weekend condemning Israel for a zoning decision in its capital city amounts to a positive step towards peace.Israel considers Jerusalem its capital, although the Palestinians also see the Holy City as the seat of their future state.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel lobby, voiced serious concern about the administration's approach and urged President Barack Obama to take immediate steps to defuse tension.But J Street, a more liberal pro-Israeli group, said that the administration's reaction to both the timing and substance of Israel's housing announcement was both understandable and appropriate.Aaron David Miller, who served as a Middle East adviser to six US secretaries of state, said that both sides have created a situation in which climbing down is going to be very difficult.But Miller, now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, questioned the focus on halting settlements -- which the Obama administration has sought unsuccessfully since taking office in January 2009.Settlement activity, as bad as it is, masks a much more fundamental problem,Miller said.
He said that more fundamental issues divided the Israelis and Palestinians, including the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Unless our government's objective is to unseat the prime minister and to create a new political reality -- which would be naive -- there's no alternative to finding a deal,he said.
Netanyahu: no limitations on building in Jerusalem
Mon Mar 15, 11:07 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Defying the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Monday placing any curbs on building homes for Jews around Jerusalem.For the past 40 years, no Israeli government ever limited construction in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, he said in a speech in parliament, citing areas in the West Bank that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed to the city.Netanyahu made the remarks after Israeli media reported that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had demanded Israel cancel a project to build 1,600 settler homes in East Jerusalem, a plan that has caused a crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations.Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu imposed a limited moratorium on new housing starts in West Bank settlements in November but excluded Jerusalem from the 10-month partial freeze.
In parliament, he called on the Palestinians, who have said they would not restart peace negotiations unless the project was scrapped, not to place new preconditions on the revival of the talks.Netanyahu said there was nearly total consensus among Israeli political parties that what he called Jewish neighborhoods in and around Jerusalem would remain part of the state of Israel in any future peace agreement.
Palestinians say Jewish settlement in occupied territory will deny them a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state.Citing biblical and historical links, Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital. The claim has not won international recognition.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
