PASSOVER IN ISRAEL THIS WEEK AS WELL AS OUR EASTER SUNDAY APR 24
http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/seder.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/kfpfood.htm
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/passover-in-israel-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/china-sudan-military-ties.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/iran-to-set-free-hostages.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/eritrea-bans-female-circumcision.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/passover-for-christians-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/pestilence-in-iraq-again.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/risen-king-messiah-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/hevron-jews-no-leaving-here.html
Israeli police, army raise alert level for Passover
- APR 18,11
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's police have raised the alert level nationwide, while the army division deployed around Gaza says it is ready for every scenario as the Jewish state prepares for the feast of Passover.Thousands of police have been deployed across the whole country, and particularly in the Jerusalem region, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.No specific attack threats have been made public, but Israeli security is usually tightened during major Jewish holidays.Surveillance of synagogues, markets, stations, commercial centres and national parks, which tend to attract throngs of visitors during the Passover holiday, was being stepped up.Police were also strengthening their deployment inside Jerusalem's Old City to ensure the protection of crowds of Christian pilgrims in town to celebrate Easter, Rosenfeld said.The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced Sunday a nine-day closure of the West Bank during the holiday, and the deputy commander of the army division deployed along the Gaza Strip said his troops were on standby.We are on very high alert on the Gaza Strip, we are ready for every scenario and if necessary we will respond with force, Colonel Amir Avivi told Israeli public radio.The weeklong Jewish festival of Passover, marking the biblical Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, begins at sunset on Monday and lasts for a week.
7 Bahrain protesters face trial in military court
By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press - APR 18,11
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Seven detained anti-government protesters will go on trial before a Bahrain military court for the killing of two policemen, the state news agency said Monday, the latest development in the crackdown on dissent in the Gulf kingdom.Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders and human rights activists have been taken into custody since Bahrain imposed martial law last month in attempts to crush the Shiite-led uprising against the Sunni rulers in the tiny but strategically important island nation that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.The Bahrain News Agency said a military prosecutor charged seven suspected opposition supporters Sunday with premeditated murder of two policemen.The seven also face other charges, the report said. It did not elaborate, except to say the two policemen died after being overrun with a car in the capital Manama. Another hearing in the case is set for Tuesday.Earlier this month the authorities banned media from covering legal proceedings in the country's military courts. Bahrain's human rights organizations blasted the gag order, saying that trials behind closed doors have no legal credibility.If a government decides to hold trials in secret, it is very likely the government is hiding something, said Nabeel Rajab, the head of Bahrain's Human Rights Center.The seven are the first of the hundreds in custody to have been charged with a crime since Bahrain's military stormed the protesters' encampment in Manama's Pearl Square in an effort to end weeks of street marches by Bahrain's Shiite majority demanding greater political freedoms and equal rights.Among those detained are also dozens of Shiite professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, including the lawyer who was to defend the seven suspected opposition supporters in the military court, Rajab said.The attorney, Mohammed al-Tajer, is one of Bahrain's most prominent human rights lawyers. He has represented hundreds of clients against the state, including Shiite activists accused of plotting against the Sunni monarchy. He was taken into custody on Saturday.At least 30 people have died since Feb. 15, when anti-government protests erupted in Bahrain, inspired by the uprisings in the Arab world. Four opposition supporters have also died in police custody.
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest
By The Associated Press – Sun Apr 17, 6:33 pm ET
LIBYA-Libyan rebels fight Moammar Gadhafi's forces in close-quarters battles in the city center of Misrata, the last major rebel foothold in western Libya. Government troops pound Misrata with mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, residents say. Seventeen people are killed, an NGO worker and an opposition activist say.
SYRIA-Gunmen open fire during a funeral for a slain anti-government protester, killing at least three people on a day when tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide as part of an uprising against the country's authoritarian regime, witnesses and activists say. Syria's state-run news agency later says one policeman is killed and 11 other policemen and security personnel are wounded when an armed criminal gang opened fire on them in Talbiseh.
EGYPT-Prosecutors file corruption charges against the former prime minister and two other senior members of the Cabinet that served under ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Ahmed Nazif, ex-Finance Minister Yousef Boutros Ghali and former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly were charged with wasting public money and profiteering. Their prosecution is the latest in a sweeping campaign to bring officials of Mubarak's toppled regime to justice.
YEMEN-Security forces fire on anti-government protesters in Yemen's capital, as hundreds of thousands of marchers — including many women — packed cities around the country to denounce the president and remarks he made against women taking part in rallies demanding his ouster.
ALGERIA-Two nearly simultaneous attacks by suspected Islamist extremists kill six members of the country's security forces.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES-Human rights lawyers say authorities have detained a fourth activist for advocating democratic reforms in the oil-rich Gulf nation. The federation of seven sheikdoms heavily restricts political activity but has been spared the unrest hitting other Arab nations.
OMAN -Oman says it will spend about 1 billion rials ($2.6 billion) to address demands by protesters for more jobs and state aid. The spending boost is a centerpiece of efforts to quell two months of sporadic demonstrations for more jobs and a greater political voice in the tightly ruled Gulf monarchy.
Gulf states call on UN to halt Iran interference
– Sun Apr 17, 6:23 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Gulf Arab states on Sunday called on the international community and UN Security Council to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations in Gulf affairs cease after unrest in Bahrain.Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, after a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, called in a statement for necessary measures against the Islamic republic to prevent it from sowing regional discord.The six-nation GCC called on the international community and the Security Council to take the necessary measures to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations aimed at sowing discord and destruction among GCC states.It said the GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- categorically rejects all foreign interference in its affairs... and invites the Iranian regime to stop its provocations.The statement also slammed aggression against Saudi diplomats in Iran.Earlier on Sunday, Riyadh threatened to recall its diplomats from Tehran unless they were better protected.I hope we won't be obliged to withdraw our diplomatic mission from Tehran if Iran fails to take the necessary measures to protect it, deputy foreign minister Prince Turki bin Mohammed told reporters.Iranian students had demonstrated on Monday outside the Saudi embassy to condemn Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain and the murder of Bahraini citizens, the official IRNA news agency had reported.
Iran's Fars news agency, which is close to conservatives, had reported that six to seven petrol bombs were hurled against the embassy as students chanted slogans against the ruling Sunni dynasties in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.On Sunday, Prince Turki said: Shiites in the Gulf are our brothers and have national rights under the umbrella of their loyalty (to their countries) and not to the outside.Iran has repeatedly condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain to support the Bahraini forces' crackdown on demonstrations there by Shiites who form the majority of the population of the country.Iran is predominantly a Shiite Muslim country.
New Israel pointman on Shalit appointed
– Sun Apr 17, 4:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday appointed a senior Mossad official to be the new pointman in efforts to free Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants in 2006.David Maidan of the secret service replaces Haggai Hadas, who was appointed to the role in 2009 by Netanyahu but who has stepped down for personal reasons.An official statement said Netanyahu had informed the soldier's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, of the new appointment during a meeting at the premier's official residence.After the meeting, Noam Shalit expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in efforts to free his son.The only new element is the nomination of a new negotiator, Israeli public radio quoted him as saying.Militant group Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip a year after Shalit was seized in June 2006, has demanded hundreds of prisoners in exchange for his release, including scores of militants responsible for deadly attacks.But talks have stalled, with Netanyahu warning that militants released under previous prisoner exchanges have gone on to launch deadly attacks on Israel.Shalit, now 24, was seized in a dawn cross-border raid by three groups of Gaza militants include Hamas.Netanyahu has come under increasing criticism for his government's failure to secure Shalit's release in talks, which have been mediated by Germany.On Monday, a former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency said Israel should be prepared to release Palestinians convicted of murder if that was necessary to secure Shalit's release.The last sign of life received from Shalit's captors was in October 2009 when a video recording showed him looking gaunt, but apparently in good health.
Israel arrests Palestinians over settler murders
by Shatha Yaish – Sun Apr 17, 11:11 am ET
AWARTA, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Israel has arrested two Palestinian suspects in connection with the grisly murder of a young settler family, Israeli security officials said on Sunday.A senior army officer said he believed the killing of the Israeli couple and three of their children in the West Bank settlement of Itamar was not ordered by a militant group but was the outcome of a burglary that went wrong.
I personally believe that what motivated them was to penetrate an Israeli settlement and maybe to steal a gun, and the murder as it occurred was something they didn't plan at the beginning, it just happened, Colonel Nimrod Aloni told reporters.Both the suspects' family and their home village of Awarta have traditional allegiances to the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but Aloni said he did not believe the young men were directed by any organisation.I think that they acted by themselves with no direction whatsover, he said.My estimation is that they worked independently.Sunday's announcement of the arrests was the first public update on a murder investigation spanning more than a month since the March 11 slaying of the Fogel family.The news came just ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, and after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had suggested that a major breakthrough in the case would be made public soon.I have been kept updated in recent weeks and days on the progress of the investigation, Netanyahu said in comments released by his office Sunday.I must congratulate the security services ... very fine work was done here which expresses our commitment to justice, he said. We shall find murderers wherever they are.In a briefing document obtained by AFP, Shin Bet said it had arrested two main suspects and five suspected accomplices.The two, residents of the village of Awarta, confessed during the investigation to planning and carrying out the attack and staged a reconstruction, the document said.
A spokesman for the agency told AFP that they had not yet been charged and that the investigation was ongoing.Shin Bet said the two suspects had climbed over Itamar's electric fence and first stole an M16 automatic rifle from a house whose occupants were away before entering the Fogel household, where they stole a second weapon.
Both weapons were recovered, they said.Six of the men arrested in connection with the case are members of the Awad family from Awarta, and a seventh, a resident of Ramallah, was a friend of one of the suspected accomplices, the document said.Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld named the main suspects as Hakim Awad, who he said was arrested on April 5, and his relative Amjad Awad, who was arrested on April 10.Shin Bet did not give their precise ages but said they were born in 1993 and 1992 respectively.Awarta, a short walk from Itamar in the northern West Bank, has been the central focus of the investigation into the murders. It was put under curfew shortly after the attack, and Israeli troops have detained hundreds of its residents, prompting the local council head to accuse Israel of a policy of collective punishment.In Awarta, Hakim Awad's mother, Nouf Awad, told AFP it was impossible that her son had committed the murder.It wasn't my son who did it, she said. It is impossible that it's him, he was with me the whole night that the incident happened.In Itamar, the neighbour who discovered the Fogel family's bodies welcomed the arrests, but said the community was trying to move on.It's positive that they caught the murderers, the most important thing is that this should never happen again, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen told AFP.We're not looking for revenge, despite the feeling of loss, life goes back to normal.The brutal stabbing occurred late on March 11, as the family slept in the settlement southeast of Nablus.Ehud and Ruth Fogel were stabbed as they slept, along with three of their children -- a three-month-old baby girl, and two others aged three and 11.Two other children at home during the attack were spared. Another child, their 10-year-old daughter, was out during the attack, arriving home afterwards and alerting neighbours that something was wrong.
LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.
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.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
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)
Abbas rules out Israeli troops in future state
– Sun Apr 17, 9:41 am ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinian Authority will collapse if Israel insists on stationing troops inside any future Palestinian state, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has told AFP.In an interview, Abbas said he would not allow any Israeli troops to be deployed in a future Palestinian state, despite Israel's insistence that it be able to maintain a military presence along the West Bank's border with Jordan.Israel says it would need such a security presence for around 40 years to ensure the border between any Palestinian state and Jordan was secure.Abbas said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2010 that such a troop presence would torpedo the possibility of an independent Palestinian state, and would effectively destroy the Palestinian Authority (PA).If he wants to stay for 40 years, it means that it is an occupation, so he will keep his occupation, Abbas told AFP.I told him If you insist on that, keep your troops here and keep your occupation forever.Abbas said Netanyahu had rejected alternatives to the deployment of Israeli troops, such as an international force, or a NATO deployment.An Israeli troop deployment inside a future Palestine would effectively bring about the collapse of the PA, Abbas said.Netanyahu insisted earlier this year that Israel could not withdraw from the border between the West Bank and Jordan entirely.Our security border is here on the Jordan (river) and our defence line begins here, he said in March during a tour of the border area, which is currently under Israeli control.If that line is breached, they will be able to infiltrate terrorists, rockets and missiles all the way to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheva and the whole state, he said.
NOW WERE ON THE FAST TRACK TO FULFILING PROPHECY AS ABBAS WANTS THE EU (THE FRENCH & GERMANS IN ON THE PEACE PROCESS).
Abbas eyes French, German help on Palestinian state
– Sat Apr 16, 2:25 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has told AFP he will visit France next week and Germany in May to seek advice on the creation of a Palestinian state.We will ask the Europeans -- I will go to France on 21st, and next month I will be in Germany .. to ask What shall we do? because we want their advice, he said in the interview late on Friday conducted in English.We will ask (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy for his advice, Abbas told AFP, saying he wanted the Europeans' advice about the steps leading to the recognition of a Palestinian state later this year.His remarks were made just days after the cancellation of a meeting of the Middle East Quartet which had been hoping to find ways of bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.The Quartet principals had been expected to meet in Berlin on Friday but the talks were blocked by Washington, diplomats at the UN said.Britain, France and Germany had been hoping to use the Berlin talks to push for a Quartet statement setting out specific guidelines for peace negotiations which would have included references to the major final status issues.
The three nations laid out their position in a communique issued in February after Washington torpedoed a UN Security Council vote condemning settlement activity, in which they called for clear parameters relating to the 1967 borders, security issues, refugees and Jerusalem.Abbas said the Palestinians had wanted the elements of the communique to be used by the Quartet because all the elements of a solution are in this statement, but unfortunately nothing happened and time is passing, he said.If we get to September without any results, of course we will ask the American president (Barack Obama) to fulfil his promise that he wishes to see a state with full partnership in the United Nations, Abbas said.Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told AFP that the leadership would press ahead with the move even though it was clear that the United States would veto the initiative.We will go to the Security Council just to get an American veto because when we get an American veto we can go to the General Assembly and ask for a meeting under the "Uniting for Peace (resolution) which allows the General Assembly to take decisions as binding as those taken by the Security Council, he said.The resolution can be invoked in cases where the Security Council fails to act due to a dispute between its five permanent members, Shaath explained, saying he believed the Palestinian case would fit the criteria for such a referral to the General Assembly.They can admit us as a full member of the General Assembly and when we become a full member recognised by two thirds of the community of nations, we become an independent state whose land is occupied illegally by another member, he said.This is what's scaring Mr (Benjamin) Netanayhu and that's what Mr (Ehud) Barak calls the tsunami of September, he said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, and to the defence minister who has warned that the UN bid will mean Israel faces a diplomatic tsunami.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians ran aground late last year after the expiry of a temporary ban on settlement construction.Since then, the Palestinians have refused all direct contact, saying they will not talk while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.
Israel raids Gaza after rocket attacks
– Sat Apr 16, 3:23 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli warplanes launched raids against targets in Gaza overnight after two rockets were fired at Israel from the coastal enclave, Palestinian security officials said on Saturday.No one was hurt in the air attacks which struck bases of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza, in Gaza City and east of it, one source said.A military spokeswoman confirmed the raids and said warplanes struck targets of a terrorist organisation in response to two rockets fired on Ashkelon and Ashdod in southern Israel on Friday afternoon.Friday's attack was the first time any rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip since Sunday when militants in the Hamas-run territory began observing an unspoken truce, a military spokesman had said.There were no injuries and no damage, policy spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP on Friday.
He did not specify what type of projectiles they were, but the military said it was likely they were Grad rockets because of their longer range.The truce came into effect after days of soaring violence in which Israeli troops pounded Gaza, killing 19 Palestinians, after militants fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus, critically wounding an Israeli teenager.
AP Interview: Palestinians want Quartet deal
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Fri Apr 15, 5:46 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The top Palestinian diplomat at the United Nations said the Palestinians still want the Quartet of Mideast mediators to take the lead in helping them negotiate a peace treaty with Israel by September.If that doesn't happen, Riyad Mansour said in an Associated Press interview that the Palestinians expect the international community at the United Nations to take action that would end Israel's occupation and allow for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and its membership in the 192-nation world body.He blamed Israeli intransigence for the stalled negotiations on a peace treaty and insisted: We are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.The Palestinians won an important endorsement Thursday when key donor states meeting in Brussels said that the institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state. The donors, who give the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, cited reports prepared by the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.Mansour pointed to Israeli and Palestinian agreement on President Barack Obama's target date of September 2011 for a peace agreement, a date endorsed by the European Union and much of the world.Obama announced that date in September 2010, as direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed, but those talks collapsed weeks later because Israel ended its moratorium on settlement construction.
The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel halts settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Palestinians should not be setting conditions for talks and note that in the past they have negotiated while settlement construction continued.Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, expressed regret that the United States blocked a meeting of the Quartet — the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — that had been tentatively scheduled to take place Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany.A U.S. official said Monday it wasn't the right time and the Obama administration didn't think a Quartet meeting would produce anything that would help restart the talks.Mansour said the Palestinian leadership have indicated willingness to go back to negotiations with Israel if the Quartet agreed on the settlement outlines proposed by the three countries.The Palestinian envoy said in the interview late Thursday that the Quartet agreed at their last meeting in Munich on Feb. 5 that they wanted to play an active role, and we want them to play an active role.We want them to adopt parameters as a contribution to removing obstacles from the path of going back to direct negotiations, and we hope that the Quartet would succeed in doing so as soon as possible, Mansour said.
The U.S. veto on Feb. 18 of a Security Council resolution that would have condemned illegal Israeli settlements and demanded an immediate halt to all settlement building spurred Britain, France and Germany, who supported the measure, to issue a joint statement expressing serious concern about the stalemate in the Middle East peace process.The three countries said all settlement activity, including East Jerusalem, should cease immediately and called for direct negotiations to resume quickly.For talks to succeed, they said the Israelis and Palestinians must agree on borders of the two states, based on lines before the 1967 Mideast war, with approved land swaps, on the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both and a solution to the question of Palestinian refugees.Both sides must also agree on security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty and show that the occupation is over and protect Israel's security, prevent the resurgence of terrorism and deal effectively with new and emerging threats,they said.But putting the job of restarting negotiations in the hands of the Quartet would take it away from the United States, which has been in the forefront of trying to get direct Israeli-Palestinian talks restarted, Mansour said.U.S. officials say Obama is expected to make a speech on the Mideast in the coming weeks outlining the U.S. position. We hope that that position would be in line with the European position, and other partners of the Quartet — meaning to adopt the principles that were articulated by the Europeans, Mansour said.
Standing in the way of a solution, he said, is Israel's refusal to accept the 1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations and the Palestinians' demand that not a single Israeli soldier or official should remain in an independent Palestinian state.We have no problem in having a certain number of U.N. forces, NATO, American, combination of them, all of them, to be stationed on our side, Mansour said. But, he added,Israel is insisting to have some presence, especially in the Jordan Valley and on the tops of mountains and hills overlooking the Jordan Valley.
Clinton says Iran trying to hijack Mideast revolts
MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press – Fri Apr 15, 4:11 pm ET
BERLIN – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday accused Iran of trying to hijack democratic revolutions around the Mideast and warned Arab nations not to permit intolerance against women and religious minorities.Clinton said Iran was clearly trying to use uprisings around the region to further its own goals and foment broader unrest while at the same time cracking down on its own reform movement.I think that that everyone is aware if its efforts to exploit and even hijack what are legitimate protests. But certainly in an era of instant communication we hope that people will not be fooled by their tactics.Clinton said the U.S. sees no evidence yet that Iran instigated such protests but we do see activities by Iran to try to take advantage of these uprisings.Clinton also warned that rising intolerance toward women and religious minorities threatens to undermine democratic transitions around the Arab world and spread violent extremism.
Accepting an award named for a pre-Nazi era German Jewish businessman, politician and foreign minister who was murdered for his promotion of inclusion and tolerance, Clinton said she was disturbed by recent developments in post-revolt Egypt in which women and Coptic Christians were singled out for attacks and abuse. They are signs, she said, that extremists are intent on seizing transitions for their own aims.The 1922 assassination of Walter Rathenau, was a cautionary tale about how these transitions can be undermined by intolerance and hijacked by extremists, she told a ceremony in Berlin.She said the incidents in Egypt were testing the unity of pro-democracy demonstrators whose peaceful protests ousted Egypt's authoritarian president and could fracture the reform movement.Clinton said she feared similar backsliding elsewhere in the Mideast and stressed it was critical for Egyptians and other Arabs whose nations are in the throes of change to resist intolerance and demand that their new leaders embrace open and inclusive governments.It will be critical, she said, for citizens and leaders to work together to resist these dangers and keep their nations on track to become open, inclusive, pluralistic democracies.Democracy is a never-ending task that requires participation and protection and it is only possible if every citizen can enjoy its benefits, she said. Societies thrive when all their people contribute and participate. But they stagnate when women are excluded or minorities are persecuted.
US Senate asks UN to rescind Gaza War report
– Thu Apr 14, 11:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Senate asked the United Nations to rescind a report on the Gaza War after its lead author said he was wrong to conclude Israel targeted civilians during the 2008-2009 offensive.The Senate resolution calls on UN Human Rights Council members to reflect the author's repudiation of the Goldstone report's central findings, rescind the report and reconsider further Council actions with respect to the report's findings.The text was adopted by unanimous consent.It also urges UN chief Ban Ki-moon to help reform the Human Rights Council so that it no longer unfairly, disproportionately,\ and falsely criticizes Israel on a regular basis.Ban should do all in his power to redress the damage to Israel's reputation caused by the report, the resolution said.South African judge Richard Goldstone led the fact-finding team, established at the request of the United Nations. Its report was published in September 2009.The report had accused both Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza of potential war crimes, setting the tone for widespread international condemnation of the Israeli assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza in which 1,400 people lost their lives, the vast majority of them Palestinians.Goldstone announced in recent weeks that new information about Israel's military actions led him to believe he had erred in concluding that Israel targeted civilians during the 22-day conflict.The US House of Representatives had condemned the report in a November 2009 vote.Earlier Thursday, three of the authors of the report rejected calls to retract it.
They said in a statement to the Guardian newspaper in Britain that they found it necessary to dispel any impression that subsequent developments have rendered any part of the mission's report unsubstantiated.Aspersions cast on the findings of the report... cannot be left unchallenged, wrote Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani, Christine Chinvin, a professor of international law at the London School of Economics, and former Irish peacekeeper Desmond Travers.
Netanyahu to spell out peace policy to US Congress
– Thu Apr 14, 3:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he would use a rare speech to a joint session of the US Congress in May to spell out his plan for forging a lasting peace with the Palestinians.Netanyahu, in televised remarks to his Likud party, said he aimed for a durable end to the decades-old conflict, not just peace on paper, and that he had set some conditions to ensure that we have such an agreement.The two most important of them are, first of all, Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is real security arrangements on the ground, he said.Netanyahu's comments came after Republican US House Speaker John Boehner, an ardent defender of staunch US ally Israel, announced he was inviting the prime minister to address a rare joint session of the US Congress.America and Israel are the closest of friends and allies, and we look forward to hearing the prime minister's views on how we can continue working together for peace, freedom, and stability, said Boehner.Netanyahu delivered his first speech to a joint session of the US Congress on July 10, 1996, becoming the fourth Israeli prime minister to enjoy that particular honor.The move came as US President Barack Obama struggled with ways to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a wave of Arab uprisings crowded the agenda in the last few months.
Netanyahu, whose has had a difficult personal relationship with Obama, said he relished the opportunity to present the main points of our diplomatic and security policy during my visit to the United States.I very much appreciate the invitation, which symbolizes the bond the American people, the American Congress and the American administration have with the State of Israel and people of Israel, he said.
Boehner's office said he would formally invite Netanyahu once the US Congress approves a resolution calling for a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, a move all-but-sure to get backing from both major US parties.
Democratic House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi looks forward to the Prime Minister's address to the Joint Session during this critical time in history for the Middle East, said a spokesman, Drew Hammill.We look forward to hearing the prime minister's views on how we can work together to check the spread of radical Islam and promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region, said Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.In a speech on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Washington's active leadership in ending the conflict as she cautioned the status quo between the Israelis and Palestinians is unsustainable.After Clinton's remarks, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Washington to clarify its position on Palestinian statehood.We are calling for a clear American position on Palestinian statehood within the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital and a firm position on Israeli settlement, Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Palestinian leadership has set itself a September 2011 deadline to be ready for sovereignty, in the hope of pressuring Israel and the international community to recognise a Palestinian state on the territory that Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.A State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said Clinton sought to counter skeptics about chances for peace after she helped relaunch negotiations last September only to see them stall within weeks.We're aware that some wonder whether there is any hope for progress, Toner told reporters. But We're committed to this process and that we'll make sure we commit the energy necessary to see it fulfilled, he added. Toner acknowledged that the parties had agreed to a September 2011 deadline to settle core differences.The core issues are security for Israel, the boundaries of a future Palestinian state, the status of the disputed city of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Turkey tells Israel: Gaza flotilla not up to us
– Thu Apr 14, 1:34 pm ET
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey said on Thursday it had received a request from Israel to help stop activists sailing to Gaza on the first anniversary of an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship, but it said the flotilla plan was not Ankara's concern.Turkey, a Muslim former ally of the Jewish state, has scaled back ties, demanding Israel apologize and pay damages for last year's raid, which caused an international outcry.
Nine Turks were shot dead in the May 31 clash when Israeli marines stormed a flotilla organized by a Turkish Islamist charity, which ignored orders to turn back as it tried to breach an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.The Free Gaza Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist umbrella group, has said that a flotilla expected in late May would comprise 15 ships with international passengers including Europeans and Americans.Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gaby Levy, asked the Turkish government this week to help stop the activists, saying sending humanitarian aide to Gaza outside legal channels was a provocation, an Israeli diplomatic official told Reuters.Asked about the request, a Turkish foreign ministry official told Reuters: We listened to the message given by the Israeli side and told them this is an initiative by civil society.The official did not elaborate.The IHH, the Turkish Islamist charity that owned the Mavi Marmara ship which was raided by the Israeli commandos, has said it will join the Freedom Flotilla II. It also plans to send its own convoy led by the Mavi Marmara after Turkey's general election on June 12.
An IHH official told Reuters the group has not been approached by the Turkish government over its plans to send another flotilla and added: In Turkey governments don't tell NGOs what to do and what not to do.Israel has also asked the United Nations to help stop the activists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the mission of ships was being organized by Islamic extremist elements intent on bringing about a flare-up.Turkey, a secular Muslim nation, has been an important regional ally of Israel for more than a decade.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party government, which has roots in banned Islamist movements, froze relations with Israel after the deadly raid.Ankara has demanded an apology as a condition for mending ties, regardless of a U.N. probe's findings into the incident.(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Editing by Gareth Jones)
THIS HEADLINE SHOULD READ PALESTINIANS READY FOR THE DESTRUCTON OF 5/6TH OF THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS INSTEAD FOR EVEN SUGGESTING A STATE OF THEIR OWN.
Diplomats say Palestinians ready for statehood
By DON MELVIN, Associated Press – Wed Apr 13, 4:23 pm ET
BRUSSELS – A group of international negotiators says the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in building the capabilities needed to run a country — and now the political work of a permanent peace just needs to catch up.The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which met Wednesday in Brussels, cited reports prepared for it by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund as saying that the Palestinian Authority is above the threshold for a functioning state in the key sectors they studied.The positive assessment came despite the fact that the Gaza Strip, part of any future state, is controlled by Hamas, a rival Palestinian faction that several countries including the United States, EU and Israel consider a terrorist group.The Islamic militant Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have been bitter rivals since Hamas overran Gaza in 2007.The UN report focused on institutions and infrastructure — aspects such as governance, human rights, education and water. In six areas where the UN is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state, the report said.These are the sorts of capability that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been trying to develop during a two-year period meant to lay the groundwork for statehood. He has been working to clean up the Palestinian Authority's financing, reform the security forces, build up a legal system, develop the economy, and build roads and other infrastructure.He says his efforts will be complete by September.It is possible, with support and continued cooperation along the path to freedom, to get to the point where at long last we Palestinians are able as free people with dignity in a country of our own, Fayyad said.
He called Wednesday's meeting a landmark event.Participants at a press conference after the committee meeting heaped praise on the prime minister.It's about institution-building, so that when the state is there, the state can run. And this has been happening under the very able leadership of Prime Minister Fayyad, said Jonas Gahr Store, the Norwegian foreign minister.Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said the EU had allocated euro300 million ($434.79 million) this year for Palestinian institution-building.All those present at the meeting said it was time for the political track to catch up with the effort to build a viable government. The effort appeared to be place the political onus on Israel by removing the argument that the Palestinians are not ready to run their own country.But there was scant discussion of Gaza, which is not under Fayyad's control and from which rockets are sometimes launched at Israeli civilians.Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Mideast envoy of the Quartet — the U.S., the UN, the EU and Russia — that is trying to help negotiate peace, said attacks on Israeli citizens needed to end. He said he hoped that, with normality and growth in Gaza, the territory and the West Bank could be reunited.For his part, Fayyad turned aside a question about unilaterally declaring statehood in September if negotiations fail, saying he wanted real independence, not a virtual state.Associated Press Writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
