ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.
ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.
Olmert and Abbas agree on teams to tackle statehood By Adam Entous
SEPT 10,07
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed on Monday to create teams to tackle Palestinian statehood issues, a move both sides described as a step towards more substantive talks. But Israel cautioned against expecting major final status breakthroughs, either before or during a U.S.-sponsored conference planned for mid- to late November.Washington is pushing a reluctant Israel to make tangible progress to avoid disappointment at the conference, which Western diplomats said could culminate in an agreement to relaunch full-blown peace negotiations.After their three-hour meeting, Olmert and Abbas emphasized the importance of their joint commitment to a two-state solution and decided to appoint teams in order to work towards achieving this goal, said Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin.
Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the appointment of the teams was a significant development but offered few details.They (Olmert and Abbas) now believe it is time to take it to the next level, to engage on the substance of how to achieve a two-state solution, Erekat said.The Israeli leader is seeking a broadbrush declaration of principles for the November conference. Abbas wants an explicit framework agreement with a timeline for implementation.It is still unclear to what extent Olmert is prepared to meet Abbas's appeal to delve deeply into the core final status issues of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and the borders of a Palestinian state.
A senior Palestinian official close to Abbas said Washington was exerting immense pressure" on both sides to come to the conference with an agreed document.
NO TIMETABLE
Eisin said the leaders did not set timetables during their session in Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem. Both sides would like to see the success of the international meeting, but the meeting (in November) is not the end-game, she said.
Olmert and Abbas have been meeting regularly since Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June and are keen to show progress ahead of next week's visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.Eisin said Olmert and Abbas had agreed to meet again within two weeks. An opinion poll found that only 26 percent of the Palestinians it surveyed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip expect the Middle East conference to succeed.The findings by the independent Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that a final peace deal, mirroring a U.S. proposal in 2000 to establish a Palestinian state in nearly all of the West Bank and in the entire Gaza Strip, would be supported by just 46 percent of Palestinians.The bilateral meetings and the conference are part of a U.S.-led campaign to shore up the Fatah leader's hold on power in the occupied West Bank and to isolate Hamas in Gaza.
Olmert has also been weakened politically since last year's war in Lebanon, raising doubts among Israelis and Palestinians over his ability to deliver on any peace promises.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told his cabinet after the meeting, which he also attended, that the time had come to move from the stage of verbal discussions to the drafting of proposals, a Palestinian official said.Eisin said ministers in Olmert's cabinet would separately begin holding face-to-face meetings with their Palestinian counterparts in a sign of growing cooperation. During Monday's talks, Olmert told Abbas he would ask his cabinet to approve the release of Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture. Israel is expected to free around 100 Fatah prisoners for the Ramadan fast month, which begins this week. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah)
12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
EZEKIEL 47:13-23,48:1-35
13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; This shall be the border, whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions.
14 And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance.
15 And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad;
16 Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazarhatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran.
17 And the border from the sea shall be Hazarenan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side.
18 And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the east sea. And this is the east side.
19 And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side southward.
20 The west side also shall be the great sea from the border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side.
21 So shall ye divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel.
22 And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
23 And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord GOD.
1 Now these are the names of the tribes. From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west; a portion for Dan.
2 And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Asher.
3 And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Naphtali.
4 And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.
5 And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim.
6 And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Reuben.
7 And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.
8 And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.
9 The oblation that ye shall offer unto the LORD shall be of five and twenty thousand in length, and of ten thousand in breadth.
10 And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof.
11 It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.
12 And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the Levites.
13 And over against the border of the priests the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.
14 And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD.
15 And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof.
16 And these shall be the measures thereof; the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.
17 And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty.
18 And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward: and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy portion; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city.
19 And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.
20 All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city.
21 And the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof.
22 Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.
23 As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side unto the west side, Benjamin shall have a portion.
24 And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion.
25 And by the border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar a portion.
26 And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto the west side, Zebulun a portion.
27 And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion.
28 And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the great sea.
29 This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their portions, saith the Lord GOD.
30 And these are the goings out of the city on the north side, four thousand and five hundred measures.
31 And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi.
32 And at the east side four thousand and five hundred: and three gates; and one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan.
33 And at the south side four thousand and five hundred measures: and three gates; one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun.
34 At the west side four thousand and five hundred, with their three gates; one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali.
35 It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.
Lost tribe of Israel arrives at Western Wall
Tear-ridden welcome for group descended from Joseph that struggled to return home Posted: September 10, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Aaron Klein
2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – More than 200 people from a group of thousands in India that believes it is one of the lost tribes of Israel paid an emotional first visit to the Western Wall after arriving here last week, fulfilling for many a lifelong dream of returning to what they consider their homeland. Members of lost tribe of Israel arrive at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (courtesy Shavei Israel) Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization led by American Michael Freund, hopes to bring to the Jewish state the remaining 7,000 Indian citizens who believe they are the Bnei Menashe, the descendants of Manasseh, one of biblical patriarch Joseph's two sons and a grandson of Jacob, the man whose name was changed to Israel. The tribe lives in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, to which they claim to have been exiled from Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian empire. Last week, WND reported 230 Bnei Menashe touched down in Israel and made their way to a Shavei Israel absorption center in northern Israel, where they will study Hebrew and Judaism.
A few days after arriving, Shavei sponsored the group on a tour of Jerusalem's Old City, which culminated in a tear-ridden visit to the Western Wall, where the Bnei Menashe sang Psalms and recited afternoon and evening prayers. Jerusalem is so central to their return home. They had to immediately visit the Kotel (Western Wall), said Shavei Israel chairman Freund, who previously served as deputy communications director under former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I truly believe the Bnei Menashe's return is a miracle of immense historical and even biblical significance. Just as the prophets foretold so long ago, the lost tribes of Israel are being brought back from the exile, Freund said. The Bnei Menashe, which has preserved ancient Jewish customs and rituals, has been trying the past 50 years to return to Israel. Members of 'lost tribe of Israel' arrive at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (courtesy Shavei Israel) Over the last decade, Freund's Shavei Israel, at times working with other organizations, brought about 1,200 Bnei Menashe members to the Jewish state. Many settled in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. About 80 lived in Gaza's slate of Jewish communities, which were evacuated by the Israeli government in 2005. The original batches of Bnei Menashe to arrive here were brought to Israel as tourists in an agreement with Israel's Interior Ministry. Once here, the Bnei Menashe converted officially to Judaism and became citizens. But diplomatic wrangling halted the immigration process in 2003, with officials from some Israeli ministries refusing to grant the rest of the group still in India permission to travel here. To smooth the process, Freund enlisted the help of Israel's chief rabbinate, which flew to India in 2005 to meet with and consider converting members of the Bnei Menashe. Once legally Jewish, the tribe can apply for Israeli citizenship under the country's Law of Return, which guarantees sanctuary to Jews from around the world.
Six rabbis were sent by Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar, to begin converting the Bnei Menashe. The rabbis met with hundreds of tribal members, testing their knowledge of Judaism and assessing their conviction, converting 216 individuals – over 90 percent of the members interviewed. The rabbis were incredibly impressed with the Bnei Menashe, said Freund. "They saw for themselves that the group is very serious and should be integrated into the Jewish nation. That they are a blessing to the state of Israel.Last year, 218 converted members arrived in Israel. Freund hoped to repeat the process for 231 more Bnei Menashe who had been approved for conversion, but the Indian government, which heavily restricts conversions, put a halt on the plan. Members of 'lost tribe of Israel' arrive at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (courtesy Shavei Israel) Instead, the batch of Bnei Menashe that arrived last week were brought to Israel as tourists in coordination with the Israeli government. The tribe is slated to be officially converted by the country's chief rabbinate and qualify for Israeli citizenship.
The Bnei Menashe that arrived here over the years have fully transitioned into Israeli society. Many attended college and rabbinic school, moved to major Israeli communities and even joined the Israel Defense Forces. Twelve Bnei Menashe served in the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon in 2006. One of them, Avi Hanshing, a 22-year old paratrooper, was injured during a clash with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hanshing's father was among those who arrived here earlier this week in an emotional reunion at Israel's international airport. As much as we might think that Israel is helping the Bnei Menashe, it is the reverse that is true. It is they who strengthen us – with their faith, with their commitment and with their undying love for Zion, said Freund. According to Bnei Menashe oral tradition, the tribe was exiled from Israel and pushed to the east, eventually settling in the border regions of China and India, where most remain today. Most kept customs similar to Jewish tradition, including observing Shabbat, keeping the laws of Kosher, practicing circumcision on the eighth day of a baby boy's life and observing laws of family purity. In the 1950s, several thousand Bnei Menashe say they set out on foot to Israel but were quickly halted by Indian authorities. Undeterred, many began practicing Orthodox Judaism and pledged to make it to Israel. They now attend community centers established by Shavei Israel to teach the Bnei Menashe Jewish tradition and modern Hebrew. Freund said he hopes the arrival this week of more Bnei Menashe would jump-start the process of bringing back the rest of the 7,000 Bnei Menashe who are in India yearning to return home.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Thursday, September 06, 2007
POPE MEETS WITH PERES AT VATICAN
Blair meets Olmert on Middle-East peace tour SEPT 6,07
The Middle-East envoy Tony Blair has told the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he will focus on practical steps to try to build confidence in the peacemaking process. The former UK premier is in Israel as part of a tour of the Middle-East as envoy of the so-called Quartet - America, the EU, Russia and the UN - with a limited mandate on economic development and building Palestinian institutions in the West Bank.Olmert, and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have held regular meetings in recent months, though Israel only wants to talk about general principles. The moderate Fatah leader hopes Blair will use his influence to persuade Israel to enter more detailed talks on a Palestinian state, before a US sponsored conference scheduled for November.Israel's Supreme Court has delivered an embarrassing blow to the government, over a controversial barrier between Israel and the West Bank. The court ruled in favour of villagers in Bil'in, who'd argued that the barrier stopped them accessing their fields and orchards. Now planners have to re-route the fence-line.
Abbas asks Blair to press Israel on checkpoints
Thursday September 6, 09:35 PM
By Mohammed Assadi
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked Middle East envoy Tony Blair on Thursday to put pressure on Israel to remove some of the hundreds of checkpoints that restrict travel in the West Bank. Blair is developing a plan that would spell out practical steps that Israeli, Palestinian and business leaders would gradually take to try to boost peace prospects, officials said. Abbas and the Palestinian side asked Blair to really put pressure on Israel to remove the checkpoints because how can you improve the Palestinian economy if you cannot move goods from one area to another, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat told Reuters. The president also asked Blair to press Israel to stop carrying out arrest raids in the occupied West Bank, where Abbas's secular Fatah faction holds sway. Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in June. Abbas said Blair's action plan should spell out steps to bolster the Palestinian economy. Israel is expected to be asked under the plan to ease travel restrictions in the occupied West Bank, officials involved in the talks said.
Steps for the Palestinian side would focus initially on improving Abbas's security hold on the West Bank, a key Israeli precondition for removing checkpoints, the officials said. Israeli government officials said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not want Blair's action plan to set specific dates for implementation. Doing so would raise expectations that may not be achievable due to security developments, one official said. Blair, who started a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday, made no public comments after his meeting with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
A Blair spokesman had no immediate comment.
The Quartet of Middle East mediators gave Blair a limited mandate mainly focused on economic development and building governing institutions in the occupied West Bank.
But Abbas's aides hope the former British prime minister will go further and use his influence to get Olmert to enter serious negotiations for a Palestinian state ahead of a U.S.-sponsored conference in November.
Washington declines comment after Syria fires on Israeli planes
Thu Sep 6, 2:26 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Thursday declined comment on reports that Syria opened fired on Israeli warplanes, which Damascus believes violated its airspace. I have seen those press reports. I don't have anything for you that could substantiate them one way or the other, State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters Thursday.Certainly I don't want to comment on at this point in time, Casey said.A department official who declined to be identified said Washington was not particularly concerned about the incident which could heighten tensions between Israel and Syria.I don't think anybody here is viewing this with any particular or unique concern, the official said.A Syrian cabinet minister confirmed Thursday that his country had launched what Damascus considered a counterattack to perceived Israeli aggression.They intervened in our airspace ... which they should not do -- we are a sovereign country and they should not come into (our) airspace, Expatriate Affairs Minister Bussaina Shaaban said.The standoff comes amid a continuing war of words between Syria and Israel, with each blaming side the other for stoking regional tensions and for the failure to revive peace talks that have been stalled for seven years.
Vatican: Pope meets Israeli president
Castel Gandolfo, 6 Sept. (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday received Israeli president and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres at his summer residence outside Rome. Peres also met the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, Oded Ben-Hur.During very cordial meetings, Peres exchanged information with the Vatican on the recent resumption of contact between Israelis and Palestinians inmoves to re-start the stalled Middle East peace process.Washington is sponsoring an international peace conference on the Middle East scheduled for November and in Thursday's talks it was agreed that both sides at the conference should do their utmost to satisfy the aspirations of their peoples, the Vatican said in a statement.
Relations between the Vatican and Israel were also examined during the meetings, in the hope of a rapid conclusion to important negotiations that are still continuing and of constant dialogue between the Israeli authorities and local Christian communities, the Vatican said.Peres - who is on his first trip abroad since becoming Israel's head of state in June. - re-extended an invitation to the pope to visit the Holy Land.Also on Thursday, Peres met Italy's foreign minister Massimo D'Alema in Rome. The two men discussed the prosptect for Arab-Israeli peace, as well as bilateral relations, regional issues. D'Alema was this week West Bank, Egypt and Israel.Benedict VXI on Wednesday received Syria's vice-president Faruq al-Sharaa at the end of the pontiff's weekly general audience, the Vatican said.
The Middle-East envoy Tony Blair has told the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he will focus on practical steps to try to build confidence in the peacemaking process. The former UK premier is in Israel as part of a tour of the Middle-East as envoy of the so-called Quartet - America, the EU, Russia and the UN - with a limited mandate on economic development and building Palestinian institutions in the West Bank.Olmert, and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have held regular meetings in recent months, though Israel only wants to talk about general principles. The moderate Fatah leader hopes Blair will use his influence to persuade Israel to enter more detailed talks on a Palestinian state, before a US sponsored conference scheduled for November.Israel's Supreme Court has delivered an embarrassing blow to the government, over a controversial barrier between Israel and the West Bank. The court ruled in favour of villagers in Bil'in, who'd argued that the barrier stopped them accessing their fields and orchards. Now planners have to re-route the fence-line.
Abbas asks Blair to press Israel on checkpoints
Thursday September 6, 09:35 PM
By Mohammed Assadi
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked Middle East envoy Tony Blair on Thursday to put pressure on Israel to remove some of the hundreds of checkpoints that restrict travel in the West Bank. Blair is developing a plan that would spell out practical steps that Israeli, Palestinian and business leaders would gradually take to try to boost peace prospects, officials said. Abbas and the Palestinian side asked Blair to really put pressure on Israel to remove the checkpoints because how can you improve the Palestinian economy if you cannot move goods from one area to another, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat told Reuters. The president also asked Blair to press Israel to stop carrying out arrest raids in the occupied West Bank, where Abbas's secular Fatah faction holds sway. Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in June. Abbas said Blair's action plan should spell out steps to bolster the Palestinian economy. Israel is expected to be asked under the plan to ease travel restrictions in the occupied West Bank, officials involved in the talks said.
Steps for the Palestinian side would focus initially on improving Abbas's security hold on the West Bank, a key Israeli precondition for removing checkpoints, the officials said. Israeli government officials said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not want Blair's action plan to set specific dates for implementation. Doing so would raise expectations that may not be achievable due to security developments, one official said. Blair, who started a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday, made no public comments after his meeting with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
A Blair spokesman had no immediate comment.
The Quartet of Middle East mediators gave Blair a limited mandate mainly focused on economic development and building governing institutions in the occupied West Bank.
But Abbas's aides hope the former British prime minister will go further and use his influence to get Olmert to enter serious negotiations for a Palestinian state ahead of a U.S.-sponsored conference in November.
Washington declines comment after Syria fires on Israeli planes
Thu Sep 6, 2:26 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Thursday declined comment on reports that Syria opened fired on Israeli warplanes, which Damascus believes violated its airspace. I have seen those press reports. I don't have anything for you that could substantiate them one way or the other, State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters Thursday.Certainly I don't want to comment on at this point in time, Casey said.A department official who declined to be identified said Washington was not particularly concerned about the incident which could heighten tensions between Israel and Syria.I don't think anybody here is viewing this with any particular or unique concern, the official said.A Syrian cabinet minister confirmed Thursday that his country had launched what Damascus considered a counterattack to perceived Israeli aggression.They intervened in our airspace ... which they should not do -- we are a sovereign country and they should not come into (our) airspace, Expatriate Affairs Minister Bussaina Shaaban said.The standoff comes amid a continuing war of words between Syria and Israel, with each blaming side the other for stoking regional tensions and for the failure to revive peace talks that have been stalled for seven years.
Vatican: Pope meets Israeli president
Castel Gandolfo, 6 Sept. (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday received Israeli president and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres at his summer residence outside Rome. Peres also met the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, Oded Ben-Hur.During very cordial meetings, Peres exchanged information with the Vatican on the recent resumption of contact between Israelis and Palestinians inmoves to re-start the stalled Middle East peace process.Washington is sponsoring an international peace conference on the Middle East scheduled for November and in Thursday's talks it was agreed that both sides at the conference should do their utmost to satisfy the aspirations of their peoples, the Vatican said in a statement.
Relations between the Vatican and Israel were also examined during the meetings, in the hope of a rapid conclusion to important negotiations that are still continuing and of constant dialogue between the Israeli authorities and local Christian communities, the Vatican said.Peres - who is on his first trip abroad since becoming Israel's head of state in June. - re-extended an invitation to the pope to visit the Holy Land.Also on Thursday, Peres met Italy's foreign minister Massimo D'Alema in Rome. The two men discussed the prosptect for Arab-Israeli peace, as well as bilateral relations, regional issues. D'Alema was this week West Bank, Egypt and Israel.Benedict VXI on Wednesday received Syria's vice-president Faruq al-Sharaa at the end of the pontiff's weekly general audience, the Vatican said.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
LIVNI - SOLANA PRESS MEETING
Joint press conference with FM Livni and EU High Rep Solana
3 Sep 2007
After condemning the Kassam attacks on Sderot, discussions focused on the Israel-Palestinian political process and the upcoming events on the agenda in preparation for the international conference.FM Livni meets with Javier Solana in Jerusalem (Photo: Reuters)
Joint Press Conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni: I would like to welcome a friend, Javier Solana, on his visit to the region again. The situation is complicated as it always is, yet we can see that a dialogue between Abu Mazen and Olmert is taking place, and we may be facing new opportunities, while facing the same old threats. As always, there is a need to discuss, to share ideas and to see what the prospects are and what the meaning of the situation is – how we can translate some ideas into more concrete steps.
The role of Javier Solana is, of course, very important to the region. He understands the situation; he understands the players in the region; he understands the Israeli interest as well as the Palestinians' needs. And we discussed, of course, the bilateral relations between Israel and the European Union and the fact that Israel would like to upgrade its relations with the European Union.
Of course, we discussed the situation in the region: the Iranian threat, the need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons; the current situation and the ongoing process between Israel and the Palestinians; the need to provide an answer to the rearmament of Hizbullah in Lebanon, and of course, the sad fact that there are three abducted solders who are still being held - two by Hizbullah and one by Hamas.
Only today, we saw that the situation in Gaza has deteriorated and that in fact Israel is being targeted on a daily basis. Today a Kassam rocket fell just a few meters from a kindergarten and this is something that leads to an understanding that business is not as usual. We just opened our schools and kindergartens yesterday, and it is part of the responsibility of the Israeli government to provide an answer to attacks of this kind.
High Representative Javier Solana: Thank you very much. For me it is a pleasure to be back here in Jerusalem, in Israel. The last time I was here was in the second half of July, if I recall properly, and I will continue coming regularly because I feel very attached to your country and very attached to the peace process.
I think that the time now, from the beginning of September until December, is going to be of a certain importance, if we do it properly, and I do hope we will do it properly. This applies basically to the parties involved but also to the international community that should act in a constructive manner; in other words, it should be helpful.
We are going to start with a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) which, as you know very well, is an important instrument that was created in Oslo, and it has never met at the level that it is going to in September. It is going to convene at the level of ministers and I will have the opportunity and the privilege to meet with the minister there again. That is a very important event, as I said, and it is the first time that this will take place.
It will be followed on the following day by a meeting of the Quartet and also a Quartet meeting with some Arab League countries. And then we have the General Assembly where, without any doubt, a lot of activity will take place about important issues of a regular nature and a bilateral nature.
After that, we will probably have the conference - we do not yet know exactly when. However, it is our sentiment that the conference has to be a success. We still have to define exactly what we mean by success, but in any case I think that we cannot allow this to fail. And, at the end of that period, we will have an important donors conference about the Palestinians, which will probably be the biggest such conference that has taken place.
So, from now until December we have a very important agenda, and you know that the European Union will be cooperating as much as we can in order to make this period of time as successful a period of time as possible, for all the dreams that we - and particularly the Israelis and Palestinians - have to come true.
I want to thank the minister for her hospitality and for letting me bother her so frequently on the phone, and for hosting me here. I must say she has always treated me in a very, very friendly manner. And I would like also to keep on talking about how to upgrade the relationship between Israel and the European Union.
Before I offer you the floor, I would like to show my solidarity with the people of Sderot. I was there with the minister not long ago and we were welcomed together there, and I know what it means. And to see Sderot again today - once again, seeing the same spirit of the people of Sderot, particularly the kids in the schools. I think that this is something that I have to condemn, and it was important to show my solidarity to Israel and to the people there. Thank you.
Question: You talk about Sderot and the children there, but it seems to me that solidarity is not enough. People are afraid to go out. How strongly will the European Union support Israel in an operation if it decides on an operation in Gaza, to stop the rockets on Sderot?
And a question to the minister, what will be the next step of Israel in that sense, because the Hamas is getting stronger?
Javier Solana: Israel has our solidarity in its fight against terrorism. We have showed our solidarity with Israel. We have continued to search for efficient measures against terrorism and, though sometimes we do not agree one hundred per cent, the basic solidarity exists, and Israel knows that you have it.
FM Tzipi Livni: First I would like to thank you for your solidarity. It is not obvious in some places in Israel, and sometimes there is some frustration in Israel - the feeling that we are facing this type of threat alone, even though the fact is that Israel is, in a way, the front line of the Western world in facing this kind of terror attacks by extremists who represent extreme religious ideology like Hamas. So, first and foremost I would like to thank you on behalf of the people of Sderot and Israel - thank you for this stand.
But of course, part of our responsibility is to provide an answer to the Israeli population and to the life of the children, considering the fact that we just opened the schools and kindergartens and already today they came under attack. This is something that is unbearable, and Israel has the right to defend itself. I do not want to suggest here what kind of steps we can take. Even if some of the steps cannot completely stop terror attacks on Israel, I think that the Palestinians need to understand that business is not as usual.
There is no equation in which Israeli children will be under attack of Kassam rockets on a daily basis and life in the Gaza Strip carries on as usual. This is totally unacceptable. And I do not refer only to military means. We all know that the Gaza Strip is dependent on Israel’s goodwill in several things, and I think that it is about time that we discuss what kind of measures and steps we can take in order to send the message that, if life in Israel is not as usual, as it needs to be, neither will life in the Gaza Strip be as usual.
Question: Foreign Minister Livni, is there a contradiction between the continued process and negotiations between the Israeli government and Abu Mazen, and what is happening in Sderot?
FM Tzipi Livni: First of all, we have to face facts: the situation in Sderot is unbearable from the point of view of Israel's citizens, and for no good reason. The situation in Gaza is one wherein a terror organization has overtaken the Strip. The fact that they are continuing to arm themselves, through the border with Egypt, is also something for which a solution must be found.
At the same time, Israel wishes to promote dialogue with the moderate elements, on the basis of two assumptions. The first is that this dialogue, in the short run, will not bring about a solution for the Gaza issue. The second - which we will also have to consider - is the fact that the parties with which we are conducting the dialogue are not capable of carrying out the commitments that we will be demanding. This dialogue must reflect Israel's security needs, and we must recognize that they will not be able to implement it everywhere. Therefore any dialogue must take these two basic assumptions into account, and its outcome must reflect Israel's interests, including its security interests. This is the purpose of this dialogue, as I see it.
As for Gaza, as I just said, even though we may not have an immediate solution to stop the Kassams, I do think there are other measures, beyond "dramatic" military steps that we can take. Gaza is dependent on Israel and on Israel's willingness to continue letting it lead a certain type of life. I think we can, and should, think of using some of these means in order to convey the message that there is no such formula: we cannot continue to accept a situation wherein kindergarten kids are under daily threat while in Gaza life continues as usual.
Question: Mr. Solana, I wanted to know if you see any possibility of having talks with Hamas in the coming future.
Javier Solana: The official policy of the European Union has not changed and continues to be the same. We do not have contact with Hamas and we continue to maintain that policy - as members of the European Union and as members of the Quartet also. The conditions have not changed, and therefore our policy has not changed either.
FM Tzipi Livni: Can I also give an answer to this, because it is important to understand the reasons why the world's international community does not speak with Hamas. It is not even because of the past, but because there is no hope for a future with the Hamas for the Palestinians - neither for Israel nor for the Palestinians - since this is an organization that represents an extreme ideology and which is not willing to meet the requirements of the international community: namely, acceptance of Israel, the renunciation of violence and terrorism, and acceptance of former agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
So, when looking for a better future there is a need to take the right steps, and right now, the policy and the strategy of the international community as well as that of the new Palestinian government is to make a clear distinction. The Palestinians need to understand that there is no hope for them with Hamas, while there is hope with the current, or the new Palestinian government and Abu Mazen. Only a clear distinction between Hamas and Fatah, between Haniyeh and Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad of course, can bring this message to the Palestinians. Otherwise we might witness a process of Islamization and radical elements not only the in the Gaza Strip but also in the West Bank. And this is something that not only Israel, but I believe also the Palestinians cannot afford.
Question: Minister Livni, I'd like to ask you about the draft agreement currently being formulated about principles to be presented in the international conference. The question is whether the core issues - the issues of Jerusalem, the refugees, the borders, the settlements - will be included in this draft which is to be presented at the international conference.
FM Tzipi Livni: The agreement must reflect the common denominator, and I believe there is a common denominator between Israel and the Palestinians, so long as - as far as I'm concerned - such an agreement reflects Israel's basic interests. I believe that it is possible to reach a common denominator. On the other hand, the question of what will be achieved depends, inter alia, upon the possibility of bridging the gaps. Every agreement has an element of compromise, on the part of the Palestinians too. Therefore from my point of view, the question of whether this is a feasible agreement and whether it is an agreement worth achieving depends, among other things, on its content, and whether it represents the legitimate and basic security interests of the State of Israel. Concurrently, the Palestinians must of course ask themselves the same question.
3 Sep 2007
After condemning the Kassam attacks on Sderot, discussions focused on the Israel-Palestinian political process and the upcoming events on the agenda in preparation for the international conference.FM Livni meets with Javier Solana in Jerusalem (Photo: Reuters)
Joint Press Conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni: I would like to welcome a friend, Javier Solana, on his visit to the region again. The situation is complicated as it always is, yet we can see that a dialogue between Abu Mazen and Olmert is taking place, and we may be facing new opportunities, while facing the same old threats. As always, there is a need to discuss, to share ideas and to see what the prospects are and what the meaning of the situation is – how we can translate some ideas into more concrete steps.
The role of Javier Solana is, of course, very important to the region. He understands the situation; he understands the players in the region; he understands the Israeli interest as well as the Palestinians' needs. And we discussed, of course, the bilateral relations between Israel and the European Union and the fact that Israel would like to upgrade its relations with the European Union.
Of course, we discussed the situation in the region: the Iranian threat, the need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons; the current situation and the ongoing process between Israel and the Palestinians; the need to provide an answer to the rearmament of Hizbullah in Lebanon, and of course, the sad fact that there are three abducted solders who are still being held - two by Hizbullah and one by Hamas.
Only today, we saw that the situation in Gaza has deteriorated and that in fact Israel is being targeted on a daily basis. Today a Kassam rocket fell just a few meters from a kindergarten and this is something that leads to an understanding that business is not as usual. We just opened our schools and kindergartens yesterday, and it is part of the responsibility of the Israeli government to provide an answer to attacks of this kind.
High Representative Javier Solana: Thank you very much. For me it is a pleasure to be back here in Jerusalem, in Israel. The last time I was here was in the second half of July, if I recall properly, and I will continue coming regularly because I feel very attached to your country and very attached to the peace process.
I think that the time now, from the beginning of September until December, is going to be of a certain importance, if we do it properly, and I do hope we will do it properly. This applies basically to the parties involved but also to the international community that should act in a constructive manner; in other words, it should be helpful.
We are going to start with a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) which, as you know very well, is an important instrument that was created in Oslo, and it has never met at the level that it is going to in September. It is going to convene at the level of ministers and I will have the opportunity and the privilege to meet with the minister there again. That is a very important event, as I said, and it is the first time that this will take place.
It will be followed on the following day by a meeting of the Quartet and also a Quartet meeting with some Arab League countries. And then we have the General Assembly where, without any doubt, a lot of activity will take place about important issues of a regular nature and a bilateral nature.
After that, we will probably have the conference - we do not yet know exactly when. However, it is our sentiment that the conference has to be a success. We still have to define exactly what we mean by success, but in any case I think that we cannot allow this to fail. And, at the end of that period, we will have an important donors conference about the Palestinians, which will probably be the biggest such conference that has taken place.
So, from now until December we have a very important agenda, and you know that the European Union will be cooperating as much as we can in order to make this period of time as successful a period of time as possible, for all the dreams that we - and particularly the Israelis and Palestinians - have to come true.
I want to thank the minister for her hospitality and for letting me bother her so frequently on the phone, and for hosting me here. I must say she has always treated me in a very, very friendly manner. And I would like also to keep on talking about how to upgrade the relationship between Israel and the European Union.
Before I offer you the floor, I would like to show my solidarity with the people of Sderot. I was there with the minister not long ago and we were welcomed together there, and I know what it means. And to see Sderot again today - once again, seeing the same spirit of the people of Sderot, particularly the kids in the schools. I think that this is something that I have to condemn, and it was important to show my solidarity to Israel and to the people there. Thank you.
Question: You talk about Sderot and the children there, but it seems to me that solidarity is not enough. People are afraid to go out. How strongly will the European Union support Israel in an operation if it decides on an operation in Gaza, to stop the rockets on Sderot?
And a question to the minister, what will be the next step of Israel in that sense, because the Hamas is getting stronger?
Javier Solana: Israel has our solidarity in its fight against terrorism. We have showed our solidarity with Israel. We have continued to search for efficient measures against terrorism and, though sometimes we do not agree one hundred per cent, the basic solidarity exists, and Israel knows that you have it.
FM Tzipi Livni: First I would like to thank you for your solidarity. It is not obvious in some places in Israel, and sometimes there is some frustration in Israel - the feeling that we are facing this type of threat alone, even though the fact is that Israel is, in a way, the front line of the Western world in facing this kind of terror attacks by extremists who represent extreme religious ideology like Hamas. So, first and foremost I would like to thank you on behalf of the people of Sderot and Israel - thank you for this stand.
But of course, part of our responsibility is to provide an answer to the Israeli population and to the life of the children, considering the fact that we just opened the schools and kindergartens and already today they came under attack. This is something that is unbearable, and Israel has the right to defend itself. I do not want to suggest here what kind of steps we can take. Even if some of the steps cannot completely stop terror attacks on Israel, I think that the Palestinians need to understand that business is not as usual.
There is no equation in which Israeli children will be under attack of Kassam rockets on a daily basis and life in the Gaza Strip carries on as usual. This is totally unacceptable. And I do not refer only to military means. We all know that the Gaza Strip is dependent on Israel’s goodwill in several things, and I think that it is about time that we discuss what kind of measures and steps we can take in order to send the message that, if life in Israel is not as usual, as it needs to be, neither will life in the Gaza Strip be as usual.
Question: Foreign Minister Livni, is there a contradiction between the continued process and negotiations between the Israeli government and Abu Mazen, and what is happening in Sderot?
FM Tzipi Livni: First of all, we have to face facts: the situation in Sderot is unbearable from the point of view of Israel's citizens, and for no good reason. The situation in Gaza is one wherein a terror organization has overtaken the Strip. The fact that they are continuing to arm themselves, through the border with Egypt, is also something for which a solution must be found.
At the same time, Israel wishes to promote dialogue with the moderate elements, on the basis of two assumptions. The first is that this dialogue, in the short run, will not bring about a solution for the Gaza issue. The second - which we will also have to consider - is the fact that the parties with which we are conducting the dialogue are not capable of carrying out the commitments that we will be demanding. This dialogue must reflect Israel's security needs, and we must recognize that they will not be able to implement it everywhere. Therefore any dialogue must take these two basic assumptions into account, and its outcome must reflect Israel's interests, including its security interests. This is the purpose of this dialogue, as I see it.
As for Gaza, as I just said, even though we may not have an immediate solution to stop the Kassams, I do think there are other measures, beyond "dramatic" military steps that we can take. Gaza is dependent on Israel and on Israel's willingness to continue letting it lead a certain type of life. I think we can, and should, think of using some of these means in order to convey the message that there is no such formula: we cannot continue to accept a situation wherein kindergarten kids are under daily threat while in Gaza life continues as usual.
Question: Mr. Solana, I wanted to know if you see any possibility of having talks with Hamas in the coming future.
Javier Solana: The official policy of the European Union has not changed and continues to be the same. We do not have contact with Hamas and we continue to maintain that policy - as members of the European Union and as members of the Quartet also. The conditions have not changed, and therefore our policy has not changed either.
FM Tzipi Livni: Can I also give an answer to this, because it is important to understand the reasons why the world's international community does not speak with Hamas. It is not even because of the past, but because there is no hope for a future with the Hamas for the Palestinians - neither for Israel nor for the Palestinians - since this is an organization that represents an extreme ideology and which is not willing to meet the requirements of the international community: namely, acceptance of Israel, the renunciation of violence and terrorism, and acceptance of former agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
So, when looking for a better future there is a need to take the right steps, and right now, the policy and the strategy of the international community as well as that of the new Palestinian government is to make a clear distinction. The Palestinians need to understand that there is no hope for them with Hamas, while there is hope with the current, or the new Palestinian government and Abu Mazen. Only a clear distinction between Hamas and Fatah, between Haniyeh and Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad of course, can bring this message to the Palestinians. Otherwise we might witness a process of Islamization and radical elements not only the in the Gaza Strip but also in the West Bank. And this is something that not only Israel, but I believe also the Palestinians cannot afford.
Question: Minister Livni, I'd like to ask you about the draft agreement currently being formulated about principles to be presented in the international conference. The question is whether the core issues - the issues of Jerusalem, the refugees, the borders, the settlements - will be included in this draft which is to be presented at the international conference.
FM Tzipi Livni: The agreement must reflect the common denominator, and I believe there is a common denominator between Israel and the Palestinians, so long as - as far as I'm concerned - such an agreement reflects Israel's basic interests. I believe that it is possible to reach a common denominator. On the other hand, the question of what will be achieved depends, inter alia, upon the possibility of bridging the gaps. Every agreement has an element of compromise, on the part of the Palestinians too. Therefore from my point of view, the question of whether this is a feasible agreement and whether it is an agreement worth achieving depends, among other things, on its content, and whether it represents the legitimate and basic security interests of the State of Israel. Concurrently, the Palestinians must of course ask themselves the same question.
Monday, September 03, 2007
JORDAN URGES GREATER EU ROLE IN MEP
Jordan king urges greater EU role for Mideast peace
SEPT 2,07
AMMAN (AFP) — Jordan's King Abdullah II called for the European Union to bridge differences between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of a US-sponsored peace conference in talks on Sunday with visiting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
King Abdullah II and Prodi stressed the importance of increased efforts by the European Union to support peace in the Middle East and bring back the Palestinians and the Israelis to the negotiations table, a palace statement said.It is necessary to bring closer the points of view between the Palestinians and Israelis in light of US President George W. Bush's call for an international peace conference for the Middle East, the king was quoted as saying.On Friday, the king, who is a close US ally, called on the Palestinians to close ranks and let reason prevail in order to benefit from the international conference, expected to take place in November.
Prodi said at the start of his visit to the kingdom on Saturday that his government would do everything to make the conference a success.We are very positively engaged in the conference that will be held next November, he told reporters after meeting his Jordanian counterpart Maaruf Bakhit.But the Italian prime minister warned that Palestinian divisions would undermine future moves for peace with Israel.I feel that the divisions between the Palestinians will not help the peace process. I am sure that the Palestinian divisions will bring negative consequences to any future development in the area, Prodi said.The Islamist Hamas movement captured the Gaza Strip on June 15 from the secular Fatah forces of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, effectively splitting Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.After his talks with the Prodi, the king left for Paris, where he is due to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy on similar talks on Monday.
SEPT 2,07
AMMAN (AFP) — Jordan's King Abdullah II called for the European Union to bridge differences between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of a US-sponsored peace conference in talks on Sunday with visiting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
King Abdullah II and Prodi stressed the importance of increased efforts by the European Union to support peace in the Middle East and bring back the Palestinians and the Israelis to the negotiations table, a palace statement said.It is necessary to bring closer the points of view between the Palestinians and Israelis in light of US President George W. Bush's call for an international peace conference for the Middle East, the king was quoted as saying.On Friday, the king, who is a close US ally, called on the Palestinians to close ranks and let reason prevail in order to benefit from the international conference, expected to take place in November.
Prodi said at the start of his visit to the kingdom on Saturday that his government would do everything to make the conference a success.We are very positively engaged in the conference that will be held next November, he told reporters after meeting his Jordanian counterpart Maaruf Bakhit.But the Italian prime minister warned that Palestinian divisions would undermine future moves for peace with Israel.I feel that the divisions between the Palestinians will not help the peace process. I am sure that the Palestinian divisions will bring negative consequences to any future development in the area, Prodi said.The Islamist Hamas movement captured the Gaza Strip on June 15 from the secular Fatah forces of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, effectively splitting Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.After his talks with the Prodi, the king left for Paris, where he is due to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy on similar talks on Monday.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
GENEVA ACCORD BEING ELEVATED
THIS GENEVA ACCORD I THINK COULD BE THE ONE IN DANIEL 9:27 BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE GOT TOGETHER AND MADE IT UP. IF THIS IS NOT THE MANY OF DAN 9:27, THEN THE ARAB LEAGUE COULD BE THE POSSIBLE MANY DANIEL IS REFERRING TO WHEN HE SAYS IT WILL BE A 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY WITH ISRAEL - ARABS AND MANY (EITHER ARAB LEAGUE OR THIS GENEVA ACCORD I BELIEVE).
Geneva Accords Are Being Elevated To Government Policy
Ted Belman - 8/27/2007
Eight months after the US invasion of Iraq and the announcement of the Roadmap, Yossi Beilin, the Oslo architect, and Abed Rabbo, launched their peace proposal after two and one-half years of work. It was to be known as the Geneva Accords. It was sub-titled Draft Permanent Status Agreement Haaretz reported The plan, dubbed the Geneva Accord in tribute to the funding and support supplied by the Swiss Foreign Ministry, offers itself as a decisive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the plan drawn up by former U.S. president Bill Clinton after the breakdown in the July 2000 talks between former prime minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat.Fifty-eight former presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other global leaders, among them former presidents Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union and F.W. de Klerk of South Africa , issued a statement expressing strong support for the plan. Other world leaders who voiced their backing included King Hassan III of Morocco, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Clinton. Bush reacted by saying it is productive, so long as they adhere to the principles [to] fight off terror, that there must be security, and there must be the emergence of a Palestinian state that is democratic and free. In other words, he stuck with the Roadmap. Others like Jimmy Carter, Colin Powel, Kofi Annan and the EU jumped right in.
Ministers, right-wing MKs lambaste colleagues for attending Geneva ceremony
MK Yuli Edelstein (Yisrael b'Aliyah) even submitted a complaint to the Knesset's Ethics Committee against those MKs who attended the ceremony. According to Edelstein, legislators Haim Oron, Roman Bronfman, Avraham Burg, Yuli Tamir and Amram Mitzna all contravened Knesset regulations by attending the ceremony.National Union lawmaker Uri Ariel said that the Geneva Accord is worse than the Oslo Accords for Israel . According to Ariel, the actions of the left-wing MKs could be seriously damaging for Israel and its citizens. He called on Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein to set up a commission of inquiry to look into their actions.The head of the settler lobby group in the Knesset, MK Yehiel Hazan (Likud), said that those behind the Geneva Accord should be stopped by all legal means, before their wicked plan to sell off the Land of Israel . Hazan added that the agreement is the piracy of people who are not living in reality. These Accords were fully analyzed by the JCSS. Its assessment is worth reading now. Essentially the Accords built on the Taba talks and attempted to bridge the gaps. One was Barak's refusal to cede sovereignty of the Temple Mount . In the Geneva document Israel renounces the symbol of sovereignty over the Temple Mount. In addition, the Geneva document does not mention the right of return. This was so because after two and a half years the negotiators couldn't agree on a compromise.
Opposition in Israel was so strong that the Accords disappeared from sight. The Accords are now being resurrected in the form of an agreed set of principles. No surprise there. Shimon Peres, who was behind both the Oslo Accords and the Geneva Accords is now President of Israel.If you want to know what such principles will contain just read the Geneva Accords. In effect the Geneva Accords are now being elevated to government policy.Already we are told that Israel intends to cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount.You will recall that after Arafat walked out on Camp David and Barak's overly generous offer, talks continued at Taba. The Intifadah, which Arafat launched, ended the process temporarily. But it was felt by the left and by the diplomats in general that the gaps preventing agreement could be bridged. So Beilin, under the auspices of the EU and Shimon Peres continued discussions leading up to the Geneva Accords.
Back then, Charles Krauthammer called them the Geneva Sellout.
[..] The Israeli side, however, is led by Yossi Beilin, a man whose political standing in his own country is so low that he failed to make it into Parliament. After helping bring his Labor Party to ruin, Beilin abandoned it for the far-left Meretz Party, which then did so badly in the last election that Beilin is now a private citizen.There is a reason why he is one of Israel 's most reviled and discredited politicians. He was the principal ideologue and architect behind the peace foisted on Israel in 1993. Those Oslo agreements have brought a decade of the worst terror in all Israeli history.Now he is at it again. And Secretary of State Colin Powell has written a letter to Beilin and Rabbo expressing appreciation for their effort, and is now planning to meet with them.This is scandalous. Israel is a democracy, and this agreement was negotiated in defiance of the democratically (and overwhelmingly) elected government of Israel. If a private U.S. citizen negotiated a treaty on his own, he could go to jail under the Logan Act. If an Israeli does it, he gets a pat on the back from the secretary of state.
Moreover, this peace is entirely hallucinatory. It is written as if Oslo never happened. The Palestinian side repeats solemn pledges to recognize Israel , renounce terror, end anti-Israel incitement, etc. - all promised in Oslo . These promises are today such a dead letter that the Palestinian side is openly bargaining these chits again, as if the Israelis have forgotten that in return for these pledges 10 years ago, Israel recognized the PLO, brought it out of Tunisian exile, established a Palestinian Authority, permitted it an army with 50,000 guns and invited the world to donate billions to this new Authority.Arafat pocketed every Israeli concession, turned his territory into an armed camp and then launched a vicious terror war that has lasted more than three years and killed more than 1,000 Israelis. It is Lucy and the football all over again, and the same chorus of delusional people who so applauded Oslo - Jimmy Carter, Sandy Berger, Tom Friedman - is applauding again. This time, however, the Israeli surrender is so breathtaking it makes Oslo look rational.A Palestinian state, of course. Evacuating every Jewish settlement in new Palestine, of course. Redividing Jerusalem, of course. But that is not enough. Beilin gives up the ultimate symbol of the Jewish connection and claim to the land, the center of the Jewish state for 1,000 years before the Roman destruction, the subject of Jewish longing in poetry and prayer for the 2,000 years since - the Temple Mount. And Beilin doesn't just give it up to, say, some neutral international authority. He gives it to sovereign Palestine . Jews will visit at Arab sufferance.
Not satisfied with having given up Israel 's soul, Beilin gives up the body too. He not only returns Israel to its 1967 borders, arbitrary and indefensible, but he does so without any serious security safeguards.Palestine promises to acquire and buy no more weapons than specified in some treaty annex. This is a joke. Oslo had similarly detailed limitations on Palestinian weaponry, and nobody even pretended to enforce them. Last year, a massive illegal boatload came in from Iran on the Karine A. What did the world do about it? Nothing.Today, however, Israel still has control over Palestine 's borders. Under Beilin, this ends. Palestine will be free to acquire as much lethal weaponry as it wants.And on the critical question that even the most dovish Israelis insist on - that the Palestinians not have the right to flood Israel with Arab refugees - the agreement is utterly ambiguous. Third parties (including among others the irredeemably hostile Syria and its puppet Lebanon ) are to suggest exactly how many Palestinians are to return to Israel , and the basis for the number Israel will be required to accept will be the mathematical average!This is not a peace treaty, this is a suicide note - by a private citizen on behalf of a country that has utterly rejected him politically. That it should get any encouragement from the United States or from its secretary of state is a disgrace. Krauthammer was right then. He is even more right now. Ted Belman also writes for Israpundit.com
Geneva Accords Are Being Elevated To Government Policy
Ted Belman - 8/27/2007
Eight months after the US invasion of Iraq and the announcement of the Roadmap, Yossi Beilin, the Oslo architect, and Abed Rabbo, launched their peace proposal after two and one-half years of work. It was to be known as the Geneva Accords. It was sub-titled Draft Permanent Status Agreement Haaretz reported The plan, dubbed the Geneva Accord in tribute to the funding and support supplied by the Swiss Foreign Ministry, offers itself as a decisive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the plan drawn up by former U.S. president Bill Clinton after the breakdown in the July 2000 talks between former prime minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat.Fifty-eight former presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other global leaders, among them former presidents Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union and F.W. de Klerk of South Africa , issued a statement expressing strong support for the plan. Other world leaders who voiced their backing included King Hassan III of Morocco, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Clinton. Bush reacted by saying it is productive, so long as they adhere to the principles [to] fight off terror, that there must be security, and there must be the emergence of a Palestinian state that is democratic and free. In other words, he stuck with the Roadmap. Others like Jimmy Carter, Colin Powel, Kofi Annan and the EU jumped right in.
Ministers, right-wing MKs lambaste colleagues for attending Geneva ceremony
MK Yuli Edelstein (Yisrael b'Aliyah) even submitted a complaint to the Knesset's Ethics Committee against those MKs who attended the ceremony. According to Edelstein, legislators Haim Oron, Roman Bronfman, Avraham Burg, Yuli Tamir and Amram Mitzna all contravened Knesset regulations by attending the ceremony.National Union lawmaker Uri Ariel said that the Geneva Accord is worse than the Oslo Accords for Israel . According to Ariel, the actions of the left-wing MKs could be seriously damaging for Israel and its citizens. He called on Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein to set up a commission of inquiry to look into their actions.The head of the settler lobby group in the Knesset, MK Yehiel Hazan (Likud), said that those behind the Geneva Accord should be stopped by all legal means, before their wicked plan to sell off the Land of Israel . Hazan added that the agreement is the piracy of people who are not living in reality. These Accords were fully analyzed by the JCSS. Its assessment is worth reading now. Essentially the Accords built on the Taba talks and attempted to bridge the gaps. One was Barak's refusal to cede sovereignty of the Temple Mount . In the Geneva document Israel renounces the symbol of sovereignty over the Temple Mount. In addition, the Geneva document does not mention the right of return. This was so because after two and a half years the negotiators couldn't agree on a compromise.
Opposition in Israel was so strong that the Accords disappeared from sight. The Accords are now being resurrected in the form of an agreed set of principles. No surprise there. Shimon Peres, who was behind both the Oslo Accords and the Geneva Accords is now President of Israel.If you want to know what such principles will contain just read the Geneva Accords. In effect the Geneva Accords are now being elevated to government policy.Already we are told that Israel intends to cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount.You will recall that after Arafat walked out on Camp David and Barak's overly generous offer, talks continued at Taba. The Intifadah, which Arafat launched, ended the process temporarily. But it was felt by the left and by the diplomats in general that the gaps preventing agreement could be bridged. So Beilin, under the auspices of the EU and Shimon Peres continued discussions leading up to the Geneva Accords.
Back then, Charles Krauthammer called them the Geneva Sellout.
[..] The Israeli side, however, is led by Yossi Beilin, a man whose political standing in his own country is so low that he failed to make it into Parliament. After helping bring his Labor Party to ruin, Beilin abandoned it for the far-left Meretz Party, which then did so badly in the last election that Beilin is now a private citizen.There is a reason why he is one of Israel 's most reviled and discredited politicians. He was the principal ideologue and architect behind the peace foisted on Israel in 1993. Those Oslo agreements have brought a decade of the worst terror in all Israeli history.Now he is at it again. And Secretary of State Colin Powell has written a letter to Beilin and Rabbo expressing appreciation for their effort, and is now planning to meet with them.This is scandalous. Israel is a democracy, and this agreement was negotiated in defiance of the democratically (and overwhelmingly) elected government of Israel. If a private U.S. citizen negotiated a treaty on his own, he could go to jail under the Logan Act. If an Israeli does it, he gets a pat on the back from the secretary of state.
Moreover, this peace is entirely hallucinatory. It is written as if Oslo never happened. The Palestinian side repeats solemn pledges to recognize Israel , renounce terror, end anti-Israel incitement, etc. - all promised in Oslo . These promises are today such a dead letter that the Palestinian side is openly bargaining these chits again, as if the Israelis have forgotten that in return for these pledges 10 years ago, Israel recognized the PLO, brought it out of Tunisian exile, established a Palestinian Authority, permitted it an army with 50,000 guns and invited the world to donate billions to this new Authority.Arafat pocketed every Israeli concession, turned his territory into an armed camp and then launched a vicious terror war that has lasted more than three years and killed more than 1,000 Israelis. It is Lucy and the football all over again, and the same chorus of delusional people who so applauded Oslo - Jimmy Carter, Sandy Berger, Tom Friedman - is applauding again. This time, however, the Israeli surrender is so breathtaking it makes Oslo look rational.A Palestinian state, of course. Evacuating every Jewish settlement in new Palestine, of course. Redividing Jerusalem, of course. But that is not enough. Beilin gives up the ultimate symbol of the Jewish connection and claim to the land, the center of the Jewish state for 1,000 years before the Roman destruction, the subject of Jewish longing in poetry and prayer for the 2,000 years since - the Temple Mount. And Beilin doesn't just give it up to, say, some neutral international authority. He gives it to sovereign Palestine . Jews will visit at Arab sufferance.
Not satisfied with having given up Israel 's soul, Beilin gives up the body too. He not only returns Israel to its 1967 borders, arbitrary and indefensible, but he does so without any serious security safeguards.Palestine promises to acquire and buy no more weapons than specified in some treaty annex. This is a joke. Oslo had similarly detailed limitations on Palestinian weaponry, and nobody even pretended to enforce them. Last year, a massive illegal boatload came in from Iran on the Karine A. What did the world do about it? Nothing.Today, however, Israel still has control over Palestine 's borders. Under Beilin, this ends. Palestine will be free to acquire as much lethal weaponry as it wants.And on the critical question that even the most dovish Israelis insist on - that the Palestinians not have the right to flood Israel with Arab refugees - the agreement is utterly ambiguous. Third parties (including among others the irredeemably hostile Syria and its puppet Lebanon ) are to suggest exactly how many Palestinians are to return to Israel , and the basis for the number Israel will be required to accept will be the mathematical average!This is not a peace treaty, this is a suicide note - by a private citizen on behalf of a country that has utterly rejected him politically. That it should get any encouragement from the United States or from its secretary of state is a disgrace. Krauthammer was right then. He is even more right now. Ted Belman also writes for Israpundit.com
Monday, August 27, 2007
OUTLINE OF PALESTINIAN STATE
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Outline of Palestinian state 'coming by this November'
Plan drafted by veteran politician would forfeit strategic West Bank
August 26, 2007 - By Aaron Klein - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Shimon Peres
JAFFA, Israel – Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres hopes to achieve the outline of a final status deal with the Palestinians before an international conference in November, the veteran politician said. Israeli diplomatic sources told WND earlier this month Peres quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that undisputedly is Israel's according to the international community. The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president is not allowed to lead foreign policy. The diplomatic sources also said earlier this U.S.-brokered month biweekly meetings between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are being utilized to draft the outline of a permanent status deal ultimately yielding a Palestinian state scheduled to be aired in public at the November summit, which is being organized by the U.S.
Confirming the plan, Peres told Tokyo's Nikkei business daily newspaper he believes the outline of a final deal can be achieved before November. To work out the details (of the political if not the geographical outline of a future Palestinian state) will take more time, but (as for) principles, yes, we can achieve an agreement before the autumn peace conference, he said. Peres said improved economic conditions for the Palestinians will lead to peaceful coexistence.We shall go in a policy of two tracks, economic development and political negotiations, one complementary to the other but not dependent upon it, he said. Last week the Arab media reported Peres held a secret meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at his official residence in Jerusalem. Israeli diplomatic sources told WND during the meeting Peres presented Fayyad with his plan for Israel to evacuate the West Bank, which borders Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. The West Bank is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites.
Peres also presented his initiative to top European Union officials, Olmert and to top aides for Abbas in the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND. Olmert, Abbas, Fayad and the EU are mulling over the plan, said the diplomatic sources, who stated Olmert agrees with much of the plan's contents. Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97 percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will give the PA control of Arab Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv which, together with the evacuated West Bank territory, would amount to the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank. Yesterday, Abbas said the PA would not consent to population exchanges as part of a permanent agreement that would leave some West Bank Jewish communities with Israel.
Top EU diplomats in recent days told the media they want the U.S.-sponsored international conference scheduled for November to lead to negotiations on a final agreement with the Palestinians. That international conference and talk from the Bush administration the past few weeks has led many here to speculate the U.S. will push in the near future for intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. With a year and a half left in office, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging meetings between Abbas and Olmert to establish a framework for momentum leading to a breakthrough at November's conference. Already Olmert during the meetings has granted a number of security concessions to Abbas regarding increased Palestinian control of the West Bank.
The Israeli prime minister last month granted amnesty to 178 gunmen from Abbas' Fatah organization who comprise most of the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah that is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years. Olmert reportedly is considering granting amnesty to 206 more Brigades terrorists. According to Palestinian officials, the Israeli Prime Minister already informed the PA that Fatah gunmen are largely immune from Israeli anti-terror raids regardless of whether they are officially on Olmert's amnesty list. Also, Olmert is strongly considering removing hundreds of Israel Defense Forces roadblocks and checkpoints situated in strategic sites located throughout the West Bank. The IDF sees the checkpoints as crucial in helping stop terrorists, including suicide bombers, from infiltrating Jewish cities. As well, in a little-reported but major move, Israel last week started allowing armed Palestinian policemen to patrol areas in the West Bank that fall under Israeli security control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords. Security in the territory, referred to as Area B, is supposed to be ensured by the IDF, which still monitors the area but has allowed for an unprecedented stepped-up armed Palestinian security presence there.
Peres overstepping his boundaries?
When Peres assumed the role of president last month, political analysts and pundits here widely expected him to defy the limits of his office and take a hands-on role in Israeli diplomacy and policy making. According to Knesset sources, Peres is contemplating even asking lawmakers to officially expand the role of the president to include conducting foreign policy. During his acceptance speech last month, Peres called for Israel to retreat from the West Bank. The next day, he called for direct negotiations with Syria, which is hosting top Palestinian terror leaders and supporting the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which last summer launched thousands of rockets into Israeli population centers. Syrian President Bashar Assad warned several times the past few months his country is preparing for war. Peres, Israel's longest standing Knesset member, was considered the driving force of the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Peres Peace Center, headed by the new president, advocates the division of Jerusalem and Israeli withdrawals from the strategic West Bank and Golan Heights.
Peres repeatedly has come under fire by critics for policies and plans many say would greatly undermine Israel's security if implemented. An official biography of the elder statesman released earlier this year, entitled Shimon Peres, revealed a draft agreement he hammered out with West Germany in 1961 to allow the creation of German military bases on Israeli soil less than two decades after the Holocaust.
The biography also detailed a controversial plan Peres concocted to lease French Guyana from France and create an Israeli colony there at a time when the nine-year-old Israel was desperate for immigrants and struggling to establish itself.
Outline of Palestinian state 'coming by this November'
Plan drafted by veteran politician would forfeit strategic West Bank
August 26, 2007 - By Aaron Klein - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Shimon Peres
JAFFA, Israel – Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres hopes to achieve the outline of a final status deal with the Palestinians before an international conference in November, the veteran politician said. Israeli diplomatic sources told WND earlier this month Peres quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that undisputedly is Israel's according to the international community. The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president is not allowed to lead foreign policy. The diplomatic sources also said earlier this U.S.-brokered month biweekly meetings between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are being utilized to draft the outline of a permanent status deal ultimately yielding a Palestinian state scheduled to be aired in public at the November summit, which is being organized by the U.S.
Confirming the plan, Peres told Tokyo's Nikkei business daily newspaper he believes the outline of a final deal can be achieved before November. To work out the details (of the political if not the geographical outline of a future Palestinian state) will take more time, but (as for) principles, yes, we can achieve an agreement before the autumn peace conference, he said. Peres said improved economic conditions for the Palestinians will lead to peaceful coexistence.We shall go in a policy of two tracks, economic development and political negotiations, one complementary to the other but not dependent upon it, he said. Last week the Arab media reported Peres held a secret meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at his official residence in Jerusalem. Israeli diplomatic sources told WND during the meeting Peres presented Fayyad with his plan for Israel to evacuate the West Bank, which borders Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. The West Bank is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites.
Peres also presented his initiative to top European Union officials, Olmert and to top aides for Abbas in the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND. Olmert, Abbas, Fayad and the EU are mulling over the plan, said the diplomatic sources, who stated Olmert agrees with much of the plan's contents. Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97 percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will give the PA control of Arab Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv which, together with the evacuated West Bank territory, would amount to the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank. Yesterday, Abbas said the PA would not consent to population exchanges as part of a permanent agreement that would leave some West Bank Jewish communities with Israel.
Top EU diplomats in recent days told the media they want the U.S.-sponsored international conference scheduled for November to lead to negotiations on a final agreement with the Palestinians. That international conference and talk from the Bush administration the past few weeks has led many here to speculate the U.S. will push in the near future for intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. With a year and a half left in office, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging meetings between Abbas and Olmert to establish a framework for momentum leading to a breakthrough at November's conference. Already Olmert during the meetings has granted a number of security concessions to Abbas regarding increased Palestinian control of the West Bank.
The Israeli prime minister last month granted amnesty to 178 gunmen from Abbas' Fatah organization who comprise most of the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah that is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years. Olmert reportedly is considering granting amnesty to 206 more Brigades terrorists. According to Palestinian officials, the Israeli Prime Minister already informed the PA that Fatah gunmen are largely immune from Israeli anti-terror raids regardless of whether they are officially on Olmert's amnesty list. Also, Olmert is strongly considering removing hundreds of Israel Defense Forces roadblocks and checkpoints situated in strategic sites located throughout the West Bank. The IDF sees the checkpoints as crucial in helping stop terrorists, including suicide bombers, from infiltrating Jewish cities. As well, in a little-reported but major move, Israel last week started allowing armed Palestinian policemen to patrol areas in the West Bank that fall under Israeli security control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords. Security in the territory, referred to as Area B, is supposed to be ensured by the IDF, which still monitors the area but has allowed for an unprecedented stepped-up armed Palestinian security presence there.
Peres overstepping his boundaries?
When Peres assumed the role of president last month, political analysts and pundits here widely expected him to defy the limits of his office and take a hands-on role in Israeli diplomacy and policy making. According to Knesset sources, Peres is contemplating even asking lawmakers to officially expand the role of the president to include conducting foreign policy. During his acceptance speech last month, Peres called for Israel to retreat from the West Bank. The next day, he called for direct negotiations with Syria, which is hosting top Palestinian terror leaders and supporting the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which last summer launched thousands of rockets into Israeli population centers. Syrian President Bashar Assad warned several times the past few months his country is preparing for war. Peres, Israel's longest standing Knesset member, was considered the driving force of the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Peres Peace Center, headed by the new president, advocates the division of Jerusalem and Israeli withdrawals from the strategic West Bank and Golan Heights.
Peres repeatedly has come under fire by critics for policies and plans many say would greatly undermine Israel's security if implemented. An official biography of the elder statesman released earlier this year, entitled Shimon Peres, revealed a draft agreement he hammered out with West Germany in 1961 to allow the creation of German military bases on Israeli soil less than two decades after the Holocaust.
The biography also detailed a controversial plan Peres concocted to lease French Guyana from France and create an Israeli colony there at a time when the nine-year-old Israel was desperate for immigrants and struggling to establish itself.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
PERES TO VISIT POPE
Shimon Peres will be helping to fulfill prophecy since hes heavy into the Vatican and the EU.
Israeli president to see Pope Benedict on Italy trip Fri Aug 24, 7:00 AM ET
VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI will receive Israeli President Shimon Peres in a private audience at his summer residence outside Rome on September 6, the Vatican said Friday. The two men have met before, in April last year, and when Peres became president in July the Roman Catholic pontiff urged him to work to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East.Israel and the Holy See have long been in talks about the legal and financial status of the Roman Catholic church in the Jewish state.
Officials from both sides met in May and said they made significant progress in reaching a deal on the legal and tax status of Church property in Israel and the commercial activities of Christian communities there.Peres will visit Castel Gandolfo as part of an official visit to Italy, during which he will also meet his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Romano Prodi, ANSA news agency reported.
Israeli president to see Pope Benedict on Italy trip Fri Aug 24, 7:00 AM ET
VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI will receive Israeli President Shimon Peres in a private audience at his summer residence outside Rome on September 6, the Vatican said Friday. The two men have met before, in April last year, and when Peres became president in July the Roman Catholic pontiff urged him to work to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East.Israel and the Holy See have long been in talks about the legal and financial status of the Roman Catholic church in the Jewish state.
Officials from both sides met in May and said they made significant progress in reaching a deal on the legal and tax status of Church property in Israel and the commercial activities of Christian communities there.Peres will visit Castel Gandolfo as part of an official visit to Italy, during which he will also meet his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Romano Prodi, ANSA news agency reported.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
ISRAEL TO BUY MISSLES
INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.
2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
JOEL 2:20,30
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Israel to buy advanced Patriot missiles Thu Aug 23, 4:48 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli air force is to buy advanced US-made missiles, capable of intercepting aircraft and long-range ballistic missiles, to upgrade the current air defence system, a report said on Thursday. The Patriot PAC-3 missiles, which will replace the PAC-2 currently in use, is capable of intercepting missiles possessed by foe Syria, the Ynet news website said, citing unnamed sources.There was no immediate comment from the defence ministry.The PAC-3 missile is made to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft, according to the website of its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.The missile, weighing 320 kilogrammes (700 pounds), increases the firepower of the Patriot battery, as 16 of them fit on a Patriot launcher, compared with four PAC-2s, it said.Israel first deployed the Patriot system in 1991, when then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired Scuds on the country during the first Gulf War.
2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
JOEL 2:20,30
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Israel to buy advanced Patriot missiles Thu Aug 23, 4:48 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli air force is to buy advanced US-made missiles, capable of intercepting aircraft and long-range ballistic missiles, to upgrade the current air defence system, a report said on Thursday. The Patriot PAC-3 missiles, which will replace the PAC-2 currently in use, is capable of intercepting missiles possessed by foe Syria, the Ynet news website said, citing unnamed sources.There was no immediate comment from the defence ministry.The PAC-3 missile is made to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft, according to the website of its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.The missile, weighing 320 kilogrammes (700 pounds), increases the firepower of the Patriot battery, as 16 of them fit on a Patriot launcher, compared with four PAC-2s, it said.Israel first deployed the Patriot system in 1991, when then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired Scuds on the country during the first Gulf War.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
ISRAEL TO GIVE UP MOUNT
7YR TREATY BY PROOF
GENESIS 2:2-3 GOD RESTED THE 7TH DAY
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
LEVITICUS 25:1-9 THE 7 YEAR SABBATICAL
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
God has always dealt with Israel in 7's, it just makes sense the last dealing with Israel and the World will be a 7 yr treaty. God rested from creation on the 7TH DAY. Every 7TH YEAR Israel is suppose to rest the land. And the 7X7=49 YRS and the jubilee is the 50TH YEAR.
Now the scriptures that a week in Israel history is 7YEARS.
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.
Isn"t this interesting it comes from the same Person whos name was changed to Israel,(JACOB) and Israel and Jerusalem is the places dealt with in Daniel 9:24-27.
GENESIS 32:27-28
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
1 CHRONICLES 17:6-14
6 Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?
7 Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel:
8 And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth.
9 Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning,
10 And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore I tell thee that the LORD will build thee an house.
11 And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
12 He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee:
14 But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.
MATTHEW 24:32-35
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:(MAY 14,1948 ISRAEL BECOMES A NATION IN 1 DAY).
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
LUKE 21:24
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.(JERUSALEM IN JEWSH HANDS JUNE 6-10, 1967).
DANIEL 9:24-27
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people (ISRAEL) and upon thy holy city,(JERUSALEM) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,(7X7=49 YRS) and threescore and two weeks:(62X7=434 YRS) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (69x7=483 YRS TO THIS POINT, THE FINAL 7 YR TREATY IS IN THE NEXT VERSE TO FULFILL THE 490 YEARS OF DANIELS PROPHECY.
9:27 And he (THE FUTURE ROMAN PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3RD TEMPLE DESECRATED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.(WW3)
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.
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Israel to give up Temple Mount?
Palestinians say no agreement unless Olmert forfeits holiest site in Judaism
August 17, 2007 - by Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian negotiators drafting an agreement behind the scenes with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have made clear they will not accept any final peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state forfeits the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, WND has learned. According to a report in Israel's Yediot Aharonot daily yesterday, Olmert is willing to discuss joint Israeli-Palestinian control over the Temple Mount complex. The report didn't state the positions of the Palestinian side on the issue. A chief Palestinian negotiator, speaking to WND on condition his name be withheld, said yesterday, there can be no agreement with Israel unless we get complete sovereignty of the Mount. Once Palestinian control over the [Temple Mount] is fixed, then we will make assurances for Jewish visits to the site.
The chief negotiator said aides from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization have been hammering out the parameters of a final status agreement for presentation in November at a U.S.-backed international summit regarding the Middle East. Issues already discussed between Israel and the Palestinians reportedly include the division of parts of Jerusalem and debates regarding permanent borders between Israel and the PA. The November international conference and talk from the Bush administration the past few weeks has led many here to speculate the U.S. will push in the near future for intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state.
With a year and a half left in office, President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging meetings between Abbas and Olmert to establish a framework for momentum leading to a breakthrough at November's conference. Olmert and Abbas have been meeting bi-monthly in summits brokered by the U.S. Asked by WND whether Olmert is willing to forfeit the Temple Mount in an agreement with the Palestinians, David Baker, a spokesman for the prime minister, had no comment.
Jews, Christians barred from praying on Mount
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims say it is their third holiest site. The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries. The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's presence dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now sits on the site. The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.
The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact. The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven. Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Mohammed took a journey in a single night from a sacred mosque – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to the farthest mosque and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount. The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area. Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.
The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It still is open but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered sensitive by the Waqf. During open days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any holy objects to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.
'Secret' plan would give Palestinians West Bank
The talk of behind-the-scenes negotiations follows a WND report earlier this week stating newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community. The West Bank is strategic territory that runs alongside Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. It is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites. Peres has presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to top aides for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND. The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president does not create foreign policy. Olmert is mulling over the plan and agrees with much of its contents, the diplomatic sources said.
Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97-percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will give the PA control of Arab Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv which, together with the evacuated West Bank territory, would amount to the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank. Already during his bi-weekly meetings with Abbas, Olmert has granted a number of security concessions to Abbas regarding increased Palestinian control of the West Bank. The Israeli prime minister last month granted amnesty to 178 gunmen from Abbas' Fatah organization who comprise most of the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah that is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years. Olmert is reportedly considering granting amnesty to 206 more Brigades terrorists. According to Palestinian officials, the Israeli Prime Minister already informed the PA that Fatah gunmen are largely immune from Israeli anti-terror raids regardless of whether they are officially on Olmert's amnesty list.
Also, Olmert is strongly considering removing hundreds of Israel Defense Forces roadblocks and checkpoints situated in strategic sites located throughout the West Bank. The IDF sees the checkpoints as crucial in helping stop terrorists, including suicide bombers, from infiltrating Jewish cities. As well, in a scantily-reported but major move, Israel last week started allowing armed Palestinian policemen to patrol areas in the West Bank that fall under Israeli security control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords. Security in the territory, referred to as Area B, is supposed to be ensured by the IDF, which still monitors the area but has allowed for an unprecedented stepped-up armed Palestinian security presence there. In response to the renewed momentum toward a Palestinian state, rabbis for the Yesha Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria – the West Bank – yesterday slammed the Israeli government for considering major concessions. The council released a statement expressing concern at the irresponsible diplomatic moves being made during these days, the main point of which is the consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. These moves are founded upon irrelevant considerations of political survival, and are being made in total opposition to the opinion of the defense establishment.
GENESIS 2:2-3 GOD RESTED THE 7TH DAY
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
LEVITICUS 25:1-9 THE 7 YEAR SABBATICAL
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
God has always dealt with Israel in 7's, it just makes sense the last dealing with Israel and the World will be a 7 yr treaty. God rested from creation on the 7TH DAY. Every 7TH YEAR Israel is suppose to rest the land. And the 7X7=49 YRS and the jubilee is the 50TH YEAR.
Now the scriptures that a week in Israel history is 7YEARS.
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.
Isn"t this interesting it comes from the same Person whos name was changed to Israel,(JACOB) and Israel and Jerusalem is the places dealt with in Daniel 9:24-27.
GENESIS 32:27-28
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
1 CHRONICLES 17:6-14
6 Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?
7 Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel:
8 And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth.
9 Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning,
10 And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore I tell thee that the LORD will build thee an house.
11 And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
12 He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee:
14 But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.
MATTHEW 24:32-35
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:(MAY 14,1948 ISRAEL BECOMES A NATION IN 1 DAY).
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
LUKE 21:24
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.(JERUSALEM IN JEWSH HANDS JUNE 6-10, 1967).
DANIEL 9:24-27
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people (ISRAEL) and upon thy holy city,(JERUSALEM) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,(7X7=49 YRS) and threescore and two weeks:(62X7=434 YRS) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (69x7=483 YRS TO THIS POINT, THE FINAL 7 YR TREATY IS IN THE NEXT VERSE TO FULFILL THE 490 YEARS OF DANIELS PROPHECY.
9:27 And he (THE FUTURE ROMAN PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3RD TEMPLE DESECRATED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.(WW3)
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.
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Israel to give up Temple Mount?
Palestinians say no agreement unless Olmert forfeits holiest site in Judaism
August 17, 2007 - by Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian negotiators drafting an agreement behind the scenes with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have made clear they will not accept any final peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state forfeits the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, WND has learned. According to a report in Israel's Yediot Aharonot daily yesterday, Olmert is willing to discuss joint Israeli-Palestinian control over the Temple Mount complex. The report didn't state the positions of the Palestinian side on the issue. A chief Palestinian negotiator, speaking to WND on condition his name be withheld, said yesterday, there can be no agreement with Israel unless we get complete sovereignty of the Mount. Once Palestinian control over the [Temple Mount] is fixed, then we will make assurances for Jewish visits to the site.
The chief negotiator said aides from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization have been hammering out the parameters of a final status agreement for presentation in November at a U.S.-backed international summit regarding the Middle East. Issues already discussed between Israel and the Palestinians reportedly include the division of parts of Jerusalem and debates regarding permanent borders between Israel and the PA. The November international conference and talk from the Bush administration the past few weeks has led many here to speculate the U.S. will push in the near future for intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state.
With a year and a half left in office, President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging meetings between Abbas and Olmert to establish a framework for momentum leading to a breakthrough at November's conference. Olmert and Abbas have been meeting bi-monthly in summits brokered by the U.S. Asked by WND whether Olmert is willing to forfeit the Temple Mount in an agreement with the Palestinians, David Baker, a spokesman for the prime minister, had no comment.
Jews, Christians barred from praying on Mount
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims say it is their third holiest site. The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries. The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's presence dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now sits on the site. The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.
The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact. The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven. Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Mohammed took a journey in a single night from a sacred mosque – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to the farthest mosque and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount. The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area. Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.
The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It still is open but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered sensitive by the Waqf. During open days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any holy objects to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.
'Secret' plan would give Palestinians West Bank
The talk of behind-the-scenes negotiations follows a WND report earlier this week stating newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community. The West Bank is strategic territory that runs alongside Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. It is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites. Peres has presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to top aides for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND. The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president does not create foreign policy. Olmert is mulling over the plan and agrees with much of its contents, the diplomatic sources said.
Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97-percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will give the PA control of Arab Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv which, together with the evacuated West Bank territory, would amount to the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank. Already during his bi-weekly meetings with Abbas, Olmert has granted a number of security concessions to Abbas regarding increased Palestinian control of the West Bank. The Israeli prime minister last month granted amnesty to 178 gunmen from Abbas' Fatah organization who comprise most of the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah that is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years. Olmert is reportedly considering granting amnesty to 206 more Brigades terrorists. According to Palestinian officials, the Israeli Prime Minister already informed the PA that Fatah gunmen are largely immune from Israeli anti-terror raids regardless of whether they are officially on Olmert's amnesty list.
Also, Olmert is strongly considering removing hundreds of Israel Defense Forces roadblocks and checkpoints situated in strategic sites located throughout the West Bank. The IDF sees the checkpoints as crucial in helping stop terrorists, including suicide bombers, from infiltrating Jewish cities. As well, in a scantily-reported but major move, Israel last week started allowing armed Palestinian policemen to patrol areas in the West Bank that fall under Israeli security control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords. Security in the territory, referred to as Area B, is supposed to be ensured by the IDF, which still monitors the area but has allowed for an unprecedented stepped-up armed Palestinian security presence there. In response to the renewed momentum toward a Palestinian state, rabbis for the Yesha Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria – the West Bank – yesterday slammed the Israeli government for considering major concessions. The council released a statement expressing concern at the irresponsible diplomatic moves being made during these days, the main point of which is the consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. These moves are founded upon irrelevant considerations of political survival, and are being made in total opposition to the opinion of the defense establishment.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
ISRAEL - NOT CORE ISSUES YET
Last update - 10:35 18/08/2007
Yasser Abed Rabbo: Israel is refusing to discuss core issues
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
PLO Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Arabic-language paper Al-Quds Al-Arabi that no negotiations are currently taking place between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on core issues. The statements come just days after sources in Jerusalem said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud and Abbas have begun been negotiating a new document on the core issues of forming a Palestinian state. These issues include the permanent borders of the future Palestinian state, the question of jurisdiction over holy sites in Jerusalem, and the Palestinian refugee problem. Abed Rabbo told the paper, which comes out in London, that Israel refuses to discuss the issues before the U.S.-backed Mideast peace conference set for the fall. He said that if Israel continues to refuse, the conference will be useless.
Sources: Olmert, Abbas talks hit snag on refugee problem
Talks between Prime Olmert and Abbas on a future Palestinian state are stuck on the issue of the Palestinian refugee problem, government sources in Jerusalem told Haaretz this week. Abbas is refusing to make significant concessions, the sources said. They said Abbas and Olmert have in recent weeks been negotiating the new document, said to be one-page in length and containing five general clauses on central issues. Olmert and Abbas have reached several understandings, but have yet to agree on actual resolutions, the sources said, adding that the two leaders will meet at the end of the month to discuss the issues.
Both Israeli and Palestinian parties involved in the negotiations said the document was meant to be completed for the international peace conference U.S. President George W. Bush plans to hold in the fall. Foreign diplomats said Abbas' aides told them that the international conference could not take place before the document is completed. Sources at Olmert's office, however, suggested a different approach. We're hoping to complete the document of principles before the conference, but the meeting does not depend on the document's completion, one said. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to arrive in Israel early next month to try to bridge the gap between the Palestinian and Israeli positions. Rice is reportedly determined to deal with core issues, as opposed to tactical problems such as Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank or concessions aimed at improving living conditions for the Palestinians.
If the document is completed in time it will form the basis for further discussions at the conference, government sources said. Sources involved with the negotiations said the Palestinian side had already assembled a team to handle the talks. Israeli diplomats have yet to set up such a delegation, but Jerusalem is currently forming a negotiating strategy for future talks with the Palestinians. The strategists are also enlisting international support and assistance for the talks.
The strategy is based on three areas:
1. Bilateral talks with the Palestinians. The guidelines for negotiations with the Palestinians are restricted to local issues. The immediate goal will be to weaken Hamas, the Fatah rivals who seized control of the Gaza Strip last June. This would be achieved through a boycott on Hamas amid attempts to bolster Abbas' West Bank government.
2. Regional Arab issues. In its dealings with moderate Arab states, Israel is no longer demanding full recognition. Instead, Israel will seek a gradual rapprochement with the Arab League. Israel aims to secure the Arab League's support and assistance for the international conference. Sources in Jerusalem said, however, that Arab diplomats are skeptical about the conference and fear that it has little chance of breaking the impasse in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
3. Issues concerning the international community and the international Quartet of Mideast mediators. Israel, according to government sources, is seeking additional financial support for Abbas' regime from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
As Israeli diplomatic experts tackle these challenges, government sources believe the plans are hard to implement even after we reach the document of understating with the Palestinians, one said. For this reason, a source in Jerusalem said that the negotiations should aspire to pertain to as broad a diplomatic context as possible.
Yasser Abed Rabbo: Israel is refusing to discuss core issues
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
PLO Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Arabic-language paper Al-Quds Al-Arabi that no negotiations are currently taking place between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on core issues. The statements come just days after sources in Jerusalem said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud and Abbas have begun been negotiating a new document on the core issues of forming a Palestinian state. These issues include the permanent borders of the future Palestinian state, the question of jurisdiction over holy sites in Jerusalem, and the Palestinian refugee problem. Abed Rabbo told the paper, which comes out in London, that Israel refuses to discuss the issues before the U.S.-backed Mideast peace conference set for the fall. He said that if Israel continues to refuse, the conference will be useless.
Sources: Olmert, Abbas talks hit snag on refugee problem
Talks between Prime Olmert and Abbas on a future Palestinian state are stuck on the issue of the Palestinian refugee problem, government sources in Jerusalem told Haaretz this week. Abbas is refusing to make significant concessions, the sources said. They said Abbas and Olmert have in recent weeks been negotiating the new document, said to be one-page in length and containing five general clauses on central issues. Olmert and Abbas have reached several understandings, but have yet to agree on actual resolutions, the sources said, adding that the two leaders will meet at the end of the month to discuss the issues.
Both Israeli and Palestinian parties involved in the negotiations said the document was meant to be completed for the international peace conference U.S. President George W. Bush plans to hold in the fall. Foreign diplomats said Abbas' aides told them that the international conference could not take place before the document is completed. Sources at Olmert's office, however, suggested a different approach. We're hoping to complete the document of principles before the conference, but the meeting does not depend on the document's completion, one said. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to arrive in Israel early next month to try to bridge the gap between the Palestinian and Israeli positions. Rice is reportedly determined to deal with core issues, as opposed to tactical problems such as Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank or concessions aimed at improving living conditions for the Palestinians.
If the document is completed in time it will form the basis for further discussions at the conference, government sources said. Sources involved with the negotiations said the Palestinian side had already assembled a team to handle the talks. Israeli diplomats have yet to set up such a delegation, but Jerusalem is currently forming a negotiating strategy for future talks with the Palestinians. The strategists are also enlisting international support and assistance for the talks.
The strategy is based on three areas:
1. Bilateral talks with the Palestinians. The guidelines for negotiations with the Palestinians are restricted to local issues. The immediate goal will be to weaken Hamas, the Fatah rivals who seized control of the Gaza Strip last June. This would be achieved through a boycott on Hamas amid attempts to bolster Abbas' West Bank government.
2. Regional Arab issues. In its dealings with moderate Arab states, Israel is no longer demanding full recognition. Instead, Israel will seek a gradual rapprochement with the Arab League. Israel aims to secure the Arab League's support and assistance for the international conference. Sources in Jerusalem said, however, that Arab diplomats are skeptical about the conference and fear that it has little chance of breaking the impasse in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
3. Issues concerning the international community and the international Quartet of Mideast mediators. Israel, according to government sources, is seeking additional financial support for Abbas' regime from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
As Israeli diplomatic experts tackle these challenges, government sources believe the plans are hard to implement even after we reach the document of understating with the Palestinians, one said. For this reason, a source in Jerusalem said that the negotiations should aspire to pertain to as broad a diplomatic context as possible.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
SECRET GIVE UP LAND DEAL
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Secret plan would give Palestinians West Bank
Israeli cities included in cede-back proposal
August 13, 2007 by Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community, WND has learned.
The West Bank is strategic territory that runs alongside Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. It is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites. Peres has presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to top aides for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND. The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president does not create foreign policy. Olmert is mulling over the plan and agrees with much of its contents, the diplomatic sources said.
Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97-percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will give the PA control of Arab Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv which, together with the evacuated West Bank territory, would amount to the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank. Diplomatic sources said aside from Abbas and Olmert, Peres has presented his plan to European Union officials. Top EU diplomats in recent days told the media they want a U.S.-sponsored international conference scheduled for November to lead to negotiations on a final agreement with the Palestinians. That international conference and talk from the Bush administration the past few weeks has led many here to speculate the U.S. will push in the near future for intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. With a year and a half left in office, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging meetings between Abbas and Olmert to establish a framework for momentum leading to a breakthrough at November's conference. Olmert and Abbas have been meeting bi-monthly in summits brokered by the U.S. Already Olmert during the meetings has granted a number of security concessions to Abbas regarding increased Palestinian control of the West Bank.
The Israeli prime minister last month amnesty to 178 gunmen from Abbas' Fatah organization who comprise most of the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah that is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years. Olmert is reportedly considering granting amnesty to 206 more Brigades terrorists. According to Palestinian officials, the Israeli Prime Minister already informed the PA that Fatah gunmen are largely immune from Israeli anti-terror raids regardless of whether they are officially on Olmert's amnesty list. Also, Olmert is strongly considering removing hundreds of Israel Defense Forces roadblocks and checkpoints situated in strategic sites located throughout the West Bank. The IDF sees the checkpoints as crucial in helping stop terrorists, including suicide bombers, from infiltrating Jewish cities. As well, in a scantily-reported but major move, Israel last week started allowing armed Palestinian policemen to patrol areas in the West Bank that fall under Israeli security control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords. Security in the territory, referred to as Area B, is supposed to be ensured by the IDF, which still monitors the area but has allowed for an unprecedented stepped-up armed Palestinian security presence there.
In response to the renewed momentum toward a Palestinian state, rabbis for the Yesha Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria – the West Bank – yesterday slammed the Israeli government for considering major concessions. The council released a statement expressing concern at the irresponsible diplomatic moves being made during these days, the main point of which is the consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. These moves are founded upon irrelevant considerations of political survival, and are being made in total opposition to the opinion of the defense establishment.
Peres overstepping his boundaries?
When Peres assumed the role of president last month, political analysts and pundits here widely expected him to defy the limits of his office and take a hands-on role in Israeli diplomacy and policy making. According to Knesset sources, Peres is contemplating even asking lawmakers to officially expand the role of the president to include conducting foreign policy. During Pere's acceptance speech last month, he called for Israel to retreat from the West Bank. The next day, he called for direct negotiations with Syria, which is hosting top Palestinian terror leaders and supporting the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which last summer launched thousands of rockets into Israeli population centers. Syrian President Bashar Assad warned several times the past few months his country is preparing for war. Peres, Israel's longest standing Knesset member, was considered the driving force of the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Peres Peace Center, headed by the new president, advocates the division of Jerusalem and Israeli withdrawals from the strategic West Bank and Golan Heights.
Peres repeatedly has come under fire by critics for policies and plans many say would greatly undermine Israel's security if implemented.
An official biography of the elderly statesman released earlier this year, entitled Shimon Peres, revealed a draft agreement he hammered out with West Germany in 1961 to allow the creation of German military bases on Israeli soil less than two decades after the Holocaust. The biography also detailed a controversial plan Peres concocted to lease French Guyana from France and create an Israeli colony there at a time when the nine-year-old Israel was desperate for immigrants and struggling to establish itself.
Secret plan would give Palestinians West Bank
Israeli cities included in cede-back proposal
August 13, 2007 by Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community, WND has learned.
The West Bank is strategic territory that runs alongside Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. It is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites. Peres has presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to top aides for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND. The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president does not create foreign policy. Olmert is mulling over the plan and agrees with much of its contents, the diplomatic sources said.
Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97-percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will give the PA control of Arab Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv which, together with the evacuated West Bank territory, would amount to the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank. Diplomatic sources said aside from Abbas and Olmert, Peres has presented his plan to European Union officials. Top EU diplomats in recent days told the media they want a U.S.-sponsored international conference scheduled for November to lead to negotiations on a final agreement with the Palestinians. That international conference and talk from the Bush administration the past few weeks has led many here to speculate the U.S. will push in the near future for intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. With a year and a half left in office, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging meetings between Abbas and Olmert to establish a framework for momentum leading to a breakthrough at November's conference. Olmert and Abbas have been meeting bi-monthly in summits brokered by the U.S. Already Olmert during the meetings has granted a number of security concessions to Abbas regarding increased Palestinian control of the West Bank.
The Israeli prime minister last month amnesty to 178 gunmen from Abbas' Fatah organization who comprise most of the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah that is responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years. Olmert is reportedly considering granting amnesty to 206 more Brigades terrorists. According to Palestinian officials, the Israeli Prime Minister already informed the PA that Fatah gunmen are largely immune from Israeli anti-terror raids regardless of whether they are officially on Olmert's amnesty list. Also, Olmert is strongly considering removing hundreds of Israel Defense Forces roadblocks and checkpoints situated in strategic sites located throughout the West Bank. The IDF sees the checkpoints as crucial in helping stop terrorists, including suicide bombers, from infiltrating Jewish cities. As well, in a scantily-reported but major move, Israel last week started allowing armed Palestinian policemen to patrol areas in the West Bank that fall under Israeli security control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords. Security in the territory, referred to as Area B, is supposed to be ensured by the IDF, which still monitors the area but has allowed for an unprecedented stepped-up armed Palestinian security presence there.
In response to the renewed momentum toward a Palestinian state, rabbis for the Yesha Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria – the West Bank – yesterday slammed the Israeli government for considering major concessions. The council released a statement expressing concern at the irresponsible diplomatic moves being made during these days, the main point of which is the consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. These moves are founded upon irrelevant considerations of political survival, and are being made in total opposition to the opinion of the defense establishment.
Peres overstepping his boundaries?
When Peres assumed the role of president last month, political analysts and pundits here widely expected him to defy the limits of his office and take a hands-on role in Israeli diplomacy and policy making. According to Knesset sources, Peres is contemplating even asking lawmakers to officially expand the role of the president to include conducting foreign policy. During Pere's acceptance speech last month, he called for Israel to retreat from the West Bank. The next day, he called for direct negotiations with Syria, which is hosting top Palestinian terror leaders and supporting the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which last summer launched thousands of rockets into Israeli population centers. Syrian President Bashar Assad warned several times the past few months his country is preparing for war. Peres, Israel's longest standing Knesset member, was considered the driving force of the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Peres Peace Center, headed by the new president, advocates the division of Jerusalem and Israeli withdrawals from the strategic West Bank and Golan Heights.
Peres repeatedly has come under fire by critics for policies and plans many say would greatly undermine Israel's security if implemented.
An official biography of the elderly statesman released earlier this year, entitled Shimon Peres, revealed a draft agreement he hammered out with West Germany in 1961 to allow the creation of German military bases on Israeli soil less than two decades after the Holocaust. The biography also detailed a controversial plan Peres concocted to lease French Guyana from France and create an Israeli colony there at a time when the nine-year-old Israel was desperate for immigrants and struggling to establish itself.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
FUTURE JERUSALEM DIVIDED
A Guide to Mideast Peace 2007
Written by Yisrael Ne'eman
Tuesday, 07 August 2007
By this autumn Israel and the Palestinians are expected to begin permanent status negotiations within the framework of an international forum for peace in the Middle East. The two main players are to be Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman (President) Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. So how will this event be different than all the others, including the Oslo process? This time Israel and the Palestinians are to arrive at a final agreement first and only afterwards are the sides to discuss the step by step implementation. There are to be no more interim agreements, just the permanent or final status accords. The mechanism will then be built for implementation. The idea is that everyone will know the price for peace upfront and both governments will be able to prepare their populations for the inevitable.
So what about UN Res. 242 (Nov. 1967), the Camp David Accords and Framework for Peace in the Middle East (1979) negotiated by Israeli PM Menachem Begin and Egyptian Pres.Anwar Sadat calling for Palestinian autonomy, the Saudi peace plan (2002), the Arab peace initiative (current), the Clinton Outline (Dec. 2000), the Bush Road Map (2003), the Geneva Initiative (2003), the Bush-Sharon exchange of letters and US commitments(April 2004), the Israeli security plan based on territorial compromise (known as the Allon Plan, 1967 and revised afterwards), the return of Palestinian refugees – UN Res. 194 clause 11 (Dec. 1948), Israeli settlements across the 1967 lines (continuing until the present) and the possible Hamas spoiler who reject compromise, recognition, peace or any dealings with Israel?
Without delving into all aspects of the above mentioned there are certain understood common denominators:
There is to be no Palestinian refugee return – UN Res. 194 states, that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return, and holding the governments and authorities responsible for the situation to be responsible for repatriation, resettlement … compensation and rehabilitation of the refugees. The Bush-Sharon exchange of letters and Congressional commitment of 2004 endorsed Israeli policy against Palestinian refugee return while the Saudi peace plan as expressed in UN Res. 1397 speaks of a two-state solution within secure and recognized borders and re-emphasizes Res. 242 (1967) calling for a just solution of the refugee problem (which here can be interpreted as both Arab and Jewish). The Clinton Outline and even the Geneva Initiative which saw possible symbolic return of a minimal amount of Palestinian refugees to Israel spoke of the necessity of two nationalisms firmly established in their two states living side by side. This is no longer the case today as refugees would only be admitted to the Palestinian state-to-be or rehabilitated with international funding elsewhere, most likely in the Arab world and especially where they already reside.
Territorially all of the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) will be handed over to Palestinian Authority (later State) control. Gaza has no Jewish population as of late summer 2005 and all discussions and attempts at agreements indicate Palestinian control over the vast majority of the West Bank (90% or more). Since 1967 even the US government has constantly insisted on only minor territorial adjustments to be made on Israel’s border with the West Bank, beginning with Pres. Nixon’s Sec. of State William Roger’s Plan (1969). Pres. Bush speaks of a “contiguous” Palestinian state in the West Bank with a road link to Gaza which was agreed upon by Israel in the discussions earlier brokered by Pres. Clinton at Camp David 2000 between Israeli PM Ehud Barak and PA Chairman Yasir Arafat. Even the Israeli developed security concept known as the Allon Plan envisioned a return of approximately 60% of the West Bank to Arab control (at the time Jordan). Years later PM Ariel Sharon was known to accept the Allon Plan in principle (a security zone held by Israel to be on an average 16 kilometers or about ten miles wide along the Jordan River) but insisted on adding large Jewish settlement blocs close to Israel’s 1967 lines into Israel proper. This was done beginning in 2002 by building the security fence east of those West Bank settlements. Somewhere between 6 – 8 % of the West Bank would remain in Israel. This area would contain 70% of all Jews living in Judea and Samaria. The fence is not complete hence we do not know the final demarcation. Holding the full territory as envisioned in the Allon Plan and the settlement blocs would still envision a withdrawal from some 55% of the West Bank.
In the international arena Israel is expected to relinquish over 90% of the West Bank but security necessities, Jewish demographics and a fair amount of consensus in Israel will not allow for such a large concession. The Palestinians of course will accept nothing less. Furthermore there are 250,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria. Even if only 30% needed to be evacuated that means 75,000 people would need to relocated their lives. Two years after the Gaza evacuation involving 8,000 residents no one is yet in permanent housing due to massive government planning and implementation failure. Who today trusts the government over issues of compensation?
Jerusalem will be divided into two capital cities, one Israeli and one Palestinian. Today there are close to half a million Jews in Jerusalem alongside a continually growing Arab population of 250,000 which constantly gnaws away at the Jewish majority. National status is to be determined by whether the neighborhoods are Jewish or Arab. Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries will be a checkerboard on its eastern side and questions of policing, border crossings and integrated city services need to be confronted. Much of these arrangements are technical. Israel always guaranteed access to holy sites for all but based on the behavior of the Moslem Wakf who control the mosques on the Temple Mount no one can expect this to be the case on the Palestinian side. Most importantly, is there any possibility of compromise on the Temple Mount? As complicated as the Jerusalem issue may be, control of the Old City and Temple Mount is further charged with religious, historical and raw emotional issues. This has been discussed time and again and is emphasized in the Clinton Outline. Although considered taboo by many in Israel all those discussing Jerusalem know it will be two cities (and in many cases already is), just like there will be two states.
Security is dependent on whether the Palestinian forces under Abbas and Fatah are trustworthy. In Gaza they proved a paper tiger when challenged by Hamas, collapsing within a week. Massive endemic corruption makes them an easy target for payoffs and bribes for terror activities. The forces themselves are made up of different and often competing family factions whose loyalties are not necessarily to a Fatah dominated Palestinian State. And lest one forgets, the Hamas controls Gaza (where they are now being challenged by Al Qaeda). Hamas will challenge Fatah for control of the West Bank where they were also voted into power in the January 2006 parliamentary elections. Fatah must win for any agreement to succeed with Israel.
To sum up there is a fair amount of understanding concerning refugees and even the division of Jerusalem (excluding the holy sites and the Old City). As for permanent borders the question of the security zone along the Jordan Rift Valley (Allon Plan) is a major issue not only with the Palestinians but in the regional context since the area would be Israel’s front line should Jordan succumb to a radical Islamic uprising whereby the next step could be a sweep through the West Bank, putting those Islamic forces 15 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast. It should be pointed out that now Defense Minister Ehud Barak as PM conceded the Jordan Rift at Camp David 2000 when negotiating with Arafat. Renewed Palestinian terrorism, uncontrolled by the PA security forces (or even abetted by them) could unleash ground and rocket attacks across the new agreed upon borders threatening Israel’s main population centers. Supposedly Israeli security forces would have the right to take up positions along the Jordan River in an emergency (discussed at Camp David 2000) and continue to exercise actions of hot pursuit after terrorists (Bush-Sharon letters 2004). But how are both of these stipulations interpreted when crossing the borders of an independent Palestinian State? A liberal interpretation in Israel’s favor should not be expected.
Opposition by the Israel Right and religious can certainly be expected, but far worse will be the rise in Palestinian terrorism as a result of the negotiations. The Americans seem convinced that should the final outcome be known from the outset and then implemented in stages most opposition will fade especially if massive funding accompanies each step. The possibility of success is miniscule despite certain pre-understandings. One should not forget for a second that even should all go well between Israel and Palestinian West Bank Abbas/Fayad government, Hamas and their Islamist allies are sworn to undermine the process every step of the way.
Written by Yisrael Ne'eman
Tuesday, 07 August 2007
By this autumn Israel and the Palestinians are expected to begin permanent status negotiations within the framework of an international forum for peace in the Middle East. The two main players are to be Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman (President) Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. So how will this event be different than all the others, including the Oslo process? This time Israel and the Palestinians are to arrive at a final agreement first and only afterwards are the sides to discuss the step by step implementation. There are to be no more interim agreements, just the permanent or final status accords. The mechanism will then be built for implementation. The idea is that everyone will know the price for peace upfront and both governments will be able to prepare their populations for the inevitable.
So what about UN Res. 242 (Nov. 1967), the Camp David Accords and Framework for Peace in the Middle East (1979) negotiated by Israeli PM Menachem Begin and Egyptian Pres.Anwar Sadat calling for Palestinian autonomy, the Saudi peace plan (2002), the Arab peace initiative (current), the Clinton Outline (Dec. 2000), the Bush Road Map (2003), the Geneva Initiative (2003), the Bush-Sharon exchange of letters and US commitments(April 2004), the Israeli security plan based on territorial compromise (known as the Allon Plan, 1967 and revised afterwards), the return of Palestinian refugees – UN Res. 194 clause 11 (Dec. 1948), Israeli settlements across the 1967 lines (continuing until the present) and the possible Hamas spoiler who reject compromise, recognition, peace or any dealings with Israel?
Without delving into all aspects of the above mentioned there are certain understood common denominators:
There is to be no Palestinian refugee return – UN Res. 194 states, that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return, and holding the governments and authorities responsible for the situation to be responsible for repatriation, resettlement … compensation and rehabilitation of the refugees. The Bush-Sharon exchange of letters and Congressional commitment of 2004 endorsed Israeli policy against Palestinian refugee return while the Saudi peace plan as expressed in UN Res. 1397 speaks of a two-state solution within secure and recognized borders and re-emphasizes Res. 242 (1967) calling for a just solution of the refugee problem (which here can be interpreted as both Arab and Jewish). The Clinton Outline and even the Geneva Initiative which saw possible symbolic return of a minimal amount of Palestinian refugees to Israel spoke of the necessity of two nationalisms firmly established in their two states living side by side. This is no longer the case today as refugees would only be admitted to the Palestinian state-to-be or rehabilitated with international funding elsewhere, most likely in the Arab world and especially where they already reside.
Territorially all of the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) will be handed over to Palestinian Authority (later State) control. Gaza has no Jewish population as of late summer 2005 and all discussions and attempts at agreements indicate Palestinian control over the vast majority of the West Bank (90% or more). Since 1967 even the US government has constantly insisted on only minor territorial adjustments to be made on Israel’s border with the West Bank, beginning with Pres. Nixon’s Sec. of State William Roger’s Plan (1969). Pres. Bush speaks of a “contiguous” Palestinian state in the West Bank with a road link to Gaza which was agreed upon by Israel in the discussions earlier brokered by Pres. Clinton at Camp David 2000 between Israeli PM Ehud Barak and PA Chairman Yasir Arafat. Even the Israeli developed security concept known as the Allon Plan envisioned a return of approximately 60% of the West Bank to Arab control (at the time Jordan). Years later PM Ariel Sharon was known to accept the Allon Plan in principle (a security zone held by Israel to be on an average 16 kilometers or about ten miles wide along the Jordan River) but insisted on adding large Jewish settlement blocs close to Israel’s 1967 lines into Israel proper. This was done beginning in 2002 by building the security fence east of those West Bank settlements. Somewhere between 6 – 8 % of the West Bank would remain in Israel. This area would contain 70% of all Jews living in Judea and Samaria. The fence is not complete hence we do not know the final demarcation. Holding the full territory as envisioned in the Allon Plan and the settlement blocs would still envision a withdrawal from some 55% of the West Bank.
In the international arena Israel is expected to relinquish over 90% of the West Bank but security necessities, Jewish demographics and a fair amount of consensus in Israel will not allow for such a large concession. The Palestinians of course will accept nothing less. Furthermore there are 250,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria. Even if only 30% needed to be evacuated that means 75,000 people would need to relocated their lives. Two years after the Gaza evacuation involving 8,000 residents no one is yet in permanent housing due to massive government planning and implementation failure. Who today trusts the government over issues of compensation?
Jerusalem will be divided into two capital cities, one Israeli and one Palestinian. Today there are close to half a million Jews in Jerusalem alongside a continually growing Arab population of 250,000 which constantly gnaws away at the Jewish majority. National status is to be determined by whether the neighborhoods are Jewish or Arab. Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries will be a checkerboard on its eastern side and questions of policing, border crossings and integrated city services need to be confronted. Much of these arrangements are technical. Israel always guaranteed access to holy sites for all but based on the behavior of the Moslem Wakf who control the mosques on the Temple Mount no one can expect this to be the case on the Palestinian side. Most importantly, is there any possibility of compromise on the Temple Mount? As complicated as the Jerusalem issue may be, control of the Old City and Temple Mount is further charged with religious, historical and raw emotional issues. This has been discussed time and again and is emphasized in the Clinton Outline. Although considered taboo by many in Israel all those discussing Jerusalem know it will be two cities (and in many cases already is), just like there will be two states.
Security is dependent on whether the Palestinian forces under Abbas and Fatah are trustworthy. In Gaza they proved a paper tiger when challenged by Hamas, collapsing within a week. Massive endemic corruption makes them an easy target for payoffs and bribes for terror activities. The forces themselves are made up of different and often competing family factions whose loyalties are not necessarily to a Fatah dominated Palestinian State. And lest one forgets, the Hamas controls Gaza (where they are now being challenged by Al Qaeda). Hamas will challenge Fatah for control of the West Bank where they were also voted into power in the January 2006 parliamentary elections. Fatah must win for any agreement to succeed with Israel.
To sum up there is a fair amount of understanding concerning refugees and even the division of Jerusalem (excluding the holy sites and the Old City). As for permanent borders the question of the security zone along the Jordan Rift Valley (Allon Plan) is a major issue not only with the Palestinians but in the regional context since the area would be Israel’s front line should Jordan succumb to a radical Islamic uprising whereby the next step could be a sweep through the West Bank, putting those Islamic forces 15 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast. It should be pointed out that now Defense Minister Ehud Barak as PM conceded the Jordan Rift at Camp David 2000 when negotiating with Arafat. Renewed Palestinian terrorism, uncontrolled by the PA security forces (or even abetted by them) could unleash ground and rocket attacks across the new agreed upon borders threatening Israel’s main population centers. Supposedly Israeli security forces would have the right to take up positions along the Jordan River in an emergency (discussed at Camp David 2000) and continue to exercise actions of hot pursuit after terrorists (Bush-Sharon letters 2004). But how are both of these stipulations interpreted when crossing the borders of an independent Palestinian State? A liberal interpretation in Israel’s favor should not be expected.
Opposition by the Israel Right and religious can certainly be expected, but far worse will be the rise in Palestinian terrorism as a result of the negotiations. The Americans seem convinced that should the final outcome be known from the outset and then implemented in stages most opposition will fade especially if massive funding accompanies each step. The possibility of success is miniscule despite certain pre-understandings. One should not forget for a second that even should all go well between Israel and Palestinian West Bank Abbas/Fayad government, Hamas and their Islamist allies are sworn to undermine the process every step of the way.
Friday, August 03, 2007
RICE TO TALK ISSUES
Rice: Israel set to talk issues with Palestinians
The secretary of state, who met with the moderate-led Palestinian government in the West Bank, left the agenda of any talks vague.
By Anne Gearan
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/03/2007 01:12:43 AM MDT
Ramallah, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that Israel is ready to discuss fundamental issues with Palestinians who are now governed by leaders accepted by the Jewish state and the West. Still, she left the agenda for any peace talks vague. The top U.S. diplomat, making her first visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank since Palestinian leadership was cleaved into rival governments, also promised that a proposed U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference this fall would be a serious push toward a peace agreement. The president of the United States has no desire to call people together for a photo op, Rice told reporters during a morning of meetings meant to demonstrate confidence in the moderate-led Palestinian government in the West Bank. Hamas militants control the smaller Gaza Strip territory.
The visit included a signing ceremony for a U.S. plan to spend about $80 million to improve security services loyal to the West Bank government. The money was pledged previously and is a small donation compared with European spending on the impoverished Palestinians. The Bush administration sees the Palestinians' bitter internal split as a potential opportunity to push for a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, using the West Bank as a model. Hamas, an Islamic movement pledged to the destruction of Israel, won elections in January 2006. The U.S and Israel list Hamas as a terrorist group and refuse to deal with it. Rice met earlier with the entire Palestinian Cabinet, a gesture of support for the team that replaced the Hamas government after the militants seized Gaza.
The secretary of state, who met with the moderate-led Palestinian government in the West Bank, left the agenda of any talks vague.
By Anne Gearan
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/03/2007 01:12:43 AM MDT
Ramallah, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that Israel is ready to discuss fundamental issues with Palestinians who are now governed by leaders accepted by the Jewish state and the West. Still, she left the agenda for any peace talks vague. The top U.S. diplomat, making her first visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank since Palestinian leadership was cleaved into rival governments, also promised that a proposed U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference this fall would be a serious push toward a peace agreement. The president of the United States has no desire to call people together for a photo op, Rice told reporters during a morning of meetings meant to demonstrate confidence in the moderate-led Palestinian government in the West Bank. Hamas militants control the smaller Gaza Strip territory.
The visit included a signing ceremony for a U.S. plan to spend about $80 million to improve security services loyal to the West Bank government. The money was pledged previously and is a small donation compared with European spending on the impoverished Palestinians. The Bush administration sees the Palestinians' bitter internal split as a potential opportunity to push for a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, using the West Bank as a model. Hamas, an Islamic movement pledged to the destruction of Israel, won elections in January 2006. The U.S and Israel list Hamas as a terrorist group and refuse to deal with it. Rice met earlier with the entire Palestinian Cabinet, a gesture of support for the team that replaced the Hamas government after the militants seized Gaza.
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