Sunday, July 13, 2008 MEDITERRANEAN UNION BIRTHED
REVELATION 13:1-3
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea,(IN THE BIBLE THE SEA IS THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA) and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU IS THE ONE STARTED THIS TRADE BLOCK JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS HERE).
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 9:26-27
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;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
THE NEW CLUB MED - TRADE BLOC IS BORN ON THIS HISTORIC DATE OF SUNDAY JULY 13,2008.
Mediterranean, EU nations to boost ties with grand new union
JULY 13,08
PARIS (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy and 42 leaders on Sunday launched a union between Europe and its Mediterranean neighbours amid hopes the grand plan will bring fresh impetus to Middle East peace efforts.Heads of state and government from the 27 EU nations and an arc of countries from north Africa to the Balkans -- representing some 756 million people -- will inaugurate the new forum at the Grand Palais on Paris' Champs Elysees.The goal of the summit, Sarkozy said, is that we learn how to love each other in the Mediterranean, instead of continuing to hate and wage war.It doesn't mean that all of the problems are resolved of course, he said, following talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on the sidelines of the summit.The meeting will see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad return to the international stage, but while he will sit at the same table as Olmert no talks between them are planned.It is also providing a venue for France to step up its Middle East diplomacy.
We have never been as close to an accord as we are today, Olmert told reporters after his talks with Abbas, in the presence of the French leader.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner recognised that the region was fraught with tensions and economic disparities but he nevertheless hailed a time of hope for Middle East peace.A new wind of dialogue is blowing around the Mediterranean, he said.
Through his energetic lobbying, Sarkozy scored a major coup by getting almost everyone to the venue, although their attendance will not be enshrined in any family photograph, due to objections.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is boycotting the meeting, while Jordan's King Abdullah II and King Mohammed VI of Morocco are sending senior representatives.Ahead of the summit, Sarkozy met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who agreed to attend despite Ankara's reservations about the union in the face of France's opposition to Turkey's EU membership.To sidestep differences between Israel and its Arab neighbours, the new forum will concentrate on a series of modest regional projects such as cleaning up pollution in the Mediterranean sea or developing solar energy.The union aims to build on the EU's 13-year-old Barcelona process, which was plagued by disputes between Israel and its Arab neighbours.The world is not going to be changed by the meeting today, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told reporters. But the entire region will, hopefully, be changed over time by this particular approach.Drawing up a final declaration has proved difficult, with references in a draft version to the fight against weapons of mass destruction likely to be chopped out.On the eve of the summit, signs emerged that regional differences could rear their heads, with the Arab League saying the new forum must not ignore the plight of the Palestinians.Some partners are reluctant to take part in projects with Israel.Most emphasis in the draft text is on raising the public profile of the forum, by setting up a joint presidency -- with France and Egypt set to take the first turn -- and organising summits every two years.A secretariat will also be created to supervise the projects, but its composition, size and location are not to be decided before November.The summit, starting at 1330 GMT, will be held at the glass-domed Grand Palais that was built for the Paris Exhibition in 1900.
Union of the Mediterranean comes to life
Published: Sunday 13 July 2008 06:53 UTC
Forty three heads of state and government leaders from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East are preparing to set up the Union for the Mediterranean. The union, which will be agreed at a summit in Paris on Sunday, is intended to increase cooperation between EU countries and those around the Mediterranean Sea, and to address environmental, infrastructural and economic concerns.Members will include the countries of the European Union, together with Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Monaco, Montenegro and Turkey. From North Africa come Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The Middle Eastern countries of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and Syria will complete the union.Previous attempts to reach a workable cooperation between the countries have always stumbled to a halt because of tensions between Israel and the Arab states.
Turk PM urges France to be loyal to its commintments at the summit JULY 13,08
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged EU President France to be loyal to its commitments in its accession talks with Turkey at his meeting held with French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Paris on Sunday, where he is attending the summit on the Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean. Heads of state and government from 43 countries are in Paris for the launch summit of the new regional club, bringing together countries that line the Mediterranean as well as European Union member states. (UPDATED)
Erdogan had communicated Turkey's expectations from France during its presidency in its accession talks with the EU while Sarkozy promised to allow accession talks to run its course, the Anatolian Agency (AA) said citing French Presidency officials who spoke to reporters regarding the meeting.The negotiation chapters which were ready for review would be opened to negotiation during the French Presidency, the AA also said.The two leaders discussed Turkey-EU relations, bilateral issues, the Middle East peace process, and the dissolution case against Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), the AA quoted presidency officials as saying.Officials added that Sarkozy appreciated Turkey's mediatorship between Israel and Syria, and he welcomed Turkey's active participation in the Union for Mediterranean Project. Sarkozy reiterated that the Union for Mediterranean Project and Turkey's EU bid were totally different issues.France which opposes Turkey's full membership to the EU and offers privileged partnership instead, announced earlier that it would not object to the opening of two or three chapters to negotiations during its term as EU president. France vetoed earlier, opening of the chapters on common fiscal and economic policy as it made direct reference to full membership.The Union for Mediterranean is a project aiming at developing cooperation in the Mediterranean. This project is not an alternative to Turkey's EU membership process. It was underlined by European leaders on many occasions. Erdogan said in Istanbul prior to his departure for France on Sunday.
The final statement to be released at the end of the summit will also refer to it. From the very beginning, Turkey has been advocating to develop tangible projects for development of cooperation in the Mediterranean, he added.Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan also accompanied Erdogan in the meeting that was closed to the press.
NEXT MEETINGS
After his meeting with Sarkozy, Erdogan will meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, President Bashar al-Asad of Syria, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands, during his stay in Paris.Turkey initially viewed with suspicion the initiative of Sarkozy, who has long opposed Ankara's bid to join the 27-nation EU bloc.
MIDDLE EAST AGENDA
The Middle East peace process is high on agenda since the leaders of Syria, Israel and Palestine are also attending the summit.Eyes will be on Syrian President Bashir al-Assad who stages a comeback to the international stage with his Paris visit and will find himself at the Grand Palais along with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Israel and Syria technically remain at war ever since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, although they have moved to revive peace efforts through indirect talks, with Turkey as mediator.France had floated the idea of a historic meeting between Assad and Olmert, but both sides rejected the move as premature.
French diplomats say the seating arrangement at the summit -- by alphabetical order -- will ensure that Israeli and Syrian leaders are kept well apart.The Union for the Mediterranean is a proposed community of EU-member states and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea planned to be established in July 2008. It was originally suggested by Sarkozy as part of his election campaign.
Sarkozy, last year, invited all Mediterranean leaders to the summit in France to take place on July 13, 2008. The project envisages cooperation among the EU-member states and Mediterranean-littoral countries in environment, potable water, energy, transportation, sustainable development and fight against illegal migration.The only no-show at the founding summit of the Union for the Mediterranean in Paris is Libyan President Moamer Kadhafi, who has assailed the new club as a European ploy to undermine Arab and African unity.
Battle to host France's Union for the Mediterranean headquarters By Nick Meo and Susan Bell 12:30AM BST 13/07/2008
President Nicolas Sarkozy will unveil his grand vision of a Union for the Mediterranean in Paris, but his hoped-for diplomatic triumph may be marred by squabbling about where to put its headquarters. Details of the 44-member grouping will be announced by Mr Sarkozy at a summit to launch what he hopes will be the centrepiece of France’s European Union presidency. Yet one important detail is missing: the new organisation does not have a home. North African leaders are fighting to get the headquarters of what some have nicknamed Club Med located on their soil. Even though the secretariat will be small to begin with, all the countries concerned are aware of its potential to grow. Malta, Spain and the French city of Marseilles have also staked a claim to the headquarters. A French diplomat said: This is not going to be settled at the summit. There is tension between the Maghreb countries, they are very jealous. One likely outcome is for the secretariat to move to Tunisia. A base in an important non-EU nation is the favoured option. Tunis could be an acceptable compromise for Morocco and Algeria, which are bitter rivals. The new grouping will link 15 mostly Mediterranean countries, including Israel, with a combined population of 279 million, to the EU’s 27 member states and 495 million citizens. Away from the choreographed events, which will be attended by Gordon Brown, there will be arguments and deal-making. President Sarkozy’s original dream was for a new body, supported by the EU and taking in all the nations around the shores of the Mediterranean. Its creator believes it will draw Europe closer to its poorer southern neighbours and ensure billions of euros are spent on their infrastructure and environmental projects. But the attempt to set up the union has sparked rows and claims that France is trying to reassert its influence in the region while expecting the EU to foot the bill. Mr Sarkozy has had to water down his plans since he announced them halfway through a French election campaign. The southern countries expected generous spending if they joined, but the new body is now expected to have less cash than was hoped for and today’s declaration is expected to consist more of vague platitudes than firm pledges. In March, Mr Sarkozy lost a fight with Angela Merkel, pictured, over his plans and was forced to agree to membership being widened to include northern EU states, including Britain.
He also had to change the proposed name of Mediterranean Union because it was seen as too similar to the European Union, and had to guarantee to Germany that spending would not be switched from eastern Europe to the south. He has also had to reassure Turkey that the Union for the Mediterranean is not intended to give it a second-rate alternative to full EU membership. Last week, Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, denounced the new body as colonialism reborn and raised fears that it would provoke a terrorist backlash. A less lurid concern is that it will never amount to more than an expensive French pet project which could produce more bureaucracy. Under its predecessor, the so-called Barcelona Process, the EU spent nearly €6 billion (£4.8 billion) in about seven years in North Africa and the Middle East. This year, the House of Commons’ European Scrutiny Committee raised questions about the spending. Among the projects Mr Sarkozy hopes to get off the ground through the new grouping are efforts to clean up pollution in the Mediterranean, and solar power programmes in North Africa. There is no plan to make the EU more open to immigration from its southern neighbours; billions will be spent on developing their infrastructure, in the hope that if their economies develop there will be less illegal immigration.
Al-Jazeera Highlights Moroccan, Algerian Position on Mediterranean Union By: iStockAnalyst Sunday, July 13, 2008 7:52 AM
Al-Jazeera TV on 12 July discussed the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean at a 13 July Paris summit. The station's main concern was the presence of Israel in the summit, and in the union itself, as well as the position of Arab countries on that point in particular. To reflect Morocco's position, Al-Jazeera carried a video clip of Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb El Fassi Fihri, speaking to reporters, in which he said: Israel has been attending meetings relevant to the Barcelona Process since 1995. Naturally, the Israeli presence does not mean any normalization of ties with any Arab country that has no diplomatic relations with Israel. It is the contrary. This is an opportunity to convey the view point of the Arab group, which is not an opposing one. It is more than that. It is a strong initiative, an Arab peace initiative.The TV presenter's tone was one of doubt, especially with regard to the minister's comment in which he said that the presence of Israel did not mean normalization of ties with Israel. To reflect Algeria's position, which Al-Jazeera said was hesitant for a long time before President Bouteflika decided to attend the Paris summit, the station interviewed Mesbah Manas, a political analyst and academic from Algeria. Manas defended his country's last- minute shift, and said Algiers had to look after its interests. He said: To be honest, we live in a world of blocs. I believe historical ties with France and mutual interests, especially when these ties had gained higher importance following the visit of French President Sarkozy to Algeria, are facts entailing that Algeria must not be absent from the summit. Yes, there are objections to the summit in relation to Israel and the overall agendas. However, in my opinion, the absence of Algeria would have had more negative impact. I also think that [Algeria's] presence, as a start, is positive and important.
Asked why not sticking to the Arab League, the Arab Maghreb Union or the African Union, Manas said: Algeria is a central country in the Mediterranean basin. Algeria has ties and interests, and let us not forget that there is an Algerian community in France that numbers in the millions. There are mutual interests. Asked about fears of normalization of ties with Israel, which Al-Jazeera thought was the hidden goal of the summit, Manas said: I believe that [Algeria's] presence would not mean normalization because the official Algerian position continues to stress that normalization of ties with Israel is based on several conditions, most importantly is for Israel to respect the international legitimacy represented in the UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the Shab'a Farms, Kafr Shuba, and all [change of thought], and also the Golan Heights. There will be normalization when Israel have addressed all these points. Therefore, the presence of Algeria [in the summit] does not necessarily mean normalization. He further repeated what the Moroccan minister had said earlier in the programme about Israel's presence in the Barcelona Process meetings. Libya's boycott of the summit seems to have met the station's expectations from Arab leaders who have flown to Paris to attend the 13 July launch of the union. The Union for the Mediterranean is a scaled-back version of a French idea promoted by Sarkozy to boost ties with the southern neighbours of the EU bloc and improve cooperation on trade, security and migration.
Originally published by Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 2130 12 Jul 08. Story Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East.
Mediterranean union must not ignore Palestinians: Arab League 13 July 2008, 00:19 CET
(PARIS) - The new Union for the Mediterranean to be inaugurated on Sunday in Paris must not ignore the plight of the Palestinians, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said Saturday.Mussa was attending a meeting of Arab foreign ministers held ahead of the founding summit of the new union that will bring together 43 leaders from Europe, the Middle East, north Africa and the Balkans.When the UFM examines the situation in the Mediterranean region, it must not ignore the Palestinian cause, Mussa told journalists.But he added that Arab countries do not expect the new forum to find solutions, because the solutions are there and are known.He cited halting the expansion of Jewish settlements, creating a Palestinian state and an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.Arab foreign ministers were meeting to consider provisions of the summit's final declaration that deal with the situation in the Middle East.Finding an acceptable wording for such declarations has in the past dogged meetings of the European Union's Barcelona process, which sought to bring together EU and Mediterranean leaders.The Paris summit will be attended by 43 leaders, with only Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi boycotting the gathering after dismissing it as a ploy to undermine Arab and African unity.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be attending along with Lebanon's new head of state Michel Sleiman, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Text and Picture 2008 AFP. All other 2008 EUbusiness Ltd.
Israel sees Mediterranean Union as way to boost Arab ties JULY 10,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel hopes the new Mediterranean Union will help improve relations with the Arab world, but Arabs warn against any attempt to bring normalisation in through the back door.Israel has always considered that it is in the interest of all the peoples of the Mediterranean to reinforce their cooperation, which is why we are happy to participate in the Mediterranean Union, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said of the entity that will be launched at a Paris summit on Sunday.This is the first time that the top leaders of the Mediterranean meet with the participation of Israel, he said.As with every international meeting, we hope that it will provide the opportunity for direct encounters between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Arab leaders, he added.One Arab leader attending the summit will be Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country recently resumed peace talks with Israel, after an eight-year break, through Turkish mediation.On Tuesday, Syria called on European governments to show understanding of Arab refusal to normalise ties with Israel without a comprehensive peace deal.The Europeans need to understand Arab demands to recover their lands and not engage in a normalisation process for free with an enemy that is still occupying our territory, said the ruling party's Al-Baath daily.Arabs want to see the launch of a comprehensive development process so that progress and peace can reign on both shores of the Mediterranean, it added.Peace and security are not achievable if territories are not restored to their rightful owners and if the social and economic gap between the two shores of the Mediterranean is not closed.
That's the Arab message that President Bashar al-Assad will be taking to Paris, it concluded.The editorial echoed concerns raised at a meeting in Algiers early last month when Arab foreign ministers called for clarification surrounding Israel's membership of a Mediterranean Union.Among the items that must be clarified are the consequences of Israel's presence inside the Mediterranean Union, said Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci.The Mediterranean Union must not normalise (relations) between Israel and Arab countries, something which has not been achieved by the Barcelona process, launched in 1995 to bring the European Union and five countries from the Mediterranean's southern rim closer together, he said.Normalising relations with Israel is the issue of a separate debate among Arab countries, which voted in 2002 that Israel must withdraw from territories captured during the 1967 Middle East war before normalisation can occur.Medelci warned that Mediterranean Union countries that do not have relations with Israel must not be forced to be part of joint projects with Israel inside the Union.Syria's Assad and Israel's Olmert are both attending the summit, but the Israeli press has said that, in order to avoid any embarrassing situations, they will be seated well apart at the summit table.For his part, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said we welcome the fact that the Syrians are talking to the Israelis.The two sides, which remain at a state of war despite a 1974 armistice, have held three rounds of Turkish-mediated talks and have agreed to hold another.Syria has made any peace deal conditional on Israel's withdrawal from all of the Golan heights, the strategic plateau the Jewish state seized in 1967 and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.Israel is also engaged in peace talks with the Palestinians, who are also unwilling to see the Mediterranean Union as a vehicle for papering over differences between the two sides.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat has said the new entity will be a step in the right direction, but no project for regional cooperation will be able to function fully while the Israeli occupation continues.In order for a genuine partnership to emerge, the countries involved (in the Mediterranean Union) should press Israel to put an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories.Israel has also made overtures about achieving peace with another neighbour, Lebanon.It is expected that recently elected Lebanese President Michel Sleiman will attend the Paris summit, but there has been no indication of planned meetings with the Israelis.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
MEDITERRANEAN TRADE BLOC BORN TOMORROW
REVELATION 13:1-3
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea,(IN THE BIBLE THE SEA IS THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA) and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU IS THE ONE STARTED THIS TRADE BLOCK JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS HERE).
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 9:26-27
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;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
TOMORROW THE NEW MIDEAST TRADE BLOC WILL BE BORN. THIS WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT TRADE BLOC IN THE WORLD AS THE EU GUARENTEES ISRAELS SCURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY IN THE VERY, VERY NEAR FUTURE.
Sarkozy starts meetings with Mideast leaders By Crispian Balmer Sat Jul 12, 9:00 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on Saturday, kicking off a round of diplomacy with Middle East leaders ahead of an EU-Mediterranean summit on Sunday. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will mark his return to the European stage later in the day when he holds talks with both Sarkozy and Lebanon's new president, Michel Suleiman, a day after a new Lebanese government finally took office.Sarkozy strolled to his meeting with Mubarak in a central Paris hotel but was due to greet Assad and Suleiman with full pomp and ceremony at the Elysee Palace in the afternoon.The three men were due to make a joint declaration at 6.40 p.m. (1640 GMT) along with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who helped broker a power-sharing deal among Lebanon's feuding pro-Western and pro-Syrian factions in May.France and many other western countries have shunned Syria in recent years, accusing Assad of destabilizing neighboring Lebanon and fuelling unrest across its borders with Iraq.But following the deal that pulled Lebanon back from the brink of a new civil war, France decided to resume high level contacts with Syria and Sarkozy invited Assad to the EU-Mediterranean summit.
The high-profile gathering will give Assad the chance to hold his first meeting with Suleiman and, in a diplomatic first, take part in the Mediterranean Union summit alongside Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who flies into Paris on Sunday.This is an historic visit for me, an opening towards France and towards Europe, Assad said in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper this week. However, he said it would be premature to hold direct talks with Israel, apparently ruling out a face-to-face meeting with Olmert.
UNCOMFORTABLE
Assad's appearance in Paris, and his invitation to attend Monday's Bastille Day military parade, has been criticized by human rights activists and even French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said it doesn't make him especially comfortable.Syria sent troops to Lebanon, a former French protectorate, in 1976 and had a powerful grip on Lebanese politics over the following three decades.
It withdrew its troops in 2005 in the face of international pressure and Lebanese street protests following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which France believes was orchestrated from Damascus.Assad has denied Syria ordered the killing of Hariri, a close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.French officials say it is important to re-establish high-level ties with Syria and say its recent decision to embark on indirect peace talks with Israel shows that attitudes are changing in Damascus.Sunday's summit will draw more than 40 heads of state and government to Paris and is aimed at breathing new life into the existing Euro-Med partnership, creating a more equal dialogue between countries lining the Mediterranean.-- Additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry(Editing by Paul Taylor and Jon Boyle)
Sarkozy: Syria and Lebanon will open embassies By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
PARIS - France's president affirmed Saturday that Syria and Lebanon will open embassies in each other's countries. However, Syria's leader was more cautious. Syria and Lebanon have not had full-fledged embassies in each other's countries since Lebanon became independent in 1943 and Syria in 1945.Syrian President Bashar Assad said last month that establishing diplomatic ties with Lebanon would be possible if a national unity Cabinet were formed in Beirut.
Such a government, including members of Syria's ally Hezbollah, was formed Friday after weeks of haggling.French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Assad and with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, who said he wanted an exchange of ambassadors with Syria.At a joint news conference later, Sarkozy affirmed that the establishment of embassies in Beirut and Damascus was in the works.It's historic. ... Naturally, there are a certain number of legal questions to be resolved on the Syrian side ... that explain delays on the road to realization, Sarkozy said. He did not suggest a time frame.However, Assad seemed a bit more reticent on how quickly the plan might advance. He said he and the Lebanese president discussed the issue but still need to define the steps to take.The Lebanese president arrived at the presidential Elysee Palace with an optimistic tone.We want an exchange of ambassadors and diplomatic relations with Syria, he said before a separate meeting with Sarkozy. He told reporters not to speak of normalizing ties between Lebanon and Syria because they are completely normal.I am very satisfied with relations between the two countries, Suleiman said.
Sarkozy, who wants to create a consequential role for Europe, and France, in the process toward Middle East peace, said he would visit Damascus in September but did not set a date.The leaders all met on the eve of a summit bringing together heads of state or government from 43 nations in Europe and around the Mediterranean rim. Sarkozy sees the initiative as a way of seeding peace in an often hostile region.Associated Press Writer Christine Ollivier in Paris contributed to this report.
Mediterranean Union to be launched
ELITSA VUCHEVA 11.07.2008 @ 09:52 CET
France will on Sunday (13 July) launch the Union for the Mediterranean – the brainchild of President Nicolas Sarkozy, which will bring together EU member states and a number of North African and Middle East countries.Do you know how moving it is for us to see the Arab heads of state sitting at the same table as the Israeli head of state, in a European capital? Mr Sarkozy told journalists on Thursday.Libya's leader has said the Mediterranean Union has imperialist designs (Photo: Wikipedia.org)
For me, the presence of all these European and Mediterranean heads of state in Paris in the name of Europe and the Mediterranean is something deeply moving and it's the best news for peace in the Middle East … I hope we will be able to note a number of advancements, he added.But there is already scepticism about what the new union can achieve after the original most exclusive and grander vision by Mr Sarkozy was watered down, predominantly at Berlin's behest.In addition, up until the last minute, there was uncertainty over some leaders' attendance at the summit.After much foot-dragging, Algeria and Turkey both finally confirmed this week that they will be present. But Jordan's King Abdullah has declined the invitation for personal reasons, while Libya's Muammar Gaddafi –who has called it another Roman empire and spoken of its imperialist design – will also not attend.
The Union for the Mediterranean was proposed by France last year to boost economic, political and cultural ties with the EU's southern neighbours .In March, the bloc's leaders agreed on a final and more general version of the project, which is to include 44 countries – the EU's 27 members, plus Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey – as well as Mauritania, Monaco, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania.The launch will be co-presided over by Mr Sarkozy and Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, in Paris' grandiose glass-domed Grand Palais.
Added value?
Already there has been some tension about what the summit can and should achieve, however.In June, Arab leaders voiced concern about what it would mean for them to participate in the high-level meeting together with Israel, fearing it would imply a normalisation of bilateral relations.Turkey has also expressed reluctance since the beginning, fearing the project would be an alternative for its EU membership bid. But the French government, which remains set against Turkey's full membership in the EU, has sought to work out the differences between the two sides.Turkish daily Zaman on Friday (11 July) quotes a senior Turkish diplomat as saying: When Turkey's place is mentioned in the final declaration, we want Turkey to be defined as Turkey, which is conducting membership negotiations with the EU … And we have already received a positive signal on this matter.Critics of the Mediterranean Union also note that controversial issues such as immigration and terrorism have been left out of the scope of the new set-up. They also question its added value when compared to the current Barcelona Process – an initiative started in 1995 with similar ambitions to the new project, but which has stalled due to political apathy.
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea,(IN THE BIBLE THE SEA IS THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA) and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU IS THE ONE STARTED THIS TRADE BLOCK JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS HERE).
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 9:26-27
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;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
TOMORROW THE NEW MIDEAST TRADE BLOC WILL BE BORN. THIS WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT TRADE BLOC IN THE WORLD AS THE EU GUARENTEES ISRAELS SCURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY IN THE VERY, VERY NEAR FUTURE.
Sarkozy starts meetings with Mideast leaders By Crispian Balmer Sat Jul 12, 9:00 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on Saturday, kicking off a round of diplomacy with Middle East leaders ahead of an EU-Mediterranean summit on Sunday. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will mark his return to the European stage later in the day when he holds talks with both Sarkozy and Lebanon's new president, Michel Suleiman, a day after a new Lebanese government finally took office.Sarkozy strolled to his meeting with Mubarak in a central Paris hotel but was due to greet Assad and Suleiman with full pomp and ceremony at the Elysee Palace in the afternoon.The three men were due to make a joint declaration at 6.40 p.m. (1640 GMT) along with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who helped broker a power-sharing deal among Lebanon's feuding pro-Western and pro-Syrian factions in May.France and many other western countries have shunned Syria in recent years, accusing Assad of destabilizing neighboring Lebanon and fuelling unrest across its borders with Iraq.But following the deal that pulled Lebanon back from the brink of a new civil war, France decided to resume high level contacts with Syria and Sarkozy invited Assad to the EU-Mediterranean summit.
The high-profile gathering will give Assad the chance to hold his first meeting with Suleiman and, in a diplomatic first, take part in the Mediterranean Union summit alongside Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who flies into Paris on Sunday.This is an historic visit for me, an opening towards France and towards Europe, Assad said in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper this week. However, he said it would be premature to hold direct talks with Israel, apparently ruling out a face-to-face meeting with Olmert.
UNCOMFORTABLE
Assad's appearance in Paris, and his invitation to attend Monday's Bastille Day military parade, has been criticized by human rights activists and even French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said it doesn't make him especially comfortable.Syria sent troops to Lebanon, a former French protectorate, in 1976 and had a powerful grip on Lebanese politics over the following three decades.
It withdrew its troops in 2005 in the face of international pressure and Lebanese street protests following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which France believes was orchestrated from Damascus.Assad has denied Syria ordered the killing of Hariri, a close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.French officials say it is important to re-establish high-level ties with Syria and say its recent decision to embark on indirect peace talks with Israel shows that attitudes are changing in Damascus.Sunday's summit will draw more than 40 heads of state and government to Paris and is aimed at breathing new life into the existing Euro-Med partnership, creating a more equal dialogue between countries lining the Mediterranean.-- Additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry(Editing by Paul Taylor and Jon Boyle)
Sarkozy: Syria and Lebanon will open embassies By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
PARIS - France's president affirmed Saturday that Syria and Lebanon will open embassies in each other's countries. However, Syria's leader was more cautious. Syria and Lebanon have not had full-fledged embassies in each other's countries since Lebanon became independent in 1943 and Syria in 1945.Syrian President Bashar Assad said last month that establishing diplomatic ties with Lebanon would be possible if a national unity Cabinet were formed in Beirut.
Such a government, including members of Syria's ally Hezbollah, was formed Friday after weeks of haggling.French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Assad and with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, who said he wanted an exchange of ambassadors with Syria.At a joint news conference later, Sarkozy affirmed that the establishment of embassies in Beirut and Damascus was in the works.It's historic. ... Naturally, there are a certain number of legal questions to be resolved on the Syrian side ... that explain delays on the road to realization, Sarkozy said. He did not suggest a time frame.However, Assad seemed a bit more reticent on how quickly the plan might advance. He said he and the Lebanese president discussed the issue but still need to define the steps to take.The Lebanese president arrived at the presidential Elysee Palace with an optimistic tone.We want an exchange of ambassadors and diplomatic relations with Syria, he said before a separate meeting with Sarkozy. He told reporters not to speak of normalizing ties between Lebanon and Syria because they are completely normal.I am very satisfied with relations between the two countries, Suleiman said.
Sarkozy, who wants to create a consequential role for Europe, and France, in the process toward Middle East peace, said he would visit Damascus in September but did not set a date.The leaders all met on the eve of a summit bringing together heads of state or government from 43 nations in Europe and around the Mediterranean rim. Sarkozy sees the initiative as a way of seeding peace in an often hostile region.Associated Press Writer Christine Ollivier in Paris contributed to this report.
Mediterranean Union to be launched
ELITSA VUCHEVA 11.07.2008 @ 09:52 CET
France will on Sunday (13 July) launch the Union for the Mediterranean – the brainchild of President Nicolas Sarkozy, which will bring together EU member states and a number of North African and Middle East countries.Do you know how moving it is for us to see the Arab heads of state sitting at the same table as the Israeli head of state, in a European capital? Mr Sarkozy told journalists on Thursday.Libya's leader has said the Mediterranean Union has imperialist designs (Photo: Wikipedia.org)
For me, the presence of all these European and Mediterranean heads of state in Paris in the name of Europe and the Mediterranean is something deeply moving and it's the best news for peace in the Middle East … I hope we will be able to note a number of advancements, he added.But there is already scepticism about what the new union can achieve after the original most exclusive and grander vision by Mr Sarkozy was watered down, predominantly at Berlin's behest.In addition, up until the last minute, there was uncertainty over some leaders' attendance at the summit.After much foot-dragging, Algeria and Turkey both finally confirmed this week that they will be present. But Jordan's King Abdullah has declined the invitation for personal reasons, while Libya's Muammar Gaddafi –who has called it another Roman empire and spoken of its imperialist design – will also not attend.
The Union for the Mediterranean was proposed by France last year to boost economic, political and cultural ties with the EU's southern neighbours .In March, the bloc's leaders agreed on a final and more general version of the project, which is to include 44 countries – the EU's 27 members, plus Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey – as well as Mauritania, Monaco, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania.The launch will be co-presided over by Mr Sarkozy and Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, in Paris' grandiose glass-domed Grand Palais.
Added value?
Already there has been some tension about what the summit can and should achieve, however.In June, Arab leaders voiced concern about what it would mean for them to participate in the high-level meeting together with Israel, fearing it would imply a normalisation of bilateral relations.Turkey has also expressed reluctance since the beginning, fearing the project would be an alternative for its EU membership bid. But the French government, which remains set against Turkey's full membership in the EU, has sought to work out the differences between the two sides.Turkish daily Zaman on Friday (11 July) quotes a senior Turkish diplomat as saying: When Turkey's place is mentioned in the final declaration, we want Turkey to be defined as Turkey, which is conducting membership negotiations with the EU … And we have already received a positive signal on this matter.Critics of the Mediterranean Union also note that controversial issues such as immigration and terrorism have been left out of the scope of the new set-up. They also question its added value when compared to the current Barcelona Process – an initiative started in 1995 with similar ambitions to the new project, but which has stalled due to political apathy.
OLMERT MIGHT RESIGN
EU MUST ACT ON ZIMBABWE
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=8784120&ch=4226714&src=news
Israeli officials say report on airman delivered By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
JERUSALEM - Israel has received a report from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah on an Israeli airman missing for more than two decades, potentially clearing the way for a prisoner swap between the two foes, officials said Saturday. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was expected to receive the report later Saturday and bring it for a vote before his Cabinet on Tuesday, the officials said on condition of anonymity since no official announcement was released.Hezbollah said in the report that it does not know what happened to Ron Arad, who has been missing since he was captured alive when his fighter jet went down over Lebanon in 1986, the officials said.According to the document, Hezbollah believes that Arad is dead, the officials said.Under an Israel-Hezbollah deal, Israel will hand over Samir Kantar, a Lebanese man serving multiple life terms for a 1979 attack in Israel's north. Israel is also expected to release four Hezbollah prisoners and dozens of fighters' bodies.In return, Israel was to get two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid that set off a fierce 34-day war. Olmert has said that he believes the soldiers are dead.Israeli military officials say the exchange is likely to take place this week, pending final approval by the Cabinet.
Arad's daughter, Yuval, urged authorities not to declare her father dead nor to give up the search for him. Israel has been reluctant to announce that he is dead in part because rabbis require proof that he is no longer living.It sounds strange perhaps but you can't declare a person dead just because you don't know, Arad told Channel 10 TV Friday. She was an infant when he went missing.Arad was forced to parachute out of his fighter jet after one of its bombs apparently malfunctioned. The jet's pilot was rescued by Israeli forces, but Arad was captured by guerrillas from the Shiite Amal organization.Letters and photographs from Arad were initially sent to Israel, but talks for his release failed not long afterward and the navigator was not heard from again.A U.N.-appointed German official mediated the agreement, which Israel had originally approved June 29. Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel had recently traveled to Europe to pick up the document on Arad.In exchange for the report, Israel is to provide information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982. Iran claims they were kidnapped by Lebanese militiamen allied with Israel and turned over to Israeli troops.Israel denies holding them. Samir Geagea, former head of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, has said militiamen killed them.Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, taking over large areas as part of a military sweep to expel Palestinian guerrillas.Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for one of the most gruesome attacks in Israeli history. He was convicted of shooting a policeman and then killing an Israeli man in front of his 4-year-old daughter before beating her to death.Kantar denies killing the girl.
Aide insists Israeli PM never stole a shekel JULY 12,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted on Saturday that he has never stolen a shekel, after new police suspicions over the premier's finances, the media reported.
The prime minister is neither a thief nor an imposter. He has never stolen a shekel or used public funds for family expenses, said Rachael Risby Raz, quoted by the media.Raz, who organised Olmert's travels while he was trade and industry minister, is a key witness in the latest case against Olmert.Israeli police said they have new suspicions over Olmert's finances on Friday after questioning him for a third time over graft allegations that have prompted calls for his resignation.Olmert is suspected of fraud by sending multiple bills for the same airline tickets to various entities including the state, and allegedly using ill-gotten gains to finance private trips for himself and his family, police and the justice ministry said in a joint statement.Initial allegations focused on claims that Olmert illegally received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-filled envelopes from a US financier before he became prime minister in 2006.
Hezbollah gains clout in Lebanon — but at a cost By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
AITA AL-SHAAB, Lebanon - In this dusty village on the front lines of Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed guerrilla group looks as strong as ever. But even as it reaches the zenith of its power in Lebanon, Hezbollah is generating new perils along the way. Tales of heroism by Hezbollah fighters still make the rounds in Aita al-Shaab, the streets are adorned with portraits of the group's martyrs, and yellow Hezbollah flags fly from lampposts. Villagers, still rebuilding from the devastation of the war, profess unswerving devotion to the Shiite Muslim group and its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.I am 90, but if they ask me to fight Israel, I will, said Hassan Marai, a tobacco farmer.Hezbollah is our only protector, Marai declared at his home, reduced to rubble in the war, but now partly rebuilt with money from Hezbollah and the wealthy Gulf state of Qatar.Hezbollah, or the Party of God, is both a military and political movement with members in Lebanon's parliament. A close ally of Iran and Syria, it emerged with a winner's swagger after holding off Israel's 2006 onslaught. Now, nearly two years into a power struggle with Lebanon's U.S.-backed government, the party is poised to gain what it long demanded — greater say in the politics of this fractured nation.With this added muscle, Hezbollah could block any attempt to disarm its fighters, ensuring its hold along the border with Israel. Hezbollah also could better counter U.S. influence in Lebanon and increase the sway of Shiites, who are believed to constitute the country's largest sect but have long felt squeezed out by Sunni Muslims and Christians.
However, Hezbollah's gains come at a cost. Its violent methods have deepened the bitterness among its political opponents in Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's camp. Hezbollah's military also has less room to maneuver, given that Israel gained a better picture of the militia in the 2006 war and will likely answer any provocation with massive retaliation. And many Lebanese — perhaps even some Hezbollah supporters in south Lebanon — could blame the movement if there is yet another destructive war.Meanwhile, Israel and Syria are holding indirect talks through Turkish mediators, and Israel would be unlikely to accept any deal that doesn't curtail Syria's backing for Hezbollah.The two-year power struggle in Lebanon came to a head in May when Saniora's government ordered the dismantling of Hezbollah's private telephone network — which the group maintains is its warning system against Israeli attack — and fired the pro-Hezbollah security chief at Beirut's international airport.
Hezbollah reacted strongly. Its fighters seized Sunni districts in Beirut and battled militias loyal to the government in the hills above the city and in the country's north. Eighty-one people were killed, and Saniora was forced to rescind the two decisions in a humiliating defeat.Under an Arab-mediated deal sealed in Doha, the Qatar capital, the government agreed to form a unity government that would essentially give Hezbollah a veto over Cabinet decisions. The U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist group, but faced with the prospect of more deadlock and bloodshed, gave the planned government its blessing.Hezbollah's new power was gained, however, by violating Nasrallah's long-standing pledge not to take up arms against other Lebanese factions, awakening memories of Lebanon's 15-year sectarian civil war that ended in 1990.Hezbollah did something it had vowed it will never do, said Mohan Abedin, a London-based expert on Shiite politics in the Middle East. It will never get away with it. Its enemies in Lebanon have strong backers and access to massive funds, he added, referring to U.S. and Saudi support for Saniora.In Tariq Jadidah, Beirut's largest Sunni district and scene of battles in May, signs abound of the sectarian rift widened by the clashes. Banners declaring we will never forget our martyrs stretch across some streets. Giant portrait posters of Saad Hariri, leader of the U.S.-backed parliament majority, are everywhere.Hezbollah turned Beirut into another Baghdad, said Tariq Jadidah resident Ahmed Hader. They set up checkpoints and asked motorists and pedestrians about their sectarian identity.A new government was formed July 11 after six weeks of wrangling. In the new Cabinet, the parliamentary majority holds 16 seats, the opposition gets 11, while three others were distributed by the president.The delay in forming the government was a signal that Saniora's camp was angling to limit Hezbollah's clout. At the end, it managed to deny the Hezbollah-led opposition any of the most important Cabinet positions, except for the one it had already held — foreign affairs.Hezbollah has not made clear its next step but is busy trying to counter criticism of the May violence. The resistance's weapons should not be used to achieve political gains, Nasrallah said in a video address to tens of thousands of supporters in Beirut days after the Doha agreement. This country cannot rise and continue except through cooperation, consensus and solidarity.Hezbollah supporters insist the group was only defending itself against a government move to uproot it. Nasrallah said that had the government shut the group's telephone network, it would have then tried to disarm it. Hezbollah is believed to have nearly 30,000 missiles, including some that can hit Tel Aviv, as well as land-to-sea missiles. Whatever Hezbollah does next, it will have to be careful. Its ties with some allies in the Sunni, Druse and Christian communities already have suffered because of the May violence, and it is hampered militarily in its stronghold of south Lebanon by the presence of 13,000 U.N. peacekeepers and 15,000 Lebanese army soldiers. If another war with Israel breaks out, The Israelis will come in massively, said Timor Goksel, who served as a spokesman and adviser to the U.N. force in southern Lebanon for nearly 20 years.
In 2006, many Lebanese complained that Hezbollah had dragged the whole country into war, and a repeat performance can only mean more anger and resentment, even among Shiite villagers in the south, many of whom are still reeling from the destruction. In Aita al-Shaab, Hezbollah as the effective government has not come up with the cash to complete rebuilding. Marai and two of his daughters couldn't move back into their home until May, nearly two years after the war, and the upper story is still not rebuilt. Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, an arm of the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said another war could be a political and military disaster for the guerrillas. Hezbollah is in a serious bind, Salem said. It has entered the cycle of full wars with Israel.
Police: Palestinian behind Jerusalem shooting By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
JERUSALEM - Police were searching Saturday for a gunman who wounded two Israeli policemen on patrol in Jerusalem's Old City, in what officials described as a nationalist attack by a Palestinian. The shooting, which took place just before midnight Friday at Lion's Gate, was captured on a security camera, but the assailant's face was not visible in the darkness, Israel Radio said. The gunman fled to a nearby cemetery and apparently was not hit by police fire, the radio said.In Jerusalem, green-clad Israeli security forces rounded up Palestinian men overnight in an Arab neighborhood close to the Old City, forcing some to lie on the ground stripped to their underwear while others stood against walls. Red police tape crisscrossed the Lion's Gate entrance, barring people from entry.
On Saturday morning, traffic crawled to a halt outside a main Israeli checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank, apparently as authorities searched for the perpetrator.Also Saturday, Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel from Gaza, the army said, a violation of a three-week-old truce between Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel.The attack in Jerusalem was the sixth since the beginning of the year. It came just a week after an Arab construction worker went on a rampage with a huge earth moving vehicle, killing three Israelis before he was shot dead. In March, a Palestinian from Jerusalem shot and killed eight Israelis in an attack on a Jewish seminary in the city.Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said he did not believe the recent attacks were related. Several years ago, at the height of the second Palestinian uprising, Jerusalem was hit hard by Palestinian suicide bombers sent by militant groups. However, some of the recent attacks in the city appeared to be the acts of individuals.We don't see a connection between these events, said Cohen. At the moment, it was an isolated event.About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 750,000 residents are Jews. The rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967.Unlike their counterparts in the West Bank, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem enjoy freedom of movement and Israeli welfare benefits. But they also complain of official discrimination in the allocation of budgets and services and are struggling to obtain permits to build houses.Meanwhile, Israel's army said Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel in violation of a cease-fire that took effect June 19. The rocket landed in an open area. There were no reports of injuries.There was no claim of responsibility for the rocket attack.Hamas officials say they are trying to enforce the truce and it appears smaller opposition groups are mainly involved in truce violations.On Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed an 18-year-old member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Hamas rival, on the Gaza border. Al Aqsa has said it would avenge the death.Despite the sporadic violence, neither side has said it's walking away from the truce.
Gaza rocket strikes Israel Sat Jul 12, 7:58 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck an open field inside Israel without causing any casualties or damage, police said Saturday. Several rockets and mortar rounds have been fired from Gaza in recent weeks despite an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, which seized power in Gaza in June 2007.Israeli troops on Thursday shot dead an unarmed Gaza militant near the fenced-off border of the impoverished territory, causing the first fatality since the truce came into force on June 19.The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group loosely tied to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, said the man was one of its fighters and retaliated by firing two rockets into Israel.The group has vowed to carry out further attacks, while Hamas has said it will arrest anyone who violates the truce.
Will Scandal Finally Engulf Olmert? By TIM MCGIRK/JERUSALEM
Sat Jul 12, 12:55 AM ET
In many countries you expect police investigators to tiptoe around a prime minister. But not in Israel, not any longer. It is a measure of how far Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has free-fallen in the public esteem that police investigators are now openly saying that if he were an ordinary citizen - and not the highest elected figure in the land - he would already be under arrest.On Friday, Olmert was interrogated for the third time in a widening probe on alleged corruption and fraud that could eventually lead to the flame-out of his political career. A revolt has already begun in Olmert's Kadima party, which has decided to hold primaries by mid-September, a move designed to oust him.Polls show that if Olmert, tarred by scandal, were to keep clinging to the leadership of Kadima, the party would collapse - and it would drag the coalition government along with it. Zevulon Orlev, chairman of the National Religious party, called for Olmert to quit after police interrogated him on Friday, saying: In an enlightened country, he would have resigned a long time ago.Olmert could go sooner, if the corruption and fraud allegations stick. The prime minister says that he is the innocent victim of a police campaign against him. But after a combative, two-hour grilling at his official Jerusalem residence on Friday, police investigators issued a statement claiming that Olmert was suspected of serious fraud and other offenses. He was questioned about the allegedly double billing of charity organizations for his trips abroad as mayor of Jerusalem and trade and industries minister. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, as well as charities helping physically and mentally handicapped children were among those that Olmert allegedly double-charged. Police investigators accuse Olmert of putting the surplus money into a private bank account, amassing upwards of $100,000 over the years, and dipping into it for his family vacations. The Prime Minister's Office denies the charges and says that Olmert paid for his private trips with frequent flier miles. His office blames the police for a misleading attempt to create drama.
But Olmert faces other suspicions, too. On Feb.17th, his lawyers will cross-examine an American multi-millionaire, Morris Talansky, who earlier told police that over the years he had given Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars in envelopes stuffed with cash for campaign funds which were used for expensive items and vacations. Talansky also claims he gave Olmert loans which were never re-paid. Olmert denies the allegations but says that if he is indicted, he will resign. For many Israelis, sick of the scandal that has engulfed the prime minister for many months, that can't happen soon enough. Olmert, they say, has been too wrapped up in his own defense that he cannot run the country, or make peace with the Palestinians. View this article on Time.com
Lebanon forms unity government with Hezbollah By Laila Bassam Fri Jul 11, 4:00 PM ET
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon ended weeks of wrangling on Friday and formed a unity government in which Hezbollah and its allies hold effective veto power, as agreed under a deal that ended a paralyzing political conflict in the country. The decisive say granted to the former opposition led by Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus, shows that Syria has succeeded in wrenching back some political leverage in Lebanon, where it was the main power broker until its troops left in 2005.The birth of the government, the first under newly elected President Michel Suleiman, should close a long political crisis that had threatened to plunge Lebanon into a new civil war.But it also marks the start of a challenging new era in which leaders must contain rising sectarian tensions, prepare for a parliamentary election next year and start talks on the fate of Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah's military wing.A presidential decree announced the cabinet after Suleiman, a Maronite Christian, met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni Muslim, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shi'ite Muslim.This government has two main tasks: regaining confidence in the Lebanese political system... and securing the holding of a transparent parliamentary election, Siniora told reporters.The new team has one Hezbollah minister in addition to 10 ministers from its Shi'ite, Druze and Christian allies.The opposition was guaranteed 11 of the cabinet's 30 seats under a May deal to defuse a conflict that had sparked some of the worst fighting since the 1975-90 civil war. All major decisions require a two-thirds majority or 20 cabinet votes.
The Qatari-brokered May 21 agreement opened the way for Suleiman's election four days later, but factional squabbling over portfolios had held up the formation of a government.The majority coalition chose 16 ministers. Suleiman picked the remaining three, including Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.Siniora's close adviser Mohammad Chatah takes the finance portfolio. Hezbollah's Mohammad Fneish becomes labor minister and Fawzi Salloukh, of the Shi'ite Amal group, foreign minister.The cabinet's main task will be to ease sectarian and political tensions to avert further violence, adopt an election law agreed in the Qatar talks and supervise next year's poll.
POPULAR RELIEF
Finally! a 21-year-old Beirut man, who gave his name only as Ahmed, said of the new cabinet. Hopefully it will be a real national unity government and they won't waste time fighting at the table and will sort out the problems of the Lebanese.The United States welcomed the formation of a cabinet but said it would not deal with cabinet members from Hezbollah.This cabinet does include members of Hezbollah, as did the last one. We will not deal with those members of the cabinet. But we look forward to working with the prime minister, as well as his new foreign minister, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also hailed the formation of the new government, which he said marked a key achievement.
Important decisions need to be taken in the coming weeks and there is a lot of work to be done, Solana said in a statement, reiterating the EU's support to Siniora. Suleiman is due in Paris for Sunday's launch of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union project, his first foreign trip as president. He is expected to hold talks there with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. Assad's presence at the summit, which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will also attend, marks French recognition of Syria's role in facilitating a compromise in Lebanon. Damascus had given its blessing to the Doha deal, which effectively translated into political gains the military victory Hezbollah and its allies had won against their Western-backed foes in street fighting in Beirut and elsewhere earlier in May. With the government in place, Suleiman is expected to call rival leaders for round-table talks on divisive issues, with the fate of Hezbollah's weapons foremost among them. Hezbollah maintains a formidable guerrilla army that fought off Israeli forces in a 34-day war in 2006. Its domestic detractors say Hezbollah has had no reason to keep its weapons since Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah and its allies argue that it needs its arsenal to deter and defend Lebanon against possible Israeli attack. (Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Washington and by Tala Shukri; Writing by Nadim Ladki; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Samia Nakhoul)
Israeli police air new allegations against premier By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 11, 3:46 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Police revealed stinging new allegations against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday, accusing him of pocketing tens of thousands of dollars by deceiving multiple sources into paying for the same trips abroad. The latest revelations came just after police grilled Olmert for a third time in a widening corruption probe — and made it even harder for him to hold on to his job and carry out peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria.Police said Olmert is suspected of obtaining $100,000 before he became prime minister by getting multiple sources — among them state and public organizations including charities — to pay for identical trips abroad so he could pocket the difference.The allegations were the most damaging for Olmert since police accused him in May of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes from an American entrepreneur when he was a Cabinet minister and mayor of Jerusalem.Olmert served as Jerusalem mayor for 10 years until 2003, when he was appointed trade minister in former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government. He held that position until he became prime minister in 2006 after Sharon suffered a devastating stroke.Police said Friday they were widening their investigation of Olmert to include the funding of his trips abroad.He has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Yet even before the latest accusations, Israeli pundits and media were nearly unanimous in their assessment that the prime minister is on his way out.It's hard to fathom what Olmert is trying to achieve by postponing his dishonorable exit from public life when it's obvious to everyone else that his public career is over, said the lead editorial Friday in the newspaper Haaretz.Olmert's lawyers are hoping their cross-examination next week of the key witness in the case — 75-year-old American Jewish businessman Morris Talansky — will bolster the prime minister's fortunes.
In a stunning deposition in May, Talansky testified he handed Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars in envelopes over the years and said some of the money went to pay for expensive cigars, hotels and other luxuries. Police suspect the cash was either for illegal campaign contributions or bribes.Olmert's backers note he has been written off before only to re-emerge intact. This is the fifth major corruption case against him, and few people had thought he would survive the fallout from his much criticized handling of the war with Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon two years ago.Nevertheless, the weight of the corruption probes taken together, combined with Olmert's rock-bottom approval ratings and Friday's highly embarrassing disclosures, is overwhelming. Olmert has said he will resign if indicted.After police questioned the prime minister for two hours at his official residence in Jerusalem, the police and Justice Ministry issued a statement saying that Olmert, while serving as mayor of Jerusalem and as minister of industry and trade, is suspected of seeking funding for flights abroad in his official capacity from several sources at the same time ... including the state.Each of these sources was asked to pay in full for the same flight, the statement said.Police suspect the considerable sums that remained after a flight was paid for were transferred by Olmert to a special account (his) travel agency administered for him. These monies were used to finance private trips abroad by Olmert and his family, the statement said.Police officials said Olmert also billed multiple sources for other expenses, such as hotels, on dozens of trips abroad — with the illicit funds amounting to some $100,000.A senior police officer with the National Fraud Unit said the Rishon Tours travel agency acted like a bank branch for the Olmert family. Before going abroad, they would contact the agency to check the balance in Olmert's account there and order tickets, said the officer, who agreed to discuss the case only if not quoted by name.No one answered the phone at the agency's offices Friday, a short business day in Israel because of the Jewish Sabbath beginning at sundown.
Besides asking the state to pick up the tab for his trips, Olmert also approached leading Israeli companies for funding, the police official said. Companies paid for his trips even when he was trade minister and responsible for overseeing corporate practices — raising suspicions of conflict of interest and breach of trust, the officer said. All information from the police outside the official statement was obtained on condition of anonymity because the case is still under investigation and officers were not authorized to divulge details not included in the statement. Through a spokesman, the prime minister insisted he broke no laws. Prime Minister Olmert is convinced that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and firmly believes that as this investigation continues, that innocence will become apparent to all, said Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev. Regev would not comment on the substance of the new suspicions. Olmert's Kadima Party, a centrist movement that favors territorial compromises with Israel's Arab neighbors, is planning primary elections in September to choose a new leader. Olmert has said he might run, but analysts predicted Friday's revelations would keep him out of the race. At stake is far more than the fortunes of the 62-year-old Olmert. Olmert's government is deeply involved in what insiders describe as imperfect yet serious peace negotiations with both the Palestinians and Syria. If new elections were held now, polls say former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish leader of the right-wing Likud Party, would probably win. However, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is likely to win the Kadima primaries in September. Polls indicate she would give Netanyahu a good run in a general election. If she became prime minister, she would likely pursue Olmert's peace moves. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel and Laurie Copans contributed to this report.
Lebanese army occupies abandoned Shebaa Farm: witness Fri Jul 11, 6:54 AM ET
SHEBAA, Lebanon (AFP) - The Lebanese army moved on Friday into Bastara Farm, the only one of the occupied Shebaa Farms that the Israeli army evacuated when it pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, an AFP correspondent said. Lebanese army vehicles and bulldozers could be seen moving for the first time into the farm, which lies some 300 metres (yards) away from other farms which Israel has occupied for more than 40 years.A road has been reconstructed to link this new position to other Lebanese army posts in the southeast of the country.The Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources measuring 25 square kilometres (10 square miles), are located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel.Israel seized the Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured the neighbouring Golan Heights which it later annexed.Ever since, the Farms have been caught in a tug-of-war over ownership. Lebanon claims them, with the backing of Damascus, while Israel says they are part of Syria.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during a visit to Beirut last month, called for an end to the standoff.The United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue... in accordance with (UN Security Council Resolution) 1701, Rice said.Resolution 1701 brought an end to a devastating 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in summer 2006 and called for the UN secretary general to propose a border demarcation for the Shebaa Farms.Israel occupied south Lebanon for nearly 20 years until withdrawing its troops in May 2000, but it remained in the Shebaa. The United Nations ruled at the time that the withdrawal was complete and that the Farms were Syrian.A seven-point plan drawn up by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and adopted by the United Nations envisages placing the territory under UN administration while waiting for the three countries to resolve the issue.
Fayyad calls on Palestinians to defy Israeli army Thu Jul 10, 4:49 PM ET
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on Palestinians on Thursday to defy an Israeli army attempt to shut down a major commercial centre in Nablus. In a striking intervention in an affair that Israel says is aimed at disrupting funding for Fayyad's Islamist opponents in Hamas, the Western-backed premier visited the modern complex which rises above the centre of the West Bank city and urged businesses to reopen there despite an Israeli raid on Tuesday.Shopkeepers are invited to open their stores and ignore the Israeli decision, Fayyad said, after soldiers who searched the building ordered it closed on the grounds its owners had passed funds to Hamas. The Israeli army orders and decisions are not valid ... We will deal with them as if they don't exist.Fayyad, a former World Bank economist, was appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas a year ago after Hamas, which ran the previous, elected government seized control of the Gaza Strip in fighting with forces from Abbas's secular Fatah movement.The United States and its allies see Fayyad's efforts to improve Palestinian forces' ability to curb anti-Israel militants and his declared focus on promoting economic growth as key contributions to a peace process relaunched in November.Since his appointment, Fayyad has been increasingly critical of Israel's failure to ease restrictions on movement in the occupied West Bank or to remove Jewish settlements scattered across the territory, both factors he says hobble its economy.Nablus has been a focus of complaints that Israeli forces are undermining Palestinian security efforts by raiding into a major city that is, in principle, under Palestinian control and are stifling commerce by ringing the city with roadblocks.
SETTLEMENT COMPLAINTS
Earlier, Fayyad visited the town of Nilin, which Israeli troops sealed off and placed under curfew for several days this week after protests, occasionally violent, against continuing work on walls and fences in the West Bank that Israel says are intended to prevent Palestinian attackers reaching its cities.Israel has rejected a World Court ruling four years ago this week which found the barrier to be illegal.Fayyad praised local people's protests: Peaceful, popular action in defense of our land is a legitimate right to thwart plans to confiscate land for building walls and settlements.Palestinians accuse Israel of failing to meet commitments to halt settlement in the West Bank. Washington has also criticized recent Israeli decisions to expand settlements near Jerusalem.Israel says it does not regard settlements on occupied West Bank land that it annexed and placed within expanded Jerusalem city limits as being part of the West Bank. It says, therefore, building in such settlements does not breach its commitments.Abbas is so irritated by the settlement building that an aide said he is considering suspending the peace talks: The Palestinian leadership views gravely the continuing settlement expansion ... and is considering suspending peace talks with Israel, Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.Abbas visits Paris on Sunday, as does Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for a meeting of European and Mediterranean leaders: The president will inform the international community and Olmert in Paris of his decision, Abed Rabbo said.U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to broker a deal before he leaves office in January on establishing a Palestinian state. However, prospects for a major breakthrough seem slight.
Israeli PM's party to hold primary mid-September: officials Thu Jul 10, 2:49 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ruling party will hold a primary vote in mid-September under a deal reached following calls for the premier to resign over a graft scandal, party officials said on Thursday. The Kadima party's steering committee will convene on Thursday to ratify the agreement hammered out by Olmert and the party's leadership to hold the primary election between September 14 and 18, Kadima chairman MP Tzahi Hanegbi said.A second round will be held before September 25 if necessary, according to the draft proposal.Foreign Minister Tzpii Livni is viewed as the front-runner in the Kadima primary, and Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter are also eyeing the party's top position.It nevertheless remained unclear if Olmert himself intended to run in the September primary.Olmert faced a chorus of calls for his resignation from both opposition and coalition members after claims that he had unlawfully accepted vast sums of cash from a US businessman before becoming premier in 2006.The centre-left Labour party, Olmert's key coalition partner, threatened to quit the coalition if the premier was not replaced, a move that would likely topple the Israeli cabinet and lead to new elections.Olmert, who has denied any wrongdoing and refused to step down, weathered the political turmoil only after agreeing to hold a primary vote in September.
Israel indicts two alleged Al-Qaeda operatives Wed Jul 9, 2:05 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli authorities on Wednesday filed indictments against two Bedouin citizens suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda and planning attacks in the country, the Shin Beth internal security service said. Taher Abu Sakut and Omar Abu Sakut are accused of serious crimes, including membership in a terrorist organization, aiding the enemy in wartime and delivering information to the enemy in order to harm state security, the Shin Beth said in a statement.Lead defendant Taher Abu Sakut is accused of opening contacts with Al-Qaeda in 2006 and providing information on military bases, strategic installations and crowded places in order to facilitate the planning of attacks, the statement said.
Those sites included skyscrapers in Tel Aviv, the Ben Gurion international airport and smuggling routes between Palestinian areas in the occupied West Bank and Israel, it added.During the contacts, Taher requested that Global Jihad put him in contact with fighters from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, in order to perpetrate an attack in Israel against the Jews.The two Bedouin from the southern Israeli town of Rahat were arrested in June.About 170,000 Arab Bedouin live in Israel, mainly in the Negev desert and the Galilee, with many living in poverty and complaining they are treated as second-rate citizens.
Israel approves new homes in east Jerusalem settlement Wed Jul 9, 8:22 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli commission has approved the building of 920 new homes in occupied east Jerusalem, the municipality said on Wednesday, in a new blow to shaky peace talks with the Palestinians. The district commission has approved for construction 920 housing units in Har Homa, a statement said, referring to a neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, known in Arabic as Jabel Abu Ghneim, that has more than 10,000 residents.The Har Homa project is part of a plan to build some 40,000 new homes over the next decade in neighbourhoods in both east and west Jerusalem, that the housing minister approved in June, a ministry official told AFP.Until now specific aspects of this project were unknown.Israel occupied and annexed the eastern half of the city after the 1967 war in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who wish to make the Holy City the capital of their future state.
A total of 245,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem alongside more than 200,000 Jewish settlers.Israel pledged to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank when peace talks were revived at a conference in the United States last year.But it considers the whole of Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital and has insisted it will continue to build in both the city's eastern sector and in the larger West Bank settlement blocs that it intends to keep in any deal.Little progress has been made in the negotiations so far, with the thorny settlements issue one of the major bones of contention.The Jewish state's settlement expansion in Jerusalem has infuriated the Palestinians, who have accused Israel of obstructing peace efforts.The United States has heavily criticised its close ally over its settlement activity in the occupied territories, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warning that the settlements issue must not block any peace deal.
No party should be taking steps at this point that could prejudice the outcome of the negotiations, Rice said after meeting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June.
Hamas and Egypt to discuss truce, prisoner swap deal By Nidal al-Mughrabi Tue Jul 8, 12:15 PM ET
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas leaders plan to hold talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on the future of a ceasefire with Israel that has been marred by violations since it began nearly three weeks ago. In the latest challenge to the Egyptian-brokered truce, militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired two mortar bombs at Israel on Tuesday, causing no casualties, the Israeli military said.
Similar attacks since the truce went into effect have led Israel to close crossings with Gaza that had been reopened under the truce deal to the limited entry of goods into the territory.Officials in Gaza familiar with the Egyptian-Hamas dialogue said the talks would get under way on Wednesday.We will evaluate the Israeli commitment. They are opening the crossings partially and that was against the agreement, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, told reporters.
Zahar said he and other Hamas officials would urge Egypt to press Israel to stop the repeated closures.Hamas has called on all militant groups in Gaza to abide by the truce, but some factions have vowed to respond militarily to Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, which is not covered by the truce.In response to mortar bomb attacks on Monday, Israel said it would keep Gaza crossings closed on Tuesday, but reversed the decision after a special request by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the Israeli Defence Ministry said.Though Israel has responded to cross-border rocket attacks by frequently closing Gaza's goods crossings, records show up to a 44 percent increase in total goods imports in recent weeks.This includes a nearly 30 percent rise in petrol supplies and a 40 percent increase in diesel imports, the records show.Zahar said the discussions also would include prospects for a prisoner swap with Israel.Gaza militants have been holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for the past two years and hope to trade him for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.Accusing Israel of a lack of commitment to the truce, Hamas last week declared talks on an exchange suspended. Zahar said Egyptian mediators would brief the group on Israel's position.He voiced few hopes that Egypt could succeed in efforts to reconcile between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in fighting a year ago.(Editing by Diana Abdallah)
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Israeli officials say report on airman delivered By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
JERUSALEM - Israel has received a report from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah on an Israeli airman missing for more than two decades, potentially clearing the way for a prisoner swap between the two foes, officials said Saturday. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was expected to receive the report later Saturday and bring it for a vote before his Cabinet on Tuesday, the officials said on condition of anonymity since no official announcement was released.Hezbollah said in the report that it does not know what happened to Ron Arad, who has been missing since he was captured alive when his fighter jet went down over Lebanon in 1986, the officials said.According to the document, Hezbollah believes that Arad is dead, the officials said.Under an Israel-Hezbollah deal, Israel will hand over Samir Kantar, a Lebanese man serving multiple life terms for a 1979 attack in Israel's north. Israel is also expected to release four Hezbollah prisoners and dozens of fighters' bodies.In return, Israel was to get two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid that set off a fierce 34-day war. Olmert has said that he believes the soldiers are dead.Israeli military officials say the exchange is likely to take place this week, pending final approval by the Cabinet.
Arad's daughter, Yuval, urged authorities not to declare her father dead nor to give up the search for him. Israel has been reluctant to announce that he is dead in part because rabbis require proof that he is no longer living.It sounds strange perhaps but you can't declare a person dead just because you don't know, Arad told Channel 10 TV Friday. She was an infant when he went missing.Arad was forced to parachute out of his fighter jet after one of its bombs apparently malfunctioned. The jet's pilot was rescued by Israeli forces, but Arad was captured by guerrillas from the Shiite Amal organization.Letters and photographs from Arad were initially sent to Israel, but talks for his release failed not long afterward and the navigator was not heard from again.A U.N.-appointed German official mediated the agreement, which Israel had originally approved June 29. Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel had recently traveled to Europe to pick up the document on Arad.In exchange for the report, Israel is to provide information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982. Iran claims they were kidnapped by Lebanese militiamen allied with Israel and turned over to Israeli troops.Israel denies holding them. Samir Geagea, former head of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, has said militiamen killed them.Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, taking over large areas as part of a military sweep to expel Palestinian guerrillas.Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for one of the most gruesome attacks in Israeli history. He was convicted of shooting a policeman and then killing an Israeli man in front of his 4-year-old daughter before beating her to death.Kantar denies killing the girl.
Aide insists Israeli PM never stole a shekel JULY 12,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted on Saturday that he has never stolen a shekel, after new police suspicions over the premier's finances, the media reported.
The prime minister is neither a thief nor an imposter. He has never stolen a shekel or used public funds for family expenses, said Rachael Risby Raz, quoted by the media.Raz, who organised Olmert's travels while he was trade and industry minister, is a key witness in the latest case against Olmert.Israeli police said they have new suspicions over Olmert's finances on Friday after questioning him for a third time over graft allegations that have prompted calls for his resignation.Olmert is suspected of fraud by sending multiple bills for the same airline tickets to various entities including the state, and allegedly using ill-gotten gains to finance private trips for himself and his family, police and the justice ministry said in a joint statement.Initial allegations focused on claims that Olmert illegally received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-filled envelopes from a US financier before he became prime minister in 2006.
Hezbollah gains clout in Lebanon — but at a cost By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
AITA AL-SHAAB, Lebanon - In this dusty village on the front lines of Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed guerrilla group looks as strong as ever. But even as it reaches the zenith of its power in Lebanon, Hezbollah is generating new perils along the way. Tales of heroism by Hezbollah fighters still make the rounds in Aita al-Shaab, the streets are adorned with portraits of the group's martyrs, and yellow Hezbollah flags fly from lampposts. Villagers, still rebuilding from the devastation of the war, profess unswerving devotion to the Shiite Muslim group and its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.I am 90, but if they ask me to fight Israel, I will, said Hassan Marai, a tobacco farmer.Hezbollah is our only protector, Marai declared at his home, reduced to rubble in the war, but now partly rebuilt with money from Hezbollah and the wealthy Gulf state of Qatar.Hezbollah, or the Party of God, is both a military and political movement with members in Lebanon's parliament. A close ally of Iran and Syria, it emerged with a winner's swagger after holding off Israel's 2006 onslaught. Now, nearly two years into a power struggle with Lebanon's U.S.-backed government, the party is poised to gain what it long demanded — greater say in the politics of this fractured nation.With this added muscle, Hezbollah could block any attempt to disarm its fighters, ensuring its hold along the border with Israel. Hezbollah also could better counter U.S. influence in Lebanon and increase the sway of Shiites, who are believed to constitute the country's largest sect but have long felt squeezed out by Sunni Muslims and Christians.
However, Hezbollah's gains come at a cost. Its violent methods have deepened the bitterness among its political opponents in Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's camp. Hezbollah's military also has less room to maneuver, given that Israel gained a better picture of the militia in the 2006 war and will likely answer any provocation with massive retaliation. And many Lebanese — perhaps even some Hezbollah supporters in south Lebanon — could blame the movement if there is yet another destructive war.Meanwhile, Israel and Syria are holding indirect talks through Turkish mediators, and Israel would be unlikely to accept any deal that doesn't curtail Syria's backing for Hezbollah.The two-year power struggle in Lebanon came to a head in May when Saniora's government ordered the dismantling of Hezbollah's private telephone network — which the group maintains is its warning system against Israeli attack — and fired the pro-Hezbollah security chief at Beirut's international airport.
Hezbollah reacted strongly. Its fighters seized Sunni districts in Beirut and battled militias loyal to the government in the hills above the city and in the country's north. Eighty-one people were killed, and Saniora was forced to rescind the two decisions in a humiliating defeat.Under an Arab-mediated deal sealed in Doha, the Qatar capital, the government agreed to form a unity government that would essentially give Hezbollah a veto over Cabinet decisions. The U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist group, but faced with the prospect of more deadlock and bloodshed, gave the planned government its blessing.Hezbollah's new power was gained, however, by violating Nasrallah's long-standing pledge not to take up arms against other Lebanese factions, awakening memories of Lebanon's 15-year sectarian civil war that ended in 1990.Hezbollah did something it had vowed it will never do, said Mohan Abedin, a London-based expert on Shiite politics in the Middle East. It will never get away with it. Its enemies in Lebanon have strong backers and access to massive funds, he added, referring to U.S. and Saudi support for Saniora.In Tariq Jadidah, Beirut's largest Sunni district and scene of battles in May, signs abound of the sectarian rift widened by the clashes. Banners declaring we will never forget our martyrs stretch across some streets. Giant portrait posters of Saad Hariri, leader of the U.S.-backed parliament majority, are everywhere.Hezbollah turned Beirut into another Baghdad, said Tariq Jadidah resident Ahmed Hader. They set up checkpoints and asked motorists and pedestrians about their sectarian identity.A new government was formed July 11 after six weeks of wrangling. In the new Cabinet, the parliamentary majority holds 16 seats, the opposition gets 11, while three others were distributed by the president.The delay in forming the government was a signal that Saniora's camp was angling to limit Hezbollah's clout. At the end, it managed to deny the Hezbollah-led opposition any of the most important Cabinet positions, except for the one it had already held — foreign affairs.Hezbollah has not made clear its next step but is busy trying to counter criticism of the May violence. The resistance's weapons should not be used to achieve political gains, Nasrallah said in a video address to tens of thousands of supporters in Beirut days after the Doha agreement. This country cannot rise and continue except through cooperation, consensus and solidarity.Hezbollah supporters insist the group was only defending itself against a government move to uproot it. Nasrallah said that had the government shut the group's telephone network, it would have then tried to disarm it. Hezbollah is believed to have nearly 30,000 missiles, including some that can hit Tel Aviv, as well as land-to-sea missiles. Whatever Hezbollah does next, it will have to be careful. Its ties with some allies in the Sunni, Druse and Christian communities already have suffered because of the May violence, and it is hampered militarily in its stronghold of south Lebanon by the presence of 13,000 U.N. peacekeepers and 15,000 Lebanese army soldiers. If another war with Israel breaks out, The Israelis will come in massively, said Timor Goksel, who served as a spokesman and adviser to the U.N. force in southern Lebanon for nearly 20 years.
In 2006, many Lebanese complained that Hezbollah had dragged the whole country into war, and a repeat performance can only mean more anger and resentment, even among Shiite villagers in the south, many of whom are still reeling from the destruction. In Aita al-Shaab, Hezbollah as the effective government has not come up with the cash to complete rebuilding. Marai and two of his daughters couldn't move back into their home until May, nearly two years after the war, and the upper story is still not rebuilt. Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, an arm of the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said another war could be a political and military disaster for the guerrillas. Hezbollah is in a serious bind, Salem said. It has entered the cycle of full wars with Israel.
Police: Palestinian behind Jerusalem shooting By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer JULY 12,08
JERUSALEM - Police were searching Saturday for a gunman who wounded two Israeli policemen on patrol in Jerusalem's Old City, in what officials described as a nationalist attack by a Palestinian. The shooting, which took place just before midnight Friday at Lion's Gate, was captured on a security camera, but the assailant's face was not visible in the darkness, Israel Radio said. The gunman fled to a nearby cemetery and apparently was not hit by police fire, the radio said.In Jerusalem, green-clad Israeli security forces rounded up Palestinian men overnight in an Arab neighborhood close to the Old City, forcing some to lie on the ground stripped to their underwear while others stood against walls. Red police tape crisscrossed the Lion's Gate entrance, barring people from entry.
On Saturday morning, traffic crawled to a halt outside a main Israeli checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank, apparently as authorities searched for the perpetrator.Also Saturday, Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel from Gaza, the army said, a violation of a three-week-old truce between Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel.The attack in Jerusalem was the sixth since the beginning of the year. It came just a week after an Arab construction worker went on a rampage with a huge earth moving vehicle, killing three Israelis before he was shot dead. In March, a Palestinian from Jerusalem shot and killed eight Israelis in an attack on a Jewish seminary in the city.Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said he did not believe the recent attacks were related. Several years ago, at the height of the second Palestinian uprising, Jerusalem was hit hard by Palestinian suicide bombers sent by militant groups. However, some of the recent attacks in the city appeared to be the acts of individuals.We don't see a connection between these events, said Cohen. At the moment, it was an isolated event.About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 750,000 residents are Jews. The rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967.Unlike their counterparts in the West Bank, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem enjoy freedom of movement and Israeli welfare benefits. But they also complain of official discrimination in the allocation of budgets and services and are struggling to obtain permits to build houses.Meanwhile, Israel's army said Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel in violation of a cease-fire that took effect June 19. The rocket landed in an open area. There were no reports of injuries.There was no claim of responsibility for the rocket attack.Hamas officials say they are trying to enforce the truce and it appears smaller opposition groups are mainly involved in truce violations.On Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed an 18-year-old member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Hamas rival, on the Gaza border. Al Aqsa has said it would avenge the death.Despite the sporadic violence, neither side has said it's walking away from the truce.
Gaza rocket strikes Israel Sat Jul 12, 7:58 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck an open field inside Israel without causing any casualties or damage, police said Saturday. Several rockets and mortar rounds have been fired from Gaza in recent weeks despite an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, which seized power in Gaza in June 2007.Israeli troops on Thursday shot dead an unarmed Gaza militant near the fenced-off border of the impoverished territory, causing the first fatality since the truce came into force on June 19.The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group loosely tied to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, said the man was one of its fighters and retaliated by firing two rockets into Israel.The group has vowed to carry out further attacks, while Hamas has said it will arrest anyone who violates the truce.
Will Scandal Finally Engulf Olmert? By TIM MCGIRK/JERUSALEM
Sat Jul 12, 12:55 AM ET
In many countries you expect police investigators to tiptoe around a prime minister. But not in Israel, not any longer. It is a measure of how far Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has free-fallen in the public esteem that police investigators are now openly saying that if he were an ordinary citizen - and not the highest elected figure in the land - he would already be under arrest.On Friday, Olmert was interrogated for the third time in a widening probe on alleged corruption and fraud that could eventually lead to the flame-out of his political career. A revolt has already begun in Olmert's Kadima party, which has decided to hold primaries by mid-September, a move designed to oust him.Polls show that if Olmert, tarred by scandal, were to keep clinging to the leadership of Kadima, the party would collapse - and it would drag the coalition government along with it. Zevulon Orlev, chairman of the National Religious party, called for Olmert to quit after police interrogated him on Friday, saying: In an enlightened country, he would have resigned a long time ago.Olmert could go sooner, if the corruption and fraud allegations stick. The prime minister says that he is the innocent victim of a police campaign against him. But after a combative, two-hour grilling at his official Jerusalem residence on Friday, police investigators issued a statement claiming that Olmert was suspected of serious fraud and other offenses. He was questioned about the allegedly double billing of charity organizations for his trips abroad as mayor of Jerusalem and trade and industries minister. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, as well as charities helping physically and mentally handicapped children were among those that Olmert allegedly double-charged. Police investigators accuse Olmert of putting the surplus money into a private bank account, amassing upwards of $100,000 over the years, and dipping into it for his family vacations. The Prime Minister's Office denies the charges and says that Olmert paid for his private trips with frequent flier miles. His office blames the police for a misleading attempt to create drama.
But Olmert faces other suspicions, too. On Feb.17th, his lawyers will cross-examine an American multi-millionaire, Morris Talansky, who earlier told police that over the years he had given Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars in envelopes stuffed with cash for campaign funds which were used for expensive items and vacations. Talansky also claims he gave Olmert loans which were never re-paid. Olmert denies the allegations but says that if he is indicted, he will resign. For many Israelis, sick of the scandal that has engulfed the prime minister for many months, that can't happen soon enough. Olmert, they say, has been too wrapped up in his own defense that he cannot run the country, or make peace with the Palestinians. View this article on Time.com
Lebanon forms unity government with Hezbollah By Laila Bassam Fri Jul 11, 4:00 PM ET
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon ended weeks of wrangling on Friday and formed a unity government in which Hezbollah and its allies hold effective veto power, as agreed under a deal that ended a paralyzing political conflict in the country. The decisive say granted to the former opposition led by Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus, shows that Syria has succeeded in wrenching back some political leverage in Lebanon, where it was the main power broker until its troops left in 2005.The birth of the government, the first under newly elected President Michel Suleiman, should close a long political crisis that had threatened to plunge Lebanon into a new civil war.But it also marks the start of a challenging new era in which leaders must contain rising sectarian tensions, prepare for a parliamentary election next year and start talks on the fate of Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah's military wing.A presidential decree announced the cabinet after Suleiman, a Maronite Christian, met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni Muslim, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shi'ite Muslim.This government has two main tasks: regaining confidence in the Lebanese political system... and securing the holding of a transparent parliamentary election, Siniora told reporters.The new team has one Hezbollah minister in addition to 10 ministers from its Shi'ite, Druze and Christian allies.The opposition was guaranteed 11 of the cabinet's 30 seats under a May deal to defuse a conflict that had sparked some of the worst fighting since the 1975-90 civil war. All major decisions require a two-thirds majority or 20 cabinet votes.
The Qatari-brokered May 21 agreement opened the way for Suleiman's election four days later, but factional squabbling over portfolios had held up the formation of a government.The majority coalition chose 16 ministers. Suleiman picked the remaining three, including Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.Siniora's close adviser Mohammad Chatah takes the finance portfolio. Hezbollah's Mohammad Fneish becomes labor minister and Fawzi Salloukh, of the Shi'ite Amal group, foreign minister.The cabinet's main task will be to ease sectarian and political tensions to avert further violence, adopt an election law agreed in the Qatar talks and supervise next year's poll.
POPULAR RELIEF
Finally! a 21-year-old Beirut man, who gave his name only as Ahmed, said of the new cabinet. Hopefully it will be a real national unity government and they won't waste time fighting at the table and will sort out the problems of the Lebanese.The United States welcomed the formation of a cabinet but said it would not deal with cabinet members from Hezbollah.This cabinet does include members of Hezbollah, as did the last one. We will not deal with those members of the cabinet. But we look forward to working with the prime minister, as well as his new foreign minister, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also hailed the formation of the new government, which he said marked a key achievement.
Important decisions need to be taken in the coming weeks and there is a lot of work to be done, Solana said in a statement, reiterating the EU's support to Siniora. Suleiman is due in Paris for Sunday's launch of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union project, his first foreign trip as president. He is expected to hold talks there with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. Assad's presence at the summit, which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will also attend, marks French recognition of Syria's role in facilitating a compromise in Lebanon. Damascus had given its blessing to the Doha deal, which effectively translated into political gains the military victory Hezbollah and its allies had won against their Western-backed foes in street fighting in Beirut and elsewhere earlier in May. With the government in place, Suleiman is expected to call rival leaders for round-table talks on divisive issues, with the fate of Hezbollah's weapons foremost among them. Hezbollah maintains a formidable guerrilla army that fought off Israeli forces in a 34-day war in 2006. Its domestic detractors say Hezbollah has had no reason to keep its weapons since Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah and its allies argue that it needs its arsenal to deter and defend Lebanon against possible Israeli attack. (Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Washington and by Tala Shukri; Writing by Nadim Ladki; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Samia Nakhoul)
Israeli police air new allegations against premier By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 11, 3:46 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Police revealed stinging new allegations against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday, accusing him of pocketing tens of thousands of dollars by deceiving multiple sources into paying for the same trips abroad. The latest revelations came just after police grilled Olmert for a third time in a widening corruption probe — and made it even harder for him to hold on to his job and carry out peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria.Police said Olmert is suspected of obtaining $100,000 before he became prime minister by getting multiple sources — among them state and public organizations including charities — to pay for identical trips abroad so he could pocket the difference.The allegations were the most damaging for Olmert since police accused him in May of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes from an American entrepreneur when he was a Cabinet minister and mayor of Jerusalem.Olmert served as Jerusalem mayor for 10 years until 2003, when he was appointed trade minister in former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government. He held that position until he became prime minister in 2006 after Sharon suffered a devastating stroke.Police said Friday they were widening their investigation of Olmert to include the funding of his trips abroad.He has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Yet even before the latest accusations, Israeli pundits and media were nearly unanimous in their assessment that the prime minister is on his way out.It's hard to fathom what Olmert is trying to achieve by postponing his dishonorable exit from public life when it's obvious to everyone else that his public career is over, said the lead editorial Friday in the newspaper Haaretz.Olmert's lawyers are hoping their cross-examination next week of the key witness in the case — 75-year-old American Jewish businessman Morris Talansky — will bolster the prime minister's fortunes.
In a stunning deposition in May, Talansky testified he handed Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars in envelopes over the years and said some of the money went to pay for expensive cigars, hotels and other luxuries. Police suspect the cash was either for illegal campaign contributions or bribes.Olmert's backers note he has been written off before only to re-emerge intact. This is the fifth major corruption case against him, and few people had thought he would survive the fallout from his much criticized handling of the war with Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon two years ago.Nevertheless, the weight of the corruption probes taken together, combined with Olmert's rock-bottom approval ratings and Friday's highly embarrassing disclosures, is overwhelming. Olmert has said he will resign if indicted.After police questioned the prime minister for two hours at his official residence in Jerusalem, the police and Justice Ministry issued a statement saying that Olmert, while serving as mayor of Jerusalem and as minister of industry and trade, is suspected of seeking funding for flights abroad in his official capacity from several sources at the same time ... including the state.Each of these sources was asked to pay in full for the same flight, the statement said.Police suspect the considerable sums that remained after a flight was paid for were transferred by Olmert to a special account (his) travel agency administered for him. These monies were used to finance private trips abroad by Olmert and his family, the statement said.Police officials said Olmert also billed multiple sources for other expenses, such as hotels, on dozens of trips abroad — with the illicit funds amounting to some $100,000.A senior police officer with the National Fraud Unit said the Rishon Tours travel agency acted like a bank branch for the Olmert family. Before going abroad, they would contact the agency to check the balance in Olmert's account there and order tickets, said the officer, who agreed to discuss the case only if not quoted by name.No one answered the phone at the agency's offices Friday, a short business day in Israel because of the Jewish Sabbath beginning at sundown.
Besides asking the state to pick up the tab for his trips, Olmert also approached leading Israeli companies for funding, the police official said. Companies paid for his trips even when he was trade minister and responsible for overseeing corporate practices — raising suspicions of conflict of interest and breach of trust, the officer said. All information from the police outside the official statement was obtained on condition of anonymity because the case is still under investigation and officers were not authorized to divulge details not included in the statement. Through a spokesman, the prime minister insisted he broke no laws. Prime Minister Olmert is convinced that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and firmly believes that as this investigation continues, that innocence will become apparent to all, said Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev. Regev would not comment on the substance of the new suspicions. Olmert's Kadima Party, a centrist movement that favors territorial compromises with Israel's Arab neighbors, is planning primary elections in September to choose a new leader. Olmert has said he might run, but analysts predicted Friday's revelations would keep him out of the race. At stake is far more than the fortunes of the 62-year-old Olmert. Olmert's government is deeply involved in what insiders describe as imperfect yet serious peace negotiations with both the Palestinians and Syria. If new elections were held now, polls say former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish leader of the right-wing Likud Party, would probably win. However, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is likely to win the Kadima primaries in September. Polls indicate she would give Netanyahu a good run in a general election. If she became prime minister, she would likely pursue Olmert's peace moves. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel and Laurie Copans contributed to this report.
Lebanese army occupies abandoned Shebaa Farm: witness Fri Jul 11, 6:54 AM ET
SHEBAA, Lebanon (AFP) - The Lebanese army moved on Friday into Bastara Farm, the only one of the occupied Shebaa Farms that the Israeli army evacuated when it pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, an AFP correspondent said. Lebanese army vehicles and bulldozers could be seen moving for the first time into the farm, which lies some 300 metres (yards) away from other farms which Israel has occupied for more than 40 years.A road has been reconstructed to link this new position to other Lebanese army posts in the southeast of the country.The Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources measuring 25 square kilometres (10 square miles), are located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel.Israel seized the Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured the neighbouring Golan Heights which it later annexed.Ever since, the Farms have been caught in a tug-of-war over ownership. Lebanon claims them, with the backing of Damascus, while Israel says they are part of Syria.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during a visit to Beirut last month, called for an end to the standoff.The United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue... in accordance with (UN Security Council Resolution) 1701, Rice said.Resolution 1701 brought an end to a devastating 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in summer 2006 and called for the UN secretary general to propose a border demarcation for the Shebaa Farms.Israel occupied south Lebanon for nearly 20 years until withdrawing its troops in May 2000, but it remained in the Shebaa. The United Nations ruled at the time that the withdrawal was complete and that the Farms were Syrian.A seven-point plan drawn up by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and adopted by the United Nations envisages placing the territory under UN administration while waiting for the three countries to resolve the issue.
Fayyad calls on Palestinians to defy Israeli army Thu Jul 10, 4:49 PM ET
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on Palestinians on Thursday to defy an Israeli army attempt to shut down a major commercial centre in Nablus. In a striking intervention in an affair that Israel says is aimed at disrupting funding for Fayyad's Islamist opponents in Hamas, the Western-backed premier visited the modern complex which rises above the centre of the West Bank city and urged businesses to reopen there despite an Israeli raid on Tuesday.Shopkeepers are invited to open their stores and ignore the Israeli decision, Fayyad said, after soldiers who searched the building ordered it closed on the grounds its owners had passed funds to Hamas. The Israeli army orders and decisions are not valid ... We will deal with them as if they don't exist.Fayyad, a former World Bank economist, was appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas a year ago after Hamas, which ran the previous, elected government seized control of the Gaza Strip in fighting with forces from Abbas's secular Fatah movement.The United States and its allies see Fayyad's efforts to improve Palestinian forces' ability to curb anti-Israel militants and his declared focus on promoting economic growth as key contributions to a peace process relaunched in November.Since his appointment, Fayyad has been increasingly critical of Israel's failure to ease restrictions on movement in the occupied West Bank or to remove Jewish settlements scattered across the territory, both factors he says hobble its economy.Nablus has been a focus of complaints that Israeli forces are undermining Palestinian security efforts by raiding into a major city that is, in principle, under Palestinian control and are stifling commerce by ringing the city with roadblocks.
SETTLEMENT COMPLAINTS
Earlier, Fayyad visited the town of Nilin, which Israeli troops sealed off and placed under curfew for several days this week after protests, occasionally violent, against continuing work on walls and fences in the West Bank that Israel says are intended to prevent Palestinian attackers reaching its cities.Israel has rejected a World Court ruling four years ago this week which found the barrier to be illegal.Fayyad praised local people's protests: Peaceful, popular action in defense of our land is a legitimate right to thwart plans to confiscate land for building walls and settlements.Palestinians accuse Israel of failing to meet commitments to halt settlement in the West Bank. Washington has also criticized recent Israeli decisions to expand settlements near Jerusalem.Israel says it does not regard settlements on occupied West Bank land that it annexed and placed within expanded Jerusalem city limits as being part of the West Bank. It says, therefore, building in such settlements does not breach its commitments.Abbas is so irritated by the settlement building that an aide said he is considering suspending the peace talks: The Palestinian leadership views gravely the continuing settlement expansion ... and is considering suspending peace talks with Israel, Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.Abbas visits Paris on Sunday, as does Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for a meeting of European and Mediterranean leaders: The president will inform the international community and Olmert in Paris of his decision, Abed Rabbo said.U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to broker a deal before he leaves office in January on establishing a Palestinian state. However, prospects for a major breakthrough seem slight.
Israeli PM's party to hold primary mid-September: officials Thu Jul 10, 2:49 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ruling party will hold a primary vote in mid-September under a deal reached following calls for the premier to resign over a graft scandal, party officials said on Thursday. The Kadima party's steering committee will convene on Thursday to ratify the agreement hammered out by Olmert and the party's leadership to hold the primary election between September 14 and 18, Kadima chairman MP Tzahi Hanegbi said.A second round will be held before September 25 if necessary, according to the draft proposal.Foreign Minister Tzpii Livni is viewed as the front-runner in the Kadima primary, and Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter are also eyeing the party's top position.It nevertheless remained unclear if Olmert himself intended to run in the September primary.Olmert faced a chorus of calls for his resignation from both opposition and coalition members after claims that he had unlawfully accepted vast sums of cash from a US businessman before becoming premier in 2006.The centre-left Labour party, Olmert's key coalition partner, threatened to quit the coalition if the premier was not replaced, a move that would likely topple the Israeli cabinet and lead to new elections.Olmert, who has denied any wrongdoing and refused to step down, weathered the political turmoil only after agreeing to hold a primary vote in September.
Israel indicts two alleged Al-Qaeda operatives Wed Jul 9, 2:05 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli authorities on Wednesday filed indictments against two Bedouin citizens suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda and planning attacks in the country, the Shin Beth internal security service said. Taher Abu Sakut and Omar Abu Sakut are accused of serious crimes, including membership in a terrorist organization, aiding the enemy in wartime and delivering information to the enemy in order to harm state security, the Shin Beth said in a statement.Lead defendant Taher Abu Sakut is accused of opening contacts with Al-Qaeda in 2006 and providing information on military bases, strategic installations and crowded places in order to facilitate the planning of attacks, the statement said.
Those sites included skyscrapers in Tel Aviv, the Ben Gurion international airport and smuggling routes between Palestinian areas in the occupied West Bank and Israel, it added.During the contacts, Taher requested that Global Jihad put him in contact with fighters from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, in order to perpetrate an attack in Israel against the Jews.The two Bedouin from the southern Israeli town of Rahat were arrested in June.About 170,000 Arab Bedouin live in Israel, mainly in the Negev desert and the Galilee, with many living in poverty and complaining they are treated as second-rate citizens.
Israel approves new homes in east Jerusalem settlement Wed Jul 9, 8:22 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli commission has approved the building of 920 new homes in occupied east Jerusalem, the municipality said on Wednesday, in a new blow to shaky peace talks with the Palestinians. The district commission has approved for construction 920 housing units in Har Homa, a statement said, referring to a neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, known in Arabic as Jabel Abu Ghneim, that has more than 10,000 residents.The Har Homa project is part of a plan to build some 40,000 new homes over the next decade in neighbourhoods in both east and west Jerusalem, that the housing minister approved in June, a ministry official told AFP.Until now specific aspects of this project were unknown.Israel occupied and annexed the eastern half of the city after the 1967 war in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who wish to make the Holy City the capital of their future state.
A total of 245,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem alongside more than 200,000 Jewish settlers.Israel pledged to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank when peace talks were revived at a conference in the United States last year.But it considers the whole of Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital and has insisted it will continue to build in both the city's eastern sector and in the larger West Bank settlement blocs that it intends to keep in any deal.Little progress has been made in the negotiations so far, with the thorny settlements issue one of the major bones of contention.The Jewish state's settlement expansion in Jerusalem has infuriated the Palestinians, who have accused Israel of obstructing peace efforts.The United States has heavily criticised its close ally over its settlement activity in the occupied territories, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warning that the settlements issue must not block any peace deal.
No party should be taking steps at this point that could prejudice the outcome of the negotiations, Rice said after meeting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June.
Hamas and Egypt to discuss truce, prisoner swap deal By Nidal al-Mughrabi Tue Jul 8, 12:15 PM ET
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas leaders plan to hold talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on the future of a ceasefire with Israel that has been marred by violations since it began nearly three weeks ago. In the latest challenge to the Egyptian-brokered truce, militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired two mortar bombs at Israel on Tuesday, causing no casualties, the Israeli military said.
Similar attacks since the truce went into effect have led Israel to close crossings with Gaza that had been reopened under the truce deal to the limited entry of goods into the territory.Officials in Gaza familiar with the Egyptian-Hamas dialogue said the talks would get under way on Wednesday.We will evaluate the Israeli commitment. They are opening the crossings partially and that was against the agreement, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, told reporters.
Zahar said he and other Hamas officials would urge Egypt to press Israel to stop the repeated closures.Hamas has called on all militant groups in Gaza to abide by the truce, but some factions have vowed to respond militarily to Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, which is not covered by the truce.In response to mortar bomb attacks on Monday, Israel said it would keep Gaza crossings closed on Tuesday, but reversed the decision after a special request by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the Israeli Defence Ministry said.Though Israel has responded to cross-border rocket attacks by frequently closing Gaza's goods crossings, records show up to a 44 percent increase in total goods imports in recent weeks.This includes a nearly 30 percent rise in petrol supplies and a 40 percent increase in diesel imports, the records show.Zahar said the discussions also would include prospects for a prisoner swap with Israel.Gaza militants have been holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for the past two years and hope to trade him for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.Accusing Israel of a lack of commitment to the truce, Hamas last week declared talks on an exchange suspended. Zahar said Egyptian mediators would brief the group on Israel's position.He voiced few hopes that Egypt could succeed in efforts to reconcile between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in fighting a year ago.(Editing by Diana Abdallah)
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
ARABS CHAT
Hamas and Egypt to discuss truce, prisoner swap deal By Nidal al-Mughrabi JULY 8,08
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas leaders plan to hold talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on the future of a ceasefire with Israel that has been marred by violations since it began nearly three weeks ago. In the latest challenge to the Egyptian-brokered truce, militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired two mortar bombs at Israel on Tuesday, causing no casualties, the Israeli military said.
Similar attacks since the truce went into effect have led Israel to close crossings with Gaza that had been reopened under the truce deal to the limited entry of goods into the territory.Officials in Gaza familiar with the Egyptian-Hamas dialogue said the talks would get under way on Wednesday.We will evaluate the Israeli commitment. They are opening the crossings partially and that was against the agreement, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, told reporters.
Zahar said he and other Hamas officials would urge Egypt to press Israel to stop the repeated closures.Hamas has called on all militant groups in Gaza to abide by the truce, but some factions have vowed to respond militarily to Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, which is not covered by the truce.In response to mortar bomb attacks on Monday, Israel said it would keep Gaza crossings closed on Tuesday, but reversed the decision after a special request by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the Israeli Defence Ministry said.Though Israel has responded to cross-border rocket attacks by frequently closing Gaza's goods crossings, records show up to a 44 percent increase in total goods imports in recent weeks.This includes a nearly 30 percent rise in petrol supplies and a 40 percent increase in diesel imports, the records show.Zahar said the discussions also would include prospects for a prisoner swap with Israel.Gaza militants have been holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for the past two years and hope to trade him for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.Accusing Israel of a lack of commitment to the truce, Hamas last week declared talks on an exchange suspended. Zahar said Egyptian mediators would brief the group on Israel's position.He voiced few hopes that Egypt could succeed in efforts to reconcile between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in fighting a year ago.(Editing by Diana Abdallah)
Israel orders Hamas-linked shopping mall closed JULY 8,08
NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) - The Israeli army on Tuesday ordered the closure of a shopping mall in the West Bank, saying the company that runs it is linked to Hamas, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said. Computers, furniture and documents were seized in the pre-dawn raid on Al-I'itiman Investment Co in the city of Nablus's only mall, with soldiers posting a closure notice.After August 15, anyone running a store in the five-storey mall which has dozens of shops could face five years in jail, the order reads.
A military spokesman said the army was acting against charitable organisations acting on behalf of Hamas.He charged that the organisations sought to strengthen the Islamist movement, to encourage terrorist attacks against Israel, and to give financial support to terrorism infrastructure.Directors of Al-I'itiman were not available for comment on the accusations.Nablus mayor Jamal Muheissen slammed the closure, saying the mall belongs to the people and not to Hamas, and it operates in accordance with Palestinian Authority regulations.Many of the shopkeepers staged a march in Nablus to protest the action.But an Israeli security source claimed that the profits generated by these boutiques are used to sponsor terrorism.Soldiers also searched the offices of several charitable organisations in the Nablus area, Palestinian officials said.And they searched the municipal offices of the West Bank town of El-Bireh, whose council is controlled by Hamas, seizing computers and documents, Palestinian security sources said.
Israel, like the European Union and the United States, blacklists Hamas as a terrorist organisation despite its upset victory in 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections.On Monday, troops searched the offices of the Al-Tadamon (Solidarity) charitable association in Nablus, confiscating documents and computers before posting a sign stating the facilities were part of terrorist infrastructure.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the army has decided to intensify its campaign against charities and other civil associations linked to Hamas, an Islamist movement that seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007.Earlier this year the army shut down several warehouses and offices of the Islamic Charity Movement and the Islamic Youth Association in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, saying they were used to funnel funds to Hamas's military wing.
Israel reopens Gaza border, mortar fire continues By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer JULY 8,08
JERUSALEM - Israel agreed to an Egyptian request and opened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday despite Palestinian mortar fire that violated a shaky three-week-old truce. Egypt's unusual request appeared to be an attempt to prod forward the truce deal, which was designed in part to ease Israel's crushing blockade of the coastal strip.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the request by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who mediated the truce, Israeli defense officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss communications between the two men.Barak's accession to the Egyptian request suggests Israel might be open to relaxing its response to the occasional attacks that have persisted since the truce took effect. There have been no serious injuries.Hours after the crossings opened at noon, militants fired another shell into Israel, causing no casualties or damage, the Israeli military said. No Palestinian group immediately claimed responsibility. Israel kept the crossings open. Earlier, two mortars exploded near the Sufa crossing, where Israel allows transfer of humanitarian supplies into Gaza. One fell just inside Gaza and the other in Israel, the military said.In all, 15 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza, the latest a mortar shell fired on Monday. Israel has responded automatically by snapping shut the crossings, which have been closed about half of the time since the truce took effect June 19.
Under the first phase of the cease-fire, Gaza militants were to halt their assaults on southern Israel, and Israel was to gradually allow more supplies to enter impoverished Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.For months, the crossings have been cracked open only for humanitarian shipments, in an effort to pressure militants to stop barraging southern Israel with rockets and mortars. So far the truce has not eased conditions in Gaza because of the frequent closures.Should the truce take root, its final stage calls for stepped-up talks on opening a major Gaza border passage with Egypt and releasing an Israeli soldier Hamas has held for two years. Hamas officials were headed to Cairo on Tuesday to discuss opening the Gaza-Egypt passage.In Cairo, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said his group will resume talks with Egyptian mediators on the truce with Israel and a possible prisoner swap. He said talks will also address the fate of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, whom Hamas wants to trade for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.Egypt mediated the truce because Israel has no contacts with Hamas, which does not recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.
In related news, an explosion went off early Tuesday at a Hamas military training camp in Gaza, killing two members of the Islamic militant group and wounding three, both health and Hamas officials said.Hamas' military wing said in a statement that the two were killed while carrying out a holy mission, suggesting explosives were mishandled and went off prematurely.The Israeli military said it was not involved.While trying to cement a truce with militants in Gaza, Israel is also cracking down on the movement's operations in the West Bank.For a second straight day Tuesday, the Israeli military ordered the shutdown of facilities affiliated with an Islamic charity in the West Bank town of Nablus. The military accused the Islamic Charity Movement of being a front for Hamas.
There was no immediate comment from the charity.
Hamas violently wrested control of the Gaza Strip a year ago, and Israel doesn't want it to also take over the West Bank. In recent months it has gone after West Bank charities, moneychangers, media and schools with suspected ties to militants. Elsewhere in the West Bank, the Israeli military lifted a two-day curfew that confined residents of a Palestinian village to their homes and barred movement in and out of the community. The army imposed the curfew on Naalin on Sunday after violent protests against Israel's West Bank separation barrier. The barrier, designed to keep Palestinian attackers out of Israel, dips into the West Bank at points and is designed to cut through village land. Officials at local hospitals said two people were hospitalized during the unrest. One man was shot in the leg and another in the stomach, hospital officials said. Maj. Avital Leibovich, an army spokeswoman, said soldiers opened fire overnight when dozens of people staged a violent riot against the barrier, throwing rocks at soldiers. She said the soldiers attempted to disperse the crowd, then opened fire at three protest leaders, hitting them in the legs. The curfew was lifted after army commanders met with local village leaders, who promised future protests would be peaceful, an army statement said. Palestinians denied they had reached an agreement with the military. In Syria, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ended a visit without meeting officials from Hamas. Abbas on Tuesday called on Palestinian factions to take part in talks to restore unity, and he did meet with Hamas allies in Islamic Jihad during his three-day visit. But Abbas has said he will not talk to Hamas until it gives up power in Gaza.
Tiff over term could hurt Palestinian president By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 8, 5:38 AM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank - A debate over when Mahmoud Abbas' term expires is threatening the Palestinian president's ability to head off a permanent split between Gaza and the West Bank — and Washington's goal of forging some sort of Mideast peace deal by year's end. Gaza's Hamas rulers say their recognition of Abbas' presidency — a key ingredient for any future reconciliation — will end in six months. After that, they say, Abbas' term ends and they plan to hold elections for a new leader.Abbas aides maintain he can stay in office until 2010.The debate is not just about fine print. The Hamas deadline coincides with President Bush's target date for at least the outline of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Few expect Bush's Mideast peace initiative to bear fruit unless Abbas can restore his rule in Gaza — an outcome that would probably require renewed deal making with Hamas.Abbas has been in control of only the West Bank since Hamas seized Gaza by force a year ago, and he'll probably keep his truncated job no matter what Hamas decides. But failure to lead his people to independence, along with a decision by Hamas to withdraw its recognition, would further weaken an already unpopular president and cement the rift between Hamas and Abbas' pragmatic Fatah movement.If the year ends without a peace deal, as people were promised, then Abbas and the entire Palestinian Authority, which was established to bring about this solution, would come under a big question mark, said political analyst Ali Jerbawi.
The dispute stems from conflicting interpretations of legislation.
Abbas was elected president in January 2005, winning 62 percent of the vote in the West Bank and Gaza. A year later, Hamas defeated Fatah by a landslide in parliamentary elections. The Basic Law, a forerunner to a Palestinian constitution, says both president and parliament are elected to four-year terms.Before Hamas was elected, parliament passed a law stipulating that future presidential and parliamentary elections be held simultaneously. However, the subsequent Hamas-controlled parliament never amended the Basic Law to include this new clause. The upshot: Fatah believes Abbas has the right to stay in office an extra year.Until now, Hamas has not challenged Abbas' position as president — even allowing him to negotiate peace with Israel.But in recent days, Hamas officials have said publicly that they consider Abbas' term over in January. After that, they plan to install Deputy Parliament Speaker Ahmed Bahar as interim president for 60 days before calling presidential elections, said Faraj al-Ghoul, a Hamas legislator in Gaza.Hamas is determined to fulfill the law, added Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.Such elections would presumably only be held in Gaza, without Fatah participation, because Abbas would refuse to go along.The Hamas threat may be part of an attempt by the group to pressure Abbas into negotiating a power-sharing deal. Abbas has repeatedly said he will not talk to Hamas until it gives up power in Gaza. Last month, he expressed a willingness to resume dialogue, though he has been vague about whether his preconditions remain.
Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said he is not surprised by Hamas' threats, saying they are consistent with their coup in Gaza. He said the election law is clear that presidential and legislative elections must be held together.In recent weeks, Abbas aides have hinted that the Palestinian leader might resign by the fall if negotiations with Israel don't move forward. Since peace talks were launched at a U.S.-hosted conference last November, the sides have reported no breakthroughs.Bush called Abbas last week, promising to become more engaged if asked. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to host the two negotiating teams three times by the end of the year.If there's no peace deal, it's unlikely Abbas would call elections anytime soon. He'd have nothing to run on as a candidate, and he has no apparent successor who could easily defeat a Hamas candidate. As the default option, Abbas would remain in office but in a diminished role with continued Western support.
Israel police to quiz Olmert again over graft scandal Tue Jul 8, 5:06 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police said on Tuesday they will question Prime Minister Ehud Olmert again this week over a corruption scandal that has rocked his government and which could lead to early elections. Anti-fraud squad officers will question Olmert on Friday for the third time over suspicions he had unlawfully taken cash-stuffed envelopes from US financier Morris Talansky before becoming premier in 2006, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told AFP.The interview will be held at Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem, he said.The graft investigation, the fourth to embroil the premier, led to a chorus of calls for Olmert's resignation from the opposition and from coalition members who threatened to topple his government.Olmert, who has denied any wrongdoing and refused to step down, weathered the political turmoil after agreeing to hold a primary vote in September to elect a new leader of his centrist Kadima party.The centre-left Labour party, Olmert's key coalition partner, has said it will quit the coalition if the premier is not replaced.Talansky testified in May that he had given Olmert at least 150,000 dollars in the 14 years to 2006, some of which might have been used to fund Olmert's taste for luxury goods.Olmert's lawyers are to cross-examine Talansky on July 17.
Assad wants French role in Syria-Israel talks Tue Jul 8, 4:38 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, expected in Paris this weekend, has welcomed a break in France's policy toward Damascus and invited Paris to play a role in possible direct negotiations with Israel. In an interview published in French newspaper Le Figaro Tuesday, Assad said: We are witnessing a break between the current policy of France and the policy of the past.
This new policy is more realistic and better suited to the interests of both our countries. It is a solid basis to renew healthy relations.French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited Assad along with some 40 foreign leaders for the launch Sunday of a new Union for the Mediterranean, aimed at boosting cooperation between European Union and southern Mediterranean states.Sarkozy, who decided to renew high-level contacts with Damascus following the breakthrough in Lebanon's drawn-out political crisis, is to meet Assad in Paris on July 12. The Syrian leader will stay on for France's Bastille Day ceremonies on July 14.Former president Jacques Chirac cut off official contacts with Syria following the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, who was a personal friend, in a February 2005 bombing in which Syria has been implicated.This visit is for me a historic visit: an opening up to France and to Europe, Assad told Le Figaro.Asked about the resumption of indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel under Turkish auspices, he said it was natural that there should be a lack of trust, considering the stymied peace process.The two countries have been officially at war since 1948, although armistice and ceasefire agreements have been signed in the interim.
For the moment the two parties are testing their intentions... We now need to find a common basis to start direct negotiations, Assad said.Concerning the international sponsorship of such talks, he said he was counting on the next American president, saying that the United States' role was essential.But Assad also invited the French president to get directly involved.My impression is that (Sarkozy) is enthusiastic about these negotiations and wants France to play a direct role, Assad declared. If he confirms it to me, I will immediately invite him to support directly this peace process.
Turning to Lebanon, Assad said preparations were under way to organise a meeting in Paris with President Michel Sleiman. I've known President Sleiman for about 10 years ... our relations are good, he said.Asked about the international tribunal seeking those responsible for Hariri's death, the Syrian president stressed that his country was cooperating and would continue to do so.On the question of human rights in his country, Assad said: We do not say that we are a perfect democratic country. We say that we are taking this road and it is a long road that can last for one or several years.Calling on Europe to back peace and development in Syria, Assad said: This is the role that we ask Europe to play, and not to give us lessons in morality.
Nearly billion dollars in direct aid disbursed to Palestinians in six months Tue Jul 8, 12:57 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - The international community has paid out nearly a billion dollars in direct aid to the Palestinians in six months, officials of the International Donors' Conference for the Palestinian State said here late Monday, while hitting out at Israeli restrictions on movement by Palestinians. The chair and the co-chairs of the Paris conference, which last December came up with pledges of donations totalling 7.7 billion dollars over three years, strongly welcomed the process of disbursing the funds.The international community has paid out more than 920 million dollars in six months in direct budgetary support and signed for one billion dollars of bilateral agreements with the Palestinian Authority for development projects, according to a communique from the chair and co-chairs released by the French foreign ministry.
This unprecedented level and rapid disbursement of contributions demonstrates the strong support of the international community to the Palestinian government, said the statement by Quartet special Middle East envoy Tony Blair, European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and a Norwegian representative who met at the French foreign ministry.The priority over the coming months will be to secure contributions of Arab League members. These will be crucial to finance the budgetary gap and to support the Palestinian institutions, it went on.The chair and co-chairs said it was essential that the Palestinian government maintains a rigorous fiscal policy in relation with the future disposable revenues and contributions.But restrictions by the Government of Israel on Palestinian movement and access continue to weigh heavily on the economic outlook.
Without a significant lifting of such barriers in the West Bank, and a relaxation of the restrictions on humanitarian and commercial flows to the Gaza Strip, there is a much-reduced prospect for private sector recovery, public and private investment programmes will continue to be delayed, and consequently any economic recovery will continue to be inhibited.The Paris conference was aimed at boosting still fragile hopes for peace launched at the latest Palestinian-Israeli peace process in Annapolis, Maryland in late November 2007, aimed at working for a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.
Palestinians say Israel's barrier stealing land By Rebecca Harrison Mon Jul 7, 6:22 PM ET
BILIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian farmer Suleiman Hussein peers through the electrified barbed wire fence that snakes around three sides of his home and points to the olive trees he once tended. It makes me feel sick, he mutters, retreating as a bulldozer rumbles past on the other side of Israel's West Bank barrier, about 25 meters (yards) from Hussein's home near the village of Bilin, its driver checking for holes or tunnels.On July 9, 2004, the World Court in The Hague ruled that Israel's construction of its proposed 720-km (430-mile) barrier on occupied Palestinian land was illegal.The United Nations says Israel has ignored that ruling. So does Hussein.Israel began building the section of the barricade that virtually encircles his modest concrete home, separating it from his family farmland, three and a half years ago, he says.It has not been moved, despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling last September that part of it should be re-routed to circumvent agricultural land belonging to residents of Bilin, which lies about 25 km (15 miles) east of Tel Aviv.
Israel argues the barrier, a mix of wire fence and concrete walls, keeps suicide bombers out of its cities. This fence saves lives, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said.Palestinians call it a land grab which loops around Jewish settlements and slices through swathes of Palestinian farmland.At Bilin, it curves 3 km (2 miles) inside the Green Line, established by a 1949 ceasefire, which divides Israel and the West Bank -- it does so to ensure Jewish settlements, including Modiin Illit, lie on the Israeli side of the barrier.This is not about a wall, it's about land, said Hussein, 76, angrily jabbing his finger toward the barrier. They say it's about security, but are my olives and goats really a security threat? They just want to steal our land.
PROTESTS
Israeli security forces and protesters, including left-wing Israelis and pro-Palestinian activists from abroad, square off in weekly confrontations in Bilin. Demonstrators hurl rocks and soldiers fire tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.Last week, clashes erupted outside Hussein's house. A pile of tear gas canisters lay in his garden and the soil was black where soldiers razed several trees.Gas bomb, says his granddaughter Mayadah, a toddler, pointing at one. Who fired it? Army, she replies.
Protesters have in recent months taken their fight to the nearby town of Nilin, hoping to disrupt construction of another section of the barrier. The army has kept the town under curfew for four days since those protests turned violent.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hopes the West Bank will form the main part of a future state. But activists say the barrier and dozens of fortified Jewish settlements are carving it into scattered bantustans, like areas set aside for blacks in apartheid South Africa, and undermining hopes for peace.What we are seeing on the ground is ghettos for the Palestinian people, said Jamal Juma, campaign coordinator for the Stop the Wall group. They are making peace impossible.(Additional reporting by Hamuda Hassan; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Israel: Prisoner swap deal signed with Hezbollah By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 7, 5:02 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel's military said it began digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters Monday after the government struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five living prisoners and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006. Israel said in a statement that the swap agreement was signed in the presence of a U.N. representative. Implementation of the deal depends on carrying out further steps, the statement said without providing specifics.
Hezbollah officials refused to comment.
Israel approved the swap June 29. It will hand over Samir Kantar, serving multiple life terms for a 1979 attack in Israel's north, as well as four Hezbollah prisoners and dozens of bodies of fighters. In return, Israel is to receive two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid that set off a fierce 34-day war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the two soldiers dead before his Cabinet approved the deal, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has not allowed Red Cross visits or given any sign that the two are alive, called the declaration speculation.Israeli military officials said the exchange was likely to take place sometime during the four days beginning Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because final arrangements had not been made.
Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for one of the most gruesome attacks in Israeli history. He was convicted of shooting a policeman and then killing an Israeli man in front of his 4-year-old daughter before beating the girl to death. Kantar denied killing the girl.On Monday, the family of the police officer appealed to Israel's Supreme Court to block the exchange.Don't release Kantar. He is a despicable mass murderer, and Israel will be sorry in the end, the slain officer's daughter, Keren Shahar, told reporters.
The court is not expected to intervene in the deal.
The military confirmed that the process of exhuming bodies had begun at the Amiad cemetery for enemy combatants, not far from the Israel-Lebanon border. It was declared a closed military zone to prevent reporters from witnessing the process. The military rabbinate called up reservists to help with identifying the bodies before the exchange.Channel 10 TV showed video of about a dozen workers in white protective suits digging in the cemetery, before a soldier put his hand in front of the camera lens and stopped the filming.In another aspect of the agreement, mediated by a U.N.-appointed German official, Hezbollah has compiled a report on the fate of Ron Arad, an Israeli airman captured alive after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel was in Europe on Monday to pick up the report, the military officials said.However, in announcing the signing of the swap agreement, government spokesman Mark Regev added, so far we have not received the report concerning the fate of our missing navigator, Ron Arad. When that report is received, we will have discussions inside the government on how to move forward.
Regev would not say where the signing took place.
In exchange for the report on Arad, Israel is to provide information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982.Iran, which supports Hezbollah, claims the officials were kidnapped by Lebanese militiamen allied with Israel and delivered to Israeli troops. Israel has long denied holding them, and Samir Geagea, former head of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, has said militiamen killed them. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, taking over large areas as part of a military sweep to expel Palestinian guerrillas.
Victims of attacks in Israel sue Lebanese banks Mon Jul 7, 4:45 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Victims of bombings and rocket attacks in Israel sued several Lebanese banks on Monday for helping fund Hezbollah militants who the lawsuit said orchestrated the attacks.
The lawsuit seeks damages from the banks for more than 50 Israeli citizens injured or relatives of those killed by missile attacks fired from Lebanon's southern border at Israeli targets during July and August, 2006, the suit said.It said the banks provided services to the Islamic Resistance Support Organization (IRSO), which the lawsuit accused of raising funds for terrorist activities for Hezbollah as well as dealing with various U.S. banks.The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said the Lebanese banks processed funds and cleared U.S. dollars for the IRSO's benefit through the United States and that the IRSO's activities had violated international as well as U.S. federal and state laws.Through dealing with the IRSO, the banks provided Hezbollah with regular, systematic and unfettered access to U.S. currency, thus enabling Hezbollah to rapidly access funds to purchase missiles and weapons that could terrorize civilians.Attacks cited in the suit include two from 2006 -- a July 13 missile attack on the Israeli city of Safed and a July 16 missile that struck the Haifa Train Depot.
The named banks, including Lebanon's Bank of Beirut, Fransabank, BLC Bank, Banque Libano-Francaise, Middle East Africa Bank, violated the Alien Tort Claims Act, the suit said.
It said Fransabank, BLC Bank and the Bank of Beirut also provided services to Lebanon's television network al-Manar.The U.S. government considers Hezbollah and al-Manar terrorist organizations.
Representatives for the banks could not be immediately reached for comment.(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by David Wiessler)
Israeli demo calls for razing of bulldozer attacker's home Sun Jul 6, 12:26 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Around 30 right-wing Israelis staged a demonstration at the east Jerusalem home of a Palestinian man who killed three people in a bulldozer rampage last week to demand its destruction. Israeli police said meanwhile that the man had acted alone and had no links to any Palestinian organisation.Right here, right now, destroy this house, the protestors chanted as they gathered in the Arab village of Sur Baher outside the house of Hossam Dwayyat, 30, who was shot dead Wednesday after ploughing through a busy Jerusalem street.Another 45 people were wounded in the attack in which Dwayyat smashed an earthmover into two buses, overturning one, and crushed several cars.The protest in occupied east Jerusalem was held without incident as police deployed in force around the home, a police official said.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that Dwayyat acted alone.According to the investigation, he acted alone, Rosenfeld said.He also ruled out that Dwayyat was on drugs when he went on the rampage.
Israeli authorities, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have mulled destroying Dwayyat's house, even though a previous military inquiry found the practice was ineffective in deterring militant attacks.On Friday, Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army to prepare to raze the house but it was not clear if the order had been actually given.Olmert has threatened harsh measures against Palestinians in the occupied and annexed eastern part of the city who carried out attacks, saying If we need to destroy houses, we will destroy houses.Attorney General Menahem Mazuz said on Thursday that demolishing homes in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East war, would not be illegal but would carry unspecified problems.According to Haaretz newspaper, the authorities could wall up Dwayyat's room rather than destroy the whole family home.Israeli politicians and media have characterised Dwayyat as a terrorist, but his family denies he had any political ties and has suggested he had become mentally unbalanced.Some 250,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem. While they are not Israeli citizens, they have Israel identity cards, have freedom of movement around the country and receive social welfare benefits.
Israeli curfew in West Bank village over barrier protests Sun Jul 6, 11:38 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel enforced a curfew in the West Bank village of Nilin on Sunday after dozens of people were wounded in weeks of protests against a proposed extension of its controversial separation barrier. Since this morning there has been a curfew in Nilin due to the significant rise in violence near the Palestinian village, a military spokesman said. For over two months violent riots have taken place in Nilin.The spokesman added that there was no time limit on the curfew and that it would remain in effect until the violence stopped.Dozens of demonstrators have been wounded during protests in recent weeks, and on Sunday alone 13 Palestinians were treated for rubber bullet wounds and dozens more for tear gas inhalation, according to local medics.During the last two months at least 10 Israelis have been wounded, including three soldiers, five border policemen, and two maintenance workers, and several vehicles have been damaged by rocks, the army said.
Israeli troops on Sunday placed concrete blocks and signs reading closed military zone across roads leading into town and prevented local reporters and photographers from entering.The protests have been aimed at a proposed extension of Israel's controversial separation barrier, which villagers say will rob them of some 2500 dunams (250 hectares) of land near the proposed route.The demonstrations have been modelled on those of the nearby village of Bilin, where residents have protested the barrier on a weekly basis for over two years and in September won a court injunction against its proposed route.Israel says the 650-kilometre (405-mile) barrier is necessary to protect it from terrorist attacks. The Palestinians call it an apartheid wall and complain that large chunks of the West Bank are cut off as a result.In 2004 the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling declaring parts of the barrier illegal because they were built inside the occupied West Bank, but Israel has pressed ahead with its construction.
Olmert to meet Abbas at Paris conference: Israel Sun Jul 6, 5:10 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at an international conference in Paris later this month, a senior Israeli official told AFP on Sunday. The two are expected to attend a July 13 summit hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to launch a new Mediterranean Union aimed at boosting cooperation between the European Union and north African and Middle Eastern states.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two leaders would hold one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the meeting.Olmert, Abbas and their respective negotiating teams have met regularly since a US-hosted conference last November formally relaunched the Middle East peace process after a near seven-year hiatus.Both leaders, along with US President George W. Bush, have vowed to reach a comprehensive agreement resolving the decades-old conflict by 2009, but the negotiations have so far shown little sign of progress.
Israel successfully tests missile interceptor: report Sun Jul 6, 3:34 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday.
The Iron Dome system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas.Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning.In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system, which is being developed under contract by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer.
Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from both short-range missiles fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria.Since the outbreak of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2000 Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip have come under frequent rocket and mortar attack, leaving them in a constant state of fear.The attacks have slowed since a truce between Israel and Hamas came into force on June 19, but the fragile Egyptian-brokered agreement has been tested by occasional rockets and mortar rounds fired by smaller armed groups.Israel also came under sustained attack during its 2006 war with Hezbollah, when more than 4,000 Katyusha rockets were launched at northern Israel in 34 days, sending hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing south.
Sarkozy vows to press Syria to help free Israeli soldier hostage Fri Jul 4, 5:18 PM ET
PARIS (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday he would press his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad to use all the power of his country to free a French-Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants. Sarkozy has invited Assad to Paris along with some 40 foreign leaders for a summit on July 13 to launch a new Mediterranean Union, aimed at boosting cooperation between European Union and north African and Middle Eastern rim states.I will have the opportunity, when I see ... President Bashar Al-Assad, to ask him to use all Syria's power so that the soldier (Gilad) Shalit is freed, said Sarkozy, who is to meet separately with Assad on the eve of the summit.He made his comments in a speech welcoming the Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a joint French national who was released this week after six years as a hostage of rebels in the Colombian jungle.Shalit was seized by militants in Gaza in June 2006.
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas leaders plan to hold talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on the future of a ceasefire with Israel that has been marred by violations since it began nearly three weeks ago. In the latest challenge to the Egyptian-brokered truce, militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired two mortar bombs at Israel on Tuesday, causing no casualties, the Israeli military said.
Similar attacks since the truce went into effect have led Israel to close crossings with Gaza that had been reopened under the truce deal to the limited entry of goods into the territory.Officials in Gaza familiar with the Egyptian-Hamas dialogue said the talks would get under way on Wednesday.We will evaluate the Israeli commitment. They are opening the crossings partially and that was against the agreement, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, told reporters.
Zahar said he and other Hamas officials would urge Egypt to press Israel to stop the repeated closures.Hamas has called on all militant groups in Gaza to abide by the truce, but some factions have vowed to respond militarily to Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, which is not covered by the truce.In response to mortar bomb attacks on Monday, Israel said it would keep Gaza crossings closed on Tuesday, but reversed the decision after a special request by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the Israeli Defence Ministry said.Though Israel has responded to cross-border rocket attacks by frequently closing Gaza's goods crossings, records show up to a 44 percent increase in total goods imports in recent weeks.This includes a nearly 30 percent rise in petrol supplies and a 40 percent increase in diesel imports, the records show.Zahar said the discussions also would include prospects for a prisoner swap with Israel.Gaza militants have been holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for the past two years and hope to trade him for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.Accusing Israel of a lack of commitment to the truce, Hamas last week declared talks on an exchange suspended. Zahar said Egyptian mediators would brief the group on Israel's position.He voiced few hopes that Egypt could succeed in efforts to reconcile between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in fighting a year ago.(Editing by Diana Abdallah)
Israel orders Hamas-linked shopping mall closed JULY 8,08
NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) - The Israeli army on Tuesday ordered the closure of a shopping mall in the West Bank, saying the company that runs it is linked to Hamas, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said. Computers, furniture and documents were seized in the pre-dawn raid on Al-I'itiman Investment Co in the city of Nablus's only mall, with soldiers posting a closure notice.After August 15, anyone running a store in the five-storey mall which has dozens of shops could face five years in jail, the order reads.
A military spokesman said the army was acting against charitable organisations acting on behalf of Hamas.He charged that the organisations sought to strengthen the Islamist movement, to encourage terrorist attacks against Israel, and to give financial support to terrorism infrastructure.Directors of Al-I'itiman were not available for comment on the accusations.Nablus mayor Jamal Muheissen slammed the closure, saying the mall belongs to the people and not to Hamas, and it operates in accordance with Palestinian Authority regulations.Many of the shopkeepers staged a march in Nablus to protest the action.But an Israeli security source claimed that the profits generated by these boutiques are used to sponsor terrorism.Soldiers also searched the offices of several charitable organisations in the Nablus area, Palestinian officials said.And they searched the municipal offices of the West Bank town of El-Bireh, whose council is controlled by Hamas, seizing computers and documents, Palestinian security sources said.
Israel, like the European Union and the United States, blacklists Hamas as a terrorist organisation despite its upset victory in 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections.On Monday, troops searched the offices of the Al-Tadamon (Solidarity) charitable association in Nablus, confiscating documents and computers before posting a sign stating the facilities were part of terrorist infrastructure.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the army has decided to intensify its campaign against charities and other civil associations linked to Hamas, an Islamist movement that seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007.Earlier this year the army shut down several warehouses and offices of the Islamic Charity Movement and the Islamic Youth Association in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, saying they were used to funnel funds to Hamas's military wing.
Israel reopens Gaza border, mortar fire continues By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer JULY 8,08
JERUSALEM - Israel agreed to an Egyptian request and opened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday despite Palestinian mortar fire that violated a shaky three-week-old truce. Egypt's unusual request appeared to be an attempt to prod forward the truce deal, which was designed in part to ease Israel's crushing blockade of the coastal strip.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the request by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who mediated the truce, Israeli defense officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss communications between the two men.Barak's accession to the Egyptian request suggests Israel might be open to relaxing its response to the occasional attacks that have persisted since the truce took effect. There have been no serious injuries.Hours after the crossings opened at noon, militants fired another shell into Israel, causing no casualties or damage, the Israeli military said. No Palestinian group immediately claimed responsibility. Israel kept the crossings open. Earlier, two mortars exploded near the Sufa crossing, where Israel allows transfer of humanitarian supplies into Gaza. One fell just inside Gaza and the other in Israel, the military said.In all, 15 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza, the latest a mortar shell fired on Monday. Israel has responded automatically by snapping shut the crossings, which have been closed about half of the time since the truce took effect June 19.
Under the first phase of the cease-fire, Gaza militants were to halt their assaults on southern Israel, and Israel was to gradually allow more supplies to enter impoverished Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.For months, the crossings have been cracked open only for humanitarian shipments, in an effort to pressure militants to stop barraging southern Israel with rockets and mortars. So far the truce has not eased conditions in Gaza because of the frequent closures.Should the truce take root, its final stage calls for stepped-up talks on opening a major Gaza border passage with Egypt and releasing an Israeli soldier Hamas has held for two years. Hamas officials were headed to Cairo on Tuesday to discuss opening the Gaza-Egypt passage.In Cairo, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said his group will resume talks with Egyptian mediators on the truce with Israel and a possible prisoner swap. He said talks will also address the fate of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, whom Hamas wants to trade for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.Egypt mediated the truce because Israel has no contacts with Hamas, which does not recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.
In related news, an explosion went off early Tuesday at a Hamas military training camp in Gaza, killing two members of the Islamic militant group and wounding three, both health and Hamas officials said.Hamas' military wing said in a statement that the two were killed while carrying out a holy mission, suggesting explosives were mishandled and went off prematurely.The Israeli military said it was not involved.While trying to cement a truce with militants in Gaza, Israel is also cracking down on the movement's operations in the West Bank.For a second straight day Tuesday, the Israeli military ordered the shutdown of facilities affiliated with an Islamic charity in the West Bank town of Nablus. The military accused the Islamic Charity Movement of being a front for Hamas.
There was no immediate comment from the charity.
Hamas violently wrested control of the Gaza Strip a year ago, and Israel doesn't want it to also take over the West Bank. In recent months it has gone after West Bank charities, moneychangers, media and schools with suspected ties to militants. Elsewhere in the West Bank, the Israeli military lifted a two-day curfew that confined residents of a Palestinian village to their homes and barred movement in and out of the community. The army imposed the curfew on Naalin on Sunday after violent protests against Israel's West Bank separation barrier. The barrier, designed to keep Palestinian attackers out of Israel, dips into the West Bank at points and is designed to cut through village land. Officials at local hospitals said two people were hospitalized during the unrest. One man was shot in the leg and another in the stomach, hospital officials said. Maj. Avital Leibovich, an army spokeswoman, said soldiers opened fire overnight when dozens of people staged a violent riot against the barrier, throwing rocks at soldiers. She said the soldiers attempted to disperse the crowd, then opened fire at three protest leaders, hitting them in the legs. The curfew was lifted after army commanders met with local village leaders, who promised future protests would be peaceful, an army statement said. Palestinians denied they had reached an agreement with the military. In Syria, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ended a visit without meeting officials from Hamas. Abbas on Tuesday called on Palestinian factions to take part in talks to restore unity, and he did meet with Hamas allies in Islamic Jihad during his three-day visit. But Abbas has said he will not talk to Hamas until it gives up power in Gaza.
Tiff over term could hurt Palestinian president By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 8, 5:38 AM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank - A debate over when Mahmoud Abbas' term expires is threatening the Palestinian president's ability to head off a permanent split between Gaza and the West Bank — and Washington's goal of forging some sort of Mideast peace deal by year's end. Gaza's Hamas rulers say their recognition of Abbas' presidency — a key ingredient for any future reconciliation — will end in six months. After that, they say, Abbas' term ends and they plan to hold elections for a new leader.Abbas aides maintain he can stay in office until 2010.The debate is not just about fine print. The Hamas deadline coincides with President Bush's target date for at least the outline of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Few expect Bush's Mideast peace initiative to bear fruit unless Abbas can restore his rule in Gaza — an outcome that would probably require renewed deal making with Hamas.Abbas has been in control of only the West Bank since Hamas seized Gaza by force a year ago, and he'll probably keep his truncated job no matter what Hamas decides. But failure to lead his people to independence, along with a decision by Hamas to withdraw its recognition, would further weaken an already unpopular president and cement the rift between Hamas and Abbas' pragmatic Fatah movement.If the year ends without a peace deal, as people were promised, then Abbas and the entire Palestinian Authority, which was established to bring about this solution, would come under a big question mark, said political analyst Ali Jerbawi.
The dispute stems from conflicting interpretations of legislation.
Abbas was elected president in January 2005, winning 62 percent of the vote in the West Bank and Gaza. A year later, Hamas defeated Fatah by a landslide in parliamentary elections. The Basic Law, a forerunner to a Palestinian constitution, says both president and parliament are elected to four-year terms.Before Hamas was elected, parliament passed a law stipulating that future presidential and parliamentary elections be held simultaneously. However, the subsequent Hamas-controlled parliament never amended the Basic Law to include this new clause. The upshot: Fatah believes Abbas has the right to stay in office an extra year.Until now, Hamas has not challenged Abbas' position as president — even allowing him to negotiate peace with Israel.But in recent days, Hamas officials have said publicly that they consider Abbas' term over in January. After that, they plan to install Deputy Parliament Speaker Ahmed Bahar as interim president for 60 days before calling presidential elections, said Faraj al-Ghoul, a Hamas legislator in Gaza.Hamas is determined to fulfill the law, added Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.Such elections would presumably only be held in Gaza, without Fatah participation, because Abbas would refuse to go along.The Hamas threat may be part of an attempt by the group to pressure Abbas into negotiating a power-sharing deal. Abbas has repeatedly said he will not talk to Hamas until it gives up power in Gaza. Last month, he expressed a willingness to resume dialogue, though he has been vague about whether his preconditions remain.
Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said he is not surprised by Hamas' threats, saying they are consistent with their coup in Gaza. He said the election law is clear that presidential and legislative elections must be held together.In recent weeks, Abbas aides have hinted that the Palestinian leader might resign by the fall if negotiations with Israel don't move forward. Since peace talks were launched at a U.S.-hosted conference last November, the sides have reported no breakthroughs.Bush called Abbas last week, promising to become more engaged if asked. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to host the two negotiating teams three times by the end of the year.If there's no peace deal, it's unlikely Abbas would call elections anytime soon. He'd have nothing to run on as a candidate, and he has no apparent successor who could easily defeat a Hamas candidate. As the default option, Abbas would remain in office but in a diminished role with continued Western support.
Israel police to quiz Olmert again over graft scandal Tue Jul 8, 5:06 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police said on Tuesday they will question Prime Minister Ehud Olmert again this week over a corruption scandal that has rocked his government and which could lead to early elections. Anti-fraud squad officers will question Olmert on Friday for the third time over suspicions he had unlawfully taken cash-stuffed envelopes from US financier Morris Talansky before becoming premier in 2006, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told AFP.The interview will be held at Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem, he said.The graft investigation, the fourth to embroil the premier, led to a chorus of calls for Olmert's resignation from the opposition and from coalition members who threatened to topple his government.Olmert, who has denied any wrongdoing and refused to step down, weathered the political turmoil after agreeing to hold a primary vote in September to elect a new leader of his centrist Kadima party.The centre-left Labour party, Olmert's key coalition partner, has said it will quit the coalition if the premier is not replaced.Talansky testified in May that he had given Olmert at least 150,000 dollars in the 14 years to 2006, some of which might have been used to fund Olmert's taste for luxury goods.Olmert's lawyers are to cross-examine Talansky on July 17.
Assad wants French role in Syria-Israel talks Tue Jul 8, 4:38 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, expected in Paris this weekend, has welcomed a break in France's policy toward Damascus and invited Paris to play a role in possible direct negotiations with Israel. In an interview published in French newspaper Le Figaro Tuesday, Assad said: We are witnessing a break between the current policy of France and the policy of the past.
This new policy is more realistic and better suited to the interests of both our countries. It is a solid basis to renew healthy relations.French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited Assad along with some 40 foreign leaders for the launch Sunday of a new Union for the Mediterranean, aimed at boosting cooperation between European Union and southern Mediterranean states.Sarkozy, who decided to renew high-level contacts with Damascus following the breakthrough in Lebanon's drawn-out political crisis, is to meet Assad in Paris on July 12. The Syrian leader will stay on for France's Bastille Day ceremonies on July 14.Former president Jacques Chirac cut off official contacts with Syria following the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, who was a personal friend, in a February 2005 bombing in which Syria has been implicated.This visit is for me a historic visit: an opening up to France and to Europe, Assad told Le Figaro.Asked about the resumption of indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel under Turkish auspices, he said it was natural that there should be a lack of trust, considering the stymied peace process.The two countries have been officially at war since 1948, although armistice and ceasefire agreements have been signed in the interim.
For the moment the two parties are testing their intentions... We now need to find a common basis to start direct negotiations, Assad said.Concerning the international sponsorship of such talks, he said he was counting on the next American president, saying that the United States' role was essential.But Assad also invited the French president to get directly involved.My impression is that (Sarkozy) is enthusiastic about these negotiations and wants France to play a direct role, Assad declared. If he confirms it to me, I will immediately invite him to support directly this peace process.
Turning to Lebanon, Assad said preparations were under way to organise a meeting in Paris with President Michel Sleiman. I've known President Sleiman for about 10 years ... our relations are good, he said.Asked about the international tribunal seeking those responsible for Hariri's death, the Syrian president stressed that his country was cooperating and would continue to do so.On the question of human rights in his country, Assad said: We do not say that we are a perfect democratic country. We say that we are taking this road and it is a long road that can last for one or several years.Calling on Europe to back peace and development in Syria, Assad said: This is the role that we ask Europe to play, and not to give us lessons in morality.
Nearly billion dollars in direct aid disbursed to Palestinians in six months Tue Jul 8, 12:57 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - The international community has paid out nearly a billion dollars in direct aid to the Palestinians in six months, officials of the International Donors' Conference for the Palestinian State said here late Monday, while hitting out at Israeli restrictions on movement by Palestinians. The chair and the co-chairs of the Paris conference, which last December came up with pledges of donations totalling 7.7 billion dollars over three years, strongly welcomed the process of disbursing the funds.The international community has paid out more than 920 million dollars in six months in direct budgetary support and signed for one billion dollars of bilateral agreements with the Palestinian Authority for development projects, according to a communique from the chair and co-chairs released by the French foreign ministry.
This unprecedented level and rapid disbursement of contributions demonstrates the strong support of the international community to the Palestinian government, said the statement by Quartet special Middle East envoy Tony Blair, European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and a Norwegian representative who met at the French foreign ministry.The priority over the coming months will be to secure contributions of Arab League members. These will be crucial to finance the budgetary gap and to support the Palestinian institutions, it went on.The chair and co-chairs said it was essential that the Palestinian government maintains a rigorous fiscal policy in relation with the future disposable revenues and contributions.But restrictions by the Government of Israel on Palestinian movement and access continue to weigh heavily on the economic outlook.
Without a significant lifting of such barriers in the West Bank, and a relaxation of the restrictions on humanitarian and commercial flows to the Gaza Strip, there is a much-reduced prospect for private sector recovery, public and private investment programmes will continue to be delayed, and consequently any economic recovery will continue to be inhibited.The Paris conference was aimed at boosting still fragile hopes for peace launched at the latest Palestinian-Israeli peace process in Annapolis, Maryland in late November 2007, aimed at working for a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.
Palestinians say Israel's barrier stealing land By Rebecca Harrison Mon Jul 7, 6:22 PM ET
BILIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian farmer Suleiman Hussein peers through the electrified barbed wire fence that snakes around three sides of his home and points to the olive trees he once tended. It makes me feel sick, he mutters, retreating as a bulldozer rumbles past on the other side of Israel's West Bank barrier, about 25 meters (yards) from Hussein's home near the village of Bilin, its driver checking for holes or tunnels.On July 9, 2004, the World Court in The Hague ruled that Israel's construction of its proposed 720-km (430-mile) barrier on occupied Palestinian land was illegal.The United Nations says Israel has ignored that ruling. So does Hussein.Israel began building the section of the barricade that virtually encircles his modest concrete home, separating it from his family farmland, three and a half years ago, he says.It has not been moved, despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling last September that part of it should be re-routed to circumvent agricultural land belonging to residents of Bilin, which lies about 25 km (15 miles) east of Tel Aviv.
Israel argues the barrier, a mix of wire fence and concrete walls, keeps suicide bombers out of its cities. This fence saves lives, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said.Palestinians call it a land grab which loops around Jewish settlements and slices through swathes of Palestinian farmland.At Bilin, it curves 3 km (2 miles) inside the Green Line, established by a 1949 ceasefire, which divides Israel and the West Bank -- it does so to ensure Jewish settlements, including Modiin Illit, lie on the Israeli side of the barrier.This is not about a wall, it's about land, said Hussein, 76, angrily jabbing his finger toward the barrier. They say it's about security, but are my olives and goats really a security threat? They just want to steal our land.
PROTESTS
Israeli security forces and protesters, including left-wing Israelis and pro-Palestinian activists from abroad, square off in weekly confrontations in Bilin. Demonstrators hurl rocks and soldiers fire tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.Last week, clashes erupted outside Hussein's house. A pile of tear gas canisters lay in his garden and the soil was black where soldiers razed several trees.Gas bomb, says his granddaughter Mayadah, a toddler, pointing at one. Who fired it? Army, she replies.
Protesters have in recent months taken their fight to the nearby town of Nilin, hoping to disrupt construction of another section of the barrier. The army has kept the town under curfew for four days since those protests turned violent.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hopes the West Bank will form the main part of a future state. But activists say the barrier and dozens of fortified Jewish settlements are carving it into scattered bantustans, like areas set aside for blacks in apartheid South Africa, and undermining hopes for peace.What we are seeing on the ground is ghettos for the Palestinian people, said Jamal Juma, campaign coordinator for the Stop the Wall group. They are making peace impossible.(Additional reporting by Hamuda Hassan; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Israel: Prisoner swap deal signed with Hezbollah By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 7, 5:02 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel's military said it began digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters Monday after the government struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five living prisoners and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006. Israel said in a statement that the swap agreement was signed in the presence of a U.N. representative. Implementation of the deal depends on carrying out further steps, the statement said without providing specifics.
Hezbollah officials refused to comment.
Israel approved the swap June 29. It will hand over Samir Kantar, serving multiple life terms for a 1979 attack in Israel's north, as well as four Hezbollah prisoners and dozens of bodies of fighters. In return, Israel is to receive two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid that set off a fierce 34-day war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the two soldiers dead before his Cabinet approved the deal, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has not allowed Red Cross visits or given any sign that the two are alive, called the declaration speculation.Israeli military officials said the exchange was likely to take place sometime during the four days beginning Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because final arrangements had not been made.
Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for one of the most gruesome attacks in Israeli history. He was convicted of shooting a policeman and then killing an Israeli man in front of his 4-year-old daughter before beating the girl to death. Kantar denied killing the girl.On Monday, the family of the police officer appealed to Israel's Supreme Court to block the exchange.Don't release Kantar. He is a despicable mass murderer, and Israel will be sorry in the end, the slain officer's daughter, Keren Shahar, told reporters.
The court is not expected to intervene in the deal.
The military confirmed that the process of exhuming bodies had begun at the Amiad cemetery for enemy combatants, not far from the Israel-Lebanon border. It was declared a closed military zone to prevent reporters from witnessing the process. The military rabbinate called up reservists to help with identifying the bodies before the exchange.Channel 10 TV showed video of about a dozen workers in white protective suits digging in the cemetery, before a soldier put his hand in front of the camera lens and stopped the filming.In another aspect of the agreement, mediated by a U.N.-appointed German official, Hezbollah has compiled a report on the fate of Ron Arad, an Israeli airman captured alive after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel was in Europe on Monday to pick up the report, the military officials said.However, in announcing the signing of the swap agreement, government spokesman Mark Regev added, so far we have not received the report concerning the fate of our missing navigator, Ron Arad. When that report is received, we will have discussions inside the government on how to move forward.
Regev would not say where the signing took place.
In exchange for the report on Arad, Israel is to provide information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982.Iran, which supports Hezbollah, claims the officials were kidnapped by Lebanese militiamen allied with Israel and delivered to Israeli troops. Israel has long denied holding them, and Samir Geagea, former head of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, has said militiamen killed them. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, taking over large areas as part of a military sweep to expel Palestinian guerrillas.
Victims of attacks in Israel sue Lebanese banks Mon Jul 7, 4:45 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Victims of bombings and rocket attacks in Israel sued several Lebanese banks on Monday for helping fund Hezbollah militants who the lawsuit said orchestrated the attacks.
The lawsuit seeks damages from the banks for more than 50 Israeli citizens injured or relatives of those killed by missile attacks fired from Lebanon's southern border at Israeli targets during July and August, 2006, the suit said.It said the banks provided services to the Islamic Resistance Support Organization (IRSO), which the lawsuit accused of raising funds for terrorist activities for Hezbollah as well as dealing with various U.S. banks.The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said the Lebanese banks processed funds and cleared U.S. dollars for the IRSO's benefit through the United States and that the IRSO's activities had violated international as well as U.S. federal and state laws.Through dealing with the IRSO, the banks provided Hezbollah with regular, systematic and unfettered access to U.S. currency, thus enabling Hezbollah to rapidly access funds to purchase missiles and weapons that could terrorize civilians.Attacks cited in the suit include two from 2006 -- a July 13 missile attack on the Israeli city of Safed and a July 16 missile that struck the Haifa Train Depot.
The named banks, including Lebanon's Bank of Beirut, Fransabank, BLC Bank, Banque Libano-Francaise, Middle East Africa Bank, violated the Alien Tort Claims Act, the suit said.
It said Fransabank, BLC Bank and the Bank of Beirut also provided services to Lebanon's television network al-Manar.The U.S. government considers Hezbollah and al-Manar terrorist organizations.
Representatives for the banks could not be immediately reached for comment.(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by David Wiessler)
Israeli demo calls for razing of bulldozer attacker's home Sun Jul 6, 12:26 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Around 30 right-wing Israelis staged a demonstration at the east Jerusalem home of a Palestinian man who killed three people in a bulldozer rampage last week to demand its destruction. Israeli police said meanwhile that the man had acted alone and had no links to any Palestinian organisation.Right here, right now, destroy this house, the protestors chanted as they gathered in the Arab village of Sur Baher outside the house of Hossam Dwayyat, 30, who was shot dead Wednesday after ploughing through a busy Jerusalem street.Another 45 people were wounded in the attack in which Dwayyat smashed an earthmover into two buses, overturning one, and crushed several cars.The protest in occupied east Jerusalem was held without incident as police deployed in force around the home, a police official said.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that Dwayyat acted alone.According to the investigation, he acted alone, Rosenfeld said.He also ruled out that Dwayyat was on drugs when he went on the rampage.
Israeli authorities, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have mulled destroying Dwayyat's house, even though a previous military inquiry found the practice was ineffective in deterring militant attacks.On Friday, Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army to prepare to raze the house but it was not clear if the order had been actually given.Olmert has threatened harsh measures against Palestinians in the occupied and annexed eastern part of the city who carried out attacks, saying If we need to destroy houses, we will destroy houses.Attorney General Menahem Mazuz said on Thursday that demolishing homes in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East war, would not be illegal but would carry unspecified problems.According to Haaretz newspaper, the authorities could wall up Dwayyat's room rather than destroy the whole family home.Israeli politicians and media have characterised Dwayyat as a terrorist, but his family denies he had any political ties and has suggested he had become mentally unbalanced.Some 250,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem. While they are not Israeli citizens, they have Israel identity cards, have freedom of movement around the country and receive social welfare benefits.
Israeli curfew in West Bank village over barrier protests Sun Jul 6, 11:38 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel enforced a curfew in the West Bank village of Nilin on Sunday after dozens of people were wounded in weeks of protests against a proposed extension of its controversial separation barrier. Since this morning there has been a curfew in Nilin due to the significant rise in violence near the Palestinian village, a military spokesman said. For over two months violent riots have taken place in Nilin.The spokesman added that there was no time limit on the curfew and that it would remain in effect until the violence stopped.Dozens of demonstrators have been wounded during protests in recent weeks, and on Sunday alone 13 Palestinians were treated for rubber bullet wounds and dozens more for tear gas inhalation, according to local medics.During the last two months at least 10 Israelis have been wounded, including three soldiers, five border policemen, and two maintenance workers, and several vehicles have been damaged by rocks, the army said.
Israeli troops on Sunday placed concrete blocks and signs reading closed military zone across roads leading into town and prevented local reporters and photographers from entering.The protests have been aimed at a proposed extension of Israel's controversial separation barrier, which villagers say will rob them of some 2500 dunams (250 hectares) of land near the proposed route.The demonstrations have been modelled on those of the nearby village of Bilin, where residents have protested the barrier on a weekly basis for over two years and in September won a court injunction against its proposed route.Israel says the 650-kilometre (405-mile) barrier is necessary to protect it from terrorist attacks. The Palestinians call it an apartheid wall and complain that large chunks of the West Bank are cut off as a result.In 2004 the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling declaring parts of the barrier illegal because they were built inside the occupied West Bank, but Israel has pressed ahead with its construction.
Olmert to meet Abbas at Paris conference: Israel Sun Jul 6, 5:10 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at an international conference in Paris later this month, a senior Israeli official told AFP on Sunday. The two are expected to attend a July 13 summit hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to launch a new Mediterranean Union aimed at boosting cooperation between the European Union and north African and Middle Eastern states.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two leaders would hold one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the meeting.Olmert, Abbas and their respective negotiating teams have met regularly since a US-hosted conference last November formally relaunched the Middle East peace process after a near seven-year hiatus.Both leaders, along with US President George W. Bush, have vowed to reach a comprehensive agreement resolving the decades-old conflict by 2009, but the negotiations have so far shown little sign of progress.
Israel successfully tests missile interceptor: report Sun Jul 6, 3:34 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday.
The Iron Dome system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas.Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning.In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system, which is being developed under contract by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer.
Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from both short-range missiles fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria.Since the outbreak of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2000 Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip have come under frequent rocket and mortar attack, leaving them in a constant state of fear.The attacks have slowed since a truce between Israel and Hamas came into force on June 19, but the fragile Egyptian-brokered agreement has been tested by occasional rockets and mortar rounds fired by smaller armed groups.Israel also came under sustained attack during its 2006 war with Hezbollah, when more than 4,000 Katyusha rockets were launched at northern Israel in 34 days, sending hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing south.
Sarkozy vows to press Syria to help free Israeli soldier hostage Fri Jul 4, 5:18 PM ET
PARIS (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday he would press his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad to use all the power of his country to free a French-Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants. Sarkozy has invited Assad to Paris along with some 40 foreign leaders for a summit on July 13 to launch a new Mediterranean Union, aimed at boosting cooperation between European Union and north African and Middle Eastern rim states.I will have the opportunity, when I see ... President Bashar Al-Assad, to ask him to use all Syria's power so that the soldier (Gilad) Shalit is freed, said Sarkozy, who is to meet separately with Assad on the eve of the summit.He made his comments in a speech welcoming the Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a joint French national who was released this week after six years as a hostage of rebels in the Colombian jungle.Shalit was seized by militants in Gaza in June 2006.
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