OLMERT QUESTIONED 11TH TIME

Abbas to meet Bush in Washington DEC 12,08

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will travel to Washington on December 19 for talks with US President George W. Bush and will fly to Moscow a few days later, his spokesman said on Friday.Abbas and Bush will discuss the status of Middle East peace efforts since Israeli-Palestinian talks were relaunched at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007, Nabil abu Rudeina said.The Palestinian leader will fly on to Moscow on December 22 for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Rudeina said.

Obama slammed in Iran over stand on Hezbollah DEC 12,08

TEHRAN (AFP) – A top Iranian cleric on Friday slammed US president-elect Barack Obama's criticism of Hezbollah and defended the Islamic republic's support of the Lebanese Shiite group.We are announcing it frankly, that we will defend the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance and its brave leader Hassan Nasrallah with pride, the Friday prayers leader at Tehran University, Ahmad Khatami, told worshippers.They are not terrorists since they are defending their honour and independence, he said.If Obama wants to decrease hatred, he has to stop making worthless comments. Most probably the Zionists have put down a banana skin for him, Khatami said.In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Obama said he would make clear to Tehran that its nuclear programme was unacceptable, along with support of Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, and its threats against Israel.Shiite majority Iran is a staunch supporter of Hezbollah and maintains that it provides them with moral support and not arms as alleged by two of its arch-foes, Washington and Israel.After the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran sent money and technical expertise for reconstruction and to compensate victims. Israel says the Shiite group is now three times stronger than during the war.

Olmert quizzed for 11th time in graft probes Fri Dec 12, 7:19 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli police questioned interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday for the 11th time since accusations against him of corruption emerged in May.

The interrogation focused on allegations that Olmert was involved in cronyism when he was trade and industry minister in 2006, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.

The interview at the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem lasted about two and a half hours, Rosenfeld said.Last month the justice ministry announced that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz intends to press charges over allegations that Olmert multiple-billed foreign trips and used the proceeds to pay for private travel.

Police had also recommended indicting Olmert over suspicions he unlawfully accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from US businessman Morris Talansky.Olmert has been questioned by police 10 times previously on several different alleged cases of corruption since the Talansky affair emerged seven months ago.All of the allegations date back to the 13 years before Olmert took office, when he was mayor of Jerusalem and trade and industry minister.He handed in his resignation on September 21 but plans to remain at the head of a caretaker government until after early general elections scheduled for Israel on February 10.Olmert insists he is innocent.

Iranians chant death to Israel in support of Gaza by Farhad Pouladi Farhad Pouladi – Fri Dec 12, 6:35 am ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Thousands of Iranians on Friday chanted Death to Israel and Death to America as they demonstrated in Tehran against Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The demonstration took place on streets leading to the Tehran University compound where the weekly Friday prayers is held.The Jewish state's blockade of Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza has been tightened since the start of November in retaliation for rocket fire on southern Israel from the coastal strip.I am sure victory is close and that the breaking of the Zionist regime's bones can be heard, said Mohammad Hassanian, a student with the Basiji, Iran's volunteer militia.I am here to show my sympathy and support to the Palestinian mothers who are under mounting pressure to provide food for their children, said Akram Maghrebi, a housewife clad in traditional black chador, as scores of women chanted anti-US slogans and Death to Israel.Tehran, which does not recognise the Jewish state, is a staunch supporter of Hamas but rejects allegations that it is supplying arms to the Palestinian Islamist movement, saying it only provides moral backing.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map and even called the Holocaust a myth.

Also taking in the demonstration, Ahmadinejad told reporters: They have reached the end of the road and their abnormal behaviour is due to anger and even their supporters are shaky in backing them.By committing these atrocities they want to pressure the Palestinians to influence their elections.In November, Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned that he would call snap parliamentary and presidential elections if Hamas does not rejoin reconciliation talks with his Fatah party which it drove out of Gaza.The Friday prayers leader at Tehran University, Ahmad Khatami, slammed the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Conference, Egypt, the Europeans and United States for their inaction on Gaza.Why is the UN and OIC keeping silent? Where are the European nations who are the defenders of human rights? Khatami asked in his sermon, broadcast live on state-run radio.We can see the hands of (US George W.) Bush and (president-elect Barack) Obama in these crimes, he said.Khatami critisised Egypt's leadership for closing down the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip. By doing this they are cooperating with them (Israel), he charged.I am telling the Gazans and Palestinians in the occupied terrotories that the only way for salvation is by resisting the way Hezbollah did, he said, referring to Lebanon's Shiite militia which fought a 2006 war with Israel.Earlier this week, Iran's Red Crescent announced plans to send 1,000 tonnes of relief supplies on a ship to Gaza, in the face of an Israeli sea blockade of the territory. On Friday, Red Crescent booths were collecting cash donations.

Israeli Arabs should live in Palestinian state: Livni Thu Dec 11, 3:26 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a frontrunner in the race to become premier, said on Thursday that Arab Israelis should move to a Palestinian state when it is eventually created.My solution for maintaining a Jewish and democratic state of Israel is to have two distinct national entities, she told a group of secondary school students in Tel Aviv in remarks broadcast by army radio.

And among other things I will also be able to approach the Palestinian residents of Israel, those whom we call Arab Israelis, and tell them: your national aspirations lie elsewhere.The remarks drew an angry rebuttal from Arab Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi and from the Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas.She must decide whether she means to leave a million Arabs without political rights or a national identity, or whether she really intends to transfer a million Arab citizens to the Palestinian state that will be established, he said.Livni must be straightforward and open as is appropriate for someone running for prime minister, Tibi told army radio.Palestinian presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP Livni's remarks put obstacles on the way of the peace process and will not lead to a peace agreement and a just and comprehensive solution.These statements don't serve the cause of peace or efforts being made to reach a comprehensive peace in the region. They show that Israel is not serious about a solution or the negotiations with the Palestinians, he said.The way to peace is by respecting international legislation. The Israeli election campaign should not be exploited to create tensions, Abu Rudeina added by telephone from Amman.Livni leads the centrist Kadima party. She is in a close race with former premier Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party ahead of legislative elections set for February 10.The polls were called after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned over a series of graft scandals.The 1.4-million-strong Arab-Israeli community makes up about 20 percent of the Jewish state's population, and consists of the descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who remained on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Anti-Arab hopeful irks Israel's Netanyahu by Patrick Anidjar Patrick Anidjar – Thu Dec 11, 2:31 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A far-right Likud party member has become a thorn in the side of party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a frontrunner in the race to become Israel's prime minister, as media reprint comments he made praising the Nazi system and denigrating Arabs.Moshe Feiglin, 46, had a strong chance of winning a parliamentary seat after gaining significant support within Likud, at a time when Netanyahu is seeking to soften the image of the right-wing opposition party.But Likud's governing body on Thursday pushed Feiglin down to the 36th place on the election slate from the 20th slot following an appeal by a Netanyahu ally citing irregularities in Monday's party primary.The support that Feiglin and other far right-wing Likud members won at a party election to name parliamentary candidates for February's legislative elections was a sharp blow for Netanyahu, a former prime minister.To make matters worse for the party leader, the Israeli media has since highlighted comments Feiglin made in a 1995 interview with the Haaretz daily, in which he spoke highly of Hitler and disparagingly of Arabs.An observant yarmulke-wearing Jew, Feiglin called the man responsible for the Holocaust an unparalleled military genius.Hitler savoured good music. He would paint. This was no bunch of thugs. They merely used thugs and homosexuals, Feiglin was quoted as saying at the time.Nazism promoted Germany from a low to a fantastic physical and ideological status.The ragged, trashy youth body turned into a neat and orderly part of society and Germany received an exemplary regime, a proper justice system and public order, he said.

The mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said Feiglin was not ashamed of considering Hitler a genius.Ten years after the Haaretz interview, Feiglin told the Maariv newspaper that just because he considers Hitler a military genius, this doesn't mean I admire him.Feiglin, who lives in a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has made similarly controversial comments on the Arab-Israeli conflict.He insists there is no such thing as a Palestinian people and that they and Israeli Arabs should relocate, media said, citing a text he had posted on the website of his Jewish leadership movement that was removed this week.They will have to seek the right to self-determination in Arab states. Israel will encourage the Arabs to emigrate to their countries and assist any Arab who wishes to do so, Feiglin was quoted as saying.In a 2004 interview with Yediot he spoke of a voluntary transfer to the 22 neighbouring Arab states of the some 1.4 million Israeli Arabs, who make up 20percent of Israel's population.Arabs don't live in the desert, they create it, he was quoted as saying.Netanyahu, who is viewed as a hawk with regard to the conflict, tried to put on a brave face following Feiglin's success in Monday's party election.

The entire faction is with me, Haaretz quoted Netanyahu as saying. Feiglin will fade away very quickly.Feiglin was sentenced to six months in prison in 1997 for sedition after leading a civil disobedience campaign in protest at the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords of 1993, but the sentence was later commuted to community service.

Israel's Netanyahu tells EU he will pursue peace By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 11, 1:46 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu sought Thursday to reassure Europeans that he will continue peace talks with the Palestinians if he wins February's general election, despite a rightward tilt in his Likud Party.He was speaking to Israel-based EU ambassadors in the wake of Likud primaries, which catapulted several ultra-hawks into the top 30 places on the party's slate of candidates for Feb. 10 elections.Netanyahu was the guest speaker at a lunch hosted by the European Union and arranged long before Monday's primaries. He used the occasion to try to quell concerns fueled by the outcome, which delivered significant advances for a wing of Likud seeking to halt peace talks, ban minority Arab citizens of Israel from the parliament, encourage non-Jews to leave the country and pull Israel out of the United Nations.Following the primary results, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of the rival Kadima Party warned that a victory for a Likud slate peppered with die-hard opponents of concessions to the Palestinians could plunge Israel into international isolation.Netanyahu resisted peace efforts when he was prime minister from 1996-1999 but says he will carry on existing negotiations with the Palestinians if he is returned to power, as polls indicate, though with more emphasis on encouraging Palestinian economic growth rather than a speedy transition to a sovereign Palestinian state.

I told them that a Likud government under my leadership will continue the peace talks, stressing security and economic development, Netanyahu said in a brief statement after Thursday's lunch. We intend to interlace them with economic development, rapid economic development for the Palestinians and regional cooperation with Jordan and Egypt.Likud spokeswoman Amit Koren said the party has dropped ultra-hawk Moshe Feiglin far down on its list of candidates for Feb. 10 elections despite his strong showing in the primary. Feiglin opposes peace talks with the Palestinians, encourages non-Jews to leave the country and advocates recapturing the Gaza Strip.Feiglin finished in 20th place in the voting, but Koren said Likud's court dropped him to the 36th position.

Netanyahu wants to postpone core issues in Mideast talks by Ron Bousso – Thu Dec 11, 1:20 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's right-wing Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu thinks Middle East peace talks should focus on improving Palestinian daily life and not on core issues, his spokeswoman said Thursday.The hawkish former premier, who polls say is likely to return to power after February elections, has been a staunch critic of the US-backed peace talks with the Palestinians that were relaunched in November 2007.Netanyahu does not oppose the continuation of the talks but he believes that the current negotiations are leading nowhere and their goal is not clear, spokeswoman Dina Libster told AFP.He wants to continue the talks on tangible issues that can be carried out on the ground, such as the Palestinian economy and Palestinian living conditions. At the moment, discussing core issues is irrelevant.The latest round of peace talks has shown little progress on the so-called core issues of the decades-old conflict, including the future status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and final borders.

In a meeting on Thursday with 26 ambassadors who had requested clarification on Likud's electoral platform, Netanyahu said he would focus on repairing the Palestinian economy and creating a positive atmosphere for diplomacy.I believe that vigorous economic steps and a positive atmosphere that will be created on the ground will reflect on the future talks, Libster quoted him as saying.Most Israelis, including myself, are not interested in ruling another people. I support them having all the prerogatives to rule themselves except for those prerogatives that threaten or damage Israel's security.A close advisor to Netanyahu said a peace deal would not be possible in the near future due to chaos on the Palestinian side. That was a reference to strife between the moderate Fatah movement and the radical Hamas, which seized power in the Gaza Strip last year.It is commonly accepted that there is no possibility of reaching a permanent status agreement in the near future between Israel and the Palestinians, Dore Gold told AFP.Even the policy advocated by (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice of reaching a shelf agreement acknowledged this situation, said Gold, a foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu.Earlier this week, Likud elected a candidate list dominated by hardliners, raising fears that a victory in the February elections could derail the peace process relaunched by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima party and Netanyahu's chief rival, has been leading the talks with the Palestinians.Polls released earlier this week predicted Likud would win well over 30 seats in the 120-member assembly, putting Netanyahu on track to become Israel's next prime minister at the head of a coalition government.

Palestinians favour elections in 2009: poll by Hossam Ezzedine – Thu Dec 11, 1:17 pm ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Most Palestinians believe that Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas's term ends in January and they support holding new elections next year, according to a poll released on Thursday.The same poll found that Abbas holds a 10-point lead over his rivals in the Islamist Hamas, which has said it will refuse to recognise him as president when his constitutionally mandated four-year term expires on January 9.The quarterly poll carried out by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) found that 64 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip think Abbas's term ends in January.But if parliamentary elections were held today 42 percent of Palestinians would vote for Abbas's secular Fatah party compared with 28 percent for Hamas, with each movement down one percentage point since September.If presidential elections were held today 48 percent would vote for Abbas compared with just 38 percent for Ismail Haniya, who heads the Hamas-run government in Gaza. Abbas led in both the West Bank and Gaza.

The gap between the two theoretical candidates has narrowed by four percentage points since the last PSR poll, which saw Abbas garnering 53 percent and Haniya 39 percent.The two main Palestinian movements have been bitterly estranged since Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007, driving out security forces loyal to Abbas and cleaving the two territories into hostile rival camps.Hamas and Fatah have made several attempts at reconciliation, most recently in November when representatives from every major Palestinian faction were to meet for talks in Cairo before Hamas pulled out at the last minute.Abbas has since said that if national reconciliation talks are not held by the end of the year he will call for snap presidential and parliamentary elections when his term expires next month.Hamas has said that under the Palestinian constitution Abbas does not have the power to dissolve parliament before its term expires in January 2010.The survey found that 73 percent support Abbas's call for new elections if the dialogue fails, but just 40 percent support holding the elections only in the occupied West Bank.The poll questioned 1,270 people at 127 locations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the beginning of December, and had a margin of error of 3 percent.

Carter offers to monitor Lebanese election By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer –Thu Dec 11, 11:52 am ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter offered on Thursday to monitor Lebanon's parliament elections next year, a vote that will be fiercely contested between the militant Hezbollah group and its rival pro-Western parties.Carter proposed a monitoring mission by his Atlanta-based Carter Center during a Beirut meeting with the interior minister, Ziad Baroud, who welcomed the offer but said the Cabinet must approve it. The vote has to be held between April 20 and June 20, though no specific date has been set. The Interior Ministry is in charge of organizing and overseeing the elections.Carter also met members of parliamentary blocs, but he did not meet with lawmakers from Hezbollah. The Shiite militant group is on the U.S. State Department's terrorist list. Carter said he is ready to meet with Hezbollah but they refuse to meet current or former U.S. presidents.In the upcoming elections, the Western-backed anti-Syrian groups are trying to maintain their majority in the 128-seat parliament against a Hezbollah-led coalition backed by Syria and Iran.

Carter heads to Syria on Saturday.

A senior Hamas official in the Syrian capital, Damascus, said Carter will meet the militant Palestinian group's exiled leadership on Sunday to discuss the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, captured by Hamas-linked militants near Gaza in 2006. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not permitted to speak publicly about the meeting.Carter was widely criticized in April when he met in Syria with the exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal. The U.S. also labels Hamas as a terrorist organization.Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed to this report from Damascus, Syria.

Arabs urge Obama to focus on Mideast peace Thu Dec 11, 10:22 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – The Arab League has urged US president-elect Barack Obama to focus on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after he takes office in January, spokesman Hisham Yussef said on Thursday.The 22-member pan-Arab institution detailed its vision for an end to the decades-old conflict in a letter signed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and delivered to Obama via an aide, Yussef told AFP.The letter explains our stance on the conflict, focusing on the Arab peace proposal, he said.The League adopted a Saudi proposal in 2002 which called on Israel to withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967, in return for diplomatic relations with Arab states.The plan was presented at an Arab summit in Beirut and relaunched at a Riyadh summit in 2007.This is a new administration. It is important that we follow up with it and that it assumes its responsibilities, Yussef said.

The new administration will be busy with other things, but we think that it is important for it to focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict.Arab foreign ministers reiterated their support for the Saudi initiative after a meeting in Cairo last month, and the Palestinian Authority has begun advertising it in Israeli and Arab newspapers.Israel initially responded warily to the plan, but President Shimon Peres recently praised the plan in meetings with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak and with Saudi King Abdullah.Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported that Obama pledged to support the Saudi plan during a visit to Israel and the occupied territories in July.But Dennis Ross, a Middle East adviser to Obama, denied the report last month. Then-senator Obama did not say this, the story is false, Israel's Haaretz daily quoted Ross as saying.

Vatican team discusses papal visit to Israel Thu Dec 11, 2:33 am ET

JERUSALEM, (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres has met a Vatican delegation to discuss preparations for a possible visit by Pope Benedict XVI next year, his spokeswoman said on Thursday.We are waiting for the official declaration of this visit which must come from Rome, but the president on Wednesday started discussing with a Vatican delegation the programme of this visit which could take place in spring, said spokeswoman Ayelet Frish.During a visit to Italy in September 2007, Peres invited the pope to travel to Israel to strengthen the message of peace, reconciliation and hope throughout the Middle East.Uneasy relations between the Vatican and Israel have been further strained by plans to declare Nazi-era Pope Pius XII a saint, despite widespread criticism of his inaction during the Holocaust.The controversy, which has lingered for decades resurfaced in October as the pontiff defended the memory of his wartime predecessor and said he wanted him beatified soon -- a first step towards declaring him a saint.But, citing Jewish sensitivities, the Vatican later indicated Benedict was holding off the process of having Pius declared a saint.Peres has stressed the row should not affect plans for the proposed papal trip.Pope Paul VI was the first pontiff to visit Israel, in 1964, and Pope John Paul II visited in 2000.

Iran to send relief ship to Gaza Wed Dec 10, 8:54 am ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's Red Crescent announced on Wednesday that it is sending a relief ship to the Gaza Strip, in the face of an Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.We are sending a consignment of a 1,000 tonnes on a ship to Gaza the beginning of next week, Red Crescent secretary general Ahmad Moussavi was quoted as saying on the organisation's website.There is the possibility of our ship being blocked just as the Libyan ship was blocked, he added referring to a vessel intercepted by Israel a month ago.Libya protested to the UN Security Council over Israel's interception of the cargo ship, which had sought to take 3,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza.Israel said that because Libya does not recognise it, the interception was justified on grounds of national security.Unfortunately so far the Egyptian government had not allowed us to send the relief items to them by air, Moussavi said, referring to Gaza's southern neighbour.The official did not disclose the nationality of the ship, but said the cargo will include 500 tonnes of wheat, 200tonnes of sugar, 200 tonnes of rice, 50 tonnes of cooking oil and 50 tonnes of medical supplies.

The Israeli embargo was imposed after the Islamist Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007. The blockade has been tightened since the start of November in retaliation for rocket fire on southern Israel.Tehran is a staunch supporter of Hamas and has rejected all allegations that it is supplying arms to the movement, saying it only provides moral backing.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map and even called the Jewish Holocaust a myth.

LIKUD LIST

Ultra-hawkish list of candidates for Likud By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Tue Dec 9, 3:00 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a setback Tuesday in his quest to reclaim the prime minister's office in Israel when his front-running Likud Party chose a slate of candidates even more hawkish than him.The outcome could weaken his party's popularity, and even if Netanyahu wins a Feb. 10 election, it could limit his ability to negotiate peace with Israel's Arab neighbors.The big winner in results announced early Tuesday was Netanyahu's nemesis, Moshe Feiglin. While Netanyahu opposes the current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and hopes to limit contacts to economic cooperation, Feiglin goes much further. His theocratic platform calls for banning minority Arab citizens from the parliament, encouraging non-Jews to leave the country and pulling Israel out of the United Nations.

Netanyahu, who resisted peace efforts when he was prime minister from 1996-1999, hoped to present a more mainstream list of candidates to bolster support for his party, backing popular ex-generals, politicians and others for the list.But party members instead chose candidates with uncompromising views, led by Feiglin, who founded a movement that blocked highway intersections around the country in 1995 to protest partial peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians.Others included the son of former Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Benny Begin. He told Army Radio there will be no (peace) agreement in the near future because of Arab rejection of Israel.Rivals did not hide their glee at the blow to Netanyahu's prestige. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Kadima, who is not seeking re-election, said the primary showed the Likud has become an extreme right-wing party that would lead the state of Israel to a corner of isolation.The election is set for three weeks after Barack Obama — who has pledged to work for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians — takes office as U.S. president.Even if Netanyahu intended to press for concessions to the Palestinians for peace — and many doubt he would — pressure from within his own party could stop him.Recent polls have shown Netanyahu's Likud with a 10-seat lead over Kadima, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. But they have also shown that the presence of Feiglin on the Likud list could scare away a significant number of potential voters. A Likud insider estimated a loss of three or four seats, while some analysts predicted even more erosion.

Livni reveled in Netanyahu's predicament. The Likud list is not my problem. It's Bibi's problem, she said, using Netanyahu's nickname. It's a weight around his neck, not mine.Even the most optimistic polls had Likud winning about 35 seats in the 120-seat parliament, forcing Netanyahu to patch together a coalition with powerful partners from the ultra-Orthodox and ultra-hawkish sectors.Losing even a handful of those 35 because of the Feiglin effect could drop Likud into a tie with Kadima, a centrist movement started by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who broke away from Likud because of its opposition to his unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. That would make coalition-building more difficult and long-term stability doubtful.

Israel's electoral system, based on voting for parties instead of individual candidates, lends itself to multi-party results and a fractured parliament.Over the past decade, traditional parties have been losing strength and sectorial parties have been gaining. After the last election, less than three years ago, Kadima formed a government after winning just 29 seats, holding less than a majority in its own government, a first in Israel.When Olmert resigned in September because of corruption charges, Livni was chosen to replace him but was unable to form her own government — another first. The resulting national election will be Israel's fifth in less than seven years.

Middle East Quartet to meet in New York on December 15 Tue Dec 9, 1:33 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators will meet at U.N. headquarters in New York on December 15, together with some Arab foreign ministers, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday.France, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said last month it wanted a meeting this year of the Quartet, which is composed of the EU, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.Michele Montas, spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told a news conference that representatives of the Quartet had talked by telephone and agreed to meet on December 15.The secretary-general is going to host the members of the Quartet and a number of Arab foreign ministers to a discussion, she said, adding she did not have a confirmed list of attendees at this time.At a meeting in Egypt on November 9, the Quartet strongly backed the talks launched at Annapolis, Maryland, a year ago by U.S. President George W. Bush, even though few expect a deal to be reached this year as originally planned.Bush leaves office on January 20, when Barack Obama will take over as president.The talks have been hobbled from the start by violence and bitter disputes over Jewish settlement-building and the future of Jerusalem. Political transitions in Israel and the United States have further delayed any progress.(Reporting by Claudia Parsons; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Ex-President Carter says Hezbollah won't meet him Tue Dec 9, 9:23 am ET

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Leaders of the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah have turned down a request to meet former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit to Lebanon that began on Tuesday, a Carter spokesman said.Carter had requested a meeting with the Iran-backed political and military movement, which is listed as a terrorist group by Washington, as part of a visit to assess whether his Carter Center will monitor a legislative election next year.I understand that some of the leaders of Hezbollah have said they were not going to meet with any president or former presidents of the United States, Carter said upon his arrival at Beirut airport, adding that he would meet other leaders.A Carter spokesman confirmed a meeting had been requested with Hezbollah, whose guerrilla army fought a 34-day war with U.S. ally Israel in 2006. They said they were not able to meet, Carter spokesman Rick Jafculca said.Hezbollah, which is also backed by Syria, has a strong following among Lebanese Shi'ites and is represented in parliament and government. Lebanon is expected to hold a parliamentary election by June.

Carter's Lebanon visit will be followed by a trip to neighboring Syria, where he caused controversy in April by meeting leaders of the Palestinian Hamas, which is viewed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.The meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal angered the Israeli government and drew criticism from the U.S. administration. Carter, who helped negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has also angered Israel by describing its policies in the occupied Palestinian territories as a system of apartheid.Carter's agenda in Syria includes a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad, whose ties with the United States remain strained despite a recent thaw in relations with Western states including France and Britain.(Reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)

EU moves to boost ties with Israel Mon Dec 8, 2:39 pm ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – European Union foreign ministers decided Monday to intensify relations with Israel while insisting that the Jewish state reach out to the Palestinians and Arab nations.The ministers, after talks in Brussels, said in a statement that they wanted to improve relations with Israel. But that had to be based on democracy, respect for human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, good governance and international humanitarian law.That included the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the statement, through a two-state solution.Monday's decision opened the way towards a first-ever EU-Israel summit in in the coming months, perhaps during the Czech Republic's presidency of the bloc, in the first half of 2009.That would lead to EU-Israel meetings at the level of foreign ministers three times a year, with each EU presidency able to invite Israeli diplomats to to EU security meetings held among ambassadors.The EU would also consider inviting Israel to take part in the civilian missions linked to its security and defence policy, the statement added.The European Union is the biggest supplier of aid to the Palestinian territories but it has little leverage in its dealings with Israel, which is amply supported by the United States.EU relations with Israel are one of the priorities of the Czech Republic when it takes over the EU presidency from France on January 1.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that no political significance should be read into the decision to boost relations with Israel.We also said .. that the deepening of relations with Palestine would follow, he told reporters, adding that it is a little more difficult with the Palestinians, because there is no state, so it will be more complicated.

Israel to delay Palestinian prisoner release By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 8, 7:05 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli officials said Monday they would delay the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners until next week because of a request by Palestinian officials.

They said the Palestinian officials had asked for the delay because President Mahmoud Abbas is out of the country and wants to be back in the West Bank to greet the freed prisoners. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.Abbas is on a Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Rafiq Husseini, a top Abbas aide, said Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, had not sought any delay, and that Israeli officials had not contacted his office over the delay.I can assure you Abu Mazen doesn't want to see these people imprisoned for one single day, he said.Abbas planned stops in Russia and the U.S. before returning to the West Bank, he said.The officials said the release, originally set for Tuesday, would now take place on Dec. 15.

The Israeli government had approved the release as a goodwill gesture to coincide with the Muslim feast of the sacrifice, which began Monday.The prisoner issue is extremely sensitive for the Palestinians. Israel holds more than 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, and virtually every Palestinian family has a relative, friend or neighbor who has spent time behind bars. Abbas has demanded the freedom of all prisoners.

Holy Land faces uncertain New Year by Ezzedine Said Ezzedine Said – Sun Dec 7, 5:57 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Holy Land enters the New Year amid renewed political uncertainty with snap elections looming in Israel and a deepening chasm dividing the Palestinian territories.Little more than 12 months ago peace negotiations were relaunched amid great fanfare at an international conference in Annapolis, Maryland, with both sides setting a target of this January for a comprehensive agreement.But now US President George W. Bush, who launched that bid for a Middle East peace deal seven years into his eight-year term of office, is making way for a new administration and the international diplomatic momentum has once again drained away.

Despite a dozen face-to-face talks with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and rather more meetings between their negotiating teams, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said late last month that not a single issue between the two sides has been resolved.Meanwhile, continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank has made a mockery of Israeli pledges to freeze settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, Abbas said.Now Olmert is stepping down to fight an array of corruption allegations, and both of the front-runners to succeed him after the early elections called for February have made clear they will take a tougher line on the parameters of an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians.Hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, given a slight lead in opinion polls over Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has said little about the renewed negotiations of the past year, instead giving priority to what he calls an economic peace with the Palestinians, an idea they have already rejected.The gulf between the Western-backed Abbas and the Islamist Hamas movement which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June last year has meanwhile widened with the collapse of Egyptian-brokered reconcilation talks in November.

Warnings by the Islamists that they will not recognise Abbas as president after his term of office ends on January 8 drew a theat from the Palestinian leader to dissolve the Hamas-dominated legislature elected three years ago and call snap parliamentary and presidential elections in the New Year.The Islamists have made clear that they will not allow new parliamentary elections to take place before they fall due in January 2010, and accuse Abbas of rounding up hundreds of their supporters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.2008 was a year of deepening internal cleavages in both Israel and Palestine, as politicians on both sides devoted more attention to their internal conflict than their bilateral one, said Nicolas Pelham of Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank.Israel struggled with its religious settlers refusing to relinquish their presence in the heart of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority struggled with Hamas consolidating its hold over Gaza, he said.The failure to resolve either by peaceful means and the mounting narrative of confrontation could spell a turbulent 2009.Despite international promises of seven billion dollars in aid over three years, the economy of the West Bank continues to stagnate while that of the Gaza Strip is in freefall amid a crippling Israeli blockade.The hundreds of Israeli army roadblocks that impede the movement of goods or people around the West Bank have prevented any takeoff in the territory's economy, the World Bank reported in October.Israel's opening of its border crossings with Gaza for just four days in as many weeks has created a hand-to-mouth existence for the territory's 1.5 million-strong population, more than half of whom are dependent on outside aid, UN officials have said.It is like working to serve a population of one million refugees with hands tied in the back, Filippo Grandi, deputy commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency, said last month.A June truce between Israel and Hamas was supposed to lead to an easing of the blockade, but Israel says militant groups have failed to respect it and it runs out on December 19. Political analyst Zakaria Al-Qaq said he saw little prospect of much improvement in Palestinian fortunes in the New Year. The negotiations have been fruitless. The Jewish settlements have continued to grow and the number of army roadblocks has topped 600, Qaq said. He said he was pessimistic about the chances of any swift end to the rift between Abbas and Hamas, but also played down the chances of the president carrying out his threat to call early elections in defiance of the Islamists. That would seal the schism between the West Bank and Gaza once and for all, Qaq said.

WORLD GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL TIMES

OPENLY SAYING ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT
EU DICTATOR (WORLD LEADER)

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

REVELATION 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)

REVELATION 13:1-10
1 And I stood upon the sand of the 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 AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
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.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4 And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the beast:(JEWISH EU DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD (JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.

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.

WORLD GOVERNMENT

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.

DANIEL 12:4,1
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

REVELATION 13:1-3,7,8,12,16-18
1 And I stood upon the sand of the 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.
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.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

REVELATION 17:3,7,9-10,12,18
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Financial Times Editorial Admits Agenda For Dictatorial World Government ,Jaw-dropping report concedes that global governance is a euphemism for anti-democratic global government Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Financial Times, one of the most respected and widely read newspapers on the planet, features an editorial today that openly admits the agenda to create a world government based on anti-democratic principles and concedes that the term global governance is merely a euphemism for the move towards a centralized global government.For years we were called paranoid nutcases for warning about the elite’s plans to centralize global power and destroy American sovereignty. Throughout the 1990’s people who talked about the alarming move towards global government were smeared as right-wing lunatics by popular culture and the media.Now the agenda is out in the open and in our faces, the debunkers have no more ammunition with which to deride us.A jaw-dropping editorial written by the Financial Times chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman entitled And now for a world government lays out the plan for global government and how it is being pushed with deceptive language and euphemisms in order to prevent people from becoming alarmed.

For the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible, writes Rachman, citing the financial crisis, global warming and the global war on terror as three major pretexts through which it is being introduced.Rachman writes that global governance could be introduced much sooner than many expect and that President elect Barack Obama has already expressed his desire to achieve that goal, making reference to Obama’s circle of advisors which includes Strobe Talbott, who in 1992 stated, In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.Rachman then concedes that the more abstract term global governance, which is often used by top globalists like David Rockefeller as a veil to offset accusations that a centralized global government is the real agenda, is merely a trick of soothing language that is used to prevent people reaching for their rifles in America’s talk-radio heartland.But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on, says Rachman. Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: Global governance is just a euphemism for global government. As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law.

Rachman proceeds to outline what the first steps to an official world government would look like, including the creation of A legally binding climate-change agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN peacekeeping force.A world government would involve much more than co-operation between nations, writes Rachman. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.So, it seems, everything is in place. For the first time since homo sapiens began to doodle on cave walls, there is an argument, an opportunity and a means to make serious steps towards a world government, concludes Rachman, before acknowledging that the path to global government will be slow and painful.Tellingly, Rachman concedes that International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic, citing the continual rejection of EU expansion when the question is put to a vote. In general, the Union has progressed fastest when far-reaching deals have been agreed by technocrats and politicians – and then pushed through without direct reference to the voters, writes Rachman.

So there you have it - one of the world’s top newspapers, editorially led by chief economics commentator Martin Wolf, a top Bilderberg luminary, openly proclaiming that not only is world government the agenda, but that world government will only be achieved through dictatorial measures because the majority of the people are dead against it.Will we still be called paranoid conspiracy theorists for warning that a system of dictatorial world government is being set up, even as one of the world’s most influential newspapers admits to the fact? Or will people finally wake up and accept that there is a globalist agenda to destroy sovereignty, any form of real democracy, and freedom itself in the pursuit of an all-powerful, self-interested, centralized, unrepresentative and dictatorial world government?

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

And now for a world government By Gideon Rachman December 8 2008 19:13

I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.A world government would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might.First, it is increasingly clear that the most difficult issues facing national governments are international in nature: there is global warming, a global financial crisis and a global war on terror.

Second, it could be done. The transport and communications revolutions have shrunk the world so that, as Geoffrey Blainey, an eminent Australian historian, has written: For the first time in human history, world government of some sort is now possible. Mr Blainey foresees an attempt to form a world government at some point in the next two centuries, which is an unusually long time horizon for the average newspaper column. But – the third point – a change in the political atmosphere suggests that global governance could come much sooner than that. The financial crisis and climate change are pushing national governments towards global solutions, even in countries such as China and the US that are traditionally fierce guardians of national sovereignty. Barack Obama, America’s president-in-waiting, does not share the Bush administration’s disdain for international agreements and treaties. In his book, The Audacity of Hope, he argued that: When the world’s sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth following. The importance that Mr Obama attaches to the UN is shown by the fact that he has appointed Susan Rice, one of his closest aides, as America’s ambassador to the UN, and given her a seat in the cabinet. A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama’s transition team and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice has just emerged. The MGI report argues for the creation of a UN high commissioner for counter-terrorist activity, a legally binding climate-change agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN peacekeeping force. Once countries had pledged troops to this reserve army, the UN would have first call upon them.

These are the kind of ideas that get people reaching for their rifles in America’s talk-radio heartland. Aware of the political sensitivity of its ideas, the MGI report opts for soothing language. It emphasises the need for American leadership and uses the term, responsible sovereignty – when calling for international co-operation – rather than the more radical-sounding phrase favoured in Europe, shared sovereignty. It also talks about global governance rather than world government.

But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on. Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: Global governance is just a euphemism for global government. As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law.So, it seems, everything is in place. For the first time since homo sapiens began to doodle on cave walls, there is an argument, an opportunity and a means to make serious steps towards a world government. But let us not get carried away. While it seems feasible that some sort of world government might emerge over the next century, any push for global governance in the here and now will be a painful, slow process.There are good and bad reasons for this. The bad reason is a lack of will and determination on the part of national, political leaders who – while they might like to talk about a planet in peril – are ultimately still much more focused on their next election, at home.But this problem also hints at a more welcome reason why making progress on global governance will be slow sledding. Even in the EU – the heartland of law-based international government – the idea remains unpopular. The EU has suffered a series of humiliating defeats in referendums, when plans for ever closer union have been referred to the voters. In general, the Union has progressed fastest when far-reaching deals have been agreed by technocrats and politicians – and then pushed through without direct reference to the voters. International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic. The world’s most pressing political problems may indeed be international in nature, but the average citizen’s political identity remains stubbornly local. Until somebody cracks this problem, that plan for world government may have to stay locked away in a safe at the UN.gideon.rachman@ft.com Post and read comments at Gideon Rachman’s blog The Financial Times Limited 2008.

IRAN STILL A THREAT

Bush says Iran's nuclear program still a threat By Tabassum Zakaria Tabassum Zakaria – Fri Dec 5, 7:05 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush said on Friday that Iran's nuclear program remained a threat to peace and the United States would not allow Tehran to develop an atomic weapon.In a speech to the Saban Forum, Bush struck a hopeful tone about prospects for social, economic and diplomatic progress in the Middle East, but criticized Iran and Syria.The United States under Bush's presidency, which ends January 20, has pressed the United Nations for more sanctions to convince Iran to halt its nuclear program which the West suspects is to build weapons, a charge that Tehran denies.President-elect Barack Obama has also said that it is unacceptable for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.The West has offered Iran diplomatic and economic incentives to suspend uranium enrichment and would support a civilian nuclear power program, Bush said.While Iran has not accepted these offers, we have made our bottom line clear: For the safety of our people and the peace of the world, America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, Bush said.Amid signs of political, economic and social reforms in the Middle East, serious challenges remain, he said.

Iran and Syria continue to sponsor terror. Iran's uranium enrichment remains a major threat to peace. Many in the region still live under oppression, he said.Bush defended his decision to go to war against Iraq in March 2003 and topple Saddam Hussein, saying that after the September 11, 2001, attacks the United States could not risk the threat Baghdad posed.It is true, as I've said many times, that Saddam Hussein was not connected to the 9/11 attacks, Bush said.But the United States had to decide whether it could tolerate an enemy that supported terrorism and was believed to have weapons of mass destruction, and found that was a risk we could not afford to take.Weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion and that is considered a major intelligence failure. In a recent television interview Bush said the faulty intelligence on Iraq was the biggest regret of his presidency.Iraq has gone from an enemy of America to a friend of America, from sponsoring terror to fighting terror, and from a brutal dictatorship to a multi-religious, multi-ethnic constitutional democracy, Bush said.He acknowledged that efforts sometimes fell short, saying the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected. The reluctance of entrenched regimes to open their political systems has been disappointing.Bush said that despite setbacks to Middle East peace such as the Hamas election victory and takeover of the Gaza Strip, the process had moved forward.And while the Israelis and Palestinians have not yet produced an agreement, they have made important progress, said Bush, who had hoped for a Mideast pact before he left office. They have laid a new foundation of trust for the future.(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Eric Walsh and Chris Wilson)

Bush delivers upbeat defense of his Mideast policy By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 5, 5:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush delivered a broad and upbeat defense of his Mideast policies on Friday, yet cautioned that President-elect Barack Obama will inherit threats from Iran's nuclear programs, an unfinished Israeli-Palestinian peace accord and a fragile democracy in Iraq.Bush said his administration has been ambitious in vision, bold in action and firm in purpose — although not always popular — in its approach to the volatile region. Some efforts have not always gone according to plan, and in some areas the administration has fallen short of its goals, he said in a speech at the annual Saban Forum, a gathering on Middle East policy sponsored by the Brookings Institution.For example, the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected, Bush said. The reluctance of entrenched regimes to open their political systems has been disappointing, and there have been unfortunate setbacks at key points in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Still, Bush proclaimed that the Mideast was a freer, more hopeful place today than it was when he took office in 2001. He cited examples: The Lebanese are free from Syria's military occupation; Libya's nuclear weapons equipment is locked away in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are emerging as centers of commerce; Iran is facing greater pressure from the international community than ever before; and the threat from terrorist organizations like al-Qaida has been curtailed.Administration critics say Bush's view of the region is rosier than reality.If you look down the challenges that President Obama will face, he will have to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process almost from the ground up, said Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He will be dealing with an unstable Iraq, subject to growing Iranian influence, and an al-Qaida, which has been sharply weakened, but not defeated.I can't think of a public opinion poll that does not show a sharp deterioration in the U.S. position in the Middle East, Cordesman said, characterizing Bush's remarks as an attempt at spinning a foreign policy legacy from hell.

On Iraq, Bush defended the U.S.-led invasion on grounds the world could not have risked leaving Saddam Hussein's power unchecked. The president said that while it's true that Saddam was not connected to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to oust him cannot be viewed in isolation.In a world where terrorists armed with box cutters had just killed nearly 3,000 people, America had to decide whether we could tolerate a sworn enemy that acted belligerently, that supported terror and that intelligence agencies around the world believed had weapons of mass destruction, Bush said, referring to intelligence reports that later proved false.

It was clear to me, it was clear to members of both political parties, and to many leaders around the world that after Sept. 11, that was a risk we could not afford to take, the president said about the Iraq war, which has claimed the lives of more than 4,200 U.S. military personnel.Bush called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the most vexing problem in the region.He noted that he was the first U.S. president to call for a Palestinian state and said he sees progress toward reaching a two-state solution. The Israelis and Palestinians agreed last November at a meeting in Annapolis, Md., to reach some agreement by the end of the year. But after months of publicly insisting that an agreement could still be forged, the Bush administration has conceded that it will hand the fragile, unfinished U.S.-backed peace effort to Obama.More than 180 people attended Bush's speech, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and members of Congress.

Israel braces for more trouble after Hebron rampage by Patrick Moser Patrick Moser – Fri Dec 5, 10:44 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Security forces braced on Friday for more violence after Israeli hardliners went on the rampage against Palestinians in retaliation for the eviction of settlers from a disputed Hebron house.The entire southern West Bank was declared a closed military zone to prevent Israelis from converging again on the flashpoint city where a mob of Jewish extremists on Thursday shot and wounded three Palestinians, hurled rocks at others and torched homes, fields and cars.Dozens of young Palestinians burned tyres and hurled rocks at an Israeli military position in Hebron on Friday and soldiers responded by firing teargas while in Gaza City, about 2,000 Palestinians took part in a Hamas-led protest against the settler violence.

Right-wing Israelis have vowed to exact revenge for Thursday's forcible eviction of some 250 settlers from the house that had come to symbolise hardliners' determination to fight for what they consider their God-given right to all the biblical land of Israel -- including Palestinian territories.I remain concerned about the potential for a further escalation of a tense situation, UN envoy Robert Serry said in a statement.Israeli authorities were also worried about a Palestinian backlash amid simmering anger over the perceived failure of security forces to confront the rampaging mob in Hebron.Security was beefed up around Jerusalem's mosque compound for Friday prayers and access was restricted to Muslims holding Israeli identity cards and aged over 45 in the case of men, with no age restrictions for women.Most Israeli media hailed the security forces, who used tear gas to finally drag the settlers from the Hebron house following an Israeli high court order on November 16.But authorities also came under harsh criticism for failing to protect Palestinians who live around what has been dubbed the House of Contention.

As the occupying power, the government of Israel is under obligation to protect Palestinian civilians, property and holy sites, Serry said, adding that actions of extremists continue to pose a threat to the peace process.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has asked for an urgent UN Security Council session to discuss the settler violence.Egypt, one of just two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, condemned the ferocity and savage behaviour of the settlers, a foreign ministry spokesman told the state MENA news agency.A videotape distributed by Israel's B'Tselem human rights group shows a settler shooting two Palestinians, and a guard from the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement firing into the air as relatives of the victims overpowered the gunman.B'Tselem said it delivered the video to Hebron police, demanding that the assailant be immediately brought to justice and that the involvement of the security guard be investigated.Additionally, the security forces must investigate the failures that allowed settlers to riot throughout the afternoon and evening in Hebron's Palestinian neighbourhoods, the group said.The conservative English-language Jerusalem Post printed a picture of soldiers aiming their guns at Palestinians trying to reach their homes near the disputed building, and another showing relaxed-looking soldiers chatting with masked youths, apparently settlers, some of whom are holding rocks.The presence of a few hundred Jewish settlers in Hebron's centre, and a further 6,500 in nearby Kiryat Arba, has been a source of tension in the Palestinian city of 170,000 long before 100 or so Israelis moved into the disputed house in March last year.In 1994, a Jewish extremist massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site holy to Jews and Muslims alike. The international community considers Jewish settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, and the Palestinians say they are the biggest obstacle to Middle East peace talks.

Israel evicts Jewish settlers from Hebron house By Haitham Tamimi Haitham Tamimi – Thu Dec 4, 5:49 pm ET

AFP HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli police used teargas and clubs to evict hard-line Jewish settlers from a building in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, igniting a wave of settler violence across the Palestinian territory.The lightning operation by hundreds of policemen and soldiers ended in less than an hour.

About 30 settlers suffered light-to-moderate injuries, mostly due to smoke inhalation. Three policemen were hurt by settlers, who threw rocks, chemicals and food at them.Angry Jewish settlers, some armed, responded by setting fire to Palestinian cars and property near the building. Eight Palestinians were hurt, including three from gunshot wounds. One of the shootings was filmed by a volunteer for a rights group.Settler violence quickly spread to other areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank with security forces moving to quell the protests, although Palestinian residents said settlers had blocked roads and thrown stones at their cars causing damage.After a few hours of protests in Hebron, at around midnight, local residents reported clashes had largely died down and an army spokesman said there were no reports of major incidents across the West Bank.Tensions have been especially high in the flashpoint city since the Israeli High Court on November 16 ordered settlers to vacate the building they have been occupying since March 2007.

Police in riot gear dragged settlers out of the building, some of them kicking and screaming.Four Hebron settlers later were arrested while more than 20 of their supporters in Jerusalem were taken into custody after briefly blocking a main entrance to the city, police said.The standoff in Hebron raised fears that ideological friction in Israel could provoke internal violence before a February 10 parliamentary election to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Olmert has said a new ultranationalist underground could threaten Israel and its chances of peace with the Palestinians.What was put to the test today was the state's ability to enforce the law and its will on its citizens, said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. He said the army had to act against lawless settler youth.

SPREADING VIOLENCE

Israeli military analysts said they feared violence in Hebron could spread to other settlements.This will not end here. We will come back over and over again, settler supporter Naftali Woldman, 20, said in Hebron. Pointing to nearby Palestinian homes, Woldman said: All this will be Jewish land one day.For some Israelis, television images of the operation evoked memories of the evacuation of thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Many former Gaza settlers had vowed to prevent a repeat of the withdrawal in the West Bank.Palestinians welcomed the eviction but said Israel must do much more. President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to evict all 650 settlers who live in fortified enclaves in the heart of Hebron, home to some 180,000 Palestinians, an aide said.After the raid, settlers clashed with neighboring Palestinians near Hebron's old city. They hurled rocks at each other, and settlers broke windows, witnesses said. The settlers say they lawfully purchased the building from Palestinians. Hebron resident Faiz Rajabi says the building belongs to him and denies having sold it to the settlers. Thank God, the building has returned to its owners and I hope they will not come back, Rajabi said. (Additional reporting by Dan Williams, Joseph Nasr, Ori Lewis and Adam Entous in Jerusalem, and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Libya complains of Israeli high sea piracy to UN council Wed Dec 3, 10:51 pm ET

AFP UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Libya protested in vain Wednesday before the UN Security Council over Israel's interception of one of its cargo ships attempting to offload aid in Gaza.Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi told an emergency council session that Israel was guilty of piracy in the high seas, and called for effective action that will ensure compliance of Israel with international humanitarian law and the law of the seas.His complaints, however, failed to elicit a formal condemnation of Monday's actions by Israel, which needed unanimous consensus by the council's 14 members -- Libya is one of the 15-strong council's 10 rotating members.Israeli warships on Monday prevented a Libyan cargo vessel, the Al-Marwa, from reaching the Gaza Strip with 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid for the impoverished Palestinian territory, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since June 2007.Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev, invited to speak at the council meeting even though her country is not a member, rejected Libya's accusations, especially the piracy contention, and in turn charged Tripoli with provocation.She said that since Libya does not recognize the state of Israel, the interception was justified on grounds of national security.No member State of this Council, nor any other member of the United Nations, would allow a shipment originating from a hostile state towards a territory that serves as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against its civilians, Shalev said.The Libyan aid shipment is the first effort by an Arab state to circumvent the blockade of Gaza, which Israel has sealed off since the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized power there in June 2007. Israel has repeatedly come under rocket attack from Gaza since then.An official in Tripoli said the crew of the Al-Mawra will have no option but to return to Libya, since the aid cannot be unloaded in Gaza.US Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff also rejected Libya's arguments during the debate and deemed it absurd to assert Israel committed an act of piracy since not a single shot was fired nor was the Libyan ship boarded.He said Libya's attempt to access a closed sea port instead of following the usual channels for international aid was dangerous and irresponsible.Several council members used the debate to voice their concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and deplore the Israeli blockade of the region.

Blair wants new Gaza strategy, fears for two-state solution Wed Dec 3, 6:53 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Middle East envoy Tony Blair called here Wednesday for a new strategy to bring the Gaza Strip back into the peace process and warned a proposed two-state solution risked slipping away.Blair offered few details for the future of Gaza but entertained the idea that the Islamist Hamas could either be ousted from power in elections there or could even join the political process if it drops its anti-Israeli stand.We need a new strategy for Gaza, Blair told foreign policy specialists at a gathering in Washington hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think tank.You will not get a peace deal while Gaza remains as it is, said the former British prime minister who has served for 15 months as Middle East envoy for the quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.Israel has imposed a tight economic blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized the territory from the western-backed Palestinian Authority in June 2007 and engaged in frequent armed clashes with the Jewish state.A shaky ceasefire in and around Gaza has been in place since June this year.Meanwhile, the rift between the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, has deepened despite reconciliation talks sponsored by Egypt.Blair said the situation in Gaza was untenable, citing in particular the smuggling of weapons and goods which he warned undermines Gaza's legitimate economy. I think time is pretty urgent, he said.

Asked by the council's president Richard Haas if he envisioned Hamas being ousted in elections or that it might change its stripes to join the political process, Blair said either one of those things is a possible way through.The envoy for the Middle East quartet noted that elections must be held in the Palestinian territories no later than 2010.We're going to try and make sure that people with a moderate and modern view of the future of Palestine win, or we'd better get the right measures in place to do that, Blair added.Hamas caused a major stir internationally when it won legislative elections in 2006.Another possibility, Blair said, is that the international community does a better job of convincing Gazans that they can have the blockade lifted provided that the politics within Gaza conform to a peaceful resolution.The quartet has endorsed a roadmap that calls for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel. It has refused to deal with Hamas, which it sees as a terrorist group bent on Israel's destruction.I think there is a risk, Blair conceded when Haas asked him if the moment was fast approaching where a two-state solution may no longer be possible.

Egypt cleric slams hajj ban after Hamas blocks pilgrims Tue Dec 2, 1:27 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's leading cleric Mohammed Tantawi has condemned the blocking of Muslim pilgrims as an abominable crime after Hamas prevented the faithful leaving the Gaza Strip over the past four days.Whoever prevents (a Muslim from pilgrimage) is committing an abominable crime, state news agency MENA quoted him as saying on Tuesday.Egypt's government had said it would open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza starting from Saturday to allow 3,000 Palestinians to embark on the hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.But Hamas blocked pilgrims who had obtained Saudi visas through the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that does not recognise Hamas after it violently took over Gaza last year.The hajj is one of the five tenets of Sunni Islam, which each devout Muslim who has the means must fulfil at least once in their life.Hamas, which has increasingly used harsh crackdowns against its opponents in Gaza, was heavily criticized for blocking the pilgrims.Rafah is the only Gaza border crossing not controlled by Israel, which blockaded the impoverished territory after Hamas seized power there, routing Fatah.

The Egyptian government says it is impartial in mediating between the two rivals, but Hamas and Syria have accused it of bias towards Fatah.Tantawi, the state-appointed head of the Islamic Al-Azhar University, has criticized anti-Israeli suicide bombings by Hamas in the past.

Palestinian PM warns EU against boosting ties with Israel Tue Dec 2, 10:17 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday said he was deeply concerned about plans to upgrade EU-Israeli relations, citing lack of progress in the Middle East peace process.Fayyad spoke to journalists after he met with diplomats of EU countries on Monday.We asked for a meeting with representatives of those countries to express our deep concerns ahead of of the debate on the strengthening of relations with Israel, he said.I told them that since Israel violated all its commitments, including on human rights issues, the EU countries should wait before upgrading the level of Israeli representation at the EU, he said.

Fayyad spoke to the officials ahead of the December 8 European Council meeting and the plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday at which the EU is expected decide to whether to boost ties with Israel.He said the EU would send the wrong message to the Israeli electorate ahead of February 10 legislative elections if it agrees to boost ties.The message would be clear. By tightening links with Israel, the EU indicates that Israel gets what it wants without having to any consideration being given to its commitments towards the international community and within the framework of the peace process, he said.Fayyad reportedly told the diplomats on Monday that in the week the upgrade is being discussed, the misery index in Gaza has never been higher due largely to Israel's near-complete closure of the Palestinian territory over the past three weeks.Diplomatic sources said he also pointed out Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank has increased since the Annapolis, Maryland conference that relaunched the peace process in November last year and at which Israel reiterated its commitment to freeze all settlement activity.Checkpoints, home demolitions and evictions in the Palestinian territories have also increased, Fayyad said.All of these facts on the ground have jeopardized the possibility of the two-state solution and the credibility of the negotiations process begun at Annapolis, diplomats quoted him as saying.The premier already came under sharp criticism from Israel when he sent a letter in May urging the European Union not to upgrade relations with the Jewish state.Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was scheduled to hold talks with the European Parliament's external relations commission on Tuesday.

Israel blocks Libyan aid boat from reaching Gaza Mon Dec 1, 8:08 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warships on Monday prevented a Libyan cargo vessel from reaching the Gaza Strip, the impoverished Palestinian territory under a crippling Israeli blockade.The ship, laden with 3,000 tonnes of goods, was stopped several kilometres (miles) off Gaza's shores and ordered to return to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, said Palestinian MP Jamal Khodary, who heads an international campaign against the Israeli sanctions.Navy ships approached the Libyan boat and ordered it on the radio to turn back, and so it did, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.Anyone wishing to transfer humanitarian aid into Gaza is welcome to do it in coordination with Israel and through the regular crossings. They can also contact Egypt.Israel sealed its crossings with Gaza -- the overcrowded territory's main gateway for food and humanitarian aid -- as well as its maritime borders after the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized power there in June 2007.The sanctions were again tightened in recent weeks amid renewed tensions and tit-for-tat exchanges of fire that threatened to destroy an Egyptian-brokered June 19 ceasefire.The Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border with Gaza has been shut since June 2006 but has opened on a few occasions for humanitarian purposes.Hamas said turning the Libyan boat back showed the true, criminal face of the occupation.A spokesman for the Islamist movement, Fawzi Barhum, also urged Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing. Its closure will enter into history as a crime committed by all those who besiege Gaza, he said in a statement.

In Tripoli, an official said the ship's crew was in contact with the Libyan authorities.The crew has told us Israeli warships were conducting harassment measures even though it is a civilian vessel loaded with humanitarian aid, the official told AFP.The source said that the crew will have no option but to return to Libya as the goods cannot be unloaded in Gaza.The Libyan attempt to deliver aid to Gaza was the first such effort by an Arab state to defy the blockade, although European and other pro-Palestinian activists have made three trips from Cyprus since August without being intercepted by the Israeli navy.The pro-Islamist Qatar Charity Organisation said in Doha on Monday it plans to ship one tonne of medical aid to Gaza this week in a bid to break the blockade.Its vice president Abdallah al-Nimaa told AFP the ship is set to sail from Doha on Friday, but that he expects the Israeli authorities to stop the vessel.The Libyan consignment consists of 1,200 tonnes of rice, 750 tonnes of milk, 500 tonnes of oil, 500 tonnes of flour and 100 tonnes of medicine, said the Libyan Fund for Aid and Development in Africa, which chartered the vessel.Most of the 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip depend on foreign aid.Libya, the only Arab state on the 15-member UN Security Council, has no diplomatic relations with Israel and has frequently criticised it over the situation in Gaza.

Israel vows to protect Jewish centres after Mumbai attacks by Ron Bousso Ron Bousso –Sun Nov 30, 3:38 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Sunday to do everything necessary to protect Jewish centres across the world after nine Israelis were killed in assaults by Islamist militants in the Indian city of Mumbai.Israel is doing, and will continue to do anywhere, whatever it takes to protect Jewish institutions, Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting.Israel's embassies and official representations across the world are always heavily guarded by Israeli and local security forces.But other than issuing warnings on possible attacks, Israel does not guard Jewish centres such as the Chabad centre that was targeted in Mumbai.The pictures of the Jewish victims, especially the scenes of those who ran the Chabad House, wrapped in prayer shawls, even as their blood-covered son was miraculously saved from the inferno, are shocking and take us back to events that we pray never recur, Olmert said.The hatred of Jews and the hatred of Israel and the hatred of Jewish symbols still continue to be a source fuelling these acts of murder.Israeli embassy officials in India have said that they did not believe that Chabad House, a cultural centre run by the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement where eight of the Israelis were killed, could have been targeted by accident.

We will act, also in cooperation with the Indian government, to protect as much as possible the many Israelis and Jews in these areas who want, and are entitled to, full security, Olmert added.An Israeli air force plane took off for Mumbai on Sunday evening to repatriate the bodies. On the flight were representatives of the army, the rabbinate and foreign ministry, as well as forensic experts.Israeli media highlighted the case of Sandra Samuel, an Indian woman who worked as nanny for the toddler son of the slain Chabad House director and his wife, and who rescued him from the cultural centre after hiding from the militants for 12 hours.News websites reported calls for her to be given leave to come to Israel indefinitely or even be declared a so-called righteous gentile for her role in saving two-year-old Moshe.

We didn't get any application yet but that doesn't mean we won't approve it, said interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad.If we get the application, I am sure that we will consider all that took place.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had praised the nanny's heroic rescue of the son and said that during a time of terrible sadness, her courage reaffirms our faith in the capacity of good to triumph over evil.Nearly 200 people are now known to have died in the attacks which ravaged the Indian commercial capital, hitting five-star hotels and other targets frequented by Westerners as well as Chabad House.Israeli newspapers gave blanket coverage to the Mumbai carnage in Sunday's editions, their first since the confirmation of the Israeli dead late on Friday.The top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily devoted more than a dozen pages to the attacks, while Maariv used its first 17.Yediot carried extensive criticism of the Indian commando operation and the length of time it took to overcome the militants. Ten terrorists, who, according to the findings of the investigation, arrived by rubber raft at the shore of Mumbai carrying machine guns, grenades and dry rations in their luggage, succeeded -- almost inconceivably -- in keeping almost 1,000 commando troops and counter-terrorism combat units occupied for three days, in several battle sites, one article said. But the Israeli foreign ministry put out a statement to domestic media distancing itself from such criticism. We are convinced that the Indian forces did everything they could to prevent harm from coming to the captives and civilians during the storming of the Chabad House, Yediot's website quoted ministry spokesman Yossi Levi as saying.

Tills ring out for Christmas in Bethlehem By Alastair Macdonald Alastair Macdonald – Sun Nov 30, 12:32 pm

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) – Jingle Bells rang out over Manger Square on Sunday as Bethlehem opened a Christmas market that the Palestinian city hopes will help cap a boom year for tourism with a profitable festive season.It has been an excellent year, Bethlehem's mayor Victor Batarseh said, forecasting 1.25 million visitors by the end of 2008 and noting a halving in local unemployment.We don't have any empty beds. Two years ago, all the hotels were empty.Trade in the biblical birthplace of Jesus was devastated when a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in 2000 -- months after a papal visit and millennium celebrations had seemed to lock in a rosy future for Bethlehem as a magnet for tourists and pilgrims in a region aglow with hopes for peace.Eight years on, hopes for a final settlement with Israel have faded, like the patched up bullet holes in the Nativity Church which bear witness to a five-week siege in 2002. But a decline in violence has tempted back tourists who no longer fear suicide bombers and gunbattles erupting in the streets.We have witnessed a rebound in tourism, said Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's tourism minister as she toured the handicrafts and festive decorations on sale from wooden booths in the German-style Christmas market.

We have put Palestine back on the map as a destination, she added, noting hotel occupancy rates were now typically above 70 percent, compared to 10 percent a few years ago.Israelis attribute some of that calm on the streets of nearby Jerusalem to the construction of hundreds of kilometers (miles) of walls and fencing around the West Bank. People in Bethlehem blame the barrier for discouraging visitors, who must pass through Israeli military checkpoints to reach the city.When we came, we saw the watch tower. It's not so good for Christians, said Kinga Mirowska, 24, from Krakow, Poland as she headed for the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born to Mary in a manger because Bethlehem's inns were full.

STRESS AND PRAYER

Khalil Salahat runs a souvenir store packed with olive wood crucifixes and Nativity cribs. Unlike many neighbors, whose shops remain shuttered even in the Advent season before Christmas, Salahat stuck through the lean years but is not about to declare all his problems over as world recession looms:It's better than last year, he said, looking forward also to an expected visit by Pope Benedict in May to bring a boost.

But the tourists believe the Israelis -- they're scared of the Palestinians and they leave their money behind when they come here. It would be better without the wall, the occupation.It is a sentiment echoed by Palestinian officials.Unless the occupation stops, we will always be under economic stress and psychological stress, Mayor Batarseh said.Daibes-Abu Dayyeh saw tourism and peace intertwined: We see tourism as a tool to achieve peace in the Holy Land ... and to break the isolation from the outside world.Yet many tourists get only a fleeting glimpse of Palestinian life. Many prefer to stay in Israeli-run Jerusalem, 10 km (6 miles) away. Burgeoning numbers of east European pilgrims are bused in on whirlwind day-trips from Egypt's winter sun resorts on the Red Sea, a five-hour desert drive to the south.Even with more time, Bethelehem can be a confusing place -- a mainly Muslim city where the call to prayer from the mosque on Manger Square drowned out the Christmas carols playing for the tourists and where palm trees and warm sunshine contrasted with the snow-capped Santa Claus figures on sale at the market. But for many Christians it remains a moving experience. This is the home of Christmas, said Dennis Thomson, an American working in Jerusalem, who was visiting on Sunday. This is so important to our world, said Violetta Krupova, a retired Russian doctor from St. Petersburg, who was visibly moved as she left the church where local priests wafted incense and chanted Latin. I have wanted to come here for so long.(Additional reporting by Mustafa Abu Ganiyeh; editing by Michael Roddy)

Unquiet grave: West Bank tomb a magnet for strife By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer – Sat Nov 29, 5:07 pm ET

HEBRON, West Bank – With its dueling street names, barbed wire barricades and the tomb of a shared patriarch split between two religions, the city of Abraham takes the feud between Israelis and Palestinians to its outer limits.Even a humble olive harvest is a cue for violence in Hebron, where 600 of Israel's most radical citizens have carved out an enclave bristling with guns and watchtowers in the midst of 170,000 Palestinians.Yet for all the city's complexities, the essence of Hebron's anguish is simple: one forefather, one city and two peoples — one feeling invaded, the other convinced it has come back to its biblical birthright, right down to the deed of sale recounted in the Book of Genesis, when Abraham purchased a burial plot for 400 silver shekels.Jews and Arabs both claim descent from the biblical patriarch, but their relationship in Hebron is anything but brotherly.Fearful of a peace deal that would lead to their evacuation, the settlers are growing increasingly violent, throwing rocks, assaulting farmers and even taking on Israeli soldiers — all to show their government how difficult any withdrawal from the West Bank will be.This is the heart of the people of Israel, said 39-year-old Hebron settler Amikam Lederer, standing in a courtyard outside the Abraham Our Father synagogue, a short walk from the tomb. Normal people do not give their heart to someone else.

According to Islamic, Jewish and Christian belief, Hebron, in the southern West Bank hills, is where not only Abraham — Ibrahim to Muslims — is buried, but also the patriarchs Isaac and Jacob and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah.But two massacres define the city as much as religion. In 1929 rampaging Arabs killed 67 Jews, and in 1994 a Jewish extremist named Baruch Goldstein shot dead 29 Palestinians praying at the mosque surrounding Abraham's grave.All this history, dating as far back as 3,800 years, weighs heavily on the latest initiative by Mideast peacemakers — the deployment in Hebron of some 600 Palestinian troops, mostly trained in Jordan under U.S. guidance. They are here to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and keep the Islamic militants of Hamas in check.While the move has enjoyed some success, with dozens of wanted gunmen arrested, it is also fraught with peril. Though the new forces are supposed to avoid the fifth of the city that remains under Israeli military control, any clash with settlers or soldiers could undermine their mission of helping create the conditions needed for peace.Hebron embodies the Israeli nationalist vision born after the 1967 Mideast War of reclaiming the Promised Land and filling it with Jewish settlers.In that war, Israel captured Hebron along with the West Bank, and Jews immediately began pressing for the right to move back into the city from which their forerunners had been expelled in 1929.Initially, they were housed in a new suburb, Kiryat Arba, outside the Arab-populated city, but after Palestinians gunned down six settlers on their way home from prayers at the tomb in 1980, the government retaliated by allowing settlers to move in near the tomb, living in buildings that had belonged to Jews until the 1929 bloodbath.The frictions have been constant. To get to the tomb from Kiryat Arba, worshippers ride a bulletproof bus on what Jews call King David Street, and which Palestinians call Martyrs Street. Wire mesh and metal bars protect Palestinian homes from settlers hurling stones and bottles from above.Black paint now covers the words Death to Arabs on the door of Nidal Jabari's grocery store in Hebron. The Palestinian says he hardly gets any business these days because of settler harassment.In the plaza in front of the high-walled Ibrahimi mosque over Abraham's tomb, the silence is shattered by dueling loudspeakers — Israeli nationalist songs vs. the muezzin calling the Muslim faithful to prayer five times a day.A strictly enforced timetable sets separate hours for Jews and Muslims to pray at the tomb.

Whole streets along the way to the tomb have been cleared of Palestinian stores, leading to what the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem calls the economic collapse of the center of Hebron.The decline has been most marked in the eight years since the Palestinians unleashed their second uprising against Israel. Of the hundreds of Israelis killed in suicide bombings and other attacks, 31 were Hebron settlers. During that time, 195 Palestinians died in Hebron fighting while curfews confined the Arab population to their homes in the Israeli-controlled section of the city for months at a time. Thousands simply moved away. Some shops and businesses were closed by army order, others because of extensive restrictions on Palestinian movement. If a customer is stopped by the Israeli army he will not shop there, said Hisham Sharabati, a human rights worker. It's an indirect message that says don't come back to this area.The Israeli government maintains it has had no choice but to adopt stern measures to protect the settlers from militant violence. The settlers used to enjoy broad public sympathy. Viewed as pioneers, they were allowed to operate with impunity for decades. But now they sense that this sympathy is waning as Israelis increasingly are seeking ways to disentangle themselves from the West Bank and end the war. And this in turn is driving the hard-liners to greater extremes. After the army demolished an illegal settlement outpost near the city, settlers attacked an Israeli policeman, vandalized a Muslim cemetery and slashed the tires of two dozen Arab-owned cars. What most irked Israelis was a settler declaring on the radio that the troops involved in dismantling the outpost deserved the same fate as Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive for more than two years by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Nowhere are tensions more acute than at a four-story, unfinished house where 14 Jewish families live under round-the-clock army protection. Twenty months later they are still there. The Defense Ministry has decided they must go, but evacuation deadlines haven't been met.

The settlers have named it House of Peace, but clash frequently with their neighbors. On a recent day, settlers carrying automatic rifles walked in and out past a photo of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Jewish militant leader assassinated by a Muslim extremist in New York in 1990. When a Jew bows his head in the Land of Israel and doesn't believe that the country belongs to us, the Arabs feel wonderful and they hurt us, says Ruth Hizmi, a mother of seven and grandmother of six who lives in the House of Peace. When they feel that Jews are strong ... they go away.But they have a worsening image problem in Israel. Their critics have been galvanized by B'Tselem, the rights group, and Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli army veterans who take Israelis on tours of Hebron's flash points. B'Tselem hands out video cameras to Palestinians, then makes the footage public. In one video that caused a stir in Israel, a Jewish woman tells a Palestinian woman to stay behind a gate. Sit here, in the cage, the settler taunts. When the Palestinian refuses, she hisses: You're a whore, and your daughters, too.Another video shows children as young as 4 throwing debris at Palestinians while a black-bearded man in a skullcap looks on. Olives have become a factor in the conflict, as settlers try to chase Palestinian farmers away from land near settlements. In one recent incident, they punched a 53-year-old British woman who was trying to shield farmers from attack.

Increasingly, Israelis are asking why their government doesn't intervene. The reason, says Gershom Gorenberg, author of a history of the settlers, is that Hebron has a place in ancient Jewish history and modern Zionist history that has an emotional resonance that works against making a practical decision about it.Under accords signed in the 1990s, Abbas' government controls 80 percent of Hebron and Israel the other 20 percent. Some 30,000 Palestinians live in the Israeli-run area, and they complain that it has become a refuge for drug gangs and common criminals, immune from both their own law and from Israeli troops whose orders are to protect Jewish settlers, not stop Palestinian crime. Sharabati, the rights worker, described a scene of young Palestinians smoking hashish directly below an Israeli army watchtower, the smoke wafting up through the windows to the booth where the soldiers sat. Israeli surveillance is everywhere. Abdel Kareem Hadad, a Palestinian living in the Israeli-controlled area, has an army camera bolted to his house. It began moving as he sat on his porch one recent morning, at one point cueing directly at him as he spoke. This is for their security, not our security, Hadad said.