Palestinians intensify settlement products boycott
MAY 18,10
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Hundreds of volunteers in the West Bank have begun distributing a list of 500 Israeli settlement products they want Palestinian consumers to boycott.Tuesday's door-to-door drive by university students is part of an intensifying Palestinian campaign against settlement goods.Israel has built dozens of settlements on captured land the Palestinians want for a state. Palestinian leaders say Palestinians must do whatever they can to deprive settlements of a lifeline.Last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a law banning work in settlements and the sale of settlement products.Israel has reacted angrily. The Israelis say business should not be mixed with politics and urging Palestinians to call off the campaign.
Hamas executes three Palestinians in Gaza Strip
MAY 18,10
GAZA (Reuters) – Gaza's Hamas-run government executed three Palestinians convicted of murder on Tuesday, ignoring appeals by human rights groups against capital punishment in the territory.Amer Jendeya, Rami Joha and Mater al-Shobaki were sentenced to death in 2005 over separate killings.Their execution, which Hamas described as a response to popular demand to impose law and order, followed the deaths by firing squad in April of two Palestinians convicted of collaborating with Israel.The executions last month were the first in the Gaza Strip since 2005 and drew calls from Palestinian rights groups and London-based Amnesty International not to press ahead with the practice.Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 in fighting with Palestinian President Mahoud Abbas's Fatah faction. Hamas is shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Israel rejects Qatar diplomatic overtures: report
Tue May 18, 2:01 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has rejected two offers from Qatar to re-establish diplomatic ties and reopen an Israeli trade office in the Gulf state, Haaretz newspaper reported Tuesday.The overtures were rejected due to a demand from the Qataris that they be allowed to carry out massive reconstruction in the besieged Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the paper said, quoting an unnamed senior Israeli official.
Qatar severed ties with the Jewish state and shut the trade office in Doha to protest Israel's fierce 22-day assault on Gaza that began in December 2008 to end militant rocket attacks.Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the fighting. Since the end of the conflict Israel and Egypt have maintained a strict blockade of the strip, allowing in only humanitarian aid.Haaretz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman initially welcomed the move but ultimately baulked at allowing the import of large quantities of cement and building materials into Gaza.Israel feared the material would be used to build bunkers and reinforced positions for missiles,Haaretz quoted the official as saying.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment.Israel has agreed in the past to let Qatar and France reconstruct the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City which was destroyed in the war.
Abbas to meet US envoy on Wednesday: Palestinians
Mon May 17, 9:18 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is to meet US envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday to discuss final-status issues in indirect peace talks with Israel, the chief Palestinian negotiator said.Mitchell will then meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The discussions between Abbas and Mitchell on Wednesday will concern final-status issues with Israel, head Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP, referring to core disputes in the decades-old conflict such as Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.For now we will focus on the issues of borders and security in order to demarcate two states along the 1967 border,he added.He warned however that continued Israeli settlement activity, including in annexed east Jerusalem, could scupper the talks.The Israeli side has just two options, either peace or the continuation of the settlements. Israel cannot have both at the same time,he said.US officials have said Mitchell is expected in the region this week but they have not yet said when he would arrive or released details about his schedule.
Mitchell left the region a week ago after convincing Israel and the Palestinians to launch an initial round of US-mediated proximity talks.The indirect negotiations were first agreed on in March but the initiative collapsed within days when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.The Palestinians eventually agreed to the talks after receiving US assurances that the project would be frozen.Israel, which captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day war and later annexed it, considers the Holy City its eternal and indivisible capital, a claim not recognised by the international community.The Palestinians have always demanded mostly Arab east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.The last round of direct negotiations between the two sides collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip in a bid to halt Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israeli towns.
Israeli coalition wobbly on peace terms: minister
By Douglas Hamilton – Mon May 17, 2:29 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's six-party, center-right coalition is divided as Israel heads into indirect peace talks with the Palestinians, a cabinet minister said on Sunday.I can't say the coalition is united. That would be a lie if I told you that, said Trade and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of the Labour Party -- the only left-wing group in the government and an advocate of conceding land for peace.U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy George Mitchell, who is mediating in the proximity talks, is to resume meetings on Tuesday, in the first substantive sessions since the Palestinians agreed to the indirect negotiations, which have been given a maximum of four months to produce results.
Ben-Eliezer did not give a rundown of where the six Israeli coalition partners stand on the peace process, but he said the skeptical views of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a hawk who leads the rightwing Israel My Home party, were known.
Netanyahu also does not have the wholesale support of his own rightist Likud bloc, the largest in the coalition, according to Ben-Eliezer.A majority back the prime minister, but not 100 percent,he told reporters at an informal briefing. Netanyahu had the strong support of younger Likud members, he added.
NO GRAND COALITION IN SIGHT
The Palestinians are deeply and openly divided about peace with Israel. The Islamist Hamas movement controlling the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million Palestinians live, rejects outright a peace agreement that would recognize the Jewish state.The Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, which holds sway in the occupied West Bank, agreed under strong U.S. pressure to resume talks, without obtaining the formal Israeli pledge to totally freeze settlements that it had insisted on.But Ben-Eliezer stressed that everything is on the table as talks restart after a long hiatus, including Israeli settlements and the future status of Jerusalem.Netanyahu has pledged that Jerusalem is Israel's eternal capital and will not be divided. The Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of their country under a two-state solution -- a goal Netanyahu backs in principle.The Israeli leader is also under pressure from Obama, who says solving the conflict is a vital security interest of the United States as it battles anti-Western Islamist militancy.
Unconfirmed Israeli media reports at the weekend said Washington had signaled to Netanyahu that his coalition might sound as defiant as it liked for internal political purposes, provided its actions only advance the peace process.Netanyahu formed the coalition just over 13 months ago after the outgoing center-right Kadima party led by then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni failed to secure a parliamentary majority to carry on in office.Direct peace talks between that government and the Palestinian Authority of Abbas were showing few outward signs of progress and were suspended in late 2008.Speculation that Livni might join Netanyahu in a grand coalition with the political power to make major concessions for peace and override the objections of smaller, far-right parties has not so far been borne out.
Kadima is itself struggling with internal divisions.Ben-Eliezer, a fluent Arab-speaker who has accompanied Netanyahu on three occasions for talks about the stalled peace process with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, said he was convinced that the Israeli leader is determined to make peace. Labour had joined Netanyahu's coalition in order to use its influence on the inside to guarantee that the peace process will start.But the popular mood in Israel is shifting to the right, he added, and only a right-wing leader can lead such a dramatic breakthrough.He said of Netanyahu: I believe he can do it.(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
Israeli left flies flag to urge end to occupation By Alastair Macdonald – Sun May 16, 11:22 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A weekend rally in Jerusalem by Israelis demanding an end to their country's settlement and occupation of the West Bank was hailed by its left-wing sponsors as the start of a major push that could help U.S. peace efforts.But the turnout of just a couple of thousand people drew scorn from settlers, who count on the rightist-led government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resist President Barack Obama's drive for a deal to establish a Palestinian state.This is a beginning,said one of the rally's organizers, Yariv Oppenheimer of the anti-settlement Peace Now group, promising to step up public campaigning.It's a good turnout.A crowd of 2,000 or so -- a shadow of the mass peace rallies of the 1990s but an improvement on recent attempts to galvanize support -- waved blue-and-white Israeli flags and placards reading Zionists Are Not Settlers on a warm Saturday evening.Speaker after speaker told them they were the true patriots defending a Jewish state which risked disaster if nationalists on the right held on to occupied land so that Palestinians under Israel's rule would soon outnumber its 5.5 million Jews.We want a Jewish state for the Jewish people with clear, recognized borders, not a Jewish state built on settlements and discrimination,said Eldad Yaniv, a founder last year of the National Left, one of several new groups arguing Israel must quit Arab land to remain a democracy with a Jewish majority.Accused of treason and of being anti-Zionist by the national camp comprising religious settlers and their backers on Israel's right, the National Left's manifesto focuses on establishing its own credentials as defenders of a Zionist state whose founding generation were mostly secular socialists.These people are getting more aggressive about being Zionist,said David Ricci, a politics professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University who took part in the rally.It's kind of new: they're saying a Palestinian state is in our interests.
SHOWING OBAMA
For Anat Maor, a former member of parliament for the small, left-wing Meretz party, the evening showed Israel's peace camp was still alive: It's important to us to show that it's not just outside pressure. It is the voice of the people of Israel.
Reflecting skepticism about Netanyahu's good faith in saying he wants a two-state solution with the Palestinians, one man held a sign reading: Barack Obama, Please Force Peace On Us.I'm here because my country is being taken away from me by the right, said Zohar Eviatar, a psychology professor at Haifa University, as she waved a blue-and-white flag.Yonat, a 26-year-old youth worker, said as the national anthem concluded the rally on downtown Jaffa Road: Originally Zionism is a left-wing ideology. The right has taken Zionism in a fascist direction but the flag and anthem are ours.About 500,000 Jews, some citing a Biblical birthright, live in the West Bank and areas in and around East Jerusalem that Israel captured in a 1967 war. Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.While opinion polls continue to show mainstream support for a two-state solution outweighs opposition to handing over occupied land, voters deserted left-wing parties in droves after a Palestinian uprising began in 2000. They have yet to recover.
The long dominant Labour party of state founder David Ben-Gurion and the late, peacemaking premier Yitzhak Rabin has had just 13 of 120 seats in parliament since the election last year that brought Netanyahu's right-wing Likud back to power.Many on Saturday wore blue T-shirts bearing the faces of Ben-Gurion and Rabin, who was assassinated at a peace rally in 1995 by an Israeli rightist. They heard Achinoam Nini, a singer who also performed on the night Rabin was shot, tell them from the platform: We must take our fate in our own hands.Netanyahu, pressed by the Obama administration, last year dropped his outright opposition to a Palestinian state. But few analysts believe the conflict is close to resolution, despite a resumption of negotiations this month via U.S. mediators. Settler leader Danny Dayan scoffed: The total failure of the new, united left movement to bring out more than a handful of demonstrators ... proves once again that the overwhelming majority of Israelis recognize that the Jewish residents of Yesha (the occupied territories) are true Zionists.With a dose of self-deprecating humor on behalf of the aging baby-boomers and idealistic youngsters gathered to fly the flag of Israel's left, politics professor Ricci said: This is group therapy. It's important that people come out and know that there are other people like me and that it's not all over.(Editing by Tim Pearce)
Russia arms sales to Syria don't help peace: Israel
Sun May 16, 6:51 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday criticised Russia for supplying arms to Syria, saying the move did not help efforts to bring peace to the region.The sale of these weapons does not contribute to building an atmosphere of peace, Lieberman told Israel's public radio in what was an unusually muted statement from the outspoken minister.Lieberman's remarks came just days after a top Russian military official said Moscow was supplying Syria with MiG-29 fighter jets, Pantsir short-range air defence systems and armoured vehicles.He also insisted the regime of Bashar al-Assad was not interested in peace, and described as naive anyone who believed Syria would be ready to cut ties with Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in exchange for a return of the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Six Day War.Israel and Syria remain technically in a state of war, and Russia's arms sales and possible nuclear cooperation with Syria, which has close ties to Iran, is unnerving for both the Jewish state and Washington.
Israel has also accused Syria of supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles.
Lieberman also fired a further salvo of criticism over Russia's hypocritical stance on terrorism after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held talks with exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal during a visit to Damascus.Following the visit, Medvedev and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul called for the radical Islamist movement, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, to be included in the peace process -- in a move which drew a furious response from Israel.Russia, but also Egypt and Turkey as well as other countries, have a policy of differentiating between good and bad terrorism, between that which targets Israel and that which targets others,Lieberman said.We will not accept any ultimatum with regard to Hamas, and we won't let this movement take part in any peace process,he said.
Gaza-Egypt border post opens for three days: Hamas
Sat May 15, 7:02 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – An Egyptian border post at Rafah in southern Gaza was opened on Saturday for the first time in 10 weeks, the Islamist movement Hamas which controls the blockaded Palestinian territory said.Its interior ministry said around 300 Palestinians had crossed the border on Saturday and that 8,000 others were expected to follow during the opening due to last three days.The 1.5 million residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip have largely relied on a network of tunnels under the Egyptian border since Israel and Egypt tightened an already strict closure after Hamas seized power in 2007.Most of the tunnels are used to bring in basic goods such as food, household appliances and livestock, but Hamas and other militant groups use more secret tunnels to bring in arms and money.Egypt is building an underground wall in a bid to curb smuggling, which it views as a security risk.
Russia to sell Syria warplanes, air defense systems
Fri May 14, 3:16 pm ET
MOSCOW/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Russia has signed deals to sell Syria warplanes, anti-tank weapons and air defense systems, a senior Russian arms trader said on Friday, prompting an outcry from Syria's foe Israel.Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Russia would supply Syria with MiG-29 fighters, truck-mounted Pantsir short-range surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery systems.He said Russia would also supply Damascus with anti-tank weapons but did not specify their type.Syria's regional foe Israel reacted angrily to the deal but called into question the solvency of Damascus.Syria at the present time cannot afford to pay for this sophisticated weaponry, indeed, it has hardly enough money to buy food for its citizens. One can only wonder what is the real reason behind this dubious deal, said an Israeli government official in Jerusalem who declined to be named.Israel's close ally the United States imposed sanctions on Syria for its support of militant groups and corruption.Earlier this week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Syria -- the first visit to Damascus by a Moscow ruler since the 1917 Bolshevik revolution -- and oversaw talks on Russia's possible assistance in building a nuclear power plant in Syria.While in Syria, Medvedev unnerved Israel by paying a visit to Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.Russia's haste to win this contract has seen it even willing to meet with notorious Hamas leaders in Syria, the anonymous Israeli official said.Israel's Foreign Ministry said it was deeply disappointed that Medvedev met the leader of Hamas, which it said was a terror organization in every way.(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; editing by Jon Boyle)
U.N. seeks torture probes in Syria, Yemen, Jordan By Stephanie Nebehay – Fri May 14, 10:37 am ET
GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations torture watchdog urged Syria, Yemen and Jordan Friday to investigate what it called numerous and credible allegations that their police and prison authorities routinely tortured detainees.Its 10 independent experts also voiced concern at honor crimes by family members in Syria and Jordan which go unpunished and violence against women and children in Yemen.Their conclusions on a total of eight countries were issued at the end of a three-week meeting.In Yemen, it voiced alarm at killings, forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests and indefinite detentions without charge or trial carried out in the context of the fight against terrorism.There was a climate of impunity for perpetrators of acts of torture in Yemen,the U.N. Committee against Torture said.No exceptional circumstances whatsoever can be invoked as a justification for torture and...anti-terrorism measures must be implemented with full respect for international human rights law,it added.Yemen's government, struggling to stabilize a fractious country in which central authority is often weak, faces international pressure to quell domestic conflicts in order to fight a resurgent al Qaeda.
The U.N. torture watchdog also voiced concern at reports it had received that Syria has set up secret detention facilities under the command of intelligence services, where inmates are held incommunicado and subject to cruel treatment.It cited numerous reports of torture, ill-treatment, death in custody and incommunicado detention of people belonging to the Kurdish minority, in large part stateless, in particular political activists of Kurdish origin.Moreover, the committee notes with concern reports of a growing trend of deaths of Kurdish conscripts who have died whilst carrying out their mandatory military service and whose bodies were returned to the families with evidence of severe injuries,it said of Syria.The U.N. experts urged Syrian authorities to clarify the case of Muhannad al-Hassani, president of the Syrian Organization for Human Rights, who was arrested last July on charges of weakening national sentiment.A lawyer who has defended leading opposition figures, he won an international human rights award last week [ID:nLDE6461J1].(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)
Obama seeks funds to boost Israeli rocket defenses
Thu May 13, 6:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama has asked Congress to approve 205 million dollars to help Israel deploy an anti-missile defense system, the White House said Thursday.The president recognizes the threat missiles and rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah pose to Israelis, and has therefore decided to seek funding from Congress to support the production of Israel's short range rocket defense system called Iron Dome, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.Israel completed tests in January on its Iron Dome anti-missile system, designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells fired at Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah.The next phase in its development is to integrate it into the army. Israel hopes the system will provide it with a means to deal with rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and from Lebanon.Palestinian militants have fired thousands of home-made rockets into southern Israel, prompting Israel's devastating assault on the Islamist Hamas in Gaza on December 27, 2008.The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah also fired some 4,000 rockets into northern Israel during a 2006 war with Israel, which now believes Hezbollah has an arsenal of some 40,000 rockets.As the president has repeatedly said, our commitment to Israel?s security is unshakable and our defense relationship is stronger than ever,said Vietor.The United States and our ally Israel share many of the same security challenges, from combating terrorism to confronting the threat posed by Iran?s nuclear-weapons program.
The move comes after ties between Israel and its key ally the US were strained by an announcement of new Israeli settler homes in east Jerusalem made during a visit to the Jewish state by Vice President Joe Biden.Israel's President Shimon Peres also sparked controversy in April when he accused Syria of supplying the Shiite Hezbollah movement with long-range Scud missiles, a charge Damascus has staunchly denied.
Washington, which has sought rapprochement with Damascus, further fed the controversy when Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with sophisticated weaponry, without naming Scuds.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the risks of triggering a regional war if he supplied the Shiite group with the missiles.Fragile indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas opened Sunday with US envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the two sides in Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Hamas hails Russian, Turkish call for inclusion in peace
Thu May 13, 1:16 pm ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Hamas hailed Russia and Turkey on Thursday for suggesting the Palestinian Islamist movement be included in the Middle East peace process.The invitation by Russia and Turkey to include the movement in the political process reflects the true political weight of the movement,senior Hamas leader Salah al-Bardawil said.Recognition of the legitimacy of Hamas will increase to include other countries besides Russia, he said.Hamas, which seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union and Israel.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Turkish President Abudllah Gul said in Ankara on Wednesday that Hamas should not be excluded from Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, sparking Israel's ire.
World newspaper forum called off due to crises
Thu May 13, 5:55 am ET
BEIRUT – A Lebanese newspaper says the global financial crisis coupled with regional tensions have derailed its hosting of a world gathering of newspaper executives and editors planned for next month.The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers has said that the World Newspaper Conference that was to be held in Beirut from June 7-10 was canceled because Lebanese host An-Nahar was not able to provide the agreed funding for the event.A World Editors Forum planned at the same time in the Lebanese capital was rescheduled for October 6-8 in Hamburg, Germany.
An-Nahar said Thursday it deeply regretted the cancellation. It said the global financial crisis and repeated Israeli war threats against Lebanon scared away advertisers and sponsors of the event.Regional tensions have risen recently over Israeli claims that Syria has provided Lebanon's Hezbollah with advanced missiles. Syria and Lebanon's Western-backed government have denied the accusations which provoked exchanges of warnings between Israel and Hezbollah.The 2010 world newspapers congress would have marked the first time the newspaper executives' meeting was held in an Arab nation.About 700 senior newspaper executives were registered for the Beirut events.
Israel defiant on settlements as it marks Jerusalem Day by Hazel Ward – Wed May 12, 2:56 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday that construction would continue unabated in all of Jerusalem, as he addressed a ceremony marking the 43rd anniversary of Israel's capture of the city's Arab eastern sector.
You can't flourish in a divided city and a flourishing city can't be divided or frozen, Netanyahu said.We will continue to build and develop ourselves in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have warned that continued construction in Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem will torpedo newly launched indirect peace talks which are being brokered by the United States.They want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their promised state but Israel, which captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and then annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community, lays claim to the entire city as its eternal, indivisible capital.Each year, Israelis celebrate the anniversary, known as Jerusalem Day, with parties, parades and solemn ceremony.Festivities kicked off at sundown on Tuesday with an open-air concert by US funk band Kool and the Gang and continued through the night with prayers and gatherings.
Security was tight, with thousands of police deployed across the city to ensure the festivities went off without a hitch.Several thousands of police and border police have been mobilised, with the deployment of forces particularly high in the Old City,police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.On Wednesday, thousands of people, mostly nationalist-religious Jews, marched through Jerusalem to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.Netanyahu spoke in an evening memorial ceremony, attended by President Shimon Peres and other officials, at Ammunition Hill where Israeli troops fought a fierce battle with Jordanian forces in 1967.Tensions in and around Jerusalem have soared in recent months over the deeply controversial issue of Jewish construction in east Jerusalem.Despite US assurances to the Palestinians that Israel would freeze some settlement activity in the eastern sector for the next two years, Israel has denied making any such commitment.There is no agreement about freezing building in east Jerusalem and normal life in Jerusalem will continue as in every other city in Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists during a visit to Tokyo.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also insisted that there would be no halt to construction in the united and undivided Holy City.The municipal borders of Jerusalem are not negotiable and building will continue across all of the city under Israeli sovereignty, Barkat told army radio.Israel marks Jerusalem Day in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.It captured east Jerusalem on June 7, 1967, the third day of the Six-Day War, and unilaterally annexed it.In 1980, Israel passed a law declaring Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital. Israeli human rights groups say the Holy City is sharply divided and that Palestinian residents suffer from discrimination. Jewish settlements and the status of Jerusalem are among the thorniest issues in the Middle East peace process.
US signals unease over Russian-Syrian civilian nuclear talks
Wed May 12, 2:41 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States signaled unease Wednesday with Russia-Syria nuclear talks, saying countries looking at energy cooperation with Damascus should be aware of Syrian shortcomings on nuclear matters.What concerns us is ... Syria has not answered questions that have been raised about its compliance with the NPT, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.And all countries that contemplate energy cooperation need to take that into account, Crowley said when asked about Russian-Syrian civilian nuclear talks.
During a visit to Damascus on Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev voiced Moscow's readiness to build a nuclear power station in Syria as it has long been doing in Iran, Syria's main regional ally.The use of nuclear energy can get a second wind in Syria, Medvedev said, without elaborating.
Netanyahu turns to Bible in tussle over Jerusalem By Dan Williams – Wed May 12, 1:03 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Beset by questions about Jerusalem's future in talks with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached for the Bible on Wednesday to stake out the Jewish state's contested claim on the city.Netanyahu told a parliamentary session commemorating Israel's capture of East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war that Jerusalem and its alternative Hebrew name Zion appear 850 times in the Old Testament, Judaism's core canon.As to how many times Jerusalem is mentioned in the holy scriptures of other faiths, I recommend you check, he said.
Citing such ancestry, Israel calls all of Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital -- a designation not recognized abroad, where many powers support Arab claims to East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.The dispute is further inflamed by the fact East Jerusalem houses al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine, on a plaza that Jews revere as the vestige of two biblical Jewish temples.Heckled by a lawmaker from Israel's Arab minority, Netanyahu offered a lesson in comparative religion from the lectern.Because you asked: Jerusalem is mentioned 142 times in the New Testament, and none of the 16 various Arabic names for Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran. But in an expanded interpretation of the Koran from the 12th century, one passage is said to refer to Jerusalem,he said.
Responding to Netanyahu's citations, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said: I find it very distasteful, this use of religion to incite hatred and fear. East Jerusalem is an occupied Palestinian town, and East Jerusalem cannot continue to be occupied if there is to be peace.
MANY RULERS
Destroyed as a Jewish capital by the Romans in the 1st century AD, Jerusalem was a Christian city under their Byzantine successors before falling to Muslim Arabs in the 7th. European Crusaders regained it for a century, after which came 700 years of Muslim rule until Britain defeated the Ottoman Turks in 1917.As Britain prepared to quit, the United Nations proposed international rule for the city in 1947 as a corpus separatum.That proposal was overtaken by fighting that left Israel holding West Jerusalem in 1948 and Jordanian forces in East Jerusalem. Israel then took the rest in the Six Day War of 1967.The city, within boundaries defined by Israel but not recognized internationally, is now home to 750,000 people, two in three of them Jews and the rest mostly Muslim Palestinians.Netanyahu did not refer in his speech to indirect peace negotiations with the Palestinians that resumed this month after 1-1/2 years of U.S. trouble-shooting. Diplomacy has been mired by mutual recrimination, including from Israel over the Palestinian refusal to formally recognize it as a Jewish state.This has ossified into diehard hostility among Palestinians aligned with Islamist Hamas, while those more inclined toward peacemaking accuse Israel of sabotaging prospects by treating occupied land as a Jewish birthright that can be freely seized.
Netanyahu said Israel would retain control over all of Jerusalem while ensuring freedom of worship at its holy sites.Such assertions are challenged by Palestinians given that Israel, over the last decade of fighting, has often limited their access to al-Aqsa. Christians in the adjacent West Bank complain of similar difficulties in reaching Jerusalem churches.There is no undercutting, nor do I intend to undercut, the connection of others to Jerusalem, Netanyahu said. But I do confront the attempt to undercut and warp or obfuscate the unique connection that we, the people of Israel, have to the capital of Israel.(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
Israel blasts Russian talks with Hamas
Wed May 12, 12:44 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel sharply criticised Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday for having met the exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal in the Syrian capital Damascus.The foreign ministry also sharply rejected what it said was a call from Medvedev and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul to include Hamas in the peace process.There is no difference between Hamas actions against Israel and Chechen terror against Russia, a ministry statement said.The foreign ministry vehemently rejects the call from the presidents of Russia and Turkey to include Hamas in the peace process and expresses deep disappointment over the meeting between the president of Russia and Khaled Meshaal in Damascus.Hamas is a terrorist organisation in every aspect, with the outspoken goal of destroying the state of Israel, it said in a statement.Hamas members are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, including Russian citizens, the statement added.Israel has always stood by Russia in its fight against Chechen terror and that is what we expect with regard to Hamas terror against Israel.
Medvedev met Meshaal at his base in exile in Damascus on Tuesday during a first ever visit to Syria by a Russian head of state.The Hamas leader has made three visits to Moscow, the most recent in February.Western governments continue to blacklist the Islamist movement which rules Gaza as a terrorist group despite its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006.
Israel FM: Iran, Syria, NKorea new axis of evil By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 12, 6:23 am ET
TOKYO – Israel's foreign minister on Wednesday declared North Korea, Syria and Iran the new axis of evil, claiming that North Korean weapons seized in Bangkok in December were bound for Middle Eastern militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a visit to Japan that the three countries are cooperating and pose the biggest threat to world security because they are building and spreading weapons of mass destruction.This axis of evil that includes North Korea, Syria and Iran, it's the biggest threat to the entire world,he told journalists in Tokyo.We saw this kind of cooperation only two or maybe three months ago with the North Korean plane in Bangkok with huge numbers of different weapons with the intention to smuggle these weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah, Lieberman said without elaborating.Axis of evil originated in then-President George W. Bush's first State of the Union address in 2002, where he named North Korea, Iran and Iraq as threats to the United States.
Acting on a tip from the United States, Thai authorities on Dec. 12 seized an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang when it landed in Bangkok. It was carrying 35 tons of weapons — a violation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea.Flight documents indicated the plane's cargo — listed as oil drilling equipment — was headed for the Iranian capital Tehran. Iranian officials denied they were importing weapons.Analysts have said that while the aircraft may have been heading for Iran, the weapons could actually have been earmarked for radical Middle Eastern groups like Hamas and Hezbollah which Iran has bankrolled and supplied with weapons in the past.The five-man crew — four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus — claimed they were ignorant of what they were carrying. The crew was deported in February after prosecutors dropped all charges against them.Thai authorities say the weapons on board included explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles.The U.N. imposed sanctions banning North Korea from exporting any arms after the communist regime conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. Impoverished North Korea is believed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar.Lieberman, who heads an ultranationalist party that is a junior partner in Israel's coaltion government, also claimed that missile programs in Iran and Syria were receiving crucial assistance from the North Korean side. He gave no evidence.
Israel has long accused Syria of aiding the Jewish state's bitterest enemies. Syria harbors the exiled leadership of Hamas and other anti-Israel Palestinian groups. Israel also says Syria funnels Iranian arms to Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla group that battled Israel to a stalemate in a one-month war in 2006.In recent weeks, Israel's president, Shimon Peres, has accused Syria of providing Scud missiles to Hezbollah, potentially upsetting the balance of power in the region, and claimed that North Korea is a duty free shop for weapons that reach Iran, Lebanon and Syria.
Lieberman, who met with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama during his visit, also said that the Israeli government is ready to start direct peace talks without preconditions with the Palestinians.The two sides completed the first round of U.S.-brokered, indirect peace talks over the weekend, resuming negotiations after a 17-month hiatus.It's not necessary to speak about conditions to open or to restart the direct talks,Lieberman said.We have our experience, and we signed two peace agreements with our neighbors — with Jordan and Egypt — as a result of direct talks, not proximity talks.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not hold direct talks until Israel stops all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the sector of the city Palestinians claim as a future capital. Israel has only agreed to a temporary slowdown in the West Bank, but not in east Jerusalem.Lieberman, heads an ultranationalist party that is Netanyahu's junior partner in the coalition also called for tough sanctions on Iran by the U.N. Security Council over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment. The United States and its allies fear Tehran will use the process to build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any intention to do so, saying its nuclear program aims only to generate electricity.Associated Press Writer Eric Talmadge in Tokyo and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
JERUSALEM-ETERNAL CAPITAL OF ISRAEL
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
SO WE KNOW JERUSALEM WILL BE DIVIDED.BUT WAIT, THE JERUSALEM COVENANT SAYS ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DIVIDED.SO HOW CAN PROPHECY BE FULFILLED.I BELIEVE JUST LIKE NOW THE TEMPLE MOUNT IS IN ISRAELS HANDS BUT THEY GAVE CONTROL OVER TO THE MUFFTI.IN THE FINAL 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY OF DANIEL 9:27-
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
TO BE SIGNED SHORTLY.THIS JERUSALEM COVENANT WILL COME INTO PLAY LiKE DANIEL 9:27 SAYS.ISRAEL I BELIEVE WILL KEEP JESUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT IN THEIR HANDS.BUT SOMEHOW WILL GIVE IN TO DIVIDING HALF OF JERUSALEM.THIS CAN ONLY EXPLAIN WHY THE ARAB-MUSLIM NATIONS ROUND ABOUT WILL BE SO TROUBLED AND WANT JERUSALEM AS THEIRS.AND WHY ELSE WOULD ALL NATIONS COME AGAINST ISRAEL TO TAKE JERUSALEM IF IT WAS NOT UNDER ISRAELS CONTROL.THIS EXPLAINS TO ME WHY THE JERUSALEM COVENANT WILL BE THE MAIN WAY THE EUROPEAN UNION WORLD DICTATOR GETS ISRAEL TO SIGN THE 7 YR TREATY.ISRAEL WILL SAY IF WE WILL NOT HAVE THE JERUSALEM COVENANT IN THE FINAL 7 YR TREATY THERE WILL BE NO DEAL AND YOU EUROPEAN UNION CAN NOT GUARD OUR SECURITY UNLESS ALL OF ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM STAY TOGETHER BUT WE WILL LIVE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE PALESTIANIANS AND GIVE THEM HALF OF JERUSALEM ONLY IF THE VATICAN CONTROLS THE PALESTINIAN HALF TO GUARD THE HOLY SITES AND THAT IN THE FINAL 7 YEAR TREATY WE-ISRAEL CAN REBUILD OUR 3RD TEMPLE AND DO SACRIFICES TO THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE EARTH (KING JESUS).
THIS IS HOW I BELIEVE THE TERMS WILL BE IN THE FINAL 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY OF DANIEL 9:27.BELOW IS THE WORDING OF THE JERUSALEM COVENANT THAT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DIVIDED AGAIN.ALWAYS TOGETHER FOREVER-ETERNAL AND IN THE FUTURE THE WORLD CAPITAL.
JEREMIAH 11:1-2
2 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
3 And say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,
Jerusalem Covenant WORDING
http://www.shalomjerusalem.com/jerusalem/jerusalem9.htm
As of this day, Jerusalem Day, the twenty-eight day of the month of Iyar in the year five thousand seven hundred fifty-two; one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two years after the destruction of the Second Temple; forty-four years since the founding of the State of Israel; twenty-five years since the Six Day War during which the Israel Defense Forces, in defense of our very existence, broke through the walls of the city and restored the Temple Mount and the unity of Jerusalem; twelve years since the Knesset of Israel re-established the Jerusalem, unified and whole, is the Capital of Israel; the State of Israel is the State of the Jewish People and the Capital of Israel is the Capital of the People of Israel. We have gathered together in Zion, national leaders and heads, of our communities everywhere, to enter into a covenant with Jerusalem, as was done by the leaders of our nation and all the people of Israel upon Israel's return to its Land from the Babylonian exile; and the people and their leaders vowed to dwell in Jerusalem, the Holy City.
Once again,our feet stand within your gates, O Jerusalem - Jerusalem built as a city joined together which unites the people of Israel to one another, and links heavenly Jerusalem with earthly Jerusalem.We have returned to the place that the Lord vowed to bestow upon the descendants of Abraham, Father of our Nation; to the City of David, King of Israel; where Solomon, son of David, built a Holy Temple; a Capital City which became the Mother of all Israel; a metropolis for justice and righteousness and for the wisdom and insights of the ancient world; where a Second Temple was erected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. In this city the prophets of the Lord prophesied; in the City the Sages taught Torah; in this City the Sanhedrin convened in session in its stone chamber. For there were the seats of Justice, the Throne of the House of David, for out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Today, as of old, we hold fast to the truth of the words of the Prophets of Israel, that all the inhabitants of the world shall enter within the gates of Jerusalem: And it shall come to pass at the end of days, the mountain of the House of the Lord will be well established at the peak of the mountains and will tower above the hills, and all the nation shall stream towards it.Each and every nation will live in it by its own faith: For all the nation will go forward, each with its own Divine Name; we shall go in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.And in this spirit the Knesset of the State of Israel has enacted a law: The places holy to the peoples of all religions shall be protected from any desecration and from any restriction of free access to them.
Jerusalem - peace and tranquility shall reign in the city: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may those who love you be tranquil. May there by peace within your walls, and tranquility within your palaces.Out of Jerusalem, a message of peace went forth and shall yet go forth again to all the inhabitants of the earth: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.Our sages, peace be upon them, said. In the future, The Holy One, the Blessed, will comfort Jerusalem only with peace.
From this place, we once again take this vow: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its strength; may my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not raise up Jerusalem at the very height of my rejoicing.
And with all these understandings, we enter into this Covenant and write: We shall bind you to us forever; we shall bind you to us with faithfulness, with righeousness and justice, with steadfast love and compassion. We love you, O Jerusalem, with eternal love, with unbounded love, under siege and when liberated from the yoke of oppressors. We have been martyred for you; we have yearned for you, we have clung to you. Our faithfulness to you we shall bequeath to our children after us. Forevermore our home shall be within you.
Israel pledges to keep Jerusalem undivided By GRANT SLATER, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 12, 1:05 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister pledged to keep Jerusalem undivided despite Palestinian claims to its eastern half, as Israelis celebrated the 43rd anniversary Wednesday of the city's reunification in the 1967 Mideast War.The Jewish section of Jerusalem took on a festive mood Wednesday with parades and speeches by political leaders, touching only lightly on the political explosiveness of the hotly contested city.Hundreds of youths, many carrying Israeli flags, marched in the annual Jerusalem Day parade from a main square in Jewish west Jerusalem toward the Old City. Earlier, an extremist Israeli group called the Temple Mount Faithful toted flags and banners through the Old City, demanding that Israel take full control of the hotly disputed holy site where the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven at the site.Walking in the parade through downtown toward east Jerusalem, Merav Adler, 18, said she was marching in support of Israel's keeping the whole city. It is very important for us to show that we can march from west to east, said Adler, who lives in the nearby West Bank settlement of Efrat.
Palestinian neighborhoods were mostly calm Wednesday, with residents ignoring the Israeli celebrations nearby.Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel annexed that sector shortly after the 1967 war, although no other country has recognized the Israeli claim.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Wednesday the city's boundaries are nonnegotiable, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said we will never go back to a divided Jerusalem that is cold and torn. Between 1949 and 1967, Jerusalem was split by concrete and barbed wire barriers between Israel and Jordan.The city is a key issue in U.S.-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts that resumed last week after a 17-month standstill. Palestinians demand that Israel stop all construction in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem. Israel has agreed to slow construction, but has rejected a total halt.In his Jerusalem Day speeches, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carefully avoided any provocative statements about continuing construction in all of Jerusalem, declarations he has made in the past. As part of the deal to restart peace talks, Netanyahu pledged to hold off on building in one of the neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and the U.S. has made it clear it would not accept announcements of additional projects there.Netanyahu's only references to construction were general, saying late Tuesday that Israelis are building it (Jerusalem) and will continue to build and develop it.
At the main Jerusalem Day ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the site of a bloody 1967 battle, Netanyahu said that recognition of the right of Jews to live in their country and to build their capital is not an obstacle to peace — it is the key to peace.Some past peace proposals envisioned Israelis and Palestinians administering their sections without a physical barrier dividing Jerusalem, but agreement was never reached.According to official Israeli statistics, 774,000 people live in Jerusalem. Two-thirds, or 511,000, are Jews. Of those, 192,800 live in east Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods. Arab residents of Jerusalem number 263,000, according to the Israeli government.
Israel defiant on settlements as it marks Jerusalem Day by Hazel Ward – Wed May 12, 2:56 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday that construction would continue unabated in all of Jerusalem, as he addressed a ceremony marking the 43rd anniversary of Israel's capture of the city's Arab eastern sector.
You can't flourish in a divided city and a flourishing city can't be divided or frozen, Netanyahu said. We will continue to build and develop ourselves in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have warned that continued construction in Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem will torpedo newly launched indirect peace talks which are being brokered by the United States.They want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their promised state but Israel, which captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and then annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community, lays claim to the entire city as its eternal, indivisible capital.Each year, Israelis celebrate the anniversary, known as Jerusalem Day, with parties, parades and solemn ceremony.Festivities kicked off at sundown on Tuesday with an open-air concert by US funk band Kool and the Gang and continued through the night with prayers and gatherings.Security was tight, with thousands of police deployed across the city to ensure the festivities went off without a hitch.Several thousands of police and border police have been mobilised, with the deployment of forces particularly high in the Old City, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.On Wednesday, thousands of people, mostly nationalist-religious Jews, marched through Jerusalem to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.
Netanyahu spoke in an evening memorial ceremony, attended by President Shimon Peres and other officials, at Ammunition Hill where Israeli troops fought a fierce battle with Jordanian forces in 1967.Tensions in and around Jerusalem have soared in recent months over the deeply controversial issue of Jewish construction in east Jerusalem.
Despite US assurances to the Palestinians that Israel would freeze some settlement activity in the eastern sector for the next two years, Israel has denied making any such commitment.There is no agreement about freezing building in east Jerusalem and normal life in Jerusalem will continue as in every other city in Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists during a visit to Tokyo.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also insisted that there would be no halt to construction in the united and undivided Holy City.The municipal borders of Jerusalem are not negotiable and building will continue across all of the city under Israeli sovereignty, Barkat told army radio.Israel marks Jerusalem Day in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.It captured east Jerusalem on June 7, 1967, the third day of the Six-Day War, and unilaterally annexed it.In 1980, Israel passed a law declaring Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital. Israeli human rights groups say the Holy City is sharply divided and that Palestinian residents suffer from discrimination. Jewish settlements and the status of Jerusalem are among the thorniest issues in the Middle East peace process.
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
SO WE KNOW JERUSALEM WILL BE DIVIDED.BUT WAIT, THE JERUSALEM COVENANT SAYS ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DIVIDED.SO HOW CAN PROPHECY BE FULFILLED.I BELIEVE JUST LIKE NOW THE TEMPLE MOUNT IS IN ISRAELS HANDS BUT THEY GAVE CONTROL OVER TO THE MUFFTI.IN THE FINAL 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY OF DANIEL 9:27-
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
TO BE SIGNED SHORTLY.THIS JERUSALEM COVENANT WILL COME INTO PLAY LiKE DANIEL 9:27 SAYS.ISRAEL I BELIEVE WILL KEEP JESUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT IN THEIR HANDS.BUT SOMEHOW WILL GIVE IN TO DIVIDING HALF OF JERUSALEM.THIS CAN ONLY EXPLAIN WHY THE ARAB-MUSLIM NATIONS ROUND ABOUT WILL BE SO TROUBLED AND WANT JERUSALEM AS THEIRS.AND WHY ELSE WOULD ALL NATIONS COME AGAINST ISRAEL TO TAKE JERUSALEM IF IT WAS NOT UNDER ISRAELS CONTROL.THIS EXPLAINS TO ME WHY THE JERUSALEM COVENANT WILL BE THE MAIN WAY THE EUROPEAN UNION WORLD DICTATOR GETS ISRAEL TO SIGN THE 7 YR TREATY.ISRAEL WILL SAY IF WE WILL NOT HAVE THE JERUSALEM COVENANT IN THE FINAL 7 YR TREATY THERE WILL BE NO DEAL AND YOU EUROPEAN UNION CAN NOT GUARD OUR SECURITY UNLESS ALL OF ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM STAY TOGETHER BUT WE WILL LIVE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE PALESTIANIANS AND GIVE THEM HALF OF JERUSALEM ONLY IF THE VATICAN CONTROLS THE PALESTINIAN HALF TO GUARD THE HOLY SITES AND THAT IN THE FINAL 7 YEAR TREATY WE-ISRAEL CAN REBUILD OUR 3RD TEMPLE AND DO SACRIFICES TO THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE EARTH (KING JESUS).
THIS IS HOW I BELIEVE THE TERMS WILL BE IN THE FINAL 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY OF DANIEL 9:27.BELOW IS THE WORDING OF THE JERUSALEM COVENANT THAT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DIVIDED AGAIN.ALWAYS TOGETHER FOREVER-ETERNAL AND IN THE FUTURE THE WORLD CAPITAL.
JEREMIAH 11:1-2
2 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
3 And say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,
Jerusalem Covenant WORDING
http://www.shalomjerusalem.com/jerusalem/jerusalem9.htm
As of this day, Jerusalem Day, the twenty-eight day of the month of Iyar in the year five thousand seven hundred fifty-two; one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two years after the destruction of the Second Temple; forty-four years since the founding of the State of Israel; twenty-five years since the Six Day War during which the Israel Defense Forces, in defense of our very existence, broke through the walls of the city and restored the Temple Mount and the unity of Jerusalem; twelve years since the Knesset of Israel re-established the Jerusalem, unified and whole, is the Capital of Israel; the State of Israel is the State of the Jewish People and the Capital of Israel is the Capital of the People of Israel. We have gathered together in Zion, national leaders and heads, of our communities everywhere, to enter into a covenant with Jerusalem, as was done by the leaders of our nation and all the people of Israel upon Israel's return to its Land from the Babylonian exile; and the people and their leaders vowed to dwell in Jerusalem, the Holy City.
Once again,our feet stand within your gates, O Jerusalem - Jerusalem built as a city joined together which unites the people of Israel to one another, and links heavenly Jerusalem with earthly Jerusalem.We have returned to the place that the Lord vowed to bestow upon the descendants of Abraham, Father of our Nation; to the City of David, King of Israel; where Solomon, son of David, built a Holy Temple; a Capital City which became the Mother of all Israel; a metropolis for justice and righteousness and for the wisdom and insights of the ancient world; where a Second Temple was erected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. In this city the prophets of the Lord prophesied; in the City the Sages taught Torah; in this City the Sanhedrin convened in session in its stone chamber. For there were the seats of Justice, the Throne of the House of David, for out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Today, as of old, we hold fast to the truth of the words of the Prophets of Israel, that all the inhabitants of the world shall enter within the gates of Jerusalem: And it shall come to pass at the end of days, the mountain of the House of the Lord will be well established at the peak of the mountains and will tower above the hills, and all the nation shall stream towards it.Each and every nation will live in it by its own faith: For all the nation will go forward, each with its own Divine Name; we shall go in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.And in this spirit the Knesset of the State of Israel has enacted a law: The places holy to the peoples of all religions shall be protected from any desecration and from any restriction of free access to them.
Jerusalem - peace and tranquility shall reign in the city: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may those who love you be tranquil. May there by peace within your walls, and tranquility within your palaces.Out of Jerusalem, a message of peace went forth and shall yet go forth again to all the inhabitants of the earth: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.Our sages, peace be upon them, said. In the future, The Holy One, the Blessed, will comfort Jerusalem only with peace.
From this place, we once again take this vow: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its strength; may my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not raise up Jerusalem at the very height of my rejoicing.
And with all these understandings, we enter into this Covenant and write: We shall bind you to us forever; we shall bind you to us with faithfulness, with righeousness and justice, with steadfast love and compassion. We love you, O Jerusalem, with eternal love, with unbounded love, under siege and when liberated from the yoke of oppressors. We have been martyred for you; we have yearned for you, we have clung to you. Our faithfulness to you we shall bequeath to our children after us. Forevermore our home shall be within you.
Israel pledges to keep Jerusalem undivided By GRANT SLATER, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 12, 1:05 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister pledged to keep Jerusalem undivided despite Palestinian claims to its eastern half, as Israelis celebrated the 43rd anniversary Wednesday of the city's reunification in the 1967 Mideast War.The Jewish section of Jerusalem took on a festive mood Wednesday with parades and speeches by political leaders, touching only lightly on the political explosiveness of the hotly contested city.Hundreds of youths, many carrying Israeli flags, marched in the annual Jerusalem Day parade from a main square in Jewish west Jerusalem toward the Old City. Earlier, an extremist Israeli group called the Temple Mount Faithful toted flags and banners through the Old City, demanding that Israel take full control of the hotly disputed holy site where the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven at the site.Walking in the parade through downtown toward east Jerusalem, Merav Adler, 18, said she was marching in support of Israel's keeping the whole city. It is very important for us to show that we can march from west to east, said Adler, who lives in the nearby West Bank settlement of Efrat.
Palestinian neighborhoods were mostly calm Wednesday, with residents ignoring the Israeli celebrations nearby.Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel annexed that sector shortly after the 1967 war, although no other country has recognized the Israeli claim.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Wednesday the city's boundaries are nonnegotiable, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said we will never go back to a divided Jerusalem that is cold and torn. Between 1949 and 1967, Jerusalem was split by concrete and barbed wire barriers between Israel and Jordan.The city is a key issue in U.S.-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts that resumed last week after a 17-month standstill. Palestinians demand that Israel stop all construction in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem. Israel has agreed to slow construction, but has rejected a total halt.In his Jerusalem Day speeches, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carefully avoided any provocative statements about continuing construction in all of Jerusalem, declarations he has made in the past. As part of the deal to restart peace talks, Netanyahu pledged to hold off on building in one of the neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and the U.S. has made it clear it would not accept announcements of additional projects there.Netanyahu's only references to construction were general, saying late Tuesday that Israelis are building it (Jerusalem) and will continue to build and develop it.
At the main Jerusalem Day ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the site of a bloody 1967 battle, Netanyahu said that recognition of the right of Jews to live in their country and to build their capital is not an obstacle to peace — it is the key to peace.Some past peace proposals envisioned Israelis and Palestinians administering their sections without a physical barrier dividing Jerusalem, but agreement was never reached.According to official Israeli statistics, 774,000 people live in Jerusalem. Two-thirds, or 511,000, are Jews. Of those, 192,800 live in east Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods. Arab residents of Jerusalem number 263,000, according to the Israeli government.
Israel defiant on settlements as it marks Jerusalem Day by Hazel Ward – Wed May 12, 2:56 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday that construction would continue unabated in all of Jerusalem, as he addressed a ceremony marking the 43rd anniversary of Israel's capture of the city's Arab eastern sector.
You can't flourish in a divided city and a flourishing city can't be divided or frozen, Netanyahu said. We will continue to build and develop ourselves in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have warned that continued construction in Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem will torpedo newly launched indirect peace talks which are being brokered by the United States.They want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their promised state but Israel, which captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and then annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community, lays claim to the entire city as its eternal, indivisible capital.Each year, Israelis celebrate the anniversary, known as Jerusalem Day, with parties, parades and solemn ceremony.Festivities kicked off at sundown on Tuesday with an open-air concert by US funk band Kool and the Gang and continued through the night with prayers and gatherings.Security was tight, with thousands of police deployed across the city to ensure the festivities went off without a hitch.Several thousands of police and border police have been mobilised, with the deployment of forces particularly high in the Old City, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.On Wednesday, thousands of people, mostly nationalist-religious Jews, marched through Jerusalem to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.
Netanyahu spoke in an evening memorial ceremony, attended by President Shimon Peres and other officials, at Ammunition Hill where Israeli troops fought a fierce battle with Jordanian forces in 1967.Tensions in and around Jerusalem have soared in recent months over the deeply controversial issue of Jewish construction in east Jerusalem.
Despite US assurances to the Palestinians that Israel would freeze some settlement activity in the eastern sector for the next two years, Israel has denied making any such commitment.There is no agreement about freezing building in east Jerusalem and normal life in Jerusalem will continue as in every other city in Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists during a visit to Tokyo.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also insisted that there would be no halt to construction in the united and undivided Holy City.The municipal borders of Jerusalem are not negotiable and building will continue across all of the city under Israeli sovereignty, Barkat told army radio.Israel marks Jerusalem Day in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.It captured east Jerusalem on June 7, 1967, the third day of the Six-Day War, and unilaterally annexed it.In 1980, Israel passed a law declaring Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital. Israeli human rights groups say the Holy City is sharply divided and that Palestinian residents suffer from discrimination. Jewish settlements and the status of Jerusalem are among the thorniest issues in the Middle East peace process.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
EU LETS ISRAEL IN TO OECD-ECONOMY
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.(SOCIALISM)
13 These have one mind,(SOCIALISM) 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.
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.
We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February 1950
Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.
EU states back Israel's membership of OECD, despite concerns
ANDREW RETTMAN 10.05.2010 @ 17:45 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The 19 EU countries which are also members of the OECD have voted to let Israel join the economic club, but voiced worries that the move could hurt the Middle East peace process.Ambassadors from the full panoply of 31 existing Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development members gave the decision the green light at a behind-closed-doors meeting in Paris on Monday (10 April), with formal accession to follow later this month.A Norwegian diplomat told EUobserver that 24 countries, including the EU group-of-19 as well as Mexico, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey in their individual statements at the conclave said the move should not be seen as a legitimisation of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. We don't want membership to influence the question of Israel's borders,the Norwegian source said. There's been a huge debate on this. It's not an easy subject.Some countries proposed attaching a footnote to Israel's official letter of invitation saying the OECD does not recognise any changes to Israel's pre-1967 boundary. But the move did not gain unanimous support, the Norwegian contact added. The OECD is to set up an expert group to ensure that Israel clearly separates economic activity on its territory proper from activity in settlements when reporting statistics, however. Membership of the prestigious Paris-based institution is based primarily on economic criteria and will help Israel to attract foreign investors and to borrow money more cheaply on international markets.
But the move also has a political dimension.
The OECD's rulebook says members must be committed to pluralist democracy based on the rule of law and the respect of human rights and to look to the attainment of the purposes of the United Nations.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the OECD decision as a sign that Israel is not being isolated on the world stage. I'd like to thank the 31 member states for voting for our joining the organisation. Any one of them could have voted No and vetoed our inclusion. They chose not to do so, he said. It is a show of confidence in the Israeli economy and in Israeli society,a diplomat from the Jewish state added. The EU group-of-19 includes many of Israel's most trenchant critics inside the EU, such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden, many of whom continue to block an upgrade in EU-Israel diplomatic ties due to violations of Palestinian human rights and the settlements issue.Belgium believes the OECD move will mean greater transparency on Israel's financial reporting and smooth the way for the inclusion of Arab states, such as Egypt, in future. Sweden took the line the OECD is primarily an economic club, with discussion of political issues best left to other forums. For her part, EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton on Monday welcomed progress between Israel, the Palestinian authorities and the US on so-called proximity talks designed to end the decades-old conflict.I am delighted the proximity talks appear to be moving, she said.Commenting on the EU's commitment to human rights in its foreign policy-making more broadly, she said: They are the silver thread that runs through everything we do and will be the silver thread that runs through the EAS [the EU's nascent diplomatic corps] when it is up and running.EU members Estonia and Slovenia were invited to join the OECD at the same time as Israel.
Lieberman to Ignore Planned Arab Med Summit Boycott
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu MAY 11,10
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday morning he will attend a Mediterranean summit at the 43-member Mediterranean Union headquarters in Barcelona in early June despite reports that Egypt and Syria will boycott his appearance.I am intending to be there and I will be there, he said in an Israeli radio interview from Japan, where he is on an official tour.Lieberman, who is to be accompanied by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, added that an Arab boycott would be a slap in the face for Spain. We don't tell Syria who to send and no one can tell us who should attend as part of the Israeli delegation. We don't boycott anyone and as for those that won't attend -- that's their problem.Egypt has distanced itself from Lieberman ever since he took office more than a year ago. His Egyptian counterpart gave him the cold shoulder because of Lieberman’s remark that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could go to hell for refusing to visit Jerusalem. The only time Mubarak ever came to the capital prior to Lieberman's tenure was for the funeral of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.The European Union-funded Invest in Med project is holding its third conference June 3-4 as part of its aim to foster cooperation among Middle East nations, including Israel. More than 400 investors and business owners are expected to attend and to discuss alternative energy, maritime and land routes and the problem of pollution of the Mediterranean Sea. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Israel says N.Korea shipping WMDs to Syria
8:45AM MAY 11,10
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday accused nuclear power North Korea of supplying Syria with weapons of mass destruction.
Lieberman's office quoted him as telling Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at a meeting in Tokyo that such activity threatened to destabilise east Asia as well as the Middle East.The cooperation between Syria and North Korea is not focused on economic development and growth but rather on weapons of mass destruction Lieberman said.In evidence he cited the December 2009 seizure at Bangkok airport of an illicit North Korean arms shipment which US intelligence said was bound for an unnamed Middle East country.Lieberman said Syria intended to pass the weapons on to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and to the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules Gaza and has its political headquarters in Damascus.This cooperation endangers stability in both southeast Asia and also in the Middle East and is against all the accepted norms in the international arena, Lieberman was quoted as telling Hatoyama.Thai officials at the time said that acting on a tipoff from Washington they confiscated about 30 tonnes of missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons when the North Korean plane landed for refuelling in Bangkok.Israel has accused North Korea in the past of transferring nuclear technology to Syria, which is technically in a state of war with the neighbouring Jewish state, although the two last fought openly in 1973.Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported in 2007 that Israel seized North Korean nuclear material in a commando raid on a secret military site in Syria and then destroyed the site in an air attack.
Syria denied the report.
The communist regime in North Korea has denied collaborating on nuclear activity with Syria, while Israel has maintained an official silence on the reported September 2007 raid and strike.
Medvedev urges more US action in very bad Mideast by Anna Smolchenko – MAY 11,10
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called in Syria on Tuesday for a more active US role in the Middle East peace process, saying the situation in the region was very bad and risked worsening further.Medvedev -- the first Russian head of state to visit Syria, which was a key Cold War ally -- said Moscow was ready and determined to play its part in creating the will for a peace settlement.He promised Russian assistance to Syria in reconstructing its oil and gas infrastructure and even in building a nuclear power station.In essence, the Middle East peace process has deteriorated, Medvedev said speaking alongside his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad after two days of talks in Damascus.The situation is very, very bad. It's time to do something, the Russian leader said.I agree with President Assad -- the American side could take a more active position.A further heating up of the situation in the Middle East is fraught with an explosion and a catastrophe.
Medvedev's visit comes against the backdrop of a nearly 18-month-old suspension of Turkish-led peace efforts between Israel and Syria and a mounting war of words between the two foes over Israeli accusations that Syria has been arming Lebanon's Hezbollah with Scud missiles.It also comes as renewed US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians run into difficulties over Israeli settlement expansion in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.There is not enough desire on all sides to find a solution, said Medvedev, whose government is part of the so-called Quartet working for a Middle East settlement alongside the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.This desire needs to be stimulated, he said, adding that that was a role that Russia could and would take upon itself.The Russian leader said that the end result of Middle East peace talks needed to be the liberation of the occupied Arab territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian place that could co-exist peacefully with Israel.For Syria, the return of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community, is a non-negotiable condition of any peace agreement.Turkey, Medevdev's next port of call after Damascus, brokered indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel in 2008 but they were broken off when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip that December.
Before his talks in Damascus, the Russian leader held a lengthy telephone call with Israeli President Shimon Peres during which he was asked to convey a message to the Syrian leader, Peres's office said on Sunday.Peres said that Israel has no interest in a war with Syria or in heating up the northern border and that Israel is seeking a genuine peace with its Syrian neighbour.Neither Assad nor Medvedev made any reference to the Israeli message but the Syrian leader said that Israel was not yet a reliable negotiating partner.He called for Russian help in convincing Israel to take a more constructive position and echoed Medvedev's call for a more active US role in the peace process. Russia, which has repeatedly expressed willingness to host a Middle East peace conference, has been seeking to restore its influence in the strategic region by reviving ties with Cold War allies that had drifted after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Medvedev pledged Russian assistance with Syria's ambitions to restore its role as transit route for oil and gas between the Gulf and the Mediterranean by helping it build up its pipeline infrastructure. He also voiced Russian readiness to build a nuclear power station in Syria as it has long been doing in Iran -- Syria's main regional ally -- over strong US objections.
Israel launched an air strike against a site in northeastern Syria in September 2007 that analysts said it suspected was a nuclear reactor under construction, something Damascus strongly denied. Both Assad and Medvedev called for a negotiated settlement of Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme. Russia and Syria stress their commitment to reaching a peaceful diplomatic settlement to the Iranian nuclear programme and support efforts to look for an appropriate negotiated solution, their joint statement said.
Israel to keep nuclear ambiguity
Tue May 11, 5:34 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will keep up its longstanding policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear programme, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday, adding that US support for the position remains unchanged.This is a good policy and there is no reason to change it. There is complete agreement with the United States on this question, Barak told army radio.He also said there is no risk that inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would get authorisation to inspect Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor.There is no threat over the traditional agreements between Israel and the United States on this issue, said Barak.I met President Barack Obama and other US officials two weeks ago. All of them told me denuclearisation efforts target Iran and North Korea.Israel has maintained its so-called policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear programme since the Jewish state inaugurated the Dimona reactor in the southern Negev desert in 1965.Media reports have said the United States agreed in 1969 that as long as Israel did not test a nuclear weapon or publicly confirm that it had one, Washington would not press it on the issue.Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear weapons.
Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to avoid inspections by the Vienna-based IAEA.But an Israeli scientist on Monday said Israel should end its decades-long silence over its reported nuclear weapons capability and open its nuclear reactor to inspection.Uzi Even, a Tel Aviv University chemistry professor and former worker at the Dimona reactor, said Obama's campaign for global nuclear arms reduction is a sign of changing times and Israel must get in step.Also on Monday, however, Strategic Affairs Minister Dan Meridor dismissed as unimportant reports that Egypt had tabled a motion on Israel's nuclear weapons status for a June meeting of the IAEA.From time to time this issue is raised at the IAEA and other places, he said. It's not the first time it's mentioned and it's not the first time we'll find a way, with the rest of the world, to deal with it.
Israel to continue Jerusalem settlements despite peace talks by Patrick Moser – Mon May 10, 3:23 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Newly launched, US-brokered peace efforts hit a snag on Monday as Israel vowed settlement building would continue in east Jerusalem, infuriating the Palestinians who protested to Washington.It is evident we will continue to build over the next two years in Gilo, Pisgat Zeev, French Hill, Information Minister Yuli Edelstein told public radio in reference to Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, however, stressed Washington had promised to halt Jewish settlement in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and expressed anger over reports settlers were building 14 new homes in the Arab neighbourhood of Ras al Amud.The American administration must respond to those Israeli acts, Abbas told AFP, one day after the announcement that Israel and the Palestinians had started indirect talks initially scheduled to get under way in March.His top negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Palestinian Authority officially protested to the American administration.We told the American administration we consider this act as a great provocation, he said in reference to the construction in Ras al Amud.
The US State Department said on Sunday both sides were taking measures conducive to successful talks, and that Israel had explained there would be no construction at east Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo settlement for two years.Edelstein admitted a controversial plan to build 1,600 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement would not start for another two years, but stressed this followed normal planning procedures.Underscoring the deep mistrust between Israel and the Palestinians, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley cautioned both sides they would be held accountable if they did anything to seriously undermine trust.Israel stressed in a statement that building and planning in Jerusalem will continue as usual,exactly as has been the case for the past 43 years and insisted it had not undertaken to freeze the Ramat Shlomo project.The Islamist Hamas movement urged Abbas to reverse the decision to take part in the absurd negotiations.The Zionist decision to build new homes in the middle of Jerusalem... shows that the return to negotiations is a free service rendered to the occupation and its settlement projects, the Palestinian faction said.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat insisted the municipality continues to promote planning and construction throughout the city for all its residents -- Jews, Christians and Muslims.We trust that the prime minister will not allow a freeze in Jerusalem, not in words and not in actions, he said.
Right-wing parties accused Netanyahu of betraying his electorate.Jerusalem and Jewish settlements are among the thorniest issues in efforts to achieve a peace deal.
Israel, which captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, considers the Holy City its eternal and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.The so-called proximity talks were originally due to start in March but the Palestinians withdrew after Israel publicised the Ramat Shlomo building plan. The Palestinians eventually agreed to hold the talks after receiving US assurances the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be frozen. The two sides had held just over a year of direct negotiations, after a seven-year hiatus, but those collapsed in December 2008 with little to show.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Monday hailed the relaunch of the peace process.I am delighted the proximity talks appear to be moving, she said in Brussels and pledged her full backing for US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell. We will do everything we can to support him.EU foreign ministers welcomed the launch of the talks, stressing that they should lead as soon as possible to the resumption of direct bilateral negotiations.Their declaration did not mention the early snag. An Israeli settlement watchdog group warned the increase in Jewish settlement activity in east Jerusalem is likely to torpedo any chance of finding a two-state solution under which a Palestinian state would be created alongside Israel. The intensification of settlement activities in east Jerusalem threatens the chances of implementing the two-state solution and might create an irreversible situation that would prevent a compromise in Jerusalem,Peace Now said.
OECD invites Israel to join over Palestinian objections by Eve Szeftel – Mon May 10, 2:53 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – The OECD said Monday it had invited Israel to join the exclusive club of prominent world economies, despite Palestinian objections to the inclusion of the Jewish state.Israel, Slovenia and Estonia will contribute to a more plural and open OECD that is playing an increasingly important role in the global economic architecture, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said in a statement.The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development coordinates economic policy among the leading industrialised nations, and its membership roster represents an unofficial list of the most developed countries.Palestinian groups had argued that letting Israel join would be a breach of the OECD's commitment to human rights because of the Jewish state's occupation of the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians.Protestors were to stage a demonstration outside the OECD headquarters in Paris after Secretary General Gurria held a press conference to formally announce the invitation to the new countries.Israel today joined the club of the world's elite economies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference in his Jerusalem office.Israel joining the OECD has strategic importance.Netanyahu said that Israel was often seen abroad only in the context of its conflict with the Palestinians but thanks to the OECD would now also be recognised for its economic and technological achievements.Israel's status is seen only through the prism of the peace process, which may stop or move ahead according to the will of the Palestinians,he said.
Palestinians and their supporters were angered that Israel had included in the economic data it submitted to the OECD figures that include the output of farms and businesses from Jewish businesses on occupied Arab land.Gurria said that this issue had been dealt with in discussions with Israel and that OECD documents would make clear that the inclusion of such figures did not represent any judgment on the territories' legal status.A footnote to this effect will be appended to OECD documents and Israel has undertaken to begin a process to disaggregate economic data from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.Diplomatic sources said that the 31 existing OECD members had approved Israel's candidacy by consensus and France formally welcomed the news. Pro-Palestinian groups were less impressed.The OECD decision today is ... an astounding setback for legal accountability and respect for human rights, Omar Barghouti, of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, told AFP.This vote can only be seen by Palestinians, Arabs and indeed all peace loving people around the world as an entrenchment of official complicity in maintaining and protecting Israel's occupation, colonisation and apartheid.The OECD statement said that all three new members would contribute to the group work in a variety of ways.Estonia is an acknowledged world leader in innovative e-government and e-commerce initiatives. Israel's scientific and technological policies have produced outstanding outcomes on a world scale,it said.
Meanwhile, Slovenia has led the way in making public sector information available to all.The OECD said it would welcome the three future members to the club at a ceremony on 27 May in Paris. When founded in 1961, OECD membership represented 75 percent of global wealth. Today it accounts for 60 percent and efforts are being made to enlarge its membership to incorporate rapidly growing economic powers.
Palestinians say indirect talks with Israel have begun By Mohammed Assadi – Sun May 9, 4:50 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinians declared on Sunday the start of indirect talks with Israel mediated by the United States, which said both sides had taken steps to help its peace efforts succeed.I can officially declare today that the proximity talks have begun, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in Ramallah.Echoing a call by the United States for a future move to direct negotiations -- and reflecting low public expectations for progress -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said peace would be unobtainable without face-to-face contacts.If he (Netanyahu) announces a complete halt to settlement building, there will be direct talks, Erekat countered.Netanyahu, who heads a coalition government dominated by pro-settler parties, has rejected a total freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in occupied territory.Shortly after the announcement, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley said in a statement that both sides had taken steps to help create an atmosphere that is conducive to successful talks.He said Netanyahu would freeze for two years a plan for hundreds of new housing units in an East Jerusalem settlement and Abbas would work to stop incitement against Israel.
A Netanyahu aide, who declined to be named, denied that the Israeli leader had specifically agreed to freeze the plan.But no new Israeli housing projects in East Jerusalem have been approved since March, raising speculation Netanyahu has imposed a de facto moratorium that could keep talks ticking while avoiding a showdown with his far-right coalition partners.U.S. plans for indirect talks were stymied in March, when Israel angered Washington and the Palestinians by announcing during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden a project to build 1,600 new homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement.
U.S. ASSURANCES
Netanyahu said the indirect talks with the Palestinians would begin without preconditions, an apparent reference to U.S. and Palestinian demands to curb construction of homes for Jews in and near East Jerusalem.Addressing his cabinet, Netanyahu said in public remarks: The proximity talks must bring about direct talks soon. Peace cannot be brought about from a distance, or with a remote control.The Palestinians say the United States has given assurances it will take action if either side does anything that derails the talks. They take that to mean a guarantee Israel will not announce new settlement work.We have an opportunity, Erekat said, listing the borders of a future Palestinian state and security as the issues on which Palestinians will focus in the negotiations.The settlement standoff forced Mitchell to search for a new way to conduct talks between sides whose negotiations have mostly been face-to-face since the start of the Middle East peace process in the early 1990s.Palestinian consent to the talks marked a breakthrough, albeit modest, for President Barack Obama's attempts to restart peace talks suspended for 18months. The United States and Israel have been urging Abbas to agree to negotiations.Crowley also said the Obama administration would hold accountable both sides should they engage in activities that undermine its peace efforts. As both parties know, if either takes significant actions during the proximity talks that we judge would seriously undermine trust, we will respond to hold them accountable and ensure that negotiations continue.
Mitchell, who returns to the Middle East next week, has made no public comments since the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) approved four months of indirect talks on Saturday. The Palestinians aim to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured those areas in a 1967 war and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognized internationally. The Netanyahu aide said the prime minister was considering a package of goodwill gestures to the Palestinians should the indirect talks go well. He declined to elaborate.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Dan Williams and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Syria ready to resume peace talks with Israel -Turkey By Ayla Jean Yackley – Sat May 8, 1:58 pm ET
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria is ready to reopen peace talks with Israel, with Turkey serving as a mediator, but Israel has not asked Ankara to resume that role, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Saturday.Syria has said it is ready to resume talks where they were left off, Gul told a news conference. However, we have not heard from the Israeli side. It is up to them.Speaking alongside Gul, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was ready for talks. Yet he accused Israel of avoiding negotiations, saying it does not want a resolution in the fight over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured in 1967.Israel is not ready for mediation because it knows that a successful mediation will bring peace, and the Israeli side does not want peace, he said. We emphasize mediation and Turkey's role, but we also say Israel is not an honest partner.Israel and Syria held four indirect rounds of talks with Turkish mediation in 2008. Those were suspended after the Israeli incursion into Palestinian-run Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly criticized the Israeli offensive in Gaza, prompting some politicians in Israel to question Turkey's suitability as a neutral mediator.
Muslim but constitutionally secular Turkey has a record of military cooperation with Israel and has acted as an intermediary between the Jewish state and the Arab world.
Warmer ties between NATO member Turkey and Muslim neighbors including Iran and Syria have raised concerns that Ankara's traditionally Western-anchored foreign policy is moving east.Turkey could play a part in negotiations between Iran and Western powers over its nuclear program, Assad said.I want Turkey to continue its important role because a trust has formed between the Iranian and Turkish governments and Turkey has wide relations with the rest of the region, he said.But any political agreement must be reached on the basis of international agreements ... We want the region purged of weapons of mass destruction, he said, but added Iran has the right to develop nuclear power.Iran says it wants nuclear power to generate electricity. The West fears it is designed to develop bombs. The United States has accused Syria of covert nuclear activity, and European allies have criticized Damascus' lack of transparency.(Editing by Maria Golovnina)
Lebanese government won't ask Hezbollah to disarm
Sat May 8, 7:07 am ET
BEIRUT – Lebanon's president says the government cannot ask Hezbollah to give up its weapons at a time of heightened tension with Israel.A U.N. deal to end the 2006 war between Israel and the Shiite militants required Hezbollah to disarm, but Lebanon's politicians have been unable to agree on a national defense strategy that would integrate the group's weapons into the regular armed forces.President Michel Suleiman said Saturday that Lebanon cannot and must not tell Hezbollah to disarm before reaching a deal on a defense strategy that would also address any future Israeli attacks.A recent Israeli claim that Hezbollah's arsenal includes Scud missiles transferred from Syria has provoked another exchange of warnings between Israel and Lebanon.
Israel won't move on U.N. call for nuclear-free zone By Dan Williams – Fri May 7, 9:03 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has no plan to review its nuclear policies, a government official said on Friday, playing down efforts by world powers at a U.N. non-proliferation conference to promote a Middle East free of atomic arms.Hoping to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran, the United States and other permanent U.N. Security Council members on Wednesday called for ways to be found to implement a 1995 initiative that would guarantee nuclear disarmament in a region where Israel is widely assumed to have the only such weapons.The declaration followed campaigning by Egypt to focus attention, during this month's nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference, on non-signatory Israel, which has set peace with all its neighbors as a precondition for joining the pact.There is nothing new here, and no reason for a change of direction on our part, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.
Egypt, which heads a powerful bloc of non-aligned developing nations, has circulated a proposal to the NPT's 189 signatories calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, with all regional countries taking part.
The United States and Russia, with the support of Britain, France and China, have been negotiating with Egypt to come up with an acceptable compromise proposal, Western diplomats say.U.S. Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher told an audience of delegates and reporters on Wednesday it was hard to imagine negotiating any kind of free zone in the absence of a comprehensive peace plan that is running on a parallel track.
NUCLEAR WEAPONRY
Egypt was the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, in 1979, but few have followed suit. Iran, an NPT signatory whose uranium enrichment has stirred Western fears of an illicit bomb project -- despite Tehran's denials -- spurns the Jewish state.The Obama administration's outreach to Iran has prompted some analysts to predict the United States will reassess its 40-year-old don't ask, don't tell policy toward an Israeli arsenal that is believed to include some 200 atomic warheads -- a grievance and perceived threat among many Arabs and Muslims.But the Israeli official said the administration's attitude on this matter was so far identical to the line taken by its predecessors.Israel neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons under an ambiguity strategy billed as warding off enemies while avoiding public provocations that can trigger arms races.Those safeguarding the official reticence have frowned upon the very fact that Israel is being discussed at the NPT forum.We don't really like this matter, but is there anything to fear, really? I don't think so, Israel Michaeli of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission said in a radio interview on Monday, as the month-long conference opened in New York.Our complaint is that people make this comparison between Iran and Israel, when there is absolutely nothing to connect the two, he told Israel's Army Radio.Israel did not join the pact, did not undertake its obligations. To a degree it paid a price for this, but it has certainly never cheated or defrauded anyone.The 1970 NPT expedites member-states' access to nuclear energy in exchange for their forswearing of nuclear weaponry.(Editing by Charles Dick)
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.(SOCIALISM)
13 These have one mind,(SOCIALISM) 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.
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.
We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February 1950
Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.
EU states back Israel's membership of OECD, despite concerns
ANDREW RETTMAN 10.05.2010 @ 17:45 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The 19 EU countries which are also members of the OECD have voted to let Israel join the economic club, but voiced worries that the move could hurt the Middle East peace process.Ambassadors from the full panoply of 31 existing Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development members gave the decision the green light at a behind-closed-doors meeting in Paris on Monday (10 April), with formal accession to follow later this month.A Norwegian diplomat told EUobserver that 24 countries, including the EU group-of-19 as well as Mexico, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey in their individual statements at the conclave said the move should not be seen as a legitimisation of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. We don't want membership to influence the question of Israel's borders,the Norwegian source said. There's been a huge debate on this. It's not an easy subject.Some countries proposed attaching a footnote to Israel's official letter of invitation saying the OECD does not recognise any changes to Israel's pre-1967 boundary. But the move did not gain unanimous support, the Norwegian contact added. The OECD is to set up an expert group to ensure that Israel clearly separates economic activity on its territory proper from activity in settlements when reporting statistics, however. Membership of the prestigious Paris-based institution is based primarily on economic criteria and will help Israel to attract foreign investors and to borrow money more cheaply on international markets.
But the move also has a political dimension.
The OECD's rulebook says members must be committed to pluralist democracy based on the rule of law and the respect of human rights and to look to the attainment of the purposes of the United Nations.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the OECD decision as a sign that Israel is not being isolated on the world stage. I'd like to thank the 31 member states for voting for our joining the organisation. Any one of them could have voted No and vetoed our inclusion. They chose not to do so, he said. It is a show of confidence in the Israeli economy and in Israeli society,a diplomat from the Jewish state added. The EU group-of-19 includes many of Israel's most trenchant critics inside the EU, such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden, many of whom continue to block an upgrade in EU-Israel diplomatic ties due to violations of Palestinian human rights and the settlements issue.Belgium believes the OECD move will mean greater transparency on Israel's financial reporting and smooth the way for the inclusion of Arab states, such as Egypt, in future. Sweden took the line the OECD is primarily an economic club, with discussion of political issues best left to other forums. For her part, EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton on Monday welcomed progress between Israel, the Palestinian authorities and the US on so-called proximity talks designed to end the decades-old conflict.I am delighted the proximity talks appear to be moving, she said.Commenting on the EU's commitment to human rights in its foreign policy-making more broadly, she said: They are the silver thread that runs through everything we do and will be the silver thread that runs through the EAS [the EU's nascent diplomatic corps] when it is up and running.EU members Estonia and Slovenia were invited to join the OECD at the same time as Israel.
Lieberman to Ignore Planned Arab Med Summit Boycott
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu MAY 11,10
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday morning he will attend a Mediterranean summit at the 43-member Mediterranean Union headquarters in Barcelona in early June despite reports that Egypt and Syria will boycott his appearance.I am intending to be there and I will be there, he said in an Israeli radio interview from Japan, where he is on an official tour.Lieberman, who is to be accompanied by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, added that an Arab boycott would be a slap in the face for Spain. We don't tell Syria who to send and no one can tell us who should attend as part of the Israeli delegation. We don't boycott anyone and as for those that won't attend -- that's their problem.Egypt has distanced itself from Lieberman ever since he took office more than a year ago. His Egyptian counterpart gave him the cold shoulder because of Lieberman’s remark that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could go to hell for refusing to visit Jerusalem. The only time Mubarak ever came to the capital prior to Lieberman's tenure was for the funeral of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.The European Union-funded Invest in Med project is holding its third conference June 3-4 as part of its aim to foster cooperation among Middle East nations, including Israel. More than 400 investors and business owners are expected to attend and to discuss alternative energy, maritime and land routes and the problem of pollution of the Mediterranean Sea. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Israel says N.Korea shipping WMDs to Syria
8:45AM MAY 11,10
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday accused nuclear power North Korea of supplying Syria with weapons of mass destruction.
Lieberman's office quoted him as telling Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at a meeting in Tokyo that such activity threatened to destabilise east Asia as well as the Middle East.The cooperation between Syria and North Korea is not focused on economic development and growth but rather on weapons of mass destruction Lieberman said.In evidence he cited the December 2009 seizure at Bangkok airport of an illicit North Korean arms shipment which US intelligence said was bound for an unnamed Middle East country.Lieberman said Syria intended to pass the weapons on to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and to the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules Gaza and has its political headquarters in Damascus.This cooperation endangers stability in both southeast Asia and also in the Middle East and is against all the accepted norms in the international arena, Lieberman was quoted as telling Hatoyama.Thai officials at the time said that acting on a tipoff from Washington they confiscated about 30 tonnes of missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons when the North Korean plane landed for refuelling in Bangkok.Israel has accused North Korea in the past of transferring nuclear technology to Syria, which is technically in a state of war with the neighbouring Jewish state, although the two last fought openly in 1973.Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported in 2007 that Israel seized North Korean nuclear material in a commando raid on a secret military site in Syria and then destroyed the site in an air attack.
Syria denied the report.
The communist regime in North Korea has denied collaborating on nuclear activity with Syria, while Israel has maintained an official silence on the reported September 2007 raid and strike.
Medvedev urges more US action in very bad Mideast by Anna Smolchenko – MAY 11,10
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called in Syria on Tuesday for a more active US role in the Middle East peace process, saying the situation in the region was very bad and risked worsening further.Medvedev -- the first Russian head of state to visit Syria, which was a key Cold War ally -- said Moscow was ready and determined to play its part in creating the will for a peace settlement.He promised Russian assistance to Syria in reconstructing its oil and gas infrastructure and even in building a nuclear power station.In essence, the Middle East peace process has deteriorated, Medvedev said speaking alongside his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad after two days of talks in Damascus.The situation is very, very bad. It's time to do something, the Russian leader said.I agree with President Assad -- the American side could take a more active position.A further heating up of the situation in the Middle East is fraught with an explosion and a catastrophe.
Medvedev's visit comes against the backdrop of a nearly 18-month-old suspension of Turkish-led peace efforts between Israel and Syria and a mounting war of words between the two foes over Israeli accusations that Syria has been arming Lebanon's Hezbollah with Scud missiles.It also comes as renewed US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians run into difficulties over Israeli settlement expansion in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.There is not enough desire on all sides to find a solution, said Medvedev, whose government is part of the so-called Quartet working for a Middle East settlement alongside the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.This desire needs to be stimulated, he said, adding that that was a role that Russia could and would take upon itself.The Russian leader said that the end result of Middle East peace talks needed to be the liberation of the occupied Arab territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian place that could co-exist peacefully with Israel.For Syria, the return of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community, is a non-negotiable condition of any peace agreement.Turkey, Medevdev's next port of call after Damascus, brokered indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel in 2008 but they were broken off when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip that December.
Before his talks in Damascus, the Russian leader held a lengthy telephone call with Israeli President Shimon Peres during which he was asked to convey a message to the Syrian leader, Peres's office said on Sunday.Peres said that Israel has no interest in a war with Syria or in heating up the northern border and that Israel is seeking a genuine peace with its Syrian neighbour.Neither Assad nor Medvedev made any reference to the Israeli message but the Syrian leader said that Israel was not yet a reliable negotiating partner.He called for Russian help in convincing Israel to take a more constructive position and echoed Medvedev's call for a more active US role in the peace process. Russia, which has repeatedly expressed willingness to host a Middle East peace conference, has been seeking to restore its influence in the strategic region by reviving ties with Cold War allies that had drifted after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Medvedev pledged Russian assistance with Syria's ambitions to restore its role as transit route for oil and gas between the Gulf and the Mediterranean by helping it build up its pipeline infrastructure. He also voiced Russian readiness to build a nuclear power station in Syria as it has long been doing in Iran -- Syria's main regional ally -- over strong US objections.
Israel launched an air strike against a site in northeastern Syria in September 2007 that analysts said it suspected was a nuclear reactor under construction, something Damascus strongly denied. Both Assad and Medvedev called for a negotiated settlement of Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme. Russia and Syria stress their commitment to reaching a peaceful diplomatic settlement to the Iranian nuclear programme and support efforts to look for an appropriate negotiated solution, their joint statement said.
Israel to keep nuclear ambiguity
Tue May 11, 5:34 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will keep up its longstanding policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear programme, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday, adding that US support for the position remains unchanged.This is a good policy and there is no reason to change it. There is complete agreement with the United States on this question, Barak told army radio.He also said there is no risk that inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would get authorisation to inspect Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor.There is no threat over the traditional agreements between Israel and the United States on this issue, said Barak.I met President Barack Obama and other US officials two weeks ago. All of them told me denuclearisation efforts target Iran and North Korea.Israel has maintained its so-called policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear programme since the Jewish state inaugurated the Dimona reactor in the southern Negev desert in 1965.Media reports have said the United States agreed in 1969 that as long as Israel did not test a nuclear weapon or publicly confirm that it had one, Washington would not press it on the issue.Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear weapons.
Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to avoid inspections by the Vienna-based IAEA.But an Israeli scientist on Monday said Israel should end its decades-long silence over its reported nuclear weapons capability and open its nuclear reactor to inspection.Uzi Even, a Tel Aviv University chemistry professor and former worker at the Dimona reactor, said Obama's campaign for global nuclear arms reduction is a sign of changing times and Israel must get in step.Also on Monday, however, Strategic Affairs Minister Dan Meridor dismissed as unimportant reports that Egypt had tabled a motion on Israel's nuclear weapons status for a June meeting of the IAEA.From time to time this issue is raised at the IAEA and other places, he said. It's not the first time it's mentioned and it's not the first time we'll find a way, with the rest of the world, to deal with it.
Israel to continue Jerusalem settlements despite peace talks by Patrick Moser – Mon May 10, 3:23 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Newly launched, US-brokered peace efforts hit a snag on Monday as Israel vowed settlement building would continue in east Jerusalem, infuriating the Palestinians who protested to Washington.It is evident we will continue to build over the next two years in Gilo, Pisgat Zeev, French Hill, Information Minister Yuli Edelstein told public radio in reference to Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, however, stressed Washington had promised to halt Jewish settlement in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and expressed anger over reports settlers were building 14 new homes in the Arab neighbourhood of Ras al Amud.The American administration must respond to those Israeli acts, Abbas told AFP, one day after the announcement that Israel and the Palestinians had started indirect talks initially scheduled to get under way in March.His top negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Palestinian Authority officially protested to the American administration.We told the American administration we consider this act as a great provocation, he said in reference to the construction in Ras al Amud.
The US State Department said on Sunday both sides were taking measures conducive to successful talks, and that Israel had explained there would be no construction at east Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo settlement for two years.Edelstein admitted a controversial plan to build 1,600 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement would not start for another two years, but stressed this followed normal planning procedures.Underscoring the deep mistrust between Israel and the Palestinians, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley cautioned both sides they would be held accountable if they did anything to seriously undermine trust.Israel stressed in a statement that building and planning in Jerusalem will continue as usual,exactly as has been the case for the past 43 years and insisted it had not undertaken to freeze the Ramat Shlomo project.The Islamist Hamas movement urged Abbas to reverse the decision to take part in the absurd negotiations.The Zionist decision to build new homes in the middle of Jerusalem... shows that the return to negotiations is a free service rendered to the occupation and its settlement projects, the Palestinian faction said.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat insisted the municipality continues to promote planning and construction throughout the city for all its residents -- Jews, Christians and Muslims.We trust that the prime minister will not allow a freeze in Jerusalem, not in words and not in actions, he said.
Right-wing parties accused Netanyahu of betraying his electorate.Jerusalem and Jewish settlements are among the thorniest issues in efforts to achieve a peace deal.
Israel, which captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, considers the Holy City its eternal and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.The so-called proximity talks were originally due to start in March but the Palestinians withdrew after Israel publicised the Ramat Shlomo building plan. The Palestinians eventually agreed to hold the talks after receiving US assurances the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be frozen. The two sides had held just over a year of direct negotiations, after a seven-year hiatus, but those collapsed in December 2008 with little to show.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Monday hailed the relaunch of the peace process.I am delighted the proximity talks appear to be moving, she said in Brussels and pledged her full backing for US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell. We will do everything we can to support him.EU foreign ministers welcomed the launch of the talks, stressing that they should lead as soon as possible to the resumption of direct bilateral negotiations.Their declaration did not mention the early snag. An Israeli settlement watchdog group warned the increase in Jewish settlement activity in east Jerusalem is likely to torpedo any chance of finding a two-state solution under which a Palestinian state would be created alongside Israel. The intensification of settlement activities in east Jerusalem threatens the chances of implementing the two-state solution and might create an irreversible situation that would prevent a compromise in Jerusalem,Peace Now said.
OECD invites Israel to join over Palestinian objections by Eve Szeftel – Mon May 10, 2:53 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – The OECD said Monday it had invited Israel to join the exclusive club of prominent world economies, despite Palestinian objections to the inclusion of the Jewish state.Israel, Slovenia and Estonia will contribute to a more plural and open OECD that is playing an increasingly important role in the global economic architecture, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said in a statement.The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development coordinates economic policy among the leading industrialised nations, and its membership roster represents an unofficial list of the most developed countries.Palestinian groups had argued that letting Israel join would be a breach of the OECD's commitment to human rights because of the Jewish state's occupation of the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians.Protestors were to stage a demonstration outside the OECD headquarters in Paris after Secretary General Gurria held a press conference to formally announce the invitation to the new countries.Israel today joined the club of the world's elite economies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference in his Jerusalem office.Israel joining the OECD has strategic importance.Netanyahu said that Israel was often seen abroad only in the context of its conflict with the Palestinians but thanks to the OECD would now also be recognised for its economic and technological achievements.Israel's status is seen only through the prism of the peace process, which may stop or move ahead according to the will of the Palestinians,he said.
Palestinians and their supporters were angered that Israel had included in the economic data it submitted to the OECD figures that include the output of farms and businesses from Jewish businesses on occupied Arab land.Gurria said that this issue had been dealt with in discussions with Israel and that OECD documents would make clear that the inclusion of such figures did not represent any judgment on the territories' legal status.A footnote to this effect will be appended to OECD documents and Israel has undertaken to begin a process to disaggregate economic data from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.Diplomatic sources said that the 31 existing OECD members had approved Israel's candidacy by consensus and France formally welcomed the news. Pro-Palestinian groups were less impressed.The OECD decision today is ... an astounding setback for legal accountability and respect for human rights, Omar Barghouti, of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, told AFP.This vote can only be seen by Palestinians, Arabs and indeed all peace loving people around the world as an entrenchment of official complicity in maintaining and protecting Israel's occupation, colonisation and apartheid.The OECD statement said that all three new members would contribute to the group work in a variety of ways.Estonia is an acknowledged world leader in innovative e-government and e-commerce initiatives. Israel's scientific and technological policies have produced outstanding outcomes on a world scale,it said.
Meanwhile, Slovenia has led the way in making public sector information available to all.The OECD said it would welcome the three future members to the club at a ceremony on 27 May in Paris. When founded in 1961, OECD membership represented 75 percent of global wealth. Today it accounts for 60 percent and efforts are being made to enlarge its membership to incorporate rapidly growing economic powers.
Palestinians say indirect talks with Israel have begun By Mohammed Assadi – Sun May 9, 4:50 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinians declared on Sunday the start of indirect talks with Israel mediated by the United States, which said both sides had taken steps to help its peace efforts succeed.I can officially declare today that the proximity talks have begun, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in Ramallah.Echoing a call by the United States for a future move to direct negotiations -- and reflecting low public expectations for progress -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said peace would be unobtainable without face-to-face contacts.If he (Netanyahu) announces a complete halt to settlement building, there will be direct talks, Erekat countered.Netanyahu, who heads a coalition government dominated by pro-settler parties, has rejected a total freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in occupied territory.Shortly after the announcement, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley said in a statement that both sides had taken steps to help create an atmosphere that is conducive to successful talks.He said Netanyahu would freeze for two years a plan for hundreds of new housing units in an East Jerusalem settlement and Abbas would work to stop incitement against Israel.
A Netanyahu aide, who declined to be named, denied that the Israeli leader had specifically agreed to freeze the plan.But no new Israeli housing projects in East Jerusalem have been approved since March, raising speculation Netanyahu has imposed a de facto moratorium that could keep talks ticking while avoiding a showdown with his far-right coalition partners.U.S. plans for indirect talks were stymied in March, when Israel angered Washington and the Palestinians by announcing during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden a project to build 1,600 new homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement.
U.S. ASSURANCES
Netanyahu said the indirect talks with the Palestinians would begin without preconditions, an apparent reference to U.S. and Palestinian demands to curb construction of homes for Jews in and near East Jerusalem.Addressing his cabinet, Netanyahu said in public remarks: The proximity talks must bring about direct talks soon. Peace cannot be brought about from a distance, or with a remote control.The Palestinians say the United States has given assurances it will take action if either side does anything that derails the talks. They take that to mean a guarantee Israel will not announce new settlement work.We have an opportunity, Erekat said, listing the borders of a future Palestinian state and security as the issues on which Palestinians will focus in the negotiations.The settlement standoff forced Mitchell to search for a new way to conduct talks between sides whose negotiations have mostly been face-to-face since the start of the Middle East peace process in the early 1990s.Palestinian consent to the talks marked a breakthrough, albeit modest, for President Barack Obama's attempts to restart peace talks suspended for 18months. The United States and Israel have been urging Abbas to agree to negotiations.Crowley also said the Obama administration would hold accountable both sides should they engage in activities that undermine its peace efforts. As both parties know, if either takes significant actions during the proximity talks that we judge would seriously undermine trust, we will respond to hold them accountable and ensure that negotiations continue.
Mitchell, who returns to the Middle East next week, has made no public comments since the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) approved four months of indirect talks on Saturday. The Palestinians aim to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured those areas in a 1967 war and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognized internationally. The Netanyahu aide said the prime minister was considering a package of goodwill gestures to the Palestinians should the indirect talks go well. He declined to elaborate.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Dan Williams and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Syria ready to resume peace talks with Israel -Turkey By Ayla Jean Yackley – Sat May 8, 1:58 pm ET
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria is ready to reopen peace talks with Israel, with Turkey serving as a mediator, but Israel has not asked Ankara to resume that role, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Saturday.Syria has said it is ready to resume talks where they were left off, Gul told a news conference. However, we have not heard from the Israeli side. It is up to them.Speaking alongside Gul, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was ready for talks. Yet he accused Israel of avoiding negotiations, saying it does not want a resolution in the fight over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured in 1967.Israel is not ready for mediation because it knows that a successful mediation will bring peace, and the Israeli side does not want peace, he said. We emphasize mediation and Turkey's role, but we also say Israel is not an honest partner.Israel and Syria held four indirect rounds of talks with Turkish mediation in 2008. Those were suspended after the Israeli incursion into Palestinian-run Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly criticized the Israeli offensive in Gaza, prompting some politicians in Israel to question Turkey's suitability as a neutral mediator.
Muslim but constitutionally secular Turkey has a record of military cooperation with Israel and has acted as an intermediary between the Jewish state and the Arab world.
Warmer ties between NATO member Turkey and Muslim neighbors including Iran and Syria have raised concerns that Ankara's traditionally Western-anchored foreign policy is moving east.Turkey could play a part in negotiations between Iran and Western powers over its nuclear program, Assad said.I want Turkey to continue its important role because a trust has formed between the Iranian and Turkish governments and Turkey has wide relations with the rest of the region, he said.But any political agreement must be reached on the basis of international agreements ... We want the region purged of weapons of mass destruction, he said, but added Iran has the right to develop nuclear power.Iran says it wants nuclear power to generate electricity. The West fears it is designed to develop bombs. The United States has accused Syria of covert nuclear activity, and European allies have criticized Damascus' lack of transparency.(Editing by Maria Golovnina)
Lebanese government won't ask Hezbollah to disarm
Sat May 8, 7:07 am ET
BEIRUT – Lebanon's president says the government cannot ask Hezbollah to give up its weapons at a time of heightened tension with Israel.A U.N. deal to end the 2006 war between Israel and the Shiite militants required Hezbollah to disarm, but Lebanon's politicians have been unable to agree on a national defense strategy that would integrate the group's weapons into the regular armed forces.President Michel Suleiman said Saturday that Lebanon cannot and must not tell Hezbollah to disarm before reaching a deal on a defense strategy that would also address any future Israeli attacks.A recent Israeli claim that Hezbollah's arsenal includes Scud missiles transferred from Syria has provoked another exchange of warnings between Israel and Lebanon.
Israel won't move on U.N. call for nuclear-free zone By Dan Williams – Fri May 7, 9:03 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has no plan to review its nuclear policies, a government official said on Friday, playing down efforts by world powers at a U.N. non-proliferation conference to promote a Middle East free of atomic arms.Hoping to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran, the United States and other permanent U.N. Security Council members on Wednesday called for ways to be found to implement a 1995 initiative that would guarantee nuclear disarmament in a region where Israel is widely assumed to have the only such weapons.The declaration followed campaigning by Egypt to focus attention, during this month's nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference, on non-signatory Israel, which has set peace with all its neighbors as a precondition for joining the pact.There is nothing new here, and no reason for a change of direction on our part, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.
Egypt, which heads a powerful bloc of non-aligned developing nations, has circulated a proposal to the NPT's 189 signatories calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, with all regional countries taking part.
The United States and Russia, with the support of Britain, France and China, have been negotiating with Egypt to come up with an acceptable compromise proposal, Western diplomats say.U.S. Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher told an audience of delegates and reporters on Wednesday it was hard to imagine negotiating any kind of free zone in the absence of a comprehensive peace plan that is running on a parallel track.
NUCLEAR WEAPONRY
Egypt was the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, in 1979, but few have followed suit. Iran, an NPT signatory whose uranium enrichment has stirred Western fears of an illicit bomb project -- despite Tehran's denials -- spurns the Jewish state.The Obama administration's outreach to Iran has prompted some analysts to predict the United States will reassess its 40-year-old don't ask, don't tell policy toward an Israeli arsenal that is believed to include some 200 atomic warheads -- a grievance and perceived threat among many Arabs and Muslims.But the Israeli official said the administration's attitude on this matter was so far identical to the line taken by its predecessors.Israel neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons under an ambiguity strategy billed as warding off enemies while avoiding public provocations that can trigger arms races.Those safeguarding the official reticence have frowned upon the very fact that Israel is being discussed at the NPT forum.We don't really like this matter, but is there anything to fear, really? I don't think so, Israel Michaeli of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission said in a radio interview on Monday, as the month-long conference opened in New York.Our complaint is that people make this comparison between Iran and Israel, when there is absolutely nothing to connect the two, he told Israel's Army Radio.Israel did not join the pact, did not undertake its obligations. To a degree it paid a price for this, but it has certainly never cheated or defrauded anyone.The 1970 NPT expedites member-states' access to nuclear energy in exchange for their forswearing of nuclear weaponry.(Editing by Charles Dick)
Friday, May 07, 2010
US ENVOY PROMOTES PEACE
US envoy pushes Mideast peace agenda
MAY 07,10 6:15AM
JERUSALEM (AFP) – US envoy George Mitchell on Friday was scheduled to meet with Israel's president and later with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the hopes the two sides will start indirect talks within days.Mitchell, who already spoke on two occasions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Friday.In the evening he was due to head to the Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank for talks with Abbas.The Palestine Liberation Organisation is due to decide on Saturday whether to proceed with the indirect talks, after which Mitchell will hold a final meeting with Abbas, a senior Palestinian official said.At that meeting, Abbas will convey to the US envoy the Palestinians' definitive answer on the talks, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Mitchell is then expected to make a formal announcement about the start of the proximity talks on Saturday evening or on Sunday before he returns to Washington, the spokesman said.Direct talks resumed after a seven-year hiatus in November 2007 but had made little visible progress when they collapsed again just over a year later.The Palestinians had agreed in March to take part in proximity talks but pulled out after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.After receiving US assurances the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be shelved, the Palestinians eventually agreed to consider a new attempt at proximity talks.They want east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state but Israel considers all of the Holy City to be its eternal and indivisible capital.The status of Jerusalem as well as the issue of settlements are among the thorniest in efforts to achieve a peace deal.Israel has imposed a partial and temporary freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, but it does not include occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, or buildings already under construction.
YESTERDAY THE DOW DROPPED 700 POINTS IN 10 MINUTES FROM 2:46 TO 2:56PM AND WIPPED OUT $1 TRILLION DOLLARS OF LOST MONEY.
World stocks slide on Dow collapse, debt crisis By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer Pan Pylas, Ap Business Writer – MAY 07,10
LONDON – World markets fell sharply Friday following a huge sell-off on Wall Street and amid fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread and derail the global economic recovery.In Britain, where investors were grappling with uncertain general election results, the FTSE 100 index was down 53.05 points, or 1 percent, at 5,207.94 following a slide in the pound.Germany's DAX fell 71.80 points, or 1.2 percent, at 5,836.46 while the CAC-40 in France was 92.81 points, or 2.6 percent, lower at 3,463.30.The falls in Europe follow big declines in Asia — Japan's benchmark Nikkei index closed 3.1 percent down at 10,364.59.Some respite could come when Wall Street traders return later, though analysts said the monthly U.S. payrolls report before the open could shift sentiment — Dow futures were up 2 points at 10,459 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 1 point to 1,123.40.Investors around the world are uneasy about the prospect of trouble in the euro zone from Greece's crisis. Many economists say Greece may be insolvent in the end despite an EU-IMF bailout, and there are fears that other countries will face bond market skepticism — and higher borrowing costs that will worsen their finances in a vicious spiral. That could undermine markets and consumer confidence just as Europe crawls out of recession.They were further rattled by the massive sell-off on Wall Street — at one stage, the Dow Jones industrial average was in freefall, trading 1,000 points lower.
Though the collapse was blamed in part on a trading error and the Dow did recover to close 3.2 percent lower and regulators said they were reviewing what had happened, the drop fed into a prevailing fear that Greece's debt crisis was spreading to Portugal and Spain and possibly further afield. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations will hold a teleconference later in the day to discuss the situation, Japan's finance minister Naoto Kan said.Stock markets weren't alone in seeing massive swings — in the currency markets, the dollar was down a massive 6 yen at 88.68 yen one stage, while the euro dropped to $1.2520, its lowest level in 14 months. The retreats were reversed though and dollar was trading 1.5 percent higher on the day at 92.11 yen while the euro was up 0.9 percent at $1.2745.Contagion has smashed risk appetite and created panic while a fat finger glitch has created mayhem in equities, said Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.Caution remains the watchword especially in front of the G7 conference call where markets will be wary of support/intervention action,said Mackinnon.The scale of the current stage in the crisis was evident in the news that the Bank of Japan was offering two trillion yen ($22 billion) in short-term loans to commercial banks to boost liquidity after the dollar had tumbled.We would like to ensure stability in financial markets by providing ample funds to banks, Bank of Japan official Yuichi Adachi said. He declined to elaborate further.
As if all that wasn't enough, investors, particularly in London, had to grapple with the inconclusive outcome of the British general election.With the counting of the votes coming to an end, it's clear than no party has won enough seats to control Parliament.The U.K. will have a coalition government irrespective of the remaining declarations and indeed the media's political focus has long since shifted to this front,said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.The uncertainty was most evident in the currency markets where the pound tumbled 1.8 percent to a year low of $1.4481.Across Asia, stocks were hit hard even though the government debt crisis is centered on Europe — all the main indexes ended lower with Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand down sharply. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 1.9 percent lower while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended around 1.1 percent down. Financial markets have begun to over-run policymakers' ability to implement measures to stem the crisis,said Sean Darby, a strategist with Nomura in Hong Kong. A strong dollar and the flight to quality mean that Asian equities have also been drawn into the contagion.Oil markets were also oscillating wildly — benchmark crude for June delivery was up 49 cents to $77.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That modest rise follows the $2.86 slide on Thursday.Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
Report: Dubai IDs 5 new suspects in Hamas murder
MAY 07,2010
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A local newspaper says Dubai police has identified five new suspects in the slaying of a Hamas operative in the Gulf city-state.The National says the five traveled to Dubai with Australian, British and French passports to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. He was found dead in his Dubai hotel room in January.Dubai has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of killing al-Mabhouh. The police previously released names of 27 suspects who traveled to Dubai on fake identities and forged European and Australian passports.Friday's report did not reveal the new suspects' names.If confirmed, this would bring the number of suspects behind the slaying to 32 people.Dubai police could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. Government officials declined to comment.
Gaza smokers forced to cough up as Hamas seeks cash by Patrick Moser – MAY 07,10
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Gazans are trapped in their overcrowded strip by an Israeli blockade and are still struggling with the aftermath of war, but their anger today is directed at the Hamas rulers for taxing their smokes.Many see the new tax imposed on cigarettes smuggled from Egypt as a sign the Islamists are in deep financial trouble in the Palestinian territory that essentially survives on aid and a black market economy.Egypt has stopped the money from coming in (and) Hamas now badly needs money to pay salaries, said a local journalist, an inveterate smoker, who asked not to be named.Since Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed a tight blockade, allowing in only essential and humanitarian goods.
Hundreds of tunnels that dot the border with Egypt have served to bring in other commercial goods -- anything from motorbikes to Marlboros -- as well as weapons and cash.But Egypt has recently cracked down on the smuggling, dealing a strong blow to Hamas, which is boycotted by most banks because it is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.Hamas has made it clear it plans to gradually impose sales taxes on a wide range of items in order to address the financial crisis.Everybody is angry,says Hassan Abu El Kass, pointing to the stamp that shows the smokes he sells from a tiny street stall have been taxed.
The three-shekel sales tax (0.8 dollars, 0.60 euros) sent the price of a pack soaring by about 60 percent.Sales are down, people can't afford such prices, says Kass. A small crowd gathers around him, expressing outrage over the tax and lashing out -- albeit quietly -- at Hamas.One of Gaza's political factions recently warned in rare public criticism of the Islamists that there would be an explosion if Hamas continues collecting the new taxes.Battling power outages that leave Gaza in the dark for hours on end, Hamas is also trying to get people to pay their electricity bills, something many residents haven't done for years.Gaza gets about 70 percent of its electricity through power lines from Israel and five percent from Egypt, with the rest produced by the territory's sole power plant that relies on industrial fuel imports from Israel.That plant has been working at only a fraction of its capacity since Israel imposed the blockade, receiving only 2.2 million litres of fuel a week, as opposed to the 3.5 million litres it needs.Gazans have long been used to power cuts, but the outages have become longer and more frequent since the European Commission stopped funding fuel purchases in November.The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, dominated by president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah -- the arch-foe of Hamas -- is now in charge of buying the fuel, and supplies have dropped significantly.In March, a weekly average of 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel were imported into Gaza. That figure dropped to about one million litres in the last week of April.The shortfall has been blamed on animosity between Hamas and Fatah, but also on a failure by consumers to pay their bills.
The Gaza Electricity Corporation (GEDCO) says it has monthly sales of about 50 million shekels (13.4 million dollars, 10 million euros) but collects only about 35 to 40 percent of the bill. The accrued arrears of municipalities alone amounted to 413.5 million shekels (110.8 million dollars, 83.3 million euros) by January, according to GEDCO. People haven't been paying, Hamas hasn't been paying, municipalities haven't been paying,says Yaser Alwadeya, a Gaza industrialist and independent politician, who has pushed for Hamas to tackle the issue urgently. In recent weeks, municipal employees have been going door-to-door to collect well-overdue payments, sometimes backed by police and technicians ready to cut off anyone who doesn't pay up. But the power outages are still lengthy and frequent, affecting just about every sector of life from industrial plants to fishmongers, from sanitation facilities to reconstruction efforts.
And Gaza's blockade-ravaged economy was not much to start off with.
Nothing works properly: water is not drinkable, there's barely any electricity, there are no services and banks have no money available,says Alwadeya, who says he is among the few business leaders left in Gaza. Alwadeya's company was once the largest food maker in Gaza, but much of his production line was reduced to rubble by Israel's devastating three-week offensive launched in December 2008. He paints a bleak picture of the situation in the narrow coastal enclave.We no longer have an economy in Gaza. Just dealers from tunnels.The blockade has left many Gazans struggling to eke out a living, and 80 percent of the 1.5 million population depend on food aid. Fishermen, prevented by Israeli gunboats from venturing more than five kilometres (three miles) out to sea, now sail to the southern border to buy Egyptian fishermen's catch. Some fish is also brought in through the tunnels. Farmers risk their lives when they venture into fields near the border wall. Citing the risk of militant attacks, Israel regularly opens fire on anyone getting to close to the boundary. The risk does not deter hundreds of people who scavenge for construction materials among the ruined buildings by Gaza's northern border with Israel, using horse-drawn carts to carry their heavy loads. The closer they get to the border wall, the better the materials, and the higher the risk of getting shot. A little farther back, a cloud of dust rises from a spot where dozens of people collect pebbles that will be crushed and mixed into concrete. It's hard work, it's dangerous,says 12-year-old Motaz as he sifts through the sand just a few hundred metres from the border. Asked if he'd rather be at school, he mops his brow with a corner of his dusty Mickey Mouse T-shirt, adjusts his red baseball cap and shrugs. We need the money.
Israeli's Olmert says he is victim of a witch-hunt
Thu May 6, 8:08 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert appeared in court on Thursday to answer charges of corruption, claiming he is the victim of a witch-hunt.
Speaking to reporters just before the hearing in a Jerusalem court, Olmert said a brutal, ruthless witch-hunt, the likes of which have never before been seen in Israel,was being waged against him.I have never been offered and I never have accepted bribes,he added.Olmert is on trial on charges of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes, multiple billing of foreign trips and influence-peddling.
In December, Olmert pleaded not guilty to the charges.Prosecutors are now considering filing additional charges in connection with a spiralling real estate scandal in which several suspects allegedly received bribes to smooth the way for construction of Jerusalem's grandiose Holyland residential complex in the 1990s.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003 and then served as trade and industry minister.
After lengthy diplomacy, Mideast peace talks begin By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 5, 3:14 pm ET
JERUSALEM – A U.S. mediator launched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations Wednesday after a break of more than a year, starting a shuttle mission between a hard-line Israeli government and a Palestinian administration in control of only part of its territory.President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, met for three hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to start the indirect negotiations. In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the talks would continue on Thursday. No details were released.In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the meeting was good and productive but did not give details.Mitchell will travel between Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem and the headquarters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, less than half an hour's drive away.But the positions of the two sides are worlds apart, and Mitchell's shuttling would be considered a success if he managed no more than to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to sit down at the same table — something they did for nearly two decades before the last round of talks ended in January 2009.
The two could not even agree about the technicality of whether the talks had begun. Israel labeled the Mitchell-Netanyahu meeting Wednesday as the beginning of the mediation, while Palestinians insisted they still had to give formal approval to the process over the weekend.Crowley said Mitchell's meeting on Saturday with Abbas would mark the start of the indirect talks.Restarting the talks after a year of intensive diplomacy could give the Obama administration a badly needed foreign policy achievement, but it would be a temporary gain unless progress is made.Abbas is allocating four months for the indirect talks, insisting that the main disagreements must be discussed — control of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, borders and Israel's West Bank settlements.Negotiations will focus on final status issues and there's no need to enter into details and small matters, because we have had enough of that in the previous negotiations,Abbas said after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Jordanian capital.We said the indirect negotiations will last only four months, Abbas said.After that, we will go to the Arab League to consult on whether to continue or what to do.The Palestinians have refused to hold direct talks with Israel until it freezes all Jewish construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu agrees to talk about everything but has made it clear that his priority is safeguarding Israel's security.Over the past decade, the two sides have come close to a comprehensive accord twice, but talks broke down both times in disagreement over core issues, especially Jerusalem, home to holy sites revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims.Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, with some minor land exchanges and a link between the West Bank and Gaza through Israel.While Netanyahu has reluctantly endorsed creation of a Palestinian state, he has posed strict security conditions, fearing that the West Bank would fall under control of Islamic Hamas militants. Hamas forces expelled Abbas loyalists from Gaza in 2007, and since then, Israeli border communities have become frequent targets for rockets from Gaza.Both sides face formidable internal obstacles to far-reaching compromise.Abbas' loss of Gaza is a major impediment because he does not control all the territory that Palestinians claim for a state. Also, Hamas has rejected any peace talks with Israel and threatens to undermine Abbas' position in the West Bank. Netanyahu heads a coalition government that includes hard-line elements, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who oppose giving control of much of the West Bank to the Palestinians or removing Jewish settlements there.Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.
U.S. and other big powers back Mideast nuclear arms ban By Louis Charbonneau – Wed May 5, 12:57 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China voiced support on Wednesday for making the Middle East a nuclear-weapons-free zone, which would ultimately force Israel to scrap any atomic arms it has.The move, in a joint statement, reflected U.S. concern to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program by offering a concession over its ally Israel, but Washington says the zone cannot be actually established yet.We are committed to a full implementation of the 1995 NPT resolution on the Middle East and we support all ongoing efforts to this end,the five permanent U.N. Security Council members said in a statement issued at a conference taking stock of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.The 1995 resolution adopted by signatories of the landmark arms control treaty called for making the Middle East a zone without nuclear arms. The Jewish state has never confirmed or denied having nuclear arms.We are ready to consider all relevant proposals in the course of the (NPT) Review Conference in order to come to an agreed decision aimed at taking concrete steps in this direction,said the statement, which was obtained by Reuters.U.S. support for the idea of creating such a zone in the future could be unwelcome to Israel, which has said it can only consider it once there is Middle East peace.
But diplomats from the Jewish state's Western allies say Arab states are pushing hard on the issue in exchange for their support in U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program.Egypt, which chairs the powerful 118-nation bloc of non-aligned developing nations, circulated a proposal to the 189 signatories of the treaty calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear arms in which all countries in the region would participate.The United States and Russia, with the support of the other three countries allowed to keep nuclear weapons under the NPT, are negotiating with Egypt to come up with an acceptable compromise proposal, Western diplomats say.Despite U.S. support for the principle of the proposed zone and for Egypt's call for discussion of it, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday the time was not yet ripe for creating the zone.
IRAN AND NORTH KOREA
Without naming specific countries, the statement also urged those outside the NPT to join it. Israel, like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, never signed the treaty but is presumed to have a sizable atomic arsenal.We urge those states that are not parties to the treaty to accede as non-nuclear-weapon states and pending accession to the NPT, to adhere to its terms,the five powers said.Israel has tried to fend off Egyptian-led scrutiny of its arsenal by urging Cairo to view Iran's atomic ambitions as the regional threat, an Israeli official has said. Egypt says both Israel and Iran are nuclear threats to the region and wants action on both countries.The statement by the five powers touched on the nuclear programs of both Iran and North Korea.The proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program remain of serious concern to us,the statement said. The five powers and Germany are negotiating on a fourth U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment.Tehran refuses to stop enriching, saying its program is intended solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.
The statement did not mention sanctions. Russia and China, Western diplomats say, are pushing hard in negotiations to dilute the measures in a U.S.-drafted sanctions proposal. The five powers also called for the renewal of six-nation talks on North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The five official nuclear powers also reaffirmed previous disarmament commitments they made in 2000 and praised a recent U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction agreement. The previous U.S. administration infuriated Arab and other non-aligned nations by refusing to reaffirm those pledges -- and the call for a Middle East nuclear-arms-free zone -- at the last NPT review conference in 2005. That conference was widely viewed as a failure.(Editing by Patrick Worsnip and Vicki Allen)
Nuke-free Mideast idea rises on global agenda By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent – Wed May 5, 11:57 am ET
UNITED NATIONS – The Middle East, that timeless tinderbox at the core of so much in world affairs, looms as a battleground in the U.N.'s meeting halls this month, as 189nations debate nuclear proliferation.The idea of establishing the region as a zone free of nuclear weapons, a notion on the back burner for 15 years, has emerged as a central issue at the twice-a-decade conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).It is rising higher on the agenda because Iran's ambitious nuclear program, which the West alleges is aimed at weapons-making, threatens to prompt other Mideast nations to develop their own programs. And an expected future shift toward nuclear power worldwide will put possibly sensitive technology in more hands.But Israel, with its long-established but unannounced nuclear arsenal, remains a highly uncertain partner in any move toward a nuke-free Mideast.Egypt has formally proposed that this 2010 NPT conference back a plan to start talks next year on such a Mideast nuclear ban. Algeria has also submitted a plan.This conference represents a pivotal turning point in the history of the treaty, and an opportunity that may be the last and that must be seized,Egyptian U.N. Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz told delegates Wednesday.
The Middle East would join five other nuclear-free regions — Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific and Latin America — covering some 116 countries that have outlawed the presence of atomic arms in their areas.The United States, Israel's prime international backer, has long endorsed the idea of a Mideast zone, but has never pushed for action. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton caught the General Assembly Hall's attention on Monday, however, by saying Washington is now prepared to support practical measures for moving toward that objective.The U.S. and Israel are discussing what such practical measures might be, said a Western diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity about other countries' contacts.Russia's deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, said Moscow is partnering with Washington on a draft plan. In recent weeks, we have managed to develop a joint approach with the United States,Sergei A. Ryabkov told reporters.He didn't elaborate, beyond saying they have focused on a compromise,common denominator plan in place of the Egyptian and Algerian proposals.Fifteen years ago, the 1995 NPT Review Conference adopted a resolution calling for a Mideast zone free of weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, chemical and biological. It was a concession by the U.S. and others to the Arabs, who want Israel to join the nonproliferation treaty, giving up its officially unacknowledged arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear weapons, the Mideast's only such arms.
In exchange, the Arabs in 1995 backed the West's successful effort to extend the NPT's life indefinitely.With India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel is one of four nations not party to the NPT.After 15 years of inaction on a Mideast zone, two ideas are now under discussion: appointing an official special coordinator to study and consult with governments about ways forward; or planning a Mideast regional conference in 2011 on the subject.Important details would have to be worked out for a conference: its precise mandate; its proposed length and venue; the participating countries.Although Western diplomats privately express optimism about something new emerging here on a Mideast WMD-free zone, no one expects quick movement after the session toward a treaty. Embattled Israel has long maintained that a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace must first be reached before it would consider such a region-wide regime.Still, any movement here would be seen again as a concession by Washington and its allies, perhaps enabling them to win support on other elements they favor for a 2010 conference final document — making withdrawal from the treaty more difficult, for example. Iran is viewed as a candidate for withdrawal, since the U.S. and others believe Tehran's uranium enrichment program is aimed at building bombs, something Iran denies. If it decides to produce nuclear weapons, this thinking goes, Tehran will give the required three months' notice and pull out of the NPT. One more complication faces those pushing for a WMD-free zone: the other WMD. The Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention outlaw possession of those mass-casualty devices. The small handful of nations that haven't ratified those pacts include three crucial to the Middle East effort: Egypt, Syria and Israel.The three countries would have to accede to those treaties, and work would have to begin on identifying and neutralizing the chemical or biological weapons they might have.
UN has no evidence of Hezbollah Scud smuggling
Wed May 5, 11:24 am ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – A UN peacekeeping force said in a newspaper report on Wednesday that it has no evidence of any Scud missiles in southern Lebanon, after Israel accused Syria of smuggling the missiles to Hezbollah.We have no evidence of any Scud missiles in UNIFIL's area of operations in southern Lebanon, the daily An-Nahar quoted Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, as saying.These missiles are large and difficult to hide, he added in comments made in English.Israel's President Shimon Peres sparked controversy in April when he accused Syria of supplying the Shiite Hezbollah movement with long-range Scud missiles, a charge Damascus has staunchly denied.Washington, which has sought rapprochement with Damascus, further fed the controversy when Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with sophisticated weaponry, without naming Scuds.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the risks of triggering a regional war if he supplied the Shiite group with the missiles.But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday refused to confirm or deny the Scud allegations, saying his militant party had a legal right to own any weapons it wished.We do not confirm or deny if we have received weapons or not, so we do not comment and we will not comment, Nasrallah said.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, is the only group that did not disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, arguing its weapons are necessary to fight Israel which it later faced off in a devastating conflict in 2006.Spain in January took over command of the 12,000-strong UNIFIL, which was set up in 1978 to monitor Lebanon's border with Israel and was beefed up after the 2006 war.
Gaza report judge meets critics in South Africa
Wed May 5, 8:44 am ET
JOHANNESBURG – An internationally respected jurist who accused Israel of war crimes has discussed his findings with fellow South African Jews who criticized his U.N. report.In a statement Wednesday, the South African Zionist Federation said Monday's meeting came after Richard Goldstone attended his grandson's Johannesburg bar mitzvah. Goldstone was able to attend the weekend rite of passage after protests by his Jewish critics were called off.The federation says neither side would add publicly to opening statements it released.In his statement, Goldstone says it would have been hypocritical to denounce war crimes around the world but remain silent when it came to Israel.Federation chair Avrom Krengel says Goldstone's report was biased against Israel and caused pain and anger.
Founder of Israel's Rabbis for Human Rights dies
Tue May 4, 1:51 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Rabbi David Forman, founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, a prominent group defending Palestinians, has died, a colleague said Tuesday.Forman was 65. He died Monday in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he was undergoing treatment, said Rabbi Arik Ascherman, current leader of the human rights group.Forman founded Rabbis for Human Rights in 1988 and led it until 1992. He served as its chairman again from 2002-2003.A Reform Jewish rabbi, he was director of the Israel office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform umbrella group. He moved to Israel in 1972.Rabbi Forman was a mentor and a moral compass for several generations of rabbis and Jews around the world through his work in human rights, Ascherman told The Associated Press.Rabbis for Human Rights leads regular protests against the demolition of Palestinian homes and uprooting of olive trees in the West Bank.Forman is survived by his wife and four children. His funeral is set for Thursday in Israel.
Palestinian leader meets Saudi king ahead of new peace talks
Tue May 4, 1:50 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ahead of the expected launch of US-brokered indirect negotiations with Israel, a Palestinian diplomat said.Abbas spent half a day talking with Abdullah and other top Saudi officials in preparation for meeting US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Friday, as the US pushes proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians that it hopes will open the door to a deal on a two-state solution.The king expressed total solidarity with the Palestinians and Palestinian leadership,a Palestinian diplomat said after the talks.He also expressed support for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas,the two main rival Palestinian factions, the diplomat added.Abbas was on a whistlestop tour of the region to coordinate with his Arab backers as momentum built for the resumption of negotiations with Israel.He will see Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday ahead of his planned meeting with Mitchell, who arrived in the region on Tuesday.Riyadh's support for the talks is considered crucial. Saudi Arabia has played a key role in backing negotiations towards a two-state solution, and in 2002 launched an Arab peace initiative towards that end.The support of the kingdom for our cause springs from its strong belief that what it is doing for the Palestinian cause is a duty dictated by its conscience and its faith, Abbas told the Okaz newspaper in an interview before the visit.On April 15, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Arab leaders to prove their commitment to Middle East peace through action, not just rhetoric that would make it easier for the Palestinians to pursue negotiations and achieve an agreement.
She also urged countries like Saudi Arabia to step up financial support for the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas.Arab states need to share a greater portion of these responsibilities,she said.Abbas's writ has effectively been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since Hamas forces seized the Gaza Strip in 2007. Saudi Arabia played a lead role in so far abortive efforts to reconcile factions.
Israel says Hezbollah missile buildup accelerating
Tue May 4, 9:39 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Syria's government routinely ships weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militia Hezbollah in an operation that goes well beyond sporadic smuggling, a top Israeli intelligence officer said on Tuesday.The head of the military intelligence research department, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told a parliamentary committee that Hezbollah's arsenal included thousands of rockets of all ranges and types, some solid-fuelled.Baidatz did not specifically name the long-range Scud missiles which Israeli President Shimon Peres has accused Hezbollah of stockpiling, but appeared to allude to Peres' warnings.The shipments of long-range missiles which have been reported recently are only the tip of the iceberg, Baidatz told the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.Syria has a significant role in the growing strength of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, he said.Weapons are sent to Hezbollah from Syria on a regular basis under the direction of the Syrian and Iranian regimes.Hezbollah has not confirmed or denied the Scud allegations, saying only that it has the right to possess any weapon it chooses.
On Monday, President Barack Obama renewed US sanctions on Syria for a year, accusing Damascus of supporting terrorist groups and pursuing missile programs and weapons of mass destruction.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week about the risks of sparking a regional war if he supplied long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.
U.S. envoy arrives for Israeli-Palestinian talks By Jeffrey Heller – Mon May 3, 11:41 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Barak Obama's Middle East peace envoy arrived in Tel Aviv Monday for expected indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks but Israel voiced doubt about any breakthrough without direct negotiations.Hours before envoy George Mitchell flew into Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak conferred in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh about the upcoming U.S.-mediated negotiations. Obama's peace efforts received a boost Saturday when Arab states approved four months of proximity talks, whose expected start in March was delayed by Israel's announcement of a settlement project on occupied land near Jerusalem.Israeli Defense Ministry strategist Amos Gilad said on Israel Radio the indirect negotiations would begin Wednesday.It was not immediately clear when the envoy would hold talks with the Palestinian side. The executive committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to meet only Saturday to give the formal nod to start the negotiations.Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor described indirect talks as a strange affair after face-to-face peace negotiations stretching back 16 years.There have been no direct talks for the past 18 months, a period that has included Israel's Gaza war, election of a right-wing Israeli government and entrenched rule in the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists opposed to the U.S. peace efforts.
REAL TALKS
I think it is clear to everyone that real talks are direct talks, and I don't think there is a chance of a significant breakthrough until the direct talks begin, Meridor said.The talks will be held. The envoy, Mitchell, will talk to us, to them. But the more we hasten to arrive at direct talks, the more we will be able to address the heart of the matter.Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said the negotiations would show whether the Israeli government was serious about peace and test the sincerity of the Obama administration in pursuing Palestinian statehood.The truth is we are not in need of negotiations. We are in need of decisions by the Israeli government. This is the time for decisions more than it is the time for negotiations,Abu Rdainah said.In an interview published Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam, Abbas said Obama had given a commitment he would not allow any provocative measures by either side.
Abbas has long insisted Israel freeze Jewish settlement building before any negotiations resume, and he had rejected a temporary construction moratorium that Netanyahu ordered in the occupied West Bank last November as insufficient.Netanyahu, who heads a pro-settler government, has pledged not to curb Israeli home construction in East Jerusalem.But after angering Washington by announcing a 1,600-home project -- during a visit in March by Vice President Joe Biden -- Israel has not approved new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, in what some Israeli politicians called a de facto freeze.Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a 1967 war, and considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.(Additional reporting by Cairo bureau, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Tom Perry in Ramallah)
Jordan River could die by 2011: report by Patrick Moser – Sun May 2, 5:36 pm ET
ALUMOT, Israel (AFP) – The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday.The famed river has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of Galilee, devastated by overexploitation, pollution and lack of regional management, Friends of the Earth, Middle East (FoEME) said in a report.More than 98 percent of the river's flow has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan over the years.The remaining flow consists primarily of sewage, fish pond water, agricultural run-off and saline water," the environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank said in the report to be presented in Amman on Monday.Without concrete action, the LJR (lower Jordan River) is expected to run dry at the end of 2011.The river -- which runs 217 kilometres (135 miles) from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea -- and its tributaries are shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank.In 1847, a US naval officer who led an expedition along the river described navigating down cascading rapids and waterfalls. Today the Jordan is a brackish stream barely a few metres (yards) wide.
A couple of kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee -- which is actually a lake -- a dam cuts off the flow of the river. Just south of the dam, raw sewage gushes from a pipe.This is what is today the source of the lower Jordan River, FoEME director for Israel Gidon Bromberg says, pointing to the foul-smelling water.No one can say this is holy water. No one can say this is an acceptable state for a river this famous worldwide.A few metres away, saline water -- diverted from salt springs to protect the nearby lake -- flows into the foaming brown mess.About 100 kilometres downstream, a Russian clad in a white robe immerses himself in the river at a site in Jordan where many Christians believe Jesus was baptised.Every year, thousands of pilgrims take the plunge in the biblical river despite alarmingly high pollution.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities along the lower Jordan river -- about 340,000 people in all -- dump raw sewage into the river.Ironically, if the sewage stops flowing into the river -- which Israel plans to do on its stretch -- the damage could be even greater unless additional measures are taken to reduce the salinity of the water.FoEME believes the solution lies in releasing huge amounts of fresh water into the river.The Jordan once had a flow of 1.3 billion cubic metres (45.5 billion cubic feet) a year, but now discharges only an estimated 20 million to 30 million cubic metres into the Dead Sea.A new study we commissioned reveals that we have lost at least 50 percent of biodiversity in and around the river due to the near total diversion of fresh water, and that some 400 million cubic metres of water annually are urgently needed to be returned to the river to bring it back to life, said Munqeth Mehyar, FoEME's Jordanian director. Israel, Syria, Jordan must all return water to the ailing river, the report says. Israel, having diverted the largest share and being a developed nation, should return a proportionally higher percentage of water, it adds. Better management could save Israel 517 million cubic metres of water a year and Jordan 305 million cubic metres, part of which could be allocated to the Jordan river, the environmental group says.Improving the flow of the Jordan River would also go a long way towards saving the Dead Sea, which is in turn withering rapidly.
MAY 07,10 6:15AM
JERUSALEM (AFP) – US envoy George Mitchell on Friday was scheduled to meet with Israel's president and later with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the hopes the two sides will start indirect talks within days.Mitchell, who already spoke on two occasions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Friday.In the evening he was due to head to the Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank for talks with Abbas.The Palestine Liberation Organisation is due to decide on Saturday whether to proceed with the indirect talks, after which Mitchell will hold a final meeting with Abbas, a senior Palestinian official said.At that meeting, Abbas will convey to the US envoy the Palestinians' definitive answer on the talks, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Mitchell is then expected to make a formal announcement about the start of the proximity talks on Saturday evening or on Sunday before he returns to Washington, the spokesman said.Direct talks resumed after a seven-year hiatus in November 2007 but had made little visible progress when they collapsed again just over a year later.The Palestinians had agreed in March to take part in proximity talks but pulled out after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.After receiving US assurances the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be shelved, the Palestinians eventually agreed to consider a new attempt at proximity talks.They want east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state but Israel considers all of the Holy City to be its eternal and indivisible capital.The status of Jerusalem as well as the issue of settlements are among the thorniest in efforts to achieve a peace deal.Israel has imposed a partial and temporary freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, but it does not include occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, or buildings already under construction.
YESTERDAY THE DOW DROPPED 700 POINTS IN 10 MINUTES FROM 2:46 TO 2:56PM AND WIPPED OUT $1 TRILLION DOLLARS OF LOST MONEY.
World stocks slide on Dow collapse, debt crisis By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer Pan Pylas, Ap Business Writer – MAY 07,10
LONDON – World markets fell sharply Friday following a huge sell-off on Wall Street and amid fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread and derail the global economic recovery.In Britain, where investors were grappling with uncertain general election results, the FTSE 100 index was down 53.05 points, or 1 percent, at 5,207.94 following a slide in the pound.Germany's DAX fell 71.80 points, or 1.2 percent, at 5,836.46 while the CAC-40 in France was 92.81 points, or 2.6 percent, lower at 3,463.30.The falls in Europe follow big declines in Asia — Japan's benchmark Nikkei index closed 3.1 percent down at 10,364.59.Some respite could come when Wall Street traders return later, though analysts said the monthly U.S. payrolls report before the open could shift sentiment — Dow futures were up 2 points at 10,459 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 1 point to 1,123.40.Investors around the world are uneasy about the prospect of trouble in the euro zone from Greece's crisis. Many economists say Greece may be insolvent in the end despite an EU-IMF bailout, and there are fears that other countries will face bond market skepticism — and higher borrowing costs that will worsen their finances in a vicious spiral. That could undermine markets and consumer confidence just as Europe crawls out of recession.They were further rattled by the massive sell-off on Wall Street — at one stage, the Dow Jones industrial average was in freefall, trading 1,000 points lower.
Though the collapse was blamed in part on a trading error and the Dow did recover to close 3.2 percent lower and regulators said they were reviewing what had happened, the drop fed into a prevailing fear that Greece's debt crisis was spreading to Portugal and Spain and possibly further afield. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations will hold a teleconference later in the day to discuss the situation, Japan's finance minister Naoto Kan said.Stock markets weren't alone in seeing massive swings — in the currency markets, the dollar was down a massive 6 yen at 88.68 yen one stage, while the euro dropped to $1.2520, its lowest level in 14 months. The retreats were reversed though and dollar was trading 1.5 percent higher on the day at 92.11 yen while the euro was up 0.9 percent at $1.2745.Contagion has smashed risk appetite and created panic while a fat finger glitch has created mayhem in equities, said Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.Caution remains the watchword especially in front of the G7 conference call where markets will be wary of support/intervention action,said Mackinnon.The scale of the current stage in the crisis was evident in the news that the Bank of Japan was offering two trillion yen ($22 billion) in short-term loans to commercial banks to boost liquidity after the dollar had tumbled.We would like to ensure stability in financial markets by providing ample funds to banks, Bank of Japan official Yuichi Adachi said. He declined to elaborate further.
As if all that wasn't enough, investors, particularly in London, had to grapple with the inconclusive outcome of the British general election.With the counting of the votes coming to an end, it's clear than no party has won enough seats to control Parliament.The U.K. will have a coalition government irrespective of the remaining declarations and indeed the media's political focus has long since shifted to this front,said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.The uncertainty was most evident in the currency markets where the pound tumbled 1.8 percent to a year low of $1.4481.Across Asia, stocks were hit hard even though the government debt crisis is centered on Europe — all the main indexes ended lower with Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand down sharply. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 1.9 percent lower while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended around 1.1 percent down. Financial markets have begun to over-run policymakers' ability to implement measures to stem the crisis,said Sean Darby, a strategist with Nomura in Hong Kong. A strong dollar and the flight to quality mean that Asian equities have also been drawn into the contagion.Oil markets were also oscillating wildly — benchmark crude for June delivery was up 49 cents to $77.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That modest rise follows the $2.86 slide on Thursday.Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
Report: Dubai IDs 5 new suspects in Hamas murder
MAY 07,2010
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A local newspaper says Dubai police has identified five new suspects in the slaying of a Hamas operative in the Gulf city-state.The National says the five traveled to Dubai with Australian, British and French passports to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. He was found dead in his Dubai hotel room in January.Dubai has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of killing al-Mabhouh. The police previously released names of 27 suspects who traveled to Dubai on fake identities and forged European and Australian passports.Friday's report did not reveal the new suspects' names.If confirmed, this would bring the number of suspects behind the slaying to 32 people.Dubai police could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. Government officials declined to comment.
Gaza smokers forced to cough up as Hamas seeks cash by Patrick Moser – MAY 07,10
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Gazans are trapped in their overcrowded strip by an Israeli blockade and are still struggling with the aftermath of war, but their anger today is directed at the Hamas rulers for taxing their smokes.Many see the new tax imposed on cigarettes smuggled from Egypt as a sign the Islamists are in deep financial trouble in the Palestinian territory that essentially survives on aid and a black market economy.Egypt has stopped the money from coming in (and) Hamas now badly needs money to pay salaries, said a local journalist, an inveterate smoker, who asked not to be named.Since Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed a tight blockade, allowing in only essential and humanitarian goods.
Hundreds of tunnels that dot the border with Egypt have served to bring in other commercial goods -- anything from motorbikes to Marlboros -- as well as weapons and cash.But Egypt has recently cracked down on the smuggling, dealing a strong blow to Hamas, which is boycotted by most banks because it is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.Hamas has made it clear it plans to gradually impose sales taxes on a wide range of items in order to address the financial crisis.Everybody is angry,says Hassan Abu El Kass, pointing to the stamp that shows the smokes he sells from a tiny street stall have been taxed.
The three-shekel sales tax (0.8 dollars, 0.60 euros) sent the price of a pack soaring by about 60 percent.Sales are down, people can't afford such prices, says Kass. A small crowd gathers around him, expressing outrage over the tax and lashing out -- albeit quietly -- at Hamas.One of Gaza's political factions recently warned in rare public criticism of the Islamists that there would be an explosion if Hamas continues collecting the new taxes.Battling power outages that leave Gaza in the dark for hours on end, Hamas is also trying to get people to pay their electricity bills, something many residents haven't done for years.Gaza gets about 70 percent of its electricity through power lines from Israel and five percent from Egypt, with the rest produced by the territory's sole power plant that relies on industrial fuel imports from Israel.That plant has been working at only a fraction of its capacity since Israel imposed the blockade, receiving only 2.2 million litres of fuel a week, as opposed to the 3.5 million litres it needs.Gazans have long been used to power cuts, but the outages have become longer and more frequent since the European Commission stopped funding fuel purchases in November.The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, dominated by president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah -- the arch-foe of Hamas -- is now in charge of buying the fuel, and supplies have dropped significantly.In March, a weekly average of 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel were imported into Gaza. That figure dropped to about one million litres in the last week of April.The shortfall has been blamed on animosity between Hamas and Fatah, but also on a failure by consumers to pay their bills.
The Gaza Electricity Corporation (GEDCO) says it has monthly sales of about 50 million shekels (13.4 million dollars, 10 million euros) but collects only about 35 to 40 percent of the bill. The accrued arrears of municipalities alone amounted to 413.5 million shekels (110.8 million dollars, 83.3 million euros) by January, according to GEDCO. People haven't been paying, Hamas hasn't been paying, municipalities haven't been paying,says Yaser Alwadeya, a Gaza industrialist and independent politician, who has pushed for Hamas to tackle the issue urgently. In recent weeks, municipal employees have been going door-to-door to collect well-overdue payments, sometimes backed by police and technicians ready to cut off anyone who doesn't pay up. But the power outages are still lengthy and frequent, affecting just about every sector of life from industrial plants to fishmongers, from sanitation facilities to reconstruction efforts.
And Gaza's blockade-ravaged economy was not much to start off with.
Nothing works properly: water is not drinkable, there's barely any electricity, there are no services and banks have no money available,says Alwadeya, who says he is among the few business leaders left in Gaza. Alwadeya's company was once the largest food maker in Gaza, but much of his production line was reduced to rubble by Israel's devastating three-week offensive launched in December 2008. He paints a bleak picture of the situation in the narrow coastal enclave.We no longer have an economy in Gaza. Just dealers from tunnels.The blockade has left many Gazans struggling to eke out a living, and 80 percent of the 1.5 million population depend on food aid. Fishermen, prevented by Israeli gunboats from venturing more than five kilometres (three miles) out to sea, now sail to the southern border to buy Egyptian fishermen's catch. Some fish is also brought in through the tunnels. Farmers risk their lives when they venture into fields near the border wall. Citing the risk of militant attacks, Israel regularly opens fire on anyone getting to close to the boundary. The risk does not deter hundreds of people who scavenge for construction materials among the ruined buildings by Gaza's northern border with Israel, using horse-drawn carts to carry their heavy loads. The closer they get to the border wall, the better the materials, and the higher the risk of getting shot. A little farther back, a cloud of dust rises from a spot where dozens of people collect pebbles that will be crushed and mixed into concrete. It's hard work, it's dangerous,says 12-year-old Motaz as he sifts through the sand just a few hundred metres from the border. Asked if he'd rather be at school, he mops his brow with a corner of his dusty Mickey Mouse T-shirt, adjusts his red baseball cap and shrugs. We need the money.
Israeli's Olmert says he is victim of a witch-hunt
Thu May 6, 8:08 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert appeared in court on Thursday to answer charges of corruption, claiming he is the victim of a witch-hunt.
Speaking to reporters just before the hearing in a Jerusalem court, Olmert said a brutal, ruthless witch-hunt, the likes of which have never before been seen in Israel,was being waged against him.I have never been offered and I never have accepted bribes,he added.Olmert is on trial on charges of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes, multiple billing of foreign trips and influence-peddling.
In December, Olmert pleaded not guilty to the charges.Prosecutors are now considering filing additional charges in connection with a spiralling real estate scandal in which several suspects allegedly received bribes to smooth the way for construction of Jerusalem's grandiose Holyland residential complex in the 1990s.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003 and then served as trade and industry minister.
After lengthy diplomacy, Mideast peace talks begin By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 5, 3:14 pm ET
JERUSALEM – A U.S. mediator launched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations Wednesday after a break of more than a year, starting a shuttle mission between a hard-line Israeli government and a Palestinian administration in control of only part of its territory.President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, met for three hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to start the indirect negotiations. In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the talks would continue on Thursday. No details were released.In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the meeting was good and productive but did not give details.Mitchell will travel between Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem and the headquarters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, less than half an hour's drive away.But the positions of the two sides are worlds apart, and Mitchell's shuttling would be considered a success if he managed no more than to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to sit down at the same table — something they did for nearly two decades before the last round of talks ended in January 2009.
The two could not even agree about the technicality of whether the talks had begun. Israel labeled the Mitchell-Netanyahu meeting Wednesday as the beginning of the mediation, while Palestinians insisted they still had to give formal approval to the process over the weekend.Crowley said Mitchell's meeting on Saturday with Abbas would mark the start of the indirect talks.Restarting the talks after a year of intensive diplomacy could give the Obama administration a badly needed foreign policy achievement, but it would be a temporary gain unless progress is made.Abbas is allocating four months for the indirect talks, insisting that the main disagreements must be discussed — control of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, borders and Israel's West Bank settlements.Negotiations will focus on final status issues and there's no need to enter into details and small matters, because we have had enough of that in the previous negotiations,Abbas said after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Jordanian capital.We said the indirect negotiations will last only four months, Abbas said.After that, we will go to the Arab League to consult on whether to continue or what to do.The Palestinians have refused to hold direct talks with Israel until it freezes all Jewish construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu agrees to talk about everything but has made it clear that his priority is safeguarding Israel's security.Over the past decade, the two sides have come close to a comprehensive accord twice, but talks broke down both times in disagreement over core issues, especially Jerusalem, home to holy sites revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims.Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, with some minor land exchanges and a link between the West Bank and Gaza through Israel.While Netanyahu has reluctantly endorsed creation of a Palestinian state, he has posed strict security conditions, fearing that the West Bank would fall under control of Islamic Hamas militants. Hamas forces expelled Abbas loyalists from Gaza in 2007, and since then, Israeli border communities have become frequent targets for rockets from Gaza.Both sides face formidable internal obstacles to far-reaching compromise.Abbas' loss of Gaza is a major impediment because he does not control all the territory that Palestinians claim for a state. Also, Hamas has rejected any peace talks with Israel and threatens to undermine Abbas' position in the West Bank. Netanyahu heads a coalition government that includes hard-line elements, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who oppose giving control of much of the West Bank to the Palestinians or removing Jewish settlements there.Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.
U.S. and other big powers back Mideast nuclear arms ban By Louis Charbonneau – Wed May 5, 12:57 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China voiced support on Wednesday for making the Middle East a nuclear-weapons-free zone, which would ultimately force Israel to scrap any atomic arms it has.The move, in a joint statement, reflected U.S. concern to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program by offering a concession over its ally Israel, but Washington says the zone cannot be actually established yet.We are committed to a full implementation of the 1995 NPT resolution on the Middle East and we support all ongoing efforts to this end,the five permanent U.N. Security Council members said in a statement issued at a conference taking stock of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.The 1995 resolution adopted by signatories of the landmark arms control treaty called for making the Middle East a zone without nuclear arms. The Jewish state has never confirmed or denied having nuclear arms.We are ready to consider all relevant proposals in the course of the (NPT) Review Conference in order to come to an agreed decision aimed at taking concrete steps in this direction,said the statement, which was obtained by Reuters.U.S. support for the idea of creating such a zone in the future could be unwelcome to Israel, which has said it can only consider it once there is Middle East peace.
But diplomats from the Jewish state's Western allies say Arab states are pushing hard on the issue in exchange for their support in U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program.Egypt, which chairs the powerful 118-nation bloc of non-aligned developing nations, circulated a proposal to the 189 signatories of the treaty calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear arms in which all countries in the region would participate.The United States and Russia, with the support of the other three countries allowed to keep nuclear weapons under the NPT, are negotiating with Egypt to come up with an acceptable compromise proposal, Western diplomats say.Despite U.S. support for the principle of the proposed zone and for Egypt's call for discussion of it, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday the time was not yet ripe for creating the zone.
IRAN AND NORTH KOREA
Without naming specific countries, the statement also urged those outside the NPT to join it. Israel, like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, never signed the treaty but is presumed to have a sizable atomic arsenal.We urge those states that are not parties to the treaty to accede as non-nuclear-weapon states and pending accession to the NPT, to adhere to its terms,the five powers said.Israel has tried to fend off Egyptian-led scrutiny of its arsenal by urging Cairo to view Iran's atomic ambitions as the regional threat, an Israeli official has said. Egypt says both Israel and Iran are nuclear threats to the region and wants action on both countries.The statement by the five powers touched on the nuclear programs of both Iran and North Korea.The proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program remain of serious concern to us,the statement said. The five powers and Germany are negotiating on a fourth U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment.Tehran refuses to stop enriching, saying its program is intended solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.
The statement did not mention sanctions. Russia and China, Western diplomats say, are pushing hard in negotiations to dilute the measures in a U.S.-drafted sanctions proposal. The five powers also called for the renewal of six-nation talks on North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The five official nuclear powers also reaffirmed previous disarmament commitments they made in 2000 and praised a recent U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction agreement. The previous U.S. administration infuriated Arab and other non-aligned nations by refusing to reaffirm those pledges -- and the call for a Middle East nuclear-arms-free zone -- at the last NPT review conference in 2005. That conference was widely viewed as a failure.(Editing by Patrick Worsnip and Vicki Allen)
Nuke-free Mideast idea rises on global agenda By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent – Wed May 5, 11:57 am ET
UNITED NATIONS – The Middle East, that timeless tinderbox at the core of so much in world affairs, looms as a battleground in the U.N.'s meeting halls this month, as 189nations debate nuclear proliferation.The idea of establishing the region as a zone free of nuclear weapons, a notion on the back burner for 15 years, has emerged as a central issue at the twice-a-decade conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).It is rising higher on the agenda because Iran's ambitious nuclear program, which the West alleges is aimed at weapons-making, threatens to prompt other Mideast nations to develop their own programs. And an expected future shift toward nuclear power worldwide will put possibly sensitive technology in more hands.But Israel, with its long-established but unannounced nuclear arsenal, remains a highly uncertain partner in any move toward a nuke-free Mideast.Egypt has formally proposed that this 2010 NPT conference back a plan to start talks next year on such a Mideast nuclear ban. Algeria has also submitted a plan.This conference represents a pivotal turning point in the history of the treaty, and an opportunity that may be the last and that must be seized,Egyptian U.N. Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz told delegates Wednesday.
The Middle East would join five other nuclear-free regions — Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific and Latin America — covering some 116 countries that have outlawed the presence of atomic arms in their areas.The United States, Israel's prime international backer, has long endorsed the idea of a Mideast zone, but has never pushed for action. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton caught the General Assembly Hall's attention on Monday, however, by saying Washington is now prepared to support practical measures for moving toward that objective.The U.S. and Israel are discussing what such practical measures might be, said a Western diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity about other countries' contacts.Russia's deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, said Moscow is partnering with Washington on a draft plan. In recent weeks, we have managed to develop a joint approach with the United States,Sergei A. Ryabkov told reporters.He didn't elaborate, beyond saying they have focused on a compromise,common denominator plan in place of the Egyptian and Algerian proposals.Fifteen years ago, the 1995 NPT Review Conference adopted a resolution calling for a Mideast zone free of weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, chemical and biological. It was a concession by the U.S. and others to the Arabs, who want Israel to join the nonproliferation treaty, giving up its officially unacknowledged arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear weapons, the Mideast's only such arms.
In exchange, the Arabs in 1995 backed the West's successful effort to extend the NPT's life indefinitely.With India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel is one of four nations not party to the NPT.After 15 years of inaction on a Mideast zone, two ideas are now under discussion: appointing an official special coordinator to study and consult with governments about ways forward; or planning a Mideast regional conference in 2011 on the subject.Important details would have to be worked out for a conference: its precise mandate; its proposed length and venue; the participating countries.Although Western diplomats privately express optimism about something new emerging here on a Mideast WMD-free zone, no one expects quick movement after the session toward a treaty. Embattled Israel has long maintained that a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace must first be reached before it would consider such a region-wide regime.Still, any movement here would be seen again as a concession by Washington and its allies, perhaps enabling them to win support on other elements they favor for a 2010 conference final document — making withdrawal from the treaty more difficult, for example. Iran is viewed as a candidate for withdrawal, since the U.S. and others believe Tehran's uranium enrichment program is aimed at building bombs, something Iran denies. If it decides to produce nuclear weapons, this thinking goes, Tehran will give the required three months' notice and pull out of the NPT. One more complication faces those pushing for a WMD-free zone: the other WMD. The Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention outlaw possession of those mass-casualty devices. The small handful of nations that haven't ratified those pacts include three crucial to the Middle East effort: Egypt, Syria and Israel.The three countries would have to accede to those treaties, and work would have to begin on identifying and neutralizing the chemical or biological weapons they might have.
UN has no evidence of Hezbollah Scud smuggling
Wed May 5, 11:24 am ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – A UN peacekeeping force said in a newspaper report on Wednesday that it has no evidence of any Scud missiles in southern Lebanon, after Israel accused Syria of smuggling the missiles to Hezbollah.We have no evidence of any Scud missiles in UNIFIL's area of operations in southern Lebanon, the daily An-Nahar quoted Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, as saying.These missiles are large and difficult to hide, he added in comments made in English.Israel's President Shimon Peres sparked controversy in April when he accused Syria of supplying the Shiite Hezbollah movement with long-range Scud missiles, a charge Damascus has staunchly denied.Washington, which has sought rapprochement with Damascus, further fed the controversy when Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with sophisticated weaponry, without naming Scuds.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the risks of triggering a regional war if he supplied the Shiite group with the missiles.But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday refused to confirm or deny the Scud allegations, saying his militant party had a legal right to own any weapons it wished.We do not confirm or deny if we have received weapons or not, so we do not comment and we will not comment, Nasrallah said.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, is the only group that did not disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, arguing its weapons are necessary to fight Israel which it later faced off in a devastating conflict in 2006.Spain in January took over command of the 12,000-strong UNIFIL, which was set up in 1978 to monitor Lebanon's border with Israel and was beefed up after the 2006 war.
Gaza report judge meets critics in South Africa
Wed May 5, 8:44 am ET
JOHANNESBURG – An internationally respected jurist who accused Israel of war crimes has discussed his findings with fellow South African Jews who criticized his U.N. report.In a statement Wednesday, the South African Zionist Federation said Monday's meeting came after Richard Goldstone attended his grandson's Johannesburg bar mitzvah. Goldstone was able to attend the weekend rite of passage after protests by his Jewish critics were called off.The federation says neither side would add publicly to opening statements it released.In his statement, Goldstone says it would have been hypocritical to denounce war crimes around the world but remain silent when it came to Israel.Federation chair Avrom Krengel says Goldstone's report was biased against Israel and caused pain and anger.
Founder of Israel's Rabbis for Human Rights dies
Tue May 4, 1:51 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Rabbi David Forman, founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, a prominent group defending Palestinians, has died, a colleague said Tuesday.Forman was 65. He died Monday in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he was undergoing treatment, said Rabbi Arik Ascherman, current leader of the human rights group.Forman founded Rabbis for Human Rights in 1988 and led it until 1992. He served as its chairman again from 2002-2003.A Reform Jewish rabbi, he was director of the Israel office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform umbrella group. He moved to Israel in 1972.Rabbi Forman was a mentor and a moral compass for several generations of rabbis and Jews around the world through his work in human rights, Ascherman told The Associated Press.Rabbis for Human Rights leads regular protests against the demolition of Palestinian homes and uprooting of olive trees in the West Bank.Forman is survived by his wife and four children. His funeral is set for Thursday in Israel.
Palestinian leader meets Saudi king ahead of new peace talks
Tue May 4, 1:50 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ahead of the expected launch of US-brokered indirect negotiations with Israel, a Palestinian diplomat said.Abbas spent half a day talking with Abdullah and other top Saudi officials in preparation for meeting US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Friday, as the US pushes proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians that it hopes will open the door to a deal on a two-state solution.The king expressed total solidarity with the Palestinians and Palestinian leadership,a Palestinian diplomat said after the talks.He also expressed support for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas,the two main rival Palestinian factions, the diplomat added.Abbas was on a whistlestop tour of the region to coordinate with his Arab backers as momentum built for the resumption of negotiations with Israel.He will see Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday ahead of his planned meeting with Mitchell, who arrived in the region on Tuesday.Riyadh's support for the talks is considered crucial. Saudi Arabia has played a key role in backing negotiations towards a two-state solution, and in 2002 launched an Arab peace initiative towards that end.The support of the kingdom for our cause springs from its strong belief that what it is doing for the Palestinian cause is a duty dictated by its conscience and its faith, Abbas told the Okaz newspaper in an interview before the visit.On April 15, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Arab leaders to prove their commitment to Middle East peace through action, not just rhetoric that would make it easier for the Palestinians to pursue negotiations and achieve an agreement.
She also urged countries like Saudi Arabia to step up financial support for the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas.Arab states need to share a greater portion of these responsibilities,she said.Abbas's writ has effectively been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since Hamas forces seized the Gaza Strip in 2007. Saudi Arabia played a lead role in so far abortive efforts to reconcile factions.
Israel says Hezbollah missile buildup accelerating
Tue May 4, 9:39 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Syria's government routinely ships weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militia Hezbollah in an operation that goes well beyond sporadic smuggling, a top Israeli intelligence officer said on Tuesday.The head of the military intelligence research department, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told a parliamentary committee that Hezbollah's arsenal included thousands of rockets of all ranges and types, some solid-fuelled.Baidatz did not specifically name the long-range Scud missiles which Israeli President Shimon Peres has accused Hezbollah of stockpiling, but appeared to allude to Peres' warnings.The shipments of long-range missiles which have been reported recently are only the tip of the iceberg, Baidatz told the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.Syria has a significant role in the growing strength of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, he said.Weapons are sent to Hezbollah from Syria on a regular basis under the direction of the Syrian and Iranian regimes.Hezbollah has not confirmed or denied the Scud allegations, saying only that it has the right to possess any weapon it chooses.
On Monday, President Barack Obama renewed US sanctions on Syria for a year, accusing Damascus of supporting terrorist groups and pursuing missile programs and weapons of mass destruction.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week about the risks of sparking a regional war if he supplied long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.
U.S. envoy arrives for Israeli-Palestinian talks By Jeffrey Heller – Mon May 3, 11:41 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Barak Obama's Middle East peace envoy arrived in Tel Aviv Monday for expected indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks but Israel voiced doubt about any breakthrough without direct negotiations.Hours before envoy George Mitchell flew into Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak conferred in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh about the upcoming U.S.-mediated negotiations. Obama's peace efforts received a boost Saturday when Arab states approved four months of proximity talks, whose expected start in March was delayed by Israel's announcement of a settlement project on occupied land near Jerusalem.Israeli Defense Ministry strategist Amos Gilad said on Israel Radio the indirect negotiations would begin Wednesday.It was not immediately clear when the envoy would hold talks with the Palestinian side. The executive committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to meet only Saturday to give the formal nod to start the negotiations.Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor described indirect talks as a strange affair after face-to-face peace negotiations stretching back 16 years.There have been no direct talks for the past 18 months, a period that has included Israel's Gaza war, election of a right-wing Israeli government and entrenched rule in the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists opposed to the U.S. peace efforts.
REAL TALKS
I think it is clear to everyone that real talks are direct talks, and I don't think there is a chance of a significant breakthrough until the direct talks begin, Meridor said.The talks will be held. The envoy, Mitchell, will talk to us, to them. But the more we hasten to arrive at direct talks, the more we will be able to address the heart of the matter.Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said the negotiations would show whether the Israeli government was serious about peace and test the sincerity of the Obama administration in pursuing Palestinian statehood.The truth is we are not in need of negotiations. We are in need of decisions by the Israeli government. This is the time for decisions more than it is the time for negotiations,Abu Rdainah said.In an interview published Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam, Abbas said Obama had given a commitment he would not allow any provocative measures by either side.
Abbas has long insisted Israel freeze Jewish settlement building before any negotiations resume, and he had rejected a temporary construction moratorium that Netanyahu ordered in the occupied West Bank last November as insufficient.Netanyahu, who heads a pro-settler government, has pledged not to curb Israeli home construction in East Jerusalem.But after angering Washington by announcing a 1,600-home project -- during a visit in March by Vice President Joe Biden -- Israel has not approved new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, in what some Israeli politicians called a de facto freeze.Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a 1967 war, and considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.(Additional reporting by Cairo bureau, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Tom Perry in Ramallah)
Jordan River could die by 2011: report by Patrick Moser – Sun May 2, 5:36 pm ET
ALUMOT, Israel (AFP) – The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday.The famed river has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of Galilee, devastated by overexploitation, pollution and lack of regional management, Friends of the Earth, Middle East (FoEME) said in a report.More than 98 percent of the river's flow has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan over the years.The remaining flow consists primarily of sewage, fish pond water, agricultural run-off and saline water," the environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank said in the report to be presented in Amman on Monday.Without concrete action, the LJR (lower Jordan River) is expected to run dry at the end of 2011.The river -- which runs 217 kilometres (135 miles) from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea -- and its tributaries are shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank.In 1847, a US naval officer who led an expedition along the river described navigating down cascading rapids and waterfalls. Today the Jordan is a brackish stream barely a few metres (yards) wide.
A couple of kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee -- which is actually a lake -- a dam cuts off the flow of the river. Just south of the dam, raw sewage gushes from a pipe.This is what is today the source of the lower Jordan River, FoEME director for Israel Gidon Bromberg says, pointing to the foul-smelling water.No one can say this is holy water. No one can say this is an acceptable state for a river this famous worldwide.A few metres away, saline water -- diverted from salt springs to protect the nearby lake -- flows into the foaming brown mess.About 100 kilometres downstream, a Russian clad in a white robe immerses himself in the river at a site in Jordan where many Christians believe Jesus was baptised.Every year, thousands of pilgrims take the plunge in the biblical river despite alarmingly high pollution.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities along the lower Jordan river -- about 340,000 people in all -- dump raw sewage into the river.Ironically, if the sewage stops flowing into the river -- which Israel plans to do on its stretch -- the damage could be even greater unless additional measures are taken to reduce the salinity of the water.FoEME believes the solution lies in releasing huge amounts of fresh water into the river.The Jordan once had a flow of 1.3 billion cubic metres (45.5 billion cubic feet) a year, but now discharges only an estimated 20 million to 30 million cubic metres into the Dead Sea.A new study we commissioned reveals that we have lost at least 50 percent of biodiversity in and around the river due to the near total diversion of fresh water, and that some 400 million cubic metres of water annually are urgently needed to be returned to the river to bring it back to life, said Munqeth Mehyar, FoEME's Jordanian director. Israel, Syria, Jordan must all return water to the ailing river, the report says. Israel, having diverted the largest share and being a developed nation, should return a proportionally higher percentage of water, it adds. Better management could save Israel 517 million cubic metres of water a year and Jordan 305 million cubic metres, part of which could be allocated to the Jordan river, the environmental group says.Improving the flow of the Jordan River would also go a long way towards saving the Dead Sea, which is in turn withering rapidly.
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