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Heightened security alert declared in Jerusalem

Mass presence of security forces expected in capital in wake of holiday weekend events, Ramadan prayers and former chief rabbi's funeral procession

Efrat Weiss
09.27.07, 23:27
Israel News

The heightened security alert declared by the defense establishment prior to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot is expected to increase further, Ynet has learned.

Sources in the defense establishment said that there are seven specific indications of potential terror attacks over the holiday, as well as dozens of general indications of such possible attacks.

The decision to increase security alertness was made following the IDF's latest operation in Gaza – which left 11 Palestinians dead – and the threat of retaliation made by Hamas, which clouds the many events planned throughout Israel for the coming holiday week.

Security forces are expected to especially focus on Jerusalem: The third Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan will see some 4,000 Border Guard officers and police forces patrolling the city streets, the Old City, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, starting in the early hours of Friday morning.

Entry to Temple Mount will be restricted to Israeli ID holders only. Security forces will also allow Palestinian men 45-year-old and over to enter the Temple Mount, providing they have the proper permits.

Palestinian women over the age of 30, carrying the proper permits, will also be allowed on the Temple Mount.

The Jerusalem police also warned of heavy traffic expected in the capital Friday, due to the funeral procession of former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira, who died earlier Thursday.

Thousands are expected to take part in the funeral procession, causing police to close the streets on its way.

Among the streets that will be closed as the funeral procession proceeds are Shazar Street, Sarei Israel Street, Malkei Israel Street, the Shabbat Square, Strauss Street, Jaffa Road, Tzahal Square, Hativat Yerushalaim Street, Ma'aleh Hashalom Street and Gat Shemanim Street.

Heightened security alert declared in Jerusalem (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3454125,00.html)

Tel Aviv peace concert cancelled
etgar lefkovits and matthew wagner
THE JERUSALEM POST
Oct. 14, 2007

A Tel Aviv concert in support of a two-state solution has been canceled after a simultaneous concert planned in Jericho was called off due to security concerns, organizers said Sunday.

The two events, which were scheduled to take place on Thursday and be broadcast around the world, had been planned for the last year by the US-based One Voice organization as part of an international campaign to collect a million signatures in favor of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement within the next year.

"We felt that we had to take a difficult decision and postpone the Israeli event in solidarity with the situation on the Palestinian side," said group founder Daniel Lubetzky.

He added that holding only an Israeli event would not be consistent with the organization's goals.

The group had previously said as late as this weekend that the Tel Aviv concert would take place as planned, even after the Jericho event was canceled.

Lubetzky called the situation a "sobering sincere setback," and conceded that the group's plans had been "derailed by extremists' agenda."

The original decision to nix the Jericho concert came after Palestinian participants were threatened.

"For security reasons we cannot have the concert at this time," Nisreen Shahin, Executive Director of One Voice Palestine said on Friday.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement late Thursday distancing himself from the planned event, and emphasizing that his office had no connection to the concert.

The Jericho event had previously drawn criticism from a small Palestinian terror organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for its attempt to normalize ties with Israel.

A Palestinian Internet posting had threatened to "wipe out" the Palestinian offices of the organization, a group spokeswoman said.

The decision to cancel the event in the quiet desert oasis of Jericho - considered to be the most peaceful of all West Bank cities - cast a pall on the organization's efforts to promote a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines in the Palestinian territories.

The organization, which maintains offices in both Tel Aviv and Ramallah, has enlisted the support of nearly 600,000 Israelis and Palestinians - in about equal numbers - for their petition which calls a peace agreement to be reached within a year based on a two-state solution.

The group's Web site had previously stated that such an accord should be based on the 1967 lines, but, in an abrupt about-face, that reference was removed on Sunday.

Following the violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas this summer, the organization froze its signature drive in the area, and enlisted Palestinian supporters, primarily in the West Bank.

Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams, who had a series of award-winning albums during the 1980s and mid-1990s, was to have performed at both concerts, along with Israeli artists in Tel Aviv and Palestinian performers in Jericho.

Earlier, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, under pressure from right-wing rabbis and MKs, withdrew his support for the Tel Aviv event, a spokesman said Sunday.

Last week, Metzger had sent a video-taped message of blessings to be screened during the Tel Aviv concert since he did not want to appear on the same stage with female singers.

But in the wake of a Jerusalem Post report which appeared last week about the One Voice campaign and Metzger's involvement at the event, the chief rabbi was inundated with calls from irate rabbis both in the Diaspora and in Israel and by right-wing MKs who called on Metzger to pull the video.

"The chief rabbi does not get involved in political causes," Metzger's spokesman said Sunday. "Initially Rabbi Metzger thought the organization's goal was to voice moderate views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But after the report in The Jerusalem Post it came to our attention that One Voice has a political agenda which includes territorial compromises."

The spokesman acknowledged that the chief rabbi was fully aware that One Voice advocated a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Nevertheless, he said that Metzger was swayed by the negative responses in the wake of the Post report.

Tel Aviv peace concert cancelled (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1191257301523&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Olmert's Jerusalem plan opposed by legislators

October 20, 2007

ASSOCIATED PRESS - JERUSALEM — A majority of Israeli lawmakers have signed a petition against any attempt by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to transfer parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians, a parliamentarian said yesterday.

Mr. Olmert said last week for the first time that some Arab neighborhoods of the city might not remain under Israeli control in the future. He has not said if Israel has offered any concessions on the disputed holy city in talks with the Palestinians.

Yisrael Katz of the opposition Likud Party distributed a petition calling on the prime minister not to give up any part of the city. A total of 61 lawmakers in the 120-seat Knesset signed the petition, Mr. Katz said.

"The message is clear: Olmert has no mandate to compromise on Jerusalem," Mr. Katz said.

The Knesset legislator said his petition was signed not only by opposition lawmakers but also by members of Mr. Olmert's coalition government — including two Cabinet ministers and 13 members of Mr. Olmert's own centrist Kadima Party.

Israeli governments in past peace talks have proposed giving up some parts of the city that Israel considers its capital but the sides never agreed on how to divide the city, and its fate is one of the main obstacles that has blocked a final peace arrangement.

The Palestinians demand the return of all of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967, including control over a disputed holy site in the walled Old City.

The new petition indicated that Mr. Olmert will find it difficult, if not impossible, to get an agreement that includes a division of Jerusalem ratified by parliament.

Also yesterday, a top Israeli-Palestinian team met as part of efforts to negotiate a joint statement to be revealed at a U.S.-sponsored regional conference next month.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the meeting was "in-depth" but he would not say if any progress was made. Israeli officials would not comment on the meeting that was the third between the negotiators.

The U.S. hopes the gathering will jump-start a full renewal of talks between the sides on a final peace agreement.

Olmert's Jerusalem plan opposed by legislators (http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071020/FOREIGN/110200051/1003&template=printart)

Christians bring Iranian Jews to Israel
Posted 11h 34m ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Evangelical Christians in the U.S. have helped convince dozens of Iranian Jews to move to Israel in recent months, offering cash incentives and claiming that Iran's tiny Jewish community is in grave danger.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars in evangelical donations to Israel every year, is promising $10,000 to every Iranian Jew who comes to Israel, said the group's director, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.

The project is another example of the alliance between the Jewish state and evangelical American Christians, many of whom see the existence of Israel and the return of Jews to the Holy Land as a realization of biblical prophesy that will culminate with Christ's Second Coming.

But an Iran expert said the money would not be enough to draw Iranian Jews, who generally do not perceive themselves to be in great danger in the Islamic republic.

About 25,000 Jews are left in Iran — an overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 65 million — the remnants of a community with origins dating to biblical times. Most Iranian Jews left for Israel or the U.S. over the last 50 years.

Still, Iran's Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, and Iranian Jews have some legal protections. But Israel and Iran are staunch enemies and do not have diplomatic relations. Eckstein argued that calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's elimination, coupled with Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, represent danger.

"Is this not similar to the situation in Nazi Germany in the late '30s, where they (Jews) also felt they could weather the storm?" he asked. Instead, 6 million were killed in the Holocaust, which Ahmadinejad has called a "myth."

Eckstein said his group has helped bring 82 Jews to Israel from Iran since the project began this year, and hopes to bring 60 more by year's end.

The charity, based in Jerusalem and Chicago, has raised $1.4 million for the project, Eckstein said. The IFCJ initially offered $5,000 per immigrant, but doubled the amount when response was lower than expected, he said. Immigrants also receive government aid upon arriving in Israel.

One of the recent arrivals, a 31-year-old widow with three children, said she was not in danger in Iran but was concerned for her children's future.

"At the end of the day, this is the place for the Jewish people," she said, referring to Israel. She is living in the southern port city of Ashdod. Though she claimed to have felt safe in her hometown of Isfahan, she asked that her name be withheld to protect family remaining in Iran.

The grant from the IFCJ was what enabled her to come to Israel, she said. Most Jews in Iran have heard about the grant through word-of-mouth and Israel Radio's broadcasts in Farsi, she said.

Iranian government officials would not comment on the new project.

Iran's Jewish community is technically protected by the Islamic Republic's constitution, and has one representative in a 290-seat parliament.

In a speech at Columbia University in New York last month, the Iranian president insisted that Iranians "are friends of the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security."

Nonetheless, the Jewish community has led an uneasy existence under Iran's Islamic government.

In 2000, Iranian authorities arrested 10 Jews, convicted them of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years. An appeals court later reduced their sentences under international pressure and eventually freed them.

"Generally, Jews are free to practice Judaism inside Iran," said Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s. Iranian Jews, however, are increasingly concerned about the intensity of attacks on Israel by the Iranian press, which they view as bordering on anti-Semitism, he said.

Such attacks have not led to a mass exodus from Iran, because the majority of Iranians are hospitable to the Jews and most Jews in Iran are economically comfortable, Javedanfar said. However, he noted, "the level of concern has increased" because of Ahmadinejad's statements.

This is not the first time evangelical Christians have taken part in bringing people to Israel. Eckstein's charity also played a role in funding the immigration to Israel of 7,000 members of the Bnei Menashe, a group in India claiming descent from one of the Biblical "lost tribes" of the Jews.

The charity's evangelical donors, who tend to have hardline political views, see encouraging Jewish immigration as a way of strengthening the country in the face of Arab threats.

The IFCJ is one of the most prominent examples of Israel's alliance with evangelical Christians, who have become among the country's most generous donors and most enthusiastic political supporters.

The ties have been welcomed by many Israelis but criticized by others.

Some Israelis believe the country should not align itself with a group seen as an extreme element of American society, while others have charged that the evangelicals' goal is ultimately to convert Jews to Christianity, a charge the evangelicals deny.

Iranian Jews to Israel (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-10-22-israel-iranian-jews_N.htm?csp=34)

"Save Jerusalem" Emergency Coalition Forms
October 23, '07
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) An unprecedented coalition of American Jewish groups has formed on short notice to ensure that united Jerusalem remains Jewish.

Among the member organizations are the National Council of Young Israel, the Orthodox Union, the Rabbinical Council of America, Emunah Women of America, AFSI, Hineni, AJOP (Outreach), NCSY, Poalei Agudath Israel of America, ZOA, and more. More organizations are set to join in the coming days.

The formation of the coalition marks the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel that a significant group of American Jewish organizations has united in opposition to Israeli government policy; many of the member organizations are among Israel’s most loyal and active supporters.

The new coalition's founder, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel, is concluding a six-day whirlwind trip to Israel during which he coordinated the group's activities with pro-Jerusalem forces here.

"I met with several Knesset Members," Rabbi Lerner told Arutz-7, "as well as Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Efrati - a top confidante of Rav Elyashiv, Rabbi Simcha Kook, Natan Sharansky, and Mayor Uri Lupoliansky. I also met with Tzafrir Ronen, Elyakim HaEtzni, the Rabbi of the Western Wall- Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, Mina Fenton, Nir Barkat, and more. There is much to get done, and aside from the little time in which to do it, we are also facing a wall of refusal to believe on the part of many American Jews. They either don't know about it [gov't plans to divide Jerusalem], or think it won't happen."

Olmert Hints that United Jerusalem is Expendable
The official impetus for the coalition's founding were statements by Israeli government leaders, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, that Jerusalem could be negotiable in the upcoming Middle East summit in Annapolis. "The message has still not been received by many Jews," Rabbi Lerner said, "that the door has been opened to giving away parts of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest and most revered site... Our coalition means that Jewish leaders around the world are coalescing around a simple bottom-line position: World Jewry opposes Israeli negotiations which would include any discussion of ceding sovereignty over part or all of Jerusalem."

Some of Jerusalem's holy sites and/or surrounding neighborhoods are in danger of being transferred to Arab sovereignty.

The Coalition will increase awareness of both the sanctity of Jerusalem and the political machinations currently at play regarding it, and promote political and public action to keep Jerusalem off the negotiating table. The official name of the group is The Coordinating Council for Jerusalem’s Future.

"This is not the time to discuss the dangers of a terrorist Palestinian State as a neighbor to Israel," a Coalition letter to 2,000 American rabbis states. "Today, we must raise our voices at the thought of losing our united capital of Jerusalem. We call upon each and every one of you to: 1. Continue to educate yourself and your congregations. Peruse often Arutz Sheva, Jerusalem Post on-line, etc.; talk to your colleagues in Israel for a first-hand report of what is happening. 2. Designate your next [Sabbath] sermon to the topic of the undivided city of Jerusalem... 3. Take it upon yourself to write a letter or send an e-mail and/or fax to the Israeli Ambassador in Washington and the Consul-General in New York. Ask each of your members to do the same..."

US public relations strategist Jeffrey Ballabon has taken on the job of recommending and executing a broad-based international strategy, including the very formation of the Coordinating Council.

Ronen's Alliance
Tzafrir Ronen of northern Israel, one of those with whom Rabbi Lerner met, is one of the founders of a similar group in Israel. "A small group of us convened a few weeks ago," Ronen said, "just when Olmert's friend Deputy Prime Minister Chaim Ramon started this whole insanity about giving up Jerusalem. We realized that we had to do something immediately. Our group consists of many organizations here in Israel - the Nahalal Forum, Nir Barkat's group, the Land of Israel Loyalists, all eight groups of Homesh First, and more. We have been working together with Rabbi Lerner, and we will continue to do so. There is a lot that we have to do."

"It must be made clear," Ronen says, "that while Olmert is being investigated for all sorts of financial crimes - his real crime, and the one for which he must be toppled, is that of wanting to give away the Land of Israel and Jerusalem. Throughout our 2,000 years of exile, if any rabbi had ever hinted at giving up a part of the Land of Israel, he would have been out on the street in a minute."

Lerner's Meetings
Asked to summarize his many meetings with Israeli leaders and public figures over the past few days, Rabbi Lerner said, "My goals were to collect information and find out what's going on; to hear what they really think about what the government's intentions are and how we can stop any plans to give up Jerusalem; to share with them what we're doing, and receive their direction and advice; and encourage them, via our actions, to increase their own efforts... We now have two-way communication, the process has begun, they know that US Jewry is waking up and beginning to move."

"We plan to encourage citizens all over the US to visit with or speak to their Congressmen and tell them that the division of Jerusalem is something that they just cannot accept. Leading rabbis will make trips to the White House and get this message across as well. We will present our position both as Jews and as Americans."

"Could it be imagined that Israel would tell Jordan, 'Give up Amman and then we'll give you peace'? It is untenable for a supposed peace partner to threaten that if we don't give up our capital, they will renew their war upon us; we are already hearing that if the summit fails, terrorism and violence will be renewed against Israel with a vengeance. How can this be called peace talks?... We believe that if lots of people start showing up at their Congressman's office, things will begin to take off."

Shas and Jerusalem
"In my meeting with the Rishon LeTzion Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, he was very encouraging, and told us that we should pressure the White House in every we can," Rabbi Lerner said. Currently a member of the coalition, the Shas party itself is being pressured within Israel's nationalist camp - and perhaps soon, if the new coalition is successful, also among its supporters in New York - to quit the government immediately and prevent Jerusalem from even being placed on the negotiating table.

"Save Jerusalem" Emergency Coalition Forms (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124011)

Israel eyes bolstered military

Published: 24, 2007 at 11:43 AM

By JOSHUA BRILLIANT
TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The Israeli military intends to spend some $62.5 billion in the coming five years to cope with an array of enemies from Palestinian militants to Iranians. In doing so, it hopes to redress major mistakes that surfaced during last year’s monthlong Second Lebanon War.

Two major concepts guide its thinking. One is that the Middle East is becoming more menacing.

For years Israel believed the main threat to its existence was rising in Iran, which has been developing a nuclear capability and the missiles to deliver nuclear bombs. It coped with the Palestinian intifada that experts consider a “low-intensity conflict.”

Yet it believed a full-fledged conventional war has become unlikely. It made peace with Egypt and Jordan, withdrew from Lebanon; Syria was too weak to fight Israel alone. The U.S. occupation of Iraq laid to rest fears that a mighty eastern front would gang up on it.

Consequently, Israel cut its defense budget. It closed combat divisions and air force squadrons, and dismissed career army men. It cut down its stockpiles.

Then came the Second Lebanon War that caught it by surprise.

Now military sources say Syria and Iran are helping Hamas build an army in the Gaza Strip and that "many tens of tons" of TNT have been smuggled into Gaza since June.

Israel’s Sept. 6 bombing in northern Syria demonstrated louder than any words its concerns over nuclear proliferation and its readiness to take action to prevent it. Iran’s plans are the most disconcerting, but there is Syria and fears other Arab states such as Algeria and Sudan might seek such weapons. It fears weapons of mass destruction might reach Hamas and Hezbollah, whom it regards as terrorist organizations.

Nor is it complacent about developments in Egypt.

In the last parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood made great strides until President Hosni Mubarak stopped it in its tracks. But who will succeed Mubarak?

So Israel decided to allocate 8 percent of its gross national product to defense. That is 6 percent more than in other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, noted Professor Manuel Trachtenberg, who heads the National Economic Council at the Prime Minister’s Office.

According to the new plan, which still requires Cabinet approval, Israel will seek a squadron or two of F-35 stealthy supersonic multi-role jet fighters. The first F-35s are not expected before 2012.

Earlier this month the air force exposed its newest unmanned aircraft that can climb to an altitude of 45,000 feet, stay aloft for 36 hours and carry a load of 1 ton.

Another spy satellite is to be launched shortly.

As Iran moves to build nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them, Israel is embarking on developing the third generation of its Arrow missile interceptor. Other scientists are building the Iron Dome system that should knock out short-range, cheap rockets that have been haunting Israelis who live near the Gaza Strip.

The navy is expecting two more German-built submarines under an agreement signed last year and wants to acquire another missile boat that should be far more advanced that any it operates.

An enhanced naval capability would give Israel “more strategic flexibility” to operate far from home, recently retired Maj. Gen. Yiftah Ron-Tal noted in the Yisrael Hayom newspaper.

The military’s major effort will, however, go to boosting its ground forces as it revives some of the major concepts that traditionally guided warfare.

Israel went to war with Hezbollah believing its massive air power would do the job. It erred.

The airstrikes wreaked havoc in Lebanon, but Hezbollah militants nevertheless succeeded in showering Israel with more than 100 rockets a day. It took time until military commanders agreed troops had to physically occupy the rocket-launching areas in order to stop that fire.

So the military is now, once again, aiming for a quick decision in a ground campaign and hopes to achieve it through maneuvers and heavy firepower.

It intends to establish a new division and build more Merkava IV tanks. It believes these tanks are the best-protected in the world and are suited to cope with the Syrian rough terrain.

There is a limit to the number of Merkavas its industries can produce a year, so the army plans to upgrade hundreds of older Merkava III and perhaps Merkava II tanks.

For years, Israel transported troops in U.S.-made M-113s, but they are not safe enough. Israel removed the turrets of old British Centurion and captured Russian T-55 tanks and refitted their hulls to serve as armored personnel carriers. Now it intends to build hundreds of new armored personnel carriers basing them on the Merkava’s plans. It might license an American firm to build them for it, a senior military source told United Press International.

To improve the tanks and APCs’ protection, Israel will install a new system that should detect incoming missiles and melt them.

Some of the money for all this will come from the United States. Washington has undertaken to increase its military aid from $1.8 billion to $3 billion a year.

It reckons it will need more soldiers so it will open more jobs to women and expand the size of the career army.

A major effort is now under way to train all the combat units after years in which such training was curtailed, be it to free more units to police the occupied territories or to save money.

Since the war, the standing army’s combat units have trained extensively, sometimes on the Golan Heights. The paratroopers, for example, have gone through five months of intensive training. By the beginning of last summer half the reserve battalions had trained, and according to the army’s weekly, Bamahane, every unit will devote 17 weeks to training next year.

Next year the army expects to begin equipping all its battalions with small drones that can be launched near the battle zone and relay pictures to battalion, company and division commanders.

So new devices will help implement some of the old concepts.

Israel eyes bolstered military (http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Analysis/2007/10/24/analysis_israel_eyes_bolstered_military/9026/)

Israel to receive new Patriot system

PAC-3 type missile defense system with 16 launch barrels to serve as second defense shield

Hanan Greenberg
Published: 10.24.07, 15:00
Israel News

A test of the Patriot PAC-3 type missile system, which Israel is supposed to receive from the US according to various reports, was presented during a conference of the Jerusalem Center for Public and State Affairs, and the Israeli Missile Defense Organization.

The new system, which comes with 16 launching barrel, forms a significant improvement in its ability to deal with ballistic missiles, when compared to the current system which has just four barrels.

The Patriot system is designed to act as a second defensive layer, in case the Arrow anti-ballistic missile (ABM) fails to strike its target. According to various reports, the cost of the new Patriot missile type stands at around four million dollars.

During the conference, economic, political, and security aspects linked with the development and deployment of ABM systems were examined, and successful tests of the Arrow 2 system, which just recently was also tested in Israel, were displayed.

Former Air Force Commander Major General (Res.) David Ivri said that the decision not to develop the laser systems was a mistake. "Israel made a serious mistake when it ended the development of active defensive systems and we are now paying a high strategic and diplomatic price," Ivri said.

Ivri serves as president of Boeing in Israel, and directed his comments at the Nautilius system, whose development was stopped. "Today's defense systems are inadequate. We must develop the laser systems and not rely on ABM systems," he said.

"The laser won't give a 100 percent answer, but we must find a solution to a situation where there is an area in which there are thousands of missiles. As a military man I always prefer to give a preemptive strike. But, we must remember that we are part of the nations of the world, and as part of the global nation, the issue of the preemptive strike becomes much more difficult because it brings with it responses," Ivri added.

Israel to receive new Patriot system (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3463621,00.html)

Israel Becoming Less Secular
13 Kislev 5768, November 23, '07

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) An Israel Democratic Institute (IDI) demographic survey finds religious growth and secular decline - but most significant is that the proportion of religious in the public is highest among the youth.

The percentage of Jews describing themselves as secular has dropped sharply over the past 30 years, while the religious and traditional proportions have risen. The annual survey finds that the secular public comprises only 20% of the Israeli population - compared to 41%, more than twice as much, in 1974.

Nearly half the population, 47%, describes itself as traditional, while the hareidi-religious and religious-Zionist together comprise 33% of the public.

The numbers were compiled based on a survey of representative sampling of 1,016 Israelis Jews.

Tradition Reigns
Over the past seven years, according to IDI statistics, the proportion of secular Jews has dropped sharply from 32% to 20% today. The "traditionalists" have traditionally had the lead in polls of this nature - except for one year in 1974, when they trailed the seculars, 41% to 38%.

Other findings show that the Sephardic population is much more traditional and religious than the Ashkenazic sector. Ashkenazic Jews are those originating from European (Christian) countries, whereas Sephardic Jews lived in the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain and Portugal), African and Middle Eastern (Moslem) countries. Only 7% of the Sephardim describe themselves as secular, compared to 36% of the Ashkenazim. At the same time, 56% of the Sephardim are religious or hareidi, compared to only 17% of the Ashkenazim.

39% of those under age 40 are religious - more than those in their 40's and 50's (32%), and much more than those aged 60 and over (20%).

It can be inferred from the numbers that Israel is a traditional society, and that it will become even more so as the years go by.

Country is Right-Wing; the Religious - Even More So
Politically, the religious are more right-wing, but so are the others. Among the religious, many more identify with the right than with the left, by a 71-8 margin; among the traditional, it's 49-21, and among the secular, it's 43-27. In total, 55% of the population view themselves as right-wing, and only 18% are to the left.

Israel Becoming Less Secular (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124345)

Growing concern in Israel over ‘dirty bomb’ attack

Heightened security measures at Israeli airports, seaports and border crossings

Arieh Egozy
Published: 12.02.07, 10:46
Israel News

Israel has tightened security at its airports, seaports and border crossings—increasing both technological surveillance as well as information gathering efforts —in order to thwart attempts at smuggling radioactive materials into the country.

These materials could potentially be used in the production of a “dirty bomb” that could be detonated within Israel.

A “dirty bomb”, which is essentially a low grade nuclear weapon, is far less lethal than an atomic bomb, but can still lead to massive casualties and injuries should it be employed. It basically consists of an ordinary explosive “laced” with radioactive materials. When detonated, these nuclear materials then emit dangerous levels of radiation, which can quickly spread across a rather large area.

As previously noted, Israel is growing increasingly vigilant of a possible ‘dirty bomb’ attack. Supervision at seaports is at an all time high, and new detectors have been put in place to identify nuclear materials hidden in containers and freight cargo.

Moreover, heightened security has been instituted at sensitive sites, such at the nuclear waste site in southern Israel, in order to prevent theft and smuggling of radioactive materials.

The United States instituted similar heightened security measures at its borders crossings and sea ports several months ago, following repeated security alerts. Radiation detection devices were placed along major access points into Manhattan, including bridges and tunnels.

Security measures were tightened after it was discovered that they were especially prone to attack. Cargo is often left unsupervised at US harbors, and incoming shipments are seldom screened for radioactive materials.

A senior Israeli security official stated that, “There is growing concern regarding ‘dirty bombs’ among Israeli anti-terrorism units. They work at thwarting such potential attacks on a daily basis.”

Dirty bomb frighteningly simple to put together

According to experts, only a rudimentary knowledge of explosives is needed in order to put together this “poor man’s nuke”.

Attaining radioactive materials is equally - and frighteningly—simple. Hospitals and medical research facilities, various industrial plants, and, of course nuclear plants and facilities all regularly discard radioactive materials that can be used to produce “dirty bombs”.

The former Soviet Union, in particular, appears to be a hotbed for those seeking ingredients for a “dirty bomb”. Lax regulation of nuclear facilities following the collapse of the Soviet bloc makes it relatively simple for arms dealers and other criminal syndicates to deal in, and sell, radioactive materials coming from these sites.

Invariably, these illicit materials find their way to al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Only last Wednesday, three suspects were arrested at the Slovak-Hungarian border after trying to sell roughly a pound of enriched Uranium, typically used as fuel in nuclear facilities. Enriched Uranium is a prime ingredient for “dirty bombs” and other nuclear weapons.

Growing concern in Israel over ‘dirty bomb’ attack (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3477905,00.html)

High Priest's Crown is Ready!
22 Kislev 5768, December 2, '07

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announces the completion of the Tzitz, the High Priest's headplate - now ready for use in the Holy Temple.

The tzitz is made of pure gold, was fashioned over the course of a more than a year by the craftsmen of the Temple Institute, and is ready to be worn by the High Priest in the rebuilt Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

The words "Holy for G-d" are engraved on the headplate, in accordance with Exodus 28:36. A short video clip presenting the tzitz can be viewed here. (http://universaltorah.com/programming/2007/11/29/the-golden-crown-of-the-high-priest.htm)

Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, explained to Arutz-7 that until it can actually be used, the tzitz will be on view in the Institute's permanent exhibition display, together with other vessels and priestly garments fashioned for use in the Holy Temple by the Institute.

Legal Aspects: Impurity and Hekdesh
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, Director of the Institute, explained to Arutz-7 some of the Halakhic [Jewish legal] aspects of the fashioning of the vessels for the Temple. "For one thing," he said, "they are made in impurity - for now we are impure, and will remain impure until we are able to have a Red Heifer whose ashes can be used in the Torah-prescribed purification ceremony. If no Red Heifer is available, then the High Priest must even serve in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur in a state of impurity."

Asked whether the fact that the vessels are dedicated for the Temple does not render them hekdesh (consecrated) and therefore forbidden for any other use, Rabbi Ariel explained, "There are two stages. First of all, we make it very clear to the donors and to the craftsmen that the ultimate purpose of these vessels is not to be used for exhibitions or the like, but rather for the fulfillment of Torah commandments in the Holy Temple. They must know this in advance. However, to gain the actual status of hekdesh, we similarly make it clear that this does not happen until the vessel is actually brought in to the Temple Mount for use in the Temple. This means that someone can try on and measure the headplate, for example, without worrying that he is benefiting in any way from something that has been consecrated to the Temple."

Menorah Moves Closer to Temple Mount
Rabbi Richman noted that in less than two weeks from now, on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the famous Menorah (candelabrum) - suitable for use in the Holy Temple, familiar to visitors to the Cardo section of the Old City of Jerusalem - will be relocated to the landing of the wide staircase that leads down from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall. It will be protected inside the same type of glass structure that now houses it.

The new tzitz is an improvement on one made several years ago, in that it has a backpiece, in accordance with some commentators and the account of Josephus. In addition, it has a locking mechansim so that it will not slip off the Priest's head, and can be adjusted to fit heads of different sizes. The old one will be preserved, of course as a "spare," in keeping with the Mishnaic account that several models of various vessels were kept in the Temple, in case the need arose to replace one.

Asked what project they're working on at present, Rabbi Richman said, "We have begun work on 120 sets of garments for 'regular' priests, not the High Priest. This involves special thread from India, etc. In addition, we have begun work on architectural blueprints for the Third Temple, including cost projection, modern supplies, electricity, plumbing, computers, etc."

Bringing G-d Into Our World
"At present," Rabbi Richman explained, "people are in despair, and wonder if we're not dreaming futilely while around us our leaders are planning to give the country away. We say to them: It appears that those who went to Annapolis are the dreamers, thinking that their efforts to make peace will succeed, or that the public is with them in their efforts to give away our Jerusalem, our Temple Mount, and other national historic assets."

"We are now approaching the holiday of Chanukah," Rabbi Richman continued, "which is the holiday that commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple. We're not just building beautiful vessels; we're interested in granting G-d the dwelling place that He wants in this world; the Temple is not merely a building, but a way of bringing G-d into our lives in a very real way. And that is what we aim to do. This tzitz is G-d's Chanukah present to us, and our Chanukah gift to the Jewish People."

High Priest's Crown is Ready! (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124443)

Picking flag and anthem for settler state

Right wing activists respond to Annapolis and Barak's 'evacuation compensation' offer with two new initiatives

Efrat Weiss
Published: 12.06.07, 12:59
Israel News

SOS Israel is planning a campaign to choose a flag and anthem for the new Jewish state it plans to erect in the West Bank in the event of an Israeli withdrawal from the territories.

The initiative will be published in this week's "Our Land of Israel," a pamphlet distributed in synagogues on Shabbat. A prize of several thousand shekels will be awarded to the participant whose design is adopted.

In an article entitled "The Coming Earthquake," Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe writes: "In the wake of the Annapolis Conference at which the Israeli government agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem and the defense minister's (Ehud Barak) proposed 'evacuation compensation' law, many are asking themselves 'what can I do now?'."

"Are we just going to stand aside like lambs to the slaughter while the malicious government destroys the lives of tens of thousands of Israeli families, as we did to our brothers in Gush Katif? Are we going to surrender to the 'axis of evil' in Jerusalem and help it turn 120 thousand Jews into refugees in their own land, hundreds of thriving communities into mere rubble? Is it possible to lend a hand to something which threatens the very physical existence of millions of Jews?"

Before hordes of anxious talkbackers hit reply, the rabbi has his own answer to these questions: "The answer is simple," he writes. "First of all we must understand that 'it will come to pass,' in other words- to internalize the lessons of the cruel expulsion from Gush Katif and to cease living in illusions. It is upon us to choose if we want to be brought to the slaughter, God forbid, or to stand up for our lives against the government's intentions.

"There is no doubt then that the only solution is to immediately declare the establishment of an autonomous Jewish state in Judea and Samaria. The time has come to seriously consider erecting a legal body that will unite the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria as a state-to-be," Rabbi Wolpe wrote.

Thou shalt not evacuate

As Rabbi Wolpe propagates his plan for the new West Bank state, another idea has taken hold among the right-wing grassroots. Groups of rabbis, including Yesha Rabbis Council Chairman Rabbi Dov Lior, are encouraging youth to sign a personal commitment and hand it over at army induction centers. The commitment states that these youth will refuse any order to evacuate settlements or outposts.

Initiative organizers state that they thus aim to prevent draft-dodging as well, given the fears of many young people unwilling to be drafted that they will participate in evacuations. They can thus "feel more comfortable" by signing the personal commitment.

The form the inductees will sign includes the soldier's name, his personal number and the following statement: "I commit to guard and defend state security as is required of me and to carry out all missions thrust upon me according to IDF values. On the other hand, I refuse to execute any illegal order to evacuate settlements or outposts, or expel Jews from wherever they may be."

Accordingly, soldiers will ask that the form be placed in their personal file.

Picking flag and anthem for settler state (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3479663,00.html)

The biblical quest for Israel's elusive black gold

John Brown is waiting for a miracle. Expecting one, in fact. Brown, a born-again Christian, has spent the better part of the past 25 years pursuing his belief that the Bible points to vast petroleum deposits in the Holy Land, and that God has sent him to find them. The purpose of Brown's company, Zion Oil and Gas, is to find the oil so that Israel can benefit economically, strategically - and prophetically. "Zion's purpose is not just to discover oil and help Israel with its energy needs, but to contribute, if possible, to the Jews' return to Israel. Anything we can do is, to me, God's plan," Brown says. "It's a mitzva - and not because I'm trying to make Christians out of them or anything like that, but because it's all part of God's plan." What God has planned for Zion Oil and Gas is, at this stage, unclear. The company launched a successful initial public offering on the American Stock Exchange in New York this spring. But shortly thereafter Brown had to deliver the news to his shareholders at their first meeting in Dallas that Zion's Ma'anit No. 1 well east of Caesarea had failed to produce the copious amounts of oil he had assured them it would. That hasn't shaken the faith of the tall, broad-shouldered 67-year-old former manufacturing executive - or of his staff, who are eagerly awaiting the expansion of the Ma'anit well for what they believe will be a stunning discovery. Stephen Pierce, Zion's chief geologist, wrote in a 2004 article in the Oil & Gas Journal that "Zion has a strong probability of making a significant discovery of some 484 million barrels of oil." To put that in perspective: total oil production in Israel since 1955 hasn't quite reached 18 million barrels. In 1981, John Brown found God. It was the same year that Jim Spillman, an evangelical preacher, found oil in four prophetic passages in the Bible. Specifically: In Deuteronomy 32:13, Moses says, somewhat cryptically: "[God] would suckle him with honey from a stone, and oil from a flinty rock." Although most commentators and Bible scholars assume this is a poetic reference to wild bees' nests in rock crevices and date palms sprouting from scraggly ground, Spillman claims it is instead meant to reflect an oil rig pumping black gold from a well. But where is this treasure? One clue, according to Spillman, lies in Jacob's blessing to Joseph in Genesis 49:25, when he says that God "will bless you with blessings of heaven from above, blessings of the deep crouching below." Similarly, in Deuteronomy 33:13, Moses blesses Joseph, saying, "His land is a blessing of God, with the sweetness of the heavens' dew and of the deep crouching below." Scholars understand the blessing invoked here to be water, citing a parallel structure between dew from the skies and flowing wells. Spillman, however, sees the "blessings of the deep crouching below," again, as oil. The other clue follows in Deuteronomy 33:24: "And to Asher he said, Blessed among the sons is Asher. He shall be accepted by his brothers, and dip his foot in oil." Rather than assume the oil in question is olive oil, which was commonly used for anointing and would be used for dipping in a lavish display of wealth, Spillman insists that here, too, the Bible is speaking of petroleum. And that where the southernmost tip of the territory apportioned to Asher - which is shaped like a foot - borders the territory of Joseph's firstborn son Menashe, there must be oil. Zion does not rely merely on Scripture, however. The company also relies on science. Says geologist Pierce, "John points his finger to the spot on the map where his faith tells him to look. I put my finger on the same spot on the map because of where my science tells me to look."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847269308&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847269308&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

Dropping a bomb on Israel
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 6, 2007

In 2004, a Knesset committee established to investigate intelligence assessments in the run up to the Iraq War found that Military Intelligence and the Mossad had failed to assess the true dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.

The probe, headed by Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, then head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, ruled that there had been a "serious intelligence failure" regarding the assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities, and that there was a need for a reorganization within the intelligence agencies.

A severe lack of hard intelligence from Iraq, the probe revealed, led them to base their assessments on "estimations" and "predictions" and not on concrete evidence.

Almost four years have passed since the damning probe, and intelligence estimates are still stringent, although this time in relation to Iran and its continued race towards nuclear power.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post this week, Steinitz, a member of the committee and head of its subcommittee on intelligence, said that intelligence on Iran is far better today than it was on Iraq four years ago.

"A1 intelligence gathering is difficult," Steinitz said. "Today we have solid, concrete and good intelligence."

His defense of intelligence capabilities came just a few days after the US National Intelligence Council released its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) - a consensus view of all 16 American intelligence agencies - which claimed that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003 and has yet to restart it.

The findings are a dramatic change from those of two years ago, when the intelligence agencies concluded that Iran was determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability and constituted a particular diversion from remarks made recently by President George W. Bush that World War III would break out if the ayatollahs got their hands on a bomb.

WHAT THE report makes even clearer are the major differences between the various intelligence agencies in Israel and the US. The Mossad claims that the Iranians will be able to develop a nuclear bomb by the end of 2009; Military Intelligence warns that Teheran will cross the technological threshold within six months; and now the Americans are putting the time line toward the middle of the next decade, or - at the earliest - in 2013.

The report, released on Monday, came as a blow to the Israeli defense establishment, and according to some officials was even a surprise to the Bush administration.

Three weeks ago, Steinitz led a delegation of Knesset members to
Washington and met with Vice President Richard Cheney, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and senators, congressmen and administration officials. "No one mentioned a word about the new assessment," Steinitz said Thursday morning. "If you ask me, it came as a complete surprise to them."

The report was first made known to Israel several months ago during one of the regular meetings of the Israeli-US Strategic Dialogue led by Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. During one of the sessions, an Israeli official recalled, Burns spoke about the "traditional" and known assessments regarding Iran's nuclear program, and told Mofaz that they might be changing soon with the publication of the NIE report.

Last week, on the sidelines of the Annapolis peace summit, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates shared the findings with his counterpart, Ehud Barak. Bush did the same with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Since the report came out, both Olmert and Barak have been weighing their public remarks very carefully so as not to create a public disagreement with the US administration. Despite this effort, the sentiment in the defense establishment was one of disappointment over Israel's clear failure to prove its case to the US.

In addition to the Strategic Dialogue, Israel maintains a number of parallel lines of communication with the White House, Pentagon and the CIA which are used for sharing intelligence information on issues of mutual interest.

Head of the Research Department in Military Intelligence, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, as well as other senior intelligence and IDF officers, including Mossad chief Meir Dagan, have been in Washington over the past year to present Israel's assessments on Iran, including the possibility that it will have an operational nuclear device by the end of 2009.

SO WHAT were the US intelligence agencies thinking when composing the new NIE report? Were they not concerned that such a report might embolden Iran and its radical leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and serve as an obstacle on the way to imposing a new round of sanctions by the United Nations Security Council?

Israeli officials who read the report said they were taken aback by its careful and almost self-contradictory wording. MK Ephraim Sneh, a former deputy defense minister, claimed to have found numerous contradictions in the report.

"In one place the report says that Iran froze its weapons program," Sneh told the Post from Washington where he spoke at the Israeli Policy Forum. "And in another place, the report says that the Iranians are continuing to enrich uranium - something they admit to - and could have a bomb between 2010 and 2015."

While the fundamental disagreement between Israel and the US is over the question of whether Iran suspended its military program, both countries agree in their assessments that its civilian uranium enrichment program is continuing and could one day, fairly quickly, turn into a military program easily capable of producing a bomb.

Steinitz says that in many cases intelligence agencies suffer from what he calls the "pendulum syndrome."

The US, Steinitz says, is influenced by a political agenda and is still traumatized by the blatant intelligence failure vis-à-vis Iraq's alleged WMD, and therefore does not want to be caught crying wolf again. Israel, on the other hand, is traumatized by its failure to learn of Libya's nuclear program before it was abandoned in a deal Col. Muammar Gaddafi struck with the US and the UK.

As a result of these traumas, each country interprets the situation a little differently. Israel takes the more stringent track, since it is better to be safe than sorry. America takes the more lax approach, so as not to find itself in the midst of an unjustifiable war.

"In Iraq they made a mistake by overestimating," Steinitz said. "Now they are making a mistake by underestimating with Iran."

THE CLEAR consequence of the report is that Bush's hands will be tied when it comes to the possibility of using military force to stop Iran. Some officials in Tel Aviv raised the possibility that after deterring the US from military action, the report might indirectly do the same for Israel, which would need American approval, and possibly even assistance, if it decided to go after Iran on its own.

One official raised the possibility that the release of the report on Monday was actually timed with America's announcement on Sunday that it had succeeded in getting the Chinese to agree to a new round of sanctions. By taking the military option off the table, the official suggested, the US might succeed in getting China and Russia on board for sanctions.

Whatever the case, the report is, as Sneh said, proof that "at the end of the day, we can only count on ourselves."

Dropping a bomb on Israel (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847273272&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Only 1 suicide bombing hit Israel so far this year
Dion Nissenbaum and Cliff Churgin

last updated: December 07, 2007 06:03:24 PM

JERUSALEM — It's the kind of milestone many Israelis, for fear of jinxing it, are reluctant to acknowledge: 2007 is on track to become the safest year in Israel since before the second Palestinian uprising more than seven years ago.

There's been only one suicide bombing in Israel this year, a bumbled attack in January that killed three people at a bakery in the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

A Palestinian shift to rocket and mortar attacks as their main weapons against Israel has proved largely ineffective: Only two Israelis have died this year from more than 2,000 Qassam rockets and mortars fired into Israel.

Since rockets fired from the Gaza Strip can't hit Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the political impact of the near-daily strikes has been muted.

"The suicide attacks were more frightening because they affected everyone in Israel everywhere," said Ely Karmon, a senior scholar at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel. "Everyone felt threatened: It was in public places, in restaurants, in malls. It was in all the buses and trains. It was clearly a more important strategic weapon."

The virtual halt to successful suicide bombings in Israel can be chalked up to a tapestry of factors:

* Israel has developed a successful intelligence network that relies on information from Palestinian insiders and electronic surveillance to keep tabs on militants trying to sneak into Israel to carry out attacks.

* Israel's ever-expanding network of modern checkpoints, concrete walls and electronic fencing that runs through the West Bank has made it more difficult for potential suicide bombers.

* Hamas, the main Palestinian group behind the suicide bombing campaign, has largely held to its vow to maintain a temporary truce as it has tried to exert its influence through the democratic political process.

"Part of the appeal of suicide bombings was that they were successful," said Yoram Schweitzer, a research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies who's done extensive research on Palestinian suicide bombings. "Now ... every time they've tried, they suffered backlash," and the fact that the attacks "didn't work" also "played a role in people's motivation to do it."

Schweitzer characterized the Gaza rockets as something akin to a nuisance compared with a suicide bombing campaign that might kill 10 or 15 people in a day or a week.

"The rockets are much less effective in terms of fatalities, and this is very crucial," Schweitzer said. "This is a weapon of harassment, rather than a weapon of killing. It's good for harassment, but at the end of the day, the number of casualties has the largest psychological effect."

The shift from suicide bombings to rocket attacks has quietly transformed life in Israel's major cities, where social life went underground during the Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

At the height of the attacks in 2002, there was an average of one suicide bombing a week. In March of that year alone, eight suicide bombers killed 80 people. That year, 173 people were killed in suicide bombings at Israeli cafes, clubs, hotels, bus stops and shopping malls. Israelis lived in fear of getting on buses or stopping at local fast-food joints.

Israel's military responded to the attacks with major operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel's government began building its controversial separation barrier — an expanding chain of concrete walls and electronic fencing that cuts through the West Bank and eliminates easy access to Israel for most Palestinians. Israel also assassinated top Hamas leaders.

It wasn't until 2005 that a sense of normalcy began to take hold. That January, Palestinians elected pro-Western pragmatist Mahmoud Abbas as their president to succeed Yasser Arafat. A month later, Abbas and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a cease-fire, which brought the Palestinian uprising to an official end.

Palestinian suicide bombers have killed more than 460 Israelis in more than four years of fighting. At least 3,200 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military.

Since then, there've been only seven suicide bombings, including the attack in Eilat on Jan. 29. Instead, Palestinian militants have shifted to rocket attacks as their main weapon against Israel.

Qassam rockets became a preferred weapon for Palestinian militants last year in the months after Israel pulled all its settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip. That move denied militants the easy targets they once had in the Israeli settlements and soldiers sent there to protect them.

With the Israeli military still occupying the West Bank, Palestinian militants there haven't been able to develop a similar network of rocket factories, and fatal attacks on West Bank settlers have also hit a historic low: Two Israelis were killed in the West Bank this year, down from a high of 85 in 2002.

So far, militant groups in Gaza have had little success in creating large numbers of deadlier, advanced rockets that could change the political dynamic. Most of the Qassams, which have no guidance system, can fly about six miles and contain about 10 pounds of explosives.

Israel is developing a defense system, dubbed Iron Dome, that military leaders hope will knock down most of the rockets and missiles fired at their nation. But the system remains largely untested and won't be ready for several years.

Israel's bigger concern lies to the north, where Hezbollah forces in Lebanon are believed to hold a significant stockpile of Katyusha rockets and even longer-range weapons capable of hitting Haifa, if not Tel Aviv.

During its 34-day war with Israel last year, Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, killing more than 50 people, injuring hundreds and turning northern Israeli cities into temporary ghost towns.

The Hezbollah strikes became a model for Palestinian militants, who'd like to import or develop the same weapons. In October, militants in Gaza fired a variation of the Katyusha, known as a Grad, but it landed harmlessly about seven miles inside Israel, and there are few indications that Palestinian militants have succeeded in smuggling in large numbers of the advanced rockets.

Only 1 suicide bombing hit Israel so far this year (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/v-print/story/22747.html)

Israel will expose Iranian nuclear weapons program
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 9, 2007

Israel does not accept the bottom line of the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and will continue its efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear program, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made clear in a special session of the security cabinet convened on Sunday.

Government officials quoted Olmert as saying that Iran was continuing its activities to acquire two necessary ingredients for nuclear weapons: working on its missile capabilities and working on enriching uranium.

Olmert said Iran was continuing its efforts to develop ballistic missiles and its research and development activities to support nuclear weapons. "No one disputes these facts," he said, "and therefore there is no logical reason to change the assessment that we have had until now."

Olmert said that even the NIE had said that Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until the end of 2003, and that there "was no positive information explaining what happened to that program."

Olmert, who was briefed on the contents of the NIE report when he met US President George W. Bush last month in Washington the day after the Annapolis meeting, said that Iran was aggressively trying to enrich uranium, and according to the NIE would have enough enriched uranium to make a weapon by 2010.

Israel, Olmert said, would continue to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency to expose the Iranian plan to develop nuclear weapons, despite the limitations on the IAEA activities.

Olmert said that even the NIE admitted that the international pressure on Iran was effective and that, for this reason, Israel was calling for the upgrading of the international pressures on Iran, and for its increased international isolation until it fully implemented its obligation under the UN Security Council and totally froze all of its uranium enrichment activities.

Olmert said the ultimate responsibility to prevent nuclear proliferation in Iran rested on the shoulders of the international community, and first and foremost on the US.

But, he said, Israel, which is the subject of continuous calls for annihilation from Teheran, "cannot rest and must continue to work for greater international action on the Iranian question."

To this end, it is widely expected that Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will do their utmost, relying on the most up-to-date Israeli intelligence information, to convince Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen that Iran has not abandoned its nuclear weapons program, when they meet with him Monday. Mullen, who arrived Sunday for a 24-hour visit, is the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to visit Israel in a decade.

Israeli sources said that from Jerusalem's point of view, whether or not Iran halted a weapons program four years ago was not the point. For Israel, the critical point of no return is when the Iranians have independently mastered the nuclear technology, even if they have not yet taken the political decision to put together a bomb.

For the US, the point of no return is when the Iranians make that political decision to assemble a weapon, when they renew their "nuclear weapons program." And therein lays the key difference in positions.

This difference, the sources said, stemmed from the US and Israel's different realities. The US is not convinced that Iran, as a "nuclear threshold state," is a threat to global security. Even as a nuclear threshold state, Iran could reach a modus vivendi with the rest of the world on issues of key importance: keeping the Straits of Hormuz open, keeping the price of oil down and ensuring stability with Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israel's position, on the other hand, is that Iran as a "nuclear threshold state," is already a threat to its security and regional stability, even before it makes a decision to assemble a bomb.

Israel's position was that the ability of Iran to projects its power in the region before it had mastered the nuclear cycle was quite different from the ability of Iran to project its power after it had independently mastered the nuclear cycle. Its ability to intimidate its neighbors and other players in the region would increase greatly once it had nuclear capabilities, even if it had not made the decision to build a bomb.

If the Annapolis process is built on the assumption that the "moderate" states in the region will give legitimacy to a Palestinian leader who wants to compromise with Israel and accept a two-state solution, the position in Jerusalem is that those states will be in less of a position to do so with a "nuclear threshold" Iran breathing down their necks.

If, as the Americans repeatedly say, the current battle in the Middle East is between the moderates and the extremists, the extremists - in Israel's view - will receive a huge boost if Iran masters the nuclear technology.

Sources familiar with the issue in Jerusalem said that one of the most surprising things about the NIE report was that so many people were surprised by it, and that it should have been evident for months that the US and Israel had divergent views about Iran.

The first indication came in the spring of 2006 when US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley publicly backed a compromise solution proffered by the Russians, which Israel rejected, whereby Russia would enrich uranium for Teheran on Russian soil.

Another sign of divergence was Israel's belief that any engagement with the Iranians would be tantamount to giving them a "certificate of legitimacy." That was not the American position.

Also in recent months, there has been a difference of opinion about whether Iran needed only to suspend its uranium enrichment before negotiations could begin, or whether it had to completely halt and dismantle its enrichment capabilities.

During the days when former UN ambassador John Bolton was involved in the issue, the terminology used was "suspension, cessation and dismantlement." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, however, watered down the terminology, and all that was discussed in recent months was an Iranian uranium enrichment suspension, with even the words "a long-term suspension" omitted.

Israel will expose Iranian nuclear weapons program (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847294698&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

PM pledges to 'forge path' to peace deal
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 10, 2007

On the eve of the first peace talks in nearly seven years, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday promised to "forge a historic path" toward a final settlement with the Palestinians.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are set to meet Wednesday to kick off talks aimed at reaching a peace agreement by the end of 2008.

Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas set the target at last month's Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

Speaking at a business conference in Tel Aviv, Olmert acknowledged that the new dialogue is full of risks. He said Abbas's government is weak, and that Palestinian security forces are not yet capable of ensuring law and order in the West Bank.

"This is an opportunity that entails many uncertainties, many risks, many dangers," Olmert said. "We cannot ignore them. But we absolutely must not allow uncertainty and risks to prevail because an opportunity also exists."

"I intend to take advantage of this opportunity to wage serious, ongoing and uninterrupted negotiations in order to forge a historic path toward a new diplomatic reality," he added. The last round of peace talks broke down in violence in early 2001, shortly after the eruption of the second intifada.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have that Wednesday's meeting is likely to focus on technical issues, with the real work to begin after an expected visit by Bush early next month.

However, the talks have run into trouble following Israel's announcement last week that it plans to build 307 new housing units in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa.

"This issue needs to be worked out before we start negotiations," Abbas confidant Yasser Abed Rabbo said. But he did not say construction must be halted as a condition for the talks to begin. Top Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were meeting on Monday to discuss the Har Homa issue.

PM pledges to 'forge path' to peace deal (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847301708&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Israel wants citizens abroad back home (This is an event to keep our eyes on. DW)

IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 9, 11:11 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel is trying to persuade hundreds of thousands of its citizens living overseas to return home in a project to coincide with the state's 60th anniversary next year, the Immigrant Absorption Ministry said Sunday.
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The project, dubbed "Coming Home," will try to lure Israelis living abroad to come back with tax breaks, employment and small business loans.

About 650,000 Israelis live abroad, 450,000 of them in North America, the ministry said. The ministry began contacting them last month with direct phone calls, an Internet site and a "hot line" phone connection.

"What surprised us most is the amount of positive feedback we received from countries where the standard of living is very high," said Erez Halfon, director of the Immigrant Absorption Ministry. "We received 285 calls from Israelis living in Switzerland, and of them, 15 families have committed to coming home."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed support for the project at a Cabinet meeting Sunday.

"Every Israeli, even if they live abroad, is Israeli at heart and knows that their home is here. I call on all Israelis to return home," Olmert said.

The project aims to bring 10,000 expatriates back to Israel in the first year and double that number over the next few years. Between 18,000 and 21,000 Israelis emigrate each year, Halfon told reporters.

The estimated cost of the campaign is $36 million a year, an amount the ministry believes will be paid back by the returning Israelis themselves.

"Within half a year of their being reintroduced into society as consumers, the government will get all their money back," Halfon said.

Halfon said the project aims to remove the social stigma faced by those who leave Israel, so they will have a softer landing upon their return.

Traditionally, Israelis who left the Jewish state were widely looked down on by Israeli society and viewed as letting the country down or selling out. Linguistically, immigration to Israel is called "aliya," the Hebrew word for ascent, while emigrating is dubbed "yerida," or descent.

Israel wants citizens abroad back home (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_immigration;_ylt=Au0jwgfL52UqbqC5eGWMmZILewgF)

Jewish grinch robs town's Hanukkah
Secular leader smashes menorah, blasts 'infiltration' of observant Jews

The residents of one secular Israeli town here were shocked today to discover a menorah lit last night by a rabbi in a public ceremony was smashed to pieces by the community's Jewish leader in protest of observant Judaism.

"He who disrupted the joy of the children and caused anguish to many of the residents here when he destroyed our menorah reminded us of the dark period of the Gestapo who found a Hanukkah Menorah hidden away in the Warsaw Ghetto and cracked the skull of a Jew with it," said Etai Rappaport, a resident of Afek, a northern Israeli communal town or kibbutz.

Rappaport yesterday invited Moshe Shmuel Oirechman, a rabbi and emissary for the Chabad Lubavitch worldwide Jewish outreach movement, to light the menorah in his town of Afek for several religious Jewish families.

Afek is a kibbutz, an Israeli collective community funded by secular Jews prior to and in the years following the establishment of Israel in 1948. Kibbutz communities were set up to adhere to social libertarian principals of communal living and farming, but currently many here are privatized and resemble regular communities. Some kibbutz towns have significant religious communities.

This morning, Rappaport and other locals found their public menorah shattered to pieces. Tvzi Assaf, head of the kibbutz, took credit for the attack on Hanukkah, telling residents he was protesting any public display of religious Judaism in the mostly secular Israeli community.

Assaf was quoting telling town residents he was afraid of an "infiltration" of religious Jews into his community or that local secular Jews would become more observant.

Rappaport said he was stunned:

"I am ashamed that there are such people living in the same Kibbutz as my family. I also don't know what to tell my young son when he will ask me 'where is the menorah?' Rappaport told Shturem.net, a Chabad news site that first reported on the incident.

Rappaport said he found it "astounding" Assaf would consider the lighting of the menorah an act of religious Judaism.

The Menorah is kindled for each of the eight days of Hanukkah, a festival to commemorate the Jewish Maccobean victory over the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century B.C. and the rededication thereafter of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. While other Jewish holidays such as Yom Kippur or Sukkot are considered religious, Hanukkah is regarded more as a nationalist holiday celebrated by both secular and religious Jews. Tonight is the last night of Hanukkah.

"Since when does a Menorah make one religious?" asked Rappaport. "I wonder what Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, would have to say about that. He encouraged the educational system to celebrate Hanukkah saying it symbolizes the courage of the Maccabbeas. It's interesting to note that Ben-Gurion, who was known not to have a particular liking for religious Jews, declared that he considers Hanukkah as the most important holiday among the Jewish holidays."

Oirechman, who lit the menorah last night, said the destruction of the menorah highlighted the growing tensions between secular and religious kibbutz members.

According to Israeli media reports here, the past few years have witnessed a growing trend of religious observance among the children and grandchildren of secular kibbutz founders.

Oirechman said it was not his place to fuel tensions in Israel by protesting the menorah destruction.

"I was shocked and angry about the entire thing. But I think the best way to counter what happened is with love and by continuing to spread light by teaching goodness and Torah values. Eventually our light will dispel the darkness," he said.

Shluchim join President Bush

Ten Lubavitcher shluchim joined President George Bush in the White House Chanukah Menorah lighting Monday night , they were: Rabbi Heshy Epstien of Columbia, S. Carolina, Rabbi Moshe Feller of Minnesota, Rabbi Avrohom Grossbaum of Indiana, Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan of maryland, Rabbi Sholom Ber Levitin of Seattle, Washington, Rabbi Avrohom Litvin, of Kentucky, Rabbi Avrohom Shemtov of Philadelphia, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Washington, D.C., Rabbi Yehudah Weg of Oklahoma and Rabbi Benny Tzippel of Utah.

President Bush recognized Hanukkah on Monday by remembering the kidnapping and murder in 2002 of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl at the hands of Islamic terrorists in Pakistan and called up Daniel's parents, Judea and Ruth to light the Menorah.

The following is the full text of the President's address:

Thank you. Good evening. Laura and I welcome you to the White House. Mr. Attorney General, thank you for being here. Secretary Chertoff, and family. Hanukkah is a time of joy and festivity in the Jewish religion. We're honored to gather with members of the Jewish community to celebrate this holiday.

During Hanukkah, we remember an ancient struggle for freedom. More than two thousand years ago, a cruel tyrant ruled Judea -- and forbade the Israelites from practicing their religion. A band of brothers came together to fight this oppression. And against incredible odds, they liberated the capital city of Jerusalem. As they set about rededicating the holy temple, they witnessed a great miracle: That purified oil that was supposed to last for one day burned for eight.

Jewish families commemorate this miracle by lighting the menorah for the eight nights of Hanukkah. The Talmud instructs families to place the menorah in public view -- so the entire world can see its light. The flames remind us that light triumphs over darkness, faith conquers despair, and the desire for freedom burns inside every man, woman and child.

As we light the Hanukkah candles this year, we pray for those who still live under the shadow of tyranny. This afternoon, I met with a group of Jewish immigrants to mark International Human Rights Day. Many of these men and women fled from religious oppression in countries like Iran and Syria and the Soviet Union. They came to America because our nation is a beacon of freedom. And they see a day of hope on the horizon when people all across the world will worship in freedom. The forces of intolerance can suppress the menorah -- but they can never extinguish its light.

The menorah we light tonight has special meaning. It once belonged to Chayim Pearl -- who was the great-grandfather of Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl. While reporting in Pakistan in 2002, Daniel was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists. His only crime was being a Jewish American -- something Daniel Pearl would never deny. In his final moments, Daniel told his captors about a street in Israel named for his great-grandfather. He looked into their camera and he said, "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, and I'm Jewish." These words have become a source of inspiration for Americans of all faiths. They show the courage of a man who refused to bow before terror -- and the strength of a spirit that could not be broken.

Daniel's memory remains close to our hearts. Those who knew him best remember a gifted writer who loved the violin, and made friends wherever he went. We're honored that Daniel's parents -- Ruth and Judea -- have joined us today. We thank them for their work on behalf of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. The foundation helps bring people from different cultures together through journalism and music. It's a fitting tribute to Daniel's lifelong pursuit of truth and tolerance. By honoring Daniel, we are given the opportunity to bring forth hope from the darkness of tragedy -- and that is a miracle worth celebrating during the Festival of Lights.

Laura and I wish people of Jewish faith around the world a happy Hanukkah. May God bless you all. Tonight, we will hear a wonderful performance by the Zamir Chorale. But first I ask Ruth and Judea to light the Pearl family menorah, and lead the blessings.

Jew lights 1st menorah in Antarctica
'It is hard for me to describe the feeling ... '

Two months ago the AJN reported of a Jewish pilot who flew to Antarctica for four months on a scientific mission for the Australian government.

David Wakil, 39, from Sydney, will spend the summer facilitating scientific research in one of the most remote areas in the world.

“I have been chasing this job for a year and a half, so I’m very excited. It is a bit difficult to be away for a long time, but it will be amazing to be in a place that most people never see.”

Wakil will fly between Tasmania and Antarctica operating the Airbus A319. This service is part of the $46.3 million Australian government Antarctic Air Service.

“The role includes transporting equipment and scientists between bases, as well as any potential medical evacuation for around 120 people,” he said.

Wakil was recently presented with a “Jewish survival kit” by Rabbi Levi Wolff of Sydney’s Central Synagogue.

“The rabbi was very organised and got me a whole lot of stuff to take down, including a tefillat haderech [Traveller’s Prayer] that I will wear in my flight suit,” he said. “He also gave me his own dollar note that he received from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and I’ll bring that back with me next year.”

Rabbi Wolff also gave Wakil a Chanukah Menorah with 44 candles telling him that "you can light these candles wherever you are even on the coldest, driest and windiest continent.

Now almost two months after we parted I received an emotional email from David, Rabbi Wolff told Shturem.net. He sent me pictures of him and the Chanukah Menorah that he lit.

"There's alot to say and to tell," he writes, "but I do not have much time. It is hard for me to describe the feeling of the first Jew celebrating Chanukah in Antarctica. Believe me, the light of Chanukah illuminates me and my enviroment. I write this as tears fill my eyes. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to Rabbi Wolff for his caring about Judaism."

"In the course of my stay here I have already broken many records and it seems that I am now breaking a new record: the first Jew ever to celebrate two holidays in Anarctica (He'll be there Purim too. Editor).

"I am keeping my promise by sending you two pictures and am sending my regards to all Shturem surfers. Happy Chanukah.

Israeli mayor's resignation 'huge victory for resistance'
Terror leader boasts as city official steps down in wake of massive rocket attack

The resignation today of a battered Israeli city's mayor in the wake of a massive salvo of Palestinian rocket fire is a "huge victory for the Palestinian resistance" and "proof our attacks pay off," a top terror leader told WND in an interview.

Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and a senior leader of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, warned if Israel pressed ahead with a threatened large-scale, anti-rocket operation in the Gaza Strip his terror group will "fire rockets until all the Zionists in Sderot run away thousands of yards from their homes."

Palestinians in Gaza today fired at least 18 rockets into Sderot, a town of nearly 23,000 residents located about three miles from the Gaza Strip. Five people were lightly injured by the attack, including one girl, who was hit by shrapnel.

Abdel-Al's Committees took responsibility for the rocket salvo along with the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terror group.

After the first eight rockets struck his town, Sderot's mayor Eli Moyal announced his resignation in protest of what he said was the Israeli government's "failure" to protect the city.

"I cannot take the responsibility to manage a city that is under attack for seven years," Moyal told reporters. "If 20 children are killed tomorrow from a rocket, I will be asked, 'why did you open the kindergarten?' I have been deliberating matters pertaining to human life for years now, and I cannot continue."

Said Moyal: "For seven years no one has taken responsibility for what is happening here. It is unreasonable to start the morning with eight Qassams. I am not willing to take this responsibility. I was chosen to manage a city and not this situation."

Since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip in August 2005, Palestinian terror groups based there have fired more than 3,000 rockets aimed at nearby Jewish cities, including Sderot and Ashkelon, home to strategic power stations and fuel depots.

Speaking from Gaza, Abdel-Al told WND his terror group anticipated "further resignations from the inept leadership of the Israelis."

"This is exactly what happened after Israel lost the Lebanon war," said Abdel-Al, referring to Israel's war in the summer of 2006 against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

The Committees spokesman said the Palestinians' ability to fire rockets today while Israeli helicopters operated over Gaza was a "major military victory."

The Israeli army has made small-sized, isolated incursion into the Gaza Strip the past few days, including today, in an attempt to halt the rocket fire.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said today a large-scale military operation in Gaza would soon be needed, telling Knesset members during a briefing that "we will come to the point where we will have to carry out the big operation."

But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet, which met today to debate Israel's response to the rocket barrage, failed to reach a decision on whether to embark on a large-scale invasion of Gaza.

Abdel-Al scoffed at the cabinet meeting.

"The Israelis are very good at threatening military operations, but so far they don't do anything," he said.

The terror spokesman boasted to WND his group and Hamas recently developed a more advanced rocket arsenal, but he declined to divulge specifics.

Senior defense officials told WND they have information indicating Hamas indeed enhanced its rocket capabilities, developing the ability to store rockets for a longer period of time, which now allows Palestinians to launch larger barrages of rocket at once.

Revealed: Israel agreed to forfeit Temple Mount
Documents detail deal handing Judaism's holiest site to Yasser Arafat

In spite of longstanding denials by top officials here, the Israeli government in 2000 agreed to relinquish the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – to the Palestinians during U.S.-backed negotiations, according to declassified documents made public today.

The information comes as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this month denied talks started at November's Annapolis summit would lead to Israel giving up its sovereignty over the Temple Mount, while chief Palestinian negotiators tell WND the Jewish state already agreed to forfeit Judaism's holiest site to a coalition of Arab countries.

According to declassified Israeli government documents published today by Israel's Haaretz newspaper, during U.S.-led negotiations in 2000 at Camp David, Ehud Barak, then prime minister, agreed sovereignty over the Temple Mount would be either "ambiguous" or control would be determined based on the bond of each party to the site. The Palestinians would therefore control the upper sections of the Mount, which houses the Al Aqsa Mosque and also is the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples.

The 2000 negotiations fell through after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat rejected an offer of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem.

Barak at times denied he offered the Temple Mount to the Palestinians, but he also indicated during interviews he was willing to compromise over the site.

Haaretz published excerpts from a 26-page document it obtained, signed by Barak's negotiator Gilad Sher and said to be summaries of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The document was titled "The Status of the Diplomatic Process with the Palestinians Points to Update the Incoming Prime Minister."

Sher also wrote in his book published after the 2000 negotiations, titled "Beyond Reach," that President Bill Clinton floated a plan that called for the Temple Mount to become Palestinian sovereign territory, while the Western Wall below and its complex would fall under Israeli sovereignty.

Barak was said to have initially rejected that plan, but according to participants at the negotiations summit, he was ultimately willing to forfeit the Temple Mount.

The 26-page document published by Haaretz also said Barak was willing to give up most of the West Bank and split Jerusalem into two capitals, one called Jerusalem and another Al-Quds. Negotiations would have seen Arab sections of Jerusalem being turned over to the Palestinians.

The release of the document follow's last month's Annapolis summit at which Olmert committed to aim at creating a Palestinian state before the end of next year, handing strategic territory to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In a briefing to reporters upon returning to Israel from Annapolis, Olmert claimed Israel's sovereignty over the Temple Mount is not up for discussion. He said negotiations started at this week's Annapolis summit had no bearing on the situation on the Temple Mount.

But a chief Palestinian negotiator, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity, said Olmert's denials were "false."

"What Olmert said (regarding the Mount) is absolutely false. I think he's not yet ready to tell the Israeli public and is waiting for the right time, and he fears his coalition with religious extremists will fall apart if he announces it now," said the negotiator.

Olmert's maintains a government coalition with the religious Shas party and Russian Yisroel Beiteinu party, but if those two bolt, the prime minister could create a new coalition with leftist parties.

The chief Palestinian negotiator said that in the months leading up to Annapolis, the Palestinian team was "surprised" by Olmert's willingness to give up the Mount.

"We had intense debates on many topics, which remain open and unsettled, but the Harem Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) is not a sticking point. The Israelis didn't argue with us. We were pleasantly surprised Olmert didn't debate about giving the lower section of the [Mount] either, which was a sticking point in the past."

According to the negotiator, Olmert agreed to evacuate the Mount but not to turn it over to the Palestinians alone. The negotiator said both sides agreed, the Temple Mount would be given to joint Egypt, Jordan and Palestinian Authority control.

He said the Israeli government felt an umbrella group of several Arab countries controlling the holy site instead of only the PA would help ease Israeli domestic opposition to giving up the Temple Mount, since Egypt and Jordan are considered by Israeli policy to be moderate countries.

The Palestinian negotiator pointed out Israeli prime ministers previously denied withdrawal plans only to later carry them out. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, elected on a platform against evacuating territory, denied for his first year in office he would retreat from the Gaza Strip, but in 2005 he carried out a Gaza withdrawal.

Israel bars Jews, Christians from praying on Mount

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims say it is their third holiest site.

The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's "presence" dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now sits on the site.

The Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.

The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.

Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque" and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.

The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.

Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It still is open but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf.

During "open" days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.

The Israeli Knesset has chosen the symbol for Israel's 60th birthday

The Israeli Knesset's Symbols and Ceremonies Committee decided recently on Israel's official symbol for its 60th anniversary which features a child holding a white and blue sheet of cloth swirling into the number 60. This symbol will be the trademark for the year-long celebration of the Jewish state's 60th birthday, celebrating the rebirth of a state of Israel after almost 2,000 years with Jews scattered across the world.

The Israeli government has many plans for this 60th anniversary which may be interrupted by the events unfolding in the Middle East as it relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as the continuing threat from Iran.

The fact that the Jewish state of Israel is celebrating its 60th birthday is absolute evidence that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled.

Out of more than 100 nations of the world over the last 100 years, Jews from around the world have been slowly but surely making their way back to the homeland of their forefathers. Even as these Jews from around the world gather together to rebuild their own nation, their ancient Jewish language has also been restored so that Hebrew is the official language of the Jewish state.

The last 60 year history of this modern-day state of Israel has been marked by conflicts and full-scale wars, but the state of Israel continues to stand strong living among her enemies.

A number of the ancient Jewish prophets pre-wrote this modern-day history. Moses wrote that the Jews would return to their land after they had been punished for almost 2,000 years as recorded in Deuteronomy 28, 30. Micah wrote that God would punish the Jews, but then bring them back into their ancient homeland, Micah 7. Ezekiel, in chapter 37, said that the Jews would be regathered, that's the bones coming together as talked about in verse 7. They would be restored as a Jewish state, that's the flesh covering these bones that have come together as recorded in Ezekiel 37:8.

With Israel celebrating their 60th birthday, there is indeed evidence that Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

Exposed: U.S. funded Hamas university
Audit reveals funds sent to school terrorists boast is used for jihad

An audit has revealed the U.S. government authorized nearly $1 million in aid to a Hamas-controlled university senior terror leaders told WND is openly utilized by Hamas to recruit fighters, manufacture explosives and train on campus grounds for attacks.

The audit concluded the American tax dollars were provided to Gaza's Islamic University between 2002 and 2006. It stated officials from both the U.S. Agency for International Development in Tel Aviv, which initiated the fund request, and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, which conducted an investigation, found no "derogatory information" on the university.

Also in March 2007 State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told WND U.S. officials concluded after a review Islamic University does not supports terrorist activities.

But Israeli and Palestinian security officials and Palestinian terrorist leaders themselves scoffed at the State Department claims.

An Israeli security official took offense with McCormack's statement.

"It's the height of absurdity to hear Hamas' Islamic University is not involved in terrorism," the official said.

Islamic University was founded by Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004. Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya sits on the college board, which was raided in January by Palestinian security forces who seized rocket-propelled grenades and rockets.

Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WND Islamic University is regularly used by Hamas to support "resistance activities."

"It is no secret that we utilize all tools at our disposal, including our fighters at Islamic University in preparations to fight the Zionists," said Abu Abdullah of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.

Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas-affiliated terror group, told WND Islamic University is "extremely important" for recruitment of militants. He said several members of his group study chemistry at the university to aid in the manufacture of explosives and suicide belts. The Committees is responsible for hundreds of rocket attacks from Gaza aimed at nearby Jewish cities.

According to Israeli and Palestinian intelligence officials Islamic University's main campus in Gaza City has been used by Hamas' so-called military wing to recruit terrorists and suicide bombers. The officials told WND chemistry labs were used to manufacture and improve explosives for Hamas-affiliated militias.

Reuven Erlich, director of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and Israel's Center for Special Studies, told WND his organization analyzed material captured in previous Israeli raids of Islamic University, which yielded mass quantities of weaponry and Hamas incitement material supporting terrorist attacks.

Officials from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party last February claimed they captured seven Iranian military trainers – including a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – inside Gaza City's Islamic University, which they said was being utilized as a Hamas military training ground.

The Fatah officials said they also found some 1,000 Qassam rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and equipment to manufacture the rockets inside the university. They previously suspected kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was being held for a time on the university grounds.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) asked USAID's inspector general to conduct the audits following media reports detailing the funding to Islamic University. He told the Chicago Tribune the U.S. government's failure to detect terrorist ties at the school suggested "either incompetence or a complete breakdown of the vetting system as run by the State Department."

U.S. law prohibits transactions with terrorists or their supporters. The audit initiated by Kirk concluded the U.S. government lacks adequate controls to stop foreign aid from being provided to terrorists. One of the follow-up audits reportedly concluded USAID "did not always follow applicable federal laws" when approving aid to the university.

While the USAID audit in question focused on Islamic University, WND previously broke the story the U.S. is also funding another terror-saturated university.

USAID the past two years has reportedly provided $4 million to Arkan, a Palestinian program that funds law schools at several universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Al-Najah University. The Arkan program is entirely funded by USAID.

Israeli security officials say Al-Najah University is one of the most important recruitment grounds for West Bank terror organizations. The Israeli Defense Forces a number of times has raided the college and arrested terror suspects. At least 15 Palestinians who carried out suicide bombings the past six years attended the school.

Senior members of the Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror groups are openly enrolled at Al-Najah, WND has learned.

One senior leader of the Brigades, the declared military wing of Abbas' Fatah party, told WND many Brigades leaders study at the university, which he described as a "recruitment center for jihad."

The senior leader said he is studying sports education.

A leader of the Islamic Jihad terror organization said he is studying chemistry to enhance his terror group's bomb-making capabilities. He said others in the chemistry department manufacture explosives for Palestinian groups.

Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has taken joint 2006 bombing in Tel Aviv last April that killed eight Israelis and American teenager Daniel Wultz.

According to the U.S. Foreign Operations Bill of 2006, it is illegal to fund universities which the Secretary of State "knows or has reason to believe advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or has engaged in, terrorist activity."

USAID has a history of funding anti-American Palestinian projects.

WND first reported a northern West Bank street funded by USAID was renamed for Saddam after his execution.

Zacharias Zubeidi, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Yaabid, told WND the city changed the name on the U.S.-funded street to show "Saddam Hussein is still alive."

"We will honor his memory until the American and Zionist occupation is driven from our land," Zubeidi said.

WND reported USAID also reconstructed roads and municipalities in areas in the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas.

In a WND interview, Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar thanked USAID for its efforts.

According to Palestinian Media Watch translations, after USAID funded road projects in the West Bank city of Jenin in 2004, a central street there was named after the first Iraqi suicide bomber, who killed four American soldiers in Fallujah. The mayor of Jenin reportedly participated in an anti-American dedication ceremony in which speakers blessed the "resistance of the residents of Fallujah"

Also, a USAID-funded Palestinian sports center was named after Salef Khalef, operational head of the Black September terror organization, which was behind the killing of two U.S. diplomats in Sudan in 1973 and the massacre one year earlier of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich.

Israel approves 'no land for Jews' patriarch
Church leader's cancellation of property sale could affect dividing city

After two years of debate, the Israeli government yesterday officially confirmed the man enthroned here as Greek Orthodox patriarch, amid accusations the religious figure would cancel the sale to Jewish groups of land comprising much of a key entrance to Jerusalem's Old City.

Theofilos III was elected patriarch in 2005 amid charges of church irregularities. He has been quoted by church officials as opposing the sale of Jerusalem property to Jews.

Church officials say once approved by the Israeli government, Theofilos would work to cancel the sale Jerusalem property to Jews.

"The deal must be canceled and Theofilos knows this. We as a church will fight any smuggling of real estate to Jewish organizations," Atallah Hanna, the church's archbishop of Sebastia, told WND.

Ownership of the land in question – two hotels that comprise a large section of the Jaffa Gate, the principal entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem – could be crucial in the future status of Jerusalem during upcoming Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Following last month's U.S.-backed Annapolis summit, Israel is widely expected to evacuate eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods for the creation of an eventual Palestinian state. Previous U.S.-backed proposals have allotted Jewish-owned sections of Jerusalem to Israel and Arab-occupied real estate to the Palestinians.

Theofilos was elected patriarch after church officials ousted the previous patriarch, Irenios, in May 2005 by holding new elections after it was exposed Irenios allegedly leased for 99 years the church's Jaffa Gate real estate to Jewish groups.

Regional bylaws require Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox patriarch – the religious leader of 100,000 Christians in the Holy Land – to be recognized by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Jordan and the PA approved of Theofilos, but Israel has withheld its support amid reports, first exposed by WND, that prior to the patriarchal elections Theofilos, along with other candidates for patriarch, signed a secret church document stating if he were elected leader he would nullify all transactions made by Irenios, the previous patriarch, including the Jaffa Gate sale.

Still yesterday, after two years of deliberations, the Israeli government approved Theofilos by a vote of 10 to 3.

Theofilos has claimed he is still obtaining all the information on the real estate deals conducted under Irenios, and that he hasn't made any decisions yet regarding the Jaffa's Gate sale. But some Israeli officials chalk up Theofilos' reluctance to immediately cancel the deal to the fact that the Jewish state until yesterday was deliberating whether or not to recognize his leadership.

But WND revealed Theofilos already signed a document stating he would nullify the Jaffa land deal.

The document, addressed to the Palestinian Authority and obtained by WND, states, "We, the candidates of the Greek Orthodox Church, hereby agree that we are obliged to abide by the law of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate. ... In the event that we are elected, we shall act for the cancellation of all transactions made during the period of Irenios I, and shall keep the Orthodox religious trust."

High-placed sources close to the church said the document was drafted by a PA government minister with the specific goal of canceling Irenios' lease of the Jaffa Gate hotels to the Jewish groups.

"The candidates were essentially blackmailed by the Palestinians that if they didn't sign the document and cancel the lease, they would not get approval of the PA as candidates and could not run in elections," a church source told WND. "This is an outright racist policy against the Jews."

A senior church leader close to Irineos told WND: "Theofilos has made statements about not providing Jerusalem land to Jews. He agrees with the Palestinians that they have the rights to eastern Jerusalem."

In May, Jordan temporarily suspended Theofilos for three months, reportedly asking him to immediately cancel the Jaffa's Gate deal. According to informed sources, Theofilis was reinstated in August after assuring Jordan he would ultimately nullify the land sale.

Speaking to WND, Irineos said he could not comment on the secret document regarding nullification of the Jaffa Gate sale, but said, "There is a lot at play here in the election of Theofilos and attempts at deposing [me]."

"The electorate was blackmailed into supporting Theofilos," Irenios said. "They were told by fathers and brotherhood members and others that if they didn't vote for Theofilos, they would be kicked out of the church. Documents were made to be signed, including a letter that said 'I will not stand with Irenios.'"

The Israeli government has allowed Hamas to broadcast incitement against the Jews from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Rabbi Chaim Richman, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin and leader of the Temple Institute, claims that the Israeli government is responsible for allowing Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, to broadcast live from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem while at the same time Jews and Christians were banned from the holy site.

Rami Kaoud, a manager of Hamas-al Aqsa Radio, said that broadcasting daily from the Temple Mount helps to bring al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and to challenge the siege imposed on the Palestinian people by the Zionist state of Israel.

Live radio broadcast by the Palestinian terror group Hamas from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is evidence of the nearness of both the positive and negative scenarios that can be found in Bible prophecy for the Last Days.

For a number of years, the PA has broadcast the Friday Moslem services from the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Now, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has been granted permission to broadcast live and daily to the Hamas followers in the Gaza Strip from the Temple Mount. In a joint statement by the New Jewish Congress, the different Jewish Temple Movements and the Sanhedrin, they claimed that the Israeli government has decided to give over the Temple Mount, the apple of the Jewish nation's eye, for the use of enemy incitement as Hamas calls for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

There is a positive and negative aspect to this story as it relates to the prophetic scenarios that can be found in bible prophecy for the Last Days. The ancient Jewish prophet Micah revealed that the Word of the Lord, Word from the Messiah, that will go forth from the House of the Lord, the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in the future Kingdom Period, Micah 4:1-2. However, this story also reveals to us that the Palestinian people, people in Biblical times known as Edomites descendants of Esau, would call for the destruction of the Jewish state and the demise of the Jewish people in the Last Days, Ezekiel 35.

Live radio broadcasts by Hamas from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is indeed evidence that Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

'Nuclear bunker being built for Olmert'
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 20, 2007

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office issued a statement Thursday strongly denying a report that Olmert's residence was being outfitted with a bunker that can withstand a nuclear or chemical attack.

The PMO called the Yediot Ahronot report "unfounded and misleading." The statement said workers were merely adding a "safe room," a room with thick concrete walls and metal-shuttered windows that is a feature of many Israeli buildings. Israeli construction codes require such rooms to protect residents in case of rocket attacks.

"No atomic bunker is being constructed at the prime minister's official residence, or a bunker equipped with special filters or any special equipment," the statement said.

Yediot Ahronot had claimed that workers at Olmert's official Jerusalem residence were thickening walls, digging, and installing air decontamination equipment capable of countering chemical agents.

Yediot said that the work at Olmert's residence follows the renovation of a bunker underneath the building housing his office, where Cabinet ministers are supposed to convene in case of an attack on Israel's government center in Jerusalem.

As part of the push to protect Israel's leaders from a a non-conventional attack, the paper wrote, Israel is also building a giant nuclear bunker in the hills several kilometers (miles) outside Jerusalem that will be accessible via a tunnel leading from government offices inside the city.

The bunker is supposed to house the military's headquarters and top government officials if the country comes under nuclear attack. Work on the bunker began several years ago and is expected to end in 2011, the report said.

The report added that Israel's concerns about a nuclear attack are focused mainly on Iran, its most bitter enemy. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Iran is pursuing a nuclear program, but insists it isn't for military purposes. A US intelligence report this month said Iran had abandoned its push to become a nuclear power. But Israel believes Iran is still trying to develop nuclear weapons and fears the Jewish state - which also has a sizable nuclear arsenal, according to foreign reports - would be the primary target.

'Nuclear bunker being built for Olmert' (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847388801&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Rabbinic leaders rebuke Israeli government
Slam Hamas terror group's Temple Mount broadcast as 'fostering bloodshed, war'
Posted: December 19, 2007
2:15 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – A group of prominent rabbinic elders and the leaders of Israel's major Temple Mount activist groups issued a joint statement today calling on "all nations who believe in the word of God to" rebuke the Israeli government for reportedly failing to halt the Hamas terror group from broadcasting live today from the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.

"We call upon all nations who cherish freedom and who believe in the word of God as manifest in the Torah of Israel and its prophets to rebuke the government of Israel for its disgraceful treatment of all that is holy to the Jewish people before the eyes of the entire world," said a statement by the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements.

The Congress is a group of religious Zionist leaders here while the Sanhedrin consists of prominent rabbinic leaders who in 2004 reformed the ancient group of Jewish judges that previously constituted the legislative body of Israel. The reformed Sanhedrin has been a subject of debate within some Jewish communities.

Continued the statement: "The contemptible and vile consent of the government of (Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert for the Hamas terror organization to broadcast from the Temple Mount endangers and weakens Israel's peace and security.

"Whoever cooperates with the Israeli government in its campaign to banish the Jewish people from the Temple Mount and close it before Jewish worshippers is party to bloodshed, negates any chance for peace in the future and fosters war and strife in this region and throughout the entire world."

The joint statement was read earlier today by Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute and an English spokesman for the various groups that issued today's call.

WND broke the story that the Hamas terror group today broadcast live from the Temple Mount and announced it would commence daily programming from the site while Israeli police banned all Jews and Christian from ascending the Mount.

Jewish Temple Mount groups had wanted to lead tours this morning, which marked the start of Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, mourning the First Temple's destruction and the siege placed on Jerusalem leading up to Temple's destruction during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

But the Israeli government barred all non-Muslims from ascending for the rest of the week due to a Muslim holiday. Along with the Jewish fast day, today also marked the start of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. According to the Jewish and Christian tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, not Ishmael.

"Our broadcast is a victory for the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is suffering from Judaization efforts imposed by the Zionist government. Broadcasting daily radio is a way to bring Al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and challenge the siege imposed on us by the Zionist entity," said Rami Kaoud, a manager at Al Aqsa Radio, Hamas' official radio network.

Israeli police silent amid Hamas' Temple Mount broadcasts
But security forces impose week-long ban on Jews, Christians at holy site

The Hamas terror group continued exclusive broadcasts of Muslim prayers yesterday from the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – while the Israeli police imposed a week-long ban on all Jews and Christians from ascending the Mount.

Police here are responsible for security on the Mount and theoretically must approve broadcasts from the site. Asked four times for comment by WND, National Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and again yesterday he would release his department's official response to the Hamas broadcasts, but he did not return calls before press time.

WND broke the story that Hamas Wednesday exclusively broadcast Muslim prayers from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque on the group's official radio station, Al Aqsa Radio. The services are broadcast alongside anti-Semitic commentary, including incitement against Jews.

The official Hamas radio network announced it would continue airing exclusive daily streams of Muslim morning services from the Temple Mount, and, indeed, the broadcasts continued yesterday as scheduled. Hamas' radio is heard throughout Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Spokesmen for both the Jerusalem Police and Israel's National Police said their respective departments were not aware of Hamas' planned broadcast until the publication of WND's original story on the topic Monday.

A senior National Police source earlier this week, and again on Wednesday, said that such a broadcast would be halted.

But Hamas for the second consecutive day broadcast yesterday's morning services from 5:05 a.m. Jerusalem time until 5:50 a.m.

"Our broadcast is a victory for the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is suffering from Judaization efforts imposed by the Zionist government. Broadcasting daily radio is a way to bring Al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and challenge the siege imposed on us by the Zionist entity," said Rami Kaoud, a manager at Al Aqsa Radio.

Hamas would not say how it coordinated yesterday's broadcast, but Palestinian security sources said the stream was fully coordinated with the Waqf, the Islamic custodians of the Temple Mount.

All broadcasts from the Mount must be approved by the Waqf, which guard the Muslim entrances to the Temple Mount along with the Israeli police. Broadcasts in theory must also be approved by the Israeli police, but cameramen and reporters routinely enter the site from Muslim gates to broadcast without prior police approval as long as Waqf agents allow the entry.

While Israel again did not act to halt Hamas broadcasts, it has barred all non-Muslims from ascending the Mount for the rest of the week.

This week marked the start of Muslim holiday of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, not Ishmael.

On Wednesday, Jews commemorated the Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, mourning the First Temple's destruction and the siege placed on Jerusalem leading up to Temple's destruction during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

Jewish organizations and Temple Mount activist groups here were planning visits to the Temple Mount in observance of Wednesday's Jewish day of mourning. Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, a Mount activist group which planned to lead a tour of the site this week, said Israeli police informed his group earlier this week that they had decided the Mount would be closed the rest of the week to non-Muslims for fear of offending Muslims on the Islamic holiday.

Due to Israeli restrictions, the Temple Mount is open only to non-Muslims Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf, the Mount's Islamic custodians.

Jerusalem Police Spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby confirmed to WND the Mount would be completely closed to non-Muslims for the rest of the week due to the Islamic holiday.

Rabbi Richman called Hamas broadcasts "astounding."

"The siege of Nebuchadnezzar is recurring again in our time, this time through the Israeli government, which is banning Jews and Christians but is allowing Hamas, who will defile God in our holiest place. There is no greater demonstration of the total spiritual bankruptcy of the Israeli government," he said.

Rabin's bodyguard to accompany Bush on Holyland visit
12.20.07

US president's visit to Israel one of the largest protection operations Shin Bet has ever known. Director of bodyguard operations who stood next to Rabin on the night of his murder will meet with American counterparts Thursday

Dani Adino Ababa

One of bodyguards escorting Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the night of his murder will be responsible for the security of US President George Bush when he visits Israel next month, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.

The bodyguard, who has since been promoted, has spent the last month in a flurry of activity, scurrying between the offices of anyone connected to the president's visit. Bush is slated to arrive January 9th for his first official visit to Israel, which will last three days and constitute one of the most complicated bodyguard operations of the last decade.

On Monday a meeting on the issue took place at the Prime Minister's Office with the participation of PMO Deputy Director General Amnon Ben-Ami, Rabin's bodyguard, officials responsible for the official ceremony, and representatives of the President's Residence, the IDF, the police, and the Jerusalem Municipality.

In the meeting, the bodyguard spoke of the difficulties expected during the president's visit and of frantic preparations in the Shin Bet. He stated that the event was one of such proportions so as to require special preparations: "Eight thousand policemen will provide security during the visit in addition to members of the American secret service."

Three large Galaxy cargo planes will bring special protection equipment to Israel, including a few armored vehicles. It became clear during the meeting that the Americans will use little, if any, Israeli equipment.

On Thursday, the bodyguard will conduct an introductory conversation with representatives of the president's personal bodyguard staff, and the two sides will scout the locations the president is set to visit.

On the day the president lands, Highway 1 (in the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv corridor) will be closed on both sides until Bush arrives at Jerusalem's King David Hotel. The capital itself will be decorated with over 1,500 American and Israeli flags, and dozens of Israeli children will greet the president at the hotel, a well-known Jerusalem landmark. He will stay in the royal suite facing the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, which will be illuminated with green lights for the occasion.

More than simply holy

"We wish to show him that Jerusalem is not just an important place, holy to three religions, but also environmentally conscious and tourist friendly," a source from the municipality said. From the hotel, Bush will proceed to President Shimon Peres' residence, the Prime Minister's Residence, and Yad Vashem.

The American president is likewise expected to meet with senior Palestinian Authority officials in Jericho. Sources in the Jerusalem Municipality have expressed disappointment that the president will not tour the Old City or the capital's various churches.

It would seem that Bush can expect a pleasant stay in Israel, something that can not be said of the capital's residents themselves: they can only look forward to the myriad traffic-jams bound to befall the city when different areas of the city are declared 'sterile' and sealed over the course of the visit.

Rabin's bodyguard to accompany Bush on Holyland visit (http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3484889,00.html)

Muslims hijack Jesus' birthplace
Street peddlers bombard tourists, block Christian stores outside Manger Square

Muslim street peddlers here bombarded tourists with discounted souvenirs in Manger Square – the hub of Bethlehem's holiday activity – setting up shop in front of Christian stores some of whose owners complained their businesses were being hijacked.

"Tourism is up this year. Christians are visiting from all over. They come out of the Church of the Nativity and before they arrive at my store they've already been approached by a half-dozen Muslim vendors selling the same stuff but cheaper," said the manager of one shop situated across from the Church of the Nativity alongside Manger Square.

"We lower the prices, but then the vendors do, too," the manager complained.

The church is the believed birthplace of Jesus. It has seen an increase in the number of visitors since last year, according to locals. Directly outside the church begins the Manger Square thoroughfare, site of religious activity, Christmas decorations and mostly Christian-owned stores.

But the thoroughfare has been packed with Muslim vendors selling souvenirs and religious items such as crosses and cedarwood carvings – much the same objects found in the surrounding Christian stores.

Church visitors cannot exit the large structure without passing through the swarms of vendors.

Several local Christians, speaking on condition of anonymity, charged the Muslim vendors set up their stations without required permits after paying what were described as "special commissions" to the Palestinian Authority security forces that control the city.

WND asked three vendors if they had obtained permits, but they refused to respond.

Upon observing the scene for an afternoon, it was clear during that time the Muslim vendors were raking in the majority of business. According to local shopworkers, this has been the situation for the past two weeks.

The scene was the latest episode of Bethlehem's dwindling Christian population, which has reportedly been the target of rampant Islamic intimidation and persecution.

Bethlehem consisted of up to 80 percent Christians when Israel was founded in 1948, but immediately after the Palestinian Authority took over in 1995 in line with the U.S.-backed Oslo Accords, the Christian population quickly declined to about 23 percent, with a large majority of Muslims. The 23 percent Christian statistic is considered generous since it includes the satellite towns of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala. Some estimates place Bethlehem's actual Christian population as low as 12 percent, with hundreds of Christians emigrating every year.

Christian leaders and residents, most of whom spoke to WND on condition of anonymity during recent interviews, said they face an atmosphere of regular hostility. They said Palestinian armed groups stir tension by holding militant demonstrations and marches in the streets. They spoke of instances in which Christian shopkeepers' stores were ransacked and Christian homes attacked.

They said in the past, Palestinian gunmen fired at Israelis from Christian hilltop communities, drawing Israeli anti-terror raids to their towns.

In 2002, dozens of terrorists holed up inside the Church of the Nativity for 39 days while fleeing a massive Israeli anti-terror operation. Israel surrounded the church area but refused to storm the structure. Gunmen inside included wanted senior Hamas, Tanzim and Brigades terrorists reportedly involved in suicide bombings and shooting attacks. More than 200 nuns and priests were trapped in the church after Israeli hostage negotiators failed to secure their release.

Some Christian leaders said one of the most significant problems facing Christians in Bethlehem is the rampant confiscation of land by Muslim gangs.

"There are many cases where Christians have their land stolen by the [Muslim] mafia," said Samir Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem Christian leader and owner of the Beit Sahour-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station.

"It is a regular phenomenon in Bethlehem. They go to a poor Christian person with a forged power of attorney document, then they say we have papers proving you're living on our land. If you confront them, many times the Christian is beaten. You can't do anything about it. The Christian loses and he runs away," Qumsiyeh told WND, speaking form his hilltop television station during a recent interview.

Qumsiyeh himself said he was targeted by Islamic gangs. He said his home was firebombed after he returned from a trip abroad during which he gave public speeches outlining the plight of Bethlehem's Christian population.

One Christian Bethlehem resident told WND her friend recently fled Bethlehem after being accused by Muslims of selling property to Jews, a crime punishable by death in some Palestinian cities. The resident said a good deal of the intimidation comes from gunmen associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.

A Jerusalem Post article in February cited the case of Faud and Georgette Lama, Christian residents of Bethlehem who said their land was stolen by local Muslims and when they tried to do something about it, Faud was beaten by gunmen.

Qumsiyeh and other Christian leaders said if current trends in Bethlehem continue, there may be no Christians left in the city in 15 years. He said he appealed to U.S. Christian leaders to help initiate housing projects and find ways to fortify and strengthen Bethlehem's Christian population, but that little assistance was offered.

"The way things are, soon there will not be a single Christian living in the land of Jesus," he said.

Jews demand right to pray on Temple Mount
Israeli law forbids non-Muslim worship while Hamas broadcasting from Judaism's holiest site
Posted: December 25, 2007
10:50 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Rabbinic leaders and Temple Mount activist groups here today demanded the Israeli government allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site.

Israeli restrictions forbid Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and only allow Jews to ascend for certain hours on some days while the Mount is open to Muslims yearlong. Muslim prayer services take place throughout the day on the many mosques and Islamic religious schools situated on the holy site.

"We demand the Government of Israel allow the Jewish people to have freedom of religious expression on the Temple Mount. This will serve as a preliminary step in confirming the Jewish people's inexorable connection with the Temple Mount, location of the Holy Temple, under the sovereignty of the people of Israel," states a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed by the leaders of the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements.

The Congress is a group of religious Zionist leaders here while the Sanhedrin consists of prominent rabbinic leaders who in 2004 reformed the ancient group of Jewish judges that previously constituted the legislative body of Israel. The reformed Sanhedrin has been a subject of debate within some Jewish communities.

The rabbinic leaders and activists demanded the Israeli government move toward allowing non-Muslim worship by initially establishing special days for Jewish communal prayer in fixed locations on the Temple Mount.

They demanded Olmert allow prayer on the Mount on important Jewish holidays, including Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, the first day of Hanukkah and on the Israeli national holidays of Jerusalem Day and Israeli Independence Day.

Not all rabbinic figures allow Jewish prayer on the Mount although many schools do as long as entry and prayer is restricted to outer areas of the Mount, which can be measured by a change in the kind of foundation stone.

According to Jewish law, the sanctity of the Temple Mount is structured in concentric circles. In the innermost circles, where the Holy of Holies was said to be located, the restrictions of Jewish access are the greatest. Jewish tradition and literature relates that during Temple times, only the kohen gadal, or high priest, was allowed to enter the most restricted area, and this happened once a year on Yom Kippur. The outer layers are less restricted.

The rabbis' and activists' letter to Olmert was prompted by an episode last week – reported exclusively by WND – in which Israeli forces closed the Mount to Jews during an important Jewish fast day mourning the First Temple's destruction while the Hamas terror organization broadcast from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque, which Muslims say is their third holiest site.

"In light of the broadcast of Hamas from the Temple Mount and the serious implications of this situation, we demand that the Government of Israel allow the Jewish people to have freedom of religious expression on the Temple Mount," stated the rabbis' letter to Olmert.

WND broke the story that Hamas Wednesday exclusively broadcast Muslim prayers from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque on the group's official radio station, Al Aqsa Radio. The services are broadcast alongside anti-Semitic commentary, including incitement against Jews.

The official Hamas radio network announced last week it would continue airing exclusive daily streams of Muslim morning services from the Temple Mount, and, indeed, the broadcasts continued yesterday as scheduled. Hamas radio is heard throughout Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"Our broadcast is a victory for the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is suffering from Judaization efforts imposed by the Zionist government. Broadcasting daily radio is a way to bring Al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and challenge the siege imposed on us by the Zionist entity," said Rami Kaoud, a manager at Al Aqsa Radio.

All broadcasts from the Mount must be approved by the Waqf, which guard the Muslim entrances to the Temple Mount along with the Israeli police. Broadcasts in theory must also be approved by the Israeli police, but cameramen and reporters routinely enter the site from Muslim gates to broadcast without prior police approval as long as Waqf agents allow the entry.

While Israel again has not yet acted to halt Hamas broadcasts, for most of last week it barred all non-Muslims from ascending the Mount, even on a Jewish holiday held last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday marked the start of Muslim holiday of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, not Ishmael.

Also last Wednesday, Jews commemorated the Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, mourning the First Temple's destruction and the siege placed on Jerusalem leading up to Temple's destruction during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

Jewish organizations and Temple Mount activist groups here were planning visits to the Temple Mount in observance of last Wednesday's Jewish day of mourning. Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, a Mount activist group which planned to lead a tour of the site this week, said Israeli police informed his group earlier this week that they had decided the Mount would be closed the rest of the week to non-Muslims for fear of offending Muslims on the Islamic holiday.

Due to Israeli restrictions, the Temple Mount is open only to non-Muslims Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf, the Mount's Islamic custodians.

The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.

Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003, but only on select days for certain hours.

The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's "presence" dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now sits on the site.

The Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.

The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.

The letter to Olmert called the Temple Mount "the holiest place in the world for the Jewish people, yet Jews are denied the right to pray in groups, and even as individuals ... they are granted no opportunity for any religious expression whatsoever on the Temple Mount."

"However, let it be known that the Jewish people will never accept the total refusal of Jewish communal prayer on the Mountain," the letter states.

Iranian Jews find new homes in Israel
December 25, 2007

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Greeted by joyous relatives and a crowd of reporters, about 40 Iranian Jews landed in Israel on Tuesday, leaving behind their lives in the Islamic republic for new homes in the Jewish state.

Family members screamed in delight and threw candy at the newcomers as they emerged into the airport reception hall after a long bureaucratic procedure. No details about their route of exit from Iran were given.

"I feel so good," said Yosef, 16. He and his brother Michael arrived with their parents and a sister and were greeted by their grandparents, who went to Israel six years ago.

"I just saw all of my family. You can't put that into words," Yosef said. The brothers declined to give their family name to protect relatives still in Iran. Video Watch the emotional arrivals »

The new arrivals were sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars from evangelical donors each year.

Its founder, Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, said by telephone from Chicago, Illinois, that each immigrant received $10,000 because they left behind all their possessions and "start in Israel with nothing," although many said at the airport that they were joining family already here.

Evangelical backers of Israel say they are following a biblical prophecy that the creation of a Jewish state here is a step toward the Messianic Age. Some Israeli critics saying their ultimate goal is to convert Jews to Christianity, which the evangelicals deny.

Michael, 15, said he told all his friends where he was going, and they wanted to come along.

"I was scared in Iran as a Jew," he said.

No comment was available Tuesday from the Iranian government.

Iran's Jewish community of about 25,000 people is protected by the country's constitution and remains the largest in the Muslim Middle East. Synagogues, Jewish schools and stores operate openly in the capital, but Jews also report discrimination and increasing concerns about hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hostility toward Israel.

About 200 Iranian Jews arrived in Israel this year, more than any other year since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, said Michael Jankelowitz, spokesman for the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, which deals with immigration.

Benjamin Yakobi, 16, has lived in Israel seven years. As he waited for his cousin, he said Israel is safer than Iran.

"Here we are all Jewish, and we are not worried that someone will do something," he said.

"I'm in heaven," gushed Avraham Dayan, 63, as he waited for his son, daughter-in-law and grandson to arrive. He said he had not seen his 38-year-old son in 11 years, missing his son's wedding and the birth of his grandson.

The newcomers were also mobbed by Israeli reporters and TV camera crews. Their arrival was the top story on the evening newscast of Israel's Channel 2 TV. Television pictures broadcast locally did not show their faces, reflecting concern that publicity could lead to harm of Jews still in Iran.

Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s, said Jews are generally free to practice their religion inside Iran, but are increasingly concerned about the intensity of attacks on Israel by the Iranian press, which they view as bordering on anti-Semitism, he said.

But Eckstein warned that the situation facing Iranian Jews is critical because of the attitude of Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for the disappearance of Israel. Despite a recent U.S. intelligence report that found Iran has stopped its nuclear weapons program, Israel believes Iran is still trying to build a nuclear bomb.
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"By the time they realize it's not going to blow over, it'll be too late," Eckstein said. "All it needs is a U.S. or Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program for them to come down strong on the local Jewish population."

In 2000, Iranian authorities arrested 10 Jews, convicted them of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years. An appeals court later reduced their sentences under international pressure and eventually freed them.

Iranian Jews find new homes in Israel (http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/12/25/israel.iranianexodus.ap/index.html)

Terrorists' new mission: Protect President Bush
Most active West Bank militant group in security team for Middle East visit
Posted: December 26, 2007
11:30 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Members of the most active West Bank terror organization are set to participate in security forces being deployed to protect President Bush during his visit to the Palestinian territories next month, WND has learned.

Bush is due in the region Jan. 9 as part of a follow-up to last month's U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit.

During his trip, the American president is scheduled to hold talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, and meet quickly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to Israeli security officials coordinating deployments of forces with the PA for Bush's Ramallah visit, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, have been called upon by the PA to participate in the protection of Bush's convoy and in securing the perimeter during the meeting with Abbas.

The Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than Hamas, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Many Brigades members, including the group's chiefs, serve openly in Fatah's Force 17 presidential guard units and the Palestinian Preventative Security Services; thousands of Force 17 and Preventative officers are slated to secure Ramallah during Bush's visit there.

A chief of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Ramallah who also serves as a senior officer in Force 17 confirmed to WND he has been tapped to participate in Bush's security. The chief, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said he is slated to patrol the road outside Abbas' compound during the Palestinian leader's meeting with Bush.

The Israeli Defense Forces will protect the main West Bank highway Bush's convoy will use to approach Ramallah. Security for Bush will be largely turned over to the Palestinians once he enters Ramallah, although security plans are being heavily coordinated with the U.S.

According to Israeli security officials, over 6,000 Fatah forces will be deployed in three rings in central Ramallah to secure the area during Bush's brief stay, including Palestinian security officers who also serve in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

About 40 Ramallah-based Brigades leaders, including the Brigades chief scheduled to participate in Bush's security, were granted amnesty by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June as a gesture to Abbas, but many Brigades members, including the Ramallah-based leadership, are accused of violating the agreement by failing to disarm and by carrying out a spate of terror attacks.

Many high-profile Al Aqsa Brigades terrorists serve in Fatah's security forces, including those in Ramallah. The current chief of Fatah's Force 17, Abu Hayyet, is accused by Israel of planning or involvement in at least 10 deadly terror attacks, according to Israeli security officials.

Abbas last June appointed senior Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader Mahmoud Damra as commander of Force 17, a major, U.S.-financed Fatah security force. Damra, who was arrested by Israel last November, was on the Jewish state's most-wanted list of terrorists.

The chief of the Brigades in Ramallah also serves in the Preventative Security Services.

Bush's upcoming visit will not be the first time a U.S. official would be protected by Brigades terrorists.

October visit to the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, U.S. security coordinator for the Palestinian territories, was protected by a security team that included the chiefs of the Brigades in that city. Nablus is the stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Among those in Nablus protecting the route of Dayton's convoy as official members of the Palestinian security forces were Ala Sekakreh, the Brigades' overall West Bank chief, and Nasser Abu Aziz, no. 2 of the Brigades in the West Bank.

Speaking about his role in protecting Dayton, Senakreh told WND during a recent interview he was "impressed" with the U.S. envoy's bodyguards.

"One of them could eat 10 of our people," said Senakreh, who also commented he liked the "fancy" vehicle in which Dayton arrived.

Senakreh's cell is accused of planning four suicide bombings in Israel, including an April 2006 bombing in Tel Aviv that killed eight Israelis and American teenager Daniel Wultz.

Bush's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories is his first trip here as president. He'll spend two days with Israeli and Palestinian leaders before continuing on a larger nine-day Middle East tour that will bring him to Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

While the PA has been busy preparing for Bush's visit, Israel security preparations for the trip kick-started earlier this month. The trip will see the second-largest police deployment in Israeli history, topped only by Israel's 2005 Gaza evacuation, according to security officials.

At least 8,000 police officers will provide security for Bush's visit, in addition to thousands more from local fire departments, the Jerusalem municipality and Israel's Airports Authority.

Bush will arrive to an Israeli military parade that will close down Ben Gurion International, the country's main airport. Sure to create a driving nightmare, Israel's main highway from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv will be completely shut to all civilian traffic while the U.S. president's convoy heads from the airport to Jerusalem for private meetings with Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Our World: Lies and deceits
Caroline Glick
THE JERUSALEM POST
Dec. 24, 2007

In a Paris courtroom last month, after seven long years, the myth of Muhammed al-Dura finally unraveled. That myth, propagated in a report by France 2 television network on September 30, 2000, falsely accused Israeli soldiers of killing a Palestinian child named Muhammad al-Dura while he was crouched behind a barrel with his father at Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip.

An IDF probe into the incident, ordered by then-OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samia, has ruled out the possibility that the gunfire that apparently harmed the boy was fired by IDF soldiers.

Last month, France 2 was ordered to show the 27 minutes of uncut footage its cameraman testified he filmed at the scene that day and from which the 55 second news story of the purported shooting of al-Dura by IDF soldiers emerged. Charles Enderlin, France 2's permanent correspondent in Israel who reported the story, made a grand entrance into the courtroom where Philippe Karsenty is appealing a libel conviction he received last year after Enderlin and France 2 sued him for publishing an article arguing that the al-Dura story was a hoax.

In the courtroom, in seeming defiance of the court order, Enderlin showed an 18-minute film - which eyewitnesses claimed was obviously heavily edited - of the events of the day. Although apparently doctored, the film's finale was all that was necessary to prove his report to have been a massive deception. For in the last three seconds of the film, al-Dura, showing no signs of injury, raised his hand and peeked at the camera after Enderlin proclaimed him dead and gone.

The French court is in recess until February but the session last month incontrovertibly destroyed the myth of al-Dura. Yet the truth which took seven years to come out cannot erase the consequences of the falsehood.

Enderlin published his report two days after the Palestinians launched their jihad against Israel. The false image of the victimized al-Dura served as a moral indictment of Israel which fueled the murderous campaign against Israel and Jews worldwide which followed. Just as al-Dura's name was invoked by Palestinians as justification of their massacres of Israeli civilians, so it was invoked by Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's executioners and by Muslim mobs in Europe as they attacked Jews and Jewish institutions.

Enderlin's alleged hoax went beyond journalistic malfeasance. He put blind faith in the reports of a cameraman who was clearly lying to him. And when faced with the facts of the deception, he aggressively dismissed them over the course of seven years. While it is hard to say how events might have unfolded if he hadn't chosen to act as he did, looking forward the murderous consequences of the al-Dura myth speak volumes about the moral imperative for journalists to get their facts straight and to acknowledge mistakes when they are discovered. So too, it underlines the need for policymakers to base their decisions on facts, even when they expose difficult and inconvenient realities.

FACTS OF course, are slippery things. Authoritarian regimes and political movements often engage in the deliberate dissemination of disinformation to advance their interests. The KGB in its day devoted the overwhelming majority of its efforts not to classical espionage activities but to the dissemination of false information to the West in an effort to demoralize Western societies and convince them that there was no moral justification for fighting communism.

Since Israel was established in 1948 the Arabs have devoted the lion's share of their efforts against Israel not to armed attacks against the state but to the dissemination of false information about Israel which is aimed at demonizing it internationally and demoralizing Israelis internally. So too, both the Arab states and the Palestinian Authority indoctrinate their own people to seek Israel's violent destruction through massive internal propaganda efforts.

Even when independent media outlets use their best efforts to report the facts in a credible way, they sometimes get it wrong. For instance, on November 27, the Jerusalem Post reported a quote made by an Arab diplomat to AFP news agency in Riyadh claiming that the Bush Administration had bowed to the Arab demand to force the Israeli delegation at the Annapolis conference to enter the conference hall through a separate entrance from the Arabs. In the diplomat's words, "The Saudis told Washington that they do not want to meet anyone from the Israeli delegation, either by chance or by prior arrangement. Hence it was decided that ... delegations would enter into the meeting room from different doors."

cont'd next post

His assertion was made credible by statements from US officials regarding the Saudi demand for segregation between the Arabs and the Israelis at the conference. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "As the Saudi foreign minister put it, nobody's interested in these uncomfortable situations where there are theatrics for the sake of photographs. We'll of course be respectful and mindful of that as we'll put together the various events."

It was these twin reports that informed my own decision to begin my Nov. 30 column "Apartheid not peace" with the story of the separation of Israeli representatives from Arab representatives at Annapolis. Happily, after my column was published, both the State Department and Israeli officials denied that the US had enforced the Arab demand for segregated entrances.

YET WHILE the Bush administration did not bow to the Arab demand for segregation at Annapolis, it is moving to advance the Arabs' bigoted demand for apartheid rather than peace in the Middle East. Since the Annapolis conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly invoked the false Arab view that the physical presence of Israelis beyond the 1949 armistice lines is the source of the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than the Arab world's expressed refusal to accept Israel's existence and Palestinian society's expressed resolve to destroy Israel.

Rice's open and repeated assaults against Israel's plans to build housing in Jewish neighborhoods in its capital city of Jerusalem and her studied silence on the issue of Arab and Palestinian Authority sponsorship of terrorism against Israel make her internalization of the bigoted and false Arab narrative clear. Indeed, in an interview with the BBC last week, Rice placed the blame for the seven-year suspension of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians not on the Palestinian Authority which directed and sponsored the terror war against Israel which has claimed more than a thousand Israeli victims, but rather on the Israeli government for its support of the presence of Jews in disputed lands. As she put it, "On the Middle East peace process, I don't think in 2001, with the intifada having just been launched and frankly, Ariel Sharon, the father of the settlement movement, having just been elected prime minister of Israel, that there was much prospect for a final-status negotiation."

IT COULD be argued that in adopting her overtly anti-Israel and bigoted view of the Arab world's conflict with Israel that Rice is the victim of disinformation and general ignorance. This view might have some credibility were it not for the fact that the administration itself is actively ignoring evidence which shows its view of the Palestinians and other Arab states to be false.

For instance, in upholding PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas as a man of peace, the administration ignores an overwhelming body of evidence showing his own security forces' involvement in terrorism and his government's rejection of Israel. Rice ignores the fact that Fatah security forces murdered Ido Zoldan last month while she supports the arming and training of those same forces. So too, while she insists that Israel must not build in its capital city and must plan to expel some 250,000 Israelis from their towns in Judea and Samaria, she has been silent on the fact that Fatah's 43rd anniversary posters depict the map of Israel covered by a Palestinian keffiyeh, a rifle, and a portrait of Yasser Arafat.

Regionally, as the US legitimizes Bashar Assad's murderous regime in Syria, the administration is making concerted efforts to prevent Congress from understanding the depth of Syria's involvement in terror and nuclear proliferation. According to a publication by the Federation of American Scientists, President George W. Bush is threatening to veto the 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill because the bill requires that the While House fully brief the House and Senate intelligence committees about the nature and target of Israel's September 6 attack on what was reportedly a North Korean-built nuclear installation in Syria.

According to Congressional sources, the administration is withholding information about the Israeli attack for it believes that a revelation of the nature of the attack will cause an outcry in Congress. Such an outcry will force the US to back away from its current engagement of Syria and North Korea and instigate the tightening of sanctions against both countries - and perhaps against Iran.

TYRANNIES require disinformation to maintain and justify their grip on power to their own people and to the outside world. But democracies can only flourish through the open flow of information. When the media of free nations publish lies and distorted accounts of fact, and the governments of free nations base their policies on falsities, their national interests are necessarily harmed.

Mistakes happen. Falsities inevitably find their way into discourse. But with good will and a basic, underlying commitment to facts, these mistakes can be easily corrected.

Unfortunately, between the Western and Arab media's often deliberate dissemination of disinformation and the studied refusal of Western policymakers to acknowledge inconvenient facts in favor of easy lies and deliberate deceits which enable them to avoid contending with harsh realities, it is no surprise that our public discourse today is increasingly based on equal doses of mendacity and wishful thinking. And tragically, as the al-Dura affair showed so well, the murderous results won't be long in coming.

Our World: Lies and deceits (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517197778&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Israel gets warned:
Al-Qaida coming!
Indications terror network sending cells
to Jewish state using foreign passports

Israel in recent months received warnings from foreign intelligence agencies that al-Qaida operatives were seeking to infiltrate the Jewish state to set up cells to carry out large-scale attacks, WND has learned.

The warnings were followed up by the release this weekend of a new audiotape in which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden made an unusually sharp threat of attacks against Israel.

According to Israeli security officials, Israel several times received general warnings indicating al-Qaida was attempting to fly operatives into the Jewish state's international airport disguised as tourists carrying foreign passports. The latest warning was received a few months ago and indicated the passports may be from Britain, Australia and the United States.

The security officials said al-Qaida has come to the conclusion Palestinian terror groups operating in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have had great difficulty infiltrating Israel due to the country's security barrier and antiterror measures and that Palestinians who do successfully infiltrate are not capable of carrying out large-scale attacks inside the country.

The Israeli security officials said the latest warning, which was shared with Palestinian intelligence agencies, indicated al-Qaida has made a strategic decision to attempt to send foreign cells into the Jewish state instead of relying on Palestinian militants.

The warning also listed other countries aside from Israel that al-Qaida may attempt to infiltrate using the same methods, the officials said.

Groups ideologically aligned with al-Qaida are widely suspected to be operating in the Gaza Strip and there have been some reports of similar groups attempting to establish themselves in the West Bank.

But with strict border controls in place at airports and crossings, Israel is largely thought to be difficult for al-Qaida to infiltrate.

Israeli security officials did not indicate there were any thwarted al-Qaida attempts to infiltrate the country. A Palestinian security official familiar with the report also said he was not aware of any recent attempts.

Israel previously acknowledged it arrested suspected al-Qaida infiltrators. In August 2003, Israel's mission to the U.N. submitted a report stating the country had thwarted several attempts by al-Qaida operatives carrying foreign passports to enter Israel in order to gather intelligence and conduct attacks. The Jewish state also noted in the report it had captured Palestinians recruited by al-Qaida abroad to conduct attacks in Israel.

The latest al-Qaida warning was received here just a few months before bin Laden's videotape was released this weekend vowing to "expand jihad to Palestine."

"I would like to assure our people in Palestine that we will expand our jihad there," said bin Laden. "We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea," he continued, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."

While bin Laden and other Al-Qaida figures many times vowed to attack Israel, the latest comments were a more direct language than bin Laden usually uses.

"We will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have," bin Laden said.

The majority of the terror chieftain's message dealt with Iraq, including a warning to Iraq's Sunni Arabs against joining tribal councils fighting Al-Qaida or participating in any unity government.

Israeli officials said they were taking bin Laden's latest threat seriously. After yesterday's meeting here of the government's security cabinet, Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told reporters, "The threat of al-Qaida is real. They've struck in Lebanon, Australia, Indonesia, Madrid, New York and London. They can easily target the Middle East and we need to be prepared for that."

Al-Qaida at Israel's border

While al-Qaida is not thought to have infiltrated Israel, the global jihad group is suspected of operating in Gaza and previously carried out numerous attacks near the Jewish state's borders.

Al-Qaida took responsibility for a series of hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan in November 2005 killing 60 and injuring over 115 others. While Jordan, which borders Israel, has had some successes fighting al-Qaida cells, security officials fear the terror group still maintains a significant infrastructure there capable of carrying out attacks.

Egypt has had difficulty eliminating al-Qaida cells, particularly those operating among Bedouin villages in the Sinai desert bordering the Gaza Strip.

Al-Qaida has been widely blamed for several Sinai attacks the past three years including the bomb blasts in April 2006 that killed 24 people and injured over 85 in the Sinai town of Dahab, and deadly bombings in the resort centers of Taba and Ras gotcha2an in October 2004 as well as in Sharm el-Sheik in July.

Last April, al-Qaida was blamed for two bombings near multinational peacekeeping force in the Sinai adjacent to Gaza. Almost simultaneously inside Gaza, the Popular Resistance Committees attempted to carry out a large-scale car bombing at the Karni Crossing, the main cargo passageway between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The attack was foiled at the last minute after Palestinian forces became suspicious and opened fire at an approaching vehicle. Some security officials told WND the thwarted Karni attack was planned in conjunction with al-Qaida elements in Gaza.

Terrorists: We're not dismantling
Palestinian official claimed group would willingly disband

JERUSALEM – The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, yesterday denied statements by Fatah's top security official that his government was dismantling militant groups, including the Brigades.

"There is no Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades any more," Interior Minister Abdel-Razak al-Yahya told Fatah's Voice of Palestine radio.

He spoke one day after the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility for killing two Israelis who were hiking on Friday near the West Bank city of Hebron.

Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than any other Palestinian terror group.

Yahya claimed the Brigades agreed to go along with his government's stated security plan of dismantling militant groups.

But Brigades leaders, speaking to WND, denied they were contacted about dismantling and said they would refuse to disband.

Responding to Yahya's claims, the Brigades released the following statement to WND:

"The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades deeply condemns the declaration of Yahya ... . We in the Brigades say no one will dare to dismantle us. Resistance is our address and we warn Yahya and his colleagues in the occupation not to touch our fighters or try to dismantle us.

"We will never throw our arms away. We are asking Yahya and his colleagues: did the Israeli occupation end? No, it did not. Instead of dreaming about dismantling us, you should support us with money and weapons to confront the Zionist enemy."

The statement referred to as the Brigades' "commander and leader," and called on him to take "measures against these declarations of Yahya and all those threatening our armed struggle."

"We promise to keep walking on the road of our teacher, Abu Amar (Yasser Arafat)," said the statement.

This weekend, four armed Palestinians driving a jeep killed off-duty Israeli soldiers Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin as they were hiking with a woman just outside Hebron. Amihai and Rubin, both in their early 20s, managed to return fire before they died, reportedly killing one of the terrorists and injuring another. Their female companion was uninjured.

Immediately following the attack, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility during a news conference from the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, the Islamic Jihad terror group said the dead gunman was a member of its West Bank cell. The Brigades and Islamic Jihad routinely carry out joint operations.

Senior leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, speaking on condition their names be withheld, told WND the shooting attack was coordinated between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Brigades.

Contradicting claims by Abbas' officials that they arrested the perpetrators of the shooting, Islamic Jihad yesterday said in a statement the three gunmen who survived the clashes were in hiding.

Fatah leaders many times stated they would dismantle the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and other so-called armed militias – key demands in the U.S.-backed Road Map.

Implementation of the Road Map is supposed to be a requirement before the creation of any Palestinian state, which November's Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit aims to establish before the end of next year.

Olmert is Warned: 'Talk About Jerusalem - Break the Law'

Two Jerusalem organizations have sent a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, reminding him that discussions with US President Bush or PA Chairman Abbas regarding a possible division of Jerusalem are in violation of Israeli law.

A prominent lawyer for the Victims of Arab Terror (VAT) and Twenty-Four Shifts organizations penned the letter, warning Olmert that if he does not announce an end to all talks over the future of Jerusalem, he will be considered in violation of the law.

In his letter, Attorney Baruch Ben-Yosef makes the point that Clauses 5 and 6 of one of Israel's cardinal laws - Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel - mean that Jerusalem's status as the united and sole capital of Israel may not be compromised.

The first clause of the law in question, passed in 1980 under Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Yitzchak Navon, states, "Jerusalem, whole and united, is the capital of Israel." Clause 5 stipulates the precise area of Jerusalem, while Clause 6 states, "No authorities relating to the area of Jerusalem and that is in the legal purview of the State of Israel or the Municipality of Jerusalem shall be transferred to any foreign political or governmental element, whether permanently or for a set period."

Clause 7 states that Clauses and 5 and 6 may not be changed except if another Basic Law is accepted by the majority of the Knesset.

The Warning to Olmert
"According to frequently-published statements by you and some of the ministers in your government," the letter to Olmert states, "you intend to negotiate with Israel's enemies - including Mr. Abu Mazen, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority - regarding the re-division of Jerusalem and the ceding of parts of the city - in violation of Clauses 5 and 6 of this law."

"The very mention of dividing the city and giving up parts of it, while the Basic Law on Jerusalem is still in effect and/or Clauses 5-6 have not been nullified, is a violation of the Basic Law. If you wish to hold negotiations with a foreign element, and especially with an enemy of Israel such as Abu Mazen, then you must act in accordance with the law's Clause 7 - i.e., nullifying and/or changing [Clauses 5 and 6] via a majority vote in the Knesset."

Attorney Ben-Yosef explains why his warning is timely: "Given that you and/or ministers in your government are liable to wage such negotiations during and after the visit of US President Bush, you are hereby required to declare immediately that you will observe the Basic Law and that you will not wage any negotiations over the future of Jerusalem while the above law and/or its clauses are still in effect."

"If by next Sunday, the 28th of Tevet 5768 (January 6), I do not receive this declaration by return email, my clients will act immediately to obtain a court order preventing you from waging such negotiations."

Israelis form great human chain to express support for united Jerusalem

Jan Markell, the founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, is praising the thousands of Israeli citizens who, on the eve of a visit by President Bush, created a human chain around the old city of Jerusalem in demonstration of their support for a free and united city. Israel supporter Gary Bauer, meanwhile, suggests there are more pressing matters the president should be concerned about than dividing up the Holy City.

The human was staged one day before President Bush arrived in Israel on his first presidential trip there, where he will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and top Israeli officials in Jerusalem and visit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. On the trip, Bush is to begin talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on the region's most contentious issues -- including the division of Jerusalem. But thousands of Israelis braved cold and rainy weather to protest that idea, forming a human chain of solidarity.

Markell accuses world leaders of being delusional in their repeated efforts to make peace with the Muslims. "I think that all nations of the world -- including America, for some reason -- are seduced and deluded into believing that if we just give the Muslim-Arab world what they want, and part of that is dividing Jerusalem, [that] there will be world peace," says Markell.

"So will it ever happen?" she asks. "I'm not so sure God will let it happen. But on the other hand, we have the Zechariah verse playing out that Jerusalem will be the 'burdensome stone' for the whole world [Zechariah 12:3]. So, it could happen."

America could face severe judgment, the ministry leader believes, if it helps bring about a divided Jerusalem. "I believe there is a correlation, and it's all based on Genesis 12:3 where God says 'I will bless those who bless you Israel, I will curse those that curse you,'" she maintains. "And I just don't want America, our beloved America to come under any kind of further judgment beyond what we're already getting."

Bauer: Bush placing 'undue pressure' on Israel

Meanwhile, evangelical leader Gary Bauer -- a leading pro-Israel activist in America and member of the executive board for Christians United for Israel -- believes President Bush is pursuing the wrong objectives with his current Mideast peace tour. The prominent Christian Zionist contends Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should not be calling on Israel to freeze settlement construction.

"The president and Condoleezza Rice have taken a real turn here in recent months," Bauer shares. "I think they're putting undue pressure on the state of Israel to make more concessions. I think that's a dangerous, dangerous thing to do that will not only harm Israel, but ultimately harm the United States."

Bauer wishes Bush would "back off of his obsession ... with a Palestinian state" and, instead, focus on more pressing issues -- such as confronting the threat from Iran's nuclear ambitions and its aggression, which was on display Sunday when Iranian boats threatened to blow up U.S. Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. He says it is unfortunate the U.S. vessels did not fire on the Iranians.

"I think we were being tested," observes Bauer. "And I think it's much more likely that we are going to lose a U.S. naval vessel in the future because of the lessons that Iran learned in this incident this past weekend."

According to Bauer, "The biggest threat facing the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz is a 'swarm attack' by dozens or even hundreds of small Iranian vessels loaded with explosives." He notes that "it only took one such boat to disable the USS Cole and kill 17 sailors in October 2000."

Quote from: Pastor Roger on January 09, 2008, 02:39:34 PM

the third world war will start at sea.

Religious Jews in Israel are asking President Bush, "Is he Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus?"

A coalition of religious Jews including Torah scholars, political leaders and members of the Sanhedrin have prepared a scroll to be delivered to President Bush during his visit to Israel calling on the US President to choose to be remembered as Cyrus and not Nebuchadnezzar.

This historic document, transcribed on parchment paper in the shape of a scroll, is addressed to the leader of the West reminding President Bush to declare to the world that he will honor God's Word and act towards settling the Jewish people throughout their entire land. The scroll reminds the president of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Jewish state and Cyrus put it back together according to the Biblical record.

The visit by US President George W. Bush to Israel can either follow the pattern of King Nebuchadnezzar or King Cyrus, either way the Bush visit has great prophetic significance according to Bible prophecy.

When any world leader visits the Jewish state of Israel, it is very newsworthy and almost always history making, thus is the case as George W. Bush makes his very first visit as President of the US to Israel at a very critical time in history. As a follow up to the peace conference last November in Annapolis, President Bush's visit to Israel is an effort to give direction for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President Bush's demands to uproot the Jewish settlements have been met with a scroll to be presented to the president that ask him does he want to be like Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed the Jewish state or would he rather be like the Medo-Persian king, King Cyrus who was used by God to rebuild the Jewish nation of Israel and to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Both have approaches have great prophetic significance according to the scenario that can be found in the Bible for the Last Days.

President Bush's historic visit to Israel will indeed set the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Brothers and Sisters,

It does appear that the time is near for Bible Prophecy to unfold. NO man knows - it could be days, months, or years. However, the RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH COULD HAPPEN AT ANY TIME.

Every man and woman left living on this earth will experience horror during the 7 Year Tribulation Period. This world has never seen such terrible things, nor have they been able to imagine how bad things will be. In comparison, World War II was a picnic. We are beginning to see conditions develop that are similar to what's been recorded in the Holy Bible for thousands of years. There is no doubt at all that these things will most definitely happen. The only remaining question is, "WHEN?" Many Christians also disagree about whether THE CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST will go through any or all of the Tribulation Period. This last question already has several large threads devoted to it on the forum, so you're welcome to read them and decide for yourself. I personally believe that the CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST will be RAPTURED HOME WITH JESUS CHRIST before the beginning of the Tribulation Period. I think that we'll find out soon enough, and that will be GOD'S TIME.

Much of the world is already a powder keg, and it wouldn't take much to lite the fuses. Every action or inaction could be the missing ingredient. Regardless, it will start and finish at GOD'S Appointed Times. There are many details in the Holy Bible, and we already know how the Tribulation Period will end. It will end with the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST in GREAT AND RIGHTEOUS WRATH. JESUS CHRIST will kill many millions of evil men and take HIS THRONE - the Throne of David in Jerusalem for 1,000 years. GOD'S Will be DONE!, and it Will Be!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Revelation 16:1-21 NASB
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God." So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, "Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it." And I heard the altar saying, "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments." The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. ("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.") And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done." And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, *came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague *was extremely severe.

Quote from: Pastor Roger on January 10, 2008, 02:14:39 PM

President Bush is Calling for Israel to End its Occupation of Arab Lands

After talking to Israeli and Palestinian leaders during his visit to Israel, President Bush has called for the Jewish state to end the occupation of Arab lands taken in 1967, so that a viable Palestinian state can be created. Many political pundits are saying that this is the first public statement by Mr. Bush calling for Israel to give up what he termed “occupied land”. While at the time, Bush reaffirmed US commitments to an Israel inside secure and defensible borders.

The President believes that the two sides will be able to sign a peace deal before he leaves office in January, 2009.

Israeli giving up land to create a Palestinian land would be a precursor to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. On his trip to the Middle East, President Bush called for Israel to give up what he called “occupied Arab land” so that there could be a Palestinian state.

In fact, the US President said, “Israel must give up land so that a viable Palestinian state can be created.” The operative word being “created”. There has never been a Palestinian state in the land area known as Israel today.

Leviticus 25 reveals that God said that the land is His land, and that He makes the choices as to whom will live on the land. The Land Covenant of Deuteronomy 30 reveals that God has given the land in question to the Jewish people. Ezekiel 34 states 18 times that God will gather the Jews from around the world and give the land of their forefathers to the Jewish people. Ezekiel 35:22 says that God does this “for His holy name’s sake”.

In a quest for peace, President Bush is calling for Israel to give up what he calls “occupied land”, and in doing so, sets the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

I have a feeling that he is inviting the Lord to come now.

Quote from: Def on January 10, 2008, 02:30:41 PM

I have a feeling that he is inviting the Lord to come now.

Hello Sister Def,

YES - I think you are right. However, there are a few things that Christians must know.

The RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST could happen at any time. CHRIST will catch up HIS CHURCH to meet HIM in the clouds. CHRIST will not come all the way down to earth for the RAPTURE.

The SECOND COMING OF CHRIST is at the end of the 7 Year Tribulation Period, the worst and most horrible time in human history. CHRIST will come all the way down to the earth in GREAT, HOLY, RIGHTEOUS WRATH! The best way to describe the Tribulation Period is unimagined horror, blood-shed, and death. The SECOND COMING OF CHRIST will also involve great blood-shed and death. CHRIST HIMSELF will kill many millions of evil men. CHRIST will defeat evil and claim HIS Throne in Jerusalem to rule and reign over the earth for 1,000 years. Before CHRIST takes HIS Throne, 75% of the earth's population will die during this 7 year period of time.

I believe that the Bible teaches the CHURCH will be RAPTURED Home to Glory before the beginning of the Tribulation Period, but many disagree. I don't say this to start an argument, especially considering that there are several highly detailed threads already debated on the forum. So, please consider this as a very brief statement not made for argument. The Tribulation Period was pronounced against Israel most specifically. Israel will be restored after the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. THE CHURCH was not formed for wrath, RATHER FOR RESCUE. THE CHURCH and Israel are two distinct and unique entities. GOD made Promises to each individual entity, and this must be a primary consideration when studying Bible Prophecy. THE CHURCH is NOT Israel, and Israel is NOT THE CHURCH. Both entities have unique Promises made to them by GOD, and these Promises will be kept perfectly.

I want to give just two major issues to consider when studying the RAPTURE:

1 - The Tribulation Period is a time of WRATH any way you look at it, and THE CHURCH was not formed for WRATH. Israel rejected CHRIST, and the Tribulation Period will be used to purify Israel prior to Israel's restoration after the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

2 - THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST AND THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST are two separate and distinct events that do NOT happen at the same time. CHRIST does NOT come all the way down to the earth during the RAPTURE OF HIS CHURCH. Further, the RAPTURE is a matter of love and Home-Bringing for CHRIST'S CHURCH. As a stark contrast, CHRIST comes all the way down to the earth at HIS SECOND COMING in GREAT WRATH. There will be armies of Heavenly Hosts riding behind HIM into battle against evil, and I believe that HIS CHURCH will be part of the Heavenly Hosts following HIM.

Brothers and Sisters, I didn't mention the above for argument as I've already stated. You are most welcome to read highly detailed debates on this subject already on the forum, and you can make your mind up for yourself. Regardless of the timing of the RAPTURE, Christians have been Promised Eternal Life with JESUS CHRIST and a Glorified Body that is fit for the inheritance that awaits us. How and when we physically die really doesn't make much difference. If we physically die before the RAPTURE, we will be absent from the body and present with the LORD. Our bodies will be raised and changed at the RAPTURE. If we are alive at the RAPTURE, we will be caught up in the clouds alive and changed in the twinkling of an eye. As an obvious result, Christians should not fear physical death in the way that the lost do. Our physical death simply means a new and glorious Eternal Life, exactly as GOD Promised.

Love In Christ,
Tom

RAPTURE

(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/tlr10/relig/relig150.gif)

KEEP LOOKING UP!

THE RAPTURE WILL BE A REALITY!

1 Thessalonians 4:13 NASB But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 NASB For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4:15 NASB For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 NASB For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 NASB Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 NASB Therefore comfort one another with these words.

____________________________

1 Corinthians 15:50 NASB Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

1 Corinthians 15:51 NASB Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

1 Corinthians 15:52 NASB in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:53 NASB For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:54 NASB But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

1 Corinthians 15:55 NASB "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"

1 Corinthians 15:56 NASB The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

1 Corinthians 15:57 NASB but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:58 NASB Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Quote from: blackeyedpeas on January 10, 2008, 09:30:42 PM

RAPTURE

(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/tlr10/relig/relig150.gif)

Hello Brother Tom.
I believe too that we will be rapture before the tribulation
us who believe in Christ
Jesus will pick us up into the air
Wow that is fine with me
I have my white dress on
ready to go me and my little dog(HEHE)
If I could click my heals and go up now Hallelujah i would right now..
you see I want to come back with Him at His second coming
I know how to ride and I earned my White stallion
and I am one of His soldier
I am a soldier of the Cross.
I O JESUS! my Lord
I have no fear for I will be with Him If He wants me along.
move over ;)
believe me I can furiously ride with discipline and ease. 8)
Bye bye Tom
I can ride bare back too. 8)
Love in Jesus Def

Olmert Agrees to Allow in 50,000 Arab 'Refugees'

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The issue of "Arab refugees" has long been a matter of widespread consensus in Israel, with even left-wing parties declaring that allowing them into Israel would endanger its very existence as a Jewish state. Nevertheless, the subject does not appear to be going away. Reports are that Prime Minister Olmert has now agreed to allow 50,000 Arabs who left Israel in 1948 - or are descendants of those who did - to enter and live in Israel.

Channel Ten reported Thursday night that in a private meeting between Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen, the two agreed that in the final-status agreement, Israel would withdraw from 92% of Judea and Samaria, including all the non-Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. It was also agreed that 50,000 "refugees from 1948" would enter and live in the State of Israel.

Staffers in Olmert's office did not deny the report, and even hinted that it was at least partially accurate.

Olmert Went Further than Bush
U.S. President George Bush summed up his three-day visit to Israel on Friday by saying that a new Palestinian state, together with financial compensation, would be the solution to the refugee problem. The implication is that the refugees need not enter Israel.

"There must be an end to Israel's occupation [sic] that began in 1967," Bush said. "Palestine must serve as a national home for the Palestinians, and Israel - for the Jews."

Israel liberated Judea and Samaria during the Six Day War in 1967, capturing it, essentially, from no one. No country in the world, other than Great Britain and Pakistan, recognized Jordan's control over Judea and Samaria between 1948 and 1967.

Lebanon: Return, Not Money
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Seniora does not accept Bush's position on the refugees. Seniora said that money alone is not enough, and that his country will continue to refuse to grant citizenship to the 400,000 refugees living within its borders. The number of Arabs who left Israel in 1948 has been estimated to be roughly a half-million, but millions now claim the 'right to return.'

Hamas, too, refuses to accept any solution other than the "return" to Israel of the millions of Arabs who claim that they themselves, or their ancestors, were forced to leave Israel in 1948. The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said that Bush will soon leave the political arena, while the Hamas demands will remain forever: "A Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, the destruction of all the settlements, the release of all the Palestinian prisoners, the 'right of return' of all the Palestinian refugees, and continued adherence to the strategy of not giving up on even one inch of all of Palestine."

Arabs Denied Refugee Problem
Oft-forgotten is the fact that the refugee problem was not caused by Israel, but by the Arab states. "The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies," according to the Jordanian newspaper Filastin (February 19, 1949).

Joan Peters, in her classic work "From Time Immemorial," quotes (on page 13) an Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies finding that "the majority" of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled, and that 68% left without seeing an Israeli soldier.

On April 27, 1950, the Arab National Committee of Haifa informed the Arab States: "The removal of the Arab inhabitants... was voluntary and was carried out at our request... The Arab delegation proudly asked for the evacuation of the Arabs and their removal to the neighboring Arab countries."

Zuheir Muhsein, the late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council, told the Dutch daily Trouw, March 1977, "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity... Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people... to oppose Zionism."

Olmert Agrees to Allow in 50,000 Arab 'Refugees' (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124896)

Quote

On April 27, 1950, the Arab National Committee of Haifa informed the Arab States: "The removal of the Arab inhabitants... was voluntary and was carried out at our request... The Arab delegation proudly asked for the evacuation of the Arabs and their removal to the neighboring Arab countries."

Zuheir Muhsein, the late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council, told the Dutch daily Trouw, March 1977, "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity... Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people... to oppose Zionism."

I wonder how much of the world actually knows and understands this. I also wonder if the world knows this land belonged to Israel in the first place. The biggest question is, "Does the world know this land belongs to GOD?" Do they know that JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF is the Anointed KING of Israel, and HE will NOT be denied HIS Throne and Kingdom?

Love In Christ,
Tom

Revelation 11:13-19 NASB
And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly. Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. "And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth." And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Quote from: blackeyedpeas on January 14, 2008, 03:01:34 PM

Hi brother Tom you are so right .and i have proof but i am to tire right now to go into explanation .
i just finish the old testament today.
i feel tired I feel older and lost two pound and i could not afford to many lost of those.
tomorrow Matthew here i come.
Love in Jesus Def
.Glory Glory Hallelujah!what Power.for someone as little as me.
I am speechless

'Syrian spy' busted
before nuke attack
Accused of plotting against Jewish state
prior to Israel's air raid of suspected site

Israel arrested a suspected Syrian militant operating on Israeli soil accused of preparing attacks against the Jewish state, WND has learned.

The militant was arrested July 29, weeks before Israel's Sept. 6 air raid on a remote site in Syria that has been described by independent analysts and some U.S. politicians as a potential Syrian nuclear reactor.

Security officials would not say whether the July arrest of the suspected Syrian militant was tied to the Jewish state's Sept. 6 air strike in Syria. According to security sources, his activities were known to Israeli intelligence agencies for at least one year prior to his arrest.

Sources indicated the arrest was ordered as part of a series of other steps taken to ensure against Syrian retaliation following the Israeli air raid.

Israel has acknowledged carrying out the September air raid after earlier denials but has given no details on the target, which some analysts have said was a nascent Syrian nuclear reactor constructed with the aid of North Korea.

Earlier this week, an independent monitoring group told the New York Times that Syria has commenced construction on a new building at the same site bombed by Israel.

The Syrian, whose name is being withheld by security sources for operational reasons, was a legal resident of Buqata, a largely Druze village in the Israeli Golan Heights. He was arrested at his home during a nighttime police raid.

The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory captured by the Jewish state after Syria twice used the terrain to attack Israel. It has a population of about 35,000 – approximately 18,000 Jewish residents and 17,000 Arabs, mostly Druze. The Arab residents retain their Syrian citizenship, but under Israeli law they can also sue for Israeli citizenship.

The Israeli police withheld information about the July arrest of the suspected Syrian militant and imposed a complete Israeli media blackout on the case.

According to informed sources, the arrest docket officially charges the suspected militant with establishing relations with enemy agents.

Security sources involved with the arrest told WND the militant is accused of gathering intelligence on Jewish communities and Israeli military positions in the Golan Heights and passing the information to the Syrian government and to elements in Syria seeking to use the information to mount Hezbollah-style guerrilla raids and attacks against the Golan.

In 2006, WND broke the story Syria was in the early stages of forming a guerrilla group threatening attacks against Israeli positions and Jewish communities in the Golan Heights, according to security sources.

The Syrian militant arrested in July is suspected of working for the guerrilla group.

During a widely-circulated interview in August 2006, a senior official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party told WND the new guerrilla group, called the Syrian Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights, would launch "resistance operations" if Israel didn't vacate the Golan.

One month later, a man identified as the leader of the new Committees gave an interview to state-run Iranian television.

Amos Yadlin, head of the Israel Defense Forces' intelligence branch, told the Knesset last October that Syria is indeed forming a Hezbollah-like group.

Last February, the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan faxed a letter to Israeli news agencies claiming it was holding Guy Hever, an Israeli soldier who went missing in the Golan in 1997. The Committees said they would release Hever in exchange for nine Syrians held in Israeli jails.

Winograd Commission member

As publication of final report on Second Lebanon War draws near, commission member tells Ynet report's conclusions could have dramatic ramifications for Israeli political system
Aviram Zino

"The final report of the Winograd Commission is expected to be dramatic and decisive," a member on the commission told Ynet Thursday, ahead of the report's publication in two weeks' time.

The member also stated that the report could have "drastic ramifications" for the political system, and could even lead to a toppling of the government.

The commission's spokesman refused to comment on the statements at this point.

Winograd's preliminary report, which was released in April 2007, strongly criticized Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz, then-Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and the government as a whole for their functioning during the first five days of the campaign.

The final report is set to focus on the period leading up the ceasefire agreement, signed on August 12, 2006, and also cover the years that preceded the war, since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.

The report is also expected to spotlight the last 48 hours of the fighting, which took place parallel to diplomatic efforts to finalize the UN Security Council ceasefire resolution.

'Elections will likely be pushed up'

While the commission said it would not include individual recommendations in its conclusions, the member stated that the report would contain "difficult findings" regarding the deaths of 33 soldiers during the final operation of the war. These conclusions, he said, "will, at the very least, move up the general elections."

The main issues set to be covered by the report include the decision-making process employed by the political echelon during the war; the relations between the political and military echelons throughout the campaign; the handling of the home front; and of course, the war's results.

The report will be presented to the public in a special press conference on January 30 at the Jerusalem International Convention Center. Dozens of local and foreign journalists are expected to attend the conference.

An hour prior to the event, the report will be handed to the prime minister and defense minister.

Winograd Commission member (http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3495543,00.html)

Israel defending citizens through uncompromising war

JPost.com staff and Yaakov Katz
THE JERUSALEM POST
an. 17, 2008

Defense Minster Ehud Barak on Thursday ordered the complete closure of the crossings from Israel into the Gaza Strip in the wake of the incessant Kassam rocket attacks.

In a situation assessment Barak conducted with IDF officials, the defense minister ordered them to stop the transfer of trucks and goods into the Strip in order to exert pressure on Hamas.

The defense establishment emphasized that the transfer of medicines and humanitarian aid would be allowed only in exceptional circumstances and only after a thorough examination.

Earlier, Barak had ordered a continuation of the restrictions on Gaza fuel supply and instructed the defense establishment to allocate 260 million shekels for fortifications in Sderot and Gaza belt neighborhoods.

Also Thursday, Barak said that Israel would deepen its operations in the Gaza Strip and stop the firing of rockets at the western Negev.

Speaking during a visit to the area accompanied by IDF commanders, Barak said: "Even as we stand here, [Kassam] fire continues. The IDF will continue in its ongoing operation and deepen it in order to strike at the perpetrators, until the firing stops."

"It won't be easy, it won't happen this weekend, but we will bring an end to Kassam attacks on Sderot," he added.

Meanwhile, the Gaza operations got the seal of approval from the US, with US Assistant Secretary of State Sean McCormack saying that Israel has the right to defend itself from Kassam rocket attacks.

However, McCormack urged the IDF to avoid harming innocent civilians, Israel Radio reported.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier that Israel would not tolerate the incessant Kassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and would act repeatedly against the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and all other Palestinian groups which continue to wage war on Israeli citizens.

"We are not looking to fight in the Gaza Strip, we do not want to harm its residents and we have no special desire to kill any citizen," Olmert told the Israel Manufacturers' Association in Tel Aviv. "But we will not, and we cannot continue to suffer this relentless Kassam rocket fire on citizens of the state of Israel that emanates from there."

The prime minister went on to commend the latest string of IDF operations in the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed at least 20 Palestinian operatives, and said that such military activity will continue until rocket attacks stop.

"They absorbed a punch, and this punch is not the last one that they will absorb during this insufferable Kassam rocket fire on the southern Israel," Olmert said, promising that the Jewish state "will continue to act, with wisdom and with ferociousness, with maximal precision in order to hit all those who want to harm us, and without hitting innocent citizens, that are becoming victims of extremism, brutality, hate and incitement."

Nevertheless, Olmert emphasized that there are no easy solutions to rocket attacks. "Unfortunately we can't just press a button to stop it."

Earlier Thursday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made similar comments during her visit to Moscow, saying that Israel would defend its citizens not only through negotiations, but also through "uncompromising war" against Palestinian terror from Gaza.

"Israeli is obligated to its citizens, and needs to give a response to the daily attacks coming from Gaza," the foreign minister said, adding that "the answer to the Kassam rocket attacks is an uncompromising war on terror which originates from Gaza, and not only through dialogue and negotiations."

"[Israel] must be clear: when speaking of a Palestinian state, we are talking about two parts - Gaza and the West Bank," the foreign minister continued.

"The situation in Gaza must change," she concluded.

Also Thursday, Vice Premier Haim Ramon said that Israeli military pressure on Hamas and other Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip would eventually bring an end the rocket attacks on the western Negev.

"We already see a pretty major weakening within Hamas; a wish on their part to arrive at a cease fire," Ramon told Army Radio. "The easiest way to bring quiet to the Negev and Sderot will be if Hamas hold their fire."

A senior Hamas official was quoted by Israel Radio as saying overnight Wednesday that Ismail Haniyeh's Hamas government would attempt to put a stop to Kassam rocket fire and other terror attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip.

The source added, however, that it would be difficult to quell the flames so long as Israel continued aggressive operations in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "We will increase the pressure on the Gaza Strip in order to bring an end to the Kassam rocket fire."

Speaking during an opening speech at a Naval graduation ceremony in Haifa, Barak said Israel had no intention of softening its stance against terrorists and that military strikes in Gaza would continue as long as necessary.

Barak orders Gaza crossings shut (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200475903477&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)
~~~~~~~~

This seems like very strong words when combined with the missile test earlier today. I have never heard of Israel being empty on her threats. I know the Israeli's stands behind their threats more than any other country, because they can't relax their stance!!

Jewish construction restricted in Jerusalem
Regarded as sign government plans to forfeit parts of holy city

In what some are pointing to as a sign the Israeli government plans to forfeit parts of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly has suspended all construction in eastern sections of the city unless specifically approved by the prime minister himself.

"All construction beyond the Green Line, even in Jerusalem, requires the housing minister and prime minister's approval," Sara Zimmerman, an official in Israel's Housing Ministry, revealed to the Knesset yesterday.

The Housing Ministry ordinarily regulates construction in the Jewish state, but Zimmerman informed the Knesset that Olmert's office took over the approval process for issuing tenders to build in the Jewish neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem, including even for kindergartens or health clinics.

Israel recaptured eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital; the area has large Arab neighborhoods, a significant Jewish population and sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods. The city has an estimated total population of 724,000.

Following the Knesset session, Olmert's office quickly released a statement denying it is restricting eastern Jerusalem construction, while the Housing Ministry has returned phone calls to WND for clarification on the issue.

"We have made it very clear to all international bodies, including U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit. We have no intention of freezing the construction in Jerusalem. All such claims are baseless and unfounded," Olmert's office said.

But Zimmerman did not testify Olmert froze construction in eastern Jerusalem, only that the prime minister has stipulated his approval was necessary for any building there.

Reuven Rivlin, a lawmaker in Israel's opposition Likud party, slammed Olmert's reported decision to halt Jerusalem construction.

"The whole wretched truth is out," said Rivlin.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski commented, "Israel cannot be the first nation in the world which turns its capital into an illegal outpost."

The reported move to restrict Jewish construction in Jerusalem follows statements last month by Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon, a top Olmert deputy, that Israel "must" give up sections of Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state, even conceding the Palestinians can rename Jerusalem "to whatever they want."

"We must come today and say, friends, the Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want," said Ramon during an interview.

Positions held by Ramon, a ranking member of Olmert's Kadima party, are largely considered to be reflective of Israeli government policy.

Ramon's statements came after November's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit at which Olmert committed to aim at completing negotiations by the end of this year to create a Palestinian state, with Israel expected to evacuate swaths of Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank.

Ramon said due to the city's demographics, Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem "should not be under Israeli sovereignty, because they pose a threat to Jerusalem being the capital of a Jewish Israel."

Olmert to blame for dividing Jerusalem?

Ramon listed population statistics as the reason Olmert's government finds it necessary to split Jerusalem.

But WND broke the story last month that according to Jerusalem municipal employees, during 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert instructed city workers not to take action against hundreds of illicit Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing over 100,000 Arabs squatting in the city illegally.

The workers and some former employees claim Olmert even instructed city officials to delete files documenting illegal Arab construction of housing units in eastern Jerusalem.

Olmert was Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003. As mayor he made repeated public statements calling Jerusalem the "eternal and undivided capital" of Israel. Jerusalem municipal employees and former workers, though, paint a starkly contrasting picture of the prime minister.

"He did nothing about rampant illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem while the government cracked down on illegal Jewish construction in the West Bank," said one municipal employee who worked under Olmert. ,p>She spoke on condition of anonymity because she still works for the municipality.

One former municipal worker during Olmert's mayoral tenure told WND he was moved in 1999 to a new government posting after he tried to highlight the illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem. He also spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his current job.

Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in Jerusalem, told WND an investigation by his group found Olmert's city hall deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem. He said he forwarded his findings to Israel's state comptroller for investigation.

King also claims Olmert told senior municipal workers not to enforce a ban on illegal Arab buildings.

"Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes," said King. "Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority."

King's report alleges Jerusalem municipal officials erased the files, which detail over 300 cases of Arab construction in eastern Jerusalem deemed illegal starting from 1999. The illegal buildings reportedly were constructed without permits and are still standing. According to law, they must be demolished.

Local media reports investigating King's charges alleged the files were erased by Ofir May, the head of Jerusalem's Department of Building Permits, with the specific intention of allowing the statute of limitation on enforcing the demolition of the illegal construction to run out.

cont'd

The Jerusalem municipality released a statement in response to the allegations claiming the threat of Arab violence kept it from bulldozing the illegal Arab homes.

"During the years of the intifada, the municipality had difficulty carrying out the necessary level of enforcement in the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem due to security constraints," the statement read.

King said the hundreds of buildings allegedly detailed in the deleted municipal files house more than 20,000 illegal units.

"We're talking about perhaps 100,000 or more Arabs in eastern Jerusalem living in illegal homes with the government doing nothing about it," King said.

Arabs squat illegally on Jewish-owned land

WND's own investigation last year found hundreds of acres of key properties in Jerusalem purchased by a Jewish group for the stated purpose of Jewish settlement instead were utilized for U.N. facilities and the illegal construction of dozens of Arab apartment buildings housing thousands.

The lands, purchased by the Jewish National Fund, or JNF, are under the management of the Israeli government.

The properties in question include over 200 acres in the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods of Qalandiya and Kfar Akev, located near an old Israeli airport, and about 50 acres in a north Jerusalem suburb known as Shoafat, which is adjacent to the Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev.

The two neighborhoods were specifically mentioned by Olmert last month as up for possible Israeli evacuation.

The lands were legally purchased on behalf of JNF using Jewish donations in the early 1900s, immediately after the organization was founded in 1901 with the specific charge of repurchasing and developing the land of Israel for Jewish settlement.

A tour of Qalandiya and Kfar Akev found dozens of Arab apartment complexes, a Palestinian refugee camp and a U.N. school for Palestinians constructed on the land.

According to officials in Israel's Housing Ministry, Arabs first constructed facilities illegally in Qalandiya and Kfar Akev between 1948 and 1967, prior to the 1967 Six-Day War during which Israel retook control of the entire city of Jerusalem.

Qalandiya, still owned by JNF, came under the management of the Israeli government's Land Authority in the late 1960s.

Ministry officials say the bulk of illegal Arab construction in Qalandiya took place during Olmert's tenure as mayor, with construction of several new Arab apartment complexes still taking place this year.

Neither the Olmert municipality nor JNF took any concrete measures to stop the illegal building, which continues today with at least one apartment complex in Qalandiya under construction.

Jerusalem's Shoafat neighborhood, which has an estimated value of $3 million, also was purchased by JNF in the early 1900s and fell under the management of the Israel Land Authority about 40 years ago. Much of the illegal Arab construction in Shoafat took place in the past 15 years, with some apartment complexes built as late as 2004.

In Qalandiya, Kfar Akev and Shoafat, Israel's security fence cordons off the Arab sections of the JNF lands from the rest of Jewish Jerusalem.

Internal JNF documents obtained by WND outline illegal Arab construction on the Jewish-owned land. A survey of Qalandiya summarized on JNF stationery conducted in December 2000 and signed by a JNF worker states, "In a lot of the plots I find Arabs are living and building illegally and also working the JNF land without permission."

The JNF survey goes on to document illegal construction of Arab apartment complexes and the U.N. school under the property management of Israel's Land Authority.

4200 Red Balloons
By Mladen Andrijasevic
January 26, 2008

There is this photo in The Jerusalem Post of red balloons that the Israeli consulate put on 1st Avenue just in front of the UN headquarters. Actually 4,200 red balloons to signify 4,200 Kassam rockets fired into Israel from Gaza since the 2005 disengagement. It was done apparently because nothing else worked. "Up until this day, every attempt to raise the issue and make it part of the American media's agenda has been unsuccessful," Consulate Spokesman David Saranga said.

Red Ballons picture (http://web.israelinsider.com/Static/Binaries/Article/4200redballoons_0.jpg)

I emailed my friends in the States to find out whether this photo was carried by any New York City media, or any media in the US. Nothing. Apart from the blogosphere -- nothing.

This article could be devoted only to the fact that the UN, the organization set up to stop aggression has been debating a resolution which would accuse Israel for blockading Gaza without even mentioning the 4200 rockets, and in so doing would negate the very principles it was originally founded on. But the American media does not seem to care about the 4200 Kassams either. That implies that nobody in the world cares about getting their facts straight. This, in itself, is a startling story.

Does the world always behave like this? No, of course not. We all know what would be happening if Key West were attacked from Cuba or San Diego attacked from Mexico. The rockets falling on Key West would not go unreported. No, there has to be one ingredient in the story which makes everybody switch into another universe, into a trance of mass hypnosis -- and that ingredient is of course Israel. When Israel is part of the equation, you can expect -- actually there does not seem to be a limit what one can expect. It all becomes surreal.

Diplomats from liberal democracies, whose countries participated in the founding of the UN organization, look at the red balloons and then proceed to abstain. Not support , mind you, but abstain. Supporting the resolution would be too much; the signs of total surrender to tyranny. They are not quite ready for that yet. Abstaining gives them the feeling of wisdom and tolerance and 'control'. They can look themselves in the mirror without throwing up.

For the US media there could be even less excuse. Especially the New York City media. The ideology which fuels the Kassams attacks is the same one that inspired the 19 jihadists to fly into the World Trade Center just three miles south of these red balloon reminders. But the story that involves Israel is automatically judged by other standards, and however logically we try to explain what is going on, and try to factor in all the known anti Israel bias, it is insufficient , because as the UN Security Council resolution in the making shows, the explanation is beyond hate, envy, appeasement, cowardice, greed, anti-Semitism.

4200 Red Balloons (http://web.israelinsider.com/views/12599.htm)

PM rejects talk of early elections
By Mazal Mualem
29/01/2008

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has no intention of setting a date for early elections together with Labor Chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the prime minister's associates said Monday.

They were responding to predictions by Labor politicians that Barak would respond to the Winograd Committee's full report on the Second Lebanon War, due out Wednesday, by working to advance the elections to early 2009.

The premier's associates said Olmert has no intention of turning himself into a lame duck by advancing the elections. Moreover, they argued, early elections would paralyze the country, damage the economy and destroy the peace process, which Labor supports.

"How would it be possible to advance the diplomatic process when everyone would be wanting to sharpen his positions?" demanded one of Olmert's associates. "Our negotiating partner would also understand that it is impossible to reach an agreement with a prime minister whose days are numbered."

This message by Olmert's associates was part of the premier's preparations for the political battle that will erupt, he expects, after the Winograd report is published. His main fear is that Barak will yield to public pressure and keep the promise he made during his primary campaign last year - that after the full Winograd report is released, he will work to either replace Olmert or advance the elections. Without Labor, Olmert has no Knesset majority.

Olmert's associates insisted that the premier opposes early elections out of "national responsibility," not narrow political interests. "If we entered an election year now, the meaning would be inability to govern and to manage the affairs of state in a considered, responsible fashion, because the entire political system would be busy with electioneering, spin and populist bills," another associate argued.

Moreover, they said, elections - and the profligate spending known as "election economics" that usually accompanies them - would cost the state tens of millions of shekels.

Olmert and his associates have refrained from personal attacks on Barak, but other members of Olmert's Kadima party have been doing the dirty work for them. Senior Kadima MKs charged Monday that Barak favors early elections for personal reasons and is disregarding the national interest.

Kadima MKs have also been warning that early elections would lead to a rightist government led by Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, in a coalition with Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu and a new party led by businessman Arcadi Gaydamak. "Barak needs to realize that he would bring Bibi [Netanyahu] to power," said one. "That's the meaning of early elections."

Olmert, in his address to the Kadima faction Monday, urged its MKs to keep calm about the Winograd report. "We've faced challenges in the past, and we'll face challenges in the future as well," he said, adding that Kadima "should lead Israel for many years to come."

Likud members, meanwhile, responded to fears of a Netanyahu-Lieberman-Gaydamak government by pointing out that, for months, Netanyahu has been talking about establishing a unity government after the elections, and he plans to invite every Zionist party in the Knesset to join such a government.

In response to Kadima's argument about the importance of political stability, Likud MKs countered that a government "must reflect the will of the public," as one put it. "This will be the case only after new elections, since the Olmert-Barak government no longer represents most of the public."

Barak on Monday reiterated his mantra that he will decide what to do only after reading the report. He is expected to announce his decision only next week.

In the meantime, three Labor MKs who favor quitting the government unless Olmert resigns - Eitan Cabel, Ophir Pines-Paz and Danny Yatom - are trying to mobilize support within the Labor Party for their stance.

PM rejects talk of early elections (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/949023.html)

Official: 'Gay plague' will destroy Israel
Knesset member compares homposexual 'epidemic' to bird flu

Posters reading 'in this house lives an MK who is trying to outlaw citizens' right to march in Jerusalem,' hung on MKs Gabbay, Zeev's homes. Zeev: Gays a plague that could destroy Israel

Members of Hadash party's "Red-Pink Patrol" hung placards overnight Tuesday on the homes of Knesset members Eli Gabbay (National Union-NR) and Nissim Zeev (Shas) in protest of a proposal banning gay pride parades in Jerusalem.

"In this house lives an MK who is trying to outlaw the citizens' right to march and protest on the streets of Jerusalem," one of the posters read. "This anti-democratic bill is targeting not only the homosexual, lesbian, transgender and bisexual communities, but also human and civil rights in general.

The proposed amendment to Basic Law: Jerusalem, would enable the Jerusalem Municipal Council to ban gay parades and rallies for considerations of disturbance to public order, offending the public's sensitivities or for religious considerations.

Yaniv Rosner, a member of Hadash's "Red-Pink Forum," said MKs Gabbay and Zeev "are attempting to create a situation whereby an entire community is denied its right to protest in Jerusalem.

"There is no precedent to such legislation," he said, "this is way past being only about the gay community; it is a question of whether the right to protest is a basic, democratic right in Israel."

'Legislation inherently damaging'

During a heated Knesset debate Sunday, MK Zeev claimed that the proposed legislation was aimed at assisting homosexuals and lesbians who want to start a family.

He said that if it was up to him he would put gays in rehabilitation centers "along with drug addicts and alcoholics".

Zeev went as far as comparing the gay movement to a "plague that may destroy Jewish Israel", adding that this "plague" should be dealt with "just as the Health Ministry is dealing with bird flu."

Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, a law professor who took part in this debate, preferred to focus on the core legal issues at hand. “The true test of freedom of expression is the actual expression at hand and whether is offensive at the deepest levels,” he told the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

The professor therefore pointed out that “this type of legislation is acceptable if we want to turn Jerusalem into another Teheran, not if it is the capital of secular Jews as well.”

MK Yitzhak Levy of the National Religious Party pointed out, conversely, that even Israeli police forces do not allow all worshipers to enter the Temple Mount for prayers.

Kremnitzer categorically rejected this analogy, saying there was a big difference between maintaining law and order and preventing certain elements from rioting to instituting legislation that "stands against everything that a democratic, Jewish state ought to be.

“This legislation is inherently damaging. If freedom of expression is impinged upon, Israel will cease to be a democracy,” said the professor.

Lebanon war a failure for Israel: Winograd report
30/01/2008

A key report into Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon published on Wednesday listed a series of major failings by the Jewish state but said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acted in good faith.

"Overall, we regard the second Lebanon war as a serious missed opportunity," said the head of a government-appointed commission into the conflict, Eliyahu Winograd, according to an official English translation of his remarks.

"We found serious failings and shortcomings in the decision-making processes and staff-work in the political and the military echelons," said Winograd, who gave the final findings of his inquiry at a press conference.

"We found severe failings and flaws in the lack of strategic thinking and planning, in both the political and the military echelons."

"The way the original decision to go to war had been made; the fact Israel went to war before it decided which option to select and without an exit strategy -- all these constituted serious failures, which affected the whole war."

"Responsibility for these failures lay, as we had stressed in the interim report, on both the political and the military echelons."

But he said Olmert and then defence minister Amir Peretz "acted out of a strong and sincere perception of what they thought at the time was Israel's interest."

The UN-brokered ceasefire which brought an end to the war on August 14, 2006 amounted to a "political agreement, which included positive elements for Israel, which permitted it to stop a war which it had failed to win."

The commission blasted the military's performance, saying Israel's armed forces "failed, especially because of the conduct of the high command and the ground forces, to provide an effective military response to the challenge posed to it by the war."

Although in hindsight, the ground operation that Israel launched in the last days of the war, did not achieve its goals, Olmert's decision to wage the offensive "was almost inevitable, giving the Israeli government necessary military and political flexibility."

"There was no failure in that decision in itself, despite its limited achievements and its painful costs."

Winograd said that commission members "stand behind everything we said in the interim report" released last April which roasted the premier for "serious failure" during the conflict.

Lebanon war a failure for Israel: Winograd report (http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=080130173404.mofnce0m.php)

Israel to build more in east Jerusalem

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 12, 4:15 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel announced plans Tuesday to build more than 1,000 homes in disputed east Jerusalem, infuriating the Palestinians and triggering a new crisis in already troubled peace talks.

Palestinian officials accused Israel of undermining efforts to reach a peace agreement by the end of the year and urged a halt to the project.

The fate of east Jerusalem is the thorniest issue in the peace talks. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Middle East war, later formally annexing it and building a string of neighborhoods that are now home to 180,000 Israelis.

Israel expects to retain Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem under a peace deal, but the Palestinians see construction there as threatening a final agreement.

The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state and have been urging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to halt construction in the area.

Israel's housing minister, Zeev Boim, announced the latest construction plans in response to assertions from Jerusalem's city manager that Olmert was holding up work in east Jerusalem. Boim said a partial building freeze ordered recently applied only to settlements in the West Bank and not Jerusalem.

"We are building all over Jerusalem within its municipal borders. What people call delays are in fact final stages of coordination with City Hall," Boim told Israel Radio.

He said plans were under way to build 370 homes in Har Homa and 750 apartments in Pisgat Zeev, two Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

Israel disclosed a similar plan in December to build some 300 homes in Har Homa, days after resuming peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a U.S.-hosted summit in Annapolis, Md. That plan drew U.S. criticism and stalled the talks for weeks.

At the Annapolis summit, Olmert and Abbas set a December 2008 target for reaching a final peace accord. On Tuesday, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the latest construction threatens chances of meeting that goal.

"We condemn these Israeli declarations, and once again we ask the Israeli government to give peace a chance by stopping all settlement activity," he said.

In Washington, the State Department said it would seek clarification from the Israelis about the announcement, which it called a "potential irritant" to the peace process along with continued rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza.

"Our people are going to go in and seek clarification and find out exactly what this is," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "If there is anything further to say about it at that point, we will."

During a visit to Germany, Olmert did not comment directly on the uproar, but said talks on Jerusalem would be put off to the end of the negotiating process.

"We try to move on forward through those issues which can be resolved, perhaps, faster than the others," he said. "Some other issues are on the agenda, but they will be discussed later, including the issue of Jerusalem."

East Jerusalem is home to 208,000 Palestinians, according to a recent Palestinian census. The Palestinians hope to establish an independent state that includes the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel captured all three areas in the 1967 war, but withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Olmert has signaled a readiness to relinquish most of the West Bank and some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem as part of a final peace deal.

His flexibility on Jerusalem has prompted criticism from hard-line political opponents, as well as some members of his fragile coalition government.

Shas, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party, has threatened to pull out of the government if Olmert begins talks on Jerusalem. Such a move would rob Olmert of his parliamentary majority, possibly toppling the government and forcing elections.

As a result, the Israeli leader has been maintaining a balancing act — trying to avoid provocative moves that anger the Palestinians while keeping his coalition intact. Further complicating the situation, opinion polls say most Israelis oppose a compromise on Jerusalem.

More than two months after peace talks resumed, negotiations appear to have made little progress. Talks also have been marred by Palestinian militants firing rocket barrages at Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip and Israeli reprisals aimed at halting the fire.

Israel has warned it will not carry out any peace agreement until Abbas regains control of Gaza, which was overrun last June by the Islamic militants of the Hamas movement.

Earlier this week, Israel's defense minister threatened to topple Gaza's Hamas government if rocket fire continues. Fearing assassination, top Hamas leaders have gone into hiding.

One of those leaders, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, issued a statement Tuesday saying that "threats are not going to scare us or terrify our people."

Also Tuesday, Israel said it broke up a militant funding ring in the West Bank. Israeli troops raided 14 money-changing offices, confiscating nearly $850,000 and arresting five Palestinians on suspicion funds were transferred from abroad for militant groups, the army said.

Israel to build more in east Jerusalem (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080212/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians;_ylt=AiCfwai3V6UQaanksHl_jAsLewgF)

Embassies ordered to raise alert
Yaakov Katz, Gil Hoffman
THE JERUSALEM POST
Feb. 13, 2008

Despite Israel's swift denial of involvement in Tuesday's assassination of top Hizbullah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1202742145654&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull), in Damascus, the defense establishment on Wednesday ordered embassies and Israeli institutions abroad to slightly raise their level of alert, out of fear that Hizbullah might attempt to retaliate the killing.

Defense officials said it was possible Hizbullah would retaliate, although it was unlikely that the group would do so across Israel's northern border, but instead use its infrastructure overseas.

One senior intelligence officer told The Jerusalem Post Hizbullah is believed to have terrorist infrastructure in over 40 countries abroad, particularly in Africa and South America.

"After events like this, we need to sharpen our senses in preparation," an official said, adding however, that "security personnel were not being beefed up at this stage."

Earlier, in a first official Israeli reaction to the killing of Mughniyeh, the Prime Minister's Office rejected Hizbullah's claims that Israel had assassinated the arch-terrorist and insisted that the government's sole source of information on the incident was the media.

"Israel is sifting through the reports from Lebanon and Syria regarding the death of the high-ranking Hizbullah official and is studying, for the first time, the details emanating from their portrayal in the media in the past hours," the PMO statement read. "Israel rejects the attempt of terrorist elements to pin any involvement in this incident on it. Beyond that, there is nothing to add."

Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus late Tuesday night, Hizbullah's Al-Manar television reported Wednesday.

The US welcomed the Hizbullah terror chief's death.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that "the world is a better place without this man in it," adding that "one way or the other he was brought to justice."

He said that the United States had no independent information on the reports that Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Syria.

The United States blames Mughniyeh for numerous terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of Americans including attacks on the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was on an FBI wanted list with a $25 million bounty on his head.

Earlier Wednesday, Environment Minister Gideon Ezra called Mughniyeh the "Lebanese Carlos."

"He was implicated in plane hijackings; he was implicated in abducting our three soldiers at Har Dov," Ezra said. "According to sources that I am privy to, he was also involved in the kidnapping of our soldiers [Eldad] Regev and [Ehud] Goldwasser. He was also amongst those involved in the terror attacks in Argentina."

"Mughniyeh was one of the most dangerous and cruel terrorists," Former Mossad head and Labor MK Danny Yatom said. "This is a huge achievement in the war against terror."

"When bastards like Mughniyeh, whose hands are covered in the blood of Israelis, Argentinian Jews and Americans, go on to a 'better place', our world also becomes a better place," former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud), said.

"Mughniyeh was living on borrowed time," Likud MK Silvan Shalom said. "He is responsible for many deaths and his passing is a contribution to the international community's war against terror."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is in Turkey, would not answer reporters' questions on the subject of the assassination on Wednesday.

Embassies ordered to raise alert (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1202742147314&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

On The Temple Mt., Jews Not Allowed to Move their Lips in Prayer

by Gary Stearman

We have all seen Jews vigorously praying at the Western Wall. Their voices and bodily motions are a study in focused intensity, on top of the Temple Mount, where they are now allowed to go in limited numbers. However, should they succeed in ascending to this hallowed territory, Israeli authority demands that they not so much as move their lips in prayer!

Thoses who support the biblical view of Israel and the Holy City often think of Psalm 122:6, which urges prayer, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee." A proper understanding of prophecy often brings these words to mind, since the Bible promises great things for the Holy City. One day the Lord, Himself, will build the Millennial Third Temple there, bringing His reign to the whole Earth.

Contrast that with the legions of militant contenders who desire to possess Jerusalem for their own political purposes. In this present setting, the faithful long for the peace of Jerusalem. They are prompted to pray for its promised restoration, just as it is prophesied in the Bible.

Particularly in Israel, public prayer is a long-respected expression of religious faith. Religious Jews pray vocally and with exaggerated bodily motions at the Western Wall, praying that the Lord will come to this place and establish His Kingdom.

Their enemies must regard such prayer as effective. They are doing anything they can to stop it, carrying the point to ridiculous extremes. And now, even Israeli leaders are bowing to their demands. One of their own government ministers has commanded them to stop moving their lips while praying on the Temple Mount!

In the Name of Security

This command came in the form of a public security ruling, explicitly designed to appease the Arab Waqf - the trust that now controls the Temple Mount. Writing in the January 2nd World Net Daily, Aaron Klein detailed the recent government dictate:

"Jews are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount in any way whatsoever, even if they only move their lips or demonstrate other 'signs' of prayer on Judaism's holiest site, ruled Avi Dichter, Israel's public security minister.

"Dichter was responding to a recent decision by two Knesset members who said they would ascend the Temple Mount quietly - without informing the media or making any protest - and attempt to pray on the holy site.

"The lawmakers, Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad from Israel's National Union Party, said Muslim prayer services take place throughout the day and in many mosques and Islamic religious schools situated on the holy site, and Jews should be able to pray as individuals on the Mount."

I've got more of this article, I'm just not sure if this was already posted - if not I thought if it would be of interest.

International troops headed for Gaza?
Olmert weighs allowing NATO to protect Israel

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government is debating asking the international community or NATO to send troops to the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli defense officials speaking to WND.

The officials said Olmert is considering allowing the Israel Defense Forces to launch a large-scale ground operation in Gaza to counter the Hamas terrorist group's advanced military infrastructure in the territory and to halt the regular onslaught of rockets from Gaza fired at nearby Jewish communities.

According to the defense officials, after a prolonged ground operation, Olmert would threaten that Israeli troops would remain in Gaza unless the international community deploys forces to serve as a buffer between Israel and Gaza-based militants and to assist Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah forces, which would re-enter Gaza.

U.S. and Israeli policy considers Fatah moderate. Fatah's declared military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is the most active West Bank Palestinian terror group and is classified by the State Department as a terrorist organization. Hamas forces last summer overran all U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds in Gaza and took over the territory, reportedly seizing large stockpiles of Fatah weapons.

Olmert has been under pressure from IDF leaders to approve a ground onslaught in Gaza, where terrorists have been firing rockets into Israel at an exponentially increasing rate. Military sources also warn Hamas has transported mass quantities of weapons into Gaza and built army units with some commanders trained by Iran.

Yesterday, one civilian was killed and several were wounded after more than 30 rockets slammed in and near Sderot, a town of 25,000 residents about three miles from the Gaza border.

Residents of Sderot and surrounding communities have been protesting against Olmert in recent weeks, setting up camp and leading marches outside the Knesset, Olmert's Jerusalem residence and at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Defense officials speaking to WND said most senior IDF officials strongly oppose the idea of NATO or international troop deployment in Gaza. They said they fear international forces would not be motivated to protect Israel and would impede any further necessary Israeli ground operations in Gaza.

"Can you imagine if Israel needs to take out a terror crew firing rockets into Sderot and mistakenly bombs a German or French tank?" asked one defense official.

"Does anyone believe France or Belgium would protect Israel?" the official asked sarcastically.

The official pointed to international troops deployed in south Lebanon following Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah there. According to reports, Hezbollah rearmed, regrouped and transferred rockets and anti-tank missiles to the area the international forces were supposed to maintain as an arms-free zone.

According to the defense officials speaking to WND, Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni support the deployment of international forces in Gaza while Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF officials have voiced reservations.

In December at a speech in Brussels before NATO officials, Livni hinted at allowing international troops to be stationed in Gaza, setting of a firestorm of opposition from many Knesset members.

"We are now in a process that is expected to strengthen the capabilities of the Palestinian Authority – so they would fight terror instead of Israel. However, one cannot exclude the possibility that we will need to discuss what can be the role of NATO in supporting the need for a change, a real change, on the ground," Livni said.

Some world leaders in recent months spoke openly about joining a force in the Palestinian territories. In December, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the media he would be supportive of the "deployment, when the time and conditions are right, of an international force to assist the Palestinian security services."

In an interview in December with the Jerusalem Post, European Union Middle East envoy Marc Otte said he heard from Israeli and Palestinian leaders there was "definitely more interest than in the past" for the deployment of international forces.

"After the [Second] Lebanon War, the sides see the merit in an international security presence," he said.

'Jewish Front' Activists Arrested on Way to Destroy Terror Tent

by Hillel Fendel and Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) Six members of the "Jewish Front" were arrested Sunday and held for questioning after they began to march toward the mourning tent for the terrorist who massacred eight Merkaz HaRav students.

Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who led the march, said they would try themselves to dismantle the tent that was erected by the family in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber to honor 25-year-old Ala Abu Dheim. Both men were arrested by Jerusalem District Police, along with four others.

The Arab neighborhood which is home to the family is just east of the Jewish neighborhood of Talpiyot Mizrach in the capital. The police have allowed the tent to stand, saying there is no law against. Officials from the municipality did order Abu Dheim's father to take down the Hamas and Hizbullah flags adorning the tent. The elder Abu Dheim, known in the past to be a member of the Hamas terrorist organization, complied with the order.

"Only in Israel could there be a situation where terrorist family members erect a tent to praise and glorify a murderer who perpetrated a massacre against the Jewish Nation," said activist Itamar Ben-Gvir. "Even in Jordan, they didn't allow such a tent. If the police don't do it, then we ourselves will lift the law up from the floor."

Likud Knesset member Gilad Erdan announced Sunday morning he will propose a ban on any form of public mourning for a terrorist, saying that the State of Israel is "more like a suicidal democracy than a democracy that is defending itself."

Abu Dheim's family in Jordan was forbidden by Amman to erect a mourning tent or publicly mourn him with an open house, saying public mourning would not be allowed for someone who promoted violence against civilians.

A relative who lived elsewhere in the Hashemite Kingdom noted with irony that the Israeli government did not stop his immediate family from doing so in Jerusalem.

'Jewish Front' Activists Arrested on Way to Destroy Terror Tent (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125503)

Israel to hold massive emergency drill
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 17, 2008

In the face of a possible escalation with Syria and Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, parts of the country will shut down next month in what security officials say will be the largest emergency exercise in Israel's history.

The drill, which is being organized by the newly-established National Emergency Authority, will take place over five days starting on Sunday, April 6.

But first, on Tuesday, a first-of-its-kind hospital emergency exercise will take place to see how Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center would cope with a Grad missile hitting a five-story hospitalization building and an outpatient clinic's laboratory filled with toxic chemicals and a fire breaking out, requiring patients to be lowered from the roof. Around 100 firemen, 10 fire service vehicles and various other equipment, as well as doctors and nurses, will participate in the drill, to be held between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Preparations for the April exercise are being overseen by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i.

On the first day of the drill, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will convene the cabinet in Jerusalem in response to an "enemy attack" and to decide on an Israeli response.

Based on a lesson learned in the Second Lebanon War and in preparation for Iranian nuclear bombs and enemy use of chemical and biological weapons, the Israel Police, IDF Home Front Command and other military branches, all of the country's hospitals, the Fire and Rescue Service, Magen David Adom and other rescue services will all participate in the drill.

According to officials involved in the planning, sirens will blast throughout the country. The rescue services will drill mass evacuations from "hit zones" - including mock chemical and biological attacks - and hospitals will drill their ability to provide medical treatment to thousands of wounded.

One hospital that will practice dealing with a chemical attack will be Ha'emek Medical Center in Afula.

"This is the biggest exercise in Israel's history," said a high-ranking defense official involved in the planning, while stressing that the exercise was not being conducted due to intelligence that war was imminent but rather as part of the lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War.

Last Thursday, Vilna'i convened a meeting of directors-general from government ministries as well as their spokesmen to prepare the public relations side of the drill, and Israeli public relations during a real war.

"This is not being done since we think there will be a war, but rather since we need to be prepared," the official said, adding that the government planned to hold such an exercise annually.

All government ministries will participate in the exercise and they will hold a drill on one day during which they will direct all of their personnel to enter bomb shelters. Civilians will be asked to locate the public bomb shelter closest to their homes.

Israel to hold massive emergency drill (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420704459&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Rabbi blasts his father for remaining in Israeli leader's coalition
Posted: March 17, 2008
9:52 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – In unprecedented criticism of his father, the son of the spiritual leader of a major coalition partner in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government demanded his father's party immediately bolt the government amid rampant media reports Jerusalem is up for negotiations.

Rabbi Jacob Yosef accused the ultra-Orthodox Shas party of "selling Jerusalem" for 478 million Israeli shekels, or $138 million. Yosef's father, Rabbi Ovadye Yosef, serves as the spiritual leader of Shas, where he is also considered the party's more important and revered figure.

Earlier this month, the Knesset's Finance Committee approved $138 million in government funds to Shas' educational institutions as part of the party's coalition agreement with Olmert.

If Shas bolts, Olmert's coalition government could fall apart, precipitating new elections.

"How dare you sell out Jerusalem for 478 million shekels. Jerusalem is worth more than all monies in the world," said Jacob Yosef, rabbi of the Givat Mordechai neighborhood in Jerusalem, addressing his father's party.

Jacob Yosef is also a member of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 350 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis.

The Israeli Shas party has stated it would bolt the prime minister's coalition if it becomes clear the Israeli government is negotiating to cede of any part of Jerusalem.

Olmert repeatedly has insisted Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are not dealing with the status of Jerusalem, but Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abba, and many Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, have said in recent weeks negotiations are covering all core issues, including Jerusalem.

Yosef accused his father's party of staying in the government until a formal announcement regarding dividing Jerusalem is made, by which time, the rabbi said, it will be too late.

"When someone brings a rope to hang your child, will you say 'oh, it's nothing, he only brought a rope?' Or if a killer is only sharpening the knife, will you say, 'it's nothing, he's only sharpening the knife?' You will stop him right at the beginning because by the time the knife is on the throat it will be too late. What is Shas waiting for? It must leave the government right now," Yosef exclaimed.

Shas denies Jerusalem is being discussed during weekly Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which commenced after last November's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit.

"Nobody is talking about Jerusalem. The moment Jerusalem is being discussed, Shas will leave the government – period," Shas Spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch told Israel National News.

A Rabbinical Congress for Peace statement issued earlier this month said: "Every novice journalist and anyone listening to the news in Israel knows that giving up large chunks of Jerusalem has been on the negotiating table for quite some time and is in its advanced stages. Only the representatives of Shas are burying their heads in the ground and pretend they know of nothing."

"They are lying to themselves and deceiving their electorate. The Shas ministers know that Olmert and Abbas have agreed not to make public any agreement on Jerusalem until after the final signature in order to keep Shas in the government," said the RCP statement.

The statement was signed by scores of prominent rabbinic leaders here.

Since the Annapolis summit, which aimed to create a Palestinian state before the end of the year, senior negotiating teams including Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia have been meeting weekly while Olmert and Abbas meet biweekly.

Unlike previous Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in which both sides attended with about a dozen advisors each, Livni's and Quereai's teams are small, usually consisting at most of five people each. Media leaks from the current negotiations have been rare. Some momentum is highly expected before a visit Bush has scheduled to Israel in May, his second trip since Annapolis.

Olmert's government has hinted a number of times it will divide Jerusalem and reportedly has halted all Jewish construction permits for eastern sections of the city.

In December, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said the country "must" give up sections of Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state, even conceding the Palestinians can rename Jerusalem "to whatever they want."

"We must come today and say, friends, the Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want," said Ramon during an interview.

Positions held by Ramon, a ranking member of Olmert's Kadima party, are largely considered to be reflective of Israeli government policy.

Olmert himself recently questioned whether it was "really necessary" to retain Arab-majority eastern sections of Jerusalem.

Israel recaptured eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital; the area has large Arab neighborhoods, a significant Jewish population and sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods, and many reside in illegally constructed complexes. The city has an estimated total population of 724,000.

Olmert to blame for dividing Jerusalem?

Ramon listed population statistics as the reason Olmert's government finds it necessary to split Jerusalem.

But WND broke the story that according to Jerusalem municipal employees, during 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert instructed city workers not to take action against hundreds of illicit Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing over 100,000 Arabs squatting in the city illegally.

The workers and some former employees claim Olmert even instructed city officials to delete files documenting illegal Arab construction of housing units in eastern Jerusalem.

Olmert was Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003. As mayor, he made repeated public statements calling Jerusalem the "eternal and undivided capital" of Israel. Jerusalem municipal employees and former workers, though, paint a starkly contrasting picture of the prime minister.

"He did nothing about rampant illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem while the government cracked down on illegal Jewish construction in the West Bank," said one municipal employee who worked under Olmert. She spoke on condition of anonymity, because she still works for the municipality.

One former municipal worker during Olmert's mayoral tenure told WND he was moved in 1999 to a new government posting after he tried to highlight the illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem. He also spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his current job.

Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in Jerusalem, told WND an investigation by his group found Olmert's city hall deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem. He said he forwarded his findings to Israel's state comptroller for investigation.

King also claims Olmert told senior municipal workers not to enforce a ban on illegal Arab buildings.

"Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes," said King. "Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes, because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority."

King's report alleges Jerusalem municipal officials erased the files, which detail over 300 cases of Arab construction in eastern Jerusalem deemed illegal starting from 1999. The illegal buildings reportedly were constructed without permits and are still standing. According to law, they must be demolished.

Local media reports investigating King's charges alleged the files were erased by Ofir May, the head of Jerusalem's Department of Building Permits, with the specific intention of allowing the statute of limitation on enforcing the demolition of the illegal construction to run out.

The Jerusalem municipality released a statement in response to the allegations claiming the threat of Arab violence kept it from bulldozing the illegal Arab homes.

"During the years of the intifada, the municipality had difficulty carrying out the necessary level of enforcement in the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem due to security constraints," the statement read.

King said the hundreds of buildings allegedly detailed in the deleted municipal files house more than 20,000 illegal units.

"We're talking about perhaps 100,000 or more Arabs in eastern Jerusalem living in illegal homes with the government doing nothing about it," King said.

In war as in war

By Yoel Marcus
March 18, 2008

Israel's minister of defense has become a minister of war, says my colleague Gideon Levy. He condemns Ehud Barak's actions and expresses his bitter disappointment in the man. Sadly, Israel is not Switzerland. Its neighbors are not Luxembourg and Lichtenstein, and its defense minister is not a character from the opera dressed in a fancy uniform with a feather-plumed hat. As a country that has known nothing but war in every shape and form since the day it was born, Israel's defense minister is indeed a minister of war. This is not a derogatory term but a realistic job description.

Despite the fact that we have signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, thanks to courageous leaders on both sides, Israel remains a target for elimination. The Palestinian people, whose right to establish a state of their own was granted by the United Nations at the same time as it was granted to Israel, chose to turn down the offer. Instead of living alongside a pint-size sliver of a state called Israel, the Palestinians preferred to fight for all or nothing.

As a country forced to live by the sword for the last 60 years, Israel could have easily become a military dictatorship. But it retained its humanity and its democratic character, blossoming into a developed country admired by friends and foes alike.

Israel fell in love with the territories it captured in the Six-Day War, but over time, in the wake of wars and terror and global pressure, small windows of goodwill opened that allowed the signing of peace accords. Arguably the most dramatic of them, after the Yom Kippur War and peace with Egypt and Jordan, were the Oslo Accords, signed at a gala ceremony on the White House lawn, and later in Cairo.

Yasser Arafat proudly drove into Gaza in a black limousine, waving to the cheering, hope-filled crowds. But instead of words of peace, the chairman's maiden speech was a war cry against Israel.

In 2000, it was then prime minister Ehud Barak who presented Arafat and president Bill Clinton with a comprehensive agreement that included the option of dividing Jerusalem. Arafat turned white, Clinton wrote in his memoir. Soon after that, the second intifada erupted. The Palestinian leadership wrecked any opportunity for an agreement with its own two hands.

Barak pokes fun at the incredible amateurishness of the Palestinian leaders, with their fancy suits and scent of after-shave, who lost half their people to Hamas in Gaza. Our fight is not with the Palestinians in Gaza, says Barak, but with those who drove out, bumped off or incarcerated 17,000 Palestinian Authority security personnel. Our fight is with those who have been shooting rockets into Israel for the last seven years. It was no accident that Ariel Sharon insisted that the first stage of the road map should be halting terror and dismantling the terror organizations, although he himself evacuated Gush Katif unconditionally.

Hamas, boosted by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism now spreading like a plague in this part of the world, by Iran's threats to destroy Israel and support of terror, and most of all, by the exposure of Israel's soft underbelly - the home front - in the Second Lebanon War, is threatening to arm itself with long-range rockets that can reach the heart of Israel.

Barak denies that any kind of mutual cease-fire was declared between Hamas and Israel. There was an outside initiative (mainly from Egypt) to get Hamas to stop firing Qassams at Israel. And if they stopped shooting, Israel would stop retaliating. But Israel has not promised to end the war on terror in the West Bank, out of fear that Hamas is liable to gain control there, too, and topple the last vestiges of sane, albeit weak, leadership.

Seven years of rocket fire into urban centers is not something that any country can tolerate. Islamic Jihad claims its attacks are a response to Israel's targeted assassination of four wanted murderers in Bethlehem. Stop the targeted hits and we will stop firing rockets, says Jihad. But this equation, even if it is based on some sort of agreement, cannot and should not be accepted by Israel. A deal that prevents Israel from fighting terror but allows missiles to be lobbed into our cities is out of the question.

A government's primary commitment is to its citizens. Noble sentiments are all very well, but not when blood is being spilled. Creating a linkage between what is going on in Gaza and what is going on in Judea and Samaria will only invite attacks from the West Bank on Israel proper.

Ehud Barak is not talking about "victory" in Gaza, to use the populist rhetoric of Benjamin Netanyahu. All he wants is to end the rocket fire from Gaza. He is not keen on a "major offensive" in Gaza, but if a ground operation is necessary, our minister of war will not back down from what needs to be done. In war as in war, as they say.

In war as in war (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/965313.html)

Israel: the Military Issues Related to Striking at Iran Nuclear Targets

In recent months Israel has become increasingly worried about Iran's nuclear program and the possibility that it might be geared towards warfare. The recent publication of a US intelligence report about Iran stopping its nuclear weapons research and development program in 2003 is a warning that the US might not be fully committed towards a military option, despite the report itself having been considered unreliable by both Israeli and British intelligence agencies. This encourages the idea that Israel could launch a strike at Iranian nuclear sites on its own, like it did in 1981 against the Osirak reactor in Iraq.Distance, lack of surprise, multiple targets involved, and the inability to avoid an Iranian missile counterstrike make such a plan very risky. Therefore Israel might decide to avoid this line of action unless in a desperate situation, and meanwhile use any diplomatic means to obtain the needed US military aid.

Lorenzo Nannetti

Equilibri.net (18 March 2008)

Tensions between Israel and its allies and Iran have been brewing for more than a year, but recently they have intensified. Both sides accuse the other of trying to provoke an incident that will spark war, and both continue to claim that they are ready to destroy the other if attacked. In addition, Iran's aggressive foreign policy and refusal to give up its nuclear program prompts Israel and western countries to believe that Teheran will try to produce nuclear weapons. As tensions grow, the possibility of a military strike to destroy the Iranian nuclear sites increases.

The recent publication of a US intelligence report that states Iran has stopped developing nuclear weapons in 2003 has raised doubts about American willingness to really use military strength without direct provocation. Israel is therefore left in an uneasy situation where it has to consider the possibility that it will have to act alone against Teheran. Public opinion around the world believes that Israel has both the means and the willingness to carry out such an attack, and that its military superiority is enough to ensure victory.

Political Will vs Practical Capability
There is little doubt about the fact that successful precision strikes on Iranian nuclear sites would cancel Teheran's nuclear program or, at the very least, set it back several years.Even discarding the destruction of the Iraqi Osirak reactor in the early 80's, the world has already received confirmation of the interest in carrying out such operations. The strike against the secret Syrian facility in September 2007 and the subsequent refurbishing of Israel missile ordnance stockpiles show Jerusalem's willingness and effectiveness to do so. This attack showcased the Israeli Air Force (IAF)'s proficiency and accuracy: Syrian anti-aircraft defences were either jammed or evaded, and the target successfully struck with pinpointed accuracy.

While any attack on Iran would be condemned if made without UN sanction, it is widely thought that many countries both in the West and in the Middle East would secretly approve of such an action: the diplomatic backlash would thus be minimal.It has to be said however that political will, past successes and diplomatic support aren't the only requirements for launching such a strike. There are important technical and tactical considerations that cannot be easily dismissed. It is necessary to look into these practical issues to understand if an attack is feasible or not. The same considerations will shape the Israeli decision to carry out the strikes alone or wait for US support instead. This paper aims to give some insight into an often neglected part of this decision-making process.

The Targets: Iranian Nuclear Fuel Processing Facilities
No report about a possible Israeli attack would be complete without understanding the targets involved and their importance related to Teheran's nuclear programme.Reports estimate that Iran's uranium reserves stand at about 3,000-4,000 tons, plus 20-30,000 tons of reserves that can be mined. The two main mines are located at Saghand in Yazd and Gchine near Bandar Abbas.The mines constitute the main source of native nuclear fuel, but they are hardly a viable target: uranium cannot be destroyed and collapsing the mines would not solve the long term problem, as the mineral would still be there. It is also difficult to determine if more unknown mines are currently active or under construction.Besides, raw material mined isn't directly employable because it has to be processed. In particular uranium oxide, U3O8, has to be extracted from the mined minerals, converted into gaseous uranium hexafluoride, UF6, and then enriched. It is later processed back into uranium dioxide, UO2, for use in the nuclear reactors.

Enrichment is the main cause of concern: only a small enrichment level (about 5%) is needed for civilian purposes. If the process is carried further to higher concentration levels instead, it can be used for the production of nuclear weapons.Without the chance of blocking Iran's supply of mineral, the only means to disrupt the full programme is to destroy the more vulnerable processing plants. There are several sites in Iran that house facilities relevant to Teheran's nuclear programme.

Isfahan: the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) is here. It is responsible for processing the raw material into U3O8 and later transformations into UF6 and UO2. The facility does not appear buried or in anyway heavily hardened. Nonetheless it would require the use of heavy weapons to ensure crippling damage.

Natanz: this is possibly the main target. The centrifuges for the enrichment of Uranium lie here. Iranian propaganda claims that there are about 3,000 working centrifuges. It is impossible to know the exact number, but there is no indication that the number is far from reality.

The Natanz facility is the single most vital target to attack because it is the only one that can be directly linked to the production of nuclear weapons. It is also the most fortified, andpossibly the best defended one. A sizeable part of it is underground, most probably divided in several hardened bunkers that would require the use of powerful bunker-busting bombs to be sufficiently damaged. Modern anti-aircraft defences are also likely to be deployed around it.

Busher: the nuclear reactor at Busher also seems to be a prime target, mainly judging by past Israeli behaviour of destroying the Osirak one. The facility is for civilian use, but Israeli policy has always been to avoid any other hostile Middle Eastern country from acquiring that technology. The time is short however, as according to Russian official sources two-three shipments of nuclear fuel have already been supplied. This makes a direct strike of the reactor less likely to avoid problems of nuclear fuel leakage into the countryside (something that would provoke serious diplomatic problems).

Arak: the existence of a heavy water production plant at Arak has been admitted by Iran since 2002. By itself it is not a "true" nuclear site, since its production only supports the normal functionality of other plants. However, a few years ago IAEA also discovered a project for two heavy water nuclear reactors. These can be used to produce plutonium both for civilian and/or weapon use. It is important to understand that plutonium is generally a product of nuclear reactor activity, not a source; hitting the heavy water production site is therefore enough to make the reactors useless.

What we can notice from the list of targets and their location is twofold. Foremost, the targets are numerous and most of them well protected. Secondly, by looking at any geographical map of the area we can see that they are spread apart from each other.

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Attack Routes
The first issue regarding the Israeli strike is how to get to the targets. There are three main routes available.
The Northern Route goes north from the Israeli airbases in Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea around the coast of Lebanon and Syria, then heads east towards Iran passing through Turkish airspace near the Syrian border. The advantage would be to allow airborne refueling over the sea in neutral space. The drawback is that this route is very similar to the one Israeli aircrafts used to strike at the Syrian facility in September 2007. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has stated that his country will not permit the IAF to use its airspace again for military missions, whatever the reason. Since going through Syrian territory is not an option (increased surveillance is to be expected in light of the September strike), this route does not seem available. However, hidden diplomacy between Jerusalem and Ankara might keep this option open depending on how much Turkey really despises Iran's nuclear adventurism.Even refueling over the sea might be a problem because of the presence of Russian naval units at Tartus on the Syrian Coast. It is unlikely they would directly intervene, but they might provide early warning to Syria and/or Iran if the strike force or the fuel tankers are detected. It is possible that this might be a part of their agreement for the use of the Syrian facilities. Still, the route is about 2,200 kms long, making refueling operations there unavoidable.

The Central Route is the most direct one. It passes through Jordan and Iraq to reach central Iran: about 1,750 kms from Hatzerim base in Israel to Natanz.A few years ago this route would look very difficult to employ because of the need to cross Jordan. Amman's recent anti-Iran attitude might make it feasible now, with both Israeli and US diplomacy working hard to get silent approval. The Hashemite Kingdom cannot afford to appear too supportive of Jerusalem however, least it risks an uprising from its own people. Therefore we might expect a lot of disinformation being spread to deny an eventual Jordanian cooperation.

The Southern Route goes south through the gulf of Aqaba, then near the Saudi/Jordanian and Saudi/ Iraqi borders, and finally through the Persian Gulf to reach Iran's southern regions. It is possibly the longest one (2,200-2,400 kms) and would require refueling on the Persian Gulf. Here, prior diplomacy would also play a big part in making sure Saudi Arabia does not try to intercept the IAF fighters and bombers. Again, the US might play an important role thanks to the recent batch of military deals it has signed with Riyhad.Iranian radars are probably monitoring the area heavily due to the presence of the US Navy, and this might spoil a surprise attack. At the same time however, that friendly presence might make the whole approach area more secure for the attacking aircrafts.

The northern route appears to be the less safe one at the moment, but even by excluding it, it is impossible to predict whether the southern or the central one will be used. Complex diplomatic behind-the-scenes deals will shape the plan: even if a decision has already been taken, a last-minute denial or permission might force the IAF to change its plans.

Approach mode will also be a factor: low altitude flight profile is ideal to avoid radar detection, but it also forces aircraft to expend more fuel due to the need to conform to the terrain. At the same time it makes them more vulnerable to stand-off anti-aircraft weapons. High altitude flight profile requires less fuel but makes the strike force easier to be detected and thus intercepted.Considering stealth is one of the main requisites due to the need to avoid a substantial Iranian response, a low altitude approach appears more probable.

Israeli Operational Issues
The long distances involved mean that only a limited part of the IAF would be able to participate in the mission. Recent reports state that about 40-50 aircrafts at the most would be available for the attack, mostly F-15I Ra'am and F-16I Soufa which are the only ones to have sufficient operational range. They are the Israeli version of the more common US F-15E and F-16, specially modified for long-range strike capability.

In theory, more could be used and IAF could even refit some shorter-range F-16D and F-15A/C to carry enough fuel. In practical terms however, a massive use of fighters would put heavy strain on the Israeli command and refueling capabilities. At the same time, such a course of action would jeopardise Israeli air superiority at home, especially if many casualties are suffered during the attack. It therefore looks reasonable that only the aforementioned amount of F-15I and F-16I might be employed.

Despite their capabilities, the payload for both kind of aircrafts would have to be finely tuned to allow maximum range (through additional conformal fuel pods) and sufficient weapon load to destroy the targets. Weight would become an issue. It has to be remembered that a fully-loaded bomber isn't very maneuverable. In particular it cannot respond quickly to threats such as enemy interceptors or defending SAM batteries, because its heavy weight puts a high strain on the aircraft structure and does not allow any rapid evasive maneuver. Dogfighting becomes impossible.When targeted, it is Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to drop extra ammunition and fuel pods in order to get the extra thrust needed to avoid incoming missiles, but if too many crafts are forced to do so, not enough firepower would remain to strike the targets. It they don't and somehow survive the threat, we need to remember that combat maneuvers expend much more fuel than normal. The operational range would likely be reduced, perhaps making it impossible to reach the targets.

There are two ways to minimise this risk. Firstly, part of the attack force can be configured as escort fighters. Secondly, detection should be avoided for as much as possible, mainly through the use of Electronic Warfare (EW) assets. Neither of these is an optimal solution.Configuring some units as fighters would make them capable of shielding the bombers from enemy interceptors: the escorts would be able to attack and destroy enemy fighters before they can lock on the strike crafts. However, they would not be able to block the targeting and tracking systems of SAM batteries.EW aircrafts would be used to jam defending radars and mask the attackers. It worked perfectly in the September Syrian strike, when only a late and ineffective response was raised. However, that attack was a surprise run on a target that had been consciously left lightly defended to avoid raising too much unwanted attention. Even if a few radars could be blinded, it is debatable whether most of the Iranian Air Defence structure would be so easily made ineffective; we have to consider that real surprise would be hard to obtain due to actual tensions brewing and the small number of IAF units that could be devoted to this role.

It is a matter of trade-offs. The presence of escorts and EW units will inevitably lower the number of actual attack crafts. If too many are employed in this manner, the strike units become safer but also less likely to destroy all the targets. If too few, the bombers become more vulnerable, probably at the expense of success of the entire operation.

It has to be kept in mind that the whole situation is highly different from any other recent one. Operationally, a typical bombing campaign would first get air superiority by knocking-out the enemy air forces and air defence installations (radars, SAM sites, airbases,...). This ensures defences are unable to respond to the bombing of the targets. In this case however this is not possible, mainly due to the long distances involved: the lack of nearby bases and a generally reduced number of suitable strike aircrafts make sure IAF is not able to suppress Iranian air defences and then conduct a prolonged bombing operation. This means that any attack will only have one chance of success. The long range and the need to enter deeply into enemy territory will make it impossible to get out, rearm, refuel and attack again. Defences would be alerted and any second strike without US support would probably face overwhelming odds.

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The Missile Option
On 16th January 2008, Israel claimed to have tested a new ballistic missile capable of reaching Iran and carrying "unconventional warheads". The statement raised the possibility that Jerusalem might decide to employ long range ballistic missiles to destroy the targets, in addition or even as a substitute to the air strike in order to avoid the aforementioned issues.First of all, there is little doubt that the unconventional term used refers to nukes. Biological or chemical agents would be useless against the targets and would only cause human losses, with a high rate of civilian casualties. The diplomatic fallout would most likely turn the whole world against Israel, something the Jewish state does not want.

Israel is reputed to have around 200 nukes, even if the correct amount has always been classified info. Using a small portion of these would not critically diminish the stockpiles.However, some doubts exist regarding the missile claimed to have been tested. Israel is currently developing and testing the Jericho-3, a three-stage vector with a maximum range of about 4,800 kms. The tested missile has instead been described as longer range but only 2 stages.The development of a less-stage but longer range vector seems unlikely so there is the possibility that the test was actually made using the already operational Jericho-2. The latter is capable of hitting Iran and carrying a nuclear warhead, with a maximum range of about 3,000-3,500 kms depending on sources.Therefore, without a real need for a new missile, the experiment might have been made to test the existing vector's accuracy and reliability. These are both important aspects behind the decision to employ such weapons, especially if we think of the political backlash caused by hitting a wrong target. It is unlikely that the Israeli government will authorise employing such a tactic exactly for these reasons. Its claims seem to be a way to scare Teheran's leadership, forcing it to back off before a true nuclear confrontation occurs.Conventional explosives could be used instead, but the efficiency of such a package against hardened underground targets has never been fully proven. A more traditional air strike therefore remains the most likely option.

Narrowing the Target Set
Striking at all targets at once carries the minimum chance of success. The number of attack crafts is already limited and would have to be divided into 4-5 groups. Each of these would have to include both escorts and EW crafts, since distance between the various targets would probably mean that the groups cannot support each other continuously. This dilution of forces might jeopardise the success of the attack on some - if not all - targets, especially because some of them require the use of heavy penetrating bombs that cannot be carried in high quantity due to their weight.It therefore looks like Israel might decide to narrow the target set and attack only a few selected ones. This move is supported by the fact that only two sites are critical to the Iranian nuclear program: Isfahan and, in particular Natanz. Without the reprocessing facilities, mined uranium becomes almost useless; furthermore, without the centrifuges, weapon-grade uranium cannot be produced. Some concerns might be raised by the Arak project, but it has to be said that IAEA states that the two reactors will be operational no earlier than 2013-2014. Even assuming a certain degree of inaccuracy in this estimate, Mossad and most other international intel agencies believe Teheran will acquire nuclear weaponry before that date through its other facilities, even despite disagreements on the actual deadline year. For this reason striking at Arak is not vital to stop the Iranian program and can be left aside if needed.

It can be assumed that Natanz will be the priority target as it is the one most closely linked to nuclear weapon manufacture, with Isfahan as the secondary if the Israeli High Command believes it can afford to attack both. With less targets to care about, the attack force can be better tuned to meet needs. Moreover, the higher attack craft-per-target ratio will ensure that even if some bombers are shot down or forced to disengage earlier, enough should remain to fulfill the mission.

There are several works from various western institutes that debate just how many bombs would be needed to destroy each target. However, it is very hard to get more that a rough idea because there is no way to know just how extensive the subterranean tunnels and laboratories are, and how strongly hardened. Any detailed information about these is classified.Best estimates put weapons like the BLU-class of bunker-buster bombs as effective enough to break through and ensure destruction, but a lot will depend on actual bombing accuracy. The Natanz facility especially appears so fortified that multiple hits on the same locations could be needed to cause enough damage.

The Problem of Iranian Response
The problem of a possible Iranian response is considered so important in Israel that the media routinely asks experts about the possibility of such a counterattack and the means to avoid it.It has to be considered that the same problems Israel encounters in its planning will also exist for Iran if it decides to strike back. The Shiite air fleet is made up mainly of outdated models. Even the new native designs are actually little more than refits of old Western models like the F-5 Tiger or F-14 Tomcat. Long range reach is almost non-existant and Iran lacks experience in such operations. Intelligence reports state that Teheran has recently acquired a batch of modern Sukhoi long-range bombers and air tankers for refuel, but they are unlikely to enter into full service before autumn/winter of 2008 or even 2009.Adding the fact that Israel (and the US) retain a definite technological edge in ECCM, detection and targeting (especially thanks to the AWACs' electronic array), it is unlikely that any counterattack with air forces would have any chance of success. This aspect is well known by both sides, and this is why attention is drawn to the use of ballistic missiles.

A few months ago Iranian military leaders stated instead that they already have about 300 missiles pointed towards Israel. The number looks exaggerated, especially since only Shahab-3 and -4 (the latter only suspected to be in service, but whose final development was never confirmed) vectors have enough range to reach the Jewish state. They are only a fraction of Iran's missile arsenal and are very few in number. The statement thus looks like propaganda. However, these weapons cannot be dismissed, because the possibility of arming warheads with chemical or biological agents makes even one missile a serious threat.

There is also the chance that the Iranian leaders were referring to the total number of missiles and rocket launchers that Iran and its allies can field. If we include Hezbollah and maybe Hamas, the number increases significantly, even if a sizeable portion of these is of low power and even lower accuracy.Reading Israeli newspapers and opinion polls, it is easy to notice that a missile attack is considered the worst nightmare by the common people. Israel's relatively low population makes even moderate civilian casualties a serious threat to the nation's existence. To avoid this, the Ministry of Defence has commissioned the development of anti-missile systems that could replace the old and never reliable Patriot. The current defence system is the Arrow 2, and the improved David's Sling is currently under accelerated development.

The Arrow has been successfully tested several times against single or few incoming targets but it has to be said that it is far from perfect: it is believed that if facing a shower of missiles, it might not be able to engage all. This problem is even more troublesome when we think about the possibility that a few Shahab-3 launched from Iran might carry chemical or biological warheads. Israel has developed contingency plans to avoid excessive civilian casualties from a WMD attack that evades defences, and has even recently staged a series of tests simulating massive civilian deaths that might cause a breakdown of conventional communications and loss of key government personnel.The simulations have been claimed as highly successful, but propaganda aside, Israel cannot afford the price. In order to avoid being hit by the most powerful Iranian warheads, many think tanks such as the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies and the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies have stated that the only acceptable way is to avoid the missiles fired.

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The need to hit missile launching sites would increase the number of targets involved in the strike. The time needed to fire them in retaliation after the first attacks on the nuclear sites might be very short, assuming they are already in position and Iran's leadership doesn't wait for days before deciding to act. A counterattack could be launched in less than 24 hours. This means that the missiles would have to be destroyed during the main Israeli strike.It is believed that Israeli and US commandos and intel operatives are already scanning Iran to mark all launch sites and military bases, and this will probably give Jerusalem a clear view of where the missile launch platforms are. We have to remember that the vectors powerful enough to reach the Jewish state are quite big and cumbersome and cannot be easily hidden or quickly relocated.However, an increased number of targets will again pose a problem of diluting the Israeli attack strength into many groups. Moreover, if too many launch sites are detected there might even be the possibility that Israel simply cannot hit all of them at once. The result is an operation that even at its best cannot assure that Iran wouldn't be able to launch a counterattack: a very different situation from past occurrences. An Iranian response would then trigger a US intervention that will most probably cause severe damage both to the nuclear sites and the military apparatus, especially the Revolutionary Guards. However, unless all Israeli attacks are unsuccessful, this added threat is unlikely to stop Iran from trying to exact some kind of vengeance: appearing unable to respond would cause a serious loss of face and probably spoil Teheran's recent successes in expanding its influence throughout the region.

At the same time, Israel would probably find itself deeply involved with Hezbollah, which is reputed to have orders to strike south with rockets and short range missiles if Iran is attacked. For this reason IAF would have to keep a sizeable air force ready to deal with the Shiite militia. The situation would be even worse if Syria enters the fray due to its extensive missile arsenal and closeness to the Jewish state.The point is that IAF cannot afford to use too many assets - and risk losing many of these - in a strike against Iran, least it cannot cope with enemy threats from Israel's closer neighbours.

US Advantages
Many tactical problems would be solved if the US were the ones to launch the bombing campaign. The main advantage would be nearby bases (in Iraq and Gulf Arab states, as well as the aircraft carriers), and more effective command and control capabilities. This would ensure an increased number of aircrafts available, as well as the use of cruise missiles launched from warships.The whole operation would follow a more traditional sequence. First of all, air superiority would be reached through the destruction of the enemy air force and main anti-aircraft defences. Then the entire region would become an easier target with high altitude bombers executing precision strikes against nuclear and possibly Revolutionary Guards military sites. A massive use of Electronic Warfare would severely compromise Iran's chances of defence throughout the whole war.

The US military array already in place ensures that enough strength is available to hit the Shahab-3 launch sites in the early stages of the campaign. By destroying those and other Short Range Ballistic Missiles in Iran's arsenal, an important part of a counterattack against Israel or US bases in Iraq would be neutralised.We have to remember however that a direct US intervention will probably still force Hezbollah to attack Israel in retaliation. At the same time, Iraq might see a surge in violence if Shiite groups are ordered to attack Western forces there.

Conclusions - To Go or Not To Go
Israel's military and technological superiority in the Middle East is not enough to assure it can destroy the Iranian nuclear sites. Distance limits the actual strength Jerusalem can project so far from its bases, while enemy defences and possible response are all elements that make the attack plan very risky. Therefore Israel might not be able to reach its objectives alone, forcing it to convince the United States to act in its stead. Jerusalem might be aided in this by the fact that Iran is also a threat to western interests in the region, and the Jewish state might use particular concessions to the Palestinian Authority as a bargaining tool.

It has to be said that if Israel really believes that Iran is dangerously close to reaching the nuclear bomb and no one else is willing to act, it will attack anyway. A slim chance of success is considered much better than allowing a hostile power acquire nuclear capability. In addition, the closer Teheran gets to it the more radical Israel's response might be. We have to remember that the memory of the Holocaust is still deeply embedded inside every Israeli mind: the fear to have it happen again through nuclear fire would make their public opinion push for extreme actions, even at the cost of worldwide condemnation.This is why it is reasonable to think that Israel will act one way or another before the end of 2009, the date estimated by Mossad as the deadline for stopping Iran's nuclear program before it reaches completion. As a result, the Western world might have less than 2 years to increase its diplomatic and political pressure on Iran and its sponsors if it wants to avoid a military clash that might ignite the whole region.

Israel: the Military Issues Related to Striking at Iran Nuclear Targets (http://uk.equilibri.net/article/9175/Israel__the_Military_Issues_Related_to_Striking_at_Iran_Nuclear_Targets)

Israel Braces for Revenge Attacks
By John Waage
CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau
March 18, 2008

CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Israel is bracing for a new round of possible terror attacks from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group. Forty days of mourning for their slain terrorist leader will soon end, and Hezbollah has vowed to take revenge against Israel for his assassination.

In recent weeks, Israel has had its hands full trying to deal with rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip and riots in the West Bank. But the biggest worry for Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak may be to the north in Lebanon, where Iran's proxy, the radical Hezbollah terror organization, is loaded with weapons and bent on revenge.

Hezbollah and Iran blame Israel for the February killing of one of the world's most-wanted terrorists, Imad Mughniyeh. The 40-day Muslim mourning period for him ends March 22, and Israel is on alert for possible reprisals -- not only in Israel itself, but at Israeli embassies and Jewish centers around the world.

At another funeral in Bethlehem last week, the bodies of Islamic Jihad leaders killed by Israel in a counter-terror operation were wrapped in Hezbollah flags, another sign of Iran's growing influence in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli intelligence estimates that Hezbollah has rebuilt its rocket arsenal from the Second Lebanon war in 2006 and now has 20,000 rockets aimed at Israel.

Iran's regime is almost certain to help Hezbollah avenge the death of its leader. And the goal will be a high casualty count. The questions of who, when and where they might attack is a concern not only in Israel, but for leaders on every continent.

It is a circumstance that best-selling author and geo-political analyst Joel Rosenberg is very well aware of.

His first book, The Last Jihad, (Which is a very good book. DW) launched a series of novels centered in the Middle East whose storylines ended up in the headlines.

That prompted some to dub him a modern-day Nostradamus.

Such insights have made him a noted speaker and consultant to leaders around the world.

His latest book, released for sale today, is Dead Heat, a story that Rosenberg says he hopes does not end up in the headlines.

Israel Braces for Revenge Attacks (http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/341200.aspx)

High terror alert during Jewish Purim holiday
Fear of massive Hezbollah 'retaliation' attacks in Israel, abroad
Posted: March 19, 2008
11:15 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – As Jews around the world celebrate the holiday of Purim, Israel today raised its statewide terror alert to the second highest level, fearing a massive revenge attack after the assassination last month of Hezbollah's arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyah.

The terror leader topped Israel's most wanted list and was responsible for a series of infamous deadly attacks against the U.S. and Israel, including involvement in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied Israel was involved in the extermination, but Hezbollah directly blamed the Jewish state and threatened retaliation.

This Sunday marks the end of the Islamic 40-day mourning period for Mughniyah. Palestinian and other Islamic terror groups have several times carried out what the called revenge attacks following the mourning period for a killed terrorist leader.

Through the weekend Israelis will be celebrating Purim, a holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people of the ancient Persian Empire from Haman's plot to annihilate them.

Israel traditionally goes on high alert for Purim, but this year, Israeli security officials say they have specific information indicating Hezbollah might be planning a large-scale attack either within Israel, abroad or both.

To that affect, Israeli forces imposed a complete closure of the West Bank and beefed up police forces throughout the country, particularly in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Sources in the Israel Defense Forces told WND the army reinforced units in the north of the country fearing a possible outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah at the Lebanese border. According to Lebanese newspaper reports Hezbollah the past few days openly moved fighters close to the Israeli border.

The IDF also beefed up its presence along the Israel-Gaza border fearing a possible coordinated attack from both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

According to Israeli media reports, the government here instructed all missions abroad to go on high alert for the possibility Hezbollah will target Israeli interests overseas.

Mughniyah was killed in a bombing in Damascus last month. He led Hezbollah's "international terror branch," orchestrating attacks against foreign targets, according to Israeli security officials.

Mughniyah was accused of helping to plan the 1983 Marine barracks attack in which 300 were killed and also the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut the same year, killing 63 people.

He was responsible for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA passenger jet and the murder of one of its passengers, a soldier in the U.S. Navy. Mughniyah was indicted for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. A warrant was issued for his arrest for the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in which 29 people died. Argentinean officials have publicly pointed a finger at Iran for aiding in those attacks.

Also, serving as commander of Islamic Jihad in the 1980s, Mughniyah was accused of kidnapping dozens of Western hostages, including Americans, killing some of them, such as the CIA's Middle East station chief.

According to foreign press reports, the Mossad reportedly tried to assassinate Mughniyah in a complex operation in southern Beirut in the 1990s.

Mughniyah reportedly lived a secretive life, routinely switching between locations in Syria, Lebanon and Iran. He is thought to have undergone multiple plastic surgeries and changed identities numerous times.

Time Magazine: McCain's visit to Israel was aimed at gaining support from Evangelicals who believe the Jewish state fulfills Bible prophecy

According to an article in Time Magazine, John McCain's Holy Land pilgrimage during his trip to the Middle East was aimed at gaining support of the Jewish community in America, but more crucially, the support of Evangelical Christians who are a large part of the Republican party base and until now, have regarded the twice married McCain as too liberal and too hard to pigeonhole.

A recent Pew poll says that 65% of Evangelicals believe the state of Israel fulfills a Biblical prophecy about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and McCain's support of Israel may tip the balance in his favor.

The Pugh poll that reveals 65% of all Evangelical Christians believe that Israel today is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is at best a mixed blessing in light of the prophetic truth that can be found in the Bible.

Time Magazine's coverage had an interesting twist. The story accused McCain of using the Israel visit to play to the Christians who believe that the state of Israel is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy in connection with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, thus McCain's stop in Israel could gain the support of the Evangelical Christian in the presidential election. That part of the story aside, my concern is that only 65% of Evangelical Christians see Israel today as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

The Bible reveals through the record of the covenants of God, promises by God to the Jewish people, that He has a plan for the Jews, His chosen people, that will be played out in the future. In Genesis 12 and 15, the Lord promised the Jews that they would have a nation forever and a piece of real estate in the Middle East and that forever. Ezekiel, the ancient Jewish prophet, said in chapters 34, 36 and 37 of his prophecy that the Jews would return from all over the world to the Middle East to a piece of real estate that He would give them and they indeed would build a nation among the nations of the world, all of this leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

The truth be known, 100% of Evangelical Christians should know and believe that Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

Quote

Time Magazine's coverage had an interesting twist. The story accused McCain of using the Israel visit to play to the Christians who believe that the state of Israel is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy in connection with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, thus McCain's stop in Israel could gain the support of the Evangelical Christian in the presidential election. That part of the story aside, my concern is that only 65% of Evangelical Christians see Israel today as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

It's very sad that many Christians of today simply dismiss large portions of the Bible because they don't understand it or think it's just dreams for some other purpose. BUT, many Christians of today also dismiss GOD'S Account of Creation. Things like this make it very difficult to witness to the lost when we don't believe large parts of GOD'S WORD. It's also true that the Bible isn't important enough for many Christians these days to spend any time with. So, we have a lot of self-professing Christians who barely know the basics about their own Salvation. We all need to prioritize our lives for CHRIST and remember this world IS NOT our home!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Ephesians 1:18-23 NASB I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Americans paying rent for terrorists?
Militants complain they don't have enough money to cover their bills

JERUSALEM – Just days after it was announced the U.S. would transfer $150 million directly to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' government, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the declared military wing of Abbas' Fatah party, were told they would receive cash grants, WND has learned.

According to Palestinian militant sources familiar with the issue, earlier this month, 20 members of the Brigades leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah complained to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad they did not have enough money to pay their bills, including, for many of them, rent for their apartments.

Last week, according to the informed sources, Fayyad told the complaining Brigades leaders he would provide them with a one-time grant of $3,000 each, or $60,000 to the Ramallah-based Brigades leadership.

The sources said after Brigades leaders in other West Bank cities, including Hebron and Nablus, heard of the grants, they also demanded pay increases.

"Some of the other fighters accused Fayyad of favoring the Brigades leaders in Ramallah since that's where Fayyad lives," said a militant source. "So he gave grants also to other cells."

The sources estimate at least $350,000 in grants to Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders were pledged by Fayyad since last week. Some of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders serve in Fatah security forces while others only work in the Brigades.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and rocket attacks. It is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization even though U.S. policy considers the Fatah party to be "moderate."

Many members of the Brigades openly serve in Fatah's official security forces.

Fayyad's purported grants to the Brigades come after the U.S. announced last week it will transfer $150 million directly to accounts controlled by Fayyad, marking the first time in eight months America has transferred money directly to the PA instead of to nongovernmental agencies.

President Bush pushed Congress to remove a hold on a $150 million aid package to be transferred to the PA. Bush said the PA was in economic trouble and needed the money at a time it is "threatened" by extremists and negotiating with Israel.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee earlier halted the aid fearing it would be used to fund terrorism.

Fayyad claimed to reporters last week the U.S. money, due to be transferred tomorrow, would go directly to the Palestinian national treasury to be used for running what he termed a cash-strapped government.

"We see this [U.S. aid] as significant, especially because it underscores the confidence with which our financial system is viewed internationally," Fayyad said at a signing ceremony last week at the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.

Quote from: Pastor Roger on March 23, 2008, 04:51:25 PM

This is INSANE!

Netanyahu: If we leave Jerusalem, Iran and Hamas will take control

Opposition leader meets with US Vice President Cheney, two discuss need to remove Iranian threat before Islamic republic obtains nuclear bomb. Following meeting, Netanyahu tells Ynet, 'We must prevent Iran from building their main bases in the region, and particularly in Jerusalem'
Roni Sofer

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu called on Shas once again to quit the government following his meeting with US Vice President Richard Cheney in Jerusalem on Sunday morning.

"I say to my friends in Shas, don't allow these negotiations on Jerusalem, which were confirmed by Foreign Minister (Tzipi) Livni on Friday. Quit the government now and prevent this danger," Netanyahu told Ynet.

The opposition leader said that he had warned Cheney against the Iranian danger.

"I spoke to him about the need to remove the Iranian threat before (the Islamic republic) arms itself with a nuclear bomb. There are additional Iranian issues which must be prevented, including the need to prevent Iran from building its main bases in the region, from Gaza to Lebanon, and particularly in Jerusalem," he noted.

"I made it clear to him that if we leave Jerusalem, Hamas, Iran and other forces affiliated with them will take control of it. They will threaten Jerusalem's wellbeing, Israel's security and the freedom of worship of millions of pilgrims and members of the different religions arriving in the city today," Netanyahu said, noting that Cheney told him he was fully aware of the situation, as was US President George W. Bush.

The US vice president is scheduled to meet with several other Israeli leaders. After his meeting with Netanyahu, Cheney met with President Shimon Peres, and was later due to meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

'Committed to Israel's security'

Cheney is also expected to visit Ramallah, where he is due to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

On Saturday, Cheney told a joint press conference with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "the United States backs Israel's right to defend itself against rockets from Hamas-ruled Gaza and will not pressure the Jewish state to take steps that threaten its security."

America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction," Cheney said, adding that "the United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security."

The vice president reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and assured Palestinian leaders that "they, too, can be certain of America's goodwill" as it tries to help Israel and the Palestinians reach an accord.

Netanyahu: If we leave Jerusalem, Iran and Hamas will take control (http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3522337,00.html)

Messianics: Attack on boy one of many
Matthew Wagner
THE JERUSALEM POST
Mar. 25, 2008

Members of the Messianic community in Israel said Monday that while the near-fatal attack last week on 15-year-old Ami Ortiz of Ariel marks a major escalation, it comes after years of anti-missionary violence directed at the community by both Jews and Muslims.

"We get the feeling that nobody in Israel is willing to take a strong stand against violent anti-missionary activity," said Pastor Howard Bass, head of the Nahalat Yeshua [Jesus's Inheritance] Congregation in Beersheba.

"We have experienced numerous attacks on the Messianic communities by haredim over the years," said Bass. "But there is very little sympathy for our plight."

Ortiz was seriously wounded after a parcel bomb in the form of a Purim gift blew up in his face. Ortiz is the son of David Ortiz, a prominent Messianic Christian pastor.

This was the most serious attack against the embattled Messianic community in Israel. Both Muslims and Orthodox Jews, who are vehemently opposed to Christian missionary activity, are suspected of sending the bomb.

The Messianic community in Israel numbers about 15,000, spread out in roughly 120 congregations across the nation. The community members, who believe there is no contradiction between being Jewish and believing Jesus to have been the Savior and the Son of God, has been steadily growing, in large part due to proselytizing activities. About half of the community's membership was born Jewish.

Bass, who was born Jewish, said that he saw the growth of the community of "believers" as another sign of the imminent second resurrection of the Messiah. He admitted that he shared his beliefs with his neighbors in the hope that he would influence them.

"When I was involved with politics I tried to influence people's political views. Now I do the same thing with religion."

Just this week Bass said that two surveillance cameras that monitor his house of prayer were stolen. Last Saturday, during prayers at the 100-strong congregation, a group of haredim stood outside and shouted, temporarily stopping the prayers.

Beersheba has a history of tension between haredim and the Messianic community.

In December 2005, just before Christmas, Bass's congregation was attacked by hundreds of haredi demonstrators who received the backing of the local rabbinic leadership. The demonstrators had heard rumors that busloads of Jewish children were to be baptized by the community.

Calev Myers, founder and chief counsel of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, an advocacy group that represents members of the Messianic community, said that the police did not press charges against the assailants who forced their way into the church and forcibly stopped the baptism of two Israelis. The intruders threw chairs around and pushed Bass into the baptismal pool, according to Myers.

In Arad, another flashpoint for tension between the Messianic community and Orthodox Jews, the Chasdei Yeshua [Jesus's Loving-Kindness] Congregation, a tiny community of about 30, has been harassed repeatedly by the local Ger Hassidic community.

Lura Beckford, a Chasdei Yeshua member whose husband Edwin is presently under house arrest for attacking an anti-missionary activist in Arad last month during a confrontation, said that there had been numerous confrontations over the years.

"They've verbally attacked us on a regular basis and they even tried to burn down our chess club last February," said Beckford.

Meanwhile, Pastor David Ortiz, speaking to The Jerusalem Post from Schneider Medical Center, where his son Ami is hospitalized in serious condition, said that since he came to Israel over 20 years ago he has been the target of violence, mostly by Muslims.

"In the past, I have traveled into the neighboring Arab villages, which are all 100% Muslim, to distribute the whole Bible [Old and New Testament]," said Ortiz.

"Recently, with the deterioration of the security situation I stand outside the villages explaining to people about Jesus. Or I pick up local Arabs who hitchhike and I give them a Bible. I tell them 'This is the history of your people.'"

Ortiz said that he has been beaten up on at least one occasion by Palestinians from a neighboring village while distributing Bibles, and that a Molotov cocktail was once thrown at his car.

In the mid-1990's the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Ekrima Said Sabri, issued a fatwa [religious order] calling to kill Ortiz.

"The fatwa was even published in the Al Quds newspaper. I got a call from the US Embassy asking me to keep a low profile.

"Luckily, I am still here, still ticking. But I live my life as if every day could be my last."

Last November Isa Bajalia, an Arab-American evangelical pastor who works with Ortiz in proselytizing among Palestinians, told the Post that he was forced to flee his hometown of Ramallah after being threatened by a Palestinian security official.

Bajalia, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama, was ministering to a group of 30 to 35 people in Ramallah and carrying out missionary work there.

Ortiz said that he has also been exposed to mild anti-missionary campaigns initiated by Jews. Over the years pamphlets have been distributed in Ariel with his picture on them warning that Ortiz and others that belong to the Messianic community are "masquerading as Jews." But in general, Ortiz, who has brought significant Evangelical Christian financial support to Ariel, enjoys the backing of Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman.

Rabbi Shalom Lipgotcha2z, head of Yad Le'achim, the largest anti-missionary organization in Israel, said that he opposed all violent anti-missionary action. But he added that he saw the Messianic community as an enemy to the Jewish people.

"There is no one who hates Jews more than they do," said Lipgotcha2z. "They are trying to uproot Jewish faith, just like the Spanish did in the Inquisition. The only thing different is that these people cannot use physical force like the Spanish did. But they try to take advantage of the poor. They prey on Jews who do not know anything about Jewish heritage.

"We try to explain the 'truth.' We try to tell people that you cannot be Jewish and believe in Jesus at the same time. It just doesn't go together.

"Our job at Yad Le'achim is to make sure the Jewish people gets bigger, and fight people who are trying to make it smaller."

Messianics: Attack on boy one of many (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420768089&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Bombing of Christian Pastor's Home Brings Messianic Jews Into Spotlight
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
March 27, 2008

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Police in Israel are considering all possibilities as they look for the person who sent a booby-trapped gift basket to the home of an American Christian pastor in Israel.

The pastor's teenage son was seriously injured when he opened the basket that was delivered to his home a week ago during the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Suggestions that the culprits may be Jewish extremists -- not Palestinian terrorists -- have focused a spotlight on the battle over beliefs that sometimes happens inside Jewish Israel.

Sixteen-year-old Ami Ortiz suffered third degree burns over much of his body, a collapsed lung, two broken arms, and eye injuries. Two of his toes had to be amputated. The blast was powerful enough to blow out windows in the apartment.

Ami's father, David Ortiz, is a Christian who has worked extensively in the Palestinian areas, telling Muslims about Jesus. Some Muslims have become Christians because of his efforts, and Ortiz has been threatened because of his proselytizing.

Ortiz, a Christian, also leads a small Messianic Jewish congregation in Ariel. (His wife is Jewish and therefore Ami and his five siblings are considered Jewish, according to Israeli law.)

Messianic Jews are Jews by birth who believe that Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah. They believe in both the Old and New Testaments, and some celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays.

But religious Jews often resent Messianic Jews as missionaries. As one Israeli commentator put it, "zealous ultra-Orthodox (Jews) stand out among those who persecute missionaries."

But if the attack on the Ortiz family was intended to damage the Messianic Jewish community or turn Jews away from it, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

David Ortiz told Cybercast News Service that people from Ariel who previously would not talk to him have been coming to the hospital to express their sympathies.

Since the attack, there are have been numerous articles in local newspapers detailing the persecution of Messianic Jews, who number about 15,000 out of Israel's population of 6 million.

Attorney Calev Myers, the founder and chief council of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, said there are "isolated pockets" of persecution against Messianic Jews in Israel but mostly what they face here is "systematic governmental discrimination."

There is ongoing persecution in two southern Israeli cities -- Arad and Beersheba - where Messianics are harassed in various ways with little police intervention. The Baptist House in Jerusalem -- a meeting place for Messianic Jews -- recently was burned in what police are now calling an arson attack, although they have not apprehended the culprits.

Over the last four years, the Jerusalem Institute of Justice has handled almost 200 cases of alleged discrimination, such as government refusal to renew passports and to register the births of children born to Messianic couples, Myers said. In other cases, critics have mounted campaigns to have Messianic Jews fired from their jobs.

If the bombing at the Ortiz family home proves to be the work of Jewish extremists, it would definitely mark "an escalation," said Myers.

Aaron Rubin, the head of anti-missionary activity at Yad L'Achim, wondered why anyone would even ask his organization about the attack.

In the 50 years since the organization was founded, he said there have never been any suggestions that his group is violent. Rubin described Yad L'Achim as an "educational organization" intended to un-brainwash Jews.

According to Israeli law, it is not against the law to "missionize" (except to minors). However, the practice is severely frowned on and even feared here. Nor is it against the law to convert to another religion. But it is against the law to offer financial or other inducements to encourage someone to change his religion.

Not everyone believes that the attack was carried out by Jewish extremists. Hannah, a Messianic Jew who lives in Ariel, said everyone in the "peaceful" town is in shock.

The most tension the Messianic Jews ever experienced in Ariel was in the late 1980s, she said, when the Yad L'Achim would knock on believers' doors, snap their pictures when they answered, and then put up posters in town warning people against them.

The majority of Ariel's population is secular. Religious Jews range from ultra-Orthodox Haredis to Russians who eat pork and celebrate Christmas.

Santa Clauses and Christmas trees are sold in the city's shopping center at Christmas, and one store sells pork, she said. If the Jewish extremists haven't bombed the pork shops, why should they go after an individual, Hannah wondered.

On the other hand, David Ortiz is on Hamas' hit list and the group put out a fatwa - a religious edict - calling for his death several years ago, she noted. The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the gift basket bomb and Hamas bragged that it had used an Israeli Arab to bring in the bomb, she said.

There have been several Palestinian terror attacks outside the gates of the community over the last few years, including one at the city's hotel, one at the gas station and at least one at the nearby bus stop.

Hannah wondered if it wasn't easier for the residents of Ariel somehow to think that the attack had been carried out by Jewish extremists with a score to settle than to believe that an Arab terrorist had made his way into the heart of their peaceful community.

"God knows exactly who they are," she said. "They won't get away. We want to see them brought to justice [and for it to be] the last time they ever do anything [like this]."

Bombing of Christian Pastor's Home Brings Messianic Jews Into Spotlight (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200803/CUL20080327a.html)

Please remember Matthew 24:6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
~~~~~~~~

Israeli intel projects a one-month war with Syria
April 8, 2008

TEL AVIV — Israel's intelligence community has concluded that the next war would involve missiles and Hizbullah, last at least a month and include Syria.

The intelligence community has drafted a series of scenarios for Israel's emergency services to prepare for future war. The scenarios envisioned the next war as including massive missile and rocket salvos, some of them containing chemical weapons, on Israeli cities.

"The scenarios are based on Arab military capability rather than intentions," an Israeli government source said. "The war in Lebanon was also seen as a taste of what a full-scale war would bring."

Officials said Israel's military, police and emergency services have been on high alert for an attack by Hizbullah, Syria or Iran, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the current alert would last throughout April and did not rule out a continuation of high combat-readiness for the rest of 2008.

Under the scenarios, hundreds of Israelis would be killed and thousands injured in missile strikes on Tel Aviv. The enemy missiles would target strategic facilities, including Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Syria was also expected to be a participant in the next war against Israel. The intelligence community envisioned Hizbullah, Iran and Syria coordinating strikes on northern and central Israel. The Hamas regime and the Palestinian Authority would also fire rockets from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In one scenario, Iran would also attack the Jewish state. The intelligence community did not expect Iran to fire nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, but said such an attack could stem from Syria.

The Israeli casualty count would reach 230 in a conventional weapons attack. In a chemical strike, the intelligence community envisioned up to 16,000 deaths.

The intelligence community has also envisioned Iran's use of Hizbullah as a proxy in a nonconventional weapons attack. One scenario was that Hizbullah launches Iranian-origin Ababil unmanned aerial vehicles filled with toxic chemicals to strike a school or government building.

Officials said the scenarios reflected the Israeli military's two leading priorities — defending against missile threats as well as stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program. They said the rocket and missile threat was meant to be resolved through the development of defensive systems rather than offensive military campaigns.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said anti-missile systems would enable Israel to avoid a war of attrition and consider withdrawal from the West Bank as well as the Golan Heights. A short-range missile and rocket system, termed Iron Dome, was not expected to be ready until at least 2010.

Israeli intel projects a one-month war with Syria (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_israel0033_04_08.asp)

Large Israeli military drills raise alerts

By MEL FRYKBERG (Middle East Times)
April 08, 2008

JERUSALEM -- Tensions on Israel's northern border have increased significantly as the Jewish state began a week of the largest ever military exercises and emergency drills in the country's history on Sunday, raising fear and suspicion from its arch enemies Hezbollah, Syria and Iran that a preemptive strike could be in the offing.

In Beirut Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora asked the Lebanese army to raise its alert level, fearing that Israel may exploit the major military exercise to violate his country's sovereignty, Israel Radio reported on Saturday. He also requested U.N. peacekeepers, which monitor the border, to be vigilant.

Lebanese Army commander General Michel Suleiman also said that he had ordered his troops to raise alert and preparation levels in all army units until the end of the Israeli military drill.

Israel has been in a state of heightened alert following the end of the 40-day mourning period in the wake of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Imad Mughnieh in a car bombing in Damascus in February. Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian backers accuse Israel's intelligence agency Mossad of being behind the killing and have sworn revenge.

But Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, tried to play down events by saying, "We are not seeking any military confrontations in the north," even as Israel launched the five-day security drill meant to simulate responses to war.

During the course of the week the exercises will "prepare the different services and institutes operating in the civilian environment for various emergency situations," stated an Israeli Defense Forces spokesman.

On Tuesday, sirens sounded throughout the country as children from kindergarten up practiced emergency procedures. State employees also participated in emergency drill procedures at their workplaces.

Immediately afterward local governments also joined in the exercise, following instructions distributed on the spot.

Scenarios for the rest of the week's exercises will include a simulated hazardous material spill in the Haifa Bay, the rescue of survivors from a collapsed building in the Meron and Nazareth areas and the firing of ground-to-ground missiles equipped with chemical warheads.

During the exercise Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are to conduct situation reviews and to make decisions based on the various scenarios as they unfold.

Barak paid a visit to Israel's northern border at the beginning of the week and threatened that Israel would strike anyone who tried to attack Israel. The fact that this appeared to be a statement prepared in advance and the timing of his visit were not lost on either the Syrians or the Lebanese.

A Syrian intelligence officer, linking Barak's statement, his canceling a trip to Germany, the cabinet's decision to redistribute gas masks, and the national emergency maneuver this week, would probably conclude that Israel was interested in escalation.

However, despite Israel's actions on the ground, diplomatic sources in New York claimed last Saturday that Israel requested UNIFIL inform the Lebanese government that the military and simulated evacuation exercises were neither a threat to Lebanon nor to Hezbollah.

Israeli military sources further added that they saw no clear signs of war on the Syrian front, but confirmed that both sides were on relatively high alert for fear of the other side's moves, mainly due to Hezbollah's calls for revenge.

Against the saber rattling in Israel and the contradictory soothing noises made by Olmert and his government in TV appearances and aimed at placating his nervous neighbors, seasoned Israeli analysts have questioned the motives of the Israeli government.

Some suggested that Barak's trip to the north could also be an attempt by the defense minister to play down internal squabbles he has with other Labor party member and to present himself as a mature politician who has risen above the sniping to focus on the country's security needs.

Other commentators stated that the rapid zigzagging of the Israeli government was reminiscent of the contradictory statements of last spring and summer – before the Israeli Air Force's attack on northern Syria on Sept. 6.

Israel and the United States claim that a Syrian nuclear site was bombed, but mystery continues to surround the incident as the Israeli government has remained tight-lipped.

The Iranians, who have been monitoring the latest events closely, are not thrilled and haven't missed the opportunity to wade into the fray, claiming that the drill was a direct result of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's recent visit to the region.

"Unfortunately, after every visit of senior American officials in the region and the occupied territories we witness similar actions by the Zionist regime," said Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Ali Hosseini.

Hosseini further urged the Arab states to monitor events in the region closely and called on the "provocative actions to be brought to the attention of the relevant officials in the international community."

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's southern Lebanon commander on Saturday was quoted as saying the militant group will "follow closely" the drill. While Israel examines Syria's intentions with suspicion, Damascus likewise is watching the Jewish state.

And the relative calm in the south of Israel and the Gaza Strip appears to be ending as Israeli military incursions involving deadly clashes with Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters in the territory resume on an almost daily routine once again.

Large Israeli military drills raise alerts (http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/04/08/large_israeli_military_drills_raise_alerts/9202/)

War between Israel and Syria will take place soon
Thursday, 10 April, 2008 @ 11:27 PM
By Claude Salhani

PNL party president Chamoun said in an interview that a war between Israel and Syria was imminent, Bashar al-Assad had a hand in Hariri's assassination, and that Hezbollah's power in Lebanon has been reduced to inducing traffic jams in Downtown Beirut through their still erect tent city.

Dory Chamoun is the sole surviving son of former Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, who founded the National Liberal Party, one of Lebanon's right-wing Christian groups.

As president during Lebanon's first civil war in 1958 Chamoun asked for U.S. intervention, and U.S. Marines were dispatched to quell the unrest.

The PNL, as Chamoun's party is known by its French acronym, is part of the pro-government and anti-Syrian March 14 coalition.

Following the brutal assassination on Oct. 21, 1990, of Dany Chamoun, (Dory's brother) along with his German-born wife Ingrid, and his two sons, Tarek, 7 and Julian, Dory found himself at the head of the National Liberal Party.

On a visit to Washington, D.C., Chamoun spoke with Middle East Times editor Claude Salhani about the situation in the region and in Lebanon. The following are extracts of the interview.

Claude Salhani: What is your perception of the current situation in the Middle East?

Dory Chamoun: The situation in the Middle East is not going to remain as it is. There is a peace process going on between Syria and Israel, which is on track. How to achieve it remains the question. It is a fact that the Golan Heights is to be divided. Israel wants part of the Golan Heights. This is something the old [former President Hafez] Assad refused.

Now, to achieve that part; they will not be able to achieve it through peace, because Mr. Assad who represents a minority regime cannot say, 'okay, I will give what my father did not give.'

There will be a mock-up war between Syria and Israel. And at the same time Israel will take the advantage to beat up Hezbollah. This time they will fight in the Bekaa Valley. This is a scenario that I see unfolding.

Q: What will be Iran's position in case of war between Syria and Israel, whether it's a mock-up war or not?

A: I don't see Iran going to war for the sake of Syria.

Q: What about Hezbollah?

A: Israel might like to make peace with Syria, but with a promise from Syria to put an end to Hezbollah; if Israel has such a mirage, because it is only a mirage. I don't see Syria upsetting its only ally, Iran. Besides, the opposition [Hezbollah] is getting weaker by the day. All that they have achieved is to congest the [Beirut] city center with their tents.

Q: Do you see Syria ever giving up its ambitions on Lebanon?

A: No doubt this is a dream Syria has always had. All their regimes had an appetite to swallow up Lebanon. We are not going to allow it. The only time they [the Syrians] succeeded was when they made a deal with the United States. They made two deals with them. The first deal was the Kissinger plan in 1976, but it failed when the Christians didn't run away.

In 1976 the Syrians said they would go in to quell Lebanon and establish peace; they didn't succeed, they didn't quell the Palestinians. At the end of the day Israel had to come in.

During the First Gulf War, the first Assad, who was an old fox, found an opportunity to make a deal with the Americans. He told them, 'I will be your ally against Saddam Hussein but in return I want Lebanon. I want to be able to use my air force and my navy in order to beat the [Christian Lebanese] resistance.'

Q: And now, what kind of assurance are you getting from the Bush administration?

A: The Bush administration is serious. The feedback is positive. Lebanon is on their agenda. They are earnest about wanting to help physically, financially, as well as giving some goods to the Lebanese army. Especially after the Nahr el-Bared incident [when the Lebanese army fought members of an Islamist Group called Fatah al-Islam], the Lebanese army proved that it is strong, that it will not splinter.

For once, the United States is not going to trade Lebanon against something else to achieve some sort of peace with Syria.

Q: You are getting guarantees from this administration. What happens next January if the Democrats are in the White House?

A: I'm not worried because the policy on Lebanon is not guided by diplomacy; it is guided by security needs. And if the people in charge of the security of the United States decide that Lebanon must continue to be what it is today, and that Lebanon must be safe and not fall into the hands of the Syrians.

Remember what happened when it was in the hands of the Syrians? All the world-wide terrorist organizations mushroomed in Lebanon. Again, I don't think they [the U.S.] can take the risk after 9/11.

I think the whole strategy of the United States vis-a-vis our part of the world has changed 180 degrees. At one time the security frontiers of the United States used to be the oceans. Today the frontier goes all the way to Pakistan and Afghanistan. That sort of security policy, which the U.S. is following today is going to be the guideline, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

Q: Overall, how do you see the future of Lebanon?

A: I am optimistic. However, it's a sad fact that Lebanon is a tiny country surrounded by two of the most horrible neighbors. One wants to swallow up Lebanon, while the other would like to see it shattered to pieces because Lebanon is the anti-image of the Jewish State of Israel. Lebanon is a state where there are 18 confessions (religious groups) who knew how to live together. And can live together again.

Q: What about the presidency? Lebanon has been without a president since November.

A: There's a lot of fuss about the presidency, but one should not make a mountain out of a mole hill. You consider the two presidents we had - that were Syrian puppets - to be presidents? I don't.

Q: Who do you think killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri?

A: Definitely the Syrians.

Q: When you say the Syrians, did it come from President Bashar, or from the intelligence?

A: The way the regime functions in Syria, I don't think that anything of that magnitude could take place without Bashar knowing.

War between Israel and Syria will take place soon (http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/04/war_between_isr.php)

An Arab member of the Israeli Knesset has called for the liberation of Jerusalem by the Moslem world

At the Jerusalem First Conference, recently held in Ramallah in the area of Judea and Samaria, the chairman of the United Arab List - Israeli Knesset member Ibrahim Sarsour - called on all Arabs and Moslems to focus their energies on the future of Jerusalem and act in concert to become a torrent on the road to liberating Jerusalem.

Sarsour emphasized the religious importance of Jerusalem for the Moslems and said that Israel's plans for the Temple Mount and around the city must be resisted. The Arab Knesset member recalled how the Moslems liberated Jerusalem during the Crusades and said it could be done today, that the liberation of Jerusalem is not an impossible mission and it must be done.

The call for the Moslem world to liberate Jerusalem by an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset is actually a call for the End Times scenario that can be found in Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

The status of Jerusalem for a negotiated peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians has always been pushed to the end of any agenda for peace talks between the two parties. Every Israeli PM from the very beginning of the modern-day state of Israel has said that Jerusalem is the undivided, eternal capital of the Jewish people. The Palestinian leadership as well has called for Jerusalem, if not all of it at least a portion of the holy city, to be the capital any future Palestinian state. With the call by an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset for the Moslem world to rise to the occasion and liberate the city of Jerusalem from the Israeli occupation, it has ratcheted up the discussion several notches.

This scenario is exactly what the ancient Jewish prophets wrote down 2,500 years ago would happen at the time of the end. Zechariah said that there would be those who would become arrogantly secure in their control of the city of Jerusalem, that's Zechariah 1:15. Joel, another Jewish prophet, wrote that a mighty Moslem militia would come to Jerusalem to liberate the holy city and take it away from the Jewish people, that's Joel 2:2-3.

The call for Moslems to liberate Jerusalem is indeed a call for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Quote

An Arab member of the Israeli Knesset has called for the liberation of Jerusalem by the Moslem world

The modern connection of Islam and Israel stretches back through time to our modern day. The confrontation was foreshadowed 4000-years ago in Genesis 21:5-14. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, finally has the child promised by God, Isaac, his name means, laughter. After the baby is weaned, which is normally about 9-month to 2-years after birth, there is a celebration. During this celebration, Sarah sees Hagar the mother Ishmael scoffing at her and Isaac. Sarah then demands Abraham cast Hagar and Ishmael out, to protect the inheritance of Isaac. Abraham agreed after God promised to look after Hagar and Ishmael, who are then sent away.

God clearly promised to make Ishmael and his descendants a great nation, but God also reserved the covenant with Isaac and later Jacob (Gen. 32:24-32). The descendants of Ishmael later intermarried with other descendants of Abraham, bonding the nations (Gen. 28;9, 37:27), of Abraham outside of Isaac and Jacob. So today, many people throughout the Arab and Muslim world claim descent from Abraham through Ishmael.

Why is this claim important? What does it have to do with the end-times? First, we know from the prophets, both in the Old and New Testaments, in the last days Israel and Jerusalem would be the focus of nations. (Zechariah 12:1-3). Many of Abraham’s descendants, outside of Jacob, will try to claim the Biblical birthright of Isaac and Jacob. However, God confirmed his agreement in several ways with Isaac and Jacob. One proof is Abraham’s tomb, in Hebron. There, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with their wives Sarah, Rebecca and Leah rest. Ishmael and Esau are not at Abraham’s grave, only the line of Biblical covenant is there. Ishmael attended the funeral of Abraham, he came to Hebron when Abraham died, but not buried there, only Isaac was. Now many of these descendants are at odds with Jacob’s descendants.

So in many ways, the current conflict between Israel and the Muslim nations, is a continuation of a conflict, which began 4000-years ago, two families competing for the blessing of Abraham. Isaac was the “son of promise” and the “son of faith”, while Hagar’s son Ishmael was the “son of unbelief” and the “son of human effort”. This is an important point, before Ishmael and Hagar, God promised a child to Abraham through Sarah. Sarah was old, therefore Sarah thought she needed to help God’s promise along, she therefore gave her husband, her bondwoman Hagar to fulfill God’s promise. She did not believe God could accomplish his promise, demonstrating a lack of faith. Secondly, she felt she needed to accomplish God’s promise for Him, so she tried to fulfill the promise through Hagar, human effort.

This conflict between these two descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael ultimately will be demonstrated in a building central to Judaism and important to Islam. This building, known the world over as the Dome of the Rock, or in Jewish circles, the Temple Mount will become the center focus in the end-times.

Though Islam is not mentioned specifically in the Bible, Islam involvement with the Temple Mount, and the link of Islamic peoples with Israel, demonstrates Islam plays a major role in the End-times. For one, we know from the book of Daniel, the Dome of the Rock is removed before the Third Temple is completed. Secondly, the Third Temple is the focus of a peace agreement, which is broken after 3.5 years.

The role of the Temple Mount and the rebuilding of the Third Temple is central to the end-time events in the Bible. Both the Old and New Testaments refer to seminal event known as the Abomination of Desolation, as a key milestone in the end of the times. The Abomination of Desolation requires a Temple on the Temple Mount. In that case, the Dome of the Rock, at some point prior to the Temple, is removed. Muslims have signaled such an event will lead to a World War of Islam against Israel.

What exactly is the Temple Mount? The Temple Mount is a platform, built around Mt. Moriah, allowing the Temple to be over Mt. Moriah, a small elevated hill. During the time of Herod, this Temple Mount platform was expanded, to its current status.

Here is a partial time line.

2050 B.C. Abraham called to Moriah, God promises to give the land Abraham and his seed. Through Abraham, all the nations would be blessed. Genesis 12:1-7

Abraham takes Isaac to the top of Moriah in a test of faith, to offer him as a sacrifice. God intervenes providing a ram in the place of Isaac. Genesis 22, Hebrew 11:8-9

1000 B.C. David plans First Temple, he is not permitted to build it. 2 Samuel 7:1-17

David purchases Threshing Floor of Araunah, site of First Temple and erects altar of sacrifice on Mt. Moriah. 2 Samuel 24:1-25 1 Chronicles 21:1-22:5

960 B.C. Solomon constructs Temple to the Lord, which God accepts and sanctifies. God warns the building would come to ruin and the people expelled from the land if they turn away. 2 Chronicles 7:19-20, I Kings 8

605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem, taking hostages and Temple treasures to Babylon. Daniel 1:2

592 B.C. Ezekiel taken to the Temple and shown the secret idol worship and apostasy, God warns He is about to destroy the Temple. Ezekiel 8-9

587 B.C Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon destroys the city of Jerusalem and the Temple 2 Kings 25

April 573 B.C. Ezekiel proclaims the Temple of the Glory of the Lord on Mt. Moriah. Ezekiel 40-43

539 B.C. Cyrus the Great defeats Babylon, allows the Jews to return to land of Israel and begin rebuild the Temple, Second Temple period begins. Ezra 1-3

516 B.C. Second Temple is completed Zechariah 4;9, Haggai 2:9, Malachi 3:1,

331 Alexander the Great spares Jerusalem and the Temple the he sees the High Priest, confirming his dream. Josephus, Zechariah 9:8

December 15, 167 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanies desecrates Temple proclaiming himself god, and sacrificing a pig at the Holy of Holies. Daniel 8:9, Daniel 11:21-35

162 B.C. Godly Jews under Matthias begin revolt culminating in repossession of Jerusalem. Daniel 11:32

63 B.C. Romans conquer Jerusalem, General Pompey enters the Temple, Holy of Holies. Roman period begins.

40 B.C. Herod the Edomite, made King of Judah by the Romans, expands Temple area. Herod later kills the children of Bethlehem

A.D.12-16 Jesus found in the Temple as a child, after being separated from Mary and Joseph

A.D. 33 Jesus proclaims the coming destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70.

A.D. 70 Armies of Rome led by Titus, destroy the city of Jerusalem and the Temple as foretold by Jesus and Daniel, after the death of Messiah. Over 1-million Jews are killed by Romans. Daniel 9:26, Matthew 23:38-39, 24:1-2

A.D. 135 Hadrian installs Temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount, causing Jews to revolt, in the Bar Kochba rebellion. Rabbi Akiva proclaims Bar Kochba the Messiah, Hadrian crushes rebellion, 580,000 Jews die. Jerusalem leveled and rebuilt a Roman city named Aelia Capitolina, Jew are forbidden to enter.

A.D. 312 Rome becomes Christian under Constantine, Temple Mount used as a garbage dump.

A.D. 362 Julian the Apostate, allows Jews to rebuild the Temple, foundation explodes causing construction to stop. Julian later dies in battle, causing construction to stop.

A.D. 637 Islam conquers Jerusalem and Temple Mount from the Byzantine Kingdom, under the 3rd Caliphate, Omar. Noble Sanctuary built on Temple Mount.

A.D. 687-690 Dome of the Rock built to proclaim the faith of Islam, and Mohammad’s ascension into Heaven on his “Night vision”.

1099-1187 Crusaders Conquer Jerusalem and Temple from the Muslim establish Crusader era. Ending with the re-conquest of Islam over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

1917 British capture Jerusalem from Muslim Turks, during World War I

May 1948 Jerusalem proclaimed capital of Jewish State after Jews defeat Arab armies.

1967 Jews take control of the Temple Mount after 6-day war. The first time in over 2100-years, a Jewish nation has control of the Temple Mount.

Rabbis of Israel, Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim, together with other leading rabbis, asserted that "For generations we have warned against and refrained from entering any part of the Temple Mount." Rabbinical consensus in the Religious Zionist stream of Orthodox Judaism hold that it is forbidden for Jews to enter the Temple Mount.

1982 Union of Third Temple Groups, "To the Mountain of the Lord," "The Faithful of the Temple Mount," and the "Jerusalem Temple Foundation." Planning for the Third Temple.

January 2005 A large group of leading national-religious rabbis signed a declaration confirming that the 1967 decision of Chief Rabbis Unterman and Nissim was still valid, declaring that it is absolutely forbidden for Jews to ascend on the Temple Mount until Moshiach, the Jewish Messiah comes.

May 2007, a group of right-wing Religious Zionist rabbis entered the Temple Mount. This elicited widespread criticism from other religious Jews and from secular Israelis, accusing the rabbis of provoking the Arabs.

Most Israelis Agree: Jerusalem is Being Secretly Discussed
14 Nissan 5768, April 19, '08
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Nearly 60% of Israelis say the Israeli government is secretly negotiating the division of Jerusalem with the Palestinian Authority - despite government attempts to blur the existence of such talks.

This and other findings were the results of a survey carried out by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Bar Ilan University. The official numbers will be presented this Tuesday at a special seminar at Bar Ilan. The Guest of Honor will be Trade Minister Eli Yishai, the head of the government coalition member Shas Party. Yishai has stated frequently that the moment it becomes clear that Jerusalem is being negotiated, his party will quit the coalition.

Opposition Leader Binyamin Netanyahu, Natan Sharansky, Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat and others will be in attendance as well.

PA is Sure to Make More Demands
The respondents were asked their forecast of the situation in the event that an Israeli-PA peace agreement would include an Israeli giveaway of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, Old City and Temple Mount to the PA. Nearly 70% said there is no or little chance that such an agreement would bring about an end to terrorism, and 56% feel there is a high or very high likelihood that the areas would be used for terrorist bases.

Some 61% said there is no or little chance that this would mark the end of PA demands regarding Jerusalem.

The survey further shows that 71% object to giving away parts of Jerusalem even in the framework of a comprehensive peace agreement. Only about a third of these - less than a quarter of the public - say they would actively demonstrate against a plan to divide Jerusalem. Approximately 7% of the public say they would even participate in violent protests.

Prof. Efraim Inbar, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center, says that the public is essentially against giving away parts of Jerusalem - but that when the government gives in, this erodes the public opposition.

"There is great opposition to concessions in Jerusalem in general, and regarding the Temple Mount in particular," Inbar said. "Before Ehud Barak presented his plan to give away the Temple Mount in 2000, 85% of the public objected to this - but Barak's plan broke the taboo."

Asked if they think the PA would preserve and maintain the Jewish and Christian holy sites, 50% said no.

Most Israelis Agree: Jerusalem is Being Secretly Discussed (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125874)

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Agrees to give the Golan Heights up to Syria for a peace agreement

Reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was using a third party to communicate to Syria that Israel would give up the Golan Heights for a peace deal surfaced first on a Damascus based internet site but now has been confirmed by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

It has been learned from President Assad that the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had informed the Syrian president of Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's agreement to cede the Golan Heights for a peace agreement.

This diplomatic activity coming at the same time that there had been rumors of Syria massing it's military might for a possible war with Israel and in light of warnings from Iranian President Ahmadinejad for Syria not to give in to the enemies of Islam, who will soon face total destruction.

As Syria and Israel talk peace and the evacuation of the Golan Heights, one must remember that Bible prophecy reveals Syria as the first of the nations that will try and destroy the Jewish state in the last days.

Reports of diplomatic activity between Syria and Israel have recently surfaced; however, the truth be known, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has been working through a third party for over a year to bring the two Middle East nations to the negotiating table.

That third party, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan told Syrian President Bashar Assad that Olmert was ready to give up the Golan Heights for a peace deal. That announcement made public has the Israeli Knesset scrambling to pass a law calling for a national referendum to approve such a move, and the latest polls indicate that 80% of the body politic of Israel is opposed to giving up the Golan Heights.

That said, let me remind you of the prophetic scenario that is found in Bible prophecy on this matter. The ancient Jewish prophet Daniel wrote 2500 years ago that Syria, the King of the North in Daniel 11:40, would be the first Middle East nation to attack the Jewish state with a mindset to destroy Israel.

Daniel 11:40-44 lists the other Middle East states that will join Israel in this military mission and it includes the nation of Iran. Diplomatic talks aside, Bible prophecy will indeed be fulfilled.

Prison break shocks U.S. security coordinators
American-trained guards possibly infiltrated by Hamas terrorist group

A prison break yesterday from a Palestinian compound in the West Bank surprised American security coordinators here amid information U.S.-trained security forces manning the prison may have been infiltrated by the Hamas terrorist organization.

Three terrorists yesterday escaped from the Palestinian Authority prison in the West Bank city of Jericho where they were being held for planning a series of terror attacks against Israel. All three were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.

The Brigades, listed by the U.S. State Department as a terror group, took responsibility along with the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization for every suicide bombing in Israel since 2005 and also for hundreds of shootings and rocket attacks against Jewish civilian population centers.

The terrorists who escaped yesterday included Hani Halaweh, who was one of the most senior Al Aqsa Brigades terrorists in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. He was on a list of gunmen granted amnesty last year by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a gesture to bolster Abbas against Hamas.

Halaweh repeatedly violated his amnesty agreement by planning attacks against Israel and even shot at PA forces who arrested him. Halaweh was transferred to Jericho for detention last month.

The two other escaped terrorists were Brigades members Nidal Malash from the Idai refugee camp near Bethlehem and Mahmoud Sabeih from the city of Jenin.

The jail in Jericho is located within a PA security area utilized by the U.S. and EU to train Palestinian security forces. It is largely manned by U.S.-trained Palestinian civil police officers. Jericho is considered the safest PA-patrolled area and is thought to be free of Hamas and other groups at odds with Fatah.

The U.S. has been training PA police forces since the 1990s. It has been conducting enhanced training of elite PA police forces the past three months.

Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator to the Palestinian territories, personally oversees PA security training at the U.S.-operated bases in Jericho, where he maintains a residence. Dayton's office has been monitoring closely the police force deployment and activities.

According to a top source in the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees terrorist organization speaking to WND, Halaweh and the other two imprisoned Brigades terrorists earlier this year were recruited by the Committees to join their terror group.

The source claimed the Committees and Hamas orchestrated yesterday's prison break by bribing the U.S.-backed guards and by infiltrating the area surrounding the Jericho prison.

Speaking on background, a spokesman for the EU team that works with the U.S. to train PA police forces told WND the Jericho prison "is not the most secure compound."

He said the prison the past two years has been housed in a temporary building after Israel in 2006 raided Jericho's main prison and destroyed some of the compound. Israel's raid came after the PA announced it would free five terrorists accused by the Jewish state of assassinating Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavum Zeevi.

But Israeli security sources familiar with yesterday's prison break said it was a "major blow to the Dayton plan. Something like this is not supposed to happen in Jericho, which is the home base of U.S. training and which is thought to be entirely controlled by forces loyal to the PA and Dayton."

U.S.-trained anti-terror units 'failing miserably'

Last week, WND reported an elite, U.S.-trained security unit billed as the most professional Palestinian police force ever assembled has failed basic tests and has been incapable of fighting terrorism.

The U.S.-backed Palestinian force is being built up to assume security control of the West Bank following the planned creation of a Palestinian state and an expected Israeli evacuation from the territory.

As a trial balloon, a unit of 500 members of the elite Palestinian force deployed in February to assume security control in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, a major stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist organization.

Israel allowed the deployment, which was coordinated with the PA.

Dayton's office has been monitoring closely the police force deployment and activities.

The Nablus police were to be responsible for public security and for fighting crime and terrorism.

But security officials closely monitoring the unit's progress told WND last week the units are largely failing.

"They cannot fight terrorism," said a security official. "The Israel Defense Forces must do most of the work for them in that regard. When it comes to public security, they can block off streets and create a perimeter and carry out other basic duties, but beyond that, fighting crime isn't going well."

One recent example was the force's inability to stop an assassination attempt against Nablus' Palestinian mayor.

Another major episode evidencing the unit's failure to fight terrorism began playing out this month when 13 senior leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist organization who had been pardoned recently by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert publicly took up arms and vowed terror attacks against Israel.

The Brigades is the declared military wing of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization. Olmert last June pardoned 175 Brigades terrorists as a gesture to bolster Abbas against Hamas. He pardoned dozens more earlier this year.

The terrorists were given amnesty on condition they disarm, refrain from attacks and spend three months in PA detention facilities and another three months confined to Nablus, the northern West Bank city in which they reside.

But in a challenge to the new Nablus police force, the 13 senior Brigades terrorist leaders earlier this month rejected the amnesty agreement, departed the PA detention facilities, publicly took up arms and created a stronghold in the Old City of Nablus.

Calling themselves the Night Warriors of Al Aqsa, the new cell vowed attacks against the Jewish state.

According to informed security sources, among the Brigades leaders rejecting the agreement are Hanni Caabe, Mahdi Abu Jazaleh, and brothers Omar and Amer Haqube – all of whom are high-ranking Brigades terrorists.

The U.S.-backed police unit, under Dayton's watch, was called upon to eject the Al Aqsa terrorist rebels from Nablus' Old City. The operation was to be seen as a major test of the force's capabilities.

A large force attempted to raid the terrorists' stronghold several times, but according to security officials, the forces repeatedly failed.

"We are talking about six attempts so far, five of the attempts utilized more than 300 policemen against the 13 terrorists and all attempts failed miserably," said a security official.

"They couldn't even get near the stronghold without being heavily fired upon and then retreating," the security official said.

Finally, the IDF raided the Brigades stronghold last weekend, killing Brigades terrorist leader Caabe during a shootout and sending at least five other rebel Brigades terrorists into hiding.

"Israel had to come in and do the work for the Palestinian force," said a security official. "I don't know how they can handle security without Israel backing them up."

Meanwhile U.S. training of elite PA security forces continues. A new course began last month at U.S.-controlled bases in the Jordanian village of Giftlik, according to Israeli security officials. More than 600 elite PA soldiers are enrolled in the current course, which includes training in the use of weapons, conducting ambushes, fighting street crime, fighting terrorism and dealing with hostage situations, among other things.

After the unit is finished training in Jordan, they will continue with more advanced training courses at a U.S.-run base in the West Bank city of Jericho.

Security officials said Dayton rented an apartment in Jericho and is overseeing "every aspect of the new unit's training."

"The PA police force is his baby. It's entirely a creation of the U.S.," a security official said.

The UN, EU, US and Russia tell Israel to stop building Jewish settlements

At a meeting in London the Quartet, which is the UN, US, the EU and Russia have told Israel to stop building more Jewish settlements because it is causing the Middle East peace process to collapse, a statement that is confirmed by the PA negotiators who say the biggest hindrance to a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians is the Jewish settlement issue.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon reading from a joint statement said the Quartet expressed its deep concern at Israel's continued settlement building in Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, and called for all outposts built since March 2001 to be dismantled. The Quartet's special Middle East envoy, Tony Blair said that intense efforts are ongoing behind the scenes and may bear fruit later this year.

A call by the Quartet to stop all building in the Jewish settlements of Judea and Samaria is a precursor to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy for the End Times.

At the most recent meeting of the Quartet, which is made up of the UN, the US, EU and Russia, which took place in London, a joint statement, the most harsh to this time, called for the Jewish settlements to be dismantled and no more building on these settlements has a tone that even the Israeli government seems to be rejecting. The Jewish settlers who have built these communities in Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, say no foreign nations or organization of nations has a right seem to tell them where they can or cannot live in the land that God has given to them in these days.

Bible prophecy actually confirms the statements by the Jewish settlers. Ezekiel 34 reveals that 18 times God said to the Jewish people He would gather them from the four corners of the Earth and give them the land that is in question. Ezekiel 36 says they will prosper in this land and the Lord gave them this land in Judea and Samaria for His holy namesake. He swore by His name that He would give the Jews this land in the Last Days, Ezekiel 36:22.

The Quartet's demand for Israel to dismantle Jewish settlements is indeed a precursor to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Jerusalem Diary: Monday 5 May

By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem

An editorial in the London Jewish Chronicle in 1896 anticipates little hope for the scheme to create a Jewish State

THE DREAM OF A JEWISH STATE

On page 15 of the 17 January 1896 edition of the London Jewish Chronicle, the editorial is buried, modestly, beneath advertisements: "Herbert Hanks, Decorator, Upholsterer, Panelling - Highly Recommended by Many Hebrew Families… Lamplough's Pyretic Saline - Worth its Weight in Gold."

The editorial is entitled The Dream of a Jewish State.

It follows the publication, elsewhere in the newspaper, of extracts of Theodor Herzl's new book, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State).

The paper reflects on the gravity of Austrian anti-Semitism: "Dr Herzl's scheme, for what practically amounts to the re-establishment of the Jewish state, is a scheme hastened, if not dictated, by panic."

The editorial heaps praise on the seriousness and standing of Theodor Herzl, "a distinguished journalist and litterateur of the first rank in Vienna, no dreamer of dreams but a practical man of the world".

However, the Jewish Chronicle concludes of Herzl's prophesies of the "coming storms":

"We find it ourselves hard to accept these gloomy prognostications. We hardly anticipate a great future for a scheme which is the outcome of despair."

ISRAELI ON ISRAEL

It will be at the Herzl museum in Jerusalem, on Wednesday 7 May, that Israel's main 60th anniversary pageant will be held.

All the bigwigs will be present. Shimon Peres, the president, was in his 20s when the State of Israel was declared, in May 1948.

According to Friday's edition of The Jerusalem Post, in an as yet unpublished interview, Mr Peres "is greatly concerned about the demoralisation of the nation".

"Here, everyone begrudges everyone else," he is quoted as saying.

So what do Israelis make of their compatriots, and their state?

Israel is no monolith. This week, the Today programme, one of the BBC's leading domestic radio news programmes, will hear from five of the tribes of Israel.

The five we have chosen are secular, settler, ultra-orthodox, Palestinian (the man in question rejects the label "Israeli Arab"), and non-Jewish Russian immigrant.

The one thing the five share is that they all hold Israeli citizenship.

It is an exercise that invites failure. Why these tribes? What about the division between Ashkenazim (the Jews from European families) and the Sephardim (from Arab countries)?

Where are the Ethiopians, the Druze?

What about the divisions within settlers - between those who have moved across the green line for ideological or for economic reasons?

What about the ranges within orthodoxy and ultra-orthodoxy?

What about the vastly differing politics of the secular?

What of the Palestinians without Israeli citizenship, those who also see themselves as victims of the nakba (catastrophe)?

And what of the fact that our 20- or 30-minute interviews have been hacked to less than three minutes, to fit the demands of news?

The answer is that this is no more than a splash of colour from the most loved, most hated, most bewildering small country in the world.

What remains is the question whether the pieces of the mosaic fit, or whether Israel is increasingly fractured and fractious.

With apologies to the interviewees, here is a very partial taster:

# Yuli, the secular trainee teacher from Jerusalem: "The moment that people will prefer to deal with their own stuff, and dream their own dreams, rather than the dreams of the big Jewish nation, maybe the situation will get better."

# Shoshana, the settler from Qedumim: "This is the Middle East: another language, another code. It's not Europe; it's not America… My father, who built this state, always told us that we have to pay a tax, a price, for living here. We have an obligation to pay, as we don't have any other place to go."

# Mohammed, the Palestinian from a village near Nazareth: "The way Israel deals with its Arab minority is the indication of how the world should deal with the Jewish minority. If Israel continues to discriminate against the Arab minority in Israel, it has no moral right to speak against discrimination against Jews around the world."

# Jonathan, the Haredi (ultra-orthodox man) from Jerusalem: "Israel was meant to create a New Jew - the idea that the term Jew was not enough, and we had to create something new, something that was a rejection in many respects of the Jew of the exile. But that New Jew has turned out to be a chimera."

# Mila, the non-Jewish Russian immigrant, now living in Gedera: "I am not a Jew, no. But when I sing songs in class about love for the land of Israel, it's just like in Russia when we would have moments of love for our homeland. Then when I hear the songs and spoke with older Arabs, my heart hurts and I start to cry."

EYES WIDE OPEN

The closing quote, on Israel's 60th anniversary, goes to a young woman, who appears in Paula Weiman-Kelman's documentary, Eyes Wide Open.

For a year, Ms Weiman-Kelman followed American Jews as they visited Israel. Towards the end of the film, a young, articulate woman comes out with this sweet solipsism: "I would love to be non-conflicted about this place." Quite.
________________________________

Ultra-Orthodox Jews are expanding the population of the West Bank by large numbers

The Jewish settler population in Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, is growing twice as fast as the rest of the population in other areas in Israel and the Ultra-Orthodox community is responsible for the major portion of the annual growth in these disputed territories.

In the areas where the Ultra-Orthodox move in to establish their young families, the annual growth rate is five to six times more than Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv's growth respectively and twice as much as the growth of many other Jewish settlements.

The Ultra-Orthodox rabbis sanctioned living in these settlements assuming that these territories would be annexed to Israel sometime in the near future.

The expanding population of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Judea and Samaria is in essence a page out of Bible prophecy for these religious Jews and the land of their forefathers.

Since the end of the Six Day War in June of 1967, Jews both religious and secular have been moving into the area of Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, building their homes and raising their families. These disputed territories have increased in population over the years to nearly 500,000 people in two hundred Jewish settlements.

Now, the Israeli government is reporting that the fastest growth of population in any area of Israel is this area referred to as the West Bank, but known Biblically as Judea and Samaria.

As I mentioned, this report is a page out of the prophetic passages in God's Word. The Ancient Jewish prophet Ezekiel wrote 2,500 years ago that in the Last Days God would give the land of the forefathers of the Jewish people to the Jews of today, Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel the prophet was actually told to preach to the land that would bring forth man and animal and multiply them on the land, Ezekiel 36:11. Ezekiel 36:6-22 reveals what God would do with the land for the Jews and in verse 22 tells us that would be done for His holy namesake.

Israel expects upgraded EU ties
Jun. 12, 2008
Tovah Lazaroff
THE JERUSALEM POST

The Foreign Ministry expects the European Union to boost its ties with Israel at a joint meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, despite Palestinian efforts to stymie the move.

"We expect the EU to approve Israel's request for an upgrade in the relationship," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

The tighter bonds are likely to be finalized when the ministerial-level EU-Israel Association Council convenes on the margins of the EU Council meeting, later on Monday. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is expected to head to Luxembourg for the talks.

To try to thwart the deepening relationship between Israel and the EU, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad sent a letter to EU ministers and heads of state asking that Israel's request be denied based on its treatment of the Palestinians.

The EU Parliamentary Working Group on the Middle East has also spoken out against upgrading ties with Israel.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the EU was likely to reject a wide-range upgrade at this time.

Mekel denied the report. "It's not true," he told the Post. "We are already involved in a wide array of activities with the EU and these benefit both sides."

The upgrade is so far along that the 27 member states are discussing the wording of the document that would codify it, he said. "When there are 27 countries it is not easy for them to reach a common text."

Europe is Israel's largest trading partner, and the EU's cooperation level with Israel is the highest with any non-EU member state.

Still, Israel seeks a closer union. It has asked for significant involvement in finance, education, environment, youth, development, law enforcement, security cooperation and scientific research. Israel and the EU have also looked at holding a joint summit of heads of state and government.

According to the EU Embassy in Israel and the European Commission in Brussels, the process to upgrade ties is pushing forward.

European Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said "it was a little bit premature" for Reuters to report that the EU planned to deny Israel's request. There is a debate now among member states on this issue, he said.

The EU member states are reviewing the union's relationship with Israel, not only in the bilateral context but also within the wider contest of what is happening in the Middle East, he added.

At the end of the process, Altafaj said, "It is mainly the members states" who would decide whether to boost ties with Israel.

Israel expects upgraded EU ties (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659723600&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Hamas suspected of pressuring Arab employees of Israel security forces

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_hamas0297_07_03.asp (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_hamas0297_07_03.asp)

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Israel has become concerned that its large Palestinian work force is being infiltrated by Hamas.

Officials said authorities have determined that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were identifying and contacting Palestinians and Israeli Arabs who work for the Israeli government or security forces. They said the Palestinian insurgency groups were trying to pressure these workers to exploit their access to facilitate plans for mass-casualty strikes.

"Hamas has a very large presence in Jerusalem as well as in several Israeli cities and they conduct intelligence operations regarding where Arabs work and their potential for damage," an official said.

On Wednesday, at least three Israelis were killed and 40 others were injured when a Palestinian contractor for the state's light rail project commandeered a huge bulldozer and plowed into cars and buses in downtown Jerusalem. The Palestinian, a 30-year-old from Jerusalem with a criminal record, was killed by an off-duty Israeli soldier.

"To our regret the attackers do not cease coming up with new ways to strike at the heart of the Jewish people here in Jerusalem," Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski said.

Officials said they were uncertain whether the Palestinian, a convicted rapist and drug dealer, was recruited by Hamas to conduct the attack. Hamas did not claim responsibility, but praised the killing of Israeli civilians.

"We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people in the West Bank and all over the occupied lands," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

The Fatah militia, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was among three Palestinian groups that claimed responsibility. Al Aqsa has been formally under the leadership of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

"It looks as if it was a spontaneous act," Israeli police chief Dudi Cohen said.

But officials said the Palestinian bulldozer driver, who appeared to have been headed for the crowded Mahane Yehuda market, carefully planned his attack. They said the driver was probably under pressure from Hamas regarding debts or accusations that he had collaborated with Israel.

"The way these things start is that Arab employees of the government, particularly if they are Palestinians, come under pressure to prove that they are not working for the Israeli security services," the official said. "This can sometimes lead to a terrorist act."

'Lebanon got a plump prisoner, we got bones in plastic bags'

Voices critical of Hizbullah respond to prisoner swap deal, including Kuwaiti columnist who says, 'Lebanon should thank God that Israel is its neighbor, rather than Saddam's Iraq'

Roee Nahmias
Published: 07.27.08, 12:45 / Israel News

A week has gone by since the implementation of the prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hizbullah, but the winds have not yet died down in Lebanon and the Middle East. Most of the Lebanese reactions commend Hassan Nasrallah and his organization, but a select few have uttered criticisms without reprieve.

One of those critical voices comes from Kuwait, a country that has despised Hizbullah ever since one of the organization's leaders, Imad Mugniyah, was involved in the abduction of a Kuwaiti plane in 1986, which killed two passengers.

Fouad al-Hashem, a columnist for the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan, wrote that Lebanon should consider itself lucky to be blessed with a neighbor such as Israel, rather than Iraq, for example. "Samir Kuntar lived in Israeli prisons for 29 years," al-Hashem wrote.

"No one cut off his ears, tore out his fingernails, or raped him. He ate three meals a day, watched television, and read newspapers. He was even allowed to study at one of Israel's open universities, where he received an academic degree."

The columnist continued, "Pictures published following his release testify to his health. Now he can begin his new life by going to a restaurant, eating humus with pine nuts and meat, and smoking a hookah. He can even sip a glass of arrack and say, 'thank you, Israel' for being more humane than Saddam Hussein and his party of terror.

"Hizbullah and Kuntar's family should thank their maker for making Israel their neighbors rather than Hussein's Iraq. Otherwise, Kuntar would not have come back to his homeland on his feet, at a healthy weight of 90 kg, but rather in a little plastic bag containing a few bones, as our Kuwaiti prisoners returned to us."

Al-Hashem went on to say that despite the fact that the Kuwaiti prisoners were innocent, they were fed "pieces of bread as hard as rock" and "polluted water", and finally "led into the desert together, where they were murdered Nazi-style, and buried in mass graves without trial, law, attorneys, or involvement of the media."

Al-Hashem was not the only one critical of Nasrallah's accomplishment. Voices from within Lebanon also rose to the occasion. Al-Mustaqbal, a paper known for rivaling Hizbullah, challenged the organization's leader to answer for the 200 Lebanese prisoners that remained lost to Syria.

"I want to recall the issue of the Lebanese prisoners, detainees, and missing persons located in Syrian prisons since the mid '70s," columnist Abdullah al-Hadlak wrote. "Can the defeated terrorist leader of Hizbullah end the suffering of the families of these Lebanese prisoners and cause Damascus to bring an end to this subject, which has become the scarlet letter on its forehead?"

Referring to Nasrallah, he continued, "If he claims he won, I invite him to act with courage and fire one missile, or one shell towards the north of Israel. Maybe even to be brave and kidnap one Israeli soldier. If he does this, the gates of hell will open before him."

'Lebanon itself has become captive'

Other Lebanese criticism came from the Mufti of Mount Lebanon Sheikh Mohammed Ali al-Jouzoum, who has spoken out against Hizbullah in many instances. In a statement he published recently, the mufti claimed that the release of the five Lebanese prisoners has made Lebanon itself a captive.

"The Lebanese people rejoiced in welcoming the senior prisoner, Samir Kuntar, and his friends, but Hizbullah's hyperbolic propaganda had a political agenda beyond the release of the prisoners," al-Jouzoum wrote. "The release of prisoners is a grand thing, but in releasing a few prisoners from Israel the homeland itself has been taken captive by Hizbullah and Iran."

According to the mufti, Lebanon will now be unable to make a move that does not suit the organization. "If (the homeland) moves a little towards its own national interests in a way that does not suit Hizbullah… it will pay a hefty price as it did in July of 2006 and May of 2008," he said, referring to the Second Lebanon War and the Beirut riots, respectively.

He added that he did not despise Hizbullah's weapons when they were aimed towards the enemy. "When those weapons were aimed towards Israel I was proud, but now I feel that these weapons are aimed at the foundations of the country that has submitted to them," he concluded.

Lebanon should thank God that Israel is its neighbor (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3573628,00.html)

New Israeli regulations could cripple Christian ministries
July 27, 2008

Israel’s Ministry of Interior has decided to reinstate an old regulation that is threatening to cripple, if not shut down, several Christian ministries by limiting the time volunteers can spend serving in Israel to 27 months.

The ruling was as sudden as it was drastic. The effects began to be felt earlier this month when three volunteers from Christian Friends of Israel, assuming their visas would be renewed at the Interior Ministry under the previous five-year agreement, were instead told they had two weeks to pack up and leave the country.

Since then, several more volunteers who have been in the country at least two years have been denied visa renewals and are planning hasty departures. Many others have been left with a heavy sense of uncertainty as their own visas come due in the following months.

Several Christian organizations, which were founded to bless Israel, are bolstered by volunteer staff who until now served for up to five years in various capacities. The sudden change in policy has suddenly cut some staffs by 50 percent or more.

The regulation does not specifically target Christian volunteers, but is having the greatest effect on Christians and Christian organizations, which have a heavy presence in the land.

And while some of the larger Christian organizations are granted long-term staff visas and will perhaps be able to cope better with sudden losses, the smaller organizations - subject to the new turnover even at the managerial and founding levels - could end up shutting down or, at best, severely minimizing their outreach in the land.

The decision has left the community reeling and scrambling to make last-minute arrangements both for those leaving and others filling their voids. Volunteers who did not want to publicly criticize the government’s decision spoke to Israel Today on background. One manager said it is a critical time to lose people after investing in them for two years. Another pointed out that their own date of impending departure didn’t allow enough time to pass on their responsibilities.

Yuval Yerushalmi, attorney for four Christian organizations in Jerusalem, said while the enforcement affects all volunteers, “all this is definitely making our lives more difficult.”

Yerushalmi stressed that the new regulations cannot be painted as "anti-Christian activity," but acknowledged that they will leave Christian organizations hard-pressed to function on the same scale as they once did.

Even if, as many say, the Messianic Jewish body in Israel is forced out of the closet and picks up the humanitarian slack, one reason the Christians were here was to mend centuries-old rifts between Jews and Christians. That mission will undoubtedly be negatively impacted by the new regulations.

Those volunteers asked to leave will be allowed back into Israel on another volunteer visa of 27 months after a year out of the country. However, they must return with a visa approved and issued by the Israeli embassy in their country of origin, a difficult and cumbersome task.

New Israeli regulations could cripple Christian ministries (http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=16734)

J'lem underwhelmed by Syrian overtures
Jul. 28, 2008
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

Israeli diplomatic officials were not overly impressed Monday by a seven-minute interview Syrian Ambassador to Washington Imad Mustafa gave to Americans for Peace Now, in which he called for "an end to the state of war."

"We have heard this type of thing from the Syrian ambassadors before in places like Washington and London," one senior diplomatic official said. "But why doesn't Syria's ambassador in Cairo say the same thing? Why do we not hear it from others, from Damascus? They are speaking to their audience in the West, giving them what they want to hear. They are not speaking to us."

Another diplomatic official said the Syrians were "playing a double game. They are interested in a breakthrough with Washington, not with us. They want the process, not peace."

Mustafa, considered a close associate of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said in a webcast interview placed on the Americans for Peace Now (APN) Web site on Saturday night that if Israel wanted peace with Syria and Lebanon, "if they want the normalized relations they are looking for, security on their northern border, they cannot have this while they continue to occupy our Golan."

Mustafa said there was presently a "historic opportunity" to make peace not only with Syria and Lebanon, but also with the whole Arab world, since "we believe that Syria plays the role of the gatekeeper between Israel and the rest of the Arab world."

The ambassador said it was necessary for the US to become actively involved in the diplomatic process between Israel and Syria. Peace, he said, is a "great achievement" that will need "guarantees."

"[Peace] needs a world power like the United States of America to play an active role, not necessarily in negotiating the details, but in providing guarantees, and helping create the momentum that will actually lead to signing the peace agreement and implementing it," he said.

Mustafa said Damascus had the "will and the vision" for peace, and that "the onus is on the Israelis... to respond in kind to our initiative and prove that they also are willing to do what it takes to make peace with their northern neighbors.

"We have consistently had one message to the Israelis: We want to make peace, we believe in a fair and comprehensive peace with you." Israel, he said, was the wavering party - sometimes interested in talks, other times not.

Mustafa said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, at the beginning of his term, had not been interested in talks with Syria, but has now changed his position, "and we are very happy about this change in his position."

When asked what steps both sides could take to generate more public support for a peace deal, Mustafa said: "This is the State of Syria telling the State of Israel we desire to end the state of war between us, to conclude peace between two states, to recognize each other and to live as peaceful neighbors with each other within a normalized context."

The fourth round of indirect talks between Israel and Syria, with Turkey as the mediator, is scheduled to take place this week in Turkey.

Ori Nir, the spokesman for Americans for Peace Now in Washington who set up and conducted the interview with Mustafa, said he had been asking the Syrian envoy to do the webcast for some time. Nir said he knew Mustafa from his time as a reporter for The Forward newspaper, for which he once interviewed the ambassador.

"He really has been saying these things, talking in this tone, for quite some time," Nir said. "I do think there is an attempt to reach out to the Israeli public and reassure it that the peace overtures are for real, and that Syria is not only interested in the peace process, but actual peace. And I think part of the motivation has to do with Syria wanting to realign itself with the West."

When asked why, if Mustafa was interested in reaching out to the Israeli public he did not talk to the Israeli public, but rather to an American Jewish organization, Nir said the Syrians have consistently seen any interview to the Israeli press as part of a normalization process that they believe comes after negotiations for the Golan Heights, not before or during them.

Moshe Maoz, a professor emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, downplayed the importance of Mustafa's comments, saying they were "more of the same."

"This is a Syrian effort to show that they want an agreement with Israel so they can be accepted in Europe, and in the US," he said, adding that it was also probably an attempt to push Israel into a corner.

Mustafa, whom Maoz said he had met on a number of occasions, is a friend of Assad's, and his comments were "certainly coordinated" with the Syrian president. "No Syrian official would say a word without Assad's approval," he said.

"It is important for the Syrians to show the US that they are interested in an agreement," Maoz said. "They are throwing the ball in our court, but this is not a turning point."

J'lem underwhelmed by Syrian overtures (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331117926&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Olmert says peace deal in 2008 unlikely
Jul. 28, 2008
Jpost.com staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

While acknowledging that an agreement with the Palestinians on all issues, including Jerusalem, was impossible by the end of 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still wants to see a "historic agreement" concluded by the end of the year that will explicitly state that Jerusalem will be left for a later day and a different framework, diplomatic officials told The Jerusalem Post Monday.

The officials' comments came after Olmert said Monday in an appearance at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinian Authority was impossible by the end of the year due to the difficulty of negotiations surrounding the issue of Jerusalem.

However, senior diplomatic officials said Olmert still believed a historic agreement that would touch with "great specificity" on all the other core issues was within reach. Written into the agreement would be a clause defining an agreed-upon mechanism between Israel and the PA for dealing with the issue of Jerusalem in 2009.

Olmert, in what was likely to be his last appearance before the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee before the Kadima Party primaries in late September, said the gaps between Palestinian and Israeli negotiating positions on key topics other than Jerusalem, such as the refugee issue and permanent borders, "are not impossible to bridge."

"There is no practical possibility to get to an understanding about Jerusalem by the end of this year," Olmert said, adding that there were no ongoing negotiations on the topic. Instead, he said, he hoped that the current negotiations would include the "creation of a mechanism that allows us to get to a solution regarding Jerusalem."

This was the second time Olmert has publicly discussed creating a new mechanism to deal with the Jerusalem issue. In May, during the visit of US President George W. Bush, Olmert indicated during a public appearance with Bush that he was interested in drawing up an agreement with the Palestinians that would include understandings on borders, refugees and security arrangements, but leave Jerusalem for a later date.

In this way, a lack of agreement on Jerusalem, the most sensitive of the "core issues," would not torpedo agreement on other issues, where there was widely believed to be a greater degree of understanding. This, according to senior diplomatic sources, remains Olmert's overriding goal.

Regarding the other core issues, Olmert - in reference to the refugee issue - said in the Knesset: "We can get to an understanding that won't require us to take responsibility or to find a solution to the problem within Israel's borders."

"Our standpoint is that the State of Israel is the national homeland of the Jewish people and that Palestine is the country of the Palestinians," he said, in a rare use of the word "Palestine" to recognize a territorial and possibly political entity.

Negotiation was currently underway, he said, on the issue of refugees, permanent borders and security arrangements.

Olmert also announced that the decisions on final status would "involve a democratic process that will take into consideration the variety of different opinions in Israel."

Although he did not respond to calls from MK Yisrael Katz (Likud) to specify what he meant by "democratic process," Olmert promised that he would "consult with opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu" before making the final decision.

But despite the lack of active negotiation on the issue of Jerusalem, Olmert hinted at a final agreement that would not include the Arab neighborhoods located in east Jerusalem.

"The recent incidents of terror were all carried out by residents of Jerusalem. Whoever thinks that the basic fabric of Jerusalem will continue as it is - including 270,000 Arabs - will have to come to terms with the fact that there will be more bulldozers," he said, alluding to the two most recent terrorist attacks carried out in the capital. "We must take into consideration that a Jerusalem resident can move freely throughout all of Israel and we cannot necessarily predict what he will do."

During his briefing in the Knesset, which was presented under the title of "Israel's strategic situation," Olmert offered a generally optimistic picture of the security situation. He emphasized that Israel was enjoying a newfound strength in its relations with Hizbullah, and dismissed the likelihood of any increase of hostilities along the northern border. Hizbullah, he said, was now more concerned with the political situation in Lebanon, and the "disappearance" of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh had created a deterrent effect.

"Before 2006, Hizbullah feared Israel but could predict how the diplomatic leadership would respond, but now they can't predict our response," Olmert said.

Regarding Hizbullah's Syrian sponsors, Olmert said Syria must understand "that they cannot take the path of peace while preserving their ties with Iran, terror in Iraq, Hizbullah and West Bank terror groups."

"There is no need for public ultimatums, but they must be given a real strategic choice on the way to peace and detachment from the axis of evil," he said. "This [choice] includes ties with the West and bolstering the Syrian economy."

Olmert responded to critics who said he had pursued Syrian President Bashar Assad at a conference in Paris earlier in the month for a handshake that never materialized.

"We didn't try to establish any direct contact with Syria during the conference because we knew that it would be artificial," Olmert said. "The Syrians knew that I had no intent to be with him in any incidental contact, despite the hundreds of photographers waiting for the opportunity."

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrived in Washington Monday to kick off a week of meetings Israeli officials are holding with their American counterparts to consult on the contours of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement and discuss policy on Iran as the Bush administration enters its final six months in office.

Aware of the impending transfer of power in the American political scene, which could be mirrored by similar changes in Israel and the PA, Israeli officials are looking to pave the way for a transition that could extend the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations into next year even as they seek to shorten the time line for action on Iran.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is set to arrive on Wednesday for talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ahmed Qurei, who heads the PA's negotiating team, followed by Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who will focus on Iran as head of the Israeli side of the strategic dialogue between the two countries.

The State Department, meanwhile, continued to stand by the original Annapolis time line of reaching a shelf agreement by the end of the year, and put the week's discussions in that context.

"Our goal, of course, although these are difficult discussions, is to have an agreement by the end of the year, something that we continue to seek, that we'll work towards," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters Monday. "In terms of working with the two sides, it remains the same. We're going to continue working with those two sides to hopefully bring them together." But Israeli officials have their doubts.

"I don't think it's going to happen by the end of the year," said one Israeli diplomatic official, pointing to a lack of basic frameworks such as how security would be handled in a Palestinian state. He said that was one of the subjects that Barak would be dealing with during his talks with American officials.

Barak's schedule Monday included a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Vice President Richard Cheney, with consultations with Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley scheduled for Tuesday, as well as a private dinner with the former.

Olmert says peace deal in 2008 unlikely (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331122720&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Israeli prime minister resigns
Olmert's move could precipitate Israeli confrontation with Iran

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today announced he will resign from office after his Kadima party holds internal elections in September to choose a new leader.

Olmert said he is stepping down due to a criminal investigation described by police officials as "serious" in which he is accused of corruption and financial improprieties.

The move could have far reaching consequences, including establishing a more hawkish Israeli leadership that favors tough action against Iran.

"I have decided I won't run in the Kadima movement primaries, nor do I intend to intervene in the elections," Olmert said in a televised address from his official Jerusalem residence. "When a new (Kadima party) chairman is chosen, I will resign as prime minister to permit them to put together a new government swiftly and effectively," he said.

Olmert's resignation immediately sent political shock waves throughout the country, as it could result in his Kadima party retaining power or the election of a prime minister from a different party.

When Kadima elects a new leader in September, that person will work to form a coalition government consisting of more than half the Knesset's 120 seats. If a Knesset plurality is established, Kadima can retain its control over the prime minister's seat.

But if the Kadima party cannot establish a ruling coalition, new elections will be held in which the leader of the party with the most seats becomes prime minister. Currently, opposition leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the favorite to win.

Olmert had little choice but to resign. He stood no chance of winning his party's September leadership primaries, which he agreed to hold as a condition for retaining his major coalition partner, the leftist Labor party. Labor had threatened to bolt in June unless Olmert agreed to early Kadima primaries.

Now top Kadima figures will battle for the party's leadership and possibly the prime minister's seat. The fight looks ready to be launched between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister. Mofaz seems to be Olmert's favored candidate.

Mofaz has made strong statements in support of military action against Iran. If he wins the Kadima primaries, he could form an alliance with Netanyahu's Likud party, which also favors strong action against Iran.

If a new Kadima head cannot form a government, Netayahu looks likely to become Israel's next leader, although Labor chairman Ehud Barak, another former prime minister, also eyes the top position.

Olmert to give Palestinians state before quitting
Prime minister plans to accelerate negotiations to reach deal on paper by next month

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Palestinian Authority he intends to accelerate negotiations the next few weeks to reach a deal on paper outlining a Palestinian state before he steps down from office next month, a top PA negotiator told WND.

"Papers are very important. It puts limits on the new prime minister. For example, the weak point of Israeli-Syrian negotiations are papers signed by former prime ministers that now must be abided during current negotiations," said the PA negotiator, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity.

"Olmert told us his goal is to reach an agreement on paper," the negotiator said.

He said the agreement will likely encompass understandings regarding the transfer of much of the West Bank to the Palestinians. He said he "hopes" the issue of Jerusalem is broached but that it might not be mentioned on paper beyond a declaration of agreement to negotiate further.

Sending political shockwaves through the country, Olmert yesterday announced he will resign from office after his Kadima party holds internal elections next month to choose a new leader. He said he is stepping down due to a criminal investigation, described by police officials as "serious," in which he is accused of corruption and financial improprieties.

But Olmert officials have been telling reporters here the prime minister intends to continue negotiating with the PA as long as he remains in office.

One Olmert official told the Haaretz daily newspaper the prime minister intends to "reach an agreement with the Palestinians during the time he has left." "Any agreement he reaches with the Palestinians won't be a personal agreement, and he will make sure that the (new) Kadima leadership is briefed and on board," the official added.

For his part, PA President Mahmoud Abbas' announced he would negotiate with any Israeli leader and that Olmert's departure shouldn't affect negotiations started at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis conference, which seek to create a Palestinian state by January.

Not everyone in Olmert's party was happy with the continued talks.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, considered a frontrunner for the Kadima leadership primary, said it would be wrong to reach agreements with the Palestinians on the core issues of the conflict while Olmert's government is teetering.

"At this time of change in the government, we must not reach agreements on the core issues in negotiations with the Palestinians," Mofaz said. "Anything that is decided now is very problematic, because it is happening before the change in the government and against the background of instability on the Palestinian side."

Last Ethiopian airlift lands in Israel

Aug. 5, 2008
Haviv Rettig , THE JERUSALEM POST

As the last organized flight of Ethiopian Jewry landed in Israel on Tuesday, the government faced harsh criticism from advocates for continued aliya who said Israel was "abandoning" up to 8,700 Jews.

According to the Public Committee for Ethiopian Jewry, some 8,700 members of the Falash Mura, who converted to Christianity a century ago and have been undergoing conversions through Israel's Chief Rabbinate in order to make aliya, were left in Ethiopia and have not yet been examined for aliya eligibility.

Due to their questionable status as Jews, the Falash Mura were not airlifted with the Beit Yisrael group of Ethiopian Jews during Operation Solomon in 1991.

Critics, many within the government, argue that the number of those calling themselves Falash Mura grows constantly as impoverished non-Jews seek a better life in Israel.

But advocates for Falash Mura immigration point out that the group has been recognized as former Jews by Israel's chief rabbis, and that they undergo an Orthodox conversion upon arriving in Israel.

"Leaving [the Falash Mura] in Ethiopia is unethical and not Jewish," read a statement by the public committee, an organization that boasts as honorary president the former Supreme Court chief justice Meir Shamgar, and also includes noted rabbis and intellectuals among its membership.

The committee called on the government "to end the injustice toward thousands of Jews who are waiting [in Ethiopia] in difficult conditions and are making every effort to return to the religion of their fathers and to make aliya to Israel."

The Tuesday airlift drew to a close the state-organized campaign that brought some 120,000 immigrants from Ethiopia over the past three decades.

A government spokesperson said in a statement that the Tuesday flight brought an end to the government's commitment from February 2005 to determine the eligibility for aliya of 17,188 members of the Falash Mura.

The government was committed to implementing a High Court of Justice's demand to examine the eligibility of a few hundred more. As for the thousands which Falash Mura advocates say should be examined and possibly accepted for aliya, the government would deal with them on an individual basis, the statement added.

"I don't think the aliya is over," Jewish Agency chairman Ze'ev Bielski said Tuesday, noting that a cabinet-level meeting last week chaired by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had decided to examine ways to continue the immigration.

"Every individual instance will be checked on its merits," Bielski added, "and we believe more will come."

In any case, he promised, the Jewish Agency would execute whatever policy the Israeli government chooses regarding those left in Ethiopia, and in the meantime would leave behind an office and staff on the ground in the east African country.

Meanwhile, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss said Tuesday that he had completed his own investigation of the government's handling of the Falash Mura immigration and had presented copies to Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar and other government leaders for their response. Lindenstrauss said the report would be presented in a few days to the Knesset State Control Committee, which had asked him to conduct the investigation.

Last Ethiopian airlift lands in Israel (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331194357&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Sunday marks the destruction of both the first and second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The fast of Tisha B'Av, the "saddest" day in the Jewish calendar, begins on Saturday night as the Sabbath ends, and ends Sunday evening at sundown. Its name literally means "the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av," the date of some of the gravest tragedies to have befallen the Jewish People. Most notably, both Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed on Tisha B'Av, but the list of calamities includes also the following:

* G-d decreed, following the Sin of the Spies as recounted in Numbers 13-14, that the Children of Israel would not be allowed to enter the Land of Israel until the entire generation had died out.
* The fall of Beitar, the last fortress to hold out during the Bar Kochba revolt in the year 135 C.E., fell to the Romans, marking the last milestone in the beginning of our current Exile.
* A year later, the Temple area was plowed under.
* The Jews of Spain were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492.
* World War I erupted in 1914.
* The Jews of Gush Katif spent their last legal day in their homes in 2005, and were expelled three days later.

"Secular Jews for the Temple"
The centerpiece of Tisha B'Av mourning is the destruction of the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash). Among the many groups that have sprouted over the past several years promoting awareness of the Beit HaMikdash is one named "Secular Jews for the Temple." Ahuvyah Tabenkin of left-wing Kibbutz Ein Harod said, "It's true that we don't exactly represent a majority of secular Kibbutz members... but the pioneers have always been a minority: the Zionists were a minority among the Jews, those who came to the Land were a minority among the Zionists, those who worked the land were also a minority, and now we are a minority as well. But I hope that soon we will be the leaders."

Tabenkin has nationalist, political and historical reasons why the Temple and the Temple Mount are important. Asked if he has religious considerations as well, Tabenkin told Arutz-7's Ariel Kahane, "Well, the word 'religious' can be the subject of long discussions. Look, the Gerrer Rebbe once said, 'When the Haskalah [Enlightenment] came to the world, with science, physics, etc., we [the religious] left it for the secular Jews; when Zionism came to the world, we gave that too to the secular; and now we have also left the Repentance Movement for the secular.' Accordingly, it looks like we [the secular] will also have to build the Beit HaMikdash."

Asked whether he calls for the actual construction of the Temple, he said, "There are many religious authorities, including Maimonides, who say that the Temple must be rebuilt, and so I think it should be done... As a first step, we must show that we control the Temple Mount... I call upon all of Israel to come to the Mount on [Tisha B'Av] and show that it belongs to the Jewish nation."

Prominent rabbis permit the ascent to parts of the Temple Mount after certain Halakhic precautions have been taken.

Tisha B'Av Laws
The Sages enacted Yom Kippur-like restrictions on Tisha B'Av, including no eating, drinking, washing, or marital relations. Leather shoes are not worn, and even Torah study - a major source of Jewish joy - is restricted to topics connected with the Destruction of the Temples, Tisha B'Av, and the like.

Though the afternoon before Tisha B'Av is generally marked by mourning-like practices, this is not true this year, when the eve of Tisha B'av is on the Sabbath. The afternoon Third Meal is larger than usual, as it will be the last meal for over 24 hours, and the usual Sabbath songs are sung. However, one must not eat after sundown on Sabbath, even though the Sabbath has not yet ended.

When three stars have appeared, the "short Havdalah" is recited ["Blessed is He Who separates between Sabbath and weekdays"], and Tisha B'Av officially begins; leather shoes are removed and unlaundered weekday clothes are worn. The evening prayer service is followed by one of the Havdalah blessings, that of "light," and Eichah (Book of Lamentations) is read aloud.

The other Havdalah blessings are recited on Sunday evening before eating; the blessing on spices is not recited at all this week. Those who feel they must eat on Tisha B'Av for health reasons should consult an Orthodox rabbi.

Sunday marks the destruction of both the first and second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127121)

Hamas plans to breach Sinai border Sun.
Aug. 10, 2008
Khaled Abu Toameh
THE JERUSALEM POST

Hamas supporters are planning to storm the Rafah border crossing with Sinai on Sunday to protest against the continued closure of the terminal, sources in the Gaza Strip said over the weekend.

The move was aimed at "embarrassing" the Egyptians and forcing them to reopen the border crossing, the sources added.

For 12 days, beginning on January 23, hundreds of thousands of Gazans breached the border and poured into Sinai, seriously embarrassing the Egyptians and sparking tensions between Cairo and Hamas.

The decision to send Hamas supporters to the border on Sunday comes amid renewed tensions between the Islamist movement and Egypt.

A Hamas official in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was an "American puppet and dictator." The official accused Mubarak of reneging on his promise to reopen the Rafah terminal once Hamas had accepted the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire with Israel.

"Mubarak is too afraid to make a decision on his own," the Hamas official said. "He's afraid of the Americans and the Israelis. He's also under pressure from [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas not to open the Rafah border crossing out of fear that such a move would boost Hamas's standing."

The Hamas official added that Mubarak and his "dictatorial" regime were responsible for the continued "siege" against Gaza.

"People are dying every day in the Gaza Strip because they can't travel to Egypt and other Arab countries for medical treatment," he said. "More than 230 Palestinians have died since the closure of the Rafah border crossing more than a year ago."

The official said there was no justification for the continued closure of the crossing. "Hamas has abided by the cease-fire agreement, but the Egyptians haven't fulfilled their promise to reopen the border," he said.

"Hamas won't resume the negotiations over a prisoner exchange [with Israel] until the Egyptians reopen the border crossing."

Hamas also accused Mubarak of banning a senior Hamas delegation from traveling through the crossing.

The delegation had been supposed to visit a number of Arab countries at the invitation of Arab parliamentarians.

Salah Bardaweel, a Hamas legislator and spokesman in the Strip, said Egypt's refusal to reopen the Rafah crossing was one of the main reasons behind the delay in achieving an agreement over a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

He said tensions between Hamas and Cairo stemmed from the fact that the Egyptians were trying to force Hamas to accept all their demands for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit.

Another Hamas official said his movement was "extremely upset" with Mubarak for unleashing a "smear campaign" against Hamas in the Egyptian media.

Cairo's official media have been launching scathing attacks on Hamas in recent months, accusing the movement of consolidating divisions among the Palestinians and attempting to "export terrorism" to Egypt.

The Hamas official also accused the Egyptians of providing sanctuary to dozens of former Fatah operatives who had fled from the Gaza Strip.

Many of these operatives, the official said, were using Cairo as a base for planning to undermine the Hamas government and to launch armed attacks on Hamas figures and institutions in Gaza.

Egypt's refusal to release scores of Hamas members from its prisons has also escalated tensions.

Many of the Hamas prisoners have been in Egyptian jail for more than three years. Hamas representatives accused Mubarak of reneging on an earlier promise to release their men.

Hamas plans to breach Sinai border Sun. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218104249815&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Israel: Lebanon is responsible for Hezbollah's actions
By Barak Ravid
08/08/2008

Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any attacks against Israel, in particular for any Hezbollah efforts to avenge the death of its military leader Imad Mughniyeh. This decision on Wednesday by the security cabinet represents a change in Israeli policy, after always firmly separating Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.

According to defense establishment recommendations adopted by the security cabinet, Israel will treat the Lebanese unity government, which is headed by Fouad Siniora and includes Hezbollah, as responsible for any event that takes place in its sovereign territory or events for which Lebanese nationals are responsible.

A senior Jerusalem source said if Hezbollah attacks Israel from inside Lebanese territory, shoots at Israel Air Force aircraft or carries out a terror attack abroad as revenge for the Mughniyeh assassination (which it attributes to Israel), then Israel will hold Lebanon responsible and respond appropriately. In the coming weeks, Israel plans to start transmitting this message to the United Nations, United States, Russia and European nations, and primarily to Syria and Hezbollah itself.

In the Second Lebanon War, Israel avoided damaging Lebanese civilian infrastructure such as power stations, ports or government institutions, despite the recommendation of then-chief of staff Dan Halutz, due to pressure from Washington on Israel. The U.S. claimed that bombing Lebanese infrastructure would topple the moderate Siniora government.

Defense officials noted in the cabinet meeting that two developments supported a change in policy. The first is the fact Hezbollah is now a partner in a Lebanese unity government and holds veto rights. The second is that the guidelines of the new Lebanese government guidelines, approved by President Michel Suleiman, allow Hezbollah to continue its military activity against Israel.

The defense establishment believes these new conditions improve Israel's deterrent power as Hezbollah understands the severe ramifications of the new situation should there be any action against Israel in Lebanon or overseas.

Israel: Lebanon is responsible for Hezbollah's actions (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009610.html)

Israel fears Russian-Syrian arms pact
Aug. 11, 2008
Herb Keinon
THE JERUSALEM POST

Syrian President Bashar Assad is scheduled to visit Moscow next week, the Russian News Agency RIA Novosti reported Monday.

Assad last visited Moscow in December 2006, and Israeli officials Monday dismissed the notion that this visit was in any way linked to Israel's sales of weapons to Georgia.

Although there was some concern in Jerusalem that if Israel did not dramatically reduce weapons shipments to Tbilisi, Russia would sell more advanced weaponry to Syria and Iran, Israeli officials estimated that the visit was a Russian effort to get more involved in the indirect Israeli-Syrian track.

Israel has, over the last few months, considerably reduced arms sales to Tbilisi, and has only given licenses for defensive weapons.

"Russia wants to be a player here," one Israeli diplomatic official said, "and I don't imagine that they were very happy that the Syrians are demanding greater US involvement in the Syrian-Israeli talks before agreeing to direct negotiations. They also want to be involved."

On his last visit to Moscow, Assad reportedly expressed interest in procuring Russia's S-300 air and missile defense system, but to no avail. Israel is now trying to keep Russia from selling this state-of-the-art system to Iran, which is also interested in buying it.

The Russian news agency, quoting a spokesman for the Syrian information ministry, said Assad's trip will take place on August 20 and last two weeks. The report said Assad would meet Russian leaders and discuss bilateral relations, as well as world and regional developments, in particular the Middle East diplomatic process and the situation in Iraq.

In addition to meeting the Russian leaders in Moscow, Assad - who Israeli officials have said is already benefiting from the indirect talks with Jerusalem by improving his situation in the west - is expected to host French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner at the end of the month to prepare for a visit by mid-September of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy, whose invitation to Assad in July to come to Paris and take part in a summit of Mediterranean and EU countries seemed to open the door to the West, said in Paris at the time that he intended to visit Syria by mid-September.

Israel fears Russian-Syrian arms pact (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446175079&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Israel stages war games on occupied Golan

8 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel launched large-scale military exercises on Tuesday on the occupied Golan Heights along the Syrian border on Tuesday in the presence of senior political and military officials.

"There is a reinforcement on the other side, and it's not by chance that we are training intensively on the Golan Heights and on a major scale," Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who observed the drills, told army radio.

He was referring to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah, which Israel says has been rearming with help from Syria and Iran since the 2006 Lebanon war, widely regarded in Israel as a failure.

Barak said UN resolution which ended the 34-day war "failed to fulfill its goals."

"There has been a very significant reinforcement of Hezbollah in recent years, and we are examining the possibility that the balance of power has shifted with the introduction of sophisticated weapons from Syria," Barak said.

The August 2006 resolution demanded the pullout of the Israeli army from south Lebanon and its replacement by a UN-backed Lebanese army deployment and called for the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.

But in the two years since, Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of rearming with rockets and other sophisticated weapons smuggled into Lebanon from Syria.

Israel has itself continued regular overflights of Lebanon, which are in violation of the agreement.

Barak also warned the government against slashing defence spending in a proposed budget aimed at reducing overall expenditure by some 2.6 billion dollars, saying "Israel cannot afford the luxury of undermining its security."

The exercises on the Golan were taking place despite the resumption of indirect Turkey-mediated peace talks between Israel and Syria in May after an eight-year break.

Israel captured and occupied the strategic plateau in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed it in 1981.

Israel stages war games on occupied Golan (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hm_t5ZzN22OeZO_Btsg6P_S_4jGQ)

Israel readies for 'emergency aliya'
Aug. 11, 2008
Herb Keinon
THE JERUSALEM POST

The government started preparing Monday for emergency aliya from Georgia, even though at this time only some 60 Georgian Jews have filled out immigration papers following the fighting that began there on Friday.

Immigration and Absorption Minister Eli Aflalo convened an emergency meeting Monday at which it was decided that Georgian Jews desirous of making aliya would be eligible for an expanded immigration package reserved for emergency immigration and immigration of entire communities.

Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz said that while 60 Georgian Jews have filled out immigration forms and opened aliya files, the Agency's emissaries in the country have been "inundated by scores of requests for information."

Aflalo's spokesman, Zvi Avisar, said that Israel was gearing up for two waves of Georgian immigration. The first wave, which could begin arriving within the next two weeks, was expected to include "dozens of immigrants," he said.

A second wave, he said, was expected even after the current fighting dies down. "The tension will remain," he said, "and in another month we are expecting a second wave, a bit more organized."

Avisar said it was decided at Monday's meeting to send additional emissaries to the region to spread the word about the immigration possibilities, and to deal with the not inconsiderable logistical problems that are involved in bringing people from a conflict zone.

One problem that has already arisen, he said, was that many of those who might be interested in immigrating do not have a valid passport or visa to leave the country.

In addition to Aflalo, the meeting was also attended by Ze'ev Bielski, the head of the Jewish Agency, Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, the foreign ministry's deputy director-general in charge of Diaspora affairs, representatives of the Georgian Jewish community in Israel and other government officials.

Ben-Shmuel, according to one participant at the meeting, said that the Foreign Ministry was looking into overland routes to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey to facilitate those who may want to immigrate if the conflict spreads and it becomes impossible to leave Georgia by air.

Bielski said that if there was a demand, the Jewish Agency would provide a special plane to take the Jews to Israel.

The representatives of the Georgian community said that some of the Georgian Jews were hesitant to leave everything and come to Israel because they were concerned they would not find jobs or places to live upon arrival.

Aflalo, according to his spokesman, said that the enhanced immigrant basket that the Georgian Jews would be provided was intended to ease their passage, and that they would be given additional rental money and opportunities for job re-training.

One of the reasons that it was decided at the meeting to send additional emissaries to Georgia, Avisar said, was to spread the word among the Georgian Jews that Israel was gearing up for their arrival.

Israel readies for 'emergency aliya' (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446174707&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Russia to get disputed J'lem property (http://bestsmileys.com/fainting/1.gif)
Aug. 14, 2008
Etgar Lefkovits , THE JERUSALEM POST

The government plans to transfer ownership of the land on which the capital's St. Sergius Church stands to Russia in the coming weeks, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

The issue, which has been under negotiation since then-Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed the site in Jerusalem's Russian Compound and others nearby as property of the Russian Orthodox Church four years ago, is extremely delicate as Israel is concerned over the precedent that might be set for other churches' properties in the capital.

For example, the Greek Orthodox Church owns the land on which the Knesset and the Prime Minister's Residence are located.

The premises of St. Sergius, which are currently used by the Agriculture Ministry and environmental protection organizations, will remain in Israeli possession for the next few years, with the exact period to be determined in ongoing negotiations with the Russians, said Foreign Ministry official Eitan Margalit, who headed a ministerial committee on the issue.

Negotiations continue over the handover of a second property that is already listed as Russian-owned and houses the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, Margalit said.

The decision to transfer ownership of the St. Sergius site comes after a Jerusalem court approved transferring ownership of the property from the Custodian General to the government, the last legal move required ahead of the transfer to the Russians, officials said. A few more properties are reportedly being claimed by Russia as well.

The government's decision was condemned this week by Jerusalem opposition leader Nir Barkat, as well as by an attorney representing the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, which aims to safeguard a Jewish presence throughout Israel. The forum has vowed to petition the High Court of Justice to stop the move.

"I believe that this move represents a dangerous precedent of transferring properties in the heart of Jerusalem and is in violation of the city's interest, since this is not the only property being contested by foreign sources," Jerusalem mayoral candidate Barkat wrote in a letter to Olmert on Tuesday.

"It is unclear what the purpose of such a move is, how it advances the national interest and strengthens Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, and what the government of Israel is getting in exchange for such a large and central piece of property in the capital," Barkat wrote.

He added that the legal status of an exchange of telegrams between the two governments on the issue was uncertain since the Olmert-Putin agreement was never approved by the Knesset.

Attorney Itzhak Bam, representing the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, said Wednesday that the agreement was illegal.

"This is not an ordinary real estate deal, but an international agreement, done for diplomatic reasons," Bam wrote in a letter to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on August 5.

He added that the "near-secret" agreement had neither been ratified by the government nor presented to the Knesset.

"This is not permissible in a democratic society," Bam said.

The two church properties were bought by Israel from the Khrushchev government in 1964 for a shipment of citrus fruit, in what became known as the "orange deal." However, the validity of that agreement was later disputed by the Russan government.

Russia to get disputed J'lem property (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446197320&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Terrorists Building 16-Mile Range Rockets During Ceasefire
14 Av 5768, August 15, '08

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Gaza terrorists are building a 25-kilometer (16.8 mile) range rocket, dubbed Nasser-3, despite the temporary eight-week-old ceasefire, according to CNN, which visited the factory run by Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terrorists. The Nasser rocket's maximum range includes Ashdod, a large port city dotted by oil refineries. A rocket explosion at one of them would cause a mega-disaster and severely cripple Israel's economy.

Israel acknowledges that the production of more weapons violates the ceasefire, which already has been broken by 40 rocket and mortar attacks. However, when asked by CNN to comment, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev limited his remarks to saying, "If the ceasefire is just a front for extremists in Gaza to rearm and regroup, of course we have the right to act. Any arms buildup is a direct violation of the calm that was achieved."

The media network said its reporters were blindfolded on the way to the factory.

Gaze-based terrorists have attacked the western Negev with nearly 7,000 Kassam and Grad rockets and mortar shells since the Oslo War broke out just under eight years ago.

Israel has held Hamas accountable for all of the attacks since the Islamist organization's victory over rival Fatah forces in last summer's militia war in Gaza. At least 16 different terrorist organizations are active in the Gaza area, and the PRC threatened that the truce will come to an abrupt end if Israel does not agree to open the Egyptian-Gaza border crossing dividing Rafiah.

Israel has maintained that the truce calls for the border to be re-opened only after kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is returned, but Hamas is insisting that the barrier come down before talks advance. It has demanded the release of hundreds of Hamas terrorists, including those with "blood on their hands."

An Islamic Jihad terrorist spokesman told the Chinese news agency Xinhua Thursday that the ceasefire was "fragile and was expected to end at any time." Al-Quds Brigade terrorists accused Israel of breaking the truce agreement 20 times the past week by targeting Arab fishermen. Israel has said it fires on fishing boats only when then encroach on forbidden zones and ignore warnings to keep away.

Terrorists Building 16-Mile Range Rockets During Ceasefire (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127198)

Dome of the Rock 'erased' from Temple Mount

Religious movement’s Tisha B’Av pamphlet shows Temple Mount minus Muslim sites; group chairman says hopes al-Aqsa will be obliterated altogether, not just through Photoshop software

Kobi Nahshoni
Published: 08.15.08, 08:08 / Israel Jewish Scene

"On the eve of Tisha B'Av the serious question is raised whether we should take the opportunity and ascend to the Temple Mount as it stands empty, inviting us to build our dream house on it."

Whoever read this caption which appeared on the cover of the Maayanei Hayeshua movement’s latest pamphlet might have thought that this was a symbolic expression of the expected redemption on the eve of Tisha B’Av.

However, those with a keen eye noticed that the huge picture of the Temple Mount which was spread on the cover page was missing the Dome of the Rock, and that the pamphlet “cleaned” the mount of all Muslim signs

The Islamic Movement’s northern branch did not like the graphic design work and is attributing the “infiltration of inciting material calling for the obliteration of al-Aqsa in all synagogues in Israel” to this Zionist movement.

On the right side of the photograph, which was taken from the steps leading down from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall square, the wall is seen and above it the Temple Mount.

Instead of the mosque and the dome, old Jerusalem houses are seen, “with the goal of expressing the yearning for something else on the Temple Mount,” according to the pamphlet’s editor.

Islamic Movement: Worried, yet not surprised

The northern branch of the Islamic Movement claimed in response that the graphic manipulation of the picture was incitement.

The movement’s spokesman, Attorney Zahi Nujidat, told Ynet that he was worried that all the synagogues would adopt this kind of material which implicitly calls for the erasure of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Moreover, Nujidat said he was not surprised to see the refurbished picture.

View the picture before it is gone!! (http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer2/02012008/1590588/Untitled-1.jpg)
Real picture to the left, recreation to the right

“It is no secret that the State and the nation of Israel have an arrow pointing in one direction, building a Third Temple at the expense of the al-Aqsa Mosque,” said the spokesman.

“Just today, I, along with members of the movement took a tour and we were exposed to shocking maps and documents signed by official Israeli bodies. Detailed plans for the construction of synagogues on the western side of the Temple Mount... as if they were public yards, are seen there."

Nujidat added that some public institutions saw the picture of the Third Temple placed “on al-Aqsa’s territory,” and concluded by saying that “in my opinion and in the opinion of all Muslims, the Temple Mount is a mosque and we do not recognize anything else being planned to be built there.”

The chairman of the Maayanei Hayeshua movement told Ynet in response that “Jews throughout the world hope for a day in which the al-Aqsa Mosque will actually be obliterated from the Temple Mount and not just by means of Photoshop software.

“We have been waiting for this day for too long. When it happens, Jews from the entire world will come to Jerusalem in order to build the beloved Temple, and no Muslim will dare open his mouth against it. I hope that Israel is indeed ready for this day.”

Dome of the Rock 'erased' from Temple Mount (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3582570,00.html)
~~~~~~~~

Something tells me the muslims aren't gonna sit by idly. But it's not like the muslims have tried to erase Israel from the map. :D :D

Israelis: War With Hezbollah Inevitable

Monday, August 18, 2008 10:03 AM

The Israeli army says Hezbollah has re-armed with 40,000 rockets — triple the number it had at the start of the Lebanon War two years ago. Therefore, many Israelis believe another war with Hezbollah is inevitable.

"The war set the stage for a more comprehensive Middle East conflict," said Israeli analyst Michael Oren. "It set into motion a dynamic in the Arab world, where much of the Arab street believes that Hezbollah won that war, and there is tremendous expectation on Hezbollah to continue the struggle."

Hezbollah fired 4,000 rockets into Israel during the 34-day conflict. But a massive Israeli air and ground assault failed to deal a knockout blow to 5,000 Hezbollah guerrillas in South Lebanon, prompting an official Israeli inquiry to describe the government's and army's handling of the war as a failure.

Oren says there were failures, but also achievements.

"Israel wreaked tremendous havoc in Lebanon in 2006," Oren said. "We destroyed all of Hezbollah's infrastructure, much of its civilian headquarters, we killed about a quarter of their fighters, that is a prohibitive number of casualties for any modern fighting force, and yet perception is everything in the Middle East and the perception was, in the Arab world at least, that Israel was bested in that conflict."

Under the U.N. ceasefire resolution that ended the war, about 13,000 international peacekeepers have deployed in South Lebanon. But Israel charges that they have failed to fulfill their mandate of preventing weapons smuggling to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran.

With a bristling new arsenal of rockets, Oren believes a Hezbollah attack on Israel is just a matter of time.

"Israel would then have to reply into Lebanon, possibly drawing in the Syrians and ultimately the Iranians," Oren said.

And with the possible involvement of regional superpowers, the next war could be much worse than the last one.

Israelis: War With Hezbollah Inevitable (http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/israel_hezbollah/2008/08/18/122916.html)

Israel to send aid to Georgia

Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik announces MKs will visit battle-stricken region soon in order to assist in post-war rehabilitation. 'As member of Jewish people, when I see convoys of destitute refugees this war has left behind, I can't just sit by,' she says

Amnon Meranda
Published: 08.20.08, 17:31 / Israel News

Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik said Wednesday during a Knesset meeting that a number of MKs are scheduled to leave for Georgia soon, in an attempt to assist the ailing country in its post-war rehabilitation. The aim, Itzik said, is to concentrate on the battle-stricken areas without racial discrimination.

"A new war has entered the ever growing list of pointless wars," she said. "Shocking images of killing, maiming, destruction, and convoys of refugees have once again come back to us. As a member of the Jewish people, when I see convoys of destitute refugees, thousands of people that have remained homeless and disheartened, when I see images of the impoverishment and destruction this war has left behind, I can't just sit by."

The Knesset speaker promised to send aid to Georgia following an appeal made by MK Avraham Michaeli (Shas).

"The State of Israel, a symbol of the rehabilitation of a shattered people and a record of proven capabilities, is ready and willing to donate its vast experience in aiding the rehabilitation process. We will do this without being sucked into the conflict, and because it is our way, to help a friend in need," she said.

Despite a ceasefire agreement signed between Russia and Georgia almost a week ago, vast Russian forces are still operating within Georgian territory, in cities and central roads, and strategic areas within the country. The agreement calls on both of the sides to withdraw to pre-war borders.

Earlier this week a UN convoy gained entry to the Georgian city of Gori for the first time since the battles began. A UN statement said soldiers had seen signs of looting in stores and private places of residence. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that only about 50 to 60 people remain in Gori, the rest of its residents having fled. Around 158,600 people had to flee their homes during the war in Georgia.

Israel to send aid to Georgia (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3585419,00.html)
~~~~~~~

Need to keep an eye out on how Russia reacts to this news.

'Israel defiled Al-Aqsa Mosque'

Tens of thousands flock to annual fundraising event held by Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahm. Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah delivers fiery speech calling on Arab world to fight 'Israeli occupation of Jerusalem'

Sharon Roffe-Ofir
Published: 08.22.08, 23:11
Israel News

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Umm al-Fahm on Friday evening for the annual organized by the Islamic Movement under the banner 'Al-Aqsa is in danger.' The event is intended to help raise funds for the famous mosque in Jerusalem.

The audience greeted the leader of the Islamic Movement in northern Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, with chants calling for "the redemption of al-Aqsa with blood and fire."

Salah vowed the movement would continue sponsoring the event annually, until it is able to hold it in Jerusalem.

"The enemy must be asking for how long do we intent to hold the Al-Aqsa festival. I say, till the occupation is lifted from Jerusalem and the mosque, then we will have the festival in the mosque itself under a banner of victory."

"I say to the Israeli occupation, and those representing it, to (Prime Minister) Olmert, (President) Peres and (Defense Minister) Barak, after 40 years that you are occupying the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and digging all sorts of ditches and building synagogues under the mosque, and building an Israeli museum under the mosque, I say to you that you occupation will be removed from above Jerusalem and from the mosque."

The sheikh told the crowd that the Israeli occupation has defiled the mosque, and that Israelis drank alcohol in it and engaged in sexual acts on its grounds.

"We say to you on behalf of all the people here, that your plan, which we exposed, despite your dream to

destroy the mosque, your occupation will not last for long."

Salah also had a message for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ahead of the upcoming month of Ramadan. "What we are asking from you both for this holiday, a gift for every Muslim and every free man, is to renew the dialogue and reconcile."

To the Arab world, he said: "Where is your manliness? For 40 years the Al-Aqsa Mosque calls to you and asks where you are. Do you accept that we, the besieged, must ask permission from the Israeli occupation to enter the mosque? Must ask for permission to pray in the mosque?"

Moussa: Arab media must focus on Jerusalem

One of several keynote speakers, Umm al-Fahm Mayor Hasham Abed al-Rahman, called on the leaders of Arab nations to dedicate themselves to working for the Al-Aqsa Mosque and ending the occupation of Arab countries.

"Our hands are outstretched in peace, but at the same time we say: Stop the occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine," he said. Al-Rahman also called for unity between the warring Palestinian factions, and said "there will be no peace until there is peace between these movements."

A telegram sent by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa was also read to the crowd.

"We are saddened by what is happening in Al-Aqsa and by what the Israeli occupation is doing in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is at the center of the Arab League's agenda, and the Arab media should focus on what is being done in the city and in the mosque."

Prominent figures from the Islamic Movement took part in the event, as well as numerous guests from various locations worldwide. Representatives of the Islamic Movement in South Africa were also in

attendance at the rally, which corresponded with a similar event in their own country.

The arrival of the South African delegation was not with incident, as Israeli officials barred the entry of the movement chapter's leader, Sheikh Maulana Ihsan Hendriks.

However, other representatives from the delegation, speaking at the rally on the Sheikh's behalf, called on the audience to be patient.

"Know that the wheel turns, and that the sun will yet shine. We say to you, be patient, in the end victory will belong to Islam. We hope that soon we will pray together in Jerusalem, in Al-Aqsa," said Sheikh Ibrahim Ibrahim, one of the South African delegates.

'Israel defiled Al-Aqsa Mosque' (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3586354,00.html)

Bnei Menashe Permitted to Move to Israel
08/20/08
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) In a decision that is being called "historic," the government has resolved to allow the remaining 7,232 members of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community in India to immigrate to Israel.

The decision comes ten months after another Cabinet decision demanding Cabinet approval each time a group of ten or more Bnei Menashe wished to immigrate to Israel. That decision was called "immoral" and "post-Zionist" by Bnei Menashe supporters.

The welcoming decision was made over the past few days by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, after Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit was finally convinced to remove his objections. It was Sheetrit who led the original decision of last October, voluntarily transferring to the Cabinet his authority to approve immigration - and thus essentially preventing Bnei Menashe from arriving.

Background
The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Menashe, one of the Ten Tribes exiled from the Land of Israel by the Assyrian empire over 2,700 years ago. They reside primarily in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along India's border with Burma and Bangladesh. In recent years, over 800 members of the community have made Aliyah, thanks largely to the efforts of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization that assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people.

The Bnei Menashe in Israel reside mainly in Kiryat Arba, Beit El and Ofrah.

300 Each Month
With the new government decision, it is hoped that all the remaining Bnei Menashe will be brought to Israel within a two-year period, at a rate of some 300 per month. This, in order not to antagonize the Indian government, and apparently to ease the immigration process as well.

Community is Jewish, Individuals Must Convert
Michael Freund, head of Shavei Israel, has been working for over 15 years to provide Jewish and general education to the Bnei Menashe in Israel, and to persuade the Israeli government that they should be allowed to immigrate. Their aliyah [immigration to Israel] is complicated by the fact that though the Jewishness of the community is now a recognized historical and religious fact, each individual must formally convert to Judaism on his own.

Approximately 100 Bnei Menashe used to arrive in Israel each year, until approximately 2003, when then-Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, of the extreme-secularist Shinui party, ordered a freeze on further immigration to Israel from India, Ethiopia and Peru. He explained openly that immigrants from those countries undergo only Orthodox conversions, and that many of them choose to live in Judea and Samaria.

Freund countered at the time that the reason why most of the Bnei Menashe live in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) was because those localities actively welcomed them, while others did not.

Rabbi Amar Rules
Freund later achieved a breakthrough in the matter when he succeeded in having Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar send two rabbinical court judges to visit northeastern India. Based on the findings of that visit, the Rabbi ruled in March 2005 that the Bnei Menashe were, in fact, “descendants of Israel.”

The remaining 7,232 Bnei Menashe members in India comprise an exact list of those whose immigration to Israel the government will allow. The government and the Jewish Agency wish to avoid a situation, such as in Ethiopia, where apparent non-Jews "jump on the bandwagon" and demand to be brought to Israel as well.

Post-Zionist Decision Replaced by Welcoming Hand
Regarding last year's decision, Freund told Arutz-7 at the time, "The Chief Rabbinate is willing to convert them, but the government is saying it does not wish to allow these people to be candidates for conversion. This is an unconscionable act... Requiring full cabinet approval every time a group of people wishes to move here and undergo conversion is a recipe for bureaucratic inertia, as there is little chance of getting such an item onto the busy agenda of the entire government. Hence, by creating a virtually insurmountable obstacle to approval, [Sheetrit] hopes to bury the issue once and for all."

"Why, you might be wondering, would Sheetrit and his cabinet colleagues do such a thing?" Freund wrote at the time. "The answer is really quite simple. It is post-Zionism of the ugliest sort, tinged by prejudice and sheer ignorance."

If so, the government's latest decision has replaced its "ugly post-Zionism" with a warm and welcoming hand to Jews the world over.

Bnei Menashe Permitted to Move to Israel (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127270)

Hamas leader: We'll retrieve Jerusalem only by way of jihad

'Jerusalem will be returned to the Palestinians not by way of negotiations or hugging and kissing the enemy, but through blood, ubgone19s and resistance,' Haniyeh says, adding 'Muslims must protect Al-Aqsa Mosque'

Ali Waked
Published: 08.21.08
Israel News

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday that the Islamist group will not accept any future peace agreement that does not include the return of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley to Palestinians hands and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes in Israel.

Speaking at a ceremony marking 39 years since the fire at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, Haniyeh said "no one can cede Jerusalem, the city from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to the heavens.

"Jerusalem will be retrieved to the Palestinians not through negotiations or by hugging and kissing the enemy, but by way of jihad, blood, ubgone19s and resistance. With Allah's help, Jerusalem will be returned," he said.

The Hamas leader added that "the Israeli-Arabs are safeguarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque; it is as if they are inside the belly of a whale. They represent the Islamic nation. We send them our regards, especially to Sheikh Raed Salah (founder of Islamic Movement in Israel)."

Haniyeh said that "according to most all reports on secret peace talks or agreements, Israel is refusing to relinquish Jerusalem and the West Bank, refuses to accept the right of return of Palestinian refugees, refuses to dismantle the settlements and deems the Jordan Valley vital to its security.

"On behalf of the Palestinian nation and Muslims everywhere, I say that we will not accept any such agreements," he said.

The Hamas chief continued to say that Israel is looking to damage Al-Aqsa and called on all Muslims to "protect Jerusalem".

Hamas Leader: We'll Retrieve Jerusalem Only by Way of Jihad (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3586019,00.html)

IDF Begins Major Move to the Negev
25 Av 5768, August 26, '08
by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) A Hercules jet will take off Monday afternoon from central Israel to the new Nevatim Israel Air Force base in the Negev, marking the start of the herculean IDF move to the Negev.

The move marks today's closing of the IAF's main transport base, in Lod, and its replacement in Nevatim. The new base will be formally dedicated later this week in the presence of President Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi

At the same time, infrastructure work is beginning on the new army city in the Negev, to be called Ir HaBahadim, or City of the Training Bases. Construction was long delayed because of environmental concerns. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is in attendance for a ceremony marking the construction.

The new town is set to be built on an area of 1,065 dunams (263 acres, just over a square kilometer), and will house the IDF's Armaments School, Logistics Training School, Military Police, and more. Ir HaBahadim will also include an inn for visitors, a shopping mall, a country club and theaters, and is expected to provide a welcome economic boon for the sparsely-populated area - as well as boost for the IDF, technologically and manpower-wise.

The move to the Negev, called "Project IDF Ascent to the Negev," is being termed by security network personnel "one of the largest and most important military projects in the history of the State of Israel." Some 11,000 soldiers, both in the standing army and career officers, will serve on the technological campus of the 4CI Branch - the army's Command, Control, Computers, Communications and Information Branch. Another 9,000 soldiers will serve in other branches there.

Ir HaBahadim (Bahad is an acronym for Bsis Hadrachah, or Training Base) has long been in the planning, and will feature state-of-the-art elements in the training and preparation spheres.

IDF Begins Major Move to the Negev (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127329)

Jews in the Temple Area: A "Mount"-ing Controversy
25 Av 5768, August 26, '08
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel

(IsraelNN.com) Several of Israel’s leading rabbis have fired the latest shot in one of modern Israel’s longest-running halachic disputes—whether a Jew may enter the Temple Mount nowadays. Rabbis Ovadia Yosef, Shalom Elyashiv and Chaim Kanievsky recently sent a letter to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the rabbi in charge of the Western Wall area, asking him to repeat a 40-year-old decree prohibiting Jews from entering the Temple Mount.

The decree was originally signed by most leading rabbis upon the Mount’s capture by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

The Temple Mount is the area upon which both Holy Temples stood, in which the priests offered sacrifices, and where thrice-yearly convocations of the whole nation of Israel took place during the festivals of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks) and Sukkot (Tabernacles).

In the center of the Temple complex stood a Holy of Holies that guarded the Holy Ark—once containing the original Tablets of the Law given to Moses by G-d at Mt. Sinai—and the Foundation Stone for the creation of the universe. That spot is the holiest point in the world and the place that the High Priest entered only once a year to offer the most important atonement sacrifice of the year.

The modern debate centers on whether or not there is enough information from classical rabbinical sources to identify the location of the Holy of Holies, as well as the layout of the Temple, which articulated specific areas accessible to different categories of Jews. The biblical prohibition against a person entering an area in the Temple complex forbidden to him carries with it the severe Divine penalty of karet.

Rabbi Yosef is regarded as Israel’s foremost Sephardic authority on Torah law, Rabbi Elyashiv is considered to be the leader of the hareidi-religious community, and Rabbi Kanievsky is a world-renowned rabbi and authority on Torah law.

A Change in the Tide as Dissenting Ascenders Grow
The letter sent by the rabbis follows a firestorm of controversy that erupted last month when a prominent rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Tendler, was photographed ascending the Mount. Rabbi Tendler is the son-in-law of the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, considered the leading halachic (Torah law) authority in America in his time. Rabbi Tendler climbed to the plaza in the center of the Mount, upon which the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock, considered by many to be the location of the Inner Temple itself.

In recent years several other prominent rabbis have ascended the Mount, keeping the flames of the dispute burning.

In the latest letter, the three rabbis demand a complete ban on Jews entering any part of the Temple Mount on the grounds that the ritual purity of the area might be violated.

"A time passed, we have lost knowledge of the precise location of the Temple, and anyone entering the Temple Mount is liable to unwittingly enter the area of the Temple and the Holy of Holies,” the three wrote in the letter.
"Entrance to the Temple Mount, and the defilement of the Holy of Holies, is more severe than any of the violations in the Torah," wrote Rabbi Kanievsky.

Signs were first placed around the area in 1967 warning Jews that they would be incurring a divine decree of death if they ascended the Mount. The signs enjoyed the support of most rabbis at the time. However, with the passing decades many religious leaders, especially from the religious-Zionist mvement, began to question the validity of the decree. Among them are Kiryat Shmona’s chief rabbi Tzephania Drori, Kiryat Arba’s Dov Lior, and Rabbi Nachum Rabinovich, head of the Maaleh Adumim yeshiva, who have all called for a review of the ban.

Torah Ammunition for the 'Opposition'
Rabbi Yehuda Kreuzer is the head of the Jewish town of Mitzpeh Yericho, northeast of Jerusalem, as well as head of the "Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea" and founder of HaTnuah L’Kinun HaMikdash (the Movement to Re-establish the Temple). He is one of the growing number of rabbis who believe that Jews should be allowed to enter onto the Temple Mount, and in an interview with IsraelNationalNews, he cited a well-known rabbinical source:

“In short, the Radbaz [a leading halachic authority from the 1500s] ruled that the Dome of the Rock is the Foundation Stone in the Holy of Holies…. He wrote that without a doubt this is the identity of the place. He wrote in a definite way the definite identity of the place,” Kreuzner reiterated. “If so, it’s possible to do the measurements."

Rabbi Kreuzer noted that in Tractate Midot (Measurements) as well as in works by the Rambam (Maimonides, considered by many to be the greatest articulator of Torah law after Moses), the measurements of all parts of the Temple and the Mount are laid out in detail and agree with each other.

The Rabbi continued, “According to those [measurements], we can do all the calculations,” correlating all the areas of today’s Temple Mount to their original delineations.

“This is the essential source on which people who visit the Mount rely,” summarized the rabbi.

'Unclear Why It's Forbidden'
Responding to the recent letter calling for a renewal of the ban, Kreuzer said: “To this day, it’s unclear why it’s forbidden from a halachic perspective. What is the prohibition against someone going up? There’s no clear answer given [by those rabbis].”

Kreuzner continued with an admonition to his opponents: “He who knows [of the permission], knows; he who doesn’t, doesn’t. He who doesn’t know needs to learn. The problem is that he who doesn’t know doesn’t sit down and learn” why it’s in fact permitted.

The rabbi added that there have been numerous attempts made by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to create a commission to resolve this issue, all of which failed to materialize. “We should all sit down” to explore this issue, he said, but “the problem is that they don’t want to.”

Jews in the Temple Area: A "Mount"-ing Controversy (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127313)

Getting the World to Hate Israel
by Dr. Richard L. Cravatts - Israel National News

As part of evaluating the competitive landscape of the popularity of nations, in a process referred to in marketing circles as "place branding", Israel, to no one's great surprise, comes up short in brand likeability, ranking last out of 35 nations included in an August 2006 survey conducted by nation-branding expert Simon Anholt; even less attractive to respondents than Indonesia, Estonia and Turkey.

How could this have happened to a country that is the Middle East's only thriving democracy and that enjoys a remarkably robust economy which has spawned some 1,000 startup high-tech companies, for example, second only to the US? How, in short, would you go about making the world hate Israel?

This is how you would accomplish that objective if you were an enemy of Israel:

Even after 60 years of its existence, you question the fundamental right of Israel to even exist and regularly, though falsely, condemn it for being created "illegally" - through the "theft" of Palestinian lands and property - and thus decide, because of its original sin, that it has no "right to exist" and is merely a Zionist "regime."

You make 'Palestinianism' into a virtual cult whose members offer a world-wide reverence for the Palestinian cause and repeat without end that their nationalistic striving is inviolable, a basic human right. Of all the 100 million refugees who were dispersed around the globe and were re-assimilated since World War II, you chose only the Palestinians to languish, as if in amber, in barbaric refugee camps where their lives are used as political fodder to denounce the existence of an Israel that supposedly has deprived them of a home.

You have the United Nations set up an agency, the UNRWA, whose sole function is to make sure that this one group of refugees in the whole world are coddled, advocated for, and repeat, mantra-like, that a human "right of return" has been sanctified and assured by international law for the Palestinians. Give only this group of refugees a collective, as opposed to individual, right of return, and not only to those refugees who supposedly lived in and left what is now Israel, but all of their descendants, as well.

You use the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to repeatedly demonize and delegitimize Israel, making it a pariah in the world community and issuing an edict that equates Zionism with racism. In 2006-07, if you are the Human Rights Council, you pass one hundred percent of your condemnatory resolutions against Israel.

You inculcate Palestinian children, nearly from birth, with seething, blind, unrelenting and obsessive hatred of Jews and the "Zionist regime," so that kindergarteners graduate with blood-soaked hands while toting plastic AK-47s and dedicate their lives to jihad, while older children are recruited to hide explosives on their bodies to transform themselves into ubgone19s - a new generation of kindling for radical Islam's cult of death.

When Israel launches a military strike against nests of terrorists or in response to ceaseless rocket barrages, you term their response "disproportionate," another escalation in the "cycle of violence," a violation of human rights, aggressive, militaristic, with Apache gunships "pounding" terrorist neighborhoods.

If you are the Palestinian media, and members of the world media who are either intentionally biased or willing to be duped by anti-Israel propaganda, you repeatedly report on supposed Israeli human rights violations, such as an alleged "massacre of the 21st century," a horrible war crime and example of "genocide" committed by Israel against Palestinians in the village of Jenin.

You talk about the Israeli security barrier as an "apartheid wall" and describe it as a massive, soaring, unbroken division through Palestinian neighborhoods and communities, overlooking the fact that the wall is towering and solid concrete only in those regions that have been repeatedly assaulted by terrorism, and that 90 percent of the hundreds of miles of barrier is comprised merely of wire fence.

You use the "apartheid wall" image to create a broader misconception about the Palestinians living under a South African-style apartheid regime, disingenuously equating race restrictions that blacks lived under in Soweto with the open society of Israel, in which Israeli Arabs have more rights than in any Arab state and are asked only not to murder Jews in their midst.

On campuses where a coddled and insulated professoriate often express antipathy for the perceived ills of capitalism, the usurpation of "Palestine" by Israel, and the denial of the civil and economic rights of the Palestinians, you contend that Israel's very existence is not at all about self-determination (something you deem appropriate only for the Palestinians) and all about greed, globalism, colonialism, exploitation, and undeserved political and economic might.

You fund Middle Eastern Studies centers on university campuses and use them as anti-Israel, anti-American "think tanks" where scholarship is tainted with ideology and singularly focused on the Palestinian cause. You fund the active and vocal Muslim Students Association on campuses across the US that hold "Israel Apartheid Week" and "Holocaust in the Holy Land" festivals at which propaganda, Jew-hatred, apologies for terrorism and further demonizing of Israel take place.

In the Arab world, you play fast and loose with history in your attempt to create a historical narrative conforming to your own political agenda, erasing any link between Palestine and the Jews. Though Jerusalem is mentioned not once in the Koran and over 669 times in the Jewish Bible, you claim that Jerusalem is now the "third holiest site to Muslims," that, as Yasser Arafat announced at Camp David in 2000, the Temple Mount was never a Jewish site, that Jews now "occupy" Muslim lands.

If you are in the Muslim world or the netherworld of Jew-haters, you question the actual extent and truthfulness of the Holocaust, first complaining that the Palestinians should not have been made to suffer the loss of their homeland because of the German's extermination of European Jewry - leading in some part to the creation of Israel - and then at other times questioning whether the Holocaust even occurred and accusing Zionists of using the fictitious event as a way to falsely extract sympathy from the world community and force them into giving Palestine away to the Jews.

You write academic books questioning the strength of the "Israel Lobby," and wonder out loud if Jewish influence and wealth forces us to lose credibility and threatens America's national security on behalf of Israel.

You do all of these things as part of a concerted effort and also as random, independent efforts on the part of Israel's enemies, and you do it for the 60 years of Israel's existence, and then you are shocked - shocked! - when Israel is shown to rank unfavorably in surveys which measure the public perception of nations and how they compare to one another in the world community. But you are pleased, because you know that if Israel cannot be annihilated with armaments and rockets, perhaps you can make it cease to exist simply by making the entire world loathe it for being what it is.

Who will speak for Israel at the UN?
Aug. 28, 2008
ALLISON HOFFMAN, Jerusalem Post correspondent , THE JERUSALEM POST

When the United Nations' 63rd General Assembly session opens on September 23, President Bush will certainly be there for the United States.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak for Iran.

And leading the Israeli delegation? It's a mystery.

The timing of next month's Kadima primary - a week before the annual UN powwow - has created a perfect storm for Israel's delegation, which was supposed to have been led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

President Shimon Peres would be a logical stand-in, but he may be required in Israel to oversee the formation of a new government after the September 17 primary, when Olmert plans to step down.

Instead, leadership candidate Tzipi Livni has given a tentative RSVP in her capacity as foreign minister, and is scheduled to give the delegation's 15-minute floor speech on September 29.

Yet diplomatic sources tell The Jerusalem Post they aren't scheduling any meetings for Livni just yet: If a new government is formed immediately after the September 17 primary, the winner may be eligible to appear in New York the following week, with other heads of state. If the campaign goes to a September 25 runoff election, then Olmert or Peres may wind up making the trip at the last minute.

"It's not a question of whether whoever goes is really representing Israel, it's a question of how effective they can be if the domestic political contest in Israel is still an open question," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute in Washington. "They have to fill in the gaps, and there's no real way they can."

The situation is another example of domestic political volatility impairing Israel's ability to corral international support, Wittes said.

This year's General Assembly, while less high-profile than others in recent years, nonetheless comes as fragile coalitions are shifting in the wake of Russia's invasion of Georgia.

"This General Assembly is of particular importance to Israel because of the confluence of the Russian and the Iranian issues," said Michael Oren, a visiting professor at Georgetown University who has advised Israel's UN delegation in the past. "This is really the last chance to galvanize any united Western front against Iran."

While the uncertainty over who will be head of state may rob Israel of the valuable opportunity to make a public statement to the world's leaders, the greater cost may be in the lost opportunity for face-to-face diplomacy at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel: As much as it is a forum for political theater, the General Assembly is also at its heart a very specialized sort of trade convention.

"The kind of one-stop shopping that's possible during a General Assembly is important," said Ruth Wedgwood, a professor of international law and diplomacy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "It's important just being there."

The Israeli mission to the UN is in a period of unaccustomed flux following the departure of former UN ambassador Dan Gillerman in July, after six years in the post. His replacement, Gabriela Shalev, hasn't yet arrived in New York.

UN protocol experts said it's not uncommon for countries to make last-minute changes in their representation lists, or in some cases to miss the General Assembly altogether: Delegates from newly-admitted Burundi missed the plenary session altogether in 1962 because of airline scheduling problems.

Who will speak for Israel at the UN? (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219913192436&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Israel unlikely to berate Russia
Aug. 28, 2008
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

As the US and Russia sent military vessels to dock at different Georgian ports on Wednesday, Israel continued to tread carefully, issuing no statement regarding Russia's recognition of the breakaway Georgian provinces and - in an apparent show of balance - is planning to send humanitarian aid not only to Georgia, but to North Ossetia as well.

Anatoly Yurkov, the charge d'affaires at Russia's embassy in Tel Aviv, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that Moscow appreciated the balanced position Israel had taken throughout the crisis, as well as its "low profile."

A first meeting was held in the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to discuss Russia's recognition a day earlier of the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Post has learned that while Israel would most likely decide to continue to recognize Georgia's "territorial integrity," it was unlikely to join the chorus of condemnations of Russia coming from the US, Germany and Britain. It would also certainly not recognize the breakaway republics.

The dominant position in Jerusalem is that this is not Israel's fight, that it has critical strategic interests in the relationship with Moscow, and that it is not a superpower that needs to sound off on every issue around the globe. No formal decision, however, on how or even whether to react to Russia's recognition of the breakaway republics has been made.

Government sources pointed out that Israel had yet to recognize Kosovo's independence from Serbia.

Yurkov said that Russia "will take into account" Jerusalem's "balance" and "low profile" during the crisis, and these would likely have a positive impact on Israeli-Russian relations.

He said that in recent months Israel had stopped selling any offensive weapons to Georgia, and had ceased all arms sales to Tbilisi since the fighting began.

Yurkov also claimed that Georgia was trying to drive a wedge between Moscow and Jerusalem in talking about Israeli arms sales and the effectiveness of Israeli weaponry against Russian troops, an assessment not dismissed in Jerusalem.

One indication of the balance Israel is trying to maintain on the conflict is that Jerusalem, which has already sent humanitarian aid to Georgia, has offered to send humanitarian aid to North Ossetia in Russia to help it deal with the influx of refugees there.

Yurkov said the aid being discussed consisted of medicine and medical equipment, while Israeli sources said the details were still being worked out. The ambassador said that the symbolism of the aid was more important than the content. No date for sending it has been set.

Yurkov said that the tension over Georgia would not impact on Russia's position regarding the Iranian nuclear program, and that Russia was not going to give Teheran any assistance now in order to damage US interests. He repeated Moscow's position that a nuclear Iran was not in Russia's strategic interests.

"Our position on Iran will stay the way it is now," he said.

When asked whether Russia would support another round of measures against Iran, Yurkov said it "depended on the sanctions."

He also reiterated Russia's position that it would not introduce offensive weapons to the Middle East that would change the region's strategic balance. He stressed that Syrian President Bashar Assad's comments during his visit to Moscow last week about placing Russian missiles in Syria as a counterbalance to the agreement to place US missiles in Poland were Assad's comments alone, not Russia's.

Yurkov downplayed any crisis in Israeli-Russian ties over Assad's arms requests, and added that the Syrians had been requesting state-of-the-art weaponry for years.

Regarding the Middle East diplomatic process, Yurkov said Russia would still like to host an international Middle East peace conference in November as a follow-up to last November's Annapolis meeting. He said, however, that Israel's agreement to such a meeting was essential.

Israeli officials have said that Jerusalem has not yet made a decision on the matter.

Yurkov dismissed the notion that the conflict in the Caucasus would lead to Russia's ouster from the Middle East Quartet, which in addition to Russia consists of the US, EU and the UN, and that Moscow intended to take part in the Quartet meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in mid-September.

Israel unlikely to berate Russia (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219572145087&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

2 Hizbullah kidnapping attempts foiled
By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST STAFF
Sept 1, 2008

Security forces have recently thwarted two attempts by Hizbullah to kidnap Israelis abroad, Channel 2 reported on Monday.

Slideshow: Pictures of the week Although details about the operation - such as the location of the intended Hizbullah attack or the time frame of when it aimed to take place - were not revealed, the report stated that the purpose of the kidnappings were to avenge the death of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh.

Mughniyeh was killed in February when his car was destroyed by a bomb in Damascus. Although Israel denied any involvement in the attack, Hizbullah has insisted that Jerusalem was to blame and has vowed revenge.

As recently as Friday, the group reasserted its claim that revenge was both legitimate, and inevitable.

"[It willl come as a] surprise to the Israelis" when it happens, Hizbullah deputy secretary-general Sheikh Na'im Kassem warned.

"Revenge is the legitimate right," Kassem told the Hizbullah-affiliated Al-Manar television station during an interview. "Why is Israel allowed to murder and to assassinate and the world looks away?"

"For everything there is a time, God willing," he continued. "We won't get into details, but the Israelis will be surprised."

In August, the Prime Minister's Office issued a cautionary travel advisory warning of Hizbullah's intention to abduct or attack Israeli citizens traveling or working around the world.

The PMO's recommendations as they were published on the office's Web site urged Israelis abroad to pay more attention to unusual conduct around them, reject tempting and unexpected business and recreation offers, and avoid taking in or hosting unexpected or suspicious guests in their hotel rooms or homes.

The recommendations suggested further to avoid remote areas, especially after dark, and to insist on being around familiar and reliable people. Finally, it is recommended to change one's daily routine every once in a while, including hotels, walking paths, restaurants and recreation sites.

Egypt-Israel gas deal taken to court
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt
Sept 1, 2008

An Egyptian court is reviewing a petition by a group of lawyers to halt Egypt's natural gas exports to Israel, one of the attorneys said Monday.

Lawyer Ibrahim Yousri said the petitioners want to stop the deal because it involves below market gas prices of only US$1.5 per British thermal unit, a measure of energy. The market price is almost nine times higher and Yousri said Egypt has been losing about US$9 million a day over it.

"If this not theft what else could it be," Yousri told The Associated Press. "Egyptians are in a dire need of every penny, so why does the government squander these resources?"

According to Yousri, Judge Ahmed el-Shazli on Monday asked the petitioners to present documents supporting their case and adjourned the hearings till October 17.

Egypt began pumping gas to Israel in February, following an energy deal under which Cairo-based East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) is to sell 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas annually to state-run Israel Electric Corporation for the next 15 years.

But after heavy criticism by the opposition, Egypt's minister of petroleum, Sameh Fahmy, told parliament in June that the government would review the price of gas exports to Israel. EMG is a private energy consortium co-owned by Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem and the Israeli Merhav Group.

The government says the deal provides Egypt with million of dollars annually. Egypt has reserves of 3 trillion cubic meters, according to ministry figures. Last year it produced some 62 billion cubic meters, a a quarter of which was sold on the international market.

Egypt is one of the few Arab states - along with Jordan and Mauritania - that officially recognize Israel, but ties remain taxed by Arab resentment of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

On Monday, the influential Middle East Economic Survey said Egypt is mired in a political debate on its gas policy, with the government under pressure to limit exports in order to be able to meet soaring local demand at the expense of much-needed revenue.

According to the Cyprus-based publication, Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum announced in June a moratorium on further export projects until 2010, and there are signs that gas exports have already been affected by this policy shift.

'J'lem worried over Biden's Iran stance'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Sept 1, 2008

Security officials expressed concern Monday over statements reportedly made by US Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden regarding Iran's nuclear program.

Army Radio reported that the Delaware senator was heard saying in closed conversations with Jerusalem officials three years ago that he was firmly opposed to an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reportedly claimed that Israel would likely have to come to terms with a nuclear Iran. He reportedly expressed doubt over the effectiveness of economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic and said he was against the opening of an additional military and diplomatic front, saying that the US had more pressing problems, such as North Korea and Iraq.

The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report.

Dutch intel: US to strike Iran in coming weeks
Biden has a solid 36-year Senate record of pro-Israel leadership. He has called Israel "the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East" and declared himself a Zionist in an interview with a US Jewish television channel last year, saying that "you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."

Army Radio said that Jerusalem officials expressed amazement at the comments and were wondering which position to take seriously, that of Biden or Obama, who declared last Monday that the world must press Iran through sanctions and diplomacy to stop its nuclear program, so that Israel does not feel its "back is against the wall" and that it therefore has no choice but to attack.

The officials said that they had believed Biden's nomination would give a feeling of security to the Israeli government, which was concerned that the US would give Israel the cold shoulder regarding the Iranian threat following the end of the Bush Administration's term.

Nevertheless, reports of Biden's comments have now cast doubt over this sentiment and officials said that "this feeling of security has been undermined."

"The position of the vice presidential candidate puts a huge question mark over the degree of empathy the Obama administration would display concerning one of the greatest threats Israel faces," they said.

Israel, woman within reach of premiership

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 4, 5:06 PM ET

JERUSALEM - For the first time since Golda Meir more than three decades ago, a woman is within reach of becoming the prime minister of Israel, a nation dominated by macho military men and a religious establishment with strict views on the role of women.

But unlike Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin, Israel's Tzipi Livni doesn't talk about cracking glass ceilings, even as she leads the field in the ruling Kadima Party's Sept. 17 primary to choose the likely successor to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Yet the tough-minded foreign minister's gender is popping up.

Top male rivals have branded Livni with words like "weak" and "that woman." And there is talk about ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers who might be kingmakers in the next government being uncomfortable with the idea of a female leader.

Livni hasn't commented about the gender issue, and adviser Gil Messing said the foreign minister would not agree to be interviewed on the subject, but others have complained about the allusions to her gender.

Former lawmaker Naomi Chazan says the jabs at Livni are built on "deep chauvinistic foundations."

"Livni, it is hinted, exhibits signs of weakness (or is it femininity?), and so is unworthy of taking over the reins of power," she wrote in an op-ed piece in the Jerusalem Post.

The soft-spoken, 50-year-old Livni was an army captain and had a brief career in the Mossad spy agency. She traded that in for a life as corporate lawyer, wife and mother of two sons. Nine years ago she entered politics as a protege of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. She has earned a reputation as a pragmatic straight talker who disdains backroom politics.

Her father, Eitan Livni, was a Zionist underground hero who battled the British in pre-state Palestine and thought Israel should expand its borders into Arab lands.

She initially shared that dream. But Livni eventually concluded it clashed irreconcilably with the reality of living among a fast-growing Palestinian population.

During her relatively short tenure in politics, she has held six Cabinet posts, including minister of foreign affairs, justice and immigrant absorption. As foreign minister and vice premier, she has led Israel's negotiations with the Palestinians on ending decades of conflict and establishing a Palestinian state.

Last year Time magazine included her in its list of the world's 100 most influential people, and she was No. 52 in Forbes magazine's recent ranking of the planet's 100 most powerful women.

But this resume apparently doesn't impress political rivals in a nation at war that values toughness over sensitivity.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a former prime minister with an eye on his old job, recently played on an ad from Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid that suggested rival Barack Obama was not the man to handle a 3 a.m. crisis call.

"The foreign minister, her background being what it is, is not cut out to make decisions, not at three in the morning and not at three in the afternoon," said Barak, who also served as commander of the military and is Israel's most-decorated soldier.

His comment was widely regarded in the media as veiled sexism, as was his pointed reference to Livni by her full name, Tzipora — Hebrew for "bird" and a name that aides say she despises.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and military chief, is Livni's chief rival to become Kadima's new leader. His staffers have been quoted as saying Livni has a "a weak personality."

Some lawmakers dispute that Barak and Mofaz are being sexist.

"I am strong and you are weak" is part of Israel's political discourse, said Michael Eitan, a veteran lawmaker in a parliament that has only 17 women among its 120 members. Male candidates without security experience would also be criticized, he said.

During a recent appearance before foreign reporters in Jerusalem, Livni insisted she had plenty of security experience, including a key role as foreign minister during Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. That war has been the target of intense criticism in Israel, but Livni emerged largely unscathed because of her calls to end the fighting quickly.

There are also ultra-Orthodox parties to consider.

They could be crucial to Livni's efforts to form a new government, but are uneasy with a woman at the helm because "it's not modest" in their world view, said Menachem Friedman, an expert on religious society in Israel.

But Friedman, a professor at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv, thinks practical politics would trump those concerns. The religious parties would join a Livni-led government if it promised them more money for pet causes and no territorial concessions to the Palestinians on Jerusalem, he said.

"If she gives them what they want, then they'll accept her," he said.

Spokesman Roi Lachmanovich of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, parliament's largest religious faction, said that "Shas has no problem with Tzipi Livni as prime minister of Israel."

For its part, the Israeli public appears to have little problem with having a woman leader.

Polls put Livni ahead of Mofaz in the Kadima primary and indicate she would fare better than him in a general election. She's also significantly ahead of Barak in national polls, though a general election race against her other key rival, hawkish former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would be tighter.

Back in 1969, Israel took the extraordinary step of choosing a woman as prime minister: Golda Meir. But in the four decades since, women have remained significantly underrepresented in Israel's government and business, though they have made strides in other areas.

Meir resigned in disgrace after Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 1973. Israel repelled the attackers but took heavy casualties in a war that many Israelis still see as their country's most humiliating military episode.

Since then, no woman until Livni has come close to holding the reins of power. But her reputation for honesty, in a country where a series of high-ranking officials, including Olmert, have been convicted or accused of corruption, is an asset for Livni.

"She has a clean-hands image, and this is a time when we're looking for decent, honest people," Chazan told The Associated Press. "She meets this criterion, and it's very, very important."

Israel, woman within reach of premiership (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_glass_ceiling;_ylt=AofaQNnnwLLenEy9fTWQLSMLewgF)

Muslims desecrate, urinate in Judaism's 2nd holiest site
Hamas flags found on burial chambers of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah

Muslim worshipers at Judaism's second holiest site this past weekend reportedly urinated next to Torah scrolls and strew Hamas flags throughout the structure.

The desecration occurred at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is believed to be home to the resting place of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. The tomb is located in the West Bank city of Hebron, site of the oldest Jewish community in the world.

The tombs of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah and Leah are open to Jews year round, whereas the tombs of Isaac and Rebecca are designated for Muslim worship only. Once a year for 10 days, usually on the Islamic Ramadan holiday, the Jewish sections are opened exclusively for Muslims. The Muslim sections are also opened for Jews once a year for 10 days, which usually includes the Jewish Passover holiday.

Muslims last week had exclusive access to the tombs of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah and Leah. Jewish worshipers who returned to the site this weekend reported a foul smell in a synagogue on the Jewish side coming from the area of an Ark containing Torah scrolls.

"They had desecrated one of the holy arks. They had urinated right next to it. One of the men went in and found a big puddle of urine there next to the Ark," Hebron spokesman David Wilder told Israel National News.

Wilder and other Jewish witnesses said when they reentered the tomb they found Hamas flags in the markers of the burial chambers of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah and Leah.

Noam Arnon, another spokesman Hebron, said there is always some sort of damage discovered after Muslims get exclusive rights to worship at the Jewish areas of the tomb.

"It is not all the Muslims," he said. "But there always are a few who in the past have ripped mezuzot off the entrances to the rooms of worship or simply leave behind vandalism. Complaints have been filed with the police in the past, but no one ever has been arrested."

Wilder added that in the past, Muslim worshipers tore up Psalm booklets and Jewish prayer books.

The book of Genesis relates Abraham purchased the field where the Tomb of the Patriarchs is located as a burial place for his wife, Sarah. It later became a plot for the rest of the family, except for Jacob's wife, Rachel, who died when she gave birth while traveling and was buried on a road in Bethlehem.

Muslims trace their lineage through Abraham, as well. Palestinian leaders deny there is any Jewish claim to the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

"The Torah was falsified by the Jews. We don’t believe in all your versions," stated Chief Palestinian Justice Taysir Tamimi in a recent WND interview.

Hebron is the oldest Jewish community in the world, with Jews having lived there almost continuously for over 2,500 years. There are accounts of the trials of the city's Jewish community throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke and Ottoman periods.

In 1929, as a result of an Arab pogrom in which 67 Jews were murdered, the entire Jewish community fled the city, with Hebron becoming temporarily devoid of Jews. Jews returned when Israel recaptured the area in 1967.

King David was anointed in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years. A thousand years later, during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans, the city was the scene of extensive fighting in which many Jews were killed.

Terrorist TV – live from Temple Mount!
Hamas broadcasts all week exclusively from Judaism's holiest site

For the past week, Hamas' official television network exclusively broadcast Islamic prayer services live from Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

Nightly, Hamas' Al Aqsa TV has broadcast the Tarawih prayers from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque or additional nightly prayers recited during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began last week. Tawawih prayers include recitation of parts of the Quran and takes about an hour.

The Hamas broadcasts serve as somewhat of a coup for the terror group, since it's the only Palestinian television network that is featuring the Tarawih from the Al Aqsa Mosque, giving Hamas the ability to share Temple Mount services with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Hamas' Al Aqsa television routinely calls for jihad against Israel and broadcasts extreme anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda.

Jerusalem Police Spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby did not immediately return a request seeking comment about whether Hamas' broadcasts were coordinated with Israel, which officially controls the Temple Mount while the Wafq - the Mount's Islamic custodians - administer the site.

Palestinian sources familiar with Hamas' Temple Mount coverage told WND the broadcasts were not coordinated with Israel.

The sources strongly doubted Israeli authorities were aware of the broadcasts, which they said were transmitted from the Al Aqsa Mosque not by Hamas officials by an Israeli Arab television crew with a license to broadcast from the site. The sources would not name the purported Israeli-Arab television crew facilitating the broadcasts.

Hamas has broadcast from the Temple Mount in the past. WND broke the story of the terror group's official radio network broadcasting services live from the Al Aqsa Mosque for three weeks last December. At the time, Israeli police authorities immediately claimed they would halt the broadcasts, but the transmissions continued uninterrupted for several weeks.

WND also first reported last year the Islamic Jihad terror group broadcasting the Tarawih prayers for two weeks from the Al Aqsa Mosque. Israeli police authorities told WND then they would halt the broadcasts, which continued unabated.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the tenth century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God’s shechina or "presence" dwelt. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Jewish Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. The site is believed to be the Biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God’s test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition holds Mashiach, or the Jewish Messiah, will return and rebuild the third and final Temple on the Mount in Jerusalem.

The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and stands today in Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition.

Throughout all notorious Jewish exiles, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph.

About 100 years ago, Al Aqsa in Jerusalem became associated with the place Muslims came to believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned in the Quran.

Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran.

Palestinians today claim exclusivity over the Temple Mount and Palestinian leaders routinely deny Jewish historic connection to the site, but historically, Muslims did not claim the Al Aqsa Mosque as their third holiest site and admitted the Jewish Temples existed.

According to research by Israeli author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam previously disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful Is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. Berkovits wrote that Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship, and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of God.

As late as the fourteenth century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."

It wasn't until the late nineteenth century – incidentally when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.

A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 "Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," which states on page 4, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord.'"

U.S. to 'guarantee'
Palestinian state
Letter intended to bind Israel, PA,
next administration in Washington

The U.S. is planning to issue a letter guaranteeing the country will back agreements reached during current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations aimed at creating a Palestinian state before President Bush leaves office in January, WND has learned.

The move is intended to ensure any agreements reached by the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, and spelled out in a joint document, will be recognized by the next U.S. administration and binding for Israel and the PA.

The information comes as Jacob Walles, the U.S. consul-general, stated in an interview with a major Palestinian newspaper yesterday that Israel and the PA agreed to negotiate Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley area leading to the Dead Sea.

In response to the report, the State Department issued a statement claiming the U.S. government has not taken a position on the borders of a future Palestinian state and denying Jerusalem is being discussed.

But Israeli and Palestinian sources intimately familiar with the current talks tell WND Jerusalem is being negotiated, with Palestinian officials claiming the talks are in advance stages.

The sources also said the U.S. recently floated a plan to divide Jerusalem.

According to informed Israeli and Palestinian sources, officials from the State Department this year presented both negotiating sides with several proposals for consideration regarding the future status of Jerusalem. It was unclear whether the U.S. proposals were accepted.

One U.S. plan for Jerusalem obtained by WND was divided into timed phases and, among other things, called for Israel eventually to consider forfeiting parts of the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.

According to the first stage of the U.S. proposal, Israel initially would give the PA some municipal and security sovereignty over key Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. The PA would be allowed to open some official institutions in Jerusalem, could elect a mayor for the Palestinian side of the city and would deploy some kind of so-called basic security force to maintain law and order. The specifics of the force were not detailed in the plan.

The initial stage also calls for the PA to operate Jerusalem municipal institutions, such as offices to oversee trash collection and maintenance of roads.

After five years, if both sides keep specific commitments called for in a larger principal agreement, according to the U.S. plan, the PA would be given full sovereignty over agreed-upon eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods and discussions would be held regarding an arrangement for the Temple Mount. The plan doesn't specify which parts of the Temple Mount could be forfeited to the Palestinians or whether an international force may be involved.

The PA also could deploy official security forces in Jerusalem separate from a non-defined basic force after the five-year period and also could open major governmental institutions, such as a president's office, and offices for the finance and foreign ministries.

The U.S. plan leaves Israel and the PA to negotiate which Jerusalem neighborhoods would become Palestinian.

According to top diplomatic sources, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited the region last month, pressed Israel to sign a document by the end of the year that would include Jerusalem by offering the Palestinians a state in Israel's capital city as well as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Israeli team rather would conclude an agreement on paper by the end of the year that would give the Palestinians a state in the West Bank, Gaza and some Israeli territory, leaving conclusions on Jerusalem for a later date, the informed diplomatic sources told WND.

The sources said the Palestinian team has been pushing to conclude a deal by January on all core issues, including Jerusalem, and has been petitioning the U.S. to pressure Israel into signing an agreement on paper that offers the Palestinians eastern Jerusalem.

Rice, the sources said, has asked Israeli leaders to bend to what the U.S. refers to as a "compromise position," concluding an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by the end of the year that guarantees sections of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. But Israel would not be required to withdraw from Jerusalem for a period of one to five years.

Mass U.S. student protest against Palestinian state
Organizers frustrated with Jewish groups 'failing to mount any opposition'

A grassroots coalition of U.S. Jewish students is planning a nationwide protest next week against the Israeli government's ongoing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority – talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state, at least on paper, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The demonstration, scheduled for Sept. 18, also opposes what organizers state is the "failure" of mainstream American Jewish groups, including Orthodox-oriented organizations, to mount any opposition to the Israeli government's negotiations and its purported willingness to forfeit strategic territory.

"The religious Jewish establishment will not speak out about the planned division of the land of Israel. They are remaining silent just as they did three years ago, before the Gaza retreat," Yosef Rabin, director of the United Jewish Student Council, told WND.

Rabin's group has sent flyers to U.S. Jewish schools calling for students to protest on the 18th, starting 10 minutes before the first class, comprising the first lesson of the day.

The suggested format of the protest includes reading of Psalms and other prayers for Israel. Demonstrators are urged to invite the local media and bring cameras and video recorders to later post the protests on YouTube.

Rabin said so far students and parents in Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio have signed onto the protest and are working to organize students from their schools.

Israel has been negotiating with the PA in line with talks initiated at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis summit.

Media reports say Israel is willing to cede the majority of the strategic West Bank to the Palestinians and that the Jewish state is negotiating Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has denied Jerusalem is up for negotiation. But Israeli and Palestinian sources intimately familiar with the current talks tell WND Jerusalem is being negotiated, with Palestinian officials claiming the talks are in advance stages.

U.S. to sell Israel Air Force new bunker-buster bombs
14/09/2008
By Aluf Benn and Amos Harel

Despite reservations in Washington regarding a possible Israeli strike on Iran, the American administration will supply Israel with sophisticated weapons for heavily fortified targets, the U.S. administration announced.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced it would sell the Israel Air Force 1,000 new smart bombs, rumored to significantly enhance the IAF's military capabilities. The deal was approved amid public and secret messages from Washington, with the Americans expressing their reservations about a possible Israeli strike against the Islamic Republic's suspected nuclear sites.

The Pentagon's announcement, which came on Friday, said the U.S. will provide Israel with 1,000 units of Guided Bomb Unit-39 (GBU-39) - a special weapon developed for penetrating fortified facilities located deep underground.
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The $77 million shipment, which includes launchers and appurtenances, will allow the IAF to hit many more bunkers than currently possible. Although each bomb weighs 113 kilograms, its penetration capabilities equal those of a one ton bomb, according to professional literature.

Most U.S. Air Force aircraft are able to carry a pack of four of these bombs in place of a single one-ton bomb. The bomb's small size allows a single-strike aircraft to carry more of the munitions than is possible utilizing currently available bomb units, thus increasing firepower, or, alternatively, allowing the aircraft to fly longer distances to deliver a single bomb.

During demonstrations, the GBU-39 - labeled by the manufacturer, Boeing, as a Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) - has successfully penetrated more than 1.8 meters of thick reinforced concrete with a 23-kilogram warhead. The GPS-guided weapon is said to have a 50-percent probability of hitting its intended target within 5-8 meters, which should minimize collateral damage.

The estimated value for the bomb's GPS version, which military experts have called the latest development in the bunker-buster line, is around $70,000 to $90,000 for each individual bomb.

The U.S. has already supplied Israel with earlier versions of bunker busters. In 2005, the Pentagon authorized the sale of GBU-28 to Israel, in a move that commentators construed as a hinted threat aimed at Iran. Haaretz reported earlier this month that the U.S. was hesitant about selling Israel heavier busters.

The Pentagon's announcement also said that the U.S. would help upgrade the Israel Defense Forces' patriot anti-aircraft missiles - which Israel uses as part of its missile-interception array. Israel will also receive 28,000 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) tube launchers for land forces.

U.S. to sell Israel Air Force new bunker-buster bombs (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020702.html)

What? Israel to help Muslims carve
Quranic verses on Temple Mount
Islamic writings all over
holiest site for Judaism

After three years of waiting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert quietly has granted permission to the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount to repair and enhance Quranic verses plastered around Judaism's holiest site, WND has learned.

The approval came as result of the petitioning of the Israeli government by Jordan, which has been solidifying control over the Temple Mount in recent years.

There are more than 4,000 Quranic quotations written in Arabic calligraphy and carved into various Islamic buildings throughout the Temple Mount, including inside and outside the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.

Six hundred of the carved verses are in poor condition, according to the Waqf, the Mount's Muslim custodians.

The Waqf has been asking Israel for permission to repair the Quranic quotation carvings for years now. It even transported to the Israeli port city of Ashdod boxes of European tools and machinery especially made to repair the Temple Mount Quranic verses. The tools have been sitting in Ashdod for three years, according to informed sources.

Following Jordanian intervention, Olmert last week gave the Waqf approval to begin fixing the Quranic quotes, the informed sources told WND.

Jordan controlled areas of eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, from 1948 until Israel recaptured the site in the 1967 Six Day War.

During the period of Jordanian control, Jews were barred from the Western Wall and Temple Mount, and hundreds of synagogues in eastern Jerusalem were destroyed. Jordan constructed a road that stretched across the Mount of Olives, adjacent to the Temple Mount, bulldozing hundreds of Jewish gravestones in the process.

Following the Six Day War, one of the first acts of Moshe Dayan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, was to ensure the Jordanian-allied Mufti of Jerusalem, Abd Al Hamid A Saih, the holy site would remain under Islamic custodianship.

Dayan later also famously ordered an Israeli flag removed from the Dome of the Rock.

Jordan continues to maintain a major influence over the Temple Mount. Sheik Azzam Khateeb, who was installed in February 2007 as the new manager of the Waqf, is known to be close to the Jordanian monarchy. The previous Waqf manager, Sheik Adnon Husseini, was loyal to Palestinian Authority although toward the end of his rein, he seemed to be warming to Jordan.

In a gesture to Jordan, in January 2006, Israel granted Jordan permission to replace the main podium in the Al Aqsa Mosque from which Islamic preachers deliver their sermons. The podium, which was partially funded by Saudi Arabia, is considered one of the most important stands in the Muslim world. Muslims now believe it marks the "exact spot" Muhammad went up to heaven to receive revelations from Allah.

The new stand bears the emblem of the Jordanian kingdom. It replaced a 1,000-year-old podium believed to have been shipped to Jerusalem by the Islamic conqueror Saladin.

That stand was destroyed in 1969, when an Australian tourist set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque.

In recent years, Jordan quietly has been purchasing real estate surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in hopes of gaining more control over the area accessing the holy site, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials speaking to WND.

The officials disclosed the Jordanian kingdom in 2006 and 2007 used shell companies to purchase several apartments and shops located at key peripheral sections of the Temple Mount. The shell companies at times presented themselves as acting on behalf of the Waqf custodians of the Temple Mount, according to information obtained.

The officials said Jordan also set up a commission to use the shell companies to petition mostly Arab landowners adjacent to eastern sections of the Temple Mount to sell their properties. They said profits from sales at any purchased shops would be reinvested to buy more real estate near the Mount and in eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The First Jewish Temple was built there by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's shechina or "presence" dwelt. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Jewish Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. The site is believed to be the Biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition holds Mashiach, or the Jewish Messiah, will return and rebuild the third and final Temple on the Mount in Jerusalem.

The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and stands today in Jerusalem.

Throughout all notorious Jewish exiles, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and re-establishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph.

About 100 years ago, Al Aqsa in Jerusalem became associated with the place Muslims came to believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned in the Quran.

Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran.

Palestinians today claim exclusivity over the Temple Mount and Palestinian leaders routinely deny Jewish historic connection to the site, but historically, Muslims did not claim the Al Aqsa Mosque as their third holiest site and admitted the Jewish Temples existed.

According to research by Israeli author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam previously disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful Is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. Berkovits wrote that Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship, and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of God.

As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."

It wasn't until the late 19th century – incidentally when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.

A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 "Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," which states on page 4, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord.'"

Israel slated to buy US smart bombs for possible attack on Iran

Prophecy News Watch
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The US Department of Defense has notified Congress of a potential sale to Israel of 1,000 smart bombs capable of penetrating underground bunkers, which would likely be used in the event of a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

The notification to Congress was made over the weekend by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the branch of the Pentagon responsible for evaluating foreign military sales. Congress has 30 days to object to the deal.

The deal is valued at $77 million and the principal contractor would be Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.

The bomb Israel wants is the GBU-39, developed in recent years by the US as a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision and low-collateral damage strikes.

Israel has also asked for 150 mounting carriages, 30 guided test vehicles and two instructors to train the air force in loading the bombs on its aircraft.

The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world. The 113 kg. bomb has the same penetration capabilities as a normal 900 kg. bomb, although it has only 22.7 kg. of explosives. At just 1.75 meters long, its small size increases the number of bombs an aircraft can carry and the number of targets it can attack in a sortie.

Tests conducted in the US have proven that the bomb is capable of penetrating at least 90 cm. of steel-reinforced concrete. The GBU-39 can be used in adverse weather conditions and has a standoff range of more than 110 km. due to pop-out wings.

In its recommendation to Congress, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency wrote that Israel's strategic position was "vital to the United States' interests throughout the Middle East."

"It is vital to the US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives," the statement read.

The agency's announcement came amid growing concern that the Pentagon was not willing to sell Israel advanced military platforms such as bunker-buster missiles in an effort to dissuade Jerusalem from attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.

Bunker-buster missiles would be a fundamental component of an air strike against Iran, since many of the nuclear facilities, such as the Natanz uranium enrichment complex, have been built in underground, heavily fortified bunkers.

During the Second Lebanon War, Israel reportedly received an emergency shipment of bunker-buster missiles from the US to use against underground Hizbullah facilities.

Yiftah Shapir, from the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said the GBU-39 is one of the most advanced in the world and would improve Israel's standoff fire capabilities.

"The bomb is extremely accurate," he said. "All you have to do is punch in the coordinates, fire and forget."

He said they could be used to attack Iranian underground facilities like Natanz but that they could only penetrate a few meters.

"Hundreds of these would have to be used in an attack on Natanz for it to be successful," Shapir said.

Israel on high alert for mass-casualty strikes

worldtribune

Israel's military has been placed on high alert following an airline bomb scare and reports of other threats.

Officials said the intelligence community has warned of an imminent attack by either Al Qaida or Hizbullah against Israel. They said the Islamic insurgency could be planning the hijacking of an Israeli passenger jet that would then be crashed into an Israeli residential area.

"There is an assessment that something very bad will take place over the next few weeks, perhaps over the Jewish holidays," an official said.

On Sept. 24, the Israeli military was ordered on high alert following a bomb scare involving an El Al passenger jet. Security officials received information that a bomb had been placed on plane scheduled to arrive at Ben-Gurion International Airport from Paris that evening.

Israel Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighters escorted the El Al jet once it entered Israeli air space. The passenger plane landed at 8 p.m. and was searched by a bomb disposal unit.

"The bomb threat was found to be baseless," the military said.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened a Cabinet committee to discuss reports of imminent threats against Israeli interests abroad. The National Security Council has warned of Al Qaida and Hizbullah plots to abduct or kill Israelis.

"Government bodies are making every effort to map the threats and warn against them," a Cabinet statement said. "However, it is the responsibility — first and foremost — of every citizen who travels abroad to keep far away from dangerous areas and to take obligatory precautions."

Officials said Hizbullah was coordinating with Al Qaida and Hamas to abduct Israeli tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. They said the abduction plot was one of several Hizbullah options designed to avenge the assassination of operations chief Imad Mughniyeh in February 2008.

Another threat was said to stem from Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On Sept. 19, four Palestinians infiltrated a major Israel Air Force base in the Negev desert without being detected.

Officials acknowledged that the Palestinians, later identified as residents of the Hebron area who sought employment, bypassed chain link fences, video cameras and patrols to enter the Nevatim air base. Israeli officers and airmen saw the Palestinians wander through air and weapons hangers, but failed to inform security forces.

In the end, an Israeli contractor reported the Palestinians to the base commander. The Palestinians were arrested by police. "This incident will be investigated in depth by the air force, and lessons will be learned to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future," a military spokesman said.

Hamas plotting West Bank takeover in early 2009
worldtribune

The Palestinian Authority has opted for a holding pattern rather than developing a strategy to block the opposition Hamas movement from seizing power in the West Bank.

PA security sources said PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has refused to respond to appeals by senior officers to implement a range of measures to protect the Fatah-aligned regime from Hamas threats.

"Abu Mazen [Abbas] is scared of Hamas," a senior source said. "He does not want to provoke Hamas."

The PA has assessed that Hamas could not topple the Abbas regime. Senior officials said that unlike the Gaza Strip, Hamas does not have sufficient forces to sustain a rebellion in the West Bank.

"Hamas does not have real power in the West Bank and Israel is exaggerating its strength," PA National Security Force commander Maj. Gen. Diyab Al Ali said. "We are ready to control the West Bank cities and maintain security if Israel withdraws from them and this will make it easier for us to obtain our demands from Israel."

But security sources said Hamas could destabilize the PA to the point where senior officials either flee the West Bank or stay home. The sources said this could include Abbas, who has often threatened to quit.

The sources said Hamas has been working with Iran and Syria in a campaign to undermine the Abbas regime in 2009. They said the Hamas effort was being planned in the Gaza Strip by military chief Ahmed Jaabari.

In 2008, the PA arrested about 400 Hamas members in the West Bank and closed four Hamas charities. All but about 120 have been released.

On Sept. 22, PA forces raided the Hebron office of a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, identified as Samira Al Halayka,. Hebron has been the latest target of a PA crackdown on Hamas.

The sources said Hamas was believed to have organized assassination and sabotage squads that could attack the PA after January 2009, when Abbas's term was scheduled to end. Abbas was said to have agreed to a U.S. request to remain in power after January.

Israelis Usher in Jewish New Year With Uncertain Eye Toward Future

Monday , September 29, 2008

JERUSALEM —
Israelis ushered in the Jewish New Year on Monday with festive family dinners, and a prediction from their outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, that Israel would have to return virtually all the land it captured in the 1967 Mideast War in exchange for peace with the Palestinians and Syria.

Olmert exchanged holiday greetings with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. The Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashana, coincides this year with Eid el-Fitr, one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar. The two leaders, who have been meeting regularly in recent months, agreed to meet in the near future, officials said.

Still, months of talks have not produced tangible results, and many Israelis and Palestinians are skeptical about peace prospects. For many Israelis, the year that ended Monday was also disappointing in other ways. Top leaders, including Olmert, and a one-time president, Moshe Katsav were forced out by scandal.

"From the public, Israeli standpoint, the year that ends this evening should perhaps be erased from collective memory," wrote columnist Eitan Haber in the Yediot Ahronot daily.

"We are divided, skeptical, disbelieving, facing the greatest leadership crisis there has ever been here," added Yair Lapid, who also wrote in Yediot.

The New Year, which began at sundown, ushers in 10 days of soul-searching capped by Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. Rosh Hashana is a time for festive meals, which traditionally include an apple dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year.

Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics released its annual population figures on the occasion of the holiday. It reported that 7.34 million people live in Israel, including 5.54 million Jews, or 75 percent of the population. In addition, there are 1.48 million Arabs, or about 20 percent, and 315,000 members of other groups.

The population growth rate held steady at 1.8 percent over the past year. The Arab population grew at a faster rate than the Jewish population, 2.6 percent compared to 1.6 percent.

Israel closed off the West Bank until late Wednesday, barring Palestinians from entering Israel. It's a measure common during Jewish holidays, to prevent possible attacks by Palestinian militants. Gaza has been virtually sealed off since June 2007 when the Islamic militant Hamas seized control by force, and the vast majority of the territory's 1.4 million Palestinians have been trapped there since then.

In his farewell interview, Olmert said Israel will have to give up virtually all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem if it wants peace with the Palestinians. Olmert also said Israel would have to leave the Golan Heights in order to obtain peace with Syria.

The comments were the clearest sign to date of Olmert's willingness to meet the demands of Israel's longtime enemies in peace negotiations. But their significance was uncertain, since Olmert's days in office are numbered and peace negotiations will soon become the responsibility of a different Israeli leader.

Palestinians, meanwhile, prepared for Eid el-Fitr, a three-day holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Eid el-Fitr will start either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when the sliver of the new moon is sighted.

In Gaza, outdoor markets were selling nearly all the supplies needed for the holiday, but prices are up sharply, compared to the period before the start of the blockade. Gazans get many of their supplies through smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.

A tunnel operator, who would only identify himself as Abu Nidal, said he's been working double time in the run-up to the holiday. "Before we used to enter 1-2 tons a day of goods in general," he said. "These days, from 5 to 6 tons." He added that the smuggled goods range from clothes and chocolate to balloons.

Israelis Usher in Jewish New Year With Uncertain Eye Toward Future (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,430082,00.html)

Does Livni Share Olmert's Plan To Give Away Golan, Most of Eastern Jerusalem?

israelnationalnews.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Israel must give away the Golan Heights and most of eastern Jerusalem, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview with the Hebrew daily newspaper Yediot Acharonot on Friday.

Olmert has previously said he had not promised Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel would end its sovereignty over the strategic Golan area, which was annexed to the Jewish State decades ago.

However, in the weekend interview the lame duck prime minister maintained, "One more hill, another 100 meters – this is not what is going to change the security of Israel." Olmert said that Damascus would be forced to end its ties with Iran in exchange for peace and Israel's relinquishing the Golan Heights.

In an address at the opening of the winter session of the Knesset in 2006, Olmert told lawmakers that negotiations with Syria would require some changes in Damascus: "One makes peace with those who eschew terrorism and not those who host the headquarters of terror organizations. You make peace with those who have made a strategic decision to advocate a moderate policy and not those who assist in the arming of a terror organization which threatens regional stability…

"Israel will consent to making peace with the President of Syria only if he makes a genuine strategic decision to renounce terrorism, and not with a leader who uses the language of peace as a tactic to divert the world's attention from other issues."

Olmert vowed exactly two years ago this week, "As long as I am prime minister, we shall not give up the Golan for all eternity!"

His current statements, coming at the tail end of his reign while Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni tries to form a new government, now present the new Kadima party chairwoman with a policy she may have no choice but to accept.

If she does not, she risks a breakdown in the peace negotiations while running the danger of losing a coalition.

However, a majority of Knesset Members already have stated they oppose any withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

Rabbi gives first Synod address
6 October 2008

Cohen said wartime Pope Pius XII should have done more to help Jews

A Jewish cleric has addressed a worldwide gathering of Roman Catholic Bishops for the first time.

Shear-Yashuv Cohen, chief rabbi of the Israeli city of Haifa, explained to the Pope and his bishops the importance of the Bible to Jewish believers.

He also used the occasion to denounce the Iranian president for his comments about Israel at the UN last month.

The first day of the Vatican Synod saw some strong opinions expressed, the BBC's David Willey in Rome says.

Not only did the bishops cover the role of the Bible in the modern world - the official theme of the discussions - but also international politics and the world financial crisis.

Pope Benedict XVI described the current financial crisis as proof that the pursuit of money and success is pointless. "Only the word of God endures," he told the synod.

'Vicious words'

Before the gathering of 253 bishops, Rabbi Cohen spoke of the "long, hard and painful history" of relations between Catholics and Jews, describing it as "a history of blood and tears".

He said his presence at the synod sent a signal of "hope and a message of love, co-existence and peace for our generation, and for generations to come".

And he appealed for all religious leaders to defend and protect Israel from outside threats.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN in New York last month that Israel "is on a definite slope to collapse and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters".

Without mentioning the Iranian president by name, Rabbi Cohen said Israelis felt "deep shock at the terrible and vicious words" he had uttered against their nation.

Improving relations

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, chief rapporteur of the synod, stressed the importance of dialogue with both Jews and Muslims.

"Bearing in mind the tragic history of the relations between Israel and the Church, we are invited... to repair any injustice committed against the Jews," he said.

The history of Christian persecution of Jews includes genocide, exile, pogroms, crusades and anti-Semitism going back several centuries.

Cardinal Oullet described Muslims as "allies in the defence of human life and in the assertion of the social importance of religion".

The Vatican will be hosting a major meeting with Muslim clerics and scholars in November as part of the Pope's plan to improve relations with the Islamic world, says our Rome correspondent.

Rabbi gives first Synod address (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7655914.stm)

Livni steps closer to Israeli leadership

Tzipi Livni on Tuesday moved one step closer to becoming the next prime minister of Israel, after she finally secured a pledge from her party’s biggest coalition ally to stay in the government and support her bid for the leadership.

Ms Livni, who currently serves as foreign minister, won the race to succeed Ehud Olmert as prime minister and head of the governing Kadima party in an internal primary last month. But she has faced an uphill battle in the weeks since to hold together the fractious government coalition assembled by Mr Olmert, who is stepping down to fight corruption allegations.

The breakthrough came on Tuesday, when the centre-left Labour party under Ehud Barak, the defence minister and himself a former prime minister, agreed to sign a new coalition agreement.

The deal was struck between senior negotiators from the two parties, but has yet to be formally ratified by the two leaders.

Together Kadima and Labour have 48 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. They would need a further 13 seats to give them an overall majority.

If Ms Livni can now also persuade the ultra-orthodox religious Shas party to stay on board, she will have enough votes in the Israeli parliament to become Israel’s second female prime minister after Golda Meir more than 30 years ago.

Shas has made its support conditional on a promise to raise child welfare payments. The party also wants to ensure that the current peace talks with the Palestinians exclude the sensitive issue of occupied east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future independent state.

The deal with Labour came after a marathon negotiating session lasting 17 hours, Israeli media reported. It will see Mr Barak elevated to the post of “senior” deputy prime minister, marking him out as the highest-ranking government member behind Ms Livni. He will also be handed an unspecified role in the current peace negotiations with Syria, which were launched by Mr Olmert earlier this year.

The agreement reflects the desire of both parties to avoid an early election, which polls suggest would usher in a right-wing government under Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud party and another former prime minister.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly urged both Labour and Shas not to join Kadima in a new government, arguing that Israel should go to the polls instead.

In an effort to prevent Shas from following the Labour lead, Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday met the party’s spiritual leader, reportedly warning him of Ms Livni’s intention to redivide Jerusalem.

While most analysts believe that Shas will ultimately decide to join the government, the arduous coalition talks of the past weeks suggest that a Livni-led government may suffer from the same lack of stability and political cohesion that bedevilled Mr Olmert.

Ms Livni is likely to face a particular challenge in uniting her government behind the current peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, which have made little headway since their launch last year.

Israeli air force planning answer for missile war
October 16, 2008

TEL AVIV — The Israel Air Force has been preparing for massive missile strikes by Iran and Syria.

Officials said the air force has sought to enhance capabilities that would enable fighter-jets to take off and land during missile and rocket strikes from such countries as Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

They said the air force began the planning effort soon after the Hizbullah war in 2006, which paralyzed at least one major base.

"We believe that our air bases would be a key target in any war," an official said.

The air force has been testing material that would enable aircraft to take off from damaged runways. Officials said the military has procured an unidentified non-asphalt substance that could restore destroyed runways within minutes.

"The tests were successful and would allow combat aircraft to take-off and land even under terrible conditions," the official said.

Officials said the air force has determined that Hizbullah and Hamas would coordinate in an effort to paralyze bases throughout the country. They said Hizbullah would target northern air bases and Hamas would fire extended-range rockets toward bases south of Tel Aviv as well as in the Negev desert.

Another Israeli option has been the procurement of a vertical takeoff variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, known as the F-35B. Under the option, the air force would procure about 10 such aircraft to ensure rapid response to any missile strike on the Jewish state.

Officials said Israel's F-15I fighter-jet would serve as the most important element in any counter-strike. The air force has acquired a system that enables the F-15I — the most powerful aircraft in the Israeli fleet -- to launch several precision-guided weapons simultaneously.

Israeli air force planning answer for missile war (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_israel0614_10_16.asp)

Temple time?
Oct. 16, 2008
DAVID SMITH , THE JERUSALEM POST

For centuries Jews have remembered and mourned the destruction of the Temple through traditions such as crushing a glass at weddings or leaving unpainted a patch of wall opposite the entrance to one's home - each stressing that nothing can be perfect or complete without the Temple.

Built by Solomon in about 950 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the Temple was rebuilt about 70 years later but finally razed by the Romans in 70 CE.

Talmud scholar Rabbi Yohanan wrote: "During these times that the Temple is demolished, a person is not allowed to fill his mouth with laughter. This is because the verse [Psalms 126] says, 'Then our mouths will be filled with laughter,' and does not say 'Now our mouths will be filled with laughter.' And when is 'then'? 'Then' will be when the Third Temple is rebuilt."

In other words, "Jewish life without the Temple is like fish out of water," says Rabbi Chaim Richman, head of the international department of the Temple Institute.

An author of 10 books on the Temple, Richman adds: "Do you realize that 202 commandments out of 613 must have the Temple to be fulfilled? Without the Temple, Judaism is a skeleton of what it's supposed to be."

To this end, the Temple Institute was founded in 1987 with the explicit goal of rebuilding the Temple. Located in the Jewish Quarter, some 100,000 visitors, about half of them Christian, visit the institute each year to learn about the First and Second Temples and preparations for the Third Temple.

The institute is presently involved in education, research and constructing vessels for use in the longed-for Temple.

Richman relates a story about Temple Institute founder Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, a paratrooper who helped liberate the Old City, including the Western Wall and the Temple Mount, in June 1967.

A Jordanian Muslim guide led the soldiers around the Temple Mount explaining where the Temple and other fixtures, such as the menora and altar, had stood. When asked why he was helpful, the guide explained, "We have a tradition that one day the Jews would win a war and rebuild the Temple. This is my contribution. I assume you're starting tomorrow."

Although Temple Institute staff have been called lunatics, zealots and racists by some, they maintain that there is nothing more natural for the Jewish faithful to do than make preparations for the Third Temple.

"The hallmark of the Third Temple is unparalleled peace and harmony," says Richman. "I believe that the best that a Jew can do is to have the integrity to believe and do as much as possible toward building the Temple."

According to Richman the first step in this process is soul searching. "The answer is returning to our spiritual roots. This adds up to building up the holy Temple. It's the vehicle that builds up reconciliation between God and man… not just Jewish people."

To achieve this, the Temple Institute aims "to rekindle the flame of the holy Temple in the hearts of mankind" through various educational initiatives. Toward that end the institute invests about $500,000 yearly in publications, tours and seminars as well as maintenance of its Web site.

But the long-term goal, Richman says, is "to do all in our limited power to bring about the building of the holy Temple in our time."

How exactly this will be achieved is a point of contention.

According to Temple Institute director Yehuda Glick, many devout Jews believe the Temple "will come down somehow from heaven."

He insists a legend like that can be very hard to overcome, even though no Jewish sources support the idea.

"We must understand that 'heavenly' doesn't automatically mean mystical, superficial magic. During the Six Day War, the people of Israel were facing a major catastrophe and, in human eyes, we had no chance - we were to be wiped out. In six days we overcame enemies from every border and reunited Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. That is no less a miracle," says Glick.

"So too when we look back at 1938 [before the Holocaust] and see we were almost wiped out," he continues. "Who would have believed we were just 10 years from seeing the words of the prophets coming out of the Book and materializing [the establishment of Israel].

"We have total faith that we are to do what we are obligated to do. He has His ways to surprise us. But it must come from a wide-range call and action."

RABBI MOSHE Silberschein, a professor of rabbinic literature at the Hebrew Union College, affirms the educational efforts of the Temple Institute. "I think the institute has educational value, helping children to see with their own eyes what they read about in the Bible and Mishna. It has value in helping them to visualize what the sacred service was like during the Second Temple period of Jewish history."

Still, Silberschein does have some misgivings about the institute "once the institute goes beyond teaching history, heritage and sacred texts, and starts talking about building the Third Temple." If, for example, a bulldozer were brought in to clear the path for the building of a Third Temple, that would be "tantamount to starting World War III," he says. "This is hardly an auspicious way to fulfill the biblical verse in Isaiah 56, 'For My House shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.'"

Rabbi David Forman, former director of the Israel office of the Union for Reform Judaism, also takes issue with the institute's aims. "I'm opposed for two reasons: one is purely ideological/theological, and the second is practical/political," says Forman. "Firstly, the reconstruction of the Temple would thrust us back to a time where the expression of worship for God was exercised through sacrifice. According to our tradition, when the Temple was destroyed, the notion of sacrifice went by the wayside, and instead, in the rabbinic period, a new form of worship came into being - prayer - which seems to be a far more civilized way of asking, praising, thanking and praying to God.

"Secondly, it [rebuilding the Temple] would be terribly disruptive because of the emotional attachments the three monotheistic religions have to Jerusalem, the holy city, and to alter it and the status of the holy sites in any way that would impinge on spiritual longing would be a recipe for disaster and could lead not just to a local conflagration but to a wider one given the tension it would create," he explains, adding that "it would exacerbate an already sensitive situation that would engage the entire world community and certainly the Islamic community."

cont'd next post

Eda Haredit spokesman Shmuel Poppenheim adds: "Hitgarut ha'umot [inciting nations] is forbidden... it awakens hate and repulsion, and could create a disastrous chain of events that would impede the coming of the Messiah.

Also, "In our days it is forbidden to enter the Temple Mount, which [institute founder] Ariel encourages. This is very grave and punishable by karet [premature death]," he continues. "But our main opposition [to the Temple Institute] is Ariel's premise that we are redemption-bound... His nationalism damages the pure faith of the Jews. Because of our sins we were exiled from the Land of Israel and the Temple; only our goodness and the will of God will rebuild the Temple, not our hands.

"It is problematic that Ariel mixes religious precepts, like redemption, with political principles like democracy and the State of Israel."

WHEN ASKED how the Third Temple would come about, Richman responds: "I don't do scenarios. I'm not shying away from the question. The Temple is not up to the Temple Institute, but up to the people of Israel. They have a representative government. Whether they'll act in accordance with what it means to be a Jew, I don't know."

He quotes Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who said, "If we were the people we're supposed to be, the Muslims would come to us and ask, 'Please build us a Temple.'"

Asked about the timetable for construction, Richman, an ordained rabbi who quotes Maimonides on Temple matters but draws popular wisdom from "rabbis" Mark Twain and Yogi Berra, laughs, "I don't know, but I think we're behind schedule."

In the meantime, the Temple Institute focuses its energies on education and preparing vessels for use in the Third Temple.

A team of researchers, rabbis and scientists collaborate to ensure the needed items meet scriptural and rabbinic criteria. Beyond those standards, the craftsmen have artistic license to construct vessels as they deem appropriate.

"It's a very complex process," Richman explains. "Some items have taken over 10 years of research. We have groups of scholars who sift through superfluous information regarding concepts that have become completely forgotten or little is known of them. We are taking a section of Torah wisdom and reactivating it."

Knowledge of the construction of Temple objects is so obscure that "many people have asked us if we're allowed to do it. They ask, 'Isn't God supposed to do that?'"

Construction of the high priest's breastplate is an example of the complexity involved. According to Exodus 28 the material had to be woven of "gold, sky blue, dark red, and crimson-dyed wool, and of twisted linen."

Metalsmiths beat the gold into thin sheets, then cut it into fine threads to be woven into the material. The sky-blue color (techelet in Hebrew, said by the Mishna to resemble indigo) was a dye obtained from a snail known as hilazon.

The exact identification of this animal and the method used to produce the dye is the subject of extensive research. Most scholars today believe it to be the Mediterranean snail known as Murex trunculus.

"The dark red color, argaman in Hebrew, is also derived from a snail, possibly the Murex trunculus as well," says Richman. "According to this theory, the difference in color is a product of the amount of time the substance is initially exposed to sunlight."

The crimson color is produced from a worm referred to in the Torah as the "crimson worm," tola'at shani in Hebrew, a mountain worm that has been identified as Kermes biblicus.

The Hebrew word that appears for "linen" is shesh, which means "six." Researchers believe this requires each thread to be six-ply.

The 12 stones for the breastplate presented another problem since linguists don't agree on what the ancient names intend. Extensive research eventually revealed that ancient stones were classified by color, not gem family.

"The final authority is the midrash, which explains that the 12 tribes of Israel each had a flag, and the flag color matched the color of the stone worn on the high priest's breastplate representing that tribe. So there was maybe more than one stone to fit the requirement of the verse. We look at several criteria and find the best. That's the goal… to find the best possible."

TO DATE the institute has created more than 60 vessels for use in the Temple, which are on display at the institute. These include the showbread table, incense altar, and head and breast plates for the high priest.

One of the most expensive pieces is a golden menora showcased on a platform near the Western Wall. Made of a single piece of solid gold poured over a metal base, the half-ton fixture contains about 45 kilograms of gold and is valued at $3 million. Its design and construction was based on rabbinic sources as well as Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, himself a priest who served in the Temple. The absence of a red heifer presents a problem as its ashes must consecrate the articles in accordance with Numbers 19 and rabbinical instruction. Otherwise the priests would have to use the vessels in a state of impurity. Citing security concerns, Richman would not comment on the search for the red heifer. The institute has also begun mass production of priestly garments. It recently received rabbinic authorization to use special sewing machines to produce the apparel, bringing the price of each garment down from about $10,000 to $800.

Dozens of kohanim (members of the priestly line dating to Aaron) have placed their orders.

Until construction on the Third Temple can begin, the institute seeks to build a World Center for Temple Knowledge outside Jaffa Gate.

Slated for construction in 2012, the 2,500-square-meter facility will offer a 3-D experience of "going up to the Temple" as well as in-depth exhibits and galleries.

These and other projects aside, the institute's long-term goal is to rebuild the Temple, which Richman insists must be preceded by a shift in thinking.

"Everything that goes on in this country relates to the spiritual struggle behind it all - especially with the people of Israel. It's all about a total struggle about who we are and what our destiny is. We're not called to be the best doctors and lawyers and Hollywood producers - that is not our destiny. We're called to be a nation of priests," he says.

"The Temple is a real litmus paper test of that equation. We are talking about the big existential question: Who are we?"

Temple time? (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017549115&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Pope snubs Israel over Yad Vashem inscription

As Vatican fights for beatification of WWII pope, cardinal announces Holy See won't visit Israel until inscription asserting Pius XII ignored Holocaust during war is removed

Anat Shalev
Published: 10.18.08, 20:35 / Israel News

Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, a Vatican cardinal, said Pope Benedict XVI would not travel to Israel so long as Yad Vashem continues to display an inscription by the image of Pope Pius XII asserting that the latter failed to raise his voice against the extermination of Europe's Jews during the Holocaust.

Gumpel's statement, which was quoted extensively by the Italian media on Saturday, has since been rejected by the Vatican.

The Rev. was referring to an invitation extended to the Holy See by Israel. A papal visit can involve several long months to arrange.

Gumpel was quoted as saying that while the Catholic Church seeks a positive relationship with Israel, such ties can only be built on reciprocation.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman for domestic media, Yossi Levi, confirmed Jerusalem had issued a response following the Italian reports. "We do not interfere in the beatification of popes, but we do indeed have something to say about the historic role played by Pius XII," said Levy.

"So long as the Vatican refuses to allow historians into its archives, that painful question will remain unanswered. We want to continue the excellent dialogue we have with the Vatican, and the Pope is a welcome guest. We do not see Gumpel's statement as representative of the Holy See."

Following the Vatican's clarification the Foreign Affairs Ministry added: "Father Gumpel's words found no audience in the Vatican, and the clarification issued by the Vatican has put this matter to rest as far as we are concerned."

On Friday however France's main Jewish organization warned that efforts to beatify Pius XII would deal "a severe blow" to relations between Catholics and Jews.

"Pope Pius XII, worried about burning his bridges with Germany, never made a clear statement denouncing the singular monstrosity of the extermination of millions of Jews. Moreover, he did not do so after the war either, which is profoundly shocking," the organization, Conseil Representatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF), said in a statement.

Pope snubs Israel over Yad Vashem inscription (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3610263,00.html)

Israel expects U.S.-Iran talks under Obama
By Barak Ravid
October 20, 2008

Israel expects the U.S. to initiate direct talks with Tehran if Senator Barack Obama is elected president, in which case a critical Israeli interest would be to condition any talks between the West and Iran on halting uranium enrichment, according to a senior government source.

The source said discussions have been underway for months between Israel's Foreign Ministry, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Security Council, the Mossad, the Defense Ministry and academic experts. The significance of the discussions is that they were coordinated by the foreign minister and Kadima chairwoman, prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni.

The discussions studied a number of scenarios between Iran and the West. According to one, following an Obama win, the new president will start a dialogue with Iran to pressure it to stop its nuclear program. Obama said in his first debate with Senator John McCain that the U.S. had to enter tough direct talks with the Iranians, and that attempts to isolate Tehran only speed up its progress toward nuclearization.

Israel has no knowledge at present that Obama intends to present pre-conditions to dialogue with the Iranians, which is of great concern to Jerusalem.

According to another scenario, after the U.S. elections, and perhaps even before them, Iran would announce its agreement to the plan for a way forward proposed by the six powers a few months ago. According to the plan, uranium enrichment and sanctions would end simultaneously and talks would begin within 45 days on complete suspension of enrichment in exchange for a package of incentives from the West. A senior government source who took part in the discussions said: "The evaluation in Israel is that these two scenarios are possible in the next six months." The source said that in the course of strategic planning it was made clear that "Israel would have to avoid a situation in which the international community entered into dialogue and real negotiations with Iran while giving up the condition of stopping enrichment, and that this had to be emphasized to the six powers."

Ahead of the annual evaluation by the Foreign Ministry held two weeks ago, a document was written on the subject of the scenarios. According to Channel 10, the document was not presented to a wide forum because of concern over leaks that would compromise international efforts against Iran.

Meanwhile, over the past two months the Foreign Ministry has put together a four-pronged plan for a new diplomatic campaign against Iran. The plan is intended to solve a series of conflicts and tensions between various functionaries in the Foreign Ministry that have impaired action vis-a-vis Iran.

The plan divides activities in Iran into four teams that will advise Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide. The team charged with diplomatic action against the nuclearization of Iran will consist primarily of personnel from the strategic wing of the Foreign Ministry and will cooperate with other bodies in the defense establishment. It will focus on increasing international pressure on Iran.

The team tasked with Iran's economic isolation will discuss divesting from Iran, cancelling deals, particularly on energy, boycotting Iranian banks and increasing monitoring of Iranian money in foreign banks.

Another team will work to isolate Tehran in areas other than the nuclear plan, highlighting issues of human rights, Iranian support for terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and organizing rallies during visits by senior Iranian officials.

A fourth team will deal with issues of public diplomacy - writing articles in leading newspapers around the world, conducting press briefings, engaging in public relations efforts against the Iranian regime on university campuses, and disseminating intelligence against Iran in the media.

Israel expects U.S.-Iran talks under Obama (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1029680.html)

Israel mulling non-aggression treaty with Lebanon
By Barak Ravid
20/10/2008

The Foreign Ministry is examining an initiative aimed at reaching a long-term non-belligerence pact with Lebanon to prevent renewed fighting along the northern border.

The initiative was first revealed two weeks ago during a strategic discussion over the future of the Middle East peace process that was held as part of the ministry's evaluation of regional developments.

The evaluation is the first of its kind, and was initiated by ministry director-general Aharon Abramovich, and later supported by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Livni's close advisers and senior ministry officials participated in the discussion. Given the officials' close relationship with Livni, the evaluation's recommendations are likely to turn into official policy should she succeed in forming a government.

Eran Etzion, the head of the Foreign Ministry's political planning section, said a full peace agreement with Lebanon can only come in the wake of a similar deal with Syria. Still, he said, Israel can try to advance on a separate political track with Lebanon, the end result of which could be a long-term non-belligerence pact.

The agreement would be signed by both governments, and its focus would be a reciprocal agreement on the route of the border between the two countries. The deal would include a solution to the dispute over the Shaba Farms border area and the divided village of Ghajar, as well as a number of small border adjustments demanded by Lebanon.

The recommendation would provide for a coordination apparatus between the Israel Defense Forces and the Lebanese army, as well as the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) over border patrols and other monitoring activities.

Israel is expected to ask Lebanon to significantly reduce Hezbollah's weapons stores, and to extend the Lebanese army's authority across the entire country, with a special emphasis on the area south of the Litani River, which is the closest area to Israel. In return, an agreement would have to be reached over Israeli overflights in Lebanese airspace.

The discussion also dealt with the Syrian and Palestinian diplomatic tracks, and officials present argued over which track should receive first priority.

Those in favor of dealing with Syria first agreed that the only tenable option on that track would involve negotiations over a final-status agreement with an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

Supporters of this strategy said an agreement with Syria would be easier to reach than with the Palestinians, the chances for its success are greater and the strategic dividend Israel would receive is bigger. They also said such a deal would greatly change the balance of power in the region by removing the threat posed to Israel by the Syrian army, placing distance between Damascus and Iran and possibly engendering a deal with Lebanon.

Supporters of the "Palestinians first" strategy argued, however, that without solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jerusalem will be unable to advance peace talks with even a single moderate Arab state.

One official subscribing to this view said, "Every Arab person we talk to says the central issue that bothers him, and that they give priority to over everything else, is the Palestinian issue."

Israel mulling non-aggression treaty with Lebanon (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1029933.html)

Israel, Hamas Prepare for End of Ceasefire :-X :-X
10/20/08
by Maayana Miskin

(IsraelNN.com) Both Israel and Hamas are preparing for the end of the Gaza ceasefire in another month. During the ceasefire Hamas committed to ending rocket attacks on nearby Jewish towns, while Israel agreed to allow shipments in and out of Gaza and to stop counter-terrorist operations and airstrikes. Several rocket attacks took place during the ceasefire, which has lasted for five months so far, but the overall number of attacks was much lower than in the months before.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said Sunday that the group had not yet begun to consult with other Gaza terror gangs regarding the continuation of the ceasefire. Hamas leaders must first discuss the matter amongst themselves, he said. Senior Hamas terrorist Abu Ubaida, head of the rocket-firing Al-Kassam branch, said Hamas was “fully prepared for the post-ceasefire stage.”

Despite Radwan's statement, Arab media outlets report that Hamas has asked for a three-month extension to the original six-month ceasefire. However, Hamas conditioned the extension on its being applied in Judea and Samaria and on the re-opening of the Rafiah crossing at the Egyptian border. The Olmert administration has said that the ceasefire would include the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit before Rafiah will be reopened.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak discussed the ceasefire on Sunday during a meeting with community leaders from Sderot and other Jewish communities near Gaza in Tel Aviv. “The ceasefire is fragile by its very nature, but we have nothing to regret,” Barak said. "The ceasefire lasted longer than expected and may continue," he said.

Israel is better off for having agreed to the ceasefire despite the fact that Hamas has gained strength in the absence of IDF operations in Gaza, Barak added. The five months of relative quiet have allowed Israel to make progress on plans to reinforce homes in Sderot and surrounding towns against rocket fire, he said. In addition, “We should not regret even a single day of quiet,” he said.

The IDF has been watching Hamas during the ceasefire and is following events in Gaza, Barak said. “The IDF will know how to operate if and when it becomes necessary,” he said. No matter what decision are made regarding the ceasefire, “We do not want the situation we had before the ceasefire, that is, a reality in which normal life cannot continue in the area and yet there is no intense and comprehensive operation within Gaza,” he said.

Israel, Hamas Prepare for End of Ceasefire (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128023)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm not going to comment, because the writing is on the wall.

Israel: 'We're in the midst of preparing the home front for war'

jpost.com

According to Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, the country is in one of the most complicated and dangerous periods of its history. And though he does not believe that Israel can be "wiped off the map," in spite of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threats, he is increasingly concerned about the current political instability here, which he blames for delays in projects he deems essential, such as the revamping of the Home Front.

This week Vilnai gave The Jerusalem Post a lengthy interview, during which he covered a wide range of topics, from Labor's coalition talks with Kadima, to how Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is a target, to the danger of holding public demonstrations calling for the release of Gilad Schalit.

The former deputy chief of General Staff and deputy commander of the elite commando unit, Sayeret Matkal, says that the IDF is at a most critical juncture. It is the only military in the world, he explains, that needs to be ready at any given moment to fight a guerrilla war in Lebanon, a terror war in the West Bank and a conventional war with Syria, and confront a possible existential threat from Iran.

Since taking up his post just over a year ago, Vilnai, 64, has been immersed in establishing the National Emergency Administration (NEA), which he founded to coordinate among all of the various emergency services, in the event of a missile onslaught. This is necessary, he says, because one of the problems encountered during the Second Lebanon War was that the cabinet had to meet several times to discuss how to get food to shelters in the North. But "the cabinet needs to run the war."

How do you view Israel's current strategic position in the Middle East?
There are existential threats today coming from farther away. The additional complication when dealing with Islamic radical terror is that the war is not just against terrorists, but against a population. In Gaza, you can hit Hamas, but it does not hurt Hamas, since the people there support Hamas. This is the same in Lebanon, where the civilian population supports Hizbullah. This makes the conflict much more complicated. As a result, what is needed is a combined military-diplomatic solution, as well as alliances with other countries.

Is there still a conventional threat?
It exists, and we need to prepare for it, so we can retain capabilities required for war with Syria, like on Yom Kippur exactly 35 years ago. We also need to retain the ability to fight Hizbullah and Iran over the horizon. Today, we need to know how to do different things [simultaneously], and this is difficult challenge. I can't remember such a complicated period in my 40 years in the defense establishment.

What poses the greatest threat?
The state of Israel. Establishing a new government is necessary for stability. The fact that the government changes every two years weakens us. A ministry that starts everything from scratch every two years cannot get anything done.

Are there ongoing processes in the Defense Ministry that will be harmed in the event that general elections are held now?
The change in regime harms and weakens us, and I believe it is of the utmost importance to continue with the same government today.

We are in the midst of preparing the home front for war and this is something that the government has spoken about for decades, but never dealt with or regulated properly. If we change the leadership of the Defense Ministry, I don't know what will happen. If we don't continue what we have been doing here for another two years, it will all go to waste.

What, for example?
The NEA and the annual home front exercises we started. I fear that if we aren't here, everything will go back to the way it was in the beginning. We need continuity.

What is the concept behind the NEA?
The responsibility for the home front has always been in the hands of the municipalities or the local and regional councils, but for years they shirked this responsibility. The concept behind the NEA is for the government offices and services to assist them. The IDF, Israel Police, Fire and Rescue Service, Magen David Adom, the Interior, Welfare and Health ministries will all work for the mayors and regional council heads to make sure that life continues, even during wartime.

The cabinet does not need to meet to discuss food distribution to bomb shelters. A mayor with the right assistance can do this on his or her own.

What will the next war look like?
The home front will be the main front of the war, whether it is missiles from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or Iran.

Can Israel live with a nuclear Iran?
Israel has the strong advantage of being a resilient nation which has been through wars - and an intifada with buses blowing up. We know how to soldier on like no other country in the world.

I don't believe that Israel can just disappear from the map. There were times like that in the 1950s, when we were a young and small nation. I don't accept the definition of Iran as an existential threat in the sense that Israel will disappear. I do, however, believe that we can get hit and be weakened. They can try to hit us hard, and the IDF is the only military in the world that cannot afford to lose even a single war, since doing so would be a dramatic change in the state of Israel.

But the Iranian threat is not just our problem, but that of the entire free world. I was in Germany for a meeting last week and told people there that Iran should be their main focus. We need an economic siege on Iran. There are not only military solutions to threats.

cont.

cont.

Is there time for sanctions to work?
Time is against us, but I have no doubt that strong and serious sanctions could work. If the entire free world decides to stop the economic flow to Iran, it will have the desired effect. Iran is a country that is connected to the world, not like Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

Nevertheless, can Israel live alongside a nuclear Iran?
As a rule, we can't allow Iran to obtain this capability. Currently, we need to invest all our efforts in preventing it from achieving that capability. We are doing this and the US is doing this, but the entire world is not with us.

When you say we can't allow Iran to achieve nuclear capability, is military force one option for preventing it?
Everything needs to be seriously deliberated. I am not in favor of making warlike declarations, but I think that everything needs to be considered, so we can determine the right course of action. Military force has always been a continuation of diplomacy by other means. This was said by [Prussian military theorist Carl von] Clausewitz.

Why does the world not join the economic campaign against Iran?
Everyone thinks the threat is not against them. They also think in the short term, and look at the profits they are making from deals with Iran, and they think what is happening there will not affect them.

How much time is there?
I believe that 2009 and 2010 will be the critical years. There may be more time, but I think there is less. Two years is a short time for what we are dealing with.

What is going on with the gas masks?
There is a budget disagreement with the Treasury. Most of the masks have already been refurbished, and there is a plan for a civilian company to return them to people at home. However, we will not distribute to everyone at once. We will start with threatened areas - like the North and the center - and then move to other parts of the country. We had hoped to start in January, but did not receive the necessary budget. We went to the cabinet, and are waiting for the money. Hopefully, we will start to distribute in 2009.

Do we really need gas masks?
Yes. We need a protective room and a mask. This issue was studied by the NEA, and it was decided that this is the right protective envelope. We need them against capabilities that are in Syrian and Iranian hands. It is fairly easy to obtain this type of non-conventional capability, and the moment they know we have a protective envelope, they will think twice before using this capability. This serves as a deterrent against them.

Can there really be peace with Syria?
We need to break the axis of evil. It can be broken militarily, but the talks with Syria are meant to do this as well. Syria needs to cut off its ties with Iran. This is our condition, and this is the most important element. But it is not something that will happen immediately.

We saw other Syrian intentions with the nuclear facility that the air force destroyed last September.
I don't know what type of facility you are taking about, but that is why I said we need both elements - military and diplomatic.

It has been two years since the war in Lebanon, and Hizbullah is still building up weapons. Is there a possibility of another war?
They are scared of a war, and while they pretend to be heroic, Nasrallah has for the past two years been holed up inside a bunker.

Why? Is he a target?
Of course he is. He is an enemy of Israel, and he sees what happens to Israel's enemies. Hizbullah does not want another war. It doesn't want a repeat of the destruction we caused in the Dahiya neighborhood in Beirut. Hizbullah understands it cannot survive another war and grasps what our power is.

Hamas, too, is amassing weapons. What is happening with the Gaza cease-fire?
They are building up all the time. The question we need to ask is what the significance of the cease-fire is where the smuggling is concerned. The answer is that they are smuggling the same amount today as they were before the cease-fire.

The Egyptians are slowly improving their capabilities, and recently arrested Beduin in the Sinai who are connected to the tunnel industry. The Egyptians are an integral part of the Middle East, and peace with it has immense strategic importance for Israel. We would never have had contact with Hamas without the Egyptians.

That is why I thought there was no reason for the cease-fire not to succeed. There were many on the Palestinian side who wanted to end it, but they understand the importance, and if there is not a breakdown, there is no reason not to keep it going.

Do they have weaponry that they did not have before?
There is no doubt that they have extended their rocket range. If, before, they could fire a rocket 10 km., they can now reach 20 km. But they cannot defeat us with missiles. We will not let them expand their military capability, and we may need to use military force to stop this.

Peres declares early elections at opening of Knesset session
By JPOST.COM STAFF

President Shimon Peres formally declared Israel's early elections during the opening of the Knesset winter session later Monday afternoon. Peres informed Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik that the country would be holding elections after it became clear that none of the Knesset factions were capable of building a coalition.

Slideshow: Pictures of the week "This Knesset session opens during both internal and external crises which arouse immense concern in the hearts of every citizen. The difficult process that concludes with the end of the government determines new questions, which concern every home in Israel," Peres said at the beginning of his speech.

"Faith in the ability of governing institutions has weakened, and more so, has the public's faith in its elected officials. We must not hide this unpleasant truth… This is the hour in which the Israeli Knesset and the political systems must undertake heavy self examination. It is never too late to repair."

The president met Knesset faction representatives on Monday morning, who all told him that they supported holding elections as soon as possible, apart from the GIL Pensioners Party, which urged him to delay the vote.

Peres presented the Knesset with five questions he considered imperative for parties to answer before running for representation in Israel's political system. First on the president's list was the question of national security; Peres asked his audience to dwell on how they could ensure Israel's security when considering all of the threats facing the state and emphasized Iran's nuclear plan as well as extreme Islamic forces in general that terrorize the Jewish state.

The president then asked parties to consider their role in the Israeli-Arab conflict, insisting that the 2002 Saudi Peace Initiative was a huge step in distancing the Arab world from a concrete policy of rejecting Israel's existence. Peres said that most of the Arab leaders he has met with were "unwilling to fall in line with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's imperialist approach to Islam," and added that Egyptian President Hossni Mubarak had made it clear that "a peace deal with the Palestinians will inevitably lead to a larger peace agreement in the Middle East." Peres insisted, "We have never been as close to peace as we are now."

The third question Peres presented legislators was how they could assist Israel's economic needs in wake of the international financial crisis. "We must decide upon a clear path," said Peres, who stated that the economy of the Jewish state had "impressed the whole world." He insisted that that once Israel answered social problems, the economy would only strengthen and emphasized how welfare was an issue needed to be dealt with. After quoting statistics regarding Israel's unemployment, Peres declared, "We must allow the observant to pray and work at the same time."

"For Israel," said Peres, "observing the Sabbath is important, but so are the other six days of work."

Peres also discussed the importance of solidarity in Israeli society, calling on MKs to consider better integration and equality among non-Jewish sectors of the population.

The final issue the president wished politicians to consider was the role of Israel's youth - what he called "the future of the state."

Speaking after Peres, incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert congratulated Kadima leader Tzipi Livni on her efforts to form a coalition, saying, "I am sorry for the circumstances which determined that the coalition negotiations would be unsuccessful… I had hoped that a new government would be formed by the person who was voted in from Kadima."

Olmert, who learned Monday that he would continue to serve as premier until the coming elections, reminded the assembled MKs and guests that the country would not be coming to a standstill in the coming months of campaigning. "Friends, members of Knesset," he said, "even if the MKs stop their parliamentary lives for a few months, the interests of the state are not frozen… There are still challenges in the realm of defense."

The prime minister cited Palestinian terrorism and the Iranian threat as two such challenges, saying that, "The leaders of Iran do not cease in their preparation of weapons of destruction while we are preparing for elections… I recommend that they do not test us."

Turning to the family members of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, who were present in the plenum, Olmert took the opportunity to reiterate that he was still acting incessantly in the effort to bring about Gilad's release, insisting, however, that he could not divulge the nature of his efforts. "Gilad Schalit is still in the hands of his cruel captors in the Gaza Strip, and not a day goes by that I do not occupy myself with him and his fate. As in the past, I will not elaborate or justify [myself], and will not enter into debates with all of his well-wishers, but will rather continue to act quietly, patiently and with determination, as I have thus far."

The remainder of Olmert's speech was devoted to the international financial crisis and the challenges facing Israel's economy. The prime minister praised the country's financial robustness, insisting that "Israel's coping with the crisis began in the years leading up to it, with a series of steps taken that allowed the Shekel to become one of the strongest currencies in the world.

"The last few years have been the best in the history of Israel's economy," he asserted. "There are decision to be made and a country to manage; decisions will be made and the country will be run… [However], it is no secret that the crisis can also harm Israel's economy if we do not take careful measures."

The prime minister also addressed the crisis in higher education and the annual strikes that threaten the academic year. "We have only one natural resource, the human resource," Olmert said, "and I intend to broach the problem of higher education in the coming days."

"The international crisis is not over," Olmert continued, "and I intend to conduct - along with the finance minister and the commissioner of the Bank of Israel - a series of consultations with representatives of various parties, as well as representatives of various sectors in the market, in order to ensure that we will be able to keep managing Israel's economy in an optimal fashion while minimizing the ramification of the global crisis.

"Together," he concluded, "we will discuss a series of necessary steps, for the coming months, in order to insure the stability and strength of the Israeli economy. We will not allow irresponsible behavior and will continue to maintain strict fiscal restraint. I expect all members of this House to enlist and unite for the sake of this mutual interest."

Poll: Israel votes McCain in US elections

Survey finds 46% of Israelis would vote for Republican nominee if given chance to elect US president; Democrat Barack Obama receives 34% of votes. Almost half of those polled believe McCain would better impact Jewish state

Roni Sofer
10.27.08, 12:41
Israel News

Israel chooses John McCain over Barack Obama in the US presidential elections, a survey conducted by the TNS Teleseker polling agency found.

The Republican nominee defeated his Democratic opponent by a margin of over 12% among the adult Jewish population in the State.

Ynet obtained the results of the poll, ordered by the Rabin Center for Israel Studies and conducted among 500 Israelis aged 18-65, in preparation for a special debate on the US elections and their repercussions on the country's foreign policy in the Middle East, to take place Monday.

The survey found that given the right to vote in the US, 46.4% of Israelis would vote for the Republican nominee, John McCain. Thirty-four percent would vote for Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and 18.6% remain undecided.

Almost half of those polled (48.6%) believe McCain would better impact Israel, while 31.5% thought the country would better benefit from Obama's leadership. Just over 5% believe the candidates would have the same effect on Israel, while 14.2% remain undecided.

The poll found McCain to be Israel's best bet concerning Iran as well. Over half (52.5%) believe he possesses the skills needed to deal with the security threat the country poses to Israel, more so than Obama, who has gained the confidence of just 27.6% of those polled.

However, the Democratic candidate did better on the issue of finance, with 40.9% saying they thought he was better equipped to handle the current global crisis than McCain, who received 34.2% of votes.

The two presidential nominees were equally ranked regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, with 37.3% saying McCain would better handle the situation and 37% choosing Obama as the better candidate. Fifteen percent remain undecided, while 10.5% said the two were equally capable.

In good company? Georgia prefers McCain

Alon Pinkas, the former consul general of Israel in New York who currently heads the Rabin Center's institute for Israel-US relations, explained the results of the poll. "What we see here is a significant difference in positions between Jews in the US and Jews in Israel," he said.

"Israel is one of just three countries that prefer McCain over Obama. The other two are Georgia and the Philippines," Pinkas added.

Another trend indicated by the poll is the growing concern over Israel's relations with the European Union. When asked about the importance of the State's relationships with countries worldwide the US was ranked most important, with a 98.2% rating.

The EU was not far behind however, as 92.2% of those polled said they believed relations with the world superpower are significant to Israel's prosperity. Relations with Russia were ranked important by 86.3%, similarly to China, with which relations were significant to 84% of those polled. Relations with India received a rating of 65.3%.

Poll: Israel votes McCain in US elections (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3613689,00.html)

Peres: Israel is closer to peace than ever before
By Hannah Glass, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
28/10/2008

Israel is closer than ever to peace, President Shimon Peres said during a speech given at an event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Shimon Peres Center for Peace.

"Never in the past 100 years are we closer to peace than we are now", Peres said during remarks before a crowd of hundreds of international leaders, politicians, businessmen, media representatives, sports and movie stars.

Mohammed Shtayeh, president of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, also addressed the crowd on Tuesday, where he called for the Palestinian people to come together for the cause of peace.

Shtayeh also said the Palestinians will hold a session of national reconciliation on November 9th, bringing together members of the rival Hamas and Fatah parties.

Hamas leaders on Tuesday said the arrests of dozens of its members by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces could hamper Egyptian-sponsored unity talks between them and Fatah.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the detentions could "poison the atmosphere and block the way" towards reconciliation with Abbas's Fatah faction, which lost control of the Gaza Strip to the Islamist group in fighting in June 2007.

The latest arrests, Abu Zuhri said, raised the number of Hamas members detained by forces loyal to Abbas to at least 400 in the past year.

Hamas says W. Bank arrests could harm unity talks
Hamas said on Tuesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces had arrested 170 of its members in the West Bank in the past four weeks in a campaign that could hamper Egyptian-sponsored unity talks.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the detentions could "poison the atmosphere and block the way" towards reconciliation with Abbas's Fatah faction, which lost control of the Gaza Strip to the Islamist group in fighting in June 2007.

The latest arrests, Abu Zuhri said, raised the number of Hamas members detained by forces loyal to Abbas to at least 400 in the past year.

He urged Egypt to press Abbas to halt the campaign before Palestinian factions convene in Cairo on Nov. 9 to discuss reconciliation.

Hamas, Fatah and other groups have welcomed Egypt's presentation of a draft reconciliation paper, but some factions have called on Cairo to make amendments to the document.

Fatah spokesman Fahmi Zarir, denying any political motive behind the arrests, said security forces in the West Bank were trying to restore law and order.

Fatah says more than 120 of its members in the Gaza Strip are in Hamas-run jails.

Human rights groups have accused security forces loyal to Hamas and Fatah of abuses over the past year, including extra-judicial arrests and torture.

The head of the European Union training programme for Abbas's police force in the West Bank, Colin Smith, said security detainees should be dealt with through the criminal justice system.

Peres: Israel is closer to peace than ever before (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1032211.html)

General elections to be held in Israel by middle of February
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent, and AP
28/10/2008

A spokeswoman for the Knesset said Tuesday that national elections
will be held in mid-February.

Spokeswoman Hila Mizrachi said elections have been tentatively set for February 10. But she said Tuesday there remains a possibility that lawmakers will pass legislation moving the date a week later, to February 17.
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The announcement came after members of the ruling Kadima party moved to shorten the time frame for the upcoming general elections, bringing the election date closer.

Party MKs opted to forego a three-week interim period before the 90-day countdown to a nation-wide vote. The 21-day period gives parties the chance to propose a new prime ministerial candidate to form a government.

The elections were announced by President Shimon Peres after newly elected Kadima leader Tzipi Livni informed him that she had been unable to form a government. Livni was elected last month to replace outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is stepping down amid multiple allegations of corruption.

Peres formally notified Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik on Monday that Livni had been unable to form a government.

Livni was charged with forming a new government by Peres on September 22, but announced to the president on Sunday that she was unable to put together a coalition, after a key potential partner, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said it would not join.

Olmert has since his resignation on September 21 continued to rule the country at the head of a transitional government that will be in place until a new one is formed after the elections.

The prime minister has so far resisted pressure to step aside as interim premier and allow Livni, his deputy, to take over as acting premier.

Several Kadima legislators have urged him to do so, arguing that entering the elections as an acting premier would give her an edge over her main adversary, former premier Benjamin Netanyahu of the hardline Likud party.

General elections to be held in Israel by middle of February (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1032205.html)

Concern in Israel as Egyptian war games simulate war with Israel
cnsnews

Israel is upset over Egyptian military exercises in which the simulated “enemy” is Israel, and some are calling on the U.S. to reconsider its aid to Egypt because of it.

Israel and Egypt – two U.S. regional allies – signed a U.S.-sponsored peace treaty in 1979 – Israel’s first with an Arab nation.

The Egyptian navy reportedly carried out the largest exercise in its history last week. Dubbed Victory 41, the military maneuvers marked the Egyptian sinking of the Israeli Naval vessel Eilat 41 years ago, in which 47 Israeli sailors were killed and 91 wounded.

According to the daily Ha’aretz, Oct. 20 was set aside as a holiday marking the sinking of the Israeli vessel for the Egyptian naval forces.

The paper also quoted the Egyptian Navy commander in chief Vice Admiral Mohad Mamish in an interview with the Arabic newspaper Al Ahram, saying that the Egyptian Naval vessels were outfitted with advanced missiles and the Navy had supply contracts with Germany, Russia and the U.S.

“Unfortunately now for more than 10 years most of the big [Egyptian] exercises are simulating war against Israel,” said Dr. Yuval Steinitz, member of the Israeli Knesset’s influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The first time was in 1996 when they imitated a war against “a little country that is bordering Egypt on the northeast,” Steinitz told CNSNews.com on Wednesday.

Looking on the map, it’s clear who they were simulating the war against, he said.

The only new thing this time is that it has been leaked to the press, said Steinitz.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to apologize for comments made by a right-wing Knesset member, who noted that Mubarak has never come on a state visit to Israel. Olmert told Mubarak that Israel considered him to be “a strategic partner and a close friend.”

But there are signs of other strains in relations.

The Hebrew daily Maariv reported on Tuesday that on a recent trip to Egypt, the director of the military/political and policy bureau of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, told Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi that Israel was concerned about Egypt carrying out of Egyptian army exercises "that are directed against an Israeli threat and that relate to it [Israel] as an enemy.”

Israel also is concerned that it has become the central focus for Egyptian officers in building their forces and by the lack of “any relations of any kind” between the Israeli and Egyptian armies, Gilad was quoted as saying.

According to the paper, Tantawi said relations between the armies could improve in the future in tandem with progress in regional peace. He also said that security challenges obligate Egypt to build an effective deterrent force.

Steinitz said the military exercises, combined with massive Egyptian force building plus indoctrination of the military against Israel, was “something to be concerned about.”

He also said that despite the peace agreement between the two countries, Egypt is anti-Israel in most international bodies and is also educating the public “for hatred and not for peace.”

Earlier this year, the Anti-Defamation League told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that its analysts had found the Egyptian press to be “a leading propagator of anti-Semitic images” for many years and that that trend was now spreading to other newspapers in the region.

Egypt is considered one of America’s allies in the region and has been a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It is currently mediating reconciliation talks between the military Hamas group and the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Since signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, Egypt has received an average of more than $2 billion annually in economic and military foreign assistance from the U.S. – the second largest foreign aid package after Israel. The administration has requested $1.3 billion in military aid for 2009 – the same amount it received in 2008.

“U.S. policy toward Egypt is aimed at maintaining regional stability, improving bilateral relations, continuing military cooperation, and sustaining the March 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty,” according to a Congressional Research Service report to Congress in August 2008.

Egypt has long been viewed by U.S. administrations as a “moderating influence” in the Middle East. Many congressmen see Egypt as a “stabilizing force” in the region, but others would like to see the U.S. pressure Egypt to, among other things, “take a more active role in reducing Arab-Israeli tensions,” the report said.

The U.S. Embassy here had no comment on the military exercises.

But the Zionist Organization of America criticized the Egyptian “celebration” of its past attacks on Israel and urged the U.S. to reconsider its massive aid to Egypt contingent on Egypt adopting “truly peaceful actions and policies toward Israel.”

“Egypt has shown in a variety of ways that it remains a country deeply hostile to Israel and may indeed be a leading influence in Arab world hostility to Israel,” ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said in a statement.

“In an era of peace that was meant to be ushered in by the 1979 Camp David peace treaty, Egypt should not be celebrating past military assaults on Israel which were fought in pursuit of a policy to eliminate Israel,” Klein said.

“This is not a matter of a country simply honoring its war dead. It is matter of maintaining the hostility to Israel’s existence,” he said.

The ZOA noted that the Egyptian celebrations were in the wider context of Egyptian political, cultural and media hostility toward Israel.

Earlier this year, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said he would “burn Israeli books himself if found in Egyptian libraries.” In 2006, a poll found that 92 percent of Egyptians regarded Israel as an enemy nation, and 50 percent regarded the U.S. as an enemy, the ZOA reported.

Israeli company creates drinking water out of thin air
By Karen Kloosterman, 21c
03/11/2008

An Israeli company has developed a clean technology to extract water from the air while using little energy in the process.

The key to the project, launched by the Extraction of Water from Air (EWA), is in its unique water adsorption technology - which employs a solid desiccant to trap the water - and a special energy saving condenser that reuses more than 85 percent of the energy input to the system.

For Dr. Etan Bar, CEO of EWA, it was a question of priorities. His company, which focuses both on solar energy and clean water extraction from the air, had already developed a new solar energy air conditioner that was sparking interest in the industry, but Bar realized that clean water was a far more pressing need.

He put aside the air conditioner and began working on a new technology that could collect humidity naturally present in the air and turn it into clean water.

It sounds like a far-fetched idea, but it's actually thousands of years old. It was mentioned in the Bible and in ancient Jewish prayers, and archaeologists still find the stones Israelite farmers used thousands of years ago to collect dew for watering their crops.

The technology, Bar tells ISRAEL21c, works in three steps: first is the absorption of air's humidity, then the removal of water from a solid desiccant (silica based gel granules) which holds the water, and third, condensation.

The absorption of the humidity is an exothermic process (involving heat release), humidity absorption occurs spontaneously, and only minimal energy is used as the air is pumped through the unit.

Heat recovery techniques are integrated as part of the condenser, reducing the cost for producing water to a reasonable price, similar to other processes, such as desalination.

EWA, which was founded in 2006, is based on nine years of research by Bar, a former researcher at Ben Gurion University.

The company now has representatives in the U.S., India, Jordan, Cyprus, Australia and West Africa where EWA is helping farmers generate carbon credits, on top of providing them with clean water for drinking and irrigating their crops.

EWA, which employs 12, is currently operated out of Be'er Sheva. Last year was the first year the company reported its earnings, at about $100,000, while this year, it predicts sales upwards of $5 million, and $100 million for 2009, mainly due to growing demand from Africa, India and Australia. The bottleneck right now is being able to supply demand, says Bar.

As global warming heats the world, and its population continues to grow, there is less water for everyone: "Due to the effectiveness at extremely wide ranges of environmental conditions and due to its low energy consumption, huge water plants could be built and operated using the novel EWA technology," says Bar.

"The technology answers the world's desires for available, clean and safe water - without air pollution from energy production - and expensive infrastructure," he concludes.

Israeli company creates drinking water out of thin air (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033882.html)

Settlers preparing for war, says Shin Bet chief
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
03/11/2008

A government decision to evacuate more territory may lead to a large-scale violent conflict with settlers, complete with live fire, Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin warned at yesterday's cabinet meeting. The meeting ended with the ministers voting to end all government support, both direct and indirect, for illegal outposts.

"The scope of the conflict will be much larger than it is today and than it was during the disengagement," Diskin warned. "Our investigation found a very high willingness among this public to use violence - not just stones, but live weapons - in order to prevent or halt a diplomatic process."

While Diskin did not comment explicitly on the danger of another political assassination, the timing of his warning - just days before the anniversary of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination - was not lost on cabinet members.

"They [the settlers] don't think like us. Their thought is messianic, mystic, satanic and irrational," Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said, warning of another political assassination.

"What we are seeing today is the result of a deep rift with the faith-based community, and not only in the West Bank," Diskin said. "Their approach began with the slogan 'through love, we will win' during the [Gaza] disengagement, but has now reached 'through war, we will win."

He also warned that right-wing extremists view their "price tag" policy, in which they retaliate for every outpost evacuation with attacks on soldiers and/or Palestinians, as having been successful, and are therefore liable to expand it to within the Green Line.

The Shin Bet believes there are a few hundred extremists of this type.

"There is no clear leadership," Diskin said. "They are motivated by a unity of purpose - not to allow the security forces to evacuate people."

Following the cabinet vote on the outposts, the Yesha Council of settlements termed the decision "scandalous and demagogic," saying there is "no connection" between the outposts and extremist violence.

"The decision constitutes collective punishment and denies essential services to loyal citizens whose only sin is living in communities that the State of Israel built and sold apartments in, but has not yet finished the process of approving," it stated.

The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel also called the decision discriminatory, as many illegal Arab neighborhoods receive services from the state.

In addition to its decision on outposts, the cabinet ordered a ministerial committee headed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to submit recommendations within two weeks on how to tighten law enforcement, including by taking action against civil servants who facilitate illegal outpost construction.

Most of the meeting, however, was devoted to ministerial tirades against violent settlers and attempts by security and law enforcement agencies to pass blame.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said that about one-tenth of Israel's total police force is already in the West Bank, and that it is impossible to transfer additional forces there, other than temporarily for specific missions. He also said that lenient sentencing by the courts deters the police from pursuing indictments "even when they have a suspect in hand."

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz accused the Knesset of delaying legislation that would allow stiffer penalties for incitement and ban demonstrations opposite the houses of civil servants. He also said the Israel Defense Forces must make greater use of administrative orders barring extremists from the West Bank.

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi responded that the army recently issued five such orders.

"Because of this, they [the settlers] are harassing GOC Central Command Gadi Shamni," he said.

Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan said that some 700 Palestinians are under administrative detention, "but when we wanted to issue detention orders for Jews, the Knesset denounced it."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the problem stems from the fact that Israel has no eastern border, and therefore every government must view setting borders as its primary mission.

Settlers preparing for war, says Shin Bet chief (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033535.html)

Will Israel strike at Iran before Obama takes over?
jpost
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On December 8, 1988, under the cover of night, IDF warplanes, helicopters, guided-missile frigates and an elite force of Flotilla 13 naval commandos and Golani Brigade reconnaissance fighters infiltrated Lebanon.

Their target was a cave-based headquarters 20 km. south of Beirut, serving the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril.

The raid, code-named Operation Blue and Brown, involved the first known use of the IDF's secretive Oketz K9 dog unit.

Four soldiers found themselves left behind, forcing the air force to conduct a dramatic helicopter rescue. The soldiers clung to the helicopters' railings as they choppers took off, with Palestinian gunmen in pursuit.

Lt.-Col. Amir Meital, commander of Golani reconnaissance unit, was killed by enemy fire during the raid.

The operation took place one month after US President George H. Bush was voted into office, and a month before he was sworn in, replacing the popular Ronald Reagan, a leader widely viewed as a staunch ally of Israel.

Operation Blue and Brown says nothing about the likelihood of an Israeli strike on Iran today. But it does show that IDF operations have been ordered in the interim period between the election of a new American president and his inauguration.

And it is this same period in 2008/09 that provides an "attractive date" for Israel to strike Iran's nuclear program, according to historian Benny Morris.

In June, Morris wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in which he theorized that Israel would likely strike Iran between November 5 and January 19, the day before Obama is sworn in.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post this week, Morris said he continued to believe that time period was a "reasonable" one for Israeli action.

"There is certainly a friendly president in the White House until January 20. There is no certainty over what will happen after that, in which direction the wind will blow.

The second thing is the advancement by the Iranians in creating the bomb," Morris said, speaking from his home in Li'on, southwest of Beit Shemesh. Morris said the Iranian regime was guided by messianic clerics who could not be trusted to act logically in a state of mutually assured destruction (MAD).

"These men are not rational like the men who ruled America and Russia during the Cold War. When [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad talks about destroying Israel and denies the Holocaust, we hear no contrary voices from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei saying that Ahmadinejad is crazy," Morris said.

"So long as Iran makes progress, we are under pressure, if we plan on doing something. Iran is supposed to purchase advanced anti-aircraft guns from Russia at the start of 2009. All of these point to the fact that if the US provides support, an Israeli strike is reasonable," he said.

Acknowledging the lame-duck nature of the Olmert administration, Morris said the difficulties posed by a weak government could be overcome by notifying the leaders of the major political parties in advance of the attack. He even raised the possibility that a date had already been chosen.

But Morris's views were challenged by a number of Israeli defense experts, such as Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, former national security adviser and former head of the IDF's Planning and Operation branches.

"I don't agree that Bush has given us a green light to attack in the next three months. Israel can't attack without US approval, which is vital both tactically and strategically. At the moment, we don't have that approval," he said.

Eiland provided an alternative forecast, according to which Obama will spend some months assembling an international front aimed at applying real pressure on Teheran to ends its nuclear program, something Bush had so far failed to do.

"To make the pressure on Iran effective, you have to cooperate with states like Russia. But the Russians say, 'Our main problem is that you [the Americans] are deliberately harming our interests by criticizing our internal policies, our actions in Chechnya, and with your attempts to drag neighbors like Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. So long as that's the case, don't expect us to help on Iran.'"

Noting that Russia is continuing to supply Teheran with nuclear technology and economic ties, Eiland said it would be impossible to isolate Iran without Russian assistance. This was all the more true in light of the fact that China and India had signaled that they would follow Russia's guidance over Iran, Eiland added.

"So I assume that the Obama government will correctly recognize the Iranian threat, but it will try to construct an international front," he said.

If, however, that policy failed, Obama could seriously consider using force, or support an Israeli strike several months from now, Eiland said.

Col. (res.) Ephraim Kam, formerly of Military Intelligence's Research Division and currently the deputy head of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, said a number of questions needed to be answered before determining whether a strike could go ahead.

"We don't know what Bush wants. In order to know whether the time is right for an attack, the government must know the stance of the Americans, and the state of our intelligence. Do we have the precise information that we need? What is the evaluation of an Iranian response? Is the Iranian threat existential?" Kam asked.

The government did not have those answers at this time, "hence the decision to attack cannot be made," he said.

Dr. Emily Landau, director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Project at the Institute for National Security Studies, said that aside from the diplomatic situation that altered with Obama's election, she could see no changes in "terms of the pros and cons of Israel taking some kind of action."

"Iran is advancing its program all the time. Where is the exact window of opportunity? I don't think the timing can be so fine-tuned as to give an exact date. It all boils down to the larger question of what you want to gain through military action. And this is the situation we've been faced with for the past few years," she said.

Landau said military action would likely not stop Iran's nuclear program, or even delay it significantly. Much of the talk of a strike formed part of an attempt to pressure Iran, and to keep it thinking that "there was a credible threat there. And the purpose of that is to get Iran to finally negotiate seriously," she said.

"Even if military action was used, it would ultimately have to lead to some kind of negotiation to get a deal," Landau said.

Election violence: Haredim riot in Jerusalem

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with police on municipal election day as haredim try to prevent voters from getting through. Officer, security guard lightly injured in two separate incidents

Efrat Weiss
11.11.08, 19:34 / Israel News

Elections for local authorities continued across Israel Tuesday afternoon with most of the nation's eyes on Jerusalem, where things are heating up.

Tuesday afternoon dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to prevent voting at the Beit Israel neighborhood ballot in Jerusalem, apparently following disputes between different ultra-Orthodox groups.

Police and Border Guard police officers arrived at the scene to clear the rioters, and clashes broke out as the ultra-Orthodox began throwing stones, leaving one officer with light head injuries. The officer was taken to hospital for treatment, and one of the stone-throwers was detained for questioning.

Later, another altercation developed in the capital near a polling station on Yermiyahu Street. The clash pitted a group of ultra-Orthodox residents who object to the elections against Haredi voters who support the democratic process.

A civilian security guard who waded in to break up the fight was lightly wounded and evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Hospital for treatment. Police were called to the scene and eventually dispersed the crowd.

Police reinforcements deployed
Before ballots were even opened in Jerusalem, most of the ballots in the city's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods were labeled "sensitive" and police reinforcements, including undercover officers, were deployed to prevent forgeries, attempts to influence voters and attempts to prevent voters from getting through.

Police will remain alert until the polling stations close at 10 pm and beyond, in order to prevent attempts to disrupt the votes being transferred to Safra Square, where they will be counted. Police will also be deployed around the various parties' headquarters during result time.

Tuesday's haredi clash with police was not the only election-related unusual incident to occur in the capital. Seven Arab residents of east Jerusalem were also arrested on Tuesday on Salah al-Din Street under suspicions of intimidating vendors to join the partial commerce strike held in protest of the democratic process.

The race in Jerusalem is tight between ultra-Orthodox candidate MK Meir Porush and businessman Nir Barkat.

By 6 pm local time, some 28% of Jerusalem residents exercised their democratic right to vote. In Tel Aviv, where current Mayor Ron Huldai and Knesset Member Dov Khenin (Hadash) are running for the mayor, voter turnout was recorded at 21.5%.

Election violence: Haredim riot in Jerusalem (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3621282,00.html)

Iraq's Jewish Population: From 117,000 to Eight in 60 Years
Nov 9, 2008 12:25pm EST

By Peter Graff

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One of the last eight Jews in Baghdad, a portly retired accountant, erupts in a bellyful of laughter when asked why he never married.

"I was a playboy. Don't write that!" he jokes, grinning. "How old do you think I am? Wrong. I'm 65! Don't write that! Write that I am 55!"

His government ID proves his age, and on the back it says, unmistakably: "Religion: Jewish."

He has made contact with a reporter, not because he wants to tell the story of his persecuted community, but because he wants to complain about the landlord who is raising his rent.

"Because we are Jewish he knows we can do nothing. He isn't afraid because he knows we have no tribe here. Don't use my name."

Once one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East, Baghdad Jews have now nearly vanished while the country has been consumed by sectarian war.

Speaking in fluent English, the ex-accountant launches into a description of the Baghdad of his youth, one of the Muslim world's most cosmopolitan cities.

He recites the names of legendary social clubs where Jews, Christians and Muslims mingled in better days, with music and whisky and parties that ran through the night.

"So many people -- Muslim people -- say if the Jewish people come back it will be nicer," he says.

His family have left. Some are in London, some in the United States. His father was offered a chance to move to Canada, but turned it down because he wanted to die and be buried in Iraq.

The ex-accountant himself stayed, but if he can sell his father's house -- now a ruin bombed out in the Iran war in the 1980s -- he will finally leave.

"I want to sell the house and go. I like Iraq, but I am fed up. We had very nice times in Iraq, but now we don't like it."

Iraq's Jewish community dates from biblical times. According to Charles Tripp's History of Iraq, the country was home to 117,000 Jews in 1947.

Under Ottoman rule, well into the first half of the 20th century, Jews made up about a fifth of the population of the capital. Some of the villas in neighborhoods along the Tigris still have six-pointed stars of David in their stucco.

How many Jews are there now?

"We know them all," says the ex-accountant, counting.

There's the ex-accountant himself, plus the nephew with whom he shares a rented house in Baghdad's central Karrada district. There's the man who lives near them, the man who leads the community, the very old woman, the male doctor and the female dentist. And the man whose brother was a goldsmith.

The goldsmith married the dentist a few years ago. A few months later, he was abducted by gunmen.

"They came to his house and took him. He disappeared. They left his car, they left his mobile. They just took him."

So that leaves eight. Eight Jews left.

The synagogue in central Baghdad has been boarded up since 2003. The ex-accountant occasionally runs into some of the other Jews on the street, but confesses he isn't much for religion.

"We don't know how to pray," he says. "Hebrew books we have everywhere in the synagogue, but we don't know how to read it. Some words I know. The important one is Adonai. Adonai is God. We believe in God."

In the old days, Jews were an integral part of Iraqi life. A relative of the ex-accountant was finance minister decades ago. But beginning in the late 1940s, successive Arab governments accused Baghdad's Jews of supporting Zionism.

Some were jailed, others were barred from government posts, and thousands upon thousands left for Israel or the West.

By the time of Saddam Hussein's fall, the ex-accountant estimates there were only a few dozen Jews left. Western organizations came and evacuated most of the rest.

"A woman called Rachel, she came here took some of them to the Jewish community in London, I think," he said.

In 2003, he went to the Green Zone to meet a cousin who was born in the United States and had come to Iraq to work for the U.S.-run administration. The American woman was shocked when her mother put them in touch.

"She said: incredible! You are still here? She did not know she had a cousin in Iraq," he said.

Apart from his quarrel with his landlord, the ex-accountant says he has had few problems with the neighbors, most of whom don't know he is Jewish, some of whom don't care.

"Somebody says 'You are Christian', I don't say anything. Somebody says 'You are Muslim', I don't say anything. I think most people think we are Christian because they don't know there are still Jews in Iraq."

Iraq's Jewish Population: From 117,000 to Eight in 60 Years (http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE4A812T20081109)

150 Bnei Menashe to Immigrate from India

by IsraelNN Staff
Cheshvan 16, 5769 / November 14, '08

(IsraelNN.com) Israel's Interior Ministry has granted permission to the Shavei Israel organization to bring a group of 150 Bnei Menashe Jews from northeastern India on aliyah (immigration).

The Bnei Menashe claim descent from a lost tribe of Israel and some 7,200 of them reside primarily in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, which border Burma and Bangladesh.

"We have been working on this for quite some time, and I am grateful to the Prime Minister's Office and the Interior Ministry for approving our request," said Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund, adding that, "With G-d's help, we will shortly bring the immigrants home to Israel."

Over the past decade, some 1,500 members of the community have made aliyah largely thanks to Shavei Israel, which assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people.

In recent years, the bulk of the Bnei Menashe new immigrants have settled in Maalot, Karmiel and Afula in the north.

Freund said that the group would most likely come to Israel in the next few months and settle in the Galilee, "whose lush and verdant landscape and pastoral setting resemble the land of their birth, making it an ideal place for the Bnei Menashe to start their new lives in the Jewish state."

Because the new arrivals will be coming on special tourist visas, and not under the Law of Return, the entire cost of the operation will be borne by Shavei Israel, which receives no government funding.

The immigrants will subsequently undergo formal conversion by the Chief Rabbinate, after which they will receive Israeli citizenship.

In March 2005, after being approached by Freund, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar recognized the Bnei Menashe as "descendants of Israel" and agreed to facilitate their return.

Interior Minister Meir gotcha2reet had previously opposed the Bnei Menashe aliyah, but apparently decided to approve it after he recently met with a group of immigrants from the community and became convinced that they are productive and well-integrated members of Israeli society.

"The return of the Bnei Menashe to Zion after 27 centuries of exile is a miracle," Freund said. "Just as the prophets foretold, the ingathering of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland continues."

150 Bnei Menashe to Immigrate from India (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128370)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I posted about the Jews coming home last night. Please see my comment above this post.

Israel Deems Hezbollah Strategic Threat
By David Bedein, Middle East Correspondent
11/14/2008

Jerusalem - The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that Israel's military has determined that the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah has become an increased strategic threat to the Jewish state.

The Israeli intelligence community, including Israeli military intelligence, has deemed Hezbollah a strategic threat to Israel. Hezbollah has reached the capability to strike virtually every strategic Israeli asset, including the strategic nuclear facility in Dimona, with rockets.

"Hezbollah has become a powerful military although it operates much like a guerrilla force," an Israeli official said. "Iran and Syria have made Hezbollah the front line of any war against Israel."

On Nov. 6, Israel's military concluded its first exercise to test the readiness of the reserves and General Staff. The four-day exercise envisioned a Hezbollah and Syrian strike on northern Israel.

Hezbollah has accumulated an arsenal of more than 40,000 missiles and rockets, many of them with a range of more than 137 miles.

It can therefore strike every major Israeli city.

Hezbollah was also said to have established a military presence in much of Lebanon, including the Bekaa Valley, Beirut, south as well as the area north of Beirut.

This would require a greater effort by the Israel Air Force and the rest of the military than during the 2006 war.

Hezbollah has taken control over most of the Lebanese military. It says this would allow Hezbollah to use Lebanese military assets, such as air defense systems and helicopters, in any war with Israel.

"In the field, the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah work together," an Israeli official said. "In the south, Hezbollah operates in civilian clothes while the military is in uniform. But their activities are completely coordinated."

Israel Deems Hezbollah Strategic Threat (http://www.thebulletin.us/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2737&dept_id=576361&newsid=20197777)

Gilad: We won't let Iran go nuclear
Nov. 14, 2008
David Horovitz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Iran, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, has stressed to The Jerusalem Post in an unusually hard-hitting interview.

For now, Israel is backing diplomatic and economic efforts to thwart the Iranians, Gilad added, but it doubts these will work and it is keeping all options open.

Asked about the complexities of any resort to military action, particularly since Iran has built its facilities to withstand a repeat of the IAF's 1981 destruction of Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak, Gilad replied, tellingly, that domestic critics 27 years ago said the Osirak raid "couldn't be done. And the fact is, it succeeded."

"Iran is a country with smart people that have capabilities," he noted. "It really would be a considerable challenge. Come the day, if and when this or that option is adopted, what will matter is the outcome."

Gilad was speaking to the Post at a time when some senior figures in the defense establishment have indicated in private forums that Israel might have to begin to prepare for the reality of Iran achieving its nuclear goals.

But he dismissed this notion and was adamant that there was no tendency whatsoever in the defense establishment to accept a nuclear Iran.

He said the assessment, which he shared, was that Israel could not be reconciled to a nuclear Iran - not only because it might press the button, but because the very fact of this regime having that weaponry would constitute an existential threat.

"The Iranians are determined to obtain nuclear weaponry," said Gilad. "Iran is controlled by an ideology and a regime that has set itself the goal to be rid of Israel."

While US President-elect Barack Obama has said he will engage in tough diplomacy to try to deter the Iranians, Gilad said flatly that "diplomatic pressure against a state this determined can slow processes, but cannot halt them."

As for economic pressure, that might work if Iran were facing "total isolation," he said. "But that's not happening."

The economic pressure was "much more impressive than is understood," he noted. "But the fact is, it is not preventing the dangerous process of a nuclear Iran."

On Wednesday, Iran announced it had test-fired a two-stage, solid-fuel rocket with a 1,200-mile range that could reach Israel.

Said Gilad: "They will continue. The picture is clear. They are building more missiles. They're dealing with uranium enrichment."

For Israel, he said, "this is indeed a situation that we can't tolerate. What can be done about it? First of all, we still stick with the diplomatic option, and all the options are on the table, as President [George W.] Bush said."

Beyond that, he said, "I can't go into details... Elaborating directly assists the enemy in its war against Israel. The test will be in the result - whether we are able or not to prevent this grave threat.

"The more we talk about it - however seductive that may be - the more we brag, the more we weaken our capacity to achieve. We cannot accept a nuclear Iran. We cannot be reconciled to it."

Gilad: We won't let Iran go nuclear (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404731024&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Ancient Jewish Rite May Save Africa From AIDS: Operation Abraham

www.israelnationalnews

The patriarch Abraham, who complied with the Torah-recorded commandment by God to circumcise himself, his sons Isaac and Ishmael, and all his generations afterward as a sign "in your flesh for an everlasting covenant" (Genesis 17:13), is the inspiration for a consortium of Israeli doctors who are training circumcision teams in Africa to fight the continental pandemic of AIDS in a project called Operation Abraham.

The United Nations announced in 2007 that the procedure could reduce the rate of the HIV virus transmission by up to 60 percent.

Operation Abraham was launched in 2006 by Dr. Inon Schenker, founder of the Jerusalem AIDS project and respected researcher and senior consultant specializing in HIV/AIDS prevention. The project is currently training counterparts in the AIDS-infested capital of Swaziland, Mbabane, to conduct assembly line-style circumcisions. Death rates are so high in Swaziland that the life expectancy of a citizen has plummeted to the tender age of 31.

In interviews with the Chicago Tribune and a website called HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health Integration, Schenker described the dawning of his belief in mass circumcision as a solution to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, during the wave of Russian aliyah to Israel in the 1990s.

Ritual circumcision, which is ordinarily conducted according to the Torah commandment on the 8th day following the birth of a boy, was performed on tens of thousands of Russian Jewish men and older boys who were barred from taking part in the ancient Jewish tradition while living behind the Iron Curtain and chose to take part in the rite upon emigrating to Israel. According to Schenker, approximately 1,000 circumcisions were conducted every day in five hospitals around Israel during the height of Russian immigration.

"Israel is the only country with such experience in mass adult-male circumcision, and it can respond to a very important humanitarian challenge," Schenker told the Tribune.

Operation Abraham, which employs Israeli doctors and educators – Jews, Muslims, and Christians in partnership with the Jerusalem AIDS project and Hadassah Medical Center - is in high demand to expand its program, with requests for training coming from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, and Lesotho.

Officials from the World Health Organization traveled to Jerusalem in 2006 to gather information on Israel’s expertise in the field, and used Israeli methodology to formulate a male circumcision manual and teaching course which are now part of government male circumcision programs in several African countries.

Operation Abraham's pilot project was finalized in February 2008, and was submitted for replication and expansion in the summer. Three training teams have already conducted training seminars in Swaziland this year.

King of Bahrain Reiterates Invitation for Jews to 'Come Home'
November 17, '08
by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) The King of Bahrain has called for expatriate Jews to return to the small Islamic island nation.

King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa expanded the invitation to all expatriate Bahrainis, announcing during a recent visit to the United States that regardless of religious affiliation, any former citizen could return whenever they want.

“It’s open, it’s your country,” declared the king, who also extended a personal invitation to Washington D.C.-based Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Levi Shemtov to meet with him in New York during his visit.

The king had been in New York to attend last week’s Interfaith Conference, organized at the United Nations at the initiative of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. Israeli President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were both present at the conference, along with representatives of more than 50 other nations.

According to the Chabad.org website, at the meeting Rabbi Shemtov bestowed the traditional blessing on the king that is recited when one sees a ruling monarch. A delegation of 50 Bahraini Jews who currently live in the U.S. stood for the blessing.

“I rise in honor of Your Majesty,” Rabbi Shemtov said to King Hamad, “and I humbly ask Your Majesty to rise in honor of the One G-d, the King of all Kings, in Whose Name we offer blessings.”

When the king rose, the rest of the room rose with him, and the rabbi thanked the Creator for “bestowing a part of His glory” on an earthly monarch.

“Bahrain has a rich Jewish history,” noted Shemtov, “and I feel that Bahrain, and particularly His Majesty, can play a unique role in bringing about positive movement within their arena in regard to the Jewish people and the world at large.”

King Hamad, who ascended to the throne in 1999, has been a controversial figure in the Arab Muslim world, instituting a number of electoral and legal reforms.

This past year he appointed a Jewish woman, Huda Azra Nunu to be Bahrain’s Ambassador to the United States -- the first Jewish woman to serve in such a capacity in the Arab world.

In August, he also extended a general invitation for Bahrain’s expatriate Jews to return to their former home, including those who had moved to the Jewish State.

More recently, the king promoted through his Foreign Ministry the suggestion that Israel be included in a regional summit of Middle Eastern nations that would also list Iran among the attendees.

King of Bahrain Reiterates Invitation for Jews to 'Come Home' (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128408)

Israel says will boycott U.N. forum on racism

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday that Israel had made a final decision not to participate in a U.N. forum on racism and urged other countries to boycott what she termed an "anti-Israel tribunal."

The United Nations said it regretted the decision.

The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in Geneva in April, is a follow-up to a 2001 summit in Durban, South Africa on the same issues.

Israel and the United States walked out of the first conference in protest over draft texts branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state -- language that was later dropped.

In a speech to visiting U.S. Jewish leaders, Livni said she announced last February that Israel would not participate in the 2009 meeting unless it was clear it would not be used "as a platform for further anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic" activity.

She said documents prepared for next year's forum showed it was "turning once again into an anti-Israeli tribunal, singling out and delegitimizing the State of Israel."

As a result, she said: "I decided that Israel will not participate and will not legitimize the Durban-2 conference."

"We call upon the international community not to participate in this conference, which seeks to legitimize hatred and extremism under the banner of the fight against racism," Livni added.

In August, officials from 21 African countries held talks ahead of the Geneva conference and adopted a text which recommended it discuss, among other issues, "the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupations."

Canada has said it will not take part in the Geneva meeting. The United States, Britain, the Netherlands and France have said they may stay away if Israel's relations with Palestinians stands to eclipse all else.

Some countries are also concerned that some Middle Eastern states will try to use the conference to push a declaration that could stifle free expression by labeling criticism of religions as defamatory.

The office of U.N. human rights commissioner Navi Pillay said it regretted Israel's decision.

"Given the critical importance of the issues under discussion at the conference, broad participation is essential," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in New York, speaking for the Geneva-based office.

"These ... are issues which affect all countries and millions of individuals around the world on a daily basis."

Israeli Air Force chief: We are ready to deal with Iran
Nov. 18, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

"We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us" in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, IAF commander Maj. -Gen. Ido Nehushtan told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Tuesday.

Nehushtan told the magazine that whether a military strike is eventually decided upon is a political question and not an issue of Israel's military capabilities.

A strike against Iran's nuclear facilities "is a political decision," the IAF commander said, "but if I understand it correctly, all options are on the table… The Air Force is a very robust and flexible force. We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us."

When asked by the paper whether the Israeli military was able to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, which are spread around the country and partly located underground, Nehushtan said, "Please understand that I do not want to get into details. I can only say this: It is not a technical or logistical question."

Nehushtan said the cutting edge capabilities of the IDF in the region were not only a derivative of the advanced technologies it uses.

"Modern technology is one thing, but the biggest advantage we have is our soldiers and officers. Israel is a small country. We neither have a big population nor natural resources. Our biggest asset is our human resources. And it is the Air Force that makes best use of it," he said.

Nehushtan then addressed the new reality in Lebanon since the integration of Hizbullah into the government in Beirut several months ago.

"Hizbullah has been part of the Lebanese government since this spring. It is not a fringe terror organization - it is supported by the state. Militarily, Hizbullah is stronger than the regular Lebanese army. If they attack us, we might react differently [to how we did in the 2006 Second Lebanon War]," he said.

Asked about deploying missile defense systems to protect Israelis from the Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza, as well as the Iranian threat of ballistic missiles, the IAF commander described Israel's huge investments in missile defense as an "insurance policy."

"Each type of rocket requires a different defense system. Up until today, only the Arrow System, is functioning. It can intercept ballistic missiles. In order to defend ourselves against the short-range rockets of Hamas and Hizbullah, we are building the Iron Dome system. In response to the threat of medium-range rockets, we are developing a system called David's Sling. This is all very expensive. It is like an insurance policy: You pay a lot, even if nothing happens. But if something then does happen, then you are satisfied with the investment," he explained.

Israeli Air Force chief: We are ready to deal with Iran (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404771120&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

'Land for peace, but not land for rocket fire'
Nov. 19, 2008
JONNY PAUL
THE JERUSALEM POST

President Shimon Peres received a standing ovation from students and staff at the University of Oxford following his keynote speech to an audience of 1,000 on Tuesday night.

The 85-year-old president delivered a speech on globalization of peace at the Sheldonian Theatre at Balliol College, where Education Minister Yuli Tamir studied for her doctorate.

Peres was introduced by the master of Balliol College, Prof. Andrew Graham, who paid homage to the man and his contribution to peace and announced a series of lectures in the president's name.

Peres was heckled intermittently by pro-Palestinian activists. "Sometimes it's not a terrible thing to open the eyes and ears and keep the mouth for a later occasion," he told one activist.

At one stage a protester ran toward Peres and was bundled out by security staff.

Around 100 activists protested after the Oxford branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign fringe group sent e-mails to student unions across Britain. Calling the president a "war criminal" they asked students to turn up in Oxford to protest against the "apartheid state that has committed human rights abuses on such a large scale."

Outside the hall, they chanted slogans and handed out flyers claiming the president had been part of the Hagana that performed the "ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948" and that he was responsible for Israel's "nuclear arsenal" and the deaths of 106 Lebanese at Kana in 1996.

"These people have no interest in peace and little understanding of the conflict. They are a small, radical minority," said a student who did not wish to be named.

Before the event, The Jerusalem Post spoke to other students.

"I have lived in the West Bank, and worked in a refugee camp just outside Ramallah, so I'm interested [in] what the enemy has to say," said Stella Bratt-Smith, a Ballilol graduate student.

"Considering the policies Israel is pursuing, in Gaza and settlement building, I think it is a shame to our university to invite Peres, and naming a lecture series in his name is going too far," said Karli Memet, a student from Oxford's Lincoln College.

"I really believe in his message, so to have the president can only be good thing for the college and for students to hear Israel's perspective," said Adam Vallance from Oxford's Regent's Park College.

"I'm here because I love Israel and am very excited that he has come to speak here. I think the man has done fantastic things for peace in the region," said James Fox, also from Regent's Park College.

On Wednesday morning, Peres laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey.

He then made the short journey to Parliament, where he addressed both houses.

In his speech, the president said he had been moved by Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech to the Knesset in July, and that it had invoked memories of his own father.

"His remarks invoked a distant memory within me. Today, in your Parliament, I feel like your home is my home as well. Gordon Brown's father cherished the Bible; my father experienced an attempt to kill the people of the Bible," Peres said.

He paid tribute to the leadership of Winston Churchill, who "saved the world from the Nazi threat," and British leaders who stood by Israel, "even in hard times."

"Israel would not have a vibrant democracy if it hadn't been for the British legacy," Peres said. "The way in which Britain ran the Mandate, and its courageous fight against the Nazis, inspired the State of Israel."

He spoke of Israel's quest for peace and normalization.

"In its 60 years of existence, Israel fought seven wars. Defeat would have ended our existence. However, victory did not necessarily yield peace," he said. "We insisted that a day of war shall never postpone a day of freedom, that the glory of victory shall never weaken our desire for peace. As a matter of fact, the peace we have won, though incomplete, was achieved through negotiations."

The president shared his optimism for the future.

"We reached peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. Though at times imperfect, peace prevails as all sides prefer it to the alternative. We started to negotiate with the Palestinians and have made some progress. Eventually we will accomplish our goal.

"We left Lebanon [in 2000], we left Gaza [in 2005] and are weighing the Syrian option, whether it's a clear cut turn for peace. We now explore the Saudi initiative - contrary to their past policy of the 'Three Nays' of Khartoum [as laid out by the Arab League in 1968 - no recognition, no negotiation and no peace with Israel] - the Arab initiative calls for a comprehensive regional peace."

Israel would continue negotiations with the Palestinians through the upcoming election campaign, with a two-state solution as the fundamental premise, he said.

Peres was unequivocal about Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran's intransigence.

"Hamas violently rejects compromise. It continues to fire rockets at Israeli civilians. We can understand land for peace but will not accept land in return for rocket fire.

He called on the international community to stand up to Iran, to "answer fear with hope" and said that Israel is not at war with the Iranian people.

"The international community should prevent Iran from shattering the already fragile stability in the region," he said. "The Middle East requires international support to make change possible, Israel will do its utmost to support the moderates."

Ending to a standing ovation, Peres said: "I am grateful for the privilege to address you in this distinguished chamber. You represent two great institutions, the front line in a fortress of democracy.

"Your call to the world carries enormous political and moral weight, the region needs your spirit, your voice and firm support as it marches ahead towards a new dawn of peace."

'Land for peace, but not land for rocket fire' (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404781236&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't think he knows the false peace that will come later, only to be broken after 3 & ¹/₂ years later

Arab plan explained in Hebrew ads
20 November 2008

The Palestinian Authority has placed a full-page advert in Israel's Hebrew newspapers to promote an Arab peace plan first proposed in 2002.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/middle_east_enl_1227201598/img/1.jpg)
The advert for the Arab peace plan that
appeared in Israel's Hebrew press
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/middle_east_enl_1227201598/img/1.jpg

The Saudi-backed initiative offers Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for an end to Israel's occupation of land captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

It also proposes what it calls a just solution for Palestinian refugees.

The Israeli government has noted "positive aspects" in the plan but has not formally accepted it.

In a BBC interview coinciding with his presidential visit to the UK, Israeli President Shimon Peres praised the plan as a "sea-change" in Arab policy.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak meanwhile said it could "serve as the basis" for negotiations.

Renewed interest in the Arab plan has arisen after a year of Israeli-Palestinian talks made no tangible progress and indirect contacts were revived between Syria and Israel, but also without achieving anything concrete.

Peace Now, and Israeli campaign group, welcomed the publication of the adverts.

"On behalf of a majority of Israeli citizens who support peace with the Palestinian people on the basis of a two state solution - we embrace the Arab Peace Initiative and urge both governments to endorse it and negotiate the final status agreement in its spirit," a statement from the group said.

Countering 'distortion'

The PA advertisement appears in the three main Hebrew dailies and is headed by the Palestinian and Israeli flags.

The text reads: "Fifty-seven Arab and Muslim countries will establish diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for a full peace accord and the end of the occupation."

The advert includes the full text of the seven-point initiative and is framed by the flags of 50 Arab and Muslim countries.

ARAB PEACE PLAN
Adopted by Arab League in 2002 and relaunched in 2007
Calls for "full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967"
All Arab states would establish "normal relations... with Israel" and "consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended"
Calls for a "just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem"

Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said it was aimed at explaining the Arab peace initiative to the Israeli public.

He suggested that Israelis were unfamiliar with the details of the plan and have only heard partial and distorted versions from Israeli officials.

The Arab peace plan, originally devised by Saudi Arabia, was adopted by an Arab League summit in Beirut in 2002 and re-launched at the Riyadh summit in 2007.

Israeli reports described the direct appeal to Israelis by Palestinian leaders over the heads of Israel's politicians as an extraordinary event.

Many Israelis agree on returning most of the land occupied in 1967 but hold strong views on two elements of the plan - making East Jerusalem capital of a future Palestinian state, and discussing Palestinian refugees in the context of a peace deal.

Israel has proclaimed all Jerusalem, including the occupied eastern half, as its "eternal, undivided" capital, and has rejected any responsibility for the flight of refugees during conflicts since 1948 when Israel was founded.

Arab plan explained in Hebrew ads (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7739198.stm)

Prospect of Israel war on Iran 'stronger'
Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:09:25 GMT

Israeli intelligence sources say the prospect of military action against Iran has increased significantly in the past few weeks.

Israeli sources told the Times on Friday that in the past few weeks Tel Aviv has witnessed an increase in the chances of launching an airborne attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

The revelation comes as Israeli military officials recently sent mixed signals about a calculated attack on Iran.

In a Wednesday interview with German weekly Der Speigel, Israeli Air Force Commander General Ido Nehushtan claimed that his forces were ready to follow any order to bring Iran's nuclear program to a halt.

"The IAF is a very robust and flexible force... ready to do whatever is demanded," he said.

Former Israeli military general Moshe Ya'alon, meanwhile, claimed that Tel Aviv has the 'right capabilities' to launch a successful strike on Iran.

"[A strike] is not the end of the game. Then, we should follow it up with a viable, sustainable military operation to target the facilities [serving] the regime's interests, and not allow the regime to rehabilitate itself," he said.

The head of the Israeli military's Diplomatic-Security Bureau Amos Gilad, however, said a military attack on Iran would pose a 'considerable challenge'.

"Iran is a country with smart people that have capabilities... It really would be a considerable challenge," he said.

Israel's military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin also dismissed an Israeli plan to strike Iran, saying the world financial crisis and Barack Obama's election as the next US president have dissipated the chances of wiping out the Iranian enrichment program.

Any military attack on Iran would require US cooperation as it would almost certainly involve Israeli warplanes flying through the Washington-controlled Iraqi airspace.

The Iranian armed forces have repeatedly warned that any attempted violation of Iran's territorial integrity would be a 'suicidal folly'.

"After failure in its 33-day-war on Lebanon, Israel has realized that any effort or movement against Iran would have devastating consequences," the top Iranian military commander Yahya Rahim-Safavi said on Sunday.

Prospect of Israel war on Iran 'stronger' (http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=76137&sectionid=351020104)

Israel Bans International Media from Gaza, Arrests Human Rights Activists
By CHERRIE HEYWOOD (Middle East Times)
Published: November 19, 2008

GAZA CITY, Gaza -- Israel has banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza to cover the deteriorating humanitarian situation there as the country 's complete closure of the territory enters a third week.

Several groups of European parliamentarians were banned last week from passing through Israel's Erez border crossing into Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and to hold meetings with Hamas leaders.

Three international human rights activists were also forcibly arrested, by the Israeli navy, from Palestinian fishing vessels in Gaza's waters.

AP head, and Israeli Foreign Press Association chairman, Steven Gutkin said journalists had called him complaining of being refused entry since last week.

Since then, he said, the association had appealed to the government to allow access, with no success.

"We consider it a serious problem for freedom of the press. We think that journalists have to be placed in a special category. A blanket ban on people going into Gaza should not apply to journalists," Gutkin added.

"We are hoping that this is not the start of a policy of banning journalists from Gaza. We would like to point out that when times are tough, and when things heat up, it is important for journalists to be able to enter."

A BBC media crew was also refused entry last week.

Conny Mus, a reporter from the Dutch television station RTL was told telephonically by Israeli military officials that he and his crew would be able to enter Gaza.

However, upon arrival they were kept waiting for five hours and then eventually informed they would not be able to cross over.

"They put our names on a list and we waited for five hours at the border," said Mus. Only then was their request denied.

Although journalists have been barred from entering Gaza in the past, this has normally been for limited periods only, not the current lengthy and complete blackout.

The Israeli foreign ministry said no order had been issued to prevent journalists from going to Gaza.

"There is no decision not to allow journalists in," said Peter Lerner, the spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.

Israel closed all of Gaza's borders on Nov. 4. This followed a cross-border military raid into the Gaza strip by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to allegedly destroy a tunnel which the IDF said was meant to smuggle Israeli soldiers.

However, hundreds of underground tunnels connecting Egypt's Sinai Peninsula with the Gaza strip have been in place for over a year.

These are used to smuggle in everyday necessities which Gazans rely on for their survival due to Israel's hermetic closure of the territory. Weapons are also smuggled in.

Following Israel's military incursion into Gaza, Palestinian resistance organizations launched a salvo of rockets into Israel.

In the ensuing Israeli attacks and Palestinian counter-attacks 20 Palestinians were killed while two Israelis were lightly injured.

Israel has also stopped most international aid from entering Gaza causing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with the U.N. Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA)'s warehouses running out of food.

Half of Gaza's population of 1.5 million is dependent on emergency rations from UNRWA for survival.

Gaza's main power plant was also forced to close on Thursday after Israel refused to allow any fuel in. Seventy percent of Gazans experienced electricity blackouts.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, alarmed at the severest restrictions imposed on aid getting into Gaza in its history, called incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and asked him to reverse the restrictions.

Meanwhile, three human rights activists from Italy, Britain and the United States were arrested by the Israeli navy as they accompanied Gazan fishermen off Gaza's coast. They were nowhere near Israel's territorial waters.

Under the Oslo Accords of 1994 Gazan fishermen were permitted to go 20 kilometers out to sea to fish. Forty thousand Gazan fishermen and their dependents rely on these fisherman being able to earn a livelihood from Gaza's coast.

Following Hamas' takeover of the territory in June of last year Israel limited this distance to six kilometers and has enforced it rigorously.

Those who risk going further out are regularly shot at and arrested with a number being killed in the past. Their boats are often destroyed and many have been forced out of business.

The desperate fishermen have been forced to play a game of Russian Roulette in an attempt to earn a livelihood as many of the larger shoals of fish on which they are dependent are found beyond the six kilometer limit.

The activists had accompanied the fishermen on several fishing expeditions in a bid to provide some international protection.

Hitherto, the Israeli navy shot high pressure water cannons at the fishing boats causing damage and several injuries.

Machine gun fire was also sprayed around the boats in an attempt to intimidate them.

But following three successful voyages by siege-breaking vessels from Cyprus, defying the Israeli navy and carrying European parliamentarians, journalists and human rights activists, the Israelis decided to crack down.

After three Israeli naval vessels surrounded the three fishing boats on Tuesday, 15 Palestinian fishermen were forced to strip naked and swim in the icy winter waters toward the naval vessels and were then taken in for interrogation.

The internationals were taken to Ben-Gurion airport where they are expected to be deported.

Israel Bans International Media from Gaza, Arrests Human Rights Activists (http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/11/19/israel_bans_international_media_from_gaza_arrests_human_rights_activists/6228/)

Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?

jewishworldreview

If Likud wins in Israel, how badly will the two new leaders of the alliance clash?

Barack Obama spent the first week after being elected president of the United States planning the next four years. Yet, even though the office is occupied by somebody else until January, the pundits are already predicting the next administration's trouble spots.

At the top of the list is the outcome of the Israeli elections scheduled for this winter. If Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu is sent back to the prime minister's office, we are told, a major conflict with the Obama White House is inevitable.

The assumption is that an Obama administration will regard "Bibi" Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace and that he will personally blow up the U.S.-Israel alliance.

HISTORY OF CONFLICT

The Israeli left has promoted the myth that Netanyahu destroyed the peace process after the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. But the true story is that the Oslo Accords were doomed from the start because of Yasser Arafat's insincerity and the continuation of Palestinian terror after the peace was signed.

Though Clinton did just about everything to prevent the Likud leader from winning the 1996 Israeli election except moving to Israel and voting himself, the two managed to co-exist warily for three years. Despite his "hard-line" reputation, Netanyahu wound up signing supplements to the Oslo treaties: the 1996 Hebron agreement and the 1998 Wye Plantation accord. He also sent an emissary to Damascus to discuss Syria's willingness to make peace in exchange for the Golan Heights.

However, his bellicose rhetoric is remembered more than his diplomacy. Contrary to Theodore Roosevelt's advice, Netanyahu always spoke loudly while carrying a very small stick. But there was no mistaking the fact that the Clinton administration despised the Israeli. Bibi's warm relations with Clinton antagonist, Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Christian Evangelical supporters of Israel deepened the distrust between the two governments. When Netanyahu was bounced out of office by Labor's Ehud Barak in 1999, the White House did little to disguise its jubilation.

Now, almost a decade later, Netanyahu is on the verge of a remarkable comeback. A combination of Likud and other right-wing parties has a better chance of putting together a governing coalition next year than does current foreign minister Tzipi Livni of Kadima and its potential allies.

With the Obama foreign-policy team likely to be comprised of either retreads from the last Democratic administration or others equally committed to pushing hard for Israeli-Palestinian peace, trouble with the Likudniks is on the horizon.

But, despite predictions of doom and gloom, is an Obama-Bibi blowup inevitable?

Not necessarily.

Though the idea that the new president will prioritize the comatose peace process and seek to bludgeon Netanyahu into submission may be a fantasy of some of Obama's fans on the Jewish left, it disregards his innate pragmatism.

Clinton committed himself, without reservation, to the concept that Yasser Arafat was a peacemaker rather than a two-faced terrorist. On the other hand, Obama arrives in the Oval Office with no such loyalty to the powerless Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas. To suggest that rather than concentrate on more-urgent issues, Obama would risk any of his hard-won political capital on such a slender reed as Abbas is absurd.

Even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that Obama and his people are inherently hostile to Netanyahu, why would it make sense for the next president to try to force Israel into a corner when the prospects for peace are so bleak? With the Palestinians hopelessly split between the weak Abbas and his Hamas rivals who control Gaza, there is no way that any Israeli government, even the current Kadima-led coalition that is desperate to achieve an agreement, could do so.

After all, the reason why Bibi may be headed back to the prime ministership is the failure, not only of the Oslo process, but also of Kadima's unilateral withdrawal concept.

Ariel Sharon left the Likud and formed the centrist Kadima Party in 2005 because Netanyahu and his followers wouldn't support the withdrawal from Gaza. His attempt to end the old left-right split in Israeli politics was initially successful, but the the pullout was a disaster. It led directly to the creation of a Hamasistan that bombarded Israeli towns like Sederot. A similar retreat in the West Bank under the current circumstances is unthinkable. This failure of unilateralism has left many Israelis looking back to Likud for leadership.

There may be disagreements between Obama and Netanyahu, but the top foreign-policy item in the Middle East, outside of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not the dead-in-the-water talks with the Palestinians, but something on which Obama and Netanyahu may well agree: the threat from Iran's nuclear weapons program.

While the Republicans made much of candidate Obama's ill-considered offer of talks with Iran, Obama also pledged never to allow the Iranians to achieve nuclear capability. If Obama doesn't keep that promise, he will have far-bigger problems in the region than not liking Netanyahu.

A chastened Bibi — who won't want a repeat of his difficulties with Clinton — and Obama will both have good domestic political reasons to avoid unnecessary conflicts with each other.

EAGER FOR CONFRONTATION

Rather than the White House being the one spoiling for a fight with Israel, the trouble may instead come from those American Jews who despise Netanyahu and are eager for a confrontation.

The left-wing J Street lobby is committed to pushing Israel hard to revive negotiations, even though anybody who's paying attention to the facts on the ground there knows that both Fatah and Hamas are uninterested in peace. But the lobby's agenda has little to do with the realities of the Middle East and everything to do with American Jewish politics.

J Street's real goal is to undercut the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and, if possible, to supplant it as the voice of American Jewry on Israel. J Street's financial backers were strong supporters of Obama and hope to have a voice in the administration.

A Netanyahu victory in Israel will give them an opening, since they will seek to deprive a Likud government of the sort of support Israelis expect here. Since AIPAC will have to stand up for Netanyahu — an Israeli who has been routinely and wrongly depicted in the American press as an extremist — as it has for every past prime minister, J Street hopes to profit from the comparison.

The test for Obama may not be so much whether he and Bibi disagree on policy, but whether the president allows some of his Jewish supporters to maneuver him into a superfluous dispute that has nothing to do with the vital interests of either country.

The fate of the U.S.-Israel relationship in the next four years may rest on the question of whether Obama will let the gadflies of J Street start a battle that serves neither the cause of peace nor that of his administration's political agenda.

Security increase in tense Hebron

Israel has increased security in the West Bank city of Hebron ahead of a Jewish pilgrimage there.

This comes at a time of increased tension in Hebron, where hundreds of Jewish settlers live in the heart of the Palestinian city.

A number of them are currently defying an Israeli high court order to leave a building in the centre of the Palestinian city.

On Wednesday, a mosque and Muslim cemetery were defaced by settlers.

Israeli troops later painted over the offensive graffiti. A soldier was injured in scuffles with settlers, the army said.

Pilgrimage

About 20,000 Jews are expected in the Hebron over the next two days to commemorate the death of the Matriarch Sarah.

The dispute over the strategically located building has raised tensions even higher than usual between settlers and Palestinians in Hebron.

Settlers say they bought the building legally from its Palestinian owner, although he denies the claim.

The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered them to leave the building and set a deadline of Wednesday 19 November for them to go or face a forced eviction.

About 500 settlers live in enclaves in central Hebron in an area under full Israeli military control. The town has about 170,000 Palestinian inhabitants.

Hebron governor Hussein al-Araj urged Israeli authorities to halt the violence and enforce the court decision.

The ministry of defence has said it will implement the order but legal opinion is reportedly divided on whether it must do so within one month.

Hebron is home of some of the most hardline religiously motivated Jewish settlers, and correspondents say the authorities are concerned about the possibility of violent retribution if they are evicted by force.

All Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Security increase in tense Hebron (http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7742226.stm?ad=1)

Olmert 'to be charged' with corruption
November 26, 2008
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem

Israel’s Attorney General announced today that he was planning to bring criminal charges against Ehud Olmert, the outgoing Prime Minister, for fraud, abuse of confidence and falsification of documents.

Menachem Mazuz, the Attorney General who investigated the Prime Minister on several corruption cases, said that Mr Olmert could be indicted over allegations that he submitted duplicate billing of travel expenses. The case was one of several scandals that forced Mr Olmert to submit his resignation.

No date has yet been set to formally charge the Prime Minister, said the Justice Ministry. Mr Olmert will first be offered a hearing to defend himself, after which the Attorney General will make his final decision on the indictment.

Mr Olmert is suspected of double and occasionally triple-billing organisations for private flights taken during his term as Mayor of Jerusalem and Industry and Trade Minister from 2003-2006. Police believe that while Mr Olmert received state funding for work trips, his flight co-ordinator, Rachel Risby-Raz, and former bureau chief Shula Zaken asked one or more other public bodies to finance the same flights. Each organisation believed it was supporting Mr Olmert’s working trips abroad, and was not aware that other parties were also footing portions of the bill.

Mr Olmert tendered his resignation in September to fight the graft allegations against him. He remains at the head of a caretaker administration, but an indictment against him could increase pressure to leave office before the February 10 election.

Though Mr Olmert has maintained his innocence on all the charges, public opinion has turned against him as police questioned him on 10 separate occasions in recent months. Mr Olmert is also suspected of steering tens of millions of pounds’ worth of state funds towards a company owned by his former law partner, Uri Messer, and unlawfully accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from a US businessman.

Mr Olmert has consistently maintained his innocence of all of the accusations against him. There are fears that an indictment against Mr Olmert could also affect his party’s showing in the upcoming elections. Recent polls show the Kadima Party, now led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, slipping behind Binyamin Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud Party.

Polls published earlier this week showed Likud would gain 34 seats in the 120-seat parliament, up from its current 12, followed by Kadima with 28. Kadima currently has 29 seats. The poll forecast the once-dominant Labour, headed by Defence Minister Ehud Barak, winning just 10 seats.

In internal party elections, Tzipi Livni was elected head of the party. Ms Livni was unable, however, to form a coalition, triggering early elections for February 10.

The announcement came after Mr Olmert wrapped up a visit to Washington where he held out hope for a last-minute peace deal with the Palestinians. The Prime Minister returned from White House talks with President Bush just hours before the justice ministry announcement.

Olmert 'to be charged' with corruption (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5239413.ece)

Defense establishment gives enemy hope that Israel's end is near
By Israel Harel
27/11/2008

When it comes to obtaining quality intelligence from Israel, Iran, the Arab countries, the Palestinians and even Western countries do not have to work hard or risk much. The Israeli defense establishment provides free operative, tactical and sometimes strategic intelligence.

The defense establishment believes, for example, that "despite the heavy price" that Israel will pay in terms of uprooting settlements in the Golan and in bringing the Syrians back to the Kinneret (Haaretz, November 23), an agreement with Syria must be advanced. In addition to service to Bashar Asad's intelligence service, the defense establishment also provides political intelligence to other bodies, such as the new administration in the United States, about what Israel is willing to give up, and thus lets slip out of her hands a comfortable bargaining position toward generous compensation in terms of security in exchange for this strategic concession.

Besides the recklessness and foolishness of giving up state secrets, the security establishment must be asked: What does this issue have to do with you? Your job is to provide the government with intelligence evaluations about the enemy, not to provide the enemy with intelligence about us. Operative conclusions, certainly those involving clearly ideological issues such as leaving the Golan Heights, destroying settlements and exiling their inhabitants, are off-limits to the defense establishment, certainly in public.

The political arena is where the future of the Golan Heights will be decided. The moment the "defense establishment" recommends giving up the Golan, it climbs fully onto the bandwagon of the left. The defense establishment cannot claim that its recommendation is "professional;" it seems that there is no danger expected from Syria in the foreseeable future. But even if that is not the case and war is a concern, the job of the army is to fight and protect the settlements, not recommend withdrawal and the uprooting of settlements so it might flee from these obligations.

With its recommendation, the defense establishment also exposes Israel's fears of standing "almost alone" in the face of an "existential threat from Iran." Even if these fears are justified, why give this intelligence to the Iranians? And why reveal to them that Israel has failed in garnering the support of allies in the battle against them.

True, even without us, the Iranians sense hesitation on the part of the United States and Europe, but we have also read and heard Iranians argue that this hesitation is intentional ambiguity. Then the Israeli intelligence comes and removes any doubts for the Iranians: It is neither a ruse nor a trap. Israel is "almost alone." Bravo.

At the beginning of October, the defense establishment volunteered intelligence to Hamas about Gilad Shalit. "No military option has been created for his release... and the price of the deal is 1,400," referring to prisoners, among them 450 whose identity is to be determined by Hamas according to reports, and "we must pay... even if it is with the release of terrorist murderers." The enemy concludes from this serious leak that the Israel Defense Forces is helpless and is ready to pay any price Hamas imposes. And as for us, the citizens - the defeatist leaks reveal the lack of motivation at the top to fight is what gives hope to the enemy that Israel's end is near. And that, not the Jewish presence on the Golan Heights, endangers the future of Israel.

Defense establishment gives enemy hope that Israel's end is near (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041343.html)

IDF preparing options for Iran strike

The IDF is drawing up options for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities that do not include coordination with the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

While its preference is to coordinate with the US, defense officials have said Israel is preparing a wide range of options for such an operation.

"It is always better to coordinate," one top Defense Ministry official explained last week. "But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination."

Israeli officials have said it would be difficult, but not impossible, to launch a strike against Iran without receiving codes from the US Air Force, which controls Iraqi airspace. Israel also asked for the codes in 1991 during the First Gulf War, but the US refused.

"There are a wide range of risks one takes when embarking on such an operation," a top Israeli official said.

Several news reports have claimed recently that US President George W. Bush has refused to give Israel a green light for an attack on Iranian facilities. One such report, published in September in Britain's Guardian newspaper, claimed that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested a green light to attack Iran in May but was refused by Bush.

In September, a Defense News article on an early warning radar system the US recently sent to Israel quoted a US government source who said the X-band deployment and other bilateral alliance-bolstering activities send parallel messages: "First, we want to put Iran on notice that we're bolstering our capabilities throughout the region, and especially in Israel. But just as important, we're telling the Israelis, 'Calm down, behave. We're doing all we can to stand by your side and strengthen defenses, because at this time, we don't want you rushing into the military option.'"

The "US European Command (EUCOM) has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent US military presence on Israeli soil," Defense News wrote. The radar will shave several precious minutes off Israel's reaction time to an Iranian missile launch.

In a related article at about the same time, TIME magazine raised the possibility that through the deployment of the radar, America wants to keep an eye on Israeli airspace, so that the US is not surprised if and when the IAF is sent to bomb Iran, a scenario Washington wants to avoid.

The US army sent 120 EUCOM personnel to Israel's Nevatim Air Base southeast of Beersheba to man the new radar.

Last week, Iran's nuclear chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh revealed that the country was operating more than 5,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz and would continue to install centrifuges and enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel for the country's future nuclear power plants.

"At this point, more than 5,000 centrifuges are operating in Natanz," said Aghazadeh, who is also the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. This represents a significant increase from the 4,000 Iran had said were up and running in August at the plant.

The Islamic republic has said it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that will ultimately involve 54,000 centrifuges.

Israeli officials said last week that the drop in oil prices and the continued sanctions on Iran were having an effect, although they had yet to stop Teheran's nuclear program. The officials said that while Iran was making technological advancements, it would not have the necessary amount of highly-enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb until late 2009.

"There is still time and there is no need to rush into an operation right now," another Israeli official said. "The regime there is already falling apart and will likely no longer be in power 10 years from now."

The IAF was preparing for a wide range of options, OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan recently said, adding that all it would take to launch an operation was a decision by the political echelon.

"The air force is a very robust and flexible force," he told Der Spiegel. "We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us."

On Monday, Teheran dismissed the possibility of an Israeli strike, saying it didn't take Israel seriously.

"We think that regional and international developments and the complicated situation faced by Israel itself will not allow it to launch military strikes against other countries," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters in Teheran, according to the Press TV Web site. "Israel makes threats to promote its psychological and media warfare," he said.

Messianic Jews detained at Ben-Gurion
Dec. 14, 2008
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST

A director of the US Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations and his wife were detained Sunday at Ben-Gurion Airport by Interior Ministry officials amid allegations he is involved in illegal Christian missionary activity.

It is illegal in Israel to proselytize among minors. It is also prohibited to engage in missionary activities among adults when economic incentives are offered.

After over eight hours of detention, Jamie Cowen, a former president of the union, and his wife, Stacy, were permitted to enter Israel only after they agreed to sign a document that they would not engage in missionary activities during their stay.

The Cowens are in Israel to visit their two daughters, one of whom is an Israeli citizen. The other is in the process of obtaining citizenship after she and a group of other Messianic Jews won a Supreme Court case against the state.

The Cowens and their daughters all identify as Jews but believe that Jesus is the messiah.

"This type of religious discrimination would be expected of Iran, not Israel," said Jamie Cowen, a US immigration lawyer, a few hours after he was released by immigration police.

"In the US we imprison individuals suspected of terrorism. Here apparently one can be jailed for his religious convictions. This is a case of blatant discrimination against basic rights. It is a story of a bureaucracy run amok. Someone has to crack down and bring in people of integrity."

Cowen said he had visited Israel about 10 times, and had been active in social causes via the Knesset Social Lobby.

"I've brought $100,000 in humanitarian aid to Israel. We've provided lone IDF soldiers with about $50,000 in aid. This is unbelievable," he said.

The Interior Ministry, which directed the police to arrest the Cowens, said they had classified information regarding missionary activity.

"The Immigration and Population Authority has reliable information that the Cowens were involved in missionary activity prohibited by Israeli criminal law during their last visit to Israel," a ministry spokesman said.

"This is the reason they were detained. As soon as they agreed to refrain from any missionary activity they were allowed in."

The Cowens arrived in Israel on a flight from Frankfurt at 3 a.m. They were arrested at passport inspection and placed in detention at the airport.

"As an immigration lawyer I have visited many detention facilities for illegal immigrants. This one was particularly dirty, smelly and overcrowded," Cowen said.

According to Cowen, the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations has 90 member congregations with membership ranging between 50 and 400 per congregation.

Calev Myers, founder and chief counsel of The Jerusalem Institute, which provides legal advice and representation to messianic Jews, said the Interior Ministry was filled will clerks who identified with a strictly Orthodox definition of who is a Jew.

"During the years that Shas controlled the ministry they made sure to appoint clerks who were willing to carry out their policies," Myers said.

"As a result, Israel is the only Western country where basic freedom of religion is denied. Today those who being discriminated against are messianic Jews. Tomorrow it will be Conservative and Reform Jews."

Myers said anti-missionary organizations such as Yad Le'achim often tipped off Interior Ministry officials regarding messianic Jews attempting to enter the country.

However, Meir Cohen, a Yad Le'Achim activist, said that while it was true that his organization did provide the ministry with information, they were not involved in the Cowens' case.

Cohen said the ministry had its own intelligence unit that gathered information on missionaries and on messianic Jews who were ineligible for Israeli citizenship due to their religious convictions.

The Supreme Court has ruled that Jews who embraced Christianity are not eligible for Israeli citizenship. However, the court has also ruled that people who are not Jews according to Orthodox standards, but who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return do not forfeit this right if they adopt Christian beliefs.

Messianic Jews detained at Ben-Gurion (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728195370&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Nazi hunters give U.S. Holocaust Museum trial documents
By The Associated Press
17/12/2008

The paper had yellowed, its edges frayed. But it clearly bore the
signature of Lithuanian policeman Aleksandras Lileikis, ordering a Jewish woman and her 6-year-old daughter to be shot in a Nazi death pit in 1941.

With that, the U.S. Justice Department was able to prove an elderly Massachusetts man had decades earlier committed Nazi war crimes and to order him from the U.S.

The death warrant was one of about 50,000 Justice Department trial documents donated Tuesday to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The bound copies of evidence papers, hearing transcripts and court orders show how the department's Office of Special Investigations hunted down Nazis hiding in the United States over the last three decades and deported them.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey called the documents the largest body of
English-language primary source materials relating to the prosecution of Nazi criminals publicly available anywhere in the world.

"The documents we donate today perpetuate the memory of those men, women and children who perished, by ensuring that the truth of their fate - that their stories - survive in paper and ink for future generations," Mukasey told an audience at the Holocaust Museum in Washington.

"The documents are a permanent record of what happened, and a safeguard against those who might forget or, even worse, deny," he said.

A second copy of the papers will be donated to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

Since 1979, Justice investigators, attorneys and historians have studied immigration papers and pored through archives throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union to track down Nazi officials living in the United States.

The Office of Special Investigations does not have the authority to prosecute war crimes against non-Americans outside the U.S. But as of this year, it has won the right to deport 107 Nazi officials,
concentration camp guards and so-called trigger pullers.

Eli Rosenbaum, who heads the Justice unit, said his investigators work regularly with museum historians to interpret records and unearth pictures for trial that clearly show the horrors of the Nazi regime.

In Lileikis' case, Rosenbaum recounted, the Massachusetts man initially denied he was part of the Nazi-allied Lithuanian security police's mobile killing units that rounded up Jews and brought them to forest pits where their bodies were left after being shot.

"Show me something I signed," Lileikis told investigators in June 1983, disputing records that he was among those who carried out the killings.

Years later, after digging through Soviet archives, investigators did just that, using the December 1941 death warrant against Gitta Kaplan and her 6-year-old daughter Frumaas as proof that Lileikis should be deported.

"We found the bureaucratic documentation reporting that they had been, 'handled according to orders,' - a Nazi euphemism for murder, Mukasey said.

Investigators also gave the trial judge a picture of a death pit, showing a crowd of people gathered around a pile of bodies at the bottom of a crater in the forest.

"Lileikis was stripped of his U.S. citizenship and returned to Lithuania," Rosenbaum said. He was briefly put on trial there, but legal proceedings ultimately were suspended because of his failing health. Lileikis died in Lithuania in 2000.

The Justice Department decided to donate the records to the Holocaust museum as the number of surviving Holocaust victims - and the Nazis who sought to kill them - dwindles with age.

Rosenbaum said a few dozen cases against suspected Nazis remain open, although his unit since 2004 has begun to focus on others living in the United States who are suspected of genocide, torture or other war crimes in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, or elsewhere around the globe.

Two Holocaust survivors were among the crowd gathered Tuesday to watch Mukasey hand a 7 centimeter stack of papers - a sampling of the Justice document trove - to museum Memorial Council Director Fred S. Zeidman.

"Displaying such records has to be one of our top priorities because right now we are blessed with the authentic witness of the survivors," said Zeidman with a nod to the two in the audience. "But at some point, we know that these historic documents will be the only authentic witnesses."

Nazi hunters give U.S. Holocaust Museum trial documents (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1047258.html)

US - Israel on Collision Course

With the election of Barack Obama, the United States has moved dramatically to the left in its foreign policy at just the time that Israel, which seems likely to return Bibi Netanyahu to office in early February, is moving to the right. A collision is almost inevitable.

Caroline Glick, the highly astute conservative columnist for the Jerusalem Post, writes that the “international community” believes that Obama “will move quickly to place massive pressure on the next Israeli government to withdraw from Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the interests of advancing a ‘peace process’ with the Palestinians and the Syrians.” She notes that “people who have been in close contact with Obama’s foreign policy transition team have privately acknowledged that the widespread belief that Obama will move swiftly to put the screws on Israel is fully justified. According to one source who has spent a great deal of time with the transition team since last month’s U.S. elections, Obama’s people are ‘scope-locked’ on Israel.”

Meanwhile, in Israel, there is a growing consensus, reflected in public opinion surveys, that trading land for peace is a chimera. Netanyahu points out that “we do not have a viable partner with whom to negotiate peace.” The Palestinian Authority does not speak for the people of either Gaza or the West Bank, and Hamas, which probably does (it won the election), does not want to be a party to any peace agreement. Recent experience suggests that Hamas will quickly install rocket launchers on any territory Israel concedes, using it not as a basis for peace, but as a platform from which to kill more Jews.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the candidates of the left, Labor’s Ehud Barak and Kadima’s Tzipi Livni, are deeply committed to land for peace. Their rejection by the Israeli electorate — the anticipated outcome of the Feb. 10 election — will signal a bold departure in the political consensus of the Jewish state, a consensus that flies directly in the face of Obama’s likely policy.

The difference between the U.S. and Israel also extends to the realm of how strongly they oppose Iranian development of nuclear weapons. While Iran moves closer and closer to a bomb that could and will be used against Israel, Obama speaks of extending the American “nuclear umbrella” to cover Israel.

Reading between the lines, this means that he doesn’t think he can stop Iranian nuclear ambitions and will retreat to a policy of deterrence, accepting a nuclear Iran in the bargain.

If Netanyahu wins the election, he will bring with him a determination to stop Iranian nuclear weapons, no matter what, and a refusal to concede more territory in the name of the peace process. But Obama’s foreign policy team will be focusing on pushing Israel in just the opposite direction.

The result is likely to be the most significant divergence between Israeli and American policies since 1956, when President Eisenhower sided with the Arabs to halt the British-French-Israeli invasion of Suez.

The United States has tremendous leverage over Israel — military, financial and political. And Obama’s ability to carry the Jewish vote by a wide margin despite his likely Middle East policy makes him largely immune to the kind of political pressure that has disciplined American presidents in the past and forced them to incline toward accommodating Israeli views on the Middle East.

But Israel probably has the military capacity to bomb Iran and to win the Middle East war against Syria, Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah that is likely to result. Unlike Olmert, Netanyahu will use ground troops right off the bat and will fight such a war to win and to win big. But they may have to do it without their strongest ally: the United States.

Top Israeli officer says Hizbullah will be destroyed in five days 'next time'

Israel is developing plans to "destroy" Hizbullah in an armed onslaught of such severity that it would require no more than five days to complete, a senior Israeli military officer has said.

The commander of Israel's artillery division, which fired an average of 5,000 shells a day into Lebanon during the summer war in 2006, said that in any future conflict his men would "fire to destroy."

"No village will be immune," Brigadier General Michael Ben-Baruch told The Jerusalem Post newspaper. "We will give them about a 12-hour warning and then strike back."

His comments are the latest in a series of saber-rattling interviews in which senior Israeli military figures have outlined their plans for the next assault on Lebanon.

The tone of the rhetoric coming out of Israel became so severe during the summer that Prime Minister Fouad Siniora complained to the United Nations about the threats.

A recurrent theme in the rhetoric has been the idea that in any future conflict, a wider range of Lebanon's civilian and military infrastructure would be considered a fair target for a disproportionate Israeli response.

"In the last war, we made a distinction between Hizbullah targets and Lebanese national targets," an anonymous general in Israel was quoted as saying, contradicting overwhelming evidence to the contrary. "Now that Hizbullah is in the government - with veto power in the cabinet - there is no longer a reason to make this distinction, since a Hizbullah attack against Israel is essentially a Lebanese attack against Israel."

The remarks prompted a frigid response from a senior Lebanese Armed Forces officer contacted by The Daily Star. "We don't comment on the enemy's intentions," the officer said. "They have been saying this for a long time. They have always been aggressive as far as Lebanon is concerned. We are not surprised."

The war plans outlined by Israeli officials appear superficially similar to those they tried to employ in 2006, with intensive aerial bombardment followed by a major ground offensive pushing up to the Litani river. But they say the speed of any ground advance will be much quicker in the next war.

Last week, the Israeli military conducted a major training exercise in the Golan Heights in a practice run for a potential war against the combined forces of Syria and Hizbullah.

Israel's chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, has reportedly recommended that the Israeli cabinet rubberstamp plans to launch an all-out assault on Lebanon's infrastructure in case of another conflict.

During the 2006 war, which has been described as a "missed opportunity" by Israel's top brass, hundreds of roads and bridges were targeted. The Israeli military claimed this was because they were used by Hizbullah. In any future war there will be no such justification required because the Jewish state now considers the Shiite party to be a part of the Lebanese government.

The newspaper also revealed that some senior military figures in Israel are pushing for an unprovoked "preemptive" assault on Hizbullah. But it says this is not "likely," given that others seem willing to bide their time until Hizbullah launches an attack of its own, something which many in Israel consider to be inevitable.

Since 2006, when Israel was unable to deal a fatal blow to Hizbullah, the group is thought to have strengthened its arsenal.

Quote

Most of Israel was happy, when Obama was running for president. I think they are starting to see their follies, of Obama.

Quote

Caroline Glick, the highly astute conservative columnist for the Jerusalem Post, writes that the “international community” believes that Obama “will move quickly to place massive pressure on the next Israeli government to withdraw from Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the interests of advancing a ‘peace process’ with the Palestinians and the Syrians.” She notes that “people who have been in close contact with Obama’s foreign policy transition team have privately acknowledged that the widespread belief that Obama will move swiftly to put the screws on Israel is fully justified. According to one source who has spent a great deal of time with the transition team since last month’s U.S. elections, Obama’s people are ‘scope-locked’ on Israel.”

It is possible for Obama to set the stage for the anti-christ. These are only my thoughts, I'm saying out loud. If it happens, it will happen, if not, it won't. As I said, this is only my thoughts.

We must remember that God is in control, not man. God's time is different from man's time.

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The difference between the U.S. and Israel also extends to the realm of how strongly they oppose Iranian development of nuclear weapons. While Iran moves closer and closer to a bomb that could and will be used against Israel, Obama speaks of extending the American “nuclear umbrella” to cover Israel.

Israel can only trust Israel, no other nation can protect Israel as the Lord. I hate to say it but, the United States have been falling from God's Grace by it's follies. These last 10 years have really been bad, and I think are/will get worse for America.

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If Netanyahu wins the election, he will bring with him a determination to stop Iranian nuclear weapons, no matter what, and a refusal to concede more territory in the name of the peace process. But Obama’s foreign policy team will be focusing on pushing Israel in just the opposite direction.

I know if I was a voting Israeli, I'd be voting for Netanyahu. We as Christians MUST PRAY, that Obama doesn't push Israel to concede territory!!

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But Israel probably has the military capacity to bomb Iran and to win the Middle East war against Syria, Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah that is likely to result. Unlike Olmert, Netanyahu will use ground troops right off the bat and will fight such a war to win and to win big. But they may have to do it without their strongest ally: the United States.

I think we need to be praying for a strong leader for Israel. As I've said earlier, I'd vote for Netanyahu. Netanyahu is the type of leader needed now in Israel.

I also think Israel will go it alone, without the United States. But this is in God's hands, not man's hands.

Everyone needs to remember to pray for Israel.

Romans 10:1,3 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

News media falsely portraying Gaza attack
Claiming Israeli strike on weapons lab targeted 'woman's wing'

The U.S. and international news media are falsely portraying an Israeli air strike against a Hamas-run university in the Gaza Strip, claiming a "woman's wing" was targeted, when, according to the Israeli military, the target was a weapons lab at the school's chemistry department.

Known senior Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, speaking on the record, previously explained to WND how the Islamic University's chemistry department was used to manufacture explosives for use against Israel.

Palestinian raids of the targeted building previously yielded illicit Hamas rockets.

In a series of air Israeli raids yesterday, one precision strike hit a building of Gaza's Islamic University.

A widely circulated Associated Press report claimed, "One strike destroyed a five-story building in the women's wing at Islamic University, one of the most prominent Hamas symbols in Gaza." The report did not cite the source of the information.

CNN also reported a "women's wing" was targeted, as did London's Independent newspaper and China's Xinhua news agency.

The BBC Online described the building as a "science center" and painted the university as "a center of support for the Islamist militant group that controls the narrow coastal strip."

Reuters claimed the university was a "significant Hamas cultural symbol."

Avital Lebovich, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces, told WND Israel only targeted one chemical laboratory at Islamic University, which she said was used for the manufacture of Hamas explosives.

"This is the first university in world that gives out bachelor's degrees in rocket manufacture," she said.

Lebovich affirmed the targeted building did not house any women's wing.

Islamic University was founded by Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004. Previous Israeli raids of the main university campus in Gaza yielded mass quantities of weaponry and Hamas incitement material.

Officials from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party claimed in February 2007 they captured seven Iranian military trainers – including a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – inside Gaza City's Islamic University, which they said was being utilized as a Hamas military training ground.

The Fatah officials said at the time they also found about 1,000 Qassam rockets and equipment to manufacture the rockets inside the university. They previously suspected kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was being held for a time on the university grounds.

Terrorists admit university a jihad stronghold

In a 2007 interview, Muhammad Abel-Al, a leader and spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas-affilated terror group, told WND Islamic University is "extremely important" for recruitment of militants.

Abdel-Al, who also goes by the name Abu Abir, said several members of his group study chemistry at the university to aid in the manufacture of explosives and suicide belts. The Committees is responsible for hundreds of rocket attacks from Gaza aimed at nearby Jewish cities.

Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WND in 2007 that Islamic University is regularly used by Hamas to support "resistance activities."

"It is no secret that we utilize all tools at our disposal, including our fighters at Islamic University in preparations to fight the Zionists," said Abu Abdullah of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.

Reuven Erlich, director of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and Israel's Center for Special Studies, told WND his organization analyzed material captured in previous Israeli raids of Islamic University, which yielded mass quantities of weaponry and Hamas incitement material supporting terrorist attacks.

Huge natural gas find off Israel coast
Official hails 'historic moment' that could change nation

A huge deep-water natural gas find off the coast of Israel promises to be a boon to the Jewish state's economy as well as a stimulus to other developers searching for offshore oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean.

Noble Energy, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, has discovered an estimated more than 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in three high-quality reservoirs drilled in the company's Tamar No. 1 well in the Mediterranean Sea, about 56 miles off the Israeli northern port of Haifa.

Noble Energy drilled the Tamar No. 1 well to a depth of about three miles, beneath 5,500 feet of water.

The find is significant for those who believe the Bible indicates Israel is sitting on a massive oil reserve that would reshape the geopolitical structure of the Middle East.

The find also lends support to the abiotic theory of the origin of oil that holds oil is created naturally within the mantle of the earth, not by biological origins.

"We are the only company producing natural gas off the Israeli shore," Noble Energy spokesman Brad Whitmarsh told WND. "We also drill for gas in the Mari-B field, offshore closer to southern tip of Israel in shallower water."

The Tomar site is estimated to be three times as large as the Mari-B natural gas field off Israel's southern shore that analysts estimate may reach depletion within five years, according to a report published by Israel12c.org.

"We have built a considerable acreage position offshore Israel and have been working this area for years," he said. "The area around the Tomar has been largely undrilled and unexplored. Tamar was the first we have drilled, and when we started, we estimated we only had about a 35 percent chance of success."

"Tamar represents our first exploratory well offshore Israel in more than five years, and we are extremely excited by the results," Charles D. Davidson, Noble Energy's chairman, president and CEO said in a press release published on the company's website.

"This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history," he continued.

"We are witnessing an historic moment in Israel's energy market," Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told Reuters. "If it turns out in a few weeks that the indicators received in recent days are true, then we are talking about the biggest find in Israel's history."

Israel's Petroleum Commissioner Yaakov Mimran told Reuters that if early finds are validated the site would meet Israel's demand for 15 years.

"If the Tamar site opposite the Haifa coast succeeds in producing the significant quantities of natural gas predicted, we are talking about a revolution which will have an impact on the Israeli economy for the coming generations," Dan Halman, CEO of Halman-Aldubi Group told the Jerusalem Post.

"The vast reservoir is poised to bring down electricity prices, reduce the country's dependence on gas from foreign countries, in particular from Egypt, and thereby turn Israel from a gas importer into a gas exporter," Halman said.

Analysts told Reuters the natural gas find at Tamar No. 1 was worth an estimated $26 billion and would be available for market starting in 2013.

Nobel Energy holds a 36 percent working interest in the Tamar No. 1, with other owners including the following: Isramco Negev 2 with 28.75 percent; Delek Drilling with 15.625 percent; Avner Oil Exploration with 15.625 percent; and Dor Gas Exploration with the remaining 4 percent.

The Tamar No. 1 site was named after the granddaughter of Israeli geologist Yossi Langotsky, who played a key role in locating the site.

Noble Energy stock closed Thursday at 48.03, down 1.63.

The 52-week range for the stock, according to Yahoo! Finance, is 30.89 to 105.11.

World Net Daily
Koenig
International News

January 30,2009

Benjamin Netanyahu: Iran is the terrorist 'mother regime'

Israel's would-be prime minister says he was mocked for warning of the Gaza rocket threat

(Note: Bret Stephens was the former associate editor of the Jerusalem Post. He now works for The Wall Street Journal. He writes "Global View," the Journal's foreign affairs column.

This is an excerpt from his interview of Benjamin Netanyahu Sumday in Jerusalem at the King David Hotel.

Stephens also included Netanyahu's own prescriptions for a settlement with the Palestinians - what he calls a "workable Peace" - which differ markedly from the approaches of the 1990's...)

When the interview finally happens, in the grand reception hall of the old King David Hotel, it's close to one o'clock in the morning on Monday.

Mr. Netanyahu has come from a long dinner with visiting European leaders - French President Nicholas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel among them - and he is plainly exhausted, jokingg that he can't be held responsible for anything he might say.

The Stephens excerpt continued:

Mr. Netanyahu's gaze is intently fixed on Iran, a subject that consumes at least half of the interview.

Iran is the 'mother regime' both of Hamas, against which Israel has just fought a war, as well as of Hezbollah, against which it fought its last war in 2006. Together he says they are more than simply fingers of Tehran's influence on the shores of the Mediterranean.

"The arming of Iran with nuclear weapons may portend an irreversible process, because these regimes assume a kind of immortality," he says, arguing that the threat of a nuclear Iran poses a much graver danger to the world than the current econoic crisis, "will pose an existential threat to Israel directly, but also could give a nuclear umbrella to these terrorist bases."

How to stop that from happening? Mr. Netanyahu mentions that he has met with Barack Obama both in Israel and Washington, and that the question of Iran "loomed large in both conversations."

I ask: Did Mr. Obama seem to him appropriately sober-minded about the subject? "Very much so, very much so," Mr. Netanyahu stresses. "He spoke of his plans to engage Iran in order to impress upon them that they have to stop the nuclear program. What I said to him was, what counts is not the method but the goal."

It's easy to believe that Mr. Netanyahu, of all people, must be wishing Presiden Obama well: If diplomacy with Iran fails and the US doe not resort to military force, it would almost certainly fall to Mr. Netanyahu to decide whether Israel will go it alone in a strike.

(In a separate interview earlier that day, a senior military official assured me that a successful strike on Iran's nuclear facilities is well within Israel's capabilities.)

Koenig's perspective: Who is going to deal wit Iran - the US or Israel? This will be the million-dollar question of 2009.

Furthermore, moving 300,000 people out of their homes is inconceivable. Look at the chaos that ensues when a few Israelis are evicted from their homes in Hebron.

At this point it looks like Netanyahu will be the next prime minister.

Polls on Wednesday gave Likud a 30 seat range in the next Knesset. Kadima is in the low 20s. Well behind is Barak's left-leaning Labor Party at around 15 seats. (These numbers settled after his Gaza War bump had them higher, with Avigdor Lieberman's right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu in the same 15 range.)

The Shas Party endorsed Netanyahu this week. That could be another 10 to 12 Knesset members in his coalition.

We know that both Livni and Barak have a deep-seated dislike for the settlers. Livni showed it in her "60 Minutes" interview when Bob Simon said it appears certain that the Israelis settlers aren't leaving their homes. Livni responded firmly and angrily that "we have police and military forces to use against the settlers."

Additionally, Hamas can't contain themselves, so that will keep thins in tumult. Plus ... will Abbbas remain the Palestinians' point man, or will it be someone else?

Study: Israel did not violate war laws
Feb. 6, 2009
Etgar Lefkovits , THE JERUSALEM POST

Israel did not violate the laws of war and made marked improvements in its fighting capability during the recent military operation against Hamas in Gaza, yet the gains from the conflict in the long term remain uncertain, a US study concludes.

The analysis of the 22-day conflict in Gaza by Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies finds "impressive improvements in the readiness and capability" of the Israeli Defense Forces since the war against Hizbullah in Lebanon in 2006, and unequivocally states that Israel did not violate the laws of war despite the large number of civilian casualties among the Palestinians.

"[Israel] did deliberately use decisive force to enhance regional deterrence and demonstrate that it had restored its military edge," the report states. "These, however, are legitimate military objectives in spite of their very real humanitarian costs."

Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the operation, including hundreds of civilians, according to Palestinian officials in Gaza.

The analysis finds that the IDF did not succeed in deterring Hamas from new rocket strikes on Israel or make "definitive changes in the political and military situation in Gaza," noting that the post-conflict situation looks strikingly like the situation before the fighting began.

Sporadic Palestinian rockets attacks against Israel have continued since the January 18 unilateral cease-fire declaration.

The report finds that while the success of the IDF military operation may have enhanced some aspects of Israel's military edge and ability to deter further attacks, it also did much to provoke reactions built on the anger caused by both the steadily deteriorating situation of the Palestinians and the impact of civilian casualties and collateral damage.

"The end result is that it is far from certain that Israel's tactical successes achieved significant strategic and grand strategic benefits," the report concludes.

Study: Israel did not violate war laws (http://www.worthynews.com/top/jpost-com-servlet-Satellite-cid-1233304702309-pagename-JPost-JPArticle-Printer/)

Here's an excerpt from a recent article by Gary Kah I thought was interesting:

...We just heard from friends of ours - Messianic Jews - whose son is in the Israeli military. They had not been able to communicate with him for many days (after the ceasefire). When he finally was able to call his parents he told them Israeli forces were preparing for an extended battle.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas, and possibly soon Hezbollah, could turn into a much more dangerous regional war - if Syria or Iran become directly involved. This week Al Qaeda called on all Muslims to unite against Israel. Things could get quite tense over the next few months. Only time will tell.

Here at home preparations are now underway for a mass exodus of Jews from the US back to Israel. In November, I attended a meeting in the Northeast with other Christians who work regularly with, and pray for, the Jewish people. They are positively convinced that in the not-too-distant future, persecution will come against America's Jews. So serious is the perceived threat that they are in the process of establishing hubs in various cities in order to help Jews flee our country quickly under difficult circumstances in the days ahead.

One of the individuals connected with this effort - a Messianic Jew - is a long-time personal friend of mine. In 1982 he said that there would soon be a mass exodus of Jews out of Russia back to Israel. Everything he told me happened exactly as he said it would. By the late 80s and early 90s, Jews began flowing back to their homeland at a steady rate. To date more than a million Russian Jews have returned to Israel.

Many Christians believe that Jews will never leave the US because they have it so good here and will never need to be fearful of persecution. But how short are our memories? Germany's Christians - and Jews- thought the same thing.

We live in a rapidly changing world where anything is possible. If I have learned anything during my years as a Christian in ministry, it is that humans haven't lost the ability to hate - and to focus their hatred quickly at others if their own situation suddenly changes for the worse. All of us must constantly guard our hearts and prevent hatred and resentment from taking hold. This can only be accomplished if we abide in the Lord and walk in His Spirit. - Galatians 5

(Note from me: Once in awhile here in Florida, we visit a Messianic synagogue. It's been a few months since we have but I was interested in this article because so many of the young people there did go back to Israel, even knowing there would be wars in the future. These are treacherous times, but even the young people seem to be feeling the same thing. Though they didn't experience the holocaust they seem to have learned from their elders and know their history very well!)

Likud's Sa'ar cites 'personal' reasons for Livni's refusal to join gov't
Feb. 27, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Following Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu's failed attempt to persuade Tzipi Livni to join a unity government, chief Likud negotiator MK Gideon Sa'ar said that the Kadima head had "stubbornly held onto her refusal" to join such a coalition, and claimed that her motives were personal.

"She didn't even agree to setting up special negotiating teams," he said. "For unity, compromise is required, but Livni's motives to sabotage unity are personal."

Likud's Sa'ar cites 'personal' reasons for Livni's refusal to join gov't (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410734799&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Livni Rejects Netanyahu's Final Offer

by Maayana Miskin

(IsraelNN.com) Likud Party Chairman Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu met with Kadima party head Tzipi Livni on Friday morning to make a final effort to convince her to join a Likud-led coalition. Livni rejected his offer, leaving Likud with no option but to turn to the nationalist parties and attempt to form a more narrow coalition.

Livni had rejected previous coalition offers, including an offer that would have given Kadima veto power over goverment decisions and several senior ministries.

A senior Likud official explained Friday prior to the meeting that Netanyahu believes the parties share common ground and could work together. “Netanyahu thinks there's still room to negotiate... They already agree on the main issues: Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah, and the financial crisis,” he explained.

Despite the general agreement between Likud and Kadima, Netanyahu does not expect Livni to join him, the source added.

Netanyahu hoped to convince Livni that he and she hold the same opinions regarding the creation of a Palestinian Authority state in Judea and Samaria as well. Netanyahu told Livni that he hopes to advance negotiations with the PA that were begun after the Annapolis Conference in 2007, his spokesman said.

However, another party source said the questions of negotiations with the PA and continuation of the Annapolis policy were one of the central sources of conflict between Likud and Kadima.

Netanyahu's expected coalition partner Avigdor Lieberman, the head of Yisrael Beiteinu, clarified this week that he also supports the creation of a PA state.

Livni expressed interest in joining with Likud only if Kadima would lead the coalition, or if the two parties would share power equally, with her and Netanyahu alternating as Prime Minister. Netanyahu rejected both ideas.

Some Kadima members are unhappy at Livni's refusal to sit in a government led by Netanyahu. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is widely considered a frontrunner for the position of Defense Minister if the parties were to unite, has publicly criticized Livni's refusal to join the coalition, as has MK Ronit Tirosh. Several other Kadima MKs have expressed anonymous criticism in various media outlets.

Nationalist parties have expressed satisfaction over Likud's failure to join with Kadima, saying the next government will be more Jewish and Zionist than the last. However, the heavily religious coalition that Netanyahu was expected to build following Kadima's rejection could be in danger, as a recent ruling by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv could leave United Torah Judaism unable to sit with Yisrael Beiteinu.

Rabbi Elyashiv, a leading figure in the Ashkenazi hareidi-religious world, ruled that it is forbidden to compromise in any way regarding civil marriage. Civil marriage must not be allowed even between non-Jews, he said.

Yisrael Beiteinu has made civil marriage a central component of its demands. Almost 300,000 non-Jewish immigrants, most from the former Soviet Union, are unhappy with Israel's current marriage laws, which approve of marriages only under the auspices of a recognized religion. Many secular Israelis support civil marriage as well.

Livni Rejects Netanyahu's Final Offer (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130184)

Seeing the world through the Iranian prism
Mar. 11, 2009
Herb Keinon
THE JERUSALEM POST

As Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu makes his rounds of meetings with the security establishment - he met Defense Minister Ehud Barak for security briefings, not coalition talks, on Monday and Tuesday - one thing that is emerging is that Netanyahu very much sees the world, or at least the region, through the Iranian prism.

Like the Book of Esther read on Purim, where the reader is left with the sense that the main characters' strings in ancient Persia were being pulled from behind the scenes, that there was a marionette on the other side of the curtain, so too does Netanyahu firmly believe that modern-day Iran is currently pulling the strings in our region - from Syria to Lebanon to Gaza.

What this means is that in drawing up his policy toward Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas, he is believed to be concentrating on how that policy will impact Teheran.

For instance, if Hamas is viewed as an auxiliary of Iran, as a tentacle of Iran, then it may be necessary to chop it off, not merely seal the border or find a way to temporarily keep the rockets from falling on the south.

What is emerging from Netanyahu's conversations with the country's security elite - in addition to meeting Barak he is also in the process of meeting the heads of the IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad - is that he does not have the same baggage on certain issues that Olmert and Kadima's leadership have demonstrated.

For instance, he doesn't have the same psychological Rubicon regarding the disengagement from Gaza as did Olmert, and that may give the prime minister-designate a freer hand to look at different polices regarding the Gaza Strip.

Olmert - like Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni - has never done anything like President Shimon Peres did when he admitted the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 might not have been the wisest of moves. And an unwillingness to admit that disengagement was a mistake, has, to a certain degree, tied the government's hands.

For instance, neither Olmert or Livni, who backed and have taken credit for disengagement, could entertain the idea of having to go back into Gaza for any extended period of time to "decapitate" Hamas, because that would be tantamount to saying that the decision to leave the Gaza Strip a few years earlier was a bad mistake.

Netanyahu, who opposed disengagement, and at the very last minute left the government because of it, is not burdened by the same legacy. If he feels Iran is pulling Hamas's strings, he may very well conclude that there is no choice but to go back into Gaza. Even if it means staying in the Strip for a period of time in order to defeat an "Iranian proxy."

The security meetings Netanyahu is currently conducting are not believed to be focused on the Iranian nuclear menace, but rather on the mischief Iran is currently stirring up in Gaza and Lebanon.

Netanyahu's diplomatic/ security team will conduct a comprehensive review of a number of key issues - Iran's nuclear development will require such a review.

But the Iranian nuclear issue does not need an immediate response the day after Netanyahu takes office, widely expected to be some time next week.

The rockets from Gaza, by contrast, will demand an immediate response, and it is on that issue - as well as the likelihood that Hizbullah will try to test him from Lebanon - that Netanyahu's current security briefings are believed to be focused.

Netanyahu's advisers say it is highly unlikely the policies in place up until now regarding the rockets from Gaza will continue under a Netanyahu government.

It is "inconceivable" to imagine that he would allow the current drizzle of rockets to continue for weeks, months and years to come, said his advisers.

Netanyahu has made it clear that he doesn't believe in "wars of attrition," and he is also aware Israel's enemies will want to test him. His current briefings are meant to arm him with a response.

Among the questions being discussed are not only what kind of message he will want to send, but also when to send it. For instance, should Israel's policy change abruptly and immediately, and in a way that all can see, or should it change gradually?

These are among the issues Netanyahu is now fleshing out with the country's security elite, knowing full well that after he is sworn in he will not have 100 hours of grace, let alone 100 days.

He will be confronted right away with challenges demanding an immediate response.

Seeing the world through the Iranian prism (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236676913579&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Quote from: DreamWeaver on March 11, 2009, 10:52:42 PM

I find this to be a very good analysis as to what is going on. Netanyahu will not put up with the rockets being launched into Israel for too much longer. This might be the very next major event to happen which leads to the implosion of the middle east.

Hello DreamWeaver,

Brother Bob, I think that this boils down to common sense. NO country in the world - EXCEPT ISRAEL - would tolerate a single attack against their people. As an individual, it's my opinion that it's far past-time for Israel to make bold announcements that the attacks ARE GOING TO END! If not, those making the attacks will BE DESTROYED! It really is just this simple and ONLY COMMON SENSE!

Those who are attacking Israel know there are huge land areas around the world they can go to and settle in. Israel is not going to cease to exist or go away, so those attacking Israel should be given ONE CHOICE: LEAVE! Please notice that attacking Israel IS NOT ONE OF THE OPTIONS!

There really aren't any sensitive political issues at all - JUST BLUNT REALITY. There are some who are determined to attack and annihilate Israel, and this has been A BLUNT REALITY for many years. Negotiation and diplomacy are NOT answers because ceasing to exist is the ONLY thing that will make the attackers happy. The ONLY lasting solutions IN THIS AGE are in the hands of Israel. Those who attack need to be completely defeated, and the survivors need to be relocated to another part of the world. The territory taken would be permanently part of Israel, and the announcement would be made that THE SAME APPLIES TO ANY OTHER ENTITY ATTACKING ISRAEL.

LET'S GET REAL - NO COUNTRY WOULD TOLERATE WHAT ISRAEL HAS! IT'S FAR PAST TIME FOR ISRAEL TO CHANGE COURSE - PROTECT HER PEOPLE - AND NOT TOLERATE A SINGLE ATTACK! Israel has RIGHTS, just like every other country in the world. Those RIGHTS are Sovereign and not subject to debate, negotiation, or diplomacy. This is SIMPLE! IT'S EVEN MORE SIMPLE FROM A BIBLICAL POINT OF VIEW: GOD OWNS ISRAEL AND MUCH OF THE LAND AROUND IT! GOD WILL TAKE WHAT IS HIS AT HIS APPOINTED TIME, AND IT WILL BE RESTORED TO ISRAEL! EVERY SQUARE INCH THAT GOD PROMISED ISRAEL WILL BE GIVEN TO ISRAEL - PERIOD! - END OF STORY!

‘Israel Fears Hezbollah Anti-Aircraft Missiles Could Spark War’

www.almanar.com

“The defense establishment is concerned that Hezbollah will try to smuggle advanced anti-aircraft missiles into Lebanon in the near future - yet another reason for the rising tension on the Israel-Lebanon border,” Haaretz newspaper said on Tuesday.

"Israel has made it clear in past statements that it will consider such a development as crossing a red line, which might necessitate preventative measures," the daily said. “It is believed that Hezbollah would like to deploy SA-8 batteries in Lebanon. Such weapons could pose a threat to Israel Air Force jets flying over the country.”

According to Haaretz, the Soviet-made missiles are part of Syria's military arsenal, and Hezbollah resistance fighters have received training on their use, inside Syrian territory.

It said Syria remains the main channel through which arms are transferred to Hezbollah, adding that almost a year ago, Israel relayed messages to both Damascus and Hezbollah, through several channels, warning that the Jewish state would consider launching air strikes against the convoys delivering the weapons, if they were brought into Lebanon.

"Then-prime minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak hinted publicly that these weapons would "upset the (existing) balance" and that Israel would not tolerate such a development," Haaretz added.

The Israeli daily said the past few weeks witnessed growing concern about the missile transfers in the wake of the June 7 Lebanese parliamentary elections in a show of force.

"The intelligence assessments regarding the missiles follow a long series of unusual developments in Lebanon that are contributing to rising tensions," including the discovery of Israeli spy rings, the Der Spiegel report on Hezbollah’s alleged involvement in the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, and the unsettled score for the killing of Hezbollah military commander Martyr Imad Mughniyeh.

Muslim Leader Fears Netanyahu will Try to Rebuild the Jewish Temple

www.israelnationalnews.com/

Sheikh Raad Salah, leader of the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, believes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will try to rebuild the Jewish Temple.

Speaking at a conference organized by website Islam Online in Doha, Qatar, Salah stated his belief that Netanyahu may try to build the Jewish Temple – which the Islamic preacher called “the false temple” – during his current term after allegedly failing to do so in his first term as Prime Minister in the late 1990s.

“I ask that those with the power to make the political decision hear me,” Salah exhorted his audience. “Netanyahu is about to build the false Temple, and when the Jews build the Temple they will do so upon the ruins of the Al-Aqsa [Mosque].”

The danger to Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque is “tangible and immediate,” Salah said, echoing similar dramatic statements he has made over the years. “I warn, I ask for aid and I call out,” he said. “We should expect deadly surprises that could hurt Jerusalem in general and Al Aqsa in particular,” he said. “We live in years that will determine if Jerusalem survives and in Al Aqsa will remain standing,” he added.

Salah said that in an effort to prepare world opinion for the realization of its goals in Jerusalem, Israel sends tourists to the Al Aqsa mosque and tells them that it was built upon the ruins of the Jewish Temple.

The solution to “the threat against Jerusalem,” according to Salah, is a complete mobilization of the Arab world, including the religious imams, who need to act and “recruit the masses.” He asked Muslim scholars to pronounce edicts that will force “the Muslim nation and its leaders to confront their duty towards the problem of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa.”

“A thousand politicians can talk without changing a thing,” Salah said. ‘One religious sage can do what the politicians cannot carry out."

The Jewish Temple was first built by King Solomon (Shlomo) about 3,000 years ago. It served as the spiritual center of the Hebrew nation and as a place of national pilgrimage and sacrifice. Serviced by the priestly class (Kohanim) and Levites, the Temple contained the Seven-Branched Menorah and housed the golden Holy Ark within a room known as the Holy of Holies.

The First Temple was razed by Babylonian conquerors, rebuilt by Jews by permission of a Persian emperor, defiled by Greeks and then re-consecrated by the Hasmoneans, and burnt down again by Romans.

Jewish religion commands the Jews to rebuild the Temple as part of a Divine plan for the salvation of the Jewish people and the entire world, but Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is not considered observant, never has associated himself with efforts by Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

Matthew 24:23-31 NASB "Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or 'There He is,' do not believe him. 24 "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 25 "Behold, I have told you in advance. 26 "So if they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe them. 27 "For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29 "But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Matthew 24:32-44 NASB "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; 33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34 "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. 36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37 "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 "Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

Revelation 11:1-13 NASB Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2 "Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. 3 "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. 6 These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. 7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. 8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. 12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Ezekiel 7:1-9 NASB Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 "And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel, 'An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land. 3 'Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and bring all your abominations upon you. 4 'For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will know that I am the LORD!' 5 "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'A disaster, unique disaster, behold it is coming! 6 'An end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you; behold, it has come! 7 'Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near--tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains. 8 'Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you; judge you according to your ways and bring on you all your abominations. 9 'My eye will show no pity nor will I spare. I will repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the LORD, do the smiting.

Ezekiel 7:14-20 NASB 'They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all their multitude. 15 'The sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also consume those in the city. 16 'Even when their survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each over his own iniquity. 17 'All hands will hang limp and all knees will become like water. 18 'They will gird themselves with sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces and baldness on all their heads. 19 'They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling. 20 'They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.

Ezekiel 7:25-27 NASB 'When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. 26 'Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders. 27 'The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the LORD.'"

Ezekiel 38:14-23 NASB "Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? 15 "You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army; 16 and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog." 17 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? 18 "It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," declares the Lord GOD, "that My fury will mount up in My anger. 19 "In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 "The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 "I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains," declares the Lord GOD. "Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22 "With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone. 23 "I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the LORD."'

Ezekiel 39:1-7 NASB "And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal; 2 and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3 "I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand. 4 "You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. 5 "You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken," declares the Lord GOD. 6 "And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the LORD. 7 "My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

Ezekiel 39:17-22 NASB "As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, "Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. 18 "You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 "So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 20 "You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war," declares the Lord GOD. 21 "And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. 22 "And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward.

Ezekiel 39:25-29 NASB Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. 26 "They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. 27 "When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. 28 "Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. 29 "I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.

Isaiah 2:1-5 NASB The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. 5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Isaiah 9:2-7 NASB The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. 3 You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. 5 For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. 6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

Isaiah 65:17-25 NASB "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. 18 "But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. 19 "I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. 20 "No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Will be thought accursed. 21 "They will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 "They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. 23 "They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them. 24 "It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 "The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.

Netanyahu will Try to Rebuild the Jewish Temple

by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) Sheikh Raad Salah, leader of the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, believes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will try to rebuild the Jewish Temple.

Speaking at a conference organized by website Islam Online in Doha, Qatar, Salah stated his belief that Netanyahu may try to build the Jewish Temple – which the Islamic preacher called “the false temple” – during his current term after allegedly failing to do so in his first term as Prime Minister in the late 1990s.

“I ask that those with the power to make the political decision hear me,” Salah exhorted his audience. “Netanyahu is about to build the false Temple, and when the Jews build the Temple they will do so upon the ruins of the Al-Aqsa [Mosque].”

Immediate danger
The danger to Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque is “tangible and immediate,” Salah said, echoing similar dramatic statements he has made over the years. “I warn, I ask for aid and I call out,” he said. “We should expect deadly surprises that could hurt Jerusalem in general and Al Aqsa in particular,” he said. “We live in years that will determine if Jerusalem survives and in Al Aqsa will remain standing,” he added.

Salah said that in an effort to prepare world opinion for the realization of its goals in Jerusalem, Israel sends tourists to the Al Aqsa mosque and tells them that it was built upon the ruins of the Jewish Temple.

The solution to “the threat against Jerusalem,” according to Salah, is a complete mobilization of the Arab world, including the religious imams, who need to act and “recruit the masses.” He asked Muslim scholars to pronounce edicts that will force “the Muslim nation and its leaders to confront their duty towards the problem of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa.”

“A thousand politicians can talk without changing a thing,” Salah said. ‘One religious sage can do what the politicians cannot carry out."

The Jewish Temple was first built by King Solomon (Shlomo) about 3,000 years ago. It served as the spiritual center of the Hebrew nation and as a place of national pilgrimage and sacrifice. Serviced by the priestly class (Kohanim) and Levites, the Temple contained the Seven-Branched Menorah and housed the golden Holy Ark within a room known as the Holy of Holies.

Coming soon: the Third Temple
The First Temple was razed by Babylonian conquerors, rebuilt by Jews by permission of a Persian emperor, defiled by Greeks and then re-consecrated by the Hasmoneans, and burnt down again by Romans.

Jewish religion commands the Jews to rebuild the Temple as part of a Divine plan for the salvation of the Jewish people and the entire world, but Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is not considered observant, never has associated himself with efforts by Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

Netanyahu will Try to Rebuild the Jewish Temple (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131578)

Netanyahu backs an independent Palestinian state for first time
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
Sunday 14 June 2009

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, last night said for the first time he would accept an independent Palestinian state, but only on condition it was demilitarised and that the Palestinians recognised Israel as the state of the Jewish people.

In a key policy speech intended to address growing US pressure for a move towards peace in the Middle East, Netanyahu defended Israel's position and said he wanted to make peace, but despite his mention of a Palestinian state he offered few substantial concessions.

He praised the Jewish settlers who live in east Jerusalem and on the occupied West Bank and refused US calls for a halt to all settlement growth. He also said Palestinian refugees, who were forced out or fled from their homes during the 1948 war, would not be allowed to return to what is today Israel. Jerusalem, he said, must remain united under Israeli control.

"If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarisation and Israel's security needs, and if the Palestinians recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people, we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarised Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu told an audience at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

His conditions were strict. He said the Palestinians could not form an army or control their own airspace, or sign military agreements with other states. He mentioned a Palestinian state only once and at other times talked only of areas under Palestinian control, saying the Palestinians could have their own "flag, anthem and administration".

Netanyahu said he would meet any Arab leader to talk about peace and called on the Palestinians to immediately restart peace talks. However a spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, rejected his offer. "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions," said Nabil Abu Rdainah. "This will not lead to complete and just peace; will not lead to a solution."

He noted particularly the rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and the refusal to allow east Jerusalem to be a capital for a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu's speech comes just days after Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world in Cairo. Obama's words for Israel then were clear, calling for a "stop" to Israel's settlement project. Nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, even though settlements on occupied land are regarded as illegal under international law. Obama himself said the settlements undermined peace efforts, and noted that the Palestinians had a "legitimate" aspiration for a state of their own. However last night, Washington said Netanyahu's speech was "an important step forward", because of the mention of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu said he did not intend to expand the settlements or build new ones, but would allow "normal lives" to continue. This is widely taken to mean that building will continue to accommodate the growth of families, even though this so-called natural growth was to have been frozen under the 2003 US road map for peace. He said Israeli withdrawals from land they had occupied had not brought peace.

He had supportive words for the settlers themselves. "Settlers are neither the enemies of the people, nor of peace," he said. "They are our brothers and sisters. They are Zionists. They have values."

He also challenged assumptions about the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, insisting it was not down to Israel's military occupation. "The simple truth is that the root of this conflict has been, and still is, the refusal to accept the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own," he said. Palestinian refugees would not be allowed back to Israel. "The refugee problem will find its solution outside the borders of Israel," he said.

Netanyahu said it was a "fundamental condition" to end the conflict that the Palestinians accept Israel as the state of the Jewish people.

In 1988 the Palestine Liberation Organisation, as representative of the Palestinian people, formally recognised Israel, but Palestinian leaders have been reluctant to accept the idea of Israel as a Jewish state because it implies giving up the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and leaves unacknowledged the presence of Israel's Arab citizens, who comprise 20% of the population.

In the end, the international community will look for changes in Israeli actions on the ground in the West Bank. Some shacks in a small number of the most distant settlement outposts have been taken down in recent days, and some Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank have been lifted. But settlement activity continues.

Netanyahu backs an independent Palestinian state for first time (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/14/binyamin-netanyahu-israel-palestinian-state)

Gush Etzion Residents: Keep Carter Out of Our Towns
Sivan 27, 5769 / June 19, '09
by David Lev

(IsraelNN.com) Three days after declaring that “Mideast peace is impossible without Hamas,” and a day after receiving one of the highest awards bestowed by the Palestinian Authority, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is set to visit Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion on Sunday – and residents say they are very unhappy with the visit, to say the least.

In a letter, a grassroots residents' committee urged residents to contact Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shaul Goldstein, whose home Carter is supposed to visit Sunday, and express their disapproval of the meeting. Several petitions are being circulated condemning the visit.

The committee's letter said that the former U.S. president, known for his hostitlity towards Israel, was trying to put on a guise of “even-handedness” in visiting a town in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), but “Carter is unfair and is far from being objective."

“Carter has always, and will always, speak up and defend those who wish to destroy the State of Israel. He pushes an anti-Israel agenda, while presenting himself as a good-willed broker who seeks peace and is ready to listen to 'both sides.' This makes him all the more dangerous,” the letter added.

Slanderous statements
American Jews are less naïve about Carter, the committee's letter says. Quoting several articles by prominent American attorney Alan Dershowitz on the subject of Carter, the letter lists the former president's numerous anti-Israel writings and stances:

- Carter's Atlanta-based research center is funded by Arab and anti-Semitic elements. The center has received a one million dollar donation from the Bin Laden family, among others.

- While Carter professes to be an advocate for human rights, he is in truth an advocate only for Arab rights, ignoring the real suffering of hundreds of millions in China, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran.

- In his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” Carter makes numerous slanderous statements against Jews, and mangles the history of the land of Israel, claiming erroneously that Christians and Arabs have inhabited the land since Roman times. Meanwhile, he completely ignores the continuous Jewish residency in the land for the past 2,000 years.

- His book also blames Israel for the mideast conflict, ignoring the fact that Israel proposed and agreed to many diplomatic compromises in an attempt to forge a peace treaty. In response to criticism of his book, Carter responded with the charge that “any voice that does not agree with Israel is immediately forced to shut up.”

'In love' with the Palestinians
The letter says that Carter long ago crossed the line, and that “he is a clear supporter of our enemies. Now he is attempting to present himself as an 'honest broker.' We cannot allow ourselves to be the instruments of his rehabilitation. We must tell him: 'You are working against the Jewish nation in its land, and you cannot be an honest broker.'”

Receiving the Palestinian Authority's International Award for Excellence and Creativity on Saturday, Carter said in Ramallah that he has “been in love with the Palestinian people for many years. I have two great-grandsons that are rapidly learning about the people here and the anguish and suffering and deprivation of human rights that you have experienced ever since 1948," he said. Adding that he supported fully President Barack Obama's call for a freeze in construction in communities in Judea and Samaria, Carter said that "in the future, I am sure, he will call for the dismantling of the settlements that exist."

Gush Etzion Residents: Keep Carter Out of Our Towns (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131843)

Israel's military planning for a multi-front war
June 16, 2009

TEL AVIV — Israel's military has intensified coordination between the army and air force to conduct simultaneous operations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Officials said the effort reflects an assessment that Israel's next war would include such adversaries as Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria.

"The Israeli military's future operations will be broader and more demanding in terms of their scope and pace, with more risks than Operation Cast Lead," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

Operation Cast Lead marked the Israeli military attack on the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. The 22-day war spanned December 2008 and January 2009.

In an address to Israeli military officers on June 9, Barak envisioned a war with far greater Israeli casualties than that against Hamas. The minister said the next war would take place under more difficult conditions than the Israeli air, naval and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, a flat area of 360 square kilometers.

"The country will have many challenges, but what matters is the resiliency of the Israel Defense Forces and its ability to come out on top in every battle," Barak said.

"You must not delude yourselves. During combat things have a tendency to go wrong and, in the end, the completion of the mission is measured by bravery and determination."

On June 9, the military demonstrated interservice interoperability in an exercise in southern Israel. The exercise combined infantry, engineering, armored, artillery and the air force.

"This demonstrated various combat techniques used to break through complex ground obstacles and techniques for combat in built-up areas," a military statement said. "This demonstration included a presentation of the relevant logistical and medical support used during combat."

Officials said the military has intensified training, particularly in urban areas. They said the military-led Turning Point-3 civil defense exercise, held in late May, envisioned missile strikes on Israel from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

"We are faced with many challenges from distant lands through nations that share a border with us, threats from conventional weapons and threats from those who are trying to attain unconventional abilities," Israeli Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Dan Harel said.

Harel said the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip demonstrated interoperability between the air force and army. The general said the army and air force would develop air combat support tactics on the level of battalion.

"These tactics enable the combat plans intended to assist the different brigades on the battlefield," Harel said. "In the future, these tactics will also be implemented on the battalion level. The information regarding aerial attacks will be transferred directly to the combat planes from the situation room of the brigade commander by the aerial assistance officer, who acts as representative of the Israel Air Force."

The augmented exercise training schedule was ordered in wake of the Israeli war with Hizbullah in 2006. The military was said to have performed poorly in ground operations against Hizbullah commandos and rocket launches.

"Today I can say that the IDF has learned the lessons of the war, has implemented them, and is now a stronger army -- more adept and more qualified to deal with the substantial security challenges that face us today," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who also addressed the officers, said.

On June 15, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi convened senior officers for a review of the war in the Gaza Strip. Ashkenazi said the anti-Hamas campaign drew on lessons from the Hizbullah war, with successes attributed to preparation by the standing army and reserves.

"Being prepared for war is the IDF's constant mission, and we must be prepared to our utmost ability," Ashkenazi said. "The conclusions of this operation are not only relevant in the southern front, and they must be implemented in a general work plan."

Israel's military planning for a multi-front war (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2009/me_israel0475_06_16.asp)

Israel shows off new military technology

jpost.com

A hovercraft designed to evacuate wounded soldiers from an urban battlefield, an unmanned helicopter and a kamikaze drone will be unveiled to the public on Monday at Israel's official pavilion at the 48th Paris Air Show.

Twelve Israeli companies - including Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, Urban Aeronautics and Elbit Systems - will present their wares at the Israeli national pavilion, which cost over NIS 6 million to erect at the Le Bourget expo center.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak flew to Paris on Sunday to attend the opening.

One new platform that will be on display is the MULE medical evacuation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) under development by Urban Aeronautics, based in Yavne.

The IDF has expressed interest in the MULE, which the company has said is capable of delivering supplies and ferrying casualties within a battle zone. The MULE can carry approximately 317 kilograms over an 80-kilometer radius. The speed of the MULE is expected to be in the range of 100 knots, with a maximum operating altitude of 3,660 meters.

Another UAV slated to be unveiled on Monday is the Picador, an unmanned helicopter developed by Aeronautics Defense Systems. The Picador has already made its first flight test and is designed for naval and land-based operations. It has a range of 200 km. and is reportedly capable of carrying a 180-kg. payload.

Another drone on display is the HAROP loitering munition, a self-destructing drone that can be used to detect and destroy missile launchers, anti-aircraft systems and naval craft. Developed by IAI, the HAROP can be launched from various platforms.

Rather than carrying a separate missile or warhead, the HAROP drone itself is the weapon and is designed to be a hunter and killer by loitering above a battlefield and attacking targets. It was specifically designed to suppress enemy air defense systems.

IAI recently signed a $100 million contract to supply the HAROP to a foreign customer, reportedly India.

"This is a state-of-the-art loitering munition system which features accurate detection capabilities and minimizes collateral damage to the surrounding area," IAI CEO Itzhak Nissan said.

In related news, Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel has decided to purchase the Iron Fist active-protection system developed by Israel Military Industries for the army's new "Namer" armored personnel carriers (APC). Currently in its final development stages, the Iron Fist is capable of intercepting and destroying a wide range of anti-tank missiles, from old RPGs and standard tank shells to the Russian-made advanced missiles in Hizbullah's and Syria's arsenals.

The Iron Fist consists of a radar and passive optical system that detects incoming threats and destroys them within a fraction of a second using a combustible blast interceptor. Unlike similar active-protection systems, which fire off a large number of projectiles, the Iron Fist intercepts incoming threats by using a rocket the shape of a mortar shell. The rocket destroys the threat with a blast that crushes its soft components or deflects the missile or kinetic projectile in flight.

Who will authorize the rebuilding of the Third Temple - The Islamic Mahdi, The Sanhedrin or A Prophet?

jpost.com

A new Jewish interfaith initiative launched last week argues building the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem would not necessitate the destruction of the Dome of the Rock.

"God's Holy Mountain Vision" project hopes to defuse religious strife by showing that Jews' end-of-days vision could harmoniously accommodate Islam's present architectural hegemony on the Temple Mount.

"This vision of religious shrines in peaceful proximity can transform the Temple Mount from a place of contention to its original sacred role as a place of worship shared by Jews, Muslims and Christians," said Yoav Frankel, director of the initiative.

The Interfaith Encounter Association at the Mishkenot Sha'ananim's Konrad Adenauer Conference Center in Jerusalem is sponsoring the program, which includes interfaith study and other educational projects.

According to Islamic tradition, the Dome of the Rock, built in 691, marks the spot where Muhammed ascended to Heaven.

But according to Jewish tradition, Mount Moriah, now under the Dome of the Rock, is where the Temple's Holy of Holies was situated.

Until now Jewish tradition has assumed that destruction of the Dome of the Rock was a precondition for the building of the third and last Temple.

However, in an article that appeared in 2007 in Tehumin, an influential journal of Jewish law, Frankel, a young scholar, presented a different option.

His main argument is that Jewish doctrine regarding the rebuilding of the Temple emphasizes the role of a prophet.

This prophet would have extraordinary authority, including the discretion to specify the Temple's precise location, regardless of any diverging Jewish traditions.

Frankel considers the scenario of a holy revelation given to an authentic prophet that the Temple be rebuilt on the current or an extended Temple Mount in peaceful proximity to the dome and other houses of prayer such as the Aksa Mosque and nearby Christian shrines.

However, both Muslims and Jews have expressed opposition to the initiative.

Sheikh Abdulla Nimar Darwish, founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said it was pointless to talk about what would happen when the mahdi, the Muslim equivalent of the messiah, would reveal himself.

"Why are we taking upon ourselves the responsibility to decide such things?" Darwish said in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post. "Even Jews believe that it is prohibited to rebuild the Temple until the messiah comes. So what is there to talk about.

"The mahdi will decide whether or not to rebuild the Temple. If he decides that it should be rebuilt, I will go out to the Temple Mount and help carry the rocks."

Darwish warned against any attempt to rebuild the Temple before the coming of the mahdi.

"As long as there is a Muslim alive, no Jewish Temple will be built on Al-Haram Al-Sharif [the Temple Mount]. The status quo must be maintained, otherwise there will be bloodshed."

In contrast, Baruch Ben-Yosef, chairman of the Movement to Restore the Temple, made it clear that the Temple had to be built where the Dome of the Rock presently stands.

"Anybody who says anything else simply does not know what he is talking about," he said. "A prophet does not have the power to change the law which explicitly states the location of the Temple."

Ben-Yosef also rejected the idea that rebuilding of the Temple had to be done by a prophet.

"All you need is a Sanhedrin," he said.

Mainstream Orthodox rabbis have opposed attempts to rebuild the Temple since the Mount came under Israeli control in 1967.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel even issued a decree prohibiting Jews from entering the area due to ritual purity issues.

However, several grassroots organizations such as the Movement to Restore the Temple, and maverick rabbis, including Rabbi Israel Ariel, head of the capital's Temple Institute and a leading member of the revived Sanhedrin led by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, have called to take steps to renew the sacrifices on the Temple Mount and rebuild the Temple.

Israel to purchase F-35 stealth fighter jet - one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world

jpost.com

A deal is close to completion for the purchase of the F-35 stealth fighter jet after the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon recently reached understandings on a number of IAF demands to integrate Israeli technology into the plane.

The apparent breakthrough was made following a series of visits to Washington recently by OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan and IAF Equipment and Procurement head Brig.-Gen. Kobi Bortman. Last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with top officials from Lockheed Martin - the F-35 manufacturer - on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show.

Also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the F-35 will be one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world and will enable Israel to phase out some of its older F-15 and F-16 models.

According to senior IDF officers, the Defense Ministry and Pentagon have reached understandings on most of the major issues at the core of disagreement between the parties.

"There is understanding today on the main basic issues," explained one top officer.

As first reported in The Jerusalem Post, the IAF demands focused on three issues - the integration of Israeli electronic warfare systems into the plane, the integration of Israeli communication systems, and the ability to independently maintain the plane in the event of a technical or structural problem.

According to top officials involved in the deal, the Americans have given their consent and will grant Israel independent maintenance capabilities.

One of the US's main concerns regarding the installation of Israeli systems was that it would require configurations to the jet's internal computer system and expose top-secret technology to Israel.

In the recent round of talks, however, the Israeli side presented the Americans with a proposal of how to bypass the computer mainframe when installing the systems. The sides have yet to agree on a final price.

Israel has argued that due to operational requirements, it needs to have the ability to repair damaged or broken computer systems in "real time" and cannot wait for a computer system to be sent to Europe for repairs in the middle of a war.

Negotiations on the integration of Israeli technology began several years ago after Israel paid $20 million to receive the low-level status of a Security Cooperation Participant in the JSF program. Nine countries - including the US, Britain, Turkey and Australia - are full members of the JSF program.

If the sides reach a complete understanding, as expected, the IAF plans to issue an official letter of request for the plane in the coming weeks. The letter will be followed by the signing of a contract in 2010.

The first stage of the deal will be the purchase of 25 aircraft, which will comprise the first Israeli F-35 squadron. According to Lockheed Martin, if the letter of request is issued this year, delivery of the planes will begin in 2014.

Israel Prepares F-15 Jets for Long Range Attack

israelnationalnews.com

The Israel Air Force’s F-15 fleet is undergoing an upgrade, with systems that make it better equipped for complex long distance attack scenarios. The systems are being installed in both the F-15 and the F-15I -- a model of the F-15 that was developed by its U.S. manufacturer specifically for the IAF.

According to IDF journal BaMachaneh, the F-15I model is currently being fitted with two new systems – one called “Barad Pelada” (“Steel Hail”), and another named Lightning.

The Barad Pelada advanced weapons system has been operational in the IAF’s F-16s for almost four years, but had to be modified in order to fit the F-15.

Barad Pelada is an advanced Israeli armament that operates like a smart bomb. “The system is unique in that it is able to plan the bombing in an accurate way by identifying the target from above,” a knowledgeable source in the IAF explained. “After the identification, the system carries out guidance to the target and only then is impact made.”

The Lightning advanced attack system has also been in use in the IAF’s other jets. Until now, the F-15I jets had to rely on the older Inbar system, which used to be fitted in all of the IAF’s jets but was gradually phased out.

The Inbar system is capable of providing an operational solution in some ranges, but other attack scenarios require advanced systems like the Lightning, IAF sources said. “The need for the new system led to an accelerated procedure of development of advanced means,” a source in the IAF’s Weapons Department explained. “Once the testing at the Flight Experiment Center is finished, we will complete the system’s integration in the aircraft.”

For the time being, however, the F-15I jets will not part with the older Inbar systems. “From now on, the aircraft will enjoy a combination of both attack systems and will enjoy a meaningful advantage in their operational activity,” the sources said.

The F-15 jets, meanwhile, recently received a new weapon system named “Barad Kaved” (“Heavy Hail”) and used it for the first time during operation “Cast Lead” in Gaza in early 2009. IAF sources said the use was a success. The F-15 fighters used Barad Kaved in attacks with zero malfunctions, and “we are very pleased with its performance in the operation,” the sources said.

“The reelection of Iran’s president, his grave utterances regarding his will to harm the state of Israel and Iran’s continual effort to achieve unconventional weapons require us to maintain an army that is coiled and ready to spring into action, and an Air Force that is skilled and sharp as a razor, that will stand up to any enemy and remove any threat from our citizens and residents,“ IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Thursday in an IAF ceremony for new pilots at the Hatzerim Air Force Base.

Israelis eye cyberwar on Iran

alertnet.org/

In the late 1990s, a computer specialist from Israel's Shin Bet internal security service hacked into the mainframe of the Pi Glilot fuel depot north of Tel Aviv.

It was meant to be a routine test of safeguards at the strategic site. But it also tipped off the Israelis to the potential such hi-tech infiltrations offered for real sabotage.

"Once inside the Pi Glilot system, we suddenly realised that, aside from accessing secret data, we could also set off deliberate explosions, just by programming a re-route of the pipelines," said a veteran of the Shin Bet drill.

So began a cyberwarfare project which, a decade on, is seen by independent experts as the likely new vanguard of Israel's efforts to foil the nuclear ambitions of its arch-foe Iran.

The appeal of cyber attacks was boosted, Israeli sources say, by the limited feasibility of conventional air strikes on the distant and fortified Iranian atomic facilities, and by U.S. reluctance to countenance another open war in the Middle East. "We came to the conclusion that, for our purposes, a key Iranian vulnerability is in its on-line information," said one recently retired Israeli security cabinet member, using a generic term for digital networks. "We have acted accordingly."

Cyberwarfare teams nestle deep within Israel's spy agencies, which have rich experience in traditional sabotage techniques and are cloaked in official secrecy and censorship.

They can draw on the know-how of Israeli commercial firms that are among the world's hi-tech leaders and whose staff are often veterans of elite military intelligence computer units.

"To judge by my interaction with Israeli experts in various international forums, Israel can definitely be assumed to have advanced cyber-attack capabilities," said Scott Borg, director of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, which advises various Washington agencies on cyber security.

Technolytics Institute, an American consultancy, last year rated Israel the sixth-biggest "cyber warfare threat", after China, Russia, Iran, France and "extremist/terrorist groups".

The United States is in the process of setting up a "Cyber Command" to oversee Pentagon operations, though officials have described its mandate as protective, rather than offensive.

CORRUPT, CRASH

Asked to speculate about how Israel might target Iran, Borg said malware -- a commonly used abbreviation for "malicious software" -- could be inserted to corrupt, commandeer or crash the controls of sensitive sites like uranium enrichment plants.

Such attacks could be immediate, he said. Or they might be latent, with the malware loitering unseen and awaiting an external trigger, or pre-set to strike automatically when the infected facility reaches a more critical level of activity. As Iran's nuclear assets would probably be isolated from outside computers, hackers would be unable to access them directly, Borg said. Israeli agents would have to conceal the malware in software used by the Iranians or discreetly plant it on portable hardware brought in, unknowingly, by technicians.

"A contaminated USB stick would be enough," Borg said.

Ali Ashtari, an Iranian businessman executed as an Israeli spy last year, was convicted of supplying tainted communications equipment for one of Iran's secret military projects.

Iranian media quoted a security official as saying that Ashtari's actions "led to the defeat of the project with irreversible damage". Israel declined all comment on the case.

"Cyberwar has the advantage of being clandestine and deniable," Borg said, noting Israel's considerations in the face of an Iranian nuclear programme that Tehran insists is peaceful.

"But its effectiveness is hard to gauge, because the targeted network can often conceal the extent of damage or even fake the symptoms of damage. Military strikes, by contrast, have an instantly quantifiable physical effect."

Israel may be open to a more overt strain of cyberwarfare. Tony Skinner of Jane's Defence Weekly cited Israeli sources as saying that Israel's 2007 bombing of an alleged atomic reactor in Syria was preceded by a cyber attack which neutralised ground radars and anti-aircraft batteries.

"State of War," a 2006 book by New York Times reporter James Risen, recounted a short-lived plan by the CIA and its Israeli counterpart Mossad to fry the power lines of an Iranian nuclear facility using a smuggled electromagnetic-pulse (EMP) device.

A massive, nation-wide EMP attack on Iran could be effected by detonating a nuclear device at atmospheric height. But while Israel is assumed to have the region's only atomic arms, most experts believe they would be used only in a war of last resort.

Terrorists to descend on Jesus' birthplace

wnd.com/

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization has decided to hold in the West Bank city of Bethlehem its first congress in 20 years.

Well-known terrorists and anti-Israel extremists are slated to descend upon the important Christian city, where, among other things, the Fatah party is set to vote on a clause that would affirm "resistance" against Israel, WND has learned.

The event will mark Fatah's sixth General Congress. At the meeting, hundreds of voting Fatah members will discuss the future of their party and pass official resolutions outlining Fatah's major objectives.

Abbas secured special permission from Israel to allow Fatah members to travel to Bethlehem from other West Bank towns and the Gaza Strip as well as from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

According to a list obtained by WND, the Fatah delegates slated to attend the Bethlehem event include such notable jihad supporters as:

Kamal Ranam, the chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group in Ramallah. Ranam is accused personally of carrying out recent shootings, attacks against Israeli forces operating in the Ramallah and a shooting attack in northern Samaria in December 2000 that killed the leader of the ultra-nationalist Kahane Chai organization, Benyamin Kahane. Ranam last year was granted amnesty by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as part of a gesture to bolster Abbas.

Jamal Abu Al-Rub, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from the Samarian village of Qabatya, just outside Jenin. Al-Rub is commonly known on the Palestinian street by his nickname, Hitler, for his routine public executions of Palestinians his group has suspected of collaborating with Israel. Al-Rub is accused by the Jewish state of planning several terror attacks.

Zacharia Zubeida, a former Al Aqsa Brigades terrorist leader from Jenin who was also pardoned by Olmert in 2007. Zubeida is accused of multiple terrorist attacks and for a time was one of Israel's most wanted terrorists.

Abu Mahar Ranam, a Fatah central committee member who openly opposes peace talks with Israel.

Sultan Abu al-Ainiin, Fatah's main representative in Lebanon. He is known for his excellent relations with the Hezbollah terrorist group.
Qadura Fares, a PA minister and member of the Fatah Legislative Council, explained to WND in a phone interview yesterday the goals of the Fatah congress:

"We have to check our political ideology. Many things happened in last 20 years since our last congress. We must renew and evaluate our internal laws, the structure of our movement and our messages for Palestinian unity. Lastly, we must elect a new leadership for Fatah institutions."

The new Congress also is set to vote on a resolution that would affirm the "armed struggle" and "resistance" against Israel as official Fatah doctrine, according to Fatah sources speaking to WND.

The Congress was last held in 1989 in Tunisia, prior to any Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. At the time, the Congress, led by late Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, officially resolved continuing "to intensify and escalate armed action and all forms of armed struggle to liquidate the Zionist occupation from our occupied Palestinian land and guarantee our people's rights to freedom and independence."

Israel had hoped under Abbas and amid intense negotiations that the Sixth Congress would moderate the party's objectives.

But senior Farah sources speaking to WND said a list of Fatah resolutions to be voted upon includes text affirming as one of Fatah's main objectives the "resistance" and "armed struggle" against the Jewish state.

The sources said Abbas and other senior Fatah officials opposed the inclusion of "resistance" in any resolution to be called for a vote but said that the majority of Fatah members insisted it be incorporated.

The sources said it was "very likely" the "resistance" clause could be accepted during the congressional meeting by the majority of general Fatah voters, who tend to publicly express more radical views than Abbas.

Fatah's Fares told WND that Bethlehem was selected because of the city's hotel space and because it boasts a meeting hall large enough to accommodate the Fatah congress.

The choice of Bethlehem, however, may be less than settling to the town's dwindling Christian population which at times has accuses Fatah of intimidation and persecution. Bethlehem is the site of the Church of the Nativity, which is built over a cave that is the believed birthplace of Jesus.

Bethlehem's Christian leaders, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said they face an atmosphere of regular hostility and intimidation by Muslims. They said Palestinian armed groups stir tension by holding militant demonstrations and marches in the streets. They spokes of instances in which Christian shopkeepers' stores were recently ransacked and Christian homes attacked.

In April, WND reported a Molotov cocktail and gunshots targeted the car of Bethlehem's Christian mayor as local leaders there quietly fingered Islamists for attempting to intimidate Christians in response to Passover festivities.

Christian leaders said one of the most significant problems facing Christians in Bethlehem is the rampant confiscation of land by Muslim gangs.

"There are many cases where Christians have their land stolen by the [Muslim] mafia," Samir Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem Christian leader and owner of the Beit Sahour-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station, told WND.

"It is a regular phenomenon in Bethlehem," Qumsiyeh said. "They go to a poor Christian person with a forged power of attorney document, then they say we have papers proving you're living on our land. If you confront them, many times the Christian is beaten. You can't do anything about it. The Christian loses and he runs away."

One Christian Bethlehem resident told WND her friend fled Bethlehem after being accused by Muslims of selling property to Jews, a crime punishable by death in some Palestinian cities.

A February 2007 Jerusalem Post article cited the case of Faud and Georgette Lama, Christian residents of Bethlehem who said their land was stolen by local Muslims and when they tried to do something about it, Faud was beaten by gunmen.

Bethlehem Christian leaders noted they cannot complain to local authorities since the city's security forces are controlled by the PA.

"What authorities?" asked one Christian leader, rhetorically. "You mean the security forces controlled by the Palestinian government, which is allowing this to happen?"

Qumsiyeh commented, "The gangs hide behind the security forces, and one cannot petition the court system. That takes years and many times a verdict isn't even reached."

Qumsiyeh himself has been targeted by local militias. Earlier this year, after speaking out publicly against anti-Christian violence, Qumsiyeh says his house was attacked with Molotov cocktails.

"It was an absolute miracle I wasn't killed," he said. "Also my wife was outside at the time. My home has a big gas line that could have exploded."

Aiman Abu Eita, Fatah's representative in Bethlehem claimed to WND that Christians were making up stories about persecution:

"Most of those Christians who left Bethlehem gave the impression of persecution just as an excuse to justify why they left Bethlehem," he said during an in-person interview.

Eita claimed a security "wall" that Israel constructed in 2002, which he said "circles the city," strangled Bethlehem's economy and prompted the mass fleeing of Christians.

But Israel did not build a wall that encircles Bethlehem. It built a fence only where the Bethlehem area interfaces with Jerusalem. A tiny segment of the barrier facing a major Israeli roadway is a concrete wall, which Israel says is meant to prevent gunmen from shooting at Israeli motorists. The barrier was built after repeated terror attacks launched from Bethlehem.

The vast majority of Bethlehem's Christian emigration occurred between 1995 and 2001, before Israel's barrier was constructed.

Bethlehem's population was more than 80 percent Christian when Israel was founded in 1948, but the Christians have declined to about 23 percent with a large majority of Muslims. The 23 percent Christian statistic is considered generous, since it includes the satellite towns of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala. Some estimates place Bethlehem's actual Christian population as low as 12 percent, with hundreds of Christians emigrating per year.

Israel controlled Bethlehem until 1995, when it signed the territory over to the PA as part of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Reports of Christian intimidation by Muslims immediately began to surface after the PA gained control.

Arafat also converted a Greek Orthodox monastery next to the Church of Nativity into his official Bethlehem residence.

Qumsiyeh told WND if current trends continue, there may be no Christians left in Bethlehem in 15 years. He said he appealed to U.S. Christian leaders to help initiate housing projects and find ways to fortify and strengthen Bethlehem's Christian population, but that little assistance was offered.

"The way things are, soon there will not be a single Christian living in the land of Jesus," he said.

Hizbullah's rise from the ashes

jpost.com/

They show up along the Lebanese border in Land Rovers. One time they'll roll down the window, lift a camera with a long lens and snap a few pictures of an IDF outpost on the other side of the border before driving away. Other times, they will get out and stroll along the border, right next to the UNIFIL and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) positions.

While the men don't wear Hizbullah uniforms, the IDF has no doubt that they belong to the Iranian-backed Shi'ite guerrilla group. On rare and lucky occasions, IDF cameras catch a face of a known Hizbullah operative.

These Hizbullah operatives are not alone. On some tours they take with them groups of foreigners, sometimes members of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

This is the reality along the northern border three years after the Second Lebanon War - Hizbullah may not maintain overt military positions like it did before 2006, but it is still there, growing stronger by the day.

According to Israeli estimates, Hizbullah today has somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 rockets of various ranges that could reach from Kiryat Shmona in the North to Dimona in the South and the sensitive nuclear reactor nearby.

Since the war and the extensive damage caused to its infrastructure in Beirut and southern Lebanon, Hizbullah has been engrossed in rehabilitating its military wing. Today, its presence in southern Lebanon is mainly inside villages - Shi'ite and non-Shi'ite - not in the nature reserves where it was heavily deployed before the war.

Aircraft carrying weaponry for Hizbullah arrive in Beirut fairly frequently. Some of them originate in Iran and Syria, its main suppliers of weapons; others come directly from Eastern European countries that manufacture the anti-tank missiles and Katyusha rockets its forces depend on.

The IDF was surprised by Hizbullah's possession of the Chinese-made radar-guided C-802 that hit the Hanit missile ship in the beginning of the war, killing four sailors, so the current assessment in Military Intelligence is that "whatever Iran and Syria have, Hizbullah could have."

The operational impact is significant. In a future conflict, navy ships will likely have to patrol the Lebanese coast from greater distances than in the past; the IAF, which still flies over Lebanon to collect intelligence, flies at higher altitudes; and while Israel does not believe that Syria has transferred Scud missiles to Hizbullah, which could draw a preemptive strike, such a possibility is not far-fetched in the event of a new conflict.

"It is just a seven-hour drive from Damascus to the Hizbullah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley," explained one senior defense official.

During the war, the IDF was impressed by the command-and-control capabilities Hizbullah retained until the end of the war. This was demonstrated by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's ability to turn the rocket fire on and off, as he wished, even though he was deep inside a bunker somewhere in Lebanon.

Hizbullah is believed to have improved this capability and has worked to establish a semi-military framework for its forces. Instead of bases, it has a battalion-sized force, split into smaller units, deployed in villages. At the top are the regional commanders.

But while Hizbullah has taken on more characteristics of a conventional-looking military, it does not use traditional military jargon. This is in contrast to Hamas in the Gaza Strip which actually calls its battalion commanders "battalion commanders." Hizbullah stays away from the jargon to maintain a semblance of a resistance organization made up of freedom fighters.

Despite this, Hizbullah has encountered difficulty in filling its ranks since the war and according to updated Israeli estimates, is missing several hundred fighters as well as a significant number of platoon and company commanders.

One of the reasons Lebanese are not enlisting is their disappointment with Hizbullah, which had promised to rebuild people's homes that were destroyed during the fighting but never did.

While Nasrallah is still officially in charge, Iran is believed to have solidified its control over Hizbullah since the war because, to some extent, it blames Hizbullah for turning the spotlight on their relationship when it decided to kidnap IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser on July 12, 2006 and draw Israel into a war. Iran does not want to be surprised again, and it cannot be ruled out that Iran's control also manifests itself in its refusal to allow one person to replace Imad Mughniyeh, the Hizbullah military chief who was killed in a meticulously-planned car bombing - attributed by foreign reports to the Mossad - in the heart of Damascus in February 2008.

Mughniyeh was perceived to have too much power since he was in charge of Hizbullah's military arm, was the liaison to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and was also commander of its extensive international infrastructure and terror cells. So instead of appointing a single successor, the Iranians split up his responsibilities between a few people.

Hizbullah is still trying to avenge the assassination. According to foreign reports, it was behind a thwarted attempt earlier this year to attack the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan. The group has also tried using Palestinian proxies to launch attacks within Israel without success. This frustration, Israel fears, might lead to a decision to launch a retaliatory attack against the northern border.

In addition, assessments are that while Hizbullah is heavily deployed throughout southern Lebanon, its control over the territory is not as complete as it was from 2000, after the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon, until the war. One clear indication was provided during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip when a number of rockets were fired into the North from Lebanon. The perpetrators were fringe Palestinian groups which Hizbullah apparently does not control.

According to some assessments, Hizbullah was even taken by surprise by the rocket fire. This shows that the UNIFIL and LAF presence in the south are having an impact on its ability to maneuver.

Hizbullah's rehabilitation efforts have not been limited to its military wing; it has also invested tremendous resources in an effort to boost its political power as seen in the last month's Lebanese parliamentary elections. Contrary to widespread predictions, included some here, Hizbullah lost to the Western-backed anti-Syrian camp led by Sa'ad Hariri.

However, the possibility still exists that Hizbullah will join the new coalition and be able to influence policy. For that reason, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet on Sunday that "if Hizbullah joins the Lebanese government, then the Lebanese government is accepting responsibility for Hizbullah's actions, including its actions against Israel."

But according to assessments in Northern Command, Hizbullah was not really aiming to win the elections but to use them as a springboard for the next elections, four years from now.

If it joins Hariri's coalition, it will use its power to change the election system, which currently elects the parliament based on a multi-member constituency system, to increase its potential power base.

Northern Command also believes that the Hariri camp's victory was made possible by Lebanese frustration and public disappointment with Hizbullah and the devastation it brought upon the country during the war.

This lack of public support creates Hizbullah's continued identity crisis. On the one hand, it believes in the destruction of Israel and there comes a point when words need to be translated into action. On the other hand, Nasrallah is attracted to the possibility that he could one day take over the entire country in a democratic process, like Hamas did when it defeated Fatah in 2006. Another war with Israel could ruin those chances.

Pacific test will determine Arrow's ability to intercept Iranian missiles close to launch

debka.com/

In a few days, the Israeli anti-missile Arrow system will face the first real test, weather permitting, of its ability to knock out an Iranian Shehab-3 or Sejil II ballistic missile at the outset of its flight toward Israel, DEBKAfile's military sources report. The test will take place off central California's Pacific coast.

Lieut. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said Tuesday, July 14: “The test will allow Israel to measure its advanced Arrow 3 system against a target with a range of more than 620 miles (1,000 km), too long for previous Arrow test sites in the eastern Mediterranean.”

The test will try and engage a target not only upwards of 1,000 km distant but close to its launch.

Until now, our military sources report, Arrow tests have been restricted by the small area of the Mediterranean Sea, the heavy air and maritime traffic in and above it, and the location of the Israeli missile launch site at Palmahim, from which missile flight westward is limited to a few hundred kilometers and disallowed in any other direction.

None of its 16 test flights has exercised the full potential of the Arrow's operational range for intercepting the flight path of possible Iranian missile attack on Israel.

For this reason, the Israeli missile command described past tests as 100 percent successful, while the Americans rated their success "90 percent."

The Pacific test will be launched from a point between Point Mugu and Santa Barbara north-west of Los Angeles. It will test the Arrow in uninterrupted flight against a target in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The closest land to the site is Japan.

According to our military sources, this third Arrow exercise from a US site will also examine US-Israeli cooperation in missile interception in the event of an Iranian response to a possible Israeli strike at Iran's nuclear facilities or an Iranian pre-emptive missile attack on Israel.

General O'Reilly announced that this would be the first full test of the ability of the American and Israeli intercept systems to work together and "provides us the opportunity to have the Patriot system, the THAAD system and the Aegis system all interacting with the Arrow system so that we're demonstrating full interoperability as we execute this test."

The significance of this disclosure is that for the first time, the joint operational capabilities of the Israel-based missile intercept systems and the American missile-intercept systems stationed in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf will be tested.

The exercise will also examine cooperation between the Israeli anti-aircraft defenses and the American satellites' early warning devices for missile launches. The Israeli and US arrays are connected through the sophisticated FBX-T radar station positioned at Israel's Nevatim airbase in the Negev, which is operated by soldiers and technicians belonging to EUCOM, the US European theater command.

DEBKAfile's military sources report that the exercise will not feature full operation of the American intercept systems, nor will American intercept missiles be launched, except for their sensor assets. In other words, the diverse radar systems will be activated to simulate an American-Israeli response to a missile attack.

Israeli warships rehearse for Iran attack in Red Sea

timesonline.co.uk

Two Israeli missile class warships have sailed through the Suez Canal ten days after a submarine capable of launching a nuclear missile strike, in preparation for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The deployment into the Red Sea, confirmed by Israeli officials, was a clear signal that Israel was able to put its strike force within range of Iran at short notice. It came before long-range exercises by the Israeli air force in America later this month and the test of a missile defense shield at a US missile range in the Pacific Ocean.

Israel has strengthened ties with Arab nations who also fear a nuclear-armed Iran. In particular, relations with Egypt have grown increasingly strong this year over the “shared mutual distrust of Iran”, according to one Israeli diplomat. Israeli naval vessels would likely pass through the Suez Canal for an Iranian strike.

“This is preparation that should be taken seriously. Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran. These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats,” an Israeli defense official said.

It is believed that Israel’s missile-equipped submarines, and its fleet of advanced aircraft, could be used to strike at in excess of a dozen nuclear-related targets more than 800 miles from Israel.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, said that his Government explicitly allowed passage of Israeli vessels, and an Israeli admiral said that the drills were “run regularly with the full co-operation of the Egyptians.”

Two Israeli Saar class missile boats and a Dolphin class submarine have passed through Suez. Israel has six Dolphin-class submarines, three of which are widely believed to carry nuclear missiles.

Israel will also soon test an Arrow interceptor missile on a US missile range in the Pacific Ocean. The system is designed to defend Israel from ballistic missile attacks by Iran and Syria. Lieutenant-General Patrick O’Reilly, the director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, said that Israel would test against a target with a range of more than 630 miles (1,000km) — too long for previous Arrow test sites in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Israeli air force, meanwhile, will send F16C fighter jets to participate in exercises at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada this month. Israeli C130 Hercules transport aircraft will also compete in the Rodeo 2009 competition at McChord Air Force base in Washington.

“It is not by chance that Israel is drilling long-range maneuvers in a public way. This is not a secret operation. This is something that has been published and which will showcase Israel’s abilities,” said an Israeli defense official.

He added that in the past, Israel had run a number of covert long-range drills. A year ago, Israeli jets flew over Greece in one such drill, while in May, reports surfaced that Israeli air force aircraft were staging exercises over Gibraltar. An Israeli attack on a weapons convoy in Sudan bound for militants in the Gaza Strip earlier this year was also seen as a rehearsal for hitting moving convoys.

Solana calls for UN to impose deadline for Palestinian state

ynetnews.com/

European Union's foreign policy chief urges Security Council to set tangible deadline for formation of Palestinian state, endorse overall solution for issues of border parameters, refugees, control over Jerusalem; Israel says proposal 'undermines peace efforts'

Jerusalem dismissed Sunday evening European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana's call for the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if the Israelis and Palestinians have not reached agreement among themselves.

The Foreign Ministry released a statement saying "Resolutions 242 and 338 of the United Nations, the roadmap (peace plan) and agreements between Israel and the Palestinians all cautiously determine that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be reached through negotiations by the sides.

"Israel has declared its willingness for the immediate resumption of the peace talks with no preconditions. Any other approach, including one that calls for setting an artificial deadline for the negotiations, undermines the efforts to reach an agreement between (Israel and the Palestinian Authority)," the statement read.

Solana made his comments on Saturday at a lecture in London while Palestinian and Israeli peace talks remain stalled.

The Palestinians have said they will not revive peace talks unless there is a halt to Israel's settlement activities in the West Bank: "After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution," Solana said, adding this should include border parameters, refugees, control over the city of Jerusalem and security arrangements.

"It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims," Solana went on.

Advocating a return to Israel's borders before the 1967 war with Egypt, Syria and Jordan in which it took the West Bank, Solana said mediators should set a timetable for a peace agreement.

"If the parties are not able to stick to it (the timetable), then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table," He said. The EU, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, is part of the Quartet of Middle East Negotiators.

Israel to sacrifice settlements for world support of Iran Op?

jpost.com/

A deal taking shape between Israel and Western leaders will facilitate international support for an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities in exchange for concessions in peace negotiations with the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, The Times reported Thursday.

According to one British official quoted by the paper, such an understanding could allow an Israeli attack "within the year."

The report in the UK paper quoted unnamed diplomats as saying Israel was prepared to offer concessions on the formation of a Palestinian state as well as on its settlement policy and "issues" with Arab neighbors, in exchange for international backing for an Israeli operation in Iran.

"Israel has chosen to place the Iranian threat over its settlements," one senior European diplomat said.

According to the Times report, the passage of two Sa'ar 5-class Israeli Navy ships through the Suez Canal on Tuesday was a message to Iran and part of preparations being made by Israel for the possibility of a strike.

"This is preparation that should be taken seriously. Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran. These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats," an unnamed Israeli defense official was quoted by the paper as saying.

"It is not by chance that Israel is drilling long-range maneuvers in a public way. This is not a secret operation. This is something that has been published and which will showcase Israel's abilities," another defense official said.

The passage of the ships comes several weeks after a Dolphin-class submarine passed through the international waterway for the first time.

One of the ships, the INS Hanit, already crossed the canal in June, in what an Egyptian source said was the first time a large missile ship used the strategic waterway, which is the fastest route to get Israeli Navy vessels from the Mediterranean, where they are based, to the Red Sea and beyond.

The other ship to cross on Tuesday was the INS Eilat.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that under a long-standing treaty, warships can freely sail through Suez as long as they have no hostile intentions against the state that owns the canal. He declined to say whether the maneuver was aimed at sending a message, saying, "I don't want to analyze an issue that I am not fully aware of."

In the event of a conflict with Iran, and if Israel decided to involve its three Dolphin-class submarines - which according to foreign reports can fire nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and serve as a second-strike platform - the quickest route would be to sail them through the Suez Canal. Going through the canal would also be the only way to get to the Gulf of Oman without refueling.

Quote from: grammyluv on July 19, 2009, 12:51:43 PM

As my dad used to say, "Hold on to your hats! We're goin' over 35!" ;D ;D ;D

;D YES, I could make a joke about age, but I won't because you're a spring chicken compared to me. DW would probably ask you if that 35 mph was in a Stanley Steamer.

All kidding aside, the downhill speed of the world into evil is like a runaway train without brakes. In the midst of all this, it's amazing how little attention is shown to the Holy Bible. The details are there about what's happening and what's about to happen. It's also sad that many Christians don't read the Bible enough to see or understand. The time is growing short, and there are important things to do. The most important thing is obviously sharing the Gospel of the Grace of God while we are still here. Regardless of how evil the world is getting, people are still accepting CHRIST.

Love In Christ,
Tom

2 Corinthians 4:1-18 ASV 1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not: 2 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish: 4 in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves; 8 we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; 9 pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; 10 always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you. 13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak; 14 knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God. 16 Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

It’s Crunch Time for Israel on Iran - no surprise if Israel strikes by year’s end

online.wsj

Legions of senior American officials have descended on Jerusalem recently, but the most important of them has been Defense Secretary Robert Gates. His central objective was to dissuade Israel from carrying out military strikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities. Under the guise of counseling “patience,” Mr. Gates again conveyed President Barack Obama’s emphatic thumbs down on military force.

The public outcome of Mr. Gates’s visit appeared polite but inconclusive. Yet Iran’s progress with nuclear weapons and air defenses means Israel’s military option is declining over time. It will have to make a decision soon, and it will be no surprise if Israel strikes by year’s end. Israel’s choice could determine whether Iran obtains nuclear weapons in the foreseeable future.

Mr. Obama’s approach to Tehran has been his “open hand,” yet his gesture has not only been ignored by Iran but deemed irrelevant as the country looks inward to resolve the aftermath of its fraudulent election. The hardliner “winner” of that election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was recently forced to fire a deputy who once said something vaguely soothing about Israel. Clearly, negotiations with the White House are not exactly topping the Iranian agenda.

Beyond that, Mr. Obama’s negotiation strategy faces insuperable time pressure. French President Nicolas Sarkozy proclaimed that Iran must re-start negotiations with the West by September’s G-20 summit. But this means little when, with each passing day, Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile laboratories, production facilities and military bases are all churning. Israel is focused on these facts, not the illusion of “tough” diplomacy.

Israel rejects another feature of Mr. Obama’s diplomatic stance. The Israelis do not believe that progress with the Palestinians will facilitate a deal on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Though Mr. Gates and others have pressed this fanciful analysis, Israel will not be moved.

Worse, Mr. Obama has no new strategic thinking on Iran. He vaguely promises to offer the country the carrot of diplomacy—followed by an empty threat of sanctions down the road if Iran does not comply with the U.S.’s requests. This is precisely the European Union’s approach, which has failed for over six years.

There’s no reason Iran would suddenly now bow to Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts, especially after its embarrassing election in June. So with diplomacy out the door, how will Iran be tamed?

Mr. Gates’ mission had extraordinary significance. Israel sees the political and military landscape in a very inauspicious light. It also worries that, once ensnared in negotiations, the Obama administration will find it very hard to extricate itself. The Israelis are probably right. To prove the success of his “open hand,” Mr. Obama will declare victory for “diplomacy” even if it means little to no gains on Iran’s nuclear program.

Under the worst-case scenario, Iran will continue improving its nuclear facilities and Mr. Obama will become the first U.S. president to tie the issue of Israel’s nuclear capabilities into negotiations about Iran’s.

Israel understands that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent commitment to extend the U.S. “defense umbrella” to Israel is not a guarantee of nuclear retaliation, and that it is wholly insufficient to deter Iran from obliterating Israel if it so decides. In fact, Mrs. Clinton’s comment tacitly concedes that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, exactly the wrong message. Since Israel, like the U.S., is well aware its missile defense system is imperfect, whatever Mr. Gates said about the “defense umbrella” will be politely ignored.

Relations between the U.S. and Israel are more strained now than at any time since the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. Mr. Gates’s message for Israel not to act on Iran, and the U.S. pressure he brought to bear, highlight the weight of Israel’s lonely burden.

Striking Iran’s nuclear program will not be precipitous or poorly thought out. Israel’s attack, if it happens, will have followed enormously difficult deliberation over terrible imponderables, and years of patiently waiting on innumerable failed diplomatic efforts. Absent Israeli action, prepare for a nuclear Iran.

Israel's border with Lebanon is currently at its most tense since the cease-fire which ended the war of 2006

.jpost

Israel's border with Lebanon is currently at its most tense since the cease-fire which ended the war of 2006. This tension has been brought on by the combination of a number of factors.

Ongoing internal political frictions in Lebanon and a series of recent setbacks suffered by the Iran-led regional bloc are both key elements contributing to the situation. Inflammatory rhetoric and orchestrated provocations by Hizbullah supporters in the south, against the ominous background of the movement's ongoing rearmament, are helping to ratchet up the uncertainty.

Coalition negotiations have been deadlocked in Lebanon in recent weeks. Hizbullah has conceded to the opposition's demand that its bloc receive only 15 ministerial portfolios (one less than the number required for a veto). This does not settle the matter, however. The focus now turns to efforts to ensure that at least one of the 'independent' ministers linked to President Suleiman is of a pro-Hizbullah orientation, ensuring the de facto continuation of the movement's power to block government decisions not to its liking.

Feeling itself under internal pressure, Hizbullah has sought once again to cast itself as the force of 'resistance' in Lebanon.

It was this role which originally propelled the movement from its status as a secondary, pro-Iranian Shia force to its current prominence. During the past several years, Hizbullah's problem has been finding issues which could justify its continued belligerent stance against Israel. The two matters on which it has chosen to focus are Israeli control of the Mount Dov (Shabaa Farms) area, and the matter of Lebanese citizens supposedly incarcerated in Israel. Both these issues are now once more being deliberately placed in the foreground.

It is worth remembering that the 2006 war was sparked by an attempt by Hizbullah to kidnap IDF soldiers in order to exchange them for Samir Kuntar and a number of other Lebanese jailed in Israel for involvement in terror. The attack in July 2006 was not the first attempt of this kind. Each was accompanied by a ratcheting up of rhetoric by the Hizbullah leadership, which sought to focus attention on the prisoners.

On July 17, Nasrallah gave a speech to mark the first anniversary of the release of Samir Kuntar and other Lebanese captives from Israeli custody. In the speech, he raised the issue of another supposed Lebanese 'prisoner' who, he claimed, remains in Israeli hands. The individual named, one Yahya Skaff, was killed while taking part in a Palestinian terror operation in Israel in 1978. It was long rumored in Lebanon that he was in fact alive and in Israeli custody. Skaff's remains were returned to Lebanon, but Hizbullah maintains that tests were unable to confirm the identity of the remains.

Nasrallah's speech suggests that the movement wants to inflate this issue so that it may serve as 'justification' for further aggression against Israel.

In addition, Hizbullah is turning up the temperature in the Mount Dov area. Against the backdrop of the explosion at Khirbat Silm, the movement has carried out a series of provocations - including a crossing into the Mount Dov area by Hizbullah-supporting civilians, who placed a movement banner and a Lebanese flag on an unmanned Israeli observation post in the Kafr Shuba hills.

The present escalation is taking place against the backdrop of Hizbullah's continued re-arming, both south and north of the Litani River. Israel is carefully monitoring this process. There are certain red lines beyond which Israel may consider some form of preventive action necessary, according to sources. These would include the acquisition and deployment by Hizbullah of an anti-aircraft capacity.

The situation on the northern border must be viewed through a regional prism, as well as a narrow Israeli-Lebanese one. The region remains divided between a bloc of states and movements aligned with Iran, which includes Hizbullah, and a de facto counter-alliance of pro-US states including Israel. Israel is the totemic enemy of the pro-Iranian bloc, which is committed to its destruction.

It has not been a good year for the pro-Iranian bloc. An important asset for the Iranians and their allies has been their sense of themselves as the 'sunrise' power in the region - the force of tomorrow. This perception had been aided by a string of achievements in the past few years. But 2009 has witnessed the cessation and partial reverse of this process - with a number of setbacks for Teheran and its various assets.

Israel's Gaza operation dented their sense that they had discovered a means of nullifying Israel's conventional advantage through the use of attrition and war against civilians. This setback was then followed by defeat for Iran's Lebanese clients in the June elections. Following this, the unrest after the rigged elections in Iran itself made a mockery of the Teheran-led bloc's claim to represent the regional popular will against its opponents. The charging of a number of Hizbullah activists, recently apprehended in Egypt, has added to the movement's woes.

Could this combination of local and regional frustrations be leading Hizbullah, creation and chief asset of the Iranians, down a road of dangerous brinkmanship - in an effort to recover some of its lost momentum and charisma?

What is clear is that the events sparked by the Khirbat Silm explosion have not yet run their course, the potential for miscalculation is very real, and hence further deterioration cannot be ruled out.

There will truly be wars and rumors of war until after the Second Coming of Christ, and tiny Israel will be the focus of attention for the entire world. We are even seeing our own country and some self-professing Christians turning against Israel. This is an intolerable error for Christians who should know better. Christians should know that Jesus Christ Himself is the Anointed King of Israel, and He will take His Throne in Jerusalem at His Appointed Time. Those who help Israel will be blessed, and those who come against Israel will be damned.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 122:1-9 KJV I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. 2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. 3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: 4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD. 5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. 7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. 8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. 9 Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.

Isaiah 2:1-5 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 4 And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

Isaiah 9:2-7 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of Midian. 5 For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

Israeli government braces for cuts in military aid as U.S. economy worsens

worldtribune

Israel's government has learned that the U.S. economy continues to worsen and is bracing for the prospect that President Barack Obama would significantly cut military aid.

"We are receiving reports that the American economy is getting worse and worse, and they're having trouble paying for basic programs," an official said. "This could quickly be used as a stick against foreign aid."

Officials said the Defense Ministry has held several meetings on the issue during 2009, the latest of which took place on July 21. They said the ministry, in consultation with the military, was examining the damage of any U.S. aid cutoff to the Jewish state.

"It's a very real possibility," an official said.

Officials said the ministry envisions several scenarios in which the Obama administration cuts U.S. military aid to Israel. They said the most likely option was that the Democratic-controlled Congress would ask Israel to agree to a significant cut to help the U.S. economy.

This scenario was expected to take place as early as October 2009, following the summer recess by Congress. Officials said members of the House and Senate could return from their districts armed with a mandate to cut U.S. foreign aid.

In 2009, the administration imposed restrictions on Israel's use of U.S. military aid. The Defense Department informed Israel that U.S. military aid must be used only for weapons and related systems rather than non-combat equipment. Over the last few years, the Israeli military has used U.S. aid to purchase uniforms and food.

Officials said Congress was also expected to cut U.S. military aid to other allies in the Middle East, with the possible exception of Jordan. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid, the second largest recipient of Washington.

Another scenario was that the administration presses for a U.S. aid cut to pressure the Jewish state to end its presence in the West Bank and establish a Palestinian state by 2012. Officials said the administration has already delayed several Israeli weapons requests submitted over the last year.

"There are signals that this is already happening," an official said. "Everything that Israel is asking for, even approved by Congress, is being delayed."

The Israeli Defense Ministry and military have already been examining substitutes for U.S. weapons and equipment, officials said. They said the ministry has determined that most of the U.S. equipment could be replaced, albeit with difficulty, by such suppliers as France and Russia.

"We turned down these offers because of our relationship with the United States," an official told the Jerusalem Post. "If that relationship changes we could always renew the partnership with France and other countries."

'Israel soon to be larger than Diaspora' for first time in 2000 years

jpost.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed a planeload of olim on Tuesday at Ben-Gurion Airport, telling them that "for the first time in 2,000 years, there are going to be more Jews in Israel than outside it."

Speaking to a terminal full of olim from the United States and Canada, who came with Nefesh B'Nefesh on the organization's 38th chartered aliya flight since the first one in July 2002, Netanyahu noted that Israel's Jewish population was nearing the six million mark.

It is hard to gauge the number of Jews in the Diaspora. In the largest community - America - the only effective tool is a telephone poll. Nevertheless, Diaspora Jewry is usually estimated at between six and seven million, though some demographers and scholars consider this figure low.

Netanyahu told the 238 new immigrants that aliya to the State of Israel had given the Jewish people "our ability to control our fate and our destiny."

In particular, he welcomed the "professionalism in work and the drive to excellence, and the antipathy to bureaucracy" which North American olim bring with them to the Jewish state. He called on the new Israelis to work to make Israel "the most advanced country in the world."

Tuesday's flight, carried out in conjunction with the Jewish Agency and the Interior and Immigrant Absorption ministries, contained a cross-section of American Jewish society, from religious to secular, from bearded rabbis to 55 young singles slated to join the IDF in the coming weeks.

The olim were greeted at the airport by scores of singing and dancing well-wishers, including delegations of Israeli youth movements, family members of the immigrants and public figures, ranging from Netanyahu, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and MK Uri Orbach to mayors from cities that will be receiving the olim, including Beit Shemesh and Modi'in.

Nefesh B'Nefesh co-founder Tony Gelbart noted in the ceremony that Israel "is the only country where the prime minister and heads of the government come to meet new immigrants."

North American aliya is expected to rise in 2009 due to the worldwide economic downturn, possibly passing the 4,000 mark. Nefesh B'Nefesh figures reveal that some 450 young olim will be arriving this year to serve in the IDF.

Later Tuesday, another 89 Nefesh B'Nefesh olim arrived on a different flight, this time from the UK.

According to Nefesh B'Nefesh, over 1,000 people from the UK have immigrated to Israel with its assistance since 2006, and this summer alone 150 people are "coming home" with the organization's help.

"We are extremely excited that aliya from the UK is on the rise - we're expecting 150 to 200 olim from the UK this summer," Nefesh B'Nefesh communications director Yael Katsman said. "Each and every oleh that comes to Israel serves as an inspiration to both people living in Israel as well as Jews living in the Diaspora. We are looking forward to helping more Jews from the UK fulfill their dreams of living in Israel."

Joshua Miller of London had actually lived in Israel for the past three years while learning in a yeshiva and serving in the IDF.

Miller, who entered Gaza with the Golani Brigade in Operation Cast Lead earlier this year, told The Jerusalem Post that his arrival seemed "a bit weird as I have been living here for the last three years, but it's still something amazing for me. It's a realization of a dream and it makes everything that I have done even more worth doing."

Miller's brother Emmanuel, also a recent immigrant, was at Ben-Gurion Airport to welcome his sibling and told the Post, "As olim, my brother and I will be receiving our university education free of charge from the Israeli government. Which other country provides and pays for its immigrants to go to college?"

Another oleh, Julian Maurer from North Hendon, is moving to Ramat Beit Shemesh with his wife Esther and their children.

"The most important thing is that my children move to Eretz Yisrael before high school," he said, adding "It's our homeland, people have fought and died for it, and so we have a responsibility to live here, even if that means leaving our comfort zone in England."

Israel and Egypt: Closer than expected
jpost

Israelis like to call it the "cold peace." Egyptians would rather not call it anything at all because that would be like admitting there's actually something there to name.

For years the exact extent of political and economic cooperation between the two neighbors has been a subject of hot-button speculation and the occasional press campaign in Cairo. The government of President Hosni Mubarak, whose predecessor Anwar Sadat signed the 1978 Camp David Accords, generally tries to keep the specifics of the two countries' relationship low-key, only admitting it when things become too obvious to deny.

"An Israeli is not the type of person that you want all your neighbors to know you're dating," chuckled Menachem Klein, a former Israeli negotiator and Bar-Ilan University political science professor.

Several years ago, a former Egyptian agriculture minister fended off a prolonged opposition media campaign calling him a secret normalizer for his ministry's working relationship with its Israeli counterpart.

Popular reaction was straight out of the movie Casablanca: people were shocked to discover something that most regional observers already saw as patently obvious. More recently, the local press has accused the government of selling natural gas to Israel for sweetheart prices.

EGYPTIANS IN general do know that there are extensive economic and agricultural ties with Israel, but prefer not to think too hard about it. (A personal example: when I first moved to Jerusalem in February 2008 as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, my Egyptian relatives were genuinely curious as to what route I used to visit Cairo. They honestly had no idea that there are multiple EgyptAir and El Al flights every week between Cairo and Tel Aviv.) But now, something seems to be changing in the usual don't ask/don't tell nature of the Egyptian-Israeli partnership. It's becoming harder for Cairo to hide the fact that its foreign policy interests are more in line with Tel Aviv than ever. The main source of common ground is a mutual desire to contain Iran's regional and nuclear ambitions.

Both governments have arrived at this place via different routes.

Israel fears an Iranian nuclear capability will challenge its own (nominally secret) nuclear arsenal and open the door to a devastating attack on the Jewish state. Egypt doesn't fear Iran militarily, but dreads the gradual expansion of revolutionary Shi'ite ideology into the Sunni sphere.

Egypt's own bilateral relations with Teheran are fraught with tension -partially stemming from Iran's insistence on glorifying Sadat's assassins. "The way Iran acts has actually pulled [Egypt and Israel] closer together," said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Israeli political analyst.

This common interest has already produced some interesting public displays of cooperation. Earlier this summer, an Israeli submarine passed through the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, touching off a weeklong media firestorm in Egypt. Israeli warships have traversed the canal for years, but this was the first submarine passage. The hype surrounding the event was only intensified by the fact that no one seems to know for sure the exact capabilities of the German-made Dolphin class sub.

Egyptian officials were generally tight-lipped, saying that the two countries have a peace treaty and the canal is open for all nations.

But Israeli media openly declared the passage a coordinated message aimed directly at Teheran. "They want Iran to realize that nothing is impossible," Javedanfar said. Does that include a scenario where Egypt actively assists an Israeli preemptive strike on Iran? Nobody is sure and Javedanfar says that is exactly how both governments want it.

THE SUBMARINE passage was far more than a symbolic show of cooperation. Usage of the Suez Canal would enable the Israeli navy to quickly get in position for a naval strike or blockade against Iranian ports. Without the canal, Israeli ships would have to make a weeks-long voyage around Africa in order to attack Iranian shores.

Emad Gad, an expert on Israeli policy with Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, warns not to read too much into the submarine incident. "There may be some Egyptian cooperation," with Israel, he says. "But it hasn't reached the level of joint planning." Gad believes Egypt's permitting the submarine to use the canal, "was more for the Americans than for the Israelis".

The two countries still have just as many points of conflict as they do areas of common interest. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains a sore spot, with each government seemingly pulling in opposite directions. Egypt has worked (unsuccessfully) for years to produce a reconciliation and unity government between Hamas and Fatah - something that Israel staunchly opposes.

Earlier this month, President Mubarak lobbied US President Barack Obama to push Israel for an immediate jump to final-status negotiations with the Palestinians. That would essentially be a direct repudiation of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's plan to delay final status talks for years while building up the economy and infrastructure of the occupied West Bank.

This Month May Determine If Israel Will Act Alone
latimes

Unless Tehran responds by late September to international proposals on its nuclear program, history strongly suggests the Israelis will act alone.

Iran has until late September to respond to the latest international proposal aimed at stopping the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. Under the proposal, Iran would suspend its uranium enrichment program in exchange for a U.N. Security Council commitment to forgo a fourth round of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

But if diplomacy fails, the world should be prepared for an Israeli attack on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons facilities. As Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently acknowledged: "The window between a strike on Iran and their getting nuclear weapons is a pretty narrow window."

If Israel attempts such a high-risk and destabilizing strike against Iran, President Obama will probably learn of the operation from CNN rather than the CIA. History shows that although Washington seeks influence over Israel's military operations, Israel would rather explain later than ask for approval in advance of launching preventive or preemptive attacks. Those hoping that the Obama administration will be able to pressure Israel to stand down from attacking Iran as diplomatic efforts drag on are mistaken.

The current infighting among Iran's leaders also has led some to incorrectly believe that Tehran's nuclear efforts will stall. As Friday's International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear programs revealed, throughout the political crises of the last three months, Iran's production rate for centrifuges has remained steady, as has its ability to produce uranium hexafluoride to feed into the centrifuges.

So let's consider four past Israeli military operations relevant to a possible strike against Iran.

In October 1956, Israel, Britain and France launched an ill-fated assault against Egypt to seize control of the Suez Canal. The day before, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles grilled Abba Eban, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., about Israel's military buildup on the border with Egypt, but Eban kept quiet about his country's plans.

In June 1967, Israel initiated the Six-Day War without notice to Washington, despite President Johnson's insistence that Israel maintain the status quo and consult with the U.S. before taking action. Only days before the war began, Johnson notified Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in a personal message: "Israel just must not take preemptive military action and thereby makes itself responsible for the initiation of hostilities."

On June 7, 1981, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak shortly before it was to be fueled to develop the capacity to make nuclear weapons-grade plutonium. Again, Washington was not informed in advance. President Reagan "condemned" the attack and "thought that there were other options that might have been considered."

A few days later, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told CBS News: "This attack will be a precedent for every future government in Israel. ... Every future Israeli prime minister will act, in similar circumstances, in the same way."

Begin's prediction proved true on Sept. 6, 2007, when Israeli aircraft destroyed what was believed to be a North Korean-supplied plutonium reactor in Al Kibar, Syria. Four months earlier, Israeli intelligence officials had provided damning evidence to the Bush administration about the reactor, and the Pentagon drew up plans to attack it. Ironically, according to New York Times reporter David Sanger, President Bush ultimately decided the U.S. could not bomb another country for allegedly possessing weapons of mass destruction. An administration official noted that Israel's attack went forward "without a green light from us. None was asked for, none was given."

These episodes demonstrate that if Israel decides that Iranian nuclear weapons are an existential threat, it will be deaf to entreaties from U.S. officials to refrain from using military force. Soon after the operation, Washington will express concern to Tel Aviv publicly and privately. The long-standing U.S.-Israeli relationship will remain as strong as ever with continued close diplomatic, economic, intelligence and military cooperation.

Should Tehran prove unwilling to meet the September deadline and bargain away its growing and latent nuclear weapon capability, we can expect an Israeli attack that does not require U.S. permission, or even a warning.

Poll shows surge of support for Israel in US

ynetnews

In stark contrast to the cable leaked last month by Israel's consul-general in Boston saying support for Israel in the US has declined, a recent poll for The Israel Project shows support has bounced back significantly after slipping in the aftermath of US President Barack Obama's Cairo speech.

The poll, conducted by Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies and Stan Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (GQRR), asked some 800 likely US voters the following question: "Thinking about the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East, please tell me whether, in general, you consider yourself to be an Israel supporter, Palestinian supporter, or neither/undecided."

Some 59 percent of the respondents said they were Israel supporters, compared to 8 percent for the Palestinians. The poll was conducted by telephone from August 22 to 25.

This was a considerable jump in support for Israel since June, following the US president's speech in Cairo, when the same question was asked by the same pollsters and Israel's support was only 49 percent.

The number of Americans who think America should support Israel over the Palestinians also increased considerably over the last two months, with 63 percent saying the US should support Israel, and 8% saying it should support the Palestinians. In June, that number was 44% for Israel, and 5% for the Palestinians.

In contrast to the June data, a majority of Americans now believe that Netanyahu's government is committed to reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians, while a majority do not believe either the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, or Hamas, are committed to peace with Israel.

According to the poll, 57% of the public believes Israel is committed to peace, and 39% said they do not think the government is committed to an agreement. In June that number was 46% saying Israel was committed to peace, and 39% saying it was not.

By contrast, only 36% of the respondents thought that the PA was committed to peace, and 30% believed Hams wanted an agreement.

In the poll Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu trailed Obama by only 3 points when the respondents asked whether they had a warm or cold attitude to a list of leaders. In this question, Obama received a score of 59, Netanyahu 56, Abbas 34 and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a score of 22.

In other survey findings, a majority of Americans disagree with Palestinian leaders' position not to start negotiations until Israel halts all construction on settlements. On the contrary, by a 72%-23% margin, Americans agree with Netanyahu's promise not to build any new settlements, while allowing Israel to accommodate for natural growth of existing settlements.

As a basis for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, fully 95% of Americans agree that Palestinians need to recognize Israel's right to exist and acknowledge its standing as a Jewish state.

Terrorists have a determination for war and killing innocent people. Sadly, they will achieve both in much greater intensity according to Bible Prophecy. Only Jesus Christ will be able to restore peace and order at His Second Coming. It will truly be a PEACE like the world has never known. Jesus Christ Himself will rule and reign over the earth from the Throne of David in Jerusalem. All will know that HE IS GOD.

Isaiah 2:1-5 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 4 And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

Isaiah 9:2-7 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of Midian. 5 For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

Ramadan Turning into Month of Jew-Hatred in the Muslim World

by David Lev

(IsraelNN.com)

In recent times, interest in the Palestinian question has been dwindling on the Arab street. Everything seems like old news on satellite channels and in the papers.
Muslim governments are taking advantage of the Ramadan TV season to broadcast anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda, some of it reminiscent of the Nazi propaganda that preceded the Holocaust.

With Muslims across the world fasting during the daylight hours and gathering at home for their daily "break of the fast" meal, Arab propaganda ministries take advantage of the large potential audiences for TV shows by broadcasting their top programs, with many shows produced specifically for Ramadan TV watchers. Programs about Israel and the Jewish people are considered top rating draws among Arab media, and each year government-controlled TV stations across the Middle East broadcast programs themed around the supposed treachery committed by Israel or the Jewish people against the Muslims and the world in general.

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors media broadcasts in the Arab world, Iran has this year been broadcasting a Syrian-produced series called "Al-Shatat," which purports to show how Jewish bankers – particularly the Rothschilds – came to dominate international banking, and thereby the world. With Jewish characters uttering lines like "all the nations that have accepted non-Jewish faiths should be destroyed and annihilated," and "we have been granted an unparalleled honor -- to dominate the world, by means of capital, knowledge, politics, by means of killing, or any other ploy," the 30-episode series has been shown in Arab countries throughout the Middle East, including Jordan.

Five anti-Israel shows in Egypt
No fewer than five new series being broadcast on Egyptian TV this year revolve around Israel and the Jews. One called "The Spy Wars" tells the story of Samia Fahmy, an Egyptian who was allegedly recruited by the Mossad, but instead "tricked" the Israelis who tried to recruit her and led them to be arrested by Egypt. Another series, called "My Heart is my Proof," tells the story of Jewish-born Egyptian singer Layla Murad, her rise to stardom, the accusations that she secretly supported Israel, and her subsequent fall from grace in much of the Arab world. Another program, "The Second Gate," tells of a mother whose son is kidnapped and taken to Israel.

Not all Egyptians were happy with the selection of programs. Speaking to Agence France-Presse, a student at Cairo University said that the shows about Israel and Jews were just smokescreens, shown "just to keep us occupied, so we don't have to think about the real problems of unemployment and poverty." Another student said "We can't find an enemy? Let's talk about Israel. We should be focusing on people's problems, poverty... and stop talking about Israel and spies. We need to focus on the real domestic issues."

In an interview, Mahmud Zaki, a media professor who stars in one of the series, said that the programs were designed to keep the Egyptian people's attention on Israel. "In recent times, interest in the Palestinian question has been dwindling on the Arab street. Everything seems like old news on satellite channels and in the papers. There was a move to revive interest in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and re-ignite patriotic feelings," he said.

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Ramadan Turning into Month of Jew-Hatred in the Muslim World

This is an amazing article that demonstrates the lies and distortions that will most definitely lead into the fulfillment of Bible Prophecy. Yes, tiny Israel will be the center stage for the entire world. It's becoming more obvious by the day that the world is determined to plunge itself into chaos and bloodshed like the world has never known. 75% of the earth's population will die, and it will end with the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus Christ will prove that He is GOD to the entire world, including Israel. Israel will not just survive - it will be restored and prosper. Jesus Christ is the Anointed King of Israel, and He will take what is His. No combination of powers will be able to stop Him, and He will rule over the world from the Throne of David in Jerusalem. Israel will occupy every square inch of the Promised Land, and the King of Kings will make a peace like the world has never known.

Isaiah 2:1-5 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 4 And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

Isaiah 9:2-7 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of Midian. 5 For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

Meet the next Palestinian leader and why it matters

jpost.com

Few subjects get written about more often - and inaccurately - than the Palestinians, yet there is curiously little interest in the politics and ideology governing their behavior. The same situation applies to the man slated to become their next leader, only the third to hold that post in 50 years, after Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.

The fact that an issue that is supposedly the most important, high-priority question in the world is studied so little has a simple explanation. The contemporary narrative is that the Palestinian leaders yearn for a state, an end to the conflict, and peace, while the failure to achieve these can be blamed on Israel. Yet even the slightest real examination shows the exact opposite is true.

This point is only underlined by looking at the current candidate for next leader, Muhammad Ghaneim, often known as Abu Mahir. Of all those who might credibly have been considered for the leadership of Fatah - and hence of the PLO and Palestinian Authority (PA) - he is probably the most hardline.

While media coverage of the 2009 Fatah Congress may have stressed the accession of "young" and "more flexible" leaders, the 72-year-old Ghaneim certainly doesn't fit that description.

Born in Jerusalem on August 29, 1937, his first political involvement was with the Muslim Brotherhood, but he became a founding member of Fatah in 1959 and has been active ever since, involved mainly in recruitment and organization.

It is difficult to say to what extent Ghaneim's early involvement with radical Islam has shaped his thinking, and whether it would make it easier for him to reconcile with the even more radical Hamas. Most Fatah and PLO members came from more secular Arab nationalist or leftist movements. The only prominent leader who seemed to blend an Islamist background with nationalism was Arafat himself.

Ghaneim's big career break came in 1968 when, at the age of just 30, Arafat appointed him commander of Fatah's forces in Jordan. Later that year, he was put on Fatah's Central Committee, in charge of organization and recruitment.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of these two jobs. At that time, Jordan was a Fatah stronghold and the group constituted a shadow government alongside that of King Hussein, the country's nominal ruler. Fatah guerrillas - and shortly after Arafat took over, the whole PLO - had military bases from which they launched attacks on Israel across the Jordan River. Arafat must have had an extraordinarily high opinion of Ghaneim to appoint him to such a sensitive post.

Since so much of this task was involved with military matters, Ghaneim took a short officers' course in China. On his return in 1969, Arafat gave him a third chore, as his deputy for military issues. While the details aren't clear, this means Ghaneim must have played a central role in planning and implementing scores of guerrilla and terrorist attacks. Ghaneim played a central role in selecting those to be given key jobs and just how much authority each had. Of course, everyone was far below Arafat, but Ghaneim was about as essential as a second-tier figure could be.

In 1970, Fatah overplayed its hand, was defeated by Jordan's army, and had to flee to Lebanon. Ghaneim continued his organizational and military duties there. When the PLO and Fatah were forced out of Lebanon in 1982, Ghaneim accompanied Arafat to Tunis. From 1982 to mid-2009 he remained there, though he may have begun visiting the PA-ruled territories as early as July 2007.

Ghaneim didn't return with Arafat in 1994 because, despite serving Arafat closely and loyally for 35 years, Ghaneim rejected the 1993 Oslo accords as too moderate. Only armed struggle, total victory, and Israel's destruction were worthy goals in his eyes.

While Arafat sought these things covertly, the compromises involved in such a pretense were too much for Ghaneim. He stayed in Tunisia despite numerous invitations from Arafat, starting in October 1994, to join the PA, and instead insisted Arafat cease all negotiations with Israel.

Ghaneim moved closer to the popular Farouq Kaddumi, often referred to as the second most powerful man in Fatah. Kaddumi rejected the Oslo agreement and kept up a close connection with Syria. Arafat undercut him, but Kaddumi was so strong in the movement that he could never be fired altogether.

Finally, Ghaneim decided to return and support Mahmoud Abbas. While the details are not clear, this coincided with Abbas naming him as successor. Despite some who claim Ghaneim has moderated his positions, there is absolutely no evidence of this.

Ghaneim has a definite appeal for Abbas as ally and successor. He is one of the few remaining founders of Fatah, and has wide contacts throughout the movement.

In addition, as someone who has been outside PA politics for 15 years he is seen as a neutral figure in many petty disputes.

But this is not the man to choose if your top priorities are making peace with Israel and maintaining good relations with the West. He is the man you would choose if you intend to reject compromise, rebuild links to Syria and Hamas, and perhaps return to armed struggle.

On arrival at the Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan on July 29, 2009, just before the Fatah Congress, Ghaneim was picked up by Abbas' personal limousine, taken to his office, and welcomed in a ceremony.

At the reception, Ghaneim stated: "The struggle will continue until victory" and that if political means did not achieve Israel's destruction, the movement would return to armed struggle. (Al-Hayat al-Jadida, July 30, 2009). It is clear how Ghaneim defines victory, and it is not a West Bank-Gaza state with its capital in east Jerusalem living alongside Israel.

That Ghaneim would give up "the right of return," make any territorial compromise, or end the conflict permanently is extremely unlikely. These are things that even the supposedly less extreme Abbas has rejected.

Thereafter, Abbas promoted Ghaneim among the delegates to the meeting. He finished first in the Central Committee elections with 1,338 votes, about two-thirds of those participating and far ahead of every other candidate.

Ghaneim's success, and the others elected, show that the old Arafat crowd is still in control. If Ghaneim becomes leader of Fatah the PA and PLO, you can forget about peace.

No one should say a word about the Palestinian issue, the peace process, or Israeli policy without analyzing these factors.

Unfortunately, there isn't at present a Palestinian partner for peace. Fortunately, there is a Palestinian partner for maintaining a relatively peaceful status quo. But if and when Ghaneim takes over, even this consolation might be gone.

Obama green-lights Arab land grab
But Israel threatens retaliation if U.N. approves Palestinian state

A top Palestinian Authority official told WND that the PA reached an understanding with the Obama administration regarding a Palestinian threat to unilaterally ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel.

Ahmed Qurei, former PA prime minister and member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee, said in an interview that the PA "reached an understanding with important elements within the administration" to possibly bring to the U.N. Security Council a resolution to unilaterally create a Palestinian state.

Asked to which "elements" he was referring, Qurei would only say they were from the Obama administration.

A top PA negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, and National Security Council member Samantha Power as among the Obama administration officials who were involved with the Palestinians' U.N. threat.

Despite widespread assumptions the U.S. would veto any such U.N. Security Council resolution, the PA negotiator said that in initial discussions, the Obama administration did not threaten to veto their conceptual unilateral resolution.

"The U.S. told us that they prefer a negotiated settlement with Israel, but if we (Palestinians) insist on a resolution, the Americans will not necessarily reject it," the PA negotiator said.

"The U.S. has a history of never before vetoing any U.N. move to create a new state," the negotiator pointed out.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday the Palestinians had decided to turn to the U.N. Security Council to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.

Separately, the negotiator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the Obama administration is "totally on board" with a plan by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to create a state on the pre-1967 borders within two years.

WND first reported in September that according to a top PA official, the Obama administration has largely adopted the positions of the Palestinian West Bank leadership to create a Palestinian state within two years based on the pre-1967 borders, meaning Israel would retreat from most of the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem.

The PA negotiator WND spoke with yesterday said that his authority's primary goal now is to secure a letter of support from the Obama administration affirming the U.S. commitment to a pre-1967 Palestinian state within two years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday hit back at the PA plan to unilaterally declare a state, warning such a move will be met by "one-sided Israeli measures." He did not elaborate.

"There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and any unilateral attempts outside that framework will unravel the existing agreements between us and could entail unilateral steps by Israel," Netanyahu told a high-level gathering of Israeli and American policy makers at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu stressed that in order to achieve peace, "negotiations must resume immediately." He affirmed Israel was prepared to begin talks "with a generous spirit."

"I want to stress that we are willing to take steps that will help in advancing the peace process, but it must begin, there is no reason to waste time," said the Israeli leader.

While negotiations were not easy, Netanyahu said, "there is no other way to bring about change."

In September, a senior PA official told WND that aside from supporting a Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders, the Obama administration also had accepted the PA position that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations begin where they left off under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who went further than previous Israeli leaders in his concessions to the Palestinians.

Olmert reportedly offered the PA not only 95 percent of the West Bank and peripheral eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods but also other territories never before offered by any Israeli leader, including parts of the Israeli Negev desert bordering Gaza as well as sections of the Jordan Valley.

"We understand from the U.S. that the Netanyahu government is not in a position to go against creating a state within two years," the PA official said.

The official claimed the Obama administration was ready to ultimately consider "sanctions" against Israel if the Netanyahu government rejected negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. The official refused to clarify which sanctions he was referring to or whether he was specifically told by the U.S. government it would consider sanctions.

The PA official claimed Obama can make a "headache" for Netanyahu if the Israeli leader does not conduct negotiations leading within two years to a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu: No more excuses - time is ripe for Mideast peace
By Barak Ravid
Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the "conditions are ripe" for renewing peace negotiations with the Palestinians, adding that he planned to raise the issue with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during his visit to Cairo this week.

"I hope we have reached the time to renew the peace process," Netanyahu told diplomats gathered at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem. "The time for excuses is over. Now is the time for action."

Former justice minister Yossi Beilin told the Meretz party leadership on Sunday that Netanyahu was close to finalizing an agreement with the administration of United States President Barack Obama for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
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The process would last two years, according to Beilin, and would discuss the Palestinian demand for borders based on the 1967 lines and will include an exchange of territory and suitable security arrangements.

These are the terms of the agreement being hammered out between Netanyahu and the U.S. government on Israeli negotiations with the Palestinian Authority - that Netanyahu is willing to agree that the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will last for two years, Beilin said.

The Prime Minister's Office said Beilin's comments were "unfounded," adding that discussions were ongoing but no agreement has been reached.

However, when asked about Beilin's statements, a senior U.S. administration official said: "Things are moving in this direction, but the deal isn't done yet. There are several issues still outstanding."

Netanyahu leaves tomorrow for talks in Cairo and appears set to present the agreements to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Beilin, who revealed Netanyahu's plan to declare a 10-month freeze on settlement construction a week before the prime minister made the announcement, based his statement on information he received from talks with Israeli and foreign officials. He said at a closed meeting of the Meretz leadership that Netanyahu and his special envoy for negotiations with the Palestinians, Yitzhak Molcho, had completed most of the work on the terms of reference for negotiations with the Palestinians during meetings with U.S. envoy George Mitchell.

At the meeting, Beilin described what he said were the agreements Netanyahu has reached with the Obama administration:

* Timetable: Netanyahu is willing to accept the U.S. proposal to allot 24 months to talks, but doesn't want to announce that the goal is to reach a deal by the end of that period.

* Borders: Netanyahu has agreed that the goal of the talks is to end the conflict and reconcile the Palestinian position of establishing an independent state on the basis of the 1967 borders, with the exchange of agreed-upon territory, and the Israeli position of a Jewish state with recognized and secure borders that will meet Israel's security needs.

* Jerusalem: Netanyahu has agreed that the status of Jerusalem will be discussed in the negotiations, but has not agreed to any preconditions on the issue.

* Refugees: Netanyahu said he was willing to discuss the refugee issue only in a multilateral framework.

* Previous agreements: Netanyahu is willing to commit to all previously signed agreements.

* Arab peace initiative: Netanyahu is not willing to support the plan, but is willing to say both sides are taking into consideration international initiatives that contribute to the advancement of the peace process, such as the Arab peace initiative.

Mitchell is expected to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the second week of January to complete talks on the terms of reference for negotiations, Beilin said.

He warned Meretz leaders that Netanyahu may try to counteract the agreement by appeasing the right, which could undermine peace talks.

"If Netanyahu acts as he did with the freeze, when he approved hundreds of new housing units, it will wreck any chance of renewing negotiations," Beilin said.

Beilin said Netanyahu's position has encouraged the United States about the possibility of renewing negotiations soon.

"Their primary effort is to convince the Palestinians to accept it," said Beilin. "The American feeling is that Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] will agree to this formulation."

Netanyahu: No more excuses - time is ripe for Mideast peace (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1138104.html)
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I get the impression that's it's probably more ripe for a Mideast explosion. It's like a powder keg over there, just waiting for somebody to get too close with a match.

First-ever Heads of Missions Conference at the MFA
24 Dec 2009

Israel’s ambassadors and consuls general serving throughout the world will discuss broad diplomatic and strategic issues at a conference to be held next week in Jerusalem.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman, will host a conference next week (27-31 December) for Israeli Heads of Missions. At the conference, Israel’s ambassadors and consuls general serving throughout the world will discuss broad diplomatic and strategic issues.

This is the first time a conference for all of Israel’s Heads of Missions has been held. The idea is to facilitate direct dialogue with the country’s leaders, mutual updates on major diplomatic issues, and a discussion of action plans to deal with the challenges awaiting the State of Israel in the international arena in the coming year, including the Iranian threat.

A major part of the conference will be devoted to examining Israel’s integration and potential contribution to items on the world agenda such as the environment, renewable energy, water and sewage treatment, and new technologies. The participants will discuss how to develop and promote Israel’s foreign relations and its image as a country that contributes to creating a better future for everyone. They will also talk about the rise of new global powers and how to deal with them.

On Monday, 28 December, the Heads of Missions will be guests of President Shimon Peres at the President’s Residence.

Foreign Minister Liberman will open the conference. Other officials invited to attend include Prime Minister Benyamin Natanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, and senior officials of Israel’s diplomatic and security community.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to make the Heads of Missions Conference an annual event, as it is in other leading foreign ministries in the world.

Israel’s Ambassadors and Consuls Generals called Home (http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/MFA+Spokesman/2009/Press+releases/First-Heads-of-Mission-Conference-24-Dec-2009.htm)
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Also see;
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jerusalem-Israel/Israel-Ministry-of-Foreign-Affairs/101995411316
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About%20the%20Ministry/MFA%20Spokesman/2009/Press%20releases/Dep_FM_Ayalon_addresses_heads_missions_conference_27_Dec_2009.htm

ChristiansUnite Forums

Theology => Prophecy - Current Events => Topic started by: Shammu on September 28, 2007, 12:44:53 AM