Israel, the mid-east, and Russia

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I would also add, that warnings to Syria are much tougher and more frequent both by US and Israel.  I think we have about had enough of them, and their time just might be getting shorter.

Unlike our military action, the rules are completely different in Israel and subject to change (as is world opinion) on a dime with no notice.

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For Hamas leaders in Syria, new security despite claims of no role in Israeli's abduction

DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer

July 2, 2006 1:39 PM

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Hamas' leaders in Syria insist they have nothing to do with the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and hold no influence over his captors. Still, they have been changing homes and stopped using cell phones because of Israeli threats to target them.

Israel has accused the Islamic militant group's top leader, Khaled Mashaal, of being the brains behind the June 25 kidnapping and indicated he was a possible target for assassination.

''We take the Israeli threats seriously, and we know the occupation will not pass up the opportunity to get the movement's leadership,'' Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, told The Associated Press on Sunday. ''We have taken precautions.''

Since militants close to Hamas claimed responsibility for abducting 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit, attention has focused on what role was played by the Damascus-based political leadership of Hamas. What has added to the confusion is that Hamas now controls the Palestinian government.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, has called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to arrest Mashaal and close the militant group's office in the Syrian capital.

Hamas' political leaders have denied any role, saying that such attacks are planned by the group's military wing and that they have no influence or contact with its members. It's an argument Hamas has used since it began suicide attacks against Israel in the 1990s.

Yet Hamas officials admit several countries have contacted them as part of diplomatic efforts spearheaded by Egypt to win the soldier's release.

''We have a role because international parties get in touch with us,'' said Hamdan. ''But we refer those parties to the people on the ground. We have no contact with those holding the prisoner.''

A Palestinian official in Lebanon, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Hamas' political leadership lays broad guidelines - such as agreeing to a deal to defuse a crisis - but Shalit's captors would set the details for a settlement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a political foe of Hamas, has said Egypt's efforts to mediate an end to the crisis were being hampered by confusion about who really has decision-making power on the Hamas side.

Hamdan disputed that assessment. He said negotiations had not borne any fruit because Israel rejected a deal in which Shalit would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Egypt and Jordan urged Syria to use its influence with Hamas to help win Shalit's release. But Syria, according to Arab officials, said it could not do so while the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip continued.

In Cairo, an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was talking to Assad, hoping he would persuade Hamas leaders to release the soldier. The officials said Egypt's chief of intelligence was talking directly to Mashaal.

Egypt proposed that the Israeli soldier be freed immediately and that in return Israel agree to release unspecified prisoners in the near future. But Hamdan said the militants wanted more than promises.

''The Palestinians have for years gotten guarantees that prisoners would be released but nothing would happen,'' he said.

For Hamas leaders in Syria, new security despite claims of no role in Israeli's abduction

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Persson: Israel's Gaza raids are "indefensible"

Published: 2nd July 2006 21:51 CET

Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson branded as "indefensible" raids by Israel on Palestinian targets in Gaza launched to free a kidnapped Israeli soldier, the TT news agency reported on Sunday.

"Israel has committed an indefensible act," the agency quoted Persson as saying, after Israel's biggest military operation in a year continued overnight with helicopter gunships firing on the Gaza office of Hamas premier Ismail Haniya.

"It is disproportionate in terms of what the Palestinians have done," Persson said.

"To go like that and remove part of a government and members of parliament is incompatible with international law."

Israel has arrested 64 Hamas members including ministers and other officials since the soldier, 19-year-old Gilad Shalit, was kidnapped on June 25 during a Palestinian attack.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas, has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping along with two other militant groups.

The groups have demanded that Israel free other prisoners it is holding, without explicitly saying whether this would entail a handover of Shalit in return.

Persson cast doubt on the possibility of an exchange of prisoners.

The situation "keeps getting worse and the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians has now become virtually impossible. It is ominous," he said.

The Hamas party took office in March but is dismissed as a terror group by Israel and the West.

A minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government met with Swedish lawmakers in May, despite a European Union policy of no contact with the movement.

Persson: Israel's Gaza raids are "indefensible"
======================================================

Has anyone else noticed that Russia, and Iran has been fairly quite about this...........

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Fighting the virtual battle

When Israel attacked the Palestinians in Gaza last week, a resistance gang in Morocco responded. The group, with perhaps half a dozen core members, managed to shut, delay or deface about 700 Internet websites in Israel. Their cyberspace attack was largely symbolic, because the websites are merely the exterior face of the businesses and a hospital known to have been involved. Some business was lost, and the ''Team-Evil Arab hackers'' gained publicity and a minor propaganda coup. Their attack highlighted the changing world, and the increasing use, abuse and misuse of the Internet demands a response against those who oppose a decent society. Some groups and nations are acting, including one of our closest neighbours, and Thailand must be involved. The common regional threat is terrorism. The various groups in Southeast Asia claim to be fighting for a return to a glorious past, but they have been quick to adapt, adopt and misapply cutting-edge technology for their misguided purposes. In southern Thailand, violent gangs have tuned into Internet chat rooms and websites to learn both the jargon and tactics of the terrorists' war. In the South, one hears casual talk of ''IEDs'', the improvised explosive devices used to bomb restaurants, government offices and _ at the roadside _ passing teachers' convoys. The terrorist tactic of the 19 beheadings so far conducted in the three southernmost provinces over the past 30 months is straight from the Iraq of the late al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Zarqawi brilliantly if perversely exploited the Internet for propaganda, recruiting and teaching. His videos of beheadings were meant to intimidate and to exaggerate the savagery of his group. Instant money transfers via the Internet finance terrorist gangs around the world. Last week, controversial news reports revealed that the Jemaah Islamiyah operations chief Hambali was captured in Ayutthaya by monitoring such financial transfers. This served to show how important technology is to today's terrorists.

Some experts believe that cyber-terrorism is a serious threat. Former US president Bill Clinton even appointed a senior anti-terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, to guard against such a possibility. Cyber-terrorism would mean a virtual attack on vital targets by means of high technology. Hospitals could be stopped, power plants shut down, dams opened and aircraft led into mid-air crashes by such an attack. Many knowledgeable officials warn that the death toll of a concentrated cyber-terrorist attack could surpass those of a major attack, even one as horrible as the Sept 11 attacks on America.

Singapore, the most developed nation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, last year announced a three-year programme to establish the Cyber-Threat Monitoring Centre. It is to monitor and develop anti-terrorist strategies. But Malaysia has now taken a far bigger and more significant step. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi recently announced plans for an international centre, entirely dedicated to warning and responding to cyber-terrorism. He announced the centre at the concluding session of the World Congress on Information Technology in Texas. It is to be set up in Cyberjaya, the ''technology city'' at the centre of the Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor, where high technology is encouraged and subsidised.

The Malaysian centre is international. Mr Abdullah has already recruited several top private-sector firms from the United States, Japan and Russia. This International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism, as he called it, aims to be to computer crime and terrorism outbreaks what the US Centres for Disease Control is to medical infections. The Malaysia-based centre will track and trace attacks to their source, attempt to snuff them out, and apprehend those responsible for starting them.

A potential cyber-attack on a major city or nation would cause serious fallout. If attackers concentrated on financial houses in an assault, there could be ''a nationwide blackout, collapse of trading systems or the crippling of a central bank's cheque-clearing system,'' said Mr Abdullah. And the more the world is globalised, the greater is the potential to wreak havoc and cause disruption. It is thus encouraging to see an immediate neighbour of Thailand step up and take a leading role in trying to stop such attacks before they begin. Thailand should be an early and enthusiastic member of this Malaysian project.

Fighting the virtual battle

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Abduction Upsets a Plan
Peter Hirschberg

JERUSALEM, Jun 30 (IPS) - Heckled by hardline parliamentarians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to strike a defiant pose. Despite the spiralling violence in the Gaza Strip, from where Israel withdrew unilaterally last year, he insisted he would press ahead with his plan for a unilateral pullback in the West Bank.

He had no regrets, he said, over his strong support for Israel's exit from Gaza, which it had occupied for 38 years.. "I have not backed down or changed my mind about the enormous historical importance of the (Gaza) disengagement plan," he told parliament Tuesday, just hours before Israel launched a ground offensive in the coastal strip. "I am convinced that in the coming years the State of Israel will realign into new borders which will obligate us to redeploy significantly."

But the kidnapping this week of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants and the ground invasion of Gaza it has triggered have undercut the plan the Prime Minister placed at the centre of his election campaign and which he has now made his main policy goal. For months, Olmert deflected calls within the defence establishment for a more vigorous response to the hundreds of rockets that Palestinian militants have been firing from Gaza into Israel. With the makeshift rockets causing more psychological than physical damage, he could afford to ignore growing public pressure for him to respond.

But that all changed in the pre-dawn hours of Jun. 24, when Palestinian militants belonging to Hamas and two other small armed groups crawled through a 300-metre tunnel they had dug under the Gaza border, exited on the Israeli side and opened fire on soldiers at an army post. After attacking a tank with rockets and killing two soldiers, militants blew a hole in the border fence and disappeared back into Gaza with 19-year-old Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit.

For the first 72 hours, Olmert worked the diplomatic channels, hoping that international pressure on the Palestinians would secure Shalit's release. When it did not, he ordered the first major Israeli ground operation in Gaza since the pullout 10 months ago.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Israeli warplanes targeted the main power station in Gaza, knocking out electricity in the southern part of the strip. The pilots then turned their attention on several bridges in southern Gaza, rendering them impassable in an attempt to prevent the soldier's captors from moving him around the strip.

A short while later, thousands of Israeli troops and armoured vehicles poured into Gaza, taking over the airport and setting up positions about two kilometres inside the strip, around the town of Rafah. At the northern tip of Gaza, thousands more Israeli troops sat waiting for the order to move. Their mission: to stop the firing of rockets by militants into Israel.

In the West Bank, troops swooped overnight Wednesday on dozens of Hamas officials, arresting a total of eight ministers and 20 lawmakers, for what Israel said was their involvement in a "terrorist organisation."

But matters got worse for Olmert that night when the body of a teenage settler was found buried near Ramallah with a gunshot wound to the head. Eliyahu Asheri, 18, from the West Bank settlement of Itamar near Nablus, had been missing since Sunday. The Popular Resistance Committees, a small armed group that also participated in the raid on the Israel-Gaza border, said it had kidnapped him. After the body was found, Israeli officials said Asheri had been killed shortly after being snatched.

The re-invasion of a part of Gaza has not brought international opprobrium, possibly because with Israel no longer in the strip, the attack on the army post was seen as a violation of Israel's sovereignty rather than a legitimate act of resistance to occupation. For now, that will provide Olmert with some diplomatic leeway.. But the longer Israel remains in Gaza, the louder international criticism will become.

At home, some defence commentators are already beginning to ask why Israel went into Gaza at all. Was it out of a sense of impotence and frustration? Or out of a need to restore wounded pride, having been humiliated by Palestinian militants? And does the Israeli leader have an effective exit strategy?

The stated goal of the military operation is to pressure the Palestinian population with the hope this will turn up the heat on the militant groups holding the soldier, and force them to release him. Based on past experience, especially in Lebanon where Israel launched two large offensives in the 1990s aimed at pressuring the local population into stopping Hezbollah from carrying out attacks, this strategy is unlikely to result in the release of the kidnapped soldier.

Olmert has repeatedly refused to negotiate with Shalit's captors, who have demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in exchange for his release.

While Israel has negotiated the release of soldiers and citizens who were held captive in Lebanon, it has tended not to negotiate with Hamas militants who have kidnapped Israeli soldiers. In the most well-known kidnapping case, Nachshon Waxman, a young soldier, was killed in October 1994 by his captors as Israeli commandos stormed the West Bank house where he was being held.

But Olmert's biggest headache could come once the military operation winds down and he returns to his plan for a unilateral withdrawal. According to the plan, Israel will dismantle isolated settlements in the West Bank and withdraw from some 90 percent of the territory, while holding onto large settlement blocs. The massive separation barrier under construction in the West Bank will serve as the temporary border between Israel and the Palestinians.

What drives the plan is the belief prevalent among many Israelis that there is no viable negotiating partner on the Palestinian side, and a demographic logic positing that if Israel does not relinquish the occupied territories, Jews will ultimately become a minority and Arabs a majority because of their higher growth rate. If Israel reaches the demographic tipping point, Olmert has said, it will ultimately mean the end of the state as Jewish and democratic.

But the roar of the rockets and Hamas threats of more kidnappings are a far more immediate threat for Israelis than the distant spectre of demographic oblivion.

Hardline lawmakers who opposed the pullout from Gaza, but have struggled to counter the demographic argument, have been pointing to the almost daily volleys of rockets being launched into Israel as evidence of the folly of unilateral withdrawal. The ground offensive launched by Olmert will further bolster their claims among the public that Israel cannot counter Palestinian attacks if it is not located inside the territories from where they are being launched.

The Israeli leader also appears to be losing the public. A poll published on Jun. 9 showed 56 percent of Israelis opposed his West Bank pullout plan, while only 37 percent supported it. The ongoing rocket fire, the attack on the army post and the abduction of a soldier will not help turn those figures around.

Rather, it will plant more doubt in the minds of Israelis over the wisdom of a go-it-alone pullout plan that leaves armed Palestinian militants at the doorstep of Israel's major population centres

Abduction Upsets a Plan

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Shaer assures the people: We are OK and working vigorously
By
Jul 2, 2006, 21:39

Occupied Jerusalem - PA premier and education minister Dr. Nasser Al-Dein Al-Shaer has assured the Palestinian people that he and his remaining colleagues were in good health and vigorously working to serve the Palestinian people despite the difficult situation.

In a brief telephone interview with the PIC correspondent, Shaer asserted that he and his comrade ministers were following up affairs of their ministries with all possible and available means, announcing that results of the secondary level exams will be promulgated mid of this month.

Shaer opted to disappear in the aftermath of the unprecedented Israeli arrest of a number of Palestinian ministers, and elected parliamentarian and municipal officials from Hamas Thursday, vowing to continue activities under any circumstances.

First deputy PLC speaker Dr. Ahmed Bahar of Hamas, meanwhile, reaffirmed that the captured IOF serviceman Corporal Gilad Shalit will never be handed over unless Israeli occupation government heeds the Palestinian demands and free Palestinian captives in its jails.

The Israeli occupation government has two options, either to accept the Palestinian demands of prisoners' swapping, which is the rational step, or it may continue gathering information on the whereabouts of their captured man, and resort to forcibly free him, and thus jeopardize his life.

Commenting on the "shameful" Arab stand vis-à-vis what is happening in Palestine, Bahar affirmed that Arab governments don’t own their decision as they attached their fate to America, and were rendered unable to decide for themselves away from the American hegemony.

Mohammed Nazzal from the Hamas' political bureau abroad seconded Bahar's remarks as he asserted that the captured soldier couldn’t just be set free for nothing as "our demands in this regard are clear, just, and legitimate".

He expressed surprise at the heated efforts world-wide to solve the captured soldier's issue and the tremendous pressures on the PA to set him free, while thousands of Palestinian inmates, including children and women were left unattended to in Israeli jails for many years.

PFLP says America and Israeli practice the rule of jungle in the region:

For its part, the PFLP condemned that US stand during the UNSC session over the Israeli invasion of Gaza Strip that aborted the issuance of any resolution in condemnation of the IOF troops' atrocities in the Palestinian lands.

In a press statement he issued, PFLP political leader Tayseer Khaled described American threats to Syria, and its objection to any UNSC resolution to deprecate the non-stop Israeli bombarding of Palestinian civil installations and infrastructure, and the blessing of the IOF troops' arrest of Palestinian lawmakers and cabinet members as clear signs of the American law of the jungle, and a clear American attempt to paralyze and preempt functions of the international community.

In a new development, the Arab member in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) Ahmed Al-Taibi addressed an urgent message to the Israeli attorney-general Menahem Mazuz, urging him to order the Israeli premier, the IOF chief of staff, and the Israeli interior minister to stop rocking electricity installations, bridges and vital public buildings in the Gaza Strip.

"The bombing of vital civil installations flagrantly violates international laws, and thus, you are urged to play your role in your capacity as a legal person to stop this mass punishment to the Palestinian people", the message read. Other Palestinian political, religious, and civil leaders voiced the same demand as that of Taibi.

Shaer assures the people: We are OK and working vigorously

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 Late Imam Khomeini's grandson condemns Zionists crimes in Gaza
Damascus, July 2, IRNA

Syria-Zionists-Khomeini
The grandson of the late Imam Khomeini, Seyed Hassan Khomeini, currently visiting Damascus, in a meeting with the Secretary General of Lebanese Hezbollah Party Seyed Hassan Nasrollah here Sunday condemned the horrible Zionists actions against the defenseless residents of Gaza Strip in Palestine.

Hassan Khomeini called for unity of world Muslims and free thinkers in support of the oppressed Palestinian nation.

At the meeting, held at the Iranian Embassy premises in Damascus, both sides agreed that given the crimes of the Zionists committed on the oppressed Palestinians, the silence of those claiming to advocate human rights, freedom and democracy -- who resort to such attractive terms to attack the region's Muslim nations -- should be condemned.

Hassan Khomeini and Nasrollah underlined the right of nations to resist foreign troops and pointed to occupation of lands as despotism and a shame for governments claiming to be civilized.

Meanwhile, they urged for unity among regional states, in particular various groups in Lebanon, continued resistance leading to victory over the Zionist enemy and liberation of southern Lebanon.

They reiterated that the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Syria was the only way to restore tranquility, peace and stability in the region.

Nasrollah and Khomeini condemned the violation of Syria's air space by the Zionist regime and reiterated the need for solidarity with Damascus in facing such violations.

Seyed Hassan Khomeini is scheduled to visit holy sites in Damascus as well as the historical and religious monuments in the Syrian cities of Latakia and Halab on Sunday and Monday.

Hassan Khomeini arrived in Damascus on Friday night and will leave for Jordanian capital of Amman on Tuesday.

Late Imam Khomeini's grandson condemns Zionists crimes in Gaza

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 Iran denies cruise missile purchase from Ukraine
Tehran, July 2, IRNA

Iran-Asefi-Missile
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Sunday said that he is amazed by the remarks of the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov about Iran's purchase of X-55 cruise missile from Ukraine and denied it.

Asefi made the remark while talking to domestic and foreign reporters in his weekly briefing in response to Ivanov's claim that Ukraine has sold air-to-surface X-55 cruise missile to Iran and China.

The claim had also been denied earlier by Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Asefi underlined that Iran has not illegally purchased any weapons.

In response to a question about the verdict of a US court concerning the auction held on Iran's archaeological artifacts, he termed it as bizarre and said that the heritages belong not to one country but to the world and human community.

Asefi said that cultural heritage is not subject to executive measures and underlined that the verdict of this court is contrary to the UNESCO's 1970 Convention.

Turning to Iran's legal and diplomatic attempts to pursue the blunder made by the American district court, he said that the University of Chicago has also dismissed the verdict.

"Meanwhile, the Iranian expatriates residing overseas will react to the verdict, just as they did in case of the National Geography which had forged the name of the Persian Gulf," he added.

He said that the verdict issued by the US court is against international conventions and disrupts cultural and scientific cooperation among the world countries.

Asefi said that Iran holds the US administration responsible for the consequences of such a measure and said that Iran's representative office in New York will definitely pursue the matter.

Concerning removal of any limitation on the terrorist MKO group, he said that the move shows the West's dual approach to terrorism.

He said that the West has two definition of terrorism, namely a bad and a good terrorism, adding that when terrorism is in their interest it is good and once it is detrimental to them it is bad.

Stressing that there is no good and bad terrorism, he called on the West to change its approach to the issue.

About the attempts of the US and some Western states to monopolize the fuel cycle, he said that given the limitations imposed on other countries by the US, in fact the Americans wish to monopolize the nuclear fuel.

In reply to another question about the remarks of the German defense minister on the rights of world countries to fuel cycle, he said that many Western officials have the same view, adding that Iran should certainly gain its right to fuel cycle.

Asefi referred to the visit of the speaker of Iraq's National Assembly to Iran and underlined that given the common concerns of both countries, mutual relations should be expanded.

He condemned the terrorist acts in Iraq and blamed the foreign troops in this country for it.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the harsh measures in Iraq are rooted in the US violent approach in this country.

Iran denies cruise missile purchase from Ukraine

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 Pakistan tells UNSC it Concerns on use of force by Israel against Palestinians
'Pakistan Times' UN Bureau

UNITED NATIONS: Expressing "regrets" at the massive use of force by Israel against the Palestinians and their infrastructure, Pakistan has called on the international community to help resolve the Middle East crisis peacefully.

"We are concerned over the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine, which would further impede the international effort to stop the cycle of violence and restart the negotiations," Pakistan's Acting Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, told the the Security Council.

The Council met at the requests of Qatar, the only Arab member in the 15-member body, and the Arab League on Friday night to discuss the growing crisis between Israel and the Palestinians. After listening to some 40 speakers, the council adjourned without specifying the date for the next meeting.

Ambassador Chaudhry said that, since the last public meeting of the Council on the Middle East, definitive changes had taken place in the region.

The massive operation by the Israeli army, however, had undermined the atmosphere of hope for peace following the elections in Palestine.

He regretted the Israeli incursion into Gaza, including the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, saying the increased hostilities would further impede international efforts to jumpstart negotiations.

The Pakistan representative said the current challenge facing the international community was finding ways to halt the massive human suffering resulting from Israel's military operations; how to encourage the resumption of negotiations on the Middle East peace process; and how to prevent acts by Israel that could unilaterally make a negotiated settlement based on the principle of "land for peace" impossible.

Here, the United Nations, including the Security Council and the Secretary-General, must play a more central role in calling upon the two Governments to heed the call of their people for peace.

Regarding the situation on the ground, there should be an immediate cessation of hostilities, Ambassador Chaudhry said. Also, efforts should be made to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Palestinian areas.

In the medium term, Israel should stop its construction of the wall and halt attempts to change the demographics in certain areas. The two parties must deepen their dialogue towards final status issues.

The implementation of the Road Map, envisaging a two-state solution, was the best hope of settling the Israel-Palestine dispute, and it was the collective obligation of the international community to help facilitate its implementation.

Palestine's Observer

Earlier Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Observer of Palestine, said Israel's recent military aggression was "clearly premeditated and planned" well prior to the capture of the Israeli military solider on 25 June. hat Israel, he said, had been issuing threats about launching a major invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Then, on 28 June, after amassing thousands of troops along the southern border of the Gaza Strip, Israel launched an air and ground military assault by warplanes and tank artillery bombardment, punishing and terrorizing the civilian population. Israel then expanded its aggression into the West Bank, carrying out kidnappings and detention of at least 64 Palestinians, the majority of them high-ranking, democratically-elected officials and holding them, along with 9,000 Palestinians, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Mansour said it was the duty of the Security Council to address the crisis situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory by condemning Israeli aggression and calling for the immediate cessation of hostilities, compliance with international law, the withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces from within the Gaza Strip, and the release of Palestinian officials being detained.

A failure to do so would only serve to bolster the occupying power's impunity. It was not too late for the Security Council to asserts its rightful role and use its authority to bring an end to the breaches being committed and salvaging the prospects for reaching peace on the basis on international law, UN resolutions, the Quarter Road Map and the Arab Peace Initiative.

Israel's representative, Daniel Carmon, claimed Gaza was now a terror base actively supported by the elected Hamas Government. The aggressive terrorist provocations had persisted only because they were supported by the official Palestinian Government that he called "a terrorist regime with a sworn intent to deny Israelis their most fundamental human rights".

Israel, like any other responsible Government, could not tolerate a situation in which its citizens were being held hostage by members of a terrorist group, he said. The military operation now taking place was specific in nature and limited in scope, and Israel was taking every effort to minimize any harm to Palestinian civilians. In light of the escalation of Palestinian terrorism, Israel had decided to intensify its efforts to arrest those operatives responsible for terrorist attacks, so they could be tried and brought to justice.

A senior UN official warned the Council that another full-scale conflict between Israelis and Palestinians could easily be set off, and urged all sides in the region to "step back from the brink."

Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Angela Kane called on the Palestinian Authority to stop holding hostages and end indiscriminate rocket attacks, saying "nothing justifies" such actions. She also called on Israel to stop destroying civilian infrastructure, ensure civilians are protected, and allow for humanitarian assistance to get through. In addition, she expressed concern at the arrest of large numbers of the elected Palestinian Government.

"This is a grave crisis. The slightest turn of events could easily set off another full-scale conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, bringing greater dangers to civilians, and with serious regional repercussions. All parties must recognise this, and act with wisdom and care, and in full conformity with international humanitarian law," she said.

Other participants in the Council debate decried Israel's military operations as punitive to the civilian population and called for urgent humanitarian assistance to address a dire and worsening situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. They also underscored the importance of a formal response by the Security Council to the situation.

Pakistan tells UNSC it Concerns on use of force by Israel against Palestinians

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Molotov cocktail thrown at vehicle near Hebron
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jul. 2, 2006

The Judea and Samaria District Police Department was investigating reports of a Molotov cocktail thrown at an army vehicle at the El Fawar Junction near Hebron Sunday evening.

No injuries were reported.

Molotov cocktail thrown at vehicle near Hebron

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Iran: Israel will burn in the fire it started

From Iran’s official news agency IRNA:

Asefi: Zionist regime will burn in the fire started by itself

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Sunday said that the Zionist regime will eventually burn in the flame of the fire started by itself.

Asefi made the remark while speaking to domestic and foreign reporters in this week’s briefing session as he pointed to the recent attacks launched by the Zionists on the Gaza Strip, during which they kidnapped a number of Palestinian officials.

Turning to the extremely bitter incidents in the occupied lands, he said that the inefficient and wrong policies of the Zionist regime accounted for them.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the Zionist regime is enraged seeing `the free elections in Palestine and taking charge of affairs by the popular government-elect’, after which it has taken `insane measures’.

He said that the new crisis started after innocent individuals were kidnapped and taken hostage by the Zionist regime.

Stressing that `the moves of the Zionist regime are against any international criterion’, he dismissed the pretext for such measures and said that the regime itself took inhuman measures.

He referred to `the growing isolation of the Zionist regime on the international scene’ and `the continuity of resistance of the Palestinian people as other reasons for their fury.

Asefi said that given the Zionists intend to damage the economy and infrastructure of Gaza Strip, the international community should pressurize them to avoid disrupting the flow of relief aid to the Palestinian people, including food, medicine and fuel.

The official pointed to the discussion of the issue by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and said, "Iran seeks mediation of the UN Security Council and Annan himself in this respect." Asefi also called on the Human Rights Council to approach the issue and violation of the human rights by the Zionist regime.

He pointed to the Zionist regime’s continuous abuse of the silence of international bodies towards Zionist measures and called on these bodies and Islamic states not to let them take such moves any more.

The Foreign Ministry official said that Iran has discussed the issue with Islamic countries and that the matter will be on the agenda of the next meeting of the countries neighboring Iraq, adding that Majlis has also been working on it.

Addressing reporters, he welcomed formation of the Foreign Relations Strategic Council last week according to the decree of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who appointed Kamal Kharrazi as the council head.

Based on the decree, Ali Akbar Velayati, Ali Shamkhani, Mohammad Shariatmadari and Mohammad-Hossein Taromi were appointed to serve as council members for a five-year term.

Asefi pointed to establishment of the Foreign Relations Strategic Council as a step in favor of the foreign policy system.

Iran: Israel will burn in the fire it startedIran: Israel will burn in the fire it started

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Peres: Attack on Haniyeh office a 'clear warning'
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jul. 2, 2006

Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday called an IDF missile attack on Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's office in Gaza City overnight Saturday a "clear warning" to free kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Peres said the attack on Haniyeh's office came "in the middle of the night," when Israeli officials knew Haniyeh would not be present.

"It was a clear warning that he has to stop this double behavior," Peres told CNN's Late Edition. "Either it's a government with all the responsibilities of a government, or it's a terrorist organization, with all the consequences that stem from it."

Peres: Attack on Haniyeh office a 'clear warning'

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Africa invites top anti-Americans to summit

Jul 2, 2:04 PM (ET)

By Barry Moody

BANJUL (Reuters) - Two of the world's most anti-American leaders, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attended this weekend's Africa summit in Gambia to the consternation of Western diplomats.

Both lived up to their billing with Chavez railing against U.S. "hegemony" and Ahmadinejad blaming Western greed for "poverty, backwardness, regional conflicts, corruption, illicit drugs."

The role of West-baiting once fell at AU summits to Libya's colourful leader Muammar Gaddafi but he has now been welcomed into the Western fold and Libya is soon to be taken off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

So why were outsiders Chavez and Ahmadinejad invited?

The striking presence of such anti-Western figures, particularly the Iranian leader, raised eyebrows among the large number of foreign envoys observing the summit, diplomats said.

One non-aligned ambassador who asked not to be identified said the invitation to Chavez was more understandable than that to Ahmadinejad since Venezuela has AU observer status.

He said the Ahmadinejad invitation was apparently extended unilaterally by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, and provoked criticism from some countries in the 53-member AU.

But Western diplomats suggested the two invitations may also have been intended to underline Africa's breakaway from the influence of former colonial powers in Europe.

"At one time the links with Europe were still strong. But in the 21st century Africa wants to show that these links have finally been broken," one European ambassador said.

AFRICA NOT ANTI-WESTERN

Professor Shadrack Gutto, director of African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa, said the presence of Chavez and Ahmadinejad should not be seen as anti-Western.

"The AU is not suddenly turning against the West. These visits were not ideologically decided and there isn't necessarily an anti-Western aspect to it," he said.

But he added that it was easier for Africa to assert its independence from the West when meeting in the AU than as individual countries, many dependent on Western funding.

"It does indicate that collectively, as the 53 members of the AU, when they come together the West will not choose for them who they invite or who their friends are," he said.

"They are saying Africa can have a position that differs with that of the West."

Gutto suggested that whereas there were strong and logical reasons to invite Venezuela, Ahmadinejad had probably pushed for an invitation to lobby for African support in Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West.

He said African countries were eager to hear about Chavez's policies toward Western oil companies.

"Chavez has taken quite a radical line with regard to claiming national sovereignty over natural resources and that resonates with a lot of African countries emerging as substantial producers," Gutto said.

He said African producers were anxious to ensure they maximised the benefits of their resources and were not being short-changed in contracts with Western oil companies.

In his speech to the summit on Saturday, Chavez urged Africa to seize greater control of its energy resources, describing the low royalties paid by some oil giants as robbery. Chavez has hiked taxes on U.S. oil companies, which he dubbed "Count Dracula."

Africa invites top anti-Americans to summit

[Shammu]

UN rebukes Israel after air attacks on civilian buildings
From Stephen Farrell, in Gaza
   
ISRAEL and Hamas have both threatened to escalate attacks on each other amid Israeli preparations for a protracted air and land strike on Gaza.

As the stand-off between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants entered its second week, the UN special envoy to the Middle East rebuked Israel for destroying civilian buildings in Gaza and urged it to abide by international law.

Days after Israeli jets crippled Gaza’s only power station, Álvaro de Soto inspected the still-smoking ruins to hear that the plant would be shut for at least six months, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians without power.

Israel yesterday restarted fuel supplies and partially reopened the Karni cargo crossing for food and medical supplies into Gaza, after warnings of a humanitarian crisis. But its artillery batteries and warplanes continued to strike the otherwise sealed-off coastal strip, with helicopter gunships firing missiles into the office of Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian Prime Minister.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, is losing patience with attempts to free Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured by the Islamists’ armed wing eight days ago. He told his Cabinet that he had instructed the military “to do everything in order to bring Gilad back home . . . and when I say everything, I mean everything”.

Mr Olmert had put a large-scale military offensive on hold to give Egyptian-led negotiations a chance. Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, threatened yesterday to answer Israel’s “dirty war” — the destruction of the power plant, university buildings and the Interior Ministry — with its own strikes on civilian targets.

“If its operations continue, we will hit the occupation targets we were previously reluctant to strike,” Abu Ubaida, a Hamas military spokesman, said. Continued Israeli attacks would, he said, plunge the region into a sea of blood.

Señor de Soto called on Corporal Shalit’s kidnappers to release him as soon as possible, saying: “It does not serve any Palestinian interest to continue to hold this hostage.” However, he said that the UN was “very alarmed at the situation, particularly the humanitarian one”. He reminded Israel of its obligations under international law not to punish civilians and to ensure that it did not react with undue harshness.

“We are fervently hoping that Israel will show restraint and observe international law and particularly the rules regarding proportionality,” Señor de Soto said after visiting Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, in Gaza City.

“For instance, we find it difficult to understand that the power plant was struck and certain other measures taken as well. There have been several actions of this nature, including the arrest, the detention of ministers and legislators.”

Both Señor de Soto and Mr Abbas visited Gaza’s stricken power station. They were told by engineers that it would take six to eight months to get the 140 megawatt plant working again. The strike will leave Gazans suffering lengthy power cuts and entirely dependent on electricity from Israel.

Señor de Soto said that any long-term political solution would need functioning Palestinian ministries and infrastructure. He said: “If you are going to have a two-state solution, you need a viable Palestinian state.”

Mr Olmert told his Cabinet that Israel “has no interest in harming the Palestinian population”, but said: “We are responsible for the peace of the state of Israel and its citizens. It is out of this responsibility that we will strike at anyone who tries to hurt us. Nobody will be exempt.”

Israeli newspapers have reported that Yuval Diskin, the country’s internal security chief, told the Cabinet that the Shalit crisis might be prolonged. “We have to take a deep breath,” he said. “This could take weeks or months. There is no magic solution.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Mr Abbas’s spokesman, said that the negotiation efforts were continuing but “near a dead end”.

Last night the Israeli Army said it had killed three Palestinian gunmen during a confrontation at Gaza’s disused airport.

UN rebukes Israel after air attacks on civilian buildings

[Shammu]

Pope calls for peace talks between Israel and Palestinians
By Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday called for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians and an end to spiraling violence in Iraq.

Speaking to thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square, Benedict for the second time this week warned a spiral of "atrocious carnage" in the Holy Land and Iraq risked being aggravated if all sides failed to negotiate.

"In the face, on one side, of blind violence and atrocious carnage, and on the other, of the threat of aggravating the crisis in the last dramatic few days, there is a need for justice and a serious and credible peace plan: that unfortunately there is no sign of," Benedict said.

Israel Air Force helicopters stepped up a military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Sunday after the kidnapping of an IDF soldier in a cross-border raid a week ago.

In Iraq, a car bomb on Saturday killed more than 60 people, while Osama bin Laden appeared to warn the country's majority Shi'ites they were not safe from attack by Sunni militants.

"All must remember that every man, from whatever population, is a brother," Benedict said.

Escalating violence in the Middle East and the rise of terrorism has seen the Vatican seeking allies, in particular the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been split from the Catholic Church after a nearly 1,000-year-old schism.

Benedict, on Sunday, welcomed the meeting of Russian Orthodox and Catholic delegations in Moscow this month.

"This important meeting reveals the shared wish to promote the dialogue among civilizations and the search for a more just and peaceful world order," Benedict said.

Pope calls for peace talks between Israel and Palestinians