Prophecy and End Time Series. - Israel

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Updated Jan. 20, 2006 16:41
Holocaust Museum slammed by activists Those activists, can stick it in there ear, as far as i'm concerned. The Holocaust, is from World War 2, not todays actions.  DW
By NATHAN GUTTMAN
WASHINGTON

A group of American Jewish activists has launched a campaign aimed at getting the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to recognize the anti-Semitic actions by Arab and Muslim leaders during World War II and to take a leading role in fighting anti-Semitism in the Arab world.

The group, "Holocaust Museum Watch," points to the fact that the museum, funded by the federal government, has never presented an exhibit or sponsored an event dealing with Muslim anti-Semitism or with the fate of the Jews in Arab countries during the Holocaust.

"The absence of these programs is a failure of the museum and an obscene dereliction of its ways," said chairwoman Carol Greenwald,

Some 100 Jews gathered Wednesday night at a Washington synagogue to hear more about the campaign, which up until now was not seen as a major issue on the Jewish agenda. The organizers called on the Jewish community to play an active role in demanding that the Holocaust Museum recognize the issue of Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism.

The demand is focused on three issues: the cooperation of Jerusalem's grand mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, with the Nazi regime; the anti-Jewish pogroms in Arab countries during World War II, mainly the Farhud in Baghdad; and the current rise of anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world.

Husseini's ties with Nazi Germany are well known - he met with Adolf Eichmann and offered Hitler any help he could supply in murdering Europe's Jews and Jews worldwide. His actions are not mentioned at all in the Holocaust museum.

Shlomo Alfassa, of the international Sephardic Leadership Council, pointed out the second issue in dispute - the suffering of Jews in Arab countries during the Holocaust. Alfassa tried to get the museum to sponsor an event commemorating the Farhud - a bloody pogrom against Iraq's Jews in 1941, but was rejected by the museum. So were other attempts to highlight the hardship of North African Jews who were under occupation.

"This is a continued marginalization of facts by a government-funded scholarly institute," Alfassa said, adding that the reason for this is "extensive political correctness."

Rabbi Avi Weiss, head of the Amcha coalition for Jewish concern, was more direct. In a passionate speech, he claimed that there is a political motivation behind the Holocaust Museum's decision not to pay attention to events in the Arab world. According to Weiss, "The political demands made by the government on the museum are often in conflict with pure Shoah memory."

The group is trying to get the Holocaust Museum, part of whose mission is to fight hate and genocide, to speak out against modern Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism, specifically the latest remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, and Iran's plans to sponsor a Holocaust deniers' conference.

The museum did issue a release denouncing Ahmadinajad, but the watchdog group thinks that is not enough. "The US Holocaust Museum, the authority on genocide, is silent," said Greenwald, "It is this silence that pretends there is no danger and encourages inaction."

A spokesman for the US Holocaust Museum did not respond to The Jerusalem Post's request for a comment on the group's allegations.

Holocaust Museum slammed by activists

[Soldier4Christ]

Is Iran already
at war with U.S.?
Ahmadinejad called for more than
wiping Israel off the face of the earth
Posted: January 21, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech in Tehran last fall, in which he called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth, got a healthy amount of coverage by the international media.

Yet, despite the number of stories published and broadcast, a key element of that address to 'The World Without Zionism" conference was overlooked, ignored – spiked, if you will – by major press organizations, according to a new report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

It wasn't just a world without Zionism and Israel that Ahmadinejad and his friends in Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups were envisioning. It was a world without the United States of America.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, it is literally true. Examine for yourself the photos published here of Ahmadinejad addressing the Tehran conference Oct. 26, 2005.

Some of them will look very familiar. Those showing the Iranian president gesticulating at a podium showing the name of the conference were published worldwide – from Al-Jazeera to the Associated Press. But those showing a wider view – and the complete poster for the event – are getting their biggest audience yet here in G2B.

It is worth noting that Ahmadinejad didn't just stroll up to the podium. The Iranian government actually produced the visual aids you see here.

Yes, that is a ball representing the USA cracked at the bottom of that hourglass — with another representing Israel falling later.

It wasn't just the imagery of the conference that was overlooked, ignored, unreported and underplayed by the world press. It was also the anti-American substance of Ahmadinejad's speech.

"Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" he asked. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved."

What is he talking about?

Iran has developed a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it calls the "destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization."

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Israel "cannot tolerate nuclear option for Iran: Mofaz

2 hours, 22 minutes ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned that Israel will not tolerate a "nuclear option" for Iran, while reaffirming his commitment to diplomacy in the nuclear standoff.

"We are giving priority at this stage to diplomatic action... but in any case we cannot tolerate a nuclear option for Iran and we must prepare ourselves," Mofaz said at a symposium in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

"We must develop the option of our defense with all that implies," Mofaz said without providing further details.

"We must treat the (Iranian) threat responsibly and with utmost seriousness," Mofaz said, renewing accusations that Tehran was supporting "terrorism" by funding militant groups.

"Iran gives (Lebanese Shiite group) Hezbollah 100 million dollars per year, and part of this money goes to Palestinian terrorist groups," he said.

"In addition, Iran is the primary source of money for Islamic Jihad which committed the majority of suicide attacks against Israel last year."

The defense minister's remarks came after interim prime minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel would not let anyone who threatened its existence obtain weapons of mass destruction.

"Israel cannot allow in any way or at any stage someone who has such hostile intentions against us to obtain weapons that could threaten our existence, " Olmert said in talks with President Moshe Katsav.

Israel has come to view the Islamic republic in Tehran as its number one enemy and its fears were heightened when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in October called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."

Iran faces the threat of being referred to the UN Security Council for resuming sensitive nuclear fuel research work that Israel and the Western powers fear would give the regime the know-how to build a bomb.

Tehran insists such work is legal given it has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has branded atomic weapons "un-Islamic".

Like Mofaz, Olmert also stressed that a diplomatic solution was still possible.

Mofaz blamed arch enemies Iran and  Syria on Friday for a Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that wounded 19 and has escalated tension just days before a legislative election in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Iran said on Saturday that the allegations were baseless.

The Jewish state has never acknowledged the existence of a nuclear arsenal, though it is widely believed to possess hundreds of atomic weapons.

Israel "cannot tolerate nuclear option for Iran: Mofaz

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Iran President Meets Palestinian Leaders

By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 20, 7:45 PM ET

DAMASCUS, Syria - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Friday with the leaders of the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Syria, expressing his support a day after 20 people were wounded in Tel Aviv in a suicide attack claimed by Jihad.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has said Syria planned the attack and Iran funded it. Iranian and Syrian officials have denied any involvement by their countries.

Shortly before he left Syria at the end of a two-day visit, President Ahmadinejad reiterated that Syria and Iran had formed a "front" to oppose what he called world "arrogance and domination," a reference to the United States and its Western allies.

In a final statement, the two governments expressed support for Iran's right to the peaceful exploitation of nuclear power and criticized what they called the "selective and double-standard policy practiced by some international powers in this regard." The remark was a reference to U.S. and European opposition to Iran's enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce material for atomic bombs.

In a second reference to certain Western powers, the statement said Iran and Syria demanded a timetable "for the withdrawal of occupation forces from
Iraq."

On the second and final day of his first official visit to Syria, Ahmadinejad held separate meetings with leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, and a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Earlier Friday, Mofaz said Israel had "definitive proof" of Iranian and Syrian involvement in Thursday's attack in Tel Aviv where a suicide bomber wounded 20 people in a fast-food restaurant. He said the findings would be shared with American and European officials.

On Thursday, his first day in Syria, the Iranian president made a new attack on the existence of Israel, challenging Europe to take back the Jews who emigrated to Israel.

Addressing Europe, he asked: "Would you open the doors of your own countries to these (Jewish) immigrants so that they could travel to any part of Europe they chose?"

He said he was confident that no Jews would remain in Israel if European countries allowed them to immigrate, according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, which reported the remarks on Friday.

Ahmadinejad provoked an international outcries last year when he said Israel should be "wiped out" and that the Nazi Holocaust against Jews in World War II was a "myth."

Iran President Meets Palestinian Leaders

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Syria accuses Israel of assassinating Arafat
Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:57 AM ET

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Israel on Saturday of assassinating former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the cause of whose death 14 months ago remains a mystery.

"Of the many assassinations that Israel carried out in a methodical and organized way, the most dangerous thing that Israel did was the assassination of President Yasser Arafat," Assad told a gathering of Arab lawyers.

"This was under the world's gaze and its silence, and not one state dared to issue a statement or stance toward this, as though nothing happened."

Arafat died in Paris on November 11, 2004 at the age of 75 after being rushed from his West Bank compound to a French military hospital.

Israel has denied being responsible for the deterioration in Arafat's health before his death and has denied poisoning him.

Israeli officials said he had access to medical treatment, food, water and medication during the two years he spent in his battered compound in Ramallah, which was besieged by Israeli troops for months in 2002.

French doctors denied rumors that Arafat was poisoned but have refused to publish his medical reports, citing strict privacy laws.

Arafat aides had quoted doctors as saying he had a low count of platelets, which help the blood to clot. They later said he had gone into a coma, suffered a brain hemorrhage and lost the use of his vital organs one by one. But no definitive cause of death was announced.

Syria accuses Israel of assassinating Arafat

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Jan. 22, 2006 8:39
Dalai Lama to visit Israel

By JAY MICHAELSON

The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of the Tibetan people who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, will visit Israel next month.

A previous visit, in November 1999, during which he met with then-Knesset speaker Avraham Burg and education minister Yossi Sarid, elicited strong protests from the Chinese government, which at the time was negotiating a weapons purchase from Israel.

The visit is part of celebrations marking the centennial of David Ben-Gurion's birth, and is the brainchild of Avishay Braverman, former president of the Ben-Gurion University and Labor Chairman Amir Peretz's candidate for finance minister, who recently took third place in the Labor Party primary.

The events are being coordinated by the Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People (Yativ), and are expected to include a visit to Ben-Gurion's grave, lectures in Tel Aviv, and possible further meetings with Israeli government officials.

While the Dalai Lama is a frequent traveler to countries around the globe, his visits to Israel are controversial because of Israel's close relationship with the Chinese government, which refuses to negotiate with the Tibetan leader and insists that Tibet is part of China.

Israel is China's second-largest supplier of arms, a relationship which has caused tension with the United States. Last June, under pressure from the Bush administration, Israel agreed to cancel an arms deal with China and allow US officials to review its future weapons transactions.

The public program of the Dalai Lama's visit, however, is more spiritual than political. On February 17, the Dalai Lama is to lecture on "Collective Responsibility," and the next day he will lead a day of workshops on "The Practice of Consciousness."

Many Israelis visit Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, during trips to the Far East, and there are a number of Buddhist meditation groups in Israel.

Born in 1935, Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama. Since assuming the leadership of Tibet, he has witnessed the end of Tibetan independence, the death of over one million Tibetans at the hands of the Chinese, and the creation of a Tibetan diaspora.

He has met with Jewish leaders many times in an effort to learn how Jewish culture survived exile from the Land of Israel, most famously in a series of meetings that became the subject of the book and film The Jew in the Lotus.

Notwithstanding the Dalai Lama's personal and political history, his bestselling books such as The Art of Happiness and The Power of Compassion generally focus on how to attain happiness in everyday life.

"The very purpose of life is to be happy," he says. "And if you want to be happy, practice compassion."

Dalai Lama to visit Israel

My note; Just what Israel needs, a phoney spiritual leader. Israel needs to find, Jesus in a hurry. Though I know it won't happen that way.

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Iraqi Cleric: Militia Would Defend Iran

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 55 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - The Iraqi cleric who once led two uprisings against U.S. forces said Sunday that his militia would help to defend Iran if it is attacked, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Muqtada al-Sadr, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, said his Mahdi Army was formed to defend Islam.

"If neighboring Islamic countries, including Iran, become the target of attacks, we will support them," al-Sadr was quoted as saying. "The Mahdi Army is beyond the Iraqi army. It was established to defend Islam."

The comments could be seen as a message that Tehran has allies who could make things difficult for U.S. forces in the region if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked.

Al-Sadr has a large following among Iraq's young and impoverished Shiites. His militia launched two uprisings against U.S. troops in Iraq in 2004, but since the fighting ended he has transformed himself into a respected political figure. Al-Sadr's followers now hold 21 seats in the outgoing parliament as well as three Cabinet posts.

Al-Sadr's backing of Iran, a Shiite majority nation, follows a hint from Israel's defense minister that the Jewish state was preparing for military action to stop Iran's nuclear program. A few days earlier, French President Jacques Chirac said France could respond with nuclear weapons against any state-sponsored terror attack. The comments were seen by some as a reference to Iran.

"I don't see any threat against Iran," Iran's nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said after meeting with al-Sadr. "Iran is big and strong and it is a hard target."

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said earlier Sunday that Israel would be making a "fatal mistake" should it resort to military action. Iran has warned that Israel was living in a "glass house" and was well within Iran's missile range.

An upgraded version of Iran's Shahab-3 missile has a range of over 1,240 miles, putting Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East in range.

Iran's resumption of its atomic research program earlier this month caused an international standoff over its nuclear ambitions.

Some Western nations fear Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop an atomic bomb. Iran insists it wants only peaceful nuclear energy.

Iraqi Cleric: Militia Would Defend Iran

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Iran Allocates Over $100 Million for Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad
17:08 Jan 22, '06 / 22 Tevet 5766
By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

The Lebanese-based terror organization Hizbullah is supported by Iran to the tune of US$100 million per year. $10 million also made its way last year from Iran to the Islamic Jihad.


The extent of Iranian support for Lebanese and Palestinian Authority-based terrorist organizations was revealed by Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz Saturday night, in a lecture he delivered at the annual Herzliya Conference. Mofaz noted that on Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held talks in Damascus with representatives of Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine during a visit he paid to Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad.

Mofaz called Assad and Ahmadinejad "representatives of the Axis of Evil," saying that their meeting was "a summit for terror." Ahmadinejad made the trip to Syria, according to the defense minister, "to be sure that the terrorism against Israel would not slow down for a moment, and would even increase." In this regard, Mofaz said that Iran supports public relations efforts for the Hizbullah, supplies the organization with weapons and funds its activities with about $100 million per year. Part of that sum also makes its way to terrorists in the Palestinian Authority, Mofaz said.

In addition, Iran separately funded the PA-based Islamic Jihad with $10 million in 2005. This figure, the defense minister noted, is twice the Iranian budget allocation for it in 2004. Most recently, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing on Thursday in south Tel Aviv, in which 30 people were injured, and for a rocket it claimed was fired at Ashkelon on Saturday.

"The regime of the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, supports terrorism in the Middle East through the supply of rockets that threaten population centers in this country, sends money for terrorism, and supplies training and know-how to the Middle Eastern [terror] organizations," Defense Minister Mofaz said.

Addressing comments to the Iranian leader, Mofaz, who was himself born in Iran, warned, "It would be to your benefit to take a look at history and see what became of those who tried to exterminate the Jewish people. I know the Iranian people - and more than a little - and a large part of it does not recognize its leader's opinions."

In addition, Defense Minister Mofaz stated that Israel will not tolerate Iran completing its nuclear reactor, as Tehran continues nuclear enrichment efforts. Israel, Mofaz said, "must be prepared to defend itself, with all that that implies." In that regard, he added, "An international effort must be promoted against Iran, which supports terrorism and denies the Holocaust."

Iran Allocates Over $100 Million for Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad

I pray that, the start is near, cause I'm ready to fly!

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 Rafiah Crossing: Safe Passage for Terrorists
17:28 Jan 22, '06 / 22 Tevet 5766
By Scott Shiloh


      Israeli supervision over the Rafiah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has proven ineffective in preventing the free passage of terrorists into and out of Gaza.


Senior members of the Islamic Jihad terror organization, including terrorists wanted by the IDF, recently left the Gaza district to make the Moslem Haj to Mecca. The terrorists used that freedom of movement to hold meetings with senior Islamic Jihad officials from Syria and Lebanon.

The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for last Thursday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. Thirty civilians were wounded in that attack.

Among the terrorists who traveled freely out of Gaza were Mohammed Al-Hindi, Sheikh Abdulla Shami, Mohammed Alharzain, Hisham Salem, and Omar Shalho. There figures, all of whom returned freely to Gaza, make up some of the foremost terrorists fighting Israel today.

Under the terms of an agreement brokered by the United States, Israel was supposed to be able to moniter the operations of the Rafiah crossing via closed circuit television.

The terrorists leaders felt secure enough in their new found freedom to tell the Arab newspaper Albian on January 22, how easily they passed from Gaza to Saudi Arabia and back.

While meeting with their Lebanese and Syrian counterparts in Saudi Arabia, the Gaza terrorists were able to settle a number of policy disputes regarding political and military issues.

One of those issues was whether the Islamic Jihad should participate in the elections for the PA parliament scheduled for January 25. Originally, the terror group was opposed to participation in the elections. Since the group’s leaders returned from Saudi Arabia, however, they decided to allow members to vote according to their consciences, and even run for office.

Rafiah Crossing: Safe Passage for Terrorists

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Jan. 23, 2006 2:35
Israel gears up for possible Hamas victory
By HERB KEINON

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed a blue-ribbon team Sunday to monitor the Palestinian Legislative Council elections and recommend policy, as Israel began gearing up for the possibility that Hamas may win Wednesday's vote, forcing Israel to make some tough choices.

Newly-appointed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the weekly cabinet meeting that even if Hamas did not win, and even if it was not included in the next government, there would be those in the international community who would try to make a distinction between having terrorist organizations in the parliament - which they would deem legitimate - and having them in the government, which they would not see as acceptable.

Israel cannot accept this distinction, she said, and would demand on the day after elections that the PA government do what it promised the world: dismantle the terrorist organizations.

Livni said the PA sold the world on the idea that elections with Hamas participation were necessary because at the end of the process, the PA would have the legitimacy to place all arms under a central government. The international community had to stick to this position, she said.

Israel is increasingly concerned that Hamas's participation in the elections will lead to increased calls in Europe to look at the organization as a political one and take it off its list of terrorist organizations.

The cabinet, meanwhile, was united around the notion that any Hamas participation in PA government institutions was unacceptable, one government source said. But the panel that Olmert set up was to present him with various policy alternatives for exactly that eventuality, as well as others.

Olmert convened a meeting with top security officials and a handful of cabinet ministers after the cabinet session that presented the different scenarios, ranging from a Fatah victory to a Hamas one, and then appointed a panel to draw up various policy options for the different scenarios.

The panel includes Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin, Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military aide Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni and Sharon's special adviser Dov Weisglass.

The National Security Council, headed by Giora Eiland, was also charged with coming up with a set of recommendations.

An indication as to how the international community will deal with the elections won't be long in coming, as the Quartet - comprised of the US, EU, Russia and UN - is scheduled to meet on January 30, as are the EU foreign ministers, to discuss the matter.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet that there was a likelihood that terrorists would try to disrupt the elections by carrying out an attack. He said there were still 10 concrete warnings of attacks, and another 40 based on "partial information."

Mofaz also said it was likely that there would be attempts to carry out attacks similar to the one last week in Tel Aviv, which he said was financed by Iran, planned in Syria, and carried out by a man from near Nablus. He said Iran was transferring "considerable funds" to Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad, and that the terrorist organizations in Judea and Samaria were demanding money for each attack.

At the start of the meeting, Olmert said a formal cabinet discussion on the ramifications of the PA elections would take place after they were held so it would not appear as if Israel was trying to influence the outcome. Olmert urged the ministers not to talk about the elections beforehand.

Israel gears up for possible Hamas victory

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Jan. 22, 2006 16:23
Iran calls Israeli threats a game
By JPOST STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHERAN, Iran

Director of Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, said at the cabinet meeting on Sunday that if sanctions were to be imposed on Iran, the world should still avoid forcing an oil embargo on the country.

According to Yadlin, an oil embargo would cause more harm than good.

The intelligence chief proposed other steps against Iran, such as limiting Iranian citizen's freedom of travel, as well as preventing Iranian diplomats from traveling.

Earlier Sunday Iran said Israel would be making a "fatal mistake" should it resort to military action against Teheran's nuclear program and dismissed veiled threats from the Jewish state as a "childish game."

On Saturday, Israel repeated its stand on the issue, saying it would not accept a nuclear Iran under any circumstances and was preparing for the possible failure of diplomatic efforts.

While Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz stopped short of an outright threat of military action, he said Israel "must have the capability to defend itself...and this we are preparing." I do believe that Israel can take care of Iran, with little trouble. That is if the other arab nations stay out of it. DW

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Israel was only trying to add to Western pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear program.

"We consider Mofaz's comments a form of psychological warfare. Israel knows just how much of a fatal mistake it would be (to attack Iran)," Asefi told reporters. "This is just a childish game by Israel."

Israel views Iran as its biggest threat and has joined Washington in charging that Teheran is trying to building nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation.

Asefi's threats were not limited to Israel. He said dialogue was the best way to settle the dispute and issued a harsh warning to European powers to resume talks.

"We advise them [Europe] not to choose any path except dialogue. If there is a retribution to be paid, that will include Europe too," Asefi said, adding that Iran plans to continue cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Last week, European powers drafted a resolution calling for Iran's referral to the UN Security Council to resolve its nuclear issue. The resolution, however, stopped short of calling for sanctions.

Iran calls Israeli threats a game

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Israeli Leaders Brace for Hamas Landslide

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 22, 6:31 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with top military and political officials Sunday to discuss the growing likelihood that the militant group Hamas could dominate this week's Palestinian elections.

The ascendance of Hamas has alarmed Israel, which appears to have been caught off guard by the group's surging popularity before Wednesday's vote. Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and remains committed to Israel's destruction.

"What Israel has to do is the big question," Cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi said before Sunday's meeting. "We have to think hard and explore all the options."

The United States and European Union also have been scrambling to figure out how to deal with Hamas. U.S. officials confirmed Sunday they have been directing money to promote democratic parties in the election but denied the move was aimed against Hamas.

Hamas, best known for its suicide attacks, has won over the Palestinian public in its first run for the legislature by focusing on domestic concerns, halting corruption and restoring law and order to the chaotic West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In contrast, the ruling Fatah Party has been unable to shed its corrupt image or overcome infighting. Recent opinion polls show the two movements running even.

While some security officials privately support a dialogue with Hamas, top leaders, including military chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, say the group must disarm and revoke its charter calling for Israel's elimination.

"Regarding the elections in the Palestinian authority, there are three options: that Fatah wins, that Hamas wins or anarchy wins. One of these results could put all progress back several years," Halutz told an academic conference Sunday, apparently referring to Hamas and warning that violence could follow the election.

Commentators said Olmert's meeting Sunday — which included the army chief, head of the Shin Bet security agency, and the justice and defense ministers — reflected a failure by Israel to detect Hamas' growing popularity, despite its strong performance in Palestinian municipal voting in recent months.

"Their assumption was Fatah will handily win any election," said Mouin Rabbani, an analyst with the International Crisis Group based in Jordan.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said he hopes Hamas would tame its positions once it formally joins the political system, but other Fatah officials sent mixed signals over whether they would work with the Islamic group. Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shaath, a top Fatah official, said Hamas must accept the principle of peace with Israel if it wants to share power.

However, Fatah's top candidate, the jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, said Sunday that "Hamas will be part and parcel of the Palestinian Authority" after the vote. Barghouti was interviewed in an Israeli prison by the Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera.

The United States and EU both consider Hamas a terrorist group, and both have said millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians could be jeopardized.

"As a matter of policy, we don't deal with Hamas," said Stewart Tuttle, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv. "If Hamas members win seats ... we are not going to deal with those individuals."

The U.S. Agency for International Development has used a special $1.9 million budget to promote democratic parties in the Palestinian election, said a U.S. Consulate spokeswoman in Jerusalem, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm.

She denied that the money, used in part to clean streets, distribute free food and water and to help fund a youth soccer tournament, was used to boost Fatah's prospects.

Behind the scenes, U.S. officials are considering the possibility of distinguishing between Hamas legislators tied to violence and those who are not — a position Israel rejects. European diplomats said they would decide what to do after election results are in.

The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been plagued by chaos and lawlessness in recent months, and some armed groups have threatened to disrupt the voting.

Visiting election commission offices on Sunday, Abbas was resolute. "Orders have been issued to security forces to strike with an iron fist against anyone who would try to sabotage this election," he said.

In other developments, an Israeli aircraft fired at three Palestinian gunmen trying to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding two, according to the army and Palestinian officials. The Popular Resistance Committees, a tiny militant group not running in the election, vowed revenge.

Separately, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the battered Likud Party, said Sunday that he would be willing to make "significant concessions" in a final peace deal with the Palestinians if his party wins elections March 28.

However, he spelled out a tough negotiating line, saying Israel's final borders would include east Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank — areas the Palestinians want for a future state — if a government run by Netanyahu signs a peace accord with the Palestinians

Israeli Leaders Brace for Hamas Landslide

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 Iran says Palestine is center of Islam, fight against arrogance
Tehran, Jan 21, IRNA

Syria-Iran- President Ahmadinejad said Friday Palestine is the center of the final stages of the battle between Islam and arrogance, saying the Palestinian Intifada is progressing.

The plots hatched by enemies against Palestine should not be overlooked even for a moment, Ahmadinejad noted in a meeting with leaders of the Palestinian resistance movements in Damascus, Syria.

Ahmadinejad arrived in Damascus on Thursday upon the official invitation of his Syrian counterpart -- President Bashar al-Assad.

He spoke of the importance of the Palestinian cause and stressed the cause will not come be materialized if occupiers continue to occupy even a tiny part of Palestine's territories.

He stressed that unity, coordination and sympathy among resistance groups for the Palestinian cause is the only guarantee for Palestine's liberation.

The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the Palestinian cause of statehood and liberation of Islamic territories from occupiers, he added.

Elsewhere, he noted that one of the reasons westerners were lined up against Iran's undeniable right to gain peaceful nuclear technology was because of Iran's uncompromising support for Palestine.

The visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Syria is considered another gesture of political support to Damascus and the Islamic resistance, said Hamas political leader Khaled Mishaal.

The Hamas official extended his thanks to the Iranian president for his firm stance on the Palestinian issue, saying the resistance group, Hamas, considers resistance the only way to resolve the Palestinians' rights and success of their avowed goals.

Iran says Palestine is center of Islam, fight against arrogance

Things are really shaping up!

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Iran races to defend nuclear facilities
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent and Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 25/01/2006)

Iran is racing to dig a network of tunnels and upgrade its air defences to protect its nuclear facilities from possible attacks by America or Israel, it was reported yesterday.

Israel this week issued thinly-veiled warnings that it has drawn up plans for pre-emptive strikes against Iran. The United States insists it will not take the military option "off the table".

Seeking to avoid a repeat of Israel's 1981 air raid on Osiraq, Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued orders for the underground complexes to be completed by the beginning of July, Jane's Defence Weekly reported.

It said the network of facilities deep underground or in the sides of mountains has been built with help from North Korean designers.

Atomic inspectors discovered in 2003 that Iran was building a vast underground complex to enrich uranium near the town of Natanz.

But other facilities, such as the uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, are still above ground and exposed to attack.
    
Iran factfile

Iran insists it only seeks to develop a nuclear industry for "peaceful" purposes, but the West is convinced it is trying to build nuclear weapons.

Teheran provoked an international crisis earlier this month when it restarted the enrichment programme, under the guise of "research", after it had been frozen for two years during negotiations with European countries.

At an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna next week, western countries will seek to report Teheran to the United Nations for possible sanctions.

Iran races to defend nuclear facilities

[Shammu]

Palestinians Celebrate Historic Vote

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Amid tight security and a sea of green and yellow flags, Palestinians turned out in large numbers Wednesday for their first parliamentary election in a decade — a historic vote integrating Islamic militants into politics and determining the future of peacemaking with Israel.

Voter turnout was 77.7 percent of 1.3 million eligible voters, the Central Election Commission said. In the 1996 parliamentary election, turnout was about 75 percent.

One poll suggested the ruling Fatah Party had likely won the most votes, with the Islamic militant group Hamas a close second, according to the West Bank's An Najah University. A pollster who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the results said Fatah won more than 42 percent of the vote and Hamas more than 34 percent. He said the telephone poll surveyed 6,500 people who said they voted and had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.

An exit poll broadcast by Israel's Channel 2 TV showed Fatah getting 43 percent to 32 percent for Hamas. The polls only reflect the national vote for each party. Half the seats are chosen at the district level, where Hamas was expected to do well.

Long lines formed across the West Bank and Gaza as Palestinians — given a real choice for the first time — eagerly cast their ballots for the 132 parliament seats up for grabs.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. (noon EST). Under a compromise with Israel, some Arabs in east Jerusalem were allowed to cast absentee ballots at post offices in the disputed city, and voting was extended there by two hours because postal workers were slow.

After the polls closed, Fatah supporters across Gaza and the West Bank began honking car horns, shooting in the air and setting off fireworks in celebration.

Election officials began counting the votes soon after polls closed and preliminary results were expected Thursday. Routine power cuts in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis forced election workers to count ballots by candlelight.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he is ready to resume peace talks with Israel, even if Hamas joins his government after the vote.

"We are ready to negotiate," Abbas told Israeli reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "We are partners with the Israelis. They don't have the right to choose their partner. But if they are seeking a Palestinian partner, this partner exists."

Even it doesn't win outright, Hamas is widely expected to make a strong showing that would place the Islamists — responsible for dozens of suicide bombings against Israel — squarely inside the Palestinian political system for the first time.

Hamas' success has alarmed Israel and the West, although Abbas has argued that bringing them into the system will tame them, enabling peace moves to go forward. In an apparent sign of pragmatism, Hamas has not carried out a suicide attacks since a cease-fire was declared a year ago.

But its top parliamentary candidate, Ismail Haniyeh, said Hamas had no intention of laying down its arms after the elections as Abbas has said he expects. And another prominent candidate, Mahmoud Zahar, said his group is "not going to change a single word" in its covenant calling for Israel's destruction.

The Bush administration lists Hamas as a terrorist organization and also refuses to deal directly with it. But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Tuesday refused to rule out negotiations with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas ministers.

Abbas, elected a year ago, will still head the Palestinian Authority regardless of Wednesday's results, but the voting will usher in a new Cabinet that could include Hamas members. Israel says it will not deal with Hamas until it disarms.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called it "a historic and significant day for the Palestinian people."

The day had a festive feel — some party activists decorated their cars with red carnations, as if for a wedding — and few disruptions were reported, despite initial concern about possible violence. In the West Bank refugee camp of Balata, gunmen who had threatened to derail voting checked their automatic rifles at the door before casting their votes.

Emotions ran high in the disputed city of Jerusalem, where right-wing Israeli lawmakers and extremists tried to force their way into a Palestinian polling station, with 75 policemen blocking their way. And in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, police fired into the air to push back a crowd of impatient voters jostling their way into a polling station.

Fatah, tainted by corruption after 12 years in power, was asking voters for another chance to pursue an elusive peace deal with Israel. Hamas has focused on clean government, and criticized Fatah's attempt at compromise with Israel as a sign of weakness.

Activists from both parties were out in full force, handing out lists of candidates' names, baseball hats and scarves. But the Hamas effort appeared more organized than Fatah's.

"These elections will determine the fate of the Palestinian people," said Mohammed Shaabein, a 71-year-old retiree in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

The Beach refugee camp near Gaza City was decorated in a sea of flags — green for Hamas, yellow for Fatah — and the excitement in the air was palpable.

Outside a polling station at a boys' school in the camp, Fatah supporters wore the party's black-and-white checkered scarves decorated with Palestinian flags.

Hamas activists sported green baseball hats, and many of the Hamas women wore full veils and gloves, once a rare sight in Gaza and a sign of the growing influence of fundamentalist Islam in the impoverished coastal strip.

"We've reached the worst. The most important thing now is change," said Raed Abu Hamam, a 35-year-old construction worker in the Beach camp who said he is voting for Hamas.

Some 13,500 police officers deployed at 1,008 polling stations, taking up positions on rooftops and at entrances to enforce a weapons ban.

Nearly 20,000 local observers and 950 international monitors, led by former President Carter, watched the vote.

Francis Wurtz, an observer from the European Parliament, said he had witnessed no irregularities.

"The organization is very correct everywhere," he said.

There were some allegations of fraud in the 1996 parliamentary election and the 2005 presidential election that brought Abbas to power, but international monitors said at the time the problems were not widespread.

Abbas, who voted in Ramallah, said elections were proceeding smoothly but complained of Israeli travel restrictions on roads. Israel said it was easing checkpoints on voting day.

"We are so happy with this election festival," Abbas said, after dipping his index finger in ink to prevent double voting.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri, seeking a seat in Beit Lahiya, said he expects the group to win the biggest bloc in parliament.

Even then, Hamas has said it doesn't want to rule alone. "We did not come to replace anyone or squeeze out anyone. We came to start a new phase in political partnership and unity," al-Masri said.

Under Palestinian law, the largest party would be asked to form a government.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Fatah is ready to "stand behind" Hamas if the Islamic movement wins.

The election marked the first time Palestinians have a clear choice between two political camps since Hamas boycotted the 1996 vote.

Hamas is expected to ask for service ministries — health, education and welfare — and to leave diplomacy, including contacts with Israel, to others. Hamas, which has long ruled out negotiations with Israel, has signaled some flexibility on the issue in recent days.

Fatah leaders also predicted they will get more than half the parliament seats. But if forced to form a coalition, Fatah prefers to govern with smaller parties and would invite Hamas only if left with no other choice.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped Palestinians would not "choose again the extremists who have led them from tragedy to tragedy and to sorrowful lives."

Palestinians Celebrate Historic Vote