Prophecy and End Time Series. - Israel

[Shammu]

Hamas to boost ties with Iran, Syria
By Ze'ev Schiff

In the wake of its landslide victory in the Palestinian legislative elections, Hamas is expected to grow much closer to Iran and Syria. Ties with Iran will center on financing, operational know-how and political support.

Israel believes agreements on this matter were already reached on the eve of the elections at a meeting in Damascus with visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

During his visit to Syria, Ahmadinejad met with representatives of the Palestinian organizations and with the head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. Of particular importance was Ahmadinejad's meeting with the leader of Hamas abroad, Khaled Meshal.

In the past, Iran relied primarily on Islamic Jihad, but since Yasser Arafat's death the ties with Hamas have grown tighter.

Ahmadinejad promised Hamas financial and political support and closer military ties. With Hamas winning the Palestinian Authority parliamentary elections, this means that aid for Hamas' military wing will indirectly aid the Palestinian security organizations.

On the other hand, the internal talks indicate that Syria and Hezbollah, as well as Iran, are underscoring the need to beware of cooperation with Al-Qaida elements, which infiltrate from Iraq into Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to forge ties with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israeli defense officials say that if Israel backs down and continues aiding the Palestinian Authority as if nothing happened, and especially after a Hamas government is formed, there will be a sweeping retreat in the West's position regarding aid for a Hamas government.

"Israel must not blink" on the strict terms imposed on Hamas, they say; any concession will cause the Western countries' stances to collapse.

An Israeli retreat would adversely impact Jordan's situation. The Jordanians have told the Israelis that they are worried Israel might "export to Jordan" the problems created vis-a-vis Hamas and Iran.

In Damascus and Tehran, Hamas is considered a "winning card" worth backing. A mutual embrace is therefore expected. Iran intends to make sure Hamas does not give in to political pressure from the West and several Arab countries to reach a political compromise including recognition of Israel and a stop to the violence in return for Western financial aid to the PA. Iran and Syria are demanding that Hamas stand firm on its ideology. Tehran is promising financial aid in place of the West, and says it has vast resources from oil sales to help Hamas.

The "illicit" funneling of money to terrorist groups in the territories goes through various conduits that are difficult to block. This is one of Israel's greatest failures in its war on terror. In one case Israel seized concealed Hamas accounts at an Arab bank, which prompted complaints from the United States, Egypt and Jordan. Israel appointed an interministerial committee to counter the money flow to terrorist groups in the territories. The committee improved the methods of combating this phenomenon, but has not really succeeded in blocking the smuggling, which will now surely increase following Hamas' victory and its growing ties to Iran.

Hamas to boost ties with Iran, Syria

[2nd Timothy]

Hamas to boost ties with Iran, Syria
By Ze'ev Schiff

In the wake of its landslide victory in the Palestinian legislative elections, Hamas is expected to grow much closer to Iran and Syria. Ties with Iran will center on financing, operational know-how and political support.

Israel believes agreements on this matter were already reached on the eve of the elections at a meeting in Damascus with visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

During his visit to Syria, Ahmadinejad met with representatives of the Palestinian organizations and with the head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. Of particular importance was Ahmadinejad's meeting with the leader of Hamas abroad, Khaled Meshal.

In the past, Iran relied primarily on Islamic Jihad, but since Yasser Arafat's death the ties with Hamas have grown tighter.

Ahmadinejad promised Hamas financial and political support and closer military ties. With Hamas winning the Palestinian Authority parliamentary elections, this means that aid for Hamas' military wing will indirectly aid the Palestinian security organizations.

On the other hand, the internal talks indicate that Syria and Hezbollah, as well as Iran, are underscoring the need to beware of cooperation with Al-Qaida elements, which infiltrate from Iraq into Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to forge ties with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israeli defense officials say that if Israel backs down and continues aiding the Palestinian Authority as if nothing happened, and especially after a Hamas government is formed, there will be a sweeping retreat in the West's position regarding aid for a Hamas government.

"Israel must not blink" on the strict terms imposed on Hamas, they say; any concession will cause the Western countries' stances to collapse.

An Israeli retreat would adversely impact Jordan's situation. The Jordanians have told the Israelis that they are worried Israel might "export to Jordan" the problems created vis-a-vis Hamas and Iran.

In Damascus and Tehran, Hamas is considered a "winning card" worth backing. A mutual embrace is therefore expected. Iran intends to make sure Hamas does not give in to political pressure from the West and several Arab countries to reach a political compromise including recognition of Israel and a stop to the violence in return for Western financial aid to the PA. Iran and Syria are demanding that Hamas stand firm on its ideology. Tehran is promising financial aid in place of the West, and says it has vast resources from oil sales to help Hamas.

The "illicit" funneling of money to terrorist groups in the territories goes through various conduits that are difficult to block. This is one of Israel's greatest failures in its war on terror. In one case Israel seized concealed Hamas accounts at an Arab bank, which prompted complaints from the United States, Egypt and Jordan. Israel appointed an interministerial committee to counter the money flow to terrorist groups in the territories. The committee improved the methods of combating this phenomenon, but has not really succeeded in blocking the smuggling, which will now surely increase following Hamas' victory and its growing ties to Iran.

Hamas to boost ties with Iran, Syria

I expect this trend will continue.   Syria not being mentioned in Eze 38, and 39 leads me to believe that Isa 17:1 takes place before the Gog and Magog war, which does not appear to be to far off in the future.   I've been sort of waiting for Syria to steal the headlines here shortly somehow someway.   Interesting to watch all of this stuff from scripture coming to life right before our eyes.

[Shammu]

Last update - 20:11 05/02/2006            
Israel predicts Iran will pay 'heavy price' for nuclear defiance
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert voiced confidence on Sunday that Iran would pay "a very heavy price" by resuming full-scale uranium enrichment after being reported to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.

The United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency referred Iran to the Security Council on Saturday.

Olmert, in broadcast remarks at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, said Israel had played an important role in what he described as an intensive and stormy diplomatic effort leading to Iran's referral to the UN body.
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"At the end of the day, it shows that Iran will pay a very heavy price if it continues with its plans to try and enrich its fuel in order to be able to use it as an option to make non-conventional weapons," the interim prime minister said.

Meanwhile, Iran has ended all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced Sunday.

"We ended all the voluntary cooperation we have been extending to the IAEA in the past two and a half to three years, on the basis of the president's order," Mottaki said. "We do not have any obligation toward the additional protocol (anymore)."

The announcement means Iran has resumed uranium enrichment and will no longer allow snap IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities, both voluntary measures it had allowed in recent years in a goodwill gesture to build trust.

"Because of the resolution of the IAEA ... the organization should stop voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol and other cooperation from Sunday," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday.

Iran announced that it sees the referral to the Security Council as the end of diplomacy. The head of the Iranian delegation to the IAEA, Javed Vaeidi, deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, told journalists after the resolution was passed that Iran "now has to implement a fuller scale of enrichment."

Resolution links Israeli, Iranian programs
At the last minute, an unprecedented article was introduced into the United Nations resolution that indirectly refers to Israel in its call for a "Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction." This is the first time a link has been made between the Israeli and Iranian nuclear programs. The article was approved in order to create as wide a consensus as possible among IAEA members.

According to Israeli intelligence, Iran will have the knowledge, ability and technology to create nuclear weapons some 12 to 18 months after it begins to enrich uranium. However, they also note that it will be another two to three years before Iran will have the quantity of material needed to assemble its first atom bomb.

American intelligence, in contrast, puts the time needed at eight years, due to expected difficulties in acquiring equipment, materials and technology, as well as know-how.

Israel's envoy to the IAEA, Yisrael Michaeli, said the clause calling for a WMD-free zone in the Middle East is unacceptable, especially under present circumstances. While there is a consensus for the need to rid the region of weapons of mass destruction, approving such a call at this time is detrimental, Michaeli told the board.

In response to a query by Haaretz as to whether the resolution refers to Israel's nuclear weapons program, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the IAEA Ambassador Gregory Schulte replied that the resolution is in reference to Iran.

The IAEA resolution was approved after three days of deliberations that exposed the deep rifts among the 35 members of the board of governors, as well as the reluctance of the non-allied nations to support it. The resolution was eventually adopted with a 27-vote majority. Three states voted against (Cuba, Venezuela and Syria) and five abstained (Algeria, South Africa, Libya, Indonesia and Belarus).

According to the resolution, the Security Council can discuss Iran's nuclear program only next month, after IAEA Secretary General Mohamed ElBaradei presents his full report to the board of governors. At this stage, the Security Council is not considering sanctions against Iran, due to opposition from Russia and China.

After the vote, U.S. IAEA Ambassador Greg Schulte told Haaretz that the United States still seeks a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program. But he also said the resolution should have been taken a few years ago, after Iran's violations of its international obligations in this matter. Schulte noted that the only states that voted against isolating Iran are themselves isolated states.

He called on Tehran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities, including research and development, because the country has no need for civilian uses of atomic energy. The American also called on the country not to build the new research reactor it is constructing in Arak, which he said could be used to create plutonium for nuclear weapons, because the country does not need it.

Schulte asked Iran to stop making threats, to accept the resolution, to act wisely and with restraint, and to demonstrate transparency about its entire nuclear program.

British IAEA Ambassador Peter Jenkins, who together with his French and German counterparts sponsored the resolution, said it "sends a message of concern ... and a continuing lack of confidence in Iran's nuclear intentions. Board members cannot understand why Iran is so determined to press on with its enrichment program."

Jenkins expressed hope that Iran would take confidence-building measures and suspend its uranium enrichment program in the one-month break before the Security Council takes up the issue.

Israel predicts Iran will pay 'heavy price' for nuclear defiance

[Shammu]

Syria presses for more attacks

Four suicide bombings thwarted in last two weeks; security officials say Syria orders terror groups to boost rate of attacks ahead of upcoming general elections in bid to influence results
Alex Fishman

Terror organizations directed by "external elements" in Syria have been instructed to boost the rate of attacks inside Israel ahead of the upcoming general elections, military sources say.

According to a report in Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the desire for more terror attacks stems from an intention to influence the election results, the military source said.

In the last two weeks, security authorities were able to thwart four suicide bombings planned by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front. According to defense sources, the external pressure to carry out as many attacks as possible within a short period of time means preparations for the attacks are undertaken more hastily than in the past.

Meanwhile, security officials are closely monitoring the "renewed enthusiasm" of Popular Front members in the West Bank.

On Friday, IDF forces nabbed two Islamic Jihad members in the possession of explosive belts intended for suicide bombers. An initial investigation revealed the double suicide bombing was planned by Islamic Jihad and was meant to be carried out Friday evening.

Greater Iranian involvement on northern border

Meanwhile, IDF Northern Command officials have reported a growing Iranian involvement in Hizbullah activity on the northern border. Officers belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been spotted arriving at frontline Hizbullah posts in order to train terrorists there.

A senior military source said recent developments are worrying, as up until recently Iran trained Hizbullah members in Iranian territory and not in such proximity to Israel's border.

The attempted abduction of IDF soldiers in the village of Rajar about two months ago showed Israeli officials Iranian training is already influence Hizbullah's modus operandi.

"The diversion and attack tactic is familiar from the Iranian military," a senior army source said. Meanwhile, other military officials said "Hizbullah is currently in advanced stages of preparations for an abduction operation. The group has patience and will try to identify vulnerabilities."

Syria presses for more attacks

[Shammu]

Israel Will Work With Abbas, but Not Hamas

Mon Feb 6, 4:10 AM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said Monday he will work with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as long as he does not join forces with Hamas.

Olmert also said Israel would continue transferring monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority as long as Hamas was not in control. Hamas won parliamentary elections earlier this month, but has not yet begun forming a government.

"I have no interest in harming Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen as long as he doesn't cooperate with Hamas and as long as the Palestinian government isn't led by Hamas," Olmert said Monday. Abbas is widely known as Abu Mazen.

He spoke a day after Israel agreed Sunday to transfer $54 million in desperately needed tax money to the Palestinian Authority, but said it might freeze payments after the Islamic Hamas group forms the next Palestinian government.

Israel's monthly transfer of the taxes and customs duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinians is crucial to the functioning of the Palestinian Authority. Halting the payments would deepen the government's financial crisis and add to the growing international pressure on Hamas to renounce violence and recognize Israel before it takes power.

Israel Will Work With Abbas, but Not Hamas

[Shammu]

Official: Hamas Won't Recognize Israel

By NADIA ABOU EL MAGD, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 6, 7:28 AM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - A top Hamas official said the militant group will not recognize Israel but will abide, for now, by past agreements Palestinian leaders made with the Jewish state. He also lashed out at the more moderate Fatah party for refusing to participate in a national unity Palestinian government.

The comments by Moussa Abu Marzouk, the right-hand man to Hamas' political leader Khaled Mashaal, came as Hamas leaders from Syria and Palestinian areas gathered here and began talks Monday with Egyptian officials after the group's stunning election victory.

In a statement, Abu Marzouk blamed the Fatah movement for refusing to participate in a national unity government, which Hamas wants to form to avoid an Israeli veto on it.

"We will act in the legal framework to get out from this deadlock, which our brothers in Fatah have put us in," Abu Marzouk told reporters late Sunday.

Abu Marzouk said any government set up by Hamas "will not make security arrangements with Israeli or hand over (Palestinians) who fire rockets (on Israel)." He also insisted the group would not recognize Israel.

Hamas is under growing international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist as a condition for receiving millions of dollars in foreign aid — the lifeline of the Palestinian economy. Western powers have said they will not fund a Hamas-led Palestinian government otherwise.

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman said last week that Egypt intends to tell Hamas leaders that they must recognize Israel, disarm and honor past peace deals.

The leaders are executed to meet later with senior Egyptian officials, including Suleiman and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Omar Suleiman.

An Egyptian official said Monday that Egyptian officials will repeat to Hamas leaders that they should comply with all obligations undertaken by the Palestinian Authority.

"They will also be advised that they should keep all the achievements the Palestinian people have made regarding peace and security,"said the Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Mashaal arrived from Damascus leading a delegation from the movement's outside while another delegation from Gaza led by Mahmoud al Zahar arrived from the Palestinian territories.

Before the leaders started their meetings at a Cairo hotel, Abu Marzouk acknowledged that the movement faces difficulties in its attempts to set up a government.

"The most daunting task we face is to recognize the Zionist enemy and the obligations which the Authority had in the absence of similar (Israeli) obligations," he said.

Marzouk said Hamas officials had met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader, and that Abbas did not insist that Hamas had to recognize Israel or make other concessions before Fatah would negotiate a deal to form the next Palestinian government.

Speaking of past peace deals between the Palestinians and Israel, Marzouk told reporters: "There is no authority that inherits another authority without abiding by the agreements already made. But the other party also should be committed to the agreements."

He said Hamas would review all past deals.

"If the agreements contradict logic and rights, there are legal measures to be taken ... there are no eternal agreements," he said.

Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said Monday he will work with Abbas as long as he does not join forces with Hamas. Olmert also said Israel would continue transferring monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority as long as Hamas was not in control.

Israel agreed Sunday to transfer $54 million (euro45 million) in desperately needed tax money to the Palestinian Authority. Israel's monthly transfer of the taxes and customs duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinians is crucial to the functioning of the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli Cabinet decided to transfer the money because Hamas was not yet in the government, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said.

Official: Hamas Won't Recognize Israel

[Shammu]

Hamas Warns Abbas Not to Make Changes

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 8, 4:56 PM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - Hamas warned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday not to make changes in the government without consulting it — the first clear sign the Islamic militant group plans to play hardball as both sides begin to jockey for positions in the new leadership.

Exiled political leader Khaled Mashaal reiterated that Hamas would not bow to Arab and international pressure to recognize Israel and that the group — once in power — would not act to prevent militant attacks on the Jewish state.

Mashaal took the tough stance after three days of talks between Hamas leaders and Egyptian officials — the group's first diplomatic foray seeking Arab support since it scored a surprise victory in Palestinian elections on Jan. 25.

Hoping to avert a collapse of the peace process, Egyptian officials had said ahead of the talks that they would urge Hamas to recognize Israel and build a coalition government with Abbas' more moderate Fatah party.

But Mashaal, who is based in Damascus, and other Hamas leaders appeared confident in their strength, offering at most a continuation of the truce in anti-Israeli attacks that they called a year ago.

The smaller militant group Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, declared it would forge ahead with attacks against Israel — signaling that even if Hamas eventually bows to pressure, other Palestinian radicals will not. Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all six suicide bombings since Palestinian factions agreed to a cease-fire a year ago.

Mashaal said Hamas would not renounce violence or act to stop anti-Israeli attacks because it was obliged to resist what it regards as Israel's occupation of Palestinian land.

"We will not stand against the resistance, we will not condemn any operation and will never arrest any mujahed (holy warrior)," he said.

The Hamas leader told the British Broadcasting Corp. earlier Wednesday that a long-term cease-fire with Israel was possible if the Jewish state withdrew to its 1967 borders.

In Washington, Israel's new foreign minister Tzipi Livni said during a visit that her country should not be bound by agreements to give a Hamas-led Palestinian government customs duties and taxes it collects on the Palestinians because it considers the group terrorists.

Israel has agreed to turn over about $50 million a month so long as the current caretaker government of Abbas remains in power.

"We are talking about the Hamas, which is a designated terrorist organization," Livni said during a news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "It's something unacceptable to demand Israel implement its role in these agreements while the other side doesn't even agree that we have the right to exist, simple as that."

The United States has also branded Hamas a terrorist organization.

Speaking at the same news conference, Rice said the international community led by the United States need to send a strong message to Hamas that terror is unacceptable and it must renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Meanwhile, Mashaal issued a strong warning to Abbas, known by his nickname Abu Mazen, not to make political changes behind Hamas' back.

"This is a message to Abu Mazen and other brothers in the authority to stop issuing decrees and decisions (before consulting us) ... as if to throw them in our face," Mashaal told journalists in Cairo. "We will not deal with them as legitimate ... no one can deceive us."

The warning was a reaction to reports that Abbas would try to wrest control of security forces from a Hamas-led government. Palestinian papers reported Abbas planned to appoint his current Interior Minister Nasser Youssef as deputy commander of the Palestinian security forces. An official in Abbas' office denied the reports.

Under Palestinian law, Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority is responsible for foreign intelligence and national defense, while the yet-to-be-named prime minister is responsible for internal security, police and civil defense.

Hamas also was upset when Palestinian Parliament speaker Rauhi Fattouh appointed Fatah activist Ibrahim Khreisheh as director general of the legislative council after last month's parliamentary election in which Hamas won 74 of the 132 seats.

Abbas has said he will ask Hamas to form the new government.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Fatah official, said it was "too early for Mr. Mashaal to jump to conclusions about various appointments."

"We urge Hamas to accept the Arab peace plan of 2002 that calls for a two-state solution and to accept the Palestinian Authority's obligations and commitments and to put the interests of the Palestinian people before anything else," he told The Associated Press.

Another top Hamas leader said earlier Wednesday that Jamal al-Khudairi, an independent legislator and businessman backed by Hamas, would be named Palestinian prime minister.

Al-Khudairi was unanimously picked for the post in a Cairo meeting of Hamas leaders from Syria and from Gaza, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the group has not yet put the proposal to Abbas.

Asked about the report, Mashaal said Hamas had not decided.

"Al-Khudairi is a respected Palestinian personality," was all he said.

Al-Khudairi, about 50, is board chairman of Gaza's Islamic University and owns the biggest mattress factory in the
West Bank and Gaza. In his campaign speeches, he did not address violence or the recognition of Israel, but stuck to issues such as education and job training. He has, however, talked of the need for internal Palestinian reform.

If al-Khudairi is not accepted in negotiations with Abbas or turns down the nomination, the group would nominate Palestinian Trade and Economics Minister Mazen Sonnoqrot, another independent with Hamas sympathies, the Hamas official said.

Hamas Warns Abbas Not to Make Changes

[Shammu]

Last update - 19:58 09/02/2006            
Putin says he will invite Hamas leaders to Moscow
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he would invite Hamas leaders to Moscow, opening a crack in a wall of U.S.-led opposition to dealing with the Palestinian election winner until it recognized Israel.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State David Welch said he had not yet been updated on the invitation of Hamas officials to Moscow. He noted that Russia is part of the Quartet, and the U.S. expects that all meetings and dialogue with Hamas officials be held according to decisions made by the Quartet.

Putin's decision marks a departure from the international position taken since Hamas won the Palestinian elections last month. The U.S. and Europe have refrained from contact with Hamas leaders and called on the organization to recognize Israel, quit violence, and abide by agreements the Palestinian Authority signed with Israel in the past.

Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas official said in Gaza that leaders of the group, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, "would be delighted" to visit Russia if Putin tendered a formal invitation.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said in Jerusalem there should be no talks with Hamas until it recognizes Israel's right to exist, renounces terror and accepts the Middle East peace process.

"Maintaining our contacts with Hamas, we are ready in the near future to invite the Hamas authorities to Moscow to hold talks," Putin told a news conference in the Spanish capital Madrid where he was on a visit.

Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Putin said: "We haven't considered Hamas a terrorist organization. Today we must recognize that Hamas has reached power in Palestine as a result of legitimate elections and we must respect the choice of the Palestinian people."

International Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn said Thursday he is working to ease the cash-trapped Palestinian Authority's dire financial situation, which took a turn for the worse last month after Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, swept Palestinian elections.

Western nations have threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, Israel is liable to stop transferring monthly payments needed to pay PA salaries, and Arab nations have not followed through on promises to deliver more money.

"We are looking to put together a package which will ensure the financial pressure is relieved for the coming period," Wolfensohn said after meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah to discuss the shifting political map.

He did not elaborate or specify whether that period would extend to the time Hamas took power.

Wolfensohn said he did not come to set conditions for cash injections. But the group he represents already has done so.

Wolfensohn is an envoy of the Quartet that drew up the long-stalled "road map" peace plan - the U.S., UN, European Union and Russia. Last week, the Quartet pledged continued aid to Abbas's caretaker administration but warned that further aid would be at risk if Hamas wouldn't renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Western donors funnel about $900 million to the Palestinians each year, most of it designated for reconstruction projects in the impoverished Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In Cairo on Wednesday, the group's political chief, Khaled Meshal, again rebuffed international demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Meshal also told the state-run Qatar News Agency on Thursday that Hamas planned to ask Arab and Muslim states for political and financial support to counter threats from the West to halt Palestinian aid.

"We are confident that Arab and Muslim countries will stand by Hamas and support the Palestinian people to respond to calls for punishing them," Meshal said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condolezza Rice said that international aid could not flow to Hamas unless it recognizes Israel's right to exist. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has also urged the world to isolate a Hamas-led government.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said after the meeting that Wolfensohn would tour the Gulf to recruit aid.

Saudi Arabia promised $20 million and Qatar pledged $13 million in quick aid to help the PA pay January salaries to 137,000 employees, a senior Palestinian official said earlier in the month. But by Thursday, the money had not arrived.

Putin says he will invite Hamas leaders to Moscow

[Shammu]

US shield blunts Israeli military option on Iran
Thu Feb 9, 2006 8:50 AM ET

 By Dan Williams - Analysis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has long pursued a policy of preemptive attack as its preferred form of defense.

But when it comes to tackling arch-foe Iran, that option may have been put on hold under a protective "umbrella" on offer from the United States.

After years of speculation on whether Israel could launch unilateral strikes on the Iranian nuclear program, some experts now see a major shift in the Jewish state's strategy.

At the core of the change was a vow by U.S. President George W. Bush, in a Reuters interview last week, to "rise to Israel's defense" in the face of increasingly tough talk from Tehran.

Bush's phrasing, with its overtones of Israeli dependency, departed from the language of past U.S. pledges that focused on preserving Israel's military superiority over Middle East foes.

Given U.S. efforts to curb Iran's nuclear plans through international diplomacy, experts say Israel will have to shelve any plans for region-rattling, go-it-alone missions like its 1981 bombing sortie against Iraq's atomic reactor at Osiraq.

This thinking is bolstered by the Bush pledge's echoes of Cold War pacts -- NATO in Europe, the "nuclear umbrella" over Japan -- which defended U.S. allies against the Soviets while obligating them to get Washington's nod for any military moves.

"In political life there are no free lunches, and Bush's statements have a price. They remove the possibility -- if there ever was one -- of Israel taking matters into its own hands," wrote Aluf Benn, diplomatic correspondent for the influential Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

"The decision if and when to act against Iran will be made in the White House, not in the underground headquarters of the (Israeli military command) General Staff."

A senior Israeli official, who asked not to be named, acknowledged that Bush's pledge took bilateral ties to "a new level", but said Israel had not promised anything in return.

Asked if Israel was considering military action on Iran, he said: "Our policy is to follow the U.S. lead in this matter."

Iran says its nuclear program is for energy, not arms.

According to Benn, the U.S. deal has already ushered in a rhetorical restraint among Israeli officials who had previously refused to rule out an Osiraq-style operation against Iran.

So guided, Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expunged mention of Iran from a recent major policy speech, Benn said.

LOGIC OF LIMITATION

Such reticence carries no great price for Israel, whose past veiled threats on Iran had rung hollow to many defense experts.

Unlike Saddam-era Iraq, Iran has numerous, dispersed and fortified nuclear sites -- a challenge perhaps beyond the means of Israel's military, and which only U.S. forces could handle.

"This (Bush's pledge) is a landmark bit of phrasing which I am sure was at least partly calculated," said Patrick Cronin of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

But he added that an agreement by Israel to forgo unilateral action on Iran "would not cost a lot, as while tactically (Israeli) military options are not nil, they are close to nil".

Weighed against such assessments are experts like David Ivry, the former Israeli air force chief who masterminded the Osiraq strike. He argues that even limited attacks on Iran's nuclear program could be enough to set it back by years.

"Launching such an action is a matter of Israel setting a 'red line' for when the threat posed by Iran is unbearable and, when it is crossed, giving the order," Ivry said.

Asked whether, in light of Bush's pledge, Israel would have to at least coordinate any military operation with its U.S. ally, Ivry said he thought it unlikely. "Coordinating would mean, essentially, asking for permission," he said.

David Hartwell, editor of Jane's Country Risk, disagreed.

"The strategic situation with today's Iran is not what it was with Iraq in 1981," he said. "U.S. policy in the region would be seriously undermined by an independent Israeli action."

While he noted that the U.S.-Israeli understandings had yet to be ratified like the defense pacts of the Cold War, Hartwell saw them as similarly circumscribing future actions by Israel.

"The assumption is that the provision of a nuclear umbrella means you forgo a certain amount of defensive action," he said.

Historical precedent suggests Israel could eventually, under an upgraded U.S. alliance, come clean on an atomic arsenal it has never confirmed having, and even agree to limitations on it.

In the 1960s, France pursued a nuclear program in part because President Charles De Gaulle said he did not want to rely on U.S. protection from the Soviets. By submitting to a U.S. umbrella, some see Israel being drawn in the opposite direction.

"Part of the American strategy now may be to provide a nuclear umbrella to the Israelis, with the hope being that, one day, they disarm," Hartwell said.

Israeli officials, while maintaining a policy of ambiguity over the country's nuclear capabilities, have ruled out any open review of it in the absence of comprehensive Middle East peace.
US shield blunts Israeli military option on Iran

[Shammu]

Feb. 12, 2006 1:53 | Updated Feb. 12, 2006 4:06
Evangelical center coming to J'lem
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

The Jerusalem Municipality has authorized the temporary establishment of an Evangelical Christian center for worship on the Mount of Olives for the benefit of those visiting the Holy Land, according to the city and the organizer.

The center, a large prayer tent, will be established at the end of March behind the Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of Olives facing the Temple Mount.

A provisional permit for the site has been approved by the city for March and April, with possibility of renewal for two additional months, a city spokeswoman said Thursday.

The prayer tent, the brainchild of a Jerusalem-based Evangelical Christian leader who is directly involved in contacts between Asian Evangelical Christians and the Holy Land, will be able to host up to 500 people at a time.

A group of 300 Korean Christians is the first slated to use the center at the end of next month.

Its establishment comes at a time of burgeoning ties between Israel and the predominantly pro-Israel Evangelical Christian community around the world.

The prayer tent, which will measure 25 by 10 meters and five meters high, will have as its motif the 12 tribes of Israel.

The Seven Arches is an Arab-owned hotel and the prayer tent is likely to provide a further boost in the number of Christian tourists visiting the Mount of Olives, holy to both Judaism and Christianity.

Organizers hope that the center will become a permanent fixture and that the city will extend the interim permit.

Last year, the government announced plans to create a multimillion dollar Christian Heritage Center in the Galilee which will include a theme park, an auditorium and an outdoor theater.

Israel hopes to attract more than a million pilgrims every year to the park, which will be built near the Sea of Galilee close to sites where Jesus lived and preached.

Evangelical center coming to J'lem

[Shammu]

Feb. 12, 2006 1:53 | Updated Feb. 12, 2006 4:06
Evangelical center coming to J'lem
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

The Jerusalem Municipality has authorized the temporary establishment of an Evangelical Christian center for worship on the Mount of Olives for the benefit of those visiting the Holy Land, according to the city and the organizer.

The center, a large prayer tent, will be established at the end of March behind the Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of Olives facing the Temple Mount.

A provisional permit for the site has been approved by the city for March and April, with possibility of renewal for two additional months, a city spokeswoman said Thursday.

The prayer tent, the brainchild of a Jerusalem-based Evangelical Christian leader who is directly involved in contacts between Asian Evangelical Christians and the Holy Land, will be able to host up to 500 people at a time.

A group of 300 Korean Christians is the first slated to use the center at the end of next month.

Its establishment comes at a time of burgeoning ties between Israel and the predominantly pro-Israel Evangelical Christian community around the world.

The prayer tent, which will measure 25 by 10 meters and five meters high, will have as its motif the 12 tribes of Israel.

The Seven Arches is an Arab-owned hotel and the prayer tent is likely to provide a further boost in the number of Christian tourists visiting the Mount of Olives, holy to both Judaism and Christianity.

Organizers hope that the center will become a permanent fixture and that the city will extend the interim permit.

Last year, the government announced plans to create a multimillion dollar Christian Heritage Center in the Galilee which will include a theme park, an auditorium and an outdoor theater.

Israel hopes to attract more than a million pilgrims every year to the park, which will be built near the Sea of Galilee close to sites where Jesus lived and preached.

Evangelical center coming to J'lem

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Iranian Newspaper Begins Holocaust Cartoon Contest

Monday, February 13, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran  — A prominent Iranian newspaper opened a competition Monday seeking cartoons about the Holocaust in what it called a test of whether the West would be as supportive of freedom of expression over Nazi genocide as it was with caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Hamshahri, one of Iran's top five newspapers, published the international call for cartoons in English and Farsi under the title: "What is the Limit of Western Freedom of Expression?" on its Web site. The announcement also appeared on page 31 of the print version of the paper.

"We don't intend retaliation over the drawings of the prophet. We just want to show that freedom is restricted in the West," said Davood Kazemi, who has been cartoon editor at the paper since 1992 and is executive manager of the contest.

The contest comes in the wake of widespread Muslim fury over the drawings of the Prophet Muhammad and a few months after hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked outrage in Europe for saying Israel should be "wiped off the map" and that the Holocaust was a "myth."

The drawings of Islam's most revered figure -- including one that depicts the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb -- first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September. They were recently reprinted in several publications in Europe, the United States and elsewhere in what publishers said was a show of solidarity for freedom of expression.

Islam widely holds that representations of the prophet are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry.

"We expect those papers who published the cartoons (of Muhammad) to reproduce the cartoons which will be selected during our competition," Kazemi said. "Even Israeli cartoonists could send their works to the contest."

Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Danish newspaper in which the prophet drawings first appeared in September, said earlier this month that his paper would run satirical cartoons about the Holocaust.

But Jyllands-Posten's editor in chief, Carsten Juste, later dismissed Rose's comment, saying "in no circumstances will publish Holocaust cartoons." Rose went on indefinite leave last week.

Kazemi noted that the Iranian paper would not accept any "insulting" cartoons. He did not elaborate.

The call for drawings said that in the West, it was "an unforgiven crime" to debate and review issues such as "looting and crimes perpetrated by the U.S. and Israel, as well as alleged historical events like the Holocaust."

It said the paper was soliciting contributions on the theme of the Holocaust and the limit of Western freedom of expression.

"In the wake of the publication of the profane cartoons in several European newspapers, Hamshahri is going to measure the sanctity of freedom of expression among the Westerners," the announcement said.

May 5 is the deadline for entries and each contestant can enter up to three submissions.

"Some weeks after the deadline we will announce the results of the completion," Kazemi said. "Select cartoons will be reproduced in a catalog and the works will go on public display."

Kazemi stressed that the government had nothing to do with the contest.

"Government authorities did not affect decision-making process for holding the contest. The idea was independently initiated by the paper," Kazemi said.

The contest was co-sponsored by the Caricature House, a Tehran exhibition center for cartoons.

Both the newspaper and the exhibition center are owned by the Tehran Municipality, which is dominated by allies of Ahmadinejad, who is well-known for his opposition to Israel.

Iran also plans a conference to examine what it terms the scientific evidence for the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad has called the Muhammad drawings a Zionist conspiracy. A series of angry demonstrations at embassies of European countries in Tehran caused Denmark to temporarily withdraw its ambassador on Saturday.

Most protests across the Muslim world were peaceful, but some -- including Iran, Syria and Lebanon -- have turned into violent attacks against Western diplomatic missions. In Afghanistan, nearly a dozen people were killed in protests.

Iranian Newspaper Begins Holocaust Cartoon Contest

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Israel signals no ties with Palestinians under Hamas
Tue Feb 14, 2006 4:22 PM ET172

 By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Tuesday it would "review all contacts" with the Palestinians if Hamas militants who won last month's election head a future government.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made Israel's strongest statements yet against Hamas's surprise victory in the January 25 parliamentary poll, just days before the group was set to assume control of the legislature when it convenes on Saturday.

Hamas, which won 74 seats in the 132-member parliament, trouncing Abbas' long dominant Fatah party, has said it expects to head the next Palestinian government.

Olmert said that if a Palestinian government is "dominated by a majority of Hamas people, it ceases to be the authority it was, becomes something entirely different, something Israel is not ready to compromise nor is it ready to acquiesce with".

"The day (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas will appoint a Hamas representative to head a government, we will review all contacts" with it, Olmert told American Jewish leaders.

Israel "will not negotiate and will not deal with a Palestinian Authority that will be dominated wholly or partly by a terrorist organization", Olmert added, in a speech.

Olmert, who has assumed power after Ariel Sharon was incapacitated by a January 4 stroke, expressed satisfaction with broad U.S.-led rejection of contacts with Hamas unless it amends its charter that calls to destroy Israel.

The Israeli leader said it would be up to Abbas "to make a serious choice about priorities", to make sure his next government is based on recognizing Israel and its right to exist as a Jewish state.

"We will not be able to continue the same pattern of relations if he (Abbas) will choose to surrender" to Hamas' policies, Olmert said.

EGYPT'S MUBARAK OPTIMISTIC

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator between the Palestinians and Israel, said in an interview published in Cairo he would not tell Hamas to recognize Israel but that he thought eventually the two could make peace.

"The question needs time and effort from them and from you at the same time," Mubarak said, in remarks after meeting Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.

"Don't think that overnight it (Hamas) will say 'We will deal with Israel' and that's that. That's impossible. There is hope and we must not be pessimistic", Mubarak said.

Abbas intends to insist that Hamas accept his vision of peacemaking with Israel, an aide said, a demand that could stall efforts to create a new Palestinian government which Hamas, as parliament's largest faction, expects to head.

Under powers granted to him by law, Abbas could refuse to ratify or cooperate with a new administration if built on Hamas policies he finds unacceptable, the aide said.

Hamas has masterminded nearly 60 suicide bombings against Israelis since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000, but has largely adhered to a truce declared last March.

In fresh violence, an Israeli unmanned drone fired a missile at Gaza gunmen launching rockets at Israel, causing no injury, Palestinian security sources and medics said. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rockets.

The Israeli army denied firing any missiles but said its gunners had fired artillery shells at sites in Gaza from where rockets were launched at Israel, one striking near a "sensitive installation" in the city of Ashkelon. There were no injuries.

Israel signals no ties with Palestinians under Hamas

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Rockets fired from Gaza into Israel

Tuesday 14 February 2006, 21:27 Makka Time, 18:27 GMT 

Palestinian fighters have fired two rockets into southern Israel, one of which struck the industrial zone of the Mediterranean port city of Ashkelon, causing no casualties or damage.

An Israeli army spokesman said on Tuesday: "Palestinians launched two Qassams at Israel a short time ago and they both landed north of the Gaza Strip. One landed in an open area and one landed in an area of the Ashkelon industrial zone."

The rocket fell in a "sensitive location" a military source said, but added that there were no casualties or damage.

The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad faction claimed to have fired a rocket on Ashkelon.

After the latest attack, Israeli artillery continued to bombard the northern Gaza Strip, where a block of flats was earlier damaged, security sources and witnesses said.

No casualties

One Israeli shell caused widespread damage to two apartments in the northern town of Bait Hanun although there were no immediate reports of casualties, the sources said.

Earlier rocket attacks were claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a faction affiliated to Fatah.

Al-Aqsa later claimed to have fired two additional rockets at the Israeli village of Kfar Aza, but a security source said remains of only four rockets were found in total on Tuesday, although further projectiles had been launched.

Rockets fired from Gaza into Israel

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Feb. 15, 2006 11:53
Mashaal: 'Hamas will never recognize Israel, despite pressure'
By ORLY HALPERN

On a day when The New York Times reported that the US and Israel were in cahoots, intending to destabilize the newly elected Hamas-led Palestinian government by cutting off funding, Hamas chief in exile Khaled Mashaal attacked the policies of Western governments and Israel on Tuesday saying Hamas would never recognize Israel, and calling for the "liberation of Jerusalem."

"Our goal is to free Jerusalem and to purify Al-Aksa Mosque," said the Damascus-based leader, according to Hamas's Web site. "Islam is strong," he reportedly said in a speech to a crowd in Sudan's capital Khartoum, "because its strength is from God, and it will continue to go forward despite those who oppose it. Don't fear, we will not recognize Israel."

With the possibility of foreign funding being cut off, Mashaal began a tour of Muslim countries last week in order to drum up financial support. But he told his audience that "we are a nation which is ready to starve and die." His words echoed the goal of a plan described by the Times, which said that Israeli and US officials would try to "starve the Palestinian Authority of money and international connections to the point where, some months from now, its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, is compelled to call a new election.

"The hope is that Palestinians will be so unhappy with life under Hamas that they will return to office a reformed and chastened Fatah movement."

Professor Shaul Mishal of Tel Aviv University, an expert on Hamas, told The Jerusalem Post that withholding funds from the Palestinians could have a "boomerang effect." "I think the problem now is that you can no longer use the preelection logic that without donor aid the Palestinians can't work and that they will have to raise their hands and give up," said.

Mishal, who wrote The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence and Coexistence, said that the reaction of the Muslim world had to be taken into account.

"This is not some corner of the world, this is Palestine," he said. "It is a litmus paper for the rest of the Muslim world. There could be a civil uprising... The moment they see the pictures of hungry children, there will be charity to help them. The West calls for democracy but then rejects it when it does not suit them."

Mishal said Mashaal's call to liberate Jerusalem was a call to the Muslim world, because Jerusalem is the third holiest Muslim site.

"This is strategic rhetoric to draft the Muslim world," he said. "Fatah has America, Hamas has the Muslim world."

Hamas condemned the plan described by the Times, as did Palestinian leaders from across the political spectrum.

Liberal-minded secular Palestinian leader, Mustafa Barghouti, told the Post that such a move would be "immoral" saying if "[the US and Israel] expect democracy they have to accept the results." Barghouti warned that cutting off funds to the PA would have grave consequences for Israel and the region.

"I believe if they put people under more hardship they will become more radical," said Barghouti, who ran on the Independent Palestine list in the recent Palestinian election.

Mushir Al-Masri, a Hamas PLC member from Gaza, said an attempt to cause the Hamas government to fall was a "rejection of the democratic process, which the Americans are calling for day and night. It's an interference and a collective punishment of our people because they practiced the democratic process in a transparent and honest way."

In his speech Mashaal said the Palestinians no longer trusted the Europeans, and referred to the Holocaust: "What did you do to us? Do you want us to give you 50 more years? You sowed Israel among us. You did an injustice to the Jews in your countries and you pushed them on us. We never did to them the injustice that they did to us. Facing all this, and facing the occupation, you don't want us to struggle.

"What did international decisions do for us? Is there a single European country that forced Israel to uphold a single international decision like the one regarding the fence? We don't believe you and we don't trust you and we won't wait for you."

Aid organizations made a joint appeal to Western governments on Tuesday not to stop aid to the Palestinians, reported Agence France Presse.

Thirty-one international organizations, including Oxfam and Medecins du Monde, said the local Palestinian population was in desperate need of foreign support.

Outgoing Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa urged the international community not to cut off funding to the PA once Hamas takes power.

"The aid for Palestinians should continue, despite the political situation and the parties that are in government," Kidwa said after meeting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

'Hamas will never recognize Israel, despite pressure'