Prophecy and End Time Series. - Israel

[Shammu]

IDF soldiers and jeeps roll into Nablus in wake of Tel Aviv blast
By Arnon Regular and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Dozens of Israel Defense Forces soldiers and jeeps rolled into the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday afternoon, shortly after an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed eight people in the old central bus station in Tel Aviv.

The troops moved into the center of the city, where they began carrying out arrests.

The IDF has arrested 15 would-be suicide bombers in the West Bank over the past month.

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Earlier Monday IDF soldiers holed up in a home in Nablus opened fire on a crowd of stone-throwing protesters outside the building, wounding two people, including a 13-year-old boy, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

The soldiers took over the top floor of the home during a military operation early Monday, and protesters quickly gathered outside after discovering the forces. The crowd began throwing rocks toward the soldiers, who placed a door behind a window and responded with gunfire. Several crowd members also fired pistols toward troops during the exchange.

Associated Press photographers and cameramen witnessed the exchange.

Palestinian hospital officials said the youth was shot in the neck and in moderate condition. A second person was lightly wounded, they said.

"When he was wounded in the neck, he ran toward me before collapsing and the blood gushed from his neck," said Ana Maria Espinoza, a pro-Palestinian volunteer from Chile. She said more than 100 protesting youths were gathered behind a wall about 100 meters (yards) from the house, which is located in a residential neighborhood near a school.

An armored AP jeep also was hit by Israeli gunfire, suffering minor damage. Nablus is a stronghold of Palestinian militants.

The army said its forces had come under fire in the area, but had no further details.

Troops disperse Bir Zeit protest; Qassams fired at Israel

Palestinian demonstrators on Monday hurled rocks and incendiary devices at IDF troops near Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah.

Soldiers that arrived on the scene dispersed the crowd.

Also on Monday, Palestinian militants in Gaza launched four Qassam rockets at Israel. No injuries or damage was reported.

IDF soldiers and jeeps roll into Nablus in wake of Tel Aviv blast

[Shammu]

Olmert: We know how to respond; Israel says Hamas responsible
By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Israel knows "how to respond" to the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier in the day, while his spokesman said that Israel blamed Hamas for the attack.

Nine people were killed and dozens wounded when a teenaged terrorist from Islamic Jihad blew himself up outside a falafel restaurant in the Neve Sha'anan area of southern Tel Aviv.

The militant Hamas organization, which heads the Palestinian government, on Monday defended the suicide bombing, calling it an act of "self-defense."

Speaking at a faction meeting of his Kadima Party at the Knesset, Olmert said that he was weighing a response, and added that the attack could have been timed to coincide with the swearing in of the new parliament in Jerusalem.

"We will know how to respond in the way and manner required, and we will continue to act with all means at our disposal to thwart further such incidents," he said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir said Israel held Hamas ultimately responsible for such attacks because it is "giving support to all the other terrorist organizations."

"From our point of view it doesn't matter if it comes from Al-Aqsa, Islamic Jihad or Hamas. They all come out of the same school of terrorism led by Hamas," he said.

The interim prime minister was to hold security consultations with senior members of the defense establishment on Monday, to discuss Israel's response to the attack.

Ra'anan Gissin, a spokesman for Olmert, said that Israel holds the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government reponsible for the bombing.

"This Palestinian Authority, which has clearly defined itself as a terrorist entity, has tried to instigate terrorist support more than the previous one did, and we will act accordingly," Gissin said.

But in a statement issued by his office, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the bombing ran counter to Palestinian interests and urged the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers to intervene "to stop the grave deterioration that the region is witnessing now."

Hamas official spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack "a natural result of the continued Israeli crimes against our people."

"The Israeli occupation bears responsibility for the continuation of its aggression. Our people are in a state of self-defence and they have every right to use all means to defend themselves," he added.

"We think that this operation... is a direct result of the policy of the occupation and the brutal agression and siege committed against our people," said Khaled Abu Helal, spokesman for the Hamas-led Interior Ministry.

Earlier, Moussa abu Marzouk, a Hamas leader abraod, told Al-Jazeera television that "the Israeli side must feel what the Palestinian feels, and the Palestinian defends himself as much as he can."

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas, echoed the PA chairman's call for an end to violence.

"I condemn this attack on behalf of President Abu Mazen [Abbas], and I urge all Palestinian factions to observe a cessation of violence. Such attacks harm Palestinian interests," he said.

The White House also condemned the bombing, saying that there was no justification for such an attack.

"It is a despicable act of terror for which there is no excuse or justification," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"We express our condolences to those who were injured and to the families of those who were killed and to the government and people of Israel."

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Abbas' Fatah movement, also issued a claim of responsibility for the attack.

We know how to respond; Israel says Hamas responsible

[Shammu]

House sale on Mount of Olives leaves trail of blood
Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:55am ET

By Luke Baker

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - As far as the Abu al-Hawa family is concerned, the sale of two floors of their home on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives was perfectly legitimate.

Muhammad Abu al-Hawa sold the real estate to a Palestinian businessman nearly a year ago, his brother Mahmoud says, earning $650,000. The money was used to buy another home on the Mount of Olives, a cherished spot overlooking Jerusalem's Old City.

But last week Muhammad's bullet-riddled body was found lying next to his burnt-out car on a road near Jericho. Branded a traitor for selling his property to Jews, he had been shot seven times, including once in the temple, Mahmoud said.

"I saw the body. I had to identify him," he says, sitting in mourning with his brother's wife and the rest of his family at their home -- the ground floor of the same building where the two upper levels were sold, and Israelis are due to move in.

Mahmoud acknowledges that the property is now Israeli-owned, but says he has proof that his brother originally sold it to a Palestinian. It was then sold for profit along a chain, ending up in the hands of Elad, an Israeli non-profit group, which Mahmoud says paid $10 million for the two floors.

For years, Elad and its wealthy private donors have been buying up property in Palestinian East Jerusalem and moving Jewish settlers in, changing the balance of communities.

The Arab-dominated Mount of Olives, overlooking the most hotly contested site in Jerusalem -- the shrine revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount -- has been a prime target of Elad's aspirations.

Muhammad's deal is not the first time Arabs have sold East Jerusalem property to Israelis, either directly or indirectly, but Mount of Olives' residents said it was the first time that a sale had happened in their historic neighborhood.

As a result, they have turned against the Abu al-Hawa family, despite the fact that it is one of the oldest, largest and wealthiest in the district.

OSTRACISED

When relatives tried to bury Muhammad in the Mount of Olives' Arab cemetery on Friday, residents drove them away. The family was forced to bury him outside Jericho instead.

"Our family has been in the Mount of Olives for 350 years, and now my brother is buried elsewhere," said Mahmoud. "The people of this village, they do not understand."

Asked who he thinks killed his brother, Mahmoud is unsure. He says gunmen from the powerful Palestinian movement Fatah had put pressure on Muhammad in recent weeks, and his brother had visited Fatah leaders in Ramallah and Jericho to try to prove that he had originally sold to a Palestinian.

It is possible, he says, that one of the middle men that handled the property between the original sale and the last had Muhammad killed to ensure he could not identify them. At least three middle men, including a Jordanian businessman, handled the property after the first sale, he says.

Amid the doubt and confusion, one thing is clear in Mahmoud's mind -- there is no way his brother would have sold to Israelis and then bought another house on the Mount of Olives. That would have been tantamount to suicide.

"When you sell to the Israelis you don't stay here. You run away to Europe or the United States," he says. "If he wanted, Muhammad could have sold for $10 million and fled the country. But he didn't, he stayed here in the Mount of Olives.

House sale on Mount of Olives leaves trail of blood

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Apr. 18, 2006 21:40
Hamas leaders' residency to be revoked
By JPOST.COM STAFF

MK Ahmed Tibi on Tuesday asked Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to change his decision to revoke the Israeli residency status of Hamas leaders living in east Jerusalem.

"Residency or citizenship can't be revoked on the basis of belief or political affiliation," Tibi said.

MK Aryeh Eldad, on the other hand, called the government decision an insufficient step in the war on terror.

The decision, taken earlier Tuesday at an emergency cabinet meeting, came in response to Monday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed nine people, and would affect such senior Hamas members as PA Minister Mahmoud Abu-Tir.

In order to retain their Israeli residency and identification cards, Hamas members will need to announce to Israel's interior minister that they have resigned from the PA parliament and the Hamas movement.

A written summary of Tuesday's meeting stated that Israel held the PA government responsible for the terror attack, especially taking into account comments by certain Hamas officials who called the bombing a "legitimate action."

"Any member of a government involved in terrorism should not be granted any immunity in the form of his Israeli residency identification," declared Olmert.

"The Palestinian government is responsible for this act of terror. Its members will not be given freedom of movement and shall be regarded as operatives of a terrorist organization," added the interim prime minister.

Hamas leaders' residency to be revoked

[Shammu]

Israel blames Hamas for bombing but limits response
Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:54am ET6

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel blamed the Hamas-led Palestinian government on Tuesday for a Tel Aviv suicide bombing but acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided against a proposed military offensive for the time being, a political source said.

Under pressure not to imperil U.S.-led efforts to isolate the Islamic militant group's new government, Olmert had convened his interim cabinet and security chiefs to discuss a response to Monday's attack at a sandwich bar which killed nine people.

"Olmert heard the defense establishment's ideas for possible strikes against the Palestinian Authority, and though the government is responsible, the decision was that there should be more limited action for now," a political source said.

Among measures authorized was the revocation of the Israeli residency status of Hamas officials living in East Jerusalem and a police crackdown on the smuggling of Palestinians without permits, who could be militants, into the Jewish state.

Hamas, which has largely abided by a year-long truce but refuses to embrace peacemaking efforts, has stirred Israeli and Western ire by describing Monday's attack -- claimed by kindred militant group Islamic Jihad -- as an act of "self defense".

On Tuesday, Prime Minister and senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli actions had triggered the attack.

"The reason behind this cycle is the continuation of the occupation and the continued Israeli assaults against the Palestinian people," Haniyeh said before a routine cabinet meeting.

It was the first such bombing in Israel since Hamas took power three weeks ago, and the deadliest since 2004. Some in Israel called it the opening shot of a fresh confrontation.

Olmert declared the Palestinian Authority, formed under 1993 interim accords, a "terrorist" entity after Hamas won January elections. But Israel has refrained from assaults on the Palestinian Authority's new leadership or institutions.

OLMERT NEEDS COALITION FOR "CONVERGENCE"

In the absence of peace talks, Olmert vowed to follow last year's Gaza Strip withdrawal by quitting areas of the West Bank and setting Israel's border around Jewish settlement blocs.

As his centrist Kadima Party narrowly won last month's Israeli elections, Olmert has been struggling to put together a coalition government robust enough to push through the "convergence plan" over Israeli right-wing opposition.

Palestinians condemn the plan as a land-grab that could deprive them of a state. They say it boosts support for Hamas, which seeks the Jewish state's destruction, not co-existence.

The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the Tel Aviv bombing as another blow to efforts to stem more than five years of bloodshed. He vowed to arrest those involved, although Hamas has said it will not move against militants involved in attacks against Israel.

Israeli forces detained the suicide bomber's father and teenaged brother around the West Bank town of Jenin overnight, Palestinian security sources said. They said about 30 Palestinians were detained in raids in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli army confirmed carrying out dozens of arrests.

Kadima's likeliest partner in government, the centre-left Labor Party, has called for reviving peace negotiations with Abbas.

"We should fight terror, by all means, but not at the cost of cutting off any chance of talks with the pragmatists," Ami Ayalon, a senior Labor member touted as possible defense minister in a Kadima-led coalition, told Reuters.

Hamas faces challenges on many fronts, especially finding fresh aid sources following cuts from the West to the new government. Japan said on Tuesday it would not give new aid via the government until Hamas committed to the Middle East peace process.

Israel blames Hamas for bombing but limits response

[Shammu]

AND HERE WE GO>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

April 18, 2006

It is either us or them, leaders of Islamic Jihad say
By Stephen Farrell
THE mosque was empty save for three pairs of shoes, the poster of a bearded dead man and a roomful of violent intent.

Less than two minutes’ drive away their fellow Islamists in Hamas were squeezing pinstriped trousers behind new desks and ministerial cars, to the barely disguised scorn of these hard-eyed Islamic Jihadists sitting in a windowless annexe in Gaza City.

“There will forever be conflict. It is not going to be solved soon and it won’t be solved with the ballot box,” the leader said, his minders listening for Israeli helicopters and spotter drones overhead.

“We as Islamic Jihad don’t believe that the step Hamas has taken to democracy and elections will take us to the end of the struggle. Our ideology, through the way we understand Islam, is that our struggle will only end with the end of the State of Israel. For us it is an existential struggle, it is either us or them.”

Stark, uncompromising and with the utter clarity of the fundamentalist, this was the Islamic Jihad world view spelt out to The Times by its fighters in Gaza just days before yesterday’s bombing.

Older, but smaller than Hamas, Islamic Jihad is rejectionist to the core. Having denounced Yassir Arafat for signing peace agreements with Israel in the mid-1990s, a decade later it spurned the elections that swept Hamas to power.

Without Hamas’s network of mosques, schools and social welfare agencies, it is reliant on funding from Iran. But its challenge is how to remain relevant when most Palestinians chose the ballot box in January 2006.

Hence the speed with which it seized upon the Prophet Muhammad cartoon controversy to rouse passions, and its refusal to give up violence now.

“What distinguishes us from Hamas is that we are a revolutionary Islamic movement, and they are attempting Islamic political thinking,” Abu Ahmad, the leader, said. “Since 1980 we have raised the flag, the Koran and the gun. For Hamas jihad is an interim phase. Our whole strategy is jihad.

“We never look at the size of our losses. We never care whether the struggle will be bounded by days, months or years. We are going to continue fighting whatever it takes until we liberate our lands.”

Hamas’s dilemma is whether it should curb its former brothers-in-arms or turn a blind eye to their activities and al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades rocket and bombing attacks.

So far it has refused to interfere, fearing that it will damage its street credibility by being seen as “Israel’s policeman”. However, many Palestinians are increasingly angry at the diehards for continuing to launch home-made rockets into Israel, inviting heavy and sometimes deadly retaliation.

But Islamic Jihad claims that by continuing attacks it has recruited dozens of disillusioned hardliners from Hamas’s military wing. “Even if we recognise Israel, even if we pray to Israel, it will not be solved. Israel and America will not be happy,” Abu Ahmad said.

Does he believe Hamas has been corrupted by power? “Yes.”

It is either us or them, leaders of Islamic Jihad say

[Shammu]

Israel's UN envoy: PA, Iran, Syria statements declaration of war
By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations called actions by Iran, Syria and Palestinian leaders "declarations of war," after an Islamic Jihad bomber blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing nine and wounding dozens more.

Two diplomats on Monday opened a UN Security Council debate that included some 35 speakers. The session had been scheduled before Monday's suicide bombing, after the United States last week refused to agree to a compromise statement on recent Israeli military strikes in Gaza, saying the draft was "disproportionately critical of Israel."

Nevertheless, the Palestinian UN observer, Riyad Mansour, echoed the condemnation made by Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority chairman. The Hamas-led Palestinian government has not made similar comments.

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"We restate our condemnation of the loss of innocent lives, Palestinian and Israelis, and we call upon the occupying power to do the same," Mansour told the council.

Ambassador Dan Gillerman said every day fundamentalist leaders were inciting acts of terrorism.

"A dark cloud is looming above our region, and it is metastasizing as a result of the statements and actions by leaders of Iran, Syria, and the newly elected government of the Palestinian Authority," Gillerman said.

"These recent statements are clear declarations of war, and I urge each and every one of you to listen carefully and take them at face value."

He said Iran and Syria harbored and financed Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah group, citing comments from Hamas leaders based in Syria, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

But Iran's UN ambassador, Javad Zarif, told the council Gillerman had made "irresponsible claims." He said that daily threats by Israel required "urgent and serious attention by the council" which at minimum should demand that Israel desist from resorting to force.

Iran, itself under the gun for its nuclear program, said Israel already had atomic weapons despite its "unprecedented record of state terrorism."

Arab and African delegates backed Mansour's condemnation of what he called Israel's "excess and indiscriminate force against Palestinian civilians," particularly those in Gaza that he said killed 15 to 21 civilians, among them two children.

U.S.: Hamas response to attack shows group's 'true nature'
The U.S. on Monday called on countries seeking to promote Middle East peace to note the praise offered by the Hamas-led Palestinian government for the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Nine people were killed and dozens were wounded when a young terrorist from Islamic Jihad blew himself up outside a falafel restaurant in the Neve Sha'anan area of the city.

Hamas declined to condemn the bombing, calling the attack "self-defense." Hamas cabinet minister Wasfi Kabha said the attack was "in the framework of the legitimate right for resistance."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the comments reveal "the true nature" of the Palestinian government.

U.S. Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice called Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to condemn the attack, according to Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem.

In a statement issued by his office, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the bombing ran counter to Palestinian interests and urged the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers to intervene "to stop the grave deterioration that the region is witnessing now."

Hamas official spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack "a natural result of the continued Israeli crimes against our people."

"The Israeli occupation bears responsibility for the continuation of its aggression. Our people are in a state of self-defence and they have every right to use all means to defend themselves," he added.

"We think that this operation... is a direct result of the policy of the occupation and the brutal agression and siege committed against our people," said Khaled Abu Helal, spokesman for the Hamas-led Interior Ministry.

Earlier, Moussa abu Marzouk, a Hamas leader abroad, told Al-Jazeera television that "the Israeli side must feel what the Palestinian feels, and the Palestinian defends himself as much as he can."

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas, echoed the PA chairman's call for an end to violence.

"I condemn this attack on behalf of President Abu Mazen [Abbas], and I urge all Palestinian factions to observe a cessation of violence. Such attacks harm Palestinian interests," he said.

The White House also condemned the bombing, saying that there was no justification for such an attack.

"It is a despicable act of terror for which there is no excuse or justification," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"We express our condolences to those who were injured and to the families of those who were killed and to the government and people of Israel."

But the U.S. also warned that supporting terror or failing to condemn it could have a far-reaching impact on Middle East diplomacy.

"Defense or sponsorship of terrorist acts by officials of the Palestinian cabinet will have the gravest effects on relations between the Palestinian Authority and all states seeking peace in the Middle East," McClellan told reporters in Washington.

McCormack said diplomats who choose to have contact with Hamas should urge the group to abide by the formula outlined by the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers three months ago: renounce violence, recognize Israel and abide by the Palestinian Authority's previous international commitments.

"Given the opportunity, the first opportunity to denounce an act of terror, to condemn an act of terror, Hamas has decided to condone it," McCormack said.

EU condemns attack, calls for restraint
The member states of the European Union also condemned the bombing, but urged both sides to show restraint.

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, condemned the attack and called "on all parties to prevent any new descent into a senseless spiral of violence."

"I deplore this senseless and totally unjustified terrorist attack," said a statement by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

"I condemn those who are responsible and extend my sympathies to the families and friends of those who have been killed or wounded. It is particularly repugnant that this attack comes during the Jewish festival of Passover. I would urge restraint on all sides at this difficult time."

Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac pledged France's support to Israel in a letter of condolences to his Israeli counterpart Monday.

The attack "sparks horror and reprobation," Chirac wrote to President Moshe Katsav, his office said.

"More than ever, our determination to fight terrorism is intact," Chirac wrote. "France is at Israel's side for this new trial."

Germany condemned the bombing and urged the new Palestinian government to disarm terrorist groups.

"It would be a fatal start for the new government if it did not clearly and energetically act against acts of terror," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Russia also condemned the attack, calling on the Palestinian Authority to act against the terrorists and for Israel to act with restraint.

"We resolutely and unconditionally condemn this bloody attack by extremists who again are raising their hands against innocent people. There can be no justification for this," said Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.

Israel's UN envoy: PA, Iran, Syria statements declaration of war

My Note; After reading this, I am defintly LOOKING UP!!

[Shammu]

 Rabbi Ariel: Paschal Sacrifice is Still Obligatory
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 / 20 Nisan 5766

"It's not a question of 'maybe' or 'if'," says the Temple Institute's Rabbi Yisrael Ariel. "Bringing the Paschal sacrifice is a Torah obligation incumbent upon the People of Israel these very days."

Speaking with Yoel Yaakobi of the weekly B'Sheva newspaper, Rabbi Ariel said that though there are some grave Halakhic [Jewish legal] problems associated with bringing the Paschal sacrifice, "we have found the solutions, and the obligation is as strong as ever. This is [one of the only two positive Biblical commandments] that those who forsake it are liable to receive the ultimate karet [cutting off] punishment. From the moment that a Jew stands on the Temple Mount and the site of the Holy Temple is under our control, the Jewish People are immediately obligated to bring this sacrifice."

Sixteen of the 613 Biblical commandments relate to the Paschal sacrifice, which must be brought on the 14th day of the month of Nissan - Passover eve - and eaten on the night of the 15th. Today, this sacrifice is remembered only in the form of the Afikoman, the piece of matzah snatched and hidden by children during the Pesach seder meal, by the small roasted shank-bone on the Seder plate, and by prayers and study.

Rabbi Ariel said, "After the destruction of the First Temple, when the Jews began returning from Babylonia to the Holy Land, they brought the Paschal sacrifice during the course of 22 years even though there was no Holy Temple. They also were considered ritually impure - because there was no Red Heifer by which to become pure - yet they still brought it... There is currently no genuine impediment to bringing the Paschal sacrifice."

There have been other attempts to renew this sacrifice over the years, or at least to solve the Halakhic problems involved. Speaking about the rabbis who came to the Holy Land 700 years ago and sought to pave the way to offer the Pesach lamb, Rabbi Ariel said,
"It is simply disgraceful when we compare our actions with theirs. They were here after the Crusaders, when there were perhaps 1,000 Jews in the whole land, which was totally desolate, and tried to renew this commandment. And yet we have 5-6 million Jews, and we have an army with tanks and planes, and what are we doing? ... Over 2,000 years ago, the Jews were afraid to live in Jerusalem, yet they made it obligatory for one out of every ten men to work towards building the Holy Temple, and they started the sacrifice services amidst the ruins of the First Temple. And where are we? Should we not be ashamed?"

Among the problems that Rabbi Ariel says have been solved by the Temple Institute he heads in Jerusalem are the following: Ritual impurity (which applies only to individuals, not to the entire nation), the precise location of the altar, and the sacred priestly garments, which the Institute has recently completed fashioning according to Biblical requirements. He emphasizes, of course, that the exact details of these and other issues are complex and must be reviewed with rabbinical experts. "I don't say that there aren't problems, but as the Maharatz Chayut has written, there is no Halakhic problem in the Temple that cannot be solved."

"Why then do you not go and sacrifice the Pesach sacrifice yourself?" Rabbi Ariel was asked.

"Have you just now returned from the moon?" he answered with pain. "The government has established a special police unit just for the Temple Mount. A Jew is forbidden even to move his lips there - and you want me to go there with my sheep and building tools to build an altar?!...

"The problem, which has received the silent backing of the rabbinical world, is that we have allowed the Arabs to be in charge of the Mount, and so they play soccer there. That's what happened when Moshe Dayan gave the Temple Mount keys to the Arabs [after the Six Day War]. First they give them the keys, then they say, 'It's impossible [to regain control],' and then they say, 'We don't know [all the details of the Temple Mount and the altar, etc.].' The 200 commandments that are connected with the Temple cry out every day, 'Jews, where are you?!'"

Rabbi Ariel: Paschal Sacrifice is Still Obligatory

[Shammu]

Iran recruiting bombers against Israel

Iranian organization recruiting UK Muslims to strike Israeli targets, British newspaper reports. Organization says: 'All Jews are targets. The first target for us is Israel, that is the battlefield,' UK foreign office has asked Iran to end support for group

An Iranian government-based organization is recruiting British Muslims to carry out suicide bombings against Israel, the British Guardian newspaper reported.

The organization, the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, an organization the Guardian says "claims to be independent but has the backing of the regime," stated that it is targeting potential recruits in Britain because UK passport-holders can enter Israel with relative ease.

The declaration came hours after the Tel Aviv terror attack , and a few days Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel would be blown away in a "storm".

'All the Jews are targets'

Mohammad Samadi, a spokesman for the Iranian organization, told the Guardian that striking at Israel was the priority of his recruitment drive. "The first target is Israel. For us, that is the battlefield. All the Jews are targets, whether military or civilian. It's our land and they are in the wrong place. It's their duty to pay attention to safety of their own families and move them away from the battlefield," he said.

The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign took part in a recruitment fair for "martyrdom seekers" being held in the grounds of the former US embassy in Tehran. Several hundred volunteers have signed up for missions in the past few days.

The Guardian reported that volunteers were asked to complete forms to say whether they wanted to carry out terrorist attacks against "the Quds occupiers" (Israel), British dissident author Salman Rushdie - subject of a death sentence passed by Iran's late spiritual leader - or "the occupiers of Islamic lands", the US and Britain.

The Guardian report said: "Mr. Samadi was standing at an exhibition stall festooned with portraits of Palestinian suicide bombers, including pictures of the aftermaths of attacks… A banner outside the fair read: "There is no voice higher than intifada." Nearby stood a mock model of the Statue of Liberty, with iron bars cut into the torso to symbolize a prison cell.

The Guardian also said that the British embassy has called on Iran end support for the group. "We have longstanding concerns at the support that Iran provides to groups undermining peace in the Middle East through violence, including the activities of this group," the British foreign office told the Guardian.

"When asked how Iranian volunteers would get into Israel, Mr. Samadi cited the precedent of Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Sharif, two British Muslims who attacked a bar in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis, in 2003 after entering Israel as tourists and then posing as peace activists," the Guardian reported.

"That shows that it has not been difficult getting into Israel," said Samadi. "Do you think getting hold of a British passport for an Iranian citizen is hard? Tens of passports are issued for Iranian asylum seekers in Britain every day. There are hundreds of other ways available to us, such as illegal entry (into Britain), fake passports, etc."

Every Muslim has potential to turn into bomb'

"Britain and other European countries have a lot of disaffected Muslims who are ready. We understand the suspicion with which Britain, America and other western countries regard their Muslim populations. We don't condemn them for this because we believe every Muslim has the potential to turn into a bomb against the west."

Mr. Samadi said recruits would not be told to attack British cities. "With the exception of Israel, we do not target civilians," he said. "They would definitely not be sent to carry out an attack on London unless it was to kill Salman Rushdie."

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, said Iranian threats against Israel were "a declaration of war."

Iran recruiting bombers against Israel

[Shammu]

Abbas, Hamas Split Over Security Force

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - In their sharpest dispute yet, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday blocked the ruling Hamas party's plans to set up a shadow security force made up of militants and headed by the No. 2 fugitive on
Israel's wanted list.

Abbas, who favors peace talks with Israel, and Hamas, which has refused to renounce its calls for the Jewish state's destruction, have been on a collision course since the militant group took control of parliament and Cabinet earlier this year.

The shadow force announced Thursday by Interior Minister Said Siyam of Hamas was seen as an attempt to counter Abbas' moves to take control of all the powerful Palestinian security forces.

But Abbas, like Israel and the international community, was outraged by the notion of a militants' army headed by the leader of a group that is a key player in ongoing rocket attacks on Israel and is suspected in a deadly 2003 bombing of an American convoy in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, he used his considerable power to issue a presidential decree vetoing the plan.

In a letter to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, Abbas wrote that "we have learned through the media that the interior minister issued decisions violating the law."

"All the officers, soldiers and security personnel are asked not to abide by these decisions and to consider them null and void," Abbas said in the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

A spokesman for the Hamas-led government said later Friday that Siyam will go ahead with plans to form the new security force, despite Abbas' veto.

"The decision of the Interior Minister conformed with the law ... which gives the minister the authority to take the necessary decisions to guarantee security," spokesman Ghazi Hamad said. "The aim of the decision was to support and strengthen the efforts of the police, and not to replace the police."

Egypt, meanwhile, invited Israeli leader Ehud Olmert for an official visit even before he has set up his incoming government, signaling it is eager to do business with him.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak extended the invitation Friday in a telephone call to Olmert, and a date for the visit is to be set next week, aides to the Israeli leader said. It would be the first meeting between Israeli and Egyptian leaders since February 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon attended a Mubarak-brokered summit that produced a truce between Israel and Palestinian factions.

Hamas has largely adhered to that truce despite its violent rhetoric.

Abbas and Hamas have been wrangling over control since the Islamic militant group won January parliament elections. After Hamas' victory, Abbas took over the state-run media, the Palestinian Investment Fund and the authority controlling borders.

He also set up a new internal security agency that cemented his power over the six existing security forces.

The new security service Hamas wants to set up is to be composed of militants from various factions and headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana, 43, a founding member of the Popular Resistance Committees who served a year in Palestinian jails for involvement in militant activity.

Abu Samhadana, who refused to discuss Abbas' decree, told AP he would continue his resistance despite the appointment.

"I am not going to give up resistance," he said. "There is no contradiction between the appointment and resistance. I am a fighter who is protecting the homeland."

During five years of fighting, Israel has killed dozens of militants in targeted missile attacks. Abu Samhadana is high on Israel's wanted list, and Israel has tried to kill him in targeted strikes.

"We have old scores to settle with this murderer," Israeli Cabinet minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio. "He has no immunity and we will have to settle this score sooner or later."

Israeli lawmaker and former intelligence chief Danny Yatom also said Friday that the entire Palestinian Cabinet could be targeted for assassination the appointment of Abu Samhadana.

"I understand that our sights are also trained on Hamas ministers, not only on the police chief," Yatom told Israel Radio. "Nobody who deals with terror can have immunity by any means, even if he holds a ministerial portfolio in the Hamas government."

Hamas has complained that Abbas' consolidation of control has reduced its authority to paying salaries for some 165,000 government employees — an obligation it cannot meet because the West has cut off vital financial aid to protest the group's refusal to disarm and recognize Israel.

The European Union said Friday its freeze of budget aid for the Palestinian Authority would remain in effect indefinitely. While the EU would like to resume its annual aid of $617 million, "there can be no business as usual" with a government that will not renounce violence or recognize Israel, EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin said.

A senior Israeli military commander heated up the pressure on Hamas by saying Israel is preparing to reoccupy Gaza.

Officials said there were no immediate plans to strike. But the comments reflected rising Israeli impatience with the Islamic militant group, which has refused to renounce violence, defended a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv this week and failed to halt militant rocket fire from Gaza.

"If the price we have to pay becomes unreasonable as a result of increased attacks, then we shall have to take all steps, including occupying the Gaza Strip," Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, head of Israel's southern command, told the Maariv daily.

Israel already has made two brief incursions into Gaza in recent days to search for explosives. But defense officials said the odds of a large-scale operation or full occupation are slim because of financial and political constraints.

Israel withdrew from Gaza last summer, ending 38 years of military occupation. Since the pullout, militants have fired rockets into southern Israel on a nearly daily basis.

Galant said the army is preparing for a range of responses to the rocket fire.

"It could be anything from a partial occupation of the Gaza Strip to a full occupation," he told Maariv, adding that the plans have been approved by senior officials, including Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.

Abbas, Hamas Split Over Security Force

[Shammu]

Iranian president: Israel a rotten tree

Ahmadinejad says in conference in support of Palestinians that Israel is a threat burdening Muslim nations in region, calls country 'rotten, dried tree' that will be 'annihilated in one storm'; adds doubts may surround Holocaust but not 'Palestinian tragedy'

Iran's president said on Friday that the existence of the "Zionist regime", Iran's term for Israel, was a threat to the Islamic world, days after declaring Iran had become a nuclear power by enriching uranium.

Ahmadinejad also called Israel a "rotten, dried tree" that will be annihilated by "one storm."

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad told a conference for supporting the Palestinians that opened in the Iranian capital on Friday.

"The existence of the Zionist regime is tantamount to an imposition of an unending and unrestrained threat so that none of the nations and Islamic countries of the region and beyond can feel secure from its threat," Ahmadinejad said.

The president provoked a world outcry last October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map." On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"

The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon." He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon."

'Palestinian Holocaust'

Referring to the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad also said: "Are the consequences of the establishment of this (Israeli) regime less than the Holocaust which you (the West) are claiming? If there are doubts regarding the Holocaust, there is really no doubt regarding the Palestinian disaster and holocaust."

"Palestine should be returned to the Palestinian nation and the united Palestinian government, elected by all Palestinians, should rule the country," He said.

"In other words, the only rational way, which is compatible with the generally recognized international norms, is holding a referendum (to decide on a political system and elect leaders (for all genuine Palestinians," He said.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate authority in Iran, also addressed the conference which was attended by delegates and members of parliament from around the world, many of them from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Khamenei's speech focused on an account of Israel's creation but he also said: "Palestine should be returned to its nation and a government elected by all Palestinians should rule this country."

Iranian president: Israel a rotten tree

[Shammu]

Unlimited pride in Tel Aviv

Work underway in conjunction with Ministry of Tourism to turn first Hebrew city into international tourist destination for the gay-lesbian community

Danny Sadeh

The first Hebrew city wants to be the first gay city. Work is underway in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism to turn Tel Aviv into the international tourist destination for the gay-lesbian community in order to boost business in restaurants, hotels, city attraction sites and beaches.

"Gay tourism has been accelerated lately, and we are entitled to large support from the Tel Aviv Hotels Union and the Ministry of Tourism," Shay Deutsch, spokesperson of the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community, said Wednesday.

"Travel agents in Germany, Turkey and Holland have started promoting special weekend packages to Tel Aviv. Even during the large tourism fair in San Francisco in October a stall will represent Israel and distribute leaflets promoting gay tourism in Tel Aviv," Deutsch added.

As part of the fight for pink tourism, a new Israeli-international Web site promoting gay tourism will be launched. Gay Map includes sites in Tel Aviv specialized in gay tourism.

The first shot of the event will be fired in mid May at an academic conference in Eilat part of a gay parade event in the city.

Dr. Yaniv Poria of Ben Gurion University in the Negev will present a study exploring possible links between staying in hotels and sexual orientation. Travel agents from across the world specializing in gay tourism have been invited to the event, which was planned by Tourism Ministry Director General Eli Cohen.

'Like the Olympics'

The event will focus on promoting gay tourism in Tel Aviv after research showed that some 70 million gay people go on holiday abroad every year. The community comprises a large proportion of high-salaried individuals with a developed taste for recreation.

The gay community in the United States is estimated to spend USD 54 billion a year on tourism. The European gay community, research showed, usually looks for urban holiday destinations with plenty of sunshine.In an effort to boost gay tourism in Tel Aviv, the Gay and Lesbian Union has bid to host in Tel Aviv the 2009 Euro Pride, the largest annual gay parade in the world.

"It is like the Olympics, you present a bid years ahead. An event like this can attract some 20,000 tourists to Tel Aviv," the union said.

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[Shammu]

'Holy Fire' Ceremony Held in Jerusalem

By LAURA RESNICK, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 22, 11:25 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Pilgrims celebrated the Orthodox Easter "holy fire" rite Saturday as a flame believed by some to be miraculously ignited illuminated thousands of torches and candles at Christianity's holiest site.

Security was tight as visitors from around the world flocked to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition says Jesus was crucified and buried.

Tempers flared as thousands of worshippers waited to pass through security barricades into Jerusalem's Old City. Some priests and pilgrims shoved and punched police. Inside the church, people scuffled with each other and with officers as they waited for the ceremony to begin.

The Greek and Armenian Orthodox patriarchs in the Holy Land descended into the church's underground tomb to bring out the flame. Worshippers clutching bundles of unlit tapers and torches waited in the darkened church for the church leaders to emerge.

When they reappeared with lighted torches, church bells pealed. Worshippers cheered, shrieked "Christ, Christ," and ululated. The flames were passed around to the thousands of faithful and light and smoke filled the cavernous church within seconds.

The ritual dates back at least 1,200 years. The precise details of the flame's source are a closely guarded secret, but some believe it appears spontaneously from Christ's burial area as a message from Jesus on the eve of the Orthodox Easter that he has not forgotten his followers.

"My connection to Jesus is stronger, my connection to Jerusalem is stronger now," said Jeanette Gennetian, 66, of Watertown, Mass, a member of the Armenian Apostolic church.

Religious observations historically have touched off clashes over protocol among the different Orthodox denominations. Groups of people Saturday shouted, "Armenia, Armenia" in Armenian, and "Greece, Greece" in English.

On Friday, screaming Coptic priests threw punches over where and how long different sects would stand during the Good Friday service.

In Istanbul, Turkey, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I delivered an Easter message decrying the trivialization of life and the destruction of nature.

Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world's more than 200 million Orthodox Christians, said the same fanaticism that once called for the crucifixion of Jesus was still calling for death and destruction, and said cowardly leaders still denied their responsibility to stop it.

"We call for an end to the killing of one another, and we denounce the violence and fanaticism that threatens life," Bartholomew said. "The victory of the resurrection must be experienced as a victory of life, of brotherhood, of the future, of hope."

The holy fire ceremony in Israel took place without serious incident despite talk that the ousted Greek Orthodox patriarch of the Holy Land, Irineos I, might put in an appearance in an attempt to challenge the authority of his successor, Theofilos III.

Church officials deposed Irineos last year over accusations he leased prime church properties in east Jerusalem to Jews seeking to bolster Israel's claim to that largely Arab section of the city. Irineos has refused to recognize his dismissal and still commands a band of loyalists.

Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, and the church's mostly Palestinian flock in the Holy Land denounced the leases as weakening the Arab presence in the disputed city.

Israeli security was heightened last year because of showdowns over the land deal. This year, police said the heavy security was standard practice at large public events.

Dimitri Diliani, who leads a coalition of Palestinian Christians, said Israeli police blocked Palestinian Christians from entering the Old City, allowing in only foreign worshippers.

Orthodox churches use a different calendar from Roman Catholics and Protestants, who celebrated Easter last week.

'Holy Fire' Ceremony Held in Jerusalem

[Shammu]

Abbas: Hamas No Obstacle to Conference

By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer Wed Apr 26, 10:58 AM ET

OSLO, Norway - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday proposed an international conference to jump-start stalled peace talks with
Israel, and he said the election of a Hamas government, sworn to Israel's destruction, was no obstacle.
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Speaking in the Norwegian capital where Israel and the Palestinians secretly hammered out their historic 1993 peace accord — Abbas said that he, as leader of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, still has the mandate to negotiate.

But he added that "to resolve the conflict, both sides should not be left alone with this imbalance of occupier and occupied."

Israel has long opposed international conferences, however, and Hamas itself refused to comment on the idea.

Abbas' use of a foreign capital to float the idea of peace talks was the latest installment in his increasingly contentious and public power struggle with Hamas, which swept his long-ruling
Fatah Party from power in Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.

With the West and Israel trying to force Hamas to renounce its violent ideology by cutting vital aid and tax transfers to the cash-starved
Palestinian Authority, Abbas apparently is trying to use his international legitimacy to ease the pressure on his increasingly isolated people.

Abbas said an international group should serve as a broker, possibly the so-called "Quartet" of the United States, the
European Union, Russia and the
United Nations, which three years ago proposed a peace blueprint that never got off the ground.

"I am ready to immediately resume negotiations with the Israeli government," Abbas said in a speech at the Nobel Institute in Oslo. "It is important for me to clarify that the Palestinian legislative elections, which brought Hamas to power, are not an obstacle to negotiations."

Abbas said his Palestine Liberation Organization had the mandate to negotiate in the Middle East conflict because it signed all previous agreements with Israel.

Since its election, Hamas has rebuffed international pressure on it to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state. It refused to comment on Abbas' call for an international conference.

Israel reacted to Abbas' comments by noting that a formula already exists for resuming peace talks — the Quartet's "road map" peace plan, which envisions the ultimate establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"Israel believes that the best way to move forward is according to the road map, which is the international community's accepted plan for the Middle East peace process," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "Unfortunately, the new Palestinian leadership under Hamas refuses to accept the road map or even Israel's right to exist."

The road map, which ran aground after both sides failed to meet initial obligations, also envisions an international meeting, but only in the third and final stage of the blueprint for creating a Palestinian state.

Abbas was a key player in months of secret Norwegian-led talks that led to the first Israeli-Palestinian agreement of 1993.

"It was in Oslo we began the peace process, and in Oslo we hope to see the conclusion," he said.

In calling for the conference, Abbas was trying to prevent an alternative to incoming Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to unilaterally draw Israel's final borders with the Palestinians by 2010.

Under Olmert's plan, Israel would withdraw from most of the
West Bank, but annex large Jewish settlement blocs and keep most of east Jerusalem, the sector Palestinians claim as a future capital.

U.S. officials reiterated Wednesday that the border must be drawn in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

"Our position is quite simple. The whole final status has to be resolved in negotiations between the parties. No unilateral initiative will contribute to
President Bush's vision of two states living side by side in security," said Stewart Tuttle, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Abbas' call for an international conference marks the first time he has asked the international community to provide an umbrella for peace talks. "He is telling Mr. Olmert ... that we call on him to resume permanent status negotiations with us, to abandon unilateralism," Erekat said.

Erekat acknowledged that the two sides had not reached the final stage of the road map — where a conference is foreseen — but that "we want to cut the long story short."

At a news conference after his speech, Abbas reiterated that he has the right, as Palestinian president, to dissolve the Hamas government, but that he has no plans to do so.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg pledged a $20 million aid package to the Palestinians that would be transferred to sources outside the Hamas government. He said Norway wants to provide aid through the United Nations, Norwegian humanitarian groups, and with possible direct support to Abbas' office as president.

Abbas: Hamas No Obstacle to Conference

[Shammu]

Abbas calls for Mideast peace conference 'immediately'
Apr 26 5:00 AM US/Eastern
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Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas called for an international conference to be held "immediately" to negotiate a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"An international conference should be summoned immediately, in which direct negotiations take place, on the basis of international UN resolutions and signed agreements," Abbas said in a speech at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.

"The international group, whether it is the Quartet (the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations), or any other international framework, would play the role of the broker and arbitrator at the same time," he added.

"I believe that to resolve the conflict, both sides should not be left alone with this imbalance of occupier and occupied," Abbas said.

The Palestinian leader, currently on a tour of Europe, encouraged the international community to "move fast" to secure a negotiated settlement to the conflict and stop a unilateral solution being imposed by acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Abbas calls for Mideast peace conference 'immediately'