Solana: EU will decide on ties with Israel after it unveils Palestinian strategy

The European Union will decide what to do about a frozen upgrade in ties with Israel once Israel unveils its Palestinian strategy review, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Wednesday.

 

Solana said "not much has advanced" in a meeting with new Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Prague and the Israeli side was fully aware of the EU's position, which insists on a two-state solution. (Reuters)

Obama will 'quickly' give Palestinians state

Arab official says U.S. relayed message ahead of meeting with Abbas

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Posted: April 17, 2009
12:00 am Eastern

By Aaron Klein

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WorldNetDaily

President Obama

TEL AVIV, Israel – President Obama will move to create a Palestinian state "more quickly than anybody could imagine." At least that's the message the Palestinian Authority claims it received from the U.S.

A chief PA negotiator, speaking to WND from the West Bank city of Ramallah, said that in recent days Palestinian officials held preliminary meetings leading to an in-person confab today between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and George Mitchell, Obama's envoy to the Mideast.

The PA negotiator said the American team preparing for Mitchell's meeting with Abbas conveyed to the Palestinians that Obama seeks to move swiftly toward a Palestinian state.

Said the PA negotiator: "They (the U.S. team) told us, 'We don't mind who is the government in Israel. Things will be closed (for a Palestinian state) and more quickly than anybody could imagine."

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, to outline the prime minister's approach to Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu reportedly told Mitchell he would condition future talks with the Palestinians on Palestinian leaders' first recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, a step that would be difficult should Hamas join a unity government.

The Israeli Ynetnews website quoted Netanyahu telling Mitchell of fears that any Israeli withdrawal from strategic territory would leave a terrorist hornet's nest in its wake.

"Israel must make sure that the political process does not result in the creation of a second 'Hamastan' (in the West Bank) that would threaten Jerusalem and the coastline," Netanyahu reportedly said.

Regarding Syria, Netanyahu told Mitchell he is willing to approach talks with Damascus if the country would curb its alliance with Iran and backing of Palestinian terrorism, according to a source in the Netanyahu government speaking to WND.

The source said Mitchell conveyed to Netanyahu that Obama seeks to create a Palestinian state in hopes of normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab world in line with the "Arab Peace Initiative." The source told WND Mitchell relayed that Obama's Mideast strategy would be based on the concept of the "Initiative" but with security guarantees for Israel.

Following scores of denials he would trumpet the plan, Obama in January hailed the Arab initiative, which offers normalization of ties with the Jewish state in exchange for extreme Israeli concessions. In an interview with an Arab television network – his first formal interview as president – Obama stated:

"Well, here's what I think is important. Look at the proposal that was put forth by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. ... I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal, but it took great courage to put forward something that is as significant as that. I think that there are ideas across the region of how we might pursue peace. I do think that it is impossible for us to think only in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan."

The Arab Initiative, originally proposed by King Abdullah in 2002 and later adopted by the Arab League, states that Israel would receive "normal relations" with the Arab world in exchange for a full withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem, which includes the Temple Mount.

The West Bank contains important Jewish biblical sites and borders central Israeli population centers, while the Golan Heights looks down on Israeli civilian zones and was twice used by Syria to mount ground invasions into the Jewish state.

The Arab plan also demands the imposition of a non-binding U.N. resolution that calls for so-called Palestinian refugees who wish to move inside Israel to be permitted to do so at the "earliest practicable date."

Palestinians have long demanded the "right of return" for millions of "refugees," a formula Israeli officials across the political spectrum warn is code for Israel's destruction by flooding the Jewish state with millions of Arabs, thereby changing its demographics.

When Arab countries attacked the Jewish state after its creation in 1948, some 725,000 Arabs living within Israel's borders fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel. Also at that time, about 820,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries or fled following rampant persecution.

While most Jewish refugees were absorbed by Israel and other countries, the majority of Palestinian Arabs have been maintained in 59 U.N.-run camps that do not seek to settle the Arabs elsewhere. There are currently about 4 million Arabs who claim Palestinian refugee status with the U.N., including children and grandchildren of the original fleeing Arabs, Arabs living full-time in Jordan, and Arabs who long ago emigrated throughout the Middle East and to the West.

Israel stands ready to bomb Iran's nuclear sites

Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem

The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.

Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.

Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public for the retaliation that Israel could face.

“Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words,” one senior defence official told The Times.

Officials believe that Israel could be required to hit more than a dozen targets, including moving convoys. The sites include Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges produce enriched uranium; Esfahan, where 250 tonnes of gas is stored in tunnels; and Arak, where a heavy water reactor produces plutonium.

The distance from Israel to at least one of the sites is more than 870 miles, a distance that the Israeli force practised covering in a training exercise last year that involved F15 and F16 jets, helicopters and refuelling tankers.

The possible Israeli strike on Iran has drawn comparisons to its attack on the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad in 1981. That strike, which destroyed the facility in under 100 seconds, was completed without Israeli losses and checked Iraqi ambitions for a nuclear weapons programme.

“We would not make the threat [against Iran] without the force to back it. There has been a recent move, a number of on-the-ground preparations, that indicate Israel's willingness to act,” said another official from Israel's intelligence community.

He added that it was unlikely that Israel would carry out the attack without receiving at least tacit approval from America, which has struck a more reconciliatory tone in dealing with Iran under its new administration.

An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence.

Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack.

“The American defence establishment is unsure that the operation will be successful. And the results of the operation would only delay Iran's programme by two to four years,” he said.

A visit by President Obama to Israel in June is expected to coincide with the national elections in Iran — timing that would allow the US Administration to re-evaluate diplomatic resolutions with Iran before hearing the Israeli position.

“Many of the leaks or statements made by Israeli leaders and military commanders are meant for deterrence. The message is that if [the international community] is unable to solve the problem they need to take into account that we will solve it our way,” Mr Kam said.

Among recent preparations by the airforce was the Israeli attack of a weapons convoy in Sudan bound for militants in the Gaza Strip.

“Sudan was practice for the Israeli forces on a long-range attack,” Ronen Bergman, the author of The Secret War with Iran, said. “They wanted to see how they handled the transfer of information, hitting a moving target ... In that sense it was a rehearsal.”

Israel has made public its intention to hold the largest-ever nationwide drill next month.

Colonel Hilik Sofer told Haaretz, a daily Israeli newspaper, that the drill would “train for a reality in which during war missiles can fall on any part of the country without warning ... We want the citizens to understand that war can happen tomorrow morning”.

Israel will conduct an exercise with US forces to test the ability of Arrow, its US-funded missile defence system. The exercise would test whether the system could intercept missiles launched at Israel.

“Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate the threat of a nuclear Iran. According to Israeli Intelligence they will have the bomb within two years ... Once they have a bomb it will be too late, and Israel will have no choice to strike — with or without America,” an official from the Israeli Defence Ministry said.

Russia in unprecedented Israeli drones purchase

1 day ago

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia has concluded a contract with an Israeli firm for the sale of drones, a defence official said on Friday, in Moscow's first purchase of military hardware from the Jewish state.

"We have concluded a contract with an Israeli firm on supplying Russia with several drones," Russian Deputy Defence Minister Vladimir Popovkin said after returning from a trip to Israel, quoted by Russian news agencies.

The minister did not name the Israeli company, but press reports have identified it as Israel Aerospace Industries and put the value of the deal at 50 million dollars (37 million euros).

Negotiations with Israel are likely to have been coloured by tensions over Russian ties with some of the Jewish state's Middle Eastern adversaries, such as Iran, say analysts.

Popovkin on Friday echoed earlier dissatisfaction voiced by Russia's military with the drones produced by his country's own defence industry.

The purpose of the latest purchase is "for our manufacturers to see what it is we're talking about," he said.

Moscow began shopping for foreign unmanned aircraft after last year's war in Georgia. Defence analysts say Georgia made effective use of its Israeli drones in the conflict, while Russia's home-made drones turned out to be inferior.

The Georgian side made wide use of such Israeli devices, including in an attack that seriously wounded Russia's commander in the Caucasus, General Anatoly Khrulev.

Russia had refrained from outspoken criticism of Israeli arms supplies to Georgia, despite scathing criticism of Ukraine for the same reason, in a move likely connected to the drone purchase.

Russia is in the midst of an ongoing effort to modernize its military and equip its armed forces with up-to-date technology, despite disagreements among some in the military over the priorities that have been set.

It has also announced a shake-up of its rocket forces, gradually eliminating Soviet era missiles in favour of a new generation of weapons that are currently being tested.

According to Kommersant, Russia is purchasing Bird-Eye 400, I-View MK150 and Search MK II drones from Israel Aerospace Industries.

Weapons trading between Israel and Russia is a touchy subject due to Russian arms ties to Israel's foes in the Middle East, Syria and Iran.

More Bible proof: Temple relics unearthed

Archaeologists discover official seals from Kingdom of Judah
Posted: February 23, 2009
10:39 pm Eastern

WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists yesterday announced the discovery of a large building dating to the time of the First and Second Temples associated with Hezekiah, the King of Judah.

The Israeli government's Antiquities Authority oversaw the excavation in the southern Jerusalem village of Umm Tuba. The agency said its archaeologists unearthed the remains of an ancient building consisting of several rooms arranged around a courtyard, containing pottery and other artifacts from the First and Second Temple Periods.

The finds include official government seals bearing the names of Ahimelekh ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar, who were high-ranking officials in Hezekiah's government. The life of Hezekiah, the son of King Ahaz is detailed in the biblical books of Kings, Isaiah and Chronicles. Hezekiah was the 13th king of independent Judah.

Archaeologists also found a Hebrew inscription – dating 600 years after the Kingdom of Judah seals – on a fragment of a jar neck, characteristic of the beginning of the Hasmonean period. The ancient building was partially destroyed during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

The finds are the latest in a mountain of unearthed remains giving a clearer picture of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem during the First and Second Temple periods. Still, the Palestinian Authority, which seeks control of the Temple Mount and eastern Jerusalem, steadfastly denies the Jewish temples ever existed.

In November, Ahmed Qurei, the PA's chief negotiator, who oversees all peace talks with the Jewish state, told reporters the Jewish Temples never existed and contended Israel has been working to "invent" a Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem. PA websites make similar claims.

Holiest site

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The First Temple was built there by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. when the Kingdom of Israel was united. After the kingdom split into two entities, Israel and Judah, the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of over four centuries.

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The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's shechina, or "presence," dwelled. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Jewish Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition holds Mashiach, or the Jewish Messiah, will return and rebuild the third and final Temple on the Mount in Jerusalem. The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and stands today in Jerusalem.

Throughout all notorious Jewish exiles, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up hope of returning to Jerusalem and re-establishing their Temple. To this day, Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca. The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. About 100 years ago, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem became associated with the place Muslims came to believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned in the Quran.

Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran. Palestinians today claim exclusivity over the Temple Mount, and Palestinian leaders routinely deny Jewish historic connection to the site, but historically, Muslims did not claim the Al Aqsa Mosque as their third holiest site and admitted the Jewish Temples existed.

According to research by Israeli author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam previously disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful Is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. Berkovits wrote that Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of God. As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."

It wasn't until the late 19th century – incidentally when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.

A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 "Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," which states on page four, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord.'"

Israel launches covert war against Iran

Israel has launched a covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear programme, US intelligence sources have revealed.

By Philip Sherwell in New York
Last Updated: 10:38PM GMT 16 Feb 2009

It is using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime's illicit weapons project, the experts say.
The most dramatic element of the "decapitation" programme is the planned assassination of top figures involved in Iran's atomic operations.
Despite fears in Israel and the US that Iran is approaching the point of no return in its ability to build atom bomb, Israeli officials are aware of the change in mood in Washington since President Barack Obama took office.
They privately acknowledge the new US administration is unlikely to sanction an air attack on Iran's nuclear installations and Mr Obama's offer to extend a hand of peace to Tehran puts any direct military action beyond reach for now.
The aim is to slow down or interrupt Iran's research programme, without the gamble of a direct confrontation that could lead to a wider war.
A former CIA officer on Iran told The Daily Telegraph: "Disruption is designed to slow progress on the programme, done in such a way that they don't realise what's happening. You are never going to stop it.
"The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach. We certainly don't want the current Iranian government to have those weapons. It's a good policy, short of taking them out militarily, which probably carries unacceptable risks."
Reva Bhalla, a senior analyst with Stratfor, the US private intelligence company with strong government security connections, said the strategy was to take out key people.
"With co-operation from the United States, Israeli covert operations have focused both on eliminating key human assets involved in the nuclear programme and in sabotaging the Iranian nuclear supply chain," she said.
"As US-Israeli relations are bound to come under strain over the Obama administration's outreach to Iran, and as the political atmosphere grows in complexity, an intensification of Israeli covert activity against Iran is likely to result."
Mossad was rumoured to be behind the death of Ardeshire Hassanpour, a top nuclear scientist at Iran's Isfahan uranium plant, who died in mysterious circumstances from reported "gas poisoning" in 2007.
Other recent deaths of important figures in the procurement and enrichment process in Iran and Europe have been the result of Israeli "hits", intended to deprive Tehran of key technical skills at the head of the programme, according to Western intelligence analysts.
"Israel has shown no hesitation in assassinating weapons scientists for hostile regimes in the past," said a European intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. They did it with Iraq and they will do it with Iran when they can."
Mossad's covert operations cover a range of activities. The former CIA operative revealed how Israeli and US intelligence co-operated with European companies working in Iran to obtain photographs and other confidential material about Iranian nuclear and missile sites.
"It was a real company that operated from time to time in Iran and in the nature of their legitimate business came across information on various suspect Iranian facilities," he said.
Israel has also used front companies to infiltrate the Iranian purchasing network that the clerical regime uses to circumvent United Nations sanctions and obtain so-called "dual use" items – metals, valves, electronics, machinery – for its nuclear programme.
The businesses initially supply Iran with legitimate material, winning Tehran's trust, and then start to deliver faulty or defective items that "poison" the country's atomic activities.
"Without military strikes, there is still considerable scope for disrupting and damaging the Iranian programme and this has been done with some success," said Yossi Melman, a prominent Israeli journalist who covers security and intelligence issues for the Haaretz newspaper.
Mossad and Western intelligence operations have also infiltrated the Iranian nuclear programme and "bought" information from prominent atomic scientists. Israel has later selectively leaked some details to its allies, the media and United Nations atomic agency inspectors.
On one occasion, Iran itself is understood to have destroyed a nuclear facility near Tehran, bulldozing over the remains and replacing it with a football pitch, after its existence was revealed to UN inspectors. The regime feared that the discovery by inspectors of an undeclared nuclear facility would result in overwhelming pressure at the UN for tougher action against Iran.
The Iranian government has become so concerned about penetration of its programme that it has announced arrests of alleged spies in an attempt to discourage double agents. "Israel is part of a detailed and elaborate international effort to slow down the Iranian programme," said Mr Melman.
But Vince Canastraro, the former CIA counter-terrorism chief, expressed doubts about the efficacy of secret Israeli operations against Iran. "You cannot carry out foreign policy objectives via covert operations," he said. "You can't get rid of a couple of people and hope to affect Iran's nuclear capability."
Iran has consistently asserted that it is pursuing a nuclear capability for civilian energy generation purposes. But Israeli and Western intelligence agencies believe the 20-year-old programme, which was a secret until 2002, is designed to give the ruling mullahs an atom bomb.

Israel finds huge natural gas reserve

Top official hails 'historic moment'
that could transform nation's future
Posted: January 23, 2009
12:25 am Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily


Mediterranean Sea NEW YORK – A huge deep-water natural gas find off the coast of Israel promises to be a boon to the Jewish state's economy as well as a stimulus to other developers searching for offshore oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean.

Noble Energy, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, has discovered an estimated more than 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in three high-quality reservoirs drilled in the company's Tamar No. 1 well in the Mediterranean Sea, about 56 miles off the Israeli northern port of Haifa.

Noble Energy drilled the Tamar No. 1 well to a depth of about three miles, beneath 5,500 feet of water.

The find is significant for those who believe the Bible indicates Israel is sitting on a massive oil reserve that would reshape the geopolitical structure of the Middle East.

The find also lends support to the abiotic theory of the origin of oil that holds oil is created naturally within the mantle of the earth, not by biological origins.

"We are the only company producing natural gas off the Israeli shore," Noble Energy spokesman Brad Whitmarsh told WND. "We also drill for gas in the Mari-B field, offshore closer to southern tip of Israel in shallower water."

The Tomar site is estimated to be three times as large as the Mari-B natural gas field off Israel's southern shore that analysts estimate may reach depletion within five years, according to a report published by Israel12c.org.

"We have built a considerable acreage position offshore Israel and have been working this area for years," he said. "The area around the Tomar has been largely undrilled and unexplored. Tamar was the first we have drilled, and when we started, we estimated we only had about a 35 percent chance of success."

"Tamar represents our first exploratory well offshore Israel in more than five years, and we are extremely excited by the results," Charles D. Davidson, Noble Energy's chairman, president and CEO said in a press release published on the company's website.

"This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history," he continued.

"We are witnessing an historic moment in Israel's energy market," Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told Reuters. "If it turns out in a few weeks that the indicators received in recent days are true, then we are talking about the biggest find in Israel's history."

Israel's Petroleum Commissioner Yaakov Mimran told Reuters that if early finds are validated the site would meet Israel's demand for 15 years.

"If the Tamar site opposite the Haifa coast succeeds in producing the significant quantities of natural gas predicted, we are talking about a revolution which will have an impact on the Israeli economy for the coming generations," Dan Halman, CEO of Halman-Aldubi Group told the Jerusalem Post.

"The vast reservoir is poised to bring down electricity prices, reduce the country's dependence on gas from foreign countries, in particular from Egypt, and thereby turn Israel from a gas importer into a gas exporter," Halman said.

Analysts told Reuters the natural gas find at Tamar No. 1 was worth an estimated $26 billion and would be available for market starting in 2013.

Nobel Energy holds a 36 percent working interest in the Tamar No. 1, with other owners including the following: Isramco Negev 2 with 28.75 percent; Delek Drilling with 15.625 percent; Avner Oil Exploration with 15.625 percent; and Dor Gas Exploration with the remaining 4 percent.

Former terrorist says West ignoring real Hamas agenda

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow

A former Palestinian terrorist says the West continues to pursue a failed idea that somehow terrorism against Israel will stop when the Palestinians get their own homeland.



Walid Shoebat is a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization and a convert to Christianity. He now runs the Walid Shoebat Foundation, which is an organization that cries out for the justice of Israel and the Jewish people. Shoebat, author of the recently published God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible, believes the recent terrorist rocket attacks by Hamas have nothing to do with wanting a Palestinian homeland.

"The core issue is not an issue of land whatsoever. It's an issue of wiping the state of Israel out. If you look at even suicide bombing -- historically, if you look from 1980 until 2003, let's say -- 224 suicide bombings out of 300 existed in Islamic countries with no occupation whatsoever," he notes. "So it's not simply the desire to create a Palestinian state. It is the desire to destroy the Jewish state, and that's what we see."

Shoebat contends this effort is being carried out by a huge network of Islamic enemies. "It's a rebel network involved between Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, Syria. Many Islamic countries are involved in this," he points out. "Saudi Arabia was funding...this kind of thing. So it's a huge network that we're dealing with."

Blair says that Palestinians and Israelis Reached a Secret Agreement

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has stated publicly that Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have reached a secret agreement.

In an interview with the leading Palestinian daily Al Quds, Blair stated that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have resolved differences between them, although he was careful to note that this agreement has not been signed. When pressed by the Palestinian reporter about the failure of the Annapolis process which began last year, Blair stated the following: "The continuous meetings between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and [Israeli leader] Olmert as well as the continuous negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli teams has produced an agreement." Blair said that he respects the choice of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to divulge details and therefore he would not give any further details.

Tony Blair who represents the Quartet Committee for Peace in the Middle East praised the courage of US President George Bush for his public pursuit for an agreement on a Palestinian state before the end of his term. Leaders of the US, Israel and the Palestinian Authority are in the last months of their terms in office. President Bush's last days in office is January 20th, Olmert has resigned and new elections are slated for February 2009, and the legal term of Mahmoud Abbas is due to expire January 9th. Blair praised President Elect Obama saying that he worked closely with General Jones who Obama choose as national security advisor.

Obama pledges state

Official says PA President Abbas received phone call today,
follows report Democrat confided he's for splitting Jerusalem
Posted: November 18, 2008
5:14 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily


Mahmoud Abbas JERUSALEM – President-elect Barack Obama today phoned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and pledged to work to establish a Palestinian state as soon as possible, a senior PA negotiator told WND.

"Obama expressed his full support for a Palestinian state. He told the president (Abbas) he will continue to promote the peace process, which will end with a two-state solution," said the PA's second most senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat.

"Obama said he will keep working in collaboration with the Israeli government and PA to reach a final solution. He said he'll do everything in his power to help create a Palestinian state as soon as we can," Erekat told WND.

It was the first phone call between Abbas and Obama, Erekat added.

Obama's transition spokesman Nick Shapiro did not immediately return a WND e-mail and phone request seeking comment.

The call comes two weeks after a reported flair-up on Election Day in which a senior Palestinian official told WND the Obama campaign urged Palestinian officials to deny an Arab media report that the then-Democratic nominee confided to Palestinian leadership that he supports their right to a capital in eastern Jerusalem.

The episode began after a Lebanese newspaper story Nov. 3 quoted sources in Ramallah who claimed that in a meeting in July with Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the two heard from Obama "the best things they ever heard from an American presidential candidate."

The report in the Al-Akhbar daily, known to have close contacts to Palestinian leaders in Lebanon, claimed Obama told Abbas and Fayyad he "supports the rights of the Palestinians to east Jerusalem, as well as their right to a stable, sovereign state," but he petitioned them to keep the remarks confidential.

Asked for comment by WND, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat at the time would neither confirm nor deny knowledge of Obama's purported remarks. Abbas political adviser Namer Hamad subsequently issued a denial to reporters.

But a senior official confirmed to WND that Obama said in a July trip to the region he favored a "negotiated settlement" that may grant the PA control over sections of Jerusalem.

The official, a longtime reliable source, claimed to WND that Obama advisers on Election Day engaged in a series of intense conversations asking that Abbas' office issue a denial.

The Lebanese report echoed a similar exclusive WND article immediately following Obama's meeting with Abbas and Fayyad in which a senior Palestinian source said Obama informed the Palestinians he supports a "negotiated settlement" that may grant the PA control over sections of Jerusalem.

"He assured us there was a misunderstanding when he said in [June] he supports the Israelis' rights to hold on to Jerusalem," the PA official, who took part in the meeting with Obama, told WND at the time. "He told us he corrected this right away and that he supports a negotiated settlement that will give the Palestinians territory."

The official was referring to a speech Obama delivered in June to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in which he stated if he is elected president, "Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."

Immediately following the speech, Obama reversed himself during a CNN appearance, explaining he meant Jerusalem shouldn't be physically divided with a partition.

"Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations," he said in response to a question about whether Palestinians have a legitimate claim to the city.

Obama said that "as a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute" a division of the city.

"And I think that it is smart for us to, to work through a system in which everybody has access to the extraordinary religious sites in Old Jerusalem but that Israel has a legitimate claim on that city."

Israel concerns over possible Washington-Tehran talks after U.S. presidential elections

By Xu Gang

JERUSALEM, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Israel is making discussions on future U.S.-Iranian ties with some concerns and worries over a possible direct talks between Washington and Tehran if Senator Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidential elections.

Israel expects Washington to initiate direct talks with Iran if Obama is elected president, in which case a critical Israeli interest would be to condition any talks between the West and Iran on halting uranium enrichment, daily Ha'aretz has quoted a senior government source as saying.

According to the source, discussions have been underway for months among officials from Israel's Foreign Ministry, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Security Council, the intelligence agency Mossad and the Defense Ministry, and some academic experts, which were coordinated by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is also the ruling Kadima party chairwoman and the prime minister-designate, said the source.

The discussions studied a number of scenarios between Iran and the West, one of which held that following an Obama win, the new U.S. president will start a dialogue with Iran to pressure it to stop its nuclear program.

Obama has said in his first debate with Senator John McCain that the U.S. had to enter tough direct talks with the Iranians as attempts to isolate Tehran only speed up its progress toward nuclearization.

Israel has no knowledge at present that Obama intends to present pre-conditions to dialogue with the Iranians, which is of great concern to Israel, said Ha'aretz.

The United States, Israel and their Western allies accuse Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, but Iran insists that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

According to another scenario, after the U.S. elections, and perhaps even before them, Iran would announce its agreement to the plan for a way forward proposed by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, known as the six powers, a few months ago.

Under the plan, uranium enrichment and sanctions would end simultaneously and talks would begin within 45 days on complete suspension of enrichment in exchange for a package of incentives from the West.

"The evaluation in Israel is that these two scenarios are possible in the next six months," said the source, who took part in the discussions.

The source said that in the course of strategic planning it was made clear that "Israel would have to avoid a situation in which the international community entered into dialogue and real negotiations with Iran while giving up the condition of stopping enrichment, and that this had to be emphasized to the six powers."

Ahead of the annual evaluation by Israeli Foreign Ministry held about two weeks ago, a document was written on the subject of the scenarios which was not presented to a wide forum because of concern over leaks that would compromise international efforts against Iran, according to local TV Channel 10.

Ha'aretz also reported that over the past two months Israeli Foreign Ministry has put together a four-pronged plan for a new diplomatic campaign against Iran.

The plan divides activities on Iran into four teams that will advise Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide.

The team charged with diplomatic action against the nuclearization of Iran will consist primarily of personnel from the strategic wing of Israeli Foreign Ministry and will cooperate with other bodies in the defense establishment. It will focus on increasing international pressure on Iran.

The team tasked with Iran's economic isolation will discuss divesting from Iran, cancelling deals, particularly on energy, boycotting Iranian banks and increasing monitoring of Iranian money in foreign banks.

Another team will work to isolate Iran in areas other than the nuclear program, highlighting issues of human rights, Iranian support for militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and organizing rallies during visits by senior Iranian officials.

A fourth team will deal with issues of public diplomacy -- writing articles in leading newspapers around the world, conducting press briefings, engaging in public relations efforts against Iran on university campuses, and disseminating intelligence against Iran in the media.

In response to the Ha'aretz report, Emily Landau, senior research associate at The Institute for National Security Studies, told a Thursday press briefing in Tel Aviv that Israel appears to make preparation for the scenario in which the new U.S. president, Obama or McCain, will start talks with Iran.

She, however, noted that no serious action has been taken so far in response to Iran's nuclear program and international efforts have been going nowhere.

Iran, which is "determined" to have nuclear weapons, is currently carrying on its nuclear program in defiance of international community, she said.

Landau described the Iran nuclear program as a very serious issue, saying Iran is not only a regional threat but also a global one -- an opinion often reiterated by top Israeli leaders.

Ha'aretz held that if the U.S. initiates direct talks with Iran if Obama is elected president, it means Israel will not attack Iran's nuclear facilities and must get used to the reality of the U.S. dialogue with Tehran.

Israel should keep an eye on its interests in the event of a possible U.S-Iranian dialogue, rather than live with the mistaken illusion it can unilaterally put a stop to Iran's nuclear program, said Ha'aretz.

However, more to the point is that both the U.S. and Israel evaluate that Iran is not yet approaching the nuclear threshold.

Isaac Ben-Israel, a member of Knesset (parliament) from the ruling Kadima party, told local newspaper Maariv that Livni "believes that if Iran's nuclear program is not stopped by the world, Israel will have no choice but to attack."

But Israel still has time, said Ben-Israel, adding "it doesn't mean we're going to bomb in three months."

According to the lawmaker, Iran needs another year and a half or two years to overcome technical problems and will attain its first nuclear device in another two to three years. Until then, there is time to bring more international pressure to bear on Iran.

Mohammed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said on Monday that Iran remains far from acquiring capabilities to develop nuclear weapons as it is still lacking the key components to produce an atomic weapon.

"They do not have even the nuclear material, the raw unenricheduranium to develop one nuclear weapon if they decide to do so," said the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency.

The Indigenous Lives of Jesus and Mohammed

By Seth Frantzman


A new study of American elementary school text books by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research has found that the history of ancient and modern Israel has been politicized by modern interpretations of the ‘conflict’ in the Middle East (Haviv Rettig ‘U.S Textbooks misrepresent Jews, Israel’ Sept. 25, 2008). Thus, in numerous text books, Jesus has become an indigenous ‘young Palestinian.’ In addition, many modern textbooks present the story of Islam as if it were a true story, discussing the ‘Prophet Mohammed’ and his life story. Whereas the story of the Jews is always prefaced with ‘Jews believe,’ the story of Mohammed is presented as if were lifted from a classic Saudi Arabian religious textbook, which it probably was. This new revelation that Jesus has become an indigenous Palestinian reminds us of Jane Kramer’s April 2008 article entitled ‘The Petition’ in the New Yorker in which she claimed that the history of Israel is really one of “1400 years of indigenous Islam.”

But if Jesus were a Palestinian and Islam indigenous to the land of Israel, then who are the Jews? The problem with raising up Jesus as a ‘Palestinian’ and creating an indigenous notion of Islam and the Arab connection to the land of Israel is that it ignores the very reason that Islam and Christianity have a connection to the land in the first place. If Jesus were really an indigenous Palestinian Arab then shouldn’t he have been born in Arabia, since there were no Palestinian Arabs in Palestine in 30 A.D?

But Jesus wasn’t born in Arabia. He was born in Bethlehem to a Jewish family from Nazareth. If Jesus was a Palestinian Arab then what was he doing in Jerusalem ‘cleansing the Temple’? He was in Jerusalem because he was a Jew and there was a Jewish temple there. But the Palestinian Jesus wouldn’t have needed to go to Jerusalem, for as an indigenous Palestinian living in a land that has no Jewish history there would have been no Jewish Temple. School children who are taught to believe that Jesus was a ‘young Palestinian’ are thus subconsciously forced to believe that he was ‘killed by the Jews’ just as the modern young Palestinians are being ‘killed by the Jews.’ But any Christian whose children are taught this anti-Semitic nonsense must find the rest of the Christian bible hard to fathom, with all its Jewish references, quotes from the prophets and attempts to reform the Jewish tradition.

The claim, moreover, that Islam is indigenous to Israel is as perplexing as the notion of a Palestinian Jesus. No Muslim confuses himself by believing Mohammed was a ‘Palestinian’ because the center of Islam is Mecca, not Jerusalem. But every Muslim knows that Mohammed chose Mecca after first considering Jerusalem and turned away from Jerusalem because the Jews rejected Mohammed, something they are cursed for time and again in the Koran. The notion of the indigenous Palestinian Islam stems from the Temple Mount Dome of the Rock where anti-Israel Muslim rhetoric now claims no Temple ever existed. If there were no Temple and no Jews, then why did Mohammed make a ‘night journey’ to the ‘far mosque’ of Jerusalem. As with the Palestinian Jesus, without the Jews there would be no reason for Mohammed to be in Jerusalem, for it would not have been a holy city.

Muslims that confuse this history and claim that Mohammed journeyed to Jerusalem because it was already holy to Christianity then forget that it was only holy to Christianity because Jesus the Jew had gone their to cleanse the Temple. Elementary students who are today being brainwashed to believe in an indigenous Islam in Palestine and a Palestinian Jesus are being done a great disservice by those who predicate the teaching of history on the present. People reject the existence of Israel and thus want to reject the history of Jews in the Holy Land. But there can be no Palestinian Jesus without first having a Jewish Jesus and there can be no Dome of the Rock without first having a Jewish Temple Mount or ‘far mosque’ to build it upon.

Is it time?

“It is no secret that the State and the nation of Israel have an arrow pointing in one direction, building a Third Temple at the expense of the al-Aqsa Mosque,” said the spokesman.


“Just today, I, along with members of the movement took a tour and we were exposed to shocking maps and documents signed by official Israeli bodies. Detailed plans for the construction of synagogues on the western side of the Temple Mount... as if they were public yards, are seen there."

Sarkozy's Speech

The full text of the inaugural speech of French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Paris summit of the Union for the Mediterranean held at the Grand Palais in Paris:

Ladies and Gentlemen Heads of States and Government of Europe and Mediterranean,

Mr Secretary General of the UN,

Mr President of the European Commission,

Mr President of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council,

Mr President of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly,

Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

It is an immense honour for France to host, here in Paris, the representatives of all the people who share the Mediterranean and for whom it is the source of all faith, all reason and all culture.

These people who have so often been divided, have so often fought, have so often torn each other apart, not because they were too different, but because underneath it all they were too similar, and who today have joined together because they know they share the same dream of civilisation and they want that dream to finally come true.

The Mediterranean has created a certain notion of happiness, wisdom and self-esteem. It has also created tragedy and its own way of feeling and expressing joy, suffering and human passion. It has pushed, sometimes to the extreme, the zest for life and fascination with death.

Today, everyone wants the forces of life to triumph. Everyone knows it will be hard. Everyone has memories of injustice, pain and broken dreams that will not fade away. Yet without forgetting any of the past, we owe it to the future generations, and primarily our children, to look to the future together.

Everyone is well aware that if this future is to be great, if this future is to be bright, if this future is to be a future of peace, a future of justice, a future of progress, everyone will have to make an effort as the European did to put an end to he deadly spiral of war and violence that, century upon century, sporadically brought barbarity to the heart of civilisation.

If we are all gathered here, it is because we all believe that the European dream and the Mediterranean dream are inextricably linked, that they will come true together or they will be broken together.

If we are gathered here, it is because we cannot base our relations merely on tolerance, because we have to go further and open ourselves up to one another in understanding and respect.

If we are gathered here, it is because we no longer want to be merely neighbours, we want to be partners.

In 1995, Europe took the initiative of launching the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue in Barcelona, which raised so many hopes among all those who love the Mediterranean and that it will one day cease to be the theatre of so many dangers and so many tragedies and will become a melting pot of civilisation again.

For the last thirteen years, the people of Europe and the Mediterranean have learnt to talk to one another and together think about the future. What Barcelona has accomplished must be sustained.

Yet the time has come for the awareness of our common destiny to prompt us to find the way to take action together, to together resume control of our common future, together write our common history. Huge challenges lie ahead, and they can only be taken up together.

The time has also come for the solidarity dictated by geography, history and culture to drive the peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean to share the responsibilities, decide unanimously, and recognise equal rights and duties for all.

We will only manage to build a better future by sharing power, in true solidarity, with respect for one another. This is the basis of the political choice, the moral choice, the fundamental historical choice of the Union for the Mediterranean: Parity, Equality and Shared Decision-Making Power.

The success or failure of everything we undertake together will depend first and foremost on the ability of each and every one of us to truly share. This means building increasingly close solidarity based on concrete projects.

Learning to get to know one another, understand each other, and respect each other by working together on projects that will satisfy everyone's vital interests. And in this way prepare the ground for prosperity, stability and peace.

This new approach to the relations between the peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean will be symbolized by this joint presidency at the head of the Union for the Mediterranean, which will join a Northern country with a Southern country.

And it is in this spirit that, with Egypt, France intends to assume on behalf of you al this responsibility that you have done it the honour of entrusting in it.

Not bloc against bloc, not North against South, not Europe on one side and everyone else on the other, not face to face, not even side by side, but united, together expressing everyone's common interest, together embodying this solidarity on which we wish to build our common future.

It is in the Mediterranean that the first fraternal civilisation was born, built on the idea of diversity. It is for all the peoples of the Mediterranean to again impart this lesson to all humankind by reviving this diversity that in the past enabled all the peoples and all the faiths of Cordoba, Tangiers and Constantine, Tunis, Alexandria, Beirut and so many other cities to live in pace, with mutual respect and in the knowledge that beneath their differences lay the same sense of humanity, the same love for life and the same need for justice that united them all.

It is in the Mediterranean that the religions of the Book were born. It is around the Mediterranean and nowhere else that they must be reconciled.

Together, we can build a major alliance between Africa, the Middle East and Europe out of the Mediterranean. We can make it the cleanest sea in the world, but also the world's largest co-development laboratory.

And by giving everyone access to water, food, energy and healthcare, by sharing knowledge, knowhow and education with everyone, by building shared universities, shared laboratories, by together creating the conditions for all young people to move freely between shores, by pooling our resources to safeguard people's security as best we can, we will show al of humankind what the beautiful word civilisation can still mean.

And we will teach our children how peoples who have lashed so often, but who still recall Antigone's cry - "I have come to share love, not to share hate"- and who remember that all their prayers speak of love, can once again understand and love one another.

Mediterranean summit hailed as 'best news for peace in the Middle East'

Written by Chris Perver
Saturday, 12 July 2008

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has hailed tomorrow's Paris summit as the "best news for peace in the Middle East". Forty-one of the forty-four heads of state invited to the summit have agreed to attend. The list of participants include Albania, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestinian Authority, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will co-host the event. But it is the presence Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that is expected to steal the show. Both countries have been involved in indirect peace negotiations since May, and have signalled their readiness to move to direct talks.

There was a mixed reaction to the proposal for a Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) when it was first announced following Sarkozy's election in October 2007. Northern European states originally feared that the new project could become a competitor to the European Union, and objected to EU money being used to fund an initiative they had no part in. Arab states were concerned that the UPM would be dominated by wealthier European states, and objected to Israel's inclusion in the group. But the plan was adopted by the European Union on the 13th of March, and on the 13th of July the new Union for the Mediterranean will be formed...

Quote: "The union was the brainchild of his special advisor and speech-writer Henri Guaino. In Toulon in February 2007, Sarkozy said he wanted "to be the president of a France that will set the Mediterranean on the path of its reunification, after 12 centuries of division..." He wanted "to achieve a new Renaissance... undertake with this project a policy of civilisation as envisioned by the philosophers of the Enlightenment." In Tangiers last October, Sarkozy said: "Within every man and woman who lives on the shores of the Mediterranean sleeps the memory, nostalgia, for the unity lost 15 centuries ago." Not since the Italian dictator Mussolini revived the ancient Roman concept of Mare Nostrum ("our sea" in Latin) has a politician held such high ambitions for the Mediterranean.

Revelation 13:1
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

A beast out of the sea

And as you can see from these two maps, despite the watering-down of Sarkozy's original proposal, the above quotation is an apt description of what is happening here. For it seems that the European Union and the Union for the Mediterranean are fulfilments of Biblical prophecy. The old Roman Empire is being revived, just as the Bible predicted. Throughout the centuries Christians have proclaimed the rebirth of the nation of Israel and the revival of the old Roman Empire. These Christians staggered not at the promises of God, though there was little evidence of these things coming to pass during their lifetimes. We have been privileged to witness the rebirth of the nation of Israel and the revival of the old Roman Empire. There is no excuse. The fact that there is a nation called Israel in the world is plain for all to see. And just in case you are not sure if the EU is the revival of the old Roman Empire, we have the frequent allusions to it by European leaders, the references to it in EU paraphernalia, the design of the EU parliament building, the motif on our coins, and the geographical area of the EU and UPM are roughly the same. The EU is the revived Roman Empire, no question about it. The Bible predicted over 2000 years ago that these things would happen. And today they are coming to pass before our very eyes. If the Bible was right about these things, what other things does the Bible say that we should know about? Jesus Christ is coming back soon (John 14:3). First, to take all those who have trusted in Him for salvation to be with Him where He is (John 14:3). And again, to judge this world for its wickedness (2nd Thessalonians 1:7-8). We need to be ready for His coming. How we can be ready? The Bible says our sins have separated between us and God (Isaiah 59:2). And if we die in our sins, where God is we cannot go (John 8:21). We need to have our sins forgiven. How can we have our sins forgiven? God sent His only Son Jesus Christ into this world 2000 years ago. He took God's punishment for your sins when He died upon the cross (Isaiah 53:6). All who believe on Him for salvation can have their sins forgiven and have eternal life in heaven (John 3:16). Turn away from your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation today and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31).

Source Irish Times, Bloomberg, Wikipedia

Deniers of Ancient Israelite History Exposed

Family Security Matter

July 12, 2008
Rachel Neuwirth

I was privileged this week to preview, before its release to the public, what may well prove to be a masterpiece of the documentary film-making art-a new look at the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt in the light of contemporary archeology and politics in the Middle East.

Filmmaker Tim Mahoney's The Exodus Conspiracy, due to be released within a few months, seeks to demonstrate the historical accuracy of the Biblical narrative of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt on the basis of recent archaeological discoveries and geographic explorations. A secondary thesis of the film is that the "Red Sea" crossed by the Israelites was the Gulf of Aquaba (called the Gulf of Eilat by modern-day Israelis), rather than "Sea of Reeds" in Egypt, as most Biblical scholars have always assumed, and that the true "Mount Sinai" or "Mount Horeb" of the Exodus narrative is in northern Saudi Arabia, and is not the Mt. Sinai shown to pilgrims and tourists over the centuries in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

At the same time, the film also documents the efforts of Arab governments, especially Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to suppress, or at least to seriously impede, the discovery and publication of archaeological data that would confirm the historicity of the Biblical narrative. Is this a conspiracy to suppress the truth about the ancient history of the Middle East? And if so, who could possibly want to deny the reality of a 3,500 year old event, and why?The film's answer to these questions is that Arab governments and political circles wish to deny to the Jews the status of indigenous inhabitants of the Middle East; and above all, to deny the 3,000-plus years of continuous Jewish inhabitance of the Land of Israel (called "Palestine" by the Romans, the British, and now the Arabs). The entire Arab justification for 88 years of relentless war against the Jewish people in the Holy Land, and their efforts first to prevent the rebirth of the Jewish nation there, and then to destroy it, rests on the claim that the Jews are alien European "settlers" in the Holy Land, while the Arabs are the "indigenous" native population, who have lived there "since time immemorial." Archeology that confirms the accuracy of the Biblical narrative, and which documents the ancientness of the Jewish habitation of the land, is thus extremely inconvenient to Israel's enemies, even though (or rather because) it concerns events in the remote past.

While the archaeological-historical conclusions of The Exodus Conspiracy are controversial, a great deal of support for them can be found in On the Reliability of the Old Testament, a thoroughly documented and brilliantly presented study by Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen, a professor of archeology and Egyptology at Liverpool University in Britain. Also offering strong support for the historicity of the Israelite worship experience at the Biblical "mountain of God" is the work of Italian archaeologist Emmanuel Anati, who has explored a mountain in the Wilderness of Paran along the Israel-Egyptian border. At this site, Dr. Anati has discovered inscriptions, tools and other remains of worship ceremonies left by ancient Semitic nomads that bear a striking similarity both to those described in the Book of Exodus, and to those found by the explorers of a mountain in Arabia who present their findings in The Exodus Conspiracy. I do not pretend to know which mountain was the original of the Mt. Sinai or Mt. Horeb described in the Book of Exodus. Nevertheless, archeology certainly confirms that ancient Semitic nomadic peoples engaged in worship at the base of desert mountains that was very similar to that described in the Biblical narrative of the exodus.

However, Mr. Mahoney's description of a major propaganda effort to deny the reality of the Jewish people's three thousand-plus years' residence in the Middle East is undeniably true. This effort is documented in numerous reports in the daily press, and in nearly every Arab book, pamphlet or website devoted to the Arab-Israel conflict. It is also documented by the writings of numerous "revisionist" historians and archaeologists, many of them Jewish and some Israeli, who support the Arab side in the Arab-Israel conflict. The attempt to deny the reality of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt has even been joined by a well-known Los Angeles rabbi, David Wolpe. Indeed, Mr. Mahoney could have said much more than he has chosen to say about the non-Arab and non-governmental participants in this war against history.

Conspiracy supports its conclusions with interviews with a wide range of explorers, archaeologists, Biblical scholars, religious leaders, and even senior Israeli political leaders, such as President Shimon Peres and opposition leader Benyamin Netanyahu. It contains brilliant cinematography of ancient archaeological sites and the stark desert landscape in which they are situated, taken from original videos shot by the explorers of these sites. The documentary also contains recreations by actors of parts of the Biblical narrative of the origins of the Israelite people, clips from Cecil B. DeMille'smagnificent original 1920s silent epic "The Ten Commandments," and oral narrations of the Exodus story by distinguished "storytellers," actually scholars and/or religious leaders of different faiths and from all parts of the world, dressed in their traditional national costumes. There are beautifully photographed scenes of present-day Jerusalem, and a truly shocking film clip of an Arab mob destroying Joseph's Tomb, an ancient holy site sacred to three faiths, during the so-called "Intifada." In short, there is something here for everyone; The Exodus Conspiracy has great educational value and is first-rate entertainment as well.

To bolster the case for the historicity of the exodus, Mahoney cites recent archaeological work in the region that was once called "the land of Goshen," described in the Bible as the home of the Israelite people during their four hundred year sojourn in Egypt. These archaeological explorations have uncovered the presence of a substantial Semitic population there - which suddenly disappeared in the 13th Dynasty of Egypt. This just happens to be the same era in which, many historians have surmised from surviving Egyptian historical records as well as references in the Biblical account, the Exodus must have taken place.

The people who lived in this region on the eastern edge of the Nile Delta, until their sudden and mysterious disappearance, kept sheep, which the Israelites raised and the Egyptians did not raise. The architectural style of their houses was characteristic of the Fertile Crescent region and different from that of contemporary Egyptian houses.

Most interestingly, perhaps, there is an elaborate tomb in this area of a high official of a Pharaoh's government, which could easily be the tomb of the patriarch Joseph. Remnants of paint on a statue of the man even suggest that he wore a coat of many colors!

At around the same time and the same place, there is evidence of a sharp increase in deaths and mass graves have been found, as if victims of a plague were hastily buried without the usual funeral rites. Evidence of the slaying of the Egyptian first-born by the angel of death, as the Book of Exodus records?

Yet no archaeologist working in this region of Egypt has been willing to say publicly that he or she believes that the Semitic people who inhabited the Land of Goshen, and then mysteriously disappeared from it, were the Israelites. Why not? According to several scholars and archaeologists whom Mahoney interviewed, the answer is fear: the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi A. Hawass, decides personally which archaeologists will be allowed to work in Egypt, and he would never allow any archaeologist who expressed a belief in an ancient Israelitepresence in the country to work there.

If there is subtle, quiet intimidation of archaeologists in Egypt, the intimidation of them in Saudi Arabia has been anything but subtle. Explorers convinced that the Biblical ‘mountain of God," where He revealed the Law to the Israelites, is in northern Arabia, rather than in the Sinai Peninsula where post-Biblical tradition places it, have encountered fierce opposition from the Saudi authorities. One exploration party was subjected to 78 days of imprisonment. Several have encountered armed Saudi soldiers and police ordering them to evacuate the area immediately. Even the personal physician to a high-ranking Saudi prince, armed with a personal letter from the prince authorizing him to explore anywhere in Saudi Arabia, was denied entry to this area by armed guards. Why, Mahoney and his interviewees ask, is the Saudi government so intent on hiding ancient ruins and inscriptions?

One reason may be that the explorers have discovered a mountain on which are located the remains of religious altars, ancient Semitic inscriptions, and evidence of major encampments by nomads at the base of the mountain - all of which are elements, of course, of the Biblical narrative of the Revelation at Sinai. If the Exodus really took place in northern Saudi Arabia as Mr. Mahoney and his interviewees maintain, then the Arab claim to be the sole "indigenous" inhabitants even of the Arabian Peninsula itself, let alone "Palestine," could be thrown into doubt.

Mahoney also places the obstructionist tactics of the Egyptian and Saudi governments within the broader context of the archaeological "front" of the Arab-Israeli conflict - a "front" that includes denials by Palestinian Arab religious and political leaders that there ever was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, despite the overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence of the presence of two magnificent Jewish temples there over a 1,000-year period. As a part of their effort to cover up the ancient Jewish presence at the Temple Mount, the Muslim religious authorities who have been allowed to control the site by Israel have carted away and dumped tons of rich ancient soil containing archaeological remains of the two Temples. The shocking desecration and destruction of the tomb of the Biblical patriarch Joseph, who first led the Israelites to Egypt, by Palestinian Arab "militants" in Nablus (the Biblical Israelite city of Shechem) was yet another "action" in the archaeological-historical front of the war. It is as if the Palestinian Arab "militants" think that they can erase the ancient Jewish inhabitant of the land by destroying the surviving physical remains of that presence. The Arabs are waging a war against history itself in an effort to uphold their claims. The Israeli diplomat and scholar Dore Gold, author of The Fight for Jerusalem, in a brief on-camera interview in the film, lucidly summarizes the Jerusalem-Palestine "front" in the Arab war against Israelite-Jewish history. However, additional documentaries are needed to explore more fully this front of the propaganda-misinformation war against Israel and history.

While The Exodus Conspiracy is not the last word on this subject, and many additional documentaries about it should be made in the future, it is a must see for everyone who wants to understand the inseparable connection between the present-day conflict in the Middle East and the ancient events narrated in the Bible.

John Landau Contributed to this Article

Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Rachel Neuwirth is an internationally recognized political commentator and analyst. She specializes in Middle Eastern Affairs with particular emphasis on Militant Islam and Israeli foreign policy. She is president of Middle East Solutions.

Third Temple Prep

Wearing a turban and a light blue tunic threaded with silver, a man stands in a workshop in Jerusalem's Old City beside spools of white thread affixed to sewing machines. A painting of high priests performing an animal sacrifice beside the First Temple illustrates the function of the room.
A workshop for making...

A workshop for making priestly garments is inaugurated in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old City on Monday.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

On Monday, the Temple Institute started preparing to build a Third Temple on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, the site of the Dome of the Rock and the Aksa mosque, by inaugurating a workshop that manufactures priestly garments.

After Efrat Chief Rabbi Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a Kohen himself, gets measured for his own set of Kohanim garments, Aviad Jeruffi, the clothing's designer, strums "To Ascend to the Temple Mount" on his guitar in celebration.

Priestly garments have not been worn since the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 CE and cannot be functional until a Third Temple is constructed.

Kohanim, priests directly descended from Moses's brother Aaron, are recognized by the Institute as such if their paternal grandfather observed the tradition. Today, they have special religious responsibilities; in days of yore they performed the most significant duties within the Temple.

Approximately one-third of the commandments in the Torah cannot be accomplished without a temple, including the obligations of the Kohanim.

But a Third Temple seems a flighty dream with nightmarish political implications to many, as both a shrine, the Dome of the Rock, and the Aksa mosque, Islam's third holiest structure, currently stand on the Temple Mount.

Rabbi Yehuda Glick, director of the Temple Institute, says he assumes Muslims will be supportive when the Temple is ready to be built:

"We already have some Muslims who are secretly in touch with us," he says.

When the Temple is rebuilt, Kohanim must wear the proper outfit to perform their obligations, Glick continues.

Each set has a turban, tunic pants and belt and is individually tailored at a cost of NIS 2,500.

"If it were a bathrobe for watching SNL [Saturday Night Live], it would not be worth it. But we're talking about people who have a very strong yearning for working in the Beit Hamikdash [Temple]," says Glick.

Years of diligent research was needed to create the garments in conformance with Jewish law.

Special flaxen thread was imported from India and overseas travel was necessary to obtain the correct colors for the clothes, including to Istanbul, to purchase mountain worms from which the correct shade of crimson is derived.

The secret of the correct shade of blue has been lost since the destruction of the Second Temple, as the identity of chilazon, the snail from which it was extracted, was uncertain until the Ptil Tekhelet nonprofit organization identified it as the murex trunculus, aka hexaplex trunculus, the banded dye-murex found near the Mediterranean Sea.

"The Temple is not a message [just for] the Jewish people. It reunites the world all around one central prayer house. All the prophets say that at the End Times all the nations will be coming to Jerusalem and take part of building [the Temple]," Glick says.

Erekat: 6 months to peace deal

Top negotiator for Palestinian Authority says solutions at hand for all core issues, now is time for decision-making. Speaking at conference organized by Peres Center for Peace, Erekat says 'Israeli and Palestinian leaders who reach an agreement will be more important to region's history than Jesus'
Roee Nahmias

"If we want a peace agreement – there are only six months left. This is the time to make decisions," Saeb Erekat said on Thursday evening.



Speaking at a conference organized by the 'Peres Center for Peace' at Tel Aviv University, the top negotiator for the Palestinian Authority was joined for a discussion on the recent renewal of Israeli negotiations with Syria by MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) and former director-general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Dr. Alon Liel.



"Our goal is to reach an agreement. Regarding the core issues: Jerusalem, the refugees and the borders – all these have solutions. This is the time for decisiveness. We will not go back to talks over temporary arrangements or temporary border, we intend to reach an agreement and this is possible for all the core issues. We need to make decisions, and (Prime Minister) Olmert and (Palestinian President) Abbas are capable of making them.



"The 'Israeli and Palestinian leaders who reach an agreement will be more important to region's history than Jesus," said Erekat.



"Ultimately the only solution possible is that of two states in the 1967 borders. Like it or not, you have three options: two states, a bi-national state, and the current situation," said Erekat, alluding to an 'apartheid state.'



The senior Palestinian diplomat also addressed the situation in the Gaza Strip: "We want the truce in Gaza to hold. It is good to give a chance for peace, and the calm is necessary for us."



As for the indirect negotiations with Syria, Erekat said: "I hope the Israeli-Syrian channel is successful. We want Syria to be involved in the peace process because we would like to see a final arrangement for the entire region."


'Assad – driving force behind talks'

Alon Liel said that success with the Syrian channel would have a positive effect on the Palestinian one.

"If we reach an agreement with Syria before we do with the Palestinians, there will be several elements aiding the Palestinian channel – like the issue of the refugees for instance. Syria will apparently agree to grant the refugees citizenship," he said.



"I know that there's a lot of panic in Lebanon about this issue, as they fear that the Palestinian refugees will be settled there as well and alter the country's demographics. What's more, the Syrians will no longer allow Khaled Mashaal (Hamas' exiled politburo chief) to remain in Damascus. If we reach a stage where Syria stops aiding Hamas and Hizbullah, the balance of power will shift in Fatah's favor and this will help the peace process."



The former director-general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry said noted that the "driving force" behind the renwed talks with Syria was none other than Syrian President Bashar Assad himself. Olmert, said Liel, would not have initiated the negotiations.



"I believe the reason for this is that Assad is afraid of Iran. The Syrians know exactly who the Iranians are, just as we do. They also know how dependent they've become in fields like military strength and their economy. I believe they came to the conclusion that they were under a 'friendly takeover' by Iran, and that

Iran may yet do to them what they did in Lebanon."



Liel said that only the United States would be able to broker a regional agreement with Syria that would block its "Iranization.



"After that, with the help of the Syrians, we will be able to come to the public and ask them something very simple: 'What do you prefer – having Israel surrounded by an Iranian belt in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip – or a friendly belt that will normalize relations with us and agree to end the conflict?"

Israel first ENP partner able to participate in various EU programs

Original article: www.ejpress.org/article/26256

3 Updated: 16/Apr/2008 16:07

BRUSSELS (EJP)---Israel signed Tuesday an agreement with the European Union which gives Israeli bodies and organizations the ability to participate in various programs proposed by the EU.
The protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement was signed by Israel’s ambassador to the EU, Ran Curiel, and Igor Sencar, Slovenia’s ambassador to the EU whose countries currently chairs the union.

Israel is the first country among all the partners of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) to sign the agreement, a new step forward in Israel’s efforts to upgrade its relations with the European Union.

The ENP covers 16 EU’s eastern and southern neighbours, including Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia from the one side and Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories from the other side.

The programs concerned by the agreement cover various fields: environment, customs, academy, energy, competition, innovation, culture and Youth Programs.

Israel was the first non-EU country that took part in the European Framework Program for Research and Technological Development, and in the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Program, as well as one of the first participants in the Galileo project, the Global Navigation Satellite System of the EU, and in the European Space Agency.

The European Commission recently described Israel as the "front-runner" among non-EU members participating in EU programs.

A “reflection group” is considering areas where EU-Israel relations can be substantially upgraded to a "special status.”

The EU is Israel’s main trade partner, with imports representing 38 % and exports 33 %. Data for the first quarter of 2007 show an increase respectively of 7.2 and 3.0 % compared to the same period of 2006.

The EU and Israel signed in 1995 an Association Agreement which came into force in 2005. In addition to the political dialogue, the agreement covers areas such as industry, energy, standards, financial services, information infrastructures and telecommunications, transport and tourism.

The EU-Israel Association Council meets annually at ministerial level.

Defining a better Mediterranean union

By Dana Moss
Commentary by



Next July 13, in Paris, Europe will better define the Union for the Mediterranean (UM), its latest venture in the Middle East. Initially proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the idea has undergone radical transformation, so that the current incarnation bears little resemblance to the initial proposal. The shape of the UM will only be clear once the July summit is over, but as things now stand, the union holds many challenges, but also some promise, for the Middle East.

The original idea, floated during Sarkozy's presidential campaign, was highly nebulous. Seen as a means of rebuilding France's role in the Middle East, the plan was also a way for Sarkozy to appeal to voters of North African origin. Initially, it involved the 10 Mediterranean states and only the southern states of the European Union. However, Germany, fearing the creation of a power block within the EU, vociferously objected. Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed the plan as "very dangerous," arguing it would release "explosive forces in the EU that I would not like to see."

As a result of German lobbying, the UM idea has since been watered down. Whereas initially the union was to be independent of existing EU instruments, such as the Barcelona Process and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), it has now been reconfigured, as Hans-Gert Pottering, the president of the European Parliament, has described it, to "strengthen and further the Barcelona Process." The UM is now attached to the EU and involves all 27 member states. Additional EU funds will not be forthcoming, although it is rumored that Qatar and private donors will be contributing money. The UM, however, does still maintain its project-specific nature, with an opt-out clause for those states who do not wish to take part in the projects being offered, which currently center on energy, pollution, and civil security cooperation issues.

But even the new, expanded project is drawing a fair amount of flak. As one commentator noted, the involvement of the 27 EU states may lead to a danger of "too many meetings, with too many participants that achieve too little." Such concerns compound fears of duplication and an expansion of an already overly bureaucratic European system, unless extreme care is taken in overseeing the linkage with the ENP.

Pessimists point to other potential stumbling blocks - primarily the acrimonious relations between the Middle Eastern partners in the UM. Chief among these worries is the simmering Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but hostile Syrian-Lebanese relations and Moroccan-Algerian tensions are also predicted to place limits on what the UM can realistically achieve. Supporters, however, liken this to the EU model, whereby shared interests might generate conflict resolution, with French Minister for European Affairs Henri Guaino arguing that "it's through concrete cooperation ... that we can create solidarity between nations."

As observers have noted, most of the areas marked for projects have been those where collaboration has taken place under the Barcelona Process. Closer regional relations, therefore, will have to result not from a novel approach, but from revived association - a question of degree, not content.

Yet if Guaino's argument is correct, then the UM might do more than enable Israeli-Palestinian cooperation. Collaboration on various projects may also provide a helpful platform in aiding rapprochement in North Africa, vital in light of rising violence by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Another point of criticism is the lack of clarity regarding the relationship of the UM with the EU's political basket - namely the need to enhance democracy and rule of law in the Middle East. So far, the UM appears focused on business-oriented initiatives, leading human rights activists to fear the sidelining of democracy and rule of law requirements within the framework of the EU's relationship with the Mediterranean states.

Yet the silence over governance issues can cut both ways. For the Arab counterparts, it's a welcome relief. Combined with the shared presidency of the UM (one European country will hold the post together with a Mediterranean country), this could go some way toward addressing regional resentment of the Barcelona Process and the ENP - viewed by many as unfairly weighed in favor of the EU. Redressing this imbalance will enable a sense of appropriation by the Mediterranean counterparts, providing for more enthusiastic European-Middle East relations.

This will no doubt be propelled forward by the economic regeneration and job creation aims of the UM. Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci summarized the Middle Eastern reaction when he said "if the aim of this project is to create development projects in the Mediterranean region then it is obvious that we should support it." Yet laudable though these aims are, the focus on economic reform must be coupled with pressure for political reform within the ENP framework. Unless the two are twinned, economic advantages may continue to primarily benefit groups close to the political elite, as opposed to Middle Eastern populations at large.

Aside from these concerns, major questions remain. How will Syria, whose association agreement with the EU has been frozen as a result of its suspected role in the February 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, fit into this framework? What shape can EU-Libyan relations take? The signs are encouraging for future EU-Middle Eastern relations, but to fulfill the promise of the UM, European policymakers must also be aware of the potential problems.

Dana Moss is a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels. She wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.