May 31, 2011

The Battle Over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Beneath Jerusalem, an Underground City Takes Shape

By Matti Friedman, Associated Press
May 30, 2011

Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above.

At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab.

Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago.

Archaeological digs under the disputed Old City are a matter of immense sensitivity. For Israel, the tunnels are proof of the depth of Jewish roots here, and this has made the tunnels one of Jerusalem's main tourist draws: The number of visitors, mostly Jews and Christians, has risen dramatically in recent years to more than a million visitors in 2010.

But many Palestinians, who reject Israel's sovereignty in the city, see them as a threat to their own claims to Jerusalem. And some critics say they put an exaggerated focus on Jewish history.

A new underground link is opening within two months, and when it does, there will be more than a mile (two kilometers) of pathways beneath the city. Officials say at least one other major project is in the works. Soon, anyone so inclined will be able to spend much of their time in Jerusalem without seeing the sky.

On a recent morning, a man carrying surveying equipment walked across a two-millennia-old stone road, paused at the edge of a hole and disappeared underground.

In a multilevel maze of rooms and corridors beneath the Muslim Quarter, workers cleared rubble and installed steel safety braces to shore up crumbling 700-year-old Mamluk-era arches.

Above ground, a group of French tourists emerged from a dark passage they had entered an hour earlier in the Jewish Quarter and found themselves among Arab shops on the Via Dolorosa, the traditional route Jesus took to his crucifixion.

South of the Old City, visitors to Jerusalem can enter a tunnel chipped from the bedrock by a Judean king 2,500 years ago and walk through knee-deep water under the Arab neighborhood of Silwan. Beginning this summer, a new passage will be open nearby: a sewer Jewish rebels are thought to have used to flee the Roman legions who destroyed the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D.

The sewer leads uphill, passing beneath the Old City walls before expelling visitors into sunlight next to the rectangular enclosure where the temple once stood, now home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the Rock.

From there, it's a short walk to a third passage, the Western Wall tunnel, which continues north from the Jewish holy site past stones cut by masons working for King Herod and an ancient water system. Visitors emerge near the entrance to an ancient quarry called Zedekiah's Cave that descends under the Muslim Quarter.

The next major project, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, will follow the course of one of the city's main Roman-era streets underneath the prayer plaza at the Western Wall. This route, scheduled for completion in three years, will link up with the Western Wall tunnel.

The excavations and flood of visitors exist against a backdrop of acute distrust between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims, who are suspicious of any government moves in the Old City and particularly around the Al-Aqsa compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine. Jews know the compound as the Temple Mount, site of two destroyed temples and the center of the Jewish faith for three millennia.

Muslim fears have led to violence in the past: The 1996 opening of a new exit to the Western Wall tunnel sparked rumors among Palestinians that Israel meant to damage the mosques, and dozens were killed in the ensuing riots. In recent years, however, work has gone ahead without incident.

Mindful that the compound has the potential to trigger devastating conflict, Israel's policy is to allow no excavations there. Digging under Temple Mount, the Israeli historian Gershom Gorenberg has written, "would be like trying to figure out how a hand grenade works by pulling the pin and peering inside."

Despite the Israeli assurances, however, rumors persist that the excavations are undermining the physical stability of the Islamic holy sites.

"I believe the Israelis are tunneling under the mosques," said Najeh Bkerat, an official of the Waqf, the Muslim religious body that runs the compound under Israel's overall security control.

Samir Abu Leil, another Waqf official, said he had heard hammering that very morning underneath the Waqf's offices, in a Mamluk-era building that sits just outside the holy compound and directly over the route of the Western Wall tunnel, and had filed a complaint with police.

The closest thing to an excavation on the mount, Israeli archaeologists point out, was done by the Waqf itself: In the 1990s, the Waqf opened a new entrance to a subterranean prayer space and dumped truckloads of rubble outside the Old City, drawing outrage from scholars who said priceless artifacts were being destroyed.

This month, an Israeli government watchdog released a report saying Waqf construction work in the compound in recent years had been done without supervision and had damaged antiquities. The issue is deemed so sensitive that the details of the report were kept classified.

Some Israeli critics of the tunnels point to what they call an exaggerated emphasis on a Jewish narrative.

"The tunnels all say: We were here 2,000 years ago, and now we're back, and here's proof," said Yonathan Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist. "Living here means recognizing that other stories exist alongside ours."

Yuval Baruch, the Antiquities Authority archaeologist in charge of Jerusalem, said his diggers are careful to preserve worthy finds from all of the city's historical periods.

"This city is of interest to at least half the people on Earth, and we will continue uncovering the past in the most professional way we can," he said.

May 26, 2011

China-Pakistan Alliance Strengthened Post Bin Laden

Pakistan's Gilani Visits Ally Beijing Amid U.S. Rift

Associated Press
May 16, 2011

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani began a visit to China on Tuesday with his country's old ally looking more attractive after the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden further strained Islamabad's ties with Washington.

The sentiment is mutual, with China now in the process of shoring up its relations with Islamabad, Afghanistan and several other Central Asia states in step with an expected diminished U.S. presence as it winds down military operations in Afghanistan.

For Pakistan, Beijing represents an uncritical friend ready to provide aid, investment and military assistance. To the leaders in Beijing, ties with Pakistan and other countries in its neighborhood offer a bigger diplomatic footprint, better access to resources and a larger stable of allies to challenge U.S. supremacy.
"Pakistan wants to give a show that it is an independent actor and has options, and China offers a model of a functioning non-democratic state," said Indiana University China scholar Elliot Sperling.
Gilani arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday evening, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Although Gilani's four-day visit was planned well in advance, it comes at a critical time for his country's relations with the U.S., which have been thrown into crisis over the American raid that killed bin Laden in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad on May 2. Pakistan has called it a violation of its sovereignty and threatened to retaliate if there are any similar operations in the future.

While American politicians served up withering criticisms of Pakistan's failure to find bin Laden's hide-out — or the possibility that officials were protecting him — China offered welcome reassurance, praising Pakistan as resolute in the fight against terrorism.

Gilani made Pakistan's appreciation clear, singling out China in a testy May 9 speech to parliament as Islamabad's "all-weather friend." China-Pakistan ties were forged shortly after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 and have thrived in part on both countries' distrust of their mutual neighbor India.

Gilani's visit is formally pitched as part of celebrations of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties, and he is scheduled to meet with top Chinese leaders and oversee the signing of a series of agreements beginning Wednesday.
"Further consolidating and developing our friendship and cooperation is the common aspiration of the two peoples," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regularly scheduled news briefing Tuesday.
Along with billions of dollars in investment — up to $30 billion over the next five years, according to agreements signed last year — China supports Pakistan's nuclear power industry and sells it military hardware including surface-to-air missiles, navy frigates and fighter jets.

China for its part receives strong diplomatic backing from Pakistan in the region and among Islamic nations who might otherwise be more critical of China's repressive policies toward its Muslim Uighur minority.

Among other benefits: Pakistani officials have suggested they might offer Chinese experts a chance to examine the wreckage of a sophisticated U.S. helicopter that crashed during the operation to take out bin Laden. Strong Pakistan ties also help anchor China's improving relations with other countries in the region.

A visit by Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasoul this month put a fresh sheen on bilateral relations at a time when the reduction in U.S. troop strength is expected to open up space for other countries to expand their influence there.

Days earlier, Beijing had underscored its regional heft by hosting forces from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for joint anti-terrorism drills in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, part of its embrace of Central Asia through the Chinese and Russian-dominated Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Still, there are questions as to how much further China is willing to go in building up relations with Islamabad. China also needs to keep its crucial but delicate relationship with Washington in balance, and wouldn't want to be seen as exacerbating tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Sperling said he doesn't expect much of substance to result from the visit, although China is happy to accommodate Pakistan's desire to alter perceptions.

China is also deeply concerned about radical Islamic threats on its border and has little interest in backing Pakistan's support for the Taliban in Afghanistan to counter Indian influence. Greater turmoil in Afghanistan would be a "challenge instead of an opportunity for China," said Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.
"China is willing to have cooperation with any Afghanistan government and provide help within its ability, but the role will be limited," he said.

China-Pakistan Alliance Strengthened Post bin Laden

AFP
May 15, 2011

Tensions between the US and Pakistan over the killing of Osama bin Laden and a speedier US withdrawal from Afghanistan are likely to reinforce China and Pakistan's already strong ties, analysts say.

When Chinese leaders welcome Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Beijing this week, they will likely praise Sino-Pakistani "friendship" over the past 60 years -- a stark contrast to recent Western criticism of Islamabad.

Analysts say Gilani's visit starting Tuesday will help Islamabad deflect mounting pressure from Washington and elsewhere, as Pakistan stands shoulder-to-shoulder with its long-time ally and neighbour.

"China is the only country that has taken a sympathetic stand for Pakistan after the bin Laden operation," Talat Masood, a political analyst and retired Pakistani general, told AFP.

"This visit is important in the sense that it could counter (US) pressure on Pakistan. It shows Pakistan wants to say we also have some cards to play."

China has shown unswerving support for Pakistan since US special forces killed bin Laden at a compound near the country's top military academy on May 2, sparking speculation that Islamabad may have known about his whereabouts.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu pointed out a few days after the Al-Qaeda chief's killing that Pakistan was nevertheless "at the forefront of the international counter-terrorism effort".

Beijing's goodwill has not gone unnoticed.

"At this crucial juncture of history, I cannot say anybody is standing with Pakistan except for China," Pakistan's popular opposition leader Nawaz Sharif told reporters.

Many in Pakistan, outraged by the unilateral US raid, are increasingly convinced that their nation's strategic alliance with the United States since 2001 has been less than positive and has only made the country less stable.

It could therefore be tempting for the nuclear-armed Islamic republic to move away from the United States and get closer to faithful ally Beijing, analysts say.

"If US and Indian pressure continues, Pakistan can say 'China is behind us. Don't think we are isolated, we have a potential superpower with us'," Masood said.

China is the main arms supplier to Pakistan, which sees Beijing as an important counter-balance to India -- which has recently tightened its ties with the United States.

Beijing has also agreed to build several nuclear reactors in Pakistan.

Kerry Dumbaugh, an analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, said Pakistan's pro-China stance on issues such as Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its own territory, is also a key factor in Beijing's support for Islamabad.

"Pakistan serves as an advocate or a conduit for China in the Islamic world," Dumbaugh said.

According to other experts, China is convinced that Pakistan will increase its influence in Afghanistan by 2015, taking advantage of the planned withdrawal of US troops.

China also needs Islamabad's cooperation in stemming potential terrorist threats in its mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang, which borders Pakistan.

Ultimately, China wants calm to reign, particularly in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, through which it plans to transport oil from the Middle East in a pipeline linking Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea.

But experts warn that friendship between China and Pakistan has its limits.

"China is important for Pakistan and will remain so, but when it comes to hi-tech you have to go to the US and the West, also because of their clout in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund," political analyst Hasan Askari said.

Andrew Small, an expert on China-Pakistan relations at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, agreed.

The Chinese "get what they want out of the relationship already -- having Pakistan to provide balance in the region to try to keep India tied down in South Asia rather than becoming a broader Asian or global power," Small said.

"They're not going to want to be in a position where they end up with Pakistan on their plate to deal with."

China, Pakistan Move Closer as Gilani Visit Ends

China signaled its intent to deepen strategic ties with Pakistan and back the country’s counter-terrorism efforts against international pressure, with the “all-weather” allies signing a number of defence agreements to mark the conclusion of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s four-day visit. Pakistani officials confirmed on Friday that China agreed to speed up the delivery of 50 JF-17 fighter jets to the country, a deal analysts said.

The Siasat Daily
May 21, 2011

China signalled its intent to deepen strategic ties with Pakistan and back the country’s counterterrorism efforts against international pressure, with the “all-weather” allies signing a number of defence agreements to mark the conclusion of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s four-day visit.

Pakistani officials confirmed on Friday that China agreed to speed up the delivery of 50 JF-17 fighter jets to the country, a deal analysts said underscored the importance of Chinese assistance to Islamabad at a time when relations with Washington have come under strains, with some U.S. legislators calling for a scaling back support.

A joint statement issued on Friday said China believed that Pakistan’s “efforts for promoting peace and stability in South Asia should be recognised and supported.”

It also reiterated Chinese support to Pakistan in the wake of criticism following the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden, repeating Beijing’s displeasure at the United States for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty by conducting the raid in Abbottabad.

China believed “Pakistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity should be respected,” the statement said, adding that China “recognised the tremendous efforts and the great sacrifice that Pakistan has made in fighting terrorism.”

On Friday, Chinese President Hu Jintao also voiced strong support for Pakistan’s counterterrorism strategy in talks with Mr. Gilani, pushing back against recent international criticism.

In talks earlier this week, Chinese officials told Mr. Gilani they had taken up the country’s concerns over the May 2 raid in meetings with U.S. officials, calling on them to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Chinese officials said “there should be no harm to the Pakistani sovereignty and the US should understand and appreciate concerns of Pakistan,” Mr. Gilani told reporters.

While his visit has been seen as underscoring the deepening ties between the two countries, Chinese analysts downplayed its significance on the rest of the region, and particularly on the two countries’ relations with the U.S.

“The focus of this visit was the sixtieth anniversary of ties between the two countries, and to deepen economic and trade ties” and not defence or terrorism, Rong Ying, vice president of the China Institute for International Studies (CIIS), told The Hindu.

He, however, added that “China has made clear that Pakistan’s policy on counterterrorism is based on national conditions and interests.”

“This,” he said, “has to be respected by relevant countries.”

Read More...

May 25, 2011

Egypt Permanently Reopens Its Gaza Border Crossing

Egypt Permanently Reopens Its Gaza Border Crossing

The Atlantic Wire
May 25, 2011

In a break from the policies of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's military rulers have decided to permanently open the country's Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Saturday in an effort "to end the status of the Palestinian division and achieve national reconciliation," according to Egypt's official news agency, the Middle East News Agency, via the AP.

Mubarak had previously restricted the movement of people and goods along the border as part of a blockade Israel and Egypt imposed on Gaza after Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.

The AP notes that while most cargo passes through Israel's border with Gaza, the move is still significant because it gives Gaza's Palestinians "a way to freely enter and exit their territory" for the first time since 2007. What's more, the decision might increase tensions with Israel, and must be considered in the context of Egyptian-Israeli relations following Egypt's January 25 uprising.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald today, Hossam Zaki, a senior adviser to the Egyptian Foreign Minister, said that Egypt's 1979 treaty with Israel remained a pillar of Egyptian foreign policy but that presidential and parliamentary elections later this year could imperil the relationship.

"My sense is that if Israel continues to ignore international calls for achieving peace on a just basis, and allowing the Palestinians to establish their state, there will be more and more bitter and negative feelings towards Israel, and the difference now, after January 25 is that no government in Egypt will be able to ignore those feelings," he said.

Sources

After 4 Years, Egypt Reopens Its Border with Gaza

The Associated Press

Egypt lifted a 4-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, greatly easing travel restrictions on the 1.5 million residents of the Palestinian territory in a move that bolstered the Hamas government while dealing a setback to Israel's attempts to isolate the militant group.

The sense of relief was palpable as buses piled high with luggage crossed the Rafah border terminal and hundreds of people traveled abroad for overdue medical appointments, business dealings and family affairs. In Israel, fears were heightened that militants and weapons will soon pour into the territory.

"I was so happy to hear that the Egyptian border is opening so I can finally travel for treatment," said Mohammad Zoarob, a 66-year-old suffering from chronic kidney disease.

He said he had been waiting for a medical permit from the Palestinian health ministry for five years so he could go to Egypt for treatment. When Palestinian officials coincidentally approved the permit on Saturday, he kissed his family goodbye, rushed to the border and was quickly whisked across.

"They put me in an ambulance and in five minutes I reached the Egyptian side of the crossing," he said.

Saturday's expansion of the Rafah crossing was a tangible benefit of the popular unrest sweeping through the Arab world. The blockade, which has fueled an economic crisis in Gaza, is deeply unpopular among Arabs, and Egypt's caretaker leaders had promised to end it since the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after the Islamic militant Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007. The closure aimed to weaken Hamas. But the Iranian-backed group remains firmly in power, operating the border crossing even at a time when it is supposed to be reconciling with the rival Fatah movement.

Until Saturday, the Rafah border terminal had functioned at a limited capacity. Only certain classes of people, such as students, businessmen or medical patients, were eligible to travel and the crossing was often subject to closures, leading to huge backlogs that forced people to wait for months.

Under the new system, virtually anyone can travel, and a much larger number of Palestinians are expected to be able to cross each day.

Hundreds of Gazans gathered early Saturday as the first bus load of passengers crossed the border at 9 a.m. Two Egyptian officers stood guard next to a large Egyptian flag atop the border gate as the vehicle rumbled through. One after another buses crossed Rafah, pulling blue carts behind them with luggage piled high.

"All we need is to travel like humans, be treated with dignity and feel like any other citizens of the world who can travel in and out freely," said Rami Arafat, 52, who hoped to catch a flight out of Cairo on Sunday to attend his daughter's wedding in Algeria.

Nearby, 28-year-old Khaled Halaweh said he was headed to Egypt to study for a master's degree in engineering at Alexandria University.

"The closure did not affect only the travel of passengers or the flowing of goods. Our brains and our thoughts were under blockade," said Halaweh, who said he hadn't been out of Gaza for seven years.

Inside the border terminal Saturday, the atmosphere was orderly, as Hamas police called passengers one by one to register their travel documents.

By the close of operation at 5 p.m., 410 people had crossed into Egypt, said Salama Baraka, head of police at the Rafah terminal, well above the daily average of about 300 in recent months.

Thirty-nine were turned back because they did not have the proper visas or travel documents, Baraka said. Israeli media quoted Egyptian officials as saying some were also on Egyptian "terror lists." In the past, Egypt had rejected passengers found to be on "blacklists." An additional 150 people crossed from Egypt into Gaza.

With the crossing now operating six days a week, officials hope to raise the daily number of travelers to 1,000. Baraka said ten thousand people are registered to travel between June and August 25.

"Today is a cornerstone for a new era that we hope will pave the road to ending the siege and blockade on Gaza," said Hatem Awideh, director general of the Hamas border authority in Gaza. "We hope this facilitation by our Egyptian brothers will improve travel and will allow everyone to leave Gaza."

About 100 Hamas supporters marched with Palestinian and Egyptian flags outside the border terminal in a gesture of gratitude to Egypt.

"This courageous step by Egypt reflects the deep historic relations between the Palestinian and Egyptian nations," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri.

The new system will not resolve Gazans' travel woes completely, though.

Men between the ages of 18 and 40 still will have to obtain Egyptian visas, a process that can take months. Women, children and older men must get travel permits, which can be obtained in several days.

Israel, which controls Gaza's cargo crossings, allows most consumer goods into Gaza, but still restricts exports as well as the entry of much-needed construction materials, saying they could be used by militants. Israel also enforces a naval blockade aimed at weapons smuggling.

Israeli and American officials have expressed concerns that Hamas will exploit the opening to bring weapons and fighters into Gaza. In January 2008, masked militants blew open the Rafah border wall, allowing thousands of people to pour in and out of Egypt.

Egyptian officials say they have security measures in place to keep weapons from crossing through Rafah.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said the Rafah opening puts "additional responsibility on the Egyptians about what happens in Gaza."

"Both Israel and Egypt have mutual interests against global Jihad terror and against Hamas terror and I expect that cooperation will continue for the benefit of both sides," Ayalon said on Channel 10 TV.

Opposition lawmaker Nachman Shai blamed the Israeli government for failing to prevent the opening of Rafah. Israeli officials had lobbied Egypt to leave the restrictions in place.

"Mubarak is gone, there is a new government and we already see how Israel-Egypt relations are substantially deteriorating," he said. "A significant security breach was created today under our noses.

Hamas has long used tunnels to get arms into Gaza. Gaza militants now have military-grade rockets that have hit cities in southern Israel. Israeli military officials believe that Iranian experts are already in Gaza training Hamas. The fear is that it will now become even easier for them to get into the territory.

"One trainer who tells them how to set up the rockets and how to use them is equal to a large quantity of weapons," Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official who works closely with Egypt, told Channel 2 TV.

The border opening comes on the heels of an Egyptian-mediated unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. Hamas has governed Gaza since routing Fatah forces in 2007, leaving the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in control only of the West Bank. Earlier this month, the sides signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo. But details are still being worked out, and Hamas will be in charge of the Palestinian side of Rafah.

Both Egypt and Fatah officials played down any significance, describing the expanded operations of Rafah a victory for all Palestinians. Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah official, said he considered the border opening a fruit of the unity deal.

Is There a Coup Brewing in Egypt’s Army? ‎

The Egyptian Army's passivity in the bloody protests suggests an internal conflict of agendas, one which could inspire a coup by lower-level officers, a former Army Commander tells Channel 4 News.

Channel 4 News, London, England
February 3, 2011

The army rolled tanks into Cairo’s Tahrir Square last Friday – the epicentre of the country’s round-the-clock anti-Mubarak protests – which for over a week had largely been peaceful in nature until groups of people loyal to the President descended on the plaza.

Egypt’s military, which (including the air force) has 468,500 active members and 479,000 in the reserves, immediately announced it would not fire upon the citizenry, and gave widespread anti-Mubarak sentiment credence by branding the protests ‘legitimate.’

But when clashes between Mubarak antagonists and protagonists broke out on Wednesday, with at least five people dying in the process, the army were deliberate bystanders.

And despite some efforts on Thursday morning to keep the two sides apart, analysts have raised questions about the army’s agenda in what has now become a fully-fledged revolution.

‘Disagreement within the ranks’

Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and member of the Joint Intelligence Committee, told Channel 4 News that the army’s inaction likely points to disagreement within the ranks.

“I suspect that the lower-level members of the Egyptian Army, probably at the colonel level, support (Egypt’s main opposition movement) the Muslim Brotherhood, and the higher echelons will be backing the current regime.” he said.

“So the fact that the army has taken no decisive physical action is probably down to the heads backing (Vice President) Omar Suleiman, with the lesser-ranking officers eyeing a alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The theory is given weight by the apparent incongruity of the army’s inertia during the process coming despite Mubarak, a former air force commander, naming Suleiman as Vice President, former air force commander Ahmed Shafik as Prime Minister and Defence Minister Tantawi, an army field marshal, to Deputy Prime Minister on 31 January.

The obvious question arises: why no intervention if the heads of the army and air force are now in Mubarak’s Cabinet?

Comparisons to the rise of Nasser

Col. Kemp said the suggested schism within the ranks was reminiscent of the conditions which allowed one of Mubarak’s presidential predecessors, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to stage a military coup and overthrow the government in the 1952 revolution.

Nasser, himself a lower-level officer (Lieutenant-Colonel) in the Egyptian Army and supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, overthrew King Farouk amid mass anti-British protests in Cairo.

Col. Kemp said the symmetry of circumstances between the internecine clashes in Tahrir Square currently and the popular uprising then point to a “strong possibility” of a pro-Muslim Brotherhood seizure of power by lower-ranking members of the army.

An eventuality, he added, which would have dire consequences.

“Such a move, which looks increasingly possible, could see the Muslim Brotherhood come to power, which would raise the prospect of Egypt fostering international terrorism. It would also have a knock-on effect for Gaza; without the support of the Egyptian Army there, the Israelis would feel compelled to re-enter Gaza.”

US scrutiny

There is also the not-so-small matter of the $1.3 billion the military receives from the United States every year -- roughly a third of its annual budget -- which it will be intent on retaining.

However, plans could already be underfoot within the army to look at alternative sources of sponsorship if the Americans become unhappy with how the military is reacting to the uprising, especially now that Washington has publically called an immediate end to the violence.

“The American money is very important to them; they’re very conscious about how their actions will determine if that money stream continues” Col. Kemp said.

“But it shouldn’t be forgotten that there will be other offers of funding floating about: China, Iran, the usual suspects.”

So who is pulling the strings of the world’s 11th largest army: Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Sami Hafez Enan or Suleiman?

“Well, that’s the point. I suspect within the military there are different agendas: it will be very interesting to see what happens now, but a coup d’état is a very real possibility.”

May 24, 2011

Netanyahu Says He's Ready for 'Painful Compromises,' But Palestinians Reject His List of Conditions as Unacceptable

Benjamin Netanyahu on the Palestinian State, 1978:

In a remarkable video from 1978, 28 year old MIT grad Benjamin Netanyahu debates whether there should be a Palestinian state created on the West Bank and Gaza.

Netanyahu Says Will Give Up Some Land for Peace

May 24, 2011

Reuters – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said explicitly for the first time on Tuesday he was prepared to give up some settlements for peace, but he laid out familiar demands unlikely to draw the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Treated to standing ovations from lawmakers just days after strained talks with President Barack Obama, Netanyahu said he was ready for "painful compromises." But Palestinians swiftly rejected his list of conditions as unacceptable.

The right-wing Israeli leader's speech to Congress capped a turbulent five-day visit to Washington that laid bare his differences with Obama on how to revive the moribund peace process and raised little hope for getting new talks off the ground any time soon.

Though Netanyahu recognized in the clearest terms yet that Israel would have to abandon some Jewish settlements built in the occupied West Bank, he also insisted that others would be annexed under any future agreement.

"I am willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historical peace," he said, echoing a pledge in a speech to Israel's parliament on May 15 in which he hinted at a readiness for territorial compromise but with strings attached.

"Now this is not easy for me. It's not easy because I recognize that in a genuine peace we will be required to give up parts of the ancestral Jewish homeland," he said, referring to the occupied West Bank.

But Netanyahu offered no concrete concessions and instead set strict limits on what Israel would accept.

His frequent standing ovations from the joint meeting of Congress, a bastion of support for Israel, was a pointed message to Obama that pushing Israel too hard could carry political risks as he seeks re-election in 2012.

Netanyahu's speech came after a testy exchange last week with Obama over the contours of a future Palestine and Netanyahu used it to reiterate his demands ahead of any talks.

The conditions Netanyahu laid out included Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and the scrapping of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' unity accord with the Islamist movement Hamas.

But in an explicit recognition of what a peace deal would entail, he said:

"In any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end up beyond Israel's borders. The precise delineation of those borders must be negotiated."

While Netanyahu was well aware Palestinians were opposed to his terms, he hopes to show the United States and Europe he is serious as Israel seeks to head off a Palestinian bid to win U.N. recognition of statehood in September.

'COMPROMISE MUST REFLECT DRAMATIC CHANGES'

Netanyahu said any "compromise must reflect the dramatic demographic changes that have occurred," referring to Israel's construction of hundreds of settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.

Repeating a message he delivered consistently during his visit, Netanyahu said

"Israel will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967," narrow lines from before Israel captured the West Bank in a war 44 years ago.

Obama drew Israeli anger when he said on Thursday a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along the pre-June 1967 frontiers.

A frosty meeting with Netanyahu followed at the White House on Friday when the Israeli leader, with Obama sitting at his side, rejected those borders.

The White House offered a low-key response to Netanyahu's speech. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said in London that the Israeli leader had "reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-Israeli relationship" and had "pointed to the importance of peace." Obama is visiting London.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said Netanyahu's vision for ending the conflict put "more obstacles" in front of the Middle East peace process.

"What came in Netanyahu's speech will not lead to peace," Rdainah said in the West Bank city of Ramallah, rejecting Netanyahu's call to hold onto swaths of West Bank land including East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want their capital.

Hani Masry, a Palestinian analyst said Netanyahu "wants the Palestinians to give up everything and get a state of leftovers."

On the other side, settler leaders and members from Netanyahu's own Likud party also voiced their objections, but with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight, his ruling coalition did not seem to be in jeopardy.

Netanyahu's address was greeted warmly by congressional leaders. Some Israelis pointed to that reception as a success while others thought he had not offered enough to break the diplomatic deadlock.

"What he's offering I don't think you would find even the most moderate Palestinians would buy into," David Newman, an Israeli political scientist, said. "He's offering a truncated West Bank. He wants to leave as many settlements as possible."

May 23, 2011

Obama Favors Arab Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount

This September, the Palestinian Authority will attempt to gain recognition as an independent state via a vote in the United Nations’ General Assembly. It is taking a a page out of the playbook of the Zionist movement and the leadership of what would become Israel. This time, the Arabs will support a resolution that partitions the land into two states. In a lot of ways, it is a big vindication of the Zionist Movement and the State of Israel. After 63 years, the two state solution wins. That does not resolve the conflict though. Even if Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu stops fighting this political move by Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister, Israel will not withdraw from all of the West Bank – and especially not Jerusalem. - Joshua Reback, Jerusalem (and some Minor Reasons Why Palestinian Independence will not End the Conflict, Blog.NewVoices.org, April 13, 2011

The Middle East peace plan that U.S. President Barack Obama will unveil soon involves the creation of a Palestinian Authority state by 2011 and the transfer of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem [presumably including the Temple Mount] to Arab-Muslim sovereignty... He intends to set an ambitious timetable for completing the peace deal -- something that will please Arabs but may irritate Israel. - Gil Ronen, Obama Plan: Temple Mount Under Arab-Muslim Sovereignty, Israel National News, August 23, 2009

President Barack Obama says Israel will face growing isolation without a credible Middle East peace process. The president told America's pro-Israel lobby that "we cannot afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades, to achieve peace." After a contentious couple of days, Obama said his endorsement of the Jewish state's 1967 boundaries as the basis for a Palestinian state reflected the urgent need for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. He says his call for a future Palestine based on the 1967 borders with agreed land swaps was a public expression of what has long been acknowledged privately. Obama said he brought the terms out in the open because delay will undermine Israel's security and peace prospects. He repeated his remarks from Thursday on Israeli-Palestinian borders and security verbatim. - Obama: credible peace process needed to ward off isolation of Israel, The Associated Press, May 22, 2011

The Shin Bet uncovered a growing Hamas presence in Jerusalem aimed at establishing a foothold on the Temple Mount. This is done by funding maintenance of the Temple Mount compound - called Al-Aksa by the Arabs - and in subsidizing school trips to the mosques there. - Two arrested for Hamas plot to fire rockets at stadium, The Jerusalem Post, January 2, 2011

The goal of the New Jerusalem Covenant Project is to create the plan by which Antichrist can solve the Middle East crisis; Antichrist will use this crisis to stage his appearance in the world. Antichrist is supposed to appear at the end of the Middle East crisis (World War III). The prophetic reality of Daniel 9:24-27, Matthew 24:15 and Revelation 11:1-12 is that the new Temple will be built after World War III and will produce the Man of Sin. Thus, the Illuminati plans to destroy the Dome of the Rock during the World War III fighting so that their Antichrist can rebuild Solomon's Temple. This reality means that Arabs will retain control over the Temple Mount until the moment Antichrist comes to the world scene and seizes it for the Jews so his temple can be created. "Peace and safety" will be heralded, and the leaders of the major nations will be busy taking credit for their "brilliant" leadership that seemingly finally solved the deeply engrained religious strife in and around Jerusalem that has plagued mankind for the past 1,400 years. - David Bay, Five Steps of the Plan to Produce Antichrist, Cutting Edge Ministries, August 18, 1991



What Palestine in 2011 Means!

By Tim Hammond
January 16, 2011

It is critical that you understand this one thing — that Palestine will be recognized as a nation in the immediate future. One hundred nations support recognizing Palestine as a nation unilaterally, meaning without Israel's approval. This is the top agenda in the UN at this time. We know through Scripture it will not happen that way but the push to make Palestine a nation is the biggest sign we are at the end with the exception of Israel becoming a nation. Let me show you why.

The current plan is for Israel to return to its 1967 borders. Why is this significant? Because it would put Jerusalem into the hands of the Palestinians. In Revelation 11:2 it specifically mentions the temple mount in Jerusalem and the city of Jerusalem,
"But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."
Daniel 9:27 describes the event that begins the Tribulation. A 7 year covenant is confirmed by the antichrist. The contents of this covenant are in Revelation 11:1-2, Israel will get the right to build their temple, but Palestine will get Jerusalem, but remember the covenant is broken at the midpoint.
"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week..."
As many of you know the word 'week' there is being used to describe 7 year periods. Depending on the translation it may also be stated as a "week of years".

Continuing on in Daniel 9:27
"and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate..."
At the midpoint the covenant is broken. The Tribulation is 7 years of 360 days each. Because the covenant is broken at exactly the midpoint, the Tribulation is described in the Bible as two halves; 3.5 years, 42 months, or 1260 days. Are you getting the connection to the 42 months mentioned in the second paragraph? It is the first half of the Tribulation to the day. Or put in other words, the day Palestine is recognized as a nation with Jerusalem as its capital, the Tribulation starts.

When will Palestine be recognized as a nation? I have understood since August of 2009 that it will happen in 2011. We are on a parallel course to that in Daniel 9:2.
"In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."
May 14, 1948 (when Israel again was officially established as a nation) started a 70 year countdown (Psalm 90:10 & Zechariah 1:12). 1948 + 70 = 2018 minus 7 (for the Tribulation) is 2011.

Erekat: 10 EU states will upgrade their PLO missions
South American countries recognize Palestinian state
Arab League to turn to UN for anti-settlement resolution



Obama's 'Jewish State' Reference Jars Palestinians

The Associated Press
May 23, 2011

U.S.-Israel tension over Barack Obama's endorsement of Israel's pre-1967 borders is obscuring a flip side of the Middle East coin: The past days' speeches by the U.S. president contained difficult challenges for the Palestinians as well.

Addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Sunday, Obama reiterated his request that the Palestinians drop their plans to appeal for recognition at the United Nations this fall, and — as he did in another Mideast speech Thursday — raised tough questions about an emerging Palestinian unity government that is to include the Hamas militant group.

Most difficult for Palestinians is Obama's call to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, essentially requiring the Palestinians to accept that most refugees will be denied the "right of return" to what is now Israel.

Perhaps for this reason, the Palestinians have remained largely quiet about the substance of Obama's speeches, seemingly content to watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clash with the U.S. administration over Israel's future borders.

"It's really premature to jump into any of these details," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, when asked by The Associated Press about the demands Obama made of the Palestinians.

The fate of Palestinian refugees is one of the most emotional and explosive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were expelled during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948. Today, the surviving refugees, with their descendants, number several million people.

The Palestinians claim they have the right to return to their family's lost properties. Israel rejects the principle, saying it would mean the end of the country as a Jewish democracy. Israeli leaders say the refugees should be entitled to compensation and resettled in a future Palestine to be established next to Israel, or absorbed where they now live.

In his speech last Thursday, Obama did not explicitly mention the refugees, but by saying a final peace deal must recognize "Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people," he appeared to back the Israeli position.

The issue is so central to Palestinian policy and society that no Palestinian leader can be seen as abandoning the rights of the refugees, particularly at a time when peace efforts are at a standstill and so many other difficult issues, such as borders and the final status of Jerusalem, remain unresolved.

Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would sell out not only the refugees, but potentially open the door to Israel expelling its roughly 1.5 million Arab citizens as well. This idea has never been seriously raised in Israel.

He said the Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist, without any reference to national character, should be sufficient.

"We recognize Israel as a state," he said. "It's a recognition of a state to a state."

In his two recent speeches, Obama took aim at two other central planks of Palestinian policy:

  1. Plans to ask the U.N. in September to recognize an independent Palestine, with or without a peace agreement; and
  2. A unity deal struck between President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and the Iranian-backed Hamas militants.
In Thursday's speech, Obama warned that "symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state." And referring to Hamas in Sunday's address to AIPAC, a powerful pro-Israel lobby, Obama stated:
"No country can be expected to negotiate with a terrorist organization sworn to its destruction."
"We will hold the Palestinians accountable for their actions and their rhetoric," Obama said.

Erekat insisted the world must embrace the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, meant to end the split that has left rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinians claim both areas, along with east Jerusalem, for their future state, and Erekat said there can be no independence without reconciliation.

In any case, he said Abbas, and the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization, dominated by Fatah, are the parties to negotiate peace with Israel — not the "unity government" of the Palestinian Authority which would be backed by both parties.

Erekat, like other Palestinians officials, declined to discuss most of the specifics of Obama's speech, including the issue of the Jewish state. For now, he says the border issue should be the focus of Mideast diplomacy.

The Palestinians demand a return to the pre-1967 lines, which would require an Israeli pullout from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, though they are open to Obama's idea of agreed-upon modifications through land swaps — as long as they are small.

Erekat said if Netanyahu accepts the 1967 lines he could raise any other matter in negotiations.

"Before I hear the prime minister of Israel saying that he accepts this principle, I think it would be a waste of my time to discuss any other issue," Erekat said.

Netanyahu says the 1967 lines are "indefensible," and his anger toward the U.S. president seemed palpable at a White House meeting Friday.

But even Obama's reference to the 1967 lines may not be entirely to the Palestinians' liking. Clarifying his position Sunday, Obama said those lines should be the basis for a peace deal, but that the final borders could be adjusted to accommodate "new demographic realities."

That was seen as a recognition that Israel could keep at least some of the occupied area where it has settled Jews. Some 500,000 Israelis live in Jewish settlements, which are considered illegal by the Palestinians and the international community.

Obama also noted the 1967 lines have long been considered a basis for a final peace deal, most recently in previous negotiations that broke down in 2008. So his embrace of those borders is not revolutionary.

"What I did on Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately," he said.

After initial shock and anger toward Obama, members of Netanyahu's hard-line coalition have begun to soften their opposition.

Limor Livnat, a Cabinet minister in Netanyahu's nationalist Likud Party, called Obama's speech on Sunday "excellent." She praised his tough line against Hamas and support for Israel as a Jewish state.

"Following the prime minister's words, the president sharpened his message and said things that he didn't say clearly beforehand," she told Channel 2 TV. "These are important things."
A Synopsis of Zionism and the Israel/Palestine Conflict Historic Palestine
For thousands of years there was no conflict in Palestine. In the 19th century, the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population of Palestinian Arabs — approximately 86 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish. For centuries these groups lived in harmony.

In the late 1800s, a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as "Zionists," this group consisted of an extremist minority of the Jewish population who wanted to create a Jewish homeland. They considered locations in Africa and the Americas before settling on Palestine, where the Jewish State of Israel was established in 1948.

Largely due to one-sided special-interest lobbying by AIPAC, the U.S. has given more funds to Israel than to any other nation: $85 billion in grants, loans and commodities since 1949, with an additional $50 billion in interest costs for advance payments, for a total cost of $135 billion or $23,240 per Israeli. During fiscal year 2007, the U.S. gave an average of $7 million per day to the State of Israel.

Palestinian Loss of Land 1946-2005
Palestinian Loss of Land 1946-2005


Jews Against Zionism
"Although there are those who refuse to accept the teachings of our rabbis and will continue to support the Zionist state, there are also many who are totally unaware of the history of Zionism and its contradiction to the beliefs of Torah-True Jews. From its inception, many rabbis warned of the potential dangers of Zionism and openly declared that all Jews loyal to God should stay away from it like one would from fire. They made their opinions clear to their congregants and to the general public. Their message was that Zionism is a chauvinistic racist phenomenon which has absolutely naught to do with Judaism. They publicly expressed that Zionism would definitely be detrimental to the well being of Jews and Gentiles and that its effects on the Jewish religion would be nothing other than destructive. Further, it would taint the reputation of Jewry as a whole and would cause utter confusion in the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Judaism is a religion. Judaism is not a race or a nationality. That was and still remains the consensus amongst the rabbis."

"We were given the Holy Land by God in order to be able to study and practice the Torah without disturbance and to attain levels of holiness difficult to attain outside of the Holy Land. We abused the privilege and we were expelled. That is exactly what all Jews say in their prayers on every Jewish festival, 'Umipnay chatoenu golinu mayartsaynu'—'Because of our sins, we were expelled from our land.'"

"We have been forsworn by God 'not to enter the Holy Land as a body before the predestined time;' 'not to rebel against the nations;' to be loyal citizens, not to do anything against the will of any nation or its honour; not to seek vengeance, discord, restitution or compensation; 'not to leave exile ahead of time.' On the contrary, we have to be humble and accept the yoke of exile. To violate the oaths would result in 'your flesh will be made prey as the deer and the antelope in the forest,' and the redemption will be delayed."



Obama: 1967 Borders Reflects Longstanding U.S. Policy

Associated Press
May 22, 2011

President Barack Obama is trying to assuage some of America's fiercest supporters of Israel after he endorsed the Jewish nation's 1967 boundaries as the basis for a Palestinian state and clashed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a speech Sunday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Obama wasn't expected to outline another significant U.S. policy shift but probably would focus on the deep U.S.-Israeli alliance.

But almost everyone in the room wanted to see how the president addresses his remarks from Thursday, when he said that a future Palestine should be shaped around the border lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, with land swaps to account for Israeli settlements and other changed conditions.

Obama's endorsement moved the U.S. position from noting the Palestinian goal for a country based on these terms and leaving the outcome to be settled through negotiation. By removing the nuance, he essentially stated what almost every observer assumed would have to be the border lines of a two-state solution, with mutually agreed adjustments.

Still, the change prompted bitter criticism from Netanyahu. And in a blunt display of differences, the two leaders openly disagreed after a Friday meeting at the White House. Netanyahu called the 1967 demarcation "indefensible" and issued a flat rejection of the idea.

Netanyahu, who will address the pro-Israel lobby Monday and Congress Tuesday, played down the rift.

"The disagreements have been blown way out of proportion," he told The Associated Press on Saturday. "It's true we have some differences of opinion, but these are among friends."

Netanyahu said there should be no doubt about the strength of the American-Israeli relationship and Obama's commitment to Israel and its security.

Obama was to depart later Sunday for a weeklong European tour aimed at tending to old friends in the Western alliance and securing their help with the political upheaval across the Arab world and the decade-long conflict in Afghanistan.

Obama will visit Ireland, England, France and Poland.

The trip comes amid the continued NATO-led bombing campaign in Libya and a seemingly intractable conflict between Moammar Gadhafi's forces and Libyan rebels. Talks will also encompass economic concerns, as European countries make stark cuts in public spending and Obama and congressional Republicans try to hash out how to cut spending to bring U.S. debt under control.

Prodding Israel, Obama Embraces Palestine Borders

The Associated Press
May 19, 2011

Exasperated by stalled Middle East peace talks in a season of tumultuous change, President Barack Obama jolted close ally Israel Thursday by embracing the Palestinians' terms for drawing the borders of their new nation next door. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel rejected the idea as "indefensible" on the eve of his vital White House meeting with Obama.

The U.S. president said that an independent Palestine should be based on 1967 borders — before the Six Day War in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — as adjusted by possible land swaps agreed upon by both sides. He said Israel can never live in true peace as a Jewish state if it insists on "permanent occupation."

Obama's effort to salvage a peace effort that is in shambles was a major change in tactics for a president running out of patience and reasons to be subtle. The Israeli-Palestinian stalemate has remained immune to the popular uprisings and historic drives for freedom that have swept much of the region.

He pushed both sides to accept his starting point — borders for Palestine, security for Israel — and get back to solving a deadlock "that has grinded on and on and on."

In a sweeping review of recent uprisings and authoritarian crackdowns across the Arab world, Obama was also unsparing in his words for the Palestinian leadership, repudiating its pursuit of unilateral statehood through the United Nations and questioning its alliance with a Hamas faction bent on Israel's destruction.

"At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the drive for a lasting peace that ends the conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent than ever," Obama said, playing the rapid change of the past six months against a standoff that has stymied the Mideast for decades.

More broadly, before a polite diplomatic audience at the State Department, Obama sought to clarify the U.S. role toward a part of the world undergoing a transformation. He implored the American people to see that it is worth devoting U.S. might and money to help stabilize a dangerous region and help people fighting for freedom.

"There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity," the president said. "Yes, there will be perils that accompany this moment of promise. But after decades of accepting the world as it is in the region, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be."

It was Obama's explicit endorsement of the 1967 borders that changed the dynamic.

The U.S., the international community and even past Israeli governments have endorsed the idea of an agreement based on the 1967 lines, but Obama's new emphasis was a clear prodding for Israel to act.

The way Obama put it means the U.S. now accepts 1967 lines, with land swaps, as the basis for the borders of a Palestinian state — and not just that such a result would be the desired outcome of negotiations, as had been the U.S. stand.

The United States insists, too, that Israel end up with a safe, secure state without fear of attack from Palestinians.

In a cool statement released late Thursday in Jerusalem, Netanyahu rejected a full withdrawal from the West Bank, saying the 1967 lines would leave major Jewish settlements outside Israel. It was unclear whether Obama's stand would be enough to persuade the Palestinians to drop their push for U.N. recognition of their statehood.

In the run-up to the president's speech, the White House had sought to downplay the role of the Mideast peace standoff in his address, emphasizing instead other elements such as his proposed financial support for Egypt and Tunisia, two nations that have risen up and embraced democracy. But the address only served to underscore how central the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to the stability of the whole region and the political interests of the United States

Obama sought to give perspective to a five-month period in which thousands have died in protests for human rights, two countries' leaders have been toppled, others are teetering, the U.S. has been drawn into an armed conflict in Libya, and America has launched a stunning, successful mission to find and kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The president tried to minimize bin Laden's reach even in death, saying his al-Qaida vision of destruction had already been deemed a "dead end" by those wanting a better life.

Moving country by country, Obama offered his toughest words yet for Syrian President Bashar Assad, in whom the U.S. has lost hope as a reformer given his government's bloody crackdown on dissidents. Obama did not call for Assad to step down but did accuse him of murdering his people.

"The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition," Obama said. "President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition or get out of the way."

One 24-year-old Syrian said the U.S. president was too late.

"It's too bad hundreds of people died before he made the speech," said Mustafa, who fled the coastal town of Banias, which has seen some of the biggest protests in recent weeks, and who did not give his surname for fear of reprisals. "I think it's too late for Assad to lead a peaceful transition to democracy after all that happened."

In seizing his own Mideast moment, Obama offered a speech that was in some ways notable for what he did not mention.

While critical of autocracy throughout the Mideast, he failed to mention the region's largest, richest and arguably most repressive nation, U.S. ally Saudi Arabia. Nor did he mention Jordan, a staunch U.S. ally that has a peace deal with Israel. Also left out was the United Arab Emirates, the wealthy, pro-American collection of mini-states on the Persian Gulf.

On the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, he raised the question of Hamas but did not seek to answer it. A proposed unity Palestinian government would pair the Fatah-dominated administration in the West Bank and the Gaza-run Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and seeks to destroy Israel.

"How can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist?" Obama asked. "In the weeks and months to come, Palestinian leaders will have to provide a credible answer to that question."

Obama also conceded that borders were just a start. He had no blueprint for resolving enormous conflicts over the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

And he gave little attention to Iran, where U.S. attempts at outreach have gone nowhere.

On Yemen, a key partner in the U.S. fight against al-Qaida, Obama called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to keep his commitment to transfer power. On Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, Obama said the only way forward is dialogue between the government and opposition, "and you can't have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail."

Israel Rejects Total Pullback to 1967 Borders

Reuters
May 19, 2011

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed for talks in Washington on Friday saying that U.S. President Barack Obama's vision of a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 could leave Israel "indefensible."

"The viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of Israel's existence," he said in a statement before flying to the United States for scheduled talks with Obama.

Responding to a major Obama speech on Thursday outlining Middle East strategy, Netanyahu said he expected Washington to let Israel keep major settlement blocs beyond the 1967 lines in the occupied West Bank, under any peace deal with Palestinians.

Israeli officials seemed taken aback by the language in Obama's speech. Asked if Netnayahu had been forewarned by Washington, one said: "No comment." But some Israeli reporters accompanying the prime minister predicted a stormy meeting.

Setting out the principles of a Middle East peace accord, Obama reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Israel's security.

He called for a deal resulting in two states, Israel and Palestine, sharing the border that existed before Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.

It would include "mutually agreed land swaps," he said. In a pointed reply, Netanyahu said he expected "to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004" -- an allusion to a letter by then-President George W. Bush suggesting the Jewish state may keep big settlement blocs as part of any peace pact.

"Those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines," Netanyahu added. Such a border, Netanyahu said, would be "indefensible."

ABBAS "APPRECIATES" OBAMA EFFORTS

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed Obama's efforts to renew the talks with Israel that collapsed last year, and had made plans to convene an "emergency" session of Palestinian and Arab officials to weigh further steps, a senior aide said.

Saeb Erekat, a former chief peace negotiator, said:

"Abbas expresses his appreciation of the continuous efforts exerted by President Obama with the objective of resuming the permanent status talks in the hope of reaching a final status agreement."

Obama's blunt language about the need to find an end to Israel's occupation of Arab land looked certain to be the crunch issue in his talks with Netanyahu.

"The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation," Obama said.

His emphasis on 1967 borders went further than Obama has before in offering principles for resolving the stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians. But he stopped short of presenting a formal U.S. peace plan.

Obama's criticism of continued Israeli "settlement activity" sent a message to Netanyahu on the eve of their talks that Washington expects the Jewish state to make concessions.

A senior member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, Danny Danon, accused Obama of seeking to destroy Israel by adopting the vision of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"Netanyahu only has one option: to tell Obama to forget about it," Danon said, according to Israeli media.

However, Obama's suggestion that negotiations should focus initially on territory and security, leaving the difficult issues of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees to a later date, appeared to chime with Netanyahu's own position.

Likewise, Obama's firm rejection of Palestinian moves to seek recognition of their statehood at the United Nations delighted Israeli officials. Abbas made no comment.

The Palestinians plan to pursue their statehood quest in September at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, brokered by Washington, collapsed last year when Netanyahu refused to extend a moratorium on Jewish settlement-building in the West Bank and Abbas refused to carry on negotiations.

In Gaza, the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas said Obama had no business criticizing the recent reconciliation pact between Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah movement, intended to end a damaging four-year split and produce a unity government.

"The peoples of the region are not in need of Obama's lectures," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "Obama reaffirmed his absolute support for the policies of the (Israeli) occupation and his rejection of any criticism of the Occupation."

"We affirm that Palestinian reconciliation is a Palestinian affair and that the (peace) negotiations have proven to be pointless," he said. "Hamas will never recognize the Israeli occupation under any circumstances."

Israel's Netanyahu: 1967 Borders Can't Be Defended

The Associated Press
May 19, 2011

Israel's prime minister on Thursday gave a cool reception to President Barack Obama's Mideast policy speech, warning a withdrawal from the West Bank would leave Israel vulnerable to attack and setting up what could be a tense meeting at the White House.

In his speech, Obama endorsed the Palestinian position on the borders of their future state, saying it should be based on Israel's lines before the 1967 Mideast war. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the fighting, and the Palestinians claim those areas for their state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas planned to convene a meeting with senior officials as soon as possible to decide on the next steps, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Abbas is determined "to give President Obama's effort and that of the international community the chance they deserve," Erekat said.

The U.S., the international community and even past Israeli governments have endorsed a settlement based on the 1967 lines, but Obama was far more explicit than in the past. His position appeared to put him at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has not accepted the concept.

Reacting to Obama's speech, Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a full withdrawal from the West Bank, saying the 1967 lines were "indefensible" and would leave major Jewish settlements outside Israel. Netanyahu rejects any pullout from east Jerusalem.

Netanyahu heads to the White House on Friday and said he would seek clarifications.

Behind the rhetoric, though, was the possibility of finding common ground. Obama said he would support agreed-upon territorial swaps between the Israel and the Palestinians, leaving the door open for Israel to retain major West Bank settlements, where the vast majority of its nearly 300,000 Jewish settlers live.

Netanyahu said he would urge Obama to endorse a 2004 American commitment, made by then President George W. Bush, to Israel. In a letter at the time, Bush said a full withdrawal to the 1967 lines was "unrealistic" and a future peace agreement would have to recognize "new realities on the ground."

Israelis have interpreted Bush's commitment as U.S. support for retaining the major settlement blocs. Earlier this week, Netanyahu said Israel would have to retain the blocs as part of any future peace agreement.

But Netanyahu also wants to keep other parts of the West Bank, including a strategic section of land along the Jordanian border that he believes is vital to Israel's security. The Palestinians oppose any Israeli presence in their future state.

Netanyahu said he would reiterate his security demands at Friday's meeting.

Netanyahu said he plans to raise other demands: Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland, guarantees that Palestinian refugees be resettled outside of Israel and condemnation of an emerging Palestinian government that is to include the anti-Israel Hamas militant group.

With peacemaking stalled for months, the Palestinians have said they will ask the United Nations to recognize their independence in September, with or without a peace deal.

In his speech, Obama rejected the U.N. push.

"Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state," Obama said.

It was not immediately clear whether Obama's statement on the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations — something the Palestinians have long sought — would be sufficient to persuade the Palestinians to drop their quest for U.N. recognition.

Former U.S. Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler, president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, said the speech had created a "moment of truth" for the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

"No longer in earnest can President Abbas seek a United Nations resolution and say he's serious about the creation of a Palestinian state. And likewise, Prime Minister Netanyahu must determine whether he is willing to negotiate based on the 1967 lines with agreed-upon territorial swaps," he said.

Flashback: Obama is Said to be Favoring Arab Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount!

By David Bay, Cutting Edge Ministries
August 24, 2009

There is no doubt that the Illuminati plans to address the issue of sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

In NEWS1052, I report that the New England Director of the House of Theosophy stated that one of the "breakthrough" events in allowing Antichrist to appear would be the creation of a single worship center for all Monotheistic faiths in the region, i.e., Jews, Muslims, Christians. However, the Director refused to answer my specific question as to whether this combination worship center would be built on the Temple Mount.
"As the U.N. General Assembly meets in late September, Obama aims to announce the opening of a new negotiating process between Israelis and Palestinians, along with 'confidence-building' steps by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and a number of Arab governments ... Obama 'will probably lay out at least a partial vision of the two-state settlement that all sides now say they support, and the course that negotiations should take. More significantly, he intends to set an ambitious timetable for completing the peace deal -- something that will please Arabs but may irritate Israel'."
I cannot fathom how Prime Minister Netanyahu could force this part of the plan for a Palestinian State down Israel's throat. The Temple Mount Faithful has created a cornerstone for the next Temple and enjoys wide public support. Even many secular Jews support the building of a new Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, which means that Israel must control that area.

Could immensely strong Orthodox resistance to Arab control over the Temple Mount lead to a public campaign against them which would erode their power by making them appear to be unrealistic and too radical? After all, the Director of the House of Theosophy in Boston stated that one of the major goals of the "New Jerusalem Covenant Project" was to eliminate the Orthodox influence in Israel.

We can only wait to see how this Palestinian State plan unfolds, but one matter is certain: events are going to be very interesting and will fulfill prophecy.

Prophecies of Daniel 9:24-27, Matthew 24:15 and Revelation 11:1-12 reveal that Solomon's Temple is built for Antichrist to use. This prophetic reality means that the new Temple is built after the World War III, which is designed to produce the Man of Sin. Most significantly, the Illuminati Plan, as revealed in "The Armageddon Script," states that the New David (Antichrist) will travel to the Temple Mount and stand amongst the "rubble of the Dome of the Rock" ( p. 233-35).

Thus, the Illuminati plans to destroy the Dome of the Rock during the World War III fighting so that their Antichrist can rebuild Solomon's Temple. This reality means that Arabs will retain control over the Temple Mount until the moment Antichrist comes to the world scene and seizes it for the Jews so his temple can be created.

Read more here and here and here.

Back to The Lamb Slain Home Page