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DEAD SEA, Jordan – US Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled on Sunday a $4 billion economic plan to revitalize the Palestinian economy, as he called on Israelis and Palestinians to forgive past wrongs and return to the negotiating table. “The plan for the Palestinian economy is bigger and bolder and more ambitious than anything proposed since Oslo more than 20 years ago,” said Kerry as he spoke at the closing session of the World Economic Forum by the Dead Sea in Jordan.

AL SHUNAH, Jordan: US Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled on Sunday a plan to boost the Palestinian economy by attracting $4 billion in private investment, saying it could transform the lives of the people. As he seeks to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the table to negotiate a peace deal, Kerry said it was also imperative to create jobs and meet the hopes of young people for a better economic future. He has tasked Tony Blair, the Quartet's special envoy to the Middle East, with drawing up a plan to revitalise the West Bank through boosting industries...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that peace between Israel and the PA is “still possible”, but continued to accuse Israel of “occupying Palestinian lands”. The AFP news agency reported that in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Jordan, Abbas called on Israel to “end the occupation of our lands”, evacuate Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and free PA Arab terrorist prisoners. These are the same preconditions he has imposed for years on peace talks with Israel. … PA leaders have long accused Israel of “apartheid” policies, even though they themselves have clarified that if...

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. As they met in Jerusalem, Kerry praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the "seriousness" with which he is looking at ways to revitalize peace hopes. Kerry expressed optimism without outlining any concrete strategy for ending a stalemate between the two sides that has seen them hardly negotiate one-on-one at all over the last 4½...

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday sent a warning to Israel, over what it calls its attempts to harm the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. Speaking during a meeting of the PLO's Executive Committee, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that it is impossible to hold back in the wake of what he called the attacks by Israel on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and PA Arabs in Judea and Samaria, in particular by local Jewish residents. "We cannot remain silent over such actions, nor can we accept their recurrence," Abbas said. "If Israel is dreaming about establishing facts on the ground through its...

ROME (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday he would depart in two weeks on another trip to the Middle East to push peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking to reporters alongside Israeli peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, Kerry said he'd depart on his fourth trip to the Jewish state as America's top diplomat around May 21 or 22. He will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We are working through threshold questions," Kerry said, ahead of his private talks with Livni in Rome. "We're doing it with a seriousness of purpose that...

The upcoming visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to China is expected to further promote mutual political trust and cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and science. Netanyahu is due to leave for China Sunday night for a five-day official visit, the first of its kind since 2007 when then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited China. Chinese Ambassador to Israel Gao Yanping told Xinhua in an interview that China and Israel have maintained close high-level contact in recent years, creating a good atmosphere for the growth of bilateral ties. Recent years have also witnessed increasingly closer exchanges...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will leave this afternoon for a five-day trip to China, where he will try to bring Israel’s perspectives on a slew of regional issues such as Iran, Syria and Egypt to the country’s new leadership. Netanyahu will be meeting with the new Chinese president, Xi Jinping, as well as with the country’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang, in an effort to shape their impressions of the Middle East as they begin what is expected to be a decade of rule. While two previous attempts to arrange a visit by Netanyahu failed to materialize, the trip is...

In a further indication of stirrings in the long-stagnant Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni met Thursday in Washington with US Secretary of State John Kerry, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said for the second time in a week that he supports a public referendum on any agreement with the Palestinians. Yitzhak Molcho, Netanyahu’s envoy on the Palestinian issue, accompanied Livni to her meeting with Kerry, where they discussed the peace process as well as regional developments, particularly Syria. The meeting came three days after an Arab League delegation met with Kerry and US Vice President Joe Biden. Kerry...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - A Death Cult’s Endgame UnveiledPosted By Ari Lieberman On May 3, 2013 @ 12:05 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 2 Comments In November 2009 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 10-month halt to settlement construction in Judea & Samaria (West Bank) in a futile bid to jumpstart the so-called “peace process.” Instead of embracing Netanyahu’s bold peace initiative, the Palestinian Authority’s Holocaust-denying strongman, Mahmoud Abbas, waited nine months before responding to the Israeli gesture, ensuring that there would be virtually no time for substantive progress. Abbas, who had made the settlement issue the cornerstone...

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas again insisted at a two-day “Freedom and Dignity” conference in Ramallah last week that Palestinians who murder Israeli Jews cannot be punished. The conference was to mark the 11th anniversary of Israel’s arrest of Marwan Barghouti, who, according to Israel Today, is a senior member of Abbas‘ Fatah party who was convicted of directing “numerous terrorist attacks against Israelis.” Israel Today reports that polls show the majority of Palestinians want Mr. Barghouti for president if he is ever released. Mr. Abbas declared that many of the Palestinians who were jailed after killing Jewish men, women and...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he would begin talks with rival factions, including Islamist Hamas, to form a unity government, a crucial step towards healing years of damaging internal divisions. … The need to form a new administration was prompted by the resignation earlier this month of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad because of a rift between him and Abbas, and it has created an opportunity for Abbas to forge a unity government. …

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1908.aspx Treasury Identifies Kassem Rmeiti & Co. for Exchange and Halawi Exchange Co. as Financial Institutions of “Primary Money Laundering Concern” 4/23/2013 In First Use of Section 311 Against a Non-Bank Financial Institution, Treasury Acts to Protect the U.S. Financial System from Foreign Exchange Houses Tied to Global Narcotics and Money Laundering Networks and Hizballah WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For Exchange (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under...

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday thanked the emir of Qatar for the "excellent relationship" between the two countries with respect to security and trade. "Qatar has been a center of innovation," Obama said after their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office. "We've seen enormous progress within the country on everything ranging from education to health care. And I think His Highness has shown extraordinary leadership over the last many years in helping to guide this country. "Obviously, Qatar is also an important country in the region, and has an influence that extends beyond its relatively...

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmud Abbas may fire Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a Fatah member said, as the party criticized the premier's government as being "improvised and confused." Abbas "is leaning towards dismissing Fayyad from the head of the government and forming a new one," a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council told AFP late on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I am angrier than all of you at the government... but I don't want to say more than that now. Just wait for three days," he quoted Abbas as saying at a meeting of the council in Ramallah. He...

JERUSALEM - The Obama administration is exploring whether a long-abandoned initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia 11 years ago could become the basis for a regional peace agreement between Israel and its neighbors, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials. With U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry due to arrive in the region over the weekend, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been conferring with other Arab leaders on the viability of the plan, which calls for a normalization of relations between Israel and all the Arab states in exchange for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state. Israeli and Palestinian officials confirmed...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that the freeing of terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons was a “priority” for his leadership. “The Palestinian leadership gives priority to the prisoners issue and ending their suffering,” Abbas said in a speech to a meeting of his Fatah party in Ramallah, according to AFP. … The speech came after thousands of PA Arabs rioted over the death the death of an elderly terrorist who was serving time in an Israeli jail. …

Just days after the Obama administration announced it was unblocking almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas told an Arab League summit this week he was pushing ahead with efforts to upgrade the P.A.’s status—the reason Congress wanted the money held up in the first place. Abbas complained that the Palestinian people were being collectively punished for opting to seek statehood at the U.N. Abbas also used his speech at the summit in Doha, Qatar to reprise his accusations that Israel is systemically racing to “judaize” Jerusalem, and repeated the inflammatory claim that it...

Israel and Turkey's recent rapprochement is a vital factor in developing peace and stability in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday, AFP reported. "The reconciliation between Israel and Turkey is a very important development that will help advance the cause of peace and stability in the region," Kerry said in a statement Saturday from the Jordanian capital Amman. "Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Erdogan deserve great credit for showing the leadership necessary to make this possible," he added, according to AFP. "We look forward to an expeditious implementation of the agreement and the...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening, after earlier discussing ways to push a new peace plan with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. and Israeli sources said. A radio report said Netanyahu and Kerry had a first round of private talks and were then joined by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Netanyahu's personal envoy Yitzhak Molcho and his national security adviser Yaakov Amidror. Channel 10 News reported that Kerry is planning on offering Israel and the PA an outline which would see Israel releasing terrorists from its prisons and transferring areas...