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The European Union's top diplomat has called for the United Nations Security Council to push forward and recognize a Palestinian state even without a final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. According to a Reuters report, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana made the remarks Saturday during a lecture in London, saying that if agreement between the two sides could not be reached, the UN should proffer its own solution to the conflict.

The Palestinian terrorist group known as Hamas contested an Amnesty International report that charged the organization with committing war crimes during its conflict with Israel. The charged stemmed from Hamas’ unprovoked rocket attacks on clearly civilian targets in Israel. Israeli forces subsequently invaded Gaza, the site from which the rockets were launched, in an effort to stop the attacks. Amnesty International also charged Israel with war crimes for the collateral damage to Gaza civilians during the invasion. “I am glad to see that Israel’s criminal regime has been justly cited for their atrocities,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. “But...

BELGRADE -- Boris Tadić and Mahmoud Abbas agree that the Kosovo question and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis can be resolved by upholding international law. Abbas and Tadić are seen in Belgrade (Tanjug) The presidents of Serbia and the Palestinian Authority agreed that conflicts around the world, including in Kosovo and the Middle East, could be settled through negotiations and without imposed solutions. Abbas, who is in Belgrade at Tadić’s invitation, said that the two countries had several decades of good relations behind them, forged through the Non-Aligned Movement, adding that he hoped that the movement’s 50th anniversary in 2011 would be...

Workers renovating a house in the traditional town of Jesus' birth accidentally discovered an untouched ancient tomb containing clay pots, plates, beads and the bones of two humans, a Palestinian antiquities official said Tuesday.

EC helped "co" host Rocky Riedel's show the other night on WIFL, and the topic of Israel, and the "special" relationship with the United States, came up. EC took the opportunity to shoot down some of the ridiculuously false information out there, and make the case that the US SHOULD back Israel 100%

JERUSALEM -- A new poll shows only 6 percent of Israeli Jews see President Barack Obama's administration as pro-Israel, while 50 percent see it as pro-Palestinian. That is a dramatic change from the previous U.S. administration of George W. Bush, which 88 percent termed "pro-Israel" and just 2 percent labeled pro-Palestinian. Many Israelis reject Obama's call for a total settlement freeze and have come to see him as overly sympathetic to Palestinian claims.

The Palestinian Authority leadership's hysterical, hasty and clearly miscalculated response to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University on Sunday night is likely to boomerang because it makes the Palestinians appear as "peace rejectionists." The PA, perhaps, has every right to be angry with Netanyahu's statements. However, its leaders should have been more careful in choosing the right words to express their sentiments. Even before he completed his speech, several PA officials and spokesmen used every available platform to declare their total rejection of Netanyahu's ideas, especially with regards to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state and recognition...

Former US president Jimmy Carter accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of placing "several obstacles on the road to peace" on Monday, addressing the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee one day after Netanyahu laid out his policy during an internationally-televised speech. "In my opinion, Netanyahu brought up several obstacles to peace in his speech that others before him have not placed," Carter, who is visiting Israel as part of a larger Middle East tour, told the committee. "He insists on settlement expansion and demands that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, even though 20% of Israel's citizens are...

Benjamin Netanyahu made a historic speech yesterday afternoon. Now, all that's left is to see how the media and the world to interpret the speech. One headline was that Netanyahu called on a two state solution. On the other hand, his conditions for a two state solution are likely unacceptable from the perspective of the Palestinians. Furthermore, he resisted calls from President Obama to stop settlement expansion.

Honored guests, citizens of Israel. Peace has always been our people's most ardent desire. Our prophets gave the world the vision of peace, we greet one another with wishes of peace, and our prayers conclude with the word peace. We are gathered this evening in an institution named for two pioneers of peace, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and we share in their vision. Two and half months ago, I took the oath of office as the Prime Minister of Israel. I pledged to establish a national unity government - and I did. I believed and I still believe that...

Binyamin Netanyahu threw down the gauntlet to the US tonight, grudgingly agreeing to a limited Palestinian state that would be demilitarised and not in control of its airspace or borders. The hawkish Prime Minister insisted that Israel would never give up a united Jerusalem as its capital, and said that established Jewish settlements in the West Bank would continue to expand — despite explicit objections from Washington. In a keynote speech that referred to a Palestinian “entity” far more frequently than an actual state, Mr Netanyahu tried to advance elements of his economic peace plan — whereby the Palestinians would...

In the course of criticizing the Obama speech in Cairo, Father Khalil Samir SJ, a Vatican Islamologist quoted frequently and favorably on this blog, threw a bomb in Israel’s direction: Another ambiguous element [in the Obama Cairo speech] concerns his placing on the same scale the legitimate desire of Palestinians and Jews to have a homeland in the Middle East. The legitimate desire of Jews in Europe was to live in peace where they were, not to have a homeland in the Middle East at all costs. This ambiguity is present in many in the West. But it also has...

Honored guests, citizens of Israel. Peace has always been our people’s most ardent desire. Our prophets gave the world the vision of peace, we greet one another with wishes of peace, and our prayers conclude with the word peace. We are gathered this evening in an institution named for two pioneers of peace, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and we share in their vision. Two and half months ago, I took the oath of office as the Prime Minister of Israel. I pledged to establish a national unity government – and I did. I believed and I still believe that...

Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah on Sunday expressed outrage and shock over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's call for the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state and his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The officials said that the speech which Netanyahu delivered at Bar Ilan University was much worse than they had expected. They also warned that Netanyahu's policies would trigger a new intifada. Some of Abbas's top advisors accused Netanyahu of "burying the peace process" and said the ball was now in the court of US President Barack Obama.

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's highly anticipated foreign policy speech, in which he called for immediate peace talks and endorsed the creation of Palestinian state without military capabilities. An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the speech "sabatoges" regional peace efforts, due to Netanyahu's refusal to accept an influx of Palestinian refugees into Israel and his unwillingness to compromise on the status of Jerusalem.

Speech just ended. Here's my raw notes. Transcript will be posted when available.

Netanyahu seeks 'demilitarised Palestine' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he will back a Palestinian state - but only if it is completely demilitarised. He said a Palestinian state must accept the existence of Israel and must have no army, no control of its air space and no way of smuggling in weapons. Mr Netanyahu's speech comes a month after US President Barack Obama urged him to accept a two-state solution. The Israeli leader offered to talk to the Palestinians immediately. He said he was willing to talk with no preconditions, adding: "We want to live with you in...

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday called for creation of a limited Palestinian state for the first time, saying it would have to be disarmed. Netanyahu made the call during a major policy speech about his Mideast peacemaking intentions. "In any peace agreement, the territory under Palestinian control must be disarmed, with solid security guarantees for Israel," he said.

Yesterday,...snip... I listened intently to the weekly Torah portion. It tells the story of 12 spies, sent by Moses, to study Eretz Yisrael and its residents, prior to the Israelites entering into the Land. The end is quite well known; Ten of the spies opposed any attempt to conquer the land, saying that it was filled with giants and well-fortified cities and walls. Only two men, Joshua and Kalev had the courage to reject the spy's slander,...snip As a result of the people's rejection of the land G-d decreed that they should spend forty years in the desert.snip I have...

The Other Middle East Crisis by: Brittany Fortier, June 12, 2009 Panelists at the Heritage Foundation called upon the Obama administration to put aside preconceived notions about what will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “What has been pursued over the past sixteen years … has not produced security at all. It has not worked,” said Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) on June 3, 2009. Brownback bases his criteria for a successful Middle East policy on three basic elements: “First, does it produce security for Israel? Second does it improve the lives of the Palestinians? And third, does it advance the national security...

DAMASCUS, SYRIA – Former President Jimmy Carter Thursday reiterated that there can be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians without involving the militant group Hamas. His comments came shortly before he met with the militant group's Syrian-based leader, Khaled Mashaal. Carter met with Mashaal twice under the Bush administration, angering some in the U.S. government who said he was legitimizing a group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. But this was his first meeting under the Obama administration, which has launched a fresh quest for peace in the Middle East, and came as Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, was...

| Print Article | | Share June 10, 2009Arab ethnic cleansingEthel C. Fenig As Peggy Shapiro noted, Obama--and others--are perfectly content to demand the uprooting and removal of over 200,000 Israeli/Jewish citizens from towns and cities, (ie, ethnic cleansing), that Arabs want for their "Palestinian" state as a beginning for peace.  No mention is made, no uproar over  this Judenrein demand although it is another example of  Arab apartheid and racism.   However imagine the shrieks if Israel made the same demand.  Israeli cartoonist Ya'akov Kirschen graphically illustrates.        Yes folks, most Arab nations ban Jews from living in their countries;  from...

Citing what she called an “abnormally high birthrate for Jews,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bemoaned its impact on the Middle East “peace process.” “If Israeli Jews reproduced at rates similar to American Jews, demographics alone would resolve the issue in a couple of generations,” Clinton asserted. “At current Jewish birthrates, though, we’ll see Jewish control of the Israeli government stretching out for centuries to come.” Clinton suggested that “stepped up birth control measures among the Jews and opening the borders to Palestinian immigrants would help expedite a peaceful political settlement of the issue. It is the Jewishness of...

Two States, Many Problems by: Alana Goodman, June 09, 2009 As President Obama began his Middle East tour on Wednesday, June 3, Israeli and U.S. foreign policy experts expressed skepticism about the new U.S. administration’s proposals, which many believe are simply a rehash of previous failed policies. In a speech at Cairo University outlining his plan for Middle East peace, Obama called for a renewed attempt at the Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution and increased diplomacy toward radical Islamic countries like Iran. Critics of this plan say that it has been tried numerous times and always ended in failure. Major General Giora...

Palestinian Fault Line Exposed by: Malcolm A. Kline, June 08, 2009 Although the hundreds of Middle East studies courses in universities nationwide portend to treat the region exhaustively, there is a key component of the conflict that most ignore. “For more than two years, Hamas and Fatah have been in a deadly war,” author Jonathan Schanzer said on June 3 in a conference at the Heritage Foundation. “The media have downplayed it and academics have attempted to rewrite the history of it.” “It is not a new conflict but goes back 20 years.” Schanzer, the author of Hamas vs. Fatah:...

Unreal, Americans for Palestine over Americans for Israel? I don't Think so!!! I think Conservatives need to be invited to... FREEP! Currently 52.7% For PALESTINE!

RIYADH (Reuters) - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has urged U.S. President Barack Obama to impose a solution on the festering Arab-Israeli conflict if necessary, a Saudi newspaper said on Sunday. Saudi Arabia and other Arab states want Obama to get tough with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has balked at Palestinian statehood and defied U.S. calls to halt the expansion of Jewish settlements. King Abdullah told Obama during his visit to Riyadh last week that Arab patience was wearing thin and that a solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict would be the "magic key" to all issues in the...

In President Obama’s speech in Cairo, Egypt the other day, we noticed that he alluded to a Shura (passage) from Islam’s holiest book, the Qur’an. We liked that he quoted Verse 5:32 of The Book, but didn’t find the time to quote 5:33, without which 5:32 has little meaning. Here they are together: 005.032: YUSUFALI: “On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person — unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land — it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one...

Much has been made of President Obama's "on the other hand" transition, in his speech yesterday, from the Holocaust to the travails of the Palestinians. Some thought that he implied a kind of equivalence. But the appalling Tom Brokaw reminded us that it could have been worse when he asked Obama about his visit to Buchenwald on the Today Show this morning: BROKAW: What can the Israelis learn from your visit to Buchenwald? And what should they be thinking about their treatment of Palestinians? Unbelievable. Obama, to his credit, squelched the analogy: OBAMA: Well, look, there's no equivalency here.

With a newly released poll finding that 60 percent of Israelis “don’t trust … President [Obama] to consider and protect Israel’s interests during his efforts to improve relations between America and the Muslim world,” and that 55 percent of Israelis say Obama leans in favor of the Palestinians and only 5 percent that he favors Israel, there wasn’t much in Obama’s Cairo speech today to allay the concerns. True, he spoke ringing words about the Holocaust. Addressing the Muslim world as a whole, he even took a swipe at widespread Muslim Holocaust denial, saying, “Six million Jews were killed —...

(Washington, D.C., May 20, 2009) — Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has just finished his visit to Washington. Full analysis on my weblog, including a link to the YouTube clip of me on Glenn Beck’s show with a former CIA analyst who says he wouldn’t care if Israel ceased to exist. MUST WATCH:Joel On The Glen Beck Show That said, there’s more troubling news this morning. I’m horrified by credible reports that in his June 4th speech in Cairo, President Obama will say it is time to divide Jerusalem and make the holy city the capital of a Palestinian state. No,...

Does anyone have a link to the story from a few years ago where the Israelis turned over a thriving greenhouse to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal and then the Palestinians let the plants die and used the location for digging tunnels or something like that? Any help would be appreciated.

An often-overlooked piece of Palestinian behavior is key to the pursuit of peace. The Palestinians teach their people that no Jewish kingdom ever existed in the land they call Palestine, and that there was never a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Presumably some Palestinians know these teachings are false, but for most they are "facts" learned in school and taken for granted. These falsehoods are deliberately spread by the Palestinian leadership. To publicly deny them is to be viewed as disloyal, and anyone who tries to assert the truth risks retribution. This is not just a matter...

SNIPPET: "On 15 May 2009, the Jihadi Brigades of Internet Incursion, which appear to be a part of the Shumukh Forums, announced a successful “incursion” of over 250,000 email addresses. Their announcement stated: We bring good news to the Islamic Ummah of the continuation of the electronic jihadi media raids in support of the truth in a time of disgrace and shame. Your brothers in the Jihadi Brigades of Internet Incursion have targeted 265,612 email addresses belonging to citizens of the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding countries … with emails containing Usama bin Laden’s “Practical Steps to Liberate Palestine,” which the...

The Religion of Peace, that very same one that would behead anyone who who dares say they are not peaceful, has shown its fangs again. Nope, it wasn’t against dem Jooz from that Zionist Entity, this time. It was against Christians who have lived in the Holy Land for centuries before anyone ever heard or knew of Islam and Mohammed (PBUH). RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 24 (Reuters) - Vandals desecrated some 70 graves in two Palestinian Christian cemeteries on Sunday in what a Palestinian Authority official said was a rare attack on the Christian minority in the occupied West Bank.......

Frederic Desagneaux, speaking on behalf of the French Foreign Ministry, decried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that an undivided Jerusalem will always be Israel’s capital. “The declaration made by the Israeli prime minister prejudices the final status agreement,” Desagneaux complained. “The international community has determined that Jerusalem will be the capital of the newly created Palestinian state. Mr. Netanyahu cannot be permitted to unilaterally decree otherwise.” Desagneaux characterized Netanyahu’s position as “revanchism at its worst. The Jews lost Jerusalem to the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. Their post-World War II invasion and reoccupation upset a long standing acceptance...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been assured that US President Barack Obama's new peace plan includes a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. PA officials told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot that the US intends to stand by its policy that East Jerusalem should be the Palestinian capital. Obama is expected to roll out the peace plan in Cairo on 4 June. The plan also calls for Israel to freeze settlement activity, and a clear timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state, negotiated under the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative. The newspaper said the US is expected...

Israeli Prime Minister ...Netanyahu [making] his first official visit with ... President ... Obama. A range of issues — including the future of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Israeli-Syrian talks and Iran policy — are on the table. This is one of an ... series of meetings between U.S. presidents and Israeli prime ministers over the years, many of which concerned these same issues. ... little has changed... The ... Israeli-Palestinian peace process for years has been the assumption that there would be a two-state solution. Such a solution has not materialized for a host of reasons. First, ... there are two Palestinian...

PHOENIX -- A mysterious UFO-like sighting that created a stir in Arizona and New Mexico has been identified. NASA officials say the flying orb spotted Monday was a giant research balloon, not an alien spacecraft. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says people were calling him about the object all afternoon. Bill Stepp of NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, says the flying object was a 4,000-pound NASA research balloon used to measure gamma ray emissions. The balloon usually floats at 130,000 feet and can be seen for about 170 miles on a clear day. One witness said...

In times past, coalminers working in the depths of the earth took along caged canaries. As long as the canaries warbled, the miners knew they were safe from the methane and carbon monoxide that would kill them in minutes. But when the tiny songbirds stopped singing, the miners knew to run for their lives. Jews have always been the canaries in the coal mines of civilization, serving as a warning of impending doom to those who believed, as Churchill said, that the crocodile — of tyranny — would eat them last. The Jews of Hitler's Germany who listened carefully to...

Once Upon a Time by: Malcolm A. Kline, May 18, 2009 Boston College sociologist Eve Spangler has put into words what may be the dominant theme in most academic discourses, not to mention university courses. “Remember not only that narratives trump facts, but that these narratives operate within a [sic] equal power,” she tells students. Apparently, the lady practices what she preaches in her class on “Social Justice in Israel/Palestine.” “Many of the narratives she chooses, come from a purely Palestinian perspective, such as Omar Barghouti’s ‘Boycotting Israeli Apartheid, Evoking South Africa’s Legacy,’ or Richard Falk’s, ‘United Nations Rapporteur for...

"JERUSALEM — The U.S. president who did most for Israel was not Harry Truman, who recognized the Jewish state almost immediately after it was founded. Nor was it John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon. Or Gerald Ford, or Ronald Reagan, or the two George Bushes, or Bill Clinton, though all of these provided America’s ally with economic assistance, supplied it with arms and stood at its side at critical moments, from the 1967 Six-Day War to the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon." ... "[Obama's] task is to bang their heads together and force them to do what they...

Nakba Day meaning "day of the catastrophe" is the day the Palestinians "mourn" the creation of Israel (May 15th) . In truth the day actually was a catastrophe for the Palestinian Arabs. However, despite what the propagandists may say, it was a catastrophe created by the Arab League and especially Egyptian President Nasser. Even though Israel offered the return of territories gained in the 1948 war, at the Rhodes armistice conference of February 1949, Arab leaders (among whom there were no representatives from the Arabs of the former Palestine) rejected Israel’s peace offers. Instead they declared jihad and condemned the...

JERUSALEM, MAY 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI left Jerusalem for Bethlehem early this morning amidst further carping from the locals; I couldn't help but raise my heart to God in gratitude for this gentle, German Pope. I realized just how unique his mission is in this faction-torn land of continual squabbles over everything from land to doctrinal minutiae. The fact is that the Holy Father didn't come to the Holy Land to play party politics, not even for his own "party." He didn't come merely as a representative of the Catholic Church, but truly on behalf of everyone involved, on behalf...

On Wednesday 13 May 2009, after making a private visit to the Grotto of the Nativity, the Holy Father visited the Caritas Children's Hospital and the Aida Refugee Camp. At the Camp he gave the following address. Mr President, Dear Friends, My visit to the Aida Refugee Camp this afternoon gives me a welcome opportunity to express my solidarity with all the homeless Palestinians who long to be able to return to their birthplace, or to live permanently in a homeland of their own. Thank you, Mr President, for your kind greeting. And thank you also, Mrs Abu Zayd, and...

In Bethlehem Benedict XVI “pleads” with all people of the region to “put aside grievances”. Twice he recalls the Gaza conflict. He asks the Palestinian people to become a “bridge for dialogue”. Abbas speaks of “apartheid”. Bethlehem (AsiaNews) – The Pope supports the right of the Palestinian people to have a “sovereign homeland”, “secure and at peace with its neighbours, within internationally recognised borders”, he “pleads” all people in the region, at war for over 60 years, to “to put aside grievances and divisions”, he hopes that the security problems which have given rise to crushing difficulties in the economic,...

Jerusalem, Israel, May 11, 2009 / 01:50 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI met with representatives of inter-religious dialogue groups in Jerusalem on Monday evening, telling them that religious differences are a "wonderful opportunity" for people of different faiths to live together in mutual encouragement in the ways of God. He added that religious belief presupposes truth, which is not a threat to tolerance but rather a common criterion offered to all. The Pontiff spoke at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center before a diverse audience of monotheistic believers, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Druze, and Samaritan representatives.After a greeting delivered by...

http://wingless.aoriginality.com If you can prove a country called Palestine existed on Planet Earth in the few billion years before 1948 then wingless.aoriginality.com has $$$$ reward for you! COME ON DOWN! They had no takers yet because you will never find information on something non-existent. (if it was a country, what was its capital, its flag, its government, who recognized it, what was its history, its currency, when did it declare independence etc...)

Non-Arab and/or non-Muslims in the "Arab" worldOne key element missing from the discussion is the question of non-Arab and/or non-Muslims in the "Arab" world.  The Arab nationalists have succeeded in establishing some 23 non-democratic, ethnically (Arab) and religiously (Islam) defined nation-states in over 1 million square miles of territory, often at the expense of non-Arabs, such as the Kurds (Muslims, non-Arabs), Assyrians (Christians, non-Arabs), Copts (Christians, non-Arabs), southern Sudanese (Christian and pagan non-Arabs), Maronite Lebanese (Christian and mostly identified with their Phoenician ancestors) and Mizrahi Jews.  Arab nationalist ideology claims all this territory exclusively as "Arab" despite the legitimate claims...

An op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday by veteran Vatican reporter John L. Allen Jr. lists four ways Pope Benedict XVI can "move things forward in the Middle East." He recommends the Holy Father endorse the two-state solution, call upon Palestinians to reject extremism, urge support for Holy Land Christians, and advise that Iran be included in regional discussions.   It's easy to agree with all of Allen's suggestions, in part, because he leaves out one of the most important -- and most controversial -- messages Benedict should consider sending: challenging Israel to reject its own...