Free Republic

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been assured that ...Barack Obama's new peace plan includes a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem....Senator John Kerry... raised the settlement issue saying, "I emphasized to the prime minister the importance of moving forward, especially in respect to the settlement issue,"...Hillary Clinton, also told reporters that, while hosting Netanyahu for dinner on Monday night, she stressed Obama’s view that "he wants to see a stop to the settlements."

Palestinian Authority officials said on Wednesday that they had been "surprised" to hear about US President Barack Obama's new peace plan...proposals... included...resettling Palestinian refugees in Arab countries, swapping lands between the future Palestinian state and Israel, creating a demilitarized state and granting the Old City of Jerusalem the status of an international city...."The Palestinian position on these issues is very clear," ..."We insist on the right of return for all refugees on the basis of United Nations resolution 194, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with all of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, as its capital

Israel is ready "to immediately begin" peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria, PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said after returning from the US. But he insisted that any peace settlement "must find a solution to Israel's security needs". Arab states should join talks, he said, but would need to make concessions as well as Israel and the Palestinians. At the talks on Monday, Mr Netanyahu was pressed by President Barack Obama over US plans on a two-state solution. But the Israeli leader - who also came under pressure to rein in Israeli settlement-building - refrained from endorsing the idea.

Peace processors never fade away — they just ask Israel to take more risks for peace. Martin Indyk suggests that Benjamin Netanyahu used the ”not unreasonable” concerns about the security dangers presented by a Palestinian state to avoid taking the all-important risks for peace:

U.S. President Barack Obama has “hit the ground running” for a new Palestinian Authority state since his election victory, but Yuval Diskin, head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), sees a steep cliff ahead. One day after President Obama told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he is going full-speed ahead with plans for establishing a new PA state in Judea, Gaza and Samaria, Diskin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that there is "no chance for an effective peace process so long as Hamas rules Gaza."

...Obama informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he intends to promote a new regional peace initiative for the Middle East. Speaking to reporters following his meeting with Obama...the prime minister said that his understanding the regional component will be the key focal point of the new initiative. It will likely be presented in Obama's planned June 4th speech in Cairo. The US president will be in Egypt as a conclusion to a series of meetings with local leaders – namely Jordan's King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

United States President Barack Obama, after an Oval Office meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Monday the U.S. was committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu told reporters Palestinians should govern themselves but made no mention of a separate state. Obama went on to say that Israel has a clear obligation to stop building settlements under the road map for peace agreed upon in 2003.

Egyptian mediators have stepped up diplomatic pressure on rival Palestinian groups to form a unity government, setting a July 7 deadline for a deal to bridge internal divisions blocking peace talks with Israel.....Hamas Islamists running the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip are not prepared to recognize Israel and conclude a permanent peace. They will only go as far as a 10-year truce, which the Jewish state says is no substitute for a comprehensive peace...

....Netanyahu will walk into his White House summit prepared to commit to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says his Defence Minister and confidant.... Ehud Barak said: "I believe Netanyahu is ready for a process whose end is two states for two peoples.".... he believed a regional peace deal was achievable within three years. ....a new poll published in Israel shows 58 per cent of the country's Jewish population supports "two states for two peoples"...(more)

Labor "dissidents" on Saturday night called on...Netanyahu not to "delude" himself and the Israeli people that there is a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians that does not include two states for two peoples...In the coming hours you must decide whether you have the courage to take advantage of the opportunity the American president and the leaders of the Arab world are presenting to Israel and forge forward towards a final status agreement for our region, or whether you are about to lead us, again, towards a dead end...

Pope Benedict XVI assured his followers in the Holy Land that peace is possible, as he ended his Mideast visit Friday by putting aside the contentious issues he has confronted and coming as a pilgrim to the site of Jesus' crucifixion. Before boarding an airplane for Rome at Israel's international airport later in the day, the pope appeared to address some of the criticism leveled at him for a speech on the Holocaust that some Israelis felt was lukewarm, calling his visit to the Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem "one of the most solemn moments of my stay in Israel."...

We are constantly bombarded by rhetoric from clueless politicians and diplomats that the "two-state solution" is the only viable alternative for peace between Israel and the Arabs. That is not only wrong, it also ignores the danger the current two-state non-solution Roadmap policy poses for Israel. Here is the viable alternative for peace: The Jerusalem Connection Peace Plan. The main points: 1. The Covenants of God. The modern State of Israel must be seen as a partial fulfillment of God’s immutable and everlasting covenant promises to provide a national homeland for the Jewish people in anticipation of their ultimate redemption...

When...Netanyahu shakes hands with... Obama in the White House Monday, the meeting will mark the start of a radical new approach aimed at solving the conflicts in the Middle East....Obama ...announced a major speech on June 4 to the Muslim world from Cairo. Obama will seek to persuade Arab regimes and populations to stand on the side of peace and progress....It means starting a process of gradual normalization of relations with Israel. The Cairo speech will seek to heal the battered relations between Washington and Muslims, but it will do more than that. ...Jakarta... where Obama lived as a child,...

Amid much international applause, Barack Obama is resuming the quest for a Middle East settlement. On Monday the president will receive Netanyahu at the White House. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader and Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, are due the following week. Early next month, Obama will speak to the Arab, and Muslim, world from a podium in Cairo. If all goes to plan - and this being the Middle East it is a very big “if” - a peace conference could follow. The administration is not contemplating a tortuous process stretching through Obama’s presidency. As Susan Rice, the US...

...Netanyahu held a meeting Thursday with Jordanian King Abdullah II and promised that he would pursue peace negotiations with the Palestinians, stopping short, however, of consenting to Abdullah's request that he come out in favor of a Palestinian state..... Abdullah pressed the prime minister to "immediately declare his commitment to a two-state solution, acceptance of the Arab peace initiative and to take necessary steps to move forward toward a solution," ...there "is consensus in the international community that there is no alternative to the two-state solution."

The principle is really quite simple. G-d lays it out clearly in this week's Torah portion, Bechukotai (Leviticus 26: 3-12). First, we have the condition: If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them;Second, the economic reward: Then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread until you have enough,Third, the security reward: And you will...

Russia is moving to reassert its role in the Middle East – and in particular in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process...Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov chaired a special meeting Monday of the United Nations Security Council that endorsed the idea of holding a Middle East peace conference in Moscow this year....Mr. Lavrov noted that the United States, in a Council statement delivered Monday by Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, called for "integrating" the Arab peace initiative of 2005 into the peace process

(Unlike Bush)...the staff of President Obama is not coordinating its policy on Iran or the greater Middle East with Israel and has not been informing the Jewish state of its plans or recent diplomatic developments in the Mideast, according to sources in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office... WND's source said one thing Mitchell did convey to Netanyahu was Obama's alleged plan to help create a Palestinian state in hopes of normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab world in line with the "Arab Peace Initiative." The source said Mitchell relayed that Obama's Middle East strategy would be based on the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said it would be "fine with us" if the Palestinians reach a "two state" peace deal with Israel, despite his full-throated opposition to the Jewish nation. The firebrand leader, in an interview broadcast Sunday on US network ABC, appeared unhappy with President Barack Obama's failure to return a message of greetings and said nuclear talks could only proceed with a clear agenda. After triggering a storm with anti-Israel remarks at a UN racism conference in Geneva, Ahmadinejad attacked Obama's "support of the massacre of Gazans, in support for the criminals who were...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, depicted by most media as a firebrand anti-Arab inciter, displayed a new and moderate image in a lengthy interview on Thursday. However, he insisted that there will be “no giving without taking” in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

One truth that escapes many of our political leaders is that words have different meanings in differing cultures. Much of our political environment is inhabited by people who see sugarplums and dancing pixies when they hear phrases like, “Lasting peace based on honesty, justice and respect.” They respond as if these words mean the same thing to such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, Hezballah Leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the other radical Islamist leaders, both political and terrorist. Western countries, such as the United States and Great Britain, would define the words; Peace, Honesty, Justice, and Respect...

WASHINGTON (Routers) With his historic speech today, most analysts agreed that the Obama administration made huge inroads in rebuilding America’s relations with the rest of the solar system, reversing anti-terrestrial hostility that had understandably built up in the wake of years of Bush administration arrogance and interplanetary war mongering. In an address before the International Astronomical Union, the president made a moving plea for understanding to all the asteroids that may find our planet in their path. “This asteroid problem is one that we inherited from the last administration, which not only did nothing about it, but exacerbated it with...

AMMAN, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of six Arab states met here Saturday in a bid to enhance Arab unity over the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis. ...Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Lebanon, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Jordan attended the meeting... ...The king (of Jordan)is expected to relay the Arab stance on the peace process with Israel during his talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and other senior officials, said Judeh.

“The EU shares Iran's concerns over the situation in the Middle East,” Gallach told the Mehr News Agency in an interview recently. She said the European bloc believes that a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved through dialogue and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.... ...Gallach also said Iran and the West can “open a new chapter” in relations now that President Barack Obama has expressed his willingness to enter dialogue with Iran.

...differences are emerging with main ally Washington over Middle East peace efforts that could develop into an all-out confrontation... "The Obama administration is expecting a clash with Netanyahu over his refusal to support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel," .... "The question is whether Washington would use a velvet glove or an iron fist," Akiva Eldar, one of the paper's editorialists, told AFP.

....Arabic language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be renewed at the end of April... The report comes despite declarations by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday that Israel was changing its policies on the peace process and was not bound by commitments it made at a U.S.-sponsored conference to pursue creation of a Palestinian state.

...the area has (been) earmarked for development under a secret accord between Binyamin Netanyahu, the new, conservative Israeli Prime Minister, and his ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman. .... it is the most controversial development project in the region, one that diplomats and observers warn will trigger the collapse of the weakened Palestinian Authority

Peace porridge cold: Antiwar protestors can't complain now that President Obama is in the White House. Or can they?

An Islamic world in crisis, anti-Americanism and the fight against Israelby Samir Khalil SamirArab and Muslim countries are trying to find ways to reassert their dignity and uphold human rights but are increasingly turning inward, inching closer to Islamism and its calls for Sharia and caliphate. US support for Israel and corrupt Arab states fuel fundamentalism. The Islamic world is thus still waiting to reconcile its religion with modernity. Beirut (AsiaNews) – Fundamentalism is growing in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Increasingly it is seen as a solution to their problems, this according to a world survey that was reported...

NY Slimes writes: "President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban" Read on

Creation: antidote for depression by Tas Walker ‘Now I realize why I’ve been depressed for so long’, a man with dishevelled hair, baggy clothes and unkempt beard told me after a meeting one evening. He said he had always accepted evolution was a fact. That night he realized that this evolutionary belief was the reason for his dark despair and feeling of emptiness....

As a small step that could be considered a healthy vote of confidence in Iraq's return to stability, Mercedes has established a corporate representative office in Baghdad. Daimler set up shop in Erbil, Iraq last February, opening a training center that would get mechanics ready for coming Mercedes products. By installing a corporate representative, the company will have someone on the ground to figure out how best to introduce new Mercedes products to the country. The rep will focus on examining and developing the market for trucks and buses, which Daimler should have all to itself for a while.

A year ago Obama spoke in Cleveland to the leaders of the Jewish community and tipped his hand, "I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you're anti-Israel and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel". Yesterday, his point man George Mitchell spoke with them again and let it be known that economic development and diplomatic efforts “must be parallel, not sequential. You can’t have economic development when you’re shutting the door in the face of any diplomatic development.” “..coordinated strategy that will...

The Democrat Party, in all its gory details (regarding political and economic philosophy, war and peace, and social issues), commtoons included ...

BEIJING - CHINA will accelerate the build-up of its nuclear and conventional arsenal to form a credible deterrent, the general in charge of the country's strategic missile force said. 'We will accelerate the building of our nuclear and conventional combat strength,' said Jing Zhiyuan, the commander of the Second Artillery Corp, in an article he co-wrote for the authoritative journal Qiushi published on Sunday.

JAMES 3 By governing the tongue we gain perfection—Heavenly wisdom is pure, peaceable, and full of mercy. 1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. 2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet...

" Berkeley's public library will face a showdown with the city's Peace and Justice Commission tonight over whether a service contract for the book check-out system violates the city's nuclear-free ordinance......"

There are a lot of news reports on Obama’s first television interview since assuming office. It was with with Hisham Melhem of the Al-Arabiya television network (based in Dubai). It happened yesterday, January 26, 2009. Rather than spend time reviewing the opinions of others, let’s reproduce the interview in full, and add our commentary. Our comments are presented in italics. The summary? Obama sells out President Bush countless times. He gives the Arabs and Russia a place at the table. Russia? And he sends the old diplomatic code for “safe passage” across Israel. At least Jimmy Carter had the decency...

US President Barack Obama declared his intention to pursue peace between Israelis and Palestinians during his first visit to the State Department on Thursday, stressing the importance his administration places on diplomatic engagement in the region. "Let me be clear: America is committed to Israel's security. And we will always support Israel's right to defend itself against legitimate threats," he said. "No democracy can tolerate such danger to its people, nor should the international community and neither should the Palestinian people themselves." He praised Egypt's role in helping to end the violence, and also indicated that America will be committed...

One hates to dampen the feelings of national euphoria that have taken hold over the past few days, but there’s one moment from the week’s festivities that still sticks in my craw: the worshipful attention heaped upon Pete Seeger, icon of American folk music and lapsed Stalinist. Seeger was a prominent campaigner in the struggle for African-American civil rights, and his legacy there ought be applauded. But racial equality was not the only cause to which Seeger committed himself. International communism, and in particular its Stalinist variant, was an equal, if not more, significant cause in Seeger’s public life. He...

IsraelNN.com) The latest episode of Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem (TNL) contrasts Hevron's Jews with members of radical left-wing Peace Now. TNL, a live, monthly pro-Torah English TV broadcast well into its second six-month season on Israel National News TV, is co-hosted by Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, with the help of special guests and Jewish music bands, who together celebrate the beauty of Torah and Judaism in the State of Israel in Holy Land. The current Episode 25 features on-the-street interviews with Peace Now members at a "peace" rally, juxtaposed with similar interviews with Jews living in Hevron. While...

Despite its evident failure, we still hear that cliché of a Middle East peace strategy promulgated by pundits and politicians: Land for Peace. This discredited peace policy should have long ago been relegated to the garbage dump of terrible ideas. Sadly, it has persisted. But with the current predicament in the Holy Land, is it too much to ask those who cling to the Land for Peace mantra – like little children cling to their favorite stuffed animals – to now concede that this tired slogan has been once and for all incinerated in the fires of Gaza? To understand...

When it comes to national security and defense, the fundamental flaw with liberals is that they simply do not comprehend basic human nature. It’s as simple as that, and something that I cannot excuse. This article covers the main stream media's censorship of news, such as Hamas kidnapping children for use as human shields, their use of fake news stories, and how to reach sustainable peace in Gaze. Liberals and democrats in Washington should read this piece, it'll help them a lot.

The fact that Mahatma Gandhi, who used the tools of truth and non-violence in the fight for India’s freedom, donned an army uniform may startle many. But it is true that Father of the Nation wore the British Army’s uniform in 1899, although as a member of a voluntary ambulance unit during the Anglo-Boer War.The Mahatma, then known as Mohandas Karamchand, along with fellow Indians in South Africa decided to join the voluntary ambulance unit. The little known fact, reported in the magazine ‘Sainik Samachar’ (Soldier’s News), formerly called ‘Fauji Akhbar’, has been archived in the coffee table book “Soldiering...

Inner Peace If you can start the day without caffeine, If you can get going without pep pills, If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time, If you can take criticism and blame without resentment, If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend, If you can conquer tension without medical help,...

This video is all about God’s Love and we need his Love.

This video is all about God’s Love and we need his Love.

Perhaps the Bush Administration goes through the motions of urging “restraint” and the like – not really meaning it and understanding that Israel knows this – because it needs to do so for global political cover. But aren’t we past the point when the need to “avoid civilian casualties” – as tragic as such casualties are – can really be our biggest concern here? Such diplomatic blather, now emerging from the White House in the aftermath of the Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel, and of Israel’s forceful response, merely avoids the real issue. The only strategic priority that can seriously...

"Israel's air strikes in Gaza end any faint hopes that President-elect Barack Obama will take office with a clear path toward Middle East peace laid out before him," Ben Smith and Harry Sigel wrote in The Politico newspaper on Sunday. Anyone who had any "hopes," no matter how "faint," that there would be some type of peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians anytime soon should relocate to the Republic of Delusionstan. For some time, there has been silly posturing by the current Bush Administration that peace was within reach between Israelis and Palestinians. In November 2007, the Bush Administration convened...

This is a video of a Galapagos turtle that speaks of this worlds present times and sings the chorus of the late Stuart Hamblen song, Until Then. The audio is the voice of Revski - o7jimmy. Stuart Hamblen wrote this song in honor of his daughter’s early death and to my understanding that it took him 5 years to complete.