INTERNATIONAL PULSE Period: June 2005 6666666 End-Time Church / Pluralism Global Politics Israel

ISRAEL ----- TEMPLE MOUNT CLASH - "POLICE DISPERSE PROTESTERS OUTSIDE AL AQSA IMRA - By Omar Karmi 7 June 2005 - OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Israeli police yesterday fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian youths on the Haram Al Sharif ... . The clashes in Jerusalem ... were sparked when a dozen Israelis started a tour of the Aqsa compound. According to Israeli police, hundreds of Palestinian youths started throwing stones and rocks at the group until police entered the compound and broke up the clashes with tear gas and stun grenades. One Palestinian was arrested and two Israelis injured. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the visit of the Israeli group to Al Aqsa as an "unwarranted provocation." He said the group should not have been allowed onto the compound ... . "The Israeli government and the international community must stop these unjustified and dangerous violations that risk reaping regrettable consequences," he said ... . Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia was more outspoken ... . The stone-throwers, he said, were defending themselves from ... "horde of extremist and criminal settlers" that "attacked Al Aqsa and stormed the esplanade." Israel unilaterally annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem in the aftermath of the 1967 war and declared it the "eternal, undivided capital" of Israel. No country has recognised the annexation, illegal under international law. [IMRA: Prior presence by Jordan also lacked international acceptance.] . . . HAARETZ 7 June '05: PA's Abbas blames Israel for unrest on Temple Mount By Jonathan Lis and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies QUOTES FROM TEXT: " 'The Israeli government and the international community must stop these unjustified and dangerous visitations' " " 'part of repeated attempts by Zionist settlers to assault and harm the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque' " "Police do not believe the events were planned in advance by the Palestinians" "The clashes ... came as a surprise to police, who forecasted calm at the site." For the whole story: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel/israel_Temple%20Mount%20Clash.html -----  ISRAEL RESUMES ASSASSINATION POLICY "Targeted killings" of Palestinians extremists had been suspended. REUTERS, June 22, 2005 JERUSALEM - Israel said on Wednesday it had resumed an assassination policy against some Palestinian militants and could mount air strikes with the risk of civilian casualties to ensure its Gaza pullout does not come under fire. The Israeli threats, prompted by a flare-up of Islamic Jihad militant attacks on Jewish settlers in Gaza, underscored the deterioration of a four-month-old cease-fire and followed an acrimonious Israeli-Palestinian summit. Israel shelved “targeted killings” of militants in February as part of a truce deal. But resurgent violence has raised the specter of disruption to Israel’s planned August withdrawal from Gaza and dimmed hopes for “road map” peace talks afterwards.Word that the assassination policy had been dusted off came with Israeli confirmation of a failed missile strike on Tuesday while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas were holding tense talks in Jerusalem. Missed 'opportunity' “There was an attempt in Gaza to intercept an (Islamic Jihad) activist yesterday. It was unsuccessful,” Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said. “An opportunity presented itself. Any means to neutralize the organization are relevant and possible.” Islamic Jihad has resumed mortar bomb and rocket salvoes against Jewish settlements in Gaza in what it calls retaliation for continued Israeli raids to capture wanted militants. For whole report: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel/israel_Resumes Assassination Policy.html ----- CITIZENS ASKING TO CONTAIN AND CONSTRAIN THE ISRAEL LOBBY JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO CONTAIN AND CONSTRAIN THE ISRAEL LOBBY, ESPECIALLY THE AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE (AIPAC), AND ITS ALLIES, INCLUDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS. The top priority for Middle East peace is to contain the overwhelming influence on U.S. Middle East policy by the right-wing government of Israel. Almost every nation is perplexed at American permissiveness towards Israel, which has resulted in a nation without borders and policies without common sense. Until Israel defines itself and becomes a good neighbor to the Palestinians and Syrians, the issue of failed Middle East peace efforts will continue to metastasize terror around the world. THE DEBATE WE ARE MISSING The Israel lobby is out of control. It shuts down any rational debate or even any discussion of Israel ’s actions. Three past heads of Israel ’s security service, Shin Bet, have said that the actions of the present Israeli government are self-destructive, yet those views are not heard by the American public. The many organizations that make up the Israel lobby include several whose main effort is to intimidate editors and producers in the media and prevent an open discourse about Israeli policies and our uncritical support for those policies. WHAT IS GOOD FOR ISRAEL IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD FOR AMERICA The agenda of AIPAC and of the Israel lobby has never been the agenda of America in the Middle East. The present government of Israel is undermining long-term American interests and the war on terror. Even the half-step of disengagement from Gaza and a few of the Jewish colonies on the West Bank is not what Palestinians and a majority of peace-seeking Israelis have dreamed of and struggled for. ISRAEL, STOP SPYING ON AMERICA! For the whole story go to: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel/israel_us_citizens_asking_to_constrain_the_israel_lobby.html ----- DISENGAGEMENT OPPONENTS ADD BLUE/WHITE RIBBON TO ORANGE RIBBON IMRA - Dr. Aaron Lerner - 26 June 2005 - The group organizing the anti-disengagement protest in Northern Israel called today for disengagement opponents to add the blue-white ribbons now being distributed by disengagement supporters to the orange ribbons on their cars. The group called the adoption of the blue-white ribbon as a sign of support for disengagement as a "dirty trick" trying to term disengagement supporters "Israelis" as opposed to disengagement opponents - as if the blue & white (Israel's national colors) cannot go together with orange - the color used to protest disengagement. The group argues that if all disengagement opponents have both the blue and white ribbons along with the orange ribbon on their car that this will serve to neutralize the message of the blue-white pro-disengagement ribbon campaign. http://www.imra.org.il ----- ZOA CRITICIZES PRESIDENT BUSH FOR AGAIN REFUSING TO MOVE U.S. EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM - June 24, 2005 Contact Morton A. Klein at: www.zoa.org - WASHINGTON - The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) expressed its disappointment in President Bush, for this month once again invoking the Presidential waiver on the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, that calls for the U.S. Embassy in Israel to be relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It was the eighth such waiver for Bush, and he again cited "the national security interests of the United States" as the reasons for failing to fulfill the 1995 law. "It's now been ten years since this act was enacted," said Morton A. Klein, National President of ZOA. "It's deeply disappointing, and unacceptable," said Klein, "that the will of Congress and the American people continues to be waived every six months." "The President needs to remember that Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Jewish sacred texts, and not once in the Qur'an, that in the 19 years it was controlled by Jordan, no Arab leader even visited the city; it was left to become a slum, with few homes having electricity or running water, and that Jerusalem has never served as the capital of any state occupying the region, except Israel." Since the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, an initiative of then-Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), U.S. law has required that the U.S. Embassy in Israel be established in Jerusalem, and over $100 million dollars was approved for the move. Failure to do so by 1999 was to have triggered severe penalties on the other constructions under the U.S. foreign aid program. But the establishment of the Embassy in Jerusalem has been postponed without penalty through the exercise of the Presidential waiver in the 1995 legislation, first by President Clinton in December 1999, and subsequently every six months by the Bush Administrations. "National security concerns," have been consistently cited as the reason for the delay, and without real explanation. Congressional resolutions and efforts to put the spotlight back on to the 1995 requirements have failed to alter the White House position. Even though Jerusalem is the seat of Israel's government, it remains the only capital city designated by the host country in which the U.S. does not maintain an embassy nor fully recognize it as the capital. * * * The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver. www.imra.org.il ----- SECRETARY CONDOLEEZA RICE IN BRUSSELS - INTERVIEW ON CNN With John King - Secretary Condoleezza Rice Brussels, Belgium June 22, 2005 SECRETARY RICE: ...And, yes, we will stand with the Israelis for the principle that Israel should do nothing to try and prejudge final status. Because one way or another, at the time of final status, the boundaries of the new Palestinian state are going to have to be negotiated between the parties. So nothing that Israel does is going to prejudge that outcome. The President has made clear that he believes that there have been certain realities that have changed since 1949 or since 1967, but that any changes in those boundaries are going to have to be mutually agreed and that will be the position of the United States at final status. QUESTION: Is it still necessary, though, and is there anything the United States, I guess, can do to change Israel's mind about some of the checkpoints? There are checkpoints when you cross from Israeli territory into the Palestinian territories. But there are -- if you imagine this room as being within the Palestinian territories, there are sometimes checkpoints within this room, even though you are not stepping anywhere near Israel. SECRETARY RICE: I do believe that there is more that Israel can do to allow freedom of movement for the Palestinians, and we've made that case. I also recognize that there are real security concerns here. You've seen incidents even very recently in the Gaza, and it's particularly problematic when you have groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by the way, operating with offices in Damascus, who say that they're not going to respect the calm that President Abbas has tried to bring about. But the way that we can move forward on this is that the Israelis are preparing to turn over whole cities to the Palestinians, and they should then really release the pressure around those cities so that Palestinians can move freely. They've released two and they've talked now about Bethlehem and Qalqilya. That should go forward. That will improve freedom of movement. When Israel leaves Gaza, starting in August, again if there is freedom of movement for Palestinians in a Gaza that is free of Israeli settlers and free of Israeli military forces, that is going to improve freedom of movement. So we work at the micro level, kind of checkpoint by checkpoint. But we also look for these larger changes that will really improve freedom of movement for the Palestinians. More: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel/israel_condoleeza_rise_in_brussels_interview.html ----- U.S. CHANGES POLICY IN PLEDGE ON 1949 LINES WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The Bush administration appears to have revised U.S. policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict. A report by the Washington Institute said the administration's adoption of the 1949 armstice lines as the recommended borders of Israel could mark a major change in U.S. policy. The report said President George Bush appears to have abandoned U.S. support of United Nations Security Council resolution 242, which called for secure borders for Israel. "Bush specifically committed the United States to a certain final-status position: the 1949 armistice lines are the starting point, from which any change must be mutually agreed," the report, authored by executive director Robert Satloff, said. "This is a huge advance for the Palestinians." Entitled "Deciphering the Bush-Abbas Press Conference," the report analyzed Bush's statements in wake of his meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in April 2005 and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during the following month. Satloff said Bush delivered a message to Abbas that could harm the U.S. commitment to Palestinian democracy and a two-state solution. === NOTE: The above is not the full item. This service contains only a small portion of the information produced daily by Middle East Newsline. For a subscription to the full service, please contact Middle East Newsline at: editor@menewsline.com for further details. IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il -----  STATEMENT BY ISLAMIC JIHAD MOVEMENT IN PALESTINE "The enemy is waging war against the Islamic Jihad arresting more than 300 mujahid in the past two months" Source: Islamic Jihad Movement website on 22 June 2005. In the name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate. "Fight them and Allah will punish them by your hands; cover them with shame and Allah will help you be victorious over them and heal the breasts of the believers" [Koranic verse]. To the masses of our steadfast heroic Palestinian people: The Zionist enemy has clearly declared war on the Islamic Jihad Movement and its leaders and cadres as part of its bloody and vicious war against our heroic mujahid Palestinian people. No day passes without this enemy committing a crime against our patient and steadfast people that chant for Palestine, the resistance, and the mujahidin. Our people continue to uphold the path of free resistance men. They continue to offer martyrs and wounded and to treat their bleeding wounds while the mujahidin continue to embrace them and protect despite the Zionist-US plot that is being hatched against our mujahid Palestinian people. Today, we reaffirm the option of jihad and resistance against the Zionist enemy that continues to commit acts of murder and assassination and continues to attack, destroy, and confiscate our lands, and proceed with its settlement building activities. In the past two months, the Zionist enemy has arrested thousands of mujahidin, including more than 300 mujahid sons of the Islamic Jihad Movement. Today, we reconfirm that our people and heroic mujahidin have resolutely decided to remain a thorn in the palate of the Zionist entity that is ignoring all Palestinian or international understandings. The Zionist enemy is committing crimes against the free mujahidin. It has killed in cold blood mujahid Murawwah Kamil, the commander of the Al-Quds Brigades in Jenin, mujahid Shafiq Abd-al-Ghani, mujahid Abd-al-Fattah Radad, and scores of unarmed sons of our Palestinian people using its military arsenal while the world did not move a finger. And when the heroic mujahidin decide to retaliate against these crimes, some weak-minded people - whom we did not see or hear in the confrontation arenas - come out to denounce and condemn the resistance operations that confront and retaliate against the aggression and defend the sons of the Palestinian people. We affirm that this policy is part of the vicious Zionist media war that falsely claimed - through statements distributed in the Bayt Hanun township last night - that the heroic mujahidin are seeking to abort the calm. These weak-minded people have forgotten the blood of the martyrs and the more than 8,000 Zionist violations of the calm that included murder, arrests, destruction, confiscation and looting of lands, continuing to build the racist separation wall, the expansion of settlements, the Judaization of Jerusalem, and the desecration of the Holy Koran. [Official PA website www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=2&id=955 ] Whole article: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel/israel_Statement by Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine.html ----- BUSH TO ABBAS: Any Changes in 1949 Borders According to Palestinian-Israeli Agreement. GAZA, May 30, 2005, (WAFA-PLO News agency)- Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nasser Al-Kidwa said that the US President George W. Bush has assured President Mahmoud Abbas that the US administration thinks that any changes in the borders of the Hudna (truce) in 1949 should be applied according to Palestinian-Israeli agreement. . In a statement issued Monday, Al-Kidwa said that President Abbas discussed, with the US administration, the bilateral negotiations as well as the necessity of the US responsibility for implementing the Road Map. . Al-Kidwa added that the US attitude, regarding the Hudna line, means depending on it as the borders of the two (Palestinian and Israeli) states. He added that such attitude reinforces the Palestinian belief that all the colonies are illegal and should be removed. . Bush assured Abbas his vision to establish a viable and integrated Palestinian state, in presence of links between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Al-Kidwa said. . President Bush assured also that Israel would not make any act contradicts the Road Map including any illegal steps in the occupied East Jerusalem or the West Bank, Al-Kidwa added. . Al-Kidwa mentioned that the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Palestine in the coming weeks. http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=Enews&id=2765 ----- EFFORT TO RAISE $3 BILLION FOR PALESTINIONS IN POST-ISRAEL FOR PALESTINIANS By STEVEN R. WEISMAN The New York TImes 17 June 2005 WASHINGTON, June 16 - The Bush administration is working with James D. Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president, and with Palestinian, other Arab and European leaders to assemble a large new international aid package for Palestinian areas after Israel's disengagement from Gaza, American and other officials said Thursday. The package, which some officials said could approach $3 billion over three years, would supplement roughly $1 billion a year already given by the United States and others for the Palestinian Authority. It would be for specific projects in Gaza, including a seaport, border crossings and other infrastructure. 'Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who leaves for Israel on Friday, is expected to discuss the package on her tour of the Middle East and then work with Mr. Wolfensohn to present the proposal to foreign ministers of the leading industrial nations when they meet in London in a week. "This will be very much focused on the preparations for the Gaza withdrawal," Ms. Rice said of her trip, at a news conference on Thursday at the State Department. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/politics/17diplo.html ----- IDF SPOX UPDATE 18 June 2005 - Now released for publication: In a joint IDF and ISA operation last night in the city of Jenin, an IDF force uncovered an Islamic Jihad explosives laboratory containing 50 kg. of explosives. The explosives were detonated in a controlled manner by IDF sappers. Rami Muhammed Hassan Kandil, a 21 year old wanted Islamic Jihad terrorist was arrested in the operation. Kandil had planned to carry out a suicide terror attack inside Israel. Kandil had been previously imprisoned and was released by Israel as part of a goodwill gesture to the Palestinian Authority. The Islamic Jihad terror organization continuously operates to carry out terror attacks during this declared period of calm. The IDF will continue to operate against terror activity such as this in order to protect the citizens of the state of Israel. This Islamic Jihad infrastructure is directed by the Islamic Jihad in Damascus. IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ----- DID JEWS ATTACK THE TEMPLE MOUNT? By Judy Lash Balint FrontPageMagazine.com June 9, 2005 - Last Monday, Jordan's Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Marouf Bakhit called a hasty meeting with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials to declare his country's outrage over the "provocative act" of a group of Jews who had the audacity to go up to the Temple Mount in commemoration of Jerusalem Day, the 38th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. The official Jordanian news agency called the Jewish visit: "A provocative act that could stir up confrontation and evoke outrage of Muslims around the world." The very next day, the suave, urbane Ambassador Bakhit told a group of diplomats and journalists at a Jerusalem think tank that there is absolutely no proof that the Temple ever stood at the spot known to Moslems as al-Haram-ash Sharif, now occupied by the Dome of the Rock. The entire episode may be viewed as part of the ongoing Arab strategy to delegitimize Jewish claims to holy sites and by extension to Jerusalem itself. None of this is new-Moslem clerics have regularly seized on perceived Israeli violations of the Temple Mount as pretexts to incite violent riots. But now the inflammatory statements are coming from a representative of the Jordanian government, who in the same speech to the diplomats and reporters claimed that his country is on its way to becoming "a moderate, tolerant, open society." Evidently that attitude does not extend to tolerating a dozen Jews visiting their holiest site. When several hundred Arabs started throwing rocks and chairs at the Jews and Israeli Border Police fired stun grenades to force the attackers to retreat, Jordan's Minister of Religious Affairs Abdul-Salam al-Abadi said police actions and the visit of Jewish visitors "represent a flagrant and an unacceptable challenge. They are part of repeated attempts by Zionist settlers to break into and sabotage Al Aksa Mosque to implement their vicious and criminal plans." www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18343 ----- RABBIS APPROVE TRANSFER OF GAZA'S GRAVES Mati Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 9, 2005 - It is halachicly permissible to transfer the 48 graves from Gaza's Jewish cemetery for reburial outside the Strip to prevent their desecration by Palestinians after the summer's pullout, Chief Rabbis Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar said in a letter sent to the Prime Minister's Office Wednesday night. The decision did not come as a surprise. The rabbis sidestepped the thornier issue of advocating or opposing disengagement. The Gaza graves are to be reinterred in plots on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, overlooking the Temple Mount. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1118283816120&p=1078027574097 ----- MR. SHARON ISN'T FIDDLING AS ISRAEL BURNS - HE HAS A FULL OCHESTRA Aaron Lerner - 16 June 2005 - If Nero figuratively fiddled while Rome was burning, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has a full symphony orchestra playing with him as he sucks the Jewish State into an incredibly bizarre self inflicted disaster. A disaster Mr. Sharon has imposed on Israel in the desperate hope that this will keep the criminal justice system at bay. No. This isn't some half-baked conspiracy theory from right wing radicals. Two senior Israeli reporters, Raviv Drucker of Israel's Channel Ten TV and Ofer Shelach of Yediot Aharonot - hardly right wingers - teamed together to investigate what was really behind Sharon's retreat plan. And their startling conclusion after speaking with people on the inside: Sharon's desperate desire to avoid indictment for various illegal transactions. The irony? As Channel Two correspondent Amnon Abromovitz put it, Mr. Sharon enjoys the protection of retreat supporters - protected "like an Etrog", the citrus fruit used in ceremonies during Succoth. The Etrog is very valuable through the holiday, but the phrase "like an Etrog after Succoth" aptly describes Mr. Sharon's status after the retreat from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria is completed and retreat supporters reach the conclusion that he won't retreat any more in the foreseeable future. Simply put: Mr. Sharon is retreating from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria - uprooting many thousands of Jews from their homes - to only temporarily postpone his being hit with criminal charges. IMRA - Website: www.imra.org.il ----- PM SHARON: "THERE IS A SOLUTION FOR EVERY EVACUEE." (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser) Wednesday, 08 June, 2005 Following are Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's remarks at the start of the meeting of the Ministerial Committee on the Implementation of the Disengagement Plan this morning (Wednesday), 8.6.05: "Recently, there has been an unbridled attack against the Government over the non-implementation of its preparations ahead of the evacuation. Without a doubt this has been done by political elements, by groups that are working against the disengagement. These discussions are held frequently and I have invited the media this morning in order to refute the disinformation being disseminated on these issues by bodies that want to prevent the disengagement. The Government is energetically preparing to provide solutions for each evacuee. I emphasize that each evacuee has a solution and we will present them during the discussion. I want to stress that the law on implementing the Disengagement Plan provides a full solution for every settler. I decided to make it easier on the evacuees to take additional steps that are mainly designed to enable the moving of entire communities since it is their desire to live in the communities that they have been living in up until now. This point has been seen by them as important up until now and, therefore, we recently held consultations and set a registration date for evacuees who want temporary housing. We did so well aware of the last date for registration. We cannot build everywhere in the country and the intention is for temporary housing without the evacuees having to commit themselves to living in these places. We did this for those who are due to live in Nitzan and 426 families have registered there. The problem was that it takes time to do the infrastructure work before setting up the temporary structures and therefore we determined a date. It must be understood that the people from the Gaza Strip are being pressured by all kinds of bodies, both external and internal, and the registration has, therefore, been proceeding slowly. We therefore determined a date so that it would be possible to do all the work. The work at Nitzan is going ahead at full force despite various acts of sabotage. IMRA - Website: www.imra.org.il -----  NEWSLETTERS  NEWS INDEX  MAIN INDEX