INTERNATIONAL PULSE Period: March 2006 6666666 End-Time Church / Pluralism Global Politics Israel

ISRAEL OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH BARRY CHAMIS Barry has been an inspiration to us for many years and we do not have the particulars about his recent stroke. Soon after Sharon suffered his stroke Barry went to the hospital as well. Sharon is not expected to make a recovery but is being kept alive artificially. Barry is recuperating well according to phonecalls that were made by a friend of our ministry. Praise God for His blessings. The website is up and well worth checking out.P.S. We just received an email that he is able to use his hand but still very weak and time will be necessary to heal him. For more detail about He considers Prime Minister Sharon dead even though he is still being fed through tubes. Olmert and Peres as second, have the most votes to win the election much to Barry's dismay. Go to Barry's website for more information. http://www.barrychamish.com/ ----- GOD HAS STIRRED THE POT AND TURNED UP THE HEAT Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections has intensified the Jewish-Muslim struggle for control of Jerusalem and Israel's Promised Land. The Muhammad cartoon riots have added spice. Iran, a threat to develop nuclear weapons, has pledged financial support to Hamas to wipe Israel off the map. These factors create an urgency for the Israeli-Palestinian "peace" agreement. God calls this soon-coming agreement "A COVENANT WITH DEATH; AN AGREEMENT WITH HELL" (Isaiah 28:14-21). Knowing where all this is headed; it's bitter-sweet for the Christian. As we shed tears for the world; also we have joy and peace in our souls, knowing we have that blessed hope: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm 9:17). SENIOR U.S. ENVOY MEETS WITH PALESTINIAN LEADERS TO DISCUSS HAMAS By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH - February 25, 2006 - RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - A senior U.S. envoy and Palestinian leaders on Saturday discussed ways of dealing with Hamas, including threats by the West to freeze aid to the Palestinians. It was the first high-level U.S.-Palestinian meeting since the election victory of the Islamic militants last month. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the international community not to cut off aid to the Palestinians once a Hamas government takes over sometime next month. The U.S. and the EU consider Hamas a terror organization and have said they would not fund a government led by the militants. On Friday, EU officials said they would continue supporting the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority during the transition period, but that no decision has been made on what to do once Hamas takes over. EU officials said they want to keep supporting Abbas, who was elected separately, continues to wield considerable power and is seen as a counterweight to Hamas. On Saturday, senior U.S. State Department official David Welch met in the West Bank town of Ramallah with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. Later in the day, Welch was to hold talks with Abbas. The meetings came a day after Hamas announced that its talks with Russian officials would take place in early March. Russia's invitation has angered Israel, which is seeking to isolate Hamas. Israel also condemned Turkey after Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul met in Ankara last week with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. Hamas, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state. In an interview with Israel's Channel 10 TV on Friday, Abbas - a moderate who favours negotiating a final peace deal with Israel - tried to send a reassuring message to the international community by saying it was he, and not Hamas, who would set Palestinian policy. "The president decides policy," he said, noting that past agreements with Israel, including a February 2005 cease-fire, were reached under the auspices of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he also heads. Abbas also said that Hamas was working to halt rocket attacks on Israel that have drawn retaliatory Israeli air strikes and artillery fire. The army killed seven Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a new round of violence on Thursday and Friday. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (I Thessalonians 4:16-18). [ James McCutchan - jmccutchan@aol.com ] ----- PUTIN BREAKS WESTERN SIEGE OF HAMAS Israel Furious France Agrees, EU Divided and US Seeks Russian Clarifications 11/02/2006 Palestine Media Center - PMC www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1092 The Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday invited Hamas to Moscow, thus breaking the Israeli and US-led Western diplomatic siege of the Islamic Resistance Movement, which won the Palestinian January 25 legislative elections in a landslide, creating a political crisis with Israel, a rift with the co-members of the Middle East Quartet and cracks in the anti-Hamas pro-Israeli ranks, though he warned that "it is necessary (for Hamas) to leave behind the extremist positions, to recognize Israel's right to exist and to have relations with the international community." Senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, who topped the Islamic movement's national list of "Change and Reform" in the parliamentary elections, said that leaders of the group, "would be delighted" to visit Russia if Putin tendered a formal invitation. On January 31, Putin told Russian and foreign media at the Kremlin, Moscow: "Our position concerning Hamas differs from the American and western European positions. The foreign ministry of the Russian Federation never declared that Hamas is a terrorist organization." However he said: "But this does not mean that we approve and support everything that Hamas does and all the declarations that they have made recently," adding: "It is necessary to leave behind the extremist positions, to recognize Israel's right to exist and to have relations with the international community.".. The US ambassador in Russia, William J. Burns, has requested clarification of the message Putin intends to give to the Hamas officials, State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, told reporters on Friday. Washington considered Putin's decision a "sovereign" practice. But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We have been assured that should the Russian government meet with Hamas, that they would send that -- that the meeting would be with the intent of sending that clear, strong message," that Hamas disarms, recognizes Israel, and commits to previous Palestinian - Israeli accords. "Certainly, we are not going to have any contact with a terrorist organization. But as for each state, they are going to have to make that sovereign decision," McCormack said in Washington. He rejected the notion that Putin's remarks would undermine the Quartet's unity. "As a member of the Quartet, we would certainly expect that Russia would deliver that same message," McCormack said. The top US diplomat for the Middle East, David Welch, noted that Russia had agreed to demand Hamas recognize Israel, disarm, renounce violence and keep to previous Palestinian accords with Israel. "We would expect that any meeting that occurs with any Palestinian representatives, including Hamas, would emphasize these principles," Welch told a news conference. "That should be the approach of any country -- that is, to drive home what is agreed internationally," he added. Rift in Quartet, Cracks in EU Putin's invitation to Hamas revealed cracks in the unified stance of the Quartet as shown by their statement after their meeting in London in December. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the international community to give Hamas time to change its ways before ruling it out as a partner. "We are at a very early stage of the game," Annan told reporters in New York. "Hamas won the election but they have never been in government. They need time to organize themselves," he said. Annan also told Hamas to listen to the warnings of the international community, to take upon itself the commitments of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and to abandon the path of violence and to recognize Israel. Meanwhile, Putin's invitation also led to differences among the members of the European Union, another Quartet member. France, in an apparent break with the United States, has signaled support for the Russian meeting and said such talks might advance the position of the Quartet. "We share with Russia the goal to bring Hamas to the positions which allow us to reach the goal of two states living in peace and security," French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Denis Simonneau, told reporters in Paris on Friday, but indicated at the same time that Russia had not informed European leaders of its intent to talk with Hamas. "As long as we remain within the framework of the goals and principles that we have set for ourselves, we consider that this (Russian) initiative can contribute to advancing our positions," he explained. Separately German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany is expected in Israel and the Palestinian territories on Sunday, but a German official insisted, "He is definitely not going to talk to Hamas." EU hopeful and NATO member, Turkey, has announced Ankara will deal with Hamas both as a "party" and as a government. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said he would invite Hamas in his capacity as a party leader, but when the Islamic Movement assumes power he'll invite it officially as he had invited previous Palestinian government officials. However the EU Austrian presidency has a completely different point of view. On Friday, EU president Austria in a statement criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for meeting in Syria with "Palestinian terrorist groups" and called on Iran to end such contacts, according to AFP. Austria called "upon Iran to end such links," the statement said, adding: "The (Austrian EU) Presidency also called upon Iran to join the international consensus on the need for a two state solution to the Middle East conflict." Ahmadinejad met on January 20 in Damascus with the leaders of ten Palestinian movements including the Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Iran rejected the EU "intervention" in its affairs. Austria's statement is "an intervention in internal affairs of Iran and unacceptable," IRNA quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, as saying. "What is ugly and unpleasant both rationally and logically is contact and ties with the 'Zionist' regime that has been violating rights of the Palestinian people and is a source of threat and instability in the Middle East," Asefi said. Israel: A Slap in the Face, a Stab in the Back Meanwhile the Israeli reaction to Putin's move was furious, accusing Moscow of stabbing Israel in the back and slapping Western countries in the face. Moshe Katsav, Israel's president, said the Russian move endangered the peace process in the Middle East. Israel's Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, on Friday criticized Russia's plan to invite Hamas leaders to Moscow, saying it undercut international pressure on Hamas to recognize Israel. In an interview with the New York Sun, the foreign minister warned during a visit to the United States of a "slippery slope" embarked upon by Russia, which could grant legitimacy and compromise with Hamas. "I don't know if it's a bad idea for him," a flustered Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said of Vladimir Putin. "I think it's a bad idea." "There is a tendency sometimes among some in the international community to try and understand, to reach agreements, to take a backward step," the Israeli foreign minister added. Separately, speaking on Israel Radio, Israeli cabinet minister of education, Meir Sheetrit, accused Putin of "stabbing Israel in the back." Russia "cannot fill any position regarding negotiations with the Palestinians" unless it changes its position on Hamas, Sheetrit told Israel Radio. Sheetrit, a leading member of the Kadima party, also recalled Russia's support of the Arab bloc during the Cold War, saying Putin's comments show that "Russia is returning to the mistakes of the past." Senior Israeli officials said Israel was seeking a full explanation from Russia's ambassador to the Jewish state, and from other top Russian officials. "It's not just a slap in the face to Israel. It's a slap in the face to Western countries," said one Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks with Russia were ongoing. "We are waiting for an explanation." [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- US PREPARES MILITARY BLITZ AGAINST IRAN'S NUCLEAR SITES By Philip Sherwell in Washington - The Sunday Telegraph (UK) 12 February 2006 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/12/wiran12.xml&sSheet= /portal/2006/02/12/ixportaltop.html [Map and other details www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/02/12/wiran12abig.jpg ] Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine- launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb. Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt. They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme. "This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months." The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with Britain which fears that an attack would spark violence across the Middle East, reprisals in the West and may not cripple Teheran's nuclear programme. But the steady flow of disclosures about Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted the fresh assessment of military options by Washington. The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling. The Bush administration has recently announced plans to add conventional ballistic missiles to the armoury of its nuclear Trident submarines within the next two years. If ready in time, they would also form part of the plan of attack. Teheran has dispersed its nuclear plants, burying some deep underground, and has recently increased its air defences, but Pentagon planners believe that the raids could seriously set back Iran's nuclear programme. Iran was last weekend reported to the United Nations Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency for its banned nuclear activities. Teheran reacted by announcing that it would resume full-scale uranium enrichment - producing material that could arm nuclear devices. The White House says that it wants a diplomatic solution to the stand-off, but President George W Bush has refused to rule out military action and reaffirmed last weekend that Iran's nuclear ambitions "will not be tolerated". Sen John McCain, the Republican front-runner to succeed Mr Bush in 2008, has advocated military strikes as a last resort. He said recently: "There is only only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option and that is a nuclear-armed Iran." Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat, has made the same case and Mr Bush is expected to be faced by the decision within two years. [ IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- U.S. REVISES ASSESSMENT ON IRAN'S NUKES WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has quietly revised its assessment on Iran's nuclear weapons program. Officials said the U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran became capable of enriching uranium and completing the nuclear fuel cycle. They said the new assessment envisioned Iran as ready to produce fissile material for its first weapons. "I would say that Iran does have the capability to develop nuclear weapons and the delivery means for those weapons," Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph said. "We have watched Iran proceed step by step, conversion to enrichment-related activities, in a way that demonstrates very clearly that they are moving forward to a nuclear weapons capability." Officials said this was the first time that a senior U.S. official publicly assessed that Iran has achieved nuclear weapons capability. In an earlier briefing to Congress, National Intelligence director John Negroponte said Iran failed to acquire key components required for indigenous nuclear weapons production... [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il] ----- HAMAS INSISTS ON PALESTINIANS NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT Olmert Rejects Dealing with Hamas-led Palestinian National Authority (PNA) 13/02/2006 www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1093 Palestine Media Center - PMC Ahead of the inauguration of the newly-elected Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) on February 18, the Islamic Resistance Movement insisted it would form a Palestinian national coalition government in spite of the ongoing opposition by the ruling Fatah movement and Israel's rejection to recognize a Hamas-led Palestinian National Authority (PNA) "once the Palestinian parliament is sworn in," according to the Israeli Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday. Chairman of Hamas' politburo Khaled Mishaal said on Sunday that the Islamic Resistance Movement would form a Palestinian national coalition government soon. Speaking to reporters shortly after arriving in Sudan on a three-day visit on Sunday, Mishaal said at the Khartoum International Airport: "The new Palestinian government will be a national coalition government with the participation of persons from different backgrounds." Outgoing PLC was scheduled to hold its final meeting on Monday before the newly-elected PLC is inaugurated on February 18. Hamas commands 74-seat majority in the 132-member PLC. Azzam al-Ahmad, head of Fatah parliamentary bloc in the newly-elected PLC, announced on Sunday that his movement would never join a cabinet with a strategy contradictory to Fatah's. If Hamas' stances remain unchanged, "Fatah would remain in the opposition," he told reporters. Fatah members of the PLC on Saturday elected Al-Ahmad to head their parliamentary bloc. The other candidate for heading the bloc was Mohammad Dahlan. Fatah movement wants Hamas to accept all the peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians in the past decade. Al-Ahmad however said that Hamas "had positively changed and became more pragmatic than before." Hamas has decided to name Ismail Haniyeh prime minister in the new PNA government, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Saturday, but Haniyeh said no final decision was taken yet. Sheikh Yasser Mansour, number five on the Hamas national electoral list, told The Jerusalem Post that, "there has been no official decision to name Haniyeh prime minister. These are just media reports." Another anti-occupation group, the Islamic Jihad, ruled out on Wednesday joining a new Palestinian government following Hamas's election victory or forging any long-term truce with Israel. "Islamic Jihad will not join the coming cabinet," Khaled al-Batsh, a leader of the Islamic group, told a news conference. "If the government will have an agenda of resistance, we will support it," he said. Batsh said any long-term ceasefire with Israel would be useless and Islamic Jihad "rejects it completely." Hamas Sets Conditions to End Armed Struggle However Hamas said on Sunday it would end its armed struggle if Israel withdraws from all occupied Palestinian territories. "If Israel recognizes our rights and pledges to withdraw from all occupied lands, Hamas, and the Palestinian people together with it, will decide to halt armed resistance," Khaled Mishaal said in an interview with the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, published on Monday. Khaled Mishaal, who has been directing discussions about power- sharing with the PNA, told reporters in Cairo last week that Hamas sees no possibility of negotiating a peace treaty with Israel. He suggested that a cease-fire of 10 to 15 years is a substitute worth considering now that Hamas will be in control of the PLC. "The ball is in the Israeli court," Mishaal said at a news conference after meeting Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. "Once Israel recognizes the legitimate rights of Palestinians and withdraws from our lands, there would probably be a willingness from both Palestinians and the Arabs to cooperate." "Hamas does not recognize Israel and we won't accept anybody in the world forcing us into a corner," Mishaal told journalists in Cairo. Separately, In a BBC interview, he reiterated that Hamas would be willing to agree a long-term truce with Israel if it pulled back to its borders from before its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967. "When Israel says that it will recognize Palestinian rights, and will withdraw from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and grant the right of return, stop settlements and recognize the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination, then Hamas will be ready to take a serious step," Mishaal told BBC. "Hamas will rule and continue resistance and the people will see how we can reconcile resistance and the exercise of power," he said. Olmert: Israel Won't Deal with Hamas-led PNA Meanwhile Israeli Acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said on Sunday that Israel doesn't care whether the next Palestinian Government will be formed of technocrats or Hamas members because, in both cases, Israel will not be able to remit money to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). "Once the Palestinian parliament is sworn in, the Palestinian Authority will turn into a Hamas authority," Olmer said. "Once the Palestinian parliament is sworn in, the rules of the game will change. We won't not wink at anyone - our no is a no, and if we say yes we will mean yes," Olmert told the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Similarly Israel's "Defense" Minister Shaul Mofaz said that Hamas' takeover of the PNA is a negative development and that Israel must hold fast to its policy of abstaining from holding talks with the Islamic anti-Israeli occupation group. So long as Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Mofaz said, "this complex reality requires us to back the unequivocal message of 'no' to Hamas, unless it meets all our conditions, i.e. disarms and gets rid of the section in its manifesto calling for the destruction of Israel." Moafz called on the Palestinian president to disarm Hamas. "We must insist on our policy of not holding any contacts with Hamas and insist that Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) disarm all terror organizations," Mofaz said. According to Mofaz, the identity of the PNA's new senior office bearers, including the new PNA prime minister, Speaker of the PLC and the head of the PNA's security services will determine the future face of the PNA and Abbas' future as well. [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- OUR WORLD: WEAK ON HAMAS Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 20, 2006 www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395451986&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull At its Sunday morning cabinet meeting did Israel's interim government finally lay out a strategy for contending with the fact that Hamas has taken over the Palestinian Authority? The Israeli and international media reports of the meeting could easily lead a person to think so. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. The interim government's decisions Sunday show that the government has no policy for contending with Hamas. The absence of a policy is a result of the government's lack of a basic understanding of - or its unwillingness to understand - the threat the Hamas takeover of the PA poses to Israel. In declaring that the government had decided to stop all direct transfers of funds to the PA, Sunday's headlines indicated that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his associates have launched a concerted campaign against the Hamas-led PA. But the small print told a different story completely. Over the objections of the IDF, the government is continuing to allow Palestinians to work in Israel. The government also rejected the IDF's recommendation to cut off all links to Gaza and transform the passages from Gaza to Israel into international border crossings. Far from working to cut off international funding of the Palestinians, the Olmert government continues to support international funding of non-governmental and UN organizations that operate in the PA; and apparently does so unconditionally. Finally while Olmert admitted Sunday that the PA has become a "terrorist authority," he and his ministers failed to take any actions - either diplomatically or militarily - that legally arise from this designation. OLMERT'S opponents, and specifically Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, were quick to criticize the government's decisions. They argued that in acting in such an ambiguous manner, the government ignored the threat Hamas - which is supported by Iran and works in concert with Hizbullah and al-Qaida - poses to Israel's survival. Responding to those critics Olmert defended his government's contradictory decisions by castigating his detractors as "fear-mongers." Olmert further stated: "There is no reason to terrify the State of Israel by claiming that the sky has fallen." Olmert and his colleagues justified their limited steps against Hamas by saying that they were motivated by "humanitarian" considerations. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that Israel wants to prevent a "humanitarian crisis" in the PA. Were such a crisis to unfold, Livni warned, Israel would be blamed for it.[IRMA Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: imra.org.il ] ----- ISRAEL:INFLUX OF MISSILES VIA GAZA COULD CHANGE BALANCE OF POWER www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2453782.449305556.html SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Thursday, February 16, 2006 TEL AVIV - Israel's military has warned that the Palestinian Authority or aligned groups would acquire a range of rockets and anti-aircraft missiles over the next few months. Military intelligence has determined that Palestinian forces in the Gaza Strip have or wo ld acquire such weapons as the Soviet-origin Katyusha rocket, SA-7 anti-aircraft missile and advanced variants of anti-tank missiles in 2006. The assessment said the weapons would be provided by Hizbullah and smuggled through Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip. In a lecture at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Zeevi-Farkash said Palestinian insurgents have managed to smuggle weapons from the Sinai Peninsula into the Gaza Strip. He said that despite Egyptian efforts, weapons and insurgents continue to move through the Gaza-Egypt border, Middle East Newsline reported. Military intelligence has termed AAMs and Katyushas as weapons that could change the balance of power between Israel and the Palestinians. "We estimate that in 2006 anti-aircraft missiles or Katyushas will infiltrate the Gaza Strip and change the situation," outgoing military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash said. [On Tuesday, Palestinian gunners fired missiles from the northern Gaza Strip that landed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least one missile struck the industrial zone, which contains such strategic sites as an oil terminal and water facility. Two cars were said to have been damaged.] "I am worried about three things," Zeevi-Farkash, who left his post in January, said on Feb. 9. "They are anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles and Katyushas. Today, it's easier to smuggle to the Gaza Strip through Philadelphi [border zone]. This is a huge problem." On Feb. 2, military sources reported that Islamic Jihad launched its first anti-aircraft weapon toward an AH-64A Apache attack helicopter in the northern Gaza Strip. The helicopter was not struck. "We have to obtain Egyptian cooperation or else the situation will change," Zeevi-Farkash said. [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il] ----- ROUNDTABLE INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT BY THE PRESS POOL ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE Press Secretary February 21, 2006 En route Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland 2:42 P.M. EST www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060221-1.html Q: Mr. President, Israel is halting payments to the Palestinians -- the tax monies. What do you think about that, and what is the next step? THE PRESIDENT: I'll just give you our government's position, and that is, we have said that -- well, first of all, the U.S. government doesn't give direct grants to Palestine, we go through the Palestinian Authority, we go through -- we give grants through NGOs from our USAID, to help people. But my statement still stands, that so long as Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, my view is we don't have a partner in peace, and therefore shouldn't fund a government that is not a partner in peace. I thought the elections were important. I was one voice that said the elections should go forward on time. But I recognized that, one, elections are the first step in many cases in evolution of a true democracy; and secondly, that elections show -- give everybody a true look at how -- what people are thinking on the street; and thirdly, though, that because the Palestinians spoke, doesn't necessarily mean we have to agree with the nature of -- the party elected. And the party elected has said, we're for the destruction of Israel. And our policy is, two states living side by side in peace. And therefore, it's hard to have a state living side by side in peace when your stated objective is the destruction of one of the states. So my policy still stands, what I said day one after the Hamas elections.. [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il] ----- PERES: STOP THE HAMAS FEAR CAMPAIGN ROEE NAHMIAS YNET 02/22/2006 www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/CdaNewsFlash/0,2297,L-3219696_3089,00.html The campaign of scaring ourselves from Hamas must stop," said former prime minister Shimon Peres, as he addressed high school pupils in Raanana. "We've won five wars and we'll do it again if we have to," he said, adding that the Palestinians have an elected president, Mahmoud Abbas, who won with a larger majority than Hamas, and who wants to reach peace with Israel. [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- POLL: Kadima 36-40 Labor 17-20 Likud 14-17 NRP/Nat'l Union 8-10 Aaron Lerner Date: 24 February 2006 #1 Smith Institute poll of a representative sample of adult Israelis (including Arab Israelis) for The Jerusalem Post on 23 February , published in The Jerusalem Post on 24 February #2 Telephone poll of a representative sample of 500 adult Israelis (including Arab Israelis) carried out by Teleseker for Maariv on 22 February and published in Maariv on 24 February: #3 Telephone poll of a representative sample of 534 adult Israelis (including Arab Israelis) carried out by Geocartography for Israel Radios' "Its All Talk" program on 22 February as reported on the website http://bet.iba.org.il/Doc/DOC133046.pdf [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il] ----- HALIMI'S BARBAROUS MURDER IN FRANCE SHOULD AWAKEN JEWS Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 24, 2006 www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid= 1139395477657&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Ilan Halimi's barbarous murder in France should awaken all Jews to the most significant truth of our times: Today, every Jew in the world is on the front lines of war. As was the case 70 years ago, every Jew today is a target for our enemies, who shout from every soapbox and prove at every opportunity that their goal is the annihilation of the Jewish people. From 1933-1945, the enemy was Nazi Germany. Today, the enemy is political Islam. Its call for jihad aimed at annihilating the Jews and dominating the world is answered by millions of people throughout the world. Among the lessons of the Holocaust, there is one that is almost never mentioned. That lesson is that it is possible, and indeed fairly easy to exterminate the Jews. The fact that the Holocaust happened proves that it is absolutely possible for the Jewish people to be wiped off the map - just as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamas leader Khaled Mashal promise. The story of Ilan Halimi's murder at the hands of a terrorist gang of French Muslims brings to the surface the various pathologies now converging to make the prospect of annihilating all Jews seem possible to our enemies. First, there are the murderers who took such apparent pleasure and felt such pride in the fact that for 20 days they tortured their Jewish hostage to death. This makes sense. Anti-Semitism in the Muslim dominated suburbs of Paris and other French cities is all-encompassing. As Nidra Poller related in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, "One of the most troubling aspects of this affair is the probable involvement of relatives and neighbors, beyond the immediate circle of the gang [of kidnappers], who were told about the Jewish hostage and dropped in to participate in the torture." It appears that Ilan Halimi's murderers had some connection to Hamas. Tuesday, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that police found propaganda published by the Palestinian Charity Committee or the CBSP at the home of one of the suspects. The European Jewish Press reported this week that Israel has alleged that the organization is a front group for Palestinian terrorists and that in August 2003 the US government froze the organization's US bank accounts, accusing it of links with Hamas. Halimi's family alleges that throughout the 20 days of Ilan's captivity, the French police refused to take the anti-Semitic motivations of the kidnappers into account. The investigators insisted on viewing his kidnap as a garden variety kidnap-for-ransom criminal case, which they said generally involves no threat to the life of the captive. The police maintained their refusal to investigate the anti-Semitic motivations of the kidnappers in spite of the fact that in their e-mail and telephone communications with Ilan's family, his captors repeatedly referred to his Judaism, and on at least one occasion recited verses from the Koran while Ilan was heard screaming in agony in the background.[IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- "WHY I PUBLISHED THOSE CARTOONS" WP 19 Feb.'06 - Washington Post 19 Feb.'06 By Flemming Rose,culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. EXCERPTS: ... Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad I decided to publish in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people's religious feelings, and besides, ... media censor themselves every day. ... Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages. So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression. But the cartoon story is different. Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. ... I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. ... this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously -- and we certainly didn't intend to trigger violent demonstrations ... . Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter. At the end of September, a Danish standup comedian said in an interview with Jyllands-Posten that he had no problem urinating on the Bible in front of a camera, but he dared not ...with the Koran. This was the culmination of a series of disturbing instances of self-censorship. Last September, a Danish children's writer had trouble finding an illustrator for a book about the life of Muhammad. Three people turned down the job for fear of consequences. The person who finally accepted insisted on anonymity ... a form of self-censorship. European translators of a critical book about Islam also did not want their names to appear on the book cover beside the name of the author, a Somalia-born Dutch politician who has herself been in hiding. Around the same time, the Tate gallery in London withdrew an installation by the avant-garde artist John Latham depicting the Koran, Bible and Talmud torn to pieces. The museum explained that it did not want to stir things up after the London bombings. ( ... to avoid offending Muslims, a museum in Goteborg, Sweden, had removed a painting with a sexual motif and a quotation from the Koran.) Finally, at the end of September, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with a group of imams, one of whom called on the prime minister to interfere with the press in order to get more positive coverage of Islam. So, over two weeks we witnessed a half-dozen cases of self-censorship, pitting freedom of speech against the fear of confronting issues about Islam. This was a legitimate news story to cover, and Jyllands-Posten decided to do it by adopting the well-known journalistic principle: Show, don't tell. I wrote to members of the association of Danish cartoonists asking them "to draw Muhammad as you see him." We certainly did not ask them to make fun of the prophet. Twelve out of 25 active members responded. We have a tradition of satire when dealing with the royal family and other public figures, and that was reflected in the cartoons. The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat ... other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point: We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society ... The cartoons do not in any way demonize or stereotype Muslims. In fact, they differ from one another both in the way they depict the prophet and in whom they target. One cartoon makes fun of Jyllands-Posten, portraying its cultural editors as a bunch of reactionary provocateurs. Another suggests that the children's writer who could not find an illustrator for his book went public just to get cheap publicity. A third puts the head of the anti-immigration Danish People's Party in a lineup, as if she is a suspected criminal. One cartoon -- depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban -- has drawn the harshest criticism. Angry voices claim the cartoon is saying that the prophet is a terrorist or that every Muslim is a terrorist. I read it differently: Some individuals have taken the religion of Islam hostage by committing terrorist acts in the name of the prophet. They are the ones who have given the religion a bad name. The cartoon also plays into the fairy tale about Aladdin and the orange that fell into his turban and made his fortune. This suggests that the bomb comes from the outside world and is not an inherent characteristic of the prophet. On occasion, Jyllands-Posten has refused to print satirical cartoons of Jesus, but not because it applies a double standard. In fact, the same cartoonist who drew the image of Muhammed with a bomb in his turban drew a cartoon with Jesus on the cross having dollar notes in his eyes and another with the star of David attached to a bomb fuse. There were, however, no embassy burnings or death threats when we published those. Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn't intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy. This is exactly why Karl Popper, in ... "The Open Society and Its Enemies," insisted that one should not be tolerant with the intolerant. Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, TV and radio stations. ... some people have been offended by the publication of the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten has apologized for that. But we cannot apologize for our right to publish material, even offensive material. You cannot edit a newspaper if you are paralyzed by worries about every possible insult. I am offended by things in the paper every day: transcripts of speeches by Osama bin Laden, photos from Abu Ghraib, people insisting that Israel should be erased ..., people saying the Holocaust never happened. But that does not mean that I would refrain from printing them as long as they fell within the limits of the law and of the newspaper's ethical code. That other editors would make different choices is the essence of pluralism. As a former correspondent in the Soviet Union, I am sensitive about calls for censorship on the grounds of insult. This is a popular trick of totalitarian movements: Label any critique or call for debate as an insult and punish the offenders. That is what happened to human rights activists and writers such as Andrei Sakharov, Vladimir Bukovsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Natan Sharansky, Boris Pasternak. The regime accused them of anti-Soviet propaganda, just as some Muslims are labeling 12 cartoons in a Danish newspaper anti-Islamic. The lesson from the Cold War is: If you give in to totalitarian impulses once, new demands follow. The West prevailed in the Cold War because we stood by our fundamental values and did not appease totalitarian tyrants. Since the Sept. 30 publication of the cartoons, we have had a constructive debate in Denmark and Europe about freedom of expression, freedom of religion and respect for immigrants and people's beliefs. Never before have so many Danish Muslims participated in a public dialogue -- in town hall meetings, letters to editors, opinion columns and debates on radio and TV. We have had no anti-Muslim riots, no Muslims fleeing the country and no Muslims committing violence. The radical imams who misinformed their counterparts in the Middle East about the situation for Muslims in Denmark have been marginalized. They no longer speak for the Muslim community in Denmark because moderate Muslims have had the courage to speak out against them. In January, Jyllands-Posten ran three full pages of interviews and photos of moderate Muslims saying no to being represented by the imams. They insist that their faith is compatible with a modern secular democracy. A network of moderate Muslims committed to the constitution has been established, and the anti-immigration People's Party called on its members to differentiate between radical and moderate Muslims, i.e. between Muslims propagating sharia law and Muslims accepting the rule of secular law. The Muslim face of Denmark has changed, and it is becoming clear that this is not a debate between "them" and "us," but between those committed to democracy in Denmark and those who are not. This is the sort of debate that Jyllands-Posten had hoped to generate when it chose to test the limits of self-censorship by calling on cartoonists to challenge a Muslim taboo. Did we achieve our purpose? Yes and no. Some of the spirited defenses of our freedom of expression have been inspiring. But tragic demonstrations throughout the Middle East and Asia were not what we anticipated, much less desired. ... the newspaper has received 104 registered threats, 10 people have been arrested, cartoonists have been forced into hiding because of threats against their lives and Jyllands-Posten's headquarters have been evacuated several times due to bomb threats. This is hardly a climate for easing self-censorship. ...the cartoons now have a place in two separate narratives, one in Europe and one in the Middle East. In the words of the Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the integration of Muslims into European societies has been sped up by 300 years due to the cartoons; perhaps we do not need to fight the battle for the Enlightenment all over again in Europe. The narrative in the Middle East is more complex, but that has very little to do with the cartoons. Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- OLMERT: HAMAS DOESN'T SCARE US [promises Israel will retreat within 4 years] Speaking at combat soldiers' convention, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says 'Hamas doesn't threaten our lives,' adds he hopes Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas does not quit his post Ronny Sofer YNET 02.27.06 www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3221811,00.html ----- EXCLUSIVE: DUBAI PORTS FIRM ENFORCES ARAB BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL By Michael Freund The Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2006 www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395502196&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The firm, Dubai Ports World, is seeking control over six major US ports, including those in New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It is entirely owned by the Government of Dubai via a holding company called the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCZC), which consists of the Dubai Port Authority, the Dubai Customs Department and the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area. "Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced," Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department's Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the Post in a telephone interview. "If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be a problem," he said. A-Din noted that while the head office for the anti-Israel boycott sits in Damascus, he and his fellow staff members are paid employees of the Dubai Customs Department, which is a division of the PCZC, the same Dubai government-owned entity that runs Dubai Ports World. Moreover, the Post found that the website for Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone Area, which is also part of the PCZC, advises importers that they will need to comply with the terms of the boycott. In a section entitled "Frequently Asked Questions", the site lists six documents that are required in order to clear an item through the Dubai Customs Department. One of them, called a "Certificate of Origin," "is used by customs to confirm the country of origin and needs to be seen by the office which ensures any trade boycotts are enforced," according to the website. A-Din of the Israel boycott office confirmed that his office examines certificates of origin as a means of verifying whether a product originated in the Jewish state. On at least three separate occasions last year, the Post has learned, companies were fined by the US government's Office of Anti-boycott Compliance, an arm of the Commerce Department, on charges connected to boycott-related requests they had received from the Government of Dubai. US law bars firms from complying with such requests or cooperating with attempts by Arab governments to boycott Israel. In one instance, according to a Commerce Department press release, a New York-based exporter agreed to pay a fine for having "failed to report in a timely manner its receipts of requests from Dubai" to provide certification that its products had not been made in Israel. The proposed handover of US ports to DP World has provoked a political storm in Washington, where Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed hostility to the plan, citing national security concerns. In an attempt to stave off opposition, DP World agreed over the weekend to a highly unusual 45-day second federal investigation of potential security risks. [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- CHRISTIANS AND ISRAEL: ARE CHRISTIANS ISRAEL'S SUPPORTERS OR DETRACTORS? F.L.A.M.E. Facts and Logic About the Middle East www.factsandlogic.org Israel, in little more than 50 years, has developed into an advanced and powerful nation. It has done that despite almost unending war and having absorbed and integrated over a million immigrants. The Arabs and other Moslems are not the only ones who do not wish it well; many others are hostile to the Jewish state. Who are Israel's real friends? True friends of Israel. The history of the Jews is a hard one in their relationship with the Christians, among whom they have lived for almost twenty centuries. It is punctuated by terrible pain that their hosts inflicted on them. There were the Crusades, there was the Inquisition, there were expulsions from and persecutions in many countries, and uncounted pogroms. It culminated in the Holocaust, in which one-third of the world's Jews were slaughtered. The perpetrators of this worst crime in history were Christians - Protestants and Catholics. Church authorities could have prevented and stopped this genocide. Sad to say, Pope Pius XII, who could have threatened with excommunication all participants in this crime, kept silent. In 1948, on the ashes of the Holocaust, Jews created the State of Israel. The United Nations had demanded that "Palestine," where strife between Jews and Arabs had been rampant for decades, be divided into a Jewish and an Arab state. The Jews accepted this partition; the Arabs rejected it out of hand and, with the armies of five nations, launched the first of their many wars against the nascent Jewish state. Israel prevailed in that war and in all subsequent ones. Israel's unceasing efforts to make peace were unsuccessful. It does not seem likely that peace will come in the foreseeable future. One solid friend of Israel came to the fore. Today, American Evangelicals are the staunchest supporters of Israel. This support is largely based on the faith shared with the Jews that the land of Israel was willed by God to the children of Israel. It is a primary reason for America's friendship and solidarity with Israel. The Evangelicals believe that their end-of-time scenario will be hastened by the establishment of a Jewish state in that land. Jews fully reciprocate the love that the Evangelicals feel for Israel. Christian institutions in Israel thrive and have the support and full protection of the government. Christian schools, Christian churches and other Christian institutions prosper. A large Christian pilgrimage center is to be built in cooperation with American Evangelicals. A Christian embassy in Jerusalem represents the interests of Christians in Israel and serves as messenger about Israel throughout the world. Is "divestment" the new anti-Semitism? In contrast to the Evangelicals' solid support of Israel stand certain "mainline" leftists-oriented churches. On the forefront are the mainline Presbyterians. In 2000, they launched a campaign to divest from five U.S. companies (Caterpillar, Motorola, United Technologies, ITT, and CitiGroup), which they claim are complicit in Israel's mistreatment and suppression of the Arabs under their administration. The United Church of Christ (UCC) took similar action and it seems that the Episcopalian hierarchy is also contemplating such a course. The Anglicans, the British equivalent of the Episcopalians, passed a similar resolution last year. Gratifyingly, most of the rank and file of these churches entirely disagrees with their leaders. It provokes their outrage and has also caused bipartisan condemnation in Congress. As far as the robust Israeli economy is concerned, any possible divestment by those churches would not be much more than a pinprick. But what is significant and important is that, in hypocritical self-righteousness, those church leaders have cloaked their antipathy toward the Jews in the socially more acceptable mantle of anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism. Would those elders recommend that their church divest from Spain for their "suppression of the Basques," from China for the "subjugation of the Tibetans," or from the Arab countries for their ruthless exclusion and worse of their fellow Christian citizens, the genocide of their blacks, and for the mistreatment of women? Of course not - it is Israel, the only democratic country in the entire Middle East that merits the condemnation of the leaders of those mainline churches. It makes one wonder, doesn't it! Jews and the State of Israel can rejoice in the solid friendship and the sturdy support of American Evangelical Christians. Also, the Roman Catholic Church, under the wise guidance of the saintly late John Paul II, has recognized its crimes against the Jews over the centuries and has asked for forgiveness and understanding. It is only the hypocritical leaders of certain mainline Protestant churches who, against the will and belief of their rank and file, derogate the State of Israel and promote the phony issue of divestment of companies that supposedly support its alleged mistreatment of the Arabs under its administration and the violation of their human rights. "It is only the hypocritical leaders of certain mainline Protestant churches who...derogate the State of Israel..." [ IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- DUBAI REAFFIRMS POLICY OF REFUSING ENTRY TO ISRAELIS Israel National News (INN) - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 / 1 Adar 5766 By Michael Freund, INN International Affairs Correspondent www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=99471 Despite heavy criticism in Washington over its continued enforcement of the anti-Israel Arab boycott, the Government of Dubai has reiterated its refusal to allow Israeli citizens to enter Dubai. "We don't give a permit for Israeli passport holders to enter the country," Mohammed Ali al-Mohari of the Entry Permits Section of Dubai's Interior Ministry said in a telephone interview. "It's a rule." Asked to explain the reason behind the policy, Al-Mohari laughed and said that he thinks this is the case for most Arab countries. "This is how it is in most of the Arabic lands, I am sure," he said. He added, though, that the holder of a foreign passport bearing stamps which indicated that he or she had once visited the Jewish state would not encounter any problems entering the country. Dubai's refusal to allow Israelis to set foot on its soil also features prominently on a government-run website belonging to the Gulf Arab nation. On the website of the Dubai Government's Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing, under the section titled "Visa Regulations" it states that, "Nationals of 'Israel' may not enter the U.A.E.", a reference to the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a constituent state. The reaffirmation of Dubai's policy of barring entry to Israelis came just one day after Democratic and Republican legislators in Washington blasted the country's ongoing participation in the Arab boycott of the Jewish state. Dubai's continued enforcement of the anti-Israel trade ban was first revealed in a report in Monday's Jerusalem Post. Republican Senator Ted Stevens and Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer both lambasted Dubai for its policy on Israel, as did former presidential nominee Senator John Kerry, who said, "This boycott not only violates at least the spirit of U.S. law, it is inconsistent with everything we believe in as Americans." They spoke at a hearing of the US Senate Commerce Committee, which convened Monday to discuss US President George W. Bush's controversial plan to sell 6 American ports to Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the Government of Dubai. At the hearing, Edward H. Bilkey, the chief operating officer of Dubai Ports World, was grilled by Senators after confirming that his firm's parent holding company does enforce the Arab boycott. He insisted, however, that this would not have any impact on the administration of American ports were the proposed acquisition to be completed. In response, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement calling on the Bush Administration to drop the ports deal. "That Dubai Ports World is owned by the emirate of Dubai, which actively supports the Arab economic boycott of Israel, should be grounds enough to torpedo any deal with the United States on port operations," said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. "Dubai should not benefit from America's open trade policies unless it discontinues its anti-Israel activity." [ IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- U.S. EASES POLICY ON HAMAS WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The Bush administration has significantly eased its opposition to Hamas and no longer sees the Islamic movement as an intractable obstacle to an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. Officials said the administration has agreed to an international effort to help a Palestinian government controlled by Hamas. They said the administration has set guidelines to ensure continued U.S. financial and other support to a Hamas government that accepts democratic principles and renounces violence. "We accept Islamist parties if Islamist parties accept the rules of the game," William Jordan, head of the State Department's North Africa bureau, said. "It's up to Hamas to decide whether to accept the rules of the game." Officials acknowledged that the new administration policy departed from the State Department ban on Hamas as a terrorist organization. Under federal law, the United States and its citizens are banned from supporting or engaging a group deemed terrorist.... [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- OLMERT TO SEEK INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR WEST BANK WITHDRAWAL By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent 5 March 2006 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/690026.html Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is planning to enlist international support for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank, if he wins the elections. Olmert believes that the first objective of the next government will be to create a supportive international environment for implementing Israel's national goals: setting its borders and ensuring a Jewish majority. Olmert will try to persuade the American administration and the key players in the international community that unless Hamas alters its positions, they must support a unilateral Israeli move to determine the border in the West Bank. In his view, Israel has managed to muster broad international support for the conditions it imposed on the Hamas government, and this must be kept up until after the elections. Only then will it begin to promote the unilateral initiative. Since the Hamas victory in the Palestinian legislative elections, Olmert has been referring less and less to the "road map" peace plan. Some of his advisers told him to stick with that plan, which enjoys American support and is accepted in the international community as the basis for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. But Olmert thinks he would make a fool of himself were he to continue talking about the road map, as though the political circumstances had not changed following the Palestinian polls. The United States is beginning to rethink its Middle East policy, in the wake of the blow the administration sustained in the Palestinian elections: the Americans pressured Israel and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to hold the elections as scheduled, and thus brought about Hamas' rise to power. U.S. support for a unilateral Israeli move could be construed as a necessary correction of the mistake made with the elections. The new American thinking comes across in Sunday's column by Jim Hoagland, The Washington Post's chief foreign policy commentator. According to Hoagland, in view of Hamas' victory, the Bush administration should concentrate for now on attainable goals - first and foremost, support for an Israeli withdrawal from 90 percent of the West Bank, along the lines of Ariel Sharon's disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Hoagland suggests setting "de facto frontiers for a two-state solution," based on the Clinton plan from late 2000 (which talked about Israel annexing settlement blocs in exchange for land, and about dividing Jerusalem on an ethnic basis). He calls on the Bush administration to push for a solution of this sort, in which the separation line would be close to the 1967 borders. Hoagland cites former U.S. secretary of state George Schultz, who told him it is necessary to acknowledge the Oslo and Camp David failures and correct them. According to Schultz, "the only thing the Palestinians have at this point to offer the Israelis is a willingness to participate in constructing a secure environment. But if the Palestinians won't commit to that and the Israelis can produce that outcome themselves through security barriers and other means," negotiations become pointless. "There are times when it is best not to try to get people to agree on a finality," Schultz said. According to senior political sources, in return for the next disengagement in the West Bank, Israel will ask the U.S. to recognize the withdrawal line - apparently to be based on, but not identical to, the separation fence route - as an international border. This would mean U.S. recognition for annexing the settlement blocs of Ma'aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel, based on President Bush's letter of April 2004, which acknowledged the "facts on the ground" created by the settlement blocs. Olmert thinks that besides the blocs, Israel should control the Jordan Valley and Jewish holy sites. The senior sources ventured that the American administration would refuse to give Israel guarantees on the matter of Jerusalem, considered the most sensitive topic in any permanent agreement. The defense establishment is in favor of a unilateral move that would include completing the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip and another pullout in the West Bank. [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- SAUDI ARABIA WILL HOST ISRAEL BOYCOTT EVENT By Michael Freund The Jerusalem Post, March 7, 2006 www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395549420&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull Despite a promise made to Washington last November to drop its economic boycott of Israel, Saudi Arabia plans to host a major international conference next week aimed at promoting a continued trade embargo on the Jewish state, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The Post also found that the kingdom continues to prohibit entry to products made in Israel or to foreign-made goods containing Israeli components, in violation of pledges made by senior Saudi officials to the Bush administration last year. "Next week, we will hold the ninth annual meeting for the boycott of Israel here in Jidda," Ambassador Salem el-Honi, high commissioner of the Organization for the Islamic Conference's (OIC) Islamic Office for the Boycott of Israel, said in a telephone interview. "All 57 OIC member states will attend, and we will discuss coordination among the various offices to strengthen the boycott," he said, noting that the meeting is held every March. The OIC, consisting of 57 Muslim countries, is based in Jidda, as is its boycott office. Honi, a former Saudi diplomat, has headed the boycott office for the past four years. The scheduled gathering is listed on the OIC's official Web site in a section entitled "Provisional Calendar of Meetings." Hamed Salah a-Din, of the OIC General Secretariat, confirmed in a telephone interview that the conference would take place from March 13 to 15, describing it as "our regular annual meeting about the boycott." The Saudi decision to host the parley appears to run counter to assurances that Riyadh gave the Bush administration when Saudi Arabia was seeking entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). On November 11, the WTO's ruling general council voted to grant Saudi Arabia entry into the prestigious group, which aims to promote international free trade, after it agreed to scrap restrictions on doing business with Israel. Christin Baker, the assistant US trade representative for public and media affairs, told the Post via e-mail that the US had "ensured that Saudi Arabia in its recent accession to the WTO has taken on all rights and obligations with respect to all WTO members, including Israel." "Saudi Arabia," she said, "did not invoke the non-application provisions of the WTO agreement with respect to any member," meaning that it must treat all members equally, "including Israel." Likewise, in hearings last month before the US Senate Finance Committee, US trade representative Rob Portman insisted that the Saudis "have a responsibility to treat Israel as any other member of the WTO." "We've received assurances from Saudi Arabia," Portman said in separate testimony before the US House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee. "They will abide by their WTO commitments." Nonetheless, the Post has found, Saudi customs officials continue to enforce the boycott, asserting that no Israeli-made goods be allowed into the country. "Absolutely not - if it is from Israel it is not allowed," Hamad Abdul Aziz of the Saudi Customs Department at Jidda's Islamic seaport said by phone. "I checked with my manager, and he said it is completely forbidden." Similarly, a Saudi customs official at King Abdul Aziz Airport outside Jidda also said that Israeli goods were not allowed into the kingdom. "It is prohibited," he said. "It is not allowed to bring any goods made in Israel, whether the whole item or only part of it was made there. That is the rule." In December, just weeks after being allowed into the WTO, Saudi officials were quoted in the Arab press as insisting that the boycott of Israel would continue. This has raised concerns in Washington that the Saudis are not planning to live up to their commitment. Baker revealed to the Post that "a team of anti-boycott experts from the US departments of Commerce and State has been visiting the region to discuss efforts to eliminate the boycott." She added that later this month, "a senior USTR official plans to visit Saudi Arabia and will again seek assurances that Saudi Arabia understands and remains committed to its WTO obligations." [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] ----- BEWARE: AL-QAEDA IS TARGETING ISRAEL By Michael Freund The Jerusalem Post, March 8, 2006 www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395556872&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull The writing is on the wall: Al-Qaeda is gearing up to attack the Jewish state, yet no one seems to be paying very much attention. Like a shark honing in on its prey, Osama Bin-Laden's henchmen are progressively encircling the Jewish state, creating bases of operation in areas bordering Israel. They are forging alliances with local radicals, hurling invective against the Zionists, and spreading their ideology of hate throughout the region. The latest indication of this worrisome development came in an interview given by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who told the London-based Al-Hayat on March 2 that, "We have signs about the presence of al-Qaeda in Gaza and the West Bank". Essentially, Abbas was confirming what Israeli intelligence has been saying for the past six months. Back on September 28, Major-General Aharon (Zeevi) Farkash, head of IDF Military Intelligence, told a Tel Aviv University audience that Al-Qaeda had exploited the chaos along the Egyptian-Gaza border after Israel's retreat to move operatives into the area. "Al-Qaeda is in Gaza," he said (Yediot Aharonot, Sept. 29, 2005). Indeed, as the Jerusalem Post reported last week, several members of Al-Qaeda have been identified in Gaza, and at least one was recently arrested. And last September, Mahmoud Waridat, a Palestinian from Judea and Samaria, was indicted and charged with having undergone terrorist training at a camp run by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001 (Reuters, Sept. 8). Presumably, if Al-Qaeda is going to the trouble of investing funds, manpower and resources in order to set up shop in Gaza, it is not because they are looking for inexpensive beach-front properties along the sea. With Hamas now in control of the area, Gaza will serve as a relatively safe, and convenient, launching pad for attacks against Jews. Moreover, if Osama Bin-Laden's official representative in Iraq is to be believed, Gaza is not the only place adjoining Israel where the international terrorist group is active. In an audio tape posted on an Islamist website two months ago, terror chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed that 4 Katyusha rockets fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel on December 27 were the work of al-Qaeda and had come at the instructions of none other than bin Laden himself. "The rocket firing at the ancestors of monkeys and pigs from the south of Lebanon was only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy", al-Zarqawi declared, adding that "All that was on the instructions of the sheikh of the mujahedeen, Osama bin Laden" (AFP, January 9). The incident came just a month after reports surfaced of an alliance being formed between Al-Qaeda and Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon with the aim of coordinating attacks against the Jewish state (UPI, December 7). Al-Qaeda's presence in Gaza and Lebanon is extremely significant, because it means that the terror group has a foothold in all the countries and territories bordering Israel. Don't forget that Al-Qaeda has carried out bombings in Amman, Jordan (in November 2005), and in the Egyptian-controlled Sinai (in October 2004 and July 2005) at Western and Israeli targets. And just last week, Jordanian officials announced that they had foiled a planned suicide attack by the extremist group in the kingdom (BBC, March 1). This means that the terror group has managed to penetrate these two countries neighboring Israel and establish enough of an infrastructure with which to scout out, plan, prepare and carry out attacks. Hence, as ominous as it sounds, Al-Qaeda now has the ability to target Israel from the west, the east and the north. This fits in precisely with what we know to be the group's ultimate objective: to wage war against the Jewish state. As the Washington Post reported on October 7, US officials last summer succeeded in intercepting a 13-page letter sent by Al-Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq in which he outlined the group's strategy. The letter outlined a four-stage plan, with the final and definitive goal being to confront Israel. And just this past weekend, Zawahiri reiterated his call for attacks against Israel. In a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera on Saturday, he urged Hamas "to fight on", waving his right hand in the air for emphasis. All this underlines just how much Israel is on the front-lines of the global war on terror - and how essential it is that we stand firm and confront it. The jihadists and Islamists may be focusing much of their efforts on the "Great Satan" (i.e. the United States), but it is clear that they are training their sights on the "Little Satan" too. That, at least, is what Israeli security officials believe. In a report leaked last month to the Israeli media, they said they had concluded that 2006 is the "target year" during which Al-Qaeda would attempt to carry out a "mega-attack" against the Jewish state (Ynet, Feb.23). That would certainly explain the group's moves to establish forward bases alongside Israel's borders, as well as its stepped-up rhetoric about the need to confront the Zionists. But what is patently less clear is to what extent Israel's decision-makers are taking this into account, as they ponder making future unilateral withdrawals in Judea and Samaria. As the Gaza experience clearly demonstrates, pulling out of the territories only creates a vacuum that groups such as Hamas and Al-Qaeda will gladly, and rapidly, fill. And because of the growing Al-Qaeda link, it is essential that Israel's government start to view its policies in the context of the global confrontation of terror, rather than merely through the narrow lens of internal politics. Likewise, we need to start making it abundantly clear to friends and allies in the West that they can not expect Israel to carry out further retreats when the threat posed by Islamist fundamentalism is already within striking distance of all our major towns and cities. Most importantly, though, Israel must start taking the danger of a possible Al-Qaeda attack much more seriously, and adopt an aggressive pre-emptive posture to eliminate their infrastructure in places such as Gaza. It is not too late to stop a Middle Eastern 9/11 from taking place, but if Israel doesn't act soon, and decisively, that is just where we may all end up. [The writer served as an aide in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office to former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. [IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il ] -----  NEWSLETTERS  NEWS INDEX  MAIN INDEX