HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

As the New Year Unfolds, May you be blessed with the joy of new beginnings and prosperity to live life with the fullest. Serene moments to bring peace and happiness. May each day bring for you new joys and new hopes. Happy New Year 2010

THANK YOU FOR READING MY BLOG

Adi

Palestinian alone again

Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority finds it hard to believe that it’s happening: It is starting to be portrayed as a peace refusenik in the world. About a year ago, they were certain that good fortunes are ahead and that an ideal American president will make all their wishes come true. Yet within a year, the tables have turned, and instead of the PA painting Netanyahu as a refusenik, the world is increasingly starting to realize that the Palestinians are in fact the refuseniks.

Two moves by Netanyahu managed to change the picture: First, his willingness to endorse a Palestinian state, without a return of the refugees and without Jerusalem; a move that had the Palestinians would have grabbed with both hands a while ago had they been serious about it.

Then there is the temporary settlement freeze, which posed another problem for Abbas. Israel made a move, so why are you refusing to negotiate with it? He is being asked by world leaders. The burden of proof has shifted to him, at a time when he has not made any concession vis-à-vis Israel. The opposite is true – his PA continues to incite against Israel.

While Israel is ready for negotiations, here and now, the Palestinians are presenting preconditions and are losing the West’s support. Preconditions for talks with Israel? As if we never had Olso, mutual recognition, and signed agreements. When it comes to Palestinian rights, the joint agreements are alive and well, yet when it comes to recognizing Israel, they suddenly dissipate.

In addition, the Palestinian leadership only recent got hit with a slap in the face in the wake of the “unilateral statehood” notion it came up with. The United States made it clear in the most unenthusiastic and determined way that there is no chance it will support such move.

Worse than that for the Palestinians: Even the European Union made it explicitly clear that it will not endorse such unilateral move or state. Such move contradicts the European worldview, which is based on negotiations and mutual recognition.

Palestinians fail to understand
Yet what about the hatred to Israel? Muttered the Palestinians, who failed to realize that hatred for Israel does not equal sympathy for the Palestinians. They confused anti-Israel sentiments with Pro-Palestinian sentiments. They failed to understand that many in the world hate Israel, but are using the Palestinians as the fig leaf for this hatred.

The Palestinians were also stunned to see relations upgraded between Israel and Europe, a move they attempted to curb. Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki (formerly a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) even condemned this.

The Palestinians fail to understand: How could Europe be moving closer to Israel? They listened for too long to the hate broadcasts of most Arab channels, which emphasize only the negative aspects about Israel; just like anyone relying on these reports, they cannot understand the real picture.

Even more disappointing for the Palestinians was the absence of Arab support for the unilateral Palestinian move. Some reminded them sarcastically that they already endorsed the Palestinian state declared in 1988…

And so, the Palestinians have remained alone, again. Seemingly, everyone supports them and competes to back them more loudly, yet at the moment of truth, as always, they are left alone.

The Palestinians, who wanted to isolate the US and Israel with their unilateral move, ended up isolating themselves, portraying themselves as peace refuseniks objecting to real ties with Israel and as though they wish to force their views on the world. The Obama Administration is increasingly having reservations about them; they largely lost him.

The unilateral move exacted a heavy price on Abbas and his associates, and at this time they have no idea about how to respond to Netanyahu, who is waiting to talk to them

Egypt working on Gaza border to stem smuggling

Egypt has been digging trenches and installing metal sheets underground along its border with Gaza in an apparent attempt to curb smuggling into the Palestinian territory through tunnels, Gaza border guards and area residents said Thursday.

The project appears to be one of a series of measures Egypt has taken, some of them in cooperation with the U.S., to crack down on smuggling since the end of Israel's war on Hamas-ruled Gaza last winter. The tunnels are a key route for funneling weapons and explosives to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and were a main target of Israel's offensive.

Residents along the border said they have seen Egyptian construction crews clearing a corridor along the frontier, then drilling holes about 20 meters (yards) deep for the past weeks. They said the workers then filled the trenches with sand. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

A Hamas border guard and a Gaza official said the Egyptians have been digging for the past 17 days in the area where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza meet. They said they dig during the day, and put metal into the ground at night. Egyptian security officials confirmed a project was under way to curb smuggling.

A senior Egyptian security official would not confirm nor deny the reports and government officials did not return calls seeking comment. Egypt has been harshly criticized by Arab and Muslim groups for cooperating with Israel in blockading the 1.4 million residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip for more than two years.

"We in Hamas can't believe that Egypt would put barriers between us," Hamas lawmaker Yehiye Moussa told The Associated Press. "This is hard to believe," he added. "We know that Egypt is under American and international pressure, but we hope that this is not true. We demand that Egypt open its border."

Egyptian security officials and Israeli officials said the project along the border was in cooperation with the U.S. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

But an American embassy official in Cairo denied the U.S. involvement in any wall or barrier project on the border.

"We are aware of and appreciate the efforts being made by the government of Egypt to combat smuggling efforts on the Gaza-Egypt border. Any questions on specific projects on that border should be directed to the government of Egypt which has sole responsibility for securing the Egyptian side of the border," the official said on condition of anonymity because of U.S. government restrictions.

Israel's three-week Gaza offensive, aimed at halting rocket fire from the territory, ended in January. At the conclusion of the war, Israel and the U.S. administration signed an agreement that said the U.S. would provide military and intelligence assets, including detection and surveillance equipment, as well as logistical help and training to Israel, Egypt and other nations in the region.

There were some signs that Egypt, Israel and the United States stepped up security cooperation to combat cross-border smuggling. In February, U.S. Army engineers have arrived at the frontier to set up ground-penetrating radar to detect smuggling tunnels.

Israel has long criticized Egypt for not doing enough to halt smuggling of weapons, people and money into Gaza. Recently, Egypt has increased funds specifically for improving security in the Sinai Peninsula, where the border is located.

Egypt has been wary of closely cooperating to shut the tunnels, which are also used for smuggling everything from food to medicine and construction material. Without tunnel smuggling, Gaza's already shaky economy_ facing a crippling blockade since Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007, would likely collapse. That is likely to increase pressure on Egypt and Israel to ease the blockade.

Gazans infuriated and frustrated by the blockade blasted holes in a concrete and metal border wall in 2008 and tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed across the border into Egypt unchecked for about a week. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Egyptian sources Wednesday as saying the construction of a massive iron underground wall has begun. It will be about 10 kilometers long (miles), and 20 to 30 meters (yards) deep.

A resident of Rafah, the city divided in half by the Egypt-Gaza border, said Egyptian crews near his home were clearing a dirt corridor about 90 meters (yards) from the border over the past 20 days and uprooting trees.

The man who identified himself only by his first name, Ashraf, for fear of harassment, said they were drilling holes about 20 meters, and filling them with sand.

The Gaza security official said he has seen drilling machines operating on the other side of the border, equipped with an attachment to hoist metal. He said the workers are installing metal into the trenches at night.

AP

The Dark Secrets of Vatican

Let me state sincerely that I have no desire to attack the millions of Catholics followers but they deserve to know the dark secrets of Vatican. This church has an astonishing chronicle of secrets, blackmail, betrayal, corruption and even brutal torture. This extraordinary and controversial topic is packed with intrigue; it begins where others have ended. For the most part we learn both political and religious history by way of national or clerical propaganda, and this often becomes absolute dogma, teachings which may not be challenged for fear of reprisals.

His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, note the date, 12th March 2000, beg forgiveness for the crusades (Holy War), the Inquisitions (offence against the canon law), the persecution of the Jewish people, injustice towards women, that form part of the world’s half human race. Five million Women killed and burnt since the set up of the Church on witchcraft charges. How can we forget the force conversion of indigenous people especially South Americans, the African slave trade, the admission continues with forgiveness that Galileo was right about the Earth and the silence during the final solution or Shoa (Holocaust) and it does not end here but there is smaller but significant vows and bad conscience to have include rape and torture of orphans and children in church or school in almost every country on Earth from Ireland to Australia.

These are very serious matters not to be laughed down by references to the occasional work of Catholic Church or charities but I draw your attention not to just apologies, but to the vague form they take.

The current Pope Benoit XVI considered by some Catholics as a victory of Christ on Earth. In one of his few comments he made, on the institutionalisation of rape, malnutrition and torture of children in Catholics institution, he said, it is a very severe crisis which involves us in the following

“In need to the applying to these victims the most loving pastoral care”
Well, I am sorry, they will always have that. And to say this is the responsibility laid upon you. By horrific admission that you had to make is not accepting the responsibility in any adult sense.

Moreover, Anti-Semitism (that is being anti-Jewish) was preached as an official doctrine of the church until 1964. Do you think I had something to do with public opinion in Austria, Bavaria and Poland? There will come a time when the church will issue an apology and explanation and half bakes appeal for forgiveness for things it’s still doing.

Upon the fall of the Ustasha government in Croatia, 1945, assets valued between 50 and 180 million dollars were transferred from the capital, Zagreb. The majority of these funds, estimated at more than 80 million dollars, were transferred to Vatican City with the assistance of Roman Catholic cardinals and refuge were given to war criminals who killed millions of innocent people and Vatican even relocated them secretly in Spain, Argentina and United States. Let me quote what Dr Joseph McCabe, A renowned 20th Century Historian, said in his book “History of the Popes”- "centuries of trafficking in clerical appointments, deceit, scandals, immorality, aggression, frauds, murder and cruelty, and the true disposition of the popes is knowingly falsely presented by the Church today".

I think that there will be an apology for what happened in Rwanda, the most Catholic Country in Africa where priests and nuns and Bishops are on trial for inciting from their pupils, radio stations and newspapers the massacre of their brothers and sisters. One million people killed in this genocide.

Standing in Africa, it would one day be admitted with shame that it might be in error that to say “Aids is bad as a disease, very bad but not quite bad as condoms are bad not as immoral as in the some way.” I say it without fear that the preaching of the church is responsible for the deaths and sufferings and miseries of millions of people in Africa.

Someone could not be a member of a church because he is born in sin. He is not condemned for what he does but for what he is. Your child admitted in image of God “Oh No you are not, you are a fagot” and you cannot join our church and you cannot go to Heaven. Is it graceful not but inhuman, it’s obscene and it comes from a clutch of hysterical Sinister Virgins who already betrayed their charge in the children of their own church.

We all have the quest of reality, the search of truth, or the restless striving of the human soul for the satisfaction of its needs for the deeper self- realisation. Today we are aware of truth of crusades, inquisitions, injustice towards women, the persecution of the Jewish People and the force conversion. I can confirm you; there are deeper secrets that will be revealed at the right time. It is your duty and responsibility to look for the real teachings that have been forgotten.

I would like to quote from the famous coded word of the Painter Nicolas Poussin in his picture of The Sheppard “Et in acardia Ego” meaning, “oh Lord, leaving this world, I carry on your secrets”

Tzipi in Paris

Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni met Thursday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. The two discussed the Iranian nuclear threat and the need to reignite the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Livni reportedly expressed her appreciation for the role the French president has assumed in the Mideast process, as well as his position regarding possible sanctions on Iran. "Israel does not have a coalition and an opposition when in comes to the Iranian threat," she said. As for the Israel-PA talks, she added that "The negotiations with the Palestinian are not a favor Israel is doing to the PA or the rest of the world. It is a pivotal Israeli interest and time is of the essence and is running out." Sources in Livni's entourage said she also expressed her objection to the European Union's impending decision on Jerusalem, saying deciding on such a sensitive matter in advance would be a mistake.

Iran whistleblower died from drug-laced salad

A 26-year-old doctor who exposed the torture of jailed protesters in Iran died of poisoning from a delivery salad laced with an overdose of blood pressure medication, prosecutors say. The findings fueled opposition fears that he was killed because of what he knew. Investigators are still trying to determine whether his death last month was a suicide or murder, Tehran's public prosecutor Abbas Dowlatabadi said, according to the state news agency IRNA.

The revelations of torture against prisoners in Iran's postelection turmoil angered even government supporters and deeply embarrassed the country's clerical leadership and security forces. Much of the abuse took place at Kahrizak, a prison on Tehran's outskirts where hundreds of opposition protesters were taken. Several there died, and the facility became so notorious that Iran's supreme leader was forced to close it down.

Ramin Pourandarjani, a doctor at Kahrizak, later testified to a parliamentary committee and reportedly told them that a young protester he treated died from severe torture. He said he was also forced by security officials to list the cause of death as meningitis, according to opposition Web sites.Pourandarjani died on Nov. 10 in mysterious circumstances, with authorities initially saying he was in a car accident, had a heart attack or committed suicide.

Forensic tests showed that the doctor died of "poisoning by drugs" that matched doses of propranolol found in a salad that was delivered to him, Dowlatabadi said Tuesday. "A large number of these pills must be used for a person to pass away from them," he said. Propranolol is used to treat high blood pressure, rapid heart rate and tremors, and can be lethal in high doses.

The restaurant delivery man told investigators that he gave the salad directly to Pourandarjani and described how the doctor took it from him at the door of his room, then closed the door behind him, Dowlatabadi said. The delivery man is not under arrest, he said.

Last week, Iran's top police commander, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, insisted the death was a suicide. He said the doctor faced criminal charges over failure to fulfill his duties to treat the detainees and killed himself in despair in a courthouse lounge. The police chief said a note was found with the body.

But the police chief, speaking more than a week after the death, only highlighted the mysteries. His comments were the first and only public word that Pourandarjani had faced any charges — or that he had died in a courthouse. The IRNA report on the prosecutor's announcement did not say where the doctor was when the salad was delivered to him. One pro-reform lawmaker dismissed the claims and suggested a link to the prison torture. "It is impossible to accuse him of suicide," said Masood Pezeshkian, the pro-opposition Web site Roozonline reported Wednesday. "The idea of suicide by someone who had no problems and no serious disease — and was present during the events at Kahrizak — seems questionable to us."

The doctor's father, Reza-Qoli Pourandarjani, told The Associated Press last month that he didn't believe any of the causes of death given so far by the government. But he didn't go as far as accusing anyone of killing his son.

"Just the night before his death, my child talked to me on the phone, it was around 8 or 9 p.m. He sounded great, very dignified, displaying no sign of someone about to commit suicide," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Tabriz in northwestern Iran.

"He was even full of hope" and making plans with friends, the father said. The next day, the elder Pourandarjani received a call from a Tehran security official informing him that his son was in a car accident with a broken leg and needed his consent to have surgery. When he traveled to Tehran, "we found out that that wasn't the case," the father said.

Several opposition Web sites raised concerns that Pourandarjani was killed because he knew details on a number of torture victims at Kahrizak, including 24-year-old Mohsen Rouhalamini, the son of a prominent conservative figure. Rouhalamini's death in late July was the main factor raising anger among government supporters over the abuse.

In his testimony, the doctor told the committee investigating abuse that Rouhalamini was brought to him at Kahrizak "in a dreadful state after being subjected to extreme physical torture. He was in a critical state," the opposition Web site Mowjcamp said, citing parliament officials.

Pourandarjani said that after the youth's death, "officials in Kahrizak threatened that if I disclosed the causes of the wounds of the injured at Kahrizak, I would not be able to live," the site reported.

Hundreds of protesters and opposition activists were arrested in the crackdown on protests following the disputed June 12 presidential election, in which the opposition says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory was fraudulent. The opposition says at least 69 people were killed while the government has confirmed around 30 deaths.

More than 100 protesters, activists and pro-reform opposition have been on trial, accused of fueling the protests and being part of a plot to overthrow the government.

World Aids Day

1st December has been called for the celebration of World Aids Day. Remember to always protect yourself by using a condom and do not engage in risky behaviours.

57% of Swiss approved ban on Mosque Minarets

Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.

Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland's international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors, who bank, travel and shop there.

"The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights," said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was "grief and deep disappointment."

About 300 people turned out for a spontaneous demonstration on the square outside parliament, holding up signs saying, "That is not my Switzerland," placing candles in front of a model of a minaret and making another minaret shape out of the candles themselves.

"We're sorry," said another sign. A young woman pinned to her jacket a piece of paper saying, "Swiss passport for sale."

The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People's Party labelled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiative was approved 57.5 to 42.5 percent by some 2.67 million voters. Only four of the 26 cantons or states opposed the initiative, granting the double approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.

Muslims comprise about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. Many are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and about one in 10 actively practices their religion, the government says.

The country's four standing minarets, which won't be affected by the ban, do not traditionally broadcast the call to prayer outside their own buildings.

The sponsors of the initiative provoked complaints of bias from local officials and human-rights group with campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman. Backers said the growing Muslim population was straining the country "because Muslims don't just practice religion."

"The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls," the sponsors said. They said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared mosques to Islam's military barracks and called "the minarets our bayonets." Erdogan made the comment in citing an Islamic poem many years before he became prime minister.

Anxieties about growing Muslim minorities have rippled across Europe in recent years, leading to legal changes in some countries. There have been French moves to ban the full-length body covering known as the burqa. Some German states have introduced bans on head scarves for Muslim women teaching in public schools. Mosques and minaret construction projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have been met by protests.

But the Swiss ban in minarets, sponsored by the country's largest political party, was one of the most extreme reactions.

"It's a sad day for freedom of religion," said Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a British youth organization. "A constitutional amendment that's targeted towards one religious community is discriminatory and abhorrent."

He said he was concerned the decision could have reverberations in other European countries.

Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss Supreme Court or the European Court of Human Rights.

The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government had spoken out strongly against the initiative but the government said it accepted the vote and would impose an immediate ban on minaret construction.

It said that "Muslims in Switzerland are able to practice their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before." It took the unusual step of issuing its press release in Arabic as well as German, French, Italian and English.

Sunday's results stood in stark contrast to opinion polls, last taken 10 days ago, that showed 37 percent supporting the proposal. Experts said before the vote that they feared Swiss had pretended during the polling that they opposed the ban because they didn't want to appear intolerant.

"The sponsors of the ban have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way," said Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich. "Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore."

The People's Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previous years against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.

Geneva's main mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.

The Mayan and 2012

One of the most significant years in numerology is the year 2012 A.D. That is because that is the date that the Mayans predicted that the world would end.

Even people who do not know a lot about Mayan astrology have heard this theory that the year 2012 will bring the apocalypse. It is supposed to end on August 13th at 11:11 am. This is a date that has always significant to theorists, physicist, astrologers, historians and numerologists as the year signifies the end of the thirteen cycle that make up what is known as the Mayan Long Count Calendar.

The Mayan Calendar contains both components of astrology and numerology. The people that belonged to this ancient civilization of South America were adept pampers and trackers of the heavens. The massive temples that were built by this early civilization were not just tombs or places to worship the Gods. They were also built to be giant observatories of the heavens.

These temples were architecturally designed so that the movements of the planets, the sun, the moon and the stars could be tracked. The majestic structures that the ancient Mayans built war not just places of worship. They were centres of astronomic studies that also did dual duty as temples of worship. Some temples even had cut out's in their stones in the shapes of snakes. As the sun would raise these cut out shapes would cast lengthening shadows in the shape of snakes down the temple steps. From a distance it would seem that a real snake was slithering down the steps. When the snake shadow lengthened so that it reached the bottom of the steps it marked a day. One whole day in the Mayan calendar was called a Kin.

Many ancient civilizations in Africa and the Far East developed calendars based on a 20 unit mathematical system and coincidentally so did the Mayan civilization. In essence the Long Count system nested cycles of days based on the number 20. Every unit of time in the calendar was based somehow out of that unit of 20. Day

Twenty days was called a Uinal. 7200 days was called a Katun and 144,000 days was called a Katun. The Mayan year consisted of 360 days and was called a Tun. This calendar was a little shorter than ours in terms of year length because it was only 360 days. Those 360 days were in turn divided into units of twenty days.

The reason that ancient Mayan year was a little bit shorter than our current calendar of 365 years is that it was based on the astral cycles of Venus. The ancient Mayans knew that whenever this shining celestial body was close to the earth that it seemed to bring good times. Of course today we would note this knowing that the planet Venus is associated in astrology with love and blessings. The planet Venus also has cycles that are the equivalent in length to the number twenty.

This Long Count system of measuring time was first put into practice by the Mayans around 32 B.C. The reason that it was called The Long Count is because the Mayans, who were quite dark spiritually, believed that the end of the world must happen. In fact it was something to look forward because life was believed to
be easier after that. In essence the Mayan Long Count is the countdown to the eventual
and unavoidable apocalypse that would bring the end of the world. The high priests and shamans in the Mayan culture figured out that the Long Count which is supposed to equal 5125.36 days.

This number of days is also known as the Mayan Great Cycle. This passage of time ends exactly on the winter solstice. Amazingly the Mayan mathematicians were able to pinpoint the exact day and time that the world will end in the future and that is on August 13th 2012. Just as a matter of interest they also believed that the
world was conceived n August 13th.

There is actual astrological and astronomical data to back up the theory of the Mayan Long Count and there are things happening in the sky that day that could potential bring the end of the world! Astrologically this date is important as this marks the date when the Sun is going to cross what is astronomically known as the Milky Way Equator. The Mayans were absolutely incredible mathematicians and they could predict centuries into the future when it came to predicting the trajectory of the Sun.

Further here is a lot of imagery representing the Milky Way in works of art done by the Mayans. The sea of stars of the Milky Way is essential to the Mayan myth of the Sacred Tree.

In fact in many of these drawings the sun is symbolized as a canoe that carries Mayan deities across the sky. In many drawings on temple walls there is a progressive series of images it shows the end of the world as symbolized by the canoe sinking into the Milky
Way. Astrologically the crossing of the sun over the Milky Way equator scheduled to happen at exactly 11:11 a.m GMT on August 13th in the year 2012.

This type of astrological event is unheard of as the sun will technically be in what is known as the "dark rift" of the Milky Way and oddly also be in conjunction with the exact centre of the universe.

Many visionaries and metaphysicians have noted how important this date is to the end of the world. One famous analysis called "The Mayan Prophecies" (authored, Adrian Gilbert and Maurice Cotterill ) have put forth the theory that the sun will reverse its magnetic field that day. This would be a development that would result in weather changes and seismic shifts that could cause the end of the world.

Of course the end of the world has been predicted many times in history and it is more likely that the Long Count will signify the end of one era and a new beginning of consciousness. However it is quite odd that the number 11:11 which is apocalyptic in other religions and cultures is the same in this world.

Morocco boycotts gov't, but not Livni

Labor and Likud MKs slammed opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Sunday for attending an international economic conference in Morocco, despite a decision by Morocco to cancel its invitation to the representative of the Israeli government, Deputy Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Orit Noked.

The Moroccan government canceled Noked's visa at the last minute last week to protest the Jerusalem planning committee's approval for 900 apartments in the Gilo neighborhood. Noked said she was upset about the cancellation, because she intended to use the trip to boost Israel's financial ties with the many Muslim countries that sent representatives to the event.

"It's really unfortunate that they canceled on me," Noked said. "I hope it will be made up in a different day, because I want to do whatever I can to encourage economic cooperation with the Arab world."

Despite the boycott of the Israeli government, Livni decided to attend the event, just two days after supporting the government on the Gilo issue in a speech on Wednesday at the Knesset. Her associates said she defended the proposed construction in Gilo at the conference.

"It is lucky that Israel still has leaders that the world is ready to accept even when they represent the views of the government," a Livni associate said. "Livni will continue defending Israel's interests everywhere the short arm of the government is prevented from reaching. "This visit proves that Israel is more than just its government."

Livni was treated like a head of state in Morocco. She was given 20 bodyguards, including the country's only female one, and they closed streets for her motorcade.

Labor sources said Livni should have boycotted the conference in response to Morocco's boycott of the government. They said it was hypocritical of Livni to defy the boycott that came due to the building in Gilo that she said she supported. The head of the Likud's response team, MK Ophir Akunis, said Livni had surpassed even his low expectations of her and had strayed far from the clean politics she preaches.

"This is yet another example of the double standard of Kadima and its zigzag policies," Akunis said. "Ms. Livni should have told the [Moroccans] who invited her that the opposition and the sovereign, elected government are one and the same. That would have been the ethical thing to do. And yet the government will continue to defend her from the charges of the Goldstone Report, despite her being in the opposition."

Netanyahu: I want final accord with PA

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is interested in aiming for a final-status agreement, and not an interim one as some of his ministers are proposing, if and when negotiations with the Palestinian Authority resume.

In various internal discussions this week, Netanyahu said that were there "courageous leadership" on the Palestinian side, a resumption of negotiations could lead to a final peace agreement, and that this was preferable in his mind to an interim agreement based on a Palestinian state within temporary borders.

In recent days there have been various reports of ministers, and even President Shimon Peres, pressing for an interim accord that would include a Palestinian state with provisional borders. The logic behind this idea is that it would remove from the negotiating mix those core issues that have prevented an agreement in the past - such as the Palestinian refugee issue and Jerusalem - while giving the Palestinians at least something to show for negotiations until those issues could be dealt with at a later date.

Netanyahu, however, has said in private meetings that he thinks a final agreement could be reached, but that it would take courageous leadership taking courageous steps. He said this week that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has said he would step down because of the stymied diplomatic process, should not be "counted out."

Netanyahu recalled that in 1971 no one thought that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat would eventually make peace with Israel, and that it was too early to "write off" Abbas. "Sometimes conventional wisdom is wrong," he was quoted as saying.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office, meanwhile, gave no indication on Thursday that Netanyahu was on the verge of a public statement declaring a 10-month moratorium on housing starts in the settlements in an effort to lure the PA back to the negotiation table. Former MK Yossi Beilin said that such a declaration was in the works, which would be followed by an American announcement that while the moratorium was not everything they hoped for, it was enough to restart the negotiations.

The sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that Netanyahu has made clear in private discussions that he was prepared for a moratorium as long as it did not include Jerusalem and did not preclude construction of public buildings needed for normal life in the settlements. He has not yet, however, specified publicly the length of the proposed moratorium.

Proof given by IDF established the smuggling of Weapons by Iran

The IDF on Wednesday released documents and photos it said proved Iran was behind a huge shipment of weapons Israel Navy commandos intercepted last week. Israel has said the cargo ship troops seized off the coast of Cyprus was carrying 500 tons of Iranian-made weapons for Hizbullah. The ship had dozens of containers with Iranian markings on it.

On Wednesday, the IDF released what it said was the ship's manifest that showed it was handled by "Islamic Republic of Iran's Shipping Lines." It also produced labelling from the containers indicating the ship originated in Isfahan, Iran, and a customs form stamped by the Iranian armed forces.

Both Iran and Hizbullah have denied the Israeli claims. Officials at Iran's Foreign Ministry were not immediately available for comment Wednesday. An international expert who examined the documents and pictures of the weapons said the arms came from Iran, but it was not possible to determine whether the Iranian government was directly involved. Another was not prepared to pinpoint the source of the weapons.

On Tuesday, the United States accused Iran of violating a UN arms embargo by secretly sending the weapons aboard the Francop - a merchant ship flying the flag of Antigua and destined for the Syrian port of Latakia.

Israel says the confiscated arms cache - the largest it has ever seized - did not include any new types of weapons for Hizbullah. However, the arms would have given Hizbullah a month's worth of firepower in time of war. Israel has urged the world to focus on the threat from the Hizbullah's chief backer - Iran.

Among the arms the IDF says it found aboard the vessel were 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets, 3,000 anti-tank shells, 20,000 grenades and more than half-a-million rounds of small arms ammunition.

Israel also says that a close examination of the munitions themselves conclusively point to Iran as the source of the shipment.

The containers were stuffed with sacks of polyethylene pellets used to conceal the munitions, the army said. According to the markings, the polyethylene was produced by Iran's National Petrochemical Co. It included a telephone number that begins with 98 - which is Iran's international dialing code.

Also discovered were thousands of rounds of mortar bombs and artillery rockets manufactured by the Iranian defense industry, such as 107 mm "Haseb" artillery rockets that are identical to those used by Iranian-armed Iraqi insurgents.

The Israel Navy also said it found a large number of AZ111-A2 fuses, which, according to Jane's Ammunition Handbook, is Iranian ordnance developed specifically to meet its military requirements.

The Associated Press showed the documents and pictures of the weapons supplied by Israel to two independent arms experts for their assessment.

The pictures included markings in English on a 107mm rocket with "IRISL" letters stenciled on the sides of containers - which the Israelis said stands for "Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines." There were also pictures of boxes labeled "Ministry of Sepah," which Israel said signified the Iranian military, and cases of AZ111-A2 fuses the Israelis said were made in Iran.

"Sepah" is a term that sometimes refers to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. A reference to an Iranian "Ministry of Sepah" is found in a February 2008 document composed by the International Agency for Atomic Energy.

Defense expert James Lewis at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the arms Israel captured "were indeed Iranian," but it couldn't be determined whether the Iranian government had ordered the shipment.He said Iran's Revolutionary Guard could have acted on its own or that even a rogue element in Iran could have orchestrated the shipment. "The number of people who decided to do this are more than one," Lewis said.

The capture of one shipment won't change much, Iranian shipments have "been going on for years and no one has been able to stop it," Lewis said. "Iran will deny it and no one is going to get involved."

Alex Vatanka, IHS Jane's security editor, who also examined the Israeli photographs, said the significance of the Francop capture - if proven Iran was behind it - was its timing, since it comes as Iran faces stepped up pressure over its controversial nuclear program.

"What does that tell us about their threat perception, about their own security priorities?" he said. "It seems to be an indicator of a certain hardline interest in Iran being almost careless about the consequences of their actions."

Livni slams Mofaz over his diplomatic proposals

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni attacked her No. 2 in the party, Shaul Mofaz, over the weekend, accusing him of adopting policies that she had campaigned against around the world.

Mofaz, a former defense minister, announced a new diplomatic plan last week that calls for establishing a Palestinian state with temporary borders in 60 percent of the West Bank while annexing settlement blocs, and then negotiating final borders.

He also said he would be willing to negotiate a diplomatic deal with Hamas if it was elected by the Palestinians and accepted the Quartet's conditions of renouncing violence, disarming terrorists, and recognizing Israel's right to exist and all past agreements with the Jewish state.

But Livni got the impression from the Hebrew press that Mofaz's only condition was that Hamas get elected.

"Mofaz talks about the possibility of speaking to Hamas if they are elected," she told Yediot Aharonot columnist Sima Kadmon. "I would only [talk to them] if they accept the conditions of the Quartet. That is a huge difference. The Quartet's conditions were set after Hamas was elected in Gaza. We persuaded the entire world not to speak to them. Will we now withdraw that request?"

When Livni referred to Hamas getting elected in Gaza, she was referring to the Palestinian parliamentary election in January 2006 in Gaza and the West Bank and not to the June 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza by force.

Further criticizing Mofaz's plan, Livni said it was wrong to give the Palestinians a state and only then try to solve the core issues of the conflict.

A Dialog Institute poll published in Haaretz on Friday found that 57% of Israelis agreed with Mofaz that Israel should negotiate with Hamas if it accepted the Quartet's conditions. The poll found that 72% of Kadima voters and 53% of Likud supporters agreed with Mofaz.

Asked who is most fitting to be prime minister, 43% said Binyamin Netanyahu, 27% said Livni, 10% cited Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and just 5% said Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Fifteen percent said they did not know.

Netanyahu and Barak each had 50% approval for their job performance, while Lieberman garnered 38% and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, 28%.

On the question of who is at fault for the absence of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, 50% said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 15% said Netanyahu and 27% said both equally. Eight percent did not know.

If an election were held now, the Likud would win 33 seats (up from 27 in last February's vote), Kadima 29 (up from 28) and Labor only 6 (down from 13).

The team Barak appointed to reach out to the Labor rebel MKs will hold its first meeting this week. Top party activists loyal to Barak wrote critical letters to the rebels over the weekend.

"We didn't elect you to break up the party," the activists wrote. "The mandate you received belongs to the party and not to you."

States fighting terror need support

While the first day of a UN General Assembly debate on a resolution endorsing the Goldstone Commission Report and calling for it to be referred to the Security Council ended without a vote on Wednesday, Israel urged the world to remember that Israel was not the only state fighting against terror organizations.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman discussed Goldstone report with his European counterparts on Wednesday night, stressing that the battle against terror was not only an Israeli problem. "We must work together to build a fortified wall, democratic states trying to protect themselves [from terror groups] must receive support," Lieberman told European diplomats, according to Army Radio.

At the UNGA session in New York, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev slammed the General Assembly, declaring that "the report before you was conceived in hate and executed in sin. From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the Gaza fact-finding mission was a politicized body with predetermined conclusions."

With debate on the non-binding resolution set to continue Thursday and Friday, the vote could be delayed to as late as next week, as the European Union continues to try to soften the text."Most European countries have expressed dissatisfaction with quite a few clauses in the Arabs' text that is being debated now," including its language endorsing the report and referring the matter to the Security Council, an Israeli official explained.

While many Arab and Muslim countries backed the report's accusations of Israeli war crimes over its conduct during its war with Hamas in Gaza this winter, the European Union presented a more measured assessment in its own speech from the floor. Swedish Ambassador to the UN Anders Liden, speaking on behalf of 27 countries as the president of the EU, did not mention the issue of the General Assembly endorsing the report or the Security Council playing a role.

Turkey, which has frequently positioned itself at odds with Israel in recent weeks, also endorsed the EU position. Liden did, though, urge an independent investigation by both sides, a step Israel has resisted, pointing to ongoing IDF reviews of several incidents during the war.

"The EU urges the parties to lead appropriate, credible and independent investigations into possible violations of international human rights law, international humanitarian law in accordance with international standards," he said. "In this regard the EU believes that appropriate follow-up will be necessary."

Still, Israel welcomed the comments by the EU. "The EU is a moderate force, a moral compass for so many. The EU does not, like so many others at the General Assembly, have an anti-Israel [line]," Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Daniel Carmon told.

"We are always pleased to hear the EU" in such circumstances, he said. Shalev, however, was scathing in her floor speech when it came to those who wanted to endorse the Goldstone Report. "Rather than confronting terrorism, the General Assembly chose again to detach itself from reality," she charged. "Today's debate is anything but genuine and candid. Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel."

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Authority UN observer, urged the General Assembly to support a resolution and insisted Israel's "aggressions and crimes" cannot be equated "with actions committed in response by the Palestinian side." Stressing that "peace cannot be achieved without justice," Mansour said that the Palestinians "are determined to follow up this report and its recommendations in all relevant international forums, including the Security Council and the International Criminal Court, until the realization of justice."

Mansour predicted the resolution will "absolutely" be approved.
US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice boycotted the debate, Army Radio reported. Her deputy was in the hall only during Shalev's and Liden's addresses. Meanwhile, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman left Israel for New York Wednesday evening at the behest of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Gillerman will assist with Israel's public relations campaign concerning the Goldstone Commission's report.

Gillerman told Israel Radio that he agreed to the prime minister's request after being convinced that every effort must be done to ensure that Israel does not suffer adverse consequences should the report be passed on to the UN Security Council or to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Palestinian state may have to be abandoned

Chief Palestinian negotiator expresses concern over continued expansion of Jewish settlements, says goal of independent state will not be fulfilled if US does not interfere. Palestinians may have to abandon the goal of an independent state if Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements and the United States does not stop it, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

It may be time for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option," Erekat told a news conference.

Israel has rejected the idea of a de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, incorporating the Palestinians as citizens, as "demographic timebomb" that would make Jews the minority.

Citing a 2003 peace "road map", Abbas has made a cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank a precondition for resuming statehood talks with Israel.

The road map also required that Palestinians dismantle armed groups like Islamist Hamas, which opposes peace talks. That did not happen, and Hamas now controls the Gaza Strip – half the Palestinian polity – a running challenge to Abbas's mandate.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who met Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Saturday, unsuccessfully urged Abbas to negotiate with Israel and resolve the settlement issue within the framework of the talks.
Erekat said Clinton, who praised as unprecedented Netanyahu's offer to temporarily limit construction in West Bank settlements to 3,000 additional housing units, was only opening the door to more settlements in the next two years.

The alternative left for Palestinians is to "refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals", Erekat said. "It is very serious. This is the moment of truth for us."

Dictation vs. negotiations
Erekat said Netanyahu's concept of a separate Palestinian state alongside Israel with limited powers of sovereignty and his uncompromising position on the future of Jerusalem were tantamount to dictating the terms of peace negotiations.

Netanyahu, Erekat said, told Abbas "that Jerusalem will be the eternal and united capital of Israel, that refugees won't be discussed, that our state will be demilitarized, that we have to recognize the Jewish state, that it's not going to be the 1967 borders, that the skies will be under his control."

"This is dictation and not negotiations," he said.

Netanyahu and Abbas last met in New York in September in a handshake meeting arranged by US President Barack Obama.

Palestinians seek to establish their future state on all of the West Bank and Gaza, lands captured from Jordan and Egypt in a 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as its capital. "Anything short of that is a non-option for us," Erekat said.

"If the Israelis believe they want to partition the West Bank with us, this is a no-go. This is a non-starter," Erekat said, in reference to Israeli control of West Bank settlements, adjacent land, and the territory's eastern Jordan Valley border.

Clinton reaffirmed in Cairo on that Washington does not accept the legitimacy of the Israeli settlements. But she added, in another nudge to Palestinians to talk with Israel: "Getting into final status negotiations will allow us to bring an end to settlement activity."

Erekat said Palestinians "made a mistake" in the past by agreeing to negotiate with Israel without insisting on a settlement halt, and they were not about to repeat that error.

In a statement, Netanyahu said Israel's aim remained the quick resumption of peace talks. But he also deplored the split between Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction, which has widened over the president's disputed call for a Jan. 24 ballot.

"The possibility that Palestinian election might be held soon is causing a polarization of Palestinian Authority positions regarding Israel and is hindering the opening of negotiations," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying.

UNSC to discuss Goldstone Report

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Friday that the Security Council would begin to discuss the Goldstone Commission's report at the earliest opportunity. Ban's announcement came after the UN General Assembly approved on Thursday an Arab-backed resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report, paving the way for the matter to be sent to the Security Council.

Following a two-day debate, 114 countries voted for the resolution and 18 voted against, including Israel, the US, Germany, Holland, Canada, Australia and several eastern European nations. Another 44 abstained, including most EU countries, who sought unsuccessfully to soften the resolution's language prior to the vote.

The non-binding resolution on the Goldstone report, which alleges war crimes by Israel and Hamas during the IDF's offensive in Gaza last winter, aims to open doors toward prosecution in the international courts.

The UN secretary-general will be required in three months' time to present to the General Assembly the Security Council's decision concerning the report.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer, called the resolution "an important night in the history of the General Assembly and the history of fighting against impunity and seeking accountability."

The nonbinding resolution on the Goldstone document, which alleges war crimes by Israel and Hamas during the IDF's offensive in Gaza last winter, aims to open doors toward prosecution in the international courts. But as the debate dragged into its second day on Thursday, European nations threatened to abstain from a vote just as others feverishly tried to negotiate softer terms. Of particular concern was language fully endorsing the report and requiring Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take up the issue within three months or send the matter to the Security Council.

Absent from the debate was US Ambassador Susan Rice, whose deputies were present but were not among some 50 scheduled speakers.
"Our position on the Goldstone Report is well-known," a US official said. "The US is prepared to speak when and if there is an occasion to advance the debate."

The official said representatives of the US mission attended Wednesday and Thursday's debate. "It's not unusual for ambassadors to attend portions of a debate that lasts several hours or in this case, two days." But officials privately said the blustery debate was a distraction from another goal: urging Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks. US officials were expected to release a statement following the vote, explaining their position.

On Thursday, European countries were still trying to soften the text of the draft resolution. Most European nations expressed discontent with parts of the resolution, including language endorsing the report and referring the matter to the Security Council. "There's been progress, but there's also been backpedaling," a European diplomat said. European countries, concerned with "grave accusations," want accountability and have demanded that accusations be addressed by both sides.

The European Union took a similarly moderate approach in the debate.
"The EU takes note of the recommendations of the mission and emphasizes the obligations of all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law," said Swedish Ambassador to the UN Anders Liden, speaking on behalf of the 27 EU countries on Wednesday. "In this regard the EU believes that appropriate follow-up will be necessary."

The EU comments were welcomed by Israeli officials, who delivered a blistering assault on the Goldstone mandate and report in their speech on Wednesday. Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, boycotted the vote, sending Israeli Deputy Representative Danny Carmon in her place.
"Rather than confronting terrorism, the General Assembly chose again to detach itself from reality," said Shalev. "Today's debate is anything but genuine and candid.

"Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel," she said.

Carmon said the resolution "endorses and legitimizes a deeply flawed, one-sided and prejudiced report." He added the General Assembly ignores facts on the ground related to Israel's security, and cited the recent interception of an arms shipment from Iran to Hizbullah operatives.

Indeed, prior to Thursday's vote, Israel filed a letter of complaint Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, urging him to press the Security Council to take action against Iran. The discovery of 36 containers weapons on the cargo vessel Francop violates several UN resolutions, namely 1747, 1701 and 1373, Shalev charged in the letter. "The aforementioned shipment from Iran to Syria, or to any other country or entity, in particular to any terrorist entity, constitutes a severe violation of this and other resolutions," she wrote. Listing other violations, she implicated Iran's national shipping company, saying it has "repeatedly" been "found to be involved in transporting weapons and other banned items in violation of UN Security Council resolutions."

Following the Goldstone vote, which US Ambassador Susan Rice did not attend, the US mission circulated an "explanation of vote" by Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff, who voted instead. "As the United States made clear in Geneva, we believe that the Goldstone Report is deeply flawed," he said, citing an unbalanced focus on Israel, sweeping legal conclusions and overreaching recommendations, and a failure to deal adequately assign responsibility to Hamas for basing its operations in civilian-populated areas.

He stressed that the matter should be handled in Geneva alone, saying discussion in the Security Council would be "unconstructive." Stating that the US "strongly supports accountability" for human rights and humanitarian law violations, he said the best way to end human suffering is to bring comprehensive peace to the region, including a two-state solution. "As we urge the parties to restart permanent status negotiations leading to the creation of a Palestinian state, we should all be seeking to advance the cause of peace - and doing nothing to hinder it," he said.

The UN resolution was passed just two days after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling the Goldstone report "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy."

Jewish groups - from B'nai Brith to the American Jewish Committee to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations - criticized the vote. "In the event that this matter is referred to the UN Security Council," said AJC Executive Director David Harris, "we urge member states to dismiss the recommendations of the Goldstone Commission, which was grossly prejudiced against Israel from its inception."

In related news, the Anti-Defamation League said the Goldstone report has become "a cause célèbre in the Arab press," which have published anti-Israel cartoons in response to the report. Among the examples cited by the ADL is a cartoon published in Alraya in Qatar on October 17 that portrays a Jew putting the Goldstone report into a shredder?

US support for Israel strong

The American people's strong support for Israel remains constant and their support for action to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power has substantially increased, according to a new nationwide survey released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday.

The survey's findings demonstrate that Americans recognize Israel as a strong and loyal US ally, are skeptical about "peace dividends" that would be realized by Israel stopping all settlement construction and believe that a Palestinian state must not be established until the Palestinians demonstrate a commitment to end violence and accept Israel's legitimacy.

The 2009 Survey of American Attitudes on Israel, The Palestinians and Prospects for Peace in the Middle East, a national telephone survey of 1,200 American adults, was conducted September 26-October 4, 2009 by Marttila Communications of Washington, D.C. and Boston.

"This latest survey of the American people, coming at a time of a full range of challenging issues facing Israel and the region demonstrates anew the breadth and depth of American public support for Israel from a variety of perspectives," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Americans see Israel as a loyal ally to the US, as being very serious about wanting to achieve peace with the Palestinians and as deserving the sympathy of the American people in the conflict with the Palestinians."

Foxman also noted a changing dynamic regarding Iran and the nuclear issue. "The significant increase in Americans viewing Iran as a threat and supporting, if nothing else works, US or Israeli military options against Iran, reflect a new and needed sense of urgency about the issue in light of Iran's oppressive policies and the discovery of a secret Iranian nuclear plant," he said. "This is the first time a majority of Americans - 54 percent - support such an option for the US"

Some two thirds of Americans consider Israel a strong and loyal US ally, as previous surveys showed. On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 64% believe that Israel is serious about achieving peace with the Palestinians, with three-to-one respondents expressing more sympathy with Israel than the Palestinians, when asked to choose a side. Support for US involvement in the peace process rose by nine percentage points to 39% since 2007, but 48% believe the two sides must ultimately solve their own problems.

With recent US efforts to freeze Israeli settlement activity, 53% of those questioned believe that even if Israel halts all construction Arab leaders will continue to refuse Israel's right to exist. Some 61% believe that the conflict will continue for years with 51% claiming that Palestinian divisions are an obstacle to peace and 56% saying no Palestinian state should be established until Palestinians cease violence and accept Israel's legitimacy.

Concerning the question of the Iranian threat, 63% of the respondents consider Iran an immediate or short-term security threat to the Middle East compared to 50% in 2007. There has also been significant gain in those who would support either Israel or the US using military action to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, with 57% of Americans supporting an Israeli hit, up from 42% in 2007, and 54% supporting a US campaign, up from 47% in 2007.

Goldstone fallout is political, not legal

The challenge facing Israel over the Goldstone Report is political and not legal, Israel's ambassador to the UN Gabriella Shalev said on Wednesday. The report, which has unleashed worldwide criticism of Israel, accused it of violating the laws of war during Operation Cast Lead. Shalev was speaking from New York by video conference to participants in a round table discussion in Jerusalem sponsored by the Israel Democracy Institute on the challenges to Israel posed by the report and what Israel should do about them.

According to Shalev, some countries are challenging Israel's right to exist as a result of the report. "We are facing an attack on Israel, our army and our judicial system," she said, adding that Israel must not shy away from the fight or treat it as a lost cause but should participate in every forum and try to prove its case.

"We rely on our friends, the US and other enlightened countries," she said. Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog said Israel had made mistakes all along the line in its handling of the situation that developed after Operation Cast Lead.

First of all, he said, Israel should have agreed to cooperate with the Goldstone Commission and should not have treated Goldstone himself as a persona non grata. The government not only refused to cooperate with the commission, but also prohibited it from entering Israel to visit Sderot and the Gaza periphery or entering the West Bank via Israel.

Herzog added that the government should have challenged the appointments of the other three members of the commission and perhaps tried to cancel some of them. All three appointments were problematic, said Herzog, since one of them, Professor Christine Chinkin, had already accused Israel of committing war crimes while fighting was still going on in Gaza, another, Hina Jilani, was Pakistani and the third, Colonel Desmond Travers, lacked battleground experience.

Herzog also blamed Israeli leaders for making irresponsible and bombastic statements which had no operative significance but were used by the Goldstone Commission to "prove" that Israel's aim in the fighting was to punish the Palestinian civilian population for Hamas's military actions.

He said Israeli leaders continued to talk too much about establishing an investigative commission to examine the allegations that Israel violated the laws of war. Herzog warned that should an investigative commission be established, such statements, which he called thoughtless, would be exploited in the future to "prove" it was solely a tactical move to preclude the possibility of an international investigation, rather than the result of genuine desire for a serious and objective investigation.

Herzog added that he sided with those who believe the laws of war must be changed to address the issue of fighting terrorist organizations which deliberately involve civilians. The current laws of war did not address the new reality, he said. Hebrew University Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer charged that the Goldstone Report was clearly influenced by the political opinions of the commission. "Goldstone," said Kremnitzer, "believes that Hamas is fighting for independence. So he thinks that there is nothing the poor, innocent organization can do but fire rockets at Israel.
"This is obvious because Goldstone did not attribute any motive to the fact that the Hamas fought from among the Palestinian civilian population, but had no problem determining that, given the number of Palestinian civilian casualties, Israel's premeditated aim must have been to wage war against Palestinian civilians."

But Kremnitzer added that Israel did not act wisely by angering Goldstone during the investigation. "The courtroom rule is that you don't make the judge angry," said Kremnitzer. "But that is exactly what Israel did in systematically refusing requests by Goldstone throughout the investigation."

In the long run, he added, the only way Israel stood a chance of putting an end to the harsh international criticism against it was by reaching a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So long as the conflict was unresolved, no amount of Israeli propaganda or information would help, he said.

Israel has no chance in UN

President Shimon Peres called the Goldstone Commission's report "a great victory for terror," saying a "built-in majority against Israel" in the United Nations means the Jewish state has "no chance to win" support on any single issue.

In an interview with Newsweek published on Saturday, Peres said, "Never before did any terrorist organization gain such recognition, in the most unfair way," referring to the UN-commissioned report on Operation Cast Lead, which accuses both Hamas and Israel of committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

The report was endorsed earlier in October by a majority in the UN Human Rights Council. Among the countries who voted in favor of endorsement were Bahrain, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

"We have a problem in the United Nations: There is a built-in majority against Israel. Israel doesn't stand a chance to win any single issue because the Muslim and the Arab nations and the ones who follow them are a majority," Peres said.

When asked whether he would support an internal Israeli inquiry into alleged war crimes committed during the three-week IDF operation in Gaza, Netanyahu replied that such an option was being looked into "not because of the Goldstone Report, but because of our own internal needs."

Speaking the truth was "the best way to defuse this issue," the prime minister said, because "Israel was defending itself with just means against an unjust attack.

"Serious countries have to think about adapting the laws of war in the age of terrorism and guerrilla warfare. If the terrorists believe they have a license to kill by choosing to kill from behind civilian lines, that's what they'll do again and again. What exactly is Israel supposed to do?" Netanyahu said.

In response to Netanyahu's remarks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak reiterated his opinion that Israel should not appoint a commission to investigate the actions of IDF officers and soldiers during Operation Cast Lead.

Barak stressed that he fully trusted the operational investigations conducted by the IDF, adding that "there is no army in the world that investigates its actions like the IDF."

Also in the interview published over the weekend, Peres said Netanyahu could no longer be called "right-wing."

"He came from the Right, but he's no longer a rightist. He agreed to a two-state solution and to what no other prime minister ever agreed to, to freeze settlements," Peres was quoted as saying.

Peres told Newsweek he may have had "a certain influence" upon the steps that Netanyahu has taken. "I don't expect him to take everything that I say. My advice is simple: We have to make peace. We shouldn't postpone it," the president said.

Netanyahu, for his part, expressed his belief that the government represented the "consensus of the Israeli public."

He went on to blame the Palestinian Authority for preventing the resumption of peace talks by setting preconditions. "We just wasted six months because of the Palestinian effort to place preconditions on the negotiations, preconditions that weren't there for the last 16 years … it's freezing the settlements, it's committing in advance to the results of the negotiations."

The prime minister claimed that "the gist of the problem is that for 62 years the Palestinians have refused to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people

Europe and Obama's relationship

When US President Barack Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner, a tidal wave of reactions emerged from international leaders. Many western European leaders responded positively, with French President Nikolas Sarkozy stating that the award showed that “America had now returned to the hearts of the worlds’ peoples.” Meanwhile, German chancellor Angela Merkel declared that the award was an incentive to do more for world peace.

Nobel Committee Chairman, Thorbjoern Jagland, former prime minster of Norway and a Labor Party politician tried to explain that “it could be too late to respond three years from now” to Obama’s call for change. The Nobel Committee further elaborated that it was Obama’s efforts to ease Western conflict with Muslim nations and nuclear disarmament that they found particularly worthy of the prize.

There is a less noticeable reason for the Norwegian committee and Western Europe’s overall embrace of President Obama’s diplomatic dialogue with Iran. Many European leaders have a vested interest in keeping Iranian President Ahmadinejad content because of their countries’ involvement in Iran’s oil and gas industry.

The Tehran Times, Iran’s leading international English-speaking daily reported on August 29, 2009 on Iran’s major oil and gas contracts with its European partners. “Iran has been negotiating with over 30 companies from 9 European nations in recent years to carry out energy projects, despite mounting global economic sanctions and political pressures,” the article said.

Norway’s oil and gas companies, in particular, are heavily involved in Iran’s energy production. Statoil, Norway's biggest oil company is currently developing what is known as the South Pars project to tap Iran's biggest single gas deposit. In a Reuters report Statoil indicated that unless there was “significant sustained improvement in Tehran’s relations with the West," the company would not expand activities.

Obama’s engaged diplomacy with Iran has offered European energy companies new hope after years of Iranian isolation under the Bush Administration. According to the Reuters article, “major European energy firms are keen to tap the world’s second largest gas reserves but have shied away from investing huge sums under pressure from their own governments and Washington.” Statoil’s Vice President Peter Mellbye indicated in the Reuter report that the early months of the Obama presidency have shown “that there might be signs that things are changing...”

Lucrative relationship
In addition to Norway's economic ties with Iran, The Tehran Times reported that in 2008, the Swiss energy group EGL signed a 25-year gas purchase worth over $13 billion with Iran. In past years, French-based energy companies including Technip Conflext, have built petrochemical plants in the Persian Gulf worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Spain has been negotiating with the National Iran Gas company to construct refineries. Austria, Italy, Turkey, Russia and China are also involved with Iranian energy projects.

The above may suggest why Western Europe favors dialogue over military action with Iran and why European leaders favor President Obama's policies. A hard line stance against Iran's nuclear arms, one that involves international military action would place billions of dollars of European investments in Iran’s energy production at stake.

If President Obama can do more to strengthen this lucrative relationship, the continent that has the most to gain is Europe. And the Nobel peace prize, as the Norwegian Nobel committee indicated, is just one way to urge the US president forward in that direction. Indeed, Mr. Jagland himself is doing all he can to make President Ahmedinejad happy.

As the chairman of the board of directors for the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, he has refused to recognize any human rights for the young Iranian killed by the Islamic regime on the streets of Iran. Other human rights violations committed in Iran also receive little response from European countries that have no problem publicly condemning Israel for alleged war crimes.

From persecuting its Bahai minority to securing its national elections by force, the Iranian dictatorship will stop at nothing to gain power and promote its radical Islamic agenda. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs warns in its September bulletin that "Iran is a true revolutionary power whose aspirations extend into the oil-producing states."

While Western Europe continues with its economic investments in Iranian energy, and grants President Ahmadinejad the UN platform to spew hatred against Israel and the West, Iran is gaining the momentum to become the nuclear powerhouse of the Middle East. It is time that Norway and Europe place oil aside and respond to President Ahmadinejad’s actions - instead of to President Obama's calls.

US-Israel

A major US-Israeli missile-defense exercise begun this week was planned several months ago and bears no relations to current events, US and Israeli military officials said during a press conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Military representatives from both countries sought to downplay any tensions that might be fueled by the drill, pointing out that the Juniper Cobra Air Defense Exercise is held every two years, and is designed to test the active missile-defense capabilities of both armed forces. But in the shadow of increased regional tensions sparked by Iran's nuclear program, the presence of the US Navy ships in Israeli territorial water and 1,000 US European Command soldiers in Israel, together with a number of advanced American missile defense systems, will be seen by many as a sign of US readiness to assist Israel in defending its skies in the event of an Iranian attack.

The American Navy will activate its AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense System and Patriot advanced capability missiles during the drill. Israel's Arrow 2 Theater Ballistic Missile Defense System will also be tested.

Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, who commands the IAF's Air Defense Corps, and R.-Adm. John M. Richardson, director of US Naval Forces Europe and US Naval Forces Africa, praised each other's professional abilities and said they looked forward to a fruitful exercise over the coming three weeks. The officials said the drill, the largest of its kind, is divided into three stages. In the first phase, American missile ships, radar stations, planes and missile-defense systems will take their positions. In the second, a computer simulation will test responders with scenarios of missile attacks. In third phase, dummy missiles will be fired from US Navy ships and intercepted in live fire exercises.

"The crews will be jointly made up of Americans and Israelis, and the commands will work should to shoulder with one another," Gavish said. "Our level of cooperation and consistency is very deep," Richardson said. "Our picture of the scenario is very common."

Radar stations have been set up around the country, and Israel's Green Pine and Super Green Pine missile detection systems will be activated. The US-made Forward Based X-band Tactical radar, situated in the Negev, which has long-range missile detection system, will also come into play.

The X-band radar works in conjunction with the Arrow missile defense, while also transmitting data to a US joint tactical ground station.

Clinton's agenda on Iran

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the world "will not wait indefinitely" for Iran to live up to its international obligations regarding its nuclear program. Speaking in London, Clinton said that the recent meeting in Geneva that saw Iran and six world powers resume nuclear talks was "a constructive beginning, but it must be followed by action."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who Clinton met with in London, said the Islamic republic would never have a better opportunity to establish normal ties with the rest of the world, Reuters reported.

Clinton, who is on a tour of Europe, was due to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown before travelling to Ireland later Sunday. US officials said Iran is at or near the top of Clinton's agenda with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov .

Russia and China have long balked at imposing new sanctions on Iran if it fails to come clean about its suspect nuclear program, but Medvedev hinted the Russian position might be shifting after Teheran disclosed a previously secret uranium enrichment site near the city of Qom.

But US officials believe it will be a hard sell to convince the Russians on fresh penalties since Iran agreed to allow UN inspectors to visit the Qom site and has agreed, in principle, to send most of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for reprocessing.

Iran agreed to allow inspections of the Qom site following talks last week between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and diplomats from the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. The Iranians were given time to decide whether to accept a package of incentives in exchange for Iran's compliance with international demands to suspend its uranium enrichment or face new sanctions.

The Obama administration is anxious not to let up on the pressure and Clinton will be looking for Russian expressions of support for sanctions and other penalties should Iran continue to refuse by the end of the year, the officials said.

Goldstoned

News-consumers tuned to foreign channels these past two days are being treated afresh to horrific footage of bombed-out Gazan buildings, accompanied by damning quotes from the Goldstone Commission Report.

Israel is accused of having committed war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity, during Operation Cast Lead last December and January. The rocket barrages against southern Israel that prompted the IDF assault on Hamas are mostly relegated to the margins of the new-old TV coverage - just as in the Goldstone report itself.

The learned judge's concoction, based heavily on unverifiable claims from avowedly non-objective sources, some of them long-since discredited, is a feat of cynical superficiality, without appropriate distinction between terror and defense. The distorted picture justifies the Foreign Ministry's reaction of "nausea and fury."

Yet nobody here is surprised. The verdict was sealed before the probe had begun. NOTHING WAS impartial about the Goldstone panel. It was dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council to compile a case against Israel for "violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law..." Because the panel's conclusions were pre-scripted, its mission was opposed by Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the EU (America wasn't a member), and Israel refused to cooperate with it.

The council itself - the UN's most anti-Israel subsidiary even vis-a-vis other ultra-antagonistic UN forums - was established in March 2006 to replace the much-discredited UN Human Rights Commission, which spent its energies in obsessive demonization of Israel. But the new body was so akin to its predecessor that, in November 2006, then-UN secretary-general Kofi Annan was moved to deplore its "disproportionate focus on violations by Israel" whereas "graver crises," like Darfur, were overlooked.

Annan's successor Ban Ki-moon echoed the sentiment in June 2007: "The Secretary-General is disappointed at the Council's decision to single out only one specific regional item, given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world."

Among these are atrocities committed in intra-Palestinian violence, to say nothing of a decade's indiscriminate rocketing of Israeli towns. The UN's own indifference toward the latter, it must sadly be noted, helped render Israeli counterstrikes unavoidable.

Considering the UNHRC's inglorious record - not to mention the fact that the Goldstone panel was set up at the instigation of Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Malaysia and Bangladesh - there was plainly no point in Israel abetting its own vilification.

BESIDES OBVIOUSLY rewarding terror, demonizing Israel and seeking to constrain Israel's capacity to protect itself, the Goldstone Commission displays contempt for Israel's judiciary. UN human rights frameworks were founded to combat abuses by rogue states and dictatorships, where autonomous legal systems are nonexistent. Israel's courts are renowned for their activism and independence, often provoking government displeasure.

Yet the Goldstone report, while effectively giving Hamas a free pass, demands "an independent inquiry to assess whether the treatment by Israeli judicial authorities of Palestinian and Jewish Israelis expressing dissent in connection with the offensive was discriminatory."

Such wholesale bias leaves no room for fair evaluation of the IDF's own probes. The IDF judge-advocate general has initiated 24 (ongoing) investigations into some 100 allegations by assorted NGOs against soldiers who may have deviated from stringent IDF codes. Respect for enemy lives, indeed, often culminates in the endangerment, even sacrifice, of Israeli troops.

Goldstone also faults Israeli investigators for not collecting evidence in Gaza as per "domestic police investigation of a murder in Manhattan." This analogy is absurdly misguided. In warfare, different rules apply from those governing civilian law enforcement. Goldstone can hardly expect Israelis to collect evidence in hostile Gaza. The fate of kidnapped Gilad Schalit (an outrageous human rights violation, on which the Goldstone report also falls short) should elucidate why.

Israel knows that its survival depends on it continuing to act in the best interests of its own self-preservation, consistent with its own profound moral obligations. But the Goldstone phenomenon is not only a challenge to Israel. It underlines that any democracy, and most pertinently the US, can find itself prosecuted and judged by the cynical scales of the worst tyrannies.

In their ongoing handling of the Goldstone recommendations, the world's democracies must demonstrate their refusal to be cynically manipulated by the rogue states that empowered this panel. They must refuse to be Goldstoned. Today, Israel has been manoeuvred toward the dock. Who will it be tomorrow?

Goldstone shameful UNHRC resolution legitimising terror as freedom fighters

Palestine (Non-Member State of the Human Rights Council), Egypt (on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement), Nigeria (on behalf of the African Group), Pakistan (on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference), Tunisia (Non-Member State of the Human Rights Council on behalf of the Arab Group): draft resolution 12 - The human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem
A
The Human Rights Council,

Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,

Affirming the responsibility of the international community to promote human rights and ensure respect for international law,
Emphasizing the particularity of The Occupied East Jerusalem in its rich religious and cultural heritage,

Recalling all relevant United Nations resolutions including Security Council resolutions on Occupied East Jerusalem,

Deeply concerned at the Israeli actions undermining the sanctity and inviolability of religious sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem,

Deeply concerned also at the Israeli policy of closure and severe restrictions, including the permit regime, that continue to be imposed on the movement of Palestinians hindering their free access to their Christian and Muslim holy sites, including Al Aqsa Mosque,

1.Strongly condemns all policies and measures taken by Israel, the occupying power, including those limiting access of Palestinians to their properties and holy sites particularly in Occupied East Jerusalem, on the basis of national origin, religion, sex, age or any other discriminatory ground, which are in grave violation of the Palestinian People's civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights;

2.Condemns further the recent Israeli violations of human rights in Occupied East Jerusalem, particularly the confiscation of lands and properties, the demolishing of houses and private properties, the construction and expansion of settlements, the continuous construction of the separation Wall, changing the demographic and geographic character of East Jerusalem, the restrictions on the freedom of movement of the Palestinian citizens of East Jerusalem, as well as the continuous digging and excavation works in and around Al-Aqsa mosque and its vicinity;

3.Demands Israel, the occupying power, to respect the religious and cultural rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the core International Human Rights instruments, the Hague Conventions, and the Geneva Conventions, and to allow Palestinian citizens and worshippers unhindered access to their properties and religious sites therein;

4.Demands also Israel, the occupying power to immediately cease all digging and excavation works and activities beneath and around Al Aqsa Mosque and its vicinity, and refrain from any acts or operations that may endanger the structure or foundations or change the nature of holy sites both Christian and Islamic in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem;

5.Requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights, pursuant to resolution S-9/L.1 and in the context of her periodic reports, to monitor, document and report on the state of implementation by Israel, the occupying power, of its Human Rights obligations in and around East Jerusalem;
B
The Human Rights Council,

Guided by the principles and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

Considering that the promotion of respect for the obligations arising from the Charter and other instruments and rules of international law is among the basic purposes and principles of the United Nations,

Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the inadmissibility of the acquisition of land by the use of force, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations,

Acknowledging that peace, security, development and human rights are the pillars of the United Nations system,

Affirming the applicability of international human rights law and the international humanitarian law, namely the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,

Expressing serious concern at the lack of implementation by the occupying Power, Israel, of previously adopted resolutions and recommendations of the Council relating to the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,

Recalling its resolution A/HRC/S-9/L.1 of 12 January 2009, in which the Council decided to dispatch an urgent, independent international fact-finding mission, and its call upon the occupying power, Israel, not to obstruct the process of investigation and to fully cooperate with the mission,

1.Condemns the non-cooperation by the occupying power, Israel, with the independent international fact-finding mission;

2.Welcomes the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (A/HRC/12/48);

3.Endorses the recommendations contained in the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, and calls upon all concerned parties including United Nations bodies, to ensure their implementation in accordance with their respective mandates;

4.Recommends the General Assembly to consider the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, during the main part of its 64th session;

5.Requests the United Nations Secretary General to submit to the 13th Human Rights Council's session, a report, on the status of implementation of paragraph 3.above;
C
The Human Rights Council,

Emphasizing that international human rights law and international humanitarian law are complementary and mutually reinforcing,

Recalling the obligations of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and reaffirming that each High Contracting Party to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War is under the obligation to respect and ensure the respect for the obligations arising from that Convention,

Stressing that the right to life constitutes the most fundamental of all human rights,

Recognizing that the Israeli siege imposed on the occupied Gaza Strip, including its closure of border crossings and the cutting of the supply of fuel, food and medicine, constitutes collective punishment of Palestinian civilians and leads to disastrous humanitarian and environmental consequences,

1.Welcomes the first periodic report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the implementation of the Human Rights Council resolution S-9/1(A/HRC/12/37);

2.Endorses the recommendations contained in the first periodic report of the High Commissioner, and calls upon all concerned parties including United Nations bodies to ensure their implementation in accordance with their respective mandates;

3.Requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to submit to the 13th Human Rights Council's session, a report on the status of implementation of this resolution;

4.Decides to follow up on the implementation of section A, section B and section C of the present resolution at its 13th session.