End Times Reports

The most RECENT REPORTS are now posted together for ALL chip, 666, apostate, sodom, coverups, cults, etc. are now posted DAILY on our News & Views page...

Always check the News & Views link above as there is MUCH MORE INFO posted there DAILY...

Free Virtual Tour Offers Entire World Glimpse of Temple Mount

A virtual tour of Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount, brings those who have never been upon Mt. Moriah on a tour of Judaism’s holiest site.

Israel National Radio’s Rabbi Chaim Richman, who heads the Temple Institute, has released a first-of-its-kind video that allows every Jew to experience a tour of the Temple Mount.

NOTE: This may NOT be for MODEM users as the VIDEO files average 16 MEG each.

HOWEVER if you have BROADBAND left clicking the link will play the video's in windows media player....

click here for part 1 14meg
click here for part 2 14meg
click here for part 3 17meg

Feb 6, 2008 For some reason the link will NOT PLAY but it WILL DOWNLOAD! At least as of today...BroJ thewatchman

(To download, right-click links and select "save target as")

NOTE: I am Pastoring again so My time is limited I can only post to archive pages as time allows - SORRY - Check this link for a one page lists all DAILY UPDATE NEWS+VIEWS page

Three-and-a-half years have passed since the Second Lebanon War, and saw the end of a project for the renovation and restoration of bomb shelters in northern Israel in a festive ceremony.

The Prime Minister's Office and the Defense Ministry invested NIS 96 million (roughly $25.27 million) in the renovation of 3,019 public shelters. An additional 1,838 joint shelters were renovated by the administration for the restoration of the North and the Amigour company.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said that in the event of another military operation, the fighting will not only be felt near Israel's borders, but throughout the entire country.

‘We are building the State of Israel's civilian front,’ he said, ‘A war only on the military front, as in the Yom Kippur War - not involving the civilian population – will not reoccur.’

The minister added that, ‘the best war is one that is prevented, because if there is a war, it will reach every part of the State of Israel.

Israeli commandos seized a ship Wednesday that defense officials said was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas - the largest arms shipment Israel has ever commandeered. The Israeli military said an Iranian document was found on board, showing that the arms shipment originated from Iran, although the paper was not shown to reporters. Rear Admiral Roni Ben-Yehuda, the deputy Israeli navy commander, said that despite its size, the shipment of weapons was "a drop in the ocean" of arms being shipped to Hezbollah. The Israelis boarded the ship before dawn in the waters near Cyprus. Israeli military officials said the ship's journey started in Iran, and it arrived a week ago in Beirut. The next stop was Damietta, Egypt, where the weapons were loaded, they said. Ben Yehuda said the ship was headed for Latakia, Syria.In Tehran, Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem dismissed Israeli allegations the ship carried arms

Oooooops been forgetting to archive here check this link for daily reports CLICK HERE

The whipping up of unrest around the Temple Mount is part of an insidious campaign to cast Jewish people as modern interlopers

The Temple Mount, or al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, must rank as one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world. The sporadic riots of the past month at the site are therefore particularly alarming, as such incidents have the potential to ignite much wider unrest.

For that reason, it would seem to be in everyone's interest to reduce as far as possible tensions and friction at the Temple Mount to an absolute minimum. But the statements and actions of a number of Muslim clerics based in Israel, Palestinian politicians and even foreign governments

Of even greater concern is the underlying sentiment behind the recent riots, protests, declarations and denunciations. Whether or not "Jewish extremists" went up to the Temple Mount (and they did not) and irrespective of whether or not they planned to, the violent and vitriolic response to these rumors is indicative of a fundamental lack of tolerance for the religious beliefs of the Jewish people.

And the incitement has been widespread, coming from both political and religious sectors.

The world’s largest model of the Holy Temple was inaugurated Wednesday only a few hundred meters away from the Temple Mount, the site where the Temple existed up until 70 CE.

The model, built at a scale of 1:60, was built by Michael Osanis for the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva in Jerusalem’s old city, and is displayed on the roof of its new museum, which at seven stories above the Western Wall plaza has a breathtaking view of the Temple Mount.

“We hope that seeing this model of the Temple, with the perspective of its actual location in the background, will give people a sense of the inspiration that people received when they entered the real Temple that stood here for almost 1,000 years,” said Ephraim Shore of Aish HaTorah.

The model, which was built after extensive consultation with experts, is also the first to include a hydraulic system that raises the sanctuary building at the heart of the Temple to offer a view of the contents of the Holy of Holies within, including the Menorah, the Table, the Inner Altar, and the Ark of the Covenant.

The Temple model sits on top of Aish HaTorah’s new Exploratorium museum, which explores how Judaism and Jewish ideas have changed the world and continue to impact humanity. The model is meant to show how these contributions “were nurtured, studied and exported to humanity from the center of our spiritual world, in the Temple,” according to Shore.

“There is a growing ignorance about the centrality of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount,” Shore explained. “The Temple model is the beginning of a project that it is hoped will help Jews connect with their heritage and provide non-Jews with the awareness of our rich and broad history in these holy places.”

Besides its yeshiva in Jerusalem, Aish HaTorah also operates an international network of 31 branches dedicated to revitalizing the Jewish people by providing opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to discover their heritage.

Russian media continued to cover Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mysterious visit to Moscow, that was leaked to the media from his office.

Kommersant newspaper quoted ‘experts’ as saying they believe a visit of this kind could have stemmed from urgent circumstances, ‘for example, in the event that Israel plans to attack Iran’.

At first, Moscow denied a visit ever took place, but after Netanyahu's office was forced to admit to the PM's Military Secretary Meir Kalifi's lie, a senior Kremlin source also confirmed to Kommersant that the Israeli prime minister did indeed visit the city.

Russian media also directed questions on the visit to the Israeli embassy in Moscow, but embassy sources said that if there was such a visit, ‘We know nothing about it.’

The paper then quoted what it called an ‘informed’ Israeli source, who wished to remain anonymous, as saying, ‘Such a visit could be related to new information and could threaten the Iranian nuclear program. It should not be ruled out that Israel may be ready to move on to decisive actions with regards to Iran, and Netanyahu has decided to inform the Kremlin of this.’

Russian Foreign Minister Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko published an announcement saying, ‘We have no knowledge of a Netanyahu's 'secret' visit to Moscow. We saw reports in various media. They are inconsistent. Other than that, I cannot tell you anything. I have no detailed information in the matter, or any information in the matter. We have seen the reports.’

Netanyahu left Israel on a private jet belonging Israeli millionaire Yossi Maiman. Earlier, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that his destination was Russia

The world’s largest model of the Holy Temple was inaugurated only a few hundred meters away from the Temple Mount, the site where the Temple existed up until 70 CE. “We hope that seeing this model of the Temple, with the perspective of its actual location in the background, will give people a sense of the inspiration that people received when they entered the real Temple that stood here for almost 1,000 years,” said Ephraim Shore of Aish HaTorah. The model, which was built after extensive consultation with experts, is also the first to include a hydraulic system that raises the sanctuary building at the heart of the Temple to offer a view of the contents of the Holy of Holies within, including the Menorah, the Table, the Inner Altar, and the Ark of the Covenant.

Israel issued a travel warning for its national’s visiting the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, advising them to leave the area immediately.

The warning came from the government's counter terrorism unit. The unit warned Israelis of planned attacks during the upcoming Jewish holiday period, which begins with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), at sundown on September 18.

The announcement mentioned tensions along the northern border of Sinai with the Gaza Strip, as well as recent threats from Hezbollah to strike at Israelis.

The unit warned of threats to kidnap Israelis abroad, with the emphasis on businessmen, in particular ones working in Arab and Muslim countries.

The message advises Israelis to be wary at all times, to avoid unplanned meetings and to alter their daily routine if they are on long-term trips

Germany, France and EU president Sweden joined Western nations pressing Israel to stop building settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank under a U.S.-led effort to resume stalled peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has resisted international calls to freeze building in occupied territory, seemed to show a sign of flexibility as a newspaper reported a secret plan to remove two dozen unauthorized settler outposts. Israel has long pledged to dismantle hilltop outposts that it never approved, but has continued building larger settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, land it captured in a 1967 war, and where Palestinians want to build a future state.

The Israeli air force is training a new battalion of air-defense troops to man the first batteries of the Iron Dome system designed to shoot down short-range rockets, which is scheduled for deployment in the southern Negev Desert in May 2010.The first units will be arrayed to counter Qassam and Grad rockets fired from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, which controls the coastal territory between Israel and Egypt, and by its Palestinian allies. The deployment of Iron Dome, specifically designed to counter this growing threat, is becoming a matter of some urgency. The Palestinian militants have been extending the range of their missiles of late from the thinly populated desert area in Israel abutting the Gaza Strip that has been their target for almost a decade.

The Grads, versions of the 122mm Soviet-era battlefield rocket, can now reach as far north as the Negev town of Beersheba, near the Dimona nuclear reactor, and the outer fringes of the major urban conurbation around Tel Aviv. Most of the strategic targets in Israel lie within the country's narrow central zone between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Iron Dome, still under fast-track development by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries, is designed to counter rockets, and 155mm shells, from ranges of 3 miles to 43 miles

Israeli settlers on horseback set fire to fields of olive trees and stoned Palestinian cars in the West Bank yesterday, apparently in response to the Israeli army’s removal of an illegal outpost in the area. At least 1,500 Palestinian-owned trees were destroyed and two Palestinians were injured in the attack, near the city of Nablus, by about 30 settlers, security officials said. Farmers fought fires late into the afternoon, as fears grew that the flames would spread across the dry summer fields. It was the most recent example of the “price tag” policy, in which

settlers seek revenge by attacking Palestinians for every outpost that is demolished. “The goal is to create a price for each evacuation, causing Israeli authorities to think twice about carrying them out,” the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said.

Israel's recent deployment of warships across the Red Sea should be seen as serious preparation for an attack on Iran, an Israeli defense official told the Times of London on Thursday.

‘This is preparation that should be taken seriously. Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran. These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats,’ the official was quoted as saying.

Earlier this week, two Israel Navy gunboats openly sailed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. The ships that passed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday were two Sa'ar 5 gunboats, the Hanit and the Eilat. This follows a similar incident in late June, when an Israeli Dolphin-class submarine passed through the canal, later returning the same way.

The move, apparently coordinated with Egypt, is seen as a warning message to Middle Eastern radicals, first and foremost Iran.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit confirmed the crossings and said that Cairo's agreements with Jerusalem permit Israeli military ships to transit the canal. He declined to speculate on whether the voyage was meant as a warning to Iran or anyone else

Israel has warned Iran of catastrophic consequences if it attacks the Jewish state with weapons of mass destruction.

Israel's national security advisor says Iran will be destroyed if it dares to launch a nuclear attack on the Jewish state. In an interview published Friday in the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz, Uzi Arad said Israel must have ‘tremendously powerful’ weapons to deter or retaliate for a nuclear strike. That seemed to be a clear reference to Israel's reported nuclear arsenal, though it has never admitted to having nuclear weapons. Arad described a nuclear Iran as a ‘nightmare for Israel.’

In a speech last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that a nuclear Iran is not only a threat to Israel, but also to Western civilization.

‘The greatest danger facing our world today is if the world's worst regimes acquire the world's most dangerous weapons,’ he said. ‘For the sake of peace, for the sake of our common security, for the sake of our common values this must not be allowed to happen.’

Israel has intensified its efforts to block the sale of advanced Russian air-defense missiles to Iran that would be a serious obstacle to any Israeli airstrikes against the Islamic Republic's nuclear infrastructure, according to media reports in Tel Aviv and Moscow.

The outcome of that effort could have immense ramifications for the Middle East and particularly for U.S. President Barack Obama's outreach to Tehran to engage in diplomatic dialogue to resolve the question of Iran's controversial nuclear program and relations with ‘the Great Satan.’

Israel's Haaretz daily reported June 29 that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu telephoned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and urged him to ensure that none of the S-300PMU missiles Tehran has reportedly bought from Russia will be delivered.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed it has not delivered any of the five S-300 units it agreed to sell Iran under an $800 million contract it is said to have signed in early 2008.

But Haaretz reported that when Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited Moscow several weeks ago, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told him Tehran had made some payments for the missiles.

That added a critical new wrinkle to the problem at a time when the Iranian regime is busy crushing internal opposition triggered by the disputed re-election of firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Israelis' new push to stop Iran getting its hands on the S-300, considered one of the most effective all-altitude air-defense systems in the world, followed what one official in Tel Aviv described as a ‘noticeable change in Russia's position on the matter of the arms sale.’

Air Force Commander Major-General Ido Nehushtan said Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces was preparing for any option in terms of the Iranian nuclear threat.

‘The State of Israel has said that any other solution to the issue is preferable, but at the same time, the army understands its duty to prepare other options and acts accordingly,’ Nehushtan said in a press briefing in honor of the IAF's 61st anniversary.

As part of the IAF's operational activity in the past year, the commander said, the force has been cooperating with field units, particularly during the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

‘We are facing a spectrum of close and distant threats, and are working to provide a suitable response to each of them. We have technological, operational and professional challenges which require excellent people, and we are doing everything in order to hold on to the human capital.’

Asked to elaborate on the Iranian issue and the recent clashes in the Islamic republic following the disputed presidential elections, Nehushtan said it was too early to make any statements and understand the process taking place there.

He added that the Middle East was in the process of a change, implying – among other things – to efforts exerted by countries in the close vicinity to obtain more advanced weapons.

‘We are studying the ramifications of these processes and will naturally have to adapt to any development,’ he said

The true nature of the Iranian regime has been unmasked, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. ‘I think that people now can understand many of the things that we have been talking about all these years.’

‘I think what is happening in Iran is a fact of monumental and historical importance,’ Netanyahu told Italy's RAI television network. ‘I don't know how it will end but I think that it is a deep expression of a desire for change, for freedom.’

‘I think that anybody who supports freedom and supports human rights supports the effort of the people of Iran to regain their freedom,’ he said. ‘I don't think people are merely protesting, 'we don't want this or that particular president'…they want a change, which will allow them to walk the streets, to have empowerment of women, to have youngsters being able to make choices in their lives. I think that anybody who believes in democracy, as I do, understands that this is a remarkable example of civil courage.

‘I don't believe that this kind of thirst for freedom can be suppressed for very long. It may be suppressed further, but I think that two things are evident. One, the true nature of this repressive regime has been exposed and, two, there is in the Middle East something I haven't seen in my life time, and that is an awareness by everyone, not just Israel, but many of the Arab governments and I think many in the Arab public, including Palestinians, that we have a common challenge. We don't want to be overrun by this theocratic barbarism. We want a free life and we want a good life and we want a peaceful life.’

‘Right now everybody understands that nuclear weapons in the hands of such a brutal regime could be very dangerous to the entire world.’

Asked if Israel was considering a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Netanyahu said the issue was an international one

Israel is concerned about the re-election of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying it will increase regional tensions and instability.

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon issued a statement saying the election results show that Iran will continue its quest for nuclear weapons.

He said that if there was ‘any shred of hope for change in Iran,’ the election demonstrates the increasing Iranian threat. Ayalon urged the international community to take tougher action to stop Iran's nuclear program and said there should be no dialogue with the Islamic Republic.

That seemed to be a clear reference to U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to open talks with Iran.

Israeli analyst Dore Gold says so far, Iran has used negotiations with the West to buy more time to build the atom bomb.

‘When push comes to shove the Iranians know that they can complete their program and the West is not likely to do anything about it,’ said Gold. ‘And in the meantime, the Iranian program is going full steam ahead.’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened to wipe the Jewish state ‘off the map,’ so his re-election increases the likelihood of an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

‘Israel cannot allow Iran to acquire an operational nuclear capability, and I think Israeli leaders have made that point repeatedly,’ said Gold

Israel and the Palestinians ought to move onto the second stage of the road map peace plan which stipulates the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional borders, President Shimon Peres said on Thursday.

Peres met on Thursday with the European Union's chief foreign policy official, Javier Solana, to discuss the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

During the session, Peres said that Israel and the Palestinians should agree on the declaration of a Palestinian state with provisional borders, ‘subject to a clear promise that the border will in a short span of time become permanent borders.’

‘The road map presents us with a clear outline and the second stage must be implemented,’ Peres told Solana.

The road map is a U.S.-proposed multi-stage diplomatic plan that was approved by both the Israeli government under Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian Authority

During long, personal conversations with his inner circle over the past week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that he had no idea what U.S. President Barack Obama would say in his speech in Cairo. ‘We have no information,’ he said. He does now.

Netanyahu now understands what he already knew before the speech: The moment of political reckoning that he so feared is now rapidly approaching. The thunder he hears in the distance is the sound of the Likud legions and the West Bank settler hordes rolling down the mountains. The light on the horizon is not that of a new day, but of a train coming right at him - a night train from Cairo.

Netanyahu will have to decide over the coming weeks whom he would rather pick a fight with: the powerful U.S. administration, whose president sees himself in an almost messianic role, or his own coalition and members of his party.

If he aligns himself with the coalition, he will keep his job but risk isolating Israel. The alternative would elevate him to the position of a national leader who puts the nation's interests above his personal ones, but it might destabilize his rightist coalition. On the other hand, one must remember that two of his governing partners, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, also sat in former prime minister Ehud Olmert's coalition, which sanctified the two-state solution.

At the moment, Netanyahu is not signaling that he plans a showdown with the illegal West Bank outposts. He cannot even bring himself to utter the words ‘two-state solution.’ He seems petrified by party hard-liners like Benny Begin and Moshe Ya'alon. Maybe he is really scared, or maybe this is just a game of pretend, so he can pin the blame on them

Politicians across the political spectrum reacted with both praise and condemnation to the speech delivered by US President Barack Obama, in which the American leader reached out to the Muslim world and spelled out the challenges he aims to tackle in the Middle East.

‘Obama ignored the fact that the Palestinians have not abandoned terror,’ Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Daniel Herschkowitz said during a tour of settlements south of Hebron. ‘The government of Israel is not America's lackey. The relations with the Americans are based on friendship and not submission, and therefore Israel must tell Obama that stopping natural growth in the settlements is a red line.’

Another member of the same party, Zev Orlev, also reacted with dismay to the president's comments.

‘The speech raises fears and worries about a [fate] of America's balanced relationship towards Israel,’ he said. ‘I have a bad feeling ... traditional commitments of the United States towards the security needs which ensure the existence and independence of the state of Israel are being eroded.’

‘The answer to this is not capitulation or flattery,’ Orlev continued, ‘but rather the negotiation’ to convince the US of the Israeli position.’

In contrast, Kadima MK Ze'ev Boim used the opportunity to both laud the speech and criticize the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

‘Obama's speech is further proof that Netanyahu did not properly gauge the policies of the Untied States,’ he said. ‘The policies of the president on the Palestinian issue are identical to those of Kadima, and it is unfortunate that Netanyahu is unable to accept the idea of two states for two peoples for narrow political reasons.’

Labor rebel MK Eitan Cable also had words of praise for the president and condemnation for the prime minister.

‘The president's words made it very clear that in Washington they are unwilling to turn a blind eye,’ he said. ‘Time is working against us, and the Israelis interest of not being a serial rejector means accepting two states for two peoples and stopping construction of settlements.’

United Arab List MK Ahmed Tibi said that while he agreed with the speech, there was ‘no Israeli partner to implement’ it

Israel will continue to allow some construction in West Bank settlements despite US calls for a freeze on its work, a government spokesman says.

Mark Regev said the fate of the settlements should be decided in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

His remarks appear to be a rebuff to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said all such activity should cease.

Her comments came hours before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due to meet US President Barack Obama.

Mrs. Clinton said on Wednesday there must be no exceptions to President Obama's demands for Israel's settlement work to stop.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with her Egyptian counterpart, Mrs. Clinton said that the president was ‘very clear’ with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at their recent meeting that there should be a stop to all settlements.

‘Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease,’ Mrs. Clinton said.

Correspondents say it is the first time in years that US officials have been so vocal in calling for a settlement freeze in the Palestinian territories

President Shimon Peres met with a US congressional mission in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The delegates, led by Senator Robert Casey, chairman of the US Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, assured him the US President Barack Obama holds Israel in the highest regard.

The US has been and will be a true friend to Israel, said Senator Casey, adding that despite Israeli concerns that US policies towards Jerusalem may change under the Obama administration, Israel ‘has nothing to fear,’ since it is still considered a top priority and a close friend of the administration's.

Peres told the senators Israel would be willing to pay a price for peace, including that of evacuating West Bank settlements and outposts.

The Israeli government, he added, intends on reigniting the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. ‘It is a difficult path, but we cannot make the difficulties the center of the peace process,’ he said

Israel is likely to face simultaneous missile strikes and terror attacks across the country in the event of a war breaking out, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Monday.

Vilnai made the comments during a session of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, in which he said the Home Front Command would simulate defending against such an assault as part of a large-scale drill to be held next week.

‘This isn't an imaginary situation. This isn't detached from reality and if there is a war, it's very likely that this is what will happen,’ said the deputy minister.

The Israel Defense Forces drill, codenamed ‘Turning Point 3, has been billed as the largest exercise ever in Israel's history.

IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Ze'ev Zuk-Rom, the National Emergency Authority chief, also participated in the briefing.

He said the drill will be based on lessons learned in different exercises held over the last two years, including ones learned during the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead, Israel's recent offensive against Hamas in Gaza

If Israel does not eliminate the Iranian threat, no one will, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

‘Israel is not like other countries,’ Netanyahu told his Likud faction in a meeting which came one week after his meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. ‘We are faced with security challenges that no other country faces, and our need to provide a response to these is critical, and we are answering the call.’

‘These are not regular times. The danger is hurtling toward us? The real danger in underestimating the threat,’ Netanyahu said, addressing the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. ‘My job is first and foremost to ensure the future of the state of Israel ... the leadership's job is to eliminate the danger. Who will eliminate it? It is us or no one.’

‘Our relationship with the United States is of great importance,’ Netanyahu said. ‘Our situation today is different from our situation between 1996 and 1999. Our priorities must be in line with national security needs and we must unite in order to deflect the danger. The Defense Minister and I are working in coordination; he is not conducting an independent policy.’

Netanyahu added that he reached understandings Obama, among them that the most important goal for both countries is preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear military capability. Netanyahu told Likud members that Israel received a number of key pieces of defense aid from the Americans

Israel has joined the West in condemning North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test.

‘Israel views the second North Korean nuclear test with extreme gravity, and is party to the global concern caused by this event,’ according to a Foreign Ministry statement released on Monday.

‘Furthermore, Israel is concerned with North Korea's nuclear proliferation, which has negative implications in this region,’ the statement read.

‘Israel expects the international community to respond decisively to the nuclear detonation by North Korea, so as to transmit an unambiguous message to other countries.’

In Pyongyang, North Korea said that it had carried out a powerful underground nuclear test - much larger than one conducted in 2006. The regime also test-fired three short-range, ground-to-air missiles later Monday from the same northeastern site where it launched a rocket last month, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.

President Barack Obama assailed North Korea on Monday for the new missile tests, saying the world must ‘stand up to Pyongyang and demand that it honor a promise to abandon it nuclear ambitions.’

Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said on Monday that an IDF exercise scheduled to take place at the end of the month could be a sign that Israel is preparing for another war, and added that his organization would be on high alert during the exercise.

Speaking at an event marking Nakba Day, Nasrallah said, ‘The large military exercise the Zionist enemy is planning is a very important and sensitive matter that calls for some explanations. What is this exercise? What are the Israelis doing now? What is the meaning of this?’

According to Nasrallah, ‘All options are open. We have no information on it, but this possibility should exist. So what should we do? We have no information, but according to our analysis, we don't believe the Zionist enemy will start a war.

‘We must be vigilant and cautious. Since the end of the July 2006 war we have been following the exercises in Israel…Naturally, we plan to take a line of preventive steps during the days of the drill. We will be ready and vigilant and on high alert. We do not mean to worry people, but to calm them.’

It seems Nasrallah's comments on the Israeli exercise come as an attempt to increase his political power ahead of elections. The Hizbullah leader is trying to signal to the Lebanese public that Israel continues to pose a threat on Lebanon with the major military drill that he believes ‘could develop into a surprise war’.

In his speech, Nasrallah once again boasted about Hizbullah's ‘victory’ over Israel during the Second Lebanon War: ‘We will start at the beginning: Since the end of the July 2006 war, there was unanimous agreement among the Israel enemy that the war on Lebanon was a complete failure

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will use his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday to stress that ‘time is running out’ for stopping Iran's nuclear program, so Obama must not spend more than a few months on his planned dialogue with Tehran unless real progress is achieved.

If progress is not achieved within a few months, the United States must move quickly to more aggressive measures against Iran, Netanyahu will say.

The prime minister's aides say he is encouraged by an interview in Newsweek Sunday in which Obama says he is not ‘naive’ about Iran and is not taking ‘any options off the table.’ The purpose of the planned dialogue is to ‘offer Iran an opportunity to align itself with international norms,’ according to Obama.

The president signaled that he has no intention of pursuing regime change in Iran, but stressed that Iran should be able ‘to maintain its Islamic character’ while not being ‘a threat to its neighbors.’

He said he understands why Israel views Iran as an ‘existential threat,’ and that because of this, Israelis' ‘calculation of costs and benefits are going to be more acute. They're right there in range, and I don't think it's my place to determine for the Israelis what their security needs are.’ Obama can ‘make an argument’ that his approach ‘offers the prospect of security, not just for the United States but also for Israel, that is superior to some of the other alternatives.’

Iran will be a key issue on Netanyahu's agenda for the meeting. While he does not oppose the planned dialogue, he wants more details on how it will be conducted. Israel says the dialogue must include clear conditions, including on Iran's nuclear activity during the talks, and a clear time limit. This view is shared by some senior American officials, including the special envoy on Iran, Dennis Ross. Israel says the time limit should be around three months

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be prepared to endorse a peace process leading to an independent Palestinian state, his defense minister has said.

Ehud Barak, a long-time rival now part of Israel's governing coalition, spoke ahead of Mr. Netanyahu's first meeting with US President Obama in Washington.

Mr. Netanyahu has so far been unwilling to discuss a two-state solution, saying only he wants a ‘fresh approach’.

He recently made his first visits out of Israel since taking office, travelling to Egypt and Jordan during the past week.

A two-state solution based on independent Palestinian statehood is a goal strongly backed by the US and by Jordan and Egypt, Israel's only allies among Arab states.

President Obama is expected to push Benjamin Netanyahu on the issue when they meet for talks at the White House on Monday.

Mr. Barak, the Labour leader, says his long-time rival is ready to take a pragmatic approach to peace negotiations.

‘Netanyahu will tell Obama: We're willing to engage in a process whose end is a regional peace accord,’ he told Channel 2 TV.

He stopped short of saying that Mr. Netanyahu would back a two-state solution while in Washington in the coming week, but suggested an independent Palestinian state could emerge from a revived peace process.

‘The Arabs say 'two states,' [and] I don't see a reason why Netanyahu would not say that at the end of an accord... there will be two peoples living side by side in peace and mutual respect,’ he said.

Mr. Barak said he thought such an agreement could be reached between Israel and its neighbours within three years, and take another five years to implement.

However, some members of Mr. Netanyahu's Likud party cast doubt on Mr. Barak's views.

Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said the prime minister would ‘oppose any creation of an armed Palestinian state on Israel's borders, which would endanger Israel's security,’ the AFP news agency reported

Israel will have operational missile defense systems on three different levels within four years, Air Force commander Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan predicted Wednesday.

Speaking at a conference on missile defense at the Fischer Brothers Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, in Herzliya, Nehushtan said that the Iron Dome system, designed to intercept Kassam and Katyusha rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, would be operational and deployed along the border in 2010.

A second system, called David's Sling and under development by Rafael and Raytheon to intercept medium-range rockets, would be operational within four years, he said. Shortly afterwards, the Arrow 3 - an advanced version of the current long-range system in IAF operation - would be declared operational.

While these systems would be operational in the coming years, currently the IDF was not doing an effective job in providing security for the residents of southern Israel, he said. ‘We feel that we are not providing an appropriate solution to the citizens of Israel,’ he added

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday ahead of the premier's upcoming visit to the United States.

The pair held a private conversation midday in the Red Sea city of Aqaba in which they discussed regional issues, an Israeli official said.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu flew to Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak.

Netanyahu has been trying to forge cooperation with moderate Arab nations against what he says is a threat posed by Iran and its regional proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Abdullah has recently warned that delaying a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians would be disastrous for both sides, and criticized Israel's failure to formulate a specific policy regarding West Bank settlements.

The monarch visited the White House some two weeks ago as the first state leader from the Middle East to meet with Obama since the beginning of the American president's term.

During their meeting, Abdullah stressed that Jordan supports a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would include two states living side-by-side in peace, a notion that Netanyahu has refrained from publicly supporting.

President Shimon Peres, meanwhile, is scheduled to meet the king in Jordan on Sunday to discuss a combined approach to tackle the Mideast peace process. Peres is expected to tell Abdullah that Netanyahu's government is committed to the peace process and wants to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority

Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Abdullah Ramadan Shallah said Palestinian recognition of Israel would be ‘more dangerous than the Nakba of 1948’, the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Wednesday.

In a speech delivered by telephone for an event in Gaza on Tuesday, Shallah said: ‘What is more dangerous than the Palestinian people's Nakba is that the ones with the rights recognize their enemies and deny their own rights. Everything that is happening in Jerusalem is the result of the deals, agreements and negotiations with the Zionist enemy.’

Addressing the pope's visit to the region, Shallah said: ‘What can we expect from the Vatican…when the PLO recognizes the Israeli enemy’

The Islamic Jihad leader also directed implicit criticism at Jordan's King Abdullah, who has been reported to be engaged in efforts to soften the Arab peace initiative, thereby making it easier for Israel to accept it

Senior officials in Jerusalem expressed concern recently over the sharp decline in the coordination between Israel and the United States on security and state affairs since President Barack Obama's entered the White House and especially since the formation of Israel's new government.

Senior White House officials told their Israeli counterparts that Obama will demand Netanyahu completely suspend construction in the settlements, the officials said.

‘Obama's people brief their Israeli counterparts in advance much less about security and Middle East policy activities than the Bush administration used to,’ the officials said.

In addition, when they do brief Israeli officials, they don't consult with them or coordinate their statements in advance.

This has caused several coordination ‘malfunctions’ between the two states in the past two months, they said.

The last incident was the statement of Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The statement had not been coordinated with Israeli officials in charge of the nuclear issue and they heard it first from the media.

This followed other equally problematic incidents. The American policy shift toward Syria and opening direct talks with Damascus followed minimal coordination with Israel. For example, Israel was not briefed about senior American diplomats' trip to Damascus, which the U.S. had initiated.

Another incident concerned U.S. envoy for Iranian affairs Dennis Ross' trip to the Gulf states a few days ago for talks on Iran. Israel was briefed on the trip in general details, but no consultations or message-coordination took place before the trip. In addition, Ross did not pass through Israel on his way to the Gulf or back to brief Israel on the talks' outcome.

The American policy toward Iran has remained generally ambiguous as far as Israel is concerned and the administration has not outlined to Israel its plan for a dialogue with Iran in an orderly way. Many of the details Israel learned about this plan were obtained via European channels.

The Israeli officials said the problem also stems from the government change in both states and because clear work procedures between the sides have not been set established.

‘This will be one of the most important things Netanyahu will have to settle with Obama,’ a senior official said.

However, the official said the new administration no longer seems to see Israel as a ‘special’ or ‘extraordinary’ state in the Middle East, with which the U.S. must maintain a different dialogue than with other states

Israeli President Shimon Peres says his country remains open to peace with the Palestinians and other Arabs.

Mr. Peres spoke Monday in an interview with CNN and in a speech to the annual convention of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, the chief pro-Israeli lobby in Washington.

The Israeli president sought to reassure his listeners that new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants peace with the Palestinians. But Mr. Peres did not mention proposals for creating a Palestinian state.

Palestinian statehood has been the centerpiece of U.S. mediation efforts in the Middle East for most of the past decade.

In his speech to AIPAC, Mr. Peres also said Iran's nuclear activities threaten the United States, Europe and Arab nations, as well as Israel.

He said the Iranian government also has invested heavily in long-range missile development even though, he said, Iran is not threatened by any enemies

A large majority of Israeli Jews support military action aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear facilities, according to a survey sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League.

According to the poll, co-sponsored by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, a large majority of those who support a move by the army said they would maintain their support even if the Obama administration opposed it.

An overwhelming majority also said they believed close relations with the United States were essential for ensuring Israel's security.

The survey, administered by the Maagar Mochot research institute, involved 610 respondents, constituting a representative sample of Israeli Jews over the age of 18.

Asked about military action against Iran, 66 percent said they approved of it, 15 percent said they were opposed and 19 percent said they did not know. Among those who said they approved army action, 15 percent said they would change their minds if the United States opposed it, while 75 percent said they would not. The rest said they did not know or gave other answers.

Focusing on Israeli-U.S. relations in the Obama era, the survey revealed concern over possible erosion of U.S. support for Israel, and over a rapprochement between the United States and Arab countries at the expense of Israel.

Sixty percent of the respondents said they had a ‘positive’ or ‘very positive' attitude toward President Obama. However, only 38 percent said they thought his attitude to Israel was friendly - in contrast to 73 percent of respondents in a 2007 poll, who defined the attitude of the previous president, George W. Bush, as friendly

As Israel commemorated Memorial Day for its fallen soldiers and victims of terror on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the country would never forfeit its ability to defend itself.

‘Our hand is extended in peace to all our neighbors. But our enemies should not misunderstand: We shall never compromise on our security, the security of the state of Israel. That is our obligation to the fallen, that is our obligation to the citizens of Israel, that is our obligation to coming generations,’ Netanyahu said during the official Memorial Day event at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.

Israelis stood silently at attention on Tuesday morning as a two-minute siren wailed across the country to mark Memorial Day. The official day of remembrance opened on Monday evening and will continue into Independence Day after sundown on Tuesday.

Ceremonies were planned throughout the day at military cemeteries across the country. Radio and television stations played somber music and devoted programs to retelling the stories of soldiers killed in battle. Movie theaters, restaurants and other places of entertainment were closed and schools held memorial services.

On Tuesday evening, the melancholy observances were to transform seamlessly into celebrations marking the 61st anniversary of Israel's independence

‘I am certain it is possible and certainly necessary to act with all our might to achieve peace even before I turn 70, which will be in three years,’ said Defense Minister Ehud Barak in his first extensive interview since joining the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘You have to understand that in their consciousness, the leaders are not so far apart in terms of what the final settlement will look like,’ Barak said, adding that he believes Netanyahu will present the U.S. administration a diplomatic plan in line with the principle of ‘two states for two nations’ during his upcoming visit to Washington.

‘Bibi [Netanyahu] accepted the Oslo accords at the time. And it is clear that when a political settlement is signed with all the neighbors, it will stipulate a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, with the two living side by side. I believe that even now, during Netanyahu's visit to Washington, Israel should come up with a formula about how it intends to move ahead, and that formula will not propose three states for eight nations,’ he said.

‘Bibi has a hard choice to make: Does he want to be [Yitzhak] Shamir or [Menachem] Begin?’ he asked. ‘There is deep understanding between us on the need to address the political issue, and that it is impossible to leave things in a state of paralysis. If we sink into paralysis, we may find the world losing interest in Israel and in this conflict - or, in an even worse scenario, acceptance by the world that the solution is not two states for two nations, but one state for two nations, which for us is a concrete risk, a slippery slope.’

On Iran's nuclear program, Barak struck a blustery yet pragmatic tone. ‘There is no one who will dare try to destroy Israel. We are not in a position of being able to tell the Americans whether to talk to the Iranians. I told American leaders: First learn from the professionals about what is going on in Iran, what they are doing behind the smoke screen, acquaint yourselves with the intelligence material, and from this you will understand they are working determinedly to deceive, confuse and blur things, and that under the headline of 'nuclear power for peaceful purposes,' they are trying to achieve military nuclear capability…”

While the eyes of the world are focused on the Durban II racism conference in Geneva, the international al-Qaeda terrorist organization issued a new call for an attack on Israel.

The deputy al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged the group's Iraqi followers to sneak the borders and ‘liberate’ Jerusalem in a new recording posted on the As-Sahab terrorist internet website on Monday.

Osama bin Laden's deputy also slammed Egypt for brokering talks between the Palestinian Authority's Hamas terrorist organization and its rival Fatah faction.

The talks are aimed at bringing the two groups together in hopes of rebuilding a PA unity government – a goal which has proven elusive thus far.

The Egyptian-born terrorist insisted in Monday's harangue, however, that the negotiations were actually intended to pressure Hamas into recognizing the State of Israel, which he warned the group not to do. He also called on PA Arabs to attack Israelis and their allies outside the country.

‘If circumstances were difficult in one place they are easier in other places,’ he proclaimed. ‘Our enemies, crusaders and Jews are scattered everywhere.’

Al-Zawahiri also scorned a plan by U.S. President Barack Obama to expand the number of American troops in Afghanistan.

The terrorist leader warned that ‘America came to us with a new face, with which it is trying to fool us. He [Obama] did not change the image of America among Muslims… America is still killing Muslims,’ he commented

Iran's parliament speaker warned Israel on Tuesday against a possible attack on the country's nuclear facilities, Iranian state television reported.

‘Iran will respond in a way that they will not be able to sleep easy anymore,’ Ali Larijani was quoted as saying.

Larijani made the remark at a meeting of top prosecutors from Islamic countries, who are trying to find ways to arrange for the arrest and prosecution of Israeli leaders on war crimes charges over the offensive against Hamas in Gaza earlier this year.

Last week, President Shimon Peres dismissed the idea that Israel was planning an attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

Israel, the United States and other western nations believe that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at covertly developing atomic weapons.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, insists that the program is for civilian purposes only

The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.

Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.

Two nationwide civil defense drills will help to prepare the public for the retaliation that Israel could face.

‘Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words,’ one senior defense official told The Times.

Officials believe that Israel could be required to hit more than a dozen targets, including moving convoys. The sites include Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges produce enriched uranium; Esfahan, where 250 tons of gas is stored in tunnels; and Arak, where a heavy water reactor produces plutonium.

The distance from Israel to at least one of the sites is more than 870 miles, a distance that the Israeli force practiced covering in a training exercise last year that involved F15 and F16 jets, helicopters and refueling tankers.

The possible Israeli strike on Iran has drawn comparisons to its attack on the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad in 1981. That strike, which destroyed the facility in under 100 seconds, was completed without Israeli losses and checked Iraqi ambitions for a nuclear weapons program

US Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday the new Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be ‘ill-advised’ to attack Iran, but stressed that it was unlikely to do so.

‘I don't believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would be ill-advised to do that,’ Biden said in an interview with CNN, when asked about possible Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Presenting his new government to Israel's parliament a week ago, Netanyahu alluded to an eventual nuclear-armed Iran as the biggest threat to his Jewish state.

‘The biggest danger to humanity and to Israel comes from the possibility of a radical regime armed with nuclear weapons,’ Netanyahu said, making clear his remarks were aimed at Iran

The defense establishment carried out a successful test launch of its Arrow II interceptor missile on Tuesday, a system designed to defend against possible ballistic missile attacks by Iran and Syria.

The Arrow intercepted a target missile, simulating an Iranian Shihab, launched from an Israeli aircraft over the Mediterranean, a defense source said.

Israel Radio said it was the 16th test launch of an Arrow. The defense source said 90 percent of those tests have been successful.

The project is jointly funded by Israel and the United States to serve as a strategic shield against ballistic missiles in the arsenals of Iran and Syria.

At least two Arrow batteries have been deployed in Israel, which has been testing the system to improve its performance at high altitudes and against multiple incoming missiles.

Israel fears that Iran's uranium enrichment program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran denies.

Last month, the Defense Ministry said it had successfully completed a series of tests of the Iron Dome rocket defense system

The U.S. president's challenge is to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in as prime minister.

"The Obama presidency has two great missions: Fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu stated, referring to the Iranian threat as a “hinge of history” and adding that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The new prime minister took a blunt tone in the interview, saying that the entire world should fear the day Iran possesses a nuclear weapon. "You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs," he said.

***WATCHMAN...MR. Netanyahu you sir are in ERROR by your use of the term MESSIANIC...

A day after the deadly terror attack at the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to deal with his first security-related test in office.

On Friday Netanyahu telephoned Revital and Haim Nativ, the bereaved parents from Gush Etzion, whose 13-year-old son Yair was murdered by a terrorist carrying an axe.

The prime minister expressed his condolences and promised the family to fight terror ‘with full force.’

Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year jail term for his membership in the extreme Bat Ayin Underground, visited his seven-year-old son Yair, who was moderately injured in Thursday's terror attack. He arrived at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem accompanied by an Israel Prison Service official but without handcuffs.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet continue their search for the terrorist, which began immediately after the murder. Massive forces are combing the Palestinian villages adjacent to Bat Ayin.

Defense establishment officials reiterated Friday that they were certain the assailant would be caught soon and that they were operating on the intelligence level as well

Israel's former chief peace negotiator says the way the new government is talking shows it will not be a partner for peace with the Palestinians.

Tzipi Livni's criticism follows the rejection by her successor as foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, of recent US-backed efforts towards a peace deal.

‘What happened is that the government announced that Israel is not relevant, is not a partner,’ she said.

Ms Livni's centrist Kadima party came narrowly ahead of Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud in the February election, but he was asked to form a coalition as right-leaning parties predominated.

In his speech on Wednesday, at a foreign ministry handover attended by Ms Livni, the ultra-nationalist Mr. Lieberman said Israel was not bound by the Annapolis accords agreed with the Palestinians and the Bush administration in November 2007.

He said the only legitimate document was another US-sponsored deal, the Road Map peace plan of 2003, because he said it was ratified by the Israeli government and the UN Security Council

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday urged the international community to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government, saying the newly sworn-in leader ‘does not believe in peace,’ AFP reported.

‘Benjamin Netanyahu never believed in a two-state solution or accepted signed agreements and does not want to stop settlement activity. This is obvious,’ AFP quoted Abbas as telling the official Palestinian news agency.

‘We have to tell the world that this man does not believe in peace, so how should we deal with him? Let's put the ball in the world's court so that it puts pressure on him and assumes its responsibilities.’

The Palestinian leader's comments were the first statements since Netanyahu was sworn in as premier on Wednesday in Jerusalem.

‘We will carry out peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority with a view to reaching a final accord,’ Netanyahu said Tuesday.

‘Under the final accord, the Palestinians will have all the rights to govern themselves except those that can put in danger the security and existence of the state of Israel,’ Netanyahu said.

The Palestinian Authority said Netanyahu's statements ‘mark a start that is not encouraging.’

The PA is hopeful U.S. President Barack Obama will follow through on his pledge to actively engage the Mideast peace process.

‘The American administration should pressure the Netanyahu government to stick to the fundamentals of the peace process, in other words land for peace.

‘This means the restitution of all the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including east Jerusalem,’ Abbas's spokesman said Tuesday

The primary imperative for the United States and President Barack Obama is to put an end to Iran's nuclear race, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said before his swearing-in Tuesday, adding that if the US failed to do so Israel would be forced to resort to a military strike on the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations.

‘The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,’ Netanyahu told The Atlantic. The Iranian drive for a nuclear weapon was a ‘hinge of history,’ he said, emphasizing that all of ‘Western civilization’ was responsible for preventing an Iranian bomb.

‘You don't want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs,’ Netanyahu said of the Iranian regime. ‘When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.’

Netanyahu suggested that Israeli preemptive strikes against perceived threats were the result of the Jewish people learning from a long history of grappling against those who threatened their collective existence. He cited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls to ‘wipe Israel off the map,’ as well as a recent remark by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to the effect that Israel was a ‘cancerous tumor.’

However, despite Iran's singling-out of Israel, he said, the rest of the world would be well advised to take the threat emanating from Teheran seriously. He voiced support for Obama's strategy of engaging Iran in dialogue, as long as the negotiations worked swiftly to convince Iran to relinquish its nuclear program.

‘How you achieve this goal is less important than achieving it,’ he said, although he was not optimistic regarding the chances that dialogue could persuade Iran to reconsider its interests. Nevertheless, he said, economic sanctions could still make a difference. ‘I think the Iranian economy is very weak, which makes Iran susceptible to sanctions that can be ratcheted up by a variety of means,’ he said.

Iran's leadership, Netanyahu added, was not immune to pressure, but fanatic elements made it extremely dangerous to risk relying on economic sanctions alone

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday urged Arab leaders convened in Qatar for a regional summit to reject a 2002 Saudi peace initiative, as Israel had demonstrated that it was not a ‘real partner’ to peace.

‘We Arabs, since we offered the Arab initiative, do not have a real partner in the peace process,’ he told the leaders.

Assad told the weekly magazine the New Yorker that though it may take some time, Syria still believes in the power of serious dialogue to produce a lasting peace with Israel.

In an interview via email several days after Israel and Hamas declared unilateral cease-fires following Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip, Assad said that though Israel was ‘doing everything possible to undermine the prospects for peace,’ he was still very interested in closing a deal.

‘We have to wait a little while to see how things will evolve and how the situation changes,’ Assad wrote as Israel voted in a new government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. ‘We still believe that we need to conclude a serious dialogue to lead us to peace,’ he declared.

In the interview, Assad argued that Israel understands that the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, is not negotiable

The flow of explosives and weapons smuggled into Gaza has continued since Israel's military operation, a senior Israeli intelligence official has said.

Shin Bet security service head Yuval Diskin said 22 tonnes of explosives, dozens of rockets and hundreds of mortar rounds had entered Gaza.

But he said rockets attacks were reduced and Egyptian attempts to combat the smuggling had improved.

In his briefing to the cabinet on Sunday, Mr. Diskin also noted a drop in the number of rockets fired into Israel in recent weeks.

He said Hamas, which controls Gaza, was carrying out arrests of members of smaller militant factions to stop attacks, and had signed an agreement with the Islamic Jihad group to end attacks.

Among the items smuggled through tunnels under the border with Egypt in recent weeks, were also 45 tonnes of raw materials for the production of weapons, hundreds of mortar shells and dozens of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, he said.

The tunnels are also used for smuggling in goods that cannot enter Gaza under Israel's blockade of the strip, which allows only humanitarian basics in through the crossings from Israel

The Arab League is formulating an ultimatum to be issued Monday warning Israel that it must accept the League's terms for an Arab-Israel agreement. If Israel refuses, the Arab League statement indicates, the offer will be off the table. Meanwhile, the Arab League is hosting a leader charged with racist massacres of non-Arabs in his own country.

If approved by the Arab leaders attending the Arab League meeting in Qatar on Monday, the statement will declare that the proposed agreement, credited to Saudi Arabia, will soon be rescinded if Israel fails to accept it. The draft was composed by Arab foreign ministers meeting ahead of the summit.

The 2002 Saudi Initiative, as it has come to be known, calls for: 1) full Israeli withdrawal from all lands under Jewish sovereignty since 1967, including Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and all of Judea and Samaria; 2) Israeli agreement to accept Arab war refugees; 3) Israeli acceptance of a Palestinian Arab state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital. In exchange, the Arab states would agree to enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and "consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended."

Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi, head of the Arab Renewal Movement faction, will be attending some Arab League meetings. According to the Hebrew-language Ha'aretz newspaper, Tibi is pushing for the Arab League to call on the international community to force Israel to accept the creation of a Palestinian state

As the final curtain comes down on the Olmert government, CBS reported a sensational air force bombing of an Iranian weapons convoy in Sudan. If Olmert's critics claim that his main legacy is two wars - one failed (Lebanon) and the other problematic (Gaza) - and the failure to return Gilad Shalit, here is a rebuttal.

Despite his deficiencies, the prime minister has throughout his term demonstrated a steely determination in leading military operations into enemy territory. A series of decisions, some of which we only learn of through reports in foreign media, reflect a willingness to take risks in approving distant, secret operations aimed at ensuring Israel's strategic position.

First and foremost is the decision to destroy the nuclear facility in Syria. Also of paramount importance was the attack on the cache of Fajr missiles on the first night of the Second Lebanon War and (according to foreign media), the bombing in Sudan, and the liquidation of senior Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyeh and Syrian general Mohammed Suleiman.

The timing of the operation - not long after Operation Cast Lead in Gaza - is indicative of the importance which Israel places in its execution. If the powers that be decide that it is worth taking the risk and striking targets some 1,400 kilometers outside of Israel's borders, than it would appear that Israel believed Iran is seeking to supply Gaza with significant armaments.

A reasonable assumption would be that Iran sought to provide Hamas with Fajr missiles, whose deployment in Gaza would constitute what the IDF terms as ‘a weapon that shifts the balance.’ During the Gaza lull, Hamas smuggled Katyusha rockets with an increased range from 20 kilometers to 40 kilometers. If it successfully managed to obtain Fajrs, Hamas could have placed Tel Aviv within missile range, which is exactly the coup it has sought in an effort to create the impression of a victory over Israel.

What does Iran learn from all this? That Israel possesses exceptional intelligence, a willingness to take great risk, and an ability to act successfully against targets far from Israel's borders. Yet Iran knew all this after the previous strikes. If the reports are true, the bombing in Sudan was an important message of deterrence from Israel to Iran, yet the road from Sudan to the destruction of Iran's nuclear program is a long one

In recent days, a number of successful trials were conducted for the Iron Dome missile defense system, Defense Ministry officials reported Thursday. Pursuant to the trials, the timeline for deploying it has been advanced.

The officials emphasized that this was a serious trial, since they tested for the type of rockets that terror groups have been launching at Israeli civilians in the Gaza vicinity and western Negev.

They added that the trial had confirmed theoretical research and simulations and, as such, was an important milestone in improving the nation's operational capabilities.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak was alerted to the results of the trial and said that the development of a multi-layered missile defense system was a national objective.

‘The defense establishment is committed to doing everything it can to provide all of Israel's citizens with protection against rocket and missile threat, said the ministry's director-general, Pinhas Buchris

Israel's arrest of a dozen Palestinian Hamas politicians in the West Bank, in a renewed crackdown on the Islamist movement, is being seen as linked to the failure to negotiate the release of a captured Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's occupation forces raided the homes of the Hamas politicians in several West Bank towns overnight on charges of leading ‘efforts to restore the administrative branch of the Hamas terror organization in the region, while attempting to strengthen the power and influence of Hamas,’ according to the Israeli military.

Among the 12 captured are four members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), and the deputy prime minister and education minister in the dissolved Hamas-led government, Nasser al-Shaer.

West Bank sources said that two of the lawmakers, Azzam Salhab and Nizar Ramadan from Hebron, had only been released from Israeli detention less than two months earlier.

Hamas, privately backed by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, saw the crackdown as ‘retaliation’ to the collapse of Egyptian-mediated negotiations over a prisoner swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Gaza militants in June 2006.

Shortly after Shalit's seizure, the Israeli authorities arrested 36 Hamas PLC members, just several months after the Islamist movement swept the January 2006 elections. The new arrests bring to 39 the total number of Hamas lawmakers in Israeli jails. The move prompted Palestinian sources to accuse Israel of ‘gathering bargaining chips’ in exchange for Shalit.

A top Hamas leader, Salah al-Bardaweel, said in a statement the latest arrests were clearly aimed at pressuring the group to bow to Israeli demands in the prisoner exchange efforts

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on Monday said that while Israel was interested in exhausting diplomatic options against Iran's nuclear program, the army must nevertheless prepare itself for a military attack.

Ashkenazi, who is currently visiting the United States, has decided to cut short his trip in order to take part in a special cabinet session on negotiations for a deal to release abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

During a visit to Washington, D.C., Ashkenazi met with Dennis Ross, the designated U.S. envoy to the Persian Gulf, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the Iranian issue.

The IDF chief told Ross that Israel would not tolerate a nuclear Iran. He said that a diplomatic approach to Iran's contentious nuclear program must be taken first, but said Israel must also prepare for other possibilities.

Ashkenazi also met during his trip with General James Jones, national security adviser to President Barack Obama, to discuss other Middle East issues. The IDF chief held a number of other meetings over the course of his visit, but was forced to turn down an invitation to dine at the home of outgoing Israeli envoy Salai Meridor, in the company of other senior American officials

Israel's prime minister has promised an ‘uncompromising response’ if rockets continue to be fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

Mr. Olmert's statement came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Egypt on Sunday on her first Middle East trip since taking office.

Meanwhile, Palestinian medics said five people had died when a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed.

Both Israel and the main Palestinian militant group in Gaza, Hamas, declared unilateral truces following Israel's three-week Gaza offensive on 17 January.

But dozens of rocket strikes and other attacks from Gaza have been reported since then, apparently involving smaller militant groups.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that immediate diplomatic action must be taken on the Iranian nuclear program, in light of recent reports of initial tests at the Bushehr nuclear reactor in the Islamic Republic.

‘Time flies. It's slipping through our fingers. Even if the (US) Administration decides to engage in dialogue, such dialogue must be brief and limited in time,’ he said.

Barak's words came only hours after Iran's nuclear agency head announced that ‘good news’ would be released on April 9 regarding progress on the nuclear program.

Speaking at a conference at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, the defense minister added: ‘Firm and forceful sanctions need to be imposed on the Iranian regime, and there needs to be willingness to consider other options, in case those sanctions fail to stop the nuclear drive.’

According to Barak, Russia, which was a major partner in operating the reactor, plays a central role in curbing Iran's nuke efforts. ‘It's hard to see international sanctions stopping Iran if they’re not accompanied by close cooperation with the Russians, and possibly also the Chinese and the Indians.

‘Only a tight-knit, comprehensive and focused international ring could perhaps stop this project,’ he added

President Obama's policy of direct diplomacy with Iran may buy Tehran enough time to produce nuclear weapons, Shabtai Shavit, former chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, warned in an exclusive WND interview today.

‘I don't believe there is a political solution which can be achieved through negotiations with Iran,’ he said.

‘My concern is that until Obama finishes his learning curve of the subject, the Iranians are going to have maybe the first or even more nuclear bombs.’

Shavit served as director of the Mossad from 1989 through 1996. He clarified that although diplomacy cannot be ruled out, from his experience he doesn't believe there can be a political solution with Iran.

He said there is a military option but that at this point in time, an Israeli or U.S. strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities would not completely halt the country's suspected illicit program.

‘According to the best of my assessment, I'm afraid [using a strike to] completely disrupt the whole Iranian (nuclear) project and the whole system is not possible. But there still could be a military option. It depends what are the aims you define for [any such attack].’

Shavit told WND that if Obama is intent on pursuing talks, the diplomatic road to halting Iran's nuclear program runs through Russia. Moscow has been cooperating with Tehran militarily and reportedly is supplying Iran with some of the infrastructure used to build the country's nuclear facilities.

‘I believe Obama should start his voyage to change the world's geostrategic situation first in Moscow and only afterwards proceed with Tehran,’ he stated

Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's right-of-centre Likud party, has won the backing of a leading far-right party for his bid to become PM.

Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, made substantial gains in the recent general election.

Mr. Lieberman said he wanted to see a ‘wide’ coalition government taking in the three largest parties.

This makes it very likely that Mr. Netanyahu will be asked by President Shimon Peres to form a government.

Likud can in theory now count on the support of 65 of the Israeli parliament's 120 members.

Mr. Peres began meeting the parties on Wednesday as part of consultations on who to invite to attempt to form the next Israeli government.

Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima party won 28 parliamentary seats to 27 seats for Mr. Netanyahu's Likud party.

But nationalist and religious parties, natural allies of Likud, also did well in the election.

Mr. Netanyahu will have six weeks to sow up a coalition, once the invitation to do so comes from the president

Israel will not agree to a truce in Gaza unless an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants is freed, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.

There have been reports that Egypt was close to brokering a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel.

A punishing three-week Israeli assault on Gaza aimed at stopping militant rocket fire on Israel ended with separate ceasefires in January.

‘The position of the prime minister is that Israel won't reach any arrangement on a truce before the release of Gilad Shalit,’ Mr. Olmert's office said in a statement.

On Thursday, Hamas officials said they expected a truce with Israel to be announced within days.

Any truce is expected to see Israel gradually open the borders to Gaza, ending the blockade it has enforced since Hamas seized control of the territory in mid-2007.

In return, Israel wants to see an end to weapons smuggling and attacks from Gaza.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a deputy leader of Hamas, said his group had agreed to the terms of a 18-month ceasefire with Israel and that he expected it would be announced within 48 hours.

As the two leading candidates in Israel's election continued to claim victory, many Europeans expressed fear Wednesday that the shaky peace process was the real loser in the nearly deadlocked vote.

With an ultranationalist in the role of kingmaker, many were predicting that the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu would eventually prevail over the moderate Tzipi Livni _ hardening the government's stance in already stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The ambiguous election results threaten President Barack Obama's desire to make a peace deal an urgent priority, as signaled by his appointment of veteran negotiator Sen. George Mitchell as special envoy, European politicians and commentators said.

A long-term truce between Israel and the Islamic resistance organization Hamas could be reached within the next 48 hours, according to sources in Cairo.

This would replace the shaky and temporary truce reached on Jan. 18 following Israel's military offensive into Gaza which killed over 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilian, and left approximately 5,000 wounded.

Mahmoud al-Zahar one of Hamas's more militant Gaza-based leaders will be returning to Cairo shortly to possibly confirm an agreement between Israel and his group.

The agreement would include the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit as well as the release of at least 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Diplomats and Egyptian officials say the first part of an effort to implement a cease-fire calls for a truce of between one year and 18 months and the initial opening of at least two of the Gaza Strip's border crossings

Israel is concerned that Syria will transfer anti-aircraft missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon while the IDF is preoccupied with the escalation in violence in the Gaza Strip, defense officials said on Tuesday.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured the northern border on Tuesday amid a heightened level of alert, stemming from the fear that Hizbullah might carry out an attack to avenge last February's assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus.

‘It is difficult to know ahead of time where the [Hizbullah] response will come,’ Barak said. ‘We are also keeping an eye on the weapons smuggling from Syria to Hizbullah and there are a number of systems that we view as breaking the balance of power that cannot be allowed to be transferred.’

Israel is specifically concerned that Syria will transfer anti-aircraft systems to Hizbullah.

Hizbullah is already believed to have shoulder-to-air missiles and the transfer of additional systems would severely impair the IAF's operational freedom over Lebanon.

If these systems are transferred to Hizbullah, Israel would need to ‘consider its response,’ Barak said.

The Prime Minister's Office's Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a travel advisory this week, warning all Israelis of a potential Hizbullah attack overseas ahead of the one-year anniversary of the assassination on February 12.

Barak said that if there was an attack, Israel would hold the Lebanese government responsible

Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday promised that a government under his leadership would topple the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

‘[Kadima leader] Tzipi Livni and the people of Kadima scoffed at the predictions regarding rocket fire. A government under my leadership will overthrow the Hamas rule in Gaza and bring about a cessation of rocket fire,’ Netanyahu said during a tour of Ashkelon following the first Grad rocket attack since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead some two weeks ago.

‘The policy of blindness followed in the past years has brought us to this situation,’ Netanyahu continued. ‘Residents can no longer count on miracles and Kadima policy.’

Livni herself hinted that Hamas may come up against another IDF operation should rocket fire continue hitting the south of Israel.

‘My opinion on this matter is clear: Every attack must be met with a response,’ the foreign minister told Jerusalem Radio Tuesday, rejecting out of hand the possibility of diplomatic contact with Hamas.

‘Any negotiations with Hamas, whether direct or indirect, are harmful. From a strategic standpoint […] I think that we should make peace with the moderate elements,’ Livni said

Likud leader Binymain Netanyahu on Tuesday promised that a government led by him would topple the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

"Tzipi Livni and the people of Kadima scoffed at the predictions regarding rocket fire.

A government led by me will overthrow the Hamas rule in Gaza and bring about a cessation of rocket fire," Netanyahu said during a tour of Ashkelon following the first Grad rocket attack since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead some two weeks ago.

Israel warned on Tuesday that Hamas was ‘playing with fire’ shortly after Gaza militants fired a Grad rocket into the coastal city of Ashkelon.

‘Hamas is playing with fire, and if there is going to be an escalation now, Hamas has no one to blame but itself,’ said Mark Regev, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman.

The Grad that struck Ashkelon was the first such rocket to be fired at the city since a cease-fire ended Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza last month.

Three people were treated for shock after the attack, which also caused damage to property.

During his visit to the site of the rocket attack in Ashkelon on Tuesday, Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ‘topple the Hamas regime’ in Gaza if elected prime minister.

‘When we said a few years ago that missiles will fly in the direction of Ashkelon, Tzipi Livni and Kadima mocked us,’ Netanyahu said. ‘In recent years, Kadima's policy of blindness has brought us to where we are today. Ashkelon residents cannot trust Kadima. We need a change in policy.’

The former premier noted that the way to confront the rocket threat is solely through military means

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Wednesday that Israel's ceasefire terms were ‘unacceptable.’ Speaking from Damascus, Mashaal rejected a suggested secure zone within Gaza.

Mashaal also rejected Israel's offer to open its crossings with Gaza in exchange for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit will only be freed if Israel frees terrorist prisoners, Mashaal said. Hamas has demanded the release of over 1,000 terrorists in exchange for Shalit.

Another senior Hamas member, Salah al-Bardawil, said Hamas was negotiating from a position of strength. Israel did not win the latest round of fighting in Gaza, he said, explaining, ‘They did not detract from the motivation of the resistance.’

Israel needs a truce more than Hamas does, al-Bardawil continued. However, Hamas is flexible when it comes to striking a deal, he said. The group is expected to publicize its demands in the near future

The Israeli military, which maintains censorship on its casualties until next of kin are informed, said a bomb went off close to forces on the Israeli side of the border fence near the Kissufim crossing in the central Gaza Strip

Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Member Effie Eitam, who heads the Religious Zionist party Achi, signed an internal memorandum solidifying the relationship between the two parties; and stating that the Likud now sees Achi as a full-fledged political partner.

Bibi:"We have all seen the major role religious soldiers played in the latest campaign in Gaza. They used to say a Likudnik was someone who was carrying a kippa in his pocket, but here we have Likudniks wearing it on their head. We should be proud of them.

This agreement is much more than just a piece of paper. It's an ancient dream and signing it is a historic moment.

Rockets fell on northern Israel from Lebanon for the second time in a week, striking in open fields, Israeli police said

The rockets in northern Israel hit near the town of Kiryat Shmona, police said. No damage or injuries were reported from the attack, which came six days after a similar strike.

In Beirut, the Lebanese army said two rockets had been fired from the town of Hasbaya, and that the Israeli military had retaliated with rocket fire of its own. No further details were released.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came amid a nearly three-week Israeli campaign to stop similar attacks from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory of Gaza to the south.

At least three rockets have been fired into northern Israel from Lebanon, raising fears the Israeli offensive against militants in Gaza may spread.

The incident followed Israel's heaviest bombardment so far on Gaza, with 60 air strikes targeting Hamas facilities.

Efforts have continued to broker a ceasefire, as a senior Israeli official travelled to Cairo to hear details of a plan put forward by Egypt and France.

A Hamas delegation is expected in the Egyptian capital at some stage for parallel ‘technical’ talks, Egyptian diplomats said…

At least three Katyusha rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into the northern Israeli area of Nahariya early on Thursday…

Israel immediately responded with five artillery shells into Lebanon, calling it a ‘pinpoint response at the source of fire’.

The rocket attacks from Lebanon have raised concerns about a wider war in the region, says the BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen.

But the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was swift to condemn the attack, and called for the army and the UN to investigate.

Information Minister Tarek Mitri told the AFP news agency he had been ‘assured’ by the militant group Hezbollah they were not involved in the rocket attacks.

Israeli cabinet minister Raif Eitan said he believed Palestinians in Lebanon, not Hezbollah, were behind the attack

Several days before Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called several of his European counterparts and warned that Israel would face additional fronts if it attacked.

The rocket fire on Thursday morning from Lebanon into northern Israel can be seen as the realization of the Iranian threat.

It is safe to assume that Palestinian operatives, working in coordination with Hezbollah and sponsored by Iran, are responsible for the rocket attacks in Nahariya and elsewhere in the north.

The rocket fire also places Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah among the list of top Arab militant leaders. He doesn't just talk, he acts.

For now, Hezbollah is too sophisticated to claim responsibility for Thursday's rocket fire. Elections in Lebanon are scheduled to take place in about six months, and Hezbollah does not want to be perceived as the party that once again disrupted the relative calm the country has experienced. The group does not want to risk its standing at the polls.

However, Nasrallah's rhetoric from recent days says it all: ‘We are prepared for all Israeli aggression,’ he said. In other words, Hezbollah won't take responsibility for the rockets into Israel, but will claim credit for standing up against any Israeli retaliatory attacks, should there be any.

Nasrallah has already hinted that sources linked to Israel were responsible for the placement of rocket launchers discovered in Lebanon two weeks ago, not far from where rockets were fired from Thursday.

He also said that his operatives in south Lebanon are prepared to confront Israel and that any future war will make the Second Lebanon War look like a 'walk in the park.'

An Egyptian cleric has made a television appearance to demand death for Israelis who are attacking positions in the Gaza strip from which members of the Hamas terrorist organization are launching rockets into Israel.

‘Allah is with us, and there is nobody with them. Allah is our God, and there is nobody with them. We say to them: We are not equal. Our dead go to Paradise, while your dead go to the hellfire,’ said Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi in an appearance on Al-Aqsa Television just days ago.

‘We say to them that while our martyrs celebrate in Paradise, your dead find themselves in the Hellfire. We say to you: Dispatch those sons of apes and pigs to the hellfire, on the wings of the Qassam rockets.’…

‘Being killed is nothing new to us. It is what we desire and hope for. It is martyrdom, by Allah. This is Allah's victory coming to us. It is Paradise with the first drop of blood of the martyr,’ Higazi states.’I refuse to accept condolences or consolation over a martyr. It saddens me immensely when I see on TV a Palestinian woman from Gaza crying and wailing over her martyr. By Allah, I never see such things among the people of Palestine, the people of Gaza. We always see the mothers and wives of the martyrs in Palestine wailing for joy, and preparing another martyr, another man, to raise the banner,’ he continues

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says Palestinian militant group Hamas has suffered a ‘hard blow’, but insists the offensive in Gaza will continue.

Israel carried out 30 air strikes overnight, with heavy clashes reported east of Gaza City. Palestinian sources say a family of seven was killed.

A top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Zahhar, said the Islamists were heading for ‘victory’ against Israel.

Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, with separate missions to the Middle East being led by the French president, and a high-level EU team.

Palestinian medical sources say the numbers of people killed in Gaza now stands at more than 500, with some 2,500 others wounded. These figures cannot be independently verified.

Five Israelis have been killed by Palestinian militant fire since the start of Israel's military operation, which is now in its 10th day.

Speaking to MPs, Mr. Barak said the offensive would continue until ‘peace and tranquility’ was secured for Israeli civilians, referring to Israeli towns that have come under rocket attacks by militants.

Speaking on Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV, Mahmoud Zahhar praised those fighting for Hamas and hinted that Palestinian militants would try to target more Israeli civilians

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says Palestinian militant group Hamas has suffered a ‘hard blow’, but insists the offensive in Gaza will continue.

Israel carried out 30 air strikes overnight, with heavy clashes reported east of Gaza City. Palestinian sources say a family of seven was killed.

A top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Zahhar, said the Islamists were heading for ‘victory’ against Israel.

Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, with separate missions to the Middle East being led by the French president, and a high-level EU team.

Palestinian medical sources say the numbers of people killed in Gaza now stands at more than 500, with some 2,500 others wounded. These figures cannot be independently verified.

Five Israelis have been killed by Palestinian militant fire since the start of Israel's military operation, which is now in its 10th day.

Speaking on Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV, Mahmoud Zahhar praised those fighting for Hamas and hinted that Palestinian militants would try to target more Israeli civilians

Israeli F-16 bombers have pounded key targets across the Gaza Strip, killing more than 200 people, local medics say.

Most of those killed were policemen in the Hamas militant movement, which controls Gaza, but women and children also died, the Gaza officials said.

About 700 others were wounded, as missiles struck security compounds and militant bases, the officials said.

Israel said it was responding to an escalation in rocket attacks from Gaza and would bomb ‘as long as necessary’.

They were the heaviest Israeli attacks on Gaza for decades. More air raids were launched as night fell.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said ‘it won't be easy and it won't be short’.

‘There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight,’ he said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate halt to the violence, condemning what he called Israel's ‘excessive use of force leading to the killing and injuring of civilians’ and ‘the ongoing rocket attacks by Palestinian militants’.

Middle East envoy Tony Blair and the French EU presidency also urged an immediate ceasefire.

Palestinian militants frequently fire rockets against Israeli towns from inside the Gaza Strip; large numbers of rocket and mortar shells have been fired at Israel in recent days.

In a statement, Israel's military said it targeted ‘Hamas terror operatives’ as well as training camps and weapons storage warehouses.

A Hamas police spokesman, Islam Shahwan, said one of the raids targeted a police compound in Gaza City where a graduation ceremony for new personnel was taking place.

At least a dozen bodies of men in black uniforms were photographed at the Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City.

Israel said operations ‘will continue, will be expanded, and will deepen if necessary’.

It is the worst attack in Gaza since 1967 in terms of the number of Palestinian casualties, a senior analyst told the BBC in Jerusalem.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni defended the air raids, saying Israel had ‘no choice’. ‘We're doing what we need to do to defend our citizens,’ she said in a television broadcast.

Israel hit targets across Gaza, striking in the territory's main population centres, including Gaza City in the north and the southern towns of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Hamas said all of its security compounds in Gaza were destroyed by the air strikes, which Israel said hit some 40 targets

Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a press conference on Saturday in which he defended Israel Defense Forces strikes that left dozens dead in the Gaza Strip Saturday, saying Israel had no choice and that ‘the time has come to fight.’

Barak said the IDF and Israel Air Force attacks had destroyed ‘terrorism infrastructure’ and hit over 150 Hamas militants. He also said the current campaign would be widened and will continue for some time.

Barak said Israel cannot stand by while rockets strike the communities of the western Negev and ‘won't let terror hurt our citizens or soldiers.’

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Saturday addressed the ongoing IDF campaign in Gaza, saying ‘until now we have shown restraint. But today there is no other option than a military operation.’

Livni, speaking in English at a press conference, said Israel had no choice but to act to ‘protect our citizens from attack through a military response against the terror infrastructure in Gaza.’

Livni called the IDF operations an expression of Israel's ‘basic right to self-defense.’

U.S. DEMANDS HAMAS END TERRORIST ACTS, URGES ISRAEL TO AVOID CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

The United States on Saturday urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties in air strikes on Gaza, and said Hamas must stop rocket attacks into Israel for the violence to cease.

The White House did not call for an end to the Israel Air Force strikes that have killed at least 155 people in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

‘Hamas' continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people,’ White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

‘The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza,’ he said.

The Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip will closely resemble the Second Lebanon War, Hamas vowed on Saturday after a series of Israel Air Force strikes on the coastal enclave.

Hamas officials said all of Gaza's security compounds were destroyed. Hamas said it would seek revenge, including launching new rocket attacks on Israel and sending suicide bombers to Israel.

‘Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood,’ said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking on a Gaza radio station

The Hamas movement called on its military wing Saturday to fire long-range rockets at Israeli communities in response to the IDF’s assault on Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Fauzi Barhoum characterized the aerial strikes as a crime against all the Palestinian people. ‘We are calling on the al-Qassam Brigades to fire as far as possible,’ he said.

Barhoum said that Palestinian groups will not surrender despite the Israeli strike, which according to Palestinian reports claimed the lives of more than 100 people. The dead include senior members of the Palestinian police and of Hamas’ military wing. Some students were also reportedly hurt in the attacks.

The various Palestinian factions in the Strip characterized the Israeli assault as an ‘open war’ and made it clear that they are preparing for what’s to come. Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Abu Mujihad told Ynet that Palestinian groups have prepared a series of ‘surprises’ for Israel.

The spokesman said that Gaza organizations will not be deterred by the aerial assault and will proceed to fire rockets at Israeli communities that were previously out of the line of fire. According to estimates, Palestinian groups are preparing to launch rockets from deep within the Strip, and not only from areas near the border with Israel

The IDF is prepared to act with all its might in order to restore security to the South, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said.

‘Just a few kilometers away, the Hamas terror organization is disrupting the daily routine of southerners by firing dozens of rockets and trying to instill fear into our citizens, our women and our children,’ Ashkenazi said at an IAF pilots graduation ceremony in Hatzerim.

‘The current situation cannot continue and we will need to use all our might to hit the terror infrastructure and to create a new secure situation around the Gaza Strip,’ he continued.

He said that the IDF, together with the IAF as a central component of its might, ‘are ready and prepared’ to carry out any operation that will be required to defend Israel against terror.

‘We will act with wisdom, the correct considerations and responsibility…until calm and quiet are restored,’ he said.

The chief of staff spoke a day after some 80 rockets and mortar shells fired by Gaza terrorists hit the western Negev.

Rocket attacks continued Thursday with four Kassams and a mortar shell hitting the South, causing damage but no casualties

Israeli leaders have issued stern warnings to Palestinian militant group Hamas to stop rocket attacks on Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would not hesitate to strike Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, in the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni warned Israel ‘cannot tolerate’ Palestinian militants targeting Israeli citizens.

Some 50 rockets have been launched from Gaza in recent days, after the killing of three Hamas members by Israel.

Speaking after talks with the Egyptian leadership in Cairo on the failed ceasefire in Gaza, Ms Livni described the latest escalation as ‘unbearable’.

‘Hamas needs to understand that our aspiration to live in peace doesn't mean that Israel is going to take this kind of situation any longer. Enough is enough,’ she said

Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin said Sunday that Hamas is capable of firing rockets that can strike targets as distant from Gaza as the outskirts of the Negev capital of Be'er Sheva.

He told a meeting of the cabinet that rockets could also hit Kiryat Gat and Ashdod, cities which thus far were seen as beyond range. Hamas' armed wing used the last six months of relative calm to improve its medium and long-range rockets and mortars, he said.

‘We believe that if we strike at significant assets, they will respond with longer-range fire,’ Diskin said.

Hamas officials, meanwhile, are not ruling out a renewal of suicide bombings in Israel. Ayman Taha, a Hamas representative in Gaza, told Haaretz that under the current conditions, no cease-fire is in effect whatsoever. ‘Rocket fire is in the hands of the military wing. It will decide how to react,’ he said. ‘Resistance must continue in every way and by every means, as long as the occupation continues.’

In the course of the cabinet meeting, a number of ministers took Defense Minister Ehud Barak to task for what they termed the failure of his policy of relative restraint in the face of continued rocket fire into Israel from Gaza

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday that Israel must take all steps necessary to weaken Hamas' rule in the Gaza Strip, using a combination of immediate military, diplomatic, and economic measures.

During a conference at Tel Aviv University, Livni also called for Israel to respond to all Qassam rocket attacks originating from the Gaza Strip in order to ensure that Israel not present an image of weakness.

Israel must respond to all [rocket] fire. It won't stop the attacks, but the image also has a purpose, when the image is that Israel is weak, our deterrent ability is weakened,’ she said.

While Livni said she was ‘embarrassed to call the situation in the Gaza envelope a truce, as long as the rocket attacks haven't stopped,’ she emphasized that the responsibility for ensuring quiet in the Strip lies with Hamas.

‘If they know that we won't stay silent while rockets fall on Ashkelon they will enforce the truce themselves,’ Livni said.

Military sources told Haaretz that despite the recent escalation in the volume of rocket fire from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces have been ordered to maintain a policy of restraint.

As a result, the IDF is embarking on very few operations against the rocket-launching crews.

Since the Gaza border flared up again on November 4, following an IDF operation to destroy a tunnel near the border in which six Hamas operatives were killed, more than 200 rockets have been fired at Israel.

This includes 32 Grad Katyushas fired at Ashkelon over the course of a few days. The IDF views this as proof that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have large stockpiles of rockets, including sizable numbers of the longer-range Katyushas.

While Hamas was directly responsible for some of the earlier launches, over the last two weeks, it has largely left the firing to other factions.

Palestinian efforts to lay bombs near the border have also spiked in recent weeks.

However, the IDF's rules of engagement have remained unchanged. Soldiers are allowed to fire freely at rocket- and mortar-launching cells immediately before, during or after a launch, and with permission from a senior officer, they can also fire at Palestinians trying to lay bombs within half a kilometer of the border fence. Other than that, however, no offensive operations are permitted: For instance, the army cannot attack Hamas' offices or training facilities or assassinate members of its military wing

Israel wants to strengthen its relations with the EU and change what it calls Europe's ‘outdated’ perception of the Jewish state in the hearts and minds of Europeans, the country's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told MEPs on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad warned the EU against this move, citing lack of progress in the Middle East peace process.

Ms Livni tried to ‘bridge the gap’ between what she called a European perception of her state and what Israel ‘really’ was.

She rejected criticism from several MEPs concerned about Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying that her government was no longer actively pursuing this policy and that these were ‘minor activities’ that Israeli officials were trying to contain.

‘We are not trying to use or abuse the period of time in which we negotiate in order to have more land, or to get more land from the Palestinians,’ Ms Livni told MEPs, while asking for patience if a peace deal with the Palestinians was not reached by the end of the month, as pledged a year ago in Annapolis, during a US-brokered agreement.

Dozens of Jewish settlers rioted Tuesday in Hebron, clashing with the Israeli troops who guard them but who may also evict them from a disputed building they have occupied, agencies have reported.

Several MEPs warned that such actions of Israeli settlers went ‘against Israel’ and the peace process and urged Ms Livni to do more to stop them.

‘For us, the extension of settlers and colonists in the West Bank is not acceptable and does not allow negotiations to take place,’ said Belgian Socialist Veronique De Keyser.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also argued on Tuesday that the continued presence of settlers in the occupied territories meant that the EU should not upgrade its relation with Israel.

‘We asked for a meeting with representatives of those countries to express our deep concerns ahead of the debate on the strengthening of relations with Israel,’ he said, speaking to journalists after he met with diplomats from EU countries on Monday.

‘I told them that since Israel has violated all its commitments, including on human rights issues, EU countries should wait before upgrading the level of Israeli representation with the EU,’ he said.

Ms Livni defended her government's actions and said all security measures were imposed because of the ‘illegitimate’ Hamas government in the Gaza strip, which had no other goal than to destroy Israel and did not care about the humanitarian crisis of the Palestinians.

‘Do do you think that I, as a human being, want them to suffer? I don't want to, but put yourself in my position, what are the options?’ she said, when asked about civilian casualties following Israeli strikes the country claims are necessary to counter attacks from the Gaza strip.

‘I don't have the miracle situation for how to delegitimize a regime, how to fight terror, without any impact on the population. It is not a surgical operation, it is war,’ she said

Israel is nearing a wide-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Saturday, several hours after eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured in a mortar shell attack on the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel.

‘There's no doubt we're getting closer to a wide-scale operation in Gaza, but it will be different from what took place in the past,’ Vilnai said during an event in the southern city of Beersheba.

‘The truce is important to us and to them, as we control the crossings and the other side is afraid of the IDF's strength. But we must find the right time for an operation. Their provocations are not leaving us with much choice.’

The deputy defense minister rejected the possibility of evacuating the soldiers from the Nahal Oz base following the mortar attack, as the army did with the Zikim base last week. ‘We won't vacate every place,’ he said.

Addressing the negotiations with the Palestinians, Vilnai said, ‘Hamas is not a partner for a dialogue as long as it does not recognize us. The only vision we are facing at the moment is Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), but the tragedy is that he's getting weaker.

‘We must know that the only solution is reaching an understanding with the Palestinians. We must work with every element on the Palestinian side we can talk to, but in Gaza there's no one to talk to and the only language there is military power.’

As for the Islamic terror and the combined terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the deputy minister said, ‘This is a troublesome phenomenon. India is the biggest democracy in the world. The problem is Islamic terror which hits the entire world, and we are not just talking about the conflict between Jews and Palestinians.

‘The extreme religious terror must worry the entire free world. They want to damage all the signs of democracy we know.’

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the disparate Lebanese ethnic groups to unite against their common enemy - Israel, the Iranian IRNA news agency reported.

‘The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the power of all Lebanese groups should be at the service of the country's national unity to counter the danger of the Zionist regime,’ Khamenei told visiting Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.

Khamenei, lauding Suleiman's support of Islamic militancy and his efforts to establish unity in Lebanon, promised that Iran would always side with Beirut, stressing that Lebanon enjoys high significance despite its small geographical limits. One such instance of ‘exemplary’ coexistence of different religious groups in Lebanon, he said, was the ‘historical victory’ over the Israel.

‘Over the past 60 years, none of the Muslim and Arab states have been able to face the Zionist regime, but people in Lebanon managed to break this myth and drive the Israeli army out of their soil,’ he said.

Khamenei added that Lebanon has turned into a role model for other Muslim nations due to its ‘resistance’ to Israeli ‘aggressions,’ saying, ‘During the 33-day war period, many Muslims in the Islamic and Arab states chanted slogans in support of Lebanese Hizbullah, especially...Nasrallah.’

The top cleric went on to voice his support for the repatriation of Palestinian ‘refugees’ residing in Arab states. He said that although certain people suppose that repatriation of the Palestinian refugees is impossible, they would definitely ‘return’ to their ‘homeland.’

Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired more than 35 rockets toward Israel Wednesday, the army and the Islamist group said, hours after the Israeli army killed six militants in the coastal territory.

An Israeli police spokesman said the rockets landed in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks, the first such announcement by the Islamist group since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel went into effect on June 19.

Palestinian officials said they had been informed by Israel that all commercial border crossings with the Gaza Strip would remain closed Wednesday in response to the rocket attacks.

Israeli airstrikes killed five militants and Israeli soldiers shot dead a gunman during an incursion into the Gaza Strip Tuesday.

The army said it launched the airstrikes after militants attacked soldiers who entered the Gaza Strip to destroy a tunnel that Hamas had planned to use to kidnap Israeli soldiers.

The latest violence could jeopardize Egyptian efforts to extend the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and further complicate Cairo's efforts to secure the release of an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas two years ago.

Hamas has said it would release soldier Gilad Shalit in return for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel for their involvement in violent attacks against Israeli civilians during a Palestinian uprising

The person who will replace George W. Bush as US president will be friendly and Israel will be able to talk to him, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday, as the American presidential elections reached their final stretch.

He added, however, that the Jewish state cannot wait until the American nation completes the process of replacing its president.

Speaking during a tour of northern Israel, Olmert said, ‘I think our problems here require a quick solution, an urgent answer, and every day which passes without a solution will not return, it's lost.

‘The decision to set a deadline for the end of the year in a bid to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, while attempting to reach an agreement with the Syrians, has nothing to do with the identity of the US president or leader and the person who will replace him, whether it's Barack Obama or John McCain. I know them both and know they will be Israel's friends.

‘Analyzing what is happening here, and the developments in the Palestinian Authority and in the international arena, the question is whether we can delay our handling of these problems. I think not

Israel is upset over Egyptian military exercises in which the simulated “enemy” is Israel, and some are calling on the U.S. to reconsider its aid to Egypt because of it.

Israel and Egypt – two U.S. regional allies – signed a U.S.-sponsored peace treaty in 1979 – Israel’s first with an Arab nation.

The Egyptian navy reportedly carried out the largest exercise in its history last week. Dubbed Victory 41, the military maneuvers marked the Egyptian sinking of the Israeli Naval vessel Eilat 41 years ago, in which 47 Israeli sailors were killed and 91 wounded.

The paper also quoted the Egyptian Navy commander in chief Vice Admiral Mohad Mamish in an interview with the Arabic newspaper Al Ahram, saying that the Egyptian Naval vessels were outfitted with advanced missiles and the Navy had supply contracts with Germany, Russia and the U.S.

“Unfortunately now for more than 10 years most of the big Egyptian exercises are simulating war against Israel,” said Dr. Yuval Steinitz, member of the Israeli Knesset’s influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Despite the peace agreement between the two countries, Egypt is anti-Israel in most international bodies and is also educating the public “for hatred and not for peace.”

Earlier this year, the Anti-Defamation League told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that its analysts had found the Egyptian press to be “a leading propagator of anti-Semitic images” for many years and that that trend was now spreading to other newspapers in the region.

In 2006, a poll found that 92 percent of Egyptians regarded Israel as an enemy nation, and 50 percent regarded the U.S. as an enemy

Israel is closer than ever to peace, President Shimon Peres said during a speech given at an event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Shimon Peres Center for Peace.

‘Never in the past 100 years are we closer to peace than we are now’, Peres said during remarks before a crowd of hundreds of international leaders, politicians, businessmen, media representatives, sports and movie stars.

Mohammed Shtayeh, president of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, also addressed the crowd on Tuesday, where he called for the Palestinian people to come together for the cause of peace.

Shtayeh also said the Palestinians will hold a session of national reconciliation on November 9th, bringing together members of the rival Hamas and Fatah parties.

Hamas leaders on Tuesday said the arrests of dozens of its members by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces could hamper Egyptian-sponsored unity talks between them and Fatah.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the detentions could ‘poison the atmosphere and block the way’ towards reconciliation with Abbas's Fatah faction, which lost control of the Gaza Strip to the Islamist group in fighting in June 2007

EZEKIEL 13:10 "Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace"

Senior Tehran officials are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear reactors, a senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks ago in London.

The official, Dr. Seyed G. Safavi, said recent threats by Israeli authorities strengthened this position, but that as of yet, a preemptive strike has not been integrated into Iranian policy.

Safavi is head of the Research Institute of Strategic Studies in Tehran, and an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The institute is directly affiliated with Khamenei's office and with the Revolutionary Guards, and advises both on foreign policy issues.

Safavi is also the brother of Yahya Rahim Safavi, who was the head of the Revolutionary Guards until a year ago and now is an adviser to Khamenei, and holds significant influence on security matters in the Iranian government.

An Israeli political official said senior Jerusalem officials were shown Safavi's remarks, which are considered highly sensitive. The source said the briefing in London dealt with a number of issues, primarily a potential Israeli attack on an Iranian reactor.

Safavi said a small, experienced group of officials is lobbying for a preemptive strike against Israel. ‘The recent Israeli declarations and harsh rhetoric on a strike against Iran put ammunition in these individuals' hands,’ he said.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said in June that Israel would be forced to strike the Iranian nuclear reactor if Tehran continues to pursue its uranium enrichment program.

Safavi said Tehran recently drafted a new policy for responding to an Israeli or American attack on its nuclear facilities. While the previous policy called for attacks against Israel and American interests in the Middle East and beyond, the new policy is to target Israel alone.

He added that many Revolutionary Guard leaders want to respond to a U.S. attack on Iranian soil by striking Israel, as they believe Israel would be partner to any U.S. action

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Tuesday threatened to assassinate right-wing Israeli MK Avigdor Lieberman in retaliation for the recent violence between the Jewish and Arab populations in the northern city of Acre in recent days, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

The tension in the mixed city began Wednesday when an Arab resident drove into a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in the city on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, during which Israelis across the country refrain from driving. Outraged at what they described as a deliberate provocation, the Jewish residents assaulted the driver, sparking riots that raged in the city for five days.

According to Ma'an, Brigades spokesperson Abu Jamal vowed to make Lieberman's fate the same as that of slain right-wing minister Rehavam Ze'evi, who was shot dead by PFLP gunmen in 2001 in retaliation for the assassination of the militant group's leader, Abu Ali Mustafa.

Abu Jamal also issued a message of support for Palestinian citizens of Israel, the news agency went on to say, especially those in the riot-plagued city of Acre. He was quoted as saying that the Palestinian-Israeli truce in effect in the Gaza Strip would not stop his group from responding to the violence which he said was a part of a policy of expelling Palestinians from Israel

A wave of Arab terrorist attacks on Jews swept through Israel on the Sabbath, and soldiers arrested two Arabs who tried to infiltrate the Jewish community of Har Bracha near Shechem. They had arrived in the area on the pretense of picking olives next to the community.

Two firebomb attacks were reported in the town of Beit El, also in Samaria. Two Arab youths were arrested on Friday afternoon just outside Beit El as they prepared firebombs for throwing. A month ago, two Arabs were seriously wounded when soldiers shot them as they firebombed a Beit El neighborhood.

Three Border Police officers in eastern Jerusalem suffered light injuries in weekend battles with dozens of Arabs who attacked them in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina. IDF soldiers also were attacked while patrolling Highway 60 at Beit Omar, north of Hevron. The area is a frequent point of rock and firebomb attacks on Jewish motorists. The soldiers fired at the attackers, wounding one of them as he was hurling a large rock.

Also in Hevron over the weekend, soldiers took into custody two would-be terrorists who were carrying knives near the Jewish community and at the Cave of the Patriarchs. Arabs also burned tires near the chicken coops of Kibbutz Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion. In Samaria (Shomron), Arab rock-throwers attacked Jewish motorists. No injuries were reported in these incidents.

In Gaza, at least one tunnel smuggler was killed when a gas canister exploded, and other smugglers in the tunnel remain missing.

In the 2008 Survey of Patriotism among Israeli Jews, 92% said they were against dividing

The results were the latest in a trend over the past few years showing Israeli Jews’ support for their sovereignty over the holy city in any future peace agreement.

It also proves those who say they have a mandate from the people to relinquish parts of Jerusalem are wrong.

The poll, conducted and published by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Herzliya Inter-Disciplinary Center should cause Israeli politicians rethink their strategy over Jerusalem and will affect the current coalition talks.

The Palestinians want Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders giving them Jerusalem’s Old City and Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, but Israel intends on keeping those areas though some Left-wing MKs have suggested leaving them to an international body that would oversee their daily access.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will seek Tuesday to persuade Russian President Dmitry Medvedev not to sell weapons to Iran and Syria, but with little chance of success, diplomatic sources said.

Jerusalem is particularly concerned that sales of Russia's S-300 anti-aircraft missile system could threaten Israel's air superiority over both states. And if Iran received these missiles, it would be able to protect its nuclear sites more effectively, making an aerial strike on these sites more difficult.

However, Russia's arms export monopoly denied that it plans to deliver the S-300 missiles to either Iran or Syria, the Interfax news agency reported Monday.

‘We have no information of this kind,’ a spokesman for Rosoboronexport said when asked about potential sales of the sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons to Tehran or Damascus.

The S-300 missile, called the SA-10 in the west, has a range of 150 kilometers (90 miles) and is capable of striking a plane up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) above the ground.

Olmert, who is on a two-day visit to Moscow, is scheduled to meet Medvedev in the Kremlin at midday. Part of the meeting is due to be a tete-a-tete.

During his flight to Moscow Monday, Olmert was asked whether he could influence Russia's policy on arms sales and replied, ‘I don't want to boast.’ But his chances of dissuading Medvedev from selling arms to Iran and Syria are widely considered small.

Russian sources told Haaretz there would be no change in Russia's position. They said Russia would not provide any Middle Eastern country with offensive weapons that could disrupt the region's stability, but would consider any request for defensive weapons

Israel believes that Syria has renewed its nuclear activity with the intention of attaining weapons along the Iranian model, the Arabic-language A-Sharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday.

According to the report, Israeli military officials are concerned that Syria hopes to construct a number of nuclear facilities across the country simultaneously.

The military officials, who were apparently cited during a briefing of ‘a group of journalists,’ said that Israel would not allow Damascus to imitate the Iranian model, and would work tirelessly to halt any such Syrian effort.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat on Wednesday quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem denying the Israeli accusation that his country was arming Hezbollah.

‘It is not correct that Syria is supplying Hezbollah with weapons and equipment, as is claimed. Hezbollah does not need this,’ Moallem told the pan-Arab paper.

He argued that Israel was making the accusations merely as an excuse for Israel Air Force overflights of Lebanon

Israel is uninterested in attaining real peace, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awasat on Wednesday morning. The Syrian official was also quoted by the paper as saying that it was impossible to control the border between his country and Lebanon.

Asked how he felt about President Shimon Peres's latest remarks calling on Syrian President Bashar Assad to follow in the path of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and enter direct negotiations with Israel, Moallem replied that it was a sign that Jerusalem was uninterested in attaining a real peace. He likened the Israeli president's comments to ‘putting the cart before the horse.’

Moallem told the paper that it would be impossible ‘to control the common border’ between Syria and Lebanon, saying that such a move would require its demarcation as well as a security agreement between the two countries. Despite admitting to the continued smuggling of arms ‘to and from Lebanon,’ Moallem held that Hizbullah was not in need of these weapons.

Last week, the Syrian foreign minister met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in what may be a sign that the recent hardline American position towards the Middle Eastern country is softening. Moallem also met with Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch on Monday, to discuss various issues concerning the region, the Wall Street Journal reported.

During that interview, Moallem went into detail about Syria's position on the indirect negotiations with Israel, and on how such talks would affect the close relationship Damascus has with Teheran.

‘We had four rounds of talks, promising talks, in Istanbul. We agreed to have the fifth round... But because of the situation in Israel, the Israeli side asked the Turks to postpone it,’ he said. ‘We are waiting to see what the position of Ms. Livni's government will be.’

‘So are they ready to resume or not?’ the Syrian foreign minister asked. ‘The most important thing is whether or not to continue, but to have the will, the political will, to achieve peace based on the Madrid terms of reference and land-for-peace.’

‘Peace between Israel and Syria is part of a comprehensive peace involving the Lebanese, the Palestinians, and Israel also,’ Moallem said. ‘If we reach this point, it will have strategic implications for the entire Middle East. Whether we accept it or not, Iran is an important player in the region. And Iran always supported Syria's right to liberate the Golan Heights and the Palestinian people's rights.’

‘If we achieve this through peaceful means, I don't see the Iranians opposed,’ he concluded