For the present time the peace process is dead, the leaders may go through the motions and pretend that a solution is at hand, but the reality is that there is no breakthrough on the near horizon.
President Obama’s demands on Israel has caused the Palestinians to sit on their hands. Obama is demanding from Israel much of what the Palestinians have been asking for. The natural thing for the PA to do is get all the concessions from Israel they can through Obama and then demand more.
It seems that the Israeli leaders and people have begun to understand this, and are not really interested in serious negotiations, although they would not admit to this.
The PA has drawn a line in the sand, no more construction in Jerusalem or the West Bank, unless all construction is halted there will be no negotiations. They have also made other demands that are unacceptable to Israel. They are demanding East Jerusalem as exclusively Palestinian, and to make matter worse, Obama is saying the same things.
Now Israel has officially approved the construction of new homes and approved plans to complete 2500 homes already underway. They have also approved the construction of some 450 apartments. The blow has been softened by saying they will agree to a freeze after this construction.
The positions of both sides have been hardened by Obama’s approach to the whole situation. The PA are thinking why bargain when Obama is pressuring Israel. The Israeli`s are saying, we have to let Obama know that he can`t take us for granted and give us away altogether. And so Obama has muddied the waters and there will be no movement in the near future. That leaves us with the question, `What`s Next.
We now have a pressure cooker that is in danger of eventually blowing up. The other possibility is that the whole scenario is becoming so impossible that the one who the Bible says will come and sign a false Peace Treaty will now appear on the scene, the Antichrist out of Rome.
There will be no peace in the Middle East until the Prince of Peace comes to the throne of David in Jerusalem. Seven years before that a false Christ will come and sign a false peace that will last but a brief period of time.
The United States has confirmed long-time Israeli intelligence reports that Iran is close to achieving the ability to produce a nuclear bomb. Less than a year ago, American intelligence officials dismissed Israeli claims as inaccurate.
“Iran is now either very near or already in possession of sufficient low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon, if the decision were made to further enrich it to weapons grade,” said Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy to United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna. This “moves Iran closer to a dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity,” Davies added.
In his first meeting with the IAEA since his appointment by U.S. President Barack Obama, Davies stated, “We have serious concerns that Iran is deliberately attempting, at a minimum, to preserve a nuclear weapons option.” Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also has stated more than once that the State of Israel should be annihilated.
Davies’ comments were perhaps the strongest ever to be used by an American official since Iran has gone full-speed ahead with its nuclear program, which remains unsupervised by the United Nations agency.
The U.S. government, prompted by increasing pressure in Congress, wants the U.N. to impose stiffer sanctions against Tehran to pressure it into cooperating, but Russia and China have objected. Both courtiers have invested billions of dollars in the Iranian nuclear plants, one of which is beginning to enrich uranium that can be used for a nuclear weapon.
In what may be a related matter, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Russia on Tuesday on a secret mission, apparently over Russian arms deals with Iran and Syria.
The international community has speculated for more than a year on whether Israel will attempt a pre-emptive strike on Iran. President Obama has maintained that diplomatic strong-arming, economic sanctions and offers of trade benefits can persuade Iran to drop its uranium enrichment project.
The reason for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's mysterious 10-hour disappearance from the media radar on Monday was a clandestine trip to Russia, according to a report Wednesday by the Hebrew language daily Yediot Aharonot.
In Moscow, a spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied the reports, Reuters reported.
Israel Radio reported that Netanyahu leased a private jet since he knew using an Israel Air Force jet would raise the suspicions of the Israeli media.
For the purpose, his office used a plane of the company Merhav, a company owned by Israeli mogul Yossi Miman, one of the shareholders of Channel 10 and EMG, an Egyptian company supplying gas to the Israel Electric Company. Miman was not directly involved in leasing the jet, as this was done through a company he owns.
The PMO and Merhav refused to divulge the cost of the flight. Israel Radio further reported that the plane took off from a terminal in Ben Gurion International Airport which is mostly out of use.
The Prime Minister's Office would neither confirm nor deny whether Netanyahu visited Moscow.
Throughout Monday, the PMO, when asked about Netanyahu's whereabouts, said only that he was on a tour. After hours of speculation, and numerous inquiring phone calls, the PMO finally released the following laconic statement Monday evening: "The Prime Minister's military attaché reports that the prime minister is visiting a security installation inside Israel."
Netanyahu was accompanied to the installation by National Security Adviser Uzi Arad and the military attaché, Meir Kalifi, according to the statement.
However, a trip by the prime minister to Russia may not be an impromptu decision, as there was already speculation during Netanyahu's tour of Europe two weeks ago that he would visit Russia ahead of the United Nations General Assembly meeting at the end of this month.
Interestingly, almost exactly two years ago, then-prime minister Ehud Olmert paid a lightning visit to Moscow to meet with then-Russian president Vladimir Putin, a day after the Russian leader returned from a trip to Teheran in which he warned outside powers not to attack Iran and said there was no evidence it was developing nuclear arms.
Back then, the PMO tried to disconnect Olmert's trip from Putin's statements in Iran, but it was clear from the snap manner in which the meeting at the Kremlin was organized and announced that the Iranian nuclear issue would dominate the discussion.
A PMO statement was issued only one day ahead of the trip; the meeting was not open to the media, and was the first time in years that a prime minister has traveled for a one-day visit to a country other than Egypt, Jordan or Turkey.
On Sept. 25, Dar ul Islam, a mosque in Elizabeth, N.J., is slating a massive Friday "jummah" prayer event at the west front of the U.S. Capitol; on the very site that President Obama gave his inauguration speech not so long ago. This is not a joke. Click on this site and the strains of the sonorous Islamic call to prayer (which will be heard at the Capitol, I am guessing), will flow from your computer's loudspeakers. The mid-day summons to Allah will echo amongst Washington's most august monuments, the site says "for the sole purpose of prayer." And "the peace, beauty and solidarity of Islam will shine through the America's capital."
Solidarity? America's Muslims have such on-and-off mosque attendance statistics, it's impossible to get a realistic count of how many of them there are in this country. Methinks a lot of other religious groups aren't going to be happy about this jummah rally. "A Day of Islamic Unity," the event is called. Well, I guess if Louis Farrakhan could preach from the same spot during the Million Man March nearly 14 years ago, so can these folks. They're talking about reserving 500 buses and talking about 50,000 attendees, so this could be one big clump of folks who head for lunch at Union Station afterward.
The Star-Ledger in Newark came out with the story about all this on Thursday. The idea, according to organizers, is to celebrate Muslims already being an integral part of American society.
Well, if you can have giant menorahs on the White House lawn each December, you can have Muslims praying about one-quarter mile to the north. So if Islamic muezzins will chant out the "adhan," the call to worship, to folks kneeling on prayer rugs on the west front lawn, does that make the Capitol dome a minaret?
A young Jewish man suffered injuries on Sunday night when he was attacked by an angry gang. The victim, Robert, spoke with Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news agency on Monday about his ordeal.
As he walked from the Jaffa Gate to the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem's Old City he noticed a group of approximately 15 young men wearing black, Robert recalled. The men appeared to be novice priests, he said.
As he passed the group, one of the robed men tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he spoke Hebrew. When he answered in the affirmative, the man suddenly punched him in the face. Robert put his hands to his face, and realized that he was bleeding heavily.
Robert attempted to flee, but the gang of robed men pursued him and began kicking him. Just as he began to fear for his life, Robert was rescued by a group of Jews who were passing through the area.
His rescuers took him to a nearby police station, where he filed charges. Police said the attackers were filmed by security cameras in the area.
Robert received treatment for cuts to his face. Medics told him that the man who punched his face had apparently been holding a sharp object.
The assault joins a string of attacks against Jews in the Old City and surrounding, predominantly Muslim, areas.
Robert said Monday that he planned to respond to the attack by walking through the same area again on Monday.
US envoy Glyn Davies told a gathering of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors on Wednesday that Iran has probably already stockpiled enough enriched uranium to build at least one nuclear bomb.
Davies and other US officials concluded earlier in the year that Iran would not be able to field a nuclear weapon until 2013, at the earliest, and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei insisted last month that the Iran nuclear scare was "exaggerated."
But those positions were quickly reassessed at Wednesday's meeting, where the US and its European partners agreed to urgently prod Iran to enter serious negotiations over its nuclear program.
"Iran is now either very near or in possession already of sufficient low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon if the decision were made to further enrich it to weapons-grade ... (This) moves Iran closer to a dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity," said Davies in remarks carried by Reuters.
Iran reportedly responded to the renewed pressure by promising to start talks with Western power brokers "very soon," but observers noted that if Iran is really so close to building a nuclear bomb, there may be nothing left to talk about.
Jihadists close to al-Qaeda explicitly warned in new communications that Germany will be the target of the next 9/11-scale terrorist attack. The timing of the strike, they say, will be within the next few weeks.
According to analysts with the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR), a recently intercepted jihadist communication declares that "everyone knows" that the "next strike is very near, a strike that will surprise everyone in its effect, which will be much more shocking than that of 9/11/2001." The writer of the chilling message notes that this is the Muslim month of Ramadan and that "we pray that it will indeed be in this month."
After referring to a previous boast by Osama Bin-Laden, that the enemy is afraid and unable to prevent the next attack, the communication says:
"And the Germans, grandchildren of the Nazis, know more than everyone else that they will be the first ones to taste [the nightma. It is just a matter of time - that is, days or weeks - and God willing you'll see things that you've never heard of before."
While Germany and German assets have been singled out in the past, due to that nation's involvement in the war in Afghanistan, the threats have been general and motivational in nature. According to ITRR, the latest jihadist communication was unusual in that it was very explicit and open in targeting the Germans, in discussing a coming attack, and in specifying its timing. Aside from Ramadan, which ends 19 September 2009, the upcoming German national election on September 27 has been marked as a "red flag date" by ITRR. Jihadists keen on disrupting and influencing European foreign policy are likely to attempt attacks around the time of the elections.
German security services have also been cited in local media discussing stepped up jihadist chatter, threats and intelligence warnings aimed at the German state in recent months. Earlier this year, video messages delivered in German by an al-Qaeda fighter going by the name of Abu Talha, purportedly in Afghanistan, called on Germans to convert to Islam and remove their several thousand troops from the Afghan theater. According to a June report by Der Spiegel weekly, American intelligence agencies believe that al-Qaeda's leaders have decided to attack Germany, supposedly assigning the job to al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa)
More than 200 new Israelis -- 204, to be exact -- arrived home on Tuesday at Ben Gurion International Airport to the cheers of friends, family, and young IDF soldiers waving blue and white Israeli flags.
Yoseph Rabin - his brother Ben-Tzion made Aliyah today
Lots of New Olim
Aliyah for Me
Fishman Family