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White House Drumming Up Arab Support for Palestinian State
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsWorldTribune.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani deliver a joint statement after a multilateral meeting with the Arab League delegation at the Blair House in Washington, D.C. on April 29. /U.S. State Department photo

WASHINGTON — The administration of President Barack Obama has been recruiting Arab states to support a U.S. drive for a Palestinian state in 2014.

Officials said the White House and State Department have been lobbying Arab allies of Washington, to support a peace deal with Israel that would enable the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. They said
the Arab states were urged to move away from their traditional demand of a total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.

“We believe that with active Arab support, a peace initiative between Israel and the Palestinians would have a much greater chance of seeing results over the next year,” an official said.

On April 29, Qatar, which hosts Hamas headquarters, said it was ready to approve a peace deal that would include minor land swaps between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani, who spoke in Washington, said this position was shared by the rest of the Arab League.

“The Arab League delegation understands that peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis is starting [and] is a strategic choice for the Arab states,” Hamad said. “The Arab League delegation affirmed that agreement should be based on the two-state solution on the basis of the 4th of June 1967 lines, with the possible of comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land.”

In 2002, the Arab League issued a plan that called for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital as well as the return of the descendants of refugees from the 1948 war, reported at exceeding
seven million people. At the time, Israel’s government endorsed portions of the program.

In Washington, the Qatari prime minister convened foreign ministers and other officials from Bahrain, Egypt Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Later, Hamad, also foreign minister, met U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.

Officials said Kerry, assigned to launch a U.S. initiative for a Palestinian state in 2014, was pressing Arab states to modify their positions regarding a full Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 war. They said Kerry, in a strategy employed by then-President Bill Clinton nearly 20 years ago, also urged Arab states to offer diplomatic relations with Israel as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

“If the Palestinians and Israelis reach a final status agreement between them, then the Arab community, 22 Arab countries and 57 Muslim countries that have signed up as members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,
all of them have agreed, number one, that they would consider the conflict ended,” Kerry said on April 30. “Number two, that they would establish the normalization of relations with Israel; number three, that they would enter into peace agreements with Israel; and number four, that they would provide security for all states in the region. In other words, they are offering a security arrangement for that region.”

Hamad’s statement did not elicit enthusiasm in either Israel or the PA. The exception was Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, regarded as the most pro-U.S. member of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It’s definitely an important step,” Ms. Livni, responsible for negotiations with the PA, said. “I welcome it.”

U.S. to Arm Syrian Rebels: Putin’s Rebuke, Chinese “Peace Plan” Mar Netanyahu’s Chinese Trip
May 7th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Negative diplomatic ricochets are pursuing Israel in the aftermath of its air force attacks on Syria. In the first place, they are seen to have had no effect on Hizballah’s successful military intervention on the side of the Assad regime or the Syrian war at large. In the second, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, while in Shanghai, was given a sharp dressing-down by President Vladimir Putin Monday, May 6, a warning that Russia would not tolerate further Israeli attacks on Damascus and would respond.
Putin did not say how, but he did announce he had ordered the acceleration of highly advanced Russian weapons supplies to Syria.
debkafile’s military sources disclose that the Russian leader was referring to S-300 anti-air systems and the nuclear-capable 9K720 Iskander (NATO named SS-26 Stone) surface missiles, which are precise enough to hit a target within a 5-7 meter radius at a distance of 280 kilometers.
In his phone call to Netanyahu, the Russian leader made no bones about his determination not to permit the US, Israel or any other regional force (e.g. Turkey and Qatar) overthrow President Bashar Assad. He advised the prime minister to make sure to keep this in mind.
Our sources add: Since Syrian air defense teams have already trained in Russia on the handling of the S-300 interceptor batteries, they can go into service as soon as they are landed by one of Russia’s daily airlifts to Syria. Russian air defense officials will supervise their deployment and prepare them for operation.
Moscow is retaliating not just for Israel’s air operations against Syria but in anticipation of the Obama administration’s impending decision to send the first US arms shipments to the Syrian rebels.

Intelligence agencies in Moscow and the Middle East take it for granted that by the time Washington goes public on this decision, some of the Syrian rebel factions will already be armed with American weapons.

That the measure was in the works was signified by the introduction Monday by Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of legislation allowing the US to provide arms and military training to the Syrian rebels,

US military instructors have been working with Syrian rebels at training camps in Jordan and Turkey for some months. So putting the arms in their hands only awaited a decision in Washington.

Putin’s message to Netanyahu was intended to reach a wider audience than Jerusalem, such as Barack Obama in Washington and President Xi Jinping in Beijing ahead of Netanyahu’s talks there Tuesday.
Therefore, when US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Moscow that day, in an attempt “bridge the divide” between their governments on the Syria conflict, he was preceded by a barrage of Russian condemnation of the Israeli air strikes in Damascus “as a threat to regional stability,” a stiff warning from the Russian foreign ministry to the “West” to stop “politicizing the issue of chemical weapons in Syria,” and Moscow’s “concern that world public opinion was being prepared for possible foreign military intervention.”

In other words, the Russian leader rejected in advance and with both hands any attempt by the US to use the Israeli air strikes as leverage for a deal with Moscow for ending the Syrian war. US weapons supplies to the rebels would furthermore be matched by stepped-up arms supplies to the Assad regime, which Putin is totally committed to preserving.
Kerry planned back-to-back meetings Tuesday with Russian officials focusing mainly on Syria but also covering the Russian angle on the Boston bombings, and hoped-for cooperation on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear issues.
The Chinese government’s cold shoulder to Israel was exhibited less directly that Moscow’s but no less firmly.  Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was invited to visit Beijing and meet President Xi two days before the prime arrived in the Chinese capital Tuesday to begin the official part of his visit. The Chinese president unveiled his peace plan before meeting the Israeli prime minister.

This plan emphasizes, as the key to a settlement, the Palestinian right to a state on the basis of 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital. It also adopts Abbas’s preconditions for talks, including a stop to settlement activities, an end of the Gaza blockade and “proper handling” of the Palestinian prisoners issue.
Clearly, Prime Minister Netanyahu would have been wiser to postpone his Chinese visit instead of taking off while Israeli air force blasts will still reverberating in Damascus. By staying at home, he would have displayed a firmer and steadier hand at the helm.
And after taking off, he would have done well not to linger for two days in Shanghai first. This gave the Russian leader the chance to catch him wrong-footed and administer a strong, publicized rebuke, so bearing down on the agenda of Netanyahu’s forthcoming talks with Chinese leaders.

Turkey: IAF Attacks 'Unacceptable'
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Turkey:IAF Attackes 'Unacceptable'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said the Israeli air raids on Syria were "unacceptable."

"No excuse can justify this operation," Erdogan told ruling party lawmakers in parliament after Israel's weekend strikes on Syrian weapons sites, intended to prevent "game changing" weaponry from reaching Hizbullah.

Erdogan said the Israeli attacks were a "golden opportunity" for his one-time ally President Bashar al-Assad to cover up massacres of opponents. 

"Assad is trying to cover up what happened at Banias by using the Israeli raids as a pretext," said the Turkish premier, referring to a crackdown by

Assad's troops and militiamen in the Mediterranean city.

Meanwhile, Turkish and Israeli officials have come "close" to a deal on compensation for the 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla after talks in Jerusalem on Monday, AFP reported.

"The meeting was positive," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

"The two teams have a project but clarifications are still needed on some issues. The two sides expect to reach an accord in the near future," it said, without giving details

Syrian Sets Up War of Attrition Against Israel
May 7th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The Syrian Al-Watan Tuesday quoted the Khaled Abd Al-Majid, Secretary of the “Palestinian Popular Struggle Front” as announcing an early meeting of Palestinian factional leaders with Syria officials. They are to work on the details of the plan announced by Damascus Monday to give armed Palestinian free rein to use the Golan for attacking Israel to kick off a war of attrition. 

Netanyahu Orders Judea, Samaria Construction Freeze
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has requested that the Housing Ministry freeze new construction projects in Judea and Samaria (Shomron), IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal) reports.

Netanyahu met with Housing Minister Uri Ariel and asked him to halt promotion of new projects in the region, including by no longer putting up for bids tenders on new projects.

Just days ago Ariel said that if the state budget did not include funding for promised construction in Judea and Samaria, such as the planned project in E1 in Maaleh Adumim, his party would not support the budget.

Neither Ariel’s office nor Netanyahu’s gave an official response to the IDF Radio report.

The reported freeze on new projects comes shortly after United States President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to restart diplomatic talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Acting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that he will not negotiate with Netanyahu unless Israel freezes construction east of the 1949 armistice line. Abbas has made other demands as well, including the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israel.

Abbas’ term expired years ago, but he continues to act as PA Chairman as no new elections have been held.

During his last term as Prime Minister, Netanyahu froze construction in Judea and Samaria for several months in an attempt to bring the PA to the negotiating table. Abbas agreed to talk shortly before the construction freeze was to end, but backed out of negotiations when the freeze ended as scheduled.

Netanyahu Keeps Promise to Obama, Curbs Jewish Home - Building
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday honored a promise he made to the Obama Administration to curb the right of Jews to build homes in Judea, Samaria and on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

Washington is engaged in yet another push to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and Netanyahu pledged to halt all Jewish housing projects until June to give those efforts a chance.

It should be noted that what has been halted is Jewish construction inside existing Jewish settlements, which is not prohibited by any signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Some argue that by making such gestures, even when the various interim agreements don't call for it, weakens the Jewish people's historical claim to these lands.

The settlement freeze will be among the first major challenges facing the stability of Netanyahu's new coalition. The right-wing Jewish Home Party, which controls the Housing Ministry, has threatened to vote against the new national budget if the prime minister goes forward with the freeze.

Many members of Netanyahu's own Likud Party also disagree with such moves. Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said last week that Israel remains determined to build in Judea and Samaria and protect the hundreds of thousands of Jews already living there.

Let the Headlines Speak
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Ahmadinejad arrested by revolutionary guards
Turkish news agencies widely covered the story of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s arrest last Monday, which drew a stern reaction from the Islamic regime. WND reported exclusively on April 30 that Ahmadinejad had been detained for seven hours and warned to shut his mouth over his claim of having embarrassing documents on several regime officials.  

Lapid nixes Netanyahu-backed referendum on peace
“I believe that anyone who wants to promote a political settlement [with the Palestinians] and recognizes the importance of doing so can’t support a referendum, so I congratulate members of Yesh Atid on their decision to oppose the Jewish Home proposal and to put the good of the people before politics,” she said Monday.  

Tim Tebow Tops Forbes' 2013 List Of America's Most Influential Athletes
Well, this would seem to be a first. The four most influential athletes in America really don’t play. At least not lately. Idle NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has been back in the news, but not for any heroics: he was recently cut loose by the New York Jets after a one-year experiment as a part-time QB behind Mark Sanchez failed to yield results. The “Tebowmania” days in Denver are only 15 months old, but it seems like 15 years. And yet, when Americans are asked which pro athletes they believe carry the most influence with the public, Tebow’s name tops the list.  

Barkat: Let the Palestinians rename Ramallah as ‘Jerusalem’   Jerusalem’s mayor rules out any notion of Palestinian rule in the capital, slams Olmert’s peace offer as a ‘terrible mistake,’ and says it’s ‘ridiculous’ that Jews can’t pray on the Temple Mount  

Study pegs cost of immigration bill’s mass legalization at $6.3 trillion
The comprehensive immigration overhaul being taken up in the Senate this week could cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion if 11 million illegal immigrants are granted legal status, according to a long-awaited estimate by the conservative Heritage Foundation. The cost would arise from illegal immigrants tapping into the government's vast network of benefits and services, many of which are currently unavailable to them.  

H7N9 toll grows to 130 cases, 31 deaths
Health officials in China reported two new H7N9 infections, both from Fujian province, and four more deaths, boosting the outbreak's total to 130 cases, 31 of them (24%) fatal. One of the patients is a 9-year-old boy whose infection was detected during routine flu surveillance, according to official and media reports today. He has been discharged from the hospital, according to a statement Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP).  

Kerry in Moscow to bridge gap with Russia on Syria
US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Russia to try to bridge the divide with Washington over the Syria conflict. He is to have talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow but the two disagree on the future of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia, which supports Mr Assad, refuses to back US pressure designed to force him to step down.  

BENGHAZI WHISTLEBLOWER CONFIRMS: SPECIAL FORCES TOLD TO ‘STAND DOWN’   Hicks’ account of the ‘stand down’ order directly conflicts with the Obama administration’s official account of the events surrounding the attack and insistence that no U.S. military forces could reach Benghazi in time to act.  

Two earthquakes rattle Southeast Idaho just minutes apart
According to the U.S. Geological Survey at the University of Utah, the epicenter of the first quake was four miles East, South East of Lava Hot Springs at a depth of seven miles. The epicenter of the second quake was determined to be approximately three miles East of Lava Hot Springs. The depth of the second earthquake was set at three miles below the surface. There are reports that the quake was felt as far north as Pocatello and and as far south as Preston. We have not yet received any reports of property damage.  

Gold’s Peak Seen Over by Coutts on Dollar, Inflation Outlook
Coutts & Co. scaled back gold holdings as prices fell through $1,600 an ounce, saying that a return to the peak isn’t likely unless there’s a crisis in the Middle East, a weaker dollar or a jump in inflation.  

Bears Buzz Alaska Again
Two Bear H nuclear-capable bombers were detected flying into the military’s Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near the Aleutians, where a strategic missile defense radar is located, and Alaska’s North Slope region by the Arctic and Chukchi Seas on April 28 and 29, military officials told the Washington Free Beacon. Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis, a spokesman with the U.S. Northern Command, confirmed the fighter intercept of the latest bomber incursion but declined to provide details.  

Massive 17-Year Cicada Swarm Has Arrived on the East Coast: Swarmageddon is Here
The swarm has officially arrived. After 17 years of lurking beneath the ground, cicadas are hatching and popping out of the dirt like six-legged daisies. Thousands of insects will infest yards all along the East Coast--so you'd better be ready. The brood, which is known as Magicicada Brood II, is emerging as the ground begins to thaw. They only begin to fight their way out of the dirt once the soil eight inches below the surface reaches a balmy 64 degrees.  

Alaska's Remote Cleveland Volcano Erupts: International Air Traffic Could be Hit
One of the coldest places in the United States is experiencing a little bit more heat. Alaska's remote Cleveland Volcano is experiencing a continuous low-level eruption after it exploded early Saturday morning. Cleveland Volcano is a stratovolcano that is distinctively conical and symmetrical in form. It's actually the tallest member of the Four Mountains group, and is known for its hot springs around its base. The volcano has actually been restless since mid-2011 when it first began oozing lava. Since then, there have been about 20 to 25 eruptions at sporadic intervals.  

Russia and US to hold Syria talks in Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin is to hold talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Moscow to discuss the crisis in Syria. Mr Kerry's visit comes after Israel launched two air strikes in southern Syria, which sources say targeted weapons bound for militants in Lebanon. Russia condemned the attacks as threatening regional stability.  

N Korea 'removes' missiles from east coast launch site
North Korea has removed two medium-range missiles from a coastal launch site, indicating a lowering of tension on the peninsula, a US official said. Pyongyang was believed to be preparing for a launch last month, having threatened attacks in the region.  

Second Amendment Test or Horrible Idea? Activist Calls for Armed Protesters to March on Washington, D.C
Activist and talk radio host Adam Kokesh in a Facebook post last week called on his listeners to join him on July 4 to march on Washington, D.C., with loaded guns. More than 1,500 people have responded to say they plan to attend the event.  

Philippine volcano spews rocks, killing 5 climbers
One of the Philippines' most active volcanoes spewed huge rocks and ash after daybreak Tuesday, killing at least five climbers and trapping more than a dozen others near the crater in its first eruption in three years, officials said.  

Israel says 'no winds of war' despite Syria air strikes
Israel played down weekend air strikes close to Damascus reported to have killed dozens of Syrian soldiers, saying they were not aimed at influencing its neighbor's civil war but only at stopping Iranian missiles reaching Lebanese Hezbollah militants.  

Indonesian Government Placing Christian Children from West Papua in Islamic Boarding Schools,
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsJihad Watch (excerpts)
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

"These schools have one aim: to send their graduates back to Christian-majority Papua to spread their muscular form of Islam."

For some of these children, who may be as young as five, it's only when they arrive that they find out they have been recruited by "pesantren", Islamic boarding schools, where time to study maths, science or language is dwarfed by the hours spent in the mosque. There, in the words of one pesantren leader, "They learn to honour God, which is the main thing." These schools have one aim: to send their graduates back to Christian-majority Papua to spread their muscular form of Islam.

For about 50 years, a separatist insurgency has been active in Papua and hundreds of thousands have died in their efforts to gain independence for the province. Christianity, brought by Dutch and German missionaries, is both the faith of a vast majority of the indigenous population, and a key part of their identity. Islam actually has an even longer history in Papua than Christianity, but it's of a gentler kind than what's preached in Java's increasingly hardline mosques and it's still, for the moment at least, the minority religion. But when the pesantren children return from Java, their faith has changed. "They become different persons," Papuan Christian leader Benny Giay, tells me. "They have been brainwashed".

The schools insist they recruit only students who are already Muslims, but it's clear they are not too fussy. At Daarur Rasul, I quickly found two little boys, Filipus and Aldi, who were mualaf - brand new converts from Christianity. One radical Islamic organisation, Al Fatih Kafah Nusantara (AFKN), makes no bones about its intention to convert, and to use religion for political ends. Leader Fadzlan Garamatan says AFKN has brought 2200 children out of Papua as part of his program of nationalistic "Islamicisation". "When [Papuans] convert to Islam, their desire to be independent reduces," says Fadzlan on AFKN's internet page.

Federal Europe will be 'a Reality in a Few Years', Says Jose Manuel Barroso
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph - Bruno Waterfield, Brussels
Categories: Today's Headlines;Revived Roman Empire

China Issues Israel - Palestinian “Peace Plan”
May 7th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

The plan was unveiled by Chinese President Xi Jinping Monday at his talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas Monday, ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s arrival in Beijing for an official visit. The plan emphases as the key to a settlement the Palestinian right to a state with full sovereignty on the basis of 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital. “At the same time Israel’s right to exist and its legitimate security concerns should be fully respected.” DEBKAfile: The Chinese plan adopted Abbas’s preconditions for talks: “The immediate priority is to take credible steps to stop settlement activities, end violence against innocent civilians, lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip and properly handle the issue of Palestinian prisoners, in order to create the necessary conditions for the resumption of peace talks,” the Xi plan stressed. Furthermore, “principles such as land for peace should be firmly upheld.”

Canada: York Regional Police Pressured Synagogue
May 7th, 2013
Daily NewsJihad Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues