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UN chief: End occupation, divide Jerusalem

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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« Reply #360 on: May 27, 2013, 08:01:57 am »

Erekat: Israelis want peace, Netanyahu must be convinced

PA official: Gov't not consistent in support of 2-state solution.


John Kerry, pure Evil
US Secretary of State John Kerry (R) shakes hands with Saeb Erekat, April 2013. Photo: REUTERS


Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Monday that he believes the majority of Israelis want a peace agreement and accept a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 lines, but  Israel's government has not been consistent in voicing support for such a solution.

Speaking in an interview with Army Radio, Erekat welcomed President Shimon Peres's call for an immediate resumption of peace talks in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Jordan on Sunday, however, he stated that the reactions of several ministers to Peres's speech was troubling.

Erekat said that after hearing Peres's speech, he woke up Monday morning and saw in the Israeli newspapers Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz saying Peres was not a government spokesman and Tourism Minister Uzi Landau referring to the pre-1967 lines as "Auschwitz borders."

"I know you are a democracy, but usually a coalition has a program," Erekat said in response to the different opinions being voiced by Israeli politicians.

The PA negotiator said that "everyone on Earth is convinced that a state on the 67 borders is the answer, but the one person we must convince is [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu.

Erekat stated that the PA's insistence that talks not resume until Netanyahu accepts a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines does not constitute a pre-condition, but rather is an Israeli obligation to conform to UN resolutions as set out in the Oslo Accords.

Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) accused Erekat of "chutzpa," pointing out differing opinions among Israeli politicians while the PA holds reconciliation talks with Hamas, which rejects a two-state solution.

Erdan said that Netanyahu has made clear that he supports a two-state solution.

In addition to Peres, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State John Kerry also addressed the World Economic Forum in Jordan on Sunday. Kerry unveiled a $4 billion economic plan to revitalize the Palestinian economy, but added that the plan was not a substitute for a diplomatic process.

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Erekat-Israelis-want-peace-Netanyahu-must-be-convinced-314481
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« Reply #361 on: May 27, 2013, 12:55:14 pm »

Israeli, Palestinian business leaders call for two-state solution

The Breaking the Impasse initiative contains both secular and religious businesspeople and academics.

About 300 Israeli and Palestinian business leaders called on their governments Monday to move swiftly toward a two-state solution and end the conflict between the two peoples.

http://www.haaretz.com/business/israeli-palestinian-business-leaders-call-for-two-state-solution.premium-1.526282
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« Reply #362 on: June 02, 2013, 06:55:11 am »

 Shocked  Shocked  Shocked  Shocked

Kerry wants major Israeli concessions for Palestinians, including sovereign northern Dead Sea coast

US Secretary of State John Kerry put a package of proposals for reviving the moribund Israel-Palestinian peace process before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and peace negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and then returned to Amman Monday, May 27.

He keeps the package's contents firmly under his hat. However, according to some of the details revealed here for the first time by DEBKAfile’s sources, Kerry’s top-secret plan places on Israel the onus of major concessions including strategic and national assets, for the sake of buying the Palestinian leader’s consent to sit down and talk. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is not required to pay anything real in return - although it was who stalled the peace negotiations in the first place.

As the first of these concessions, Kerry wants Israel to permit the Palestinians to build in Jericho for their prospective state an international airport for direct civilian flights to and from America and Europe. Those flights would cross Israeli air space and be coordinated with Israeli flight control authorities.

Our exclusive sources further disclose that, while Palestinian authorities would be in charge of security at the future Jericho airport, Israel would maintain control of passengers and freight traffic by means of computer and surveillance camera networks.

In 2006, a similar remote system was installed at the Gaza Strip’s Rafah border post under European controllers after Israel’s withdrawal from the territory. It soon broke down when the foreign controllers were scared away by Palestinian threats.

Kerry envisages the transformation of the entire Jericho region north of the Dead Sea and near the Jordanian border into a busy hub for galvanizing the economy of the future Palestinian state. He wants Israel to hand over to the Palestinians the Kalia region on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Kibbutz Kalia, albeit part of sovereign Israel from its inception in 1948, is nonetheless one of the assets Kerry wants Israel to cede to the Palestinians.

The fate of the veteran Israeli kibbutz is left up in the air.

Israeli concessions would not end at the northern Dead Sea coast, according to the secret Kerry plan; it would be just the first in a series of land and sovereignty handovers granted the Palestinians in trilateral negotiations among Israel, the Palestinians and the United States.

The Palestinians would also be awarded by the process a three-year economic reconstruction program for boosting their Gross National Product by 50 percent and slashing unemployment from 21 to 8 percent.

The Middle East Quartet’s Special Envoy Tony Blair will head the program, Secretary Kerry reported to the world economic forum meeting in Jordan Sunday, May 26. His goal is to raise $4 billion for investing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“This is the biggest, boldest and most ambitious program ever granted the Palestinians since Oslo, 20 years ago,” Kerry told the forum.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has not divulged his views on the Kerry proposals - merely for winning Palestinian consent to talk peace. Since the payment of sovereign Israeli territory would be no more than the down- payment for pulling the Palestinians to the table, how many more high-value security and national assets will Israel will be required to part with along the road toward meeting the Palestinians’ ever-rising price tag?

Abu Mazen has gone on record as rejecting any economic proposals unaccompanied by political concessions. However, Kerry is still hard at his shuttle diplomacy and his talks with the Palestinian leader continue.

http://www.debka.com/article/22999/Kerry-wants-major-Israeli-concessions-for-Palestinians-including-sovereign-northern-Dead-Sea-coast-
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« Reply #363 on: June 03, 2013, 04:37:51 am »

ALL that land that Arab countries have, and they want what Israel has to form a "Palestinian state". And they will keeping taking till Israel no longer exists as a state.

We can see why it will require Jesus to put an end to that mess.
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« Reply #364 on: June 03, 2013, 11:05:26 am »

ALL that land that Arab countries have, and they want what Israel has to form a "Palestinian state". And they will keeping taking till Israel no longer exists as a state.

We can see why it will require Jesus to put an end to that mess.

And the West is doing all they can to help them now - and to boot, the "truth movement" is being conned into throwing their hat into the ring as well.
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« Reply #365 on: June 04, 2013, 09:23:26 am »

Kerry: Collapse of Palestinian Authority Would be Worse for Israel and US

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is asking American Jewish leaders to help break a deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that he says helps fuel extremism and terrorism across the world. Kerry says he is considering another trip to the region to push talks forward.
 
Kerry is trying to revive a sense of urgency in the Middle East peace process, saying the relative stability of today is not guaranteed tomorrow.
 
"And the people who think somehow because there is a fence and because there has been greater security and fewer people hurt are lulling themselves into a delusion that that somehow can be sustained. It can not be," said Kerry.
 
He told a Washington meeting of the American Jewish Committee that the Palestinian Authority's commitment to non-violence is Israel's best chance for a two-state solution.
 
"If that experiment is allowed to fail, ask yourselves: What will replace it? What will happen if the Palestinian economy implodes? If the Palestinian security forces dissolve? If the Palestinian Authority fails? Surely something much worse for Israel's interests and for America's and for the region," he said.
 
Kerry says the failure of the current Palestinian leadership could bring about the same kind of extremism in the West Bank that Israelis are facing from Hamas in Gaza and from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
 
"So before anybody gives up on this hope, we have to ask whether we are prepared to live with permanent conflict, with the possibility of widespread civil disobedience, with the possibility of a civil rights movement that grows in the West Bank, with the possibility of another Intifada always looming around the corner," he said.
 
If there is no return to peace talks, Palestinian leaders already have said they will seek to join more United Nations organizations and will seek to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court.
 
Kerry told the Jewish group the United States will always have Israel's back and will always stand up for Israel's security. "But wouldn't we both be stronger," he asked, "if we had some company?"
 
Kerry has met repeatedly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since taking over as secretary of state in February. He says "both sides are weighing the choices that they have in front of them very, very seriously" and he will decide "at some point" whether he needs to return to the region "to go push a little bit or help that process."

http://www.voanews.com/content/kerry-collapse-of-palestinian-authority-would-be-worse-for-israel-and-us/1674571.html
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« Reply #366 on: June 04, 2013, 01:27:13 pm »

Quote
"If that experiment is allowed to fail, ask yourselves: What will replace it? What will happen if the Palestinian economy implodes? If the Palestinian security forces dissolve? If the Palestinian Authority fails? Surely something much worse for Israel's interests and for America's and for the region," he said.

That is such hogwash!  Roll Eyes

What would replace it? Nothing. You can't lose what didn't exist in the first place.

Don't like Israel? Move. There is a nice Arab community right next door. It's called the Middle East!
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« Reply #367 on: June 05, 2013, 10:00:06 pm »

Video: Obama UN Appointee in Highly Inflammatory Interview

Obama’s choice of US ambassador to UN calls for "mammoth protection force", re-allocation of aid to "new state of Palestine".




President Barack Obama’s nominee for United States ambassador to the United Nations gave a highly anti-Israel interview in April 2002 in which she said that "external intervention" may be necessary to prevent "genocide" and "major human rights abuses" in the "Palestine/Israeli situation".

Responding to a hypothetical question, Samantha Power, who was named to replace ambassador Susan Rice, said if given the opportunity she would advise the president to sacrifice billions of dollars of aid to the Jewish state, allocating the funds instead  to “the new state of Palestine.”

“In the Palestine-Israeli situation, there’s an abundance of information and what we don’t need is some kind of early warning mechanism there,” she said, in response to a question regarding how the United States should monitor a situation in the Middle east which may be “moving toward genocide.”

“What we need is a willingness to actually put something on the line in service of helping the situation, and putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import. It may more crucially mean sacrificing or investing literally billions of dollars not in servicing Israel’s military but actually investing in the new state of Palestine, investing billions of dollars it would probably take also to support what I think will have to be a mammoth protection force,” she said.

“You have to go in as if you are serious. You have to put something on the line and unfortunately the imposition of a solution on unwilling parties is dreadful,” she continued.

Power, a longtime adviser for President Obama, left the administration in February, but was considered the favorite to replace Rice at the U.N.

She worked on his 2008 presidential campaign and was senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights during the president’s first term in office.
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« Reply #368 on: June 09, 2013, 06:43:26 am »

Israel official: No Palestinian state in '67 lines

A senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the Israeli government will not accept a Palestinian state with the borders favored by the Palestinians and the international community, a new hurdle to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's effort to restart peace talks in his latest visit to the region.

Netanyahu's office rushed to distance itself from the comments by Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, a rising star in the Likud.

Danon said in comments broadcast on Israel Radio that the government would not agree to a Palestinian state based on Israel's borders before the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel from Jordan in 1967.

The Palestinians say final borders between Israel and a future Palestine must be based on the 1967 lines. Israeli hardliners oppose a broad withdrawal from the West Bank on both security and religious grounds.

"We are a nationalist government and not a government that will establish a Palestinian government in 1967 lines," Danon said.

Danon went even further in comments to the Times of Israel news site last week, saying that hawks inside the governing coalition will never allow a Palestinian state to be formed.

The international community, including the U.S., has endorsed the 1967 lines as the basis for border talks. While Netanyahu says he supports Palestinian independence, he has refused to commit to any borders, saying only that all issues of disagreement should be resolved in negotiations.

Officials in Netanyahu's office said that Danon had stated a personal opinion, and his comments did not reflect government opinion.

Speaking to his Cabinet Sunday, Netanyahu said the government must speak in unison if he is to achieve his goal of restarting peace negotiations.

Kerry has been shuttling between the sides in recent months in hopes of finding a formula to restart negotiations. He is expected in the region this week on what would be his fifth visit since becoming Secretary of State early this year.

Netanyahu told the Cabinet that he will discuss the impasse with Kerry. "Together we will try and advance a way to find an opening for negotiations with the Palestinians in order to reach an agreement," he said. "That agreement will be based on a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state and solid security arrangements."

Talks have been stalled since late 2008. The Palestinians have refused to return to the negotiations until Israel ends construction in territory it wants for a future state. Israel says that settlements along with other core issues like security should be resolved through talks and have frequently called for negotiations to resume immediately without preconditions.

Kerry has been searching for a formula that would curtail most settlement construction, provide security guarantees to Israel and economic incentives to the Palestinians. But so far, there have been no signs of progress.

Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, Tzipi Livni, said Sunday that she is working hard together with the U.S to restart talks, despite those within the government that oppose it.

"It is true that within the Likud there are radical elements and within the government there are those that oppose an agreement," Livni told Israel Radio. "The prime minister is the one who will have to decide whether he surrenders to radical elements or will promote his policy that he declared," she said.

Livni said Danon's comments "look bad."

But the top Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Danon's remarks outline Israel's policy. "I believe that a government who continues to tender settlements and refuses the two state solution will not go for peace," he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/09/israel-palestinian-state-danon/2404829/
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« Reply #369 on: June 09, 2013, 09:46:17 am »

Before the AC makes his appearance, I believe a lot of what they're doing now is nothing more than lip service. IOW, before the AC makes his appearance, it's as if there's going to be tons of confusion b/w everyone until a "referee" steps in to straighten things out.

JMHO.
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« Reply #370 on: June 20, 2013, 11:40:41 am »

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/SendFriend.ashx?print=1&type=1&item=13456
Israel is Selling Out the Land

Why doesn't the Israeli government stand up for the rights of Jews to holy sites?

6/19/13

Mention any biblical and historic site of the Jewish people. You won't find one preserved and protected by the Israeli establishment.
 
Not only is the Temple Mount no longer "in our hands", but its easier substitute, the Western Wall, has also been conceded by Israel’s government to a group of femminists and cultural extremists.

Judaism's holiest place on earth today is the site of the most severe religious persecution of the Jews. Israeli governments have failed to stand up to wanton Palestinian acts of desecration. It’s the greatest crime of all – a religious and cultural crime of historic proportions.
 
Under pressure from Europe's multiculturalists, United States, political Islam and Unesco, which are all trying to “de-Judaize” and “Islamicize” the most holy Jewish sites, the State of Israel seems top be giving up its sovereignity on sacred sites.
 
These Israeli "leaders", leftist or rightist, seem proud that Dizengoff has replaced the Western Wall, that Herzliya is surrendering the Cave of the Patriarchs and that Holon is giving up the tomb of Rachel.
 
Israel is giving legitimacy to a fake Arabized geography which opens the Jüdenrein post-1967 areas, a de-Judaized “holy land”. When last January Benjamin Netanyahu visited the isolated "settlement" of Rechelim, it was called a "historic" visit. Why? Has Israel already forsaken these holy hilltops to the Sunni terrorists?
 
The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem— the second most important Jewish holy sites — have been omitted from the list of Israel’s national heritage sites. If it’s “West Bank” or “Palestine”, as most of Israeli establishment believes, those are justifications for saying that “Jews stole it”.

The problem in fact is that Israeli mainstream has been persuaded to think that the Palestinian Arabs, whose members came to the holy land from the Arabian desert in the 7th century, are the descendants of the non-extant, disappeared “indigenous Canaanites” of the Bible.
 
Beit HaShalom in Hevron was purchased for a million dollars, but 16 holy Jewish families were evicted by a rightist Israeli government from the premises for no reason at all – as a court ruling issued later determined.
 
Joseph’s Tomb near Nablus, which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, is an abandoned site which can be reached by Jewish worshippers only like thieves in the night, escorted by the IDF and only once in a month. It was Ehud Barak, not Hamas, that abandoned the site to the terrorists.
 
No Jew is permitted to set foot without military escort in the Shalom al Yisrael synagogue of the “city of palms”, Jericho. What is the difference between today's segregation and that existing between 1948 and 1967, when Jews were denied access to it?
 
Who knows that the Tomb of Joshua bin Nun is in Kefel Hares?
 
A few days ago, Israel finalized the deal with the Vatican for the sovereignity over David’s tomb on Mount Zion, where some believe Jewish kings of Judea are buried. Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert wanted to turn over to the Arabs not only the Old City of Jerusalem, but also the Mount of Olives and the ancient excavated City of David.
 
Having accepted that east Jerusalem, where the real Jewish history took place, is “the Palestinian capital”, Israel gave the final ammunition to its enemies, including the liberal left, the Jewish self haters, large segments of Christianity and Islamism, which already justified the eradication of the Jewish people.
 
Israel's materialism, self anti-Semitism, consumerism and relativism have turned Beit El (the site of the Holy Ark and Prophet Samuel's court), Bethlehem (the birth place of King David), Shilo (the site of Joshua's tabernacle and the Holy Ark) and Tekoa (hometown of the Prophet Amos) into symbols of "apartheid" and "colonialism". It is Israel's fault, it is the greatest Jewish betrayal.

In the eyes of Israel's decision-makers, these holy sites, once sources of national pride, have become a "security problem". That land can't be called “Zion” without Jerusalem's real city, Bethlehem, Hevron, Jericho, Beit El, Shilo and Shechem. These are Israel's genetic code.
 
If Israel loses the sovereignty over these sacred dots on the map, the Jewish State becomes the Nazis' Luftmenschen – the human beings of the air. And that state will go down like a castle of sand.
 
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« Reply #371 on: June 20, 2013, 02:54:53 pm »

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Israeli governments have failed to stand up to wanton Palestinian acts of desecration.

Why would they, the Israeli government is secular. There may be some practicing Jews within their government, but it's not a Jewish state. It's an Israeli state. Just like the US is not a Christian state, it's secular, and for now, with socialistic tendencies.

All the world's governments in the end are a-religious, if they want to play ball with the UN. Even the so-called "Islamic states" are secular in practice, though they present a religious front to appease the majority.
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« Reply #372 on: June 26, 2013, 11:50:35 am »

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-vatican-deal-on-land-use-said-imminent/
6/6/13
Israel-Vatican deal on land use said imminent

Deputy FM, in Rome, says agreement could be signed this year; Holy See to receive permission for two new churches


Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin was in Rome for high-level negotiations with Vatican officials over several outstanding land and building issues revolving around properties owned by the Holy See in Israel.

Elkin visited the Holy See to continue decades-long talks on a comprehensive land deal between Israel and the Vatican, Maariv reported Thursday.

Elkin told the Hebrew daily that, after meeting with the Vatican negotiating team and then separately with Pope Francis I, he thought an agreement would be signed by the end of the year, which would pave the way for the new pope’s promised visit to the Holy Land. Elkin’s meetings Wednesday were the first such negotiations in two years.

The two main points of discussion revolved around Vatican requests to build two new centers in Israel.

The Church has long lobbied to build a new church in a section of the Caesaria National Park where a church dedicated to St. Paul once stood. The area is now an archaeological and tourist site. Israel had previously refused the request, but now it seems Jerusalem will approve the construction of a center in the area, as long as the new complex does not have outward Christian religious symbols or resemble in its design a traditional church.

The other main issue is a plot of Vatican-owned land on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, currently used as a parking lot, but desired by the Holy See for a church. Israel won’t allow the land to be used for construction, but has reportedly offered use of an alternative swath of land in the capital.

A structure on Mt. Zion known as the Cenacle, where the Last Supper is believed to have taken place, will become open to Catholic worship once again, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported. The site will be administered by the Franciscan order but ownership will remain with Israel. The structure, also known as the “Upper Room,” rests above what’s believed to be King David’s Tomb, although many archaeologists differ on whether the Jewish king was actually buried there.

La Stampa reported in late May that under the terms of a possible agreement, commercial activities run on church properties such as restaurants or souvenir shops will become subject to Israeli sales tax.

The extensive properties owed by the church will continue to be exempt from paying property tax.

Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement in 1993 dealing with property and tax rights for Roman Catholic Church properties in Israel, which paved the way for the opening of full diplomatic relations between the two states in 1994, but several outstanding issues remained, leading to on-again off-again negotiations over the years.

“The negotiations took place in a thoughtful and constructive atmosphere… significant progress was made and the parties committed themselves to accelerate negotiations on the remaining issues, and look forward to an expedited conclusion in the near term,” a press release jointly issued by Israel and the Vatican said.

During his time in Rome, Elkin is to meet with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and Foreign Minister Emma Bonino to discuss issues of concern to both countries. Elkin is scheduled to continue on to Russia next week.
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« Reply #373 on: June 26, 2013, 01:47:06 pm »

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commercial activities run on church properties such as restaurants or souvenir shops will become subject to Israeli sales tax

Ah, there it is, the love of money. You know the world wants it's cut before any deal gets done.
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« Reply #374 on: June 27, 2013, 11:30:55 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-greets-kerry-settlement-declaration-could-signal-progress-220338080.html
6/27/13
Israel greets Kerry with settlement declaration. Could that signal progress?

Instead of a red carpet, Secretary of State John Kerry got what might have looked like a knee-capping – in the form of an announcement of new settlement construction – for his arrival in Jerusalem Thursday.

But what under other conditions might have looked like a deliberate sabotaging of Secretary Kerry’s laser-like – and some say, quixotic – efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is being viewed by some regional experts as a sure sign that Kerry may be on the verge of succeeding.

“Kerry has a good chance of announcing the resumption of talks, if not on this trip then on the next, and the tell-tale sign for me is this announcement” of a new 69-unit settlement in a sensitive neighborhood of East Jerusalem, says Aaron David Miller, a former US diplomat for both Republican and Democratic administrations who is now vice president for new initiatives at the Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington.

How?

“Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] always takes a step backward before he takes a step forward,” says Dr. Miller, who, with his long experience in peace-process diplomacy, is not given to overly optimistic assessments. “So an announcement of a project like this practically on the day the secretary of state is arriving, that tells me something is coming.”

Secretary Kerry was scheduled to have a private dinner Thursday evening with Mr. Netanyahu, the opening of two days of discussions with Israeli and Palestinian officials. It is Kerry’s fifth trip in as many months to try to jump start the moribund peace talks – a quest Kerry has counted as one of his top priorities since he left the Senate to lead the State Department in early February.

If Kerry succeeds in getting the two sides back to the table it would be a feat in itself, regional analysts say, although it would only be the first and perhaps easiest step on a path toward reaching what many consider to be the fleeting goal, a two-state solution to the conflict.

But a resumption of talks would be a victory for Kerry’s approach to the peace-process conundrum, which Miller says has been to focus on building trust with Netanyahu.

“Kerry has invested a lot in this relationship, he’s acutely aware that without this relationship he has nothing – full stop,” he says.

The secretary of state also has to “invest” in his relationship with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, Miller says. But he adds that the “asymmetry” of Kerry’s attention to developing a relationship with each leader suggests he understands what it will take to break through with talks.

“Kerry gets it,” Miller says, “and in a way that Obama doesn’t get it.”

With his preferential treatment of the Israeli leader, Kerry has “stacked the deck, in a way,” to clear the way to a resumption of talks, Miller says.

The strongest evidence of this is how the issue of settlement construction has virtually disappeared from the US agenda for getting the peace process back on track. A settlement freeze was a cornerstone of Obama’s initial first-term Mideast peace initiative, but for many analysts the demand poisoned Obama-Netanyahu relations and made any meaningful peace process impossible.

But under Kerry the words “settlement freeze” aren’t spoken – even though the Palestinians hold to that condition for resuming talks – and State Department officials avoid detailed condemnations of any settlement announcements, as happened this week with the East Jerusalem case.

At the State Department Wednesday, acting deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell sidestepped a journalist’s question about the new construction, saying only that "the secretary is very focused on getting both sides back to the table.”

“You don’t even hear about settlements anymore,” says Miller. “The president has essentially taken this off the table to allow Kerry to move this forward.”

This new approach also explains the very different US response to this week’s settlement construction announcement compared with how the administration responded to a similar plan – with eerily similar timing -- in 2010.

Vice President Joe Biden was in Jerusalem as the Israelis announced approval of a settlement project, also in East Jerusalem – the part of the city the Palestinians claim as their capital. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the announcement and its timing “insulting,” and an infuriated Obama turned a cold shoulder to Netanyahu. The president’s first-term initiative to deliver an accord on a two-state solution never recovered.

To be sure, this week’s announcement of new settlement construction in East Jerusalem was criticized by Palestinian officials and even some Israelis as a “message” to Kerry that Israel has no interest in returning to negotiations.

One Jerusalem City Council member, Meir Margalit of the left-leaning Meretz party, described the announcement as the very kind of “provocation” the US has asked both sides to avoid, and said it was proof that the Netanyahu government “has no serious intentions to restart the peace process.”

Kerry sidestepped the latest controversy, focusing instead on the “urgency” of restarting Israeli-Palestinian talks soon.

Speaking at a press conference in Kuwait Wednesday, Kerry said he was not seeking to impose any “deadlines” for starting talks on the two sides. But at the same time he described it as “urgent” to get something going over the next couple of months – before the next United Nations General Assembly in September, he said – because “time is the enemy of the peace process.

“The passage of time,” he added, “allows a vacuum to be filled by people who don’t want things to happen.”

Kerry will be able to gauge at his dinner with Netanyahu whether the time and effort he has invested in the relationship has paid off – and just how much Netanyahu wants “things to happen.”
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« Reply #375 on: June 28, 2013, 03:58:32 am »

Not only is the US government doing everything it can to undermine immigration laws, but that isn't enough, so they are going after Israeli immigrations as well basically. It's Israel's country, they can build stuff if they want to, yet the world is accusing them of discrimination and mistreatment?

That whole deal is one of the most frustrating things today. If it weren't for bible prophecy, none of this would make any sense. It's some of the most backward, double-talk, outright convoluted issues in the world.

The world and it's minions claim discrimination is wrong. Sounds right doesn't it? Well, God is not a respecter of persons, so they might as well tell God He's discriminating against unbelievers then.

I suspect somebody from the ACLU will file suit against God, claiming discrimination against sodomites and heathen.  Roll Eyes

One thing is for sure; there will be no illegal immigrants in heaven! The ONLY people that will be there is those who meet ALL legal requirements of the law.
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« Reply #376 on: June 28, 2013, 10:00:25 am »

discrimination - not saying this is a bad word or anything, but the PC world has over-used it to their advantage. Even the modern-day churches are doing the same - there was an article in the paper a few years ago written by a pastor who said we should allow this Christian Rock/CCM in the churches so that we wouldn't discriminate against the youth.

Uhm...he forgot how churches are opened to the public for FREE, AND the gospel is preached unto everyone that walks in for FREE. Roll Eyes
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« Reply #377 on: June 28, 2013, 02:51:41 pm »

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169410#.Uc3nvWwo5jp
Kerry and Netanyahu Hold Second Meeting

U.S. Secretary of State and PM Netanyahu met in Jerusalem, their second meeting in 24 hours.

6/28/13

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon, their second meeting in 24 hours.

The contents of the meeting were not disclosed, but the two agreed to meet for a third time on Saturday night. Kerry is currently on his fifth trip to the region since taking office, and is trying to get Israel and the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table.

On Thursday evening, Kerry and Netanyahu met for more than four hours, soon after Kerry arrived in Israel. The content of that meeting was not made public either, but Channel 10 News quoted members of Kerry’s entourage as saying that the Secretary hopes to convince Israel and the PA to hold a meeting next week attended by representatives from both sides. It is not yet clear whether the meeting will be between Israeli negotiators Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and attorney Yitzhak Molcho and their PA counterpart, Saeb Erekat, or between Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas themselves.

Kerry was in Jordan on Friday where he met with Abbas. Kerry is expected to hold a press conference on Saturday night in which he will summarize his latest visit to the Middle East.

Netanyahu has clearly indicated on more than one occasion that he is willing to return to the negotiating table without preconditions. Abbas, however, has refused to talk and has continued to impose preconditions on talks with Israel, including a demand that Israel release terrorists who were jailed before 1993, freeze construction in Judea and Samaria and even present a map of the future Palestinian state before any negotiations take place.
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« Reply #378 on: June 30, 2013, 06:16:41 am »

Kerry Extends Israel Trip Amid Speculation on Talks

 In a hectic day of shuttle diplomacy with senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders in two capitals, Secretary of State John Kerry struggled on Saturday to close a deal to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

 By the end of the day, however, it remained unclear to what extent Mr. Kerry had been able to narrow the gap between the two sides during three days of high-level meetings in Jordan and Israel.

Even as a dinner meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel dragged into the early hours of Sunday, the Americans signaled that Mr. Kerry would be traveling to Ramallah, West Bank, later in the day to meet again with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, whom Mr. Kerry has already met with twice in Amman, Jordan, in recent days.

Mr. Kerry had been scheduled to fly on Sunday to a long-planned meeting of foreign ministers in Brunei, and as Sunday arrived there was no announcement that his departure would be extended yet again.

From the start, Mr. Kerry acknowledged that getting Israeli-Palestinian talks started would be a formidable undertaking. But he has resolutely insisted that it is doable — so much so that he has traveled between Jordan and Israel by motorcade, Jordanian helicopter and his own American government plane pursuing a formula that could lead to the first formal negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since 2010.

Mr. Kerry’s trip had appeared to take a dramatic turn on Saturday when he ripped up his itinerary and canceled a news conference and a trip that day to the United Arab Emirates so he could continue his meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders for another day.

That spurred speculation in the Israeli news media that a summit meeting among Israeli, Palestinian and American officials might be hosted by Jordan.

At the start of Mr. Kerry’s dinner meeting here on Saturday with Mr. Netanyahu, there were indications that the principals thought speculation of a game-changing breakthrough had gotten out of hand.

“They’re saying a four-way summit?" Mr. Netanyahu was heard to say to Mr. Kerry at the start of the dinner. “Did you hear that?”

“I did,” Mr. Kerry replied.

The dinner — Mr. Kerry’s third meeting with Mr. Netanyahu in three days — was all business. On the Israeli side, it also included Tzipi Livni, Israel’s minister of justice and the government’s chief negotiator on the Palestinian issue; Isaac Molho, Mr. Netanyahu’s special envoy; Yaakov Amidror, Mr. Netanyahu’s national security adviser; and Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Mr. Netanyahu’s military secretary.

On the American side, Mr. Kerry was joined by Frank Lowenstein, his Middle East adviser; Jonathan Schwartz, a State Department legal expert; and John Bass, a senior aide to Mr. Kerry at the State Department.

But skeptics were insisting there was little reason to anticipate a breakthrough. Gilad Erdan, an Israeli government minister and member of the Likud party, asserted on Israeli television just before Mr. Kerry’s meeting with Mr. Netanyahu that the two sides were not close to resuming negotiations.

Mr. Abbas, Mr. Erdan said, "is still demanding the same preconditions that we have no intention of complying with."

Mr. Kerry said early during his travels that significant headway toward resuming the peace talks needed to be made long before September, when the General Assembly resumes its debate on the Middle East.

Mr. Kerry has frequently said that time is the enemy, arguing that attitudes could harden and that unexpected developments could complicate painstaking efforts to lay the basis for progress at the negotiating table.

Even before Mr. Kerry left on this trip to the Middle East, his fifth, American officials were signaling that he was prepared to make a sixth if needed.

On Saturday, Mr. Kerry had little to say as he went from meeting to meeting. Asked if he was making any progress as his Amman meeting with Mr. Abbas got under way, Mr. Kerry replied, “Working hard.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/world/middleeast/kerry-extends-israel-trip-amid-speculation-on-peace-talks.html?_r=0

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« Reply #379 on: July 16, 2013, 03:22:17 pm »

Israel set to approve another 1,000 W.Bank homes: NGO

Israeli authorities are expected on Wednesday to give the green light for the construction of 1,071 new homes in six West Bank settlements, watchdog Peace Now said in a statement on Tuesday.
 
The news came as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Jordan at the start of a sixth round of intense diplomacy to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with Israel's settlement building a key sticky point.
 
It also came as the European Union was due to publish on Friday guidelines barring member states from funding projects in Jewish settlements.
 
Peace Now said that a government committee was expected to grant initial approval for plans to build 339 homes at Galgal and Almog settlements in the Jordan valley, Kfar Adumim northeast of Jerusalem and at Kochav Yaacov and Shilo near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
 
Another 732 units were to be given a more advanced level of approval, one stage before the start of construction, at the West Bank's biggest settlement, Modiin Ilit, a community of 58,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews west of Ramallah, it said.
 
"These approvals are part of an unprecedented wave of advancing settlement plans," Peace Now said. "This is yet another message by Israel to the US and the Palestinians that this government is not ready for peace."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/16/israel-set-to-approve-another-1000-wbank-homes-ngo/#ixzz2ZF45266t
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« Reply #380 on: July 16, 2013, 07:47:44 pm »

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169966#.UeW2aEBy3fJ
EU Redraws Israel Borders to 1949 Lines

For the first time, the EU formally forbids trade with bodies located beyond 1949 Armistice lines, including Golan.

By Gil Ronen
First Publish: 7/16/2013, 11:05 AM

The European Union has issued orders forbidding its member states from cooperating, transferring funds, giving scholarships or research grants to bodies in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem , and even the Golan Heights, Haaretz wrote Tuesday.

The new instruction, promulgated by the European Commission, which is the operative arm of the EU, sets parameters for cooperation between the EU and its members states, on the one hand, and Israeli governmental and private elements on the other. The instructions are for the years 2014 – 2020 and will go into force on Friday, July 18.

The decision also states that any future agreement signed with Israel must include a section that says the “settlements” are not part of sovereign Israel and therefore not included in the agreement.

A senior source in the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the new EU decision is dramatic, and can be called “a true earthquake.”

"This is the first time in which a explicit and formal instruction like this is issued. Until now, there were silent understandings and agreements that the EU does not work beyond the Green Line” – as the 1949 Armistice Line is known – but this is an official and binding prohibition.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin said that the EU decision is “very worrisome” and will make it difficult for the state of Israel to conduct contacts with the EU regarding cooperation agreements.
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« Reply #381 on: July 17, 2013, 09:16:35 am »

EU Redraws Israel Borders to 1949 Lines
For the first time, the EU formally forbids trade with bodies located beyond 1949 Armistice lines, including Golan.


this is BIG news!!!

The European Union has issued orders forbidding its member states from cooperating, transferring funds, giving scholarships or research grants to bodies in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem , and even the Golan Heights, Haaretz wrote Tuesday.

The new instruction, promulgated by the European Commission, which is the operative arm of the EU, sets parameters for cooperation between the EU and its members states, on the one hand, and Israeli governmental and private elements on the other. The instructions are for the years 2014 – 2020 and will go into force on Friday, July 18.

The decision also states that any future agreement signed with Israel must include a section that says the “settlements” are not part of sovereign Israel and therefore not included in the agreement.

A senior source in the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the new EU decision is dramatic, and can be called “a true earthquake.”

"This is the first time in which a explicit and formal instruction like this is issued. Until now, there were silent understandings and agreements that the EU does not work beyond the Green Line” – as the 1949 Armistice Line is known – “but this is an official and binding prohibition.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin said that the EU decision is “very worrisome” and will make it difficult for the state of Israel to conduct contacts with the EU regarding cooperation agreements.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169966#.Ueamg20piRM
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« Reply #382 on: July 17, 2013, 04:03:02 pm »

1949 Armistice Line... (notice how much is under Jordan's control, and that Gaza is under Egypt's control, which nobody is in control in Egypt.  Roll Eyes)

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« Reply #383 on: July 18, 2013, 05:31:22 am »

Israeli PM rejects EU 'dictate' on borders

 Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has said outsiders cannot tell him where his country begins or ends in reaction to new EU guidelines on settlements.

Speaking in a 40-second-long TV clip in Hebrew on Tuesday (16 July), he noted: "I will not let anybody harm Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, the Golan and Jerusalem … We will not accept any external dictates regarding borders."

He added the EU should focus on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme and Syria's civil war instead of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"I expect those who want peace in the region to deal with settlements after they solve the Syria crisis and the Iranian threat," he said.

His remarks come after revelations in Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the European Commission on 28 June quietly adopted new guidelines on EU funding in the region.

According to the rules, EU institutions will from 2014 onward refuse to co-fund projects unless Israel gives legal guarantees that none of the money will go to entities whose official seat is beyond the 1967 green line.

"The purpose of these guidelines is to make a distinction between the state of Israel and the occupied territories when it comes to EU support," the EU delegation in Tel Aviv said in a statement also on Tuesday.

The EU and the UN say the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Syria's Golan Heights, were illegally occupied by Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

But Israel, which refers to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria and which claims Jerusalem as its "indivisible" capital, says they are not under occupation because there is no such thing as a Palestinian state.

It says it needs to keep the Golan Heights as a buffer against a potential Syrian attack.

It also says its final borders can only be agreed in bilateral talks with Palestinians.

Meanwhile, it has built over 100 settlements, which house more than half a million Jewish people, in the regions over the past five decades.

The settlements dispute is nothing new.

But the EU code is significant because it would force Israel's own government to sign up to the EU position on borders if it wants any more EU money for Israeli firms in the Palestinian zone.

The code also comes just as the US is trying to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Netanyahu's reaction was among the more mild ones in a series of broadsides against Brussels on Tuesday.

"This is a miserable decision, which was made in very bad timing," Israel's finance minister Yair Lapid said.

"Once again, Europe has demonstrated just how detached it is, how it can't really be a full partner to the [peace] negotiations," regional development minister Silvan Shalom noted.

"This is more fuel for Palestinian rejectionism," deputy foreign minister Ze'ev Elkin added.

The EU commission and foreign service are currently working on a second code.

They plan to publish, later this year or in early 2014, guidelines on retail labels for settlement-made products to make it easier for EU consumers to boycott them if they want to.

http://euobserver.com/foreign/120886
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« Reply #384 on: July 18, 2013, 12:17:42 pm »

Sources: EU's Yesha Sanctions Could Boomerang
The European Union is not the only one that can impose sanctions, Israeli officials said. Israel may have to pull out of a major EU project


The European Union is not the only one that can impose sanctions and boycotts, Israeli officials said Thursday. A report in Maariv said that if the EU insists on boycotting Israelis and Jews living and doing business in the lands liberated in the 1967 Six Day War, Israel could boycott some major European Union projects that feature Israel as a central partner.

Among them is an 80 billion euro project to clean up the Mediterranean by 2020. Horizon 2020 aims "to de-pollute the Mediterranean by the year 2020 by tackling the sources of pollution that account for around 80% of the overall pollution of the Mediterranean Sea: municipal waste, urban waste water and industrial pollution,” the EU said when the project was announced in 2011. Israeli green technology is a centerpiece of the project, with Israeli researchers providing numerous systems to remove pollution from the shores of Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, and northern African countries.

Perhaps even more important is the fact that Israel is a major funder of the project, allocating 600 million euros to the project over the next seven years. Sources in the Foreign Ministry said that the EU's new policy may put the whole project in jeopardy, since at least some of the technologies Israel is contributing to the project were developed by companies and academic institutions located in Judea and Samaria and in areas of Jerusalem liberated in the Six Day War. Considering the financial crisis in many Mediterranean countries, Israel's funding for the project may be a major issue for the continuity of the project.

According to the new EU rules, Israel will have to pledge not to supply any of that technology to the project – removing a good chunk of the technology contributions Israel was slated to make.

Speaking Wednesday, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett said that he would personally ensure that Israeli businesses affected by the policy were not hurt. “We, too, can impose our own rules on the EU. For example we have something to say about EU projects in the Palestinian Authority,” Bennett told reporters. “Sanctions like this could mean the end of such projects,” as Israel must approve such projects.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170042#.UeghA432YrU
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« Reply #385 on: July 19, 2013, 08:22:27 am »

Palestinians: Israel must agree on borders

A stormy, high-level meeting of senior Palestinian leaders called to discuss U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's latest peace proposal ended with a decision early Friday to demand guarantees that Israel agree on the general border of a future Palestinian state, officials said.

The demand casts a cloud of uncertainty over months of U.S. mediation efforts because Israel is weary of agreeing to preconditions, arguing it has not led to successful peace talks in the past. Palestinian officials said they wanted guarantees to ensure peace talks would lead to fruition.

Hoping to push Israelis and Palestinians toward talks, U.S. President Barack Obama asked Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to work with Kerry "to resume negotiations with Palestinians as soon as possible," according to a statement released by the White House late Thursday.

After two separate meetings, Palestinian officials said they decided to send top negotiator Saeb Erekat to meet with Kerry "and inform him that Palestinians want guarantees regarding the general border," said Wasel Abu Yussef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, who was in the meeting.

A U.S. official said Kerry will meet on Friday with Erekat in Amman, Jordan. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Kerry's schedule publicly, said there are no immediate plans for Kerry to meet an Israeli negotiator.

Abu Yussef was referring to Israel's de facto border that separates the Jewish state from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories that Israel conquered in the 1967 Mideast war, alongside the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians claim those territories for their future state, with modifications reached through agreed "land swaps" that would see major Jewish settlement blocks built in the West Bank becoming part of Israel proper, in exchange for territories elsewhere.

Abu Yussef said Erekat would also ask for more clarifications from Kerry on what Israel expects from negotiations.

He said Palestinians did not want to reject Kerry's efforts to restart negotiations outright. Another official in the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity, said they felt pressure from Palestinians to not restart negotiations if they could not be seen producing substantive outcomes.

Suggesting Palestinian officials would be open to talks, they deliberately did not bring up their often-repeated demand that Israel stop building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem before talks could resume.

The anonymous Palestinian official said they had decided, so far, not to make the demand this time. He said if Israel agreed on a general border route before negotiations began, it would delegitimize Jewish settlement building in areas expected to be part of a Palestinian state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas convened the two meetings beginning Thursday with his advisors after a lengthy meeting with Kerry earlier in the week. While Kerry has not publicized details of his plan, the Arab League's decision Wednesday to endorse his proposal raised speculation that the Palestinians would agree. Abbas traditionally has sought the blessing of his Arab brethren before making any major diplomatic initiative.

U.S. officials played down hopes that negotiations would begin soon.

"There are currently no plans for an announcement on the resumption of negotiations," Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for Kerry, told reporters in neighboring Jordan. An Israeli Cabinet minister said no deal was imminent.

A U.S. official said Kerry would consult with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Friday before ending his visit to the Middle East and returning to the United States but made no mention of an announcement of new negotiations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Kerry's plans publicly.

Kerry has been shuttling for months in search of a formula to allow resumption of talks after a nearly five-year break. Talks have been stalled since late 2008, with the status of Israeli settlements at the heart of the deadlock.

Netanyahu has rejected the Palestinian demands, saying talks should begin without preconditions.

Ahmed Majdalani, another executive committee member, said Kerry has proposed holding talks for six to nine months focusing on the key issues of borders and security arrangements.

He said Kerry would endorse the 1967 lines as the starting point of negotiations and assured the Palestinians that Israel would free some 350 prisoners gradually in the coming months. The prisoners would include some 100 men that Israel convicted of crimes committed before interim peace accords were signed in 1993. Israel has balked at freeing these prisoners in the past because many were convicted in deadly attacks.

Although the plan does not include a settlement freeze, it was not clear whether Israel would accept any reference to the 1967 lines.

Israeli Cabinet minister Yair Lapid said it was "too early to say" whether Kerry had found a formula for talks.

"Secretary Kerry has done a tremendous job in trying to put both sides together," he told The Associated Press. "Of course Israel is more than willing and has expressed its agreement to go back to the negotiation table, but apparently it's going to take a little more time."

While Israel has balked at Palestinian demands, the international community has largely rallied behind the Palestinian position on borders and Jewish settlements.

In a show of displeasure over the settlements, the European Union announced this week it would stop providing research and cooperation grants to Israeli entities that operate in the occupied territories. Israeli leaders condemned the decision.

On Thursday, Israeli President Shimon Peres urged the EU to reconsider the ban, saying it could undermine Kerry's efforts.

Peres urged the EU to "give priority to peace" and warned the ban "could cause another crisis."

http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-israel-must-agree-borders-001629417.html
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« Reply #386 on: July 19, 2013, 08:23:07 am »

Obama Urges Netanyahu to Resume Peace Talks
 

Obama calls Netanyahu, asks him to continue to work with John Kerry in order to resume talks with the PA.


U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority "as soon as possible," the White House said in a statement quoted by AFP.

The two leaders spoke by telephone as Secretary of State John Kerry made his latest trip to the region as part of marathon efforts to re-launch the stalled peace talks.

"The president encouraged Prime Minister Netanyahu to continue to work with Secretary Kerry to resume negotiations with the Palestinians as soon as possible," the White House said in the statement.

The White House added that the two leaders also discussed "recent developments in Egypt, Iran and Syria," without providing further details.

"The leaders affirmed the importance of continued close coordination between the United States and Israel on a range of security issues," it said.

Earlier on Thursday, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party effectively torpedoed Kerry's plan for restarting negotiations.

Fatah officials demanded that changes be made to Kerry's Middle East peace plan, following a meeting in Ramallah. The move means it is likely the PA will also reject the plan.

Abbas has insisted that Israel recognize the 1949 Armistice Line as a designated border for any future PA state. Israel refuses, as the pre-1967 borders are indefensible and withdrawing back to these borders would guarantee its destruction.

He has also demanded that Israel release terrorists jailed before the 1993 Oslo Accords and that it freeze all Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. PA officials said that Kerry's plan was rejected because it did not guarantee that Israel would freeze construction, nor did it guarantee that the talks would be based on the 1949 Armistice Line.

Netanyahu's office denied on Thursday that Israel had agreed to accept the 1949 armistice lines as the basis for renewed negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Israeli officials had been quoted in earlier press reports as confirming the claim made by a top PA official.

While denying the part about the 1949 armistice lines, Netanyahu's office did not issue a denial of the building freeze claim.

Officials in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria said that even if Netanyahu's office did issue a denial, it would be meaningless, as the government could in any case impose a “soft” building freeze, in which it just drags its feet on approving building plans and the like, as opposed to an official freeze.

Meanwhile, Bayit Yehudi Chairman and Economy Minister, Naftali Bennett, made clear that his party will not be a partner in a government that holds diplomatic negotiations based on the idea of returning to Israel's pre-1967 borders.

"The Bayit Yehudi party, which I head, will not be a partner, even for one second, in a government that agrees to negotiate based on [pre-]'67 lines,” he stated. “Our capital, Jerusalem, is not up for negotiations and will never be up for negotiations.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/SendFriend.ashx?print=1&type=0&item=170066
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« Reply #387 on: July 19, 2013, 02:48:01 pm »

Kerry Announces ‘Basis’ for Resumption of Mideast Peace Talks

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had "established a basis" for resuming formal peace talks for the first time since 2010 and hoped to convene a meeting in Washington within a week or “very soon thereafter.”

rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/world/middleeast/kerry-extends-stay-in-mideast-to-push-for-talks.html?_r=0
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« Reply #388 on: July 20, 2013, 05:19:43 am »

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/19/19559453-kerry-says-israel-palestinians-laid-groundwork-for-new-peace-talks?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=2
7/19/13
Kerry says Israel, Palestinians laid groundwork for new peace talks

AMMAN, Jordan -- Secretary of State John Kerry announced Friday that Israel and the Palestinians have laid the groundwork to resume stalled peace talks.

Addressing reporters before he flew back from the Jordanian capital of Amman, Kerry announced "an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis."

Peace talks broke down in 2010.

He said his negotiating counterparts will join him in Washington, D.C. next week or "shortly thereafter," but that he will be the one making public comments on behalf of the whole group.

"The representatives of two proud people today have decided that the difficult road ahead is worth traveling," he added.

On his visit, Kerry had marathon talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas - including a stop Friday in Ramallah.

Kerry also met Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman and had been consulting Israeli officials by telephone, a U.S. official said.

The Palestinian leadership on Thursday did not accept Kerry's latest plan, but signaled that it was leaving the door open for him to continue pushing for talks.

"This is a significant and welcome step forward," Kerry said Friday upon making his announcement.

Negotiations, which have ebbed and flowed over two decades, collapsed in late 2010 in a dispute over Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
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« Reply #389 on: July 20, 2013, 10:17:40 am »

Gulf states: EU directive on Israeli settlements wise

Gulf States on Saturday hailed the European Union's decision to ban its 28 members from engaging with Israeli organizations and businesses operating beyond the pre-1967 lines, AFP reported.

The six-state Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC) “welcome the European Union’s decision which they hope will back international efforts to revive peace talks between Palestinians and Israel, and press Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories," AFP quoted GCC head Abdul Latif al-Zayani as saying.

The EU on Friday published the directives limiting its members from interaction with Israeli entities in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, which al-Zayani referred to as “wise and reflects the EU’s solid stance in rejecting Israel’s colony policy and its confiscating of Palestinian territories in a clear violation of all agreements, international law, and UN resolutions”.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Gulf-states-EU-directive-on-Israeli-settlements-wise-320451
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