Palestinians in Gaza have acquired anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets from Libya during its six-month civil war, enlarging but not significantly improving their arsenal, Israeli officials said on Monday.

Israel in the Last Days

“And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the LORD of hosts, and I repented not: So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not.”
—Zechariah 8:13-15

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”
—Isaiah 54:17

While the rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi has stirred concern abroad about the fate of Libya’s aging chemical weapons stockpiles, Israel has no indication Hamas or other Palestinian factions have sought these, the officials said.

Instead, Israeli officials have detected an inflow of SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), said one official, describing an overland supply route that opened up between eastern Libya — after it fell to the rebels — and the Gaza Strip via Egypt.

“We’ve been seeing more SA-7s and RPGs coming across,” said the official. “It’s not a major qualitative enhancement for them.”

The Soviet-designed SA-7 is a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile which Israel said Palestinians had previously smuggled into Gaza. Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), designed to penetrate armor, are plentiful in the territory.

Another Israeli official said “thousands” of the weapons had reached Gaza in recent months, but did not provide figures on how many had originated in Libya.

Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, which borders both Israel and Gaza, has long seen traffic in arms bound for Palestinians. The weapons come up through Sudan or arrive by ship over the Mediterranean.

State television reported in Cairo on Monday that Egyptian border guards had discovered “a large quantity” of weapons at the border with Libya, giving no more details.

Hamas, an Islamist group that governs Gaza, and smaller armed factions declined comment on the Israeli statements.

Egypt has stepped up efforts to impose order in Sinai, though Cairo’s authority has been weakened by the citizen revolt that forced President Hosni Mubarak from power.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Roger Atwood)

Laura Booth, sister-in-law of Quartet envoy Tony Blair, calls on “Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt liberate Al-Quds [Jerusalem].”

To view popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Jerusalem

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling •Strongs 7478: rah´-al; from 7477; a reeling (from intoxication):—trembling.
•Strongs 7477: raw-al´; a primitive root; to reel, i.e. (figuratively) to brandish:—terribly shake. unto all the people•Strongs 5971: am; from 6004; a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock:—folk, men, nation, people.
•Strongs 6004: aw-mam´; a primitive root; to associate; by implication, to overshadow (by huddling together):—become dim, hide. round about, when they shall be in the seige•Strongs 4692: matsowr, maw-tsore´; or mDxw…rmatsuwr, maw-tsoor´; from 6696; something hemming in, i.e. (objectively) a mound (of besiegers), (abstractly) a siege, (figuratively) distress; or (subjectively) a fastness:—besieged, bulwark, defence, fenced, fortress, siege, strong (hold), tower.
•Strongs 6696: tsuwr, tsoor; a primitive root; to cramp, i.e. confine (in many applications, literally and figuratively, formative or hostile):—adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags. both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
— Zechariah 12:2

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”
—Zechariah 12:9

“And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.”
—Zechariah 14:12

Laura Booth, sister-in-law of Quartet envoy Tony Blair, has called on “Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt liberate Al-Quds [Jerusalem].”

The former British prime minister’s family member has previously sailed illegally to Gaza on a flotilla boat. She joined an anti-Israel rally in London Trafalgar’s Square, where another protest today (Sunday) may be the last as the mayor London vows to crack down on the incitement as the date for the next Olympics approaches.

“The Mayor believes that intolerance of our fellow citizens and hate crimes against specific communities are totally unacceptable, particularly in a city like London and especially in 2012 when the eyes of the world will be on the capital,” said a spokesman for Mayor Boris Johnson, the London Jewish Chronicle reported.

The spokesman added, “The Greater London Authority will not be authorizing political rallies in Trafalgar Square during the Olympic and Paraolympic Games.”

The Trafalgar Square rallies against Israel have featured Hizbullah flags.

During last week’s demonstration, Booth went on another rant against Israel. “We say here today to you, Israel, we see your crimes and we loathe your crimes. And to us your nation does not exist, because it is a criminal injustice against humanity. We want to see Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt go to the borders and stop this now. Liberate Al Quds! March to Al Quds!”

Another speaker claimed, somewhat myopically as far as historical accuracy goes, that “the only time that land has seen peace between Muslim, Christian and Jew living side by side was when sincere Islamic rulers ruled with justice.”

During Ottoman Islamic rule, Jews were second-class citizens, called “Dhimmis”. The myth of their “peaceful lives” has been debunked by historians, although they were not subject to pogroms as frequently as European Jews..

In fact, Jordan, during its occupation of the Old City and other parts of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria between 1949 and 1967, denied Christians and Jews all access to holy sites except for visiting dignitaries.

Israel opened up the sites to all religions after it restored the areas under its sovereignty in the Six-Day War in 1967.

JERUSALEM – Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above.

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Israel in the Last Days

“And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.”
—Ezekiel 20:42-44

At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab.
Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago.
Archaeological digs under the disputed Old City are a matter of immense sensitivity. For Israel, the tunnels are proof of the depth of Jewish roots here, and this has made the tunnels one of Jerusalem’s main tourist draws: The number of visitors, mostly Jews and Christians, has risen dramatically in recent years to more than a million visitors in 2010.
But many Palestinians, who reject Israel’s sovereignty in the city, see them as a threat to their own claims to Jerusalem. And some critics say they put an exaggerated focus on Jewish history.
A new underground link is opening within two months, and when it does, there will be more than a mile (two kilometers) of pathways beneath the city. Officials say at least one other major project is in the works. Soon, anyone so inclined will be able to spend much of their time in Jerusalem without seeing the sky.
On a recent morning, a man carrying surveying equipment walked across a two-millennia-old stone road, paused at the edge of a hole and disappeared underground.

In a multilevel maze of rooms and corridors beneath the Muslim Quarter, workers cleared rubble and installed steel safety braces to shore up crumbling 700-year-old Mamluk-era arches.
Above ground, a group of French tourists emerged from a dark passage they had entered an hour earlier in the Jewish Quarter and found themselves among Arab shops on the Via Dolorosa, the traditional route Jesus took to his crucifixion.
South of the Old City, visitors to Jerusalem can enter a tunnel chipped from the bedrock by a Judean king 2,500 years ago and walk through knee-deep water under the Arab neighborhood of Silwan. Beginning this summer, a new passage will be open nearby: a sewer Jewish rebels are thought to have used to flee the Roman legions who destroyed the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D.
The sewer leads uphill, passing beneath the Old City walls before expelling visitors into sunlight next to the rectangular enclosure where the temple once stood, now home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the Rock.
From there, it’s a short walk to a third passage, the Western Wall tunnel, which continues north from the Jewish holy site past stones cut by masons working for King Herod and an ancient water system. Visitors emerge near the entrance to an ancient quarry called Zedekiah’s Cave that descends under the Muslim Quarter.
The next major project, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, will follow the course of one of the city’s main Roman-era streets underneath the prayer plaza at the Western Wall. This route, scheduled for completion in three years, will link up with the Western Wall tunnel.
The excavations and flood of visitors exist against a backdrop of acute distrust between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims, who are suspicious of any government moves in the Old City and particularly around the Al-Aqsa compound, Islam’s third-holiest shrine. Jews know the compound as the Temple Mount, site of two destroyed temples and the center of the Jewish faith for three millennia.
Muslim fears have led to violence in the past: The 1996 opening of a new exit to the Western Wall tunnel sparked rumors among Palestinians that Israel meant to damage the mosques, and dozens were killed in the ensuing riots. In recent years, however, work has gone ahead without incident.
Mindful that the compound has the potential to trigger devastating conflict, Israel’s policy is to allow no excavations there. Digging under Temple Mount, the Israeli historian Gershom Gorenberg has written, “would be like trying to figure out how a hand grenade works by pulling the pin and peering inside.”
Despite the Israeli assurances, however, rumors persist that the excavations are undermining the physical stability of the Islamic holy sites.
“I believe the Israelis are tunneling under the mosques,” said Najeh Bkerat, an official of the Waqf, the Muslim religious body that runs the compound under Israel’s overall security control.
Samir Abu Leil, another Waqf official, said he had heard hammering that very morning underneath the Waqf’s offices, in a Mamluk-era building that sits just outside the holy compound and directly over the route of the Western Wall tunnel, and had filed a complaint with police.
The closest thing to an excavation on the mount, Israeli archaeologists point out, was done by the Waqf itself: In the 1990s, the Waqf opened a new entrance to a subterranean prayer space and dumped truckloads of rubble outside the Old City, drawing outrage from scholars who said priceless artifacts were being destroyed.
This month, an Israeli government watchdog released a report saying Waqf construction work in the compound in recent years had been done without supervision and had damaged antiquities. The issue is deemed so sensitive that the details of the report were kept classified.
Some Israeli critics of the tunnels point to what they call an exaggerated emphasis on a Jewish narrative.
“The tunnels all say: We were here 2,000 years ago, and now we’re back, and here’s proof,” said Yonathan Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist. “Living here means recognizing that other stories exist alongside ours.”
Yuval Baruch, the Antiquities Authority archaeologist in charge of Jerusalem, said his diggers are careful to preserve worthy finds from all of the city’s historical periods. “This city is of interest to at least half the people on Earth, and we will continue uncovering the past in the most professional way we can,” he said.

Defense minister suggested to Washington forum that Israel follow plan laid out by former President Bill Clinton in 2000.

To view popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Jerusalem

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling •Strongs 7478: rah´-al; from 7477; a reeling (from intoxication):—trembling.
•Strongs 7477: raw-al´; a primitive root; to reel, i.e. (figuratively) to brandish:—terribly shake. unto all the people•Strongs 5971: am; from 6004; a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock:—folk, men, nation, people.
•Strongs 6004: aw-mam´; a primitive root; to associate; by implication, to overshadow (by huddling together):—become dim, hide. round about, when they shall be in the seige•Strongs 4692: matsowr, maw-tsore´; or mDxw…rmatsuwr, maw-tsoor´; from 6696; something hemming in, i.e. (objectively) a mound (of besiegers), (abstractly) a siege, (figuratively) distress; or (subjectively) a fastness:—besieged, bulwark, defence, fenced, fortress, siege, strong (hold), tower.
•Strongs 6696: tsuwr, tsoor; a primitive root; to cramp, i.e. confine (in many applications, literally and figuratively, formative or hostile):—adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags. both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
— Zechariah 12:2

Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s expressed support for partitioning Jerusalem along Jewish and Arab lines according to an initiative presented by former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2000 is not official Israeli policy, an official in Jerusalem said Sunday,

In his address to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy seventh annual forum in Washington, the defense minister said that Israel should retain control of all Jewish neighborhoods in the capital and relinquish sovereignty over heavily Arab areas to the Palestinian Authority.

This arrangement would be part of a peace agreement under which both sides would declare the conflict over and refrain from setting additional conditions for a settlement, Barak said, emphasizing the need for solid and secure borders to enable a two-state solution.

An Israeli official told The Associated Press that Barak was expressing a personal opinion, not the government’s position.

“Those remarks were not coordinated with the prime minister,” the official said.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not responded publicly to Barak’s remarks.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday angered the PA by telling the same forum that Israel and Palestinians both bear responsibility for the failure of the short-lived direct talks that took place in September.

Neither leadership has “yet made the difficult decisions that peace requires. Like many of you, I regret that we have not gotten farther, faster,” Clinton said. “Israeli and Palestinian leaders should stop trying to assign blame for the next failure and focus instead on what they need to do to make these efforts succeed.”

Palestinian officials responded by saying the secretary of state should have singled out Israel alone to blame.

The Obama administration said earlier this week that it stopped trying to get Israel to renew a freeze on West Bank settlement construction for three months, after a 10-month freeze expired on September 26.

The U.S. now wants to return to indirect talks and Clinton suggested in her speech step up pressure on Netanyahu to move toward establishing a Palestinian state.

“We will deepen our support of the Palestinians’ state-building efforts because we recognize that a Palestinian state, achieved through negotiations, is inevitable,” Clinton said, adding that “the long-term population trends that result from the occupation are endangering the Zionist vision of a Jewish and democratic state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.”

The Palestinians have said they won’t resume negotiations without a full settlement construction freeze. Despite their disappointment with Washington’s performance, the Palestinians are likely to participate in indirect talks. They said they’ll make a final decision within a week.

JERUSALEM: An official Palestinian report claiming that a key Jewish holy site — Jerusalem’s Western Wall — has no religious significance to Jews evoked an angry response from Israelis Wednesday, threatening to further inflame tensions over the disputed city.

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Jerusalem

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling •Strongs 7478: rah´-al; from 7477; a reeling (from intoxication):—trembling.
•Strongs 7477: raw-al´; a primitive root; to reel, i.e. (figuratively) to brandish:—terribly shake. unto all the people•Strongs 5971: am; from 6004; a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock:—folk, men, nation, people.
•Strongs 6004: aw-mam´; a primitive root; to associate; by implication, to overshadow (by huddling together):—become dim, hide. round about, when they shall be in the seige•Strongs 4692: matsowr, maw-tsore´; or mDxw…rmatsuwr, maw-tsoor´; from 6696; something hemming in, i.e. (objectively) a mound (of besiegers), (abstractly) a siege, (figuratively) distress; or (subjectively) a fastness:—besieged, bulwark, defence, fenced, fortress, siege, strong (hold), tower.
•Strongs 6696: tsuwr, tsoor; a primitive root; to cramp, i.e. confine (in many applications, literally and figuratively, formative or hostile):—adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags. both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
— Zechariah 12:2

“In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.”
—Zechariah 12:8

Decades of archaeology have shown that the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, was a retaining wall of the compound where the two biblical Jewish Temples stood 20 centuries ago. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site, is built atop the ruins.

The latest claim about the Temples, echoing positions taken in the past by Palestinian leaders including the late Yasser Arafat, underlined the deeply held, conflicting beliefs that must be untangled if a peace accord is to be reached between Israel and the Palestinians.

Al-Mutawakil Taha, deputy minister of information in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority that rules the West Bank, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his five-page study published on a Palestinian government website reflected the official Palestinian position.

Part of the report disputes that the Western Wall was a retaining wall of the Temple compound, discarding centuries of documentation and archaeology.

“This wall has never been a part of what is called the Jewish Temple,” the report claimed. “However, it was Islamic tolerance which allowed the Jews to stand before it and cry over its loss.” The report concludes that since Jews have no claim to the area, it is holy Muslim territory and must be part of Palestinian Jerusalem.

Both sides say the clashing narratives are political.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it. Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, including the Old City, as the capital of their future state.

“Of course it’s a political position,” Taha said.

Taha said he wrote the report after Israeli officials on Sunday approved a five-year renovation plan for the Western Wall area.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev described the report as “incitement” by denying the historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

Einat Wilf, a legislator from the moderate Israeli Labour Party, a part of the governing coalition, said Palestinians “are stupidly trying again and again to somehow create an alternative reality in which the Jewish people are a strangers in this land.” After Israel seized control of east Jerusalem, it cleared away shacks built next to the Western Wall and built a wide, open plaza there.

In contrast, Israel turned over administration of the hilltop itself, with the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock shrine, to the Muslim Supreme Council, or Waqf, while Israel maintained overall security control.

Plans that won preliminary approval in earlier, failed peace negotiations envisioned dividing Jerusalem along ethnic lines — leaving Israel in control of Jewish neighborhoods while Arab sections would be part of the Palestinian state — but no formula emerged for the disputed hilltop.

JERUSALEM — The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday strongly denounced a Palestinian Authority paper that denies any Jewish connection to the Western Wall, the iconic holy site and place of Jewish worship in the Old City of Jerusalem, describing the report as “reprehensible and scandalous.

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“And he shall set up an ensign •Strongs 5251: nace; from 5264; a flag; also a sail; by implication, a flagstaff; generally a signal; figuratively, a token:—banner, pole, sail, (en-)sign, standard.
•Strongs 5264: naw-sas´; a primitive root; to gleam from afar, i.e. to be conspicuous as a signal; or rather perhaps a denominative from 5251 (and identical with 5263, through the idea of a flag as fluttering in the wind); to raise a beacon:—lift up as an ensign. for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
—Isaiah 11:12

Jerusalem

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling •Strongs 7478: rah´-al; from 7477; a reeling (from intoxication):—trembling.
•Strongs 7477: raw-al´; a primitive root; to reel, i.e. (figuratively) to brandish:—terribly shake. unto all the people•Strongs 5971: am; from 6004; a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock:—folk, men, nation, people.
•Strongs 6004: aw-mam´; a primitive root; to associate; by implication, to overshadow (by huddling together):—become dim, hide. round about, when they shall be in the seige•Strongs 4692: matsowr, maw-tsore´; or mDxw…rmatsuwr, maw-tsoor´; from 6696; something hemming in, i.e. (objectively) a mound (of besiegers), (abstractly) a siege, (figuratively) distress; or (subjectively) a fastness:—besieged, bulwark, defence, fenced, fortress, siege, strong (hold), tower.
•Strongs 6696: tsuwr, tsoor; a primitive root; to cramp, i.e. confine (in many applications, literally and figuratively, formative or hostile):—adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags. both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
— Zechariah 12:2

The episode appeared to signal a worsening atmosphere after a two-month hiatus in peace talks.

Mr. Netanyahu’s statement referred to a long article that appeared in Arabic on Monday on the Information Ministry Web site of the Western-backed Palestinian government, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank. Its publication was previously reported by The Jerusalem Post.

Jerusalem and its holy sites are one of the most intractable and emotional issues of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Israel conquered the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan in the 1967 war, and annexed it in a move that was never internationally recognized. About 200,000 Jews live in areas of East Jerusalem that have been developed since 1967, among about a quarter-million Palestinians. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The Western Wall is a remnant of the retaining wall of a plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site where their ancient temples once stood. The plateau is also the third holiest site in Islam. Known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, the compound now includes Al Aksa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock.

In Muslim tradition, the wall is the place where the Prophet Muhammad tethered his winged steed, Buraq, during his miraculous overnight journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the seventh century.

The Palestinian paper denying any Jewish historical connection with the site was written by Al-Mutawakel Taha, an Information Ministry official. In it, he stated that “the Al Buraq Wall is the western wall of Al Aksa, which the Zionist occupation falsely claims ownership of and calls the Wailing Wall or Kotel.”

Palestinian officials have often denied claims of Jewish heritage in Jerusalem, arguing that there is no evidence that the plateau was the site of ancient temples.

In the principles for a peace accord laid out by President Bill Clinton in late 2000 after the failure to reach a final Israeli-Palestinian agreement at Camp David, the suggestion was for Palestinian sovereignty over the Haram al-Sharif and Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall, with mutual consent needed for any excavation in the area.

Mr. Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, proposed in his talks with Mr. Abbas in 2008 that the holy sites in and around the Old City be administered by an international trusteeship made up of Israel, the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United States. Mr. Olmert, who left office in early 2009, says that he got no response.

Mr. Netanyahu has insisted on continued Jewish building in the Jewish areas of East Jerusalem, like all Israeli governments since 1967, but he has not spelled out his intentions regarding the future status of the city since taking office.

The unofficial competition for control of Jerusalem takes place stone by stone and house by house. On Tuesday, Jewish activists moved into a building they had acquired in Jebel Mukaber, a predominantly Arab neighborhood overlooking the Old City and its holy shrines, and on Wednesday another group of Jewish activists moved into an apartment on the Mount of Olives, in a Palestinian neighborhood, A-Tur.

Mr. Taha’s paper appeared on his ministry’s Web site a day after the Israeli government approved a $23 million five-year project to renovate and develop the Western Wall Plaza and its environs.

Mr. Netanyahu, in a statement issued by his office, said the Western Wall “has been the Jewish people’s most sacred place for almost 2,000 years, since the destruction of the Second Temple.” He added that the Palestinian Authority’s denial of a Jewish link “calls into serious question its intentions of reaching a peace agreement, the foundations of which are coexistence and mutual recognition.”

Mr. Netanyahu called on the authority’s leaders to disavow the document. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

But in another indication of the strained atmosphere, the Palestinian government issued a statement titled “Israeli crimes of destruction,” listing Israeli actions in Jerusalem and Israel’s demolition in recent days of numerous Palestinian structures that were built without permits in Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority will not return to peace talks with Israel unless there is a freeze on settlement building that includes East Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday.

To view popup window put your cursor on the blue words

Jerusalem

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling •Strongs 7478: rah´-al; from 7477; a reeling (from intoxication):—trembling.
•Strongs 7477: raw-al´; a primitive root; to reel, i.e. (figuratively) to brandish:—terribly shake. unto all the people•Strongs 5971: am; from 6004; a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock:—folk, men, nation, people.
•Strongs 6004: aw-mam´; a primitive root; to associate; by implication, to overshadow (by huddling together):—become dim, hide. round about, when they shall be in the seige•Strongs 4692: matsowr, maw-tsore´; or mDxw…rmatsuwr, maw-tsoor´; from 6696; something hemming in, i.e. (objectively) a mound (of besiegers), (abstractly) a siege, (figuratively) distress; or (subjectively) a fastness:—besieged, bulwark, defence, fenced, fortress, siege, strong (hold), tower.
•Strongs 6696: tsuwr, tsoor; a primitive root; to cramp, i.e. confine (in many applications, literally and figuratively, formative or hostile):—adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags. both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
— Zechariah 12:2

Abbas, in Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak, said the Palestinians and Israel had received no official U.S. request to return to talks which stalled three weeks after their launch in September when an Israeli settlement freeze expired.

Asked if the Palestinian Authority would agree to resume the talks if a new settlement freeze did not include East Jerusalem, Abbas said: “If there is no complete halt to settlements in all of the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem, we will not accept.”

Israel sees East Jerusalem, which it captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war, as a part of its capital — a status not recognized abroad. Palestinians want the city as capital of a future Palestinian state.

Israel has refused in the past to halt construction in East Jerusalem as part of any settlement freeze.

Netanyahu’s cabinet approved a five-year blueprint on Sunday to accommodate more visitors at a Jewish holy site in the city, the Western Wall, revered as a remnant of one of two biblical temples. The site sits at a flashpoint in the conflict, next to the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

SETTLEMENT FREEZE INCENTIVES?

Israel said a week ago that the United States has proposed a prospective package of incentives in exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze in hopes of reviving the stalled peace talks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled he would ask his security cabinet to vote on a new settlement freeze only once he saw these U.S. guarantees on paper.

The incentives Washington was said to have offered Israel include a supply of 20 F-35 stealth warplanes worth $3 billion.

Abbas said he thought it unacceptable to link the settlements issue with a U.S. offer of additional military aid to its Israeli ally.

“It is not just us who want a halt to settlements but also the United States and the world and a big part of Israeli public opinion,” Abbas said.

Abbas also wants a clear outline from Israel on borders for a future Palestinian state. Netanyahu told deputies of his right-wing Likud party on Sunday he would not prioritize talks about borders.

“There won’t be any separate talks held about borders,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. The issue would be negotiated as part of a wider discussion of “substantive issues” between the sides, it said.

Palestinian officials have accused Netanyahu of destroying prospects for peace by allowing settlement building to continue on land that Palestinians want for a future state.

Uzi Arad, Israel’s national security adviser, charged in televised remarks made on Saturday that Abbas was “making various excuses” to avoid negotiations for the past year.

Abbas said he expected the United States to provide the official request to resume talks “very soon,” and the Arab League and Palestinian leadership would respond in due course.

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Peter Graff)

JERUSALEM – Israel insisted Thursday it would keep building homes in disputed east Jerusalem, threatening to hold up a U.S.-proposed settlement construction moratorium designed to renew deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue scripture words

Jerusalem

“The LORD•Strongs 3068: Yhwh; from 1961 (the) self-Existent or Eternal; name of God:—the Lord. Compare 3050, 3069
•Strongs 1961: hayah, haw-yaw; a primitive root (compare 1933); to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary):—beacon, x altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, x have, last, pertain, quit (one-)self, require, x use.
•Strongs 3050: Yahh, yaw; contraction for 3068, and meaning the same; Jah, the sacred name:—Jah, the Lord, most vehement. Compare names in “-iah,” “-jah.”
•Strongs 3069: Yhwh; a variation of 3068 (used after 136, and pronounced as 430, in order to prevent the repetition of the same sound, since elsewhere 3068 is pronounced as 136):—God. doth build up•Strongs 1129: banah, baw-naw´; a primitive root; to build (literally and figuratively):—(begin to) build(-er), obtain children, make, repair, set (up), x surely. Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.”
—Psalms 147:2

The contours of the moratorium deal, as presented by Israeli officials after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from the U.S. last week, had appeared to be clearly agreed upon.
Washington, they said, had agreed to exclude the eastern sector of the holy city from the 90-day moratorium and there would be no further demands for construction curbs in the West Bank when the latest moratorium expired.
On Thursday, however, a day after Netanyahu said a deal was imminent, the U.S. still had not sent a promised letter detailing the understandings on the proposed moratorium.
In Washington, a senior Obama administration official said the U.S. and Israel were still “haggling” over details of the written assurances. The official said most of the unresolved issues were relatively routine but added that it was unlikely that the letter would be finished Thursday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said it was not clear when the letter might be completed.
In a speech Thursday, Netanyahu suggested agreement was neither imminent nor inevitable.
He said he has been holding intensive contacts with the Obama administration since his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a week ago.
“The objective is to formulate understandings through which we can promote the political process while maintaining the vital interests of the state of Israel, primarily security,” Netanyahu told students at the Technion, a technology school. “If I accept such an offer from the U.S. government I will bring it before the Cabinet and I have no doubt that my fellow ministers will accept it.”
Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said any future moratorium would not apply to Jerusalem, whose eastern sector was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move not recognized by the international community.
He noted that an earlier settlement slowdown, whose expiration in September led to the current impasse in peace efforts, did not include Jerusalem.
“Israel makes a clear distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem,” Regev said. “Jerusalem is our capital and will remain as such. The previous moratorium did not apply to Jerusalem … If there is a future moratorium, it will similarly not apply to Jerusalem.”
Palestinians want construction to halt in both areas, which they claim for their future state along with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. They have not said whether the partial freeze being brokered by the U.S. will be enough to draw them back to the negotiating table.
The negotiations broke down in late September — just three weeks after they began at the White House — following the expiry of a 10-month moratorium on new West Bank construction.
The U.S. hopes a renewed moratorium would allow Israel and the Palestinians to make significant progress toward working out a deal on their future borders. With borders determined, Israel could resume building on any territories it would expect to keep under a final peace deal.
To entice the Israelis to sign on to the deal, the U.S. has proposed a package of incentives including a gift of 20 next-generation stealth fighter planes and U.S. pledges to veto anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations, Israeli officials have said.
But Netanyahu has been having trouble winning support from the plan even from his coalition allies. The ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, which can make or break the deal, says it will let it go through only if Israel receives written assurances from the U.S. that the building restrictions exclude Jerusalem.
In a sign of the backroom dealings in Israel around the deal, an official close to Shas said the party had received assurances that if it abstains in the vote, Defense Minister Ehud Barak would authorize the construction of hundreds of apartments in the West Bank immediately after the moratorium expires.
Some of the construction would take place in specifically ultra-Orthodox communities and other projects would be built in a settlement just outside Jerusalem, giving Shas something to take back to constituents who might otherwise oppose another moratorium.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been officially announced. The Defense Ministry did not reply to a request for comment.
Shas is critical to any moratorium deal because the inner Cabinet that will vote on it is almost evenly split, and Shas holds the two swing votes.
The party’s spiritual leader, a 90-year-old rabbi known for his harsh comments about Arabs, will make the final determination on how to vote.
_____
Additional reporting by Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem.

The prime minister has previously said any settlement moratorium will not apply to areas around East Jerusalem that Israel captured during a 1967 war and the Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue scripture words

Jerusalem

“The LORD•Strongs 3068: Yhwh; from 1961 (the) self-Existent or Eternal; name of God:—the Lord. Compare 3050, 3069
•Strongs 1961: hayah, haw-yaw; a primitive root (compare 1933); to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary):—beacon, x altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, x have, last, pertain, quit (one-)self, require, x use.
•Strongs 3050: Yahh, yaw; contraction for 3068, and meaning the same; Jah, the sacred name:—Jah, the Lord, most vehement. Compare names in “-iah,” “-jah.”
•Strongs 3069: Yhwh; a variation of 3068 (used after 136, and pronounced as 430, in order to prevent the repetition of the same sound, since elsewhere 3068 is pronounced as 136):—God. doth build up•Strongs 1129: banah, baw-naw´; a primitive root; to build (literally and figuratively):—(begin to) build(-er), obtain children, make, repair, set (up), x surely. Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.”
—Psalms 147:2

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a U.S. plan to his cabinet on Sunday that would extend a freeze on West Bank settlements for 90 days in return for diplomatic and security incentives.

Washington wants Israel to renew a freeze on settlement building in efforts to resume peace talks with Palestinians, who in September halted negotiations after just a few weeks when Israel refused to extend a 10-month settlement freeze.

Under the U.S. proposal, if Israel extended the freeze Washington would pledge not to seek further extensions and to veto any attempts at the United Nations to force a unilateral peace settlement.

U.S. security aid to Israel would also be upgraded.

“I will insist that in any proposal Israel’s security needs will be addressed, both in the immediate term and regarding the threats facing us in the coming decade,” Netanyahu said in public comments before the cabinet meeting.

The prime minister has previously said any settlement moratorium will not apply to areas around East Jerusalem that Israel captured during a 1967 war and the Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.

One official in Netanyahu’s office said the proposal had “positive elements.” Israeli political sources said a narrow majority in Netanyahu’s security cabinet, which is ultimately responsible, would likely support accepting the U.S. proposal.

STILL NEGOTIATING

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared the plan at a meeting in New York last week, Netanyahu said, adding that U.S. and Israeli teams were still negotiating a final formula.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said there had been no official word regarding a renewed Israeli freeze on housing starts in the occupied West Bank.

“An official Palestinian commitment will come only after President Abbas hears officially from the American administration what is going on between them and the Israelis,” Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters.

Palestinian officials in private have expressed anger over U.S. incentives to get Israel to prolong the partial freeze, saying they were effectively bribing Israel to fulfill basic international obligations.

Israeli officials said Netanyahu, who faces a tough political sell within his own coalition on the settlement issue, had pushed Clinton for the broad understandings.

Settler leaders, who said acceptance of the proposal would represent “a fundamental collapse” of the government’s integrity, called an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.

Under the U.S. plan, Israel would declare a further, three month suspension of construction in the West Bank, land it captured in a 1967 war where Palestinians seek a state. Any building launched since the original moratorium ended late in September would be frozen, a diplomatic source said.

Among the pledges offered to Israel by Washington was a guarantee to veto any resolutions brought to the United Nations Security Council that seek “to impose a political settlement on Israel,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States would also undertake to veto resolutions deemed anti-Israel in the United Nations and other international organizations, a move that could make Israel less vulnerable to threats made by some Palestinians to declare statehood unilaterally in the event that peace talks fail.

The Obama Administration would also ask Congress to approve the supply of three billion dollars worth of advanced warplanes to the Jewish state “to maintain its qualitative edge” in the region, the source added.

The United States would further sign a more comprehensive deal to enhance its substantial security aid to Israel as part of any agreement concluded with the Palestinians.

(Editing by Peter Millership)

New legislation gives capital benefits in housing, employment and education sectors. Minister: Clear message that Jerusalem won’t be divided

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue scripture words

Jerusalem

“The LORD•Strongs 3068: Yhwh; from 1961 (the) self-Existent or Eternal; name of God:—the Lord. Compare 3050, 3069
•Strongs 1961: hayah, haw-yaw; a primitive root (compare 1933); to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary):—beacon, x altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, x have, last, pertain, quit (one-)self, require, x use.
•Strongs 3050: Yahh, yaw; contraction for 3068, and meaning the same; Jah, the sacred name:—Jah, the Lord, most vehement. Compare names in “-iah,” “-jah.”
•Strongs 3069: Yhwh; a variation of 3068 (used after 136, and pronounced as 430, in order to prevent the repetition of the same sound, since elsewhere 3068 is pronounced as 136):—God. doth build up•Strongs 1129: banah, baw-naw´; a primitive root; to build (literally and figuratively):—(begin to) build(-er), obtain children, make, repair, set (up), x surely. Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.”
—Psalms 147:2

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling •Strongs 7478: rah´-al; from 7477; a reeling (from intoxication):—trembling.
•Strongs 7477: raw-al´; a primitive root; to reel, i.e. (figuratively) to brandish:—terribly shake. unto all the people•Strongs 5971: am; from 6004; a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock:—folk, men, nation, people.
•Strongs 6004: aw-mam´; a primitive root; to associate; by implication, to overshadow (by huddling together):—become dim, hide. round about, when they shall be in the seige•Strongs 4692: matsowr, maw-tsore´; or mDxw…rmatsuwr, maw-tsoor´; from 6696; something hemming in, i.e. (objectively) a mound (of besiegers), (abstractly) a siege, (figuratively) distress; or (subjectively) a fastness:—besieged, bulwark, defence, fenced, fortress, siege, strong (hold), tower.
•Strongs 6696: tsuwr, tsoor; a primitive root; to cramp, i.e. confine (in many applications, literally and figuratively, formative or hostile):—adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags. both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
— Zechariah 12:2

The Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs has approved a bill on Sunday, defining Jerusalem as a national priority area of the first order in the housing, employment and education sectors. The bill, initiated by Knesset Member Uri Ariel (National Union), is expected to be brought before the Knesset for a preliminary vote.

The bill means that construction priority will be given to Jerusalem’s many neighborhoods – including in east Jerusalem, a measure which could lead to friction between Israel and the US and Europe. While the exact repercussions of the bill on the capital’s residents are unclear, they will enjoy various benefits through the bill.

The bill received the support of Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan, Minister of Information and DiasporaYuli Edelstein, Minister Meshulam Nahari, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, Minister of Religious Services Yakov Margi, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver. The bill is part of the government’s policy.

Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon and Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog from Labor, together with their Likud colleagues, Minister Benny Begin and Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar – all supporters of the bill, requested, on behalf of the justice and finance ministries, to postpone the vote by three weeks so that additional elements (mainly in welfare) could be included in the bill, but their request was denied.

The bill’s commentary addressed the fact that in section four of the Basic Law on Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it is stated that the government will persevere in developing and promoting the prosperity of Jerusalem and its residents by allocating special resources and giving a special priority to State authority development operations within the city. According to Knesset members, the purpose of the bill is to follow through on the goals detailed within the Basic Law.

MK Ariel: Jerusalem in the major league
Giving a city the status of national priority area of the first order means that the city can offer benefits and grants in education, culture, employment, welfare, construction, industry, agriculture, tourism, interior, environmental protection, immigration absorption and infrastructure.

It was also decided that in order to prevent young residents from leaving the city, some apartments will qualify as affordable housing for various sectors and some youngsters will be exempted from paying property tax.

Over 45 Knesset members from various parties stand behind the bill. Among those participating in the legislature initiative are Coalition Chairman MK Zeev Elkin (Likud), MK Nachman Shai (Kadima), MK Uri Maklev (United Torah Judaism), MK Avraham Michaeli (Shas) and MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beiteinu).

The new bill will give Jerusalem the same financial and national priority given to periphery cities. The legislators’ intent is, among other things, to prioritize public area construction in Jerusalem. And even though the bill amendments don’t mention construction beyond the Green Line, it is expected that construction priority will also be given to Jewish neighborhoods east of the Green Line.

In addition, they will receive government prioritization in the education and employment sectors, which will lead, say the bill’s creators, to a change in the area’s demographic makeup – an increase in the number of Jews in the area.

Minister Kahlon said that by passing the legislation the Israeli government is sending a “clear, unequivocal political message that Jerusalem will not be divided.”

“All those within the Palestinian or international community who expect the current Israeli government to accept any demands regarding Israel’s sovereignty over its capital are mistaken and misleading,” he said.

MK Uri Ariel (National Union) noted that he expects the prioritization to “push Jerusalem into the major league.

“It (the bill) will lead to a change in the demographic balance. I hope that if the bill will eventually receive government support in the Knesset, it will be a driving force for Israel’s capital,” added the MK.