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NEWS FROM ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST


HAMAS: TERRORISM TO ELIMINATE ISRAEL IS A ‘PRINCIPLE’


Israel National News reports: “In an interview published in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, a Hamas spokesman said that the jihadist movement is loyal to ‘Palestinian principles’ in its policy of terrorism against the Jews until Israel ceases to exist.

Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas claimed earlier that Hamas had agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state within temporary borders. Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman in Lebanon and close associate of powerful Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, rejected the idea, however.

Hamas, Hamdan explained, has never agreed and will never agree to any recognition of Israel’s legitimacy as a sovereign state. An agreement to temporary borders contradicts this position, as it would constitute acceptance of Jewish sovereignty over the pre-1967 borders of Israel, he added.

The Hamas plan is based on obtaining a Palestinian state by force of arms, Hamdan said, ‘not by way of agreements, a path that has failed.’ In fact, the Hamas spokesman told Al-Hayat that negotiations between his movement and Abbas’ Fatah group reached an impasse over acceptance of the Quartet’s call for an end to Arab ‘resistance’ operations; i.e., terrorism. The Quartet – the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and Russia – is involved in pushing for negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Hamdan emphasized further that, in fact, it is Hamas that is remaining loyal to ‘basic Palestinian principles’ in fighting against any agreements with Israel…”


ABBAS TO UN: IMMEDIATE ACTION AGAINST ISRAEL NEEDED


YnetNews.com reports: “The Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyad Mansour, urged the Security Council to take measures against Israel in light of what he called years of failed peace negotiations and a lack of Israeli willingness to advance a comprehensive peace agreement.

Speaking on behalf of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Mansour told the General Assembly that the peace talks had been hindered by the ‘settlements, arrests (of Palestinians by the IDF) and Israeli attacks.’

In his speech, the Palestinian envoy reiterated the claim that the IDF committed war crimes during its December-January offensive in Gaza.

He went on to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, saying it was ‘alienating’ the Palestinians and withdrawing from ‘all of the commitments and agreements that we have reached with previous Israeli governments.’

The UN is currently marking the historic date of November 29 1947, the day in which it approved the partition plan separating Israel into two states – Jewish and Arabic.

But while in Israel the date is celebratory, as it marks the end of the British mandate and the beginning of independent rule, the UN headquarters in New York and Geneva are holding ceremonies of mourning and solidarity with the Palestinian people…”


NETANYAHU: ISRAEL WANTS PEACE, BUT PALESTINIANS DON’T SEEM READY


Haaretz reports: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was fully committed to renewing Middle East peace negotiations, but questioned whether the Palestinian Authority was prepared to enter the political process.

‘It is clear today, to anyone willing to check the facts, that Israel wants peace – to enter the peace process with the aspiration of fulfilling it,’ Netanyahu told the annual Eilat Journalists Conference. ‘I don’t see the same firmness on the other side.’

According to Netanyahu, the government is doing everything in its power to advance the peace process, but has found itself stymied by obstacles from the Palestinian side.

‘I see preconditions being laid that never before existed. I see legal steps being taken at the international court to advance that absurd thing called the Goldstone report. You can’t reach peace if the horizon is moving away, and it is moving away because of the stereotype,’ Netanyahu said, referring to common perceptions of him being a hawk.

The prime minister was also referring to the Palestinian Authority’s endorsement of the Goldstone Commission’s damning report on the Gaza war, and to complaints it had submitted against Israel to the International Criminal Court.

‘I think they need to decide to enter negotiations, because only if we start them, we can finish them,’ he said.

The prime minister declared that his government was willing to make concessions for peace, difficult as they may be…”


VENEZUELA’S CHAVEZ AGREES TO UPGRADE TIES WITH PALESTINIANS


Voice of America News reports: “Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has agreed to upgrade relations with the Palestinian Authority in support of its quest for an independent Palestinian state.

Mr. Chavez hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Caracas and promised to open a Venezuelan embassy in the West Bank, where Mr. Abbas’s government is based.

The Venezuelan president – a harsh critic of Israel – praised the Palestinians for what he called their struggle against a ‘genocidal state of Israel’ that seeks to ‘exterminate’ their people.

Mr. Chavez’s government also signed a series of aid agreements with Mr. Abbas’s delegation, including an offer of scholarships for Palestinian students.

Mr. Abbas thanked Venezuela for its support. He also reiterated his rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to restart peace talks by freezing new housing construction in West Bank Jewish settlements for 10 months.

In a speech to Venezuelan lawmakers, Mr. Abbas said Israel’s prime minister faced a choice between ‘peace and occupation,’ and ‘chose occupation.’ Mr. Abbas has refused to resume peace talks until Israel stops all construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem…” (Chavez of Venezuela and Ahmadinejad of Iran are two of the greatest hate-filled dictators of Jews and Israel in history after Hamas and Hitler. Their goal is the destruction of Israel and Jews, another Holocaust – Psalm 83:4. It won’t work. God says in Isaiah 56:5, “I will give Israel an everlasting name.”)


NUCLEAR DETECTOR SET UP ON IRAN BORDER


The Jerusalem Post reports: “Israeli officials believe the international community is ‘starting to come to the understanding that Iran has been lying to everybody’ about its nuclear intentions, a senior Israeli diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post on.

The statement followed news of a UN agency completing a nuclear test detection station in Turkmenistan, just a few kilometers from the Iranian border.

The PS44 installation is the 337th facility of the International Monitoring System. It was set up by the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), a network of stations across the globe that monitors the atmosphere to detect nuclear blasts by countries secretly testing nuclear weapons.

PS44 is expected to be operational by 2010, once it has been tested.

There have been more than 2,000 nuclear test explosions worldwide since the Manhattan Project’s Trinity trial in the US in July 1945. The last detonation occurred May 25, when North Korea said it conducted a test, an event that was detected at 61 of the CTBTO’s seismic stations.

While the Turkmenistan site is part of a larger network, the opening of a station near Iran may signify that ‘the Iranian issue is finally gaining ground in the international community,’ according to the Israeli official.

More proof of this came when the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to censure Iran, on November 27, for failing to cooperate in international efforts to verify its claims that its nuclear program has peaceful intentions.

‘Luckily, Iran itself is decimating the efforts of even its most vociferous defenders to help it avoid international criticism,’ the Israeli official said…” (John 8:44 depicts who is behind the lying spirit of Iran’s President “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Satan has always hated Israel as he “stood up against Israel” thousands of years ago – I Chronicles 21:1; and continues his hatred and onslaught of God’s chosen people – Deuteronomy 7:7, 8.)