OK, you've bought a house and moved into a new neighborhood. Actually, you used to live in this very area, but events caused you to move away, and now you're back. It's a nice, albeit modest, not fancy or highbrow neighborhood, and you're looking forward to really settling in and getting to know your neighbors.
But before you've even unpacked, you come to realize that your neighbors don't want you there. When they're unable to keep you from moving in, a violent zealot next door proclaims that he will never accept your presence, no matter what concessions you offer or what friendly overtures you make.
Across the street lives a real fanatic, known to make and throw bombs, who declares he hopes your entire extended family moves in – because that "will save us the trouble of going after them wherever they are worldwide."
Just up the block, a rich religious extremist has been buying weapons and providing them to your other neighbors, announcing that your home "must be wiped off the map"; and in his garage, he's believed to be assembling an ominous-looking weapon that he might use to blow your home to smithereens.
And of course, there's the ...   more »

By DPA 
A Turkish mission sent to Israel to inspect controversial work by Israeli archaeologists at the Mugrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem will advise that all work should stop immediately and that Palestinians must be consulted before any further work goes ahead, according to a report published Friday in the English-language newspaper Today's Zaman.
"The archaeological excavation at the Mugrabi pathway, which involves various traces of the Umayyad, Ayyubid, Mameluke and Ottoman periods, must be discontinued immediately," Today's Zaman on Friday quoted from the as yet unreleased report
The Turkish mission visited the site in March to inspect work on an entrance to the mosque and excavations in the area. The archaeological work had led to protests across the Muslim world with protesters claiming that Israel was illegally interfering with one of the holiest sites in Islam.  
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to send the mission to Jerusalem, an offer accepted by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who said at the time that Israel had nothing to hide.
Instead of reassuring suspicious Muslims the report is clearly critical of Israeli work on the site.
"The tunneling and excavation work and the large amount of soil ...   more »

The Turkish delegation that visited Jerusalem in March to inspect the excavations at the Mughrabi Gate near the Temple Mount has concluded that the work is destroying artifacts from different historic Islamic periods, and called on Israel to coordinate their activities with the Palestinians and the international community, the Turkish newspaper A-Zamaan reported on Saturday.
"The work being conducted by Israel does not abide by the appropriate [excavation standards], and the dig testifies to the fact that Israel is interested in destroying artifacts from the Islamic periods," the report quoted the envoy as saying.
"It is Israel's responsibility to cease their its immediate," the envoy concluded.
The report also criticized Israel for not having conducted dialogue with the Waqf department in Jerusalem in the past seven years.
The seven-person Turkish technical team conducted their inspections in March, one month after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the idea to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during Olmert's visit to Ankara.
According to A-Zamaan, the delegation finished writing its report in July, but the Turkish government decided against publishing it out of concern it would harm Turkish-Israeli relations.
Original Source

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By Barak Ravid, Yoav Stern, and Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service   
tags: Condoleezza Rice, Labor  
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won't return to the region before the Mideast peace conference at the end of the month in Annapolis, Maryland.
Rice visited Israel and the West Bank three times in the past two months to encourage peace talks ahead of the conference. White House Spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice will continue consulting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas over the phone. McCormack also confirmed U.S. President George W. Bush's attendance at the conference. Its exact date has not been officially announced.
Sources in Jerusalem said took Rice's decision as a good sign, suggesting she won't visit because talks are progressing and the sides don't need pressuring.
However, during a meeting at the ranch of Saudi King Abdullah, Abbas voiced his pessimism on the conference's chance for success and his dissatisfaction with Israel over unwillingness to achieve the minimum level of what is acceptable by Palestinians, said Jamal al-Shobaki, Palestinian ambassador to Riyadh, on Saturday.
The Saudi king, who has previously expressed skepticism over the conference, like many Arab leaders, echoed Abbas' concerns, ...   more »

In a letter to President Bush, Palestinian negotiator Erekat demands Israel fully meet its obligations under the Road Map peace plan regarding settlements; 'Enough games, we want to see an end to settlement expansion and natural growth,' he says
Reuters
The Palestinians have told the United States they will accept nothing less than a total freeze in Jewish settlement building ahead of a conference on statehood, a top Palestinian official said on Saturday.  
Western diplomats say Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under Western and Arab pressure to go beyond the partial freeze he was expected to announce before the US-sponsored conference this month as a way to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.  
The diplomats say Olmert sought to exempt the occupied West Bank's major settlement blocs, which Israel intends to keep under any final peace deal. Washington was cool to that idea, an Israeli source said.  
Summit Gloom   
Palestinian envoy to Saudi Arabia says Abbas disappointed by Israel's lack of helpful overtures. Meanwhile in Israel hopes are still running high, government to authorize release of 500 Palestinian prisoners as goodwill gesture ahead of US-led conference 
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he sent a letter to ...   more »

Herb Keinon ,
While no invitations have been set, a joint declaration has not yet been finalized and it is not clear which countries will in the end send representatives, the Prime Minister's Office is gearing up for the long-discussed meeting in Annapolis a week from Tuesday.
According to still very tentative plans, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in Annapolis on the morning of November 27 with US President George W. Bush, followed by the "main event" in the afternoon during which the statement that Israel and the PA have been working on for months will be read.
Another event in Annapolis is planned the night before, with the participation of all the countries sending representatives to the gathering.
Senior government officials said Saturday night that negotiations themselves would not take place at Annapolis, but rather that the negotiating process would begin "immediately" afterward. No date or venue was given for these negotiations, although they are expected to be carried out by the same teams which have been negotiating the statement to be unveiled at Annapolis.
In the run-up to the meeting, and as a way of winning support for it among the ...   more »

Decision a result of Hadash and the Israeli Communist parties' demand that an official stance against the Israeli demand be taken before the Annapolis conference
Roee Nahmias
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee unanimously decided Saturday to reject Israel's demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a "Jewish State" as a part of the peace negotiations. The Palestinians have also announced that they reject the Israeli demand.  
The decision was made at the Committee's meeting in Nazareth after Hadash and the Israeli Communist parties demanded that an official stance against the Israeli demand be taken prior to the upcoming Annapolis conference.   
An official letter on the matter is expected to be sent to the Israeli government, the Quartet, the Arab League and other relevant bodies.  
The demand was made due to fears that defining Israel as a "Jewish State" would bring about "a worsening in the condition of Arab-Israelis and will hinder the realization of the Palestinian refugees' Right of Return."  
Former Knesset Member Mohamed Naffa (Hadash) said: "We have no expectations of the Annapolis conference. Nothing good will come out of the White House. This is an important decision primarily for the Palestinian population inside Israel ...   more »

THIS IS A GLOBAL DISPLAY OF TERRORISM AND OTHER SUSPICIOUS EVENTS, including US Schools Incidents Map, Amber Alert, Illegal Alien Activity, Mosque Map. 
Clicking on the link will bring up an interactive world map depicting the following types of incidents globally: 
- Aviation
- Arson
- Biological
- Bomb
- Chemical incidents and attacks
- Dam
- Radiation
- Other suspicious activities
- Shipping, railways/train, bus, bridge/tunnel, shooting,  
  terrorist arrests. 
This website  is updated every few minutes: you can move the map around, zero in on any one area and actually up-load the current story. You can even see what is happening here in the U.S., sometimes right in your own state, or even your own city.
This is a great link to add to your tool bar for daily access.
Original Source
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A leaked email exchange between two of Prince Charles’s closest aides shows that they turned down an invitiation to the Prince to visit Israel because they thought such a visit would help Israel improve its image. 
Earlier this year, according to the Jewish Chronicle, the Israeli embassy invited Sir Michael Peat, Prince Charles’s Principal Private Secretary, and Clive Alderton, Deputy Private Secretary, to Israel for a four-day visit as guests of the Knesset. This was seen as a prelude to a possible official visit by the Prince, which would have been the first-ever state visit by a British royal to Israel. 
Peat initially expressed enthusiasm for the idea, replying in an email: “The invitation is hugely appreciated and Clive and I would love to come.” One month later, however, Alderton complained to Peat in an email of being “pursued” by the Israeli ambassador, and asked: “Safe to assume there is no chance of this visit ever actually happening?... Acceptance would make it hard to avoid the many ways in which Israel would want HRH [Prince Charles] to help burnish its international image," he wrote, "In which case, let’s agree a way to lower his [the Israeli Ambassador's] expectations."
Original Source...   more »

Relations between Israel and the Vatican "were better" before the two established full diplomatic ties in 1993, according to a senior Vatican diplomat and former top Holy See envoy to Jerusalem.
Israel has also failed to keep promises to ease travel restrictions on Catholic clerics and remove taxes on Church-owned property in the Holy Land, Monsignor Pietro Sambi said in an interview posted Friday on the Franciscan Order's terrasanta.net Web site.
"The Holy See decided to establish diplomatic relations (in 1993) with Israel as an act of faith, leaving to latter the serious promises to regulate concrete aspects of the life of the Catholic community and the Church in Israel," Sambi, the Papal Nuncio to the United States, said.  
"If I must be frank, the relations between the Catholic Church and the state of Israel were better when there were no diplomatic ties," he continued.
Among the issues hanging are the status of expropriated church property, services that Catholic groups perform for Israel's Jewish and Arab population, and tax exemptions for the Church.
The Vatican diplomat also cited a current sore point - the granting of permits for Arab Christian clergy traveling to and around the West Bank.
Israel ...   more »