Jerusalem's Open House announces city's Pride Parade to be held next week, but says 'this year's parade will be modest event held to help decrease tension, violence of previous years'. Meanwhile rabbis holding protest rally say, 'Righteous men killed in Holocaust because they didn't protest'
Ronen Medzini
The Open House in Jerusalem announced on Monday that the city's Pride Parade would take place on Thursday of next week, with the theme of "free love". This year marks the parade's seventh anniversary in Jerusalem, and it has become well-known for sparking annual controversy among the ultra-Orthodox communities in the city.  
No More Pride?  
Let’s end pride parades / Tomer Kamerling  
By now, gay pride parades do nothing to advance rights of homosexuals    
The parade will begin in Jerusalem's Independence Park at 4 pm on June 26, and end in Liberty Bell Park with a ceremony presenting the gay community's call for equal rights, with the hope of promoting love and tolerance in the country's capital.  
"This year we expect the parade to be accepted peacefully by Jerusalem," CEO of the city's Open House Jonathan Ger told Ynet. "We are working very hard with this aspiration in ...   more »

Enraged by perceived lack of support from government, Gaza-vicinity residents launch tax strike, propose forming independent 'Western Negev State'
Matan Zuri
Hundreds of residents from Israeli communities suffering from Gaza rocket barrages have launched a campaign to actively oppose what they call the State's 'disengagement' from the western Negev. Their first order of business was staging a tax strike.  
Decisions  
Israel agrees to Gaza ceasefire / Roni Sofer  
Less than 24 hours before going into effect, officials say truce expected to be 'short-lived and fragile.' Olmert's office says issue of Gilad Shalit part of understandings. 'We want to make the most of any opportunity to bring peace and quiet to residents of the South, but no one here is cracking open the champagne and declaring Hamas has beaten its swords into plowshares'    
Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Wednesday that those behind the initiative seek to protest the government's inaction in the face of daily attacks from Palestinian terror groups. The residents fear the situation may continue to escalate despite the ceasefire agreement.
"We are not the one's breaking away from the State, it is the government that has led us to this," said members of 'The Parliament' ...   more »

President in Jordan ahead of Nobel Peace Laureates conference, briefs king on peace negotiations with Palestinians, situation in Gaza Strip and relations with Syria
Ronen Medzini and AFP
President Shimon Peres arrived in Petra on Wednesday morning, where he met with King Abdullah II ahead of the a global conference for Nobel Peace Laureates named 'Petra IV: Reaching for New Economic, Scientific and Educational Horizons.'  
The leaders discussed a series of political and defense-related issues, including the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the indirect negotiations with Syria and the complex situation in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.  
Peres is also seeking to promote the 'Valley of Peace' project and the joint Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian canal. Later in the afternoon Peres is scheduled to speak before the conference guests and then return to Israel nearly immediately.  
Abdullah: Failure to create Palestinian state 'serious mistake'
King Abdullah II warned that failure to create an independent Palestinian state this year would be a "serious mistake," calling for a stable Middle East.  
"It would be a serious mistake to miss the opportunities we have this year to establish, finally, a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state along with a secure and ...   more »

Israel has agreed to withdraw from the Shaba Farms, A-Sharq al-Awsat reported Tuesday, adding that Syria was exerting great efforts in negotiations between Israel and Hizbullah on a prisoner swap deal.
According to Israeli officials quoted by the London-based newspaper, as a result of the Syrian efforts, there would soon be a prisoner exchange deal.
The officials were also quoted as saying that Syria's involvement in the Israel-Hizbullah talks "will lead to the opening of new horizons on the Shaba Farms issue."
The officials reportedly claimed that Israel had agreed to withdraw from the farms "up to the last centimeter," on condition that Hizbullah agrees to a cessation of violence against Israel that the Lebanese "case" is closed
Original Source
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by Hana Levi Julian(IsraelNN.com) The number of Israelis who oppose surrendering the Golan Heights to Syria is growing, according to a new Teleseker poll published in the Hebrew-language newspaper Ma'ariv on Tuesday.
Some 85 percent of the Israeli public is opposed to ceding the Golan Heights to Syria, according to the poll.
Barely half of those living in the strategic area said they would leave their homes voluntarily if the government agreed to turn the Golan over to Syria.
Only 56 percent of respondents living in the Golan Heights agreed they would leave in return for money or equivalent property in the Galilee or Negev.
The statistics did not change significantly even when residents were offered double compensation in exchange for leaving their homes in the Golan Heights.
Envoys Yoram Turgeman and Shalom Turbovich returned to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office from Ankara following a second round of talks on Sunday and Monday with Syrian representatives through Turkish mediators with new dates for further discussions in the near future.
The pair said the latest discussions went well; however, the content of the talks was not released.
Prior to the talks there was also a majority opposed to a full withdrawal ...   more »

By Ralf Beste, Cordula Meyer and Christoph Schult
The Israeli government no longer believes that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. A broad consensus in favor of a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities -- without the Americans, if necessary -- is beginning to take shape.
Dani Yatom, a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, was invited to attend a NATO conference in Brussels last year. While reviewing the agenda, Yatom, a retired major general, was surprised to see that the meeting was titled "The Iranian Challenge" and not "The Iranian Threat."
When a speaker with a French accent mentioned that a US military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities would be the most dangerous scenario of all, Yatom said, politely but firmly: "Sir, you are wrong. The worst scenario would be if Iran acquired an atom bomb."
Yatom, 63, has spent most of his life in the military. He was a military adviser to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and, in the mid-1990s, was named head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. Nevertheless, Yatom, a member of the Labor Party, is not some reckless hawk. Unlike most Knesset members, he flatly rejects, for example, a major Israeli offensive ...   more »