Over half of the Israeli Knesset has signed a petition demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert not offer to relinquish control of any parts of Jerusalem during an upcoming US-hosted peace summit with the Palestinians, reported Israel National News.
Those who attached their signatures to the document include 30 members of Olmert's ruling coalition, 13 from his own Kadima Party. Four of the signatories are cabinet ministers.
Olmert has come under intense criticism for statements he and Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon have made suggesting they will agree to surrender the Arab-dominated neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, to the Palestinians when the two sides meet in Annapolis, Maryland under the auspices of the Bush Administration later this year.
Olmert insisted last month that he did not need Knesset approval for any deal he strikes with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, despite the fact that Israel's Basic Law requires a Knesset majority to alter the status of Jerusalem as the "eternal, undivided capital of Israel."
Shas Party leader Eli Yishai told Ha'aretz on Thursday that if the division of Jerusalem is even mentioned in Annapolis, he will immediately pull his ultra-Orthodox, right-leaning faction out of the ruling coalition.
If ...   more »

Israeli archeologists inspecting ongoing unauthorized Muslim excavations and building projects atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount last week discovered artifacts dating to the First Temple Period.
During the visit to the Muslim-occupied and controlled holy hill, the archeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority examined a deep gash the Muslims had cut into the floor of the compound, revealing a layer of remains they were able to positively date to the eighth to sixth centuries BC.
The artifacts discovered at the site included fragments of bowls decorated in a style characteristic of the First Temple Period, jars for the storage of oil and juglets used to ladle the oil during religious ceremonies.
The Israel Antiquities Authority plans to hold an archeological seminar regarding the find.
Muslim officials at the site continue to insist that an Israeli temple never sat atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount and that the Jews have no legitimate historical connection to the area.
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An upcoming US-sponsored Middle East parley is "a trap set by the Zionists" for regional states, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday evening.
Addressing a cabinet session, the president said the conference, expected to be held in the United States late November, would not serve the interest of the Palestinian nation.
Ahmadinejad's statements were quoted by Iranian news agency IRNA.
Referring to the conference as the 'autumn peace conference', Ahmadinejad cautioned regional countries against being deceived.
"The regional states should be careful not to be trapped by organizers of the conference and not to prepare grounds for enemies to take advantage of such an opportunity for their own ends," he said.
"The Zionist regime is on the verge of collapse and that is why enemies are conducting such a conference to give the regime a chance to refresh its spirit."
"Making any decision about Palestine without the presence of the Palestinian nation will never end up resolving the crisis," Ahmadinejad added.
"The time is over now to decide about the Palestinian nation in their absence. As an international issue, the issue of Palestine should be solved by their direct participation and with their presence."
"Those who established the Zionist regime ...   more »

"The purpose of the Annapolis peace conference is not the Palestinians but drafting support for a strike on Iran," Hamas senior Muhammad Nazal told the London-based newspaper Al Quds al Arabi on Monday.
According to Nazal, the "Annapolis conference is meant to save Olmert and Bush and help the [American] Republican party in the next elections."
Nazal, a former member of Hamas's political wing, attacked Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, saying that he was "wrong and deceitful to think he will get American support. Israel is initiating an agreement which breaches the rights of the Palestinian people." According to Nazal, by accepting Israel's offers, Abbas was turning his back on his Palestinian brethren and leaders in the Arab world.
Nazal elaborated: "Our point of departure is that the conference's purpose is not [to advance the interests of] Palestine, but to gain support for a strike on Iran. The US administration needs to prove it is making efforts to solve the Palestinian issue, while all the while beating the drums of war against Iran." The conference was also a "life jacket for [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert," whose popularity is low, he said.
When asked his opinion about Israeli and American claims ...   more »

Ashley Seager
Oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico at sunset.
World oil production has already peaked and will fall by half as soon as 2030, according to a report which also warns that extreme shortages of fossil fuels will lead to wars and social breakdown.
The German-based Energy Watch Group will release its study in London today saying that global oil production peaked in 2006 - much earlier than most experts had expected. The report, which predicts that production will now fall by 7% a year, comes after oil prices set new records almost every day last week, on Friday hitting more than $90 (£44) a barrel.
"The world soon will not be able to produce all the oil it needs as demand is rising while supply is falling. This is a huge problem for the world economy," said Hans-Josef Fell, EWG's founder and the German MP behind the country's successful support system for renewable energy.
The report's author, Joerg Schindler, said its most alarming finding was the steep decline in oil production after its peak, which he says is now behind us.
The results are in contrast to projections from the International Energy Agency, which says there is ...   more »

By Neil Dennis
The dollar hit a record low against the euro on Monday after the weekend G7 summit failed to explicitly address dollar weakness.
In their post-meeting communique G7 finance ministers urged China to let its renminbi appreciate more rapidly, but did not mention dollar weakness, which provided the catalyst for traders to dump the currency.
”The communique did not make any references to the levels of the dollar, euro or yen,” said Sue Trinh at RBC Capital Markets. She added: ”This is, in effect, a green light to sell the dollar.”
After hitting a record $1.4348 against the euro, the dollar later clawed back to trade up 0.2 per cent on the session at $1.4280. Sterling climbed as high as $2.0537 against the dollar.
Japan’s yen hit a six week high of Y113.27 against the dollar, helped by rising aversion to risk after tumbling US equity markets drove the Nikkei 225 more than 2 per cent lower.
The unwinding of risky carry trades, where the low-yielding yen is sold to fund high-yielding purchases, led to hefty losses for the New Zealand and Australian dollars - which are among the highest yielding currencies.
Lee Hardman, currency economist at the ...   more »

By Jeffrey K. Radt
As a Christian, I don’t believe in mere coincidences. After last week’s piece I guess I shouldn’t be surprised whenever this sort of thing happens. Still, it’s funny how one can find inspiration in the most unlikely sources.
The year was 1965. In mid-July of that year, a young man by the name of Barry McGuire released a song that became an instant hit as it reached #1 on the Billboard charts by late September.
The song was titled Eve of Destruction and it was a grave warning about imminent apocalypse and considered by some to be the epitome of a protest song. It expressed the frustrations and fears of young people in the age of the Cold War, Vietnam, the nuclear arms race, and the civil rights movement.
Here we are 42 years later and the world eerily resembles the one he sang about. Was he singing to his contemporaries or was he singing to a future generation? When is a song just a song and when is it perhaps something more?
I watch the world news headlines daily and filter all of it through my Christian worldview. My understanding of Biblical prophecy is what ...   more »

Chuck Baldwin
The Washington Times carried an Associated Press report entitled, "Bob Jones III endorses Mitt Romney." Here are excerpts:
"Bob Jones III, chancellor of the Christian fundamentalist school named for his family, is endorsing Republican Mitt Romney for president.
"Romney's campaign confirmed Jones' endorsement today."
According to the report Jones told a Greenville, South Carolina newspaper that "supporting Romney is critical to make sure former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani doesn't win the GOP nomination and that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't win the election.
"'If it turns out to be Giuliani and Hillary, we've got two pro-choice candidates, and that would be a disaster,' Jones told The Greenville News for a story on its Web site today."
Jones also said, "As a Christian I am completely opposed to the doctrines of Mormonism. But I'm not voting for a preacher. I'm voting for a president. It boils down to who can best represent conservative American beliefs, not religious beliefs."
Bob Jones' endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor illustrates just how low the Religious Right will go in compromising bedrock principle for the sake of political expediency. Jones says he is supporting Romney so as to help defeat ...   more »