By Stan Goodenough
An earthquake rattled Israel at about half-past-midnight Saturday, the third tremor felt throughout the land in six days.
No injuries or damages were reported from the quake, which measured 4.1 on the Richter Scale, with its epicenter in the center of the country.
Buildings near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem shook, albeit mildly, for about 10 seconds before silence settled again over the sleeping capital.
Two quakes were reported last Monday, the first measuring 3.0 and the second a 4.2. They originated near the northern end of the Dead Sea.
(Original Source
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New plan calls for dismantlement of 'refugee camps,' termination of Abbas' rule
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – As the international community gears up for next week's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit aimed at outlining a Palestinian state, a new diplomatic initiative that proposes Jordanian citizenship for the Palestinians has been gaining some support here from across the political spectrum.
Named the Israeli Initiative, the alternative plan seeks to end widespread backing for the Palestinian Authority, dismantle what are termed Palestinian refugee camps and have Jordan grant citizenship to Arabs remaining in the West Bank while the Jews there maintain their Israeli citizenship. Israel would extend its sovereignty over the entire West Bank.
(Story continues below)
"The actions of Israeli governments to establish a Palestinian state have not brought about peace but rather a whirlpool of blood," said Knesset member Benny Elon, the Initiative's founder.
"It is time for new thinking, for learning from our mistakes, and for re-reading the regional map toward a revitalized and genuine quest to achieve peace," said Elon, who is chairman of the National Union party and is a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Elon's plan calls for millions of Palestinians living in 59 ...   more »

Faithful fellow Watchmen
As announced on the homepage of Jerusalem Newswire Friday, I am heading for Annapolis this weekend to be present at the International Conference on the Creation of Palestine on Jewish Land.
Earlier this week I added my voice to others who have called for intense prayer for the derailing of this event.
We have marveled as issue after issue has come up to confound and frustrate the Annapolis planners.
As of this writing, what was originally forecast to be a revolutionary conference spanning three days and resulting in the issuing of a joint communiqué that would drive the “peace” process into its final stretch has shrunk to not much more than a one-day photo opportunity.
I know that He who keepeth Israel is still able to cause the complete cancellation of the conference, and I want to encourage you to continue to pray for this no matter how set in stone the parley appears to be.
For the sake of all the nations that will be gathering in the United States, and for the United States itself, I pray Annapolis will not happen. In that event, I will be more than happy to turn around and fly ...   more »

By Caroline B. Glick      
Leaked document
Will Bush and Rice do whatever necessary to secure a legacy?  
The mood is dark in the IDF's General Staff ahead of next week's "peace" conference in Annapolis. As one senior officer directly involved in the negotiations with the Palestinians and the Americans said, "As bad as it might look from the outside, the truth is ten times worse. This is a nightmare. The Americans have never been so hostile." 
Thursday a draft of the joint statement that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are discussing ahead of the conference was leaked to the media. A reading of the document bears out the IDF's concerns. 
The draft document shows that the Palestinians and the Israelis differ not only on every issue, but differ on the purpose of the document. It also shows that the US firmly backs the Palestinians against Israel. 
As the draft document makes clear, Israel is trying to avoid committing itself to anything at Annapolis. For their part, the Palestinians are trying to force Israel's hand by tying it to diplomatic formulas that presuppose an Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines and an Israeli acceptance of the so-called "right of ...   more »

Washington Post reports President Bush unlikely to force Prime Minister Olmert to make difficult decisions during peace talks. White House officials say Bush highly skeptical of Palestinians' ability to deliver
Yitzhak Benhorin
WASHINGTON – The United States has no intention of pressuring Israel into unexpected decisions at the upcoming peace conference in Annapolis, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
According to senior White House staffers quoted in the report, US President George W. Bush feels "the war on terror makes for a special bond between the US and Israel. 
Growing doubts in Arab world as to results of conference 
Following meeting between Egyptian President Mubarak and PA President Abbas, Egypt expresses skepticism over US-proposed Mideast conference    
"The president remains skeptical as to the Palestinians' ability to make the necessary concession for achieving peace," added the sources.  
This feeling of closeness, said the report, probably means the US has no intention of pressuring Israel in next Tuesday's negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. "The Israelis trust Bush… if they're going to take any chances, they'd rather do it with him, not his successor," said the officials.
Meanwhile the Israeli delegation's hectic Annapolis schedule has been released. The round of appointments will ...   more »

Condoleezza Rice's pointless Middle East conference.
BY BRET STEPHENS
Henry Kissinger once observed that "when enough prestige has been invested in a policy it is easier to see it fail than abandon it." At the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., next week, the current secretary of state will illustrate her predecessor's point.
"Annapolis," as it is spoken of in diplomatic circles, was conceived earlier this year by the Bush administration as a landmark conference that would revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and lead to a final settlement by January 2009. It was to be modeled on the Madrid conference of 1991, which brought Israeli leaders face-to-face with their Arab counterparts and, as it seemed at the time, created a new paradigm in the affairs of the Middle East. Back then, the idea was that the Iron Wall between the Jewish state and its neighbors could be brought down just as the Berlin Wall had. Today, the operative theory is that Israel's neighbors, fearful of Iran's growing regional clout, have a newfound interest in putting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to rest.
Nice theory--if only the locals would get with the concept. The Egyptians are openly skeptical about the conference, which they say ...   more »

Gaza Strip, Annapolis summit  
Hamas can make the rockets it fires at Israel much deadlier by packing them with more explosives, a senior official in the Islamic militant group said in a statement Saturday.
The official, Ahmed Yousef, made the threat just two days before the start of a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
Israeli officials have warned that Hamas may try to disrupt the conference with more intense rocket fire. Gaza militants, including Hamas members, have fired hundreds of crude, homemade rockets at Israeli border communities in recent years, killing 12 people and disrupting life along the border.  
In a statement sent to reporters, Yousef said that the rockets currently being fired have limited effect because they don't carry lethal enough warheads.
"They can be developed in a short period to create sufficient terror and fear and make the Israelis live in pain no less than what our people live through because of the repeated incursions into our villages and cities in the West Bank and Gaza," wrote Yousef, an adviser to deposed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Yousef also said Israel has rejected repeated truce offers by Hamas, which seized control of Gaza by ...   more »

It woke me shortly after I dropped off to sleep in the early minutes of Saturday morning, causing the windows of our apartment above the Hinnom Valley to drone with a humming sound, and vibrating the mattress beneath me.
The quake was minor, bit it effectively ended what little hope I had of catching a brief nap before the shuttle came to fetch me to the airport on the first leg of my flight to Annapolis.
Situated in an unstable part of the world (geographically, I mean this time), the ancient homeland of the Jewish people straddles two tectonic plates in the Syria-Africa Rift, meaning Israel is no stranger to earthquakes.
Seismologists say they are happening all the time, especially down under the floor of the Dead Sea Valley.
Most of the shivers are just that, shivers, felt barely if at all as we carry on with the never-uneventful life in this land.
But once or twice a year one comes along that is strong enough to momentarily stop us in our tracks, and to make the breaking news headlines in The Jerusalem Post, Ha’aretz, and YNetnews.
Interestingly, some seem to be “tied” to political earthquakes. I recall one that ...   more »

Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Saturday that Iran has produced nuclear fuel pellets for its 40-megawatt heavy water nuclear reactor, a technological advancement in the cycle of nuclear fuel, according to the state news agency.
"Fuel pellets to be used in the 40-megawatt Arak research reactor have been produced," IRNA quoted Aghzadeh as saying Saturday.
Iran has gone a long way in building a 40-megawatt heavy water nuclear reactor in Arak, central Iran, which the United States fears could be used to produce plutonium and build nuclear weapons. 
Original Source
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By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
It's been called a dirty little secret. So what is it?
"This is the dark underbelly of cohabitation," said Brad Wilcox, sociology professor at the University of Virginia. "Cohabitation has become quite common, and most people think, 'What's the harm?' The harm is we're increasing a pattern of relationships that's not a good thing for children."
And we aren't just talking about numbers either. These are real children with heart-wrenching stories. Such as:
Two-year-old Devon Shackleford of Mesa, Ariz. was drowned in an apartment complex swimming pool by Derek Chappell, 25, in 2004. Chappell committed the murder because he believed Devon caused problems in his relationship with the little boy's mother.
The body of 9-month-old Jermauri Craig was found with bruising around both eyes at a motel where 21-year-old Travels Bullard was caring for the baby while his mother was at work. Bullard faces murder charges in the July death of the infant who suffered a skull fracture along with bite marks to the side of his face and arm.
And a little girl named Olivia Scoggins died in August, a few weeks before her second birthday, at the hands of Kerry Joe Smith, ...   more »

Staffers from the USDA will travel to Surfers' Paradise in Queensland, Australia, to participate in a meeting of the Codex Alimentarius, Nov. 26 – 30. Why? To continue developing international rules and regulations that govern what you eat.
USDA says "The Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1963 by two United Nations organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, and the World Health Organization, or WHO. Through adoption of food standards, codes of practice and other guidelines developed by its committees, and by promoting their adoption and implementation by governments, Codex seeks to protect the health of consumers and ensure that fair practices are used in trade."
Among the several interesting agenda items is this: "Discussion Paper on the Need for Further Guidance on Traceability/Product Tracing."
This is U.N.-speak for "let's tighten the regulations on animal identification and trace-back." This item has been on the Codex agenda for several years now. Whether the USDA took the idea of animal identification to the Codex, or brought the idea home from a Codex meeting, cannot be determined for certain. What is certain is this: The idea was cultivated by the members of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture, consisting of organizations ...   more »

Ron Gray
A Canadian political party leader's posting of a WND article on homosexuality has brought him before the country's Human Rights Commission to face accusations he was motivated by "hate and defamation."
Ron Gray of the Christian Heritage Party says he's been told directly by an employee of the Human Rights Commission that the Canadian Human Rights Act, under which he is being accused, is "about censorship," according to a report by WND columnist Tristan Emmanuel, who heads the Canada-based activist group ECP Centre
Two of the three complaints filed by Edmonton man Rob Wells relate to the posting of an April 2002 WND story titled "Report: Pedophilia more common among 'gays.'"
The third complaint against Ron Gray is for several commentaries he wrote and distributed to party members. One, titled "Sitcom prophet," compared the current climate of debate about homosexuality in Canada to the "Cone of Silence" in the 1960s-era television comedy "Get Smart." In the show, the leading characters would use the cone for security but ended up unable to hear each other.
(Story continues below)
Gray wrote: "The problem with Canada's 'Cone of Silence' over the issue of homosexuality is that, like the security device in ...   more »

But many Democrats in new poll can't stomach 'Merry Christmas' 
A new poll finds Americans overwhelmingly prefer that stores use the phrase "Merry Christmas" in their seasonal advertising rather than "Happy Holidays.
The Rasmussen survey found 67 percent favor "Merry Christmas" while just 26 percent prefer "Happy Holidays."
Rasmussen said the poll results were the same for males and females, and there were few demographic differences.
A sharp difference, however, showed up between Republicans and Democrats.
While 88 percent of Republicans prefer "Merry Christmas," just 57 percent of Democrats favor the saying.  
Rasmussen also found 57 percent of respondents say they will attend a Christian service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day this year.
About 30 percent won’t go to a special service. Women are more likely to attend a Christmas service than men, the survey found.
Several activist groups have launched campaigns in the last few years to encourage stores to acknowledge that their biggest retail season of the year is about Christmas, not winter or simply "holidays."
As WND reported, a group called the Committee to Save Merry Christmas launched a successful boycott against Macy's then targeted Sears for eliminated references to Christmas in its advertising.
The ...   more »

With his new discovery controversy 'will be just a funny historical footnote'
James Thomson (Photo: N.Y. Times)
The scientist who helped ignite cultural and political controversy with the use of embryos in stem-cell research believes his new discovery – using ordinary adult skin cells – means the war is virtually over.
"A decade from now, this will be just a funny historical footnote," James A. Thomson told the New York Times in an interview.
Thomson's laboratory at the University of Wisconsin was one of two that announced Tuesday a new way to turn ordinary human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without using a human embryo.
The technique involves adding four genes to ordinary adult skin cells.
Stem cells are used to research treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's because of their ability to turn into any of the body's 220 cell types. Scientists hope it eventually will be possible to use the cells to grow replacement tissues for patients.
Thomson, 48, has a degree in biophysics from the University of Illinois and two doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania, one in veterinary medicine and one in molecular biology.
In 1998, his laboratory was ...   more »

We aspire to the establishment of full and meaningful citizenship, with a charter that guarantees equal rights for individuals and groups to participate in decision-making, share the wealth of the state and enjoy an equal presence in the public space, says El Hassan bin Talal.
AMMAN - Hardly anyone would disagree that the state of the Arab nation leaves much to be desired, and that our Arab societies continue to stagnate. Our discourse and inspiration for the desired Arab renaissance remain merely rhetorical. What, then, is the missing element?
Let us recall that the first Arab renaissance revived the spirit of hope in the souls of our forefathers at an extremely difficult time. Pioneers like Al Yazijy, Al Rihani, Al Bustany, Mohammad Abdo, Al Kawakiby, and all the others who deserve a place on this impressive list, laid down the foundations for what was to come. The product of their intellects outlined the form of this grand "first renaissance" that continues to pervade the thoughtful Arab soul. I wish we would revert to those texts, left by these great men, for inspiration in our present and future.
Let us try to understand the astute vision represented in the well-known saying: ...   more »

FM Moualem says US agreed to include talks on disputed region during next week's peace parley, but adds Syria yet to decide whether it will attend. Saudi FM al-Faisal declares his country will participate, but that he will not allow 'theatrics' like handshakes with Israeli officials
News agencies
The United States has agreed to put the occupied Golan Heights on the agenda of the Annapolis peace conference, but Syria will decide whether to attend when it receives the schedule, Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said on Friday.
"The United States has sent confirmation that it will include the Syrian-Israeli track... The Golan... On the Annapolis schedule," the Syrian news agency quoted Moualem as saying.
There was no immediate comment from Washington.
The Damascus government has repeatedly said it would only attend the US-hosted conference, which aims to restart talks on Palestinian statehood, if the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967, are on the agenda.
Moualem was in Cairo for a meeting of Arab foreign ministers to prepare a common strategy for the Annapolis conference on Nov. 27. He said Syria learnt about the inclusion of the Golan through Arab ministers who contacted Washington about the issue.
Earleir, Saudi Arabia's foreign ...   more »

Caroline Glick ,
The mood is dark in the IDF's General Staff ahead of next week's "peace" conference in Annapolis. As one senior officer directly involved in the negotiations with the Palestinians and the Americans said, "As bad as it might look from the outside, the truth is 10 times worse. This is a nightmare. The Americans have never been so hostile."
On Thursday a draft of the joint statement that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are discussing ahead of the conference was leaked to the media. A reading of the document bears out the IDF's concerns.
The draft document shows that the Palestinians and the Israelis differ not only on every issue, but differ on the purpose of the document. It also shows that the US firmly backs the Palestinians against Israel.
As the draft document makes clear, Israel is trying to avoid committing itself to anything at Annapolis. For their part, the Palestinians are trying to force Israel's hand by tying it to diplomatic formulas that presuppose an Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines and an Israeli acceptance of the so-called "right of return" or free immigration of foreign Arabs to Israel.
The Palestinians are also trying to ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
On Jewish calendar date 17 Kislev 5708 (the evening of November 29, 1947 in Israel), 46 countries voted on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 - the proposal to partition the Land of Israel (known then as Palestine) into two states, one Jewish, the other Arab.
Thirty-three voted in favor, 13 voted against. The Arabs rejected the outcome, immediately initiating hostilities that erupted into the War of Independence after Israel was established and recognized internationally six months later.
Next week, on 17 Kislev 5768, 60 years to the day after that UN vote, nearly 50 nations have been invited to Annapolis for the US-hosted International Conference on the Creation of Palestine - an Arab state the international community wants to see erected on the biblical heartland of the Jewish people.
Of these nations, only 15 are Arab states. Included among the rest are France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, Sweden, Norway, South Africa and India.
Observers have noted that this will indeed be a gathering of the nations of the world in a united stand against the rights of the Jews to their sacred soil.
The international community is virtually single-minded on ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
Next week's US-sponsored international conference at Annapolis, Maryland, will mark the "launching point" that will lead to the establishment of an Arab state called Palestine in the heart of the biblical and historical land of Israel.
This is according to a press statement by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
The conference, McCormack said, "will signal broad international support for the Israeli and Palestinian leaders' courageous efforts."
Palestine's birth, he added, will lead to "the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she hopes Annapolis will signal the start of a drive to reach a two-state solution [sic] to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before the end of President Bush's term late next year.
Orignal Source
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New plan calls for dismantlement of 'refugee camps,' termination of Abbas' rule
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – As the international community gears up for next week's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit aimed at outlining a Palestinian state, a new diplomatic initiative that proposes Jordanian citizenship for the Palestinians has been gaining some support here from across the political spectrum.
Named the Israeli Initiative, the alternative plan seeks to end widespread backing for the Palestinian Authority, dismantle what are termed Palestinian refugee camps and have Jordan grant citizenship to Arabs remaining in the West Bank while the Jews there maintain their Israeli citizenship. Israel would extend its sovereignty over the entire West Bank.  
"The actions of Israeli governments to establish a Palestinian state have not brought about peace but rather a whirlpool of blood," said Knesset member Benny Elon, the Initiative's founder.
"It is time for new thinking, for learning from our mistakes, and for re-reading the regional map toward a revitalized and genuine quest to achieve peace," said Elon, who is chairman of the National Union party and is a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Elon's plan calls for millions of Palestinians living in 59 U.N.-maintained camps ...   more »