Will Israel continue to wait for US to act before Iranian horror movie materializes?
Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is facing a nuclear "catch-22" situation: On the one hand he's determined to prevent the North Korean promo from turning into an Iranian horror movie. On the other hand, he fears the move from the passive observer seat to the active production system, fearing demands that the opening scene would be clearing the fog above the silver domed roof in Dimona.  
The policy of Israeli prime ministers since the 1990s, when the nuclear Iranian threat emerged, was to let the Americans lead the move against Teheran. Prime Ministers Peres, Shamir, Rabin, Netanyahu, Barak, Sharon, and Olmert expected the international community to do the unpleasant job for us. At one point it appeared they are even capable of it, when the US managed to remove the threat of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi acquiring nukes.
Olmert knows Road Map may be key to his survival    
Yet after that, the bad movie season came along. First was the grandiose and terrible production of the American and coalition entanglement in Iraq. Everything started there, if we recall, with fears that Saddam Hussein desires nukes ...   more »

Israel's ambassador to the UN has accused Iran of paying Hamas $50m to block the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants. The ambassador in New York, Dan Gillerman, made the claim without giving any further evidence or details. The payment, which Iran denies making, allegedly went to the head of Hamas' political bureau Khaled Meshaal. The soldier, Cpl Gilad Shalit, was captured in June in a cross-border raid from Gaza by Palestinian militants. Israel intensified its military campaign in Gaza following his capture in June, and the strip has been cut off from the outside world for long periods of time. Hamas, the militant group that runs the Palestinian Authority, says that in return for freeing Cpl Shalit, Israel must release some of the several thousand Palestinians held in its jails. Since the end of June 2006, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli army operations in Gaza and the West Bank, according to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Iran denial On Thursday, the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that a deal on Cpl Shalit's release was foiled when an Iranian delegation met Khaled Meshaal in Damascus and offered him $50m (£26.6m). Mr Meshaal ...   more »

 

 

 

TEL AVIV — Israel's military has discovered 39 Russian-origin missiles in Hizbullah's arsenal in Lebanon. Military sources said the Israel Army has collected 39 Russian-origin anti-tank missiles from Hizbullah outposts in southern Lebanon. They said the missiles included the AT-14 Kornet and the AT-13 Metis."Some of the missiles were still in their original packaging, which identified them as having been manufactured in Russia," a military source said.The sources said photographs of the missiles were delivered to Russia in September as evidence that weapons exported by Moscow ended up with Hizbullah. They said the Kornets were exported to Syria in 2002. "The [Israel] army also found bills of lading and serial numbers with the missiles," the source said. "It is probable that some of these missiles were ordered by Iran for Hizbullah via Syria."The Hizbullah acquisition of Russian-origin missiles was discussed during the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Moscow. On Wednesday, Putin met Russian President Vladimir Putin in a discussion said to have focused on Iran's nuclear program. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was also said to have met Olmert. Last week, the Defense Ministry ordered tighter supervision over Russia's arms exports. "The ...   more »

City of Two Peoples and Three Religions"JERUSALEM, OCT. 21, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is the statement published by the principal Christian patriarchs and leaders of the Holy Land on the status of Jerusalem.
The statement was published Sept. 29, following the end of the Israeli-Lebanon war this summer, and highlights the need for a more concerted effort to build a lasting peace in the Middle East, beginning with Jerusalem.
Once more, we have experienced another period of deadly violence in the war in South Lebanon. We still face more death and demolition in Gaza, and more insecurity in the Israeli society. Therefore, we say it is high time to start a serious effort from all parts for a total definitive and just peace. Moreover, we believe that peace must begin in this Holy City of Jerusalem.
Therefore, we present the following statement hoping it will bring a modest contribution to the birth of peace in our Land.
In 1994, we, the patriarchs and heads of the local Christian Churches in Jerusalem, published a memorandum entitled "The Meaning of Jerusalem for Christians" that insisted on the Christian character of Jerusalem, and on the importance of the Christian presence in ...   more »

North Korea might use force in response to UN sanctions against the country for its recent nuclear test, a former South Korean president warned Saturday, calling for the world to engage rather than isolate the communist regime. "North Korea is making preparations of how to counter economic sanctions and it could repel them with military force," Kim Dae-jung, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2000 in the first-and-only summit between the Koreas, told The Associated Press in an interview. The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution earlier this month sanctioning Pyongyang for its Oct. 9 nuclear test. "We cannot know for sure now how this kind of small conflict could escalate in the future," he said.

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SPOKANE, Wash., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A University of Washington economic geologist says there is lots of crude oil left for human use.Eric Cheney said Friday in a news release that changing economics, technological advances and efforts such as recycling and substitution make the world's mineral resources virtually infinite.

For instance, oil deposits unreachable 40 years ago can be tapped using improved technology, and oil once too costly to extract from tar sands, organic matter or coal is now worth manufacturing. Though some resources might be costlier now, they still are needed. "The most common question I get is, 'When are we going to run out of oil?' The correct response is, 'Never,'" said Cheney. "It might be a heck of a lot more expensive than it is now, but there will always be some oil available at a price, perhaps $10 to $100 a gallon." Cheney also said that gasoline prices today, adjusted for inflation, are about what they were in the early part of the last century. Current prices seem inordinately high, he said, because crude oil was at an extremely low price, $10 a barrel, eight years ago and now fetches around $58 a barrel.
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