By: David Bedein
Jerusalem - Yesterday, following the weekly Israel government cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dispatched cabinet secretary Oved Yehezkel and his official spokesman Yaakov Galanati to brief the press about the steps that will lead to the Annapolis Middle East Summit on Nov. 26.
Mr. Olmert's spokespeople emphasized that the Israeli government did not expect to reach any agreement with the Palestinians at the summit and that that the "only thing that would happen there would be declarations," adding that "Israel will announce its recognition of a Palestinian Arab national state alongside an Israeli Jewish national state, with Israel formally accepting the road map."
That road map was presented in May 2003 by then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to Israel and the Palestinians and adopted by the Israeli cabinet under then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
As a reminder, the Israeli government had added to its acceptance of the road map a statement that "in the first phase of the plan and as a condition for progress to the second phase, the Palestinians will complete the dismantling of terrorist organizations (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, the Democratic ...   more »

Elyakim Haetzni
Yedioth Ahronoth
Ramat Mamre POB 2066
tel,: 02-9961878
fax: 02-9963001
Kiriat Arba 90100
e-mail: ehaetzni@netvision.net.il
October 27, 2007
            In the play “The Visit of the Old Lady” by the Swiss writer Friedrich Durrenmatt, a forsaken and poor town is visited by a woman billionaire, who was born there. In expectation of a generous donation that will save them, they hold a reception for her, with a starring role reserved for a respectable merchant who was her childhood friend, but who, when she became pregnant from him, denied his paternity. The girl fled, and from a house of prostitution in Hamburg, she was married by an Armenian tycoon, and now she controls an empire. She brings with her a magnificent coffin, and she asks the town policeman, if he knows how to look away; the priest, if he consoles those condemned to death; and with the physician, she took an interest in a death certificate with the false cause of death: "heart attack." The woman's proposal to the city was blunt and simple: a billion in exchange for murdering the man who hurt her. At first, disgusted, they reject this, but the billion is inviting. People bought luxury ...   more »

Linda Heard -
If the US and Russia continue a course of mutual belligerency — albeit gloved — the road to Armageddon will be short.
The West must understand that Russia newly flushed with energy wealth is no longer an underdog but a major world player. Russia, in its turn, must quit sending its bombers to tease Western countries. The US should come to terms with the fact it's no longer the only policeman on the block.
People are generally given to shrugging off mentions of a third world war. This is mainly because the next one could be mankind's last. Those who sprinkle their speeches or articles with dire warnings of a massive nuclear conflagration are often written off as scaremongers. Those who lived through the horrors of World War II and later witnessed the battered planet coming together to draft the Geneva Conventions and form the United Nations had hope that we had truly learned our lesson. Never again!
Surely it is inconceivable that world leaders would be prepared to put their nations on a suicidal collision course for any reason. Indeed, even during the most critical periods of the 45-year-long Cold War between the former Soviet Union ...   more »

Mohammed Assadi
A Palestinian boy looks from the window of his house in the southern Gaza strip October 30, 2007. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa  
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians will not pursue peace talks with Israel without an agreed timeline for reaching a deal on statehood, chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie said on Tuesday.
"The Israeli prime minister had announced that he will not accept a timeline, and we say we won't accept negotiations without a timeline. We do not want to go to open negotiations," Qurie told reporters.
He made the comments ahead of a planned visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank at the weekend by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is preparing the ground for a U.S.-led Middle East conference in late November or early December.
Western and Israeli officials have described a two-track process coming out of the Annapolis, Maryland meeting: the start of formal talks over a Palestinian state and a push to implement the first phase of a long-stalled "road map" peace plan.
The officials said Washington was considering holding a large follow-up meeting in mid-2008, bringing the two tracks together in a way that the Palestinians hope will culminate ...   more »

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has demanded Israel open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the UN nuclear watchdog and dismantle its weapons programme.
The security situation in the Middle East continues to pose a major threat to international peace and stability due to Israel's insistence on keeping its nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, Ahmed Abdulla Ali Al Ketbi, member of the UAE delegation, has told a UN General Assembly panel, WAM news agency reported Tuesday.
Ketbi decried as double standard the exemption to Israel -- which has not signed the NPT -- from inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and said this has led to a dangerous security imbalance in the region.'This (the exemption) has contributed in one way or another to the irresponsible development of Israel's nuclear weapons, and encouragement of some other states, in the context of their concept of security deterrence, to acquire dangerous nuclear weapons,' Ketbi said.
'In spite of the confidence-building measures taken by Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, particularly in the area of disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, the security situation in the Middle East continues to pose a major threat to international peace, security and stability,' ...   more »