Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Israel has no choice but to divide up its ancient homeland for the sake of Middle East peace.
Olmert was speaking at a special Knesset session commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations resolution that approved the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
Just as the division of mandatory Palestine was “necessary” in 1947, so too is the division of the land essential today.
"There is no other alternative," Olmert said.
The leader of the opposition Likud Party, Benjamin Netanyahu, denounced the Palestinian Arabs who instead of wanting two states for two people - in accordance with US President George W. Bush's vision - are determined to get "two states for one people - a Palestinian state, and an Israeli state flooded with Palestinians under what they call the 'right of return' of refugees displaced during the war, along with their descendants."
Olmert himself returned a few days ago from Annapolis, Maryland, where he pledged before an international gathering to do everything possible to help secure the creation of a Palestinian state on the biblical heartland of Israel in the coming year.
Israel "deserves credit from the world" for ...   more »

Fearing world will dissolve united front against Tehran after US releases report claiming Iran has frozen its nuclear program, Israel orders its diplomats to campaign for tightening sanctions against Islamic republic. Defense Minister Barak says Israeli intelligence counters US assessment
Roni Sofer
Israel will launch a diplomatic campaign aimed at tightening sanctions against Iran in response to the US claim that international pressure drove Iran to permanently freeze its nuclear program in 2003.
Tehran Touts Report 
Iran welcomes US report  / Roni Sofer and Reuters 
'Condition of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities is becoming clear to the world,' FM Mottaki says in response to US report claiming Tehran not building atomic bomb. Ehud Olmert: American stance will still focus on preventing Iran from attaining nuclear capability  
Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni briefed Israel's diplomatic corps before leaving for Slovenia for an official visit. "The world cannot accept a nuclear Iran. Tehran's adamant pursuit of a nuclear weapon has been proven and it is clear to all that it continues with its efforts to obtain this technology. The sanctions have proven effective and therefore we must increase and improve our efforts to tighten those sanctions," she said. 
Officials in Jerusalem who confirmed ...   more »

By Aluf Benn,
Tags: Iran, U.S., Israel, nuclear 
Israel and the United States should begin an intense dialogue on ways to deal with Iran's nuclear plans and should examine ways to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, according to a new study published by an influential Washington think tank.
The report, by a former deputy head of the National Security Council, Chuck Freilich, says Israel and the U.S. should discuss nuclear-crisis scenarios between Israel and Iran. The report, entitled "Speaking About the Unspeakable," was released over the weekend by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Freilich assumes that detailed talks between the U.S. and Israel on Iran do not extend beyond exchanges of intelligence, coordination of diplomatic moves and the supply of sophisticated weapons to Israel.
According to Freilich, a lack of symmetry exists between the U.S. and Israel on the Iranian threat, although both use similar rhetoric toward it. From Israel's perspective, Iran presents a potential existential threat, so its nuclear plans must be stopped at almost any price. In contrast, the U.S. is disturbed by the implications of nuclear weapons in Iran but does not see it as an existential threat.
In Freilich's view, this difference in evaluations dictates ...   more »

 YAAKOV KATZ 
The threat of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons must not be underestimated, was the message government officials sent out on Tuesday after the release of a US intelligence report claiming that Teheran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 but was continuing to enrich uranium. 
An Iranian technician works at the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the city of Isfahan 410 kilometers south of Teheran.
Photo: AP [file]
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that he was familiar with the report that had been shown to him by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates during the Annapolis peace summit last week.
"I am familiar with the American intelligence assessment," Barak said following a meeting with Hungarian Chief of Staff Gen. Andras Havril. "Nevertheless, I say again that Iran is today a central threat on the world and the State of Israel."
He said that the world and Israel needed to take steps to confront the threat and to thwart it.
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"There is a lot that can be done with regard to the Iranian nuclear program but ...   more »

Waited until after Annapolis summit to announce suspects caught
By Aaron Klein
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barack and President Bush at the White House last week (Courtesy Carrie Devorah)
JERUSALEM – Did Israel deliberately hide Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' organization's responsibility for the murder of a Jew until the completion of last week's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit?
That's the question opposition politicians and some security officials here are asking regarding the terrorist shooting of a Jewish resident of the West Bank just days before Abbas departed to Annapolis. At the summit last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert committed to aim for the completion of an agreement that would hand strategic territory to the Palestinian leader.
Two weeks ago, Israeli Ido Zoldan was gunned down by Palestinians in the northern West Bank. Immediately after the killing, leaders of Abbas' military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, called WND to take credit for the attack.
Yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces released for publication an announcement that Israeli security agents caught the culprits of the Zoldan murder two weeks ago, in the hours after the killing and days before Annapolis. The culprits were a cell of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, whose members ...   more »

Jew confronts Islamist holy site desecrators in new book
Muslim gunmen holed up inside one of the holiest in Christianity used the Bible as toilet paper? Judaism's third-holiest site turned into a mosque? Synagogues now used by terrorists as rocket launching pads?
While Muslims are rioting in the Middle East after a British teacher reportedly allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, one Jewish reporter ventured into Islamist strongholds to confront Muslim terrorist leaders accused of the rampant desecration of other religion's holy sites.
In one chapter of the recently released "Schmoozing with Terrorists," author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein grills the leaders of some of the most recent notorious holy site desecrations:
In 2002, Fatah terrorists fleeing an Israeli antiterror operation ran inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity – the believed birthplace of Jesus – where they took nuns and priests hostage and holed up for 39 days. After the siege ended, there were widespread media reports, including video footage, that the Nativity church had been left in shambles. A Roman Catholic priest trapped inside told the Washington Times some Bibles were torn up and used as toilet paper.
In "Schmoozing," Klein catches up with ...   more »

By Heather Sells
CBNNews.com - There's a growing movement to forcibly tag or chip your animals with radio frequency identification devices. Many privacy advocates believe this could lead to a scarier level: implanting you and me. Now, there is an effort to stem the tide.
Introducing NAIS
Greg Niewendorp raises cattle in northern Michigan. Time in the saddle is one of the best parts of the day for this fifth generation farmer.
But these days, he's spending lots of time holed up in his home office. Why? Niewendorp and other small farmers are fighting the government's plans to identify and track every single farm animal in the country.
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It's called NAIS or National Animal Identification System.
"Our primary interest is protecting the food supply by having a rapid system that can reach out and address the needs for the primary food animals," said USDA Undersecretary Bruce Knight.
On October 8, Michigan AG officials arrived on Niewendorp's farm with a search warrant. But Niewendorp refused to allow them to put RFID tags on his cattle and the state chipped his entire herd.
Pressure forced Niewendorp to give in that ...   more »

By: Newsmax Staff   
Presidential hopeful John McCain lambasted CNN for allowing a gay retired general allied with the Hillary Clinton campaign to question candidates during Wednesday’s Republican debate.
“I think that should have been made public if this individual was a member of another — any other campaign, then people would, obviously, have a better way of judging the quality of the question,” an angry McCain declared on Thursday.
During the debate televised by CNN, retired Gen. Keith Kerr — a national co-chair for a Clinton veterans group — asked the GOP candidates: “Why do you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians?”
Candidates McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Duncan Hunter were asked to respond, and the four said they basically support the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.
Kerr’s links to the Clinton campaign were not mentioned during the debate.
“I think that should have been revealed,” McCain said in remarks reported by the New York Post.
CNN vice president and executive producer David Bohrman apologized for the foul-up, saying: “CNN would not have used the general’s question had we known that he was ...   more »

The conclusion of the US-hosted Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland has further highlighted a growing rift within the Evangelical Christian community over the degree of support for Israel's biblical right to the lands between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. A day after the summit, the leaders of the three most prominent Jerusalem-based Evangelical ministries told The Jerusalem Post that the re-division of the holy city and the surrender of Israel's biblical heartland - an effective reversal of prophecy - are unacceptable concepts for Bible-believing Christians and Jews.
"The sanctity of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State is something very sacred which has both historical and religious associations for the Jewish people going back thousands of years," said International Christian Embassy Jerusalem director Rev. Malcom Heading. "We view any attempt to divide the city as a tragic wedge that is unacceptable."
Ray Sanders, executive director of Christian Friends of Israel, called Muslim claims to sovereignty over these lands, and especially Jerusalem, "preposterous," and said Israel was doing itself a great disservice by failing to more aggressively counter such allegations.
US-based Evangelical heavyweights such as John Hagee and Pat Robertson share the position of the Jerusalem ministries, ...   more »

Jew confronts Islamist holy site desecrators in new book
Muslim gunmen holed up inside one of the holiest in Christianity used the Bible as toilet paper? Judaism's third-holiest site turned into a mosque? Synagogues now used by terrorists as rocket launching pads?
While Muslims are rioting in the Middle East after a British teacher reportedly allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, one Jewish reporter ventured into Islamist strongholds to confront Muslim terrorist leaders accused of the rampant desecration of other religion's holy sites.
In one chapter of the recently released "Schmoozing with Terrorists," author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein grills the leaders of some of the most recent notorious holy site desecrations:
In 2002, Fatah terrorists fleeing an Israeli antiterror operation ran inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity – the believed birthplace of Jesus – where they took nuns and priests hostage and holed up for 39 days. After the siege ended, there were widespread media reports, including video footage, that the Nativity church had been left in shambles. A Roman Catholic priest trapped inside told the Washington Times some Bibles were torn up and used as toilet paper.
In "Schmoozing," Klein catches up with ...   more »

U.S. intelligence agencies have reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently used Fidel Castro’s Cuban Airline jet for his recent travel to the Middle East and Europe, highlighting the close ties between Chavez and Cuba’s communist government, according to a new report by Geostrategy-Direct.com. 
Cuba's Raul Castro with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.  
Chavez said on Nov. 19, after arriving at Orly Airport in Paris, that he flew from Tehran to Paris in Cuban President Fidel Castro's jet, which he noted was not an Airbus and he praised the aircraft as being "fast" and "comfortable."
Chavez then said on Nov. 20 upon arriving at Portela International Airport in Lisbon, Portugal, that he was flying to Havana from Lisbon the next day. 
Sudan accused of creating roadblocks to UN troop deployment in Darfur   
“The Venezuelan president's use of a Cubana Airlines jet on this trip contrasts with past travels when he has been observed to fly in his presidential jet, an Airbus A319,” one official said.
Chavez also traveled to Saudi Arabia.
U.S. intelligence agencies have said Cuban-Venezuelan intelligence ties remain close and are growing, with large numbers of Cuban intelligence personnel working in Venezuela. In some cases, Venezuelan ambassadors ...   more »

     CAIRO, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Remains of an ancient dam dating back some 4,000 years have been discovered in Upper Egypt, local English daily The Egyptian Gazette reported Sunday.
    Secretary-General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said Saturday that the ancient dam was found a few meters away from the Karnak Temple in Luxor, some 500 km south   of     Cairo.   The finding was made by an Egyptian-French archaeological team, which has been working in Luxor since March, Hawass was quoted as saying at a press conference.
    "The 230-meter long dam was built during the age of the Middle Kingdom (of ancient Egypt) to protect the temple from the Nile flood," said Hawass.
    The Egyptian archaeology supremo stressed the importance of the finding, saying it proved that the ancient Egyptians were good at building dams.
    The discover will also revive interest in the ancient Egyptian city, which was believed by some archaeologists that nothing of great importance would be found again, said the report.
    The team had also unearthed the relics of a Roman bath built in the first century AD and a clay jar containing 316 coins from different historical periods, ...   more »

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
Foreigners coming to the USA will soon be required to have 10 fingerprints scanned as part of a new government anti-terrorist effort, the Homeland Security Department says.
The plan for Customs officers to collect more biometric information from foreigners is one phase of a long-awaited upgrade to a border-security program put in place after 9/11. The security program, known as US-VISIT, aims to give government agents a better idea of who is coming into the country and catch people with forged passports. The government so far has spent $1.7 billion on the program.
Foreigners were previously required to get just two of their prints scanned when they arrived at a checkpoint. Upgrading the system to 10 fingerprints will enable more thorough checking against terrorist watch lists and databases of criminals and illegal immigrants.
"Biometrics can be a game-changer," Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke says. "They represent what terrorists fear most — an increased likelihood of getting caught."
Ten-print scanning will begin this week at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. By March, nine more major airports will join the program. Homeland Security says it will be in place at every airport in the USA by ...   more »

by Carol Tice  Our Chanukah candles shone extra-bright last year. That's because they were the only lights in our house.
Chanukah begins Tuesday night, December 4th and lasts for eight days. Visit Aish.com's Chanukah site to browse our collection of short films, inspiring essays, family activities, recipes and more.
The day of Chanukah eve, the Seattle area was visited by a vicious windstorm (officially named "The Chanukah Eve Windstorm" by a National Weather Service contest). About a million homes lost power, including nearly every home on our island of 24,000. Near our home toppled trees blocked roads and beheaded telephone poles left their electric wires in tangles on the ground. Our guess was the power wouldn't be restored anytime soon.
With schools, child care and my work day all canceled and the temperature in the mid-30s, I started planning how to make our first night of Chanukah celebration -- and Shabbat dinner -- without electricity.
Fortunately we have a woodstove and can heat much of our house and cook atop it, so we weren't going to freeze or starve. Milk and other perishables went into coolers on the deck, preserved by the cold outside.
Challah I had baked the week ...   more »