By Nadav Shragai  
In the "crime and punishment" part of The International Campaign to Save the Nation and the Land - associated with an offshoot of the Chabad movement - the sin is "the crime of the disengagement" and the "expulsion" of 10,000 people from their homes. The punishment takes various guises: removal from office, resignation, illness, a commission of inquiry or a criminal conviction. The campaign called "There is Justice and a Judge," which the organization embarked on recently, asserts that everyone who was a partner to the "crime of expulsion" or did not act to prevent it has received or will receive his punishment from heaven.
"This is a curse," many in the religious public are now convinced. As the list of the supposed "disengagement victims" grows, so does the number of people who believe in the existence of this curse. A public opinion survey commissioned by the Campaign from Professor Yitzhak Katz and the Maagar Mochot Research and Interdisciplinary Consulting Institute has indicated that one out of every four religious and ultra-Orthodox people in Israel believes former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's illness is a punishment from heaven in the wake of the disengagement plan.
A million ...   more »

A senior Israeli official said on Monday that "secret contacts" were under way with the Palestinians, but denied that they were being used as a separate channel for negotiations.
"There are secret contacts, but there is no secret channel for negotiations," the official, a close aide of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The official spoke a day after Palestinian sources told AFP that Livni has been holding secret talks with Palestinian officials with the aim of jumpstarting the stalled peace process.
"There are occasional exchanges, but they are not continuous, so there are no negotiations," he said.
"That Tzipi Livni can meet with a Palestinian official in all discretion is true," he said. "But she is not holding separate negotiations, neither with or without the approval of Ehud Olmert."
On Sunday, Palestinian sources told AFP that Livni has been met twice in the past weeks with Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Salam Fayyad, a former Palestinian finance minister.
"They discussed issues related to the final status agreement and the Arab initiative," one source said.
He was referring to a plan adopted by the Arab League in Beirut in ...   more »

By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – Jordan has been quietly purchasing real estate surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in hopes of gaining more control over the area accessing the holy site, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.
The officials confirmed to WND the Jordanian Kingdom has been using shell companies during the past year to purchase several apartments and shops located at key peripheral sections of the Temple Mount.
Temple Mount in Jerusalem
The officials said Jordan also set up a commission to use the companies to petition mostly Arab landowners adjacent to eastern sections of the Temple Mount to sell their properties. They said profits from sales at any purchased shops would be reinvested to buy more real estate near the Mount and in eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.
The shell companies at times have presented themselves as acting on behalf of the Waqf, the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount, WND has learned.
Sheik Azzam Khateeb, who was installed last month as the new manager of the Waqf, is known to be close to the Jordanian monarchy. The previous Waqf manager, Sheik Adnon Husseini, was loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and had relations with Israel and ...   more »

By Richard Allen Greene
BBC News, Washington 
A week into one of the most severe crises the Middle East has seen in years, Israel is getting an influx of support from an unusual source.
More than 3,400 evangelical Christians have arrived in Washington to lobby lawmakers as part of the first annual summit of Christians United for Israel.
Delegates have come from all 50 states and have 280 meetings on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Pastor John Hagee said.
Pastor Hagee, the main organiser, said the event was the first of its kind.
"For the first time in the history of Christianity in America, Christians will go to the Hill to support Israel as Christians," he said.
The event was planned months ago, and is not a direct response to the ongoing violence in the region.
 They see God's word being played out on their television sets
Timothy Shah, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 
But the military conflict "certainly makes our meeting more significant," Pastor Hagee said.
The thousands of Christians in Washington - who came and are staying at their own expense - will be urging the US government "not to restrain Israel in any way in the ...   more »