By ELI LAKE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 23, 2007 
WASHINGTON — In a bid to open a channel to the Arabs, Israel's premier is embracing a long dormant Saudi peace proposal that would divide Jerusalem and could flood the Jewish state with Palestinian Arab refugees with family claims to land evacuated in the 1948 war that created the state.Speaking in Tel Aviv yesterday, Prime Minister Olmert said Israel was prepared to make "sweeping, painful, and tough concessions" in order to forge open contacts with Arab states that offered in 2002 to acknowledge Israel's right to exist in exchange for its full retreat from the territories it won in the 1967 war."The Saudi initiative is interesting and has many sections that I would be willing to accept — though, predictably, not all of them — and it could certainly be a convenient basis for continued dialogue between us and Arab moderates," he said.Mr. Olmert's embrace of the Saudi initiative, a proposal Saudi Arabia's then crown prince initially shared with a New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, comes just days before the Israeli premier meets with his Palestinian Arab counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, and Secretary of State Rice. A day after ...   more »

IsraelNN.com) Israel has told France it is worried about the re-arming of Hizbullah and the possibility it will renew its attacks on Israel. In addition, Israel criticized Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniorah, for not preventing Hizbullah's rearmament, a French source told Al Hayat. The source told Al Hayat – an Arabic newspaper published in London – that France asked Israel about Syria and Israel answered that it prefers the current situation in Syria to any alternative regime, and that "it is capable of destroying Syria at any time," but prefers not to weaken President Assad. The reason Israel gave for this, according to the report, is that Assad is weak anyways and no one knows who will replace him.

Original Source

Several foreign embassies in Teheran are updating their emergency evacuation plans should a Western or Israeli attack on Iran occur. According to foreign sources, foreign diplomats believe a possible attack would take place before the end of 2007. By that time, Iran might have enough enriched uranium to cause a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe from radioactive fallout should its nuclear facilities be damaged or destroyed in an attack. Embassies in all countries generally have evacuation plans for their staff, but foreign sources describe the general atmosphere in Iran as one of heightened preparedness. Recently, several diplomatic missions based in Teheran have begun to reassess their plans, and embassies without permanent security officers have requested them. Embassy experts reportedly are testing various evacuation options and logistics, such as timing routes to different destinations by different types of vehicles. The plans include evacuation for all staff. Foreign sources say both the United States and Israel, who accuse Iran of wanting to develop nuclear weapons, want to give diplomatic efforts aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear drive the best possible chance to succeed. But according to these sources, should the West or Israel feel that the time needed for diplomatic efforts is longer than ...   more »

USS JOHN C. STENNIS, At Sea (NNS) -- Senior leaders from the French Navy Ship (FNS) Charles de Gaulle (R 91) arrived aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) March 16 to establish a foundation for further professional interaction and combined operations between the two navies. v Commander Task Force 473 French Rear Adm. Xavier Magne and 15 other French officers from Charles de Gaulle met with their John C. Stennis counterparts for lunch, a tour of the ship, and an opportunity to discuss integration and interoperability between the two carrier groups. “We are proud that we will have the opportunity to serve side by side with the French navy,” said Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CCSG) 3 Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn. Charles de Gaulle, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier built outside the United States, arrived in the North Arabian Sea March 14 with its carrier task force and is conducting missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF). "This is an important day, because it represents our cooperative operations in support of coalition efforts in Afghanistan," said Quinn. French Task Force 473 consists of Charles de Gaulle, flagship of the French navy, FNS Cassard (D ...   more »

Suicide bombings are a killer epidemic spawned from a tragically erroneous world view. Not an act of desperation
Suicide bombing is in vogue for some of the youth living in our planet. First it was only in Israel but now it has reached the rest of the world as well. Not a day goes by without news of a new suicide attack in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel Indonesia or Europe and this week, in Iraq, they have begun using children for this vile task as well. As long as this horrendous phenomenon was just contained to Israel people were able to claim that suicide bombers were just groups and individuals who had lost all hope and out of extreme desperation resorted to killing others with explosives attached to their bodies. Because of the pervasiveness of this sort of violence this argument is now defunct. However the truth is that it should have never been given any credibility in the first place, and its premise shows a fundamental ignorance of both the possible causes of suicide and radical Islamic society. The Werther Effect or copy-cat suicide, where when one often famous person in a community commits suicide and others follow is well known. Other studies ...   more »