Palestinian president tells Washington Post full Israeli withdrawal from territories, safe passage between West Bank and Gaza Strip are fundamental conditions for peace agreement
An Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would have to include an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders and a safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the Washington Post Saturday.
Asked how the Gaza Strip should be regarded following Hamas takeover, Abbas stated that, "Nobody recognizes Gaza. We have one authority, one cabinet, one government. Hamas is an illegal government."
In the interview, the president expressed his confidence in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying he believed him to be "sincere and serious," and interested in reaching peace.
Abbas was also approving of Vice Premier Haim Ramon's initiative of ceding East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. "In principle, this is the right direction," he said. "The Palestinians should have their own part and the Israelis should have their own part. . . . I say and have always said that East Jerusalem is an occupied territory. We have to restore it."

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Syrian vice president says Syrian not interested in war with Israel 'in distant or near future,' accuses Jerusalem of spreading false reports
Reuters
Syria accused Israel on Saturday of making excuses for war by spreading false reports that an Israeli air raid targeted a site linked to weapons of mass destruction.
Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Shara said his country did not want war "in the distant or near future".
"They (Israel) are making up things to justify an aggression in the future. They are playing on public opinion to mislead it," he said, describing the reports as fabrications. "Everything reported about this raid is wrong and is part of a psychological warfare that will not fool Syria," Shara told reporters after meeting his Iraqi counterpart Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Damascus says Israel launched the air raid on Sept. 6, bombing an empty area after air defence systems confronted the aircraft. Some US officials have linked the raid to apparent Israeli suspicions of secret nuclear cooperation between Damascus and North Korea.
Diplomats in Damascus say at least four Israeli warplanes crossed deep into Syria in this month's operation. They suggest the intended target may have involved missiles supplied by North Korea but played ...   more »

The Jerusalem-based Institute for Contemporary Affairs recently released a report authored by Lt. Col. Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi that concludes, to nobody's particular surprise, that the Gaza Strip has become a haven for al-Qaida terrorists.
Gaza, part of the biblical "land of the Philistines" was the place where Samson toppled the Temple of Dagon on his enemies, giving his life in the process.
Gaza was first conquered for Israel by King David and subsequently fell to the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, Persians and Greeks.
But in the days of King David, it was part of Israel. In Jesus' day, it was part of the Hasmonean Kingdom that ended with Herod the Great. In 1967, Gaza again became part of Israel when Egypt lost it in the Six Day's War.
In September 2004, Ariel Sharon announced his controversial disengagement plan under the title, "Gaza First." Sharon intended to turn Gaza completely over to Palestinian rule, hoping to accomplish two goals in the process.
The first and official goal was contained within its slogan, "Gaza First." Israel would allow Gaza to govern itself, then use Gaza's success or failure as a template for future negotiations over the West Bank.
Israel pulled out of ...   more »

Timna National Park officials estimate group of Christians thinking site was sacred preformed head shaving ceremony and left offerings to God
Ahuva Mamos
Hundreds of passport photos, human hairs laid out in circle, an endless amount of requests to God, a prayer shawl, and an Israeli flag were found scattered at Solomon’s Pillars in Timna National Park near Eilat Thursday night.
Park officials speculated that a Christian group visited the site and, thinking it was a sacred site, preformed a head shaving ceremony, and left offerings to God.
The mystery began when park officials received a message saying hundreds of photos and crucifixes were found at Solomon’s Pillars. “The place looked like a cult of some kind had been there and preformed a ceremony,” one park official told Ynet.
Park Director Aharon Lavi said the site attracted many believers each year, including pilgrims. “I believe this was a one time thing, a cult of believers, or a crazy individual,” Lavi added.
After finding numerous prayer notes and letters, park officials estimated that the worshippers were Christians who were told by their priest that the site was actually the Western Wall.
The people in the passport photos appeared to be of ...   more »

By Dr. Jack Wheeler
"Everyone in the government and military can only talk of one thing,' he reports.  'No matter who I talked to, all they could do was ask me, over and over again, 'Do you think the Americans will attack us?' 'When will the Americans attack us?' 'Will the Americans attack us in a joint operation with the Israelis?' How massive will the attack be?' on and on, endlessly.  The Iranians are in a state of total panic.'
And that was before September 6.  Since then, it's panic-squared in Tehran.  The mullahs are freaking out in fear.  Why?  Because of the silence in Syria. On September 6, Israeli Air Force F-15 and F-16s conducted a devastating attack on targets deep inside Syria near the city of Dayr az-Zawr.  Israel's military censors have muzzled the Israeli media, enforcing an extraordinary silence about the identity of the targets.  Massive speculation in the world press has followed, such as Brett Stephens' Osirak II? in yesterday's (9/18) Wall St. Journal. Stephens and most everyone else have missed the real story.  It is not Israel's silence that 'speaks volumes' as he claims, but Syria's. 
Why would the Syrian government be so tight-lipped about ...   more »