Likud chairman says he informed Rice that he would not endorse declaration of principles calling for a return to 1967 borders. 'Israel would be taking a great risk if it currently commits to territorial concessions,' Netanyahu says
Roni Sofer
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) met with Condoleezza Rice Sunday, and stated that he informed the visiting US secretary of state that he would not endorse a declaration of principles calling for a return to 1967 borders and the division of Jerusalem.
Concessions   
Barak says will allow establishment of Palestinian city  / Roni Sofer   
Israeli source says US Secretary of State Rice was 'amazed' by Israeli gestures to Palestinians presented during three-way meeting with defense minister, Palestinian prime minister      
"Security establishment estimates indicate that if we withdraw from the West Bank, Hamas will set up base there. I told the secretary that I do not plan on supporting the transfer of the responsibility for Israel's security to subcontractors," the Likud chairman told reporters following the meeting.
"Time is not on our side because Hamas, under Iran's leadership, is taking control of more and more territories. The situation is very similar to Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon," he said.
"The ...   more »

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were on the right track and she believed a deal was still possible by year's end.
The comments came as the Palestinian foreign minister said Israel had removed checkpoints in the West Bank town of Jericho as part of commitments made to Rice.
"I have to say I find very impressive the work that is being done and the seriousness of the process and I think it's all moving in the right direction," Rice said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan.
Commenting on U.S. hopes for an agreement before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January, she said: "I fully believe that it is a goal that we can reach."
Abbas likewise expressed confidence despite differences with Israel over what the outcome of the negotiations should be.
"I am confident, God willing, we will reach a comprehensive peace in 2008. We, the Israelis and the Americans and all the concerned parties in the region, are working to achieve this," Abbas said.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said that Israel had notified ...   more »

Defense establishment, government and cabinet all to participate in exercise simulating crisis situation as part of upcoming national emergency drill to be held in April. Drill part of implementation of lessons from Second Lebanon War
Hanan Greenberg P
Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized on Sunday evening the plans for a national emergency drill, which is scheduled to take place in two weeks time.  
The exercise, which will be led by Barak's deputy Matan Vilnai, was conceived as part of the lessons learned following the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and will incorporate all government offices and public bodies.
The drill will simulate a series of emergency situations and require those participating – ranging from local    
municipalities, schools, firefighters and paramedics, the IDF Home Front Command and even the cabinet itself – to respond to the developing events.  
The Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv took part in a drill simulating a chemical missile attack several days ago.  
Both Home Front Command and Health Ministry officials stressed the importance of preparing for any possible scenario. 
See More  Egypt saves Palestinian smuggler trapped in tunnel  Settlement's rabbi attends Arab-Israeli Land Day event   
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Many Christians pass over the word She'ol in the Bible without realizing what they're reading. Do we nag our children with, "You are bringing my gray head down to She'ol?" What would we tell someone who asked where She'ol was? Despite the fact that She'ol isn't a part of our vocabulary the way heaven and hell are, it still has — or should have — a place in our theology. She'ol is one of the concepts that links the presence of God to a place, the place of non- and anti- worship, the place of no peace and no joy. In the Bible, the word She'ol, occurs most often in the context of righteous people seeking against opposition to worship in the temple. She'ol is the place antithetical to the place of worship, which is the temple.Speaking Out
Going Down to She'ol
Is death a place?
Rajkumar Boaz Johnson
 Many Christians pass over the word She'ol in the Bible without realizing what they're reading. Do we nag our children with, "You are bringing my gray head down to She'ol?" What would we tell someone who asked where She'ol was?
Despite the fact that She'ol isn't a part of our vocabulary ...   more »

By Alister Bull
Al Qaeda is training fighters that "look western" and could easily cross U.S. borders without attracting attention, CIA Director Michael Hayden said on Sunday.
The militant Islamist group has turned Pakistan's remote tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan into a safe haven, and is using it to plot further attacks against the United States, Hayden said.
"They are bringing operatives into that region for training -- operatives that wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport outside Washington) with you when you were coming back from overseas," Hayden said during an interview on NBC's television show Meet the Press.
"(They) look western (and) would be able to come into this country without attracting the kinds of attention that others might," Hayden said, without offering further details.
The United States went to war in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities in order to crush al Qaeda and hunt down its chief, Osama bin Laden, who Hayden confirmed was still believed by the United States to be hiding in the rugged Afghan border area.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the United States had stepped up unilateral ...   more »

By Linda Chavez      
 As if a housing crisis, rising energy costs and a soft labor market weren't enough to cause economic anxiety for the average American, now consumers are feeling the pinch of rapidly escalating food costs. The United States has long prided itself in being the breadbasket of the world, and Americans have traditionally paid a smaller share of their income on food than citizens of other developed countries. But the days of cheap milk, bread, beef and poultry may well be over — and Uncle Sam is partly to blame.
In 2007, the cost of a gallon of milk increased 26 percent; eggs went up 40 percent; and a loaf of white bread went from $1.05 to $1.28 from 2006 to 2008. Steep increases in the price of oil have contributed to these higher costs, but the federal government has played a pernicious role as well. By mandating that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol they blend with gasoline, the government has not only artificially increased the cost of corn, which is what most U.S. ethanol is made of, but has driven up the cost of other grains as well. Inflated corn prices encourage farmers to ...   more »

 By ALESSANDRA RIZZO
Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.
Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
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By Deanna Spingola
Oil greed generates war! International banksters, in London and New York, had quickly recognized that control of petroleum was essential to power and profit. After Britain’s Rothschild-orchestrated depression of 1873 (coincided with the U.S. stock market crash of September 18, 1873), a growing divergence existed "between the depressed economy of the British Empire and the emerging industrial economies of Continental Europe," especially the very proficient German Reich. Crashes, depressions, recessions, deflations or inflations (elastic dollars) are all contrived cash manipulations that allow the banksters to subtly seize public and private resources at fire-sale prices.
As the Ottoman Empire declined, Britain and France benefited by extending their influence into Turkish territory. They devised massive projects such as railroads and the Suez Canal which kept the Arab countries deeply in debt to British and French banks. By the twentieth century, Britain ruled Egypt, Sudan, and parts of the Persian Gulf. France controlled Lebanon and Syria. Iran was divided between the British and Russians. The dismemberment of the Ottoman territories (from Turkey to the Arabian Peninsula) was the top priority of the imperialist powers. Germany, another industrialized country was a late arrival to the imperial buffet table but was far ...   more »

By Reuven Koret   
The glib handling of criticism of his relationship with the anti-American ("God Damn America!") and anti-Israel ("a dirty word for Negroes") Reverend James Wright may have bought him a little time. But the legacy of dissimulation about his long-concealed identity is about to come crashing down around the ears of Barack Hussein Obama, courtesy of the assembled testimony of his family, friends, classmates and teachers.
The accumulated research indicates that Obama was in his childhood a devout Muslim, the son of a devout Muslim, the step-son of a devout Muslim and the grandson and namesake ("Hussein") of a devout Muslim. He was registered in school as a Muslim and demonstrated his ability to chant praise to Allah in impressive Arab-accented tones even as an adult. Just as he has not disavowed his "uncle" Jeremiah, neither has he disavowed his Muslim faith that he was born into, raised with, celebrated and never abandoned. He just covered it over with a thin veneer of his own self-styled "Christianity."
Although as an adult he would register as a Christian, and occasionally attend a Christian Church (but apparently not often enough to listen to the preaching of his pastor, or so ...   more »

By Chris Mitchell
JERUSALEM, Israel - In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd wandered the hills of Qumran in search of a missing sheep.
He threw a stone into a cave, hoping to drive the lost animal outside. Instead, the sound of shattered pottery drew the shepherd inside the cave.
There he stumbled on the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century: the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Copper Scroll
Rare Old Testament
Manuscript on Display
In the years that followed, archaeologists found eleven caves and more than 900 documents here at Qumran. But one scroll was different from all the rest.
Instead of leather or parchment, it was made entirely of copper, and it could be the greatest treasure map in history.
The Copper Scroll describes a hidden cache of gold and silver buried in more than 60 locations throughout Israel.
The monetary value is close to $3 billion, but the historical value - is priceless.
The only place in ancient Israel with that much wealth was the Jewish Temple.
Stephen Pfann is one of the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
"This is a tremendous witness to history. To actually have a list of treasures from the temple itself from the ...   more »