by Hillel Fendel
By an 8-4 vote, the Knesset House Committee passed on Wednesday morning an early version of a law requiring a popular referendum before the Golan could be given away.
The proposal is now ready to be voted on in the full Knesset plenum for its first reading.  If it passes, it must be transferred back to the Committee for last-minute changes and a vote, and if it passes that hurdle, it will be voted on for a  final time in the Kneset.
Originally proposed by former MK Avigdor Yitzchaki, the bill states that no referendum is necessary if at least 80 MKs - two-thirds of the Knesset - support the retreat.  If a majority of less than 2/3 supports a withdrawal, the retreat must be approved in a popular referendum before becoming law.
Proponents of a referendum originally wanted a requirement for a 60% majority in order to approve a withdrawal, in order to neutralize the Arab vote in favor of a withdrawal. This requirement was dropped, however, in light of difficulties in having such a clause approved.
Labor Supports, Kadima on the Fence
The Kadima party leadership afforded its MKs freedom of choice in the vote, ...   more »

Agencies
Vatican City: Pope Benedict on Saturday appointed Archbishop Fouad Twal as Latin Patriarch of Occupied Jerusalem.
The appointment makes 67-year-old Twal the Roman Catholic church's top Latin rite cleric for Palestinian territories and Israel.
Twal replaces 75-year-old Archbishop Michel Sabbah, who resigned after holding the post since 1987.
The Jordanian-born Twal served as deputy parish priest in Ramallah in the 1960s before landing a diplomatic career for the Vatican.
Original Source   more »

Aides say PM will hand in resignation to president in case Knesset dissolution bill approved in Wednesday's vote. 'If motion passes and ministers are fired, Israel will have a minority government that would not be able to function and would be considered a joke,' associate says
Prime Minster Ehud Olmert is considering handing in his resignation to President Shimon Peres in the coming days should the motion calling for the Knesset's dissolution pass a preliminary vote on Wednesday, sources in the PM's Office told Ynet Monday night.
According to the sources, Olmert has yet to consult with his advisors on the issue, but his associates have already examined the possible outcomes of such a move and are expected to present their position to the prime minister.
Last Days of Knesset 
Labor decides to back Knesset dissolution  / Attila Somfalvi
"If the Knesset dissolution bill passes on Wednesday, the choice will be between resigning or having to face the government's collapse following a no-confidence vote," an Olmert aide said. "We'll have to seriously weigh both options.
Another Olmert associate said that in case the Knesset dissolution motion passes and the Shas ministers are fired, "Israel will have a minority government that ...   more »

 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
     
Pride in Capital?

 
 
 
Pride flag in Jerusalem  Photo: Amit Lev
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

   
Don’t march in Jerusalem

Chaim Shein
The right to protest is a basic right in modern democracy. The High Court of Justice ruled in several important cases that the right to protest is derived from freedom of expression – a freedom that democracy cannot exist without. Members of the homo-lesbian community, just like all other citizens, have the right to demonstrate. This right is particularly valid when dealing with a community that seeks recognition and identity; a community that for many years was hidden away.  
'Abominable Acts'  
Religious leaders demand cancellation of Pride Parade  / Neta Sela  
Letter written by religious MKs, rabbis asks ministers to cancel parade or move it from Jerusalem's center to outskirts of city, far from holy sites, eyes of children. 'Freedom of speech doesn't include abominable acts,' they say, while mayor calls parade 'provocation'
These days we see ...   more »

Vice premier 'happy to learn' of France's support of bill, says time has come for matter to be settled. 'Government morally bound to enable those who want to evacuate to do so,' he says
Amnon Meranda
Vice Premier Haim Ramon welcomed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's unexpected support of the evacuation-compensation bill on Monday.
"I was happy to learn that the idea of voluntary evacuation was supported by the intended president of the European Union," said Ramon. "It is time the government gave it some serious discussion." 
Sarkozy: Israel not alone against Iran  / Amnon Meranda  
French president arrives at Israeli parliament, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni. During special session, he says 'those who scandalously call for Israel's destruction will always be faced and blocked by France.' Knesset Speaker Itzik warns, 'The nuclear facility being built in Iran, and the Islamic terror in Europe and worldwide, will also reach Paris'     
According to Ramon, "Many of those living beyond the (security) fence are willing to leave voluntary. The fence has created a reality, which in the future would mean that Israel will no longer exercise its sovereignty on its east side. The Israeli government is morally bound to enable ...   more »

Study conducted by Harvard University reveals Israeli Arabs would rather live in Jewish state than in any other country in world
Reuven Weiss
Seventy-seven percent of the State of Israel's Arab citizens would rather live in the Jewish state than in any other country in the world, according to a new study titled "Coexistence in Israel".  
The survey was conducted by the John Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with the assistance of researchers from Haifa University.  
Integration  
First ever Arab-Muslim becomes kibbutz member / Arnon Lapid  
Qalansawe's Amal Carmiya accepted as new member of Kibbutz Nir Eliyahu. Kibbutz residents say she is 'exceptional person'
The findings also revealed that a great majority of Israel's citizens (73% of the Jews and 94% of the Arabs) want to live in a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities.  
The study went on to show that 68% of Jewish citizens support teaching conversational Arabic in Jewish schools to help bring Arab and Jewish citizens together, and 69% believe contributing to coexistence is a personal responsibility.  
Sixty-six percent of Jewish citizens and 84% of Arab citizens believe the Israeli government ...   more »

UNITED NATIONS - Russia, one of the world's major powers, has warned of "disasterous consequences" if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities.
"If things happen like threats of force and unilateral sanctions outside the framework of the [UN] Security Council, it is distracting from the negotiating process," Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, said when asked to comment on a newspaper report about a large military exercise carried out by Israel this month as a rehearsal for a bombing attack on Iran.
On Saturday, The Washington Post said senior U.S. officials
confirmed that Israel had held a massive operation that involved the types of warplanes, distances and maneuvers required for airstrikes on Iran, a story which was first reported by The New York Times.
"A military move would have devastating consequences for the prospect of resolving the Iranian nuclear issue, for the region and internationally,"The Russian ambassadore added.
The Post said, "The mock (Israeli) operation reflected a growing policy schism over Iran among major international players at a time when U.S. politics may freeze major decisions until a new administration is in place, its officials are confirmed and a policy review is complete."
More than 100 Israeli warplanes - ...   more »

Israel isn't famous for welcoming public scrutiny of its most sensitive military plans. But we doubt Jerusalem officials were dismayed to see news of their recent air force exercises splashed over the front pages of the Western press.
Those exercises – reportedly involving about 100 fighters, tactical bombers, refueling planes and rescue helicopters – were conducted about 900 miles west of Israel's shores in the Mediterranean. Iran's nuclear facilities at Bushehr, Isfahan and Natanz all fall roughly within the same radius, albeit in the opposite direction. The point was not lost on Tehran, which promptly warned of "strong blows" in the event of a pre-emptive Israeli attack.
The more important question is whether the meaning of Israel's exercise registered in Western capitals. It's been six years since Iran's secret nuclear programs were publicly exposed, and Israel has more or less bided its time as the Bush Administration and Europe have pursued diplomacy to induce Tehran to cease enriching uranium.
It hasn't worked. Iran has rejected repeated offers of technical and economic assistance, most recently this month. Despite four years of pleading, the Administration has failed to win anything but weak U.N. sanctions. Russia plans to sell advanced antiaircraft missiles to ...   more »

By Nawab Khan BRUSSELS, June 23 (KUNA) -- The European Union decided Monday to impose more sanctions on Iran to put pressure to suspend its uranium enrichment progrqmme. The new sanctions include a ban of activities and freeze of all assets of the Bank Melli, Iran's biggest bank, within the 27-member bloc, EU officials said here today.
The measures hich will be published in the EUs Official Journal on Tuesday also include a travel ban on top-most Iranian officials involved in Irans nuclear and missile programmes.
The names of the individuals and entities on the EU black list will be published tomorrow.
The EU measures are part of UN Security Council sanctions imposed earlier on the Islamic Republic and have nothing to do with the new offer of incentives which EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana offered to Iran last week, said the EU officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The UN Security Council has approved three round of sanctions against Iran over the nuclear issue the latest one in March 2008. The sources said Bank Melli is financing Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Analysts in Brussels are however puzzled at the timing of the EU announcement . Iran ...   more »

Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged Jewish voters to denounce the whisper campaign that for months has pushed the false rumor that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.
Bloomberg warned a Jewish group in Boca Raton, Florida, on Friday that the attempt to portray Obama as a shadowy Muslim with a hidden agenda often targets Jewish voters online and with e-mails.
The deceptive campaign against Obama, who is Christian, "threatens to undo the enormous strides that Jews and Muslims have made together in this country," the New York mayor said.
The lies are "cloaked in concern for Israel, but the real concern is about partisan politics," said Bloomberg, who is Jewish. "This is wedge politics at its worst, and we've got to reject it - loudly, clearly and unequivocally."
Bloomberg, a billionaire independent, had considered making his own run for the White House this year, but decided against it. He has said his endorsement and potential financial backing could still be up for grabs, and there has been occasional chatter about how he might make a good running mate for either Obama or Republican John McCain.
Either way, Bloomberg's passionate defense of Obama in front of a Jewish audience ...   more »

Sen. Barack Obama has promised "change," and his campaign has already been hard at work changing one of the basic symbols of the nation — the Presidential Seal.
On Friday, the press was abuzz over the new seal, which was unveiled on Obama's podium when he spoke to a group of Democratic governors.
While the Obama seal does include the American bald eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch, the resemblance ends there.
The Latin phrase "E Pluribus Unum," which translates to "Out of many, one," now says "Vero Possumus." Press reports translate the Latin words as "Truly, we are able" — a rough translation of the Obama campaign slogan, "Yes we can."
The deletion of "E Pluribus Unum," long considered the de-facto motto of the United States, is not accidental for multiculturalists, who have long denigrated the concept that immigrants must strip away their old culture in favor of the "oneness" of American civilization.
In the 1990s, such activists promoted the alternative concept of the nation's ethnic "mosaic," rather than a single, overarching metaphor to describe American society. For example, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has pointedly criticized the "E Pluribus Unum" motto as not reflecting the nation's ...   more »

Democrat says nation also for Muslims, nonbelievers
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – Some have been taking issue with largely unnoticed comments made last year by Sen. Barack Obama declaring the U.S. is "no longer a Christian nation" but is also a nation of others, including Muslims and nonbelievers.
The comments have been recently recirculating on Internet blogs.
"Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers," Obama said during a June 2007 speech available on YouTube.
At the speech, Obama also seemingly blasted the "Christian Right" for hijacking religion and using it to divide the nation:
"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us," he said.
Asked last year to clarify his remarks, Obama repeated them to the Christian Broadcast Network:
"I think that the right might worry a bit more about the dangers of ...   more »

By Darren Waters
The net could see its biggest transformation in decades if plans to open up the address system are passed.
The net's regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed.
If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.
The move could also see the launch of .xxx, after years of wrangling.
Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org.
To get around the restrictions, some companies have used the current system to their own ends.
For example, the Polynesia island nation Tuvalu, has leased the use of the .tv address to many television firms.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which acts a sort of regulator for the net, as well as overseeing the domain name system, has been working towards opening up net addresses for the last three years.
 It's a massive increase in the geography of ...   more »

By John Wilen, AP Business Writer  
Oil prices rise amid disappointment with Saudi output hike, Nigerian supply disruptions
NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices rose Monday on disappointment over Saudi Arabia's modest production increase and concerns that output from Nigeria will decline. Retail gas prices, meanwhile, inched lower overnight, but appear unlikely to change much as long as oil prices remain stuck in their recent trading range.
Saudi Arabia said Sunday at a meeting of oil producing and consuming nations that it would turn out more crude oil this year if the market needs it. The kingdom said it would add 200,000 barrels per day in July to a 300,000 barrel per day production increase it first announced in May, raising total daily output to 9.7 million barrels.
But that pledge at the meeting held in the Saudi city of Jeddah fell far short of U.S. hopes for a larger increase. The United States and other nations argue that oil production has not kept up with increasing demand, especially from China, India and the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries say there is no shortage of oil and instead blame financial speculation and the falling U.S. dollar....   more »

Investors Eye Saudi Oil Increase 
  Iraq will award contracts to 41 foreign oil firms in a bid to boost production that could give multinationals a potentially lucrative foothold in huge but underdeveloped oil fields, an official said on Sunday.
"We chose 35 companies of international standard, according to their finances, environment and experience, and we granted them permission to extract oil," oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told AFP.
Six other state-owned oil firms from Algeria, Angola, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam will also be awarded extraction deals, Jihad said.
The agreements, to be signed on June 30, are expected to be short-term arrangements although the ministry has yet to provide a timeframe.
The deal paves the way for global energy giants to return to Iraq 36 years after late dictator Saddam Hussein chased them out, and is seen as a first step to access the earth's third largest proven crude reserves.
"They will have the first right to develop the fields," said Jihad, adding that competitive bidding would come later once the nation's long-delayed hydrocarbon law is passed by parliament.
Iraq wants to ramp up production by 500,000 barrels per day from the current average production of 2.5 million ...   more »