STUDY OF ORAL LAW

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Earthquake hits southern Portugal. 3-Snow isn't over til it's over. 4-Mozambique floods displace 68,000, more at risk. 5-Tentative N.Korea nuclear accord reached. 6-Jerusalem mayor tries to calm Muslim ire. 7-This Week with Rabbi Eckstein. 8-High Court Deliberates Fate of 43 Families in Heart of Israel. 9-New Study on Geographical Development of Oral Law. 10-Olmert says Israel may lose Golan Heights.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Tue Feb 13 12:28 AM EDT

FEB 12,2007
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.1 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.3 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.8 OKLAHOMA CITY URBAN AREA, OKLAHOMA
MAP 2.9 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.3 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.9 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 6.0 AZORES-CAPE ST. VINCENT RIDGE
MAP 2.8 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP 3.3 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.6 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 5.0 NORTHEAST OF TAIWAN
MAP 5.7 NEW GUINEA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 2.7 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA

FEB 11,07
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.2 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.5 OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP 3.2 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 4.8 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 4.5 SALTA, ARGENTINA
MAP 4.7 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.6 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.4 GUERRERO, MEXICO
MAP 2.7 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.7 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.1 ISLAS MARIAS REGION, NAYARIT, MEXICO
MAP 4.4 CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MAP 4.9 PAKISTAN
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Earthquake hits southern Portugal Mon Feb 12, 6:36 AM ET

LISBON (AFP) - An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck off the southern coast of Portuga, official seismic observers said. No casualties or major damage to buildings were recorded in the aftermath of the tremor, which occurred at 10:36 am (1036 GMT) Monday some 160 kilometres (100 miles) east the Cape Saint Vincent in Portugal's southernmost province of Algarve.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Snow isn't over til it's over By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press Writer FEB 12,07

REDFIELD, N.Y. - The snow squalls that have buried Redfield and its neighbors up to their stop signs finally tapered off Monday, but forecasters warned that another storm system was on the way. Unofficially, the past week of lake-effect storms dumped 12 feet, 2 inches of snow at Redfield.If that number checks out, it would break the state record of 10 feet, 7 inches of snow that fell in nearby Montague over seven days ending Jan. 1, 2002, said Steve McLaughlin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Buffalo. A weather service representative was sent to Redfield on Monday to verify the total.Residents of this hardy upstate New York village seem unfazed by the weather, and a bit surprised by all the attention. Their economy thrives on snowmobilers and cross-country skiers, and they usually average 270 inches of snow for the season — more than 22 feet.It's snow. We get a lot of it. So what? said Allan Babcock, owner of Shar's Country Diner in this Oswego County village of 650 people.

The nearby community of Parish had recorded 115 inches of snow by early Sunday. Mexico had 103 inches, North Osceola had 99 and Scriba 94. The city of Oswego had 85 inches.A cold front finally stifled the lake-effect snow squalls created by persistent wind picking up moisture from Lake Ontario to the west.However, McLaughlin noted that a coastal winter storm expected to plow along the East Coast during the middle of the week could bring another 6 to 12 inches to parts of upstate New York.

A winter storm watch was in effect through late Wednesday for Oswego County and other areas from Virginia to Maine, the weather service said Monday.Oswego County roads had been mostly cleared as workers turned their attention to removing the snow and trimming down 10- and 12-foot-high snow banks that made driving dangerous.In all my life, I mean my entire life combined, I've never seen this much snow at once, said Jim Bevridge, 47, of Timmonium, Md., who drove up for a long weekend of snowmobiling.

Mozambique floods displace 68,000, more at risk By Charles Mangwiro
Mon Feb 12, 5:34 AM ET

CAIA, Mozambique (Reuters) - Floods in Mozambique have left 68,000 people homeless and 280,000 more may be forced to evacuate this week as torrential rains lash the impoverished country, a top official said on Monday. The head of Mozambique's national relief agency INGC told Reuters around 27,000 people had been moved to accommodation centers from areas along the Zambezi river and around 41,000 more had no shelter after their homes were submerged.Paulo Zucula said 280,000 people -- mostly poor rural folk who live in tiny mud huts and survive by growing vegetables and rearing goats and chickens -- would probably be forced from their homes this week as more rains swept the southern African country.Experts fear the crisis could surpass the devastating floods of 2000 and 2001, which killed 700 people, displaced half a million and wrecked infrastructure.We expect more water than we had in 2001. ... The situation is deteriorating and it will get worse but this time we are better prepared than in 2001, Zucula said in an interview in Caia, one of the worst hit areas, some 1,400 kilometres (875 miles) north of the capital Maputo.

The floods, sparked when rains from neighboring Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi poured into the overflowing Cahora Bassa Dam, have killed 29 people and damaged thousands of homes and schools, mainly in the central Zambezia and Sofala provinces.Many face homelessness for the second time after the floods six years ago wrecked their homes. Even in accommodation centers, food, water and medicine are scarce and shelter limited.In Chapunga, in Sofala, around 600 people flocked to an accommodation center but tents are scarce and many are sleeping in the open.I lost everything, I brought my wife and my two sick children and we are sleeping in the open, there are no tents and there is no food here, said 45-year-old Joaquim Dausse.This is the second time I'm facing this flooding... I can't believe it, said Dausse, hunched beside a sick child whose bloated tummy hinted at malnutrition.

Tentative N.Korea nuclear accord reached By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer FEB 12,07

BEIJING - International negotiators reached a tentative agreement on initial steps toward North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the first concrete progress after more than three years of talks, the U.S. envoy said early Tuesday. The draft agreement, worked out at the latest round of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program, contained commitments on disarmament and energy assistance along with initial actions to be taken by certain deadlines, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said. He said working groups will be set up, hopefully in a month, laying out a framework for dealing with regional tensions.

Hill declined to give further details of the draft.

The agreement could herald the first step toward disarmament since the talks began in 2003; the rounds have been marked by repeated delays and deadlock.

The process reached its lowest point in October when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion, alarming the world and triggering U.N. sanctions.Hill said the draft agreement still must be reviewed by the home governments of the six countries at the talks, but he was upbeat about it. He said he was in constant communication with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.We feel it's an excellent draft, I don't think we're the problem, he said.North Korea did not immediately make any public comment, but South Korea's envoy Chun Yung-woo said he believed the proposal would be acceptable to Pyongyang.Chun said the five other countries agreed to evenly share the energy aid outlined under the deal.However, Japan was more noncommittal. Its envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, said it was too early to tell whether Tokyo was satisfied.

Hill said the parties to the talks will meet again later Tuesday.

The last major agreement on the issue was in September 2005 when North Korea was promised energy aid and security guarantees in exchange for a pledge to abandon its nuclear programs. But since then, talks on implementing that agreement snarled on other issues and the plan went nowhere.Hill has repeatedly said he hoped a resolution would help improve stability in a region filled with bitter historical disputes. The two Koreas remain technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.

We're trying to do more than just do denuclearization for energy, Hill said. We're trying to address some of the underlying problems.Though he did not provide specifics, North Korea has demanded improved relations with the United States. Japan and North Korea remain fiercely antagonistic in part because of North Korea's acknowledged but unresolved abductions of Japanese citizens.In the last couple of days, the talks had appeared to be on the verge of foundering and envoys made clear that their frustration level was rising while their patience was growing thin. The current round was to conclude on Monday but as they progressed toward a deal, negotiators extended it late into the night and into the early hours of Tuesday.

The current talks began Thursday on a promising note after the United States and North Korea held an unusual meeting last month in Germany and signaled a willingness to compromise.

But negotiations quickly became mired on the issue of how much energy aid the impoverished and isolated communist country would get as an inducement for initial steps toward disarmament.It's always 3 yards, 3 yards, 3 yards, and it's always fourth and one. Then you make a first down and do 3 more yards, Hill said early Tuesday, using a football metaphor. It's painful.During the days of arduous negotiations, he said everybody has had to make some changes to narrow the differences.Some delegates at the talks — which also include China, Russia and South Korea — had called North Korea's demands for energy excessive. South Korean and Japanese media reports gave varying accounts of how much energy North Korea was demanding, including up to 2 million kilowatts of electricity or 2 million tons of
heavy fuel oil.

Chinese envoy Wu Dawei told a visiting Japanese lawmaker that North Korea had agreed to shut down its main nuclear reactor and submit a list of its atomic facilities. But the size of the energy aid Pyongyang would get in return was still undecided, the lawmaker, Fukushiro Nukaga, told reporters Monday. Under a 1994 U.S.-North Korea disarmament agreement, the North was to receive 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year before construction was completed of two nuclear reactors that would be able to generate 2 million kilowatts of electricity. That deal fell apart in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of conducting a secret uranium enrichment program, sparking the latest nuclear crisis.

Associated Press reporters Jae-soon Chang, Charles Hutzler, Alexa Olesen and Hiroko Tabuchi contributed to this report.

Jerusalem mayor tries to calm Muslim ire By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer FEB 12,07

JERUSALEM - Hoping to quell days of Muslim protests, Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Jewish mayor on Monday ordered a review of construction outside a holy site at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a spokesman said. However, the move — meant to prove Israel will not damage Muslim shrines — will not affect preparatory excavations that began last week and have infuriated people across the Muslim world.The dispute centers on a new walkway Israel is building to the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. The walkway is meant to replace an earthen ramp that partially collapsed in a snowstorm three years ago.Israeli archaeologists began an exploratory dig in the area last week to ensure no historical remains are destroyed during the construction. That work sparked fierce protests from Muslims, who accused Israel of plotting to damage the golden-capped Dome of the Rock shrine and the Al Aqsa Mosque in the same compound.

Israel denies the charge, noting the work is about 60 yards from the compound.

Small clashes persisted Monday, with incidents in which Palestinians threw stones at Israeli police in the city's Arab neighborhoods.

In an effort to defuse the tensions, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, who has direct responsibility for the work, decided the construction plan should be sent for a new review that will allow for public objections, spokesman Gidi Schmerling said.The mayor made the decision after meeting Muslim leaders so that the process will be transparent, and so that it will be entirely clear that there is no attempt to harm any Muslim holy sites, the spokesman added.City Hall expects thousands of objections, he said.

Lupolianski's move came despite the Israeli Cabinet's vote Sunday to push ahead with the work.The mayor's decision would likely delay the actual construction, which was scheduled to begin in six months. But it would not stop the current excavations, and Muslim leaders rejected it as insufficient.The problem is the digging, which hasn't stopped, and unfortunately the Israeli government has decided to continue the digging, Mohammed Hussein, Jerusalem's mufti, or Muslim religious leader, told The Associated Press.Israeli hard-liners also criticized Lupolianski, saying he caved in to Arab pressure.Lawmaker Arieh Eldad called it a disgraceful surrender to the threats from the Arabs of Israel and the Arabs and Muslims of the neighboring countries that if we behave as a nation behaves in its capital, they will ignite the Middle East.Speaking to Israel Radio, he said the fight over the walkway is really a fight over the sovereignty of Jerusalem.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, where the disputed hilltop and other religious sites are located, in the 1967 Mideast war and considers the entire city its undivided capital. The Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of a future independent state.Yona Metzger, one of Israel's chief rabbis, visited the construction site Monday, calling on the government to continue work and terming
allegations that Muslim holy places could be harmed nonsense. Metzger also called for calm.We don't want any problems here. This is a holy place for us as well, he said. The compound is the holiest site in Judaism, revered as the home of the biblical Temples. It is Islam's third-holiest shrine. The compound has been a catalyst for earlier rounds of Israel-Palestinian fighting. The new construction
sparked several days of Palestinian protests, and Muslim nations also condemned the work. On Monday, police charged Muslim leader Raed Salah with attacking police officers during a demonstration last week against the construction, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Salah, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has been the leading critic of the repair work. After Salah scuffled with police outside the shrine last Wednesday, authorities briefly detained him for questioning and issued a 10-day restraining order barring him from Jerusalem's Old City. Police wanted the courts to extend the restraining order a further 60 days, Rosenfeld said.

This Week with Rabbi Eckstein February 12, 2007
Dear Friend of The Fellowship,

Anyone who cares about Israel wants to know if her Arab and Muslim neighbors will ever recognize the right of the Jewish state to exist and whether or not there will come a time when Israel's people will be allowed to live in peace.Given the news coming out of the Middle East in recent months, it is hard to be optimistic about the prospects for peace. The three volatile situations I describe below which most Israeli leaders agree pose the greatest challenge and danger to Israel's future will help you understand why I believe 2007 will be a watershed year for both Israel and America.

Middle East Update

Iran is the greatest threat facing Israel—and the world—today. This Muslim fundamentalist state provides weapons and money to terrorists throughout the Middle East, including Hamas in the Palestinian territories, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and groups murdering civilians and attacking American soldiers in Iraq. The Iranian president has not backed away one inch from his hateful anti-Israel, anti-Western rhetoric, and continues his country's aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapons, in defiance of the international community. Iran backs Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah.

Ahmadinejad in his own words

Despite ban, Iran's nuclear program moves forward.In Lebanon, Hezbollah is struggling to attain more power, leading supporters in violent protests against the government and clashing with rival Sunni Muslims. United Nations' forces charged with enforcing the ceasefire that ended last summer's Hezbollah-Israel war have stood by as Hezbollah rearms and develops more lethal fighting capabilities. While a Hezbollah takeover in Lebanon would be a disaster for Israel, and would almost
certainly mean war on a large scale, maintaining the status quo is not a recipe for peace either: in a recent appeal for an end to sectarian strife in his country, the Lebanese Prime Minister reminded warring factions that they must save their energy for fighting the real enemy—meaning Israel. U.N.:

We can't stop Hezbollah

Scores of Palestinians—including children and other innocent bystanders—have been killed, and hundreds more injured, in Gaza during the past few months of bitter fighting between rivals Fatah and Hamas. The likelihood that a true Palestinian partner for peace will emerge from the bloody battle is slim to none. Several ceasefires between Fatah and Hamas have been broken, and fighting has begun to spread to the West Bank. Meanwhile, rockets fired from Gaza by Palestinian terrorists continue to fall on Israeli cities such as Sderot, and suicide bombers—like the one that murdered 3 Israelis last week in the southern city of Eilat—continue to enter Israel from the region. U.S. officials on front lines of rocket attack.There are few good options for addressing these threats. With none of her Arab and Muslim neighbors interested in making peace, Israel will be forced for the foreseeable future to maintain and even increase spending on defense, even though it is likely to come at the additional expense of social programs that benefit Israel's poor and needy.

Last month, I challenged all of us to become better informed advocates for Israel. As the year takes shape, it is clear that rising to that challenge is of critical importance. Please take some time today to explore these issues in greater depth by reading some of the articles linked above—and then spread the word by forwarding this message to a friend. Now, more than ever, Israel needs friends like you who understand the nature of the threats facing her—and who will continually uphold Israel through their prayers, gifts, and advocacy.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President Fellowship of Christians and Jews

High Court Deliberates Fate of 43 Families in Heart of Israel
By Hillel Fendel (INN) FEB 12,07

The fate of the thriving community of Migron, just north of Jerusalem, is to be determined today by the Supreme Court. Residents fear that its fate will be like that of Amona. Peace Now, the radical organization working tirelessly to destroy the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria [Yesha], has petitioned Defense Minister Amir Peretz to order the expulsion of all 43 Jewish families living in Migron. Peace Now claims that most of land on which Migron was built belongs to Arabs. Migron residents say that Peace Now worked hard to find the Arabs in question and convinced them to file the suit against the Jewish town.

One resident, Aviva W., told Arutz-7, When we arrived here, it was clear that the land had no claimants and no one working on it... We are a continuation of the Zionist enterprise and the Zionist dream - just like all the pioneers who came to the Land of Israel over the centuries, starting with the students of the Gaon of Vilna [early 19th century], and later the First Aliyah [1882-1903], and the Second Aliyah [1904 - 1914], etc. - there is no difference. If anything, we are more in the heart of the Land of Israel than Tel Aviv is.

The only difference is political - an arbitrary difference made based on what is convenient for different politicians at different times - but we are doing the same thing that Land of Israel pioneers have done for generations.The residents fear that the Supreme Court will issue a restraining order, meaning that the town will have to be dismantled - but not immediately. We are praying that this will not happen, of course, Aviva said, but if so, it should be clear to all that this is exactly what happened at Amona, and we will be in grave danger of literally being thrown out of our homes and losing yet another Jewish town. The Supreme Court, after all, rules this country...It was exactly a year ago this month that hundreds of people - mostly youths protesting the abandonment of the Land of Israel - were injured while protesting the Supreme Court-ordered destruction of nine houses in Amona, just ten kilometers north of Migron. In that incident, as well, Peace Now had petitioned the government to destroy the homes, claiming that they were built on privately-owned, never-worked land.Today's Supreme Court session takes place in the shadow of Defense Minister Amir Peretz's threat to his boss, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to turn to the Attorney General if Olmert does not begin acting to remove unauthorized Jewish outposts throughout Judea and Samaria. Peretz did not include illegal Arab construction in his ultimatum. Peretz has been accused of using the outposts to promote his political standing within the Labor Party. Just yesterday, at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Peretz should stop acting as if he is running in party primaries and should start acting more like a Defense Minister.

The judges in the case are Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, Ayala Procaccia - neither of whom are known to greatly sympathize the Jewish enterprise in Yesha - and Edmond Levy. In June 2005, Levy was the only justice on an 11-judge panel to vote that the Disengagement plan should be struck down.Migron (mentioned in Samuel I 14,2 and Isaiah 10, 28) is located on a strategically important hill crest, overlooking the highway leading to Beit El, Ofrah, Shilo and the northern Shomron. It is located between Kokhav Yaakov, Psagot and Michmash, about a 12-minute drive north of Jerusalem.Founded in March 2002, Migron grew quickly, reaching 42 families after only a year and a half - at which point the government abruptly clamped down on further growth. Over 200 people, including well over 100 children, now live there. The synagogue and two homes are in permanent structures, while most of the residents live in caravans (mobile homes without wheels). Six government ministries, the Civil Administration, the Electric Company, Mekorot Water Company and other official bodies have all taken part in establishing infrastructures for the community.

New Study on Geographical Development of Oral Law
By Hillel Fendel (INN) FEB 12,07

Much of European Jewry assimilated or became Christian following the Second Temple's fall - largely because of their isolation from the Rabbinic world of the Land of Israel and Babylon. A new study by two Israeli historians finds that the western and eastern Diasporas were greatly divided in the centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of the Jews, in the year 68 C.E.The lack of a translation of the Mishnah - the Oral Law - into Greek or other European languages was a major contributing factor to a serious gap between the western Jewish Diaspora and the eastern one. The laws of the Five Books of Moses, which had been translated into Greek, continued to be largely observed, until Christian missionary work succeeded in winning over much of the Jewish population there.The study was published in the January 2007 edition of the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, by Aryeh Edrei of Tel Aviv University and Doron Mendels of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mendels is also the author of a work entitled The Media Revolution of Early Christianity. In it, he shows how early Christians worked like modern journalists, selecting, shaping, and presenting stories for popular consumption in order to promote their religion.

The best example, Mendels writes, is that of 4th-century Eusebius, the author of a monumental work entitled Ecclesiastical History, which he used as a publicity tool to further the cause of early Christianity. Such works found fertile ground among Jews in Europe, Mendels and Edrei claim, in that no Oral Torah developed there - as opposed to in the East. Hence it is not surprising that western Jews contributed nothing to the development of the oral law, the authors posit. The Oral Law developed greatly after the exile, with the Mishna and Gmara finally becoming two monumental written works - the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud - in the middle centuries of the first millennium of the Common Era. The preceding centuries, however, were critical, Mendels and Edrei write, in that they were not written and were not taught to the Jews of the West who did not speak Hebrew or Aramaic.

The researchers add that the divide between the two Jewish populations was also furthered by the fact that Eastern rabbis did not often visit the West. Though the Talmud often recounts rabbis traveling between the Holy Land and Babylon to the east, travel to the west is rarely mentioned in this connection.The publicized summaries of the research by Mendels and Edrei did not specify the size of the Jewish population in Europe in the centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple.

Olmert says Israel may lose Golan Heights
Feb. 12, 2007 at 2:33PM Upi

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Israel would have to give up the Golan Heights if peace will ever be achieved with Syria.

The northern region was seized by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981. Olmert told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee because of what three of his predecessors had done in negotiations, the Golan Heights would have to be forfeited, Haaretz reported. That sparked an angry exchange between Olmert and one of his predecessors, Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party, who said he had never agreed to returning the Golan Heights.Recently, Syrian President Bashar Assad has been making diplomatic peace overtures to Israel, but Olmert told the committee he didn't feel negotiations would lead anywhere. Syria is interested in the industry of peace, rather than real peace, Olmert said.