HAMAS TAKES GAZA

1-Hamas gives amnesty, killings persist. 2-Barak poised to gain Israel defense post. 3-Billy Graham's wife Ruth dies at 87. 4-GAZA ON FIRE: LESSONS FOR WASHINGTON. 5-Arab Media Reports Syria Making Preparations for War with Israel. 6-PA Government Dissolved, Abbas Declares State of Emergency. 7-US sticks to European missile shield plan. 8-Giscard calls on EU leaders to be honest on new treaty. 9-MKs Discuss Transferring Border Crossings to Int’l Force.

Hamas gives amnesty, killings persist By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer
JUNE 15,07

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Cheering Hamas supporters wearing green headbands and waving flags surged through Gaza's streets Friday as Islamic militants in black masks took over one of President Mahmoud Abbas' offices and rifled through his bedroom. Hamas offered amnesty to its defeated foes as violence tapered off from five days of bloodshed that claimed more than 90 lives. Bu Fatah leader Abbas made the split complete by firing the Hamas prime minister, leaving Palestinians struggling to adjust to a new political reality that has crushed their long-standing hopes for their own state. Safe in the West Bank, Abbas moved quickly to cement his rule there after losing control of Gaza to Hamas forces. He replaced Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas member, with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a respected economist, to head a new moderate government.Hamas, overwhelmingly elected in a 2006 parliament vote, denounced Abbas' move as a coup. Hamas' supreme leader, Syrian-based Khaled Mashaal, later said Abbas has legitimacy as an elected president and promised to cooperate, but warned Fatah against going after Hamas loyalists in the West Bank.

But Fatah gunmen and security forces allied with Abbas in the West Bank were prowling that territory looking for Hamas supporters and wrecking a Hamas radio station.The sparring made little difference on the ground: The two Palestinian territories, on either side of Israel, are now separate entities with two governments one run by Hamas and backed by radical Islamic states, and the other controlled by the Western-supported Fatah.Abbas received immediate pledges of support from Israel, the U.S., Egypt, Jordan, the U.N. and Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by phone that he would take steps to bolster Abbas. Officials in Olmert's office said he would consider releasing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax receipts frozen after Hamas came to power.Though the moderate government that Abbas plans to appoint will have no say in Gaza, it stands a stronger chance than the Hamas-Fatah coalition it replaces of restoring foreign aid to the West Bank.The yearlong aid embargo imposed after the Hamas election victory has crippled the Palestinian economy, and many Gazans feared they would become even more isolated and impoverished.

In a West Bank hotel, several Fatah loyalists who fled Gaza sat in the lobby chain-smoking and worked the phones to set up new lives, hearing from relatives in Gaza that their homes had been searched. In Gaza City, a government worker who ran the operations room in the main police compound, called his old office and pleaded with the new Hamas rulers to care for the computers. He gave only his first name, Hani, because he feared for his safety despite Hamas' amnesty offer.Several thousand Hamas supporters in Gaza cheered as a small armored personnel carrier seized from Abbas' forces rolled into the Palestinian legislature compound, where a victory march was held.

A jubilant crowd chanted slogans and waved green Hamas flags as gunmen fired in the air. Many wore green hats and headbands. Excited children climbed over the vehicle, and bearded armed men strutted around the parliamentary building, grinning from ear to ear.Hamas was both cocky and conciliatory. It released nine senior Fatah leaders and many lower-ranking activists, saying it was granting amnesty to its rivals. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeideh also promised to get BBC journalist Alan Johnston, held since March, released quickly. He said Hamas has made contact with the captors and is taking serious and practical steps to win his release.

Yet Hamas gunmen also entered the seaside compound used by Abbas on visits to Gaza, rifling through the president's belongings in his bedroom, next to his office. They lifted the mattress and searched drawers.One gunman sat at the desk of the Fatah leader, who is also known as Abu Mazen, picked up the phone and pretended to call Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Hello, Rice? the gunman said. Here we are in Abu Mazen's office. Say hello to Abu Mazen for me.Gaza's streets, deserted during the fighting, were crowded with cars, pedestrians and triumphant Hamas fighters, some driving in jeeps and firing in the air. Haniyeh, the prime minister fired by Abbas, promised to restore security to the anarchic territory. He urged Gazans to display self-restraint and end the widespread looting of houses and other property of Fatah officials. Looters stripped the home of Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan of everything from windows and doors to flowerpots. This was the house of the murderer Dahlan that was cleansed by the holy warriors, read graffiti sprayed on the wall. Donkey carts outside the house waited to take more loot. Dahlan was in Egypt when the fighting erupted, and reached the West Bank on Thursday. Gaza City's Shifa Hospital was still grappling with battle casualties. More than 90 people were killed in the fighting and dozens wounded. The morgue was overflowing, with four bodies lined up on the floor, and some of the wounded were sleeping on cardboard on the floor.

Two men were killed in revenge slayings Friday, including a Fatah gunman thrown from a roof in what Hamas described as a family grievance — the gunman, they said, had killed a member of a Hamas -allied family. Another Fatah loyalist was shot dead in southern Gaza. Since Hamas' victory late Thursday, about a dozen Fatah gunmen had been killed in gangland-style executions, Fatah said.

Before word came of Hamas' amnesty offer, 97 Fatah officials fled in a fishing boat to Egypt. Others reached Israel via the Erez crossing and headed to the West Bank. An Egyptian security delegation left Gaza after failing in its mediation efforts between the warring Palestinian factions. Hamas' military takeover of Gaza formalized the separation between Gaza and the West Bank, and was a major setback to dreams of Palestinian statehood. With a larger middle class, more foreign passport holders and more contact with the outside world, many West Bank residents have long felt they have little in common with Gaza.

I expect to have economic development here and poverty there in Gaza, Salah Haniyeh, a government employee, said as he watched masked Fatah gunmen parading in pickup trucks through the West Bank city of Ramallah. Across the West Bank, Fatah gunmen backed by Abbas-allied security forces expanded an anti-Hamas sweep. Dozens of Hamas supporters had been seized by gunmen or arrested by police since Thursday. In the city of Nablus, a Hamas stronghold, Fatah gunmen set up checkpoints and barred access to the Hamas-run municipal building. Gunmen also vandalized a Hamas media office in Nablus, trashing computers and furniture. We will go after them (Hamas) everywhere, said Mouin Hijazi, a Nablus leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent Fatah offshoot. We won't allow them to continue existing in the West Bank.In Gaza, an immediate concern was how long the coastal strip would be sealed. Gaza's main passenger and cargo crossings, with Egypt and Israel, were closed this week, and it was not clear when they would reopen. Extended closure could quickly lead to a humanitarian crisis. A Hamas spokesman said Palestinian police, now under Hamas command, would take up positions at the crossings, but it was unlikely Israel would agree to such a deployment because Hamas militants frequently attacked the passages in the past.

John Ging, head of U.N. aid operations in Gaza, said his agency would resume work Saturday. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency provides emergency food rations and health care to hundreds of thousands of Gazans. He called for a quick reopening of the Gaza crossings.

Barak poised to gain Israel defense post By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 15, 3:36 PM ET

JERUSALEM - The Israeli Cabinet on Friday approved the appointment of Ehud Barak as defense minister, an Israeli official said, capping the political comeback of the former prime minister six years after a humiliating election defeat. The appointment follows Barak's election this week as leader of the dovish Labor Party. Barak, a former military chief, has made no secret that he coveted the defense post as a step toward returning to the nation's top job.The Cabinet ministers approved Barak's appointment in a special vote conducted over the telephone, the official said. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wanted the vote taken before he heads to the United States on Saturday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.Barak's appointment is expected to receive final approval in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, on Monday, the official said.Shortly after Friday's vote, the current defense minister, Amir Peretz, announced his resignation.Defense Minister Amir Peretz will resign immediately after the Knesset vote on Monday, his office said in a statement. Until then, he will fulfill his duty as usual.In a statement, Olmert's office confirmed his plans to make Barak the defense minister: Only after the expected Knesset authorization on Monday will he be appointed.

Barak's presence in the Cabinet is expected to give a boost to Olmert, who was widely criticized for his performance during last year's war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.While calling for Olmert to resign over the war, Barak is expected to keep Labor in the government coalition for now to help burnish his leadership credentials.Earlier this week, Barak called for unity and pledged to restore Israel's military might and deterrent power.Barak served as prime minister from 1999 until he was crushed by hard-liner Ariel Sharon in a 2001 election, months after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising and his failure to secure final peace deals with Syria and the Palestinians.Barak, 65, disappeared from politics after his political drubbing, earning millions on the lecture circuit and advising businesses.Seen as arrogant and overbearing when he was premier, Barak says he learned from his mistakes and would make a far better leader this time.Peretz, a former union leader with scant military experience, was trounced as Labor's leader in a first round of voting on May 28. Like Olmert, he has been widely criticized for his performance during the war. Peretz is expected to receive a lower-profile Cabinet post.

Billy Graham's wife Ruth dies at 87
Mike Baker- Associated Press Writer OneNewsNow.com
June 15, 2007

MONTREAT, N.C.- Ruth Graham, who surrendered dreams of missionary work in Tibet to marry a suitor who became the world's most renowned evangelist, died Thursday. She was 87. Graham died at 5:05 p.m. at her home at Little Piney Cove, surrounded by her husband and all five of their children, said a statement released by Larry Ross, Billy Graham's spokesman.Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team, Billy Graham said in a statement. No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we've had in the mountains together. We've rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.Ruth Graham had been bedridden for months with degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck- the result of a serious fall from a tree in 1974 while fixing a swing for grandchildren- and underwent treatment for pneumonia two weeks ago. At her request, and in consultation with her family, she had stopped receiving nutrients through a feeding tube for the last few days, Ross said.A public memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Montreat Conference Center. A private interment service will be held the next day in Charlotte.

As Mrs. Billy Graham, Ruth Graham could lay claim to being the first lady of evangelical Protestantism, but neither exploited that unique status nor lusted for the limelight.Behind the scenes, however, she was considered her husband's closest confidant during his spectacular global career- one rivaled only by her father, L. Nelson Bell, until his death in 1973.She would help my father prepare his messages, listening with an attentive ear, and if she saw something that wasn't right or heard something that she felt wasn't as strong as it could be, she was a voice to strengthen this or eliminate that, said her son, Franklin, who is now the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.Every person needs that kind of input in their life and she was that to my father.Bell, a missionary doctor, headed the Presbyterian hospital in Qingjiang, China, that had been founded by the father of author Pearl Buck. Ruth grew up there and spent three high school years in what's now North Korea.What she witnessed in her family home, she practiced for herself- dependence on God in every circumstance, love for his word, concern for others above self, and an indomitable spirit displayed with a smile, said the Grahams' youngest daughter, also named Ruth.

Despite her reluctance to be a public personality herself, Ruth Graham met many of the powerful and famous through her husband- who was a spiritual adviser to presidents for decades. President Bush and first lady Laura Bush called her a remarkable woman of faith who inspired people around the world with her humor, intelligence, elegance, and kindness.She met Billy Graham at Wheaton College in Illinois. He recalled in 1997 memoirs, If I had not been smitten with love at first sight of Ruth Bell I would certainly have been the exception. Many of the men at Wheaton thought she was stunning.

Billy Graham courted her, managing to coax her away from the foreign missions calling and into marriage after both graduated in 1943. In 1945, after a brief stint pastoring a suburban Chicago congregation, he became a roving speaker for the fledgling Youth for Christ organization.From that point onward she had to endure her husband's frequent absences, remarking, I'd rather have a little of Bill than a lot of any other man.Ruth Graham moved the couple into her parents' home in Montreat, where they had relocated after fleeing wartime China. She stayed in western North Carolina mountain town the rest of her life.The young couple later bought their own house across the street from the Bells. Then in 1956, needing protection from gawkers, the Grahams moved into Little Piney Cove, a comfortably rustic mountainside home she designed using logs from abandoned cabins. It became Billy's retreat between evangelistic forays.

Though the wife of a famous Baptist minister, the independent-minded Ruth Graham declined to undergo baptism by immersion and remained a loyal, lifelong Presbyterian. When in Montreat, a town built around a Presbyterian conference center, Billy Graham would attend the local Presbyterian church where his wife often taught the college-age Sunday School class.Due to her husband's travels, she bore major responsibility for raising the couple's five children: Franklin (William Franklin III), Nelson, Virginia, Anne and Ruth.Ruth Graham was the author or co-author of 14 books, including collections of poetry and the autobiographical scrapbook Footprints of a Pilgrim.In 1996, the Grahams were each awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for outstanding and lasting contributions to morality, racial equality, family, philanthropy, and religion.Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell began her writing career with a Ruth Graham biography that depicted many deeds of personal charity. Cornwell said as a youth in Montreat she thought Ruth Graham was the loveliest, kindest person ever born. I still do.She helped establish the Ruth and Billy Graham Children's Health Center in Asheville, and the Billy Graham Training Center near Montreat.Ruth Graham will be buried at the new Billy Graham Library in Charlotte- a source of apparent discord within the family last year. This week, Billy Graham said he and Ruth had decided after much prayer and discussion they would be laid to rest at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway in the library's prayer garden.American Family News Network.

GAZA ON FIRE: LESSONS FOR WASHINGTON JUNE 15,07

* FYI: Joel will be on the Glenn Beck Show tonight on CNN Headline news at 7pm, 9pm and midnight eastern, for a replay of Glenn's recent special on the epicenter and Bible prophecy

By Joel C. Rosenberg

(WASHINGTON, D.C., June 15, 2007) -- Washington politicians take note: Gaza is what can happen when you precipitously pull your military forces out of a Middle Eastern war zone without making sure there is in place a truly democratic government and adequately trained and armed security forces capable of insuring law and order. In the summer of 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted on a unilateral withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza saying the occupation wasn't working and the Israeli people were tired and ready to come home. Such a bold move would be a sign of goodwill, Sharon insisted, to the Palestinian people and the entire Arab and Islamic world, evidence of Israel's goodwill and desire for peace. But even close allies of Sharon -- chief among them Bibi Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky, both of whom were serving at the time in Sharon's cabinet -- warned that such a unilateral withdrawal would be read by Israel's enemies not as a sign of goodwill but as signs of weakness and surrender. Gaza would not become a model of peace and prosperity, they cautioned, but the scene of a full blown civil war that could give rise to Hamastan, a deadly new base camp for radical Islamic jihadists.

Sadly, that is exactly what has happened. With at least 113 Palestinians dead so far and hundreds more wounded in raging street battles between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas now appears to have gained full control of the Gaza Strip. There have been reports that Hamas commanders are executing Fatah leaders in front of their families. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency. There is also a growing fear in the Arab world -- particularly in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq -- that radical Islamic jihadists could seize control of their governments as well. How will the disaster in Gaza play out over the next few weeks? It's too early to say for certain, but even at this early stage two things are clear: 1) Iran's efforts to surround Israel and prepare to wipe Israel off the map has just been significantly advanced and thus the prospect for a full-blown war in the Middle East this summer or fall now seems more likely, not less; and 2) U.S. politicians had better think twice about a precipitous withdrawal of American military forces in Iraq before the Iraqis are ready unless they want a repeat of the nightmare now unfolding in Gaza.

Arab Media Reports Syria Making Preparations for War with Israel
by Hana Levi Julian JUNE 15,07

A Qatari newspaper, Al Watan, reported Friday that Syria is making concrete preparations for war with Israel, saying that the Syrian government has removed the Government and State Archives from the Damascus area. According to the paper, this move indicates preparations for war. Syrian parliament member Muhammad Habash confirmed on Al-Jazeera Arabic world news satellite TV last week that Syria is indeed engaged in active preparations for a war with Israel. The conflict, said the Syrian MP, is expected to break out during the summer months. Officials close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reported Sunday that their efforts to begin negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad have gone unanswered. They also said that Mr. Assads failure to reply signaled that his claims of wanting peace were not honest and were meant to improve his own status in the international community. Last week, the head of Mossad, Israels international intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, warned that Syrian President Assad was putting up a smoke screen by claiming he wants to open peace talks with the Jewish State.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi has also raised the issue numerous times. The IDF is preparing for an escalation on both the Palestinian and the northern fronts, he said bluntly during a speech to the IDF Officers Training School earlier in the year.The IDF held a large-scale exercise ten days ago simulating a Syrian invasion to Israels north. Infantry units, tank divisions and the Air Force took part in the exercise, which took place at the Shizafon IDF installation, in the southern Negev.

Asked about the exercise by Army Radio, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that the IDF was indeed preparing for the possibility of war with Syria, but said this does not mean that Israel would initiate such a war. Our preparedness is not an indication of any decision by either us or Syria to go to war - these are purely defensive measures, he said.

PA Government Dissolved, Abbas Declares State of Emergency
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz JUNE 15,07

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the head of Fatah, announced on Thursday night that he is dissolving the government of the PA. By Rice called Abbas and expressed her government's support for the forces of Fatah. dismissing the PA's legislative head, Ismail Haniyeh, and other Hamas officials, Abbas formally ended the power-sharing agreement between Hamas and Fatah. The agreement had been in effect for just a few months and was marked by intermittent violence between the two groups from the start. A spokesman for Abbas, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, said, The President is determined to go back to the Palestinian public, when the situation allows that. Abu Mazen is intending to form a new government, Abdel-Rahim explained.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Abbas and expressed her government's support for the forces of Fatah, which she defined as moderate.

Earlier Thursday, the Islamist Hamas terrorist group completed its takeover of Gaza, sending the surviving local Fatah leaders fleeing across the border to Egypt and by boat into the Mediterranean Sea. In what was the Fatah-run General Security Services building in Gaza City, Hamas gunmen claimed to have found documents proving strong ties between Fatah and the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Spokesmen for Hamas said they would show the documents on local television on Thursday night.All Fatah traitors who refuse to surrender will be killed, a Hamas spokesman recently made clear. Hamas gave Fatah gunmen a Friday deadline to turn over all their weapons, but Fatah terrorists have been blowing up their own weapons caches and headquarters in various parts of Gaza to prevent their falling into Hamas' hands.

The Executive Committee of the PLO recommended that Abbas ask for international protection against Hamas. During a meeting in Ramallah on Thursday, the committee PLO leaders wanted to protect the Hamas activists from angry Fatah members, they said.authorized Abbas to take whatever decision he judges appropriate, according to one committee member. Abbas said he plans to declare a state of emergency in Hamas-controlled Gaza. In Judea and Samaria, Fatah gunmen arrested dozens of Hamas activists during the day Thursday. According to spokesmen of Abbas' Fatah, the sweeping arrests were for the detainees' own protection. PLO leaders wanted to protect the Hamas activists from angry Fatah members, they said.Senior Fatah terrorist Abu Udai, however, seemed to disagree, telling the Bethlehem-based Maan news service that Hamas is now a legally prohibited movement... Its activities are banned, and Hamas members will be punished if they participated in any Hamas activity. On Tuesday, Abu Udai threatened to wipe out the entire leadership and all the activists of Hamas in the West Bank.

US sticks to European missile shield plan
15.06.2007 - 09:20 CET | By Renata Goldirova

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – NATO and Washington have poured cold water on Moscow's offer to use a Russia-operated radar base in Azerbaijan as an alternative to a possible American site in central Europe, saying the proposal will not halt the ongoing US negotiations with Prague and Warsaw. I don't think that the offer by president Putin – the proposal he made in Heiligendam on the Azeri radar site - is going to replace or be an alternative for the bilateral negotiation between the US and Poland and the US and the Czech Republic, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on Thursday (14 June).US defence secretary Robert Gates was also very explicit in telling his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov that the Azeri radar is an additional capability and the White House intended to proceed with the radar in the Czech Republic.The Russian defence minister himself made no public appearance and no comment in response.

Precisely one week ago, president Vladimir Putin tabled a proposal to build a joint site in the Russia-rented radar station Gabala in Azerbaijan, saying he had already secured agreement from Baku.

Earlier, Mr Putin threatened to target Russian weapons at European territory if the US places 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic – something the Pentagon claims is meant to defend the US and Europe from rogue states such as Iran, but the Kremlin sees as hostile to itself. Despite remaining differences in opinion, the two sides seem to have moved away from the icy rhetoric of previous weeks, which had revived fears of the Cold War when Washington and Moscow both had missiles aimed at each other. I am quite satisfied with the atmosphere and the tone in today's meeting, the NATO chief said, adding we need professional dialogue, civilised debate and that's exactly what we had today.Mr Gates, for his part, added that the door for US-Russia cooperation remains open and that military experts will study Moscow's offer in detail.

Bolt-on system - the way forward

Meanwhile, the 26 NATO countries have agreed to a study which will assess political and military implications of the US missile system in Europe, including the possibility of tying NATO's defence capacities onto the US anti-missile shield. The move was triggered by the fact that while many western and central European countries would benefit from the system primarily designed to protect American soil, countries such as Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania would be exposed to a possible threat of missile attack. [The] NATO roadmap on missile defence is clear, it is practical and agreed by all, the Secretary General said. According to Mr Scheffer the indivisibility of security remains a guiding principle - meaning all NATO countries should enjoy the same protection. We can never have grade A and B allies in the Alliance because all allies are created equal.The study is to be wrapped up by February next year so that in April – when NATO ministers meet in Bucharest – the final political decision on the way forward is nailed down.

Giscard calls on EU leaders to be honest on new treaty
14.06.2007 - 17:41 CET | By Honor Mahony

EUBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The architect of the draft EU constitution has called on national governments to be honest about what they are trying to achieve with negotiations on a new-look treaty for the bloc and not deceive EU citizens.Writing in French daily Le Monde, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing said EU leaders should not be afraid to tell citizens that they are essentially trying to preserve the text of the constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters two years ago.If governments agree on a simplified treaty preserving the essential institutional advances, they should not be afraid to say so and write so.Pointing to the likelihood that the original constitution will be divided up with its innovative elements tacked on to the current Nice and Maastricht treaties and technical parts put into a non-descript treaty, the former French president noted that the public would then be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly.While noting that it might be a good exercise in presentation he went on to criticise that it will reinforce the idea among European citizens that European construction is a machinery organised behind their backs by jurists and diplomats.His words come exactly a week before EU leaders are due to gather in Brussels for a crunch summit on a new treaty.

They go to the heart of what most member states have been trying to do but have been less forthright about saying: preserving as much of the text as possible, taking out overtly constitutional elements – such as the EU symbols - and making the minimum changes necessary to allow the French and Dutch leaders to go back to their respective parliaments with a text that feels different.The chopped up text – currently it is an unwieldy 448-article document – would then go for ratification by national parliaments, presented as the more palatable amended treaties of Nice and Maastricht rather than the more emotive draft EU constitution, that would make a referendum in the UK and other EU sceptical countries impossible to avoid.

Deconstructing Giscard's text

There is likely to be as much chagrin behind Mr Giscard words for the fact that EU leaders are taking his constitution apart as for the fact that they could be deceiving EU citizens.He spent a year and half presiding over the 2002 to 2003 convention that drew up the text and its shape, style and content was largely a result of his wishes.At times he intimated he wanted to go even further, drawing parallels between the convention on the future of the EU and the Philadelphia Convention that prepared a constitution for the United States and comparing himself to Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers.

MKs Discuss Transferring Border Crossings to Int’l Force
by Hana Levi Julian 28 Sivan 5767, June 14, '07

(IsraelNN.com) Knesset members have begun to discuss the possibility of transferring control of border crossings with Gaza to an international force, in view of the fact that the Islamist Hamas terrorist organization has almost completed its total takeover of the region. Kadima MK Otniel Schneller recommended Thursday that a multi-national force take control of the Erez and Karni crossings, through which goods are delivered, and Palestinian Authority Arabs, diplomatic officials and other VIPs travel. Israel should prepare itself for a situation in which the Gaza Strip is run as an independent terrorist entity which is cut off from the Palestinian Authority, said MK Schneller.

Bringing international forces into areas between the Israeli border and the populated areas in the Strip will aid in a secure separation as well as contribute to the security of Israeli residents who live in the vicinity of Gaza, he added. Meretz Knesset members Zahava Gal-On and Avshalom Vilan both urged the government to open emergency talks with the United Nations, as well as the Arab League, to also discuss the possibility of deploying such a force inside Gaza as a means of restoring calm. MK Yuval Steinitz, meanwhile, slammed the idea. The Likud legislator maintained that only the IDF can destroy the terrorist infrastructure and stop arms smuggling into the Strip.Knesset Member Steinitz added that he believes it is useless to talk about an international force in Gaza, saying that attempts to rely on international forces are doomed to failure.The Hamas terrorist organization agrees. Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters Hamas rejects any dispatch of foreign forces to the Gaza Strip. The movement would regard those forces as occupation forces no different than the Israeli occupation, regardless of their nationality.PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas had discussed the idea in a phone conversation with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier in the week.