TALKS IN EGYPT FOR MODERATE ARAB STATE

5 TORNADOES AT LEAST IN MANITOBA OVER THE WEEKEND. PEACE TALKS IN EGYPT TODAY. AND A BIG COMPANY HAS GOTTEN CONTROL OF EVERY COMPUTER I USE SO STORIES WILL BE HARD TO PUT ON ANY COMPUTER FOR ME BUT WITH GODS HELP I WILL TRY TO CONTINUE THIS MINISTRY.

I NEED PRAYER FOR GOD TO HELP ME WITH MY MINISTRY SO THE GODLESS CAN'T DESTROY THE TRUTH FROM BEING TOLD.

THE US INSISTS ON DIVIDING JERUSALEM AND GIVING THE MODERATE WASHINGTON ARABS A STATE OF THEIR OWN. WRONG MOVE ITS ISRAELS LAND AND WW3 WILL RESULT FROM THE DIVIDING OF JERUSALEM AS JOEL 3:2 STATES.

[Comment] Behind the muddied language the dread 'R' word looms
23.06.2007 - 18:26 CET | By Peter Sain ley Berry

EUOBSERVER / DEBATE - A week before the mid-summer European Council opened I suggested that it would succeed in reaching agreement on a constitutional reform treaty.It has done so, despite at times making me wonder whether I had made an unjustifiably rash prediction. Mrs Merkel and her team are to be congratulated.
Despite the considerable dreary negotiating talk - of a lack of optimism, of vetoes, of more red lines than the London Underground - it always seemed to me that the pressure for progress would, in the end, outweigh the forces of reaction.If only because, with its disagreements aired so publicly, Europe was in danger of losing its dignity as a Lady and reverting to the bawling status of a fishwife.

Nevertheless, before opening the champagne it is worth recalling that we have been here before and at a time when the morning was both gladder and more confident.
Three years ago it was Mr Ahern and the Irish Presidency that we were congratulating for securing everyone's agreement on the new Constitutional Treaty.This was designed - let us again recall - to be like an AppleMac computer (so I am told) where all the different parts of the machine, both hard and soft, are designed to be complementary so as to produce an integrated, well-functioning whole.

The Union's machinery

Its purpose was to replace the series of existing and obscure treaties that imperfectly provided the basis for the Union's machinery and operations. These were likened to a personal computer or PC, having been put together ad hoc, rather than designed, at various times as the need arose. Inevitably therefore the result was the loss of important functionality that became acute as the Union enlarged. If you follow this analogy then what we have now is a proposal for reconstituting the 'Mac' as a 'PC' that will run on the existing European treaties.The important elements of the former constitutional program - like a European Foreign Minister (who is no longer to be called a Foreign Minister) and a semi-permanent President of the European Council, have been cut out of one treaty and pasted upon the old, unsatisfactory matrix.The delinquent voting arrangements of the Nice Treaty, for example, are set to survive one way or another until 2017. Lacking a proper architecture, the new arrangements are likely to show the same old functionality problems as before.

Intergovernmental conference

It is only a framework that has been agreed, of course. It will be for an Intergovernmental Conference under the following Portuguese Presidency to produce the treaty document.Given the omissions, opt-outs and fudges in the agreement, this is not likely to be a trouble free process. One problem is language.One hopes that the Portuguese will try for a document that is at least well-written.The vacuity of the recent Berlin Declaration (on the Union's 50th birthday values and aspirations) was only emphasised by the unlovely language of its drafting.When sentences such as 'The European Council is convinced that illegal employment is one of the main pull factors driving illegal immigrants' appear in the Presidency's conclusions (and not in a part drafted in the middle of the night) one wonders whether some of the immigrants might not be working in the Bundesamt, so far do they seem from the European tradition of literate politics.

But literate or not, the Portuguese will have their work cut out to produce a treaty text not riddled with holes and inconsistencies. Muddied language leads to muddied thought. How does one reconcile the bright brush strokes of liberty sketched by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and by the anti-discrimination sentiments of the Union's values with the dark, unilateral, Polish declaration about the right of a state to legislate in the sphere of public morality, family law, protection of human dignity and respect for human physical and moral integrity.That sounds like a recipe for repression of precisely the kind that the Union was founded to protect against.

Alice in Wonderland fantasy

But the practice of muddied language has an even more sinister consequence: it can slip easily into untruth - as in the framework document's futilely repeated assertion that the new treaty will not 'have a constitutional character.If the character of this treaty is not to be constitutional then what is it, exactly? In its Alice in Wonderland fantasy this bizarre denial just seems silly.But this actually matters and matters mightily. For at a time when the European Council is shamelessly confessing to 'the crucial importance of reinforcing communication with European citizens,' even stating that 'this will be particularly important during the upcoming IGC and ratification process' one might have thought that the first requirement was to be open and honest with the people.

Referendum equates to failure

Of course, it is the dread 'R' word - ratification that is the cause of this denial of the obvious.Constitution equates to referendum; referendum equates to failure. Drop the work constitution and the problem is solved. But as Shakespeare might have said - a rat by any other name would smell as fishy.Such misuse of language amounts at best to spin and at worst to outright dishonesty; the effect is to make a mockery of fancy phrases such as permanent dialogue with the citizens.To profess the importance of democracy while scheming to prevent it is two-faced. It invites the very problem that it seeks to avoid.

Moreover, there is nothing in Mrs Merkel's document to give ordinary citizens any confidence that the elites at the controls of the European train have any real mechanism for listening to the views of the passengers still less for acting upon them.

Already the calls for a referendum have started in the UK.

There will soon be a plague of them all over Europe. The proposal now is to have the treaty ratified, mostly by a national parliamentary process, before the European Parliament elections in 2009.Here surely is the one great opportunity to consult the people. The European elections in 2009, it seems to me, should be about the treaty. The final verdict - with some candidates in favour, others opposed. Real substance to the election. Some states might even agree to follow the European Parliamentary lead without a national process; for others it would offer the chance of a democratic vote to back up proceedings in parliament.And for the citizens of Europe as a whole it would be a chance to take democratic control of their own constitution.

Jordanian King Pre-empts 4-Way Summit With Direct Call to Olmert
by Hana Levi Julian

Jordanian King Abdullah II pre-empted talks set for Monday at the four-way summit between Israel, the PA, Egypt and Jordan with a phone call to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a day earlier. The Hashemite monarch made the call Sunday while meeting with visiting Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, ostensibly to lay out the groundwork for Monday’s meeting. The conversation appeared to be the opening gambit in talks that were not scheduled to take place until Monday, when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would also be present.

Abdullah urged Israel to begin negotiations on the final status for a new Arab state in Judea and Samaria, adding his voice to the pressure on Israel that has been exerted by the PA chairman for months.Israel has rejected the idea, saying the move would be too fast and too drastic. Israel insists that Abbas first manage control over his own population, halt terrorism and incitement, and work to prevent terrorist attacks against Israel. The Jordanian king also addressed the status of the Palestinian Authority itself, and was adamant that Gaza should be included with Judea and Samaria in being considered as one PA entity, according to the Jordanian News Agency. At present, Gaza is being ruled by the Hamas terrorist organization which staged a bloody coup two weeks ago. Abbas’s Fatah terrorist group managed to retain control of the PA-administered areas of Judea and Samaria, however, leaving a functional split between Gaza and the rest of the PA.

Abdullah also charged that Israel's steps to ease travel restrictions for PA Arabs are "inadequate." Prime Minister Olmert had reportedly already assured U.S. President George W. Bush that he would agree to remove security checkpoints and roadblocks in Judea and Samaria in a confidence-building measure designed to help prop up the Abbas emergency government. However, the IDF and defense establishment has opposed the move. They say that opening these routes will endager the lives of Israeli citizens.Olmert is also expected to formalize a decision made by Israel to transfer more than half a million dollars in tax revenues collected on behalf of the PA but withheld after the election of Hamas to the ruling faction in the government.

The Hashemite monarch also pressed on with an oft-repeated Arab League position that Israel agree, in its entirety, to the 2002 Saudi-authored proposed for settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The four-way summit Monday is being hosted by Egypt’s President Mubarak. Prime Minister Olmert told the Associated Press news agency before leaving for the summit that it was unlikely that any major breakthroughs would be forthcoming at the meeting.

Don’t wait impatiently tonight for the outcome, as if at the end of the day you are going to see us sitting and signing a peace treaty, he said. It will take time.The prime minister added that he is ready to consider the Arab League proposal but warned it was little more than a springboard for further discussion. It’s not going to be simple and not going to be easy, he stressed. It’s going to be a long and painful road.Welcome to The Brisbane Times. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content. Text Version.

EU's future sealed with treaty, claim leaders
Molly Moore in Paris | June 25, 2007

A SQUABBLING European Union has given up hope for a constitution, agreeing instead to peddle a watered-down treaty to its 27 capitals in the hope of ending a two-year stalemate that has hobbled one of the world's most potent economic and diplomatic blocs.We have avoided a crisis, the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. Uncertainty about our future treaty has cast a shadow of doubt over our ability to act. Now those doubts have been removed.Even so, the details of the treaty must still be negotiated and the final document ratified by all 27 union members to become effective. The bloc's leaders set a goal of 2009 for winning approval of the treaty.

The lack of a constitution - a proposed charter was defeated by French and Dutch voters two years ago - has been a legal hurdle and a psychological impediment to union efforts to move forward with a unified voice. The failure of the countries to agree on a unifying structure underscored public perception of the body as an unwieldy, bureaucratic entity run by leaders far removed from the European people.
I don't think there is anything that can derail the process now, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said after a deal was announced at 4.30am on Saturday. "The most important thing here is that the constitutional treaty was put to one side. This deal gives us a chance to move on.The late-night marathon meetings in Brussels covered issues ranging from the weight of each country's voting rights to what to call - or not call - its foreign minister.

The constitutional treaty was an easily understandable treaty, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, said about the discarded charter. This is a simplified treaty which is very complicated.One example: the European Union leaders agreed to have a foreign policy chief but decided not to call the person who fills the post a foreign minister.The treaty was nearly torpedoed when Poland complained it was not being given a fair share of voting rights, based on population. The Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, argued that Poland deserved compensation for its suffering during World War II.

History is history, Mr Kaczynski said. It is fact that had there not been the war, Poland would not have 38 million people but many more.The remarks infuriated many leaders, especially the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who made acceptance of a new treaty the primary crusade of her six-month union presidency, which ends in July.
Mr Kaczynski eventually retreated in return for compromises in the voting arrangements.The document strips out some of the symbolism in the original treaty that had offended many countries, such as an anthem.The document will set out rules for future enlargement of the European Union, another contentious issue, and will attempt to streamline the bloc's governing bureaucracy.

The Washington Post