ARABS FLOCK TO JERUSALEM

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.

Tropical depression may form in U.S. Gulf or Atlantic Thu Oct 4, 10:28 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A tropical or subtropical depression could form in the Gulf of Mexico or the western Atlantic over the next day or two, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a report.
The NHC will name the next two tropical storms Noel and Olga. Tropical storms pack winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour, while tropical depressions have winds below 39 mph.In the Gulf, a low-pressure system could become a tropical or subtropical depression as it moves northwest at about 10 mph.All of the weather models show the Gulf system will make landfall in Louisiana after crossing the oil and natural gas producing northern Gulf Coast over the next day or so.Forecaster AccuWeather said there is a chance the Gulf system could become a tropical or subtropical depression before it makes landfall over southern Louisiana by Thursday evening.

AccuWeather noted the system would likely not have time to develop into much of a tropical system.A subtropical system has high winds and thunderstorms near the outer edge of the system, while a tropical system has high winds and thunderstorms near the center.
Hence, the biggest damage caused by a tropical system is usually near the center of the storm, while in a subtropical system the most damage is closer to the outer edge of the storm.

BAHAMAS SYSTEM

In the Atlantic over portions of the Bahamas, winds were favorable for development of a tropical depression as it moved slowly westward, the NHC said.All of the weather models forecast the Bahamas system would move into the Gulf of Mexico through the Straits of Florida over the next few days.AccuWeather expects the Bahamas system to move westward through the Bahamas on Friday then over Cuba or through the Straits of Florida during the weekend before moving into the southeast Gulf of Mexico or perhaps northwest Caribbean by early next week.AccuWeather said there was some chance for tropical development with this system within the next few days.

OTHER SYSTEMS

Elsewhere in the Atlantic, the NHC expects winds over the next day or two to become less favorable for development of a low-pressure system associated with a tropical wave located about 1,150 miles east of the southern Windward Islands (Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines and Grenada).The weather models forecast the Windward system would approach the eastern Caribbean but turn toward the north before reaching the islands over the next five days.Finally, the NHC does not expect the remnants of Melissa to redevelop over the next day or two due to unfavorable winds.

Typhoon Lekima kills 12 in Southeast Asia Thu Oct 4, 2:31 AM ET

KY ANH, Vietnam (Reuters) - Typhoon Lekima lashed Vietnam and southern China with torrential rains and high winds, killing at least seven people, damaging hundreds of homes and disrupting air, sea and train travel, officials said on Thursday. The storm, which killed at least five people in the Philippines last weekend, swept into central Vietnam from the sea on Wednesday night, blowing roofs off houses, sinking scores of fishing vessels and grounding flights before moving to Laos.The typhoon raised rivers to dangerous levels in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces, but the damage caused was not as serious as feared.Thanks to good preparatory work the damage from the storm is not large, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, supervising the response to the storm, told Reuters TV in Ky Anh in Ha Tinh.Trees were felled and electricity cut off in the provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh where residents returned to clean up debris after evacuating on Wednesday.

A Vietnamese government report said many areas reported blackouts due to Lekima, the Vietnamese name of a local fruit.The national weather centre in Hanoi warned residents to take precautions against flash floods and landslides.It said the centre of the storm passed through Quang Binh, crossed Laos on Wednesday night and advanced into northern Thailand where it weakened into a depression.Vietnam is hit by up to 10 storms a year, causing millions of dollars in damage and sometimes killing hundreds of people.Lekima, the fifth storm of 2007, killed 7 people, while 3 others were missing, officials said.The storm hit China's beach resort of Sanya on Hainan island on Tuesday, trapping tourists and forcing the evacuation of 225,000 people. Vietnamese authorities evacuated tens of thousands of people before the storm hit.Three cargo vessels capsized while taking shelter at a port in Quang Binh, a Reuters reporter traveling in the region said.National carrier Vietnam Airlines and Pacific Airlines, the second-largest airliner, cancelled flights to the central cities of Vinh, Hue and Danang on Wednesday.The southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi were hit with heavy rain and strong winds.Most shipping and rail services linking Hainan with the mainland resumed late on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency said.(Additional reporting by Nguyen Van Vinh)

Flooding from Vietnam typhoon kills 14 By TRAN VAN MINH, Associated Press Writer OCT 5,07

HANOI, Vietnam - Downpours from a typhoon in coastal Vietnam unleashed flash floods across several mountainous regions, claiming the lives of 14 people. Officials said Friday the death toll from Typhoon Lekima, which now stands at 17, could climb further.Communications with some villages worst affected by the floods were disrupted and the death toll from the floods could rise, said provincial disaster official Nguyen Truong Son.With 80 mph winds, the typhoon made landfall late Wednesday in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces, according to disaster officials and the Department of Floods and Storms Control.Lekima, named after a local fruit, has damaged about 77,000 homes, the Department of Floods and Storms Control said. The department set the initial damage estimate at $41 million.Vietnam is prone to floods and storms that kill hundreds of people each year.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Iraq struggles with cholera outbreak By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 5, 5:46 AM ET

BAGHDAD - Majida Hamid Ibrahim seemed no different from any other victim in Iraq — her body was put in a plastic bag and sent to the morgue for relatives to collect. But authorities were already bemoaning her death. Just days before, the 40-year-old woman from Baghdad's southern outskirts became the first confirmed cholera case in the Iraqi capital from an outbreak spreading around the country. The World Health Organization has confirmed more than 3,300 cholera cases in Iraq and at least 14 deaths from the acute and rapid dehydration it causes.The troubles, however, also point beyond the immediate struggle to control the deadly advance.They highlight the creeping fractures throughout the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the country's deepening sectarian gulf and a gangland-style lawlessness in which even medical supplies are fair game for bandits.

The health minister, Ali al-Shemari, fled the country after U.S. forces raided offices in February and arrested his deputy, accused of diverting millions of dollars to the biggest Shiite militia and of allowing death squads' use of ambulances and hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.The government official overseeing Iraqis living abroad was brought in as acting health minister in al-Maliki's shaky Cabinet — which was further jolted by the walkout of six Sunni ministers in August.Hospitals also are divided along Iraq's sectarian split, with Shiites and Sunnis often too scared to venture into any facility controlled by the other. For health workers, this leaves worrying gaps with cholera cases now reaching half of Iraq's 18 provinces.The main hospital in Baqouba — the city al-Qaida in Iraq earlier this year claimed as its base in the Diyala province — was twice overrun by Sunni gunmen who kidnapped some of the Shiite patients, said a provincial health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety.

Fourteen Baqouba physicians and five ambulance drivers have been killed and 12 doctors kidnapped since Diyala fighting escalated earlier this year. Gunmen often steal medical equipment and medicine from health centers and force pharmacists to give up their supplies, the official said.Saeed al-Shimary recounted how four months ago, as he lay sick in the Baqouba hospital, gunmen fatally shot a hospital guard and took several patients away, including his relative.I was horrified, said al-Shimary, a teacher. The relative's body was found days later, dumped by a road.The bad security situation ... is preventing medical teams from reaching the residents, said Hom Suhail al-Khishali, head of the Diyala health department.WHO has confirmed at least 3,315 cholera cases and registered more than 30,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea — which could also prove to be cholera in its more common, milder form. The group has also warned that — as the weather cools and temperatures become more favorable for transmission — the bacteria could spread further.

Dr. Naeema al-Gasseer, the WHO representative in Iraq, says the grim numbers fuel the panic, when in fact the death rate has been very much less than 1 percent of the total outbreak.Let's not focus on numbers, that's not the way to deal with cholera, she said. We must look at ways to contain it.Cholera, usually spread by drinking contaminated water, typically causes severe diarrhea that in extreme cases can lead to fatal dehydration and kidney failure. There are normally about 30 cases registered each year in Iraq. The last major outbreak was in 1999, when 20 cases were discovered in one day.Cholera can be controlled by treating drinking water with chlorine. But authorities want to keep tight controls on chlorine supplies after extremists earlier this year placed chlorine tanks on suicide truck bombs, killing some two dozen people in several attacks and sending noxious clouds that left hundreds of panicked people gasping for breath.

A shipment of 100,000 tons of chlorine was held up for a week at the Jordanian border last month, amid fears for its safe passage through Iraq. Naeem al-Qabi, from Baghdad's municipal council, said the city now has a two month's supply of chlorine and more shipments are expected.A July report by the relief agency Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq said that about 70 percent of Iraqis are without adequate water supplies, up from 50 percent in 2003. That includes more than 2 million people who have been displaced inside Iraq by the fighting, which has forced many to live in unsanitary conditions where sewage can infest food and water and easily spread cholera. Tom Timberman, leader of a reconstruction team with the 4th Brigade, 25th infantry Division, said water purification and canal clearing systems have broken down due to a lack of maintenance and replacement parts. Many purification plant workers have been killed or fled the violence, leaving the area with a lack of expertise, Timberman said. Tests at one of the water purification facilities near Iskandariyah, a town 30 miles south of Baghdad, found the filtration system wasn't working, so dirty water was just passing through the pipes.

In Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, officials complain that Baghdad sent them 20 tons of chlorine, while the city needs about 60 tons. Now we fear cholera more than the violence, said Shawan Karim, 33, a resident in the northern city of Kirkuk, which has accounted for more than two-thirds of the confirmed cholera cases. Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Kim Gamel, Saad Abdul-Kadir and Yahya Barzanji contributed to this story.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Amero coming within decade - Strategist expects currency changes as Canadian dollar matches greenback October 5, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Jerome R. Corsi - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A commemorative amero coin

BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients that the amero may be the currency of North America within the next 10 years. The amero would compete against other regional currency blocks, BankIntroductions.com says. At present, with the Canadian dollar approaching par, more talk for an amero currency unit will become popular in Canada.The company says that with the successful implementation of NAFTA, the one dragging component for the amero will be Mexico, but in time this will change.

Implementation of the amero currency may actually give Mexico an economic boost, thus helping to alleviate Mexican immigration pressures into the United States for those Mexicans seeking financial gain, BankIntroductions.com advises. The amero one day may well be circulating throughout North America.Matt Bell, president of BankIntroductions.com, told WND in an e-mail to feel free to quote our currency research on Canada. Our general opinion on the amero stands as stated.As WND reported, coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention on the Internet.

WND also reported the African Union is moving down the path of regional economic integration, with the African Central Bank planning to create the Gold Mandela as a single African continental currency by 2010. The Council on Foreign Relations also has supported regional and global currencies designed to replace nationally issued currencies. In an article in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled The End of National Currency, CFR economist Benn Steil asserted the dollar is a temporary currency. Steil concluded countries should abandon monetary nationalism, moving to adopt regional currencies, on the road to a global one world currency.WND previously reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd. in London, said the amero is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. A video clip of the CNBC interview in November with Jeffries is now available at YouTube.com. WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Iran accuses Israel of Palestinian genocide By Reza Derakhshi Fri Oct 5, 6:57 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president accused Israel on Friday of using the Holocaust as a pretext for genocide against Palestinians. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who outraged the West in 2005 by calling Israel a tumor to be wiped off the map, said the truth should be told about World War Two and the Holocaust.

Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide.

Iran condemns fabricating such a pretext (the Holocaust) for the Zionist regime to commit genocide against the Palestinian nation and occupy Palestine, Ahmadinejad said in a live broadcast to mark the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the Islamic Republic.The Iranian nation and countries in the region will not rest until Palestine is free and criminals punished, he said in the speech before Friday prayers.Ahmadinejad has questioned the Holocaust but denied during a visit last month to the United States he was saying it never happened, only that the Palestinian issue was entirely separate.Opposition to Israel is one of the cornerstones of belief of Shi'ite Iran, which backs Palestinian and Lebanese Islamic militant groups opposed to peace with the Jewish state.

Ahmadinejad repeated calls for Canada to accept Jews.

Europeans cannot tolerate the Zionist regime's presence in their own region but want to impose it on the Middle East. Give them (the Jews) this vast land of Canada and Alaska to build themselves a home and resettle there, he said.Al-Quds Day was inaugurated by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It is held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.Tens of thousands marched in a rally to mark the day, including soldiers, students and clerics. Black-clad women with small children clutching balloons emblazoned Death to Israel were among those flocking the streets of central Tehran.Death to America, Death to Israel, chanted the marchers, many carrying portraits of Khomeini and his successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

MILITIA MARCH

Volunteer Basij militia, covering their faces with Palestinian headscarves, marched while roaring Hezbollah fights, Israel trembles -- referring to the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Israel fought a war against last year.We came here to show our support to the Palestinian nation and their resistance, said retired teacher Abdollah Hassani, 58, who joined the rally with his wife, carrying a sign reading Israel must be obliterated.State television showed footage of similar marches, held in cities across Iran on Al-Quds Day. Demonstrators in Tehran burned flags of the United States and Israel, which Iran refuses to recognize.The United States and Israel accuse Iran of interference in Iraq, through backing Shi'ite militias, and of sponsoring terrorism, including the Palestinian group Hamas and Hezbollah. Tehran denies the charges.

The United States and Iran, who have not had diplomatic ties since shortly after Iran's revolution, are also embroiled in a deepening rift over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Ahmadinejad said Iran would continue its nuclear program despite international pressure, adding Iran wants to remove international concerns over its atomic work through talks.But if they (the West) want to start a new game it will have no result for them but regret, he said. Six world powers agreed last Friday to delay toughening U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program until November at the earliest to wait for reports by U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei and European Union negotiator Javier Solana.
The U.N. Security Council has imposed two sanctions resolutions on Iran after it failed to suspend sensitive activities such as uranium enrichment.

Hard times fall on storied West Bank city by Joseph Krauss
OCT 5,07

NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) - A walk through the ancient streets of the West Bank City of Nablus offers a rare glimpse into the Asiatic opulence that once adorned cities across the caravan routes of the Middle East. But what was once a major Palestinian tourist and commercial centre has since the outbreak of the intifada in 2000 wilted in the face of checkpoints and near-daily Israeli military incursions.They call this the economic capital of Palestine but these days it is the capital of the unemployed, says Bilal Hamouda, a merchant in the ancient quarter.Having seen some of the uprising's fiercest battles, the Old City of Nablus has been transformed into a crude memorial to local fighters, its limestone walls covered with blast stains, militia graffiti and martyrs' posters.Seven years on, the situation remains tense, and the Israeli military has sharply limited movement into and out of the city, leaving merchants like Hamouda with lots of time to share local lore with visitors.Nablus is the oldest city in the world. When it was founded in 2,500 B.C. they called it Shechem, which means two shoulders, he says, as he leans back in a plastic chair across the street from his shop.Then the Romans renamed it Neopolis, or 'New City' -- the source of the modern name, Hamouda says in halting, practiced English.It's also known as Jebel al-Nar -- Arabic for 'Fire Mountain' -- after a legend that the town repelled Napoleon's armies by lighting a bonfire and frightening packs of wild animals into attacking the French cavalry.

Others call Nablus Little Damascus because of its underground springs and its Turkish-style Old City, a labyrinth of meandering walkways, stone arches, and covered markets.The Israelis still call it Shechem, referring to the two peaks that guard approaches to the city, from which the army now looks down on what it considers to be the most volatile town in the West Bank.The Israeli military says its troops have discovered 10 bomb factories in Nablus this year alone, and that 117 of the 187 potential suicide bombers arrested in the West Bank in 2006 originated there.
In one of its regular incursions, the army carried out in early September a massive three-day operation in a refugee camp in the heart of the city, arresting 49 alleged militants from different Palestinian factions and destroying several houses.In the wake of the Islamist Hamas movement's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip, Israel and the West have vowed to improve daily life in the West Bank, still ruled by president Mahmud Abbas and the secular Palestinian Authority.

But Nablus -- with more than 130,000 residents -- remains under siege, with all traffic into or out of town having to pass through two checkpoints, and most vehicles banned from entering or exiting at all.It is supposed to be the economic centre of Palestine, but we have the worst economy in the West Bank, even worse than Gaza, says Majdi Abu Salha, who sells the sweet Nablus knafe pastries famous across the West Bank.In the Old City, which once thrived on Arab tourists from across Israel and the Palestinian territories, many merchants are struggling to stay in business.The economic situation is tied to the tourism market, and that has stopped because of the closures, says Yusef al-Jabr, owner of one of Nablus's last functioning Turkish bathhouses.The entrance, tucked away in the heart of the Old City, opens into a series of vaulted chambers with scattered stained-glass windows and marble floors heated by hot subterranean springs, a rare surviving relic of Ottoman luxury.Turkish baths, part of an ancient spa tradition handed down from Greece and Rome, can still be found in old cities across the Middle East and North Africa. But in Nablus, the baths are facing extinction. Jabr says his bathhouse is around 450-500 years old, but people still refer to it as the new bathhouse because the city once had far older ones. In 2002 the main steam room was struck by an Israeli missile. Jabr was able to repair the damage with some help from a brother living in the United Arab Emirates, but now he worries the bath's days are numbered.

I'm trying to preserve our heritage here but it is very hard, Jabr says. The people come, but just to look. They don't use the baths and so I hardly have any income. I would make more if I turned it into a more touristy place, like a restaurant.When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 there were nine bathhouses in the city, but since then most have been destroyed or transformed into other things. A few alleys down from Jabr's bathhouse another doorway opens into a vaulted chamber, its dry central fountain now surrounded by a handful of simple machines, all of them idle. The owner, Hamed Herzullah, converted the baths into a family-run candy factory decades ago, but now even he is feeling the crunch.

We used to have 20 employees working all day every day. Now it's just me and my family, and we only work two or three hours a day, he says. Behind him sits a table with stacks of tiny boxes, all filled with sweet powdered sugar-coated loukoum, or Turkish Delight. When they have money the people come and buy, but not now, Herzullah says. It's (the Muslim holy month of) Ramadan, so business should be good. But the families around here are struggling to buy bread -- not sweets.

Bush says very optimistic on Mideast peace Fri Oct 5, 9:31 AM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said in comments aired on Friday he was very optimistic a Palestinian state could be set up alongside Israel and that next month's Middle East conference could lead towards peace in the region. The U.S.-sponsored conference is due to take place in the Washington area in mid to late November, although there are doubts over how far it will go towards ending decades of conflict and uncertainty over which Arab states will attend.I am very optimistic that we can achieve a two-state solution, Bush said in comments on Al Arabiya television that were dubbed in Arabic.We will host the international peace conference and it will be attended by the interested parties and a delegation from the Arab League and it is an opportunity for serious ... discussions over the road forward to lead to a two-state solution and efforts will be made to reach this objective, Bush said.

I want to affirm that the two-state solution is part of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East and that our strategy is for all parties to attend at the table for the sake of a comprehensive peace. We want to push this issue.Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed on Wednesday that formal negotiations on Palestinian statehood would begin after the peace conference.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has balked at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's call for setting a specific timeframe for the resolution of key issues including borders and the fate of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees.Abbas said on Thursday that formal negotiations for statehood could be completed six months after the conference.There is a lot of dialogue between the two men and I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have realized that there is a vision that is worth working to achieve, Bush said.

ARAB DOUBTS

Aside from the Israel and the Palestinians, the United States would like key Arab states to attend the conference but is unclear how many will.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said Damascus would not join unless the agenda also includes the Golan Heights, captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 war at the same time as the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia, driving force behind an Arab peace proposal relaunched earlier this year, has also indicated it would not attend unless the conference addresses core issues.The peace conference is part of a U.S.-led effort to bolster Abbas and his West Bank-based government and to isolate Islamist group Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide and rocket attacks on Israel, has rejected the conference.No one wants the establishment of a state that will be a launch pad for attacks on others, Bush said.We must support the Palestinian security forces, help President Abbas and offer him financial support so that Palestinian citizens can be assured that the life that lies ahead of them is better.

Palestinians flock to Jerusalem to pray By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer OCT 5,07

QALANDIA CHECKPOINT, West Bank - Thousands of Palestinians thronged military checkpoints on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Friday, trying to reach a major Muslim shrine in the city for Ramadan prayers despite an Israeli army closure. Israeli troops in jeeps, on foot and horseback were deployed at crossings from the West Bank into Jerusalem to control the crowds trying to get to the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan draws to a close next week.At the Qalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem, harried troops waved clubs, shouted and occasionally used stun grenades as tempers flared and frustrated Palestinians surged toward the roadblock. One elderly man fainted, and was treated by an army medic. No serious injuries were reported.Friday prayers at Al Aqsa regularly draw thousands of worshippers, and crowds are bigger than usual during Ramadan. Around 135,000 filled the mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, and prayers ended with no disturbances, police said.

Israel clamped a closure on the West Bank last week, barring Palestinians from entering Israel, citing concern of possible attacks during the seven-day Jewish festival of Sukkot. The festival ended Thursday, but the closure was slated to end Saturday night, the military said.Despite the closure, Israeli police had orders to let in West Bank men over the age of 50 and women over 40, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. More than 3,000 Israeli police were stationed around Jerusalem's Old City to keep order during the prayers, he said.At Qalandia, north of Jerusalem, hundreds of Palestinians, most of them elderly, pushed toward troops controlling access to the passage and argued with police checking ID cards.Maher Walweil, 43, said he left his home in the West Bank city of Nablus at 4 a.m. to get to Jerusalem in time for prayers — even though he knew the Israeli age restrictions left him little chance of getting in.There's a lot of soldiers here. What am I going to do against these soldiers? he said.In Iran, meanwhile, millions attended nationwide rallies Friday in support of the Palestinians and to protest Israel's continued hold on Jerusalem.The demonstrations for Al-Quds Day — Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem — also spilled over into anti-American protests because of U.S. support for Israel. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel's continued existence was an insult to human dignity.In Afghanistan, hundreds of Kabul University students marched in a Jerusalem Day demonstration there, burning effigies of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.A possible division of Jerusalem, a city claimed by Israelis and Palestinians as a capital, is one of the key issues in a future peace agreement.Ahead of a U.S.-hosted Mideast conference, to be held later this fall, Israeli and Palestinian drafting teams are to write a joint document with principles guiding future negotiations.The document would address the so-called core issues, including the fate of Jerusalem, but not provide detailed solution, Palestinian negotiators have said.

Palestinian leaders want the conference to set a six-month deadline for negotiating a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty with Israel, Palestinian information minister Riad Malki said Thursday. Israeli and U.S. officials were cool to the idea of locking talks into a timeline.Malki said the conference is expected to back the declaration, and said the sides should then move swiftly to finalize the details. After six months of negotiations, all the participants would return to a peace conference, to endorse our agreement with Israel, he said of the Palestinian proposal. David Baker, an Israeli government official, said Israel is serious about negotiating a deal, but that this is not merely a product of how much time elapses.A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the conference, said the U.S. is not looking at timelines.The U.S. has not yet set a date for the conference or released a list of participants. The Israeli daily Haaretz on Friday quoted Israeli officials as saying it would take place Nov. 26. Palestinian officials said they were unaware of a date, but were told the conference would not be held before Nov. 22.