ANNEX ALL JEWISH TOWNS-GOVERNMENT

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By Jennifer Harper INSIDE THE BELTWAY FEB 24,10

EXPLOSIVE NEWS

A lingering technical question about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still haunts some, and it has political implications: How did 200,000 tons of steel disintegrate and drop in 11 seconds? A thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center. In order to bring down this kind of mass in such a short period of time, the material must have been artificially, exploded outwards,says Richard Gage, a San Francisco architect and founder of the nonprofit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Mr. Gage, who is a member of the American Institute of Architects, managed to persuade more than 1,000 of his peers to sign a new petition requesting a formal inquiry. The official Federal Emergency Management [Agency] and National Institute of Standards and Technology reports provide insufficient, contradictory and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers' destruction. We are therefore calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials,Mr. Gage adds. The technical issues surrounding the collapse of the towers has prompted years of debate, rebuttal and ridicule. He is particularly disturbed by Building 7, a 47-story skyscraper, which was not hit by an aircraft, yet came down in pure free-fall acceleration.He also says that more than 100 first-responders reported explosions and flashes as the towers were falling and cited evidence of multi-ton steel sections ejected laterally 600 ft. at 60 mph and the mid-air pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete & metal decking.

There is also evidence of advanced explosive nano-thermitic composite material found in the World Trade Center dust,Mr. Gage says. The group's petition at www. ae911truth.org is already on its way to members of Congress. Government officials will be notified that Misprision of Treason,U.S. Code 18 (Sec. 2382), is a serious federal offense, which requires those with evidence of treason to act,Mr. Gage says. The implications are enormous and may have profound impact on the forthcoming Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

EU privacy watchdog hammers secret anti-piracy talks
LEIGH PHILLIPS 23.02.2010 @ 09:23 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union's data privacy watchdog has hammered the European Commission for engaging in secret international negotiations over the enforcement of intellectual property rights.The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx, on Monday (22 February) issued a formal opinion concluding that the EU executive was endangering EU data protection rules and even internet users' fundamental rights by engaging in talks with the US, Canada, Japan and other powers on a new multilateral agreement to combat counterfeiting and piracy - the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta). The EDPS regrets that he was not consulted by the European Commission on the content of an agreement that raises significant issues as regards individuals' fundamental rights, and in particular their right to privacy and data protection,Mr Hustinx' office said in a statement.He views with concern the fact that little information is publicly made available about current negotiations.Leaks about the negotiations have been dripfed to the media by sources close to the talks. The latest one, the most recent negotiating text, was leaked to IDG News Service, a technology news outlet, on Friday.In response to the new text, Mr Hustinx assessed there to be a potential incompatibility between envisaged measures and data protection requirements,and raised fears that the Acta legal framework could result in large scale monitoring of internet users and the international imposition of three strikes laws, such as that recently passed in France, which cuts off internet access of people accused of illegal downloading.

Whereas intellectual property is important to society and must be protected, it should not be placed above individuals' fundamental rights to privacy and data protection,he said.Mr Hustinx added that less instrusive means should be found to fight piracy and that the EU should implement appropriate safeguards to all data transfers" between itself and other recipients outside the bloc.He also wants the EU to proceed more openly with negotiations over Acta, suggesting a public consultation.
Although MEPs have requested access to the documents, the commission has failed to do so because it would require the prior approval of all nine other partners to the talks: the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.The EDPS opinion comes just as the UK government announced it is to back away from three strikes-style legislation, first proposed last year.London said in a statement on Monday that: We will not terminate the accounts of infringers - it is very hard to see how this could be deemed proportionate except in the most extreme and therefore probably criminal cases.

Protests roll out across crisis-hit EU states
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today FEB 24,10 @ 09:28 CET

Tens of thousands of Spaniards protested on Tuesday (23 February) evening across the country in anger at the government's plans to raise the retirement age.Some 70,000 took part in the demonstration in Madrid and 50,000 in Barcelona, according to organisers. Police estimated the crowd to be much less. The protests are the first of a wave of rolling demonstrations planned for other towns and cities lasting until 6 March, with similar action expected in some of the EU's worst crisis-hit economies - Portugal, Ireland and Greece - which, together with Spain are collectively known by the acronym PIGS. Called by the UGT and CCOO trade unions, the Spanish demonstrators focussed their anger on the Socialist government's announced raising of the retirement age from 65 to 67, along with cuts to the public sector of €50 billion phased in over three years and a civil service hiring freeze.The austerity measures, announced by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in January, are aimed at bringing down the state's public deficit, which exploded as a result of the economic crisis to some 11.4 percent of GDP, well above the 3 percent limit imposed by Eurozone rules.Protesters for their part say that it is unfair that they bear the burden of a crisis caused not by them but by banks and other financial institutions. The cuts are massively unpopular, with some 84 percent of the population opposed, according to a poll by Spanish centre-left daily El Pais.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, in Spain, which currently chairs the EU's six-month rotating presidency, for a joint meeting of the commission and the Spanish cabinet, offered Mr Zapatero moral support ahead of the protests, and called on all EU member states to make similar changes to their pension systems.
There is in fact a problem and reforms must be made to pension systems in general, he told reporters in Madrid alongside the Spanish prime minister, as citizens are living longer lives and having fewer children.The protests also came as Greece steeled itself for a general strike against its own socialist government's austerity programme.Some 2 million people, opposed to the centre-left Pasok administration's planned cuts to government spending, are expected to down tools. Athens is under heavy pressure from financial markets and the EU itself to reduce its public deficit of 12.7 percent. The government has pledged to chop it down to 8.7 percent this year.

On Tuesday, ahead of the strike, the Athens Stock Exchange was blockaded by workers from the PAME union. The main entrances were barricaded although remote trading was able to continue.Separately, Portuguese unions announced a general strike scheduled for 4 March against yet another centre-left government's cutbacks aimed at getting public finances under control.

EU climate chief: No climate deal likely before 2012 LEIGH PHILLIPS
23.02.2010 @ 20:31 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Global divisions on climate are so acute that a binding UN deal is unlikely for almost another two years, Europe's new climate commissioner believes.Speaking to a meeting of the foreign ministers of EU member states in Brussels on Monday, commissioner Connie Hedegaard warned that while she very much hoped for a legally binding deal to be reached as soon as possible, this was most likely not achievable before the Cop 17 - shorthand for the meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is to take place in December 2011 in South Africa.As talks ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference last December began to become ensnarled with mistrust between rich and poor countries, the European Commission had predicted that if an agreement could not be reached in the Danish capital, this could at least be achieved within the first three to six months of 2010, while Sweden, then holding the rotating chairmanship of the EU, had more pessimistically said that a binding accord could take up to another year.

But now the pessimism has taken further hold.

According to a source close to the closed-door discussion by foreign ministers, Ms Hedegaard said that an agreement would have to wait for the South African meeting because this would finally be hosted by one of the so-called Basic (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) countries, the most powerful of the globe's developing nations and to a contested extent the leaders of the southern position in climate talks,As a result, said Ms Hedegaard, the EU would have to take a step-wise approach, meaning a more realistic focus on what gains could be achieved and built upon each step of the way in anticipation of a more comprehensive international deal won at some point down the road.As she later told reporters: We need to know what the deliverables are in Bonn [the next international meeting], and then in Mexico [the Cop 16], and we need to sort that out very explicitly.

EU climate exec committee

The meeting of foreign ministers, gathered in Monday in the guise of the EU's General Affairs Council(referred to in Brussels circles as the Gac), supported a Spanish EU presidency proposal that the Gac take on the role of a sort of executive committee of the EU's climate strategy, co-ordinating the climate change actions of each of the various other Council of Ministers formations.A work plan of actions to be executed by the different councils was agreed. The next council of environment ministers would perform three tasks: implement the Copenhagen Accord - the climate document crafted in Denmark but outside the UN process and the subject of much suspicion in the developing world; investigate ways to boost the negotiating process; and identify ways to achieve leverage against countries whose opinions differed to those of the EU.The council of economy and finance ministers is to co-ordinate the development of fast-track climate funds for developing countries, the short-term monies promised at Copenhagen to help poor nations cope with the effects of climate change and start to mitigate their carbon emissions.The aim is to use the fast-start funding as a trust-building measure, to show how serious the EU is in actually stumping up the cash.The competitiveness council will work on green business opportunities in the different member states and consider the implications of the Copenhagen Accord for industry. The key concern here are worries on the part of some companies about what has come to be known as carbon leakage - that they will lose out to foreign businesses that do not have to abide by climate legislation that is as strict as that of the EU.France is pushing strongly for a carbon tariff to be implemented at the EU's border, while other states, apart from Poland, so far seem to be lukewarm on the idea or opposed out of worries of sparking trade wars.The transport, energy and telecoms council for its part is to work on investments in low-carbon technologies such as solar power, wind energy, bio-energy, carbon capture and storage, nuclear fission and hydrogen-based transport.The task of the foreign affairs council meanwhile - in which the same foreign ministers that meet as the Gac focus on issues external to the EU rather than within the bloc - is more opaque, but will look at how to deploy external relations to support European climate strategy.

Outreach and fresh alliances

Mr Moratinos told reporters after the Gac meeting: What was missing [at Copenhagen] was a strategy of alliances to advance the goals of the EU.We do need to improve our negotiating skills. We need to seek out possible allies on the international scene to counter opposition.In this regard, Ms Hedegaard is soon to set out on a ‘goodwill' climate tour of the world and visit China, Brazil, and the United States, as well as attempt to reach out to African nations and small-island states.

The next Gac is to prepare a summary report of the work of the different councils and then feed the result of this into the next European Council - the meeting of heads of state and government from 25-26 March - whose main two topics will be climate strategy and the EU's next ten-year economic plan.Last week, the president of the European Commission wrote to the premiers and presidents of EU countries, arguing for Europe-wide unity in climate negotiations and informing them that he had asked the climate commissioner to consult with other countries in order to re-invigorate the international process. The result of this, President Barroso would then feed as his first assessment into the spring European Council.He also asked the leaders for their own reflections on the direction of the thinking of foreign powers.
In the wake of the Copenhagen debacle, European commentators, officials and politicians widely agreed that the bloc should speak with one voice on climate issues in the future. But whether this one voice is that of the European Commission or the European Council has yet to be settled.

MEPs lay down marker on financial supervision
ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 24,10 @ 08:47 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs have laid down a tough marker for national capitals, with a series of reports on financial supervision seen as going much further than an EU leaders' agreement last December. We are not going to surrender. We are going to go into battle to convince the council [representing member states],said centre-right MEP José Manuel Garcia-Mergallo y Marfil during a meeting of parliament's economy committee on Tuesday (23 February). Mr Mergallo y Marfil, from Spain, is the author of the parliament's report on the proposed European Banking Authority, with the combined package of documents likely to play a key role in shaping the legislature's position on the future shape of Europe's financial supervisory framework. In the wake of the financial crisis, the European Commission proposed draft legislation to step up supervision of the sector last September, including proposals to create three new authorities in the banking, pension and securities sectors.But concerns that the new bodies, together with an overarching risk board to monitor Europe's financial sector as a whole, could overly infringe on member state decision-making led national capitals to agree on a watered-down version of the proposals. Now the co-legislating MEPs are looking to reset the balance, their beliefs on the need for greater supervision galvanised by recent events in Greece.

Amongst other proposals, Mr Garcia-Mergallo y Marfil's is calling for technical banking guidelines to be as binding as possible, in order to give them bite, and a central fund into which banks would have to contribute in order to pay for future bailouts.The ethos underpinning this report is more supervision, increased Europe and reduced risk for the taxpayer,he told colleagues.

Pensions, markets

Green MEP Sven Giegold presented his report on the European Securities and Markets Authority. Referring to the member state agreement that includes a complex appeals mechanism in case national capitals do not agree with the Authority's decisions, Mr Giegold said the quasi veto really is taking European legislation to the ridiculous.
Pointing to recent speculative attacks on Greece, he said the Markets Authority should have the power to restrict certain financial practices such as short-selling - betting on a fall in value of a particular asset - as it has very little to do with the real economy. Centre-left MEP Peter Skinner, author of the parliament's report on the proposed European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, said greater checks and balances needed to be added to the commission's original proposal in this area, but indicated it was preferable to the council's compromise agreement. The strong divergences in opinion between the reports and member state views, and the ongoing power struggle between EU institutions to gain influence over the proposed new bodies, could threaten to delay European plans to overhaul its supervisory framework. As we all know, there is competition between all the [EU] institutions to see how these babies grow up,said Mr Skinner. Parliament has said it hopes to vote on the financial package as a whole before the summer recess in mid-July, with both MEPs and member states keen to see the new bodies up and running by the end of 2010.

Afghanistan envoy flies the flag for new EU states
ANDREW RETTMAN Today FEB 24,10 @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's new envoy to Afghanistan, Lithuanian diplomat Vygaudas Usackas, has said he aims to demonstrate that new member states are up to handling the bloc's top overseas postings.This appointment will be closely followed in Brussels. I feel an additional responsibility to prove to some hesitant colleagues in the EU community that the new member states can carry a heavy weight, he told EUobserver in a phone interview on Tuesday (23 February).By taking such a high profile job in one of the hotspots in terms of global security, I can show that a small country such as Lithuania can be a responsible international player.Mr Usackas, a 45-year-old father of two, will in April leave behind his family to go to Kabul, where he will take charge of around 80 staff as the EU Special Representative to Afghanistan and the head of the EU delegation in the Afghan capital.The move will see him become the second ever person from a new EU member state to lead one of the EU's 136 foreign missions, six years after the 2004 round of enlargement. The first was by a Hungarian diplomat in Norway. But the Afghanistan job is of a different magnitude.Afghanistan is a theatre of war for over 110,000 foreign troops including armed forces from 25 EU states. Lithuania itself has around 200 soldiers on the ground. But unlike in Lithuania, where public opinion supports the war, other EU countries are starting to pull out.It is also a huge recipient of EU aid, with around €8 billion pumped in by the European Commission and member states over the past eight years, and hosts one of the union's fastest-growing police missions.

Mr Usackas' job will be to advise President Hamid Karzai on the conduct of parliamentary elections in autumn, to help build Afghan government structures in pacified territories, oversee the influx of aid and speak on behalf of the EU. Of course, it's Nato and the US who are the main players in terms of security, but the EU also has unique capabilities in the area of soft security,he said.It's going to be up to the Afghan government to reach out to all parts of the country. I support the reconciliation and inclusion of all members of Afghan society who are ready to give up violence and armed conflict, and that may include moderate Taliban members.
The new EU envoy warned that Nato-caused civilian deaths, such as the incident in Uruzgan last Sunday which saw 27 casualties, are generating opposition to the international presence both inside Afghanistan and in Europe.In the EU people are becoming tired of this continuous engagement. It's of critical importance to address this issue, to emphasise again and again the indivisibility of European security from Afghan security and stability, not just in terms of terrorism, but also in terms of the war on drugs, he said.Mr Usackas earlier this month himself faced media allegations of helping to cover up a secret CIA prison in his time as Lithuania's foreign minister. He rejected the allegations as utterly groundless and said they did not come up in his interviews with top EU officials for the new posting. Mr Usackas also promised to blow the whistle if he discovers any abuses in Afghanistan by the EU or US side: From a personal point of view, and as a citizen of the EU, I would never tolerate violation of human rights,he told this website.

World trade falls by 12 percent in 2009
ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 24,10 @ 17:19 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - World Trade Organisation director-general Pascal Lamy has said international trade fell by 12 percent in 2009, a marked deterioration on previous estimates which put the drop closer to 10 percent. Completion of the stalled Doha round of multilateral trade talks is therefore more necessary than ever, said Mr Lamy at an event organised by the European Policy Centre in Brussels on Wednesday (24 February).If there was a geopolitical consensus in launching the Doha development round in 2001 ...it is today economically imperative to complete it,he said. Originally designed to reduce barriers to trade for the world's poorer nations, the talks have become bogged down over the issue of US and EU farm subsidies and access to developing markets such as China and India. The round's slow progress, coupled with a breakdown in UN climate talks in Copenhagen last December, have led some analysts and policy-makers to question the future of multilateral negotiations. Questioned on his expectations for this year, Mr Lamy said he expected there would be pick-up in trade levels. Whether is short-term due to restocking, or long-term due to sustained demand ...it is too soon to say,he cautioned. Addressing EU concerns over a rise in non-tariff barriers in countries such as China, the former EU trade commissioner said this was an inevitable result of development in these countries, citing increased demand in product labeling by Chinese consumers as an example.

But he added that regional requirements must be justified and based on real science, and not an excuse to introduce protectionism by the backdoor. Certain European businesses have increasingly complained that they are being shut out from the Chinese market by an ever growing list of certification requirements, with technology companies in particular feeling the squeeze. Attention was drawn to the sector last month after Google said the cost of doing business in China may have become too high, leading the US giant to speculate on a possible pullout.

Van Rompuy insulted in parliament
HONOR MAHONY Today FEB 24,10 @ 17:32 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Herman Van Rompuy was subjected to a series of personal insults on Wednesday (24 February) spoiling his maiden appearance in the European Parliament as president of the European Council.Mid-way through a fairly tame exchange of views on EU policy, Mr Van Rompuy was visibly shocked and uncomfortable when comments by British eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farage took a personal turn.Speaking about Mr Van Rompuy's 15 minute introductory speech, Mr Farage said he had the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk.I have never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard of you,the British politician continued, referring to the former Belgian prime minister's surprise appointment late last year to chair the regular meetings of EU leaders. Virtually unknown outside Belgium, Mr Van Rompuy's low-key manner coupled with not having any pretensions to limelight-stealing were widely seen as key to him securing the job - a new post created by the Lisbon Treaty, in place since 1 December.Since then he has maintained the background approach but has started to make his presence felt by calling an informal economic summit earlier this month, suggesting EU leaders meet every month and making it clear that he intends to be a visible presence at the G20 meeting later this year. Mr Farage's outburst, which was rounded off with a back-handed compliment that Mr Van Rompuy was also competent and capable and dangerous, was immediately criticised by his colleagues.Joseph Daul, head of the centre-right EPP party, suggested the UK should leave the EU as it is apparently not pleased to be in the union.

Socialist leader Martin Schulz said it would be better for Mr Farage to resign." Mr Schulz also rounded on parliament chief Jerzy Buzek, who did not intervene during Mr Farage's speech.I am very disappointed with you Mr Buzek. I expected you as president to call this person to order.Mr Buzek, who indicated he had his own behind-the-scenes way of dealing with such incidents, said character assassinations are inadmissible in the European parliament.Later in the debate, Mr Van Rompuy dismissed Mr Farage's comments.There was one contribution that i can only hold in contempt but I'm not going to comment on that further,he said.

Beefed up border control agency to respect rights
VALENTINA POP Today FEB 24,10 @ 17:36 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission on Wednesday (24 February) proposed to strengthen the capabilities and the human rights training of the bloc's border control agency Frontex, a body criticised by watchdogs for its tolerance to some countries' abusive procedures against migrants.Under the proposals, the budget for Frontex will remain unchanged – €80 million a year. But unlike the past, member states who pledge to contribute with staff or equipment to the Warsaw-based body will have to stick to their promises, otherwise facing legal cases from the European Commission, home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said during a press conference. In her first press conference as EU commissioner, the former Swedish MEP who had always been an outspoken of human rights and transparency, pledged to keep a strong focus on the respect of fundamental rights of migrants. The proposals she tabled include an explicit requirement for all border guards taking part in operations to have been trained in fundamental rights, so that no migrants are sent from Europe before establishing if they are legitimate refugees or asylum seekers.

Return flights carried out by member states in co-operation with Frontex will have a member of a non-governmental organisation, such as the Red Cross, on board in order to ensure that no violation of human rights takes place.She said this first initiative was just one of a broader package of policy proposals dealing with asylum and migration. Interior ministers meeting on Wednesday in Brussels will have a first look at this blueprint, which also needs the approval of the European Parliament before being enacted.Pressed about the controversial role of Frontex last year in Italy's returning policy of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, Ms Malmstrom admitted that mistakes may have been made in the past.I don't exclude at all that errors were committed in the past, that's why I'm so keen to really reinforce that all the people involved in Frontex operations have the adequate education and know exactly what to do. Because of course, these people [the migrants] are not criminals, they are in the search for a better life and they have the right to be treated in a dignified way,she said.In a report published last year, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said that Frontex was helping Italian authorities in their forced return policy taking migrants directly back to Libya, where they face detention and blackmail.Civil groups have slammed as shameful the attitude from other EU member states who kept silence over Italy's gross violation of international conventions on refugees, stipulating that nobody should be sent back to countries where they may face inhuman treatment.

Ever since Rome signed a bilateral agreement with Tripoli last summer, migrant flows on the Mediterranean have decreased considerably. But the price to pay, according to several groups, is that legitimate asylum seekers and refugees from conflict zones such as Darfur are being imprisoned in poor conditions in African countries, even before they attempt to travel to Europe.Bjarte Vandvik, from the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, an umbrella group advocating for the rights of asylum seekers stressed that most of the scaremongering done by politicians in respect to irregular migrants had no factual basis.It was also quite embarrassing that in 2009 most refugees who landed in Malta, an EU member state in the middle of the Mediterranean, were resettled by the United States, not by any other European country, he told journalists in a briefing on Wednesday. The US is also the biggest resettler worldwide, with some two thirds of the 30-40,000 refugees registered yearly by the United Nations. Europe, on the other hand, only accounts for seven percent of that figure.European governments brag about their success in fighting irregular migration but refugees who are prevented from arriving to the European territory are paying the price of this success,said Alfredo Abad from Spanish Commission for Refugees, also present at the briefing organised by the human rights groups.

MEPs attack current plans for 2020 strategy
ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 24,10 @ 19:44 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Current EU proposals for the bloc's new 10-year economic plan merely represent more of the same failed policies witnessed throughout the past decade, say MEPs. The accusation was leveled at European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy when they attended parliament's plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday (22 February). Both men presented papers to EU leaders at an informal summit in Brussels earlier this month, stressing the need for a smaller number of EU economic objectives in the new strategy, but shying away from sanctions for member states that fail to meet national targets.I hope that the commission comes forward with a much more ambitious document on the 3 March than the disappointing [informal European] council conclusions,said Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt. The commission's communication on the EU2020 strategy - as the new plan is currently referred to - will feed into a EU leaders' summit at the end of March. Instead of sanctions for member states, the EU's current economic plan that expires at the end of 2010 - the Lisbon Strategy - has relied on a peer review system known as the open method of co-ordination. The weak enforcement mechanism has been widely blamed for Europe's failure to meet ambitious goals set out in 2000. Mr Verhofstadt called on Mr Van Rompuy to come forward with a new paper for the next EU summit in March, saying his current ideas merely represented a better version of the failed OMC method. Green co-president Rebecca Harms accused Mr Barroso of failing to address the flaws in the Lisbon Strategy, while Socialist MEP Stephen Hughes said the 2020 plan must incorporate an ambitious social market agenda.He also cautioned that the tight EU budget consolidation timetables set out by the commission risked hampering the region's economic recovery.

Greece

The need for greater European economic co-ordination and effective measures to deal with the ongoing debt crisis in Greece were also repeatedly stressed by deputies in the packed chamber.Centre-right EPP leader Joseph Daul welcomed a recent EU declaration of 'solidarity' with the Greek administration, diplomatic language for a potential bailout if needed, but questioned whether Europe was equal to it. A number of EU states such as Germany are concerned that a bailout of one member state could potentially lead to several more. Greater economic co-ordination is being increasingly touted as a means of dealing with the eurozone's current economic woes. Former centre-right French prime minister Edouard Balladur last week launched a proposal for eurozone members to submit their annual budgets to the 16-country bloc for majority approval.Mr Daul called on the commission and European Council to look into the idea.

Netanyahu: Israel Renovating Muslim Side of Machpelah Cave
by Gil Ronen FEB 24,10

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fought back Wednesday against Arab accusations over a decision to place two Jewish holy sites in Judea on a list of Israel's national heritage sites. He noted that renovation work is currently being carried out on the Muslim side of the Cave of Machpelah, also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.Israel is committed to freedom of worship for adherents of all religions in all of the holy sites, Netanyahu stated. This policy is implemented in the Cave of Machpelah, too, where the state is always working to ensure proper conditions for worship for both Jews and Muslims.Inside Cave of Machpelah (Tomb of the Patriarchs) / Flash 90

Evidence of this is, for example, the renovation work that is currently being completed at the entrance plaza and the road that leads to the Muslim prayer area at the site.Any attempt to claim otherwise, he said, is an artificial attempt to twist reality and provoke strife.MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union), chairman of the newly established Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset, told Arutz Sheva that the decision to include the Cave of Machpelah and Rachel's Tomb in the list of heritage sites was the lobby's first success.The roots of the Nation of Israel are in the heritage sites of Judea and Samaria,he said.We will act to include additional sites like Joseph's Tomb and Tel Shiloh to the list of heritage sites.

Son of Hamas Leader was Top Spy for Israel
by Gil Ronen FEB 24,10

(IsraelNN.com) Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of jailed Hamas terrorist leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, operated undercover in the service of Israel's intelligence agency for a decade. Yousef reveals this information in an upcoming book, and in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz to be published this weekend.According to the newspaper, the intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of several high-ranking terrorists including Ibrahim Hamid, a Hamas terror commander in Judea and Samaria, as well as Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouti and Hamas bomb-maker Abdullah Barghouti.Mosab Hassan Yousef converted to Christianity and moved to the U.S. in 2007, where the book he co-wrote, Son of Hamas, is due to be published shortly. He said that after he converted to Christianity, he decided he had to escape and live my life away from violence, because I couldn't coexist with that situation as a Christian.He provided very important information [as did] hundreds of others fighting against terror, MK Gideon Ezra (Kadima), formerly deputy chief of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), told BBC World Service. Haaretz said that Yousef was considered Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership. The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money,said his ISA handler, who is named in the book as Captain Loai.Yousef's father, who has great influence within Hamas, was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006 from his prison cell.

Appalled by Torture
Yousef has said that from an early age he was appalled by the brutality of the Hamas movement. Hamas, they are using civilians' lives, they are using children, they are using the suffering of people every day to achieve their goals. And this is what I hate,he said. In an interview with Fox News in 2008, Yousef said that when he was 18 years old, he was arrested and placed in an Israeli jail.Hamas had control of its members inside the jail and I saw their torture; [they were] torturing people in a very, very bad way... Hamas leaders that we see on TV now, and big leaders, [were] responsible for torturing their own members. They didn't torture me, but that was a shock for me, to see them torturing people: putting needles under their nails, burning their bodies. And they killed lots of them... I was a witness for about a year for this torture. So that was a huge change in my life.

Islam is the Problem
The problem is not Hamas, the problem is not people. The root of the problem is Islam itself as an idea,he added. He said he saw no chance for Israel and the PA to make peace.

Knesset Proposal: Annex All Jewish Towns in Land of Israel
by Hillel Fendel FEB 24,10

(IsraelNN.com) The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will consider a bill proposed by MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) on the annexation of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria (Yesha). The bill was supported last year by Prime Minister Netanyahu himself.The legislation committee is charged with deciding whether or not the government will back proposed legislation – often the critical factor in whether a given bill will be passed or defeated. It will vote on Katz’s new bill at its next weekly meeting, this coming Tuesday (after the Purim holiday).The bill proposes that the Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria be annexed to Israel, just as eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights have been annexed in the past.The bill was proposed in the previous Knesset by former MK Benny Elon, whom Katz succeeded, in many respects, in the Knesset. The bill was co-signed at the time by many MKs, among them Binyamin Netanyahu and other current Likud party Cabinet ministers such as Limor Livnat, Silvan Shalom, Yisrael Katz, Gideon Saar, Michael Eitan, Gilad Erdan, Yuval Steinitz, and more. MKs from other parties also signed at the time.Explaining the proposed law, Katz said, Following the liberation of parts of our national homeland in the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli law was applied to the areas in which 300,000 Jews live in the liberated neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and to those in which reside 20,000 Jews in the Golan. The time has now come to create a similar situation to the 350,000 Jews of Judea and Samaria. I am sure that the ministers, who co-signed the law last year, will now reaffirm their support and their signatures.

Only Jewish towns annexed
Some 26 MKs are currently co-signed on the bill. No ministers or deputy ministers are among them, in keeping with the requirement that legislation sponsors not serve in those positions. Among the co-signers are MKs Levine, Hotovely, Elkin, Danon and Shama of the Likud; Rotem, Michaeli and Miller of Israel Our Home; Orbach of the Jewish Home; Ariel, Eldad, and Ben-Ari of the National Union; Moses and Maklev of United Torah Judaism, and Ze’ev, Vaknin, and Amsalem of Shas.The legislation states: The law, jurisdiction and administration of the State shall apply in the following cities, regional councils, and local councils, and the communities therein, followed by a list of the Jewish cities and councils in Judea and Samaria: Oranit, Alfei Menashe, Elkanah, Efrat, Ariel, Beit El, Beit Aryeh-Ofarim, Beitar Illit, Mateh Binyamin, Jordan Valley, Givat Ze’ev, Gush Etzion, Har Adar, Mt. Hevron, Dead Sea Scrolls, Modiin Illit, Maaleh Adumim, Maaleh Ephraim, Emanuel, Kedumim, Kiryat Arba, Karnei Shomron, and Shomron.The proposal emphasizes that it does not call for the annexation of all of Judea and Samaria to the State of Israel, but only of the Jewish towns there and their residents. Acknowledging that most or all of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria are now subject to Palestinian Authority law, it states,The current situation creates an absurdity, in that the only citizens who are discriminated against are the Israelis – who must pay income tax and various fees, but do not receive all the rights of citizens; they are tried [in certain cases] in military courts, not civilian ones.The Knesset has already passed several measures applying parts of Israeli law to the Jewish towns in Yesha [Judea and Samaria],the proposal continues, but not in a uniform, systematic manner. As [former Meretz party MK] Prof. Amnon Rubenstein has written in his book entitled Constitutional Law: From a logical standpoint, it would be simpler if the Army administration [that officially governs Judea and Samaria] would apply Israel law in totality on all the Jewish local councils, instead of this patch-up job the government currently utilizes.This legislation is hereby proposed in order to stop the discrimination against the Israeli citizens and in order to create uniformity in the law.

The Birth of the World' Musical at Emunah College in Jerusalem
by Rachel Sylvetsky FEB 24,10

(IsraelNN.com) An original musical play for women only was performed this week to sold-out audiences at the Emunah College of Arts and Technology in Jerusalem. Called Today is the Birth of the World, an expression taken from the prayers recited on the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, the musical takes place in the obstetrics ward of a hospital whose patients are mainly observant women. This setting is the vehicle for the chance meeting of younger and older characters representing the many variants of the religious woman’s world. They include hareidi women who head the hospital’s volunteers and a Sephardi do gooder; the daughter of one of them who is undergoing fertility treatments and tries to do good deeds to merit a child; a newly religious woman who is faced with a choice of aborting a child with possible birth defects; and her career woman neo-Orthodox sister. The cast also includes a hareidi lawyer who runs her life by cell phone while under pre-natal care, a Chabad emissary’s wife, an unmarried doctor who has to find a path between the scientific and her patients’ spiritual approach to problems, a Russian cleaning woman and a medical clown. All of the women deal with the roles of daughter, wife and mother, finding a mutual language over a period of two days in the hospital ward, where the emotions of childbirth, motherly love, ongoing family relationships and, above all, the yearning for a child, are daily experiences. Stories of the Baal Shem Tov and other Chassidic tales on these topics are woven into the fabric of the play, subconsciously influencing the women’s lives as part of their heritage.

The Emunah College of Arts and Technology for Women is an Academic Teachers College for Women in Jerusalem. It includes a Drama Department, the first in religious Jewish higher education for women, where young women are trained to teach and use drama to enrich the teaching of other subjects such as Bible, as well as studying the many professional skills used in dramatic productions. The College is a project of Emunah of America, founded in the early 1970s and also includes prize-winning Graphic and Fine Arts among its departments.The script was written by director and playwright Iris Shavit and the music by composer and singer Michal Lotan. Rabbi Chaim Fogel and Rabbi Yehoshua Vider were the Halakhic consultants for the production.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1981

IDF Supervises Replanting Olive Trees at Separation Barrier
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu FEB 24,10

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF has coordinated with Arabs for the planting of approximately 200 olive trees, as ordered by the High Court, following the re-location of the security barrier near Bilin, not far from Ben Gurion International Airport. The new route of the fence gives Arabs 40 percent of the land that had originally been expropriated.The planting work was carried our by a civilian company on behalf of the Defense Ministry, according to the IDF Spokesman's office. Workers replanted the trees on the eastern, Arab-controlled side of the fence after removing them from the western side. Construction on the new route began two weeks ago.The High Court ruled two and a half years ago that the fence's route must be changed, in order to leave nearly 175 acres adjacent to the town of Bilin. Arabs and anarchists, however, have continued weekly and violent demonstrations there, arguing against the very existence of the fence. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) reported that international activists worked with Arabs on Monday to plant almond and olive trees. It also claimed that a soldier fired a warning shot in the air after activists tried to plant immediately adjacent to the fence, which is kept clear on both sides to allow trackers to spot terrorists.The ISM said it has organized the weekly protests, which have resulted in hundreds of injuries to soldiers and Arabs. Its website called the protests non-violent.