SAUDIS ISLAMIC UNITY DRIVE

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

EARTHQUAKES

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

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

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

5.3 Aftershock Shakes Sichuan JUNE 4,08

(newser) – Another strong aftershock has rattled China's quake-devastated Sichuan province amid increased concerns about lake floodwaters, reports AP. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the 5.3 tremblor, which came as authorities began evacuating people downstream from a lake formed by last month's quake. The water level in the quake lake is rising, putting over a million survivors at risk from flooding.

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.

MORE RAIN WORRIES IN CHINA
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BLOODY DRUG WARS IN MEXICO
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50,000 LIGHTNING STRIKES IN ONE HOUR AND 33 TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS REPORTED TODAY IN THE U.S.A.

Storms pop up in Plains as forecasters sound alarm By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer JUNE 5,06

WICHITA, Kan. - Tornadoes dropped onto the Great Plains on Thursday after forecasters warned of a potentially historic outbreak, causing some damage and spooking a pair of circus elephants in Kansas that escaped their enclosure and roamed a town before being captured. One of the animals entered a backyard less than a mile from the fairgrounds in WaKeeney and was blocked off by fire trucks until trainers could coax it onto a truck, said Trego County Sheriff Richard Schneider.I guess it got tired of walking around, he said.The second elephant was tranquilized in another backyard, coaxed into a truck and returned to the circus, which was already packing up to head to the next town, Schneider said.At least four tornadoes touched down in western and central Kansas. Tornadoes were also reported in Nebraska and Missouri, and a funnel cloud was spotted in Colorado.

A twister in Clay County in north-central Kansas destroyed a home, damaged several other buildings, and toppled trees and power lines, said sheriff's dispatcher Cat Dallinga. Storms also damaged roofs at the Pratt County airport in south-central Kansas and overturned tractor-trailers along Interstate 29, officials said.Wind and hail caused extensive roof damage in Collyer, near WaKeeney, Schneider said.Computer forecasting models for Thursday resembled those on June 8, 1974, when 39 tornadoes raked the southern Plains and killed 22 people. The National Weather Service on Tuesday took the unusual step of giving advance warning of a possible tornado outbreak based on the conditions.By late evening, no storms had caused major damage or injuries, though Noreen Schwein of the National Weather Service in Kansas City cautioned there was still potential for strong storms.We're certainly not out of the woods yet, she said.Wichita State University canceled evening classes because of the weather predictions.Storms on Wednesday soaked the region and then moved across to the mid-Atlantic region. Four deaths were blamed on the storms, in Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia.

Tornadoes touched down in southern Iowa, causing isolated damage in rural areas. Many rivers flooded.The rivers haven't had a chance to go down, and with the heavy rains, they just keep going higher, said Brad Fillbach, another meteorologist with the National Weather Service.Fillbach said Creston, Iowa, which had a brush with a tornado Wednesday evening, had about 6 inches of rain by Thursday morning. Some roads were under 3 feet of water early Thursday.The weather has been real active this week. It'll be nice to get a few days to dry out and get these rivers back down, Fillbach said.In the Washington area, Wednesday's storm toppled tree lines and power lines, leaving tens of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity Thursday. Some failures could last for several days because of the severity of the damage, Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said.Associated Press writers Nelson Lampe and Josh Funk in Omaha and Bill Draper in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

Floods from storm Arthur kill five in Belize Wed Jun 4, 10:08 PM ET

BELIZE CITY (Reuters) - Flash floods caused by tropical storm Arthur have killed at least five people in southeastern Belize, including a toddler, the government of the tiny Central American country said on Wednesday. Arthur, the first storm of the year in the Atlantic, dumped over 11 inches of rain across Belize this week as it moved inland, also drenching southern Mexican states.The body of a 2-year-old boy was found on Tuesday evening. His father had struggled for half an hour in turbulent floodwaters before the infant was washed away.Two people from the southeastern district of Stann Creek were still missing on Wednesday.Belize, wedged between Mexico and Guatemala with a population of just 300,000, is best known for its laid-back atmosphere, palm-fringed islands and coral reefs.Torrential rains from Arthur -- which have also left swathes of southern Mexico waterlogged -- swelled rivers in Belize and wiped away two bridges in the south, severing key transport arteries for Belize's farming and fishing industries.This was really a kind of freak occurrence that with the best will in the world, and all the resources in the world, we could not have anticipated, Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who became Belize's first black leader on taking office in February, said this week.
Authorities estimated that 13,000 people across the country were affected by Arthur.(Reporting by Adele Ramos; Editing by Eric Walsh)

DC STORMS KNOCKS TREES AND POWER
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WIRES DOWN IN AA COUNTY
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Storms pop up in Plains as forecasters sound alarm By NELSON LAMPE, Associated Press Writer JUNE 5,08

OMAHA, Neb. - Severe storms popped up over the Great Plains on Thursday afternoon as forecasters warned of a potential tornado outbreak that could rival that of a June day in 1974 when 22 people were killed. A funnel cloud was spotted over southwestern Nebraska, and flood warnings and watches were issued for much of the state as streams and rivers overflowed, thanks to recent rainfall of more than 5 inches in places.Large hail, strong winds and heavy rain whipped through northwest Kansas. There was 1.5 inches of hail in Goodland, Kan., and winds of 70 mph in Ruleton, the National Weather Service said.In a strongly worded statement Thursday, the weather service warned that parts of Kansas could suffer hail bigger than baseballs, winds higher than 80 mph and a few strong to violent long-lived tornadoes.Computer forecasting models for Thursday resembled those on June 8, 1974, when 39 tornadoes raked the southern Plains. The National Weather Service on Tuesday took the unusual step of giving advance warning of a possible tornado outbreak based on the conditions.

Forecasters had said severe thunderstorms would form in Kansas and move toward eastern Kansas, Nebraska, northwestern Missouri and Iowa. Heavy rainfall and flooding were also possible, especially late Thursday night in southeast Kansas.The highest risk is central Kansas and the entire central portion of the country, said Brad Mickelson, a weather service meteorologist. There is a high risk of severe thunderstorms.Singled out as at high risk were Omaha; Topeka, Kan.; Des Moines, Iowa; and south-central Minnesota, he said. The region at risk of severe thunderstorms stretched from northern Texas to Minnesota and Wisconsin.On Wednesday, storms soaked the Midwest and then moved across to the mid-Atlantic region. Three deaths were blamed on the storms.Tornadoes touched down in southern Iowa, causing isolated damage in rural areas. Many rivers flooded.The rivers haven't had a chance to go down, and with the heavy rains, they just keep going higher, said Brad Fillbach, another meteorologist with the National Weather Service.Fillbach said Creston, Iowa, which had a brush with a tornado Wednesday evening, had about 6 inches of rain by Thursday morning. Some roads were under 3 feet of water early Thursday.The weather has been real active this week. It'll be nice to get a few days to dry out and get these rivers back down, Fillbach said.In the Washington metro area, Wednesday's storm downed tree lines and power lines, leaving more than 200,000 homes and businesses without electricity Thursday. Some outages could last for several days because of the severity of the damage, Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said.Associated Press writer Bill Draper in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

Southeast Asian team finally enters Myanmar cyclone zone
Thu Jun 5, 1:34 PM

YANGON (AFP) - Southeast Asian aid experts flew into Myanmar's devastated Irrawaddy Delta on Thursday for a mission to assess cyclone damage, but US navy ships sailed away -- laden with supplies rejected by the junta.Nearly five weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit, leaving 133,000 dead or missing, the first members of the joint ASEAN-UN Emergency Rapid Assessment Team flew by helicopter into the shattered towns of Labutta and Pyapon.The 200-strong team of aid experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations will later move into more remote areas of the delta, where entire villages were washed away in the storm, ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said in a statement.

Their final findings will not be reported until mid-July, even as the United Nations estimates that one million hungry and homeless survivors have yet to receive any international assistance.

Myanmar's regime sparked international outrage by sealing off the delta for three weeks after the cyclone hit on May 2-3.Now the military leadership has allowed some foreign aid workers into the region, a maze of swollen rivers and swamps that even in the best of times is inaccessible by road.One ASEAN official here said the new team will try to get full access, and all efforts are being made to reach the victims.But when asked if Myanmar's military authorities were cooperating fully with the aid effort, the official said: How can I fully answer that without hurting the mission? Myanmar has agreed in theory for 10 helicopters from the World Food Programme to ferry supplies into the region, but so far only one is actually flying.The junta has rejected help from US, French and British warships. Four US ships left the area on Thursday, after three weeks of trying to convince the regime to accept their aid.The United States said it remained ready to offer Myanmar helicopters and landing craft from amphibious ships, even though the USS Essex group has left.Junta leader Than Shwe agreed nearly two weeks ago to allow foreign aid workers into the delta, but international agencies say access remains patchy.

The regime has agreed for ASEAN to coordinate the relief effort, and Surin said the next two weeks would be crucial for building international confidence in this joint mission between ASEAN, the UN and the Myanmar government.On the ground, hundreds of thousands of desperate survivors have been left to fend for themselves, cobbling together whatever shelter they can find to survive the daily monsoon rains while scavenging for food.Amnesty International accused the regime of forcing thousands of weak and hungry survivors to move back to flattened villages and in some cases refusing aid unless rebuilding work is done.The junta has ordered increasing numbers of victims to return to their villages while still traumatised and with no food, shelter or other aid to help them once they return, Amnesty's Southeast Asia researcher Benjamin Zawacki told reporters.Jon Mitchell, Myanmar director of the charity CARE, said he recently visited the remote delta village of Kan Phar, where 4,000 people once lived. Only 800 remain, he said.

We asked them what they had been eating before aid arrived. All of their rice stocks had been destroyed. They told us they were either collecting coconuts or eating spoiled rice to survive, Mitchell said.Private donors from Yangon and other towns have tried to fill the gap by delivering aid themselves, but some say security forces have turned them away.A top figure in the local aid effort, Myanmar comedian Zaganar, was arrested late Wednesday at his Yangon home, a relative said Thursday.Zaganar had been briefly detained during anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks last year. Those ended with a junta crackdown which left at least 31 people dead, the United Nations has said.Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo said in Thailand that Zaganar was likely arrested for producing videos showing the true extent of the devastation, with graphic images of dead bodies still lying in fields.The situation is pretty grim everywhere, Aung Naing Oo said.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

INDIA PROTESTS OVER OIL PRICES.
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FINANCIAL SHOCK
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Oil jumps more than $5 as dollar slides
By Matthew Robinson JUNE 5,08

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil jumped more than $5 to nearly $128 a barrel on Thursday, rebounding from a sharp two-day sell-off as the dollar slid on signals the European Central Bank could raise interest rates this year.U.S. crude settled up $5.49, or 4.5 percent, at $127.79 a barrel -- the biggest percentage gain in more than two months. London Brent settled $5.44 higher at $127.54 a barrel.The surge reverses most of a nearly $6 slide this week that had been triggered by worries that high prices were starting to eat into global demand.Investors have rushed into oil and other commodities in recent months as a hedge against the weak dollar and inflation, helping drive crude to a record $135 a barrel in May.

But the greenback fell sharply against the euro on Thursday after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled it could increase rates later this year.He sounded hawkish and talked about raising rates. It sent the dollar down rather quickly, said Chris Jarvis, senior analyst for oil at Caprock Risk Management in New Hampshire.The comments offset a rare warning issued earlier this week by the U.S. Federal Reserve on the inflationary risk posed by a weak dollar, suggesting the central bank is not likely to cut U.S. interest rates further this year.More weakness had come from concerns that Asian demand growth -- which has helped underpin the six-year rally in oil prices -- could falter as some countries ease fuel subsidies due to high prices.You have a large layer of global oil demand which is undertaking cuts in subsidies. Right now, that is what's driving the fundamental worries, said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix.

This week, India raised retail petrol and diesel fuel prices by about 10 percent and Malaysia hiked petrol prices by 41 percent, after Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia reviewed their subsidies last month.Rising fuel prices in Asia and weaker fuel consumption in the United States, the world's top consumer, are expected to lead to further reductions in estimates for global oil demand growth in 2008.The International Energy Agency, adviser to 27 industrialized countries, issues its latest forecasts next week and has said it may lower its 2008 demand projection further.The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported gasoline inventories rose 2.9 million barrels last week while gasoline demand over the past four weeks slumped 1.4 percent versus last year.Distillate stocks jumped by 2.3 million barrels, while crude stocks fell 4.8 million barrels.(Reporting by Matthew Robinson, Gene Ramos, and Robert Gibbons in New York; Alex Lawler in London; Maryelle Demongeot in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio)

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

OBAMAS MIDEAST VISION
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ABBAS EXTENDS OLIVE BRANCH
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Hamas welcomes new spirit from Abbas By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Wafa Amr JUNE 5,08

GAZA/RAMALLAH (Reuters) - The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip welcomed on Thursday what he called a new spirit of dialogue from the Palestinian president but it was unclear how far the rival factions were moving to end a year-old schism. Aides to President Mahmoud Abbas strongly rejected suggestions that Abbas had employed any warmer tone toward his Islamist opponents in Gaza during a keynote speech on Wednesday.That view was echoed in Washington after Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, spoke by telephone with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who opposes contact with Hamas unless it drops its hostility to Israel and ends attacks on the Jewish state.The flurry of debate on relations between Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah movement coincided with Palestinian commemorations of the Israeli capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 and the first anniversary of the outbreak of fighting that saw the Islamists rout Fatah forces in Gaza and take control there.The schism has hampered Abbas in efforts to negotiate for a Palestinian state in U.S.-sponsored talks with Israel although it also brought an end to Western sanctions on the Fatah-run West Bank after Abbas fired the elected Hamas-led government.Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, whom Abbas dismissed as prime minister a year ago, said: We welcome President Abu Mazen's call for a national and comprehensive dialogue and view positively to the new spirit that appeared in the speech.

Our hands are outstretched to the brothers in the homeland ... We confirm our readiness to make dialogue succeed as quickly as possible and to show the flexibility needed from all sides.Aides to Abbas, who on Wednesday had called for a national and comprehensive dialogue with Hamas, were quick to insist the president wanted only discussion on the implementation of a recent Yemeni diplomatic initiative which called for Hamas to give up its hold on Gaza -- not a debate on mutual concessions.President Abbas' position has not changed, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said. It is wrong to say that Abbas no longer calls for ending Hamas' coup to end the divisions.

However, after Haniyeh's speech, senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad said: We welcome any positive approach and we hope that Haniyeh's readiness will translate into practical moves.But he made clear Abbas brooked no rivals: The dialogue must be on the basis of one authority, one gun, one law.

TALKS WITH ISRAEL

Some analysts saw Abbas's forceful renewal of a call for Arab states to mediate an end to the split between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank as part of strategy to bolster his position at home in the face of mounting skepticism over the prospects of reaching a deal this year on establishing a Palestinian state in U.S.-sponsored talks with Israel.Reminding Israel and its U.S. and European allies that he has the option of again embracing their enemies in Hamas if talks fail, may offer Abbas some negotiating leverage.One senior Israeli official said Israel believed the talk from Ramallah was meant to increase pressure on Israel and the United States to salvage a peace process that is threatened by a corruption scandal facing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and by Palestinian complaints over Israeli settlements.Echoing comments from Fatah officials, Haniyeh noted the success of Arab mediators in brokering a deal last month among rival factions in Lebanon and expressed hope a similar approach could succeeding in healing Palestinian rifts.We are ready to have this dialogue in any Arab country on the basis of no loser and no winner in the hope of an agreement that would make the Palestinian people the victors, he said.U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack commenting on Rice's call to Abbas, played down suggestions that Abbas had softened his opposition to dialogue with Hamas, saying that the Yemeni plan called for contacts conditional on Hamas accepting Fatah leadership and previous Fatah agreements with Israel.

His conditions for any discussion with Hamas have not changed, McCormack said. We don't detect any movement at all.U.S. President George W. Bush hopes Israel and Abbas can strike a deal on a Palestinian state before he leaves the White House in January. But Israel has warned it could review its ties with Abbas if he were to mend relations with Hamas. After Hamas won a parliamentary election in 2006, Israel, the United States and European Union imposed sanctions that were lifted only when Abbas dismissed Haniyeh's government last June. Yemen tried to broker a deal between Fatah and Hamas in March but efforts broke down after disagreement over whether Hamas should cede control of Gaza before formal talks started. Arab ministers have said Hamas must cede control of Gaza and have backed the Yemeni proposal. Erekat said Abbas would travel to Arab states to ask them to help implement that proposal. A Hamas spokesman said Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa called Haniyeh and praised the new spirit that dominates the Palestinian situation. Moussa also called Abbas, he said. (Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Sami Aboudi)

Blair defends neutrality in Middle East role Thu Jun 5, 9:31AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair defended himself against claims he was too close to Israel and the United States Thursday as he gave evidence to a British parliamentary oversight committee. The former prime minister -- in his first appearance before parliament since stepping down last year -- suggested that his controversial decision to send British troops into Iraq and Afghanistan did not bother most Palestinians.He also revealed he had not yet visited Gaza in the role and said the militant Islamist group Hamas could probably stop rocket attacks on Israeli checkpoints, which have reportedly hit aid convoys.Blair was asked about his neutrality as he gave evidence to the lower House of Commons international development committee, which is looking at the humanitarian and development situation in the Palestinian territories.

I think sometimes when people talk about whether you're independent or not, what they really mean is you're too close to America or Israel, he said.But as I always say to people out there, the thing about this peace deal between Palestine and Israel is that it includes Israel.And he added: Actually out in Palestine, the issues to do with Iraq and Afghanistan and the broader questions, all they want is someone to go and help them sort their situation out.Blair was asked whether Hamas was responsible for rocket attacks on checkpoints when efforts are being made to take aid into Gaza.The one thing you can't dispute is that Hamas have a military grip on Gaza and therefore my view is that if they wanted to stop these attacks, they could.Maybe they couldn't stop all of them all of the time, he added.A strategy of deliberately targeting the crossings at the same time as saying... this is a humanitarian catastrophe, you can't really justify that.Blair told the cross-party committee of lawmakers that he had his own very strong view about how Israel has got to go further and faster, particularly on the West Bank.

Explaining why he had not yet visited Gaza, Blair said he did not want to exacerbate the current tense and sensitive situation and that he would choose a moment that helps rather than a moment that harms.

BUSH WELCOMES ISRAELI PM
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IRAN-MIDEAST PEACE ON BUSH-OLMERT AGENDA
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Olmert wraps up US visit that focused on Iran By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 5, 4:52 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Israel's prime minister prepared to end a U.S. visit dominated by discussions on the dangers of a nuclear Iran to face his own domestic threats — a burgeoning police investigation and a public eager to see him go. Ehud Olmert's legal and political travails have been pushed into the background during his three days in the U.S., where he received four standing ovations during a speech to pro-Israel supporters and where President Bush warmly saluted him twice publicly as my friend in less than a minute before they met in the Oval Office.Olmert planned to spend his final day in Washington meeting senators and talking over the phone with the presidential candidates before returning home to what many believe will be his term's final chapter.Olmert was scheduled to speak with Sens. John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, according to Olmert spokesman Mark Regev. He also was set to meet Senate leaders and figures from the U.S. Jewish community before departing in midafternoon.Regev would not say what Olmert planned to discuss Thursday, but so far his trip has focused on Israel's fears that Iran could develop nuclear weapons.Olmert called Iran the main threat to all of us ahead of his meeting Wednesday with Bush and later told reporters that it dominated the leaders' discussions.

Bush sought to reassure Israelis who are worried about the U.S. commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel will one day be wiped off the map.Iran is an existential threat to peace, Bush said. It's very important for the world to take the Iranian threat quite seriously, which the United States does.The visit has clearly been a welcome break for the beleaguered Olmert, who appeared relaxed and confident in a talk with reporters Wednesday. His domestic woes hadn't come up in his meeting with Bush, he said.The U.S. administration is familiar with the developments and follows them, but the meeting dealt with the matters on Israel's national agenda, Olmert said.Before their meeting, Olmert grinned as Bush spoke and then effusively praised the president's speech last month before the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem, widely interpreted as favoring Israelis over Palestinians in their long-running dispute. It was, Olmert said, the best expression of the United States' commitment to the security and the well-being of the state of Israel.Olmert's political future has been thrown into doubt because of testimony from Morris Talansky, a New York businessman who says he gave Olmert envelopes stuffed with cash over a decade and a half, in part to fund a lavish lifestyle. Olmert's political allies are conspicuously refusing to come to his defense, and instead are jostling for his job.Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, would not say whether Olmert's troubles were a topic of discussion in private. But there are hints the Bush administration understands Olmert may be on his way out. Hadley stressed, as have other administration officials recently, that the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians were entered into by Olmert on behalf of the government. The implication is that the process can continue without Olmert.This is a shift from Bush's initial reasoning for why an agreement could be reached this year, which posited that Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were the right leaders at the right time to reach a historic compromise.

It involves participation by other ministers in this process — Foreign Minister Livni and Defense Minister Barak, Hadley said. So, at this point, we follow the lead of the parties and the parties have indicated that they want to continue this process.Olmert said he thought it was still possible to make real progress before Bush's ambitious deadline of reaching an agreement by the end of the year. I hope that we will be able to make decisions during 2008, he told reporters, and noted that not even half of the year has gone by.Associated Press writer Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

After millennia, Baghdad Jews dwindle to a fearful handful
By Stephen Farrell Published: June 1, 2008

Written in broken English but with perfect clarity, the message is a stark and plaintive assessment from one of the last Jews of Babylon.The community of Jews in Baghdad is now all but vanished in a land where their heritage recedes back to Abraham of Ur, to Jonah's prophesying to Nineveh, and to Nebuchadnezzar's sending Jews into exile here more than 2,500 years ago.Just over half a century ago, Iraq's Jews numbered more than 130,000. But now, in the city that was once the community's heart, they cannot muster even a minyan, the 10 Jewish men required to perform some of the most important rituals of their faith. They are scared even to publicize their exact number, which was recently estimated at seven by the Jewish Agency for Israel, and at eight by one Christian cleric. That is not enough to read the Torah in public, if there were anywhere in public they would dare to read it, and too few to recite a proper Kaddish for the dead.Among those who remain is a former car salesman who describes himself as the rabbi, slaughterer and one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Iraq.

Today in Africa & Middle East
Israel, reversing policy, will let some Palestinian students leave GazaEmirates to name ambassador to BaghdadSyria to limit UN nuclear inspectors' access Although many of his Muslim friends and immediate neighbors know he is Jewish (I'm proud, I'm Jewish, not ashamed. I'm not hiding, he wrote at one point.), he was wary of being named because it could draw more dangerous attention to him or his friends. To protect him, he is referred to as Saleh's grandson, because his or his father's name would be too easily recognizable here. Interviews with him were conducted by correspondence over the course of several months.He lamented that Jews in Baghdad had had no meeting place since the Meir Tweig synagogue, the last in the city, was closed in 2003, after it became too dangerous to gather openly.I do my prayer in my house because we closed the synagogue from the war until now. If we open it, it will be a target, he wrote, adding later: I have no future here, I can't marry, there is no girl. I can't put my kova on my head out of the house. If I'm out of Iraq, I'll share with people in all our feasts and do my prayer in the synagogue and will be with my family.Now in his early 40s, he exists as anonymously and discreetly as he can. He cannot reliably hide his religion: it is stamped on his official identity card, which he must present at any security checkpoint. So he stays mainly in his own neighborhood, protected by Muslim neighbors who have been family friends for decades.He is a very cautious man. After contact with him was first established through an intermediary, and his identity was confirmed by his family abroad, he consented to speak directly for only a few moments over the telephone. Even that was just to propose a safer way to correspond, under a version of his name different from the one that other Iraqis know.His fears are all too real in a city where bodies are still found dumped in the street almost daily, despite a fall in the overall death toll.Christians, a far larger group, have fled Iraq by the thousands, and even Sunni and Shiite Muslims, who live among millions of their fellows, remain fearful of religious and sectarian fanatics.

Jews were once a wealthy and politically active part of the spectrum of Iraq. In a fading red volume of the Iraq Directory of 1936, the Israelite community, then numbering about 120,000, is listed along with Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and Sabeans. Rescued from a Baghdad library, this book lists Hebrew among the six languages of Iraq and describes a country in which the mosque stands beside the church and the synagogue.However, the directory predates decades of trauma: the 1941 Farhud pogrom in which more than 130 Jews were killed during the Feast of Shavuot, World War II, the Holocaust, the anti-Zionism of Saddam Hussein and the post-2003 rise of Islamic militants.

Most traces of Jews are now gone beside the Prat and the Hidekel rivers, the Hebrew names for the Euphrates and Tigris. Baghdad's Jewish quarter, in Taht al-Takia, is no more. And about 80 miles south of Baghdad lies the Hebrew-inscribed tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, son of Buzi. During a visit there on Saturday, dozens of Muslim pilgrims filed through the well-tended shrine, its interior blackened by centuries of lamp smoke, to honor Ezekiel as a respected prophet.Among these fragments of their civilization live the moribund huddle of holdouts.Saleh's grandson is now alone. His mother died two decades ago, his older brother left in 1991, and his father, now 87, was among the last handful of Jews taken from Iraq by the Jewish Agency after 2003, reducing the current community to single figures.Most of his other relatives departed in 1951, among more than 100,000 Jews who fled Iraq between 1949 and 1952, in the years after the state of Israel was created. Their exodus was code named Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, after the Jewish leaders who took their people back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon beginning in 597 BC

Some of the remaining handful of Iraqi Jews are middle class, including two doctors. Others, including Saleh's grandson, are poor and unemployed, dependent on handouts.We see each other if there is something necessary, like a death, or to discuss some important things, or if someone needs help, he wrote. We take care about the people in the Jewish community only, not the half or part-Jewish. We don't know about them after they left us.Some Jews say they are too old to leave. Some do not want to leave their friends behind.

The few remaining Jews ignore the entreaties of worried relatives and friends abroad and await an unlikely renaissance, demographic extinction or a more sudden end.Concern for their safety rose two years ago when one of them, a middle-aged man, was kidnapped. They have no idea whether he was taken because he was Jewish, wealthy, or whether the abduction was random.We don't know anything about him, and don't know the reason, Saleh's grandson said.His relatives voice frustration at his insistence on remaining in Iraq, saying he cannot be persuaded to relinquish the family home. He wants to sell it for $300,000 to help build a new life abroad but has had no takers.I talk with him all the time, said his older brother, who lives in Europe and requested anonymity to protect his brother. I call him every two weeks, and always I give him advice to leave, because it is dangerous, and because he needs to build his life and to find a wife.The family argues that if buyers were going to come forward they would have done so long ago. They say that in Iraq's current instability, an unscrupulous buyer could simply steal the money back, knowing that Saleh's grandson would have no recourse without a tribe to protect him.Now there is nobody buying because of the situation in Sadr City, his brother said. I keep telling him, Money is nothing.The Jewish Agency for Israel, an organization that arranges immigration to the Holy Land, has offered to relocate the entire group. Should the remaining Jews in Baghdad request to immigrate to Israel, the Jewish Agency will immediately facilitate this request and also take care of their absorption needs in Israel, said Zeev Bielski, the agency's chairman.

However, Michael Jankelowitz, an agency spokesman, conceded: They are not interested in leaving. Their philosophy is, We are old, no one is affecting our day-to-day life. If we have to leave, we know how to contact the Jewish Agency.The holdout's father says that he regrets leaving Iraq, the country of his birth, five years ago, but that he would not return in the current dangerous climate.Why did we have to leave? he said, sighing. In Iraq I was always with my friends. Everyone was very, very, very, very nice. I had Muslim friends for 50 to 60 years. They were friends, like family. I used to spend more time with Arabs than Jews.His son says he knows the risks. I'd like to leave, but I have my house, I can't leave it, he wrote. I have no future here to stay.He insists that he has responsibilities to his fellow Iraqi Jews, no matter how few in number.If I'm faithful in GOD, I'm not afraid of anything, he wrote, and GOD BLESS ME.

Belgian finance minister eyes eurogroup presidency
ELITSA VUCHEVA 05.06.2008 @ 09:26 CET

Belgian finance minister Didier Reynders could succeed Luxembourg's premier Jean-Claude Juncker as the next president of the eurogroup –the club of EU countries using the euro - according to press reports.Mr Reynders told French daily Le Monde he would do it gladly, provided that there is a consensus on my name, the paper reported on Wednesday (4 June).Fifteen EU countries currently use the euro, with Slovakia expected to join the eurozone next year. (Photo: European Community)The Belgian minister has had a seat in the eurogroup almost as long as that of Mr Juncker himself, and is reported to have the support of several member states, particularly France.Mr Reynders has views close to those of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and both men have criticised the European Central Bank before.In 2001, Mr Reynders had clashed with the then ECB president, Wim Duisenberg, over the orientation the bank's monetary policy should follow, calling for the latter to be more relaxed.

Last year, he again raised a criticism, telling French financial daily Les Echos: What strikes me often is to hear ECB officials explain how the situation has changed, how it is worrying, and [then] do nothing about it.For his part, Mr Sarkozy has repeatedly criticised the ECB for its monetary policy, and drawn fire from other member states, in particular Germany, for trying to interfere with the bank's affairs and curb its independence.Besides Mr Reynders' interest in the post however, his spokesperson has affirmed that he is not yet a candidate, neither official, nor unofficial, and prefers first to see how his counterparts feel about his possible appointment, writes La Libre Belgique on Thursday (5 June).Other potential candidates for Mr Juncker's succession include Spanish finance minister Pedro Solbes, who is also a former EU economic and finance affairs commissioner, as well as Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos, according to French and Belgian media.Mr Juncker himself has already completed two terms of 2.5 years each at the head of the eurogroup and is not planning to run for a third one. A decision on the matter is to be taken in September – under the French EU presidency, during an informal meeting of EU finance ministers in Nice.

France readies for 'heaviest Presidency in EU history'[fr][de] Published: Monday 2 June 2008

With climate and energy negotiations at the top of France's priorities and a reshuffle of the European institutions in sight for 2009, the French Presidency promises to be the heaviest in EU history, diplomats say.

Background:
On the night of his election in May 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy raised EU expectations by vowing to put France back in Europe (EurActiv 07/05/07).But his cheerful words were soon followed by a warning against the EU's perceived excessive penchant for economic liberalism, a tendency believed to be a major factor behind the rejection of the draft EU Constitution by French voters in 2005.I conjure our European partners not to lend a deaf ear to the wrath of the peoples who perceive the European Union not as a protection but as a Trojan horse of all the threats brought by a transforming world, Sarkozy warned on his election night.A more protective Europe was hence chosen as the motto of the upcoming Presidency (EurActiv 06/11/07).

On 1 July 2008, France takes over the EU's six-month rotating presidency from Slovenia with an exceptionally busy agenda.

According to a French diplomat in Brussels, this presidency is the heaviest one of all the history of the European Union in terms of workload.This, he explained, is because the EU is getting more cumbersome: there are more countries and commissioners than ever before and the Parliament has gained more powers. But it is also because additional factors have accumulated.For the first time, you have this coincidence of a heavier Union but there is also the end of the political mandate of the Commission and Parliament as well as the end of the [ratification process of] the Lisbon Treaty. You never had all these things together.A series of sensitive dossiers have also piled up, all of which have to be closed by the end of the year. The energy and climate change package, tabled by the European Commission in January, is the first among them. The package includes a proposed revision of the EU's CO2 trading scheme and a new renewable energy directive, two dossiers which involve tough negotiations on how to share the burden of commitments between each EU member state.Energy and climate change is enough to feed a presidency, the diplomat pointed out. But he added that there are circumstances which mean the agenda is heavier for political reasons because some things have been delayed. This includes for instance a debate on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, which the French are keen to help shape under their Presidency.

Irish referendum on everyone's minds

The outcome of the Irish referendum on 12 June will undoubtedly have a considerable impact on the Presidency's schedule. Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, spoke about the issue at the European Policy Centre in Brussels on 26 May. If the process continues without incident as it has so far today - and our sights are first turning to Ireland - we will have at heart to finish the preparatory work that started under the Slovenian presidency, he said.But what will happen if the Irish reject the treaty? There is no Plan B, Kouchner answered, echoing the European Commission's official line.In practice, though, a solution will need to be found if the treaty is rejected and EU leaders will have plenty of time to discuss this during a summit on 19-20 June, just days before the start of the French Presidency. Follow-up work would then have to be handled by France, potentially adding to an already busy agenda. The responsibility of the entry into force of this new treaty is, we are conscious of it, essential, Kouchner said. We will therefore attach all our energies to it.

Preparing for the EU diplomatic service

And provided all goes well and Ireland ratifies, there will still be a lot to do as the pressure then will fall on preparations for the Treaty's new provisions, which enter into force on 1 January 2009.According to Kouchner, the French Presidency's work there will centre on designating the future permanent president of the Council and the new foreign policy chief, decisions which are all expected to be taken by EU heads of state at a summit in December.

Speculation is already rife about the names of the candidates, with names already being circulated (see our LinksDossier on Mr. Europe). But Kouchner recently suggested that there could still be a few surprises and that more candidates could emerge (EurActiv 27/05/08).Kouchner also said France will work to lay the foundations for the new external action service as of the 1st of January 2009, indicating that the challenge will be to find an efficient functioning between the Presidency of the European Council and the rotating Presidency, and, incidentally, to define the role of foreign affairs ministers in this new scheme.Questions remain, however, as to how all the new roles will fall into place. According to the agreed schedule, the Treaty should be ratified by the end of 2008 and start applying as of 1 January 2009. This should also apply for the new permanent EU President and foreign policy chief. But when EU leaders meet in December to pick their champion, the outcome of the European elections will still be unknown. And whichever party wins the poll in June will have the legitimacy to ask for the negotiations to be reopened, a situation which could place the new President in a difficult situation if he or she is not backed by the new majority.

Alain Lamassoure, a leading centre-right MEP who advises Sarkozy on European affairs, believes there could be two solutions to this problem. Writing on Blogactiv.eu , he says the first could be to delay the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty until June 2009, leaving the Czech Prime Minister to exert the Presidency according to the current rotating system. Alternatively, he says EU leaders could choose to appoint an interim president as of 1 January 2009, and wait for the results of the parliamentary elections in June. This second option is likely to be chosen for the High Representative: why not resort to it also for the President of the Council?, asks Lamassoure.

A more protective EU, focused on citizens

After the Treaty, Kouchner said making the EU care more about its citizens will be a central concern, guiding France's initiatives in almost every area.Our second objective will be to respond to the demands of our peoples, who want a stronger Europe to answer globalisation, he told the EPC conference, saying that despite its positive achievements, Europe does not convince anymore. He said the French and citizens from other founding EU member states often fear globalisation because they see it as being responsible for part of the unemployment and faults in our social protection system. Back at home, it is often the interrogations and anxieties which prevail, Kouchner said.The issue has come up regularly in speeches by President Nicolas Sarkozy. On his election night, he portrayed the EU as a Trojan horse of all the threats brought by a transforming world. More recently, he promised to put politics back into Europe, criticising along the way Brussels Eurocrats who dictate automatic rules that leave no room for political decision and accountability (EurActiv 11/02/08). The criticism was also directed at the European Central Bank, which Sarkozy has made a recurrent target.We must be able to talk about everything, Sarkozy said, just like in any democracy: of our currency which is not a taboo subject, of trade policy, of industrial policy, of reciprocity in competition matters or the excesses of financial capitalism.Concretely, Kouchner said, the French approach will seek to review the EU's search for more competitiveness (the Lisbon agenda) to associate it with a renovated solidarity, through quality public services that contribute to growth, a renewed social agenda, and the fight against discrimination.A social policy package, which the Commission originally planned to publish earlier this year, has been delayed to 2 July, just after the start of the French Presidency.

Four priorities

The four priorities of the Presidency are already widely known. Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French secretary of state for European affairs, further detailed them on 20 May at a hearing before the Conference of Committee Chairmen of the European Parliament. They are:

Finalising the energy-climate package;
Better controlling immigration flows by agreeing on a European Immigration and Asylum Pact;
European security and defence policy, and;
Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy.
EurActiv will return to each of these topics in more detail during the course of the week.

Barroso to inaugurate European synagogue
PHILIPPA RUNNER 04.06.2008 @ 09:23 CET

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso will in a ceremony on Wednesday (4 June) help dedicate a Brussels temple as the Great Synagogue of Europe, amid prayers for EU leaders to act justly.The synagogue - an 1878 Romanesque-style building in Brussels' central Rue de la Regence - is to become a symbolic focal point for Judaism in Europe, a little like St Peter's Basilica in Rome is for Roman Catholics.Jose Manuel Barroso's name will appear on a plaque inside the building (Photo: EUobserver.com)

The commission head will sign a document of dedication along with two chief rabbis and two witnesses, with Mr Barroso's name also appearing on a plaque inside the building.The event will involve the reading of a specially-drafted Prayer for Europe as well as singing by the European Choir - a Brussels-based team of 100 singers from 20 EU states set up in 1958 to act as musical ambassadors for Europe.The prayer will ask for happiness for European citizens and for the continent's leaders to act with justice and equanimity to create a spiritual union, Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reports.The EU appears to be convinced that the European construction must not only be based on economic interests but also on religious and spiritual well-being, chief rabbi Albert Guigui of the Rue de la Regence church told the European Jewish Press.

Palestinian protest

In a separate development, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad has written to the EU institutions, urging the bloc not to deepen relations with Israel at a meeting later this month.The letter, dated May 27 and made public by Italian leftist MEP Luisa Morgantini, denounces Israel's flagrant disregard for Palestinian rights by building fresh settlements in disputed territory, Reuters reports.EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on 16 June will discuss upgrading the EU's current association pact on trade and security co-operation with the EU neighbour.

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).

Australian PM wants EU-style bloc for Asia-Pacific
LUCIA KUBOSOVA 05.06.2008 @ 09:26 CET

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has suggested that Asia and Pacific countries, including the region's heavyweights such as China, India and Japan, form a regional bloc similar to the European Union.The key thing is to enhance security and regional co-operation, which at present is fragmented, Rudd said in a radio interview on Wednesday (4 June), AFP has reported, after he presented the idea during an address to the Asia Society of Australasia. Mr Rudd suggests Asian-Pacific community would loosely follow the EU's integration path (Photo: Council of the European Union)

He argued that an Asia-Pacific Community could be founded by 2020 as a forum for tackling climate change and terrorism, as well as settling territorial conflicts, such as over Kashmir, the Taiwan Straits and the Korean peninsula.Furthermore, it could serve as a trade platform to help exploit the benefits of the looming economic power of the region, which he thinks will be at the centre of global affairs throughout this century.Put simply, global economic and strategic weight is shifting to Asia, he said.Commenting on possible comparisons with the 27-strong European Union - which is set to enlarge further - Mr Rudd said that it does not serve as an identical model of what we would seek to develop in the Asia-Pacific, but what we can learn from Europe is this: It is necessary to take the first step, according to Radio Australia.

His suggestions come shortly after a similar process of regional integration has resulted in the creation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), set up by a founding treaty signed last month.The new supranational and intergovernmental body has combined two previously existing customs unions – Mercosur and the Andean Community – with 12 participating countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Chile.Its institutional structure directly copies the EU model, with UNASUR's headquarters to be located in Quito, Ecuador, a South American parliament seated in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and a Bank of the South to be situated in Bogota, Colombia.Other regional groupings inspired by Europe include a single market without trade barriers for goods and services agreed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the African Union.

NUMBER 15 OF 27 PASS LISBON TREATY.

Dutch MPs vote in favour of Lisbon Treaty
LEIGH PHILLIPS 05.06.2008 @ 09:38 CET

The House of Commons in the Netherlands passed the Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday evening with a wide majority, some three years after the Dutch people rejected the constitutional treaty in a popular referendum.With the governing Labour Party and Christian Democrats, together with the market-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) voting in favour of the ratification of the treaty, the legislation passed easily. All the mainline Dutch political parties supported the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty (Photo: wikipedia)

Only the left-wing Socialist Party (SP), the Freedom Party of hard-right anti-Islam provocateur Geert Wilders and the Party for the Animals, an animal rights party with two seats in the chamber, voted against.The Dutch Senate still has yet to approve the document, however. The upper house is expected to debate the treaty over the summer.Three years ago, in June 2005, the European Union was dealt a body blow when the Netherlands voted heavily against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The win for the Nee, or No side – a powerful 61.5 percent of voters on a turnout of 63.3 percent - together with a strong Non from France the month before, effectively killed off the European Constitutional project.

This time around, European leaders have ensured that the new treaty has not been put before citizens in referenda, with the exception of Ireland, where one is constitutionally required. Instead, parliaments are simply ratifying it.The two Dutch governing parties have said it was not necessary to consult the population a second time because what was now on the table was only a classic modification treaty, stripped of its constitutional trappings.

Additionally in the Lisbon Treaty, argued Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende, national parliaments are to play a greater role in the European legislative process, with the ability to put a halt to legislation they object to. However, the SP, whose support has soared since it took the lead in the 2005 campaign against the constitution, steadily eating away at the centre-left Labour Party's support base, argued that there was little difference between the two treaties.SP Europe spokesperson Harry van Bommel presented a 42,000-signature petition against the Lisbon Treaty to the parliament ahead of the vote, but to no avail, with the chamber rejecting his proposal for a second referendum.During the debate, Mr van Bommel said: It is a disgrace that there is still no public version of the Treaty of Lisbon available.Obviously one does not want to inform the population, he added.After the vote, VVD house leader Han Ten Broeke rubbished the idea that the treaties were the same. Even if less than five per cent has changed, … your DNA differs by only two per cent from that of a monkey, but the difference is still fundamental, he said, according to Radio Netherlands.The Dutch Green Left party had mixed feelings about the treaty, which in the end they supported. Green MP Mariko Peters said: It is an great moment because we stand to ratify a new treaty concerning Europe. At the same time is a sad moment because democracy failed.All eyes are now on Ireland, which has its say on the treaty on 12 June.

Church
Vatican preparing guidelines for religious dialogue
Posted: Thursday, June 5, 2008, 8:50 (BST)

The Vatican department that oversees relations with Islam is preparing guidelines for Catholic dialogue with non-Christian religions, its head said on Wednesday.Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran told Vatican Radio that work on the document was starting after many years of hesitation and would offer guidelines for priests as well as ordinary followers.Tauran, a Frenchman, is head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, which oversees Catholic relations with all non-Christian religions except Judaism.

The Vatican's relations with Islam have been particularly thorny in recent years.In March, the Vatican and Muslim leaders agreed to establish a permanent official dialogue, known as The Catholic-Muslim Forum, to improve often difficult relations and heal wounds still open from a controversial papal speech in 2006.Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived that year after Pope Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational.Muslims around the world protested and the pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey's Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam.Tauran did not say when the new document would be completed.

Saudis launch Islamic unity drive JUNE 5,08

King Abdullah chaired the opening session of the three-day conference Saudi Arabia's monarch has urged Muslims to speak with one voice in preparation for interfaith dialogue with the Jewish and Christian worlds. King Abdullah was speaking at a three-day conference in Mecca, attended by hundreds of Muslim delegates.

The king, whose country is mainly Sunni Muslim, said extremists were exploiting the tolerant nature of Islam. As well as extremism, delegates hope to tackle what is seen as the negative perception of Islam in the West. BBC Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says the meeting is supposed to be the Saudi answer to the controversial clash of civilizations thesis of US academic Samuel Huntington.

Muslim writers often cite Prof Huntington's ideas as evidence of Western hostility to Islam in particular.

Voice of justice

King Abdullah entered the hall alongside Iranian politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who sat beside him on the stage. ... I tell you that there are many things in common and there's no need to look at differences Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Introduction: Sunnis and Shias

Correspondents say the message was that the Sunni kingdom was now in agreement with moderate Shia Muslims such as Mr Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president. You have gathered today to tell the whole world that... we are a voice of justice and values and humanity, that we are a voice of coexistence and a just and rational dialogue, King Abdullah told the delegates. Extremism was a challenge to Islam that targeted the magnanimity, fairness and lofty aims of the religion, he said. That's why this invitation was extended - to face the challenges of isolation, ignorance and narrow horizons, so that the world can absorb the good message of Islam.Mr Rafsanjani said Saudi Arabia presented a great message to all humanity in the world and appealed for Shia-Sunni dialogue and mutual support. We should... not weaken each other or sully each other's reputation, he said. As a Muslim and a Shia and an expert in Islamic issues ... I tell you that there are many things in common and there's no need to look at differences.

Banned symbols

Delegates said the aim was to agree on a global Islamic charter for dialogue with Christians and Jews, ahead of a call by Saudi Arabia for an interfaith dialogue. Saudi Arabia currently has no diplomatic ties with Israel, and non-Muslim religious services and symbols are banned in the kingdom. King Abdullah has said Saudi Arabia's top clerics, who like the ruling family are from the hardline Wahhabi trend of Sunni Islam, have authorised his interfaith approach. Mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia and mainly Shia Iran stand on opposite sides of many of the conflicts dividing the Muslim world, and some observers say political rifts are being laid bare, such as different attitudes towards the US. Mr Rafsanjani also urged the world's one billion Muslims to stop Washington controlling the natural resources in their countries - a pointed comment in oil giant Saudi Arabia, a top ally of Washington. Why should this tremendous group be weak before the international arrogance? he said, using the Iranian revolutionary term for the US. Earlier this week, a group of independent clerics issued a statement saying Shia political movements like the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon were posturing against Israel to hide an anti-Sunni agenda.

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.

Russia's Medvedev visits Germany on first European trip as president Thu Jun 5, 6:41 AM By The Associated Press

BERLIN - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was making his first trip to western Europe since succeeding Vladimir Putin - an official visit Thursday that comes as the European Union and Russia prepare to start much-delayed talks on a new strategic partnership.

Medvedev was to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President Horst Koehler during his one-day visit, only his second trip abroad since he was sworn into office May 7. Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, speaks Russian. Still, ties have been more businesslike under Merkel than the friendly relationship that her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, enjoyed with Putin. Merkel said before Medvedev's visit that it is necessary to expand and strengthen Germany's close, friendly and strategic relations with Russia, a major gas supplier to her country and the rest of Europe. She also praised his intentions on the domestic front. Medvedev has indicated that he wants to develop and strengthen the constitutional state, she said in her weekly video podcast last Saturday. I think this is a good signal.Merkel said her discussions with Medvedev would range from the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Japan to the thorny issue of Kosovo, which declared independence from Russian ally Serbia in February. Germany is among the many EU nations that have recognized Kosovo's independence; Russia fiercely opposes it, and has sided with Belgrade in opposing Kosovo's split from Serbia. Thursday's talks also are expected to touch on future EU-Russia relations. EU nations last week finally cleared the way for negotiations on a far-reaching new pact with Russia on widening economic and political ties. Efforts to start the talks had been held up first by a Polish-Russian dispute over meat exports and then by Lithuanian demands that Russia improve relations with neighbours such as Georgia and Moldova.

Merkel said it would be important to make clear that the European Union acts together on energy security. Within the EU, a planned German-Russian gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea has caused tensions with Berlin's eastern neighbours. Medvedev was Putin's hand-picked successor in the Kremlin, and few clear signs have emerged so far about who will lead Russian foreign policy. Traditionally Russia's president holds that responsibility, but many expect Putin to retain a substantial say in policy as prime minister. Before the visit, Guido Westerwelle, head of Germany's opposition Free Democrats, said in Thursday's Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper that Medvedev had already promised more openness, more liberalness and more democracy.It would be good if it is already clear during this visit to Germany that Russia, in the interests of our mutual relations, is already actually going in this direction, he was quoted as saying. Germany's leaders already have been working to sound out the new president. Merkel met Medvedev in Moscow in early March, and Steinmeier met him on a trip to Russia last month. Medvedev's one foreign trip as president so far was to China and Kazakhstan. In Beijing, he and Chinese President Hu Jintao criticized U.S. missile defence plans that involve facilities in two eastern EU members, Poland and the Czech Republic. Medvedev praised recent close ties between Russia and China as key to global stability and said the two wanted to strengthen their strategic partnership.

Exclusive: Limited US attack on Iranian Revolutionary Guards bases in sight June 3, 2008, 12:25 PM (GMT+02:00)

US stealth warplanes
Our Washington sources report that president George W. Bush is closer than ever before to ordering a limited missile-air bombardment of the IRGC-al Qods Brigade’s installations in Iran. It is planned to target training camps and the munitions factories pumping fighters, missiles and roadside bombs to the Iraqi insurgency, Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza.

Iran is geared up for counteraction.

US intelligence estimates that Tehran’s counteraction will likewise be on a limited scale and therefore any US-Iranian military encounter will not be allowed to explode into a major confrontation. Because this US assault is not planned to extend to Iran’s nuclear installations, Tehran is not expected to hit back at distant American targets in the Persian Gulf or at Israel.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report, however, that Iran’s military preparations for countering an American attack are far broader than envisaged in Washington. Tehran would view a US attack on the IRGC bases as a casus belli and might react in ways and on a scale unanticipated in Washington. Two days ago, Iran’s defense minister Gen. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar warned: Iran’s Armed Forces are fully prepared to counter any military attack with any intensity and to make the enemy regret initiating any such incursions.According to DEBKAfile’s Iranian and military sources, the IRGC had by mid-May completed their preparations for a US missile, air or commando assault on their command centers and bases in reprisal for Iranian intervention in Iraq.

These preparations encompass al Qods’ arms, most of them undercover, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sudan. At home, the Revolutionary Guards have evacuated their key bases together with manpower and equipment to regular army sites or temporary quarters in villages located in remote corners of eastern and northern Iran. Their main headquarters and central training center at the Imam Ali University in northern Tehran are deserted except for sentries on the gates.Indoctrination seminaries and dormitories hosting fighting strength in the holy town of Qom are empty, as is the Manzariyah training center east of the capital. Deserted too is the main training camp near Isfahan for insurgents and terrorists from Iraq, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. It is here that they take courses from friendly al Qods training staff on how to sabotage strategic targets such as routes, bridges and military installations, and the activation of the extra-powerful roadside bombs (EFPs) which have had such a deadly effect on American troops in Iraq.

NATO expansion will spoil ties with West: Medvedev Thu Jun 5, 12:17 PM ET

BERLIN (AFP) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that the eastwards expansion of NATO risked spoiling relations between Moscow and the West in a radical way for years to come. With attempts to expand the military alliance eastwards towards Russia's borders, our relations will be undermined, spoiled in a radical way for a long time, Medvedev said in his first major foreign policy speech since succeeding Vladimir Putin last month.

Moscow has been angered in recent years by the prospect of NATO -- an organisation set up originally in the Cold War as a counterweight to the Soviet Union -- moving into what it sees as its traditional sphere of influence.At its summit in Bucharest in April, NATO turned down applications by Georgia and Ukraine for a Membership Action Plan -- a stepping stone to joining -- but did say the former Soviet republics would eventually become members.

Western powers have grown increasingly concerned by a stand-off between Georgia and Russia over separatist Abkhazia.Georgia accuses Russian peacekeepers of backing Abkhaz rebels and has demanded they be replaced by an international force.Earlier on Thursday, Medvedev had said he was worried by a lack of mutual understanding in relations between Moscow and the West on security issues, including NATO expansion.

Two nuclear plant incidents reported
Published: June 5, 2008 at 11:39 AM

BRUSSELS, June 5 (UPI) -- Two incidents at nuclear power stations in Slovenia and the Czech Republic were quickly handled but left nerves jangled, the European Union said.The EU said there was no environmental impact in either case but the scares had done little to help Brussels' campaign to restore public confidence in nuclear plant activity.A water leak from the primary coolant unit in Slovenia's Krsko nuclear plant Wednesday forced the 25-year old facility to shut down its single reactor for emergency repairs, the EU Observer said.There is no impact on the environment, the matter is under control, the Slovenian nuclear safety administration chief said. Krsko was expected to be out of action for a few days.On Tuesday in the Czech Republic, the 35-year old Dukovany plant's automated safety system cut output from one of its four reactors after a worker mistakenly turned off coolant pipes. A spokesman said there was no environmental damage but the plant did release a cloud of white steam above the reactor building.

Military shoots down missile in test off Hawaii JUNE 5,08

HONOLULU - The U.S. military says it has intercepted a ballistic missile near Hawaii in a test. The sea-based test Thursday was the military's first since an errant satellite was shot down earlier this year.A target was fired from a decomissioned amphibious assault ship about 100 miles off the island of Kauai. It was a Scud-like missile with a range of a few hundred miles.The USS Lake Erie fired two interceptor missiles at the target. It was shot down in its final seconds of flight about 12 miles above the Pacific Ocean.

The Lake Erie is a Navy cruiser based at Pearl Harbor. In February, the ship shot down a U.S. spy satellite in the Aegis defense program's first real-world mission.

LEADERS AT AIPAC IN WSH

OBAMA STILL INSISTS TO GIVE THE PALESTINIANS A STATE SIDE BY SIDE WITH ISRAEL. THIS WILL BE TROUBLE AS JERUSALEM WILL BE DIVIDED AND IT WILL CAUSE WW3.

AIPAC AMERICAN-ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
http://www.aipac.org/about_AIPAC/Learn_About_AIPAC/2841.asp

SHAPING U.S. LEADERS AT AIPAC 2008
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/06/02/shaping-us-leaders-at-aipac-2008/

OBAMA LAYS OUT MIDEAST POLICY
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91153531&ft=1&f=1001

LISTEN TO OBAMAS SPEECH
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=91150432&m=91152375

Full Remarks of Obama’s AIPAC SpeechRemarks at AIPAC Policy Conference Senator Barack Obama June 4, 2008

As Prepared for Delivery

It’s great to see so many friends from across the country. I want to congratulate Howard Friedman, David Victor and Howard Kohr on a successful conference, and on the completion of a new headquarters just a few blocks away.

Before I begin, I want to say that I know some provocative emails have been circulating throughout Jewish communities across the country. A few of you may have gotten them. They’re filled with tall tales and dire warnings about a certain candidate for President. And all I want to say is - let me know if you see this guy named Barack Obama, because he sounds pretty frightening.

But if anyone has been confused by these emails, I want you to know that today I’ll be speaking from my heart, and as a true friend of Israel. And I know that when I visit with AIPAC, I am among friends. Good friends. Friends who share my strong commitment to make sure that the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, tomorrow, and forever.

One of the many things that I admire about AIPAC is that you fight for this common cause from the bottom up. The lifeblood of AIPAC is here in this room - grassroots activists of all ages, from all parts of the country, who come to Washington year after year to make your voices heard. Nothing reflects the face of AIPAC more than the 1,200 students who have travelled here to make it clear to the world that the bond between Israel and the United States is rooted in more than our shared national interests - it’s rooted in the shared values and shared stories of our people. And as President, I will work with you to ensure that it this bond strengthened.

I first became familiar with the story of Israel when I was eleven years old. I learned of the long journey and steady determination of the Jewish people to preserve their identity through faith, family and culture. Year after year, century after century, Jews carried on their traditions, and their dream of a homeland, in the face of impossible odds.

The story made a powerful impression on me. I had grown up without a sense of roots. My father was black, he was from Kenya, and he left us when I was two. My mother was white, she was from Kansas, and I’d moved with her to Indonesia and then back to Hawaii. In many ways, I didn’t know where I came from. So I was drawn to the belief that you could sustain a spiritual, emotional and cultural identity. And I deeply understood the Zionist idea - that there is always a homeland at the center of our story.

I also learned about the horror of the Holocaust, and the terrible urgency it brought to the journey home to Israel. For much of my childhood, I lived with my grandparents. My grandfather had served in World War II, and so had my great uncle. He was a Kansas boy, who probably never expected to see Europe - let alone the horrors that awaited him there. And for months after he came home from Germany, he remained in a state of shock, alone with the painful memories that wouldn’t leave his head.

You see, my great uncle had been a part of the 89th Infantry Division - the first Americans to reach a Nazi concentration camp. They liberated Ohrdruf, part of Buchenwald, on an April day in 1945. The horrors of that camp go beyond our capacity to imagine. Tens of thousands died of hunger, torture, disease, or plain murder - part of the Nazi killing machine that killed 6 million people.

When the Americans marched in, they discovered huge piles of dead bodies and starving survivors. General Eisenhower ordered Germans from the nearby town to tour the camp, so they could see what was being done in their name. He ordered American troops to tour the camp, so they could see the evil they were fighting against. He invited Congressmen and journalists to bear witness. And he ordered that photographs and films be made. Explaining his actions, Eisenhower said that he wanted to produce, first-hand evidence of these things, if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda.

I saw some of those very images at Yad Vashem, and they never leave you. And those images just hint at the stories that survivors of the Shoah carried with them. Like Eisenhower, each of us bears witness to anyone and everyone who would deny these unspeakable crimes, or ever speak of repeating them. We must mean what we say when we speak the words: never again.

It was just a few years after the liberation of the camps that David Ben-Gurion declared the founding of the Jewish State of Israel. We know that the establishment of Israel was just and necessary, rooted in centuries of struggle, and decades of patient work. But 60 years later, we know that we cannot relent, we cannot yield, and as President I will never compromise when it comes to Israel’s security.

Not when there are still voices that deny the Holocaust. Not when there are terrorist groups and political leaders committed to Israel’s destruction. Not when there are maps across the Middle East that don’t even acknowledge Israel’s existence, and government-funded textbooks filled with hatred toward Jews. Not when there are rockets raining down on Sderot, and Israeli children have to take a deep breath and summon uncommon courage every time they board a bus or walk to school.

I have long understood Israel’s quest for peace and need for security. But never more so than during my travels there two years ago. Flying in an IDF helicopter, I saw a narrow and beautiful strip of land nestled against the Mediterranean. On the ground, I met a family who saw their house destroyed by a Katyusha Rocket. I spoke to Israeli troops who faced daily threats as they maintained security near the blue line. I talked to people who wanted nothing more simple, or elusive, than a secure future for their children.

I have been proud to be a part of a strong, bi-partisan consensus that has stood by Israel in the face of all threats. That is a commitment that both John McCain and I share, because support for Israel in this country goes beyond party. But part of our commitment must be speaking up when Israel’s security is at risk, and I don’t think any of us can be satisfied that America’s recent foreign policy has made Israel more secure.

Hamas now controls Gaza. Hizbollah has tightened its grip on southern Lebanon, and is flexing its muscles in Beirut. Because of the war in Iraq, Iran - which always posed a greater threat to Israel than Iraq - is emboldened, and poses the greatest strategic challenge to the United States and Israel in the Middle East in a generation. Iraq is unstable, and al Qaeda has stepped up its recruitment. Israel’s quest for peace with its neighbors has stalled, despite the heavy burdens borne by the Israeli people. And America is more isolated in the region, reducing our strength and jeopardizing Israel’s safety.

The question is how to move forward. There are those who would continue and intensify this failed status quo, ignoring eight years of accumulated evidence that our foreign policy is dangerously flawed. And then there are those who would lay all of the problems of the Middle East at the doorstep of Israel and its supporters, as if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root of all trouble in the region. These voices blame the Middle East’s only democracy for the region’s extremism. They offer the false promise that abandoning a stalwart ally is somehow the path to strength. It is not, it never has been, and it never will be.

Our alliance is based on shared interests and shared values. Those who threaten Israel threaten us. Israel has always faced these threats on the front lines. And I will bring to the White House an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.

That starts with ensuring Israel’s qualitative military advantage. I will ensure that Israel can defend itself from any threat - from Gaza to Tehran. Defense cooperation between the United States and Israel is a model of success, and must be deepened. As President, I will implement a Memorandum of Understanding that provides $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade - investments to Israel’s security that will not be tied to any other nation. First, we must approve the foreign aid request for 2009. Going forward, we can enhance our cooperation on missile defense. We should export military equipment to our ally Israel under the same guidelines as NATO. And I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself in the United Nations and around the world.

Across the political spectrum, Israelis understand that real security can only come through lasting peace. And that is why we - as friends of Israel - must resolve to do all we can to help Israel and its neighbors to achieve it. Because a secure, lasting peace is in Israel’s national interest. It is in America’s national interest. And it is in the interest of the Palestinian people and the Arab world. As President, I will work to help Israel achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state of Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security. And I won’t wait until the waning days of my presidency. I will take an active role, and make a personal commitment to do all I can to advance the cause of peace from the start of my Administration.

The long road to peace requires Palestinian partners committed to making the journey. We must isolate Hamas unless and until they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements. There is no room at the negotiating table for terrorist organizations. That is why I opposed holding elections in 2006 with Hamas on the ballot. The Israelis and the Palestinian Authority warned us at the time against holding these elections. But this Administration pressed ahead, and the result is a Gaza controlled by Hamas, with rockets raining down on Israel.

The Palestinian people must understand that progress will not come through the false prophets of extremism or the corrupt use of foreign aid. The United States and the international community must stand by Palestinians who are committed to cracking down on terror and carrying the burden of peacemaking. I will strongly urge Arab governments to take steps to normalize relations with Israel, and to fulfill their responsibility to pressure extremists and provide real support for President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad. Egypt must cut off the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Israel can also advance the cause of peace by taking appropriate steps - consistent with its security - to ease the freedom of movement for Palestinians, improve economic conditions in the West Bank, and to refrain from building new settlements - as it agreed to with the Bush Administration at Annapolis.

Let me be clear. Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper - but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.

I have no illusions that this will be easy. It will require difficult decisions on both sides. But Israel is strong enough to achieve peace, if it has partners who are committed to the goal. Most Israelis and Palestinians want peace, and we must strengthen their hand. The United States must be a strong and consistent partner in this process - not to force concessions, but to help committed partners avoid stalemate and the kind of vacuums that are filled by violence. That’s what I commit to do as President of the United States.

The threats to Israel start close to home, but they don’t end there. Syria continues its support for terror and meddling in Lebanon. And Syria has taken dangerous steps in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, which is why Israeli action was justified to end that threat.

I also believe that the United States has a responsibility to support Israel’s efforts to renew peace talks with the Syrians. We must never force Israel to the negotiating table, but neither should we ever block negotiations when Israel’s leaders decide that they may serve Israeli interests. As President, I will do whatever I can to help Israel succeed in these negotiations. And success will require the full enforcement of Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon, and a stop to Syria’s support for terror. It is time for this reckless behavior to come to an end.

There is no greater threat to Israel - or to the peace and stability of the region - than Iran. Now this audience is made up of both Republicans and Democrats, and the enemies of Israel should have no doubt that, regardless of party, Americans stand shoulder-to-shoulder in our commitment to Israel’s security. So while I don’t want to strike too partisan a note here today, I do want to address some willful mischaracterizations of my positions.

The Iranian regime supports violent extremists and challenges us across the region. It pursues a nuclear capability that could spark a dangerous arms race, and raise the prospect of a transfer of nuclear know-how to terrorists. Its President denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. The danger from Iran is grave, it is real, and my goal will be to eliminate this threat.

But just as we are clear-eyed about the threat, we must be clear about the failure of today’s policy. We knew, in 2002, that Iran supported terrorism. We knew Iran had an illicit nuclear program. We knew Iran posed a grave threat to Israel. But instead of pursuing a strategy to address this threat, we ignored it and instead invaded and occupied Iraq. When I opposed the war, I warned that it would fan the flames of extremism in the Middle East. That is precisely what happened in Iran - the hardliners tightened their grip, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected President in 2005. And the United States and Israel are less secure.

I respect Senator McCain, and look forward to a substantive debate with him these next five months. But on this point, we have differed, and we will differ. Senator McCain refuses to understand or acknowledge the failure of the policy that he would continue. He criticizes my willingness to use strong diplomacy, but offers only an alternate reality - one where the war in Iraq has somehow put Iran on its heels. The truth is the opposite. Iran has strengthened its position. Iran is now enriching uranium, and has reportedly stockpiled 150 kilos of low enriched uranium. Its support for terrorism and threats toward Israel have increased. Those are the facts, they cannot be denied, and I refuse to continue a policy that has made the United States and Israel less secure.

Senator McCain offers a false choice: stay the course in Iraq, or cede the region to Iran. I reject this logic because there is a better way. Keeping all of our troops tied down indefinitely in Iraq is not the way to weaken Iran - it is precisely what has strengthened it. It is a policy for staying, not a plan for victory. I have proposed a responsible, phased redeployment of our troops from Iraq. We will get out as carefully as we were careless getting in. We will finally pressure Iraq’s leaders to take meaningful responsibility for their own future.

We will also use all elements of American power to pressure Iran. I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That starts with aggressive, principled diplomacy without self-defeating preconditions, but with a clear-eyed understanding of our interests. We have no time to waste. We cannot unconditionally rule out an approach that could prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We have tried limited, piecemeal talks while we outsource the sustained work to our European allies. It is time for the United States to lead.

There will be careful preparation. We will open up lines of communication, build an agenda, coordinate closely with our allies, and evaluate the potential for progress. Contrary to the claims of some, I have no interest in sitting down with our adversaries just for the sake of talking. But as President of the United States, I would be willing to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian leader at a time and place of my choosing - if, and only if - it can advance the interests of the United States.

Only recently have some come to think that diplomacy by definition cannot be tough. They forget the example of Truman, and Kennedy and Reagan. These Presidents understood that diplomacy backed by real leverage was a fundamental tool of statecraft. And it is time to once again make American diplomacy a tool to succeed, not just a means of containing failure. We will pursue this diplomacy with no illusions about the Iranian regime. Instead, we will present a clear choice. If you abandon your dangerous nuclear program, support for terror, and threats to Israel, there will be meaningful incentives - including the lifting of sanctions, and political and economic integration with the international community. If you refuse, we will ratchet up the pressure.

My presidency will strengthen our hand as we restore our standing. Our willingness to pursue diplomacy will make it easier to mobilize others to join our cause. If Iran fails to change course when presented with this choice by the United States, it will be clear - to the people of Iran, and to the world - that the Iranian regime is the author of its own isolation. That will strengthen our hand with Russia and China as we insist on stronger sanctions in the Security Council. And we should work with Europe, Japan and the Gulf states to find every avenue outside the UN to isolate the Iranian regime - from cutting off loan guarantees and expanding financial sanctions, to banning the export of refined petroleum to Iran, to boycotting firms associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, whose Quds force has rightly been labeled a terrorist organization.

I was interested to see Senator McCain propose divestment as a source of leverage - not the bigoted divestment that has sought to punish Israeli scientists and academics, but divestment targeted at the Iranian regime. It’s a good concept, but not a new one. I introduced legislation over a year ago that would encourage states and the private sector to divest from companies that do business in Iran. This bill has bipartisan support, but for reasons that I’ll let him explain, Senator McCain never signed on. Meanwhile, an anonymous Senator is blocking the bill. It is time to pass this into law so that we can tighten the squeeze on the Iranian regime. We should also pursue other unilateral sanctions that target Iranian banks and assets.

And we must free ourselves from the tyranny of oil. The price of a barrel of oil is one of the most dangerous weapons in the world. Petrodollars pay for weapons that kill American troops and Israeli citizens. And the Bush Administration’s policies have driven up the price of oil, while its energy policy has made us more dependent on foreign oil and gas. It’s time for the United States to take real steps to end our addiction to oil. And we can join with Israel, building on last year’s US-Israel Energy Cooperation Act, to deepen our partnership in developing alternative sources of energy by increasing scientific collaboration and joint research and development. The surest way to increase our leverage in the long term is to stop bankrolling the Iranian regime.

Finally, let there be no doubt: I will always keep the threat of military action on the table to defend our security and our ally Israel. Sometimes there are no alternatives to confrontation. But that only makes diplomacy more important. If we must use military force, we are more likely to succeed, and will have far greater support at home and abroad, if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts.

That is the change we need in our foreign policy. Change that restores American power and influence. Change accompanied by a pledge that I will make known to allies and adversaries alike: that America maintains an unwavering friendship with Israel, and an unshakeable commitment to its security.

As members of AIPAC, you have helped advance this bipartisan consensus to support and defend our ally Israel. And I am sure that today on Capitol Hill you will be meeting with members of Congress and spreading the word. But we are here because of more than policy. We are here because the values we hold dear are deeply embedded in the story of Israel.

Just look at what Israel has accomplished in 60 years. From decades of struggle and the terrible wake of the Holocaust, a nation was forged to provide a home for Jews from all corners of the world - from Syria to Ethiopia to the Soviet Union. In the face of constant threats, Israel has triumphed. In the face of constant peril, Israel has prospered. In a state of constant insecurity, Israel has maintained a vibrant and open discourse, and a resilient commitment to the rule of law.

As any Israeli will tell you, Israel is not a perfect place, but like the United States it sets an example for all when it seeks a more perfect future. These same qualities can be found among American Jews. It is why so many Jewish Americans have stood by Israel, while advancing the American story. Because there is a commitment embedded in the Jewish faith and tradition: to freedom and fairness; to social justice and equal opportunity. To tikkun olam - the obligation to repair this world.

I will never forget that I would not be standing here today if it weren’t for that commitment. In the great social movements in our country’s history, Jewish and African Americans have stood shoulder to shoulder. They took buses down south together. They marched together. They bled together. And Jewish Americans like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were willing to die alongside a black man - James Chaney - on behalf of freedom and equality.

Their legacy is our inheritance. We must not allow the relationship between Jews and African Americans to suffer. This is a bond that must be strengthened. Together, we can rededicate ourselves to end prejudice and combat hatred in all of its forms. Together, we can renew our commitment to justice. Together, we can join our voices together, and in doing so make even the mightiest of walls fall down.

That work must include our shared commitment to Israel. You and I know that we must do more than stand still. Now is the time to be vigilant in facing down every foe, just as we move forward in seeking a future of peace for the children of Israel, and for all children. Now is the time to stand by Israel as it writes the next chapter in its extraordinary journey. Now is the time to join together in the work of repairing this world.

TEXT OF CLINTONS SPEECH AT AIPAC JUNE 4,08
http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SpeechesByPolicymakers/PC_08_Clinton.pdf

CLINTON DEFENDS OBAMA ISRAEL POSITION
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/06/04/clinton-defends-obamas-israel-position-at-aipac/

OBAMA - CLINTON AT AIPAC THE MORNING AFTER
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/04/the_morning_after_obama_and_hi/

OLMERT - RICE SPEAK ON IRAN
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/386303.aspx

LISTEN TO RICES SPEECH AT AIPAC
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/PC08_Condoleezza_Rice.mp3

LISTEN TO PELOSIS SPEECH AT AIPAC
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/PC08_Nancy_Pelosi.mp3

LISTEN TO JOHN BOEHNER AT AIPAC
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/PC08_John_Boehner.mp3

LISTEN TO ISRAELI PANEL AT AIPAC
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/PC08_Monday_PM_Panel_Discussion_Full.mp3

LISTEN TO FOREIGN POLICY ROUND TABLE AT AIPAC
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/PC08_Monday_AM_Panel_Discussion_Full.mp3

LISTEN TO HOWARD FRIEDMAN SPEECH AT AIPAC
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/Howard_Friedman_Full_Speech.mp3

LISTEN TO HOWAR KOHR AT AIPAC
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/Howard_Kohr_Full_Speech.mp3

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Text: PM Olmert's prepared speech at AIPAC [Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

LISTEN TO OLMERT - AIPAC SPEECH
http://www.aipac.org/media_files/AudioPC08Speeches/Olmert_Full_Speech.mp3

Withdrawal from Golan based on Dumbo assumption:I can only assure you that any future agreement, if and when it is reached, will be backed by all the necessary security guarantees, and that I will
never compromise on anything which could undermine Israel's security or vital interests.Keep in mind the PM Olmert recently admitted when spoke in presence of President Bush that the IDF is not yet taking serious measures to stop the attacks from Gaza:
(We hope that we will not have to act against Hamas in other ways with the military power that Israel has not yet started to use in a serious manner in order to stop it.

Joint Statements by PM Olmert and US Pres. Bush
Israel Government Press Office Wednesday, May 14, 2008
www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/PMSpeaks/speechstat140508.htm )

Yet at AIPAC he says:
... if one city, one small city in your state, in your district, was bombed, not even on a daily basis, but just once, with one single missile, what would you do? Would you not demand that your government stand up immediately and take the necessary action to defend your citizens? ... Every day, the government and the security forces weigh all possible alternatives, and make the choice which we believe is the wisest and most effective.]

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert AIPAC Policy Conference 2008
June 3, 2008 (AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY)
www.aipac.org/Publications/SpeechesByPolicymakers/Olmert_-_As_Prepared_for_Delivery.pdf

Distinguished members of the United States Congress,
President of AIPAC, David Victor,
Chairman of AIPAC, Howard Friedman,
Executive Director, Howard Kohr,
AIPAC Board of Directors,
Representatives of the students' organizations,
Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Salai Meridor,
Honorable guests,
Dear Friends,

Thank you AIPAC for providing this opportunity for all of us to come together and show support for Israel!It is always amazing to see the number of people that AIPAC manages to gather in one room. I believe this is the largest such gathering ever. After speaking to this audience via video conference last year, I knew that this
year I would not miss the opportunity to participate in the unique
experience of the AIPAC Policy Conference.It's truly a pleasure to be here, with so many great friends of Israel.

Israel is grateful for AIPAC's tireless efforts and unending dedication to promoting the joint American-Israeli relations, values and interests. AIPAC empowers the next generation of American supporters of Israel and ensures that the alliance between Israel and the United States is never taken for granted. I am therefore delighted to see so many students here, representing
the younger, future generation. It serves to assure me, and all of us, that the traditional bonds of friendship between Israel and America will continue to be nurtured and strengthened.

I understand that there are some members of Congress in the audience. Israel is grateful for the long-standing bi-partisan Congressional friendship and support, manifested most recently by the initiative to mark Israel's 60th anniversary. We are particularly thankful for your support and recognition of the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between our countries. The
approval of the MOU, from 2009 onward, is crucial to maintaining Israel's security and qualitative edge.

I recently had the opportunity to have lunch in Jerusalem with the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who led a distinguished Congressional delegation to Israel. Our meeting allowed us to discuss a range of issues of mutual interest in a more personal and ntimate forum, and served to assure me that the bi-partisan support for Israel is stronger than ever. I extend an open invitation to each and every one of you to come to Israel and do the same. I
assure you that you will be among friends.

As we celebrate 60 years of US-Israeli relations, I feel personally obliged to take a moment to reflect on and remember a close personal friend, Congressman Tom Lantos. Tom was a visionary congressman, a dedicated American patriot and a symbol of friendship to Israel. Earlier this week, I met with Annette Lantos in Jerusalem and presented her with a special message of commemoration signed by the entire Government of Israel, as a
tribute of Israel's appreciation for Tom's work. I understand that this is the first AIPAC Policy Conference without Tom, and he is sorely missed by us all. I would also like to use this platform to mention another close friend of mine and Tom's, who passed away this week, Yosef Tommy Lapid, former deputy prime minister and minister of justice. Both Tom and Tommy grew up in Hungary, lived on the same street one block apart from each other, and they
were both Holocaust survivors saved by the legendary Wallenberg. Tommy was an almost permanent fixture in Israeli public life. He was an articulate, sharp and courageous publicist and politician, but above all, he was a true and loyal friend. The void left by these great men in their passing is as deep as the impact they made in their lives.

Ladies and gentlemen,
As you know all too well, the situation between Israel and its neighbors, the Palestinians and the other Arab states, is sensitive and complex. My responsibility as Prime Minister, and that of every government in Israel, is first and foremost for the security of its citizens, and we will never compromise on this principle. Israel will never capitulate to terrorism or choose appeasement in the face of evil. Our stand in this regard is unequivocal and is completely on a par with the policies of President Bush and his administration. We will continue to exercise our inalienable right
to defend ourselves against all acts of aggression and we will prevail!

At the same time, we will never abandon our efforts to achieve peace and reconciliation with our neighbors, as we truly believe that only real peace can ultimately provide the security we all deserve. While we actively pursue peace, we cannot ignore the numerous pitfalls on the path to peace and those forces in the region which seek to sabotage any hope of peace between Israel
and its neighbors.

The most serious and imminent threat to global security and stability is undoubtedly Iran. Iran is the world's largest exporter of terrorism, a fundamentalist dictatorship, motivated by utter contempt for the values represented by the free world and an uninhibited ambition to achieve military superiority and regional
hegemony. It openly calls for the elimination of Israel and actively seeks nuclear capabilities to enable it to translate its sinister plans into action. Iran's fingerprints are evident in almost every terrorist organization across the Middle East, from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip to Hizballah in Lebanon. Hizballah, Iran's major protégé, receives its directives, ammunition and finances directly from Tehran, with the help of Syria, and is actively engaged in torpedoing any chance of calm
in Lebanon. Its long-standing record as a ruthless terrorist organization has earned Hizballah a place of honor on almost every list of global terrorist organizations. I urge you to work together with us to include Hizballah in the terrorist list of the European Union and encourage other countries to do the same.

The Iranian threat must be stopped by all possible means. International economic and political sanctions on Iran, as crucial as they may be, are only an initial step, and must be dramatically increased. Iran's defiance of international resolutions and its continued tactics of deception and denial leave no doubt as to the urgent need for more drastic and robust measures.

The sanctions must be clearly defined and religiously enforced. Any
willingness to overlook Iranian violations or justify Iran's questionable tactics will immediately be interpreted as a sign of weakness and will only encourage them to proceed with more vigor.

The international community has a duty and responsibility to clarify to Iran, through drastic measures, that the repercussions of their continued pursuit of nuclear weapons will be devastating. The sanctions initiated by the UN are of immense importance, as they represent a unified stand by a large number of nations, but sanctions should also be initiated by individual countries which have dealings with Iran. Each and every country must understand that the long-term cost of a nuclear Iran greatly outweighs
the short-term benefits of doing business with Iran. While Iran may be a large oil exporter, it imports almost half of its refined oil products.

Sanctions can be imposed on the export of gasoline to Iran and they can be imposed on countries which refine gasoline for Iran. Governments should announce that Iranian businessmen are no longer welcome in their countries, and that funds arriving from or channeled to Iran should not be transferred through their banks.
Israel and the United States have long understood the acute danger embodied in a nuclear Iran, and are working closely in a concerted, coordinated effort to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear. Israel will not tolerate the possibility of a nuclear Iran, and neither should any other country in the free world.

Dear friends,
On May 21, Israel and Syria simultaneously announced the start of
negotiations for comprehensive peace, under the auspices of Turkey, based on the principles of the 1991 Madrid Conference. Syria is currently a threat to regional stability, but if it ultimately makes the choice to have peace relations with Israel, for which it will have to disengage from its allies in the Axis of Evil, this will constitute a drastic, strategic shift in the entire Middle East. Iran's negative response to this process can serve as an
indication of the benefits embodied in it.

Peace between Israel and Syria is a clear Israeli interest, but it is also a Syrian one. I know all too well the fears, suspicions and criticism which have always surrounded the Israeli-Syrian negotiations, and I do not take them lightly. I can only assure you that any future agreement, if and when it is reached, will be backed by all the necessary security guarantees, and that I will never compromise on anything which could undermine Israel's
security or vital interests.

While the negotiations with Syria are only at a very initial stage, the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are continuous and intensive. The Annapolis meeting in November 2007, initiated by President Bush, launched this process and outlined the principles underlying it, and we have been proceeding on this basis ever since. The current leadership in the Palestinian Authority, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, presents a rare opportunity to achieve an agreement. President Abbas and his government recognize Israel's right to live in security and are as committed as we are to achieving peace. They know full well that the path of terrorism only condemns the Palestinian people to misery and hopelessness, and have a genuine desire to see a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, in peace. I am wholeheartedly convinced that we are at a critical crossroads, and that this opportunity must not be missed. My obligation, as Prime Minister, is to explore every avenue to reach an understanding, and I truly believe that now, perhaps for the first time ever, it is attainable.

President Abbas and I have met many times over the past two years, and the two teams have been meeting on a weekly basis in a serious effort to achieve a historic breakthrough in the course of 2008. The negotiations cover all outstanding issues between us, and the agreement, if and when it is reached, will reflect the vision introduced to the world by President Bush in June 2002, and its implementation will be subject to the Roadmap. Israel entered
this bilateral process with the Palestinians in good faith and with a genuine willingness to make the necessary compromises. The time for both parties to make difficult decisions is soon approaching. I believe that the leadership of Israel and the people of Israel are ready for it, and hope that when the moment of truth finally arrives, the Palestinian leadership will respond to the challenge.

The moderate, responsible Arab states, headed by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, could play an important role in this process. These nations, which want to promote peace and which fully recognize the direct threat to them posed by a nuclear Iran and by foreign and domestic extremism, now have a golden opportunity to support a process of normalization and reconciliation with Israel, which will isolate Iran and the extremists and help foil their
pursuit of regional dominance. I hope they will choose to take a
constructive part and create an environment which is conducive to the peace negotiations currently taking place between Israel and its neighbors.

A clear distinction must be made between the Palestinian Authority, headed by President Abbas, and the Hamas terrorist organization, operating in and controlling Gaza. Israel has never, nor will it ever, negotiate with Hamas, as long as it refuses to accept the three principles set forth by the international community. The reality on Israel's southern border is intolerable. Tens of thousands of innocent Israeli citizens live daily in constant fear and anxiety, under a barrage of missiles, serving as pawns in
a cruel, malicious game of roulette played by the Hamas and its cronies in the Gaza Strip. While we have no desire to see the uninvolved Palestinian population in Gaza suffer, we cannot be expected to accept a situation that no other nation in the world would tolerate.

You have just seen and heard the brave people of Sderot. Sderot and the other communities in the south of Israel have, over the past seven years, suffered the largest number of missiles launched from the Gaza Strip. These good, hard-working citizens, demonstrate incredible courage and fortitude in their daily struggle to conduct seemingly normal lives in an impossible, incomprehensible situation, and they are an inspiration to us all.

Members of Congress,
I turn to each and every one of you and ask - if one city, one small city in your state, in your district, was bombed, not even on a daily basis, but just once, with one single missile, what would you do? Would you not demand that your government stand up immediately and take the necessary action to defend your citizens? Would you not expect the entire international community to unequivocally denounce the group responsible for these atrocities? Would you not look to your government to provide a solution?

Israel will not be deterred by a large military operation in Gaza if and when we come to the conclusion that this is the best way to restore calm on our southern border, but the fact that no such operation has yet taken place does not imply that we are not taking action. The battle against the terrorists in Gaza is a daily and continuous one. Every day, the government and the security forces weigh all possible alternatives, and make the choice which we believe is the wisest and most effective.

Hopefully, our dialogue with the Palestinians will ripen into an agreement which will clearly show the Palestinian public that there is an alternative to violence and that the key to living in prosperity, honor and dignity lies in reconciliation with Israel.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends of Israel,
In the sixty years since our founding, we transformed a barren land into a prosperous state, and turned swamps and deserts into modern, flourishing cities. We have founded a strong and vibrant democracy, absorbed millions of Jewish immigrants from across the globe, and created a world class, ground-breaking economy. All this was achieved despite wars and continuous threats to Israel's security. However, the great mission of attaining peace with our Palestinian neighbors and the other Arab states is still ahead of us.

Recently, Jews around the world read in the weekly Torah portion about God's decree to the Jewish people. After explaining the ensuing prosperity should the Jewish people follow hiscommandments, G-d declares I will provide peace in the land, and you will lie down with none to frighten you.

(Leviticus, ch 19 vs. 5)
A classical interpretation of the order of these passages suggests that while prosperity follows commitment to G-d's commandments, its value is meaningless if there is no peace. According to G-d's precedence, peace is of greater value than all material things combined.

We must believe that peace is a possibility, and strive to make it a reality, and I assure you that I will spare no energy and leave no stone unturned in my efforts to secure a better future for the people of Israel in the Jewish State. This is my duty, this is my obligation and this will be my contribution to my people.

I also take this opportunity to stress, once again, that the Government of Israel will spare no effort to bring our three captive sons home - Gilad Shalit, who is being held by Hamas in Gaza, and Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured by Hizballah almost two years ago. This is the State of Israel's absolute commitment, and I am sure that you all share our
strong desire to see them home safely.

The AIPAC Policy Conference is an ideal platform for me to express, on behalf of the people of Israel, my admiration and gratitude to a remarkable friend, President George W. Bush. Without the President's personal involvement, the bilateral process between Israel and the Palestinians may never have progressed. Yet, despite his desire to see peace in the region, the President never expected Israel to compromise its security. His recent visit to Israel on the occasion of our 60th anniversary, and his inspiring,
memorable speech at the Knesset, were the ultimate expression of America's unshakable commitment to Israel's security and well-being. The people of Israel will always remember, appreciate and cherish President Bush's understanding, friendship and support.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Given the recent political developments in Israel, of which I am sure you are all aware, I hesitated as to whether it was the right time and the right thing to leave everything behind and meet with you today. I didn't hesitate for too long. Your friendship to Israel, your dedication to consolidating the strategic bond between Israel and the United States and your steadfast commitment to Israel's security and welfare have all inspired me. Israeli
politics is accustomed to all kinds of trials and tribulations, but your love and support for the State of Israel provides a powerful foundation, a solid rock on which we know we can always rely, in good times and in times of crisis. One of the most fundamental pillars of Israel's national security is its alliance with the United States, and you have dedicated your lives to ensuring that not only will this alliance never weaken or fail, but that it
will grow stronger and deeper.

I thank you for giving me this opportunity to address you this evening. When I see all of you here, I know that my country is truly blessed. Thank you.

Remarks By John McCain at AIPAC
June 2, 2008

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain delivered the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., today at 9:45 a.m. EDT:

Thank you all very much. I appreciate the kind introduction, and the invitation to address you. I see we have some students here, including a few from Arizona, and I welcome you to Washington. It's a pleasure, as always, to be in the company of the men and women of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. And I know that all of us are proud to be in the company of the distinguished senator from the State of Connecticut, my friend Joe Lieberman.

All of you involved in the work of AIPAC have taken up a great and vital cause – and a cause set firmly in the American heart. When President Truman recognized the new State of Israel sixty years ago, he acted on the highest ideals and best instincts of our country. He was a man with courage and a sense of history, and he surely knew what great challenges the Jewish state would face in its early years. To his lasting credit, he resolved that the people of Israel would not face them alone, because they would always have a friend and ally in the United States of America.

The cause of Israel, and of our common security, has always depended on men and women of courage, and I've been lucky enough to know quite a few of them. I think often of one in particular, the late Senator Henry Scoop Jackson. I got to know Senator Jackson when I was the Navy liaison to the Senate. In 1979, I traveled with him to Israel, where I knew he was considered a hero. But I had no idea just how admired he was until we landed in Tel Aviv, to find a crowd of seven or eight hundred Israelis calling out his name, waving signs that read God Bless you, Scoop and Senator Jackson, thank you. Scoop Jackson had the special respect of the Jewish people, the kind of respect accorded to brave and faithful friends. He was and remains the model of what an American statesman should be.

The people of Israel reserve a special respect for courage, because so much courage has been required of them. In the record of history, sheer survival in the face of Israel's many trials would have been impressive enough. But Israel has achieved much more than that these past sixty years. Israel has endured, and thrived, and her people have built a nation that is an inspiration to free nations everywhere.

Yet no matter how successful the nation of Israel, or how far removed from the Holocaust, there are experiences that will never pass from memory. Not long ago I was in Jerusalem with Senator Lieberman and our colleague Lindsey Graham, and we went to the Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. And for all the boundless examples of cruelty and inhumanity to be found there, for all the pain and grief remembered there, somehow I was especially moved by the story of the camp survivors who died from the very nourishment given to them by their liberators. They had starved and suffered so much that their bodies were too weak even for food. They endured it all, only to die at the moment of their deliverance.

These are the kind of experiences that the Jewish people carry in memory – and they are far from the worst experiences of the Holocaust. These are the kind of griefs and afflictions from which the State of Israel offered escape. And today, when we join in saying never again, that is not a wish, a request, or a plea to the enemies of Israel. It is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us.

The threats to Israel's security are large and growing, and America's commitment must grow as well. I strongly support the increase in military aid to Israel, scheduled to begin in October. I am committed to making certain Israel maintains its qualitative military edge. Israel's enemies are too numerous, its margin of error too small, and our shared interests and values too great for us to follow any other policy.

Foremost in all our minds is the threat posed by the regime in Tehran. The Iranian president has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and suggested that Israel's Jewish population should return to Europe. He calls Israel a stinking corpse that is on its way to annihilation. But the Iranian leadership does far more than issue vile insults. It acts in ways directly detrimental to the security of Israel and the United States.

A sponsor of both Hamas and Hezbollah, the leadership of Iran has repeatedly used violence to undermine Israel and the Middle East peace process. It has trained, financed, and equipped extremists in Iraq who have killed American soldiers fighting to bring freedom to that country. It remains the world's chief sponsor of terrorism and threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East, from Basra to Beirut.

Tehran's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons poses an unacceptable risk, a danger we cannot allow. Emboldened by nuclear weapons, Iran would feel free to sponsor terrorist attacks against any perceived enemy. Its flouting of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty would render that agreement obsolete and could induce Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others to join a nuclear arms race. The world would have to live, indefinitely, with the possibility that Tehran might pass nuclear materials or weapons to one of its allied terrorist networks. Armed as well with its ballistic missile arsenal, an Iranian nuclear bomb would pose an existential threat to the people of Israel.

European negotiators have proposed a peaceful endgame for Tehran, should it abandon its nuclear ambitions and comply with UN Security Council resolutions. The plan offers far-reaching economic incentives, external support for a civilian nuclear energy program, and integration into the international community. But Tehran has said no.

The Iranians have spent years working toward a nuclear program. And the idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history. In reality, a series of administrations have tried to talk to Iran, and none tried harder than the Clinton administration. In 1998, the secretary of state made a public overture to the Iranians, laid out a roadmap to normal relations, and for two years tried to engage. The Clinton administration even lifted some sanctions, and Secretary Albright apologized for American actions going back to the 1950s. But even under President Khatami – a man by all accounts less radical than the current president – Iran rejected these overtures.

Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before. Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.

Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on. Essential to this strategy is the UN Security Council, which should impose progressively tougher political and economic sanctions. Should the Security Council continue to delay in this responsibility, the United States must lead like-minded countries in imposing multilateral sanctions outside the UN framework. I am proud to have been a leader on these issues for years, having coauthored the 1992 Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act. Over a year ago I proposed applying sanctions to restrict Iran's ability to import refined petroleum products, on which it is highly dependent, and the time has come for an international campaign to do just that. A severe limit on Iranian imports of gasoline would create immediate pressure on Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to change course, and to cease in the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

At the same time, we need the support of those in the region who are most concerned about Iran, and of our European partners as well. They can help by imposing targeted sanctions that will impose a heavy cost on the regime's leaders, including the denial of visas and freezing of assets.

As a further measure to contain and deter Iran, the United States should impose financial sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, which aids in Iran's terrorism and weapons proliferation. We must apply the full force of law to prevent business dealings with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. I was pleased to join Senators Lieberman and Kyl in backing an amendment calling for the designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization responsible for killing American troops in Iraq. Over three quarters of the Senate supported this obvious step, but not Senator Obama. He opposed this resolution because its support for countering Iranian influence in Iraq was, he said, a wrong message not only to the world, but also to the region. But here, too, he is mistaken. Holding Iran's influence in check, and holding a terrorist organization accountable, sends exactly the right message – to Iran, to the region and to the world.

We should privatize the sanctions against Iran by launching a worldwide divestment campaign. As more people, businesses, pension funds, and financial institutions across the world divest from companies doing business with Iran, the radical elite who run that country will become even more unpopular than they are already. Years ago, the moral clarity and conviction of civilized nations came together in a divestment campaign against South Africa, helping to rid that nation of the evil of apartheid. In our day, we must use that same power and moral conviction against the regime in Iran, and help to safeguard the people of Israel and the peace of the world.

In all of this, we will not only be defending our own safety and welfare, but also the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people. They are a great and civilized people, with little sympathy for the terrorists their leaders finance, and no wish to threaten other nations with nuclear weapons. Iran's rulers would be very different if the people themselves had a choice in the matter, and American policy should always reflect their hopes for a freer and more just society. The same holds true for the Palestinian people, most of whom ask only for a better life in a less violent world.

They are badly served by the terrorist-led group in charge of Gaza. This is a group that still refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, refuses to denounce violence, and refuses to acknowledge prior peace commitments. They deliberately target Israeli civilians, in an attempt to terrorize the Jewish population. They spread violence and hatred, and with every new bombing they set back the cause of their own people.

During my last visit to Israel in March, I saw for myself the work of Hamas in the town of Sderot, just across the border from Gaza. I saw the houses that have been hit by Hamas rockets. In the face of injuries, death, and destruction thousands of Israelis have fled the town. Many others have stayed, to carry on as best they can. I visited the home of a man named Pinhas Amar, who lives with his disabled wife, Aliza, and their children. One day, last year, the sirens sounded again to alert the town to incoming rocket fire. The rest of the family found cover. Aliza, on the other side of the house, was knocked out of her wheelchair and struck by shrapnel.

This occurred on December 13. And from that day until the day of my visit just some three months later, more than a thousand rockets had struck Sderot. Today, siren warnings are commonplace, the elementary schools are surrounded by concrete shelters and children walking the streets in costume for Purim celebrations did so in fear. No nation in the world would allow its population to be attacked so incessantly, to be killed and intimidated so mercilessly, without responding. And the nation of Israel is no exception.

Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are engaged in talks that all of us hope will yield progress toward peace. Yet while we encourage this process, we must also ensure that Israel's people can live in safety until there is a Palestinian leadership willing and able to deliver peace. A peace process that places faith in terrorists can never end in peace. And we do no favors to the Palestinian people by conferring approval upon the terrorist syndicate that has seized power in Gaza.

Likewise, Israel's chance for enduring peace with Lebanon depends on Lebanese government that has a monopoly on authority within its country's borders. That means no independent militias, no Hezbollah fighters, no weapons and equipment flowing to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah fighters recently took up arms against their fellow Lebanese, starting the worst internal fighting since the civil war ended in 1990. In the process, they extracted an agreement for a new political arrangement in which Hezbollah and its allies can veto any cabinet decision. As the leader of Hezbollah often reminds us, this group's mission is the defeat of Israel. The international community needs to more fully empower our allies in Lebanon – not only with military aid but also with the resources to undermine Hezbollah's appeal: better schools, hospitals, roads and power generation, and the like. We simply cannot afford to cede Lebanon's future to Syria and Iran.

And we have an additional task. In the summer of 2006, Hamas and Hezbollah kidnapped three young Israelis – Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev, and Ehud Goldwasser – and have held them ever since. I met with the families of two of these men in December 2006, and heard firsthand about their ordeal. I committed then to bring attention to their situation, to insist that the Geneva Conventions are observed, and to call for the swift release of these men. These men are being unlawfully held, and they must be set free and returned home to Israel.

Another matter of great importance to the security of both America and Israel is Iraq. You would never know from listening to those who are still caught up in angry arguments over yesterday's options, but our troops in Iraq have made hard-won progress under General Petraeus' new strategy. And Iraqi political leaders have moved ahead – slowly and insufficiently, but forward nonetheless. Sectarian violence declined dramatically, Sunnis in Anbar province and throughout Iraq are cooperating in the fight against al Qaeda, and Shia extremist militias no longer control Basra – the Maliki government and its forces are in charge. Al Qaeda terrorists are on the run, and our troops are going to make sure they never come back.

It's worth recalling that America's progress in Iraq is the direct result of the new strategy that Senator Obama opposed. It was the strategy he predicted would fail, when he voted cut off funds for our forces in Iraq. He now says he intends to withdraw combat troops from Iraq – one to two brigades per month until they are all removed. He will do so regardless of the conditions in Iraq, regardless of the consequences for our national security, regardless of Israel's security, and in disregard of the best advice of our commanders on the ground.

This course would surely result in a catastrophe. If our troops are ordered to make a forced retreat, we risk all-out civil war, genocide, and a failed state in the heart of the Middle East. Al Qaeda terrorists would rejoice in the defeat of the United States. Allowing a potential terrorist sanctuary would profoundly affect the security of the United States, Israel, and our other friends, and would invite further intervention from Iraq's neighbors, including an emboldened Iran. We must not let this happen. We must not leave the region to suffer chaos, terrorist violence and a wider war.

My friends, as the people of Israel know better than most, the safety of free people can never be taken for granted. And in a world full of dangers, Israel and the United States must always stand together.

The State of Israel stands as a singular achievement in many ways, and not the least is its achievement as the great democracy of the Middle East. If there are ties between America and Israel that critics of our alliance have never understood, perhaps that is because they do not fully understand the love of liberty and the pursuit of justice. But they should know those ties cannot be broken. We were brought together by shared ideals and by shared adversity. We have been comrades in struggle, and trusted partners in the quest for peace. We are the most natural of allies. And, like Israel itself, that alliance is forever.

Thank you.