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Iran denounces Western support for Israel

2008-09-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

A former Iranian president warned the West on Friday that its support for Israel would backfire, as hundreds of thousands of people staged rallies in support of Muslim claims to the holy city of Jerusalem.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is still considered influential in Iranian politics, said the U.S., Britain and France back Israel — and this is dangerous.

"They will put themselves in trouble, eventually," Rafsanjani said during a Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran marking "Al-Quds Day." Al-Quds is the Arabic word for Jerusalem.

Israel could "take tougher and more offensive action" than the United States against Iran and the Arab world, warned Rafsanjani.

State-run television also aired clips on Friday featuring hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York. The president, who is in the U.S. for the U.N. General Assembly meeting, said Israel does not have support among ordinary people in America.

He also chided hundreds of demonstrators who protested against him during his trip, calling it a "big failure for them."

The latest anti-Israel remarks by Iranian leaders come as hundreds of thousands rallied in cities across the Persian country to protest Israel's continued hold on Jerusalem, the city where Muslims believe Islam's Prophet Muhammad began his journey to heaven.

In the capital, Tehran, demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" to commemorate "Al-Quds Day." Some protesters also burned American and Israeli flags.

Tehran's Jewish community also participated in the rally, according to a statement by the Tehran Central Jewish Committee, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press.

Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran has observed the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as "Al-Quds Day," as a way of expressing support to the Palestinians and emphasizing the importance of Jerusalem to Muslims.

Rallies were also held in the Syrian capital of Damascus to mark Al-Quds. More than 3,000 people gathered at the Yarmouk refugee camp carrying Palestinian flags and anti-Israeli banners. The rally was attended by several officials from Syria-based Palestinian factions, including Ahmed Jibril from the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General-Command.

"This day is a day of popular anger in the Arab and Islamic nations. It is directed toward all those who are colluding against Palestine and Jerusalem," Jibril said, in apparent reference to Arab nations that have relations with Israel.

Hamas says PA cracks down on West Bank charities

2008-08-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Islamic Hamas movement on Saturday said the Palestinian Authority (PA) was maintaining a campaign to shut down charities and local aid organizations in West Bank.

The PA's "frantic campaign has targeted many charities and service organizations by storming, closing and confiscating the belongings of these organizations," Hamas said in a statement.

The statement said that the organizations are targeted "without any legal justification, just under the claim that they were close to Hamas. In many cases, the campaign targeted private businesses under a shameless accusation that the owners receive money from Hamas."

The PA forces last week shut down four charities and two printing houses in West Bank city of Hebron for sponsoring factional activities for Hamas.

The closure comes as Israel also launched a similar crackdown against Hamas institutions in West Bank, mainly in Nablus city, in an effort to end the Islamic movement's civil infrastructure.

But in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Hamas closed dozens of civil organizations it considered affiliated with Fatah after it accused President Mahmoud Abbas' party of being implicated in a beachside blast that killed a girl and five Hamas members.

The explosion took place last month and Hamas continued arresting Fatah supporters and closing their organization in the toughest crackdown against the movement in months.

Last year, Hamas took control of Gaza Strip after routing pro-Abbas forces and driving out Fatah leaders to West Bank.

Hamas warns of uprising against Palestinian security forces, Israel

2008-07-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

The Islamic Hamas movement warned Tuesday that it would wage a new Intifada, or uprising, against Israel and Palestinian security forces in the West Bank if arrests against Hamas activists continued.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a statement sent to reporters that "Hamas warns of a new Intifada against the occupation and its supplementary tools in the West Bank if the arrests continue."

He accused Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of cooperating with the Israeli army for carrying out "mass arrests and awful crimes against Hamas movement's activists in the West Bank."

"The continuation of the arrest campaigns and raids carried out by Abbas security forces in the West Bank is serving the goal of the Israeli occupation to uproot the movement there," said Abu Zuhri.

Since Saturday, Abbas security forces arrested more than 150 Hamas-affiliated members and activists, including deputy mayor of Nablus, municipal council members, academics and intellectuals, said Hamas.

Meanwhile, Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip arrested around 200 Fatah members and closed down dozens of charities and civil institutions.

Rival Fatah and Hamas began a verbal war and arrest campaigns against each other following a mysterious blast targeting a Hamas militants' car in Gaza late Friday.

Hamas blamed Fatah movement behind the blast which killed five Hamas militants and a child, and wounded around 20 people, but Fatah denied any involvement.

Israel blows up "illegally built" Palestinian home

2008-07-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Israeli security forces blew up a Palestinian four-storey apartment block near East Jerusalem on Monday because Israel said some of the structure had been built without planning permission.

An Israeli police spokesman said security forces had surrounded the structure in the Palestinian suburb of Beit Hanina north of central Jerusalem, before bulldozers began preparing it for demolition. It was blown up in the evening.

"The operation began in the early hours of the morning, the owners were evacuated and the explosion was carried out in the evening once everybody was clear from danger," he said.

Dozens of local residents and their supporters protested against the demolition and called on Palestinian officials for help.

Palestinians complain that Israel unfairly denies building permits to Arabs in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, while encouraging Jews to build there.

The police spokesman said the demolition went ahead after a petition the owners had lodged with Israel's Supreme Court had failed.

"About 1,500 people arrived at 4 a.m. and said 'you have two or three minutes to get out, leave everything behind'," house dweller Wael Awida told Israel's Channel 1 television.

Armoured bulldozers have demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes in the past decade on the grounds they have been built without permission.

Israel, Hezbollah prepare for prisoner swap

2008-07-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

Israel and Lebanon were making final preparations on Monday for a high-profile prisoner swap, with Hezbollah ready to celebrate what it hails as a major victory over its Israeli foes.

Israel is to free five Lebanese prisoners on Wednesday, including a militant held for three decades over a grisly triple murder, in exchange for two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a deadly cross-border raid two years ago that triggered a devastating war in Lebanon.

It is also set to transfer to Lebanon the bodies of almost 200 Palestinian and Lebanese fighters, some from Hezbollah, as well as release a number of Palestinians under the swap mediated by a UN-appointed German diplomat.

The Iranian and Syrian-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah plans a hero's welcome for its fighters, with celebratory banners and flags lining the main highway from the Israeli border at Naqura to the southern port city of Sidon.

"We are a people who will not abandon our detainees in prison," reads one banner, taken from a pledge by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. "Thanks to the weapons of the resistance, we will free our prisoners," says another.

The swap, which still requires final approval from the Israeli cabinet, is expected to take place with Red Cross supervision at around 0600 GMT at the Naqura crossing point on the border.

The Lebanese daily As-Safir, considered close to the Syrian- and Iranian-backed opposition, said: "In a few days, spring will come back... changing the cycle of the seasons."

Al-Akhbar, another pro-opposition daily, said the released prisoners were to appear in public in combat gear.

In contrast to Hezbollah's celebrations, the mood in Israel ahead of the swap is sombre, reflecting the government's belief that the two captured servicemen -- Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev -- are dead.

An Israeli official said the exchange will take place after military authorities identify Regev and Goldwasser, either dead or alive.

Israeli cabinet ministers are expected to give final approval to the deal on Tuesday after being briefed by security officials on a Hezbollah report on the fate of Israeli airman Ron Arad, who went missing after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 during the civil war.

In its report, Hezbollah said Arad had died in captivity, but Israel remains sceptical.

Israel on Monday transferred four Lebanese detainees -- Khaled Zidan, Maher Kurani, Mohammed Sarur and Hussein Suleiman -- to another prison where they joined Samir Kantar, who is serving multiple life sentences for a brutal triple murder in Israel in 1979.

A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said the ICRC was preparing to oversee the prisoner exchange.

"We will bring 11 Red Cross trucks from Jordan to transport the bodies and we will also interview the detainees before they are transferred to Lebanon," Yael Segev Eitan told AFP.

Lebanon is planning a welcoming ceremony in Naqura, a security official said, adding that President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri would later greet the prisoners at Beirut airport.

Hezbollah is staging its own ceremony in its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where a speech by Nasrallah is to be broadcast on a giant television screen.

In June, Hezbollah held celebratory ceremonies when Israel freed and then deported to Lebanon a convicted Hezbollah spy, Nessim Nisr, who had served six years in prison.

At the time, the militant group handed over the remains of Israeli soldiers in what was seen as a confidence-building measure.

Iran 'to target Israel, US bases'

2008-07-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Iran will target "the heart of Israel" and 32 US bases in the Gulf if they launch an attack on Iran, an Iranian official has warned.
The Iranian response would come "before the dust from this attack has settled", Mojtaba Zolnour said.

Mr Zolnour is a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the elite Revolutionary Guards.

His comments come amid fears that Iran could be attacked by the US and Israel over its nuclear programme.

They also followed Iranian missile tests capable of hitting Israel early this week.

Tehran denies Western claims that it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

It has repeatedly rejected demands to halt enriching uranium, which can be used as fuel for power plants or material for weapons if refined to a greater degree.

The European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran in June.

But it has offered a package of incentives to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Iran has said it is prepared to negotiate with major world powers, but insisted the talks must address Iran's nuclear rights.

Israel and U.S. Condemn Iranian Missile Test, Call for Halt

2008-07-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Iran's test-firing of a long-range missile capable of reaching Israel violates United Nations Security Council resolutions and further isolates it from the rest of the world, U.S. officials said.

"We want to tell the world that those who conduct their foreign policy by using the language of threat against Iran have to know that our finger is always on the trigger and we have hundreds and even thousands of missiles ready to be fired against predetermined targets," Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard ground forces, said on state TV

Speculation that Israel could strike Iran has mounted since its air force staged an exercise last month that U.S. officials said involved 100 aircraft. The United States has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear row.

Iran should "refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Israel can't say a damn thing about being Iran violating anything, since there are several Israeli violations of international law including: ILLEGAL ACQUISITION OF LAND BY FORCE, FORBIDDING CIVILIANS THE RIGHT TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES FOLLOWING THE END OF ARMED CONFLICT, ILLEGAL POPULATION TRANSFER, and many others as they continue their holocaust of the Palestinians.

Israel signs prisoners swap deal

2008-07-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

Israel says it has signed an agreement to swap prisoners with the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

A statement from the Israeli government says the deal was signed in front of a UN representative.

The Israelis say implementation of the deal depends on carrying out further steps. It did not say what they are.

Israel will hand over Samir Kantar, serving multiple life terms for a 1979 attack in Israel's north, as well as four Hezbollah prisoners and dozens of bodies of fighters.

In return, Israel is to receive two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid that set off a fierce 34-day war.

Gaza rockets hit Israeli Sderot area despite truce

2008-06-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

Three Qassam rockets fired Tuesday afternoon from the Gaza Strip landed in the Sderot area, five days after a ceasefire enacted between Israel and Palestinian militant groups last week.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded in a statement that the Qassam attack was "a clear violation of the ceasefire understandings."

The Prime Minister's office added that Olmert "warned that the truce may be short-lived. ...Israel has warned against such breaches and will now consider the counter measures at its disposal."

Among the three rockets, one struck a garden in Sderot and two others hit the open area of the western Negev, causing minor property damage, a spokesman of Israeli police Micky Rosenfeld told Xinhua.

One person was lightly wounded in the barrage, and two others were treated for shock, Rosenfeld added.

Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades claimed responsibility for firing the Qassam rockets, according to the website of Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

A statement sent to the media by al-Quds Brigades said the rocket attack was in response to the killing of its commander who was killed on Tuesday morning by Israeli soldiers in Nablus city in the West Bank, where is excluded from the ceasefire.

Media report said Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed two Palestinian militants in Nablus.

But a spokesman of IDF told Xinhua that only one gunman, who was a senior operative of Islamic Jihad, was killed in the joint IDF-Shin Bet operation.

According to the website of local daily Ha'aretz, a 24-year-oldgunman by the name of Iad Hanfar of Hamas was also dead in the raid.

Earlier on Monday night, Palestinians fired a mortar shell at the Negev, the first anti-Israel strike since a ceasefire went into effect in the Gaza Strip last week.

Israeli lawmaker Yisrael Katz (Likud) said "Israel must launch a harsh response to the ceasefire breach."

"The ceasefire has ended even before it began," he added.

Mubarak calls on Hamas, Israel to stick to Gaza truce

2008-06-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday expressed hope in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that Hamas and Israel would stick to an Egyptian-brokered Gaza truce.

Mubarak made the remarks during his talks here with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and they tackled the package of ending violence in Gaza, Egyptian presidential spokesman, Suleiman Awad, told reporters after the meeting.

The two leaders also discussed the latest regional developments including the ongoing negotiations between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel in order to reach a final agreement to establish an independent Palestinian state, Awad said.

"Egypt is exerting arduous efforts to end the violence in Gaza and ready to stabilize the situation there. President Mubarak expressed his hope to achieve a deal conducive to foster the Palestinian Authority," Awad added.

Egypt continues efforts in brokering a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups, to ensure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who were captured by Palestinian militants two years ago, the spokesman said.

Hamas demanded Israel release 450 prisoners it is holding in exchange for Shalit. The London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on Saturday that Shalit's release was being delayed by a cleavage between Israel and Hamas over the fate of 30 Hamas prisoners.

Olmert's visit to Egypt, an active mediator between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, came five days after the truce in Gaza took effect last week.

However, a fresh mortar attack from Gaza and the killing of two Palestinian militants by Israeli troops in the West Bank on Tuesday cast shadow on the talks between Olmert and Mubarak.

Mideast could burn if Iran attacked

2008-06-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief warned in comments aired Saturday that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast into a "ball of fire" and lead the country to a more aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear program.

The comments by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came in an interview with an Arab television station aired a day after U.S. officials said they believed recent large Israeli military exercises may have been meant to show Israel's ability to hit Iran's nuclear sites.

"In my opinion, a military strike will be the worst ... it will turn the Middle East to a ball of fire," ElBaradei said on Al-Arabiya television. It also could prompt Iran to press even harder to seek a nuclear program, and force him to resign, he said.

Iran on Saturday also criticized the Israeli exercises. The official IRNA news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying that the exercises demonstrate Israel "jeopardizes global peace and security."

Israel sent warplanes and other aircraft on a major exercise in the eastern Mediterranean earlier this month, U.S. military officials said Friday. Israel's military refused to confirm or deny that the maneuvers were practice for a strike in Iran, saying only that it regularly trains for various missions to counter threats to the country.

But the exercise the first week of June may have been meant as a show of force as well as a practice on skills needed to execute a long-range strike mission, one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record on the matter.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he prefers that Iran's nuclear ambitions be halted by diplomatic means, but has pointedly declined to rule out military action.

The U.S. says it is seeking a diplomatic resolution to the threat the West sees from Iran's nuclear program, although U.S. officials also have refused to take the threat of military action off the table.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refused to comment on the Israeli maneuvers in an interview with National Public Radio aired Saturday but said: "We are committed to a diplomatic course."

One Israeli lawmaker on Saturday urged caution, saying that the world should first do more to toughen and broaden the sanctions against Iran to persuade its leaders to halt the nuclear program.

Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Israel's parliament, suggested steps including banning Iranian planes, ships and sports delegations from entering Western countries.

"There's a long way to go before diplomatic efforts are exhausted," Hanegbi said. "The sanctions aren't very strong, they are very shallow, there's a lot of room for enhancing them."

Meanwhile, reaction to the Israeli exercises rippled across other parts of the Gulf.

In Dubai, the government-owned Khaleej Times newspaper warned in an editorial Saturday that an attack on Iran by Israel or the United States would have "disastrous consequences for the region."

"A nuclear Iran is in nobody's interest, but military action and armed rehearsals will also not be tolerated," the paper said.

The U.S. and many Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb. Iran has rejected the charges saying its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity not a weapon.

A U.S. intelligence report released late last year concluded that Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program, but Israeli intelligence believes that is incorrect and that work is continuing.

There is precedent for unilateral Israeli action.

In 1981, Israeli jets bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility to end dictator Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Last September, Israel bombed a facility in Syria that U.S. officials have said was a nuclear reactor being constructed with North Korean assistance.

Israel Appears to Practice Iran Attack

2008-06-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

Israel is reported to have carried out a large military exercise that could have been practice for an attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. Officials in Israel have refused to confirm or deny the report which appeared in The New York Times

The New York Times reported Friday that more than 100 Israeli F-15 and F-16 warplanes staged a maneuver over the Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June. The warplanes flew more than 1,400 kilometers, about the distance from Israel to Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. Quoting U.S. officials, the report said the exercise included refueling in midair and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots.

According to The Times, the Israeli military would only say that the air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel."

Israel and the United States believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons, though Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The Iranian president has threatened to wipe the Jewish state "off the map," and that has raised speculation about an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"It's a very plausible scenario," said Israeli analyst Alon Pinkas. "And I would not rule a military strike against Iran, I would not rule it out."

The Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981. But that was just one site, and Pinkas says the situation in Iran is much more complicated.

"In terms of the military capabilities, I think Israel is limited in its ability to hit and strike effectively the entire array of Iran's nuclear program, because it is defused, it is decentralized, it is clandestine and it is underground," he said.

The Times quoted an anonymous Pentagon official as saying that the purpose of the exercise was two-fold: to hone the air force's abilities and to demonstrate to the U.S. and others that Israel might take action on its own if international sanctions against Iran fail.

It is seen as a last resort, but Israeli officials say there is a military option.

Israel, Hamas agree to truce, Egypt says

2008-06-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Pact due to begin Thursday 5 militants also killed in Gaza airstrike

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas have agreed on a truce to begin Thursday, Egypt's state-owned news agency said Tuesday.

A Hamas official in Gaza, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release the information, confirmed the truce.

Israeli officials declined to confirm a deal, but said Israel's negotiator in the truce talks was rushing to Cairo and that they were "cautiously optimistic."

Egypt's MENA agency cited an unnamed high-level Egyptian official as saying that both sides "have agreed on the first phase" of an Egyptian package to end the violence in the Gaza Strip.

'Simultaneous calm'
The first phase is a "mutual and simultaneous calm" that will start at 6 a.m. Thursday, MENA said.

The agreement is designed to end months of daily Palestinian rocket and mortar assaults on Israeli border towns and bruising Israeli retaliation. Egypt has been laboring for months to broker an agreement between Israel and the Islamic militant Hamas, which do not have direct contact with each other.

Gaza militants have been bombarding southern Israel with rockets and mortars for seven years. The rate of fire increased after Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005 and stepped up further last year after Hamas wrested power from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel has responded with pinpoint air and ground attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians, many of them civilians. It has also imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, letting in only limited amounts of humanitarian aid, restricting fuel supplies and widening already rampant unemployment. Ending the economic sanctions by opening Gaza's crossings with Israel and Egypt has been a major Hamas demand in the cease-fire talks.

Official says Syria to keep Hezbollah ties

2008-06-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI, June 17 (UPI) -- Syria's ties with Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups won't be broken as a condition of peace with Israel, the Syrian expatriate minister said in India.

Buthaina Sha'aban compared the Israeli demand that Syria cut ties with Hezbollah and Hamas as an element of peace negotiations to "a demand that the United States shake off its ties with Israel," the Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday.

Sha'aban, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said links to the militant organizations is "a Syrian internal affair that no one should interfere with." She and Assad were in India on a state visit.

The two organizations "are not using violence," she said. "These are organizations opposing the occupation and working to prevent it."

Syria wouldn't cede "a centimeter" of the Golan Heights but would "seriously strive to achieve peace," Sha'aban said.

Meanwhile, in Ankara, Turkey, the second round of Turkish-mediated Israeli-Syrian talks ended, the Post said. A Jerusalem official attending the discussion said talks were conducted in a "a good atmosphere" and the sides agreed to further meetings.

Israel-Gaza violence mounts

2008-06-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Israel continues its holocaust

Eight Palestinians killed and more than 40 wounded Thursday in a daylong of violence between the Israeli army and militant groups in the Gaza Strip, medics, Hamas and witnesses said.

Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency service in the Palestinian health ministry rounded up to reporters the death toll saying eight people were killed and 45 wounded in northern and southern Gaza Strip.

An Islamic Hamas militant was killed and two wounded in a fresh Israeli airstrike on a group of Hamas militants east of Khoza'a village east of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, Hamas armed wing said in a statement.

Read the rest of the article over here at China View

Israel to attack Iran unless enrichment stops

2008-06-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's deputies said on Friday.

"If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Read the rest of the article over at Reuters

Ahmadinejad says Israel to disappear

2008-06-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for vitriolic anti-Israeli rhetoric, has again predicted the demise of Israel, according to Iran's IRNA news agency.

Ahmadinejad latest comment on the eventual disappearance of the Jewish state came Monday at a ceremony honoring the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Accusing Israel of decades of aggression, he said the country "has reached the end of its function and will soon disappear off the geographical domain," IRNA reported.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction. Threatening exchanges between Iran and Israel have intensified since 2005, when Ahmadinejad said in a speech that Israel will one day be "wiped off the map." The Iranian leader has also described the Holocaust as a "myth."

Israel has repeatedly condemned Ahmadinejad's statements but warned that the country is a serious threat because of its efforts to develop a nuclear program and long-range missiles.

After coming to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Khomeini cut relation with Israel and called it an illegitimate entity.

Palestinians depressed over Israel's continuation of settlement activities

2008-05-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Israel so far did not respond to international calls for stopping its settlement activities in the West Bank, Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said on Monday.

"We are engaged in a political process (negotiations) and it is clear that Israel doesn't deal seriously with this process," Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio.

"The only serious thing Israel deals with is the settlement," but Israel, instead, "persists in the settlement process more despite the Palestinian and international calls for stopping it," said the Palestinian official.

For the Palestinians, Israel builds the settlements on what will be their future statehood, threatening the chances of success for the peace negotiations.

The U.S. administration helped reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in November, hoping that the two sides will agree on a Palestinian statehood, living alongside Israel, before the end of President George W. Bush's term.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is also concerned that criminal investigation with Israeli premier Ehud Olmert "may hinder the political process but will not block the settlement activities," Abed Rabbo said.

Is the 60th anniversary of Israel a reason to celebrate?

2008-05-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

On May 14, 1948, almost an entire people was uprooted from their homes. As the Israelis throw the biggest party of all time to celebrate the creation of their state on historic Palestine,the Palestinians in the Diaspora, some six million of them, are still waiting to return home, with no real hope at the end of the tunnel.

Nevertheless they are as determined as ever to fight on for their right to return to their land. This right is sanctified by international law and United Nations resolutions, particularly resolution 194. This right is in fact at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict and all those who are familiar with the conflict have long realized that no settlement, at least a just and lasting one, could be achieved without securing the Palestinians’ right to return.

The year of this extraordinary anniversary could also be the year that the Middle East finally witnesses the real peace settlement and the end of 60 years of Palestinian suffering.

Happy 60th!!!

2008-05-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Not so Cool Facts About Israel