“Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

The Palestinian Front

Poll: Nearly 50% of Palestinians want PA to accept int'l terms
By Reuters Haaretz 3-26-07

Some 48 percent of respondents want the Hamas-Fatah coalition to meet the international demands - a step that would mean an end to a punishing year-long boycott of the Palestinian Authority that has driven many Palestinians deeper into poverty.

How greed, hatred and corruption engulfed a Palestinian village in sewage
By Reuven Koret Israel Insider March 30, 2007

The worst may lie ahead, since the underlying problems are not being addressed. Further deadly sewage floods are feared. The collapse has been blamed on residents stealing sand from an embankment. Funds and intended for improving infrastructure were diverted for making weapons to attack Israel.

'Islam will enter every house'
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar: Religion of Islam will take over entire world
By Yaakov Lappin Yediot Aharonot 3-27-07

Islam will enter "every house" and become the dominant religion across the entire planet, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said during a mass rally in Gaza this week. . . . Commenting on Zahar's comments, PMW Director Itamar Marcus and Associate Director Barbara Crook wrote: "While the Hamas goal of destroying Israel is well known, its aspiration for Islamic subjugation of the entire world is just as basic to Hamas dogma."

Exclusive: Sheikh’s murder highlights new power struggle
By Khaled Abu Toameh Jerusalem Post Apr. 1, 2007

The assassination over the weekend of a prominent sheikh in Gaza City has brought to the surface a behind-the-scenes power struggle that has been raging in recent months between Hamas and a new al-Qaida-affiliated group identified with Salafism - a school of thought that takes the pious ancestors (Salaf) of the patristic period of early Islam as exemplary models.

The Saudi Shuffle

On March 3, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad paid his first official visit to Saudi Arabia. . . . That should not have been surprising. After all, while Iran and Saudi Arabia may share certain short-term interests, they embody the fundamentally conflicting forces that could potentially fuel a Middle Eastern clash of civilizations.

Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Tuesday that if Israel rejects the Arab peace proposal, its fate will be determined by the "lords of war."

The Arab initiative /The last chance summit
By Zvi Bar’el Haaretz 3-29-07

The warm embrace Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah gave Syria's Bashar Assad, with whom he did not speak for the past eight months, was the only sign of political romance evident in the summit that has already been described as "the summit of the last chance for peace." Because the sum of the internal conflicts between Syria and Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Fatah and Hamas, the Arab states and Iran, and inside Iraq itself, suggest not for the first time that there are major question marks regarding the strength and abilities of the Arab League.

Olmert: 'Not one refugee can return'
By Herb Keinon and David Horovitz Jerusalem Post Mar. 30, 2007

Olmert reiterated that Israel would not accept the return to Israel of any refugees. It is "out of the question," he said. "I'll never accept a solution that is based on their return to Israel, any number."

The Region

Syria decided to destabilize Lebanon’s Chouf region
YaLibnan Beirut, Lebanon 1 April, 2007

According to Lebanese security sources, the Syrian intelligence headquarters has decided to destabilize the Chouf region of Mount Lebanon, to divert the attention away from the International tribunal and to send a clear message to Walid Jumblatt.

Lebanon house speaker refuses to open session
By Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon Jerusalem Post Apr. 3, 2007

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key opposition figure, locked out pro-government lawmakers from the chamber Tuesday, refusing to call the legislature into session to approve an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of a former prime minister. . . .

The power struggle has paralyzed other branches of the government. President Emile Lahoud, a staunch pro-Syrian Christian, is boycotted by his prime minister and his allies in the anti-Syrian majority. Saniora also is in dispute with Berri. Berri and Lahoud consider the Cabinet unconstitutional after six pro-Hezbollah Cabinet ministers - all five Shi'ite Muslim representatives and a Christian - resigned in November.

A Change in Attitude, Lebanon as a Model
By Abdullah Iskandar Al-Hayat 4-1-07

Interesting analysis at Al-Hayat of the recent Arab Summit with inclusion of Syria and the recent international diplomatic visits to Syria by Pelosi Ki-moon and EU officials.

PM invites Arab leaders to peace summit
By Herb Keinon Jerusalem Post Apr. 1, 2007

"I am proposing a meeting of all the heads of the Arab states, including - obviously - the Saudi king, who I see as a very important leader, to have discussions with us," Olmert said at a Jerusalem press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. . . . Olmert said there was a "significant gap" between the Israeli and Arab positions, but that "in a correct, responsible and careful process we can move forward toward negotiations."

US says Olmert offer on Arab talks 'positive'
Washington hails prime minister's call to hold talks with Arab leaders on Saudi-drafted plan for Middle East peace.
AFP Yediot Aharonot 4-3-07

"The idea that the Israelis and Arab states could get together in some form, just to have initial discussions about where the situation stood and the ideas and proposals for how to move a process of reconciliation forward, is positive," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

'Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah preparing for summer war'
By Herb Keinon and Yaakov Katz Jerusalem Post Apr. 1, 2007

OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin: stressed that the enemy preparations were of a defensive nature. The IDF has noticed, however, "an increase in the potential for instability" in the Middle East due to a number of processes, including the American "failure" in Iraq.

Viewpoints Worth Considering

Drawing ideological lines in concrete
By Andrew Silow-Carroll Jerusalem Post Mar. 28, 2007

I once heard the leader of a large European Jewish community lament, "I can't talk to the people I pray with, and I can't pray with the people I can talk to."

You can call that the dirge of the centrist, but that's not quite it. I think what he meant is that his own Jewish community had grown needlessly polarized, and that each side had staked out orthodoxies (with a small "o") that served to exclude the other side. The religious community had begun to discourage critical thinking; the secular community disparaged religious observance.

View From America: Standing against the tide
By Jonathan Tobin Jerusalem Post Mar. 28, 2007

Israel Prayer Pick/Quote of the Week: Lamenting the fervor of the stop-the-war crowd and the corresponding growing apathy about the war on terror, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Ind.-Conn.) noted "there is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism."

In the end there may be a putsch (a coup, a takeover)
By Gideon Samet Haaretz 3-28-07

Israeli politics have already proven the degree to which they are controlled by Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will. That is how we must relate to the story of the settlement Homesh. It was evacuated according to law, and its residents received alternative housing and compensation. In a farce that has been familiar since the early days of the Hebron settlers on Pesach eve 39 years ago, a discussion is now resuming in Homesh between violators of the law and those who enforce it. It is liable to end badly, in the same way a handful of extremists in the territories has become over a quarter million settlers on the West Bank.

The Un-righteousness of the 'Righteous'

Welcome to Settler Nation. Now, obey!
By Bradley Burston A Special Place in Hell column Haaretz 3-26-07

Spring is here, and the radical settler movement has a message for you: We're in charge. Resistance is futile. We know what's good for you. Learn to take your medicine. Here's the way it should be, and sooner or later, that's the way it will be.

Eschatology You Can Do Business With
The religious left makes its peace with Ahmadinejad's Madhist doctrine.
by Mark D. Tooley The Weekly Standard 03/29/2007

GERALD SHENK, who teaches at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Virginia, attended a theology conference on "Madhist doctrine" in Teheran last September. (For many Shiite Muslims, the Twelfth Imam is the Mahdi, or messianic savior, who returns at the end times to establish a reign of righteousness. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prophesied about the Twelfth Imam's glorious return when he addressed the United Nations last October.) Apparently Shenk liked a lot of what he heard and he has written about it in a current issue of Presbyterian Outlook.

Police stop planned goat sacrifice on Temple Mount
By Jerusalem Post staff Apr. 2, 2007

Right-wing activist Noam Federman was detained for questioning Monday afternoon after police at the Dung Gate of Jerusalem's Old City prevented Federman and several other activists from entering the Temple Mount compound, where they reportedly intended to sacrifice a goat.

Israelprayer notes: What's wrong with Jews sacrificing on the Temple Mount? Nothing...providing you don't mind the unleashing of a worldwide Islamic war of Biblical proportions against the Jews of Israel. Christians need to wake up to the real facts on the ground and begin to discern what they are really backing in terms of Jewish groups (even rabbinic!) who advocate taking possession of the Temple Mount or committing acts like sacrificing on the mount which would surely ignite an immediate genocidal rage.

Religious Courts Challenged

Hostile takeover
By Israel Harel Haaretz 3-22-07

When 15 rabbinic court judges, 12 of whom are ultra-Orthodox, were selected Monday, this was another step - whose significance is difficult to overestimate - toward deepening the rift between the religious and the secular.

Tzohar rabbis petition court over judges
By Jerusalem Post Mar. 27, 2007

The decision to submit the petition was made last week, after the presence of 12 haredi rabbis among the new judges caused an uproar in the National-Religious and women's rights camps. According to the Tzohar group, the fact that most of the new judges are haredi and never served in the army will significantly impact both the functioning of the court and the public's trust in it.

Jews' History in Jerusalem Ancient

First Temple wall found in City of David
By Etgar Lefkovits Jerusalem Post Mar. 29, 2007

A wall from the First Temple was recently uncovered in Jerusalem's City of David, strengthening the claim that it is the site of the palace of King David, an Israeli archeologist said Thursday. The new find, made by Dr. Eilat Mazar, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center's Institute for the Archeology of the Jewish People, comes less than two years after she said she had discovered the palace's location at the site just outside the walls of the Old City. The monumental 10th century BCE building found by Mazar in 2005 following a six month dig has ignited debate among archaeologists about whether it is indeed the palace built for the victorious David by King Hiram of Tyre as recounted in Samuel II:5.