APRIL 8th PREDICTION

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Dec. 15, 2006 1:28 | Updated Dec. 15, 2006 3:21

Solana: No weapons of mass destruction in Middle East

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

Brussels

The European Union wants a Middle East that is free of nuclear weapons, declared EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana late Thursday night at a summit of national leaders in Brussels.

He spoke in response to a query by reporters regarding a comment Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made earlier in the week, in which he appeared to suggest that Israel could possess nuclear arms.

"The European Union does not want to have weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East," Solana said. "It that clear?"

His comments came at the end of the first round of meetings of a two-day summit with heads of state and foreign ministers from 25 EU countries, as well as those of Bulgaria and Romania, whose governments join the EU in January.

At a dinner meeting, the EU foreign minister affirmed a five-point Middle East peace initiative demanding an immediate cease-fire, formation of a Palestinian unity government, the exchange of prisoners between Israel and the Palestinians, talks between Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and an international mission in Gaza to monitor the cease-fire.

Spain, France and Italy first put forward the five-point plan in mid-November. It breaks no new ground, but underscores a European wish to maintain the momentum for peace even as a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians hangs in the balance.

Diplomats said the leaders' statement nudges Syria into doing more for peace and urges Abbas to keep up his efforts to form a government of national unity which would renounce terror, recognize Israel and abide by past diplomatic agreements.

"We continue, of course, to support him and also his efforts to form a government of national unity," said Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

Tuomioja said once such a government is formed, "then we will immediately engage with it."

Solana's spokeswoman Christina Gallach told The Jerusalem Post that when the final Middle East resolution is approved on Friday, all the European Union leaders are expected to call unanimously for the release of the three captive Israeli soldiers.

"The EU has called and will continue to call for the release of the kidnapped soldiers," Gallach said. This summit marks the first time all the EU leaders have met since Hamas kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit on Israel's southern border in June and Hizbullah kidnapped reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser on the northern border in July.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the leaders are expected to issue statements on Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iran.

Gallach said that in those statements the EU leaders would likely push for a return to the road map, as well as the agreements on movement and access for the Palestinians. They would also look at the overall nuclear policy in the region as a whole, said Gallach, but they were not likely to pick up the call by Finland's Defense Minister Seppo Kaariainen for Israel to clarify Olmert's remarks on Israel's nuclear capacity.

It was expected that the EU leaders would look to shore up Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora in his political struggle against Hizbullah, said Gallach.

With respect to Iran, according to a source in the EU, the leaders were expected to continue to push for diplomatic initiatives that would prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even though they continue to sanction that country's development of enriched uranium for civilian use.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...rticle/ShowFull

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Middle East facing 'worst crisis' in years, EU says

15.12.2006 - 17:11 CET | By Andrew Rettman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday (15 December) said the Middle East is facing one of the "worst crises in years" after fighting broke out on Friday between rival Palestinian factions and Lebanon continues to stand on the verge of internal conflict.

"The Israeli-Arab conflict is at the heart of this crisis," the EU said, urging Israel and Palestine to live "side-by-side" on the basis of a 1967 UN agreement on borders and agreeing to an extension until March 2007 of the EU's so-called "TIM" aid mechanism that delivers cash while bypassing Hamas militants.

The violence in Palestine began when gunmen fired on Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniya, killing a bodyguard and injuring his son, while he was going through the EU-controlled Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza in a fire-fight that forced the 80 or so EU customs officials to flee.

Hamas said the move was an assassination attempt by Fatah, a rival political faction controlled by Mahmoud Abbas which is considered more friendly to western and Israeli ideas on conflict resolution, with supporters of the two factions engaging in skirmishes throughout the region on Friday.

In broader statements on Middle East problems, Europe repeated calls for Palestinian and Lebanese kidnappers to release three Israeli soldiers being held hostage since summer and urged Jerusalem to "stop violations of Lebanese airspace by the Israeli air force" at a tense time in Lebanon following the murder of pro-western industry minister Pierre Gemayel.

Europe scolded Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahamdinejad for cancelling a scheduled December meeting with the EU on human rights, adding that it "condemns any denial of the Holocaust as a historical fact" which forms the "underlying premise" of a Holocaust conference currently taking place in Tehran.

The 25-strong EU bloc also lent tentative support to sending an EU police training mission to Afghanistan in future, after EU top diplomat Javier Solana briefed EU leaders on Thursday that both Kabul and international organisations such as NATO and the UN would "welcome" such a move.

"The EU will examine ways of strengthening its engagement, including by looking at opportunities and conditions for a potential civilian...mission in the field of policing," the EU stated.

"This is significant - it clears the way for EU projects in civilian actions in both the north and the [more dangerous] south. It means that once NATO has cleared a space that is safe, the EU might come in to help with institution building and development," an EU diplomat explained.

http://euobserver.com/9/23115

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Religion and homosexuality divide Europeans

18.12.2006 - 17:40 CET | By Mark Beunderman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The idea of a single set of "European values" was thrown into doubt on Monday (18 December) as a fresh Eurobarometer poll exposed strongly varying attitudes towards delicate issues such as religion, homosexuality and drug use across the EU.

The survey, conducted for the European Commission, for the first time quizzed Europeans about some key societal issues which are closely related to national histories and cultures.

The study revealed a huge rift in attitudes towards homosexuality, with the Dutch (82%) followed by the Swedes and the Danes (71% and 69%) strongly in favour of allowing gay marriages in the whole EU, while only 12 percent of Latvians and equally small percentages of Poles (17%) and Greeks (15%) said they back the idea.

Adoption by gays of children is even more controversial and is okayed by only one third of EU citizens

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European Muslims pushed into alienation, study says

19.12.2006 - 09:39 CET | By Lucia Kubosova

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Around 13 million Muslims living in Europe experience various forms of discrimination - mainly affecting their job and education prospects, as well as housing conditions - which tends to alienate them from society, according to a new report.

The study published by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) on Monday (18 December) found that there are "persistent" trends of discrimination of the Muslim community in Europe while evidence of Islamophobia ranges from verbal threats through to physical attacks on people and property.

The statistics differ on various aspects of discrimination in different countries, with the survey in the four biggest EU states showing that German and Spanish respondents have "much more negative views of Muslims" than their French and British counterparts.

The public image of the Muslim communities have been recently affected by the terrorist acts carried out by Islamic radicals, as well as headscarf debates and discussions on forced marriages and honour killings practised by some Muslims.

While in some countries, Muslim migrants tend "to be more vulnerable to experiencing discrimination than non-Muslims", such as in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal, in others - like Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, France and Ireland - "religious faith alone cannot explain rates of perceived discrimination," the paper says.

Jobs and education

In terms of job prospects "differences in wages, type of employment and unemployment rates of migrants, of which a significant proportion belong to Muslim faith groups, indicate persistent exclusion, disadvantage and discrimination."

The study highlights the UK case where in 2004 Muslims had the highest male unemployment rate at 13 percent and the highest female unemployment rate at 18 percent, with the UK average jobless rate at 5.5 percent.

On education, the report concluded that "although students with migrant origins generally have strong learning dispositions, the performance differences between native and such students are significant," mainly in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

In housing statistics it is also hard to distinguish the impact of ethnicity and religion on discrimination, but overall the study's authors suggested Muslim migrants experience higher levels of homelessness, poorer quality housing and residential neighbourhoods.

They are also more vulnerable in securing their housing status and face problems such as lack of access to drinking water and toilets and exploitation through higher comparative rents and purchase prices.

http://euobserver.com/9/23141

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The Negotiator

Yesterday I posted a report where Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Russia's Vladimir Putin that more authority should be given to the EU's Javier Solana in negotiating the ongoing nuclear crisis (Read about it here)>>>> http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews....=rss&rpc=22

And today there's a glowing article about Solana coming out of Russia that's praising Solana's skills as a negotiator (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.kommersant.com/p717432/Javier_Solana/

As I read the Russian article, it almost sounded like a What Herb Thinks.

The fact is, Solana is a great negotiator. If you recall, it was Solana -- when Secretary General of NATO -- who talked Russia into going along with NATO's eastward expansion. He returned to NATO headquarters to a standing ovation from the Western leaders. And it was Solana who worked out a last minute compromise between Israel and Syria putting the final pieces to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership for Peace in 1995. This accord became the foundation to all agreements to follow between the EU and the Mediterranean region.

Yes, Solana is a negotiator. That's why it only stands to reason that Solana would be the one to whom the world would turn to end the long-standing Israeli/Palestinian dispute. If there's anyone who can do it, it would be Solana. And, if ever there was a time it needed to be done, it's now.

This brings us to January 1, 2007. If you have been following my reports, you know I believe there are facts on the ground that may suggest Daniel's 70th week could start on that date. Solana's Euro-Med agreement wasn't bringing the peace and stability to the region intended. So, another agreement was introduced -- Solana's European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). And, on January 1, 2007, the ENP will have a new funding instrument, with much stiffer political requirements, that will begin a process of strengthening -- or confirming -- the underlying Euro-Med agreement for a period of seven years.

What I'm waiting to see is if Solana -- or someone else -- will be moved into a position to be the one to administer the seven-year confirming process on January 1, 2007.

So, whether we're seeing a fulfillment of the prophecies or not, the possible implications are before us. If the prophecies are being fulfilled, I can't say. But, that doesn't mean -- as some seem to suggest -- that I should keep quiet.

Enough are already doing that.

11-01-2006

http://fulfilledprophecy.com/the_negotiator.html

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Opening The Gates

A son doesn't want to make his father's mistakes. And, if you've read my book, you know that I believe George Bush Sr. may have made a big mistake in his dealings with Israel. In fact, I suspect Bush Sr.'s mistake concerning Israel may have even cost him his bid for re-election and led to the presidency of Bill Clinton. On page 67 of Recommendation 666 we read:

What first caught my attention was the way President George Bush, Sr., treated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir when he visited Washington early in 1992. Bush refused to meet with the man. Imagine how Shamir must have felt. He was being snubbed by the most powerful man in the world. Bush was the one person able to pull the bickering nations of the world together to liberate Kuwait. His popularity was so high from the Gulf War victory that none of the major names in the Democratic Party dared to risk challenging him in the coming election. And now he was publicly snubbing the Prime Minister of Israel. Why?

The conclusion that I came to in my book was Shamir's "Greater Israel" policies -- establishing Jewish settlements in the land captured in the Six Day War -- were standing in the way of then Secretary of State James Baker's peace negotiations with the moderate Arab states in the wake of the 1991 Madrid Conference. In other words, Bush Sr. wanted a change of administration in Israel in order to achieve his foreign policy agenda for the region. And, his presidential snub of Shamir when he visited Washington in 1992 was seen by many as helping bring that change about. In a tight election Shamir lost to Yitzhak Rabin and, shortly after, Israel began down that slippery road of trading land for peace -- falling in line with the Baker strategy.

But, like I said, a son doesn't want to make his father's mistakes. Perhaps that explains why George Bush Jr. set a different course than that of his father. Instead of reaching out to touch Israel -- as did his father -- Bush Jr. pretty much kept his hands to himself. And I can't help but wonder if it had something to do with his bit more biblical world view. And, stepping away from the policies of his father, Bush Jr. surrounded himself with like thinkers. Yet, as a son soon discoverers, he doesn't have to make his father's mistakes -- he will make enough of his own.

This is what I think: With the departure of Donald Rumsfeld (Read about it here)>>>> http://english.sabah.com.tr/91163BA8E1B54C...C9E4D490F0.html

the Bush Administration has decided to set a completely different course in the Middle East (Read about it here)>>>> http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Merkel_meets...a_11092006.html

-- one that squares more closely to that of his father. Already James Baker is back on the diplomatic scene and, with the appointment of Robert Gates to replace Rusmfeld, (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.debka.com/headline_print.php?hid=3477

I suspect it's going to be the good old days for those who want to return to the hands-on approach to Israel. Israel will be made to make peace.

If so, if that's what Bush Jr. has decided to do, he's making a big mistake. Instead of making America more secure, he's doing just the opposite.

He's opening the gates.

11-09-2006

http://fulfilledprophecy.com/opening_the_gates.html

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Global Peace Project

I don't think we yet fully appreciate what's going on. The Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) is beginning to appear to be much more than just another limp wristed UN initiative. It's beginning to look like the AOC may actually be an attempt by the international community to -- at long last -- bring about their dream for world peace. In fact, that's how a co-sponsor of the AOC, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sees the initiative himself. This report says:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey considers the Alliance of Civilizations the global peace project of the 21st century (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.abhaber.com/news_page.asp?id=3036

Recently we're hearing a lot about how when a world leader says something -- such as did Hitler before the start of WW2, the rest of the world should pay attention. Here we find the Turkish Prime Minister saying the AOC is a "global peace project." Friends, I think we should believe him.

If you have read the AOC's latest report, you are aware that much of it is about settling the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. Well, as I have already reported, the AOC wants their global peace project to first begin in the Middle East. And, according to this report (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789009.html

, the other co-sponsor of the AOC, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, is already starting that ball rolling (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789009.html

What interests me about Zapatero's Middle East peace plan is that it appears to completely sidestep the interests of both the U. S. and Israel (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789009.html

If this turns out to be the case, it's obvious who the real interested parties in the AOC's global peace project are -- the EU and the so-called "moderate" Arab states. However, all may not be as it seems. As I said before, we may not yet fully appreciate what's going on.

Here's what I'm beginning to think. A deal with the key players in the Middle East peace process may have already been made. If so, that could explain why Syria, Iran and their allies -- like Hezbollah -- are so upset. You see, it's possible when Israel launched their forces into Lebanon it was the beginning of a grand plan -- a plan by these key Middle East players to bring a time of peace to the region. And, naturally, it wouldn't be a plan that everyone in the region would like.

Now we're learning the EU peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon have been invited into Gaza as part of Zapatero's new EU peace initiative. Friends, how much more news like this do we need to believe that the final events of Bible prophecy may now be before us?

You see, if the AOC is in fact a global peace project, if the AOC is in fact a war against fundamentalism, if the AOC is in fact going to appoint a High Representative, if the AOC is in fact part of Javier Solana's scheme for a new international order, if the AOC resolution proposal will in fact be delivered to the UN Security Council in 2007 and it includes a deal regarding Old Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, and if the seven-year New ENP will in fact also start in 2007, then it's not hard to believe we're seeing what the Bible predicted.

Or, is it?

11-16-2006

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Fireworks fly as Romania and Bulgaria limp into EU

31.12.2006 - 17:02 CET | By Andrew Rettman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS

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German EU presidency lumbered with massive to-do list

29.12.2006 - 08:52 CET | By Honor Mahony

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS

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Jan. 3, 2007 13:39 | Updated Jan. 4, 2007 7:58

Israel MSA: We need to be part of EU and NATO

By AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN

The following is the first Jpost blog central post by Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman. It is part of a soon-to-be launched feature that provides prominent politicians from across the political spectrum an opportunity to debate the hot issues on their own personal blog.

In my very first political science lecture in the Hebrew University in the early 1980s, I was taught that international politics were governed by State interests. In all my years in Israeli politics and as a third-time minister, I have yet to see this theory implemented in Israel.

I believe it was Henry Kissinger who once said that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic. The sad reality of today is that the State of Israel has never defined, and rarely acted in accordance with its national interests. The few examples I can think of include Israel going to war over the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal and restriction of Israeli marine traffic in 1956, the 1981 attack against the Iraqi nuclear facility and the 1995 peace agreement with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

I have recently suggested that it is in Israel's national interest to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The world today is a less hospitable place to our democracy. The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a world divided over economic doctrines and political thought. I myself was born in Moldova, a country taken over by the Soviet Union in 1944, and spent my childhood under the rule of a harsh totalitarian regime (until my family made aliya in 1978, when I was 20 years old).

Today's world is dividing over values. On the one side is the free, democratic world, and on the other side is the radical, fundamentalist world. We might have disagreements with Europe and the international community over foreign policy, but we share the same values system that is the target of the radical, fundamentalist war against the West.

The great danger in this global conflict is that we are facing non-rational players. Take Bin Laden for example - there is nothing you can offer him to stop his war against the free world - no amount of money, no piece of territory, no agreement - his goal is to convert the entire world to Islam, or send all infidels to heaven. There is no sense in rationalizing with this kind of enemy.

Not a single Islamic leader - political or spiritual - has condemned the death sentence against Salman Rushdie, and even today he has to live in hiding between London and Paris. Not a single Islamic leader has ever condemned the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha sculptures in Afghanistan. The Muslim world's reaction to cartoons about the prophet Muhammad and to Pope Benedict XVI's speech are irrational.

My goal for Israel is to complete this global re-positioning within the coming five years. This move will send a strong message not only to our enemies, but also to our friends and allies.

One last note: Jpost.com readers are aware of the letter I sent to incumbent UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who said that the Israeli-Palestinian issue was at the core of solving all the problems in the Middle East.

Someone pointed out to me a very poignant comment posted on a talkback to the Jpost.com article about this letter, by Bob in the US: "Last week I appeared in court because I was doing 20 miles over the speed limit. I flat out told the presiding judge "I'm not paying the fine until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved." His exact words were "What the Hell does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have to do with anything?" I ask the same question.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apa...icle%2FShowFull