The United States, which already has tied Israel’s agreeing to Palestinian Authority demands with solving the Iranian nuclear threat, now cites Israel’s nuclear arsenal as the key.

Ellen Tauscher, U.S. Undersecretary of State for arms control, was quoted by the London Guardian as saying last week, "The best chance we have to achieve a WMD-free zone in the Middle East is to reach an agreement on a lasting and just peace in the Middle East." A proposal for a ban on mass destruction weapons in the Middle East is being circulated by the Obama administration and Russia.

Egypt also is circulating a proposal that links removing nuclear weapons from Israel with eliminating the Iranian threat to become a nuclear power. Egyptian Ambassador to the United Nations Maged A. Abdelaziz said last week, “Success in dealing with Iran will depend to a large extent on how successfully we deal with the establishment of a nuclear-free zone" in the Middle East, meaning Israel.

Cairo also is using its “Israel card” to refuse to participate in the chemical weapons convention, arguing that Israel first must sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

Israel’s “ambiguity” policy does not admit or confirm that it has nuclear weapons. It has declined to sign the NPT, which would require opening up state secrets on nuclear capability.

The United Nations this week opened its NPT conference and heard Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charge, “The Zionist regime continues to threaten the countries of the Middle East with its arsenal. It continues to threaten the world's countries with acts of terror and invasion, and even gets the necessary assistance for its nuclear program.”

Hours after the Arab League supported U.S.-mediated talks with Israel, it began adding conditions.  An Israeli temporary freeze on building new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria ends in approximately four months. and the U.S. State Department has stated that it will be nearly impossible to reach an agreement by then.

Although Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the Arab League's support of talks and said, "This time the talks will take place without pre-conditions, unlike in the previous 16 years,” chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat, immediately placed a pre-condition. "If Israel builds one house” in parts of Jerusalem it considers to be part of a future PA state or in Judea and Samaria, the PA “will immediately stop the negotiations.” he warned.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has denied reports of a de facto building freeze in united Jerusalem, which includes all of the areas restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, but virtually all parties involved in the bureaucratic process agree that approvals for new housing have been stalled.

The PA speaks of “negotiations” on pre-conditions for a PA state to include areas of Jerusalem where 300,000 Jews now live, including the Old City and the Western Wall. It also demands the regions of Judea and Samaria, where another 300,000 Jews reside.

Years of concessions to PA and international demands have left Israel holding Jerusalem and the status of foreign Arabs claiming ancestry in Israel as the only remaining “red lines.”

The Obama administration has repeated labeled as ”illegitimate” a Jewish presence in the areas claimed by the PA. However, wide support for Netanyahu within his government and from most polls have strengthened Israel’s hand against surrendering “united Jerusalem” as well as towns in Judea and Samaria that are heavily populated with Jews and which are considered strategically important.
 

An interview with Mohamed Sabaoui (excerpts)

from the Universite de Lille, France    

Our peaceful invasion on the European stage has not yet reached its objective. We intend to act in all countries simultaneously. Since you are giving us more and more space, we would be stupid not to take advantage. We will be your Trojan Horse. You have become hostages to those human rights to which you claim to adhere. Thus, for instance, if you were to talk to me in Algeria or Saudi Arabia in the same manner as I am talking to you now, you would be, in the best case scenario, arrested on the spot.
 

You, French people, are unable to muster respect from our youngsters. Why would they respect a country that capitulates to them? One only respects what one fears. When we seize power, you won't see a single foreigner burn a car or vandalize a store. Arabs know that the inevitable punishment of! a thief, in our way of thinking, is the amputation of one hand.
 

The laws of your Republic do not conform to the laws of the Koran and must not be imposed on
 

Muslims who can only be governed by Sharia Law. We therefore intend to work on seizing this power which is owed us. We will start by Roubaix [a French city], which is at present a Muslim city at more than 60%. At the next municipal elections, we will mobilize our ranks and the next mayor will be a Muslim. Following negotiations with the State and the Region, we will declare Roubaix an independent Muslim enclave, and we will impose Sharia Law (God's Law) to the entire population.

The Christian minority will have the status of Dhimmis. It will be a separate class which would be able to re-negotiate its freedoms and rights by way of a special tax. Moreover, we will do what is needed to bring them by persuasion into our fold. Tens of thousands of French men and women have already embraced Islam of their own will; so why! not the Christians of Roubaix? At the present time at the University of Lille, we are organizing Faith Brigades whose task is to "convert" the recalcitrant Christians or Jews of Roubaix and bring them into our religion, because that is what God wants! If we are the strongest, it is because God has willed it. We are not handicapped by the Christian obligation of aiding the orphan, the weak or the disabled. We can and must, to the contrary, crush them if they constitute an obstacle, especially if they are infidels.

It was K.R. Popper, in "The Open Society and its Enemies", that first brought attention to the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

 Says Bar-Ilan U. Researcher

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Dr. Moshe Vered - Bar-Ilan University researcher

If war breaks out between Iran and Israel, it likely would last for ”years and not weeks,” according to Bar-Ilan University researcher Dr. Moshe Vered. Iran also might target Jews around the world.

He calls on Israel to internalize the prospect of an unprecedented lengthy war and explains that once the government and public understand the threat, they will be better prepared to find ways to shorten the conflict.

A researcher at the university’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, he recently published a sobering paper that based his hypothesis on the Iranian Shi’ite Muslim approach that the very existence of Israel is an insult to Muslims. He states that its philosophy is that “Allah promises them victory” and there is an obligation of Muslims to sacrifice themselves and surrender material goods for the sake of annihilating the Jewish State.

Entitled “The length and conditions for ending a future war between Iran and Israel,” the research paper notes that Iran fought Iraq for eight years despite suffering the deaths of half a million people, with another two million wounded and catastrophic damage to the economic infrastructure, amounting to $100 billion.

The scenario

He rules out ideas that a quick missile war would put an end to a conflict because neither side would score a “knock-out,” and Iran does not have the capability of successfully attacking Israel with hundreds of long-range missiles.

He predicts it is more likely that if Israel initiates a pre-emptive strike, Iran will play the role of the victim and let the international community condemn Israel. At the same time, Tehran would secretly ferry troops into Syria and Lebanon, possibly through Shi’ite communities in Iraq and with the silent approval of Turkey.

The next stage in the war would be massive rocket attacks by Hamas from the south and Hizbullah from the north. Israeli military intelligence officials estimate that both terrorist organizations possess advanced missiles far beyond what were used in the 34-day-old Second Lebanon War in 2006.

With long-range weapons that could be fired from deep in Lebanon, Israel would be forced into capturing most of the country, and face a deadly and costly guerilla war. At the same time, a massive military threat from Syrian territory to the Golan Heights would require large numbers of reservists to defend the region.

El Al planes to be targeted?

Iran also probably would try to target Jews around the world, especially El Al planes, synagogues, Israeli offices abroad and Jewish community centers. Hamas would resume suicide attacks against Israel.

Dr. Vered points out that there are those who think that Iran’s verbal threats against Israel are for internal political consumption, in which case war is a distant possibility. However, Shi’ite fundamentalism requires a “holy war” to wipe out Israel, whose existence violates Muslim principles against Jews ruling ”Muslim land,” meaning Israel, and having sovereignty over Muslims in the country. Israel also stands in Iran's way to become the dominant force in the Middle East.

Muslim rulers always have tolerated Jews on condition that they are a small minority and dependent on their host rulers, Dr. Vered explains.

His sees three possibilities for a quick end to a war, barring a new level of understanding and preparedness by Israel. International interference and the use of nuclear weapons, presumably by Israel, are two options.

However, he explains that whereas world leaders previously shortened Israeli-Arab wars, with Israel usually having the upper hand, the Jewish State presumably would not be in such an advantageous position against Iran. The result would be pressure on Tehran, where the Shi’ite philosophy does not allow compromise.

Pressure would be wielded against Israel if the Israeli Air Force were to bomb Iran’s oil fields, causing the price of oil to soar. Iran would use that circumstance to strengthen its determination to annihilate Israel.

The use of nuclear weapons is far off in the horizon, Dr. Vered avers.

He sees one other solution to shorten the war: an American decision to join Israel and strike Iran.

An Iranian scientist with ties to his county's nuclear program has requested asylum in Israel, according to Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara. Kara says that he was contacted by an Israeli woman of Persian descent in contact with the scientist, who is reported to be in a "friendly country" awaiting developments.

The deputy minister did not name the country or give further details regarding the defector, claiming that it is too early to reveal all the facts.

For the first time since pre-State days when Zion and Palestine were synonymous terms, a “Palestinian Zionist Organization” has been established – by Arabs.

The latest Arab to show his public support for Israel is Elias Issa, who describes himself as a “European West-Bank Palestinian.” He writes that he chose a unique approach by which to celebrate Israel’s 62nd birthday – namely, by launching the Palestinian Zionist Organization. He says his goal is “to show the world why it must support the Jewish people and to [distance itself] from the terrorist Palestinian government.”

Statements on the new website include warnings that a new PA state, if it were to arise, would “become the most terrorist state in the world… The Palestinians don't believe in a two-state solution; they only believe in a one-state solution - a land called Palestine [which] does not involve any Jewishness."

Issa, who now lives in the United States, explains that the international community is blind “to what's truly going on in this Middle East conflict. [I hope] to make a difference by shining a different kind of light on the Palestinian-Israeli situation.”

The website notes that “more and more Palestinians” are going public in their support for Israel. Just last month, Mosab Hassan Yousef – the son of a Hamas founder and leader – published his autobiography, detailing how he spied for Israel for a decade, preventing dozens of suicide attacks and exposing numerous terrorist groups. He later converted to Christianity and moved to the U.S.

Israel Finds Remains of
Jesus-Era Home in Nazareth

Israel's antiquities authority says archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a home in Nazareth that dates back more than 2,000 years -- to the time of Jesus.

Archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre said Monday the discovery is the first find of its kind and gives insight into the way of life at the time of Jesus.

Alexandre describes the home as "small and modest" and likely typical of ones in Nazareth when it was a small Jewish village. The dwelling consists of two rooms, a courtyard and a system for collecting water. 

Jesus is believed to have spent most of his life in the town of Nazareth. 

The remains were found near the Basilica of the Annunciation, which was built on the site where Christians believe an angel told the virgin Mary that she was going to give birth to Jesus.