To Honor Jesus Christ, Glorify God, Encourage Believers, & Warn All
Est 11-07-2004 Changed 01-17-2009
 

This information is offered with the hope that YOU can come to KNOW the Lord personally.

Arab summit closes with call for just Mideast peace

ALGIERS, Algeria -- Arab leaders closed out their summit in Algiers Wednesday by calling for peace in the Middle East.
    
    Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa read a closing statement that rejected U.S. pressure on Syria and condemned the Syria Accountability Act, which placed sanctions on Damascus.
    
    The statement said Arabs are attached to the peace initiative declared in 2002 to normalize relations with Israel in return for its withdrawal from all Arab territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
    
    "Peace cannot be achieved without the withdrawal from occupied Arab territories, the creation of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and settling the issue of Palestinian refugees," the statement said, rejecting any attempt to resettle Palestinians in host countries.
    
    The Arab summit also called for Iraq's unity, independence and sovereignty in line with resolution 1546, which restores Iraqi independence and ends foreign military presence.

THE World Council of Churches (WCC) has stepped up its campaigns to support the Middle East peace process, says a visiting WCC official, who is a senior bishop of an Indian church. The Rt Rev Dr Zacharias Mar Theophilus Suffragen Metropolitan, of the Mar Thoma Church, who is a member of the WCC central and executive committees, also praised the commendable role played by Bahrain in the peace process.

"WCC, which has its headquarters in Geneva, has always campaigned for the right of both Palestine and Israel to exist as separate and independent nations," he told the GDN.

"WCC is working towards this goal, and has set up a peace group which is now working in Jerusalem.

"We strongly condemn all kinds of human rights violations in different parts of the world."

Dr Mar Theophilus said the Iraqi people should be allowed to rebuild their country.

"Other countries should only support this in the true spirit of democracy," he said.

Dr Mar Theophilus praised Bahrain's initiative in hosting the first Islamic-Christian dialogue in the region.

This nonpartisan conference will concentrate a diverse and select group of current and former heads of state, business leaders, noteworthy academicians, and key NGO representatives to identify immediate and pragmatic solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. The workshops will focus on how to reduce poverty; use religion as a force for reconciliation and conflict resolution; implement new business strategies and technologies to combat climate change; and strengthen governance. Our meeting will emphasize dynamic group interaction to identify an agenda we can actually implement.

By identifying specific ways to address the challenges of our time and asking each participant to make a specific commitment to take action in one of the areas discussed, I believe this Initiative will prove to be a unique and effective forum for leaders and their communities around the world. What we begin during three days this September will continue throughout the year to come with coordinated implementation of our agenda.

We have an opportunity we can not afford to pass up--in just three days, we can begin to make a world of difference. - Bill Clinton

...

From the website
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506090181jun09,1,2965181.story...

we read
King Abdullah's vision for peace

Lisa Black
Published June 9, 2005

King Abdullah II of Jordan flew to Chicago on Wednesday to share his dream of opening a private boarding school outside Amman for students of different faiths and backgrounds.

Invited to a dinner party at the Chicago home of longtime friend J. Jeffry Louis, 41, Abdullah was to share his ideas with civic leaders on how the school could foster peace.

...

from the website-
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_160171527.html
we read
King Abdullah II Of Jordan Speaks In Chicago

Jun 9, 2005 4:14 pm US/Central
CHICAGO (CBS 2) On Thursday Jordan's King Abdullah II made a rare visit to Chicago and spoke at the University of Chicago. CBS 2's s Suzanne Le Mignot has more on his trip and a lesson in peace.

His majesty, King Abdullah II of Jordan received a warm welcome at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. The king came to give a speech as part of a lecture series established in his name through the university's Harris School.

King Abdullah II spoke about a variety of issues like the need for positive change in the world.

"On a global basis, that means giving people convincing alternatives to extremism and violence,” he said. “It means creating a win-win process, one where all sides gain"

He also touched on his belief that the creation of a Palestinian state would be best to help end conflict in the Middle East. "Regional instability remains a major barrier to the future of the Middle East. It has had global fallout. Failure to solve the issues is simply not an option. It is time for a lasting, just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," he said.

Lasting peace in Iraq was also on the king's mind. "We must support a stable unified Iraq, with a rebuilt economy and an inclusive civil society," he said.

Israeli born U of C professor Ariela Finkelstein was among those listening to the king's remarks. Finkelstein said his views are needed in the Middle East, even though they may appear to be extremely optimistic. "I'm not sure primarily how other countries in the region are taking his message, how much Syria and Egypt and Libya are willing to participate in his way of viewing the region," she said.

King Abdullah said for peace to be achieved it will take "global dialogue," and that no one can have a wait and see attitude when it comes to the future and positive change taking place in the world.

Can the United States make a deal with the resistance now? The way do it would be through Amman, Jordan, where the king has myriad ties to the Sunni resistance, to the former Baathists, to tribal leaders, to Sunni businessmen, to the Iraqi clergy. If asked, King Abdullah of Jordan could host a peace conference along the lines of the Paris peace talks, where the United States and the Iraqi resistance would be the main players, and the fictional Iraqi government could attend if they were told, politely, to be quiet and listen.

Doing this would, admittedly, have a high degree of difficulty. First, it is not at all clear that the mostly Sunni resistance is ready to coalesce into a party ready for talks with the United States. Unlike Vietnam, there is no Hanoi-style central committee to run the show. "It may be too early for the resistance to come together like that," said one former U.S. intelligence official with wide-ranging experience in the Middle East. "But if they are, Amman would be the right place to try it." To make it work, the United States would have to induce a wide spectrum of the insurgent leadership to come into the peace-talks umbrella, from the Sunni tribal leaders to the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Association of Muslim Scholars to the former Baathist military men to the community-based street fighters in places like Mosul, Kirkuk, Ramadi, Tikrit and Fallujah (but, of course, not including the Zarqawi jihadists, who are irredeemable). So far, those few timid Sunnis who've agreed to join the Iraqi government or to take part in the constitution-writing exercise merely open themselves up to be branded as collaborators, so the coalition we end up talking with needs to include all but the most incorrigible Islamists or else it will shatter.

A second problem, even more serious, is that by announcing we are ready to talk, we may convince the resistance that they have everything to gain. "If we say we are ready to talk, then the insurgents may conclude that it is in their best interest to keep fighting," says another former U.S. intelligence official with years of experience with Iraq. That's true—but it is a chance we will have to take, since they will keep fighting anyway. This problem is the precise analog to the problem of setting a fixed date for a U.S. withdrawal, namely, that if we do so then the resistance will simply lie low until then and wait us out. That, too, does not seem to me to be a strong argument against our setting a date for a withdrawal. But, in terms of exit strategies, a political solution that is reached through an accommodation with the mostly Sunni resistance seems a better way to go than to imagine a precipitate withdrawal. Still, if the talks can't be organized, we have no choice but to cut and run—that is, to declare victory and get out.

The fact that the United States has already tried a limited dialogue with the Iraqi resistance is not a great surprise. Such talks have been reported periodically since last year, and some elements in the CIA are undoubtedly pursuing tentative, olive branch-type talks with resistance leaders both directly and through intermediaries in Jordan, Syria, through former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, and via Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Indeed, during Allawi's tenure, steps in this direction already took place. But without the imprimatur of the United States, none of these intermediaries can have any real credibility with the hard-core resistance, since Bush's recent statements ("We will settle for nothing less than victory!") don't allow any wiggle room for peace talks. Still, the Iraqi resistance knows (as does the U.S. intelligence community) that eventually Washington is going to have to make a deal, or just get out.

[why does he say this?  In a comparison to Vietnam, he says-]

Once again, it is obvious to all—again, including our intelligence agencies—that the war in Iraq is lost. Once again, like the Tet Offensive, the recent wave of bloody assaults across Iraq has made it clear that the resistance, far from being in its "last throes," is not being defeated. Once again, a Nixon-like American administration is refusing to sue for peace. Though Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has admitted that U.S. authorities in Iraq have been conducting an on-again, off-again dialogue with some elements of the insurgency, it is not nearly enough. The United States is talking, but not negotiating—instead, it is trying to find a few disparate elements of the resistance in order to get them to support the U.S.-installed Iraqi interim government. Such take-it-or-leave-it dialogues are doomed to failure, since all they can produce are a few more Sunni quislings who will immediately become targets of the insurgency themselves. For the most part, the United States continues to insist that all potential olive branches from the resistance be delivered to the offices of the interim (and utterly illegitimate) ersatz government in the modern-day Saigon that is Baghdad.

It is perfectly clear what the United States has to do. It must abandon its deformed offspring in Baghdad, the hapless regime of Shiite fanatics and Kurdish warlords, and pray that it can establish direct talks with the people it is fighting.

There is no other exit strategy.

---

"We're not going to win against the insurgency. The Iraqi people are going to win against the insurgency. That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years."
- Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, June 26, 2005

---

[the situation in Iraq] "will not be settled on the battlefield"..."will ultimately be settled by negotiation and inclusion in the political process."
- General George Casey, Commander of the multinational coalition, June 27, 2005

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met Friday with Jordan's King Abdullah II, their first talks in months and a further sign of warming relations between the Jewish state and the Arab world after Israel's Gaza withdrawal.

The meeting, on the sidelines of the U.N. summit marking the world body's 60th anniversary, was Israel's latest diplomatic reward for ending its 38-year Gaza occupation - its first evacuation of territory Palestinians claim for a future state.

In just two weeks, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia have held high-level public meetings with Israel - a rare event for Muslim countries - and Sharon has received particular praise at the U.N. summit for the Gaza pullout, deemed a ``courageous'' act by President Bush as well as Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

President to Welcome King Abdullah of Jordan to the White House

President Bush will welcome King Abdullah of Jordan to the White House on September 22, 2005. The United States appreciates Jordan's friendship and values our strong partnership in the region. The President looks forward to discussing with the King his initiative in promoting moderate Islam, the progress of reform in Jordan, and other bilateral and regional issues.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Saturday that King Abdullah of Jordan made a strategic decision to improve his relations with Israel and to deepen the ties between the two countries.

In an interview with Israel Radio, the foreign minister said that Washington was interested in stabilizing the situation in the region, but first wanted to see that the model of Gaza was successful.

The dominant summit theme of how to combat terrorism was taken up again yesterday by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who called for greater international co-operation and a focus on the “true causes” of the problem.

“We in Indonesia believe that interfaith dialogue and empowering the moderates can reduce radicalism,” said the leader of the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

That message was echoed by Jordan’s King Abdullah who made an impassioned plea for “zero tolerance” toward those who promote Islamic extremism.

“Jordan wants true, moderate, traditional Islam to replace fundamentalist, radical and militant Islam, everywhere in the world, for every single Muslim,” Abdullah said.

http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=90002

Pet0245 4 0408 King Continues Meetings with World Leaders in New York New York, Sep. 16 (Petra) -- His Majesty King Abdullah II on Friday continued his meetings with countries leaders and heads of delegations participating in the UN 2005 World Summit. King Abdullah met with President of Ecuador Alfredo Palacio, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Croatian President Stipe Mesic, President of Paraguay, Nicanor Duarte Frutos and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and discussed with them ways of enhancing the bilateral ties in addition to ways of facing the international challenges and problems that hinder economic growth and achieving sustainable development. King Abdullah outlined the current regional situations, especially the peace process and situation in Iraq, reiterating the importance of the international community's role in supporting efforts exerted to achieve peace and stability in the region. During a meeting with United Nations UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, King Abdullah noted to the importance of the role played by the UN in keeping international security and peace, paying attributes to the efforts exerted by Annan that aim to reform the UN. For his part, Annan hailed the role of His Majesty King Abdullah II to achieve peace in the Middle East and his continuous efforts to bring religions closer and stress its joint human values. King Abdullah also received Member of the Lebanese Parliament Saad Hariri and expressed hope for Lebanon to stay safe, stable and united, stressing the depth of the bilateral relations and keenness to promote them in the various domains

Abdullah to rabbis: Pursue peace

RAMADAN is the name of the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which is a twelve-month lunar calendar.  The lunar year is approximately 11 days shorter than the solar calendar.  This means that Islamic holy days and holidays, which are calculated according to the lunar calendar. will rotate around the solar calendar.  In the 2004-2005 academic year, Ramadan will begin around October 15. 

JORDAN: KING ABDULLAH PLANS MIDEAST PEACE MISSION

Amman, 26 Sept. (AKI) - King Abdullah II of Jordan will visit the Palestinian territories and Israel in the coming days to try to give new impetus to the peace process, the deputy prime minister Marwan al-Maasher has told journalists in Amman. "Jordan has not changed and will not change it's position regarding the Palestinian question" al-Maasher said in response to Israeli press speculation about a plan to divide the West Bank between Israeli and Jordanian control. The Jordanian mediation offer is the result of a request by US president George W. Bush made to King Abdullah last week.

During the trip the King will meet the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli premier Ariel Sharon.

Annan: King Abdullah II Plays Key Role Achieving Peace Agreements New York/Sep.26(Petra)-- Un Secretary general Kofi Annan on Monday praised his meeting with His Majesty King Abdullah II in New York last week, describing as successful and coped with political events. The relentlessness efforts King Abdullah is being exerting to fulfill peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis is deemed to be distinguished and needs to be supported by int'l community, in addition to the cooperation of concerned parties to reach just, last, and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, Annan told Petra correspondent at the UN. Jordan's role is well known at the int'l arena and has its weight, because its leadership enjoys a respect at the international level, Annan added UN Secretary General praised Jordan's capability of fighting and eliminating terrorism, noting to Jordan's vast experience in this regard.

Amman, Oct. 16, (BNA) Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), met here on Monday with the Jordanian Monarch, King Abdullah II.
The two leaders reviewed issues of common concern to Palestine and Jordan, latest political developments in the Palestine's occupied territories, in the aftermath of the Israeli pullout from Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in addition to the Palestinian President's upcoming visit to the United States. Abbas' meeting was part of a tour which will cover a number of Arab and European sates and the USA. The tour aims at familiarizing the leaders of these countries with developments in Palestine after Israel's withdrawal in addition to ways of pushing the peace process forward.

---

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&ch=0&newsid=74467

Amman. Jordan will continue working on an international and regional level in support for the Palestinian Authority and for reaching peace with Israel, Petra reported citing Jordan’s King Abdullah as saying at a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“The achievement of abiding peace is linked to the fulfilment of commitments by the two countries”, Abdullah said.

End 10-16-2005

Jordan's King Abdullah II was awarded the first Pope John Paul II Peace Award in recognition of the campaign to foster tolerance among the world's religions and weed out the extremists from Islam.

Abdullah, who was not present at Wednesday's award ceremony, accepted it in a letter "on behalf of the people of my beloved Jordan and the entire Arab World. Millions are courageously standing up for peace and tolerance the traditional Muslim values that are the heart of our heritage and our hope for the future."

The king assembled 180 Muslim scholars from 45 countries last year in his capital, Amman, for a conference he called "True Islam and its Role in Modern Society." The result was "a joint statement of accord to help end abuses of our faith," Abdullah said in September in a Washington speech. It came to be called the "Amman Message."

In his letter accepting the award, Abdullah said, "The murderous bombings in Amman last week demonstrate clearly the inhumanity, the bankrupt morality and the anti-Islamic nature of extremism." Suicide bombers at three Western hotels killed at least 58 people.

"We will not let our faith be hijacked by the violent few," he wrote. "This was the driving force behind the Amman Message, issued a year ago, which expresses Islam's teachings regarding humility and equality before God, compassion and peaceful coexistence among all human beings.

The King has been at the forefront of efforts to portray a positive image of Islam in the light of terrorist acts carried out in its name.

Last year, the King assembled 180 Muslim scholars in Amman from 45 countries for a conference called “True Islam and its Role in Modern Society.” The result was “a joint statement of accord to help end abuses of our faith,” the King said in September in a Washington speech. The statement became known as the “Amman Message.”

In his letter accepting the award, the Monarch said, “The murderous bombings in Amman last week demonstrate clearly the inhumanity, the bankrupt morality and the anti-Islamic nature of extremism.” A total of 59 people died as a result of triple suicide attacks at three of Amman's international hotels last Wednesday.

“We will not let our faith be hijacked by the violent few,” said the King in his letter. “This was the driving force behind the Amman Message, issued a year ago, which expresses Islam's teachings regarding humility and equality before God, compassion, and peaceful coexistence among all human beings.” Msgr. William A. Kerr, executive director of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Centre, which presents the award in the name of the late pontiff, said King Abdullah “was chosen because of his efforts to broker peace and understanding and for his tireless work to peacefully settle conflicts that engender violence.”

Among those in the audience were representatives of 65 of the 130 countries visited by Pope John Paul during his papacy. He died April 2, and the award was established to honour his legacy.

“Justice, peace and prosperity would all suffer if our world becomes divided into hostile camps. Our future depends on the respect we have for each other, and the tolerance we exhibit in its truest sense: mutual understanding and acceptance,” read the letter.

AMMAN, Jordan Nov 14, 2005 — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Jordan's King Abdullah here late Monday and visited one of three bombed hotels where 60 people, including three suicide bombers, were killed last week.

"There is no justification for the wanton killing of innocents and we stand in solidarity with the people of Jordan (and) the people around the world who have suffered similar tragedies and we will stand firm," Rice told reporters during a visit to the Radisson SAS hotel, one of three attacked Wednesday.

Rice, who flew from Jerusalem to Amman, expressed condolences for the victims' families and praised the efficiency of Jordanian security forces to uncover the plot and its perpetrators, according to a Royal Palace statement carried by the official Petra news agency.

"We have all been inspired by the determination and the conviction of the people of Jordan," she said.

Rice said she came to Jordan to "underscore our common struggle against terrorism against people who would kill innocent people who were here trying to carry normal lives in the case of this wedding hall, to celebrate one of the happiest days of anyone's life."

More than 20 people were killed when one of the three Iraqi suicide bombers blew himself up during a wedding reception at the Radisson SAS.

Jordan's state-run Petra news said Abdullah reaffirmed in his meeting with Rice that the bombings won't "dissuade Jordan from its active role in supporting peace and security to prevail in the region."   (No kidding!!!  If you believe that catching the woman whose vest did not explode is a lucky break, think again.)

End 11-20-2005

Jordan's King Abdullah Strengthens Leadership Role

AMMAN, Jordan Nov 26, 2005 — Jordan's new prime minister denied that this month's triple hotel bombings in Amman were the reason for a major reshuffling of the kingdom's government, according to remarks published Saturday.

But Marouf al-Bakhit, who was appointed Thursday, vowed that fighting terrorism and implementing reforms would top his agenda, saying Jordan "must replace the culture of extremism with that of tolerance."

King Abdullah II appointed al-Bakhit with a mandate to form a new government and launch an all-out war on Islamic militancy in the wake of the Nov. 9 suicide bombings that killed 63 people, including the three Iraqi bombers, and wounded hundreds.

The members of the Bani Hassan tribe published a full-page letter in Jordanian newspapers pronouncing their loyalty to King Abdullah II. The letter bore the stamps and signatures of more than 370 clan members.

It was the second attempt to persuade Jordanians that the family has renounced all ties to the man who claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 triple suicide blasts in Amman hotels that killed 60 people. Three weeks ago, 60 members of al-Zarqawi's al-Khalayleh clan published a similar letter.

"We, the sons of the Bani Hassan tribe in all its branches in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan support and express solidarity with our cousins, the al-Khalayleh clan, and their decision to sever relations with the terrorist Ahmad Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," said Tuesday's letter.

"We condemn all terrorist actions carried out or claimed by this individual — actions which are alien to members of this tribe," it said.

The Bani Hassan is one of the largest of Jordan's nearly 100 major Bedouin tribes, which form the bedrock of support for the royal family. Its members hold senior posts in the army and other government departments.

Referring to family of King Abdullah, the letter added: "We reiterate our support for the Hashemite Crown which, God willing, will always be protected, and we uphold the pledge of our ancestors to be a sword in the hands of the noble Hashemite dynasty."

In a similar letter on Nov. 20, almost 60 members of al-Zarqawi's family — including his brother and several cousins — disowned him and pledged fidelity to the crown.

Al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for several terror attacks in Jordan, including a plot to cause a chemical explosion that would have killed thousands of people, according to government experts. The plot was foiled in April 2004.

A Jordanian court condemned him to death in absentia for planning the attack that led to the 2002 murder of U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley.

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.  (1 Tim 3:16)

The National Prayer Breakfast  is more interesting for the role of the so-called "evangelicals" than anything else.  Take a close look at the attendees.  This Breakfast is demonstrative of how much trouble one can get into following a Purpose Driven Life.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0600664.htm

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- King Abdullah II of Jordan took his efforts to promote moderation in Islam to the evangelical-dominated National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Feb. 2, earning a standing ovation with a speech that quoted the Bible as much as the Quran.

He called upon people of faith to witness to its positive role in public life by being an example of "the principles transgressed by those who oppose us."

"In every generation, people of faith are tested," King Abdullah said. "In our generation, the greatest challenge comes from violent extremists who seek to divide and conquer. Extremism is a political movement under religious cover.

"Its adherents want nothing more than to pit us against each other, denying all that we have in common," he continued. "We must therefore heed the words of the New Testament: 'Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'"

After ascending to the throne of Jordan upon the 1999 death of his father, King Hussein, King Abdullah has aggressively prodded Islamic leaders toward a uniform message reflecting the moderate beliefs of the vast majority of Muslims, as an antidote to the Islamic extremism associated with terrorism.

In speeches last fall at The Catholic University of America and to a group of American Jewish leaders, the king outlined an interfaith message based upon the shared beliefs of Islam, Christianity and Judaism: belief in one God, worship and devotion to God, and love and justice toward other human beings.

At the prayer breakfast, King Abdullah described the principles in a "Reaffirmation of True Islam" adopted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, last year, as part of a 10-year plan for the future of the Islamic world.

"This strikes at the very roots of extremism by denying its Islamic legitimacy, and consolidates the traditional middle ground of Islam, to which the vast majority of Muslims belong," he said. "It constitutes a full frontal assault on extremist distortions of Islam by exposing the falsity of their ideologies to the light of truth."

Nothing would please extremists more than for terrorist events, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, last summer's subway and bus bombings in London and Spain's train bombings, to reinforce the idea of a "clash of civilizations," King Abdullah said. But the falsity of the notion that religious differences are responsible for such a clash "is made clear to all by the extremist bombings in the Islamic world ... in Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and more."

Extremists in Iraq kill Muslims every day, he said. "Their targets are not Christians, not Jews, not Americans or Europeans, but indigenous innocent Muslims."

Such violence stems from hatred, he said, not from true religious faith.

"They do not preach the Islam of the Quran or the prophet Mohammed," he said. "Theirs is a repugnant political ideology which violates the principles and statutes of traditional Islamic law. No matter what grievance one may have or what evil one confronts, the Quran commands us: 'Let not the hatred of others make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just! It is closer to piety.'"

The king said extremists of any religion "who teach intolerance and violence mutilate Scripture to advance their cause. We behold with horror and disgust the recent targeting of Christian churches in Iraq, breaking with a 1,400-year tradition of Christian-Muslim friendship and mutual acceptance among the Arabs of (the region.)"

He added that "while we respect and revere freedom of speech, we condemn needless desecration and injury of Islamic sensibilities, such as the recent cartoons misrepresenting and vilifying my ancestor, the prophet (Mohammed)."

…

The original publication in a Danish newspaper and recent reprinting elsewhere of satirical cartoons of Mohammed have stirred an outcry across the Muslim world. Muslims consider any images of Mohammed to be blasphemous.

"If we allow such intolerance and ill will to polarize us, we betray all those who have died at their hands," he continued. "And we do worse. We turn away from truth -- truth expressed throughout our Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage. 'For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit,'" he said, quoting from the Gospel of Luke.

The National Prayer Breakfast's main morning session has long been attended by political and religious leaders from many faiths -- this year it was co-hosted by Jewish Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and King Abdullah, a Muslim, joined Christians and Jews in offering prayers during the breakfast.

President George W. Bush spoke briefly at the morning session, where the keynote speaker was Bono, of the rock band U2 and activist for eliminating poverty and disease worldwide.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060202-111835-3132r.htm

King Abdullah II of Jordan quoted from the Bible and the Koran in a brief speech to a lunchtime crowd of 2,000 mostly evangelical Christians yesterday, invoking "our Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage" and urging moderates of the three great religions to unite.
    "At this point in history, our service to God, our countries and our peoples demands that we confront extremism in its myriad forms," he told listeners at the annual National Prayer Breakfast luncheon at the Washington Hilton.
    "To overcome this common foe, we must explore the values that unite us, rather than exaggerating the misunderstandings that divide us."
    The king got an enthusiastic welcome from the crowd, and Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, called Abdullah "a great example of unity for us." Praying in the name of Jesus Christ, a name otherwise hardly mentioned by anyone else at the event sponsored by evangelical Christians, Mr. Nelson asked God for "a double portion" of the spirit of the late Jordanian King Hussein to rest upon Abdullah, his son.
    The king reciprocated with a speech that included six verses from the New Testament, eight from the Koran, two from the Old Testament and remarks from Martin Luther King.

King Abdullah told the audience of about 3,000 that the three religions -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism -- have important points of consensus, beginning with the belief in one God. Additionally, he said, the three religions demand both humility and strength in their followers and require them to live lives of conscience, to make a positive difference and to honor and love their families. He called extremism a "political movement under religious cover (whose) adherents want nothing more than to pit us against each other, denying all that we have in common."

Earlier today, King Abdullah joined Senator Norm Coleman (R- MINN) at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he delivered brief remarks and where he asked attendees -- who included American government officials, congressmen, community, civil and religious leaders and members of the Washington diplomatic corps -- to join in a prayer for the Middle East so "that not one more generation will grow up knowing conflict or injustice, that not one more family will lose a loved one to war and bitterness, and that together, Muslim, Christian and Jew, we can create a new future for the Holy Land."

In a separate meeting with American religious figures, including nearly two dozen Evangelist leaders, King Abdullah discussed his message of peace and coexistence across all religious faiths.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/13776574.htm

Jewish group praises prayer breakfast for inclusiveness

FREDERIC J. FROMMER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - An Orthodox Jewish group praised Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast for its inclusive tone, following concerns the event has become too Christian in recent years.

"All Americans should hope and work to ensure that this very public, very pluralistic and very inspirational program be held up as a model for future events," said Nathan J. Diament, director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

Coleman, who co-chaired the breakfast with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said in a telephone interview that he hoped the event was more inclusive this year.

"I did try to make sure that this event was inviting to Jews, members of my faith," he said. "I worked very hard at that. My sense is that we were successful."

Coleman made a point of having Abdullah address the breakfast - the king wasn't scheduled to speak until lunch - to offer a prayer for peace in the Middle East.

"So you had a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew embracing at the very end," Coleman, said, referring to Abdullah, Pryor and himself.

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=42228

Bush extols a "nation of prayer"

Washington, Feb. 03 (CNA/CWNews.com) - Americans are a prayerful people who continue to seek God’s will and to respond to this will in service to those in need, said President George W. Bush at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast. The event was held at the Hilton Washington Hotel.

The annual breakfast is organized without government funding by the Fellowship Foundation, an evangelical Christian group. But this year’s breakfast had a more interfaith presence than past years in that the event’s co-chair was the Jewish Senator Norm Coleman. King Abdullah II of Jordan, a Muslim, was also one of the honored guests. He spoke at a lunch following the breakfast.

Rock star and humanitarian Bono gave the keynote address. He spoke about his own experience of faith and God and referred to the Jubilee 2000 Campaign before urging the United States to give "an additional one percent of the federal budget" to the poor, especially in Africa.

President Bush followed Bono at the pulpit. “It is fitting we have a National Prayer Breakfast, because our nation is a nation of prayer,” said the President. He said he appreciated the presence of world leaders and people of other faiths, and adding that all present were “united in our dedication to peace and tolerance and humility before the Almighty.”

“In America, we do not prescribe any prayer. We welcome all prayer. We're a nation founded by men and women who came to these shores seeking to worship the Almighty freel"

http://www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2006/Feb/03/30373100.htm

Hamas members are visiting Jordan as members of a parliamentary delegation... Asked whether Jordan will present a plan to the upcoming Arab summit in Khartoum to reinvigorate the stalemated Middle East process, Judeh said Jordan see [sic] any Arab summit a positive step to discuss Arab issues. " Jordan welcomes the convening of any Arab summit to discuss Arab issue and find proper solutions to them," Judeh told reporters.

Cardinal: Holy Land at critical stage

"There is the sense that this is a very crucial moment, and it will require an enormous amount of wisdom and courage and prayer because there are so many intangibles we just don't know," Cardinal McCarrick told Catholic News Service March 10, the final day of a three-day visit to the Holy Land.

The Washington cardinal said both elections could "very significantly change the equation" of keeping the peace in the Holy Land.

The elections also may make it more difficult for the U.S.-backed "road map" -- designed for a permanent, two-state solution for Israeli-Palestinian peace -- to move forward, he said. The cardinal said the U.S. Catholic Church is committed to the road map, developed in 2003.

Despite the challenges during this time of transition, the United States needs to be dedicated to a two-state solution that gives Israel "recognized borders and freedom from terrorism" while at the same time giving Palestinians a "viable and peaceful state," he said.

"Unquestionably, our country has a lot on its plate right now, but I believe the commitment the president made to the road map is a most important and essential one, and we still believe we have to follow (it) and encourage our government not to give up," he said.

"Our reaction to Hamas has always been that it is impossible to deal with someone who wants to drive you out," he added. "I am optimistic that now that Hamas is leading the government we will be able to see some change in that policy."

In turn, he said, the U.S. government should not react hastily to the new leadership of Hamas, a militant Islamic group, but should wait to see how leaders proceed once the new government is formed. But whatever happens, he said, humanitarian assistance is "absolutely necessary to avoid a human tragedy in the Palestinian territories."

Cardinal McCarrick was in the Holy Land to visit with Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. He arrived in the area following a March 7 visit to Amman, Jordan, with King Abdullah II -- whom the cardinal referred to as "my friend" -- for further discussions about the Amman Message, a 2004 declaration recognizing the common principles of eight traditional schools of Islamic religious law.

Analysis: Summit may be Iraq's last chance for peace

The Jordanian option

The Palestinian rocket offensive on southern Israel and the establishment of terror training camps on the ruins of Israeli settlements are incontrovertible proof that the Israeli strategy of "disengagement" has failed utterly and completely. During the 38 years of Israel's presence in Gaza, even when things were at their worst, the area never constituted much more than an irritant to Israel's national security.

Now, with Hamas in charge and al-Qaida, Iran, Hizbullah, PA militias, Islamic Jihad and Fatah terror-crime mobs running rampant, Gaza has become more than an irritant. Today, Gaza has become a base for global jihad and a source for constant and intensifying destabilization throughout the region. The current rocket offensive from Gaza - for which Israel has yet to come up with any effective response short of invasion - has placed some of Israel's most sensitive national infrastructures in under constant attack. The daily shelling of the communities around Gaza imperils the economic viability of southern Israel...

Yet lip service aside, Olmert and his cohorts are fully committed to the surrender paradigm and they are gunning for the Bush administration to dump appeasement and join their bandwagon. As Olmert put it to Newsweek, "I understand that if [the retreat and expulsion plan from Judea and Samaria] will be accepted as a contribution to a Middle East with less violence and terror, we will be able to reach an understanding with the American government about some measures of support that can be essential for the success of this move."

Unfortunately for the Bush administration, as the Gaza model shows, backing Olmert's plan will mean that the US will be giving its support to a strategy that has no chance whatsoever of making a "contribution to a Middle East with less violence and terror." To the contrary, Olmert's surrender paradigm has made a contribution to violence and terror.

So what is the Bush administration to do? Its current paradigm of appeasement has no chance of succeeding and Olmert's paradigm of surrender is also a recipe for failure.

[Solution]
Luckily, appeasement and surrender are not the only options available for stabilizing the Middle East and diminishing levels of violence and terror. In the current issue of the Middle East Quarterly,Dan Diker and Pinchas Inbari outline a paradigm that has a better chance of success than either appeasement or surrender.

Their article, "Re-energizing a West Bank-Jordan Alliance" notes that Israel and Jordan today share a cardinal interest in ensuring that Judea and Samaria do not follow the Gaza model. As they demonstrate, there is reason to believe that from this convergence of interests, a strategy can emerge that will be capable of succeeding where appeasement and surrender fail.

The Jordanian regime is today subject to two sources of turbulence that have the potential to destroy it. First there is Iraq. Iraq's political and military instability wreaks havoc on Jordan which is economically dependent on its eastern neighbor. Jordanian terrorist and al-Qaida commander in Iraq with Abu Musab Zarkawi has targeted the Hashemite regime. Al-Qaida has cells throughout Jordan. Al-Qaida operatives attacked Eilat with Katyushas from Akaba on August 19 and they targeted Amman itself in the hotel bombings last November.

Al-Qaida's spread from Iraq to Jordan is now, in the wake of Israel's retreat from Gaza being followed by its spread to Gaza and Judea and Samaria. As Jordanian diplomats explained to Diker and Inbari last September, Jordan is deeply opposed to Olmert's proposed Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. In their view, such a retreat would cause a spread of Gazan and Iraqi style chaos to Judea and Samaria. Such chaos could easily endanger the Hashemite regime.

Until 1988, Arabs in Judea and Samaria were Jordanian citizens. Fearing that the Palestinian uprising which began that year would destabilize his kingdom, the late King Hussein renounced Jordan's claims to sovereignty over the areas. Yet Jordan has remained actively engaged in the areas. Some 70 percent of Jordanians define themselves as Palestinians and most Jordanians have family in Judea and Samaria. Trade between the two banks of the Jordan is intense. King Abdullah's wife Rania is a Palestinian. In naming their son Hussein the crown prince of Jordan, Abdullah has effectively transformed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan into the Hashemite-Palestinian Kingdom of Jordan-Palestine.

Inbari and Diker believe that the Jordanian regime may be willing today to entertain a strategy of federating or confederating with Judea and Samaria. The advantage of such a policy for the Palestinians is that as citizens of overwhelmingly Palestinian Jordan, they would no longer be stateless. The advantage for Israel and Jordan would be that the threat that the PA's chronic instability poses to both states' security would be remedied by the presence of two sovereigns - at peace with one another, with have decades of military cooperation behind them, and a shared interest in destroying all vestiges of Islamist terror cells in the area - in charge.

Although they do not discuss the issue of Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria in their article, there is little reason to think that a confederative or federative arrangement that would place Jordan in charge of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria would necessitate any limitation on the right of Israel to remain responsible for the Israelis who live in the areas. Clear and straightforward arrangements regarding citizenship and security responsibilities for both the Palestinians and the Israelis can be reached with little more than a handshake given the depth of both Israel and Jordan's shared interests.

One of the main reasons that the notion of Palestinian statehood - upon which the appeasement and surrender paradigms are based - is acceptable to Israelis is because it is believed that if the Palestinians are given sovereignty they will begin to behave like a responsible member of the community of states. Sadly, events of the past 13 years have proven repeatedly that the conferring of the accoutrements of statehood - including sovereignty in Gaza -- exacerbates Palestinian support for jihad and instability.

Jordan's King Abdullah stated on Monday that in order to achieve peace in the Middle East, Israel must relinquish its nuclear weapons, Army Radio reported.

In an interview to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Abdullah said that if the world was asking Iran to abstain from the development of nuclear weapons, it must ask other countries that have nuclear weapons to do the same.

King Abdullah said that his country wished the Middle East to remain nuclear-weapon-free.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jordan's King Abdullah II met with President Bush on Monday and urged him to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, repeating a plea the king made in a recent letter to the White House.

"King Abdullah underlined the importance of moving forward in the pursuit of a two-state solution as outlined in President Bush's vision for peace," the Jordanian Embassy said in a statement Monday night.

The king told Bush the Palestinian people need aid to avert a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories, the embassy statement said.

Abdullah told Bush that Jordan plans to play a key role in the peace process, the embassy said. Abdullah meets regularly with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and plans to hold a separate meeting in the next few weeks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Abdullah wrote to Bush earlier this month urging him to help restart the Mideast peace process.

The king met with Bush for a private dinner Monday during a brief visit to the United States. In addition to the Mideast peace process, the possibility of additional U.S. aid for Jordan came up during their conversation, the embassy said.

Abdullah "thanked the president for considering additional assistance to Jordan this year, at a time when Jordan's economy is facing many challenges associated with high oil prices," the statement said.

US allies in ME press for Israel-PA talks

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Wednesday, 31 May 2006: 15.11 CET) – Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are mobilizing for a diplomatic offensive designed to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Middle East Online reports.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday for talks that may pave the way for a summit between the Israeli leader and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Saudi ruler King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud will hold talks with Mubarak ahead of the Egyptian leader's summit with Olmert.

Jordan's King Abdullah II is to hold a summit with the Olmert in mid-June. The king warned in an April letter to US President George W. Bush that unilateral Israeli moves would have "negative repercussions"...  It is understood that Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League are building pressure on Hamas to accept a landmark league proposal, formulated in 2002, that would see an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank rewarded with the full normalization of relations with Arab states.

Blair hopes for Mideast peace plan

Hostilities between Lebanon and Israel are 'catastrophe'

Moderate Arab states form united front to win Rice's support for relaunching peace talks

The campaign will peak in the third week of December, when British premier Tony Blair is due to visit Damascus to open the road for Washington (as first revealed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 278 on Nov, 17).

As a down-payment for buying Syrian president Bashar Asad’s cooperation on Iraq, Blair will try and coerce Israel to accept talks with Syria for the return of the Golan captured in the 1967 war.

Last Monday, Nov. 13, prime minister Ehud Olmert rather naively claimed he and President George W. Bush were of one mind that Israel must not sit down and talk to Syria until the Asad regime had abandoned its sponsorship of terror.

As he spoke, three high-ranking US officials - David Satterfield, the state department’s coordinator for Iraq,J.D. Crouch, deputy national security adviser, and Condoleezza Rice’s assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, David Welch - were deep in arrangements for the Blair visit to Damascus, which they see as the key for opening the door to direct US-Tehran talks.
The fresh US-European Middle East momentum on the Palestinian issue is being crafted as a positive counterweight to the negative effect of the impending American-British withdrawal from Iraq. The groundwork for this ploy was laid by Blair’s senior political adviser Nigel Sheinwald, when he met Asad in Damascus in late October (as first reported by DEBKAfile).  

He brought back welcome tidings from his meeting: Damascus and Tehran did not see eye to eye on Iraq; Asad said he felt no compulsion to stick to the Iranian line in the embattled country. Reporting this, DEBKA-Net-Weekly also revealed that former US ambassador to Syria, Margaret Scobie, would follow Blair to the Syrian capital. Now stationed in Iraq, she was abruptly withdrawn from Damascus in 2005 at the height of the crisis between Washington and Damascus. It is hoped that her return, formally designated as a visit to take leave of old friends in the Syrian hierarchy, will occasion a meeting with the Syrian president. This would be taken as the first sign of a thaw in US-Syrian relations.

The two Damascus visits are meant to be the conduit to the start of Washington’s dialogue with Tehran.

Blair’s most recent foreign policy statements are at odds with the positions he and Bush have shared - unless seen in the context of these behind-the-scenes diplomatic feelers. Through this prism, they sound like an effort to prepare American and British public opinion for the extreme policy reversal embodied in his impending visit to Damascus in the role of appeaser. The pacifier he means to offer for Syria’s cooperation on Iraq: massive Israeli concessions.

In an interview to the Washington Post Thursday, Nov. 16, Prime Minister Tony Blair was suddenly optimistic about progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that "sensible Arab and Muslim countries" now see "strategic reasons" for finding a solution and new initiatives could come within weeks.

In a closed-door video conference Tuesday with the US Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel in Washington reviewing Iraq policy, Blair said that any solution to Iraq must begin with progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That is the one issue, he insisted, that unresolved allows extremists to gain purchase on the more moderate elements of the Muslim and Arab world.

Then, talking to David Frost on al Jazeera’s new English language program Saturday, Blair again stressed the importance of progress in the Middle East peace process in winning the "war on terror". But he admitted for the first time that Western intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster.”

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources note that very few people in Washington, London or Damascus understood why President Bush’s leading ally in the Iraq war had suddenly turned against him. But Blair’s eye, say those sources, was very much on the Damascus ball; he was signaling the Syrian leader that he and Asad were now on the same side: the two leaders should together take a lead role in solving the burning issues of Iraq, the Middle East dispute and Iran. He implied that the US president, whose party had lost control of Congress, like Olmert, who had lost the Lebanon war, no longer held controlling stakes in the must urgent regional issues, whereas Blair and Asad were now in a position to seize the high ground...Asad was thus given to understand that for London, the rancor over the Iraq war was water under the bridge and the way forward out of what he later admitted was a “disaster” was the paramount consideration.

All this radical shifting around of US and British positions for the sake of an exit from Iraq, coupled with Europe’s maneuvering to make hay on the Palestinian-Israeli front, leave the Jewish state prey to crippling pressures as well as dangerously exposed to Iran, whose nuclear weapons aspirations remain unsolved in the stampede to leave Iraq. Tehran’s proxy Hizballah, Syria and the Palestinian Hamas will be left in peace to advance on their agenda for rapid armament and preparations for the next war.

Monday, Nov. 13, former US secretary of state James Baker and ex-Congressman Lee Hamilton will present their recommendations on Iraq to President Bush in the Oval Office. Their audience will include an array of top administration officials: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and CIA Director Gen. Mike Hayden, as well as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace. Incoming defense secretary Robert Gates will attend as a member of the bipartisan committee.

Absentees will include outgoing defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who stepped down after the Republican’s lost the Nov. 7 midterm to the Democrats over the Iraq war, and the commanders directly running that conflict, Generals John Abizaid and George Casey...The timing and composition of the conference indicate that the larger decisions are already in the bag with regard to the new US policy on Iraq and a fresh approach to the radical side of the Middle East led by Iran and Syria, mainly at the expense of Jordan and Israel. Monday’s White House conference will be concerned mostly with tying up the last ends and deciding who performs which part of the revised strategy.

Unlike Israel, King Abdullah - who gambled and lost on Bush standing foursquare behind his plans for Iraq – has at least two alternatives:

He can make common cause with Syrian president Bashar Asad and join the anti-Israel Eastern Front with Iran, Hizballah and the radical Palestinian organizations operating out of Damascus or -

He can turn south instead of north and accept the protection of the Saudi Arabian-Egyptian alliance.

Israel, in contrast, will find itself high and dry in the Middle East. After being downgraded by the Lebanon War’s outcome, the Olmert government will be obliged to accept the crack of the American whip - at least until it can build a new security option that is not dependent on Washington’s new Middle East strategy.

DAVOS, Switzerland: It was an electric moment in this mountain town last week when the young Hashemite king, Abdullah II of Jordan, stood in front of the World Economic Forum and warned of a conflagration that could spread "from Beirut to Bombay" — pitting Shiite against Sunni, Persians against Arabs with untold consequences for all.

The king saw three potential civil wars on the boil, involving the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the Iraqis. The number one issue that could soothe the region would be the swift creation of a Palestinian state.

"The continued denial of Palestinian rights is a fire starter," he said. "If you don't fix the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you can't have stability in the region. We will all pay the price for what I think may be the last opportunity."

But as part of the new "surge" strategy, the administration has decided to adopt at least one of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations: revive the effort to bring about a two- state solution between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently visited the region, and a meeting of the so-called Middle East Quartet — the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations — which so far has made no progress, is planned for Friday.

Other voices from the region share the king's urgency. Amr Moussa, the long-serving secretary general of the Arab League, said a Palestinian state should be brought into being in 2007.

The reason for the new urgency is a common fear of Iran shared by Arabs and Israelis alike. Recently, the Israelis have sent out feelers to their Arab neighbors to explore this mutual concern.

The new Arab plan would be to build on the 2002 Saudi initiative that offered peace and full recognition of Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories to pre-1967 lines. Surprisingly, all of the Arab League members signed on. It was a nonstarter, as far as the government of Ariel Sharon was concerned. But the talk in Davos is that a new offer, much more to Israel's advantage, will be made.

Iran, Syria invited to Iraq ‘neighbors meeting’

Announcement by Rice reveals shift in U.S. approach to regional talks

“We hope that all governments seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq and to work for peace and stability in the region,” Rice said in remarks prepared for delivery to a Senate committee. Excerpts were released in advance by the State Department.

The move reflects a change of approach by the Bush administration, which previously had resisted calls by members of Congress and by a bipartisan Iraq review group to include Iran and Syria in diplomatic talks on stabilizing Iraq.

Jordan Fears Three Middle East Civil Wars

Jordan's King Abdullah, who will host President Bush this week during emergency talks on Iraq, said yesterday that the Middle East faces the prospect of three simultaneous civil wars erupting.

"We're juggling with the strong potential of three civil wars in the region, whether it's the Palestinians, that of Lebanon, or of Iraq," the Jordanian king said on ABC's "This Week."

Jordan's king urges Olmert to set deadline for clinching peace accord with Palestinians

Report: Olmert will cede Golan for peace
AP on Yahoo ^ | 6/8/07 | Steve Weizman - ap

Posted on 06/08/2007 2:43:10 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

JERUSALEM - Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime, a newspaper reported Friday.

Yediot Ahronot said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad through German and Turkish diplomats saying Israel was open to direct peace negotiations and to give up the strategic plateau it seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

The paper said Syria had not responded to the overture, quoting unidentified officials close to Olmert.

Olmert's office would not comment on the report. But an Israeli official said earlier in the week that Israel had been taking soundings on Syria's intentions through an undisclosed third party. That official agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name.

Amman, June 18 (Petra) – The World Churches Council (WCC) has chosen Jordan to launch an international initiative that calls on international churches to put an end for Israeli occupation of the Palestinian and Arab lands to reach just and comprehensive peace in the region.

Choosing Jordan, conferees said, was because of the WCC confidence in the initiatives of His Majesty King Abdullah II, which they described as "precursor in seeking to achieve peace in the Middle East".

This was announced during the World Council of Churches International Peace Conference, which kicked off today in Amman. The conference aims to call all churches and related organizations to work hardly and put an end for the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian and Arab lands, according to the General Secretary of the WCC Samuel Kobia.

U.S. calls for Middle East peace conference

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference said on Wednesday it hoped the call by US President George W. Bush for a Middle East peace conference would lead to "the end of the Israeli occupation" of Palestinian territories.

For their part, the United Arab Emirates and Oman welcomed the Bush initiative.

The UAE president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, thanked Bush for his proposal, which he said could "put a definitive end to the sufferings of the Palestinian people, based on the Arab peace plan."

"A just solution to the Palestinian question is key to resolving most of the problems in the Middle East," Sheikh Khalifa was reported by the official WAM news agency as telling Bush in a telephone call.

In Muscat, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said Oman "supports all efforts aimed at reaching a just and comprehensive peace in the region and guaranteeing the legitimate rights of all parties," the ONA news agency said.

Bush proposed a peace conference later this year to be chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The OIC's Ihsanoglu said such a conference should aim for a "just and comprehensive peace".

Olmert looking at Jordan troops for West Bank

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in favour of Jordanian forces deploying in the occupied West Bank to help Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas fight extremists, a report said on Monday.

"What Olmert has in mind and what has been raised in recent meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah II... (is) 'regular' Jordanian army troops, Bedouin who have experience fighting terrorism," said the English-language Jerusalem Post, citing unnamed sources.

Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin dismissed the report, calling it "speculation."

But she said that Olmert "is not opposed to the idea of deployment of foreign troops, including from Arab countries, in the West Bank with a view to combating the terrorists of Hamas."

The Islamist Hamas overran troops loyal to the moderate Abbas in the Gaza Strip on June 15, splitting the Palestinians into two separate entities, with the Western-backed president ruling over the West Bank and the Western-shunned Islamists in control of Gaza.

Following the takeover, Israel has taken several steps aimed at bolstering Abbas in the West Bank and isolating Hamas, which does not recognise the Jewish state.

Israeli media reports in recent months have speculated Jordan's Badr Brigade, made up of 1,500 to 2,000 Palestinians who receive their salaries from the Palestine Liberation Organisation, would be deployed in the West Bank.

But Olmert is leaning toward the "regular" Jordanian troops instead, the Post said.

Interfaith Prayers Offered for Success of Mideast Peace Conference

US president discusses by phone upcoming Mideast trip with Jordan's king

In a telephone call to Abdullah, Bush briefed the monarch on the objectives of his trip to the Middle East, including to support the Palestinian and the Israeli sides in their efforts to reach a final compromise to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The White House confirmed the telephone call took place, describing the conversation as covering the president's trip, the Israel-Palestinian issue as well as other bilateral issues.

Bush is expected to arrive in Israel Jan. 9 and will also visit the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The statement said Abdullah stressed on "the vital role that the U.S. is playing to help the Palestinians and the Israelis and push them to reach lasting solutions to the final status issues which would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on all the Palestinian soil in the West bank and Gaza."

Bush's phone came one day after Abdullah met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who expressed willingness to move forward in negotiations with the Palestinians with the aim of reaching a final settlement to the conflict.

Abdullah also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday as part of his effort to push the two sides to the negotiation table.

Abdullah expressed hope that the visit to the region by Bush would encourage the Palestinians and Israel to implement commitments they made at Annapolis.

Israelis and Palestinians relaunched peace talks at a U.S.-hosted Mideast conference in November, and both Olmert and Abbas have said they hope to reach a final peace agreement by the end of 2008.

AMMAN, 5 January 2008 — Jordan’s King Abdallah and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday discussed at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba latest efforts aimed at pushing the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to a successful conclusion, according to an official statement.

“The monarch updated the French president on Jordan’s initiatives to muster support for the Palestinians and Israelis in their endeavors to arrive at a peaceful settlement for the Palestinian question that handles the final status issues,” the statement from the Jordanian royal court said.

Abdallah also held talks at Aqaba in the past two days with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to try to remove hurdles facing the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, including the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.

Abdallah thanked France for its support at the Paris Club buyback of Jordanian debts and the assistance offered by Paris for Jordan’s nuclear program.

On Lebanon, the Jordanian and French leaders “expressed their support for efforts aimed at bringing about a national reconciliation in the country that ensures Lebanon’s supreme interests and safeguards its unity and sovereignty.”

However, the two leaders “voiced concern over the failure of the Lebanese groups to reach compromise regarding the election of a new Lebanese president with a view to averting Lebanon any dangerous repercussions consequent on the continuation of political vacuum,” the statement said.

The monarch was also involved in telephone conversations over the issue yesterday with US President George W. Bush and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the statement said.

The monarch and Bush discussed “efforts under way to push forward the peace process” in the region, the Jordanian royal court said.

Bush is scheduled to arrive in the region next week to try to help overcome hurdles impeding the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, including Israel’s expansion of a settlement in East Jerusalem that was deemed by Palestinians as detrimental to a peace agreement.

Bush told the king his trip “seeks to reaffirm the United States’ commitments to helping Israel and the Palestinians reach a final peaceful settlement to their conflict,” it said.

The king called Bush’s landmark visit “key to enhancing the vital role by the United States to push for an agreement on final status issues, leading to the establishment of an independent state on Palestinian land in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

The United States will boost economic and military aid to Jordan by more than 40 percent, providing its ally with $663.5 million for 2008, the US Embassy said yesterday.

It will give the kingdom $363.5 million in economic support and $300 million in military financing, an embassy statement said.

“Jordan is among our strongest partners and closest friends. This increased level of assistance shows the bipartisan support in America for the difficult choices Jordan has made in its homegrown reform efforts,” it quoted US Ambassador David Hale as saying. Jordan is a major beneficiary of US financial assistance and was given $461 million in 2007.

Bush calls for end of 'occupation' of Arab lands

Vows to do 'all I can' and to make at least one more trip to region

“Now is the time to make difficult choices,” Bush said after a first-ever visit to the Palestinian territories, which followed separate meetings with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem the day before.

Bush is in the Mideast for eight days, trying to bolster his goal of achieving a long-elusive peace agreement by the end of his presidency in a year. Speaking at his hotel in Jerusalem, he said again that he thinks that is possible.

AMMAN, May 26, 2008, (WAFA)-His Majesty King Abdullah II highlighted the importance of finding a just and everlasting settlement for the Palestinian issue, since it is the core conflict in the region, noting that the region will remain in conflict if this issue was not solved.In a meeting with a US Congressional Aides Delegation, currently on a visit to the Kingdom,

His Majesty also highlighted the importance of the international community to keep its support for the Palestinian National Authority, represented by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in order to strengthen its institutions and eliminate the suffering of Palestinians and establish its independent state. King Abdullah briefed the delegation on the efforts exerted by Jordan to achieve tangible progress in the peace process, and mainly before US President George W. Bush leaves the White House.'Israel must take practical steps to improve the living standards of Palestinian People, to guarantee the success of negotiations and reach a break through in the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis' affirmed King Abdullah.

"Jordan is Palestine" Plan is Receiving Attention

(IsraelNN.com) Jordan is in an uproar over the revival of the "Jordanian option" - the thesis that Jordan is the true home to the "Palestinians."  Reports that a top advisor to US Presidential candidate John McCain is promoting this idea have led to a flurry of press reports in the Arab media, as well as a denial from Jordan's King Abdullah himself.

Some officials in Israel and the United States, however, feel it's the only way to prevent the formation of a Palestinian state.
 
The King responded defensively to the option, declaring in an interview with a Lebanese newspaper last week, “This country was made to stay. Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine."
 
"Palestinian Homeland" = Jordan
However, he also added another sentence that has given observers pause, wondering if he meant something else. 

"The Palestinian nation has the right to a state and independent identity on the areas of Palestine," said King Abdullah II. "The Palestinians will not accept any substitute for their homeland Palestine."
 
Though Arabs today call Israel "Palestine," MK Benny Elon (National Union) told IsraelNationalNews that in this case, "the words 'Palestinian homeland' can mean Jordan as well... Certainly Abdullah himself remembers that the original Palestine includes Jordan - but perhaps he assumes that everyone else does not."
 
Elon was referring to the fact that the area of Palestine, as recognized by the League of Nations and the British rulers nearly 100 years ago, includes what is today Israel and Jordan.  King Abdullah's remarks, therefore, can mean precisely the same idea that Elon has been promoting: The Arabs of Judea and Samaria should be "annexed" to Jordan.
 
Anxieties in Jordan
The idea has been making waves in Jordanian and other Arab media as well.  The English-language The National, published in Abu Dhabi, reported this week that the news that a top advisor to John McCain had raised the idea - even though the advisor, Robert Kagan, later denied having done so - has "brought to the forefront hidden anxieties in a country that hosts the largest Palestinian refugee population."  The paper reports that 1.9 million refugees and their descendants currently live in Jordan - nearly a third of the country's population.  Some reports state that the refugees comprise half of Jordan's populace.
 
“There is a conspiracy to revisit this option ['Jordan is Palestine'],” The National quotes Mohammad Abu Hdeib, who heads the Jordanian parliament’s Arab and international affairs committee, as saying. “Such a scenario would be an end to the Jordanian state. It also contradicts international resolutions that call for an independent Palestinian state.”
 
Precisely, says MK Elon: "We have to find a way to stop the trend to form a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, because it is simply dangerous and ineffectual."

Elon: Stop the Danger-Fraught Two-State Solution!
For years, Elon has been promoting a peace plan called The Right Road to Peace, or the Israel Initiative, as an alternative to the accepted Roadmap two-state solution.  "The establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (the West Bank) will only prolong the Arab-Israeli conflict and exact a heavy toll in human life," Elon explains. 

His plan's website elaborates on this point, explaining that forming such a state will not solve the "real problems that perpetuate the conflict: The Palestinian demand for the right of return of refugees to areas within the State of Israel, the rehabilitation of the refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and the nature of the Palestinian state and its borders.  Within a short time, these unresolved problems will resurface and draw the region into yet another war."

Elon told Arutz-7 that the plan to give the Arabs of Judea and Samaria citizenship in Jordan is the "only way to re-route diplomatic talk away from the dangerous Roadmap." 

Elon said his plan enjoys the strong support of US Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kansas), "who has been actively promoting it.  He spoke to [US Secretary of State] Condoleeza Rice about it, and when she said it has no chance of being accepted by the Arabs, he went to Jordan - and found that the situation was not as simple as she said."

Elon explained that Jordan is very wary of having on its western border a Hamas state, which a future Palestinian state is likely to become. "Jordan also has an increasingly extremist-Muslim Iraq to contend with on its eastern border - a very uncomfortable situation for King Abdullah," he continued.  Elon noted that the Jordanian monarch dispatched his former Prime Minister Abdel Salam al-Majali to discuss the plan with the Israelis. 

Based on a series of recent reports, it is our assessment that Vice President Dick Cheney, with backing from London, is pressing for a broader confrontation in Southwest Asia, that would extend the already ongoing, disastrous Gaza incursion, into a multi-front war, engulfing Lebanon, Syria and Iran. This effort, which has reached a critical threshold in the past 48 hours, is part of the same London-directed global showdown that we see with the recent Ukrainian actions, aimed at creating a major European wide energy and security crisis, that could lead to a new Eurasian war.

We have received credible reports that Cheney, in league with British and Saudi factions, is attempting to pressure the Israeli government and military into a suicidal extension of the conflict against Hezbollah and Syria. The broader purpose is to give Cheney the opportunity, during the closing hours of the present Administration, the justification to launch American military actions against Iran, despite powerful opposition from within the Pentagon, the CIA and the State Department. Such actions have been prevented, up until this moment, through a concerted opposition from within those U.S. institutions, as reflected in frequent public statements by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff head Adm. Mike Mullen, and others.

This effort to create a series of impossible strategic crises for the incoming Obama Administration, at a moment when they hope to concentrate their initial efforts on the onrushing global financial disintegration, and the full-scale collapse of what remains of the U.S. economy, is, by our direct information, a focus of Vice President Cheney's activities. We are pursuing reports that Cheney has personally intervened, as recently as Jan. 8, to promote an Israeli second-front war against Lebanon. We have credible indications that the same Anglo-Saudi circles of 'Al Yamamah' notoriety, are directly engaged in weapons trafficking, aimed at triggering this expansion of the crisis. Specifically, we have evidence that Saudi-supplied weapons have been used, as part of the efforts to implicate Iran, and that Saudi assets may be engaged inside Lebanon in efforts to force a second front. So far, Israel has not fallen into this expanded 'Sykes-Picot' trap; however, there is an ongoing London-directed effort, working through Cheney and other assets, to break that opposition, before Barack Obama is inaugurated on Jan. 20th as the 44th President of the United States.

Please e-mail us with questions or comments today.   I may be wrong but the Bible is never wrong.