Just five days before national elections, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party revealed it would divide Jerusalem and allow a Palestinian state to be established in parts of Israel’s “eternal capital.” The revelation follows months of denials by top Kadima officials that the party would advocate withdrawing from Jerusalem.
“The Old City, Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives, the City of David, Sheikh Jarra will remain in our hands, but [regarding] Kafr Akeb, Abu-Ram, Shuafat, Hizma, Abu-Zaim, Abu-Tur, Abu Dis, in the future, when the Palestinian state is established, they will become its capital,” said Otniel Schneller, a Kadima member who represented the party at an official debate last week on dividing Jerusalem.
The neighborhoods Schneller listed are located on Jerusalem’s periphery near the city’s border with the West Bank. Schneller said Kadima supports “separation between us and the Palestinians who don’t live in the heart of Jerusalem,” claiming there would be “no concessions” on sites sacred to Jews.
Kadima’s claims of “only” withdrawing from peripheral sections of Jerusalem worry many here. The Israeli government has denied previous withdrawal plans, only to carry them out later – and follow with announcements of more withdrawals in larger magnitudes from areas it pledged not to vacate.
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Global civilization is on the verge of “World War III,” a massive conflict in which the Islamic world will attempt to impose its ideology on Western nations, Meir Amit, a former director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, said during an exclusive interview with WorldNetDaily and ABC Radio.
Amit, one of the most esteemed figures in the international defense establishment, warned that Islamic nations and global Islamist groups will continue launching “all kinds of attacks” against Western states. He urged the international community to immediately unite and coordinate a strategy to fight against the “Islamic war.”
“We already noticed the terrorists in the world hit Spain, England, France. I call it World War III. You must look at it from this angle and treat it wider, not as a problem of terrorism here and there,” said Amit. He referenced recent terror attacks against Israel, Europe and the United States; Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions; the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan; and worldwide Muslim riots.
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An al-Qaeda leader as important as terror chief Osama bin Laden and the group’s Iraq leader, Abu Musab Zarqawi, will soon reveal himself in the Palestinian territories and orchestrate local and global jihad from the area, according to a pamphlet distributed in the Gaza Strip.
The pamphlet, signed by a group calling itself the Jaish al Jihad, or Army of Jihad, claimed to speak for al-Qaeda. It warned all non-Muslims and foreign embassies to vacate the Palestinian areas within one month.
The pamphlet’s distribution coincided with the indictment – the first ever of its kind – of two West Bank Palestinians accused of membership in al-Qaeda and plotting a largescale attack against Israel on behalf of the global group. It also followed remarks by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that there were signs al-Qaeda has established itself in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Senior Israeli security officials repeatedly warned that al-Qaeda would infiltrate the Palestinian territories following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. The group has been suspected of maintaining cells in the nearby Sinai desert in the past few years.
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A number of Christian and Jewish American groups have announced the formation of an umbrella organization that will lobby against Olmert’s plan to withdraw Jewish communities from the West Bank, arguing in part that any withdrawal would be against United States interests.
“Olmert’s plan means the destruction of the Jewish state. Judea and Samaria is part of Israel’s biblical homeland. It borders Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and most other major Israeli cities. There is not a single doubt that if Israel vacated this heartland it would be turned over to Islamic terror groups for use to attack Israel with missiles,” said Susan Roth, founder of the United Front for the Land of Israel, the new coalition of American organizations acting against an Israeli West Bank evacuation.
“Olmert’s withdrawal would be a victory for worldwide Islamic terror. It would result in the formation of an al-Qaeda/Islamic Jihad/Iranian-satellite state that would serve as a sanctuary for all kinds of terrorists. The withdrawal would be disastrous for America’s war on terror, for Israel and for the Jewish people.
“We have come together to do everything we can to stop this withdrawal from happening,” Roth said.
The Front plans to educate the public about what they say are the dangers of a West Bank withdrawal and lobby U.S. politicians against Olmert’s plan. Groups now part of the United Front include Americans For A Safe Israel, the Jewish Action Alliance, Women in Green, Justice for Jews, Friends of YESHA, the Jewish Political Educational Foundation, the Jerusalem Reclamation Project and several university-based organizations.
Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com. He is a co-host of ABC Radio’s nationally syndicated John Batchelor Show. He can also be heard throughout next week with Rusty Humphries, who will be broadcasting from Israel. “The Rusty Humphries Show” is featured on more than 250 radio stations, including WDBO in Orlando, WCBM in Baltimore, KSFO in San Francisco, WNIS in Norfolk, KHBZ in Honolulu and KVI in Seattle.