Mideast Can't Achieve Peace Without EU Involvement: Expert

As Israel continued to bombard the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip for a third day, Jochen Hippler, a German expert on the Middle East, told DW-WORLD.De the European Union bears some of the blame for the situation.

Jochen Hippler, a researcher and expert on the Middle East at the University of Duisburg-Essen's Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), told DW-WORLD.De in an interview that the current escalation in violence in Gaza would not help to bring about peace.

“We have a situation where one side is retaliating against the other and vice versa. The Palestinians will retaliate against Israeli violence and we have to solve this problem," he said.
Hippler said the longer that the violence continues, the more difficult it will be to come to a peaceful solution.

The European Union -- which has been the biggest sponsor of development projects within the Palestinian Authority, but has not wielded the political clout of the United States -- needs to step up to the plate when it comes to negotiating a workable initiative for peace, according to the Middle East expert.

“Europe has made a couple of mistakes in the last couple of years,” Hippler said. “Instead of respecting the elections (that brought Hamas to power) and dealing with someone they don't like, they've helped to trigger a kind of civil war among Palestinians. And you can't have peace with an opponent that is at war with itself.”

The EU's decision to upgrade bilateral relations between Israel and European Union member states in June has also stirred anger in the Arab world.

Hippler said finding a peaceful solution would have been easier 10 to 15 years ago. “The main challenge we face now is finding a permanent political solution. But there is no political will to do it.”

The EU, he said, could resolve help to reduce tensions by bringing Hamas to the table. “We have seen examples where negotiating with Hamas has been successful. But to achieve a ceasefire, the only way is to agree to a mutual ceasefire.”

Legitimate goal of peace will not be achieved. In any case, Hippler said, the official goals of Israel's military action -- to stop the rocket attacks --will not be met.

“It's a legitimate goal. The people of Israel have every right to live in peace as the Palestinians do. The problem is that this war will not change those attacks. The long-range effects will just be to start a new round of suffering, especially in the Gaza Strip and will motivate some militant people within Palestine to try and hit Israel any way they can.”

Mideast Can't Achieve Peace Without EU Involvement: Expert
Courtney Tenz

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EU foreign ministers to meet on Gaza crisis

PARIS (AFP) — European Union foreign ministers were set to hold an urgent meeting on Tuesday in Paris on the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip, the French foreign ministry announced.

"The ministers will look into how the European Union can help ease the current crisis, along with the efforts of the international community, especially the secretary general of the United Nations," the ministry's statement said.

The meeting was set to take place at 1730 GMT Tuesday and be chaired by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner...

Romain Nadal, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry, said Monday that France and other EU countries were ready to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza , although reestablishing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remained a top priority.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy held conversations Monday with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak to look for solutions to end the violence in Gaza, a statement from the French EU presidency said.

Diplomats told AFP that EU members are considering a number of options to resolve the crisis, including renewing its observation mission in Rafah, a town that lies on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The mission, if accepted by both sides, could potentially allow for the easing of restrictions on checkpoints across the Palestinian territories...

Read full article: EU foreign ministers to meet on Gaza crisis, Gulf leaders tell Israel to end

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Palestinian Leader, Islamist Chief Discuss Temple Mount Takeover

Aaron Klein
Posted Oct 08 2008

Press - New York,NY,USA

In recent years, Jordan quietly has been purchasing real estate surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in hopes of gaining more control over the area ...

Meeting with an Islamist leader here, the Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator last weekend discussed ways to solidify Islamic control over the Temple Mount and block Jews from purchasing real estate in areas surrounding the holy site, according to a source involved in the talks...

In recent years, Jordan quietly has been purchasing real estate surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in hopes of gaining more control over the area accessing the holy site, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.

The officials disclosed that the Jordanian kingdom in 2006 and 2007 used shell companies to purchase several apartments and shops located at key peripheral sections of the Temple Mount. The shell companies at times presented themselves as acting on behalf of the Wakf custodians of the Temple Mount, according to information obtained...

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The First Jewish Temple was built there by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C.E. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C.E. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 C.E. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's shechina or "presence" dwelt.

All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Jewish Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.

The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and stands today in Jerusalem.

The Al Aksa Mosque was constructed around 709 C.E. to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph.

About 100 years ago, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem became associated with the place Muslims to believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned in the Koran.

Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" - believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia - to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Koran.

Palestinians today claim exclusivity over the Temple Mount, and Palestinian leaders routinely deny Jewish historical connection to the site, but historically, Muslims did not claim the Al Aksa Mosque as their third holiest site and admitted the Jewish Temples existed.

As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."

It wasn't until the late 19th century - incidentally when Jews started immigrating to Palestine - that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.

A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which states on page 4, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute....

Jewish Press: Palestinian Leader, Islamist Chief Discuss Temple Mount Takeover

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STEPPING TO PERDITION

By Sheriff Jim R. Schwiesow, Ret.
October 4, 2008NewsWithViews.com

The past couple of weeks we have watched the economy of the nation unravel in a series of consistent and unrelenting economic catastrophes of unprecedented gravity...

The whole of this nation lives hand to mouth, take away the money that flows through our collective hands from Peter to Paul and the system will default and collapse. In point of fact that is exactly what is going to happen...

As I write this message the House has caved in to the enormous pressures of the money-grubbers, the lap dogs of the fourth estate, and the venal politicians who have sold themselves into slavery to the finance felons to pass the monumental and rationally indiscernible pork laden bailout of the mega bucks barons of Wall Street...

There will be no recovery of the economy through natural selection and healing market adjustments, which are entirely necessary as painful as they might be.

The passing of this bill will create another small credit bubble and when that bubble collapses, as it inevitably will, it will virtually assure a complete economic meltdown, the political manipulators of the administration and the congress, who have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, have now set it in stone.

Crank up the printing machines boys we’re going to need a lot of those bogus bucks...

It is an undeniable fact that this nation is in the hands of delusional secularists with no God-given discernment. Such are leading a pseudo Christian nation that is in total rebellion against the Eternal God and in absolute defiance of His Word. They mock Him and deny His Son, the purchaser of our salvation, and then have the audacity to invoke His blessings upon this satanic nation. Their words fall to the ground dead upon utterance. It is most certain that our sovereign God does not hear or countenance their empty pleadings as their very works identify them as being in service to the evil one.

The United States, now imminently on the cusp of total disintegration as a world power, is entering into the final throes of expiration and classically treading the dark descent to the dank den of the tombs of failed nations, where it will lie under the debris of a once great commonwealth as its marker. There will be no lament; there will be no dirge, there will be no requiem, only a stinking, smoldering stench will testify to its former existence and its pitiful end.

Read entire item: There will be no recovery of the economy

Olmert to urge Moscow: Don't arm Israel's enemies

JERUSALEM (AP) —

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, traveling to Russia this week on one of his last diplomatic missions, said Sunday he would urge Moscow not to sell sophisticated weapons to Israel's enemies.

Iran is interested in buying anti-aircraft missiles that could cripple any military strike against its nuclear program. Israel is also afraid Moscow would sell Syria the same missile defense system

In an overture before the trip, Israel's Cabinet voted Sunday to recognize Russia's claim to property in downtown Jerusalem. Russia laid claim to the site, named for the son of a Russian czar, on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church.

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Era of US financial dominance over: Medvedev

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) -

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday the era of US financial dominance was over, and he won the backing of Germany's visiting chancellor in calling for a "more just" system.

Both Medvedev and German leader Angela Merkel called for new measures to respond to a credit crunch that has raised fears of a deep worldwide recession since it spread from the United States into international markets...

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Senate package would bail out major foreign investors, including China

During a time when most pundits and analysts had come to favor the financial bailout package, Rep. Brad Sherman of California was on Larry Kudlow’s CNBC show on Sept. 30 to cite evidence that the legislation potentially “provides hundreds of billions of dollars of bailouts to foreign investors,” including those in Communist China.

The foreign bank bailout provision alarmed Sen. Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, who said, “The plan permits taxpayer dollars to be used to buy assets of foreign financial institutions that have a presence in the United States. If U.S. taxpayer dollars are going to be put at risk, those dollars should be used to shore up U.S. based companies.”

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Senate package would bail out major foreign investors, including China

Record temperatures destroy Victorian wheat crops

Record temperatures across Victoria's north last weekend laid waste to the state's wheat crops, the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) says.

Temperatures as high as 34 celsius at Swan Hill, in the state's north, and strong winds destroyed cropping areas across the Mallee, Wimmera and northeast, ending hopes that farmers could recover from the drought this year.

"The long hoped for recovery has not arrived and farmers are looking for direction on the support that will enable them to plan for the survival of their farms and businesses over the difficult summer ahead," he said.

"A combination of high temperatures and close to no rainfall has meant that hundreds of farmers have now reached the point of no return.

"Low irrigation allocations will make it increasingly difficult for the Victorian horticulture and dairy industries to continue production over the summer months.

"The chips are down; it is time for the government to reinstate the support measures that ended on July 1 this year."

Mr Ramsay said state government support had helped farmers maintain production by keeping skills in rural areas, reducing costs, allowing access to counselling and ensuring proper management of environmental impacts.

"Failed crop, after failed crop has meant that continuation of this support is now as critical as ever before," he said.

Record temperatures destroy wheat crops

NSW temps to hit 35C in summer prelude