Did YHVH's protective "Omen" come back to Israel when the Jews returned to their ancient land in 1948?

The Israel Omen “Dividing the Land” Blog powerfully reports a series of historically destructive events since 1991 to current, connected by a common thread: warnings found in Ancient Hebrew prophetic Scripture that Israel was not to be divided. Are these events the telling signs of an ancient Divine Omen, the same omen ignored by the Egyptians 3,500 years ago as Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt by YHVH's mighty hand?

This Blog presents strong evidences that the "Four Horns" foretold in Zechariah 1:18-21 to be scattering Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem are the four nations of the "Quartet"!

As the nations of the world gather to remove the Jew from YHVH's promised Holy Land, the international group dubbed the Quartet is leading the effort. And, the same prophetic Scripture warns of YHVH's judgment against those nations attempting to divide Israel. Your view of current events might never be the same!

The Israel Omen website and Book by David Brennan





Monday 14 March 2011

14/03/2011 - Aftershocks go on: 275 new tremors hit quake-torn Japan

And the aftershocks go on: 275 new tremors hit quake-torn Japan as fears grow for missing 10,000 in flattened port town

By Jo Macfarlane
Last updated at 11:36 AM on 14th March 201

  • 42 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble
  • Official death toll hits 1,597, but many hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
  • Toll will soar after around 2,000 bodies were found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture
  • Second explosion at nuclear power plant
  • Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160
  • Region hit by hundreds of aftershocks, some up to 6.8-magnitude
  • Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
  • 70,000 people evacuated to shelters in Sendai
Forty-two survivors have been pulled from the rubble in the flattened town of Minami Sanrik, where up to 10,000 people are feared to have perished.
Around half the town's 18,000 residents are missing but search and rescue teams are still working desperately through the rubble to try and find more people.
Police are also trying to stop people returning to their homes.
Despite the first tsunami warning being issued to the town that lies two miles from the coastline, some residents decided to stay in their homes instead of fleeing – leading to the high number of missing people, CNN reported today..
Most of the houses in Minami Sanriku have been completely flattened and waterlogged and one house was found even with seaweed inside.
Scroll down for video report
Villagers carry relief goods in Minami Sanriku, the worst-hit area where almost 10,000 people have gone missing
Villagers carry relief goods in Minami Sanriku, the worst-hit area where almost 10,000 people have gone missing
Japanese home guard help survivors to safety in the flooded town of Minami Sanriku
Japanese home guard help survivors to safety in the flooded town of Minami Sanriku

A motorcyclist passes by an overturned fishing boat in Hachinohe, Aomori, northern Japan
A motorcyclist passes by an overturned fishing boat in Hachinohe, Aomori, northern Japan
Japan graphic
Japan graphic
The death toll surged today after around 2,000 bodies were reportedly found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture.
Around 1,000 people were washed up on the shores of Ojika Peninsulain Miyagi, while another 1000 were seen in the town of Minamisanriku, Kyodo News reported.
Authorities have been unable to contact 10,000 people in Minamisanriku – more than half of the population living there.
Officials were hopeful about unconfirmed reports that many of the town's residents were uncountable because they had evacuated to nearby Tome city, Kyodo reported.
Before the discovery, police had confirmed 1,597 deaths and 1,481 people missing across the affected areas in northeastern and eastern Japan.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by hundreds of aftershocks, and it is feared the final death count could rise sharply once a full picture of the catastrophe emerges. In Minami Sanriku alone, 10,000 people could have died – more than half of the city’s population.
It only took a few minutes for the 30ft wave to wash the town away with terrifying force. The locals desperately tried to escape to higher ground. But most did not stand a chance.
It is hard to imagine any life remains among the debris. Where last week fishing boats bobbed in the harbour, it is now impossible to tell where the sea begins and the land ends.
One of the few buildings left standing is the town’s Shizugawa Hospital – the large white building to the centre left of this picture. But the rest of what was once the town centre is flooded with filthy sea water.
Other structures lie battered and smashed in piles of broken wood and twisted metal, but most are now little more than debris.
Just visible through the murky waters towards the bottom left of the photograph are the painted stripes of a zebra crossing.
There are vague remnants of roads and the occasional outline of a flooded car, and it is just possible to see the half-submerged outline of the town’s athletics track towards the top left of the picture.
Minami Sanriku lies about 55 miles west of the earthquake’s epicentre and directly in the path of the subsequent tsunami.
Japan has experienced more than 275 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater since Friday's earthquake, further hampering rescue efforts.
Some have been as powerful as 6.8-magnitude, and it is feared that if an aftershock of a magnitude over 7 occurred it could cause another tsunami.
According to the USGS National Earthquake Information Center, Japan has experienced between 12 and 15 aftershocks per hour since Friday's quake, and it is not known when they will stop.
In the city of Sendai, authorities have had to evacuate nearly 70,000 people to shelters. To add to problems, there has been a spate of panic buying as most petrol stations and supermarkets are out of service.
At least a million households had gone without water since the quake, and food and gasoline were quickly running out across the coastal regions hit by the tsunami.
Alive: A woman is pulled from the rubble in the devastated city of Natori, Miyagi prefecture today
Alive: A woman is pulled from the rubble in the devastated city of Natori, Miyagi prefecture today
Incredibly patient: People queue for water in Sendai two days after the earthquake and tsunami struck
Incredibly patient: People queue for water in Sendai two days after the earthquake and tsunami struck
Devastation: Destroyed cars and houses hit by the tsunami and subsequent fire in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan
Devastation: Destroyed cars and houses hit by the tsunami and subsequent fire in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan


People walk through the rubble in Rikuzentakakata, Iwate Prefecture
People walk through the rubble that will take months to sort out in Rikuzentakakata, Iwate Prefecture


A patient is evacuated from a destroyed hospital in Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture
A patient is evacuated from a destroyed hospital in Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture


A woman wrapped in a blanket stares shell-shocked at the damagae in Ishimaki City
A woman wrapped in a blanket stares shell-shocked at the damagae in Ishimaki City

A car sits on top of a small building in a destroyed neighborhood in Sendai
A car sits on top of a small building in a destroyed neighborhood in Sendai

The wave from a tsunami crashes over a street in Miyako City in an incredible picture taken on Friday but only just released
The wave from a tsunami crashes over a street in Miyako City in an incredible picture taken on Friday but only just released

A river bank in Sendai is destroyed beyond recognition following the tsunami
A river bank in Sendai is destroyed beyond recognition following the tsunami

In this before and after NASA satellite image, the horrendous extent of the flooding along the coast is apparent
In this before and after NASA satellite image, the horrendous extent of the flooding along the coast is apparent
And in Fukushima, thousands of people were forced to flee the vicinity of an earthquake-crippled Japanese nuclear plant after a radiation leak and authorities faced a fresh threat with the failure of the cooling system in a second reactor.           


The government insisted radiation levels were low following Saturday's explosion, saying the blast had not affected the reactor core container, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been told by Japan that levels 'have been observed to lessen in recent hours'.

But Japan's nuclear safety agency said the number of people exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant could reach 160. Workers in protective clothing were scanning people arriving at evacuation centres for radioactive exposure.

These pictures reveal the brutal aftermath of the tsunami, but an amateur video posted online, filmed by one of the town’s residents, shows the terrifying moment the wave hit.

It shows people desperately driving uphill to escape the wave and the road lined with locals watching open-mouthed as their homes are swept away.

The horrifying footage focuses briefly on those people caught in the traffic, including emergency vehicles, which failed to escape in time. One bus narrowly misses being washed away after speeding uphill as those filming shout ‘Run! Run!’.

Two hundred people were said to have been evacuated from the roof of the hospital and police believe the tidal wave may have washed away an entire train.

One photograph showed the letters ‘SOS’ written on the ground in the car park of the Minami Sanriku Elementary School. The letter H, surrounded by a circle, had also been added, a plea for helicopter assistance.

Tsunami warnings were issued to the entire Pacific seaboard, but the worst fears were not realised. Widespread damage was caused to some coast areas, including California, but there were no reports of fatalities.

President Barack Obama has pledged U.S. assistance and said one aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way.

Japan's worst previous earthquake was an 8.3-magnitude temblor in Kanto which killed 143,000 people in 1923. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.

The country lies on the 'Ring of Fire' - an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching across the Pacific where around 90 per cent of the world's quakes occur.

An estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries were killed after a quake triggered a massive tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004, in the Indian Ocean.

A magnitude 8.8 quake which struck off the coast of Chile in February last year also generated a tsunami which killed 524 people. Authorities mistakenly told people in coastal regions there was no danger of a tsunami.
Flooded: A stretch of land pictured before and after the tsunami in Sendai
Flooded: A stretch of land pictured before and after the tsunami in Sendai

Indescribable force: The wave carried a ferry inland leaving perched on top of a house in Otsuchi
Indescribable force: The wave carried a ferry inland leaving perched on top of a house in Otsuchi
The size of the clear-up job is huge, as shown by this lone figure in among rubble piled high in Minamisanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture
The size of the clear-up job is huge, as shown by this lone figure in among rubble piled high in Minamisanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture

Men search through a rare standing store in house in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture
Men search through a rare standing store in house in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture
Orderly queues are springing up all over Japan as people face a shortage of food, drinks and daily necessities - like this one in Shiogama
Orderly queues are springing up all over Japan as people face a shortage of food, drinks and daily necessities - like this one in Shiogama
People queue up for food rations at a supermarket in Ogawara, Miyagi Prefecture
People queue up for food rations at a supermarket in Ogawara, Miyagi Prefecture
Shelves are bare in the suburbs of Tokyo, far from the quake's epicentre
Shelves are bare in the suburbs of Tokyo, far from the quake's epicentre

A pile of burnt out vehicles that were ready to be exported are piled in disarray at a port at Tokai village in Ibaraki prefecture
Aerial view of the devastation in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture
A pile of burnt out vehicles that were ready to be exported are piled in disarray at a port at Tokai village in Ibaraki prefecture - and an aerial view of the devastation in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi

An old man is piggy-backed to safety after surviving the tsunami in Tagajo near Sendai
A grandmother looks at her grandchild asleep at a shelter in Otsuchicho in Iwate Prefecture
An old man is piggy-backed to safety after surviving the tsunami in  Tagajo near Sendai, while in Otsuchicho in Iwate Prefecture, a grandmother minds a young child


A woman searching for her missing husband looks under an overturned truck after an earthquake and tsunami struck Minamisanriku
A woman searching for her missing husband looks under an overturned truck after an earthquake and tsunami struck Minamisanriku
A convoy of emergency vehicles drive past rubble in Natory City
A convoy of emergency vehicles drive past rubble in Natory City

Members of Japanese Self-Defence Force prepare a convoy for search and rescue operations in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture
Members of Japanese Self-Defence Force prepare a convoy for search and rescue operations in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture
Flames and smoke rise from a petroleum refining plant next to a heating power station in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture
Flames and smoke rise from a petroleum refining plant next to a heating power station in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture






Friday 11 March 2011

11/3/2011 - Japan aftershock raises anxiety, knocks out power

11/3/2011 - Japan aftershock raises anxiety, knocks out power


AP/Hiro Komae
Japanese people buy food at a supermarket with no electricity in  Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan Friday, April 8, 2011. A big aftershoc AP – Japanese people buy food at a supermarket with no electricity in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern …
 
ICHINOSEKI, Japan – Shoppers emptied store shelves, traffic snarled after stoplights lost power and drivers waited in long lines to buy gasoline in a new wave of anxiety Friday after a magnitude-7.1 aftershock struck disaster-weary northeastern Japan. Nearly a half-million homes were without electricity after the latest tremor, which dealt another setback for those struggling to recover from the earthquake-spawned tsunami that wiped out hundreds of miles of the northeastern coast last month and killed as many as 25,000 people.
"I feel helpless. I am back to square one," said Ryoichi Kubo, 52, who had just finally reopened his gas station in hard-hit Iwate prefecture (state) after the power outage and prolonged fuel shortage that followed the March 11 tsunami. Friday, he was again without electricity, his four gas pumps shut down.
Three people died in Thursday's aftershock, the worst since the day of the massive magnitude-9.0 quake. The latest tremor largely spared the nation's nuclear power plants and there was no sign of fresh problems at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which has been spewing radiation since it was swamped by the tsunami.
Power remained out Friday across much of northern Japan, including areas far inland, and homes were without gas and water. Gasoline was again scarce. Convenience stores sold out of basics like water and snack foods, and supermarkets switched back to rationing purchases.

In Ichinoseki, 240 miles (390 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, lines of 30 or more people formed outside the Marue supermarket starting when it opened at 9 a.m. With power out, each customer was escorted through the aisles by an employee with a flashlight and a pad, who jotted down the price of each item.
"I'm so tired, I just want to buy some chocolate," said Yuka Sato, 27, who patiently waited in line with her neighbors. Most local businesses were closed. Restaurant owner Suzuki Koya, 47, bought a small gas stove and made a free meal for locals in a big boiling pot. "I saw the meat at the supermarket and I thought, we should do a hot pot," he said. "It's good to keep warm in times like these."
Click image to see photos of quake, tsunami damage

AP/Yomiuri Shimbun, Hiroshi Adachi
About 450,000 households were still without electricity Friday evening, said Souta Nozu, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power Co., which serves northern Japan. That includes homes in prefectures in Japan's northwest that had been spared in the first quake. With power lines throughout the area damaged, it was not clear whether normal operations would resume.

Several nuclear power plants briefly switched to diesel generators when the aftershock hit but were reconnected to the grid by Friday afternoon. One plant north of Sendai briefly lost the ability to cool its spent fuel pools, but quickly got it back. Several diesel generators had problems, though they did not cause any disruptions to key cooling systems. At a plant in Onagawa, some radioactive water splashed out of the pools but did not leave a containment building, Tohoku Electric said. Such splashing is not unusual. There was one bit of good news Friday: Automakers announced that they were beginning to bounce back after halting operations due to parts shortages in the wake of the tsunami. Toyota will resume car production at all its plants in Japan at half capacity from April 18 to 27. Nissan also said it would start up domestic production at half capacity from April 11.

But other developments were grim. Those killed by Thursday's quake were a 79-year-old man who died of shock, a woman in her 60s who lost power to her oxygen tank, and an 85-year-old man whose cause of death was not specified. Many bodies from last month's tsunami still have not been found, and many probably were swept out to sea and never will be. But as radiation from Fukushima Dai-ichi has dropped, police have fanned out to look for those who may have died inland. On Friday, hundreds of police, many mobilized from Tokyo, used their hands or small shovels, pulling four bodies in an hour from one small area in the city of Minami Soma. They had found only five bodies the previous day. The searchers, wearing white protective suits and blue gloves, struggled to bring the remains across the rubble to vans and minibuses that would take them to the nearest morgue. Each body was carefully hosed off to rid it of radiation.

"The area is literally a mountain of debris. It is an extremely difficult task," said an official with police in Fukushima prefecture who declined to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
A tsunami warning was also issued after Thursday's aftershock, but it was canceled about 90 minutes later. The aftershock was in about the same location as the original 9.0-magnitude quake, off the eastern coast and about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Sendai, an industrial city on the eastern coast. It was strong enough to shake buildings for about a minute as far away as Tokyo, about 200 miles (330 kilometers) away.
For tens of thousands of people living in shelters because they lost their homes in the tsunami or were evacuated from the area near Fukushima Dai-ichi or both, the aftershock was an unpleasant reminder of what they have been through.

Matsuko Ito said she screamed when the violent shaking woke her up around 11:30 p.m. She's not sure she can take much more. "It's enough," the 64-year-old while smoking a cigarette outside the shelter where she has been living in the small northeastern city of Natori. "Something has changed. The world feels strange now. Even the way the clouds move isn't right."
___
Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa, Malcolm Foster, Ryan Nakashima and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Eric Talmadge in Minami Soma contributed to this report.

11/3/2011 - Tsunami swamps Japan after powerful quake

11/3/2011 - Tsunami swamps Japan after powerful quake

Updated Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:38pm AEDT
Large areas of Japan's northern Pacific coast have been swamped by a devastating tsunami, engulfing entire towns following a major 8.9 offshore quake. The massive wave of water, as high as 10 metres in some parts, reached more than five kilometres inland. The meteorological agency issued its top-level evacuation alerts for the entire Japanese coast amid warnings of a tsunami of between six and 10 metres. Towns and farms around Sendai city in northern Japan have been engulfed by a seven-metre tsunami, while a four-metre wave swamped parts of Kamaishi on the Pacific coast. Residents have been ordered to high ground and stay away from the coast as tsunamis can strike in several waves. Seismologists say the quake was 160 times more powerful than the one that devastated Christchurch last month.
  • Wall of water crosses Japan's east coast
  • Large parts of Miyagi prefecture engulfed
  • Homes flooded, cars and boats washed away
  • No leaks of radioactive material from power plants
  • BOM says no tsunami warning for Australia
  • Contact DFAT on 1300 555 135


Japanese television has shown pictures of a wall of water kilometres wide moving its way across the countryside, engulfing everything in its path. The Cosmo oil refinery in Chiba prefecture outside Tokyo has exploded, sending flames dozens of metres into the air, with firefighters unable to contain the inferno. It is one of more than 40 blazes burning across Japan.

"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the agency said. A tsunami warning has been issued across the wider Pacific including Russia, the territories of Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Micronesia and Hawaii. Russia has evacuated 11,000 people from areas that could be affected, including Kuril islands and Sakhalin island. Hawaii has also ordered evacuations. The Bureau of Meteorology says there is no tsunami threat to Australia. The quake, already considered one of the worst in Japan's history, struck about 382 kilometres north-east of Tokyo at a depth of 24 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said. The USGS reported at least eight strong aftershocks, including a 6.8 quake on the mainland 66 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.

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The death toll has already reached 23 and officials say an unknown number of people are missing. In one incident a woman reportedly died in a building collapse in Takahagi, Ibaraki prefecture.  As the tsunami hit Iwate prefecture harbour, scores of cars and upturned boats smashed into bridges and buildings.  Kyodo news agency is reporting that police in Miyagi prefecture believe a ship carrying 100 people was carried away by the tsunami. Shinkansen bullet trains stopped when the quake struck, while five nuclear power plants in northern Japan have been shut down. The government says none of the plants are leaking radiation. Power has been cut to 4.4 million homes in Tokyo and surrounding areas.  Many people were injured after a roof collapsed at a hall in Tokyo where a graduation ceremony for 600 students was being held, the fire department said. Narita airport and airstrips in Miyagi prefecture have been closed.

The quake was felt as far away as the Chinese capital of Beijing, 2,500 kilometres to the west, residents said.  Help family, friends A producer in the ABC's Tokyo office, Yumiko Asada, told. PM the tsunami was a mix of soil and rubble.  "It's just swallowing the whole village town which is right next to the river. And I just see this, waves covering the rice fields and cars and homes. It's all being swept away. You just see the whole town turning into rubble in a second," she said.  The government has set up a crisis management team at the prime minister's office.

Prime minister Naoto Kan says the government will do everything possible to minimise the damage. "The government will put its strength together and work hard in tackling this disaster," he said.

"We ask the people of Japan to act fast and to help one's family and neighbours. We should all help each other to minimise the damage." The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is trying to determine whether any Australians have been affected by the earthquake or tsunami.  It says Australians who are worried about friends or family in Japan should first attempt to contact them directly.

The Department says if that does not work they can then ring its consular emergency centre on 1300 555 135.  Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday.  In 1933 a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile. Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Thursday 10 March 2011

10/3/2011 - Quartet talks peace with Israel, Palestinians

10/3/2011 - Quartet talks peace with Israel, Palestinians

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Envoys of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet failed to secure agreement on a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians after a series of separate meetings on Thursday.
Talks with Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho were hosted by the US embassy, with Washington represented by David Hale, assistant to US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, an embassy spokesman told AFP.
The European Union was represented by senior official Helga Schmid, said an EU official in Jerusalem.
Middle East envoys Sergei Yakovlev and Robert Serry also attended, representing Russia and the United Nations respectively, other diplomats said. The envoys later met Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat, officials in the West Bank town of Ramallah said.

Richard Milton, spokesman for Serry, acknowledged that the two sides were still far apart.
The Quartet envoys were "seeing serious contradictions in the views of the parties on how to bring about resumed negotiations on all core issues, including borders and security," he told AFP.
"Quartet principles will meet in mid-April," a month later than planned, Milton said.
The Quartet is seeking to push the Israelis and Palestinians into renewing some kind of peace negotiations, which ran aground last September over an intractable dispute about Jewish settlements.
However, a Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the Quartet's contacts on Thursday produced "no result" that would allow a resumption of dialogue. "The meeting was unable to reach a result to resume the talks" between the two sides, the official said. As the diplomats shuttled back and forth, Israeli and Palestinian media reports suggested Mitchell himself could make an appearance in the region next week after an absence of three months. Diplomatic efforts to engage the two sides have increased ahead of a planned key meeting of Quartet principals that had been expected to take place in Paris later this month. However, Erakat told AFP on Thursday the meeting of the Quartet -- which groups the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- has been delayed until April 15. The Quartet meeting was to have taken place next week in Paris.

Israeli press reports had earlier suggested a postponement could possibly allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu time to float a "new" peace initiative. Although details of Netanyahu's initiative have yet to be made public, close aides have been quoted as saying it involves establishing a Palestinian state on temporary borders in the framework of a long-term interim agreement -- in a plan to be outlined in Washington. But Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday the time had come for the Israeli leader to lay his cards on the table.

"It is time for the international community to ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: does he accept the establishment of a Palestinian state on all the lands occupied in 1967 -- yes or no?" he told AFP on a visit to Jericho. And he also rejected the idea of a temporary state. "The only initiative that can work is one which leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state on all lands occupied in 1967 and not on part of it," Fayyad said. Meanwhile, a spokesman for President Shimon Peres said he was seeking to secure an audience in Washington with US President Barack Obama in order to discuss options for reviving peace efforts.
Peres is one of a number of senior Israeli officials who has previously backed the idea of setting up a Palestinian state within provisional borders as part of an interim agreement.Since the expiry last September of a temporary ban on settlement building -- which Netanyahu refused to extend -- the Palestinians have refused all direct contact with the Israelis, saying they will not talk while settlers build on land they want for a future state.

10/3/2011 - Israel, PA lobby Quartet over issue of ‘67 borders

Israel, PA lobby Quartet over issue of ‘67 borders




US Mideast envoy Mitchell, colleagues meet separately with Molcho, Erekat; Meridor: Inconceivable that Israel would return to 1967 lines.

  Quartet representatives met separately on Thursday in Israel with both Israeli and Palestinian officials, in what one Quartet source described as an attempt to gauge where the sides stand and to look for ways to restart the negotiations.

This was one of the few times that the Quartet – comprised of the US, EU, Russia and UN – has inserted itself to any serious degree into the negotiations, as it is usually content to let the US alone fill that role. This change reflects the desire not only of the Palestinians, who want to see more of an international role in the diplomatic process, but also of the EU, Russia and the UN for greater involvement.

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Israel has long opposed efforts to bring any third party except the US into the negotiation process.

The Quartet representatives – US Mideast envoy George Mitchell’s adviser David Hale; the EU’s deputy secretary-general for the new External Action Service, Helga Schmid; Russian Middle East envoy Sergei Yakovlev; and the UN’s Mideast envoy, Robert Serry – met first with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. Four hours later, they met Palestinian official Saeb Erekat at the UN headquarters in Jerusalem.

No details of either meeting were provided.

A more senior-level meeting of the Quartet, originally scheduled for next week, has been postponed until April, with the Palestinians pushing hard to get it to issue a statement endorsing a two-state solution with the 1967 lines as the baseline of a future Palestinian state.

“Such a declaration must include recognition of east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and finding a just solution to the case of the Palestinian refugees on the basis of UN [General Assembly] Resolution 194,” Erekat said.

Israel is trying to prevent such a move, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s position being that the 1967 armistice lines would not give Israel secure and defensible borders.

Using the 1967 lines as a baseline, for instance would foreclose the possibility of an IDF security presence on the Jordan River, something that Netanyahu is adamant that Israel must maintain.

It is in an effort to keep the international community from taking diplomatic positions tilting toward the Palestinians that Netanyahu is, according to officials in his office, working on a diplomatic initiative that is expected to be unveiled, at the latest, by the end of May.

Erekat and other PA representatives, including Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, on Thursday condemned remarks by Netanyahu regarding the future of the Jordan Valley.

“By declaring that the Jordan Valley will remain under Israeli control, the Israeli government is telling everyone that there is no partner for peace,” Erekat said.

“We can’t talk about a Palestinian state that does not exist on the borders of June 4, 1967, and that does not include east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Also, the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip must be one geographical unit,” he said.

Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor said Israel needed to clearly state its territorial objectives, to counter the Palestinians increasingly effective use of “soft power,” rather than “fire and terrorism,” to achieve their aim of a state within the 1967 lines.

Meridor, in an Israel Radio interview, said it was inconceivable that Israel would return to the 1967 lines. “We will never agree to that,” he said.”

Meridor said that a new Israeli initiative needed to include a renewed call for negotiations that set a clear objective, and would force the PA to reveal it position on central issues such as the refugees.

The Palestinian use of “soft power,” which Meridor characterized as using flotillas to Gaza and protests in city squares with “very Western slogans” like freedom and liberty, was something Israel “needed to pay attention to.”

This new strategy was gaining achievements for the Palestinians, and Israel needed to counter it through diplomatic means, he said.