Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit severely criticized Hamas for provoking Israel’s operations in Gaza.  Below, you can find a video clip from his speech, with subtitles.

Transcript: For quite some time, Egypt has been warning. Whoever tried to confuse the understand of [ignore] this warning, must bear the responsibility. The Prime Minister of Israel warned the Hamas and said: “You must stop, otherwise we will take measures in response.” In response to what? To not renewing the calm, to the rocket fire. Just before the arrival of [Israeli Foreign Minister] Livni to Egypt, 60 rockets were fired from Gaza!

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The State of Israel today released 224 Palestinian prisoners, thereby implementing a government decision made on 07 December. The release of prisoners is meant as a measure of building confidence in the moderate government of President Mahmoud Abbas and in the process of negotiations he has undertaken with Israel. Israel’s actions also send the message that the pursuit of terrorism and violence cannot achieve anything. Today’s prisoner release comes in honor of the Eid al-Adha holiday and in deference to the high priority given to this issue within Palestinian society. The Jerusalem Post has further information on these developments.

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Since we are aware that access to YouTube.com is blocked in some schools, we have uploaded a copy of this video to an alternative, educational video site – teachertube.com. If you cannot watch this video, please click here.

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Following are statistics gathered from various sources that give a current and wide-ranging picture of the economic growth in the West Bank, of a process of amelioration which Israel has undertaken to support efforts to build and rehabilitate the Palestinian economy, of frameworks for dialogue and cooperation between us and the Palestinians, and of projects that have garnered the support of international community with the goal of rehabilitating the West Bank economy. continue reading…

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Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, will speak THIS EVENING at New York University on “The Globalization of Peace.” You can watch the speech live at 6:00 P.M. tonight at this site.

Following the event, you will be able to watch archived footage of the speech here. The archived footage will only be available later this evening.

Please note that you need Real Player to watch the videos

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The display of silent children this morning in front of the United Nations building, before Ahmadinejad’s speech. The picture shows 140 figures of blindfolded children holding a black balloon symbolizing the number of minors executed in Iran.

The waves of protest against the address to the United Nations by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran are broadening. The loud cry of hundreds of Jewish protesters, who stood Monday in front of the United Nations building, was replaced yesterday by the profound silence of those who cannot cry out—the youths in Iran who have been condemned to death.
According to data provided by Amnesty International, 140 juveniles have been executed in Iran since 1990—26 of them since Ahmadinejad came to power—with a further 71 on death row. According to the protest organizers, “Stop Child Executions,” these executions violate international law, which establishes prison as the maximum sentence for minors. “I look out at the streets of New York and see Christians, Buddhists, and Baha’is who all openly display their faith; I see women with heads uncovered and people protesting government policies. In Iran, they would already have been imprisoned, tortured, and executed.” The organization’s founder, Iranian expatriate and former Miss Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam, said, “Change in Iran will not come through war and bombs; that’s exactly what Ahmadinejad wants. Change will only come from a revolt by the Iranian people, backed by the West, which needs to cry out today on behalf of these children and against Iran’s violation of human rights.”
During the past several years, those executed in Iran include not only minors, but also women and men accused of homosexual acts, opposition to the Revolution, corruption of the Earth, and standing in the way of God.

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Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside UN headquarters in New York today to protest the arrival of Iran’s President Ahmadinejad. Speakers criticized Iran’s reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and the regime’s failure to respect its citizens’ basic human rights. Among the speakers was Dalia Itzik, speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, whose comments are featured in the above video.

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This television show comes from Palestinian Authority TV programming for kids. Enough said.

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It was made known today that Israel and Syria have begun peace negotiations under Turkish auspices.  Below are comments from Prime Minister Olmert on these developments:

“Good evening.

“I came here this evening to present you with my ideas and those of the Government, in the field which is perhaps closest to my heart – education. However, before that I would like to dedicate a few words to the political developments of the past several weeks which, like the topic of education, shape the ability to ensure our future and security here in the State of Israel.

“Today, as you know, an announcement was published simultaneously in Jerusalem, Damascus and Ankara regarding the initiation of peace negotiations between Israel and Syria, under the sponsorship of Turkey. The announcement this morning constitutes the end of a phase in a process which has lasted over a year, during which we sought to establish a track which would allow for the existence of peace talks with Syria. To my pleasure, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan met the challenge of mediating between the parties, and after long months of talks and contacts, the announcement was made this morning about preliminary talks.

“The renewal of negotiations with Syria, after eight years of stagnation, is certainly an exciting topic, but beyond this it is a national obligation which must be exhausted. Three prime ministers before me also reached this same conclusion: the late Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, who, each in their own turn, invested efforts in this channel and were even prepared to make painful and far-reaching concessions to achieve peace with Syria. The years which have passed since the negotiations were frozen did not improve the security situation on our northern border, which still serves as our primary source of concern for regional deterioration. In such a situation, it is always better to talk than to shoot, and I am pleased that both sides decided to do so.

“I have no illusions: negotiations will not be easy, it will not be simple and it is possible that it will take a long time and may eventually involve difficult concessions. At the same time, after weighing all the relevant data and hearing the opinions of all Israel’s security and intelligence bodies, I reached the conclusion that the chances in this case outweighed the risks, and with this hope, today we embark on this path.”

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Iran’s decision to emabrk on a nuclear program may have far-reaching regional and international consequences.  The International Insitute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, reported that other countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have expressed interest in their own nuclear programs over the past several months.  As the AP coverage notes, the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb, coupled with regional politics, may drive a growing trend toward nuclear programs throughout the Middle East.

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