"legacy interview"

Loved ones…do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself…we are all brothers and sisters…exhibit compassion…exhibit patience

Loved ones…Ehud Olmert, Israel's outgoing prime minister, has said that Israel will have to leave much of east Jerusalem and allow Palestinians to form a state equal in size to the area of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, published on Monday, Olmert also said that peace with Syria would require withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

"[I am saying] what no previous Israeli leader has ever said: we should withdraw from almost all of the territories, including in East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights," he was quoted as saying.

Olmert resigned on September 21 amid corruption allegations and will officially step down once a new government has been formed.

Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, agreed at a meeting in the United States last November to push for a comprehensive peace deal before the end of the year.

Yediot Ahronot noted that the remarks in its "legacy interview" go further than any the prime minister made before he effectively became a lame duck in September.

"I am not trying to justify retroactively what I did for 35 years. For a large portion of these years, I was unwilling to look at reality in all its depth," Olmert said.

"A decision has to be made. This decision is difficult, terrible, a decision that contradicts our natural instincts, our innermost desires, our collective memories, the prayers of the Jewish people for 2,000 years."

Peace talks between the two sides have stalled over the borders of a future Palestinian state, the future status of Jerusalem and the right to return of Palestinian refugees.

The construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the capital of a future state, have also proved to be a major obstacle.

According to Western and Palestinian officials, Olmert has previously proposed an Israeli withdrawal from some 93 per cent of the occupied West Bank. Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.

In exchange for settlement enclaves, Olmert has suggested handing over a desert territory adjacent to the Gaza Strip, as well as land on which to build a transit corridor between Gaza and the West Bank.


"We will leave a percentage of these territories in our hands, but will have to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace," Olmert said in Tuesday's interview.

Olmert has previously argued that the issue of Jerusalem be considered at a later date because the difficulties in reaching an agreement.

But on Tuesday he said that giving up parts of the city was critical to securing Israel's security.

"Whoever wants to hold on to all of the city's territory will have to bring 270,000 Arabs inside the fences of sovereign Israel. It won't work," he said.

Saeb Erakat, a senior adviser to Abbas, said Israel must "translate these statements into reality" if it is serious about wanting to achieve a peace deal.

"We haven't seen these statements translated into a piece of paper, into a concrete offer," he told the AFP news agency, stressing that "the road to peace is through ending the occupation and [Israeli] settlements in the West Bank".

During his time in office, Olmert reopened indirect negotiations, through Turkey, with Syria after an eight-year freeze.
"I'd like see if there is one serious person in the State of Israel who believes it is possible to make peace with the Syrians without eventually giving up the Golan Heights," he said in the interview.

Israel annexed the territory in 1981, a move never recognized by the world community.

More than 18,000 Syrians, mostly Druze, are left from the Golan's original population of 150,000 people. The region now is home to nearly 20,000 Jewish settlers.

Loved ones…we can only solve these really big problems….one person at a time…for a lasting peace upon this planet…so let us begin now.

I petition for those involved with this delicate situation to be enclosed with the White Light of the Holy Spirit.

You and all your loved ones are always in my prayers,

Samuel Joseph Bell
www.angelicinfusion.com

- posted by Samuel Bell @ 5:36 AM 0 comments

 
donate funds to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Loved Ones…as we sit down to eat our meals…we all need to count our blessing and have compassion for those less fortunate…if you have…if you can…donate funds to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) please open your hearts and wallets.

Loved Ones United Nations senior aid officials have called for greater international efforts to help millions of Ethiopians suffering from a severe drought.

About eight million people need urgent food relief and another 4.6 million need emergency assistance, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

John Holmes, the UN's undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, said on Monday: "The response has been good in some ways, but we have a long way to go."

The World Food Programme (WFP) said people were coping by cutting down on the number of meals they eat, selling farm tools and other assets such as livestock and withdrawing their children from school so they can help find food.

A lack of rain in the main February to April wet season has left at least 75,000 Ethiopian children under age five at risk from malnutrition, OCHA said.

"In terms of the urgency of the food crisis, the risk of children dying of severe malnutrition is the most urgent," Holmes said on his way to a southern Ethiopian region devastated by the drought.

The UN appealed in June for $325.2m mainly for drought victims. Only 52 per cent of the appeal has been met.

In Arba Minch, about 500km south of the capital, Addis Ababa, farmers said they were waiting for emergency support to feed their families.
The UN children's fund (Unicef) representative in the impoverished African country said the effects of the failed rains and rampant food inflation may drag on.

"The previous rains failed badly. It is very clear that many people in Ethiopia will continue to face problems in terms of food security," Bjorn Ljungqvis said.

The southern region of Oromiya has also been badly hit, 6,700 children were diagnosed as suffering from severe malnutrition in early August.

Ethiopia suffered severe floods last year which destroyed most of the food crop. This year the drought has worsened the situation and food prices have soared by 330 per cent.

Tens of thousands of residents in Boricha, southern Ethiopia, queue regularly for relief food at distribution sites.

Of the 45,000 locals in need of food, only 38,000 are receiving help due to low government supplies, according to aid groups.
Soaring commodity prices have worsened the crisis.

In May, the WFP said the price of staples such as maize and sorghum, a cereal grain crop, had increased by about 90 per cent in less than a year, while wheat increased by 54 per cent between September 2007 and February 2008.

In recent years, Ethiopia has suffered alternate flood and drought disasters that has affected millions of people.
Holmes said on Monday relief operations were underway across the country, "but we need to make sure it reaches everyone".

"We need to make sure that [food shortages] don't degenerate into a famine that we've seen before," he said.

At this time I petition for all humanitarian assistance be donated to these desperate souls…each one…is our brother and our sister as we are all children of Mother and Father God.

You and all your loved ones are always in my prayers,
Samuel Joseph Bell
www.angelicinfusion.com
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 4:01 PM 0 comments