* Police break up new Tehran rally Iranian riot police have fired tear gas to break up a new opposition rally in the centre of the capital Tehran, hours after a stern warning to protesters.

* Al Qaeda says would use Pakistani nuclear weapons If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States.

* Can Third Temple be built without destroying Dome of the Rock? A new Jewish interfaith initiative launched last week argues building the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem would not necessitate the destruction of the Dome of the Rock.

* N Korea defends nuclear program North Korea has boasted of being a “proud nuclear power” and warned the US that it will strike back if attacked.

* Fayyad: Palestinian state in 2 years Palestinian PM says Netanyahu’s recent policy speech attempt to dodge international agreements, calls for end to settlement building, Gaza blockade.

* Somali President Declares State of Emergency Somalia’s president has declared a state of emergency as his government tries to fight off an offensive by militant Islamist groups.

* Iran turmoil likely to benefit Israel Like the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago, the outcome of the post-election unrest in Iran could be of major strategic significance for the Middle East and for Israel.

* Sarkozy speaks out against burka French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken out strongly against the wearing of the burka by Muslim women in France.

* Iraq hit by fresh wave of attacks At least 21 people have been killed and 75 people wounded in a spate of bomb attacks across Iraq.

* Iran starts airforce manoeuvres in Gulf Iran began three days of airforce exercises in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman to raise operational and support capability.

* Iran police disperse protests Iranian police have used water cannon, batons, tear gas and live rounds to break up protests over the presidential election.

* Navy Positions Destroyer For Possible Intercept of North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes The U.S. military is preparing for a possible intercept of a North Korean flagged ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday.

* World hunger ‘hits one billion’ One billion people throughout the world suffer from hunger, a figure which has increased by 100 million because of the global financial crisis, says the UN.

* Minister Ya’alon: There will be revolution in Iran Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya’alon said Iranian reformist presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has brought about a new spirit of openness.

* Sarkozy calls for ‘strong’ EU president European institutions, especially the European Commission, should be given more power, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

* Lieberman: Settlements no obstacle to peace Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Friday he saw good prospects for reviving peace talks with the Palestinians.

* Irish PM hails ‘successful’ EU summit result Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has hailed as “entirely successful” the outcome of an EU summit.

* Mubarak says time is right for Arab-Israeli peace President Barack Obama’s “reassertion” of US leadership in the Middle East offers a rare opportunity to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

* EU leaders urge Iran to halt violence EU leaders on Friday (19 June) asked Iranian authorities to show restraint against protesters contesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

* Taliban gains money, al-Qaida finances recovering He moved his finger slowly across his throat, to show that the Taliban kills truckers who don’t pay for safe passage through large swaths of territory near Afghanistan.

* Ayatollah demands end to protests Iran’s supreme leader has issued a stern warning that protests against the country’s disputed presidential election results must end.

* Blair: ME peace possible ‘within a year’ An Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement could be reached “within the year,” but only if all sides agree to peaceful negotiations.

* Pakistani offensive ‘nears end’ The military offensive against Taliban militants entrenched in north-western Pakistan is nearly over, the defence minister has said.

* EU leaders give ‘unanimous’ support to Barroso reappointment EU leaders have given unanimous political backing for Jose Manuel Barroso to become president of the European Commission for a second time.

* Go fly a kite! Megiddo fights plan for second int’l airport A battle is raging over the pending construction of a new international airport in Megiddo, in the Jezreel Valley.

* Suleiman’s popularity worries Mubarak government Senior representatives of the Egyptian regime are “extremely worried” about the growing popularity of General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman and reports that he may succeed President Hosni Mubarak.

* U.S. Military Tracking North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes The U.S. military is tracking a flagged North Korean ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday.

* Mubarak: Determine Palestine’s borders Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Friday to determine the “contiguous” borders of a future Palestinian state as the first priority of getting the Israeli Palestinian peace process back on track.

* Nuclear and Diplomatic Dangers Lead to Western Wall Prayers A mass prayer rally has been called for late Sunday afternoon at the Western Wall in light of the diplomatic and other dangers facing Israel.

* Arab world sees settlement row as test of Obama’s credibility The clash on the settlements between the Obama-Clinton administration and the Netanyahu-Lieberman (and Barak) government is not some petty haggling over expanding a kindergarten in Ofra.

* Sheikh Salah: Netanyahu wants to rebuild Temple Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, spoke Wednesday afternoon in front of Muslim students at Haifa University.

* World Bank raises China forecast The World Bank has raised its forecast for growth in China this year from 6.5% to 7.2% amid signs that the economy is doing better than expected.

* Israel says ElBaradei biased on Syria Israel accused the head of the UN atomic agency of political bias in its probe of Syria Thursday, provoking a bitter response by the agency chief.

* Irish to be offered Lisbon pledge EU leaders meeting in Brussels are once more grappling with the Lisbon Treaty, hoping to agree on ways to help it pass a second Irish referendum.

* Dutch anti-Islam MP: ‘Israel is West’s first line of defense’ Israel will be a major part of Geert Wilders’ next film on Islam, the rightist Dutch legislator said last week.

* Iran investigates 646 poll complaints Iran’s top legislative body says it is investigating 646 complaints from the three defeated presidential candidates over last week’s election.

* Hamas rejects Carter plea to recognize Israel A senior Hamas official praised former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday, a day after he met with the group, but said he failed to persuade the Islamic rulers of Gaza to accept international demands.

* Lieberman to Clinton: No settlement freeze Sharp differences remained between the US and Israeli positions on key issues Wednesday.

* Hu wraps up ‘breakthrough’ visit to Russia Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday wrapped up a visit to Russia that has seen the powers vow to beat the economic crisis.

* North Korea may fire a missile toward Hawaii North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said.

* ‘Hamas helping Iran crush dissent’ Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

* Pakistan and EU in ‘terror’ talks Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is meeting Nato and European Union leaders in Brussels for talks on boosting security co-operation and trade links.

* EU document scraps Quartet demands In what is perceived in Jerusalem as a mistaken effort to give Hamas room to maneuver, the EU’s 27 foreign ministers, in a statement issued Monday, did not call, as in the past, for Hamas to forswear terrorism.

* Barak: Mousavi is a fundamentalist too Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that both Iranian presidential candidates were fundamentalists.

* New protests over Iran elections Iranian presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi has called for peaceful demonstrations in protest at the result of last week’s contested election.

* North Korea warns of retaliation North Korea has threatened a “thousand-fold” military retaliation against the US and its allies if it is provoked.

* China, Russia call for talks on Iran, North Korea The presidents of Russia and China on Wednesday called for a diplomatic push to resolve tensions over the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea after wide-ranging talks in Moscow.

* ‘Twitter revolutionized Israeli diplomacy’ An Israeli envoy to the U.S. said on Tuesday that Twitter, the short messaging website, has revolutionized Israeli diplomacy and become a leading advocacy apparatus.

* Right-wing group plans 30 new outposts The Land of Israel Faithful group says it has a plan to construct 30 new outposts in the West Bank over the summer.

* Brazil finds new strain of H1N1 virus Brazilian scientists have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo.

By: Maayana Miskin
– Arutz Sheva

Hamas chief in Syria, Khaled Mashaal complained Thursday that the United States is discriminating against Hamas in comparison to Iran and Syria. In an interview with the London-based Ash-sharq il-Awsat, Mashaal said U.S. President Obama is making demands of Hamas, while speaking to leaders of Middle East countries with no preconditions.

Obama “is beginning dialogue with the Iranians and the Syrians without preconditions, so why is he setting preconditions for Hamas?” Mashaal asked.

Mashaal expressed hope that the Obama administration would soon drop the preconditions set for Hamas as well. Obama’s “new language” when speaking about Hamas indicates that he may become willing to relax his conditions, he said.

As an example, Mashaal said Obama did not use the word “terrorism” when referring to Arab attacks on Israel in a recent speech.

The Obama administration, like previous U.S. administrations, has called on Hamas to recognize Israel, end terrorist attacks, and agree to abide by previous agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The U.S. will only hold direct talks with Hamas if those three conditions are met, American diplomats say.

On Tuesday, Mashaal urged the U.S. and Europe to make Hamas a partner in Israel-PA talks. Hamas “will not be an obstacle,” he said. However, Mashaal refused to meet any of the U.S. conditions for talks, and said international law supports Hamas attacks on Israel.

One day earlier, Gaza terrorists carried out an attempted attack on Israeli troops near the Karni crossing. The terrorists were trained and armed by Hamas.

By: Hillel Fendel – Arutz Sheva

Cabinet Minister Benny Begin says the PA Arabs want a 2-state solution simply in order to end up with just one state – Palestine instead of Israel.

Appearing on Wednesday before a Likud founders’ audience at Tel Aviv’s Metzudat Ze’ev, the 16-story building that houses the Likud Party’s headquarters, Begin declared, “If the two-state solution is the only solution, then there is no solution.”

Begin’s tough-talk speech was clearly timed to influence Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech this coming Sunday, at which the Prime Minister will respond to U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo of last week.

“The realities of the past 15 years have gravely harmed the concept of two states for two peoples,” Begin said. “The state they want is only intended to destroy Israel. The Palestinians are not interested in the two-state solution. They want the two-stage solution, after which there would be only one state: Palestine.”

Begin, whose father Menachem was Prime Minister from 1977 until 1983, was a Knesset Member of the Likud for three terms, from 1988 until 1999; he quit in the middle of the last term in order to head the forerunner of today’s National Union party. However, when the party won only four seats in the 1999 elections, he resigned, saying he had not won the electorate’s confidence. At the end of last year, Netanyahu prevailed upon him to return to politics and to the Likud.

Outspoken Cabinet Minister
Though Minister without Portfolio Begin is not the only senior Likud member to express opposition to a Palestinian state, he is one of the most outspoken, and could easily be a leader of a potential “rebel” camp against Netanyahu, should the latter decide to swing to the left.

Begin told his audience that the failed Oslo process, the refusal of PLO leaders Yasser Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas to accept generous offers from Israeli leaders, the Disengagement and other milestones along the way are very telling. “We don’t have to keep knocking our heads against the wall,” Begin said. “The reason for the failures of the last 15 years is not because of a lack of concessions on our part… It’s crazy to keep trying over and over the same thing that hasn’t worked.”

Praising Yesha Residents
Dr. Begin was profuse in his praise of the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria – known around the world as the “settlers.” He said, “These communities are those that fulfill in practice the right of the People of Israel to the Land of Israel – not only in the Sharon, but also in the Shomron, and not only in the Judean Plain, but also in Judea. Our pioneers are living there under not-simple conditions. But this enterprise cannot be stopped.”

“If the Jewish towns in Gaza were truly an obstacle to peace, as had been claimed, then their uprooting should have brought quiet. But they did not. The ruins of our towns in Gaza now serve as terrorist bases from where rockets are fired at us.”

‘Land for Peace’ Has Become ‘Land for Terrorism’
Referring to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and the subsequent Hamas takeover, Begin said, “The theory of ‘land for peace’ has been shown to be a non-starter. The result has instead been ‘land for terrorism.’”

Begin also said that the reason why the PA Arabs refuse to agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is in order to keep the refugee issue alive, and then, after a Palestinian state is formed, they hope to destroy Israel from within via a deluge of Arabs.

By: The Associated Press

A look at the power structure in Iran.

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SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI: Wields control over every major decision either directly or through a network of hand-picked loyalists and institutions, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard, the judiciary and intelligence services.

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GUARDIAN COUNCIL: Group of 12 experts in Islamic law who approve all candidates for high elected office and can veto parliamentary bills considered in violation of Iran’s Islamic constitution.

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PRESIDENT: The president’s powers are limited by the ruling clerics. The president helps direct economic policies, domestic social programs, education plans and some public works. The president also has some voice in the level of freedoms such as media and political openness, but can be overruled by the ruling clerics using the judiciary or Revolutionary Guard. The president represents Iran in many high-profile international forums and talks, but the ruling clerics set all important foreign and defense policies.

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PARLIAMENT: Its 290 members are elected every four years and have wide powers to set economic and social policies, but officials loyal to the supreme leader can block legislation. The next elections are 2012.

By: Akiva Eldar – Haaretz

It seems that never before has so much been written and said about the “natural growth” of so few. The issue of construction in the West Bank settlements for the sake of the future generation is threatening to sabotage Israel’s relations with the U.S., or undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relations with the settlers and their representatives in the Likud and Israel’s right wing.

Maybe it is no coincidence that the government spokespeople insist on describing the homes for “sons returning from the army” rather than homes for young couples, or students. Someone might dare to check the housing situation in Arab villages or East Jerusalem, whose residents actually on Israeli soil ? as opposed to the settlers.

Figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics during the years 2006-2007 (the 2008 statistics are not yet available) reveal that natural growth is a matter of geography, and especially of religion and nationality. In terms of housing, the settlers are not the most deprived sector in greater Israel. Their rate of natural growth stands at 3.2 percent per year, which accounts for only a part of the population growth in the settlements, which stood at 4.3 percent. The remaining growth can be attributed to “immigration” from within Israel and from abroad.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the construction of 2,200 apartments was completed in 2006 in the settlements, which boasted 271,000 residents at the time. This number, 2,200, is similar to the number of apartments that were built within the same time frame in the districts of Jerusalem (882,000 residents), and Haifa (869,000 residents). During the same year, the Housing Ministry offered 390 housing units to the entire Arab sector in Israel, whose rate of natural growth is only slightly lower than that of the settlers (2.6 percent to the settlers’ 3.2 percent). The rate of natural growth among Israeli Jews in general stands at 1.6 percent.

In August of last year, the Housing Ministry promised in a letter to Arab rights group Musawa that 1,800 housing units would be built in 15 Arab villages and towns. In 2000 the government adopted a plan to build 50,000 apartments for Arab Israelis within five years. The plan was never carried out and the housing crisis in the Arab sector is getting worse and worse.

Research conducted by Musawa revealed that in 80 percent of the Arab towns there were absolutely no approved housing plans. In 2007, only 21 percent of the budget allocated to housing for minorities was actually used. The result is unauthorized construction by Arab residents, which prompt the government to issue demolition orders, and contribute to crowding. (The density of the Jewish population is 0.84 people per room, while in the Arab sector it is 1.43 people per room).

“Israel, which takes such good care of the settlers’ natural growth, is trying to fight against our natural growth because we are a ‘demographic threat’,” said Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra’am-Ta’al)

But official figures, compiled by human rights groups, show that the housing situation of Israeli Arabs is much better than that of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem:

• Since 1967, the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem has grown almost four times from 69,000 to 270,000. The Jerusalem municipality estimates that the natural Palestinian growth requires the construction of 1,500 housing units per year. But between 1992 and 2001 the municipality authorized the construction of an average of 400 housing units for Palestinians per year. In 2008 as well only 400 permits were issued. The result: Illegal construction and demolition orders.

• Since 1967, less than 600 government subsidized homes were built in the Palestinian sector, the last of which was built 30 years ago.

• Only 13% of the land Israel annexed from the West Bank into Jerusalem is available to the Palestinian population. The lands that were annexed were mainly used to house 50,000 apartments for Jews. Some 45 square kilometers cannot be built on as large portions have been declared “green zones” and construction is prohibited.

The government recently published stricter guidelines for the issuance of construction permits. According to architect Efrat Cohen-Bar, “The planning policy discriminates against the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem, whose welfare Israel is responsible for.”

Finally, if the U.S. yields to Israel’s natural growth argument to justify continued settlement construction, the Palestinian Authority will argue that when it comes to Arab natural growth, Israel fails to show the same compassion it affords to the settlers. In area “C” in the West Bank, which is entirely under Israeli authority, some 150,000 Palestinians currently reside. Between 2000 and 2007 only 91 construction permits were issued there, accounting for 5.6% of the requests filed by Palestinians. The result: housing crisis, illegal construction and demolition orders.

* Iran ‘to hold election recount’ Iran’s powerful Guardian Council says it is ready to recount disputed votes from Friday’s presidential poll.

* Mossad chief: Civil unrest in Iran will end soon The civil unrest that has followed the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not continue much longer.

* Medvedev calls for new reserve currencies Medvedev told a regional summit Tuesday that the creation of new reserve currencies in addition to the dollar is needed to stabilize global finances.

* EU-Israel meeting ends with no progress on ‘upgrade’ Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman ended his first EU visit on Monday (15 June) evening without securing a previously planned “upgrade” in EU-Israel relations.

* Yesha Council Head: We Expect Netanyahu to Build Danny Dayan, the head of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), says he believes Netanyahu does not want or expect to give away Judea and Samaria.

* Indian and Pakistani leaders meet The leaders of India and Pakistan have met for the first time since last November’s Mumbai (Bombay) attacks.

* Blair: Don’t rule out right of return The return of Palestinian refugees to Israel should not be ruled out as a subject for negotiation, Tony Blair said.

* Iran protest news travels fast and far on Twitter Coverage of the Iranian election protests has taken on a global life as a result of the involvement in coverage on Twitter of Stephen Fry, Senator John McCain, Helpful American, Shahzad and persiankiwi.

* Iraqis take control of Baghdad’s Green Zone As the armored car carrying Westerners cut to the front of the line at a checkpoint into Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone, an enraged Iraqi leapt from his BMW and yelled at the occupants.

* Pakistan tribal operation in ‘early stages’ Pakistan’s military said Tuesday it is in the early stages of an operation against the country’s Taliban leader in an area considered the deepest stronghold of al-Qaida and other militants.