Israel: Palestinian prisoners to be freed in talks

IAN DEITCH 16 minutes agoForeign PolicyPoliticsJohn KerryIsrael

The comments from Yuval Steinitz, Israel's intelligence and strategic affairs minister, were the first from a senior Israeli official since Kerry announced late Friday that the Israelis and Palestinians will meet soon in Washington to work out the final details on an agreement to relaunch talks that collapsed in 2008.

Kerry's announcement came after last-minute meetings with Palestinian officials at the end of a day in which he shuttled between the Jordanian capital and the West Bank. He did not offer details, saying that the deal is "still in the process of being formalized."

Speaking to Israel Radio on Saturday, Steinitz said that as a step toward resuming those talks Israel has agreed to release "hardcore prisoners," including "those that have been sitting in jail for dozens of years." He did not say how many would be freed, adding only that they would be released in phases.

In Israeli parlance, the term "hardcore" refers to prisoners implicated in deadly attacks. Their release has been a longstanding Palestinian demand.

The fate of the prisoners is extremely sensitive in Palestinian society, where after decades of fighting Israel, many families have had a member imprisoned. The Palestinians are held on a range of charges, from rock throwing to deadly assaults like shooting attacks or bombings targeting Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Palestinians mostly view the prisoners as heroes while Israelis tend to see them as terrorists.

Steinitz said that other Palestinian demands __ such as a freeze on settlement building and defining the 1967 lines as borders ahead of the negotiations __ will not be met.

The basis of the negotiations has been a major impediment to resuming talks. On Thursday evening, the Palestinian leadership balked at dropping a main condition: They demand a guarantee that negotiations on borders between a Palestinian state and Israel would be based on the cease-fire line that held from 1949 until the 1967 war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Israel rejects preconditions on the talks.

Kerry's announcement late Friday suggested that the question had been resolved, although Kerry offered no details and said the "best way to give these negotiations a chance is to keep them private."

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center left, meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, cen …

Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, Tzipi Livni, welcomed Kerry's announcement but said Saturday she was not allowed to relay any details.

"This is a very heavy responsibility," Livni told Israel's Channel 2 TV of the talks. "All the issues will be on the table."

She said it was difficult to restart talks after years of mistrust between the sides, but that she is "hopeful" about them.

Final status negotiations aim to reach a deal on the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and security arrangements. Talks ground to a halt five years ago, and previous efforts to revive them have stalled, particularly over Palestinian demands that Israel announce a freeze in construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which they claim as part of a future state along with Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said his group rejects Kerry's announcement, saying it does not recognize Abbas' "legitimacy to negotiate" on their behalf.

Palestinian official Ahmed Majdalani said on Friday that Kerry had assured the Palestinians that Israel would free some 350 prisoners gradually in the coming months. The prisoners would include some 100 men that Israel convicted of crimes committed before interim peace accords were signed in 1993.

Majdalani also said Kerry would endorse the 1967 lines as the starting point of negotiations.

Steinitz said Saturday that it was agreed that there would be a timetable of at least nine months for the talks to prevent them from collapsing along the way. He also said the Palestinians agreed to refrain from taking action against Israel at the United Nations while the talks are taking place.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not meet with Kerry during the American diplomat's trip this week, has not spoken publicly about the step toward relaunching talks.

Palestinian officials refused to comment on Steinmitz's remarks Saturday. They said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was privy to all the details.

Abbas, who met with Kerry in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Friday, said in a statement after Kerry's announcement that "lengthy meetings and conversations between Abbas and Kerry have resulted in the Palestinians accepting the resumption of talks." Abbas said "some details still need to be worked out."

Palestinian supporters of the Fatah movement hold a rally in Jerusalem in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails. Photograph: Mahmoud Illean/Demotix/Corbis

Thanks to Alice.

By Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian – July 20, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/m25jmjn

Release of prisoners who have been in jail for decades comes as part of agreement to enter preliminary peace talks in US

Israel has said it will release “heavyweight” Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement to enter preliminary talks in Washington, with the aim of an eventual resumption of long-stalled peace negotiations

Hours after the US secretary of state, John Kerry, announced that the two sides in the conflict had agreed to discuss terms for negotiations, Yuval Steiniz, Israel’s minister for international relations, said a prisoner release would be carried out in stages.

“I don’t want to give numbers but there will be heavyweight prisoners who have been in jail for tens of years,” he told Israel Radio. The release of long-serving prisoners has been a key Palestinian demand.

But Steinitz said Israel would balk at agreeing on the pre-1967 border as the parameter for territorial negotiations. “There is no chance we will agree to enter any negotiations that begin with defining territorial borders or concessions by Israel, nor a [settlement] construction freeze,” he said.

Kerry’s announcement of progress in his four-month mission to revive the Middle East peace process was delivered in Amman on Friday night after four months of intensive diplomacy. It received mixed interpretations.

Tzipi Livni, who will represent the Israeli side in the preliminary talks and is a long-term advocate of negotiations, hailed the move as a significant breakthrough.

“These were long months of scepticism and cynicism,” she said in a statement. “But now, four years of diplomatic stagnation are about to end.” The talks would be “complex and not easy”, she said, but this was “the right thing for our future, our security, our economy and values”.

A senior Palestinian official said President Mahmoud Abbas had signed up “not to a resumption of negotiations but only talks about talks”. The Palestinians would demand a written statement that the 1967 border would be the basis for territorial negotiations, he said, but the expectation was that Israel would refuse.

The issue of the 1967 border as the parameter for negotiations has become a key sticking point. The Palestinians want all the land occupied by Israel over the past 46 years for their state, but Israel wants to keep its major settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on its side of a future border.

On Thursday, a report that Israel had agreed to the 1967 border as a basis for talks was categorically denied by the office of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.

According to Daniel Levy of the European Council for Foreign Relations, Kerry may have missed a crucial opportunity to test Netanyahu’s frequently stated willingness to re-enter talks by insisting that the “entry ticket is the 1967 border plus agreed land swaps”.

But he said Kerry deserved credit for the “not insignificant” achievement of getting agreement for exploratory talks. “The challenge is what happens next. I don’t think Kerry has much in his pocket. Not being cynical does not automatically translate into being optimistic as to where these talks can lead,” he said.

Kerry’s carefully worded statement acknowledged difficulties and challenges ahead. “No one believes that the long-standing differences between the parties can be resolved overnight or just wiped away,” he said.

But both sides had decided that “the difficult road ahead and the daunting challenges that we face are worth tackling”.

As well as huge gaps on the core issues – borders, the future of Jerusalem which both sides want as their capital, and whether Palestinian refugees will be allowed to return to their homeland – there is deep mistrust on both sides after decades of fruitless and wearying negotiations.

The designated negotiators for each side are old hands, which could help to short-circuit some discussions but may also make fresh, radical thinking unlikely. Saeb Erekat, for the Palestinians, has been involved in negotiations for more than 20 years; Livni, a lonely advocate for the two-state solution in the current Israeli government, is also a veteran of past talks.

Levy predicted close US involvement in the exploratory sessions: “Kerry is not about to drop the ball”. A phone call from the US president, Barak Obama, to Netanyahu on Thursday to urge engagement will have reminded the Israeli leader that “this is not a John Kerry solo show”, he said.

Both sides may have been encouraged to sign up for initial talks by European Union guidelines, published on Friday, banning funding or grants to Israeli bodies with links to settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians will have been bolstered by the move; the Israelis alarmed at the prospect of international sanctions and isolation. Notably, the US did not criticise the European move.

The most recent direct talks, in September 2010, lasted just 16 hours before breaking down amid acrimony and blame. There are indications that both sides are already preparing to point the finger at the other should any future talks hit the buffers.

“It’s the first direct talks for several years, and that’s significant. But it shouldn’t be overblown,” Natan Sachs of the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, told the Jerusalem Post. “There’s a sense the parties are entering the talks with an eye on the blame game.”

Meanwhile, in a further indication of obstacles ahead, Hamas – the Islamist party which rules the Gaza Strip – said Abbas had no legitimate to right to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people. “The Palestinian Authority’s return to negotiations with the occupation [is] at odds with the national consensus,” a spokesman said.

World currencies spinning up for revaluation

Stephen: You may have read most of this info before, but this is an uplifting appraisal of where things are at as we head into what may well be a planet-changing week. Let’s trust so.

By Scot Mowry – July 19, 2013

www.miraclesandinspiration.com

• Global Currency Reset in motion
• Revaluation will include 198 world currencies
• The Restoration of the Republic is on the horizon

We are standing on the precipice of a brave new world. We are witnessing the turning of the tide. And we are seeing the pivotal battle for humanity’s future reaching a very decisive moment.

And the word from the front lines is –– the people have won!

All signs are now clearly indicating the long anticipated Global Currency Reset is finally upon us! It appears as if this monumentally historic event is about to unfold, or is very cautiously unfolding as we speak.

At this point in time, an enormous, co-ordinated world-wide effort is underway to implement an unprecedented reboot of the new economic system. The sheer complexity and details of this kind of undertaking must be done with the utmost care and concern. It simply has to be done right.

Any gremlins or glitches remaining within the birth of this new, glorious economic system are being immediately sniffed out and addressed with the utmost speed and efficiency. One has to appreciate with this kind of ambitious objective, delays are to be expected. Nonetheless, events are now moving at a positively furious pace.

As the Global Currency Reset unfurls, our world is about to be forever changed as the bonds of economic servitude are broken, never to be seen again. We must realize what a profound transformation is occurring in our world as never before.

Iraq Set to Kick-off Global Currency Re-Set

One of the greatest indicators for the GCR has been the many machinations underway within the country of Iraq over the past three weeks.

Since their emergence from Chapter 7 by the United Nations Security Council on June 27th, the fledgling economic power of Iraq has been moving at lightning speed to fulfill all the requirements to become a major global player. It is truly remarkable to see how rapidly the Iraq government is pulling their act together after seemingly years of ineptitude.

However, they can be forgiven. After decades of abuse at the hands of kings and conquerors alike, the Iraqi people are now finally realizing they are at the threshold of becoming a sovereign nation with a very, very bright future ahead. They are arising from the dead like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes.

With the rebirth of their nation comes one very vital and most important step –– the revaluation of the Iraqi currency known as the dinar. When the dinar finally reaches the stage of revaluation, which could be at any time now, the end result will be it instantly becomes one of the world’s most stable and strongest currencies.

The dinar will backed with some of the planet’s richest array of assets to be found anywhere –– from oil to gold, from silver to diamonds and all the other vast amount of natural resources buried within Iraq’s ancient lands. In a word, Iraq is loaded.

And let us not forget, Iraq has long been known as the cradle of civilization where humanity formed its first civilizations in the ancient areas of Sumer, Mesopotamia and Babylon. Its history is as rich as its resources. And the irony that Iraq ––of all places –– will be lynch-pin of a rebirth of the new global economic system cannot be underestimated.

Much attention now is focusing on the Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) which has beenapproved to be incorporated into the NASDAQ Exchange system. In order for the ISX to enter into global markets, it must have an internationally tradeable currency. So, simply put, a revaluation of the dinar is categorically essential and inevitable.

Like Iraq, many other economically deprived nations are about to experience nearly the same kind of astounding rebirth. These will be third world countries abused by international bankers who have raped and pillaged their lands and resources leaving them hopelessly in debt, never able to repay. Therefore it is important to keep in mind, this is more than a mere Iraq event but rather a global one.

Now, as many as 198 global currencies are undergoing a revaluation of some sort or another –– although several will be somewhat devalued in order to level the world economic playing field. Nevertheless, most of the world’s utterly worthless currencies, like the dinar, will find their values sky-rocketing. All in valiant effort to thwart the New World Order take down of the planet as oceans and oceans of fraudulent red ink is wiped off the books for good.

Realize this –– all is transmuting now. All is transcending now. All is transforming now in the most spectacular ways one can possibly imagine.

And all is coming together in perfect alignment and agreement. From the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), to the United States Treasury (UST), to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to the BRICS alliance, to the major US banks, all the while with China and the Chinese elders standing watch pushing and prodding them forward. Never giving up. Never letting the key players rest until the job gets done. The Chinese have a reputation for being very thorough and very patient, hence perhaps another rationale why we have seen some delays.

Along with the Chinese elders, these key players include: new US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew; IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde; Russian President Vladimir Putin; and newly-elected Chinese President, Xi Jingping.

A Chinese delegation met recently with Secretary Lew in Washington, DC to resolve any last minute issues with the Global Currency Reset on July 10th and by all accounts the meeting went exceedingly well.

Do not underestimate what we are now seeing. It is nothing short of miraculous. This crazy, insane world of seven billion diverse people is coming together. Co-operating like never before. Aligning like never before. Becoming one like never before.

One heart. One mind. One human family.

The Restoration of the Republic

Soon, just as Iraq and many other countries are arising from the dead, so too will the United States of America. The restoration of our Republic is at hand.

Once the Global Currency Reset is firmly established, many other trillions of dollars will begin to be repaid to countries, governments and people through a variety of established programs such as the World Global Settlements (WGS), the Global Collateral Accounts and vast array of other prosperity programs.

The end result will be the largest transfer of wealth in the entire history of the world. This transfer of wealth will be nothing short of mind-boggling with as much as $4 quadrillion (that’s right, quadrillion $) changing hands.

Perhaps simultaneously or shortly thereafter, the United States will begin its amazing and spectacular regeneration. A constitutional government will re-emerge, a monstrous federal bureaucracy will be severely reduced, taxes will disappear (save for a minor sales tax on non-essential items), the military will be totally downsized and transformed, the justice systems will be overhauled and corrupt politicians, both current and former, will be arrested.

Granted, all of these changes will not happen instantaneously and may take time to fully enact, yet nonetheless, these will be just the beginning! Many more equally profound changes will follow.

Your television and your computer screens will be overflowing with the true history of the world as hours and hours of re-education material will be broadcast to inform the general public of the great changes being instituted. Reports suggest as much as forty hours of material has already been prepared. It promises to be must-see-TV for the ages.

The Golden $100 Bill

And understand this renaissance of the US is already well underway. It is happening right now!

The privately-owned Federal Reserve, soon to be rolled into the US Treasury, has announced long ago it will be issuing new money beginning on October 8, 2013. There has even been a brand new website created to showcase this new money at:www.newmoney.gov. The initial designs feature a great deal of extremely prominent and very obvious gold symbolism.

Plenty of reports are suggesting the current Federal Reserve Note (FRN) will be replaced by either a new Treasury Note (TRN) or a new Treasury Bill very, very soon. In fact, some have reported the 100 year charter of the Fed which began in 1913 expired in January of this year.

Although the preliminary designs of the new money still contain the words “Federal Reserve Note,” they may remain there for the time being so as not to alarm the general population just yet.

However, as we examine the new $100 bill above, we see a great deal of highly interesting symbolism. Notice the security strip to the right of Benjamin Franklin. It appears as if this strip is demarcation line between two systems or two worlds.

Everything to the left of the security strip is in the colors green, black and gray represents the old debt-based system. While to the right we find many vibrant yellow, green and most particularly gold colors such as in the ink well with a liberty bell embedded within it; a gold quill; and a gold “100″ all symbolizing the new asset-backed system coming on board.

And if you look carefully, you will see the words of none other than the Declaration of Independence in gold script also found on the right hand side featuring the excerpt of: “…the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new…,” conspicuously prominent. All told, this gold symbolism is adding up to unequivocally state the US is returning to the gold standard as soon as possible.

This new $100 dollar bill clearly represents the process we find ourselves in today as if we are moving through the illusion of linear time from left to right, from an old paradigm to a new one. From the old Federal Reserve system to the newly reborn US Treasury. From worthless fiat paper to asset-backed money of great and lasting value. From 100 years of debt slavery to a new life freedom and abundance.

From the power age of big government, big corporations and big money to the Golden Age, which is all about the power of the people!

Venturing Through a Portal

As an old way of being stays behind us, we have entered into a portal. At the end of this portal lies a new Earth, a new world –– a whole new way of life. A whole new existence for you and me and everyone on planet Earth.

The old world was about control, manipulation and unending drama –– all bound together tightly by duality consciousness.

All of this may sound like some kind of wild and crazy dream. And indeed it is. It is a dream of those who have dared to dream the unthinkable. That ordinary men and women could live in a time of peace, brotherhood and prosperity for all in what can only be described as the true Golden Age for humanity. And it will last for at least the next 1,000 years.

That Golden Age has been unfolding for nearly two years now, since October 28, 2011. Although admittedly rather painfully slowly thus far, when the Global Currency Reset is finally completed, it will herald a great shift of the matrix. An acceleration in the evolution of the human race will come into the awareness of nearly everyone on the planet. And there will be a great and grand celebration.

Have patience. Have faith. And stay vigilant.

Expect many miracles and blessings to be forthcoming in your life beginning right now. It is your destiny and it is your birthright. There is nothing to fear and positively everything to gain.

You might expect to have to pinch yourself a time or two as you wonder, “is this really happening??”

And yes, it really, really is happening. And it has really begun right now!

© 2013 MR Productions, LLC | All rights reserved

GaiaPortal by ÉirePort: Synchronizing of All Participants on All Dimensional Levels Occurs – July 20, 2013 - http://wp.me/p2sFUY-n4

Synchronizing of all participants on all dimensional levels occurs, as participant group consciousness has risen sufficiently to support such synchronization.

Transformational energetics are fully activated for those requiring such in the next few days of the time domain.
All Hue Beings are currently aligned with Gaia ascension transformation pathways.

You Belong to All Worlds as received by Gillian MacBeth-Louthan, July, 2013 at: http://www.thequantumawakening.com

You are a multi-dimensional universe within your cell structure, your biology, as well as your emotional and mental being. This year has escorted you into doorways of thoughts beyond your earthly perception of time, space, light and sound. This year shows you the worlds within worlds in which you reside simultaneously. For your true spirit is not limited and linear, your soul belongs to all worlds, to all universes, and to all particles of light. You are not just a universe – you are a multi-verse.

The light is your brethren and the asteroids your distant cousins. Everything in your existence was cooked in the same cosmic crock-pot. You came from the same cosmic soup with the same celestial lineage. Every Being that exists between time, within time, around time, is a part of the expressions of the Universe and the Multi- Verse.

Each and every day as you begin your day, do not separate yourself from your experience, but pour yourself into your life. The separateness that you have long denoted as truth is no longer as such. For your world has passed the parallelisms of itself and it now creates a new sentence, a new understanding, and a new diagramming of the explanation of whom it knows itself to be. By keeping separate in your thinking, in your workday, in your relationships, in your hopes and dreams, in your fears, and tears – you create a ripple effect of separateness.

Source has stretched itself to the very edge of its ability to procreate from this angle of life. Imagine stretching a rubber band as far as it can stretch without breaking it That is where earth sits at this time in her life experience. She has stretched as far as she is able and now begins to contract in an effort to alleviate her growing pains and enter a higher level of light. The essence of expansion has been seen as grandiose and wondrous but in truth has placed many stretch marks upon the body of humanity and earth herself.

It is time to stop pulling and chomping at the bit of your life. Burdening yourself with the relentless pursuit of “more”. More money, more time, more material! The creator and the co-creators (everyone on earth) have stretched themselves to the zenith of material pursuits. Now all of life contracts in order to expand and heal itself.

This new dimension has expanded as much as it can. As it contracts, you find yourself in spheres of light. it is a doorway into instantaneous manifestation. In this dimension, you will move closer to your original pure form. You will grow in strength, in character, in knowing, and remembrance. As you contract fully to an expanded, yet singular thought– you will then be escorted into the next level of light.

Yes, dear ones, it feels as though you are contracting, it feels as if you are moving backward through time itself, like Dorothy’s house in the Wizard Of Oz. Your bodies feel heavier as you move into your center, into your fulcrum, even though everything around you is formless. From that point of purity, you will expand. The balloon of life cannot be blown up anymore then it is without popping at the seems/ seams. As you contract, you will let go of weight and waiting, (time waits for no one) you will let go of the need for stuff, and you will let go of needless fears. In the contraction, thoughts are fine-lined, expectations are thicker, knowledge is deeper, and remembrance is clearer.

Imagine a Universe that is so vast that you cannot comprehend the edge of it. No form, no end. Now think about a Universe where the edge is coming closer and closer to you. Everything eventually comes back to its original form.

This summer people will truly see one another for who they are. No hiding from the truth. Imagine if every mirror in your world reflected the real luminance beautiful you. That, my children of Light, is about to happen. The reflections of your light in the mirrors and windows of your world will show the true-light of your being. You will see the cellular structure of your being change from day to day. Your skin, your hair, your expectations are continually being transformed and fine-lined.

There is a time lapse a pause, between thought and when the message reaches the body. The body runs on programs from the past – it holds the instructions that you gave it years ago. The time- space sequence in-between thought and receiving is shortening. Your body will listen to the instructions of the higher mind as you come into more awareness of this contractual agreement that you have..

Your body will not be picture perfect, but it will be what suits you’re thinking, what suits your needs. You will be pleased with what you have sculpted. For sculpting best describes what happens as intentions of the mind are manifested with clarity and are received by the body with no lagging time in-between. You will become purified and fine-lined like a beautiful ice-sculpture at a celebration, defining and re-defining your lines of light.

We are The Council One. Everything shifts for you as you ‘contract into expansion’. It is not something you do. It is something you are. It is not something that happens to you – it is something you are. It is your birthright. It is your destiny. At this time, we will leave you with these patterns of thinking and understanding. Each of you has taken giant steps into evolutionary understandings. Focus only on love and grace and peace and joy. And then it shall be yours. We leave you with your light more beautiful than when we entered.