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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced a ten-month settlement freeze at a Jerusalem press conference on Wednesday evening after the security cabinet approved the plan, and called on the Palestinians to make peace with Israel. He said the move was a "far-reaching and painful step," designed to "encourage resumption of peace talks with our Palestinian neighbors." "We authorize it from a deep desire to move forward toward peace," he said, adding that Israel hoped it would lead to "meaningful negotiations" toward a "historic peace agreement" with the Palestinians. Concerning Jerusalem, the prime minister said his position was "well known," that "we won't put any restrictions on building in our sovereign capital." "Israel's government has made an important step toward peace today," Netanyahu said. "Let us make peace together." Eleven security cabinet members voted in favor of the settlement freeze with only Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau opposing it. The plan, which applies only to the West Bank and does not include Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, will now go to the full cabinet on Sunday for final approval. The freeze applies only to new construction, meaning housing already underway will continue. Also, Netanyahu said, only new homes are included. "We will not halt existing construction and we will continue to build synagogues, schools, kindergartens and public buildings essential for normal life" in the settlements, he said. Shas members of the security cabinet boycotted Wednesday's meeting, with Interior Minister Eli Yishai explaining that the party "will never agree to a freeze on settlement construction, even for one day." Yishai went on to say that a freeze on settlement construction would "not strengthen anything, and will be perceived as a sign of weakness." Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at the start of the meeting that "the freeze on West Bank settlement construction is a responsible and reasonable decision." Furthermore, said Barak, the aim of the freeze would be to keep the window open for a renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians. "Israel is powerful and has a strong deterrent capability, but time is not necessarily on our side," continued the defense minister. "It is imperative to move towards a two state solution. There are no alternatives." Barak said that he hoped that the Yesha leadership, which is undoubtedly patriotic, responsible, and serious, would "understand the need for this decision at this time." Barak went on to say that the security cabinet's decision was based on an understanding with the United States pertaining to renewed negotiations. Barak concluded his remarks by saying that the continued security and military superiority of Israel would be key factors in the decision. Meanwhile, an official Kadima statement read, that the party "supports any move that will return Israel to negotiations toward a final settlement, which will preserve Israel's national and security interests, just like we conducted and from the point they left off." However, Kadima MK Nahman Shai was dissatisfied. He said that "only now that Israel is seen as being insubordinate" in the eyes of the world was Netanyahu "going against his will" and calling for a settlement freeze, adding that it was "too little, too late." The Palestinian Authority strongly rejected Netanyahu's plan and reiterated its refusal to return to the negotiating table with Israel. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said there was nothing new in Netanyahu's announcement, pointing to the 3,000 new housing units under construction in the West Bank. "This is not a moratorium. Unfortunately, we hoped he would commit to a real settlement freeze so we can resume negotiations and he had a choice between settlements and peace and he chose settlements." Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, announced that the Palestinians rejected the plan because it did not include Jerusalem. "For the Palestinians and Arabs, Jerusalem is a red line that can't be crossed," Abu Rudaineh said. "We can't accept any settlement construction freeze that does not include Jerusalem." Abu Rudaineh said that the Palestinians would resume peace talks with Israel only after Israel freezes construction work in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Both Erekat and Abu Rudaineh are accompanying Abbas on a tour of a number of Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentine and Chile.

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PA: Israeli Settlement Freeze Not Enough (IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority officials expressed dissatisfaction with Israel's unprecedented decision to stop Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria for ten months. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas released a statement through his spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, saying the freeze in Judea and Samaria was inadequate because it did not include Jerusalem. This, while Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was facing calls from within his own party to resign and from within his own government to recant the freeze. "Jerusalem is the red line for the Palestinians and Arabs," Abu Rudaineh told reporters at a news conference in Argentina, where he and Abbas are travelling. "Any return to negotiations must be on the basis of a complete settlement freeze, and in Jerusalem foremost."  Hamas terrorists also expressed contempt for the Israeli cave-in, calling the freeze a "cosmetic decision without content." Sami Abu Zukhri, a spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, called on the PA not to be tempted to resume negotiations with Israel because of the decision.  Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Netanyahu's latest move is not sufficient to enable a return of the PA to the negotiating table. Similarly, a top Abu Mazen aide said that the new Israeli position "is neither serious nor convincing."

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Nationalists to Netanyahu: Resign IsraelNN.com) Calls for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation were resounding throughout the Nationalist camp Wednesday, following a vote by Netanyahu's Security Cabinet to implement a 10-month building freeze in Judea and Samaria. In a televised speech, Netanyahu said the "painful step" to constrict Jewish growth in the Biblical heartland is being taken to "encourage resumption of peace talks with our Palestinian neighbors." Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, accused Netanyahu of deceiving Israeli voters and said he must resign.  "I am ashamed and embarrassed that the Likud chairman is working exactly the opposite of the platform on which his name was chosen and is strangling settlement in a way even the most extreme left governments did not do," Mesika said. Likud member and Zionist activist Moshe Feiglin warned that the building freeze, which halts all new housing development, is a sign of Netanyahu's future intention to abandon the Golan and divide Jerusalem.  "The writing on the wall is clear," said Feiglin.  "Anyone who participates in this objective proves he did not learn a thing from the crime of the expulsion from Gush Katif." "I'm calling to anybody to whom the nation of Israel and the future of the state are dear, to join the Likud in order to replace Netanyahu with a leader who has a G-d." Another Likud member, Information and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, said the impact of the freeze would effectively be a "childbirth freeze" and would lead to the transfer of Jews who want to settle in the Land of Israel. "I will not lend my hand to this process that will ultimately endanger the security of Israel and won't bring us even a tiny bit closer to peace," said Edelstein. The Women in Green organization led by activist Nadia Matar accused Netanyahu of strengthening the vehemently anti-Israel president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  The group said, "You grew the Iranian threat, you were the first to blink, you demonstrated weakness." Jewish Home faction chairman and Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev announced that his party - a member of the government coalition - would try alternative political measures to crack the freeze.  He called upon MKs from the Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) and Shas parties to unite in an effort to stop the slide down the slippery slope of the building freeze.

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Settler leaders, Likud MKs blast PM

Settler leaders and Likud parliamentarians on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of betraying his party's principles by caving into the Americans and Palestinians by imposing a ten-month moratorium on new construction permits in West Bank settlements.

The Adam settlement. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

While the move allows for the continued construction of 3,000 homes in West Bank settlements, as well as continued building in east Jerusalem, it stops any further development of Jewish communities over the green-line. As expected, right-wing lawmakers criticized the security cabinet's approval of a 10-month settlement moratorium on Wednesday. "A right-wing government must encourage settlements, not strangle them," said Science Minister Daniel Herschkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi). "Any gesture to the US and to Abbas won't work." National Union leader Ya'acov Katz called upon right-wing ministers to quit. He said he would organize an emergency meeting of right-wing MKs at the Knesset against the move. Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud), who is not a member of the security cabinet, also issued fierce criticism of the decision. "Freezing the building means freezing having children, and later concessions and transferring Jews who want to settle the land of Israel. I will not lend my hand to a move that will endanger Israel's security without bringing us any closer to peace," he said. Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin, who voted for the deal, told Channel 1 that his vote did not go toward freezing construction, but for building a smaller number of dwellings plus some key public buildings. "Ten months eventually pass," Begin said. Shas members of the security cabinet boycotted Wednesday's meeting, with Interior Minister Eli Yishai explaining that the party "will never agree to a freeze on settlement construction, even for one day." Yishai went on to say that a freeze on settlement construction would "not strengthen anything, and will be perceived as a sign of weakness." Almost immediately upon hearing of Netanyahu's planned announcement, a number of young Likud parliamentarians and settler leaders called an emergency meeting. They crowded into a small room in the administrative office of the Givat Ze'ev council, a settlement located just outside of Jerusalem, to watch Netanyahu speak on a television set that hung from a wall over their heads. Before and immediately after Netanyahu's short television address, they called everyone who supported the settlement enterprise both within and without of the Likud party to oppose the measure. Likud MK Danny Dannon called on Netanyahu to seek approval for the measure at Monday's Likud faction meeting."If Netanyahu does not do so, I will personally convene an urgent meeting of the Likud Central Committee to rectify this betrayal of commitments we made to our voters." said Dannon. "We were voted for in order to advance a certain platform; we promised that we would build in Judea and Samaria," said Dannon, who added that the measure goes against the Likud's party's principles. "This is not the party I grew up in or on the party that got voted into office. I called on all those in the party who clearly support the settlements, we can not be silent." He called on Netanyahu to be loyal to the party's principles. He warned Netanayahu, "If you chose to follow the left and to become Barak's sub-contractor, we will oppose you." MK Tzipi Hotovely said, "Judea and Samaria are supposed to be on the same level as Jerusalem." It was a strategic mistake to differentiate between east Jerusalem and settlements in Judea and Samaria, as if one was legitimate and the other was not, she added. "Netanyahu has betrayed the very principles for which he stood for all his life," said Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu was the person who under former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin said that freezing settlement construction was code for territorial concessions and would destroy the settlement enterprise. All his life Netanyahu has spoken against unilateral steps, and almost immediately upon entering office has taken unilateral steps, even when the Palestinians have warned that they are worthless, said Dayan. It isn't possible to stop the settlement enterprise, said Dayan, who added that there are now 300,000 people who live in the Judea and Samaria. Dayan said the council turned down an invitation to meet with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday to protest the crackdown on settlement activity. Netanyahu is the proper address for any further conversation with the government, said Dayan, who noted that since he took office the prime minister has yet to hold a formal meeting with the settlement leadership. "He is the one who has to look us in the eye and give us answers," said Dayan. Gil Hoffman contributed to this report

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Ex-envoy: Obama's approach to Mideast peace process is all wrong Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk on Tuesday said that President Barack Obama and his chief Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, have failed to grasp the realities of how peace is made in the region, and so have only exacerbated the conflict between Israel and the Arabs. Indyk supported Obama for president, and originally believed he would do a much better job than past presidents at hammering out a lasting peace deal between Israel and its neighbors. But at a political forum in Omaha, Nebraska, Indyk conceded that he had been wrong, and that Obama was flunking his foray into Middle East peacemaking. Obama's first mistake, said Indyk, was putting so much stock in Saudi King Abdullah supporting his peace push by moderating the Arab-backed Saudi peace proposal, which offers Israel full diplomatic relations with its neighbors in return for surrendering all lands liberated in the 1967 Six Day War and opening its borders to millions of so-called "Palestinian refugees." Obama believed that if he could just get the Arabs to drop their demand to flood what remained of the Jewish state with even more Arabs, then Israel could be compelled to accept the rest of the terms. But Abdullah was unwilling to budge. Then, lamented Indyk, Obama made his second blunder by focusing nearly his entire peace policy on strong-arming Israel into halting all Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and even much of Jerusalem. Indyk insisted that in order to effectively broker peace in the Middle East, one must not get bogged down in details before a broad agreement has been reached. Indeed, the Palestinians have played off Obama's error by adopting a far more extreme set of demands regarding Jewish building - demands that no Israeli leader can now accept.

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Iran Fears Potential Israeli Strike Video

JERUSALEM, Israel - Iran has enlisted more than 100 nations in an effort to ban potential attacks on its nuclear facilities.

Those nations recently sent a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency supporting Iran's plan to call for a resolution on the subject.

The move has set off speculation that Israel could be ready to take military action against the regime's nuclear program.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told CBN News in a recent interview that Israel doesn't want to carry out a military strike against Iran.

He added that he still believes strong international sanctions could stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

"If there was a unity of purpose for the international community with effective sanctions the regime in Iran will not be able to sustain it nor tolerate it and this is the only way, I believe to change their conduct to put the dilemma on them," Ayalon said.

Israel also supports Washington's intent to dialogue with Tehran. But if no progress is made with sanctions or talks in the next six months, Israel will have a better idea of how to proceed.

"(Well) the clock is ticking and unfortunately it's ticking fast and so far it's in Iran's favor," Ayalon warned. "We need to stop this clock.

"I cannot tell you in terms of weeks or months when is the point of no return, but I would think that by the end of the year should be a clear view of how we move ahead," he said.

Iran is just one of the many threats that is facing the small nation.

Ayalon says that Israel has not only survived but thrived in the face of trials, tribulations and many terror attacks in the past. He calls it Israel's most important achievement.

"And the fact that we also reach to friends and we have the evangelicals in the United States and elsewhere as well, I think attests to the fact that Israel is not only a country which is based on physical and human achievements," he said. "But it's also a country with a greater purpose, with a real faith and as some say is nothing short of a miracle, a Godly miracle."