Even with our paved roads, most people today still prefer moving into a new house in the summer, usually to complete it in time for the new school year. Parents find it inconvenient to move when the children are in school or even in pre-school. Even singles, childless couples and the elderly usually want to move in the summer. It could be that we have simply become accustomed to starting the year in the fall—Rosh Hashanah time. We want to be nestled into our new home at the start of the new Jewish year and make a fresh start.

As we stated in our last article, homeowners in Israel like to “linger” a while in their homes even after they sell them. They may not vacate the home for another few months. Therefore the best time to shop for a new home is....

Read the continuation of this article in the IsraelNationalNews.com Real Estate Section.

The Wanna Be A Star competition of the Professional Women’s Theater is having their 2008 Gala this Thursday, June 19, featuring performances by this year’s competition winners. The all-women’s event is an opportunity for Jewish women in Israel to sing, dance and perform in an all-women’s environment.

This week’s end-of-the-year concert will feature Shuly Natan, a world-famous Israeli singer with a striking golden voice. Natan began her career as a teenager in 1967 when she was chosen by songwriter Naomi Shemer to sing the newly composed Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim Shev Zahav). Shuly Natan’s performance became a national hit and several weeks later when the Six Day War began, the song became an anthem. Natan and Shemer spent the next several decades as singer/songwriter partners. After a break to raise her family, Natan has returned to performing. Her appearance at the Wanna Be A Star competition is a proud occasion for the grassroots organization.

Annie Orenstein co-founded the Professional Women’s Theater three years ago. She talked to Israel National News about the competition and it’s nature as an all-women’s event.

"A lot of these women have performed before mixed crowds in the past," said Orenstein.

Some of the women had serious recording contracts and gave them up when they became religious. Orenstein comments, “When they decided to commit to a Torah lifestyle, they decided they didn’t want to perform in front of men any longer. But they didn’t want to compromise their values and forget their dream of being on stage. We give these women an opportunity to express themselves. Otherwise there would be girls that get to a certain crossroads and have to decide between their passion for the arts and performance and their passion for Torah and Judaism. We don’t want them to have to choose between the two. It’s celebrating the woman’s ability to express themselves.”

The Professional Women's Theater
ProfessionalWomensTheater .com

Most of the competition is singing, but there have also been rappers, dancers and some surprises. “Last year we had a woman in her 80s who did a jazzy tap dance for us. In our first year of competition one of our finalists was an opera singer who studied around the world," Orenstein related.

Participants perform in Hebrew, English or other languages. “Whatever touches them, whatever comes from their heart, they can perform in it. Through performance, it enters the audience. It seeps through, no matter what language.”

Orenstein feels the event is also a way for Jewish women from different communities to meet each other: "It’s a way to bridge gaps between religious and secular. We have Americans, Canadians, British and Israeli meeting each other. We have people visiting, or studying for the year, coming. We have women from Jerusalem, Modiin, Beit Shemesh, Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim and other places."

One of the goals of the organization is to create venues for the finalists to perform and get paid for it. “We want to help them get parnassa [livelihood]. We don’t believe these women should only go on stage for tzedaka [charity] or for free. The  finalists get paid at our competitions. It says a lot of empowering them, its really exciting to give them work and be able to pay them for it."

The Wanna Be A Star 2008 Gala will be held this coming Thursday, June 19, at 8:00 p.m. at Heichal Shlomo on King George Avenue in Jerusalem. A pre-show boutique starts at 6:00 p.m. The cost is 35 NIS students, 55 NIS regular, 100 NIS donors. Group rates are available, and refreshments will be sold. For more information visit www.professionalwomenstheater .com.

Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka threatened Sunday there will be riots if the government decides to indict 12 residents of the Galilee village of Shfaram involved in the 2005 killing of IDF soldier Eden Natan Zada.

Zada was lynched by an Arab mob, despite having been subdued by police officers after opening fire in a bus crowded with Arabs. The IDF soldier, who had gone AWOL, killed four passengers and wounded nine others before he was stopped by a group of passengers and police officers.

A mob of Arabs immediately wrested the young soldier away from police custody, however, trampling him and beating him to death.

Haifa district prosecutors have ordered 12 Shfaram residents to appear at a hearing on the incident, indicating that indictments might be filed. However, if charges are filed, the prosecution has said it will limit the scope to various degrees of assault, rather than manslaughter or murder charges.

The Arab MK and Balad party chairman called the hearing "an act of provocation" and charged that the police are blaming the victims. "If they indict, they will have riots on their hands," he warned.

Fellow Arab MK and Hadash party chairman Mohammed Barakeh bluntly justified the lynching, adding, that "any minute longer in which Zada would have lived could have claimed the lives of many more of Shfaram's residents. The investigation should focus on the military, which knew they had a dangerous deserter on their hands."

Both Knesset Members have been sharply criticized for their past visits to enemy states and strong statements of support for their actions against Israel. 

MK Mohammed Barakeh
Barakeh whipped a crowd of hundreds of Israeli Arabs and Druze in the Galilee city of Nazareth into an anti-Zionist frenzy during a 2005 rally, shouting, "A strong and resistant Syria will bring closer the day in which Jerusalem will become Palestine's capital." The Israeli Arab Knesset Member compared the United States and Israel to a large and small spider trying to create trouble between Syria and Lebanon.

The chairman of Hadash, a nominally communist faction, met in 2007 with DFLP terror leader Naif Hawatmeh in Amman, Jordan, expressing his deep appreciation for the "historic ties" between the terrorist group and his party.

Barakeh was also involved in a rock-throwing riot this year on Independence Day, in which hundreds of Arabs clashed with a group of Jews celebrating the holiday in the Lower Galilee. Five police officers were injured in the melee, and six rioters were arrested. Barakeh and a second Arab Israeli MK, Wasil Taha (Balad) both participated in the riot.

MK Jamal Zahalka
Zahalka was questioned by police in September 2006 over a trip he made to Syria, during which he expressed support for Damascus and Hizbullah terrorist activities against Israel.

Zahalka has often declared his support for the position of enemy nations, claiming that Israel has no right to be in Jerusalem. He has consistently tried to undermine efforts to integrate Arab citizens into the fabric of Israeli society. In October 2007, Zahalka threatened that any Israeli Arab who volunteered for National Service "will be treated like a leper, and will be vomited out of Arab society."

Zahalka's predecessor and former party chairman, ex-Knesset Member Azmi Bishara, was forced to flee Israel last year in the face of an impending indictment on charges of treason for aiding the enemy - Hizbullah terrorists - during the Second Lebanon War.

"We were here when your forefathers were drinking wine, burying their daughters alive and worshipping idols" – this was just one of Bar Ilan University political scientist Dr. Mordechai Kedar's ripostes to questions by an Al Jazeera interviewer two weeks ago, in an interview that has received rave reviews from Israel-lovers the world over for its forcefulness.

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Can't see the video? click here.

"They did not expect me to take the discussion to history and especially not to religion," Kedar told Israel National News. But discuss religion he did in the above video, reminding his interviewer that Jerusalem was not mentioned even once in the Koran and saying directly in fluent Arabic that "Jerusalem is not on the negotiating table," and that "Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, period."

"This was very aggravating" for the Al-Jazeera interviewer, Kedar explained, "because in the Islamic view, Islam came into the world to replace Judaism and Christianity, not to live side by side with them. And here, all of a sudden, the Jews are coming from exile and building their state again and G-d forbid they also regained Jerusalem." Judaism is thus regaining its meaning, and Islam is challenged by this, the Bar-Ilan professor explained. "The mere existence of the State of Israel and the fact that we are in Jerusalem is some kind of challenge to the legitimacy of Islam in their eyes," Kedar explained.

"This is not pro-Israel public relations," Dr. Kedar told Israel National News. "This is a battle for the Arab heart, which Israel is apparently losing because Israel gave up on the main tool which should have served it, which is an independent Israeli Zionist satellite channel in Arabic." Many Arabs, he said, would consider changing their views if such a channel were available.

A Gaza-based organization has expressed "deep concern" at the recurrence of "internal explosions" caused by the manufacture and storing of weapons in civilian areas.

The PCHR (Palestinian Center for Human Rights) released its statement after Thursday's tremendous explosion in a large house in northern Gaza, which killed an infant, a 16-year-old and six terrorists.  Forty people were wounded in the blast.

PCHR announced it is "deeply concerned about the recurrence of internal explosions as a result of weapons being manufactured, and stored, in areas populated by civilians. These actions are threatening the lives and property of Palestinian civilians."

PCHR further called upon "Palestinian resistance groups to take immediate measures and effective steps to ensure the non-recurrence of such explosions." Such measures were not spelled out, but the PCHR warned "of the dangers caused by continued manufacturing or storage of explosive devices by Palestinian resistance groups in civilian-populated areas, which threaten the lives of Palestinian civilians and violate international humanitarian law." 

The PCHR announced that its investigation had found that early Thursday afternoon, June 12, "a huge explosion occurred in a 400-square-meter house belonging to Abdul Azim Khaled Hammouda... The house was completely destroyed and dozens of neighboring houses were also damaged, five of them seriously.  Ambulances and civil defense crews rushed to the area, and removed victims' bodies from beneath the ruins of the destroyed house and neighbouring houses."

Terrorists Killed "Preparing for Jihad Mission"
The Izzaddin al-Kassam Brigades, the official armed wing of Hamas, stated in a press release the next day that six of its members were killed "while they were in the final stage of preparation for a special Jihad mission."  The six would-be murderers ranged in age from 20 to 32.  Blame was originally apportioned to Israel for attacking the house.

The Associated Press reported that "dozens of Palestinian militants" have been killed in accidents while "mishandling explosives. "

Historian Dr. Rivka Shpak-Lissak has embarked on an ambitious project, detailing the history of Jewish towns in the Land of Israel that are now known as Arab.  Seven of her articles in this series have appeared on the Omedia website, and she has many more coming.

The bottom line, Dr. Lissak told Arutz-7, is that the Arabs have not been here for thousands of years, as they claim, and that in fact most of the formerly Jewish towns of the Galilee were populated by Arabs only within the last 300 years or so. 

"The goal of all the rulers of the Holy Land, from the times of the Romans and onward, was always to rid the Land of the Jews," she said. "Finally, they succeeded. Many Jews simply left the Land rather than convert to Islam."

The series began last month with a short treatise on the town of Tzipori, famous from the times of the Mishna. The article noted that the Supreme Israeli-Arab Tracking Committee was preparing a "march of return" from Nazareth to Tzipori, to mark Catastrophe Day [Israel's Independence Day].  "We should remind the marchers," wrote Dr. Lissak, "that Tzipori was a Jewish city for 2,000 years, while the [adjacent] Arab village Safuriya was founded only in 1561." 

Dr. Lissak was born in "the Land," she told Arutz-7, received a doctorate in history, and lectured in Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University. She has also specialized in American history.

Other originally-Jewish cities highlighted in the series include Kafr Kana, Biram, Pekiin, Sakhnin, Gush Halav, and Arabeh.

Kafr Kana
The latest article is on Kafr Kana, just north of Upper Nazareth in the Lower Galilee.  Some 260 Arab families lived there in 1945, and it now has a population of 18,000 people, mostly Moslems and some Christians - leading many to forget its Jewish past.  It was a Jewish city during the period of the First Temple (between 2,800 and 2,400 years ago), as well as under Persian rule during the Second Temple period several centuries later.  Josephus fortified the city against the Romans in the year 66 C.E., and after Jerusalem fell, priests from the Elyashiv watch moved to Kana.  Talmudic sages lived there, and tradition has it that Rava and Rav Huna are buried there.  Remnants of a 4th-century synagogue have been found in Kana.

Kana continued to be a thriving Jewish town in the ensuing centuries, though Christians began to move in as well.  Eighty Jewish families were reported to be living there in 1473.  Rabbi Ovadiah from Bartinura, whose student visited the town, reported that he heard that its Jews, though by then a minority among Christians, were living there peacefully.  Somewhere in the 17th century, Bedouin and Arab attacks, as well as Turkish taxation, forced the Jews out, and Arabs replaced them.

During the War of Independence 300 years later, Arab terrorist gangs from Kafr Kana attacked nearby Jewish towns, until the IDF conquered it in July 1948.

Gush Halav
Another now-Arab town whose roots are Jewish is Jish, north of Tzfat (Safed).  Known also by its Jewish name Gush Halav, the town is mentioned in the Mishna as having been walled since the times of Joshua ben Nun - i.e., nearly 3,300 years ago. Gush Halav was the last Jewish stronghold in the Galilee and Golan region during the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-73 CE); its fall was described at length by Josephus.

As was the case with other towns and cities in the Galilee, a dynamic Jewish presence continued in Gush Halav well into the second half of the second millennium C.E.  Archaeologist s have excavated a synagogue at Gush Halav that was in use from the 3rd to 6th centuries, and a Jewish burial site similar to that at Beit She'arim has been excavated.  The Prophet Joel is said to be buried in Gush Halav. 

Many Jews continued to live in Gush Halav, but by the 18th century - by which time the town was renamed Jish - their number had dwindled.  Maronite Christians then began arriving in Jish, joining the few Jews who still remained.  In 1948, most of the population left, but Arabs from nearby villages took their place.  Jish-Gush Halav now has a population of some 2,700 - none of them Jews.

(to be continued)

Two top Israeli negotiators, Shalom Turjeman and Yoram Turbovich, traveled to Ankara on Sunday to resume talks with Syria through Turkish mediators. The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on the meeting, however, nor would officials confirm it was taking place.

One of the subjects reportedly on the table is the possibility that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad will meet during a conference on the Middle East to be held in France on July 13. Another likely subject is the future of the Golan Heights.

Since the Israeli-Syrian dialogue was made public several weeks ago, Syria has continued to claim that Israel promised in the past to hand over the Golan Heights.  A top Syrian official has threatened that Syria will find ways to wrest the area from the Jewish State if Israel does not agree to cede the region peacefully. Israel formally annexed the Golan in 1981.

Israeli Delegation Refused Entry to Jordan
While Israelis had no problem entering Turkey to talk to Syria, however, a routine delegation to Jordan, with whom the Jewish State has had diplomatic relations since a peace treaty was signed in October 1994, was refused entry to the Hashemite Kingdom.

"The Israeli delegation to the regional conference in Jordan on the subject of economic cooperation, organized by the Netanya Academic College, was refused entry into Jordan at the Allenby Crossing earlier today," read a government statement released to the media on Sunday evening. "As a result, the Director General of the Tourism Ministry, Sha'ul Tzemach, will be unable to participate in the tourism panel scheduled for tomorrow."

There was no explanation offered as to why the delegation was turned away and why, if any, diplomatic action was taken in response.

'Good Natured' Meeting Between Rice, Livni and Abu Ala
Top American, Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials met in Jerusalem Sunday. The meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and PA chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) ended after what was described as a genial 90-minute discussion at a Jerusalem hotel Sunday evening.

Sources at Livni's bureau said that the talks revolved around problems in the future final status agreement between Israel and the PA, rather than on the present problems.

Israel has decided to suspend its decision of last week to demand the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit as part of a tahadiyeh, - "cooling off" or "calm" period - with Hamas terrorists in Gaza, according to numerous
As late as Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was still saying that Shalit's release will be part of the ceasefire.
media reports. Moreover, the Jewish State also may have agreed to relent on its condition that there be an end to arms smuggling from the Sinai into Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Zahar told the Al-Bawaba news portal that a 'calm' could start in less than two weeks, but he insisted that the release of Gilad Shalit, who has been languishing in Hamas captivity since 2006, would not be included in the agreement. Zahar said Hamas would only free Shalit under a prisoner-terrorist exchange deal.

Israel's agreement to this condition is a complete about-face from its previous demand, sent with envoy Amos Gilad to the Egyptians last Thursday, that Shalit be freed as part of a two-step ceasefire proposal. Egypt has been mediating the negotiations between the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas and Israel.

As late as Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was still saying that Shalit's release would be part of the ceasefire. However, it now appears that the soldier will not be freed in the first stages of the agreement.

According to the developing temporary ceasefire agreement, Israel will cease counter-terrorist operations targeting Hamas, while Hamas will stop launching rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The IDF would then also be required to withdraw forces from Gaza, according to the initial stage of the proposal.

Once this first stages proves successful and a complete "calm" is secured, the Gaza crossings would be reopened. In exchange, according to the initial Israeli position, Shalit would be released. Currently, however, it appears that Shalit will not be freed until Israel agrees to free Arab terrorists from its jails.

The Egyptians, for their part, said that they would initiate talks regarding a swap of Arab prisoners for Gilad Shalit only once the ceasefire begins in practice.

Hamas will deliver a final response on Monday about the proposed "cooling off period." The official Egyptian Middle East News Agency reported, "A second session of talks between Egyptian officials and the Hamas delegation will be held on Monday to know the movement's definitive position, taking into account the Israeli response."

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Nissan Ratzlav-Katz contributed to this report.

Israel has decided to suspend its decision of last week to demand the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit as part of a tahadiyeh, - "cooling off" or "calm" period - with Hamas terrorists in Gaza, according to numerous
As late as Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was still saying that Shalit's release will be part of the ceasefire.
media reports. Moreover, the Jewish State also may have agreed to relent on its condition that there be an end to arms smuggling from the Sinai into Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Zahar told the Al-Bawaba news portal that a 'calm' could start in less than two weeks, but he insisted that the release of Gilad Shalit, who has been languishing in Hamas captivity since 2006, would not be included in the agreement. Zahar said Hamas would only free Shalit under a prisoner-terrorist exchange deal.

Israel's agreement to this condition is a complete about-face from its previous demand, sent with envoy Amos Gilad to the Egyptians last Thursday, that Shalit be freed as part of a two-step ceasefire proposal. Egypt has been mediating the negotiations between the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas and Israel.

As late as Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was still saying that Shalit's release would be part of the ceasefire. However, it now appears that the soldier will not be freed in the first stages of the agreement.

According to the developing temporary ceasefire agreement, Israel will cease counter-terrorist operations targeting Hamas, while Hamas will stop launching rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The IDF would then also be required to withdraw forces from Gaza, according to the initial stage of the proposal.

Once this first stages proves successful and a complete "calm" is secured, the Gaza crossings would be reopened. In exchange, according to the initial Israeli position, Shalit would be released. Currently, however, it appears that Shalit will not be freed until Israel agrees to free Arab terrorists from its jails.

The Egyptians, for their part, said that they would initiate talks regarding a swap of Arab prisoners for Gilad Shalit only once the ceasefire begins in practice.

Hamas will deliver a final response on Monday about the proposed "cooling off period." The official Egyptian Middle East News Agency reported, "A second session of talks between Egyptian officials and the Hamas delegation will be held on Monday to know the movement's definitive position, taking into account the Israeli response."

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Nissan Ratzlav-Katz contributed to this report.

Israel has decided to suspend its decision of last week to demand the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit as part of a tahadiyeh, - "cooling off" or "calm" period - with Hamas terrorists in Gaza, according to numerous
As late as Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was still saying that Shalit's release will be part of the ceasefire.
media reports. Moreover, the Jewish State also may have agreed to relent on its condition that there be an end to arms smuggling from the Sinai into Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Zahar told the Al-Bawaba news portal that a 'calm' could start in less than two weeks, but he insisted that the release of Gilad Shalit, who has been languishing in Hamas captivity since 2006, would not be included in the agreement. Zahar said Hamas would only free Shalit under a prisoner-terrorist exchange deal.

Israel's agreement to this condition is a complete about-face from its previous demand, sent with envoy Amos Gilad to the Egyptians last Thursday, that Shalit be freed as part of a two-step ceasefire proposal. Egypt has been mediating the negotiations between the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas and Israel.

As late as Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was still saying that Shalit's release would be part of the ceasefire. However, it now appears that the soldier will not be freed in the first stages of the agreement.

According to the developing temporary ceasefire agreement, Israel will cease counter-terrorist operations targeting Hamas, while Hamas will stop launching rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The IDF would then also be required to withdraw forces from Gaza, according to the initial stage of the proposal.

Once this first stages proves successful and a complete "calm" is secured, the Gaza crossings would be reopened. In exchange, according to the initial Israeli position, Shalit would be released. Currently, however, it appears that Shalit will not be freed until Israel agrees to free Arab terrorists from its jails.

The Egyptians, for their part, said that they would initiate talks regarding a swap of Arab prisoners for Gilad Shalit only once the ceasefire begins in practice.

Hamas will deliver a final response on Monday about the proposed "cooling off period." The official Egyptian Middle East News Agency reported, "A second session of talks between Egyptian officials and the Hamas delegation will be held on Monday to know the movement's definitive position, taking into account the Israeli response."

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Nissan Ratzlav-Katz contributed to this report.

In his opening remarks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ramallah on Sunday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas repeated that the issues of Jerusalem and Arab refugees, among others, are on the table in ongoing PA-Israel negotiations.

At the very start of his introductory remarks, Abbas said: "It is known that the issues we are still debating are Jerusalem, the refugees, the borders, the settlements, security and water. All of these issues, as we had said before, are on the negotiations table."

Despite the emphasis on the issue of the status of Jerusalem in the media and among politicians on the Israeli side, Abbas explained in his comments that the Arabs side sees current Jewish construction projects as the main issue holding back negotiations.

"I requested from Dr. Rice to assist us to make Israel fulfill its obligations vis-a-vis colonization," Abbas said, "because we consider settlement activity as the most important obstacle facing the political process. And the more there are dates and construction of settlements, the more this will constitute an impediment that will obstruct reaching any peace."

Again, towards the end of his remarks, Abbas repeated that the end of "settlement expansion," as he called it, "is one of the most important conditions" for reaching an agreement with Israel by year's end, as sought by the US.

Secretary Rice, as well, harshly criticized Israel for its continued construction in Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Promoting Hamas, Fatah Unity
Regarding the other negotiations he is involved in, those with the jihadist Hamas organization controlling the PA in Gaza, Abbas said, "We are moving on this track. If we succeed, it is quite important that we regain national unity." The solution he seeks with Hamas "is comprehensive, entire, in order to regain the national unity between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," he concluded.

At the same time, during the question-and-answer period, Abbas called the Hamas takeover of Gaza a "coup d'etat," but added that his Fatah-controlled PA "never forsook the Palestinian people living there. We are still sending salaries to 77,000 civil servants and we are still paying 58 percent of our budget to enable the people of Gaza to continue living."

In the meantime, however, Abbas is leaving Egypt to negotiate with Israel over the situation in Gaza, which Hamas terrorists and their allies are using as rocket-launching pads aimed at Israel. "We hope they will conclude a speedy agreement, because it has been too long of a suffering and we hope that a solution will arrive soon," Abbas said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert informed visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice that, despite her criticism, Israel will continue building in Jerusalem.

Rice, visiting Israel on Sunday and Monday for yet another attempt to extract Israeli concessions that she feels may bring an Israeli-Palestinian agreement closer, said that Israel's announced plans to build in Jerusalem are "having a negative effect."

Rice further said that the "continued building and the settlement activity has the potential to harm the negotiations going forward," called it a "vioation of the Roadmap," and said sternly that she plans to bring up the matter with Israeli officials.

Olmert: These Neighborhoods Will Remain Israeli
Olmert, meeting on Sunday with Rice, told her that the construction would continue "in the Jewish neighborhoods that are expected to remain Israeli under any agreement."  He was referring most specifically to the latest-announced plan: the construction of 1,300 apartments in the hareidi-religious neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo. 

Ramat Shlomo is situated east of Ramot and west of French Hill, upon hills that were totally barren during the 19 years they were under Jordanian control.  Nearly a year ago, the Antiquities Authority announced that it had found in Ramat Shlomo the quarry that supplied the giant stones for the building of the Temple Mount.

The Jerusalem Municipality also announced, late last week, its approval of a 12-year-plan to build close to 40,000 new apartments in various city neighborhoods.  Some of the apartments will be built in Gilo, Pisgat Ze'ev, Ramot and Har Homa - all located in areas formerly under Jordanian control.

Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) made headlines when he came out strongly against Rice: "I would like to know how it would look if someone would say that the U.S. has no right to develop Washington... Rice doesn't consult with anyone before approving a new city in the U.S."