WORLD BIDEN IN ISRAEL TO PRESS MID-EAST PEACE TALKS Vice-President Joe Biden arrives in Israel, BBCi Cont'd from Home Page Iran's nuclear programme is expected to be at the top of Israel's agenda. Hours before Mr Biden landed, Israel enraged Palestinians by approving 112 new homes in the occupied West Bank. Mr Biden will try to reassure Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that plans for tougher sanctions against Iran are serious, says the BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen. The US does not want Israel to take military action against Iran, which is much talked about here, our correspondent reports from Jerusalem. Mr Biden is due to hold talks with Mr Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and opposition leader Tzipi Livni later on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he will meet Palestinian leaders in the West Bank. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to meet Mr Netanyahu because of Israel's refusal to put a complete stop to building Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. But after US pressure, President Abbas agreed on Monday to four months of indirect, so-called "proximity talks". The discussions would mark the first time the Palestinians and Israelis have come together in any form for more than a year. Mr Netanyahu said on Monday: "Our security is to prevent… missiles, rockets, terror and these are things that I intend to insist upon in order to get an arrangement that will last generations, this is achievable." 'More provocations' The delegations were expected to meet separately with the US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, who was to shuttle between them. The announcement, however, came just hours after Israel infuriated Palestinians by approving the construction of 112 new apartments in the Beitar Illit settlement in the West Bank. Israel says it is halfway through a 10-month pause in settlement building it announced for the West Bank, though not in East Jerusalem. But the defence ministry said the Beitar Illit apartments were an "exception", because of what it called safety and infrastructure issues. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the move put the talks at risk. "We cannot tolerate that each time we have discussions on peace-making the Israeli government tenders more settlements, more incursions, more provocations," he told the AFP news agency. A US state department spokesman said the development did not breach the building moratorium, but was "the kind of thing both sides need to be cautious of". Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. They are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.  BBCi US DENIES ISRAEL SETTLEMENT MOVE VIOLATES MORATORIUM The apartments in Beitar Illit are "an exception", the Israelis say, BBCi Cont'd from Home Page Israel has promised a 10-month pause in settlement building in the West Bank, though not in East Jerusalem.  It says the 112 new apartments in Beitar Illit settlement were approved ahead of the moratorium being declared. The move comes as the US announced that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to hold indirect talks.  Palestinian negotiators say the Beitar Illit announcement will place strain on an already fragile agreement to talk. Meanwhile, US Vice-President Joe Biden has arrived in the region, becoming the highest-ranking US official to visit since President Barack Obama took office. US envoy George Mitchell is currently in the Middle East to mediate in what are referred to as "proximity talks". "I'm pleased that the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have accepted indirect talks," Mr Mitchell said in a statement on Monday. "We've begun to discuss the structure and scope of these talks, and I will return to the region next week to continue our discussions. "As we've said many times, we hope that these will lead to direct negotiations as soon as possible." But other Palestinian groups based in Syria, including the Islamist Hamas movement which runs the Gaza Strip, rejected the talks. They said the talks were bowing to pressure from Israel and the US. A breakthrough in the talks would surprise all sides, the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says. 'Grudging' Speaking about the Beitar Illit development, US state department spokesman PJ Crowley told media in Washington on Monday: "On the one hand, it does not violate the moratorium that the Israelis previously announced. "On the other hand, this is the kind of thing that both sides need to be cautious of as we move ahead with these parallel talks." Beitar Illit has a mostly Orthodox Jewish population. Israeli ministers said the new apartment buildings would be allowed to go ahead because of what they termed "safety issues". A statement from the defence ministry said the building was needed to plug a potentially dangerous 40-yard gap between two existing buildings "Beitar Illit is an exceptional permit that came about following safety problems in the infrastructure," the statement said.  The building permits were issued under the previous government of Ehud Olmert and before the settlement pause was announced. The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank had demanded a complete stop to settlement building as a precondition to re-engaging in talks which broke down more than a year ago. They agreed "grudgingly", reports said, and came after many months of shuttle diplomacy from Mr Mitchell.  The talks should be limited to four months, Palestinian officials said. Under heavy US pressure, the Israeli government agreed in November to a temporary and partial pause in building. It said that work which had already started on 3,000 homes should be allowed to continue, and further exceptions to the pause were possible.  Israel has refused to stop building in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians say they want as the location of a future capital of a Palestinian state. 'Exception' Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the move put the talks at risk. "If the Israeli government wants to sabotage Mitchell's efforts by taking such steps, let's talk to Mitchell about maybe not doing this if the price is so high," he was quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency as saying. Israeli Environment Minister Gilad Erdan said the settlement was "an exception" to the building pause. "At the end of last year the government decided to freeze construction, but this decision provided for exceptions in cases of safety problems for infrastructure projects started before the freeze," he told Army Radio.  Peace Now, an Israeli group, said the announcement raised questions about Israel's commitment to the peace process. "The Israeli government is welcoming the US vice-president by demonstrating, to our regret, that it has no genuine intention to advance the peace process," the group's settlement expert, Hagit Ofran, told AP.  All settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. --BBCi ISRAELI MINISTER LIEBERMAN ANGRY AT 'LEAKS' Mr Lieberman has attracted controversy throughout his career, BBCi Cont'd from Home Page Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman has demanded top Israeli police officers be indicted for leaking details of a corruption probe into him. The hard-line leader of the second biggest party in the ruling coalition is accused of receiving millions of dollars in illegal campaign donations. Police have said they are about to issue charges against him. But Mr Lieberman says the police are guilty of "the mother of all obstructions of justice".  Mr Lieberman filed a petition with the Israeli High Court calling for 13 police officers who had access to the case files to be investigated. The police deny there were any leaks to the media. "There have been no press leaks," police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told news agency AFP. "We published a statement on Tuesday about the questioning of Mr Lieberman because it is a very serious investigation." Last year the police announced they were preparing charges of bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice against Mr Lieberman. He denies the charges and says they are politically motivated. Relationship The foreign minister was questioned by the police about the case in preparation for an indictment. "When I left the interrogation room, I was warned that I must not comment on any detail from the investigation, and must not talk to anyone about it," Israel's Ynet News quoted him as saying.  "What a surprise it was when an hour after I left the interrogation room, all the distorted details were released by the police commissioner's office." On Tuesday, Israeli media reported that part of the police investigation into Mr Lieberman centred on his relationship with the former ambassador to Belarus. Ambassador Zeev Ben Aryeh - now Israel's envoy to Latvia and Lithuania - is reported to have warned Mr Lieberman about the Israeli police investigation into a number of suspected front companies in Minsk. Mr Lieberman had reportedly plucked Mr Ben Aryeh from obscurity at the foreign ministry and made him an ambassador, the Haaretz newspaper reported.  Mr Lieberman worked as a nightclub bouncer in his youth in the USSR and is known for his abrasive style. He famously once said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could "go to hell". --BBCi    ISRAEL'S DESIGN MUSEUM HOLON OPENS Cont'd from Home Page Comprised of two square galleries for design and artifacts, measuring approximately 5,382 square feet, the museum is built without columns and features large glass windows that will stream natural light. "We are excited about the opening of the Design Museum Holon and its presence as the epicenter of the City of Holon's rejuvenation project," Commissioner for Tourism, North and South America Arie Sommer said. "The Design Museum Holon will attract a new wave of travelers to Israel and bring a new source of artistic life to Holon." The State of Things: Design and the 21st Century will showcase more than one hundred products based on the issues of practice, consumption and the cultural impact of contemporary international design. The exhibition will feature objects ranging from ordinary household items to life-enhancing technologies such as a jewel-like hearing aid and efficient water filtration device.

WORLD PM NETANYAHU HOLDS KNESSET SPECIAL SESSION  Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Knesset in special session GPO photo Cont'd from Home Page Iran In the area of security and diplomacy, the international community is moving toward sanctions. We're involved in this process and held important meetings with two pivotal members of the Security Council - meetings that were fully transparent and coordinated with the United States. The first one was in Russia and the second in China. In Russia, where I was joined by Minister Yuli Edelstein and MK Ze'ev Elkin, we met with President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin. It's clear that Russia now understands the full significance of Iran's nuclear program, even if it hasn't been stated publicly and officially. In fact, I'm certain about this. And the visit of Minister Ya'alon, Bank of Israel Governor Fischer and their colleagues to Beijing was also important, in terms of understanding Iran's military, nuclear program. There's been some progress in this regard and I'd say that the last six weeks have seen a better understanding among the international community - certainly among major countries - with respect to the nature of the program and the dangers it poses. I would even say that this is accepted by almost every country in the world, including the Arab countries of the Middle East. But there's a difference between understanding and action. There's a gap. And this gap will start to close if the international community, by way of the Security Council, imposes sanctions on Iran now. Our position is that Iranian imports of petroleum products, of gas, have to be restricted because their ability to refine petroleum is extremely limited. Petroleum exports from Iran should also be restricted. I expressed this view in Moscow and it was also made clear in Beijing and in my conversations with world leaders, including Angela Merkel, Silvio Berlusconi, Nicolas Sarkozy, and of course President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The international community is moving toward lower-level sanctions, which are not unimportant, but may not be enough. The only ones proposing the kind of sanctions we're talking about are the US Congress, and there's a certain tension between the required force of the sanctions and the ability to obtain consensus support in the Security Council. I've talked about the steps we're taking to cooperate with the American and French efforts to win Security Council approval for the package of sanctions. But unless those sanctions have sharp enough teeth, it's doubtful that Iran's program will be stopped. Israel-Palestinians On the diplomatic front between us and the Palestinians, what I've said before is now happening in practice, as it appears that conditions may now be ripe to resume talks, proximity talks, between us and the Palestinian Authority. It hasn't happened yet. Discussions are taking place right now, as you know, within the Arab League; they are encouraging renewed dialogue, but with all kinds of reservations. I don't want to talk about something that hasn't happened yet, but personally, I think that conditions are ripe because the whole world understands that our government supports negotiations and has taken difficult steps to advance them - despite the criticism, which is understandable, expected and by no means surprising. We've made public statements and taken practical steps to this effect. The world also realizes that the Palestinians refused, from the outset and without any justification or cause, to re-enter negotiations and that they made demands never heard before in sixteen years of political negotiations. Ultimately, everyone knows this to be true and that's why fewer and fewer countries are willing to accept these preconditions. The fact that these conditions are being gradually withdrawn is the reason I think we may be on the verge of talks - maybe even before our next meeting. We'll see, but either way, Israel is not the obstacle. I've said before that it takes two to tango in the Middle East. Sometimes, even three. And we may need to have some preliminary shuttle diplomacy. But the State of Israel is not, and has not been the obstacle. You can't say: "Well, maybe you're not the obstacle, but Israel still bears responsibility". The State of Israel does not bear responsibility for this impasse; we are not the obstacle. Anyone who looks at the situation rationally and honestly knows this - and should not legitimize unfounded and unjust criticism of the State of Israel or this government. Gilad Shalit MK Gilon asked me about Gilad Shalit. We received offers from the mediator three months ago, meaning before several meetings of this forum. We responded to these offers. We said we were ready to go far in order to return Gilad home, but we said we wanted to prevent the released prisoners from murdering again. This is not a theoretical question, but a practical one. The question is practical because those released in the Jibril deal killed a great number of Israelis, and so did those released in the Tennenbaum deal. For example, the recent murder of the rabbi, the father of seven, was carried out by one of the people removed from the list of wanted men in the Tennenbaum deal. We said we were willing to go far, but not as far as releasing prisoners that are likely to murder again either in Judea and Samaria or territory inside the Green Line. This was the essence of our response. It has been three months since we passed on this answer and to date we have not received an official response. We hear a great many things being said and argued over on the other side, but we have not yet received a formal response. Among other issues, Israel PM Netanyahu also discussed Israel’s transportation, economy and Israel’s Heritage Plan. -- IMFA FOUND TRIBE "We - having been lost - still adhere to our love for the land of Israel: this is a very, very strong part of the identity of the Bnei Menash" -- Rabbi Yehuda Gin, BBCi Cont'd from Home Page But until I had been to Kiryat Arba, deep inside the occupied West Bank, I had not seen East Asians the other side of the Green Line - the internationally recognised boundary between Israel and the West Bank. Kiryat Arba is a slightly down-at-heel place these days. It lies next to Hebron, the tense and divided city that exerts a strong historical pull for Muslims and Jews. The story that we tend to report is the hotly-contested dispute as to whether Jews should be allowed to settle here at all - on what all governments outside Israel regard as occupied territory.  But there is another remarkable and little-told story at play here: the story of Indians from a remote part of that vast country, who have come to this place, believing that they are one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. On the side of a plain, pre-fabricated building in Kiryat Arba is a plaque, proclaiming that this is a community centre for "our Bnei Menashe brethren". The brown-skinned, almond-eyed children playing inside have travelled thousands of kilometres from north-east India. The community centre is named Beit Miriam, after the grandmother of Michael Freund. He set up an organisation, called Shavei Yisrael (Israel Returns), to gather in the communities which he believes are the lost tribes. "I myself was sceptical," he concedes. "But once I travelled to the north-east of India and I met with the members of the community and I learned more about their history and their tradition and their customs, I became convinced that they are in fact descendants of a lost tribe - that they do have a deep connection to the people of Israel." In a quiet room away from the hectic games of the Bnei Menashe children, Tsvi Khaute takes a prayer-book down from a shelf. He opens to a page from the Shabbat morning service, and the traditional Ayn Keiloheinu prayer, which is sung by Jewish communities around the world. The Hebrew words are the same, but the tune he sings has a distinctly pentatonic, East Asian flavour. The faith, then, appears to have deep religious roots. But that still leaves the possibility that the Bnei Menashe may have wanted to come to Israel for economic reasons - to improve their standard of living. Tsvi Khaute insists not. His family, he says, includes a state minister and the head of the secret police. "We are a well-to-do family. So it is not an economic consideration. If you live outside Israel," he says, his voice becoming impassioned, "it's as if you don't have G-d." Tzvi Khaute is equally certain about his right to live here, on what governments outside Israel regard as an illegal settlement on occupied territory. "Those who claim that Hebron is not Jewish, they don't know their identity. This is a very, very important place where the Jews belong." There is another, more prosaic reason that the Bnei Menashe ended up in Kiryat Arba. Fifteen years ago, it was one of the only Israeli-run councils willing to accept these unusual-looking immigrants. The international consensus is that Jews should not be settling in Kiryat Arba at all - that it should be part of a new Palestinian state. And if that were ever to happen then the Bnei Menashe's remarkable story of wandering may well take another turn. --BBCi 1,400-YEAR-OLD WINE PRESS DISCOVERED DURING EXCAVATIONS NEAR NAHAL SOREQ, ISRAEL  Cont'd from Home Page The size of the wine press provides evidence that the quantity of wine produced in the press was exceptionally large and meant for export to Egypt or Europe. "This is a complex wine press that reflects a very high level of technology for this period, which was acquired and improved on from generation to generation," says Uzi Ad, Israel Antiquities Authority. "An identical wine press was previously exposed north of Ashkelon approximately nine feet from the one found in Nahal Soreq and we can assume that the two installations were built by the same craftsman." Rectangular mosaic surfaces were also discovered around the trading floor in which the wine press was uncovered. ISRAEL ONE OF FIVE COUNTRIES AMERICANS VIEW MOST FAVORABLY SAYS GALLUP POLL Cont'd from Home Page. "1.2 million Americans visited Israel in 2008 and 2009, the best two years for tourism in Israel's 62-year history," says Arie Sommer, Commissioner of Tourism, North and South America. "With the United States accounting for 21% of arriving travelers and with indications that global economic turndown may be approaching its end, we anticipate an even greater influx of American travelers to arrive in the years to come." The United States is Israel's number-one source of tourism, with Russia the second largest--followed by France, Britain and Germany. ISRAEL'S DESIGN MUSEUM HOLON OPENS Cont'd from Home Page Comprised of two square galleries for design and artifacts, measuring approximately 5,382 square feet, the museum is built without columns and features large glass windows that will stream natural light. "We are excited about the opening of the Design Museum Holon and its presence as the epicenter of the City of Holon's rejuvenation project," Commissioner for Tourism, North and South America Arie Sommer said. "The Design Museum Holon will attract a new wave of travelers to Israel and bring a new source of artistic life to Holon." The State of Things: Design and the 21st Century will showcase more than one hundred products based on the issues of practice, consumption and the cultural impact of contemporary international design. The exhibition will feature objects ranging from ordinary household items to life-enhancing technologies such as a jewel-like hearing aid and efficient water filtration device.