Circum Spective

WHEN YOU SEE THESE THINGS HAPPENNING . . .

I read economic news. I read U.S. political news. I read off-beat stuff. I read business, technology, science ... but whenever I read stories about the middle-east, everything else seems trivial by comparison. I may not be a prophet, but I know how to read a sign.

Do you?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jordan on Monday mirrored Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting U.S. appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks, throwing a damper on the Obama administration's push for Arab support behind new negotiations.

After talks here with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said confidence-building measures that the U.S. wants Arab states to take will not produce a resolution to the conflict.

Judeh and Clinton both criticized Israel for its weekend eviction of Palestinian families from an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem. But as Clinton looked on at a joint news conference at the State Department, Judeh rebuffed calls for Arabs to take incremental steps in normalizing relations with Israel ... Instead he criticized Israel for its refusal to halt construction of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and said the Israelis should respond to a 2002 Arab peace offer.

Judeh's comments marked the second time in three days that an Arab foreign minister bluntly refused U.S. calls to improve ties with Israel [nice job, Hillary] with measures such as opening trade offices, allowing academic exchanges and permitting civilian Israeli aircraft to overfly their airspace as a way of demonstrating their commitment to peace.

On Friday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal expressed similar sentiments, also at a news conference with Clinton. Unlike Jordan, though, which has signed a peace deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel.

Despite the statements, Clinton maintained that U.S. special Mideast Peace envoy George Mitchell was making progress [yeah, yeah, we know, Hillary ... black is white, wrong is right, and your efforts have been successful] and praised Jordan for its playing "a strong and vital role" in the region and expressed hope that negotiations could soon resume.

At the same time, she criticized Israel for the eviction of the Palestinian families in east Jerusalem to enforce a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said later that the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, had spoken to Israel's ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on Sunday to "express our concern about this step."

Just a secondary question: Why does the United States or any other country think that its any of their business what Israel does to enforce its own Supreme Court rulings?

LUKE 21:20-31

"When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know ... When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." ... He told them this parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.