Israel will fall in 20 years: CIA

From Pakistan daily The News :

Hizbullah chief vows never to recognise Tel Aviv

Sunday, March 15, 2009

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT: A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years.

The CIA report predicts “an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming spectre of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region.”

The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years.

“There is over 500,000 Israelis with American passports and more than 300,000 living in the area of just California,” International lawyer Franklin Lamb said in an interview with Press TV on Friday, adding that those who do not have American or western passport, have already applied for them.

“So I think the handwriting at least among the public in Israel is on the wall...(which) suggests history will reject the colonial enterprise sooner or later,” Lamb stressed.

He said CIA, in its report, alludes to the unexpectedly quick fall of the apartheid government in South Africa and recalls the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, suggesting the end to the dream of an 'Israeli land' would happen 'way sooner' than later.

The study further predicts the return of over one and a half million Israelis to Russia and other parts of Europe, and denotes a decline in Israeli births whereas a rise in the Palestinian population.

Lamb said given the Israeli conduct toward the Palestinians and the Gaza strip in particular, the American public—which has been voicing its protest against Tel Aviv's measures in the last 25 years—may 'not take it anymore'.

Meanwhile, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday his movement would never recognise Israel, rejecting a US precondition for dialogue with the group it considers a terrorist organisation.

“To those who impose conditions on us, we say: We will never recognise Israel,” he said in a speech during celebrations of Eid-Milad-un- Nabi.

The White House said on Tuesday that both Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanese group Hizbullah must renounce violence and recognise Israel before they can expect even low-level US engagement.

“We reject the American conditions ... Today, tomorrow and after 1,000 years and even until the end of time, as long as Hizbullah exists, it will never recognise Israel,” Nasrallah said.

A senior US official said Thursday he was unhappy with a British decision to open low-level contact with Hizbullah and suggested London only indirectly informed the new US administration ahead of time.

Nasrallah also saluted recent moves to smooth over Arab differences, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt seeking to improve ties with Syria, which has supported Hizbullah. “All Arab reconciliation reinforces us,” he said. He called for Riyadh and Cairo to “extend a hand” to Iran, Hizbullah's main backer.

An Hizbullah-led alliance has veto power over major decisions in the current unity government formed in July following a political crisis that brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war. Legislative elections are set for June 7 in Lebanon.

[ via Southnews ]