Israel planning cell phone rocket alerts

JERUSALEM — Israel is working on a warning system that will calculate the precise location of where a rocket will hit and alert residents in the area using cell phones, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

"The rocket sensor will create a virtual ellipse (of the predicted impact zone) and all phones in that area will receive a warning," the Jerusalem Post quoted Chilik Soffer, a senior official at the Israeli Home Front Command, as saying.

"We will use communications technology to send the signals and we are now working with the communications ministry to make the alert available," he said.

The alert will come in as a vibration, audio alert, light flash or text message, he added.

The aim is to make more specific the air raid systems that Israel currently has in communities near the border with Lebanon and Gaza, which have in the past come under regular rocket fire from Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups.

Indian army chief visits Israel to deepen defense ties: report

JERUSALEM, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor is in Israel for talks with senior Israeli officials amid Israeli efforts to bolster military ties and export military hardware, local daily The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.

Kapoor, who arrived in Israel on Saturday, will hold talks with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi as well as other senior Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said the report.

During his four-day visit, Kapoor will also visit the IDF's Southern Command, it added.

Israel and India enjoy close defense ties and last year Israel overtook Russia as the number-one supplier of military platforms to India, said the newspaper.

According to press reports, India is interested in working withIsrael on submarine-launched cruise missiles, ballistic missile defense systems, laser-guided systems, satellites as well as unmanned aerial vehicles.

Abbas supporters in West Bank urge him not to quit

By Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Supporters of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas turned out in the West Bank on Sunday to urge him to run again for the presidency following his announcement that he did not want a second term in the job.

Waving flags, they greeted the president as he conducted a rare tour of towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, part of the territories where the Palestinians aim to establish a state.

The Fatah movement, which Abbas heads, had called for participation in the show of support.

"We need you," Hebron governor Hussein al-Araj told Abbas during a reception at which supporters urged him not to quit. In a short address, Abbas did not respond to their calls.

Neither did he mention his future in any of a series of addresses he gave during the tour.

The scenes were broadcast live on official Palestine television, which has been airing pro-Abbas programs, songs and poetry since his declaration Thursday that he did not want to run in the election he recently scheduled for January 24.

Many analysts believe his announcement could be a tactic to prompt the United States to put more pressure on Israel to halt all West Bank settlement building -- a step demanded by Abbas for the resumption of peace talks.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, himself a settler heading an ultra-nationalist party, said he did not take Abbas's threat seriously. But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reiterated that Abbas's announcement was a not a tactic.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate for his role in the first Israeli-Palestinian interim accord in 1993, urged Abbas to stay on. He was speaking at a candlelit memorial for assassinated Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin.

"THEY DO NOT WANT PEACE"

Abbas has built his political career around negotiating a peace deal with Israel. He voiced disappointment in his speech last Thursday with what he described as the United States "favoring" Israel in arguments over re-launching peace talks.

Addressing a small crowd outside the presidential palace in Bethlehem, Abbas said Israel had done nothing to promote peace.

"It appears they do not want peace, and they don't want to stop settlement, and they don't want the vision of two-states, so I don't know what they want," he said.

"We must remain believers in peace," he added, speaking in a carpark which still bears the track marks of Israel tanks stationed there during the Intifada, or uprising, which swept the Palestinian territories in 2000.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which Abbas also heads, has rejected his announcement, urging him to stay on