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Mr Netanyahu, who claimed to have forecast the destruction of the Twin Towers by Islamic extremists in 1995, said terrorists would target the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Christianity’s holiest site.“Radical Islam is willing and will want to attack the symbolic heart of the Christian religion,”he said.“This will incur a chain reaction we can’t even envision.We will witness an escalation of religious conflict above and beyond the regional conflict we have now.”The leader of the Right-wing Likud opposition recalled that he had warned Islamic terrorists would detonate a nuclear device in the Manhattan World Trade Centre complex in a 1995 book, six years before the September 11 attacks.He claimed that the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre would trigger a clash between religions, much greater than the “regional conflict” that currently wracks the Holy Land.Israel annexed Jerusalem after the 1967 war and has overseen a massive expansion of the city’s Jewish population.The church on the Hill of Calvary is the site of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the Holy Sepulchre, according to the New Testament.It attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims each year and is a spiritual focal point for all the Roman and Eastern rite churches in the city.Any discussion of returning part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians, who also claim it as their capital provokes sharp divisions in Israeli politics. The February elections were called after Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister and new leader of the Kadima party, failed to form a government to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert because she would not rule out negotiations on the division of Jerusalem.Mr Netanyahu, who boasts of closing down Palestinian offices in Jerusalem and expanding the number of Jewish building projects during previous terms in government, said Likud would not discuss sovereignty over Jerusalem.But he forecast that the most radical groups among Israel would gain a foothold to wage attacks on Israel. He said:“If we move out of even one piece of Jerusalem, Hamas moves in, Iran would have a base to attack us in the heart of our capital.”It emerged yesterday that the size of Jewish settlements on the West Bank had grown by 69 per cent in 2008. Activists with Peace Now reported that Israel’s army was quietly promoting the establishment of new settlements, as well as the expansion of existing outposts.The development appears to violate Israel’s official promises to restrict the unrestrained growth of the settlements.It is another damaging blow to Tony Blair’s credibility as international envoy to the conflict. Since taking up office Mr Blair has negotiated the dismantlement of just one Israeli army checkpoint but the total number has gone up to 699 from 521.By Damien McElroy in Jerusalem
As in the days of Noah....
